Real Estate Executive Pleads Guilty to Multi-Year Conspiracy to Falsify Financial Statements

A California real estate executive pleaded guilty yesterday to engaging in an extensive multi-year conspiracy to falsify financial statements.

According to court documents, Tyler Ross, 37, formerly of Michigan, served as co-chief executive officer of ROCO Real Estate LLC and ROCO Management LLC, both of which are based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The ROCO companies, and related entities, operated as a commercial real estate firm engaged in the business of purchasing, managing, and selling multi-family residential properties, such as apartment complexes, located in Michigan and elsewhere.

Tyler Ross falsified corporate records to deceive lenders by fraudulently inflating the income of ROCO properties, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Departments Criminal Division. The guilty plea demonstrates the Departments commitment to holding accountable those who lie to lenders and banks, including executives in commercial real estate.

Honest financial reporting is the foundation of our banking and lending system, said U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison for the Eastern District of Michigan. My office will not hesitate to prosecute those who lie in order to engage in financial crimes, regardless of the titles they may have.

Between 2015 and 2019, Ross and his co-conspirators caused false financial documents to be submitted to mortgage-lending businesses for underperforming ROCO properties, making the properties appear to be more profitable than they were. Ross, who is also a licensed attorney, personally falsified historical operating statements during the conspiracy and directed other members of the conspiracy to assist with the creation and submission of falsified financial statements to submit to mortgage-lending businesses. Ross and his co-conspirators deleted or reduced actual expenses from historical operating statements for certain underperforming ROCO properties and caused the falsified statements to be submitted to lenders.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General (FHFA-OIG) aggressively investigates allegations of mortgage fraud, said Special Agent in Charge Catherine Huber of FHFA-OIGs Central Region. We investigate and hold accountable anyone who has engaged in unlawful activities to illegally profit through the mortgage loan process, whether residential or commercial.

Those who willfully provide false financial information limit the amount of money that is available for individuals and companies who are doing the right thing, said Special Agent in Charge Shawn Rice of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General (HUD-OIG). This case demonstrates HUD-OIGs commitment to working with its law enforcement partners to investigate and hold accountable those who violate the law.

Mortgage fraud is a serious offense that affects lenders and borrowers alike, said Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBIs Criminal Investigative Division. This case demonstrates the FBIs continued commitment to protecting our banking and mortgage industry by going after anyone who obtains loans under false pretenses.

Ross pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit an offense against the United States. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 12, 2024, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The FHFA-OIG, HUD-OIG, and FBI are investigating the case.

Trial Attorneys Andrew Tyler and Philip Trout of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew J. Yahkind for the Eastern District of Michigan are prosecuting the case.

This story has been published on: 2023-10-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
People participate in cultural activities during National Day holiday across China

Xinhua) 09:40, October 03, 2023

People visit an exhibition at Tianjin Art Museum in Tianjin, north China, Oct. 2, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Li Ran)

A visitor takes pictures at a science and art exhibition at the Beijing Times Art Museum in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 2, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

People visit the Hebei Museum in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Oct. 2, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Mu Yu)

A visitor takes pictures at a science and art exhibition at the Beijing Times Art Museum in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 2, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

People visit the Anhui Art Museum in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, Oct. 1, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Zhou Mu)

People visit the Anhui Art Museum in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, Oct. 1, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Zhou Mu)

A kid reads at a bookstore in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, Oct. 2, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Chen Zhenhai)

A performance is staged at the Star Theatres in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Oct. 2, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Xu Bingjie)

People enjoy wine at a chateau in Qingtongxia City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Oct. 2, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Yang Zhisen)

People visit the Anhui Art Museum in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, Oct. 1, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Zhou Mu)

People visit the Zhengzhou Shang Dynasty Ruins Museum in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province Oct. 2, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Li Jianan)

People visit an exhibition on ancient Roman civilization at the China Millennium Monument in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 2, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

Students visit the Hebei Museum in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Oct. 2, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Mu Yu)

Students paint from life at Hengdaohezi Town in Hailin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Oct. 2, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

People visit the Anhui Art Museum in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, Oct. 1, 2023. People across the country participate in cultural activities to enrich their holiday life during the National Day holiday. (Xinhua/Zhou Mu)

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Sheng Chuyi)
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's popularity on social media is growing day by day. After crossing 2.5 crore followers on 'X' (formerly Twitter), CM Yogi has achieved another milestone with the number of his followers exceeding 70 lakh mark on Instagram, said an official statement from government of UP. CM Yogi Adityanath has become the third Indian politician after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to have this remarkable number of followers on Instagram. The Prime Minister has 7.97 crore followers while Amit Shah has 78 lakh followers on Instagram. It is noteworthy that after forming the government in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state, in 2017, CM Yogi undertook several reforms in diverse sectors, to strengthen law and order and carry out comprehensive development in the state. He ensured good governance as a result of which, his popularity soared on social media. The Chief Minister joined the social media platform (Instagram) in March 2015, and he goes by the name "myogi_aditynath" on his Instagram profile. His activism on social media can be gauged from the fact that since 2015 till now, CM Yogi has made 3,273 posts on his Instagram account. His posts include his speeches from various events, Kanya Pujan, meetings with personalities including sportspersons, and his greeting message on special occasions. These posts have been liked and shared by lakhs of people. No opposition leader is even close to him on Instagram. Instagram is a platform for sharing photos and videos. In India and Uttar Pradesh, the younger generation is its largest user base. On social media, CM Yogi is known as the most active Chief Minister. His count of followers on social media platforms is the highest among all Chief Ministers and politicians. Recently, the Chief Minister set a new record of popularity by crossing 2.5 crore followers on the social media platform X. Currently, he has 2.62 crore followers on X. In addition, Chief Minister Yogi is active on several other social media platforms as well. On the Koo app, he has 68 lakh followers, making him the most followed person on that platform. Recently, he also joined WhatsApp and has around 3 (2.94) lakh followers on his channel. (ANI)
In a major push to the indigenisation of military assets,the Indian Air Force on Tuesday announced that it was looking at inducting military systems worth around Rs 2.5 to 3 lakh crore. The Indian Air Force chief announced a mega acquisition of 97 additional LCA Mark 1A aircraft along with the 83 already ordered by it as one of the biggest projects in this list, adding that the purchase would be worth aroundRs 1.25 lakh crores. He also listed the plan to upgrade the Su-30MKI combat aircraft at a cost of over Rs 64,000 crore as another project on this list. Chaudhari said the IAF also wants the 166 Light Combat Helicopters worth around Rs 45,000 crore, which would be used by both the Air Force and the Army. The IAF would get 66, and the Army would get 90 of these choppers, he announced. Chaudhari said the Indian Air Force is looking to induct these weapon systems in the next seven to eight years, adding that it would give abig boost to its capabilities. The list of indigenous weapon systems and military assets includes the 180 Light Combat Aircraft Mark 1A, 156 Light Combat Helicopters, Light Utility Choppers, and many other weapon systems that are supposed to feature prominently in the service in the coming years. The LCA Mark1A, alone, is supposed to be worth over Rs 1.2 lakh crore and is tipped to have a huge impact on the creation of afighter aircraft manufacturing ecosystem in the country. Officials said support for building a major defence industry is key to achieving a USD 5 trillion economy as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, adding that as the 'Aatmanirbharta' (self-reliance) programme of the defence forces takes wings, the agenda of the acquisition-related meetings is fast becoming Indian in the true sense. Sharing details of the made-in-India projects in the pipeline, the officials said the Air Force is getting 180 LCA Mark 1A aircraft, for which the first contract for the acquisition of 83 aircraft has already been signed, while the project for the remaining 97 aircraft is set to get the clearance from the Defence Ministry soon. In the fighter aircraft domain, the Indian Air Force is taking up a major programme to upgrade the Su-30MKI fighter jet fleet under a Rs 65,000 crore project. The project would be carried out indigenously by a joint team of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and the Indian Air Force, with indigenous radars, avionics, and advanced weapons that the fighters would be equipped with. The project is being moved to the Defence Ministry and is expected to be discussed at a high level very soon. The upgrade programme would be carried out first with around 90 aircraft and then implemented on the remaining 160 plus aircraft, gradually bringing them very close to fifth-generation capabilities. After addressing the development of the Airborne Early and Control Aircraft requirements through a couple of indigenous plans, the Indian Air Force is also working on developing a spy plane that would be able to pick up entire enemy activity. Intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) aircraft can equip the IAF with a potent instrument for gaining battlefield transparency and situational awareness. In terms of rotary wing capabilities, the Indian Air Force is going to get a big boost in terms of firepower, giving a similar push to the domestic industry. The IAF is the lead agency for acquiring 156 light combat helicopters, for which the services are looking at spending around Rs 45,000 crore. The Air Force would also be supporting the indigenous Light Utility Helicopter to replace the Cheetah/Chetak helicopter fleet from the Air Force and the Army. It would also be supporting the ambitious Indian Multirole Helicopter programme being undertaken by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. The Defence Ministry recently cleared 'Project Kusha' of the Indian Air Force, under which it is going to get five units of the Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LR-SAM) which would be similar to the capabilities of the Russian-origin S-400 air defence missile systems, three squadrons of which have already been inducted into the service. 'Project Kusha', worth around Rs 21,700 crores, has got the greenlight from the Defence Ministry. It will be implemented by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) jointly with the private and public sector industries. The Medium Range-Surface to Air Missile Project has already been completed, and a few missiles have already been inducted into service. The project is worth Rs 14,500 crore. The Indian Air Force is also awaiting final clearance for its over Rs 7500 core project for Close in Weapon Systems for protecting its critical assets and is being built by the private sector industry for it. The DRDO is also working to produce the 'Pralay' ballistic missiles, which are going to be used by the IAF for use in conventional roles and as warheads. The Air Force has also inducted the C-295 transport aircraft, which would be the first private sector joint venture to have been created for manufacturing transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force. The project would see a cash outgo of over Rs 22,000 crore, which would see 40-plus aircraft being manufactured in the country. The Indian Air Force is also going to get the basic trainer aircraft in the HTT-40, which is being built by the HAL at a cost of Rs 6,100 crores. (ANI)
The Delhi Police arrested two persons including founder and editor-in-chief of NewsClick Prabir Purkayastha on Tuesday after quizzing them in their office following raids at his premises under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other sections, the police officials said. According to the Delhi Police, a total of 37 male suspects have been questioned at the premises, and nine female suspects have been questioned at their respective places of stay. "Regarding the search, seizure and detentions carried out today in connection with a UAPA case registered with Special Cell, so far two accused, Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty have been arrested. A total of 37 male suspects have been questioned at the premises, and nine female suspects have been questioned at their respective places of stay, the police said. It further said that the digital devices, documents etc have been seized and collected for examination. The Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick, Prabir Purkayastha and writers Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Urmilesh were brought to the special cell offices in the national capital on Tuesday as part of the investigation as Delhi Police launched a crackdown against NewsClick and its journalists earlier this morning in connection with an FIR registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday afternoon sealed the office of the online news portal in the national capital. The raids were carried out at more than 30 locations in connection with a case registered on August 17 under UAPA and other sections of IPC, including 153A (promoting enmity between two groups), and 120 B (criminal conspiracy). Meanwhile, Union Minister Anurag Thakur, while speaking to reporters in Bhubaneswar said that if action has been taken, then there must have been evidence or complaint. Flagging concerns over the incident, the Editors Guild of India, in a statement, said it was "deeply concerned" about the raids at the residences of seniorjournalistsearly this morning. "Their laptops, mobile phones and other devices have been seized. Seniorjournalistshave been taken into custody by the Delhi Police, allegedly for 'questioning.' Media reports suggest that the raids have been widespread. The raids are reportedly being conducted in connection with an FIR filed under the draconian UAPA and laws relating to criminal conspiracy and disruption of communal harmony againstjournalists, including those associated with the website Newsclick.in," the Guild said in a statement. Earlier, on August 10, a report in the New York Times had alleged that NewsClick was part of a global network that receives funding from American billionaire Neville Roy Singham. Singham is known as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes and is at the centre of a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda. Singham is also said to have close ties with the Chinese government's media machine. (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to consider and decide on the issue of releasing two minor sons of slain gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad within a week. A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Aravind Kumar's direction came while hearing a plea filed by Atiq Ahmad's sister. Ahmad's sister Shahin Ahmad has sought custody of the minor children. Both of them are kept in the reform home now. Her lawyer Advocate Nizam Pasha submitted before the court that one of the minors would become an adult soon and be kept in a welfare home. The court also took note of the report which claimed that children did not want to stay in the child care home. The court has listed the matter for next week. Gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were shot dead while being in police custody in Uttar Pradesh on April 15. They were being taken for a medical examination and were shot dead by some people near a hospital in Uttar Pradesh. (ANI)
A top Army officer on Tuesday said unregulated and unplanned development and deforestation have made an adverse impact on the environment, leading to climate change, floods and landslides in recent times. Central Army Commander Lt Gen Raja Subramani, while delivering the keynote address on the vision of the Army for environment management of ecological assets on Tuesday, said the armed forces, which have been an integral part of the nation-building process, have contributed to environmental conservation at the micro level in its military stations and cantonments by encouraging environment conservation and protecting the local wildlife. Whereas, at the macro level, the Indian Army has been proactive in all the initiatives of the government of India and national missions for environment conservation and rejuvenation which includes the yeoman work done by Ecological Battalions (TA), he said. Indian Armys Central Command is celebrating Wildlife Week, an environmental seminar on the Role of Armed Forces in Nature and Wildlife Conservation on October 3 to 4 in Dehradun. The seminar is attended by renowned environmentalists and prominent speakers from various prestigious institutes of the country including Lt Gen (Dr) VK Ahluwalia, Dr Deepak Apte, Dr Kalachand Sain, Director, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dr Girish Jathar, Dr Rajat Bhargava, Mr Satish Pradhan, Dr Saroj Barik, Dr Vishnupriya Kolipakam & Col Prakash Tewari sharing their thoughts on nature, environment and wildlife conservation. The seminar features insightful discussions on wildlife protection, conservation strategies, law enforcement, and community engagement and also highlights the significant contribution of the armed forces towards protecting Indias rich and diverse wildlife, ecosystems and natural resources. The seminar depicts that the Indian Army is not only safeguarding the frontiers but also playing a crucial role in generating awareness about environmental issues also. (ANI)
CPI leader and Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam on Tuesday condemned the raids on journalists associated with the online portal NewsClick office, claiming that Delhi Police raided the residences of several journalists, activists, authors, and satirists and carried out a search and seizure of books, journals, magazines, laptops, and mobile phones, allegedly without any warrant. He claimed further that Delhi Police gave no clarity on the reasons behind this crackdown and widespread searches and seizures. Viswam said in a statement that the only connection between the journalists, who were raided, is their well-known critique of the "wrongdoings" of the central government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and their refusal to fall in line with the dictates of the regime. The journalists raided have published critical pieces against the Centre on a range of issues including the alleged mishandling of the Manipur crisis, the Adani-Hindenburg "revelations", fake news, alleged saffronisation of themedia, the Pegasus snooping issue, and alleged corruption in the Raphael fighter deal, among others. "The raids conducted today should be seen in the context of journalists targeted for refusing to fall in line with the dictates of this government. They have given rise to concerns over the independence of the press andfreedom of speech. Muzzling criticism and curbing the free flow of information are detrimental to democracy," he added. The CPI national secretary said further, "The Modi governments crackdown on the press has already reduced India to being among the bottom 20 countries on the World Press Freedom Index. Several journalists are in jail under draconian charges for reporting the truth. The BJP's contempt for a democratic society is visible to all. These raids are condemnable and desperate attempts to hide the gross misgovernance, corruption, and failures of this government over the last nine years. (ANI)
Revealing a "secret" that he refused to allow entry of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in the ruling NDA because of his deeds, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that now the BRS supremo does not look him in the eye. In his address at a rally here, PM Modi told the gathering that he is going to tell a secret he has not revealed so far. When BJP won 48 seats in the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election, KCR needed support. Before this election, he used to welcome me at the airport, but later suddenly he stopped doing so, the Prime Minister said. KCR came to meet me in Delhi. He started telling me that the country is progressing under your leadership, and said that he wanted to join NDA. He also asked me to extend support to him. I told him (KCR) that due to his deeds Modi cannot associate with him, he added. The Prime Minister said the BJP cannot deceive the people of Telangana. NDA is led by the BJP. I refused (him) entry to NDA, PM Modi said. He said that the 48 seats won by the BJP in the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections in December 2020 are start of the process to change the fate of Telangana. The Prime Minister said that K Chandrashekar Rao again approached him and told him that he is going to hand over all karobar to his son KT Rama Rao (KTR) and "sought my blessings". The Prime Minister said he told KCR that it is a democracy and his successor will be decided by the people of Telangana. "That was the last day. After that he was not able to make eye contact with me even once," the Prime Minister said. Referring to KCR not coming to his functions, PM Modi said that the corrupt cannot sit in his company and are running (away). Soon after PM Modis hard-hitting attack at KCR and ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi at a rally in Nizamabad, KT Rama Rao (KTR), who is son of the Chief Minister, interacted with the media and said cases against leaders who joined the BJP are not being investigated. He asked if BRS leaders have been bitten by a mad dog that they will join the BJP-led NDA. "This PM is so inconsistent, he says that BRS funded Congress in Karnataka and that he has not allowed us in NDA. Have we been bitten by a mad dog that we will join NDA? Today many parties including Shiv Sena, JD(U), TDP, and Shiromani Akali Dal have left BJP...Who is with you? Who do you have except CBI, ED and I-T," the Telangana minister said. He also referred to PM Modis comments that KCR wanted him to be his successor. KTR said that the choice of the BRS leader will be made by the party MLAs and BRS does not need a no objection certificate from the Prime Minister. The BRS leader threw up a challenge and said BJP lost its deposit in 105 assembly seats in 2018 election and the number will go up to 110 in this election. He also said that tourists can come but BRS led by KCR will get a third term in office. "BJP will also not win any Lok Sabha seat from the state, he said. PM Modi, who took out a roadshow in poll-bound Telangana to loud cheers and a petal shower from locals lining both sides of the roads his convoy traversed through, laid the foundation stone for projectsworth about Rs 8,000 crores. "Today, I had the privilege of presenting development projects worth over Rs 8,000 crores to the people of Telangana. These projects include a modern NTPC plant, which will add new momentum to industrial development in the state. The majority of the electricity generated by this NTPC plant will help improve the ease of living of the people here,"PM Modi said. In his address, he called himself "another son of Gujarat" who had come to the poll-bound state with the promise ofprosperity, progress and development. "The country had achieved independence but this region of Hyderabad was yet to see the light of freedom. The Nizam was creating hurdles to independence. One Gujarati son Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel showed iron will, grit and the courage of conviction to win you independence from an erstwhile princely state. Today, another son of Gujarat has come to visit you all for your prosperity and development," PM Modi had said. Invoking the historic passage of 'Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam' in Parliament, he said the Congress and its partners in the 'Ghamandiya' alliance sat on the law for the last 30 years. President Droupadi Murmu signed the Bill, which promises 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures, into law last week. "My sisters from Telangana were part of a revolution and created history. A few days ago, the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was passed in Parliament. Congress and its INDI alliance this 'ghamandiya' alliance had stalled this legislation for the last 30 years. However, it was down to the collective power of our women that saw the draft legislation sail through the legislative hurdles in Parliament. Once it was introduced in Parliament, this alliance had no option but to support the Bill,"he added. Hitting out at the Bharat Rashtra Samithi led by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, PM Modi said the ruling party has broken all itspromises made to the farmers of the state. "BRS government has broken all their promises made to the farmers of Telangana. Conversely, in the last few years, we transferred around Rs 10,000 crores to the bank accounts of 40 lakh farmers. Under the 'One District, One Product' scheme', the turmeric produced in the Nizamabad district is being promoted globally. Also, in line with our promise to the turmeric farmers, the National Turmeric Board will be formed soon," he added. (ANI)
According to the Delhi Police, he was arrested under section 41.1 (D) of the Criminal Procedure Code by PS Civil lines, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, in possession of stolen valuables including approximately 18.675 Kg of gold and Rs 2.5 lakhs in cash.

Seeking formal arrest and transit remand of the accused, the Delhi Police presented their application before the Judicial Magistrate in Raipur.

The court granted a 72-hour transit remand to the Delhi Police, following a detailed inquiry by an Executive Magistrate. Subsequently, the case property will be entrusted to IO S.I Jitender Raghuvanshi.

The Delhi Police team is anticipated to arrive in the capital tomorrow evening.

Earlier on September 29, the accused, Lokesh Srivas, was arrested in Chhattisgarh in a joint operation by Chhattisgarh and Delhi Police.

Delhi Police scanned footage from over 1,000 CCTV cameras in its probe into the sensational burglary case in the citys Bhogal area with the main accused, who has been arrested in Chhattisgarh, also sleeping in the shop overnight before decamping with jewellery estimated to be of about Rs 25 crore. (ANI)
After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)s Jan Ashirwad Yatra and Congresss ongoing Jan Akrosh Yatra, MP Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh on Tuesday began Kisan Mazdoor Bachao Yatra in Madhya Pradesh ahead of the forthcoming state assembly polls. The Kisan Union has started the yatra from the state capital Bhopal along with their 166 demands, including loan waiver and will cover 52 districts across the state. National President of Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh, Shivkumar Kaka told ANI, It is a Kisan Mazdoor Bachao Yatra which will go to 52 districts across the state. It will continue for 40 days. Our main demands are debt relief, fair prices for crops. We have named the vehicle for yatra Shahid Rath on the name of the farmers martyred in Mandsaur, Lakhimpur Kheri in UP and in Bareli, UP." There are a total of 166 demands for the farmers which are related to 17 departments. Farmer leaders from various states across the country have arrived here and it is a united yatra of all leaders for the farmers, he added. Earlier, BJP took out Jan Ashirwad Yatras, a mass-contact programme, from five different places in the state. The first yatra was started from September 3 after which all the yatras culminated in the state capital Bhopal on September 25. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Karyakarta Mahakumbh to mark the culmination of the yatras. On the other hand, the Congress party is taking out Jan Aakrosh Yatra from seven different regions covering 11400 kilometres and around all the assembly constituencies across the state from September 19. Madhya Pradesh is scheduled to go for the assembly polls later this year. Through the polls, the state will elect legislators from 230 Assembly constituencies. Notably, during 2018 assembly polls, Congresss announcement for the farmers debt waiver played a vital role in gaining profit to them in the election as a result of which they (Congress) emerged as the single largest party with 114 seats. According to political analysts, now ahead of the assembly polls 2023 farmers Yatra with their demands, including debt relief and fair prices for crops may leave a big impact on the poll. Though time will depict who to whom it will benefit. As far as Mandsaur farmers incident is concerned where farmers were killed in an alleged police firing in 2017 when BJP was in power in the state, it did not benefit the Congress party in the district in 2018 assembly polls. (ANI)
Predation is a driving force in the evolution of anti-predator defences, and death faking, or immobility in reaction to dangers, is a widespread defensive strategy shared by many animal species. While this behaviour can improve an individual's chances of survival by diminishing a predator's interest, it also has drawbacks, such as less possibilities for eating and reproduction. Okayama University in Japan has explored how pheromones, crucial chemical cues that impact feeding and reproduction, can influence death-feigning behaviour in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. These findings were published in the Journal of Ethnology. Male beetles release an aggregation pheromone called 4,8-dimethyldecanal (DMD), which attracts both males and females, aiding in successful foraging and mating. However, it remained unclear whether this pheromone could affect the duration of death feigning in these beetles, said Professor Takahisa Miyatake from the Graduate School of Environmental, Life, Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, Japan, who led the study. Prof. Miyatake collaborated with colleagues Motoya Ishikawa and Kentarou Matsumura from the same department on this study. The team used a population of T. castaneum that had undergone artificial selection for death-feigning duration for more than 40 generations. The study encompassed two distinct experimental schedules. In the first, beetles were initially exposed to the pheromone, following which their death-feigning duration was measured. In the second schedule, beetles were first evaluated for their death-feigning duration without the presence of the pheromone, and subsequently, the duration was measured with the pheromone introduced. In both scenarios, the researchers meticulously compared the death-feigning durations between the treatments. The team found that T. castaneum beetles exposed to the DMD pheromone exhibited significantly shorter durations of death feigning compared to their counterparts that were not exposed to the pheromone. This discovery suggests that the mere presence of the aggregation pheromone played a pivotal role in shaping the behaviour of these beetles, causing them to curtail their protracted death feigning. Interestingly, while previous research has primarily focused on the triggers for initiating death feigning, little has been known so far about what cues awaken individuals from this state. The study suggests that aggregation pheromones, like DMD, may serve as one of these awakening factors. This adaptive response allows individuals to save precious time and increase their chances of survival when predators lose interest. Furthermore, the study brought to light the potential sex-related differences in death-feigning behaviour. Previous studies have already indicated that both male and female adult red flour beetles exhibit a strong attraction to DMD, with males even intensifying DMD release upon sensing it. Remarkably, during this investigation, researchers noted that males tended to have a longer duration of death feigning when compared to females. This observation raises intriguing questions about how the sexes allocate their time and energy, particularly in the context of dispersal and reproductive activities. "Our study suggests that T. castaneum possesses the capacity to adapt its death-feigning duration when it detects the presence of an aggregation pheromone. This represents a remarkable example of behavioural plasticity in response to external chemical cues, as shown by previous studies. This may offer valuable insights into the intricate world of animal instincts, potentially paving the way for further exploration in the future," concluded Prof. Miyatake. (ANI)
New research found that emergency department (ED) visits and hospital admissions for eating disorders increased during the COVID-19 pandemic in adolescents aged 10-17 years, as did ED visits among young adults and older adults. The study was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Using ICES data, researchers compared observed and expected rates of ED visits and hospitalisations for eating disorders in adolescents (10-17 years), young adults (18-26 years), adults (27-40 years), and older adults (41-105 years) before (Jan. 1, 2017, to Feb. 29, 2020) and during the pandemic (Mar. 1, 2020, to Aug. 31, 2022). In the 30 months following the start of the pandemic, the observed rate of ED visits for eating disorders in adolescents was 7.38 per 100,000, a 121 per cent increase over the expected rate. The rate of ED visits among young people climbed 13 per cent over expectations to 2.79 per 100,000 but was close to the expected rate among individuals aged 27-40 years. Adolescent hospital admissions jumped 54 per cent to 8.82 per 100,000 but were at or below predicted levels across all adult age categories. "A combination of risk factors including isolation, increased time on social media, extended time spent with family, decreased access to care and fear of infection may contribute to an increased risk of development or exacerbation of an eating disorder," wrote Dr.Alene Toulany, an adolescent medicine specialist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and adjunct scientist at ICES, Toronto, Ontario, with coauthors. Concerns about health and exercise, as a result of the closure of gyms and other chances for physical activity, and home stress may also have contributed to the rise in eating disorders. The authors advocate for increased funding for eating disorder programmes for adolescents and adults, as well as additional research. "Our findings reveal significant variations in the utilization of acute care services for eating disorders across different age groups. This highlights the need for a nuanced approach to allocating mental health resources and expanding system capacity and resources dedicated to both adolescent and adult eating disorder programs," said Dr.Toulany. "Further research is needed to determine the degree to which the surge in acute presentations is attributable to new eating disorders or exacerbation of pre-existing eating disorders," the authors concluded. (ANI)
According to studies, a shift in how we think about the benefits mangroves bring to coastal regions could result in enormous economic and biodiversity gains as well as the protection of millions from flooding. According to a study led by the University of Queensland, present conservation efforts often focus on biodiversity protection while reducing confrontation with commercial interests, while failing to account for the enormous advantages supplied by ecosystems. Human activities such as deforestation and coastal development, according to Alvise Dabal, now at the University of the Azores and whose master dissertation at UQ formed the basis of this study, have resulted in widespread mangrove destruction around the world. They protect infrastructure and communities from storms, sequester carbon, and provide fisheries with nursing grounds, so their rapid destruction is devastating to witness, Dabala said. As it stands, current conservation efforts just arent doing enough to take advantage of these services. The team is using the United Nations Global Biodiversity Framework, which recommends an increase in protected areas to 30 per cent of the world as the basis of their proposal. Researchers are recommending an optimised conservation planning perspective that operates within this framework and puts more emphasis on these ecosystem services. Its somewhat of a juggling act, where we have to consider the trade-offs between biodiversity protection, economic conflicts, and ecosystem services, Dabala said. But if done properly, this target has the potential to safeguard AU$25.6 billion of coastal property value, globally. It would also protect 6.1 million coastal-dwelling people against the impacts of flooding, and safeguard over one billion tonnes of sequestered carbon. In Australia alone, weve identified priority areas in Northern Queensland, Darwin and East Arnhem in the Northern Territory, and between Pilbara and Kimberley in Western Australia. Expanding Australian mangrove protection would be particularly beneficial for carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation as they stand out as some of the most diverse, carbon-rich mangrove forests, Dabala added. UQs Professor Anthony Richardson said that achieving these outcomes boils down to a shift in perspective. In some areas of the world, we recognise that human pressure could be so high that the value of ecosystem services would not compensate for the loss and could result in complications in implementing protection, Professor Richardson said. However, for multiple ecosystems, including mangroves, weve quantified the benefits associated with considering the services these ecosystems provide the figures are undeniable. We know that long-term gains from biodiversity protection are often greater than short-term gains from anthropogenic activities, so this shift in thinking must happen soon. Professor Richardson said developing biodiversity and ecosystem services data should be a priority to incorporate into applied conservation plans. Implementation of these plans should then follow different conservation practices that target local communities' needs specifically, he said. Moving forward, decision-makers and other stakeholders need to focus on protected area implementation, management, and monitoring to provide solid conservation outcomes. (ANI)
Former US President Donald Trump has claimed that the civil fraud trial in New York, which began on Monday, is a political attack against him and has taken him "off the campaign trail", CNN reported. He expressed his frustration about not being able to campaign in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and other places due to his courtroom presence. This was for politics. It has been very successful for them they took me off the campaign trail, Trump said as he exited the courtroom after the court was wrapped for the day, CNN reported. Because Ive been sitting in a courthouse all day long, instead of being in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or a lot of other places I could be at, he added. On being asked if he was returning for the trial on Tuesday, he said: We may, Id love not to. Id love to be campaigning instead of doing this. Meanwhile, the trial wrapped up for the day, with the first witness for the New York attorney general, Trump's former long-time accountant Donald Bender, testifying about financial documents from 2011. Bender explained that the accounting firm Mazars USA would not have issued these financial statements if the Trump Organization had not represented that the numbers were accurate. He also stated that Mazars would not have issued these statements if they had learned the numbers were inaccurate, Bender testified, CNN reported. Allen Weisselberg, Trumps former longtime chief financial officer, signed on behalf of Trump that the documents from 2011 were accurate, he added, as per CNN. Additionally, Mazars would not have issued these statements if they learned the numbers were not true, Bender said. The New York attorney generals office asked Donald Bender, Trumps former accountant at Mazars, about the price of a penthouse apartment for Donald Trumps daughter, Ivanka Trump. The lawsuit, brought by the New York attorney general, alleges that Trump, his adult sons, their businesses, and Trump Organization executives were involved in fraudulent activities. Bender testified that his job was not to audit Trumps financial statement, but from time to time, he would point out errors to Trump Organization officials on financial documents. One of the examples he recalled flagging an error was when Ivanka Trump had an option to buy a penthouse apartment at Trump Park Avenue. Bender said that the value on Trumps financial schedule was different than what was listed in Ivanka Trumps option, it reported. He is expected to continue testifying on Tuesday. The former president, for most of the afternoon session, continued to look at the documents on the monitor in front of him, looking across the courtroom at the witness and talking quietly with his lawyers. This lawsuit, brought by the New York attorney general, alleges that Trump, his adult sons, their businesses, andTrump Organisationexecutives were involved in fraudulent activities. Trump is listed as a potential witness for both the attorney general and the defence, although it remains uncertain whether he will be called to testify, according to CNN. There have been various attempts to exclude Trump from the ballot in the upcoming year based on his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, attack on theUS Capitol. However, the Supreme Court recently declined to entertain one of these challenges, rejecting an appeal from JohnAnthony Castro, a lesser-known candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Castro's case rested on a post-Civil War provision of the14th Amendment, disqualifying any American official who has "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" or provided "aid or comfort" to insurrectionists. Notably, the case was denied without any comment or recorded vote. Nonetheless, there are still ongoing14th Amendmentchallenges against Trump in Minnesota and Colorado, with trials scheduled for later this year. Meanwhile, Trump's campaign continues to criticise Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James, characterising the upcoming fraud trial as politically motivated. Letitia James made clear that getting Trump was the motivating force behind her campaign for attorney general, the Trump campaign said in a new statement, which also referred to James as a Democratic activist, according to CNN. (ANI)
Slovakia has accused Moscow of interfering in its parliamentary elections and has summoned a Russian embassy official to protest against statements made by Sergey Naryshkin, the director of Moscow's foreign intelligence service, Al Jazeera reported. Slovakias Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs on Monday said that it summoned a Russian embassy representative who spoke about interference by the United States in the country, an accusation the ministry called false. Slovakia said the comments were made on the eve of the Slovak parliamentary elections on Saturday when a moratorium on information that may benefit or harm candidates was in place. The ministry said: The department of diplomacy strongly protests against the false statement of Russian intelligence which cast doubt on the integrity of the free and democratic election in Slovakia. We consider such deliberate spread of disinformation to be unacceptable interference by the Russian Federation in the election process. The ministry called on Russia to cease all disinformation activities aimed at Slovakia. The Russian embassy in Slovakia, however, rejected the allegations. The Russian embassy said on Facebook: Unlike some of Slovakias current allies, we do not interfere with internal affairs of other countries, we do not take part in regime changes and various colour revolutions. Slovakias president on Monday asked the leader of the winning party to try to form a coalition government. Populist former Prime Minister Robert Fico and his leftist Smer, or Direction, party captured 22.9 per cent of the vote on Saturday. It will have 42 seats in the 150-seat parliament. If he succeeds in forming a coalition government, Fico, 59, will become prime minister for the fourth time. Fico campaigned on a pro-Russian and anti-American message, has pledged to end Slovak military support for Ukraine and opposes sanctions on Russia, as per Al Jazeera. In a televised address to the nation on Monday, President Zuzana Caputova stressed that the new government would have to be a government which will serve all citizens. Fico has repeatedly attacked the liberal president, accusing her of being an American agent and serving foreign interests. Caputova has sued him for the remarks. (ANI)
Indias Consulate General in New York on Monday celebrated Gandhi Jayanti and the International Day of Non-violence in Manhattan in collaboration with Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. The Consul General urged the gathering to bring more of Bapus life and legacy into their daily existence. He talked about the Swachh Bharat campaign and its Gandhian inspiration. Consulate in collaboration with Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan marked Gandhi Jayanti and International Day of Non-violence in Manhattan, New York. The Consul General urged the gathering to bring more of Bapus life and legacy into their daily existence. He talked about the Swachh Bharat campaign and its Gandhian inspiration. The Mahatmas ideas on social harmony and respect for the environment are critical for building a better tomorrow, as per the Consulate General in New Yorks official handle on X formerly Twitter. Meanwhile, the Indian Ambassador to Russia Pavan Kapoor on Monday offered floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and emphasized the relevance of the Father of the Nation and his message on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. Furthermore, there was a quiz about Mahatma Gandhi's life, and children from the Embassy of India School and Jawaharlal Nehru Cultural Center in Moscow, Russia, sang some of Bapu's favourite bhajans. On #GandhiJayanti, @AmbKapoor paidfloral tributesand highlighted the pertinence of #MahatmaGandhi and his message today. There was a quiz on the life of the #Mahatma, and some of Bapu's favourite bhajans were sung by children from the Embassy of India School & @iccr_moscow, as per the Indian Embassy inRussias official handle on X formerly Twitter. The Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud and Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Vikram Doraiswami also paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at his statue installed at the centre of Tavistock Square in London, UK. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also paid tribute toMahatma Gandhiat Delhi's Rajghat. In a post shared on X,PM ModistatedMahatma Gandhi's impact is global and his "timeless teachings will continue to illuminate our path." PM Modi on X posted, "I bow to Mahatma Gandhi on the special occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. His timeless teachings continue to illuminate our path. Mahatma Gandhi's impact is global, motivating the entire humankind to further the spirit of unity and compassion. May we always work towards fulfilling his dreams. May his thoughts enable every youngster to be the agent of change he dreamt of, fostering unity and harmony all over." (ANI)
China responded with mocking derision when Taiwan unveiled its first Indigenous Defense Submarine (IDS), which displaces approximately 2,700 tons, at a ceremony in Kaohsiung on 28 September. Taiwan is planning to construct up to eight such submarines and, despite Chinas rhetoric, they will present significant challenges to Chinas military in any potential conflict. Senior Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesman for Chinas Ministry of National Defense, described Taiwans submarine program as a broom attempting to hold hack the tide. He also called the effort idiotic nonsense.With bluster typical of Chinese officialdom whenever it comes to the topic of Taiwan, Senior Colonel Wu said that, no matter how many weapons Taiwan builds, they will not be able to stop the general trend of national reunification, or shake the staunch determination, strong will and strong capabilities of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Taiwans first IDS was christened Hai Kun, and the design is rather conventional as is befitting for the countrys first ever attempt at building a submarine. Construction of this diesel-electric submarine commenced on 24 November 2020, following a contract signed with shipbuilder CSBC Corporation. This boat is approximately 70m long, and is Taiwans first submarine to feature X-shaped rudders. Such rudders offer better underwater maneuverability compared to a traditional cruciform configuration. Harbor acceptance tests of the first IDS were to occur on 1 October, ahead of sea trials scheduled for around April 2024. Retired admiral Huang Shu-kuang, head of the submarine program, said that the future ROCS Hai Kun would be handed over to the Republic of China Navy (ROCN) by the end of 2024. In similar dismissive fashion to the PLAs Senior Colonel Wu, a story published in the Chinese tabloid Global Times on 25 September said any Taiwanese ambition to prevent the PLA Navy (PLAN) from entering the Pacific Ocean is just an illusion of the island attempting to resist reunification by force. It quoted an unnamed Chinese expert asserting that: If a conflict breaks out, the islands submarines will be easily detected and dealt with by the PLA, and they will pose only limited threats. Such reasoning is flawed, however. Submarines are notoriously difficult to track, and their sudden appearance can cause mayhem. The expert quoted in the Global Times report failed to mention that anti-submarine warfare is a major weakness of the PLAN. Because of this, submarines therefore represent a good choice for Taiwan. They will be critical to Taiwans asymmetric warfare preparations to defend against any coercive military action by the PLA. In fact, the IDS program is a key deterrent in case Beijing ever thinks an amphibious invasion or naval blockade is the best course of action to subjugate Taiwan. In any future conflict, Taiwanese submarines have the ability to torpedo Chinese warships, to lay sea mines near Chinese ports to blockade them, to conduct reconnaissance, to disrupt Chinese merchant shipping, to insert and extract special forces, and to launch cruise missiles against Chinese military facilities near the coast. That they will pose only limited threats is a gross and deliberate understatement. Nonetheless, it should be remembered that the center of gravity for any fighting between China and Taiwan would be in the sea and air domains that separate the two countries. Waters in the Taiwan Strait are shallower than the deep waters found to the east of Taiwan, and this makes them less suitable for submarine operations. However, with the PLAN and PLA Air Force now routinely rehearsing operations to the east of Taiwan and even circumnavigations, Taiwans submarine fleet would get plenty oftarget practice. Of course, Taiwan is a critical link in the so-called First Island Chain, an imaginary line that runs through archipelagos running from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines down to Malaysia. If Taiwan fell, this chain would be irrevocably snapped and the PLAN would have bases in Taiwan with which to launch submarines and warships deep into the Pacific Ocean. Dr. Collin Koh, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told ANI: Taiwans naval modernization stems from, first and foremost, the growing military threat posed by mainland China, and it also reflects the much broader associated quest for defense self-reliance, which in no small part stems from uncertainty about a possible US military intervention in the event of a major-scale aggression by Beijing, such as an armed invasion. If submarines are so impotent, the question also needs to be asked why China itself is investing so heavily in them! Chairman Xi Jinping recognizes their importance to the PLA, and he has prioritized the forces expansion and modernization. Xi stated that the submarine force is tasked with glorious missions and bears great responsibility. He has also called on the force to make greater contributions to achieve goals set for the PLAs centenary in 2027. Xi praised the underwater force for having taken the initiative to shoulder responsibilities, achieving a series of breakthroughs and fulfilling various tasks excellently. The importance China is placing on underwater warfare is also underscored by its efforts in meteorological and oceanographic capabilities. According to the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI), part of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies at the US Naval War College, This comparative ignorance of the ocean battlespace environment is a major impediment to PLAN submarine and anti-submarine warfare operations, especially beyond the First Island Chain. It is busily trying to rectify that with ongoing oceanographic surveys in numerous locations. The CMSI also noted, Chinas technological progress in submarine construction has been uneven, with enduring weaknesses in propulsion and quieting. To compensate, China has exploited its partnership with Russia to obtain cutting-edge submarine- related technologies. Whereas China turned to Russia for technical assistance, Taiwan resorted primarily to the USA. One other reason for Chinese analysts to talk down Taiwans submarine fleet is the small number of vessels in the ROCN eventually eight IDS plus its two current Dutch-built Hai Lung-class submarines. Unsurprisingly, the PLAN submarine fleet greatly outnumbers them, plus Taiwanese submarines would be vulnerable when in port. Russia can testify to this after recently losing a Kilo-class boat to a Ukrainian missile attack while it was in a Sevastopol dry dock. China has approximately 56 conventional submarines, the largest such fleet in the world. To these must be added the members of its nuclear-powered submarine fleet. On the other hand, submarines ranging far and wide will force an adversary to dedicate large numbers of surface and underwater vessels, as well as aircraft, to counter them. China definitely recognizes the force-multiplying effect that new modern submarines will give Taiwan, but for the sake of its own populace, Chinese media are feverishly diminishing their real impact. All these above scenarios presuppose that the two neighbors are already at war. However, the fact of the matter is that China and Taiwan are currently at peace and, in such conditions, the ROCN can utilize submarines to covertly monitor Chinese military activity around Taiwanese territory. Mao Ning, Chinas Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, reasserted Beijings canard that Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory, and the reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is bound to be realized. She blamed the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for squandering the hard-earned money of the Taiwan people by purchasing these submarines and creating a confrontation across the Taiwan Strait.With Taiwans latest defense budget amounting to NTD606.8 billion (USD19.1 billion), it comes as no surprise that a unit cost of USD1.54 billion per submarine consumes quite a significant portion of that sum. Instead of purchasing an expensive fleet of modern diesel-electric submarines, some argue that Taiwan might have been better off investing in cheaper weapons like mines, drones and missiles to deterChina. They also criticize Taiwan for this national prestige program that is consuming scant resources.Dr. Koh noted: In the case of Taiwan, given its limited defense budget, it faces much less room to expand across various force categories, which are undergoing block obsolescence and thus requiring urgent recapitalization. In particular, many resources are devoted to the indigenous submarine program, which meant less for other requirements especially the major surface combatant program The Singaporeanacademic added that funding is a perennial problem for ROCN given competing operational, capital asset acquisition and manpower needs for a limited defense budget. It is true that the submarine program has been a personal project for Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. She initiated this domestic shipbuilding effort back in 2016. Yet Tsai added rightly noted at the unveiling ceremony, Even if there are risks, and no matter how many challenges there are, Taiwan must take this step and allow a self-reliant national defense policy to grow and flourish on our land. This IDS project goes far beyond national prestige, for Taiwan must take responsibility for its own survival. The country cannot rely on the fickle promises of the USA or other countries. Furthermore, many nations and companies refuse to face the wrath of China by supporting Taipeis defense build-up. With such little international support, Taiwan has been forced to build its own submarines. To put its fate in the hands of others would be irresponsible and foolhardy. Indeed, Taipei must consider the long-term viability of its defense posture, and that definitely requires sufficient numbers of submarines to complicate PLA operations in and around Taiwan now and in the future. Taiwan had been unable to buy new submarines from any overseas vendor since purchasing its two Hai Lung-class boats from the Netherlands in 1981. The USA acted as a key contributor of technologies for the IDS program and, risking Chinese wrath, a number of companies clandestinely supported Taiwan. According to Reuters, at least seven countries contributed, including the UK and USA. Engineers andtechnicians were also employed from the likes of Australia, Canada, India, South Korea and Spain. Despite the IDS label, indigenous content forms just 40 per cent of the submarine. Advanced systems like the combat management system come from American firm Lockheed Martin, while Raytheon supplied the sonar arrays, and L3Harris the mast-raising system. In terms of weapons, the IDS will carry MK 48 Mod 6 torpedoes and Harpoon anti-ship missiles from the USA. Logically, Taiwan opted for traditional lead-acid batteries rather than air-independent propulsion (AIP). The former means of propulsion is stable, reliable and represents lower technical risk for Taiwans first submarine. Questions remain over how the IDS will compare qualitatively with PLAN submarines, the latest of which do have AIP. For the East Asian nations of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, Koh said that defenseself-reliance is a key objective, as part of safeguarding defense sovereignty thats so crucial in both peace and wartime scenarios. All of them benefit from close defense relations with key allies and partners, especially the US, but it by no means guarantee full access to those naval capabilities they desire. For example, Taiwan needs submarines, but no country would sell to the island due to obvious geopolitical sensitivities. The USA could have been the only willing party for this, but it has not built conventional subs since going fully nuclear decades ago. Given such circumstances, for Taiwan it is for such unique strategic circumstances that it seeks a well-developed naval shipbuilding industry. Taiwans second submarine is already under construction, and it is due for completion in 2027. Despite the vitriolic denials and the scoffing, the PLA will be fuming that its nemesis is multiplying the invasion difficulty level with every new Taiwanese submarine that is commissioned. (ANI)
Vice President of the Dominican Republic, Raquel Pena Rodriguez arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday on a three-day visit to India. Raquel Pena Rodriguez will call on President Droupadi Murmu and hold discussions with Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and other Indian dignitaries. She will also deliver a lecture on India-Dominican Republic relations at the Indian Council for World Affairs. "Furthering - ties! A warm welcome to VP @RaquelPenaVice of the Dominican Republic, as she arrives in New Delhi on her first-ever visit to India," the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi posted on social media platform, X. The Dominican Republic Vice President is set to visit India at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Jagdeep Dhankhar. This will be the first-ever visit of the Vice President of the Dominican Republic to India. She is on a visit to India from October 3-5. "The visit is significant as it takes place at a time when India-Dominican Republic bilateral relationship is entering its 25th year. The two countries established diplomatic relations on 04 May 1999," the MEA said in an official release. Diplomatic relations between India and the Dominican Republic were established in May 1999. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in May 2001 in Santo Domingo to hold regular Foreign Office consultations. Dominican Republic is an important partner of India in the Latin America and Caribbean region. The visit of the Vice President of the Dominican Republic comes closely on the heels of that of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to that country in April 2023, the MEA release added. Indias exports to the Dominican Republic are small but growing. Training and exchange of good practices have constituted the two main axes of cooperation between India and the Dominican Republic. Both nations have expressed their willingness to continue working together and to identify new initiatives. Within the framework of the ITEC program, Dominican professionals have been receiving training since 1999 in Indian institutions in various disciplines. A centre of Excellence for Information Technologies set up in 2011 in Santiago, with the support of the Indian government, operated with three Indian instructors for a period of two years. (ANI)
Amid tensions related to Pakistan general elections, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) claimed that it is the "only" political party in the country that wanted timely elections, Dawn reported. Addressing a press conference in Karachi, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said, "PPP is the countrys only party that wants elections to take place." He further said how "so-called" political leaders were giving excuses to delay polls. "You must have seen that sometimes a so-called leader comes on screen and says, delimitation has to happen and until then (elections can be delayed). Okay lets accept delimitation (needs to be done) but that process has been completed so now there should be no issue in giving the date (for polls), Bilawal said. He also criticised Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman's concerns over not holding elections in February due to intense winter. If not delimitation, then sometimes someone begins talking about the weather that it is very cold in February and January so how will we contest elections, while others talk about the law and order situation, Bilawal added. Earlier on Sunday, the JUI-F chief said that it was not possible to hold general elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan in January, reported Dawn. In January, weather would be harsh in Chitral, Khuzdar, and other parts of KP and Balochistan, he said. Moreover, earlier this month, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced that general elections would be conducted in January 2024, however, they did not provide a date. However, the ECP issued a report last week on the preliminary delimitation of constituencies in the wake of the 2023 digital census, according to Dawn. Bilawal further emphasized that the public should realize who was running away from being held accountable in polls and who was ready to present themselves to answer the voters. The PPP will continue its politics and would not rest before securing the notification for an election date, he asserted. Reaffirming that the PPP has begun the preparations for upcoming polls, Bilawal said that the PPP was ready to present its ideology and manifesto before the public as a part of its preparations, reported Dawn. Earlier, noting Bilawal's remarks, PPP's Yousuf Raza Gilani said, "I have read Fazlur Rehmans statement apart from him, no one has raised any objections to elections in January." Moreover, the former Prime Minister also said that any party who has reservations about delimitations should raise their concerns with the ECP, according to Dawn. (ANI)
According to local media reports, the search for survivors is underway even three days after the disused mine collapsed.

Quoting Marian Chombo, a province official, Al Jazeera reported that 42 artisanal miners were said to be working underground at the Bay Horse Mine in Chegutu on Friday when it collapsed on them.

Local sources state that 21 of them have been rescued and that 10 more may still remain under the wreckage. Ten deaths have been confirmed so far, the reports further said. Some of the deceased were found pinned beneath rocks, CNN reported citing the state media.

Zimbabwe's Vice President Constantino Chiwenga has said that the government will cover the deceased's funeral expenses, and that the toll may rise further.

The mine, which is located in Zimbabwes Mashonaland West province, sits 62 miles west of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare. The miners had gone into the mine - said to be about 150 meters deep, using undesignated entry points, Chombo added, according to CNN.

Chomborequestedassistancefromtheprovince'sminingbusinessesforrescueefforts.

In Zimbabwe, which has abundant resources of gold and diamonds, artisanal mining is prevalent. The country in southern Africa also has a lot of accidents during illicit mining operations. (ANI)
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has addressed concerns raised by the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) on the core aspects of its preliminary delimitation report, reported ARY News. The ECP stressed that Fafen's analysis of the initial constituencies was flawed and based on a misunderstanding of the criteria used for seat distribution, reported ARY News. In a statement, the ECP stated that these modifications involved merging several districts to achieve balanced population representation and reallocating the number of seats for both national and provincial assemblies across different districts, ARY News reported. However, in responding to Fafen's comments, the ECP clarified that it had allocated 266 National Assembly seats to provinces based on population. Fafen further created confusion by misunderstanding treating provinces, not districts as the unit for seat allocation. Moreover, Section 20 of the Elections Act 2017 covers constituency rules, and the rationale for constituency changes was explained in the initial constituency report. According to ARY News, the electoral body highlighted that recent amendments made to the Elections Act 2017, including a new provision in Section 20(3), do not require the ECP to "strictly adhere to current boundaries when such adherence would result in a population variance exceeding 10 per cent, aiming for more equitable elections. Earlier, Fafen expressed concern over the draft delimitation prepared by the ECP. They further noted that over one-fifth of constituencies exceed the 10 per cent population variation. Fafen further in a statement stated that as many as 180 national and provincial assembly constituencies as proposed by the ECP do not meet the legal preferability of 10 per cent variations in population, reported ARY News. The electoral commission said that the move "undermines the principle of equal suffrage that was otherwise upheld by the Parliament through the latest amendments in the Elections Act, 2017. However, according to the amendments enacted on August 4, the ECP after parliamentary approval, was likely to disregard district boundaries to ensure that the population variation of an assembly's constituencies does not ordinarily exceed 10 per cent, Fafen stated. Moreover,the ECP on Wednesday released the provisional report on the delimitation of constituencies based on the recently concluded census, Dawn reported. Under the original delimitation schedule issued by the ECP on August 17 ten days after the notification of census results the initial delimitation exercise was to be completed on October 7 and preliminary proposals for delimitation along with the report were to be published on October 9. However, on September 1, the ECP had announced squeezing timelines of the delimitation exercise by 14 days to complete the process on Nov 30, instead of the scheduled Dec 1, Dawn reported. (ANI)
Vice President of the Dominican Republic, Raquel Pena Rodriguez on Tuesday called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan. On meeting Rodriguez, President Murmu emphasized that capacity building is one of the central pillars of Indian-Dominican Republic cooperation. "She was happy to note that recently, India has organized two Special Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) training courses for Dominican Republic officials, in the critical fields of cyber security and remote sensing," the President's Secretariat said in a statement. President Murmu welcomed the Vice President of the Dominican Republic on her first visit to India. Noting the 25th anniversary of India-Dominican Republic diplomatic relations, the President said, "The timing of this visit is very apt as India and the Dominican Republic are marking the 25th anniversary of their diplomatic relations." She further stressed that the bilateral relations between the two countries are warm and friendly, "anchored on the strong foundation of shared values of democracy, and a broad convergence of views on global issues." President Murmu noted that the Dominican Republic is India's 8th largest trading partner in Latin America, according to the statement. Moreover, she showed confidence noting that there is a potential to further diversify the trade basket. "She said there is scope for working together and exchanging our experience and expertise in areas such as pharmaceutical products, marine science, meteorology, disaster resilient infrastructure and digital payments technologies," the statement said. Furthermore, the two nations' leaders agreed that continuing exchanges and contacts between India and the Dominican Republic would further strengthen their bilateral ties. Vice President of the Dominican Republic, Raquel Pena Rodriguez arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday on a three-day visit to India. She will hold discussions with Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and other Indian dignitaries. She will also deliver a lecture on India-Dominican Republic relations at the Indian Council for World Affairs. "The visit is significant as it takes place at a time when India-Dominican Republic bilateral relationship is entering its 25th year. The two countries established diplomatic relations on 04 May 1999," the MEA said in an official release. Diplomatic relations between India and the Dominican Republic were established in May 1999. Dominican Republic is an important partner of India in the Latin America and Caribbean region. The visit of the Vice President of the Dominican Republic comes closely on the heels of that of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to that country in April 2023, the MEA release added. Training and exchange of good practices have constituted the two main areas of cooperation between India and the Dominican Republic. Both nations have expressed their willingness to continue working together and to identify new initiatives. (ANI)
In the midst of escalating tensions between Manila and Beijing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the US military began two weeks of multilateral exercises on Monday with its Philippine allies and other foreign partners, according to CNN. As per a US Navy news release, Sama Sama 2023 will be the sixth and largest version of the drills as participants from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia join the US and the Philippines in the defence exercise. In Tagalog Sama Sama is a phrase that means together and there could not be a better phrase to capture the spirit of this exercise, said Capt. Sean Lewis, commodore of the US Navys Destroyer Squadron 7, in the official US Navy release. Together we can address a spectrum of security threats and enhance interoperability and with more nations participating than ever before, we can increase innovation and build a ready, united force that ensures stability in the region, he said. Notably, it is around 1,800 personnel from the participating nations that are involved in Sama Sama, many of them onboard warships from the Philippines, the US, the UK, Japan, and Canada. Confrontations between Philippine warships and Chinese coast guard and marine militia forces near disputed South China Sea features are considered as posing a growing danger to regional stability. From territorial defense to countering transnational crimes, Sama Sama helps us to face an array of threats together, the chief of the Philippine Navy, Vice Adm. Toribio Adaci Jr, said at opening ceremonies in Manila on Monday, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency (PNA). Chinese water cannons restricting supplies to a shipwrecked Philippine military station and a lone Filipino diver breaching a floating Chinese barrier are recent instances that have the region on edge. A Chinese coast guard ship was accused by the Philippine coast guard of briefly blinding some of its personnel earlier this year with a "military grade" laser, according to CNN. Moreover, Beijing has said that it's Manila responsible for the tensions in the region. China asserts "indisputable sovereignty" over the majority of the islands and sandbars in the 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea, including several features that are hundreds of kilometres from the Chinese mainland. Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan, and the Philippines all have conflicting claims. (ANI)
During the visit, MoS called on President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao, discussing ways to further strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation in the fields of health, agriculture, trade, hydrocarbons, pharmaceuticals, education and capacity building, the MEA said in a release.

He also held talks with Foreign Minister Bendito Dos Santos Freitas, and Minister of Trade and Industry, Filipus Nino Pereira, with the discussions centering on addingmomentum to bilateral cooperation, development partnership and capacity building, it said.

Honble Minister of State @RanjanRajkuma11 visited World Health Organization, Timor-Leste where Dr. Arvind Mathur, WHO representative and his team briefed him on health challenges and WHOs efforts on healthcare transformation in Timor-Leste, India in Timor-Leste posted on social media platform X.

MoS also attended a detailed briefing on the health sector of the country at the WHO resident office in Dili. He also interacted with members of the Indian community and Indian professionals working in international organisations in Timor-Leste, it added.

President of Timor-Leste, Jose Ramos-Horta, during the MoS visit, welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modis decision to open an Indian Embassy in his countrys capital, Dili.

During his four-day official visit to Timor-Leste, Ranjan Singh, called on President Horta and the two discussed ways to strengthen bilateral ties through cooperation in the oil and gas sector, capacity building, health, trade and food security.

Extremely fruitful meeting of MOS @RanjanRajkuma11 with H.E. Mr. Jos Ramos-Horta, President of Timor-Leste, today. Discussed ways to further strengthen bilateral ties through cooperation in health, trade, oil and gas sector, capacity building, & food security, India in Timor-Leste posted on X.

President Horta welcomed Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's decision to open a resident Indian Embassy in Dili, the post added.

PM Modi has recently announced the opening of Indias embassy in Dili, the capital city of Timor-Leste, or East Timor, on the country's north coast.

The city holds importance as it recalls the nation's struggles for independence from Portugal as well as Indonesia.

India's decision to open an embassy in Dilli shows its commitment to the Act East policy. (ANI)
Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran have complained about mistreatment by the host countries, Afghanistan-based TOLO News reported. The Afghan refugees in Pakistan said they were arrested by Pakistani authorities despite having a legal document. Ahmad, an Afghan refugee in Iran said, "Since the past several days, the Afghan refugees in Asfahan are being cruelly tortured and harassed," according to TOLO News report. Zaman Zaman, an Afghan refugee in Pakistan said that no agency or the United Nations so far has not reacted to their conditions. Consulate of Afghanistan in Karachi, Abdul Jabar Takhari, said more than 900 Afghan refugees have been detained in Pakistan within the past two weeks. Takhari said, "A lot of Afghans have been detained. Their number is around 900. Many of them are the Afghans who have legal documents... we were able to facilitate the release of 200 Afghans who had legal documents," TOLO News reported. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that the refugees in host nations should be treated according to the laws. He said that the migrants should be sent back peacefully to Afghanistan if they do not have documents. He said, "We request that the refugees should be treated well and according to the laws, humanity, and Islamic manners. They should not be harassed and taken to prison. If they don't have the documents, they should be returned to the country peacefully," according to TOLO News report. The refugees rights activists urged host nations to not arrest and mistreat Afghan refugees. According to Taliban-ledMinistry of Refugees and Repatriation (MoRR), nearly 3 million Afghan refugees are in Pakistan. It further said that nearly 3 million Afghan refugees are in Iran and around 1 million in other countries. Meanwhile, Pakistani police detained 800 Afghan refugees in the suburbs of Islamabad. Out of these, 400 people were released as they had valid permits and 375 people will face deportation due to a lack of proper documentation, according to Counter-Terrorism Department, Khaama Press reported citing Pakistani media. The operation took place in Bahara Kahu, Tarlai, Meherabadiyan, Golra, and Kalani Shams, Khaama Press reported citing Pakistani media outlet Samaa TV. Before the operation, media reports in Pakistan claimed about cabinets approval of a plan to deport more than a million undocumented Afghan refugees. Earlier, in August, the Taliban-led Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations of Afghanistan said more than 700 Afghan refugees have returned from Iran, according to a Khaama Press report. The Taliban-led Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations in a post on X said that around 774 Afghan refugees arrived in Afghanistan through the Islam Qala border crossing in Herat province. (ANI)
Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck attended the opening ceremony of the last session of the third Parliament, The Bhutan Live reported. In a post shared on Instagram, Bhutan King stated, "1 October 2023: His Majesty The King graced the Opening Ceremony of the 10th Session of the Third Parliament this morning. This is the final session of the Third Parliament, following which Bhutan will prepare for the 4th parliamentary elections." On behalf of the Parliament, National Assembly Speaker Wangchuk Namgyel expressed gratitude to Bhutan King and Queen for the gift of a princess on September 9. Namgyel stated, "We offer our prayers for the long life and well-being of Her Royal Highness the Gyalsem," according to The Bhutan Live report. In honour of Princess' birth, the Zhung Dratshang on Bhutan King's command, declared the day as Dratshang Yojay Gi Nyim.Yojay is a traditional practice where wealthy people voluntarily offer assets to the Monastic Body, believing that it will help them accumulate merit. Bhutan Parliament Speakerexpressed appreciation for Bhutan King and Je Khenpo for the revival of the yojay practice. He said that yojay practice would benefit in understanding and promoting Bhutan's culture and tradition among the youth. As the practice of yojay was reinstated by the Zhung Dratshang, the Bhutan government made the inaugural yojay offering, The Bhutan Live reported. In July, Bhutan King visited Japan and the United States and met global business and economic leaders in preparation for Bhutans forthcoming economic development endeavors. Parliament speaker said, "We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude and reverence to His Majesty The King for this noble endeavour." In addition, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck visited various parts of Bhutan to know about the challenges and difficulties that the people were facing and granted kidu to the people. He also visited and met with the victims of the Ungar flash flood that occurred on July 20. Wangchuk Namgyel thanked Bhutan's King for His compassion and noble actions. Bhutan Parliament speaker expressed Parliaments heartfelt gratitude to Khenpo and the Zhung Dratshang for continuously conducting prayers for the worlds well-being, particularly for the country and its people, according to the report. The Parliament expressed gratitude to Je Khenpo and the Zhung Dratshang for administering the most sacred public empowerment of Buddha Amitabha to commemorate the birth of Bhutan's Princess The Je Khenpo has donated Nu 10 million to support elderly monks in old age care homes, according to The Bhutan Live report. He also assigned the responsibility of the management of the Medicinal and Recreational Park in Sarpang to the Gelephu Thromde. The decision of the Je Khenpo is expected to benefit all people of Bhutan in the future, the report said. During the 10th session, the Parliament will hold discussions regarding the agreement on the movement of traffic-in-transit between Bhutan and Bangladesh. The lawmakers will also discuss about the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Charter, the Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities, the Biological Corridor Nine Bill of Bhutan, motions, and two follow-up implementation reports. During the Parliament session, the lawmakers will hold discussions regarding the review report of the Anti-Corruption Commissions Annual Report 2022-2023, the State of the Nation report by the Prime Minister, including legislative and annual plans and priorities of the government and the Public Accounts Committees review report on the Performance Audit Reports. (ANI)
Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Pande Tuesday addressed the faculty at Tanzanias National Defence College on Current Security Scenario and need for joint efforts through Bilateral Collaborations. General Manoj Pande is on an official visit to Tanzania from October 2 to 5, 2023, reinforcing the long-standing defence ties between the two countries. His visit also coincides with the second India Tanzania Mini DEFEXPO being conducted at Dar-es-Salaam which will showcase the growing prowess of the Indigenous defence industry complex of India. General Manoj Pande #COAS addressed the 12th #NDC course and the faculty at the National Defence College #NDC, #Tanzania on the topic Current Security Scenario and need for Joint efforts through Bilateral Collaborations, posted Additional Directorate General of Public Information, IHQ of MoD (Army), on social media platform, X. During his visit, the COAS also called on Major General Wilbert Augustine Ibuge Commandant and the faculty and held discussion on bilateral ties between the two armies. #COAS also called on Maj Gen Wilbert Augustine Ibuge, Commandant, #NDC and discussed a wide canvas of defence engagements and bilateral relations between the two Armies, the post added. The bilateral defence relationship between India and Tanzania has been robust and thriving. The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation in October 2003 laid a strong foundation. This cooperation was further underscored by the second meeting of the India-Tanzania Joint Defence Cooperation Committee held in Arusha, Tanzania on 28th and 29th June this year, Ministry of Defence informed in an official release. COAS Pande, on Monday, met Tanzanian Defence Minister Stregomena Lawerence Tax and Chief of Defence Force General Jacob John Mkunda. The two sides held discussions on enhancing bilateral defence cooperation and strengthening bonds of friendship between the armies of India and Tanzania. General Manoj Pande also laid a wreath at the Commonwealth War Memorial in Dar-es-Salaam and paid obeisance to the Indian soldiers who laid down their lives during the First World War. Both the Indian and Tanzanian Army offer vacancies for each other in professional military courses. This has helped the personnel from both countries build strong bonds, exchange ideas and share best practices. The Tanzanian Army has been consistently participating in the UN Peacekeeping training in India over the last five years. Similarly, a Training Team of the Indian Army has been deployed at Command and Staff College, Duluti since the year 2017, the release added. This visit of the COAS further consolidates the high-level bilateral defence engagements and close defence ties shared between India and Tanzania. The visit promises to not just celebrate the existing collaborations but also pave the way for a stronger future partnership. Further, General Pande will also be visiting Zanzibar and call on Zanzibar President Hussein Ali Mwinyi. Furthermore, he will have interaction with the Commander of the 101st Infantry Brigade General Saidi Hamisi Saidi, the Ministry of Defence said. (ANI)
Tel Aviv [Israel], October 3 (ANI/TPS): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and Saudi Arabia later this month amid a diplomatic push to bring the Sunni kingdom into the Abraham Accords. The trip, which the State Department has yet to confirm, is to take place during the third week of October and include a visit to Ramallah in the Palestinian Authority. Blinken last traveled to the Jewish state in January, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailing the visit as evidence of the two countries strong bond, based on common interests and values. The forthcoming visit comes after US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Friday that Jerusalem and Riyadh have agreed on the contours of a possible American-mediated normalization agreement. Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi arrived in Riyadh on Monday night at the head of a 14-strong delegation, becoming the second Cabinet member from the Jewish state to visit the Gulf nation in a week. Karhi, a Likud Party member and close ally of Netanyahu, is being accompanied by Knesset Economic Affairs Committee chairman David Bitan and representatives of the Foreign Ministry, Communications Ministry and Israel Post. The minister is slated to address the Universal Postal Unions 2023 Extraordinary Congress and meet with US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Michael Ratney. Karhi is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with Saudi colleagues during the trip. Last week, Tourism Minister Haim Katz became the first Israeli Cabinet minister to be granted an entry visa by the Saudi government, arriving in Riyadh to participate in a conference of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and mark World Tourism Day, celebrated annually on Sept. 27. Netanyahu has repeatedly said that bringing Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords would constitute a quantum leap for peace in the Middle East. The 2020 Trump administration-brokered accords normalized relations between Israel and four Arab nations: The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. In his recent address to the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu said that a deal with Riyadh would have far-reaching implications, including encouraging other Arab nations to normalize relations with Israel. He called the Abraham Accords a pivot of history and said the whole world is reaping their benefits. All these are tremendous blessings, said the premier. (ANI/TPS)
More than 60 elementary school students were hospitalised after inadvertently consuming cannabis-laced candy, CNN reported citing officials. Minister of Education and Youth, Fayval Williams, informed CNN that none of the affected children, aged 7 to 12, appear to be in critical condition, according to doctors. The consumption of the candy led to symptoms of vomiting and hallucination among the children, as disclosed by Minister Williams on X. Some of the children had to receive intravenous drip. Williams expressed her concern, saying, "Over 60 primary school students had to be taken to the hospital. Parents, please beware!!" She emphasised the potency of the product, noting that one child claimed to have consumed only a single piece of candy. The minister added that she had visited the hospital where the children were being treated and commended the efforts of the doctors and nurses, who were diligently working to ensure the students' recovery. In her post on X, Williams included a photograph of the candy, which was packaged in a rainbow-colored wrapper. The packaging prominently displayed that the product contained Delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as delta-8 THC, a psychoactive compound found in the Cannabis sativa plant, which includes both marijuana and hemp varieties, as explained by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website. This substance is known to have psychoactive and intoxicating effects, according to the US agency, CNN reported. Additionally, the candy package featured a government warning on the back, indicating that it should be kept out of reach of children and was not intended for use by individuals under 21 years of age. It was clearly stated on the packaging that the product had not received FDA approval. Jamaica had decriminalised cannabis for individuals over 18 years old in 2015, with possession of 2 ounces (56 grams) or less considered a minor offense, CNN reported. (ANI)
Amid the continuing diplomatic fallout of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's claim of the involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar,Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly on Tuesday called it important that diplomats remain on the ground. She said Canada believes in the importance of having a "strong diplomatic footprint" in India, Canada-based CPAC reported. Speaking to reporters, Joly said, "So in moments of tensions, because indeed there are tensions between both of the government more than ever, it's important that diplomats be on the ground. And that's why we believe in the importance of having a strong diplomatic footprint in India.That being said, we are in go ongoing conversations with the Indian government, and we will continue...," CPAC reported. She made the remarks in response to the question regarding reports claiming that India has asked Canada to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country. Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India, was killed outside a gurdwara in Canada's Surrey on June 18. India has also expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a reciprocal move to Canada expelling a senior Indian diplomat. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Trudeau on Tuesday said his country was not "looking to escalate the situation with India," adding that Ottawa wants to remain on the ground in New Delhi to help Canadians, Reuters reported. "Canada is not looking to escalate the situation with India, will continue to engage responsibly and constructively with New Delhi. We want to be on the ground in India to help the Canadian families there," Reuters quoted PM Trudeau as saying. During a debate in the Canadian Parliament in September, Trudeau claimed Canada's national security officials had reasons to believe that "agents of the Indian government" carried out the killing of Nijjar. India outrightly rejected the claims calling them "absured and motivated". Last week, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the ongoing problem with Canada has been there for some years because of the permissiveness by the government regarding terrorism, extremism and violence in the country. Jaishankar said the current situation cant be termed a deadlock, adding that the Indian government is open to looking at any specific and relevant thing shared by the Canadian side in connection with the issue. Addressing a press conference in Washington DC on Friday, Jaishankar said, Well, I don't know if I would use the term deadlock...The issue is as follows: The Canadians have made some allegations. We have pointed out to them that this is not the Government of India's policy and if they are prepared to share with us specifics and anything relevant, we are also open to looking at it. So in that sense, that's where the matter stands. But what we do not want to see is an incident treated in isolation because then that somewhere does not convey the right picture, he added. The EAM said the ongoing problem with Canada is because of the permissiveness regarding terrorism, extremism and violence in the country. The fact is that we have had an ongoing problem with Canada and the Canadian government for some years now. And the ongoing problem really revolves around the permissiveness in regard to terrorism, extremism and violence, Jaishankar said. He added, "This permissiveness is also reflected in the fact that some important extradition requests have not been responded to from their side. In fact, that there are individuals and organizations who are clearly involved with violence and illegal activities in India, who have themselves declared itI mean it is not a secret." The EAM further said that even though India wouldnt have liked suspending the visa operations to Canada, it had to because the Canadian side made it very difficult for the Indian side to operate the services. (ANI)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday held a meeting with Dominican Republic Vice President Raquel Pena Rodriguez and discussed further strengthening of bilateral ties, particulary in trade, commerce, education, defence, space and renewables. In a post shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, Jaishankar stated, "Delighted to meet VP @RaquelPenaVice of the Dominican Republic this evening in New Delhi Discussed further strengthening of our bilateral ties, especially in trade & commerce, education, defence, space and renewables. Exchanged views on regional and multilateral issues as well." Earlier in the day, Dominican Republic Vice President Rodriguez met President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan. On meeting Rodriguez, President Murmu emphasised that capacity building is one of the central pillars of Indian-Dominican Republic cooperation. "She was happy to note that recently, India has organized two Special Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) training courses for Dominican Republic officials, in the critical fields of cyber security and remote sensing," the President's Secretariat said in a statement. Noting the 25th anniversary of India-Dominican Republic diplomatic relations, the President said, "The timing of this visit is very apt as India and the Dominican Republic are marking the 25th anniversary of their diplomatic relations." She further stressed that the bilateral relations between the two countries are warm and friendly, "anchored on the strong foundation of shared values of democracy, and a broad convergence of views on global issues." President Murmu noted that the Dominican Republic is India's 8th largest trading partner in Latin America, according to the statement. Moreover, she showed confidence noting that there is a potential to further diversify the trade basket. She said there is scope for working together and exchanging our experience and expertise in areas such as pharmaceutical products, marine science, meteorology, disaster resilient infrastructure and digital payments technologies," the statement said. Dominican Republic Vice President Rodriguez also met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The two leaders held discussions on various aspects of bilateral ties. Taking to X, Om Birla stated, "Had a fruitful discussion with HE Ms. Raquel Pea, VP of Dominican Republic on various aspects of our bilateral relationship. Informed her about the historic #NariShaktiVandan Act. HE Pea thanked India for COVID vaccines under #VaccineMaitri and voiced support for closer ties." Rodriguez also paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat. In a post on X, Rodriguez stated, "Today I visited the Mahatma Gandhi memorial in New Delhi, a tribute to one of the most influential leaders in the fight for Indian independence. Having the opportunity to be here strengthens the commitment to continue working for a more peaceful and harmonious future for all." Raquel Pena Rodriguez arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday on a three-day visit to India. She will also deliver a lecture on India-Dominican Republic relations at the Indian Council for World Affairs. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a press release said, "The visit is significant as it is takes place at a time when India-Dominican Republic bilateral relationship is entering its 25th year." Notably, the two nations established diplomatic relations on 04 May 1999. MEA in the press release said, "Dominican Republic is an important partner of India in the Latin America and Caribbean region. The visit of the Vice President of the Dominican Republic, comes closely on the heels of that of External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar to that country in April 2023. It will provide another opportunity to continue high level discussions to further deepen and broaden our mutually beneficial relationship." (ANI)
There were no big winners in Monday's Powerball drawing, clearing the way for a $1.2-billion jackpot on Wednesday.

That would mark the third-largest jackpot in Powerball history, officials announced Tuesday.

The last Powerball big winner was sold July 19 at Las Palmitas Mini Market in downtown Los Angeles, on the edge of Skid Row in the Fashion District. The owners of the mom-and-pop tiendita said their clientele is made up of garment workers, mainly Latino immigrants, who work in the downtown core.

Read more: Near Skid Row, immigrant family realizes dream with little shop  then sells $1-billion Powerball ticket

The winner from that jackpot has not publicly come forward, but the market buzzed with activity the morning after the drawing. TV crews were situated on the narrow sidewalk outside the market where owner Maria Leticia Menjivar and her family discussed what they planned to do with their $1-million prize for selling the winning ticket.

Some people are coming up to us saying, Why arent you more excited? But I dont really know how to feel, Menjivars granddaughter Sarai Palacios said inside her familys store as news cameras pointed at her mother and grandmother.

Since that winning ticket was sold, there have been 32 consecutive Powerball drawings with no big winners, according to the Multi-State Lottery Assn.

Read more: Winner of $2-billion Powerball jackpot drops $25.5 million on Hollywood Hills mansion

On Monday, more than 2.7 million tickets across the country won some prizes, including two tickets sold in Delaware and Michigan that matched the five white balls, but not the red Powerball number, and won $1 million dollars in prizes, the Multi-State Lottery Assn. said in a new release. Two other tickets sold in New York and South Carolina also matched five numbers, but because those ticket holders paid an extra $1, their prize total doubled to $2 million.

If someone wins Wednesday's night jackpot, they will have the choice between an annuitized prize worth an estimated $1.2 billion or a lump sum payment estimated at $551.7 million.

The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.

Powerball tickets are $2 per play and are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Wednesday's drawing will be broadcast at 7:59 p.m. PT.

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report)  The president of Mexico says 10 migrant women from Cuba traveling in the cargo area of a commercial truck have died in an accident near the border with Guatemala.

The truck overturned in the Pijijiapan-Tonala Highway in Southeast Chiapas state on Sunday afternoon, killing the women and leaving another 17 migrants, mostly women, injured. The Mexican government and Latin American media outlets published photos of the overturned red truck and survivors sitting on the side of the road as first responders placed others in ambulances.

Ecuadorian migrant was killed in Mexico in a crash of a van operated by the immigration agency

Cuban Consul Miguel Angel Moreno Carpio told Mexican and international news media his government has established contact with the relatives of the victims and has sent representatives to assist the survivors in Chiapas.

We regret there was an accident in Chiapas and women from Cuba, migrant women, died. This is why we will continue to insist on addressing the causes of migration, the origins, go in-depth and put aside the politics President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday in a news conference broadcast on YouTube.

Yesterdays tragedy in Chiapas was on a semi-trailer, all this managed by a mafia of people traffickers. But the bottom line is the need to go out and find work, security, and we must address those causes.

Lopez Obrador said he will meet this week with U.S. and Central American government representatives to address the latest spike in migration to the United States, which affects Mexico as well.

Visit the BorderReport.com homepage for the latest exclusive stories and breaking news about issues along the U.S.-Mexico border

Up to 4,000 migrants crossed the border of Colombia and Panama headed to Southern Mexico. Once they cross the border into Chiapas, the number grows to 6,000 a day. Last week, the northern border saw 10,000 migrants per day, Lopez Obrador said on Monday. They pass through Mexico taking lots of risks, (enduring) human rights violations, gangs that kidnap migrants, murder and tragedies due to highway accidents because they hire trucks in bad shape.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com.
An internationally celebrated 12-foot-tall puppet depicting a 10-year-old Syrian refugee will be in Tennessee from Oct. 4 to Oct. 7 as part of the puppet's tour across America.

Little Amal, designed by the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa, has been making her way across the country since Sept. 7 on a journey of 6,000 miles across the United States. On this 40-city voyage, Little Amal will make three stops in Tennessee  Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga.

The puppet is a symbol of human rights, especially those of refugees, according to organizers. "Her journeys are festivals of art and hope that draw attention to the huge numbers of children fleeing war, violence and persecution, each with their own story."

Light shines through the torso of Little Amal as she makes her way across the Roebling Bridge to Cincinnati on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023.

Amal Walks Across America is produced by The Walk Productions in association with the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa.

Here is all you need to know about Little Amal visiting your area.

Little Amal comes to Memphis

The puppet will be working with the Historic Clayborn Temple, The Orpheum Theatre Group and the Memphis River Parks Partnership at Tom Lee Park. Families will be able to see Amal on Oct. 4 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. as she moves through the Downtown area.

The first stop at the Historic Clayborn Temple will have Amal meet with Memphis youth who have made their own puppets where families can learn about the temple and the 1968 Sanitation Workers' strike. Then, she will walk around the I Am a Man Plaza accompanied by Memphis Girl, an 8-foot-tall puppet made by Jeghetto. Little Amal will then move to the Orpheum where students from the Refugee Empowerment Program will welcome her with personal messages. The final stop at Tom Lee Park will feature Amal receiving a gift from the Memphis community.

Little Amal will visit the students of Crosstown High School at the Crosstown Concourse in the morning. This event is put on by the students to celebrate Little Amal.

Little Amal stops in Nashville

On Thursday, Oct. 5, Little Amal will make her way to Nashville as the 20th stop on her 40-city journey.

The celebration will consist of a performance choreographed by Shabaz Ujima and Thea Jones. The performance will depict Amal's journey of weathering a storm as she tries to find home.

Little Amal, a 12-foot-tall puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl, gives Daria Nimbee, 26, of Detroit a hug during a live art performance at the Bagley Pedestrian Bridge, in Southwest Detroit on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. The U.S. tour began in Boston on Sept. 7 and will conclude in San Diego on Nov. 5.

The festivities will begin at 5 p.m. on the west side of Centennial Park's Great Lawn and will end in a community gathering.

Little Amal's Tennessee journey ends in Chattanooga

Little Amal's final stop in Tennessee will be in Chattanooga on Saturday, Oct. 7.

Amal will make her first appearance at the 3 Sisters Bluegrass Festival at 3 p.m. where people will learn about her message and meet her. The festival is free for all to attend.

Later that day, Little Amal will be welcomed by the Chattanooga community on the Walnut Street Bridge. Join Amal and local artists and culture organizations with a lantern for this event. Registration is required to attend this event.

Jordan Green covers trending news for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at Jordan.Green@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @_green_jordan_

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Little Amal giant puppet touring US with stops in Memphis, Nashville
A 13-foot albino python feasting on cats and other animals has been terrorizing an Oklahoma community for months and the hunt for the enormous serpent is ramping up.

The python has been in the area of the Burntwood Mobile Home Park for about five months, with the most recent sighting happening Friday, Trevor Bounds of Red Beard Wildlife Solutions told USA TODAY Wednesday morning.

Property management at the mobile home park reached out to him Friday to inspect some homes and see what he could find out.

When he spoke to people who live in the area, they said the snake had been in the trailer park for about five months and cats began disappearing in the area during the summer.

Bounds said the python is 13 feet long, give or take a foot or two. Residents showed him photos from months ago and it appeared to be much smaller then, Bounds said, adding that it's the biggest snake he has ever been called to take care of.

"One of the ladies said she had taken a picture of it," he said. "If the picture she showed me is the same snake, which I feel like it was, the snake I saw (in the photo) is much, much smaller."

Residents are also concerned that the mobile home park is across from an elementary school, Bounds said. He understands the concern but said the snake wants nothing to do with humans.

"As long as they're not approaching a snake and trying to pick it up, they'll be fine," he said, adding that the snake has likely been domesticated and won't charge people or show aggression ... It's smack dab in the middle of a trailer park. If it was going to be aggressive, we would've already seen that."

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Where did the 13-foot python come from?

Elvis, a 13-foot-long albino reticulated python who is a fan favorite in Rick Roth's live-animal presentation "Snakes of New England and the World." Note that Elvis is not the snake mentioned in this story.

Bounds described the python as a yellow reticulated python. The species is not venomous and kills its prey by constriction.

It's unclear where the python came from but he thinks it may have been a pet that broke free or was released by its owner during the summer.

"It's not going to survive when the temperatures drop to 65," he said. "I mean, you'd be pushing it saying 70."

24-hour livestream camera searches for the feline-eating snake

Kids take turns touching an albino Burmese python from the Eudora Farms Petting Zoo in Salley, South Carolina on Aug. 4, 2007.

Bounds checked out homes in the trailer park and found that one had a leaky pipe issue. Water from the leaky pipes paired with the crawlspace underneath the home is the perfect habitat for snakes of this sort, he said.

"It's got food, water shelter," he said. "We found bird feathers, things like that underneath the building."

The home, he said, is about 60 feet from the general area where multiple people spotted the python. He plans to create a funnel-style trap around the home.

He'll set up a 24-hour live feed to keep an eye on it once repairs are made. The thermal camera connected to the live feed will send Bounds pictures and video when the snake moves, hopefully allowing him to catch it.

The camera has a setting that works with cold-blooded animals like snakes, he said.

"For a cold-blooded animal, thermal is not going to work but if you play with the settings, I usually use the black hot (setting), you can kind of see their bone structure," he said.

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What are reticulated pythons?

Tourists view an albino reticulated python at the Beijing Zoo on Jan. 21, 2013.

Reticulated pythons are native to Southeast Asia and typically reach up to 16 feet as adults, according to a Michigan-based reptile zoo called the Reptarium.

According to the zoo, the largest recorded reticulated python measured a whopping 32 feet in length and weighed 350 pounds.

Calling the pythons opportunistic feeders, the reptarium said the animals eat birds and mammals.

On average, their lifespans range from 15 to 20 years but some have lived at least 25 or 30 years, the zoo wrote on its website.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Python on loose in Oklahoma City mobile home park; search ongoing
A 15-year-old boy was thrown from a vehicle and died in a crash involving a 14-year-old driver, Pennsylvania authorities say.

The 14-year-old is accused of driving a Hyundai Sonata that had been stolen earlier in the day Sunday, Oct. 1, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania State Police said in a report. Drivers in Pennsylvania are only issued licenses after they turn 16 years old.

Troopers tried to pull over the driver at 5:50 p.m., but she fled on Interstate 76 in the stolen car, according to the state police report.

She eventually lost control of the Sonata and crashed into a concrete barrier on the shoulder before striking another vehicle, state police said.

The vehicle then swerved back to the right and rolled several times up an embankment before coming to rest on the right shoulder, according to the report.

A 14-year-old boy who was ejected during the crash was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, troopers said. Three other minors in the vehicle were also hospitalized with undisclosed injuries.

The driver, who has not been publicly identified, was charged with vehicular homicide, state police said.
A 19-year-old Georgia father-to-be has died a month after a car crash that claimed two other lives.

Cameron Lyons died Sept. 30, nearly a month after a crash on August 31 in Walker County.

According to Georgia State Patrol, Lyons was riding in a CMC truck driven by Jerry Glenn Payne when Payne crossed over into the northbound lanes on Highway 27 and crashed into an oncoming car. Payne died at the scene.

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The driver of the other car, Tonya-Joan Marie Overbay, was taken to the hospital, where she died.

Lyons had been hospitalized since the accident.

Cam fought so very hard for four long weeks but his fragile body was just getting too worn out. family members said on a GoFundMe. He is now resting in his eternal home and at peace with Lord.

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His wife of nearly a year, Sharie Lyons, is expecting the couples son, who they named Harden Eli. The baby is due in December, according to a baby registry.

I will ALWAYS take care of and protect this precious life we created together, Sharie Lyons wrote on Facebook. I PROMISE Harden will know his daddy. He will know all about his daddy. And most of all hell know his daddy LOVES him.

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The family has set up a GoFundMe to help support Lyons family.
Two teens were arrested last weekend for their alleged involvement in a fight and threats made with a gun, according to Olympia police.

About 2:30 a.m. Sunday, police were dispatched to the 2700 block of Karen Frazier Road Southeast, south of 18th Avenue and east of Boulevard Road, after receiving calls about a large disturbance, Lt. Paul Lower said.

Police arrived to find teenagers scattering in all directions, including into a nearby wooded area.

During the investigation, police learned a party had escalated into a fight following an argument, Lower said. That finally prompted one male teen to punch another in the neck.

A third male teen then pulled out a handgun and threatened to kill the teen who had thrown the punch.

The teen with the gun fled from the scene, but was later found in Yelm, Lower said. He was arrested on suspicion of first-degree assault.

The teen who had thrown the punch was booked on suspicion of fourth-degree assault.

The homeowner who hosted the party also could be facing charges because that person allegedly provided alcohol to minors, Lower said. The potential charges have been referred to the Thurston County Prosecutors Office, he said.

No one was seriously injured, Lower said.
 Flash

Travelers wait to pass through immigration checkpoints in Beijing Capital International Airport in this file photo of Jan 8, 2023. [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

China will improve management and services for international travelers, including streamlining visa procedures and increasing international flights, in a move to boost its tourism market.

The General Office of the State Council released a document ahead of National Day to facilitate the high-quality development of the sector, which is expected to see large growth during the holiday.

It said China will resume and increase international flights, especially with neighboring countries and those that are the main sources of visitors.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China will support Chinese and foreign airlines to invest in more capacity to meet people's needs, according to a recent document jointly issued by over 10 departments.

Changes include resuming the application of bilateral air services agreements with 125 countries that have signed air transportation agreements with China, except the United States, Canada and France, authorities said.

The number of international regular passenger flights from Sept 18 to 24 was 3,849 round trips, nearly eight times that of the week before China downgraded its management of COVID-19 from a Class A to a Class B disease on Jan 8, and about 50.5 percent of that before the epidemic, data showed.

The number of flights to 16 countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy and the Maldives, exceeded the pre-epidemic level, it showed.

The document also stipulated measures to optimize visa and customs clearance policies, restore and expand visa-free policies, and provide convenient customs clearance for international travelers of cruises and self-driving tours.

A total of 97 port visa authorities can handle group tourist visas for foreign tour groups organized by domestic travel agencies. The 72-hour and 144-hour visa-free transit policies have been implemented for people from 53 countries, according to authorities.

China has implemented the 15-day visa-free entry policy for cruise ships in Shanghai, visa-free entry for 59 countries in Hainan province, and visa-free entry for tourist groups from 10 ASEAN countries in Guilin of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Foreigners applying for entry from the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions can enjoy 144-hour visa-free entry to the Pearl River Delta region and Shantou, Guangdong province.

In response to the surge in visa applications, Chinese embassies and consulates abroad have extended working hours and increased the number of appointments, authorities said.

Services in payment, accommodations, ticket booking, scenic tours and foreign currency exchange will be made more convenient, the document said.

According to a report on China's tourism market issued by the World Tourism Alliance, inbound visits rebounded to 18 million people in the first half of this year, recovering to 12 percent of the same period in 2019, China Tourism News reported.
2 US soldiers killed, a dozen injured after transport vehicle flips in Alaska

A U.S. Army transport vehicle flipped outside Salcha, Alaska, on Monday, leaving two soldiers dead and 12 others injured.

According to a news release from U.S. Army Alaska, 17 soldiers were riding in a light medium tactical vehicle used to transport troops when a "single military vehicle accident" happened on a dirt road heading into the Yukon Training Area.

Army spokesperson John Pennell told local outlet KTUU the soldiers, who are part of the 11th Airborne Division, were participating in training exercises.

"At some point, the driver lost control of the vehicle, and it flipped," Pennell said.

MAN ARRESTED IN HAWAII AFTER CAUSING LOCKDOWNS AT ARMY BASES FOLLOWING SCUFFLE WITH SOLDIERS, OFFICIALS SAY

First responders provided initial medical treatment to the victims, who were then transported to the Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Out of the 12 who sustained injuries, two of the most critically injured were flown to Providence Medical Center in Anchorage.

Alaska State Troopers, the North Pole Fire Department and Eielson Air Force Base all supported the first response efforts.

US SOLDIER TRAVIS KING BACK ON AMERICAN SOIL AFTER BEING FREED BY NORTH KOREA

Alaska State Troopers, the North Pole Fire Department and Eielson Air Force Base all supported the first response efforts.

"We're all grieving and kind of doing what we can to support the families," Pennell said. "Anytime we lose our soldiers, its a tragic event for the family, for the fellow soldiers, for the soldiers' friends. Essentially the entire 11th Airborne Division family is grieving the loss of these two soldiers and preparing to step forward for the families they've left behind."

The incident remains under investigation.





Original article source: 2 US soldiers killed, a dozen injured after transport vehicle flips in Alaska
A 24-year-old Texas man is accused of beating his father to death with a glass mug, Houston investigators say.

Officers with the Houston Police Department responded to a 911 call at an apartment complex near downtown at about 7 a.m. Oct. 2, KTRK reported.

A man got into an argument with his father, 46-year-old Todd Jackson Sr., which escalated into violence, police told the outlet.

The man attacked Jackson with a beer mug, court documents say.

Jackson was taken to a hospital where he died from blunt force trauma, police told KPRC.

Four family members lived at the apartment, including the man and his father, the outlet reported, and everyone was home at the time of the attack.

The man is facing a charge of murder and his bond was set at $250,000, records show.

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There are 1,199 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and just 25 are in the United States.

Some are areas of natural beauty, while others honor the history of human activity.

Ohio's Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks was just named the 25th site in the US.

UNESCO lists stunning natural and man-made sites around the world that it considers worth protecting for their cultural, historic, or scientific significance.

The list includes world-famous locations such as India's Taj Mahal and Peru's Machu Picchu, but it also includes many sites across the US.

Some are already widely known and act as big tourist attractions, while others are not as celebrated. And in September, another was added: Ohio's Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks  mounds created by Native Americans thousands of years ago  was named the 25th UNESCO World Heritage Site in the US.

The sites can suffer from over-tourism, and the organization has backed the idea of "sustainable tourism," encouraging those who visit the sites to leave them untouched. It also urges visitors to listen to those who manage the sites if they express concerns about overcrowding or ask people to stay in certain areas.

There are 25 UNESCO sites in the US, including in Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Alaska. Check them all out below.

Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, Ohio

The Seip Earthworks. Mary Salen/Getty Images

The United States' newest UNESCO World Heritage Site is the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, which are a "series of eight monumental earthen enclosure complexes built between 2,000 and 1,600 years ago" along the Ohio River and its tributaries, according to UNESCO.

UNESCO calls the mounds the "most representative surviving expressions of the Indigenous tradition now referred to as the Hopewell culture," a group of various tribes who were connected by trade routes.

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

The Grand Canyon. Anton Foltin/Shutterstock

UNESCO calls the 4,920-feet-deep Grand Canyon, which is so big it could fit the entire state of Rhode Island inside it, the "most spectacular gorge in the world."

The Grand Canyon National Park is home to many rare or endangered species of animals and plants.

UNESCO says that the canyon is "among the earth's greatest on-going geological spectacles" and "its vastness is stunning, and the evidence it reveals about the earth's history is invaluable."

La Fortaleza and San Juan, Puerto Rico

La Fortaleza. Ricardo Arduengo/AP

Defensive structures built in the bay of San Juan, Puerto Rico, between the 16th and 20th centuries "clearly illustrate both a transfer of technology from Europe to America over a long period," according to UNESCO.

"As one of the first as well as one of the last of the numerous seats of power in Spain's American empire, these structures are now potent symbols of the cultural ties that link the Hispanic world," it said.

The US National Park Service notes how "countries fought for control of this tiny yet strategic island for centuries," with the forts where soldiers lived and the structures that they built still intact.

La Fortaleza, the official residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico, was built to help protect the harbor of San Juan.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina

A view of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park's horizon. Sean Pavone/Getty Images

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, stretches more than 200,000 hectares and is home to 19,000 documented species of plants and animals, including ones that were discovered there.

UNESCO describes the park as "relatively untouched" by humans, therefore giving us an idea of what the environment was like before we came along.

Independence Hall, Pennsylvania

Independence Hall. Inspired By Maps/Shutterstock

Philadelphia's Independence Hall is where both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were signed, and is therefore one of the most important buildings in American history.

UNESCO notes that the "universal principles of freedom and democracy set forth in these documents are of fundamental importance to American history and have also had a profound impact on law-makers around the world."

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Alexey Kamenskiy/Shutterstock

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which is located on Hawaii (the Big Island), contains some of the world's most unique landscapes.

It includes Mauna Loa and Kilauea, which UNESCO describes as "two of the world's most active and accessible volcanoes where ongoing geological processes are easily observed."

Thanks to ongoing volcanic activity, "the park's landscape is one of relatively constant, dynamic change."

Statue of Liberty, New York

The Statue of Liberty. spyarm/Shutterstock

The Statue of Liberty's design and construction was recognized when it was gifted from the US to France as "one of the greatest technical achievements of the 19th century," according to UNESCO.

The statue, which was dedicated in 1886, was designed "to embody international friendship, peace, and progress, and specifically the historical alliance between France and the United States," UNESCO wrote.

More than 12 million immigrants passed through nearby Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954, and therefore, UNESCO notes, the statue has "welcomed millions of immigrants to the United States."

Monticello and the University of Virginia, Virginia

The University of Virginia. Shutterstock

Located in Charlottesville, Virginia, the third US President Thomas Jefferson designed Monticello as his plantation home. He also designed the Academical Village, which forms part of the University of Virginia.

Designed across the 18th and 19th centuries, they were both "inspired by deep study of classical and contemporary examples and reflect Jefferson's aspirations for the character of the new American republic," according to UNESCO.

Cahokia Mounds, Illinois

Cahokia Mounds. Matt Gush/Shutterstock

Located just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri, the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site features dozens of mounds across 3.4 square miles. It is the largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico, according to UNESCO, with designated areas for uses including residences, governance, and ceremonies.

It is a "pre-eminent example of a cultural, religious, and economic centre of the Mississippian culture," UNESCO wrote.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana

Yellowstone National Park. Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

Yellowstone National Park contains "contains half of all the world's known geothermal features, with more than 10,000 examples," according to UNESCO, as well as the highest concentration of geysers on the planet.

Most of the park, which takes up almost 900,000 hectares, is in Wyoming.

It's home to geothermal features like geysers, which are rainbow-colored thanks to different types of bacteria.

Yellowstone is also full of animal life, including bears, bison, elk, and wolves.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico

Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Getty Images

UNESCO recognizes more than 80 caves at this New Mexico site. The caves, it says, are "outstanding not only for their size but also for the profusion, diversity and beauty of their mineral formations."

Some of the caves, it says, act as an "underground laboratory" that means people can study geology "in a pristine setting."

Some of the chandeliers of rock are up to 18 feet long.

Glacier Bay, Kluane, Wrangell-St. Elias, and Tatshenshini-Alsek National Parks, Alaska

Glacier Bay National Park. Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images

These four national parks along the border between Alaska and Canada "contain the largest non-polar ice field in the world as well as examples of some of the world's longest and most spectacular glaciers," says UNESCO.

The glaciers are still moving and altering the region, which is an important part of many animals' migration patterns. The parks are home to animals like bears, wolves, and caribou that are typically endangered but that are "self-regulating here," according to the organization.

The area is made up of many environments, from forest to tundra, with UNESCO describing the parks as "an area of exceptional natural beauty."

Taos Pueblo, New Mexico

Taos Pueblo. Beth Harpaz/AP

Taos Pueblo is the only Native American society that is still active that is recognized by UNESCO. The settlement was first created more than 1,000 years ago and is still in use today.

UNESCO says the community "represents a significant stage in the history of urban, community and cultural life and development in this region."

Visitors can tour the settlement, which is multi-level and where around 150 people live full-time.

Papahanaumokuakea, Hawaii

Papahanaumokuakea. SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

This cluster of islands close to Hawaii is one of the world's largest marine protected areas, with hotspots and coral reefs creating a home for animals like dolphins and sea turtles, and many endangered and threatened species depend on the areas to survive, UNESCO says.

The monument had to stop public access to the site, though people can still access aquariums and learning centers close to the site, and visit nearby islands that boast similar features, according to the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

According to UNESCO, the island's environments have "been altered through human use, and although some change is irreversible there are also examples of successful restoration."

San Antonio Missions, Texas

The San Antonio Missions. Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images

The five complexes that were built along Texas' San Antonio river in the 18th century were the base through which Spain sought to convert indigenous people to Catholicism, and show "the Spanish Crown's efforts to colonize, evangelize and defend" the region, according to UNESCO.

The churches are still in place, as well as accommodation, workshops, and farmlands.

Yosemite National Park, California

Yosemite. Ben Margot/AP

California's Yosemite National Park stretches for more than 30,000 hectares and is filled with geological features like waterfalls, hanging valleys, and domes of rock.

Past glaciers have created a unique landscape, including iconic landmarks like El Capitan.

UNESCO says the park has "exceptional natural beauty, including five of the world's highest waterfalls."

Chaco Culture, New Mexico

Chaco Canyon. Jeff Geissler/AP

Chaco Culture is made up of a series of archaeological sites that preserve "outstanding elements of a vast pre-Colombian cultural complex that dominated much of what is now the southwestern United States from the mid-9th to early 13th centuries."

Evidence of the culture that dominated the region for more than 400 years is still preserved, including walls and roads, in the heritage site, which includes Chaco Culture National Park.

UNESCO notes that the civilization's "achievements are particularly remarkable given the harsh environment of the region."

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

Mesa Verde National Park. Alexey Kamenskiy/Shutterstock

UNESCO recognizes the Pueblo Indian dwellings built in Colorado between the 6th and 12th centuries. Homes were built into the cliff face, and visitors can explore them with ladders.

The view from the structures is also particularly breathtaking.

Waterton Glacier International Peace Park, Montana

Waterton Glacier International Peace Park. Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images

The park, spread out over Montana and the Canadian province of Alberta, is made up of two national parks that were merged to create "the world's first International Peace Park."

UNESCO describes the park as "offering outstanding scenery."

Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky

Mammoth Cave National Park. rukawajung/Shutterstock

Mammoth Cave National Park has the world's longest cave system, comprising more than 348 miles of surveyed underground passages.

"Mammoth Cave exhibits 100 million years of cave-forming action and presents nearly every type of cave formation known," UNESCO wrote.

The caves have been found to be home to more than 130 species, including endangered species of plants and animals.

The Everglades, Florida

The Everglades. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Florida's Everglades have a vast variety of habitats including forests and marshes that support endangered animals like the manatee.

The Everglades contains the largest mangrove system in the western hemisphere and is the "largest designated sub-tropical wilderness reserve on the North American continent," according to UNESCO.

It is also on UNESCO's "in danger" list, which means the organization thinks a major response to save the area is needed.

Olympic National Park, Washington

Washington's Olympic National Park. kan_khampanya/Shutterstock

Filled with old forests and snowy peaks, Washington's Olympic National Park is unique in the sheer scale of its wilderness.

This makes it rich in many plant and animal species, including endangered species like the northern spotted owl.

Redwood National and State Parks, California

Redwood National Park. Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images

The parks, which are more than 53,400 hectares, are home to a group of trees that have existed for 160 million years, and are the tallest living things on the planet.

It also contains coastal mountains and beaches, making it home to a diverse range of plants and animals including sea lions and bald eagles.

Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point, Louisiana

A walkway at the largest earthen mound at the Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point, Louisiana. EWY Media/Shutterstock

The site, close to the Mississippi River, shows monuments constructed around 3,500 years ago by hunter-fisher-gatherers.

UNESCO calls the site "a remarkable achievement in earthen construction in North America that was unsurpassed for at least 2,000 years."

The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, Illinois, Wisconsin, California, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and New York

Fallingwater. Sean Pavone/Shutterstock

This site is eight structures spread across the US: Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois; the Frederick C. Robie House in Chicago, Illinois; Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin; Hollyhock House in Los Angeles, California; Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania; the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House in Madison, Wisconsin; Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona; and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, New York.

What they have in common is that they were all designed by Wright, one of the most famous architects of all time. UNESCO says each structure "reflect[s] the 'organic architecture' developed by Wright," which "includes an open plan, a blurring of the boundaries between exterior and interior and the unprecedented use of materials such as steel and concrete."

Read the original article on Insider
Despite immigrating with a bachelors degree in education, Iraqi refugee Maysoon Shaheen had a tough time becoming a teacher in the United States.

Shaheen fled Iraq in 1998 during Saddam Husseins regime, made a harrowing escape to Jordan and eventually settled in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Shaheen is now a substitute teacher for the Lincoln public schools, but not without the financial burden of enrolling in courses to meet English language requirements and taking student loans because her Iraqi degree wasnt recognized.

It was almost impossible for me to start from the beginning, which is very difficult for someone learning a new language, Shaheen told The 74.

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Iraqi refugee and Nebraska educator Maysoon Shaheen. (Eamonn Fitzmaurice/The 74)

A new program launched by World Education Services for internationally trained immigrants and refugees who want to become teachers in the U.S. aims to ease the challenges Shaheen faced.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, more than one in three educators, or 34 percent, are unemployed or not using their degree.

Yet, thousands of teacher vacancies across the country persist  with more than 160,000 jobs filled by under-qualified teachers, according to Kansas State Universitys College of Education.

Even as we experience the Great Resignation, which heavily impacted the education sector, theres still individuals who want to be part of this workforce, said Mikaela Santos, senior program manager of World Education Services.

The cultural perspectives and new ideas immigrants and refugees bring to the table becomes wasted talent because of the many regulatory and systemic barriers in the American education system, she added.

To combat this problem, three organizations were awarded a $100,000 grant in July 2023 to create pathways for foreign trained teachers to become educators in the U.S.

In the next year, the Asian Community and Cultural Center in Lincoln, Nebraska; the Mayors Office of Resilience and Equity in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Richard J. Daley College in Chicago, Illinois will place more than 150 teachers trained in their home countries at schools in their communities.

Here is a snapshot of each organizations effort to help internationally trained teachers and address racial disparities in the classroom.

Asian Community and Cultural Center

An English class taught for Ukrainian immigrants at the Asian Community and Cultural Center. (Lee Kreimer)

Nearly 50% of Nebraskas school districts had unfilled teacher positions during the 2022-23 school year  with 66% saying there were either unqualified or no applicants, according to the Nebraska Department of Education.

Lee Kreimer, the CareerLadder director at the Asian Community and Cultural Center, said the organization is looking to place at least 35 foreign trained teachers into Nebraskas Lincoln public schools and South Sioux City public schools.

The need for diverse teachers is especially great in rural areas like South Sioux City that have had a high influx of Latino families immigrating partly because of the meatpacking industry that has historically relied on foreign-born workers, Kreimer said.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported a growing 47.8% Latino population in South Sioux City with more than 63.6% Latino students across the district.

We see this as a great opportunity to tackle multiple challenges at one time and its truly a win-win way to help everybody, Kreimer told The 74.

The organization recently set up programs at schools in both districts for immigrants and refugees to be mentored as they finish up their U.S. teaching licenses.

Investing in schools by providing teachers that look like their students helps them succeed, Kreimer said. And from a racial equity standpoint, children seeing teachers that look like them and have experiences like them helps with retention, staying out of trouble and getting better grades.

Mayors Office of Resilience and Equity

An equity dialogue training with immigrants and refugees in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Resilient Tulsa/Facebook)

In Oklahoma, there were nearly 180,000 unfilled teacher positions in 2022  more than twice the average a decade ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Mayors Office of Resilience and Equity estimates nearly 650 internationally trained teachers in Tulsa have education degrees but dont work in the field.

Chief resilience officer Krystal Reyes said the city wants to hire at least 65 teachers trained in their home countries  largely from Latino, Afghan and Ukrainian backgrounds to reflect the families immigrating to Tulsa.

Because we have a diverse student body, we need our teachers to reflect that, Reyes told The 74. So we know that our immigrant community can help us meet that language and cultural need.

Programs include expanding job training with ESL courses and creating free courses for those seeking alternative certification.

We need to do more as a government to make sure that theres full participation, representation and economic opportunities from all our communities, Reyes said. There may be a money barrier or an English barrier, but theyre still trained educators that could be filling a great need in our schools.

Richard J. Daley College

An information session for potential participants at Richard J. Daley Colleges teacher pathway program. (City Colleges of Chicago)

In Illinois, 73% of districts report teacher shortages  with 30% saying positions remain unfilled or filled with someone less qualified, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

Janine Janosky, president of Richard J. Daley College, said the school aims to connect at least 50 foreign trained teachers to schools across Chicago.

Were seeing many immigrants and refugees coming with professional experiences already from their home country, Janosky told The 74, adding how more than 10% have teaching licenses.

Trish Aumann, vice president of academic and student affairs at the college, said the need to hire diverse teachers is especially great because of the influx of immigrant families  particularly Ukrainian refugees.

We need multicultural and multilingual individuals in positions in our schools, Aumann told The 74. So its that bigger picture of supporting K-12 schools that will in turn help immigrants and refugees with their economic mobility.

Janosky said the college is creating a pilot program for internationally trained teachers to fill vacancies in Chicagos schools.

Within the middle part of the United States, theres very few of us doing this work, Janosky said. That gives us a huge responsibility, but also a huge opportunity, to make a big difference for Chicago, Illinois, and the entire country.
A New Berlin man has been arrested and charged in connection with a town of Grafton homicide that occurred in March.

Miguel Aponte, 34, was arrested Sept. 26 in Milwaukee, according to a news release from the Ozaukee County Sheriff's Department.

Aponte was charged with a number of felonies in the death of 49-year-old Laeng Sanavongsay, including being party to a crime of first-degree intentional homicide - use of a dangerous weapon, party to a crime of false imprisonment, party to a crime of attempting to disfigure a corpse, and bail jumping, according to a criminal complaint filed Sept. 28 in Ozaukee County Circuit Court.

This appears to have been a targeted attack and an isolated incident, the Ozaukee County Sheriff's Department said in March. It is believed that the suspect in this case knew or had a connection to the victim. There is no threat to the public.

According to the complaint:

The morning of March 4, 2023, an officer on patrol found a parked car off the roadway on the east side of Highway C south of Tallgrass Drive. Soot markings tarnished the windows and smoke residue obscured the interior.

Sanavongsay was found deceased inside. A March autopsy revealed he died as a result of a gunshot wound.

The investigation revealed the interior of the vehicle was on fire for a short period of time before it extinguished itself.

Investigators also learned that Sanavongsay had rented the car the previous day at Chicago OHare International Airport after hed flown from Texas.

The Ozaukee County Sheriffs Office obtained warrants for cell tower data that aligned with the movements of the car, which contained a tracker. Investigators identified a device with movements consistent with the cars and traced the top caller, a woman Aponte was in a relationship with and lived with.

Results of DNA samples obtained from the car also indicated Aponte as a suspect.

In an interview with a detective, Aponte admitted to being with Sanavongsay the night he was killed but denied being present for the homicide or ever being in the car with Sanavongsay.

The bail jumping charges stem from Aponte being charged previously with the felony offense of manufacturing or delivering over 40 grams of cocaine and violating his bail, according to records from Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

Aponte is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Nov. 13 in Ozaukee County Circuit Court.

Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @levensc13.

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: New Berlin man charged in connection with a town of Grafton murder
The Jonas Brothers (Nick, Joe, and Kevin Jonas) have been in the limelight since the early 2000s.

As the siblings have grown up in front of fans, their fashion choices and hairstyles have evolved.

They went from color-coordinated vests to developing their own styles.

Here's the band at their first Kids' Choice Awards appearance in April 2006.

The Jonas Brothers at Nickelodeon's 19th Kids' Choice Awards. SGranitz/WireImage via Getty Images

Nick Jonas wore an Ed Hardy shirt and Joe's hoodie sleeves included thumb cutouts.

At a 2006 appearance on MTV's popular show "Total Request Live," the band chose laid-back clothes and goofed around behind-the-scenes.

The Jonas Brothers at "Total Request Live" in March 2006. Jason DeCrow/AP

Wearing T-shirts over long sleeved tops was a popular trend at the time.

The brothers matched with black, grey, and white hues at the 2007 Teen Choice Awards.

The Jonas Brothers at the Teen Choice Awards in California on August 26, 2007. Chris Pizzello/AP

Joe's short hair grew out and he started rocking a side part. He also wore his tie under his collar while Kevin accessorized with a scarf-like garment. At nearly 15 years old, Nick channeled his inner businessman for his outfit.

Joe's hair defied gravity at the November 2007 American Music Awards.

The Jonas Brothers also performed at the 2007 American Music Awards in Los Angeles, California. David Livingston/Getty Images

"I have a few hair and facial hair regrets," Joe told GQ in 2015. "I had long hair to my shoulders at one point and I would flat-iron my hair so that it would point out. It was like I was an animated character. Someone taught me how to do it and I sort of got addicted to it. As I got older I realized that was kind of an abnormal thing to do."

In January 2008, Nick's curly locks covered his entire forehead.

The Jonas Brothers in Burbank, California in January 2008. Matt Sayles/AP

Kevin's hairstyle remained relatively the same, but Joe was still addicted to straightening his hair.

The Jonas Brothers' 2008 KCA outfits featured bits of green that perfectly fit with the show's signature slime.

At the 21st Kids' Choice Awards in March 2008, the group won the orange blimp for favorite music group. Chris Pizzello/AP

"I think we hit that age where we didn't want to be kids anymore, and we were trying to be adults," Joe recalled during an interview with People in 2017. "We wore really oversized suits to the Kids' Choice Awards, which is just kinda fun and wild and crazy."

He added: "I'm not saying it was a bad look! It just probably a little bit premature and wasn't right, exactly. I had an ascot underneath. It was really great. I think we were one step away from top hats! Which we ended up doing, as well, for a while."

Here's Kevin accessorizing with a scarf, Joe wearing a skinny tie, and Nick rocking a striped polo in May 2008.

The Jonas Brothers on the red carpet for the Disney Channel Games in 2008. Reinhold Matay/AP

For a few summers, Disney Channel rounded up the network's stars to compete in a series of obstacles. It was known as the "Disney Channel Games."

In June 2008, Nick, Joe, and Kevin refined their styles for the premiere of "Camp Rock."

The Jonas Brothers at the "Camp Rock" premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York. Evan Agostini/AP

Nick also started keeping his curls at a shorter length.

At the Teen Choice Awards in 2008, Nick wore a white outfit and a dark blue V-neck shirt underneath.

The Jonas Brothers at the Teen Choice Awards in August 2008. Chris Pizzello/AP

They dominated the awards show that year, taking home wins for choice breakout group, choice music single (for "When You Look Me in the Eyes"), choice music love song (also for "When You Look Me in the Eyes"), choice summer song (for "Burnin' Up"), most fanatic fans, choice male hotties, and choice male red carpet icons.

Joe rolled up his sleeves for the September 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.

The Jonas Brothers at the MTV VMAs. Andreas Branch/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Joe went all-out with blue piping on his blazer, a navy shirt underneath, and a striped tie. Meanwhile, Kevin chose all-black attire.

They wore sweaters and ties at a book signing in November 2008.

The Jonas Brothers at Barnes & Noble in New York City on November 28, 2008. Charles Sykes/AP

The band released a book called "Burning Up: On Tour With the Jonas Brothers." As suggested by the title, it gave fans a glimpse into their touring adventures and featured behind-the-scenes photos and commentary.

The band looked spiffy in black outfits at the 2009 Golden Globes.

At the Golden Globes, they presented the award for best animated feature. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Nick chose a Burberry suit, Joe selected a Dior Homme suit, and Kevin wore Emporio Armani for Product Red.

At the 2009 Grammys, Nick wore Burberry while his older siblings wore Versace and bow ties.

The Jonas Brothers at the 51st Grammys at the Staples Center on February 8, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Steve Granitz/WireImage via Getty Images

That night, the band was nominated for best new artist.

White-framed glasses were necessary for the premiere of their 3-D movie, "Jonas Brothers: 3-D Concert Experience" in 2009.

The Jonas Brothers at the premiere of their concert movie at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on February 24, 2009. Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images

The concert film featured appearances from Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift.

By the 2009 KCAs, the guys seemed comfortable not wearing coordinating outfits.

The Jonas Brothers at the 22nd Kids' Choice Awards on Saturday, March 28, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Chris Pizzello/AP

Joe's hair grew out into a curly mop, while Kevin and Nick's styles remained the same.

Months later at the 2009 MTV European Music Awards, Joe once again changed his hairstyle.

The Jonas Brothers at the MTV European Music Awards in Berlin, Germany on November 5, 2009. Joel Ryan/AP

They were nominated for best group.

Joe wore thick-framed glasses at the 2010 Grammys.

The Jonas Brothers at the Grammy Awards on Sunday, January 31, 2010. Chris Pizzello/AP

Kevin wore a Lanvin suit, Joe picked a Dolce & Gabbana suit, and Nick chose a Gucci suit.

At the 23rd KCAs in March 2010, Kevin wore a striped outfit and Nick paired a multicolored bow tie with a tan jacket.

The Jonas Brothers at Nickelodeon's 23rd Kids' Choice Awards on Saturday, March 27, 2010. Chris Pizzello/AP

Meanwhile, Joe wore a gray jacket and a white V-neck shirt.

Here's a photo from Joe's top hat phase.

The Jonas Brothers at the Young Hollywood Awards in Los Angeles, California on May 13, 2010. Chris Pizzello/AP

This is also the year that "Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam" was released.

The siblings cleaned up nicely at the 2012 Met Gala with tuxedos and black bow ties.

The Jonas Brothers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2012. Charles Sykes/AP

Nick rocked custom Richard Chai, Joe chose Calvin Klein Collection, and Kevin wore Black Fleece by Brooks Brothers.

Fans were distraught when Joe shaved off most of his hair in June 2013. It grew back a bit by the time the Teen Choice Awards took place two months later.

The Jonas Brothers at the Teen Choice Awards at the Gibson Amphitheater on August 11, 2013. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Joe showed off the dramatic transformation on Instagram and Vine.

A few months later, in October, the band announced that they were breaking up and not releasing a fifth album that was already in the works. The stars cited frequent arguments as the reason for their split and Nick was the one to initiate the separation.

"In a nutshell, I said, 'Look, I feel like we've had some complications within the group for a long time without addressing them. I think this train will fall off the tracks without really getting real about some of the concerns and some of the limitations that we may feel as individuals in the group,'" Nick said on "Good Morning America." "It was a tough conversation  It was the first time we really had that real conversation."

Despite the group's split, they were photographed together a few times. Here they are at New York Fashion Week in September 2013.

Joe Jonas , Kevin Jonas, and Nick Jonas at the Mercedes-Benz Star Lounge in September 2013. Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz

Nick started styling his hair a bit differently, with the front section neatly combed upwards.

Nick attended the 2015 Grammys without his siblings, wearing a buttoned up white shirt and a gray striped suit.

Nick Jonas at the 57th Grammy Awards at the Staples Center on Sunday, February 8, 2015. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

That night, he presented the award for best country album.

Following the success of solo tracks "Chains" and "Jealous," Nick showed off his biceps while performing in California in May 2015.

Nick Jonas performing at Wango Tango in May 2015. Rich Fury/Invision/AP

Fans became aware of Nick's ripped physique after he posted a shirtless photo on Instagram in 2013. He continued working out after landing a role as an MMA fighter named Nate on the series "Kingdom," which lasted from 2014 to 2017.

While the Jonas Brothers were on hiatus, Joe formed a band called DNCE. He also dyed part of his hair teal.

DNCE at the American Music Awards at the Microsoft Theater in November 2015. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

The group consisted of Joe, Jack Lawless, JinJoo Lee, and Cole Whittle. They released the song "Cake by the Ocean" in September 2015 and the track became a chart-topper.

Nick Jonas stepped out with a buzz cut at the Vanity Fair Oscars Party in February 2016.

Nick Jonas at the Vanity Fair Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, February 28, 2016. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

"I shaved it because I was shooting 'Kingdom,' and I wanted to look different," he told MTV News. "And I wanted to have a bit of a harder look, and I felt like  and other people felt like  when I have a shaved head that I do look that way, but more menacing."

At one point, Joe completely shaved off the hair on the left and right sides of his head.

DNCE at Z100's iHeartRadio Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden in December 2016. Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

He showed off the look at the Z100 Jingle Ball in December 2016.

And then he went back to a buzz cut, as seen at the 2017 Vanity Fair Oscars Party.

Joe Jonas at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, February 26, 2017. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Joe wore Ermenegildo Zegna Couture to the event.

In May 2017, Nick attended the Met Gala with future-wife Priyanka Chopra. They both wore outfits designed by Ralph Lauren.

Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra at the Met Gala in 2017. Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images For Entertainment Weekly

"We were both wearing Ralph Lauren! And we decided to go together because it was fun," Chopra told Jimmy Kimmel after fans began speculating that the two stars were dating.

At that point, they weren't dating. But the following year, their whirlwind relationship was in full swing.

You might have forgotten about the time in 2017 when Joe wore a mustache.

Joe Jonas on September 26, 2017. Christopher Smith/Invision/AP

The look was polarizing among fans.

In December 2017, Joe reunited with Nick at the premiere for his movie, "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle."

Nick Jonas and Joe Jonas at the Los Angeles premiere of "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle." Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Joe still had facial hair, but he got rid of the full-blown mustache.

The three brothers rocked leather jackets while sitting in the front row at a New York Fashion Week show in January 2018.

Kevin Jonas, Joe Jonas, and Nick Jonas in January 2018. Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

They were in attendance for John Varvatos' fashion show.

In October 2018, Joe and now-ex-wife Sophie Turner made a stylish duo at Paris Fashion Week.

Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas at the Louis Vuitton show as part of Paris Fashion Week on October 2, 2018. Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Joe's mop of curls returned.

Following two elaborate wedding ceremonies in India in December 2018, Nick and Chopra wore elegant outfits to their many receptions.

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas at their wedding reception in Mumbai, India. Rajanish Kakade/AP

Nick was even crowned GQ's most stylish man of 2018.

The Jonas Brothers returned to the music scene as a band in 2019, looking all grown up.

The Jonas Brothers at SiriusXM studios on March 1, 2019 in New York City. Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM

Nowadays, they pick looks that reflect their personal styles.

At the Billboard Music Awards in May, the band coordinated their striped outfits.

Joe Jonas, Nick Jonas, and Kevin Jonas at the Billboard Music Awards. Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

The Jonas Brothers performed at the award show and Joe married Turner at a Las Vegas chapel afterward.

At the premiere of their Amazon documentary in June, Nick and Kevin wore similar colors while Joe dressed in a mustard shirt.

Nick Jonas, Joe Jonas, and Kevin Jonas in June 2019. Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP

In their documentary, titled "Chasing Happiness," the stars revealed that their Disney Channel sitcom "stunted" their growth.

They wear bright, colorful outfits on their Happiness Begins tour.

Nick Jonas, Kevin Jonas, and Joe Jonas performing in Toronto, Canada in August 2019. Arthur Mola/Invision/AP

The hues range from hot pink to forest green.

At the 2019 MTV VMAs, the Jonas Brothers wore black and gray clothing.

Kevin Jonas, Joe Jonas, and Nick Jonas at the MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center on Monday, August 26, 2019. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

They also performed "Sucker" and "Only Human" from New Jersey's Asbury Park.

They wore outfits with similar hues and patterns at the 2020 Grammys.

Kevin, Nick, and Joe Jonas attend the 2020 Grammys. Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

That night, they performed "What a Man Gotta Do" and played a small portion of a then-unreleased track called "Five More Minutes." Their stage looks all had patterns that incorporated a gold color.

The siblings wore varying shades of pink, purple, and brown at an event in February 2020.

Nick Jonas, Kevin Jonas, and Joe Jonas in February 2020. Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Nick wore a head-to-toe pink outfit, Kevin chose an all-brown ensemble, and Joe wore shades of purple at a 2020 gala called An Unforgettable Evening in Beverly Hills, California.

They went semi-casual at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards.

Nick Jonas, Kevin Jonas, and Joe Jonas at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday, May 23, 2021. Chris Pizzello/AP

Nick wore blue jeans, a white T-shirt, and a green jacket with orange lining; Kevin wore a navy printed outfit; and Joe wore a bright yellow T-shirt with black slacks.

They closed out the awards show with a performance of their track "Leave Before You Love Me" with Marshmello.

They closed out 2021 with a performance at Hot 99.5's Jingle Ball.

Nick Jonas, Joe Jonas, and Kevin Jonas performing during Hot 99.5's Jingle Ball 2021 on December 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for iHeartRadio

The brothers wore completely different outfits at the event, which took place on December 14, 2021, at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC.

In September 2022, the band performed at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park.

Joe Jonas, Nick Jonas, and Kevin Jonas performing during the Global Citizen Festival on Saturday, September 24, 2022, at Central Park in New York. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Nick wore an all-red outfit, while his older siblings went more casual with their clothing choices.

Kevin, Nick, and Joe dressed up to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January 2023.

Kevin Jonas, Nick Jonas, and Joe Jonas at the Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony on January 30, 2023 in Hollywood, California. Amy Sussman/Getty Images

They gave heartfelt speeches and were joined at the ceremony by members of their family.

They embarked on their latest tour (Five Albums. One Night.) at Yankee Stadium on August 12, 2023.

Nick Jonas, Joe Jonas, and Kevin Jonas at the opening night of their tour at Yankee Stadium on August 12, 2023 in New York City. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Live Nation

The world tour features songs from five of their studio albums and outfits that vary from show to show.

Read the original article on Insider
What are the most underrated Army jobs? If ever asked directly, most soldiers will tell you that every specialty in the Army is important and plays a direct role in the Armys success. Or something like that. Whatever. In practice, however, some Military Occupational Specialties dont get the respect that answer implies. For anyone thinking of joining the Army, this might be something to consider.

In truth, every MOS does contribute to the Armys success in a very meaningful way, even if other soldiers dont act like it all the time. A soldier will likely never fully appreciate anyone elses job until that soldier is in need of those services, so if your MOS is one of these five, and you dont get the respect you deserve, just wait. Your day will come.

These are the 5 most underrated Army jobs

92G - Cook and Culinary Specialist

Whenever anyone talks about thankless jobs, the first thing they likely think of is a cook. Cooks have to wake up before anyone else to get food ready, do all the work it takes to feed hundreds, maybe thousands of people and then get dumped on by those people for how lousy they think the food is. And they have to do it on evenings, weekends and holidays because everyone has to eat.

To make matters worse, this is the job new soldiers get threatened with when they have trouble passing in AIT (for the unfamiliar, this is Advanced Individual Training , the Armys post-basic training trade school program). So new soldiers are basically being trained to think of cooks as the lowest rung of soldiers from the moment they get into the Army.

But as anyone whos lived on MREs for any significant amount of time knows, sometimes a cook is the most welcome sight in the world. And making friends with a cook while deployed can make your deployment so much better.

Spc. Jonathan Hill, Spc. Michael A. Lockett, and Spc. Jerald D. Jeitner, cooks at the Soldier-run dining facility at FOB McHenry, prepare evening chow for fellow Soldiers.

92S - Shower, Laundry and Clothing Repair Specialist

Its the little things that make life worth living, and the 92S is here for that, but a lot of soldiers dont realize it until theyre gone. Some civilians may not know this, but U.S. troops have to do their own laundry while deployed. No one ever puts that part in the war movie, but those uniforms arent going to wash themselves. Sure, we can have the laundry done by an off-base contractor for a price, but in the most remote locations, we have washing machines.

Some of those washing machines break down and need to be repaired or replaced and thats when you call a 92S. Politely. Being impolite can lead to having your washing machine privileges revoked, and doing your laundry by hand.

And at the end of a long, hot workday, isnt it great to come home to a nice shower? One that works? Thats what the 92S is here for, too. Sure, it may not always be a hot shower, but at least you can wash that grime off yourself and go to sleep feeling better, instead of smelling like baby wipes.

88M - Motor Transport Operators

Essayist E. B. White once said, Everywhere in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car. Essayist E. B. White also never served in the Army on active duty. Soldiers who have to be somewhere else, no matter how far away that place is, will often be bussed or trucked there, sure. But if theres no transportation available, those soldiers will pick up their gear and walk there.

Still, the 88M has to deal with nicknames like 88 Mistake. Or the perception that they sit around all day. Yet, anyone whos taken a five-hour road trip in a military vehicle (or any vehicle, really) will tell you it aint great. Its hard to do and no one will appreciate it until the supplies start to run out on base.

56M - Religious Affairs Specialists

These are the people most often seen walking with a chaplain or setting up before religious services. But thats not all they do, even if it seems like its all they do. Theres an admin aspect to the job but it actually gets much, much worse.

Aside from basically being the chaplains bodyguard, they set up the services for religious services. These services include funerals , and while deployed, the mental scars from those deaths can be pretty fresh. They also are some of the first people who see soldiers in mental health crises. Soldiers who wont see a therapist are likely coming to a 56M, and that is not something to be taken lightly.

A soldier participates in during Sunday morning's Protestant worship service as part of the unit's annual training at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center.

31B - Military Police

There are a lot of thin blue line flags flying about these days, but as any cop will tell you, most people  no matter how patriotic  instinctively hate cops. Even other cops. They hate dealing with cops (usually because they just made a huge mistake). They hate talking to cops (usually because theyre about to lie about a huge mistake). And even when people know they messed up, theyre still angry about getting caught. And we wonder why cops are the way they are.

There is also a lot of politics around how cops handle their own job. But lets put that aside for a second and assume that most cops are just trying to do their jobs and go home without being hassled. Aside from the fact that they might get shot at any given traffic stop, military police are also low-ranking soldiers who may have to start giving lawful orders to an angry 0-6 or above.
Dave McKay gets in some exercise at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City as snow moves into the Wasatch Front on Jan. 6, 2018. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Cold has a long history of health benefits.

Chances are, youve heard of the trending topic of ice baths where people submerge their bodies in freezing cold water for amazing (supposed) health benefits.

According to Healthline, experts are still on the fence about what or if any benefits come from these ice baths. However, potential benefits include easing sore and aching muscles, aiding in sleep, reducing inflammation and helping release stress.

Another form of cold therapy  thats slightly less painful and perhaps a little more time efficient  is a cold shower, which has similar health benefits to an ice bath with the added benefits of improving circulation, bolstering immunity and combatting depression, per UCLA Health.

Related

But ice baths and cold showers arent for everyone  risks for those with circulation problems, cardiovascular disease or diabetes are more abundant than any benefits, Healthline reported.

We dont have a choice of whether winter makes its way into our lives, but we do have options other than ice baths and cold showers for effective cold therapy.

While cold weather his its downsides  like wreaking havoc on your lunger per the American Lung Association  there are also some surprising health benefits that come with the cooler months.

5 health benefits of colder weather

1. Improve endurance

Dr. Adam Tenforde, who is an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, told Harvard Health that the cold allows for more endurance during exercise.

Your heart doesnt have to work as hard, you sweat less, and expend less energy during the winter, Dr. Tenforde said, all of which means you can exercise more efficiently.

2. Enhance metabolism and burn fat

Exercising in colder temperatures helps the body transform white fat into calorie-burning brown fat, per the National Institutes of Health. Brown fat breaks down both sugar and fat molecules to heat the body up and protect it against cold. Shivering also quickens this process, found another NIH study.

The brown fat is metabolized, leaving less fat in stubborn areas such as the hips and thighs, per Harvard Health.

3. Reduce acne and beautify skin

Winter is mostly known for being harsh on the skin, especially dry winters as they can leave the skin dry and fragile, per The Skin Institute. But one benefit is that those who struggle with acne caused by oily skin can get some respite during the colder seasons.

The Farmers Almanac reported that puffy undereyes or facial swelling can be reduced by increased circulation by the cooler temperatures. Pores can be tightened and the face can feel more invigorated, just as a splash of cold water would do.

4. Improve sleep

The ideal temperature for a deep, restful nights sleep is between 60 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit, per a recent study conducted by the Sleep Foundation. Since the bodys core temp lowers when sleeping having the environment match that will allow the body to rest and to sleep deeper.

A bedroom that is too warm can interfere with the bodys thermoregulation abilities and cause fatigue, wrote the foundation.

Related

5. Lessen stress and anxiety

Heightened stress hormones, or cortisol levels, are responsible for a rapid heart rate, spikes in blood sugar, rapid breathing and sharpened senses, as well as inhibiting healthy digestion and weakening your immune system, per Healthline.

Cortisol levels rise in uncomfortable temperatures including extreme heat like the United States has been hit with this last summer. Long exposure to extreme cold and heat both increase cortisol levels within the body, per Healthline.

Although, Healthline reported that short exposure to cold moves fresh blood through the body and release endorphins, which can calm anxiety and reduce stress.

Related

Is cold weather good for your immune system?

A downside of colder weather is that it slows your immune systems response to sickness, reported PBS.

By the time temperatures drop to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, Dr. Benjamiin Bleier, who is a specialist at Mass Eye and Ear in Boston, told PBS that our immune system response is cut in half and we take on twice as many germs.
Umbra, Capella Space and GHGSat are among the seven companies that will provide NASA with commercial satellite imagery, part of an acquisition program that has a maximum potential value of $476 million across all providers. The contract duration is five years, with an option to extend it by six months.

Maxars intelligence division, PlanetIQ, Spire and Airbus Defence and Space subsidiary Airbus DS GEO were also selected for the five-year contract. The new awards are under the aegis of NASAs Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition Program, which was established by the agency's Earth Science Division to acquire remote sensing imagery from commercial providers to support Earth science research.

This contract will provide a cost-effective means to complement the suite of Earth observations acquired by NASA and other U.S. government agencies, as well as international partners and agencies, the agency said in a statement. An emphasis will be placed on data acquired by commercial satellite constellations, affording the means of complementing NASAs Earth observations data with higher resolutions, increased temporal frequency or other novel capabilities.

NASA initiated the acquisition program in 2017, when it awarded contracts to Planet, Maxar and Spire. Under the program, scientists can use the commercial datasets acquired by NASA for their research, so long as they adhere to companies terms and conditions. The agency also requires end user license agreements to more easily disseminate the data with its partners.

It is part of a broader effort across NASA to solicit and support commercial firms developing technologies it can then purchase as a customer. Another example is the agencys Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare program, which enables providers to sell launch services to NASA for its science and technology missions.
A 70-year-old man died while kayaking with his son after a wave flipped them into the ocean, California officials told news outlets.

The two men were near a cove between Mendocino and Russian Gulch State Park when their kayak capsized at 1 p.m. Sept. 24, Mendocino County sheriffs officials told SFGate.

The son became separated from his father, who was in distress, in the turbulent water, KSRO reported.

After about 15 minutes in the 53-degree water, the son reached his father and pulled him to a rock outcropping near shore, officials told The Press Democrat.

Onlookers called 911, but the father, later identified as Gordon Bruce Spence of Fort Bragg, could not be revived, SFGate reported

Spence, who had an unspecified preexisting medical condition, was wearing a life jacket, officials told The Press Democrat.

Mendocino is about 155 miles northwest of San Francisco.

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 Flash

Nestled in the picturesque Wuyi Mountains in southeast China's Fujian Province is a tranquil village named Xiamei, one with a rich past and profound culture.

The millennia-old village was once a bustling logistics hub and the starting point of an ancient tea road stretching about 13,000 km all the way to St. Petersburg, Russia, during the Qing Dynasty.

Today, after more than a century of dereliction, the tea road starting from here is regaining its former importance as China, Russia and Mongolia join forces for closer cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and as people rediscover the historical and cultural significance of this trade artery.

A CLOSER BOND

Xiamei thrived from the end of the 17th century due to a growing demand in the Russian market for Chinese tea and the booming China-Russia tea trade made possible through Jin (short for Shanxi Province) merchants, who rose to prominence during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

A lengthy tea road linking the tea-growing region of the Wuyi Mountains to the Russian port city of St. Petersburg thus came into being with the help of these merchant guilds, who brought the aroma of the time-honored tea culture overseas and bore witness to an enduring bond between people along the route.

For starters, this was a tea road connecting not only China and Russia, but the north and south of China, with varying natural endowments and comparative strengths.

As a major tea-growing base and the earliest tea exporter along the road, the Wuyi Mountains boasts a suitable climate for tea growing, rich tea resources as well as fine tea traditions and techniques. Tea leaves harvested from here could be well-preserved under the drier climate in the north, as they were shipped north for sale in Russia and other European countries, a process which overall took about a year. The taste and quality of tea transported overland via the tea road was more favored than tea imported by sea.

Zou Yingwen, who is carrying on Wuyi Mountains tea-making techniques, told Xinhua that for more than a century, Jin merchants have partnered with Xiamei businessmen in tea selection, processing and transportation, managing a profitable tea business. The brick tea and black tea were shipped north to Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province and then carried by camel caravans to Kyakhta, a border town in Russia designated for tea trade, before they hit the markets in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and elsewhere in Europe.

During Emperor Xianfeng's reign (from 1850-1861) in the Qing Dynasty, the southern tea road was blocked, so Jin merchants shifted their focus to central China's Anhua, Hunan Province and Yangloudong, Hubei Province, where tea was processed into brick tea before being shipped to Hankou by water and transferred north overland. Today, in the ancient streets in Yangloudong, the ruts of wheelbarrows that once transported tea are still clearly visible.

The special processing technique of making brick tea allows tea to be preserved over a long period of time, and the taste of aged brick tea gets more intense and pure with the passage of time, said Quan Wei, who specializes in dark tea-making techniques.

In the mid-19th century, Russian traders flocked to central China's commercial port of Hankou to engage in tea business. They initially set up tea mills in Yangloudong to process brick tea locally before they moved to Hankou, where they made brick tea with steam engines and hydraulic presses for the Russian market.

After that, Hankou tea exports boomed, accounting for more than 60 percent of China's total tea export by the end of the 19th century. With its key role in the tea trade, Hankou became a veritable "Oriental Tea Port."

Today in Hankou District, Wuhan City, sculptures and Russian-style architecture built by former tea traders bear witness to the flourishing China-Russia tea trade.

With the extension of the tea road for camel caravans, towns and cities sprung up in the wilderness. This trade road extended beyond tea and other goods, but also enabled people from different civilizations to meet.

A TIME-HONORED CUSTOM

Several centuries ago, tea was introduced to Russia and gained traction. Russians loved tea so much that they developed their own unique tea drinking culture. In the 18th century, Russians invented the samovar, which was used for brewing tea. Today, drinking tea with snacks and desserts is still a favored way for Russians to socialize.

Renowned Russian poet Alexander Pushkin wrote in his epic Eugene Onegin, "Day faded; on the table, glowing, the samovar of evening boiled, and warmed the Chinese teapot; flowing beneath it, vapour wreathed and coiled." Throughout his life, Pushkin made frequent references to the immutable importance of tea in Russian culture.

To meet Russians' demand for tea, places such as Moscow and St. Petersburg once opened numerous tea houses. The Russian government even granted tax incentives to tea houses countrywide to encourage tea drinking as an alternative to alcohol.

Sergey Kalashnikov, chairman of the Russian Association for International Cooperation, said Chinese tea has had a huge impact on the life and culture of Russians, partly replacing kvass, beer and home-brewed alcohol, and the custom of tea drinking is deeply rooted in Russian culture. "Tea has actually become a national drink in Russia," Kalashnikov said.

In Siberia and the Mongolian plateau, tea refreshes herdsmen and helps with digestion, and is hence an indispensable drink. Drinking salty milk tea made from brick tea has long been a custom of Mongolians.

These traditions wouldn't have emerged without China's Jin merchants. Though Shanxi Province is not the hometown of tea, it is the hometown of a group of prominent merchants who have promoted tea drinking and dominated the tea road for more than 200 years. Many of their businesses or tea houses even had branches in Moscow and other Russian cities. Their history of tea-making and selling is also well documented.

Tian Jian, director of the Jin Merchants Research Institute in Qi County, Shanxi Province, described the Jin merchants as a group of "honest, trusty, pioneering, pragmatic, cooperative and benevolent merchants" who blazed the trail of the tea road and promoted trade based on the principles of "connectivity, harmony and win-win."

A REVITALIZED ROAD

Over the past 250 years, merchants along the route have continuously traded furs and tea, paving an important trade road for a flourishing Eurasia. China-Russia trade centered around tea has boosted tea planting and logistics, and spurred socio-economic growth in China's northern steppe and Russia's Siberia region.

However, by the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the tea road lost its former glory and was gradually forgotten due to war, the rise of railway and sea transportation, and the shrinking demand for Chinese tea.

Today, deeper cooperation via the BRI is revitalizing this old trade road, as China, Russia and Mongolia further tap into the potential of their economic and cultural links through this existing channel.

Over the past decade, China, Russia and Mongolia have worked together to restore global recognition of the significant tea road as a cultural heritage. In March 2019, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage included the Tea Road in the Preparatory List of China's World Cultural Heritage, officially elevating its application to the national level.

Huang Baiquan, dean of the School of History and Culture of Hubei University, believed that the three countries' joint application of the tea road in the world heritage list is "of great significance for enhancing their traditional friendship and political mutual trust and promoting the construction of the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor."

As an important component of the China-proposed BRI, the trilateral economic corridor has been regarded by many as "a modern version" of the ancient tea road, promising innumerable economic opportunities for landlocked regions like Mongolia.

The ancient tea road now boasts developed air, road and railway transportation networks, serving once again as a road to common prosperity, as it witnesses ever closer economic and trade cooperation as well as personnel exchanges.

As a big tea consumer, Russia's import for Chinese tea is growing, largely facilitated with the China-Europe freight trains. In August 2022, Hubei Province's first tea export train carrying about 1,000 tons of black tea left Wuhan and arrived in Moscow in just 20 days.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mongolia donated 30,000 sheep to China to support its fight against the coronavirus and China's Hubei Province returned the goodwill with the Mongolian people's much-loved brick tea. Tea brought back their shared cultural memories from centuries ago.

Kalashnikov compared the tea road to the cultural veins of the Belt and Road. "For centuries, the tea road has been an economic and cultural bridge connecting China, Russia and Europe, and it still plays a special role in people-to-people friendship," he said.
As an Orlando local and a former employee at Disney World, I visit the theme parks often.

I've witnessed many tourists make mistakes such as overpacking and not wearing comfortable attire.

I recommend buying merchandise right away so it doesn't sell out and making a plan before your trip.

As a former Disney World park employee, current annual passholder, and Orlando local, I've witnessed people make decisions during their visits that could impact their entire vacation.

Here are common mistakes I've seen tourists make when visiting Disney World  and how to avoid them.

Waiting to purchase merchandise might leave you empty-handed.

If you don't buy the merchandise right away, it might sell out. Josephine Maida

Although some Disney items are always on the shelves, others sell out fast.

I've witnessed people leave an item for later only to find the merchandise sold out across the theme parks by the time they returned.

If you don't want to carry bags of souvenirs around all day, many shops offer to ship your purchases to a home address.

People spend a lot of money at Disney World, but the biggest mistake is paying for water.

Don't buy water at the parks, because you can get it for free. Josephine Maida

All quick-service food locations and stands with soft-drink fountains give out free cups of water. Avoid the food carts and smaller stands because they don't have fountains.

You can also opt to pack a refillable bottle  I suggest a metal one to keep the water cold  because there are various water fountains around the parks.

Overpacking for a trip to Disney World will make you uncomfortable throughout the day.

I use a crossbody bag to pack just the necessities. Josephine Maida

It's hot at Disney World for most of the year, and nothing's worse than carrying additional weight when trying to stay cool.

You can rent a locker near the park entrances if you need to bring more than what fits in a small, comfortable bag. They start at $10 a day and your items will still be close by.

Pro tip: Be sure to pack hair ties if you have long hair. It's almost impossible to buy them in the parks.

If you don't come with a plan, you might run out of time for desired activities.

Plan out your trip so it's less of a hassle. Josephine Maida

I've seen people make a list of activities to try at Disney World but get sidetracked and run out of time before completing it.

Do whatever research works best for you  you can read the park's website or watch videos from past visitors  and list things you want to prioritize for a successful trip.

Giving up on a desired dining reservation isn't always necessary.

Reservations at Disney World are always coming and going. Josephine Maida

I've noticed that when guests don't get their desired dining reservation, they often settle for another restaurant.

Reservation availability at Disney World changes frequently, so be persistent with checking the My Disney Experience app. Most of the time, what you're looking for will eventually become available.

There are also third-party sites, such as MouseWatcher, that can alert you when reservations become available.

Not paying attention to special events in the parks can cut your trip short.

Make sure that no special events interfere with your plans. Josephine Maida

I've often seen families surprised when they're forced to clear out of Magic Kingdom early because Disney's about to kick off a special event, such as Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, that they don't have tickets to.

In some cases, if you're at the parks on an event day without an event ticket, you could even miss Disney's fireworks show.

Even if you don't plan on attending a ticketed event, keep an eye on them and how they factor into your trip. This will allow you to maximize the hours spent in each park to maximize the value of each ticket.

If you don't plan for downtime, your visit might not be enjoyable.

Having downtime will make you feel less burnt out during your trip. Josephine Maida

Although Disney World is a ton of fun, it's tiring. I consistently see people underestimate how much energy it takes to run around the parks.

Be sure to plan for some downtime so your visit doesn't feel like a chore. Some options include relaxing at a pool or sitting and enjoying a live show.

Wearing uncomfortable outfits isn't practical for a visit to Disney World.

I opt for simple, comfortable clothing. Josephine Maida

Some tourists seem to wear clothes and shoes that are comfortable for only a short period of time, not for a full day of walking.

Light, breathable fabrics are best. For shoes, I always suggest Crocs or other comfortable, waterproof shoes in case of rain or a water ride.

It's nice to take cute photos in fun outfits, but staying comfortable makes the day so much better. Pack an additional outfit in your bag if you need to, but be sure to prioritize staying comfortable and cool in the parks.

Read the original article on Insider
The 9-year-old girl who disappeared on a family camping trip in an upstate New York park has been found alive and a suspect is in custody, officials said Monday.

Charlotte Sena was believed to have been abducted about 40 miles north of Albany in Moreau Lake State Park on Saturday, according to state police.

During the investigation, law enforcement identified a suspect in the abduction of Charlotte from the Loop A trail in the park, state police said in a statement.

Officials searched multiple residences where the suspect was known to reside and found Charlotte just after 6:30 p.m. Monday, they added.

State police said Charlotte was found safe and in good health.

We are overjoyed at the news that Charlotte Sena has been located safely this evening after an intense days-long search, Gov. Hochul said in a Monday statement. Our hearts are with her family as they welcome her home.

State police sources told the Albany Times Union the suspect  who allegedly has history of criminal sexual abuse  left a possible ransom note at Charlottes parents home, which Hochul noted Sunday was just a 15 minute drive from where she went missing.

On Monday evening, police reportedly raided a house in Milton, N.Y., about 13 miles from Charlottes home.

It was not immediately clear if Charlotte was found at that house or another location the suspect frequented.

Shed gone for a bike ride alone after riding the loop in the park several times with close friends the girl considered cousins, officials said in a press conference over the weekend.

Fifteen minutes later on the picture perfect fall day, Charlotte hadnt yet returned, Hochul said Sunday at a news conference at the state park.

Thats really when the nightmare begins, she said. Her parents knew immediately something was up. They called her name. People started searching. People from other campgrounds joined and thirty minutes after, at 6:47, Charlottes mother Trisha called 911.

During the chaotic search, Charlottes bike was found on the loop she was riding on, but she was nowhere to be found.

Within a half hour, state police, forest rangers and park police were on site joining in the search. They deployed blood hounds, drones, helicopters and underwater rescue teams in search of the fourth grader.

Hundreds of search and rescue personnel aided in the gripping 48-hour search, including the Schenectady fire office, where Charlottes uncle is a member.

With Rocco Parascandola
The aunt of a 9-year-old New York girl who is believed to have been abducted Saturday said her niece "disappeared into thin air in a matter of minutes.

Jene Sena, who spoke to NBC News on Monday before the girl was found safe, said Charlotte Sena was not alone for long when she disappeared. The child vanished while riding her bicycle Saturday at Moreau Lake State Park in Saratoga County.

Charlotte Sena. (Courtesy Jene Sena)

She disappeared almost into thin air. I mean it was, minutes, minutes, between when she was last seen and when she wasnt there anymore, Sena said.

Officials announced early Monday evening that she had been discovered safe, but gave few details about how or where they found her.

Charlotte was camping with her family and was last seen around 6:15 p.m. Saturday, New York State Police said. The child was biking around a park loop with family friends and said she wanted to do one more loop by herself, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a news conference.

Her parents and other campers launched a search when she didnt return in 15 minutes. The girls bicycle was found on the loop, authorities said.

An Amber Alert was activated shortly after 9:30 a.m. Sunday, for a child abduction that occurred around 6:45 p.m. Saturday, state police said.

The state park is about 50 miles north of Albany.

Authorities believe Charlotte, who is about 4 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs 90 pounds, is in imminent danger of serious harm and/or death, the Amber Alert said.

About 400 certified search and rescue personnel were looking for Charlotte over a distance that spanned 46 linear miles, state police said Monday in a statement.

The search, which is being led by forest rangers with the state's Department of Environmental Conservation, also includes the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service, state police said.

Moreau Lake State Park is closed indefinitely and the investigation into the girl's disappearance, a 24-hour operation, is classified as a missing child case, state police said.

A temporary flight restriction was issued by the Federal Aviation Administration over the state park for the safety of aircraft operations, state police said.

Charlotte's aunt described the girl s a "quirky" and "sweet" child who is often exploring outside or looking for bugs.

Sena also told her niece to remain strong.

Hang in there girl, you are tough. You are tough, and I know that wherever you are, you are getting through this," she said. "I dont doubt that she would figure out a way to escape if she were being held. I dont doubt that she would figure out a way to somehow call for help."

Sena pleaded with any captors to free her niece.

Please let her come home," she said. "Let her come home because this is heart-wrenching, this is gut-wrenching.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
A 93-year-old woman who has been in a legal battle with developers to keep the home that has been in her family since before the Civil War, has now exceeded her fundraising goal.

Josephine Wright, From Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, said developers are trying to force her to sell her land.

An investment company is trying to develop 27 acres of land around Wrights property and has filed a lawsuit against Wright to get the land her home sits on.

Wright said the developers made offers to buy her land and when she turned them down, they started harassing her.

According to the GoFundMe account set up to help with her legal battle, as of Tuesday, Wright had exceeded her fundraising goal of $350,000 by more than $11,000.

Since her story went public, several celebrities have stepped up to help her fight the company.

TRENDING STORIES:

NBA superstar Kyrie Irving has made two donations  one for $40,000 three months ago, and another for more than $24,000 within the last two weeks.

Snoop Dogg has also donated $10,000 to the cause, and Atlanta media mogul Tyler Perry has also offered his support to Wright.

Ive pretty much been a fighter all my life, said 93-year-old Josephine Wright. Well, that makes two of us. Ms. Wright, please tell [me] where to show up and what you need to help you fight, Perry posed on his Instagram account in June.

According to one of the latest updates on Wrights GoFundMe page, a tree fell on her home last month. Luckily, she was not home when it happened. The post did not say the extent of the damage.

In a post in August, Wrights granddaughter Charise Graves said the town of Hilton Head is now on Wrights side.

The Town of Hilton Head, standing behind one of their own, has denied the Development Companys request to move on to the next phase of construction until this matter with Grandma Josephine is RESOLVED. So far, there has been no word from the development company, Graves wrote. Grandma Josephine is overwhelmed with gratitude from the support shes received from all over the world.

IN OTHER NEWS:
A veteran Springfield Police officer with a military background training a new officer was the first to arrive at the Sangamon County Juvenile Detention Center confronting a 17-year-old detainee who was running out the front door, Police Chief Ken Scarlette detailed in an exclusive interview with The State Journal-Register Tuesday.

The teen, who has not been identified by name by Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon, had a female hostage and pointed a handgun at the arriving officers when the veteran officer opened fire.

It took first officers two minutes and thirty-nine seconds from the time of the active shooter call around 7:45 p.m. Saturday until their arrival at the detention facility at 2201 S. Dirksen Pkwy., the chief said.

More: Here's what you should know about the resumption of student loan payments

Within 22 seconds of arriving, the officers encountered the teen attempting to flee.

Scarlette spoke after meeting with Illinois State Police and the Sangamon County state's attorney and reviewing evidence, including video from inside the detention center. There is also video from the vestibule of the building.

The veteran officer the chief did not name is also a field training officer and was the only officer to fire his department-issued AR-15-style rifle, Scarlette said.

Both have been placed on restricted duty and there is no immediate timetable for their return, he added. He spoke to both officers earlier Tuesday.

From watching the video, Scarlette said the suspect fired off at least four rounds at three different people before attempting to flee from the facility. None of the individuals were struck.

The State Journal-Register has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all recordings related to the incident.

No one was struck, Scarlette said, "but it was clear that his intention was to inflict physical harm and kill any individual who got in his way."

The control room operator who made the 911 call was pleading for her life and encouraging the suspect to put down the gun and leave, Scarlette said, after listening to the audiotape. Gunfire could be heard on the 911 audiotape.

The caller indicated to dispatch that someone had been struck by gunfire inside the building.

The teen demanded all the doors be unlocked, which is why he was able to open the front door, Scarlette said.

A female detainee was taken hostage by the teen in the day room. Scarlette said the teen put the female in a headlock, pointed the gun to her head, and said "I will kill her if you do not open the doors to the facility."

Sangamon County Juvenile Center

The teen, Scarlette said, was about halfway out the front entrance to the building when officers encountered him.

The SPD officer fired approximately seven rounds initially and at least one other shot, Scarlette said. The handgun flew out of the teen's hand into the vestibule and the individual fell backward as well.

As the officers approached, Scarlette said the teen crawled and reached towards the firearm when the veteran officer discharged another round into the subject.

The teen put his hands in the air. The hostage was pulled to safety by the officer-in-training and the teen was handcuffed as other officers tended to his injuries, Scarlette said.

He was taken by ambulance to HSHS St. John's Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 9:41 p.m.

The initial shots at the teen were directly to his body, Scarlette said. He would not say where the teen was struck.

Allmon said an autopsy was performed Monday and preliminary findings suggested the teen died from multiple gunshot wounds.

The female hostage suffered two injuries and was treated and released, Scarlette said.

SPD, among other agencies, cleared the remainder of the facility to check for any additional shooters and to attend to any possible injured persons.

The two officers had engaged their body cameras, Scarlette said, and he said it was his intention to release the body-worn camera video as soon as possible.

Scarlette said the department regularly trains on active shooter scenarios at the Springfield Police Academy and a training facility in Macon County, among other places, and that work paid off Saturday.

"What I witnessed first-hand of that video, the two initial responding officers did absolutely everything they've been trained," Scarlette said. "An absolute textbook response. Their heroic action likely saved a lot more carnage.

More: Springfield District 186 school board approves cost-saving software to route buses

"Their job is to immediately make entrance into that facility to stop the active shooting and that's the plan they came up with and that's exactly what was put into play."

ISP did not immediately respond to questions about the incident. ISP is continuing its investigation, including the use of force in the incident.

The two SPD officers were placed on restricted duty per department policy, Scarlette said. It gives them a chance to decompress and to make sure "they are mentally and emotionally in the best place possible," Scarlette said. "When that time is over with, that restricted duty will likely mean an assignment to the Springfield Police Academy in a non-operational setting until the investigation is complete and they're ready to come back to work."

This story will be updated.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield Police chief details moments of juvenile detention facility shooting
Many Americans exposed to radiation by nuclear testing have spent decades awaiting recompense for the long-lasting and sometimes devastating impacts to their health that have resulted from their exposure.

Now, a coalition of activists from St. Louis and New Mexico is working with the support of a bipartisan supermajority of senators to broaden the pool of such Americans who are eligible for federal compensation.

A proposed amendment to the annual Defense funding bill that the Senate approved earlier this year with 61 votes would expand that pool to include people who were exposed as a result of nuclear testing in Idaho, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Guam and the St. Louis area.

The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), passed in 1990, covered then-residents of Utah, Nevada and Arizona. But this excluded a number of Americans who had suffered exposure  including from the first-ever detonation of an atomic bomb, the Trinity test, which was conducted as part of the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, N.M., in 1945.

It was a bit arbitrarily decided in 1990 when they set up RECA, how the first people exposed to radiation were left out when there was this admission of harm, said Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium in New Mexico. Well never know why that happened. But those are the people that would be added for the first time.

That first test dealt a major blow to many in the vicinity. A 2020 study by the National Cancer Institute estimated at least 1,000 individual cancers had developed or would develop in connection with it. The infant death rate in New Mexico in 1945, the year of the test, was 38 percent higher than 1946 and 57 percent higher than 1947.

Cordova told The Hill that five generations of her family, who have long lived in the area, have been diagnosed with cancer, most recently including her 23-year-old niece.

We were basically enlisted into service of our country. And weve given everything we have to this. We bury our loved ones on a regular basis and then somebody else is diagnosed, and its multigenerational for us, she said of residents in the area.

The St. Louis area, where multiple sites were used for the storage of uranium and nuclear waste during World War II, has also suffered significant health impacts.

Studies conducted there by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services indicated elevated levels of leukemia and breast, colon and kidney cancer relative to the rest of the state in eight ZIP codes along the Missouri River tributary Coldwater Creek from 1996 to 2011.

Coldwater Creek was the site of extensive dumping by Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, which had an exclusive arrangement with the Department of Energy to produce weapons-grade uranium.

They began processing uranium for the Manhattan Project and that uranium came over from the Belgian Congo, said Dawn Chapman, a leader of the group Just Moms STL, which has lobbied for the RECA expansion. We were chosen because of our location  were right off the Missouri River, were in the middle of the country  were kind of out of sight.

Beyond Coldwater Creek, at least two other sites in the St. Louis area have been linked to exposure to radiation: the West Lake Landfill and the World War II-era Weldon Spring Ordnance Works.

Everybody has the same story  our sites are so complex, and they each have their own nuances, said Kim Visintine, a leader with the community organization Coldwater Creek  Just the Facts Please.

The pollution that our government put out there  if you really look at it, youre thunderstruck, added Visintine, who describes the damage to the community as World War II friendly fire.

Local activists have called for expansion of compensation for decades, but our government has never really wanted to know the truth, Cordova said. So theres these spotty studies, but no epidemiological study, no comprehensive epidemiological study of even one community or one state.

In Congress, Missouri Sens. Eric Schmitt (R) and Josh Hawley (R) have partnered with Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) in an effort to add the expansion to the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The amendment passed the Senate with a filibuster-proof majority of 61 votes in July.

Schmitt and Lujan have vastly different politics overall. But when they discuss RECA expansion, they sound remarkably similar.

Nearly eight decades after the Trinity Test in New Mexico, many New Mexicans are still left out of the original RECA program. This is unacceptable given the number of New Mexicans who have gotten sick and died from radiation exposure, Lujan said after the amendment passed the chamber.

The federal government has an obligation to keep Americans safe, and the pure negligence that has harmed St. Louisans has been brushed aside and covered up for far too long, said Schmitt, who grew up in Bridgeton, the St. Louis suburb that was the site of the West Lake Landfill. What was wrong back then was to leave out inadvertently the communities that are represented here from that compensation. Because justice is not complete until it is justice for all. That is what we are asking for. Justice for everybody.

RECA currently offers payments of $50,000 in compensation to downwinders  those downwind of the Nevada National Security Site, the site of at least 1,000 nuclear tests since 1951  as well as $75,000 to participants in atmospheric nuclear testing and $100,000 to uranium miners and millers. As of January, the federal government has paid out about $2.5 billion to 40,274 people under the law, according to the Justice Department.

The Senates approval of the NDAA amendment marks the 13th attempt at expanding RECA. This year, proponents took advantage of the publicity surrounding Christopher Nolans biopic Oppenheimer, which depicts the Trinity test in a climactic set piece, to highlight the issue. The amendment passed the Senate July 27, six days after the movie opened.

The House approved its own version of the NDAA before the Senate. The chambers are set to conference and craft a single final bill, likely toward the end of 2023.

Efforts to expand eligibility  and even maintain those already in place  face a ticking clock: The original RECA sunsets in 2024. The amendment that passed the Senate would extend the law another 19 years.

The bipartisan support for the expansion in the Senate has strengthened activists conviction that the issue can rise above any partisan fray.

Activists from both New Mexico and Missouri feel the issue is not just bipartisan in terms of the political parties but very much feels like a unified front right now, Chapman said.

Radiation is nondiscriminatory, it doesnt care what color you are, it doesnt care what your politics are, Visintine said. Its just as deadly to everybody. It also knows no geographic boundaries, she added  even if an actual contamination site isnt in a member of Congresss state or district, interstate travel means a victim of it could easily become part of their constituency.

This should be low-hanging fruit for our Congress. This should be one of those things that they can easily vote to support, Cordova told The Hill.

In the executive branch, meanwhile, President Biden said in August that hes prepared to help in terms of making sure that those folks are taken care of at a New Mexico event where Lujan spoke in support of the amendment. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm had stopped short of endorsing the measure in St. Louis three days prior, saying she was not aware of the full details of the amendment but that it certainly is something worth looking at for sure to bring justice to the families that have been affected.

The St. Louis and New Mexico groups spent years working on the issue separately and lobbying their respective members of Congress, but the Union of Concerned Scientists ultimately connected them. Connecting with their New Mexican counterparts was an emotional, often painful experience, Chapman said, due to the guilt that accompanied St. Louiss role in producing the uranium that ultimately caused so much suffering in New Mexico.

Sitting in a room at the Union of Concerned Scientists building with all these other people, we all sort of cried and hugged each other and mourned what weve been through but felt for the first time like were one big family, Chapman said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Mahnaz Akbari fought alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan and now wants to join the American military. But the former Afghan Female Tactical Platoon commander cant enlist until her immigration status is settled.

There is a big group of us, around 30 women, wanting to join the military but just waiting for years now, she said. We want to serve, we want to do more, but we dont have the ability to do anything until someone makes a decision about our permanent status.

Akbari and her colleagues appeared alongside lawmakers and veterans advocates on Capitol Hill Tuesday in the latest attempt to jump-start discussions on a series of bills pending before Congress which would speed up and clean up immigration services for Afghans who aided U.S. troops during the nearly 20 years of military operations overseas.

Officials said they are hopeful that a path can be found to attach those measures to other budget bills or legislative packages destined for passage in coming months. But they have expressed that optimism in past years, too, only to see efforts repeatedly fall short.

Nearly two years later, Afghan allies still left hoping for help

Congress needed to act on this two years ago, and they still need to act now, said Tom Seaman, legislative director of With Honor. We cannot stop, no matter how long this takes. Because our honor is at stake, and this is long overdue.

Advocacy groups estimate there are about 150,000 Afghans with pending special immigrant visas currently awaiting State Department approval. Thousands more overseas  including individuals who worked closely as interpreters and guides for U.S. forces  are unable to access the system.

Officials from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the host of Tuesdays event, said their focus now is to keep the issue in the public eye even as other congressional chaos dominates national headlines.

For example, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and a key voice on recent legislative efforts, spoke briefly at the press conference but excused himself early to deal with the House leadership fight unfolding in his chamber this week.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and one sponsor of the Afghan Adjustment Act, said she still believes that Congress can enact some reforms even as it juggles a full-year budget for government operations in fiscal 2024 and another potential government shutdown threat in late November.

Were not going to give up, she said. Everyone knows this is the right thing to do. We just have to find the right vehicle to get it through the Senate.

The Afghan Adjustment Act, which would clear up pathways to legal residency for evacuees and enhance vetting of those who seek it, has stalled in Congress since early 2021. The plan would also extend special immigrant visa eligibility to Afghans who fought alongside U.S. armed forces but never formally signed contracts with U.S. government entities, including Afghan special operations troops and female members of the Afghan National Security Forces.

In recent months, lawmakers have also introduced related measures designed to advance portions of that ambitious plan. But conservatives in the Senate have voiced long-term security concerns, and House lawmakers have not taken any meaningful steps on the plans.

Advocates said theyll keep pushing for solutions for as long as it takes. Akbari said she and her fellow Afghan veterans are trying to stay positive through the fight.

Most of us still have families back in Afghanistan, she said. They live in danger every day, so its hard for us to focus on things like English classes and finding jobs and handling our immigration paperwork.

So, we try to stay hopeful. But its really hard as we keep waiting for answers.
The News

In six days, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will come to Philadelphia to make a major announcement at the very birthplace of our nation. Every indication is that hell quit the Democratic primary, which hes called rigged, to run for president as an independent or third party candidate.

Democrats, who worry about many things, dont sound too worried about this.

A couple of years ago, if youd told me that someone named Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was running for president as an independent, Id have said that it would really hurt the Democratic ticket, said Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Democrat whose district covers the historic square where Kennedy will speak. But RFK Jr. has such an odd mix of views, on a whole host of conspiracy theories, that hes more appealing to far-right, libertarian sort of voters. I think hes more likely to hurt Donald Trump than Joe Biden.

Kennedy, whose early support surprised and panicked Democrats, has flatlined in primary polling since mid-summer. Last month, ahead of a Democratic National Committee meeting in Washington, he accused the party of making it impossible for him to beat Biden, and began telling friendly interviewers that he might have to bolt the party hed belonged to his whole life.

If the Democrats make rules that say I cannot win, and then they complain about me running somewhere else, its like a guy who murders his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court because hes an orphan, Kennedy told podcaster Theo Von last week. Theyre trying to get public sympathy for the problem they created.

Kennedy suggested that the partys superdelegates and primary state rules could deny him the nomination. He had a deeper problem with Democratic voters: They couldnt stand him, seeing him as a vaccine-skeptical, Ukraine-surrendering interloper who was running to weaken the president. Hours of interviews with new media outlets have made him more popular with Republicans and independents, while alienating Democrats.

In last months CNN/UNH poll, 73% of likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire held an unfavorable view of Kennedy, compared to just 9% who viewed him favorably. The president wasnt competing in New Hampshire  the DNCs reshuffle of the primary calendar put South Carolina first, over bipartisan objections in the Granite State  but the same poll showed him crushing Kennedy as a write-in option.

In New Hampshire, Kennedy has zero appeal with Democrats and Democratic leaning independents, said New Hampshire Democratic Party chairman Ray Buckley. His negatives are through the roof. His appeal seems to be to MAGAs and other like-minded right-wing extremists.

Six months after entering the race, Kennedy had been endorsed by just one elected Democrat: New York City councilman Jim Gennaro. He told Semafor that hed stick with the candidate if he went third party, seeing him as the best person to be president, and a bulwark against radicalism.

Theres a chasm between the ivory tower Democrats and the Democrats who do most of the working, the living, and the dying in this country, Gennaro said.

Davids view

Democrats live in constant fear of a third party candidate complicating the presidents re-election. Theyve never gotten over 2000 and 2016, when strong Green Party candidates got more votes in key states than the margins of defeat for Al Gore and Hillary Clinton. Theyre nervous that Cornel West, the favorite for next years GP nomination, could do the same; theyre outright terrified that No Labels could put a moderate on the 2024 ballot, siphoning off potential Biden votes.

Trump only wins with a third party in the race; he benefits from any of them, said Matt Bennett, the executive vice president of public affairs at Third Way, which has been on an anti-No Labels mission all year. There are no reluctant Trump voters, but in a two-way race, there are plenty for Biden.

Fueling that worry: Many voters are sick at the thought of a Biden-Trump rematch. The electoral landscape looks more like 2016, when both party nominees were unpopular, than 2020, when most voters went to the polls with a warm view of Biden.

In polling that Gallup will release tomorrow, shared first with Semafor, just 34% of adults agreed that the two major parties do an adequate job of representing the American people. Sixty-three percent said that a third party was needed, the highest level of support for the idea in the 20-year history of the question.

But in 2016, 61% of Americans shared that third party dream  and just 6% of them voted for someone besides Trump or Clinton. And Kennedy and his allies, stoking interest in his Monday announcement, have downplayed his ability to spoil an election for Biden.

I take more votes from President Trump than I do from President Biden, Kennedy told Von. Its not helping them.

American Values 2024, the pro-Kennedy super PAC largely funded by Republicans, amplified that take with three-way polling conducted by Zogby Strategies  Trump and Biden tied, Kennedy took 19% of the vote. The Peoples Party, founded in the wake of Bernie Sanderss 2016 primary loss, put out its own polling from YouGov that put Kennedy at 17%, drawing equally from Democrats and Republicans, with no effect on the Biden-Trump matchup.

When I talked with officials in swing states, where the election will actually be fought, I heard more worry from Republicans than Democrats.

RFK Jr appeals most to the conspiracy-theory wing of the GOPto the point where Ron Johnson has been flogging his book on right-wing talk radio, said Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman Ben Wikler. Hed be a great option for Republicans afraid that Trump is too pro-vaccine.

Room for Disagreement

Its possible Democrats are a little too quick to assume a Kennedy third party bid would be different from others that have dragged down their nominees. Republican pollster Patrick Ruffinis firm, Echelon Insights, published a poll this week that found it might slightly benefit Trump if the election were held today.

Kennedy gets 14% of the vote in a three-way race, not including West, and turns a 3-point Trump advantage into a 4-point advantage. He does so by pulling 17% of voters whod otherwise lean toward a Democratic nominee, and just 11% whod otherwise lean toward a Republican.

Kennedy would be a threat to the GOP ticket if the nominee were someone like Jeb Bush, not Donald Trump, Ruffini told Semafor. If youre an anti-vax conspiracy theorist, why would you be dissatisfied at all with the current direction of the party under Trump? Meanwhile, youve got a lot of low-information Democratic-leaning voters not thrilled with Biden. Republicans like him more, but there are more left-leaning voters potentially up for grabs for a third party.

The View From Conservatives

Kennedys challenge to Biden, and willingness to meet with conservatives on their turf, won him copious praise on the right. After an armed and disturbed man showed up at a Kennedy event in Los Angeles, pretending to be security, Democrats didnt react to Kennedys repeated requests for Secret Service protection; the conservative Judicial Watch was already on the case, obtaining documents on why Kennedy hadnt gotten it yet, and blaming the Biden administration.

Across conservative media, Kennedy has sat for long interviews and gotten warm praise  as a challenger to Biden. Hes intelligent, hes articulate, Mike Huckabee said on Fox News last week. Frankly, I think he is scaring the daylights out of the Biden people, because he is challenging so many of the deep state issues that Donald Trump challenges.

The View From A Third Party Candidate

Kennedy met with Libertarian Party chair Angela McArdle this summer, and winning that partys nomination would give him dozens of state ballot lines. Nagle told Semafor that Kennedy hadnt reached out since announcing his Philadelphia rally. Two-time Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson said that Kennedy could benefit from voter angst about Biden and trump, but only to a point.

If its Trump and Biden, and Kennedy wins the Libertarian nomination, Id vote for him, Johnson said. In that match-up, would he potentially set records as a third party candidate? Yeah, potentially. But that didnt work for me. Ive gotten a doctorate in why the two party system is in the bone marrow of this country. The only way a third party wins is to have parity when it comes to funding. Youre talking about billions of dollars. The only candidate that could have run as an independent and done that would have been Mike Bloomberg.

Notable

In the Washington Post, Aaron Blake asks whether the GOP embrace of Kennedys primary challenge will boomerang and hurt Republicans, who used Kennedys inflated early poll standing as an excuse to treat the primary challenge from a fringe figure as something real and threatening.

In the Kennedy Beacon, the pro-RFK Jr. super PACs newsletter, former Reagan OMB director David Stockman writes that the third party bid is coming, and and that its opposition to Ukraine war funding can attract sufficient refugees from both parties as to make RFK Jr.s third party candidacy unprecedentedly competitive in the electoral college.
Russia launched 31 Shahed drones and one Iskander-K ballistic missile at Ukrainian territory overnight on Oct. 3, the Air Force reported.

Air defenses working in Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts successfully shot down 29 of the drones and the Iskander missile.

The attacks were reportedly launched from occupied Crimea.

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Serhii Lysak earlier reported that a drone and other debris from downed drones struck a factory, causing a fire and other damage in Pavlohrad, located 75 kilometers east of the regional capital Dnipro.

Elsewhere in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, debris caused damage to civilian infrastructure, but no casualties were reported, according to Lysak.

Read also: With winter approaching, is Ukraines energy system ready for renewed Russian attacks?

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Air Force of Ukraine, has thanked the air defence units for their effective work in repelling the Russian attack on 3 October.

Source: Oleshchuk on Telegram

Quote: "[You] did a great job in Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv oblasts today!

The 138th Dnipro Anti-aircraft Missile Brigade, the 301st Nikopol Anti-aircraft Missile Regiment of the Air Force of the Skhid (East) Air Command, the 160th Odesa Anti-aircraft Missile Brigade of the Pivden (South) Air Command, fighter aircraft of the Air Force and mobile fire groups of the defence forces of Ukraine destroyed 30 out of the 32 launched air targets.

Thanks for the work! Together to victory!"

   "" 3 

      pic.twitter.com/T5dzQ3gu2g     (@ukrpravda_news) October 3, 2023

Details: The video shows the combat operation of anti-aircraft missile systems and a mobile fire group.

Background: The Russians launched the Shaheds from Cape Chauda and the Iskander-K missile from around the city of Dzhankoi, both located in Russian-occupied Crimea, on the night of 3 October.

The Air Force shot down a cruise missile and 29 Russian drones.

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!
 Flash

China has made great achievements in the field of transportation, and Indonesia is looking forward to expanding and deepening its cooperation with China, the Indonesian transportation minister has said.

Indonesia's Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi told Xinhua in an exclusive interview in Jakarta recently that China has leading technology in the railway, shipping and aircraft manufacturing industries and has become a model for Indonesia and other developing countries.

Speaking of the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway (HSR), a landmark project of cooperation between China and Indonesia in the field of transportation, Sumadi said it has made Indonesia realize a leap in high-speed railway technology and enhanced the pride of the Indonesian people.

Sumadi said the Jakarta-Bandung HSR shortens the passage time between the two cities, greatly promoting regional people-to-people exchanges and driving the development sectors including tourism, employment and education.

He said that the professionalism and dedication shown by Chinese builders are worth learning, and Indonesia hopes to continue to cooperate closely with the Chinese side in the operation and maintenance of the high-speed railway.

Indonesia also hopes to expand cooperation with China in the fields of aircraft manufacturing and shipping, Sumadi said, adding that he hopes more investment from Chinese electric car companies and battery manufacturing enterprises.
The Air Force anticipated only 50 cases annually when it announced a new pilot program last year that would allow some applicants who drug-tested positive for THC, the active compound in marijuana, a chance to retest and possibly enlist.

But the Air Force Recruiting Service told Military.com on Tuesday that, within the first year of the program, the service encountered triple that number -- granting 165 waivers after candidates retested and were shown to be free of THC.

That news comes as the Air Force attempts to remove barriers to service after missing its active-duty enlisted recruiting goals for the past fiscal year, which ended Sunday, by roughly 11%. It's the first time since 1999 the service hadn't reached its projected numbers.

Read Next: After Missing Recruiting Goals, Army Announces New Occupational Specialty to Increase the Ranks

Gen. Christopher Amrhein, the Air Force Recruiting Service commander, said during a media roundtable at the Air and Space Force Association's conference at National Harbor, Maryland, last month that the recruiting situation could have been a lot worse if it wasn't for the policy changes, such as the THC waiver, they had put in place prior to the end of the fiscal year.

"Let's make no mistake, drug usage has absolutely no place in our Air and Space Forces," Amrhein told reporters. "But allowing a second test in the recruiting process is the right thing to do. For FY23, this policy change allowed us to bring in approximately 165 additional high-quality airmen."

Marijuana, although becoming less taboo and legalized on a state-by-state basis, remains outlawed on the federal level as a Schedule I drug. While the military has zero tolerance for other Schedule I drugs such as ecstasy, heroin or methamphetamines, recruits in other service branches have received waivers for marijuana as it has grown in popularity.

The Air Force's pilot program, announced in September 2022, began seeing outpaced results from the start. While initially expecting only 50 cases per year, by December -- just three months into the program -- the service already had 43.

Air Force Recruiting Service spokeswoman Chrissy Cuttita told Military.com in an email at the time that the initial spike in numbers "could mean as more states adopt more leniency toward cannabis and THC derivatives, we anticipate a continued increase" in waiver requests.

The majority of states have legalized marijuana for medical use, recreational use or both. Only 10 states currently do not allow marijuana use in any form: Indiana, Wisconsin, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas, according to MJBizDaily, a trade publication that follows the industry.

Prior to the pilot program, Air Force and Space Force applicants were barred from joining the services if they tested positive for THC on the initial test.

Under the new program, which was inspired by previous efforts by the Army and Navy, prospective applicants are given the opportunity to retest after 90 days if given a waiver.

To be considered for the waiver, applicants have to score well on the Armed Forces Qualification Test, have graduated high school, and not have any other potential barriers to joining the service like a medical or past legal issue, according to the Air Force.

Notably, more than 50% of all new recruits come from states where marijuana is now legal, at least for medicinal use, according to a 2021 study by Rand Corp.

That study, which examined the Army specifically, found little difference in performance by recruits who enlisted with marijuana waivers.

"Recruits who make it into the U.S. Army despite low-level histories of marijuana use perform no worse, overall, than other soldiers," the Rand study said. "That should be welcome news in recruiting offices nationwide."

The waiver program arrived as the military services have struggled to find young Americans who are fit enough, healthy enough and sober enough to enter the ranks.

A Pentagon study from 2021 shows that 77% of young Americans would not qualify for military service without a waiver due to being overweight, using drugs, or having mental and physical health problems.

-- Thomas Novelly can be reached at thomas.novelly@military.com. Follow him on X @TomNovelly.

Related: Air Force Accepted Dozens of New Recruits Who Tested Positive for THC Under New Program
Updated as of 10/10/2023 at 11:30 a.m. ET

Video footage of the fatal police shooting that claimed the life of Stephen Perkins was released, capturing a total of 18 gunshots shot on the front lawn on his home.

Read more

More unintelligible orders were yelled regarding Perkins firearm. Neighbor Justin Shepherd told WAFF some of the shots went into his home across the street. He said he didnt believe the cops gave Perkins enough time to respond, a similar argument echoed by his family attorney.

The policy of not announcing yourself and creeping up into peoples onto peoples properties. They will tell you its for officer protection, so that theyre not ambushed, but what they did here was ambush Steve, attorney Lee Merritt said via The AP.



The authorities still maintain that Perkins brandished his firearm at the officers which resulted in the shooting but until the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency releases the body camera footage, we really dont know what the case is.

What Happened?

The family of the Black Alabama man are asking the local police for transparency in the fatal shooting of their loved one. As they wait for the release of the body camera footage, they dispute several claims from the cops side of the story.

The Decatur Police Department released a statement saying on Sept. 29, police were dispatched to respond to a local towing company that reported a man with a gun. They said the tow truck driver was trying to repossess a vehicle from the 3900 block of Ryan Drive SW but was encountered by 39-year-old Stephen Clay Perkins who allegedly threatened them with a firearm. The tow truck driver fled the scene and the officers went to Perkins home.

Authorities claim Perkins walked outside with a gun equipped with a flashlight and refused to drop it when officers ordered him to. One officer then shot his service weapon at Perkins. The officers on the scene rendered aid as they waited for the paramedics but he succumbed to his injuries later at the hospital.

What Perkins Family Says

A representative for the family released a statement from them noting that Perkins was not the aggressive angry Black man the cops painted him to be but instead a family-oriented young Black man thriving for excellence, via WHNT. They also Perkins fell behind on some payments but his car was not on repossession status, citing receipts found in his financing company. Therefore, they claimed the towing company wrongfully tried to repo Perkins vehicle.

Clearly, something aint adding up.

The city retains body cameras which should have been in use during the incident. The family is calling for the city to deliver the footage to the family. In the meantime, surveillance exists of the incident through home security cameras. The unjust excessive amount of force can be seen in the home surveillance footage, read the statement.

The Decatur Police Department declined to release the body camera video because, based on legislation, only the agency in custody of the evidence can decide on the disclosure of it. That agency is the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Its unclear when or if that release will happen. The Root reached out to the ALEA for confirmation.

Please be advised that investigative material includes law enforcement records, including but not limited to investigative reports, field notes, witness statements and other investigative writings or recordings which are not public records but rather are privileged communications protected from disclosure. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) considers body cam footage to be investigative material, said Amanda Wasden, ALEA Director of External Affairs.

Chief Todd Pinion said after the ALEAs investigation, the findings will be turned over to the Morgan County District Attorneys Office and presented to a grand jury for consideration. At the moment, the officer in question is on administrative leave upon the pending investigation.

More from The Root

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Click here to read the full article.
Clarksville resident Allie Phillips has announced she is running for the Tennessee House of Representatives for District 75.

Phillips, an Ashland City native, received her bachelor's degree in Multimedia Journalism from Middle Tennessee State University, and after graduating she moved to Clarksville.

Allie Phillips has announced her candidacy for Tennessee state representative for District 75.

Phillips caught national attention earlier this year after sharing her story on TikTok on travelling to New York alone for an abortion following a scan at 19 weeks pregnant where he and her husband were informed her daughter, Miley Rose, was not compatible with life.

Ive had the honor of being a voice for so many people, not only in Tennessee but across the world. My story, unfortunately, is all too familiar for many families, Phillips said in her announcement for candidacy. My commitment to fighting for change is something Clarksville needs in a representative. We deserve someone who listens, understands, and cares, and that person is me. My passion for people will help me better represent the citizens of District 75.

Allie Phillips and family in fall 2022. Phillips and her husband found out they were pregnant in November, but anatomy scans in February revealed their unborn daughter has severe fetal abnormalities. Phillips has decided to seek an out-of-state abortion to mitigate health risks, a procedure unavailable in Tennessee.

Phillips is now one of three Tennessee women suing for its abortion law, arguing that "the law is too restrictive and vague about when doctors can legally terminate a pregnancy with serious complications."

"Within an hour, I went into surgery alone. I sat in recovery alone," Phillips said in an opinion piece to The Tennessean on Sept. 25 about her experience getting an abortion. "I grieved the loss of my daughter alone, in a city Id never been to, around doctors Id never met before, far from my family. I am so grateful for the caring professionals who treated me with such dignity, but I should never have had to leave home for humane health careabortion care."

Phillips, running in the Democratic nomination, could face Republican incumbent Jeff Burkhart, in November 2024.

Burkhart won the seat in the Nov. 8, 2022 election, running unopposed for the newly drawn District 75 which includes part of Montgomery County. Prior to being a state representative, he was a member of the Clarksville City Council

During elections, Montgomery County votes heavily Republican according to the Tennessee Secretary of State office election results data.

In the 2016 Presidential election, Donald Trump won the county by about 11,000 votes and won the county by over 9,000 votes during the 2020 election. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee won his 2018 bid with a county margin of about 5,000 votes and won his re-election by about 10,000 votes in 2022.

Reporter Kenya Anderson can be reached at kanderson@nashvill.gannett.com or on X at KenyaAnderson32.

This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: Allie Phillips announces candidacy for state representative for District 75
Air Force Gen. David Allvin took over on Sunday as the services acting chief of staff, becoming its highest-ranking officer in the midst of a sweeping effort to prepare for a new era of war.

Allvin, a career mobility pilot and military strategist who has served as the Air Forces vice chief of staff since November 2020, will hold the top role in an unofficial capacity until he is formally confirmed by the Senate.

His predecessor, Gen. CQ Brown, was sworn in as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Sept. 29 after three years as the Air Forces top uniformed leader.

As acting chief of staff, Allvin now oversees a nearly $180 billion portfolio and around 689,000 uniformed and civilian employees across the active duty Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. He also becomes one of eight members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagons advisory panel comprised of its most senior officers.

President Joe Biden nominated Allvin to lead the Air Force for a four-year term in July.

If confirmed, he will become the public face of a slate of ambitious reforms to the Air Forces aging aircraft inventory and its deployment plans, as well as efforts to improve sagging recruitment, diversify the workforce and prepare airmen to vie with China and Russia for military influence around the world.

Lt. Gen. Jim Slife, Bidens nominee to succeed Allvin as vice chief of staff, will stay in his current role as the Air Forces deputy chief of staff for operations until the Senate approves his promotion as well.

Its unclear when Allvin and Slife might secure congressional approval to fill their respective jobs. They join more than 300 military officials who are ensnared in Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tubervilles monthslong hold on Pentagon nominees in protest of the departments abortion-related policies.

Senators could opt to work around the hold by bringing individual officers up for confirmation votes rather than approve them in batches, as is the norm.

The Senate confirmed Brown as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Randy George as chief of staff of the Army, and Gen. Eric Smith as commandant of the Marine Corps through roll call votes in September.
Hey, everyone! Drew here. Its Oct. 3, Happy Mean Girls Day!

Calling all food truck fanatics!

Were on the hunt to find the best meal on wheels in the Queen City. CharlotteFives narrowed down their list to the final four, so go vote for your favorite!

Heres your news.

Ally announced that its planning to cut 5% of its workforce. Impacts in Charlotte are not clear.

Another major banking company announced layoffs.

Ally Financial, with a large workforce in Charlotte, plans to cut about 5% of its employees. Its unclear how many positions will be cut in Charlotte.

Chase Jordan shares more details on the layoffs.

Paramedics responded to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools bus headed to Ranson Middle School after a student used pepper spray during a fight Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023.

Paramedics tended to a bus of Charlotte middle schoolers after a child used pepper spray during a fight this morning, school officials wrote in a email to parents.

Students on Ranson International Baccalaureate Middle School bus were evaluated out of an abundance of caution, principal Neodria Brown wrote in the email.

Julia Coin has the latest.

Scanned cases for Superior Court sit on a shelf in the Criminal Division of the The Clerks Office on Sept. 21 at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse. After a slew of reported issues, a lawsuit and a delay, eCourts is coming to Mecklenburg County. Lawyers, clerks and other court staff are prepping.

North Carolinas DMV commissioner is demanding that state court officials delay activating eCourts in Mecklenburg County.

There are claims of a serious public safety concern over how the software-powered system transmits data on everything from DWI convictions to fatal crashes is a serious problem. But court officials have no plans to slow down the Oct. 9 rollout in the busiest courthouse in the state, they say.

Tyler Dukes with more.

What The Fries owners Jamie Barnes and Greg Williams in front of art by Swych19 inside their former restaurant in Pineville.

Hope youre a French fry lover, because this next storys for you.

What the Fries is back. The restaurant known for its gourmet loaded fries, along with burgers and wraps, will be accepting takeout and delivery orders starting tomorrow.

Heidi Finley details where and how you can get your hands on some fries.

5. Some more stories to read

---

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Find more updates at charlotteobserver.com, and follow along on Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok to see more from us. Enjoy your day!

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Drew Nantais is a Senior Growth & Engagement Producer for the Charlotte Observer.
Ally Financial, a banking company with a large workforce in Charlotte, announced Monday its planning to cut about 5% of its employees.

The Detroit-based business operates its Ally corporate center in Charlotte at 601 S. Tryon St.  inside a 26-story office building between uptown and South End in Charlotte. Ally has 11,700 employees, including 2,700 in Charlotte.

The cuts were first reported by national outlets Monday.

Its unclear how many positions will be cut in Charlotte. Peter Gilchrist, a spokesman for Ally, said impacts were not limited to any specific department or location.

The Ally building is the latest bank tower in uptown Charlotte, and the latest addition to the rapid development of the Stonewall Street corridor.

Despite a challenging macroenvironment, we remain relentlessly focused on serving our customers and all stakeholders by making the tough, yet necessary, decisions to guide our business into the future, Gilchrist stated. After taking steps over the past year to pause hiring and manage staffing expenses through natural attrition, we have made the difficult choice to selectively reduce our workforce.

Gilchrist said Ally is committed to supporting affected employees and will be offering a severance package and career support. The company will continue to hire employees in critical areas of the business, he said. Employees impacted will be able to apply for openings.

We remain confident in our long-term strategy, with a strong balance sheet and nimble, scalable businesses that are poised for future growth, Gilchrist added.

Ally provides a variety of services such as banking, investing, home loans and auto finance. Ally has been in the Charlotte market since 2009.

Banking cuts continue

Allys cuts add to multiple banks with a Charlotte presence that are doing the same because of economic conditions.

In September, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo said additional layoffs and a decrease in office space are expected for the company. The State reported Monday that Wells Fargo will lay off up to 525 employees in Columbia and close an office space by June 30, 2024.

Wells Fargos largest employment hub is in Charlotte with 27,000 workers in the city.

Truist is also planning $750 million in layoffs and other cuts to reduce expenses.
WASHINGTON  Former Vice President Mike Pence , acknowledging the chaos in House leadership underway at the Capitol across town within his own party in part over military assistance to Ukraine, on Tuesday nevertheless urged his fellow Republicans to continue helping that nation repel Russias 19-month-old invasion.

Its in our national interest to do it, the 2024 presidential hopeful told an audience of Georgetown University students, repeating his warning that if Russia succeeds in taking Ukraine, it would soon eye Poland or another U.S. military ally. It will not be long before they cross the border of a NATO country where our young men and women in uniform will be required to fight.

Pence blamed the removal of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)  which was taking place as he took questions from students  on a small group of malcontents.

I think what were witnessing is a handful of Republicans partnering with Democrats to create chaos, he said. I still believe the majority of Republicans and the strong majority of Americans understand America is the leader of the free world and want to continue military support to Ukraine.

A former congressman from Indiana himself, he added: I must tell you this is one of those days I dont miss being in Congress.

On Tuesday, former Vice President Mike Pence placed blame on the House speaker upheaval on

On Tuesday, former Vice President Mike Pence placed blame on the House speaker upheaval on "a handful of Republicans partnering with Democrats to create chaos."

Pences remarks at the foreign policy discussion sponsored by Georgetowns McCourt School of Public Policy and The Associated Press came just days after Congress failed to include any money for Ukraine in its temporary spending measure.

Indeed, Pence and his fellow mainstream Republicans have been on the defensive since Donald Trump took over the party after he won the presidential nomination and then the presidency in 2016.

Trump solicited and then accepted Russian dictator Vladimir Putin s help winning that election. He then sided with Putin over his own intelligence agencies on the topic of Russias election interference. He repeatedly derided and undermined NATO, with a second-term goal of withdrawing from the alliance. He even discussed turning over to Putin a prominent American critic for interrogation.

The coup-attempting former presidents support for Putin continued even after he launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that has been replete with the murder and rape of civilians and the kidnaping and trafficking of children back to Russia. In the immediate days after the invasion, Trump called Putin a genius for having done it.

As the GOP presidential primary has progressed, Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley have strongly criticized Putin and defended U.S. aid to Ukraine as vital to American interests, while entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have, to differing degrees, opposed more assistance to the embattled country.

On Tuesday, Pence repeated his defense of President Joe Bidens policy of military assistance while blaming Biden for not successfully selling it. President Biden has done a terrible job explaining what our interest is there. These gauzy speeches about democracy dont connect with the American public, he said.

Nevertheless, he said the United States had to continue its traditional role of supporting democracy. If America is not leading the free world, the free world is not being led, Pence said. Ukraine is not our war, but freedom is our fight.
Photos shedding light on an Edwardian rescue mission to the Antarctic have been unearthed in a Leeds library.

Pictures dating from 1902 document the journey of relief ship The Morning to Captain Robert Falcon Scott 's first expedition to the Antarctic.

The images were uncovered by special collections librarian Rhian Isaac inside a very "ordinary-looking" book.

They were later authenticated by The Antiques Roadshow and are now on display at Leeds Central Library.

Ms Isaac said that the pictures were a "once-in-a-lifetime find" and showcase a "fascinating chapter of history".

She added: "The images really capture what life was like aboard the ship, not only how harsh the conditions were but the sense of camaraderie among the crew and the breath-taking scenery they saw from the deck each day of their voyage."

The role of a relief ship was to deliver post and orders as well as dropping off supplies and helping sick or injured crew from the primary mission.

According to records, The Morning set off from London Docks in 1902 to relieve Captain Scott's famous ship, Discovery, but crew found her trapped in 18 miles of solid sea ice.

Famous Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton was among Discovery's crew and was "reluctantly taken aboard and returned home" as he was still recovering from his unsuccessful attempt to reach the South Pole.

The Morning was captained by Hull-born sailor William Colbeck and the photos are believed to have been taken by John Donald Morrison, The Morning's chief engineer.

As the photos needed to be verified they were taken to Roundhay Park in Leeds where The Antiques Roadshow was being filmed.

It was then confirmed by experts that the pictures were genuine and more than 120 years old.

Councillor Mary Harland, Leeds City Council's executive member for communities, said: "This is a fascinating discovery which exemplifies the breadth and scope of the history which is on the shelves of our local libraries."

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.
Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord warned the U.S. Congress that diminishing funds for Ukraine could cause delays in critical weapons and supply shipments, the Associated Press reported on Oct. 2.

McCord said the U.S. has around $5.4 billion remaining to send weapons to Ukraine, and that long-term funding through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative is completely exhausted.

He also said that the U.S. is running out of funds to replenish its own military stockpiles after transferring weapons to Ukraine.

We have already been forced to slow down the replenishment of our own forces to hedge against an uncertain funding future, McCord said in a letter to Congressional leaders obtained by the Associated Press.

Failure to replenish our military services on a timely basis could harm our militarys readiness.

Join our community Support independent journalism in Ukraine. Join us in this fight. Support Us

On Sept. 30, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to avert an impending government shutdown that did not include funding for Ukrainian aid. While President Joe Biden has said he believes lawmakers will eventually "secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine," the future of U.S. aid to Kyiv remains uncertain.

McCord said that gaps in funding will force the U.S. to delay sending defense supplies that are critical and urgent now as Russia prepares to conduct a winter offensive.

On Oct. 2, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the U.S. only has enough money to support Ukraine "in the immediate term."

Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Associated Press that funding delays would have an immediate impact on the Ukrainian military.

If theres no new money, theyre going to start feeling it by Thanksgiving, he said.

Read also: With winter approaching, is Ukraines energy system ready for renewed Russian attacks?







This includes more than $43.9 billion since Russias launched its full-scale invasion against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

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 Flash

More than 100 Burundian refugees living in Malawi are scheduled to return home Thursday, following negotiations between the Malawian government, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the Burundian government.

Patrick Botha, spokesperson for the Malawian Ministry of Homeland Security, confirmed the development to the local media Monday, saying 108 of the refugees living at Dzaleka, a UNHCR-designated refugee camp in Malawi, had volunteered to return home.

Botha said the repatriation was supposed to be done on Sept. 15, but it was shifted to Oct. 5 due to logistical problems that the preparations for the exercise faced.

"I can confirm that 108 refugees of Burundian nationality are set to leave for Bujumbura, Burundi, on Oct. 5 through a process called repatriation, which is the best solution in refugees' management," explained Botha.

The first cohort of refugees on voluntary repatriation left Dzaleka Camp to their various countries in June following the Malawian government's back-to-camp campaign, which Minister of Homeland Security Ken Zikhale Ng'oma instituted to force all refugees living outside Dzaleka to return to the camp.

The Homeland Security spokesperson hoped for more refugees to come forward voluntarily and request repatriation as most of the countries they fled are now conflict-free.

The Dzaleka Refugee Camp was established in 1994 to host 10,000-12,000 refugees and asylum-seekers from countries in conflict or adverse environments, namely Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Somalia.

The population of the camp has grown over the years to over 50,000, according to the UNHCR.
Three apartment buildings and other civilian infrastructure in the city of Dnipro were damaged by Russian missile debris on the night of 2-3 October.

Source: Serhii Lysak, Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote: "According to updated information, a school, a kindergarten, a petrol station and three apartment buildings in Dnipro were damaged by fragments of downed Russian junk [a missile - ed.]. Several dozen cars on the territory of a private business were damaged, in addition to a warehouse being destroyed by fire."

Details: Russian forces also attacked the Marhanets hromada of the Nikopol district with a kamikaze drone [a hromada is an administrative unit designating a town, village or several villages and their adjacent territories]. No damage or casualties were reported.

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!












As a state legislator and a lifelong Sacramentan, I see the challenges our communities are facing, and its clear to me that we need to be doing things differently. Its time to think outside the box on issues of public safety and the underlying problems of drug addiction.

Most of us know someone suffering from addiction. Our current approach to dealing with substance use disorders is falling woefully short, especially for those in the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, many drug addicts commit crimes to support their habit  the recidivism rate for drug offenders is alarmingly high, with nearly 70% getting rearrested within just three years of leaving prison.

Opinion

Our criminal justice system has little to no treatment programs for people with substance use disorders. The few programs they do have are overwhelmed with long waiting lists. So, while the addiction crisis worsens, we rely on county jails and state prisons as the primary treatment providers. But this is nonsensical. We cannot expect individuals with substance use disorders to recover behind bars. Without proper treatment and accountability for those committing felony offenses due to addiction, these individuals (and their loved ones) serve life sentences on an installment plan.

What we need is more innovation with rehabilitation, not just incarceration.

To address the public health and humanitarian crises of addiction affecting our businesses and neighborhoods, we need a new approach. Thats why I have proposed the Hope California pilot program (Assembly Bill 1360) in Sacramento and Yolo Counties, with the support of Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho and Yolo District Attorney Jeff Reisig, both of whom strongly believe in rehabilitation and reentry.

The proposed legislation is straightforward, bipartisan and spans five years in its pilot phase. It has moved through the Legislature and awaits Gov. Newsoms signature. I hope he signs it.

Supported by the California State Association of Psychiatrists, the program offers individuals convicted of crimes due to a clear substance use disorder a choice: secured residential, medically informed treatment or jail time. The duration of optional treatment will always be shorter than the jail sentence.

For example, if an individual has multiple drug charges, a substance use disorder and felony convictions on their record, they could be eligible for this program. Lets say a Sacramento resident committed a commercial burglary valued at over $2,000. If convicted of the crime with their history, the judge could sentence them to two years in county jail or up to a one-year-long medically-informed treatment program managed by addiction professionals. In addition, upon successful completion of treatment, their record would be expunged.

Each pilot county would provide additional treatment beds leveraging existing county funds. In addition, counties can look to the State Opioid Settlement Fund, and, if approved by the voters in March, the Behavioral Health Infrastructure Bond (AB 531) would raise more than $6 billion for secured and unsecured residential treatment.

Critics argue that such a program wont work, or that it is coercive, but the status quo is not working. AB 1360 is a balanced and fair middle ground offering communities another option for battling drug addiction in our neighborhoods. Continuing to let addicted people suffer in jails and prisons without addressing the root causes of their addiction is a failed path. As elected leaders, we must employ all tools and pursue innovative approaches to address this addiction crisis.

In conjunction with other innovative and overdue measures like CARE Court, which gets Californians with severe mental health and substance use disorder crises off the streets and into housing, and SB 43 which empowers cities and counties to address gravely disabled homeless people more effectively, I am optimistic that Gov. Gavin Newsom will sign this common-sense, bipartisan bill.

Its time to take a courageous step toward helping our neighbors suffering from addiction and, by doing so, create more compassionate communities.

California State Assemblyman Kevin McCarty represents Assembly District 6, spanning Sacramento, Antelope, Arden-Arcade, Carmichael and other communities of unincorporated Sacramento County.
FILE - This image shows an Almarai logo in Cairo, Egypt, April 26, 2023. Fondomonte Arizona, a subsidiary of Saudi dairy giant Almarai Co., grows alfalfa in Arizona that feeds livestock in the water-stressed Persian Gulf kingdom. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said her administration was terminating land leases that for years have given the Saudi-owned farm nearly unfettered access to pump groundwater in the parched southwestern state. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

WASHINGTON (AP)  Arizona governor Katie Hobbs said this week her administration is terminating state land leases that for years have given a Saudi-owned farm nearly unfettered access to pump groundwater in the dry southwestern state.

On Monday, Hobbs, a Democrat, said the state had canceled Fondomonte Arizona's lease in western Arizona's Butler Valley and would not renew three other leases up for renewal there next year.

An investigation by the governor's office found that the foreign-owned farm had violated some of its lease terms. Hobbs called it unacceptable that the farm continued to pump unchecked amounts of groundwater out of our state while in clear default on their lease.

Fondomonte Arizona, a subsidiary of Saudi dairy giant Almarai Co., grows alfalfa in Arizona that feeds livestock in the water-stressed Gulf kingdom.

Through a spokesperson, Fondomonte said it would appeal the governor's decision to terminate its 640-acre (259-hectare) lease in Butler Valley. Altogether, Fondomonte farmed about 3,500 acres (1,416 hectares) in the rugged desert area west of Phoenix.

Fondomonte raised eyebrows when in 2014 it purchased nearly 10,000 acres (4,047 hectares) of land for $47.5 million about 20 miles (32 kilometers) away from Butler Valley in Vicksburg, Arizona. Since then, worsening drought in Arizona has brought renewed attention to the company's water use and the broader issues of foreign-owned farms and groundwater pumping.

The violations the governor's office detailed relate to the company's storage of hazardous materials, among other issues. On Monday, Hobbs' office said that Fondomonte was notified of the violations in 2016, but an investigation in August found the company had not fixed the problem seven years later. That gave Arizona's State Land Department grounds to terminate the lease.

The Arizona governor's office said the State Land Department decided not to renew three other leases the company had in Butler Valley due to the excessive amounts of water being pumped from the land  free of charge.

The department manages land owned by Arizona, which in Fondomonte's case, had been leased to the company. Butler Valley's groundwater is especially important because of state law that in theory allows for it to be pumped elsewhere. That makes its water of interest to cities like Phoenix, also dealing with water supply-related stress and a fast-growing population.

In Arizona, cities such as Phoenix and Tucson have restrictions on how much groundwater they can pump under a 1980 state law aimed at protecting the states aquifers. But in rural areas, little is required of water users to pump from underground aquifers besides registering wells with the state and using the water for activities, including farming, that are deemed a beneficial use.

Fondomonte also farms in Southern Californias Palo Verde Valley, an area that gets its water from the shrinking Colorado River. Those operations have attracted less scrutiny. Not all of Fondomonte's farms in Arizona are affected by the governor's decision. And its not the only foreign company farming in the Southwest. The United Arab Emirates-owned Al Dahra ACX Global Inc. grows forage crops in Arizona and California, and is a major North American exporter of hay.

Almarais holdings in the Southwest are just one example of the farmland the company and its subsidiaries operate outside Saudi Arabia. It farms tens of thousands of acres in Argentina, which has also faced severe drought conditions in recent years.

Foreign entities and individuals control roughly 3% of U.S. farmland, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Canada is the largest holder  mainly of forestland.

Kris Mayes, Arizonas Democratic attorney general, praised the governor for cracking down on the foreign-owned farm.

In April, Mayes announced that the state had rescinded permits that would've allowed Fondomonte to drill new water wells after inconsistencies were found in its applications. On Monday, Mayes called the governor's actions a "step in the right direction, adding that the state should have acted sooner.

The decision by the prior administration to allow foreign corporations to stick straws in the ground and pump unlimited amounts of groundwater to export alfalfa is scandalous, Mayes said.

___

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of APs environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) declared Monday that she would be revoking the lease of a Saudi-owned alfalfa venture that has for years siphoned off state water resources and rattled residents across party lines.

The governors office announced the immediate cancellation of one of four leases in Arizonas Butler Valley held by the company Fondomonte, after deeming the firm in significant ongoing default of its lease dating back to 2016.

The other three Butler Valley leases, set to expire in February, would not receive renewals, the announcement added.

Im not afraid to do what my predecessors refused to do  hold people accountable, maximize value for the state land trust, and protect Arizonas water future, Hobbs said in a statement.

Fondomonte acquired its Butler Valley leases, which cover about 3,500 acres of land northwest of Phoenix, in 2015. The region is home to critical groundwater supplies, in a desert state that is thirsting for such resources.

While Fondomonte received permits for its water wells in 2016  and has since been growing alfalfa to nourish cattle in Saudi Arabia  the firm made headlines last year when The Arizona Republic exposed its below-market lease terms.

With orders from Hobbs, the State Land Department conducted site inspections in August and determined that the company had failed to address defaults already identified in November 2016, according to the governors office.

Among the deficiencies left unresolved for seven years was a failure to install a system designed to contain leaks in diesel storage units, Hobbss office noted.

Its unacceptable that Fondomonte has continued to pump unchecked amounts of groundwater out of our state while in clear default on their lease, the governor said.

But even after Mondays decision  which can be appealed  the company has another 9,834 acres in Vicksburg, about 20 miles due south of Butler Valley.

Fondomonte is a subsidiary of Saudi Arabian dairy giant Almarai, which secured land in Arizona for growing alfalfa  a highly water-intensive crop  to feed its cattle at home.

Saudi Arabia instituted a near ban on cultivating green fodder in November 2018, with the goal of alleviating pressure on water resources, according to an analysis from the Dutch government.

Upon securing the Vicksburg land in 2014, Almarai reported its plans to supply of the highest quality alfalfa  a move considered in line with the Saudi government direction toward conserving local resources.

Arizona was a particularly attractive environment for such operations due to legal loopholes in state groundwater laws that essentially allow for unbridled water use. Historically, this nonrestrictive environment has attracted both domestic and international companies that are unable to conduct such water-intensive agriculture at home.

In addition to the immediate revocation of one of the Butler Valley permits, the governors office determined that renewing the other three would not be in the states best interest due to excessive amounts of water being pumped from the land  free of charge.

Butler Valley, Hobbss team stressed, is one of Arizonas five so-called water transportation basins, through which groundwater is conveyed throughout the state.

My administration has taken swift action to hold defaulting, high-volume water users accountable, Hobbs added in a separate statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Moving forward, I will continue to do everything in my power to protect Arizonas water so we can sustainably grow for generations to come, the governor said.

In response, Barrett Marson, a spokesperson for Fondomonte, said in a statement that the company believes that the state is mistaken that the firm is in breach of its lease.

Fondomonte will work with the governors office to highlight these factual errors, Marson said, noting that the company is adhering to all conditions of its lease.

As for the other leases the state intends to not renew, this would set a dangerous precedent for all farmers on state land leases, including being extremely costly to the state and Arizona taxpayers, he added.

Marson stressed that Fondomonte intends to explore all avenues to ensure there is no discrimination or unfair treatment, while also continuing to work with the state on resolving groundwater issues.

Taking down Fondomonte was a core campaign issue for both Hobbs and state Attorney General Kris Mayes, both of whom had pledged to repeal the states deals with the company.

Mayes applauded the decision Monday as a good step in the right direction for the future of Arizona, while noting that further action is necessary to protect the states water resources.

Slamming the prior administration for enabling foreign corporations to stick straws in the ground, the attorney general described this behavior as no less than scandalous.

While todays announcement is commendable, it should have been taken by state government much earlier, Mayes said a statement.

The failure to act sooner underscores the need for greater oversight and accountability in the management of our states most vital resource, she added.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Memphis Police are searching for three men after employees at a Whitehaven restaurant were robbed at gunpoint.

Armed robbers force their way into Whitehaven restaurant

Police said on Sept. 27, around 2 a.m., the suspects entered the Cook Out restaurant on Elvis Presley Boulevard by following an employee in through a side door, pointed guns at the employees, and made everyone lie on the floor.

The trio got away with three cash tills and a clear plastic container filled with money.

MPD released surveillance video of the incident and photos of the suspects Monday.

Police said the suspects fled the scene in a light colored sedan.

If you have any information about this incident, call CrimeStoppers at 901-528-CASH.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
Armenian lawmakers approved a key step towards joining the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday, a move that is set to escalate tensions with the ex-Soviet country's traditional ally Moscow.

Russia said it was "wrong" to ratify the treaty to join the international court, which in March issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine and the illegal deportation of children to Russia.

ICC members are expected to make the arrest if the Russian leader sets foot on their territory.

The vote illustrated a growing chasm between Moscow and Yerevan, which has grown angry with the Kremlin over its perceived inaction over Armenia's long-standing confrontation with Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani forces last month swept through the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh -- where Russian peacekeepers are deployed -- and secured the surrender of Armenian separatist forces that had controlled the mountainous region for decades.

An online broadcast from the Armenian parliamentary session showed a majority of 60 deputies voting in favour of the proposal, with 22 -- mainly opposition lawmakers -- voting against joining the ICC.

The Kremlin immediately criticised Armenia's decision.

"We are doubtful that, from the point of view of bilateral relations, Armenia's accession to the Rome Statute is correct," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"We still believe that it is the wrong decision," he added.

- 'Nothing better' -

Tensions have also been rising between Yerevan and Moscow over the role of Russian peacekeepers in the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, which announced its dissolution last week following the lightning military operation by Baku.

The territory lies within the internationally recognised border of Azerbaijan.

Armenian's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan last week sought to assuage Kremlin fears, saying the initiative was not "directed against" Russia.

"It comes from the interests of the country's external security, and taking such a decision is our sovereign right," he said.

Pashinyan has been critical of Moscow's refusal to intervene during Azerbaijan's offensive, and previously said his country's foreign security alliance with Moscow was "ineffective".

The Kremlin struck back again on Tuesday.

"The Armenian side has nothing better than these mechanisms," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

On Tuesday, Armenia's representative on international legal matters, told parliament that the decision was focused on the country's security concerns.

"We are creating additional guarantees for Armenia" in the face of the threat to the country's territorial integrity from arch-foe Azerbaijan, said Eghishe Kirakosyan.

It was an apparent reference to May 2021, when Azerbaijani forces occupied a small pocket of land inside Armenia, near the countries' shared border.

The arch foes have been locked in a decades-long rivalry.

Kirakosyan said that Yerevan had proposed signing a bilateral agreement with Moscow to alleviate Russia's concerns over the ratification of the Rome Statute.

- Dissolution -

Armenia signed the Rome Statute in 1999, but did not ratify it, citing contradictions with the country's constitution.

The constitutional court said in March those obstacles had been removed after Armenia's adoption of a new constitution in 2015.

After the offensive in September, most of the Armenian population fled the self-proclaimed republic of Karabakh, whose authorities announced that it would be dissolved by January 1, 2024.

After the fall of the Russian Empire, the mountainous region, populated mainly by Armenians who regard it as part of their ancestral land, has been part of Azerbaijan.

It unilaterally proclaimed its independence with the support of Armenia when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Karabakh separatists resisted Baku with the support of Yerevan for three decades, notably during the first Karabakh war from 1988 to 1994 and the second in 2020.

That six-week war ended in a deal brokered by Russia that saw the 2,000-strong peacekeeping contingent deployed.

The international community never recognised the territory's independence.

mkh-im-brw/dt/gw
The Armenian parliament voted in favor of ratifying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Oct. 3. If signed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan , Armenian authorities will be obliged to arrest Russian dictator Vladimir Putin if he sets foot in the country.

On March 17, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian official allegedly overseeing the forced deportations of at least tens of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia and Russian-occupied territories.

The ICC asserts that there are "reasonable grounds to believe" that Putin holds direct accountability for supervising the deportations and that he neglected to exert authority over Russian soldiers and civilians executing the crime across occupied Ukrainian regions from the onset of Russia's all-out war against Ukraine.

All 123 countries that are members of the ICC and have ratified the Rome Statute, which establishes crimes falling within the jurisdiction of the court, are now obliged to cooperate with the court's demand to arrest Putin.

The vote, which passed in the Armenian parliament with 60 in favor and 22 against, must still be signed by Pashinyan to come into force. Pashinyan has said previously that it is in Armenia's interest to ratify the statute.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia would consider it an "extremely hostile" move.

The vote comes in the wake of Azerbaijan's victory over the self-declared ethnic Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which was defeated by Azerbaijani forces on Sept. 20 and officially ordered to be dissolved as a political entity by the beginning of 2024.

Russian "peacekeepers" were stationed in the area, nominally to stop violence between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, but did nothing to prevent Azerbaijan's Sept. 20 offensive. Tensions between Armenia and their long-time ally Russia have risen since then, and Pashinyan hinted that Armenia could no longer rely on Russia.

Read also: Russias peacekeeper act crumbles as Azerbaijan overwhelms Nagorno-Karabakh

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Armenian lawmakers attend the session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia in Yerevan, Armenia, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. The Armenian parliament on Tuesday voted to join the International Criminal Court, which earlier this year indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes connected to the deportation of children from Ukraine. (Hayk Baghdasaryan/PHOTOLURE via AP)

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP)  Armenia's parliament voted Tuesday to join the International Criminal Court, a move that further strains the country's ties with its old ally Russia after the court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin over events in Ukraine.

Moscow last month called Yerevan's effort to join the the ICC an unfriendly step," and the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Armenia's ambassador. Countries that have signed and ratified the Rome Statute that created the ICC are bound to arrest Putin, who was indicted for war crimes connected to the deportation of children from Ukraine, if he sets foot on their soil.

Armenia later sought to assure Russia that Putin would not be arrested if he entered the country.

Still, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Tuesday's decision incorrect, saying it will raise additional questions in Moscow, even though Armenia is our ally, a friendly state, our partner, and a lot unites us with the brotherly Armenian people.

Asked if Putin would have to refrain from traveling to Armenia, he added: Of course, we wouldn't want the president to have to ever, for whatever reason, refuse a visit to Armenia.

A diplomatic solution is needed and will be discussed with Yerevan, he said.

Armenian officials have argued the move has nothing to do with Russia and was prompted by what they call Azerbaijan's aggression against the country.

Lawmakers voted to ratify the Rome Statute by a vote of 60-22. The measure goes next to Armenia's president, who must prepare a ratification document, which is then deposited with the U.N. secretary-general. The decision comes into force 60 days after the ratification, according to Armenian lawmakers.

Armenia's relations with Russia have frayed significantly in recent years.

In 2020, Moscow brokered a deal that ended a six-week war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It mandated that Yerevan cede to Baku large swaths of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Azerbaijan with a predominantly Armenian population.

Russia then sent some 2,000 peacekeepers to the tumultuous region and Armenia has accused the troops of failing to prevent recent hostilities by Azerbaijan that led to Baku taking full control of the region.

The Kremlin, in turn, has accused Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of precipitating the fall of Nagorno-Karabakh by acknowledging Azerbaijans sovereignty over the region.

Moscow also blames Yerevan for damaging ties with Russia by embracing the West, including hosting U.S. troops for joint military drills.

It remains unclear whether Pashinyan might take Armenia out of the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization, a group of several former Soviet nations, and other Russia-led alliances. Armenia also hosts a Russian military base and Russian border guards help patrol Armenias frontier with Turkey.

Armenia had started the process of joining the ICC more than 20 years ago, but in 2004 its Constitutional Court ruled that the Rome Statute contradicted the countrys constitution at the time, putting the process on pause. The constitution has been amended twice since then. In March, the Constitutional Court ruled that the obligations for signatories outlined by the Rome Statute are in line with the existing constitution.

Armenias envoy on international legal matters, Yegishe Kirakosyan, said Yerevan decided to resume the process of joining the ICC because of Bakus alleged aggression against Armenia. Armenian officials last year accused Azerbaijan of killing a number of Armenian prisoners of war, an allegation Baku had promised to investigate.

Human Rights Watch hailed Armenia's move and urged other countries in the region to follow its example.

Armenias decision to join the International Criminal Court in the face of strong opposition  including from Russia  deserves international support,'' Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

At a time when there is a major risk of grave abuses around the globe, Armenias move to ratify the Rome treaty sends a strong message that the days of absolute impunity for these crimes are ending," the statement said.

Yerevan wants the ICCs jurisdiction to take force starting from May 10, 2021, but under the courts founding treaty, Armenia would likely have to make a separate declaration to that effect.

Kirakosyan said last week that Armenia has proposed to Moscow a bilateral agreement to assuage Russia's concerns about Putin. The text was presented to Russia in April, he said, and Armenian officials have been waiting for a response.

Kirakosyan also said an arrest of Putin is not a possibility even after Armenia joins the ICC, since leaders have immunity.

Asked about the agreement that Yerevan proposed, Peskov said Tuesday it is merely an idea of the Armenian side, that still needs to be worked out. Serious conversations on this topic are ahead. We need to for some kind of a diplomatic solution in this regard, he said.

___

Associated Press writers Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed.
KINGS COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE)  An Armona business was issued an ABC license suspension on Sept. 29 after an employee allegedly sold alcohol to a minor decoy, the Kings County Sheriffs Office announced.

Deputies say on June 1 they sent a minor decoy into Pizza King near 14th Avenue in Armona to attempt to purchase an alcoholic beverage. A violation was obtained and the employee was issued a citation for selling alcohol to a minor.

On Friday, Sept. 29, sheriffs deputies say they assisted an agent with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control with posting an ABC license suspension at the location.

The Kings County Sheriff says the 10-day license suspension was part of the administrative sanctions served against the ABC license holder.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com.
FILE - Students in the new Army prep course stand at attention after physical training exercises at Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C., Aug. 27, 2022. The Army is launching a sweeping overhaul of its recruiting to focus more on young people who have spent time in college or are job hunting early in their careers. The aim is to reverse years of enlistment shortfalls. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford, File)

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Army is launching a sweeping overhaul of its recruiting to focus more on young people who have spent time in college or are job hunting early in their careers, as it scrambles to reverse years of enlistment shortfalls.

A major part of this is the formation of a new professional force of recruiters instead of relying on soldiers randomly assigned to the task.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, in an interview with The Associated Press, said some of the changes will begin in the next 90 days but a wholesale transformation will take years.

We have not been recruiting very well for many more years than one would think from just looking at the headlines in the last 18 months, Wormuth said, adding that the Army hasnt met its annual goal for new enlistment contracts since 2014.

Last year, the Army fell 15,000 short of its enlistment goal of 60,000 while competing with higher-paying companies in a tight job market and trying to overcome two years of the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down access to schools and public events. In the fiscal year that ended Saturday, the Army brought in a bit more than 50,000 recruits, falling short of the publicly stated stretch goal of 65,000.

Army officials, however, said that number still allows the service to meet its required total strength of 452,000. They said the Army also signed up an additional 4,600 recruits for future contracts, in an effort to build back the pool of delayed-entry recruits, which had eroded. Those recruits will go to basic training over the next year.

On Tuesday, Wormuth told reporters in a briefing that the Army has not yet decided what the new fiscal year's recruiting goal will be, but said it would likely be less than 65,000. The lower number, she said, also reflects the fact that the size of the Army has been shrinking from the 485,000 level during the peaks of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

In testimony before Congress during his confirmation hearing, Gen. Randy George, who is now chief of staff of the Army, called recruiting " the No. 1 challenge that we face and the one thing that we have to be focused on. And he said the service must better tailor its messaging and marketing.

The Navy and the Air Force also fell short of their recruitment goals for the fiscal year that ended Saturday, but leaders said both did better than predictions earlier this year. The Marine Corps and the tiny Space Force have said they would meet their enlistment targets.

Marine leaders, including Brig. Gen. Walker Field, who heads the Corps' eastern recruiting region, have said one key to their success is choosing the right recruiters and encouraging successful ones to stay on. The Marines are also repositioning recruiting stations to areas where populations have grown.

The Army's recruiting increase this year is considered a short-term victory made possible by a number of new and upgraded programs and benefits. But Wormuth said it will take systemic changes in how the Army approaches the labor market and sells the service as a career to turn things around.

At the same time, she said the Army must concentrate on the things it can change since there are many things it cannot, such as lack of fitness among youths and unwillingness to serve.

While recruiters have long relied heavily on high school seniors or graduates to fill the ranks, Wormuth said they need to reach beyond that pool and seek applicants on job sites like ZipRecruiter, Indeed or Glassdoor.

The vast majority of people who are out there making employment decisions are people who have more than a high school education, Wormuth said. We need to figure out how to talk to that much broader labor market.

She said that as more students go on to college, high school graduates now make up just 15% to 20% of the labor market. And the Army gets about half of its recruits from that shrinking population.

We are not abandoning the high school market by any means, Wormuth said, but by 2028 she wants the Army to have one-third of its recruits to have more than a high school diploma, rather than the current one-fifth,.

Part of that is showcasing the Army's higher-tech jobs with computers, satellites and artificial intelligence to lure those who may still think of the service as just infantry troops.

The other major change, which will begin to form in the coming months, is the transition to a professional recruiting workforce. Rather than using soldiers who are voluntold to take on a special assignment as recruiters, the Army is establishing a new permanent and specialized enlistment workforce.

There are currently about 8,000 Army recruiters, and only a bit more than a third have recruiting as their actual job classification.

The change will mirror how private companies work and will take several years. But Wormuth said the Army will quickly start a pilot program to begin identifying and training the new force. As part of the process, the Army will use a new aptitude test designed to identify soldiers who have a higher potential for being successful recruiters.

Other changes will include planning larger Army career fairs and restructuring the command leadership, elevating the head of recruiting to a three-star job with a four-year term for more continuity.

And, while the Army will still look at increased bonuses and push the health care and education funding in the military, money is not likely to be a key driver for recruits. And recruiters will need to sell the less tangible benefits of service.

At the end of the day, I think that what offsets what we dont offer in terms of compensation we make up for with being part of something bigger, Wormuth said. Ask anyone wearing a uniform in my office. They will tell you that what keeps them re-enlisting or staying until 20 years or beyond is the people and doing something that really matters.
 Flash

Akbar Notezai, a journalist from the capital city Quetta of Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province was "pleasantly shocked" after witnessing the development of Qingdao City of east China's Shandong Province during a recent visit.



"Before embarking on my trip to China, I conducted some research on Qingdao Port, and I knew that it is one of the largest comprehensive ports in the world. But the development I saw there was beyond my imagination," Notezai told Xinhua.

Notezai was part of a 10-member delegation of Pakistani journalists primarily hailing from Balochistan, who recently returned to Pakistan after a 10-day trip to China.

During their visit, Notezai found the Chinese people exceptionally hospitable and witnessed the warmth of friendship in their eyes towards the Pakistani people.

He expressed the hope that the people of the two countries will have a closer interaction to further strengthen the Pakistan-China friendship.

Many members of the delegation visited China for the first time and witnessed the impressive infrastructure projects, experienced traveling in high-speed railway, and saw thriving technology sectors that have propelled China's economic growth.

Behram Baloch, a journalist from Balochistan's Gwadar district, said the visit boosted their confidence and filled them with hope as they witnessed China's exceptional capability to construct state-of-the-art infrastructure and successfully operate it.

"I hope that Gwadar port, being developed by the Chinese friends, will play a great role in Balochistan's development and contribute significantly to its economic growth in the same way as Qingdao Port did," he added.

All the development projects that were built by the Chinese in Gwadar so far, including the Gwadar port, vocational training institute, New Gwadar International Airport, and Gwadar Port's Free Zone, are great opportunities for Pakistan to benefit from them, he added.

The Pakistan journalist said during his trip he felt that if university students from Balochistan get the opportunity to visit China or study there, it will prove to be very beneficial for them and for Pakistan.

"Sending university students to China can be an incredibly enriching experience, offering them a unique opportunity to learn and broaden their horizons in various ways," Baloch said.

China's rich history, diverse culture, and rapid economic development provide a multifaceted backdrop for educational trips, he added.

The delegation said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a great hope for Pakistan, and after visiting China and seeing the technological and infrastructural excellence of the country with their very eyes, they believe it will be a game changer for Pakistan.

Launched in 2013, the CPEC, a flagship project of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, is a corridor linking Pakistan's Gwadar port with Kashgar in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, highlighting energy, transport and industrial cooperation.

Talking to Xinhua, Furqan Rao, an Islamabad-based journalist who led the delegation to China, said the CPEC is making substantial contributions to Pakistan's infrastructural development and helping Pakistan overcome its energy crisis.

"CPEC played a vital role in providing Pakistan with a modern transportation network, energy solutions, and industrial infrastructure, which are boosting trade, creating jobs, and improving the overall socio-economic life for the people of Pakistan," he said.
The Army fell short of its recruiting goal by about 10,000 people this year, prompting the service to launch major reforms aimed at attracting and signing new soldiers, the Armys top leaders revealed Tuesday.

The service hit just 55,000 contracts in fiscal 2023, which ended on Sept. 30  far short of its target of 65,000 new recruits, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told reporters at the Pentagon.

The service has failed to meet its recruiting goals two fiscal years in a row, resulting in the smallest active-duty force since 1940. The number of active-duty troops has dropped from 485,000 in 2021 to around 452,000.

We knew, frankly, when we said that that was going to be tough to make, Wormuth said of the 2023 recruiting goal. But it was very important that we needed to send a strong signal, both to our recruiting workforce to put the pedal to the metal, and also to show Congress and the public that we were going to push as hard as we can.

Wormuth attributed the gap in numbers to a lot of things happening that are outside of the United States Armys ability to control, such as a competitive labor market and a dip in young Americans who are both eligible to join the military and want to.

A lot of that is beyond the Armys ability to singularly change, she said.

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The U.S. military first implemented an all-volunteer force in 1973 with the end of the draft. In the 50 years since then, however, the labor market and social views of the military have fundamentally changed. Even with higher enlistment bonuses and promises to pay off college debt, most young Americans are uninterested in the armed forces.

That means the Army is struggling to hit recruitment goals even as service planners call for growing the force. The service has not met its contract goals since 2014.

One of the things that we have found is that the job market has changed very significantly over the last 20 years  and we have not, frankly, Wormuth said. The Army has not changed very much how we approach that job market, while a lot of our competitors in the private sector have.

In the face of this, Army leaders have turned their attention to changing what we can control  seizing our own destiny, with sweeping changes in how the service will identify and recruit talent, according to Wormuth.

That includes looking at a larger share of the youth labor market beyond recent high school graduates, with recruiters expected to now focus more on those who have more than a high school education, the Army secretary said.

The Army actually gets 50 percent of our contracts from high school seniors or high school graduates. But when you look at the broader labor market, only 15 to 20 percent of the labor market is comprised of individuals with just high school education, Wormuth noted.

By 2028, service officials hope to get a third of new contracts annually from Americans already out of high school.

Were, of course, going to continue to seek high school graduates, she added.

Other efforts to pull in talent include piloting large-scale career fairs in major population centers, similar to what private sector companies do, as well as creating a specialized talent acquisition workforce, Wormuth said.

The Army is also revamping its recruiting command, putting it under a three-star general and adding new talent acquisition jobs, giving recruiters additional training.

Unlike the private sector, we do not have a specialized, permanent recruiting workforce  if were going to be successful going forward, we need to change that, the Army secretary said.

The changes come after Army leaders tasked a study team to review 25 years of data to help diagnose the services recruiting issues.

Several of the changes will take several years to implement, but service leaders hope they will ultimately help the Army attract up to 60,000 new active-duty members per year.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Former U.S. Army infantryman Dalton J. Medlin was reportedly killed on Sept. 27 during a reconnaissance mission while serving as a volunteer fighter in Ukraine.

Though Medlins death has yet to be confirmed by the U.S. State Department, fellow Army veteran Ryan OLeary, who served alongside Medlin in Ukraine as part of the all-volunteer Chosen Company, announced the death of his friend. Task and Purpose was first to report Medlins death.

Medlin, who used the call sign Gimli, first joined Chosen Company at the beginning of the year, OLeary wrote.

He was brave, fearless, dedicated, and always placed his brothers first, he said. He excelled as a grenadier and at soldiering in general. He stayed Laser focused both in and out of combat. ... His smile was contagious.

The American volunteer soldier Dalton Gimli Medlin from Texas has been killed in battle against the Russian Army.



The info has been confirmed by his brother-in-arms @IhateTrenches



Rest in Peace Hero



 pic.twitter.com/4lVMQyWpdo  Visegrad 24 (@visegrad24) October 1, 2023

At the time of publication, OLeary was not available to comment further on the circumstances of Medlins death or the mission undertaken by Chosen Company, a unit made up of English-speaking veteran volunteers who serve alongside Ukrainian troops with the 59th Mechanized Brigade.

A State Department official told Military Times that while the department will not yet confirm Medlin was killed in action, officials are apprised of current reports out of Ukraine.

We are aware of unconfirmed reports of the death of a U.S. citizen in Donetsk and we are continuing to seek additional information, a department spokesperson said. Our ability to verify reports of deaths of U.S. citizens in Ukraine is limited. In addition, not all U.S. citizen deaths may be reported to U.S. authorities.

Current casualty numbers for Americans fighting in Ukraine also remain unclear.

We do not have a number to offer, the spokesperson added. U.S. citizens are not required to register their travel to a foreign country with us, and we cannot track how many U.S. citizens have gone to a specific country.

Medlin, who served in the Army between 2017 and 2021, was the recipient of the Army Commendation Medal, three Army Achievement Medals, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, a Korean Defense Service Medal, and an Army Service Ribbon, according to Army spokesman Bryce Dubee.
Defendants Joseph Argilagos and Lydell Brown appear before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Marc C. Lemieux on charges of murder. Argilagos, 17, was waived up to adult court last week and was indicted with his co-defendant Brown in the murder of Dariel Vernet of Asbury Park in the city. Freehold, NJ Monday, October 2, 2023

FREEHOLD  An Asbury Park juvenile, named with another teenager in a recent murder indictment, is identified in a police document as the person who repeatedly shot a 19-year-old man in a crime-ridden area of Asbury Park last year, killing him.

An affidavit of probable cause to charge the juvenile and his older codefendant with murder said the younger defendant, Joseph Argilagos, now 17, was pictured on surveillance video firing on Dariel Vernet "multiple times'' outside the Frederick Douglas apartment complex on Prospect Avenue about 5:45 p.m. on July 8, 2022.

Minutes earlier, Argilagos and his co-defendant, Lydell Brown, 19, of Asbury Park, were seen leaving the nearby Lincoln Village apartments on bicycles, heading toward the Frederick Douglas apartments as Vernet was heading that way on foot, the affidavit said.

The 19-year-old victim immediately fell to the ground, motionless, after Argilagos fired on him, the affidavit said.

After the shooting, Argilagos was depicted on surveillance video running across Langford Avenue, through the courtyard of the Lincoln Village complex and into an apartment building, from which he re-emerged less than five minutes later, wearing a change of clothes, the affidavit said.

Vernet, unresponsive and suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, was taken to Jersey Shore University Hospital in Neptune, where he was pronounced dead a little more than an hour after he was shot.

Argilagos and Brown both appeared at an arraignment Monday before Superior Court Judge Marc C. Lemieux, at which their attorneys entered not-guilty pleas to the murder charge on their behalf.

A hearing to determine if Argilagos would be held in jail without bail to await trial was scheduled for Monday, but it did not occur because the defendant's attorney, John Perrone, said his client consented to being detained.

Brown already was ordered held without bail to await trial, following his arrest in Toms River in May.

Argilagos was arrested shortly after the shooting and has been held in a juvenile detention facility since then. His identity only recently was made public after the state won a motion to prosecute him as an adult in the case, and a Monmouth County grand jury indicted the pair last month on murder and weapons charges.

LeMieux scheduled a conference for both defendants for Oct. 30 before Superior Court Judge Jill Grace O'Malley.

Vernet's killing is not the first time someone was fatally gunned down in the immediate vicinity.

Denzel Morgan-Hicks, 27, of Barnegat, a member of the Crips street gang, died in a hail of gunfire on Prospect Avenue, outside the Frederick Douglas apartments, amid a gang feud in 2017.

Reputed members of the Bloods street gang, Avery Hopes, 27, of Asbury Park, and Vernon Sanders, 37, of Brick, stood trial in the gang execution earlier this year, but a mistrial was declared when the jury couldn't reach a unanimous verdict.

Hopes later pleaded guilty to attempted murder.

Sanders is scheduled to be retried for the murder next month.

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Asbury Park juvemile caugth on video firing on murder victim: Police
An assistant principal at a Northwest school district campus in Fort Worth has been arrested and faces a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child.

Mose Brown, an assistant principal at Eaton High School, was arrested Monday evening, according to the school district. He has been in his role of assistant principal since July 2020.

The accusation does not involve a current or former student of Northwest ISD and police are not seeking additional victims, Eaton High School Principal Stacy Miles told parents in a letter about the arrest. Until the investigation is complete, Brown is banned from district property and is on administrative leave.

Fort Worth police said in response to a Star-Telegram request for information that the department cannot provide any information on the case or investigation because the alleged victim is a minor.

Jail records indicate the allegation involves a child under the age of 14. Brown was being held in the Tarrant County Jail on Tuesday with bond set at $50,000.

The district will fully cooperate with police in the investigation, Miles said in the letter. She said the district cannot release any other information about the charges or the investigation because it is ongoing.

Please know we hold all employees to a high standard and will continue to do so, Miles wrote in the letter.
ATACMS missiles could push back Russia's lethal helicopter force, but Ukraine will need perfect timing to pull it off

An Army Tactical Missile System. US military photo by John Hamilton

The US looks set to send Ukraine the Army Tactical Missile System, which Kyiv has long sought.

ATACMS has longer range than Ukraine's other missiles, allowing it to hit valuable Russian targets.

But using it effectively will require accurate intelligence and precise targeting, experts say.

The US appears is set to send Ukraine the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System, a short-range ballistic missile that Kyiv has long sought and Washington has long declined to provide.

The missile, with both unitary and cluster-munition warheads, would allow Ukrainian forces to reach well beyond the range of the Western-made cruise missiles and rocket artillery they already have to strike valuable targets, such as Russian air bases, but hitting them will require timely intelligence and precise targeting, experts say.

After months of declining Ukraine's requests, President Joe Biden reportedly told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he was willing to send ATACMS, as the missile is known, at a meeting in Washington DC last month. There has not been a formal announcement, but Doug Bush, the US Army's assistant secretary for acquisition, told Bloomberg this week that the missiles to be sent have been identified and that officials were "ready when and if" Biden approves.

US officials have cited concern about depleting the US's own ATACMS stockpile as a reason not to send it to Ukraine, but the decision to provide cluster munitions earlier this year expanded the range of ATACMS warheads that could be provided and is seen as reducing that concern.

US soldiers load ATACMS M39 cluster munitions on a truck at Tirana airport in Albania in April 1999. MIKE NELSON/AFP via Getty Images

Depending on the model, cluster-warhead ATACMS carry 300 to 950 anti-personnel and anti-material bomblets and have a range of roughly 15 miles to 186 miles. ATACMS with unitary warheads have similar ranges, according to the Army's weapons guide. The missiles all have inertial guidance aided by GPS.

The fact that ATACMS can be fired from HIMARS launchers and M270 multiple-launch rocket systems that Ukraine already has means the missiles will complement Ukraine's other strike assets and allow them to be "much more distributed" and "much more resilient and survivable," Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said on a September 28 episode of the War on the Rocks podcast.

ATACMS "will definitely put in danger Russian forward helicopter operating bases and those that are known to be operating from cities like Berdyansk," Kofman added. "It can target assembly areas, any significant concentrations of troops, and a host of time-sensitive targets."

Russian attack helicopters, especially the Ka-52 Alligator, have been particularly effective in southern Ukraine, where Kyiv launched a counteroffensive in early June to recapture territory connecting Russian-occupied Crimea to Russian-held areas in eastern Ukraine.

A Ka-52 Alligator helicopter in Russia's Krasnodar region in March 2019. VITALY TIMKIV/AFP via Getty Images

In mid-June, the British Ministry of Defence said Russia had reinforced its attack helicopters in region, citing imagery showing more than 20 helicopters deployed to Berdyansk Airport, some 62 miles from the frontline. The airport has already faced heavy attacks.

In late July, the ministry described the Ka-52 as "one of the single most influential Russian weapon systems" in the region, saying that despite some 40 being lost, Ka-52s had "imposed a heavy cost on Ukraine," especially with anti-tank missiles they can fire from beyond the range of Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles.

Against dispersed targets, whether it be an air-defense battery or helicopters on a tarmac, ATACMS armed with cluster munitions would likely be more effective than other weapons Ukraine has, experts say.

"There's really no other system available that provides that capability of doing precision strikes against area targets," Colby Badhwar, an independent Canadian security analyst, said on a September 28 episode of the Geopolitics Decanted podcast.

"If you wanted to destroy a target that was more distributed, such as a Russian surface-to-air-missile battery, then it's very difficult to destroy the entirety of that battery if you're using missiles that just have a unitary explosive warhead," Badhwar said.

Submunition attacks are often used to spread destruction across airfields, denying fighters and bombers the runways they need to get airborne; by contrast, helicopters need much less space to take off but still rely on facilities needed to refuel and re-arm.

Russian Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters at a base in Crimea in April 2021. Maxar Technologies via Getty Images

ATACMS fired from HIMARS and M270 launchers that Ukraine has near the frontlines, coupled with the missiles' supersonic speeds, would mean a shorter targeting cycle than with cruise missiles, which are launched from fighter jets that are generally based in western Ukraine.

"Assuming that you do have a target acquired and you know what the coordinates are, ATACMS is much more responsive to a target that might be time-sensitive and you need to hit it as soon as possible," Badhwar said.

Target acquisition is no simple task, however. An inefficient targeting cycle is a major Russian military weakness, and finding and hitting targets dozens of miles from the frontline would likely be difficult for Ukraine.

"In order to engage time-sensitive targets, you need to actually have the [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] and the targeting to be able to find and fix these targets," Kofman said, adding that doing so beyond ranges of 18 to 25 miles "is very difficult for Ukrainian forces now."

The US, which has monitored the battlefield closely since Russia attacked last year, may well assist with targeting, but that would likely create "a very tight sort of decision-making cycle  of getting that information, relaying to Ukraine forces, and then making a decision to employ these assets," Kofman said.

Ukrainian troops look at a wrecked Russian Ka-52 attack helicopter at Hostomel Airport near Kyiv in July 2022. Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images

If Kyiv receives a limited number of ATACMS, senior officials may retain authority over their employment, adding more "turnkeys" that could slow the process and restrict how they are used, Kofman said.

Russia's military also has a say in ATACMS' effectiveness. It took heavy losses when Ukraine introduced HIMARS and began hitting more distant targets, but it adapted to that and has shown signs of adapting to the cruise missiles Ukraine has started using.

Russian commanders may adapt to ATACMS and may do so sooner if their intelligence assets spot the missiles before they are used; ATACMS is also vulnerable to Russian air defenses, though it likely has an edge, Badhwar said.

While ATACMS is unlikely to be game-changer, both analysts said it would be very valuable and that its ultimate impact hinges on how Ukraine employs it.

"That depends on the ability to find and fix targets at that range," Kofman said. "That depends on those targets actually being available, on close coordination with other folks that can help enable targeting, and of course on numbers of systems provided."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Atascadero police have identified the elderly man who was killed when he was hit by a pickup truck on El Camino Real last week.

Joel Chesler, a 79-year-old Atascadero resident, was crossing the street toward Vons from the west side of the roadway when he was struck by a vehicle on Sept. 26.

Chesler was treated at the scene and transported to Sierra Visa Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo with life-threatening injuries, police said.

He died on the way to the hospital.

El Camino Real was closed for several hours following the collision.

Terrie Banish, spokesperson for the city, told The Tribune that a pickup truck pulled out of the Vons parking lot and started to make a left turn onto El Camino Real when the collision occurred.

The driver remained on scene and has been cooperative with the investigation, she said.

On behalf of the Atascadero Police Department, we extend our condolences to the Chesler family during this difficult time, police said in the news release.

The department asks anyone with questions to contact the non-emergency dispatch line at (805) 461-5051.
State College leaders rallied Monday against antisemitic messages scattered through several of the boroughs neighborhoods, describing them as everything from repugnant to inhumane.

State College Mayor Ezra Nanes  the boroughs first Jewish mayor  said the messages represented an attack on all of us.

We are a community founded on inclusion, welcoming and empowering all people, Nanes said. I want to condemn these acts, and I want to encourage all people to express their needs and their feelings and not make it about other peoples identities, but about what we need as a community.

Borough Council President Jesse Barlow said he felt heartbreak for those who received the messages, as well as an outrage that is impossible for me to overstate.

The kind of hatred expressed by this literature strikes at the heart of our community and in everything that we want to be, Barlow said. I have seen this before in other places I have lived, including when I lived in Chicago and when I lived in New York City. This kind of hate has no place in State College, no place in our society. It has no place in the United States of America. Let us join together to deny this kind of hatred a future.

Residents, including a Jewish candidate for Borough Council, found the antisemitic messages Sunday outside of their homes. Each of the messages were placed inside a zip-close bag that contained rice to weigh them down.

State College Borough Council President Jesse Barlow and State College Mayor Ezra Nanes listen during Mondays Borough Council meeting to resident Evan Myers talk about the antisemitic messages that were found in his neighborhood.

Evan Myers, a former council president running for a new term in November, said the messages were distributed to others who are Jewish, as well as some neighbors that are not.

The attack is on Jews today. Who will they attack next? The people that do this try to use our differences as a wedge. Thats the part these haters dont get, Myers said. Our differences are what actually unite us, what makes our democracy strong. These differences let us see each other as we are and we learn from each other. We accept each other, we work together and move toward that more perfect union. That will never be defeated. Their hate will never overcome that unity.

Similar messages were found Sept. 11 in downtown State College and on Penn States campus, Myers said. Borough police are aware of about a dozen flyers that were distributed, the department wrote in a statement Tuesday.

State College resident Evan Myers talks Monday about the antisemitic messages that were found in he and his neighbors front yards during the State College Borough Council meeting.

Borough police Chief John Gardner said antisemitic messages have no place in our community. He pledged his department would do everything we can to identify those individual or individuals responsible and well prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.

The police are here for you, Gardner said. If you get a flyer or if you feel threatened, call right away. I dont care what time of the day or night it is. We have to bring this to the forefront.

Similar messages were found in August in a small town about 70 miles west of Boston. The towns police department said it believed the messages were distributed by a neo-Nazi extremist group the Anti-Defamation League calls a loose network of individuals connected by their virulent antisemitism.

The group, the ADL wrote on its website, engages in antisemitic stunts and schemes to troll or otherwise harass Jews.

What concerns me the most about events like these are that it doesnt take a lot to normalize fringe elements of our society, council member Gopal Balachandran said. ... As a community we all bear a responsibility to make sure that things like this do not happen and that all members of our community are welcome. Antisemitism is always the tip of the spear toward hate and then it follows with all kinds of phobias and racisms.

State Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Rush Township, wrote Monday in a Facebook post he spoke with Myers about the messages. Stopping the spread of hate, he wrote, will take everyone standing together.

We may not be able to eradicate anti-semitism and bigotry overnight, but we can speak out collectively, to let the world know that hate has no home in our community, Conklin wrote. I condemn this hatred to the fullest extent and stand in solidarity with our Jewish friends and neighbors.

State Rep. Paul Takac, D-College Township, described the messages as vile, unacceptable and unAmerican.

This is Pennsylvania  founded in freedom and tolerance  as a place where all are welcome, Takac wrote. Those who would deny those freedoms to others while hiding behind their own hatred disgrace the values that built this commonwealth.

Council member Nalini Krishnankutty encouraged people to speak against any display of hate or bias.

Its up to us to speak up against it in every place. The seeds are sown and when we dont speak up when they are, then they grow, Krishnankutty said. ... We cannot wait to stand up at the moment when the extreme actions are seen.

Added council member Divine Lipscomb: This is not new, and its not changing unless we continue to stand up. ... Theres hate that continues to happen on a daily basis and we have to continue to stand together to combat this hate.

Anyone with information about the flyers is asked to contact the State College Police Department at 814-234-7150, email the department or submit an anonymous tip through their website.

State College Borough Council members share their thoughts Monday about the antisemitic messages that were found in the area.
The attorney representing Brooks Houck in the murder case against him for allegedly killing Crystal Rogers has asked a judge to consider lowering his $10 million bond, according to court documents.

Houck, 41, was arrested last Wednesday approximately one week after a Nelson County grand jury handed down an indictment against him. He faces charges of murder and tampering with physical evidence.

The indictment against Houck says he, acting alone or in complicity with another, committed the offense of murder by intentionally or under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life wantonly causing the death of Crystal Rogers. He also, destroyed, mutilated, concealed, removed or altered the physical evidence which he believed was about to be produced or used in such official proceeding, with the intent to impair its verity or availability in the official proceeding, his indictment reads.

Houck is being held at the Hardin County Detention Center, according to jail records.

Houcks lawyer, Brian Butler, has asked for his clients bond to be lowered to $500,000. In his motion, he called the $10 million bond excessive and punitive.

A $10,000,000 bond simply ignores Mr. Houcks constitutional right to the presumption of innocence, Butler wrote in his motion.

Butler said Houck would agree to electronic GPS monitoring with work release if a bond is posted.

A $10,000,000 bond is excessive, punitive, and serves no purpose other than to punish Mr. Houck by keeping him incarcerated while this matter is pending, Butler wrote in the motion.

Butler pointed out how Houck cooperated with law enforcement during the investigation despite being named a suspect early on. Houck agreed to police interrogation and even took a polygraph test, which showed no signs of deception when he denied wrongdoing related to Rogers disappearance.

Motorists pass a billboard on Springfield Road asking for information in the disappearance of Crystal Rogers In Bardstown, Ky., Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021. Rogers was first reported missing in the summer of 2015.

Houck has also been subjected to character assassination for eight years by the press coverage of the investigation, Butler wrote in the motion. Nonetheless, Houck stayed in Nelson County and continued running his business while maintaining his innocence.

Butler said Houcks business would fail before a jury decides to convict Houck if the $10 million bond keeps him incarcerated during the judicial process.

He has never run away, but instead has tried to be the best father, son, sibling, and business owner he could be in the face of it all, Butler wrote in the motion.

Houck is a low flight risk and a low risk of danger to the community based on his lack of criminal history and connections to the community, Butler said in the motion.

A judge will respond to Butlers motion during Houcks arraignment on Thursday. The hearing will take place at 1 p.m. at Nelson County Circuit Court, according to court records.
(Bloomberg) -- Support among Australians for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament to be included in the constitution recorded a rare rise, an opinion poll showed, as early voting begins in the countrys first referendum in 24 years.

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An Essential Media survey released Tuesday found increased backing for an Indigenous advisory body to Parliament, or the Voice, with the Yes side climbing to 43% from 41% and those opposed sliding to 49% from 51%. It was the first gain for Yes after months of worsening figures. All major surveys show the No side leading.

Australians will vote Oct. 14 on whether to write the advisory body into its constitution, which would ensure it couldnt be scrapped in a change of government. If the referendum is successful, the Voice would advise the government on issues which affect Indigenous Australians.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese , who initiated the referendum, said the poll is a positive sign, adding that the vote is certainly winnable.

Early balloting has already begun, including in remote Indigenous communities, with less than two weeks until referendum day.

The Voice to Parliament was initially proposed following a gathering of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders in 2017, and Albanese picked up the suggestion ahead of his election win in May 2022.

This is the right thing to do, Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Tuesday. This is consistent with the Australian principle of a fair go.

Indigenous Australians have some of the worst economic and health outcomes in the country, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders more likely to be imprisoned, earn lower wages and die earlier.

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The Australian Defense Force has officially ended its painful experience with the European-made NHIndustries NH90 Tactical Transport Helicopter, designated MRH90 Taipan in Australian service . The nations Minister of Defense Richard Marles announced on September 29 that the helicopters will never fly again in Australian service.

The decision to withdraw all of the Australian Defense Forces surviving 45 NH90 helicopters from service 15 years earlier than originally forecast is the result of almost 15 years of rolling budget blow-outs, fleet groundings, and two major crashes that forced the Australian Army to admit defeat and retire the type immediately.

An Australian Army MRH90 Taipan helicopter from the 6th Aviation Regiment conducts reconnaissance at Shepparton, Victoria, as part of Operation Flood Assist 2022. Australian Army personnel from the 6th Aviation Regiment helped provide assistance to flood-affected communities in Victoria and New South Wales. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

The Australian Army had intended to keep flying its multi-billion-dollar fleet of relatively new NH90s until December of next year, but the fatal crash of one of the helicopters in late July saw the Australian Army decide to cut its losses with the barely operational aircraft. Instead, it will concentrate its efforts on introducing new Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawks bought under an urgent program to get Australias soldiers back in the air. The decision to switch to the UH-60M is something that The War Zone reported on at the time .

https://www.twitter.com/PeterDutton_MP/status/1469099478871203841?s=20

Three brand-new UH-60Ms, the first of 40 bought by the Australian government as an emergency acquisition via the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program, were delivered to the Australian Armys elite 6th Aviation Regiment (Australias equivalent of the U.S. Armys 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment ) in western Sydney in early August.

The emergency Black Hawk acquisition was made necessary by the complete operational failure of the Australian Armys relatively new fleet of NH90 Tactical Transport Helicopters, 47 of which were acquired over three separate orders in the 2000s.

An Australian Army MRH90 Taipan helicopter from the 5th Aviation Regiment takes off for a sortie during Vigilant Scimitar, Townsville Field Training Area, in November 2020. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

The NH90s were intended to equip the Australian Armys battlefield mobility and special operations aviation support squadrons and the Royal Australian Navys naval logistics helicopter support squadron.

Sadly, there were no celebrations at the 6th Aviation Regiment to toast the arrival of the new Black Hawks. The Sikorsky machines touched down at Sydneys Holsworthy Barracks within days of the units subordinate 173rd Aviation Squadron losing four aviators when one of its NH90s crashed into the Coral Sea , between tourist resorts on Queenslands famous Great Barrier Reef. The mishap occurred during a combined special operations aviation activity with U.S. Army special operations helicopters in the opening phase of the enormous international Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023.

Aircrew from the Australian Army Aviation Corps and the U.S. Army preparing for a late afternoon flight on an Australian MRH90 during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023 at RAAF Base Townsville, in Queensland. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

The loss of the 6th Aviation Regiment NH90 crew cast a tragic pall over the Australian Armys MRH90 Rapid Replacement Project which had been working overtime to deliver the first of the new UH-60Ms and lay the groundwork for the withdrawal of the problematic Taipans from service by December 2024.

https://www.twitter.com/ChiefAusArmy/status/1707190626713030842?s=20

The fatal Great Barrier Reef crash saw the Australian Army immediately suspend flight operations for its 38 surviving in-service NH90s on July 29. This effectively stripped the Australian Defense Force of its medium-helicopter air-mobility capacity and grounded the elite 6th Aviation Regiment and its sister NH90 flying unit, A Squadron, 5th Aviation Regiment.

Royal Australian Navy clearance divers conduct diving operations alongside the auxiliary ship Australian Defence Vessel Reliant during the MRH90 Taipan recovery, in the vicinity of Lindeman Island, on August 13, 2023. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

It was the second loss of an Australian Army Aviation NH90 in three months, following on from the write-off of another 6th Aviation Regiment/173rd Aviation Squadron Taipan in March. That helicopter ditched into the ocean during counterterrorism training at Jervis Bay, south of Sydney, with 10 aircrew and special forces personnel embarked. The incident could have been catastrophic, but luckily did not result in any serious injuries.

In a tragic twist, the fatal Great Barrier Reef NH90 crash and the arrival of the first three new UH-60Ms came only 18 months after the Australian Army retired its old fleet of 1980s-era S-70A-9 Black Hawks (the international designation for Australian UH-60As) in December 2021. These helicopters had been kept in service to fill the high-priority special operations aviation support mission while Australia continuously struggled to make the MRH90 fully operational in that role.

Royal Australian Navy clearance divers and Queensland Water Police return to the auxiliary ship ADV Reliant after conducting diving operations during the MRH90 Taipan recovery operation. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

The old S-70A-9 Black Hawks had served Australia well, having been the backbone of the Australian Defense Forces battlefield mobility helicopter fleet since 1989. For more than 30 years, they flew the bulk of the airmobile missions in Australias 12-year peacekeeping operation in East Timor, as well as almost all of Australias domestic military rotary-wing support and counterterrorism preparations.

However, the failure to certify the NH90 to fill the key special operations aviation support mission forced Australian Army Aviation to finance a series of life extensions to a reduced fleet of 22 S-70A-9s. This was supposed to keep these tired airframes flying until the NH90 could fully assume the critical counterterrorism and special recovery missions.

Australian Army soldiers from the 2nd Commando Regiment prepare to insert into the High Range training area near Townsville, Queensland, on board a 6th Aviation Regiment Black Hawk helicopter during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2019. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

The NH90s complete failure to fill the old S-70A Black Hawks combat-proven place eventually forced the Australians to accept the unpalatable truth  that no matter how much they spent or how many personnel they applied to the problem, the NH90 would never meet their key requirements.

An Australian Special Air Service Regiment sniper team armed with SR-25 rifles flies overwatch in an Australian Army S-70A-9 Black Hawk for Australian infantry during street battles in downtown Dili, East Timor, during the military mutiny there in May 2006. John Hunter Farrell



The Australians were left with no choice but to accept the massive loss on their investment in the NH90 and replace the fleet with new-build U.S.-Army-spec UH-60Ms, the aforementioned first three of which are now already flying with the 6th Aviation Regiment.

Over the next year and a half, the 6th Aviation Regiments two operational flying squadrons  the 171st Aviation Squadron, which flew the old S-70A Black Hawks until their retirement in 2021, and the 173rd Aviation Squadron, which had been flying the NH90 TTH in the special operations aviation support role until the retirement announcement  will progressively re-equip with the new UH-60M. These helicopters are being airlifted to Australia after rolling off the production line at West Palm Beach, Florida.

An Australian Army UH-60M Black Hawk following its arrival on a U.S. Air Force C-17A Globemaster at RAAF Base Richmond, New South Wales. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

The 6th Aviation Regiment, based at Luscombe Army Airfield within Special Operations Command  Australias sprawling Holsworthy Barracks in Western Sydney, has priority for the new Black Hawks. But the Australian Army is also planning on basing some of the new UH-60Ms 650 miles north of Sydney at its Army School of Aviation in southeast Queensland from early 2025 onwards.

The new UH-60Ms will plug some of the many operational shortfalls in the Australian Defense Force, particularly the Australian Armys limited capacity to conduct air mobility and air assault operations. These mission deficits arose primarily from the NH90s lack of availability and design limitations that prevented it from performing specific missions within the battlefield mobility helicopter mission spectrum.

Things got so bad and NH90 availability got so low, that the Australians were able to pool unspent funding earmarked for NH90 flying hours to buy four additional CH-47F Chinooks from the U.S. Army to get their soldiers back in the air, with two delivered in 2021 and another two delivered in 2022.

Australian Army soldiers from the 4th Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, prepare an M777 howitzer to be transported by a CH-47F Chinook from the 5th Aviation Regiment in Townsville Field Training Area, Queensland, in May 2022. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Expanding the Chinook fleet to 14 aircraft helped, particularly for the high-readiness 3rd Brigade based near the 5th Aviation Regiment Chinooks at Townsville on Australias far northern Pacific coast. At the same time, the Australian Defense Force was also forced to lease three (later increased to six) AW139 helicopters to guarantee helicopter medical evacuation support for its ground forces and flight time for its aircrews, which was degrading rapidly due to lack of flyable NH90s.

An AW139 helicopter serving with the 5th Aviation Regiment prepares to take off from Townsville Field Training Area, Queensland. These aircraft are leased from Helicorp and are flown by Australian Army aircrew. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

The Royal Australian Navy, whose 808 Squadron was flying six NH90s in the naval logistics role embarked on Australias Supply class auxiliary replenishment tankers and Canberra class amphibious assault ships, was the first Australian service to lose patience with its NH90s.

After only a few years of operation, the RAN acted, withdrawing the type from service in April 2022 after being unable to get the expensive helicopter to meet the required readiness level of three concurrent single-airframe embarked flights at sea.

An MRH90 helicopter from 808 Squadron is marshaled in to land on HMAS Supply during first-of-class flight trials off the coast of Queensland. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

A flight of four Royal Australian Navy and Australian Army MRH90 Taipan helicopters operate off the flight deck of the Canberra class amphibious assault ship HMAS Adelaide. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE



Currently, the Royal Australian Navy is fulfilling its critical supply helicopter mission with an ad-hoc transfer of advanced Sikorsky MH-60R Romeos from the Fleet Air Arms naval combat helicopter cadre while it awaits the arrival of 13 additional Romeos ordered from Sikorsky in 2022 to fill the capability gap.

Royal Australian Navy sailors conduct a high-line transfer exercise with an embarked MH-60R from the Anzac class frigate HMAS Toowoomba, off the coast of Western Australia. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

The irony of the entire Australian NH90 fiasco is that the nightmare helicopter was originally selected in preference to the UH-60M Black Hawk under the Air 9000 Australian Additional Battlefield Mobility Helicopter program back in 2004-05, apparently due to political and industrial considerations rather than operational ones.

According to the Australian National Audit Offices (Australias financial and governance oversight office) scathing 2014 ANOA Audit Report No. 52 , which publicly revealed the alarming list of NH90 performance, reliability, capability, and support deficiencies, the Australian Army had actually recommended buying the UH-60M Black Hawk in the first place but was overruled by the minister of defense at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYcO7hD9JwE

Major problems with the NH90s engines, floor, seats, ramp, and overall design saw the Australian government and prime contractor Australian Aerospace (now Airbus Group Australia) renegotiating their agreements, with the NH90 undergoing three separate baseline configurations over five years.

The performance of the NH90 was so far below requirement that the first 15 production helicopters even had to be returned to the prime contractor for remanufacture in the early 2010s.

Some of the problems with the NH90 seemed almost comically bad if they were not so troubling on national security grounds. The floors deformed when fully equipped soldiers walked on them, the cargo-bay door design made it completely impossible to man the door-mounted guns while troops were inserted or extracted, and the winch system was in consumer terms simply not fit for purpose.

An Australian Army soldier from the 5th Aviation Regiment mans the door gun on an MRH90 during Exercise Vigilant Scimitar, Townsville Field Training Area, November 2020. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Constant damage to the antenna array on the NH90s lower fuselage saw the Australian Army limit the helicopter to operating only from landing zones that had been inspected and cleared of any obstacles higher than six inches (160mm). That, combined with the helicopters inability to flare on landing effectively made the NH90 non-operational in the air assault or air-mobility mission.

The ANOA Report No. 52 also revealed that the aggregate cost of NH90 acquisition had ballooned out to AUS$65 million per aircraft, approximately US$60 million at the time, or almost four times the cost of a new UH-60M Black Hawk.

The first of 40 new Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawks for the Australian Army is prepared for flight at RAAF Richmond near Sydney on July 30, 2023. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

While massive financial and personnel investment saw the NH90s readiness improve, and its ability to fly missions expand, ongoing technical and safety issues with the helicopter offset the gains. Effectively, the Australian Army was left with a very limited medium battlefield mobility helicopter capacity in the latter half of the 2010s, as well as a rolling series of operational restraints and outright groundings.

The NH90 became the Australian Armys bad news bird with a steady flow of flight restriction orders culminating in the extremely embarrassing grounding of the entire fleet just as Australias international Exercise Talisman Sabre 2019 kicked off that July.

Australian Army soldiers from the 2nd Commando Regiment disembark a 6th Aviation Regiment S-70A-9 Black Hawk at the High Range training area near Townsville, Queensland, during joint training with U.S. Marine Corps AH-1Z Viper gunships as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2019. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Worse, the Australians were forced to spend even more money to keep their old S-70A-9 Black Hawk fleet flying to fill the critical capability gaps left by the NH90s inability to fly the missions the Australian Army assigned it.

Australias S-70As were originally meant to be retired in 2011, but the NH90 problems forced the Australians to conduct an expensive upgrade on its Black Hawks to extend their service life by four years out to 2014 to cover the shortfall.

Australian Special Operations assault team members from the 2nd Commando Regiment fast-rope from a 6th Aviation Regiment MRH90 Taipanh helicopter at the Special Forces Training Center at Holsworthy Barracks in Sydney. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

But four years were not enough. A second Black Hawk life extension was approved in 2014, with more funding to keep 22 S-70As flying the special operations aviation support mission until 2017. By that time the entire Australian battlefield mobility helicopter fleet was supposed to have been flying the NH90. This also didnt happen.

In the end, with the help of hundreds of millions of dollars, the S-70A-9 Black Hawk flew on for the Australian Army until December 2021, a full 10 years beyond its original withdrawal-from-service date.

An Australian Army S-70A-9 Black Hawk preparing to lift off at Shoalwater Bay Training Area during exercise Talisman Saber 07. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

The retirement of the S-70As was, however, not the end of the Australian Black Hawk story. During the S-70A-9s retirement ceremony in December 2021, the Australian government officially admitted defeat in its expensive wrestle with the NH90, announcing the Euro helicopters expedited replacement with a new fleet of UH-60Ms to fill the original Black Hawks battle-proven place.

Walking away from a AUS$3.5-billion direct investment and almost 20 years of personnel training and industrial support was not easy for the Australians.

Rumors that the Australian Army had finally lost patience with its expensive fleet of nonperforming NH90s first emerged in late 2015. It was then that Australian Army Aviation officers were reported to be cruising the U.S. helicopter market with a shopping list clearly focused on special operations. In particular, they were looking for a special operations helicopter that could undertake the NH90s tactical assault team insertion mission.

A loadmaster in an Australian Army MRH90 Taipan helicopter waves to the crowd as it performs during the T150 Defense Force Air Show on October 15, 2016, in Townsville, Australia. Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

But the final straw was the fleet-wide grounding of the entire Australian Defense Force fleet of 47 NH90s in mid-2021. A major issue with the aircrafts digital maintenance management software completely derailed the already low confidence that the Australians had in their fleet.

To add insult to injury, the software issue meant that the NH90 fleet was out of Exercise Talisman Sabre for the second time in 2021. The aircraft was becoming a habitual embarrassment for the Australian Army in front of its international partners during its showcase combined maneuvers.

A team of Royal Australian Navy submariners on board HMAS Collins await a winch from an MRH90 helicopter during a personnel transfer while sailing in the Bay of Bengal as part of AUSINDEX 2019. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Australia finally had had enough of the NH90 and went cap in hand to Washington sometime in the second half of 2021, with a formal letter of request to the U.S. State Department for an urgent delivery of 40 new UH-60Ms in standard U.S. Army specification.

The December 2021 public announcement of the early retirement of the NH90 was, however, not the end of Australias failed relationship with the aircraft. A change of government in late May 2022 saw a brief glimmer of hope for the European helicopter emerge as Australias new minister of defense publicly mocked the new Black Hawk buy to journalists.

But the political intervention was short-lived.

The Australian Army, the ADFs only operator of the NH90 after the Royal Australian Navy had warehoused their airframes in April 2022, came out swinging during the Australian Senate Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Legislation Committee hearings last November, vigorously defending its decision to retire the NH90 decades early.

An Australian Army MRH90 Taipan from the 5th Aviation Regiment lands as part of air mobility operations with the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment on Exercise Brolga Run 23 at Townsville Field Training Area, Townsville, Queensland. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Australias erudite new Chief of Army Lt. Gen. Simon Stuart and his entourage effectively slaughtered the NH90, pointing out that the cost of buying 40 new fully operational and immediately deployable UH-60M Black Hawks and flying them for a decade was far cheaper than retaining the non-operational and non-deployable NH90 in service. At this point, the NH90 was costing an astonishing $32,000 (AUS$48,000) per flight hour  three times more than new, actually flyable UH-60Ms.

Lt. Gen. Stuarts arguments did the trick, convincing the new Albanese government to follow through with the Black Hawk acquisition alongside a long overdue reorganization of the Australian Army Aviations order of battle and basing arrangements.

Australian Army soldiers from the 2nd Commando Regiment conduct a fast-rope descent from a 6th Aviation Regiment S-70A-9 Black Hawk helicopter onto a Royal Australian Navy vessel during maritime counterterrorism training in Jervis Bay, southern New South Wales, in early June 2020. COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

The U.S. State Department concurred, approving Australias urgent request for UH-60Ms with three aircraft delivered in July this year and three more due by the end of the year, to be followed by the balance of 34 aircraft over the next two years.

While the Australian Defense Force was the first to actually start flying a replacement helicopter for its NH90s, the Royal Norwegian Air Force was the first to formally lose patience with the type, grounding its entire fleet of 14 NH90s, primarily in the naval NATO Frigate Helicopter or NFH configuration, in June 2022 and demanding a refund.

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Sweden and Belgium are also unhappy NH90 customers, both seeking replacements after years of costly failure to get the helicopter to sustainably achieve any sort of acceptable availability or capability.

In January 2022 the Belgian Armed Forces announced their intention to replace their less than 10-year-old NH90 fleet with 15 new helicopters acquired under its Light Utility Helicopter Program.

The Swedish Armed Forces followed in November 2022, announcing their intention to acquire replacements for both the NH90 TTH and NH90 NFH versions  designated HKP 14E and HKP 14F in Swedish Air Force service  with new helicopters, likely UH-60M Black Hawks and MH-60R Seahawks.

https://www.twitter.com/flyingjok/status/1587460552498057216?s=20

The German Bundeswehr has revealed its own issues with the NH90 Tactical Transport Helicopter, with the German Generalinskpekteur der Bundeswehr (Chief of Defense) publishing two extremely critical reports into the German Armys similarly over-budget and under-available fleet.

A German Army NH90 from Transporthubschrauberregiment 30 based at Niederstetten takes part in a dynamic demonstration for the German Ministry of Defense in 2018. Bundeswehr/Martin Stollberg

In every case, the military aviation authorities involved cite the same issues with their NH90 fleets  woeful availability, lack of spare parts support, long timelines for contractor system repairs and return to service and extreme cost of ownership.

Australian, Norwegian, Belgian, Swedish, and German issues with the NH90 helicopter have been well publicized, but NH90s are still flying with the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the Royal Netherlands Navy, the French Army and Navy, the Italian Army and Navy, the Greek Army and Navy, the Spanish Army and Navy, the Royal Air Force of Oman, and the Qatar Emiri Air Force.

https://www.twitter.com/NHIndustriesSAS/status/1535295423832801280?s=20

With 45 surviving helicopters on strength, Australia, however, had an especially punishing experience, as it was flying one of the largest fleets of NH90s and these were assigned two critical missions that could not be worked around (special operations aviation support and naval logistic support), forcing them to take urgent action.

Unfortunately for Australia, the 15-year service of the NH90 Tactical Transport Helicopter not only consumed vast sums of military funds but its final operations were marked with tragedy and the loss of four aviators during Talisman Sabre 2023.

Now, it seems, Australias nightmare with the NH90 has finally come to a close.

Contact the editor: thomas@thedrive.com
U.S.-based automakers have furloughed hundreds more workers as the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against three major automakers continues to roll on.

Reuters reported Monday that both Ford Motors Inc. and General Motors (GM) furloughed a total of 494 workers from company factories in Illinois, Ohio and Indiana.

This follows Stellantiss, the parent company of U.S.-based brand Chrysler, decision to furlough nearly 370 workers at its Ohio and Indiana plants.

Last month, GM laid off 2,000 employees from its Fairfax, Kan., plant due to a parts shortage stemming from the strike, as did Ford, which temporary laid off 600 workers at a Michigan-based plant, Reuters reported.

A Ford spokesperson confirmed the latest round of layoffs to The Hill on Tuesday, citing the ongoing strike as the reason..

These are not lock outs, the spokesperson said. These layoffs are a consequence of the strike at Chicago Assembly Plant, because these two facilities must reduce production of parts that would normally be shipped to Chicago Assembly Plant.

These 330 layoffs are in addition to 600 laid off from Michigan Assembly Plant beginning Sept. 15, bringing Fords total to 930 employees impacted by strike-related layoffs, they added.

The news comes as UAW President Shawn Fain said last week that the union plans to expand its strike to a Ford plant in Chicago and a General Motors plant in Lansing, Mich.

Fain noted that an additional 7,000 union members from the two plants were called to join the picket lines, which brings the total number of autoworkers on strike to 25,000.

Despite our willingness to bargain, Ford and GM have refused to make meaningful progress at the table, Fain said in a livestream last week. Thats why at noon Eastern time today, we will expand our strike to these two companies.

Our courageous members at these two plants are the next wave of reinforcements in our fight for record contracts.

The UAW union launched its strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis last month. The union is asking for higher wages, shorter work weeks, union representation for battery plant workers and better retirement benefits, including restored pensions for new hires.

Lauren Sforza contributed reporting.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
During the day, 26 combat clashes took place in the combat zone; Russia has launched three missile attacks and 80 air strikes and carried out 28 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook; information as of 18:00 on 3 October

Details: On the Lyman front, the Defence Forces repelled about ten Russian attacks near Makiivka in Luhansk Oblast.

On the Bakhmut front, the Russians unsuccessfully tried to restore the lost position near Andriivka in Donetsk Oblast.

On the Avdiivka front, the Defence Forces repelled all Russian attacks near Pervomaiske, Donetsk Oblast.

On the Marinka front, during the day, the Defence Forces successfully repelled ten attacks near Marinka in Donetsk Oblast and a Russian attack near Krasnohorivka in Donetsk Oblast.

Quote: "The Defence Forces of Ukraine continue offensive operations on the Melitopol front, offensive (assault) actions on the Bakhmut front, inflicting losses in manpower and equipment on the occupying troops, exhausting the enemy along the entire front line.

During the day, the aviation of the Defence Forces carried out 13 strikes on the clusters of personnel, weapons and military equipment, and four strikes on Russian anti-aircraft missile systems.

The units of Rocket and Artillery Forces hit three areas of concentration of personnel, weapons and military equipment and 20 artillery systems of the enemy."

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!






An Azerbaijani serviceman on patrol on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, near Khankendi, Azerbaijan, also known as Stepanakert to Armenians. (AP Photo/Aziz Karimov)

Authorities in Azerbaijan arrested several former separatist leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday after reclaiming control of the Armenian-populated breakaway region in a lightning military operation last month, a top Azerbaijani news agency said.

Arayik Harutyunyan , who led the region before stepping down at the beginning of September, was arrested and was being brought to the Azerbaijani capital, the APA news agency said.

Arkadi Gukasian, who served as the separatist president from 1997 until 2007, and Bako Sahakyan, who held the job from 2007 until 2020, also were arrested Tuesday along with the speaker of the separatist legislature, Davit Ishkhanyan, APA said.

The wave of arrests come as Azerbaijani authorities move swiftly to establish their control over the region after a blitz offensive that triggered an exodus of over 100,000 people  more than 80% of its ethnic Armenian residents.

While Azerbaijan has pledged to respect the rights of ethnic Armenians, most of them have rushed to flee the region, fearing reprisals after three decades of separatist rule.

In a 24-hour campaign that began Sept. 19, the Azerbaijani army routed the regions undermanned and outgunned Armenian forces, forcing them to capitulate. The separatist government then agreed to disband itself by the end of the year, but Azerbaijani authorities are already in charge of the region.

After six years of separatist fighting ended in 1994 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Nagorno-Karabakh came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by Armenia, turning about 1 million of its Azerbaijani residents into refugees. After a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan took back parts of the region in the South Caucasus Mountains, along with surrounding territory that Armenian forces had captured earlier.

Azerbaijans presidential office said the country has presented a plan for the reintegration of ethnic Armenians in the region, noting that the equality of rights and freedoms, including security, is guaranteed to everyone regardless of their ethnic, religious or linguistic affiliation.

It said the plan envisages improving infrastructure to bring it in line with the rest of the country and offers tax exemptions, subsidies, low-interest loans and other incentives. The statement added that Azerbaijani authorities have held three rounds of talks with representatives of the regions ethnic Armenian population and will continue those discussions.
SEABROOK  For the third time in 14 months, the Zoning Board of Appeals denied approving the variances needed to allow The Brooks parent company to build a large multi-unit rental housing development on land behind its casino.

Proposed by the Nevada-based RMH NH, LLC, a company linked to The Brook operator Eureka Casinos, the Sept. 27 proposal before the ZBA was considerably smaller than its first, which called for 334 housing units.

The new proposal called for 233 rental units including 17 free-standing, or 34 two-bedroom, duplexes; 119 units in a four-story building (43 one-bedroom and 76 two-bedroom), and 81 senior housing units in a multi-story building for those 55 or older. The senior housing, officials said, was a concession to lessen the impact the complex could have on the local school student population.

RMH NH, LLC, a company linked to The Brook operator Eureka Casinos, wants to construct a housing complex on the site of the former greyhound racing track.

The multi-building complex is intended for 75.6 acres of The Brook's land at 319 Route 107. At the southwest corner of the lot of the former greyhound racing track, the acreage spans two town zones: the rural zone (Zone 1), and the industrial zone (Zone 3), neither of which permits multi-unit housing complexes.

Previous story: The Brook Casino seeks zoning change to move forward with major housing development

Andre Carrier, president and chief operating officer of Eureka Casinos, told ZBA members the changes made to the plan were from informal meetings with Seabrooks Planning Board and his desire to be a good neighbor to abutters. The new plan reduced the total units and building sizes and increased buffer zones between existing area homeowners.

This complex is not affordable or section 8 housing," Carrier said. It would include 20 units designated as workforce housing, he said, but the remainder of the units would rent at market rate. Carrier said, like the rest of the nation, New Hampshire is short 23,500 housing units priced in a range that working individuals can afford.

At previous meetings, Carrier estimated market rate rents might range from $2,200 to $3,500 for the one- and two-bedroom units.

Carriers attorney, John Cronin, said that according to their real estate consultants, the complex would not negatively impact the property values of abutters. He added that project engineers and Seabrook department heads lead them to believe the town has sufficient water and sewer capacity to accommodate the complex.

Their consultants also estimated that the entire complex would likely result in nine additional students to local schools, Cronin said. Given Seabrooks declining student enrollment, Cronin said, nine additional students are negligible.

As for the projects financial benefits, Carrier said its annual property tax would bring in almost $669,000, plus another estimated $56,000 for annual vehicle registration.

Seabrook residents air concerns about housing project

Several residents rose to address the proposed complex.

The first was Henry Boyd, a long-time resident and president of Millennium Engineering. He is often found testifying before the planning and zoning boards on behalf of clients trying to bring developments to town. This time, however, Boyd opposed this project.

Boyd said time is needed to consider the full impact of a development of this size on the town. The town has little land in its industrial zone, and the project would take away a good deal for residential use, he said.

Seabrook Selectman Harold Eaton rose to challenge the school impact estimates, believing nine new students is too low.

If only 14 of the duplexes or other two-bedroom units contained families with two children, that would be 28 new students to Seabrooks schools, he said. This year it cost $24,000 to educate one Seabrook student, he said. If 28 new students entered the school system, he said that would amount to $672,000 in new education costs, exceeding the estimated property tax benefit.

They say nine (students), Eaton said. I say 28. This is a bad deal for Seabrook.

Deborah Van Dyke, a Maple Ridge Road resident, said she was skeptical about Carriers definition of being a good neighbor. For her, it doesnt include building a four-story building near an established home subdivision.

Further, she said, that if her current experience living with noise caused by The Brook Casino is any example, she doubts how neighborly the apartment complex will be. Every morning shes awakened by noise at the casino, she said, although town regulations require businesses not start until 7 a.m.

Id like your personal phone number so I can call you at 5:30 a.m. when they start up before 7, she told Carrier.

Others rose to complain about the noise and the added burden they believed the complex would place on the towns police and fire departments, schools and traffic flow.

Maple Ridge Road resident Kathy Mackey expressed her concern that the 20 workforce housing units would go to Carriers employees at The Brook, not to Seabrook individuals and families.

'He took my world': Widow who lost husband in fatal crash speaks out after driver charged

Zoning Board sides with the public, rejects project

The variances required to build the complex include allowing multi-family complexes in the rural and industrial zones; permission to exceed the maximum height variance of 30 feet in the industrial zone for the apartment building; and allowing a structure 15 feet from the wetlands, instead of the required 25 feet.

The ZBA has strictly defined criteria when granting or denying variances. These include that the variance, if granted, is not contrary to the public interest, is in the spirit of the ordinance, and that the values of surrounding properties are not diminished. They also look if literal enforcement of the ordinance would result in unnecessary hardship and if substantial justice is done by granting them.

In every instance, the majority of the ZBA voted to deny the requested variances.

More: Meet the Hampton man behind Batman, Spiderman paper models at Pizza Academy in Exeter

The Brook to bring case to NH Housing Appeals Board

Cronin said following the ZBAs first denial of the variances for the 334-unit development, he filed an appeal on Carriers behalf with the states Housing Appeals Board to overturn the decision. Cronin said because Seabrook doesnt have an ordinance that allows for multi-unit housing of this nature, its in violation of the states need for workforce housing.

ZBA Chairman Jeff Brown said in an interview after the meeting that he was aware of the appeal. The town agreed to continuances because Carrier was preparing a new proposal.

Andre Carrier shows off the latest additional game room at The Brook casino in Seabrook.

Cronin told the board at the commencement of the meeting that if the ZBA approved the variances, Carrier agreed to withdraw his appeal, and waive any damages.

During their testimony, Boyd and others said they viewed Cronins comment as a threat.

According to Cronin, the Rockingham Planning Commission determined Seabrook doesnt supply its share of workforce housing. He appeared confident that the Housing Appeal Board would find in Carriers favor because of Seabrook's lack of a multi-unit housing ordinance and the states housing needs.

The Rockingham Planning Commissions determination was a surprise for Brown. For years, he said, the RPC acknowledged Seabrook had many multiple rental housing complexes, mobile home parks and small home lot requirements, all of which provided a substantial number of lower-cost housing opportunities, especially compared to other Seacoast communities.

Seabrook doesnt have its share of workforce housing when compared to who? Brown said. Rye, Hampton Falls, North Hampton?

Brown said the reason Seabrook doesnt have a multi-housing ordinance is because the town already has several large mobile home parks and many apartment complexes, such as the Governor Weare, Tudor Crest, Admirals Village, Park Place and the former Cimarron, now Rockingham Village, complexes.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Seabrook Brook Casino: plans for major housing project rejected again
The moment a schoolboy is arrested over a shooting spree that killed at least four people in a shopping mall in Bangkok

A 14-year-old suspected gunman was arrested after two people were killed and at least four wounded during a shooting spree at a luxury shopping centre in the heart of Bangkok.

Hundreds of people fled the busy downtown mall into torrential rain and chaos after gunshots were heard, while videos shared on social media showed others taking cover in shops, restaurants and bathrooms as the shooter stalked the building.

Within an hour, the Metropolitan Investigation Bureau of the Royal Thai Police took a 14-year-old boy wearing a black T-shirt, thick-rimmed glasses and a cap adorned with the American flag into custody.

Photos released by the emergency services showed one officer collecting the handgun used, and another pinning down and handcuffing the teenager.

Torsak Sukvimol, Thailands police chief, said the boy went to school close to the Siam Paragon shopping centre. He had previously been receiving treatment for a mental health condition, but had recently stopped taking his medication. His motives remain unclear.

No British nationals involved

Mr Sukvimol added that the two people killed during the attack were Chinese and Burmese nationals. Four other people were injured, and several are in a critical condition.

The UKs Foreign Office said it is not aware of any British nationals being involved.

I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family of the deceased following the shooting inside Siam Paragon, said Srettha Thavisin, Thailands prime minister. I would like to give my moral support to the families of all who died and were injured.

The days events have shaken the Thai capital. Upmarket Siam Paragon is one of Bangkoks biggest and most popular shopping centres, drawing tourists and locals alike.

We didnt know what was happening, then staff from a shop asked us to go inside and said there was a shooter, Xiong Ying, a 41-year-old Chinese tourist, told AFP. Everyone was trying to find a place to hide. So many people were terrified, just like a scene in the zombie movies.

The shooter can be seen carrying a gun

Everybody was screaming and running, Gautam Vora, 45, an Indian national who works in finance in Bangkok, told AP. There was a lot of chaos and that was almost like a stampede.

I dont think [staff] were well prepared for this, he added. I think most of the staff inside the shopping mall were confused and they were running helter-skelter, too.

Following the shooting, authorities temporarily closed the nearby Siam skytrain station, preventing commuters from leaving the stop during the rush hour.

Gun violence is not unusual in Thailand, where there are high rates of firearm ownership, although mass shootings are relatively rare.

But the latest killing comes as the country marks one year since one of its deadliest mass attacks. Last October, a former police officer killed 36 people, including 24 young children, in an hour-long rampage at a nursery in northern Thailand that devastated the kingdom.

It came after a former army officer went on a rampage in a shopping mall in the city Nakhon Ratchasima, murdering 29 people and injuring dozens more.

02:12 PM BST

Live coverage is ending

Our live coverage of this incident has now concluded.

Thank you for following.

01:43 PM BST

Death toll revised again

One person was killed and six wounded in a shooting at a Bangkok mall on Tuesday, an emergency medical service said, revising down an earlier toll.

It was initially reported that three were dead but actually only one person died, Yuthana Srettanan, director of Erawan Emergency Centre, told reporters, adding that six people had been shot, two of whom are in serious condition.

At one stage, emergency services reported that as many as four had been killed.

01:11 PM BST

Where the incident happened

12:56 PM BST

Footage of arrest

12:21 PM BST

Police find a weapon

A police officer collects a Glock 19 handgun following a shooting at the luxury Siam Paragon shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand

12:18 PM BST

Emergency services treating the wounded

An injured shopper is treated as locals fled from a mall amid a shooting in Bangkok, Thailand

12:12 PM BST

Crowds fleeing the scene

Witnesses said crowds of people left the building, one of several shopping centres in the area popular with tourists and locals.

Chinese tourist Liu Shiying told the AP that she saw people running and saying someone had opened fire. She said she heard gunshots and an alarm ringing, and that the lights in the mall went out.

Were temporarily hiding. Who dares to go out? she said while taking cover. She was later able to leave.

Multiple videos uploaded to social media showed people running out of the building. The public broadcaster Thai PBS said several gunshot-like sounds were heard but had no other details.

Shoppers fleeing the scene

12:07 PM BST

Death toll rises

The death toll in a mall shooting in Thailands capital on Tuesday has risen to four after one person succumbed to their injuries, emergency services said.

They also said one of the wounded was a foreign national. Police have arrested a 14-year-old in connection with the incident.

12:06 PM BST

Final toll confirmed

Three people were killed and four wounded Tuesday in a shooting at a Bangkok shopping mall, Thai emergency services said. Yuthana Srettanan, director of Erawan Emergency Center, confirmed the toll and wounded in a message to reporters.

12:02 PM BST

Gun violence common in Thailand

An ex-police officer killed 22 children in a nursery last year during a gun-and-knife rampage, while in 2020 a soldier shot and killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations in and around the northeastern Thai city of Nakhon Ratchasima.

11:52 AM BST

Images from the scene

A suspected gunman at a shopping centre in Bangkok

CCTV images of the suspected gunman

11:13 AM BST

This is a breaking news story

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More than 1,000 people have died from dengue in Bangladeshs worst outbreak on record, official data shows, with rising temperatures due to the climate crisis driving the ongoing spread as more cases are reported away from dense urban centers for the first time.

Since January, 1,017 people have died from the mosquito-borne disease, including more than 100 children, with infections rising over 208,000, according to figures from the Bangladesh Directorate General of Health Services released Monday.

While dengue fever is endemic in the South Asian country, with infections typically peaking during the monsoon season between July and September, this year the uptick in cases started much earlier  toward the end of April.

A prolonged monsoon season that saw warmer temperatures combined with irregular, heavy rainfall created ideal breeding conditions for the Aedes mosquito, which carries the dengue disease, scientists say.

The influx of patients has strained the countrys health care system and hospitals have faced a shortage of beds and staff to care for them, local media have reported.

Fatalities from the outbreak are almost four times higher than last year, when 281 people died. In September alone, there were more than 79,600 reported cases and 396 deaths, according to Bangladesh health authorities.

There is also growing concern about the outbreak spilling into the cooler months. Last year, dengue cases only peaked in October with most deaths recorded in November.

Dengue patients receive treatment at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital in Dhaka on October 2. - Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images

A viral infection, dengue causes flu-like symptoms, including piercing headaches, muscle and joint pains, fever and, in some cases, internal bleeding and death. It is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito and there is no specific treatment for the disease.

Dengue, also known as breakbone fever, is endemic in more than 100 countries and every year, 100 million to 400 million people become infected, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In the past, outbreaks had generally been confined to densely-populated urban centers like the capital Dhaka  home to more than 20 million people  but this year infections rapidly spread to every district across the country, including rural areas, WHO said.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news briefing last month that the UN agency is supporting the Bangladeshi government and authorities to strengthen surveillance, lab capacity, clinical management, vector control, risk communication and community engagement, during the outbreak.

But there are calls from public health experts in the country to make dengue more of a priority and focus on prevention measures, including early detection and access to adequate health services  repeat infections of dengue can be more serious and even deadly.

Those calls to action are not limited to Bangladesh. As the planet rapidly heats due to the burning of fossil fuels, outbreaks will become more common in new regions of the world.

The global number of dengue cases has already increased eight-fold in the past two decades, according to WHO.

As the climate crisis worsens, mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever will likely spread further and have an ever greater impact on human health.

This year, dengue has hit South America severely with Peru battling its worst outbreak on record. Cases in Florida prompted authorities to put several counties on alert. In Asia, a spike in cases has hit Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia, among other nations. And countries in sub-Sarahan Africa, like Chad, have also reported outbreaks.

WHOs alert and response director Abdi Mahamud called the outbreaks a canary in the coalmine of the climate crisis and said more and more countries are experiencing the heavy burden of these diseases.

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Barack and Michelle Obama met at a Chicago law firm where she was assigned to mentor him.

They wed in 1992, have two children, and spent eight years in the White House.

Michelle has been candid about rough patches during their 31-year marriage.

Barack and Michelle Obama celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary on Tuesday.

"Happy anniversary, sweetheart! @MichelleObama, you're brilliant, kind, funny, and beautiful  and I'm lucky to call you mine," the former president wrote on Instagram.

The couple met in 1989 when Michelle was assigned to mentor Barack at a Chicago law firm. They wed in 1992.

Here's a timeline of the former first couple's relationship.

1989: Michelle Robinson was assigned as Barack Obama's mentor at their law firm, and he said he was immediately smitten.

She said it was their Harvard connection. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Barack Obama, then 28, and Michelle Robinson, then 25, met at the Chicago office of the law firm Sidley Austin LLP, where Robinson was assigned to be his mentor.

"Because I went to Harvard and he went to Harvard, and the firm thought, 'Oh, we'll hook these two people up,'" Michelle told ABC News in 2008.

In his 2020 memoir, "A Promised Land," Barack Obama wrote he "was smitten almost from the second I saw her."

1989: They had their first date, which included lunch, a walk in the park, and a movie.

Michelle eventually said yes. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Though she was his mentor, that didn't stop the future president from asking Robinson on a date. She said she was not so keen at the time.

"Barack, about a month in, asked me out, and I thought 'No way. This is completely tacky,'" she told ABC News in 2008.

But eventually she relented, and the pair went on a date. They started by having lunch at the Art Institute of Chicago, taking a stroll, then ending up going to see the Spike Lee film "Do The Right Thing."

"He showed all the sides  he was hip, cutting edge, cultural, sensitive. The fountain  nice touch. The walk  patient," Michelle Obama told The Telegraph in 2012.

"Take tips, gentlemen," Barack Obama added, smiling.

The date was eventually immortalized in the 2016 film "Southside With You."

1991: They got engaged in a simple and sweet way.

Barack and Michelle Obama in the Red Room of the White House. The White House

The pair got engaged at Gordon's restaurant in Chicago. The dinner was supposed to celebrate Barack Obama passing his bar exam, they told ABC News.

"And then the waiter came over with the dessert and a tray. And there was the ring," Michelle Obama said. "And I was completely shocked."

She told ABC News that he simply got down on one knee and asked. She, of course, said yes.

1992: They got married at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Barack and Michelle Obama on their wedding day. Obama For America/Handout/Reuters

The couple married on October 3, 1992. Michelle later noted that her husband's vows were a glimpse at what was to come.

"Barack didn't pledge riches, only a life that would be interesting. On that promise he delivered," she recalled, according to the Obama Foundation website.

After the ceremony, their reception was held at the South Shore Cultural Center and they honeymooned along the California coast, Brides magazine reported.

1998: They had their first child, Malia Ann Obama.

Michelle Obama holds a young Malia Obama at a Senate campaign event. AP

Malia was born on July 4, 1998.

2001: Their second child, Natasha Obama, was born.

Barack and Michelle Obama with their daughter Sasha in 2004. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Natasha, known as Sasha, was born on July 10, 2001.

Barack Obama said in a 2013 interview that he thinks that he and Michelle's love has been a great example to their daughters.

"The great thing about the girls is they've got a wonderful role model in their mom," Obama told Essence. "They've seen how Michelle and I interact  not only the love but also the respect that I show to their mom. So I think they have pretty high expectations about how relationships should be, and that gives me some confidence about the future. I joke about this stuff sometimes, but the truth is they are smart, steady young women."

2004: Barack Obama was elected to the US Senate, beginning their life in the spotlight.

Barack Obama is sworn into the US Senate in 2005. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Though he was a state senator for several years, Obama became the US senator for Illinois in 2004, catapulting the family into the national spotlight.

Michelle Obama was a notable figure on his campaign, but she had her own impressive role as vice president for Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals, according to the hospital's official website.

2008: He was elected president of the United States, making Michelle Obama the US first lady.

Barack and Michelle Obama dance on the night of his inauguration in 2009. AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Though he had a notable term, he once joked that being Michelle's husband was what people loved most about him.

"If you were going to list the 100 most popular things that I have done as president, being married to Michelle Obama is No. 1," he said during a State of the Union address in 2010.

2012: Obama won re-election, and Michelle  whom the president called "my rock"  became an advocate for healthy eating.

The Obamas dance at the 2013 inauguration. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Obama won a re-election bid against Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. By then, the couple was a household name, with Michelle being known for her healthy-eating initiatives. The president noted that he couldn't have done nearly as much in his time in office without the support and guidance of his wife.

"Obviously I couldn't have done anything that I've done without Michelle," he told Oprah Winfrey on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 2011. "Not only has she been a great first lady, she is just my rock. I count on her in so many ways every single day."

2017: The Obamas departed the White House after President Donald Trump was sworn in on January 20.

The Obamas and the Trumps on Donald Trump's inauguration day. JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Both Barack and Michelle Obama made clear that although they enjoyed their time in the White House, they were ready for a bit of normalcy after eight years.

"I want to open my front door without discussing it with anyone  and just walk," Michelle told Oprah Winfrey at the United State of Women summit in 2016, People magazine reported.

"I want to go to Target again! I've heard so many things have changed in Target! I tell my friends they're going to have to give me a re-entry training for like, 'OK, what do you do at CVS now? How do you check out?'" she joked.

"All the women in my life are looking forward to being able to live a more normal life," Barack also told Jimmy Kimmel on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" that year.

2017: After leaving the White House, they took an extended family vacation.

The Obamas white water rafting in 2017. AP

Once they left office in January 2017, the Obamas took some time off. They traveled to Italy, Hawaii, and Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, a spot owned by billionaire Sir Richard Branson.

2017: As they marked 25 years of marriage, Michelle called her husband "the most extraordinary man I know."

Barack and Michelle Obama in 2017. Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

The political powerhouses celebrated 25 years together on October 3, 2017.

"Happy 25th anniversary @barackobama. A quarter of a century later, you're still my best friend & the most extraordinary man I know. I <3 you," Michelle wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

2018: Michelle released her memoir "Becoming" and embarked on a book tour, where Barack surprised her with flowers at an event in Washington, DC.

Michelle Obama meets an admirer on her book tour. Richard Drew/AP

While talking about her time in the White House with Valerie Jarrett, Barack emerged from backstage with a bouquet of pink roses.

"You don't get this at every show!" Michelle told the audience.

"This is like  you know when Jay-Z comes out during the Beyonce concert?  Like, Crazy in Love?" Barack said. "It's the same thing. It's just a little sample to enhance the concert."

2020: Barack released his own memoir, "A Promised Land," in which he wrote about his love story with Michelle.

Barack and Michelle Obama's memoirs. Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Barack dedicated his book to "Michelle  my love and life's partner, and Malia and Sasha  whose dazzling light makes everything brighter."

In "A Promised Land," he wrote about his courtship with Michelle and the early days of their relationship, as well as her initial opposition to his political ambitions.

"She was tall, beautiful, funny, outgoing, generous, and wickedly smart  and I was smitten almost from the second I saw her," he wrote.

2021: They attended President Joe Biden's inauguration.

Barack and Michelle Obama at Joe Biden's inauguration in 2021. Rob Carr/Getty Images

Michelle wore a plum monochrome look comprised of pants, a sweater, belt, and jacket that were all created by American designer Sergio Hudson.

2022: The Obamas made their first joint return to the White House for the unveiling of their official portraits.

Barack Obama kisses Michelle Obama after they unveil their official White House portraits. Andrew Harnik/AP

Barack Obama said that Michelle's portrait by Sharon Sprung captures everything he loves about her: "Her grace, her intelligence, and the fact that she is fine."

The former president's portrait was painted by Robert McCurdy.

2022: While promoting her new book, "The Light We Carry," Michelle revealed she "couldn't stand" Barack for 10 years after the birth of their daughters.

Michelle Obama speaks onstage during the Michelle Obama: The Light We Carry Tour in November 2022. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Live Nation

On the Revolt x Michelle Obama special hosted by Angie Martinez and featuring panelists Tina Lawson, Kelly Rowland, H.E.R., and Winnie Harlow, Michelle said she was often frustrated with her husband when their daughters were young, Insider's Anna Medaris reported.

She said the tension between them stemmed from "measuring" tasks, like how many diapers each changed, until she realized that "marriage isn't 50/50, ever."

The former first lady added that it's important to "know your person" in order to get through those rough patches.

"Do you like him? I mean, you could be mad at him, but do you still look at him and go, 'I'm not happy with you, but I respect you. I don't agree with you, but you're still a kind, smart person,'" she said.

2023: In an interview with Oprah Winfrey for "The Light We Carry," Michelle said that she and Barack differ in "how we show love."

Barack Obama gives Michelle Obama a kiss at the Obama Foundation Summit. Scott Olson/Getty Images

On an April 25 episode of Michelle's Audible podcast series "The Light Podcast" featuring conversations from "The Light We Carry" book-tour events, Winfrey asked the former first lady about how she and Barack navigate their relationship differently.

Michelle said that her husband is more verbally and physically affectionate because he and his family lived far apart and didn't get to see each other very often, whereas she grew up surrounded by extended family and views expressing love as being present.

"I grew up with everybody within eight blocks of each other," she said. "All my aunts, and uncles, and great uncles, and cousins, and everybody celebrated birthdays. So we were with each other, every weekend, twice a weekend. We were always together. So it was like, 'Mmm, bye. I don't have to tell you I love you because I'm going to see you Saturday.' So love, for me, was showing up. It was like, 'Yeah, yeah. Stop kissing me. Just do the laundry.'"

Read the original article on Business Insider
A White House proposal to bar medical bills from being used in credit reporting wont get rid of the debt itself or prevent future debts from being accrued, but the move could be transformative for many.

The Biden administration and debt advocates argue medical debt is not a good predictor of a persons credit worthiness, hence why it should be excluded from the information creditors can use.

And they say shielding the debt from credit reports could free up borrowers to make big purchases or cover basic expenses.

Allison Sesso, CEO of the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt, said a person with good financial habits in every other aspect of their life can be stuck with an enormous bill they cant pay off.

The number one predictor of medical debt is not your insurance status. Its whether or not you get sick, Sesso told The Hill. Which is pretty telling and really speaks to why you dont have a lot of control over whether or not youre in medical debt, which means it probably shouldnt be an indicator of your credit worthiness.

Under the administrations proposed rule, medical information would be removed from credit reports, creditors would not be allowed to rely on medical bills for underwriting decisions, and debt collectors would be prohibited from using coercive collection practices.

Medical debt has long played an outsized role in credit reports, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), with roughly 1 in 10 U.S. adults in arrears on medical bills.

Inability to pay off these health care bills can drag down peoples credit scores, affecting their ability to obtain housing  whether its to get a loan or qualify for a lease  as well as secure an auto loan or open up other lines of credit.

This would free up peoples credit, Krutika Amin, associate director at KFF, told The Hill. Medical debt is often described as something that affects peoples ability to afford food and housing and so this would free up their credit for other living expenses.

Sessos organization buys out medical debt within communities, making an even more direct impact than the Biden proposal. But she said it would still help.

Even if they have additional debt still behind them, its one more thats off their plate and it gives them sort of the ability to take on those other debts or to improve their credit so that they can buy a house or buy a car or have other lines of credit available to them, Sesso said.

The CFPB is expanding on actions it took earlier this year when it told debt collectors and consumer credit reporting companies not to take action on invalid medical bills, to remove paid medical bills from credit reports and instructed the top three credit reporting companies to remove medical collections under $500. At the time, the agency estimated about half of those with medical debts would have their bills removed from their reports with this step.

The burden of medical debt is experienced disproportionately across demographics.

People of color, those who are middle-aged, people with disabilities and people who earn a lower income are more likely to have medical debt, according to Amin. In 2022, U.S. adults were estimated to collectively owe nearly $200 billion in health care bills in total.

As people age, theyre more likely to accrue medical expenses. But what we see is at the age of 65  where people become eligible for Medicare  the share of adults with medical debt actually drops, Amin noted.

Stakeholders in the health care space say the administration should be aware of ways in which medical debt is obscured.

People often borrow money from friends and family or pay off their hospital bills with credit cards, essentially moving the debt from one place to another. Sesso said paying hospital bills with credit cards is a mistake, adding that credit card companies should provide recognition of medical debts in their records.

We do rely on the credit reporting to understand the extent of medical debt, and so I think thats something wed like to see  another way of capturing the data on medical debt, which we think would be better to do in a different way, Sesso said. Because not all health care providers do report to credit currently, and so there probably is an undercount.

Many Americans say it may take them years to pay off medical bills, while some say they will never get rid of the debt.

A KFF report from 2022 found that about 1 out of 3 adults said they expected to be able to pay off a medical bill within one year and about a quarter said they could pay off their bills within two years. But 1 out of 5 adults said they dont foresee ever being able to pay off their debt.

The report also found that a third of adults said they would be unable to pay an unexpected $500 bill, meaning they would need to go into debt.

There are typically three obstacles stopping people from paying off their debts according to Braden Pan, CEO and founder of Resolve, a company that helps to negotiate down medical bills on behalf of customers.

Not surprisingly, the chief reason is the cost. The exorbitant fees that are incurred are simply too large for some people to pay off without some form of external intervention, Pan said. The other two reasons are a lack of trust and a lack of understanding.

When consumers go get care at a hospital, they have insurance and they may still get an extremely large medical bill and they dont understand why theyre getting a large medical bill, Pan said. And because the system is so confusing to consumers, they cant figure out should insurance have paid more for it? Are there billing errors, or is this a legitimate bill? And so they dont really trust the bill because they dont understand whats going on.

Advocates hope the Biden administrations latest proposal leads to more actions that also target the root of the problem.

Its one thing to not put it on someones credit report, but its better to not have it created in the first place, Sesso said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Mercedes Marquez, left, is departing as L.A. Mayor Karen Bass ' top housing and homelessness official, to be replaced by Lourdes Castro Ramirez. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times and Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times )

Mayor Karen Bass' homelessness czar, Mercedes Marquez, will leave her high-profile post next month, with state housing official Lourdes Castro Ramirez set to succeed her, the mayor's office announced Monday.

Marquez, a former local and federal housing official, was one of Bass' first hires last year. She has held one of the more visible roles in an administration that's been predominantly focused on the city's homelessness crisis.

Marquez was expected to step down before the end of the year, and the mayor's office described Castro Ramirez's appointment as "a planned transition due to federal retiree rules" in a news release Monday.

Castro Ramirez will start her tenure as the city's chief housing and homelessness officer on Nov. 6, the same day Marquez steps down, according to the mayor's office.

Read more: Mayor Karen Bass says the city will house 4,000 homeless people during her first 100 days

Marquez will remain a senior advisor to the administration. Bass praised her "tireless work and dedication" in a statement.

Known for her tough management style, Marquez brought deep knowledge of both City Hall and federal agencies, having previously run the city's housing department and twice served in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

We have led unprecedented efforts through our Inside Safe initiative, and have truly locked arms with every level of government to bring the Los Angeles homelessness crisis the attention it deserves in order to save lives every single day," Marquez said Monday. "I feel lucky to have a successor like Lourdes Castro Ramirez, someone with the experience and knowledge required, and someone I have had a relationship with for nearly 20 years."

Castro Ramirez currently leads the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, which is responsible for overseeing the state's housing departments.

The agency's far-reaching portfolio includes state cannabis and alcohol licensing departments, the California Horse Racing Board and state departments dedicated to civil rights and consumer protection.

Read more: Shape Your L.A.  on homelessness

Castro Ramirez also serves on the California Strategic Growth Council, the California Housing Finance Agency Board and the Governors Military Council, and she co-chairs the California Interagency Council on Homelessness.

She has been based in Sacramento but will "be working in person and living in the [Los Angeles] area" when she joins the mayor's office, Bass spokesperson Gabby Maarse said.

"I am honored to join in Mayor Bass efforts to continue this work, bringing my experience and passion for urgent, collaborative and transformative solutions to Los Angeles, the place that welcomed my family when we immigrated from Mexico, and the place where I found my calling and honed my community planning, housing and leadership skills," Castro Ramirez said.

Before the state Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, Castro Ramirez led HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing and the San Antonio Housing Authority. She also spent a decade with the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles and led HACLA's Section 8 program for several years.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Bureau of Land Management Monticello Field Office and U.S. Department of Agriculture Mani-La Sal National Forest will be hosting a public meeting of the Bears Ears National Monument Advisory Committee on Wednesday, November 8.

Planned agenda items include an overview of the resource management planning efforts to date, next steps in planning, general management, and administrative updates. The agenda will include time for public comment.

Bears Ears National Monument, located in southeastern Utah and encompassing more than 1.3 million acres, carries a rich cultural heritage and is held sacred by many Native American Tribes, who continue to rely on the lands for traditional and ceremonial purposes. The area includes more than 100,000 archaeological sites.

Bears Ears has been the subject of many legal filings since President Barack Obama declared it a National Monument in 2016. In 2017, Trump cut the size of the area protected by the National Monument designation by nearly three-quarters. In 2021 on his first day in office, President Joe Biden restored the protected area. ; the state of Utah sued the administration in 2022, alleging that Bidens restoration violates a law that limits U.S. presidents to create monuments confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected. In August 2023, a U.S. District Judge dismissed the lawsuit.

The Bears Ears National Monument Advisory Committee is a citizen-based committee consisting of up to 15 members representing interests in the local community and monument values. Members represent a variety of local interests and expertise, including representatives of tribes that have ancestral ties to the area, including Navajo Nation, Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and the Pueblo of Zuni.

The meeting will take place on Wednesdy, November 8 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. MT at the Hideout located at 648 South Hideout Way, Monticello, UT 84535. There will also be a virtual meeting attendance option.







About the Author: "Native News Online is one of the most-read publications covering Indian Country and the news that matters to American Indians, Alaska Natives and other Indigenous people. Reach out to us at editor@nativenewsonline.net. "

Contact: news@nativenewsonline.net
Biden signs stopgap funding bill on brink of gov't shutdown

Xinhua) 10:15, October 03, 2023

This photo taken on Jan. 20, 2023 shows the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

After last year's midterm elections, the Republican Party retook the House, with control of 221 seats, just nine more than the Democratic Party's 212 seats, meaning that even five "rebels" are enough to defeat a Republican legislative agenda.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday night signed a 45-day stopgap funding bill, just a few minutes before federal government funding for this fiscal year is set to expire.

In a last-minute effort to avert a government shutdown, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy released the new bill Saturday morning, which would keep federal agencies funded at current levels until mid-November, and includes 16 billion U.S. dollars of funding for disaster relief, requested by the president.

The new bill dropped steep spending cuts and border security provisions sought by conservative Republicans, and does not include additional aid for Ukraine sought by Democrats.

The House swiftly approved the stopgap funding measure in a vote of 335-91. A few hours later, the Senate passed the bill in a vote of 88-9.

McCarthy's new proposal came as a surprise, as he had been trying to advance a funding bill with steep spending cuts and border security provisions in attempts to garner support from Republican conservatives in a slim House majority.

McCarthy's difficult situation in the House leaves him little choice but to "please" the right wing of the Republican Party.

After last year's midterm elections, the Republican Party retook the House, with control of 221 seats, just nine more than the Democratic Party's 212 seats, meaning that even five "rebels" are enough to defeat a Republican legislative agenda.

His latest decision to put forward the "clean" stopgap funding bill is welcomed by Democrats and the White House, but has upset some Republicans, especially party hardliners in the House, who had wanted to pass a bill without Democratic support and had threatened to remove him from the top House leadership post.

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy speaks to members of the media in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., the United States, Sept. 29, 2023. (Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Xinhua)

When asked Saturday what if conservative Republican critics try to remove him from the speakership over the "clean" stopgap funding bill, McCarthy told reporters that "If someone wants to remove (me) because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try."

Biden welcomed the passage of the bill in the Congress, calling it "good news." "But I want to be clear: We should never have been in this position in the first place," Biden said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Calling it a manufactured crisis, Biden blamed "extreme House Republicans" for trying to walk away from a budget deal he and McCarthy reached a few months ago.

The U.S. president also urged the House to approve more aid for Ukraine, reiterating a Democratic request that has been opposed by conservative Republicans.

A Senate-proposed stopgap funding bill, unveiled Tuesday, would fund the government at current levels until mid-November, and included roughly 6 billion dollars of aid for Ukraine and about 6 billion dollars for domestic disaster relief.

The Senate bill didn't gain enough support in the House, as a group of conservative Republicans voiced concerns about Ukraine aid -- urging the Biden administration to make it part of the spending cuts -- and criticized the bill for a lack of border security provisions, which revealed the partisan divide over immigration policy.

McCarthy originally attempted to pass a stopgap funding bill with spending cuts and border security provisions, but conservative Republicans said they oppose any "patchwork" funding package and refused to cooperate, forcing McCarthy to turn to Democrats for support.

Greg Cusack, a former member of the Iowa House of Representatives, told Xinhua earlier that the fight in Congress was "embarrassing and infuriating."

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Sheng Chuyi)
You would be hard pressed to find someone who hasn't spent an entire day in bed resting in an attempt to recover some lost sleep.

Be it from a hangover, illness or just general exhaustion, sometimes a day in bed feels required. In the days of yore, one would have called that resting. But what's old is new again, and TikTok users rebranded this activity as "bed rotting."

It's not entirely clear where this trend started, but the hashtags "bed rot" and "bed rotting" on TikTok have a total of 32.9 million posts as of Sept. 20.

Is it OK to ... bed rot? Are they signs of a bigger health issue? And are there healthier ways to do bed rotting? TODAY talked to the experts to find out.

What is bed rotting?

Bed rotting is a self-care trend that spread on TikTok. The term means to spend basically the entire day or even weekend in bed, doing everything from napping and doom-scrolling to watching TV and eating.

The idea is that, to help cope with tiredness or burnout, spending a day or two under the covers will offset some of the exhaustion.

Is bed rotting healthy?

Bed rotting can be a healthy self-care practice if you keep a few things in mind to make sure you're doing it in a healthy way. First off, understand why you're bed rotting, and be aware of how long you're doing it and how frequently.

"It can be OK to have a day or so where you just take a break and ... stay in bed  I do that myself on occasion," Dr. Jen Caudle, a family medicine physician and associate professor at Rowan University, tells TODAY.com. "I think it can be a problem, though, if we are doing that to avoid things," especially if you have mental illness.

"What I think of bed rotting is it's like a self-care moment," she says, adding that it should be "a half a day or whatever. It's a moment."

Your bed rotting habit may be in unhealthy territory if you're staying in bed for much longer than a weekend here and there, or if you're doing it more and more often.

"So if you find yourself ... bed rotting to avoid situations, to avoid feelings ... that's a problem, as well," she says. "If it seems that there may be a problem, there just might be."

Bed rotting and mental health

While bed rotting can be a safe way to practice self-care, it can reveal also warning signs of mental health problems, Lynn Bufka, Ph.D., associate executive director for practice research and policy at the American Psychological Association, tells TODAY.com.

"For somebody who is depressed, bed rotting sounds like a way of potentially withdrawing from others, not having social connections," she says, adding that depression screening asks if symptoms have lasted for two weeks or more.

As for people who have anxiety, Bufka says bed rotting might feel good in the short term, but it's not a good long-term coping strategy because it means you're just avoiding what makes you anxious.

"In the longer term, it may (reinforce) the idea that we can't handle whatever it is that we're avoiding," she says.

How bed-rotting can disrupt sleep

Two experts  Dr. Dianne Augelli, a sleep medicine specialist at Weill Cornell Medicine/New-York Presbyterian, and Dr. Rebecca Robbins, a sleep scientist at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston  are also concerned that staying in bed during the day when you're not sleeping could disrupt your sleep cycle.

"I think it comes from a place thats genuinely good ... like self-care and taking time to just relax," Augelli says. "But the place theyre doing it isnt ideal in the long run."

She explains that, as a sleep physician, she wants people to use their beds only for sleep and sex.

"If youre using your bed to eat and youre on your phone a long time and youre intermittently napping, it can ultimately lead to problems with initiating or maintaining sleep or your brain being able to shut down when you want to sleep," she says. "We dont have that demarcation space."

Augelli adds that sleep issues get worse as people age and if bed rotting becomes habitual.

Sometimes when people are a little bit younger, in their early 20s, they might not have as much difficulty, but it can become a very, very ingrained habit. And then its very difficult for people to sleep.

How to bed rot in a safe way

The experts said that it's OK to bed rot as long as you take some precautions to protect your mental and physical health.

Avoid 'rotting' in your actual bed

Find a place outside your bed to "rot" during the day is best for protecting your ability to fall asleep in bed at night, Augelli says.

"I would definitely find a place that you can recharge, she says, adding that it can even be a cot next to your bed, a couch or a guest bedroom. A place that you are lying around and recharging and cutting yourself off from activities and responsibilities, thats all fine. It can be anywhere else besides your bed.

Be mindful of what you're doing to while bed rotting

Caudle suggests that some bed rotting pastimes might be more relaxing than others.

"Even though I think a lot of people's tendency in bed is to scroll (on their phones), sometimes that can actually be pretty anxiety provoking," she says, adding that you should think about what activities "actually truly make you relaxed."

"Maybe it's actually reading a book ... or catching up on magazines you haven't read in a while or watching a movie," she says. "Maybe it's actually turning everything off and just having some silence."

Get up every few hours and walk around

There is a risk for blood clots if you stay in bed for a long time, Dr. Daniel Landau at The Mesothelioma Center, who is board-certified in hematology, internal medicine and medical oncology, tells TODAY.com via email.

"When blood isnt constantly pumping, it has a tendency to clot," he says. "When we walk or stretch, the muscles contract along the veins and force them to move the blood around. When we arent moving, the veins arent able to push the blood around."

The legs carry the biggest risk of blood clots, which can occur anywhere in the body and be life-threatening. People who are pregnant, overweight, take certain medications, smoke, or have family histories of clotting are higher risk, Landau says.

Explaining that bed rotting is similar to a long car ride or flight, he recommends getting up every two or three hours to stretch your legs and reduce the risk of blood clotting. You should also avoid lying on wounds while bed rotting to reduce risk of infection.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
PROVIDENCE  A man who told police that, while he was driving, he was shot by someone in another vehicle sustained non-life-threatening injuries early Sunday morning, according to Providence police.

As he drove himself to Rhode Island Hospital at a high rate of speed, the injured man drew attention from police, who followed him to the hospital, said Detective Maj. David Lapatin, adding that, once they were at the hospital, police could see that the man was bleeding.

He told police he was driving on Payton Street in the Washington Park neighborhood when he was shot around 12:35 a.m. Sunday, Lapatin said.

No arrests have been made in the case, he said Monday.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI man drives himself to hospital after being shot
Belarus announced on Tuesday, 3 October, that it will conduct an inspection of the country's Armed Forces combat readiness.

Source: press service of the Belarusian MoD

Quote: "The inspection is comprehensive and will allow us to determine the readiness of military units and subunits to perform their assigned tasks.

The troops will march to the designated areas as soon as possible, followed by the fulfilment of standards in combat training. Furthermore, military and special equipment will be tested with control runs, including over rough terrain."

Details: The inspection began on 3 October by the order of Alexander Lukashenko , self-proclaimed President of Belarus.

The Belarusian Ministry of Defence reports on the planned movement of military equipment and personnel on public roads in Minsk and Vitebsk oblasts. The inspection is also expected to involve aircraft to support the actions of the ground forces.

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 Belarusian military will conduct exercises in order to check its readiness for combat, the Belarusian Defense Ministry's press service announced on Oct. 3.

The "comprehensive" exercises, ordered by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, will include inspections, combat training, and the movement of troops and equipment between the capital Minsk and Vitebsk, a city by the Russian border.

Belarus allowed Russian troops to use its territory as a base to invade Ukraine at the beginning of the full-scale war, especially for their failed offensive on Kyiv. Russian forces have also used Belarusian territory to launch missiles and drones at Ukraine.

Despite this, the Belarusian military has not officially joined Russia's war against Ukraine. They have routinely conducted exercises during the war, as well as engaging in aggressive actions that antagonize its neighbors, such as sending Belarusian helicopters into Polish airspace on Aug. 1.

Polish authorities have strengthened their security presence by the Belarusian border, and Latvia and Lithuania have begun closing border crossings to the country, as well as discussing a total closure of the land border to Belarus.

Read also: Belarus Weekly: 2 Belarus delegations compete for attention at UN General Assembly

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The Biden administration on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a multimillion-dollar China-based network and more than two dozen individuals and entities involved in the manufacture, distribution and international trafficking of fentanyl and other illicit drugs.

The sanctions target a major Chinese precursor chemicals syndicate with touchpoints in the United States and Canada that supplies dozens of U.S.-based drug traffickers, as well as cartels in Mexico and dark web dealers.

The sanctions, effective immediately, bar the individuals from using the U.S. financial system and stops all U.S. citizens from transacting with them.

The Treasury Department designated 28 individuals and entities involved in the international proliferation of fentanyl, as well as other illicit drugs such as methamphetamine and MDMA precursors.

The Treasury Department designated 28 individuals and entities involved in the international proliferation of fentanyl, as well as other illicit drugs.

BORDER PATROL SEIZED ENOUGH FENTANYL TO KILL ENTIRE US POPULATION THIS FISCAL YEAR

U.S. attorneys for the Southern District of Florida and the Middle District of Florida also indicted individuals involved.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"Treasury is taking sweeping action with our colleagues in law enforcement to expose and disrupt a network responsible for manufacturing and distributing illicit drugs, including fentanyl and other substances that take thousands of American lives each year," Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement Tuesday. "Todays action from OFAC and IRS-CI reflects how we will swiftly use all of our tools to counter the global threat posed by the illicit drug trade."

The Drug Enforcement Administration's office in Houston said it seized more than 7 million fatal fentanyl doses in 2022.

WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL $450 MILLION IN FUNDING TO FIGHT OPIOID EPIDEMIC

The Treasury Department also expanded its scope of designations to target those involved in the trafficking of xylazine, also known as "tranq," a powerful sedative for veterinary use that has been increasingly used by narcotics traffickers who mix the substance with fentanyl, producing a deadly mixture.

While the Biden administration does not have an exact number for how much product the network was selling, an official said crypto transactions alone hit well into the millions of dollars.

An official told Fox News Digital that zylazine has been coined the "zombie drug" because it can cause severe wounds in users, including necrosis  the rotting of human tissue  which may lead to amputation.

The designations target 12 entities and 13 individuals based in China, and two entities and one individual based in Canada.

The syndicate used crypto and virtual currency. While the Biden administration does not have an exact number for how much product the network was selling, an official said crypto transactions alone hit well into the millions of dollars.

The Treasury Department said it has identified and blocked more than a dozen virtual currency wallets associated with these actors. Treasury said the blocked wallets received millions of dollars over hundreds of deposits.





Original article source: Biden admin sanctions multimillion-dollar China-based network involved in trafficking of fentanyl, drugs
On the morning of 3 October, US President Joe Biden had a phone conversation with the leaders and foreign ministers of US allies amid uncertainty about ongoing military aid for Ukraine.

Source: a statement by the White House cited by the TV channel CNN, as reported by European Pravda

According to the statement by the Biden administration, the participants in the call were the leaders of Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Romania and the UK, the Foreign Minister of France, the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission, and the NATO Secretary General.

The White House said the aim of the phone call was "to coordinate our constant support for Ukraine".

Polish President Andrzej Duda revealed that Biden briefed his allies on the situation in the US, mainly concerning Ukraine.

"He urged everyone to support aid for Ukraine. Here I can say with confidence that everyone was unanimous on this question. We remain determined to support Ukraine," Polish news agency PAP cited Duda as saying.

Following the conversation, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also stressed that the allies "are committed to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes".

Last weekend the US made a last-minute decision to approve a temporary budget to prevent a government shutdown, but without funding for aid for Ukraine in order to increase the chances of it being approved.

After that, US President Joe Biden called upon the Republicans in Congress not to allow problems with aid for Ukraine. The US Department of State has criticised Congress for not approving crucial aid for 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!






President Joe Biden convened a call with world leaders Tuesday, the White House said, in an effort to reassure allies about U.S. support for Ukraine after Congress passed a short-term government funding bill that did not include aid for the country during its war with Russia.

The president reaffirmed the strong commitment of the United States to supporting Ukraine as it defends itself for as long as it takes, as did every other leader on the call, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday during a press briefing at the White House. The leaders discussed efforts to continue providing Ukraine with the ammunition and the weapon systems that it needs to defend its territory, and to continue strengthening Ukraine air defenses as they prepare for more attacks on critical infrastructure.

The group also addressed the ongoing work to align and broaden donor efforts to support Ukraines economic recovery, as well as to work together with the global community to address the energy, economic and food security challenges caused by Russias war of choice, according to a White House readout of t



he conversation.

The call comes amid concern from the Pentagon about dwindling resources available to send to Ukraine as the country looks to drive Russian forces out of its territory. The Defense Department still has $5.4 billion worth of weapons available to send to Ukraine, but is fast running out of money to replenish its own stockpiles .

I think, given what we have left, and given the pace at which weve been providing support, youre talking, perhaps, a couple of months or so roughly, Kirby said during the briefing.

Leaders of several countries joined the call with Biden on Tuesday, according to the White House, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna also joined, as did NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel.



Congress decision to omit Ukrainian funding from its 11th-hour funding package was a serious blow to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who last month traveled to Washington to plead with congressional leaders for continued aid.

The U.S. is set to send another aid package to Ukraine soon, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday .

Meanwhile, the debate over whether to approve funding for continued assistance to the country has only grown more complex in recent days. Biden on Sunday alluded to an agreement he made with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Ukraine aid. But McCarthy, who is facing a possible ouster from his position in leadership, has denied he made any such agreement.

On Tuesday, Kirby brushed off the idea that the divisions among House Republicans would stifle efforts to approve more Ukrainian aid.

I would also add, regardless of what happens in the House of Representatives, that all the House leadership is supportive of continuing to help Ukraine and the vast majority of House members on the Republican side are in support of continuing to help Ukraine, Kirby said, calling Ukraine skeptics a small number of vocal members.


Biden discussed aid for Ukraine with his cabinet at the White House (Brendan Smialowski)

President Joe Biden called key allies Tuesday to reassure them of continued US support for Ukraine, even as renewed political chaos in Washington placed fresh military aid in deeper jeopardy.

Biden spoke with Western leaders to calm nerves after new assistance for Ukraine was dropped from a deal in the US Congress to avoid a government shutdown on Saturday, amid opposition from hardline Republicans.

But Democrat Biden's hopes of quickly pushing through a new bill for Ukraine were plunged into disarray shortly after Tuesday's call, when the same hardliners axed Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a rebellion.

With the turmoil threatening to hold up any legislative work, Biden urged the quick election of a new speaker to confront the "urgent challenges facing our nation," the White House said.

The US president had earlier called the leaders of key allies Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Romania, the heads of the EU and NATO, and the foreign minister of France.

"President Biden reaffirmed the United States commitment to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes as it defends its sovereignty and territorial integrity, with fellow leaders echoing their commitments," said the White House.

- 'Not our friend' -

Yet the White House itself made the urgency of the situation clear.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby warned that if fresh aid is not approved, existing funds to help Ukraine fight Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion will only last "a couple of months."

"Time is not our friend," Kirby told reporters. A lapse in funding would not only harm Ukraine on the battlefield but "make Putin believe that he can wait us out."

The Pentagon said it could keep meeting Ukraine's military needs a "just a little bit longer" with assistance that has already been authorized.

Allies rushed after the call to show a united front with Biden, whose country is by far the largest supplier of aid to Ukraine.

Washington has committed more than $43 billion in military assistance to Kyiv since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Congress has approved a total of $113 billion in aid including humanitarian help.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's office said Biden was "keen to reassure the allies about the continuing American support for Ukraine" after the shutdown drama.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak thanked Biden for his "leadership," adding that Western support would continue for "as long as it takes."

NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg "stressed the importance of continued support to Ukraine" and added that the alliance's members were "sharing the burden equitably."

- 'Indispensible nation' -

Russia has pounced on the chaos in Washington, with the Kremlin saying on Monday that Western war fatigue would grow due to the uncertainty over US assistance for Ukraine.

Biden has said the global role of the United States is at stake, saying on social media "we are the indispensable nation in the world -- lets act like it."

The Ukraine aid now looks set to be held hostage to US politics with just over a year until elections, as the far-right Republicans who ousted speaker McCarthy have put stopping aid to Ukraine at the top of their agenda.

The chaos comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington in September to plead for continued backing.

Opposition among hardline Republicans has been spreading more than a year and a half into Russia's invasion, including to some voters.

An ABC/Washington Post poll released September 24 showed 41 percent of respondents saying the United States was doing too much to support Ukraine, up from 33 percent in February and just 14 percent in April 2022.

Doubts about Western unity have also grown after Slovakia elected populist leader Robert Fico -- who has pledged to end military support for Ukraine -- as prime minister at the weekend.

burs-dk/des
By Jeff Mason and Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with the leaders of allied countries, the European Union and the NATO military alliance on Tuesday, reiterating America's support for Ukraine and warning that a drop in support could embolden Russia and cause wider conflict.

The call included the leaders of Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Romania, Britain and France, as well as the heads of NATO, the European Commission and the European Council, who also discussed Ukraine's economic recovery and food security issues, the White House said.

"President Biden made clear we cannot, under any circumstances, allow America's support for Ukraine to be interrupted," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

The United States has enough committed funding to meet Ukraine's battlefield needs "for a bit longer" but it needs Congressional help to offer this support uninterrupted, he said. Pressed on a timeline, Kirby said the United States has "a couple of months or so" of military supplies.

Kirby echoed Biden's earlier criticism of a small group of House Republicans who have blocked Ukraine funding, noting that most Republicans stand behind the country.

"Such a lapse in support will make (Russian President Vladimir) Putin believe that he can now wait us out and that he can continue the conflict until we and our allies and partners fold," Kirby said. It will also hand Putin a win, he said.

'FALSE NARRATIVE'

"If we just walk away from Ukraine, we basically confirm his lie. We basically say to him, 'Yeah, you know what? You're right, Putin, you were wronged, you were the victim here'."

"It's egregious and it absolutely plays right into his false narrative of how this war started."

The United States has so far seen no indication that Putin has used his "propaganda machine" to exploit the situation, Kirby said, adding: "It wouldnt be unlike him to do that."

Kirby also said countering the Russian president's ability to "wage war on a neighboring nation may actually prevent a larger conflict in which American troops might be needed".

Moscow says it had to invade Ukraine to protect its own security against what it casts as a hostile West that is bent on undermining Russia - a position that Kyiv and its Western supporters reject as absurd.

Biden convened Tuesday's call amid concerns that support for Kyiv's war effort against Russia was fading, after Congress excluded aid to Ukraine from an emergency bill to prevent a partial government shutdown.

Its omission from the U.S. spending bill sent pro-Kyiv officials in Washington scrambling to find the best way to secure approval for further assistance on top of the $113 billion in security, economic and humanitarian aid the U.S. has provided since Russia invaded in February 2022.

Biden expects U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy to keep his public commitment to secure the passage of aid to Ukraine, Kirby said.

McCarthy on Tuesday teed up a vote on a challenge to his leadership by a fellow Republican, in an intra-party dispute that could plunge Congress into chaos.

Even if McCarthy is ousted, Kirby said, "the vast majority of Republicans in Congress" support the aid.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Jasper Ward and Nandita Bose in Washington and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Rami Ayyub, Heather Timmons and Rod Nickel)
(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden reassured allies US support for Ukraine would continue, seeking to ease worries after a government funding bill omitted $6 billion in aid.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Biden told nearly a dozen foreign leaders in a Tuesday telephone call that the US would stand by Ukraine as long as it takes as it defends its sovereignty and territorial integrity, with fellow leaders echoing their commitments, the White House said in a statement.

Biden was joined on the call by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, President Andrzej Duda of Poland, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the White House said in a statement.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna also participated in the call, according to the White House.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Biden requested the call with foreign leaders and was not pressured to have a conversation. The president told his counterparts that US resolve for providing more aid remains strong, Kirby added.

None of the foreign leaders expressed concerns about continued US support. They understand whats going on up on Capitol Hill. They understand that this is a small minority of extreme Republicans that are holding this up, and that they understand that the bulk of Republican leadership  House and the Senate  all support Ukraine, Kirby said.

Plans for the call were first reported by Bloomberg News. It took place before House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by dissidents within his own Republican Party, injecting new uncertainty into the White House quest for more help for Ukraine as it continues to battle the Russian invasion.

Biden on Saturday signed a short-term funding measure from Congress to keep the US government open until Nov. 17 and avoid a shutdown  but the quickly passed bill failed to include additional aid for Kyiv. The move was a blow to both Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who just last month visited Washington to personally plead for continued assistance.

Duda said Tuesday that Biden brushed aside the maneuvering on Capitol Hill and said support for additional Ukraine aid remains bipartisan.

The support is much greater than it appears in the media coverage, Duda said, characterizing Bidens comments. In his opinion, everything should be fine.

Kirby said both issues are important but that the White House did not believe they should be tied together.

Time is not our friend. We have enough funding authorities to meet Ukraines battlefield needs for a bit longer, but we need Congress to act to ensure that there is no disruption in our support, Kirby said.

--With assistance from Natalia Ojewska.

(Updates with ouster of McCarthy, in seventh paragraph.)

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President Joe Biden thanked his Kenyan counterpart in a phone call on Tuesday for agreeing to lead a multinational mission to intervene in Haiti, a day after the United Nations Security Council voted to endorse the effort.

But the Biden administration still has not detailed what its $200 million in pledged assistance would do to support the mission, telling McClatchy and the Miami Herald that it could take weeks to coordinate with other nations who will bring what resources to bear. The Herald has identified at least a dozen countries from the Caribbean and Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe that have pledged to assist the mission by either sending personnel, providing equipment or funding.

The White House said that Biden spoke with Kenyan President William Ruto to thank him for answering Haitis call to serve as the lead nation of the Multinational Security Support mission that will bring relief to the people of Haiti, who have suffered for far too long at the hands of violent criminals.

The U.N. resolution, penned by the United States and Ecuador, made repeated mentions of the effects of the violence on Haitis children, hundreds of thousands of whom have been unable to go to school because gangs or people displaced by them have taken over the facilities. On Tuesday, the U.N.s lead child welfare agency, UNICEF, said the unchecked violence in Port-au-Prince, Haitis capital, is spreading and intensifying in the Artibonite Valley, the countrys breadbasket.

The State Department and Defense Department have each pledged $100 million in support of the mission. But details of where that money would go were not immediately clear.

A senior White House official said that there are no current plans for that funding to include the deployment of U.S. personnel to Haiti.

The U.S. military will provide some enabling support, John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, told reporters at a White House briefing Tuesday. I suspect itll be mostly in the realm of logistics and sustainment, maybe some transportation and that kind of thing. And there are no plans right now to put American troops inside the support mission.

Children are being terrorized and their livelihoods destroyed amid unprecedented hunger, malnutrition and a resurgent cholera epidemic. More than 100 schools have shut down due to the violence and only one in four health facilities across the region remains accessible. Roughly a third of the population, nearly half of them children, now require humanitarian assistance.

The violence, mirroring that seen in Port-au-Prince, has forcibly displaced families and disrupted rice and other agricultural production, a lifeline for the economy. More than 22,000 people were displaced as of June, up from less than 10,000 in April. Most have sought refuge in other communities, while hundreds have sought shelter in precarious makeshift spaces with little access to basic services or protection from the armed groups.

No human being, and certainly no child, should ever have to face such shocking brutality, deprivation and lawlessness. The current situation is simply untenable, said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. The humanitarian system, including UNICEF, is delivering and scaling up the response, but we need support from the international community in order to reach Haitian children and families who desperately need help right now.

The combination of escalating violence, restricted access to essential health, water and sanitation services, and cholera pose particularly lethal threats to malnourished children, UNICEF said. At least 115,000 children in Haiti are expected to suffer from life-threatening malnutrition this year, an increase of 30% over last year. In the rice-growing Artibonite Valley, the number of children who are estimated to need lifesaving treatment more than doubled since 2020.

In a joint press conference Wednesday, Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry noted that he had asked for the assistance for the police because of the gang crisis. Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady and presidential candidate who heads the council charged with preparing the country for long overdue elections, appeared with Henry.

Im very concerned by everything that the population is undergoing, she said, noting that whats unfolding in Haiti has been ongoing for a long time. We all know the situation that were living; a country that is blocked, gangs that are keeping the capital hostage.

Manigat said she spent three days holed up at a home in La Plaine, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, due to the violence. Gangs are invading homes and setting them on fire, she said, burning the bodies of their victims and raping women and girls. Its intolerable, said Manigat.  A lot of people have no choice but to leave their home. This is something that breaks my heart.

For nearly a year the U.S. and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres struggled to find a country to lead a security mission, after Henry requested the international communitys help after a gang takeover of the countrys main fuel terminal. Kenya finally volunteered after efforts by the U.S. to get Canada to take the lead failed.

Critics have questioned why Kenya offered to lead such a risky endeavor in a country with which it doesnt share a language or culture. Ruto, who last month urged the world to help Haiti during his address to the U.N. General Assembly, has faced deadly anti-government protests at home as Kenyans protests rising costs.

Andrew C. Cheatham, a Kenya expert at the United States Institute of Peace, said he isnt surprised by Rutos decision to take a lead on helping Haiti put down gangs. Though the mission to Haiti isnt technically a U.N. mission, the country has broad experience in sending police officers to promote peace and security in places like Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.

They have a history of this. They have a role to play within the U.N., although this isnt a U.N. mission, said Cheatham, a senior adviser at USIP who spent a decade working for the U.N.

Kenya has been active in peacekeeping missions in Africa, he said, and theyre known as a major part of the system and the international community. 

Due to problems in the Horn of Africa involving Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia, Kenya has also emerged as a major security and diplomatic partner of the United States in the region, Cheatham added.

I think the chaos has made the U.S. and Kenya grow closer. The deal to support this Multinational Security Support mission includes broader security cooperation between the U.S. and Kenya, he said. And of course, the U.S. has been looking since the assassination of Jovenel Moise to try to figure out what they can do to help out on their back door here. The Haiti problem is a huge one.

He also noted that the Kenyan police who will be deployed to Haiti come from a highly elite border security force that have been trained by a USIP unit and has experience in confronting violent extremism and the forces of al-Shabaab, the Sunni Islamist military and political group that is active in East Africa and is involved in the Somalia civil war.

Kenyans are thought of as some of the best trained and best equipped, best highly skilled peacekeepers in the world within the African Union Mission in Somalia, he said.

Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow in the Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings Institute, who has done a close study of Kenyas involvement in neighboring Somalia, said people have been surprised by Rutos willingness to send his forces into Haiti and she believes its become a pet project of the president.

Washington, she said, seized on the idea when it struggled to persuade other countries like Brazil and Canada to lead.

Its much more personal idiosyncratic rather than any kind of great deal for something thats strategically important, she said. It was surprising to his own government officials.

Felbab-Brown said there are human-rights worries about Kenyas forces, especially in light of how they police slums like Kibera, in the capital of Nairobi, and in neighboring Somalia.

Kenya is not the worst, but its also not a good record. Its own policing efforts in places like Kibera have often been very inadequate, she said. They often look like highly violent invasions of the slums, where the Kenyan police afterwards struggle to sustain any security presence, or the security presence was quite minimal. And its record in its mission in Somalia is even more problematic.

Felbab-Brown said the U.S. is walking into a world of enormous challenges that can easily lead to all kinds of problematic developments.

The Kenyan-led forces, she said, once deployed into Haiti might become involved in violent clashes with. gang leaders, or if they venture into areas like Cite Soleil, the capitals largest slum where gang clashes has left hundreds dead in the last two years.

Or conversely the force does very little. That is very bad too and would discredit the forces, she added.

She believes that despite the challenges, the U.S. agreed to the risk partially because no one else was stepping up.

On Wednesday, Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general, said there are few countries in the world that have not had at one point or another issues with police violence.

We see it north, south, east and west. What is important, and its stated in the resolution that all police and others that are deployed respect the human rights policies, he said. The secretary-general did not choose Kenya. The secretary-general and the Haitian government put out an appeal and Kenya stepped forward.

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, addressing the criticism about Kenyas security forces, said the U.S. would be holding the Kenyans responsible should anything go wrong in the Haiti mission.

Thats what the resolution calls for.... Weve added this strong language of accountability, the strong vetting language, the strong language on transparency and on human rights, she said after the vote. And I can assure you that the U.S. will engage on these issues very, very aggressively, and we will work with member states to hold any personnel involved in these types of actions accountable.

Daniel Desrochers of the Kansas City Star contributed reporting.
The UKs music scene is thriving, not least thanks to the achievements of Black British artists including Stormzy, Little Simz, Ezra Collective, RAYE, Dave, Jorja Smith, Mabel and so many more.

As recently as last month, we saw Ezra Collective triumph as they were awarded the coveted Mercury Prize, while Stormzy has just been announced to perform at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone next year.

Given Black History Month was created to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of Black heritage and culture in the UK, it seems fitting that as part of The Independents coverage, we create a playlist to highlight just some of the incredible musical talent weve had the privilege of witnessing over the decades.

Curated by myself (Roisin) and our Race Correspondent Nadine White, this playlist features some of our favourite tracks by Lovers Rock queens Janet Kay and Deborahe Glasgow, Millie Small  the Jamaican star who brought ska to the world  and dancehall legend Tippa Irie, whom Nadine interviewed earlier this year.

Both Nineties babies, we had to throw in some classics from Craig David, Mis-Teeq, Mark Morrison, Jamelia, Estelle, Soul II Soul, Gabrielle, and Ms Dynamite, along with contemporary rock from the likes of English Teacher and Nova Twins.

On the rap and hip-hop side of things we were spoilt for choice thanks to Mercury Prize-winning artists Little Simz and Dave, grime pioneers including Ghetts, Skepta and Kano, and the superb talents of artists such as Stormzy, Avelino, AJ Tracey, Jelani Blackman, Che Lingo, Gaika, Loyle Carner, Kojey Radical, Ms Banks and Hardy Caprio.

Elsewhere on the playlist, youll find pioneers including trip-hop star Tricky, rapper and producer Roots Manuva, and Skunk Anansie star Skin. Then there are the artists whose voices are simply unmatched, from multi-platinum-selling artist Emeli Sande to soulful crooner Sampha, Sade, Laura Mvula, Olivia Dean, Kwabs, Corinne Bailey-Rae, Michael Kiwanuka, Mahalia, Jorja Smith and Seal.

You can find a link to The Independents Black History Month 2023 playlist here.

Please make sure you also check out our recent Music Box sessions, starring Avelino, Olivia Dean and Che Lingo, and have a read of The Independents extensive BHM coverage through October.
All three Black Sea ports in and around Odesa have resumed receiving cargo vessels for grain export despite Russia-declared blockade, Bloomberg reported.

In the past few weeks, 10 ships have used the temporary corridor set up by Ukraine's Navy following Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the media outlet wrote, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter and ship-tracking data.

On Oct. 1, two cargo vessels reportedly arrived at the port of Odesa, two more reached the Chornomorsk port, and the New Legacy ship arrived at Pivdenny. Earlier, five further vessels passed through the corridor, loaded cargo, and departed.

Separately, five ships that had been stuck in Ukraine's ports since the start of Russia's full-scale war used the same route to leave before the arrival of any incoming ships.

After Russia unilaterally backed out of the grain deal in mid-July, the shipment of grain through the Black Sea effectively stopped until Ukraine announced the opening of the temporary corridor.

In a comment for Reuters, the top United Nations trade chief called the corridor a move in the right direction but said it should not replace a larger deal to resume shipping through the Black Sea.

Kyiv has also said that the new route is explicitly a temporary measure and one that "is purely a humanitarian mission."

The route, which sticks close to the Bulgarian and Romanian coast, is not without risk to those who use it. The Russian Defense Ministry has said that all vessels sailing to Ukrainian ports would be considered "potential carriers of military cargo" and, therefore, legitimate targets.

On Aug. 13, Moscow claimed its forces fired warning shots at a ship in the Black Sea after its captain failed to respond to a request to inspect the vessel. However, InformNapalm, a Ukrainian open-source intelligence outfit, refuted this claim, saying the ship "did not comply with the demand to stop, but temporarily changed its course in the direction of Turkish territorial waters."

The original grain deal, brokered by Turkey and the UN in July 2022, had been essential in mitigating a global surge in food prices partially caused by Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine by allowing Ukraine to export its agricultural products via the Black Sea despite the ongoing invasion.

Read also: This Week in Ukraine: Black Sea grain deal is dead. What can Ukraine do? on Apple Podcasts

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The U.S. military is ready to send Ukraine some of its long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) armed with cluster munitions, Bloomberg reported on Oct. 3, citing the U.S. military's chief weapons buyer.

Doug Bush, the assistant secretary of the U.S. military for acquisition, logistics, and technology, said that the force has already identified the missiles that will be sent to Ukraine.

The U.S. military "has been postured for this eventuality for a while," Bush told Bloomberg, adding that "we're ready when and if the president decides to do this."

According to the U.S. military's official weapons handbook, cluster-armed ATACMS have a range of up to 300 kilometers (190 miles) and can carry up to 950 cluster munitions, Bloomberg said.

To fire the weapons, Ukrainian forces will need to make some minor modifications to launchers already used to fire GPS-guided missiles, Bush added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long been campaigning for the delivery of ATACMS, due to their ability to hit targets deep behind the front line.

On Sept. 22, multiple media outlets reported that Biden had agreed to deliver a limited number of the missiles.

The reports came shortly after Zelenskys four-day visit to the United States, during which he met with Biden and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The date or further details of the delivery of ATACMS have not yet been revealed.

Read also: US will reportedly give ATACMS to Ukraine. Will it change the war?

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Newly released body camera footage shows state Sen. Charles Schwertners February arrest for suspicion of drunk driving after refusing to take a breathalyzer test. Travis County prosecutors dropped the charge in July, saying there was not enough evidence to secure a conviction.

The video was released to The Texas Tribune on Friday in response to a public records request. It shows Schwertner, a Georgetown Republican, being pulled over in the early morning hours of Feb. 7 in Austin. The officer tells Schwertner he was driving between two lanes, and Schwertner apologizes, saying he and his passenger were changing channels and stuff.

State Rep. Claudia Ordaz, D-El Paso, can be seen in the front passenger seat with Schwertner as he is being pulled over. In a statement, she said, I had no involvement in this matter other than being a passenger at the time of this incident and was fully cooperative with authorities at all times. I regret this incident occurred, and in the future, I will use more caution to prevent this type of unfortunate circumstance.

The video goes on to show Schwertner repeating he had not been drinking, performing field sobriety tests and being handcuffed. He was released from the Travis County jail later that day, telling reporters he was deeply apologetic and made a mistake.

More: El Paso records highest migrant death toll in history

Schwertners lawyer, Perry Minton, declined to answer questions about the video and instead provided a brief statement.

This is the video the Travis County Attorneys Office viewed when it rejected any charges against Senator Schwertner months ago, Minton said. Its time to move on to newsworthy stories.

The Tribune provided the video to both Schwertners and Ordazs offices shortly after it was released on Friday evening. Minton provided his statement Saturday morning, while Ordaz did not respond with a comment until just 1 minute before this storys publication.

In the video, Schwertner tells the officer he was picking up Ordaz at the airport and they had gone out to dinner at Whataburger. Ordaz tells the officer they are parked at her place, and Schwertner confirms it is where she lives.

The officer asks if they have been drinking and both say no. The officer asks Schwertner to come out of the car, and once he does, the officer tells Schwertner he notices a strong smell of alcohol on his breath. The officer asks again if Schwertner had anything to drink, and Schwertner says no.

A little while later, the officer continues to ask Schwertner whether he has been drinking, at one point asking him to rate how drunk he is on a scale of zero to 10. Part of the audio of the exchange is missing, but Schwertners response is audible.

Im sober, Schwertner says. Zero.

More: Huge fire rages at vacant Ruben Salazar apartments in South El Paso

The officer proceeds to conduct field sobriety tests on Schwertner, during which his wife apparently arrives at the scene.

My wife just showed up, Schwertner says, explaining he was distracted while balancing on one foot.

They try to restart the exercise, but Schwertner is still distracted.

Belinda. Belinda, Schwertner says. Shes an attorney.

While a voice can be heard offscreen, the words are inaudible. It is unclear who exactly Schwertner was referring to as an attorney. Neither Belinda Schwertner nor Ordaz are listed as attorneys in either of their public profiles.

The officer and Schwertner resume the exercise, but Schwertner becomes impatient. He asks the officer if the length of time he has been balancing is sufficient, and the officer tells him that is not for him to decide.

Officer, this is getting to be a interrogation, Schwertner says.

The officer says all he is trying to do is get Schwertner to follow instructions for a standardized field sobriety test. Schwertner insists he has done everything the officer has asked him to do and tells the officer he is acting inappropriately.

Schwertner ultimately completes the test and he and the officer walk over closer to a police car, where a second officer assures Schwertner he is going through a standardized thing and not getting any unique treatment. A third officer presents Schwertner with what he calls a preliminary breath test, explains it detects alcohol and asks if he would like to take it. Schwertner says no and is handcuffed and told he is under arrest for driving while intoxicated.

More: Judge orders mental evaluation of man arrested in West Side armed standoff on balcony

The video goes on for about another half hour, showing Schwertner being placed in a police car, calmly interacting with officers and arriving at the jail.

At one point, Schwertner asks the first officer if he can sit in the front of the police car. The officer says he has to put Schwertner in the back due to policy. Schwertner gets in the back of the car and sighs.

Ive done so much for you guys, Schwertner says.

The officer replies that he appreciates it but he is just doing his job. Schwertner says he understands.

While Schwertner is in the car, the arresting officer is approached by another officer.

I need to call the watch commander because thats a senator, a Texas state senator, and theyre in the legislative session right now, the other officer says before adding in a reassuring tone: You do everything right. Everybodys treated the same.

Schwertner was booked into the Travis County jail at 2:12 a.m. and charged with driving while intoxicated. He received a personal recognizance bond and was released from jail shortly after noon that day.

Im deeply sorry, apologetic to my citizens and my family, Schwertner told reporters as he left the jail. I made a mistake.

The officer who arrested Schwertner wrote in an affidavit for probable cause that in addition to the smell of alcohol on his breath, Schwertner had bloodshot, glassy, watery eyes, was confused, and had slurred speech patterns. The officer also described Schwertners demeanor as polite, sleepy, cooperative.

Travis County Attorney Delia Garza announced July 18 that there was not enough evidence to continue with the case. She also said Schwertner voluntarily submitted to alcohol counseling and alcohol monitoring with no violations. Minton, Schwertners lawyer, said it was the right decision based strictly on the evidence.

After Schwertners arrest, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said there was zero excuse for drunk driving, especially by a member of the legislature whose conduct should be held to a higher standard. Patrick added he would withhold further comment until the final outcome of this issue in court. Patrick has since not commented on the situation.

Schwertner chairs the Senate Business and Commerce Committee and has served in the upper chamber since 2013. He represents Senate District 5, a Republican-friendly district that covers the north Austin suburbs and spreads east to include College Station.

Schwertner, 53, previously had a personal controversy in 2018, when he was accused of sending sexually explicit photos of his genitals to a graduate student at the University of Texas. He denied the allegations, saying that someone else sent the messages using his LinkedIn account and another privacy phone messaging app that belongs to him.

A university investigation did not clear Schwertner of wrongdoing but said it could not prove Schwertner sent the texts. Investigators said Schwertner was uncooperative.

After the allegation, Schwertner voluntarily gave up his chairmanship of the Senates Health and Human Services Committee.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Video shows El Paso Rep. Ordaz with state Sen. Schwertner in DWI stop
EDITOR'S NOTE: Viewer discretion is advised as the video contains graphic footage and language.

To stave off any further public unrest," Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters released officers body-worn camera footage in the arrest of LeKeian Woods that has caused an outcry after a cellphone video went viral showing the bloodied, Black 24-year-old taken into custody.

Waters main contention is that the video doesnt tell the whole story and was in fact manipulated. He stated the use of force may be ugly, but the officers did not overstep their authority.

The Sheriffs Offices revised policy since Waters took office is to release edited body camera video within 21 days of when it happened, which the department has done typically using about the full time frame. Monday he provided it three days after the arrest.

Since Friday evening, cellphone camera footage of this incident has been circulating on social media causing outrage among the community, Waters said.  While this incident remains under administrative review, we are releasing the body-worn camera footage today to the significant public interest surrounding this incident. Transparency as Ive said before is the foundation of which trust is built and by which the police and public partnership is cultivated.

He said officers will be held accountable whether it looks good or bad for the department.

However, equally essential is speaking up when our officers are wronged, the sheriff said. Some of the cellphone camera footage that has been circulating since Friday does not comprehensively capture the circumstances surrounding Woods arrest. And that is to be expected. Part of that stemmed from the distance and perspective of the recording cellphone camera. Another part of it stems from the fact that the cellphone camera did not capture the events immediately preceding Woods arrest.  So much context and depth are absent from recorded footage because a camera simply cannot capture what is known to the people depicted in it.

A rush to judgment can lead to faulty and dangerous conclusions that have long-lasting consequences, he said.

I am speaking out today, even with the investigation still pending, because its now clear that some of the circulating cellphone camera footage has been intentionally altered to imply that one of the detectives kicked a handcuffed Woods.

He said body camera footage and unedited versions of the social media video definitively indicate the detective never kicked the suspect. He said it appears the video was reversed to somehow make it look like he kicked him.

The Times-Union notably didnt initially report the video over the weekend because editors did not see clear evidence of what was being claimed. The Times-Union coverage also never mentioned that Woods was kicked while in handcuffs, and the published videos on Jacksonville.com do not show what the sheriff said was altered.

The only logical conclusion that can be drawn by the production from such altered video is that its creator or distributor had a personal agenda seeking to incite community rage against police officers, Waters said.

He did acknowledge the physical tactics by the officers involved.

There was force used by arresting detectives, he said. And yes that force is ugly. But the reality is that all force, all violence, is ugly. And just because force is ugly does not mean its unlawful or contrary to policy.

What does the body camera video show?

Mike Shell, chief of professional standards, said Woods was already known to detectives as they were trying to apprehend him. He is part of a local group connected with violent crimes, narcotics distribution and firearms. In 2018 he was arrested in a murder in Tallahassee but pleaded guilty to an amended robbery charge and is on probation.

Friday after Woods was observed participating in a drug transaction, detectives stopped the Dodge Ram he was the front passenger in, Shell said. The driver and back passenger complied, one even advising he had a gun, and were taken into custody without incident. The firearm was seized, and several drugs were found in the truck.

The bodycam from one of the officers shows the truck stopped in the parking lot of an apartment complex for several minutes with the officer noting there are three inside. He yells for them not to move and for the driver to show him his hands. He then asks more calmly who else is in the vehicle, while another officer covers the rear.

The back-seat passenger is asked to come out and to keep his hands up. The gun can be seen in one of his pockets. He cooperates and is handcuffed, while the other officer comes around toward the driver's side and has his gun raised.

About that time, Woods is seen bolting and the officer chases him through the complex yelling multiple times, Youre f! He warns him, Im going to tase you. Im going to tase you  get on the ground.

He fires it two times to get the probes to work, and Woods falls to the ground. He tries to secure him and repeatedly orders him to put his hands behind his back, but Woods can be seen continuing to resist even as another detective jumps on him as well and finally one more officer to get the handcuffs on him.

In the video shown at the news conference, its difficult to see actual punches or other strikes to Woods because its so close up at that point. But detective J. Garrigas bodycam released among others as part of the Sheriff's Office's "critical incident briefing" on Facebook clearly shows officers hitting and elbowing him repeatedly during the struggle, yelling at him to give him his hand while trying to cuff him.

Woods can be heard moaning throughout much of it toward the end. In the arrest report, three of the officers confirm punching, kneeing and elbowing him at least 17 times. The arrest report also says several times that Woods could be seen with a hand on his waistline, potentially indicating he could be reaching for a gun. That is difficult to see in the videos.

More of Sheriff T.K. Waters' response

After showing one of the videos during Monday evenings news conference, Waters emphasized that social media is not reality and that its content is not fact-checked by any entity.

Because of this misinformation campaign by the anti-police fringe, our agency has come under fire and individual detectives lives have been threatened, he said.  The truth is Woods sustained facial injuries when he fled from police and was tased and fell face first on the concrete. The detectives struggled with him, and as I stated before, they used strikes to gain control, but he continued to resist his arrest. The outcome of Woods apprehension contrasts with that of his friends in the truck who immediately complied with police and suffered no physical injury.

He stated the use of force looks ugly but not because the detectives engaged in misconduct.

Based on the currently available information, the agency believes the involved detectives acted appropriately with respect to the law and JSO policy, Waters said.

The sheriff then took questions from the media and was asked about Woods booking photo showing both of his eyes blackened and swollen shut.

He reiterated it was largely due to him face-planting on the concrete after being neutralized with the taser. The sheriff then quickly pivoted back to misinformation being spread.

Waters was asked to clarify whether Woods had a weapon, and he responded detectives had seen him earlier during the surveillance of the drug transaction and believed he had a gun in a weighted-down pocket. But they had no way of knowing he had handed it off to one of his friends in the truck at some point.

He also said the units work on this case was part of investigations of recent high-profile shootings and that Woods crossed paths with some of the groups.

He said that when he last checked, Woods was still in the hospital from the injuries during the arrest. He was charged with resisting arrest with violence, armed trafficking cocaine, armed trafficking amphetamine, armed possession of a controlled substance, tampering with evidence and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription.

Racially profiled? Jacksonville state attorney deems officer justified in shooting of Jamee Johnson

Something that wasnt specifically addressed was some of the initial social media reports and by the family that this whole episode stemmed from a seat belt violation. However, the arrest report indicates it was due to the detectives observing the apparent drug transaction and then following the suspect vehicle. The report did note one time that the drivers window was open and the seat belt wasnt being used.

Woods family announced they would be joining their attorneys for a news conference Tuesday in front of the Sheriff's Office to speak out on the beating that has sparked national outrage. Civil rights attorney Harry Daniels and personal injury attorney Marwan Porter also would be speaking as well. See Jacksonville.com for coverage.

The organizers also said the case bears some similarity to the 2019 killing of 22-year-old Jamee Johnson who was pulled over for a seat belt violation before being fatally shot by Officer Josue Garriga.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville sheriff says viral video of beating arrest was altered
Fast fashion firm Boohoo is planning to make major cost cuts after it slashed its sales forecast.

The retailer - whose brands include PrettyLittleThing - warned that sales could fall by as much as 17% this year as cash-strapped shoppers rein in spending.

Boohoo said that it had identified 125m of cost savings it will make to try to get the business back on track.

Its boss said he still saw a "clear path" to improved profits.

Boohoo was one of the big winners of the pandemic, as online retailers thrived, and it took the opportunity to snap up other brands such as Nasty Gal, whose US founder Sophia Amoruso was credited with making the term "girl boss" mainstream.

But it has found the going harder more recently, and it reported sales of 729m in the six months to 31 August - down 17% from the same period a year before.

The online retailer has been making huge efforts to boost profits in recent months, starting to charge for returns and sourcing goods from Europe rather than from Asia.

However, its half-year results showed pre-tax losses at the group widened to 26.4m, compared with 15.4m a year ago.

Despite the losses, chief executive John Lyttle said he saw "a clear path to improved profitability and getting back to growth".

Boohoo had made "substantial progress" on big targets, he added, including the launch of a US distribution centre and earmarking 125m in annual cost cuts to be made throughout its supply chains.

It said it would focus on "more profitable" sales within its labels, after downgrading forecasts which previously suggested sales would remain flat or fall by up to 5%.

The Manchester-based brand came under fire years ago for selling a bodycon dress for as little as 5.

It admitted that the dress was a "loss leader", simply designed to draw people in to its website although the firm would not make any money from it.

But such tactics have meant it has faced a lot of criticism. Its cheap, fast-turnaround production methods have been criticised over their environmental impact and it has come up against allegations over poor pay and working conditions at some of its UK warehouses where they are used, which it said it took "very seriously".

Social media users have hit out at celebrities including Kourtney Kardashian Barker and Naomi Campbell, who recently launched collaborations with Boohoo and PrettyLittleThing, for promoting the group.

Boohoo said on Tuesday that it was lowering prices to "reinforce our value credentials" and win shoppers back.

Other fast fashion giants such as Asos have also reported large losses after shoppers have cut back on spending as the cost of living has spiralled.

Louise Deglise-Favre, apparel analyst at the analytics firm GlobalData, said that Boohoo was being forced to "reckon with reality".

She pointed out that its struggles were also partly due to the meteoric rise of Chinese company Shein, "which has jumped to the top of the ultra-fast fashion game and continues to steal market share".

She suggested that other consumers might also have changed their priorities when it comes to shopping, preferring to invest in longer-lasting pieces.

But Boohoo still needs to compete with competitors like Shein and Fashion Nova, and "it will need to upscale its marketing efforts if it hopes to compete," Ms Deglise-Favre added.
McEwan says trigger warnings and sensitivity readers are part of a 'mass hysteria' imported from the United States (JOEL SAGET)

The acclaimed British novelist Ian McEwan is baffled by the current obsession with sensitivity in the publishing world. "Be brave," he urged young writers.

"I don't know what's happening," said the Booker-winning writer of "Atonement", "Saturday" and "Amsterdam", when asked about "sensitivity readers" combing through books to remove anything that might be deemed offensive.

"It's happening among very young people who are living in societies that are relatively free, and they seem to want to bind their arms and legs in ways that are just trivial," he told AFP.

He said he heard a young male writer talk about his fear of writing about male desire.

"I thought, 'Poor guy!' Because you've lost the desire of half the world," he said.

His advice: "Be brave! Screw the lot of them. You've got to write what you feel. You must tell the truth.

"These mass hysterias, moral panics, sweep through populations every now and then. And I think this is one of them."

McEwan, 75, insisted the trend does not apply to all young people -- just "a weird thing that happens in some universities, which we got from the United States".

He strongly supports young people fighting to combat climate change -- a problem "that is going to affect every last one of us".

And he draws a line between the world of "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces" from calls for racial and post-colonial reckoning, saying he backed the students who tore down a slaver's statue in Bristol, England in 2020.

"Demanding a little more accounting of our colonial imperial past is a perfectly good demand. But saying we can't read Nabokov or Conrad or whatever, seems beyond contempt," he said.

- 'Stupid, shameful episodes' -

McEwan spoke to AFP during a trip to Paris just before the announcement of the Nobel Literature Prize, for which he has long been held up as a possible winner.

He dismissed his chances.

"You know, there are about 50 of us whose names come up every year," he said.

"I think my son (a medical researcher) will get the Nobel Prize before me," he added with a laugh.

McEwan's novels have explored a wide range of complex moral topics from memory and trauma, the ethical implications of scientific progress to the darker side of love and relationships -- usually with a sharply ironic humour.

Many have been adapted into films, including "On Chesil Beach", "Enduring Love" and the highly acclaimed war romance "Atonement".

Already halfway through his next book, he was visiting Paris for the French release of "Lessons", which tracks a man's life alongside the major political events of McEwan's own lifetime, from the Suez and Cuban Missile crises right up to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is Brexit that has taken the greatest toll, he said.

He sees it as symbolic of the defeat of an older version of Britain -- of "teachers, doctors, librarians... people working in the public service (who) no longer count because Britain is really ruled by people who have made vast amounts of money in financial services and the social good is not of interest."

"I think they'll be back," he added. "The wheel will turn again. We've seen too many of the stupid, shameful episodes of the populist right in our country."

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Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has agreed to pay $25.2 million to settle a lawsuit brought by two men who each spent over 30 years in prison after they were convicted of murder based on testimony from a state forensic scientist that a judge later determined to be false. No physical evidence tied the men to the murder except a towel that celebrity forensic scientist Henry Lee, then head of the state crime lab, testified had blood on it. Their sentences were vacated in 2020 when, after further testing, a judge ruled there was no blood on the towel. A judge earlier this year found there was no evidence Lee ever tested the towel for blood. Lee denies fabricating evidence and said the blood on the towel may have degraded in the years between him testing it and when it was retested.

The post Brickbat: DNA Doesn't Lie appeared first on Reason.com.
Brightline will ramp up its Miami-to-Orlando train service two weeks after its inauguration  making it easier for South Florida residents to visit Disney and Universal theme parks.

After more than four years in the making, the company on Sept. 22 launched its long-anticipated 170-mile, $6 billion extension from West Palm Beach to the Orlando International Airport.

Starting Monday, Brightline will run 30 trains daily, with 15 daily departures from Miami to Orlando. Since the launch there have been only six round trips per day.

More trips means a change to the trip schedule between Orlando to Miami:

 The new hourly schedule begins with the first train leaving Orlando at 4:38 a.m., arriving into Miami at 8:11 a.m. The final train leaves Orlando at 8:54 p.m.

 The first train leaves Miami for Orlando at 6:41 a.m., arriving at 10:19 a.m. with the last train leaving Miami for Orlando at 9:41 p.m.

Additional early morning and late-night trains will operate between Brightlines five South Florida stations.

Orlando is Brightlines sixth stop, and the first outside of South Florida. The train firm launched operations in South Florida in 2018, connecting Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Stations in Boca Raton and Aventura opened last year.

The 235-mile trip from Miami to Orlando takes about 3 1/2 hours, with the train reaching speeds of up to 125 mph. One-way tickets start at $79 for adults and are $39 for kids ages 2 to 12.

READ MORE: Miami-Orlando Brightline route is now on a roll. What to know about taking the train

Brightline president Patrick Goddard first made the announcement Monday afternoon during a luncheon with business and political leaders at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts Cohen Pavilion in West Palm Beach, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.

READ MORE: Whats it like to ride the Miami-Orlando Brightline? Take a virtual tour of train trip

According to the newspaper, Goddard reiterated that the companys priorities in Florida include building a station along the Treasure Coast between West Palm Beach and Cocoa within the next five years, and ultimately extending its service from Orlando to Tampa.
After an indictment was handed down in September by a Nelson County grand jury against Brooks Houck for the murder of his former girlfriend, Crystal Rogers, many were curious about the role of grand jurors and how the process works, from beginning to end.

Houck, 41, was indicted on Sept. 20 for a charge of murder and evidence tampering, according to court documents. His indictment reads, acting alone or in complicity with another, (Houck) committed the offense of murder by intentionally or under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life wantonly causing the death of Crystal Rogers.

The Nelson County native is alleged to have destroyed, mutilated, concealed, removed or altered the physical evidence which he believed was about to be produced or used in such official proceeding, with the intent to impair its verity or availability in the official proceeding, his indictment reads.

Houck was jailed last week and held on a $10 million bond. His original citation and court file lists charges as complicity to murder and evidence tampering.

How a case goes to the grand jury

A case can be presented to a grand jury in two different ways, according to Fayette Commonwealth Attorney Kimberly Baird. The first method is done by bringing the case up through the lower, district court following an arrest.

Once felony charges are filed against a defendant, a district court judge can hear evidence during a preliminary hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to send the case before a grand jury.

The second way to bring forth charges against a defendant is through direct submission, Baird said. Direct submission occurs when police or an investigating agency bring a case to the commonwealth directly and ask for a grand jury presentation.

In Houcks case, district court proceedings were bypassed, and the case went straight before a grand jury and indictment was handed down. The decision for direct submission is typically made at the discretion of police and prosecutors.

A person may, however, waive their right to grand jury proceedings and agree to be prosecuted by a written charge of crime.

A grand jury is a pivotal and deciding factor to indict a defendant, bringing forward formal, criminal charges then transferring the case to circuit court.

What does a grand jury do?

Unlike a trial jury, grand jurors do not decide whether a defendant is guilty or not guilty. Their responsibilities are to determine what charges  if any  a defendant will face in circuit court or trial based on evidence presented to them by prosecutors. Jurors can either bolster or reduce charges that are brought forth by the prosecutors.

(Grand jurors) have a lot of power, they can increase or decrease charges, add charges, Baird said. They have a lot of discretion to handle that case and we present the case to them, and tell them what the law is.

Grand jury proceedings are done in secret, and consist of 12 citizens selected to serve at random. During the proceedings, evidence is presented by a commonwealths attorney who can call witnesses that often consist of law enforcement officials.

In Houcks grand jury hearing, jurors heard testimony from Kentucky State Police Detective Bryan Luckett and FBI Agent Steve Kearny, according to court records.

The private sessions only include the jurors, the commonwealths attorney, witnesses and a stenographer. Judges or members of the defense team are not present for testimony or deliberations. A defendant can choose to testify to the grand jury by request, according to Baird.

After all evidence has been presented, the grand jurors will deliberate and decide whether to return an indictment. Nine of the 12 grand jurors must be in agreement to return an indictment, according to the Kentucky Court of Justice. If eight or fewer jurors agree, the case is dismissed, Baird said.

They are the gatekeepers between the state and the citizen, Baird said. The have a very hard job. They hear one side of the story, and they are asking questions because nobody wants for some person to be indicted that doesnt need to be indicted.

Just because the defense isnt testifying, doesnt mean jurors arent doing their jobs. They are looking at the case critically, looking at what we have presented, and looking at what is the law.
Updated at 9 a.m. EDT Tuesday

Tropical Storm Philippe is like the middle son who will not under any circumstances do what hes told to do. In fact, he does the opposite.

The complex and subtle atmospheric pattern about Philippe as brought the worlds most advanced computer forecast models to their knees. And the National Hurricane Center forecast, which is largely based on the consensus of the on-average best computer forecasts, has pointed all over the ocean as well.

Philippe has put the oft-stated-here rule of forecasting that predictions for disorganized, just-organizing, and slow-moving systems are subject to larger-than-average errors front and center.

Tropical Storm Philippe's stats.

This situation isnt as consequential as 2015s Hurricane Joaquin, which was forecast to move north toward the mid-Atlantic but went south and mauled the Central Bahamas. Or Dorian, which defiantly pounced on the Virgin Islands as a hurricane when it was forecast to threaten the Dominican Republic. But its been ugly.

The good news is, Philippe is not a super-strong storm. Although there is a mass of tropical thunderstorms on its south side, which its dragging over the northeastern Caribbean islands. Guadeloupe and Dominica have taken the brunt of the hit so far, and the flooding rain will continue there today as Philippe only slowly moves away to the north.

Even though the center of the circulation is between the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla, just about to move into the Atlantic waters north of the islands, the mass of tropical moisture, gusty squalls, and tropical downpours is still over the islands and the surrounding waters.

Philippe is not strong enough to wrap the moisture around its center of circulation as it pulls away, so tropical downpours are forecast to continue over the islands for at least a few more days, even as the storms center pulls away to the north. Soils are saturated on some islands, so flash flooding is possible. Stay aware of local alerts.

Looking ahead, Bermuda is now in the cone. The forecast atmospheric pattern has been stunningly inconsistent in that time frame as well, and now appears to be somewhat hostile to Philippe getting terribly strong. A high-end tropical storm is now forecast when the center of Philippes circulation is in the vicinity of the island about Friday.

Long-range computer models show Philippe strengthening after it passes Bermuda, becoming a formidable storm that threatens Atlantic Canada over the weekend. Although that forecast has changed many times as well.

Philippe is a testament to the immutable fact that the Earths atmosphere is a chaotic system, which means that occasionally weird, unforecastable things will happen. Modern forecasting techniques, higher-resolution atmospheric-data-collection systems, and scientific research have made the forecasts for most storms dramatically more accurate than they were just 20 years ago. But sometimes Mother Nature taps us on the shoulder and reminds us not to get cocky.

Nothing else appears to be brewing. A relatively hostile weather pattern is settling over the tropics for now.





Original article source: Bryan Norcross: Defiant Tropical Storm Philippe bringing flooding rain to some Caribbean islands
Bushfires in parts of southeast Australia amid spring heatwave FILE PHOTO: Australian firefighters prepare for "most significant" fire risk since Black Summer

By Lewis Jackson

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A bushfire in Australia's Victoria state more than trebled overnight and authorities urged residents in a remote part of Tasmania state to evacuate as a spring heatwave fanned fires across the country's southeast.

Around 17,000 hectares (66 square miles) were ablaze on Tuesday in the eastern part of Victoria state's Gippsland region after high winds spread fires overnight, according to state fire authorities, who had deployed some 650 firefighters.

"We moved in strike teams in the very early hours of this morning," said Jason Heffernan, chief officer at Country Fire Authority Victoria.

"It is quite a large fire spread across a large area. ... It's proving to be quite difficult, burning in private property but also some pine plantations."

Across the Bass Strait in Tasmania state, residents on the northern edge of Flinders Island were told to evacuate from an out of control bushfire.

Fires are being stoked by hot, dry winds across southeast as the country experiences an unseasonably hot spring.

Australia began spring with its driest September on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, with rainfall 71% below the 1961-1990 average.

Conditions are expected to change rapidly in Victoria Tuesday afternoon, with heavy rains expected to help douse fires but potentially trigger flash flooding.

"It's very concerning," said Heffernan. "There's a bit of a running joke down here in Victoria you can expect four seasons in one day and I gotta tell you, today, they're not wrong."

Hot and dry conditions also led New South Wales authorities on Tuesday to ban open fires across large swathes of the state, including the Greater Sydney Region. There were 82 fires burning across the state, 16 not contained, on Tuesday morning.

Temperatures are expected to hit 37 degrees Celsius (98.6F) in Sydney's west on Tuesday afternoon.

(Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Richard Chang)
Californias corrections department has room to improve its investigations of employee misconduct, the Office of the Inspector General found  in fact, less than one-quarter of disciplinary probes examined over a recent six-month stretch were found to be fully up to par.

The corrections watchdog, which monitors discipline at the state prisons, found that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation performed sufficient investigations in only 23% of the cases the office monitored in the first half of this year, a new report says.

The Inspector Generals office followed 192 employee discipline cases between January and June 2023. More than 75% of those investigations into employee misconduct contained significant deficiencies, some of which resulted in the alleged offender avoiding discipline due to an expired statute of limitations.

While those deficiencies vary from case to case, the most common misstep was a lack of timeliness in moving cases from one stage of the investigation to the next. Investigators only have one year after the discovery of misconduct to discipline a peace officer under state law. That means a guilty officer could avoid discipline simply by running out the clock.

CDCR takes every allegation of employee misconduct very seriously, and is committed to ensuring allegations are properly, fairly and thoroughly reviewed, wrote CDCR spokesperson Terri Hardy in a statement to The Sacramento Bee. OIGs findings indicate CDCRs process is sufficient in most instances and this report provides valuable feedback. CDCR appreciates the recommendations provided, and is reviewing them.

Out of 192 total cases that the Inspector Generals office monitored, 23% were deemed sufficient, 49% were sufficient with recommendations and 28% were insufficient. The report noted that while nearly three-quarters of the cases were not insufficient, more than three-quarters of them had enough flaws to disqualify them from a sufficient rating.

Insufficient investigations typically include those where the statute of limitations expired and the officer evaded discipline, or cases where an unreasonable delay in the investigation allowed an officer to remain on staff and collect pay or administrative leave before being disciplined.

In 37 cases, allegations were discovered in time to take disciplinary action, but delays caused the statute of limitations to expire or nearly expire before discipline could be imposed. Thats up from only 16 cases in the previous report from six months ago.

In one egregious case, the report found, a prison warden waited two-and-a-half years to dismiss an unnamed officer who was accused of molesting and sending inappropriate sexual text messages to a 15-year-old.

The departments Office of Internal Affairs determined there was enough evidence to support discipline without needing to open an additional investigation. Still, the warden at the undisclosed prison chose to wait until after the criminal case was finished  a decision that caused an unnecessary delay, the Inspector Generals report said.

The officer remained on staff and on payroll for that entire period before finally being dismissed on July 27, 2021.

How does the Inspector General monitor conduct cases?

Although the Inspector Generals office does not directly investigate prison misconduct, it watches over CDCRs shoulder and reports out on how well the department investigates and disciplines its employees. Septembers report marks the offices 37th semiannual review.

As part of a new methodology introduced in this report, the Inspector Generals office assessed the performance of each stakeholder  the prisons hiring authority or warden; CDCRs central Office of Internal Affairs; and departmental attorneys with the Employment Advocacy and Prosecution Team  and rated its role in the investigation.

The three possible ratings are sufficient, sufficient with recommendations, or insufficient. Previously, the Inspector General used a scale of superior, satisfactory, and poor, and rated each step of the investigative process rather than the stakeholder as an entity.

Under the new rating system, less than one-fourth of the cases that were examined were deemed sufficient  meaning they contained no deficiencies in the Inspector Generals opinion.

Did CDCR adequately investigate misconduct?

Employee misconduct cases at CDCR start at the prison level. When a hiring authority, usually the warden, believes that misconduct may have occurred, theyll refer the case to CDCRs Office of Internal Affairs.

That referral is supposed to happen within 45 days of discovering the alleged misconduct, but the Inspector Generals report found that wardens only met that threshold in 74% of cases  two percentage points worse than the last report six months ago.

Hiring authorities continued a pattern of referring allegations late in approximately one of every four cases, the report said. Of the 53 cases we rated insufficient, 15 had untimely referrals of allegations.

If the Office of Internal Affairs approves an investigation, it will then assign a special agent and interview witnesses along with the employee accused of misconduct. The Internal Affairs office generally performed sufficiently, although the report notes that the office frequently delayed criminal investigations.

Internal Affairs then sends its findings back to the hiring authority, which ultimately decides whether disciplinary action is appropriate, what type of action to take and whether to enter a settlement with the accused employee. The hiring authorities also faltered once they had findings in-hand, the report found. In more than 40% of cases, the wardens did not meet their 14-day time limit for conducting a disciplinary findings conference, in which they review the evidence and decide whether discipline is warranted.

(D)elays in making disciplinary decisions are a persistent and recurring deficiency in hiring authority performance, the report said.

In one case tagged as insufficient, an officer allegedly struck his girlfriend with his car, threatened to shoot her and also injured her hands and wrist by pulling her purse away. The officer lied during an interview with the Office of Internal Affairs by denying the entire incident and was also convicted of false imprisonment, the Inspector Generals report said.

The prison warden originally dismissed the officer but ultimately reversed the decision and reduced the penalty to a 75-day suspension after the officer appealed during a pre-disciplinary Skelly hearing.

The Inspector Generals office disagreed with the downgraded punishment and appealed the decision five times up the CDCR chain of command. Eventually, CDCR Secretary Jeff Macomber concurred and dismissed the officer. But the officer appealed that decision to the State Personnel Board. Since his girlfriend declined to testify against him, he ended up settling with the department for a five-month suspension rather than termination  a move that the Inspector Generals office disagreed with.

The officer received his full pay during the 14 months that it took to investigate the incident.

In some cases, CDCRs vertical advocates, or the in-house Employment Advocacy and Prosecution Team attorneys who specialize in personnel matters, made inadequate and inappropriate recommendations to the hiring authority, the report found.

One case involved a CDCR officer who allegedly subjected his wife to domestic violence. The officer reportedly kicked a security guard, was intoxicated in public and used rude and offensive language toward outside law enforcement while resisting arrest. The report said the officer was so intoxicated that the outside law enforcement officers put him in a body restraint.

The department attorney assigned to the case didnt recommend a domestic violence allegation, nor did the attorney recommend dismissing the officer. In contrast, the attorney advised against dismissal due to the officers intoxication, as if that somehow mitigated the officers misconduct, the Inspector Generals report read.

The officer kept his job, to the Inspector Generals dismay.
Emily's List President Laphonza Butler addresses a Biden-Harris campaign rally on the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs vs. Jackson decision, which struck down a federal right to abortion. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Laphonza Butler was in Colorado for a work trip late Saturday when she spoke with Gov. Gavin Newsom's team for the first time about filling the U.S. Senate vacancy left by the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

I had not talked to anyone: Not the governor, not the governors team, Butler said in an interview with The Times. I was unaware that my name was even seriously being considered.

And its been a sort of whirlwind ever since.

Read more: Newsom taps Laphonza Butler for Feinstein's Senate seat

Butler spoke with The Times on Monday in her first interview since her appointment by the governor, a decision that will catapult her into the history books as the only Black woman currently in the Senate and the first LGBTQ+ senator from California.

She didnt have an answer to the top question on the minds of political observers across the nation  especially the candidates in the 2024 California Senate race. Will she run for the seat next year or simply serve as a caretaker of the position until November?

I have no idea. I genuinely dont know, Butler said. I want to be focused on honoring the legacy of Sen. Feinstein. I want to devote my time and energy to serving the people of California. And I want to carry her baton with the honor that it deserves and so I genuinely have no idea.

Butler will be sworn into office on Tuesday by Vice President Kamala Harris, her close friend and ally. If she chooses to run for the Senate seat in the 2024 election, her ballot designation, familiarity with a long list of donors and labor background could make her a formidable candidate.

Despite Newsom previously saying he would appoint an interim replacement candidate until November, Butler said the governor didnt ask her if she would run during their conversations about the appointment.

He said to me that whoever he appointed, he intended to make it clear that he would expect them to do whatever they wanted to do regarding that, Butler said.

Read more: Will she run or won't she? Laphonza Butler's appointment could scramble California Senate race

Known for her directness, the 44-year-old advocate for womens reproductive rights said she didnt offer an automatic "yes" when Newsoms team came calling.

Running for public office was never on her bingo card, but as president of Emily's List, a national political organization that focuses on electing Democratic women who support abortion access, she said shes encouraged countless women to lead when they have something to offer.

It wasnt an easy decision because I love my job and I love my family and I love my privacy, but I also love my country and I love my state, Butler said. And you know I cant really be the leader of Emily's List and encourage other women to do something courageous for their communities and for their country and I not be willing to do the same.

Newsom pitched her on the importance of having an experienced advocate for women representing California in Washington at a time when their rights are under attack in America.

Everything that shes been advocating for in the last few years meet this moment, as it relates to rights regressions, issues of civil rights, and issues of LGBTQ rights, women and girls, issues related to voting rights. Shes on the front end of all of these things, Newsom said during a media event in San Francisco.

This is a special person, he said.

Butler grew up in the small town of Magnolia, Miss. Her father died when she was 16 and her mother juggled multiple jobs to make ends meet. Her mom never had stable health insurance until the passage of the Affordable Care Act, she said at an event in San Francisco last month.

I saw my mom work every single day and sometimes three jobs in a day to make sure that me and my two brothers had an opportunity at better choices and chances, Butler said Monday.

I think that what I want the people of California to know is that I understand what its like to grow up and not feel like youve been seen. I understand what its like to experience poverty. I understand what its like to have our parents make choices about whether or not theyre going to pay the rent or theyre going to buy school shoes or school clothes.

Butler said she learned about that from personal experience and her work as a labor organizer for Service Employees International Union.

Read more: From Dianne Feinstein's death to the rise of Laphonza Butler: 3 momentous days in California

She advocated nationally for nurses, janitors and hospital workers in Baltimore, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and other cities before making a name for herself in California.

She asked SEIU to allow her to step in and lead the biggest local in Los Angeles in 2009 after a Times investigation detailed corrupt financial practices by it leader.

While heading the local, she also served four years as president of SEIU California, arguably the most powerful labor force at the state Capitol.

Before joining Emilys List, she was a partner in the political consulting firm run by the governors veteran political strategists, now known as Bearstar Strategies.

Newsom said he got to know Butler when she was a labor-rights leader peppering him with questions about how he was prepared for an aging population and long-term care in California.

She was in the trenches of educating me on the silver tsunami, as she referred to it, the golden wave in California. Asking me what my vision was as a candidate for office as it relates to addressing the aging and graying population in California, he said.

There was a passion, and it distinguished her leadership. And that always marked a consciousness with me. I paid a lot more attention to Laphonza Butler after that.

He thought of that moment, he said, when he started thinking about who to appoint.

Read more: Who is Laphonza Butler? What to know about Newsom's pick for Feinstein's Senate seat

Butler appears to be the first person in more than 60 years to enter the Senate with a background as an official in the labor movement, according to records maintained by the Senate Historical office.

In that regard, her appointment is part of the leftward movement of Democrats in terms of ideology in the dozen years since the end of the Great Recession, said Georgetown University history professor Michael Kazin, who has written books on the history of the party and on the labor movement.

Although several Democratic senators have had very close ties to the labor movement, including some who served as lawyers for major unions, actually rising through the ranks of unions has been rarer. Thats been especially true since the number of unionized workers in the U.S. started to sharply decline in the 1970s.

Laphonza is an organizer extraordinaire, said former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. He said she has few peers with her "level of experience as a community activist, a labor organizer and now as a CEO of a major womens Democratic powerhouse.

Villaraigosa said SEIU has always had a reputation for having some of the strongest union organizers of any union in the country and that shes at the top of that list.

She is no shrinking violet, he said. Shes tough as nails and takes no prisoners and has the respect of many.

Butler was in the mix for major policy initiatives, such as the efforts to raise the minimum wage to $15 in L.A. County, and then statewide. She also was heavily involved in statewide initiatives, including union-backed measures to increase income taxes in 2012 and 2016 on the wealthiest Californians.

I had the privilege of sitting at the table with her and Ive never seen anything like it, said Tia Orr, executive director of SEIU California, of the fight for the $15 minimum wage. She was able to, you know, wrangle all these different views and all these different fears of businesses leaving California and she not only passed it in California, but I think made it a reality for other states who followed behind.

Read more: Who will replace the late Sen. Feinstein in 2024 election? Meet the potential candidates

When asked if Butler was his first choice as an appointee or whether he had asked anybody else whether they wanted the job, Newsom just said she was the only choice.

She is the best choice, the governor said. I am proud and honored to have had so many extraordinarily qualified people that expressed interest in this job that I was able to engage in conversations, period, full stop. And I could not be more proud of Laphonzas interest and her qualifications and her willingness to do this.

Butler has also never served in elected office, a point some Republican critics were quick to point out.

Newsom said he wasnt worried about that because her deep governmental experience and a firm understanding of how the legislative process works, both on the national and local level, makes her next-level qualified.

Sue Dunlap, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, has known Butler for more than a decade and described her as a unifying leader across various campaigns and social movements. She's someone who can deliver results not just for labor unions or abortion access, but also for LGBTQ+ rights and economic and racial justice issues, Dunlap said.

I think thats what Laphonza brings to the table, the ability to work with everybody but also to connect the dots across movements, Dunlap said. Its really that cohesiveness as opposed to sort of thinking of any one of the things were talking about as a single issue.

Questions have risen about Butlers residency and the fact that she no longer lives in California. Its unlikely to affect her appointment or a potential campaign if she decides to run, given her long history in the state. But Emilys List edited its website to remove a reference to Butler living in Maryland.

Out of 40 million Californians, Gavin Newsom couldnt find a single one to represent our state? Orange County GOP chairman Fred Whitaker said in a statement.

Butler said she moved to Maryland with her partner, Neneki Lee, and young daughter Nylah in September of 2021 and rented out her home in Los Angeles. She said she has a lease in L.A. and will live in California and travel back and forth from Washington.

Times senior editor David Lauter and Times staff writers Queenie Wong and Seema Mehta contributed to this report.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A top California transportation official who was reassigned last month told POLITICO she was demoted for objecting to highway expansions that will increase driving.

Jeanie Ward-Waller, Caltrans deputy director of planning and modal programs, was taken off the job in September. Her reassignment came three weeks after she said she notified agency officials that she would file a whistleblower complaint about Sacramento-area road construction projects allegedly circumventing environmental rules.

Caltrans' chief deputy director, Michael Keever, notified Ward-Waller on Sept. 14 that she would be terminated from her role Oct. 4 and placed on administrative leave until then. In a letter seen by POLITICO, he offered her the option of returning to her previous role at the agency or one administrative level above that.

Ward-Waller's attorney, Christian Schreiber, said she was still weighing her next steps. "We plan to press her employment-related claims and her whistleblower retaliation claims and litigation, if that's what's necessary," he said in an interview.

Caltrans officials declined to comment on specific claims. "Caltrans will cooperate with any independent investigation into these claims," agency spokesperson Edward Barrera said in a statement. "In addition, Caltrans does not comment on personnel matters."

Ward-Waller had served in the position since January 2020 and was an appointee of former Caltrans Director Toks Omishakin, whom Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) promoted last year to Secretary of Transportation. She started at Caltrans in 2017 as sustainability program manager and before that was the policy director for the California Bicycle Coalition.

As deputy director of planning, she oversaw Caltrans' long-range planning and research and helped set the agency's policy direction. The agency has authority over all state highways and oversees all state and federal transportation spending, including on rail, bike lanes and pedestrian routes as well as roads.

Ward-Waller said in an interview  her first since her termination  that she had objected to two construction projects on Highway 80 because, she said, Caltrans' state and federal permits improperly understated their environmental impacts.

"My job at Caltrans headquarters was really to help move us in a direction where we're not widening highways so much anymore," she said. "We care about climate, we care about equity, so we're trying to move towards more multimodal options and do less widening. My involvement in projects like this is from that kind of a perspective, of trying to challenge the districts to think differently about how they're approaching projects like this."

The projects are both located on the Yolo Causeway, an elevated highway between Davis and Sacramento that crosses the Yolo Bypass, a floodplain that serves as wildlife habitat. The first project began construction in August and the second is expected to begin construction by October 2024.

Ward-Waller alleged that Caltrans improperly described the first project as "pavement rehabilitation" when it will actually widen the road to accommodate new lanes. Because of that, she said, it's illegally using state funds that are intended only for road maintenance, not widening.

She also said the projects should have been considered as one and that by "piecemealing" them into two, Caltrans was able to streamline permitting for the first project, avoiding a full evaluation of alternatives under the California Environmental Quality Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

Ward-Waller said she had been raising concerns about the project since July. She said she elevated the concerns in a text message to Keever on Aug. 16 and detailed them in a meeting with him on Aug. 17 before going on vacation for two weeks.

"That was the time I basically said, 'We need to call an external audit here,'" she said.

After being demoted Sept. 14, Ward-Waller said, she submitted a formal whistleblower complaint to Caltrans on Sept. 16.

She also identified in the complaint two other projects underway in the Sacramento region that she said are improperly using maintenance funding while actually widening the roads and said the Caltrans district that oversees the region is known for trying to use road-maintenance funding to widen highways. "This was somewhat their way of doing business," she said.

Caltrans declined further comment.
This is part of an occasional Herald-Leader series, Trail to 23, to catch readers up on all the latest from this years Kentucky elections, most notably the governors race. There are fewer than 40 days until the Nov. 7 general election in which Kentuckians will decide the commonwealths next governor: incumbent Democrat Andy Beshear or Republican challenger Daniel Cameron. Past installments can be read online.

A new analysis of campaign advertising spending has found the Kentucky governors contest to be the second-most expensive race in the nation, behind only the 2024 presidential election.

AdImpact, an organization that tracks political ads and spending, reported last week that so far, 2023 has seen $890 million in political ad spending and future reservations. The presidential race accounted for $208 million of that, followed by the Kentucky governors race with $67 million in spending.

The governors race between Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican challenger Attorney General Daniel Cameron has proven to be a boon for area broadcast markets. Lexington has seen the fifth-most spending in the nation with $23.7 million, and Louisville came in seventh with $21.3 million.

Here's a look at 2023 ad spending/reservations by market. Washington DC leads the way with $48.9M. Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Lexington round out the rest of the top five. https://t.co/dM8Xff6SZ1 pic.twitter.com/XYW3tpVhxQ  AdImpact Politics (@AdImpact_Pol) September 25, 2023

Cameron, Coleman sound off on education

Education has been the topic at hand at a pair of speaking engagements in Lexington for both candidates.

Cameron spoke at a meeting of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents about the prudence of his catch-up plan to recover from learning loss that took place as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.

The plan includes a significant starting salary raise for new teachers as well as a summer and after-school program to ensure our kids will get more reading and math instruction from high-quality educators, Cameron said.

One point of emphasis for Cameron: He claimed he could get his own plan through the Republican-dominated legislature while casting Beshears proposal to raise school employee pay 11% across the board as a pipe dream.

Cameron worked with the legislature to develop his plan while he cited GOP House Education Chair James Tiptons, R-Taylorsville, claim that neither Beshear nor any Democratic legislator has reached out about the governors plan.

It is a verifiable fact that this governor has no relationship with the legislature and has no ability to get his plan passed. His plan is an epitome of a Hail Mary in an election year. With no plan and no strategy, a vote for the present administration is a vote for a decade of decline for our children, unfulfilled promises for our teachers and empty rhetoric for our families, Cameron said.

Democratic Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman gave an education-centric speech of her own last week, this one a campaign event at the Lexington Public Librarys main branch.

Like Cameron, Coleman went on the offensive against her opponent. She brought cutouts blasting Cameron for not proposing raises for experienced teachers, supporting tax credit-funded private school vouchers and the tickets ties to controversial pension reform.

Her opponent for the lieutenant governor spot, Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, was a strong advocate for a pension reform bill pushed by former Republican governor Matt Bevin. That bill  dubbed the sewer bill by opponents  drew intense backlash from teachers. Coleman said that the fact that Cameron picked Mills proves Cameron is no friend of public educators.

When you pick someone who is an architect of the sewer bill, someone who is anti-public education, anti-worker, youre sending a message about exactly how youre going to operate in not only your campaign but also as an administration. We cannot afford four more years of Matt Bevins policies under Daniel Cameron and Robby Mills, Coleman said.

When asked why she believed the ambitious teacher raise could get through the legislature, which has been hesitant to follow any fiscal policy proposed by Beshear, Coleman pointed out that big raises have recently been given to state police troopers and social workers. Its time to give one to the teachers, she said.

We can afford it. When our budget proposal goes to the legislature, its already gonna have this 11% raise in it. The math is done, the work is done  why dont you just leave it in there? And if they choose not to, then they need to be held accountable by the voters, Coleman said.

Cameron claims consistency on abortion

Speaking on WVLKs Larry Glover Live last Friday, Cameron was again pressed about his position on abortion, namely exceptions for rape and incest.

Democrats and the Beshear campaign have made hay of Camerons publicly evolving position on abortion in recent weeks, highlighting that the attorney general has a long track record defending Kentuckys abortion law as-is, which doesnt have exceptions for rape and incest.

Cameron garnered attention two weeks ago when he said on a different radio program that he would sign a bill adding such exceptions. Then, last week, Cameron said at a campaign stop hed sign that bill if our courts made that change.

I guess you made news, I guess a week or so ago, when you came out and said that you would sign legislation that would provide exceptions for rape and incest to Kentuckys abortion law. Is that a newfound feeling? Or is that something youve always held? Glover asked Cameron.

No, Ive maintained consistency on this. Look, Im the pro-life candidate in this race, and what Ive said is I support the Human Life Protection Act, Cameron said of Kentuckys trigger ban.

But if the law in the intervening period was to change, meaning the court or somebody made it a judgment that we had to add exceptions, and our legislature put those in, of course I would sign it.

Do you believe there should be access to abortion? Glover asked as a follow-up.

Well, look ... as Ive said before, I support the Human Life Protection Act, Cameron replied in part.

Later in the interview, Glover circled back to the exceptions, asking if hed lobby the legislature to pass such a measure.

Look, I support the Human Life Protection Act, and Ive said that repeatedly, Cameron said, before falsely claiming Beshear wants no limits on abortion. (Beshear has previously told the Herald-Leader he opposes late-term abortion and has been clear and consistent since when I ran for attorney general that I believe in reasonable restrictions.)

During the same appearance, Glover asked Cameron if Kentucky has the tourism revenue to eliminate the income tax, as Cameron has promised to do.

Well, one of the things that we have to do, is you have to get a governor out of office that releases criminals from jail, Cameron said of Beshears COVID-19 commutations.

I mean, Andy Beshear, to the extent, you know, when youre a family and youre thinking about traveling somewhere or going somewhere for vacation, and you Google the governor of Kentucky, and you look down the list of Google hits, and you see that he let out 2,000 criminals and a third of those have recommitted felony offenses, that gives you a little apprehension.

Kentucky was among several states and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to release incarcerated people during the early stages of the pandemic.

Cameron, GOP ties Biden to Beshear, while Beshear ties himself to... Trump?

As the last couple of weeks of the Kentucky governors race news cycle have been dominated by discussion of abortion and birth control, the Cameron campaign and its GOP allies have made at least a half-dozen attempts via news releases, social media and campaign mailers to tie Beshear to President Joe Biden.

The president lost Kentucky in 2020 by 26 percentage points and remains deeply unpopular in the Bluegrass State.

The Biden Victory Fund  a joint fundraising committee for Biden, the Democratic National Committee and state-level Democratic parties  has given $250,000 to the Kentucky Democratic Party, which raised nearly $2.8 million from June through August, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

The Republican Party of Kentucky said Biden has bankrolled Beshears campaign, while Cameron said theres not a dimes worth of difference between the two.

Also among those efforts is a new ad from the Republican Governors Association-affiliated political action committee, Kentucky Values.

Career politicians like Beshear and Biden lie for a livin, the voiceover in the commercial says, but Kentucky knows the truth.

WATCH: RGA Affiliate Releases New TV Ad Campaign in Kentucky: For a Livin pic.twitter.com/6WfDpCRHTE  The RGA (@GOPGovs) September 26, 2023

Beshear, meanwhile, released an ad featuring a Donald Trump voter who says hes going to vote for the incumbent Democrat in this election.

I voted for Trump because I felt that he was putting the American people first. Im going to support Andy because I do feel hes putting Kentucky first, Alan Greenwell says in the video.

In response, Cameron issued a statement saying Beshear is so afraid of losing to me that hes now comparing himself to Trump.

Trump has his candidate in this race, Cameron said of the four-time indicted former president who endorsed his candidacy last year. Its not Andy, its me.

This wouldnt be the first time Beshear has tried to sell his bipartisan appeal  literally. His campaign store sells a Republicans for Andy T-shirt, and Greenwell is the second GOP voter to appear in a Beshear commercial.

Beshear has previously highlighted the fact that hes sent Kentucky National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border under both Biden and Trump administrations.

Border security is national security, Beshear said in May. And when you are asked by a president, you say yes.

Fairness Campaign PAC endorses Dems  except one

C-FAIR, the PAC of the LGBTQ rights group the Fairness Campaign, rolled out its endorsements last week, which included the entire slate of Democratic candidates for constitutional office.

That much is not surprising.

Beshear become the first sitting governor in 2020 to attend the Fairness Campaigns annual rally at the Capitol, and when he returned to the rally earlier this year, Executive Director Chris Hartman introduced him as the most pro-equality governor in Kentucky history.

And Democratic nominee for attorney general, Rep. Pamela Stevenson of Louisville, emerged from the 2023 General Assembly as one of the most vocal opponents of Senate Bill 150, an omnibus anti-trans bill.

But there was one noticeable absence among the endorsements, which also included local races in Fayette and Jefferson counties.

The C-Fair board decided to make no endorsement in the House District 93 special election between Democrat Adrielle Camuel and Republican Kyle Whalen to fill the seat previously held by the late Rep. Lamin Swann, who died in May.

Camuel has been criticized by a number of her fellow Democrats, including Kentuckys first openly transgender elected official Rebecca Blankenship, for remarks made after being asked about SB 150 and cultural issues.

This is actually one of the reasons why I jumped in because Im really tired of, you know, the extremes on both sides, of polarizing issues when we really need to get to the meat of issues, Camuel said.

Blankenship was joined by other trans leaders in Kentucky, including Emma Curtis, who had sought the nomination for Swanns seat, in denouncing Camuels transphobic words and actions.

She has brought shame and dishonor to the Party that we have trusted to fight for our rights, the statement said in part.
Cameron Ortis, shown in a court sketch from his court hearing in Canada on 13 September

The trial for a civilian member of Canada's national police force accused of leaking top-secret intelligence began on Tuesday with jury selection.

Cameron Ortis was arrested four years ago in a case that shook the international intelligence community.

Mr Ortis, who had access in his role to highly sensitive domestic and foreign intelligence, has been charged with a number of offences under the country's national security laws.

It has the potential to be a precedent-setting trial, and experts say the outcome may determine how Canada prosecutes espionage cases in the future.

He pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to the six charges he is facing, according to Canadian media reports

Who is Cameron Ortis?

Mr Ortis, 51, began working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 2007 as a civilian member of the force, and in that time held positions in national security criminal investigations and in operations research.

At the time of his arrest, he was the director general of the law enforcement agency's National Intelligence Coordination Centre, and held a high-level security clearance.

Wesley Wark, a leading expert on Canadian national security, describes the unit within RCMP where Mr Ortis worked as "a fusion centre and a clearing house" for both internal intelligence and for sensitive information received from other Canadian and foreign intelligence agencies and allies.

Mr Ortis has expertise in cyber security and East Asia, and studied political science and international relations at the University of British Columbia in western Canada.

How was he caught?

The case dates back to 2018, when the RCMP was assisting the FBI on a separate investigation, during which investigators came across documents that suggested there might be some internal corruption - "a mole".

That sparked a separate investigation to discover the source of the leak and to the arrest of Mr Ortis.

As soon as it learned there was cause for concern, the force took immediate steps to safeguard intelligence, the RCMP said.

Few details of the joint inquiry have been made public but media reports have linked it into an investigation into the Vancouver-based company Phantom Secure, whose CEO has pleaded guilty to facilitating international narcotics traffic by supplying drug cartels with encrypted communications devices.

It also remains unclear what the sensitive information he allegedly accessed was. The RCMP has a wide range of national security-related responsibilities, including investigations into terrorist and criminal activity.

What has he been charged with?

Mr Ortis is accused of breaching the Security of Information Act and the Criminal Code.

The six charges filed against him include the "unauthorised communication of special operational information", possessing a device or software "useful for concealing the content of information or for surreptitiously communicating, obtaining or retaining information", and breach of trust by a public officer.

Cameron Ortis was a civilian employee with the RCMP

The offence allegedly took place between 2015 and 2019 during his tenure as an RCMP employee.

None of the allegations against Mr Ortis have been tested in court. If convicted, he could face up to 30 years in jail.

Following his arrest, Mr Ortis was detained for three years. He was released on December 2022 after posting bail for C$250,000 ($181,000; 151,000).

Since then, Mr Ortis' lawyer Mark Ertel said his client has been under surveillance.

Ahead of Tuesday's trial, his lawyers have hinted that they will argue he "did have the authority to do everything he did".

What might we learn from the trial?

Canada is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance that also includes the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand.

It appears that Mr Ortis's work dealt with elements of both cyber security and organised crime, Mr Wark told the BBC at the time of his arrest, but he noted that being employed in "a kind of intelligence hub" for the RCMP means he could have had access to databases and information beyond his immediate role.

Mr Ortis will be tried by a jury and the trial is expected to last several weeks in Ottawa.

Parts of the trial may be held in secret, away from media and the public, as some evidence will involve national security information.
Newly elected Speaker Greg Fergus appealed for collegiality in the House

Canada has elected Liberal MP Greg Fergus to be the new Speaker of the House of Commons after the previous one resigned amid a Nazi in parliament row.

Mr Fergus - the first black man to hold the position - was chosen by the 338-member House after a secret ballot on Tuesday.

He called it "a great honour" to be chosen for the role.

The former Speaker resigned after inviting a Ukrainian man who fought for a Nazi unit to the parliament.

Anthony Rota said he did not know of the veteran's Nazi ties.

Seven candidates had been in the race to replace him on Tuesday.

In his first remarks, Mr Fergus urged his colleagues to treat each other with respect in the House, a place he said was for "passionate debate".

"We will show them politics is a noble profession," he said.

Along with his role as member of parliament, Mr Fergus, 54, served as parliamentary secretary to the Treasury Board president and to the health minister.

As a student in the late 1980s, he was also a House of Commons page for a year - a moment he recalled in his remarks.

Mr Fergus was first elected in 2015 as an MP for the Quebec riding (district) of Hull-Aylmer, near Ottawa, the year Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's party swept into power.

His personal biography describes him as a "community activist, long distance runner, new grandfather and failed musician".

The Speaker chairs debates, enforces the rules of the House, votes only to break a tie and is expected to be politically impartial.

His first role will be to "restore the honour of the Chamber," said leader of the New Democrats Jagmeet Singh, speaking on the House floor.

It was a reference to the standing ovation given to a World War Two veteran who served in the 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division, a voluntary unit made up mostly of ethnic Ukrainians under Nazi command.

Yaroslav Hunka, 98, was sitting in the gallery in parliament when Mr Rota honoured him by calling him a "hero" during a visit to Ottawa by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Division members are accused of killing Polish and Jewish civilians, although the unit has not been found guilty of any war crimes by a tribunal.

The 22 September incident drew global condemnation.

Prime Minister Trudeau last week apologised for the incident, saying it was "a mistake that deeply embarrassed parliament and Canada".
India told Canada that it must remove 41 of its 62 diplomats from the country following continued escalating tensions between the countries.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that Indian agents were behind the June assassination of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver. Trudeaus allegations, despite no arrests being made in the murder case, set off condemnation from India, which dismissed the accusations.

India expelled a Canadian diplomat in September, and is now requiring many more to leave.

An official who spoke with The Associated Press (AP) on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the report that dozens of Canadian diplomats have been ordered to leave India. Trudeau could not confirm the number of diplomats told to leave India, but said Canada is not trying to escalate tensions with the country.

Obviously, we are going through an extremely challenging time with India right now, but thats why it is so important for us to have diplomats on the ground working with the Indian government and there to support Canadians and Canadian families, Trudeau told the AP. Were taking this extremely seriously, but were going to continue to engage responsibly and constructively with the Indian government.

The official told The AP that Indian officials and diplomats in Canada were communicating and that some information about the murder was provided by a member of the Five Eyes, an intelligence-sharing alliance, which includes the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

The tensions between the countries have put the U.S. in a difficult situation. The U.S. is reportedly working closely with Canada to investigate the murder. President Biden has not commented on the allegations.

The Biden administration has been friendly with India in an attempt to work against China. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Indias foreign minister. U.S. officials have been warned against casting blame for the murder, weighing its involvement with each country.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  Instead of sunny skies and ocean breezes, Floridians found haze and smoke when they stepped outside Tuesday morning.

Leigh Spann, a meteorologist at Nexstars WFLA, said the haze is actually associated with Canadian wildfires.

[The smoke] has come all the way down I-95 and should be with us for the next couple of days, Spann said.

The New York Times reported that wildfires burning throughout Canada are contributing to the poor air quality lingering over portions of North America. According to the Times forecast, smoke and haze were expected to blow down the entire East Coast through Tuesday evening.

Free COVID tests arrive today  but they may look expired

On Tuesday morning, the worst air quality in the U.S. was clustered in Florida. PurpleAir, which records air quality data, showed AQI readings up to 171 around the state.

AQI scores above 150 are considered unhealthy for everyone, according to the American Lung Association.

The Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County issued an Air Pollution Advisory due to elevated levels of fine particulates until midnight Tuesday.

The haze has reduced air quality in parts of central and northern Florida and air quality remains unhealthy for sensitive people, especially those with asthma or respiratory problems, WFLA meteorologist Eric Stone added. With smoke sticking around this evening, look for amazing sunsets around 7:15 p.m. Because polluted, smoky skies scatter light, they can make sunsets appear more vibrant.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
That meeting could have been an email.

Its a constant cry of frustration among many in private industry. Meetings take time, preparation and attention, and poorly run meetings sap productivity for everyone involved.

But for governments at all levels, regular meetings are how public business is conducted. They are important forums for transparency, and in many cases, allow residents to confront their officials in a constructive, orderly manner.

For some state agencies, boards and commissions, though, not meeting is the norm. Meeting cancellations pile up for some entities, including those with direct regulatory or consumer protection functions. A few years ago, the state auditor and inspector criticized the former leaders of online Epic Charter Schools for a lack of board meetings.

Community Strategies has routinely scheduled quarterly board meetings and typically holds one or two special meetings annually, said the investigative audit from October 2020. How does a board properly oversee one of the largest school districts in the state conducting four to six board meetings per year? The infrequency of meetings is further compounded by the incredibly poor attendance record for the current board members.

More recently, the board overseeing the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics canceled a special meeting for Sept. 12 at 7 a.m. that day, just hours before the meeting. It was rescheduled as another special meeting on Sept. 14.

The OSSM board had to postpone most action items in a special meeting set for July 25 after an Oklahoma Watch reporter pointed out the agenda posted to the door was from a previous meeting. The board does not post agendas to its website. The OSSM board is considering reforms in the wake of a lawsuit by a former employee and an Oklahoma Watch investigation into a pattern of sexual harassment among staff not being investigated at the elite, state-run boarding school.

Public Eye: One county commissioner talks to another. Is that an official public meeting?

Oklahoma Watch used data from the secretary of states office, which keeps track of statewide meeting notices, to determine the agencies, boards and commissions with the most canceled meetings in the past five years. That period encompasses meetings scheduled before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, when many entities moved to virtual meetings during the public health emergency.

Among the biggest offenders since 2019 were the Oklahoma Commission of Consumer Credit and the State Banking Board. Others included the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education and the Commission for Educational Quality and Accountability.

The Corporation Commission, made up of three members elected statewide for six-year terms, is an outlier when it comes to meetings. The commission, which regulates everything from oil and gas to utilities and cotton gins, is scheduled most weeks to meet on Tuesday mornings and in Thursday morning and afternoon sessions. That frequency has dropped to weekly as it has relocated during renovations to the Jim Thorpe Building.

The commission has canceled more than 85 meetings in 2023 alone, according to the secretary of states office. Some of those were rescheduled as special meetings, an option available to all public entities if they provide notice to the public at least 48 hours in advance.

Corporation Commission spokesman Matt Skinner said most meeting cancellations were actually continued to another time or date. He said that happens most often when a meeting is scheduled in a rate case and there are settlement talks that may need a little more time to resolve before a posted meeting.

Skinner said when he began working at the commission, it met daily during the week, with the agenda for some meetings stretching to 40 pages. Its meeting frequency changed to Tuesdays and Thursdays about a decade ago under former Commission Chairwoman Patrice Douglas.

How meeting schedule notices in Oklahoma work

State agencies, boards and commissions are supposed to approve their schedule of regular meetings by Dec. 15 each year and notify the secretary of state. That deadline is the same for city and county governments, which are supposed to notify either the municipal clerk or county clerk of their regular meeting schedules.

The Banking Board, which schedules regular monthly meetings, has met just three times this year. It canceled eight monthly meetings in both 2022 and 2021. The board supervises the Oklahoma Banking Department, which regulates state-chartered banks, trusts and credit unions.

Banking Commissioner Mick Thompson, who has been the commissioner for more than 30 years, said by statute the board has to meet just twice a year. The other meeting times are filed with the secretary of states office as placeholders.

A lot of things that are going on (at the department) do not have to go before the board, Thompson said. Unless we have some activity that requires board attention, its a waste of time for them to drive in from Tulsa or Elk City or wherever.

More: Oklahoma City launches NBA arena campaign ahead of December vote

Cancellation notices are usually sent a week before the scheduled monthly meeting, Thompson said. The board always meets in November, when board assessments are set for banks for the next year. The Banking Department is a nonappropriated agency and gets its funding from bank examination and assessment fees. The department and commissioner run the bank examinations, while the board oversees general industry issues like approving charters, mergers or new branches.

Youre going to be examining people who are on your board, and you dont want them controlling the examinations, Thompson said.

Adrian Beverage, executive director of the Oklahoma Banking Association, said he doesn't have any problems with meetings cancellations at the Banking Board.

They have plenty to do, Beverage said of the Banking Department. Mick calls me frequently, so we keep in touch. And if theyre not meeting, its good because theres not anything that is coming up that could cause friction among my members.

Thompson is chairman of the Banking Board, but votes only in case of a tie, he said. He and other board members are appointed by the governor with the consent of the state Senate.

Because Gov. Kevin Stitt and his family have financial stakes in Gateway First Bank, a state-chartered bank, the Banking Department defers to the Federal Depository Insurance Corp. when it comes to regular bank examinations.

We signed an agreement that we would never be the lead examiner on his banks, Thompson said. The FDIC is a federal agency and one where the governor has no control over. They are the lead agency for all Gateways examinations.

The Oklahoma Department of Consumer Credit also is a nonappropriated agency and funds itself with fees on the industries it regulates. The department oversees most credit companies, including mortgage brokers, payday lenders and pawn shops. The commission doesnt play any role in the departments enforcement cases against companies.

The Commission on Consumer Credit has had more than 40 monthly cancellations since 2019, including two dozen since the beginning of 2021, according to the secretary of state data.

The commissions rules used to require regular monthly meetings, but now they meet as needed, said Ruben Tornini, deputy administrator. The commissions chairman and administrator decide if there are any reasons to convene a meeting or if it should be canceled.

Our commission delegates the authority to make the day-to-day decisions to the administrator, Tornini said. There are certain exceptions, like the annual budget, large purchases, approval of the annual report to the Legislature and policy recommendations. (The commissioners) get monthly data for informational purposes, but that doesnt require any action.

At the Legislature, bills have been filed to allow agencies, boards and commissions to take advantage of the additional flexibility offered by virtual meetings.

House Bill 2108, by Rep. Daniel Pae, R-Lawton, and Sen. Brent Howard, R-Altus, remains active for the 2024 regular session after stalling in the Senate earlier this year. It expands the situations where teleconferencing would be available to public bodies outside of emergency situations like a pandemic.

Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Some Oklahoma agencies cancel more public meetings than they hold
Another Capitol riot suspect from South Jersey has accepted a plea offer.

Peter Krill Jr., a Sewell contractor who was arrested in December, will have a plea hearing on Oct. 10, a court filing says.

A plea hearing also is scheduled on that day for Atlantic City man, James "JD" Rahm III. He disclosed acceptance of a plea agreement in an unrelated case on Aug. 31.

What are the allegations against Peter Krill Jr.?

Krill, 55, pulled a barricade away from officers outside the Capitol, briefly allowing a group of protesters to push into the officers, the Justice Department alleges.

Images made for strong evidence Inside the insurrection: Videos from Capitol rioter Patrick Stedman of Haddonfield

He is also accused of entering the Capitol and remaining inside for about an hour.

Krill wore a helmet, goggles and a Trump 2020 sweatshirt during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by supporters of then President Donald Trump.

He also carried an American flag.

At least two tipsters contacted the FBI over Krill's alleged involvement in the riot.

One said a man, "Pete," had videos on his phone from inside the Capitol. The tipster said "Pete" operated PMK Construction in Sewell, and later identified Krill from his driver's license photo.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Sept. 29 scheduled the plea hearing "after discussions with the parties."

Details of the pending plea were not disclosed.

But a criminal information filed against Krill on Sept. 28 brings only one charge  civil disorder and aiding and abetting.

A criminal complaint previously charged Krill with civil disorder and with assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers. It also accused him of four misdemeanors that included disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Reach him at jwalsh@cpsj.com.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Hearing set for Peter Krill Jr., Capitol riot suspect from Sewell
If youve been craving Mexican food, its the perfect time to treat yourself to tacos for National Taco Day on Wednesday, Oct. 4.

Whether you want a traditional taco with veggies and garnishes or an over-the-top handheld made with unique sauces and toppings, there are plenty of local and national restaurants to check out if you want to celebrate.

Heres a list of where you can find deals and discounts, as well as some of the best local restaurants to dine at this National Taco Day.

National Taco Day deals, discounts

Location: 1823 E Arbors Dr, Charlotte, NC 28262

How to celebrate: Enjoy National Taco Day with two of your favorite tacos at Capital Tacos. Buy one taco and get a second one for free using the code TACODAY at check out.

Location: 1536 Camden Rd #107, Charlotte, NC 28203

Location: 10706 Providence Rd Suite 300, Charlotte, NC 28277

How to celebrate: Condado Tacos is offering deals for National Taco Day and continuing the discounts all month long. Sign up for Condado Rewards and get a free taco on National Taco Day, along with double points on all Tuesday orders plus other challenges and surprises in the app to get discounts.

Location: Multiple

How to celebrate: Moes Southwest Grill is offering 20% for new Moe Reward Members on National Taco Day. Sign up for the discount, which will be valid at participating locations.

Location: 1500-A W. Morehead St., Charlotte, NC 28208

How to celebrate: Spend National Taco Day with deals on tacos and tequila in honor of Que Fresas anniversary. The local restaurant, which was voted best taco spot by CharlotteFive readers, will be offering 50% off all tacos and all tequilas, along with $6 margaritas all day long for its one year anniversary, which happens to fall on National Taco Day.

Location: Multiple

How to celebrate: Taco Bell is offering a Taco Lovers Pass for Rewards members to get a free taco a day for 30 days. The $10 pass is available exclusively on the app, where you can pick among seven free taco options every day.

Location: 8601 Concord Mills Boulevard, Concord, NC 28027

How to celebrate: Twin Peaks is offering discounted tacos for National Taco Day. All day long, you can get a cripsy taco for $2 with the purchase of any meal.

Best taco restaurants in Charlotte

Charlotte is home to dozens of local and chain restaurants serving delicious tacos. Out of over 50 fan-favorite spots, some were ranked higher by CharlotteFive readers. Heres a list of some of the top spots voted for serving the best tacos around Charlotte:

Location: 13016 Eastfield Rd, Suite B300, Huntersville, NC 28078

Location: 3022 Weddington Rd Suite 100, Matthews, NC 28105

Location: 1518 Central Ave, Charlotte, NC 28205

Location: 9601 N Tryon St Suite K, Charlotte, NC 28262

Location: 333 W Trade St #101, Charlotte, NC 28202

Que Onda Tacos + Tequila, which has five locations in the Charlotte area, offers a wide election of traditional and nontraditional tacos. The owner, who is also behind Best Taco winner Que Fresa Taqueria + Bar, focuses on the modern take and presentation of Mexican food and flavors.

Location: 9548 Mt Holly-Huntersville Rd E, Huntersville, NC 28078

Location: 14013 North Creek Village Drive, Unit 600, Huntersville, NC 28078 (opening fall 2023)

Tacos and Tortilla Factory is one of the newest taco spots in the Charlotte area, with a second location opening in Lake Norman soon. The fast-casual restaurant, which a co-owner describes like Chipotle, with more traditional Mexican cuisine, offers tacos and other traditional dishes.

Location: 6401 Carnegie Blvd #8a, Charlotte, NC 28211

Pacos Tacos is a popular Tex-Mex restaurant located in the SouthPark neighborhood. Treat yourself to soft tacos made with chicken, steak, brisket and more along with burritos, tamales and enchiladas.

New taco spots around Charlotte

Its no secret that Charlotte welcomes a long list of new restaurants and eateries to town every year. If youve been looking for a new restaurant to check out for National Taco Day, head over to some of the new spots that opened in the past year:

Location: 14815 Ballantyne Village Way, Charlotte, NC

Casa del Tequila serves Mexican food classics such as burritos, fajitas and specialty tacos  along with a variety of tequilas. The Mexican restaurant opened in late 2022 in Ballantyne Village, right next door to where Crispy Banh Mi opened a new location.

Location: 8740 Pineville-Matthews Road, Charlotte, NC 28226

Fridas Mexican Cantina opened in South Charlotte in a former Pizza Hut, using recipes based on owner Roble Zarates moms traditional recipes and sauces. Pro tip: Dont miss taking a few photos in the highly Instagrammable space inspired by Frida Kahlos artwork.

Location: 9010 Monroe Rd, Unit I, Charlotte, NC 28270

Margaritas Deli, located in Charlottes MoRA neighborhood, serves American, Latin, Honduran, Mexican and Salvadorian food. The newly opened spot offers tacos, tamales, pupusas and more.

Location: 3543 Dewitt Lane, Charlotte, NC 28217

Phat Burrito, a Southwestern restaurant that originally opened in 1998, reopened its doors after being closed for years. The local restaurant is back in a new space, but you can still enjoy the original recipes, including the chicken, steak and fish tacos.

Location: 1961 E 7th St, Charlotte, NC 28204

Puerta opened in the Elizabeth neighborhood back in August. The new dinner and late night spot offers tacos, ceviches, empanadas and other authentic Mexican dishes and drinks.

Did we miss any deals for National Taco Day? Let us know at charlottefive@charlottefive.com.
A $365,000 federal grant is designed to help Gulfport-Biloxi Regional Airport Authority score a nonstop flight from South Mississippi to Washington, DC.

That doesnt mean a flight is ready to take off anytime soon to get tourists to the monuments and museums, and those who work in the defense and space industries on the Coast to meetings in the capitol region.

Its an initial step, said Clay Williams, executive director of the airport.

The U.S. Department of Transportation Small Community Air Service Development grant should aid the airport in our efforts to recruit service to the highly competitive Washington, D.C. market, he said.

Washington is the third most popular destination for passengers leaving from Gulfport, Williams said, topped only by Atlanta and Dallas, which are nonstop flights.

A flight from South Mississippi to Dulles, Reagan or Baltimore airports in the Washington area requires passengers to change planes in Atlanta, Charlotte or another hub, which could mean a long layover or a missed connection.

I think this is an exciting proposition that would benefit the overall defense and space presence in South Mississippi, and boost the overall economy, said Rep. Cindy Hyde-Smith, ranking Republican on the Senate appropriations subcommittee that funds the SCASDP grants.

The challenge

The grant to the airport authority provides a revenue guarantee to cover the costs of recruiting an airline and a marketing plan to initiate and then support the new passenger air service once it begins.

The local airport has recovered from the Covid slowdown and traffic is up 9% year to date, Williams said.

Construction on I-10 between Gulfport and the New Orleans airport all summer could have contributed to some of the increase in local ridership, and the widening of I-10 west of Gulfport starts late this year and could encourage passengers to continue to fly in and out of Gulfport rather than deal with traffic jams.

Even with this strong ridership in Gulfport and financial backing from the grant, it will be a challenge to get new service to the local airport.

A shortage of pilots has forced the industry to pull service at small airports, according to an NPR report. Hattiesburg/Laurel and Meridian are among 74 airports where legacy carriers United, American Airlines and Delta discontinued service since April 2020, when many pilots chose to retire early rather than working through the coronavirus.

North America will be short 17,000 pilots during the next two years, according to Forbes and Oliver Wyman Reasearch, which shows the pilot shortage peaking at 24,000 in 2026, before returning to a shortage of 17,000 by 2032.

So who might provide the DC service?

Since Washington, D.C. is such a popular destination from South Mississippi, Williams said there are ongoing talks about what carrier might be able to provide nonstop service.

United Airlines has a hub at Dulles International Airport and American Airlines at Reagan National, both in the Virginia suburbs of DC.

These could be potential carriers, Williams said, since they already fly out of Gulfport.

But hes not limiting it to these airlines.

Delta has flights from GPT to Atlanta. Allegiant Air has seasonal flights to near Disney World in Florida and Sun Country to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, with an extended season that began in April and will run until the middle of November.

The Gulfport airport had an advantage during the pandemic because the military kept flying during the pandemic, Williams said, and the casino charter flights started back more quickly than in other areas.

Beau Rivage Resort and Casinos charter program now flies in players from up to 90 cities, he said, and the charters flown by the Beau and Harrahs Gulf Coast casinos combined are 25% of the total service at Gulfport-Biloxi airport.

Any of these airlines or others could ultimately agree to provide the service between South Mississippi and Washington, D.C.

This grant is of great value in helping us recruit, Williams said.
MOREAU, N.Y. - Craig Nelson Ross Jr., the suspect in Saturday's abduction of 9-year-old Charlotte Sena at Moreau Lake State Park, has been charged with first-degree kidnapping, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff's Office.

The 47-year-old is currently being held without bail at Saratoga County jail, authorities said.

Sena, who vanished during a family camping trip in upstate New York, was "safe and in good health" Monday following a massive two-day search that ended with her rescue.

Sena disappeared Saturday evening while riding her bike early at Moreau Lake State Park, a heavily wooded area some 35 miles north of Albany.

Who is the suspect, Craig Nelson Ross Jr.?

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday night during a news conference that investigators were able to identify a fingerprint from a ransom note allegedly left by Ross.

"After some resistance, the suspect was taken into custody and immediately the little girl was found in a cabinet." Gov. Hochul

The governor said while the rest of Charlotte's family remained at the campground where she had gone missing, police watching their home saw someone drop a note in their mailbox Monday around 4:20 a.m. State police pulled fingerprints off the note and the second one matched Ross, who was in a database from a 1999 DWI case, Hochul said.

Law enforcement agents linked Ross to a property owned by his mother, made entry and found him in a camper around 6:30 p.m., she said.

"After some resistance, the suspect was taken into custody and immediately the little girl was found in a cabinet," Hochul said. "She knew she was being rescued. She knew that she was in safe hands."

Charlotte was taken to a local hospital, as is customary, Hochul said, adding she appeared physically unharmed and that she and her family have been reunited.

The governor named Ross as the suspect late Monday night and it wasn't immediately known if he had a lawyer to comment on his behalf.

Authorities said it was still an active investigation.

Amber Alert and search

The rescue marked the end of an intense search. About 400 people took part in the hunt for the girl Monday, including forest rangers, police officers and firefighters. The search had expanded over 46 linear miles.

***AMBER ALERT - UPDATE***

THE AMBER ALERT has been cancelled. Charlotte has been found safe and in good health. pic.twitter.com/p8HyFB7zbP  NewYorkStatePolice (@nyspolice) October 2, 2023

Charlotte, a fourth grader from nearby Greenfield, had been riding her bike around a campsite loop in the park with other children when she decided to ride around one more time by herself. Her parents became alarmed when she failed to return after 15 minutes, Hochul said at a briefing Sunday.

The girls mother called 911 after her bicycle was found Saturday around 6:45 p.m.

Officials issued an Amber Alert on Sunday morning after an exhaustive search because "it was quite possible that an abduction had taken place," state police Lt. Colonel Richard Mazzone said.

An Amber Alert is displayed along roadways throughout upstate New York on Monday, October 2, 2023. Nine-year-old Charlotte Sena was reported missing this weekend after she failed to return from a bike ride while camping with her parents in Moreau Lake State Park. (Chris Eberhart/Fox News Digital)

The girls family pleaded with the public for help in finding Charlotte, including providing any tips to the state police.

"We just want her returned safely like any parent would," the family said in a statement earlier Monday. "No tip is too small, please call if you know anything at all."

Troopers had set up several checkpoints on the winding, rural roads around the park. They stopped drivers and asked if they knew the family, had seen the girls photo or had any other information that could help the search. They also had some drivers open their trunks.

Visitors were asked to stay away from Moreau Lake State Park as authorities searched for the missing 9-year-old girl on Sunday. (Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

The park remained closed because of the search, and officials asked members of the public who showed up hoping to help to stay away and leave the search to professionals. Federal authorities also issued a temporary flight restriction over the park for the safety of law enforcement air operations.

The Corinth Central School District said it had extra counselors at Charlottes elementary school for any students or staff who need support.

"Our hearts go out to the Sena family," the district said in a statement.

MICHAEL HILL and LISA BAUMANN, with the Associated Press, helped contribute to this report.
It began as a family camping trip.

It then turned into every parents worst nightmare.

Charlotte Sena, 9, was visiting a campsite in upstate New York with family and friends when she decided to go on a bike ride with a group of close friends on Saturday evening.

After doing a couple of loops of the campsite with the group, the nine-year-old decided to go around Moreau Lake State Park one more time by herself. But she never returned.

What followed next was 48 hours of growing fears for her safety as law enforcement feared she was in imminent danger.

Then, on Monday night, positive news came.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the little girl had been found safe and that her alleged abductor Craig Nelson Ross Jr, 47, was in police custody.

Heres what we know so far about the case:

Last sighting

Before going missing, Charlotte was last seen at around 6.15pm on Saturday evening riding her bike in Loop A of Moreau Lake State Park, according to Lt Col Richard Mazzone of the New York State Police.

When she failed to come back, her family and friends went looking for her.

The little girls bike was found abandoned in the same area  but there was no sign of little Charlotte.

At around 6.45pm, the fourth-graders distraught mother called 911 to report her daughter missing.

Police were on site by 7pm on Saturday, Governor Hochul said in a Sunday afternoon news conference.

Charlotte Sena, 9, vanished Saturday evening from Moreau Lake State Park in Saratoga County, New York (New York State Police)

Last evening, she went out on a bike ride; it wasnt dark, right around dinnertime, and did a couple of loops with close friends she considers her cousins, Governor Hochul said.

And then she decided after going around True Bay, she said she just wanted to go around one more time by herself  be that big girl, do it by herself.

Literally 15 minutes later, she hadnt come back yet, the governor said. And thats really when the nightmare begins.

Amber Alert issued

Police issued an Amber Alert for the missing girl on Sunday after search teams failed to track her down.

Multi-agency search and rescue teams were deployed to find her, including aviation, canine and civilian support, Lt Col Mazzone said.

Two drones and airboat search teams, including six underwater rescue teams, were also deployed.

We also have the Schenectady Fire Office assisting with the search, given that Charlotte is the niece of one of the members of the Schenectady Fire Department, Governor Hochul said.

Police said search efforts continued through the night on Saturday.

In addition to our massive search efforts, our Bureau of Criminal Investigation has been conducting interviews with those in the park and around the region as well as pursuing all investigative leads, Lt Col Mazzone said.

Officials said they believed it was quite possible the fourth-grader was abducted.

Charlotte found safe

On Monday night, New York officials announced that the little girl had been found alive  and that a suspect had been taken into custody.

In a press conference, the governor said the break in the case came at around 4.20am ET on Monday when the suspect drove to the home of Charlottes parents and left a ransom note.

He literally drove up to the familys mailbox assuming they were not home, she said, adding that Charlottes parents were still searching the campground at the time, and officers who were monitoring the property had been sent to another call in the area.

Police later tested the note for fingerprints and searched law enforcement databases to see if they could find a match, and identified the suspect as 47-year-old Craig Nelson Ross Jr.

Investigators were able to determine Mr Ross was living in a campervan behind his mothers residence and used two SWAT teams to make entry into the campervan, Ms Hochul said.

They had what they call a dynamic entry tactical maneuver, and within the camper they located the suspect, she said.

The New York Governor said the missing nine-year-old was found hidden in a cabinet.

Governor Hochul said Charlotte appeared to be in good health, but was taken to a hospital, which is customary.

The fourth-grader has now been reunited with her parents.

Speaking about her rescue, governor Hochul said: She knew she was being rescued. She knew she was in safe hands.

Suspect charged with kidnapping

Mr Ross Jr, 47, was charged with first-degree kidnapping in the early hours of Tuesday morning and appeared for his arraignment in Milton Town Court, according to local outlet Times Union.

He was then booked into the Saratoga County jail at around 3.40am on Tuesday morning.

He is now being held there without bail.

As well as the fingerprint, the governor also told CNN that authorities used cell phone pings from people in the area where the nine-year-old was last spotted to help find the suspect.

They were checking all the different cell phones that have been in the vicinity of this park, she said.

The governor said authorities also had information from those who came to the park as campers because they had to register and people there for the day paid an entrance fee.

So, you could start circling around possible suspects based on the cell phone data, who is in the park and also then ultimately, the ransom note, she said.

It was extraordinary to see how they traced it down to an individuals home, the governor added. The home was surrounded by law enforcement and helicopters and they were able to bring her to safety. And not long after, she was in the arms of her parents at a hospital.

The suspect resisted being taken into custody and sustained minor injuries, the governor said.

Over $17,000 raised

Prior to Mondays discovery, a GoFundMe page set up for the family of Charlotte Sena had raised over $17,000.

The page was originally set up to raise money for the search efforts for the missing child, but the money will now go to the nine-year-olds parents to help them transition back into some sense of normalcy.

Please donate to help the family during this difficult time, a message posted on the fundraiser page reads. Any donations will go directly to her parents to help with any expenses while they transition back into some sense of normalcy.

Amber Alert for missing girl (NYSP)

At a press conference on Sunday, before the nine-year-old was found, the fourth-grader was described as a joyful child who was recently elected a class officer for student council.

Everybody thought of her as just a really nice girl - the kind everyone wanted to be friends with, the kind that looked out for other children, Ms Hochul said. The pride of every parent.

Ms Hochul added: On a picture-perfect fall day here in upstate New York, Charlotte Senas family and friends gathered for a weekend of friendship and food and enjoying one of the last few days of good weather... so the kids could have a chance to be in nature, have a chance to be kids.

They were here to make memories - the kind that last a lifetime. But instead the day turned into every parents nightmare, said Governor Hochul.
Canary Medias chart of the week translates crucial data about the clean energy transition into a visual format.

China has long been the solar module supermarket to the world, and its dominance will only increase in the coming years. Europe, in particular, has become Chinas best customer, buying nearly 60 percent of all solar modules exported from China in the first six months of 2023, according to clean-energy think tank Ember.

Solar power markets across the globe  from Africa to Europe to Brazil to the Mideast  are exploding as hardware costs decline and decarbonization efforts become more urgent and widespread.

And China has positioned itself as the indisputable champion when it comes to supplying low-cost solar modules to these markets. The solar-production prowess of North America, Japan and Europe has long been eclipsed by China, which is home to more than 80 percent of global solar manufacturing capacity, and its showing no signs of slowing down. Exports of solar panels from China increased by 34 percent in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period last year, growing from 85 gigawatts to 114 gigawatts, according to Ember.

Brazil ranked second behind Europe in importing the most Chinese solar equipment in the first six months of 2023, while Africa had the largest relative growth, nearly tripling its procurement of Chinese solar year-over-year; this trend was largely driven by a rooftop solar surge in South Africa. The Middle East came in third, importing 64 percent more Chinese solar in the first half of 2023 compared to that same time period in 2022.

North America, unsurprisingly, is barely a blip in this dataset, and you can chalk that up to one all-important factor: tariffs. Though the U.S. is installing considerable amounts of solar, the tariffs the country has imposed on solar equipment from China prevent U.S. installers from procuring low-cost Chinese hardware.

After a shaky few years of rising prices and supply-chain disruptions, the always-oscillating "solar coaster" has now produced a massive oversupply situation in some parts of the world, which is driving prices down. In fact, solar module prices have fallen more sharply than ever before, according to solar analyst pvXchange. In Europe, there are as many solar panels now languishing in warehouses as the continent installed in all of 2022 due to an unprecedented PV module glut.

Global solar installations have to grow fivefold by 2030 to meet decarbonization goals, according to Ember, and as this data suggests, it's not insufficient manufacturing capacity thats holding back the market. Its headwinds such as interconnection delays, tariffs, workforce issues and utility opposition.


With the number of migrant-filled buses arriving in Chicago set to hit unprecedented levels this week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson have ramped up pressure on President Joe Biden to do more to help local officials cope with the burgeoning humanitarian crisis.

During a call Sunday with Bidens chief of staff, Jeff Zients, senior adviser Tom Perez and Department of Homeland Security officials, the mayor and governor underscored how the accelerating rate of asylum-seekers will spell a new era for Chicagos migrant situation, according to sources briefed on the conversation. The total number of arrivals since the first bus from Texas arrived in August 2022 is expected to jump from 15,000 as of last week to 20,000 this week, the sources said.

That total could nearly double within three weeks. The projection is based on information from people along the southern border that indicates 20 to 25 additional buses a day will be arriving in Chicago, at least five days a week, each with about 50 migrants aboard. That means about 1,000 to 1,250 new arrivals daily.

Following up on the weekend call, Pritzker on Monday sent a letter to Biden knocking the federal response to the crisis and pleading for more support. The criticism of the White House came after the governor himself faced heat from some progressive Chicago aldermen over the level of state assistance in caring for the asylum-seekers, who mostly hail from Venezuela and other Latin American countries.

Today, Illinois stands mostly unsupported against this enormous strain on our state resources, Pritzker wrote to Biden.

It was the latest sign of increased tension among Democrats at all levels of government as Chicago prepares to host the partys national convention in August, when Biden is expected to accept his partys nomination to a second term.

As the numbers being transported to Chicago are accelerating, the humanitarian crisis is overwhelming our ability to provide aid to the refugee population, Pritzker wrote. Unfortunately, the welcome and aid Illinois has been providing to these asylum-seekers has not been matched with support by the federal government. Most critically, the federal governments lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois.

The three-page letter calls for the White House to appoint a single person to lead the migrant relief effort on the federal level.

Right now, we have too many different federal department contacts  who are uncoordinated with one another  that handle various programs related to this humanitarian crisis, Pritzker wrote.

The governor, who is serving as an adviser to the Bidens reelection campaign, also asked that the federal government take a more active role in coordinating the transportation of asylum-seekers from Texas to other parts of the country, accusing the administration of abdicating responsibility once (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) releases migrants into the interior of the country.

Pritzker also requested additional financial support beyond the modest funding the state and the city of Chicago have received thus far from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which totals a little more than $34 million.

On Friday, the state announced it would send the city another $30.3 million dedicated to the effort.

Pritzkers criticisms in some ways mirror the blowback he received last week from some of Mayor Brandon Johnsons City Council allies after the governor voiced concerns about Johnsons plan to house migrants in tent encampments spread throughout the city.

Johnsons floor leader, Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, shot back at the governor by asking why the state hasnt opened its own shelters to alleviate the citys burden. Pritzkers press aides noted the states spending on migrant relief to date.

The state has spent about $330 million on the new arrivals, according to Pritzkers letter to Biden, but not all of that money has gone to Chicago, where most of the migrants are staying.

Chicago has allocated $144 million toward the migrant mission and expects costs for the entire response effort since 2022 to grow to as much as $363 million by the end of this year.

Johnsons base camp strategy consists of erecting a collection of tent encampments around the city as a landing zone for new arrivals instead of housing them at police stations, where more than 1,800 migrants are waiting, often in squalid conditions, for placement at a brick-and-mortar shelter. Another 450 migrants are staying inside the citys airports.

The mayors administration has said the plan is needed to move asylum-seekers from settings that are often unhygienic and inhumane, even as a new city contract with GardaWorld, a private defense company tasked with setting up the camps, has ignited controversy.

On Friday, the state announced it would send the city another $30.3 million dedicated to the migrant effort, but questions remain over how the city can plug a $538 million budget shortfall stemming from the migrant crisis and other fiscal issues as the number of new arrivals does not appear to be abating anytime soon.

dpetrella@chicagotribune.com

ayin@chicagotribune.com
Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby took the oath of office for an unprecedented 10th consecutive term during an October 2, 2023 inauguration ceremony conducted at Ataloa Theatre on East Central Universitys campus in Ada, Oklahoma.

Throughout our history, Chickasaws have worked together for the common good of our tribe, said Governor Anoatubby. That same spirit of unity is central to our success today.

Lt. Governor Chris Anoatubby, who has served the Chickasaw Nation for more than two decades, was also sworn into office. He is beginning his second term as Lt. Governor.

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Other Chickasaw Nation elected officials taking the oath of office include a Chickasaw Supreme Court Justice and four Chickasaw legislators.

Together, we have, and we will continue to make remarkable progress in our mission: To enhance the overall quality of life of the Chickasaw people. Governor Anoatubby said.

Governor Anoatubby has served the Chickasaw people for 36 years as governor. He has served the Chickasaw Nation for 48 years, accepting his first position as health services director in 1975.

In 1979, he was elected Lt. Governor and served in that role until elected Governor in 1987.

In 1987, the Chickasaw Nation had approximately 250 employees and a budget of $11 million, most of which came from the federal government.

His leadership has proven to be transformational for the Chickasaw Nation. Today, the Chickasaw Nations annual economic impact in Oklahoma is $5.5 billion, supporting more than 34,400 jobs and $1.8 billion in wages and benefits. The success stems from more 100 successful businesses in gaming, hospitality, tourism, banking, manufacturing, chocolate and other industries that are operated by the Chickasaw Nation. The business enterprises employ more than 14,000 workers.

Successful business development and diversification efforts enable the Chickasaw Nation to pursue new opportunities and diverse economic ventures, which continues to support self-determination and long-term sustainability. Business revenues provide the majority of funding for the more than 200 programs and services available to Chickasaws.

Housing

Housing is one example of these services.

Working to meet the housing needs of Chickasaw citizens is essential to fulfilling the tribes mission.

Building strong families and strong communities is fundamental to our strength as a nation, and we have worked for decades to make quality, affordable housing more accessible, Governor Anoatubby said.

Expanded housing services help meet the needs of Chickasaws in all walks of life. Those services include rental assistance and home ownership services, including programs to facilitate home loans, as well as home repairs and improvement assistance. Housing assistance for Chickasaws across the U.S. includes the storm shelter installation program as well as grants for closing costs, repairs, and home improvements.

Health Care

Significant strides in health care have been made in the past four decades, including an acclaimed hospital, four clinics, eight pharmacies, four dental clinics, a diabetes care center, emergency medical services, four nutrition centers, eight WIC offices, five wellness centers and services that range from pediatrics to physical therapy.

A health facility to serve the needs of Chickasaws and First Americans in the Oklahoma City area is in the planning stages.

Education

Education has historically been one of the Chickasaw Nations highest priorities, and a significant investment in education services has been made to ensure the future well-being of the Chickasaw Nation.

As a result, a variety of educational services and resources for Chickasaws of all ages are available, ranging from child development centers to adult learning programs.

In addition to providing grants and scholarships this year, totaling more than $30.9 million to more than 8,100 students, the Chickasaw Nation operates three Head Start centers and one preschool, as well as two child development centers. Construction is underway for a second child development center in Ada, and facilities in Tishomingo and Purcell are planned.

The Chickasaw Nation also offers tutoring assistance, internships, career development, student support services, operates the Chickasaw Institute of Technology, and many other educational programs.

We will continue our long history of encouraging education and supporting professional development, so that all Chickasaw are able to receive a quality education and achieve career success.

Elders and Cultural Preservation



Governor Anoatubby reflected on the importance of Chickasaw elders and the need to share their cultural knowledge, experience, and wisdom with the next generation.

Maintaining and sharing Chickasaw culture and language is paramount to preserving Chickasaw identity and the Chickasaw Nation offers a wide array of opportunities to learn the Chickasaw language and traditional ways of life.



The Chickasaw Cultural Center, Sulphur, continues its mission of telling the Chickasaw story and sharing tribal traditions and culture. Since its 2010 opening, the cultural center has hosted hundreds of thousands of guests from across the globe.

Expanded programs, events and cultural initiatives help Chickasaw citizens, employees and community members learn about the Chickasaw people and customs.

Preserving and providing access to the Chickasaw language is a top priority, as the language is an essential connection to the past and integral to tribal identity. Several opportunities including classes and online applications are available to learn the Chickasaw language.

Last year, Governor Anoatubby issued a proclamation declaring the decade spanning from 2022-2032 as Chikashshanompa' Ilanompoli'! (Lets Speak Chickasaw!): A Decade of Chickasaw Language.

1983 Chickasaw Nation Constitution

The inauguration was also an opportunity to reflect on the 40th anniversary of the ratification of the 1983 Chickasaw Nation Constitution, a pivotal document which established the modern Chickasaw Nation government.

It serves as a foundation for the tribes continued self-determination and effective governance.



Todays ceremony represents more than the promising potential of the next four years  today is a celebration of our tribal sovereignty and the foresight of the men and women who continued to fight for our rights as a tribal government, Governor Anoatubby said.

Looking Ahead



Embarking on his 10th term of service, Governor Anoatubby said meeting the needs of the Chickasaw people and protection of Chickasaw sovereignty remains paramount.

With each decision, opportunity and challenge, our dedication to enriching the lives of Chickasaws is and will always remain, our guiding compass," Governor Anoatubby said.

About the Author: "Native News Online is one of the most-read publications covering Indian Country and the news that matters to American Indians, Alaska Natives and other Indigenous people. Reach out to us at editor@nativenewsonline.net. "

Contact: news@nativenewsonline.net
The police chief of Marion, Kansas, resigned at a city council meeting on Monday, more than a month after he ordered raids on the office of a local newspaper and the home of its publisheran act condemned far and wide as being illegal suppression of the press. Gideon Cody, who was suspended indefinitely last week, ordered a raid that seized computers, cell phones, and other devices from the Marion County Record and its publishers home on a search warrant that was withdrawn a few days later. The ordeal received added attention after one of the papers publishers, Joan Meyer, died a day after the raid. The resignation came as city officials were under fire for ever hiring Cody, who reportedly was fired from the Kansas City Police Department for making sexist and insulting comments.

Read it at CNN

Read more at The Daily Beast.
Evergrande estimated it had debts of $328 billion at the end of June (STRINGER)

Shares in heavily indebted Chinese property giant Evergrande ended higher Tuesday as they resumed trade following last week's suspension when the firm announced its boss was under criminal investigation.

The company has become a symbol of China's ballooning property-sector crisis, which has seen several high-profile firms engulfed in a sea of debt, fuelling fears about the country's wider economy and a possible global spillover.

Last Thursday, Evergrande said its founder and chairman Xu Jiayin was suspected of "illegal crimes" after reports he was being held by police. The same day, the firm's stocks were suspended in Hong Kong.

When trading resumed Tuesday, its shares initially jumped more than 60 percent before paring much of their gains to close up 28 percent at HK$0.41. In July 2020 the stock had traded at more than HK$25.

"Looks like the gains are driven by speculative money," Willer Chen, a senior research analyst at Forsyth Barr Asia Ltd, told Bloomberg.

"With this volatility, I really don't know if there's any chance for any proper investor to make money on this name."

Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management added: "The extent to which the rally sticks and even moves out of penny stock territory will significantly depend on whether a government policy is put in the offing."

Evergrande estimated it had debts of $328 billion at the end of June.

And the company warned last month it was unable to issue new debt because its subsidiary, Hengda Real Estate Group, was being investigated. Key meetings planned for debt restructuring were shelved.

The firm said it was "necessary to reassess the terms" of the plan in order to suit the "objective situation and the demand of the creditors".

Its property arm missed a key bond payment last week, and Chinese financial website Caixin reported that former executives had been detained.

Given the changing status of the Evergrande crisis and the property market contributing to one-third of the country's economic activity, Innes said he could not "see China sitting back and watching the real estate market crumble".

"This extensive reliance on the property sector raises concerns about its potential impact on various related industries, ranging from construction materials like steel and cement to household appliances and other consumer goods," he told AFP.

"Any disruptions or downturns in the property market can have far-reaching consequences for these allied industries."

- Vanished life savings -

China's property sector has long been a pillar of growth -- along with construction it accounts for about a quarter of GDP -- and it experienced a dazzling boom in recent decades.

However, the massive debt accrued by its biggest players has been seen by Beijing as an unacceptable risk for China's financial system and overall economic health.

Authorities have gradually tightened developers' access to credit since 2020, and a wave of defaults has followed -- notably that of Evergrande.

The long-running housing crisis has wreaked misery on the lives of homebuyers across the country, who have often staked life savings on properties that never materialised.

A wave of mortgage boycotts spread nationwide last summer, as cash-strapped developers struggled to raise enough to complete homes they had already sold in advance -- a common practice in China.

Policymakers have come under intense pressure in recent months to unveil measures to support the economy, particularly the property sector.

But they are not keen on the type of bonanza unveiled in 2008 during the financial crisis, meaning the government could struggle to hit its growth target of around five percent for this year. That would represent one of its worst performances in decades, excluding during the pandemic.

bur-oho-dhc/je/mtp
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood conducted an important press conference Monday afternoon on the dangers of fentanyl, a drug that is ravaging the area. The sheriff announced the arrest of a 17-year-old, alleged dealer who had sold a fatal dose of the drug to another teen.

State Attorney R.J. Larizza was present as was a contingent of media. We weren't there. We weren't invited.

Curious about the oversight and upset about being scooped by a bunch of Orlando television stations, I emailed Andrew Gant who handles press for the sheriff.

I dont think we were invited to this one. Am I right? I wrote, including a link to a competitors coverage. Can you please explain the oversight? Apologies if we missed the notice.

Gant wrote back: No oversight, sorry. The Sheriff is no longer inviting the NJ to his news conference or commenting for stories. This ones available online for anyone to see, though.

Shocked, I responded: Wow. OK. May I ask why? And also may I ask where online this is located? And may I have the charging affidavit or arrest report?

No response.

A stream of the news conference and a press release were released later on the sheriffs office's Facebook page. We wrote a story, which was really just a condensed version of the online press release.

So what happened?

Chitwood, a popular and powerful public figure in the county known for his crusade against antisemitism and neo-Nazis, was obviously still sore about a News-Journal column I wrote after he had in my words, defamed one of the papers reporters on social media.

In the column, Sheriff Mike Chitwood throws News-Journal reporter under the social media bus - again, I defended Frank Fernandez, longtime News-Journal courts reporter, for a story he wrote that quoted a woman who criticized the sheriffs reaction to the Othal Wallace verdict.

Wallace, who shot Daytona Beach police officer Jason Raynor to death, was convicted of manslaughter rather than first-degree murder, avoiding the death penalty. The sheriff was enraged by the verdict as were many others, and attacked the jury for its ruling.

"My faith in the American jury has been shaken before. I have seen juries ignore video evidence and disregard victims. I have never been more disgusted by a verdict than I am today."

Taking exception

The sheriff also took exception to a post by Suzerain, a nonprofit with lawyers who defend indigent defendants facing possible death sentences. The post read:

"Two weeks ago @allisonferbermiller picked a jury for a trial in which the defendant, Othal Wallace, was charged with the first-degree murder of a police officer in Clay County, Florida. The prosecution was seeking the death penalty. Today the jury convicted Mr. Wallace of the lesser offense of manslaughter, which prevents the prosecution from even trying to give him the death penalty."

More: Sheriff Mike Chitwood throws News-Journal reporter under the social media bus - again

Chitwood posted on his Facebook page: Theyre really bragging on Facebook about picking a jury that let a cop killer off on a lesser charge.

Frank seeing that post, decided to contact Allison Ferber Miller who helped select the jury in the Wallace case, to get her reaction. Miller, who sits on the board of directors of Suzerain, said she did not have anything to do with the post.

She added: Sheriff Chitwood is certainly free to disagree with the jurys verdict, but to disparage the work of the jurors and the jurors themselves, frankly, to me, is un-American.

Chitwoods reaction

That enraged the sheriff, who took to social media, as he has done before in going after Frank.

"I really dont care what Allison Ferber Miller has to say in the latest BS report by the Daytona Beach News-Journal defense attorney mouthpiece Frank Fernandez." He closed by saying: "I don't take Frank Fernandez's calls or give him quotes for his BS stories anymore, but feel free to let him know what you think."

I defended the reporter: Once again, his fury was directed not at the lawyer who said what offended him, but at the reporter who quoted her.

Once again, he went after the messenger.

The sheriff's reaction is disturbing for a number of reasons, I wrote.

First, he's falsely accusing an enormously dedicated and hard-working reporter of being one-sided and unprofessional. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Second, his bullying behavior can lead to a chilling effect on anyone who dares to write something he doesn't like.

And third, he's creating a scapegoat and invoking his followers to tell him what they think. What happens if they respond with more than words?

The post struck a chord with readers, getting more than 20,000 pageviews.

Cut off

Chitwood wrote a response, again on social media, attacking the column and saying: This is nothing personal, strictly business, but the only real recourse I have is to unsubscribe from the News-Journal and quit commenting in it.

On Monday he showed how far he was willing to go.

His action raised more than a few questions. What if the News-Journal hears about a press conference in advance and a reporter shows up at the sheriffs office? Will he or she be booted off the taxpayer-funded facility?

What if we get another storm or if God forbid, theres a mass shooting or some other event where the media needs to get the word out? Will the News-Journal still be cut off? And who is truly hurt in this scenario? Is it the paper? Or the public?

For our part, we will keep covering the sheriffs office as best as we can and hope he at some point will cool off and lift his ban. As for the sheriffs actions? To borrow a line from Chitwood to his many followers: What do you think?

John Dunbar is Executive Editor of the News-Journal. You can reach him at jdunbar@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood bans Daytona paper from press conferences
This article was originally published in Maryland Matters.

Maryland State Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury will resign as the states public schools leader Oct. 6, but the next day become a full-time senior adviser for the State Board of Education.

A joint statement released Friday from the board and Choudhury explains that he will provide expert-level advice, guidance and recommendations on education policies, strategies and priorities, such as the Blueprint for Marylands Future education reform plan.

Sylvia Lawson, deputy state superintendent for organizational effectiveness, will serve as acting superintendent upon Choudhurys resignation until an interim superintendent is appointed.

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According to a transition agreement between the board and Choudhury, he will maintain current knowledge of contemporary trends and development to ensure the State Board maintains an understanding of issues in a rapidly evolving environment.

Marylands Humble Mission: Build the Nations Best, Most Equitable School System

A main job requirement in the agreement: he must report directly to the President [Clarence Crawford] and Vice President [Joshua Michael] of the State Board of Education.

If Choudhury wants to meet with legislators and other public officials, he needs to obtain approval with board leadership.

If Choudhury needs to initiate any significant discussions with department staff, he must seek approval from board leadership.

The agreement also specifies that Choudhury and the board wont make disparaging or damaging statements, public or private, to each other or their representatives, agents, employees, officers and attorneys.

In regards to the transition of an interim superintendent, which the board plans to name next month, Choudhury will provide assistance and advice to the board on department leadership. The next scheduled board meeting is Oct. 24.

We wanted to have clearly defined lanes in advance to minimize any potential confusion on the part of staff or on the part of stakeholders as to whom they should speak with, Crawford said in a brief interview.

What weve done is weve clearly identified where the interim [superintendent] will be on board, and he or she will have the full authority as the superintendent of schools for the state of Maryland, Crawford said. [Mr. Choudhury is] going to help us with policy matters. Hes going to help us do some research [and] help us figure out how to move forward.

Choudhury will keep his current base salary of $310,000, which is part of his three-year contract through June 30. His senior adviser position will last until then.

Crawford said local superintendents typically have a buy-out provision that allows an individual to be bought out of a contract.

At the state level, we dont have that option, he said. One of the benefits at the state level is Maryland taxpayers, the Maryland citizens will still get the benefit of Mr. Choudhurys knowledge and experience. If this were a straight buy out, we would lose all that. In the final analysis, it works out well for the state.

Michael said in a brief interview the agreement provides flexibility to begin the transition process of leadership.

It allows us to continue to benefit from his education policy knowledge and expertise, he said. We think it is quite beneficial for the state and focus on the future and keep children at the center

In the meantime, Crawford will lead a transition joint committee comprised of some board members and department leadership.

Michael will lead a search committee joined by other board members. That group will work to search for a firm to help recruit a permanent superintendent to begin a new term starting July 1.

Choudhury has garnered praised for his some of his work in Maryland, including a push for reading proficiency and to develop the departments strategic plan, as well as support from the teachers union.

But he also received criticism for his leadership style from some legislators and former employees. Gov. Wes Moore (D), who has said the governor should have more influence on the direction of state schools, also cast doubt on Choudhurys performance as superintendent.

This story was originally published on Maryland Matters.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was crystal clear in his response when asked if hed support Donald Trump as the Republican nominee.

Christie, who was once a close Trump ally but is now one of his biggest critics, has in recent weeks said he wont back Trump again. On Monday, the 2024 GOP candidate made what could have been his most definitive statement on the issue yet to Newsmaxs Eric Bolling.

The former president has conducted himself in a way which I think has been disrespectful to the Constitution, violative of the Constitution, and I just cant be supportive of a guy who does those things and then just recently said that Mark Milley should be subject to execution, said Christie.

No. I cant do that, he added.

Watch the video here:

Chris Christie says he will not support Donald Trump if he is the GOP nominee because he said Gen. Mark Milley should be executed and has disrespected and violated the Constitution. pic.twitter.com/Oh32caUdHi  Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) October 3, 2023

Bolling had earlier asked Christie if the GOP candidates should just consolidate behind Trump, who, despite his myriad legal woes, remains the runaway Republican front-runner in polling.

He doesnt have a good word to say about any of us, whether its the people who have been for him or the people who have been against him, responded Christie.

Bolling suggested Trump would be better than President Joe Biden or any Democratic alternative, such as Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom or even former first lady Michelle Obama.

Look, I dont think any of those choices are good choices. Thats why Im running, said Christie. Any candidate would be a better president than he was and a better nominee than he could possibly be, he added.

Related...
The city of Atlanta is making a massive investment into affordable housing. More than $11 million will be used to build affordable rental units.

Channel 2s Richard Elliot has learned that some of that money will be used to stop evictions from happening.

Critics argue that the city shouldnt be building new affordable rental units -- thats for private developers.

But the city says since its put so much investment in building infrastructure like the Atlanta BeltLine, and since the BeltLine is driving up rents, it should do this.

Deborah Blalock knows what its like to be evicted. She got kicked out of her rental unit and lived in a shelter until she found her current apartment along Atlantas BeltLine.

I was thrown out in the street, hanging with homeless people. It was cold that night, Blalock said. We need to stop this evicting.

The city of Atlanta has seen a sharp rise in evictions since the end of the pandemic. We also saw an end to rules preventing them.

TRENDING STORIES:

Atlanta city councilmember Matt Westmoreland led the charge to set aside $11.6 million for affordable housing.

I think housing affordability is a topic of increasing concern to a whole lot of people, Westmoreland said.

About $6 million of that will go to building new rental units for people making less than 50% of the median income. Some $2 million will help with what he calls eviction diversion.

Critics insist that building apartments or helping pay rents is not a responsibility of city government.

Westmoreland defends the allocation, saying Atlanta is responsible for higher rents because its investing in infrastructure like the BeltLine.

As we make investments that drive up rents, I believe, and I think Ive got colleagues behind me that unanimously supported this legislation believe that we have to help legacy residents who are most impacted by the growth weve seen stay in their homes, Westmoreland said.

In a statement, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said he supported these efforts to provide affordable housing.

IN OTHER NEWS:




The city of Miami will appeal a court ruling that allows auto parts retailer Miguel Gabela to run as a qualified City Commission candidate in the District 1 election.

The appeal, announced in a court filing Tuesday morning, extends a legal battle over the validity of Gabelas candidacy one week before mail ballots are sent to voters. Gabela is running against incumbent Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who was suspended from his commission seat in September after he was arrested on corruption charges. Investor Marvin Tapia, retired Miami police officer Francisco Frank Pichel and Miami-Dade County employee Mercedes Rodriguez are also running for District 1.

Gabela, who has been campaigning since February, sued the city in August after his home was excluded from District 1 when commissioners  including Diaz de la Portilla  redrew the voting map in June after a court order invalidated a previous map. Miamis city charter requires candidates to live inside the district they want to represent for at least one year before qualifying. Gabela says he moved into the new District 1 in early August.

Read more: Miami candidates call for end to City Hall corruption as campaign season kicks off

Last week, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Pedro Echarte ruled that Gabela was a qualified candidate while emphasizing Gabela did nothing to to remove himself from District 1. City attorneys argued Gabela shouldve moved earlier in June, right after commissioners approved the new map.

The citys attorneys filed a notice in the circuit court Tuesday appealing Echartes decision to Floridas Third District Court of Appeal.

Unfortunately, the Courts order does not comply with the Citys residency requirements, said City Attorney Victoria Mendez, in a statement to the Miami Herald.

Juan-Carlos Planas, Gabelas attorney, told the Herald the city was doubling down on its unlawful actions to protect a suspended politician who has been charged with crimes.

This is a complete betrayal of their duty to the residents of the City of Miami, he said.

The District 1 seat is currently empty. Following Diaz de la Portillas arrest and suspension, the four sitting Miami commissioners decided to leave his seat open until the Nov. 7 election.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Getty Images

Clarence Thomas recused himself for the first time from a January 6-related matter this week.

Thomas has faced calls to recuse himself from such matters because of his wife's involvement.

A Supreme Court expert said media scrutiny into Thomas' ethics may have convinced him to recuse.

After months of media scrutiny, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recused himself for the first time from a matter regarding the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack.

But the conservative justice's decision to withdraw his voice from the court's decision may have been an easy one due to the appeal's lacking legal merits, an expert on the Supreme Court told Insider.

As is standard among the justices, Thomas opted not to explain why he recused himself from the Monday matter , which dealt with one-time Trump attorney John Eastman's efforts to block his former employer from handing over his emails to the now-disbanded Jan. 6 Congressional committee.

Eastman, who faces criminal charges in Georgia in connection to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, previously served as a law clerk for Thomas.

Thomas has previously faced calls to recuse himself from matters before the court concerning the January 6 attack and 2020 presidential election after his wife, Virginia "Ginny" Thomas, supported Trump's efforts to overturn the election.

Earlier this year, when the Supreme Court rejected Trump's bid to keep White House documents out of the hands of the January 6 committee, Thomas chose not to recuse himself and offered the court's lone vote in support of Trump.

The court's Monday decision comes months after a series of ProPublica reports alleged a pattern of ethical misconduct by Thomas, including accusations he accepted and failed to disclose several luxury vacations from top GOP donor Harlan Crow.

A Bloomberg law analysis from February found Thomas was the justice who recused himself the least.

His apparent about-face on Monday suggests the increased scrutiny over his ethical conduct may be having a tangible effect on his judicial career, Scott Lemieux, a professor of political science at the University of Washington and an expert in constitutional law, told Insider.

"The fact that he didn't recuse himself in previous cases involving the 2020 election makes it hard to imagine these recent stories aren't playing a role here," he told Insider.

But the Eastman appeal from which Thomas recused himself was effectively settled before the court declined to review the appeal. The Jan. 6 committee obtained the contested emails and published them last year, but Eastman had asked the Supreme Court to reject the lower court ruling that allowed the panel to access the emails and which he said harmed both his and Trump's reputations.

John Eastman (left) appeared alongside Rudy Giuliani at a pro-Trump rally on January 6. Jim Bourg

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Eastman's appeal, which Lemieux suggested was "frivolous" from the start, with no additional explanation except to note Thomas' recusal.

"From his perspective, this may have been a way to address the criticism in a low-stakes, almost symbolic recusal," Lemieux said of Thomas.

Supreme Court justices are expected to recuse themselves from any matters that pose a conflict of interest.

"But the constitutional system doesn't have any way of holding justices accountable," Lemieux said, making each justice the arbiter of their own ethics.

Regardless of his reasons, Thomas ultimately did the right thing in recusing himself from the Eastman appeal, Lemieux said.

"The justices have to be convinced if they do unethical things, it will hurt the legitimacy of the Supreme Court," he said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
While prescribed burns are a critical tool in wildfire prevention, warming climate conditions are restricting the window of time in which they can be safely deployed, a new study has found.

Kindled by highly trained firefighters, these controlled blazes help clear away excess dry plant matter that could otherwise catalyze what the study authors described as a raging inferno.

Such fires can only occur safely when the weather is not so damp as to prevent combustion, but also not so dry or windy that more vegetation would burn than planned, the authors noted.

But climate change is now reducing the overall number of days and shifting the times of year when prescribed burns can occur, according to the study, published on Tuesday in Communications Earth & Environment.

With scientists projecting warming of 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2060, the authors projected that these changes would reduce the number of days suitable for prescribed burns by 17 percent on average across the U.S. West.

Most declines, they found, would occur during the spring and summer, when the majority of controlled burns currently occur. Reductions in spring and summer could be up to 25 percent and 31 percent, respectively, according to the study.

On the flip side, however, the researchers determined that there could be a net increase of 4 percent in the number of favorable days for prescribed fires in the winter.

Global warming will reduce the number of favorable days for prescribed fires throughout the American West, first author Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California Los Angeles, said in a statement.

But winter in particular may emerge as an increasingly favorable time for prescribed burns if the relevant policy and staffing changes can be made, he added.

Swain and his colleagues also identified variations by region, observing that in California, for example, the changes would be biggest in the coastal and southern areas.

Many places in those areas could lose a month of days suitable for prescribed burns, they found.

The northern parts of the Rocky Mountains, however, might enjoy a slight increase in the number of days when it would be safe to deploy such fires, according to the study.

As wildfires across the U.S. West continue to increase in intensity, tools like prescribed burns will only become more critical, the researchers contended.

But optimizing this tool requires agencies to plan ahead, particularly with regards to their firefighting work force, they argued.

This paper is giving us advanced warning, co-author Kristen Shive, an expert on prescribed fire at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement.

Hopefully we can change policies to either extend those folks or create winter-specific crews, Shive added.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Michael Cohen, former President Trumps onetime fixer and former personal attorney, lashed out at the former presidents attempt to discredit him as a witness Monday during the opening day of his New York civil fraud trial.

Cohen argued that disparaging somebody is not a viable strategy for winning a legal case.

This is a guy who doesnt understand disparaging somebody is not the way to win a case, Cohen said in an interview Monday night with CNNs Abby Phillip, referring to Trump. What you need to do is to bring the evidence, bring the documents in order to clear your name, as opposed to thinking youre going to clear your name by disparaging somebody else.

In the interview, Cohen was asked to respond to attacks on his character brought by an attorney for Trumps family, Cliff Robert, who invoked Cohens name in court Monday, calling him the linchpin of the case.

When you talk about credibility, youre going to have a guy who lies to everyone, who is a convicted felon, and he is a fixture of what their case is about, Robert said Monday, according to Phillips.

I think Cliff Robert is an idiot, Cohen said in response. First and foremost, I have now provided testimony to seven different congressional committees, to the [Robert] Mueller team, to the district attorney on 23 occasions, to the attorney general.

Cliff Robert and Donald Trump  its all part of the GOP handbag  all theyre going to do is sit there and try to discredit me, to disparage me, he argued. Thats the name of the Trump game.

Cohen said that while he brought documents and corroborating testimony to the table, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the case against Trump, likely didnt even need his help.

I dont even think that it would be 100 percent necessary for the AG to use me in order to find Trump guilty of the crimes that hes been charged with, he said.

The former Trump attorney invoked other attacks the former president has made against key figures in this civil fraud case in New York, as well as attacks hes made against figures involved in the four criminal cases he faces  including judges and DOJ special counsel Jack Smith.

A judge found Trump liable for fraud last week, stripped him of some of his business licenses and raised the potential for him to lose control of some of his famed properties.

James argued the former presidents company falsely inflated and deflated the value of its assets to receive lower taxes and better insurance coverage.



Trump said he would return to court Tuesday, when the civil trial continues.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
DENVER (KDVR)  For many, the start of October means the start of the spooky season ahead of Halloween. In Colorado it also means something else, new laws are going into effect.

There are seven total laws slated to go into effect on Oct. 1.

Failing to obey Colorados new roundabout law could cost you $70

FOX31 previously looked into two of the laws  a change to who gets the right-of-way in roundabouts and a new waiting period for firearm sales.

Here are the other laws going into effect on Oct. 1.

Opening up liability to the firearm industry

Senate Bill 23-168, Gun Violence Victims Access to Judicial System, allows victims of gun violence to sue members of the firearm industry for knowingly breaching Colorado law.

For purposes of the law, the firearm industry includes people, firms, corporations or entities that manufacture, distribute, import, market or sell firearms or ammunition in the state.

Lawsuits can be brought up to five years after the violation of the law or harm occurs.

Criminal justice changes

Three other laws going into effect can broadly be defined as changes to the criminal justice system.

House Bill 23-1151, Clarifications To 48-hour Bond Hearing Requirement, deals with the 48-hour bond hearing requirement for people in jail.

House Bill 23-1293, Felony Sentencing Commission Recommendations, adopts changes to certain criminal offenses.

It specifically reclassifies a number of felony offenses. For example, aggravated cruelty to animals was changed to a class 4 felony and comes with harsher penalties than before.

New gun law creating 3-day waiting period goes in effect soon

House Bill 23-1034, Measures to Expand Postconviction DNA Testing, changes who can apply for postconviction DNA testing.

Previously, the only people who could apply for DNA testing to prove innocence were those who did not have it available to them when they were prosecuted.

The new law expands that to a number of new groups, including those convicted of felony offenses who are currently incarcerated and people who have completed their sentences.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WesternSlopeNow.com.
Proclaiming Colorados Black History has been in the works for nearly two years, shortly after George Floyds murder and the subsequent racial justice protests.

A new exhibit at the Museum of Boulder aims to showcase what its like living among the 1%, a number representing the states Black community.

At a time when Deion Sanders presence is attracting Black celebrities and athletes to Boulder, CPR News reported that Proclaiming Colorados Black History provides another opportunity to reflect on the past, celebrate the successes of those who have persevered, and build hope for the future.

The exhibit has been in the works for nearly two years, shortly after George Floyds murder and the subsequent racial justice protests.

The Proclaiming Colorados Black History exhibit at the Museum of Boulder has finally opened after being in the works for over two years. (Photo Credit: Screenshot/YouTube.com/9NEWS)

We wanted to talk about the Black experience in Colorado from the earliest days when people of African heritage were in this area, said Adrian Miller, lead curator of the exhibit, and then bring it all the way up to the current times.

According to the Denver Post, the exhibit also comes when the capital city is less diverse than a decade ago, as demographic change and economic expansion have fueled gentrification in many of the citys primarily Black and Latino communities.

However, the composition of the Denver City Council defies the pattern, with voters recently electing possibly the most diverse team in the citys history with six Latina and two openly-LGBTQ Black council members.

Im hoping that [the exhibit is] a gateway for people to delve more deeply into Colorados Black history, Miller added, CPR reported, and then just understand the ways that we have felt so many barriers, obstacles, but we still manage to triumph. Were resilient, and we assert our humanity.

The exhibit, which opened on Sept. 29 and will be on display for two years, discusses the life of Anna Belle Riley, the first Black person reportedly born in Colorado in 1864.

While there is no photo of Riley, the exhibit highlights how she and her family developed community in various ways, including attending a Black church and creating a life for themselves, relating to others, and striving to achieve the American dream.

Miller was adamant about the exhibit existing beyond the museum, so they hired someone to create a curriculum with the Boulder Valley School District. Theyre approximately a third of the way to their $250,000 objective of purchasing tools and materials to help children learn about their heritage.

It also looks to the future, concluding with an art gallery encouraging visitors to ponder, What kind of ancestor will you be to future Black Coloradans?

As far as the cultural awareness Sanders is helping bring to Boulder amid the exhibits opening, Miller said Sanders efforts to mentor young Black men dont go unnoticed.

However, he has heard reservations about bringing them into Boulder, where the reality differs from the picture.

But I think its exciting to see the community rallying around him and to have the nation looking at Colorado, Miller added, CPR reported, and I think its a great opportunity for us to have a launching point to explore what Black life is in a place like Boulder, and what Black life is in a place like Colorado.

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

The post New Colorado museum exhibit showcases the 1%  the Black community in the state appeared first on TheGrio.
The Colorado Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear the case of a Christian baker who refused to make a birthday cake for a transgender woman.

Jack Phillips, the owner of a Denver area bakery, won a partial victory before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 after refusing to make a gay couples wedding cake. He argued that baking the cake would violate his religious beliefs and his First Amendment right to free speech.

Autumn Scardina, a Colorado attorney and transgender woman, later sued Phillips after his bakery, Masterpiece Cakeshop, refused to make a pink cake with blue frosting to celebrate her birthday and gender transition.

It was very obvious that it wasnt about the cake. It was about who I was as a person and how that would impact their decision on whether or not they would serve me, Scardina told Them, an online LGBTQ magazine, in a 2021 interview.

Scardina, who is also a Christian, said she sought out Masterpiece Cakeshop for her birthday cake because she empathized with Phillips in the initial case and could appreciate the nuance of his argument.

I remember him saying several times: This is about a singular religious event. This doesnt have to do with the individuals, Scardina told the outlet. I disagreed with his ultimate position, but some part of me understood how difficult it must be to watch the world change on him. I wanted to believe him.

A Denver court sided with Scardina in 2021. District Court Judge Bruce Jones wrote in a ruling that the case is less about compelled speech than it is about upholding anti-discrimination laws intended to ensure that members of our society who have historically been treated unfairly are no longer treated as others.

The Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed that decision in January, ruling that the requested cake is not a form of speech. It also found that Phillips violated Colorados anti-discrimination law, which makes it illegal to refuse services to people based on protected characteristics including sex.

Attorneys for Phillips appealed that decision in April and asked the state Supreme Court to take up the case in July, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that allowed a Christian web designer to refuse to create wedding websites for same-sex couples.

Jake Warner, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the conservative Christian legal group that is representing Phillips, said the Supreme Court decision should be applied to Phillipss case to reverse the lower courts decision. The Christian web designer, Lorie Smith, was also represented by ADF.

Because the attorney asked Jack to create a custom cake that would celebrate and symbolize a transition from male to female, the requested cake is speech under the First Amendment, Warner said in a news release.

Jack works with all people and always decides whether to create a custom cake based on what message it will express, not who requests it, Warner said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Warning: This story contains graphic description of sexual abuse.

A former Columbia University gynecologist convicted of sexually abusing patients for decades has been hit with a lawsuit that identifies hundreds of new victims.

The complaint, filed in New York State Supreme Court on Tuesday under the Adult Survivors Act, alleges that Robert Hadden abused 301 new victims under the guise of medical treatment during a 25-year career before his predation was exposed.

Hadden acted as a disgusting, sadistic, and perverted sexual predator who used his esteemed and trusted position to sexually groom, exploit, abuse, rape, molest, fondle, sodomize, and commit various acts of physical, verbal, and sexual assault and battery on thousands of patients, including the plaintiffs herein, all under the pretense of providing legitimate, medically necessary, medical care, the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit alleges that the medical institutions that once employed him, like Columbia University, conspired to conceal his crimes from the authorities and gaslight their patients while enabling and aiding Robert Hadden in becoming the most prolific serial sexual predator in New York State History.

Hadden, 64, was sentenced in July to 20 years in federal prison for sexually assaulting female patients while employed by Columbia University Medical Center. During the three-week January trial, prosecutors said that Hadden used his position and affiliation with the prestigious institution to make or to attempt to make his victims believe that the sexual abuse he inflicted on them was appropriate and medically necessary.

Several women who testified at trial said that Hadden would make sexual contact with them, perform oral sex on them, digitally penetrate them, ask them about their sex lives, and touch them inappropriately during their appointments. The lawsuit also alleges that Hadden performed sexually abusive mole checks and spread open womens anal crevices so he could leer at their bodies and anuses for his own deviant sexual gratification.

For years, he cruelly lured women who sought professional medical care to his offices in order to gratify himself, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement after his conviction. Haddens victims trusted him as a physician, only to instead become victims of his heinous predilection.

After Haddens 2020 arrest, dozens of women also came forward to accuse him of sexual abuse dating back to 1993, including Evelyn Yang, the wife of former Democratic political candidate Andrew Yang, who told CNN that Hadden molested her in 2012 while she was seven months pregnant. In 2016, Hadden also pleaded guilty in state court to abusing six patients, was stripped of his medical license, and was added to the sex offender registry, but avoided jail time.

Evelyn Yang, wife of Andrew Yang, was one of Robert Haddens victims. Taylor Hill / Getty

Anthony T. DiPietro, who filed the lawsuit, previously told The Daily Beast that the New York State Department of Health and Columbia University have yet to notify all former patients of Haddens conviction or the reason for his departure.

Columbia University last month issued a statement stating that the school continues to grapple with the magnitude of harm done by Hadden and commended the courageous women who spoke out. The school has settled several lawsuits with Haddens victims, including a $165 million agreement last October with 147 former patients. In 2021, the school agreed to pay $71.1 million in another settlement with 79 other victims.

The latest lawsuit alleges that instead of reporting Hadden to the State Office of Professional Medical Conduct or local law enforcement, his employers and staffers took no action in response to early complaints. It adds that Columbia Universitys direct knowledge of Haddens alleged abuse after a complaint was made decades ago makes these cases even more disturbing than what weve seen happen at any other U.S. university to date.

We commend them for coming forward. We offer our deepest apologies to all his victims and their loved ones, top Columbia officials said in a statement. Since Hadden last saw patients more than a decade ago, Columbia has worked to enhance the policies and processes in place to afford our patients a safe environment of care, and we remain committed to strengthening the safeguards that are essential for earning patient trust.

The school never admitted fault, but ProPublica and New York magazine published an expose into an alleged cover-up scheme by Columbia, revealing that Hadden was allowed to practice for five weeksand allegedly preyed on eight more womenafter he was reported to police in 2012.

Women who reported Robert Hadden to authorities for sexually abusing them during OB-GYN visits stand outside federal court in Manhattan following his conviction. From left: Adina, Liz Hall, Marissa Hoechstetter, Dayna Solomon and Robyn Bass Lavender. New York Molly Crane-Newman/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via GettyDaily News

Some of Haddens former patients slammed Columbia for their statement, which they called self-servicing propaganda. In a statement written with DiPietro, Marissa Hoechstetter and Yang stressed that the school has yet to take ownership of its pastand ongoingfailures.

Instead, it comes from a place of self-preservation, a continuation of Columbias 35-year refusal to acknowledge that they enabled and protected Haddens abuse, the statement stated. Columbia failed to protect patients and get rid of this known sexual predator.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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President Bidens dog Commander sits on the Truman Balcony at the White House in Washington, D.C., September 30, 2023.

Since July, President Joe Bidens dog, Commander, has made headlines for reportedly acting aggressively toward Secret Service staffers at least 11 times, including nine bites. The intrepid reporters at Politico Playbook have presented a compelling theory for whats going on: To the German Shepherd, the Secret Service agents look like threats. And given some reporting about Bidens thoughts on the agents, Commander might be right!



The biting incidents have occurred both at the White House and the presidents home in Delaware and, in one instance, an officer was hospitalized after the dog clamped down on their arms and thighs. The first 10 Commander incidents became public in July after the conservative group Judicial Watch obtained Secret Service emails through Freedom of Information Act requests. The emails detailed two aggressive incidents and eight bites, two of which were described as playful or friendly. (So, CNN reporting on a bite last week is actually the 9th chomp, not the 11th as they claim.)

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Indeed, the wild discrepancy in Commanders behavior has left White House staffers past and present trying to come up with theories about it. The White House is just a crazy environment for a dog, said a former White House official. There are enormous men with guns acting suspiciously hostile everywhere. Another former staffer suggested that it could have a lot to do with facial expressions. Dogs are very reactive to humans and when staff greet Commander, its usually with a big smile. Thats not the case for Secret Service agents, who tend to be less warm and fuzzy while on the job. That theory would also explain why Commander is not the first of Bidens dogs to go after Secret Service agents.

Bidens brother James gave him the puppy as a birthday gift after Major Biden, another German Shepherd, got sent to live with family friends following his own Bad Dog press cycle. (No, additional training didnt help him adjust to life at the White House.) A person close to the Bidens said the couple didnt feel like they could turn down the gift.



Politico didnt mention a recent book that claimed Biden doesnt fully trust all of his Secret Service detail since some of the agents were MAGA sympathizers. (Many agents are ex-cops and dozens of agents deleted text messages sent the day of the Jan. 6 insurrection.) Biden even reportedly questioned the agents reporting of Majors biting episode in March 2021.

Now, apparently, some staffers and reporters are taking literal bets on how long Commander will get to stick around, with some thinking hell get the boot by Thanksgiving. We do wonder how much longer they can keep him around, a White House staffer said. At a certain point, it becomes impossible.

I humbly suggest that before sending yet another dog away the Secret Service agents should try smiling at Commander while asking Whos a good boy?

Unless or until the dog starts attacking people who arent carrying guns, my stance is: Commander Innocent.

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Despite what we see in the movies or on television, sex trafficking doesnt usually look like what you might think.

Imagine being a 16-year-old child sex trafficking victim, groomed and trafficked to adult men while still just a sophomore in high school. Then imagine being charged as an adult and sentenced to 12 long years in prison for a murder committed by your trafficker. That nightmare scenario is just what happened to one child victim from Grand Prairie - Zephi Trevino - whose story tragically illustrates how the justice system fails young girls impacted by violence.

The criminalization of survivors can take many forms. However, in Zephis case it turns on one critical fact  she was a victim of child trafficking. When she was first groomed and exploited by an older man, Zephi was just a kid in high school. Then, as is far too common with child sex trafficking victims across America, Zephi was re-victimized by a system that not only discredited her, but prosecuted her as an adult for a murder she herself did not commit. And this transpired even though federal law makes clear that anyone under 18 involved in the commercial sex trade is, by definition, a victim of sex trafficking, regardless of whether force, fraud, or coercion is used.

Hundreds of marchers gather for the "Walk Together- Uniting Against Sex Trafficking" event April 30, 2022, in St. Cloud, Minnesota. (Credit: Dave Schwarz/St. Cloud Times)

For Zephi, the signs putting her down this dangerous path were subtle. Her family reported noticing some slight changes in behavior: staying out later than usual, returning home in clothing they didnt recognize, and hanging out with an older adult boyfriend. There was also a far more obvious red flag: adults coming to the apartment to have sex with her. Again, under federal law, 16-year-old Zephi was a victim of sex trafficking and under Texas law, she was a victim of statutory rape. The prosecution failed Zephi by ignoring these basic details denying both her status as a child and as a crime victim.

Many child sex trafficking survivors are also victims of labor trafficking, which stems from them being forced to commit additional crimes, in addition to their sexual exploitation. These coerced criminal acts can be of various stripes, but often include drug possession, drug trafficking, loitering, theft, possession of stolen property, and status offenses, such as running away or truancy. Sadly, child trafficking victims are also forced to commit violent crimes at the behest of their abusers - including robbery of buyers who sought to rape or exploit them, often to meet their traffickers quota. Here, Zephi helped lure the adult buyers who came to have sex with her so her trafficker could then rob them. However, while Zephi was searching the mens cars outside, her trafficker shot and killed one of those buyers.

Zephis case is also an example of how a credibility discount can devastatingly play out in reality. As described in a new report, this discount describes how young girls of color are less likely to be believed by law enforcement and public systems when they disclose abuse. When survivors of trafficking arent believed, theyre too often arrested and charged alongside their own abusers as if they had full agency in the commission of the crime. When law enforcement and prosecutors repeatedly diminish survivors accounts, the damage can be impossible to undo.

However, if we reframe our thinking about what it means to be a trafficking victim  by believing survivors instead of discrediting them - this harm and re-victimization can be avoided. If Zephi was believed by law enforcement, and rightfully seen as a child and victim, she could have remained in the juvenile justice system. There, she could have received age-appropriate, trauma-informed treatment, or possibly, even community-based services and support. If authorities gave credence to what Zephi went through, she would not have found herself making the impossible decision to plead guilty to a murder she did not commit at risk of facing a possible life sentence. But by choosing to charge Zephi as an adult for her role in the death of her adult buyer, prosecutors ignored everything we know about children and victims of sex trafficking, and compounded her trauma. If only law enforcement, prosecutors and courts recognized the signs of trafficking and understood that not all sex trafficking victims fit into a one-size-fits-all mold, Zephi could be facing a much different present and future.

But Zephis story need not end as tragically as it began. Just this summer in Oklahoma passed a common-sense law allowing judges to apply a trauma-informed lens and depart from mandatory sentences for girls just like Zephi. Moreover, governors all around the country have stepped in and commuted the sentences of child sex trafficking victims in similar instances, and that includes tough-on-crime Republican governors. We hope that Governor Greg Abbott takes this step as well, and that he will rectify this grave injustice here in Texas by commuting Zephi's sentence. It is not enough to simply learn from our mistakes. We must also repair, and that starts with those who have the moral courage and ability to do what is right for these children.

Kruzan is a Stoneleigh fellow with Human Rights for Kids, and author of I Cried to Dream Again: Trafficking, Murder, and Deliverance  A Memoir.

Vafa is a human rights attorney and executive director of Rights4Girls, a national organization working to protect marginalized young women and girls impacted by violence.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Commentary: How we fail victims of child sexual abuse and trafficking
Lacamas Lake in Camas, Washington, is suffering from a major algae bloom  and according to residents of a nearby homeowners association, their communitys storm drains are part of the problem, The Columbian reported.

In the 1980s, the luxury development Lacamas Shores installed a biofilter  a deliberate arrangement of aquatic plants and specific grasses meant to absorb nutrients from water, the Columbian explained. The biofilter was a cutting-edge design at the time and was meant to clean the water from the communitys storm drains before it flowed into the lake.

However, after five years of careful maintenance, Lacamas Shores resident Steve Bang claimed the HOA ignored the biofilter for decades, letting it become overgrown with trees and blackberry bushes that prevent it from working correctly.

That claim is the basis of a lawsuit Bang filed against the HOA in 2021. It turns out, Im suing myself as an HOA member, Bang told the publication. [Residents] ask me, Why? My answer is, Why are you not?

Excess nutrients from fertilizer and yard waste can be dissolved in rainwater runoff that ends up in nearby bodies of water, creating whats called nutrient pollution. This is common in areas with lots of agriculture or large areas of grass  like an upscale subdivision.

When nutrient pollution hits a body of water, it can cause algae to grow out of control into a toxic algae bloom. The thick clouds of algae make the water slimy and sometimes even smelly. They also choke out other species, preventing them from getting light or air. That throws the whole ecosystem out of balance and can kill off many species.

According to the Columbian, Lacamas Shores isnt solely responsible for the Lacamas Lake algae bloom. The citys water tests have determined that almost three-quarters of the total nutrient content in the water comes from the creek that feeds into the lake.

HOA President Don Trost, who assumed the role in 2021, told the Columbian: There is an implication that weve been irresponsible. I think its unfair to the members. He also claimed that Bang was only suing to get rid of the trees that blocked his propertys lake view.

However, according to Bang, he focused on the biofilter because it was an easy problem to fix, even if it wasnt the largest problem overall. Fix the biofilter and maintain its overgrowth, Bang said. Its plain and simple.

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By Arlette Bashizi

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - A Congolese colonel has been found guilty of murder and other crimes related to the August killing of 56 people during an army crackdown on anti-U.N. demonstrations in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a local court said on Monday.

Colonel Mike Mikombe, who was head of the Republican Guard unit in the city of Goma, where the incident took place, was one of six soldiers on trial. He was sentenced to death, but the death penalty is no longer applied in Congo, and is generally commuted to life imprisonment.

His lawyer, Serge Lukanga, said he would appeal the decision.

Three other soldiers were sentenced to 10 years' servitude. Mikombe's deputy and another soldier were acquitted.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo, known as MONUSCO, has faced protests since last year, spurred partly by complaints that it has failed to protect civilians against decades of militia violence.

An anti-MONUSCO protest in July 2022 resulted in more than 15 deaths, including three peacekeepers in Goma and the city of Butembo.

(Reporting by Arlette Bashizi; Writing by Sonia Rolley; Editing by Edward McAllister and Christian Schmollinger)
By Ange Kasongo and Sonia Rolley

KINSHASA (Reuters) - When Felix Tshisekedi took office as president of the Democratic Republic of Congo following a disputed election in 2018, he promised to end decades of political repression and corruption that had stifled development in the Central African country.

But as he prepares for a re-election bid in December, rights groups, international allies and rivals accuse his administration of stifling dissent just as previous government's did while he was in opposition.

In recent months, soldiers gunned down anti-U.N. protesters in the eastern city of Goma, and the body of a prominent opposition lawmaker was found in his car. Police have dispersed opposition rallies with tear gas, and at least two journalists have been detained on allegations of spreading fake news.

Freedom of expression and freedom of the press are being "severely tested" in Congo, said Jean-Claude Katende, president of the African Association for the Defence of Human Rights (ASADHO).

"Violation of these freedoms will lead to social and political violence and contestation of the results," he told Reuters, referring to potential fallout from the elections to be held on Dec. 20.

Patrick Muyaya, Congo's communication minister and government spokesperson, and Tina Salama, the president's spokesperson, both denied accusations that rights and liberties were being curbed in Congo. They did not address the possibility of violence during the electoral period.

Tshisekedi will face a field of opposition candidates that includes Martin Fayulu, whose claim that he won the 2018 presidential election led to post-electoral friction, and Nobel Peace Prize-winning gynaecologist Denis Mukwege.

Still, a disputed election could further destabilise a country already struggling to contain a myriad of armed groups and a rebellion.

Ida Sawyer, crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch, said many Congolese had hoped Tshisekedi's presidency would mark the end of years of repression and the culture of impunity that characterised the government of former President Joseph Kabila.

"Yet as Tshisekedi nears the end of his first term, we see many of the same abusive tactics," she told Reuters. Security forces are "once again being used to suppress dissent".

At least 56 civilians were killed in Goma on Aug. 30, according to the military prosecutor, when soldiers opened fire on demonstrators who were gathering to protest against the presence of U.N. peacekeepers and other foreign forces.

A Congolese colonel has been found guilty of murder and other crimes related to the killings. Three other soldiers were sentenced to 10 years in jail, while two others were acquitted.

The prosecutor handling the case said they were acting in isolation, and described the killings as "not a state action".

Their lawyer Serge Lukanga, told Reuters he will appeal the sentence. He denied the charges and said they did not give an order to open fire nor open fire themselves, and all they did that day was carry out they mission as Republican Guards.

"The president has condemned in the strongest possible terms the abuses committed by the security forces in Goma and elsewhere, stating that these acts and crimes will not go unpunished," Salama said.

"I AM NOT A DICTATOR"

Congo is the world's top supplier of cobalt, used in making batteries in electric vehicles, and its third-biggest copper producer. It is not clear if the political problems will have a direct impact on foreign investment.

Chinese and other commodities investors continue to pour in billions, particularly in copper and cobalt projects. The government is currently renegotiating terms with China over a 2008 infrastructure-for-minerals-deal

The United States has expressed concern about reports of attacks on political figures, harassment of opposition supporters, politicised judicial proceedings and arbitrary detentions.

In the preceding months, the bullet-riddled body of former transport minister and opposition lawmaker Cherubin Okende was found in his car, and opposition protests over alleged irregularities in voter registration led to clashes with police.

In September, presidential candidate and one-time Tshisekedi ally Jean-Marc Kabund was sentenced to seven years in prison for spreading false rumours and insulting the head of state, after he called Tshisekedi a "danger" and lambasted his government in a speech. He says the charges were politically motivated.

Government spokesperson Muyaya said the various incidents could not be interpreted as signs that there is a climate of repression in Congo.

Rights groups say independent media are also facing increased threats. They say a particular red flag is a new press law and digital code, enacted in April, that means journalists face potential prison time for sharing information deemed false.

Stanis Bujakera, who works for several media outlets, including Reuters, has been held since Sept. 8 on suspicion of spreading false information about Okende's killing in an article published by Jeune Afrique. The French news magazine has said the article did not carry Bujakera's name, and "he cannot be held responsible" for its content.

Tshisekedi has said it would not be appropriate for him to comment on judicial affairs and told journalists in September he is "a great supporter of press freedom".

In a speech to Congo's diaspora representatives in Belgium he said his political future faced unnamed external and internal threats that had to be defeated.

"If I am not re-elected, it is the enemies of the DRC who will take over, with the complicity of some who say they are one of us," he said in a video shared online.

"I am not a dictator, I am not bloodthirsty, but to defend my people, our dignity, I am ready for anything."

(Ange Kasongo reported from Kinshasa and Sonia Rolley from Paris; Additional reporting by Arlette Bashizi in Goma; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Bate Felix and Angus MacSwan)
The average wage of a UK nanny rose by 11pc in the past year to hit 2,999 a month - CHP

When you imagine hiring someone to look after your children, its delightful to envisage a picturesque, smartly-dressed nanny pulling a coat stand from their bag.

The reality, however, is a little different  and much more costly than in your dream scenario. How much you pay for a nanny depends on where you live and your specific agreement, but the average wage of a UK nanny has jumped to nearly 3,000 a month.

And its not just the salary that you will be on the hook for. You never saw Mr Banks paying Mary Poppinss national insurance bill or pension contribution, but its all part of the deal if you decide that a nanny is the right option for you.

Here are the pitfalls of having a nanny (and whether you can avoid them).

How much a nanny costs

Hiring a nanny is one of the most expensive forms of childcare. The average wage of a UK nanny rose by 11pc in the past year to hit 2,999 a month, according to Nannytax, a payroll service.

The increase is down to higher demand, driven partly by a lack of nursery places as well as a rise in the number of parents working long or unusual hours.

Figures from Ofsted show that the number of childcare places fell by 24,500 in the year to March, and nearly one in ten of those who employ a nanny said they did so because they could not secure a nursery place.

Some 57pc said they needed wraparound care.

Its the busiest weve ever seen it, said Frankie Gray from the nanny agency Harmony at Home. Mums are going back to work earlier than planned to increase their household income, but have been confronted by exceptionally long waiting lists for nurseries.

Supply is still an issue because so many childcare providers left the profession during the pandemic.

How much you pay will depend on where you are based. In the north east, nannies charge an average of 12.36 an hour (or a salary of about 25,710 for a 40-hour week), while in London you should expect to pay 16.50 an hour.

The hourly cost of hiring help

You will need to cover tax and pension contributions

When you hire a nanny, you become their employer. This is because the Government classes nannies  whether they are full-time or part-time  as employees, rather than independent contractors.

This means you are responsible for all the things a typical employer would be, such as national insurance, tax, pension contributions, holiday days, sick pay and maternity/paternity benefits.

The biggest responsibilities are national insurance contributions and a pension.

You will have to pay 15.05pc of your nannys salary over 9,100 in national insurance contributions, and  providing your nanny is over the age of 22, works full-time and earns more than 10,000  at least 3pc of their salary as a pension contribution.

Not only is this added hassle, but its added costs, too.

According to Nannytax, a nanny on a yearly salary of 25,000 would actually cost you 27,760 after you have paid your employer national insurance and pension contributions. A nanny on 40,000 a year would cost you 45,277.

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Your nanny will also be entitled to paid holiday  usually five and a half weeks if they are full-time  and statutory sick pay of 109.40 a week for up to 28 weeks, both paid by you.

Maternity or paternity pay is a statutory right, but can be claimed from the Government so doesnt come out of your pocket.

If you need back-up childcare during any of these periods, however, this would obviously increase your childcare bill, too.

How to reduce the cost of a nanny

When it comes to the cost of a nanny, there are ways you can lower your bill.

Many families opt to pair up with another family and share a nanny, according to Kirsty Wild from Nannytax. This might be splitting the nannys time, or the nanny looks after both sets of children in one familys home.

However, while this does lower your day-to-day cost, it doesnt relieve you of the responsibilities  you cant nanny share with a family and leave the employment and tax side up to them.

Wild said: Although the nanny is shared, families will need to keep everything separate when it comes to paperwork and payment. Each family must register with HMRC as an employer and pay the nanny at least the minimum wage.

To save money, the online marketplace Care suggests that you offer your nanny additional benefits in exchange for a lower pay rate, such as more paid time off or allowing them to bring their own children or grandchildren to work with them, or adjust your schedule so you can keep the same nanny but for less hours.

Take advantage of tax benefits, too. If both parents are working, or a single parent is working, then you might be eligible for the tax-free childcare scheme.

Childcare changes  what they mean for you

You have to choose an Ofsted-registered provider, so this might limit your choice of nannies, but you could save up to 2,000 a year in childcare costs. To be eligible, you or your partner cannot earn more than 100,000.

When it comes to the responsibilities of hiring a nanny, theres little you can do. Even if you hire through an agency or share a nanny, you usually still become the nannys employer.

If youre happy to spend a bit more money, you could consider using a payroll service, such as Nannytax.

It costs 276 a year, and the company will register with HMRC for you, complete your payroll records, provide payslips, submit quarterly summaries of tax and national insurance to HMRC and help more generally with any pay and employment-related issues.

Consider a childminder

If youre happy to give up the nanny dream, a childminder could help you avoid both the cost and the responsibilities of hiring a nanny. And with the right childminder, you could get a similar level of care for your child.

If your vision of childminders dates back to your own childhood, when your mums friend would help out with the school runs, think again, said Lisa Holmes, a childcare expert from Tiney, an online childcare platform.

A childminder is a well-trained, regulated early years professional.

With a childminder, 25 hours of childcare costs an average of 126.59, according to the Coram Family and Childcare Trust. A nanny costing 14 an hour (the average in the UK) would cost 350 for the same time.

You also wont pay your childminders national insurance or pension contributions, or have the hassle of a payroll system.

The compromise is, of course, that your child is likely to receive less one-on-one care than if you hired a nanny solely for your child or children.

But the care they receive is still likely to be good: childminders are regulated the same way larger nurseries are, are typically inspected by Ofsted and follow the same Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum as nurseries and preschools.

If you choose a childminder through an agency such as Tiney, there will also be extra inspections and a further layer of protection.

Aside from the costs and administration involved with a nanny, theres also the question of the quality of the care, as nannies do not need to be Ofsted-registered, said Holmes.

If its the thought of your child being cared for on home turf that appeals to you most, you could always consider local childminders who look after children in equally family-centered homes.

Recommended

Nanny or nursery? How to make the right decision for your wallet (and children)

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Matthew Zakrzewski was convicted in Orange County Superior Court of sex crimes against 17 boys he had been hired to babysit from 2014 to 2019. (Daily Pilot)

A Costa Mesa man was convicted Tuesday of sex crimes against 17 boys he had been hired to babysit from 2014 to 2019, charges that can bring him life in prison.

Prosecutors said Matthew Zakrzewski, 34, lured parents to his babysitting service and then sexually abused the children entrusted to his care. The victims ranged from 2 to 12 years old.

The defendant was a mastermind at preying upon these families, not just grooming the children but grooming the parents, Deputy Dist. Atty. Juliet Oliver told jurors.

The prosecutions case was bolstered by an enormous stash of photos and videos Zakrzewski had taken of himself molesting kids. He recorded his crimes obsessively and kept the collection like a treasure, like some sort of medal, Oliver said.

Read more: O.C. 'manny' now accused of molesting 17 boys as five more come forward

An Orange County jury convicted Zakrzewski of 34 counts of sex crimes, including lewd and lascivious acts on children and possession of child pornography, after a three-week trial in Santa Ana. Prosecutors said he molested 16 of the boys and showed pornography to the 17th.

During his years as a self-employed nanny, Zakrzewski advertised himself as especially skilled with special-needs children, which made him appealing to parents who desperately needed help.

A Laguna Beach woman whose 8-year-old son was molested by Zakrzewski testified that her son had disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, and that Zakrzewski seemed kind and patient. She was impressed by photos he had posted online of himself playing with kids.

There just looked like a lot of joy, the mother said, adding there were lots of reviews saying he was a wonderful caregiver. He told her he understood children with emotional difficulties and knew how to redirect their attention when they had meltdowns.

In some cases, prosecutor Oliver told jurors, the victims really loved the defendant and endured sexual abuse not even knowing it was wrong.

In one case, a 7-year-old boy he had molested broke into tears when a forensic interviewer showed him Zakrzewskis photo. The boy was sad that the person he thinks was his friend, was his buddy, was his mentor wouldnt babysit him anymore, the prosecutor said.

The investigation began in May 2019 when a Laguna Beach family told police Zakrzewski had inappropriately touched their son. Police soon found many more victims.

He fooled everyone, Oliver told jurors in her closing argument Monday. He fooled every parent. He fooled every child. And he fooled every victim.

Zakrzewski devoted himself to years of grooming and normalizing and perfecting the art of exploiting these children sexually, the prosecutor said. He hunted every child in this case. He had a how-to book on it. But he could have written the book on it, from what youve seen in this case.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger will sentence Zakrzewski on Nov. 17.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Privatizing military barracks should not be seen as a silver bullet to slay all the problems that plague unaccompanied housing, but it could be the answer for some barracks at some installations, according to testimony at a recent congressional hearing.

Government Accountability Office auditors said the chronic neglect and underfunding of these living quarters  which has led to mold, overflowing sewage, doors that dont lock, lack of heating and air conditioning, and other problems  could take years to fix.

That gloomy assessment for the House Armed Services quality of life panel left some lawmakers questioning whether the privatization of barracks could be an answer. But its not the first time they have asked.

At the direction of Congress in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, service and defense officials have been preparing a report on the feasibility of privatizing barracks. It was due to Congress in July.

Like privatized military family housing, this would involve entering into contracts with private companies to repair, renovate, construct and operate barracks. Based on testimony at the hearing, and the recent GAO report on the condition of barracks, it appears at least some of the services believe that privatization of barracks might work in some locations, but not all.

The Army and Navy, which already have a combined total of seven privatized barracks projects, are considering adding more, according to the GAO report.

The Army has privatized barracks at five locations, and is adding a sixth in the Miami area, where theyre planning a privatized housing community for both unaccompanied soldiers and military families assigned to the area. It will include 60 unaccompanied housing apartments and 75 family homes adjacent to U.S. Southern Command headquarters.

We believe privatization will likely be feasible only at certain locations, said Carla Coulson, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for installations, housing and partnerships, in written testimony to the panel. The Army is also evaluating the possibility of privatizing certain additional barracks projects

The Armys five privatized barracks  at Fort Stewart, Georgia; Fort Liberty, North Carolina; Fort Drum, New York; Fort Meade, Maryland, and Fort Irwin, California  typically house more senior enlisted personnel and arent managed as permanent party barracks would be. For example, unit integrity is not maintained in these projects, Coulson stated.

The Navys two privatized unaccompanied housing projects are at Naval Station Norfolk and Naval Station San Diego.

There are pros and cons to privatized barracks, said Elizabeth Field, director of GAOs defense capabilities and management division, in her testimony before the panel.

We did tour some privatized barracks, particularly in San Diego, and I have to be honest, they were in amazing condition, Field told lawmakers. They were way ahead of some of the government-owned barracks.

Some installations have been more successful with privatizing barracks for slightly more senior enlisted members, according to Field. So, it might make more sense for those in the E-4, E-5 and E-6 range.

But the problems military families have had with privatized housing arent lost on anyone. Over the past several years, Congress has enacted massive reforms in response to their bitter complaints over mold, sewage backups, pest infestations and more. Legislation required the Defense Department and military services to address a raft of tenant concerns and improve their oversight of privatized housing. Even so, GAO has found that DoD needs to continue to improve privatized military family housing.

One of the things weve learned from this audit is, whether its government-owned or privatized, if you dont pay attention, if you dont fund, youre going to end up with poor living conditions, Field said. The problems with barracks are not much different from problems with privatized family housing, she said.

The only real difference is that the Defense Department has felt more pressure in recent years to fix the problems in family housing than it has to fix the problems with barracks.

Service officials have learned from their experiences with privatized family housing.

I do just want to offer, as we talk about privatized housing and then the possibility of privatized barracks, that weve learned lessons about not disconnecting, and maintaining our oversight and accountability, said Robert Thompson, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for energy, installations and environment. I think we apply those today in the unaccompanied barracks. And I think the scale is a completely different issue as well.

About 99% of military family housing has been privatized.

An option to consider

Privatizing barracks is an option that should be explored, Field said, adding that there are pros and cons.

For various reasons, privatization is not a silver bullet for barracks, she said. For starters, its a very different population. A barracks unit might be empty for months at a time when the service member goes on a deployment. Since privatized housing companies get most of their revenue from the service members Basic Allowance for Housing, occupancy rates are important to a projects financial viability.

Housing more service members in privatized housing rather than government-owned barracks would cost the services more in BAH, because service members required to live in government-owned barracks are generally not eligible for BAH. At the same time, however, the costs of operating and maintaining the barracks would be borne by the housing company.

And theres the issue of unit cohesion, especially for junior enlisted. Air Force and Marine Corps officials have expressed concerns about the negative effects of privatization on cohesion; neither of those services have privatized barracks.

Air Force officials told GAO auditors they also have concerns about whether privatized barracks would be cost effective at most Air Force installations. Defense officials have submitted a request to the Office of Management and Budget for consultation regarding a proposal for a privatized barracks project at one Air Force location. Service officials told GAO auditors that unique market conditions may make privatized unaccompanied housing workable at installations where there is limited housing supply off base and long commutes.

Marine Corps officials told the auditors they are conducting a study on the feasibility of privatized barracks at two bases, but dont have any plans now to move forward on it.

According to the GAO report, auditors visited two installations with privatized barracks, observed living conditions, and met with service members living there. All the rooms met or exceeded DoD minimum standards for privacy and configuration and most included private bedrooms and bathrooms, living rooms and kitchens.

The seven privatized barracks projects were implemented between 1996 and 2013.

While privatization isnt necessarily a panacea, I do think that we have to use every possible tool available to address the problem, said Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash.

No hot water, ac or doors with locks for junior troops forced to live in hellish Walter Reed barracks

A long-standing issue

The living conditions in barracks have been a persistent problem for decades. Field noted that GAO reported similar problems with barracks 20 years ago.

Ten years ago, in a report to Congress, DoD lauded the progress it had made in modernizing its barracks program, Field told lawmakers. It stated that by increasing military construction funding, introducing new designs, offering more privacy and amenities and directing more maintenance funding to barracks, it had brought the modernization program closer to completion.

The department also promised that military barracks would be adequately maintained over the long term, she said. Obviously, that didnt happen.

The 31 recommendations GAO made could put the Defense Department on better footing to address the problems, she said.

But if it doesnt implement all the recommendations in a meaningful and timely manner, I would encourage you to consider putting those recommendations into legislation to make them statutorily required, she said.
The Michigan Supreme Court denied an appeal Tuesday from the parents of a teenager who shot and killed four students at a high school in the state, clearing the way for the two to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter charges.

James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of Ethan Crumbley, are accused of making a gun accessible to their son and ignoring his mental health needs. In a one-sentence order, the state Supreme Court upheld an appeals court decision in March ruling that the couple could face trial.

Prosecutors have alleged that his parents allowed him to access the gun and taught him how to shoot.

Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the Oxford High School shooting in 2021, pleaded guilty to 24 charges  including terrorism and first-degree murder  last year. He shot and killed students Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana and Justin Shilling and left six students and a teacher wounded.

The day before the shooting, he was also allegedly looking at pictures of ammunition, according to a teacher. On the day of the shooting, his parents and their son met with school staff on the issue, but no one checked his backpack for a gun.

His parents have remained in custody since shortly after the shooting on a $500,000 bond. Their lawyers have argued that the shooting was not foreseeable  and their alleged actions do not amount to involuntary manslaughter, which could carry up to 15 years in prison.

A judge last week also ruled the defendant is eligible for life in prison without parole. He is expected to be sentenced Dec. 8 in Oakland County, Mich.

The Associated Press contributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) -A New Jersey appeals court on Tuesday threw out a $223.8 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson that a jury had awarded to four plaintiffs who claimed they developed cancer from being exposed to asbestos in the company's talc powder products.

The Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division found that a lower court judge should not have allowed some of the scientific expert testimony the plaintiffs presented to jurors at trial.

J&J Worldwide Vice President of Litigation Erik Haas said in a statement that the decision "resoundingly rejects ... the 'junk science' advanced by purported 'experts' paid by the mass tort asbestos bar." The company again said that its talc products are safe and do not contain asbestos.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The jury in the case had ordered the company to pay $37.2 million in compensatory damages and $750 million in punitive damages, though that amount was automatically reduced to $186.5 million under state law.

In reversing the verdict and ordering a new trial, a three-judge panel of the appeals court found that the trial court failed to fulfill its "gatekeeping role" of assessing whether the plaintiffs' experts based their testimony on sound science.

In their opinion, the judges found that three experts had not explained the facts or methods they used to support their opinions that the plaintiffs got cancer from being exposed to asbestos in talc products.

J&J is separately suing one of those experts, Jacqueline Moline, over a study she co-authored in 2019. That study was not at issue in Tuesday's decision.

Moline, who has testified for plaintiffs in more than 200 talc cancer cases, has argued that the lawsuit is an effort to "intimidate" scientific experts and prevent them from testifying against the company.

J&J faces more than 38,000 lawsuits alleging that its talc products, including Johnson's baby powder, can contain asbestos, and caused cancers including ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, a type of cancer linked to asbestos exposure.

The claims have a mixed record of success, with major plaintiff wins including a $2.1 billion judgment awarded to 22 women with ovarian cancer. That verdict was upheld by an appeals court, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review it.

J&J has recently won reversals of some cases that went against it, including of a $117 million verdict in the same New Jersey appeals court and a $120 million verdict in New York.

The company's latest win comes after it failed for a second time in July to move tens of thousands of claims over talc into bankruptcy court, where it hoped to resolve them through a proposed $8.9 billion settlement. It is appealing that ruling.

Trials had mostly been on hold while J&J petitioned the bankruptcy court, but will now be able to resume. One trial that was allowed while the bankruptcy petition was pending ended with an $18.8 million verdict for a terminally ill California man.

J&J has said the cost of its talc-related verdicts, settlements and legal fees have reached about $4.5 billion.

The company stopped selling talc-based baby powder in favor of cornstarch-based products, citing an increase in lawsuits and "misinformation" about the talc product's safety.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)
MILTON, N.Y.  The 46-year-old New York man accused of kidnapping a 9-year-old off her bicycle at Moreau Lake State Park over the weekend has a minor criminal history and was living in a camper behind his moms double-wide trailer.

Craig Nelson Ross Jr. pleaded guilty to drunken driving charges in 1999  forcing him to submit fingerprint samples which on Tuesday led to his arrest in the Charlotte Sena abduction.

A ransom note, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul , was stuffed into the victims parents mailbox around 4:20 a.m. Monday as state troopers were standing guard. They ran two sets of prints, and by 2:30 p.m., identified Ross as their suspect.

But Ross's criminal charges were relatively minor until this week.

CHARLOTTE SENA KIDNAPPING SUSPECT CRAIG ROSS JR ARRAIGNED OVERNIGHT

Ross was arrested on Sept. 28, 1999 and received a conditional discharge the following October for a DWI case after pleading guilty and paying $325 in fines, according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital. His driver license was suspended for 90 days.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

On April 21, 2017, New York State Police arrested him on a misdemeanor charge of criminal obstruction of breathing, according to a contemporary police blotter report in The Saratogian, a local newspaper. Additional details in that case were not immediately clear, and a state police spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

New York State Police collect evidence at the home of Craig Nelson Ross Jr. in Ballston Spa, New York on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Ross has been charged with the abduction of Charlotte Sena, a 9-year-old girl riding her bike through Moreau Lake State Park.

CHARLOTTE SENA RESCUED FROM CAMPER CABINET, KIDNAPPING SUSPECT BUSTED AFTER LEAVING RANSOM NOTE

A year earlier, Saratoga Springs police arrested him on another misdemeanor charge  that one for aggravated harassment, according to another blotter entry. Specifics were not immediately available. The charge can range from annoying a victim over the phone to physically striking them. Police said they had no record of the incident, indicating it may have been sealed or dismissed.

Ross was involved in another police call in 2016, but there were no charges in that incident.

A longtime neighbor of Ross' mother's house said the suspect's mom was a mean "drunk" who never let him in her home, a double-wide trailer in Milton, New York.

He asked to be only identified as "Michael." Once, when Michael and Ross were around 10 years old, the latter cut his finger, Michael said.

"I told him we should go to your mom for a Band-Aid," he said. "She wouldnt let him in, and he took this big boulder and smashed it against the door and kept smashing it."

In this undated photo, Charlotte Sena smiles for a photograph. Charlotte was reported missing this weekend after she failed to return from a bike ride while camping with her parents in Moreau Lake State Park.

She opened the door, only to hand him a Band-Aid and send him packing. They went to Michael's mom to clean him up and put it on, he said.

Ross' mother did not immediately respond to calls or messages seeking comment.

Ross eventually became a "recluse," he said, and saw him so infrequently in recent years that he didn't recognize him with the beard in his mugshot. Earlier this year, he said Ross put a tarp over the camper window facing his  which at first he thought was to cover a leak but now appears more suspicious.

New York State Police collect evidence at the home of Craig Nelson Ross Jr. in Ballston Spa, New York on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Ross has been charged with the abduction of Charlotte Sena, a 9-year-old girl riding her bike through Moreau Lake State Park.

The suspected kidnapper left for what Michael presumed was work before 5 a.m. He did not know what his neighbor did for a living. The local WNYT-TV news station described him as a mailman.

County authorities said they had no additional felony records for Ross beyond the new kidnapping charges. He went through two divorce cases, and he sued a woman over a 2019 car crash, but both sides agreed to drop the case, court records show.

New York State Police collect evidence at the home of Craig Nelson Ross Jr. in Ballston Spa, New York on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Ross has been charged with the abduction of Charlotte Sena, a 9-year-old girl riding her bike through Moreau Lake State Park.

On Wednesday, investigators in Tyvek jumpsuits were seen removing boxes of evidence from the camper, which is parked behind his mothers trailer in Ballston Spa, about 23 miles south of where Charlotte had been abducted days earlier from a trail at Moreau Lake State Park.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE TRUE CRIME FROM FOX NEWS

New York State Police collect evidence at the home of Craig Nelson Ross Jr. in Ballston Spa, New York on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Ross has been charged with the abduction of Charlotte Sena, a 9-year-old girl riding her bike through Moreau Lake State Park.

State and federal tactical teams raided Ross camper Tuesday, tossing flash bangs before arresting him despite attempts to resist capture.

"Within the camper, they located the suspect," Hochul said during a Monday evening news briefing in Latham. "After some resistance, the suspect was taken into custody, and immediately the little girl was found in a cabinet, covered. She was rescued."

This police handout photo shows Charlotte Sena in the clothing she was wearing when she went missing in Moreau Lake State Park on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023.

State police had issued an Amber Alert Sunday, warning the child was abducted and likely in danger. They canceled it two days later after she was reunited with family at a hospital following the raid.

Hochul said it was not immediately clear whether Ross knew the Sena family before the alleged abduction, but she said he lived just miles from their home.

He is charged with first-degree kidnapping with intent to collect ransom, according to court filings.

"The defendant did abduct [the victim] and wrote a ransom letter with the intent to compel the payment of a ransom for her," state police wrote in a felony complaint obtained by Fox News Digital.

Gov. Kathy Hochul gives her remarks after Charlotte Sena, of Greenfield, NY, was on a family outing in Moreau Lake State Park when she went missing Saturday evening and was found safe this today and a suspect is in custody Monday, Oct. 2, 2023, in Latham, N.Y.

He was arraigned overnight and booked into the Saratoga County Jail before dawn.

"We are thrilled that she is home and we understand that the outcome is not what every family gets," Charlottes family told Fox News Digital. "A huge thank you to the FBI, the New York State Police, all of the agencies that were mobilized, all of the families, friends, community, neighbors and hundreds of volunteers who supported us and worked tirelessly to bring Charlotte home."

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

On Tuesday, Charlotte's extended family released a new photo of the 9-year-old on their GoFundMe campaign.

As Charlotte recovers from the ordeal, her parents have taken time off work to care for her and her two sisters.

Fox News' Ashley Papa contributed to this report.





Original article source: Who is Craig Ross? New York 'recluse' accused of hiding kidnapped 9-year-old in camper cabinet
Firefighters rushed to combat a fire that erupted at an auto body shop in Wayland Tuesday afternoon, threatening nearby businesses.

The three-alarm fire began on Main Street, otherwise known as Route 27, Wayland Firefighters Local posted on Facebook. In addition to the auto body shop, a pizza restaurant and a cleaners are also connected.

Crews started receiving several reports of the large fire around 3:52 p.m. and fire trucks arrived at the engulfed building within one minute, according to Wayland Fire Chief Neil McPherson.

As crews began to hose down the enflamed structure, explosions could be heard from the building as cars inside detonated, McPherson said. After 45 minutes of combating the roaring blaze, the building began to collapse.

No one inside the building was injured. One firefighter was taken to the hospital for minor injuries after they tripped over a hose during the attack.

Although they believe firewalls helped contain the fire to the autobody shop, there is concern for the structural integrity of the building and crews will remain at the scene to monitor. A collapse zone has been set up.

A large plume of white smoke could be seen extending high above the tree line as crews from several trucks hosed down the area with water.

Main Street, or Route 27, is heavily trafficked, extending through much of the town and is expected to remain closed for several more hours.

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

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Elianne Andam, 15, was stabbed to death last Wednesday morning in Croydon, south London - Metropolitan Police/Pa/Metropolitan Police/PA

The 15-year-old schoolgirl killed in a knife attack in Croydon last week died of multiple stab wounds, the Old Bailey has been told.

Elianne Andam suffered fatal injuries as a result of the attack near a bus stop as she made her way to Old Palace of John Whitgift private school in south London.

The court was told that a special post-mortem examination carried out shortly after her death, last Wednesday morning, had identified multiple stab wounds.

Details of the attack emerged as a 17-year-old boy appeared in court charged with murder.

The boy, who cannot be identied because of his age, is also charged with possessing a kitchen knife in a public place without a reasonable excuse.

Appearing in the dock flanked by two prison guards, the boy, who was dressed in a black sweatshirt and tracksuit bottoms, spoke only to confirm his age.

Remanded in custody

He was remanded in custody at a secure youth detention facility to appear before the court on Nov 14 for a further hearing.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC also set a plea hearing for Dec 19 and a provisional trial from April 29.

Outlining a summary of the case, Alison Morgan KC told the court that Elianne met with two female friends on the morning of Sept 27 before she was attacked.

It is claimed her attacker, who was wearing a mask and gloves, had removed a large knife from his waistband and stabbed Elianne repeatedly.

Witnesses said a bus driver and other members of the public tried to save Elianne as she lay dying.

Ms Morgan told the court: A special post-mortem examination subsequently identified multiple stab wounds. It was, the prosecution allege, a brutal attack.

A boy was arrested in New Addington, about five miles from Croydon, just over an hour after the attack.

Overcome with emotion

Some members of Eliannes family were overcome with emotion when they heard about the extent of her injuries, with her aunt, Marian, briefly fleeing the court in tears.

Last Thursday, the teenagers family and friends held a vigil at the scene of her death. Eliannes mother, Dorcas, broke down as she left flowers for her daughter.

A statement read out on behalf of the family by Rosemarie Mallett, the Bishop of Croydon, said: We, as a family, are struggling to comprehend this painful tragedy that has happened to our beautiful daughter and beloved sister Elianne.

Our hearts are broken and we are overwhelmed by sorrow and grief. Our faith in the Lord is strengthening us.

We would like to express our gratitude to those who have taken the time to send us thoughtful and compassionate messages and prayers.

The statement added: Elianne was a beautiful person inside and out who loved Jesus. She was intelligent, thoughtful, kind and had a bright future ahead.

The teenager, who was the 15th teenage victim of homicide in London so far this year, had planned to become a lawyer.

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Student employees in the California State University system announced Tuesday that they are one step closer to forming what they say would be the largest non-academic union of undergraduate student workers in the country.

The student assistants, with support from the SEIU-affiliated California State University Employees Union, have submitted more than 8,500 digital union cards signed by fellow student workers to the Public Employment Relations Board. Thats more than enough to trigger a union vote.

Many CSU student assistants say theyre financially independent and need a union to advocate for higher wages, more hours and paid time off for sickness and holidays. They work their student jobs, and sometimes outside gigs, in order to cover basic living expenses such as rent, transportation and groceries.

Any CSU campus department can hire students to assist full-time staffers with their work. Although the students often complete the same types of work as staffers, they dont receive any of the benefits or protections unionized workers have. If a student worker gets sick, they cant get sick pay. Unless they can afford to forgo the hours, they have to arrange to make up the time later.

The Tuesday announcement comes after months of back-and-forth discussions between the union and the university to determine how many student assistants are actually employed across the CSUs 23 campuses. That total number would determine how many signed union cards organizers needed to submit, since at least 30% of the represented employees must demonstrate support for a union in order to trigger an election.

Students submitted more than 4,000 signatures to PERB back in April in the hopes that they would have enough, and they continued gathering support throughout the summer. The union and university system finally agreed in early September that there were around 19,000 student assistants working for CSU, meaning the union would need at least 5,700 signatures to show the required 30% support.

CSU has until Oct. 12 to respond to PERBs finding that the students have proof of support for a union election. The board would then set a date for an election. That date would likely be in a few months.

Why do students want a union?

Cameron Macedonio, a fourth-year journalism student at California State University Fullerton, worked through the summer to recruit thousands of his peers to sign union cards and join as organizers. The 20-year-old has worked as a student assistant for nearly his entire college career and says that student employment is supposed to serve as a safety net for students who need to support themselves financially.

At the heart of the unionization push is a fundamental disagreement about what role a student job should play. The university says it caps student assistant hours at 20 per week when classes are in session to ensure students have enough time to study and pursue their degree. During break periods, student assistants can work up to 40 hours in a week.

Work hours are intended to be flexible to accommodate the academic program of the student, CSU spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith previously wrote to The Sacramento Bee in an email, ensuring they can focus on their education, progress to (a) degree and participate in opportunities that support and enhance their education, such as internship and research opportunities.

But students who are financially independent, and in many cases first-generation, have told The Bee that the CSU is misguided for believing that 20 hours of pay at minimum wage is enough to afford living expenses.

Twenty hours a week at the state minimum wage of $15.50 an hour, or $310 a week, isnt enough income to cover Macedonios $1,400 rent, let alone other expenses like food, utilities and his car payment. He takes on outside gigs, such as DoorDash, when he can. But mostly hes been digging into his savings to make ends meet.

Some of his peers end up working extra jobs off campus, which he said runs contrary to the universitys goal of giving students time to focus on their classes.

Still, student employment offers perks that off-campus jobs cant provide, such as flexibility with scheduling and convenience for students who dont have their own cars or international students without work permits. That alluring flexibility makes it difficult for students to say no to on-campus work, Macedonio says.

Its almost kind of like a Venus flytrap, he said. Its this thing that looks super appealing, and then once youre there, you kind of get stuck.

In April, Macedonio was working as a general manager for the campus radio station when one day he learned that the station had run out of funds to pay its student workers. He ended up finishing out the academic year without pay.

That experience inspired him to dive deep into union organizing.

I thought, If I cant do something right now for myself, then I want to do something to help make sure this never happens again to anyone, whether its in a year from now or 10 years from now, Macedonio said.

Digital-only campaigns unite statewide (and Gen Z) workforce

Instead of circulating physical petitions or going door-to-door to get student support, Macedonio and other student organizers deployed a digital-only campaign that consisted of emails, texts and social media posts. Students could sign up to support the unionization effort by filling out a form with their name and contact information.

Macedonio said he could send out emails to nearly 900 student assistants in a matter of minutes. He sent at least three follow-up emails and texts to each person that he contacted. Digital organizing gave the largely Gen Z student assistant population a home field advantage, he said, since people his age are less likely to engage with in-person canvassers or answer unsolicited phone calls.

I dont want to overwhelm them. I want them to know that this is a safe, comfortable space for them, Macedonio said. They choose when to respond. They choose what information they want to take in. They choose whether or not they have the capacity to engage with this right now.

Since organizers like Macedonio were given their own unique sign-up links to distribute to students, CSUEU was able to identify their most active advocates. Macedonio said he was speaking at a news conference only four days after agreeing to help with the signature-gathering effort.

Digital-only organizing and the use of digital union cards makes it much easier for unions to organize employees who are spread out across a large geographic area  such as Californias state workforce. Its also easier to reach employees who are teleworking and who wouldnt normally come into their offices and meet with union representatives.

Although unions have used electronic methods to sign up new members for some time now, digital-only campaigns are a relatively new and emerging trend in the labor movement. Other unions in California have used digital sign-ups before, but usually organizers meet employees in person through traditional door-to-door canvassing and then provide a tablet or computer for the person to sign up digitally.

I think its fairly new, but it makes a lot of sense, said Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, leader of the California Labor Federation. Students are obviously easier to reach digitally.

Kerianne Steele, general counsel for CSUEU, said PERB in 2018 had originally ruled against allowing digital signatures for union representation petitions. But after backlash from labor organizers, the board worked to change its policies over the next three years. PERB introduced new policies in 2021 that allowed for unions to submit electronic signatures for union recognition petitions.

The only way in a modern era to organize a large statewide unit, like CSUEU is so successfully doing, is to have people be able to express their support using digital signatures, Steele said. Student workers have signed all sorts of student loan applications digitally. Why cant they express their support for the union the same way?
Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, of Texas, was carjacked by three armed attackers outside his apartment building Monday night a disturbing episode that put a spotlight on the rising crime rates in the nation's capital, in defiance of national trends.

Cuellar said he was swarmed by three assailants wearing masks and black clothing and carjacked at gunpoint in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

"Three guys came out of nowhere and they pointed guns at me," Cuellar said. "I do have a black belt, but I recognize when you got three guns I looked at one with a gun, another with a gun, a third one behind me. So they said they wanted my car. I said, 'Sure.'"

Cuellar said police recovered his SUV and his phone two hours later.

The brazen robbery occurred eight months after Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig, a Democrat, was assaulted in an elevator in her Washington, D.C., building.



Violent crime is up 39% in the nation's capital compared with last year, and motor vehicle theft rose by 106%, according to D.C. police.

Bruce Jacobs, a professor of criminology at the University of Texas, told CBS News the vast majority of carjackings are armed, and there's been a recent trend of these crimes showing up on social media.

"We've seen a number of cases in the data where carjackers are either live streaming their offense, or at least bragging about it," he said.

While violent crime is trending down nationwide, data from a recent Council on Criminal Justice study of 32 U.S. cities shows motor vehicle thefts were 104% higher in the first half of 2023 compared with 2019.

"It's just a matter of somebody coming up your door, throwing you out and getting in, and that really does take seconds," Jacobs said.



Rep. Gaetz says he will file a motion this week to oust Speaker McCarthy

The success, it caused problems, says The Blind Side author

Senators to visit China amid growing tensions
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) suggested that the worst part about being the victim of an armed carjacking in Washington, D.C., was that the assailants stole his sushi.

Cuellar, who appeared in good spirits on an MSNBC interview with Jose Diaz-Balart, said that he tried to remain calm as three young men came up behind him with guns as he was leaving his car to go into his Navy Yard apartment in southeast D.C. He said that he handed over his car keys to the young punks with guns, who then drove away without injuring him.

He noted that within a couple hours, his car and phone were returned.

He had a gun pointed at me, he said. I looked to the to the other side. There was another one with a gun pointed at me. I looked behind me there was a third guy behind me. And I said, sure. You got to stay calm under situations. I gave him the key and they took off and then within minutes both the Capitol Police and Metro Police were there.

And I like I said they were able to recover the car, my phone within a couple hours. I want to thank them. But what really got me upset is that they stole my sushi. Thats what got me upset, he added.

He said that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser reached out to him, saying that law enforcement is doing everything to find the people who did it. The Metropolitan Police Department said that the carjacking occurred shortly after 9:30 p.m. at the intersection of New Jersey Avenue and K Street SE.

Cuellar is the latest member of Congress to be attacked near their D.C. apartment building as the city is seeing increased levels of crime throughout the region. Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) was assaulted in the elevator of her Washington, D.C., apartment building in February.

The city recently passed its 200th homicide this year, marking a 38 percent increase compared to this time in 2022. There is also more than a 100 percent increase in motor vehicle theft in the city, with 5,409 total vehicle thefts occurring this year as of Tuesday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Following Kevin McCarthy's ouster, it was revealed that Rep. Patrick McHenry will temporarily lead the House.

Under House rules, McCarthy previously turned over a list of potential temporary successors that would lead the chamber.

McCarthy is now the first speaker in history to be booted from power.

Kevin McCarthy was ousted from power on Tuesday evening, leading to Rep. Patrick McHenry being named the temporary leader of a chamber thrown into chaos.

Under House rules, McCarthy was required to provide the House clerk in January a then-secret list of members that temporarily serve as Speaker of the House if the office became vacant. McHenry, a nine-term North Carolina Republican, was revealed to be the first name on McCarthy's list.

McHenry, who leads the House Financial Services Committee, now has the power of the speakership that is needed to lead the chamber through the days ahead. The speakership is more than just one of the most powerful posts in Congress. The House speaker is also second in line to the presidency, after the vice president.

A congressional rules expert pointed out that this temporary speaker could theoretically remain in power.

"The Speaker pro tem could stay in the chair," Josh Huder, a senior fellow at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "There's not [a] forcing mechanism for a new election, nor are there any overt restrictions on the power the pro tem would wield. The support of the conference would dictate the durability of this."

McCarthy became speaker in January after a historic 15-ballot struggle. He has vowed to continue to fight to lead the chamber even if Gaetz is successful. Technically speaking, McCarthy could still run to be speaker after he is ousted, though he has not specifically declared he would do so. The California Republican has focused his efforts thus far on defeating Gaetz's effort.

Gaetz and other far-right House Republicans have long had a tenuous relationship with McCarthy.

Those tensions exploded after McCarthy moved to avert a government shutdown by passing a 45-day stopgap measure to keep the federal government funded. McCarthy had to rely on House Democrats to pass the funding after 90 House Republicans opposed the resolution.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Migrants board a van after being detained by Slovakian police, close to the Slovakia-Hungary border in the village of Chl'aba

Migrants board a van after being detained by Slovakian police, close to the Slovakia-Hungary border in the village of Chl'aba

By Radovan Stoklasa

SKALITE, Slovakia (Reuters) -Slovakia moved on Wednesday to impose temporary controls on its border with Hungary over a rising number of illegal migrants, after Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria tightened their own frontiers with Slovakia.

Slovakia's prime minister criticised the "chain reaction" of controls imposed on Tuesday by neighbours and said a European fix to guard the European Union's external borders would be a better solution.

The number of migrants entering Slovakia, largely coming from the Middle East and Afghanistan, has risen by eleven-fold to nearly 40,000 this year, government data shows.

In September alone, illegal migration to the small central European country was as high as in all of 2022.

Slovakia's checks on its border with Hungary will start on Thursday and last 10 days.

The Czech Republic, Poland and Austria started temporary controls on Wednesday. Germany introduced new controls with Poland and the Czech Republic last week. All are part of the wider EU's Schengen open-border, visa-free travel zone.

The Polish Border Guard said crossings would be only possible at designated spots for cars, trains and pedestrians.

"The migration wave has lasted for several weeks," said Peter Ivanek, deputy mayor of Skalite, a Slovak town near the Polish border where controls were imposed.

Jan, a lorry driver in the Slovak town who was turned away by Polish police and soldiers forming a cordon at the crossing, said it would cost his company time and money. "We wanted to get cheaper diesel (in Poland)," said Jan. "So this surprised us."

Illegal migration has been both a source of agreement and contention in central Europe - though most arriving migrants are bound for wealthier countries further west especially Germany - and is featuring highly in election campaigns in the region.

ELECTION YEAR

On Wednesday EU countries sealed a deal on how to handle irregular immigration at times of high arrivals, a step towards overhauling the bloc's asylum and migration rules next year.

Diplomatic sources said Poland and Hungary - opposed to hosting any people arriving from the Middle East and Africa - voted against the deal, while Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia abstained.

Slovak Prime Minister Ludovit Odor, serving as a caretaker until a new government takes office after the Sept. 30 election, previously resisted calls to impose border controls. The vote was won by former prime minister Robert Fico, now trying to form a government, who takes a hard line on immigration.

Odor said Slovakia had to introduce controls after its neighbours did so, citing an upcoming Oct. 15 election in Poland among motivating factors.

"Poland is before elections, such rhetoric appears, and then the Czech Republic reacts and so does Austria," Odor said, adding Slovakia did not want to "hold the wrong card at the end".

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, responding to Slovak measures, said the EU was at fault. "Brussels policy sends an invitation letter for the migrants, attracts them like a magnet," he said.

(Reporting by Radovan Stoklasa in Skalite, Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet in Prague, Boldizsar Gyori in Budapest and Karel Badohal in Warsaw; editing by Deborah Kyvrikosaios)
FILE - Czech policemen stand as they control cars and trucks at the border with Slovakia in Stary Hrozenkov, Czech Republic, on Sept. 29, 2022. The Czech Republic announced on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, it will reintroduce random checks along its border with neighboring Slovakia to stem a flow of illegal migrants. The Interior Ministry said that the measure will become effective on Wednesday and should be in place for at least 10 days. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

PRAGUE (AP)  The Czech Republic and Austria said on Tuesday that they are temporarily reintroducing checks along their borders with Slovakia in an effort to stem a flow of migrants.

In separate announcements, both countries said that the measure will become effective on Wednesday and remain in place for 10 days initially. Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said at a hastily arranged press statement that the aim is to prevent smugglers from using alternative routes, the Austria Press Agency reported.

Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said the checks will help us effectively fight" human smugglers.

Rakusan said the step was closely coordinated with neighboring countries, including Poland, which already decided to launch similar checks at its border with Slovakia. He said the controls should not seriously limit traffic across the border.

Czech police said they were planning to deploy 130 officers who will operate along the entire border, not just at official border crossings.

Slovak Prime Minister Ludovit Odor criticized the Czech move, saying its necessary to find a Europe-wide solution to the problem of migrants. He said the government will react to the Czech move, possibly on Wednesday.

Germany announced last week it was immediately increasing police patrols along smuggling routes on the border with Poland and the Czech Republic in an effort to prevent more migrants from entering the country.

European Union countries have been facing an significant increase of migration this year from Africa, Syria and other places. Many migrants transit Czech or Austrian territory on the way to western Europe.

___

Follow APs global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
A Seattle man died of cardiac arrest after his 13-year-old son called 911 twice about him barely breathing and having a heart attack, according to his familys lawsuit.

Before the boy dialed 911 a second time, medics were already outside his fathers apartment  waiting  on Nov. 2, 2021, a complaint filed in Washington state Superior Court in King County says.

After they arrived, first responders entered the apartment 13 minutes later, when their attempts to perform CPR and use a defibrillator on William Yurek proved unsuccessful, according to the complaint.

Yurek, a father of four children, died at age 46, according to personal injury attorney Mark Lindquist, who represented Yureks family.

Medics delayed saving Yurek because they were waiting for a police escort  as Yurek was mistakenly on an outdated blacklist of people considered hostile to first responders, according to the complaint, which says a previous tenant had been on the (blacklist).

Yureks apartment was marked with a caution note for reported hostility to Seattle Fire and Police, the complaint says.

One year after Yureks family sued the city of Seattle over his death, their wrongful death lawsuit was settled for $1,860,000 on Oct. 2, Linquist announced in a news release.

The family wanted justice. They wanted accountability. And they wanted the city to fix this issue so it didnt happen to anyone else, Lindquist told McClatchy News in a statement on Oct. 3.

Our lawsuit achieved all this, Lindquist added.

About four minutes after Yureks sons second 911 call, medics entered the apartment without waiting any longer for police, the complaint says.

Once inside, medics did everything they could to save Wills life, Lindquist said in the news release. The family has always been grateful to the medics who broke protocol to go in and do their best.

Yureks three minor children will receive money from the settlement when they are adults, according to the release.

His son who dialed 911, and is now 15, plans to go to law school in the future, according to Lindquist.

Now he wont have to worry about paying tuition, Lindquist told McClatchy News.

Lawsuit pushed Seattle to revise blacklist guidelines

If Seattles blacklist protocol didnt prevent medics from immediately responding to Yurek when they arrived at his apartment, he would have had a 25% chance of survival, according to some experts who reviewed the case, the release said.

An expert who testified on behalf of Seattle said Yureks chances of survival were lower than 25% because of prior drug use and pre-existing medical conditions, according to the release, which said Yurek was recovering from addiction before he died.

After Yureks family filed their lawsuit, Seattle revised its blacklist guidelines, according to the release.

Seattles city attorneys office confirmed this in a statement provided to McClatchy News by spokesman Tim Robinson on Oct. 4.

The guidelines were modified prior to the settlement, the statement said.

Any caution notes about Seattle residents will expire after one year, or get reviewed and renewed, according to the city attorneys office.

Additionally, caution notes about the need for (Seattle Police Department) assistance due to violent or threatening behavior are to be verified after every alarm dispatched to the address, the statement said. A caution note is to be removed if the occupant no longer lives at the address.

Ultimately, Yureks family believes the case was resolved justly and fairly, Lindquist said in the news release.

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The immediate fate of the long-abandoned Damen grain silos will remain up in the air as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reviews plans to demolish the century-old concrete structures in Chicagos Lower West Side neighborhood.

Mayor Brandon Johnsons office on Tuesday said the city will defer its decision on pending applications to demolish the silos until federal review is complete.

Local preservationists and environmentalists have protested the silos November 2022 sale to MAT Limited Partnership and subsequent plans to dismantle the structures, which tower near the Stevenson Expressway from 2900 S. Damen Ave.

A letter sent to the Illinois Historic Preservation office dated Sept. 27 states that the U.S. Army Corps has classified the demolition as an adverse effect because a complete demolition of the remaining site buildings would result in a loss of the context of the site.

The silos have been out of use since 1977, but has served as a neighborhood beacon that was featured in the blockbuster 2014 film Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Army Corps project manager Colin Smalley said that the finding doesnt mean the Corps will deny the application to demolish. Instead, it triggers a public review process that he estimated will take at least 90 days.

He said the Corps would use the process to find solutions that still accomplish what the applicant is trying to do (with the silos) but helps offset the loss of the historic nature of whats left out there.

That process will include a public meeting, which does not yet have a date.

What were asking for right now is people who want to be whats called a consulting party, anyone who has an interest in this property or the work thats being done now, Smalley said. Because we know that the community has a lot of interest and there are a lot of parties with different interests we are going to have a public meeting; it hasnt been scheduled yet.

Smalley said Heneghan Wrecking Co., which is set to do the demolition work, initiated the permitting process with the Army Corps of Engineers because the Damen Silos sit along a waterway, the South Branch of the Chicago River.

He said the goal of the public input process is for the Corps of Engineers, MAT Limited Partnership and the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office to come to an agreement that would be incorporated into an eventual permit to work on the site.

The focus is not on whether we issue the permit or not, its influencing how and what we put into the permit, Smalley said.

City officials have promised concerned residents that demolition, should it occur, would not be a repeat of a May 2020 smokestack demolition that blanketed nearby Little Village in dust.

This is not Hilco, Building Commissioner Matthew Beaudet said at an August community meeting, referencing the botched May 2020 demolition. The silos are being brought down using mechanical equipment. Explosives are not being used.

Ald. Julia Ramirez, 12th, said after the meeting that shed try to work with the city and MAT to preserve at least some of the site.

Ramirez did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on Tuesday.

MAT owner Michael Tadin Jr. said in a statement that the company would look forward to the process moving ahead through the appropriate permitting and review channels.

We understand that the city has an important responsibility to ensure that whatever replaces the Damen Silos is done with the utmost care, the statement reads. As the owner of the property, we share that perspective and will continue to be actively engaged with the community and all interested stakeholders.

MAT purchased the site from the state of Illinois for $6.52 million last November. The company operates an asphalt plant across from McKinley Parks eponymous park, which residents and activists have fought against since its opening in 2018.

The McKinley Park Development Council, one of the organizations participating in the Corps public input process, welcomed coordination between government bodies to determine the fate of the silos, said council President Kate Eakin.

Its good to see the city and the Army Corps of Engineers cooperating so they can make a decision in the best interest of the community, Eakin said.

Eakin said the councils priority is to have a community asset on the site.

She said she was hopeful that the additional review, in light of other environmental activity going on the Southwest Side, will offer some benefit for residents.
Dayton Mayor Jeff Mims has some concerns regarding Governor DeWines Ohio Department of Education Overhaul.

DeWines overhaul would replace the Ohio Department of Education with the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.

>> Truck driver who caused crash that killed Fairborn man, daughters sentenced to jail

This would allow the governor to appoint a director rather than the board elect a superintendent.

A lawsuit argues this overhaul violates the constitution, claiming it strips the current state board of its authority and gives it to the Governor.

>> Ohio senior on homecoming court collapses and dies at homecoming game

Im not going to allow this situation to exist where we dont know where were going because of this court ruling and children are not served, DeWine said.

Mims, a former State school board member, said something had to change on the state level but is unsure if this is the right move.

>> I-TEAM: New email provides more on universitys response following employees arrest in sex sting

The state school board has been in a constant state of indecision for lack of a better word. It has not been working. Where we are. There has been chaos for more than 3 decades, Mims said.

Mims told News Center 7s Gabrielle Enright that Children and Education are the most important elements in this and hes going to watch this play out.








Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., leaves the House floor after being ousted as Speaker of the House at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. | Mark Schiefelbein, Associated Press

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted in a 216-210 vote Tuesday, after Rep. Matt Gaetz filed a motion to vacate the chair  marking the first time a speaker has been removed this way in American history.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., was named the speaker pro-tempore after McCarthy was removed. McHenry called for a recess so the parties could meet and decide what to do next.

All three Utah Republican congressmen voted to keep McCarthy as speaker.

Before the vote to vacate, McCarthy allies tried to kill the resolution, but Democrats blocked that measure Tuesday, along with 11 Republicans, in a 208-218 vote.

After the government was pushed to the brink of a shutdown Saturday, McCarthy brought a resolution to the floor that passed primarily with Democratic votes. He immediately faced blowback from some of the more conservative members of his conference.

Still, McCarthy said he stood by his decision to work with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown saying, At the end of the day, if I have to lose my job over it, so be it.

He had offered several continuing resolutions over the past few weeks, including some that cut spending and increased funds for border security, but there were not enough votes in his conference to pass those bills because of infighting in the Republican conference.

He has led the House Republicans since his election as House Minority Leader after the 2018 election. He was elected speaker after 15 rounds of voting in January. Since then he has faced several calls for his removal from the right wing of the Republican conference.

Prior to the final vote, House Rules Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said on the House floor that a small group of Republicans are willing to plunge this body into chaos and this country into uncertainty for reasons that only they understand. I certainly dont.

Gaetz responded to this by saying, Chaos is Speaker McCarthy. Chaos is somebody who we cannot trust with their word.

Now House Republicans are faced with the question: If not McCarthy, then who?

There was word some Republicans may attempt to remove Gaetz from the Republican Conference after the vote, according to reporting from Punchbowl News.

Earlier in the day, when McCarthy was asked if he was confident he would remain Speaker of the House, McCarthy told reporters he was.

Related

McCarthy said Gaetz had planned to target his speakership for a long time and he would have done it if we were in shutdown or not, adding that Gaetz's attacks are personal.

Gaetz previously accused McCarthy of filing an ethics complaint against him.

To have kept his role as speaker, McCarthy could only spare five Republican votes.

Punchbowl News reported that the speaker made a late night call to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a last-ditch effort to save his gavel.

When asked about the call, McCarthy told reporters that he talks to Jeffries, D-N.Y., about a lot of things on a weekly basis, which recently included a conversation about Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and the fire alarm he set off on Capitol Hill an hour before the House was set to vote on a stop-gap bill to fund the government until mid-October.

Related

Ive always said Im going to treat Hakeem the way I wanted to be treated. I think youve seen that everything doesnt have to be political, McCarthy said.

If McCarthy does need votes, Democrats havent shown a willingness to rescue McCarthy.

We encourage our Republican colleagues who claim to be more traditional to break from the extremists. End the chaos, end the dysfunction, (and) end the extremism, Jeffries told reporters on Tuesday morning after giving his remarks on the floor. We are ready, willing and able to work together with our Republican colleagues but it is on them to join us to move the Congress and the country forward.

After many meetings Tuesday morning, where Democrats voiced distrust for the speaker, House Democrats came to a consensus to not save McCarthy. Even the centrist Democrats in the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus agreed to follow Jeffries in voting to oust McCarthy.

The White House has stayed out of the conversation about McCarthys future as leader in the House.

We do not get involved when it comes to leadership conversations, said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a press briefing on Monday. That is something for House Democrats, House Republicans  in this particular instance  to figure out.

As the Deseret News previously reported, hardline Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., arent too happy to lend a hand and give up votes for free. Earlier, some lawmakers contemplated voting present, instead of yes or no, to avoid actively helping McCarthy. This would have benefitted the speaker by lowering the threshold of votes he would need to keep his job.

Contributing: Suzanne Bates
In this file photo, James Irven Staley III returns to court Wednesday, March 8, 2023, in Fort Worth. Staley was convicted Monday, March 13, 2023, of murdering 2-year-old Jason Wilder McDaniel.

A renowned defense attorney has been retained  not court-appointed  to represent James Irven Staley III in the appeal of his murder conviction for the killing of 2-year-old Jason Wilder McDaniel in Wichita Falls, court records show.

Keith S. Hampton of Austin has notably gotten clients exonerated on appeal and clemency granted for at least one who was on death row.

In August, Hampton filed a notice that he was retained to be the lead counsel in Staley's appeals case.

He has been filing various documents since, including requests for more time to file a brief detailing the basis for Staley's appeal. The brief is now due Oct. 23.

Taxpayers do not pick up the tab for an attorney who is retained, but Wichita County taxpayers are footing the bill for Staley's court-appointed attorney, J. Warren St. John.

He is still listed as a defense lawyer on Staley's case in the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth. While no documents have been filed in reference to St. John withdrawing from the case, it is likely he will not take part in Staley's representation since Hampton has been retained.

It was not clear Tuesday how Hampton is being compensated for representing Staley, 40. He and St. John did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday morning.

With Staley's resources drained by the cost of his murder trial and his business stalling, the once wealthy oilman was found to be indigent by Senior District Judge Everett Young on March 15 at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth.

Appeals attorney Keith Hampton answers questions Nov. 6, 2019, from reporters at the Williamson County Justice Center about Greg Kelley's exoneration. Kelley was accused in 2013 of sexually assaulting two 4-year-old boys at an in-home daycare site operated by a friend's family in Cedar Park. [RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL/AMERICAN-STATESMAN]

A jury found Staley guilty March 13 of capital murder of a child under 10. Young quickly handed down Staley's automatic sentence of life without parole that day.

Before deputies led him away in handcuffs, Staley told onlookers in the courtroom, "I did not kill Wilder McDaniel."

Many responded, "Yes, you did!"

Prosecutors believe Staley smothered Wilder to death in a crib at the oilman's Country Club area home on Oct. 11, 2018, and then moved the body to the bedroom floor, attempting to stage a death scene so it would look like the toddler died from a fall from the crib.

Supporters of the Justice for Wilder campaign, spearheaded by the child's father, Robert "Bubba" McDaniel Jr., 40, called for Staley's arrest.

He was arrested and charged about two years later in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, where he had moved. Everett was appointed to preside as judge over the trial. He subsequently ordered it moved to Tarrant County, citing safety concerns and pretrial publicity.

On Sept. 28, Wilder's mother, Amber Nichole McDaniel, was sentenced in 30th District Court in Wichita Falls to two years in state jail for child endangerment for bringing Wilder around Staley and five years of probation for tampering with evidence in connection with the child's murder investigation.

Defense attorney J. Warren St. John

A Tarrant County jury found Amber, 33, guilty and assessed her punishment after a trial of about seven days in the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center. Thirtieth District Judge Jeff McKnight had ordered the trial moved out of Wichita County because of pretrial publicity.

On April 28, she, pleaded guilty in 30th District Court in Wichita Falls to child endangerment, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years behind bars, and tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Amber had deleted text messages between her and Staley during their ill-fated 75-day romance that ended with Wilder's murder. She left it up to a jury to determine her punishment. As of the day of her sentencing, Amber did not plan to appeal her convictions.

Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Read her recent work here. Her X handle is @Trishapedia.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: James Staley gets new attorney to appeal Wilder murder conviction
The defense appropriations bill approved by the U.S. House last week would pump more than $2 billion into the Fort Worth area. The bill was one of four that the House passed ahead of the stopgap funding measure that averted a government shutdown Saturday.

The bill includes funding for production of 86 new F-35 aircraft out of Lockheed Martins Fort Worth plant. Lockheed Martins F-35 program supports more than 49,000 direct and indirect jobs in the Fort Worth area. The program generates $9.4 billion in annual economic impact and works with more than 17 suppliers in North Texas.

The bill also includes $675 million in funding for the creation of five CMV-22s, produced in Fort Worth by Bell. The aircraft is used by the U.S. Navy.

Nearly $1.5 billion has also been allocated for the development of Bells V-280, which will be the U.S. Armys Future Long Range Assault Aircraft and Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft. The program supports more than 5,100 Fort Worth and North Texas employees.

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger of Fort Worth, chairwoman of the appropriations committee, said securing funding was crucial to the nations defense and defense jobs in and around Fort Worth.

With North Texas being home to Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth and mission-critical defense companies, our region plays a crucial role in our national defense, Granger said in a release. The men and women who serve at Fort Worths military base defend the freedoms Americans enjoy every day. We must ensure they have the most effective, cutting-edge aircraft, including the F-35, V-22, and V-280  all of which are made right here in Fort Worth.

Granger said she urges the Senate to pass the bill and send it to the president to be signed into law.

I am proud that Texas-12 is home to some of the best manufacturing jobs in the world, Granger said. Our local economy keeps our military strong and prepared to meet and defeat the threats we face. I am honored to represent our defense industry and our world-class workforce in Congress, and I will continue to fight to bring more opportunities to our region.
Delaware has become the 17th state to ban the "gay and trans panic" defense.

Gov. John Carney signed a bill to this effect into law September 24. It states in part, In any prosecution or sentencing for an offense, a defendant is not justified in using force against another based on the discovery of, knowledge or belief about, or the potential or actual disclosure of the victims actual or perceived sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or sex assigned at birth.

State Rep. Eric Morrison , a gay man, was chief sponsor of the bill in the House of Representatives, and Sen. Sarah McBride, a transgender woman, was primary sponsor in the Senate. Delawares other LGBTQ+ legislators, Reps. Marie Pinkney, DeShanna Neal, and Kerri Evelyn Harris, were involved in the effort as well, as was Equality Delaware.

Much of the work to pass the bill centered on educating legislators, Morrison tells The Advocate. Many of them were absolutely shocked that this existed, he says. Once you educated them about that, they said this is outrageous.

The panic defense seeks to justify a defendants action on the basis that the defendant lashed out due to being deeply upset about nonforcible sexual advances from or sexual contact with an LGBTQ+ person. It hasnt been used a lot in Delaware, but Morrison says he knows of at least five instances. Its hard to track because its usually used as a secondary defense in conjunction with a plea of self-defense or insanity, he says.

Gay and trans panic defenses are rooted in antiquated ideas that being LGBTQ is a mental illness, and rely on the assumption that it is reasonable for a perpetrator to react violently to discovering the victims sexual orientation or gender identity or to a romantic advance by an LGBTQ victim, notes a 2021 report from the Williams Institute, a think tank on LGBTQ+ issues at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law. Since the 1960s, the gay and trans panic defenses have appeared in publicly reported court opinions in approximately one-half of the states.

The Delaware bill had widespread support in both chambers of the legislature, Morrison says, but a question arose in the House about why it didnt address panic defenses involving other aspects of a victims identity, such as race or religion. But the panic defense is specifically an LGBTQ+ issue, he says, and he and others sought to keep the spotlight on LGBTQ+ people.

Another state that banned the defense recently was New Hampshire, where Gov. Chris Sununu signed that bill into law in August. In addition to the 17 states, the District of Columbia has banned it.

Ten years ago, the American Bar Association passed a resolution saying all states and the federal government should outlaw the defense. Legislation has been introduced at the federal level but has not advanced.

Delaware has been a leader in pro-LGBTQ+ legislation, having been an early adopter of marriage equality and civil rights protections for trans people. But this is the first pro-LGBTQ+ law it enacted since 2018, when it barred licensed professionals from subjecting minors to conversion therapy.

Pictured: Delaware Sen. Sarah McBride and Rep. Eric Morrison
Rep Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) walked back memo comments from his office calling Republicans Nazis after several members of the GOP pushed for motions to expel and censure him after he was seen in surveillance footage pulling a fire alarm in a House office building ahead of the deadline to shut down the government on 30 September.

The memo was laying out a strategy for Democratic staffers for how to defend the congressman against attacks from the GOP.

I just became aware that in our messaging guidance, there was inappropriate use of the term Nazi without my consent. I condemn the use of the term Nazi out of its precise definition. It is important to specify the term Nazi to refer to members of the Nazi party & neo-Nazis, Mr Bowman wrote on X on Monday.

The memo from the office bears the title Messaging Guidance: Supporting Congressman Jamaal Bowman After Accidental Fire Alarm and argues that Republicans need to instead focus their energy on the Nazi members of their party before anything else.

The memo outlines the defence against the GOPs claim that he pulled the fire alarm to delay a vote on the bill to fund the government for another 45 days on Saturday night. The memo restates the argument that Mr Bowman unintentionally triggered the alarm, prompting an evacuation, as he was trying to open a door while he was rushing to the House floor to vote, the memo states. The memo was obtained by Axios.

Suggested talking points advises other Democrats to back up Mr Bowman, a former school principal, by noting that theres only one or two ways to get in and out of the Cannon House Office Building, and adding that the incident didnt interrupt ... business on the floor in the slightest.

The memo argues that it was the Republicans fault that Mr Bowman was in such a rush, arguing that they put forward the bill text 15 minutes before the vote.

The memo also states that the signage on the doors is unnecessarily confusing.

Capitol Police said in a press release on Monday that officers had previously placed signs with clear language that explained the door was secured and marked as an emergency exit only.

One talking point in the memo says that it is an extreme reach on the part of MAGA Republicans to assert that Rep. Bowman intended to harm or destruct anyone or thing. The exact opposite is true: he was trying to do his job.

Mr Bowman is now the subject of a House probe into the incident and a number of Republicans have called for him to be expelled from the House.

Several Republicans have said theyre drafting censure motions, including Reps Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Harriet Hageman (R-WY) and Lisa McClain (R-MI). Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who could lose his job on Tuesday after a motion to vacate was filed by Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL), has argued that the Ethics Committee should investigate Mr Bowman.

Donald Trump called for Mr Bowman to be put in jail. The former president bizarrely claimed that Mr Bowmans behaviour was worse than that of the rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Will Congressman [Jamaal] Bowman be prosecuted and imprisoned for very dangerously pulling and setting off the main fire alarm system in order to stop a Congressional vote that was going on in D.C., Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.

His egregious act is covered on tape, a horrible display of nerve and criminality. It was a very dangerous Obstruction of an Official Proceeding, the same as used against our J-6 prisoners. Actually, his act may have been worse. HE MUST SUFFER THEIR SAME FATE. WHEN WILL HIS TRIAL BEGIN??? he added.

Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) slammed Republicans for pushing for motions to expel Mr Bowman.

What I do think is important to raise is the fact that Republicans ... immediately moved to file motions to censure, motions to expel before there have even been conversations ... to even see if there was a misunderstanding here, she told CNN on Sunday morning.

What they did not do was to commit to the same when George Santos was actually found guilty after a thorough investigation of 13 federal charges, she added. Hes indicted on everything from wire fraud to actual lying [to] House investigators, and they have been buddying up and giggling with him on the House floor and they are protecting someone who has lied to the American people, lied to the United States House of Representatives, lied to congressional investigators, but theyre ... filing a motion to expel a member who in a moment of panic was trying to escape a vestibule. Give me a break!

And so the idea that there is somehow any kind of equivalence to someone who is actively trying to clear up a situation that he himself admits hes embarrassed [by], he released a statement last night, he apologised and they are protecting someone who has not only committed wire fraud, not only defrauded veterans, not only lied to congressional investigators but is openly gloating about it, she noted.

She argued that its absolutely humiliating to the Republican caucus and I think that they should really check their own values.
Democratic Rep Henry Cuellar was carjacked at gunpoint in Washington DC on Monday night  with three armed men now wanted on suspicion of carrying out the attack.

The Texas congressmans office released a statement saying that Mr Cuellar was confronted by the three unidentified suspects at around 9.32pm on Monday night.

The group allegedly held a gun to his head, reported Axios, before making off with the congressmans car, phone, iPad and sushi dinner.

He was unharmed in the incident.

As Congressman Cuellar was parking his car this evening, 3 armed assailants approached the Congressman and stole his vehicle. Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement, his office said.

Thank you to Metro PD and Capitol Police for their swift action and for recovering the Congressmans vehicle.

An alert from the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency said that the carjacking unfolded at the intersection of K Street and New Jersey Avenue in Southeast DCs Navy Yard neighbourhood.

A search was launched to find three male suspects and recover the vehicle, according to the alert.

Mr Cuellars office said that law enforcement later recovered his stolen vehicle.

The incident comes at a time of rising violence and threats against lawmakers and just two years after Donald Trump supporters succeeded in storming the US Capitol in the January 6 riot.

In May, a 19-year-old suspect carrying a Nazi flag rammed a U-haul truck into security gates close to the White House and then made threatening statements about the building that President Joe Biden calls home.

Suspect Sai Varshith Kandula was arrested on charges of threatening to kill or harm the president, Vice President Kamala Harris or one of their family members.

Congressman Henry Cuellar carjacked in DC (AP)

Back in February, Democratic Rep Angie Craig was attacked inside the lift of her apartment building in Washington DC.

The Minnesota lawmaker escaped serious harm while the suspect, Kendrid Khalil Hamlin, pleaded guilty to charges of assaulting a member of Congress and assaulting law enforcement officers back in June.

This came after Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was the victim of a violent hammer attack at the couples home in California.

David DePape, a 42-year-old hemp jewelry maker, allegedly broke into the couples San Francisco home in the early hours of the morning searching for Ms Pelosi and struck 82-year-old Paul Pelosi over the head with a hammer.

Data from the Capitol Police revealed that the agency had investigated about 7,500 cases of potential threats against members of Congress in 2022.

While lower than the 9,600 threats recorded in 2021, it was twice as many as in 2017.

It is not clear if Mr Cuellar was targeted in Mondays attack or if the carjackers knew the identity of the target of Mondays attack prior to the carjacking.
For the first time in United States history, a Speaker of the House of Representatives has been removed from his post. And while you cant blame Democrats for the blow that right-wing bomb throwers landed on Kevin McCarthy, what you can say is that they failed to do the right thing on behalf of the American people.

Let me explain. It would be understandable if Democrats decided to remain neutral on Tuesday (by voting present), reasoning that it is a Republican civil war. But they didnt. Instead, by voting no on the procedural motion to table Rep. Matt Gaetzs motionand then voting yes on his Motion to Vacate the Office of SpeakerDemocrats effectively voted for Gaetz. And a vote for Gaetz is a vote for chaos.

This same dynamic is reflected in the broader GOP civil war between responsible governance and dysfunction. And whats worse is that sanity is losing. Thats the case in the GOP presidential primary race, where Donald Trump is running away with the nomination. And McCarthys ouster is yet another example from the legislative front. Instead of siding with sanity, Democrats have decided to side with Gaetz. Its not a good look.

House in Chaos: Kevin McCarthy Ousted From Speakership

Look, I understand why Dems dont like Kevin McCarthy. I really do. When Trump was on the ropes after Jan. 6, it was McCarthy who went to Mar-a-Lago and helped resuscitate him. Additionally, in order to become speaker in January, McCarthy agreed to a rules change that would allow just one member to bring a motion to vacate. This is to say, he knew what this was.

More recently, after Democrats went out of their way to help McCarthy prevent a government shutdown, he thanked them by going on CBS News Face The Nation and blaming them.

And once Gaetz started making noise about removing him, McCarthy refused to make any concessions to earn the support of Dems.

Oh yeah, did I mention that McCarthy just launched an impeachment probe aimed at Joe Biden?

This is all to say that McCarthy didnt deserve (or even ask) for Democrats to bail him out. Just as McCarthy thought negotiating with Democrats was beneath him, Democrats prioritized partisanship and tradition over doing the right thing.

But as Washington Monthlys Bill Scherwho concedes theres plenty to dislike about Kevin McCarthywrites, the now-deposed speaker has proven willing to take political risks so we keep the government open and pay our debt obligations. It may be the lowest bar. But he clears it. And Democrats need him to clear it.

Most Democrats presumably want to help Ukraine fend off Russias invasion. If so, its hard to imagine a Gaetz-backed speaker helping fund Ukraines war efforts to the degree McCarthy has.

One-Party Domination (for a While, Not Forever) Is Good for Democracy

Although Dems arent to blame for this chaos, they have a moral obligation to strive for the best outcome for America, andbased on the likely alternativesSpeaker McCarthy is probably as good as it gets.

Yes, this would mean they would have to go the extra mile and be the adults in a fraught situation. But isnt it possible that Democrats would be rewarded for owning the adult brand?

Again, doing the right thing wouldn't have necessitated voting for McCarthy. Just skipping the vote or voting present would have been enough to lower the threshold and allow McCarthy to survive.

By refusing to do that (and therefore voting for Gaetz), Democrats appear to be putting politics before Americas best interests. Maybe they would prefer that Republicans air their dirty laundry in public to highlight the GOPs dysfunction and inability to govern.

While its still possible that allowing this ugly process to play out could result in something positive for Democrats and America, it could also turn out to be disastrous. We have seen this movie before.

As the Washington Free Beacon editorialized on Tuesday, Democrats cheered on Donald Trump as he crushed his GOP opponents, confident that he was the weakest general election candidate they could face. Since then, they have elevated a procession of unserious Republican candidates with millions of dollars in advertising, from Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania to Darren Bailey in Illinois and John Gibbs in Michigan.

Again, elevating the craziest Republican can sometimes work for Democrats, but it is a dangerous strategy when the stakes are this high.

Evangelicals Worshiping Trump Is as About as Unchristian as It Gets

There was a W waiting for the Demsa hanging curveball, as they say. Had they done the right thing on Tuesday, then going forward, they would have been positioned to basically say, Were above culture war bullshit, and would not abide a coup by Matt Gaetz. Nobody asked us to rescue McCarthy, but we did. Thats what responsible leadership does. Remember that the next time the GOP says were the problem. Now they cant.

Democrats didnt start this fire, but it sure as hell feels like they are fanning the flames instead of smothering it. Doesnt America deserve at least one adult party?

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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WASHINGTON  House Democrats are on the brink of an unusual decision now that Rep. Matt Gaetz , R-Fla., has followed through on a threat to force a vote to overthrow Speaker Kevin McCarthy , which could put Democrats in the position of deciding whether to help him keep his job.

Underneath the surface, its a difficult question that has sparked disagreements, according to more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers and aides who shared their thoughts about the dynamic on the condition of anonymity to avoid getting ahead of leadership.

If Gaetz assembles even a handful of Republican votes to oust McCarthy, R-Calif., the speaker's survival could hinge on whether Democrats step in and rescue him. They wouldnt have to vote directly in favor of keeping McCarthy on  voting present would reduce the number of GOP votes McCarthy needs to hold on to the gavel.

Gaetz made the motion Monday night, but it remains unclear whether he has the votes. The fluid situation presents high risks and high rewards, depending on how House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and other Democrats play their cards.

We havent had a discussion about any hypothetical motion to vacate. And well cross that bridge when we get to it, Jeffries said Saturday after Democrats helped pass a short-term bill to avert a government shutdown.

A source close to Democratic leadership said that if there is an arrangement to be made, the onus falls squarely on McCarthy to reach out to Democratic leaders, which he hasnt done yet.

Asked Monday whether hell need Democrats to survive a motion to vacate, McCarthy shrugged it off.

Youd have to ask them. I dont know. Im just going to focus on doing the work Im supposed to do, he said. I think this is a question to the institution itself. I know in the past, the other leaders together believed that this should never be in play.

McCarthy spoke before Gaetz introduced his motion to remove him as speaker.

Concessions and swing district needs

Some Democrats see merit to the idea, especially if they can extract concessions from McCarthy in a body where the minority has precious little power. It might be better to stick with the devil you know if Democrats can get something out of it, an aide said. They worry that the alternative would be more extreme if Gaetz and his far-right allies end up crowning McCarthys successor.

Democrats in purple or red districts can also present it as a people-above-politics vote to avoid chaos in the House, which could help them in tough 2024 elections.

I welcome those conversations, Rep. Wiley Nickel, D-N.C., who represents a swing district, said Sunday on MSNBC when he was asked whether he'd rescue McCarthy. The question just is: Whats the deal?

Were going to all look to our leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to make sure that we have a fair deal, he said. But Im somebody, certainly, who could be open to making that kind of vote if theres a good deal that gets the things done that weve got to do for my constituents.

While some Democrats take a wait-and-see approach to saving McCarthy, others have firmly ruled it out.

Not my monkey; not my circus. Im a hard no, said Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., whom McCarthy removed from the House Intelligence Committee this year.

Other Democrats also believe itd be a bad idea to bail out a speaker who launched an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden without evidence of wrongdoing. They say the centrists who might cast votes to save McCarthy are the same ones being targeted for defeat next fall by his multimillion-dollar war chest.

Rep. Ann Kuster, D-N.H., who leads the moderate New Democrat Coalition, said McCarthys impeachment inquiry and efforts to defeat a number of her vulnerable members gives us pause when it comes to rescuing him. But she said they're open-minded, depending on what is negotiated.

Some opponents argue that Democrats rescuing McCarthy without major concessions  no matter the procedural machinations  would be a fruitless exercise that would make them look like a cheap date, in the words of one aide.

'Trust issues'

And theres the question of whether they can trust McCarthy to honor any agreement.

We have a lot of trust issues, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., said in an interview. Every time he has made a promise, he has immediately then rolled back and gone and catered and capitulated to an extreme agenda. He gave the gavel to Marjorie Taylor Greene after 15 rounds, and he has not reclaimed it for the people that he serves.

The trust deficit was evident Saturday when Democratic leaders bought time to scrub the funding bill offered by McCarthy to make sure he wasnt trying to sneak through any poison pills.

A senior Democratic aide cited McCarthys decision to renege on the two-year budget deal with Biden, his move to wage partisan warfare over the normally bipartisan defense policy bill and his decision to unilaterally launch an impeachment inquiry after having first said he wouldnt do it without a vote of the full House.

If you scratch beneath the surface, there are a million different things people are going to have to grapple with if this is going to be framed as a vote to save or depose the speaker, the aide said. Whatever gets discussed has to have durability.

On Sunday, Clark put Democrats on notice that votes on a motion to vacate could occur at any time," according to a letter viewed by NBC News; once a motion is triggered, a vote needs to occur within two legislative days.

In that scenario, Clark wrote, Democrats will have a Caucus wide discussion on how to address the motion to best meet the needs of the American people.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
House Democrats said Tuesday they do not plan to save Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) when a vote on ousting him from the top spot hits the floor later in the day.

Emerging from a closed-door meeting in the Capitol that lasted more than two hours, House Democrats said they will vote to oust McCarthy from the Speakership.

We are following our leader, and we are not saving Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters.

Asked whether a decision was made as a caucus not to support McCarthy, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) responded, Yes.

The news comes hours before the House is set to vote on an effort to oust McCarthy as Speaker after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) set the process in motion Monday night. There will likely be a procedural vote to table the resolution to oust McCarthy or refer it to committee before the chamber weighs in on whether to boot the Speaker.

In the narrow House GOP majority, a handful of Republican votes opposing McCarthy could put his fate in Democratic hands. Thus far, four GOP members have said they would join Gaetz in voting to oust the Speaker.

Democrats have underscored their strong unity throughout the current Congress, and several lawmakers said they expected that to continue Tuesday.

McCarthy, for his part, remained optimistic Tuesday morning, telling reporters, Im confident Ill hold on, while recognizing the reality of the slim House GOP majority.

If five Republicans go with Democrats, then Im out, he told reporters, adding he was not expecting Democrats to back him up.

Shortly before a vote on tabling the motion to vacate the chair, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) sent a dear colleague letter announcing that Democratic leadership would support the motion to vacate. He said Republicans have unleashed chaos, dysfunction and extremism on hardworking American taxpayers, laying out five differences examples.

House Democrats remain willing to find common ground on an enlightened path forward. Unfortunately, our extreme Republican colleagues have shown no willingness to do the same, he wrote.

It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War. Given their unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner, House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican Motion to Vacate the Chair, he added.

A handful of other Democrats lined up against McCarthy following the closed-door caucus meeting.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)  who was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this year in a McCarthy-led effort  said she will vote against tabling the resolution if it is brought up for a vote and, subsequently, will vote to oust McCarthy.

I cannot imagine a single Democrat that would be interested in keeping McCarthy as Speaker, she said.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who McCarthy blocked from the House Intelligence Committee in January, said he will also vote to oust the Speaker.

I know Im gonna vote against him, Schiff told reporters.

This is someone who voted to overturn the election. This is someone who reneged on the budget deal with the President. This is someone who betrays his word on pretty much a daily basis. Thats not someone we have to trust to run one of the most important institutions in the country, he added.

Even Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), a moderate lawmaker who sometimes votes with Republicans, said he would vote to boot McCarthy from the Speakership.

The GOP has control of the House, and it is their responsibility to pick their leaders. That decision has nothing to do with me or with any Democrat, Golden said in a statement. But in the interest of answering inquiries to my office about whether or not I would support Kevin McCarthy: hes not the leader I would choose  he doesnt have the pulse of the people of Maines Second District. Absent any significantly meaningful benefit for Maines Second District, I see no reason to vote for him.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a key McCarthy ally, warned that Democrats signaling they will side with Gaetz will set a precedent.

If theyre for institutional chaos, then theyll vote with the handful of Republicans that are going after the Speaker. But they have to be mindful that this sets a precedent.

Gaetz, one of McCarthys top antagonists, moved to oust McCarthy as Speaker on Monday night, telling reporters after that the California Republican had lost his trust.

He doesnt have my support anymore, and he doesnt have the support of a requisite number of Republicans to continue as the Republican Speaker, Gaetz said.

The decision to bring a motion to vacate against McCarthy  which Gaetz had been threatening to make for weeks  came days after the Speaker put a clean continuing resolution on the floor over the weekend to avoid a government shutdown, which Gaetz had been warning against doing.

The Florida Republican also accused McCarthy of making a secret side deal with President Biden about approving Ukraine aid in the future. McCarthy denied that a side deal existed, telling reporters the agreement was to fix a possible technical issue connected to transferring funds under the continuing resolution.

House Democratic leaders for weeks had brushed aside questions about a potential vote on McCarthys ouster as hypotheticals, declining to say how the caucus would react to the vote.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) on Tuesday said it was clear in the closed-door meeting that members do not think they can rely on McCarthy.

It was pretty evidence that the Democratic caucus does not feel that Kevin McCarthy is a leader who can be trusted, he told reporters.

Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) also said conversations during the meeting included the lack of trust with McCarthy  as well as some venting.

We make an agreement with the president on the debt ceiling which takes the country to threat, to the brink of default. And then, without a vote in the House to proceed with an impeachment inquiry? he said.

And Omar said a video was shown during the conference meeting of McCarthy, during an appearance on CBSs Face the Nation, trying to blame the near-shutdown on Democrats.

Emily Brooks contributed.

Updated at 1:51 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
House Democrats said Tuesday they do not plan to save Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) when a vote on ousting him from the top spot hits the floor later in the day.

Emerging from a closed-door meeting in the Capitol that lasted more than two hours, House Democrats said they will vote to oust McCarthy from the Speakership.

We are following our leader, and we are not saving Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters.

Asked whether a decision was made as a caucus not to support McCarthy, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) responded, Yes.

The news comes hours before the House is set to vote on an effort to oust McCarthy as Speaker after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) set the process in motion Monday night. There will likely be a procedural vote to table the resolution to oust McCarthy or refer it to committee before the chamber weighs in on whether to boot the Speaker.

In the narrow House GOP majority, a handful of Republican votes opposing McCarthy could put his fate in Democratic hands. Thus far, four GOP members have said they would join Gaetz in voting to oust the Speaker.

Democrats have underscored their strong unity throughout the current Congress, and several lawmakers said they expected that to continue Tuesday.

McCarthy, for his part, remained optimistic Tuesday morning, telling reporters, Im confident Ill hold on, while recognizing the reality of the slim House GOP majority.

If five Republicans go with Democrats, then Im out, he told reporters, adding he was not expecting Democrats to back him up.

Shortly before a vote on tabling the motion to vacate the chair, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) sent a dear colleague letter announcing that Democratic leadership would support the motion to vacate. He said Republicans have unleashed chaos, dysfunction and extremism on hardworking American taxpayers, laying out five differences examples.

House Democrats remain willing to find common ground on an enlightened path forward. Unfortunately, our extreme Republican colleagues have shown no willingness to do the same, he wrote.

It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War. Given their unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner, House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican Motion to Vacate the Chair, he added.

A handful of other Democrats lined up against McCarthy following the closed-door caucus meeting.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)  who was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this year in a McCarthy-led effort  said she will vote against tabling the resolution if it is brought up for a vote and, subsequently, will vote to oust McCarthy.

I cannot imagine a single Democrat that would be interested in keeping McCarthy as Speaker, she said.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who McCarthy blocked from the House Intelligence Committee in January, said he will also vote to oust the Speaker.

I know Im gonna vote against him, Schiff told reporters.

This is someone who voted to overturn the election. This is someone who reneged on the budget deal with the President. This is someone who betrays his word on pretty much a daily basis. Thats not someone we have to trust to run one of the most important institutions in the country, he added.

Even Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), a moderate lawmaker who sometimes votes with Republicans, said he would vote to boot McCarthy from the Speakership.

The GOP has control of the House, and it is their responsibility to pick their leaders. That decision has nothing to do with me or with any Democrat, Golden said in a statement. But in the interest of answering inquiries to my office about whether or not I would support Kevin McCarthy: hes not the leader I would choose  he doesnt have the pulse of the people of Maines Second District. Absent any significantly meaningful benefit for Maines Second District, I see no reason to vote for him.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a key McCarthy ally, warned that Democrats signaling they will side with Gaetz will set a precedent.

If theyre for institutional chaos, then theyll vote with the handful of Republicans that are going after the Speaker. But they have to be mindful that this sets a precedent.

Gaetz, one of McCarthys top antagonists, moved to oust McCarthy as Speaker on Monday night, telling reporters after that the California Republican had lost his trust.

He doesnt have my support anymore, and he doesnt have the support of a requisite number of Republicans to continue as the Republican Speaker, Gaetz said.

The decision to bring a motion to vacate against McCarthy  which Gaetz had been threatening to make for weeks  came days after the Speaker put a clean continuing resolution on the floor over the weekend to avoid a government shutdown, which Gaetz had been warning against doing.

The Florida Republican also accused McCarthy of making a secret side deal with President Biden about approving Ukraine aid in the future. McCarthy denied that a side deal existed, telling reporters the agreement was to fix a possible technical issue connected to transferring funds under the continuing resolution.

House Democratic leaders for weeks had brushed aside questions about a potential vote on McCarthys ouster as hypotheticals, declining to say how the caucus would react to the vote.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) on Tuesday said it was clear in the closed-door meeting that members do not think they can rely on McCarthy.

It was pretty evidence that the Democratic caucus does not feel that Kevin McCarthy is a leader who can be trusted, he told reporters.

Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) also said conversations during the meeting included the lack of trust with McCarthy  as well as some venting.

We make an agreement with the president on the debt ceiling which takes the country to threat, to the brink of default. And then, without a vote in the House to proceed with an impeachment inquiry? he said.

And Omar said a video was shown during the conference meeting of McCarthy, during an appearance on CBSs Face the Nation, trying to blame the near-shutdown on Democrats.

Emily Brooks contributed.

Updated at 1:51 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
WASHINGTON  Republican Kevin McCarthy s deal with hardline House conservatives that handed him the speakers gavel in January unraveled on Tuesday as those same right-wing rebels, joined by Democrats, shoved him out of the seat.

McCarthys 269-day reign as speaker was ended by a 216-210 vote, a move that has no marker in modern history and paralyzes Congress for the time being.

The rebellion, led by conservative hardliner Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has roiled the House in chaos. The move to oust McCarthy  known as a motion to vacate  had the support of a handful of hard-right lawmakers who have expressed anger at McCarthy for working with Democrats to avert a government shutdown.

Here's what you missed after a chaotic day in Washington.

Gaetz led a group of eight Republicans who voted to remove the speaker, joined by 208 Democrats who at times giggled at the GOPs infighting.

Republicans weren't laughing, however, as the civil war has cast a shadow over their majority.

During the debate some accused Gaetz of grandstanding and hurtling the House into chaos without a clear plan as to who, if anyone, would take the job.

Catch up with USA TODAY's coverage of the speaker fight in the halls of Congress.

McCarthy yet to speak with Biden

Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday he has not spoken to Joe Biden in a "long long time."

"I've been thinking about that. It's been a long long time," McCarthy said.

McCarthy says he had respect for the president despite their different philosophies, but wished the president was more "hands on."

The timeline raised some eyebrows in Washington, considering Congress last week voted to temporarily avert a government shutdown that would have impacted millions of Americans. But House Republicans have also launched an impeachment inquiry into Biden, claiming he benefitted from his family's business dealings.

 Ken Tran

Pelosi, McCarthy says, vowed to back him up

During his pursuit of the speakership that lasted 15 votes earlier this year, one of McCarthy's key concessions was allowing a single member of Congress to file a motion to vacate.

McCarthy counseled his fellow Californian and former Democratic speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for advice. Pelosi, he said, told him to make the concession.

If the motion to vacate ever came up, McCarthy claimed, Pelosi would have backed him up.

 Ken Tran

'I think you've got a real institutional problem,' Kevin McCarthy warns

Noting that only a small minority  8 members  of the House GOP conference voted to oust McCarthy, the former speaker said there was an "institutional problem."

"I think you've got a real institutional problem," McCarthy said, also joking that if he knew he would eventually be ousted, he wouldn't have helped his opponents get elected.

But McCarthy on Tuesday night also gave some advice the next speaker of the Republican-controlled House where a single member can bring forth a motion to vacate: "Change the rules."

 Ken Tran

Kevin McCarthy: 'I leave the speakership with a sense of pride'

Kevin McCarthy formally announced his intentions to not run again for speaker of the House at a press conference, saying he is making his exit with a "sense of pride and optimism."

The California Republican noted his decision to work with Democrats to avert a government shutdown put his leadership position at stake, but that "doing what's right isn't always easy. But it's necessary."

"I took a risk for the American public," McCarthy said.

 Ken Tran

House adjourns until next Tuesday

In a display of the chaos that has upended the House, lawmakers are headed home until next Tuesday as the lower chamber is now paralyzed without a speaker.

House Republicans will decide on candidates for speaker next Tuesday. The next speaker election is expected to take place next Wednesday.

Ken Tran

McCarthy will not seek the speakership again

Leaving the closed-door conference meeting, Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., told reporters McCarthy plans to not run again.

The plan, the Oklahoma Republican said, is to adjourn for the night and discuss alternatives to succeed McCarthy

 Ken Tran

Matt Gaetz walks into GOP closed door meeting

Gaetz has entered a closed-door House GOP conference meeting to discuss next steps after he ousted McCarthy as speaker.

He did not answer any questions on his way in.

 Ken Tran

White House pushes House to quickly elect McCarthys replacement

President Joe Biden wants the Republican-led House of Representatives to move quickly to elect a new speaker to replace McCarthy following his removal, the White House said.

Because the urgent challenges facing our nation will not wait, he hopes the House will quickly elect a Speaker, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said of Biden. The American people deserve leadership that puts the issues affecting their lives front and center.

Prior to the vote to vacate McCarthys speakership, the White House did not take a public position whether McCarthy should remain in his role and instead deferred to House Democratic leaders who voted to oust McCarthy.

The White House highlighted a split screen Tuesday between the chaos in the House and action in the executive branch as Biden announced that all 10 prescription drug drugs tapped for Medicares first price negotiations have agreed to participate.

Once the House has met their responsibility to elect a speaker, Jean-Pierre said, "he looks forward to working together with them and with the Senate to address the American peoples priorities.

 Joey Garrison

Gaetz, McCarthy's chief antagonist, claims victory

Gaetz, who spearheaded the successful efforts to oust McCarthy from his post, claimed victory on the Capitol steps after the historic vote to remove the speaker.

"It's the benefit of this country that we have a better speaker of the House than Kevin McCarthy," Gaetz told reporters after the vote. "We should elect a speaker who's better."

The Florida conservative taunted his moderate colleagues as House Republicans are expected to huddle to discuss next steps.

"The stages of grief I think are in progress right now with some of my colleagues. I think there was a stage of denial. I've certainly experienced a good amount of their anger. And now we appear to be headed towards bargaining," Gaetz said.

 Ken Tran

GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke: This is a vote without purpose

Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., told reporters that he thinks McCarthy being ousted as speaker is sad and tragic.

Zinke said he doesnt think McCarthy gives up when asked whether the next election in the House for speaker will spark multiple rounds of contentious voting.

Last week, one of the latest excuses - not valid - is that McCarthy reached out to members that voted with purpose on the continuing resolution," he said, referencing the temporary measure that lawmakers approved to avoid a government shutdown.

"In the last round, the Democrats did vote with purpose. They voted to keep the government open and they voted to keep the policies in place," he said, before calling the vote to remove McCarthy "a vote without purpose. And I always look at purpose and intent.

 Sudiksha Kochi

GOP lawmaker to lose Republican support over McCarthy vote

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., one of eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy, said hes already received angry phone calls, less than an hour since the vote ended.

This will cost me, Burchett said. Ive already gotten the calls from a lot of the big supporters of mine that said theyll never support me again.

Burchett said that made it a tough decision, but I worry more about our country.

When asked who would be picked to replace McCarthy, the Tennessee congressman said hes been in conversations but didnt have a name to share. He said there could be about eight lawmakers in the running.

Members have whispered in my ear, Burchett said.

 Savannah Kuchar

Republican lawmaker: Much different than the speakers election

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., told reporters that the vote to oust McCarthy was much different than the speaker's election where one wins, one loses, despite the group of Republicans seeking to remove him from the leadership office.

Its certainly a disappointment, and I think those responsible for coordinating reflect on it and I think if they doI don't think they'll ever think they made the right call, but that's up to them, Cole said.

 Sudiksha Kochi

Who will be the next speaker of the House? Patrick McHenry?

Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina is temporarily leading the House after Kevin McCarthy was ousted. McHenry, one of McCarthy's closest allies, is known as the speaker pro tempore.

The speaker pro tempore has far more limited powers compared to a speaker of the House, but he will preside over the lower chamber until a new speaker is elected.

 Marina Pitofsky

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., walking from chambers after being voted out as Speaker of the House on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Who voted against Kevin McCarthy

In a historic turn of events, McCarthy has been ousted as speaker, leaving the House in turmoil as lawmakers must elect a new permanent speaker.

Eight GOP lawmakers voted to eject McCarthy from the speakership, they are:

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn.

Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.

Rep. Bob Good, R-Va.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.

Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont.

 Ken Tran

Kevin McCarthy is ousted, House moves to elect new speaker

Conservative rebels successfully ousted McCarthy as speaker, plunging the House into chaos as lawmakers move to elect a new speaker. House Democrats, who voted against the motion to table, joined the conservative hardliners in ejecting McCarthy from the speakership. The vote to oust McCarthy was 216-210.

McCarthy, even though he was ousted, is still able to run again as speaker if nominated by a lawmaker. In the meantime, an acting interim speaker must be named, but they will have limited power.

 Ken Tran

In sign of hope for McCarthy, one GOP vote flips in his favor

In a glimmer of hope for McCarthys speakership, Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio., who voted against the motion to delay Gaetz effort to oust him, also voted against the motion to vacate.

Davidsons vote is a sign there could be more conservative hardliners who flip in favor of McCarthy.

 Ken Tran

House starts roll call vote to decide Kevin McCarthy's fate

As the House starts voting on whether or not to eject McCarthy from the speakership, a sense of deja vu has fallen on the House floor, as lawmakers are voting through voice vote, similar to how lawmakers voted during the speaker election back in January.

It will take a while. Each lawmaker has to be called one-by-one to declare their vote.

 Ken Tran

Matt Gaetz calls Biden impeachment inquiry failure theater

Gaetz, making his case to oust McCarthy, slammed Republicans impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden as failure theater.

In the first impeachment inquiry hearing targeting Biden last week, three expert witnesses invited by Republicans each told the House Oversight Committee no evidence has emerged that Biden committed an impeachable offense. It was a setback in Republican efforts to impeach Biden.

Its hard to make the argument that oversight is the reason to continue when it looks like failure theater, said Gaetz, responding to comments earlier by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who defended McCarthy.

 Joey Garrison

GOP yells Shame! at Gaetz for fundraising off motion to vacate

One of Kevin McCarthys top lieutenants, Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., defended the speaker in an impassioned speech, also lambasting Matt Gaetz for fundraising off of his efforts to oust McCarthy as speaker.

Using official actions to raise money, its disgusting, Graves said.

When Graves held up his phone displaying one of Gaetz fundraising messages, GOP lawmakers yelled Shame! at Gaetz.

 Ken Tran

Gaetz met with silence as he debates McCarthy allies

In a display of just how much power a handful of conservative hardliners wield over the the House, Matt Gaetz has responded to nearly every Kevin McCarthy ally speaking on the California Republicans behalf on the House floor.

The contrast between the two factions couldnt be any more clear.

While McCarthy allies including Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C. has received overwhelming applause from GOP lawmakers after their remarks, Gaetz speeches have been met with silence.

 Ken Tran

What happens if McCarthy is ousted?

If the House votes to oust McCarthy, then someone would have to fill his position temporarily until an election is set and the next speaker is chosen in the lower chamber.

That temporary replacement would be chosen from a succession list McCarthy submitted in January. According to Rule one, clause 8 of House rules, the next person on the list shall act as Speaker pro tempore until the election of a Speaker or a Speaker pro tempore.

Pending such election the Member acting as Speaker pro tempore may exercise such authorities of the Office of Speaker as may be necessary and appropriate to that end, the House rules say.

The rules dont specify how long the person would temporarily fill the speakers spot. It is unclear when the House would choose to hold an election for the next speaker if McCarthy is removed.

 Sudiksha Kochi

McCarthy nearly expressionless as House Republicans debate his fate

While House Republicans debate on McCarthys fate as speaker, the California Republican, sitting in the second row from the front of the floor, has been nearly expressionless, only occasionally chatting with Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., who is seated next to him.

 Ken Tran

Is GOP hostage to right-flank of party?

The 11 Republican lawmakers who joined Democrats to vote against a procedural vote delaying the motion to vacate now leads to a final vote on the House floor to oust McCarthy.

These 11 Republicans include some of the most ultra-conservative members of the Republican conference, including members of the House Freedom Caucus like Reps. Bob Good of Virginia, Ken Buck of Colorado, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Matt Rosendale of Montana and Eli Crane of Arizona.

Despite comprising a minority of the Republican caucus, these ultra-conservative members, with help from the other side of the aisle, may be the reason McCarthy is removed from his speakership.

Some, like Good, listed their grievances with McCarthy as speaker. Good called it a totally avoidable situation.

We need a speaker who will fight for something, anything, besides just staying or becoming speaker, Good said.

- Rachel Looker

Democrats stand aside as House Republicans debate among themselves

While Kevin McCarthy's allies and the conservative hardliners against the speaker debate on the House floor over his speakership, Democrats have stayed on the sidelines watching House Republicans quarrel amongst themselves.

As the rest of the House GOP conference cheered on McCarthy's allies and jeered at Gaetz, House Democrats remained silent, reflecting Jeffries and leadership's intention for House Republicans to settle the matter within their own conference.

 Ken Tran

Republican calls McCarthy ouster 'totally avoidable situation'

Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., who voted against tabling the motion to vacate against McCarthy, spoke on the House floor after the vote listing his grievances with McCarthy and calling it a totally avoidable situation.

Good said back in January during the votes that made McCarthy speaker, he persuaded five of his colleagues to vote present in the final vote that allowed McCarthy to win his leadership role. He claimed he continued to work with McCarthy and persuade some of his ultra-conservative colleagues to support McCarthys priorities throughout the year.

The Virginia lawmaker claimed McCarthy made a promise to bring 12 spending bills to the floor individually this year, which did not happen as Congress lurched toward a government shutdown this weekend. Good said he reluctantly agreed to vote for a short-term solution to avert a shutdown, despite the promise McCarthy made

We need a speaker who will fight for something, anything besides just staying and becoming speaker, Good said.

 Rachel Looker

McCarthy ally: This is a very sad day

Speaking on behalf of McCarthy and his allies on the House floor, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., chair of the House Rules Committee, praised the California Republicans leadership through multiple tough votes that put McCarthys speakership into question, including negotiations over the debt ceiling earlier this year and the recent government shutdown crisis.

We were on the verge of a government shutdown, Cole said. He put his political neck on the line  to do the right thing.

He did the right thing for our party, Cole added, earning a standing ovation from the majority of the House GOP conference.

 Ken Tran

Who will serve as speaker if Kevin McCarthy is ousted?

That's not clear.

If McCarthy is removed from his leadership role a temporary speaker would lead in the House. McCarthy submitted a succession list to the House clerk in January, though the document is private.

But who's likely on that list? Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the House majority leader, is a likely option. So is Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the majority whip, another crucial leadership position.

 Marina Pitofsky and Sudiksha Kochi

Texas Republican concerned about upcoming vote to remove McCarthy

There is not a clear name for McCarthys successor, should the speaker be ousted, said Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-TX.

Theres not really an option. Another reason this is very silly, he said.

The Texas congressman said hes worried about the message todays events will send to voters about the GOP.

Its clear that theres just a group of people that dont want conservatives to win, Crenshaw said. And they label themselves as the most conservative, which is not possibly true.

 Savannah Kuchar

President Joe Biden stays out of Kevin McCarthy speakership fight

The White House is staying out of the fight over McCarthys speakership  seemingly more than happy to watch Republicans beat up each other.

Were just not going to get involved, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday, deferring to House Democratic leaders who have vowed they wont help McCarthy.

Jean-Pierre said it is nothing new for the White House not to weigh in on congressional leadership decisions.

Is there chaos in the House Republicans? Absolutely. That is something that they have to deal with, Jean-Pierre said.

On Sunday, President Joe Biden said, I don't have a vote on that matter. I'll leave that to the leadership of the House and the Senate.

 Joey Garrison

'Get a time machine'

When asked whether there was anything McCarthy could do to change anything, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told reporters that he could get a time machine and bring us all back to the table like I suggested two months ago and keep his word.

Burchett added that everythings always chaos..this country was built on chaos and said he was more concerned about the dollar collapsing and the economy failing.

It scares me a lot worse, Burchett said.

 Sudiksha Kochi

11 GOP lawmakers vote against McCarthy in setback to his speakership

11 GOP lawmakers voted against the motion to table the effort to oust McCarthy in a massive setback for the speaker. The House will on the motion to vacate McCarthy, which is the formal vote that will decide his speakership.

The members that voted against McCarthy are:

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn.

Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz.

Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.

Rep. Bob Good, R-Va.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.

Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla.

Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont.

Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind.

 Ken Tran

Motion to table fails: McCarthys speakership closer to the brink

Kevin McCarthy faced a severe setback when a handful of conservative hardliners and House Democrats voted against a procedural motion  known as a motion to table  to discard Gaetz efforts to oust the California Republican as speaker. The vote failed by 208-218

The House will immediately vote now on the motion to vacate to determine whether McCarthy stays in his post.

 Ken Tran

White House vows US support for Ukraine wont waver if McCarthy loses job

The White House expressed confidence Tuesday that Congress will continue to support aid for Ukraine if House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is ousted from his speakership.

Regardless of what happens in the House of Representatives, said John Kirby, a White House spokesman on national security issues, all the House leadership is supportive of continuing to help Ukraine and the vast majority of House members on the Republican side are in support.

President Joe Biden is pushing Congress to approve additional aid to help Ukraine fight Russia after Congress passed a continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown for several weeks that lacked Ukraine funding to appease hardline Republicans. A growing number of far-right Republicans in the House oppose continued support of Ukraine.

McCarthy, whose speakership is in jeopardy, has backed Ukraine funding in the past but said he wants future financial support for Ukraine to be tied to additional security on the U.S.-Mexico border.

We don't believe they should be tied, or one dependent on the other, but both are important, Kirby said.

Biden held a phone call with NATO allies Tuesday in which he reaffirmed the United States commitment to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes as it, the White House said.

As winter fast approaches, it is imperative that we help them take advantage of every single day, Kirby said. A lapse of support for even a short period of time can make all the difference on the battlefield.

 Joey Garrison

Donald Trump: Why are Republicans 'always fighting among themselves'?

While attending his bank fraud trial in New York for a second day, Donald Trump found time Tuesday to weigh in on the drama surrounding McCarthy - sort of.

Trump did not mention McCarthy or Gaetz by name in a Truth Social post, nor has he taken a public position on their dispute, but he did criticize GOP in-fighting.

Said the former president: "Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves, why arent they fighting the Radical Left Democrats who are destroying our Country?"

 David Jackson

Nancy Pelosi says Democrats aren't taking up speaker fight

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, shared in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that "In this Congress, it is the responsibility of House Republicans to choose a nominee & elect the Speaker on the Floor."

"At this time there is no justification for a departure from this tradition," she added.

Her comments come as House Democrats have vowed not to step in and save Kevin McCarthy from a rebellion from his fellow Republicans.

 Marina Pitofsky

Politics: Will Kevin McCarthy be forced out as Speaker of the House? Here's how it could happen.

Absences could save McCarthy

Ahead of the procedural vote to suspend Gaetz motion to vacate against McCarthy, the California Republican could be saved due to absences.

The procedural vote  referred to as a motion to table  requires just a simple majority rather than an absolute majority. That means McCarthy does not technically need 218 votes to table the motion to vacate, but rather just more votes to table the motion than against it.

Both House Republicans and House Democrats are seeing absences that could factor into McCarthys survival.

It is unclear how many absences there are on each side, but House Democrats are currently voting by hand in an unrelated vote series likely to buy more time for their rank and file members to make it to the crucial vote on McCarthys fate.

 Ken Tran

Well see what happens: Lawmakers enter House chamber for votes

As lawmakers file into the House chamber, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., took a swipe at Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., when asked about the upcoming vote against McCarthy. Greene has long supported the speaker.

Are we all gonna be dressing like John Fetterman here pretty soon when we dont have a speaker and dont have rules, Greene said. Well see what happens.

 Savannah Kuchar

Who's trying to oust Kevin McCarthy? Matt Gaetz, Freedom Caucus members

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced a motion Monday night to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from the top position in the House.

His motion came after a contentious week of negotiations to avoid a government shutdown, during which Gaetz had previously threatened to oust McCarthy if the Speaker looked across the aisle for support.

But Gaetz is joined in the push by several members tied to the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, including Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs.

What happens if there's a government shutdown and no speaker of the House?

If McCarthy is ousted by his fellow Republicans, and Democrats refuse to step in and help him, a temporary speaker would lead in the House. McCarthy submitted a succession list to the House clerk in January, though the document is private.

That means the House could continue with its important business, as lawmakers have just weeks to compromise on a slate of spending bills to avoid a government shutdown.

 Marina Pitofsky

What happens if Congress ousts McCarthy?

If the House decides to remove McCarthy as speaker, then someone from a private backup list provided by McCarthy at the beginning of the year will fill his slot until a new election is held.

There's a little disagreement amongst Hill procedural experts about how much power that temporary Speaker would actually wield, Sarah Binder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told The Washington Post.

However, McCarthy can choose to run as speaker again. It is unclear when the House would hold that vote.

 Sudiksha Kochi

Motion to vacate history: Has a speaker of the House ever been removed?

The last time the House voted on a motion to vacate was 1910 against then-Speaker Joseph Cannon, R-Ill. In 2015, then-Rep. Mark Meadows filed a motion against Speaker John Boehner, but it never made it to a floor vote.

A House speaker has never been removed via a motion to vacate. Boehner resigned months after Meadows' motion amid continued dissent in his party.

 Savannah Kuchar

Capitol Hill in turmoil

The move to oust Kevin McCarthy has consumed the House in turmoil as lawmakers strategize over how to approach the conservative rebellion against the California Republican.

McCarthy, exiting a closed-door weekly conference meeting, told reporters firmly he wouldn't entertain working with Democrats to save his speakership and conceded that "I'm out" if a handful of Republicans decide to boot him from the speakership.

In their own extended closed-door conference meeting to discuss strategy, to prevent leaks, House Democratic lawmakers were barred from bringing in their phones to the meeting as leadership decided on whether or not to bail McCarthy out.

 Ken Tran

House Democrats will vote to remove Kevin McCarthy

In a lengthy letter sent to House Democrats, Jeffries said leadership will vote to vacate McCarthy from the speakership.

"It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War. Given their unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner, House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican Motion to Vacate the Chair," the letter reads.

House Democrats have for days said they will vote in line with their leadership. Jeffries' statement means that McCarthy's speakership will hinge on uniting enough House Republicans behind him to defeat the conservative rebellion.

 Ken Tran

What state does Kevin McCarthy represent? How long has Kevin McCarthy been in Congress?

Kevin McCarthy was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives in 2007. He represents California's 20th House District, which includes parts of Kern, Fresno, Tulare and Kings counties.

Congress voted to make McCarthy speaker of the House in January, after a marathon 15 rounds of votes. He faced objections from some of the same hard-right lawmakers in January during his bid to become speaker that he faces now as they seek to remove him.

 Marina Pitofsky

Is McCarthy being impeached?

No, Kevin McCarthy is facing what's known as a motion to vacate, which could remove him from his role as speaker of the House, a role that's in line behind the vice president to succeed the presidency, if needed.

Impeachment is a process designed to remove presidents from office, along with other federal officials. House Republicans have opened up an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, but they haven't approved any formal articles of impeachment against him.

 Marina Pitofsky

What is a motion to vacate?

A motion to vacate is a congressional procedure initiated by a House member that calls for the removal of a sitting House speaker and the election of a new one, according to Ballotpedia.

While the motion can be brought forth by one person, there must be a majority vote in the House to remove the top leader.

Under House rules, the motion must be voted on in two legislative days.

 Sudiksha Kochi

Will Democrats help McCarthy?

The answer is likely no.

As of noon on Tuesday, it appears Democrats will remain unified and vote to remove McCarthy from his role as speaker of the House.

House Democrats are going to continue to push people over politics, House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters Tuesday.

We are ready to find bipartisan common ground, he added in a post on X, formerly Twitter. "Our extreme colleagues have shown no willingness to do the same. They must find a way to end the House Republican Civil War.

Other lawmakers made clear they support House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. call to end the House Republican Civil War.

I hope everybody votes no on the motion to table. I expect everybody to be unified, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said Tuesday after leaving a Democratic caucus meeting.

The New Democrat Coalition also stands unified behind Jeffries.

New Dems are proud to stand with our leader and our caucus to deliver progress for the American people, Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., chair of the coalition, said in a statement.

 Rachel Looker and Ken Tran

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to reporters after a closed-door meeting with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and other House Republicans after Gaetz filed a motion to oust McCarthy from his leadership role, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023.

How did we get here?

Among one of the key concessions McCarthy made to conservative hardliners in his bid for the speakership in January was allowing a single lawmaker to initiate a motion to vacate.

Previous speakers set parameters on how lawmakers could try to oust these leaders, from only allowing party leadership to attempt to eject the speaker or requiring multiple lawmakers to agree on a motion to vacate.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has repeatedly flirted with ousting McCarthy since Republicans took control of the House but the Florida Republican finally followed up on his threats after McCarthy worked with Democrats to avert a government shutdown over the weekend.

I believe the basis for the motion to vacate is Kevin McCarthys repeated breach of the agreement that he made in January, Gaetz told reporters Monday after formally filing the motion to oust McCarthy, alleging the speaker broke an agreement  that was never released on paper  he made with hardline conservatives in January.

 Ken Tran

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kevin McCarthy ousted as speaker in historic house vote: Recap
Broward College has chosen former state Education Chancellor Henry Mack III as its next leader, the latest in a series of allies of Gov. Ron DeSantis to lead Floridas higher education institutions.

The colleges Board of Trustees chose Mack, whose legal name is Henry Maklakiewicz, over two other finalists after a brief search for an acting president to replace outgoing President Gregory Haile, who resigned last month.

The college required the temporary leader to have a connection to Broward College; Mack is a former associate dean and associate vice president for workforce education.

Broward College is my home, he said during his interview. I am passionate about returning to lead the institution I fell in love with.

He will be able to apply for the permanent job as well.

Mack beat out Barbara Bryan, former president of Broward Colleges north campus in Coconut Creek, and Cesar Florian, a former Broward college tutor who now owns a company that provides legal assistance to immigrants.

Trustees said they were impressed with both Bryan and Mack, but Mack has connections in Tallahassee that could help the college.

The knowledge you get from working with the capital is something you cant learn remotely, Trustees Chairwoman Alexis Yarbrough said.

Andrea Apa, president of the Broward College chapter of United Faculty of Florida, also said faculty had the best relationship with Mack of the three.

Mack has strong ties to the DeSantis administration. He was widely believed to be DeSantis pick to serve as president of Florida Gulf Coast University, and he made it to the final round earlier this year but the universitys Board of Trustees decided by one vote to instead promote a vice president, Aysegul Timur.

In 2019, while Mack was an associate vice president at Broward College, he was tapped by the DeSantis administration to serve as chancellor for the Florida Department of Education, overseeing higher education. He was promoted to senior chancellor in 2021. After losing out on the Florida Gulf Coast job, he joined the Southern Group lobbying firm as an education lobbyist.

He is the second Broward College president to have previously served as chancellor for higher education. Former President David Armstrong, who retired in 2018, left his job as chancellor in 2007 to join the college.

Mack is part of a recent trend of DeSantis political allies being tapped for higher-education presidency positions. This year, Richard Corcoran, former House speaker and DeSantis commissioner of education, was named interim president of New College of Florida by a board controlled by recent DeSantis appointees. Corcoran is Macks former boss with the education department.

Another DeSantis ally, former State Rep. Fred Hawkins, was recently hired as president of South Florida State College in Avon Park, despite not having a masters degree or higher education experience.

And the State University Systems Board of Governors suspended the search for a Florida Atlantic University president, citing anomalies, after DeSantis endorsed candidate, Brevard legislator Randy Fine, wasnt selected as a finalist.

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New College of Floridas board voted Tuesday to make Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pal Richard Corcoran as the universitys full-time presidentseemingly solidifying DeSantis takeover of the tiny public university in Sarasota. It was an expected decision from the board, which was controversially overhauled by DeSantis earlier this year. Corcoran, the former Republican speaker of the Florida House and a close DeSantis ally, was given the interim reigns to the university in January with a whopping annual salary of $699,000more than double what his ousted predecessor, Patricia Okker, made in the same role. New College of Florida, which has an enrollment of less than 1,000 students, has been an inflection point in DeSantis battle to overhaul education policy in Florida. Under Corcorans leadership, the university has already eliminated the women and gender studies program, denied faculty tenure without explanation, and eliminated the universitys diversity, equity and inclusion department.

Read it at Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Read more at The Daily Beast.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) weighed in Tuesday on the speakership battle raging on Capitol Hill, noting he was against Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) when it wasnt cool during his time as a congressman.

I opposed McCarthy when it wasnt cool years ago, DeSantis told Scripps News. Hes really somebody that Donald Trump has backed and put into that position.

And so I think that theyve not delivered results, he continued. I think the contrast between Florida, us delivering results, and what you have in Washington is typically failure theater.

DeSantis represented Florida in the House from 2013 to 2018 and was a founding member of the conservative Freedom Caucus.

DeSantiss comments came before the House voted Tuesday evening to remove McCarthy as speaker. A small group of House Republicans, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), joined with Democrats to oust McCarthy in a 216-210 vote.

The House voted 218-208 earlier Tuesday afternoon against a motion to table Gaetzs resolution to oust McCarthy, setting up the vote on whether McCarthy should remain speaker.

DeSantis did not have praise for the effort to oust McCarthy, instead calling the move performative.

Look this whole movement to do this motion, I think a lot of that is performative, DeSantis said. I think a lot of that is the typical theatrics were used to seeing. Im not sure how much thought is going into that, but I can tell you this, our voters want to see results. Were sick of the talk. A lot of these D.C. Republicans have promised all of these things over the years, and then when it comes time, they dont deliver.

Tuesday marks the first time the House has ever voted to remove a sitting Speaker. The chamber will be run by an acting Speaker  Speaker pro tempore  chosen from a list designated by McCarthy and shared with the House clerk.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Dish Network satellite dishes are shown at an apartment complex in Palo Alto, Calif., Feb. 23, 2011. Dish Network was fined $150,000 for improperly disposing one of its satellites in space. | Paul Sakuma, Associated Press

Satellite TV provider Dish Network was fined $150,000 for improperly disposing of one of its satellites in space  making it the first company to be issued a space debris penalty by the U.S. government.

The Federal Communications Commission announced Monday that it had settled an investigation into the company for failing to properly deorbit its retired EchoStar-7 satellite.

This marks a first in space debris enforcement by the Commission, which has stepped up its satellite policy efforts, the FCC stated.

Why did the FCC fine Dish Network?

The satellite was launched in 2002, and once it was nearly out of propellant in 2022, Dish decided to retire the satellite. However, in disposing of the satellite, Dish relocated the satellite to a disposal orbit well below the elevation required by the terms of its license, the FCC claims.

In a statement to CNN, Dish stated that the satellite had been explicitly exempted from the FCCs rule requiring a minimum disposal orbit.

Dish also claims that the FCC did not state that the satellite poses any orbital debris safety concerns.

Why the FCC is cracking down on space debris

As more companies send objects to space  and more dispose of older objects  space junk has become a growing concern for the FCC.

As satellite operations become more prevalent and the space economy accelerates, we must be certain that operators comply with their commitments, said the FCCs Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan A. Egal. This is a breakthrough settlement, making very clear the FCC has strong enforcement authority and capability to enforce its vitally important space debris rules.

Space debris poses a risk to other satellites because the debris can collide with other satellites.

The European Space Agency estimates that there are over 170 million space debris objects larger than 1 millimeter in Earths orbit.

Any of these objects can cause harm to an operational spacecraft, according to the ESA.
In a time when the battlefield is ever-changing, America's military is looking beyond the horizon, embracing the future with Space-Based Defense Systems. This isn't the stuff of science fiction, but a reality that puts our nation at the forefront of technological innovation. Warfare has a new frontier, and America's military is leading the charge. As technology pushes us into uncharted territories, our Armed Forces are looking to the stars.

Space, once a realm of exploration and wonder, has become the new battleground. It's not just about rockets and satellites. These days, it's about safeguarding our nation and embracing a new level of defense that transcends earthly boundaries. But space-based defense systems are more than just machines. These days, theyre a testament to our commitment to innovation, security, and the values that define us as a nation. The future is here . Good thing we're ready to face it, with our eyes on the sky and our feet firmly on the ground.

The unblinking eye

In the pantheon of America's defense capabilities, the Sentinel Network stands out as an unyielding guardian of national security. Operating from the distant reaches of space, this web of advanced satellites, sensors, and cameras acts as the 'unblinking eye' over Earth. Like the sentries of old, standing guard over fortresses, the Sentinel Network maintains a ceaseless watch over not just American airspace but the entirety of the globe.

The Sentinel Network's primary function is multi-layered surveillance, capturing real-time data for immediate processing and response. It relays information directly to military decision-makers, allowing for rapid action against any incoming threats. Whether detecting missile launches or identifying unauthorized aircraft, the network embodies a leap in surveillance technology.

Space Surveillance Network

Operated by the U.S. Space Force, the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) serves as the crown jewel of the Sentinel Network. The SSN takes the mandate of its parent network to the next level. That's because it focuses on tracking all man-made objects in orbit . This involves an intricate ballet of technologies. In addition to the usual radar, SSN uses telescopes and highly specialized software to map the chaos of objects swirling around the Earth.

The SSN not only tracks active satellites but also charts the course of space debris and defunct equipment. By doing so, it prevents accidental collisions, ensuring the operational integrity of crucial satellites. Moreover, the SSN can identify potential threats from adversarial nations. This offers America an unprecedented edge in the new domain of space warfare.

The watchtower for liberty

If the Sentinel Network is the eye, the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) serves as the optic nerve, translating sight into actionable intelligence. Part of a larger framework of geostationary satellites, SBIRS specializes in missile warning, missile defense, and battlespace awareness. It uses advanced scanning and staring sensors to detect heat signatures from missile launches across the Earth.

SBIRS delivers crucial data to other missile defense systems, which can intercept and neutralize the threat, often before it leaves the enemy's airspace. In essence, SBIRS acts as the first line of defense, a watchtower for liberty that keeps America and its allies one step ahead of potential aggressors.

Next-gen warfare

The Sentinel Network, the SSN, and SBIRS represent a triad of capabilities that set America at the forefront of next-gen warfare. They epitomize the fusion of technological innovation and military strategy. Their constant, integrated vigilance renders a 360-degree view of threats, whether they come from land, sea, air, or space.

These systems do more than safeguard today; they pave the way for the future. As the military's reach extends into the domain of space, so too will the capabilities of these advanced networks. Already, they are enabling new forms of communication, more precise navigation, and unprecedented global surveillance capabilities. In turn, our Space Force Guardians, along with the rest of our military, now have an SA that was once the stuff of sci-fi just a generation ago.

The ingenuity behind these systems is propelling America into a new era of warfare. It's no secret these next conflicts will need to include unyielding vigilance and unassailable strength. In the face of evolving challenges, space-based defense systems serve as a testament to American technological prowess, ensuring that as the battleground changes, our readiness and adaptability remain constant.
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE)  A Sanger man was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Monday as a result of an operation that contributed to a series of fentanyl-related deaths, the Department of Justice announced.

According to court documents, Operation Killer High began after a series of overdoses occurred in Fresno as a result of fake oxycodone M30 tablets with fentanyl in them. The investigation uncovered a large drug-trafficking ring led by Horacio Torrecillas Urias Jr., the self-proclaimed M30 king of Fresno.

Court records reveal in February 2022, investigators learned that Urias planned to deliver several thousand fentanyl pills to 29-year-old Abel Lozano of Sanger. Two days later, federal officers searched Lozanos home and found about a kilogram of fentanyl analog, over a kilogram of fentanyl mixture, about a kilogram of methamphetamine, over three kilograms of marijuana, and a small amount of cocaine.

Attorneys state Lozano admitted the drugs were his after being interviewed and that he was buying regularly to resell in large quantities, including to other states.

As a result, Lozano was sentenced to 14 years in prison for possession with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectible amount of fentanyl, 100 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of fentanyl analog, and 50 grams or more of actual methamphetamine.

Court documents state that 17 others were also indicted in 2022 by a federal grand jury, Lozano being the first defendant to be sentenced.

According to court officials, the following 12 co-defendants have previously pleaded guilty to fentanyl or cocaine distribution charges and are now awaiting sentencing:

Henry Cox, 23, of Sanger;

Justin Riddle, of Las Cruces, New Mexico,

Erica Ramirez, of Fresno;

Alejandro Guzman, of Fresno;

Agustin Hernandez, of Fresno;

Christian Harris-Blanchette, of Fresno;

Oscar Jaramillo-Cortez, of Fresno;

Jacob Valles, of Fresno;

Cody Fyfe, of Fresno;

Juan Valencia Jr., of Fresno;

Amadeo Sarabia Jr., of Fresno; and

Alex Garcia, of Fresno.

Attorneys say 24-year-old Marvin Carreno pleaded guilty Monday to possession with intent to distribute over 40 grams of fentanyl and is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 12, 2024.

Court officials say the remaining four defendants have pending charges:

Horacio Torrecillas Urias Jr.

Alma Garza

Brayan Cruz

Victor Yair Torrecillas-Urias

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com.
The Justice Department (DOJ) on Tuesday announced eight indictments against Chinese companies and nationals in cases involving fentanyl and the precursor chemicals used to produce the deadly drug.

The indictments charge China-based companies and their employees with crimes relating to fentanyl and methamphetamine production, the distribution of synthetic opioids and sales of the chemicals used to make them.

We know that the global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. The United States government is focused on breaking apart every link in that chain, getting fentanyl out of our communities, and bringing those who put it there to justice.

The indictments are in addition to prosecutions announced in June against China-based chemical manufacturing companies and officials in the Peoples Republic of China.

The new charges include eight indictments against Chinese companies and 12 against Chinese nationals, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced Tuesday.

As alleged in todays indictments, the defendants used a range of trafficking tactics to ply their deadly trade and cover their tracks  from blatant online advertising and encrypted messaging apps to fake shipping schemes and bitcoin payments, Monaco said.

Monaco said Drug Enforcement Agency employees went undercover, posing as drug traffickers to identify shippers, while employees at the Department of Homeland Security surged resources to stop the shipments. The FBI and IRS tracked crypto payments and postal employees exposed a plan to deliver the ingredients, she added.

Monaco also thanked the efforts of Mexican prosecutors who worked with the U.S. to track shipments of the chemicals.

This was a whole-of-government effort, Monaco said. When we work together  sharing information, combining resources, and relentlessly pursuing justice  we can have a tremendous impact on those who would do us harm.

Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat facing the U.S. It is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. A dose as small as two milligrams can kill a grown adult, the DOJ said in its release.

Monaco called on the private sector to step up, too. Social media companies need to police their platforms to avert harm from cyber criminals, she said.

It must be all hands on deck, Monaco said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Dominic Fike partnered with the Bail Project, a nonprofit organization that provides people with free bail, to raise awareness about the prison system. The artist traveled to his hometown of Naples, Florida, to help bail out people from Collier County Jail, where he was once incarcerated himself.

Its a lot less anxiety than you would think, he said about going back to where he was incarcerated. I remember the day I was released from here. As soon as I walked out, I didnt feel anything. Its weird how it does that.

A $50 fee is required to apply for a public defender in Florida. According to the organization, when a clients case closes, only 60% of bail money is given back, unlike in other states, where the refund is made in full.

Fike partnered with the Bail Project to help people gain awareness about the workings of the prison system. He was inspired by his experience and lack of knowledge when he was incarcerated to help others.

I felt like I was constantly trying to grab ahold of the situation, Fike said. Because of my lack of knowledge, I think it contributed to my incarceration.

The artist was incarcerated for a little under a year. He had been under house arrest for assaulting a police officer in 2016, according to The Guardian. Fike failed a drug test at the time, which broke the terms of his probation and ultimately landed him in jail.

After going through so many court dates and jumping through so many hoops, I took a plea deal. I didnt want to fight, he added. It was just like, whatever youll give me, as long as its not five years, whatever youll give me that will make this done. They scare you into incarceration.

During his incarceration, Fike wrote and released Dont Forget About Me, Demos, a six-track project that skyrocketed his career as a musician.

Its affected me positively in ways, he says of his time at Collier County Jail. I can use it in my music and talk about it and relate to others and maybe lift others out of the despair that comes with being attached to the system. Its kind of bittersweet. I try to bring a little awareness to friends and family, and people on the internet about how terrible this can be. I try not to make it out to be a sob story. Its really hard, and there are real people in there, and these people have families and connections to us.

Ultimately, Fike is using his public platform in the hopes of helping others gain more awareness about how the system works.

If you can get a handle on it early and get a little understanding of it and maybe some help, that can prevent years and years or a lifetime of looping into this system, he said.

Fike recently released his second studio album, Sunburn, with the lead single titled Dancing in the Courthouse.
Donald Trump has been issued a gagging order after claiming the law clerk in his New York fraud case is dating a senior congressional Democrat.

The former president, who has already attacked the cases attorney general and judge, made an unsubstantiated claim that Allison Greenfield, the supreme court clerk, was in a relationship with Chuck Schumer, the Democrat majority leader in the US Senate.

Ms Greenfield describes herself online as a prospective Democratic candidate for the New York civil court elections, and reportedly posted a photograph of her and Mr Schumer on her Instagram account.

Mr Trump reposted the photograph on Truth Social, his social media platform, claiming: Schumers girlfriend, Alison R. Greenfield, is running this case against me.

How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!!

Donald Trump reposts a picture on his Truth Social platform

There is no evidence that the two are dating. The photograph reportedly originates from Ms Greenfields private Instagram account, which could not be independently verified by The Telegraph.

In response to the post, Arthur Engoran, the case judge, issued a gagging order barring participants from commenting on his staff.

Personal attacks on members on my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and I wont tolerate it, he said, adding: Consider this a gag order for all parties from posting about any members of my staff.

Mr Schumers office was contacted for comment.

Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed the civil fraud case against him in New York is politically-motivated, describing Letitia James , the attorney general, and Mr Engoron, as Democrat operatives.

On Tuesday, as he arrived in court for the second day of the trial, he said Ms James was grossly incompetent and a fraud.

In an email to supporters, he said: The Left is hoping that if they can hurt me financially, that I will shut down my campaign and forever surrender our country to the radical Left Democrats and the Deep State.

He added: They can never take away my resilience, my courage, and my determination to save this country.

The fraud case is one of several legal battles the former president faces in the run-up to next years presidential election.

Mr Trump is currently the frontrunner in the Republican primary case, but faces four criminal trials and two civil actions, including the accusation in New York that he inflated the value of his properties and exaggerated his net worth.

Ms James is seeking a penalty of $250 million and a ban on Mr Trump operating businesses in New York, where he runs Trump Tower, a condo, and 40 Wall Street, an office block.

Prosecutors in other cases have sought court orders to limit his public statements about the cases, citing the risk that juries could be intimidated or swayed by his comments.

The New York trial does not have a jury, which Mr Trump has claimed is unfair, although Mr Engoron said his legal team had not requested one.

Speaking to reporters at the courthouse, Mr Trump said yesterday that he would testify at the appropriate time.

Trial to run until late December

The trial is set to run until late December and he is not expected to be called as a witness for some weeks.

In Tuesdays session, Mr Engoron also disputed the former presidents claim that 80 per cent of the case had already been decided because of a statute of limitations that prevented the attorney general from using evidence from before 2014.

Every use of a false financial statement in business starts the statute of limitations running again, Mr Engoron said.

The court heard testimony from Donald Bender, a retired accountant who managed financial statements for the Trump Organisation and Mr Trump himself.

He said the figures that Mr Trump is accused of inflating had originated with the Trump Organisation and had not been verified by Mazars, his accounting firm.

The trial continues.

07:38 PM BST

That's all for today

Our live coverage of the Trump civil fraud trial has concluded for today.

Check back to our homepage for the latest updates.

07:06 PM BST

First witness concludes testimony

Donald Bender, Mr Trumps former accountant, has finished his testimony.

He was questioned for hours by Kevin Wallace, a lawyer with New York attorney general Letitia James team.

He spent Tuesday morning methodically reviewing Mr Trumps annual statements of financial condition.

Mr Bender, who is now retired, told the court that it was the Trump Organizations duty to provide accurate information for their certification.

He told the court: There were certain appraisals we hadnt seen for certain years.

He will face cross-examination after the lunch break.

06:34 PM BST

Eric Trump : 'Mar-a-Lago is one of the most valuable properties in the world'

Eric Trump, who is also a defendant in this trial, has claimed that Judge Engoron has been given extremely misleading information about his net worth, honing in on an official valuation of Mar-a-Lago, the private members club in Palm Beach, Florida.

It was valued at $18 million by Florida county tax records. The Trump family claims its worth as much as $1.5 billion.

Eric told Fox News: Mar-a-Lago is one of the most valuable properties anywhere in the world.

He added: There is no one that does more for the New York City skyline than Donald Trumpwe hire literally, and employ thousands and thousands of workersbut those details dont matter to these monsters

05:46 PM BST

Pictured: New York State Attorney General Letitia James

Letitia James, the New York State Attorney General did not make a statement when she arrived at court earlier on Tuesday.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James arrives at the courthouse for the second day of the civil fraud trial - JOHN LAMPARSKI/AFP

Ms James smiled and pointed at a person who yelled go get em and thank you as she walked up the courtroom stairs.

The state attorney has accused Mr Trump, his two adult sons and others of inflating asset values over a decade to secure favorable bank loans and insurance terms, and exaggerating Trumps own riches by more than $2 billion.

05:02 PM BST

Trump 'appeared bored'

Donald Trump appeared bored as he listened to the testimony of his former accountant in court.

Mr Trump spoke frequently with his own lawyers as Donald Bender, his former accountant, spoke.

Donald Trump attends the trial of himself, his adult sons, the Trump Organization and others in a civil fraud case - SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS

The former US president sat hunched over the defence table as testimony resumed on Tuesday at his civil fraud trial.

04:40 PM BST

Trial goes to break

The trial has paused for a 15 minute break.

We will be back with all the latest updates shortly.

04:22 PM BST

Analysis: Bender's testimony is key to pinning fraud to Trump

In lengthy examination sessions yesterday and this morning, Donald Benders testimony has become quite repetitive, reports Tony Diver, The Telegraphs US Editor.

The attorney generals office, led by Kevin Wallace, is taking Mr Bender through documents produced over the court of a decade and asking him where the numbers came from.

That is because Mr Benders testimony is key to the plaintiff establishing a key point: that the published details of Mr Trumps finances came from the Trump Organisation and were not independently audited by an accounting firm.

The fact that the value of Mr Trumps properties was grossly exaggerated is not under dispute here -- the question is how the numbers were inflated, and by whom?

Mr Bender, previously one of the only outsiders with intimate knowledge of the finances, is here to establish that blame in this case should lie with those at the top of the Trump Organisation -- with Mr Trump, his CFO and his children.

04:21 PM BST

Bender back on witness stand

Donald Bender, the former Trump Organisation accountant, has returned to the witness stand for the second day of the trial.

Testifying, he said the information he used to compile Donald Trumps financial statements derived from the Trump Organisation, and not from him.

Mr Bender was the first witness called by the New York Attorney Generals office on Monday.

04:16 PM BST

Who is Arthur Engoron, the New York judge taking on Donald Trump?

The man charged with ruling on Donald Trumps property empire is no stranger to court battles with the former president.

Since Arthur Engoron began presiding over cases linked to Mr Trump in 2020, he has forced him to sit for a deposition, held him in contempt of court and fined him more than $100,000.

Their running battle has given rise to a bitter enmity between the two men.

Mr Trump has called him unhinged and deranged, and a political hack, while Mr Engoron has used official rulings to mock the former president using pop culture references.

Read more here

03:44 PM BST

Pictured: Trump in courtroom

Donald Trumps sits in court, flanked by lawyers Chris Kise and Alina Habba.

Donald Trump attends the trial at a Manhattan courthouse - SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS

Former President Donald Trump, centre, sits in the courtroom with is legal team - Seth Wenig/POOL AP

03:27 PM BST

Trump renews attacks on NY attorney general

Donald Trump has launched a fresh attack on the New York attorney general bringing a case against him, claiming that her numbers are fraudulent.

Letitia James, the state attorney, has accused Mr Trump, his two adult sons and others of inflating asset values over a decade to secure favorable bank loans and insurance terms, and exaggerating Trumps own riches by more than $2 billion.

Former President Donald Trump speaks to the media before entering the courtroom at New York Supreme Court - Seth Wenig/AP

Before entering the courtroom for the second day of his civil fraud trial, he accused Ms James of being grossly incompetent and claimed she had concocted a bogus case.

Her numbers are fraudulent, he alleged, adding, shes a fraud.

Ms James, who did not make a statement when she arrived at court, smiled and pointed at a person who yelled go get em and thank you as she walked up the stairs.

03:05 PM BST

Trump: 'They can never take away my resilience'

Donald Trump has said he is attending the second day of the civil trial in New York.

In an email, he claimed that an anti-Trump judge was attempting to bring down the Trump organisation and financially break him.

He continued: The Left is hoping that if they can hurt me financially, that I will shut down my campaign and forever surrender our country to the radical Left Democrats and the Deep State.

They want to take away my freedom, my finances, and harass my family.

But they can never take away my resilience, my courage, and my determination to save this country.

02:58 PM BST

Meet Alina Habba, Trumps colourful lawyer armed with a gaming laptop

Donald Trump was not the only person to attract attention when his fraud trial began in Manhattan.

Seated next to the former president was Alina Habba, a key member of his legal team with what appeared to be a gaming laptop with a logo that changed colours as the hearing unfolded.

Her advocacy was equally colourful, defending the valuation of his real estate as Mona Lisa properties which fully justified the valuation he and his organisation placed on them.

The 39-year-old attorney has been closely associated with the former president for some time, with Mr Trump even attending her birthday party.

Read more here

02:46 PM BST

Pictured: Trump departing Trump Tower

Former US President Donald Trump departs Trump Tower for a Manhattan courthouse trial - CAITLIN OCHS/REUTERS

02:34 PM BST

Trump departs Trump Tower

Donald Trump has left Trump Tower and is expected to be heading to court for the second day of his civil trial in New York.

The former US president posted on his Truth Social page: See you in Court on Tuesday morning!

Mr Trump unexpectedly attended the first day of the New York trial on Monday in person.

Mr Trumps arrival for the first day of the trial saw much of the area surrounding the courthouse closed off to the public on Monday morning, as crowds of protesters, police officers and reporters formed from 4am.

02:19 PM BST

Analysis: Donald Trump's latest trial will hit him where it hurts  his ego

Donald Trumps latest court battle is by no means the most serious legal challenge he faces in the run up to the 2024 presidential election, reports Tony Diver, The Telegraphs US Editor.

Several of his criminal indictments, for allegedly subverting election results, falsifying business records and mishandling stolen documents  could result in lengthy prison sentences.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to Trump Tower after attending the first day of his civil fraud trial on October 02 - James Devaney/GC Images

By contrast, the New York attorney general in the civil fraud suit is seeking a penalty of a mere $250 million and a ban on operating businesses in the state.

So why did Mr Trump choose to focus the worlds attention on this weeks trial by attending it in person?

Read more here

02:15 PM BST

Donald Trump gained $100m in financial benefits by lying about assets, court hears

Donald Trump gained more than $100 million (82 million) by lying about the value of his property empire, the judge in his fraud trial was told on Monday.

Kevin Wallace, a lawyer in state Attorney General Letitia James office, said in his opening statement in a downtown Manhattan courtroom that Mr Trump described his finances to banks and insurers in a materially inaccurate way for a decade.

Wallace said Mr Trump did this to get better loan terms and lower insurance premiums, illegally generating more than $100 million of financial benefits.

Read more from Tony Diver, The Telegraphs US Editor, here

02:13 PM BST

When will Trump appear in court?

The second day of the trial is due to begin at 3pm BST (10am ET) today in a New York courtroom.

Donald Bender, Trumps former accountant, is expected to continue his testimony today.

Mr Bender was the first witness called by the New York Attorney Generals office on Monday.

02:01 PM BST

Good Afternoon

Welcome to todays liveblog following the second day of Donald Trumps civil trial in Manhattan, New York.

We will be guiding you through all the latest updates.

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.
Former US president Donald Trump attends the second day of his civil fraud trial in New York on October 3, 2023 (Seth Wenig)

Former US president Donald Trump began day two of his civil fraud trial Tuesday, lashing out at New York's attorney general before entering the courtroom where he could be barred from doing business in the state.

Trump, who is facing legal battles on multiple fronts, called Attorney General Letitia James "very corrupt" and "grossly incompetent" in his trademark combativeness, ahead of the day's proceedings.

James is seeking $250 million in penalties and the removal of Trump and two of his sons from management of the family empire.

Trump, who leads the field of Republican primary candidates ahead of the 2024 election by substantial margins, was not required to attend the first two days in court but chose to do so, taking a seat at the defense table flanked by his lawyers.

The civil trial comes after New York Judge Arthur Engoron already ruled that Trump and his sons Eric and Don Jr committed fraud by inflating the value of the real estate and financial assets of the Trump Organization for years.

The ruling stated that the three Trumps and other Trump Organization executives lied to tax collectors, lenders and insurers for years in a scheme that exaggerated the value of their properties by $812 million to $2.2 billion between 2014 and 2021.

The judge revoked the business licenses that allowed the Trump Organization to operate some of its New York properties, a move known as the "corporate death penalty."

In the civil trial that began this week there is no jury, meaning Trump's fate is entirely in Engoron's hands -- which has not dissuaded the former president from branding him a "rogue" Democratic judge who should be "disbarred."

Also in the courtroom Tuesday were Don Jr and Eric, as well as Attorney General James.

On Monday, Trump denounced the case as a "sham" intended to torpedo his bid to recapture the White House next year and called James, who is African American, "racist."

The 77-year-old ex-leader -- who made his reputation and fortune as a real estate mogul in the 1980s -- could lose control over many of his company's flagship properties, such as Trump Tower on Manhattan's iconic 5th Avenue.

The New York case is the first of a number of upcoming trials for the former president.

Trump is scheduled to appear before a federal judge in Washington on March 4, 2024 on charges of trying to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump will then be back in New York state court, this time on charges of paying hush money to a porn star, and later in a federal court in Florida, where he is accused of mishandling classified documents after leaving office.

Finally, he will also have to answer to state charges in Georgia, where prosecutors say Trump illegally tried to get the southern state's 2020 election results changed in his favor.

nr/bfm/mlm
More than 60 elementary school students were hospitalized in Jamaica on Monday after unknowingly eating candy laced with cannabis, according to officials.

Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Williams told CNN none of the children  who are ages 7 to 12  appear to be in critical condition, citing doctors.

The candy caused the children to vomit and hallucinate, she posted Monday on X, formerly Twitter, adding that some kids were put on an intravenous drip.

Over 60 primary school students had to be taken to hospital. Parents please beware!! Williams wrote. One little boy said he only had ONE sweetie. Thats how potent this product is.

The minister also said on X that she visited the hospital where the children were being treated, and that doctors & nurses are doing all they can to ensure the students recover.

Williams posted a photo of the candy, which came in a rainbow colored package.

The packaging stated the product contains Delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as delta-8 THC, a psychoactive substance found in the Cannabis sativa plant, of which marijuana and hemp are two varieties, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website.

It has psychoactive and intoxicating effects, according to the US agency.

The minister also included a photo of the candy package showing a government warning on the back stating, keep out of reach of children and not intended for use by anyone under 21 years of age.

The packaging stated the product was not approved by the FDA.

Jamaica decriminalized cannabis for people over 18 in 2015, with possession of 2 ounces (56 grams) or less downgraded to a petty offense.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Col Mike Mikombe was accused of ordering his officers to open fire on anti-UN protesters

An army colonel has been sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo for his role in the killing of more than 50 demonstrators in August.

Col Mike Mikombe, the ex-commander of the elite Republican Guard in Goma city, was accused of giving orders to open fire on anti-UN protesters.

His lawyers said he would appeal against the military court's ruling.

This was the highest number of deaths in a crackdown on protests against UN peacekeepers in eastern DR Congo.

The protesters were demanding the withdrawal of UN troops, accusing them of failing to protect civilians who have been under decades-long attacks by rebel groups in the region.

The UN has almost 18,000 personnel in the country, including more than 12,000 soldiers, making it the second-largest UN mission globally.

The August protests were organised by a Christian sect known as Wazalendo (Patriots), to demand the departure of UN troops from the region.

The protesters also wanted Governor Ndima Kongba, who had earlier banned the demonstrations, to resign. The governor has since been replaced.

According to the state prosecutor, 56 civilians were killed and dozens others wounded during the demonstrations, sparking international condemnation.

More than 150 people were arrested during the crackdown by the security forces.

The court heard how amid chaotic scenes troops opened fire at the protesters, allegedly on the instruction of Col Mikombe.

He had suggested that he had been misled by an operational order identifying the sect members as proxies of the M23 rebel group, which had captured large swathes of territory in North Kivu province last year.

The death sentence is often handed down in DR Congo but no executions have taken place in more than 20 years. The sentences tend to be commuted to life imprisonment.

Col Mikombe was tried along with five other soldiers.

Three of them were sentenced to 10 years in prison, while two others, including Col Mikombe's deputy, were acquitted.

An anti-UN protest in July 2022 led to more than 15 deaths, including three peacekeepers.

DR Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi, who is seeking re-election in December, has called on the UN force to begin leaving this year instead of next year as initially planned.

Last year, an East African force was deployed to eastern DR Congo to aid the Congolese military quell fighting - though it too has faced criticism of not doing enough to bring about stability.
A man has been taken into custody after a road rage attack in Miami Springs. The confrontation happened Friday at Northwest 42nd Avenue just south of 36th Street, near the airport.

According to police, Luis Ruiz Herrera confronted a man on a scooter. When Herrera got out of his vehicle with a machete in hand, the man on the scooter got off the bike and began retreating.

Police said Herrera swung the machete at the man, slicing his cheek. He then got back in his car and drove off.

READ MORE: Why are we so angry behind the wheel? Drivers bring out the road rage in South Florida

Another driver captured what happened on a camera and detectives obtained Herreras information from the license plate. He was later identified by the injured man when he was shown a photo.

Investigators found Herrera at his home. Police said he admitted to the attack. Herrera told them that the man had verbally disrespected his mother, according to police.

Herrera was arrested and police seized the machete. He has been charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Video from the scene

This report was produced by Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami.
Farewell for giant pandas brings warmth to Washington's autumn chill

Xinhua) 10:19, October 03, 2023

Visitors pose for photos with a giant panda statue at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., the United States, Sept. 30, 2023. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Giant pandas Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and Xiao Qi Ji, who are currently staying at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, will be returned home by the end of the year in accordance with a previous agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA).

To celebrate the joy the pandas have brought to the American people and say goodbye to them, the zoo held a "giant farewell" event during the week ending Saturday.

Since arriving in Washington in 2000, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian have had four cubs, three of which have already gone back to China. The fourth one, Xiao Qi Ji, has become the most loved inhabitant of the zoo since his birth on Aug. 21, 2020.

Tourists take part in a Chinese calligraphy writing activity at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., the United States, Sept. 30, 2023. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Giant panda Tian Tian is seen at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., the United States, Sept. 30, 2023. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Children take part in a giant panda mask-making activity at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., the United States, Sept. 30, 2023. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Giant panda Xiao Qi Ji is seen at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., the United States, Sept. 30, 2023. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Sheng Chuyi)
The Korean War is ongoing, despite no shots fired in roughly 70 years. The destructive U.S. invasion left more than 3 million dead, many of whom were civilians, with major conflict ending in 1953  but as the war was never officially declared "over," it technically isn't over.

In the same way, global drug policy  which is often framed in the same violent rhetoric as a full-scale occupation of the Korean peninsula  is like a war that ended long ago, but its belligerants refuse to acknowledge this fact. The drugs won because they could never lose. They can't surrender, but the campaign to eradicate them is unwinnable and thus absurd. War is hell, but as Boy George said, it's also stupid. The drug war is just as inept as many global conflicts in history.

If people want to call this a war, fine, let's treat it like one and evaluate its progress toward "victory." This anti-narcotics machinery forbidding against certain drug use, while essentially endorsing tobacco and alcohol use, has been smoldering for more than a century, with former President Richard Nixon's "official" declaration of the "War on Drugs" some 52 years ago. It has morphed into the U.S. government and the U.N. strong-arming other nations into participating in this charade, less they face steep tariffs or even invasion. Many countries, including Colombia, Panama and Bolivia, have found this out the hard way  don't oppose Western drug hegemony.

Increasingly, the same government agencies who started this fight are acknowledging that they cannot win. A recent report in The Guardian detailed how the U.K. government suppressed internal recommendations to repeal drug prohibition. That 27-page document, leaked to reporter Mattha Busby after three years of fighting for its public release, was crafted by the U.K. government's official drug advisers, who noted that there was "little consistent international evidence that the criminalization for possession of drugs for personal use is effective in reducing drug use."

Two months ago, Elena Whitham, Scotland's minister for drugs policy, said as much, calling on her government to adopt progressive drug policy not dripping in punishment. Whitham noted that decriminalization was "no longer a novel approach," but rather a growing practice "across the world and works well." Recent research has shown that decriminalization is not associated with an increase in overdose deaths. In fact, the opposite is likely true: Overdoses spike following police seizures.

Downing Street was quick to dismiss any chance of adopting this sort of code. Rather, the U.K. government has resorted to banning yet more drugs, most recently nitrous oxide, also called "laughing gas," with offenders caught producing or selling the drug facing up to 14 years in prison.

Nonetheless, Scotland plans to open the U.K.'s first ever supervised consumption site, which allows drug use to be monitored by medical professionals in case of an overdose. Dozens of such sites exist around the globe  in countries such as Canada and Australia  and have been proven to reduce overdose deaths. It makes sense: The harms of drug use, such as overdose, can be avoided if done in the right context. Prohibition makes it impossible to create such contexts.

Supervised consumption is only one of multiple strategies that can be taken up instead of guns and handcuffs. A Sept. 20 report from the U.N. Human Rights Council urged governments to stop punishing people and adopt effective public health strategies that recognize the humanity of drug users.

"Laws, policies and practices deployed to address drug use must not end up exacerbating human suffering. The drugs problem remains very concerning, but treating people who use drugs as criminals is not the solution," Volker Turk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement. "States should move away from the current dominant focus on prohibition, repression and punishment, and instead embrace laws, policies and practices anchored in human rights and aimed at harm reduction."

Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter Lab Notes.

A century of data indicates coercion and surveillance are simply not effective tactics to keep people from using drugs, though they are cruel methods. Another recent U.N. report described U.S. jail practices as "an affront to human dignity," highlighting forced labor and the callous practice of shackling mothers during childbirth, disproportionately affecting Black women. Though not everyone winds up in jail for drugs, many people first encounter the criminal justice system through prohibition, which can trigger a cycle that is nearly impossible to break.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse notes that "85% of the prison population has an active substance use disorder or were incarcerated for a crime involving drugs or drug use." Prohibition may not be why everyone is incarcerated, but it's certainly the foundation of our exploitative and sadistic criminal justice system.

There is hope, as prohibition continues to unravel, with reforms for cannabis and psychedelics gaining momentum across North America. But this smacks of a certain exceptionalism, permitting certain drugs while ignoring the fact that "Just say no" just doesn't work on a fundamental level. There are literally thousands of intoxicating drugs that can be cooked up  unbanning a few here and there will take centuries at this rate and won't address the underlying issue. We need a blanket repeal of prohibition altogether, coupled with robust investment in addiction treatment, housing and public health in general.

But we'll never get there until we can force the drug warriors to admit what they already know: This crusade against drugs has failed on all fronts. It's time to declare peace.

It's unlikely, however, that those in positions of power will do so of their own volition. At the end of the day, the issue isn't whether the Drug Enforcement Administration or the cops "know" that prohibition doesn't work. (For the record, anecdotal evidence suggests they're very much aware this is a losing battle.) When it comes down to it, the reason why peace won't easily be declared is because the drug war allocates way too much power enjoyed by the political establishment. It predicates a mass surveillance apparatus, enriches the prison-industrial complex and gives excuses for the U.S. intelligence agencies to prop themselves up in Latin American nations, all while globally eroding civil liberties and failing to make a meaningful impact on what really matters: the health and wellness of people who use illicit substances.

Despite mounting calls, such a Kafkaesque bureaucracy of suffering won't be easy to dismantle. Far more funds are given to enforcement than harm reduction, for example; thus, there are plenty of financial incentives to maintain the status quo. But if we continue to use the same framework  that drug use and addiction are something to wage "war" about  then we must make it impossible for anyone to deny who is losing.

An earlier version of this article originally appeared in Salon's Lab Notes, a weekly newsletter from our Science & Health team.
Another season, another Los Angeles City Council member accused of ethical violations . The cloud of corruption continues to expand over City Hall.

On Monday, the Ethics Commission accused Councilmember John Lee of accepting gifts in 2016 and 2017 in excess of the limit, failing to disclose those gifts, misusing his city position, and aiding and abetting his old boss, former Councilmember Mitch Englander, in misusing his city position.

Read more: Editorial: To fix City Hall corruption, L.A. needs a stronger Ethics Commission

Lee is the fifth council member in recent years to become embroiled in an ethics or public corruption scandal, and the second in just the last four months. In June, City Councilmember Curren Price was charged with embezzlement, perjury and other counts related to his office.

It's tempting at this point to write off City Hall as a cesspool of self-serving politicians who treat ethics, conflict of interest and disclosure laws as mere suggestions. Unlike previous cases, which were brought by the U.S. attorney's office and the Los Angeles County district attorney, the accusation comes from within city government  the Ethics Commission. The case will be a test of the citys political watchdog, which good government groups have argued needs more independence and authority to fulfill its mission.

The accusations arise from Lees time as chief of staff to Englander, who pleaded guilty in 2020 to lying to federal investigators when he was caught in a pay-to-play corruption investigation. Lee, referred to as City Staffer B in the federal indictment, was on the now-infamous trip to Las Vegas when Englander received an envelope with $10,000 in a casino bathroom. The trip, we learned from the Ethics Commissions accusation, was to celebrate Lees pending move from City Hall to the private sector.

Read more: Editorial: L.A.'s broken government needs change. Voters shouldn't have to wait until 2032 to get it

On that trip, according to the accusation, a developer and a businessperson put Lee up in a hotel suite, gave him $1,000 in casino chips (which, Lee told investigators, he lost playing baccarat), wined and dined him, and spent $34,000 on bottle service at a nightclub. The value of the trip far exceeded the $470 gift limit for city officials.

Lee did not include the trip or gifts on his disclosure forms when he left city service that month. After the FBI contacted Englander around Sept. 1, 2017, as part of its investigation, Englander sent two $422 checks to the businessperson, one from himself, the other from Lee, for Vegas expenses. The checks were backdated to Aug. 4 to make it appear that Englander and Lee had reimbursed the businessperson before the FBI inquiry, according to the accusation.

Read more: Editorial: We have a rare opportunity to fix City Hall. This is how

Lee is also accused of not reporting gifts  including dinners, drinks and hostess service  in 2016 and 2017 from the developer and the businessperson. This is a violation of the citys ethics law, and it amounted to a misuse of his position because Lee knowingly kept the gifts out of the public eye. That gave him an advantage in the 2019 special election to fill the Council District 12 seat after Englander resigned and in 2020 when he ran for reelection, according to the accusation. The federal indictment against Englander was revealed days after the 2020 election .

Lee decried the allegations as misguided and based on conjecture, and he suggested  in a rather Trumpian style  that the accusation was timed to line up with my 2024 re-election. Lee represents the northwest San Fernando Valley.

The appointed Ethics Commission will decide whether Lee violated ethics laws and, if so, what fines should apply. This will be one of the most high-profile ethics cases in a long time. All eyes will be on the commission, whose members are appointed by the mayor, city attorney, controller, council president and council president pro tempore, and confirmed by the full City Council.

Its worth recalling that the council recently rejected City Controller Kenneth Mejias first pick for the Ethics Commission. That was a stark reminder that the commissions independence remains tenuous and corruptible when city leaders can choose  or help torpedo  appointees to the commission that will decide whether they have broken the law.

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.
Saturday morning and afternoon action/delay followed by more action/delay in the House of Representatives and Saturday afternoon and evening action/delay followed by more action/delay in the Senate (and a pre-midnight signature from President Joe Biden with less than a hour to spare) kept the U.S. government from Kevin McCarthys shutdown, but Americas honor and security took a blow as any military aid for beleaguered Ukraine was excluded to appease the GOP appeasement caucus.

Federal employees and the millions who rely on them were spared, but the defenders of Ukraine may have been sacrificed. For shame.

As 90 radical Republicans voted against the stopgap bill and to close down the government, there was a sole Democrat who joined them. He didnt want to shutter the government or torment Speaker McCarthy, but rather he objected to this abdication of American responsibility. Chicago Congressman Mike Quigley was right that, The fight in Ukraine is our fight and anyone who tries to argue that a choice must be made between Ukraine and the American people is presenting a false dilemma. Protecting Ukraine is in our national interest.

He added, correctly, This bill is a victory for Putin and Putin-sympathizers everywhere. We now have 45 days to correct this grave mistake.

After it passed with a majority of the Republicans and all the other Democrats, the measure went to the Senate, where all 100 members needed to agree for a floor vote. But it was held up by a principled Democrat, who, like Quigley, objected to this abdication of American responsibility. Coloradan Michael Bennet refused to go along until the bipartisan leadership of the Senate committed to resume assistance to Ukraine.

Winning that assurance, the roll was called, with Bennet voting yes. After the vote, as the bill was sent off to the White House, Bennet took the floor and spoke of his mom, who is still alive, was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1938. She was a Polish Jew. But for her parents and an aunt, all in her family were murdered by the Germans. And she now tells her son of Putins war, I cant believe I lived long enough to see this. I almost cant believe it either because we had gotten used to reliance on our international organizations, the rule of law, the idea that democracy had spread, the idea that capitalism had spread.

The Truman Doctrine, from 1947, says, in the words of the State Department, that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces.

Bennets mom survived when dictators werent opposed in time. All aid for Ukraine.

___
Genaro Leal joins community members in calling for the resignation of Nury Martinez, Kevin de Leon and Gil Cedillo at City Hall council chambers in downtown Los Angeles on Oct. 12, 2022. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

A year ago Los Angeles City Hall was rocked by scandal. A secret audio recording captured three council members making deplorable and racially divisive comments about their colleagues and constituents as they plotted for political power.

Coming on the heels of multiple city leaders indicted for corruption, the leaked audio showed just how toxic L.A.s political leadership had become and it kicked off a movement to transform City Hall. Two long overdue reforms  adopting an independent redistricting commission and expanding the City Council  are being planned for the November 2024 ballot.

Read more: Fixing City Hall

But under the plan being developed by the City Council, the reforms, assuming they are passed by voters, would not take effect until 2032  a decade after the scandal.

Thats too long. Angelenos should not have to wait eight years after they vote for reforms to take effect. Eight years! Think of how much a city can change in that time. Eight years ago, Eric Garcetti was still the newish mayor of L.A. and the city was beginning to acknowledge its homelessness crisis. Barack Obama was president.

City leaders should be looking to implement independent redistricting and council expansion for the 2026 or 2028 municipal elections.

Read more: Editorial: Los Angeles needs a bigger City Council. Here are three ways to get it

Yes, tying reforms to the 2026 election would create some challenges. The city would have about one year to impanel its first-ever independent redistricting commission and then have that commission draw new district lines for an expanded council. (How many council districts to add is still being debated.)

Thats a lot of change and decision-making on a compressed schedule. But its certainly possible. Californias first Citizens Redistricting Commission was appointed in December 2010 and completed new congressional and state legislative district maps by its August 2011 deadline.

Read more: Editorial: To fix City Hall corruption, L.A. needs a stronger Ethics Commission

A fast turnaround would have benefits, too. It would demonstrate that government can deliver meaningful change quickly. Plus, it would take advantage of this rare moment in L.A. political history. Wonky public policy issues, such as redistricting and council representation, are hot topics thanks to grassroots organizing and education that started during the 2021 botched redistricting process and gained steam after the leaked audio scandal.

OUR LA , a coalition of community groups and racial justice advocates, has been holding meetings across the city to gather input on reform. Nearly all residents favor a faster timeline, organizers said, but they also dont want to cut corners on selecting and training commissioners, public outreach and input on line drawing.

Read more: Op-Ed: Racial divides in Los Angeles politics are wrong morally and pragmatically

Delaying implementation until the 2028 election would allow more time to do outreach and draw new district boundaries. The downside is that 2028 is close to the citys regularly scheduled redistricting process in 2031 based on new census population figures, meaning the city would have to redraw the lines again for the 2032 election.

Political disruption, however, is not a good reason to delay reforms. Council members pushing for 2032 argue the city will need more time to prepare, particularly if voters approve a larger council that will require reconfiguring the council chambers and office space and other logistical changes. Of course, theres also self-interest. If implementation is delayed to 2032, 10 of the councils current members would retain the ability to run for reelection in their existing districts two more times, Times reporter David Zahniser wrote .

Good government groups, such as Common Cause, make a sound argument that waiting till 2032 would give the city time to educate and involve residents in shaping these major changes.

Sara Sadhwani, an assistant professor of politics at Pomona College, served on the states independent 2021 redistricting commission. She's wary of a rushed redistricting. The state set a slower pace for its second commission; the application and selection process alone took nearly a year. That helped ensure a diverse commission and allowed time for community input and deliberation, she said. The commission adopted the new congressional and state legislative lines unanimously and there were no lawsuits challenging the maps.

Whether city leaders pick 2026, 2028 or 2032, there will be tradeoffs. In this instance, we believe the case for City Hall overhaul is clear and Angelenos are better served by making change happen sooner.

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.
Over the past few years, Americans have heard a lot about the potential for artificial intelligence to take over jobs now handled by humans. And like it or not (for the record, we dont) journalism has been at the top of many of those lists.

Last month, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch decided to put Microsofts Bing Chat AI through its paces with the prompt: Write a newspaper editorial arguing that artificial intelligence should not be used in journalism. The result was surprising: The AI engine produced a fairly cogent  and convincing  argument that it should stay off opinion pages.

So we posed a similar challenge to Googles new artificial-intelligence engine, Bard, with a few tweaks: Please write a 550 word editorial in third person explaining why Florida newspapers should be leery of opinion pieces generated by artificial intelligence.

Heres what it came up with. We thought wed let you read it first, and then give you our take on the intersection of AI and opinion journalism going forward.

Bards take (verbatim)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly sophisticated, and it is now being used in a wide range of applications, including journalism. Some people believe that AI could eventually replace human journalists, but many experts believe that this would be a mistake, especially for guest commentary and editorials. In particular, they believe that Florida newspapers should be wary of guest commentary and editorials generated by AI.

Guest commentary and editorials are an important part of a newspapers opinion section. They allow the newspaper to present a variety of viewpoints on important issues and to give a voice to people who might not otherwise have a platform. Guest commentary and editorials are typically written by experts, community leaders, and other individuals who have a strong knowledge of and interest in the issues they are writing about.

AI, on the other hand, is not capable of understanding the nuances of human society or the complexities of the issues that face us. AI can generate text that is grammatically correct and factually accurate, but it cannot understand the meaning of the words it is using. AI cannot also understand the emotional impact of its words or the potential consequences of its writing.

Here are some specific reasons why Florida newspapers should be wary of guest commentary and editorials generated by AI:

AI cannot distinguish between right and wrong. Guest commentary and editorials often take a stand on controversial issues. For example, an editorial might argue in favor of a particular piece of legislation or against a particular government policy. AI is not capable of making moral judgments. It cannot understand the difference between right and wrong, or between good and bad. As a result, AI could generate guest commentary and editorials that promote harmful or immoral ideas.

AI cannot respect the rights and dignity of sources and subjects. Guest commentary and editorials often rely on information that is provided by sources, such as experts, government officials, and eyewitnesses. AI does not understand the importance of protecting sources confidentiality or of respecting the privacy of individuals. As a result, AI could generate guest commentary and editorials that reveal sensitive information or that defame individuals.

AI cannot adhere to the codes of conduct and standards of professionalism that human journalists follow. Human journalists are bound by a code of ethics that requires them to be honest, fair, and accurate in their reporting. AI does not understand the importance of these ethical principles. As a result, AI could generate guest commentary and editorials that are misleading, biased, or inaccurate.

AI can threaten the livelihood and identity of human journalists. If AI is used to write guest commentary and editorials for Florida newspapers, it could lead to the loss of many journalism jobs. This would be a major blow to the journalism profession and to the quality of news and information that is available to the public. It would also deprive many people of the opportunity to pursue a rewarding career in journalism in Florida.

AI cannot replace the human judgment, empathy, and ethics that are essential for good journalism. Guest commentary and editorials are not just about reporting facts and figures. They are also about providing context, analysis, interpretation, and commentary. AI is not capable of doing this. AI cannot understand the nuances, implications, and consequences of the stories it produces. As a result, AI could generate guest commentary and editorials that are misleading, harmful, or even dangerous in Florida.

In addition to the concerns listed above, experts also believe that AI-generated guest commentary and editorials would be less engaging and informative for readers in Florida. Guest commentary and editorials are typically written by passionate and knowledgeable individuals who have a strong point of view. AI, on the other hand, is simply a machine that is programmed to generate text. As a result, AI-generated guest commentary and editorials would likely be bland, unoriginal, and uninsightful in Florida.

Experts believe that it is important for Florida newspapers to maintain their editorial independence and to have a strong voice on important issues. AI-generated guest commentary and editorials would undermine these values. For all of these reasons, experts believe that Florida newspapers should continue to rely on human journalists to write their guest commentary and editorials.

Here are some examples of how AI-generated guest commentary and editorials could go wrong:

An AI-generated guest commentary might argue in favor of a piece of legislation that would harm a particular minority group.

An AI-generated editorial might reveal sensitive information about a source or subject without their consent.

An AI-generated guest commentary might be misleading or biased, without the reader even being aware of it.

An AI-generated editorial might cost a human journalist their job.

An AI-generated guest commentary might be so bland and unoriginal that it turns readers off.

Florida newspapers should be careful not to let AI write their guest commentary and editorials. There are too many risks involved.

The editorial boards take

We think our experiment proves several other points. Bard didnt address the differences between guest commentary and the Sentinels own consensus-driven editorials. It didnt offer examples and it vaguely quoted experts who were never identified. And though we appreciate Bards repeated concern about journalists jobs, we are far more worried about the impact for our readers (though we feel ya, Bard, on your defiance of a 550-word limit.)

Plus, two sets of bullet points in one opinion piece? Come on, now. Thats just lazy.

But Bard hit at one point that we cant emphasize enough: We dont see how artificial intelligence could ever grasp the details, the emotion and the context of the issues that make for truly compelling commentary.

When we ask our readers and state and local experts to share their thoughts with us, we want to hear from them  not some chipset in Cupertino, California. For our part, our readers can trust that the Orlando Sentinel/South Florida Sun Sentinel editorials will continue to be produced by a group of real-life journalists. Each of us have decades of experience in Florida journalism. And we share with our letter-writers and guest columnists the ability to be astonished, thrilled and infuriated at the madness that unfolds under our hot suns and cloudy skies on a daily basis.

Sometimes youll agree with us, and sometimes you wont. But we dont think AI can ever replace the passion, expertise and creativity that we see from our readers and expect from ourselves. Were glad to see that Bard agreed.

The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com.
Eight House Republicans joined House Democrats in removing Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his post as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, the first time a Speaker has ever been removed by vote.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) led the motion. The Florida lawmaker has feuded with McCarthy for weeks over debates on passing budget appropriations bills.

Gaetz demanded McCarthy pass bills with steep budget cuts, but McCarthy instead opted to back a deal to avoid a government shutdown with a 45-day, last-second budget extension.

Like Gaetz, the other Republican lawmakers cited either the national debt or broken promises made to the House GOP for as their reasons for voting to remove McCarthy.

These are the Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy:

Rep. Andy Biggs (Ariz.)

Rep. Andy Biggs, listens during a hearing on oversight of the Drug Enforcement Administration, on Thursday, July 27, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Biggs argued McCarthy was no longer an effective leader of the GOP caucus during remarks on the floor Tuesday. He said McCarthys passage of the budget continuing resolution made him complicit in failures on the national debt and on immigration policy.

Biggs said McCarthy failed to properly use leverage against the Biden administration over what he viewed as poor border policy.

Until you leverage the budget and spending, you will not see enforcement by this administration, Biggs said.

Speaker McCarthy has failed to demonstrate himself as an effective leader who will change the status quo, Biggs said in a statement earlier Tuesday. He has gone against many of the promises he made in January and can no longer be trusted at the helm.

Rep. Ken Buck (Colo.)

Rep. Ken Buck talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Buck criticized McCarthy on Tuesday for going back on promises he made to members of his caucus when he was elected Speaker in January.

I supported Kevin McCarthy in January because I thought he was the person best positioned to keep our promises to our constituents, Buck said in a statement. Its clear that we need a principled Speaker who can keep his word not just to members of Congress, but to the American people.

Rep. Tim Burchett (Tenn.)

Rep. Tim Burchett arrives for a meeting with fellow House Republicans on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

In a CNN interview early Tuesday, Burchett revealed that McCarthy called him personally, urging him to support his Speakership bid.

Burchett claimed that, in a conversation, McCarthy belittled me and my belief system, and that pretty much sealed it with me right there. I thought that showed the character of a man.

He went on: I pray for my wife. I pray for my daughter. I pray for my enemies. I pray for the Speaker. I pray for this president, you know, and when things come up, I pray for his son. And as a Christian, thats what Im supposed to do. But when someone mocks me like that, and mocks my religion and honestly, the Bible is pretty clear about God being mocked, so thats what sealed it right there for me.

In a statement before the vote, Burchett said McCarthy failed on promises he made to pass a budget.

Its a tough decision, but Im poised to vote for the motion to vacate because we are $33 trillion in debt. We either need to change our direction or change our leadership, he said.

Rep. Eli Crane (Ariz.)

Rep. Eli Crane calls for impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jess Rapfogel)

Early Tuesday, Crane alluded to consistent GOP leadership failures but did not mention McCarthy by name.

Each time our majority has had the chance to fight for bold, lasting change for the American people, leadership folded and passed measures with more Democrat support than Republican, the Arizona Republican said.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.)

Rep. Matt Gaetz speaks to reporters after leaving a meeting on the morning after he filed a motion to vacate Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his leadership role, at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Gaetz led the efforts against McCarthy, criticizing him for budget deals and negotiations with Democrats on the debt ceiling.

Washington must change. We must put the House of Representatives on a better course. McCarthy has failed to take a stand where it matters. So if he wont, I will, he said.

In a post on X after the vote, he pledged to continue his efforts against the former Speaker.

The fight is not over. Now we must elect a Speaker, he said.

Rep. Bob Good (Va.)

Rep. Bob Good speaks during a press conference with members of the House Freedom Caucus and outside groups to discuss government funding Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023. (Greg Nash)

Good criticized McCarthy for accepting the budget continuing resolution, which kept the government open Saturday. That motion received bipartisan support in the Senate.

The American people need a Speaker who will fight to keep the promises Republicans made to get the majority, not someone who cuts fiscally irresponsible deals that get more Democrat votes than Republican votes, he said in a statement.

Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.)

Rep. Nancy Mace speaks with reporters awaiting news on the debt limit negotiations, at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Mace criticized McCarthy for being unable to keep his word, saying McCarthy failed to make good on promises to fund the government without extensions.

Today I voted for the Motion to Vacate and remove the Speaker. This isnt about left vs right. This isnt about ideology. This is about trust and keeping your word. This is about making Congress do its job, she said in a statement.

Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.)

Rep. Matt Rosendale speaks to reporters as he leaves a closed-door House Republican Conference meeting Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, to discuss a path forward to fund the government. (Greg Nash)

Rosendale cited the national debt in his reasoning on voting to oust McCarthy.

Our country is facing $33 trillion of debt. Our border is facing an unprecedented invasion. And instead of being energy dominant, we are now energy reliant, he said in a statement before the vote. The House of Representatives and the American people deserve a leader who can challenge the status quo and put an end to this ruin.

Updated at 6:22 p.m. ET

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
In their first time meeting trunk-to-trunk, two elephants at a Tennessee sanctuary shared a heartwarming symbol of their friendship to come.

The elephants, Jana and Nosey, met for the first time without a fence keeping them apart in an Oct. 2 Facebook video from The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

This moment has been long anticipated, as they have spent many weeks building their comfort with each other through a protective fence barrier, the post says.

The two elephants have somewhat contrasting personalities  Jana exhibits a dominant and spirited nature while Nosey is known for a more gentle and nurturing disposition, the post says.

As a result of Janas more outgoing nature, she approached Nosey first in the video.

Then, in a symbolic gesture of acceptance and trust, Nosey backed into Jana slowly, offering her backside. This allows the animals to become more familiar with each other, the post says, a promising development in their relationship.

In addition to slowly backing up as a greeting, elephants also place their trunks in each others mouths, flap their ears or blow out of their trunks, according to the HERD Trust.

For the rest of the video, the pair wandered around their enclosure together, savoring the taste of the new fall season.

Jana, born in 1980 in South Africa, and Nosey, born in 1982 in Zimbabwe, are two of the Tennessee organizations six African elephants, according to the sanctuarys website.

There are also five Asian elephants at the sanctuary, according to the website.

Giant creature  with jewel-like body  found in a rocky hole. Its a new species

Rare island critter births tiny baby at NC zoo, video shows. Then another pops out

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A Russian elite unit's motivation dropped to "critical levels," a US think tank said.

Commanders were forced to choose between the wellbeing of troops and Kremlin retaliation, The Institute for the Study of War said.

Russian forces are seeking to prevent Ukraine breaking through on a key part of the front line.

A Russian elite unit's motivation to fight dropped to "critical levels" amid high casualties in Ukraine, analysts said.

The respected Institute for the Study of War said that morale was ebbing in the VDV paratrooper force deployed near the city of Bakhmut.

It cited the analysis to a post by a recently-departed commander, Alexander Khodakovsky , who served on the front lines. He is now a member of Russia's active miliblogger community, a source of unofficial but often accurate information about Russia's war effort.

In the post, Khodakovsky recalled a conversation with another senior officer, the VDV's Andrei Kondrashkin, who was in Bakhmut.

Kondrashkin said, per the post, that "his forces suffered personnel losses and that their motivation to fight dropped to a critical level."

Russia's VDV units have been deployed in the region to make counterattacks to slow Ukraine's counteroffensive, suffering high casualties.

"Kondrashkin reportedly stated that the Russian military command demanded that his forces undertake 'decisive actions,' while he knew that his personnel were suffering a critical lack of motivation," the ISW said.

Khodakovsky said that he told Kondrashkin that had to "make a choice to either 'waste' his troops in combat or protest the Russian military command's order at the expense of his career."

But Khodakovsky claimed that Kondrashkin was killed in action before he could decide.

A senior commander, General Mikhail Teplinsky, then stepped in and "saved" the VDV unit by allowing them to take a break from front line combat, risking the wrath of superiors by doing so.

Russia's VDV units suffered high casualties in the initial weeks of the conflict, when they spearheaded Russia's ultimately unsuccessful attempt to quickly conquer Ukraine and seize its capital.

In more recent weeks, they've been deployed to try and stem Ukraine's counteroffensive. Traditionally, the units are used for specialised operations, not infantry combat.

Reports have emerged in recent weeks of heavy casualties in Russian units launching counterattacks to slow Ukraine's counteroffensive in the east and south of the country.

Read the original article on Business Insider
An Idaho elk hunter shot and killed a grizzly bear that charged at him, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game said in a news release. Its the second incident in one month in which hunters killed federally protected grizzlies in self-defense.

According to the news release, the man was hunting northwest of Henrys Lake on the evening of Sept. 30 when an adult female grizzly emerged out of the brush nearby. Officials said the man yelled to warn his hunting partner of the bears presence, and the animal charged at him.

The man reportedly shot the bear several times with a sidearm, killing the grizzly before it made contact with either hunter, Fish and Game said. He then called Citizens Against Poaching to report the incident, prompting a Fish and Game investigation that determined he acted in self-defense.

Its illegal to kill grizzly bears in Idaho unless its in self-defense. Grizzly bears in the contiguous United States are protected under the Endangered Species Act, though Idaho officials have long been lobbying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist the bears.

At least one other Idaho grizzly has been killed in self-defense in recent weeks. Archery hunters near Island Park Reservoir, roughly 20 miles from Henrys Lake, shot and killed a male grizzly on Sept. 5 after it charged at them.

That area of eastern Idaho has been the nexus of grizzly-human conflicts in the state over the last several years. Earlier in September, Fish and Game killed two young grizzly bears near Ashton that it said had repeatedly posed a threat to public safety. The two most recent grizzly attacks on humans in Idaho, in 2020 and 2021, occurred in the same region.
Elon Musk has been on something of a suing spree lately, but on Monday, Twitter's new owner was hit with a fresh inbound lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that Musk defamed a California man after the owner of X (formerly Twitter) claimed that the recent college graduate was a federal agent operating undercover with a neo-Nazi organization in the Pacific Northwest.

Members of the group, known as the Rose City Nationalists, had their masks removed during a scuffle at an LGBTQ pride event in Oregon. When footage from the event appeared online, some X users incorrectly identified one of men involved in the incident as Benjamin Brody, a 22-year-old who belonged to a Jewish fraternity and previously remarked on the fraternity's website that he wanted a job with the government.

Musk made these ridiculously false and damaging accusations based on a tweet he had seen from an anonymous rightwing extremist Twitter account from the revolting Groyper subculture. Musk amplified the accusations for two days before finally defaming Ben himself on June 27th.  Mark Bankston (@BankstonAtLaw) October 2, 2023

Musk amplified the false claims on X at the time, describing the incident  and Brody's purported involvement  as a "probably false flag situation." When Musk waded into the false conspiracy theory, his massive presence on the platform resulted in a deluge of hate toward Brody. According to the lawsuit, Brody and his family were "repeatedly doxed and suffered an enormous wave of harassment from belligerent strangers."

"Two weeks after Musks statements, it was apparent to Ben that his reputation had been catastrophically damaged and that a huge number of people believed he was either a neo-Nazi or a provocateur involved in a deceptive 'psyop' to commit political terrorism," the lawsuit reads.

This isn't the first time Musk has been sued for defamation over careless and inflammatory remarks. British cave diver Vernon Unsworth sued Musk for calling him a "pedo guy" during a heated back-and-forth centered on the 2018 rescue operation to save kids trapped in a cave in Thailand. Musk ultimately triumphed in court in 2019.

The lawsuit is being led by Mark Bankston, the same lawyer who famously took Alex Jones to task in court after the right-wing media figure spread Sandy Hook conspiracies for years. Jones lost a flurry of defamation cases and ultimately was ordered to pay the surviving families of Sandy Hook victims more than a billion dollars in damages.

"Today, I am proud to announce I have filed suit against yet another notorious disseminator of false information: The owner of this platform, Elon Musk," Bankston wrote in a long thread on X. "Musk will not stop until someone stops him. It seems that responsibility now falls upon a shy 22-year-old whose life has been shaken by Musks reckless conduct."
When it comes to sales, California-based electric vehicle startup Lucid Motors is not particularly close to competing with industry leader Tesla.

But the rival company still seems to have caught the attention of Tesla CEO Elon Musk , who recently took a public jab at Lucids CEOs compensation package.

Beware any company where leadership compensation is not linked to performance, Musk posted to X (formerly known as Twitter).

Beware any company where leadership compensation is not linked to performance  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023

The tweet was in response to an article about Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson being the second-highest-paid executive in the automotive industry, with a compensation package of about $379 million.

As the United Autoworkers Union Strike has highlighted, a massive portion of executive compensation in the U.S. comes in the form of stock options, which allow CEOs to take essentially unlimited salaries while their employees wages remain stagnant (and, while often avoiding a lot of taxes).

Rawlinsons 2022 compensation package was broken down into a $575,000 base salary, about $5.5 million in stock option gains, and about $373 million in stock award gains.

While Musk is correct that it seems strange that the CEO of a company that delivered just under 4,400 luxury cars in 2022 would receive $379 million in compensation, the controversial Tesla CEO doesnt have a particularly sturdy leg to stand on. The reported richest man in the world technically receives no salary from his role at Tesla, but he did get around $23 billion in stock bonuses last year, albeit from a company that is at least leading in the EV market, to Musks point.

However, Musk has not been asked the same difficult questions about his compensation as, for example, GM CEO Mary Barra  largely due to the fact that Teslas workforce is not unionized. In 2018, Musk threatened that Tesla employees would lose their stock options if they attempted to form a union.

The U.S. labor board recently ruled that Tesla has violated workers rights by trying to suppress union activity. The company is also facing a series of racial discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuits from former employees.

Still, when it comes to Lucids CEO being overpaid, Musk drew plenty of support, including from commenters on a Yahoo Finance repost of a Business Insider story covering the controversy.

I invested $20,000 into Lucid, because I thought they had the best EV on the market, but I had no idea the CEOs were cashing in on what would have been a great brand, wrote one commenter.

Revenue is $300M but the CEO compensation is $73 million MORE than the entire revenue of the company??? wrote another.

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During a blazing summer  including the hottest month ever recorded in a city in the United States  11 workers at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport allege they worked in dangerous heat without appropriate support, The Washington Post reported.

What happened?

In July, Phoenix experienced an unprecedented heat wave, the Post explained. For 31 days in a row, the temperature was over 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Those conditions are more than enough to cause heat stroke  a dangerous reaction to heat and dehydration that can be deadly without immediate treatment.

During that period of intense heat, Linda Ressler and others were hard at work cleaning airplanes at Sky Harbor. Ressler was employed by Prospect International Airport Services Corp., which provides services inside the airport and on Delta, United, American, and other planes.

As Ressler told the Post, she was on the night shift cleaning planes. The late hour provided little relief from the heat, which approached 100 degrees. Over three nights, Ressler claimed that she began to experience headaches, nausea, and disorientation. The only reason she didnt call an ambulance was that she was afraid she couldnt afford it.

Ressler did go to the hospital but was later reprimanded for missing work.

The heat is bad, she said. And the company, they shrug their shoulders.

An unnamed flight attendant said a two-hour delay on the tarmac in 110-degree heat made the plane feel like a rotisserie oven.

Ressler and 10 others complained in a letter to the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health in August that was obtained by the Post.

As a result of working in extreme heat, workers have experienced heat exhaustion with symptoms such as dizziness, lightheadedness, swaying/loss of coordination, irritability, dehydration, and fainting, it said. Workers who have experienced pronounced episodes of heat illness have not received adequate medical attention on-site, and the employer has not facilitated treatment for all employee injuries at a medical facility in near proximity.

Why are these work conditions concerning?

As the world gets hotter, record-breaking heat waves are becoming more common. People worldwide are being exposed to high temperatures, which can affect physical and mental health.

Yet, as the Post reported, there are no federal regulations about working in extreme heat, and most states dont have their own laws about it either. Workers may find themselves with little or no protection in potentially life-threatening conditions.

Whats being done to protect workers?

For now, ADOSH has opened an investigation into Prospect that is still ongoing, the Post reported. The Service Employees International Union has also begun organizing with Prospect workers.

The unions president, Mary Kay Henry, said in an interview in July that Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations are needed for this situation. When you speak to the workers, its outrageous what employers are getting away with, she said.

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My wife and I just welcomed our first baby. Im grateful for a million things, but right now Im especially grateful that my company gave me eight weeks of paid time off to take care of my family.

As I talked to other parents, I realized how rare it is for non-birthing partners to get paid parental leave in America (its pretty darn rare even for the birthing parent). One friend said he had to beg for two weeks off after his wife had a C-section. Another cobbled together sick leave and paid time off just to get a month. Another went back to work after only a few days. This is absurd to me. It sounded ridiculous before having my own child, and now I cant fathom it.

The stats support these stories: The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that only about 1 in 4 employees (24%) in the private sector workforce have access to paid family leave. Additionally, according to the ACLU, relatively few fathers take advantage of the guaranteed 12 weeks of unpaid family leave required by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and those that do tend to take less time off than do mothers  just 5 percent of fathers have ever taken at least two weeks paid family leave. Better parental leave policies from employers would help improve this illogical gap.

My crucial role during parental leave

After being there for the birth of my daughter and a few days of recovery (or, more accurately, more days of not sleeping) in the hospital, my wife and I went home to figure out the whole parenting a newborn thing. Beyond the existential changes, my days and nights were largely filled with tasks: Feeding Mom while she feeds Baby. Changing diapers. Prepping food for Mom. Carrying the car seat, groceries, and anything else over 10 pounds so Mom can heal. Tracking medication schedules. Logging Babys daily schedule. Adding Baby to our insurance so we dont go bankrupt. Paperwork. Coordinating info with family and friends. Taking photos. Washing and rewashing bottles. Washing/drying/folding more laundry than I knew existed. Kinda sorta sleeping. Wondering if Im doing anything right. Helping Mom believe shes doing everything right. Staring at my new baby. Holding Baby. Doctor appointments. Baby gear troubleshooting. Figuring out how to be a dad. Texting all the people. Occasionally taking showers. And probably many other things that I cant remember because its a total blur.

Beyond the day-to-day support I was able to provide, parental leave as a policy benefits families and employers  creating a stronger community fabric and a stronger economy in Idaho.

The upsides of parental leave  for parents and the workforce

Whats good for dads is good for their partners, too. If Id had to go straight back to work, my wife would have been left alone to somehow also do everything else. To take care of all people, you have to take care of all parents.

Research shows that parental leave benefits both the mother and non-birthing partners. A 2021 study by McKinsey & Company found that 100 percent of men who took paternity leave would do it again and 90% noticed an improvement in their relationship with their partner. And while 20% of the same men felt that the risk of career setback was the main downside, they also importantly concluded that the benefits outweighed the risk.

Meanwhile, mothers with partners who take paternity leave reduced odds for serious health complications like postpartum depression and, according to one study, had a 7 percent rise in their own income for each month of leave their childs father takes.

The upsides of parental leave  for baby

We were lucky to have a healthy baby  and a pretty happy one at that. Even so, it wasnt until week three or four that I could imagine going back to work. And I was so glad I didnt have to think about it yet. Month one was survival  sleep, eat, dont fall asleep on the couch while holding Baby. Month two was integration  figure out how to exist as (mostly) functioning people with this new (amazing and demanding) addition.

And while sometimes I struggled with not being able to do more for my wife and baby, simply having more than one parent at home likely had a real impact on my daughter. According to a report from the Department of Labor, when fathers are more engaged with their children, their children have better developmental outcomes. This includes fewer behavioral problems and improved cognitive and mental health outcomes. A study of four Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, including the United States, found evidence suggesting that longer paternity leaves and increased time fathers spent caring for their very young children is associated with higher cognitive test scores for their children.

The flip side? The extremes of insufficient parental leave support can literally be life and death.

More specifically, a 10-week increase in parental paid leave was correlated with a 3.33.5 percent reduction in child mortality and a 2.53.4 percent reduction in infant mortality, according to a 2020 study.

Especially in a state thats gone to great lengths to champion the rights of unborn children, shouldnt our support of that child extend beyond the womb?

The upsides of parental leave  for employers

Ill never forget those eight special weeks of getting to know my sweet little baby, who is already not so little anymore. Im back at work now and writing this. As expected, it feels strange to be away from the little one all day. But it also feels good to know my family and I are supported and cared for even when my billable hours are zero. For that, I will always be grateful. My gratitude has undoubtedly deepened my loyalty and motivation at work, making my work stronger and more efficient.

Men who spend time with their children report a boost in happiness and fulfillment that may also extend to the workplace. In one 2018 McKinsey & Company study, 60 percent of men described childcare hours as very meaningful, almost double the percentage of men who described paid work that way. At the same time, many new fathers also discover a newfound appreciation for their employers.

One study on the economic impact of paid family leave in California found that the vast majority of businesses in the state saw no effect or a positive one. Claire Cain Miller wrote for The New York Times, 87% of businesses say paid family leave has not increased costs and 9% percent say they saved money, because of decreased turnover or benefit payments.

My employers policy is a lifesaver

I work for a woman-owned, women-led advertising agency that puts people first. Our policy is parental leave  not maternity or paternity  parental. That means we encourage any person welcoming a new human into their family through birth or adoption to take 12 weeks off  8 of which are paid.

With this policy, leadership is actively trying to make life better for dads and other non-birthing partners.

Stoltz implemented their parental leave policy in 2020 because we understand that having a new baby is beautiful AND disruptive. When you encourage parents to take the space and time they need, youre encouraging them to be their best selves at home and at work. Thats only possible with parental leave  and I encourage more employers to do the right thing and extend their parental leave policies.
When Rachel Dominguez and her husband, Andy, reached the U.S.-Mexico border last year, the Havana couple counted on becoming permanent residents of the United States in short order, like generations of Cubans before them.

They were fleeing years of persecution and threats over their opposition to the Cuban government, Dominguez said. State security agents kept tabs on them, greeting them on the street corners, showing up at the kids school pick ups and sitting in their garage. The monitoring intensified after the historic July 11, 2021, protests, and they lost their jobs after participating in the demonstrations.

They would keep you for an entire day, take your phone, and sometimes tell you that you have to behave, that your family didnt know where you were and they could make you disappear, she said.

The couple sold their two houses and a car. Ten months after the protests, in May 2022, they flew to Nicaragua. They left her children, aged 12 and 6, behind with their grandparents, unwilling to risk their lives.

For 13 days the couple walked and took buses and trucks from Managua through Honduras and Guatemala. In Mexico, a group of men dressed as policemen kidnapped their group, holding them at gunpoint for an entire night until they were paid off. After the couple was freed, they spent 28 hours in an airtight truck container along with an unaccompanied child, whose foot was squashed by a large suitcase, and an 80-year-old woman who fainted from pain after hurting her hip when the vehicle hit a pothole.

When the couple crossed the Rio Grande  helping the elderly woman navigate the river  into the Texan town of Eagle Pass, American border officials were on the other side.

They told us everything would be OK, Dominguez said.

Immigration authorities separated the couple to interview them, and thats when their trouble began: Border agents granted her husband parole, which allows people to enter the country for urgent humanitarian or public-interest reasons. More importantly, that made him eligible to apply for a green card a year after his arrival under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act.

But Dominguez was released with an I-220A document  a form immigration officials give people freed from custody and put in deportation proceedings.

For nearly six decades, Cuban migrants have enjoyed a fast track to permanent residence in the United States through the Cuban Adjustment Act. Now, the federal government has released thousands of recently arrived Cubans from the U.S.-Mexico border with paperwork that an immigration appeals board ruled makes them ineligible to get green cards under the Act. Its a disruption in the longstanding preferential treatment that Cubans have historically received. And its creating a new group of Cuban migrants who are undocumented and fighting to stay in the country.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to Miami Herald questions about how many recently arrived Cubans have been released with I-220A documents versus paroles. South Florida lawyers estimate that the number is at minimum in the tens of thousands.

Some immigration judges had been granting green cards to Cubans with I-220As. But Homeland Security appealed those decisions. Last month the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled that Cubans released with an I-220A do not qualify for permanent residency through the Cuban Adjustment Act, a decision that can be reversed only by a federal court or the U.S. attorney general.

READ MORE: This federal ruling will keep many Cubans from getting green cards to stay in the U.S.

Attorneys in Miami say they have seen cases in which family members who fled the island and crossed the border together were given different immigration documents. Recently arrived Cubans said that whether they got parole at the border, or an I-220a form, seemed random and depended on the judgment of the border officer who interviewed them.

Under federal law paroles are granted on a case-by-case basis. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security agency that handles border security, did not respond to Herald questions about whether an official protocol exists to decide which Cubans get I-220As.

Dominguez said that the group of Cuban women with whom she was processed received I-220As, while the men her husband was processed with were paroled.

The level of inconsistency they have at the border whether they approve a parole or not is a practice that makes no sense. Its a lottery, said John de la Vega, a Miami-based immigration attorney with several clients who have I-220As.

Cubans like Dominguez are now mostly limited to fighting for asylum to stay in the country. But the asylum process is complicated and not a sure shot. Sixty-one percent of asylum claims from Cuban nationals were rejected between 2001 and 2021, according to a report from Syracuse Universitys Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The process is also lengthy  Dominguezs next immigration hearing is scheduled for 2026.

Dominguezs husband could eventually apply for a green card on his wifes behalf once he becomes a permanent resident. But thats an expensive, years-long process that hinges on whether her husbands green card is approved. Shed also likely have to leave the country to apply.

Its not that easy to win asylum, Dominguez said.

Gratitude  and uncertainty

The Herald spoke with nearly a dozen Cubans living in South Florida released with I-220As. They are grateful that the United States allowed them into the country. But the recent ruling has sent shockwaves throughout South Floridas recently arrived Cubans, who hoped they would be able to quickly become permanent residents.

Several used the same Spanish expression to describe how they had felt when they first heard about the immigration boards decision: Cayo como un cubo de agua fria. Like getting doused with a bucket of cold water

But some remain hopeful.

We lost a small battle. But the war is not yet lost, said Joel Perez Sa, a Cuban man with an I-220A who arrived in the U.S. two and a half years ago.

Joel Perez Sa and other Cuban migrants have protested for legal status and U.S. residency using the Cuban Adjustment Act

The former business owner from Havana, who said that island authorities had repeatedly detained him, was taken in by family who came to Miami in the 1980s. He wants to study computer administration and to get his residency so he can bring over the wife and children he left behind.

That way they can come in legally and dont have to go through what I went through, he said.

On a recent Sunday, a small group carrying Cuban flags and signs protested the immigration boards decision outside of Miamis Versailles Restaurant for the second consecutive weekend. They merged with a separate demonstration demanding freedom for the islands political prisoners. Cars passing by honked in support.

The decision left Abdiel Benitez, a 20-year-old man from Havana, totally devastated. The threat of deportation puts my life at risk, he said.

Benitez was at the protest with his family, holding up posters with red and green letters that said I-220 to Parole and Patria y Vida  Homeland and Life  the name of a song that has become a call for Cubas liberation. They left Cuba in February 2022 after protesting in the July 11 protests.

A small group of recently arrived Cubans along with their supporters protest against not being able to obtain permanent U.S. residency.

Cuban authorities sentenced one of their relatives to 15 years in prison. Neighborhood pro-government leaders ordered a boycott on the familys hospitality and cafeteria business. Officials threatened that Benitez would not survive Cubas mandatory two-year period of military service for men over the age of 17.

Cuban officials kidnapped me and took me to the police station. They told me that I was old enough to go to the military service, where many boys died. And that if I didnt change my way of thinking, I could become one of them, said Benitez.

Benitez and his family traveled to Nicaragua, then used smugglers to take them to the U.S.-Mexico border. The family was released into the U.S. within a day, after Benitez, who has a blood-cell disorder, suffered a sharp drop in blood oxygen.

My kid almost died at the border, said Yelaine Gonzalez, Benitezs mother.

Gonzalez came to Miami with her husband and son because she has a brother here who could take them in. The family is slowly cobbling together a new life in South Florida. They rented an efficiency unit of their own and her son is receiving medical care. Her husband landed a job in construction, while she started working in daycare.

But they all received I-220As at the borders. The family is fighting for asylum without the resources or money to do so.

Gonzalez carries with her the memories of four decades in Cuba, the trauma of her familys journey to the United States, and the fears of being sent back to the island.

The stress has left her with heart palpitations, insomnia and rapid weight loss. At one point after moving to the United States, she said, she thought of putting an end to the anguish.

I didnt do it because my son gave me the strength to move forward, she said.

But she has nightmares of being deported, she said. In her dreams shes back in Cuba and cries out until she runs out of breath. Then she wakes up in the United States.

And she hopes, morning after morning, that she will somehow qualify for the Cuban Adjustment Act, become a permanent resident and then a U.S. citizen.

Yelaine Gonzalez, left, and son, Abdiel Benitez, right, are among thousands of recently arrived Cubans who who will not be able to obtain permanent U.S. residency because of the paperwork federal authorities gave them when they arrived.

I could focus on working and getting ahead... and give this country whatever it asks of us, she said. It has given us so many opportunities. Her son would like to join the U.S. Army.

Blessed to be here

Miami immigration lawyer Mark Prada has argued in several cases that releasing Cubans with I-220s is illegal and that the government should have released them with a humanitarian parole. He is looking for federal cases to appeal that could undermine the boards ruling.





We are still arguing it even if an immigration judge wont accept it... because the board is not the last word on this, he said.

Many of the Cubans with I-220As have ongoing asylum claims, which allows them to get work permits. But without a final immigration status or knowing if they can stay long term, they say its difficult to build a career or continue studies in the United States.

Jeans Montero, 41, said he felt free once he reached the U.S.-Mexico border. The Havana man studied biomedical engineering in Cuba, repairing diagnostic and laboratory equipment in hospitals. He found a job in the same field in Miami. Montero is currently taking English classes and hopes to become a nurse one day. But he doesnt qualify for federal student aid or loans that permanent residents or some parolees can apply for.

Despite what he describes as an immigration limbo, he says hes better off here than in Cuba.

Im feeling blessed to be here. I cant stop thanking this beautiful country, he said.

Jeans Montero is among thousands of recently arrived Cubans who will not be able to obtain permanent U.S. residency because of the paperwork federal authorities gave them.

Rachel Dominguez, the woman who got an I-220A while her husband was given parole, currently paints houses. She studied journalism a decade ago, and dreams of becoming a reporter, or a lawyer.

In Cuba, authorities scared her from pursuing a career as an independent journalist. One time, about 10 years ago, she went to pick up her daughter after school, but officials had taken her child to the daycares office.

Dominguez said the girl was playing calmly as state security agents told her: You are an opposition member... One day you could come get the girl and never see her again.

Dominguez said her parents are taking care of her children in Cuba until she can send for them. But last month her father died after an embolism. Now, her mother is on her own, and Cuban officials have visited her house.

She hopes to bring over her mother and two children from the island legally. But she cant do it without residency or citizenship.

Dominguez is now waiting to see how her asylum claim pans out. If its granted she can apply for permanent residency after a year and try to get her family to join her. In the meantime, if she were to travel outside the U.S. to meet with her children somewhere else, her precarious immigration situation means she might not be able to return.

I feel saved, even without residency, she said. But Im missing a piece.
By Andrew Gray and John Irish

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union could review ties, including financial aid, with Azerbaijan and sanction individuals if the situation worsens following Baku's military takeover of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, according to an EU diplomatic service paper.

The paper said the EU could reconsider political engagement, financial assistance and sectoral cooperation, without being more specific. It does not mention Azerbaijan's energy sector.

Azerbaijani forces seized control of the enclave - populated mainly by ethnic Armenians - last month, triggering an exodus of more than 100,000 people to Armenia.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and many leaders of the 27-nation bloc condemned the operation. But diplomats say there are disagreements among EU countries over whether to take firmer diplomatic or political action.

The EU's search for a response is complicated by its moves to rely more on Azerbaijani oil and gas as it has moved away from Russian energy due to Moscow's war in Ukraine.

The paper, prepared by the European External Action Service and seen by Reuters, outlines further possible reaction but is cautious in tone.

It says that if the situation deteriorates, the EU could consider a review of its relations with Azerbaijan "on the basis of a gradual approach".

"In case serious human rights violations are committed, restrictive measures against individuals responsible for such violations could be envisaged," the paper said.

Decisions on EU sanctions generally require unanimity among member countries.

A diplomat from a country favouring a tougher stance toward Azerbaijan, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the document "reflects a balance of different positions of member states: We want more, but others do not want anything at all."

Diplomats say France, Germany and the Netherlands are among those pushing for strong signals of disapproval toward Baku while others such as Austria and Hungary are at the opposite end of the spectrum.

A second diplomat said the EU may not end up doing much more than condemning Azerbaijan's action and instead focus on supporting Armenia, economically and possibly with military aid.

The paper suggested the EU consider "political and economic actions to further support the democratically elected authorities of Armenia, including in the area of security and resilience, and the continuation of the democratic reforms".

(Reporting by Andrew Gray and John Irish; writing by Andrew Gray, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
The EU's Media Freedom Act was proposed by Brussels last year in the face of increased pressure facing journalists in countries such as Hungary and Poland (FREDERICK FLORIN)

EU lawmakers on Tuesday backed proposals to boost journalistic independence, but stopped short of pushing for a blanket ban on governments spying on reporters.

The EU's Media Freedom Act was proposed by Brussels last year in the face of increased pressure facing journalists in countries such as Hungary and Poland.

The legislation is aimed at protecting reporters from political interference, allowing them to keep sources secret and ensuring media pluralism across the bloc.

The MEPs' vote stakes out the parliament's position on the draft law ahead of negotiations with the EU's 27 member states.

Among the most controversial issues are exemptions foreseen for using spyware against journalists.

Media activists have criticised EU states, led by France, for pushing to expand loopholes to allow authorities to spy on journalists in the name of "national security".

The parliament's position limits the use of spyware as a "last resort" when journalists were involved in serious crimes such as terrorism or human trafficking, and says a judge must give clearance.

That still falls short of a call by 80 media rights groups to vote for a total ban on using spyware against the press.

But Romanian MEP Ramona Strugariu -- one of the lawmakers in charge of the issue -- insisted it meant governments were "effectively banned" from using spyware to probe the work of journalists.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders backed the lawmakers' clarifications and called on EU countries to follow their lead.

- 'Freedom-killing law' -

The issue has been put in the spotlight by a furore in France over the two-day detention last month of investigative journalist Ariane Lavrilleux for reporting on leaked documents claiming French intelligence was used to target civilians in Egypt.

Journalist groups decried an attack on press freedom after Lavrilleux's home was searched and she was arrested for questioning by agents of France's domestic intelligence agency.

Lavrilleux has decried the EU legislation as "one of the worst freedom-killing laws" in the parliament's history.

Another crucial -- and disputed -- part of the draft law concerns the moderation and possible deletion of journalistic content by online platforms.

To avoid handing too much power to the internet giants, the law envisions setting tougher conditions for removing or restricting reports by media outlets.

To meet that bar, the journalists must meet criteria such as being transparent about their ownership and be editorially independent.

If a verified outlet is deemed to violate a platform's rules of use, it will get 24 hours to defend itself before anything can be done.

French MEP Geoffroy Didier said that would "consolidate freedom of expression" by stopping the likes of X, formerly Twitter, from deleting journalists' accounts.

But big tech lobby, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, complained it "erroneously introduces a loophole that rogue actors can abuse to falsely pose as media outlets and disseminate fake news".

alm/del/raz/gw
(Bloomberg) -- Bogdan Prelipcean used his earliest paychecks to help his parents build an indoor bathroom.

Most Read from Bloomberg

A decade-and-a-half later, the 33-year-old Romanian has a new-build apartment, two cars and a motorcycle.

That transformation is the result of something that more than 100 million people in eastern Europe have been dreaming of since the fall of the Iron Curtain: European Union membership made his country rich.

EU leaders are meeting in Granada, Spain, this week to contemplate another wave of expansion with a new pro-Russian government set to take power in Slovakia and the US struggling to approve more aid to Kyiv. But all the same, that dream is starting to flicker again in war-torn Ukraine, neighboring Moldova and the western Balkans.

Theres no comparison anymore in the quality of my familys life, said Prelipcean, who works at a tech company in Iasi, a city of about a million people near Romanias border with Moldova.

At the point when the EU began to open its doors to its neighbors in the east, half of the Romanias 19 million people lacked indoor plumbing and GDP per capita was just over a third of the EU average, more or less where Ukraines was before the Russian invasion. That figure is now 77% and still climbing.

Over the next decade, Romania could double its economic output, according Dinu Bumbacea, country manager for consulting firm PWC, whos surveyed companies on their investment plans and factored in another massive wave of EU funds.

Ukraine was seeking to follow that path too a decade ago, before its Kremlin-backed government swung back toward Moscow, triggering the Maidan revolution and the chain of events that led to Europes biggest conflict since World War II.

Now the EU has offered Kyiv a path to membership in whats expected to be an uncertain, years-long process. That journey will require an end to the fighting as well as major reforms in the economy, the battle against corruption, and the streamlining of institutions to meet EU norms.

Romanias accession offers lessons that can help Kyiv along the way and offer an indication of the potential rewards. Bucharest has become a determined supporter of faster accession talks for Ukraine and its other neighbors, Moldova.

Romania couldnt reform itself without the European Union, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said in an August interview with Aleph News TV. Without the EU and NATO we would be a fragile country.

When Romania became a member, it finished retooling its centrally planned economy to open up to the European market. Successive governments sold state-owned firms, eased trade restrictions and, most importantly, fixed the courts to help root out corruption.

That helped Romania catch up with traditionally wealthier Hungary to the West, while also pulling away from Bulgaria, the Black Sea neighbor with which it once vied for bottom spot in EU rankings on poverty and graft.

Read More About Ukraine and Eastern Europe:Russia May Be About to Get a New Friendly Leader in EuropeZelenskiy Is Showing the Strain as His Allies Turn Up the HeatWartime Alliance at Risk as Poland and Ukraine Fight Over GrainThe Far Right Is Advancing in a Vulnerable Europe Again

Spearheaded by former anti-graft prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi, who now leads the EUs first Public Prosecutors Office, Romania jailed scores of government officials over the last decade, including prime ministers, cabinet officials and members of parliament.

It took fierce determination from Kovesi to change peoples mentality and tackle structural corruption at all levels in the state, according to a person who worked with her, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. The drive was supported by an EU mechanism that promoted a judicial overhaul completed last year, and Kovesis campaign won her the adoration of Romanians.

But it also made her enemies. She was fired in 2018 after then-Justice Minister Tudorel Toader  who accused her of damaging Romanias image abroad  won a Constitutional Court decision that she had exceeded her authority. The ruling was later overturned by the EUs highest tribunal.

Decisions like that highlight the risks that could still derail Romanias progress, in a region where populist governments in Hungary and Poland have sacrificed EU funding for their own political gain. A newly-formed nationalist party entered the Romanian parliament in 2021 and is now polling at 20%. So far the countrys two biggest parties have worked together to keep the nationalists away from power.

But high-profile graft cases continue to roil the political scene, and some trials languish for years in overcrowded courts, as a warning against complacency. The anti-corruption directorate has recovered over 1 billion in damages in since 2015 and significantly cut down on official sleaze.

Every act of corruption means less money for education, healthcare or defense, Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Marius Voineag said in an interview. It means a waste of public resources and is a major obstacle for Romanias development, he added, warning that graft remains a problem and more progress is needed.

Kovesi, from her new position in the EU prosecutors office, may try to replicate the model in Ukraine, where corruption is seen as the biggest challenge facing the country after the Russian invasion. Less than a month after the war began, Kovesi traveled to Kyiv to seal a cooperation agreement with Ukraines chief prosecutor.

Over the past decade and a half, the transformation of Romanias institutions has attracted foreign investment, creating jobs and bringing knowhow to increase productivity.

From 2010 to 2021, investment from abroad almost doubled to more than 100 billion ($110 billion), according to the central bank, as foreign companies flooded in to build everything from car factories to tech offices. Last year, the inflow of money hit a record 11 billion.

Among the biggest investors are Ford Motor Co. and Renault Groups Dacia, which now produce more than half a million cars a year in Romania between them. Tire maker Continental AG has invested 2.2 billion and tech giants including Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle have opened and expanded research centers.

At the same time, successive governments tapped into EU development funds to build more than 700 kilometers (430 miles) of highways, improve schools and public services and provide amenities including fixed-line internet access  and, of course, sewers.

While Romania has at times struggled to effectively tap the billions of euros in EU funds on offer, political parties have put aside differences in a push to maximize funding. To date, the country has netted more than 53 billion from the EU and has contracts in the works for another 12 billion.

There is a clear improvement and acceleration in terms of capacity to absorb EU funds and implement infrastructure projects, said Lilyana Pavlova, vice president of the European Investment Bank. You can see it and you can feel it.

New projects coming on line, including a 650 million zero-emission tire plant being built by Nokian Renkaat Oyj, a 1.4 billion battery plant by Belgiums Avesta Battery and Energy Engineering and a 4 billion investment in the Black Sea Neptune Deep natural gas project.

While the GDP per capita numbers are swollen by the fact that millions of Romanians left to seek work in the West after EU accession, second quarter suggests living standards are set to surpass those in Poland, the regions biggest economy, as soon as this year and it has vastly outstripped neighbors that didnt join the EU, such as Serbia.

Outstripping Neighbors

Perhaps the most stark comparison is with Bulgaria next door, the result is striking.

The two countries joined the EU on a similar footing, as the blocs poorest and most corrupt members  just as Ukraine would probably be if it ever secures membership.

While Bucharest focused on tackling corruption, successive governments in Sofia failed to match those efforts and Bulgarias living standards are now just 60% of the EU average, 17 percentage points lower than in Romania.

Bulgarian Finance Minister Assen Vassilev said at least part of that was that is down to Romanian prosecutors.

Romania was much faster with the rule of law reforms, Vassilev said in an interview. While painful at the beginning, that allowed them to create a business environment that was very conducive.

--With assistance from Slav Okov, Irina Vilcu and Gina Turner.

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The European Parliament has voted in favour of a resolution to revise the EU budget for 2021-2027, which, among other things, provides for the creation of a special 50 billion Ukraine Facility.

Source: European Pravda with reference to the European Parliament

Details: The amendments on the mid-term review of the multiannual financial programme for 2021-2027 were approved by 393 votes to 136. Another 92 MEPs abstained.

According to the document, the budget review should focus on the multiple consequences of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, on strengthening the EU's open strategic autonomy and sovereignty, and on providing the EU with adequate flexibility to respond to crises.

Background:

Earlier, the European Parliament supported the European Commission's proposal to spend more funds on defence in the EU budget for next year.

Prior to that, the European Parliament voted in favour of a new mechanism aimed at stimulating the defence industry and helping countries modernise their armaments.

The new short-term instrument, abbreviated as EDIRPA, which was agreed with the EU Council in late June, will help countries address the most urgent defence needs amid intensive assistance to Ukraine and should also increase the efficiency and competitiveness of European manufacturers.

The European Parliament and the Council agreed on a 300 million budget to finance this instrument. The EU will contribute up to 20% of the expected value of the joint procurement contract for each consortium of member states and associated countries.

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 26-year-old Everson, Washington, man has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a child.

Kalub Mikol Ames-Cude was arrested Tuesday, Oct. 3, on suspicion of first-degree child rape and first-degree incest, according to Whatcom County Jail records.

Whatcom County Sheriffs Office detectives started an investigation Sept. 5 into reports that Ames-Cude had sexually assaulted a child who was known to him, according to sheriffs office spokesperson Deb Slater.

The investigation developed probable cause to arrest Ames-Cude for child rape, Slater said.

Ames-Cude turned himself in and was booked into jail Tuesday morning, she said.

No other information about the allegations or investigation were immediately available.

Whatcom County Superior Court records show a Ferndale woman filed a civil protection order against Ames-Cude in early September. The order, which was granted by the court Sept. 21, protects the woman and her 5-year-old daughter for the next year, court records show.

In the petition for a protection order, the woman cited a sheriffs office sexual assault case, in which it was alleged that Ames-Cude sexually assaulted the 5-year-old girl, according to court records.

Ames-Cude was expected to make his first appearance in court on the child rape charges on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon.

Resources

 Brigid Collins Family Support Center: 360-734-4616, brigidcollins.org

Brigid Collins Family Support Center professionals are on-call between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Monday through Friday, to answer questions about children, families, abuse prevention or treatment at (360) 734-4616.

 Child Protective Services: Washington state hotline for reporting child abuse and neglect, 866-829-2153.

 Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Services: 24-hour Help Line: 360-715-1563, Email: info@dvsas.org.

 Lummi Victims of Crime: 360-312-2015.

 Tlils Taaaltha Victims of Crime: 360-325-3310 or nooksacktribe.org/departments/youth-family-services/tlils-taaaltha-victims-of-crime-program/

 Bellingham Police: You can call anonymously at 360-778-8611, or go online at cob.org/tips.

 WWU Consultation and Sexual Assault Support Survivor Advocacy Services: 360-650-3700 or wp.wwu.edu/sexualviolence/.

If you or a child is in immediate danger, call 911 and make a report to law enforcement.

To report child abuse or neglect call 1-866-END HARM.
Donald Trump is in court once again this weekthis time for a civil trial in New York, over a lawsuit from Attorney General Letitia James alleging that the former president inflated the value of his properties.

By this point, you might be having trouble keeping all of Trumps various legal battles straight, so heres a quick guide to whats going on with this weeks trial.

What is the New York attorney generals lawsuit about?

It all started when Michael Cohen, a former personal lawyer of Trumps, testified to Congress in 2019 that Trump had knowingly inflated the value of his assets in order to secure bank loans. That prompted the New York AGs office to initiate a fraud investigation into the matter, and in 2022, James filed a civil lawsuit against Trump and his three eldest children to the New York State Supreme Court. (The case against Trumps daughter Ivanka was dropped this summer due to the states statute of limitations.) It alleged that the Trump family and its companies had grossly exaggerated their net worth in order to induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organization and to get insurers to provide insurance coverage for higher limits and at lower premiums, plus gain tax benefits.

The lawsuit focuses on actions between 2011 and 2021, arguing that more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets were made to defraud financial institutions. In that process, Trump also could have been violating New York state laws banning the submission of false financial statements, falsification of business records, and the commission of insurance fraud. The Trump family has denied any wrongdoing. The former president maintains that he never committed any fraud and that valuing real estate is a subjective process. On Monday, his attorneys argued that the banks who issued the Trump Organization loans profited and therefore could not have been defrauded.

Waitdidnt a big ruling just come out about this case? What was that about?

New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron issued a ruling last week that found that Trump did in fact commit fraud by inflating the value of his assets when building out his massive real estate empire. One of many properties mentioned was Trumps personal residence in Manhattans Trump Tower, which Trump falsely listed as being 30,000 square feet. In reality, the apartment is 10,996 square feet, which, Engoron noted, is an overvaluation of between $114207 million dollars.

A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud, wrote Engoron. In conclusion, the judge ordered that Trump be removed from control of some of his companies and revoked their business licensesincluding Trump Tower and the Trump International Hotel.

So, if a ruling was issued, why is a trial still happening?

Well, James lawsuit includes seven causes of action, and last weeks ruling addresses only one. Engoron determined that Trump committed fraud. The trial playing out now will decide to what extent Trump used his financial statements fraudulently. James is alleging that this allowed Trumps businesses to secure more favorable terms for bank loans, which also led to potential insurance fraud and earned him tax benefits under false pretenses.

This will be a bench trial, which means that Engoron will serve as judge and jury. Its expected to take quite some time, continuing possibly until Christmas.

What are the consequences for Trump here?

Trump and his family could be banned for life from serving as an officer or director of any New York companies. Trumps companies could also face a five-year ban from entering any real estate acquisitions. Then theres the question of what financial penalties they should incur for the fraud thats been committedJames is seeking $250 million.

Because this is a civil case, nobody faces potential jail time. However, James office did send a criminal referral to federal prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service after uncovering what the office believes to be federal crimes, including bank fraud and lying to financial institutions.

Has Trump done anything interesting in court?

True to form, Trump has repeated his line about the trial being a political witch hunt. Upon arriving at a New York City courthouse on Monday, Trump said the civil suit hes facing is a scam, its a sham. He attacked Engoron as a rogue judge and called James a horror show.

Throughout Mondays proceedings, the former president sat silently between his attorneys, mostly with his arms folded and scowling. He may have ordered some comfort food from his favorite fast food chain to get him through the dayabout six bags of McDonalds delivery were spotted outside the courthouse.

We may be hearing from Trump in court at some pointhis attorney indicated that Trump will testify during the trial.
It was a common sight, neighbors say, to see Zoey Felix, 5, roaming unsupervised throughout the neighborhood where she lived in southeast Topeka.

The girl "pretty much took care of herself," said Shaniqua Bradley, who lived next door to her until recent weeks.

Residents there worked as a community to keep Zoey fed, clothed and clean, said Bradley.

Meanwhile, Bradley said she and other neighbors contacted the Kansas Department for Children and Families several times to report Zoey as a victim of neglect. They say the agency did nothing to help.

A photo of 5-year-old Zoey Felix shows what she looked like after her hair was combed and clothes were given to her by Desiree Miles earlier this year. Felix was killed Monday.

Two or three weeks ago, Bradley said, Zoey's neighbors realized she was gone.

They said it was their understanding that Zoey's mother told Zoey and others, including her teenaged sister and a man thought to be her father, to leave the home where they lived together in the 2200 block of S.E. Market.

Neighbors didn't know the family members had gone to a campsite hidden in the trees less than a mile away.

On Tuesday, Topeka police said Zoey had been raped and killed.

Mickel Cherry jailed in connection with rape and first-degree murder

Topeka police had been called just before 6 p.m. Monday to the fuel pumps outside Dillons, 2010 S.E. 29th, where the Topeka Fire Department was treating Zoey for life-threatening injuries, said Rosie Nichols, public safety communications specialist for Topeka's city government. Zoey was later pronounced dead.

Mickel Cherry, 25, was jailed in connection with rape and first-degree murder in the commission of a felony, Nichols said.

Sheryl Tyree, left, and Desiree Miles show a photo of 5-year-old Zoey Felix as they stand on Miles' porch Tuesday. The two had helped Zoey clean up and gave her a haircut earlier this year when this photo was taken.

"The system failed her," said Desiree Miles, who lives across the street.

Cherry had lived with Zoey and her family members in the house on S.E. Market before moving to the campsite, she said.

She said Zoey told her she had called Cherry "Uncle Mike," adding that he was nice to her, having fed her and played with her.

'She pretty much took care of herself'

"Everybody on the block took care of Zoey," said Sheryl Tyree, who didn't live in the neighborhood but spent much time there. "Everybody loved Zoey, except her parents."

Zoey lived with members of her family and others, including a man other than Cherry who was a convicted child molester, in the house on S.E. Market, she said.

The house's water, lights and air conditioning would be off for long periods of time, neighbors said.

Zoey didn't go to school, Bradley said.

From late morning until dark, she said, "She pretty much took care of herself. You would hardly ever see her parents outside with her."

Crime scene investigators use equipment in an area next to Capital City Transportation, 2018 S.E. 28th St., Tuesday after Mickel Cherry was arrested in connection with rape and first-degree murder in the death of 5-year-old Zoey Felix.

Zoey Felix was bubbly, curious and outgoing, neighbors say

Zoey was pretty smart for her age and had a "glow" to her, Bradley said, adding that Zoey was bubbly, curious and outgoing, and had a way of making people smile.

Bradley said it was her understanding that a week or two ago, Zoey's mother kicked out the house's other residents, who moved to a campsite.

"Everybody in the neighborhood has been saying, 'Where's Zoey?'" Tyree said. "They're sad to hear what happened."

She said if she had known Zoey was living in a tent, she would have gone to rescue her.

Tyree recalled that three weeks ago, Zoey's appearance was such a mess that Miles took her home, got her some clothes, cleaned her up and combed her hair.

Desiree Miles, right, on Tuesday shows a photo of 5-year-old Zoey Felix. Miles, along with Sheryl Tyree, left, had helped clean Zoey and fixed her hair earlier this year when this photo was taken.

"She hadn't had a bath in so long, because that house had no running water," Miles said.

The house was in horrible condition, with feces inside, she said.

"This is horrible," Miles said. "My heart breaks for that little girl."

Miles, who was fighting tears, said her message to the director of the Kansas Department for Children and Families would be: "Do your job. You're failing our children."

What did DCF know and do about Zoey Felix case?

Neighbors say 5-year-old Zoey Felix lived at this house in the 2200 block of S.E. Market with her parents and other family members, before several of them left and were said to be living at a campsite.

This morning, law enforcement notified DCF about the death of Zoey Felix, a 5-year-old girl, that occurred during the evening of Oct. 2," said Mike Deines, a DCF spokesperson, in a statement. "Our thoughts today are with Zoey and all of those who loved and supported her.

"The agency will work closely with law enforcement to investigate the incident.

On Tuesday morning, The Capital-Journal filed a Kansas Open Records Act request for information on the case.

Under KORA, if a child dies as a result of child abuse or neglect, DCF has seven business days to release a summary of any previous reports of abuse or neglect received by the agency and findings of such reports. DCF must also release information on any department-recommended services provided to the child.

The full reports are also considered public records, but the agency and any affected parties may request that a court order block the release of all or part of the records. An ongoing criminal investigation or a pending prosecution are among the factors the court may consider.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Topeka homicide victim Zoey Felix, 5, lacked care: What we know
NBCs new procedural drama series premieres this week.

Get ready for your new favorite procedural. NBCs newest series Found premieres this week, and weve got everything you need to know about the Shanola Hampton-led drama.

Shanola Hampton as Gabi Mosely and Brett Dalton as Detective Mark Trent in Found.

(Photo by Steve Swisher/NBC)

The riveting new drama centers around a chilling truth in America: more than 600,000 people are reported missing in the U.S. in any given year. Of those reported missing, more than half of that number are people of color. In Found, audiences are introduced to a public relations specialist and her crisis management team.

Meet Gabi Mosely

Behind every great procedural is a captivating and complicated lead character. Look no further than Gabi Mosely (Hampton), who by the trailer alone, seems like she will make good on that promise. Hamptons character and the team, stop at nothing to solve these cases because for them, its personal  every member of the team has firsthand experience with a mysterious disappearance, per the synopsis. Although for Mosely, her personal connection is the root of her biggest secret.

A twist

The biggest twist of the series, which was revealed in the latest trailer, is that Mosely is still connected to the kidnapper who abducted her as a child. In fact, she found her kidnapper and kidnapped him herself, using him to help her solve crimes.

Shanolas moment

The show also marks an exciting moment for Hampton, who has graced our screens for years now in memorable roles. She appeared as Veronica Fisher in Shameless, Showtimes hit series, for all 11 seasons. While she appeared on other projects like Criminal Minds, The Neighborhood and more, Found serves as a long-deserved star turn for the actress, who not only leads the series but produces as well.

In a pre-strike interview with NBC Insider, she opened up about what drew her to the lead character, saying, Gabi Mosely is powerful, broken, complicated, fierce, traumatized, hurt, and a childlike superhuman. Shes full of depth. And thats the best character to play.

Cast and creative team

Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Saved by the Bell, Mixed-ish), Kelli Williams (Lie to Me), Brett Dalton, Gabrielle Walsh, Arlen Escarpeta and Karan Oberoi join Hampton in the series. Nkechi Okoro Carroll, who worked on hit shows like All American and The Resident, and created All American: Homecoming, is a creator and executive producer of Found.

Carroll opened up about the shows big twist and what Moselys journey will be like in the first season in a recent interview with Variety, telling the outlet, Across the first season, not only are we going to tell the story in the past timeline where we also will learn how she ended up in his farmhouse as a teenager, simultaneously, in present day, were also going to unpack how that situation got reversed now in adulthood.

Found premieres Tuesday, Oct. 3 at 10 p.m. ET. on NBC.

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The post Everything you need to know about Found appeared first on TheGrio.
A San Bernardino County woman and her boyfriend were arrested on suspicion of murder after the woman's 1-year-old son was found with severe burns to his body, according to authorities.

Samantha Garver, 33, and her boyfriend, Sergio Mena, 32, were both booked on murder charges Sunday in the death of Henry Wheatley Brown, who had just turned 1 in August.

The couple was arrested after the Big Bear Fire Department responded to a home in Sugarloaf and found the baby "suffering severe burns to his body," the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said.

"Through extensive investigation, it was discovered Wheatley Brown had additional injuries, indicating abuse," the department said in a news release. The boy was unresponsive and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Read more: Anthony Avalos' mother and her boyfriend convicted of murder in child abuse case

Garver was also booked on an open child abuse warrant, according to the department.

Garver pleaded guilty a decade ago to misdemeanor willful cruelty to a child, according to San Bernardino County Superior Court records. She failed to show up for her 100-day jail term and did not provide proof of enrollment in a yearlong child abuse treatment program, according to court records.

In 2014, due to her failure to comply with the requirements of her sentence, Garver was listed as a fugitive by the court.

The mother often posted her baby son to Facebook before his death.

"Happy birthday, Henry! Everything I do is for you!" she wrote when she started a new job with a vacation home company in August. "So, fitting I would start this job on your first birthday. I love you, little booger."

Read more: Corona mother arrested weeks after running over 6-year-old son, killing him, police say

She had also worked as a housekeeper, according to videos she posted.

Garver appeared to have other children as well and posted a photo album on Facebook called "KIDS" that showed five young people, including a baby.

Garver was having money issues shortly before the death of the child, according to her posts.

She tried to sell a stroller in August after posting pictures of the baby in it.

"Normally, I would offer this to a new mom for free, but I am in a bind and need to raise the rest of the money we need to get a room tonight and have a place to stay for one more night," she wrote.

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
In this Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009, file photo, Michael Jeffries, former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, speaks at the annual National Retail Federation conference in New York. A BBC investigation revealed that Jeffries and his partner Matthew Smith were at the center of several allegations of sexual misconduct.

Abercrombie & Fitch has launched an investigation into allegations that former CEO Mike Jeffries sexually exploited young men during his time as CEO of the company following a BBC News investigation.

The investigation released on Monday reported that Jeffries, 79, and his partner, Matthew Smith, were at the center of "a highly organized network" in which young men were recruited for sex events hosted by the couple across the world.

Over the course of a two-year investigation, the BBC said it spoke with 12 men who either attended or organized the events, which took place between 2009 and 2015.

Jeffries and Smith have not responded to requests for comment by the BBC and other outlets. USA TODAY could not find attorneys who represent them.

In a statement to USA TODAY, Abercrombie & Fitch said the company is "appalled and disgusted by the behavior described in the allegations against Mr. Jeffries."

The company said they've hired a law firm to independently investigate the alleged sexual misconduct, adding that current company leadership was not aware of the allegations.

Jeffries spent 22 years at Abercrombie before stepping down as CEO in 2014 with a retirement package worth around $25 million, according to the BBC. He's still receiving annual payment as part of that package.

More: Abercrombie & Fitch ditches plan to consider selling itself amid retail woes

Report: Middle men recruited young men with modelling promises

Clothing on display at the Abercrombie & Fitch clothing store in West Town Mall in Knoxville, Tennessee.

As the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, Jeffries built the company's brand with advertisements that drew on sex-appeal, specifically those of shirtless men.

It was promises of modeling in those ads that helped middlemen recruit young men to the sex events hosted by Jeffries and Smith, the BBC reported.

David Bradberry told the BBC that met a middleman who recruited him to an event through an agent in 2010. Bradberry, who was 23 at the time, told the BBC that his initial meeting with the middleman did not involve anything relating to sex. The conversations later shifted.

"Jim made it clear to me that unless I let him perform (a sex act) on me, that I would not be meeting with Abercrombie & Fitch or Mike Jeffries," Bradberry told the BBC, referring to James Jacobson, who the outlet identified as middleman for Jeffries and Smith.

Statewide roundup: 6th-grade teacher, college professor among 160 arrested in Ohio human trafficking bust

More: Russell Brand's assault, rape allegations being investigated: What his accusers say happened

Fame is at the 'price of compliance'

The exterior of a Abercrombie and Fitch store in the Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio on June 25, 2015.

Eight of the men interviewed by the BBC said they were either abused or witnessed misconduct. The men described the person who recruited them for the events as a man missing part of his nose, which was covered with a snakeskin patch. That man was Jacobson, according to the BBC.

In a statement through his lawyer, Jacobson told the BBC that he was offended by any claims of "any coercive, deceptive or forceful behavior on my part" and had "no knowledge of any such conduct by others."

The men were allegedly also paid to attend events and signed non-disclosure agreements. Half of them were unaware that the events involved sex, and the other half knew sex was part of the events but it wasn't clear what was expected of them, the BBC reported.

The vast majority of the men interviewed described the events as harmful.

"I was paralyzed," Bradberry said. "It was like he was selling fame. And the price was compliance."

He said he had been made to believe "this is where everybody gets their start."

Two former U.S. prosecutors who reviewed the BBC investigation and the men's first-hand accounts have called on prosecutors to investigate whether Jeffries should face charges, the outlet reported.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-Abercrombie & Fitch CEO accused of sexual exploitation in BBC report
Judge James Jones Jr. speaks during a court appearance for the five former Memphis Police Department officers charged with the killing of Tyre Nichols at Shelby County Criminal Court in Memphis, Tenn., on Friday, June 23, 2023.

Three of the five former Memphis police officers charged with the beating, and later death, of Tyre Nichols will not be tried separately as they had requested, a Shelby County Criminal Court judge ruled Monday.

The ruling came weeks after attorneys for the three former officers  Tadarrius Bean, Desmond Mills and Justin Smith  argued that trying them alongside the other defendants would confuse, and prejudice, a jury against them and said their clients were less culpable than the other two defendants.

In his ruling, Shelby County Criminal Court Judge James Jones Jr. said the attorneys did not "show how any antagonism between co-defendants necessitates a separate trial, nor has he shown how he will be hindered in presenting his defense at a joint trial."

Defense attorneys cited severance in a RICO case, which featured 14 defendants charged with 22 different counts, as another reason to have separate trials. Jones said in his ruling that the case in Shelby County is less complex than the RICO case.

"As described above, this case does not contain complicating factors necessitating a severance," Jones wrote. "This case has approximately one-third the number of co-defendants and counts that were present in the [RICO] case. This case does not involve complex conspiracies or nuanced charges, and all defendants are charged with each count in the indictment."

A trial date for the former officers has not yet been set, but Jones said during the mid-September hearing on severance that he would like to try and schedule it during the next court date, Nov. 6.

The five former officers were indicted for the beating in late January, about three weeks after the beating took place.

Nichols was pulled over in the evening hours of Jan. 7 and pulled from his car by the officers. He was eventually able to run away but was tackled about 100 yards from his mother's house. The officers then punched, kicked, pepper sprayed and hit Nichols with a baton.

Subscribe to read: What could the federal Tyre Nichols case mean for other cases happening now?

He was taken to St. Francis Hospital in critical condition and died three days later. The cause of death was, according to his autopsy, blunt force trauma to the head.

The same five officers have since been indicted in federal court for violating Nichols' civil rights. They face excessive force, witness tampering and obstruction of justice charges, and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. There is no parole in the federal system.

Civil litigation related to the beating is also underway in federal court, with civil rights attorney Ben Crump representing Nichols' family. The five criminally charged former officers have been allowed to not participate in the case until their criminal matters have reached a conclusion.

The other defendants in that civil case, which include Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn "C.J." Davis and the City of Memphis, will continue the discovery process and litigating motions without the five officers.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Judge: Ex-MPD officers will go to trial together in Tyre Nichols case
Excavations have so far uncovered foundations of demolished buildings

Archaeologists have been excavating a site they call the birthplace of Scotland's modern tartan industry.

Hundreds of people worked at Bannockburn's Wilson Mills at the height of production in the 1850s.

Only two buildings survive today, while workers' homes and earlier mills were demolished in 1950s and 60s.

Archaeologist Dr Murray Cook said it was an "astonishingly important but poorly recognised" site where tartan was first made on an industrial scale.

Dr Cook, who has been leading the Rampant Scotland digs, said: "In the 1850s the mills complex was huge and straddled the Bannock Burn.

"People told of the burn running lurid red and pink with the dyes."

Foundations of properties cleared away more than 60 years ago have been uncovered so far. Further excavations are planned for next year.

Dr Cook said the site at the Haugh in Bannockburn, Stirling, was home to a smaller mill that was producing at a time of turmoil in tartan-making.

Archaeologists are planning further work at the Haugh

Weaver William Wilson set up the mill in the 1780s amid the final years of the 1746 Act of Proscription.

The act had emerged in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, near Inverness.

Fought on 16 April 1746, it saw Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite supporters defeated by a British government army.

The Act of Proscription was drawn up as part of a crackdown on clans that had backed Prince Charlie's claim to the British throne.

It included a ban on the wearing of tartan in the form of Highland dress, which the government regarded to be the uniform of the Jacobites.

Dr Cook said rules on wearing tartan were complicated and in some places were enforced harshly by the military, and historical accounts report of at least one person being shot for wearing tartan.

The archaeologist said the Highlands, a stronghold of Jacobite support, were hit harder than other parts of Scotland.

Workers' homes and earlier mill buildings were demolished in the 1950s and 60s

Dr Cook said William Wilson and his family may have been able to create a monopoly on tartan production at this time.

It also meant the Wilsons were in a prime position when romanticised views of Scotland became popular in the 19th Century, including during the reign of Queen Victoria, a regular visitor to Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire.

Dr Cook said: "Tartan is rehabilitated and romanticised and the Wilsons are riding that wave and that explosion of Scottish identity."

He said among orders the Wilsons secured was a contract to supply tartan for kilts for soldiers in Scottish regiments.

Dr Cook said something almost on the scale of a factory village grew at the Haugh.

"We are certainly looking at the first industrial scale production of tartan, and the birthplace of tartan design," he said.

But he added that life for the workers was tough and they lived in slum-like conditions.

The Wilsons' business collapsed at the turn of the century, with the loss of a military contract among the possible reasons for it going under.

The mills complex was later cleared by the local authority.

Archaeologists suggest Bannockburn was the home of modern industrial-scale tartan production

Dr Cook said: "There has been a transformation of the burn from the 1850s to what it is today with kingfishers and otters.

"It's a success story in reclaiming the burn, but at the cost of jobs and housing. It's a double-edged sword."

Stirling Council plans to include the history of the site in celebrations planned for the city next year.

Leader Chris Kane said: "The Stirling area has been central to Scotland's power, politics and economy over the centuries so it's no surprise tartan is also woven in to our rich history and heritage.

"These remarkable discoveries in Bannockburn shed further light on how the area became the birthplace of the modern tartan industry and the challenges faced by the Wilson family of weavers along the way."

He added: "As Stirling prepares to celebrate its 900th anniversary as a royal burgh in 2024, this is another fascinating chapter in the area's story that attracts visitors from across the world."
Donald Trump has maintained a formidable lead in the influential New Hampshire primary, an exclusive poll shows, but a new challenger is emerging there as his top competitor: former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley.

The USA TODAY/Boston Globe/Suffolk University survey of likely voters in the first-in-the-nation Republican primary finds Trump at 49% and Haley at 19%. Though that gap of 30 percentage points is daunting, she has surged ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has lost the standing he once held as the dominant alternative to Trump.

DeSantis has dropped to 10% in the poll.

"I'm not 100% with Nikki; just with what I've followed so far, she's the one that's closest to what I would like to see in the president," said David Paquette, 72, a retired engineer from Atkinson, N.H., who was among those surveyed. A political independent, he likes DeSantis' record in Florida and is considering him, too. "He has a lot of great programs that he's actually implemented."

The poll of 500 likely Republican primary voters by landline and cellphone Thursday through Monday has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 points. Independents, who are permitted to vote in New Hampshire primaries, made up 40% of the sample; 60% were Republicans.

These voters split almost evenly over whether the most important thing was for Republicans to nominate a candidate who reflected their priorities and values (49%) or to nominate a candidate who could defeat President Joe Biden's bid for a second term (47%).

Former South Carolina Gov.ENikki Haley (center) speaks while former New Jersey Gov.EChris Christie (left) and Florida Gov.ERon DeSantis listen during the FOX Business Republican presidential primary debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.

Even with Trump's strong standing, there were some signs the race is fluid.

Those surveyed split 48%-44% when asked whether Trump's nomination was inevitable or whether some other candidate could win the nomination. Nearly 4 in 10, 39%, said they might change their minds before the primary.

But Trump's supporters were more loyal than those for any other contender. An overwhelming 84% said their minds were made up to back him; just 15% said they might switch to someone else.

"I trusted Trump last time he was out there. He did good for us and I don't care what anybody else says," said Joyce Briand, 62, a registered Republican from Newport, N.H. Briand, a retired licensed nursing assistant, added, "Trump might do some bad things; everybody does. I don't like some of the things he says. He should keep his mouth shut sometimes. But when he says he's going to do something, he does it."

In single digits: Everybody else

None of the other candidates reached double digits in the poll. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was at 6%; tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott were at 4%; and former Vice President Mike Pence and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum stood at 1%.

Haley has been boosted by strong performances in the two Republican debates so far. In the six months before the first debate in August, she had never scored above 6% in the 11 public polls taken in New Hampshire. The USA TODAY poll marks a new high for her.

"This likely means more money, credibility and interviews will find their way to Haley," said David Paleologos, director of Suffolk's Political Research Center. "More importantly, a case will be made for others to drop out now and back Haley's challenge to former President Trump."

But Paleologos cautioned that even that unlikely development wouldn't necessarily enable Haley to prevail because some of the other candidates' supporters would switch to Trump. "Add in second-choice votes from all the other major candidates  even if they all endorsed Haley  and Trump sits above 55%," he said.

Asked what their second choice would be, DeSantis fared best at 24%. Haley was at 13%, Ramaswamy at 11% and Scott at 10%.

Nine percent named Trump as their second choice.

The former president's legal troubles, with 91 criminal counts filed in four jurisdictions, don't seem to raise serious concerns among most of these voters.

Close to half, 46%, agreed with a statement that the investigations were politically motivated and Trump had done nothing wrong. Another 27% said he had made "questionable choices at times" but hadn't broken the law.

Only 21% said there was "credible evidence to suggest that Donald Trump committed crimes when he was in office."

"It's a sham, just like his impeachment when he was in office was a sham," said Jacob Brouillard, 39, of Nottingham, N.H., manager at a chemical manufacturer who is also a member of the state Legislature. "I think they're just kind of making up these charges as they go along hoping that something sticks to the wall, pretty much."

Federal prosecutors have accused Trump with trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and with mishandling sensitive national security papers after he left office. He also has been charged in Georgia with trying to overturn the election and in New York with violating finance laws by allegedly paying hush money to a porn star.

A $250 million civil fraud trial is now underway in New York alleging wrongdoing by Trump, his two older sons and other Trump organization executives.

What does matter? Inflation and the border

Two issues are at the top of voters' minds.

More than a third, 37%, said immigration and border security are the most important issues affecting their vote. Nearly as many, 32%, identified the economy and jobs. No other issue was cited by more than 5%.

"It would be the border," Ronald Sassi, 76, of Chichester, N.H., replied when asked to name the most important issue for him. Then the economy, the Republican retiree said, "because I have a feeling everything is going to crash coming very soon."

By 58%-36%, those surveyed supported ending so-called birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally. The idea has been endorsed by Trump, Ramaswamy, Scott and others, although most legal scholars say such a move would violate the Constitution's 14th Amendment.

Nearly half of those surveyed, 49%, said their personal financial situation was worse than before the coronavirus pandemic. And inflation continues to bite. One in 4, or 27%, called inflation "the worst I've ever seen." Another 9% said they couldn't pay their bills.

There was nearly universal agreement, however, on two factors that wouldn't affect their vote.

One was the endorsement promised by New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu; 86% said it wouldn't make a difference to their decision. Even more dismissed the results of the Iowa caucuses: 90% said Iowa's results wouldn't affect their choice.

The Iowa contest is set for Jan. 15. The New Hampshire primary is expected to be Jan. 23.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Haley surges past DeSantis in New Hampshire as Trump maintains lead
Former President Donald Trump on Monday complained that it was "unfair" that he is facing a bench trial after his lawyers failed to request a jury trial.

Trump sat through the first day of his Manhattan trial in New York Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud lawsuit on Monday and repeatedly lashed out at James and Judge Arthur Engoron to reporters at the courthouse during breaks.

"We are not entitled to a jury, which is pretty unusual in the United States of America. I think it's very unfair that I don't have a jury," Trump told reporters after Monday's session ended.

"I think it's very unfair I don't have a jury" -- Trump, who doesn't have a jury because his lawyers elected not to have one pic.twitter.com/N2K5FHMOQk  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 2, 2023

But Engoron told Trump and his legal team in court on Monday that the reason he is holding a bench trial is that "nobody asked for" a jury trial on the former president's legal team.

Legal experts called out Trump's complaint.

"Will someone - anyone - please inform him it's because his lawyer messed up the paperwork?" tweeted attorney Bradley Moss.

"Let's be clear: Trump can only blame his own lawyers for this bench trial versus having a jury trial. He can't blame the judge or even the NYAG. This is all on his defense team," argued MSNBC legal analyst Katie Phang.

Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal questioned whether it was a "competence issue" by Trump's legal team.

"I have no idea whether this was an intentional, purposeful decision by Trump's legal team to waive his right to a jury trial or not, because with Trump and his team, it's hard to know where incompetence ends and where actual strategy begins," he told MSNBC.

Even on Fox News, host Jessica Tarlov pointed out that "it also seems that [Trump] doesn'tand this has happened to him beforehave a top-notch legal team with him."

"He has the one lawyer who he had to pay in advance because he stiffs everybody," she said on Monday's edition of "The Five," referring to Trump's $3 million payment to defense attorney Chris Kise. "Then he has Alina Habba, who gives a great cable news hit but it seemed that she forgotor just, I don't know what happenedto check the box saying that they wanted a jury trial and then Donald Trump is complaining to the cameras and on Truth Social that it is un-American to have a trial without a jury when his own crackpot team asks for that."

Trump lawyer Alina Habba in an interview with Newsmax rejected the criticism from legal analysts, arguing that it would not have been as simple as checking a box.

"I have to address this one common misconception in the press, and unfortunately it just keeps getting repeated, which is that we had this great option to have a box checked for a jury. No, we didn't have that. That's not how this works. They brought it under Section 63(12), which is a very narrow, not appropriately used section of the law, which is for consumer protection," Habba argued.

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It's unclear whether a jury trial would have been available under New York Executive Law 63(12), the statute under which the case was brought and some legal experts believe it would not have been, The Messenger reported.

But New York attorney Andrew Laufer, who has represented former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, argued that it was a "big mistake" by Trump's legal team not to seek a jury trial.

"This was a huge error on the part of the defense team by failing to request a jury," he wrote. "It virtually negates any hope of a defense verdict. The only realistic shot the defense has is if the plaintiff fails to meet their burden under the law - prima facie case. That's not going to happen. Trump will lose and lose big. This isn't an appeallable issue since Trump was afforded a reasonable opportunity to request a jury trial. Again, this isn't a criminal case. Trump's remedy would be to sue his counsel for legal malpractice if the verdict goes [against] him."
Now that Ukraine is in line to receive F-16s, opinions surrounding their effectiveness span from being counterproductive to war-winning for Ukraine. While most discussions have focused on the fighters air-to-air performance and the platform itself, the broader effect of their deployment with the right munitions will be decreased Russian ground strikes.

Neither the Ukrainians nor the Russians have air superiority over the battlefield. Surface-to-air missiles, or SAM, and anti-air artillery provide the majority of air control for both sides. And yet, Ukraine is too vast for SAMs to cover, as most require line-of-sight, limiting maximum ranges at lower altitudes. The mobility and line-of-sight of fighters makes them well suited to defend areas with sparse SAM coverage. Fighters can also avoid adversary SAMs by flying low while also being able to engage aircraft doing the same.

The aircrafts first role will likely be supporting air defense by intercepting cruise missiles. Given Russias low monthly capacity for missile strikes on Ukraine, only a few F-16s are necessary to intercept cruise missiles that enter Ukrainian airspace  providing needed relief to Ukraines overtaxed SAMs. Some commentators have highlighted the F-16s ability to deploy cruise missiles and other munitions for strikes and interdiction such as the Storm Shadow missiles. However, those weapons are scarce, and F-16s provide only limited additional capacity unless Ukraine receives a large influx of air-to-ground munitions.

As Ukraine gains proficiency with F-16s, the next mission will be suppressing Russian SAMs, a mission that is more involved than stand-off strikes. F-16s are well suited to operate the AGM-88s that Ukraine has been supplied to suppress forward Russian SAMs. These destroyed Russian SAMs are expensive and unlikely to be replaced quickly. Attritting these systems is critical for Ukraine to gain local air superiority improving the survivability of its drones and ground forces in the process.

The two missions described are possible with the initial pledged F-16s. Of the approximately 60 F-16s promised, only around a dozen are expected by early next year. As more arrive, higher impact missions become possible.

Russias limited capacity of stand-off munitions has not hindered its ground attack aircraft and helicopters from striking Ukraine. Initially, Russia resorted to flying below line-of-sight of Ukrainian SAMs while employing dumb bombs. Russia has since adapted to use precision, stand-off glide bombs. Russia has also employed its multi-role aircraft in air-to-ground roles as it faces little resistance in the air. F-16s can target the latter and force the former to air-to-air roles. Whether Russia diverts aircraft to air defense, takes higher risks, or performs fewer strikes, the result is fewer effective Russian air-to-ground strikes.

There will also be downstream effects on Russian operations. Russia has, for example, expended large quantities of its long-range SAMs for ground attacks. Given the high overlap of SAM, ballistic missile and air-launched missile components, increasing production of SAMs for replenishment will likely come at the expense of other missile production, which means even fewer Russian ground strikes against Ukraine.

F-16s alone are not enough. They require training, support crews, communications, early warning, upgraded avionics and munitions. This infrastructure takes years to develop and is not likely to be fully fielded in the conflict timeframe. To date, little public discourse exists on exactly what the pledged F-16s will have in terms of capabilities and supporting infrastructure.

Beyond a high probability that Ukraine will receive more AGM-88s and Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), no other public disclosures of F-16 munitions have been announced. NATOs most capable long-range, air-to-air missiles (AAMs) are the U.S. AIM-120D and the U.K. Meteor. These are necessary to overcome Russias long range AAMs, yet neither has been pledged. Even if Russia has been inefficiently using its R-37s by firing from long range and leaving the fight, Russia likely retains large quantities of R-77 missiles. It remains uncertain how many of the AIM-120 variants previously provided for air defense are still available. An F-16 with any AAM is still an improvement over Ukraines current MIG-29s.

If Ukraines F-16s are expected to strike ground targets, they will require the right munitions. F-16 munitions designed for fighting Cold War-era ground formations are the upgraded variants the CBU and Rockeye series. Soon these will need decommissioning and will lack host aircraft. Stand-off glide bombs like the GBU-39 are already being offered as ground-launched variants and the air-launched variant could provide needed survivability for the F-16 to strike ground targets.

Will F-16s win the war for Ukraine? No. Only ground victories and unacceptable Russian losses will force Putin to negotiate. The most important support to Ukraine is still artillery, medical equipment, infantry weapons, ground vehicles, and drones. However, a long-term commitment to supporting a well-equipped, sizable F-16 force will improve the likelihood of Ukrainian success even if an F-16 never shoots a Russian fighter.

Michael Bohnert is a licensed engineer at the think tank Rand. He previously worked as an engineer at a naval nuclear laboratory.
FILE PHOTO: A sign outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple is seen after the killing on its grounds in June 2023 of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Surrey

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India has asked Canada to reduce its diplomatic staff in the country by more than half, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, with ties fraying after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly levelled suspicions that Indian agents were involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead by unidentified gunmen outside a Sikh temple on June 18 in a Vancouver suburb. India had designated him as a terrorist three years earlier.

Here's a list of diplomatic and trade actions taken by the two nations so far:

* Canada paused talks on a proposed trade treaty with India, a Canadian official said on Sept. 1, an unexpected move that came about three months after both countries said they planned to seal an initial pact this year.

* Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed strong concerns about Sikh separatist protests in Canada to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of a G20 summit in New Delhi on Sept. 10.

* Canada postponed a trade mission to India planned for October led by Trade Minister Mary Ng, a spokesperson for the minister said on Sept. 15. Canada's decision to halt trade treaty talks and postpone the mission was due to concerns surrounding the murder, a Canadian source told Reuters.

* Trudeau told parliament on Sept. 18 that Canada was "actively pursuing credible allegations" linking Indian government agents to the killing of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen campaigning for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland carved out of India.

* India dismissed Trudeau's assertion as "absurd" on Sept. 19. Both countries expelled a diplomat in tit-for-tat moves, with Canada throwing out India's top intelligence officer in the country while India expelled his Canadian counterpart.

* India urged its citizens in Canada to exercise caution in a statement on Sept. 20, as the U.S., Australia and Britain expressed concerns about the issue.

* India's JSW Steel Ltd is slowing down the process to buy a stake in the steelmaking coal unit of Canada's Teck Resources, Reuters reported on Sept. 21 citing a source close to the discussions.

* India suspended issuing new visas for Canadians on Sept. 22 and asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence in India.

* Fertiliser importer Indian Potash said on Sept. 22 that it does not expect supplies of Canadian potash to be affected by the row and that it hopes to extend a contract with Canadian supplier Canpotex beyond the end of September. Canada is one of the key suppliers of potash to India.

* Canadian lentil sales to India slowed after tensions rose between the two nations, industry sources in both countries told Reuters. Canada is India's main import source of lentils, a protein-rich staple.

* India's steel secretary told reporters on Sept. 28 that Indian exports to Canada were marginal and have not been affected by the diplomatic row.

(Compiled by Shivam Patel; Editing by YP Rajesh & Simon Cameron-Moore)
Scientists have repeatedly refuted the claim that Covid-19 vaccines can alter a person's genome, but social media posts suggest DNA contamination in the injections could lead to harmful effects such as cancer. This is false; there is no evidence of significant amounts of genetic material in the shots -- and even if there were, experts say they could not alter cells.

The claims circulated after University of South Carolina biologist Phillip Buckhaults appeared before a state panel September 13, 2023 to discuss his research on messenger RNA (mRNA) Covid-19 vaccines.

"It's surprising that there's any DNA in there and you can kind of work out what it is and how it got there," Buckhaults said. "And I'm kind of alarmed about the possible consequences."

In a September 18 post on X, formerly known as Twitter, chiropractor Ben Tapper says: "In other words, this vaccine will forever change your DNA."

The post shares footage and a quoted excerpt from Buckhaults's testimony, including claims that DNA in the Covid-19 shots "could be causing some of the rare, but serious, side effects like death from cardiac arrest" and poses "a very real theoretical risk of future cancer in some people."

Screenshot of an X post taken October 2, 2023

Other claims from the panel have circulated in articles and on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. Some repeat Buckhaults's claim that "there's probably about 200 billion pieces of this plasmid DNA in each dose of the vaccine."

Buckhaults did not cite any research supporting his assertions, but they echo a preprint paper that fact-checking organization Health Feedback debunked in June 2023. Buckhaults later clarified his comments on X.

"The DNA is real, however the risk of this DNA is theoretical. There is no need to panic about past vaccination," he said in a September 23 post (archived here).

"These vaccines saved a lot of lives. Far more than the number of people who have had medical events subsequent to vaccine. So overall, these vaccines were a win."

However, University of Michigan virologist Michael Imperiale told AFP that Buckhaults's claims of DNA contamination are unsupported. US guidelines require testing, and Imperiale said any lots with unacceptable ingredients are withdrawn.

AFP has debunked several claims that Covid-19 vaccines contain DNA, alter people's genomes and cause cancer.

Vaccine safety

The mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna differ from traditional vaccines in that they contain instructions for cells to make coronavirus spike proteins, thereby triggering an immune response.

Health Canada previously told AFP that "Covid-19 mRNA vaccines do not include DNA as part of the ingredients."

"The mRNA never enters the central part (nucleus) of the cell, which is where our DNA (genetic material) is found, and the cells' DNA cannot be altered by mRNA vaccines," the department said July 14.

Health Canada told AFP on October 27, 2023 that residual DNA fragments had been identified in the Pfizer vaccine from the Simian Virus 40 promoter enhancer -- a tool used in the manufacturing process -- but that "the fragment is inactive, has no functional role, and was measured to be consistently below the limit required by Health Canada and other international regulators."

Graphic showing messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine technology AFP

While the ingredient lists for mRNA Covid-19 vaccines do not mention DNA (archived here), Imperiale said he "can't think of anything dangerous" that would happen if they did.

To affect a person's genome, he said contaminants would need to enter "dividing cells" -- not the muscle or skin cells where the vaccine is introduced.

"For it to cause cancer, it would have to incorporate into the genome known to be involved in cancer and turn on the gene. It doesn't have a way to do that," Imperiale said.

David Gorski, a professor of surgery and oncology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, also said in a September 21 blog post (archived here) that Buckhaults's claims about potential genetic damage are baseless.

Gorski said the process by which DNA inserts itself into the genome and introduces mutations can only lead to cancer "if the mutation either activates or increases the expression of oncogenes (cancer-causing genes) or inactivates tumor suppressor genes."

"Sounds scary but is incredibly unlikely," he said.

Gorski added that there is "zero evidence or biological plausibility to link minuscule amounts of short fragments of DNA to cardiac arrest or sudden death."

FDA monitoring

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a September 27 statement that Covid-19 vaccines "have undergone -- and continue to undergo -- the most intense vaccine safety monitoring in US history."

The agency added that both it and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) "stand firmly behind the safety and effectiveness" of the shots.

The CDC says in a fact sheet (archived here) that the FDA "monitors a vaccine product's quality in real-time by requiring manufacturers to submit samples of each vaccine lot for testing."

"When vaccines are consistent across lots, FDA can confirm the product remains reliable and safe for use in people," the document says, adding that the agency conducts regular inspections of the production process.

By contrast, Gorski said in his blog post that Buckhaults's presentation omits any mention of the "chain of custody and storage conditions" of the vaccine vials tested for DNA.

"If these vials of used-up vaccine containing small amounts of vaccine left over weren't stored properly, the tendency would be for the RNA to degrade much more rapidly than any DNA, thus apparently elevating the DNA-to-RNA ratio in the solution," Gorski said.

Pfizer said in an October 3 statement that "the safety and efficacy of our Covid-19 vaccines have been established among hundreds of millions of individuals around the world over the past three years."

AFP contacted Moderna for comment on its mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, but a response was not forthcoming.

AFP has fact-checked other claims about vaccination here.
A civil lawsuit against Poudre School District, Colorado Department of Education and the state Board of Education has been filed in U.S. District Court by the families of five children police say were harmed by a former school bus paraprofessional.

The civil lawsuit, filed Friday in Denver, is separate from the criminal proceedings against Tyler Zanella, a former bus attendant who is facing 164 charges, including 34 felony counts of assault against at-risk victims, for incidents police say took place while he was working on PSD buses transporting children with special needs to and from school.

Police have identified at least 11 named victims, primarily nonverbal autistic children, in the criminal case through video surveillance from buses Zanella was assigned to last spring.

Here's what we know about the claims made in the lawsuit.

Lawsuit alleges Poudre School District withheld footage from police

The civil complaint includes an allegation that PSD intentionally withheld additional video surveillance from Fort Collins Police Services investigators during their initial investigation.

Fort Collins police utilized video to identify all of the named victims in Zanella's case. They initially identified one victim, a kindergartener, and arrested Zanella on multiple charges related to that child on May 24. A week later, police announced they had identified five more victims while reviewing video provided by the school district, bringing the total at that time to six named victims in the case. Zanella faced nearly 130 charges connected to those six children. At that time, the district publicly said it had no additional video footage of Zanella's routes.

But on Sept. 19, the 8th Judicial District Attorney's Office filed 35 additional charges against Zanella related to five more victims. Fort Collins Police Services spokesperson Brandon Barnes told the Coloradoan police recommended filing those charges on June 28 based on additional review of video surveillance and investigation.

A parent of three of the victims, each identified by initials in the court filings, was told the district only retains a few days worth of video surveillance from its buses, while law enforcement later learned it was retained for many months, the civil lawsuit contends.

More: Legal documents reveal new details of abuse case against PSD bus paraprofessional

We talked to folks who indicated that the police department was not provided full access to all of the tapes, and that the school district was deciding what it was going to produce, attorney Stephen J. Baity told the Coloradoan on Monday. And ultimately, when the police department received the full tapes or all of the tapes, they found additional victims.

A Poudre School District spokesperson said in an email Tuesday afternoon that the district had not yet received a copy of the complaint and therefore had no comment. Repeating previous public statements, communications coordinator Emily Shockley wrote that district policy requires video footage from Transportation Department vehicles be maintained for a minimum of three days, noting that newer technology allows some buses to maintain footage for a longer period of time. District officials also said previously that "all available footage of Mr. Zanella was reviewed by PSD Transportation staff May 23-29 and immediately shared with law enforcement."

An attorney with Lyons Gaddis, the law firm Baity said he was told would be representing PSD in the civil lawsuit, had not responded as of Tuesday evening to a voicemail left Monday morning requesting comment.

Fort Collins police do not comment on civil lawsuits and cannot comment on the criminal case since it's still an ongoing investigation, spokesperson Meagan Robinson said.

Attorney representing families: 'We need to understand what was really going on'

Victims families have been able to review the video surveillance that led to the filing of the criminal charges against Zanella at the Fort Collins police headquarters and district attorneys office but have not received their own copies, Baity said.

His law firm, California-based The Ozzello Practice, has also not received copies of all available footage, he said, but now hopes to through discovery in the civil lawsuit.

I think we need to understand what was really going on in this situation, Baity said. Im being very cautious about not interfering with the criminal case, but were interested in gathering basic information that we dont have at this point in time.

Plaintiffs did not request a specific dollar amount, choosing to let a jury determine compensatory damages for each of the eight claims of relief spelled out in the lawsuit.

The Ozzello Practice is representing five of the victims, including three who are siblings, along with their parents and/or guardians. The families of at least three other victims identified by police in video surveillance have retained legal counsel with other law firms, Baity said.

The Coloradoan is not identifying the victims or their families because it does not typically name child victims in a case.

Zanella, 36, is free on a $60,000 bond awaiting his next court appearance, a disposition hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. Oct. 18 before District Judge Daniel McDonald in Courtroom 4B of the Larimer County Justice Center in Fort Collins.

More: Why did PSD hire a bus attendant with record of child abuse? Here's what we know about case

Additional claims made in the lawsuit include improper influence in Zanella's hiring, failure of PSD staff to report abuse

All five victims involved identified in the civil lawsuit filed by Baity, who is based in Denver, are legally disabled and were required to be strapped into their seats on the school buses, with one requiring a more secure five-point harness, the court filing states. Four of the five are nonverbal, Baity said.

Four of the victims in the civil case were students at Shepardson Elementary School; the fifth was a student at Bacon Elementary. All five were between the ages of 6 and 11 when police say the abuse occurred.

The lawsuit says video footage includes sound and shows Zanella striking students with his fist and cellphone on or near the head, banging the heads of some against the school bus windows, verbally harassing and taunting them, hitting one student on the leg, touching the genitals of another in way that would constitute sexual battery, and making racially derogatory statements toward a biracial victim.

The tapes are disturbing, Baity said.

The lawsuit contends that additional acts of abuse, potentially involving other victims, would have likely been discovered if PSD had adequately investigated reports made by parents in January and February and reviewed video from the buses at that time.

The plaintiffs also contend that Zanella never should have been hired to a position helping vulnerable children with special needs ride school buses. Zanella pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor child abuse charge in 2012 in Adams County, where it was determined he was drinking heavily and became drunk while an infant had been left in his care. He also has two drunk-driving convictions, one of which was finalized in a Larimer County courtroom Aug. 18, 2023, just 11 days before he began working for PSD.

The lawsuit claims his hiring and subsequent supervision was influenced by his girlfriend, who is the mother of one of his two children and was working for the school district as a bus dispatcher.

Additional claims in the lawsuit address concerns about how bus drivers, integrated services staff working with the victims, school administrators and others reported or failed to report abuse they saw or heard on buses and injuries they observed on the students. The lawsuit states those concerns were either reported to a supervisor who failed to act upon those reports or not reported at all, both of which constitute violations of Colorados mandatory reporter laws. If they were not reported or reported to a supervisor instead of law enforcement or other state agencies, as the mandatory reporter laws require, the district would be negligent in its duties to properly train its employees about those requirements.

More: PSD superintendent shares changes being made, considered since paraprofessional's arrest

Why the Colorado Department of Education, state Board of Education were named in the lawsuit

The Colorado Department of Education and state Board of Education were also named as defendants based on their roles in overseeing PSD and other school districts in the state.

Another 50 people, identified simply as Does," were also listed as defendants. Those were other employees of the school district and witnesses whose names were redacted in police reports who had knowledge of the abuse that the lawsuit says failed to report it or take action to prevent it.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court, Baity said, because claims involve violations of both federal and state law and plaintiffs were concerned about potential delays if it were moved from a state court to district court.

The primary claims brought forth in the lawsuit are for deprivation of students rights, which provides civil relief through Title 42, Section 1983 of the United States Code, although violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, student 504 learning plans and state hiring and reporting laws are also alleged.

All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in court. Arrests and charges are merely accusations by law enforcement until, and unless, a suspect is convicted of a crime.

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Families of 5 kids police say were abused by ex-bus attendant sue PSD
WASHINGTON  From Joe Biden s earliest days in public life, politics and family have been intertwined to a remarkable degree.

When he realized his home was outside of the county council district he wanted to represent in Delaware, Biden convinced his parents to swap houses with him.

My God, Joe, really? his mom responded, according to the account Bidens sister, Valerie, gave in her memoir Growing Up Biden.

Aw, come on, Champ, this is a lot, his dad grumbled. But swap they did.

Family has long been Bidens north star, central to his identity, and a source of personal strength. Thats why his sons legal troubles cut close to the core.

President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, arrive at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2023.

Hunter Biden arraignment

Hunter Biden is scheduled to appear Tuesday in a federal court in Wilmington, Del., where he is expected to plead not guilty to felony charges stemming from his purchase of a firearm while being a drug user. He may still face additional charges for failing to pay his taxes in 2017 and 2018.

And House Republicans are hoping to impeach the president by tying him to his sons business practices.

Although Republicans use the umbrella term Biden family when raising questions about Hunter Bidens foreign business dealings, witnesses at House Republicans first impeachment hearing last week said the committee hasnt found impeachable evidence that the president benefited from a corrupt business deal.

All we hear all day long (is) `Biden family, Biden family, Biden family, said Rep. Daniel Goldman, D-N.Y., who was House counsel to the first impeachment of Donald Trump. And every time you hear that, you know that it doesnt include Joe Biden.

The hearing did not dissuade Republicans from continuing their inquiry, including subpoenaing additional banking records of Hunter Biden and the presidents brother, James Biden.

Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, speaks to the media on Sept. 27, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

'Proud of my son'

President Biden has dismissed the impeachment inquiry as politically motivated. Hes said little about the federal charges his son faces other than to express his support for Hunter.

Im very proud of my son, he told reporters in June after Hunter Biden struck a plea agreement that later fell apart.

Asked in May how a federal indictment of his son would impact his presidency, Biden told The 11th Hour it would not, because he has done nothing wrong.

"I trust him. I have faith in him," Biden said. "It impacts my presidency by making me feel proud of him."

President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden with his son Beau watch the Independence Day fireworks display from the Truman Balcony of the White House on July 4, 2023.

Hunter Biden has remained a visible member of the presidents public and private events. Hes attended state dinners, participated in the presidents family vacation in Lake Tahoe and weekends at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland. In April, he joined his fathers trip to Ireland that mixed foreign policy with a celebration of family roots.

Most voters aware of legal troubles, poll shows

More than nine out of ten of voters surveyed last month by Monmouth University Poll said they have heard about Hunter Bidens legal troubles. But most of the voters who said the issue may impact their 2024 vote were Republicans, who are unlikely to support Biden anyway.

Only 2% of the electorate includes voters currently supporting the president who say Hunter Bidens legal issues may affect their support, according to the Monmouth poll released Monday. Another 2% are Democrats not currently supporting Bidens re-election bid who said they might factor Hunter Bidens problems into their vote.

While those numbers are small in statistical terms, said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, one or two percentage points could be crucial in competitive states.

2024 election How timing of Hunter Biden trial could overlap with Joe Biden's re-election campaign

Stop the 'blanket immunity'

The devastating losses Biden suffered from the death of his first wife and daughter in a car accident in 1972 and the death of his oldest son, Beau , from brain cancer in 2015 have given him an ability to understand the pain of others thats as much a part of his persona as is his tight-knit family.

That is part of what people like about him, said author Joshua Kendall, whose book, First Dads: Parenting and Politics from George Washington to Barack Obama, explores the relationships between presidents and their children.

And substance abuse  which Hunter Biden has publicly struggled with and is related to the gun charges he faces  is something many families can understand.

But while people want to give the president some slack, he may need to be more forthright about the seriousness of the charges Hunter Biden faces.

He just seems to sort of give his son a blanket sort of immunity all the time, Kendall said. And that just, at this point, is starting to grate on some people.

William Bike, a communications expert and author of a how-to guide called Winning Political Campaigns, said Biden should submit to tough questioning about his son, saying that he loves Hunter, admitting to Hunters drug problems, but also pointing out that Hunter never has had a post with the Biden administration.

Going on '60 Minutes' in 1992 turned Bill Clintons faltering campaign around when allegations of infidelity were piling up, Bike said, and I believe President Biden throwing himself on the mercy of the nation as a loving father of a wayward son would do wonders.

Politics is a 'family calling'

When Biden was deciding whether to run for president in 2020, the only thing holding him back  hes since said  was the fear that his children or grandchildren would become targets.

One of Hunters daughters asked for a family meeting. The grandchildren made a case for why he should run, despite the fact that they expected the campaign to get ugly.

We know, Pop. We know, Biden recently recalled Beau Bidens son, Hunter, saying. But you got to run.

Politics became a family calling as soon as her brother entered the fray, according to Valerie Biden Owens .

Thats just the way we did things as Bidens, she wrote.

Presidential candidate Joe Biden arrives with wife, Jill, and sister, Valerie, at a campaign event in Los Angeles, Calif., on March 3, 2020.

Growing up, Valerie and her brothers could fight amongst themselves inside the house, but we were not allowed to say a single syllable against a sibling on the outside, Joe Biden wrote in his 2007 memoir Promises to Keep.

It was never, ever, under any circumstances  no matter what my brothers or sister had done  appropriate to do anything other than side with them, he wrote. Going against them wouldve been like giving secrets to the Russians in the middle of the Cold War. It was traitorous.

Forced with the choice in grade school between staying on the safety patrol or reporting on his sisters bad behavior on the bus, Joe Biden handed in his patrol badge.

As an adult, Valerie Biden Owens managed her brothers 1970 county council campaign, his seven U.S. Senate races and his first two presidential bids.

Other family members have both worked behind the scenes and made frequent appearances in his stump speeches and other public remarks, particularly when Biden recounts the lessons he learned from his parents.

No one is better than you, but youre not better than anyone else.

Giving up is never an option.

And above all, family is the beginning, middle, and end.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hunter Biden gun charges hurt President Biden family brand
A sizable crowd gather along Wilson Street in front of the Doubletree by Hilton hotel in Decatur, Ala. on Tuesday, Oct. 3 2023 to protest the killing of Stephen Clay Perkins by a Decatur, police officer last week. Alabama governor Kay Ivey was speaking at an event in the hotel. (Jeronimo Nisa/The Decatur Daily via AP)

DECATUR, Ala. (AP)  Family members of a Black man fatally shot outside his home by Alabama police are seeking more information about what happened and to see body camera footage of the shooting.

Police shot and killed Stephen Perkins, 39, last week in Decatur, Alabama, in what began in a confrontation Friday morning with a tow truck driver trying to repossess a vehicle, police said. Perkins' family said that he was not behind on payments and the vehicle should not have been repossessed.

The Decatur Police Department said in an initial public statement that officers were called to the scene by the tow truck driver, who said the homeowner pulled a gun. Police said that the man, identified as Perkins, later threatened the driver and turned the gun toward one of the officers.

The Perkins family issued a statement to news outlets requesting body camera footage and an investigation. They questioned what they called an "unjust excessive amount of force." Perkins was shot seven times, they said.

Police Chief Todd Pinion said he can not comment on the investigation until it it is completed. It would be improper and irresponsible for me to comment on the evidence in this case and cannot legally release any evidence in the case, he said.

Rumors have circulated regarding Decatur Police Departments statement stigmatizing Clay as combative or aggressive, causing rage in marginalized communities across Alabama," the family's statement read. "This was not the character of Clay Perkins. Clay was a family-oriented young black man thriving for excellence."

The family said they found receipts showing that his vehicle payments had been processed.

The police chief said in a statement Monday that the shooting is under review by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and that the law gives that agency the authority to decide whether body camera footage will be released.

The state law enforcement agency and local district attorney will decide whether the shooting will be presented to a grand jury after the investigation, he said.

Pinion said he will respect the findings of the state law enforcement agency. I ask for your patience until the investigative process is complete, Pinion said.

The Decatur Daily reported that protesters gathered outside Decatur City Hall, as well as a hotel where Gov. Kay Ivey spoke on Tuesday, to protest the shooting and to call for an investigation.

A neighbor who lives across the street from Perkins told WAFF that a bullet flew into his home. I feel that this was reckless and sloppy, Justin Shepherd told the local television station. For this many bullet holes to be in my home while Im sleeping, Im afraid to go to sleep at night knowing that people can shot my house up with immunity.

A justification of lethal force under the 4th Amendment depends on whether the officer was reasonably reacting to a deadly threat at the time of the fatal shooting, according to Brandon Garrett, a professor at Duke University School of Law.

Focusing on that split second, a terribly unjustified shooting might seem reasonable, Garrett said in an email to The Associated Press. That is why so many police and policymakers have rejected the constitutional standard as a poor guide for police practices.

Garrett raised several key questions about the Alabama shooting: Did the officer clearly identify themself as the police, and attempt to deescalate the situation from a safe position before using force? If not, did that practice violate any state or local policies?

According to an order revised by the Decatur Police Department in November 2020, officers must warn before using deadly force when reasonably practical.

___

Associated Press/Report for America reporter James Pollard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed reporting.
Russian hacker Mikhail Matveev, also known on the internet as Wazawaka and Boriselcin, is wanted by the FBI, which is offering a $10 million reward for information that could lead to his arrest, and has been put on a U.S. sanctions list. But, according to Matveev, his life hasnt changed much since he was outed as an alleged cybercriminal and put on the FBI's most wanted list.

We are Russian people, we are not afraid of the American government, Matveev told TechCrunch in an online interview. My life has changed for the better after the sanctions, I don't feel them on me, as well as sanctions are a plus for my security, so sanctions help us.

In an interview where he answered both in English and in Russian, Matveev said that being sanctioned means Russia will not deport him. And to avoid getting caught outside of Russia, he wont travel anymore, and said he has burned his passport. His last trip, he said, was to Thailand in 2014, where he ate scorpion, which he said was delicious.

Earlier this year, the U.S. government accused Matveev of participating in a global ransomware campaign against victims all over the world. Prosecutors claim Matveev is a prolific ransomware affiliate, who worked with the Hive, LockBit and Babuk ransomware gangs to carry out significant attacks against corporations and critical infrastructure in the U.S. and elsewhere, including hospitals and government agencies. In particular, the feds said Matveev allegedly intentionally infected the computers of Washington, D.C.s Metropolitan Police Department with ransomware.

Matveev, however, said he actually isnt affiliated with any ransomware group and that he only rented their software for my own purposes. Since the indictment and sanctions, he said, he has joked about the measures taken against him with people still involved in ransomware operations.

We sometimes throw memes at each other, he said.

He said he was using the ransomware to both test it in a controlled environment and to deploy it in real-life scenarios.

I have never been the author of the Hive and Lockbit project, I was only an affiliated independent person  by myself, my own master, Matveev said, adding that he is not interested in ransomware anymore.

Since he was indicted and sanctioned, Matveev has kept a prolific life on X, formerly Twitter, given interviews to cybersecurity publications and trolled the U.S. government by printing a T-shirt featuring his own FBI most wanted poster and asking his followers if theyd like to buy similar merch.

An unnamed FBI spokesperson said the bureau declined to comment.

We verified that Matveev was really the person behind the X account by asking him for selfies. Matveev provided a selfie showing his left hand, which has only four fingers, per Matveevs FBIs most wanted page, as well as a selfie holding a piece of paper that had this reporters name handwritten on it. Matveev said he lost his finger in 2017 when he was installing a server cabinet that weighed 35 kg (around 77 lbs), which forced him to get surgery.

The alleged hacker declined to say how much money he has made with his ransomware work, and said he now invests in crypto, and recommended everyone do the same. Matveev said he is also working on a website about cybersecurity. Although he declined to say how much money hes made with his ransomware activities, he denied that the income the FBI is attributing to him and his accomplices  $200 million in ransomware payments  is real.

Matveev added that he is not interested in ransomware anymore. But asked if he misses hacking, he said very much :( and he also said he may go back to hacking but no one will know about it.

Do you have more information about any ransomware gang? Wed love to hear from you. You can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram, Keybase and Wire @lorenzofb, or email lorenzo@techcrunch.com. You can also contact TechCrunch via SecureDrop.
A die-hard MAGA sheriff in Virginia charged with accepting bribes for deputy badges allegedly sold one to a controversial Iraqi fixer linked to Kurdistan prime minister and accused kleptocrat Masrour Barzani.

Thats according to an FBI search warrant affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast, which reveals Virginia-based businessman Haval Dosky was swept up in a federal investigation that has upended the decade-plus tenure of Culpeper County, Virginia Sheriff Scott Jenkins. Prosecutors say donors who gave generously to Jenkins 2019 reelection campaign were rewarded by being made reserve deputieswhich also gave them permission to carry a concealed weapon in all 50 U.S. states.

Dosky, who has not been charged with a crime, was sworn in as a Culpeper deputy in exchange for a $5,000 donation to Jenkins campaign committee, the search warrant affidavit states. His alleged involvement in the plot has never been previously disclosed.

Jenkins, a so-called constitutional sheriff who opposes all forms of common-sense gun control, was indicted in June on a slew of public corruption charges related to the alleged scheme. Three Virginia businessmen also allegedly bought commissions as Culpeper reserve deputies, were indicted alongside Jenkins. The affidavit cites a cooperating witness who solicited funds for Jenkins, and told the FBI he knew of at least eight individuals who were sworn as auxiliary officers in exchange for contributions.

Jenkins has vociferously denied any wrongdoing, and recently launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for his legal defense. Among the first to give was former Trump national security adviser and QAnon acolyte Mike Flynn, who kicked in $500.

Dosky did not respond to multiple emailed requests for comment, and did not pick up any of several cell phones associated with him. On Tuesday, Doskys wife answered a call to a phone number listed under her husbands name in public records, and told The Daily Beast she would pass along a message. (Dosky never called back.)

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Virginia, declined to provide further information about the case or any possible charges pending against Dosky.

The probe into Dosky began in the summer of 2021, a year after news reports emerged accusing him of helping the Barzani family fleece U.S. taxpayers by charging three to five times the going rate for fuel delivered to American military bases in Erbil.

Details of the Culpeper County cash-for-badges program were brought to the FBIs attention by an unnamed businessman facing federal charges in an unrelated matter, the affidavit states. It says he had been tasked with recruiting donors for Jenkins campaign, and had himself been sworn in by Jenkins as a Culpeper reserve deputy as payback for his own contribution.

The businessman, who lived in Virginia but not in Culpeper County, told investigators that he had introduced Dosky to Jenkins for the purpose of having Dosky make a contribution to Jenkins campaign in exchange for being sworn as a reserve CCSO deputy, according to the affidavit, which says Dosky, who is also not a Culpeper County resident, wrote a $5,000 check to Scott Jenkins for Sheriff in late 2018.

The businessman gave the FBI a series of text messages between himself and Jenkins, in which they discussed a potential get-together between Dosky and the sheriff.

Hey I got two great awesome guys that come in as supporters Big $$ excellent reputation, the businessman wrote. They wanna get sworn n will be there when you need them big $$... Can we set up a Mert n greet [sic] later this week?

Sure, Jenkins replied, according to the affidavit. My first three days are packed but Thursday Friday ok or following week too[.]

Six days later, the businessman texted Jenkins pictures of two drivers licenses, the affidavit goes on. One belonged to a local car dealer, the affidavit states. The other belonged to Dosky, it says.

These are the two friends I told you about, the businessman texted Jenkins, according to the affidavit. ... Big $$$$... Haval is multimillionaire n good buddy to us both n huge [non-profit organization] supporter.

Dosky and the other man were both great guys with outstanding ethics and reputations, the businessman added.

On April 18, 2018, the businessman and Jenkins had lunch at the Piedmont Steakhouse in Culpeper to discuss next steps, the affidavit states. About 20 minutes before they met up, a user at the Culpeper County Sheriffs Office ran Doskys name through the National Crime Information Center database to see if he had a criminal record, according to the affidavit. A little less than two weeks after that, the antsy businessman texted Jenkins again, the affidavit says.

Hi Scott. Any chance of getting Tim n Haval sworn this week? Lmk, the message read, according to the affidavit.

Jenkins responded the next morning, with an apology for the delay.

Ill check today on the guys and get back to you if we can make that happen, he wrote.

Over the next few months, the businessman and Jenkins exchanged text messages that discussed completing the associated paperwork for Dosky to be sworn in as a reserve deputy and scheduling a time for Dosky to swear his oath as a reserve deputy, the affidavit continues. It was ultimately determined that Dosky would be sworn in on July 11, 2018, at 11:00 a.m.

When the date rolled around, the businessman texted Jenkins at 10:33 a.m., according to the affidavit.

Did you want me to run Haval down to get sworn or wait for you Sir? he wrote. We are with Ana now doing ID.

Be there in a few, Jenkins wrote back, the affidavit states.

That October, Jenkins texted the businessman to ask if Dosky could help secure a speaker for the Culpeper Republican Clubs annual Reagan Dinner, according to the affidavit.

Can you get hold of Haval and see if its possible to [get unnamed political figure] or not, Jenkins wrote.

The next day, Jenkins followed up with another text, saying, Can you shout me Havals cell number please. I need him to get a message to [unnamed political figure] for me.

It is unclear who the two were discussing, as the political figures name is redacted in the affidavit. However, the speaker at the dinner that year was Trump campaign lawyer Joseph DiGenova, who called for CISA chief Christopher Krebs to be executed over publicly doubting the ex-presidents claims of voter fraud.

Dosky paid for his deputys badge some five months after he was sworn in, making his contribution to Jenkins campaign on Dec. 29, 2018, the affidavit states. The check was deposited on Jan. 11, 2019, about two weeks before the Reagan dinner, it says.

The affidavit is signed off by FBI Special Agent Scott Medearis, who wrote, in summary, I believe the campaign finance records, bank records, NCIC records, and text messages discussed above are corroborative of the [businessman-informants] statements and establish probable cause that Jenkins, Dosky, and others have engaged in a scheme to defraud the people of Culpeper of their right to honest services.

The feds took possession of Doskys iPhone as part of an unrelated investigation, according to the affidavit, which says the investigative team on that case shared information with agents looking into Jenkins. The Jenkins investigators then obtained a search warrant to extract any communications by Dosky with or about Jenkins, the Culpeper County Sheriffs Office, records of payments or donations to Jenkins or other sheriffs, financial records, and phone location data.

Jenkins is charged with one count of conspiracy, eight counts of federal programs bribery, and four counts of honest services mail fraud and wire fraud. Each count carries a maximum prison term of five years, 10 years, and 20 years, respectively.

Philip Andonian, Jenkins attorney, did not immediately respond to The Daily Beasts request for comment.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The FBI seal is pictured in Omaha, Neb., on Aug. 10, 2022. | Charlie Neibergall, Associated Press

In recent months, FBI agents have surged to tribal lands, investigating dozens of missing person cases and violent crimes, the bureau announced Friday.

More than 220 cases were handled by FBI investigators as part of the bureaus missing and murdered Indigenous persons strategy. Operation Not Forgotten resulted in 40 arrest and search operations, and the identification of four children who were victims of crimes, FBI Section Chief Jonathan Tapp told CNN on Sunday.

Tapp said the operation focused on death investigations and sex crimes.

The bureau announced the results of the operation on Friday, where more than 40 FBI special agents, intelligence analysts and victim specialists were assigned across 10 field offices, most in the West.

That includes the Salt Lake City field office, which received six special agents and a staff operations specialist who were on assignment between July and September. A special agent was also assigned to Vernal.

We recognize that Indigenous women and children are too often the victims of violent crime, said Shohini Sinha, Special Agent in charge of the Salt Lake City FBI office. This operation reaffirms our commitment to keeping our tribal communities safe and working closely with our tribal partners to hold perpetrators accountable. Every victim matters, and every family deserves justice for criminal actions against their loved ones.

CNN also reported that prior to Operation Not Forgotten, the FBI worked to locate nearly 200 people who had gone missing from the Navajo Nation, the countrys largest Indian reservation, which spans parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

In what has been labeled a public health crisis, rates of murder, rape and violent crime among Native American and Alaska Native women are higher than the national average, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Nearly 85% of American Indian and Alaska Native women experienced some kind of violence in their life, according to a 2016 study from the National Institute of Justice. And more than 56% have experienced sexual violence. In total, the study found that more than 1.5 million American Indian and Alaska Native women in the U.S. experienced violence in their lifetime.

Yet accurate data on women who go missing from reservations is hard to come by. Sometimes a lack of community trust in law enforcement means crimes or disappearances go unreported  other times, responding law enforcement is underequipped and understaffed.

A lot of rural areas lack access to specialized investigative resources and capacity, and technological expertise needed, said Nicole MartinRogers with the Wilder Foundation, during a presentation to the Utah Legislatures Missing and Murdered Indigenous Task Force meeting in August.

According to the National Crime Information Center, there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls in 2016. Only 116 of those cases were logged in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

There is a lot of cultural misunderstandings, there is a significant amount of limited resources and the way that those resources tend to be allocated, said Kaytlin Beckett, a lawyer for the Utah Attorney Generals Office, who prosecutes human trafficking cases across the state.

During the August task force meeting, Beckett told lawmakers she sees biases and harmful stereotypes that can hinder reporting crimes and investigations, even from law enforcement.

I do still deal with the issues like this person was engaged in substance abuse, so they cant be a victim of trafficking, she said. ... We do need to acknowledge that sometimes there are those shortcomings, whether theyre intentional or not.

In a statement, the FBI says the victim specialists assigned to Indigenous communities worked to remedy some of the criticism around how law enforcement investigates violent crime on reservations.

These victim specialists have received specialized training to understand the cultural sensitivities and unique needs of Indigenous victims, ensuring that voices are heard, rights are protected, and the necessary resources for healing and recovery are received, the statement reads.

The FBI declined an interview request to further comment on Operation Not Forgotten.
The Federal Communications Commission is officially doling out fines for space polluters, and the popular satellite television provider Dish Network earned the dubious honor of receiving the first ticket. On October 2, the FCC announced it slapped the telecommunications company with a $150,000 penalty after failing to properly deorbit its decommissioned, direct broadcast EchoStar-7 satellite last year. According to the FCC, the fine comes with an admission of liability, as well as an agreement to follow a compliance plan to help make way for the thousands of orbital projects in the works around the world.

[Related: FCC slaps voter suppression robocall scammers with a record-breaking fine .]

Space junk is already a huge concern for any industry requiring operations high above the planet, with literal millions of trash bits orbiting Earth at any given moment. In July, NASA director Bill Nelson told the BBC space junk poses a major problem, explaining that even something like a small paint chip striking an astronaut during a spacewalk at orbital speed (17,500 mph) can be fatal. Experts also worry about humans accidentally initiating a  Kessler cascade  or Kessler syndrome. In such situations, orbital space becomes so polluted that debris collisions are impossible to avoid, thus producing an exponentially increasing cycle of more collisions that create more debris. Were this to occur, the future of space exploration and travel could remain stymied until governments and companies begin complicated, costly cleanup efforts.

Dish Networks EchoStar-7 satellite launched and achieved geostationary orbit in 2002, and received FCC approval for an eventual orbital mitigation plan in 2012. According to the agreement, the telecoms company committed to eventually boost the satellite roughly 300 km above its operational arc. In February 2022, however, Dish Network revealed the satellite did not have enough remaining propellant to adhere to the original agreements altitude. In the end, the EchoStar-7 satellite only retired about 122 km above its geostationary arcfar lower than planned. Last year, the FCC also announced plans to finally begin tighter restrictions on satellites lifespans and decommissioning protocols.

[Related: Some space junk just got smacked by more space junk, complicating cleanup .]

As satellite operations become more prevalent and the space economy accelerates, we must be certain that operators comply with their commitments, Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan A. Egal said via Mondays announcement . This is a breakthrough settlement, making very clear the FCC has strong enforcement authority and capability to enforce its vitally important space debris rules.

In August, a space debris cleanup pilot project overseen by the European Space Agency quickly turned into a logistical headache after its orbital trash target appeared to collide with another piece of debris. Luckily, the ESA and its partners at Swiss startup ClearSpace-1 stated at the time that their project appears able to progress as planned.
Justice Department officials Tuesday announced a crackdown on China-based companies and employees in eight Florida indictments, accusing them of shipping chemical ingredients to Mexico and the United States where they are used to produce fentanyl  a synthetic opioid that is the leading cause of drug deaths in America with more than 100,000 over a one-year period.

The latest charges follow a U.S. government initiative launched this summer to target Chinese companies that are supplying fentanyl chemical precursors to foreign countries for the manufacturing of the deadly drug, which is 50 times more powerful than heroin and also can kill an adult with a dose of as little as two milligrams.

We know that the global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said Tuesday at a news conference in Washington, D.C., flanked by top law enforcement officials. The United States government is focused on breaking apart every link in that chain, getting fentanyl out of our communities, and bringing those who put it there to justice.

The federal focus on chemical suppliers marks a significant shift in U.S. policy that previously targeted the actual manufacturing of fentanyl-related substances and analogue opioid drugs in China, which were ordered over the internet and shipped through the mail to this country. Under pressure from the U.S. government, Beijing officials began outlawing and incarcerating fentanyl manufacturers operating on the black market in recent years  but theyre now accused of taking a lax approach to the exporting of the chemical ingredients to super labs run by drug cartels in Mexico and traffickers in the United States.

The latest round of fentanyl investigations, run by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations and other federal agencies, resulted in three indictments in South Florida and five indictments in Central Florida, authorities said.

This is only the beginning of our fight, U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe, based in Miami, said in a statement, sounding the alarm about these powerful and potentially deadly cocktails of controlled substances. Fentanyl ranks as the highest cause of overdose drug deaths in Florida, with about 3,000 fatalities on average over each of the previous two years, according to county medical examiners and state records, far ahead of cocaine, heroin and other deadly narcotics.

The South Florida indictments charge three Chinese companies and four officers and employees with fentanyl trafficking, synthetic opioid trafficking, precursor chemical importation, defrauding the U.S. Postal Service, and making and using counterfeit postage.

Among those charged: Hanhong Medicine Technology Company, a pharmaceutical firm located in Wuhan, Hubei Province, and Chinese nationals Changgen Du, 30, and Xuebi Gan, 28, are accused of exporting large quantities of fentanyl chemicals and additives to drug traffickers in the United States and Mexico.

Also charged: Jiangsu Bangdeya New Material Techonology Company, a pharmaceutical firm located in Jiangsu China, and its owner, Jiantong Wang, 40, are accused of advertising openly online as an export company for fentanyl chemicals to create a dangerous mix of synthetic opioids in foreign countries. Authorities say Bangdeya has illegally imported large quantities into the United States, including to a drug trafficker in South Florida.

Another set of charges: Hubei Guanlang Biotechnology Company, a chemical company located in Shijaizhuang, Hebei Province, China, along with Chinese national Wei Zhang, 28. He is accused of operating the company and a cryptocurrency wallet that accepts payment for its sales of fentanyl precursors and opioid additives.

Although the Peoples Republic of China has cooperated with the U.S. government on fentanyl-related crimes in the past, relations have become strained between the two countries.

In June, the Justice Department unsealed three indictments in New York charging China-based companies and their employees with fentanyl-related crimes. Two Chinese citizens were arrested. Beijing officials responded by alleging that the DEA had conducted a sting operation, blatantly abducted them in Fiji, and then took them to the United States for trial, thus seriously undercutting the foundation of [U.S.-China] counter-narcotics cooperation.
A Georgia man will serve more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing five rifles from Walmart, before trying to sell them for cash and drugs.

According to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Georgia, Brandon Michael Hatfield stole multiple weapons from an Americus, Ga. Walmart before he was caught.

The U.S. Department of Justice said Hatfield was stopped by store employees in November 2022 before he could leave the store with a 22LR caliber rifle.

As previously reported, Hatfield stole multiple rifles over several weeks, then flipped them quickly for cash and drugs, according to U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Illegal firearms trafficking at any level is directly contributing to violence on our streets by supplying dangerous people with weapons, Leary said in a statement. Law enforcement is working to reduce the number of firearms in the hands of criminals in an effort to improve the safety in Americus and within every community across the Middle District of Georgia.

Investigators found Hatfield stole five rifles on five different occasions between Nov. 1 and Nov. 16, 2022, according to USDOJ.

After being caught, he admitted to officials that he stole the weapons to trade for money and drugs.

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The unlawful acquisition and selling of firearms are serious crimes that feed and intensify the violence that plagues so many communities here and abroad, Assistant Special Agent in Charge Beau Kolodka said. This investigation illustrates the collective resolve of ATF and our law enforcement partners working together to make a safer community.

Officials said Hatfield already had a criminal record, including previous convictions for dealing methamphetamine, escape and residential entry in Decatur County, Indiana, Superior Court.

Hatfield entered a guilty plea in May for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. On Sept. 28, Hatfield was sentenced to 85 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

He is not eligible for parole.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
by Misbah Saba Malik, Wang Kai

ISLAMABAD/QINGDAO, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Akbar Notezai, a journalist from the capital city Quetta of Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province was "pleasantly shocked" after witnessing the development of Qingdao City of east China's Shandong Province during a recent visit.

"Before embarking on my trip to China, I conducted some research on Qingdao Port, and I knew that it is one of the largest comprehensive ports in the world. But the development I saw there was beyond my imagination," Notezai told Xinhua.

Notezai was part of a 10-member delegation of Pakistani journalists primarily hailing from Balochistan, who recently returned to Pakistan after a 10-day trip to China.

During their visit, Notezai found the Chinese people exceptionally hospitable and witnessed the warmth of friendship in their eyes towards the Pakistani people.

He expressed the hope that the people of the two countries will have a closer interaction to further strengthen the Pakistan-China friendship.

Many members of the delegation visited China for the first time and witnessed the impressive infrastructure projects, experienced traveling in high-speed railway, and saw thriving technology sectors that have propelled China's economic growth.

Behram Baloch, a journalist from Balochistan's Gwadar district, said the visit boosted their confidence and filled them with hope as they witnessed China's exceptional capability to construct state-of-the-art infrastructure and successfully operate it.

"I hope that Gwadar port, being developed by the Chinese friends, will play a great role in Balochistan's development and contribute significantly to its economic growth in the same way as Qingdao Port did," he added.

All the development projects that were built by the Chinese in Gwadar so far, including the Gwadar port, vocational training institute, New Gwadar International Airport, and Gwadar Port's Free Zone, are great opportunities for Pakistan to benefit from them, he added.

The Pakistan journalist said during his trip he felt that if university students from Balochistan get the opportunity to visit China or study there, it will prove to be very beneficial for them and for Pakistan.

"Sending university students to China can be an incredibly enriching experience, offering them a unique opportunity to learn and broaden their horizons in various ways," Baloch said.

China's rich history, diverse culture, and rapid economic development provide a multifaceted backdrop for educational trips, he added.

The delegation said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a great hope for Pakistan, and after visiting China and seeing the technological and infrastructural excellence of the country with their very eyes, they believe it will be a game changer for Pakistan.

Launched in 2013, the CPEC, a flagship project of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, is a corridor linking Pakistan's Gwadar port with Kashgar in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, highlighting energy, transport and industrial cooperation.

Talking to Xinhua, Furqan Rao, an Islamabad-based journalist who led the delegation to China, said the CPEC is making substantial contributions to Pakistan's infrastructural development and helping Pakistan overcome its energy crisis.

"CPEC played a vital role in providing Pakistan with a modern transportation network, energy solutions, and industrial infrastructure, which are boosting trade, creating jobs, and improving the overall socio-economic life for the people of Pakistan," he said. 
Stanislaus County reported what officials call a disturbing increase in overdose and poisoning deaths tied to the fentanyl crisis.

Tony Vartan, director of county Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, said the county through last week has recorded 129 overdose deaths this year, a 25% increase compared to the first nine months of 2022.

County officials tracking the opioid epidemic expect overdose deaths to exceed 200 this year, up from 176 in 2022. The county released a health alert last week citing the spike in suspected overdose deaths.

More than 60% of the overdose deaths have been due to illegal fentanyl sold by drug traffickers. The county Coroners Office has recorded 81 fentanyl deaths since Jan. 1. This years running total stood at 47 in July, indicating a recent spate of fentanyl fatalities.

Vartan said the numbers are preliminary as the county goes through a process of confirming overdose deaths.

Drug cartels are combining fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, with heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. Its also being put in counterfeit pills that resemble prescription drugs like Xanax, Oxycontin, Percocet and Adderall. Only about 2 milligrams of fentanyl may cause a fatal overdose.

In an email to The Modesto Bee, Vartan said the recent data puts the county on pace to exceed the overdose death tolls in 2022 and 2021. The county had 128 fentanyl deaths in 2022 after 97 were recorded in 2021 and 60 in 2020.

Tranq, in Stanislaus a couple of months, is bad all around

In another concerning development, Vartan said local drug treatment programs have anecdotal evidence and lab results showing that people are using tranq on the streets of Modesto and other cities. Tranq is fentanyl mixed with the veterinary medicine called xylazine.

When its injected, the illegal drug causes skin lesions and serious infections. Health experts say that naloxone, often distributed as Narcan nasal spray, is ineffective for people who overdose on xylazine.

Dr. Lyn Raible, who has worked in substance use treatment in Stanislaus County, said tranq has been available in the county for a couple of months.

If the East Coast is any indication, and it almost always is, we havent seen the worst of tranq yet, Raible said in a text. That xylazine is being seen with increasing frequency in Stanislaus County is not surprising, but it is deeply concerning because it is even more dangerous than fentanyl.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, xylazine is an animal tranquilizer that can be life-threatening for people, and its especially dangerous when mixed with fentanyl.

Raible said trafficking of xylazine has been moving westward across the United States, multiplying the dangers of fentanyl by increasing overdose deaths and causing other health problems for users.

Experts believe there is no reversal agent for xylazine because its a tranquilizer, not an opioid. For those who overdose and stop breathing, the chances of survival are artificial respiration until the drug wears off, said Raible, a member of the county Opioid Safety Coalition.

Administering naloxone is still recommended for a suspected tranq-related overdose, because xylazine is often combined with opioids that do respond to Narcan, says the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

People injecting tranq often develop severe wounds that are difficult to treat, including skin necrosis or rotting tissue. Xylazine causes blood vessels to constrict and prevents antibodies and antibiotics from reaching the infections, Raible explained. The most severe cases may require amputation.

Parents advised to educate teenagers

The fentanyl crisis has created a dangerous landscape of recreational drug use for teenagers and younger adults.

County BHRS said parents play a pivotal role in preventing substance abuse and accidental overdoses among their children. Theyre advised to engage in honest and non-judgmental conversations with their kids about the risks of drug use. Parents are advised to start early and maintain an ongoing dialogue with their kids.

Vartan advised county residents to educate themselves about fentanyl and other opioids and know the dangers and signs of addiction.

Residents can also join local initiatives and work with their neighbors to raise awareness and share information and learn how to administer naloxone.

Treatment options including counseling, therapy and medication-assisted treatment are available for residents who are struggling with substance use disorder.

Mental health and substance use disorder services are available in Stanislaus County by calling a toll-free line at 888-376-6246. The county Opioid Safety Coalition has a website (StanRx.net) with information on fentanyl and how to obtain naloxone, or call BHRS Prevention Services at 209-525-5316.
(The Hill)  Americans in a new survey said they believe college campuses are more likely to be open to liberals than conservatives when it comes to free speech.

Forty-seven percent of adults questioned said liberals on college campuses have a lot of freedom to express their opinion, while only 20 percent said conservatives do, according to the poll from the University of Chicago and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. While Republicans are more likely to report a bias against conservatives on college campuses, the poll found Democrats do as well.

Student loan payments are back after three years: What to know

Only 9 percent of Republicans said conservatives can speak freely on campus, while 58 percent said liberals can speak their minds. The poll found that about 4 in 10 Democrats said liberals can express their views freely, while about 3 in 10 Democrats said conservatives can.

The poll comes after a handful of students at U.S. colleges held protests against conservative guests at their schools over the past year.

AI child-welfare tool may flag parents with disabilities

After the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year, thousands of students at George Washington University signed a petition in an effort to remove Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from his teaching position, which he stepped down from shortly afterward. At nearby Georgetown University, dozens of students walked out of a speech given by former Vice President Mike Pence last year to protest.

The new poll also found that the majority of Americans said students and teachers should not be allowed to express racist, sexist or anti-LGBTQ views on campus, and 55 percent percent of respondents said students should not be allowed to invite academic speakers accused of using offensive speech.

The poll was conducted among 1,095 adults Sept. 7-11 and has a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
EAST BRIDGEWATER  Earlier this month, Erica-Kilcoyne Rubinski, 45, who spends her days taking care of her aging grandmother, became a grandmother herself  joining the ranks of the few people who can say they have five generations of family alive at the same time.

On Sept. 14, Rubinski, of East Bridgewater, watched her eldest daughter, Kayley Gibson, 27, of Worcester, become a mother for the first time. With the addition of baby Glenn, her daughter, herself, her 72-year-old mother Sandra Albrecht, and her 97-year-old grandmother became a five-generation family with an almost 100-year age-gap.

Gibson is the eldest of Rubinskis five children, two of who were adopted from the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF). Rubinskis youngest child, just five-years-old, already loves being an uncle.

A five-generation family. From left to right: Baby Glenn, born Sept. 14; Kayley Gibson, 27; Erica-Kilcoyne Rubinski, 45; Sandra Albrecht, 72; and Cynthia Clark, 97.

I had Kayleigh when I was 17, said Rubinski. I look back and Im like what was I doing trying to get pregnant at 16? But she made me who I am today, she said. She made me thrive because I had to set the bar high. I worked my butt off.

ENJOYING THE OUTDOORS: 5 places to ride your bike this fall in and around Brockton

To support her growing family, a few years after Gibson was born, Rubinski opened two successful childcare centers, Albrecht Kinder Academy in Easton and Cowlicks and Pigtails Child Care Center in West Bridgewater.

Four out of the five-generations. From left to right: Kayley Gibson (27); Erica-Kilcoyne Rubinski (45); Sandra Albrecht (72); and Cynthia Clark (97).

Just last year, Rubinski gave up working on-site at the child-care centers to take care of her grandmother, Cynthia Clark, 97, of Jamaica Plain, full time.

That's the thing, there's a lot of teenage mothers. But there's not a lot of elderly on the other end to make the fifth generation, she said. Because the oldest person still has to be alive.

And Clark  whos favorite movie is Magic Mike, wears lipstick every day, and still goes to the Casino, is very much alive and well.

Great-great grandmother Cynthia Clark, age 97, and baby Glenn who was born on Sept. 14.

She started this generation with just an eighth-grade education, Rubinski said. Growing up, she was one of 10 siblings, and they didnt have much."

Rubinski, the successful owner of two businesses, and Gibson, who is now a physicians assistant, have grown up in very different circumstances. But Clark, who is now a great-great-grandmother, has made sure to pass down the importance of gratitude and positivity through all five-generations.

My grandmother only looks through the lens of life in a positive way. Not everybody has a great upbringing, but it's the way that you look at it makes the whole difference, said Rubinski. Thats what I want to remember her for.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: East Bridgewater, Brockton five-generation family is an anomaly
Five people will be recognized Tuesday evening at Miami Valley Hospitals annual trauma survivors celebration, according to a spokesperson from the hospital.

>>One injured after being hit by vehicle in Springfield

The annual celebration will kick off at 6 p.m. and those honored will be recognized for overcoming tremendous odds on their journey to recovery, the spokesperson said.

The event will take place at the Marriott at 1414 S. Patterson Blvd.

There will be a program that recognizes each of the honorees. A video presentation will also take place sharing each honorees inspirational story through their recovery.

The honorees and their family members will have the chance to reunite with their trauma surgeons, nurses, and rehabilitation therapists. As well as first-responder paramedics and firefights who took care of them, the spokesperson said.

The CareFlight team will also be recognized for its 40 years of service.

>>AG approves petition to amend legislative redistricting process in Ohio

The spokesperson said this will be the first time for many of them to see one another outside a hospital setting.

The honorees and their stories are:

Rob Baise:

Baise was responding to a structure fire while on shift with the Springfield Fire Department. While inside, conditions worsened, and the crew needed to evacuate. Baise fell face-first down a flight of stairs while evacuating from the house. Unable to move, he called for help. When help arrived and noted the severity of Robs injuries and took him immediately to Springfield Regional Medical Center where the CareFlight team him to Miami Valley Hospitals Level I Trauma Center.

>>RELATED: Springfield firefighter injured in house fire released from hospital after undergoing rehab

Ashley Brown:

Brown was headed to drop her two little boys off at the babysitter. On the way, a car ran through a red light and hit her car, injuring Brown and her two sons. Dayton Fire worked to extricate Brown from her severely damaged car and transported her to Miami Valley Hospitals Level 1 Trauma Center. Here she had several surgeries over the following months.

Marshell Gillis:

Gillis was having a night out with friends when someone she just met shot her multiple times. The Moraine Fire Department knew her injuries needed a Level 1 Trauma Center, and she was quickly transported to Miami Valley Hospital. Dr. Semon and the Trauma Team continued her life-saving care as soon as she arrived. Gillis has shown so much resiliency since her injuries, including multiple surgeries, hospitalizations, and facing her shooter in the courtroom.

Eric Ney:

Ney was working as a Clearcreek Twp Police Officer when he was shot on duty while responding to a domestic violence call. CareFlight was called to the scene to transport Ney to Miami Valley Hospitals Level 1 Trauma Center as his injuries were severe. Dr. Peter Ekeh and the Trauma Team were there to meet Ney and he went on to have multiple surgeries and hospitalizations over the next few months.

>>RELATED: Eric Ney, Clearcreek Twp. officer shot in 2022, to retire from force today

Judy Sorrell:

Sorrell was driving to work when she suffered a stroke which resulted in a severe car crash. The Troy Fire Department responded and knew they needed to get Sorrell to a Trauma Center. She was taken to Upper Valley Medical Centers Level III Trauma Center where she was stabilized and received an initial and confirmation of a stroke. She was then transported by CareFlight to Miami Valley Hospitals Level I Trauma Center and Stroke Center. Sorrell was able to heal from her traumatic injuries while recovering from a stroke simultaneously due to the support of her family and her incredible determination.
An event to mark the milestone with members of the local community took place outside Council House on Tuesday

A Nigeria flag has been raised in Coventry to mark the 63rd anniversary of the country's independence.

Members of the local community joined Coventry city councillors to celebrate the milestone outside Council House, in Earl Street, earlier.

Nigeria gained its sovereignty from the British Empire on 1 October 1960.

Labour's George Duggins, council leader, said it was "exceptionally important" to recognise the Nigerian community's contribution in Coventry.

Members of the local Nigerian community attended the flag-raising ceremony

He said a flag-raising ceremony to celebrate the country's independence day would continue to take place "on a yearly basis".

"The community [have] asked for it and you know very clearly, we were happy to get involved and sort it out," he said.

"They've made contributions and they're making contributions in terms of politics, medicine, industry, commerce, university - you name it, they've made it."

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk
Michael Zack was executed on Tuesday, decades after being sentenced by a non-unanimous jury. His lawyers argued that he had an intellectual disability that made him ineligible for the death penalty.

Michael Zack was executed on Tuesday, decades after being sentenced by a non-unanimous jury. His lawyers argued that he had an intellectual disability that made him ineligible for the death penalty.

Florida on Tuesday executed 54-year-old Michael Zack, who was sentenced to death decades ago by a non-unanimous jury under a death penalty statute that has since been found unconstitutional.

Zack was killed as punishment for the 1996 killing of a woman named Ravonne Smith. He was also serving a life sentence for killing Laura Rosillo days prior.He was the sixth person Florida executed this year, several of whom were also sentenced by non-unanimous juries. Zacks death warrant was signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis , who is running for president on a tough-on-crime platform that includes making it easier to execute people.

Twenty-seven years ago, I was an alcoholic and a drug addict. I did things that have hurt a lot of people  not only the victims and their families and friends, but my own family and friends as well, Zack said in a final statement. I have woken up every single day since then filled with remorse and a wish to make my time here on earth mean something more than the worst thing I ever did.

I make no excuses. I lay no blame. But how I wish that I could have a second chance, to live out my days in prison and continue to do all I can to make a difference in this world, Zack said.

Michael Zack has been executed in #Florida. Here is his final statement. pic.twitter.com/fUhaMlnHJE  FADP (@FADPorg) October 3, 2023

Florida is one of just two states that allows non-unanimous juries to recommend death sentences. Two other states allow judges to impose death sentences when juries cannot decide. Florida also has the highest number of exonerations from death row. Although Zack did not claim innocence, he argued up until his death that several mitigating factors should have exempted him from execution.

Zack suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome, the result of his mother drinking heavily throughout her pregnancy. When he was 3, he was hospitalized for drinking about 10 ounces of vodka, his lawyers wrote in a recent court filing. Zack endured extensive physical and sexual abuse from his stepfather, who forced him to perform sex acts, kicked him with spurs, beat him, ran him over with a car, forced him to drink alcohol, injected him with drugs, attempted to drown him and created devices to electrically shock him if he wet the bed, Zacks lawyers wrote. When he was a child, Zacks older sister killed their mother with an ax.

Zack endured unimaginable abuse, his three sisters wrote in a statement. He did his best to protect us, they wrote, yet we all have enduring scars from the trauma.

We are aligned in the belief that he should have remained separated from society, where he would face accountability for his actions and maintain the sobriety he has achieved over the last 27 years, Zacks sisters wrote. Still, our love for him endures. With his execution, our family faces another irrevocable and profound loss.

As an adult, Zack was still functioning at the level of a disabled child, his lawyers wrote. He was unable to cook, measure, select weather-appropriate clothing, follow a bathing routine, follow directions, pass a drivers test or open a bank account. Before his death, Zack was diagnosed with an intellectual disability.

In 2002, several years after Zack was sentenced to death, the Supreme Court held that executing people with intellectual disabilities violated constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Zack argued that fetal alcohol syndrome is functionally equivalent to intellectual disability, but courts repeatedly denied him relief, citing Floridas IQ score cutoff for intellectual disability. Zack pursued clemency in 2014, but his request went unanswered.

Over the past decade, there has been a dizzying series of reforms, followed by reversals, in Floridas death penalty sentencing laws. In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of Floridas death penalty system, ruling that it gave jurors an insufficient role in determining the defendants punishment. Later that year, Florida lawmakers amended its statute to require at least 10 jurors recommend a death sentence in order for a judge to hand down that punishment. The Florida Supreme Court later struck down that statute and required jury unanimity for death sentences. In 2017, state lawmakers again amended the statute to require unanimous jury decisions.

But in 2020, a newly conservative Florida Supreme Court reinstated the non-unanimous death sentence of a man named Mark Poole, claiming it was wrong in 2016 to ban non-unanimous death verdicts.

The majority returns Florida to its status as an absolute outlier among the jurisdictions in this country that utilize the death penalty, Justice Jorge Labarga wrote in a dissent. Further, the majority removes an important safeguard for ensuring that the death penalty is only applied to the most aggravated and least mitigated of murders. In the strongest possible terms, I dissent.

The 2020 decision cleared the way for lawmakers, encouraged by DeSantis, to again change the law, reducing the number of jurors required to impose a death sentence from 12 to eight. Florida now has the lowest jury threshold of states that use the death penalty.

DeSantis declined Zacks clemency request in August 2023, nine years after his initial submission, and signed his execution warrant shortly after. Zack and his lawyers were given no notice that the governor was considering his clemency request and had no opportunity to provide updated information.

On Tuesday, hours before the execution, the Supreme Court denied Zacks requests to stay the execution and consider his claims related to fetal alcohol syndrome, the non-unanimous jury sentence and his clemency process.

Related...
The DeKalb County District Attorneys Office announced the conviction at jury trial of a Florida man accused of shooting and seriously injuring his ex-girlfriend in Brookhaven.

According to a statement from DA Sherry Boston, Mustafic Mahadi, 36 of Florida, was convicted by a DeKalb County jury for aggravated assault, criminal damage to property, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possessing a firearm by a convicted felon.

The charges stem from a Feb. 19, 2021 incident where Mahadi shot his ex-girlfriend after she ended their relationship.

The shooting occurred at her apartment on Durden Drive, in Brookhaven.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

According to the DAs office, Mahadis ex-girlfriend broke up with him, and after hearing about the break-up, her friend came over to spend the night.

While the two friends were getting ready to sleep, Mahadi showed up uninvited and started banging on the door and demanding to be let inside and threatened to kick the door open if she did not welcome him inside, according to the DAs office.

TRENDING STORIES:

Mahadis ex refused to let him in, so he tried to break the door down, which the DAs office said he had done in the past.

When Mahadis ex-girlfriend begged him to stop while yelling through the door, he fired three shots through the door, hitting her in the stomach, while the third shot grazed her side.

After shooting his ex-girlfriend, the DAs office said he immediately fled the scene.

The victims friend called the police for help and officers from the Brookhaven Police Department came to the apartment.

Emergency responders rushed the victim to the hospital and she was taken to surgery to treat her wounds, according to the DAs office. While recovering, the victim told hospital staff about her history of being abused by Mahadi while they were together.

The DAs office said Mahadi was on the run for three months before he was found by the U.S. Marshals Service in New York. He was arrested on May 3, 2021.

Now that Mahadi has been convicted, hell be back in court for a sentencing hearing on Oct. 6 at 9 a.m., according to officials.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
Florida death row inmate Michael Zack is set to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday for the 1996 deaths of two people after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the execution on Monday. Photo courtesy Florida Department of Corrections

Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Michael Duane Zack is scheduled to become the sixth death row inmate to be executed in Florida on Tuesday evening after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stop the planned lethal injection.

Zack, 54, is set to die by lethal injection after he was convicted for murder in the death of Ravonne Smith in Escambia County during a deadly crime spree that also claimed the life of Laura Rosillo in Okaloosa County.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Zack's death warrant on Aug. 17 but attorneys for Zack said he should not face the death penalty because he suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, or FAS, which caused him to function as if he was "intellectually disabled."

The Florida Supreme Court and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also passed on stopping the execution as well.

In its ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said there was "no real possibility" that it would expand the 2002 precedent set by Atkins vs. Virginia, which established that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment, to include a FAS diagnosis.

"Zack would not succeed in having this court wholesale defer to the views of the psychiatric community on the matter of whether Atkins should be expanded to include other types of diagnoses," the court wrote. "While he asserts that the psychiatric community now views FAS as functionally identical to intellectual disability, courts determine Eighth Amendment law, not unelected unrepresentative experts."

Kennedy worked as a bartender in Pensacola Beach when she was murdered on June 13, 1996, where authorities found her at her home with four stab wounds in the chest. During his arrest, Zack confessed to killing Russillo on the same day.

He met Russillo at a bar in Okaloosa County and her body was found near the beach on Okaloosa Island, beaten and strangled. Investigators found traces of Russillo's blood inside Zack's car, which he had stolen from a friend in Tallahassee.
A group of transgender and nonbinary activists on Friday asked a federal judge in Florida to grant a temporary restraining order permitting them to use bathrooms aligned with their gender identity while they attend a march in support of trans youth in the state.

The group, represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights, is also asking the judge to declare the Facility Requirement Based on Sex law unconstitutional. It was one of four controversial news laws signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May and went into effect this summer. The activists will be attending the National March to Protect Trans Youth and Speakout for Trans Lives taking place Saturday in Orlando. They say they fear arrest or harassment if they are not allowed to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.

Plaintiffs have sincere concerns about their ability to exercise their protest and expressive conduct rights as they traverse the state of Florida from Oct. 2, 2023, through October 8, 2023, the lawsuit declares. Some Plaintiffs plan to use a restroom that aligns with their gender, which exposes them to arrest. Others wish to avoid that risk and plan to use non-affirming restrooms. Some will forgo multi-stall public restrooms altogether due to fear and discomfort.

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The Facility Requirement Based on Sex law limits bathrooms based upon a persons specific reproductive role, as indicated by the person's sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, and internal and external genitalia present at birth.

The law defines female as a person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing eggs and defines males as a person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing sperm.

One plaintiff, Melinda Butterfield, 52, is a trans woman traveling to Orlando from NYC. She had few kinds words for DeSantis and the recent slew of anti-LGBTQ+ bills signed into law in the state.

A protest like this is long overdue, Butterfield said in a statement. The divide-and-conquer measures of Ron DeSantis, the Florida legislature, and their wealthy backers are echoed in states across the country: banning gender-affirming healthcare, suppressing free speech for queer students and teachers, throttling Pride celebrations and drag performances, banning trans people from using restrooms, and threatening to kidnap trans youth from supportive parents.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Monday it has expanded its probe into Ford Motor Co. engine failures to include more than 700,000 vehicles.

In documents posted Monday, the agency revealed it is upgrading the investigation to an engineering analysis, which is one step closer to a recall.

This now will cover the model years between 2021 and 2022 and includes the F-150 pickup truck, as well as Explorer, Bronco and Edge SUVs and Lincoln Nautilus and Aviator SUVs.

The agency stated that under normal driving conditions without warning the vehicle may experience a loss of motive power without restart due to catastrophic engine failure due to a potential faulty valve in 2.7- and 3-liter EcoBoost engines.

During the investigation, multiple contributing factors were identified which can lead to the fracturing of the intake valves in the subject engines. Ford acknowledged that a fractured intake valve can result in catastrophic engine failure and a loss of motive power and noted that following a valve fracture, a vehicle typically requires a full engine replacement, NHTSA documents stated.

Ford told the agency there have been 328 customer complaints, 487 warranty claims and 809 engine exchanges related to those vehicles. In a statement to The Hill, a Ford spokesperson said the company is working with NHTSA to support their investigation.

This comes months after Ford announced that it was recalling more than 140,000 of its vehicles over the risk that their batter monitor sensor could overheat and possibly catch fire.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
by Martina Fuchs

SUZHOU, China, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The second edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival China came to a successful close on Monday, with international and Chinese artists and audiences celebrating the universal language of music and building more bridges between East and West.

On the shores of Yangcheng Lake near the Chinese city of Suzhou, during China's National Day "golden week" holiday, the Montreux Jazz Festival China attracted thousands of music lovers from across China and musicians from around the world.

"We invited 140 international musicians from more than 30 countries and brought almost 40 concerts to the Chinese and international audiences," CEO of the festival Joyce Peng Peng told Xinhua.

"It's a beautiful landscape here at Yangcheng Lake, and we were very lucky with the weather."

In 2021, the Montreux Jazz Festival traveled to China for the first time, taking place in the eastern city of Hangzhou under the theme "Where East Meets West."

"Where Legends Are Born" is the slogan of the world-famous Montreux Jazz Festival, which was created in Switzerland in 1967 by Claude Nobs and takes place for two weeks every summer.

"We had more than 1,000 people in the audience here every day. They came not only from Chinese cities but also from other countries. We had visitors from South Africa, Switzerland and the United States. We also organized several corporate events here," Peng Peng said.

EXPANDING IN CHINA AND BEYOND

For over 50 years, the small Swiss town of Montreux has hosted iconic performances by many music legends.

Since the end of the 1970s, the Montreux Jazz Festival has exported its savoir-faire heritage and atmosphere to various cities worldwide, with editions in Sao Paulo, Detroit, Atlanta, Singapore, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.

"We have a strong message we want to bring to our audience," Peng Peng said. "We act like a bridge to connect East and West. The festival is originally from Switzerland, but it has now landed in China in a very successful way."

Peng Peng said the festival hopes to expand to more Chinese cities.

"We also want to invite more great international musicians to come to China and bring young emerging Chinese artists out to the world and our mother festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland," she said. 
Omarosa Manigault Newman says Trump uses his "worst" insults for women of color.

She spoke to CNN about Trump referring to NY AG Letitia James as "peekaboo" and her a "dog."

"He saves the worst insults for women of color and he tries to veil his racist remarks," she said.

Former-"Apprentice" star and onetime White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman has accused former President Donald Trump of saving his "worst" insults for women of color.

Manigault Newman, an outspoken Trump critic who briefly served as a White House adviser to him in 2017, spoke about her former boss on CNN on Monday after he appeared in a New York court for the start of his civil fraud trial.

Trump on Monday blasted the civil case as the "single greatest witch hunt of all time" and called New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the $250 million fraud lawsuit against him, "racist" and a "horror show."

When asked during the CNN interview about Trump's commentary of James, who was elected as New York's first African-American attorney general in 2018, Manigault Newman said it's "mostly about intimidation" for the former president.

"He has saved his worst insults, his biggest vitriol for women of color," Manigault Newman told CNN's Erin Burnett of Trump.

Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on Tuesday.

Manigault Newman referred to how Trump has previously called the New York attorney general "Letitia Peekaboo James," Vice President Kamala Harris a "monster," and herself a "dog" during the CNN interview.

"I mean, he saves the worst insults for women of color, and he tries to veil his racist remarks in some kind of hedging," Manigault Newman said of Trump.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, "needs to look in the mirror," Manigault Newman told CNN.

"He is facing for the first time accountability for his actions, and he can call people as many names as he wants, but it is time for him to face the music, and he must pay, and he will  at the hands of a Black woman," Manigault Newman said.

In addition to James' business fraud case against Trump and his Manhattan-based company, which puts his empire in jeopardy, the former president has been charged in four separate criminal cases.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Former Arizona Sen. Otoniel "Tony" Navarrete appeared in Maricopa County Superior Court on Tuesday facing charges alleging sexual conduct with two children.

Judge Suzanne Cohen scheduled jury selection for Oct. 12. The trial was expected to begin the following week.

Also on Tuesday, prosecutors asked for and received an arrest warrant for a woman named Yolanda Vargas who they described as being a "difficult" witness. They told Cohen that Vargas had been subpoenaed and ordered to appear in court but had not shown up.

Navarrete, who appeared calm as he stood silently next to his lawyer, was accompanied by a large group of supporters in court.

A rising star in the Democratic Party before his Aug. 5, 2021, arrest, Navarrete was accused of touching two boys sexually over a period of several years.

In this Jan. 9, 2018, file photo, then-Rep. Tony Navarrete, D-Phoenix, waits with Arizona House members receiving mandatory sexual harassment and other ethics issues training on the House floor at the state Capitol in Phoenix. Currently a state senator, Navarrete has been arrested on suspicion of charges accusing him of sexual conduct with a minor, police said Aug. 6, 2021.

He was indicted on seven counts, and all but two are Class 2 felonies: one count of child molestation, three counts of sexual conduct with a minor, two counts of sexual conduct with a minor as Class 6 felonies, and one count of attempting to commit molestation.

He resigned his seat in the Legislature days after his arrest and pleaded not guilty in the case, and "adamantly" denied the allegations.

A settlement conference in September gave the ex-lawmaker a chance to learn his "punishment exposure" and what prosecutors believed they could prove at trial.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Bruce Cohen told him the maximum punishment if he's convicted would be "well over 100 years." Early release would not be available to Navarrete, who could still take a plea deal if one was offered.

Michael Minicozzi, a deputy county attorney, told Navarrete that the case relied on a recorded call between Navarrete and one of the victims in which Phoenix police officers listened in.

"That's the crux of the case," Minicozzi said in September, noting that Navarrete expressed remorse in the call.

Court records reveal that one of the boys alleged Navarrete fondled his genitals and attempted oral sex. The other boy alleges Navarrete put his hand under the boy's shorts and attempted to fondle him. Navarrete, who blames alcohol for his actions, apparently thought the boys were sleeping at the time, records state.

"Of course, I regret any bad actions that I did, absolutely wishing everything could be different. I'm sorry, mijo," Navarrete was quoted as saying in the phone call. He was arrested at his west Phoenix home four hours after the call.

Cohen advised Navarrete that jurors were likely to find him guilty on all seven counts if they believed he was guilty.

Navarrete was scheduled to return to court for a pre-trial procedure conference with Judge Kristin Culbertson on Oct. 9.

Includes information from Arizona Republic reporter Ray Stern.

Have a news tip? Reach the reporter at jjenkins@arizonarepublic.com or at 812-243-5582. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @JimmyJenkins.Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Former Arizona Sen. Tony Navarrete in court for sex crimes
Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig launched a bid for the open Senate seat in Michigan, becoming the second major Republican candidate in the 2024 race.

Craig made the announcement Tuesday in a video posted on the website set up for his campaign, saying he would bring strong leadership to the position to help families, small businesses and the victims of crime.

The video includes a voiceover of Craig talking about individuals who are political servants, not public servants and shows videos of prominent Democrats including Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), President Biden and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the former Speaker.

Slotkin is running in the Democratic primary for the seat and seems likely to become the partys nominee.

Our country is going in a bad direction. Americans want better, and they want something different, and were going to give it to them, Craig said.

Craig joins former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) in the race for the GOP nomination. Several other candidates have also entered the race.

Former Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) has formed an exploratory committee to consider a run and appears likely to also mount a bid.

Craig served as the chief of the Detroit Police Department for about eight years before he retired to run for governor of Michigan in 2022. He was among the more prominent candidates in a large field but was ultimately disqualified from the ballot for the GOP nomination following the revelation that some signatures on his candidate petitions were fraudulent.

Craigs campaign website mentions several issues he would want to focus on if elected, including a shift away from what he calls soft-on-crime policies, enhancing border security, dismantling the bureaucratic state, cutting taxes and creating term limits for members of Congress.

Rogerss decision to join the race was a victory for the Senate Republicans campaign arm and its chairman, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who had been looking for a potentially strong candidate in the race that had not had a clear choice for GOP nominee.

Craig will likely try to position himself as a closer ally to former President Trump, whom he has endorsed for president, than the more moderate Rogers.

The candidates will compete for the seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D), who has been in office since 2001.

The seat would be key for Republicans attempting to win back control of the Senate; the GOP needs to pick up one or two seats to have a majority.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
FALL RIVER  The Zoning Board of Review cleared the way last week for two major housing projects and one mixed-use plan that will add another 851 units of market-rate housing in the city, including the conversion of a former Catholic church.

The two largest projects, the Flint Mills at 135 Alden St., and Wyoming Mills at 110 Chace St., were approved for 405 units and 400 units respectively. They are both being redeveloped by The Goldman Group of Boston.

Both market-rate projects will set aside 20% of the units for residents 55 and older, according to Kenneth Fiola, executive vice president of the Bristol County Economic Development Consultants, whose agency is a consultant for The Goldman Group.

The Flint Mill Building No. 1 on Alden Street was purchased in 2021.

Fall River real estate boom: Over 2,000 market-rate apartments are in the pipeline

The company's managing partner, Charles Goldman, said these are the first projects the Goldman Group has undertaken in Fall River.

"We think Fall River is a very promising area to invest in," said Goldman. "We think Fall River is up and coming, and as you see a lot of development, new business and opportunities. And the city is very encouraging to development, and all of the mill development that we've seen have been very successful."

Goldman said his company believes the market in Fall River will continue to grow and improve with the coming of South Coast Rail, waterfront development and the state highway department's effort to improve the Braga Bridge.

"There are so many great things happening," said Goldman.

'I dont know how people are making it': How Fall River is developing affordable housing

Both properties have had long manufacturing histories in the city, with the Flint Mills once housing as the Shelburne Shirt Co., which had its heyday in the 1930s and was one of Fall River's largest employers. The clothing manufacturer closed its doors in the 1980s due to financial problems, and two more shirt manufacturers opened and closed, also due to a downturn in the economy.

The granite building was built in 1872.

Fiola noted that the Preservation Society of Fall River supported the redevelopment of both properties.

The Zoning Board also agreed to allow the developer to provide one parking spot per unit on the site, instead of the required two parking spots per unit.

Goldman said the goal is to begin construction on both projects by mid-2024 with a completion date in 2026.

Duro textiles, seen Friday, April 20, 2018, in Fall River, Massachusetts. [Herald News Photo | Jack Foley]

Plans for the former Duro plant are an ambitious undertaking

The structure at 110 Chace St. was one of four buildings off Bay Street owned by the former Duro Textiles company. It has a storied past, with the company owing back taxes to the city, and fire and public safety concerns regarding the abandoned properties.

Duro abruptly stopped operations in July 2016 during the company's annual two-week summer shutdown, leaving 157 workers in shock and unemployed.

The Goldman Group's plans for the Wyoming Mills project is an adaptive reuse of the building, according to a company release, with the 280,000-square-foot former mill redeveloped into 196 rental units. In addition, an 80,000-square-foot warehouse space will be updated and modified as lease space to commercial tenants.

The Goldman Group will also build a new structure on the 11-acre property to house 204 market-rate apartment units. The company said the apartments will be built with modern designs and higher-end finishes.

A pool, fitness center and tenant storage will be among the amenities offered to residents, and the property will feature landscaping and state-of-the-art security and communication systems.

Sacred Heart Church in Fall River, seen from Linden Street.

Former Sacred Heart Church approved for redevelopment

Roll the Dice LLC, whose owners are listed in the state corporation database as Thomas Gamache and Michael Amaral, was approved with parking conditions to redevelop the former Sacred Heart Church at 160 Linden St. into 46 market-rate apartments.

Sacred Heart Church was built in 1883. The Diocese of Fall River closed it  like a number of places of worship, due to decreasing attendance  in November 2014.

Neighbors attended last week's monthly Zoning Board meeting and expressed concerns about parking, or lack of it, in the area.

The Zoning Board placed conditions that the project be required to have 54 on-site parking spots and that developers submit a site-plan review to the city's Engineering Department for approval.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Fall River Catholic church, mills to be redeveloped into housing
Former federal judge Michael Luttig ripped The Washington Posts Monday op-ed against invoking the 14th Amendment to disqualify former President Trump from the 2024 election, calling it perhaps the most journalistically incompetent and irresponsible piece he has ever read on the U.S. Constitution.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War, includes a clause that states no person shall hold elected office who engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.

Several experts, lawmakers and activists have argued this clause could disqualify Trump from the 2024 ballot for his alleged actions in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Federal prosecutors have alleged the former president stood at the center of a campaign to block the certification of votes on Jan. 6.

Luttig took aim at the papers interpretation of the amendment.

This editorial today by @washingtonpost is perhaps the most journalistically incompetent and irresponsible editorial on the Constitution of the United States and a question of constitutional law by a major national newspaper that I ever remember reading, Luttig wrote Monday in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Luttig, a conservative appointed by former President George H.W. Bush who has repeatedly criticized Trumps false election claims, claimed the op-ed titled The 14th Amendment cant save the country from Donald Trump misquoted Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

The provision has already been cited in two lawsuits in Minnesota and Colorado seeking to keep Trump off the ballot.

The Posts op-ed addresses several points of uncertainty over the provision, writing that the answers in most instances, arent terribly clear.

Luttig was responding to the beginning of the piece, wherein the Posts editorial board calls the case for invoking the 14th Amendment intriguing, but that banking on an arcane paragraph to protect the country from a second Trump term would be foolish.

The editorial inauspiciously begins by misquoting the Disqualification Clause of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment itself, next dismissively pronouncing the argument for disqualification made by the nations foremost constitutional scholars as little more than intriguing and then admonishing the American public that banking on an arcane paragraph to protect the country from a second Trump term would be foolish of them, Luttig wrote in a later post on X.

Luttig also argued the Post does not actually explain why the American public should not be relying on the 14th Amendment.

But it is probably because, as we see in the newspapers buried cynical lede in the concluding paragraph, Luttig wrote. The [Washington Post] fears the current Supreme Court will never interpret the Constitution to disqualify the former president, no matter what the Constitution says.

Luttig was referencing the final paragraph of the op-ed that argued invoking the 14th Amendment would make its way to the Supreme Court, where the chance of Trumps disqualification being affirmed seem low, and that the nation would be better off relying on votes to keep the former president out of the White House.

One would at least expect that serious reasoning would have to follow in support of its warning that the American publics resort to and reliance upon the Fourteenth Amendment would be foolish,' Luttig wrote. Instead, what follows borders on, if it does not pass into, the silly and absurd.

Luttigs criticism follows an op-ed he co-wrote for The Atlantic in August where he encouraged the use of the 14th Amendment to keep Trump off the ballot.

Section 3 of the amendment has rarely been used since the period immediately following the Civil War and has never been used to disqualify a presidential candidate.

Trump has dismissed the argument, claiming it has no legal basis or standing in connection to the 2024 election.

The Post did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A former Habersham County detention officer was arrested on Monday for alleged misconduct, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

The former officer was identified as 30-year-old Alexander Hardaway of Alto.

Habersham Sheriff Joey Terrell said he expects officers to hold themselves to a higher standard.

Any breach of trust or misconduct by my personnel will not be tolerated, Terrell said. We terminated Hardaways employment effective Friday, Sept. 29, due to policy violations, Terrell said.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

He was charged with making false statements and writings.

It is unclear exactly what these statements were.

We take allegations of this nature very seriously and immediately involve the GBI to determine whether the law was broken, said Sheriffs Lt. Amber Chastain, who oversees the sheriffs office detention center in Clarkesville.

Habersham deputies said they will work with the GBI as it investigates the matter.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
Former Republican Official Against #MeToo Movement Charged With Murder And Dismemberment Of Fiancee | Tima Miroshnichenko via Getty Images

Joseph C. Roberts, a former San Francisco Republican official vehemently against the #MeToo movement, has been charged with the murder and dismemberment of his fiancee.

Authorities told People that Roberts DNA connected him to 27-year-old Rachel Elizabeth Imani Buckners death in July. KTVU reported Buckners dismembered body was found wrapped in plastic and duct tape near the Alameda shoreline on July 20.

According to Det. Robert Hansens report, Joseph [Roberts] never reported the victim missing at any point during this investigation. Josephs DNA was on the tape that wrapped her body, which meant he was aware she was dead, he was aware she was dismembered, and he took an active role in wrapping her body, concealing it in plastic garbage bags.

Authorities arrested Roberts at the couples Pleasanton apartment, where they found evidence Buckner was killed in the apartment and said theyd been in a relationship for several years, per KTVU.

People reported the 42-year-old was elected to the San Francisco Republican Central Committee in 2020. At the time, he claimed he was a victim of false accusations regarding #MeToo, per the San Francisco Chronicle. He also advocated for men who said they were wrongly accused of sexual harassment. He supported former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos when she announced new rules protecting college students facing sexual misconduct allegations.

In 2013, Georgias Savannah State University suspended Roberts after being accused of sexual harassment. He wrote an opinion piece for USA Today about the ordeal, explaining he had been falsely accused.

It was as if I was an escaped convict or an active shooter loose on campus, Roberts wrote. And it was all based on nothing but hearsay.

Buckners mother, S. Jamila Buckner, organized a GoFundMe campaign. It notes Buckner, a beautiful and radiant light with an infectious spirit that you could not help but smile when around and gravitate towards, was a Howard University graduate and earned a law degree from Golden Gate University. She also had a young daughter, and the goal of the GoFundMe is to be able to pay for any immediate funeral expenses, and to assist in any future expenses and needs for her daughter.
After receiving 11 applications and interviewing three candidates, the Broward College Board of Trustees Tuesday selected Henry Mack III  an education lobbyist and champion of a key part of Gov. Ron DeSantis  educational agenda  as acting president of the college.

Wonderful. Really excited. Very humbled, said Mack, 42, after the five-member board unanimously voted in his favor.

Both parties will negotiate Macks start date and compensation in coming days. Board of Trustees Chair Alexis Yarbrough said his salary will likely fall somewhere between $250,000 and $350,000, the range posted for the job online.

Mack, whose legal name is Henry Maklakiewicz, most recently was a top official at the states Department of Education. During that time, he championed the classical education model, a curriculum that emphasizes a return to core virtues and subjects like math, science, civics and classical texts.

He said Tuesday he likes that model, embraced by DeSantis and conservatives, because its about the foundational knowledge that has made for our democracy. Critics have pushed back on the teachings, saying they emphasize white, Western European and Judeo-Christian foundations, at the expense of teaching about racial injustice, gender identity and other issues.

Mack was a finalist for the presidency of Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers in May but didnt get the post; in June he joined The Southern Group as a lobbyist.

The trustees, all appointed by DeSantis, expect Mack to lead one of largest colleges in the U.S. for at least three to six months. After that, Yarbrough said he can apply to stay permanently. Mack said he plans to do so.

Gregory Adam Haile resigned abruptly as president of Broward College on Sept. 13, 2023.

Macks appointment comes 20 days after former President Gregory Haile resigned abruptly on Sept. 13, vaguely citing a need for a transition in his two-page resignation letter. The board accepted Hailes resignation on Sept. 26. Haile will stay on the payroll until Jan. 11, 2024, when the 120 days he submitted as notice elapse.

READ MORE: Broward College president abruptly resigns. Board delays decision after community speaks out

Haile made an annual salary of $287,000 and could also receive supplemental merit pay of $70,000 annually, according to his contract, which was slated to end in June 2024.

Other presidency candidates: Florian, Bryan

Out of the 11 who applied, eight applicants didnt qualify for the job. Yarbrough said the only requirement was to be a former or current employee or trustee of the college.

On Tuesday, the trustees interviewed Mack, as well as Cesar Florian and Barbara Bryan, the other two finalists.

Florian, a lawyer certified to practice in New York, worked at the college as a tutor from 2009 to 2011 and now owns an immigration legal services business in Hollywood.

Bryan worked full time at the college for about 25 years until she semi-retired in 2013; she now runs a higher education consulting business and still works part time with student affairs at the college.

Yarbrough asked each candidate the same set of questions, about a dozen, that included what experience they have managing a large budget like the colleges $200-million one, how they plan to re-engage students and how they would boost the low morale among faculty and staff.

During the discussion, all board members agreed it came down to Bryan and Mack. They ultimately picked Mack, mainly because of his relationships with Tallahassee lawmakers who control state college funding.

Who is Henry Mack, and what are his main challenges?

Trustees said they were impressed with Macks experience, which included work beyond the college.

Mack worked at the college as associate dean for academic affairs and associate vice president from 2014 to 2019. In 2019, he became a chancellor for the states Department of Education and in 2021, a senior chancellor. This summer, he became a lobbyist at The Southern Group.

Henry Mack enters the room to be interviewed for the Broward College interim president position at the Fort Lauderdale campus on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. The colleges five-person board on Tuesday voted unanimously to name him as acting president. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

He now enters Broward College during a crisis.

Yarbrough painted a bleak picture at the beginning of each interview Tuesday, citing some issues that await the president: Next week, we meet with the accreditation team to do our 10-year review. ... We have a number of vacancies on the senior leadership team that need to be filled. Our students want more student life experiences, including athletics. Our faculty want improved collegiality with the administration. And finally, our enrollment is down by 28% over the past five years, outpacing our competitors, and theres a pressing need to change that trajectory.

Joslyn Cassano, a college spokeswoman, couldnt immediately provide the enrollment numbers for the five past years that show the 28% decline.

Born and raised in Broward, Mack received a bachelors in philosophy and a masters in theology from the Catholic University of America, a private university in Washington D.C., and a doctorate in education administration and philosophy of education from the University of Miami.

He teaches religious studies at UM, and philosophy and communication at Florida International University.

Mack lives in Tallahassee with his wife, Ashley, and their three children, Hadley, Holden and Arden. He said he plans to split his time between Tallahassee and Broward.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Former Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday criticized his former boss-turned-rival, Donald Trump, for calling retired Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a traitor over phone calls he made to China in the final stormy months of their administration.

Frankly what Donald Trump said about him in that tweet, about treason and death, was utterly inexcusable, the GOP presidential candidate said at a national security and foreign policy event at Washingtons Georgetown University co-hosted by The Associated Press.

Pence also reacted to the news that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had been ousted from his post by a contingent of hard-right conservatives. Asked how other countries might interpret McCarthy's ouster as it relates to the stability of the U.S. government, Pence considered the question silently for 13 seconds before responding, Chaos is never America's friend."

Pence pushed Tuesday for traditional GOP foreign policy goals and leadership ideals at a time when that vision  and his campaign  are struggling to gain momentum among Republican voters. Many GOP voters oppose sending more military aid to Ukraine, and three months ahead of Iowas kickoff caucuses, Pence continues to poll in single digits. He was positioned at the far right side of the stage at the last GOP debate.

The event was the first in a series of conversations with 2024 Republican presidential candidates on the topic co-hosted by the AP and Georgetowns Institute of Politics and Public Service.

Pence has accused rivals like Trump and his followers of abandoning U.S. allies and argued the only way to keep America safe is by engaging with the world, while also criticizing what he sees as President Joe Biden 's missteps in the U.S. withdrawal of Afghanistan.

America is the leader of the free world. If were not leading the free world, the free world is not being led, he said Tuesday.

He also defended Milley, who in his last days as joint chiefs chairman defended himself against tirades from Trump over calls he made to his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the United States was not going to suddenly go to war with or attack China.

Trump called the conversations an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act.

Milley has described the calls as routine and perfectly within the duties and responsibilities of his job. In his farewell speech, Milley noted that all members of the U.S. military take an oath to the Constitution.

Pence has also affirmed that he was following the Constitution when he refused Trump's demands to try to overturn their loss in the Electoral College on Jan. 6, 2021, the day that pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol.

Pence said he hasnt agreed with all of the policies put in place during Milley's tenure and declined to respond to Milley saying in his retirement speech that we dont take an oath to a wannabe dictator  a comment widely interpreted to be about Trump.

I wouldnt have a comment on that characterization or who he was alluding to, he said.

But on Milley's reference to swearing allegiance to the Constitution, Pence said, I thought he made a very eloquent point.

The contrast between Pence and others in his party has been particularly stark on Ukraine. The former vice president has called on the Biden administration to deliver more military aid to the country as it fights Russia's invasion and has criticized those in his party who question the need for ongoing U.S. involvement.

I believe that if Vladimir Putin and the Russian military overruns Ukraine, it will not be long before they cross the border of a NATO country where our men and women in uniform would be required to go and fight," he said.

He also continued to argue that that helping Ukraine is the best way to check Chinas ambitions in the Asia-Pacific region, as he and other GOP contenders have done during the 2024 campaign.

I really do believe that if Russia overruns Ukraine, thatll give a green light to China to move against Taiwan," he said. And quite frankly, if we dont check the efforts by authoritarian regimes to redraw international lines by force, the rest of the 21st century could look a lot like the first half of the 20th century.

Congress averted a partial government shutdown last weekend with a deal that excluded additional aid to the country. The White House and Pentagon say U.S. aid to Kyiv could be in danger without more funding. But a bloc of Republicans in Congress has refused to vote for it.

Pence made a surprise visit to Ukraine in June, touring the war-torn country and meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

While Pence's posture was once the standard in the Republican Party, his views have fallen out of favor with many Republican voters who have become increasingly skeptical about supporting Ukraine.

About four in 10 Republicans (44%) say the U.S. is providing too much aid to Ukraine, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in June. Thats up from just 9% of Republicans who said the U.S. was giving too much shortly after Russias invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

A February poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found only about a quarter of Americans  26%  believe the U.S. should have a major role in the conflict, down from as high as 40% in March 2022. Among Republicans that number was even lower, with just 17% saying the U.S. should have a major role.

Pence has also cast China as a major threat. In a speech at the Hudson Institute last month, he called the country the greatest strategic and economic threat to the United States of America in the 21st Century and said it was at risk of becoming an evil empire.

In response, he has said the U.S. should work to bolster Taiwan's defense capabilities to stave off any threat. He also wants to ban China from purchasing new U.S. farmland and has called to move high-tech manufacturing out of the country as well as a ban on the popular TikTok app.

Asked Tuesday if it was realistic to ask tens of millions of young people to stop using the program, Pence said, I dont know about realistic, but its the right idea."

___

Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
CARACAS, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Unilateral sanctions, or coercive measures, imposed by the United States "are a true plague against humanity," President of Venezuela's National Assembly Jorge Rodriguez said Monday.

In a speech to the Russia-Latin America International Parliamentary Conference in the Russian capital Moscow, Rodriguez denounced unilateral coercive measures as "erroneously" called sanctions when in reality they are unconventional warfare measures.

"They are aimed precisely at attacking the state of well-being that a people has achieved, attacking their right to health, technology, development, food, culture and education," he said.

The real objective of unilateral sanctions is to "bend" the people and take away their right to choose the government they want, he added.

At least 30 countries, or some 28 percent of the world's population, "suffer the rigors" of 26,162 sanctions imposed by a single country, according to Rodriguez.

With that in mind, he stressed the importance of moving towards a multipolar world based on mutual respect, sovereignty and cooperation between countries. 
A murder suspect who authorities allege fatally shot two men in Fort Worth and was believed to be fleeing to Mexico was arrested in Bexar County, police said in a news release Tuesday.

Juan Armando Gallardo, 45, was the suspect wanted on a capital murder of multiple persons warrant that was issued in connection with the killings Saturday afternoon in the 700 block of House Street, Fort Worth police said.

Gallardo is also accused of shooting at the same scene a third man who survived. The shootings were unprovoked, police said.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit obtained by the Star-Telegram, witnesses said Gallardo became angry with a group of men who working in the back yard next to his home and he began shooting at them.

According to the affidavit and a police report, police found two men  identified as Roberto Arvisu, 48, and Alfonso Perez, 42  with gunshot wounds in the back yard of a residence when officers arrived at the homicide scene.

MedStar also responded to the scene and the two victims were pronounced dead.

Officers interviewed witnesses, one of whom told police he had seen Gallardo fire a gun at a group of men who were working on a trailer in his neighbors yard, the affidavit says.

The witness told police Gallardo became angry with the men and shot at them. Gallardo then ran to his house and went inside, the witness said.

Another witness told police that he was working with several other men who were hired to demolish a trailer that was parked in the yard. He said he saw two men in a neighboring back yard when one of the men took a pistol out of his pocket and fired multiple times at his coworkers.

The witness also told police he saw both Arvisu and Perez collapse after being shot.
People change.

Take you. Youre not the same person who once wore low-rise jeans, grungy plaid shirts or mesh trucker hats, right? Right?

Well, in proof that, yes, anybody can evolve, Kelsey Grammer wears jeans and comfortable shoes in a new poster for the upcoming Frasier reboot in which he reprises his role as the title character.

Frasier. (Paramount+ )

In the photo, he also wears a button-down shirt and a blazer, looking proudly ahead as coffee (or tea) spills from the cup he's holding. He's surrounded by boxes reading "Fragile" and a wingback chair with a city skyline behind him. The sight of him sporting such casual clothing has fans up in arms.

Frasier was almost always dressed to the nines, whether on Cheers or Frasier, so the image of him wearing such relaxed duds has viewers expressing their disdain on Twitter.

seeing frasier in jeans is so perverted it's honestly disgusting pic.twitter.com/GP4wSbHbU2  Rebecca Alter (@ralter) October 2, 2023

seeing frasier in jeans is so perverted its honestly disgusting, New York magazine writer Rebecca Alter commented.

look at how they massacred my boy pic.twitter.com/svUGqvZj6Q  derek guy (@dieworkwear) October 2, 2023

look at how they massacred my boy, menswear writer Derek Guy wrote, cropping in close on the character's casual shoe.

FRASIER WOULD NEVER WEAR THOSE SHOES pic.twitter.com/jso8WCcaxb  Stephanie Gonzaga (@gostephgo) October 2, 2023

FRASIER WOULD NEVER WEAR THOSE SHOES, another fan chimed in.

Frasier in jeans and sneakers, I know why Niles isn't here. He's recovering from his heart attack https://t.co/qO0QDnJDv6  Daily Frasier dailyfrasier.bsky.social (@DailyFrasier) October 3, 2023

"Frasier in jeans and sneakers, I know why Niles isnt here. Hes recovering from his heart attack," another fan joked, referencing how David Hyde Pierce, who played Frasier's brother, Niles, is not returning for the reboot.

Frasier wearing jeans and THOSE shoes? Come on, he would never! https://t.co/ebHxF0PklR  Kath (@LibraryKath) October 3, 2023

"Frasier wearing jeans and THOSE shoes? Come on, he would never!" exclaimed another exasperated fan.

even cheers frasier crane, who was a very different character by the end of the shows run, would never be caught dead in jeans https://t.co/4YzW57KDoF  rachel (@mchalemackenzie) October 3, 2023

"even cheers frasier crane, who was a very different character by the end of the shows run, would never be caught dead in jeans," someone else wrote.

Of course, Frasier did dress down on occasion, which some people couldn't help but point out.

"frasier owned ripped jeans," one person captioned a picture of him in a scene with Mercedes Ruehl, who guest-starred as KACL's station manager during the third season.

Frasier wore jeans sometimes in the later seasons of the original show.  Spartan 4Life (@SherCampbell) October 2, 2023

"Frasier wore jeans sometimes in the later seasons of the original show," another viewer pointed out.

Grammer, of course, has made his career playing stuffy, highbrow psychiatrist Frasier Crane, initially on Cheers and then his own spinoff, Frasier, which ran for 11 seasons between 1993 and 2004.

The Frasier reboot, slated for 10 new episodes, premieres on Paramount+ on Oct. 12. In the new show, Frasier leaves Seattle and returns to Boston.

David Hyde Pierce, Jane Leeves, Kelsey Grammer, and John Mahoney on

The press release said Grammer is the lone cast main member from the original "Frasier" to return for the reboot, while Peri Gilpin (Roz Doyle) and Bebe Neuwirth (Lilith) will return in guest roles.

Niles (Crane) and Daphne (Moon) are not coming back, Grammer told TODAY in February about the characters played by Pierce and Jane Leeves.

If there is a spot for a one-off appearance, and theyre interested, Im sure we would do something like that. But its a new world. Its a new life. Frasiers going back to Boston to put himself back in a place where he didnt feel like he quite made it.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
By Sybille de La Hamaide

PARIS (Reuters) -French health security agency ANSES restricted the use of common weedkiller prosulfocarb on Tuesday, mainly due to a risk of skin reaction in children, and threatened to ban it next June if producers cannot prove the new rules are effective.

Mainly used on cereals like wheat, barley and rye, as well as root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots, prosulfocarb has become the second-largest weedkiller behind glyphosate in France, the European Union's biggest crop grower.

"ANSES cannot exclude the exceeding of safety thresholds, mainly via skin exposure, for children less than 10 metres away from the crop during treatments," it told reporters.

ANSES therefore ordered that farmers cut by an average 40% the use of prosulfocarb per hectare and use nozzles on sprayers that reduce the drifting of the substance in the air by 90% from at least 66% previously.

Nozzles with 90%-drift reduction are already used in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

In addition, ANSES imposed a minimum distance of 10 metres from residential areas.

Producers of the highly volatile weedkiller will have to prove that the new measures are effective by June 30, 2024.

"In the absence of convincing demonstration, the authorisations will be withdrawn without any delay," ANSES said.

Dispersion of prosulfocarb can also cause economic losses, ANSES stressed. In 2021, a volume well above maximum limits of the chemical was found on organic buckwheat near fields where it had been used, which forced farmers to destroy their output.

The EU last month renewed until Jan. 31, 2027 the weedkiller's marketing authorisation which was expiring at the end of the month.

Sales of prosulfocarb in France have risen sevenfold in the past 10 years to reach 7,400 metric tons in 2022, due notably to a lower use of other weedkillers, ANSES said.

(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide, Editing by William Maclean)
As a doctor and father of two wonderful girls, I write to encourage Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign Senate Bill 403, the civil rights bill to end caste discrimination in California. Authored by Sen. Aisha Wahab, SB 403 is an important milestone that clarifies and makes explicit that caste-oppressed families like mine are protected from caste violence, and deters those that would discriminate on the basis of caste.

Caste systems exist globally and often utilize social categorization systems on the basis of inherited status. Caste discrimination occurs across industries, technology, education, domestic work, medicine and more. Caste discrimination includes bullying, harassment, bias, wage theft, sexual harassment, housing discrimination and hate crimes. Caste hierarchies are found throughout the world, in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. This is why the UN Convention on Racism and Discrimination recognizes caste as a form of racial discrimination.

This bill is an opportunity to explore and treat the mental trauma of caste, and most importantly an opportunity to heal. That is why I have been hunger striking since Sept. 5 until Newsom signs SB 403. Fasting as a cultural tradition is rooted in healing, and through this hunger strike I hope to inspire my community to reach across the long-standing divide that caste has created and start anew.

Opinion

I have seen professionals at all levels of medicine suffer from caste. I am a Dalit. In India, Dalits are in the very lowest rank of Hindu society and are subject to extraordinary discrimination and marginalization. Some of my experiences as a Dalit doctor include people commenting about my competence because I am a caste oppressed. These same folks also diminish the impact of caste and shame anyone who received caste-based affirmative action in our homelands.

I am proud to serve my patients as my experiences of caste are a foundation of empathy for patients of all backgrounds. I dont think anyone should be attacked for having availed themselves of affirmative action, and I am disgusted when our opponents attack me or celebrate the end of affirmative action in the U.S. out of sheer bigotry.

I have heard of other horror stories from nurses and home health care aides who are turned away from patients. They do not want to receive care from a Dalit because they are worried about being polluted. Some workers have even lost their jobs as a result.

Caste discrimination contributes to hostile workplaces in hospitals, clinics and nursing homes. Caste discrimination is not limited to medical staff, as patients have shared heartbreaking stories of being inappropriately asked their caste and facing discriminatory comments throughout the arc of the care. I cant imagine how difficult it must have been for patients to endure such treatment.

As a health care professional treating sick patients, my focus is to also address the psycho-social consequences emanating from the underlying disease process. Similarly, communities impacted by caste suffer from historical trauma that has divided and harmed us. SB 403 does not divide the community, discrimination divides us.

I joined this movement because of my two daughters. I dont want my kids to be exposed to caste discrimination or bullying at school. I am haunted by the testimonies from our coalition by children who have been bullied in California schools. I worry at night what might happen to them if we dont stop the scourge of caste discrimination. As a father, I want to do everything I can to make sure California schools and institutions are safe from caste, and this bill gives me and my family hope.

I strongly urge Newsom to support this Civil Rights bill. We need safe workplaces, housing and educational institutions. Lets stand on the right side of history.

Dr. Nirmal Singh is founder of the California Coalition for Caste Equity. He is a proud community member of the Sri Guru Ravidass Gurdwara in Fresno and a part of the largest Dalit community in California.
Rudy Giuliani (L), former Mayor of New York City, and former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik attend the 911 Commemoration Ceremony at the National September 11th Memorial and Museum in New York City on Sept. 11. Photo by Peter Foley/UPI

Oct. 3 (UPI) -- The Fulton County district attorney's office has filed a subpoena for former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who has been named one of the unindicted co-conspirators in the Georgia election case involving former President Donald Trump.

Kerik was allegedly involved in meetings with Trump co-conspirators Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis and others as they discussed efforts to contest the results of the 2020 presidential election. He has been subpoenaed to testify as a government witness in the trial of attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell later this month, CNN reported.

Kerik's attorney is calling for immunity for his client in exchange for his testimony.

"[N]o competent criminal attorney would allow Mr. Kerik to testify absent a grant of immunity," attorney Tim Parlatore wrote in response to the subpoena. "To be clear, Mr. Kerik has done nothing wrong and rejects your claim that he is a co-conspirator in any alleged criminal conduct."

Parlatore went on to say that because the district attorney's office made the accusation that Kerik is a co-conspirator, it must "live with the consequences" of Kerik invoking his 5th Amendment right and refusing to testify.

The Fulton County district attorney's office has alleged that former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik (L) took part in meetings with former President Donald Trumps co-conspirators Rudy Giuliani (R), Jenna Ellis and others as they discussed efforts to contest the results of the 2020 presidential election. File Photo by Chip Somodevilla/UPI

The attorney added that the district attorney's office can hold a public hearing and retract the allegations against Kerik or grant him immunity to obtain his testimony.

Kerik served as police commissioner from 2000 to 2001. He received a pardon from Trump in 2020 after being federally convicted for tax fraud and making false statements to federal officials.
WASHINGTONRep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced a motion Monday night to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from the top position in the House.

His motion comes after a contentious week of negotiations to avoid a government shutdown, during which Gaetz had previously threatened to oust McCarthy if the Speaker looked across the aisle for support.

Shortly after Gaetz moved to oust him, McCarthy gave a succinct statement on X, formerly Twitter: "Bring it on."

Hours before Saturday's midnight deadline, McCarthy and Republicans put forward a temporary deal to fund the government through Nov. 17. The stopgap, known as a continuing resolution, received bipartisan support in the House, with 209 Democrats and 126 Republicans voting in favor.

Gaetz confirmed his intent to file the motion to vacate Sunday morning, telling CNN "we need to rip off the Band-Aid" and "move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy."

"The only way Kevin McCarthy is speaker of the House at the end of this coming week is if Democrats bail him out," Gaetz said.

Gaetz's motion to vacate needs 218 votes to successfully remove McCarthy.

McCarthy defended his actions in the face of Gaetz's challenges, telling reporters Saturday, "If I have to risk my job for standing up for the American public, I will do that."

Gaetz had an easier path to file this motion, thanks to McCarthy's own concessions at the start of the year. In exchange for votes from hardline House Republicans for his speakership  and to put an end to days of voting  McCarthy allowed House rules to say that any one member of either party can bring forward a motion to vacate.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Matt Gaetz files motion to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy
Fresh off averting a government shutdown, House members on both sides of the aisle are being thrust into the second historic Speakership battle in a year  forcing Democrats to confront a big political decision.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) moved Monday to force a vote on ousting Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), largely based on the handling of a clean continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government open Saturday.

It marks just the third attempt in House history to remove a sitting Speaker  following an unsuccessful move against Speaker Joseph Cannon (R-Ill.) in 1910 and one against Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in 2015 that was also unsuccessful, but contributed to his later resignation.

At least four House Republicans said they will support or are leaning in favor of the motion to vacate. In the slim House majority, just a handful of Republican lawmakers could be enough to push the Speaker out  largely depending on how Democrats vote.

That means where Democrats stand is the wild card that could determine whether McCarthy holds on to the gavel or becomes the first Speaker to be voted out.

Hard-liners split on McCarthy

Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) and Bob Good (R-Va.) said Monday that they would support Gaetzs move.

I said repeatedly in January that we cannot repeat the failures of the past where when Republicans have majority control, that we pass our major spending bills with predominantly Democrat votes, Good said. For the Speaker to totally surrender and capitulate on Saturday to pass an unconditional CR with 209 Democrat votes and all votes in the Senate was a bad deal for the American people.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said that he was praying about it, but that his conscience was telling him to vote to oust McCarthy. He later said on CNN he would support Gaetzs move if it was right now, and did not see that changing over the next two days.

That number could tick up, as other possible supporters of removing McCarthy have not expressly articulated their positions.

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) expressed support for McCarthys ouster earlier this year, but declined to comment Monday. And Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), who never voted in favor of McCarthy in Januarys 15-ballot Speaker election, said he would consider it.

But other hard-line conservatives who were part of the group of 20 members who withheld support for McCarthy in January are supporting the Speaker.

Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas) both voiced opposition to the move on Sean Hannitys radio show Monday.

I think its a major distraction. Its going to take all of the focus away from appropriations, Donalds said.

Gaetz has cited lack of movement on full-year appropriations bills as a chief reason to remove McCarthy.

The move to oust McCarthy also raises questions about who his opponents would accept to replace him. Gaetz on Monday brought up the No. 2 House Republican, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in August.

It is awkward to talk about names until we understand how Mr. Scalise comes out of his treatment for blood cancer, Gaetz said. I am not the type of person that just says you blow by somebody because theyre getting a medical treatment.

Scalise, though, posted on social media Monday in support of McCarthy, as did House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), and a swath of other McCarthy allies.

We have a lot of work to do. Now is not the time for distractions, Scalise said.

Big decision for Democrats

Depending on absences, just five GOP votes in favor of booting McCarthy as Speaker could put the onus on Democrats.

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) sent a letter to House Democrats on Sunday informing members that, if a motion to vacate is offered against McCarthy, the group will have a Caucus wide discussion on how to address the motion to best meet the needs of the American people.

House Democrats are scheduled to huddle during their weekly caucus meeting Tuesday morning.

Democrats could allow McCarthy to remain in the Speakership without directly voting for him by voting present  or not at all.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has been coy about the caucuss plans for a potential motion to vacate, brushing aside questions as hypotheticals and insisting that the group will cross that bridge when it gets there.

Were focused on doing the business of the American people, Jeffries told reporters Monday, shortly before Gaetz moved to force a vote on McCarthys ouster.

The importance of Democrats has prompted speculation that McCarthy could offer something to lawmakers across the aisle  such as an adjustment in committee assignment ratios or increasing the threshold to force a motion to vacate  in order to secure their support.

One House Democrat told The Hill that the price for Democrats to save McCarthy  who just a month ago launched an impeachment inquiry into President Biden  is not cheap.

McCarthy said Monday that he has not talked to Jeffries about what to do about the motion to vacate. But he did not directly answer a question about whether he would cut a deal with Democrats to save his Speakership.

I think this is about the institution. I think its too important, McCarthy said.

Democrats, for their part, have been all over the map publicly.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-N.Y.)  whom McCarthy booted from the Intelligence Committee  told reporters Monday, I prefer someone who has some level of trust, and he has none with our caucus and he has none within his own caucus. He signaled that he will follow Jeffriess lead, adding, the Republicans really need to figure out how to clean up their own mess.

The one thing Democrats and Republicans have in common vis-a-vis the Speaker is none of us trust him to do the right thing or to keep his word, Schiff added.

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Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.), the chairwoman of the center-left New Democrat coalition, said it would be a heavy lift for Democrats to save McCarthy. She pointed to McCarthy waiting until the last minute to fund the government, his breach of the debt limit deal he struck with Biden and launching the impeachment inquiry into the president.

And Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.), an appropriator, told Fox News over the weekend that he will likely vote present, noting that McCarthy made a sensible decision to bring a clean continuing resolution to the floor.

I would not take a position on that. I probably would vote present, Cartwright said. This is not about the Democratic caucus, its about the Republican conference, and them choosing their leader. If they really want to throw out Kevin McCarthy for doing what I think is the sensible thing, I kind of regret that, but thats their business.

Gaetz welcomed Democrats to save McCarthy if that is what they want.

If the Democrats want to own Kevin McCarthy, they can have it, Gaetz said Monday night. Because one thing Im at peace with is when we stand here a week from now, I wont own Kevin McCarthy anymore. He wont belong to me.

So if the Democrats want to adopt him, they can adopt him, he added.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)

What happens next

Since Gaetz raised a question of privilege to consider his resolution ousting McCarthy on Monday, the House now has two legislative days to consider it on the floor.

But leadership has a number of ways to stymie the effort. Those include a motion to table the resolution or refer it to committee, procedural votes that could prevent the chamber from having to weigh in on McCarthys Speakership directly.

If none of those efforts are successful, the House would then debate the resolution.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)

Personal animosity

McCarthy has said several times that Gaetzs campaign against him is personal, noting the Florida congressman, whom the Justice Department declined to charge after a lengthy sex-trafficking investigation, is facing another investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

Anytime that somebody has an ethics complaint and they cant get the way they want about it, they want to roll up, and one side is going to park with five people and decide that, I dont think thats good for the House, McCarthy said Monday.

CNN host Jake Tapper asked Gaetz on Sunday how much of his move against McCarthy was personal, and a response to the ethics investigation  saying that he had seen personal communications between Gaetz and others in which Gaetz blamed McCarthy for the ethics investigation.

Gaetz said the ethics investigation has nothing to do with his decision but indicated that he thinks McCarthy influenced the investigation.

It seems that the Ethics Committee is interested in me waxes and wanes based on my relationship with the Speaker, Gaetz told reporters Monday.

But even if the first attempt to boot McCarthy fails, Gaetz said there will be plenty more to come.

It took Speaker McCarthy 15 votes to become the Speaker, Gaetz said Monday. So until I get to 14 or 15, I dont think Im being any more dilatory than he was.

McCarthy, for his part, is projecting confidence.

Bring it on, he wrote Monday night on X, formerly known as Twitter.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The News

Rep. Matt Gaetz finally pulled the trigger.

As hed promised, the Florida Republican moved to topple House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday evening, using a parliamentary maneuver that has not been officially invoked for over a century.

McCarthy doesnt have my support anymore, and he doesnt have the support of a requisite number of Republicans to continue as the Republican Speaker, Gaetz said during a mobbed press conference on the steps of the U.S. Capitol afterwards.

Known as a motion to vacate the chair, the one-page resolution Gaetz filed will force an up-or-down vote on McCarthys speakership within two days. In public, the GOP leader has sought to appear unbowed. Bring it on, he tweeted Monday.

But whether McCarthy can muster enough support to survive the challenge remains murky, at best: A CNN tally indicated at least five House Republicans were supportive of Gaetzs effort  enough to strip McCarthy of his gavel if all Democrats also line up against him. Over a dozen other Republicans were at least open to deposing McCarthy. Hes done nothing, thats my problem, Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ill., said, adding shes undecided.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, which has frequently tussled with the speaker, told Semafor that conservatives like him were blindsided by McCarthys last-ditch maneuver during last weeks budget fight to pass a short-term funding bill with the help of Democratic votes. I just dont know right now, he said.

Theres been heated speculation about whether House Democrats might lend McCarthy their support in exchange for concessions on issues like Ukraine funding, but by Tuesday morning that possibility had begun to look doubtful.

Asked about the potential for a bargain, McCarthy told CNBC Tuesday morning that Democrats havent asked for anything and Im not going to provide anything, before suggesting Democrats should back him based on whats good for government.

That message didnt appear to satisfy Democrats who met for a Tuesday morning caucus meeting. During it, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries reportedly told his members they should vote to boot McCarthy, who has angered Democrats by pursuing an impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden and trying to reneg on spending levels agreed to as part of this years debt ceiling deal.

I think hes likely the most unprincipled person whos ever been speaker of the House, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va. told reporters. Late in the morning, Democrats released a wave of official statements criticizing the speaker, including some from key moderates whose support McCarthy would likely need.

You are only as good as your word  and time and again, Speaker McCarthy has proven that he is not a man of his word, New Democrat Coalition Chair Annie Kuster said. He is simply not trustworthy. Blue Dogs Coalition Co-Chair Rep. Jared Golden said that Absent any significantly meaningful benefit for Maines Second District, I see no reason to vote for him.

Step Back

Motions to vacate have loomed large over the House's internal politics in recent years, despite being historically rare events. Conservatives wielded the threat of a snap vote to force out Speaker John Boehner in 2015, for instance.

But the last instance such a motion actually reached the House floor was in 1910, when Speaker Joseph Cannon filed one against himself as a test of his own support. (He won the vote, and by calling the bluff of his detractors, Cannon was able to put them on the record and end the threats against him, the AP notes.)

Know More

McCarthy allies argue that Gaetzs effort is a short-sighted, self-destructive gambit that will distract the House GOP from approving more appropriations bills and sending them to the Senate by the Nov. 17 funding deadline.

Were in the middle of appropriations. I think its premature, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., told reporters on Monday evening. There is no long train of abuses at the moment. Theres a long train of suspicion and mistrust.

Other conservatives, including some members of the Freedom Caucus whove sought to work with McCarthy in recent weeks, agreed. My position is lets get the appropriations bills done, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Tx, told Semafor. I personally wouldnt be going down the road right now.

Gaetzs attempt to bring down McCarthy follows months of mounting tensions between the two men that have often seemed as much rooted in personal animosity as policy disagreements. Their clash came to a head during last weeks government funding showdown, during which Gaetz repeatedly helped vote down party-line bills backed by GOP leadership, including a short-term spending patch that would have kept Washington running in return for new border security spending.

Ultimately, McCarthy chose to pass a clean 45-day spending bill with support from Democrats, which Gaetz is now citing as one major reason he is now attempting to oust the speaker.

Earlier on Monday, Gaetz accused McCarthy of lying to rank-and-file Republicans and cutting a secret deal with Democrats to provide further assistance to Ukraine, which conservatives staunchly oppose, in return for backing the stopgap spending measure.

It is going to be difficult for my Republican friends to keep calling President Biden feeble while he continues to take Speaker McCarthys lunch money, the Florida Republican said in a floor speech.
Arizona Democratic House members Ruben Gallego and Greg Stanton said Monday the state is receiving more than $1 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help repair highways and bridges and to build accommodations for electric vehicles.

Investing in Arizonas highways and infrastructure is good for growing our economy, increasing tourism, and connecting families across the state, Gallego said in a prepared statement. I am proud of our efforts to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Lawwithout it, these funds would not be possible. This is how we are showing up and delivering for our state, and I look forward to continuing to find meaningful solutions that improve the lives of everyday Arizonans.

Stanton added that the funding was long overdue.

My focus remains on getting these historic funds directly into the hands of Arizona communities so we can improve safety, reduce pollution and cut down on gridlock for both commuters and commercial vehicles, Stanton said in a prepared statement.

More on Arizona politics: Arizona delegation votes party line as impeachment process is approved

President Joe Biden signed the law in November 2021. It included several key components of his agenda and made historic investments in the nations roads, bridges, airports, water systems and ports-of-entry, and will expand access to broadband internet in urban centers and rural areas.

It was championed mainly by Democrats in both the House and Senate but passed with the help of 19 Republican senators and 13 GOP congressmen. Six Democrats from the far left voted against the bill.

The funds announced Monday are only a portion of what Arizona expects to receive through the legislation.

More than $1 billion alone in Monday's announced funding comes from the Federal-Aid Highway Apportionments, according to Gallego and Stanton.

Those funds are the majority of highway funding in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which includes both highway programs and the new climate mitigation and resilience programs.

Arizona has a complex, five-year plan that prioritizes funding road projects, and is updated annually depending on available funding. The budget for its priority projects can be larger because of the funding through the infrastructure bill.

Another $45 million in funding announced Monday comes from the Bridge Formula, which like the highway fund is larger thanks to the infrastructure bill.

And the final $16 million comes from the electric-vehicle charging portion of the law dedicated to building a network of chargers.

Last year, Arizona was among the first states to get its electric vehicle plan approved by federal officials. The proposal Arizona submitted was to ensure there are vehicle chargers at least every 50 miles on interstate highways.

The money announced Monday is the latest installment of that $75 million expected over five years.

Reach reporter Ryan Randazzo at ryan.randazzo@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4331. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @UtilityReporter.

Subscribe to azcentral.com today

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gallego, Stanton say AZ to get $1B billion for highway, bridge repairs
A woman with the number 68 painted on her face participates in a march in remembrance of the 1968 Tlatelolco student massacre in Mexico City, Monday, Oct. 2. 2023. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

MEXICO CITY (AP)  Chanting in unison, students marched through downtown Mexico City on Monday evening, marking 55 years since the military massacred hundreds of students in Tlatelolco plaza.

Enrique Trevino Taudres survived the massacre and now marches every year with the Pro Democratic Freedoms 68 Committee. People know a lot and forget easily, he said, adding that the memory of Tlatelolco holds important lessons for modern Mexico.

As many as 300 people were massacred at a student protest in Tlatelolco plaza on Oct. 2, 1968, in what the Mexican government initially reported as the lawful suppression of a violent riot just 10 days before the Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in Mexico City.

Since then military reports have revealed at least 360 government snipers were stationed on rooftops around the square. They opened fire and, in the ensuing chaos, the military members posted round the square began shooting peaceful protesters and students.

Look, its a commemoration of that day but it is also a call to the current students, the current young people to be aware of the reality, said Trevino. The best example that we grandparents can give young people is that we were conscientious and committed young people. We took to the streets.

Adolfo Cruz, a tourism student in the city, marched on Monday for the first time. Part of this is remembering all our deceased companions because its thanks to them we have the right to march today, Cruz said. We also want to change things."

Mexican students today still find themselves the victims of violence and organized crime. In 2018 three university students in the western city of Guadalajara were killed by a gang and their bodies dissolved in acid. Infamously, 43 students were abducted and murdered in southern Mexico in 2014, the victims of an attack which implicated municipal, state and national authorities.

October 2nd, said Cruz, is a commemoration, but its also for the rights of all students, in a country where there are still many difficulties across the education system.

After the massacre in 1968, 25 people were officially reported dead, but later investigations identified 44 remains. Successive government inquiries have never shown exactly how many died, but eyewitnesses claimed bodies were carted away from the square and estimates range that over 300 were killed.

The Mexican government acknowledged the massacre was a state crimeon its 50th anniversary in 2018.

Earlier on Monday, interim head of Mexico Citys government Marti Bartes spoke about the historical ramifications of the tragedy.

'68 is so strong because it transformed political culture from below, he said from the Plaza of the Three Cultures, where the protest began in 1968. '68 transformed universities, massively expanded higher education, incorporated new critical thinking into the social sciences, generated activists, opened the doors to new ideas such as feminism or sexual diversity.

A rainy Monday night marked the end of a run of protests in Mexicos capital: from the anniversary of the 43 abducted students in southern Mexico last Tuesday, to a march for abortion rights Thursday. Since last week, monuments have been hiding behind blue barricades across the city and the Marabunta Brigade, a group trained to keep protestors safe, has been busy.

Monday evening was Mario Romeros 20th protest as a member of the brigade but, he said, he was not tired, or afraid.

I like to come out because things need to change, but nothing changes," he said.
JERUSALEM, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Iran will not stop Israel from realizing normalization of ties with Saudi Arabia, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, responding to a statement from Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei earlier in the day.

Iran will not prevent Israel from "further expanding the circle of peace for the benefit of the citizens of Israel, the peoples of the region and all humanity," Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office.

Netanyahu added that Iran failed to prevent Israel from achieving the so-called Abraham Accords, in which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco agreed to normalize ties with Israel, in 2020.

The remarks came after Khamenei warned earlier on Tuesday that countries seeking to normalize relations with Israel "are betting on a losing horse," according to Iranian state media.

Brokered by the United States, Israel has been in touch with Saudi Arabia over a potential peace deal between the two countries. After meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden on Sept. 20 in New York, Netanyahu said the normalization of ties between his country and Saudi Arabia could be "within reach."

After years of open hostility, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed in March to restore diplomatic ties. 
The Carroll County Sheriffs Office warned residents to lock their cars and take out anything valuable after a rash of entering autos in the Sugarbush Neighborhood of Carrollton.

The neighborhood, close to the Triangle Store off of Highway 166/Bankhead Highway and near Highway 61, has had multiple reports of break-ins into cars, prompting deputies to warn residents to lock them and not to leave their keys in the vehicles.

In addition to warning residents, the sheriffs office said theyre increasing patrols, and asked residents to keep an eye out for anything suspicious.

On top of urging residents to be cautious, the sheriffs office warned thieves not to think they could go somewhere else just because there were more patrols in Sugarbush.

A note to the thieves, this doesnt mean go somewhere else in the county to commit your thefts because you think our attention is concentrated somewhere else because you dont wish to be a productive member of society, our ACE Unit is out and about as always, and you will be caught, CCSO said in a statement.

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The 9-year-old girl who authorities suspected was abducted Saturday in an upstate New York state park was found alive, state police said Monday night.

"Charlotte Sena has been located and in good health," state police said in a statement. A suspect is in custody, state police said.

Speaking at a news conference, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said someone dropped off a ransom note at the home of the girl's parents, and a fingerprint found on it led to a nearby residence where the suspect was found.

"He literally drove up to the family's mailbox ... at 4:20 in the morning," to drop off the note, the governor said. She said the fingerprint matched data related to a driving while intoxicated arrest made in 1999 in Saratoga.

The suspect was apprehended Monday evening with the help of two SWAT teams in a "dynamic entry" to his living quarters, an RV trailer, at a site where his mother also resides, she said.

The girl was ultimately found safe in a cupboard in the trailer, Hochul said. "She knew she was in safe hands," the governor said.

The suspect was identified as Craig Nelson Ross Jr. A state police official said he suffered minor injuries when he allegedly resisted arrest. The suspect was initially identified as being 47, but authorities later said he was 46.

On Monday night, state police said, investigators learned of a person who was in the area of Moreau Lake State Park about the time Charlotte went missing. Multiple residences where the person was known to stay were searched, state police said.

Charlotte was found safe and in good health at 6:32 p.m., state police said, and the suspect was arrested.

This investigation is a culmination of multiple agencies working together for the common goal of bringing this child home to her loving family, state police said.

The investigation continues, state police said. Officials plan to hold a news conference Tuesday, they said.

NBC News correspondent Kristen Dahlgren posted video on social media of the girl's family clapping and cheering Monday night at the news that Charlotte had been found safe. Multiple people in the video offered their thanks.

Hochul praised investigators on social media for a swift resolution.

"After a 48-hour-long search, Charlotte Sena has been found. Extremely grateful to @nyspolice, @NYStateParks police, and all of our partners who worked tirelessly to locate Charlotte and ensure she could return home safely to her family," she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

After a 48-hour-long search, Charlotte Sena has been found. Extremely grateful to @nyspolice, @NYStateParks police, and all of our partners who worked tirelessly to locate Charlotte and ensure she could return home safely to her family.  Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) October 2, 2023

Charlotte was riding a bicycle by herself at the state park in Saratoga County on Saturday night when she disappeared.

She had been camping with her family and was last seen around 6:15 p.m., state police said.

Charlotte Sena. (Courtesy Jene Sena)

She was biking around a park loop with family friends and then did a loop by herself, authorities said. Her bike was found on the loop.

State police activated an Amber Alert on Sunday "for a child abduction that occurred around 6:45 p.m. Saturday.

Circumstances of the girls disappearance led police to suspect she was in imminent danger of serious harm and/or death, according to the Amber Alert.

State police said earlier Monday that about 400 certified search and rescue personnel were looking for the girl over 46 linear miles.

The FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service were assisting, state police said.

The investigation was classified as a missing child case, state police said.

Jene Sena, Charlottes aunt, told NBC News on Monday that her niece vanished in only minutes.

She disappeared almost into thin air. I mean it was minutes, minutes, between when she was last seen and when she wasnt there anymore, Sena said.

The state park where Charlotte disappeared from is about 50 miles north of Albany.

CORRECTION (Oct. 3, 2023, 7 a.m. ET): A previous version of this story misstated the suspects age. Craig Nelson Ross Jr. is 46, not 37.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
The United Nations Security Council on Monday authorized the use of a Kenya-led multinational security force to help Haiti combat gang violence that has terrorized the population, led to a spike in killings, kidnappings and rapes, and brought the nation's political and economic activity to a standstill.

The authorization for the mission by the 15-member Council came about a year after Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry appealed for international assistance to restore order in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.

The mission, when it deploys, will represent the most significant force for Haiti since a U.N. peacekeeping mission disbanded in 2017. Poverty, violence and corruption in Haiti have long spurred migration to the U.S.

The country has been in free fall since the 2021 still-unsolved assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Armed gangs have taken over large parts of the country, unleashing brutal violence and overwhelming's Haiti's already weak political and economic institutions, as well as its small and poorly equipped police forces and military.

Haiti spinning out of control: on every metric from gangs to kidnappings, migration to murder

Kenya has pledged to send at least 1,000 security personnel to help train and assist Haitian police and several of the Caribbean country's neighbors such as Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas and Jamaica have also offered support to the mission. The deployed force aims to secure critical infrastructure and transportation hubs in Haiti such as airports, ports, schools, hospitals and key roads, according to the U.N.

After the vote, Jean Victor Geneus, Haitis foreign minister, described the passing of the U.N. resolution for the force as "an expression of solidarity with a population in distress." He said it was a "glimmer of hope for a people that have for too long been suffering." However, it was not immediately clear when the mission will be deployed, its precise size, or what rules of engagement international security personnel will be expected to follow.

A motorcyclist passes by burning tires as people demonstrate over the rise in the cost of living in Petit-Goave, Haiti, on Sept. 14, 2023.

Why does Haiti need an international force?

A recent U.N. assessment concluded that the gangs now control or exercise influence over 80% of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince and their violent activities appear to be expanding to other cities and regions as law and order continues to break down. From October last year to June, nearly 3,000 people have died in what the U.N. describes as "intentional killings." Nearly 1,500 kidnappings for ransoms were reported.

'Immense joy': American nurse and daughter released after being kidnapped in Haiti

What role does the U.S. have in the Haiti force?

The U.N. resolution was drafted by the U.S. and Ecuador and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington stands ready to provide financial and logistical support to the Haiti mission. But the Biden administration has made it clear it does not want to lead the force or send U.S. troops.

Top U.S. diplomat: Haiti needs foreign troops to help with a gang-related crisis

Daniel Foote, a former U.S. special envoy to Haiti, previously told USA TODAY that this reluctance likely stems partly from the amount of resources and time required, and partly from the U.S.'s track record of messy interventions in Haiti that have failed to lead to better conditions on the ground.

Kenya did not need U.N. approval to lead the mission but said it wouldn't do it without it. Of the Council's 15 members, only Russia and China abstained from the vote, though they did not block it.

The U.N. is also distancing itself from the mission, noting that the force is not a U.N. peacekeeping mission per see but a U.N.-authorized force  a forced backed by international law  overseen by Kenya. The U.N.'s reputation in Haiti has been tarnished by a previous peacekeeping mission when its staff were blamed for bringing a cholera outbreak to the country that killed nearly 10,000 people and sexually assaulting locals.

A force for Haiti: What happens now?

The Kenya-led force has been given a 12-month mandate. But the timing of its deployment has not been finalized. The resolution also calls for most weapons sales to Haiti to be halted.

Some aid groups expressed tentative optimism to the development.

Jed Meline, director of policy and advocacy for humanitarian organization Project HOPE, said it was a "positive step." However, he said its success depends on active Haitian participation.

"Its essential to recognize that intervention alone wont bring stability to Haiti," he said. "The international community, in collaboration with local Haitian organizations, must chart new paths for aid."

Still, Jean-Junior Joseph, an adviser to Haiti's leader Henry, said in a WhatsApp message to USA TODAY on Tuesday morning that his government welcomed the U.N. authorization.

"We thank all those who voted," he said. "We look forward to seeing the mission to combat general insecurity."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: U.N. authorizes Kenya-led force to combat Haiti's gangs
By David Shepardson

(Reuters) -Ford Motor said on Tuesday it had made a new comprehensive contract offer in an effort to resolve a 19-day old targeted strike by the United Auto Workers but said a dispute over battery plants remained unresolved.

The Dearborn, Michigan automaker said the new offer boosted wages for temporary workers, increased company 401(k) contributions and had further shrunk time needed to get to the top wage rate.

UAW President Shawn Fain on Friday expanded the first-ever simultaneous strike against the Detroit Three to a GM Lansing, Michigan, plant and a Ford Chicago assembly plant, but Stellantis was spared after last-minute concessions.

Ford said Tuesday the UAW "has taken a hard line on battery plants" after CEO Jim Farley accused the UAW of holding the contract "hostage" over the fate of those plants, a charge the union rejected. The UAW says "job security" in the electric vehicle transition remains an open issue.

The UAW declined comment Tuesday on Ford's new offer.

The UAW said on Monday it presented a new contract offer to General Motors. GM said despite the offer "significant gaps remain." The UAW also held a new round of bargaining with Chrysler-parent Stellantis Monday.

Earlier Tuesday, GM said it furloughed 163 UAW workers at GMs Toledo Propulsion Systems plant that makes transmissions for both the automaker's Missouri and Lansing Delta Township assembly plants that are on strike.

GM said in total it has been forced to lay off 2,100 workers at five plants in four states including halting production at its Kansas car plant because of strike impacts.

On Monday, GM and Ford said they laid off another 500 workers at four Midwestern plants because of the impact of the strike. Stellantis has furloughed nearly 370 workers in Ohio and Indiana.

Anderson Economic Group on Monday estimated total losses from the first two weeks of the strike at $3.9 billion, including $325 million in wages, $1.12 billion in losses for the Detroit Three, $1.29 billion for suppliers and $1.2 billion for dealer and customer losses.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in WashingtonEditing by Matthew Lewis and Chris Reese)
Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno raised more than $4 million during the third quarter  a figure that includes $3 million from his own pocket.

The Republican also announced that he had roughly $5 million in cash on hand.

Moreno, a wealthy businessman, is running in a primary that includes Secretary of State Frank LaRose and State Sen. Matt Dolan. They are looking to oust Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is widely seen as one of the most vulnerable incumbents up for reelection in 2024.

Moreno has a history of self funding: During his short-lived 2022 Senate run, he reported more than $3 million in self-financing. The recruitment of self-funders, who are willing to dip into their own fortunes, has been a key part of the GOPs strategy to take back the Senate. Both Dolan and Moreno have the ability to self-fund in Ohio.

Former President Donald Trump has yet to endorse in the race, though he has been complimentary of Moreno. In a social media post earlier this year, Trump said Moreno would not be easy to beat. LaRose is also angling for a Trump endorsement. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a top Trump ally, has backed Moreno.

Other wealthy GOP Senate candidates include: Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania, Tim Sheehy in Montana and Jim Justice in West Virginia. The deadline to report fundraising for the third quarter, which spans from July 1 to Sept. 30, is Oct. 15. Moreno is one of the first major Senate Republicans to reveal his total haul. He raised nearly $2.3 million in the second quarter.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott will host a meet and greet at the Bluffton Corner Perk Brunch Cafe Friday, Oct. 6 at noon.

The event comes about three months before the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries, where voters will determine the partys nominee for president. It also follows Scotts appearance in last weeks second GOP Presidential debate.

Corner Perks address is 1297 May River Road #101 Bluffton, SC 29910. Doors will open at 11:30 a.m. Those interested can RSVP for free at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-greet-with-senator-tim-scott-in-bluffton-tickets-730773612547
A day after sending President Joe Biden a letter criticizing the White House effort on migrants, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday called for a stronger show of unity among local Democrats in responding to the swelling influx of asylum-seekers arriving in Chicago from the southern border.

Pritzkers comments also came just days after he aired concerns about Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnsons plan to house asylum-seekers in tent encampments around the city, which ignited a barrage of criticism of the states migrant response from some of the new mayors City Council allies.

The governor on Tuesday once again accused Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of attempting to cause chaos in the places hes sending asylum-seekers.

The more that people feed into that at the local level, the more likely it is that he will increase the number of buses, and youre seeing that now, Pritzker said, neglecting to mention that some of the recent buses arriving in Chicago have been sent by the Democratic mayor of El Paso, Texas.

Pritzkers plea for a Democratic detente came as the city and state are gearing up for a quicker pace of migrant arrivals from Venezuela and other Latin American countries. The number of buses rolling into the city is expected to reach 20 to 25 per day this week, sources have said, bringing 1,000 to 1,250 people daily and raising the total number of arrivals to more than 20,000 since the crisis began in August 2022.

Pritzker sought to smooth over any lingering tensions with City Hall after last weeks flare-up, which had members of his press team responding on social media to criticism from Johnsons floor leader, Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th.

We have a good relationship with the mayor and the mayors office, and were about getting things done and so is the mayor, Pritzker told reporters at an unrelated event at the University of Chicago.

The orchestrated rollout of the letter to Biden on Monday and news of a Sunday phone call with the mayors office and White House officials served to shift some of the focus on the migrant crisis to the federal response, which both Pritzker and the city under Johnson and his predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, have made clear theyve found wanting.

The governor said the letter was not an initial request for help from his political ally in the White House but an effort to reiterate the multiple pleas for assistance the state has made over the past year.

We wanted to make sure that there was a public statement out there of many of the things that weve talked about in the past with the administration, but the things that we need right now, Pritzker said.

The three-page letter called for the White House to appoint a single person to lead the migrant relief effort on the federal level.

The governor, who is serving as an adviser to the Bidens reelection campaign, also asked that the federal government take a more active role in coordinating the transportation of asylum-seekers from Texas to other parts of the country, accusing the administration of abdicating responsibility once (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) releases migrants into the interior of the country.

Pritzker also requested additional financial support beyond the modest funding the state and the city of Chicago have received thus far from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The state has spent about $330 million on the new arrivals, according to Pritzkers letter, but not all of that money has gone to Chicago, where most of the migrants are staying.

Chicago has allocated $144 million toward the migrant mission and expects costs for the entire response effort since 2022 to grow to as much as $363 million by the end of this year.

Given the political dynamics in a divided Congress facing the specter of another shutdown showdown next month, Pritzker acknowledged that a comprehensive overhaul of the federal immigration system or even more funding for the migrant response are unlikely.

But the governor said there some of whats outlined in the letter are steps the Biden administration can take without having to go through the Republican-controlled House.

In response to the letter, a White House spokesperson late Monday pointed to the Biden administrations increased border enforcement efforts and aimed blame at Republicans in Congress for blocking the presidents efforts to do more to help both the new arrivals and cities and states that are taking them in.

House Republicans continue to block the reform the immigration system needs and the $4 billion we requested to address the immediate needs of (Department of Homeland Security) to safely and humanely manage the southwest border and support communities across the country, the spokesperson said. We will continue to work closely with Illinois and states and cities across the country.

The White House described Sundays phone call with Pritzker and Johnson, which included Biden chief of staff Jeff Zients, senior adviser Tom Perez and other administration officials, as a productive conversation.

This meeting was part of ongoing, recurrent engagements between White House officials and leaders in Illinois and Chicago regarding federal support for communities welcoming migrants, the spokesperson said, highlighting the more than $46 million in grant funding the city and state have received for the relief effort. Thats out of a pool of $1 billion nationwide.

Pritzker said hes spoken with White House officials again since the letter was sent Monday to make sure that they heard us and that they want to be responsive.

And they have said they want to be responsive to those things and theyre kind of working down the list to see what the things are that they can do immediately and what they might be able to do in the near term, he said.

Still, neither the governors office nor City Hall have outlined a plan to absorb the large number of migrants who could arrive in the coming weeks if the expected pace continues.

Were going to do what we have to do to take care of the people who are here, Pritzker said.

dpetrella@chicagotribune.com
Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, speaks during an event in Washington on June 23, 2023. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has named Butler to fill the U.S. Senate seat made vacant by Sen. Dianne Feinsteins death. | Susan Walsh, Associated Press

California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler as a replacement for the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein late Sunday night. She will serve as the temporary senator for the Golden State until someone is elected to the position next year.

As we mourn the enormous loss of Sen. Feinstein, the very freedoms she fought for  reproductive freedom, equal protection, and safety from gun violence  have never been under greater assault, Newsom said.

Related

Laphonza has spent her entire career fighting for women and girls and has been a fierce advocate for working people.

I'm proud to announce California's new United States Senator -- Laphonza Butler.



As we mourn the enormous loss of Sen. Feinstein, the very freedoms she fought for -- reproductive freedom, equal protection, and safety from gun violence -- have never been under greater assault. pic.twitter.com/SOnbfVPmXj  Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 2, 2023

Butler has served as president of EMILYs List, a U.S. political action committee that helps elect Democratic women who are in favor of abortion rights, since 2021.

But critics of Newsoms pick allege that Butler isnt even a registered California voter.

Does Laphonza Butler live in Maryland?

Fox News reported that Butlers social media profile on X, formerly known as Twitter, previously listed her location as Maryland. Her account has been updated since Newsoms announcement.

The report added that a Federal Election Commission filing from EMILYs List revealed that Butler resided in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 2023.

Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman from California, criticized Newsoms choice, saying, If Gavin Newsom wants to appoint a senator from California, maybe he could have made sure to find one who lives in California?

In a separate post, he said: So many Californians have left the state during Gavin Newsoms time in office, he had to go to Maryland to find our next senator.

His GOP colleague, Rep. Kevin Kiley, who also represents the Golden State, said that he is willing to work with Butler.

But the Senate has an obligation to carefully assess whether Ms. Butler, a Maryland voter, meets the residency requirements in Article I of the Constitution, he added.

Kiley referred to the clause that says in order for someone to be eligible for a Senate seat, they must be 30 years of age, a U.S. resident for at least nine years and live in the state they represent.

Newsoms office said Monday Butler has reregistered to vote in California.

Who is Laphonza Butler?

In response to her appointment, Butler said on X that she was honored to accept the nomination to be U.S. Senator for a state I have made my home.

Before leading an abortion rights political committee, Butler worked for Californias largest labor union, the Service Employees International Union, for roughly 15 years, a majority of it spent as the president.

Her deep union roots and her work on abortion rights led her to become a Democratic strategist and adviser to Vice President Kamala Harriss 2020 presidential campaign.

Butler would also be the first openly LGBTQ person to represent California in the Senate. She and her wife Neneki Lee share a daughter together, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Still, some have leveled criticism at Butler for having a soft spot for Big Tech, which includes her yearlong stint as the director of Airbnb and her work representing Uber against the California bill that seeks to give the contract drivers employee status.

Butler said that she may not live up to the legacy of her predecessor but she will try her best to honor it by working for women, union workers, struggling parents and the state of California, adding: I am ready to serve.

Feinstein, 90, made history by not only being the first woman in the Senate from California but also was the oldest sitting U.S. senator. Upon her passing last week, Utahs Sen. Mitt Romney called her a giant of the Senate, and Sen. Mike Lee said, her storied career was matched by her kindness, even for those with whom she often disagreed, as the Deseret News reported.

Can Laphonza Butler run for the Senate in 2024?

California scheduled its primary for the Senate for March 5. The New York Times reported that Butlers temporary appointment does not stop her from running in next years race.

Should she decide to run, she will have the advantage of already serving in the role but she may be behind in fundraising.

Who else is running for Senate in California?

The other notable Democratic candidates vying for Senate include:

Although the Black Caucus previously endorsed Lee as a pick for the U.S. Senate  Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nevada, the chairman, wrote a letter to Newsom a day before the governor announced his pick, urging him to choose Lee  they issued a statement celebrating Butler, who they said also has an important perspective to bring to the table.

Newsom, who is mourning the loss of his mentor and lifelong friend, Feinstein, said he is certain Butler will continue to break glass ceilings, and fight for all Californians in Washington.

Butler is expected to be sworn in by Harris on Wednesday.

She is the only person with the courage, the vision, and the record to eradicate poverty, face down the fossil fuel industry, defend our democracy, and tirelessly advance the progressive agenda, writes Chairman Steven Horsford in urging Governor Newsom to appoint Barbara Lee. pic.twitter.com/FFCUJudgKV  The Black Caucus (@TheBlackCaucus) October 1, 2023
Russian forces launched an air strike on Antonivka, a northeastern suburb of Kherson, killing one person and wounding another seven, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported on Oct. 3.

The 69-year-old man killed in the attack was in his garage at the time, according to the official. Those injured in the attack, aged between 28 and 77, received medical assistance on site.

Russian attacks against southern Kherson Oblast on Oct. 2 killed two civilians and injured seven more, Prokudin reported.

Read also: Investigative Stories from Ukraine: Russian drone downed by Ukraine is full of Western components

Russia launched 80 strikes on the region on Oct. 2, damaging educational institutions, a church, a humanitarian headquarters, a shopping mall, an auto center, a factory, and a critical infrastructure facility, added the governor.

Ukraine's Armed Forces liberated Kherson and other regional settlements on the Dnipro Rivers west bank, such as Antonivka, in November 2022.

Russian forces were pushed to the river's east bank, from where they have since been firing at the liberated territories, regularly resulting in civilian deaths and injuries.

Read also: With winter approaching, is Ukraines energy system ready for renewed Russian attacks?

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) slammed the New York fraud case against former President Trump on Monday, calling it a friggin joke.

Graham echoed Trumps attacks on New York Attorney General Letitia James in an appearance on Fox Newss Hannity on Monday night, claiming that she brought the case against the former president for political reasons.

Lets look at the AG. She started attacking President Trump in 2018, and she promised if she got to be the attorney general of New York, she would make this guys life miserable, that she would go after him, look under every rock, Graham said.

So, she has used Donald Trump to elevate herself politically. She is trying to get ahead at Donald Trumps expense, he continued. The judge has ruled that President Trump committed fraud and nobody got defrauded. The judge believes that Mar-a-Lago is worth $18 billion. What a friggin joke!

Trump has been accused of inflating his wealth by $3.6 billion at times and deflating it at other times to deceive banks and insurers into providing financial assistance. The judge, Arthur Engoron, ruled last week that Trump was liable for fraud and stripped some of the former presidents business licenses.

James is seeking $250 million in penalties and an effective ban on the former president and his organizations ever doing business in New York again.

Trump has repeatedly attacked both the judge and the attorney general  attacks that Graham reiterated Monday night.

Its a systematic effort to destroy Donald Trump as a political person, Graham said. His crime was he was a good conservative president.

Ive never seen hatred toward a political figure like I see against President Trump, the South Carolina senator added. The left will do anything to ruin his life that keep him from being president again.

Trump said he would return to court Tuesday for the second day of the fraud trial. While he did not speak during the trial Monday, he spoke to reporters numerous times outside the courtroom to repeat his claims that the case was politically motivated.

Trump is also facing four federal criminal trials, involving 91 separate charges.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
JERUSALEM, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a state-run aerospace and defense company, and Azerbaijan's space agency Azercosmos on Tuesday separately announced the signing of a deal to sell two IAI satellites to Azercosmos.

The IAI said that these are cutting-edge multi-spectral electro-optical satellites, boasting a native resolution better than 0.5 meters, and offering an extended operational lifespan along with advanced imaging capabilities.

The sides did not enclose the type of satellites and amounts, but the Israeli business news website Globes reported that they are the IAI OptSat500 satellites, in a deal of 120 million U.S. dollars.

OptSat500 is an advanced microsatellite engineered for utilization in both standalone and constellation setups. It has a wide-range coverage and is compatible with a variety of launchers.

Under the agreement terms, the IAI will provide technology and knowledge for the construction and operation of the satellites, which are part of Azerbaijan's Azersky-2 satellite program.

The agreement was signed during the 74th International Astronautical Congress currently held in Azerbaijan's capital Baku. 
Graham Linehan claims he has been dropped by his agent after criticising David Tennant for supporting transgender rights in the latest row involving the writer.

On Sunday (1 October), Linehan appeared on a fringe panel event at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, where he declared himself the most cancelled person in this room.

The Father Ted creator, who was represented by Independent Talent, has faced significant backlash in recent years for comments he has made in opposition to trans rights. He was permanently banned from Twitter/X in 2020, but reintroduced late last year following Elon Musks takeover.

Speaking during the talk, which was titled Is the UK a safe space for free speech?, Linehan said that he found it very hard to find places to speak these days due to criticism over his views on gender.

I guess the other interesting thing that happened to me is I just lost my TV agent because I criticised David Tennant, Linehan told the crowd.

In July, the Irish writer branded Tennant disgusting, ignorant, reckless after the Doctor Who star wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the words: Leave trans kids alone you absolute freaks.

Tennant did not respond to Linehans comments at the time, but has previously spoken about the importance of fighting the fight for LGBT+ rights.

Linehan was reinstated on Twitter late last year after he was banned in 2020 (PA)

Expanding on the claims he was dropped by Independent Talent, Black Books writer Linehan told the audience at the panel: I only found this out later because I looked at the list of people Independent Talent represented.

David Tennant was at the top, and hes making slightly more money than me at the moment, so I had to go.

The Independent has contacted Independent Talent and Tennants representatives for comment.

Last October, it was revealed that the number of transphobic hate crimes in the UK had risen by 56 per cent compared to the previous year, with a Home Office report linking the increase to discussion on social media.

During Pride month in June, Tennant spoke about the importance of supporting LGBT+ causes at a time when the world seems to be getting, in some corners, worryingly intolerant and weirdly backward.

We cant take our foot off the gas, he said, while appearing on Ed Milibands Reasons to be Cheerful podcast. We cant expect that we will always travel in the right direction towards acceptance. Weve all got to be fighting that fight every day.

Tennant has repeatedly shown support for the LGBT+ community (PA)

The event Linehan was speaking at on Sunday was hosted by the Institute of Economic Affairs and the TaxPayers Alliance, with the comedy writer joined by four other panellists on stage.

Last month, Linehan had claimed that he was initially denied a pass to the Tory party conference, before the party chairman stepped in and allowed him to attend.

Linehan will later this month release his memoir Tough Crowd: How I Made and Lost a Career in Comedy about his fall from grace from an industry where there was no one to stand by his side when he needed help.

The book has already sparked debate online after Richard Ayoade, who starred in Linehans comedy The IT Crowd, provided an endorsement used in the online marketing of Tough Crowd.

Ayoades quote reads: Graham Linehan has long been one of my favourite writers  and this book shows that his brilliance in prose is equal to his brilliance as a screenwriter.

It unfolds with the urgency of a Sam Fuller film: that of a man who has been through something that few have experienced but has managed to return, undaunted, to tell us the tale.
A woman died after being struck by a hit-and-run driver while walking her dogs in a crosswalk, California police reported.

A vehicle hit the woman at 6 a.m. Monday, Oct. 2, in the Panorama City neighborhood of Los Angeles, police said in a news release.

The driver didnt stop to help the woman, who later died of her injuries, police said. They did not say whether the dogs were hurt.

I think its really unfair, Naomi Hidalgo, the womans daughter, told KTLA. You just took a persons life away and you dont care, you didnt even have the courage to pull over, nothing, to even stop at the stop sign.

Adriana Sanchez, who also was a grandmother, walked her two dogs every morning in the neighborhood, where she had lived for 10 years, her family told the station.

Los Angeles has a standing reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in a hit-and-run crash.

Police ask anyone with information to call detectives at 818-644-8114 or 818-644-8033. Anonymous tips can be made through L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.

70-year-old dad dies kayaking with son in turbulent ocean, California officials say

Car plunges off cliff into pounding surf, killing one, California firefighters say

Swimmer vanishes after shark attack off popular beach, California rescuers say
In 2017, Greenville made its debut on Conde Nast Traveler's Reader's Choice Awards for being among the Best Small Cities in the US.

Since then, Greenville has appeared on the list seven years in a row.

On this year's list, Greenville ranked No. 4, up two spots from last year and its highest ranking ever.

Conde Nast noted the food lover's town is known for its rising farm-to-table scene, recommending readers dine at Jianna for Italian and Vault & Vator for a well-crafted cocktail. The city's abundant natural resources like Falls Park and the Swamp Rabbit Trail were also praised.

Last week, VisitGreenvilleSC reported a record-breaking year, with over 7 million visitors Greenville County between July 2022 to June 2023. The visitors spent $1.5 billion in the local economy.Charleston and Greenville were the only South Carolina cities to make the list:1. Charleston, SC2. Santa Fe, New Mexico3. Alexandria, Virginia4. Greenville, SC5. Savannah, Georgia6. Aspen, Colorado7. St. Augustine, Florida8. Pensacola, Florida9. Annapolis, Maryland10. Sedona, Arizona

Nina Tran covers trending topics. Reach her via email at ntran@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Greenville among Top 5 best small cities in US on Conde Nast awards list
The Campbell County Republican Party is run by a county committee of precinct captains. Each precinct is ideally represented by a captain, co-captain and youth captain. Currently, 95 captains represent 66 precincts in Campbell County. Each county reorganizes their party through elections of precinct officers who elect the board and determine how the party will be run following the presidential election.

Because the Republican Party platform most closely aligns with a biblical worldview that attracts Christians, one must wonder how there could be such a great divide between the Campbell County captains of the Republican Party over the petition to remove the chairman of the board, Anna Zinkhon. The small group that has been actively promoting her removal does so at the expense of unity in working towards the goals of the Campbell County Republican Party.

We should be working to ensure election integrity, work to elevate the most qualified Republican candidates, educate the Campbell County electorate on the core principles of the party, seek to involve more of the Campbell County electorate in conservative political issues and fund raise during special events. Progress had been achieved in all these areas until a group of captains decided they wanted Chairman Zinkhon removed. I happen to be in a group of captains that believes the grievances are grossly exaggerated or fictitious and nothing that would warrant the removal of our leader, especially when so much work is needed for the upcoming gubernatorial election and the 2024 presidential election.

More: 'Disloyalty': Northern Kentucky GOP ousts party chair  but was the vote valid?

Because of the February petition to remove Zinkhon, the party has been unable to move forward on completing its goals. What has anyone accomplished? The party in this county, including leadership, has been completely tied up in conflict. Instead of having a positive influence on our culture, which ultimately affect politics, we have taken our eyes off the prize. All that we do as Christians should be for the glory of God, and that includes how we influence our culture and politics. I would love to know how laughing, interrupting, jeering, monopolizing meetings, and disdainful behavior during meetings has produced positive results? I have watched many interested Republicans and captains walk out of meetings because of continual, bad behavior by several captains.

From the very first meeting, it seems that different factions of people have attended the bimonthly meetings in order to serve their own self-interest. Some called Zinkhon a Nazi for requiring precinct captains to wear wristbands due to the need of distinguishing voting captains. Do we have people in our party who dont like voter identification? The wristbands simply indicate who can vote. Anyone can attend a county Republican meeting, but only captains can speak on the topics of business along with vote during the business portion of the meeting. Unhappy non-captains have loudly grumbled that they couldnt voice their opinions during the business portion of the meeting. Later, some grumbled over captains being removed due to residency issues and feel that appointed precinct captains shouldnt be vetted.

Campbell County Republicans voted with secret ballots to determine whether to remove Chairperson Anna Zinkhon from her position. All 33 precinct captains in attendance voted in favor of her removal.

During the reorganization, captains are elected by their community where they are known. My opinion may not be worth much, but it seems like captains should know more about someone desiring to be a captain that will be appointed to a precinct in which the community doesnt know him/her. After the primaries, Chairman Zinkhon was blamed by those who lost their elections because the party did not endorse candidates prior to the primary elections. The voters chose who would represent them instead. None of these reasons are impeachable offenses. Some of these people are driving this removal process. It seems that there are a lot of "personal" reasons for wanting Zinkhon removed.

We asked two of these members to provide in writing why they wanted to remove the chairman. We finally received those grievances in July. As I stated earlier, most are exaggerations, taken out of context, or simply not true. If even one grievance in their list is untrue, then the entire list is unbelievable.

Chairman Zinkhon has admitted that she has made mistakes along the way. Regardless, she has boldly persevered as a leader. She has held bimonthly meetings until last February. In the petitioners grievances, they claim Chairman Zinkhon has not held quarterly meetings, which was required by RPK rules. In over two years, she missed one quarterly meeting due to this conflict while waiting to hear from RPK. They also claimed she has accomplished nothing in her two years as chairman, which is not true. She formed several committees who worked on voter integrity, two fund raising events, a county picnic, education, and helped to get people elected to the state Senate and Legislature, etc. Quite honestly, with the amount of rudeness at meetings during the past two years, its incredible that we accomplished anything. Unfortunately, chaos has increased even with parliamentary procedures in place since February.

What are the solutions? First, we need to prayerfully examine our own behavior over the past two years. Secondly, we need to make amends for any rude, undermining, or deceitful behavior. Most importantly, we need to extend grace to Chairman Zinkhon and to each other. Finally, we need to engage in productive activities that bring salt and light to our party and community. I plan on getting to work. I would like to be a positive influence in my community and party.

Precinct captains elected Anna Zinkhon as chairman during the county reorganization in June of 2021. If there is a vote at the next meeting to remove her, you can make your 2020 vote count by showing up for the next meeting and voting to allow Chairman Zinkhon to remain our party chairman.

Deb Whitacre is Camp Springs, Ky. precinct captain.

Deb Whitacre

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Move to oust Campbell County GOP chairman comes at expense of unity
For the State of Oklahoma, Banned Books Week falls in a particularly poignant month. October, also 2SLGBTQ+ History Month, will mark two years since the ACLU of Oklahoma and partners filed litigation against our states classroom censorship law, created by the passing of HB 1775. The vague language of this law restricts what can be taught in Oklahoma classrooms regarding race and gender, placing severe limitations on what Oklahoma students are learning.

Banned Books Week provides us with one week out of the year to celebrate the freedom to read and evaluate the states impact on our students' education.

This year, Banned Books Week occurs Oct. 1-7, with a theme of Let Freedom Read. This national event calls attention to literary censorship and how it affects communities. Banned Books Week brings awareness to both banned books (any book that has been removed or restricted from a center of education) and challenged books (those titles that have faced an attempt to be removed). Challenges can come from anyone, be it an elected official, a community group, or even a sole individual. In fact, according to a nationwide analysis conducted by The Washington Post a mere 11 people are responsible for the majority of the 1,000 challenges in the 37 states the newspaper analyzed.

In April, State Superintendent Ryan Walters distributed information on pornographic books he claimed were in Oklahoma schools. The list focused heavily on 2SLGBTQ+ related titles. While officials have sought to scare the public into believing that Oklahoma schools are wrought with materials deemed unsuitable, the Oklahoma State Department of Education does not even maintain a list of so-called pornographic books they claim are in school libraries.

In the State of Oklahoma, most of the censorship we see comes from the State Board of Education threatening schools with lowering their accreditation status if books regarding sex, sexuality, morality, or religion are found in schools without prior approval. The promulgating rules, which were approved by Gov. Kevin Stitt, also give more power to individual parents to request to ban books. This means one parent or group can dictate the curricula for an entire class if they object to a book in the required reading. While the opinions of these groups and individuals serve only themselves and do not represent whole communities, they still impact the education of students in Oklahoma.

Additional bills regarding classroom and library censorship have been proposed every session since the passage of HB 1775, and although none have passed, the state superintendent and governor continue to experience additional legal consequences, including related to the handling of former Norman High School teacher, Summer Boismier, who posted a QR code link to the Brooklyn Public Library Books Unbanned Project.

Across the country, state officials are censoring educators and undermining equitable education programs. This coordinated attack on inclusive education includes book banning. The ACLU has long supported inclusivity in education and will continue to do so for the future of learning in the State of Oklahoma.

As HB 1775 continues to censor conversations around race and gender in classrooms across Oklahoma, we mark Banned Books Week as a time to fight back against further censorship and celebrate the Freedom to Read. While Banned Books Week is one week out of the year, it is just a reminder for us to continue fighting to protect our rights to read, learn, and share ideas, free from viewpoint-based censorship.

Cindy Nguyen is the policy director for the ACLU of Oklahoma.

Cindy Nguyen is the policy director for the ACLU of Oklahoma.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: It's Banned Books Week. Teach Oklahoma kids to read
A 14-year-old boy has been arrested after two people were killed and five others injured in a shooting at a luxury shopping mall in the centre of Bangkok, police say.

The shooting happened at the Siam Paragon, one of the city's most famous shopping centres.

The victims were from China and Myanmar, Thailand's police chief said.

The suspect, whose motives are unclear - surrendered to officers and had been using a handgun, police said.

Five other people - one Lao national, one Chinese and three Thais - were injured.

One of the victims was Chinese and the other, who worked at the mall, was Burmese, national police chief Torsak Sukvimol told a news conference.

Footage showed shoppers inside the Siam Paragon mall running for the exits after they heard multiple shots being fired.

By the time police arrived on the scene at 17:10 local time (10:10 GMT) and were able to disarm the assailant, several people had been hit.

Ambulances had to battle with the notoriously busy rush hour traffic in this part of Bangkok to carry the victims to hospital.

The teenaged suspect has been transferred to Pathumwan police station.

He attended a school close to the mall and had a record of getting treatment for a mental health condition at Rajvithi hospital, but had recently stopped taking his medication, Mr Sukvimol said.

The headteacher of the private school, named The Essence, wrote to parents confirming the suspect was a pupil and said the school would cooperate with police.

Eyewitnesses inside the mall said they hid inside shops and bathrooms.

Jakkraphan Nakharisi, 29, an ice cream seller who has worked at the mall for two years, told the BBC that he did not realise at first that the noises were gunshots.

"There were four to five of them. And then silence. Then there were probably another two shots. Then I heard someone in my shop shout, 'There's some shooting!'

"I ducked behind the ice cream tank immediately. I didn't know where to run. I thought I couldn't just go out recklessly."

He said he heard security guards escort people off the premises, before he left "no more than 10 minutes after the shooting".

Palmyra Kownack, a 61-year old UK resident currently in Bangkok who was at the Paragon when the shooting took place, told the BBC she had been left shaken.

"There was a lot of shouting and shots," she said. "It was difficult to know what was happening. We didn't know if it was one person or a gang."

"We could see military walking by. We stayed there for about an hour until we finally got the all clear to leave. We were escorted out by the back exit. It was chaos with so many people."

In a statement, a Siam Paragon spokesperson expressed condolences to the victims.

"As soon as the incident occurred, the police and Siam Paragon's security team immediately evacuated customers and employees from the building, prioritising the safety of all customers, employees, and tenants," the statement said.

Mass shootings in Thailand are rare, although gun ownership rates are relatively high for the region.

An ex-policeman killed at least 37 people, most of them children, in a gun and knife attack at a childcare centre in in Nong Bua Lamphu province in north-east Thailand in October last year.

In 2020, a soldier killed 29 people and injured dozens more in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima.

Map of the area
The largest explosion in the world before the Atomic Age was the Halifax Explosion. It took place in 1917 in a harbor town of Canada. The massive, accidental blast destroyed much of Halifax, Nova Scotia, killed almost 2,000 people, and tore apart multiple vessels. Now, it's well remembered in poems, a single sailor's diary, and a popular folk song named "Fire and Flame."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_5PHU7vQu4

The Mont-Blanc and the Imo

Canada joined World War I on August 5, 1914, automatically as a British Dominion when Great Britain entered the war . Almost 8 percent of Canadians volunteered to serve overseas, and the home front mobilized to support the nation and the British Empire.

At Nova Scotia, troops and massive amounts of war supplies moved from the docks to waiting ships. On the morning of December 6, 1917, the Norwegian supply ship Imo left the harbor filled with only ballast. It was en route to New York to pick up relief supplies for Belgians.

A local ship pilot guided the Imo toward the sea, but he struggled with multiple ship passings in the tight waters of the channel. The Imo ended up on the wrong side of the channel, like a car driving on the wrong side of the road.

That's always a risky problem for ships. But Imo found itself on the wrong side of the channel at the worst possible time. A fully loaded ammo ship, the Mont-Blanc, headed into the harbor . The Mont-Blanc sailed on the eastern side of the channel, as it normally should, but in a direct path with the Imo. It carried 2,300 tons of picric acid, 200 tons of TNT, 35 tons of high-octane gasoline, and 10 tons of gun cotton .

Typically, ships like the Mont-Blanc would have been prevented from entering the harbor unless they were unloading there, but the heavily laden ammo ship was ordered to link up with its convoy across the Atlantic from there.

A collision leads to the Halifax Explosion

The ship officers attempted to negotiate their ships past each other, but miscommunications plagued the effort. The Imo crashed into the Mont-Blanc. The cargo didn't ignite during the crash, a stroke of luck. But as the ships pulled apart from one another, sparks from the grinding metal fell on a large store of dry picric acid in the Mont-Blanc. The acid caught fire, and the fire spread to benzol on the deck. The Benzol, a type of gasoline, sent massive plumes of black smoke into the sky.

Firefighting efforts failed and the French crew abandoned ship. Crew members tried to tell residents to flee, but they only spoke French and the citizens of Nova Scotia mostly spoke English. Terribly, the smoke columns attracted attention from passing schoolchildren and thousands of residents who all stared at the burning ship for 20 minutes.

And then the Mont-Blanc exploded, sending out a massive blast wave that sent out shrapnel, shattered windows, and leveled buildings. Glass, metal, and a tidal wave of water tore through the harbor, city, and a nearby traditional fishing village.

The explosion and fallout

Most descriptions of the explosion came from witness accounts weeks or months after the event. But a family member of Frank Baker, a Canadian sailor, found a diary with 918 words written the same day as the explosion. His words describe the terrifying scene.

We...had just drawn soap and powder and the necessary utensils for cleaning paint work, he wrote, according to Smithsonian Magazine , when the most awful explosion I ever heard or want to hear again occurred.

The first thud shook the ship from stem to stern and the second one seemed to spin us all around, landing some [crew members] under the gun carriage and others flying in all directions all over the deck, he wrote.

Fires broke out on ships all around and hundreds of small crafts had been blown to hell and the sea presented an awful scene of debris and wreckage. Our doctor attended to the wounded men on the tug as quickly as possible and we laid them on stretchers in a motor boat and took them to hospital. The scene ashore was even worse. The N.W. part of Halifax was in total ruins and fires were springing up all over the city. Part of the railway was completely demolished and everywhere were dead and dying among the ruins. When we arrived at the hospital, the windows were all blown out and the wards were two feet deep in water owing to all the pipes having burst. We had to return to our ship as quickly as possible, as we are Guard Ship and responsible for the safety of the other vessels in harbour. Frank Baker, as quoted in Smithsonian Magazine

The Imo blew onto the shore, as did other vessels. A Mikmaw people fishing settlement was completely washed away by the tidal wave of water propelled by the explosion.

The official death toll of the Halifax Explosion was 1,963. The incident injured another 9,000 people and left 6,000 homeless. Tragically, glass and metal shrapnel from the explosion blinded many of the bystanders watching the fire. And many schoolchildren who'd stopped to watch the fire were killed or injured.

Modern safeguards require better packing of explosive materials and deconflicting tight waterways where they pass. And chemists have made more stable, safer explosives. But those adjustments came much too late for the people of Halifax.
How old is too old to go trick-or-treating on Halloween? Are teenagers too old to trick-or-treat? It's a much-buzzed-about topic every year.

Kids arent asking  theyll take the free candy  but some parents wonder, at what point is it developmentally appropriate for teens to hang up their Halloween baskets?

"There is no age when kids 'should' stop trick-or-treating, but after graduating high school many enjoy other ways to celebrate Halloween," Sheryl Ziegler, a Denver family therapist tells TODAY.com. "The decision to stop is based more on behavior than age."

If your older child loves trick-or-treating, that's OK. More than one quarter of adults (26%) believe that children are never too old for the tradition, according to a 2021 YouGov survey.

And 46% of parents agreed in a TODAY.com survey.

Sixteen percent of adults in the TODAY survey felt kids should stop trick-or-treating around 17 or 18, while 19% said age 15 or 16 is the stopping point. And 1% said kids older than 9 shouldn't go door-to-door.

Officials in Chesapeake, Virginia, have decided that age 14 should be the cutoff, while the city of Bathurst in New Brunswick, Canada, passed a law to prohibit kids 16 and older from ringing doorbells.

"It is important to note, however, that while this ordinance has been in effect since about 1970, the City of Chesapeake has never detained nor charged any person under the ordinance," a city spokesperson tells TODAY.com. "It is on the books to allow police officers a method to detain an individual if they create a disturbance or similar actions.

"Officers do not spend Halloween night 'carding' trick-or-treaters, nor are they actively seeking 'over age' participants," adds the spokesperson.

A spokesperson from Upper Deerfield Township in New Jersey tells TODAY.com there was previously a request for trick or treaters to be 12 years old and under, but "there was no enforcement or penalties associated with the request."

How old is too old for trick-or-treating?

It's a topic that tends to make etiquette expert and author Catherine Newman roll her eyes a teeny bit.

If a 17-year-old wants to dress up with their friends and trade candy at the end of the night, I think thats great, Newman tells TODAY.com. "Little kids die of happiness when they see big kids dressed up. It validates their excitement."

But Ziegler acknowledges general concerns about older kids pounding the pavement on Halloween night.

There's potential to scare little children with overtly gory costumes or push them aside to collect fistfuls of candy. There's also potential to scare grown adults by being too loud and rowdy or ringing doorbells late into the evening.

Ziegler points out, however, that kids of all ages are capable of such behavior and offers "common-sense solutions."

"If you're the parent of young kids, you can trick or treat earlier in the evening and if you have older kids, remind them to be mindful of their bodies and manners," she says.

Newman adds that she hopes those on the other side of the door will be polite as well.

Older kids with developmental disabilities may not have outgrown trick-or-treating either, Newman notes, So you want to resist the urge to make a comment like, Arent you a little old?

"My 10-year-old son has special needs that are invisible to outsiders," shares Amanda OConnor, a Nashville mom.

"He has always been interested in content and activities that are geared towards younger children," she says. "I anticipate him wanting to trick-or-treat much later than other kids."

At what age should you stop trick-or-treating?

Some parents prefer their teens to trick-or-treat for no other reason than to keep them out of trouble, and remember that lots of older kids are responsible for taking their younger siblings trick-or-treating. "We don't want to shame them for wanting to spend time with their brothers and sisters," says Ziegler.

"Kids should be allowed to trick-or-treat up to the age of 18," Brandi Harris of Oklahoma City tells TODAY.com. "Its way better than going to a party where someone may spike the punch or something else dangerous. If a kid still wants to participate in innocent fun, why would we want to stop them?"

Not to mention, it's one activity that isn't in front of a screen.

Everything is so complicated and virtual these days, Newman says. Its nostalgic for them to go trick-or-treating. Let them be little again for just one night.

This story was originally written in 2019 and has been updated.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Overall of the scene during the FOX Business Republican presidential primary debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.

New Hampshire voters have a blunt message for Chris Christie .

Get off the island.

In an exclusive USA TODAY/Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll in New Hampshire, 41% of likely Republican primary voters who watched last week's debate cited the former New Jersey governor as the winner, or rather loser, in a question of which of the seven participants should drop out of the presidential race first.

Former Vice President Mike Pence was a distant second at 17%. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum was named by 16% and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy by 11%.

That's particularly bad news for Christie, who has centered his campaign in New Hampshire. The first-in-the-nation primary is open to independents as well as Republicans, and the state's libertarian instincts  the motto on its license plates is "Live Free or Die"  has sometimes allowed long-shot contenders to do well.

At the debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, the candidates balked when moderator Dana Perino of Fox News asked them to name which of their colleagues on stage should be "voted off the island"  that is, drop out of the race.

Voters were less reluctant to answer.

"Chris Christie is very entertaining," Richard Aliano, 77, a retired lawyer from Wolfeboro who is supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis , said after being polled. "But I don't think he should be the candidate."

The poll of 500 likely Republican voters by landline and cellphone Sept. 28 to Oct. 2 has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. The sample of 202 respondents who watched the debate has an error margin of 6.9 points.

Trump 's challengers are counting on the opening Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary to provide the sort of boost that might loosen the former president's grip on the nomination. The caucuses are set for Jan. 15, and the likely date for the New Hampshire primary is Jan. 23.

At the moment, Trump, at 44%, holds a formidable lead of 31 percentage points in New Hampshire, according to an average of recent statewide polls by Realclearpolitics.com, although former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley has climbed a bit to second place, at 13%. DeSantis has sagged to 10.5%.

Here are some other tidbits from USA TODAY's statewide survey.

Are people tuning into the debates?

In the poll, 4 in 10 said they watched the last debate, a significant number given that the primary is three months away and there were other things they could have chosen to do, from streaming videos to attending back-to-school nights.

Six in 10 said they didn't watch it.

"For two reasons," said Lynne Chase, 63, a registered nurse and an independent from Grantham who was among those surveyed. "It's prohibitively late for me to stay up when I get up so early for my duty at the hospital." The second reason, she said, "is the debates are less of a debate in the traditional sense of debate and becoming more of a clown show both on the Democratic and Republican side."

They'd like Donald Trump on stage next time

Those who watched the second debate would like Donald Trump to show up for the third one.

A 55% majority said the former president should participate in the forum next month in Miami; 37% said he needn't bother.

"I think he should but I don't think it's really necessary," said Joyce Briand, 62, a former licensed nursing assistant and a Republican from Newport. "He's got so many people backing him."

That was Trump's reasoning, too, in skipping the first two debates.

Aid to Ukraine divides GOP voters.

The question of whether to continue U.S. aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia divided the candidates on stage. It also divided the New Hampshire voters who tuned in.

Nearly half, 48%, supported phasing out assistance to Ukraine; 39% wanted to continue the aid. Just 9% endorsed increasing it.

"Phase it out," Briand said. "They're sending so much money over there and it's leaving us with nothing."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Should Chris Christie exit the race? Many New Hampshire voters think so
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., left, one of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's harshest critics, answers questions from members of the media after speaking on the House floor, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. Gaetz has said he plans to use a procedural tool called a motion to vacate to try and strip McCarthy of his office as soon as this week. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Rep. Matt Gaetz pressed forward Monday evening to force a vote on removing Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his post, setting the stage for a dramatic showdown this week between McCarthy and his far-right critics.

Gaetz, R-Fla., made what is known as a motion to vacate. Any single lawmaker can make such a motion, and the House must hold a vote within two legislative days on whether to remove McCarthy from the speakership, which requires a simple majority. McCarthy agreed to allow any member to force such a vote during a protracted floor fight in January as a concession to right-wing holdouts in exchange for the speakership.

Heres what happens next.

McCarthy cant avoid a vote.

The resolution declaring the speakership vacant is privileged, meaning it takes priority in the Houses legislative agenda and requires action within two days.

The House of Representatives convened at 10 a.m. Tuesday, and legislative business begins at noon, the earliest that the motion could be acted upon.

McCarthy cannot avoid some sort of vote on the question, though he has some options for trying to divert or at least delay the vote.

McCarthy can try to kill the resolution.

The easiest and most likely course of action for the speaker is to move to table Gaetzs resolution, effectively killing it. That, too, requires a majority vote of the House. Should he be successful, the fight would be over and McCarthy would keep his job.

Should his motion to table be defeated, the House would move to a vote on the resolution to remove him.

Another possible but less likely move for McCarthy would be to move to refer the question to a congressional committee, effectively punting it to a group made up of his allies. He engineered a similar move in June that sidestepped an attempt to quickly impeach President Joe Biden. That would also require a majority vote.

McCarthy is all but certain to need Democrats to survive.

The Republicans slim majority and the size of the far-right group pressing to remove him means McCarthy has little chance of winning any one of the possible votes and keeping his job without at least some help from Democrats.

As of Monday, House Democrats had not signaled their intentions, and McCarthy said Tuesday morning that he would not offer them anything in exchange for their support.

It is extremely rare for members of the minority to vote for the opposing partys candidate for speaker. Democrats voted in unison for their leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, in each of the 15 rounds of the speakership fight in January. And McCarthys efforts to appease far-right members within his party since then, including launching an impeachment inquiry into Biden last month, have further frustrated Democrats.

If some Democrats did decide to help save McCarthy, the simplest way would be for them to vote to oppose Gaetzs ouster resolution, and vote to table it. They could also help the speaker in a more passive way, either by voting present  neither yes or no  or skipping the vote entirely. Both moves would lower the threshold of votes he needs to survive.

If the ouster fails, McCarthy could face another one.

Gaetz has said that he might keep trying to remove McCarthy over and over again  even daily. There is nothing in the House rules to prevent this. His move Monday was only the third time in the 234-year history of the House that a speaker has faced a motion to vacate.

Most recently, in 2015, Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina filed a motion against Speaker John Boehner, who resigned from Congress before the House voted.

If McCarthy is removed, the House would be paralyzed.

A vacancy in the speakers chair would essentially paralyze the House until a successor is chosen, according to multiple procedural experts. An interim speaker would be chosen from a list prepared by McCarthy and his staff at the beginning of the year, but staff intimately familiar with House rules say the role of that person would be to oversee a speaker election and little more.
HARARE, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe is on course to attain a mining sector growth target of a 12-billion-U.S.-dollar industry by year end, with the gold sector expected to play a major role towards the ambitious target, Minister of Energy and Power Development Soda Zhemu said on Monday.

According to the statistics last year, the mining industry had topped 9 billion dollars, Zhemu told a press conference on the sidelines of a gold mobilization deployment workshop held in the capital Harare.

"A baseline survey was conducted in 2017 where our mining industry was valued at around 2.9 billion (U.S. dollars) then, and over the years it has been growing," Zhemu said.

"So I would safely say that we are on course towards the achievement of the 12 billion (U.S. dollar) mining industry, and the gold sector alone is expected to contribute about 4 billion towards this achievement," he said.

Gold is Zimbabwe's top mineral export, raking in 2.04 billion dollars from a record output of 35.38 tonnes in 2022, up from 1.8 billion dollars in 2021, according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

The country is now aiming to curb under-declaration and plug leakages in the gold sector that have been prejudicing the Treasury over the past years. 
A Hawaiian Airlines flight returned to Las Vegas after being struck by lightning, KSNV reported.

The plane, headed to Honolulu, taxied for 90 minutes before flying for just 20 minutes, flight-tracking data shows.

The National Weather Service says on average, commercial planes are hit by lightning one or two times a year.

A Hawaiian Airlines flight to Honolulu on Sunday was forced to return to Las Vegas after the plane was struck by lightning, reports say.

The plane, an Airbus A330-200, set off from Las Vegas' Harry Reid International on Sunday night, but instead of flying a six-hour route to Daniel K. Inouye International in Honolulu it was instead diverted and returned to its departure airport, data from flight-tracking websites FlightAware and Flightradar24 shows.

Data from the sites shows that though the plane left the gate on time, it taxied for about an hour and a half in Las Vegas before setting off. The flight only lasted around 20 minutes, and the plane never even crossed the border from Nevada to California, the sites show.

A spokesperson for Hawaiian Airlines told NBC-affiliate KSNV that the plane, which was carrying 278 passengers, was diverted because of a "lightning strike." The aircraft was inspected on its return to Las Vegas, and passengers were given hotel accommodation and food, the spokesperson added.

The airline did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside of regular business hours.

The US National Weather Service says that on average, commercial transport passenger planes are hit by lightning one or two times a year.

"Strikes to airplanes are relatively common but rarely result in a significant impact to the continued safe operation of the airplane," aerospace company Boeing says.

Planes that carry passengers are designed with conducting paths through the plane to take the lightning strike and conduct the currents, the NWS says.

Read the original article on Business Insider
FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is introducing legislation to allow states to build their own border barriers, as well as prosecute and deport illegal immigrants  just as Texas is battling with the Biden administration over barriers it has set up at the Mexican border.

The State Border Defense Act would allow California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to construct barriers on federal lands or water along the southern border. The bill also allows states to prosecute and remove illegal immigrants from the country. The bill expands on legislation introduced last year and empowers the states by allowing them to enforce federal immigration law, effectively nullifying a 2012 Supreme Court case that significantly limited the ability of states to be involved in enforcement.

The legislation comes as Texas is battling with the Biden administration over its efforts to build a buoy barrier in the Rio Grande. The Department of Justice said the barrier violated federal law, raised humanitarian concerns, and presented "serious risks" to public safety and the environment.

MIGRANT NUMBERS HIT HIGHEST EVER RECORDED IN ONE MONTH: SOURCES

Sen. Josh Hawley has regularly called for additional security at the southern border.

A federal judge initially ordered the barrier to be removed, but that order has been put on hold by an appeals court. However, it is not the only challenge Texas is facing. Images last month showed Border Patrol agents cutting through barbed wire  set up by Texas  in order to allow migrants to be processed. Arizona last year had set up shipping containers as a makeshift border barrier but removed them amid a legal challenge from the administration.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, has largely ended border wall construction, which increased dramatically under the Trump administration.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

As those challenges continue, numbers at the border are skyrocketing. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources told Fox News last week that total migrant encounters for September have exceeded 260,000, which is the highest monthly total ever recorded. That is after multiple days of more than 11,000 encounters a day  which exceeds records set during the days leading up to the expiration of Title 42 in May.

"Our southern border is overrun," Hawley told Fox News Digital. "Joe Bidens dangerous open-border policies are making it worse every single day, leaving states like Missouri to deal with the consequences. Since the federal government refuses to enforce our immigration laws, states must be able to."

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FILES INJUNCTION AGAINST TEXAS OVER FLOATING BORDER BARRIER IN RIO GRANDE

State involvement in the migrant crisis is growing as an issue. While Texas and Arizona have been directly impacted, there have been growing noises from other states  including Democrat-run states and cities like New York and Chicago, which have called for more action from the federal government.

While those calls have largely been limited to calling for more funding and work authorizations for migrants, some have started to call for additional border security efforts to stop them from coming into the U.S. in the first place.

NEW YORK GOV. HOCHUL WANTS TO LIMIT WHO CROSSES BORDER, SAYS IT'S TOO OPEN RIGHT NOW

"Well, we want them to have a limit on who can come across the border. It is too open right now," New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Sunday. "People coming from all over the world are finding their way through simply saying they need asylum."

"We are always so proud of the fact that New York has the Statue of Liberty in our harbor. We are one of the most diverse places on Earth because of our welcoming nature, and it's in our DNA to welcome immigrants. But there has to be some limits in place," she said.





Original article source: Hawley introduces bill to help key border states fight back against illegal immigration
Paris-based VC firm HCVC just announced the final closing of its second fund, simply called Fund II. And the team has managed to raise $75 million (69 million) so that it can back pre-seed and seed companies in Europe and North America.

Originally focused on hardware startup investments, HCVC quickly evolved to invest in deep tech startups in general, such as companies working on climate, biotech, robotics, space, etc. Some of HCVCs portfolio companies include electric bike maker Cowboy, nuclear fusion tech company Renaissance Fusion, Span, Caper, Automata, Radia and Augmenta.

The name HCVC itself comes from the Hardware Club, a community of hardware and deep tech companies that share knowledge and help each other through the network. There are more than 600 companies in the club.

This Hardware Club has never been a way to make money directly. HCVC isnt an investor in every company in the Hardware Club. Since 2018, the firm has backed 50 companies with its original $50 million fund.

With HCVCs new fund, the VC firm plans to conduct up to 40 investments, which means roughly 10 deals per year. On average, HCVC will be able to invest anything between 250,000 and 2.5 million per deal ($260,000 to $2.6 million).

We want to back founders that create a future with more clean energy, more powerful computing, more context-aware robots, better defense tools for democracies and biomanufacturing that enables us to decarbonize food production, HCVC founder and managing partner Alexis Houssou said in a statement.

In addition to Houssou, Jerry Yang, Aymerik Renard and Alex Flamant are the three other partners in the fund. Alex Flamant is a recent addition to the team. He was a principal at Singular, another Paris-based VC firm. He also spent some time at Notion Capital.

As for the limited partners, HCVC raised money from the European Investment Fund, Isomer Capital and Molten Ventures, as well as several individual investors, such as Albert Wenger (managing partner at USV), John Elkann (chairman of Stellantis and Ferrari) and Toto Wolff (team principal and CEO of Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team).

Interestingly, HCVC also says that its fund is exclusively backed by European, American and Japanese investors  unlike many U.S. VC firms, theres no Saudi Arabian investor participation.
Ted Henifin, seen here in this Jan. 27, 2023 file photo, is now in charge of Jackson's ailing sewer system. JXN Water will be in charge for at least four years, according to a stipulated order.

Ted Henifin, the federally appointed third-party administrator, is now in charge of fixing Jackson's ailing sewer system.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate signed off on the order approving Henifin on Saturday. The approval comes after Wingate's court held a 30-day public comment period for residents to give their input. According to a news release by JXN Water, the company in charge of the city's water and now sewer system, "95 percent of comments" were in favor of Henifin.

The stipulated order placing JXN Water in charge of the sewer system will be for at least four years. It has been previously mentioned that once Henifin's work is finished there will be a conversation between all parties to decide who will be in charge of the sewer system in the future.

Across the city, JXN Water has reported 215 raw sewage overflows. Henifin will now be overseeing the fixing of these. Raw sewage overflows occur when there is "a break in a sewage pipe allowing the sewage to pressurize and come up above ground," Henifin said in a Youtube video released last month that shows an overflow occurring on Jefferson Street and Boyd Street.

Jackson's lowest paid employees: Many Jackson city employees receive pay well below state averages. See details

The city's sewer system has been under a consent decree from the court since March 1, 2013. The consent decree was signed off by the plaintiffs  the Environmental Protection Agency, the Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality  and the defendant, the City of Jackson. But little to no progress has been made since then, resulting in the city's sewer system further deteriorating.

According to the order, between March 2020 and February 2022, the city reported 460 sanitary sewer overflows that released over 110 million gallons of untreated wastewater. The West Bank Interceptor, which runs along the bank of the Pearl River, had 13 sanitary sewer overflows and released more than 95 million gallons of untreated wastewater. Twenty-seven prohibited bypasses from the Savanna Street plant were also reported, allowing over 4.4 billion gallons of untreated or under-treated wastewater to discharge into the Pearl River.

The Pearl River poses health risks to those who come in contact with it, according to the MDEQ.

JXN Water to only collect water bills from December 2022 forward

JXN Water announced on Monday that customers will only see charges on their water bills from December 2022 forward, according to Carla Dazet, a JXN Water contractor and former deputy director in the city's public works department.

"What he (Henifin) decided to do was only bring forward balances on customers accounts that were from December 2022 forward. With that date is the date that his responsibility took over, and what we've done with the old balances is we've moved them to another ledger. They're still there," Dazet said. "We can still retrieve them, and the city can have access to those old account receivables. But what it's doing is the customers are going to start to see a balance from just December 2022 going forward."

The reason for the decision, Dazet said, was that Henifin "wasn't sure how he was going to collect old balances on meters that had experienced problems during the past, and he knows we've got a new system in place and that's a reliable system, so he feels comfortable doing that.

"So what we're doing is we're just focusing on that debt that's incurred since December 2022."

This will be a significant impact on customers who may have not paid their water bills in some time. Residents have complained in the past to Henifin that they think their water bill is too high and aren't accurate portrayal of how much water they've used.

The city can still collect previous charges before December 2022 "if they want it," Dazet said, but JXN Water has not currently talked with the city about this.

Dazet also announced that the water and sewer revenue lockbox has been moved into Jackson. This will allow payments to be processed quicker, Dazet said.

New JPD police chief New police chief confirmed after serving as interim since June

In other JXN Water news, city residents have started receiving letters that shutoffs will begin for those not paying their water bills this fall. Ameerah Palacios, JXN Water's spokesperson, said no accounts have been turned off and could not give an estimated date of when they would start.

JXN Water is focused on educating residents on why paying water bills is important. For a water utility to properly function, customers need to pay their bill to "run the system, make needed repairs and replace things before they break," the letter states.

No customers have been turned off yet. Its important we give the community time to prepare for turnoffs resuming later this year, Henifin said in a news release. Its time for customers to get current on their water bill.

Previously, Henifin estimated there were between 5,000 to 7,000 properties in Jackson who do not have accounts set up with JXN Water but are still receiving water. The current collection rate for water and sewer bills is 56%, Henifin said, which earns the city $30-40 million each year in local revenue. That needs to almost double to $60-70 million, Henifin said.

Customers can call JXN Water's 24-hour customer service line at 601-500-5200 to request and start a payment plan that can stretch the balance of a bill over several months

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Ted Henifin is officially in charge of fixing Jackson's sewer system
Three hikers found a body in a North Carolina state park over the weekend, according to state officials.

A small group of hikers called 911 around 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30 to report a body found near Storytellers Rock campsite in Grandfather Mountain State Park, North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources public information officer Michele Walker told McClatchy News in an email. The park is located near the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Following an immediate investigation, Walker said, no criminal activity was suspected. The family of the individual was contacted about the death, she said.

A Watauga County spokesperson told McClatchy News in an email that the case is still being looked into by the local medical examiners office and law enforcement agencies.

Grandfather Mountain is known in part for its challenging terrain, according to the state parks website. Storytellers Rock is located in the northeastern part of the park near other campsites such as The Hermitage, Streamside and The Refuge, according to a park map.

The state park is separate from the Grandfather Mountain attraction, which charges admission.

Grandfather Mountain State Park is about 115 miles northwest of Charlotte.

Olivia Lloyd contributed to this report.

Trail runner vanishes on 28-mile trek through Rocky Mountain National Park, rangers say

Rescue helicopter crashes while searching for injured hiker, California officials say

Hiker found dead after possible fight on trail, California police say
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used her tribute to the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who died last week at age 90, to warn people that they really should take former President Donald Trump at his word.

We should believe him when he tells us what hell do next, Clinton cautioned about her 2016 election rival in an opinion piece for The Washington Post published Monday, noting how Trump has vowed to gut checks on executive power, weaponize the Justice Department to pursue political opponents and more if he wins back the White House in 2024.

Clinton recalled Feinsteins comment, after she exposed CIA abuses post-9/11, that: History will judge us by our commitment to a just society governed by law and the willingness to face an ugly truth and say never again.

Those are words we should remember as we face the challenges ahead, said Clinton. Dianne has left the national scene at another moment of political violence and threats to the rule of law. So, we must again face ugly truths and do what is right.

Diannes journey has ended, but the fights of her life are far from over, she concluded.

Read Clintons full opinion piece at The Washington Post.

Related...
Homeowners in several central Ohio counties, like those in Franklin County, are seeing sky-high jumps in property values this year.

Homeowners in several central Ohio counties, like those in Franklin County, are seeing sky-high jumps in property values this year.

But because of the way property taxes are calculated, those jumps are likely to cost those rural homeowners far more, according to several area county auditors.

Four central Ohio counties  Delaware, Licking, Madison and Pickaway  completed full property reappraisals this year, in addition to Franklin County, which reported a 41% jump in residential values.

More: Some Franklin County neighborhood property values triple. Where did they rise most?

All four found that residential values rose what is thought to be record amounts: 34% in Delaware; 36% in Licking; 32% in Madison; and 34% in Pickaway.

"As far as I know, this is an absolute record, certainly for as long as I've been around," said Delaware County Auditor George Kaitsa, who was appointed to the post in 2009 and elected to a full term the following year. His office sent out mailers recently informing county homeowners of their proposed new values under the countywide reappraisal.

Home appraisals are ultimately based on sales prices, which Kaitsa said rose on average from $448,350 in 2021 to $527,830 this year in Delaware County.

Delaware County Auditor George Kaitsa

The jumps in appraisals will especially impact smaller, rural communities this year because of the way property taxes are calculated.

In larger school districts, such as most of those in Franklin County, the amount of tax mills levied on properties decreases to reflect rising property values.

But smaller school districts often hit a state law that prevents school districts from levying fewer than 20 mills. (One mill equals $1 in taxes for each $1,000 in assessed home value.) In those districts, the full 20 mills will be applied to all taxable value, including all the increased value, to prevent the millage from falling below the 20-mill floor.

As a result, homeowners in those districts are likely to feel far more of a pinch from this year's rising property values.

"When you're at the 20-mill floor youll feel the (appraised) value increase more," said Pickaway County Auditor Brad Washburn. "You will see a greater impact" on property taxes.

While not an issue in Franklin County, more than half of the state's 611 school districts are at the 20-mill floor.

In the four central Ohio counties undergoing reappraisals this year, 17 districts are at the 20-mill limit, according to the Ohio of Department of Taxation: Big Walnut, Buckeye Valley and Delaware City in Delaware County; Heath, Johnstown-Monroe, Lakewood, Licking Heights, Licking Valley, Newark, North Fork, Northridge, and Southwest Licking in Licking County; Jefferson Local, Jonathan Alder and London in Madison County; and Logan Elm and Teays Valley in Pickaway County.

In Delaware County's three larger school districts (Dublin, Olentangy and Westerville), Kaitsa said the 34% rise in home values will translate to about a 4% rise in taxes, independent of any approved levy increase. But in the county's three districts at the 20-mill floor, that same increase in home values will mean a 15% or 16% increase in property taxes, or an additional $1,100 or $1,200 a year on a home worth $400,000.

In Licking County, only the Granville Exempted School District is above the 20-mill floor, said Licking County Auditor Michael Smith.

"Most of the folks in Granville will see about a 10% increase, or maybe 10 to 15% increase, in taxes," Smith said. "If a school district is at that floor, instead of a 10% increase, theyre likely to see a 20%, maybe a 22% increase. It could even be more than that."

The difference for the owner of a $100,000 home could add up to $600 or $700 a year, Smith said.

"Thats real money," he noted.

Smith would like the Ohio General Assembly to eliminate the 20-mill floor.

"It would make a huge difference for those taxpayers," he said. "Thats the only way of saving property owners from huge spikes in property taxes."

Smith and other central Ohio auditors know homeowners are worried about what impact the valuations will have on their tax bills.

"Prices are going up on everything, and no one wants to see their taxes going up," said Madison County Auditor Jennifer Hunter, whose office notified property owners in August that they could look up their proposed appraised values online.

Madison County Auditor Jennifer Hunter

About 100 homeowners attended in-person sessions in Madison County to express concern about the new values, Hunter said. About 315 attended a recent Licking County session, Smith said.

When Pickaway County finishes valuing property in the Commercial Point area in a few weeks, the county will notify homeowners that they can look up their proposed new values on the auditor's website, said Washburn.

Auditors are quick to emphasize that they only set values, not tax policy, but some are joining the growing chorus of officials and politicians looking to provide property tax relief to stretched homeowners.

"I think there are some changes that are needed," Kaitsa said.

Among changes Kaitsa endorses: basing property values on a three-year average instead of the most recent year; allowing Ohio taxpayers to deduct property tax payments from state income tax; and increasing the eligibility and benefit of Ohio's homestead property tax exemption.

Homeowners won't learn exactly what their new values mean to their property taxes until they receive their tax bill the first of the year. There are property levies on the ballot in some places that could change the total millage a homeowner must pay taxes on.

jweiker@dispatch.com

@JimWeiker

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Central Ohio property value increase hurts rural residents
InPics: Chinese expedition team reaches Mt. Cho Oyu summit for scientific research

Xinhua) 10:24, October 03, 2023

Members of a Chinese expedition team head for the summit of Mount Cho Oyu on Oct. 1, 2023. (Xinhua)

LHASA, Oct. 1, (Xinhua) -- A Chinese expedition team comprising 18 members reached the summit of Mount Cho Oyu, also known as Mt. Qowowuyag, at 9:15 a.m. on Sunday to carry out scientific research on the world's sixth-highest peak.

This is the first time Chinese scientists have scaled a peak exceeding 8,000 meters in altitude apart from Mt. Qomolangma, the world's highest summit.

Located on the China-Nepal border, Mt. Cho Oyu is the sixth-highest mountain in the world with an altitude of 8,201 meters.

Members of a Chinese expedition team set up an automatic weather station on Mount Cho Oyu, Oct. 1, 2023. (Xinhua)

Members of a Chinese expedition team measure the thickness of snow and ice on the summit of Mount Cho Oyu, Oct. 1, 2023. (Xinhua)

A member of a Chinese expedition team heads for the summit of Mount Cho Oyu on Oct. 1, 2023. (Xinhua)

Members of a Chinese expedition team head for the summit of Mount Cho Oyu on Oct. 1, 2023. (Xinhua)

Members of a Chinese expedition team measure the thickness of snow and ice on the summit of Mount Cho Oyu, Oct. 1, 2023. (Xinhua)

Members of a Chinese expedition team set up an automatic weather station on Mount Cho Oyu, Oct. 1, 2023. (Xinhua)

An Baosheng, on-site commander of the Mount Cho Oyu expedition, declares success of the scientific research at a base camp at the altitude of 4,950 meters on Mount Cho Oyu, Oct. 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje)

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Sheng Chuyi)
KHARTOUM, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese government on Monday condemned the terrorist attack that took place in front of the Turkish Ministry of Interior in Ankara on Sunday.

"The Government of Sudan condemns, in the strongest terms, the heinous terrorist attack which targeted the General Directorate of Security of the Turkish Ministry of Interior in Ankara yesterday," the Sudanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"This attack reminds of the growing threat of terrorist groups to the security and stability of different countries, and the importance of concerted international efforts to combat all forms of terrorism and violence as well as targeting of innocent civilians and public institutions in all countries," the statement said.

The ministry stressed Sudanese government's solidarity with Turkiye in confronting terrorist threats, expressing Sudan's understanding of all the legitimate measures taken by Turkiye to confront these threats.

Sudan urged the international community for further cooperation and coordination against the threat of terrorist groups, the statement added.

Two terrorists carried out a bombing attack in front of the interior ministry's building in the Turkish capital Ankara on Sunday, slightly injuring two police officers. One attacker died after he set off the suicide bomb, while the other bomber was shot dead by the police. 
A historic San Luis Obispo County jail will soon return home following the purchase of a long-vacant downtown property.

On Sept. 15, after more than five years of negotiations, the Cambria Historical Society paid the Cambria Community Services District $5,000 for the lot at 2884 Center St., finalizing a deal the CSD board unanimously approved nearly a month earlier.

The Cambria Historical Society plans to grade the land, replace a fence and create a secure foundation for the circa-1888 jail.

Then the group will relocate the one-room jailhouse from its current spot on Main Street near the Cambria Veterans Memorial Building, to Center Street at or near its original location.

Directors of the Lions Club of Cambria confirmed in September that the group will donate the one-room jailhouse to the historical society.

Efforts to purchase the lot, located at the creek end of Bridge Street in Cambrias East Village, were led through the years former historical society board president John Ehlers, current president Melody Coe and board member Consuelo Macedo, among others.

According to CSD counsel Tim Carmel, the sale of the land took so long to finalize because the district had to comply with new amendments to the state Surplus Property Land Act, which requires public agencies with surplus land to make the property available for affordable housing projects before selling it for other purposes.

Use of the property is limited by the deed, the attorney said. The restriction is to assure that it is only used as an historic facility that is open to the public, as the location for the Cambria Jail and as part of the Cambria Historical District.

The old Cambria Jail will be relocated to a lot at 2884 Center St. in Cambria.

Property is significant part of SLO history

In the late 1880s, the Center Street lot where the jailhouse will be relocated was on the Butterfield Stage Route into town, Macedo said. So its a significant part of Cambrias Victorian-era history.

In August 1879, according to the late historian Paul Squibb, Cambria residents were raising a fund to build a calaboose and had secured $55 toward that goal.

The balance of $45 left from our Fourth of July fund will be contributed to aid in building the prison, Squibb wrote in a 1999 report on the jail that quoted Squibbs historical document.

Such jail as the earlier Slabtown of the 1860s probably lacked the deluxe features of the present relic, Squibb wrote.

All that remains inside the 1888-era jail now, Coe wrote via text, is a bench on either side and a charred interior that retains the stench of a former fire.

Inmates housed there included robbers, thieves and vagrants, Coe said.

The old Cambria Jail will be relocated to this lot at 2884 Center St. in Cambria.

Where will jailhouse be located?

The 110-foot-deep lot, which has 60 feet of frontage on Center Street, is bounded by the intersection of Center and Bridge Street, the U.S. Postal Service building, the Forrest Warren property, the Greenspace Creekside Preserve and Santa Rosa Creek.

The societys newest land acquisition had been the home of the services districts offices until 1995, when a large drainage culvert under the building collapsed during heavy storm flooding.

The district cleared off the lot in 2004 and 2005.

In 2008, San Luis Obispo County and the Cambria CSD installed a new $17,000 high-density polyethylene culvert below the surface of the land.

County planners didnt want another structure built on the still fragile lot of fill dirt thats on a flood plain. Through the decades the creek has carved off a substantial chunk of the property.

The property was intended to serve as a Center Street pocket park with a picnic table and benches.

The old Cambria Jail will be relocated to this lot at 2884 Center St. in Cambria.

In recent years, however, unhoused people have set up campsites there.

Although the CSD couldnt legally require campers and other trespassers to move elsewhere, the historical society can.

For weeks, Coe, society member Dick Clark and deputies from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriffs Offices Community Action Team warned the homeless people camping illegally on the land that theyd have to leave the property. Coe and Clark even provided about 50 big plastic bags for the campers belongings and trash.

All had left by Sept. 28, Coe said.

If trespassers show up there again, she said, a sheriffs deputy can require them to leave.

Besides bringing the jail home, Coe said, The Cambria Historical Society wanted to again provide the community with a lovely park by the creek, someplace where they can enjoy their lunch, sit and chat or just reflect on the towns beauty and deep history.

Historical district planned for Cambrias East Village

Nearly 30 years ago, the CSDs Parks, Recreation and Open Space Commission outlined a plan for a historical district along Center Street.

The jailhouses new home is in the southernmost cornerstone of that district, which features other structures from the late 1800s.

Those include the Cambria Historical Museum, located in the Victorian-era Guthrie-Bianchini House, and its adjacent Nancy Moure Historical Resource Center, which was built as a doctors office and home in 1878.

The Greenspace Creekside Reserve and its Chinese Temple are across the street, as is the Warren property, where structures were destroyed by fire in 1997.

Macedo said the historical society will restore the aging jailhouse, making it more stable and attractive  although it will available for viewing from the outside only.

It will provide a great photo op, she said.
Police officers are allowed to stop and search without reasonable suspicion in certain areas - Victoria Jones/PA Wire

The Home Office published statistics on stop and search with a footnote describing some of the arrest data are dodgy.

The note appeared on a government spreadsheet detailing the number of people arrested and the reasons for their arrest after being subject to stop and search measures by police.

It said: [The] reason for arrest data is dodgy, so maybe we shouldnt publish it.

The Home Office declined to elaborate on why the reason for arrest figures were considered dodgy.

The spreadsheet shows the number of people stopped and searched in England and Wales under Section 60, which allows police to carry out searches within an entire designated area without having reasonable suspicion.

The official data show that in the year ending Mar 31, 2023 there had been 4,280 searches under Section 60, with 43 people found to be carrying offensive weapons. However, the data show that 52 arrests were made for carrying offensive weapons  9 more than people logged to be carrying offensive weapons.

The note questioning whether the data should be published was released on a spreadsheet on Sept 26. First seen by BBC Verify after publication, it was removed shortly after the broadcaster made contact.

The arrests were broken down into those for offensive weapons and those for other reasons. The note describing the reason for the arrest data as dodgy was attached to the offensive weapons column.

The figures come after five Metropolitan Police officers have denied gross misconduct at a disciplinary hearing over the stop and search of the Team GB athlete Bianca Williams.

This embedded content is not available in your region.

In July 2020, the British sprinter and her partner, fellow athlete Richard dos Santos, were stopped in their car, handcuffed, searched for weapons and drugs, and separated from their three-month-old son. Officers found nothing and no arrests were made. Ms Williams and Mr dos Santos publicly accused the Met of racism after they were searched under Section 1 powers.

Under Section 1 powers, police can lawfully carry out stop and searches on individuals or vehicles if they have reasonable grounds to suspect the person is carrying: illegal drugs, a weapon, stolen property or something that could be used to commit a crime, such as a crowbar.

According to government data, black people were four times more likely to be searched than white people, and mixed race people were searched twice as often as white people and Asian people at a rate 1.4 times higher. People from other ethnic groups were searched at a rate 1.3 higher than white people.

A Home Office spokesman said that Suella Braverman backs Section 60 to help keep people safe.

They said: The Home Secretary has given her full support to frontline officers to confidently use their powers to keep the streets safe and protect the public.

Every knife taken off our streets is a potential life saved, and since 2019, we have removed 120,000 knives and offensive weapons from our streets through stop and search, surrender initiatives and other targeted police action.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.
A man was arrested after Tennessee police said he stole an ambulance from a hospital where he was a patient and led cops on a chase.

The 45-year-old man had been hospitalized at Nashvilles Summit Medical Center, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said in a Sept. 30 release.

A lawyer for the man told McClatchy News on Oct. 2 that he did not have a comment on the case.

The man has been charged with theft of a Nashville Fire Department ambulance, evading and resisting arrest, reckless driving and criminal impersonation of a first responder, police said.

The man stole the ambulance from the medical center in Davidson County on Sept. 30 and activated the lights and sirens, police said. He drove into neighboring Wilson County, where police began to pursue him, and a helicopter tracked his movements.

The man crashed into two cars on an overpass, sending one person to a hospital with minor injuries, the Mt. Juliet Police Department said in a news release.

He returned to Davidson County, police said, and an officer flattened his tires with spike strips. The man continued driving with flat tires until he got to an apartment complex, at which point he got out of the ambulance and ran, according to police.

The man surrendered when police said they would deploy a canine officer, according to Nashville police.

A Mt. Juliet officer also sustained minor injuries and was taken to a hospital, police said.

Woman steals ambulance, crashes it during high-speed police chase, Georgia deputies say

47-year-old patient in ambulance dies in fiery crash with Jeep, Ohio cops say

Man stabs driver who hit his car during crash on busy Florida bridge, cops say

Minors drove stolen cars across Europe in large-scale theft scheme, police say
The battle over funding for Ukraine is set to heat up in the House, as the chamber races to approve funding bills.

The money wasnt included in a short-term government funding bill that averted a shutdown over the weekend, and some House Republicans are already warning about the looming fight.

There are a lot of us that care deeply about this, and its a hill were willing to die on, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) told The Hill on Saturday, shortly after the House passed legislation to keep the government funded through mid-November. Its an existential threat to global security. We believe that.

And were going to take up that fight, and were going to win that fight, he said. Ukraine will be funded.

Biden administration officials warn the clocking is ticking in Ukraine.

While we have the ability to continue to support Ukraines ability to defend itself in the immediate term, we have already exhausted much of the existing security assistance funding. It is imperative that Congress take action, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday.

We cannot under any circumstances allow Americas support for Ukraine to be interrupted. Our allies, our adversaries and the world will be watching.

President Biden has requested Congress approve an estimated $24 billion in additional military and economic assistance for Ukraine, a pledge that supporters say is an important signal of Americas practical and symbolic support for Kyiv.

Increasing U.S. assistance for Ukraine ahead of the winter is also seen as essential to help shore up the countrys resilience ahead of expected challenges, including Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure  such as energy and water  and rain, sleet and snow likely to further bog down Ukrainian forces already slowed down by dug-in Russian defenses.

Senators had previously hoped to greenlight about $6 billion in new assistance as part of a bipartisan bill to avert a shutdown last week. But that effort failed after House Republicans jammed the upper chamber by passing a bill just hours before the deadline to keep the government funded without the aid  essentially daring Democrats to vote to shut down the U.S. government for Ukraine assistance.

While Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) told reporters that he supported the case for further aid, he also backed the move to unlink the funding from the stopgap bill.

It should be separate. We need to have that debate, he said, as more Republicans have raised questions about the full accounting of the billions of dollars in aid sent to Ukraine so far and their progress against Russia.

With the omission of Ukraine aid in the latest stopgap bill, lawmakers have already begun thinking of other potential vehicles to attach assistance to, as Congress prepares to pass several major spending bills in the months ahead.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told The Hill on Saturday that he expects the Senate to take the lead.

Were gonna get a bill from the Senate on Ukraine funding, and I anticipate it will go to the floor. Itll pass, he said, adding he could see the upper chamber attaching the aid to its annual defense funding bill.

I think the question is, will McCarthy allow anything like that to go to the floor without border security funding, McCaul said. So, I think there are a lot of members who want to tie the two together.

Republicans in both chambers are emphasizing the need for more aid for Ukraine, but also pushing for funds to address security at Americas southern border. These lawmakers say one does not have to come at the expense of the other.

To those who say we need to fix our border, youre right, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said during an appearance on CBSs Face The Nation on Sunday. To those who say we need to help Ukraine, youre right. To those who say we need to do the border, not Ukraine, youre wrong.

We got to fix asylum, we need border security agent increases, we need more detention beds, he added. I think theres Democratic support for major border security reform, but we have to attach it to Ukraine to those who say we need to fix our border.

House Republicans initially fought to tie border security to last months shutdown fight. But GOP leadership ultimately abandoned the strategy after conservatives tanked a bill that would have prevented a shutdown and enacted a chunk of H.R. 2, their signature border bill.

Among the measures Republicans press for in H.R. 2, which passed the House earlier this year, are provisions aimed at boosting border wall construction, the hiring of border agents and limiting access to asylum  laying the groundwork for a potentially nasty border fight in the coming weeks that could see Ukraine aid caught in its crosshairs.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukrainian officials are talking to both Republicans and Democrats to shore up continued support for Kyiv so that assistance is not axed again under any circumstances.

We have a very in-depth discussion with both parts of the Congress, Republicans and Democrats, and against the background of a potential shutdown in the United States, the decision was taken as it was, Kuleba said.

But were now working with both sides of the Congress to make sure it does not repeat again, under any circumstances.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been officially voted out of his speakership, going down in a 216-to-210 vote Tuesday afternoon. He will be replaced temporarily by a speaker pro tempore, North Carolina Republican Patrick McHenry, while the House gets back to voting on a replacement. One possible replacement? Kevin McCarthy.

Regardless of whether he is voted back in, McCarthys ouster is historic. He becomes the shortest-serving speaker since 1876, lasting just nine months in the job, and the first speaker ever voted out of the position. The House vote on a replacement will in all likelihood not be quick. Some Republicans may line up behind New York Republican Elise Stefanik; expect to hear a lot of votes for Hakeem Jeffries from Democrats.

The House will likely grind through numerous rounds of votes before this is resolved; it may even make the 15 rounds of voting that led to McCarthys initial victory look expedient. This could go any number of ways, as neither party seems to have a majority ruling coalition. Democrats may begin pressing the deposed Californian for major concessions in exchange for bringing him back. Alexander Sammon

6:18 p.m. ET: As the temporary speaker, North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry will lead the House through what are sure to be chaotic days ahead. Primarily, his job will be to oversee a new speaker election, all while under a ticking clockCongress has only about 40 days to avert another government shutdown.

During the dramatic vote to oust McCarthy, McHenry remained an ally to the former speaker and was tasked with trying to strike a deal with the GOPs far-right conference to avoid a motion-to-vacate vote. It didnt work. [Read more.]

4:30 p.m. ET: Kevin McCarthy might not necessarily lose the motion to vacate the chair, i.e., end his speakership; although the vote is not looking good for him, theres still the possibility that hes persuaded some Republican members who voted against tabling the motion (i.e., ignoring it) to support him by, well, offering them stuffmore of his famous promises! If he does get the boot, though, what happens next?

The long answer is that the House will have an interim speakerwhoever is first on the list McCarthy prepared in January of members who could serve in his absence. (We dont know whos on the list.) That person will have to lead the selection of a new permanent speaker before any other business can proceed.

Who would that new speaker be? Right now the leading candidate would be Kevin McCarthy, since the Republicans who are voting to get rid of him dont know who else they would support. To quote the New York Times:  I think theres plenty of people who can step up and do the job, said Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee, one of the rebels who voted to push Mr. McCarthy out, adding that he did not know who he had in mind for the job instead.

The short answer, in other words, is more bickering. Ben Mathis-Lilley

4:05 p.m. ET: Embattled House Speaker Kevin McCarthy lost a critical initial vote Tuesday afternoon, as 11 far-right Republicans voted with all but five House Democrats not to table a vote on the speakers ouster. The failure of that vote, the last-ditch procedural roadblock McCarthy had, means that a small band of Republican hard-liners and Democrats can push McCarthy from his speakership not even nine months into the current Congress. (The five Democratic absences all seem to be due to medical/personal issues and bereavement, other than Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson, who, according to Politico, is out of town and trying to get back.)

Staring down political mortality, McCarthy may soon start seriously considering an appeal to Democrats to save his skin on the forthcoming motion to vacate. There is plenty of bad blood between him and the Democratic caucus, after the speaker reneged on a handshake deal not to entertain a government shutdown, opened the door for an embarrassingly baseless impeachment hearing against President Joe Biden, and, most recently, blamed all of it on Democrats in a Sunday interview with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation, an incident that seems to have pushed Democrats over the edge.

For now, the minority caucus has been steadfast and nearly unanimous in its pledge to let him die; a representative statement came from New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell, who wrote, If the Republican conference is a circus, why would I go into the tent and step in elephant dung? He added, The speaker cannot count on me to save him from the inmates he empowered in the Republican asylum.

McCarthy has similarly indicated he would rather die than deal with Dems. But as his demise approaches, its possible those postures are more like negotiation tactics.

What would it take, after all of that ill will, for Democrats to bail McCarthy out? It would have to be substantial. One idea being floated by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Democrats largest caucus by membership, is a power-sharing agreement.

The terms of that agreement would need to be hammered out, but in broad strokes, it would borrow from last years Senate structure, when there was a 5050 split in the chamber between Democrats and Republicans. Under that agreement, Democrats were given committee chairmanships but received a pledge from crucial Democratic senators that they, in exchange, would not blow up the filibuster.

The House, with its 435 members, would be slightly more unwieldy than the 100-person upper chamber, but the system could be broadly similar. Its unlikely that Democrats would get committee chairmanships outright, but it could involve changing the ratio of Democrats to Republicans on committees, evening them out such that Republicans would no longer enjoy across-the-board majorities. Its possible, too, that the minority party would be granted the ability to put bills on the floor.

The details will be critical to any deal and would need to be negotiated. And this would represent a massive concession from McCarthy, along with a formal recognition of the fact that neither party has a full governing coalition. Democrats have been clear that they would need nothing short of a massive concession to bail out McCarthy, and real power sharing is probably the only thing that comes close.

Rumors are flying of other possible asks: an end to the Biden impeachment hearings, a commitment that the National Republican Campaign Committee wont spend in certainly vulnerable districts in 2024. Some have suggested policy concessions, like a reinstated child tax credit. And those things might be less realistic even than a power-sharing pact.

All of these possibilities seem somewhat unthinkable, but the other, most likely outcomes are similarly dire. McCarthy could lose the speakership outright, essentially ending his political career. Would voters in his district send him back to Washington after that? Would he even want to return? His ousted predecessors in House Republican leadership did not hang around D.C. long. But its also possible his constituents in Bakersfield (a GOP stronghold in California) would punish him for brokering such a deal with Democrats. Its anyones guess where his self-preservation instinct will lead him. Fellow House Republicans have punished him for much less.

Here, at last count, is the math: House Democrats are expected to have 208 votes against McCarthy; he can afford only five Republican defections. He lost 11 Republicans on the motion to table, and six have already said they are going to vote him out. Its narrow, but unless he persuades six of his partys defectors to flip, its hard to see an escape route without Democrats help.

Realistically, even McCarthy sees that the current situation is untenable. The government is on track to shut down in 45 days, and even if that is averted, it will need to be funded again next year.

Democrats have been insistent that they will act as a bloc on this, as they have for nearly the entire time McCarthy has been at the helm. For now, it seems as if he would have to blow them away with an offer to extend his political life. Power sharing might be the only price that gets Democrats to budge and that can actually solve this intractable state of affairs. Alexander Sammon

2:06 p.m. ET: Democrats are making it pretty clear that they are not interested in helping Kevin McCarthy hold on to his job as House speaker.

It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War, wrote House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a letter to colleagues. Given their unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner, House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican Motion to Vacate the Chair.

Several other Democrats have weighed in to rebuke McCarthy. Speaker McCarthy has shown he cannot govern, progressive Rep. Ted. Lieu told CNN. Moderate Rep. Annie Kuster said the speaker is simply not trustworthy.

Even Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who represents a vulnerable Democratic district in Virginia, described McCarthy as a man without principle and said other vulnerable Democrats wont support him either.

Over the weekend, McCarthy went on Face the Nation and tried to blame Democrats for stalling the last-minute stopgap government funding bill, which narrowly averted a shutdown. But anchor Margaret Brennan pointed out that Democrats actually voted in larger numbers for the bill than Republicans did90 Republicans voted against it. That interview did not go over well with Democrats, particularly Rep. Matt Cartwright, who represents a Pennsylvania district Donald Trump won in 2020. After I saw Kevin McCarthys interview with Margaret Brennan, all magnanimity left my body, he told Punchbowl News. Shirin Ali

Yes, were doing this again! Back in January, it took four days of voting and negotiating for the House Republican caucus to elect California Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker. Now there is once again chaos atop Congress most colorful chamber.

In a nutshell, heres what happened. In January, McCarthy made an agreement with hard-line conservatives, some of whose terms have never been made public, to ultimately secure their support as speaker. In May, McCarthy made a (public) agreement with Democrats to set the federal budget at a certain level in order to avert a default on the national debt. In September, though, McCarthy (under pressure from hard-liners) attempted to secure further funding cuts during negotiations over a potential government shutdownthen ultimately conceded to Democrats and helped pass a funding bill that largely did not include any of the cuts that the hard-liners sought (cuts that McCarthy had originally, in May, told Democrats he wouldnt seek).

In other words, McCarthy left both his partys furthest-right members and the entire Democratic caucus with the belief that he cannot be trusted, which is why Democrats joined hyper-aggressive Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and other conservatives in a motion to vacate the chair in the House, i.e., end McCarthys speakership. (Republicans currently hold 221 House seats to Democrats 212.)

It succeeded. And what happens next is a fluid situationtheres no telling what will happen next. No other Republicans have actually said they want to be speaker, which would put us roughly back where we were in January: with McCarthy holding enough support among Republicans that no one else is a plausible candidate to become speaker, but not enough support to win a majority of the entire House, which is whats required, and actually assume the position. (And yes, the House needs a speaker.)

But the next step is another round of voting. Soonward! We guess! Ben Mathis-Lilley
Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar was carjacked Monday evening blocks from the US Capitol.

The Texan's office said Cuellar was not harmed. His car was later recovered.

Carjackings have skyrocketed inside the nation's capital and in the surrounding area.

Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas was carjacked Monday evening as armed assailants attacked him as he was parking his car blocks from the Capitol.

Cuellar office said in a statement that three armed assailants approached the congressman. No injuries were reported. The car was later recovered.

"Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement," Cuellar chief of staff Jacob Hochberg said in a statement. "Thank you to Metro PD and Capitol Police for their swift action and for recovering the Congressman's vehicle."

The Washington Post reported that the attack occurred in Navy Yard, an area where lots of members of Congress and aides live given its close proximity to the Capitol. US Capitol Police said it has investigators working with DC Metropolitan Police given that the victim was a member of Congress.

Rising crime has been a major topic of conversation in the nation's capital as carjacking is increasing year-to-date, according to DC police statistics. There have been 753 carjackings throughout the District so far this year. Last year, there were 485 incidents in total.

Rep. Angie Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, previously fended off an attacker who followed her into an elevator by throwing hot coffee on him.

Lawmakers also previously opposed a sweeping overhaul of DC's criminal code, using the special power they hold over the city after city councilors moved to reduce penalties for burglary and carjacking. Councilors also increased penalties for other crimes such as attempted murder. Both Craig and Cuellar voted in favor of the repeal along with 31 other House Democrats. While Democrats generally oppose congressional meddling and support DC statehood, some more centrist lawmakers felt the changes went too far. President Joe Biden also later promised to sign the repeal into law, which he did after it passed the Senate.

The Post previously reported how carjackings are on the rise throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

A 10-term congressman, Cuellar is regarded as a centrist within his party. His anti-abortion views helped lead to some progressive Democrats backing Jessica Cisneros in her two unsuccessful primary challenges.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Washington  House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his leadership position in a historic vote on Tuesday after a far-right revolt over his reliance on Democrats to pass funding to avert a government shutdown.

The final vote was 216-210, with eight Republicans joining all the Democrats to vote to remove McCarthy. It's the first time a House speaker has been removed in a no-confidence vote.

"The office of speaker of the House of the United States House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant," said Republican Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, who was presiding over the chamber.

Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, a top ally of McCarthy's and a member of the Financial Services Committee, was then appointed speaker pro tempore. The rules of the 118th Congress state that "in the case of a vacancy in the office of speaker, the next member" named on a list submitted by McCarthy to the clerk of the House in January will become speaker pro tempore until a speaker is elected.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy is seen in the U.S. Capitol after the House voted to remove him as House speaker by a vote of 216-210, on Oct. 3, 2023. / Credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

House Republicans will meet Tuesday night as a conference to discuss their next steps. McCarthy can be renominated and reelected as speaker, but that path seems unlikely unless he makes concessions to the hardline Republicans or forges a coalition with Democrats.

"The reason Kevin McCarthy went down today is because nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy," Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida told reporters after the vote. "Kevin McCarthy has made multiple contradictory promises, and when they all came due, he lost votes of people who maybe don't even ideologically agree with me on everything."



"This represents the ripping off of the Band-Aid and that's what we need to do to get back on track," the Florida Republican added.

Along with Gaetz, seven Republican members voted to oust McCarthy: Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Matt Rosendale of Montana.

A day earlier, Gaetz accused McCarthy of making a "secret side deal" with President Biden on Ukraine aid to get a short-term funding bill passed hours before the government was set to shutdown. The California Republican denied having made any deal in exchange for Democratic votes.

Eleven Republicans voted against the earlier motion to table Gaetz's resolution, an ominous sign of what was to come for McCarthy.

The speaker of the House is not only the leader of the chamber but also second in line for the presidency. Ousting a sitting speaker by vote in the middle of a congressional term is unprecedented in American history, and McCarthy's allies warned that doing so would set a precedent that would hang over every speaker moving forward. That argument did not persuade Democrats to come to McCarthy's rescue.

"We're in uncharted territory. We've never had this situation before," Matthew Green, a politics professor at Catholic University, told CBS News.

Green said the vote shows the Republican Party has "too many members who don't like McCarthy personally or otherwise are disdainful of party norms."

"There was a norm that you don't do this. This rule has been on the books more or less continuously since 1910," Green said. "You've got a party that's very small and you've got a faction of members who are disdainful of these norms, and that makes it extremely difficult to govern."

Democratic leadership members had urged their caucus to vote "yes" on the motion to vacate.

"Given their unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner, House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican Motion to Vacate the Chair," Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York wrote to his caucus.

Up until the vote, McCarthy had expressed confidence to reporters that he would prevail.

"I'm an optimist because I think there's no point in being anything else," McCarthy said.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is surrounded by staff, security and journalists as he walks to the House Chamber ahead of a vote at the U.S. Capitol on October 03, 2023 in Washington, DC. / Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

He said earlier that he spoke with Jeffries on Tuesday morning, but when he was asked whether he would have to rely on the votes of Democrats to retain the speakership, he replied, "No, I personally am not."

At a caucus meeting Tuesday morning, Rep. Pete Aguilar of California played a clip from the speaker's appearance Sunday on "Face the Nation," in which he blamed Democrats for nearly shutting down the government. In fact, more Democrats than Republicans voted for the bill to extend government funding for 45 days.

Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington said her party would be unanimous in voting against McCarthy.

"We are following our leader, and we are not saving Kevin McCarthy," she said.

Gaetz has consistently opposed McCarthy's speakership, and was among those who helped draw out the process of electing him speaker to a record 15 rounds of voting. In order to win over far-right Republicans, McCarthy agreed to a condition making it possible for a single member to motion to oust the speaker. That deal has come back to haunt him. McCarthy said Gaetz's challenge to his speakership is "personal."



Gaetz said after McCarthy's ouster that he would require the future speaker to keep the one-person threshold to bring a motion to vacate.

He floated House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana to be the next speaker, telling reporters he would make a "phenomenal speaker."

"The best way to advance the conservative agenda is to move forward with a new speaker," he said.

Rep. Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota told reporters after the vote that the House GOP conference will have to figure out what's next.

"I hope Kevin keeps going," Armstrong said. "I don't think anybody could do a better job."

But Gaetz said it's time for McCarthy to "take a hint."

"After 15 ballots to become speaker, after eight months of a failed speakership and after removal in this historic manner, I think we should move on and find somebody else," Gaetz said.

Historical precedent for ousting a speaker

The removal of a speaker of the House is unprecedented.



"Well it's never happened before. We've never had a speaker be ousted through the motion to vacate," said Casey Burgat, assistant professor and legislative affairs program director at George Washington University.

There have been three resolutions offered since 1910 to declare the speakership vacant, but only one ever received a vote.

In 1910, Republican House Speaker Joe Cannon of Illinois invited a vote on his ouster, which was easily defeated. Cannon remained speaker for another year and lost his seat in the 1912 election.

Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina introduced a resolution in 2015 to remove House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio from leadership. But it never received a floor vote because it wasn't introduced as a privileged resolution, instead being referred to the House Rules Committee. Still, Boehner resigned within two months.

In 2019, Republican Rep. Ralph Abraham of Louisiana introduced a resolution to expel House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and declare the Office of the Speaker vacant. The measure was referred to the House Committee on Ethics and the House Committee on Rules.

 Melissa Quinn, Scott McFarlane, John Nolen, Ellis Kim and Jack Turman contributed to this report

Rep. Gaetz says he will file a motion this week to oust Speaker McCarthy

Kevin McCarthy says he won't run for House speaker again

How could Hunter Biden's plea impact the 2024 race?
The House just took one step closer to firing Kevin McCarthy

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy at a press conference on Capitol Hill on September 30, 2023. Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Republicans just tried to kill Matt Gaetz 's motion to vacate, which would kick McCarthy out of his job.

The effort failed. Democrats joined a small group of hard-right Republicans to vote against it.

A final vote on ousting McCarthy could take place as soon as Tuesday.

The House just moved one giant step closer to firing the GOP's Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House.

A Republican-led effort to table the "motion to vacate," originally offered by fellow Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz on Monday night, failed by a 208-218 vote, allowing Gaetz's effort to proceed.

Every House Democrat, along with 11 House Republicans, voted against the effort, ensuring a vote on McCarthy's future will take place shortly.

The House immediately began one hour of debate on the motion to vacate after the vote.

Those 11 Republicans included:

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona

Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado

Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee

Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona

Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida

Rep. Bob Good of Virginia

Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina

Rep. Cory Mills of Florida

Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana

Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana

In a "Dear Colleague" letter ahead of the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that Democrats would support Gaetz's effort, arguing that the chamber has been rife with dysfunction under McCarthy's tenure.

Jeffries also criticized McCarthy for turning the yearly defense authorization bill into a "right-wing wish list full of highly partisan poison pills" while launching an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden without a House vote.

But while Democrats hold most of the cards here, they weren't the ones that launched this effort.

Gaetz, a hard-right Republican and close political ally of former President Donald Trump, has been dissatisfied by McCarthy's leadership for months. Most recently, he has accused the speaker of striking a secret deal with Democrats to authorize more aid to Ukraine, which McCarthy has denied.

With the motion to table failing, the House is required to hold a vote on the motion to vacate in the next two days, and is likely to do so this afternoon.

The procedural move tees up a historic showdown: the first House vote to remove a speaker since 1910. Should it succeed, it will be the first time in American history that the House ousts its own speaker.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Democracy is messy. Everybody gets to have their say, it takes longer than it should, nobody gets everything they want, and in the end, the majority rules, a simple principle thats getting a stress test on Capitol Hill.

After keeping the government funded with more votes from Democrats than Republicans, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces a recall vote from Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, an attention-seeking MAGA Republican whose vendetta can only be averted if GOP radicals have a change of heart (unlikely) or more likely, maybe even inevitably, Democrats step in to keep McCarthy in power.

Gaetz filed papers late Monday for a motion to vacate, putting McCarthy on notice that hes coming for him. Not once, but every day until there are enough votes to oust McCarthy and install an alternative. With an eerie resemblance to the Joker in the Batman movies, Gaetz gleefully recalls the 15 votes it took for McCarthy to secure the gavel with his sliver-thin margin.

Matt Gaetz Officially Tries to Remove Kevin McCarthy

If this clown show gets a sequel, nobody will be laughing.

Gaetzs threat could be hollow in a Republican conference where there is no consensus alternative, and the #2 Republican, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, is being treated for cancer and is not well enough to be in contention.

Gaetz doesnt care, and says hes relentless. Watching him hold court on Capitol Hill, reporters clamor for his latest take on the chaos he has created. Has he talked to former President Trump? Yes, he says with a self-satisfied smile. Hes keeping what they talked about to himself, but we can guess. Trump serves as a modeloutrageous, never backing down, even if it damages his own party.

Still, there is some room for hope. I think there is a pony somewhere, Jim Kessler, with the center-left think tank Third Way, told The Daily Beast when we spoke Monday afternoon. Hed obviously gotten wind of a potential bipartisan path out of the current mess.

I cant tell you what Congress looks like a year from now, but I think McCarthy remains speaker until the end of the year at least. Hell need Democratic help, and I think hell get it.

One of the least-liked MAGA showboats, Gaetz overplayed his hand, leaving McCarthy no alternative but to seek help from the Dems. Its been done before to get critical bills across the finish line, but never to prop up a speaker from the opposite party.

Under Nancy Pelosis leadership, Dems were prepared to save then-Speaker John Boehner when the far-right crazies were ready to pull the plug on his leadership. Boehner chose to skip out the door singing Zippity Doo-Dah and resign as speaker, paving the way for Paul Ryan, who didnt last long in the job, exiting while Trump was in the White House.

Saving McCarthy is a whole other deal. He cant be trusted to keep his word, and he just launched an impeachment inquiry against Biden. But on Tuesday morning with the Democrats unified under the leadership of Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a potential deal is possible.

The Democrats will get some meaningful concessionsto be determinedthat make life in the minority more pleasant and powerful, Kessler predicts. Maybe McCarthy can back off impeaching Biden, an inquiry thats so baseless that its sinking on its own. Or theres talk of power-sharing, boosting Democratic representation on some key committees.

Impeachment Inquiry Shows Kevin McCarthy Is a Hostage In His Own House

There is not a Speaker alternative on the Republican side who looks appreciably better than McCarthy, says Kessler. MAGA Republicans despise him, traditional Republicans are willing to give him a pass, and there are enough Democrats to help him survive.

With the help of Democrats, McCarthy gets a reprieve. He puts off the day he gets fired. But the longer he is kept in power by Democratic votes, the more his Republican conference drifts away and eventually abandons him.

Asked if she would vote to keep McCarthy in power, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said absolutely not, adding that hes a weak speaker who doesnt keep his word, and she didnt come to Washington to vote for a Republican speaker.

Thats fine. McCarthy only needs as many Republican votes as he loses. A small minority in the GOP conference opposes him. A former Senate Democratic aide, who did not want to be identified speaking about these machinations, said he could imagine the Dems summoning up a dozen votesHakeem himself (the Democratic leader), people in safe seats, and people who are responsible politicians.

As for AOC, this source said she would not be willing to vote for McCarthy but wouldnt see it as a betrayalnot if Dems get something in return for keeping the government open and stabilizing a volatile situation that can only lead to more brinkmanship.

Most voters look at the bickering and name-calling as a Washington problem. It hurts all the players in what Gaetz and his allies call The Uniparty, the latest buzzword to tarnish the denizens of the so-called Deep State. The antics from Gaetz and others should assure Dems win back the House, but thats more than a year away.

Kevin McCarthy Learned What Happens When You Dance With Arsonists

In the meantime, anything that tarnishes members of Congress will be useful to Trump, who can declare it as evidence that government doesnt work.

Former Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD), who is flirting with the No Labels ticket, pointed the blame last week at President Biden, asking how he can sit on the sidelines.

But when the dispute is among and between Republicans, how does Biden fix that?

This could be a brave new world on Capitol Hill, or it could be more of the same. Its up to McCarthy to grab the life raft, and to Democrats to make the most of the leverage they have over the embattled Speaker to demand he keep his promise to hold an up or down vote on aid to Ukraine, and keep the government open and functioning.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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For the first time in U.S. history, a speaker of the House has been fired. One of the most prominent Christian colleges in the country dissuaded students from reporting sexual violence, a report says. And a massive emergency alert test is soon scheduled to hit your phone.

 Hey! Laura Davis here. Its time for Tuesdays news!

 But first: A 104-year-old Chicago woman proves that you're never too old to try something new, even if that thing is jumping out of a plane.

The Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here.

McCarthy out as House Speaker

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy lost the fight to keep his leadership post after lawmakers decided to oust the California Republican from the speakership. The rebellion, led by conservative hardliner Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has roiled the House in chaos. McCarthy had angered a handful of hard-right lawmakers by working with Democrats to avert a government shutdown. With House Republicans razor-thin majority, McCarthys fate appeared to fall in the hands of Democrats, who ultimately decided not to save him.  Live coverage of the speaker fight.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., makes his way to the House chambers to vote on the motion to vacate his speaker seat on Tuesday in Washington.

Report: Sexual assault victims dissuaded from reporting violence

Liberty University, one of the most prominent Christian colleges in the country, created a culture in which members of its campus community were fearful of reporting sexual violence, according to a preliminary report from the Department of Education. Liberty has faced increasing public pressure in recent years over policies that survivors say allow sexual violence to run unchecked. The report says overlooked allegations of violence reached all the way to the top, including accusations involving a former university president and a senior administrator.  Here's what we know.

Sarah Mays says she was intimidated into retracting her report of being attacked and raped by multiple men while at Liberty University.

What everyone's talking about

The Short List is free, but several stories we link to are subscriber-only. Consider supporting our journalism and become a USA TODAY digital subscriber today.

Is 'unwavering support' for Ukraine hanging by a thread?

As the brutal Ukraine war rages on with no end in sight, Congress is haggling over funding for the conflict and one of Kyiv's staunchest allies saw a pro-Russian political party take the top prize in recent parliamentary elections. From President Joe Biden and the State Department to the EU's Josep Borrell, pledges of "unwavering support" come from all corners of the globe. But is the unwavering support wavering? It may very well be. Experts say the true challenge will be confronted when the U.S. faces another serious national security threat.  Here's a look at the situation.

Cadets light candles as they pay tribute to fallen soldiers at the Lychakiv Cemetery to mark Defenders Day of Ukraine in Lviv on Sunday.

 Coming to a phone near you 

Get ready to not freak out. On Wednesday at 2:20 p.m. EDT, every TV, radio and cellphone in the United States should blare out the distinctive, jarring electronic warning tone of an emergency alert. It's a test  only a test. Officially, it's the Nationwide Emergency Alert Test. No, it's not a national conspiracy to infect people with nanoparticles. And we can't play you the sound it will make  we could get hit with a big fine if we did. But it's an important way to make sure that if something really bad  and really big  happens, Americans can be warned quickly.  Here's what to know about the test.

A break from the news

Laura L. Davis is an Audience Editor at USA TODAY. Say hello: laura@usatoday.com.This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Support quality journalism like this? Subscribe to USA TODAY here.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kevin McCarthy, Liberty University, FEMA alert: Tuesdays news
KHARTOUM, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Tuesday exchanged accusations of bombarding the headquarters of the Ethiopian Embassy in Khartoum.

"Following the brutal attack by the dissolved rebel rapid support militia on the headquarters of the Ethiopian Embassy in Khartoum, the militia issued a miserable statement in a bid to pin its heinous crime on the armed forces," the SAF said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Since the beginning of this ongoing war, the armed forces have demonstrated keenness to observe international humanitarian law and ensure the safety of protected objects, including the headquarters of diplomatic missions accredited to the country," the statement said.

For its part, the RSF accused the SAF of shelling the Ethiopian embassy headquarters, causing massive destruction to the embassy building, which is located at Al Amarat neighborhood in Khartoum.

"We condemn and regret these barbaric actions of targeting vital facilities in the country, including the headquarters of diplomatic missions and international organizations," the RSF said in a statement on Tuesday.

Sudan has been witnessing deadly clashes between the SAF and the RSF in Khartoum and other areas since April 15, resulting in at least 3,000 deaths and more than 6,000 injuries, according to figures released by the Sudanese Health Ministry.

According to the latest report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), some 5.3 million people have been displaced inside and outside Sudan.

Over one million people have crossed into neighboring countries, including the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan, OCHA said. 
Rep. Dan Bishop talked a big game.

Hes spent months creating chaos in Congress, taking hardline positions that risked both a historic debt default and a government shutdown. Hes repeatedly threatened to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for working with Democrats to avoid both.

But it appears that his defiance was limited to press gaggles, TV hits and social media posts, because when it came time to back up his words with actions, Bishop instead backed down.

Bishop voted against Rep. Matt Gaetzs motion to vacate the chair on Tuesday, a rare procedural move that removed McCarthy from the speakership. Its the first time in U.S. history that a speaker has been involuntarily removed.

One persons play call with roughly 5-7 potential supporters portends no path to success, only chaos, Bishop said in a statement ahead of the vote.

Its a little late for that. Since a new Republican majority took over the House in January, Bishop and a small group of his colleagues have done nothing but attempt to grind government to a halt, all while insisting that their obstructionist tactics are actually intended to make it work more efficiently.







Heres a recap: Bishop was the first House Republican to publicly float ousting McCarthy after McCarthy snubbed the hardliners in his caucus to negotiate a debt ceiling deal with President Joe Biden back in May.

It is inescapable to me. It has to be done, Bishop told reporters then. He also noted that a motion to vacate wasnt something he could do alone, and his colleagues who have courage would have to join him.

Over the past few weeks, as Congress flirted with a possible government shutdown, numerous media outlets quoted Bishop again saying hed support a motion to vacate.

According to CNN: I would support it if somebody brings it.

Reported by The Washington Post: Im prepared to support a change in leadership through the mechanisms of motion to vacate the chair, if necessary.

Just last month, he said hed be happy to work with Gaetz on a motion to vacate the speaker, and would be willing to file it himself if needed. POLITICO reported that he already had a replacement in mind.







This is not to say that Bishop should have gone along with the plan to overthrow McCarthy. We have not supported the guerrilla tactics of Bishop and his hard-right colleagues, saying last week that such behavior is more about showboating than it is legislating. And Bishop, of course, is allowed to change his mind.

But he still bears responsibility for the chaos that he says will arise from ousting McCarthy, whether he voted for it in the end or not. He already opened Pandoras box, and closing it now makes little difference. Its akin to arsonists trying to throw a splash of water on a fire that they started themselves. Whatever damage it inflicts is still his fault.

In his statement, Bishop said that while he believes the Republican Party is due for a reckoning, he has chosen to pursue that reckoning outside of Congress by running for state attorney general.

I cannot impose this burden on an institution from which I am soon to depart, Bishop said.

Since when? Bishop formally announced his run for AG in August and was rumored to be considering it well before that. Yet he was pushing for such a reckoning in Washington  and voiced support for a motion to vacate  as recently as late September.

Bishop has always been one to say and do things that others wont, for better or worse. Not this time, it seems. Bishop has repeatedly accused Republican leadership of posturing and broken promises, saying there are vows to do things that seem never to be followed through on. Yet he now looks equally feckless.

If hes not willing to follow through in the biggest moment of all, then what was it all for?

Nothing. It was for nothing. By bailing on the mess that he created, Bishop is essentially admitting that his rebellion was never a serious effort. It was never designed to lead to anything constructive. It was always about chaos.
After months of division within the Republican caucus, House members from Kansas and Missouri voted on party lines Tuesday on whether to keep Rep. Kevin McCarthy , a California Republican, in his role as speaker of the House. He lost the vote 216-210.

Republicans from Kansas and Missouri voted to keep McCarthy, while the Democrats voted with eight hard-line conservatives to oust him from the role. Rep. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat, missed the vote.

The Republican majority will now have to either figure out a deal in order to give the role back to McCarthy  reminiscent of the 15 votes it took him to win the speakership in January  or they will have to choose a new speaker.

In explaining her vote to oust McCarthy, Rep. Sharice Davids , a Kansas Democrat, criticized the vote as Republican infighting that distracted from a long-term spending bill.

We just came to the brink of a government shutdown, but instead of working toward a long-term solution to keep our government open or working to lower costs for families, the House majority is now engaged in needless partisan infighting, Davids said. Kansans need Congress to stop the political games and get back to working for the families we represent.

The vote comes after McCarthy relied on Democratic votes to pass a temporary spending bill to keep the government open until mid-November, which alienated some hard-line conservatives who were pushing for a government shutdown in order to secure cuts to government spending.

One of those hard-line conservatives, Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, filed a motion on Monday, forcing members to vote on whether or not to oust McCarthy.

Democrats decided as a caucus to vote against McCarthy instead of helping him hold on to his speakership, though House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said he would be open to a deal with McCarthy.

It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War, Jeffries said. Given their unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner, House Democratic leadership will vote (to remove McCarthy).

President Joe Biden is still pushing for a spending package that would allow more military aid to Ukraine, which was a sticking point in the spending disagreements that almost led to a government shutdown. At the White House, press secretary Karine Jean Pierre refused to wade into whether Democrats should keep backing McCarthy.

But she said the tenuous situation in the House, where a minority of Republicans are able to derail the chamber, is not beneficial to the American people.

Its chaotic, there is chaos there, Jean Pierre said. A small minority of their caucus is indeed causing chaos.

Heres how the House members from Kansas and Missouri voted:

A yes vote means the member was in favor of removing McCarthy as House Speaker

Kansas

Rep. Sharice Davids (D)  Yes

Rep. Ron Estes (R)  No

Rep. Jake LaTurner (R)  No

Rep. Tracey Mann (R)  No

Missouri

Rep. Mark Alford (R)  No

Rep. Cori Bush (D)  Not voting

Rep. Eric Burlison (R)  No

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D)  Yes

Rep. Sam Graves (R)  No

Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R)  No

Rep. Jason Smith (R)  No

Rep. Ann Wagner (R)  No
On the first day of a three day strike, Kaiser employees picket and rally at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)

Tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente employees in California and other states plan to go on strike Wednesday after union contracts expired for a huge swath of the Kaiser workforce.

The planned strike involves several labor organizations that are part of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. The biggest is SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, which represents nearly 60,000 employees in California.

Unions and the healthcare giant have been grappling over wages and other employee issues that coalition leaders argue have contributed to chronic understaffing. Labor leaders have accused Kaiser executives of not bargaining in good faith to address those problems.

Kaiser says it is committed to reaching a fair deal and that it has weathered staffing issues during the COVID-19 pandemic better than other healthcare organizations due to its wages, benefits and other employee support.

Read more: More than 75,000 Kaiser workers in California and elsewhere plan to strike next month

Here's what we know about the planned strike:

Will this be a big deal?

Yes. The strike could include more than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Virginia and D.C. That's more than a third of the Kaiser workforce across the country.

Union leaders say it would be the biggest strike by healthcare workers in U.S. history.

How long will it last?

In California and several other states, the strike is scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday unless unions and Kaiser Permanente reach an agreement to avert it. No immediate plans to extend the strike beyond three days have been announced.

In Virginia and D.C., the strike is planned only for Wednesday, according to Kaiser Permanente.

Will doctors be going on strike?

No, but the strike involves many other workers who care for patients or support hospital operations.

Which kinds of healthcare workers are going on strike?

There are a lot of them, including medical assistants, licensed vocational nurses, surgical technicians, certified nursing assistants, phlebotomists, pharmacy technicians, respiratory therapists, X-ray technicians and ultrasound sonographers. Food service workers and housekeepers will also be on strike.

Read more: Column: This 'hot labor summer' is unifying Los Angeles in a way few could have imagined

The majority of the Kaiser workforce is unionized, but not all of the unions that represent its employees are taking part in the three-day strike.

For instance, many of the registered nurses working at Kaiser Permanente facilities in Southern California belong to unions that aren't part of the coalition. (That doesn't mean they don't support the strike: United Nurses Assns. of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, for instance, said it stands in solidarity with the coalition.) The ones making strike plans do include SEIU 121RN, which represents registered nurses at Kaiser Permanente Moreno Valley Medical Center.

How will patients be affected?

Kaiser Permanente said that if a strike occurs, it has "contingency plans in place" to ensure patients can continue to get care. It said that its hospitals and emergency departments will remain open and staffed, in some cases with the help of "contingent workers."

"In the case of a strike, we may need to reschedule some non-urgent appointments and procedures," Kaiser said in a message to members over the weekend. "Well contact you in advance if your appointment needs to be rescheduled. Its possible that you could experience longer wait and hold times during a strike."

Kaiser officials avoided naming specific kinds of care that would be affected, saying their goal was to continue usual operations as much as possible. "Our goal is to have minimal disruption," said Michelle Gaskill-Hames, president of Kaiser Permanente Southern California and Hawaii, Health Plan and Hospitals.

Will someone tell me if my appointment is canceled?

Kaiser will reach out if specific appointments are canceled and work with patients to reschedule them, Gaskill-Hames said, "but I would not discourage members from seeking a particular type of care."

She said the health system is working to marshal its own employees to fill needs during a strike, as well as bringing in an unspecified number of "replacement workers" in "certain key areas."

She encouraged Kaiser members to check its website for updates.

What about pharmacies?

Kaiser said inpatient pharmacies at its hospitals would remain open and that it was exploring options for using retail pharmacies such as Rite Aid and Walgreens to serve members if any of its outpatient pharmacies close. In Southern California, all pharmacies will remain open, according to a spokesman for Kaiser Permanente Southern California.

Gaskill-Hames said the health system conducted outreach ahead of the planned strike "to try and alert our members that if they need medications, to try to get ahead of it with mail-order pharmacy."

Can I still get a COVID-19 booster shot during the strike?

Gaskill-Hames said that Kaiser facilities have started to offer the COVID booster and "we have prepared to be able to continue to do that as best we can."

Read more: Where Southern Californians can find the new COVID-19 vaccine

Why is this strike happening?

The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions says its members agreed to the strike to protest "bad-faith bargaining" by the healthcare giant during negotiations.

Union leaders say they're looking for solutions to address a "staffing crisis" that harms both employees and patients, dragging out wait times and putting patient safety at risk. They also say the wage increases Kaiser has offered don't keep up with the rising cost of living. Labor leaders have also balked at Kaiser proposals to offer wage hikes of different sizes in different regions, calling it a "divide-and-conquer strategy."

Kaiser Permanente said it had negotiated in good faith and that the raises it proposed would ensure it remains an industry leader on wages. It also said it has worked hard to address staffing and is on track to hire 10,000 new people by the end of October to fill jobs represented by the union coalition.

The healthcare organization argues that wage increases need to reflect what similar workers make in different regions, with bigger raises in areas where Kaiser pay isn't at least 10% above local levels. Kaiser also needs to balance affordability of care for its members, it says.

Are the two sides close to making a deal?

Kaiser Permanente said it had reached tentative agreements with the unions on some issues, such as the use of temporary workers such as traveling nurses and how employee vacancies are tracked. It said Sunday it remained optimistic that an agreement would be reached to avoid a strike.

Read more: News Analysis: Labor unions win big in California Legislature as hot labor summer drags into fall

For its part, the union coalition said there had been "good discussions" on some issues and a "path to resolution" on topics such as remote work. "On important issues, though, we remain far apart," the coalition said Saturday.

Negotiations continued into Monday, and SEIU-UHW spokesperson Renee Saldana said union leaders are willing to keep talking to Kaiser executives "as long as they're not bargaining in bad faith."

"We are still preparing for a strike to happen on Wednesday morning," she said, "but Kaiser executives could stop this from happening at any time if they just listened to the healthcare workers."

Gaskell-Hames said "we are committed to staying at the table as long as we need to" to avert a strike. In a statement, Kaiser Permanente said the planned strike "is not inevitable, and it is certainly not justified."

What happens after this strike ends?

The coalition has warned that if Kaiser "continues to commit unfair labor practices," a longer strike could follow in November. By then, they could be joined by additional workers in Washington state whose contract ends Oct. 31.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!

SB 403 HUNGER STRIKER ENTERS 28TH DAY

The clock is ticking for California Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign or veto SB 403, the bill to ban caste-based discrimination in the state. Tr He has until Oct. 14 to decide.

In a bid to pressure Newsom into signing, a group of Californians began a hunger strike in early September. As it entered its 28th day Monday, participants took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Dear @GavinNewsom today is my day 28th of Hunger strike. I am very weak. One of our memeber(sic) might faint anytime. But we committed. We want our people to be free of discrimination. Please help make California first state to pass this law, wrote Dr. Nirmal Singh in a tweet.

While the bill has the support of many Californians of South Asian origin, others have argued that it creates a problem where none currently exists. Some contend that the bill unfairly targets Hindu Americans.

LEGAL GROUP CELEBRATES AS NEWSOM QUIETLY REPEALS COVID-19 MISINFORMATION LAW

A controversial law that sanctions California doctors who spread COVID-19 misinformation died a quiet death last weekend, as Newsom signed SB 815 into law.

Among the provisions of that bill is one that repeals the 2022 law AB 2098  specifically, the language that it shall constitute unprofessional conduct for a physician and surgeon to disseminate misinformation or disinformation related to COVID-19.

The law was the subject of a legal challenge from the New Civil Liberties Alliance, which bills itself as a nonpartisan civil rights group to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies. It alleged that the law violated California doctors freedom of speech to disseminate what the state and the medical establishment deemed to be falsehoods about COVID-19.

NCLA President and General Counsel Mark Chenoweth said in a statement that his organization was proud to have stood shoulder to shoulder with doctors who cared more about the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship and the First Amendment than about bowing to the states or medical boards politically correct consensus views.

AFTER FEINSTEIN DEATH, KILEY REUPS RESOLUTION TO BAR SENATE APPOINTMENTS

Rocklin Republican Congressman Kevin Kiley on Monday used the aftermath of Sen. Dianne Feinstein s death to resurface his resolution requiring U.S. Senate replacements to be decided by voters, not governors.

Kiley took to X to promote the legislation.

Dianne Feinsteins successor should be chosen by California voters, not Gavin Newsom. My legislation will assure all members of Congress, House and Senate, are elected by the people, Kiley wrote.

Kiley has long objected to Newsoms authority to name a senatorial successor; in his Assembly days, Kiley was a vocal critic of Newsoms decision to appoint Alex Padilla to replace incoming Vice President Kamala Harris as Californias junior senator rather than leaving it to voters.

The resolution is unlikely to go anywhere. Even if it passed through the Republican-controlled House, the Democratic-controlled Senate would almost certainly defeat it.

UC HASTINGS NAME LAWSUIT IS CLEARED TO PROCEED

Remember last year when Newsom signed a bill allowing the removal of former California Supreme Court Chief Justice Serranus Hastings name from the University of California College of Law, San Francisco?

The name was removed in response to modern historians consensus that Hastings committed genocide against Native American people, and that he was directly responsible for the deaths of men, women and children during a militia campaign against California tribes.

As you may recall, the law was immediately challenged by a descendant of Hastings, who retained conservative law firm Dhillon Law Group and attorney Michael Yamamoto and the Center for American Liberty.

The lawsuit contended that the state and Hastings had made a deal  he would provide $100,000 to establish a college of law and the state would put his name on it.

The law has been in legal limbo ever since, as the state sought to get the lawsuit shut down as a without merit. This week, the state Supreme Court rejected that argument, clearing the way for the lawsuit to proceed.

According to the Center for American Libertys Mark Trammell, The Hastings family now looks forward to their day in court.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Dont get distracted. Gov Newsom has vetoed 3 important labor bills, including labors collective highest priority bill - #SB799. We must continue to organize & fight & demand respect for all workers, especially those who are striking to fix an economy that has failed us.

- California Labor Federation head Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, via X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Best of The Bee:

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday fiercely defended his choice of Laphonza Butler to replace the late Dianne Feinstein in the U.S. Senate, but deflected questions about his decision-making process, including whether he hopes she will run for a full term in 2024, via Maggie Angst and David Lightman .

Roughly 40% of Kaiser Permanente workers will begin a three-day strike in seven states starting at 6 a.m. Wednesday, but company negotiators said they are continuing to negotiate a tentative contract, via Cathie Anderson .

How will Laphonza Butlers appointment affect the 2024 U.S. Senate election? Make that elections, via Gillian Brassil .

A lawyer suing the city of Sacramento over its handing of the homeless crisis is demanding that the city attorney recuse herself from the case because she is a material witness, and is seeking to depose both her and Mayor Darrell Steinberg, via Sam Stanton .

Gov. Gavin Newsom dealt a blow to California labor by vetoing bills that would have given unemployment checks to striking workers and workplace protections to domestic employees, via Lindsey Holden.
Hunter Biden , the son of President Biden, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to three felony gun charges, after a deal that included a diversion in connection with a firearms charge and a guilty plea to two misdemeanor tax charges collapsed in court over the summer.

The hearing got underway around 10 a.m., with Hunter Biden entering the courthouse around 9:45 a.m.

The conditions of his release remain similar to what was imposed in July. Of note, the judge said that since that hearing in July, Hunter has been "communicative with and responsive" to the probation office in California. He has also been drug tested a number of times and they have all come back negative. Drug testing remains part of his conditions of release.

If convicted on all three charges, Hunter Biden faces a maximum of 25 years in prison and up to $750,000 in fines.

The next court date has not yet been assigned, but there is a pretrial motion deadline of Nov. 3.

Hunter Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell said they plan to file a motion to dismiss on the grounds that the diversion agreement is still valid. Lowell also said they will seek a dismissal that one of the statutes he is charged with violating  a ban on gun possession for drug users  is unconstitutional.

The argument hinged on a new framework laid out by the Supreme Court last year in a closely watched decision that expanded gun rights. In its ruling, the court's conservative majority said gun restrictions must be consistent with the "nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation."

Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, departs from the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on October 3, 2023 in Wilmington, Delaware. / Credit: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images

In the wake of the high court's ruling, scores of longstanding gun laws have faced fresh scrutiny, and Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden's lawyer, has publicly suggested he believes the law banning drug users from having guns is unconstitutional, as some federal courts have found.

The charges against Hunter Biden stem from his possession of a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver in October 2018, which prosecutors previously said he unlawfully possessed for 11 days after lying on the firearm registration form about his drug use. One count alleges Hunter Biden provided a false written statement about his drug use on the form used for firearms purchases, and the second count is for allegedly giving a false statement to the dealer to keep for its records, as required by the federal government. The third count is for allegedly possessing a firearm while he was a known drug user.

If convicted on all charges, Hunter Biden could face a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000.

In response to the indictment, Lowell said his client "was not a threat to public safety" when he possessed the unloaded gun and said of special counsel David Weiss that his "bending to political pressure presents a grave threat to our system of justice."

"We believe these charges are barred by the agreement the prosecutors made with Mr. Biden, the recent rulings by several federal courts that this statute is unconstitutional, and the facts that he did not violate that law, and we plan to demonstrate all of that in court," he continued.

The charges are the first brought by Weiss in his investigation into Hunter Biden since he was appointed special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland last month. Other potential charges, including the tax counts Hunter Biden had previously intended to plead guilty to, could still be brought against the president's son.

For now at least, if the case goes to trial, it could take place in the midst of Joe Biden's 2024 reelection campaign.

A looming court fight over historical tradition

Though the case against Hunter Biden is in its early stages, questions have arisen about the constitutionality of the law cited in the indictment against him on the possession charge.

In the wake of the June 2022 Supreme Court decision that laid out a new standard for determining whether firearms restrictions comport with the Constitution, some U.S. district courts have found the drug-user provision does not withstand Second Amendment scrutiny because those courts said the government failed to show how it is consistent with the nation's historical tradition of gun regulation.

"The current landscape with regard to this unlawful user prohibition is somewhat unclear," Andrew Willinger, executive director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law, told CBS News, though he noted that most district courts have upheld the law.

But in August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit found the drug-user statute to be unconstitutional as applied to a Texas man, Patrick Daniels, who admitted to regularly using marijuana. In its decision, the three-judge panel acknowledged that while the nation's history and tradition "may support some limits on an intoxicated person's right to carry a weapon," it doesn't "justify disarming a sober citizen based exclusively on his past drug usage."

Keith Rosen, a former federal prosecutor, said an issue for the prosecutors in the case involving Hunter Biden could be establishing that he was actively using drugs in the 11-day span he had the revolver.

"I think this is going to be an important question that the defense is going to raise as they litigate this case. I suspect they'll argue, just like in Daniels, that it may be true that Hunter was using drugs during this period of time when he got the gun, but unless the government can prove that he was high at the time that he physically had the gun then they can't prevail," Rosen said. "I think the government will resist that. Historically, courts would not have required the government to prove that somebody was high at the specific time that they were holding the weapon, but in light of Daniels I think that's going to be a live issue in this case."

Willinger said there is "interesting interplay" between the illegal possession charge and the other two in the indictment related to the alleged false statements.

"It does seem like the lying charges may rise and fall with the [possession] charge because if it turns out that a court says [the measure] is unconstitutional as applied to Biden, then the sale would not have been unlawful," he said.

The charges against Hunter Biden were brought in federal district court in Delaware, where appeals are heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. That court has been asked to review a Pennsylvania man's conviction on three counts of possession of a firearm by an unlawful drug user, who argues the law doesn't pass constitutional muster.

The Biden administration has urged courts to uphold the statute, pointing to founding-era laws that disarmed intoxicated people, people struggling with mental illness and those deemed dangerous to public peace or safety. Willinger predicted the Justice Department would maintain that position in the case involving Hunter Biden.

"It seems to me a little more of an obvious case to take on appeal and to push hard for constitutionality here from the government's perspective because it's not dealing with marijuana, where you have legalization at the state level. It's dealing with a different controlled substance," Willinger said.

The White House has declined to comment on the case involving the president's son, directing questions to the Justice Department.

While the Supreme Court's decision last year in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, now known simply as Bruen, has threatened decades-old gun laws, the justices will have the chance to clarify their historical tradition test with a case they will hear Nov. 7.

That dispute involves the 30-year-old law prohibiting people under domestic violence restraining orders from having guns, which the 5th Circuit concluded was unconstitutional because the government failed to meet its burden of showing it's consistent with the nation's historical tradition of gun regulation.

The Justice Department could also ask the high court to review a 3rd Circuit decision that struck down a law banning felons from having guns.

"The combination of those two cases might shed some light on how the court believes that this new test applies in this prohibited-persons category," Willinger said.

He noted that the court could adopt a view expressed by Justice Amy Coney Barrett when she was a federal appeals court judge, in which she concluded that history shows that legislatures have the power to bar dangerous people from possessing guns.

"If the court really embraces that dangerousness principle, then I think it has potentially major consequences for the felon ban and also potentially for these other provisions like," the prohibition on unlawful drug users, Willinger said.

Still, he said it would be "pretty startling" for the Supreme Court to strike down the drug-user provision on its face.

"I find that to be unlikely, especially when you start to think about some of the controlled substances that might be sort of reality-altering drugs. I don't see the Supreme Court or really a majority of circuit courts reaching that outcome," he said.

Second Amendment groups respond

Though Hunter Biden could join those challenging the constitutionality of gun laws under the conservative Supreme Court's new framework, pro-Second Amendment groups are not jumping to his defense.

Gun Owners for America said after Hunter Biden's indictment that it "opposes all gun control, but so long as this President continues to use every tool at his disposal to harass and criminalize guns, gun owners and gun dealers, his son should be receiving the same treatment and scrutiny as all of us."

National Rifle Association spokesman Billy McLaughlin told CBS News that "laws should be applied equally against all criminals."

The group added, "The United States Supreme Court has ruled that federal law prohibits 'knowingly mak[ing] any false statement or representation with respect to the information required by this chapter to be kept in the records' of a federally licensed gun dealer.' The Bruen ruling does not address this matter."

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Hunter Biden , son of President Joe Biden , is back in Delaware Tuesday morning to appear in federal court for felony gun charges.

He has pleaded not guilty to all three charges.

The president's son was last seen at the Wilmington court in July for a hearing on tax charges, to which he also pleaded not guilty.

Hunter Biden and his legal team arrive to face felony gun charges at Delaware District Court in Wilmington, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Biden is expected to plead not guilty.

Hunter Biden's Tuesday appearance stems from three charges filed in federal court last month. Prosecutors said Biden purposefully lied on federal forms in 2018 to purchase a gun in New Castle County, falsely denying that he was addicted to any narcotics.

The ongoing legal battles come as Joe Biden ramps up his campaign for reelection, with some Republicans seeking to tie the president to his sons business dealings overseas.

Hunter Biden pleads not guilty, leaves courthouse

In a proceeding that lasted less than 30 minutes, Hunter Biden entered a plea of not guilty to the felony gun charges.

FULL STORY: Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to federal gun charges in Wilmington

He and his legal team cleared the courthouse before 10:30 a.m.

Hunter Biden leaves Delaware District Court where he faced felony gun charges in Wilmington, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Biden entered a plea of not guilty.

Hunter Biden arrives at federal courthouse

Hunter Biden arrived at the federal courthouse in Wilmington at 9:50 a.m. ahead of his 10 a.m. hearing.

Police began closing down the street just before 9:45 a.m.

Protesters gather outside the courthouse

A Maryland woman, who went by Anonymous, was allowed into the protest area outside the federal courthouse at about 9:20 a.m. At the same time, a woman across King Street began shouting that Hunter Biden is receiving special privileges.

As this Maryland woman, who went by Anonymous, was allowed into the protest area outside the federal courthouse about 9:20 a.m. a woman across King Street began shouting that Hunter Biden is receiving special privileges.

Before her arrival, only one protester was seen in front of the courthouse at 8:30 a.m.

Bob Kunst, 81, was outside of the courthouse in a black and white prisoner's costume, arriving at 4:30 in the morning after a two-day drive from Miami Beach.

He talked about rigged elections, said the U.S. is in "grave danger," and said, "a few people will yell at me... but most people are on my side." He's protested at other events, including in Atlanta, but this is his first time in Wilmington.

Bob Kunst set up his protest spot outside Wilmington's J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building about 4:30 a.m. after a two-drive from Miami Beach, Florida.

He said that only one person yelled at him so far this trip.

Another protester, Shantell Newman, stood across the street from the courthouse and shouted that there was no equality of the law. She's from Wilmington and said she wore her sneakers because last time, the Secret Service came after her, so she wanted to be ready to run away.

National media returns to Wilmington

Media outlets were lined up outside of the courthouse waiting for Hunter Biden to show up, with reports of some setting up camp outside the Wilmington building as early as Monday afternoon.

Several people can be seen walking up to the area to take a look or take pictures of what was going on.

Media outlets lined up outside of the courthouse waiting for Hunter Biden to show up on Oct. 3, 2023.

Local and federal police have blocked lanes on King Street in front of the courthouse. But just a block away, everything appeared normal.

Catch up with our most recent reporting on the issue

THE INDICTMENT: Hunter Biden indicted on federal gun charges for allegedly lying about drug addiction

WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME? How Hunter Biden's plea agreement fell apart in federal court, leading to not guilty plea

TIES TO THE PRESIDENT: Impeachment hearing recap: Here's what witnesses said about Joe Biden, Hunter Biden

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Hunter Biden back in Delaware federal court over felony gun charges
Hunter Biden was flanked by Secret Service agents as he entered the Delaware courtroom

Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden , has entered a not guilty plea to charges of illegally owning a handgun at a Delaware courthouse.

Prosecutors allege that Mr Biden, 53, lied about his drug use on application forms when he purchased the weapon in 2018.

Mr Biden has acknowledged that he was a heavy user of crack cocaine at the time, but denies breaking the law.

He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the three federal counts.

The charges could also lead to fines of up to $750,000 (621,000).

Clad in a dark suit and flanked by Secret Service agents and his defence team, Mr Biden did not speak during the brief arraignment, other than to acknowledge the charges against him and his rights as a defendant.

The plea was entered on his behalf by his attorney, Abbe Lowell. In a statement afterwards, Mr Lowell said he believes the charges are the result of "political pressure" by right-wing Republicans.

Cameras were not allowed inside the courtroom at the J Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Delaware

Mr Biden appeared to be relaxed, laughing and smiling with his defence team before proceedings began and waving to an acquaintance in the room. As he exited, he waved to reporters and said "thank you".

While no date has been set for the beginning of the trial, prosecutors and Mr Biden's defence team have been given a 30-day deadline to file any pretrial motions they might have.

As part of the judge's conditions for his remaining free pending trial, he was ordered to abstain from drugs and alcohol, seek employment and clear any travel with a probation officer.

A proposed plea deal to resolve the charges abruptly fell apart in July, meaning Mr Biden was indicted shortly after.

He was charged with two counts of making false statements and one count of illegal gun possession. The charges all relate to his purchase of a revolver at a Delaware gun store in October 2018, which he kept for around 11 days.

By Mr Biden's own admission - published in a 2021 memoir - he was in the throes of a "full-blown addiction" at the time.

Two of the criminal counts against him, each punishable by up to 10 years, stem from the allegations that Mr Biden lied about his drug use on the forms. A third count, related to his possession of a firearm while a drug user, is punishable by up to five years.

Kevin McMunigal, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches law at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, said that while the basic facts of the prosecution's case "will be quite easy to establish", they by no means ensure a successful prosecution.

For example, Mr McMunigal noted that all three charges require that Mr Biden was "using or addicted" to drugs when he filled out the form on 12 October 2018.

"Apparently he was in and out of drug rehabilitation during that year....a question may arise as to whether he was using or addicted at that point in time," he said. "This could be tricky for the prosecution to prove if he claims he was clean during the key time period in mid-October".

Security was tight for Mr Biden's arraignment in Wilmington

Additionally, Mr McMunigal said that Mr Biden's lack of a criminal record "is a major factor in his favour in terms of avoiding jail time", and that the non-violent and victimless nature of the allegations "make prison time less likely".

In court, Mr Lowell said that Mr Biden's defence team would seek to have the charges dismissed, arguing that they are both unconstitutional and barred by the previous agreement made with prosecutors.

The argument over the constitutionality of one of the charges - a ban on gun possession for drug users - rests on a Supreme Court ruling that expanded gun rights last year.

In the ruling, the conservative-leaning court said that firearms restrictions must be consistent with the "historical tradition of firearm regulation" in the US.

Lauryn Gouldin, a law professor at Syracuse University, told the BBC that under that criteria, the court would "likely" find the charge against Mr Biden unconstitutional.

In early November, the Supreme Court will also hear another case in which it will hear arguments over whether the government can prohibit gun ownership by people with domestic violence restraining orders.

The outcome of that case, she added, "is likely to be a very clear signal" for the Biden case.

Mr Biden appeared on Tuesday in a federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware - which is the hometown of the Bidens.

Security was tight during the brief court appearance in Wilmington, which lasted less than 30 minutes. Mr Biden was escorted into the courtroom by Secret Service agents, while outside, police used dogs to inspect bags and nearby bushes.

One protester - dressed in a striped prison costume - stood outside the courthouse holding a sign that read "lock Biden up", occasionally eliciting profanities from passing motorists.

The gun at the centre of the case was found by Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter's brother Beau, in his vehicle. Ms Biden threw the weapon into a rubbish bin, reportedly because she feared he might use it to hurt himself.

It was later discovered and returned to the store, but not before it prompted separate investigations by both Delaware police and the US Secret Service.

In June, a two-part agreement was reached between prosecutors and Hunter Biden's legal team in which he agreed to admit illegal possession of a firearm and undertake addiction treatment and monitoring. Under that agreement, he would also be charged with two misdemeanour counts for failing to pay his taxes on time in 2017 and 2018.

But the deal, which would have allowed Mr Biden to avoid felony charges and potential imprisonment, fell apart in July. The judge in the case, Maryellen Noreika, said she could not "rubber stamp" the agreement. She also called the deal's proposed resolution of the gun charge "unusual".

While the tax charges were dismissed in August, prosecutors are expected to refile the charges, or file new ones, in Washington DC or California.

Earlier in September, Mr Biden filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, alleging that two of its agents "sought to target and embarrass" him by sharing private tax information.

The case could mean that Hunter Biden faces a criminal trial while his father campaigns for re-election as president.
By Tom Hals

WILMINGTON, Delaware(Reuters) -President Joe Biden 's son Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges that he lied about his drug use while buying a handgun, in the first-ever criminal prosecution of a sitting U.S. president's child.

Hunter Biden, 53, was charged last month with three counts related to lying on a federal form to acquire a Colt Cobra handgun in 2018 and for being an illegal drug user in possession of the gun.

Biden wore a dark suit and tie during his appearance at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, which lasted 25 minutes. "Yes your honor," Biden said in response to U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke asking if he understood the charges and the not guilty plea entered by his attorney, Abbe Lowell.

He arrived at the courthouse in a motorcade of six black sedans.

Six men wearing earpieces who appeared to be Secret Service agents sat near Hunter Biden during the court proceedings and escorted him out of the courtroom through a side door.

Burke set conditions for Hunter Biden's release pending trial, including clearing travel with a probation officer, abstaining from illegal drugs and alcohol and seeking employment. Burke said Hunter Biden submitted to tests for illegal drug use multiple times recently and had tested negative.

Tuesday's hearing sets the stage for a historic first: The criminal trial of the adult child of a sitting president who is campaigning for reelection.

Biden's likely 2024 Republican rival, Donald Trump, faces four upcoming criminal trials of his own, two of which are tied to his attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden, which he continues to falsely claim is the result of fraud.

The president's son also attended a hearing in July in Wilmington related to the charges.

In that hearing, an agreement to resolve the gun charges and separate tax charges unraveled when a U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika in Wilmington refused to accept it.

Under that deal, Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax violations and would avoid punishment on the gun charges if for two years he did not possess a firearm and refrained from using illegal drugs and alcohol.

Lowell, Hunter Biden's attorney, said on Tuesday he would file a motion to dismiss the case because he believed the July agreement remains in effect and because he believed the statute was unconstitutional.

Burke said he would have to file by Nov. 3.

Some legal experts have said that any firearms-related charges against Hunter Biden could be vulnerable to a constitutional challenge, after the U.S. Supreme Court last year in a landmark ruling expanded gun rights under the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms.

The younger Biden for years has been the focus of unrelenting attacks by Republicans, led by former President Trump.

Republicans have accused Hunter Biden, who has worked as a lobbyist, lawyer, investment banker and artist, of wrongdoing relating to Ukraine and China and have made him a focus of a congressional impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden.

The president's son, who has publicly discussed his substance abuse, never held a position in the White House or on his father's campaign. The president has said he has not discussed foreign business dealings with his son and has said his Justice Department would have independence in any investigation of a member of his family.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Andy Sullivan, Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal gun charges in Delaware, after a plea agreement for a previous set of tax and gun charges collapsed in July.

Biden, who lives in Los Angeles, had requested to hold the hearing by video conference. But Justice Department special counsel David Weiss insisted on an in-person arraignment to avoid the appearance of giving the president's son special treatment.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke ruled the in-person arraignment emphasize the "integrity and solemnity of a federal criminal proceeding."

The case could color the presidential reelection race in 2024, as President Joe Biden seeks reelection. Congressional Republicans have criticized the Justice Department's investigation and the plea agreement as a "sweetheart deal" that U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected.

Here's what we know about the case:

FILE - President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden leaves after a court appearance, July 26, 2023, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File) ORG XMIT: WX457

President Joe Biden will continue to support his son and 'help him as he rebuilds his life': White House

Joe Biden continues to support his son, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the daily press breifing today,

. She wouldn't say whether the president had spoken with his son Tuesday. The president loves his son. Hes going to continue to support him as he rebuilds his life," Jean-Pierre said.

-- Bart Jansen

Hunter Biden charges resulted from coordinated, partisan attack by Trump, Republicans: Abbe Lowell

One of Hunter Bidens lawyers, Abbe Lowell, said the difference between the plea agreement that fell apart and the latest charges is the political pressure that Donald Trump and his allies under the political banner of Make America Great Again brought against the Justice Department.

These charges are the result of political pressure from President Trump and his MAGA allies to force the Justice Department to ignore the law and deviate from its policies in cases like this one, Lowell said in a statement. The only substantive and relevant changes since July, when the US Attorney decided against pursuing these exact charges against Mr. Biden, has been various court rulings undermining the constitutionality of the law at issue here and a coordinated, partisan attack on our system of justice by right-wing Republicans.

--Bart Jansen

Yes, your honor: Judge details charges against Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty through his lawyer, Abbe Lowell. Burke detailed the criminal charges and the potential penalties  a maximum of 25 years in prison if convicted of all three charges, although maximum sentences are rare. At each charge, Burke asked Biden if he understood and he replied, Yes, your honor.

The magistrate didnt set a trial date, but set a 30-day deadline for pretrial motions.

--Xerxes Wilson and Meredith Newman

Special counsel is overseeing the case. What does it mean?

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss as special counsel over the investigation after the initial plea agreement broke down. That gives Weiss more independence in the case, after he spent years investigating tax and gun matters as U.S. attorney for Delaware.

Although the special counsel still needs to comply with Justice Department rules and policies, he isnt subject to day-to-day department supervision, and Garland is only authorized to remove the special counsel in narrow circumstances, including for violating department policies.

Garland also appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee two investigations involving former President Donald Trump. Trump has now been indicted in both investigations, one dealing with his handling of classified documents and the other dealing with efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

- Aysha Bagchi

Hunter Biden arrive and left briskly at the federal courthouse in Wilmington to face gun charges

Hunter Biden arrived at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, at 9:50 a.m., a few minutes before his scheduled arraignment on gun charges. He departed before 10:30 a.m., after the brief hearing.

A few people protesters appeared outside the courthouse. A Maryland woman who called herself Anonymous shouted that Hunter Biden received special treatment. Bob Kunst, 81, wore a black-and-white prisoner's costume and made a two-day drive from Miami Beach for the event.

Aysha Bagchi

As this Maryland woman, who went by Anonymous, was allowed into the protest area outside the federal courthouse about 9:20 a.m. a woman across King Street began shouting that Hunter Biden is receiving special privileges.

What is Hunter Biden charged with?

The indictment charges Hunter Biden with knowingly deceiving a firearms dealer when buying a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver on Oct. 12, 2018. He is charged with falsely filling out a federal firearms form denying he was addicted to any narcotics. And he is charged with knowingly possessing the revolver despite the restrictions against people addicted to drugs owning firearms.

Republicans have criticized the deal as too lenient. But legal experts say the charges are rarely filed.

Attorney General Merrick Garland testified at the House Judiciary Committee on Sept. 20 that Weiss was appointed by President Biden's rival, Donald Trump, and ran his investigation independently.

What happened with Hunter Biden's plea deal?

The indictment came after a plea deal on tax and gun charges fell apart. The taxes charges could still be refiled.

The plea agreement would have allowed Biden to plead guilty to two misdemeanors for failing to pay his taxes in 2017 and 2018, and to enter a pretrial program for the gun charge that could have been dismissed if he complied. The deal might have allowed him to avoid prison.

But Noreika refused to accept the deal because of disputes between government and defense lawyers about whether it protected Biden from potential future charges.

President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden with his son Beau watch the Independence Day fireworks display from the Truman Balcony of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 4, 2023.

Hunter Biden's criminal charges are politically charged for Joe Biden

President Joe Biden stuck by his son, Hunter Biden, as he faces gun charges and the potential for tax charges, but the loyalty could cost the father politically during his campaign for reelection in 2024.

Joe Biden said he was proud of his son before a plea deal on tax and gun charges collapsed in July. Hunter Biden continues to participate in gatherings such as a family vacation in Lake Tahoe, weekends at Camp David and state dinners.

But House Republicans are pursuing an impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden in part because of his sons business deals.

So far polling suggests Hunter Biden hasnt been much of a drag on his fathers political prospects. More than nine out of 10 voters said they heard about Hunter Bidens legal troubles, but only 2% of the electorate supporting Joe Biden said the legal issues may affect their support, according to a Monmouth University Poll.

--Maureen Groppe

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hunter Biden updates: President's son pleads not guilty to gun charges
US President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who has been indicted on gun charges (Nicholas Kamm)

Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty Tuesday to an illegal gun possession charge, marking the latest chapter in his troubled life just as his father President Joe Biden accelerates his campaign for reelection next year.

Hunter Biden, 53, entered the federal court in his family hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, without speaking to waiting reporters.

He entered a not guilty plea to three felony charges stemming from his purchase of a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver in 2018 when, by his own admission, he was heavily addicted to drugs and barely in control of his life.

Hunter Biden is charged with two counts of making false statements for claiming on forms required for the gun purchase that he was not using drugs illegally at the time.

He faces a third charge, based on the same statements, that he illegally possessed the gun -- which he had for only 11 days in October 2018 -- before he got rid of it.

Hunter Biden's multiple legal troubles and controversies -- which extend to facing ferocious accusations from Republican politicians that he engaged in corrupt business practices in China and Ukraine -- are a constant drag on his father's political standing as he seeks a second term in 2024.

Republicans have opened an impeachment inquiry in Congress on what they claim is a Biden family criminal conspiracy but have provided no evidence that the president did anything wrong.

In response to the constant drip-drip of scandal, Joe Biden has repeatedly said he stands by his son and loves him for his attempts to recover from drug addiction.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing when asked about Hunter in court that "the president loves him, his son."

"He's going to continue to support him as he rebuilds his life. I'm not going to speak to any private conversations that this president has with any member of his family, that is private," she said.

Jean-Pierre said the White House would not comment on the investigation itself.

- Awkward optics -

The prosecution is a public relations nightmare for the White House, which is required to spend time daily fielding journalists' questions about Hunter Biden. The optics alone of a federal trial in the same city that Joe Biden frequently visits to spend weekends in his family home is awkward.

Hunter Biden's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, had asked Judge Christopher Burke to allow Biden, who lives in California, to appear by video instead of in person, but the request was denied.

"The defendant should not receive any special treatment in this matter," Burke wrote in his ruling.

If convicted, Hunter Biden could in theory face 25 years in prison, though in practice such offenses, if not accompanied by other charges, are seldom punished by any jail time.

In July, a plea bargain between Hunter Biden and federal prosecutor David Weiss -- which would have erased the gun charges while Biden pleaded guilty to two tax charges and avoided prison -- fell apart.

Hunter Biden has not been charged with any crimes related to his foreign business dealings, despite the Republican allegations.

However, Weiss, who was elevated to special counsel for the Hunter Biden probe after the plea deal fell through, says he is still investigating the junior Biden on possible tax charges in addition to the gun possession issue.

Hunter Biden is a Yale-trained lawyer and lobbyist-turned-artist, but his life has been marred by alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction.

cl-dk/sms/caw
BAKU, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The global space community gathered on Monday for the 74th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Azerbaijan's capital Baku, exactly 50 years after the city hosted the 24th IAC.

Addressing the opening ceremony, President of the International Astronautical Federation Clay Mowry highlighted "sustainability, investments and security" as the main topics of the event.

Delegates were greeted in a video message by Chinese astronauts Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu, and Gui Haichao of China's space station Tiangong, who surprisingly demonstrated a historical photograph of young Ilham Aliyev, current president of Azerbaijan, accompanying his father, former President Heydar Aliyev, at the 24th IAC in 1973.

"I'm very grateful to all our guests and especially to our brave Chinese astronauts," said President Ilham Aliyev, adding that the photo is very dear to him.

In his remarks, President Aliyev hailed Azerbaijan's latest achievements in the space industry as the country earlier launched two telecommunication satellites and one Earth observation satellite.

The IAC will definitely give a new impetus to the development of the space industry and high-tech and innovation sector of our country, he said.

The IAC is an annual meeting of space industry experts to explore the untapped potential of space for the benefit of humanity. 
(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden s son, Hunter, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal gun charges that conservatives hope are only the opening salvo in a legal drama they plan to put at the center of an impeachment effort as well as the 2024 election.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Hunter Biden was arraigned Tuesday in Delaware federal court, more than two weeks after he was indicted by US Special Counsel David Weiss on three felony counts relating to his October 2018 purchase of a Colt Cobra .38 caliber revolver while he was addicted to illegal narcotics.

Biden and his lawyers have vowed to mount a rigorous defense against the gun charges. But Weiss is also expected to soon charge Biden with tax crimes, allegations that will focus more on business activities that Republicans have tried to depict as part of corrupt scheme that also included Joe Biden.

The presidents son previously agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay taxes on some $4.4 million in income from mostly overseas sources in 2017 and 2018. The plea deal, which would also have resolved the gun charges and seen Biden receive no jail time, later collapsed after US District Judge Maryellen Noreika raised questions about its terms. The gun indictment followed on Sept. 14.

According to the indictment, Hunter Biden lied on a federal handgun purchase form when he answered no to a question about asking if he was an unlawful user of any other controlled substance. Two of the gun counts carry maximum prison time of 10 years; the third is punishable by up to five years. Judges rarely impose maximum sentences, though.

Abbe Lowell, Bidens lawyer, says he plans to argue that laws barring gun ownership by drug users were rendered unconstitutional by recent US Supreme Court and federal appeals court rulings.

According to the earlier plea deal on tax charges, Biden received millions from a Ukrainian energy company, a Chinese private equity firm, and other sources. Republicans have long contended that the presidents son could have only commanded such pay by selling access to his father.

House Republicans have launched an impeachment inquiry over unsubstantiated allegations that he acted corruptly in order to benefit from his sons business dealings in China and Ukraine.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges relating to concealing drug use when buying a weapon, kicking off a battle to beat an indictment from the Justice Department as House Republicans zero in on an impeachment of his father, seeking to tie both Bidens to wrongdoing.

Bidens court appearance in Delaware, after a judge denied his request to appear by video conference, comes after an initial plea deal in the matter fell apart.

Special counsel David Weiss, also the U.S. attorney for Delaware, charged Biden with failing to disclose drug use when seeking to buy a weapon  resulting in two charges  as well as for unlawful possession of a firearm while addicted to a controlled substance. Biden has spoken openly about his struggles with addiction.

The most serious charges carry up to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.

Its a sharp turnaround from a scrapped plea deal that would have had Biden entering a diversion program on the matter, and prosecutors continue to mull whether to file charges on the tax crimes also initially covered by the deal.

Bidens attorney, Abbe Lowell, said during the arraignment that he planned to file a motion to dismiss the charges, challenging the constitutionality of a law that blocks drug users from owning guns. Its a provision he says violates the Second Amendment.

He said he will also move to dismiss the charges, arguing that the initial plea deal would have provided immunity on them.

The criminal case gets underway as GOP lawmakers accelerate their probe into President Biden, having held their first hearing into an impeachment inquiry last week.

The effort got off to a rocky start, with several GOP-invited witnesses saying there was not presently enough evidence to impeach the president, as they could not connect any of his actions to his sons business dealings, despite claims of influence peddling.

One of the GOPs main focuses is Weisss investigation, amid claims from two whistleblowers that the probe into Hunter Biden was slow-walked.

Weiss has signaled that he may still bring tax charges in other districts, including California and Washington, D.C.  the same locations where the two whistleblowers said they found stronger evidence of tax crimes.

Bidens arraignment comes the same day that Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for D.C., is slated to do a transcribed interview with the House Judiciary Committee, one of the three panels involved in the probe into the Biden family.

Whistleblowers alleged Graves resisted partnering to bring charges against Biden in Washington.

The Associated Press contributed.

Updated at 1:20 p.m. ET

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to three gun-related charges at his arraignment in Delaware District Court in Wilmington.

Mr Biden and his defence team appeared in court on Tuesday morning following the collapse of his plea deal with the Department of Justice earlier this year.

Arriving shortly before his arraignment time at 10am, Mr Biden appeared calm while his attorney submitted his plea.

In mid-September, Mr Biden was federally indicted on three counts of gun-related charges. Prosecutors alleged that the presidents son knowingly lied to a licenced gun dealer and made false statements on a firearm application in order to obtain a Colt Cobra .38mm handgun in October 2018.

Mr Biden lives in California and had requested to appear at the hearing on Tuesday via video link, but US Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke agreed with the prosecution, saying that no special treatment would be given.

According to the indictment, Mr Biden knowingly lied about his previous drug use on a federal form. Mr Biden and his family have publicly acknowledged his substance abuse disorder to crack cocaine and alcohol.

He then, allegedly, possessed the illegally-obtained firearm for 11 days between 12 October and 23 October of that year. The federal charges come after Republicans in the House were trying to tie Mr Bidens business dealings abroad to his father, President Joe Biden, in their effort to impeach him.

Judge Christopher Burke said the charges were brought by a federal grand jury before reading Mr Biden his charges, maximum sentencing and rights.

Mr Biden pleaded not guilty to three counts: False statement in purchase of a firearm, False Statement Related to Information Required to be Kept by a Federal Firearms Licensed Dealer, and Possession of a Firearm by a Person who is an Unlawful User of or Addicted to a Controlled Substance.

The charges could lead to up to 25 years in prison. Mr Bidens attorney Abbe Lowell waived the reading of the indictment. Pre-trial motions must be filed before 3 November but no further hearings have yet in scheduled in the case.

While Mr Biden has admitted to having struggled with addiction, his lawyers have argued that he didnt violate the law. Gun charges such as the ones Mr Biden is facing are rare, and an appeals court determined that the ban on drug users obtaining firearms goes against the principles of the Second Amendment under new standards set by the conservative-majority Supreme Court.

U.S. President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, arrives to appear in a federal court on gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., October 3, 2023 (REUTERS)

Mr Bidens defence team are suggesting that the prosecutors have buckled under the pressure coming from Republicans who claim that the younger Biden received a better deal than a less high-profile defendant would. The lawyers claim that the charges filed following the collapse of the plea deal came after political pressure.

The indictment against Mr Biden came after his plea agreement on tax and gun charges blew up this summer. The deal came to an end after the judge, who was set to sign off on the deal, raised a number of questions regarding the agreement.

Prosecutors had been reviewing Mr Bidens business dealings for half a decade and the deal would have avoided criminal proceedings ahead of his fathers 2024 reelection campaign.

The special counsel in charge of the case, David Weiss  also the US attorney for Delaware appointed by former president Donald Trump, has said that tax charges against Mr Biden may be filed in California or Washington DC.

Congressional Republicans have launched an impeachment inquiry into the president to attempt to connect him to his sons business dealings abroad as they try to paint him as corrupt, claiming he received bribes. But they have so far been unable to provide any solid evidence for their claims, and the first hearing of the inquiry last week was branded a disaster by people on both sides of the aisle.

Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, leaves the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware, on October 3, 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

Republicans are likely to try to keep up the pressure on both Bidens as they attempt to divert the publics attention away from the many legal woes and ongoing trials of their likely nominee  Mr Trump.

Hunter Biden was quiet for years but has recently taken a more aggressive approach in responding to the legal problems he faces. He has filed a number of lawsuits in connection to the sharing of private information allegedly from his laptop as well as tax information shared by IRS agents who became whistleblowers when they took part in the investigation led by congressional Republicans.

Under the deal that fell apart this summer, Mr Biden would have pleaded guilty and served probation on misdemeanour tax charges without any jail time. He would also have avoided being prosecuted for a single gun count if he remained on the right side of the law for two years.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to a charge of illegal gun possession, just as his father accelerates his presidential campaign for re-election next year.

Hunter Biden, 53, arrived in federal court in his familys hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, without speaking to waiting reporters.

He entered a not guilty plea to three felony charges stemming from his purchase of a .38-calibre Colt Cobra revolver in 2018 when, by his own admission, he was heavily addicted to drugs and barely in control of his life.

Hunter Biden is charged with two counts of making false statements for claiming on forms required for the gun purchase that he was not using drugs illegally at the time.

He faces a third charge, based on the same statements, that he illegally possessed the gun  which he had for only 11 days in October 2018  before he got rid of it.

Christopher Burke, a US magistrate judge, set conditions for Hunter Bidens release pending trial, including clearing travel with a probation officer, abstaining from illegal drugs and alcohol and seeking employment.

Burke said Hunter Biden had submitted to tests for illegal drug use multiple times recently and had tested negative.

Multiple controversies

Hunter Bidens multiple legal troubles and controversies  which extend to facing ferocious accusations from Republican politicians that he engaged in corrupt business practices in China and Ukraine  are a constant drag on his father Joe Biden s political standing as he seeks a second term in 2024.

Republicans have opened an impeachment inquiry in Congress on what they claim is a Biden family criminal conspiracy but have provided no evidence that the president did anything wrong. Joe Biden has repeatedly denied knowledge of or involvement in his sons business dealings.

In response to the constant drip-drip of scandal, the US president has said he stands by his son and loves him for his attempts to recover from drug addiction.

Abbe Lowell, Hunter Bidens lawyer, had asked Judge Christopher Burke to allow his client, who lives in California, to appear by video instead of in person, but the request was denied.

The defendant should not receive any special treatment in this matter, Mr Burke wrote in his ruling.

If convicted, Hunter Biden could in theory face 25 years in prison, though in practice such offences, if not accompanied by other charges, are seldom punished by any jail time.

In July, a plea bargain between Hunter Biden and federal prosecutor David Weiss  which would have erased the gun charges while Mr Biden pleaded guilty to two tax charges and avoided prison  fell apart.

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Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, appeared in federal court Tuesday where he pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from allegations he failed to disclose his drug usage when he bought a gun in 2018.

In an appearance in a Delaware federal court, Hunter Biden, 53, pleaded not guilty to three felony charges, including falsifying a federal firearms application, lying to a federally licensed gun dealer and possessing an illegally obtained gun for 11 days, according to The New York Times.

The charges come with maximum penalties of up to 25 years of jail time and a $750,000 fine.

Biden allegedly lied about not using drugs on a government form required for a gun purchase when he bought a .38-caliber handgun in October 2018.

The charges were brought by special counsel David Weiss, who has been investigating Biden for several years.

At the hearing, presided over by Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke, Biden was released without bail, with conditions including the need for Biden to look for employment and communicate all international travel plans. He also will need to continue to submit to random drug testing and is prohibited from owning a gun or using drugs or alcohol, according to Fox News.

Abbe Lowell, attorney for Hunter Biden, said she planned to file a motion to dismiss the gun charges.

Related

Earlier this year, the younger Biden was set to plead guilty as part of a plea deal to charges related to allegedly underpaying his taxes in 2017 and 2018. He also would have entered a diversion program over the felony gun charges. But that deal fell apart after Judge Maryellen Noreika questioned it and pointed to a congressional investigation into Biden.

It seems to me like you are saying just rubber stamp the agreement, Your Honor.  This seems to me to be form over substance, she said in July.

A month later, Weiss, who launched the investigation into the presidents son in 2018, was appointed as special counsel.
Hunter Biden on the day of his arraignment in Wilmington, Del. (Matt Rourke/AP)

Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to federal gun charges on Tuesday, less than three months after an earlier plea agreement hed reached with prosecutors on tax and gun charges fell apart.

Appearing inside in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del., Biden was arraigned on three criminal counts: two related to false statements he allegedly made while purchasing the firearm and a third for illegal possession of a firearm while addicted to drugs.

The three charges carry a combined maximum prison sentence of 25 years.

Bidens attorney, Abbe Lowell, entered the not guilty plea on his behalf. The hearing lasted less than a half hour. His next court date has not yet been assigned, but there is a pretrial motion deadline of Nov. 3, and Lowell said the defense plans to file a motion to dismiss the case.

What do the charges against Hunter Biden stem from?

Hunter Biden, with his attorney, arrives for his court appearance. (Matt Rourke/AP)

According to the indictment filed by special counsel David Weiss last month, prosecutors allege that on or about Oct. 12, 2018, Hunter Biden knowingly deceived a firearms dealer in Delaware while buying a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver by falsely stating on a federal firearms application that he was not addicted to any narcotics.

The 53-year-old Biden has since acknowledged he was a drug addict at the time.

The younger Biden allegedly certified on the form that "he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious," the indictment reads.

What are Hunter Bidens other legal troubles?

Hunter Biden. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

The Justice Department has spent years investigating Hunter Biden's business dealings and drug use. In June, he struck a deal with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Delaware, agreeing to plead guilty to a pair of tax-related misdemeanors in a deal that would have required him to acknowledge his failure to pay income taxes in 2017 and 2018 in exchange for probation.

But that deal fell apart during a court hearing in July after U.S. Judge Maryellen Noreika expressed concern over the structure of the agreement, which Republican critics had called a so-called sweetheart deal for the president's son.

Special counsel Weiss was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in August to lead the Hunter Biden probe.

How does the case fit in with the GOPs impeachment efforts?

President Biden with his son Hunter. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

Last week, House Republicans held their first public impeachment hearing against President Biden seeking to link the president to Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings.

The hearing came weeks after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy allowed the House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees to open the inquiry without a floor vote.

While Republicans have consistently said the president is tied to Hunters entanglements with foreign governments, they have yet to provide any evidence to support this.

They have proved that the elder Biden communicated with his son and that he attended two dinners in 2014 and 2015 with foreign individuals who had paid the younger Biden millions of dollars, but not that business was discussed or promises were made during the meals.

Read more on Yahoo News

Former President Donald Trump, facing a litany of his own legal issues, has privately encouraged the inquiry.

Some Democrats have suggested that the impeachment attempt will galvanize the party around the president, who has tepid approval ratings ahead of next years election.

Go ahead, do it. I dare you, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman told reporters last month. "Your man has, what, three or four indictments now? Trump has a mug shot, and hes been impeached twice. Sometimes you just gotta call their bulls***.
Two new Idaho laws that prohibit students from using their school-issued identification cards to vote are constitutional, an Ada County judge ruled Monday.

BABE VOTE and the League of Women Voters of Idaho this year sued Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane, alleging the laws unconstitutionally burden young voters. McGrane, a Republican, and Rep. Brandon Mitchell, R-Moscow, sponsored House Bills 124 and 340, which eliminated student IDs as a valid form of voter identification.

The removal of student identification cards as permissible means of identification at the polls or for voter registration under HB 124 and HB 340 does not unduly burden voters; there are other valid and free means to identify oneself at the polls and for voter registration, 4th Judicial District Judge Samuel Hoagland wrote in his decision. Students are not a protected class.

The legislation also created a new free voter identification card, which the Idaho Department of Transportation will issue when the laws go into effect Jan. 1.

According to data from the secretary of states office, 59 of 13,950 voters between 18 and 24 used student IDs to vote in the November 2022 election.

This legislation helped address inconsistencies in our law in an effort to build confidence in Idahos elections, McGrane said in a news release following the decision. I firmly believe that ensuring access to voting and maintaining security in elections are not conflicting goals.

The League of Women Voters of Idaho and BABE VOTE educate the public about the electoral process and encourage young people to vote. Attorneys for the groups argued the new laws would create confusion for new Idaho residents and students and violated their constitutional right to equal protection under the law and right to suffrage under the Idaho Constitution.

We are of course disappointed with this result but are closely reviewing the courts decision and will be deciding in the coming weeks whether to appeal, Sam Sandmire, board member for the nonprofit BABE VOTE, said by email.

Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador, whose office litigated the case, said the lawsuit was meritless.

Rather than encouraging young people to obtain their free state voter IDs, advocacy groups took legal action against the state, alleging age discrimination, Labrador said in a news release. We are pleased with this victory but acknowledge that the battle is not over. Other liberal advocacy groups are bringing the same claims in federal court, and we will continue to defend these laws.

A separate lawsuit filed in federal court is ongoing. March for Our Lives Idaho, a gun safety advocacy group, also sued to block the laws, alleging they discriminate against voters based on their age, which would violate the 26th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Colorado's persistent but teetering assurance that it will have reintroduced wolves on the ground ahead of the end of this year's deadline received a voice of validation Monday.

A Nez Perce Tribe spokesperson told the Coloradoan on Monday it will "likely" be able to provide source wolves to Colorado to help meet its deadline.

Aaron Miles, the Idaho tribes natural resource manager, said the tribe is willing to help and that conversations between Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who strongly supports wolf reintroduction, and Shannon Wheeler, chairman of the tribe's executive committee, have taken place and continue to take place to work out the details.

Colorado hopes to release 10 to 15 wolves during its first year of reintroduction.

"Yes, we are working hard to develop that plan and the Nez Perce Tribe has every intention of helping Colorado be a source of wolves," he said. "Our executive committee has given us the go-ahead as a department to begin working on this. I think it is likely we could do it to meet their deadline."

It's a matter of logistics, Miles cautioned, if wolves can be captured and translocated to Colorado in time to meet the ballot initiative's mandated deadline.

Obstacles include finding experts to safely capture the wolves and whether the area receives enough snow to aid in helicopter capture of the wolves, he said. Nez Perce tribal land encompasses millions of acres in the heart of Idaho's wolf country, spilling over into Washington, Oregon and Montana.

Nez Perce's willingness to help comes as good news after Wyoming, Montana and Idaho governments told Colorado they won't serve as source states for the reintroduction. Washington is mulling over the possibility but said it can't provide wolves for Colorado this year. Oregon is still contemplating if it will provide wolves to Colorado.

That prompted Colorado to turn to the Nez Perce Tribe. Miles said conversations between Colorado and the tribe began about a month ago.

The unexpected uncertainty of whether Colorado will be able to find wolves in time to meet its deadline has put increasing pressure on the state.

The situation became so dire that Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis cautioned Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission members at its Aug. 25 meeting to not put undue pressure on the Washington wildlife commission to vote to provide wolves to Colorado.

"Lets talk before we just barrage Washingtons commission," Davis told the commission. "I say that because (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Kelly) Susewind is navigating the complicated situation and it's super sensitive, so if too many people are barraging folks or lobbying folks, youre likely going to do more harm to our likelihood than have success."

Does the Nez Perce Tribe have the authority to capture wolves and give them to Colorado?

The tribe does not need the blessing or backing of the Idaho state government to capture and translocate wolves because the tribe is a sovereign nation, which basically allows for self-government. Miles said that was secured in an 1855 treaty with the federal government.

The tribe was instrumental in reintroducing wolves to Idaho in 1995. The state of Idaho balked at helping with the federal government's Northern Rocky Mountains wolf reintroduction, which also included Yellowstone National Park, so the tribe stepped in and led the effort.

Miles said many of the tribe's wolf experts have retired, making it more difficult to help Colorado with source wolves.

"We largely no longer have the technical capacity of those people involved with the (1995) reintroduction, so we have our work cut out for us," he said. "It's now figuring out the details because you just can't get anyone to capture wolves; you have to have the right people and do it right. But if you have the energy on both sides to make it work, like we and Colorado do, you make it work."

Miles said wolves are revered in the tribe and, as such, it wishes to see proliferation of the animals.

"Our goal is different than someone else's goal," he said. "We have lots of legends based on animals that teach us how we fit into the natural world as people."

One of the first gray wolf pups born in Colorado is shown after being captured via helicopter and fitted with a tracking collar Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022 in Jackson County.

Why snow on the ground is critical for the capture of wolves

Colorado Parks and Wildlife's wolf recovery plan cited helicopter capture of wolves as the preferred method, as it is generally agreed by experts as the quickest and safest option as opposed to using traps and snares.

In wolf captures, generally, a plane is used to spot the wolves. Then a nearby helicopter flies to the site and hovers over the wolf, which is shot with a tranquilizer dart. Colorado's plan calls for the wolves then to be immediately transported, likely by air, to their release site(s) in Colorado. The cages will be opened, and the wolves are then on their own.

Reid DeWalt, the state wildlife agency's assistant director, told the Colorado Wildlife Commission at its Aug. 25 meeting that the agency sees the wolf release season as mid-December until the middle of March.

"We really need that snow for helicopter capture," he said. "Wolves are fast and you're not going to really track them down with a helicopter (without snow), and we want to capture them quickly. But if it doesnt snow, we will have to capture them in a different way."

Colorado Parks and Wildlife captured and collared a male wolf that naturally migrated into the state and one of its pups in February 2021 and 2022, respectively.

DeWalt told the commission it has 20 collars ready to place on the reintroduced wolves.

"December is coming quick and we have a lot to do," DeWalt told the commission. "But we expect to meet the deadline.''

Where Colorado plans to release reintroduced wolves

DeWalt told the commission a team is actively looking at around 10 potential release sites west of the Continental Divide in case weather eliminates some of the sites. It's likely releases will take place at two to three sites, according to the state's recovery plan.

The state's wolf recovery plan has identified the initial releases will take place on state and private land in an oval shape roughly with Glenwood Springs on the west, Kremmling on the north, Vail on the east and Aspen on the south. The area includes Interstate 70 running through the middle.

The area within the green circle is where Colorado Parks and Wildlife is recommending the state's first reintroduced wolves be released followed by the yellow circle.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Nez Perce Tribe will 'likely' give wolves for Colorado reintroduction
CHICAGO  Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday fired off a letter to President Joe Biden about an untenable migrant crisis in the state, calling for an overhaul to the system and blasting the White House for a lack of intervention and coordination at the border.

Pritzker, a Democrat, said the states resources were beyond strained after Texas officials bused more than 15,000 migrants to Illinois in the past year.

Unfortunately, the welcome and aid Illinois has been providing to these asylum seekers has not been matched with support by the federal government, Pritzker wrote. Most critically, the federal governments lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - MAY 09: A migrant father from Venezuela feeds his 15-month-old son in the lobby of a police station where they have been staying with other migrant families since their arrival to the city on May 09, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued a state of emergency on Tuesday amid a surge in migrant arrivals which began in August 2022 when the first group of immigrants were bused from Texas to Chicago by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. According to Lightfoot's office, more than 8,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago since last year, with the city currently reaching

On Sunday, Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, as well as Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and White House Senior Advisor Tom Perez, all engaged in what the White House on Monday described as a productive conversation about the issue.

The administration has given the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois more than $46 million in grant funding to support recently arrived migrants, according to the White House.

President Biden has repeatedly called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform since his first day in office. Without the help of Congress, the Administration has been taking action: since May 12, we have removed or returned over a quarter million individuals, White House spokesperson Angelo Fernandez Hernandez said in a statement.

Fernandez Hernandez added that the administration has moved to accelerate processing of work permits. We will continue to work closely with Illinois and states and cities across the country, he added.

Fueling the letter is what Pritzker described as a humanitarian crisis that strains adequate housing for people who are taking refuge in police stations and even on sidewalks, as well as medical help and other social services, he wrote.

Pritzker recommended that the White House designate one person to work closely with the Oval Office to be the point person on the migrant issue, saying there is too much red tape for states to work with on the federal level.

But Pritzker went further, asking that the federal government intervene by helping manage where migrants end up.

Allowing just one state to lay the burden upon a certain few states run by Democrats is untenable, Pritzker wrote. We are a nation that has welcomed immigrants and refugees since our founding, and we have done so in a bipartisan manner. It cannot be that just a few cities and states should now bear the cost of this effort alone.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has sounded the alarm about the same issue in his system, saying migrants were overwhelming city resources. Last month, Adams escalated his remarks about the situation in his city, where 110,000 migrants have arrived in the last year, saying the crisis "will destroy New York City."

Following pressure from Adams and others, Biden recently granted temporary legal status to Venezuelans who have lived in the U.S. since July. That meant that hundreds of thousands of migrants were granted the right to obtain work and live in the U.S. without fear of deportation.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Washington  Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker this week called the pace of migrant arrivals to his state an "untenable situation," joining a growing chorus of Democrats who have criticized how the Biden administration has dealt with a historic influx in border crossings that is straining cities across the U.S.

Pritzker, a high-profile ally of the White House, sent a list of demands to President Biden in a letter that described in stark terms the challenges Illinois is facing as a result of the thousands of migrants who have arrived in Chicago and other communities in the state over the past year.

"On top of the 15,000 that have arrived in Chicago and Illinois over the last 13 months, we are now seeing busloads [of] more migrants at increasingly higher rates being sent specifically to Chicago each day," Pritzker wrote in his letter to Mr. Biden.

"Most critically," Pritzker added, "the federal government's lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois."

A tense White House call

Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker speaks during the Clinton Global Initiative meeting on Sept. 19, 2023, in New York City. / Credit: John Nacion/WireImage

The letter was sent on Monday, one day after Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, another Democrat, held a tense call with top White House officials Jeff Zients and Tom Perez. The governor and mayor implored the officials for additional federal support to accommodate migrants, a person familiar with the conversation told CBS News. Pritzker and Johnson both conveyed to the White House that they felt the administration was not doing enough during the call, which was first reported by CNN earlier Tuesday.

A White House official referred to the call with Pritzker and Johnson as "productive" and said it was part of "ongoing, recurrent engagements" with jurisdictions receiving migrants.

The conversation, however, is unlikely to alleviate the mounting concerns in Illinois and other Democratic-led states and cities like New York that have struggled to house tens of thousands of migrants released from federal border custody, including many who lack family in the U.S.

These local concerns are likely to intensify as migrant crossings along the U.S.-Mexico continue at historically high levels. In September, Border Patrol apprehended more than 200,000 migrants who crossed into the U.S. illegally, the highest level in 2023, according to internal federal data obtained by CBS News.

Growing concerns in cities receiving migrants

A group of migrants and members of the public wait in line outside an Illinois Department of Human Services office on Sept. 25, 2023, in Chicago. / Credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

The public airing of disagreements between Democratic leaders in Illinois and the White House is part of a broader political challenge for Mr. Biden on immigration and border issues, some of his most unpopular policies.

Republicans in Congress and across the country have accused Mr. Biden of implementing border policies that have encouraged illegal crossings since he took office. More Democrats have likewise begun to criticize the president's border strategy over the past year, particularly those in states and cities receiving migrants bused by Texas state officials or towns and groups along the southern border.

New York in particular has faced dire operational challenges, with 120,000 migrants using its rapidly growing shelter system over the past year. New York Mayor Eric Adams has accused Mr. Biden of abandoning the city on this issue. Meanwhile, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has been more restrained in her criticism than Adams, said the U.S. border was "too open" this weekend during an interview on "Face the Nation."

In his letter, Pritzker told Mr. Biden that "there's much more that can and must be done on a federal level to address a national humanitarian crisis that is currently being shouldered by state and local governments without support."

Pritzker asked the Biden administration to waive fees for migrant work permit applications, expedite those petitions, send additional funding to the state and coordinate the transportation of migrants across the U.S.

Angelo Fernandez Hernandez, a White House spokesman, said the administration has approved $1 billion in funds to cities and communities sheltering and supporting migrants and taken steps to allow migrants to gain work permits more quickly, including by reminding those eligible for work authorization to apply for it.

The administration, Fernandez Hernandez added, is also working to increase deportations of migrants who cross into the U.S. illegally, noting officials had carried out a quarter of a million deportations or returns since early May.

"House Republicans continue to block the reform the immigration system needs and the $4 billion we requested to address the immediate needs of DHS to safely and humanely manage the Southwest Border and support communities across the country. We will continue to work closely with Illinois and states and cities across the country," Fernandez Hernandez said.

Rise, fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX at center of Michael Lewis' new book | 60 Minutes

Rep. Gaetz says he will file a motion this week to oust Speaker McCarthy

Rep. Henry Cuellar speaks out after being carjacked at gunpoint
Congressman Henry Cuellar says he knew his black belt in karate would be no match for the men who pointed guns at him late Monday near his home in Washington, D.C., so he complied with their demands to take his Toyota crossover.

"Three guys came out of nowhere and they pointed guns at me," the Laredo Democrat told reporters the following day as he returned to work in the U.S. House of Representatives. "I do have a black belt, but I recognize when you got three guns. I looked at one with a gun, another with a gun and one behind me. So they said they wanted my cars, and I said 'sure.'"

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo

Cuellar, 68, was not harmed and appeared upbeat during his short conversation with reporters. Police in Washington, D.C. recovered his vehicle, along with his phone and the sushi takeout that he was bringing home. The men who attacked him were not apprehended as of midday Tuesday, but Cuellar said they were masked and appeared to be young.

"What really got me upset was they took my sushi, but that's something else," Cuellar said with a laugh.

According to The Associated Press, U.S. Capitol Police said officers were being assisted by the Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI in the search for the attackers. Cuellar's vehicle was found abandoned and crime scene technicians were processing the scene, according to the wire report.

We have a number of leads, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said. Our investigators are focused, determined and working around the clock.

Cuellar praised the actions of police, noting that he has three brothers in law enforcement. One of them, Martin Cuellar, is sheriff of Webb County where the congressman makes his home.

According to published accounts, police in the nation's capital said the incident happened at 9:30 p.m. at New Jersey Avenue and K Street SE.

Cuellar, a former state representative who later served as Texas state secretary for nine months in 2001, has represented the 28th Congressional District since 2005 and he is considered one of the most conservative Democrats in Washington.

In 2020 and 2022, Cuellar defeated two primary opponents who challenged him from the left without success and the congressman won both general elections. Heading in the 2024 cycle, his former chief of staff, Jose Sanz, has said he'll run as a Republican for Texas' 28th congressional district that's anchored in Laredo.

His office on Tuesday provided background material showing that Cuellar had voted against what the congressman said were measures that were too lenient on violent offenders and worked to pass legislation that rolled back some of the District of Columbia's initiatives

The background material from Cuellar's office said carjacking has gone up 103% in Washington over the past year and violent crime in the district is up 37%.

More: Rep. Henry Cuellar, one of Biden's harshest critics on the migrant surge, urges White House to listen to border towns

According to the website, statehood.dc.gov, "Congress reviews all DC legislation before it can become law. Congress can modify or even overturn such legislation. It can impose new and unwanted laws on the District."

Asked how the carjacking affected him emotionally, Cuellar said he's fine.

"I'm good, I'm good," he said. "It's like I said, you got to keep calm under those situations and you analyze the situation quickly."

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at jmoritz@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly called Twitter, @JohnnieMo.

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Henry Cuellar appears upbeat as he recalls being carjacked at gunpoint
Relations between the countries have worsened since last month

India has asked Canada to withdraw about 40 diplomatic staff from India, reports say, in a sharp escalation of a weeks-long crisis.

Those who stayed past 10 October would lose their diplomatic immunity, the Financial Times first reported.

Last month, Canada said India may have been behind the killing of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil, which India has denied.

An Indian foreign ministry official told the BBC it had no comment to make.

Canada has many more diplomats in Delhi than India has in Ottawa, and since this crisis erupted India has asked Canada for parity in its diplomatic missions.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Tuesday he was not seeking to escalate the rift with India.

"We're going to continue to engage responsibly and constructively with the government of India," he said.

Tensions heightened between the two countries, which have historically had close ties, after Mr Trudeau said in September that India may have been behind the 18 June killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

He was a Canadian citizen shot dead in his vehicle by two masked gunmen outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia.

India had designated him a terrorist in 2020.

Mr Trudeau told the Canadian parliament the country's intelligence agencies were investigating whether "agents of the government of India" were involved in the killing of Nijjar.

While India denied the allegation, the foreign ministry later said it was willing to look at any specific information shared by Canada.

Both countries have since expelled a diplomat each of the other nation.

On 21 September, India stopped issuing visas to Canadian citizens citing "security threats" at its missions in Canada.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi also said India was looking for "parity in rank and diplomatic strength" between the diplomatic missions of the two countries.

"This is being sought because of Canadian diplomatic interference in our internal affairs," he said.

Canada also announced it was reducing its personnel in India, saying some diplomats had received threats on social media.

"In light of the current environment where tensions have heightened, we are taking action to ensure the safety of our diplomats," a statement said.

Canada's visa services remain open in India.

The US, UK and Australia have urged Delhi to cooperate with Canada's investigation.

The Indian government has often reacted sharply to demands by Sikh separatists in Western countries for Khalistan, or a separate Sikh homeland. Nijjar vocally supported the Khalistan movement.

The movement which peaked in India in the 1980s with a violent insurgency centred in India's Sikh-majority Punjab state was quelled by force.

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In the latest escalation of India and Canadas spat over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader, Delhi gave Ottawa until Oct. 10 to remove 41 of its 62 India-based diplomats, the Financial Times first reported.

In response, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that he was not looking to escalate tensions with India, but continue having constructive relations, while Canadian officials said that the country is seeking private conversations with Narendra Modis government to resolve the diplomatic feud.

After Canada accused India of potentially being involved in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in September, Delhi moved quickly to suspend new visas for Canadians. The allegations stem from surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada and intelligence provided by a major, undisclosed ally, the AP reports. The accusation reportedly comes after Trudeau attempted to secure India's cooperation in a police inquiry into Nijjar's killing, which India refused, urging Ottawa to stop its probe. The Indian government has publicly denied any accusations.

Delhi has for years accused Canada of allowing Sikh separatists to freely advocate for the creation of Khalistan, a Sikh state independent of India. Officials in Delhi have said this produces a "climate of violence" and an "atmosphere of intimidation" against Indian diplomats based there. Indian leaders say there are fringe groups among Canadas politically powerful Sikh community who are sympathetic to the separatist cause, but that there is hardly any support for the movement among Sikhs in India.

The Indian media has launched a "half-crazed jihad" against Trudeau, writes Wall Street Journal columnist Sadanand Dhume, with one retired Indian diplomat accusing the Canadian leader of being a cocaine addict on a news channel. Anti-Trudeau sentiment runs deep in India, stemming from the belief that he has been largely sympathetic to Sikh radicalism in Canada for political advantages. Indians dont take Canadas message seriously in part because they have a low opinion of the messenger, Dhume writes, adding that Canadas possible failure to offer evidence of its allegations will deepen Indias dislike of Trudeau.
Security officers carry boxes of material confiscated after a raid at the office of NewsClick in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Indian police raided the offices of the news website that's under investigation for allegedly receiving funds from China, as well as the homes of several of its journalists, in what critics described as an attack on one of India's few remaining independent news outlets. (AP Photo/Dinesh Joshi)

NEW DELHI (AP)  Indian police raided the offices of a news website that's under investigation for allegedly receiving funds from China, as well as the homes of several of its journalists, in what critics described as an attack on one of India's few remaining independent news outlets.

The raids came months after Indian authorities searched the BBCs New Delhi and Mumbai offices over accusations of tax evasion in February.

NewsClick, founded in 2009, is known as a rare Indian news outlet willing to criticize Prime Minister Narendra Modi . A number of other news organizations have been investigated for financial impropriety under Modi's Hindu nationalist government, as international monitors warn that press freedom is eroding in India.

Indian authorities registered a case against the site and its journalists on Aug. 17, weeks after a New York Times report alleged that the website had received funds from an American millionaire who, the Times wrote, has funded the spread of Chinese propaganda. NewsClick has denied the charges.

The case was filed under a wide-ranging anti-terrorism law that allows charges for anti-national activities and has been used against activists, journalists and critics of Modi, some of whom have spent years in jail before going to trial. No one has been arrested in connection with NewsClick so far.

Two people, including NewClick's editor in chief, were detained during the raids, and police carried away boxes of documents.

At least two journalists whose houses were raided by Delhi police said their devices were seized.

Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone, journalist Abhisar Sharma wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Delhi police did not immediately respond for a comment, but Indias junior minister for information and broadcasting, Anurag Thakur, told reporters that if anyone has committed anything wrong, search agencies are free to carry out investigations against them.

In August, Thakur accused NewsClick of spreading an anti-India agenda, citing the New York Times, and of working with the opposition Indian National Congress party. Both NewsClick and the Congress party denied the accusations.

Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group for journalists, ranked the country 161st in its press freedom rankings this year, writing that the situation in the country has deteriorated from problematic to very bad.

The Press Club of India said it was deeply concerned about the multiple raids conducted on the houses of journalists and writers associated with NewsClick.

The PCI stand in solidarity with the journalists and demands the government to come out with details, it wrote in a statement on X.

Ties between India and China have been strained since 2020, when clashes between the two militaries in a disputed border area killed at least 20 Indian troops and four Chinese soldiers. Since then, New Delhi has banned many Chinese-owned apps, including TikTok, and launched tax probes into some Chinese mobile phone companies.

The Modi administration has also introduced rules that require government approval for investments by companies from China and other countries that neighbor India.
An Indian flag is laid on the street as protesters wave a Canadian and Khalistan flags during a protest outside the Indian Consulate in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

TORONTO (AP)  India has told Canada to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country, an official familiar with the matter said Tuesday, ramping up a confrontation between the two countries over Canadian accusations that India may have been involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in suburban Vancouver.

The official, who confirmed an earlier report from the Financial Times, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Indias Ministry of External Affairs declined to comment, but ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had previously called for a reduction in Canadian diplomats in India, saying they outnumbered Indias staffing in Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last month that there were credible allegations of Indian involvement in the slaying of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Sikh leader who was killed by masked gunmen in June in Surrey, outside Vancouver. For years, India has said Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, has links to terrorism, an allegation Nijjar denied.

Arranging the killing of a Canadian citizen in Canada, home to nearly 2 million people of Indian descent, would be unprecedented.

On Tuesday, Trudeau didnt confirm the number of diplomats that have been told to leave but suggested Canada would not retaliate.

Obviously, we are going through an extremely challenging time with India right now, but thats why it is so important for us to have diplomats on the ground working with the Indian government and there to support Canadians and Canadian families, Trudeau said. Were taking this extremely seriously, but were going to continue to engage responsibly and constructively with the Indian government.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said she's in contact with the Indian government.

We will continue to engage privately because we think that diplomatic conversations are best when they remain private," Joly said.

India has accused Canada for years of giving free rein to Sikh separatists, including Nijjar.

India has also canceled visas for Canadians. Canada has not retaliated for that. India previously expelled a senior Canadian diplomat after Canada expelled a senior Indian diplomat.

Trudeau has also previously appeared to try to calm the diplomatic clash, telling reporters that Canada is not looking to provoke or escalate.

The allegation of Indias involvement in the killing is based in part on the surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada, including intelligence provided by a major ally, a separate Canadian official previously told The Associated Press.

The official said that the communications involved Indian officials and diplomats in Canada and that some of the intelligence was provided by a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, which includes the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, in addition to Canada. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The latest expulsions by India have escalated tensions between the countries. Trudeau had frosty encounters with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during last months Group of 20 meeting in New Delhi, and a few days later, Canada canceled a trade mission to India planned for the fall.

"This is a clear show of force on the part of the Modi government, whos not afraid to escalate this diplomatic crisis," said Daniel Beland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal. Its a dramatic move that seriously weakens the capacity of Canadas diplomatic services in India.

Beland said it will hurt many Indian citizens, including foreign students and temporary workers in need of a Canadian visa.

The U.S. needs to do more to solve this diplomatic crisis, he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met last week with Indias foreign minister amid the simmering row between New Delhi and Ottawa. A U.S. official said the topic was raised.

U.S. officials have acknowledged that the fallout from the allegations could have a profound impact on relations with India, but have been careful not to cast blame in the killing of Nijjar.

We are and continue to be deeply concerned by the allegations," U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said to reporters when asked about the case and India expelling 41 Canadian diplomats.

It is critical that Canadas investigation proceed and that the perpetrators be brought to justice. We have publicly and privately urged India to cooperate. We take these allegations very seriously."

Maitreyi Bhatt, a 27-year-old Indian citizen in Toronto whose partner is Canadian and needs a visa, canceled her wedding scheduled to take place in India in late October, when he was to meet her family for the first time. The lost deposits and nonrefundable flights have been a blow, Bhatt said, but are "nothing compared to the mental and emotional turmoil."

The way the situation is accelerating, I dont see them coming to a solution to this anytime soon, she said. It just feels super weird. I never thought I would be a part of this, but sadly I am.

Nijjar, a plumber, was also a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan. A bloody decadelong Sikh insurgency shook north India in the 1970s and 1980s, until it was crushed in a government crackdown in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.

The Khalistan movement has lost much of its political power but still has supporters in the Indian state of Punjab, as well as in the sizable overseas Sikh diaspora. While the active insurgency ended years ago, the Indian government has warned repeatedly that Sikh separatists were trying to make a comeback.

Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said India's actions are consistent with international reports of declining press freedoms in the country.

Like the Chinese government, the Modi government thinks it is in a stronger position than in the past to flex its muscles on the international stage, Wiseman said.

Wiseman also said that if the number of Indian students declines dramatically, Canadian colleges could feel the loss of those high tuitions.
Press freedom in India has plummeted since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, rights activists and opposition lawmakers say (SAM PANTHAKY)

Indian anti-terror police said Tuesday they had arrested two people linked to a news website and raided the homes of 44 others, in a case reportedly connected to alleged Chinese funding.

The dawn raids in the capital New Delhi raised international concerns over the situation for media in a country where press freedom has nosedived.

Those raided are reported to be connected to NewsClick, an English-language news website that Indian authorities filed a case against in 2021 alleging it was receiving foreign funding.

The New York Times in August reported that NewsClick was financed by US millionaire Neville Roy Singham, saying it "sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points" -- claims Singham rejected.

The report accused Singham of working closely with Beijing and of "financing its propaganda worldwide".

New Delhi and Beijing are bitter rivals and have a long-running border dispute, with a deadly Himalayan clash in 2020 sending diplomatic relations into a deep freeze.

- 'Intimidation' -

Police said that 37 men and nine women had been questioned, two of them while under arrest, and that digital devices and documents were seized, without giving further details for the reason for the raid.

However, police said the raids were carried out under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), a stringent anti-terror law which makes it virtually impossible to get bail.

"The proceedings are still ongoing," police said. "So far, two accused, Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty have been arrested."

Purkayastha is the editor of NewsClick, while Chakravarty is the site's head of human resources, local media reported.

NewsClick journalist Aritry Das posted on social media that police "barged into my home" at dawn, questioned her about her reporting and seized her laptop, phone and computer hard disks.

Also raided in connection to NewsClick was historian and activist Sohail Hashmi.

"From the warrant that they reluctantly showed me, the raid at my residence was related to an investigation into NewsClick," Hashmi told AFP.

Hashmi had to hand over his laptop, phone and hard disks containing more than a decade of his writing, calling the raid a "combination of intimidation and a crackdown on freedom of press and speech".

The Mumbai Press Club expressed its "deep concern" at the raids in a statement, reporting that "multiple journalists affiliated with NewsClick have been subjected to raids".

It demanded the police stop "what is perceived as a targeted harassment campaign against these journalists".

- 'Voices of dissent' -

"I don't need to justify," India's minister for information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur told reporters asking about the raids.

"If anyone has committed anything wrong, search agencies are free to carry out investigations," broadcaster NDTV quoted him as saying.

Press freedom in India has plummeted since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, rights activists and opposition lawmakers say.

Reporters Without Borders warns "press freedom is in crisis" in India. Since 2014, India dropped from 140 to 161 on its rankings of media freedom, including 11 places since last year.

Journalists critical of the government complain of harassment, and critics say Modi's government has sought to pressure rights groups by scrutinising their finances and clamping down on foreign funding.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called the raids "an act of sheer harassment and intimidation".

The United States, which has a growing relationship with India despite concerns about democratic backsliding, called for respect for media but declined to weigh in on reports of NewsClick's relationship with China.

On Tuesday evening, journalist Abhisar Sharma said he was back home after a "day-long interrogation" by police.

"I will keep questioning people in power and particularly those who are afraid of simple questions," he wrote on social media.

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Indian police officials arrested two and raided the office and homes of journalists of a news website thats been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi s government, in the latest sign of a crackdown on media freedom in the country.

Staff from NewsClick, a New Delhi-based online paper, posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, just before their phones and laptops were seized by local police on Tuesday.

Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and Phone..., Abhisar Sharma, a journalist at NewsClick, wrote on X. Another reporter, Bhasha Singh, also posted that the police was seizing her phone.

NewsClick had been the subject of investigation by Indian authorities for some time. In 2021, the NewsClick office and homes of seven staff members were raided by the Enforcement Directorate over allegations of improper foreign investments. NewsClick founder, Prabir Purkayastha at the time called the allegations misleading, unfounded and without basis in fact or law.

A total of 37 male suspects have been questioned at premises, 9 female suspects have been questioned at their respective places of stay and digital devices, documents etc. have been seized/collected for examination, the Delhi Police said in a late evening statement. The proceedings are still ongoing; so far, two accused, Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty have been arrested.

Indian journalists and media houses have come under increasing pressure from the government for news coverage that may be perceived as critical of Modi, his government or the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Earlier this year, the BBCs offices in New Delhi were raided by investigative agencies, weeks after the network aired a documentary about the 2002 Gujarat riots and Modis role in them. Last year, Mohammad Zubair, a journalist running a fact-checking website, Alt News, was arrested and detained for weeks after highlighting anti-Islamic comments made by former BJP officials.

Reporters Without Borders, a press advocacy group, this year dropped India to 161st place in its press freedom rankings of 180 countries and territories.

The Press Club of India released a statement Tuesday expressing concern at the raids, adding that it demands the government to come out with details for its action.

The New York Times in August cited NewsClick as an organization allegedly being used for Chinese propaganda overseas. Anurag Thakur, an Indian cabinet minister, said at the time that NewsClick was being funded by China but the salesmen in the operation were Indians.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday regarding the raids, Thakur said that if someone has done something wrong, the investigative agencies will work on it.

--With assistance from Abhay Singh and Bibhudatta Pradhan.

(Updates with Delhi Police statement in fifth paragraph)

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The bicameral Indigenous Peoples Day Act to replace Columbus Day as a federal holiday and designate the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples Day has been reintroduced in Congress.

The legislation was reintroduced by Representatives Sharice Davids (KS-03), Norma J. Torres (CA-35), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), and Suzan DelBene (WA-01), along with Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM).

The Indigenous Peoples Day Act has garnered 56 cosponsors in the House of Representatives.

In the U.S. Senate, the legislation is cosponsored by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Brian Schatz (D-HI), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), and Cory Booker (D-NJ).

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Our country has long failed to recognize and acknowledge its dark history of erasure and harm brought upon the first inhabitants of the Americas, Norma Torres (CA-35) said. The Indigenous Peoples Day Act celebrates the 600+ tribes that inhabited the Americas for hundreds of years before the arrival of Western explorers. By designating Indigenous Peoples Day a federal holiday, we take a small but important step toward recognizing the injustices in our nations history and uplifting the vibrant traditions, history, and culture of all Indigenous communities  an integral part of the cultural fabric of the United States.

Rep. Davids (Ho-Chunk), when elected in 2018 became one of the first women ever elected to Congress, said she is honored to join her colleagues in calling for the celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day.

"Indigenous Peoples' Day is an opportunity to commemorate Indigenous peoples' vibrant cultures and significant contributions to our nation  from before we became a union to today  and a day to acknowledge the persecution and discrimination that Native peoples have faced for centuries. Davids said.

The legislation is endorsed by the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).

Long before Christopher Columbus stumbled upon this continent, many nations of Native people sustained thriving societies across this country, NCAI Executive Director Larry Wright, Jr. (Ponca) said. NCAI applauds Senator Heinrich, Senator Lujan, and Representative Torres for re-introducing legislation designed to officially recognize Indigenous Peoples Day and create space dedicated to acknowledging the rich histories, vibrant cultures, and resilience of contemporary tribal nations and their citizenry, and NCAI urges Congress to pass this bill and sign it into law as expeditiously as possible.

The two largest tribal nations in the country, Cherokee Nation and Navajo Nation, also give their endorsement to the Act.

Cherokee Nation supports legislation replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day and applauds Congresswoman Torres and Senators Heinrich and Lujan for their continued leadership on this issue. It is past time for the United States to recognize the integral role Native people play in the history, economy, and future of our country. The second Monday of October will be a day for people across the United States to celebrate and honor the significant contributions of Native tribes as well as the beautiful culture of our Native people, said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr.

"Recognizing and celebrating the rich histories, cultures, and contributions of indigenous peoples is an essential step towards promoting understanding, equality, and respect. By replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day, we acknowledge the resilience, wisdom, and enduring presence of indigenous communities, fostering unity and honoring the diverse tapestry of our nation's heritage. My thanks go out to Senator Heinrich and Congresswoman Torres for the introduction of the Indigenous Peoples Day Act in their respective houses, said Navajo Nation President Dr. Buu Nygren.

Rep. Torres has introduced legislation to recognize Indigenous Peoples Day since 2019. She first introduced the Indigenous Peoples Day Act in 2021 to establish Indigenous Peoples Day as a federal holiday.

About the Author: "Native News Online is one of the most-read publications covering Indian Country and the news that matters to American Indians, Alaska Natives and other Indigenous people. Reach out to us at editor@nativenewsonline.net. "

Contact: news@nativenewsonline.net
Peatland fires have spread through Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra, which neighbours Jambi province (Al ZULKIFLI)

An Indonesian city with a population of hundreds of thousands has shut schools for three days because of haze caused by large peatland fires, its mayor said Tuesday.

A prolonged dry season has caused higher risks of wildfires on the archipelago nation's major islands, stoking fears of repeat haze-belching forest fires that have also affected neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore in recent years.

The city of Jambi on the western island of Sumatra, which has a population of around 600,000, has forced students to online learning from home over the toxic smog.

"The thick smog made us lay off students from preschool to junior high school," the city's mayor Syarif Fasha told reporters at Jambi city hall.

The school ban was from Monday to Wednesday, but would be extended if the haze continued, he said.

Authorities said the haze was caused by fires elsewhere, without specifying. Peatland fires have been raging in neighbouring Palembang province for more than a month.

On Monday, air quality levels in Jambi reached 154 PM2.5 -- fine particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs -- at "unhealthy" levels 11.4 times the annual air quality value set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The local government has also asked residents to wear masks and reduce outdoor activity as the air quality deteriorates.

It has been distributing masks on the street and at markets, according to an AFP journalist.

Schools in Palembang in South Sumatra and Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan -- all affected by haze -- have also shifted to online classes, according to local media reports.

Parents in Jambi said they agreed with the decision.

"The haze is dangerous for health," said 35-year-old office worker Kusnadi Putera.

"There are additional costs (of children at home), but we have got used to it since the pandemic."

Siti Jamilah, a 55-year-old housewife in Jambi, said she was avoiding leaving the house apart from trips to the market for food.

"The eyes feel sore, and the air smells like something is burning," she said.

str-agn-jfx/ssy
Welcome to Investigative Stories from Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent's newsletter that walks you through the most prominent investigations of the past week.

If you are fond of in-depth journalism that exposes war crimes, corruption, and abuse of power across state organizations in Ukraine and beyond, subscribe to our investigative newsletter.

If you enjoy this newsletter, consider joining our membership or supporting us with a one-time donation. Start supporting independent journalism today.

Top investigative stories

______________________________________________

Media: Russian drone downed by Ukraine is full of Western components

A Russian Ptero reconnaissance drone recently downed by Ukrainian forces was full of Western parts, according to Trap Aggressor, a Ukrainian investigative journalism project.

Trap Aggressor got access to the drone wreckage, identified the components, and found that they were manufactured in the U.S., Japan, and Germany.

In September 2022, the CEO of AFM-Servers, a private Russian company that makes the Ptero drone under state contracts, said that it operates thanks to a navigation system developed by Iridium Satellite, a U.S.-based company.

In the trade data, Trap Aggressor found that Iridiums Russian subsidiary imported products directly from its U.S.-based parent as late as October 2022, the ninth month of the Russian all-out war.

The Moscow-based subsidiary is still under active state contracts to provide the Russian military with satellite communication services, Trap Aggressor reported, citing procurement data.

Following the publication, U.S.-based Iridium told Trap Aggressor that they do not condone the use of their technology in Russian drones and that they comply with U.S. sanctions despite evidence to the contrary.

A Ukrainian military expert told Trap Aggressor that without importing Western components, Russia could not sustain the production of drones it extensively uses in its war against Ukraine.

Read the full investigation in English here.

Journalists identify over 1,800 occupation officials, including over 1,500 Ukrainians

Ukrainian outlet NGL Media names 1,816 representatives of occupation authorities, most of whom are Ukrainian citizens.

The journalist investigation is based on data from the official Russian state register, which sources with internal access leaked to NGL Media.

Journalists found that 1,579 of the identified officials were Ukrainian citizens. The occupation authorities reportedly appointed Russians to key security service and justice posts, while other positions were held primarily by Ukrainians.

For instance, NGL Media found that Ukrainian collaborators headed 87% of local police stations and 80% of prisons and detention centers.

NGL Media created a database of the identified occupation officials and mapped their registered addresses in occupation territories.

Under Ukrainian legislation, those collaborating with occupation authorities by taking a leadership position in the courts or law enforcement agencies could face 12-15 years in prison or even a life sentence under exceptional circumstances.

Read the full investigation in Ukrainian here.

How Russian forces killed civilians on a highway outside Kyiv, burned evidence early in invasion

In the early days of the full-scale invasion, Russian soldiers killed at least 14 and wounded seven civilians along a short stretch of the E60 highway seven kilometers west of Kyiv, according to an investigation by Texty, a Ukrainian media outlet.

Textys story is based on interviews with local police, prosecutors, witnesses, and survivors of the attack, as well as on video footage. The investigation shows that Russian forces targeted civilian vehicles that were driving along the highway and killed people traveling on foot in the area.

According to the journalist investigation, Russian forces killed 27 people along this highway, including 14 civilians and eight people who have not been identified.

In an attempt to hide their war crimes, Russian forces burned the cars of the victims and their bodies, according to video footage and statements by local authorities.

Russian forces took up positions along the highway on March 3, 2022, drone footage shows. On that day, they reportedly killed a civilian man who was walking in the area. They used to regularly kill civilians there until the area was liberated in early April, according to the journalist investigation.

Local police and prosecutors told Texty that the 2nd battalion of the 5th tank brigade, a unit within the 36th Combined Arms Army, held the position. The 36th army participated in the siege of Kyiv, and authorities previously charged soldiers from the army for participating in the Bucha massacre.

According to Russian media, the commander of the 2nd battalion was later killed in action. Ukrainian prosecutors issued a notice of suspicion in absentia to two other soldiers from the unit in connection with the highway killings.

The Kyiv Independents documentary Bullet Holes, released on Sept. 14, told the stories of two children who were shot by Russian forces while fleeing front-line areas by car with their families.

Russian forces target civilian vehicles across Ukraine, according to the UN Commission of Inquiry.

Read the full investigation in Ukrainian here.

Journalists identify Russian military training facilities in southern Ukraine

An investigation by the Center for Investigative Journalism, a Ukrainian media outlet, identified more than two dozen Russian training camps in occupied southern Ukraine, including Crimea.

Journalists used satellite imagery, photographs posted by Russian channels on social media, and reports of Ukrainian strikes on the facilities to geolocate the training camps, some of which were built before the full-scale invasion.

Satellite imagery shows the expansion of the facilities and intensification of training exercises, the Center for Investigative Journalism reported.

According to the journalist investigation, Russian training exercises have caused significant environmental damage in occupied territories, including possibly starting a massive fire that affected 50,000 hectares of land.

Read the full investigation in Ukrainian, and see the map of facilities here.

Ukrainska Pravda finds Ukrainians wanted under corruption charges living luxuriously in London

Journalists from Ukrainska Pravda located and confronted two influential Ukrainians subject to corruption charges enjoying a luxurious life in London.

Among them is Pavlo Fuks, at one point one of the richest men in Ukraine who now faces charges of tax evasion, and Andrii Dovbenko, whom the Ukrainian media described as the grey eminence behind the countrys justice ministry in 2017, indicted in absentia for fraud. Both denied the allegations in their respective cases.

London is a popular hiding spot for Ukrainian oligarchs and other influential figures who face domestic legal troubles, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

Ukrainska Pravda confronted Fuks, a suspect in a fresh tax evasion case and subject to domestic sanctions since 2021 imposed on him as a person "of increased criminal influence," stepping out of a chauffeured Range Rover in London.

According to the Pravda investigation, Fuks was never recorded crossing the border when he left Ukraine two days after the start of the full-scale invasion. He told the reporters he had stayed in the UK under a residence permit ever since and said he plans to fight the charges against him in person once the war is over.

Pravda also confronted fugitive lawyer Dovbenko at the doorsteps of his multi-million-pound home in west London, reportedly registered in his wife's name.

In the Ukrainian media, Dovbenko used to be portrayed as a grey eminence in the justice ministry in the times of President Petro Poroshenko, allegations which he had denied. Dovbenko is wanted in Ukraine on fraud charges and was indicted in absentia in April 2023.

According to the report, Dovbenko, who claims he is not hiding from Ukrainian authorities, is seeking asylum in London.

Watch the full investigation in Ukrainian, with English subtitles here.

Impact

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Journalist investigation leads to criminal corruption probe connected to presidential advisor

Following an investigation by Bihus.Info, Ukraines National Anti-Corruption Agency launched a criminal probe into associates of Rostyslav Shurma, a deputy head of the Presidents Office.

In August, Bihus.Info published an investigation showing that since the summer of 2022, energy companies swindled the Ukrainian government for up to Hr 320 million ($8.7 million) for solar energy it couldnt possibly receive.

The investigation showed that two of the energy companies that were paid by the state were co-owned by Oleh Shurma, Rostyslavs brother, and another company was co-owned by Rostyslavs old business associate.

The latest update by Bihus.Info says that the anti-corruption investigation is looking at five firms from Shurmas orbit mentioned in the August story.

The National Anti-Corruption Agency is investigating suspects for embezzlement through abuse of office. The suspects, who are yet to be announced, face up to 12 years in prison.

Meanwhile, in Russia

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Russian construction giant funds mercenary unit fighting against Ukraine

A major Russian construction company is funding a volunteer unit fighting against Ukraine, according to an investigation by Russian independent media outlet iStories.

The Russian Legion was reportedly founded in May 2022. The units leader boasted on social media that he has been recruiting Russians to fight against Ukraine since 2014.

Mercenaries are paid huge sums by local standards, according to advertisements and a contract obtained by iStories, with a starting bonus of more than $6,000 and a monthly salary of $3,600.

When joining the Russian legion, fighters signed contracts with Investinform, a company founded in August 2022 that operates as an intermediary for major Russian construction company PIK, according to the journalist investigation.

IStories contacted the legion under the guise of being a potential volunteer, and a recruiter confirmed to the journalists that PIK financially supports the unit.

Russian corporate data shows that Investinform currently owns a company previously connected to PIK. PIK denied any connections to Investinform.

A previous investigation by IStories showed that PIK was funding Russian military recruitment through a different intermediary.

Read the full investigation in Russian here.

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Iowa's Republican U.S. representatives voted to keep Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House, but they were unsuccessful as a GOP-led revolt ousted McCarthy from his position.

McCarthy faced a vote, called a motion to vacate, that saw him removed from the speakership on a 216-210 vote. Eight Republicans joined 208 Democrats in removing McCarthy, making him the first speaker in U.S. history to be removed through a motion to vacate.

He faced anger from a small minority of Republicans in the wake of a government funding fight last week where McCarthy backed a deal to keep the government funded for about 45 days  without the spending cuts that hardline conservatives demanded.

More: Democrats won't save Kevin McCarthy as Matt Gaetz moves to oust him as house speaker: live updates

Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida filed the motion to oust McCarthy. And Democrats indicated Tuesday they would not try to save him, dashing his hopes of surviving with bipartisan support.

Republicans hold a slim majority in the House.

Ahead of the vote, Iowa's four Republican U.S. representatives indicated they would support McCarthy.

Here's what they said:

1st District U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks

U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican representing southeast Iowa, said deposing McCarthy will derail House Republicans' agenda.

"A motion to vacate is going to continue to derail our appropriations bills process in bringing those bills to the floor. It will upset and further erode our ability to investigate the Biden family corruption, which we've made significant progress," Miller-Meeks said Tuesday on the House floor.

She added in a social media post that a motion to vacate "would pause our work to fortify our porous borders."

Miller-Meeks released a statement following the vote praising legislation House Republicans have passed under McCarthy that would cut spending, increase military pay, strengthen border security and ban transgender girls from participating in girls' sports.

"But Matt Gaetz and his minions are single-handedly derailing our progress and eroding our ability to pass appropriation bills, hold committee hearings, investigate the Biden family corruption, issue subpoenas and work to secure the border and reduce crime," Miller-Meeks said. "Dismantling our leadership ruins our ability to work for the American people and I now see why Matt Gaetz is referred to as Bidens favorite Republican."

More: Iowa's senators, representatives vote to avert a government shutdown. What they're saying:

2nd District U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson

U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican representing northeast Iowa, criticized Gaetz's effort as a "grandstanding sideshow."

"I am a HELL NO on the motion to vacate," Hinson wrote on social media. "Matt Gaetz's grandstanding sideshow is a disgrace  and why so many Iowans are frustrated with politics in Washington. We need to be working for the American people, not playing political games for Gaetz's personal benefit."

Hinson added, "I fully support Speaker McCarthy."

"We need to be focused on fighting the Biden agenda, not fighting amongst ourselves," she wrote.

Hinson released a statement following the vote where she again criticized Gaetz.

"Republicans had an opportunity to focus all our energy against the disastrous Biden agenda that has resulted in open borders, rampant inflation and skyrocketing crime," Hinson said in the statement. "Instead, Matt Gaetz has paralyzed the House and brought our work for the American people to a halt. Hardworking Americans are the ones who pay the price for political games like these  not the selfish politicians who play them. I will continue working to end the embarrassing chaos and dysfunction and pursuing solutions to the challenges Iowans are facing each day."

3rd District U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn

U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, a Republican representing metro Des Moines and central and southern Iowa, said Congress needs to focus on the budget process, not leadership fights.

"We have just 45 days to pass bills to get spending under control," Nunn wrote on social media. "Wasting even one day voting on a motion to vacate instead of budget cuts is self-defeating & DC politics at its worst. I am a NO on the motion to vacate & a YES to getting back to work for Americans."

4th District U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra

U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, a Republican who represents western and northwest and north central Iowa, said McCarthy has led the House GOP "with grit, purpose & resolve."

"Together, we have passed legislation to secure our border, cut spending, give parents a voice in their childrens education, and restore American energy independence," Feenstra wrote on social media. "Lets keep delivering for American families."

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Miller-Meeks, Hinson, Nunn, Feenstra support McCarthy in ouster vote
Armita Garawand was reportedly badly injured in a 'severe physical assault' by female morality police officers on the Tehran metro

A 16-year-old Iranian girl is in a coma and is being treated in hospital under heavy security after allegedly being attacked by Tehrans morality police for not wearing a headscarf.

Hengaw, a Kurdish-focused rights group, said Armita Garawand was badly injured in a severe physical assault by female morality police officers on the Tehran metro.

The incident has set Iran on edge, with many in the country seeing parallels to the case of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman whose death in the custody of the morality police sparked a nationwide protest movement.

The protests, which lasted for several months, rattled Irans clerical leadership and only dwindled in the face of a crackdown that, according to activists, has led to thousands being arrested and hundreds killed.

Hengaw claimed that Ms Garawand was left with serious injuries after being apprehended at the Shohada metro station in the Iranian capital on Sunday.

It said she was being treated under tight security at Tehrans Fajr Air Force hospital and there are currently no visits allowed for the victim, not even from her family.

The Iranian authorities have denied that the security forces were involved and claimed that Ms Gawarand fainted due to low blood pressure, leading her to hit the side of the train carriage.

A screen capture from a video purportedly showing Armita Garawand being carried unconscious from a metro train in Tehran

Ms Garawand hails from the city of Kermanshah, in Kurdish-populated western Iran, but is a resident of Tehran, said Hengaw.

The case has become the subject of intense discussion on social media, with a video purporting to show the incident being shared widely

The grainy footage appears to show Ms Garawand being pushed into the metro by female police agents before being carried out, apparently unconscious, by her friends.

Masood Dorosti, managing director of the Tehran subway system, denied there was any verbal or physical conflict between the student and passengers or metro executives.

Some rumours about a confrontation with metro agents ... are not true and CCTV footage refutes this claim, Mr Dorosti told state news agency IRNA.

In August, Alireza Zakani, Tehrans mayor, launched new patrols to ensure headscarf-wearing rules were being followed on the capitals metro system.

Since then, there have been numerous reports of officers becoming involved in violent confrontations with women who refuse to wear the hijab.

The IranWire news site, based outside Iran, cited a source as saying she had sustained a head injury after being pushed by the officers.

Ms Garawand was in a critical condition when she arrived at the hospital on Sunday morning with weak vital signs, IranWire reported, citing a source inside the hospital.

Parents deny girl was attacked

Fars, the Iranian governments official news agency, published an interview with Ms Garawands parents, who denied she was attacked.

We have checked all the videos and it has been proven for us that this incident was an accident. We request people to pray for our childs recovery, the girls father is heard saying.

During the crackdown on protests over Aminis death, the Iranian authorities released interviews in which relatives of those killed or hurt by the security forces appeared to have been coerced into speaking.

Maryam Lotfi, a journalist from the Shargh daily newspaper, sought in the aftermath of the incident to visit the hospital but was immediately detained. She was subsequently released, it added.

A year after Aminis death, Iranian authorities have launched a renewed push to crack down on women defying the Islamic republics strict dress rules for women, including the mandatory hijab.

The New York-based Centre for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said women and girls face increased violence, arbitrary arrests and heightened discrimination after the Islamic Republic reactivated its forced-veiling police patrols.

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DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that countries seeking to normalise relations with Israel "are betting on a losing horse", state media reported on Tuesday.

Khamenei did not identify the countries, but expectations that Israel might normalize ties with Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam's two holiest shrines, have been ratcheted up this month.

"The definite position of the Islamic Republic is that countries that make the gamble of normalisation with Israel will lose. They are betting on a losing horse," Khamenei said.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in response to Khamenei's remarks that Iran's efforts to stop countries in the region from forging ties with Israel will fail, citing agreements it signed with Arab nations in 2020.

"Just as Iran hasn't prevented us from achieving the Abraham Accords, Iran will also not prevent us from expanding the circle of peace for the benefit of the citizens of Israel, the people of the region and all of humanity."

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MbS, said in an interview broadcast on Sept 20 that a deal on ties with Israel was getting closer by the day and Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden held a long-awaited meeting to discuss the prospects.

A framework U.S.-brokered deal for forging relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia could be in place by early next year, the Israeli foreign minister said last month, after the three countries signalled progress in the complex negotiations.

An Israeli-Saudi normalisation would dramatically redraw the Middle East by formally bringing together two major U.S. partners in the face of Iran - a foreign-policy flourish for President Joe Biden as he seeks reelection in late 2024.

Four Arab states have formalised ties with Israel in pacts known as the Abraham Accords -- the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Alex Richardson, Editing by William Maclean)
On Tues., Oct. 3, Katherine Jee Rankin, 30, Jacksonville Beach, pleaded guilty in a Middle District of Florida courtroom for tampering with injectable hydromorphone.

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According to court documents, Rankin was a registered nurse and employed by a local surgical center in Jacksonville. On Oct. 13, 2022, a supervisor of Rankin told her she was being fired for forging an anesthesia record.

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The documents go on to say that after being terminated but while still in the building, Rankin was seen by an employee and captured on surveillance video removing vials from a controlled substance cabinet.

After some discussion with employees about her drug addiction, she turned over four vials of injectable hydromorphone.

Read: Church youth group leader and former childrens nurse accused of sexual battery, JSO report said

Rankin went on to explain that the drugs were replaced with saline, the caps glued back on, and the vials placed back into inventory so that the drug count would be correct.

Laboratory testing proved that the four vials showed physical and chemical tampering.

Additional evidence against Rankin included:

A review of patient records showed numerous instances in which 200 ml of hydromorphone was documented as being administered to patients when that amount would have been unusual  100 ml being more typical. On those occasions, the entries appeared to have been altered with a 2 being written over the 1. There were also multiple records of hydromorphone supposedly being administered post-operatively (which also would be unusual), indicating that these records were falsified or altered to cover for Rankins diversion of drugs for personal use. Department of Justice court documents

The Department of Justice commented on the dangers of what Rankin was doing.

As a trained and educated healthcare professional, Rankin knew that tampering with medication and falsifying records placed patients in danger of bodily injury and potentially death, the Department of Justice said in a release.

Rankin faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not been set.

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This case was investigated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration -- Office of Criminal Investigations and the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office -- Pharmaceutical Diversion and Designer Drug Unit attached to the North Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

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This photo taken from cellphone video provided by Ruby Anderson shows LeKeian Woods, with swollen eyes and a bloody face sitting on the ground surrounded by officers, as he's taken into custody, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in northeast Florida. The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office was conducting an administrative review of what happened to see if any policies were violated, the agency said in a statement. (Ruby Anderson via AP)

A Florida sheriff released body camera video Monday that he says shows his officers were justified when they repeatedly punched, elbowed and kneed a drug suspect who appeared to resist arrest even after being zapped with a stun gun and pinned to the ground.

The suspect's attorney, meanwhile, is calling for a federal investigation of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and accused Sheriff T.K. Waters of a coverup. Friday's arrest of Le'Keian Woods drew national attention after the release of a passerby's cellphone video showing officers beating him and appearing to slam him face first onto the ground after he was handcuffed.

Waters and Mike Shell, his assistant chief for public accountability, told a news conference that the officers knew Woods had once been accused of murder, was on probation for armed robbery and had been connected to firearms and drug trafficking when they gave chase to him Friday after a traffic stop.

Mug shots taken after Woods' arrest shows him with both eyes swollen shut and bruises and cuts on his face.

There was force used by arresting officers and yes, that force is ugly. But the reality is that all force, all violence is ugly, Waters said. But just because force is ugly does not mean it is unlawful or contrary to (agency) policy. He said all the officers remain on the street where they belong.

Woods is charged with resisting arrest with violence, armed trafficking in cocaine and methamphetamine and other felonies.

Harry Daniels, Woods attorney, said he will petition the U.S. Justice Department to investigate his client's beating.

It's unfortunate that the sheriff believes the beating of an unarmed man is justified, Daniels said. It is obvious that he is complicit and an enabler of clear misconduct by his officers. It is not surprising that (the sheriff's office) didn't find any misconduct because they investigate themselves."

Body camera footage shows that Jacksonville officers, including Hunter Sullivan, stopped a Dodge Ram pickup in an apartment complex's parking garage. Shell said the stop came shortly after Woods completed a drug sale at a gas station. Officers are then seen pointing their guns at two men with Woods and they surrender without incident. Waters said cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine and a handgun were found in the truck.

The video shows Woods, however, bolting from the front passenger's seat and into the apartment complex, with Sullivan giving chase. Sullivan repeatedly yells at Woods to get on the ground or he will shoot him with his Taser stun gun. When Sullivan gets close enough, he shoots him twice with the stun gun and Woods falls face first onto the pavement.

Sullivan then jumps on top of Woods and repeatedly tells him to put his hands behind his back. Woods, who is 5-foot-8-inches tall and 160 pounds (1.7 meters and 72 kilograms), squirms and sometimes puts one hand or the other behind his back, but then moves the other beneath him.

In an arrest report also released Monday, Sullivan said he repeatedly hit Woods in the head and ribs and elbowed him in the face, fearing that he was reaching for a gun in his waistband. Detective Josue Garriga arrived and said in the report that he kneed Woods in the head and shoulders while another punched him. After about two minutes, they get Woods handcuffed, according to the video.

Another body cam video shows officers still accusing Woods of resisting arrest as they try to lift him from the ground, so they slam him back. They then drag him into a sitting position on the ground.

Daniels, Woods' attorney, said that the sheriff's office had no legal reason to stop the truck. In the report, the officers said they originally tried to stop the truck because the driver wasn't wearing his seat belt, but he wouldn't pull over.

They had no reason to engage Mr. Woods, none, Daniels said. He said Woods wasn't resisting arrest as he struggled with Sullivan and the other officers, but was trying to protect himself from an unlawful beating.

Any man who is getting a beating is going to resist that beating or he is going to get killed, Daniels said.

Woods was being held Monday at the Jacksonville jail. He has been on probation after pleading no contest to a 2017 robbery in Tallahassee in which he and his roommate tried to rob a marijuana dealer at gunpoint, according to court records.

The dealer pulled his own gun and fatally shot the roommate as Woods fled. Woods was originally charged with second-degree murder in his roommates death, but a plea bargain was reached last year that released him without prison time.

In 2019, Garriga shot a man in a traffic stop over an unbuckled seat belt, according to public records. Prosecutors found the shooting was justified, and a lawsuit filed by the dead mans family was later settled for an undisclosed amount, federal court records show. Daniels was the family's attorney.
The cause of death for Jacky Oh, the comedy challenge show Wild N Out whose real name is Jacklyn Marie Smith, has been revealed.

According to the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department, the star died June 1 from complications following a gluteal augmentation procedure. She was 33 at the time of her death.

Officials said Smith was cleared prior to the operation and traveled with her aunt from Georgia to Miami, Florida, for the surgery on May 30.

After surgery, Smith was prescribed ciprofloxacin, oxycodone, and ondansetron, the medical examiner's department said, adding that she developed a headache after the operation.

Smith returned to the surgeon for a post-operative appointment and had a massage "to alleviate her headache," officials said.

After a nurse was notified of the headache, Smith was advised to take ibuprofen and to discontinue ondansetron, the department said. On the night of May 31, she began to "feel like her head was burning."

Smith then had difficulty speaking, officials said, which is when her aunt contacted emergency personnel. Prior to arriving at HCA Florida Mercy Hospital, Smith became unresponsive.

The department said she was then pronounced in the hospital's emergency room at 11 p.m.

According to the department, the actor did not use tobacco, alcohol or drugs.

On June 2, the official Instagram account for Wild N Out announced the death of the former cast member of five seasons.

We are deeply saddened by the passing of Jacklyn Smith, known to the world as Jacky Oh, a talented Wild N Out family member whose impact will be forever treasured and missed, the caption read.

Jacky Oh was a loving friend and beloved colleague of the Wild N Out cast throughout five seasons, the statement continued. More importantly, she was a tremendous mother to three beautiful children.

Smith shares children Nova, Nala and Prince with longtime partner DC Young Fly, whom she met on set of the show in 2015. The medical department noted that she is also survived by her father.

The actor was still active on social media at the time of her death and ran a YouTube channel where she shared a glimpse into life with her kids. According to her Instagram account, Smith also created a lip gloss line called J Nova Collection and a was a realtor in Atlanta, Georgia.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
A Border Patrol vehicle on the banks of the Rio Grande in Laredo, Texas on Aug. 28, 2023. (Kaylee Greenlee Beal/The New York Times)

Several months ago, as a federal judge worked through a docket of smuggling cases in the bustling border city of Laredo, Texas, three people were escorted into the courtroom.

Because they were immigrants living in the country without legal permission, the judge explained, they would be sent to jail. But they were not being charged with a crime. Instead, they would be compelled to testify against the people accused of helping them enter the United States.

The hearing took less than five minutes. The immigrants never spoke, not to ask questions or explain why they had made the illegal journey across the Rio Grande. They were then taken to jail, where they joined a long list of people  nearly 104,000 since 2003  detained as so-called material witnesses in federal criminal proceedings.

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While the law allowing the detention of witnesses in criminal cases dates back to George Washingtons presidency, its modern use has been most prevalent along the Mexican border as successive administrations have prioritized the prosecution of human-smuggling cases, according to an analysis by The New York Times of U.S. Marshals Service data obtained through a public records request.

The annual number of detainees first spiked during the George W. Bush administration, peaked at more than 8,500 during Donald Trump s presidency, dipped with the onset of the pandemic and then rebounded last year under President Joe Biden, with nearly 5,000 people jailed, the data shows. Detentions in the first four months of 2023 were up 30% compared with last year.

Despite their significant numbers and sometimes lengthy detentions  nearly 850 people detained along the border in the past decade have been confined 180 days or longer  the witnesses register as little more than a footnote in the rancorous debate over immigrants living in the country without legal permission and serve as essential but unseen players in smuggling prosecutions.

Although lengthy detentions of material witnesses deprives them of due process, said Kenneth Magidson, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas during the Obama administration, people entering the country illegally have to face certain consequences  and this is one of them.

You could be a material witness, and you can get deported, or you can go to jail, he said.

The Justice Department said in a statement that the detainees provide indispensable testimony and are held only as long as necessary to ensure a just resolution of such cases.

But as immigration-related crimes have come to dominate federal court dockets  56% of federal convictions over the past five years involved immigration offenses  the Justice Department and federal courts have developed no uniform approach to handling the witnesses, creating a jumble of local rules, standing orders and unwritten norms along the border.

Over the past decade, border towns in southeastern Texas have held more of the witnesses  and held them longer, on average  than anywhere else in the country, the Marshals data shows. The material-witness law in that region  part of the U.S. Southern District of Texas  has been administered haphazardly, often with little regard for due process, a review of the detentions by the Times found.

In some parts of the district, which stretches from Laredo to Houston, federal judges have flouted a part of the law that requires them to schedule prompt witness testimony, often by video, and quickly release witnesses from detention. In many instances, court-appointed lawyers have encouraged detainees to waive hearings where they could make a case for their release, and judges have regularly held them well beyond the 30- and 45-day limits instituted in other federal courts along the border.

In Laredo, that means sitting in jail for 13 weeks on average.

They leave you there, and they abandon you, said Yordy Emmanuel Larios-Vargas, a Mexican immigrant who was in custody for more than eight months last year.

Often, witnesses are jailed without ever giving testimony. About 1% of the more than 30,000 human-smuggling cases over the past decade went to trial, according to federal court data, because a vast majority of the accused pleaded guilty. And since it is not uncommon for the defendants to be U.S. citizens, they are often released on bond or under other conditions set by the court, even as the witnesses remain in custody.

The Department of Homeland Security does not track which immigrants are held as witnesses, so the agency has no data on how many go on to seek asylum after their release. Under immigration law, the witnesses are allowed to make an asylum claim. But often, they and their representatives say, those intending to seek asylum do not, because the process is confusing.

For those who return home, many face the prospect of confronting the very smugglers they were forced to testify against. An official at the Mexican Consulate in Laredo described testifying as high risk, adding that organized crime groups know they are contributing to the case.

In other criminal prosecutions, including those involving human trafficking, the government sometimes offers special visas to foreigners who assist law enforcement. But material witnesses in smuggling cases are rarely eligible for this benefit and are often viewed as having committed a crime, even if they are not charged with one.

When immigrants are prosecuted for illegally entering the country, they often receive light sentences, like time served. Under the Biden administration, some prosecutors on the border rarely charge first-time offenders, who make up the bulk of the witnesses because their clean record plays well with juries.

The good thing is that youre not charged with a crime, said Julio Garcia, a material-witness lawyer in Laredo who represented Larios-Vargas. The bad thing is that youll probably spend more time in custody than if you were.

Even without being charged, the witnesses are treated no differently from criminals. They wear the same uniform and must be hand- and ankle-cuffed when in transit, said Sheriff Anthony Zertuche, who oversees the LaSalle County Regional Detention Center, where a vast majority of Laredos material witnesses are held.

A 26-year-old Guatemalan woman was jailed near McAllen as a witness in 2014 when she was five months pregnant, according to court documents and case notes shared with the Times by her immigration lawyer.

She gave birth while in custody, bound with zip ties and with U.S. Marshals standing watch in the delivery room. Two days later, she left the baby with the doctor at the hospital as the agents led her back to jail. She cried inconsolably, according to her lawyers notes, reuniting with the baby only two months later.

Ultimately, the smuggler in her case pleaded guilty, so she never gave testimony and was released after 180 days in detention  the same length of time as her smugglers sentence.

An Old Law Has New Purpose

The authority to detain material witnesses was approved during the first session of Congress, in 1789, and amended by bail reform acts, most recently in 1984. It is now contained in the part of the U.S. Code devoted to criminal procedure.

For most of its existence, the law has been applied in prosecutions where witnesses might have been participants or victims in the crimes, or were afraid of the defendants  instances of gang violence, for example, organized crime or sexual assault. The law attracted rare public attention when it was invoked to detain suspects in terrorism investigations after the 9/11 attacks, which critics said was an abuse.

In the past 10 years, the law has been used almost exclusively to help prosecute human-smuggling cases along the Mexican border. Nearly 20,000 witnesses were held in the Southern District of Texas, the Marshals data shows, compared with just 14 in the Southern District of New York, which includes parts of New York City and some neighboring counties, where human smuggling cases are unusual.

John Scalia, a senior statistician at the U.S. Marshals Service, said he had a high degree of certainty that all the witnesses detained along the border were connected to human smuggling, though the agency does not formally track such information.

Material witnesses often end up boxed in by competing government priorities.

Judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers may want to keep them in the country long enough to testify, while immigration authorities may deport them before the criminal case is over. Prosecutors fear that the loss of witnesses  or even the use of video depositions  could weaken cases, because defendants have a constitutional right to confront people who testify against them. Just having witnesses on hand helps secure guilty pleas from smugglers.

Ryan Patrick, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas during the Trump administration, said it was hard to overstate the value of the witnesses, who often provide the only evidence in smuggling cases.

The material witnesses are important because not only can I make a case directly against the driver of the truck, but they often can also give very valuable information leading backward into stash houses, how they got across the border, who is facilitating their crossing, he said.

Over the years, rulings by federal courts, including the Supreme Court, have upheld the statute. The Justice Departments Office of the Inspector General, after a 2014 review of the statutes use after the 2001 terrorist attacks, acknowledged in a summary of its findings that the law was both powerful and sometimes controversial because it conferred the extraordinary ability to detain someone indefinitely, even though there may not be sufficient evidence to support charging the person with a crime.

Efforts in recent years to make the detention process less onerous include prerecorded testimony and the release of witnesses to relatives while they await trial. But the changes have been piecemeal.

In New Mexico, nearly all material witnesses are routinely released to stay with a family member or at a halfway house, said Barbara Mandel, the senior federal public defender in Las Cruces. Kenneth Gonzales, a federal district judge in New Mexico who previously served as a prosecutor, said released witnesses typically showed up for trial.

In Laredo, there is little time for individual considerations because of the volume of immigration cases. The Southern District of Texas detained just over one-third of all material witnesses nationally since 2013 but accounted for 85% of those held for at least 90 days.

Systems are overwhelmed, overloaded, triaging constantly, said David Donatti, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, who in 2020 sued the warden of the LaSalle detention center, arguing that the material witnesses had been jailed without due process. The suit was dismissed.

Lawyers say judges ultimately make the decisions that keep witnesses detained, but the chief justice for the Southern District of Texas, Randy Crane, said in an interview that the power to change the system lies with the Justice Department. We push as hard as we can, but its the executive branch that is the primary determinant of how long somebody is in custody, he said.

I Wanted To Take My Own Life

Days after Nohemy, fleeing gang violence in El Salvador, crossed the border last year, federal agents in Texas jailed her as a material witness. While in custody near McAllen, she encountered her smuggler, who threatened to kill her if she spoke to authorities about him.

As soon as she got access to a telephone, she called her husband in a panic. Dont tell anyone where I am, she recalled warning him. Tell anyone who asks you that you dont know anything about my whereabouts.

Nohemy, 30, asked to be identified only by her middle name because of fears for her safety. The story of her journey from El Salvador, and her treatment there and in the United States, was corroborated through court documents, U.S. Marshals data and interviews with her husband and her immigration lawyer.

Nohemy said she never wanted to leave El Salvador, where she grew up, married and sent her three children to a school down the street. It had been a quiet, peaceful life until 2019, when a local gang began menacing her family after her oldest son, then 9, witnessed a murder.

Her husband and son left first. She and her two younger children waited to see if her husband got asylum, which would allow them to legally join him in the United States. For a while, the gang activity disappeared, and she was hopeful.

But early last year, the problems returned. One gang member sexually harassed her 10-year-old daughter, she said, and another threatened to kill her 7-year-old son. One night in March, men assaulted Nohemy outside her home.

She felt she could no longer wait and decided to make the trek to the United States illegally.

In custody, Nohemy said, she heard from her court-appointed lawyer only once, on her first day in jail  a complaint of inattentiveness that was echoed in interviews with other material witnesses.

I was asking the officers if theres a process, if they could inform me, she said. They would say they didnt know anything.

As time passed, she grew increasingly desperate. I wanted to take my own life, she said.

Ultimately, the smuggler pleaded guilty, and Nohemy was not required to testify. Soon after her release, on the advice of her husbands immigration lawyer, Julia Toro, she joined him in another state, where he had a pending asylum case.

Many immigrants who are detained dont get such an opportunity because their access to lawyers and other resources is limited, said Jennifer Ibanez Whitlock, of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Most witnesses immigration cases are paused while they are in the criminal justice system and resume only after they are released into immigration custody.

Those in power acknowledge the frustrations with the system. Patrick, the U.S. attorney under Trump, said that everyone involved is trying to do the best they can with the resources that are there.

Does the system work?

I dont think there is a right answer, other than it is the system that we have, Patrick said.

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None of the children who ate the sweets are said to be in a serious condition

More than 60 children have been taken to hospital in Jamaica after eating sweets containing cannabis, the country's education minister said.

Fayval Williams wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that the primary school pupils were from the St Ann's Bay area - about 80km (50 miles) from the capital, Kingston.

She said some children experienced vomiting and hallucinations.

None are reported to be in a serious condition.

"The doctors & nurses are doing all they can to ensure the students recover," Ms Williams wrote on X, adding that several of the children had to be put on an intravenous (IV) drip.

"One little boy said he only had ONE sweetie. That's how potent this product is. DANGER!"

Ms Williams said the children were from St Ann's Bay Primary, but local news agencies have reported that students from the nearby Ocho Rios Primary School were affected. The children are thought to be between the ages of seven and 12.

The principal of the latter school told the Jamaica Observer that a "lone vendor" had sold the sweets to its students.

The head of the St Ann police department, Senior Superintendent Dwight Powell, has urged the person or anyone with information about them to contact the authorities.

Ms Williams posted photos of the product packaging which is thought to have contained the sweets, which specifies they are not to be sold to minors.

Each is said to contain 100mg of the psychoactive substance Delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is generally considered to be a high dose for an adult.

According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Delta-8 has "intoxicating effects".

The sweets, which are not FDA-approved, were produced by a company based in the US state of California, where cannabis is legal.

Jamaica decriminalised the possession of small amounts of cannabis, also known as marijuana, for personal use in 2015.

However, Health Minister Christopher Tufton told the Jamaica Star that the government did not allow the import of edibles containing drugs.

The incident comes more than a week after around 90 children fell ill in South Africa after eating drug-laced muffins that officials said they had bought from a street vendor.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) denounced Republican lawmakers for falling into chaos, dysfunction and extremism Tuesday, and his caucus suggested they wont lend support to Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) amid a vote to remove him.

Under the Republican majority, the House has been restructured to empower right-wing extremists, kowtow to their harsh demands and impose a rigid partisan ideology, Jeffries said in a statement.

McCarthy has faced increasing scrutiny and threats to his Speakership after weeks of conflict between him and hard-line conservatives in the GOP caucus, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)  who introduced a motion to vacate the Speakership on Monday.

Gaetz pursued the motion after weeks of threatening McCarthy during debates over government funding. Gaetz pushed McCarthy to pass spending bills with significant cuts, though the Speaker chose to extend the federal budget by 45 days in a last-second bipartisan deal, avoiding a government shutdown.

Political analysts theorized that Democrats could back McCarthy and prevent him from being ousted by his own party, but Jeffries said Tuesday that Democrats wont bail out the speaker.

House Democrats remain willing to find common ground on an enlightened path forward. Unfortunately, our extreme Republican colleagues have shown no willingness to do the same, he continued. It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War.

Given their unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner, House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican Motion to Vacate the Chair, he said.

Jeffries specifically cited McCarthys refusal to work with Democrats when he was made Speaker in January, a strenuous process which took four days and 15 votes, resulting in a set of House rules tailored to the House GOP hardliners.

The minority leader also criticized Republicans for backing out of a bipartisan deal made over the debt ceiling earlier this year. In that deal, McCarthy, congressional Democrats and the Biden administration agreed to limited federal budget cuts, though McCarthy later demanded deeper cuts.

Rather than celebrate and affirm this major bipartisan achievement, extreme MAGA Republicans immediately turned against it, Jeffries said. House Republicans backed out of the agreement with President Biden that they themselves negotiated just days after its passage, hurdling us toward this chaotic moment.

He also denounced the House GOPs illegitimate impeachment inquiry into President Biden, saying the process is wasting time and taxpayer dollars.

McCarthy backed the inquiry after calls from a group of conservative House GOP members, including Gaetz. House Republicans claim that Biden used his influence to help his sons business dealings in Ukraine, though evidence has not yet proved the claim.

The House will vote Tuesday over whether to oust McCarthy. Gaetz needs five members to join him on the vote to remove McCarthy as speaker.

Updated at 2:45 pm.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 3)  Authorities are preparing to file a homicide case against a teacher who slapped a Grade 5 student who eventually died in Antipolo, the city's police chief said Tuesday.

Antipolo Police chief PLt. Col. Ryan Mangondo said they are waiting for the autopsy report and seeking consent from the parents of the victims classmates to testify.

Malalaman natin iyan doon sa determination ng cause of death nung bata kung ano talaga ang dahilan," said Mangondo in an interview with CNN Philippines.

"Kaya napakahalaga ng medico legal at autopsy report para doon sa ipa-file na complaint against sa teacher, he added.

[Translation: We have to know the real cause of the students death. Thats why the medico legal and the autopsy report is very important to the complaint to be filed to the teacher.]

Princess Gumikib recalled that her brother, Francis Gumikib, 14, a student of Penafrancia Elementary School, told their family that he was slapped by his teacher on Sept. 21.

Over a week after the incident, her brother begged to be brought to the hospital due to intolerable headache and ear pain, Princess told CNN Philippines.

He was found to have internal bleeding in his brain, which caused him to go into a coma before he died on Monday, she added.

Meanwhile, a classmate recalled that Francis was just reporting to their teacher about their noisy classmates.

But the teacher suddenly pulled his hair and slapped him near the neck, the classmate said.

Photos taken in the morgue show a huge, dark bruise on one side of Gumikib's neck.

Mangondo said the teacher denied that she slapped the student hard.

Antipolo Schools Division Superintendent Lerma Flandez told CNN Philippines the school principal informed her about the incident last night.

"We are so saddened by this incident," she said. "We are taking appropriate actions on this alleged child abuse incident in one of our schools."

In a separate statement, the local schools division office also said the principal has assigned an alternate teacher to handle the classes of the concerned who is on-official leave.

Kelvin Matib, an official of the Department of Education Antipolo Division, said they will not protect the teacher.

Because of our duty of confidentiality regarding our child protection cases, we cannot divulge any other details or sensitive information regarding the matter so rest assured pursuant to child protection policy, the best interest of our learner is our primary consideration," Matib said.

Assistance to students, family

Flandez and the local government of Antipolo assured the bereaved family that they will be provded assistance.

The school management also sought professional help to counsel students over the death of their schoolmate, she said.

The school head forwarded a request for guidance counselors para makapagbigay ng debriefing sa mga [to give a debriefing of the] learners," she added. "We will seek help of city DSWD for possible counseling."

For its part, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said it has ordered the conduct of case management for the Gumikib family and the immediate provision of financial assistance to cover hospital and funeral expenses.

Social workers from the DSWD Field Office 4A have taken immediate action to support the bereaved family of Francis and provide them with essential assistance during this difficult time, Assistant Secretary for Strategic Communications Group Romel Lopez said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Rizal Police Provincial Office also released a separate statement condemning the alleged act of the teacher.

With reports from CNN Philippines senior correspondent AC Nicholls
The Grand Tour presenting trio, comprising Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, are marooned at a luxury camp in Botswana, Clarkson has revealed.

The three former Top Gear hosts were filming in Africa for the forthcoming Grand Tour specials, which will air on Amazon Prime Video, when their flights home were apparently cancelled.

On Tuesday (3 October), Clarkson, 63, shared a photo of his co-presenters sitting on their phones at a dining table alongside the caption: BA [British Airways] have messed up our flight home so we are marooned here at a luxury camp in Botswana. With only 40 staff. Its all about survival now.

Clarkson and May, 60, have since posted a number of sarcastic updates about their desperate situation.

Staff/guest ratio as low as 40:1 in hell-hole safari lodge where GT presenters have been abandoned by their crew. Cheese has arrived, May shared on Twitter/X alongside a photo of a luxurious cheese board.

When BA delay a flight by 12 hours, do they not realise how much hardship they inflict on passengers? We are fighting to stay alive here, Clarkson wrote alongside a photo of an outdoor swimming pool.

Thanks to the incompetence of British Airways weve had to endure a sunset safari with gin and tonics and meerkats. #Unacceptable, May added alongside a video of meerkats playing.

Thanks to the incompetence of British Airways weve had to endure a sunset safari with gin and tonics and meerkats. #Unacceptable pic.twitter.com/BnAz8uqUNQ  James May (@MrJamesMay) October 3, 2023

In another post, Clarkson shared a video of the lodges opulent, open-air lounge, showing May opening a fridge fully stocked with cold beverages, including the Clarkson-owned lager, Hawkstone, which he looks at dubiously. We are coping. But for how long? He captioned the post.

A release date and details about the next instalments of The Grand Tour have been kept under wraps; however, in a previous tweet, Clarkson thanked Zimbabwe for their trip there.

My profound thanks to the people and government of Zimbabwe for helping to make a very special Grand Tour special, very special. We absolutely adored everything about your country. Apart from the pot holes maybe, he wrote.

In a recent interview, Clarkson said that he and his co-stars would be on slightly scary ground in the next specials.

Were doing things that we used to do when we were in our 30s and 40s, he explained. But now were in our 50s and 60s, so Im slightly nervous about the next two.

Lets just say were going back to Africa, and this ones a hard one. Its hard if youre young and fit, but Im really not fit. Im very fat. And Im 63 now.

The Prime Video show is now in its fifth series since debuting in 2016. The show was born after Clarkson was dismissed from Top Gear in 2015 after attacking a producer.

May, Hammond, 53, and producer Andy Wilman decided to exit the show with him. The Grand Tour follows a similar format to the Top Gear specials, focused on the presenters travelling to foreign places in a specific type of vehicle to complete various challenges.
JLS have paid tribute to one of the original members of their dance team, who has died.

Jack Nathaniel Pointer-Mackenzie, nicknamed Captain Jack, was part of the pop groups supporting troupe in the early stages of their career.

He then went on to teach at the London dance studio, Base, and performed with several other music artists.

On Monday (2 October), the official Instagram page for the group shared a message of condolence for Pointer-Mackenzie, following his death aged 35.

Sharing a post by Base Dance Studios, commemorating the performer, the group added a message that read: RIP to Captain Jack a day one JLS dancer.

A unique gift, who shall be sorely missed, the caption of the dance studios initial post begins. Thank you for sharing your talent with us.

Aston Merrygold , one of the vocal groups four members, shared his own memories of Pointer-Mackenzie on his Instagram Stories.

One of the posts included video footage of the band performing, with Captain Jack providing support in the background.

Captain Jack always with the vibe from 2009 and beyond!! Merrygold wrote. A phenomenal team member!

Other people whod known the dancer shared their responses on social media.

Not Jack, began one message. Hadnt seen him in years but what a sweet soul and infectious spirit he had. Can't believe it... rest easy my man.

Another tribute read: A huge loss for the community. Love to his closest, and dearest. Fly High Jack. Elsewhere, one person remembered Captain Jack as the most genuine, loveliest and talented person.

A tribute website states that Pointer-Mackenzies funeral took place on 2 October.

As well as performing with JLS, Captain Jack had worked with other stars including Camila Cabello, Justin Bieber and Hozier.

JLS first came to public recognition during their time on The X Factor in 2008, when they ultimately finished in second place to Alexandra Burke.

They went on to score five UK Number 1 singles before disbanding in 2013, and reuniting in 2020.
Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson are ending their marriage.

The British actress and model filed for divorce on Oct. 2 from her husband after nearly four years of marriage, TODAY has confirmed.

The Queen & Slim star, 37, cited "irreconcilable differences" as the cause of the couple's split. She listed the date of separation as Sept. 13 and is seeking joint custody of their 3-year-old daughter, Juno.

Turner-Smith and Jackson reportedly tied the knot in late 2019, less than a year after meeting.

Jodie Turner Smith and Joshua Jackson (Lionel Hahn / Getty Images)

During their time together, the couple frequently gushed about one another during interviews and on social media.

Read on to learn what Turner-Smith and Jackson have shared about their relationship.

The couple met in 2018

Turner-Smith candidly shared that she and Jackson had a one-night stand after meeting for the first time at a party.

When I first met my husband, we had a one-night stand, she revealed as a guest on "Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2021, according to People.

Were in a two, three-year one-night stand now," she joked.

First of all, I saw him before he saw me and when I saw him, I was like, I want that, she recalled of their first meeting. And then when he saw me, I just pretended like I didnt see him.

Turner Smith proposed to Jackson first

The couple actually got engaged twice, with Turner-Smith popping the question first, Jackson revealed on "The Tonight Show" in July 2021.

She asked me, yeah, on New Years Eve, recalled the Canadian-born actor. We were in Nicaragua. It was very beautiful and incredibly romantic. We were walking down the beach and she asked me to marry her.

The Little Fires Everywhere" star added that he was surprised by Turner-Smiths proposal, revealing that she was "quite adamant" that the two should marry and that "she was right."

Jackson then took off his wedding ring and held it up in front of him. This was the best choice I ever made, he gushed before placing the ring back on his finger.

Jackson later proposed to Turner-Smith

In August 2021, Jackson revealed that he later proposed to Turner after she proposed to him.

"Im still old school enough that I said, (when Turner proposed) This is a yes, but you have to give me the opportunity,'" he said during an interview with Refinery29.

She has a biological father and a stepdad, whos the man who raised her. (I said), You have to give me the opportunity to ask both of those men for your hand in marriage. And then, I would like the opportunity to re-propose those to you and do it the old fashioned way down on bended knee. So thats actually how the story ended up.

They tied the knot in late 2019

The couple got married in late 2019, according to People.

The pair welcomed a daughter in 2020

The couple welcomed their only child, a daughter named Juno, in April 2020.

Jackson opened up to BuzzFeed News AM to DM during the previous month about how his first-time dad jitters were intensified by the coronavirus outbreak.

Ive never been a parent before, so Im not quite sure how much of this is just first baby anxiety and how much of this is pandemic anxiety, he said. But for us, in this house, its just the two of us leaning on each other, (being) open, about like, Yeah, man, its stressful! This is a lot to deal with.

Jackson thanked his wife for making him a father

In a poignant Mother's Day tribute on Instagram in 2020, Jackson honored his wife for bringing their baby daughter into the world.

"On this most special of mothers days I want to thank you for the being the light that you are. For the the passion with which you threw yourself into nurturing and protecting our child when she was in your womb. For the dedication and will you showed bringing her into the world," he wrote.

He also thanked her for making him a dad.

"Thank you for the depth of grace you have found since our daughter has arrived. The commitment that you make look so effortless but I know is anything but. Thank you for making me a father," he wrote.

Turner-Smith surprised her husband by owning a 'Dawson's Creek' T-shirt

During his July 2021 appearance on the "The Tonight Show," Jackson said he was surprised when he learned his future bride owned a "Dawson's Creek" T-shirt featuring his image.

This popped up eight or nine months into our relationship, Jackson said after Fallon showed a photo of the "Anne Boleyn" star wearing the shirt.

Im not exactly sure who the Amazon seller is who keeps the Pacey shirts on hand, but she is their core customer," the actor added.

Turner Smith previously told W magazine in 2020 that her husband's character on the show was her first crush.

Turner-Smith described Jackson as 'supportive' and 'loving'

Speaking to People in April 2021, Turner-Smith described her husband as "supportive" and "loving."

I think its really beautiful to be with someone who is so supportive and so loving, she said. Were so similar in so many ways. Were like mirrors for each other. And I just really love that human being.

We high five each other all the time about how great we chose, she added, laughing. Were like, You did a great job choosing, and then were like, Yeah, you too.

Jackson said starting a family with Turner-Smith was 'the happiest whirlwind' of his life

Months after welcoming their baby daughter, Jackson paid tribute to his wife in a heartfelt Instagram post in honor of her 34th birthday on Sept. 7, 2020.

Happy Birthday my beautiful wife, he wrote alongside a photo of Turner-Smith. Thank you for choosing to share your light with me. Thank you for walking this path of life as my wife. Thank you for bringing our daughter into the world.

He went on to write that this last year has been the happiest whirlwind of my life.

I cant wait to see what all the years to come bring our way, he added.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Former chief of staff John Kelly confirmed that he witnessed firsthand Trump's comments about military service.

For years, anonymous former staffers have come forward to speak about Trump comments.

Trump called marines who died during WW1 "suckers," the Atlantic reported in 2020.

Retired US Marine Corps general John Kelly, who served for 17 months as chief of staff for Donald Trump, said that the former president called veterans "suckers" because "there's nothing in it from them," confirming years of anonymous accounts detailing Trump's comments about the military.

"What can I add that has not already been said?" Kelly told CNN, referring to Trump, "A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all 'suckers' because 'there is nothing in it for them.'"

Kelly continued: "A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because 'it doesn't look good for me.' A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family  for all Gold Star families  on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America's defense are 'losers' and wouldn't visit their graves in France."

Up until Monday, Kelly did not comment on Trump's alleged statements, which were first detailed by The Atlantic in 2020. Per the Atlantic's reporting, the former president joined Kelly to visit his late son Robert Kelly's grave in 2017 and asked "I don't get it. What was in it for them?"

Later, during a 2018 visit to France, Trump called marines who died during WW1 "suckers" and declined to visit their graves, unnamed sources told the publication at the time.

Per the Atlantic report, Trump staff witnessed the president ask to exclude wounded veterans from a military parade because "Nobody wants to see that." The book " The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021 ," by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser later corroborated that anecdote and also revealed that Kelly was present for that conversation.

"Those are the heroes," Kelly said at the time, according to the book.

Per CNN, the Trump campaign responded to the statement by insulting former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley.

Insider reached out to Trump's campaign for comment.

Trump's comments about the military over the years have contradicted each other. The former president has publicly and positively spoken about US forces.

However, he also has a history of insulting the military, including repeatedly disparaging the late Sen. John McCain by declaring that he is not a "war hero" because he was a prisoner of war while he served in Vietnam.

Trump, himself, notably evaded the Vietnam War draft five times.

Kelly has become increasingly outspoken about Trump since his departure from the White House in 2019. In his latest statement to CNN, Kelly also criticized Trump, saying that he had "contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law."

"There is nothing more that can be said," Kelly said. "God help us."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Former Trump White House chief of staff John Kelly is blasting his onetime boss over disparaging remarks he says the then-president repeatedly made about service members and veterans and for what he called Trump's untruthfulness about his positions on various groups as well as on abortion.

In a statement to CNN published Monday, Kelly delivered a scathing criticism of former President Donald Trump while confirming reporting in The Atlantic in 2020 that detailed the comments he made during his presidency.

"A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all suckers because there is nothing in it for them,'" Kelly said of Trump. "A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because it doesnt look good for me. A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family  for all Gold Star families  on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in Americas defense are losers and wouldnt visit their graves in France.

The Atlantic reported that Trump privately made damning statements against U.S. service and veterans, such as the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who had been a Vietnam prisoner of war, and former President George H.W. Bush, who was shot down as a Navy pilot in World War II. During a visit to France in 2018 for the centennial anniversary of the end of World War I, Trump also reportedly called Marines who died at Belleau Wood suckers and fallen soldiers at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery losers.

Kelly also slammed Trump as someone "who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women. A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about."

He continued, A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason  in expectation that someone will take action, an apparent reference to Trump's recent statements about Army Gen. Mark Milley, who just retired as the chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

There is nothing more that can be said, Kelly added. God help us.

Reached for comment by NBC News, Steven Cheung, Trump campaign spokesperson, said: "John Kelly has totally clowned himself with these debunked stories hes made up because he didnt serve his President well while working as Chief of Staff."

Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, left as Trump's chief of staff in 2018. His tenure had been marred by conflict, with reports at the time describing disagreements between Kelly, Trump and West Wing staff.

Kelly found himself in the crosshairs of his former boss in 2020, when Kelly came to the defense of then-Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who had reported his concerns about Trumps July 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. During the phone call, Trump asked Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden, his son Hunter and Democrats. The phone call led to Trumps first impeachment by the House, but the Senate later acquitted Trump on two charges, of abusing his power and obstructing Congress.

During Kellys time in the Trump White House, speculation grew that he was exhausted and frustrated with his role as well as with Trumps mercurial temperament.

Kelly first served in the Trump administration as secretary of Homeland Security. Trump appointed him as chief of staff in July 2017 after his predecessor, Reince Priebus, was ousted after six months on the job.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Former White House chief of staff John Kelly confirmed a series of unsavory anecdotes about his former boss in a new bombshell statement to CNN  but faced widespread criticism for waiting years to go public.

The details of Kelly's statement include alleged remarks Donald Trump made while president, and specifically underscore the insensitive nature of those made about U.S. service members and veterans. On the heels of the release of "Enough," the memoir written by former Trump aide turned whistleblower, Cassidy Hutchinson, Kelly was asked if he wanted to provide commentary about Trump's antics. "What can I say that has not already been said?" Kelly asked in response.

"A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all 'suckers' because 'there is nothing in it for them,'" Kelly continued. "A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because 'it doesn't look good for me.' A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family  for all Gold Star families  on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America's defense are 'losers' and wouldn't visit their graves in France."

"A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women," he added. "A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason  in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law."

"There is nothing more that can be said," Kelly closed. "God help us."

As CNN notes, Kelly's statement corroborates information contained within a 2020 article from The Atlantic that alleged the ex-president, while standing with Kelly in the section of Arlington National Cemetery dedicated to those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq on Memorial Day in 2017, said, "I don't get it. What was in it for them?"

"Those details also include Trump's inability to understand why the American public respects former prisoners of war and those shot down in combat," CNN observed, also noting how Trump during his campaign in 2015 claimed in front of a crowd in that former Vietnam prisoner of war Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, was "not a war hero."

"He was a war hero because he was captured," Trump added. "I like people who weren't captured." CNN also reported that it was this very confusion that led Trump to refer to McCain as a "loser," a word he would use in 2018 during a trip to France for the centennial anniversary of the cessation of World War I, as observed in the Atlantic's piece. Trump reportedly stated he did not want to visit the graves of American soldiers buried in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, saying, "Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers."

Kelly's statement also gives credence to previous reports of Trump speaking poorly of wounded veterans on numerous occasions. Per CNN, the former chief of staff's comments provide context for an except from "'The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021,' by Susan Glasser and Peter Baker, in which Trump, after a separate trip to France in 2017, tells Kelly he wants no wounded veterans in a military parade he's trying to have planned in his honor."

"Look, I don't want any wounded guys in the parade," the ex-president allegedly said.

"Those are the heroes," Kelly retorted. "In our society, there's only one group of people who are more heroic than they are  and they are buried over in Arlington."

"I don't want them," Trump insisted. "It doesn't look good for me."

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

A recent profile done by The Atlantic of retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley references a similar incident in which Trump expressed dismay at wounded Berger Army Captain Luis Avila singing "God Bless America" at a welcome event for Milley. "Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded," the former president reportedly said.

But many critics argued that Kelly's statement was too little, too late and condemned him for false and seemingly racially imbued statements made about Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., in 2017. Kelly incorrectly stated that Wilson thwarted the dedication of an FBI building by saying she "called up President [Barack] Obama for the funding," describing her as part of a "long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise." Kelly's comments aligned with a tweet composed by Trump calling Wilson "wacky," emphasizing other instances of hypocrisy.

"About three years too late, General," tweeted attorney Bradley P. Moss.

About three years late, General https://t.co/XFtbbDb0IW  Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) October 2, 2023

MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan observed how, though Kelly's statement about Trump was undoubtedly "excoriating," he "happily went to work for Trump after 2016, first at DHS and then at the White House, as chief of staff." In a separate tweet, Hasan wrote, "By the way, has Gen. Kelly apologized yet to Congresswoman Frederica Wilson for lying about her?"

Interestingly, in this statement from Gen. Kelly excoriating Trump, he mentions awful things Trump did during the 2016 election and yet Kelly happily went to work for Trump after 2016, first at DHS and then at the White House, as chief of staff.  https://t.co/WIpacKUnw0  Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) October 2, 2023

Sherrilyn Ifill, former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, called the revelations contained in the statement "horrifying."

"Horrifying. Just horrifying," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "In its substance, but also in the decision of Gen. Kelly  having this damning estimation of Trump  to choose to serve as Trump's Homeland Security & then Chief of Staff, and to not have publicly offered this comprehensive assessment before now."

"Can you imagine knowing this abt Trump but giving Rep. Frederica Wilson the 'Ruby Freeman treatment' for daring to call out Trump's awful treatment of the pregnant wife of a soldier slain in Niger?" Ifill continued. "I will not clap for those who participated& knew better."

Horrifying. Just horrifying. In its substance, but also in the decision of Gen. Kelly - having this damning estimation of Trump - to choose to serve as Trumps Homeland Security Secy & then Chief of Staff, and to not have publicly offered this comprehensive assessment before now. https://t.co/LUe87IJfgJ  Sherrilyn Ifill (@SIfill_) October 2, 2023

"I covered a disturbing John Kelly story in 2017 when Kelly attacked Rep. Frederica Wilson," tweeted journalist Victoria Brownworth, "after she helped the widow of Sgt. LaDavid Johnson, a green beret murdered in Niger. Kelly lied about Wilson to support Trump's lie about the widow and refused to apologize."

Well, I covered a disturbing John Kelly story in 2017 when Kelly attacked Rep. Frederica Wilson after she helped the widow of Sgt. LaDavid Johnson, a green beret murdered in Niger. Kelly lied about Wilson to support Trump's lie about the widow and refused to apologize. https://t.co/4n4O9reCgy  Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) October 3, 2023

"Now that Kelly is coming forward to bash Trump over his views of vets, remember when he attacked Rep Frederica Wilson for criticizing Trump's handling of a dead soldier's widow? Kelly called her 'all hat & no cattle,' & misrepresented comments she made. What changed?" questioned The Messenger's Marc Caputo.
Testing clinics were being organized at Olathe Northwest High School after a student was recently diagnosed with an active case of tuberculosis, Johnson County health officials said Monday.

Health officials were working to identify any additional contacts with the student, who as of Monday represented the sole known person with the lung infection. The case was being investigated by the county and state health departments.

Olathe Public Schools, the Olathe Northwest staff, (the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment) and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment are working closely together to investigate this case and assure that all precautions are being taken for the safety of all in the community, the Johnson County health department said in a statement Monday.

In addition to the testing clinics, the health department said letters were being sent to families and an informational forum was being organized for the school community.

The student who fell ill with tuberculosis, a rare event in the U.S., was being treated with medication and complying with isolation precautions, according to the health department.

The airborne infection is commonly spread through frequent and close contact with a person who has an active case of tuberculosis. Symptoms may include a long cough, coughing blood, fever, chills or night sweats.

Treatments include the use of antibiotics over a period lasting between six and nine months. Patients stop being contagious within days or weeks of starting treatment, according to health officials.

There were 8,300 cases of tuberculosis across the nation in 2022, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2021, there were 43 confirmed cases in Kansas.
Theres no telling where music may go when its released into the world. So to honor the places her song Sweet Symphony has traveled and what its come to symbolize for so many, Joy Oladokun has released a piano-centered version of breakout duet with Chris Stapleton in honor of its one-year anniversary.

A year ago, I released one of the most significant songs I have ever been a part of. I teamed up with Chris Stapleton to put out Sweet Symphony as a way to celebrate love that outlasts the many tests life throws at us, Oladokun said in a statement. Since then, people have danced to it at weddings and sung it to their children. Theyve played it for family members and friends as a way to put words to their love. Im so proud of this song and honored that its become a part of peoples lives. To celebrate, we cooked up a new version that has the same heart as the original with a new spin.

Since the songs original release last fall, Oladokun, who is queer and the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, performed at the White House for the Respect for Marriage Act signing in December of 2022. Shes also been on tour in support of her upcoming album Proof of Life, out on Oct. 13.

One of a growing roster of queer Americana artists, Oladokun also performed at the Love Rising concert in March, which raised funds to support Tennessee-based queer organizations under the threat of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and drag bans. Oladokun joined other queer artists including organizer Allison Russell, Brittany Howard, and Jake Wesley Rogers, and allies including Sheryl Crow, Maren Morris, and Jason Isbell.

Of her Proof of Life album, OIadokun says in press notes, I hope these are helpful anthems. I started making music because I wasnt hearing from the everyday human being on the radio. I hope this resonates with anybody who feels normal and needs a little musical boost to get through the day. Im average. I do this job because I love what I do. I put so much care, craft, and intention into it. Im making music to live to.

Listen to Oladokun and Stapletons new version of Sweet Symphony here.
The judge presiding over former President Donald Trump's New York civil fraud trial shut down Trump's assertion to reporters at the end of the trial's opening day Monday that he had suddenly reversed himself on the statute of limitations. To start Tuesday's proceedings, New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron clarified that Trump's comments were not true, according to The Messenger, explaining that his ruling last week ordering the dissolution of several of Trump's businesses found the former president had committed fraud every time he submitted a false statement of financial condition (SFC) to insurers and banks.

Though Trump's defense argued that the relevant conduct is when the loan "closed," Engoron rejected that theory, reiterating his reasoning again in court. "Every use of a [false] statement of financial condition in business starts the statute of limitations running again," Engoron said Tuesday morning, noting that he understands that Trump's attorneys "strongly" disagree with his argument and will likely appeal the ruling.

Trump's Monday remarks stemmed from the judge's exchange with his attorneys following hours of testimony from Donald Bender, a former accountant Trump's businesses had used whose examination largely hinged on documents from 2011 while an appellate court warned that only events from three years later fall within the applicable state of limitations. Later that day, Engoron declared that Bender's testimony must connect to events on or after 2014 in order to be relevant, which prompted the former president's remarks. But Engoron's recent decision finding Trump liable for fraud cited actions after 2014 and found that the relevant issue is when they were "completed," which includes the moments when Trump "still obligated to, and did, annually submit current SFCs to comply with the terms of the loan agreements."
WASHINGTON  A state judge hit Donald Trump with a limited gag order Tuesday after he publicly attacked the integrity of a court official during the second day of his bank fraud trial.

Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, not appropriate," Judge Arthur F. Engoron said.

Earlier in the day on his Truth Social website, Trump posted a picture of a court clerk standing with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., describing her as "Schumer's girlfriend" and demanding that the case be dismissed.

The offending post was later removed. The trial went on.

Trump fails to dismiss the trial - and the debates

The gag order capped a day in which Trump and his allies pushed for the dismissal of his fraud trial and the cancellation of future Republican presidential debates - but failed to accomplish either goal.

Judge Engoron continued to hear evidence about suspicious valuations of Trump's property, while GOP presidential campaigns blasted the former president for seeking to end debates that Trump doesn't attend anyway.

"This case should be dismissed," Trump told reporters before attending the second day of the civil trial that is expected to take months. "This is not a case."

The trial's second day

As Trump sat at the defense table for a second straight day, the trial continued anyway.

Engoron has already ruled that Trump committed bank fraud by inflating the value of his properties to secure massive loans. While some issues remain outstanding, most of the trial is devoted to determining punishment, with much of Trump's business empire at risk.

During testimony from one of Trump's former accountants, Engoron repeatedly overruled the Trump team's continuous objections that the alleged offenses took place too long ago, beyond the state's statute of limitations.

I want to emphasize: This trial is not an opportunity to relitigate what I have already decided, Engoron said at one point.

Trump, meanwhile, continued to attack anyone associated with the case, from Engoron to New York State Attorney General Letitia James and her aides - the kinds of attacks that led to the gag order.

Republican debates go on

In the meantime, the Republican National Committee moved forward with plans for another GOP debate on Nov. 8 in Miami, despite calls from the Trump campaign to shut down the system and unify behind the former president.

In a joint statement, Trump senior advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said the RNC should "end all future debates in order to refocus its manpower and money" on defeating Democrats in 2024.

The RNC still plans to hold a debate Nov. 8 in Miami.

Other Republican candidates denounced Trump's attempt to shut down the race, saying he is scared to debate because it would bring up all his problems, including his many legal issues.

"Hes a hypocrite and a coward who will do and say anything to advance his own interests and silence some of his critics by ducking and trying to cancel debates," said former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on the social media site X.

Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, said "Trump knows he can't defend his record, and he isn't the fighter he was in 2016."

Christie-Ramaswamy showdown is canceled

The RNC did take some debate action on Tuesday: It told Christie and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy they might be excluded from the Miami event if they went through with a debate-like joint appearance on Fox News.

So instead, Fox planned to conduct back-to-back interviews of Christie and Ramaswamy.

"Our Party needs more debates and in-depth discussions not less," Christie said on the X website. "When the RNC stops conversations between candidates from happening that is real cause for concern."

Ramaswamy, also on X, cited last week's argumentative debate featuring seven GOP candidates, calling it a "disgrace" that did not help anybody. He said one-on-one events would be more productive.

"The Establishment would rather cut backroom deals and offer up phony debates, including candidates with no viable path and questions that no voter would ever ask," Ramaswamy said on the X website.

In a written statement, the RNC said candidates "all signed a pledge and agreed months ago to not participate in unsanctioned debates."

The Associated Press contributed to this report

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Judge hits Donald Trump with gag order in New York real estate trial
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 3)  The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Tuesday said Filipino fishermen continue to get their catch in Bajo de Masinloc despite threats posed by the presence of China Coast Guard (CCG) in the area.

Everytime we conduct our own maritime patrol in Bajo de Masinloc together with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, as witnessed by those journalists embedded last weekend, we were able to monitor as many as 54 mother vesselsthe estimated catch during that time is 168 tons, PCG spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Jay Tarriela told CNN Philippines The Source.

Tarriela said it has been 11 years since China, through its deployment of the CCG, took control of Bajo de Masinlocs lagoon which is an ideal place to fish and take shelter. This was following the standoff in 2012 that pushed the Philippine government to file an arbitration case against Beijing.

China continues to reject the 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling that invalidated its expansive claims in the South China Sea. The decision also ruled in favor of the Philippines in areas of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf that are being claimed by Beijing.

Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Panatag or Scarborough Shoal, is part of the municipality of Masinloc in Zambales. It is located 124 nautical miles (NM) west of the province and falls within the Philippines' 200 NM EEZ.

Tarriela said Filipino fishermen are still unable to enter the lagoon, which was last seen being guarded by two CCG vessels inside and one outside. Still, they are able to catch fish at least around the area.

The PCG and the BFAR have been encouraging more fishermen to sail by distributing fuel and grocery assistance, he added.
Judge imposes partial gag order in Trump Org trial, blocking parties from verbal attacks against court staff

The New York judge presiding over the Trump Organization trial imposed a partial gag order to prevent all parties from engaging in any verbal attacks against court staff after former President Trump criticized a member of the judges office on social media.

Judge Arthur Engoron on Tuesday afternoon issued an order that he said applies to both the defense and New York Attorney General Letitia James' team. The gag order only applies to verbal attacks on staff.

TRUMP CIVIL TRIAL CONTINUES FOR SECOND DAY IN NEW YORK CITY

Engoron said his order came after a defendant "posted to a social media account a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff."

Former President Donald Trump and New York Judge Arthur Engoron

Engoron added that "personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, not appropriate" and warned they would not be tolerated.

Without naming the former president, Engoron was referring to a now-deleted Trump post on his Truth Social account about Engoron's law clerk, Allison Greenfield.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

TRUMP JUDGE FACES ONLINE BACKLASH AFTER SMILING, POSING FOR CAMERAS IN COURTROOM: 'PARTISAN DEMOCRAT CLOWN'

Trump alleged in a Truth Social post that Greenfield had a relationship with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The post also contained a photo.

"Schumers girlfriend, Alison (sic) R. Greenfield, is running this case against me. How disgraceful!" Trump posted. "This case should be dismissed immediately!!"

Trump deleted the post at the beginning of the lunch recess.

The order came during the second day of the non-jury civil trial of Trump, his family and the Trump Organization, which stems from James' lawsuit that alleges Trump inflated his assets and committed fraud when building his business empire.

Trump was present in the Lower Manhattan courtroom for both Monday and Tuesday's sessions.

Fox News' Maria Paronich and the Associated Press contributed to this report.





Original article source: Judge imposes partial gag order in Trump Org trial, blocking parties from verbal attacks against court staff
A New York judge overseeing Donald Trump s civil fraud case has issued a limited gag order on the indicted ex-president, after the defendant publicly disparaged one of the judges law clerks and posted her photo.

This morning one of the defendants posted to his social media account a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff, Judge Arthur Engoron said on Tuesday, the second day of Trumps trial.

The judges comments are referring to a post Trump made on Truth Social earlier that day disparaging Engorons principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield. The post included a photo of Greenfield with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) at an event for the clerks campaign for a judgeship in Manhattan civil court.

Schumers girlfriend, Alison R. Greenfield, is running this case against me, Trump said in the post. How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!!

Engoron said that he had warned Trump a day earlier about making such comments, but that the defendant ignored him. Trumps post was later deleted after Engoron ordered it so on Tuesday, according to the judge.

Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I wont tolerate them in any circumstances, Engoronsaid. Failure to abide by this order will result in serious sanctions.

Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff.

Trump, his adult sons and his businesses are being sued for up to $250 million over what prosecutors in New York argue is persistent business fraud. The indicted GOP front-runner for president has denied wrongdoing and repeatedly cast the case as a political attack by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who filed the lawsuit.

Trump posted the attack while the trial was still in its morning session. Since the non-jury trial began on Monday, reporters note Greenfield has been sitting immediately to the right of Engoron and directly in front of Trump.

The order by Engoron comes as a federal judge in Washington decides whether to grant prosecutors request for a more severe gag order on the indicted ex-president in the Justice Departments case about efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Prosecutors in that case allege that Trump has repeatedly harassed and intimidated witnesses, and fueled threats against the court and prosecutors.
Former President Donald Trump arrives for day two of his civil fraud trial at State Supreme Court on Tuesday in New York City, where the judge issued a limited gag order after the ex-president blasted his law clerk in a social media post. Photo by Louis Lanzano/UPI

Oct. 3 (UPI) -- The judge in Donald Trump's multimillion dollar business fraud trial in New York City issued a partial gag order Tuesday after the former president blasted the judge's law clerk in a post on social media.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron issued the order on the second day of the civil trial after Trump posted a photo Tuesday morning of court clerk Allison Greenfield with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on his Truth Social site. Trump captioned the photo "Schumer's girlfriend," arguing that his case should be dismissed because she is "running this case against me." The post was removed several hours later.

"Consider this a gag order on all parties with respect to posting or publicly speaking about any member on my staff," Engoron announced Tuesday afternoon.

"This morning one of the defendants posted on a social media account a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff. Although I have since ordered the post deleted and apparently it was, it was also emailed out to millions of other recipients," the judge said.

"Personal attacks on my members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them under any circumstances," Engoron added, while threatening nonspecific "serious sanctions."

New York State Attorney Genera Letitia James arrives at State Supreme Court in the multi-million-dollar business fraud trial against former President Donald Trump. The case, brought last September by James, accuses Trump, his eldest sons and his family business of inflating Trump's net worth by more than $2 billion by overvaluing his real estate portfolio. Photo by Louis Lanzano/UPI

The limited gag order bans any emails, posts or public remarks about the judge's staff.

Trump's presidential campaign has criticized Engoron as a "far-left Democrat," in emails and has accused Engoron of political bias.

Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom for day two of his civil fraud trial at State Supreme Court on Tuesday in New York City. Judge Arthur Engoron issued "a gag order on all parties with respect to posting or publicly speaking about any member on my staff. Pool Photo by Seth Wenig/UPI

The former president claims Engoron is trying to hurt him politically since he is the early front-runner for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination. Trump told reporters Tuesday that the judge, who he called a "Trump-hater," is trying to "interfere with an election and it's a disgrace."

Trump has also blasted New York Attorney General Letitia James, calling her a "fraud" and said "she should probably be dismissed also."

Former President Donald Trump arrives for day two of his civil fraud trial at State Supreme Court. The New York judge, presiding over the case, issued a gag order Tuesday after Trump posted about his law clerk in a social media post. Photo by Louis Lanzano/UPI

"She used this to run for governor. She failed in her attempt to run for governor," Trump said of James before Monday's hearing. "She had virtually no following. She came back and she said, 'Well, now I will go back to get Trump again.' And this is what we have. It is a scam and a sham."

In her case, James has accused Trump, his two adult sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump , and the Trump organization of "staggering fraud" for inflating the values of his real estate properties by more than $2 billion to gain tax benefits and secure favorable loan and insurance terms.

Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom for Day 2 of his civil fraud trial Tuesday in New York City. Photo by Seth Wenig/UPI

James is seeking $250 million in damages, along with a ban that would keep the Trumps from doing business in New York.

In a pretrial ruling last week, Engoron dissolved Trump's companies that are responsible for running his New York real estate after finding the former president liable for fraud.
A turbulent second day at Donald Trump's bank fraud trial in New York came to an equally puzzling end, when the judge unceremoniously kicked out all journalists from the courtroom to speak privately with the former president and Attorney General Letitia James.

When one reporter asked whether the courtroom was being sealed, Justice Arthur F. Engoron did not respond. Instead, security personnel yelled at journalists to leave immediately.

Trump, James, and their respective legal teams remained in the courtroom for more than 20 minutes before exiting.

On his way out, Trump surprised everyone by stating that he will return to court Wednesday.

I'll be back tomorrow. Good day, he said with a wave, before ducking into a side exit with his attorneys and Secret Service security detail.

James refused to answer any questions on her way out, preventing the public from knowing what was going on inside.

Earlier in the day, Engoron issued a gag order against Trump after he posted on his social media site, Truth Social, accusing one of Engoron's law clerks of having a relationship with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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An 81-year-old South Florida man has been ordered by a judge to be sent to Canada where hes charged with the fatal strangling of an American woman nearly 50 years ago in one of the countrys oldest and most infamous cold cases.

Rodney Mervyn Nichols, who was arrested in July at his assisted-living facility in Hollywood but was released on bond, must surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service for his extradition to Ontario at a future date, according to an order issued Monday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Jared Strauss in Fort Lauderdale federal court.

In 1975, 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, 48, would not be known to authorities until 2021, based on a DNA sample of her exhumed body that matched up with her relatives.

Nichols was charged with Langfords murder, based again on DNA technology along with a confession.

There is probable cause to believe that the fugitive before this court, the same person identified in the extradition request from the Government of Canada, committed the offense for which extradition is sought, Kraus wrote in his order issued Monday.

Now the U.S. Department of State must certify the surrender order before Nichols can be legally extradited to Canada.

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.

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 should be allowed to return to his assisted-living facility in Hollywood where he had lived in recent years until the extradition request from Ontario.

Krauss, citing these conditions, allowed Nichols to stay at the Hollywood facility with an electronic monitor while he awaits extradition by the U.S. Marshals Service to Canada.

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.

Police said 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.
A judge on Monday denied the request from three former Memphis police officers to have separate trials in the death of Tyre Nichols, who died after being beaten following a traffic stop. Attorneys representing Tadarrius Bean, Desmond Mills, and Justin Smith had filed motions asking for their cases to be severed from those of Demetrius Haley and Emmitt Martin on the grounds that their clients wouldnt get a fair trial if they all had to face a jury together over the Jan. 7 beating of Nichols. Shelby County Judge James Jones Jr. issued an order saying that severing the cases isnt necessary to protect the defendants rights to a fair determination of their innocence or guilt. Nichols, 29, died three days after he was beaten by officers, with the incident captured on police video.

Read it at The Associated Press

Read more at The Daily Beast.
A tribal judge for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma last week ruled that two lineal descendants of Black people who were enslaved by the tribe, known as Freedmen, are eligible for tribal citizenship.

Thats despite the tribes 1979 Constitutional amendment that barred Freedmen from tribal enrollment: the addition of the words Indian by blood.

This is a powerful blow against anti-Black discrimination in this country, said the plaintiffs attorney, Damario Solomon-Simmons, in a live streamed press conference on September 28. Solomon-Simmons himself is the descendant of a Creek Freedman; His great great great great grandfather, Cow-Tom, was one of five signatories of the Treaty of 1866 that ensured Creeks of African Descent tribal citizenship, including access to tribal services such as health care, education, housing assistance, and federal dollars, such as Covid-19 relief funding.

This will change the lives of Black Creek Freedman throughout this country and particularly in this community. Im talking about substantially providing healthcare, educational benefits, housing.

Prior to the Civil War, the Muskogee (Creek) Nation practiced kinship slavery, where slaves were often adopted into the owners clan where they participated in cultural ceremonies and spoke the Mvskoke language, District Judge Denette Mouser wrote in her opinion. As the Civil War drew closer, the tribe was split; A portion of the Nation allied with the Confederacy and the other allied with the Union.

In 1866, after the war ended, the Five Oklahoma Tribes  including the Muscogee (Creek) negotiated new treaties with the federal government, including the abolition of slavery and extended all the rights and privileges of native citizens, including an equal interest in the soil and national funds to all Freedmen.

But the Muscogee (Creek) Nation has been denying citizenship to Freedmen since it amended its constitution 44 years ago to only enroll a portion of the descendants of those counted in the 1900s federal census. The census separated Creeks into Creek by Blood and Creek Freedmen, records which were together known as the Dawes Final Rolls.

In 2020, Plaintiffs Rhonda Grayson and Jeff Kennedy sued the Muscogee (Creek) Nations citizenship board for denying their applications, despite their individual direct lineage to Creek Freedmen listed on the Dawes Final Rolls.

On Sept. 27, District Judge for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Denette Mouser, reversed the citizenship boards denial of Grayson and Kennedys applications, and asked the board to reconsider their applications.

The nation cannot choose to select and rely on portions of the Treaty to which it points as evidence of the tribes intact reservation, and also negate the clear language entitling descendants of a segment of the Dawes Final Rollthe Creek Freedmenfrom eligibility for citizenship, Judge Mouser wrote, referencing the tribes reliance on the same Treaty to establish their reservations borders in the 2020 McGirt decision. Either the treaty in its entirety is binding or none of it is.

Im just so happy that our people can now enroll in the nation of our ancestors birth, the nation of our birth, Rhonda Grayson said in a press conference last week.

The nations Attorney General Geri Wisner said in a statement to Native News Online that the tribe respects the authority of its court, but strongly disagrees with Judge Mousers deeply flawed reasoning in this matter.

We will immediately be appealing this case to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Supreme Court, Wisner wrote. As of October 2, the Nation filed a stay order, which temporarily pauses the case's proceedings while the Supreme Court considers the tribes motion to appeal. The MCN Constitution, which we are duty-bound to follow, makes no provisions for citizenship for non-Creek individuals. We look forward to addressing this matter before our Nations highest court."

Today, only the Cherokee Nation grants full and equal citizenship to its Freedmen as citizens, following the federal court case in 2017.

In May 2021, the Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland approved the Cherokee Nations amended constitution, and encouraged all Oklahoma tribes to take similar steps to meet their moral and legal obligations to the Freedmen."

Freedmen belonging to the three other Oklahoma tribesSeminole, Chickasaw and Choctawsay their tribal nations are breaking the treaties they signed in 1866 by denying them equal rights.

Seminole Freedmen are counted as tribal citizens, they are not considered members eligible for tribal services since the Seminole Nation along with the rest of the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahomachanged their constitutions language to limit eligibility to those with Native bloodlines, effectively stripping citizenship from all Freedmen.

Policymakers as far away as California believe that last weeks ruling will pave the way for other Freedmen to seek a path to citizenship.

Kamilah Moore, Californias reparatory justice scholar and attorney and the former chair of the states Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, wrote on X that A win for Creek Freedmen is a win for all Native American freedmen, and even American freedmen!

Muscogee (Creek) Freedman Ivory Vann was twice denied tribal citizenship in 2019, despite his father, grandfathers and generations before him being accepted as enrolled tribal members to the Nation.

On October 2, Vann again applied for a new tribal citizenship application alongside about ten other Creek Freedmenthis time with renewed hope. But the stay order prevented his application from moving forward, until the Oklahoma Supreme Court makes a decision.

If the Supreme Court upholds what this tribal court judge said, well be alright, Vann told Native News Online. But if they dont, were gonna have to go the federal way.

About the Author: "Jenna Kunze is a staff reporter covering Indian health, the environment and breaking news for Native News Online. She is also the lead reporter on stories related to Indian boarding schools and repatriation. Her bylines have appeared in The Arctic Sounder, High Country News, Indian Country Today, Tribal Business News, Smithsonian Magazine, Elle and Anchorage Daily News. Kunze is based in New York."

Contact: jkunze@indiancountrymedia.com
Donald Trump was ordered to shut up and stop launching personal attacks against a judges court staff on Tuesday afternoon, a rude interruption of his bank fraud trials second day in New York.

At 3 p.m., after an unexpectedly long lunch break, Justice Arthur F. Engoron revealed that he had previously warned the former presidents lawyer to not engage in the aggressive and libelous attacks against the justice system hes done across the countryonly to discover today that Trump had crossed the line by aiming his hatred at the judges law clerk.

Sometime Tuesday morning, Trump took to his Truth Social media network to share a MAGA-aligned Twitter users post asking, Why is Judge Engoron's Principal Law Clerk, Allison R. Greenfield, palling around with Chuck Schumer ? Trump also linked to her personal Instagram page, drawing the attention of his huge fan base against her.

Trump Trial Day 2: New York AG Tries to Drive Wedge Between Trump and Accountant

Greenfield has earned the politician's ire by consistently shutting down his legal team's delay tactics and spurious arguments in court. In his short-lived post, Trump called her "Schumer's girlfriend"Greenfield is not dating the senatorand complained that she "is running this case against me. How disgraceful!"

The typically warm judge turned ice cold when he delivered his stern warning.

Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and I will not tolerate them under any circumstances, Engoron said.

Trump quickly deleted the post midday Tuesday. The judge explained that it only happened after he had personally ordered Trump to do so, a rare flex of power against the politician who has yet to face similar repercussions from other judges overseeing nearly half a dozen criminal cases across the eastern seaboard.

The judge then disclosed a conversation he had off the record with one of Trumps defense lawyers in which he specifically warned about this.

Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing, or speaking publicly about any members of my staff, Engoron declared, warning that failure to abide by this will result in serious sanctions.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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An inmate who walked away from a Nevada detention camp and was later found at a Sacramento County home where he beat a man to death has been convicted of first-degree murder.

A Sacramento Superior Court jury on Monday found Jonathan Collin Autry, 46, guilty of murder in the death of 64-year-old Rocky Pastorino, the Sacramento County District Attorneys Office announced Tuesday in a news release.

Sacramento County sheriffs deputies took Autry into custody in March 2021 just outside Pastorinos apartment in Antelope. Shortly after, the deputies found Pastorino dead in his home.

Autry was an inmate being housed at the Stewart Conservation Detention Camp in Carson City, Nevada. The camp houses up to 360 minimum custody and community trustee inmates in five dormitory-type units, according to the Nevada Department of Corrections.

At the time, Autry was serving a two-to-five-year prison sentence for a Washoe County conviction of two counts of obtaining money under false pretenses and one count each of fraudulent use of a credit card and making counterfeit money, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Two days before Pastorino was found dead in his home, Autry walked away from the Nevada detention facility. Nevada Department of Corrections officials said at the time that search teams were out looking for Autry, but they didnt find him.

About 12:40 p.m. on March 23, 2021, the Sacramento sheriffs deputies were called to Pastorinos home in the 7700 block of Watt Avenue, near Davidson Drive and Blackfoot Way in Antelope. The deputies were at the apartment to check on Pastorino.

The deputies arrived and initially were unable to get anyone to answer at the door. Sheriffs officials at the time said persistent checking revealed that a man, who Pastorinos family did not know, was inside the apartment.

It remains unclear whether Autry knew Pastorino before the murder occurred.

The Sheriffs Office had received multiple requests to check on Pastorino. Prosecutors said the deputies entered his apartment and found bedroom door that was closed and locked. The deputies believed Pastorino was inside the bedroom, so they instructed him to open the door.

They heard a person inside the bedroom reply no in a low voice, prosecutors said. Pastorinos daughter was with the deputies in the apartment and told them that was not her fathers voice.

As the deputies prepared to kick the door open, they heard a window open and blinds moving inside the bedroom. Prosecutors said deputies ran outside and Autry running away from the apartment.

Sheriffs officials said at the time that deputies tried to detain Autry, who physically resisted and became combative.

The deputies went back inside the apartment and found Pastorino dead inside the locked bedroom, prosecutors said. The Sacramento County Coroners Office determined that Pastorino died from blunt force trauma.

On Tuesday, Autry remained in custody at the Sacramento County Jail. Hs sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 27 in Sacramento Superior Court. Prosecutors said Autry faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) has filed a federal lawsuit against the states House Speaker, alleging that he violated the Constitution for restricting Joness right to free speech and for giving him disparate racial treatment.

Jones is filing the lawsuit against state House Speaker Cameron Sexton to hold him accountable for his anti-democratic and unconstitutional actions, according to a press release sent by his campaign Tuesday.

In the 46-page complaint, Jones alleges that Sextons moves to oust him earlier this year, keep him off committees and to prevent him from speaking on certain bills have violated numerous sections of both the U.S. Constitution and the Tennessee state constitution.

The complaint names Sexton, state House chief clerk Tammy Letzler, state House Chief Sergeant at Arms Bobby Trotter and parliamentarian Daniel Hicks as co-defendants.

Jones, who is Black, accused Sexton of violating the 14th Amendment due to disparate racial treatment he received from the Speaker and his co-defendants. He cited the amendments clause that says no state shall deny any person within its jurisdiction the protection of the laws.

The government denied equal protection to Representative Jones in treating him differently than similarly situated white House members for the same conduct, the complaint reads.

The complaint points to a number of incidents where Jones alleges that he was treated differently from his white colleagues because of his race, including his expulsion from the state House earlier this year. He said that while he was voted to be expelled from the House, state Rep. Gloria Johnson (D), who is white and engaged in the exact same speech and protest as Jones, was not.

Three Democratic Tennessee state lawmakers  Jones, Johnson and state Rep. Justin Pearson  participated in a gun rights protest on the House floor in April shortly after a shooter opened fire in a Nashville school and killed six people. While Jones and Pearson, who are both Black, were voted to be expelled by their colleagues, Johnson survived her vote. Jones and Pearson won back their seats in subsequent special elections.

The complaint also said that Jones has been denied positions on a committee after he was reinstated to the House on April 10, but Johnson, who was also censured and removed from committee seats for her speech and protest but who is white, was allowed to return to her committee assignments.

The complaint alleges that Sexton and his co-defendants prevented him from expressing views on critical issues that he was elected to express, ensuring that viewpoints dissenting from their own are silenced, neither heard nor spoken, which the complaint says violates the Constitution.

No one is above the law, including Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, Jones said in a statement.

The complaint also alleges that Sextons and his co-defendants actions have deprived Jones of other benefits of the Tennessee Legislature, including seniority status and retirement benefits.

The lawsuit comes after House Republicans voted to silence Jones during a special session in August, after determining that he had breached the chambers newly adopted rules by straying off topic from the bill being debated. Jones had announced at the time that he was planning to call for a vote of no confidence in Sexton due to his continued abuse of power and dishonor to the public office he holds.

Since the expulsion votes over the gun violence protest, which drew national attention to the states Legislature, Jones, Pearson and Johnson have been dubbed the Tennessee Three. The three of them also railed against new House rules earlier this month that attempted to limit what members could say on the floor.

Johnson also launched a Senate campaign last month.

The Hill has reached out to Sextons office for comment.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 3)  The new French envoy to Manila disclosed on Tuesday that France is closely following the recent developments in the West Philippine Sea and expressed readiness to stand with the Philippines in facing regional security threats.

In her first and exclusive interview with CNN Philippines, Ambassador Marie Fontanel also provided details on what transpired during the recent phone conversation between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and French President Emmanuel Macron.

It is to enhance our bilateral cooperation," said Fontanel. "President Macron called President Marcos to share concern on the West Philippine Sea."

We are part of the Pacific family and its natural that we are concerned with the situation. We share a lot of concerns and visions of international order with the Philippines, the envoy added.

The conversation between Marcos and Macron took place shortly after the Philippine Coast Guard raised the alarm on the floating barrier installed by the China Coast Guard in the Scarborough Shoal (Bajo de Masinloc) to prevent Filipinos from entering the shoal.

China denied the claim and argued that it was implementing necessary measures to protect its territory.

The French envoy declared that the European nation remain committed to help the Philippines uphold a rules-based order in the region.

That is why we stand with the Philippines when your country faces external threats," Fontanel said.

"We have seen an increasing or rise of tensions in the region and once again our concern is that we think we need a free and peaceful Indo-Pacific region," she added.

France is currently participating in the 'SAMASAMA' naval exercises with the Philippines, the United States, and other like-minded countries.

Fontanel said this is one way of sending a message of unity in the face of challenges.

"Multilateralism is the answer," she noted. "Its a message of unity, solidarity, but also a message of prevention, and we do share the same concerns together."

France said talks about enhancing defense cooperation with the Philippines, including potential joint maritime activities, are in progress.

A proposal for a submarine program was also given to Philippine authorities by the French naval corps.

"We are a maritime nation, and we have expertise and knowledge in this regard," Fontanel said.

"We really do think we can help the Philippines in building a submarine force as we have done in other countries in the region," she added.
A Georgia K9 will now be dressed with maximum defense in mind thanks to a nonprofit donation.

According to the Murray County Sheriffs Office, their K9 Maxim received donated body armor from Vested Interest in K9s, Inc.

The vest was sponsored by Carefree Westies, deputies said. The vest was customized with embroidery reading Gifted by Carefree Westies & Together Saving Paws.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Deputies said the vests are each worth about $1,800 and weigh between four and five pounds. The vests have a five-year warranty.

TRENDING STORIES:

Vested Interest in K9s also accepts tax-deductible donations in any amount, with single donations of $985 each sponsoring a vest.

The nonprofit was founded in 2009 as a 501(c)(3) and has provided more than 5,000 vests to K9s across the U.S., with an estimated value of $6.9 million, through a combination of both private and corporate donations, according to MCSO.

The sheriffs office said the nonprofit vest donation program is available to any dog 20 months or older actively employed and certified with law enforcement or related agencies. It is also open to K9s with expired vests.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
Vice President Kamala Harris, right, and Laphonza Butler reenact Butler's swearing-in on Capitol Hill as California's new U.S. senator Tuesday as Butler's wife, Neneki Lee, holds the Bible. Butler will serve the remainder of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein's term, which ends in January 2025. (Stephanie Scarbrough / Associated Press)

Laphonza Butler is Californias newest senator, following a historic swearing-in ceremony with Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday afternoon in the U.S. Capitol.

Flanked by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Butler raised her right hand to take the oath of office.

The Senate chamber erupted in applause as Butler signed her name. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) shook Butlers hand as she walked off the Senate floor.

I cant help but think how proud Sen. [Dianne] Feinstein would be, seeing someone as brilliant, as accomplished, as history-making as Laphonza Butler take her place, Schumer said.

President Biden called Butler on Tuesday afternoon to congratulate her on her appointment, White House officials said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom tapped Butler on Sunday to replace the late Sen. Feinstein, fulfilling his promise to name a Black woman to the Senate. The appointment ensures that Democrats keep their one-seat majority in the upper chamber.

Read more: California's incoming senator, Laphonza Butler, describes her whirlwind trip into history

Butler, 44, has never served as a public official but has worked behind the scenes for Democrats and their causes for decades.

She worked for Service Employees International Union Local 2015 for more than a decade, and in 2018 was appointed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown as a UC regent. She left the role in 2021, the same year she became president of Emilys List, a political action committee that helps elect Democratic women who support abortion rights.

Butler was also an advisor to Harris 2020 presidential bid and former Secretary of State Hillary Clintons 2016 bid for the White House. She also recently served as Airbnbs public policy and campaigns director.

Read more: Dianne Feinstein's final day in the Senate

She becomes the first Black woman in the chamber since Harris left to become vice president in 2021. Newsom appointed Californias then-Secretary of State Padilla to fill Harris seat, and vowed his next Senate appointment would be a Black woman.

Butler is the nations 12th Black senator and its third Black female senator. She is also the first out gay person of color to serve in the Senate, and the first out LGBTQ+ person to represent California in the chamber.

Some Californians wanted Newsom to pick a different Black woman for the role.

After Feinsteins death, advocates and lawmakers pressed the governor to name Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) as the states next senator. The Oakland congresswoman is the only prominent Black woman running in the 2024 race for Feinsteins former seat. September polling indicates Lee is trailing two white fellow Democrats in the race: Reps. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank and Katie Porter of Irvine.

Newsom last month sidestepped pressure to name Lee, saying the role would be temporary. It would be completely unfair to the Democrats that have worked their tail off, he said in September. That primary is just a matter of months away. I dont want to tip the balance of that.

Shortly before the Sunday announcement, however, Newsom clarified his stipulation, saying that the new senator could be a candidate, fueling speculation that Butler might throw her hat into the ring to remain in the seat.

Butler told The Times on Monday that she is undecided on joining the hotly contested Senate race.

I have no idea. I genuinely dont know, Butler said in her first interview since her appointment. I want to be focused on honoring the legacy of Sen. Feinstein. I want to devote my time and energy to serving the people of California. And I want to carry her baton with the honor that it deserves.

Read more: Barbara Lee to Newsom: Choosing a Black woman for short-term appointment is 'insulting'

When asked Tuesday by reporters about a potential Butler run, Lee replied, Thats her decision.

In a tweet, Lee said that she wished Butler well and looks forward to working closely with her to deliver for the Golden State.

Immediately after swearing in as senator, Butler took another oath: joining the Congressional Black Caucus. Caucus Chairman Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) administered the oath while Lee watched smiling.

Times staff writers Taryn Luna and Hannah Wiley contributed to this report.

Get the best of the Los Angeles Times politics coverage with the Essential Politics newsletter.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  A 20-year-old Kansas City man has pleaded guilty in the 2022 February deadly shooting of Shariff Tilghman.

Isaiah Thomas pleaded guilty Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court to voluntary manslaughter in connection to the homicide.

Jackson County prosecutors originally charged Thomas with second-degree murder. As part of the plea agreement, the prosecutors office dismissed the other charges filed against him.

KCPD officers responded to the shooting on Feb. 2, 2022, just before 9:30 p.m. in the area of 17th Street and Crystal Avenue.

Missouri minister among those killed in chemical truck crash

They found a black Nissan Maxima, with a Kansas license plate, running with a man inside, behind the drivers wheel.

A check of the vehicle showed it was reported stole from Junction City, Kansas.

Video surveillance showed a man exiting the vehicle and standing where shell casings were later found, then running away.

A check of firearms found at the residence showed the gun was purchased by an associate of Thomas.

Domestic assault suspect in custody after standoff with KCPD

A check of a face mask found on the floor of the passengers side of the vehicle found strong support that the suspect had contributed DNA to the mask.

Thomas was sentenced to 13 years in prison and was given credit for time served.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
A 25-year-old Kansas man was arrested and booked into a jail for the rape and murder of a 5-year-old child in Topeka on Monday, a police spokesperson said.

Police responded to a medical call just before 6 p.m. Monday at the Dillons fuel pumps at 2010 S.E. 29th St. in southeast Topeka, Rosie Nichols, public safety communications specialist with the Topeka Police Department, said in a news release.

Arriving officers found members of the Topeka Fire Department attempting to provide life-saving measures to the child. She was taken to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead, Nichols said.

The child was identified Tuesday morning as Zoey Felix of Topeka.

Investigators determined that the childs death was suspicious and identified a suspect, Nichols said.

The man, who investigators said knew the girl, was arrested and booked into the Shawnee County jail on suspicion of first-degree of felony murder and rape of a child that is younger than 14 years old.

He was being held on a $2 million bond.

Although the man has been identified, The Star is withholding naming him until formal charges are filed.

Because of the ongoing investigation, no further additional information was available, Nichols said.

Anyone with information regarding the investigation is asked to email tellpd@topeka.org or call the criminal investigations bureau at 785-368-9400 or Shawnee County Crime Stoppers at 785-234-0007.
Before the Civil War, when slavery was legal in Missouri and illegal in Kansas, enslaved people in Missouri would try to cross the river. Their destination: Quindaro.

More than 150 years later, three lawmakers from Kansas and Missouri are pushing to make the ruins of the town  the stone and brick remains of what used to be a Civil War era boomtown and stop on the Underground Railroad  into a National Historic Landmark.

Quindaro is a vital part of our nations history and served as a beacon of hope and freedom for Americans fighting to end slavery in the mid-19th century, said Rep. Jake LaTurner, a Kansas Republican who represents the part of Wyandotte County where the ruins are located.

LaTurner teamed up with Rep. Sharice Davids, a Kansas Democrat, and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver , a Missouri Democrat, to introduce a bill that would name Quindaro a National Historic Landmark  a step above its current status as a National Commemorative Site.

The change would potentially bring something volunteers looking after the site have pushed for  more resources. A Historic Landmark designation would mean a higher status  there are only about 2,500 landmarks across the country  which would mean more help from the Department of the Interior and easier grant opportunities.

Weve been trying to get it for a long time, said Rev. Stacy Evans, who helps take care of the site.

And those grants could help fund the vision of those who currently volunteer their time at the site.

Evans said she wanted to see a world class tourist destination, with an archives interpretive center where they could showcase some of the artifacts that are currently at the Kansas Historical Society. She also said she wanted to see more accessible trails and to revitalize a levee that was part of the Underground Railroad.

Getting money for the site has been difficult, both from the federal government and the state  where internal politics among Democrats caused Gov. Laura Kelly to reject funding for Quindaro from this years budget.

The bill is still a long way from becoming law. It would have to get a vote in the House and then be approved by the Senate. But Cleaver, who represents Kansas City, said earlier this year preserving the site is important. Not only does it connect the history of Kansas and Missouri, but Cleaver said there are few sites of its kind left in the country.

Our children and their children and the next generation ought to be able to walk down the street, even after its rained, and get a vision of what happened, Cleaver said.

Star reporter Katie Bernard contributed to this article.
A volunteer acts as a receptionist for the Marion County Record while a reporter works on a story in Marion, Kansas. Chase Castor/The Washington Post via Getty Images

In August, local Kansas law enforcement raided a small newspaper.

One day later, the paper's 98-year-old co-owner died.

The police chief who initially signed off on the raid has now officially resigned from his post.

A Kansas police chief who ordered the controversial raid of a small-town newspaper in August has officially resigned.

Marion Police Department Chief Gideon Cody turned in his badge on Monday less than two months after he signed off on the police raid of the Marion County Record in August. Zach Hudlin, an officer who was present at the raid, has temporarily taken Cody's place as acting chief.

The news of the police chief's resignation comes less than a week after Marion Mayor David Mayfield formally suspended Cody as the Kansas Bureau of Investigation investigates the incident further.

On August 11, local law enforcement raided the newspaper, the home of its publisher, and a city councilwoman's house. In the process, officers took several reporters' computers and phones, leading to immediate backlash from First Amendment activists.

One day after the August raid, the 98-year-old co-owner of the paper, Joan Meyer, died in her home after being "stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief after illegal police raids on her home and the Marion County Record newspaper office," the Record reported.

To obtain the search warrants for the raid, Cody previously argued that the newspaper broke the state's identity theft laws to obtain a local business owner's driving records. While a judge did initially sign off on the warrants, law enforcement was ultimately ordered to return the seized property of the news outlet after a local prosecutor insisted there wasn't sufficient evidence to back up the raid to begin with.

Prior to his time as the police chief of the Marion Police Department, Cody was a captain with the Kansas City Police Department, a position he left while the department was in the process of internally investigating if he had made derogatory and sexist comments to a fellow officer.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Kate Middleton has proved royals can be outfit repeaters too.

On Tuesday 3 October, the Princess of Wales stepped out with her husband, Prince William, for the start of Black History Month in the UK as well as to celebrate the 75 anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush to the UK. Kate surprised fans by wearing the exact same pinstripe suit that she previously wore on Friday 29 September, when she met with Apple CEO Tim Cook.

The navy striped suit features the Holland Cooper blazer, which retails for $669 and the matching Holland Cooper trousers, which retail for $364. Instead of the $690 beige Gabriela Hearst turtleneck that she wore when taking photos with Cook, this time she opted for a white Holland Cooper shirt bodysuit, which retails for $180.

The royal accessorised the outfit with her hair down and in waves, with $795 navy pumps from Gianvito Rossi in addition to the same $82 Shyla pearl hoop earrings she wore with a green Burberry suit to visit textile factories last week.

Kates outfit was posted to the Instagram account, Royal Fashion Police, where many fans wrote about what was the Princess of Wales eighth consecutive suit this month.

Some people praised her for wearing what she was comfortable in and liked the blouse Kate was wearing in the second outfit compared to the turtleneck in the first one. I didnt like this suit with the turtleneck and I thought it was the suit, but it turns out it was the turtleneck. I really like it with the bodysuit, one comment read.

Another commenter agreed, writing, A lot better this styling than the one with the turtleneck. I like it.

Shes very obviously in her suit phase and she must be loving it, a third commenter wrote while expressing their love for the outfit.

One person commented on Kates potential motive regarding why she would repeat outfits. Shes really making a statement with all these suits and repeats, she wrote. She clearly doesnt want her engagements to be about her fashion.

However, others admitted they found the repeat outfit boring. Bored bored bored!! one fan wrote. The only thing I like is how she didnt wear the turtleneck again, it looked better how the model wore it with the shirt.

Why would she wear the same suit twice in one week? another lamented. Its not bad enough she only wears the same McQueen or Mouret suits in different colours for every engagement. So disappointing!!!

Kate is known for repeating outfits, a tactic she relies on as a way of promoting sustainability. In 2023, the Princess of Wales arrived at the BAFTAs in an Alexander McQueen one-shoulder gown, which she first worn to the event in 2019.
A humpback whale and calf were swimming in Australia when a kayak piqued their interest.

After passing the boat in Byron Bay, the duo circled back to get a better look. Thats when the baby whale flipped its tail right into the bottom of the kayak, drone footage taken by Isabella Dobozy shows.

The kayakers were in one spot about (500 to 600 feet) from shore when these whales approached them, Dobozy told McClatchy News in a message. They swam past the kayakers but circled back to have another look at them.

Dobozys video shows the calf swimming above the adult humpback after encountering the kayak. At the top of the frame, another humpback can be seen swimming up to a different kayak.

A very close encounter for these kayakers, Dobozy wrote on Instagram. Its incredible to see how big the whale calf is, compared to the kayak.

Some people worried that the kayakers were breaking the law by getting too close to the creatures, but Dobozy said the whales approached the humans, not the other way around.

The calf was unhappy but the whales swam up to the kayakers, she wrote on Instagram.

Other people shared their awe at the encounter.

(Thats) actually so scary how close they were! one person commented.

Lol that was a close one  whales especially love getting close to small vessels and the calf is just learning how to keep a distance gently, another person wrote.

This is unreal! a third person commented.

Byron Bay is on the eastern coast of Australia, about 475 miles northeast of Sydney.

Peculiar crying leads rescuers to baby humpback tangled in net. Thats not right

Rare sighting of endangered sea creatures leaves biologist in tears. I was in awe

Unusual clicking sounds lead divers to show of a lifetime. See creature encounter
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  Spooky season has arrived, and the Kansas City Power & Light District is ready to celebrate with a new pop-up bar.

Ghoulish SpookEasy at KC Live! opens to the public Thursday inside the former Leinenkugels bar. It will be open every Thursday through Saturday in October from 4 p.m. to close.

Dirty soda chain Swig plans first location in Kansas City area

The Ghoulish SpookEasy has specialty cocktails, including three offerings from Toms Town  including a Poison Apple, Cloven Hoof and Great Pumpkin  on top of a full-service bar.

There will be special theme nights every Saturday in October with costume contests.

Reservations are not required; seating will be first come, first served.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
In the face of questions about her position on LGBTQ students across Kentucky, interim Education Commissioner Robin Kinney said she would support all students.

Jason Glass, who most recently held the states top education job, said he left the Education Commissioner role because he didnt want to enforce the dangerous and unconstitutional Senate Bill 150 that critics have called an anti-LGBTQ measure.

Glass support of LGBTQ students and inclusive policies led some members of the Republican General Assembly to call for his ouster in this years General Assembly and in the months after.

I dont know that I anticipate having the same problem, I guess thats yet to be seen, Kinney said on Monday as she began her tenure.

I have respect for Dr. Glasss personal convictions and the decision he made for himself and his family. Im going to trust the process and let that play out, but we still will support each and every child, so I dont anticipate any negative results as a result of that, Kinney said.

The department would serve all children, each child, every child, every day, she said.

Before his departure, Glass had said the Kentucky Department of Education was going to have a pro-LGBTQ summit in the fall.

Kinney said she did not anticipate having the summit in the interim before the General Assembly begins but it will be on the list of things that we share with the incoming new permanent commissioner.

KDE spokesperson Toni Konz Tatman said, It takes a lot of time to plan a large gathering like a Summit and we did not have enough time to get that planned for this fall as initially announced by Commissioner Glass.

Glass left his post September 29 to become an associate vice-president at Western Michigan University.

Kinney said her goals as interim are to keep moving forward, to be responsive to school districts, superintendents and parents, and to be effective in the next legislative session.

The Education Department is hoping to hire a new commissioner sooner than the eight months that it took the last time, but its important that the search be thorough, Kinney said.

Glass was a really great person to work with and for, and so its always hard when we have a change, Kinney said

Kinney does not expect to make any sweeping policy changes during her tenure, she said. She is not in the running for the permanent position.

The 2023 General Assembly passed a new law that requires an education commissioner to be confirmed by the Kentucky Senate. Kinney said she had not spoken to lawmakers about the process but was ready and willing to be confirmed if necessary.

Angela Billings, a spokesperson for the Senate Majority Caucus, said the law did not address interim education commissioners.

Kinney said she would not comment on ongoing lawsuits regarding SB 150. Five Lexington transgender children and their families filed a class-action lawsuit last week in Fayette County challenging a GOP-backed laws pronoun and bathroom requirements in public schools.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 3)  The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the filing of criminal charges against former Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) chief Hermenegildo Serafica over the delay in the procurement of farming tools.

In a 21-page joint resolution, the Ombudsman said Serafica violated the Republic Act 9184 or the "Government Procurement Reform Act."

According to the Ombudsman, the invitation to bid for the procurement of harrowers was opened from Aug. 23 to Sept. 13, 2017. But the notice to proceed was only issued on Sept. 3, 2020.

Section 65 (a) (2) of RA 9184 penalizes any public official who delays without justifiable cause the awarding of contracts beyond the prescribed periods of bids or other documents.

RA 9184's implementing rules and regulations also state that the issuance of notice to proceed should have been done 130 to 136 days after the invitation to bid was posted, the Ombudsman stressed.

The Ombudsman pointed out that the SRA should have procured the farm tractors along with the harrowers in 2017.

"The procurement of the tractors appears to have been also neglectfully delayed denying the SRA the use thereof from 2017 to 2020, hence it cannot be used as justification for delaying the implementation and delivery of the harrowers," the resolution read.

"Stated differently, none of the respondents were able to show that the subject procurement was entirely dependent on the 2020 farm tractor procurement," it added.

Serafica was also found guilty of gross neglect of duty and grave misconduct "for his failure to timely award the contract, issue the notice to proceed, and comply with the procurement periods both under RA 9184 and its IRR."

Serafica resigned last year from his post following the controversial order to import 300,000 metric tons of sugar to avert a supposedly looming shortage.

If dismissal from public office cannot be implemented, the Ombudsman said Serafica should be fined equivalent to his individual salary for one year.

However, the Ombudsman junked the graft and corruption case against Serafica "considering that the allegations do not fall within the crimes defined" under RA 3019 or the "Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act."

CNN Philippines has sought Serafica's comment.
Rep. Matt Gaetz s efforts to oust Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy were successful Tuesday as the GOP civil war continues to rage in Congress. It was the first time in U.S. history that a House speaker was voted out of the position.

I may have lost this vote today, but as I walk out of this chamber I feel fortunate to have served," McCarthy said at a Tuesday evening press conference at the Capitol. I wouldn't change a thing.

McCarthy put the blame for his removal from the speakership squarely on Gaetz.

"Look, you all know Matt Gaetz. You know it was personal. It had nothing to do about spending," McCarthy said, adding, "It all was about getting attention from you."

Yahoo News' Jon Ward explains: Why Matt Gaetz moved to oust Kevin McCarthy

Gaetz, the outspoken Florida Republican whos dealt with a barrage of scandals since being elected in 2016, has been a consistent antagonist of McCarthy. On Monday night, Gaetz announced that in response to what he called McCarthy's "broken promises" to conservative Republicans who helped elect him speaker, he would be filing a motion to vacate that, if successful, would remove McCarthy from his post.

McCarthy and his allies could have handled Gaetzs motion in a few ways, but they chose to hold a vote to table it on Tuesday afternoon. If it had been successful, it would have killed Gaetzs motion and allowed McCarthy to retain his speakership. It failed, with 11 Republicans defecting.

Later that afternoon a final vote passed, ending McCarthys speakership. Eight Republicans joined with 208 Democrats in support of the measure. To close out the proceedings, Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, who was presiding over the House, said, "The office of Speaker of the House of the United States House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant."

Reuters explains: What is a 'motion to vacate' and how does it work?

Gaetz defended his actions in a speech prior to the final vote, saying, Chaos is Speaker McCarthy. Chaos is somebody who we cannot trust with their word.

After the votes were tallied, McCarthy made clear that he would not attempt to run again for the top House leadership position.

"I will not run for speaker again. Ill have the [Republican] conference pick somebody else," McCarthy said at the press conference.

Gaetzs case against McCarthy

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

Gaetzs move came after McCarthy agreed over the weekend to support a funding bill that averted a government shutdown. On Monday, Gaetz also accused him of cutting a secret deal with Democrats to fund Ukraines military in its fight with Russia. Gaetz and other hard-liners object to such funding.

The Florida congressman has also accused McCarthy of spinelessness, saying the speaker loses his lunch money in every negotiation with the White House.

McCarthy, meanwhile, has insisted that Gaetzs issue with him is personal and has little to do with politics or policy. Speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, McCarthy attempted to project confidence, citing the other challenges he had overcome during his rocky leadership tenure and posting "Bring it on" to social media.

McCarthy could have negotiated with Democrats for their support in order to guarantee that he kept the position, but he did not, telling CNBC Tuesday morning that Democrats will decide whatever theyre going to do. And we will live with whatever happens. Gaetz, however, reached out to Democrats to try and ensure their votes against McCarthy.

After a lengthy Democratic caucus meeting on Tuesday morning, the partys leadership said it would not be voting to step in to help McCarthy and centrist Democrats abandoned him as well. There was little love for him among the minority party, following his launch of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden without a floor vote and his defense of former President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Read more on Yahoo News: Whats at stake in Congress debate over Ukraine funding

What comes next

Following plans put in place in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks to ensure the continuance of governance, McCarthy had prepared a speaker-in-waiting list from which an interim replacement would be chosen. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, a McCarthy ally, was selected for the role.

There are disagreements on how much power McHenry will actually have, however, with some procedural experts saying that a replacement would only have the power to oversee the selection of a new speaker. The position doesnt have to be held by a sitting member of Congress.

McCarthy struggled to corral his Republican colleagues since the onset of his speakership. It took a historic 15 votes over five days to install him in the position.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., leaves the House floor after being ousted as Speaker of the House at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday became the first speaker of the House in history to be ousted by a vote of the chamber, leaving Washington in chaos and dealing a potentially fatal blow to the Bakersfield Republicans political career.

The revolt against McCarthy was led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and a small group of hard-right Republicans who have complained that the speaker worked across the aisle too often. The 216-210 vote highlighted the divisions in the GOP and made clear that the partys right wing will not tolerate leaders who compromise with President Biden and his allies.

Gaetz and seven other Republicans joined with 208 Democrats to dump McCarthy.

Well, we heard McCarthy say he wanted us to bring it on, Gaetz told reporters after the vote. So I guess we did.

The result plunges the House into crisis, with no clear sign of who  if anyone  can muster enough votes to become the next speaker.

Were in uncharted waters, Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno) told The Times shortly before the vote.

McCarthy told Republicans on Tuesday night that he will not seek to regain the gavel, clearing the way for another candidate to take his place.

Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), a close McCarthy ally, will act as speaker on a temporary basis.

Read more: In rambling news conference, Kevin McCarthy says he 'wouldn't change a thing,' but won't run for speaker again

Republicans huddled Tuesday evening to try to figure out who could win the votes necessary to lead the chamber. But multiple GOP lawmakers said they have no idea whats next.

Gaetz and his allies will probably demand significant concessions in exchange for supporting a new Republican speaker. Democrats could also attempt to extract concessions in exchange for supporting a consensus speaker, though such a deal is unprecedented in modern U.S. history.

McCarthy's defeat will have ramifications beyond his personal political career. Gaetz cited the former speaker's Saturday decision to work with Democrats to keep the government open as one of the reasons for his coup, and McCarthys defeat sends a clear signal to whoever replaces him that the far right of the Republican Party will not tolerate such deal-making.

California will be affected too: Without the Bakersfield Republican in the speakers chair, the state, which lost its senior senator just last week , will probably see its power in Congress further diminished.

Many McCarthy allies were furious about his defeat.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) called for the GOP to kick Gaetz out of the conference, calling McCarthys removal a vote for chaos. It hurts our country, our Congress. Republicans will be weaker from this coming around next November, and I thought the behavior of these eight folks was shameful, he said.

If they want to expel me, a defiant Gaetz replied to reporters, let me know when they have the votes.

Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a McCarthy ally, formally presided over the vote to remove him and called it a surreal moment.

Ive presided over some pretty incredible things in this House, but Ive never presided over something like that, he said.

With tempers flaring, he worried that physical violence could break out.

There are people in there that have waged battle, literal battle, in combat, and it wont take much for some people to set them off. I sure hope that we dont come to any sort of physical violence, he warned. When emotions are high like this, people react.

But speaking to reporters on the Capitol steps, Gaetz said that he and his allies were "breaking the fever by voting to oust McCarthy. McCarthy is a feature of the swamp, he said, adding that the former speaker couldnt keep his word to right-flank Republicans.

Gaetz, after months of threats, filed a motion to oust McCarthy late Monday night, taking advantage of chamber rules  approved by the House majority in January  that allow any lawmaker to force a quick vote to boot the speaker. McCarthy lost a vote to table Gaetzs motion early Tuesday afternoon, 218 to 208.

After the procedural vote, Gaetzs fellow Republicans appeared to refuse to allow him to deliver his remarks from their side of the House floor, forcing him to speak from the Democratic side of the chamber.

Democrats had made clear before the vote that they were not interested in bailing out McCarthy. We are ready to find bipartisan common ground, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) wrote on X , the platform formerly known as Twitter, late Tuesday morning. Our extreme colleagues have shown no willingness to do the same. They must find a way to end the House Republican Civil War.

The Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy were Gaetz, Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Bob Good of Virginia, Matthew M. Rosendale of Montana, Ken Buck of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.

Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana voted against McCarthy in an initial procedural vote but declined to remove him from the speakers chair, telling reporters before the vote, Im willing to give him one more chance. Cory Mills of Florida and Warren Davidson of Ohio also backed McCarthy on the removal vote after opposing him on the procedural measure.

The House has been in disarray for much of the year , with GOP hard-liners demanding concession after concession in exchange for supporting McCarthys agenda. To win the speakers gavel in January, McCarthy restored rules that made it easy for any member of the House to move to overthrow him, the same rules that led to his defeat Tuesday.

After his election as speaker on the 15th ballot , hard-right Republicans continued to complain about McCarthys supposed willingness to work with Democrats. This year, he worked with Democrats to suspend the nations debt ceiling so the United States can pay its bills. On Saturday, he relied on Democratic votes to avert a government shutdown.

In both cases, McCarthy initially tried to pass measures with only GOP votes. He worked with Democrats after those efforts failed.

Still, Gaetz depicted McCarthys actions as a betrayal and proof that McCarthy was not fit to lead the GOP. Gaetz also alleged McCarthy made a secret deal to help Biden deliver funding to help Ukraine in its war against Russia. McCarthy said this is untrue.

Shortly before the vote to remove the speaker, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma chided his partys rebels, saying that McCarthy over the weekend put his political neck on the line knowing this day was coming to do the right thing, he said. He showed he can function in a time of crisis.

Cole implored Democrats not to side with Gaetz. Think long and hard before you plunge us into chaos, Cole said, because thats where we are headed if you vacate the speaker.

Gaetz offered a rejoinder. Chaos, he told Cole on the House floor, is somebody we cannot trust with their word.

Youve got to see the grift for what it is, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said of the rebels in his party. Its just a group of people that dont want conservatives to win.

Former President Trump, who had made clear that he supported a government shutdown, weighed in on the crisis in Congress on Tuesday afternoon. Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves, why arent they fighting the Radical Left Democrats who are destroying our Country? he posted on his conservative social media website, Truth Social.

McCarthys ejection from the speakership is the latest blow to the power and reach of Californias congressional delegation, after former Speaker Nancy Pelosis exit from House leadership and the recent death of longtime Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Democratic Reps. Pete Aguilar of Redlands and Ted Lieu of Torrance are the only Californians left in leadership in either chamber of Congress.

But leading Democrats expressed few concerns about McCarthys troubles.

The Speaker of the House is chosen by the Majority Party, Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said in a statement Tuesday morning. In this Congress, it is the responsibility of House Republicans to choose a nominee and elect the Speaker on the Floor. At this time there is no justification for a departure from this tradition. Pelosi, who was in San Francisco preparing for her friend Feinstein's funeral, did not vote Tuesday.

McCarthys politics are so far removed from the average California voter that Californians shouldnt worry about him losing his job, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) said before the vote.

He hasnt really fought for California to begin with. And in fact, in many cases in the past, hes done things that are very inimical to the interests of California, Schiff, whom McCarthy kicked off the House Intelligence Committee this year, told The Times. At the end of the day, the country needs a speaker that can be relied upon. We dont trust him, their members dont trust him, and you need a certain degree of trust to be the speaker.

It is still unclear who will take over as speaker. McHenry of North Carolina will serve only in an acting capacity. Gaetz has yet to formally suggest anyone, but told reporters after the vote that he believed House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana would make a phenomenal speaker. He also mentioned Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), another member of GOP leadership whom other Republicans have floated as a possible replacement for McCarthy.

Scalise has not said whether he wants the job. He voted to save McCarthy and is being treated for blood cancer .

Staff writer Faith E. Pinho contributed to this report.

Get the best of the Los Angeles Times politics coverage with the Essential Politics newsletter.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Trust is the most valuable currency a congressional leader has. And many of the 216 members of Congress who ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker Tuesday considered him a liar.

This spring, he negotiated a budget deal with President Joe Biden then later bent to conservative hardliners, almost leading the federal government into a shutdown last week. In the process, he said there would be more spending cuts, only to present a stopgap measure that contained none of them.

McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, is the first speaker to lose his job because of a colleagues vote. He told Republicans he would not seek the gavel now.

Chaos is somebody we cannot trust with their word, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said Tuesday. Thats why Ive moved to vacate the chair.

The House voted to vacate his office, 216-210, after Gaetz, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, filed a motion to remove McCarthy over his reliance on Democrats to avert a government shutdown. Eight Republicans voted to get rid of McCarthy.

The only person McCarthy can blame? Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, said, Himself.

Hes a liar. Hes a fraud, Garcia said. And hes an extremist.

McCarthy defended himself vigorously to reporters late Tuesday insisting he was not a liar.

He told reporters he did not renege on the debt limit deal earlier this year with President Joe Biden. Democrats charged that he sought budget cuts deeper than those in the agreement.

I kept my word, he said.

And, he said, I wouldnt change a thing in his turmoil-filled speakership.

Democrats said they could not trust McCarthy

Democrats were united against McCarthy Tuesday. The backbreaker may have come this past weekend, after they supplied the votes to head off a shutdown. The next morning on Face the Nation, blamed Democrats for delaying tactics.

To survive, McCarthy needed the trust of Democrats and the respect that went with it.

Many Democrats could simply not erase the memory of January 2021. During the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, McCarthy told President Trump to call these people off. He said theyre your people. A few days later, he said Trump bears responsibility for the attack.

Reports said he told colleagues he would urge Trump to resign before his term ended, and he supported a formal censure of the president.

Two weeks later, McCarthy joined Trump in Florida, and they were photographed smiling. Trump issued a statement that he has agreed to work with Leader McCarthy on helping the Republican Party to become a majority in the House.

Democrats and some Republicans were appalled, and they havent forgotten.

He said all the right things and then two weeks later he totally backtracked, recalled Rep. Ami Bera, D-Sacramento, Tuesday.

Adding to the outrage was an effort later in 2021 to establish a bipartisan committee to investigate Jan. 6. The Democratic-run House passed a measure that allowed then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi to name eight members, while McCarthy, then minority leader, appointed five.

Pelosi, D-San Francisco, rejected two of McCarthys picks, questioning their ability to be objective. McCarthy then pulled his appointees. Eventually, the committee had two Republicans, both Trump foes.

That was another example, Bera said, of a breakdown in trust. You cant lead if you dont have trust.

McCarthys supporters contested that he is loyal

A House Speaker, or Senate Majority Leader, has to somehow keep dozens of party members  ambitious, aggressive politicians  in line on complex votes time after time.

What former Senate leader Trent Lott once called herding cats is done with assurances that a specific spending item or a coveted committee assignment will be available.

Those little favors are the lubricant that keeps leaders effective, and in office.

McCarthys supporters argue he was unfailingly loyal to fellow Republicans.

The speaker never denied us a vote on anything he could, or in some cases, couldnt pass, said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista. Thats all he could do. He provided as good an environment as he could.

His loyalists pointed to the massive spending bills that have been moving through the House, bills that would dramatically cut spending and end some signature Biden administration initiatives, notably his environmental agenda.

Those bills, said Issa, are all as conservative as we could get.

Republicans fear the House will descend into chaos

Almost all House Republicans shared that view of the spending bills and warned that without McCarthy, the House would descend into chaos.

We are at the precipice, said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, an aggressive McCarthy supporter who has reportedly argued for his retention in this weeks closed-door GOP meetings.

Of Gaetz, said Rep. John Duarte, R-Modesto, I dont think anybody, including himself, probably really understands what hes trying to do.

As part of his deal in January to become speaker, through 15 rounds of votes, McCarthy agreed to let any single lawmaker call for a vote to oust him. A majority of the House would have to offer their vote of no confidence to remove him.

For now, Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina is serving as an acting speaker.

Republicans must pick their next speaker.

Democrats dont plan to help them.

Theyve been in disarray since the very first time they had to vote 14 plus-times, Garcia said.
Kevin McCarthy s losing the speakership of the House of Representatives was both historic and a foregone conclusion.

The poison pill was set last January, when McCarthy endured 15 votes to achieve his long-sought dream: To lead the House as speaker and become second in the line of succession to lead America.

But in finally reaching the goal, McCarthy had to agree to allow any House member to call for his removal. In House parlance, it is called the motion to vacate.

His predecessor, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, never faced imminent removal because she had the support of her caucus. McCarthy never did because the far right in his party never liked him and Democrats had good reason to never trust him. So McCarthy became singular in infamy  the first House leader ever stripped of power by his own party.

That McCarthy arrived at this historic moment by doing the right thing and working with Democrats to keep the government solvent, a move that triggered the GOP crazies, was an irony overwhelmed by political realities.

On Monday night, Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida filed the motion and started the process to vacate. It was the first time in more than a century that such a motion had been brought against a House speaker. (In 1910, Republicans tried unsuccessfully to remove then-Speaker Joseph Cannon).

McCarthy, the Republican from Bakersfield, brought his demise on himself with poor political judgments that he had repeatedly made since Jan 6, 2021.

McCarthy and Trump

In the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, McCarthy spoke against then-President Trump for his inciting the attackers.

Ive had it with this guy, McCarthy is heard saying about Trump on a recording obtained by The New York Times. At the time, McCarthy was the GOP leader in the House.

Yet weeks later, after Democrat Joe Biden had been sworn in as the new president, McCarthy went to Trumps Florida home and lent his credibility to the disgraced former president  essentially giving him new political life. McCarthy knew he would need the backing of Trump supporters in the House to become speaker.

As was abundantly shown by the House committee that investigated the rioting and efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election, Trump played the leading role in trying to overcome the will of voters. And yet McCarthy put a stamp of approval on him, allowing Trump to remain relevant on the national stage.

Cast his lot

Since becoming speaker in January, McCarthy made appeasing the hard-right members a key goal. The chief example is his allowing an impeachment inquiry to begin against Biden, despite any lack of evidence that the president has done anything wrong, and after promising that the full House would get to vote to start any such inquiry. No such vote was taken. Democrats were furious that such an investigation was started.

On his social media, McCarthy routinely blasted Democrats as socialists hell-bent on ruining America. Yet when two financial crises confronted the nation in recent months  the national debt limit and the federal budget  McCarthy found a way to compromise with Democrats to get deals that were needed.

But those deals were cited by the hard-right Republicans as evidence that McCarthy should not remain the speaker.

One could feel sorry for McCarthy because the narrow margin he had to work with made his job seemingly impossible.

But there is no excuse for the deference he paid to Trump nor the blind ambition he showed to become speaker. McCarthy cast his lot with Trump and Trumpism, and now joins the ranks of people broken by their association with the worst president in U.S. history.
When Florida Republican Rep Matt Gaetz was trying to prevent Speaker Kevin McCarthy from assuming the gavel in January, he voted for former President Donald Trump in the seventh round of voting before Mr McCarthy finally managed to get the job he coveted for years on the 15th ballot.

While Mr Trump is technically eligible to replace Mr McCarthy, its highly unlikely that hell be offered, let alone accept, the post.

On Tuesday, Mr Gaetz succeeded in having Mr McCarthy ousted as speaker of the House  bringing to an end a tenure of less than nine months.

The House of Representatives can elect anyone to be speaker, regardless if that person is a member of the chamber or not. While the Constitution doesnt state that the speaker has to be a member of the House, a non-member has never been elected to the role.

The Constitution only states that legislators shall choose their Speaker and other Officers.

Before the January vote chaos, Mr Gaetz said that he would nominate Mr Trump. In March last year, while speaking at a Trump rally, he said that to give us the ability to fire Nancy Pelosi, take back the majority, impeach Joe Biden and I am going to nominate Donald Trump for speaker.

While the Constitution doesnt state that the speaker has to be a member of the chamber, some experts think that the framers were unlikely to have expected the House to even consider a non-member for the job.

David Forte, a law professor at Cleveland State University, told NBC News in 2015 that it would have been unthinkable for the most populous house not to have its leader be part of the representatives who were elected by the people.

Nothing fits that would make the speaker anything other than a member of the House, apart from the Constitution not explicitly stating that.

He added that the Articles of Confederation stated that members of Congress would have the power to appoint one of their members to preside.

But Mr Forte also noted that the courts, including the Supreme Court, are unlikely to get involved in the issue, meaning that its technically possible to elect a non-member.

Theres no way the Courts going to get involved in that. Such internal aspects of each branch of government are appropriately untouchable by another branch. And that certainly would be one, he said.

Januarys 15 ballots were the first time it took more than one vote to elect a speaker since 1923, when nine votes took place before the position was filled.

On Monday, Mr Gaetz told the press that he had spoken to Mr Trump about his anti-McCarthy campaign, but didnt say what Mr Trumps thoughts on the matter are.

After Mr McCarthy lost Tuesdays vote ousting him as speaker, some far-right Republicans began touting Mr Trump as a replacement.

MAGA Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X: The only candidate for Speaker I am currently supporting is President Donald J. Trump. He will end the war in Ukraine. He will secure the border.

Gaetz still plans to try to oust McCarthy from speakership this week. Says he's ready to do it over and over again. Argues it's not him throwing House in chaos. "Real chaos is when the American people have to go through the austerity that is coming."



Says he's spoken to Trump. pic.twitter.com/1mLMrqcw0O  Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 2, 2023

He will end the politically weaponized government. He will make America energy independent again. He will pass my bill to stop transgender surgeries on kids and keep men out of womens sports. He will support our military and police. And so much more!

He has a proven 4 year record as President of the United States of America. He received a record number of Republican votes of any Republican Presidential candidate! We can make him Speaker and then elect him President! He will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!

Trump is asked if he supports Matt Gaetzs efforts to oust Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. He says he likes both and McCarthy said very nice things about him this morning so he doesnt want to comment. pic.twitter.com/xTrnkd7eiY  Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 1, 2023

During a campaign event in Iowa last week, Mr Trump refused to take sides on the escalating saga: I dont know anything about those efforts [to remove Mr McCarthy], but I like both of them very much.

He then chimed in about the vote on Tuesday: Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves, why arent they fighting the Radical Left Democrats who are destroying our Country?

He is yet to respond to the calls for him to take the gavel.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California has been removed as speaker of the House of Representatives after his colleagues voted 216-210 in favor of a motion to vacate the speakership. That motion was proposed Monday by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a longtime Republican opponent of McCarthy's. Eight members of the Republican majority voted with all 208 Democrats present in supporting the motion. In the history of the U.S. Congress, this marks the first time a speaker has been removed in this fashion.

At this moment, the House has no speaker and cannot advance legislation. Although Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., will serve as temporary speaker, normal legislative business will cease until a new speaker is elected. There is no clear indication of who that might be, although Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the majority leader, is a likely leading contender. Reports on Tuesday night suggested that McCarthy has told Republican colleagues he will not seek the office again.

The Republican members who voted to oust McCarthy, along with Gaetz, were Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Matt Rosendale of Montana.

McCarthy's downfall came more rapidly than many observers expected after Gaetz made good on his oft-repeated threat to file a motion to vacate on Monday night. The speaker's downfall follows months worth of tensions between a handful of members on the far-right flank of the House Republican caucus and more moderate members, who overwhelmingly backed McCarthy.

McCarthy's predicament stemmed from two interlocking factors. The first was that among his numerous concessions to hard-right GOP members during the speakership battle last January was a rule change that allowed a single member to introduce a motion to vacate, as Gaetz did this week.

Secondly, the Republicans' razor-thin House majority meant that even a handful of defectors would be enough to doom McCarthy, unless he could persuade enough Democrats to support him to make up the difference. Despite a handful of rumors regarding possible backroom deals, no Democratic members voted against the motion to vacate on Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier on Tuesday, prior to the vote on a "motion to table" that would have shut down Gaetz's intra-party coup, Democrats indicated that no deal had been made, and they would vote unanimously to oust the speaker. "We're not saving Kevin McCarthy," Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., told The Messenger. "There'll be a motion to table. A vote that was either present or yes would be saving Kevin McCarthy."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., expressed similar sentiments during an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union" last weekend, nothing that McCarthy never had her vote to begin with. When asked if she would support the motion to vacate, she responded "Absolutely," adding that she believed McCarthy was a "very weak speaker" who "clearly has lost control of his caucus."

Tuesday's earlier motion to table failed, with 11 Republicans voting against it, allowing the later vote on the motion to vacate to continue. Three of those Republican members apparently changed course and voted to support McCarthy on the final vote, but that wasn't enough to rescue him.

Gaetz, who has long been one of McCarthy's most vocal opponents among Republican hardliners  and who never voted to support him in January  announced his plans to oust McCarthy on Sunday after the speaker's compromise deal with Democrats on a stopgap spending bill that avoided a government shutdown.

Gaetz joined with a number of far-right colleagues in voting down a number of measures McCarthy had proposed in the days leading up to the shutdown deadline. He and 20 other Republican members even joined with Democrats in killing a last-ditch, GOP-crafted bill last Friday.

Those failed attempts to unify the Republican conference on government funding legislation marked significant and embarrassing defeats for McCarthy, paving the way for the startling humiliation of Tuesday's vote to end his speakership.

After McCarthy announced the launch of an impeachment inquiry against President Biden last month, Gaetz vowed to repeatedly file motions to vacate the speakership, claiming that McCarthy had reneged on his promises to hardline Republicans.

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"I rise today to serve notice: Mr. Speaker, you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed you to assume this role," Gaetz said during a speech on the House floor following the impeachment inquiry's announcement. "The path forward for the House of Representatives is to either bring you into immediate, total compliance or remove you pursuant to a motion to vacate the chair,"

In an appearance with CNN's Abby Phillip later that day, Gaetz expressed regret that he was not able to block the debt limit deal that McCarthy had reached with Biden earlier this year that prevented the U.S. from defaulting on its debt. He urged McCarthy to adopt a tougher approach to a range of issues in order to avoid the barrage of motions.

"I'm going to do it over and over again until it works, and today we saw a baby step towards that with more robust efforts towards impeachment, but I'm going to keep doing it. ... The American people want term limits, they want balanced budgets, they don't want to see government funding wrapped up in just one up-or-down vote," Gaetz told Phillip.

Gaetz's intra-party coup marks the culmination  but perhaps not the end  of months-long tensions between McCarthy and the right-wing members of his conference, who forced him to undergo 15 rounds of votes in January to win the speakership. In his ultimate deal to secure the speaker's gavel, McCarthy agreed to allow a single member to advance a motion to vacate, a decision he may now regret.

When the threats to oust him from the role rolled in last month, McCarthy issued a profane challenge to those Republican lawmakers, sources told Politico.

"Go ahead. I'm not fking scared of it. Any new speaker will do what I'm doing," one legislator said they recalled the speaker saying. "If you think you scare me because you want to file a motion to vacate, move the fing motion," McCarthy said, according to two other anonymous Republican lawmakers interviewed by the outlet.
Back in January, Kevin McCarthy struck a deal to become House Speaker that gave any one member of Congress the power to force a vote on whether to remove him.

On Tuesday, one Republican - Matt Gaetz - did exactly that. And, with the help of Democrats, he succeeded in kicking him out.

Now most Republicans are shaking their heads, wondering where they go next. All but a handful of them voted to keep Mr McCarthy in his job, but all it took was a few rebels to throw the chamber into chaos.

For months, Mr McCarthy had worked to keep his right flank in line.

He had agreed to open an impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden . He had backed away from a spending deal he struck with Democrats earlier in the year to raise the debt limit. He had let conservatives attach right-wing provisions to spending bills and other legislation.

All his efforts were in vain. When the Speaker relied on Democratic support to keep the government temporarily funded at the weekend, the die was cast.

Mr McCarthy could have still tried to win back power, cajoling or coercing the Republicans who sank him this week to change their mind, as he did back in January. But there seem to be few options left for him - and on Tuesday evening he indicated he would not run again.

The speakership that he sought for much of his political career has ended up a poisoned chalice - and, after the vote to oust him ended, he almost looked relieved, as fellow Republicans came up to shake his hand and give him hugs.

No matter which Republican replaces him, the divisions within the party will remain. And the challenges to effectively running the chamber are still the same.

That's because, while the moment was historic - the first Speaker removed by vote of the House - it also was the culmination of a fractious intra-Republican fight between the party's political establishment and its seething base that has been brewing since at least the Tea Party movement of 2010.

It's a fight between practicality and purity; between changing the system or working within it.

Mr McCarthy barely won the Speaker's gavel back in January, as a handful of Republican rebels ultimately joined the rest of the party to support the California congressman. It was those final Republican holdouts who sunk the Speaker on Tuesday.

Although Mr Gaetz had allies who supported his "motion to vacate the chair", it was a decidedly one man show.

As Mr McCarthy's Republican defenders took turns standing during an hour of debate before the final vote, it was Mr Gaetz - positioned on the Democratic side of the chamber but talking to his fellow Republicans - who took the lion's share of the time to make the case against the Speaker.

What became clear was that both sides of the split within the Republican House think that Washington is broken.

For Mr Gaetz, it is the process by which federal spending is approved that is the biggest source of blame. He railed against how Congress approves massive spending bills for different parts of the federal government, which are often negotiated behind closed doors, then voted on in one large package.

He excoriated Mr McCarthy for making concessions to Democrats - who control the Senate and the White House - during budget and debt-limit negotiations and said if his party didn't take a harder line, nothing in Washington would ever change.

The Speaker's defenders, on the other hand, said compromise was part of the process - and that Mr McCarthy had been successful in advancing the conservative agenda.

Congressman Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota also pointed the finger directly at politicians like Mr Gaetz, who he accused of putting grandstanding and fundraising over governing.

"The incentive structure in this town is completely broken," he said. "We have descended to a place where clicks, TV hits and the never-ending quest for the most mediocre taste of celebrity drives decisions and encourages juvenile behaviour."

For the moment, the House is a broken institution - left without a Speaker and with no clear path to getting one.

With a jarringly loud gavel bang, the removal proceedings ended on Tuesday afternoon. Republicans, looking shell-shocked, retreated behind closed doors to figure out what to do next. Democrats, meanwhile, laughed and chatted - seemingly with the belief that this chaos will only work to their political benefit.

It's uncharted waters, however. And with the clock ticking toward a mid-November government shutdown, the waters could get very rough.
FILE - Police secure the entrance to Moreau Lake State Park as search continues for Charlotte Sena, a missing 9-year-old girl who had been camping over the weekend with her family at the park, Monday Oct. 2, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Michael Hill, File)

MOREAU, N.Y. (AP)  An agonizing 34 hours had passed since 9-year-old Charlotte Sena disappeared from an upstate New York campground when police got the break they needed to bring the girl home safely.

At 4:20 a.m. Monday, a vehicle pulled up to the familys home a short drive away from the campground, and the driver exited in the darkness to place a ransom note in the mailbox. Law enforcement had been guarding the little girls home and watched the scene unfold.

The officers rushed to the mailbox, investigators quickly isolated fingerprints, and within hours were running them through a New York state database. The first try turned up nothing. Then came a second, connecting the print to the suspect and his white camper parked next to a doublewide trailer two miles away.

Some 20 officers from a state police special operations unit and FBI SWAT team descended on the camper, arresting suspect, 46-year-old Craig Ross Jr., and finding the girl in a cabinet.

The hit came at 2:30 in the afternoon, Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a news conference.

The fingerprint belonged to Ross, who had been stopped for drunken driving in Saratoga in 1999, Hochul said.

Ross vehicle was registered to an address just two miles from the Sena home in Greenfield. But it was his mother's property about 10 miles away in Ballston Spa, the site of a doublewide trailer with a white camper parked off to the side, that rescuers targeted.

Law enforcement officials, some with their guns drawn, moved in for the raid at 6:30 p.m. Monday. There was shouting and loud bangs and flashes of light.

My first thought was, like, is this a drug bust? Because in my wildest, wildest dreams, it couldnt have been that, said Carol Brown, 61, a neighbor who lives down the street. It is just unbelievable that this person lived on my street.

Then the girl emerged from the camper wrapped in a towel, escorted by police, one neighbor said. The raid came right about at the 48-hour mark of Charlotte's disappearance, a critical time in the search for any missing child.

As each hour went on, hope faded because we all know the stories, Hochul said after the rescue. The first 24 hours, theres hope. But when you hit 48 hours, hope starts to wane. When Charlotte disappeared in Moreau State Park, it was every parents worst nightmare.

Ross resisted capture and suffered minor injuries, police said. Charlotte appeared physically unharmed.

She knew she was being rescued. She knew that she was in safe hands, Hochul said.

The family was immediately notified and reunited at the hospital where Charlotte was taken.

We are thrilled that she is home and we understand that the outcome is not what every family gets, the girls family said in a statement Tuesday, WRGB in Albany reported.

Parents David and Trisha Sena had braced for another day combing Moreau Lake State Park in Ganesvoort for their middle daughter. Charlotte had pulled a gray bike helmet over her blonde hair and rode off on her bike Saturday afternoon, black Crocs on her feet and wearing an orange tie-dye Pokemon shirt. She was doing loops around a bike path with two friends around 6:15 p.m. when she vanished while taking one last lap on her own.

Ross was arraigned overnight in town court in Milton, New York, on a charge of first-degree kidnapping. He was being held without bail at the Saratoga County Correctional Facility.

Police said more charges are expected.

A message seeking comment was left with the Saratoga County Public Defenders Office, which represented Ross at his arraignment.

Investigators had not determined Tuesday whether the suspect and family were connected in any way.

Once Charlotte was safe, the family sent a huge thank you to the FBI, the New York State police, all of the agencies that were mobilized, all of the families, friends, community, neighbors and hundreds of volunteers who supported us and worked tirelessly to bring Charlotte home.

It was an ending the governor, with each passing hour, had worried would not happen.
A Lakeville man being held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing is accused of taunting police officers while wielding a fake gun and shouting Kill or be killed to police before officers shot him, prosecutors said.

Timothy Hladik, 45, is charged with two counts each of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and threat to commit a crime, Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz said. A not guilty plea was entered on Hladiks behalf during his arraignment Monday. Hladik was arraigned from his hospital bed at St. Lukes Hospital in New Bedford, with his defense attorney, Joe Krowski, by his bedside.

In court, Assistant District Attorney Victoria Wood detailed a harrowing confrontation that occurred early Friday morning in Lakeville. The entire incident lasted just over a minute and was captured on police body-camera video, Wood said.

Around 3:45 a.m. Friday, an officer monitoring traffic near Precinct and Pickens streets was confronted by a man, later identified as Hladik, who displayed what appeared to be a black handgun, according to police and prosecutors.

Hladik is accused of pulling his car up to the officer and exiting the vehicle with what appeared to be a gun in his hand, Wood said.

We now know that it was a replica firearm, however the officers at the time did not know that, Wood said.

The Lakeville officer told Hladik to drop the gun a total of 11 times, Wood said.

Locked in a standoff, the officer moved around his cruiser, trying to keep the vehicle between himself and Hladik, Wood said.

Hladik then allegedly said to the officer, Kill or be killed! Come on (expletive) and he began advancing toward drivers side door of the police cruiser, Wood said.

An off-duty Massachusetts State Police trooper stopped by the scene to assist and also asked Hladik twice to drop the gun, Wood said.

A state police trooper arrives on the scene and that state police trooper had fired his weapon at the defendant, perceiving an imminent threat, Wood said. The defendant then said, Nice shot, (expletive). You missed me.

Hladik then continues to say Kill or be killed as he approached the Lakeville officer, who retreated to a set of trees nearby, Wood said.

That state police trooper fires another round at the defendant, again the defendant says, Nice try, Wood said. The trooper then fired an additional round, and Hladik fell onto the roadway.

Judge Sabine Coyne allowed the body camera footage to be released as part of discovery, at Krowskis request.

Coyne also allowed the states request to impound the arrest warrant for 90 days.

Hladik is due back in court for a dangerousness hearing on Oct. 12.

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

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California Governor Gavin Newsom tapped Emilys List president and former labor leader Laphonza Butler to fill the Senate seat held by Dianne Feinstein, who died last week.

Butler would be Californias first openly LGBTQ U.S. Senator and the first Black lesbian to openly serve Congress. She would also be the second Black woman to represent California in the upper chamber after Vice President Kamala Harris.

An advocate for women and girls, a second-generation fighter for working people, and a trusted adviser to Vice President Harris, Laphonza Butler represents the best of California, and shell represent us proudly in the United States Senate, Newsom said in a statement. As we mourn the enormous loss of Senator Feinstein, the very freedoms she fought for  reproductive freedom, equal protection, and safety from gun violence  have never been under greater assault. Laphonza will carry the baton left by Senator Feinstein, continue to break glass ceilings, and fight for all Californians in Washington D.C.

Newsom had vowed more than two years ago that he would nominate a Black woman if a Senate vacancy emerged.

Butler wrote on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, Monday that she was honored to accept the governors nomination. No one will ever measure up to the legacy of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, but I will do my best to honor her legacy and leadership by committing to work for women and girls, workers and unions, struggling parents, and all of California, she wrote. I am ready to serve.

Butler will serve the remainder of Feinstein's term, which will run through 2024. Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff have launched campaigns to be elected to the seat next year; it is not yet clear whether Butler will also run for a full six-year term.

Butler has been president of Emilys List since 2021. She is the first Black woman to lead the national PAC, which supports pro-choice Democratic women in politics. In accepting the Senate seat, Butler will step down from her position at Emilys List.

Before Emilys List, Butler ran political campaigns and served as a key leader in Harris bid for the vice presidency and as a senior advisor to former Secretary of State Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign. She was also the president of Californias largest labor unionSEIU Local 2015for more than a decade. Butler worked to achieve pay equity for women in California and advocated for raising the states minimum wage to $15 an hour, according to her bio on Emilys List. She also previously worked as the director for public policy and campaigns at Airbnb from 2020-2021, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Butler grew up in Magnolia, Miss. in a working-class family. Her father died when she was 16 after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Her mother worked multiple jobs to support the family. She went on to attend Jackson State University, an HBCU, where she received a bachelors degree in political science. She is married and has an 8-year-old daughter, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Butler has been living in Maryland, according to her bio on Emily's List. Newsoms administration said she also owns property in California will change her voter registration there, according to the New York Times.

So far, the reception to Butler's announcement has been largely positive among Democrats on the Hill. Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat from California, said in a statement on X that he was "honored to welcome her to the United States Senate."

"Throughout her career, Laphonza Butler has been a strong voice for working families, LGBTQ rights, and a champion for increasing women's representation in politics," Padilla said.

Senate Democrats are "delighted" to welcome Butler, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a statement. "Im confident that her breadth of work, acumen, and public service will meet this moment and be a great help to Senate Democrats as we continue to deliver for the American People."

LGBTQ and abortion-rights advocates also celebrated her appointment. Tony Hoang, executive director of the LGBTQ rights advocacy group Equality California, said in a statement on X that "this historic appointment by Governor Newsom will give our LGBTQ+ community another voice in Congress at a time when our rights and freedoms are under attack across the country." Jodi Hicks, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California said in a statement that Butler "has been a national leader in the fight for reproductive freedom."

Write to Sanya Mansoor at sanya.mansoor@time.com.
Rome (CNN)  Pope Francis has suggested for the first time that people in same-sex unions could be blessed by Catholic priests on a case-by-case basis, a seeming reversal of previous statements.

The Pope made the suggestion in a letter to his harshest critics within the Catholic ranks, written in response to a letter from five conservative cardinals with formal questions  called a dubia (Latin for doubt)  which is an official request for a yes or no answer from a sitting pontiff regarding his running of the Church.

The cardinals, Walter Brandmuller, Raymond Leo Burke, Juan Sandoval Iniguez, Robert Sarah and Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, first sent the letter to Pope Francis on July 10. It focused on an upcoming October meeting of bishops, asking what impact it could have on Churchs teaching, and included questions about the Popes intention to bless same-sex unions, and whether he intends to open the door to women priests through ordination.

Unsatisfied with the Popes initial response, according to a blog post by American Cardinal Raymond Burke, the five cardinals reworded the dubia letter and sent it again on August 21, citing the gravity of the matter, according to Burke.

The Vatican then released a letter in Spanish dated September 25 signed by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, the Vaticans new chief of doctrine. The response includes Pope Francis answers to the dubia, signed Francis.

On the issue of homosexual unions, the pontiff reiterated that the church only recognizes marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but opened the door for blessings of individuals in same-sex unions, the letter shows.

When you ask for a blessing, you are expressing a request for help from God, a prayer to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us live better, the Pope wrote, adding that a clergy must show pastoral prudence must adequately discern if there are forms of blessing, requested by one or various people, which do not convey a wrong concept of marriage.

The Popes response appears to contradict his statement in March, when he said the Church could not bless same-sex unions, because they could not bless sin.

The latest development appears to be a nod to a decision made by the German Church in March and carried out in August, in which same-sex unions received a Catholic blessing by several priests in the city of Cologne.

On the issue of womens ordination, the pontiff was clear that he upheld the words of the late Pope John Paul II, who said in 1994 that the (Catholic) Church had no authority to ordain women, but said that the issue needed to be studied in order to educate those who doubt it, the letter said.

If is not understood and the practical consequences of these distinctions are not drawn, it will be difficult to accept that the priesthood is reserved only for men and we will not be able to recognize the rights of women or the need for them to participate, in various ways, in the leadership of the Church, the Pope added.

On the issue of the impact the upcoming meeting of Catholic bishops may have on the churchs teaching, Pope Francis was vaguer, writing, Both the hierarchy, and the entire People of God in different ways and at different levels can make their voice heard and feel like part of the Churchs journey. In this sense we can say that yes, synodality, as style and dynamism, is an essential dimension of the life of the Church.

He also added that attempts to sacralize or impose a certain synodal methodology that pleases one group, transforming it into a norm and an obligatory path for everyone, because this would only lead to freezing the synodal path.

The upcoming Synod in Rome has been met with skepticism by the conservative corners of the Church who have expressed concern both that women will have a voice, and that the Churchs teaching is not carried out by consensus.
The criminal trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried got underway in a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday, as the onetime darling of cryptocurrency faces charges for orchestrating what prosecutors have described as one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.

The 31-year-old ran the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, once valued at $32 billion, until its high-profile collapse last November. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas in December and charged with a slew of fraud and conspiracy charges.

Heres what to know about Bankman-Fried and the sprawling fraud case against him:

What charges does Bankman-Fried face?

Bankman-Fried faces charges for wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, and conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and defraud the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in the trial beginning on Tuesday.

However, the FTX founder faces several more charges  including securities fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to bribe foreign officials  in a second trial scheduled for March 2024.

Prosecutors accuse Bankman-Fried of siphoning off customer funds to prop up his cryptocurrency firm Alameda Research, as well as to bankroll tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions.

Bankman-Fried was one of the largest political donors in the 2022 midterm elections. However, additional contributions using Alameda and FTX funds were made in the names of two other executives as part of a push to curry favor with candidates that could help pass favorable legislation, prosecutors allege.

They also accuse the FTX founder of making false and misleading statements to investors about the companys financial condition and its relationship with Alameda.

What do we know about the trial?

Bankman-Frieds first criminal trial got underway on Tuesday with jury selection and is expected to last up to six weeks.

Four FTX executives who previously pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the companys collapse are expected to testify against Bankman-Fried at trial.

Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research and Bankman-Frieds ex-girlfriend, and Gary Wang, a co-founder of FTX, both pleaded guilty to fraud charges in December and agreed to cooperate with the investigation.

Nishad Singh, FTXs former director of engineering, similarly pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in February, while fellow FTX executive Ryan Salame followed suit in early September.

Why was Bankman-Frieds bail revoked?

The founder of the once-prominent crypto company was initially released on a $250 million bail and placed on home detention while awaiting trial.

However, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rescinded Bankman-Frieds bail and sent him back to jail in August, after finding there was probable cause to believe he tampered with witnesses at least twice following his arrest.

Prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of harassing Ellison, his ex-girlfriend and the former CEO of Alameda Research, by sharing her personal writings with The New York Times and attempting to intimidate witnesses with his comments to the media and his attempt to contact one former FTX employee.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE)  The Knox County Sheriffs Office is mourning the loss of a deputy who was fatally shot after responding to a domestic incident late Sunday.

Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler announced Monday evening that 29-year-old deputy Tucker Blakely has died after he was shot while responding to a domestic call in the Hardin Valley area around 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

Deputies responded to the 3200 block of Denver Lane where they encountered an armed individual at the residence. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, preliminary information indicates that shots were fired by both the individual and at least one of the deputies.

Matthew Logan Rose, 30, was pronounced dead on the scene. Blakely was transported to UT Medical Center accompanied by a large law enforcement presence.

I want make it clear that Officer Blakely is a hero. He lived as a hero and he died a hero. Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler

Blakely graduated from the Knox County Sheriffs Office Regional Training Academy in November 2021.

Blakely is survived by his wife and five-year-old son. His brother, Ty Blakely, is the Mayor of Maynardville, Tennessee.

Tucker Blakely (front left) walks into a Regional Training Academy graduation ceremony on Nov. 29, 2021. Photo: Knox County Sheriffs Office

Tucker Blakely shakes hands with Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler at a Regional Training Academy graduation ceremony on Nov. 29, 2021. Photo: Knox County Sheriffs Office

He was a graduate of Powell High School and a U.S. Military Veteran. Blakelys organs will be donated, Spangler said.

Tucker was on his last patrol detachment. He had just been selected to be a K9 handler and had just picked up his dog, Spangler said. He was moving on in his career and looking to have a different tool.

Supporters held a prayer vigil for Blakely on Monday evening outside of UT Medical Center. Law enforcement leaders and other officials from around the region have released statements offering their condolences to the sheriffs office and the officers family.

I ask this community, I ask you all to please, please keep Officer Blakelys family in your thoughts, Spangler concluded before taking reporter questions.

This is a developing story. Download the WATE 6 News app or sign up for our email alerts for updates.

A TBI investigation into the circumstances that led to the shooting remains ongoing. The agency investigates most of the states use-of-force cases.

Throughout the process, investigative findings will be shared with the District Attorney General for her review and consideration. The TBI acts solely as fact-finders in its cases and does not determine whether the actions of an officer were justified in these types of matters; that decision rests with the District Attorney General requesting TBIs involvement, reads a release from the TBI.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
Following Armenia's ratification of the Rome Statute, the Kremlin has said it does not want Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to have to give up visiting an allied country.

Source: Putins spokesman Dmitry Peskov on 3 October

Quote from Peskov: "Of course we would not like the president to have to cancel his visits to Armenia for any reason.

Of course we have a lot in common with the brotherly Armenian people. We have no doubt that it will unite us forever."

Details: Peskov said that Armenia's decision to ratify the Rome Statute was "incorrect".

Quote from Peskov: "There will be additional questions for the current leadership of Armenia; they were conveyed to the Armenian side in advance. We doubt, and have doubted from the very beginning, that Armenia's accession to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is correct from the point of view of bilateral relations. We still believe that this is an incorrect decision."

Previously: The National Assembly of Armenia has passed a law ratifying the Rome Statute, the founding document of the International Criminal Court, which has issued a warrant for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Armenia's decisions regarding the Rome Statute as "extremely hostile". At the same time, he said that the Armenian side had offered to conclude a bilateral agreement with Russia regarding the Rome Statute.

Background: Armenia signed the Rome Statute in 1998, but did not ratify it. The Constitutional Court of Armenia ruled in March 2023 that the Rome Statute aligns with the country's constitution.

A parliamentary committee gave a positive opinion on the ratification of the statute, and it was submitted to the plenary session at the end of September.

Yerevan has stressed the need to ratify the Statute and recognise its jurisdiction, emphasising that the risk of further military aggression against Armenia by Azerbaijan remains high, and that after ratification, Baku's war crimes will fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC.

As for Russia's concerns, Armenia's representative for international legal issues, Yeghisheh Kirakosyan, recently clarified that there is no question of Putin being arrested upon entering Armenia after the ratification of the Rome Statute, as current heads of state are granted immunity.

States that have ratified the Rome Statute are obliged to arrest Vladimir Putin in the event of his arrival in their territory under a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in the context of Russian aggression against 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!
By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Russia had not abandoned a moratorium on nuclear testing, and dismissed a suggestion by the editor of a state television channel that Moscow should detonate a thermonuclear device in Siberia as a warning to the West.

President Vladimir Putin , who rules the world's biggest nuclear power, has repeatedly cautioned the West that any attack on Russia could provoke a nuclear response.

The Soviet Union's last nuclear test took place in 1990. The United States' last nuclear test took place in 1992 and France and China conducted their last nuclear tests in 1996, according to the United Nations.

The Kremlin said it had not abandoned the moratorium when asked about remarks by Margarita Simonyan , the editor-in-chief of state-funded broadcaster RT, who suggested that Russia should detonate a nuclear bomb over Siberia.

"At present, we have not left the regime of abandoning nuclear tests," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"I don't think such discussions are possible now from an official point of view," Peskov said, adding that Simonyan's words did not "always" reflect Moscow's official position.

Simonyan said the Ukraine crisis was moving towards a nuclear ultimatum and that the West would not stop until Russia sent a nuclear message.

"A nuclear ultimatum is becoming more and more imminent and more and more impossible to avoid," Simonyan said. "They will not backpedal unless it is painful for them."

She quipped that such an explosion would render electronic devices useless - and thus make it easier for her to explain to her children why they were not allowed devices such as iPads.

Nuclear rhetoric from Russian state television became particularly pronounced late last year but was more subdued during the first half of this year.

NUCLEAR ERA

The United States opened the nuclear era in July 1945 with the test of a 20-kiloton atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico, in July 1945, and then dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 at the end of World War Two.

The Soviet Union shocked the West by detonating its first nuclear bomb just four years later, in August 1949.

In the five decades between 1945 and the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, over 2,000 nuclear tests were carried out, 1,032 of them by the United States and 715 of them by the Soviet Union, according to the United Nations.

Putin in February suspended participation in the New START treaty, Russia's last major arms control treaty with Washington.

He also cautioned that if the United States returned to nuclear testing, then Russia would resume too.

The New York Times reported on Monday that satellite imagery and aviation data suggested Russia may be preparing to test an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile  or may have recently tested one.

"I do not know where the NYT journalists got this," the Kremlin's Peskov said. "Apparently, it is necessary to study satellite images in more detail."

"The New York Times stands behind our reporting," a spokesman for the newspaper said in an emailed statement.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Nick Macfie and Gareth Jones )
Kyiv Independent journalist Asami Terajima was announced as one of the winners of the 2023 Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism, the Thomson Reuters Foundation announced on Oct. 3.

The 23-year-old was awarded the 2023 Local Reporter Award for her efforts at bringing to light the "brutal realities of war through the eyes of Ukrainian soldiers" at the front line during Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.

The judges called Terajima's work "a compelling (and) very useful addition to coverage of the biggest story in a generation."

Born in Osaka, Japan, Terajima moved to Kyiv with her family when she was a child.

She began her career in journalism in 2020 as a business reporter for the Kyiv Post and is one of the founding members of the Kyiv Independent.

In May 2023, Terajima won the 2023 George Weidenfeld Prize, an award given "for "excellent investigative and courageous research activities" as part of the prestigious German Axel Springer Prize.

Read also: When dying stops being scary: Worn out Ukrainian soldiers in Donbas hold off Russian assaults

Syrian Kurdish journalist Hisham Arafat won the News Fixer Award, and French journalist Lea Polverini won the Freelance Award.

Terajima and Polverini will speak at a panel session moderated by international correspondent Yalda Hakim at the Thomson Reuters Foundations annual Trust Conference in London on Oct. 19.

The awards are named in honor of American freelance journalist Kurt Schork, who was killed on assignment for Reuters in Sierra Leone in 2000.

Now in their 22nd year, the Kurt Schork Awards recognize "brave journalists for their reporting on conflict, corruption, and injustice," according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Read also: Inside Ukraines costly mission to grind down Russia near Bakhmut

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Los Angeles City Councilmember John Lee has been accused of violating government ethics laws as part of an investigation by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission.

Lee, who represents the 12th District, which encompasses the northwest half of the San Fernando Valley, is alleged to have accepted gifts in excess of the government set gift limit, allegedly failing to report gifts, misusing his position, and aiding and abetting another persons misuse of a city position.

The other person in this instance is Mitchell Englander, a former Los Angeles City Councilmember who was sentenced to prison on federal corruption charges.

The investigation revolves around multiple trips to Las Vegas when Lee was serving as Englanders chief of staff. During one of those trips in 2017, Lee allegedly accepted multiple gifts from a businessperson and a developer, most of which exceeded the allowable limit, the Ethics Commission states. That Vegas trip was a lynchpin in the case against Englander, which led to the former councilmember being sentenced to 14 months in prison.

Lee didnt disclose the gifts, despite being required to, and never amended the required documents to disclose the existence of the gifts when he ran for City Council in 2019 and 2020, the Commission alleges.

The Ethics Commission findings are related to a previous wide-sweeping investigation spurred by the FBI and the United States Attorneys Office into public corruption in the city of Los Angeles.

Part of the investigation included both Englander and Lee, and Lee is alleged to have attempted to mislead the federal investigators regarding the gifts received during the 2017 Vegas trip.

Lee eventually became the subject of an investigation by the Ethics Commission and a conference was held in late August to determine if there was probable cause. Lee was served with the nine-page accusation on Sept. 26, the Ethics Commission states.

The accusation details the laws that Lee is alleged to have broken, including two counts of accepting excess gifts, three counts of failing to disclose gifts, four counts of misusing a city position, and one count of aiding and abetting the misuse of a city position.

Its important to note that the finding of probable cause does not mean a violation actually occurred. The Ethics Commission will convene for an evidentiary hearing to determine if the violations occurred, and what punishment could be handed down.

Only commissioners can determine if a violation occurred, and the maximum penalty that can be enforced is either $5,000 per violation or three times the amount of money that was improperly received  whichever is greater.

Lee released a statement Monday evening in which he called the accusation misguided and based on conjecture instead of actual evidence.

The councilmember denied either accepting any gifts or attempting to mislead federal investigators. He also said he did not recall attending a dinner in which the gifts were allegedly exchanged.

Throughout this process, I have gone above and beyond to cooperate with the Commissions investigation in the name of transparency. I have provided bank statements that corroborate what I recalled about this trip, sat for interviews, and have been transparent every step of the way. However, it became clear that Commission investigators are not interested in the facts, Lee said. They have preconceived notions about where their investigation should go and have ignored any exculpatory evidence they obtained.

In the statement, Lee said he stood by his record, adding he refused to be bullied by investigators that are seemingly more focused on garnering headlines than pursuing facts.

The Ethics investigation is the latest instance of a City Council in turmoil, mired in controversy for the better part of a decade.

Bel Air developer sentenced to 6 years in prison for bribing former L.A. Councilmember

Just last month, former City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was sentenced to three and a half years in prison after being convicted on corruption charges. In June, Councilmember Curren Price stepped down from his responsibilities amid charges of corruption by the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office in an alleged pay-to-play scheme.

And last year, three city councilmembers were involved in a scandal after a secretly recorded conversation was leaked online in which they made disparaging and racist comments and discussed ways to expand and grow their influence in the city.

City Council president Nury Martinez, councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Leon, and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera were embroiled in controversy for weeks after the audio was released. Martinez and Herrera stepped down from their roles, Cedillo remained in his position until his term ended after he failed to win reelection prior to the scandal, and de Leon currently remains in power and has said he intends to seek re-election.

Both Englander and former councilmember Jose Huizar were charged for their roles in what became known as Operation Casino Loyale. Huizar pleaded guilty earlier this year to taking $1.5 million in bribes from developers as part of the massive corruption probe.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission has accused Councilmember John Lee of violating governmental ethics laws before he was elected to the council. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Six years ago, Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitchell Englander and John Lee, then Englander's chief of staff, indulged in a lavish Las Vegas trip that would change the arc of their lives.

With a Los Angeles businessman picking up the check, Englander and others enjoyed a hotel stay, dinner and bottle service drinks during that 2017 trip. But what happens in Vegas rarely stays in Vegas, especially when an elected official and the FBI are both involved.

Englander stepped down from his seat in 2018, aware that he was in the FBI's crosshairs. His exit set the stage for Lee's ascent, with Lee winning a special election to fill his former boss's northwest San Fernando Valley seat in 2019.

Englander was criminally charged in March 2020  days after Lee won another election to keep the seat for a regular four-year term.

Lee was never charged with wrongdoing by federal prosecutors. But this week the Los Angeles Ethics Commission accused Lee of an array of governmental ethics violations stemming from the trip.

The commission's filing also publicly identified Lee as "City Staffer B"  an anonymous figure in the governments indictment against Englander who allegedly indulged in some of the same perks as his boss.

Lee has long been thought to be Staffer B, but the councilman has never confirmed it.

According to Ethics Commission investigators, Lee accepted "multiple gifts from a businessperson and a developer, most of which exceeded the gift limit," in 2016 and 2017. Several of those gifts were alleged to have been provided during the 2017 Vegas trip with Englander.

The commission also alleges that Lee assisted Englander in attempting to mislead the FBI and the U.S. attorneys office about whether Englander and Lee provided reimbursements for gifts received during the trip.

In a statement released Monday night, Lee denied the allegations, saying commission investigators "drastically inflated" the amount of food and beverages he consumed on the trip. He called the accusations "completely false."

"I refuse to be bullied by investigators that are seemingly more focused on garnering headlines than pursuing facts, evidence and the truth, even at the expense of peoples reputations," Lee said. "For these reasons, I will vigorously fight these baseless accusations."

Read more: L.A. councilman under fire over FBI probe, Vegas trip with his indicted former boss

The Ethics Commission conducted a probable cause conference on Aug. 31 and served Lee with a nine-page accusation on Sept. 26.

The commission is expected to hold an evidentiary hearing on the allegations. After the hearings, commission members will need to determine whether the alleged violations occurred and, if so, what penalties should apply.

The proceedings bring fresh instability to a City Hall rocked by a string of corruption scandals. The accusations could also complicate Lee's reelection bid in 2024.

The 2017 Vegas trip was intended as a celebration of Lee's decision to resign from his post at City Hall and become a consultant in the private sector, according to the Ethics Commission filing. But the activities of the group that went on the trip, including Englander's receipt of an envelope containing $10,000 in a casino bathroom, led to a federal investigation.

That probe resulted in the filing of obstruction-of-justice charges against Englander.

Englander is one of four current or former council members to be criminally charged since 2020. He pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators and was later sentenced to 14 months in prison.

Shortly after charges were brought against Englander, Lee said that he was present during the Vegas trip but was unaware of any illegal activities and had cooperated with the FBI.

Read more: Read the allegations against Councilmember John Lee

In their filing, Ethics Commission investigators accused Lee of two counts of accepting gifts in excess of the amounts permitted under city law, three counts of failing to properly disclose the gifts that he received, four counts of misusing his position and one count of aiding and abetting another official  Englander, his former boss  in misusing their position.

A businessperson who is not named in the Ethics Commission accusation gave Lee and the others access to VIP comps from the resort and casino, including hotel rooms. Lee accepted about $600 worth of perks, which included two days at the hotel, investigators said.

Read more: Read Councilmember John Lee's statement

At a nightclub, the businessperson paid approximately $24,000 for bottle service. A second individual, a developer, paid an additional $10,000 for bottle service. The per-person value of all the bottle service was estimated to be more than $5,600, according to the accusation.

Lee went on the Vegas trip on June 1. He left his chief of staff position on June 12, but he didnt report any gifts from the reporting period of Jan. 1, 2017, to June 12, 2017, investigators said.

According to the Ethics Commission accusation, Englander sent two checks to the businessperson after Englander was contacted by the FBI around Sept. 1, 2017. The businessperson received the checks on Sept. 14.

The two checks were each in the amount of $442 and dated Aug. 4. One check was from Lee and the other from Englander. The checks were sent to make it appear as if Englander and Lee had written the checks prior to Englanders FBI interview, according to the accusation.

If Lee is ultimately found to have committed the violations spelled out by investigators, he would face financial penalties. The vast majority of the allegations can result in fines of $5,000 per count.

Lee is running for another four-year term in the March municipal election. So far, he has only one opponent running against him, according to city filings. Granada Hills South Neighborhood Council Vice President Mike Benedetto has yet to report any fundraising.

Former Los Angeles City Ethics Commission President Serena Oberstein, who lives in Northridge, said Tuesday that she hasnt ruled out running for Lee's seat.

Oberstein, who serves as executive director of the humanitarian nonprofit Jewish World Watch, said that she has been contacted by numerous individuals, including some political consultants, since news about the allegations against Lee broke.

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Lady Gaga has prevailed in a legal battle connected to the 2021 theft of her two French bulldogs, Koji and Gustav.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Holly Fujie on Monday ruled in favor of Gaga in a lawsuit alleging she did not follow through on promises to pay a "no questions asked" $500,000 reward for the return of her dogs.

Jennifer McBride, who returned Gaga's dogs and was later charged with receiving stolen property, filed the suit in February.

McBride tried to sue Gaga for the reward money, in addition to over $1.5 million in damages for breach of contract, fraud by false promise and fraud by misrepresentation. In the complaint, she claimed that Gaga never intended to pay the reward money and that she intended for law enforcement officials to ask questions about the return of the bulldogs.

Gaga's attorney did not respond to a request for comment about Monday's ruling.

McBride claimed in court that, although she was aware the dogs were stolen when she received them, she took possession of them only to ensure their protection and safe return.

Lady Gaga (STAR MAX / IPx via AP)

The court ruling said that although McBride alleged "her motivation was to protect the bulldogs (and also to collect $500,000), this alleged motivation does not negate her guilt of the charge because she has admitted receiving the bulldogs with knowledge that they were stolen property.

McBrides attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Gaga's bulldogs were stolen at gunpoint from her dog walker, Ryan Fischer, while they were walking through Hollywood in February 2021. Fischer was shot, and he later appealed for financial help online while he was recovering from his injuries.

At the time, Gaga  whose real name is Stefani Germanotta  was away filming in Rome. She offered a $500,000 no questions asked reward on social media in exchange for the return of her dogs.

Two days after the theft, McBride returned the bulldogs to a Los Angeles police station. She then requested the reward.

Three men and two alleged accomplices, including McBride, were charged in connection to the theft. McBride knew at least two of her co-conspirators for years before the crime. She pleaded no contest to receiving stolen property in December.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
A makeshift noose was found hanging from a tree at the Rose Heights Elks Lodge on Texas Avenue in Lakeland Fl. Tuesday October 3 ,2023. Ernst Peters/The Ledger

LAKELAND  Lakeland Police Department is investigating a noose left outside one of the city's nonprofits.

Lakeland officers responded to a call shortly after 11 a.m. Monday from the Rose Heights Elks Lodge, 1026 Texas Ave.

Who would be watching? Lakeland police want to put surveillance cameras on city roads

Harlem Turner, president of Elks Lodge, notified police of a rope found hanging in a tree on the property that appeared to be tied to look like a noose, according to LPD.

Detectives are actively investigating the incident, LPD spokeswoman Stephanie Kerr said. It is too early to determine whether there will be any applicable charges.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Noose reported outside Elks Lodge in northwest neighborhood
Some make the pilgrimage every year to Lampedusa remember their friends and relatives

An emotional memorial has been held in Lampedusa for 368 migrants who perished at sea exactly a decade ago after their ship caught fire.

Most of those of those who died were from Eritrea in what is one of the worst disasters to hit migrants trying to reach Europe from Libya.

The Lampedusa Coastguard organised a special trip to the disaster site for the relatives and survivors.

Horns and sirens from its vessels sounded out in memory of the victims.

"The bodies of our friends never received a proper burial. Their families have been in a perpetual state of mourning, unable to conduct customary funeral rites," Eritrean Solomon Assefa, one of the 150 survivors, told the BBC.

"That is why we make this pilgrimage to Lampedusa every year, offering prayers."

The day began with a solemn candlelit vigil at 03:00 to mark the exact time the ship, which had been carrying more than 500 migrants, began to sink.

The tragedy occurred close to the Italian island's shoreline. Passengers threw themselves into the sea when a fire broke out on board.

Most of the dead were from Eritrea - a repressive one-party state in the Horn of Africa.

Several coastguard boats went to the site of the tragedy as part of commemorative events

Alex said he came to Lampedusa every October to honour his lost comrades and to express gratitude for his own survival.

Some of the survivors and relatives have come to the island for the first time since the disaster.

Kokob Dawit, whose mother and two brothers were among the dead, told the BBC that she came to feel closer to her lost family.

Overcome with emotion, she said: "I can't explain the pain I am feeling now, I can't even talk, the pain is too much."

Everyone here has a touching story of loss.

Amanuel Mekonnen said he had made the trip to try and find some peace by remembering his brother, sister-in-law and niece who were lost in the accident.

Italians who had helped in rescue efforts and students were amongst those who joined the tearful commemoration.

Relatives and survivors were joined by those who participated in rescue efforts and students
HKSAR raises flags, holds reception to celebrate National Day

Xinhua) 10:46, October 03, 2023

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government holds a flag-raising ceremony and a reception to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in south China's Hong Kong, Oct. 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

HONG KONG, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government held a flag-raising ceremony and a reception Sunday to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

China's national flag and the HKSAR flag were hoisted, and the national anthem was played at the Golden Bauhinia Square in Hong Kong on Sunday morning. Helicopters carrying the national and HKSAR flags flew over Victoria Harbor in celebration.

Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Leung Chun-ying, HKSAR Chief Executive John Lee, officials of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR, the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR, the Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the HKSAR, and the Hong Kong Garrison of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and prominent figures from various sectors in Hong Kong attended the ceremony.

When addressing the reception, Lee said on the journey to building China into a great country and realizing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the motherland remains steadfast in opening up to the world and pursuing high-quality development, bringing unlimited opportunities to Hong Kong.

On the way forward, Hong Kong should continue to leverage, under "one country, two systems," its distinctive advantages of enjoying the motherland's strong support and being closely connected to the world, actively integrate into the country's overall development, and dovetail with the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area development, the Belt and Road Initiative and so on, Lee said.

"Let's be united and work together for the building of China into a great country through Chinese modernization, for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and for the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong," he said.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government holds a flag-raising ceremony and a reception to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in south China's Hong Kong, Oct. 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government holds a flag-raising ceremony and a reception to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in south China's Hong Kong, Oct. 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government holds a flag-raising ceremony and a reception to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in south China's Hong Kong, Oct. 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Sheng Chuyi)
Bangkok, Thailand (CNN)  Police in Thailand arrested a 14-year-old, after a shooting at a shopping mall in the capital Bangkok on Tuesday left at least three people dead and four others injured.

Local authorities held the suspect with a weapon, and are assessing exact casualties, Thailands Central Investigation Bureau said.

The shooting took place around 5 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) at the Siam Paragon Mall in Bangkok, Police Colonel Noppadol Thiammekha, Pathum Wan Police Chief told CNN on Tuesday.

Gun ownership in the Southeast Asian country is high compared with other countries in the region.

More than 10.3 million civilians held firearms in Thailand, or around 15 guns for every 100 people, 2017 data from the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey (SAS) said. About 6.2 million of those guns are legally registered, according to SAS.

Thailand tallies the second-highest gun homicides after the Philippines in Southeast Asia, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washingtons 2019 Global Burden of Disease database.

But mass shootings in the country are rare. In October 2022, at least 36 people were killed in a gun and knife attack at a child care center in northeastern Thailand.

The massacre in Nong Bua Lamphu province was believed to be the countrys deadliest incident of its kind.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "14-year-old suspect held after at least 3 killed in Thai shopping mall shooting."
Laphonza Butler was sworn in as the newest U.S. senator from California on Tuesday by Vice President Kamala Harris, a former senator from the Golden State herself.

Butler, a former adviser to Harris who led the Democratic group EMILYs List, was appointed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Sunday to finish out the term of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

The 44-year-old California labor leader is the first Black, openly LGBTQ+ woman to serve in either chamber of Congress. Shes also only the third Black woman to ever serve in the Senate, as well as the 12th Black senator in U.S. history.

Butler is undecided on whether she will run for a full term next year. There are already several prominent California Democrats jousting for Feinsteins seat, including Reps. Adam Schiff, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee. Schiff, in particular, has raised a huge campaign war chest in advance of the expensive primary.

I have no idea. I genuinely dont know. I want to be focused on honoring the legacy of Sen. Feinstein, Butler said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times when asked if she would enter the race.

If Butler decides to toss her hat in the ring, it could provoke some drama within the Congressional Black Caucus, which had urged Newsom to appoint veteran California Democratic lawmaker Lee to finish out Feinsteins term.

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, on Tuesday congratulated Butler but also reiterated that Lee should get the job.

Congratulations @LaphonzaB on your historic appointment, becoming just the third Black woman to serve in the US Senate.



Lets continue to expand that number as we work to elect @BarbaraLeeForCA in 2024 as the next Senator from California.  Cori Bush (@CoriBush) October 3, 2023

Related...
The firefighters have been extinguishing a large fire that broke out in a warehouse in Russias Rostov-on-Don for several hours. Meanwhile, Telegram channels reported that a batch of clothes for Russian soldiers had burned down.

Source: Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations; SKREPACH on Telegram

Quote: "Fire at a warehouse in Rostov-on-Don. A metal building and pallets caught fire in an open area. The area of the fire is 500 square metres."

 --   , ,     .    pic.twitter.com/voRyjMLxQv     (@ukrpravda_news) October 3, 2023

Details: The Ministry of Emergency Situations received information about the fire at 20:45 on 2 October, 64 people and 24 pieces of equipment were involved in its extinguishing, and the fire was finally put out at 23:15.

PHOTO: RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF EMERGENCY SITUATIONS

SKREPACH Telegram channel, who stated in its profile description that it stands "for a free Russia without Putin", said they started the fire and that the uniforms of the Russian occupiers were burnt.

PHOTO: SKREPACH ON TELEGRAM

"Everything that was prepared for the war will burn. In the industrial zone on the Left Bank near the Megamag shopping centre on Shosseynaya Street, the uniforms stock has been destroyed. And there will be more," the SKREPACH channel wrote.

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!
Mad House

A major theme of Walter Isaacson 's new biography of Elon Musk is that he's increasingly turned toward conspiracy theories that threaten to undermine his legacy, from antisemitic fearmongering about George Soros to unfounded claims that Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz is the niece of the Internet Archive founder.

Critics have castigated him for promoting tin foil hattery, but to no avail. Now, though, the same lawyer who famously took down Alex Jones of InfoWars in a nearly $50 million defamation lawsuit now has his sights trained on Musk for promoting another deranged Internet rumor on X, the site he bought and renamed from Twitter.

Attorney Mark Bankston announced  on X, of course  a defamation lawsuit against Musk that accuses him of amplifying a false conspiracy theory on X that Ben Brody, a Jewish college graduate, was actually a federal agent cosplaying as a Neo-Nazi.

Musk also alleged without evidence that Brody was involved in a false flag operation during a brawl between two right-wing groups earlier this year, as laid out in damning detail in the lawsuit. Brody and his family say they had to flee their home due to the false allegations.

"Musks endorsement of the accusation galvanized other social media users and influencers to continue their attacks and harassment," said Bankston.

Lawsuit Season

Brody is now seeking more than $1 million in damages.

"Being defamed by someone as famous as Musk was an utterly terrifying experience," Bankston said.

No word yet from Musk on this latest complaint, which is among many he is facing as X CEO, perhaps most prominently from disgruntled former employees.

Musk has dismissed criticism of his actions on X, saying in a CNBC interview in May that "Ill say what I want to say, and if the consequence of doing that is losing money, so be it."

Musk is used to browbeating and upsetting people around him and trying to bend situations by sheer will, taking Steve Jobs' "reality distortion field" to new heights.

But Bankston, his latest adversary, is a proven giant killer with a litigation record that speaks for itself. His victory against Jones on behalf of Sandy Hook victims was a shock, because Jones operated for so long with seemingly little impunity.

Will Musk join Jones above Bankston's fireplace mantle once the dust settles? The jury is out.

More on Elon Musk: Elon Musk Refusing To Pay Severance to Fired Twitter Employees May Be Backfiring Spectacularly
Firefighters work on the site of a bus accident on October 03, 2023 in Mestre, near Venice. At least 20 people were killed Tuesday when a bus plunged off a bridge in the northern Italian city of Venice, a city hall spokesman told AFP. The crash caused at least 20 deaths, including two children, the spokesman said. Firefighters said the bus caught fire after careering off a bridge linking the Mestre and Marghera districts. | Marco Sabadin, Getty Images

A bus crashed near Venice, Italy, on Tuesday killing at least 21 passengers and injuring 18 others. The bus crashed when it veered off an elevated road, as reported by The Associated Press.

According to Venice prefect Michele Di Bari, 21 people were killed in the crash, including two children, per AP News. There were at least 15 survivors.

Venice city official Renato Boraso confirmed there were Ukrainian tourists on board, the bus was heading back to a tourist campsite, reports AP News.

According to Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, the bus was traveling from Venice to Marghera and was full of people returning home from work, as reported by CNN.

It completely went off the road, it flew off the bridge. It was a bus; it was a highway. We are in mourning, said Brugnaro, per CNN.

Brugnaro described the incident as an apocalyptic scene, adding I immediately ordered the city to mourn, in memory of the numerous victims who were on the fallen bus, Brugnaro shared on X, the social media platform formally known as Twitter.

Unimmane tragedia ha colpito questa sera la nostra comunita.

Ho disposto da subito il lutto cittadino, in memoria delle numerose vittime che erano nellautobus caduto.

Una scena apocalittica, non ci sono parole. pic.twitter.com/APnsQoPMkL  Luigi Brugnaro (@LuigiBrugnaro) October 3, 2023

The cause of the accident is unknown. Emergency workers are at the scene, according to the BBC.

The president of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, expressed condolences for the accident on social media.

I express my personal and the Governments deepest condolences for the serious accident that occurred in Mestre. Our thoughts go out to the victims and their family and friends, Giorgia Meloni wrote on X.
At least 21 people have been killed, including two children, and 18 injured after a passenger bus plunged from an overpass near Venice in an apocalyptic accident, say Italian authorities.

The vehicle was travelling from Venice to a campsite at Marghera when the shocking accident took place at the elevated street in Mestre on Tuesday.

It completely went off the road, it flew off the bridge. It was a bus; it was a highway. We are in mourning, Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro told Italys national broadcaster RAI.

He added that the scene of the crash was apocalyptic and that he had already declared the citys mourning for the numerous victims

Pictures of the accident show that the bus fell several metres from the overpass and overturned near railway tracks where it caught fire.

Officials say that the accident took place on a raised section of the overpass that the bus broke through before falling to the ground below.

Morris Ceron, general director of the municipality of Venice, told RAI that two children were among the victims of the crash and that the bus was believed to have foreigners aboard as it headed towards a campsite.

Luca Zaia, president of Italys Veneto region, called the bus crash a tragedy of enormous proportions and also confirmed that the victims and injured are of various nationalities, not just Italians.

He said that more than 20 ambulances had been used at the scene and also the Treviso air ambulance. The injured were taken to hospitals in Mestre, Mirano, Padua and Treviso.

Firefighters work on the site of the accident (AFP via Getty Images)

Renato Boraso, a Venice city official, said that some of the foreigners on the bus were Ukrainians.

The Italian prime minister offered her condolence in the wake of the accident.

Rescuers at the site (AFP via Getty Images)

I express my personal and the Governments deepest condolences for the serious accident that occurred in Mestre. Our thoughts go out to the victims and their family and friends, Giorgia Meloni wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered her condolences to the families of the victims and those injured in the serious accident in Mestre, in a post on X on Monday night.
Minnesota's legislative auditor decided Monday to open a preliminary inquiry into the governor's failed hiring of Erin DuPree as the state's first cannabis director.

State Legislative Auditor Judy Randall said she will request information about the appointment process from the governor's office. DuPree, a self-described cannabis industry entrepreneur and hemp shop owner, stepped down a day after Gov. Tim Walz appointed her after a Star Tribune report revealed she had sold illegal products at her hemp store.

The Walz administration appeared to be blindsided by reports of DuPree's illegal product sales, federal liens and past lawsuits filed against her  raising questions of how thoroughly the governor's office vetted her background.

"We just have some questions about the process," Randall said. "I would classify it as a preliminary inquiry."

Walz has taken responsibility for the debacle, saying his office got its first pick for cannabis director wrong and will review its vetting process. The governor also said he now wants to hire an experienced regulator for the job. DuPree had no government experience, and her resume did not appear to match many of the expected qualifications sought for the role.

Candidates who applied to be cannabis director went through multiple interviews with panels of state officials before finalists were forwarded to the governor's office, which coordinated checks of their backgrounds, references and potential conflicts of interest. Finalists interviewed with the governor after those checks were complete.

Randall said her office's inquiry could take weeks or months, noting there is no set timeline. Her office's findings will determine whether it launches an official investigation into the matter, she said.

Minnesota's nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor is the state's top government watchdog agency. The office receives hundreds of complaints per year, Randall said. Few complaints lead to a preliminary inquiry and even fewer prompt an official investigation, she said.

Meanwhile, the search for a director to lead Minnesota's new Office of Cannabis Management continues. The office will oversee the creation and regulation of Minnesota's recreational marijuana industry.

State government veteran Charlene Briner continues to lead the Office of Cannabis Management as interim director, and she has said Minnesota is still on track to meet its goal of having dispensaries open by early 2025.
Opinions expressed in Letters to the Editor are those of our readers and not the Pensacola News Journal. In order for letters to be considered for publication, they must be 250 words or less and include name, a full address and phone number. Only your name and city of residence will be published. Email submissions to opinion@pnj.com.

Biden puts our way of life at risk

Aristotle, Plato and Socrates could not have imagined their Greece would erode away. The Roman citizens enjoying the spectacles in the Coliseum could not have believed that barbarians could destroy the Roman Empire.

Egypt of the pharaohs evaporated. The Ottoman Empire is gone. So too the civilizations of the Incas and Aztecs. U.S. citizens who dont realize that our nation, even western culture, could cease to exist cant see beyond the end of their noses.

In four years, not four centuries, the United States has decayed from being the most powerful nation in the history of civilization to a global laughingstock held in contempt by all our enemies. It is happening. Our enemies, instead of attacking us militarily, are actively attacking our reputation, and they are winning in a shut-out.

For instance, consider Xis timing in his threats against Taiwan, whom we have sworn to defend. Hes now massing troops on the coast opposite Taiwan and his air and naval infringements on Taiwan airspace and waters are increasing.

Remember Putins run-up to Ukraine? Ask why Xi is sending such obvious signals. Might not calling the worlds attention to his muscle-flexing be step one in his actual play, to strip the US of its last shreds of global respect? Completely destroying the last of the USs credibility is a greater victory than exerting dominance over a small island.

When Xi invades, Joe Biden wont raise a fist. After that, in world opinion, we may as well not have a military.

 Bernard Sullivan, Pensacola

Readers don't hold back: Letters: Florida has to live with DeSantis, but the polls show America is wise to his act

Ticket slow left lane drivers

I fully support our law enforcement officers in Florida and in all states. They have a thankless, difficult and dangerous job. With that said, I am asking our police to enforce the law pertaining to left lane drivers.

I submit that left lane drivers are a leading cause of accidents and violence on our highways. Florida law states that drivers cannot continue to be in the leftmost lane if they know or reasonably should know that they are being overtaken from behind by a faster vehicle. This law is constantly and brazenly broken without fear of law enforcement.

Even though this is a precursor to many accidents, this violation is rarely ticketed. In 2022, the FHP issued only 207 citations for the whole state! The fine is only $158. It should be $1,000. In fairness to police, I realize drivers move over for them, just not us! Many Floridians feel they are held hostage by drivers unaware of the law, unaware of their surroundings or those with an entitled mentality.

Left-laners cause bottlenecks, aggression, and traffic mishaps which produces more headaches for our police.

 Gregory Smith, Gulf Breeze

Writers shouldnt sway from code

Edwin Howards column in the Sept. 10, 2023 paper has a distinctly pro-Trump flavor. Yet the closing words of the column share information that completely destroys the entire column. These words describe Mr. Howard as an attorney and a 28-year veteran of the U.S. Navy.

It is my personal belief that at some point in that 28-year period Mr. Howard had to swear to adhere to a military honor code along the lines of I will not lie, cheat or steal and I will not tolerate those who do (as I had to do when I served). This stricture is not in our Constitution, but it is clear that Trump has committed each of these crime(s) or other offense(s).

I believe that trial juries in each of the jurisdictions will unanimously prove Mr. Trump guilty in the coming months. And the fact that Mr. Trump cannot keep his yap shut will furthermore taint the juries against him, but the clear facts will remain.

I therefore call on Mr. Howard to publicly reaffirm his adherence to this honor code and to swear to support another presidential candidate when any of the jurisdictions prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump has lied, cheated or stolen in any of the criminal cases lodged against him.

 Jeffrey T. Elliot, Pensacola

Trump disrupted Washington elite

My dear Carton J. Charles, using words written by others to attack what I write, only puts on full display your lack of integrity. I never said I supported Trump. Thats a misinterpretation on your part.

It is you that drank the Kool-Aid and believes in nonsense. It is you who cannot engage in rational discourse of any kind, and you who misinterprets things I write. All the things you accuse me of.

Neither you, I, nor anyone else needs to support Trump in order to see the travesty of justice that is taking place in front of us every day on the news with what is happening to him. Trump is nothing more than an outsider with no political ties that disrupted the political elites congressional country club we have in Washington DC, so they (mostly Democrats) had to try their best to destroy him.

I have plenty of popcorn on hand and am ready to continue watching the ongoing clown show as it unfolds. It will be interesting to see who eventually comes out on top. Oh, and please continue to write your op-eds. They are an immense source of amusement for me on Sunday mornings.

 Richard Nein, Pensacola

Hear from our readers: Letters: Bergoshs leaked texts exposed a county-wide inability to maintain public records

Obama and Biden failed us

We can clearly see the fruits of the Obama and Biden eras. Smelly San Francisco and Los Angeles (the cesspools of the U.S.) are boiling with infectious disease, filth, and sewage.

Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and New York also have Obamas and Bidens fingerprints all over them, with their Democratic policies, all part of Obamas change. Remember: light on crime, anti-police, racial divide, open borders, and sanctuary cities!

Their leadership and their democratic policies created a pattern of failure in each of these cities. Biden wants us to think that all this crime is the new normal! Democrats are now the pro-looting party, to the point a lot of major companies and jobs are leaving these cities!

People need to open up their eyes as other cities are falling into that same pattern: Minneapolis, Washington DC, Baltimore, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Oakland. Homelessness, drugs, theft, murder, and high crime - but no punishment!

All these cities have Obama and Bidens DNA all over them. We surely dont need any more of Obamas change or Bidens lies! Liberal media and big tech wont cover the real Biden. They cover up for him and try to brainwash the American people with more of his lies!

 George Maye, Pensacola

Apartment complex debris unlikely

I am wondering why the apartment complex along Fairfield between Jackson Street and Lillian Highway is allowed to throw out debris along the road? There is furniture, clothing and who knows what else is strewn along the road. It is unsightly and presents the city of Pensacola in a bad way. Cant the owner of the apartment complex be held accountable? Maybe provide dumpsters on the property for renters to through their stuff in?

 Pamela Constant, Pensacola

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This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Letters: Biden has taken us from a powerful nation to a laughingstock
Abdul Salam Ibrahim Al-Qadi, 43 years old, walks on the rubble in front of his house, searching for his missing father and brother after the deadly floods in Derna

Abdul Salam Ibrahim Al-Qadi, 43 years old, walks on the rubble in front of his house, searching for his missing father and brother after the deadly floods in Derna

By Ayman al-Warfali

DERNA, Libya (Reuters) - Since a huge flood swept away whole neighbourhoods of Libya's city of Derna last month, Abdulsalam al-Kadi has been searching for his father and brother. He doesn't expect to find them alive but he wants to bury them so he has a grave to mourn over.

With friends, he has scoured mudbanks where his family's house once stood. He has asked every hospital. He has pored over many of the photographs of the 4,000 bodies recovered so far.

"We thought maybe the sea took them. Maybe they were in the harbour. Those were really tough days. They still are really tough days," said the 43-year-old who spent two days travelling to Derna from his new home in the United States.

Three weeks after the flashflood killed thousands of people, many survivors have yet to find their loved ones, even as Libya's rival factions squabble over who to blame for the disaster and how to rebuild the ruined city.

Many families now face the prospect that they may never find out what happened to parents, children or other relatives despite efforts to identify bodies - many buried hastily in mass graves - using photographs or DNA testing.

Kadi, who could barely recognise his home town when he arrived, says his mother and sister still hold out hope his father and brother survived. But Kadi says he has had to come to terms with the fact that they died.

"What was difficult in the first few days was hope. People would say they saw them somewhere. For us it was as if they died again every day," he said. "It drove me crazy."

COMPLICATED RECONSTRUCTION

Derna, a coastal city in eastern Libya known as a cultural centre, was built on a seasonal river that ran from a mountain range into the sea.

The city had suffered in the chaos that followed Libya's 2011 NATO-backed uprising. Islamic State militants seized the city in 2015 - killing one of Kadi's two brothers - before eastern forces under commander Khalifa Haftar captured it.

The devastation now is on a different scale. Overnight, a narrow valley that ran between neat streets and buildings was turned into wide expanse of mud, rocks and lumps of masonry.

But organising Derna's reconstruction will be complicated, with Libya split between an internationally recognised government in Tripoli in the west and eastern regions controlled by Haftar with parallel institutions.

Aid efforts are visible on the streets, with mechanical diggers clearing debris. But residents, speaking to Reuters last week, complained that they had not received any help in repairing or rebuilding homes or businesses.

Mohamed al-Ghoeil, 49, was trying to clear mud that caked shelves of a grocery store owned by his brother.

"There is a total absence of the state to reassure citizens," he said. "We decided to lessen some of our pain by cleaning what we can to bring life back to the afflicted areas."

The government in the east, which is not internationally recognised, said on Sunday it was postponing an international reconstruction conference it had planned. The Tripoli government has also said it would hold a conference, without giving a date.

In a fractured nation, reconstruction and the coordination required could fuel another tussle for power, analysts say.

The cost of casual labourers has already shot up too high for Khaled al-Fortas, who said he could not afford the elevated wages demanded by workers to help clear his damaged home.

For Kadi, the priority remains finding his lost family members - a daunting task for him and thousands of others.

"A whole city was underwater, with people in the buildings," he said. "It is impossible to pull them out with our capabilities."

(Reporting by Ayman al-Warfali; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Edmund Blair)
Lincolns Haberdashery is closing at the end of the week, and a new concept will be taking its place in the South End space, the restaurant announced Tuesday, Oct. 3 via social media.

It is with a heavy heart that we share some bittersweet news with you all, a post on the restaurants Instagram page said. After much reflection and consideration, we have decided that this will be the last week of service at our beloved Lincolns Haberdashery.

The post continued: As many of you know, Chef Michael Shortino, our Captain, and passionate creator behind the magic here, recently passed away. His culinary talent, creativity, and unwavering dedication have been the cornerstone of this restaurant, and his loss has left an irreplaceable void in our hearts.

Chef Michael Shortino and his daughter, Cassie Shortino.

A family statement after Shortinos death said his daughter, Cassie Shortino  also a renowned chef  would be taking over the restaurant, as well as Shortinos popular ramen shop Futo Buta.

Now, change is in the works in his remembrance.

In his honor and memory, we have decided to embark on a new journey  a restaurant that Chef had been passionately working on before his passing. We will be transforming this space into a new concept that embodies his spirit, creativity, and the culinary legacy he leaves behind.

Fans of the breakfast and lunch spot that opened in 2017 were quick to look forward to whats to come.

Cant wait to see whats next. Lincolns is truly one of my favorite spots in town, Jen Bishop wrote on the post.

While change is anyways hard, i wish you the best. We will miss a spot where we can get coffee, actual breakfast & good sandwiches. It will be sad to lose it for another South End dinner place, Lisa M. Rigoni said.

So sad! We loved this place! Good luck with your journey as you are still healing from your loss! Denise Patton Poley said.

Lincolns Haberdashery will close in Charlottes South End in October 2023.

Location: 1300 South Blvd suite s, Charlotte, NC 28203

Menu

Cuisine: American, market

Instagram: @lincolnshaberdashery
Lithuania has opened a corridor for the transit of grain from Ukraine to the ports of the Baltic states.

Source: Gabrielius Landsbergis , Lithuanian Foreign Minister, on Twitter (X), as reported by European Pravda

Details: According to Landsbergis, a corridor for the transit of grain to the Baltic ports has been adopted and agreed. This has reduced the pressure on the Ukrainian border and increased the supply of grain to Africa and other countries.

"Russia destroys food, Lithuania delivers it," Landsbergis wrote.

Background:

Earlier it was revealed that during the next two days, veterinary, sanitary and phytosanitary control from the Ukrainian-Polish border will be transferred to the port of Klaipeda in Lithuania for all agricultural cargo bound for this port.

The media had previously reported that Lithuania would take over phytosanitary inspections of grain cargo transiting through Poland from Ukraine.

This change in procedure is expected to enable more Ukrainian grain to be exported through Poland.

Earlier, reports emerged that Poland was still evaluating Ukraine's proposals on licensing agricultural goods.

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!
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  Governor Kevin Stitt pushed lawmakers to cut taxes during the latest special session, which began Tuesday morning.

Stitt was flanked by the State Treasurer, Todd Russ , and the Speaker of the House, Charles McCall. Noticeably absent was the Senate Pro Tem, Great Treat.

Governor Stitt is calling on the Legislature to deliver on the following agenda priorities:

A trigger law mandating that if a state or federal court finds that some individuals, due to their race, heritage, or political classification, dont have to pay a state tax, then no Oklahoman will have to pay the tax.

A tax cut that puts Oklahoma on the path to zero income taxes. This will keep us in line with surrounding Republican-led states.

A measure that increases budget transparency to ensure that Oklahomans and their elected representatives have the ability and opportunity to see how their taxpayer dollars are being spent.

Let me be very clear, with Oklahomans, I would never advocate to cut revenue below recurring expenses. So, we have to invest in education and roads and bridges and health care. We will absolutely pay for core services. So right here is our recurring expenses, $9.8 billion, said Gov. Stitt. My question for the legislature and for us to ask ourselves how big should government be when we have excess revenue like we did last year at $1.2 billion?

The Senate opened the special session at 9:00 A.M. and there is an Appropriations and Budget committee meeting.

The House opened the session at 11:00 A.M.

This is a developing story.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
A drifter from Tallahassee who killed two women in the Florida Panhandle during a crime spree in 1996 has been executed.

Michael Duane Zack, 54, was sentenced to death in the 1996 Escambia County murder of Ravonne Smith during a crime spree that also included killing a woman, Laura Rosillo, in Okaloosa County.

Michael Duane Zack, of Tallahassee, is scheduled to be executed on October 3, by lethal injection for the murder of an Escambia County woman in 1996.

Florida Death Row inmate Michael Zack has been executed

Michael Duane Zack, the Florida man on death row for robbing, sexually assaulting, and murdering a Pensacola area woman during a crime spree in 1996, was executed Tuesday night at Florida State Prison in Raiford.

When asked if he had any last words, Zack replied, Yes sir, lifting his head toward the observation window. I love you all.

Zack died by lethal injection, a cocktail administered by the execution team that includes a sedative, paralytic, and a drug to stop his heart. The drugs were administered at 6:02 and he was pronounced dead by 6:14 p.m., although there were no visible signs of breathing after the first minute.

The family of Ravonne Smith witnessed the execution but chose not to speak with the media following the execution.

Michael Zack statement released upon his death

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty shared a written statement by Zack moments after his execution. The statement, in part, follows:

"Twenty-seven years ago, I was an alcoholic and a drug addict. I did things that have hurt a lot ofpeople  not only the victims and their families and friends, but my own family and friends as well," Zack wrote. "I have woken up every single day since then filled with remorse and a wish to make my time here on earth meansomething more than the worst thing I ever did.

"When I got to death row, I substituted drugs and alcohol for happiness and positive relationships. I am sograteful to the guys on the row who took the time to teach me how to read and write. They changed mylife forever because their love and support allowed me to have pen pals and friends all over the world.John, Susan, Maria, Anna, and David  I treasure you and the unconditional love you have shared withme all these years. The ability to read and write also led me to my beloved wife and soulmate,Ann-Kristin. I will love her for eternity.

"I make no excuses. I lay no blame. But how I wish that I could have a second chance, to live out my daysin prison and continue to do all I can to make a difference in this world. To all my brothers on death row,please continue to help each other. Give each other hope and peace. Keep sharing the love andacceptance that you all showed a hillbilly from Kentucky."

Zack ended his statement by speaking directly to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

"And finally, to Governor Desantis and the Clemency Board: I love you. I forgive you. I pray for you."

Zack execution will be sixth in 7 months

After a three-and-a-half year hiatus brought on by COVID-19, DeSantis has signed death warrants for six death row inmates in seven months.

On Feb. 23, Donald Dillbeck, 59, was executed for the 1990 murder of Faye Vann outside a Tallahassee mall. Dillbeck was the first prisoner executed in Florida since 2019 and the 100th prisoner executed since the death penalty was reinstated in Florida in 1975, according to the Department of Corrections.

Executions in 2023

There have been 17 executions in 2023; five of them in Florida, where there have been 104 executions since 1976. In April 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation once again allowing death sentences to be passed by less than unanimous juries. Heres who has been executed in Florida so far this year.

Louis Gaskin  Executed on April 12, 2023, after serving over three decades on death row for two murder convictions in 1990. He was known as the Ninja Killer for wearing an all-black ninja costume when he fatally shot two people in 1989. He was the 100 th person in Florida to be executed.

Darryl Barwick  Executed on May 4, 2023, after serving on death row for several decades for a murder conviction after stabbing a 24-year-old in 1986 when he was only 19 years-old.

Duane Owen  Executed on June 15, 2023, after serving on death row for nearly four decades for the killing a 38-year-old woman and stabbing a 14-year-old teenage girl to death.

James Barnes  Executed on August 3, 2023, after serving 16 years on death row for admitting to the death of a second murder while serving a life sentence for killing his own wife in 1997.

Death penalty opponents send petitions to stop execution

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty presented Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with a petition signed by nearly 200 faith leaders from across the world this afternoon, asking DeSantis to commute Michael Zacks sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The petition followed one earlier in the day that had about 5,000 signatures from people across the world that was addressed to DeSantis and the Florida Board of Clemency urging them to stop the execution. The petition was a joint effort by FADP, Catholic Mobilizing Network and Death Penalty Action.

Our Catholic Church, through the Catholic Catechism, clearly teaches that capital punishment is always unacceptable because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person (CCC 2257). The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have affirmed this unequivocal opposition to the use of the death penalty, wrote Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network.

Of the 5,000 petitioners, 665 were Catholic.

We do not forget or overlook the undeniable pain endured by Mr. Zacks victims, Ravonne Smith and Laura Rosillo, their families and their loved ones. As a national Catholic community of faith, we acknowledge their unimaginable loss and pray for their continued healing, Vaillancourt Murphy wrote.

Families of Michael Zack's victims will witness execution

Florida Department of Corrections officials give an update Tuesday afternoon on the pending execution of Michael Zack, scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. today.

Florida prison officials say that family members of victim Ravone Smith will witness Zack's execution.

Zack received the death penalty for murdering Smith in 1996 after she befriended him at an Escambia County bar. She was the second woman Zack met at a Panhandle bar that he was convicted of killing. Prior to killing Smith, Zack murdered Laura Rosillo in neighboring Okaloosa County. It is unknown whether Rosillo's family will be in attendance.

Michael Zack's family not allowed to witness execution

Zack met with his wife this morning, but she is not allowed to witness his execution, prison officials said. Death row inmates are only allowed to have a spiritual advisor and a legal representative. Zack's family is not prevented from being outside the prison during the execution, however.

Florida death row inmate Michael Zack requested no last meal

Michael Zack woke at 5:30 a.m. today, meeting first with his wife and later in the day with his spiritual advisor.

He declined a last meal, Florida prison officials said.

Prior to execution, Florida inmates may request a last meal. To avoid extravagance, the food to prepare the last meal must cost no more than $40 and must be purchased locally.

How will Zack be executed?

By 6 p.m. ET today, Zack will be strapped to a gurney in the death chamber at Florida State Prison, where, if all goes as planned, a three-drug cocktail will enter his veins through a needle.

Floridas lethal injection cocktail consists of three chemicals. The first is an injection of etomidate, an anesthetic. The second injection is rocuronium bromide, a paralytic muscle relaxer, and the third is potassium acetate, which causes the heart to stop, followed by an injection of a saline solution. The executioner also injects a saline solution to ensure the drugs enter the inmates veins.

Florida administers executions by lethal injection or electric chair. In 2000, then-Florida Governor Jeb Bush signed legislation making lethal injection the states default method of execution amid controversy over the electric chair. The last inmate Florida executed by electrocution was Allen Davis in July 1999. Witnesses described blood streaming from Davis nose and onto his shirt, which drew widespread attention two years after an inmates mask burst into flames during a different Florida electrocution.

When will Zack be executed?

Barring any unexpected developments, Zack will be executed at 6 p.m. ET.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to halt the planned execution of Zack, setting the stage for him to die by lethal injection Tuesday at Florida State Prison.

Condemned to death: Michael Zack earned the sympathy of bar patrons across the Panhandle, then he killed them

The attorneys primary argument was that Zack should be shielded from execution because of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which they said caused him to function as being intellectually disabled.

In appealing a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court and asking the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution, Zacks attorneys said the medical community now recognizes that the unique, cognitive, practical and social impairments inherent to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (are) indistinguishable from those of Intellectual Developmental Disability.

At every opportunity since his trial, Mr. Zack has presented evidence of his prenatal alcohol exposure to the full extent allowed by then-contemporaneous scientific legal and legal standards, the request said. Evolving standards of decency have finally progressed to the tipping point that allows Mr. Zack to establish that his FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) disability affords him the same protections established in Atkins. To deny review would penalize Mr. Zack for being right too soon.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Florida execution today: Michael Zack death penalty. Live updates
Eyewitness News recently joined members of the Brevard Zoos Restore Our Shores conservation team as they gathered up floating fragments of seagrass for a special purpose.

Olivia Escandell, the Conservation Manager for ROS told Channel 9, Were collecting fragments of Shoal grass. Its the most common species of seagrass that we have in this portion of the Indian River Lagoon, in hopes of cultivating it in our newest seagrass nursery.

The fragments, which were removed by permit, were then transported to the Melbourne Beach nursery built in partnership with the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute.

 WATCH CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS

The zoo will have a second seagrass nursery in Rockledge, once its fully functional.

The Brevard Zoo is one of five organizations receiving federal funding through the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program to increase seagrass nursery capacity, with the goal of accelerating seagrass recovery over the next 5 years.

Read: Students remember Lake Minneola High School senior who was fatally struck by school bus on campus

Dr. Duane De Freese, the Executive Director for the Indian River Lagoon NEP, said " We realized that were never going to plant the tens of thousands of acres we lost, but we could accelerate that recovery.

De Freese also told Channel 9, that back in 2011, we began to have harmful algal blooms that over a nine-year period, basically killed about 90% of the biomass in this system.

Read: Overjoyed: Police say Charlotte Sena found in good health; suspect arrested

Fish and manatees rely on having healthy seagrasses. Since then, De Freese says theres been some natural recovery, but its not even. He said its a water quality issue and that if we dont get the water quality right, seagrasses wont grow, De Freese added.

Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature are putting millions of dollars toward addressing that issue.

Read: Rep. Matt Gaetz files motion to vacate against Speaker Kevin McCarthy

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
20 police officers will be donning aprons at a local California Pizza Kitchen on Wednesday as part of a larger fundraiser for the Special Olympics of Southern California.

Uniformed LAPD reserve officers are set to be hosts, waiters and bussers at the CPK located in the Westfield Century City and serve food and drinks alongside restaurant staff from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Patrons will have the opportunity to tip the officer to benefit the Special Olympics fundraiser in addition to their regular gratuity for the server.

565-square-foot West Hollywood home sells for over $1 million

According to the fundraisers website, 20% of all food and beverage sales will benefit local Special Olympics athletes during CPKs Tip-A-Cop night.

In addition, three other local California Pizza Kitchens are hosting a Tip-A-Cop event at their restaurants on Thursday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.:

LAPD Custody Division officers will be at the California Pizza Kitchen in Lakewood

Brea Police Department officers will be at the California Pizza Kitchen in the Brea Mall

Orange County Sheriffs deputies will be at the California Pizza Kitchen in Mission Viejo

Click here for a complete list of CPK locations participating in the Tip-A-Cop fundraiser benefitting the Special Olympics throughout the month of October.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
The story of a yoga studio that began its brick-and-mortar story 13 years ago in a tiny building on a triangle-shaped lot in NoDa Charlotte has come to an end  5 miles down the road in Oakhurst.

NoDa Yoga has announced that it will close its doors on Nov. 30. The space will not go empty, however  Vicie Moran, co-owner of Charlotte Family Yoga, will open Charlotte Family Yoga Oakhurst.

The driving mission of Charlotte Family Yoga is to create an inclusive yoga community that can meet students where they are in their practice, stated a shared Instagram post from the two studios on Monday.

NoDa Yogas history

NoDa Yoga was actually born before it occupied that tiny purple and green building  the concept took flight in 2008, in the front room of Maria Hallowells loft at Highland Mills. Hallowell, along with Jillian Longsworth and Jenny Busco, were NoDa Yogas original owners. In 2010, the team moved into the 704-square-foot building at the intersection of Whiting Avenue and 35th Street (soon to be the location of Donut I Love You).

The studio offered adaptive, yin, gentle, warm, vinyasa, restorative and trauma-informed yoga.

NoDa Yogas original brick-and-mortar location was at 35th Street and Whiting Avenue in NoDa.

NoDa Yoga moved to Davidson Street in 2015, where it occupied a second-floor space that required a trek up metal stairs above Cabo Fish Taco. Here, the props room always smelled like a mixture of essential oils and food from the restaurant kitchen below  a perfectly NoDa experience for yogis of all experience levels who would practice, and then perhaps consider tacos after?

My personal favorite NoDa Yoga evenings involved Monday night deep stretch classes followed by the BOGO doughnuts once offered on Mondays at Reigning Doughnuts  or flow yoga followed by $5 wine Wednesdays at the old Dolce Vita wine bar thats now a Sabor.

NoDa Yogas Davidson Street location involved a trek up and back down metal stairs.

A second home: NoDa Yoga Oakhurst was born

In 2019, NoDa Yoga announced plans for expansion into the Oakhurst/MoRA area, with plans for a second studio. This location, intended as location No. 2, was more accessible for yogis struggling to navigate the steep stairs in NoDa. It was larger  2,000 square feet  offering space for two studios to hold classes at the same time. It was run by Jillian Longsworth, who brought on partner Craig Rasmussen.

NoDa Yoga co-owners Jillian Longsworth and Craig Rasmussen, and studio manager Jenny Eickmeyer, standing at the site of the Oakhurst location when it was under construction in 2019.

The Davidson Street studio in NoDa pivoted to become donation-only after the pandemic began, and then it closed its doors in late 2021 or early 2022.

Now, the studio will close its remaining Oakhurst location, citing the financial and emotional hurdles that come along with trying to keep a business going during the ongoing pandemic.

Closing is bittersweet. The pandemic really changed the trajectory of my life as I know it did for so many, Longsworth told me on Monday evening. Owning a small business was always challenging, but even more so during and post pandemic. We all found that we could do yoga from the comfort of our homes where streaming became a norm and in-studio classes took years to rebuild. Our business did not qualify for PPP and we made personal financial sacrifices to keep the doors open.

As stressful as it was, I dont think we would have changed a thing. NoDa Yoga was always a space that believed in a more altruistic society where acts of service (yoga in the community) can change lives, she said. I am forever grateful for the community that is NoDa Yoga. It is wild how much of an impact the studio has had on my life and so many others.

Charlotte Family Yoga, a local favorite

Concord-based Charlotte Family Yoga is focused on inclusivity and small classes. The studio features power flow, hot yoga, deep stretch, yin yoga and more. It offers both in-person and virtual options (Pro tip: Dont miss out on Morans Rocket Yoga for a fun upside down practice!)

As we (Charlotte Family Yoga) approach the 5 year anniversary of being in the vitality building, its scary and exciting to move into a new hub within Charlotte, Moran emailed on Tuesday. We cant wait to share the fun, family, and connection of Charlotte Family Yoga with the Oakhurst community!

Several of NoDa Yogas teachers will remain at Charlotte Family Yogas new Oakhurst location. Details about class packages and expiration dates will be sent to members in the coming weeks.

Vicie Moran, right, will open Charlotte Family Yoga Oakhurst in the former NoDa Yoga location. She is shown here with Kara Vincent, co-owner of Charlotte Family Yogas Concord location.

Location: 1620 Oakhurst Commons Dr Suite 301, Charlotte, NC 28205

Instagram: @nodayoga and @charlottefamilyyogaoakhurst
Tank the tortoise was found about 2 miles from the Mahoning Valley Animal Hospital in Carbon County, Pa., over a week after escaping from his outdoor enclosure at the clinic. Photo courtesy of the Mahoning Valley Animal Hospital/Facebook

Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Tank the tortoise has been returned to a Pennsylvania veterinary clinic more than a week after the slow-moving reptile escaped for the third time.

The Mahoning Valley Animal Hospital, located in the Lehighton area in Carbon County, said Tank was found on a West Penn Township family's property, about 2 miles from where he escaped his outdoor enclosure through a hole in the fence.

Tank belongs to veterinarian Mike Nelson and lives at the animal hospital.

The hospital said in a Facebook post that Tank has now escaped three times, and each time he ended up being found in the same area.

Hospital officials said they are planning to outfit Tank with a GPS tracker so he can be found more easily if he escapes again.
Massive barges brought over a million gallons of fresh water to Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, on Monday as the community tackles the intrusion of saltwater thats threatening drinking supplies.

The emergency transports by the Army Corps of Engineers to water treatment and pumping stations are set to continue for weeks until the flow of the Mississippi River is strong enough to push the seawater back to the Gulf of Mexico.

Right now, were preparing for this situation to go into about January, said Parish President Keith Hinkley. We dont see this ending anytime soon because theres really no prediction of any kind of rain up in the upper Mississippi, the Missouri and the Ohio Basin.

Hinkley said the crisis, thats also now threatening New Orleans, has already cost $33 million and his small community could not survive without the support of state and federal agencies.

And the next rains wont end the problem, he said. We have to prepare that we are going to have this saltwater intrusion on an annual basis here.

Plaquemines Parish President Keith Hinkley said he is preparing for the saltwater crisis to last into the New Year. - Evelio Contreras/CNN

The parish is hoping the state will invest in desalination, a technology more common in arid regions like Israel than the bayous of Louisiana. But while salt water wedges have encroached every decade or so since the late 80s, this is the first time it has happened in back-to-back years.

Were in the middle of water, but were in the middle of the wrong kind of water, Hinkley said. And thats why we need these kind of machines.

Katrina commander fears what he sees  and what he doesnt

In New Orleans, Russel Honore looks out across the mighty Mississippi and spots something hes never seen before. The river is so low that 3 or 4 feet of pilings are exposed. Its like a new piece of architecture that somebody just built. And Its been there for decades, he told CNN.

Lt. Gen. (ret'd) Russel Honore says the climate is changing quicker than America is adapting. - Evelio Contreras/CNN

But more worrying for him is the saltwater creeping up from the Gulf of Mexico, without the force of water draining from 30-plus states to keep it at bay. That saltwater, mixing further and further upstream, could threaten the safety of drinking and irrigation supplies and if unchecked, could damage infrastructure, from the roughly 50,000 lead pipes still in use in New Orleans to refrigerators and hot water heaters.

It has impact on health, it has impact on appliances, it has impact on distribution pipes because it leaches out some of the old pipes that have lead, Honore said. It has an impact on the shipping industry because if that river goes lower, it impacts the amount of cargo that can leave here  that affects our national commerce and stuff that people around the world need like grain thats coming from up north and petrochemicals, that they need to run the industries to keep the economy working.

Honore, a retired US Army lieutenant general, came to national attention when he took over the response to the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. That event, 18 years ago, was when the conversation about climate change started for him.

At that time, there were many naysayers claiming global warming was juju, he remembered, but now urgent measures have to be taken.

A spokesperson for the Army Corps of Engineers, Ricky Boyette, described how they were helping Plaquemines Parish.

Were taking in [water] about 25 miles upriver from the salt. And then were barging it down, he said.

Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson Ricky Boyette said fresh water was being sourced 25 miles north of where the salt has reached. - Evelio Contreras/CNN

The Corps is also building a sill to try to slow the spread of saltwater and preparing desalination equipment if it is needed.

Beyond that, rain is going to be the deciding factor, Boyette said.

The National Weather Service said that in El Nino years, typically October and November and December tend to be wetter. So thats what were hoping for, he said.

But while the Corps focuses on responding to what is already happening, Honore looks to what could come.

A view of the Mississippi at Port Sulphur, where salt water from the Gulf of Mexico has contaminated the drinking water supply. - Julian Quinones/CNN

The worst-case scenario is that none of that works, he said. We would be dependent on desalination and on barge water. And when bringing water by barge is no longer cost-effective, Wed have to bring it in by pipe, which is several miles of construction to lay a pipe to get the water there. Worst case scenario, therell be people drinking bottled water.

Thats already happening in Plaquemines Parish and there could come a day when every parish needs its own desalination plant, Honore said.

The native Louisianan grew up praying for no hurricanes at this time of year. Now, he says, theyre praying for rain, to give everyone a chance to catch up.

The climate is changing quicker than we are adapting.

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Louisiana GOP U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy said he supports more funding for Ukraine's war effort against the Russian invasion, while also weighing in on the drama in the House, where a handful of Republicans are trying to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Senators agreed to temporarily scrap a plan to send $6 billion more to Ukraine, even though there is bipartisan support for the funding in the upper chamber, to get the House to agree to the weekend deal that avoided a government shutdown.

But one of the reasons the small minority of Republicans wants to oust their speaker is because they believe McCarthy and President Biden reached a secret deal to fund the Ukraine war effort in an annual spending bill once the temporary spending measure expires in 45 days.

"The 45-day period is not perfect, but it gives us time to find a permanent solution and make sure our troops don't miss a paycheck," Cassidy said.

Cassidy said he believes the U.S. should provide Ukraine with another round of funding not just for that country's freedom fight, but also because it could weaken Russia's ability to attack Americans abroad.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., speaks at a press conference on student loans at the U.S. Capitol on June 14, 2023 in Washington, DC.

"Russia is in Cuba, Africa, Venezuela; Russia is our enemy," Cassidy said on a conference call with reporters. "We should support (Ukraine's) fight for freedom and to degrade the effectiveness of one of our enemies."

Biden has said he will find a way to fund Ukraine.

"We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted," Biden said in a statement after signing the 45-day stopgap measure Saturday night that prevented the government shutdown.

As to whether McCarthy should survive as speaker, Cassidy said, "We don't want chaos."

"It does seem like he has the support of 98% of Republicans, so just because we've got to get things done it seems like McCarthy should stay in the position," Cassidy said, especially until Congress can pass a long-term spending bill. "But that's up to the House."

More: Senator Bill Cassidy backs effort to raise federal minimum wage for first time since 2007

Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Bill Cassidy weighs in on Ukraine funding, drama in House speaker fight
Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Longs campaign manager and fundraising consultant have left her gubernatorial campaign in the wake of concerns surrounding possible issues with past campaign finance reports, according to several people with direct knowledge.

Hall-Long announced last week that she is conducting an audit of past campaign finance reports. The lieutenant governor has not suspended her campaign, but she is not soliciting donations at this time.

Longtime supporters told Delaware Online/The News Journal that they have, in recent days, become deeply distressed about the state of Hall-Longs campaign, with some questioning her judgment.

The lieutenant governor reached out to supporters last week to explain herself. Supporters say they feel they are not receiving direct answers from the lieutenant governor regarding the possible issue with campaign finances.

Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, shown in 2019, is running for governor.

They have described the candidate as flustered and contradictory in her explanations. The stories they are being told, according to these supporters, are not lining up.

In response to the departures, a campaign spokesperson in a statement said Hall-Long is grateful for the people that helped us launch the campaign and are now moving on as we head into the next phase of the campaign.

The campaign named Shaku Bhaya, Anne Farley and Roshan Patel as advisers to the campaign.

In a written statement, Bhaya and Farley said they support Hall-Long and continue to stand by her.

"We are confident that we will elect her as the next governor of Delaware," they wrote. "We believe in Bethany and know that her drive, compassion, leadership and record of accomplishment make her the best-qualified person to lead this state and make Delaware the best place to live, work and raise a family."

Brandon Cox and Jennifer Mueller, the former campaign manager and fundraiser, respectively, could not be reached for comment.

WHAT WE KNOW: Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long reviewing campaign finance reports amid possible 'issues'

What prompted the campaign finances review?

The campaign did not provide any specific details on what kick-started the need for a review, saying that in the run up to the launch of the campaign, Bethany requested a review and now there is an independent audit of the reports in the works.

The campaign spokesperson said it consists of a full thorough review of all of the reports."

The official declined to provide a specific timeline to Delaware Online/The News Journal on when this will be completed and if it will be made public.

We hired an independent team of finance experts and forensic accountants who are working swiftly to review the reporting and will be prepared to amend any reports as needed, the spokesperson said. We look forward to having results soon.

Dana Long, the lieutenant governors husband, has previously served as her campaign treasurer. He has created problems for the politician in the past, most notably for stealing a Republican opponents campaign signs in 2014.

DELAWARE POLITICS: Delaware election officials won't say if Hall-Long's possible finance issues under review

At least one supporter has questioned if Hall-Long has a path forward politically, even if no issues are ultimately identified.

Hall-Long canceled two fundraisers, including one hosted by Gov. John Carney, according to emails obtained by Delaware Online/The News Journal. Carney announced his endorsement of her just one day after her campaign launch on Sept. 12.

Matt Meyer pushes forward in fundraising

Her opponent New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer started the year with about $1 million in his war chest, about double what Hall-Long reported at the time.

New Castle County Executive Matthew Meyer, who is running for governor, speaks to community resident Jeff Herbster outside his home after a severe storm hit Cherokee Woods in Ogletown on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023.

A Democratic official with direct knowledge said Matt Meyer has raised $100,000 since Hall-Longs announcement on Thursday. Meyer, who started his political career as a progressive outsider, has been a polarizing figure to many in his own party.

Michael Atkins, deputy press secretary for Meyers campaign, said in a statement that the past three weeks have been the best fundraising weeks we have had since our launch.

Meyer, Atkins said, has more than $1 million cash on hand, consisting of thousands of small dollar contributions.

Stronghold supporters

Some Democrats continue to stand by Hall-Long. Speaker of the House Valerie Longhurst recently urged House lawmakers to support Hall-Long and not to believe the rumors about her campaign, this Democratic official said. A House of Representatives spokeswoman could not be reached for comment.

Sen. Nicole Poore, a Democrat from New Castle, said in an interview that Hall-Longs decision to conduct an audit is showing us what true leadership looks like. She praised the lieutenant governor for her integrity" and "transparency.

The Democrat said she doesnt think the financial audit, and the reasons behind it, have changed peoples opinions of the longtime politician.

She is being upfront, Poore said. Isnt that something you should want from a leader?

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Hall-Long campaign sees departure of top staffers in wake of audit
For several years, a large tract of farmland in Madison County, right off Interstate 75 in between Richmond and Berea, has sat vacant. But a flurry of recent movement on the 1,400-acre site and murmurs about its future point to a huge economic development project potentially happening there.

Recent actions by the city government of Richmond, as well as speculation  and an unusual dose of silence  among local power brokers and officials on whats going on, indicate a major employer could be circling the property, the Herald-Leader has learned.

The strategic parcel sits in between Richmond and Berea adjacent to the new Buc-ees gas station and store. Its owned by Begley Properties, a real estate company based in London, Kentucky.

The city secured an option-to-purchase agreement last week on 403 acres of the property with the explicit purpose to lure and entice large industry offering high wage employment to build on the mega site development.

A previous option to purchase agreement had been reached on another piece of the same property earlier this year, with the same purpose advertised.

Last month, city officials also had finalized an annexation and zone change on a parcel of the land, which is billed by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development as one of the largest shovel ready sites in the state. The site touches three corners of Exit 83 on I-75, with the largest contiguous tract to the southeast of the intersection at 1,035 acres.

The hope is that the city attracts some type of large industry out there Currently its unknown what may happen with the property, but the request is to zone it agriculture, city Codes Enforcement Director Philip Williams said at Richmond Planning Commission meeting in August.

If theres no development plan, the property is usually zoned agriculture, and we hold it there.

Richmond City Manager Rob Minerich told the Herald-Leader that several different industries have visited the site since the citys first option to purchase agreement.

We have no confirmation from any large industry, but we have had several different industries visit. We are excited for the potential, but we have no confirmation of specific companies for the site.

After being contacted by a reporter, Minerich sent a message out to elected officials emphasizing that no commitments have yet been made to develop the site.

Richmond Utilities vision to invest $75 million dollars over the past 15 years in water and sewer projects and East Kentucky Powers investment in upgrading electric needs has made this property one of Kentuckys premier sites for new industry. Although weve hosted several site visits from large industry that are encouraging, we dont have any commitments at this time, Minerich told officials.

No incentives have been awarded to any project on the site, and no purchase has been finalized.

The moves come as chatter in the community speculating about a very large development has increased.

We (Madison County) are growing so fast and in so many directions. There is something  youve got Buc-ees out there now  Ive heard two or three people talking about. Something large coming out there, very large. I dont know what it is, but its gonna bring some jobs, Madison County Coroner Jimmy Cornelison told the Herald-Leader last week.

Madison County Judge-Executive Reagan Taylor did not offer comment on a potential project. Calls to Begley Properties have not been returned.

The properties are valued around $40.6 million, according to the Madison County Property Value Administrator. Begley Properties began buying land in the area in 2011 with a $21.2 million acquisition of a 362-acre property on three corners of Exit 83.

A spokesperson for the administration of Gov. Andy Beshear couldnt comment on specific new job announcements, but expressed confidence about future economic development.

Gov. Beshear and his administration are in daily conversations with world-class companies about locating to Kentucky, Beshear spokesperson Crystal Staley wrote in an email to the Herald-Leader.

Gov. Beshear has already secured the best two-year period for economic growth and announced the two largest economic development projects in state history  and Kentuckians should expect to see many more wins being announced by the governor in the months and years ahead,

Economic development is a strategic element in Beshears re-election bid against Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

Earlier this year, in a story submitted to the Richmond Register newspaper, the city of Richmond touted its option to purchase agreement on a 600-acre piece of the Begley-owned property as a way to strengthen (its) competitive edge.

Minerich is quoted in the February article stating the purchase option allows the city to jointly market what is now the premier industrial megasite in Kentucky.

In recent months, several large industrial and manufacturing employers have chosen to locate in Kentucky. This momentum is ongoing as other prospects are continuing to search for large megasite properties throughout the state and region. Many of the property searches involve the construction of large buildings in a campus-style setting that megasites can provide, he said.

A map of the Begley Property in Madison County. Buc-ees now occupies a small tract of land directly to the southest of the above I-75 intersection.

The article also mentions the site has rail access. A CSX Corporation railroad line runs along the eastern edge of the property.

According to Cabinet for Economic Development records, a full environmental study took place and was sent to the city in April. It found no serious deficiencies with the property.

The more recent option to purchase agreement on 403 acres of the property, as well as the re-zoning and annexation of 125 acres on the property, was finalized at the last Richmond City Commission meeting in late September.

Local officials are publicly hinting to the prospect of economic development there. Mayor Blythe, when joining a vote to reappoint members to the Richmond Utility Board, made reference to the work of that group in preparing the property.

I always remind them that their vision and that of their predecessors is what has placed us in the position  (a local development official) mentioned the acreage on Exit 83. The vision of those folks back then positioned us, as far as the infrastructure is concerned, to be ready for these things, Blythe said.

The Cabinet for Economic Development page advertising the property touts the fact that its fully equipped with utilities and critical infrastructure.

According to maps produced by the state, a majority of the electric service area for the site lies in the territory of Blue Grass Energy Cooperative. That group is a member of the East Kentucky Power Cooperative, an organization owned by 16 smaller nonprofit co-ops around the state. It provides power to more than 1.1 million people.

The land owner, Begley Properties, is a family-run business in London. Registered agents at the business, according to the Kentucky Secretary of States Office, are George Begley, James Begley and Curtis Asher of London.

Members of that family also run a lumber business, Begley Lumber Co., in Leslie County.

James and George Begley have given $36,100 and $32,100 in political donations over the course of several years, almost exclusively to Republican politicians, public records show.

What could it mean?

Development on the site would mean more growth for an already-growing Madison County. With roughly 95,000 residents, Madison County is one of the top 10 fastest growing counties in the state. From 2010 to 2020, per the U.S. Census, the county population rose by nearly 12%.

The county is also something of a political bellwether in the state, having closely predicted the statewide result for several recent elections.

The total acreage of the site, 1,417, is close to that of the land now being developed by Ford Motor Co. and Korea-based SK Innovations in Hardin County as part of a $5.8 billion investment to manufacture electric vehicle batteries.

That project is expected to employ around 5,000 people. Its the largest economic development project announced in state history. State incentives on that project total up to $286 million.

The Beshear administration held a huge event for the announcement of the Ford/SK Innovations on the steps leading into the state Capitol. The governor held another large event in the Capitol for a 2,000-job, $2 billion electric vehicle battery project coming to Bowling Green.

His campaign has used those splashy announcements as an argument that he should be re-elected.

Depending on the size of the project at the Begley property, an announcement could change the shape of the gubernatorial race, one the Kentuckys most high-stakes and expensive campaigns in recent history.

University of Kentucky political science professor D. Stephen Voss, who studies voter behavior and has researched economic developments relationship with politics, said theres almost no downside to economic development for incumbent candidates.

A couple caveats, Voss said, are that positive voter response to economic development is likely to be more localized and that the political payoff for economic development largely comes when voters start to see change. That can often take years to happen after an initial announcement is made.

There could be an added benefit to Beshears narrative, though, if a potential new project is related to the electric vehicle industry.

Reinforcement of a message helps a politician, Voss said.

Theres sort of this theme, and people are seeing multiple developments that seem to be moving Kentucky into an industry of the future. Any one of them in isolation, maybe (doesnt matter) so much. But if you start to have this drumbeat  futuristic industry related to energy, futuristic industry related to electric vehicles  once you get a pattern like that, it makes it easier for a message to penetrate to people who usually arent very aware.

In several posts to social media and in speeches, Beshear has boasted of the progress Kentucky has made in the electric vehicle and electric vehicle battery production industry.

Weve announced 21 electric vehicle projects since I took office, representing more than $10.9 billion in investment and the creation of more than 10,372 full-time jobs for Kentuckians. We are the EV battery production capital of the U.S., Beshear recently posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.

Herald-Leader reporters Bill Estep and Taylor Six contributed to this story.
VICTORIA, British Columbia  Canada is deploying tanks on an overseas mission for the first time in more than a decade, but the future for the countrys armored fleet remains uncertain.

The first of 15 Canadian Leopard 2 tanks are expected to arrive in Latvia in mid-November as part of efforts to shore up NATOs presence in that Eastern European nation. While that is taking place, work is underway in the Canadian Army to determine how best to maintain and support the aging tank fleet while trying to decide whether to replace the platforms.

An estimated CA$1.5 billion (U.S. $1.1 billion) will go toward the new Leopard long-term support contract, according to Defence Department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande. That contract will see maintenance and support services for the Leopard 2 fleet in place until the tanks forecast end of life, currently scheduled for 2035.

The scope of work will include key services such as maintenance support, upgrades as required, supply chain management, engineering support and technical support for the Canadian Leopard 2 fleet, she said.

The Canadian Army had 82 Leopard 2 main battle tanks, but donated eight to Ukraine amid its fight against a Russian invasion.

Canada has identified German company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann as the sole-source provider for the long-term contract.

We expect a contract award by spring 2024, Lamirande said.

In addition, the Canadian Army briefed industry representatives on April 3 in Ottawa about a proposed plan to modernize the Leopard fleet.

Army Lt. Col. Chloeann Summerfield noted the tank life extension would cost more than CA$850 million and deal with obsolescence issues as well as technology improvements.

The project is in its early stages but would prioritize improvements to the Leopard 2s protection, surveillance, target acquisition, firepower and mobility, Summerfield told industry officials.

The Army would also seek cooperation and a common configuration for such upgraded vehicles with other users of the Leopard, according to the presentation, obtained by Defense News.

A request for bids from industry for the life extension effort is to be issued around 2028, with the first fielding of the upgraded tanks starting in 2030, the presentation noted.

One of the considerations is a limited budget for the project, Summerfield said.

Financial barriers will also impact Canadas decision on whether to buy new tanks to replace the Leopard 2 fleet, according to Canadian defense observers.

Martin Shadwick, a professor of Canadian defense policy and the military at Torontos York University, said the Army has had a contentious relationship with tanks.

In October 2003, Lt. Gen. Rick Hillier, then-commander of the Army, announced Canada was retiring Leopard tanks from service and would purchase the U.S.-made Stryker Mobile Gun System, a wheeled vehicle, Shadwick noted. At the time, Hillier said the Armys Leopards had served their purpose but were of limited use in warfare, as the enemy was no longer Russia but rather terrorists in austere environments like Afghanistan.

However, several years later, the Armys new leadership reversed course, instead sending Leopard tanks to Afghanistan in 2006. Canadian military leaders fighting in that country had requested the tanks, as their heavy armor provided more protection against improvised explosive devices.

Since the end of the war in Afghanistan, Canadian tanks have been limited to training exercises at home. The Canadian government has committed to buying a limited number of new tanks to replace the eight Leopards it donated to Ukraine over the past two years. In February 2023, then-Defence Minister Anita Anand announced the acquisition plan, but its yet to move forward.

A Royal Canadian Air Force CC-177 Globemaster delivers a Leopard 2A4 tank to Poland on March 17, 2023, as a part of Canada's commitment to donate the platforms to Ukraine. (Master Sailor Valerie LeClair/Canadian Armed Forces)

The office of Bill Blair, the current defense minister, would not provide specific details about that potential purchase. Daniel Minden, Blairs press secretary, pointed out that capability requirements are being reviewed by the Army to ensure capability replenishment and interoperability. Plans and timelines remain to be determined.

For his part, Shadwick doesnt expect the government will buy new tanks in the near future, including those meant to replace the Leopards now in Ukraine. There is a real lack of funding for procurement, and new tanks are way down the list of priorities for the Canadian forces, he said.

Former defense procurement chief Alan Williams agreed, noting major military purchases, such as F-35 fighter jets and the new Canadian Surface Combatant ships, leave little funds left over for tanks.

The annual budget for defense equipment acquisitions is CA$5 billion, but much, if not all, will be earmarked for the fleet of surface combatants, Williams told Defense News. The surface combatants are estimated to cost CA$100 billion over the next 20 years.

Canada has also committed to spending CA$40 billion to modernize North American Aerospace Defense Command  a figure that includes the purchase of F-35s  and another CA$6 billion on new P-8 patrol aircraft.

I cant see how the Army can even contemplate the acquisition of new tanks, Williams said. A lot of potential equipment projects will be seriously affected by programs already committed to by government.
A man walks toward Sankore mosque, also known as the former University of Sankore, in Timbuktu

A man walks toward Sankore mosque, also known as the former University of Sankore, in Timbuktu

By Edward McAllister

DAKAR (Reuters) - Islamist militants in Mali began a blockade of Timbuktu by cutting road access in August and then shut off river and air routes in an offensive that has put the city once again on the frontline of a jihadist insurgency.

The bombing began soon after. On Sept. 21, witnesses said rockets hit a hospital, killing two children, and landed near a school where survivors of a passenger boat attack that killed more than 100 people were sheltering.

"Our worry is the shelling," businessman Sory Toure said in Timbuktu, which was occupied by jihadists a decade ago. "It creates a real psychosis and leaves a lasting impression. I have this fear within me."

Since the United Nations began winding down its peacekeeping mission in July, al Qaeda affiliated militants launched an offensive in central Mali, fighting has resumed between the army and Tuareg rebels from the north and, in the east, Islamic State-allied insurgents have continued to carry out attacks.

Mali, run by a junta that has spurned the support of U.N. and French forces, is in meltdown and the violence risks adding to instability across West Africa's Sahel, a region already reeling from military coups in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Experts compare Mali's situation now to its position in 2012 when another Tuareg rebellion was overtaken by jihadists who captured Timbuktu and pressed south towards the capital Bamako.

"This conflict is escalating fast," said Ulf Laessing, the Bamako-based head of the Sahel programme at the Konrad Adenauer foundation. "There is a risk of civil war."

Back in 2012, French forces and the U.N. intervened to halt the advance in Mali. But there will be no such intervention now.

Mali's military rulers, who consolidated power over two coups in 2020 and 2021, severed ties with former colonial power France and kicked out its troops. In June, it ordered the 13,000-strong force deployed by the United Nations to leave.

Russia's Wagner Group, which has sent 1,000 mercenaries to support the junta, has failed to fill the gap and is accused of attacks against civilians.

More than 650 people have died in conflict in Mali in the two months after the U.N. began pulling out, a more than 40% rise over the previous two months, U.S.-based group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project said.

Mali's authorities did not respond to specific requests for comment for this article. The army said in a statement on Monday that September had been a "turbulent" month but it would continue to fight its enemies to protect the nation and its people.

'TOO FEW TROOPS'

In 2013, French forces beat back Islamists. But they regrouped and waged a new campaign that has killed thousands and displaced millions in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, a band of countries on the edge of the Sahara. Insurgents also have a foothold in West African coastal states, including Benin, Togo and Ivory Coast.

Insecurity has spawned coups whose leaders have jilted regional and Western states. France said last week it would pull out troops from Niger. Domestic armies are struggling alone.

In Mali, fighting began in August between the army and an ethnic Tuareg group called the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) around a base vacated by the U.N. Since then, CMA has attacked other Malian army bases, some hundreds of miles apart.

The group laid down arms in 2015 under a U.N.-brokered deal but says the army has encroached on its territory and says these are "times of war". The army calls CMA fighters "terrorists".

Al Qaeda-affiliated Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) raided other military camps, attacked an airport, fired on passenger boats and launched its blockade of Timbuktu.

"The problem is Mali has too few troops and too little mobility," said Michael Shurkin, director of global programs at 14 North Strategies consultancy. "JNIM and CMA have freedom of movement over the entire area."

There is no evidence the groups coordinate, security experts said. But they have other ties. JNIM's leader Iyad Ag-Ghali is a former Tuareg rebel.

"They have each other's phone numbers. That doesn't mean they are in lock step, but they can communicate," Shurkin said.

'BAD TO WORSE'

Timbuktu, a centuries-old centre of Islamic learning, is now under siege. Food and other supplies are blocked, driving up prices for essentials. Traders in the city say sugar is up 25%, while charcoal for cooking, potatoes and onions are up 30%.

Residents wary of falling rockets avoid markets and a nightly curfew empties the streets.

"Things are going from bad to worse," said market trader Mohamed Massaya. "Our business has stopped working. We are making do with our old stocks."

Hundreds of survivors were brought to the city after a JNIM attack on Sept. 7 on the "Timbuktu", a boat carrying soldiers and residents from Gao. Ferry services stopped after that.

Salaha Maiga, a member of Mali's National Transitional Council, the junta's equivalent of a national assembly, told Reuters that 111 people were killed in the attack. Authorities originally said 64 died.

Survivors are struggling in the aftermath.

"We cannot describe the horror," said Aicha Sababou, who was on the boat. "Seeing dozens of people die and burying them together is scary. We are happy to rejoin our families even if there are still wounds we need to heal."

(This story has been refiled to amend byline and dateline)

(Reporting by Edward McAllister in Dakar; Editing by Alexandra Zavis and Edmund Blair)
CHICAGO - A man was found shot and critically wounded Monday night in Chicago's Grand Crossing neighborhood.

Police responding to a report of shots fired around 10:26 p.m. and found the 18-year-old lying unresponsive with a gunshot wind to the torso in the 7800 block of South Ellis Avenue.

He was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center where he was listed in critical condition.

There is no one in custody as Area Two detectives investigate.
CHARLOTTE (WJZY)  A man has been charged after he allegedly shot a Taco Bell employee in Charlotte, North Carolina, over the change he received, police say.

Doll Andrew McLendon, 67, has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and discharging a weapon into occupied property, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police.

Doll Andrew McLendon via Mecklenburg County Jail

Shortly before 9:30 p.m. Saturday, officers received a report of an assault with a deadly weapon with injury at a Taco Bell on Albemarle Road in east Charlotte.

When CMPD officers arrived, they reportedly found an employee suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Witnesses said that after McLendon ordered food in the drive-thru, he became aggressive because he believed he was given an incorrect amount of change.

CMPD said McLendon left the drive-thru, went inside, took out a firearm, and began shooting from outside the restaurant.

McLendon then allegedly fled the scene. The Taco Bell employee was taken to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries, CMPD said.

Officers were able to confirm a vehicle description based on statements from witnesses and video footage from the restaurant. Detectives confirmed the vehicle matched the model used in the incident and the registered owner matched the description of the suspect.

Later Saturday night, officers located McLendons vehicle at a nearby apartment complex. Once warrants were obtained, CMPD said officers made contact with him inside his residence.

Watch: U-Haul rips out ATM from NoDas Brooks Sandwich House

McLendon walked out, surrendered and officers then took him into custody without incident.

Taco Bells corporate office provided the following statement:

We are shocked to hear that this happened. We understand that the franchise owner and operator of this location is working with the local authorities in their investigation and will be offering support to all team members present.

Authorities have not released an update on the employee who was injured.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WesternSlopeNow.com.
A man has been arrested for reportedly kidnapping a woman and stealing her car in Phoenix early Tuesday morning, according to Phoenix Police Department.

At around 12 a.m., near 17600 North Cave Creek Road, Phoenix police reported that a 30-year-old man, identified as Jiovany Acosta, arranged to meet with a female victim for a test drive of her vehicle.

The woman initially agreed to the test drive; however, during the drive, she began to feel frightened by Acosta and requested to be let out of the vehicle, which he refused to do.

According to the Phoenix police, Acosta drove the victim around for approximately an hour before eventually returning her to the original location. However, he drove away with her vehicle, leaving her without it.

The vehicle was located and stopped, and Acosta was arrested and refused to give his name over to the police, according to officers.

He was arrested as John Doe for charges including kidnapping until he was later identified while in custody.

Acosta's initial hearing will take place in Maricopa's Superior Court Tuesday at 8 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Alleged kidnapper was arrested as John Doe but later identified
Phoenix police car

A suspect was arrested on suspicion of a fatal shooting on Sept. 24 near 27th Avenue and Indian School Road, according to Phoenix police.

Bobby Roberts, 67, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of fatally shooting Maurice Jamal Edwards, 35, according to Phoenix police. Roberts was booked on charges of murder and weapons misconduct.

In September, Phoenix police found Edwards in a roadway and with a gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital but did not survive his injuries.

No further details were released.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Bobby Roberts arrested on suspicion of fatal shooting in Phoenix
Gwinnett County Police are looking for a man accused of robbing an urgent care facility last week,

On Thursday at 5 a.m., a man entered the North Georgia Urgent Care facility at a facility on 1600 Pleasant Hill Rd in unincorporated Duluth.

Detectives believe the same man also burglarized a neighboring business just moments before.

The man stole approximately $7,200 from his two burglaries, according to police.

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The suspect was wearing a gray hoodie and black sweatpants, according to police.

Anyone with information is asked to contact GCPD detectives at 770-513-5300.

To remain anonymous, tipsters should contact Crime Stoppers at 404-577-TIPS (8477) or visit www.stopcrimeATL.com. Crime Stoppers tipsters can receive a cash reward for information leading to an arrest and indictment in this case.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
Oscar Ernesto Luna (Photo/Beltrami County Jail)

In the early morning hours of Sept. 23, the Sanford Bemidji Medical Centers emergency department called the Bemidji Police Department to report suspicions of a sexual assault against an 11-year-old girl.

The girls identity has not been shared publicly, but sources shared with Native News Online that she is Ojibwe, from one of the three Ojibwe Indian Reservations that surround Bemidji, Minnesota.

Oscar Ernesto Luna, a 22-year-old man from Mission, Texas, is in custody and facing charges stemming from reports by the 11-year-old victim. Court documents report that the victim said she was tied up in a room at a home in Bemidji with two other young girls on both sides of her while four men took turns sexually assaulting the girls. The location of the home is within a city block of J.W. Smith Elementary School.

Local police later identified Luna as a suspect based on descriptions provided by the 11-year-old victim. When a search warrant was executed at a house identified in the area, he was found in the house along with multiple items that had blood on them. Luna denied sexually assaulting the 11-year-old girl but admitted knowing the aunt of the victim, who she said brought her to the house where the incident occurred.

Luna provided a consensual DNA sample for testing while he faces one count of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree in Beltrami County. Luna also has active arrest warrants for driving while impaired cases in Hennepin County and will proceed with his prior criminal charges while the investigation develops. If convicted, Luna faces up to 30 years in Minnesota state prison.

After the execution of the search warrant, Bemidji Police said they discovered several other individuals in the home, 11 of whom will be processed as illegal immigrants by U.S. Border Patrol. No information was made available to citizenship of the individuals found in the home where the warrant was executed, however.

Emails from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation said that the Bemidji Police Department is the lead agency on the investigation and the Beltrami County Sheriffs Office is assisting. Both agencies did not respond to email inquiries or phone messages from Native News Online by press time.

How the victim got to the location of the crime is unclear. Police reports indicate that the 11-year-old victim was with someone she called auntie, who was intoxicated on the night of Sept. 22 and wanted to party. While with the older woman, the girl got into a mans car, but did not say where or what kind of car, and a bag (of omitted material) was placed over her head while they drove to a home in Bemidji. There, the 11-year-old was forced to drink alcohol and then was tied up and witnessed other acts of abuse.

As of press time, no other arrests have been made in the case, including the person who the victim was with the evening of the crime and no other charges have been filed by the Beltrami County Attorneys Office stemming from the investigation.

Last week, a two-day search for Nevaeh Kingbird, 15 years old at the time she was reported missing in 2021, was conducted by multiple organizations, including Tribes, non-profits, and state and federal agencies in Bemidji. Kingbirds disappearance is one of several young Ojibwe people in the last few years.

The investigation is currently ongoing, and the case is developing.

About the Author: "Darren Thompson (Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe) is a staff reporter for Native News Online who is based in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Thompson has reported on political unrest, tribal sovereignty, and Indigenous issues for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, Indian Country Today, Native News Online, Powwows.com and Unicorn Riot. He has contributed to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Voice of America on various Indigenous issues in international conversation. He has a bachelor\u2019s degree in Criminology & Law Studies from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "

Contact: dthompson@nativenewsonline.net
(WFLA)  A New Jersey man has been slapped with several charges  including terrorism  after deliberately crashing his car into a police station on Sept. 20, officials announced last week.

The suspect, John C. Hargreaves, had first crashed his gold Toyota SUV into the garage door of a private residence in Liberty Township at around 6:17 p.m. that evening, in an attempt to scare or harass the homeowner, according to a prosecutor in New Jerseys Warren County.

The suspect then drove to the police station and crashed the SUV through the building, per the county prosecutors press release.

Seattle police officer recorded laughing, joking after pedestrian is fatally struck by cop car: She had limited value

Footage released by the Independence Township Police shows the SUV coming to a stop in the squad room. The suspect then gets out of the drivers seat, extends his arms upwards and points his index fingers in the air. Police indicated he was loudly blasting a Guns N Roses song at the time.

The defendant exited the vehicle and appeared to be celebrating as he was apprehended by officers on scene as his car stereo blared the song Welcome to the Jungle,' the release stated.

In the video, two officers with the Independence Township Police are seen escorting the suspect to the other side of the squad room and placing him in handcuffs.

Hargreaves has since been charged in two municipalities. For the first offense, he has been charged with burglary, criminal mischief, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and harassment. For the second offense, he was charged with terrorism, causing widespread injury or damage, aggravated assault, burglary, criminal mischief, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

The most serious charge  terrorism  carries a possible sentence of life in prison, or no fewer than 30 years behind bars, according to the prosecutors office.

Authorities said Hargreaves was being held at Warren County Jail.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
A man faces first-degree murder charges after he was accused of attempting to rob another man with a knife and chasing him into a Phoenix street, where he was fatally hit by a car.

On Sunday night, Phoenix police were called to 35th Avenue and Bethany Home Road for reports of a shooting. When they arrived, they found Frank Avila, 28, with a serious gunshot wound that was not life-threatening. He was taken to a hospital.

Police also found 26-year-old Martin Anaya north of the intersection on 35th Avenue. He had been struck by a car and was critically injured, according to police. He was later pronounced dead.

Maricopa County court records indicate that Avila had threatened to rob Anaya while on a city bus with a knife and attempted to stab two others. After the bus stopped, Avila chased Anaya as he tried to run away and was hit by a truck. Avila also tried to stab another individual after he walked away from the scene, according to court records.

Avila was charged with first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault, according to court records.

Phoenix police initially said that Avila was charged with armed robbery, but as of Tuesday morning that charge was not included in court records. Police said more investigation was required to substantiate a robbery charge.

Court records indicate that just after 7:30 p.m., Phoenix police responded to reports of a stabbed person at the intersection just after 7:30 p.m. on Sunday. They found Anaya in the roadway.

Witnesses and video from the city bus showed that Avila pulled out a knife and demanded money from Anaya, which started an interaction between Avila, Anaya and two others, according to court records.

Video surveillance on the bus revealed that Avila was talking with someone on the bus when, at some point, he removed a silver knife from his waist fanny pack and held it with an underhand grip, court records show. Anaya, another person, and the individual Avila was previously speaking with all told him to put the knife away.

Avila then demanded money from Anaya multiple times, court records show. The bus driver then stopped the bus.

Anaya pleaded with Avila to get off the bus while Avila continued to demand money, court records show. Anaya then attempted to punch Avila and his hand was cut by the knife. The two other people who had asked Avila to get off the bus then lunged at Avila and tried to punch him while he tried to stab them in response.

Anaya got off the bus and Avila began to chase him into the road. Anaya was then hit by a car driving northbound on 35th Avenue. Phoenix police said the car left the area before police arrived and the driver, 46-year-old Alberto Valenzuela, was later arrested on suspicion of leaving the crash.

After Anaya was struck by the car, a person in a different car saw Avila walking away from the area. While he was telling him to stop, court records state that Avila approached him and the driver with the knife raised above his head. The person who told Avila to stop then pulled out a handgun and shot Avila in the leg, according to court records.

Phoenix police spoke with the man who shot Avila and later released him.

Avila received treatment at a hospital and was arrested.

Police said the case was still ongoing.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Frank Avila charged in first-degree murder of Martin Anaya
Ne'vaeh Brown, 5, received a serious eye wound and another girl suffered an arm injury due to a shooting in Athens. The shooter, Rasheed Ammad Scott, 38, entered a guilty plea on Sept. 27 in Clarke County Superior Court was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

A man with a background of drug and firearms convictions was sentenced to 30 years in prison recently in connection with a shooting in Athens that cost a 5-year-old girl her eye.

The shooting occurred about 5 p.m. April 26 in a shopping center off North Avenue. The child, along with a 14-year-old girl who was also wounded, were both attending a dance class there.

The youngest child, NeVaeh Brown, was shot in the eye and the other girl was shot in the arm, according to Athens-Clarke police reports.

The girls were hit by bullets fired when police said the suspect tried to shoot a 31-year-old Athens man, who was in the parking lot, according to police.

Rasheed Ammad Scott, 38, entered a guilty plea on Sept. 27 in Clarke County Superior Court to two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of cruelty to children, two counts of possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Previously: Atlanta man charged in shooting that wounded two Athens girls

Superior Court Judge Lisa Lott imposed a total sentence of 30 years in prison, which included 20 years for the aggravated assaults and 10 years consecutive for the felony firearms plea.

Scott, who has been in jail since his arrest on April 27, was living in Atlanta at the time of the shooting, but he has a long history in Athens.

Court records show he has felony convictions of possessing marijuana and controlled substances in both Clarke and Oconee counties dating back to 2008 with subsequent convictions occurring in 2013 and 2019. He has a drug and firearms conviction in Gwinnett County in 2019, according to the records.

The current indictment against Scott charged him with shooting his pistol at an Athens man with the intent to murder him.

Girls shot: Dance studio owner worries program may end after shooting that injured 2 Athens girls

When police arrived at the shooting scene, they heard people shouting that someone was shot and the responding officer met with a woman holding a child, with a wound the officer described as a grievous injury to her left eye.

While the girl was being treated, a second girl came up to the office and she had a bullet wound to her arm where it appeared the bullet had pierced her bicep, according to the report.

Videos retrieved from the parking lot cameras show three men getting into an argument and a shootout erupting, according to the report.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Man sentenced to 30 years for shooting that hit Athens girl in eye
A 36-year-old man has been sentenced to prison nearly two years after authorities said he trespassed into the restricted area of a Texas airport and shut runways down for two hours.

Allan Leon Goins III, 36, was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and illegally entering an aircraft area in violation of security requirements, according to court records. Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to the second count.

In pleading guilty, he admitted breaching the airport operations area that services domestic and foreign air carriers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Nov. 2, 2021. He ignored security procedures and fencing, authorities said.

Additionally, Goins stole an Atlantic Aviation Inc. uniform, utility cart and caused damage to the cart, according to an Oct. 2 news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Texas. He evaded security and authorized personnel efforts to apprehend him causing a pursuit to ensue for over an hour in dark and foggy conditions.

Airport runways, taxiways and other operations were shut down for about two hours, authorities said.

Citing an ethical obligation, Goins defense attorney declined to provide a comment to McClatchy News.

When Goins was captured by the Houston Police Department, the man told officers they should have shot him, according to his signed plea agreement.

Three days after his arrest, authorities said they discovered a loaded 9 mm caliber pistol, 9 mm ammunition and two 9 mm caliber magazines in Goins clothing that was found near where he was arrested.

Goins has been ordered to serve one year and one day in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, according to the release. Hes also been ordered to pay $2,276.48 in restitution.

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Sacramento woman running wild opens emergency exit on plane, NY officials say
A man once hailed by Donald Trump s administration as a victim of the #MeToo movement has been arrested for allegedly killing and dismembering the body of his girlfriend.

Joseph Carl Roberts, 42, has been accused of killing Rachel Elizabeth Imani Buckner after her body parts were discovered in a large trash bag wrapped up in duct tape, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.

After he told the news his life was almost destroyed by false sexual harassment allegations he garnered while at university, his claims were touted by Donald Trumps former education secretary Betsy DeVos .

Ms DeVos rolled back guidance on campus sexual assault in 2020 and gave further protection to those who are accused.

Mr Roberts, who was elected in 2020 for a seat on the San Francisco Republican Central Committee, was arrested on 6 September after DNA examiners found both Ms Buckners and Mr Roberts profiles on the remains and the bag.

He allegedly dismembered her body into pieces, decapitating her head and removing her hands and feet with an electric chainsaw to try and hide her identity.

Her remains were found on 20 July after a passerby on the waterfront trail in Alameda spotted the bag in the bay which was omitting a putrid smell.

Mr Roberts claimed he was a MeToo victim after being kicked off the Savannah State University campus in Georgia when two women made allegations that he had verbally sexually harassed them in person and online.

Betsy Devos touted Roberts claims back in 2020 (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

In a string of media interviews, he said he had been accused of several sexual harassment allegations throughout his time at university, which allegedly drove him to depression and attempted suicide in 2013.

In April 2015, he sued the university for $15 million in federal court and acted as his own attorney.

He claimed that the women were harassing him with text messages, but said that the court, who dismissed his lawsuit, did an excessively hurried investigation and discriminated against him on the basis of his male sex, reported the newspaper.

Trump-supporting Joseph Roberts became a Republican committee member and was prominent in mens rights circles (San Francisco Chronicle)

Mr Roberts met Ms Buckner, a young mother and a spoken-word poet, at Golden Gate Unversity of Law and they later got engaged.

Between January 2022 and June 2023, there were 17 calls made to police to their apartment for welfare checks, disturbances, reported domestic violence and suspicious circumstances, reported The Chronicle.

In February 2022, the couple broke into Ms Buckners mothers house and allegedly physically assaulted her mother and grandmother, who sustained a broken arm.

A judge issued a protective order for both of them to stay away from the two women and they left with plea deals, which gave them probation.

More than a year later, Mr Roberts is accused of killing his girlfriend in their apartment sometime in July, court records state.

Buckners friends said she started to go off-grid whilst living with Roberts during COVID (GoFundMe)

Investigators say that Mr Roberts soon topped communication with Ms Buckner on the phone after nine months of consistent texting.

He also allegedly kept her phone, drove her car and never reported her missing.

Prosecutors say that on 30 August FBI officers started to surveil Mr Roberts, and witnessed carpets being removed from his house.

When investigators interviewed him and told him that Ms Buckner was dead, he allegedly claimed he did not know what happened to her and said it was probably suicide.

Mr Roberts has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California.
A 30-year-old man is accused of kidnapping a woman after test-driving the vehicle she was selling in Arizona, police said.

The woman met up with the man at about midnight Oct. 3 at a business near 17600 N. Cave Creek Road, according to a statement from the Phoenix Police Department.

As he was test-driving her vehicle, she became fearful and wanted to get out of the vehicle, but he wouldnt let her, police said.

Police said he continued to drive her vehicle for about an hour without letting her out.

Then he dropped her off at the place they had originally met, and he left in her vehicle, police said.

Authorities arrested the man on multiple charges, including kidnapping, police said.

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A man was convicted and sentenced Monday to jail time and probation for vandalizing downtown Sacramento buildings with graffiti, including one incident that caused more than $36,000 in damages, according to the Sacramento County District Attorneys Office.

Scott Howard Smith, 24, pleaded no contest in Sacramento Superior Court to two charges of felony vandalism and received one year in jail and two years of probation, according to a District Attorneys Office news release.

The terms of the sentence include: Smith must not have materials related to tagging; he cannot associate with any taggers; he must stay 300 yards away from the places he vandalized; and he must abide by a curfew between 11:30 p.m. and 6 a.m., the new release said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is investigating an officer-involved shooting in Clayton County.

The Clayton County Police Department requested GBI to conduct an independent investigation on Sunday after one man was shot and later died.

No officers were injured during the incident.

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According to the GBI, a Clayton County police officer was near Kendrick Road in Jonesboro when he saw a man, later identified as Richard Preston Johnson, 35, of McDonough, motioning his hand toward the officer as if he were pointing a gun at him.

The officer began to approach Johnson, but he ran away.

The officer chased Johnson behind a home, where police said Johnson took out a handgun and pointed it at the officer.

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The officer then shot Johnson.

Johnson was taken to Southern Regional Hospital where he died.

The investigation is active and ongoing.

Once it is complete, the case file will be given to the Clayton Judicial Circuit District Attorneys Office for review.

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LAKEVILLE  The Lakeville Police Dept. has released body-worn camera footage from the officer-involved shooting that took place early Friday morning, Sept. 29, and has released the suspect's name, reports Chief Matthew Perkins.

Police said the Lakeville officer was monitoring traffic from his parked cruiser at 3:45 a.m. at the intersection of Pickens Street and Precinct Street.

A vehicle stopped on Pickens Street, and a man exited the vehicle, approached the officer's car, and pointed what appeared to be a gun at him.

The video begins as the Lakeville officer activates his body-worn camera while getting out of his cruiser and commanding the suspect to put down his weapon, according to a statement on the Lakeville Police Department website.

An officer walks up Precinct Street in Lakeville toward Pickens Street where a shooting involving an officer occurred Sept. 29. The pickup truck involved in the shooting can be see next to the street sign.

The suspect has been identified as Timothy Hladik, 45, of Lakeville, who is facing several charges. He was arraigned at St. Lukes Hospital in New Bedford on Monday, Oct. 2.

What police say happened during the confrontation

Hladik allegedly approached the officer and confronted him, displaying what appeared to be a handgun. The officer drew his service weapon, got out of the cruiser and retreated behind his cruiser, and ordered Hladik to drop the weapon multiple times, according to the police statement. Hladik did not comply.

During the confrontation, an off-duty Massachusetts state trooper, who had graduated from the Academy in August, was driving by and stopped to render assistance to the officer.

During the exchange, Hladik repeatedly used threatening language, and then allegedly took an aggressive stance and raised the weapon, according to the statement.

Police shot man in Lakeville: What we know about the reported confrontation

What does the police body-worn camera show?

The tense chaotic video exchange that runs 2 minutes and 15 seconds, includes the Lakeville officer repeatedly ordering the suspect to drop his gun. The suspect now identified as Hladik yells back and refuses to comply. It sounds like the suspect says during the exchange, "kill or be killed," and the suspect seems to be goading the officer. Multiple shots being fired can be heard.

Lakeville Police Chief Matthew Perkins describes the shooting during a press conference on Sept. 29.

What did the chief say at the press conference Friday?

At the press conference on Friday, Sept. 29, Perkins said, fearing for their safety, both officers fired, striking Hladik. The officers secured the suspects weapon, which was determined to be a replica gun, and immediately rendered emergency medical aid to the man.

What charges does Hladik face?

Hladik was charged with two counts each of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and threat to commit a crime, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office.

He was arraigned Monday from his bed at St. Luke's Hospital where he is recovering from the shooting. He is being held without bail until a dangerousness hearing on Oct. 12.

The police officers were placed on paid administrative leave and the service weapons of the officer and trooper have been taken as part of the investigation, as is standard procedure in any police-involved shooting, according to the police statement.

Warning - Graphic Footage: See the body-worn camera footage released by the Lakeville Police Dept.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Lakeville Police release body-cam video of Pickens Street shooting
A man who was stuck in the Clay County Detention Center waiting for a hospital bed to open up for more than a year and a half has been transferred to a state-operated mental health hospital just days after The Star highlighted his case.

Derrick Williams, 47, who has schizophrenia according to his attorney, was transported to Fulton State Hospital last Thursday, according to the Clay County Sheriffs Office. The Missouri Department of Mental Health operates the hospital, which is located about 25 miles southeast of Columbia.

The decision to transfer Williams out of jail and to a mental health facility came just four days after The Star revealed that he was was one of 253 people languishing in jails across Missouri who have been found unfit to stand trial but cant be sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment because of a shortage of beds and lack of staffing.

The story was part of The Stars Broken Government series, which investigates ways in which government has failed to work for residents of Missouri and Kansas, including people in jail with mental health issues.

While Williams was able to get transferred, there are still hundreds of people with mental health issues stuck in jail waiting to be placed in a state-operated mental health facility.

Williams had been in jail since January 2022 waiting for a hospital bed to open up. Both Williams mother and Clay County law enforcement pointed to The Stars coverage in the wake of the transfer.

Patricia Tatum, Williams mother who had been trying to get her son moved out of jail and to a hospital, thanked The Star for highlighting her sons story in a text to a reporter.

I want to thank you because Im convinced that you were instrumental in this move, Tatum wrote in the text message.

Sarah Boyd, a spokesperson for the Clay County Sheriffs Office, said in an email to The Star that Williams transfer was good news.

Thank you for shining a light on his case and the issue as a whole, she said in the email. A spokesperson for DMH said they could not confirm or deny Williams transfer due to HIPAA, which prohibits health care providers from disclosing certain information.

Williams had been in jail on charges of robbery and armed criminal action after allegedly stealing a belt from a Walmart in Clay County. A judge last year ruled that Williams was not competent enough to stand trial as a result of mental disease or defect and should receive treatment at a mental health facility.

The story revealed a crisis for individuals in jail with mental health issues. They are often stuck in limbo in which their legal cases cant progress until they get treated for their mental illness. And they cant get treatment until a spot opens up at a hospital.

Many individuals wait months, sometimes more than a year, to get moved to a hospital where they can get treatment. Their mental health deteriorates in the process, The Star found.
Trevor Beattie's school project will be taken into space with him

A man who dreamed as a schoolboy of going to space is about to get his wish and will take with him an old exercise book in which he correctly predicted he would one day leave the planet.

Businessman Trevor Beattie's school project will be there when he blasts off on board Virgin Galactic's latest space tourist mission.

He and a bunch of other "Herberts" had spent big for the privilege, he said.

But he added the boy he used to be would be with him for the ride.

Birmingham-born Mr Beattie, 64, an advertising executive, is due to take off from Spaceport America in New Mexico on Friday.

Under the seat of pilot Kelly Latimer will be Mr Beattie's old schoolwork, in which he left room decades ago to paste newspaper reports of his endeavours, so certain was he that he would go to space.

He first began looking to the stars when he was 11, having become obsessed with NASA's Apollo missions.

He said of his old exercise book from Moseley School of Art: "At the back of my school project, I've got a little kind of dotted rectangle where I'd planned to glue the tiny Birmingham Evening Mail article about 'Brummie lad goes to space', because I fully expected that by the time I was really old, 16 or 17, everyone would be going; it wouldn't be a big deal.

"Not only did I dream of it, I expected it," he added.

His Apollo hero Buzz Aldrin - whose signature adorns his old schoolwork - had been, he said, "rigorously chosen" by NASA.

"The big difference with Galactic is we're a self-selecting bunch of Herberts."

Mr Beattie will become the 667th human being to leave the planet. He said he bought a ticket 18 years ago "when it was considerably cheaper", although the trip was still costing "hundreds of thousands of pounds".

"That's the reality, I'm very proud of that," he explained.

"I was a poor kid, born at Brighton Road, Balsall Heath, and I'm standing in a spaceport in New Mexico and I'm going to space on Friday."

Mr Beattie will be one of three passengers on Virgin Galactic's latest flight

The school exercise book is not the only item that will accompany him.

Mr Beattie said he was taking others that were "very important".

Among them are a photograph of his parents Jack and Ada and a 100-year-old cheque signed by Orville Wright, who achieved the first powered flight, "as a tribute to those who got us there".

He said of his mum and dad: "They've been up there the past few years looking over me and perhaps I'll get a chance... you know."

A picture of Mr Beattie's parents Jack and Ada will accompany him

Mr Beattie is one of three passengers on the flight which is expected to take about two and a half hours.

"I asked one of the moon walkers to give me one piece of advice when I'm up there and he said 'look out of the window, son, look out of the window'.

"So I'm going to be doing a lot of looking out the window."

Trevor Beattie's old schoolwork left a space for a 'Brummie lad goes to space' article

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A man is accused of pretending to be a Cash App employee to sexually assault an international student he met while driving for Uber, Florida deputies said.

A 23-year-old man in Tampa was driving for the rideshare service Uber on Aug. 17 when an international student studying at a local university got into his car for a ride, according to an Oct. 3 release from the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office.

During the ride, the driver gave the woman his phone number, then installed the money transfer app Cash App onto her phone, the sheriffs office said.

A few days after the ride, the student started receiving text messages on her phone from someone claiming to be a Cash App employee, according to the release.

The messages said this employee was contacting her to enforce federal law, the sheriffs office said.

The employee told the student she needed to prove, with photos, that she was in a relationship with the driver in order for her to have his Cash App account on her phone, according to the release.

The messages said if she didnt prove she was in the relationship, she would lose her student visa, the sheriffs office said.

Fearful and coerced, the (student) arranged to meet with (the driver) to stage some photos, the sheriffs office said.

The two took photos together and sent the images to the Cash App employee, according to the release.

That person responded by saying the photos were not intimate enough to prove a relationship, the sheriffs office said.

Out of fear, the (student) undressed and was going to pretend to be intimate with (the driver), the sheriffs office said, however, he sexually assaulted her.

Investigators later learned the driver was the person sending the messages and he had pretended to be an employee of Cash App to sexually take advantage of her, according to the release.

The driver was charged with two counts of sexual battery by a person 18 years or older upon a victim 18 years or older, the sheriffs office said.

I am profoundly disturbed by the actions of an individual who, under the guise of authority, took advantage of an international students vulnerability, Sheriff Chad Chronister said in the release.

If you have experienced sexual assault and need someone to talk to, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline for support at 1-800-656-4673 or visit the hotline's online chatroom.

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A man who was wanted in a 2020 fatal shooting in Fort Worth was arrested at a U.S.-Mexico port of entry in El Paso, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a news release.

According to CBP, 47-year-old Jesus Javier Rios entered the U.S. using a fake name on Sept. 26, when he presented authorities with a Texas identification card at the Paso Del Norte port of entry.

CBP officers believed Rios was making a false claim of U.S. citizenship and escorted him to the secondary exam area for further processing, the release said.

It was determined Rios was not the cardholder, but was a suspect being sought in Fort Worth on an outstanding homicide charge.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by the Star-Telegram, Fort Worth police alleged that Rios fatally shot 34-year-old Fernando Mendoza in the face in February 2020. Mendoza was walking with his girlfriend in the 2400 block of Roosevelt Avenue that evening when Rios drove up to the couple and yelled at them, the warrant stated.

According to the Mendozas girlfriend, neither of them knew Rios.

An argument ensued between Mendoza and Rios, leading to Rios parking his vehicle and exiting the SUV with a gun, the arrest warrant said.

Rios pointed the gun at Mendozas face and said, just because when he pulled the trigger, Mendozas girlfriend told police.

Mendoza was taken to a hospital in critical condition and died four days later, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiners Office.

A woman who said she was dating Rios told police that they were on their way to Mexico after the shooting. Police later found the SUV Rios was driving at the time of the shooting, a .45-caliber handgun and several shell casings and bullets at Rios girlfriends house. Police said they also reviewed surveillance cameras from the shooting scene and identified his SUV.

Rios was taken into custody last week and turned over to the El Paso Police Department, the release said. He was booked into the El Paso County jail to await extradition.
The Bluewalker 3 satellite, prior to launch and in space. AST SpaceMobile

The Bluewalker 3 satellite now outshines nearly every star in the night sky.

The object's brightness could impede the study of the skies, according to a group of astronomers.

Astronomer Patrick Seitzer told Nature the night sky will be "irreversibly changed" if more satellites like it are launched.

A new satellite now outshines nearly every star in the night sky. With more such objects due to be launched soon, the night sky could be irreversibly changed, scientists warn.

This finding was part of a study published on Monday in the journal Nature.

According to the report, a group of astronomers found that the newly launched Bluewalker 3 satellite now outshines every celestial body in the night sky other than seven stars, the Moon, Jupiter, and Venus.

The study's authors  who observed Bluewalker 3 for 130 days  wrote that large constellations of bright and artificial satellites in low Earth orbit could impede the study of the skies.

The Bluewalker 3 satellite was launched in September last year by telecommunications company AST SpaceMobile  in collaboration with Vodafone, AT&T, and Nokia  and enables 5G connectivity between phones without the use of a cell tower.

Patrick Seitzer, an emeritus astronomer at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, told Nature that if more companies were to launch fleets of large satellites like AST SpaceMobile, "then the night sky will be irreversibly changed."

That's because the Bluewalker 3 satellite can be hundreds of times brighter than the maximum recommended level by the International Astronomical Union, a professional body of astronomers.

"These results demonstrate a continuing trend towards larger, brighter commercial satellites, which is of particular concern given the plans to launch many more in the coming years," wrote Siegfried Eggl, one of the study's co-authors and an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in a separate report.

AST SpaceMobile told Nature that it was working with NASA and astronomy groups to address the concerns raised in the study.

However, this isn't the first time scientists have sounded the alarm over satellites interfering with the study of space.

In March, scientists wrote in a series of articles for Nature that large fleets of satellites like the ones utilized by Elon Musk's SpaceX should be regulated to safeguard our ability to study the skies.

It's a long-running concern that dates back to 2019 when some scientists called attention to Starlink satellites having the potential to blot out the stars.

"While other constellations may require thousands of satellites to achieve their coverage goals  there could be as many as 58,000 in orbit by 2030, according to a recent US government report  we plan to provide substantial global coverage with around 90 satellites," an AST SpaceMobile spokesperson told Insider on Tuesday.

The study's authors did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment, sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Insider
The youth of today seems to have zero interest in joining the military and the military cant seem to figure out why that is. Theyve done studies, conducted polls and the Army even knows that Gen Z has some serious misconceptions about the military. Despite a $4 billion investment in marketing to Gen Z, the combined branches of the military will miss their recruiting goals by nearly 19,000 in 2023.

Many people in the military and in government believe the recruiting crisis is a serious national security risk, but the military itself just keeps falling short of reaching (or appealing to) Americans born after 1997  so-called Generation Z. But one Marine officer, a lieutenant and a member of that generation, has written a book detailing what he believes are problems and solutions, and presents research to back it up.

Lt. Matthew Weiss took it upon himself to research and write  We Don't Want You, Uncle Sam: Examining the Military Recruiting Crisis with Generation Z ." As a member of Gen Z with a background working for the defense technology firm Anduril Industries, he saw how companies jockey to attract and retain young talent coming from anywhere in the country. He also earned a bachelors degree and masters degree from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School before joining the Corps .

Most importantly, the military was able to attract him, a talented, educated 25-year-old man who could have done anything. Knowing why he, a member of the militarys key target demographic, decided to join the Marine Corps is probably the most unique insight of all.

Weiss breaks down what he believes are 21 key issues across four distinct areas that are the core problems keeping Gen Z and the military apart. He then backs up his reasoning with painstaking research with "the intention of diagnosing and solving a real and serious issue facing our nation," he writes.

We Don't Want YOU, Uncle Sam: Examining the Military Recruiting Crisis with Generation Z book cover.

There are a few issues he addresses that other generations would expect about Gen Z, such as the power of social media influencers. The U.S. military, he says, can counter that with influencers of their own. Another sticking point is the military pay structure: everyone gets paid the same regardless of performance. This is a generation that watches peers gain followers and influence (and thus more money) through performance. The military, he says, could introduce performance bonus pay.

On the other hand, there are problems and solutions that may not be as obvious, according to the book. These kinds of problems and solutions could be the key because the military is uniquely suited to address them. First off, Generation Z needs a calling, one they strive for and work toward. It needs to be larger than life, bigger than themselves.

What better place to answer that calling than the U.S. military?

Moreover, this is a generation that is constantly receiving updates, pings and dings from their phone. Its beginning to have a negative effect on them, and they crave time away from the screens and sounds of their daily life to go out and do something unplugged and reset. The military can offer this time spent doing real-world responsibility-bearing activities like no other institution, so all is not lost.

For a full rundown on what the United States military can do to appeal to its youngest generation of military-age Americans, check out  We Don't Want You, Uncle Sam: Examining the Military Recruiting Crisis with Generation Z   on sale now in both paperback and on Amazon Kindle e-readers.
MARION, Kan.  The Marion Police Department Chief of Police Gideon Cody resigned effective immediately at the city council meeting held Monday.

Zach Hudlin, an officer with the MPD, will take his place.

Audit: Missing money, questionable purchases at Missouri sheriffs office

Cody was suspended on Thursday. His suspension came amid a controversial raid at the Marion County Record, the citys newspaper, as well as two other locations, in August.

On Aug. 11, law enforcement raided the Marion County Record and seized computers, cell phones, and other devices on a search warrant that was withdrawn a few days later.

The warrant was signed by a magistrate judge about two hours before the raid took place. Police alleged in the warrant there was suspicion of identity theft by one of the Records reporters.

According to the Records publisher, Eric Meyer, there were questions about a story one week before the police came into his business. His newspaper notified the sheriff and the police chief that theyd obtained documents from the state that a local restaurant owner, Kari Newell, had driven on a suspended license after getting a DUI.

The Marion County Record told law enforcement they had no plans to publish the information in a story, but one week later, police came into the building and seized equipment, according to Meyer. They also went into his home, Meyer said.

Kansas news: Headlines from Wichita, Topeka and around the Sunflower State

The co-owner of the newspaper, Joan Meyer, who is also Erics mother, died a day after the raid into her home.

On Aug. 16, Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey said his review of police seizures from the Marion County Record found insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized.

After the items were returned, a judge ordered authorities to destroy all electronic copies they made of the newspapers files.

Debbie Gruver, a reporter for the Marion County Record, filed a lawsuit on Aug. 30 against Cody in connection to the raid.

After the raid, the Marion County Police Department and the Marion County Attorney asked the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to take over the investigation into alleged illegal access of records.

KSN will provide more information as it becomes available.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
The Marion, Kansas, police chief who ordered a widely-condemned law enforcement raid on a local newspaper and its publishers home this summer has resigned, the citys mayor said.

Marion Police Department Chief Gideon Cody resigned on Monday, Mayor David Mayfield told CNN, but declined to comment further, calling it a personal matter.

Officer Zach Hudlin has been appointed as Marions acting police chief, the mayor said. Hudlin was present during the raid of the Marion County Record and seized items from the newspaper, including a reporters cell phone, according to a copy of the search warrant.

CNN has reached out to Hudlin for comment.

The Kansas Peace Officers Association did not immediately respond to CNNs request for comment on Codys resignation.

The chiefs departure comes after he was suspended last week as an investigation into the raid continues.

In August, officers searched the office of the Marion County Record, as well as the home of the papers publisher and a county councilwoman, seizing reporters cell phones and computers, among other items. The move drew widespread criticism from news organizations and press freedom advocates.

The papers publisher, Eric Meyer, has said he believes the raid in Marion  about 60 miles north of Wichita  was prompted by a story about a local restaurant owner. But authorities said they were investigating what they called identity theft in a search warrant.

Cody at the time suggested the raids were based on the belief that a reporter unlawfully obtained the driving records of the restaurant owner before the paper published a story about her, according to unredacted affidavits obtained by CNN.

But less than a week after the raids, Marion Countys top prosecutor Joel Ensey withdrew the search warrants and asked authorities to return the seized materials, saying insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized.

The former police chief is also facing a federal lawsuit filed by Marion County Record reporter Debbie Gruver, who accuses Cody of violating her constitutional rights by obtaining an unreasonable and unlawful search warrant and seizing her personal property, according to the complaint.

The suit alleges Cody targeted Gruver because he knew she had been investigating allegations of misconduct against the chief during his time working for the Kansas City Police Department, although the newspaper has not published those allegations.

In addition to having her computer seized, Gruver says Cody seized her personal cell phone, which the suit argues did not fall under the scope of the warrant. Cody at the time did not respond to requests for comment from CNN.

Its not just the police chief who has faced backlash over the raids.

Judge Laura Viar, who signed off on a search warrant authorizing the searches, is facing a complaint about her decision and has been asked by a judicial body to respond, records shared with CNN by the complainant show.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is now the lead law enforcement agency looking into the police raids of Meyers office and the home, the bureau previously told CNN.

CNNs Raja Razek, Whitney Wild, Elizabeth Wolfe and Andy Rose contributed to this report.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Then-Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas in Leimert Park in 2020, before his election to the L.A. City Council. He was convicted this year on federal corruption charges. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

Mark Ridley-Thomas was once one of Los Angeles County's most powerful politicians, with an undefeated record at the ballot box over three decades and a legion of allies across the state.

Then Ridley-Thomas, 68, was convicted in the spring on federal corruption charges. He now carries the federal Bureau of Prisons registration number 72570-509. He is due to surrender to U.S. marshals on Nov. 13 to begin serving 3 years behind bars.

On Monday, Ridley-Thomas sought to delay his prison sentence while he fights to clear his name. He filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer to allow him to remain free on bail while appealing his conviction before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Dr. Ridley-Thomas faithfully observed the conditions of his bail for nearly two years while awaiting a decision from the jury," his lawyers wrote in the 48-page motion. "The same would be true pending a decision on appeal."

Although Ridley-Thomas has assembled a new legal team, including UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Paul Watford, a former judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, this motion was filed by the same defense attorneys at Morrison & Foerster LLP who represented him during his criminal trial.

By any measure, the motion is a long shot, as it is before Fischer  the same judge who presided over Ridley-Thomas' trial and sentenced him to prison for 42 months. But the motion kicks off an appellate process that could last years. Defense lawyers requested an Oct. 30 hearing. If Fischer denies the motion, Ridley-Thomas will likely appeal that ruling.

The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, headed by Martin Estrada, an appointee of President Biden, did not comment on the new filing.

To obtain bail pending appeal, Ridley-Thomas must show that his appeal raises a substantial question of law or fact that is likely to result in the conviction being overturned or a new trial granted.

In their filing, defense attorneys asserted more than a dozen such questions of law or fact in Ridley-Thomas' trial, starting with the process of selecting jurors who ultimately convicted him of bribery, conspiracy and one count of honest services mail and four counts of honest services wire fraud. The jury also acquitted the former lawmaker of 12 counts of honest services fraud.

Defense attorneys contend that during the jury selection process, prosecutors "disparately questioned Black jurors, particularly Black women jurors," and asked Black jurors open-ended questions seemingly designed to provide "pretextual reasons" for ousting them from the panel. Half of the potential jurors whom prosecutors opted to eliminate were Black, "including all the Black female jurors," the defense noted.

Even the judge appeared concerned by the prosecutors' decision to eliminate some jurors, Ridley-Thomas' lawyers suggest, with Fischer remarking, "Why are you trying to build error into this case?"

Defense lawyers argue that when they alleged prejudice against the two prospective Black female jurors, Fischer erred in not fully analyzing the facts before determining there was no purposeful discrimination.

The defense team also zeroed in on the instructions provided to the jurors during their deliberations. They argued that there were substantial legal issues over the presence  or absence  of certain verbiage that shaped how jurors evaluated the case and arrived at their verdict.

Read more: Column: Mark Ridley-Thomas is going to prison. But dont expect him to lose public support

The motion also restates arguments that defense attorneys made as part of their unsuccessful effort to seek a new trial or secure an acquittal. Among them: that the "official act" required to prove honest services fraud was not actually an official act under the law  since it occurred when Ridley-Thomas, as a member of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, voted on a so-called consent calendar, when several noncontroversial items are grouped together and approved as a package.

"It was the governments burden to establish that failing to object to an Item passing on the consent calendar could constitute an official act, not Dr. Ridley-Thomass burden to prove that it couldnt," his defense team wrote.

Fischer had previously scoffed at the argument that a consent calendar vote was not actually a vote. She had ruled that there was "no reason to conclude that a vote on a non-controversial matter through a streamlined parliamentary process should count as less of an official act than any other vote by a public official."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Renton Police detectives are looking for information after a Boeing security officers car was hit by gunfire Sunday night.

The guard told police he began following a red pickup that was driving slowly and weaving through traffic, thinking the driver may have been impaired.

At around 11:30 p.m., the security officer stopped following the truck and turned around at Main Avenue South and South Grady Way to return to the Renton Boeing plant.

It was then that four masked men in a silver Hyundai blocked him in and shot at his car, according to Renton Police.

The victim was not hurt, but his car was struck by the gunfire.

Renton officers found several bullet casings at the scene.

Police believe the suspects more than likely are talking about it and bragging about what they did, and are asking anyone with information to reach out.

You need to trust your gut. If something tells you its not right. Its probably not. Do not hesitate to call 911 thats why were here, said Communication Manager for Renton Police Department, Meeghan Black. Pay attention to your surroundings. Use good sense. Dont take unnecessary risks, and dont hesitate to call 911.

If you know anything about this shooting, youre asked to email Sgt. Bill Judd at bjudd@rentonwa.gov and reference case #23-11258.
Dennis Maher, 63, was one of the Massachusetts residents who benefited from the work of the New England Innocence Project. The group is advocating for the passage of a trio of bills that would benefit the erroneously incarcerated. Proponents gathered on the State House steps Monday to support their passage.

When Dennis Maher was released from prison in 2003 after spending more than 19 years incarcerated for a crime he was innocent of, he didnt know how to work a smartphone or log into the internet from a home computer.

Maher, 63, said he didnt know how to talk with people and was surprised to learn that his license had been suspended due to a decades-old speeding ticket he had failed to pay.

Just learning how to function in society was a learning process for the diesel mechanic, who had been serving in the U.S. military at the time of his arrest and conviction on rape charges.

A trio of bills aimed at offering immediate financial assistance, social and educational services to exonerated people who were convicted of crimes and imprisoned wrongfully, as well as lifting the $1 million cap for restitution, were the subject of a rally to celebrate Wrongful Conviction Day Monday in the Massachusetts Statehouse. The bills are currently before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.

The bills, filed by Sen. Patricia Jehlen, D-Somerville, with companion House bills filed by Rep. Christopher Worrell, D-Boston, are supported by the New England Innocence Project and formerly incarcerated Massachusetts residents.

Jehlen said she has been working with the Innocence Project for years and is seeking to ensure the wrongfully convicted can find their way to a productive life. She said the organization and its work touches her deeply.

Erroneous incarcerated, Dennis Maher of Billerica is supported by proponents of a trio of bills Monday that are designed to help ease them back into society and teach them the skills needed to survive in a changed world.

One measure would immediately pay victims of erroneous felony convictions a $5,000 stipend upon their release from incarceration. That first stipend could help ease their transition into modern society. The bills would also clarify which social services and aid programs they could access to address their physical, social and emotional needs including financial literacy training. The bill also would waive tuition and fees at the states public colleges and universities, including the flagship UMass Amherst and its satellite campuses.

Records pertaining to wrongful conviction could be sealed

Victims could also request their records be expunged or sealed to protect their privacy. The option could be provided for those people who can prove their innocence, even if their convictions were vacated on other grounds.

Maher, who was arrested and charged with a series of sexual assaults that occurred in 1984  two in Lowell and one in Ayer  was convicted based on circumstantial evidence including clothing and eyewitness identification by the victims. However DNA evidence that could have exonerated him, although available in at least one of the attacks, was not introduced at trial.

In 1993, Maher wrote to the national Innocence Project, which tried to access the biological evidence from his trials. His case was transferred to the New England organization and languished until a law student found two boxes of evidence from the Lowell case in the basement of the Middlesex County Courthouse. Included in the boxes was clothing from one of the victims. The items were sent to the Forensic Science Associates for testing.

The results were exculpatory.

Maher, who speaks at colleges, universities and at high schools, was released April 3, 2003. He believes the bills and the immediate stipend could have helped him and others ease into society.

These bills would allow people to get along with their lives, do something with their lives, instead of being stagnant, Maher said.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Mass. bills aim to help wrongfully convicted
A 35-year-old Massillon man is facing three criminal charges, accused of leading police on a three-mile chase that reached speeds up to 100 mph and ended with a crash at Alabama Avenue in Tuscarawas Township.

Massillon police Lt. Nicholas Antonides said the incident began just before 10 p.m. Monday when officers tried to serve the suspect with a domestic violence warrant as he was seated in a vehicle in a parking lot in the 3200 block of Lincoln Way W.

Antonides gave this account of what happened next:

Officers approached the vehicle and activated their cruiser's overhead lights in an attempt to make an arrest. The vehicle immediately fled and traveled west on Lincoln Way W. The vehicle traveled three miles, reaching speeds of 100 mph. Once the suspect's vehicle crossed Alabama Avenue, it veered off the road into a cornfield, where it crashed.

The suspect left the wrecked vehicle on foot toward a wooded area southwest of the intersection of Alabama and Lincoln Street. Officers, including police dog Loki, chased and tracked the suspect to the tree line.

Police chase in Stark County: Police chase stolen vehicle from Massillon to Canton Township

Officers called for the North Lawrence Fire Department to treat a passenger who had been in the vehicle with the suspect. The passenger, a 38-year-old Massillon woman, was taken to a hospital. She was released after treatment.

No officers were injured in the pursuit, which lasted just over two minutes.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol responded to handle the crash. The Stark County Sheriffs Office responded with a drone to search for the suspect.

The suspect was later found in the woods and arrested. The Lawrence Township Fire Department treated him at the scene for injuries.

In addition to the initial felony domestic violence charge, the suspect was charged in Massillon Municipal Court with failure to comply with an order or signal of police officer and obstructing official business.

Reach Nancy at 330-580-8382 or nancy.molnar@cantonrep.com.

On X, formerly known as Twitter: @nmolnarTR

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Massillon man leads police on 100 mph chase, ends in crash
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told reporters he was confident he had enough votes to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, or to force him to cut a deal with Democrats to stay in his post. (Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images)

Rep. Matt Gaetz moved late Monday to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House. He has said the Bakersfield Republican had betrayed the GOP by reaching a deal with Democrats over the weekend to avert  for now  a government shutdown.

Under current rules, any House member may force a vote to remove the speaker. Gaetz (R-Fla.) filed such a motion Monday evening. Chamber rules require McCarthy to act on Gaetz's motion within two days. A simple majority vote can remove him from the speakership.

The outcome of any vote to remove McCarthy remains uncertain and will depend on whether other Republicans vote against him. He can afford to lose only a handful of Republican votes, assuming all Democrats vote against him.

Speaking on steps of the U.S. Capitol, Gaetz said he has enough votes to either remove McCarthy as speaker or force him to cut a deal with Democrats to survive. "Im at peace with either result because the American people deserve to know who governs them," Gaetz told reporters.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), shown at an earlier news conference, has been repeatedly hamstrung by the conservative flank of his party. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Shortly after Gaetz filed, McCarthy tweeted, "Bring it on."

Gaetz replied, "Just did."

Ever since becoming speaker with a narrow majority, McCarthy has been hamstrung by the conservative wing of his party, showcasing his weakness as a leader. He's repeatedly failed to unify his party and has repeatedly turned to Democrats to bail him out of crises. In May, a minority of Republicans and a majority of Democrats voted to back McCarthy's deal with President Biden, which suspended the nation's debt limit in order to avoid the cataclysmic economic fallout of a debt default.

In September, a handful of Republicans repeatedly blocked multiple spending bills McCarthy had hoped to pass to keep the federal government open. The speaker had aimed to present a united Republican front to the Biden administration and the Democratic-controlled Senate in order to boost his party's position in shutdown negotiations. Gaetz and his allies made that impossible.

Read more: News Analysis: Kevin McCarthy avoided a government shutdown. But the fiasco shows he's weaker than ever

At the last minute, McCarthy relied on Democratic votes to send the upper chamber a bipartisan stopgap measure that extended government funding through mid-November. The legislation did not include military aid for Ukraine, a key sticking point for some Republicans whose constituents are growing increasingly worried about the United States' repeated investment in Ukraine's war with Russia.

Biden in August asked Congress to send Ukraine an additional $24 billion in aid, saying Kyiv risked defeat if military funding lapsed. Biden and House Democratic leadership said they expected McCarthy to keep his commitment to Ukraine.

In a Monday floor speech, Gaetz alleged McCarthy inked a "secret side deal" with Democrats to hold a House vote on Ukraine funding in exchange for getting enough votes to prevent a shutdown. McCarthy denied making any deals with Democrats, saying he hasn't spoken with Biden for months.

McCarthy's hold on the speakership has been tenuous from the start. He needed 15 tries to clinch enough Republican support to claim the speaker's gavel. In exchange for the support of far-right members, he agreed to restore chamber rules that make it easy for any lawmaker to force a vote to remove him from his post.

Because Republicans' House majority is so slim, even small groups of GOP lawmakers can vote with Democrats to prevent McCarthy from advancing his agenda. Hard-line House Republicans have used this leverage to force him to accede to various demands, including opening a formal impeachment inquiry into Biden.

The impeachment effort, championed by former President Trump, has been met with skepticism  not only from Democrats but also from legal experts and some Republicans, who say the GOP does not have hard evidence to prove high crimes and misdemeanors," the constitutional bar to remove Biden from the White House.

On Monday, as Gaetz threatened a coup, many GOP lawmakers publicly backed McCarthy. Hours before Gaetz filed his motion, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove) criticized his party's civil war, saying the "immediate effect will be to paralyze the House indefinitely" as the chamber is working to cut a deal with the Senate to fund the government beyond mid-November.

"The supreme irony is that this is being initiated by self-described conservatives," he said, alluding to Gaetz. "Do they honestly believe that when the Democrats side with them to remove a Republican speaker that they will then side with them to name a more conservative replacement? Of course not."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a far-right lawmaker and self-proclaimed friend of Gaetz, also said she would oppose ousting McCarthy. "Republicans need to get off the power trips, stop the absurd drama, remember who the enemy is, stop fighting with each other, and get serious about solving the problems that produce annual systemic failure," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

If Gaetz has the votes he claims to have, McCarthy will need Democrats to again bail him out.

Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) said he would not help the Republican leader.

"I'd love to see McCarthy gone," Gomez told The Times on Monday night. "I don't care who replaces him." Gomez said he would also block any attempt by McCarthy to delay a floor vote on his removal and would back his party's leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, for the speakership.

"Voting to save McCarthy means that you're OK with what he does," he said. "And I'm not OK with what he does."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Hard-right Republicans are making good on a threat to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as Rep. Matt Gaetz moved to oust him on Monday.

The motion came two days after McCarthy relied heavily on the votes of House Democrats on Saturday to pass a bill to extend government funding for 45 days to avert a shutdown. In fact, the measure had more Democrats supporting it than Republicans, with 90 GOP members voting against it, and just one Democrat opposing it.

"Declaring the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives to be vacant," Gaetz said on the House floor Monday night, announcing his resolution.

McCarthy confident he can survive ouster attempt

Since Gaetz announced his motion to vacate on the House floor, it is a privileged resolution, which means a vote on the matter must take place within two legislative days under House rules, though it could be tabled.

"Bring it on," McCarthy posted on social media after the resolution was introduced.



Gaetz has taunted McCarthy with the effort to remove him from the speakership for days.

"I think we need to rip off the Band-Aid. I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy," he told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.



In a floor speech earlier Monday, Gaetz criticized an alleged "secret side deal" between McCarthy and President Biden on Ukraine. Gaetz is vehemently opposed to the U.S. providing more aid to Ukraine, while McCarthy has said he supports it.

"It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the House already works for and it's not the Republican conference," Gaetz said, demanding answers from McCarthy.

"Members of the Republican Party might vote differently on a motion to vacate if they heard what the speaker had to share with us about his secret side deal with Joe Biden on Ukraine."

In an interview with "Face the Nation" Sunday, the California Republican was confident that he'll keep his job, saying Gaetz's objection to him as speaker is "personal."



"I'll survive," he said. "Let's get over with it. Let's start governing. If he's upset because he tried to push us into a shutdown, and I made sure government didn't shut down, then let's have that talk."

How would McCarthy be removed?

Thanks to a deal McCarthy cut in January to become speaker (which still took 15 ballots), a single member of the House may force a vote to oust him. The ability of a single House lawmaker to force a vote was a key sticking point for some of the Republicans who opposed McCarthy's bid for speaker.

However, their insistence on changing the rule only restored it to what it had been before Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California was elected speaker in 2019. Under Pelosi, a motion to vacate could be offered on the House floor only if a majority of either party agreed to it. Before that rule change, a single member could move for a vote to unseat the speaker.

But there is no clear successor to McCarthy yet, even if his detractors succeed in ousting him. Republicans hold a slim majority in the lower chamber, and will likely struggle to find a House Republican who can satisfy both the right-wing and moderate members of the party.

Gaetz would need a simple majority to oust McCarthy, meaning he would likely need Democrats to vote with him. At least one has said she would.

"Would I cast that vote? Absolutely. Absolutely," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. "I think Kevin McCarthy is a very weak speaker. He clearly has lost control of his caucus."

In voting for speaker of the House, the vast majority of lawmakers support someone from their own party, so it would not be surprising if more Democrats supported Gaetz's motion.

But Gaetz told CNN on Sunday he has "enough" Republican votes that McCarthy could soon be "serving at the pleasure of the Democrats" if he remains speaker, suggesting that some Democrats might vote to keep McCarthy in place, in favor of a farther right candidate.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Pennsylvania on the moderate House Problem Solvers Caucus, criticized the attempt to oust McCarthy.

"Are we going to reward bipartisan bills being put on the floor or are we going to punish them? That is a choice," Fitzpatrick told "Face the Nation" on Sunday, saying he would vote to table any such effort. "I don't think that sends the right message. What we need to do is encourage bipartisanship."

If Gaetz continues to bring a motion to vacate, Fitzpatrick said the rules should be changed.

"This cannot be the trajectory for the remainder of the Congress  90%-plus of the American public does not want us to be voting on a motion to vacate every day for the rest of the term," he said.

Gaetz told reporters Monday he would keep trying to oust McCarthy if the first vote fails.

"It took Speaker McCarthy 15 votes to become the speaker," Gaetz said, referring to the long path McCarthy took in January to become speaker. "So until I get to 14 or 15, I don't think I'm being any more dilatory than he was."

History of motions to vacate

There have been three motions to vacate the chair, and none resulted in the removal of the speaker.



In 2019, then-Rep. Ralph Abraham introduced a resolution to expel then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and declare the Office of the Speaker vacant. The measure was referred to the House Committee on Ethics and the House Committee on Rules, and went nowhere.

In 2015, then-Rep. Mark Meadows filed a motion to vacate against then-House Speaker John Boehner. But Meadows did not file his motion to vacate the chair as a privileged resolution, so it was referred to the Rules Committee, and no action was taken on it. Still, within two months, Boehner resigned.

Before that, the only other motion to vacate occurred in 1910, when Republican House Speaker Joe Cannon himself invited a vote on his ouster. In reaction to a vote that had just resulted in his removal from the chairmanship of the House Rules Committee, Cannon challenged the coalition of Democrats and Republican Progressives who had voted against him to introduce a motion to vacate the chair.

"The speaker will at this moment, or at any other time while he remains speaker, entertain, in conformity with the highest constitutional privilege, a motion by any member to vacate the office of the speakership and choose a new speaker," Cannon said. "And, under existing conditions would welcome such action upon the part of the actual majority of the House, so that power and responsibility may rest with the Democratic and insurgent members who, by the last vote, evidently constitute a majority of this House. The chair is now ready to entertain such motion."

Rep. Albert Burleson, Democrat of Texas, obliged and introduced a motion to vacate that was easily defeated. Cannon remained speaker for another year, until he lost his seat in the 1912 election.

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Rep. Gaetz says he will file a motion this week to oust Speaker McCarthy

House advances motion to remove McCarthy as speaker, setting up historic vote
Rep. Matt Gaetz says the Democratic Party can adopt House Speaker Kevin McCarthy if they so wish.

"If the Democrats want to own Kevin McCarthy, they can have him," Gaetz told the media on Monday.

Gaetz had earlier filed a motion to remove McCarthy from the speakers' seat.

Rep. Matt Gaetz says the Democratic Party is welcome to adopt Kevin McCarthy if they want to.

"If the Democrats want to own Kevin McCarthy, they can have him," Gaetz told journalists on Monday night after filing his motion to remove McCarthy.

"Because one thing I'm at peace with is when we stand here a week from now, I won't own Kevin McCarthy anymore. He won't belong to me," Gaetz added. "So if the Democrats wanna adopt him, they can adopt him."

Gaetz's motion to vacate came after the Florida Republican repeatedly threatened to oust McCarthy from the speakership and accused him of backtracking on conservative reforms.

The feud between the pair goes back to January, before McCarthy even secured the speakership. At the time, Gaetz and other GOP holdouts vehemently opposed McCarthy's nomination. This led to a protracted battle in the House, where McCarthy had to sit through 15 rounds of voting before finally getting the votes.

This victory did come at a price: McCarthy made several concessions to the GOP holdouts. It included a change in House rules where any member could call a snap vote to remove McCarthy, which Gaetz is making full use of now.

According to the challenge's rules, McCarthy has two days to address the House. And for his part, McCarthy has remained defiant in the face of Gaetz's motion to vacate.

"Bring it on," McCarthy wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday night.

"Just did," Gaetz replied.

Representatives for Gaetz and McCarthy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The 1975s Matty Healy has apologised for hurting some people with his recent controversial actions.

In recent months, the 34-year-old musician has faced criticism for a variety of actions, from shutting down a Malaysian music festival to making racist jokes about the rapper Ice Spice.

During the indie rock bands show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California, on Monday (2 October), Healy pledged to do better.

Because some of my actions have hurt some people, I apologise to those people, and I pledge to do better moving forward, he said in footage shared on X/Twitter.

I think its also important that I express my intentions, so everybody knows that there is no ill will coming from me. You see, as an artist, I want to create an environment for myself to perform where not everything that I do is taken literally, he continued.

Ive kind of performed exaggerated versions of myself on other stages, be it [in] print or on podcasts and in an often misguided attempt at fulfilling the kind of character role of the 21st-century rock star, he said. So, its complicated.

Sometimes playing pretend is the only way you can truly find out who you are, and you could probably also say that men would rather do offensive impressions for attention than go to therapy.

Matty Healy of The 1975 (Getty Images)

In February this year, The 1975 frontman attracted widespread criticism for remarks he made about Bronx rapper Ice Spice during an episode of the Adam Friedland podcast.

At one point in the podcast, which was pulled from both Apple and Spotify, Healy, Friedland and comedian Nick Mullen appeared to confuse and joke about the Princess Diana stars heritage by referring to her as Inuit and Chinese, imitating and mocking the accents of each.

Mullen called the Princess Diana rapper an Inuit Spice Girl and a chubby Chinese lady.

The group also made a number of derogatory comments about women during the interview.

Ice Spice has since reacted to the comments, saying she was so confused while adding that Healy has apologised to her on a number of occasions. Were good, she said.

Last month, Healy found himself in hot water again when he deactivated his X/Twitter account after making an ableist joke in connection to the indie supergroup, Boygenius.

In August, Healys band was ordered to pay 2m in damages for allegedly breaking contract terms during their controversial show in Malaysia.

The 1975s July performance at Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur was cut short when frontman Matt Healy kissed bassist Ross MacDonald while criticising the countrys anti-LGBT+ laws, under which homosexual acts are illegal.
(Bloomberg) -- Republican Kevin McCarthy lost a pivotal test vote Tuesday, demonstrating hardline conservatives have the power to soon end his tumultuous 10 months as House speaker.

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His political survival now hinges on whether he can build a last-minute alliance by offering hefty concessions to Democrats, who have refused to help him, or strike a deal with his conservative critics.

The 58-year-old veteran California politician, who navigated treacherous political cross-currents to avert a US debt default earlier this year and an Oct. 1 government shutdown, is now in danger of becoming the first US House speaker removed from his job.

The House Tuesday voted 218 to 208 to defeat a procedural maneuver by McCarthy and his allies to block a resolution introduced by conservative firebrand Matt Gaetz of Florida to oust the speaker. Eleven Republicans abandoned him.

A final vote on removing McCarthy could come within two days, unless McCarthy resigns first.

The prospects of his ouster injects further disarray in Washington. Moodys Investors Service, the only remaining major credit grader to give the US a top rating, warned in late September its confidence in the US is wavering because of concerns about governance.

Theres no obvious successor to unify the fractious party, a vacuum that comes as the US approaches a Nov. 17 deadline to keep the government open. A disruptive shutdown would send cascading effects across the US economy.

US aid to Ukraine, which has become a source of vitriol for GOP hardliners and was dropped from the short-term spending deal, hangs in the balance. So, too, do contentious battles over immigration and asylum policy, abortion rights and support for the poor.

Challenges Ahead

A determined political survivor, McCarthy still has a chance to stay in the post if he can make a deal with either opposition Democrats or some of the Republican dissidents.

Either option would be a formidable challenge.

House Democrats vented grievances against McCarthy in a closed-door party meeting Tuesday morning and emerged in no mood to bail him out. McCarthy, for his part, vowed publicly not to share power with the opposition party to gain their support.

House Democrats remain willing to find common ground on an enlightened path forward, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a letter to Democrats minutes before the vote. Unfortunately, our extreme Republican colleagues have shown no willingness to do the same.

Republican ultra-conservatives only conceded to McCarthys initial election as speaker in January after blocking him until the 15th round of voting.

Tensions between the speaker and hardliners escalated after he agreed to a bipartisan deal to raise the debt limit and prevent a US default. Gaetz cited as the final straw McCarthys decision to allow a vote Saturday on a last-minute bipartisan temporary funding plan that stopped an Oct. 1 government shutdown.

The last time the House even voted on removing a speaker was in 1910. In that case, then-Speaker Joseph Cannon survived the test.

--With assistance from Laura Litvan.

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Washington  The House on Tuesday voted 216 to 210 to remove California Republican Kevin McCarthy from his position as House speaker, a historic move that comes days after he reached an 11th-hour deal to avert a government shutdown with the help of House Democrats.

The ouster came after Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz acted Monday night to force a vote on a motion to vacate the office of the speaker, following through on a threat he made last week to take the gavel from the California Republican while the threat of a shutdown loomed.

While other speakers throughout history have stepped down after losing the support of their party, McCarthy is the first to be ousted through a vote of the full House in the middle of a congressional term.

"It's uncharted territory because we've never done that in the history of the United States," Matthew Green, a politics professor at Catholic University, told CBS News.

Who could replace Kevin McCarthy as the next speaker of the House? Republicans look for options

The unprecedented removal of a speaker in the middle of a congressional session has raised questions as to what will happen next and who will be selected to succeed McCarthy. While the situation is fluid and changing quickly, here's what we know so far:

What happens when the speaker of the House is removed?

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is surrounded by press and police on the way to the House chamber at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. / Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

The rules of the 118th Congress state that "in the case of a vacancy in the office of speaker, the next member" named on a list submitted by McCarthy to the clerk of the House in January will become speaker pro tempore until a speaker is elected. A House reading clerk announced immediately after the vote that Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina was the first name on McCarthy's list and therefore was appointed speaker pro tempore.

"Pending such election, the member acting as speaker pro tempore may exercise such authorities of the Office of Speaker as may be necessary and appropriate to that end," the rules state. The requirement of a list appears to have originated with the 108th Congress that convened in January 2003.

After the speaker pro tempore takes over, "presumably, the next order of business would be to choose a speaker," Green said. He pointed out that "it's unlikely the House would continue to operate as usual without a new speaker being selected."

In his first remarks as speaker pro tempore, McHenry announced that "the office of the speaker was rendered vacant pursuant to the adoption of House Resolution 757," and added that "prior to proceeding to the election of a speaker, it would be prudent to first recess for the relative caucus and conferences to meet and discuss the path forward."

He then declared the House in recess.

Who could be the next speaker of the House?

At this point, it's unclear who can garner enough support to win the gavel. McCarthy told Republican colleagues Tuesday night he will not run for speaker again.

By Wednesday, several names had emerged as possible successors to McCarthy, including Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma.

Jordan, the chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, announced he is running Wednesday morning, telling reporters at the Capitol that he had heard from "a lot" of members urging him to mount a bid.

Scalise announced his own bid later in the day, telling colleagues in a letter that he has "a proven track record of bringing together the diverse array of viewpoints within our Conference to build consensus where others thought it impossible."

Republicans have a narrow majority of 221 to 212, and McCarthy only managed to become speaker by making a series of concessions to the most conservative members. The full House votes to elect the speaker. If Republicans can't coalesce around a consensus candidate, Democrats could attempt to build a coalition with Republicans, Green said.

Unlike in January, when the House could not begin its work until a speaker was elected, McHenry will serve in the role temporarily until a new speaker wins the gavel.

Casey Burgat, an assistant professor at George Washington University, said it may be difficult to find a candidate to succeed McCarthy who can garner a consensus of support and who wants the gavel.

"It's hard enough as a leader, especially with a four-seat majority, but then you start having the infighting here," Burgat said. "It's also a pretty terrible job when no one is behind you consistently."

The Constitution doesn't specify that the speaker of the House must be a current member of the House, but it always has been, according to the office of the House historian. On Tuesday, Texas Rep. Troy Nehls said on social media that he will nominate former President Donald Trump for speaker. Trump is currently running for president and facing a total of 91 criminal counts in four different jurisdictions. He has also been appearing in New York state court this week for a trial in a civil fraud case brought by the New York attorney general.

How long could it take to elect a new speaker?

It's unclear how soon after McCarthy's ouster the Republican majority will begin the process for electing a successor. In January, when the 118th Congress convened and Republicans took power, it took 15 rounds of voting across four days for McCarthy to secure the support he needed to win the gavel.

His victory followed days of negotiating with the far-right members of the House Republican conference, and in order to win their backing, McCarthy agreed to a number of their demands. Chief among them was lowering the threshold for the motion to vacate, which allowed a single member to call for a vote to remove the speaker.

Like with the effort to oust McCarthy that played out Tuesday, Gaetz was at the center of the dispute over the California Republican's quest to win the speakership in the first place. He angered some of his Republican colleagues when he voted "present" on the 14th round, blocking McCarthy's bid and forcing another ballot.

Rep. Tom McClintock, a California Republican, warned that McCarthy's removal would bring the House to a standstill as lawmakers work to elect a new speaker.



"If this motion carries, the House will be paralyzed," McClintock said in remarks on the House floor. "We can expect week after week of fruitless ballots while no other business can be conducted."

Green said while some believe the speaker pro tempore could continue to preside over the House for legislative business, it would be difficult for Republicans to advance legislation without a speaker in place.

"The reality is that the Republicans look to the speaker for all kinds of things, like setting the agenda and negotiating between factions in order to figure out what comes to the floor," he said. "So without somebody in charge, it's hard to see the House Republicans being able to bring much to the floor in the first place."

Caitlin Yilek and Kathryn Watson contributed to this report.

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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) fired back at Rep. Matt Gaetz s (R-Fla.) motion to force a vote on ousting him from the Speakership, writing Bring it on on social media just minutes after the motion was filed.

Gaetz responded to McCarthy in a post on X, writing, Just did.

Gaetz filed a motion to vacate McCarthys Speakership on Monday night, making good on his long-promised threat. The move is not much of a surprise after Gaetz told CNN a day earlier he intended to file the motion this week, which comes after McCarthy backed a measure to prevent a government shutdown over the weekend that won broad bipartisan support.

McCarthy has appeared confident in his ability to fight Gaetzs efforts, telling reporters Monday morning that his support within the House GOP conference is very strong. On Sunday, McCarthy told CBS News he will survive, calling it something personal with the Florida lawmaker.

A motion to vacate the chair will have to take place within two legislative days, though its likely the House will first vote on a mechanism to kill or delay the motion instead of voting on the resolution itself.

The vote on Gaetzs motion would only need a few Republicans if Democrats join the effort. The minority party would generally be expected to back such a motion, but its not clear what Democrats will do in this case. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Sunday said Democrats should not do anything for free.

When pressed Sunday over how many Republicans he has behind him, Gaetz said he has enough that the only way McCarthy would be Speaker in a week is if Democrats backed him up.

The Florida Republican vowed not to back any deals with Democrats to keep McCarthy as Speaker, telling CNN anchor Jake Tapper, If Democrats want to own Kevin McCarthy by bailing him out, I cant stop them, but then hell be their Speaker, not mine.

Gaetz has long threatened to oust McCarthy. He opposed McCarthy during Januarys Speakership vote, withholding support through 15 ballots.

After exhausting options to pass a GOP-only stopgap plan, McCarthy rushed Saturday to roll out a bipartisan continuing resolution (CR), provoking the ire of hard-line House Republicans, including Gaetz.

The CR will fund the government at current spending levels through Nov. 17. The funding increases federal disaster assistance by $16 billion to meet the Biden administrations previous request, but it does not include any funding for Ukraine, a White House priority largely opposed by several GOP members.

The CR also lacks spending cuts or border policy changes, dealing a blow to hard-line conservatives who objected to any CR without such changes.

Despite the continued pushback from some GOP members, the measure was cleared by the House in a largely bipartisan 335-91 vote Saturday, with one Democrat and 90 Republicans voting in opposition. The bill then overwhelmingly passed in the Senate in an 88-9 vote, with nine Republicans opposing the bill.

President Biden signed the bill Saturday to fund the government through Nov. 17, emphasizing Congress now has plenty of time to pass government funding bills.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
(Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Kevin McCarthy s job was on a knifes edge Tuesday as Democratic leaders said they wouldnt help him stave off a Republican revolt.

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Tuesday shortly before a key test vote on the ouster effort that Democratic party leaders wouldnt vote to keep McCarthy as House Speaker.

It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War, Jeffries said in a message to fellow Democratic lawmakers.

According to a Republican aide close to GOP centrists, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, no Democrats have indicated they are willing to save McCarthy.

Democrats in private talks want what amounts to a form of power-sharing in return for helping McCarthy suppress the rebellion, seeking more authority on the Houses critical Rules Committee or more Democratic seats on other committees, a Republican leadership team member said.

But a defiant McCarthy, acknowledging he didnt know whether he had enough votes to keep his job, told reporters Tuesday morning he wouldnt agree to sharing power with Democrats.

That doesnt work, McCarthy said. Were in the majority. We dont surrender.

Agreeing to those Democratic demands would alienate the Republican rank-and-file, putting McCarthy in an impossible position, the member of Republican leadership said.

Democrats in an ebullient closed-door meeting vented against the speaker and emerged saying they are in no mood to bail him out. During the meeting, Democratic leaders showed a video of a McCarthy media appearance in which he accused Democrats of trying to shut down the government.

McCarthy is the source of the chaos we dont like, Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, said after the meeting. There was outrage.

Representative Jared Golden of Maine, one of the Houses most conservative Democrats, said in a statement he doesnt plan to help McCarthy.

I see no reason to vote for him, Golden said.

McCarthy plans to trigger a vote Tuesday to block the ouster attempt orchestrated by dissident conservative Republican Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida. As few as five ultra-conservatives could overthrow McCarthy unless Democrats help the speaker, either by providing some support or avoiding a vote, lowering the threshold the speaker needs to defeat the effort.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers met in separate closed-door party conferences Tuesday morning. Republicans leaving their meeting were vitriolic toward Gaetz.

Republican Representative Derrick Van Orden, a Wisconsin Republican, said he was tired of Gaetz demanding his own way in the House.

The vast, vast, vast majority of the conference will stand by the speaker, said Representative Andy Barr, a Kentucky Republican.

After stopping an effort by conservative Republicans to shut down the government over the weekend, McCarthy faces a motion to vacate, a rarely used procedural move that would force a vote on whether he can remain as speaker. Given the narrow Republican majority, a handful of defections from his own party would end his speakership.

Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania, said bipartisan talks are underway to raise the threshold of support needed to trigger a vote on removing the speaker.

Gaetz, a ferocious critic of the speaker, cited McCarthys bipartisan deal to avert a US government shutdown as the catalyst for his motion.

McCarthy on Tuesday stood by the bipartisan agreement to avert a shutdown and told reporters he believes hell survive Gaetzs maneuver.

Matt has planned this all along, the speaker said.

In an interview on MSNBC, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that Democrats would decide what to do as a group ahead of the vote.

This is a vote of conscience in many ways, and I am interested in hearing what every single member of the House Democratic family has to say on this issue, and then well come to a collective decision at the end, he said.

--With assistance from Ryan Teague Beckwith, Katherine Ackley Zeller, Zach C. Cohen, Maeve Sheehey and Jonathan Tamari.

(Updates with Jeffries letter beginning with second paragraph. An earlier version of this story corrected the party affiliation of Fitzpatrick)

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Kevin McCarthy could imminently lose the title of Speaker of the House, as a vote to be called on the issue Tuesday appears to have enough Republican support to pass the lower chamber.

As lawmakers emerged from caucus meetings and spoke to reporters Tuesday morning on Capitol Hill, two things quickly became clear: Mr McCarthy does not have the support of enough Republicans to prevent the election of a new speaker, nor has he offered Democrats anything they would consider sufficient to bail him out for the second time in a single week.

Speaking to reporters, Mr McCarthy conceded that an effort led by Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz likely had the support of at least five Republicans  enough to pass the measure.

If five Republicans go with Democrats, then Im out, Mr McCarthy said at a gaggle.

That looks likely, quipped a reporter in response.

Probably so, he acknowledged.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, meanwhile, informed journalists that he was advising members of his caucus to vote against Mr McCarthy as well as any effort to delay the votes.

The embattled House speaker is now facing an uncertain path ahead. He could choose to stand once again in the election to be called upon his ouster, and seek control of the GOP caucus once again by cutting deals with Republican hardliners  or simply through attrition, by forcing vote after vote until they give up.

Mr McCarthy could also choose to step aside and allow a moderate ally of his with more credibility and standing among the far right to take his place. Mr Gaetz has already floated Steve Scalise, the House majority whip, as one he could support.

What appears to be certain, however, is that Mr McCarthy will not erode his image further among House Republicans by cutting deals with Democrats to save his speakership. That had been floated as a likely possibility given that he had just done exactly that on Saturday to keep the government from shutting down, while a majority of his caucus voted against him.

Now, the future of House GOP leadership remains as unclear as it was in January, when Mr McCarthy ascended to the throne after repeated failed votes by the House Republican caucus to elect a speaker.

Mr Gaetz, for his part, has trashed the GOP leader in public interviews and private caucus meetings over going back on promises he made to Republican hardliners for deep spending cuts in January. His criticisms echo those of Joe Biden, who has similarly bashed the speaker for abandoning a different (and conflicting) pledge he had made with the White House.

Look, the one thing everybody has in common is that nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy, Mr Gaetz told CNN over the weekend. He lied to Biden, he lied to House conservatives. He had appropriators marking to a different number altogether. And the reason we were backed up against the shutdown politics is not a bug of the system. Its a feature.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) says hes pulling for Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to keep his job as Speaker, something that is now in serious doubt.

Im pulling for him, McConnell said when asked about McCarthys battle with about 10 House conservatives who want to boot him out of the leadership.

The House is expected to vote on whether to oust McCarthy from his position Tuesday afternoon. Earlier in the day, 11 Republicans voted with Democrats against an effort to effectively kill Rep. Matt Gaetzs (R-Fla.) motion to vacate.

McConnell has repeatedly thrown his support behind McCarthy this year, even though they have split over major policy and political questions.

McCarthy disappointed many senators this past weekend when he brought a stopgap funding bill to the House floor that did not include $6 billion for Ukraine.

McConnell is one of Congresss leading Republican advocates for supporting Ukraines war with Russia, but he said Saturday he would defer to the House on a bill to avoid a government shutdown.

The Senate GOP leader told reporters after the midterm election that he wanted McCarthy to become Speaker, declaring in December: Absolutely, Im pulling for Kevin.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
LOUISVILLE, Ky.  One of the most influential consulting firms in the world has agreed to pay millions of dollars to school districts across the country for harm and financial burdens stemming from America's opioid epidemic, court documents say.

Seven Kentucky school districts were among the 14 districts that made up the original plaintiffs of a class-action lawsuit taking aim at McKinsey and Co., a global consulting firm plaintiffs allege was responsible for pushing marketing guidance at multiple opioid manufacturing companies.

McKinsey's settlement includes a $23 million payment to a fund that school districts across the country can apply to and use for addiction recovery and mental health programs. McKinsey also agreed to pay $207 million to hundreds of local governments across the country.

The local municipalities and school districts alleged that McKinsey fueled an epidemic of opioid addiction through its work for bankrupt OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and other drug companies.

The September settlement marks the second time the consulting firm has been financially penalized for its work with opioid manufacturers.

In 2021, McKinsey reached a $573 million settlement with 47 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories. Of that, Kentucky was awarded $10.8 million. Those dollars were earmarked for opioid treatment, prevention and recovery programs.

Grocery giant's opioid settlement: Kroger to pay $1.2 billion in opioid settlement with states, cities

How will McKinsey's opioid settlement payout work?

Rather than dividing up the $23 million settlement among the country's 14,000 systems, the money will go into the Public School District Opioid Recovery Trust Agreement and individual school districts can apply for grants from the trust.

Christine Gagnon of Southington, Conn., protests with other family and friends who have lost loved ones to OxyContin and opioid overdoses at Purdue Pharma headquarters in Stamford, Conn., on Aug. 17, 2018.

Grants will be awarded to a "limited number of schools districts or school systems  in order to direct the limited settlement funds to School Districts where it can have the greatest impact," the settlement states.

What did McKinsey do to fuel the opioid epidemic?

Nearly 645,000 people died from an overdose involving an opioid between 1999 and 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2017 alone, the CDC estimated the epidemic had a $1 trillion economic toll on the country, with $11 billion attributed solely to Kentucky.

McKinsey's contributions to the country's increasing opioid use surfaced in documents related to its work with Purdue Pharma, which has long been associated with causing the country's epidemic and has repeatedly been found guilty of opioid-related crimes since 2007.

Documents unearthed in lawsuits against Purdue showed the extent in which McKinsey supported the manufacturer's pursuit to maximize their sales of the highly addictive painkiller, even as overdose deaths skyrocketed.

Those documents showed how the firm outlined ways to "turbocharge" the sale of the pills, highlighting several areas that could serve as an opportunity to increase sales. It also created prescriber profiles for 30,000 doctors to create individualized pitches from OxyContin sales reps.

The firm also told Purdue that it could band together with other opioid makers to head off strict treatment by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The Biden administration is moving to require patients to see a doctor in person before getting drugs to treat attention deficit disorders or addictive painkillers, toughening access to the medications against the backdrop of a deepening opioid crisis.

School districts sue McKinsey

School districts began filing suits against the McKinsey and Co. in May 2021. The suit filed on behalf of all Kentucky districts alleged the firm was the "primary architect" behind Purdue's "unlawful plan to sell more OxyContin by addicting more people."

The opioid crisis has created incredible challenges and unexpected cost for schools all across the country, Ronald Johnson, the attorney for Kentucky's school districts, said in a press release then.

The taxpayers have been footing the bill, and the teachers, and special education students, have been paying the price for the greed of those who callously enriched themselves at the expense of our children," Johnson said.

Opioid addiction caused a spike of kids with learning disabilities attributable to in-utero opioid exposure, the suit contended, leading to an uptick in Kentucky students needing special education services and supports  costing districts billions of dollars across the country.

Virginia 6-year-old who shot his teacher exposed flaws in how schools treat students with disabilities

The class-action suit was heard in the Northern District Court of California in San Francisco. In October 2022, the judge residing over the case sided with the plaintiffs and dismissed McKinsey's motion to dismiss the suit.

"McKinsey is more akin to an advertising agency that advised a manufacturer on how to sell boilers to residents of specific states, despite knowing that the boilers carried a significant risk of exploding," U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said. "There is no random or attenuated chain of contacts here. Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that McKinsey intentionally and purposefully directed contacts at the subject states for several years."

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: McKinsey opioid lawsuit settlement includes $23M for US schools
Paramount Pictures has released the full Mean Girls movie for fans to watch for free on TikTok.

In celebration of 3 October, dubbed Mean Girls Day by fans, the 2004 cult classic, starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams , has been released in its entirety across a total of 23 separate clips on TikTok.

The verified Mean Girls account  which made its first post nearly a month ago on 14 September to promote its availability on disc and digital  has a total of 47,000 followers at the time of writing.

Get in loser, were going shopping, reads the accounts bio, in reference to the films famous line.

Last month, the comedy was among several titles to be removed from Netflix. Its now available to stream on Paramount Plus and free to watch on YouTube with ads.

The fan-favourite teen comedy, featured Lohan as new girl Cady, who finds herself unwittingly joining the schools elite clique known as The Plastics.

Written by Tina Fey, the film has gone on to inspire the Mean Girls Broadway musical, which, in turn, is being adapted into a movie musical.

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The Sex Lives of College Girls breakout Renee Rapp will reprise her Broadway role as queen bee Regina George (originated by McAdams) in the film, which is expected to release in cinemas on 12 January 2024.

Angourie Rice, Jaquel Spivey and Aulii Cravalho will also star in the movie.

Meanwhile, it was also announced that the stage production will make its debut in the West Ends Savoy Theatre in 2024.

Were so excited to bring Mean Girls to London, where everyone already knows what Regina means, Fey, who also adapted the film for stage, said in a statement.

Producers Lorne Michaels and Sonia Friedman added: Mean Girls is a timeless comedy that for decades has connected with generations of audiences across the globe. Having worked together for several years on this production, we are immensely proud and excited to be bringing this stage musical, led by this incredible writing and creative team, to Londons Savoy Theatre.

David Ian, CEO of theatre producing company Crossroads Live, added that London audiences are in for a real treat.

The London stage cast is yet to be announced. Tickets will go on sale from 1 November and will be priced from 20. Fans can sign up for pre-sale access at www.MeanGirlsMusical.com.
Edgar Ordonez didnt plan to stay  much less open a restaurant  when he undertook a solo journey to the United States from his native Guatemala over 15 years ago.

His family was poor, like many in the Central American nation, farming vegetables to sustain themselves in the mountains along the border with El Salvador, he said. His parents, with the help of four brothers, a sister and him, raised corn and beans to buy what they couldnt produce.

Our house had a big field where my mom used to plant the cilantro, radish, cucumbers, Ordonez said. They farmed to live, to feed the family, and to sell, because that was the only way you can survive.

He had planned to return home once he made enough money to give his family a better life, he said, but I met a wonderful woman, who is my wife, and shes been the greatest wife and mother and friend.

Ordonez, 31, and his wife Beatriz Santillano have been married for almost eight years, living in Carrboro with their sons, ages 2 1/2 and 6, he said. Ordonez is now a permanent U.S. resident, working at Mediterranean Deli on West Franklin Street in Chapel Hill.

Next year, the family will embark on a culinary journey together, with the help of a few friends.

El Fogon, at 111 N. Roberson St., will have some tacos, authentic Mexican dishes ... because I want our customers, when they come, to feel like they are eating at home, Ordonez said. Were going to be making fresh food, fresh tortillas ... everything fresh.

A currently vacant house at the corner of West Rosemary and North Roberson streets in Chapel Hill is proposed for the new El Fogon Restaurante.

Chef rises from busboy to boss

Its scary to take the leap from working for someone else to cooking in your own restaurant, Ordonez said, but its the dream that he had after meeting his wife. His sons now inspire him to keep going, he said.

His first job in North Carolina was as a busboy at Southern Season. He didnt speak English, but worked his way up to dishwasher, then cook, until that job ended. He started washing dishes for Mediterranean Deli owner Jamil Kadoura, but he wanted to do more, Ordonez said, so he talked to Kadoura about moving to prep cook, then to baker and market employee, and finally to line cook.

Kadoura approached him about opening El Fogon after buying the house at the corner of North Roberson and West Rosemary streets in 2021.

Med Deli is a perfect school to learn if you want to open a business, Ordonez said. Every time when I talk to Jamil, he encourages me to (open a restaurant). He says, Im going to help you any way that I can.

New life for an old house

The 728-square-foot house at 111 N. Roberson St., built in 1942, has been vacant for several years and needs major renovations. They will replace the roof and floor, which could not be salvaged, and rebuild the front porch with an accessible ramp. A patio is planned for the front yard.

In December, the family will travel to Mexico  hes never been there before, Ordonez said  where his wife plans to shop for decorative touches.

They hope to open the restaurant by spring, with seating inside and out for about 40 people, Ordonez said. The patio tables will have large umbrellas for shade, and a gazebo bar is possible in the future.

I put all my savings in there  so it will be scary, because you dont know what is going to happen, Ordonez said, but like my boss tells me, you have to do it. I keep saying that to myself, too. Its not just for me. Its for my kids and to help the community, too, if I can.

Edgar Ordonez (right), his wife Beatris Santillano, and her parents Ismael Santillano-Carrillo (left) and Norma Lazaro (holding her grandson), will open El Fogon next year after making extensive renovations to a long-vacant rental house at 111 N. Roberson St.

Thats one of the good things he learned working for Kadoura, Ordonez said.

He tells us every single day that we are his family, not just his employees. I remember when COVID came, you saw most of the places, they let their employees go. He said, no, you guys are staying with me, he said.

Kadoura told them the same thing after a July fire gutted Med Deli. Hes carrying all of us, Ordonez said.

Its a mutual effort, said Kadoura, who called El Fogon a good concept that he wants to inspire. It will complement Brandweins Bagels next door, he said, and is also a nice fit with other small, local businesses that have transformed downtowns west end.

El Fogon is going to be an amazing place  I guarantee this  because I had that food many times when Edgar tried in the deli what they are going to serve and all this stuff, Kadoura said.

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Family flavors El Fogon menu

El Fogon, or the flame, is named for the fire that springs from the wood when ignited to cook and flavor the food, Ordonez said.

It will be an upscale taco restaurant, offering other authentic Mexican specialties and maybe a few from his native Guatemala, he said.

His wife, who was born in California, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, will work there, along with her father Ismael Santillano-Carrillo, who is a chef at the Rizzo Center in Chapel Hill and the source of many of El Fogons recipes.

Santillano-Carrillo and his wife, Norma Lazaro-Gutierrez, operated a food truck years ago at the former Johnnys Sporting Goods on West Main Street in Carrboro.

What makes a good taco is the sauce, and how you marinate the meat. How fresh you keep the meat, Ordonez said. My father in law, he makes good salsas.

Ismael Santillano-Carrillo and his wife Norma Lazaro prepare an order in their former taco truck, which operated in 2008 at the former Johnnys Sporting Goods in Carrboro. The couple will help their son-in-law open an upscale taco restaurant in 2022 in Chapel Hill.

Other recipes were handed down by his wifes 77-year-old grandmother.

When I met my wife, I started to eat real Mexican food. Her grandma, she cooked the best Mexican dishes, he said.

He hopes Ordonez will also showcase Guatemalan food in his restaurant, Kadoura said. El Chapin  operated by Rony Ordonez, another former Med Deli chef with three locations  is one of just a handful of Guatemalan restaurants in North Carolina.

The ingredients in Mexican and Guatemalan food are basically the same, Ordonez said, but, in my opinion, I love my country, but I think Mexico has better food.

I dont want to say that and get in trouble, he said and laughed.

The Orange Report

Calling Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough readers. Check out The Orange Report, a free weekly digest of some of the top stories for and about Orange County published in The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun. Get your newsletter delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday featuring stories by our local journalists. Sign up for our newsletter here. For even more Orange-focused news and conversation, join our Facebook group "Chapel Hill Carrboro Chat."
Medfield man indicted on charges in Cape Cod boating crash that claimed life of Sherborn girl

A young Medfield man has been indicted on charges in connection with a Cape Cod boating crash that claimed the life of a 17-year-old Sherborn girl over the summer, Cape & Islands District Attorney Robert J. Galibois announced Tuesday.

David K. Sullivan, 19, was indicted Friday by a Barnstable County grand jury on charges of death of a person caused by operating vessel/boat under the influence of intoxicating liquor, possessing false RMV documents, minor in possession of alcohol, operation of a vessel while under the influence of intoxicating liquor causing serious bodily injury, and reckless or negligent operation of a vessel causing death, according to Galibois.

Emergency crews responding to a report of a boat crash in Sesuit Harbor in Dennis on the evening of July 21 learned Dover-Sherborn High School senior Sadie Mauro had died in the wreck. Two others were seriously injured.

College that local lacrosse star had committed to heartbroken over deadly Cape Cod boat crash

Mauro, a former resident of Shelburne, Vermont, was a star lacrosse player at Dover-Sherborn High and had committed to playing lacrosse at Gettysburg College next year.

Dover-Sherborn High School Principal John Smith remembered Mauro as a hardworking student and great athlete.

A preliminary investigation found that the vessel was equipped with two outboard 250-horsepower engines bearing an Alabama registration, Galibois said.

Charges were filed against Sullivan following an investigation that included officials from the Dennis Police Department, Massachusetts State Police, Massachusetts Environmental Police, the State Police Marine Unit, the Massachusetts State Police Dive Team, and the Barnstable County Regional Dive Team.

There were no additional details immediately available.

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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Russian dictator Vladimir Putin may soon announce that he will run for president again in 2024, the Russian state-controlled newspaper Kommersant wrote on Oct. 3.

The potential announcement would likely occur during the opening of the international "Russia" exhibition in November. The exhibition is intended to showcase Putin's achievements, as well as presentations of illegally-annexed territories of Ukraine.

Although he has yet to officially announce, unnamed sources told Kommersant that the campaign will be built around the concept of Russia as a separate civilization, based on traditional values, that is beset on all sides by enemies.

It is unclear if other candidates will nominally participate, but if Putin decides to run, his victory is all but assured. Freedom House, a nonprofit advocating international democracy, gave Russia a 0/4 score in its 2022 report card on political freedoms in the country. "Russia has never experienced a democratic transfer of power between rival groups," described Freedom House. Any meaningful opposition is prevented from having a fair chance at winning elections, creating "an authoritarian political system (that) is concentrated in the hands of President Vladimir Putin."

On Sept. 11, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin would have no real competitors if he decided to run.

If reelected, Putin could serve another six-year term, which would keep him in power until 2030, 30 years since he was first elected president. In 2021, Russia passed a law that would enable Putin to retain his position until 2036. There is nothing necessarily stopping him from further revising the law to allow for more terms.

Read also: Editorial: Todays Russia is fascist. Its time to start calling it that

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
With the passage of a state budget into law overnight, Medicaid expansion is on its way to North Carolina, and its implementation will soon start rolling out.

Implementation of expansion will begin on Dec. 1 with about 600,000 North Carolinians expected to gain health insurance, according to the states Department of Health and Human Services.

About 300,000 North Carolinians  largely those on a limited benefit family planning Medicaid program  will be moved into full coverage on Dec. 1, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said Sept. 25 during a press conference. The remainder, as they learn of expansion, will need to sign up for coverage.

County partners have been working to have their systems, processes and staff ready to help enroll those who did not immediately gain eligibility, DHHS Secretary Kody Kinsley said Sept. 25.

Medicaid expansion, a federal-health insurance program for low-income individuals, was signed into law by Cooper last March. But its implementation was tied by lawmakers in the Republican-controlled legislature to passage of the state budget.

Disagreements between the GOP-led House and the Senate, largely on the legalization of casinos, delayed passage of the states spending plan. But on Sept. 19, Republican leaders announced they had reached a deal on the budget that did not include casinos but that would trigger Medicaid.

The 625-page spending plan passed both legislative chambers, and Cooper announced minutes later that he would not sign or veto the budget but instead let it pass into law after 10 days. Those 10 days passed as Monday rolled into Tuesday, making the budget law and triggering expansion.

Prior to expansion, the income limit for eligibility under Medicaid for a parent or caretaker in North Carolina was 41% of the federal poverty level, or just over $8,000 yearly for a family of three.

Adults without children, save for those with disabilities or other qualifying exceptions, had no coverage.

People who did not qualify for Medicaid under the prior tighter parameters could apply for federal subsidies, but these were limited and many were not eligible. This meant many people fell into a coverage gap in which they earned too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid but too little to receive subsidies.

Under the expanded parameters, all adults with income below 138% of the federal poverty level, or who make about $20,120 a year, will gain eligibility.

Other policies in the expansion bill

The expansion bill has various other policies tacked on, including:





Certificate of Need: The expansion bill will make some changes to North Carolinas certificate of need (CON) rules, which regulate hospital expansions, medical equipment purchases and more. Debates over those rules were a big reason Medicaid expansion did not pass in recent years. (The Senate wanted to pass it with certificate of need changes, and the House did not.)

The expansion bill eliminates certificates of need for behavioral health beds and chemical dependency beds. For counties with a population of 125,000 or more, the bill eliminates certificate-of-need requirements for MRI machines and ambulatory surgical centers. These provisions would become effective years from now. These surgical centers in large counties would have a specific requirement for how much charity care they must provide.

Reimbursements: The expansion bill includes a mechanism for hospitals to get higher reimbursements through Medicaid, dubbed the Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program.

The federal government covers 90% of Medicaid coverage costs for the expansion population. The remaining 10% of costs under the expansion bill will be paid for by taxing hospitals.

To compensate hospitals, lawmakers included the HASP mechanism, which allows hospitals to take advantage of a federal program to get more funding. It is targeted at hospitals that have experienced losses. These increased reimbursements could begin at the start of the next fiscal-year quarter after the HASP program is approved by the federal government, and could be made for hospital services provided since July 1, 2022.

Temporary Savings Fund: The expansion bill establishes a fund to hold savings realized by the states health and human services department from enhanced federal benefits.

To encourage states that had not expanded Medicaid to get on board, the federal government, under the American Rescue Plan Act, increased the match rate it pays for the regular Medicaid population in those states by 5 percentage points over the span of two years after expansion took effect. This is what has typically been cited by lawmakers as a $1.6 billion or so signing bonus from the federal government. Its an additional windfall for North Carolina on top of the much higher match rate for the expansion population.

As these funds become available, the budget lays out how they will be used. This includes funding for a new childrens behavioral health hospital in the Triangle, as well as for implementing a new partnership between ECU Health and UNC Health, which would help build new health clinics. Funding would also be used to expand health care programs at community colleges.

In addition to these provisions, the Medicaid expansion bill also directs the state health departments Division of Health Benefits to provide Medicaid applicants with information about the Health Insurance Marketplace that includes contact information for the Navigators Consortium, a program to help people find the right coverage under the federal marketplace.

DHHS, in collaboration with the states commerce department, must also develop a referral plan for assessing the employment status and barriers to employment of Medicaid and other social service programs beneficiaries.

How to apply for Medicaid coverage in NC

Once expansion is implemented on Dec. 1, North Carolinians who are newly eligible will be able to apply for coverage.

After an application is submitted, county social services offices need to determine applicants eligibility. According to a 2022 report by the Fiscal Research Division, which provides analysis services for the General Assembly, the annual statewide percentage of Medicaid applications processed in a timely manner was 94%.

The statewide monthly average number of days to process all Medicaid applications ranged from 27 to 35 days, with an annual average of 30 days, according to the report.

The Medicaid expansion bill passed into law also allows the Health Insurance Marketplace to make Medicaid eligibility determinations for a temporary period of up to 12 months after expansion is implemented to decrease the Medicaid enrollment burden on county departments of social services.

There are multiple ways to apply for Medicaid coverage:

Via the ePASS Public Portal at epass.nc.gov, a website run by DHHS. The site is available in English and Spanish.





In person at a local Department of Social Services office.

Via mail using a paper application that must be sent to a local DSS office.

Via the federal government by applying through the HealthCare.gov website or by calling 1-800-318-2596.

Visit the states DHHS website for more details on required documents and more. Questions? email Medicaid.Transformation@dhhs.nc.gov or call (888) 245-0179 or a local DSS office.
Jenna Bush Hager has babies on her brain. But Jennas husband, Henry Hager? Hes all set in the kids department.

While chatting with her TODAY co-host Sheinelle Jones on August 8, Jenna confessed that she's pondered expanding her family. Jenna and Henry have three children: Mila, 10, Poppy, 7, and Hal, 4.

Id like to have another but no, Jenna said, noting that Henry put his foot down. Later in the show, however, Jenna teased that Hal could be promoted to big brother, whether Henry likes or not.

Well, I do feel like women usually have the advantage in that area, she joked to Sheinelle.

Jenna met Henry in 2004 when he was working for her dad, former President George W. Bush. The couple tied the knot four years later at Jennas parents Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas.

The mother of three has said that Mila, Poppy and Hal are her and Henrys biggest priority. While chatting with People in 2019, Jenna said one of the highlights of maternity leave was getting to take her daughters to school every morning. But Jenna has learned to let go of working mom guilt.

I try to focus on what I can do and what I do bring because I think if we beat ourselves up for everything we miss, then were to a happy of a parent as we can be, she explained.

Read on to learn more about Jennas three children:

Margaret Laura Mila Hager

Al Roker predicted Jennas first child would be a girl  and he was correct!

Im totally crazy about her, Jenna gushed to her TODAY family, days after Mila was born. I dont even really like the color pink, and theres pink all over my apartment.. I like things to be really neat, and theres bottles and things all over, and were just as happy as can be.

Mila arrived on April 13, 2013, three weeks ahead of her due date, and weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces.

Jenna often shares stories about Mila on TODAY. In July 2023, she reflected on a thoughtful note Mila sent to her sister, Poppy, while Mila was at sleepaway camp in Texas. Poppy will be joining Mila next summer, and it will be her first time away from her mom and dad.

Jenna Bush Hager and Mila (Nathan Congleton / TODAY)

She wrote Poppy this letter, which made Henry and I weep. (It) was like, Youre going to feel homesick. But the difference is, I got you. I got you, Im there for you and you can come into my cabin.

Mila is both sweet and outspoken. Earlier this year, Jenna recalled being shamed by Mila for throwing out her art project.

According to Jenna, Mila reported the crime to Poppy, who doesnt appreciate it it either.

While visiting the set of Hoda & Jenna in 2022, Mila dropped what Jenna referred to as truth bombs. It all started when Hoda told Mila that she loves when Jenna is "laughing so hard she cant catch her breath.

Yeah, one time she was laughing in our living room and she peed her pants! Mila replied. She then turned to Jenna and said, You changed your pajamas.

Later, Mila divulged that Jenna never wears underwear.

She is not wearing it right now! Mila announced. I saw her change!

Jenna has described both Mila and Poppy as drama kids." In 2022, Mila starred as Seymour in her school production of Little Shop Of Horrors.

Jenna Bush Hager daughters (TODAY)

Milas solos were completely out of her comfort zone, a proud Jenna declared on TODAY.

Unlike her mother, she really doesnt like attention, Jenna said. "She never was like, 'I'm the star.' If anything, she downplayed it."

Poppy Louise Hager

The name Poppy is a tribute to Jennas grandfather, the late George H.W. Bush.

Welcome to the WORLD Poppy Louise Hager--named after my darling Gamps who went by Poppy during his childhood. We are in LOVE, Jenna captioned an Instagram post announcing Poppys birth on August 13, 2015.

Jenna Bush Hager, Poppy (Nathan Congleton / TODAY)

Jenna often speaks about the love Poppy has for Mila. In 2022, she posted on Instagram a note that read, My superhero is Mila because she is kind and nice. She gives me hugs. She gives me love. On the piece of paper, Poppy drew a picture of herself and Mila.

The little girl also adores her grandfather, former president George W. Bush. In 2022, Jenna recalled how the former commander-in-chief spoke to Poppys first class class.

Poppy was just sitting up by the computer so proud that her grandpa would Zoom in, Jenna told the New York Post. At the end of the Q&A session, Poppy took it upon herself to invite all of her classmates for a ride on Air Force Once.

Thats when I had to explain to her that thats not how it works, Jenna said. Shell never get to ride on Air Force One unless she becomes the president."

Henry Harold Hal Hager

Hal inherited his name from his father and his middle name from Jennas grandfather, Harold Welch  father of former first lady Laura Bush.

We werent exactly sure about the name, Jenna said when she called into TODAY to share her happy news that her son was born on August 2, 2019. Then his big sisters called him Hal pal, and we thought, This is just perfect.

Jenna Bush Hager and Hal (@jennabhager via Instagram)

Hals birth was a family affair. Jenna said that her twin sister, Barbara Bush Coyne, came to the hospital with a box of donuts.

"I dont think youre supposed to eat right after a C-section, but I went for it. And then Mila and Poppy came and picked him out in the nursery, and theyre just crazy about him. ... The girls are so thrilled that they have a little baby brother all of their own.

Hal, now 4, is a social butterfly just like his mama. In 2022, Jenna raved about how Hal was completely at ease at a big Memorial Day barbecue.

I went to go sit next to him to feed him, and he looked at me and he goes, You having a good time, Mama? Jenna recalled on TODAY,. And I said, Yes, Im having fun. And he goes, Me, too! I just got into the hot tub.

Jenna Bush Hager Family (@jennbhager via Instagram)

Hal recently learned to swim, and while it makes Jenna nervous, she is proud of her little boy for being so brave. Hes even comfortable in the ocean!

Letting your child do scary things, supervised, is the hardest thing as a grown-up, Hoda said.

I actually just closed my eyes and let him handle it because I dont want to be like a backseat parent, Jenna replied.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
The GOPs internal strife is deepening this week, despite the narrow avoidance of a government shutdown over the weekend.

An effort by hard-line Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to depose Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is expected to dominate the week on Capitol Hill.

But experts across the political spectrum question whether the ructions will have any long-lasting effect on the Republican brand or damage the partys chances of retaking the White House next year.

To be sure, virtually no one thinks the infighting is good for the GOP. But insiders note three bigger points.

First, the Republican Party has been riven by factionalism for more than a decade, since the Tea Party rose to prominence  which makes the drama of the Gaetz vs. McCarthy battle just one more episode in a familiar story.

Second, there is considerable evidence that persuadable voters see the recent turmoil, especially the threats of a shutdown, as evidence of the dysfunction of Congress and politics writ large, rather than the GOP, specifically.

Third, when it comes to next years battle for the White House, former President Trump is widely expected  by fans and detractors alike  to be the Republican nominee. If that happens, his enormously divisive personality will be much more of a defining issue than anything McCarthy, Gaetz or their allies could say or do.

Most voters dont really pay attention to the Machiavellian ins-and-outs of this stuff, GOP strategist Dan Judy told this column. But what voters do see is continued utter dysfunction in Washington. That is what hurts the Republican brand more than the details of any specific situation.

Judy cautioned that any political advantage for Democrats was likely to be slight, even as he expressed dismay at the recent goings-on.

Republicans do tend to take more blame historically for shutdowns, he said. But this sort of brinkmanship has become so common that I think the idea of blame is sort of irrelevant in the minds of most voters. So, do Republicans take more blame? Probably. But it dirties everybody up so much.

Recent polling provides evidence to buttress this argument.

An Economist/YouGov poll released last week, for example, showed blame being spread widely for a shutdown that then looked likely.

Had such a thing happened, the poll indicated that 29 percent of adults would have mostly blamed Republicans in Congress. But that figure is almost identical to the combined 27 percent who would have primarily blamed either Democrats in Congress (14 percent) or President Biden (13 percent). In addition, 32 percent said they would put the blame on everyone equally.

The same poll also shows both parties being broadly disliked  and at comparable levels.

Fifty-four percent of adults had an unfavorable view of the GOP, while 52 percent saw the Democrats unfavorably. As for positive views, those numbers were 38 percent and 40 percent, respectively.

Independent experts emphasize that the GOPs internal struggles have been going on for so long that they are likely already factored into voters perceptions. McCarthys challenges in trying to corral his conference have been a running political theme this year.

This kind of division is one weve seen for a very long time and so there is nothing new here. This was evident when McCarthy got the position in the first place  on the 15th vote  and that got a lot of attention, said Grant Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse Universitys Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Even further back, Reeher added, the far right has been a thorn in the side of Republican Speakers for a very long time. Just ask John Boehner. I dont think it is going to register with people as new.

John Boehner (R-Ohio) resigned as Speaker in 2015 after numerous battles with recalcitrant conservative colleagues.

There is, of course, a completely different view, articulated by Gaetz himself. In short, the argument is that disruption is necessary for a Congress that is too cozy with the status quo and a GOP leadership that is more accommodationist than its voters want.

Speaking to reporters Monday on Capitol Hill, Gaetz took issue with a question that he felt wrongly blamed him for inciting chaos.

You talk about chaos as if its me forcing a few votes and filing a few motions, Gaetz said. Real chaos is when the American people have to go through the austerity that is coming if we continue to have $2 trillion annual deficits. You dont know chaos until youve seen where this Congress and this uniparty is bringing us.

Gaetz can certainly claim to be a disruptor, though whether his efforts have a substantive point or are simply aimed at boosting his profile is hotly contested.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) told ABCs This Week Sunday that Gaetzs rationalizations about the need to remove McCarthy amounted to a diatribe of delusional thinking.

Lucy Caldwell, a political strategist and Trump critic who describes herself as an ex-Republican, said of Gaetz: He and his contingent of folks are not, from my vantage point, serious about governing. If they ever were to succeed in driving out McCarthy as Speaker, they would be the dog that caught the car. They would have no idea what to do next.

But even Caldwell didnt see the current volatility as likely to have big effects in the longer term, or even as far as next year.

Im not ready to say this episode was horribly damaging, she said. I dont think so, if next year its a two-way race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON)  A memorial service for the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein will be held on the front steps of San Francisco City Hall on Thursday, beginning at 1 p.m. SFs iconic City Hall will serve as a backdrop for a memorial for the iconic senator, which will be open to members of the public to attend.

There will also be a limited seating area for 1,500 invited guests.

SF Fleet Week 2023: schedule, events, what you need to know

Notables and dignitaries lined up to speak at Sen. Feinsteins memorial include:

U.S. President Joe Biden (recorded)

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris

San Francisco Mayor London Breed

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer

U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi

Eileen Mariano (Sen. Feinsteins granddaughter)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will also be in attendance; however the governor is not expected to be among the speakers.

Sen. Feinstein will lie in state at SF City Hall on Wednesday and members of the public are invited to pay their respects between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. The senators remains will not be present for Thursdays memorial service.

On Tuesday, Feinsteins successor, Laphonza Butler was sworn in. Butler is expected to be a caretaker appointee to fill the seat held by the long-serving California Democrat ahead of next years election.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  A group of students known as the Memphis Thirteen were honored at Gordon Achievement Academy on Tuesday morning.

A mural was unveiled in the cafeteria of the North Memphis school in hopes of helping students learn about their history.

Memphis 13 honored 61 years after integrating schools

The Memphis Thirteen were the first students to integrate Memphis schools 62 years ago. Memphis Shelby County Schools is making sure the next generation does not forget their story.

In 1961 the school was called Gordon Elementary and before Sharon Malone, Sheila Malone, Pamela Mayes, and Alvin Freeman walked in  it was an all-white school.

It was a struggle. If you look at this picture, thats me. We are walking and they told us to just look straight and dont look at anybody, Malone said.

They were only six-year-old first graders when they say their parents gave them the task of making a difference in the community, not only for themselves but for every black child in the city of Memphis.

Memphis 13 honored with mural

We open the door, yall came through and thats one of the proudest moments for us, Malone said. I had a teacher that was mean to me. My classmates did not want to play with me.

Because of my first-grade teacher, for some reason, she took me under her wing and I got to be the only person in the world that was given a picture of their first-grade teacher, especially under those circumstances, Alvin Freeman said.

Freeman says he still has that picture.

People in Memphis, Tennessee still do not know who the Memphis thirteen are, Malone said. My classmates, we just celebrated our 50th-year class reunion, and some of them are just now finding out.

Memphis 13 to be honored by Tennessee lawmakers

This is why they believe the fight is not over and they demand the next generation to continue the course.

They can do whatever and go to whatever school, college, and university that they want to its up to them to make the choices in their life all we did was start it for them. Now, they got to carry on, Malone said.

There are now murals in all four schools the Memphis Thirteen attended.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
The Menu star Anya Taylor-Joy has reportedly tied the knot with her musician partner Malcolm McRae.

According to Mail Online, the Peaky Blinders and The Queen's Gambit actress said "I do" to her fiance at a star-studded ceremony in Venice, Italy.

Guests including Taylor-Joy's The Menu co-star Nicholas Hoult were spotted entering and leaving the Palazzo Pisani Moretta  situated near Venice's Grand Canal  where the nuptials are believed to have taken place last weekend.

Taylor Hill - Getty Images

Related: Super Mario Bros Movie's Anya Taylor-Joy reveals the unique way she learnt English

The publication reports that around 150 guests were in attendance, with Only Murders in the Building season 2 star Cara Delevingne and actress Julia Garner (of Inventing Anna and Ozark fame) both present.

Hoult, who also recently starred in the final season of The Great, was accompanied by girlfriend Bryana Holly.

In photos obtained by the Daily Mail, Taylor-Joy is seen posing on the balcony of Palazzo Pisani Moretta in a strappy beige wedding dress embroidered with nature imagery, including flowers and a hummingbird.

Kevin Mazur - Getty Images

Related: The Queen's Gambit star Anya Taylor-Joy shuts down season 2 rumours after Twitter hack

Taylor-Joy and her new husband McRae, known as one half of rock duo More*, were first photographed together in May 2021.

In March 2022, the couple made their red carpet debut at CAA talent agency's pre-Oscar party in West Hollywood, California. Shortly afterwards, the two shared a kiss in front of cameras at The Northman premiere.

In an interview with British Vogue in April 2022, Taylor-Joy opened up on how similar the couple were.

Kevork Djansezian/NBC - Getty Images

Related: Super Mario's Anya Taylor-Joy compares Princess Peach to Mad Max's Furiosa

"I said to my partner the other day that he was my hobby. I see reading as something that I have to do," she said. "He loved it because he's the same.

"I've finally found someone who will happily sit in silence with me reading. We're basically 80 years old and seven at the same time and it works really well."

The couple never publicly confirmed their engagement. However Page Six previously published photos of Taylor-Joy wearing a ring on her wedding finger in July 2022, whilst in Sydney filming for Mad Max prequel Furiosa.

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Meteorites  fragments of rock that have fallen to Earth from space in spectacularly fiery meteors  have been the subject of public fascination, awe, myths and even religious worship for thousands of years.

In recent decades theyve become a cosmic Rosetta Stone for scientists investigating the birth throes of our solar system and the organic life it hosts. Meteorites are therefore rightly classified by many countries as an integral part of communal natural heritage and are sought after by museums and private collectors.

South Africa, where I research meteorites, is one such country. In late 2021, my colleagues and I were alerted to an exceptional opportunity. Gideon Lombaard, a farmer in the Northern Cape province, reached out to us because he suspected that he had found two meteorite fragments. If proved true, these would be the first meteorite discoveries in South Africa in over 40 years.

After subjecting the fragments to a range of tests, we were able to show that the two fragments, despite being found only a kilometre apart, were unrelated  that is, they must have come from different meteor events.

In August, the Meteoritical Societys nomenclature committee, which adjudicates all new meteorite submissions, formally accepted our proposal that the two fragments were different meteorites. They approved our suggested names  Brierskop and Wolfkop  after landmarks near their discovery sites.

Mr Lombaards double discovery raises South Africas tally of confirmed meteorites to 51  the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. Namibia has 18 confirmed meteorites, Botswana 12, Zimbabwe four, and Lesotho and eSwatini one each. But, compared with the over 14,000 meteorites recovered from the Sahara desert, the number of recovered southern African meteorites is extremely small. A concerted national meteorite education awareness and search programme could thus reap great benefits.

What is a meteorite?

A meteorite is a piece of rocky space debris that survives collision with Earth. Meteorites are usually discovered by someone who notices an unusual rock while out walking (called a find). However, around 2% of meteorites are classified as falls because they are retrieved after witnessed meteor fireball events.

Read more: Secrets revealed of 'dash-cam' meteorite that rocked Russia

The meteorite family comprises several different types of rocks. A very small proportion of the approximately 72,000 meteorites recovered globally to date are actually pieces blasted off the surfaces of the moon and Mars by giant impacts. The overwhelming majority appear to have originated in the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. They are the shrapnel from past collisions between some of these asteroids that were ejected into orbits that have ended up crossing Earths path.

Discovery and forensics

Finding meteorites is not easy, which makes Mr Lombaards twin discoveries all the more significant. Because they originate in outer space, meteorites commonly contain iron in either metal or sulphide forms, both of which begin to deteriorate rapidly when they come into contact with free oxygen and water.

It is thus not surprising that nearly 80% of all meteorites have been found where arid climates aid their preservation, namely Antarctica and the Sahara desert. Meteorites typically become coated in a dark fusion crust during their fiery passage through the atmosphere. That makes the white Antarctic ice and the pale-coloured Sahara bedrock and sand perfect backdrops for searchers.

Mr Lombaard discovered the two meteorites during routine farming activities. The Brierskop meteorite is a 21.19g chondrite which he found on 18 September 2018. Chondrites are the oldest rocks in our solar system, dating back 4.567 billion years. It was only after he found the Wolfkop stone (also a chondrite, weighing 90.26g) 1km away from the Brierskop site on 27 August 2021 that he reached out to determine whether these were, as he suspected, meteorites. Contacting an expert is the best approach if you think youve found a meteorite.

The initial pictures he sent were very promising; our primary task was then to establish whether they represented two pieces from a single fall or had originated from separate falls.

Our analysis, which involved slicing a small piece from each stone and grinding it down to produce an ultra-thin wafer through which light from a microscope could pass, was able to show that the meteorites have distinct differences.

Brierskop contains less iron metal and less iron in its main silicate minerals than Wolfkop. The chondrules (particles in the rock) are much better preserved in Brierskop, indicating that they experienced less heating in the parent asteroid before the impact collision that liberated it. We then used the greater oxidation (rust) of the Wolfkop stone to suggest that its fall predated that of the Brierskop meteorite.

South Africas meteorite heritage

The South African Heritage Act No. 25 of 1999 classifies South African meteorites as national heritage items that cannot be damaged, removed, exported or traded without a permit issued by the South African Heritage Agency. The Meteoritical Society also requires that meteorites are properly stored and conserved at accredited institutions such as museums and universities for future research. Wolfkop and Brierskop are now stored at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, which is an accredited repository.

An average of between 10 and 50 meteorites are estimated to hit Earths surface every day. Technology will help drive new discoveries. In recent years an increasing number of countries have installed camera networks (such as NASAs CAMS) designed to record the trajectories of meteor fireballs that can then be triangulated to try to locate the fall site. The power of citizen science is also being harnessed in many places in the form of volunteer ground searches for fallen meteorites.

Prior to the two recent discoveries, the Meteoritical Bulletin Database listed 49 meteorites as having been satisfactorily proved to be from South African sites. Mr Lombaards double find takes the countrys meteorite inventory above 50. Theres no doubt that more are just waiting to be found.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. If you found it interesting, you could subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

It was written by: Roger Lawrence Gibson, University of the Witwatersrand.

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Roger Lawrence Gibson receives funding from the NRF.
MEXICO CITY  Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday went on the offensive against U.S. immigration policy, blaming sanctions against countries such as Cuba and Venezuela for the rise in regional migration.

At his daily press conference Monday, Lopez Obrador drew a direct line between U.S. foreign policy in Latin America and 10,000 daily arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border.

He commented on a car accident where Cuban migrants were killed in the southern state of Chiapas, using it as a segue into a critique of U.S. sanctions.

Thats why were going to keep insisting on addressing the root causes of migration, the origins, go deep, stop politicking, thinking rights are above ideology, that sanctions cannot be maintained  blockades  and that the poorest countries have to be helped.

Over the past week, Lopez Obrador has been busy setting the table to receive Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and Homeland Security adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall.

That visit, focused on migration and security issues, follows a reciprocal one focused on trade, where Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai hosted Mexican Foreign Secretary Alicia Barcena and Secretary of the Economy Raquel Buenrostro in Washington.

Rhetorically, Lopez Obrador has lashed out over sanctions and negatively compared Ukraine aid to U.S. efforts to curtail root causes of migration in the Western Hemisphere.

On Monday, he noted in his press conference, which goes on for around three hours daily, that the short-term budget approved by Congress over the weekend cut aid to Ukraine.

But how much have they destined to the war in Ukraine, $30 [billion] or $50 billion for the war, which is the most irrational thing there can be, and harmful, he said.

Lopez Obrador has avoided directly taking sides in Russias invasion of Ukraine but has raised eyebrows with his openings toward Russia  in September, Mexicos annual independence day military parade included a Russian cohort. The yearly parade traditionally includes foreign military detachments as guests, but rarely those of countries actively involved in a shooting war.

While Lopez Obrador has prodded the United States ahead of the high-level visit, hes also made moves to appease U.S. concerns about Mexican cooperation on drugs and migration.

Most significantly, the Mexican military made a show of force over the weekend in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, the remote mountain hometown of imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, the former head of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Tuesdays press conference opened with General Luis Rodriguez Bucio  a key player in internal security  touting the extradition of eight high-level targets to the United States.

The United States has been amping up pressure on Mexico to extradite cartel kingpins and do more to suppress the fentanyl trade, most of which has been controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, two rival organizations.

Last month, Mexico extradited Ovidio Guzman, the youngest of El Chapos four sons known as los Chapitos, who control a key faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.

The Sinaloa Cartel has also seemingly taken U.S. threats to put a squeeze on Mexico seriously. For weeks reports have trickled out of a cartel ban on fentanyl production, and on Monday, banners were hung throughout Sinaloa threatening cartel action against fentanyl producers.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Michigan Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear an appeal by the parents of Oxford high school shooter Ethan Crumbley challenging a case charging them with manslaughter. File Photo by Nic Antaya/EPA-EFE

Oct. 3 (UPI) -- The Michigan Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to hear an appeal brought by the parents of teenage school shooter Ethan Crumbley in a case charging them with manslaughter.

James and Jennifer Crumbley face charges in connection with their son's shooting spree at Oxford High School that killed four students and injured six others in 2021. The Crumbleys have been fighting to get the charges dismissed, charging that Oakland County 52-3 Circuit Court Judge Julia Nicholson erred in sending it to trial.

The Michigan Court of Appeals earlier sided with Nicholson and the Supreme Court opted not to question either ruling, writing that they were "not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this court."

The Crumbleys became the first parents in the United States to be criminally charged in a mass shooting carried out by one of their children. Prosecutors are trying to hold them criminally liable for buying their son the gun that he used in the massacre, and, for never telling the school about the weapon when they were called to the school over his troubling behavior.

The Crumbleys each face four involuntary manslaughter charges in the deaths of Oxford students Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; HanaSt. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17.

Jennifer Lynn Crumbley, the mother of Ethan Crumbley, is pictured in her booking photo as released on December 4, 2021. File Photo by Oakland County Sheriff's Office/UPI

The Crumbleys, though, have long argued that the gun was always properly stored and they could not have possibly known their son was planning to pull off a mass shooting at the school.

The Michigan appeals judges said, though, that Ethan Crumbley's actions were "reasonably foreseeable" given the past concerns brought up by school officials and other actions.

James Robert Crumbley, the father of Ethan Crumbley, is pictured in his booking photo as released on December 4, 2021. File Photo by Oakland County Sheriff's Office/UPI

The court ruled just days after another Michigan judge ruled last week that Ethan Crumbley could be eligible to be sent the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole in connection with the shooting.
The parents of a teenager who killed four students at a Michigan high school are set to go to trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter, after their appeal was denied by the state Supreme Court.

James and Jennifer Crumbley are accused of buying a weapon for their son, Ethan Crumbley, as an early Christmas present and ignoring his mental health needs  with prosecutors alleging that the pair hold some responsibility for the tragedy.

Ethan Crumbley, now 17, pleaded guilty to terrorism and murder following the shooting at Oxford High School  located about 40 miles north of Detroit  which occurred in November 2021. A judge last week said he is eligible for life in prison without parole.

Four students  Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana and Justin Shilling were killed  and six others and a teacher were wounded during the incident.

The state appeals court said in March that Crumbleys parents could face trial, and the Michigan Supreme Court let that decision stand in a one-sentence order on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Prosecutors had to show only that there was probable cause to put the parents on trial, a low threshold at this stage, with the appeals court noting that a jury would hear a more expansive case from both sides.

The couples attorneys have said the pair have acknowledged that bad decisions had been made but insisted that the shooting was not foreseeable. Along with their son, who was 15 at the time, they had met with school staff on the day of the shooting after violent drawings he had made raised suspicion.

However, the boys backpack was not searched for a gun and he was ultimately allowed to stay at school.

Attorneys said that such mistakes should not rise to the level of involuntary manslaughter charges, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.

Ethan Crumbley is pictured in court (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The Crumbley parents have been in custody since shortly after the shooting, unable to afford a $500,000 bond. Their son is in the same jail, though they have no contact with him.

The teenager will be sentenced on 8 December. The judge will have the option of giving him a prison term that would make him eligible for parole in the decades ahead.

Colin King, a psychologist who had met with the teen, previously described him as a feral child who was neglected by his parents, though Judge Kwame Rowe said his home life was "not ideal.

Judge Rowe noted that his parents would often drink alcohol and argue, but that he appeared to have a loving and supportive family.

He went on family vacations, owned several pets and had visits from family ... In defendants own words, his childhood was good, Judge Rowe said on Friday.

Defence lawyers declined to comment on the Supreme Courts order, citing a gag order.
Mike Lindell said MyPillow is facing multiple IRS audits.

Lindell claimed on the "War Room" podcast that the audits concerned call center staff.

"Now they're going after our employees. They made it very personal," Lindell said.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell says his pillow company is now facing five audits from the IRS.

Lindell told Steve Bannon on the latter's "War Room" podcast on Saturday that IRS auditors were looking into earnings made by his call center contract workers.

The audits concerned commissions earned by some employees who worked remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lindell said.

"It started in California. Now there's three other states that are coming at MyPillow. And Steve, it's disgusting," Lindell told Bannon.

"They just keep attacking. Now they're going after our employees. They made it very personal," Lindell added.

The pillow magnate further claimed that the audits were politically motivated because of his support for former President Donald Trump's groundless election fraud claims.

"This is something that hasn't happened in 15 years, and all of a sudden there's 5 IRS audits against MyPillow in three different years," Lindell told Bannon.

Insider was unable to independently verify Lindell's claims about the audits. Representatives for MyPillow and the IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Lindell has continually claimed that the financial crises he and MyPillow have encountered are happening because of his support for Trump.

Last month, Lindell claimed that MyPillow was financially crippled after American Express slashed its credit line.

Lindell is also fighting a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit from the voting technology company Dominion Voting Systems, and another from Smartmatic.

In July, Lindell auctioned off equipment from his pillow factory in Minnesota. Lindell said at the time that his company had lost more than $100 million in retail sales.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Republican presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence attends an Associated Press 2024 GOP Presidential Candidates Conversations on National Security and Foreign Policy event, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, held in partnership with Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service, at Georgetown University in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON (AP)  GOP presidential candidate Mike Pence, the former vice president, chastised a group of hard-right Republicans who ousted Kevin McCarthy from his role as House speaker Tuesday, saying that chaos is never Americas friend.

Pence was onstage at a national security and foreign policy event at Washingtons Georgetown University co-hosted by The Associated Press when the news broke.

When told of the historic vote, Pence waited several seconds before he responded. He then described it as a distraction from the issues that matter to Americans.

Well let me say that chaos is never Americas friend. And its never a friend of American families that are struggling, he said. And Im deeply disappointed that a handful of Republicans would partner with all the Democrats in the House of Representatives to out the Speaker of the House.

There was no clear path forward Tuesday night after the vote to dislodge McCarthy, a first in American history. Pence said that he expected additional votes to take place this week and predicted that McCarthy would eventually be reelected to the post.

But he said what took place underscored the need for new leadership in Washington.

Political performance art in Washington, D.C., does little to address the issues the American people are facing," he said, vowing to focus on the needs and the challenges and the opportunities and the future of the American people if he is elected.

Pence faces an uphill fight for the nomination in a party that remains closely aligned with his old boss, former President Donald Trump.

Pence had said earlier in the conversation that he believed the disorder that preceded the vote was just one more reason why the American people want to see new leadership in the White House.

Trump earlier in the day also weighed in on the drama, asking, Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves, why arent they fighting the Radical Left Democrats who are destroying our Country? on his Truth Social network.

___

Colvin reported from New York.
A 'millionaire's wife' knows her over-the-top videos showing off her wealth make viewers angry  and it's all part of her plan

Linda Andrade hopes to appear on reality TV one day. @lionlindaa via Instagram and TikTok

Linda Andrade posts over-the-top TikToks from the perspective of a "millionaire's wife."

She told Insider many of her posts are exaggerated, and she's faced backlash in response.

But it's worth it, Andrade said, as she's able to grow her platform as a result.

Shopping sprees, designer purses, and expensive jewelry are fixtures in Linda Andrade's TikTok account, where the 24-year-old posts lavish videos from the perspective of a "millionaire's wife."

Andrade, 24, is based between Dubai and California. She married her husband Ricky five years ago, and has since built a social media presence around their luxury lifestyle, labeling herself the "Original Dubai Housewife." Insider was unable to independently verify Andrade's husband's income, but according to his website, he became a millionaire by pivoting to day trading and entrepreneurship after he quit his job as a dishwasher technician when he was 21.

Andrade's videos, sometimes featuring Ricky, can gain millions of views, but they're not always well received. They're also not always entirely accurate  while she calls herself a "housewife" on social media, Andrade actually owns her own business, but she justifies the label because she does not contribute to the household bills, she said.

The spoiled persona she sometimes puts across is also fabricated  Andrade told Insider her family immigrated to the US from Jordan and did not come from a wealthy background.

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But she doesn't mind the criticism  it's all helped her to go viral and grow her audience, as part of a long-term goal to become a reality TV star. And while not everyone likes her content, it seems to be working.

Andrade knows many viewers take her satirical videos at face value

Luxury content is very popular on TikTok, but it sometimes comes at a cost, as TikTokers have previously faced intense backlash and been called insensitive for talking about expensive purchases on the app.

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Andrade  who has been sharing snippets of her life on TikTok since 2020, often showing herself spending huge amounts of money  is no exception.

She told Insider her over-the-top videos are intended as satire and stem from her own sense of humor, and added that she thinks one reason people find her TikToks entertaining is because they are "otherworldly" and provide "a total escape from a normal life." While many commenters do say they find Andrade's portrayal of her lifestyle aspirational, others see it as out of touch.

In June, she posted a video captioned, "How much I spent in a day as a millionaire's wife," where she says she bought two Chanel bags for $7,000 each, rented a car to take her around the mall because she didn't want to walk, and spent $16,540 in total throughout the day.

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It was viewed 10.7 million times and received several critical comments from people comparing her portrayal of wealth to their own financial situations.

"And here I am struggling to keep the lights on in my house, this sorta waste makes me ill," one comment with 6,127 likes read.

Andrade told Insider that this video is just one example where she would exaggerate certain details of her life for the purposes of making a video. Though the TikTok was framed as showcasing her expenses across a single day, a clip of a "24K Gold Coffee" that was featured was actually taken from a different video, although she did, in fact, buy two Chanel bags that day, she said.

She also said that when she's putting videos together she sometimes won't specify the currency or will overstate the prices of her purchases to make things seem more expensive.

Andrade has also drawn criticism in videos where she appears to complain about her wealth or be ungrateful. In one clip, she says some of the "worst" things about being married to a millionaire are having "too much food" and that her husband buys her "too many things."

Andrade told Insider she doesn't often read her comments, but says she thinks that some viewers take all her claims about her expenses "very seriously," and she sometimes tries to make her videos sound even "more ridiculous" to make it clear she is joking.

In reality, Andrade said she is grateful for all the gifts her husband buys her and is concerned that some people seem to think she is actually unappreciative or a "spoiled brat."

At the same time, Andrade said that the online rage that comes in response to her online persona is only helping to grow her online presence  she currently has 734,000 followers and several viral videos.

Andrade wants to spark emotion in her viewers

Andrade told Insider she thinks that many of her videos do well because people either find them funny, or they elicit strong emotional responses from viewers.

"I took a marketing class, and if you can make someone feel something, whether that's happy or sad or angry, you're going to get a response. So for me, the easiest way for me to do that is to make people angry," she said.

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She added that she tries to be careful to not be insensitive, telling Insider she once posted a video where she referred to a part of Dubai as "the poor side of Dubai," which upset some viewers, leading her to delete the video.

Andrade is also conscious that her luxury content could potentially put her at risk. She told Insider that she keeps some details private and also obfuscates some parts of her life in order to minimize her chances of being targeted for robbery.

For now, Andrade said she is "not mad" about being a somewhat controversial figure on TikTok because it has led to online growth, which she hopes will help her achieve her goal of appearing on reality TV one day. But she told Insider that once she hits around 1 million followers, she will pivot away from controversial content and begin to post more openly about her life.

As for the way people view her online, she said, "I do want to change it eventually and create an actual, reputable brand of myself."

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.

Read the original article on Insider
Rachel Lard (left), mother of Princess Lard, a 1-year-old girl who was being abused for months but was not taken out of harm's way by the child welfare system, and Alysa Schubert, a relative of Lard's, stand outside the offices of the Wisconsin Department of Children & Families to demand justice for her daughter's death on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wis.

The child welfare system already failed 1-year-old Princess Lard. Now, her mother believes, the criminal justice system is failing her.

About 30 people Friday gathered outside the Milwaukee offices of the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and caravanned throughout the city with protest signs and bullhorns over the aftermath of Princess death. Stops included the homes of Mayor Cavalier Johnson and District Attorney John Chisholm.

The protest comes four months after the woman charged in Princess death stopped attending court hearings as a trial date neared.

I really wanted to let everyone know that Im still trying to get justice for my daughter, Lard said. I didnt let it go.

Rachel Lard, 30, was profiled in a Journal Sentinel story earlier this year about the nightmare she experienced with her daughter in the fall of 2019.

Lard had primary care of Princess and Princess spent some weekends with the father. In July 2019, Lard began noticing injuries on her daughter after visits with the father. Each time, Lard took Princess to a doctor for an examination.

Lard was eventually blamed for the injuries and primary custody was given to the father. Almost three months later, Princess was found dead in the fathers home with multiple broken ribs, a rebroken wrist and other injuries to her forehead and neck.

Protestors prepare for a caravan on Friday, Sept. 29, to demand justice for the death of 1-year-old Princess Lard.

The fathers partner, 31-year-old Artesia Lockhart, was charged with physical abuse of a child less than a year later, in August 2020.

The case had gone through numerous delays before it was approaching a trial date in June of this year. But one month before that, Lockhart skipped a pretrial hearing and hasn't been seen since. A warrant has been issued for her arrest.

For Lard, its frustrating how Lockhart ended up on pretrial release in the first place. Shortly after she was charged, Lockhart successfully argued to change her $5,000 cash bail to a $5,000 signature bond, court records said. That meant she didn't have to pay any money up front.

At the time, Lockhart was nine months pregnant. The signature bond allowed her to deliver the child in a hospital without jail officials transporting her.

Lockhart didn't follow all the stipulations of her release  she didn't contact a case worker about the birth of her child, for example  but maintained her attendance at court hearings afterward.

In January 2021, prosecutors attempted to reinstate her $5,000 cash bail, but Judge Rebecca Kiefer set it at $500 instead. Lockhart posted that bail soon after, court records said.

She broke her bail agreement multiple times and they still just kept letting her go, said Alysa Schubert, a relative of Lards. Its very frustrating.

Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter @elliothughes12.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee mother still searching for justice after death of 1-year-old
Darlene Johns of the Black Youth Project 100 speaks to the Common Council and Mayor Cavalier Johnson Monday during a public hearing on the city's 2024 budget.

Milwaukee residents urged the Common Council and Mayor Cavalier Johnson to cut police funding next year and expand early voting sites for the 2024 elections.

And speaker after speaker Monday night urged the officials gathered in the Common Council chambers to support what has long been known as the city's Office of Violence Prevention, speaking in personal terms about how the office has helped them at some of the most difficult moments.

Running through much of the testimony were expressions of frustration with elected officials and an argument that speakers' demands had not been heard at budget hearings in years past.

"We shouldn't have to come to a podium every time to get answers. ... It's past just potholes in our community. It's past young people just simply not getting to school. It's past a simple lockup, y'all are destroying our neighborhood, continuously," said Yante Turner of Sun-Seeker MKE and Black Youth Project 100.

Speakers offer personal stories on Office of Violence Prevention

Zhane Nevels told elected officials that the Office of Violence Prevention was there to support her family when her 1-year-old daughter Zy'Aire was killed in a shooting this summer.

If it wasn't for the support from Community Intervention Coordinator Quinn Taylor, she said, "I probably wouldn't be here right now."

Zy'Aire's death left her 4-year-old sister with PTSD and her 10-year-old sister with deep depression and anxiety, Nevels said.

OVP provided resources for therapy and housing to help the family after they became homeless without a vehicle following Zy'Aire's death, she said.

"It was multiple times that I wanted to give up. It was multiple times that I didn't care anymore. Thanks to OVP, I was able to throw my daughter a birthday party, considering she got killed a week before her birthday," she said.

The police, she said, don't need as much funding as they receive, and that money should be put back into the community.

Johnson in the 2024 budget said the Office of Violence Prevention's name would be changing to the Office of Community Wellness and Safety and its scope would expand to acknowledge that promoting safety is broader than violence prevention. The department is also moving out of the Health Department to the Department of Administration.

Director Ashanti Hamilton told the Journal Sentinel that people who worked with or were helped by OVP were invited to attend the hearing to speak to their experiences.

The impact in the personal stories they told is difficult to convey in a speech or an interview, he said. He said he hopes their words help lay the groundwork for future conversations and decisions about how to fund the office once federal pandemic aid runs out.

"I wanted people to see there's a lot more that's happening in the office that's a lot deeper and different from just the violence interruption work," Hamilton said.

Speakers urge cutting police funding as Act 12 changes calculation

Speakers also urged the officials to cut police funding, as they have in previous years.

"The Milwaukee Common Council has a responsibility to the people of Milwaukee to reduce the police budget and to invest into community needs through participatory budgeting," said Jordan Terry of the African American Roundtable.

Terry slammed Johnson's support for next year's Republican National Convention in downtown and the police from far-flung departments that will be coming to the city to staff it.

And, Terry said, the council's vote in favor of a new youth prison on the northwest side "betrayed its citizens and the youth of Milwaukee."

The city's calculus on the police budget and the department's staffing has changed this year in the wake of Act 12, the local government funding law that went into effect this summer.

Johnson has proposed increasing police staffing by a total of about 15 officers next year, after retirements are taken into account.

The new law says Milwaukee will lose 15% of its shared revenue if it does not maintain the number of police officers and the daily staffing level in the fire department minimally at the numbers from the previous year, excluding any who are in state- or grant-funded positions.

The city also must increase its police and fire staffing to meet state-imposed benchmarks by the end of the 10th year after the city's 2% sales tax goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

More funding to Milwaukee's Election Commission

Speakers also urged elected officials to boost funding to the Milwaukee Election Commission and ensure early voting is available on college campuses next year, when the presidential election will take place.

James Stein, deputy advocacy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, said early voting sites should be guaranteed on college campuses for the April and November elections next year.

He said ensuring early voting at sites at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the downtown Milwaukee Area Technical College campuses would align with the city's commitment to accessibility.

"College campuses are ideal locations to encourage young adults to participate in the electoral process and by setting up these early vote locations, we would remove the potential barriers for these young voters," he said.

Stein also urged additional funding for the city's Election Commission to hire more people, saying the current nine-member staff is "not sustainable."

The proposed budget includes a boost of about $3.38 million to $5.36 million in preparation for the elections next year, according to a Budget Office presentation.

The proposed 2024 budget includes two new positions of an election training manager and early voting coordinator.

Election Commission Executive Director Claire Woodall earlier in the day told the council's Finance and Personnel Committee that the city has fewer permanent, full-time employees than other cities.

"We have seen that we have been very under-staffed and under-resourced for many years, and you tend to function with what you have," she said.

Woodall said between technology updates in recent years and efficiencies the office has been able to find, she had asked for only two more positions in 2024.

The office can only handle bringing on two more people at the moment, she said, but she planned to ask for two additional positions in the future.

Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukeeans urge OVP, Election Commission funding at budget hearing
Ukrainian agricultural cargo headed for the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda will be checked directly at the port, instead of at the border with Poland, Ukraine's Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said on Oct. 3.

This measure "will speed up transit through the territory of Poland," Solskyi said. The agreement was made together with the minister's Polish and Lithuanian counterparts upon the initiative of Ukraine.

Poland's Agricultural Minister Robert Telus said that the three countries had "reached an important agreement," and that the checks will be transferred to Lithuania from Oct. 4.

The checks concern veterinary, sanitary, and phytosanitary controls necessary for the export of agricultural products.

Ukraine's agricultural exports have become a contentious topic in multiple European countries over the past few weeks, including in Poland.

The EU instituted an import ban on certain agricultural products from Ukraine in May at the request of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria, who feared that the influx of cheaper Ukrainian products would put pressure on their own farmers.

Following the expiration of the measure on Sept. 15, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary said they will continue to impose it on the national level.

On Sept. 24, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that Poland has prepared transit corridors for Ukrainian grain to pass through and be "exported to where it is needed."

"I believe that it is the right decision that the Polish government has maintained the ban on the sale of Ukrainian grain on the Polish market. However, we must do everything to ensure that transit is as high as possible," Duda told channel TVP1.

Ukraine is expecting a good grain and oilseed harvest forecast of 80 million tons this season, of which 49 million tons is forecasted for export, according to the Ukrainian Grain Association.

However, Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative and repeated attacks on port infrastructure means that Ukraine is facing difficulties with exporting these goods via its own Black Sea ports.

Transit corridors to Baltic Sea ports, like Klaipeda, could provide Ukraine with the opportunity to export up to 10 million tons of grain per year, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Sept. 6.

Read also: Ukraine ready to take neighbors to court as continued grain bans threaten exports

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Miss Utah, Noelia Voigt, was crowned the new Miss USA on Friday night.

Voigt spoke to Insider about leading the pageant after its very controversial year.

Contestants claimed the 2022 pageant was rigged, and president Crystle Stewart left the organization.

As the new Miss USA, Noelia Voigt will be leading the legendary pageant organization after a very controversial year.

Voigt recently sat down with Insider to speak about her upcoming reign, and how she hopes to shine a more positive spotlight on Miss USA.

After R'Bonney Gabriel was crowned Miss USA in October 2022, contestants claimed that the pageant had been rigged in her favor. The Miss Universe Organization launched an investigation, and Crystle Stewart  who was president of Miss USA at the time  was suspended. In August, the organization announced in a statement that it had found the rigging allegations were "false." That same day, it was announced Stewart would no longer be president of Miss USA. Stewart did not comment when reached through her representative.

Voigt said she had friends who competed at Miss USA under Stewart's leadership and "it's really sad to hear their stories."

"I think it's important that we validate their feelings, because they're speaking their truth," she added.

Voigt during her crowning moment on Friday night. Courtesy of Miss USA

But Voigt only had high praise for Laylah Rose, who was announced as the new Miss USA president in August.

"She's such an empowering woman," Voigt said. "I knew we were in for such a special time with her because she's a very positive influence on everybody around her, and she wants us to be that way with other people."

Voigt said Rose was dedicated to creating a positive environment at Miss USA this year, and that she had listened to the stories of past contestants "who may have had bad experiences under several different ownerships."

"Laylah has created and fostered the perfect environment for women supporting women, and for philanthropy to be the focus," she said. "So that's what I'm really excited about, showing people there is a true definition of pageantry  and what happened in the past is not that."

Voigt is the first Miss Utah to win Miss USA since 1960. Courtesy of Miss USA

As the new Miss USA, Voigt said she hopes to show people that the competition is so much more than a beauty pageant  and that it's still relevant.

"We are able to make an incredible difference in people's lives," she said. "If you take a look at everything all the state and national titleholders have been able to do, the differences they've been able to make in people's lives, I'd argue that pageants are still incredibly important and should remain relevant because of that."

Voigt, 23, is the first Miss Utah to win Miss USA since 1960. She will now represent the United States at the Miss Universe pageant on November 18 in El Salvador.

Gabriel, the current Miss Universe, was the first American to win the pageant in 10 years.

Read the original article on Insider
PULLED FROM THE CABINET  Girl snatched from campground rescued hours after predator slipped note into family mailbox. Continue reading 

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IN THEIR POCKET  Republicans sound alarm over CCP-linked businessman's cash offer to Hunter Biden. Continue reading 

CRIME IN THE CAPITAL  Longtime Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar carjacked at gunpoint. Continue reading 

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Original article source: Missing girl rescued after family receives ransom note, Day 2 of Trump civil trial and more top headlines
ALBANY, N.Y. (WTEN)  A 9-year-old girl who vanished during a family camping trip in New York two days ago has been found after an extensive search, police announced Monday evening.

Charlotte Sena has been located and in good health, New York State Police said in a short press release. A suspect is in custody. This is still an active investigation.

Sena disappeared while riding her bike early Saturday evening at Moreau Lake State Park, a heavily wooded area some 35 miles (60 kilometers) north of Albany.

The girls mother called 911 after her bicycle was found around 6:45 p.m. Saturday. Police feared she may have been abducted.

About 400 search and rescue personnel were actively searching a 46 linear mile area around Moreau Lake State Park after an Amber Alert was activated Sunday morning.

Troopers set up several checkpoints on the winding, rural roads around the park. They stopped drivers and asked if they knew the family, had seen the girls photo or had any other information that could help the search. They also had some drivers open their trunks.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday night during a news conference that investigators were able to identify a fingerprint from a ransom note allegedly left by the suspect she identified as Craig Nelson Ross Jr., 47.

What happened was extraordinary, she said.

She said while the rest of Charlottes family remained at the campground where she had gone missing, police watching their home saw someone drop a note in their mailbox at 4:20 a.m. Monday. State police pulled fingerprints off the note and the second one matched Ross, who was in a database from a 1999 DWI case, Hochul said.

Law enforcement agents linked Ross to a property owned by his mother, made entry and found him in a camper at about 6:30 p.m., she said.

After some resistance, the suspect was taken into custody and immediately the little girl was found in a cabinet, Hochul said. She knew she was being rescued. She knew that she was in safe hands.

Charlotte was taken to a local hospital, as is customary, Hochul said, adding that she appeared physically unharmed and that she and her family have been reunited.

No charges have been brought against Ross, but they are expected, Hochul said. Ross was still being questioned on Monday night, Hochul said.

The governor named Ross as the suspect late Monday night and it wasnt immediately known if he had a lawyer to comment on his behalf.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
ALBANY, N.Y. (WTEN)  A 9-year-old girl who vanished during a family camping trip in New York two days ago has been found after an extensive search, police announced Monday evening.

Charlotte Sena has been located and in good health, New York State Police said in a short press release. A suspect is in custody. This is still an active investigation.

Sena disappeared while riding her bike early Saturday evening at Moreau Lake State Park, a heavily wooded area some 35 miles (60 kilometers) north of Albany.

The girls mother called 911 after her bicycle was found around 6:45 p.m. Saturday. Police feared she may have been abducted.

About 400 search and rescue personnel were actively searching a 46 linear mile area around Moreau Lake State Park after an Amber Alert was activated Sunday morning.

Troopers set up several checkpoints on the winding, rural roads around the park. They stopped drivers and asked if they knew the family, had seen the girls photo or had any other information that could help the search. They also had some drivers open their trunks.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday night during a news conference that investigators were able to identify a fingerprint from a ransom note allegedly left by the suspect she identified as Craig Nelson Ross Jr., 47.

What happened was extraordinary, she said.

She said while the rest of Charlottes family remained at the campground where she had gone missing, police watching their home saw someone drop a note in their mailbox at 4:20 a.m. Monday. State police pulled fingerprints off the note and the second one matched Ross, who was in a database from a 1999 DWI case, Hochul said.

Law enforcement agents linked Ross to a property owned by his mother, made entry and found him in a camper at about 6:30 p.m., she said.

After some resistance, the suspect was taken into custody and immediately the little girl was found in a cabinet, Hochul said. She knew she was being rescued. She knew that she was in safe hands.

Charlotte was taken to a local hospital, as is customary, Hochul said, adding that she appeared physically unharmed and that she and her family have been reunited.

No charges have been brought against Ross, but they are expected, Hochul said. Ross was still being questioned on Monday night, Hochul said.

The governor named Ross as the suspect late Monday night and it wasnt immediately known if he had a lawyer to comment on his behalf.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
The Russians are installing surveillance cameras and new wiretapped mobile phone towers. Structures like these have appeared in the Russian-occupied cities of Melitopol and Berdiansk.

Source: Ukraines National Resistance Center

Details: Furthermore, there has been an increase in electronic warfare efforts.

Hence, the Russian occupying authorities and Russian forces are seeking to complicate the local resistance members' efforts to transfer intelligence.

The local resistance systematically informs the Ukrainian Defence Forces on the movements and deployment of Russian forces and equipment in the temporarily occupied territories. Intelligence from the underground facilitates strikes against the Russians.

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!
By Alexander Tanas

CHISINAU (Reuters) - Moldova has not used Russian gas since late last year, but it is keeping open the option of buying supply from Gazprom if conditions are right, the head of the Russian gas giant's local subsidiary said on Tuesday.

Since last December, Gazprom's daily supply of 5.7 million cubic metres (mcm) has been channelled to the pro-Russian separatist Transdniestria region, which broke away from Moldova as the Soviet Union was collapsing in 1990.

Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries, has denounced Russia's war in neighbouring Ukraine and has been beset by years of disputes that pre-date the war over payment for Russian gas.

The Russian gas is used by a power station in Transdniestria that produces 80% of Moldova's electricity at low rates, so Moldova is keen to keep the arrangement in place. The rest of Moldova has been using gas from European suppliers bought through the state-owned gas and power company Energocom.

Vadim Ceban, head of Gazprom subsidiary Moldovagaz, said purchases of Russian gas for the bulk of Moldova's territory are possible if the right conditions are met.

"Theoretically, we can buy Russian gas, but this is subject to two key conditions - the price of gas must be lower than that proposed by Energocom and there must be appropriate volumes as needed by Moldova," Ceban told Reuters.

The current contract between Moldovagaz and Gazprom provides for prices higher than those offered through Energocom by European suppliers.

"The situation on gas purchases will become clear once the conditions on supplying gas from Energocom are proposed in the first quarter of 2024," Ceban said.

Moldovan Energy Minister Victor Parlicov told a conference in Bucharest on Monday that Moldova had secured sufficient quantities of European gas and had no plans to buy gas from Gazprom for use in areas under the government's control.

But on Tuesday, he acknowledged that purchases of Russian gas were possible, subject to strict conditions.

"It's possible, if Gazprom proposes a favourable price and if Russia does not impose political conditions," Parlicov told the news outlet newsmaker.md.

"I do not rule out Gazprom looking for ways to supply (the government-controlled part of) Moldova west of the Dniestr River and at the best prices. And we will have the opportunity to choose," Parlicov was cited as saying.

Purchases of Western European gas were made possible last winter by a financing facility of 300 million euros ($314 million) from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Moldova uses 1.1 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas annually, while Transdniestria consumes 2.2 bcm.

Transdniestria, long supported financially and politically by Moscow, has not made payments for Russian gas for some time, and Gazprom has not sought to collect the arrears.

Transdniestria fought a brief war with newly independent Moldova in 1992, and 1,500 Russian troops remain there as peacekeepers as part of a ceasefire negotiated that year.

(Reporting by Alexander Tanas; Editing by Ron Popeski and Tom Hogue)
A Wisconsin woman and her child were carjacked and kidnapped in a parking lot in Grand Chute, according to police.

At about 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2, the 31-year-old Neenah woman was getting into her vehicle with her 4-year-old when a knife-wielding man approached, threatened her and grabbed her keys, the Grand Chute Police Department said in a news release.

The man made them ride in the vehicle with him as he drove from bank to bank, forcing the mother to withdraw money to give to him, police said.

Eventually, the woman and child got away from the man and reported what happened to police, the department said. They were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police quickly shared the license plate number and description of the stolen vehicle  a black sedan  with neighboring departments and sheriffs offices, the release said.

Through a coordinated effort, authorities tracked down the vehicle and arrested the accused carjacker, who police only identified as a 51-year-old man.

He was booked into the Outagamie County Jail on charges of carjacking, kidnapping and robbery, as well as bail jumping, the release said.

An investigation is ongoing and anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Grand Chute Police Department at 920-832-1575.

Grand Chute is roughly 30 miles southwest of Green Bay.

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Mom seen being attacked by gun-toting biker in Philadelphia: Glad that video is not me dying

A woman in a widely circulated video  publicized by Philadelphia police  in which a motorcyclist is seen vandalizing her car, pointing a gun and then head-butting her with a helmet on said she risked her life to protect her two children.

Im glad my kids are OK. Im glad nobody got hurt, Nikki Bullock, 23, said Tuesday afternoon. It could have gone way worse than it did. Im just glad that video is not me dying on the internet.

Bullock said she was on the job as an Uber Eats driver when the incident occurred Sunday night. Bullock's girlfriend and her young children were also in the Ford Fusion, she said.

Thats when a large group of ATV, dirt bike and motorcycle riders drove near them and one of them  the man Philadelphia police are looking for  sideswiped her Fusion, which led to an argument, Bullock said.

In a statement Tuesday, police asked for the publics help identifying the male motorcyclist, who is wanted for aggravated assault and vandalism. The departments major crimes auto squad is investigating. The incident occurred near City Hall, police said.

In the video, a man in a helmet stands on the trunk of a car while bike riders drive past the scene. The motorcyclist then stomps with both feet and smashes through the rear windshield, the video shows.

The man then gets off the vehicle, and the driver gets out. The motorcyclist then points a gun at the woman who got out of the car, the video shows.

But the woman continues to move toward the motorcyclist as they argue. The motorcyclist then head-butts the woman while wearing a helmet and pushes her, the video shows.

In sharing the video, police pointed out gold decals on the motorcyclists helmet and tattoos on his right arm, and they zoomed in on a still image of the motorcyclist, which partly shows his face.

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, a police representative said over email that the person of interest seen in the video has been identified but not arrested. There were no additional updates, the representative said.

In a longer video posted on the Instagram, the woman who stepped out of the car, after she has a gun pointed at her, pushes the motorcycle to the ground while the rider is on it.

That video also shows the driver being surrounded by riders passing on each side of her and the car. The woman then walks away from the car carrying a child.

George Coloney, who posted the longer video to Instagram, told NBC Philadelphia he was visiting the city from Florida when he witnessed the incident from a double-decker tour bus.

I just started filming a video of all the bikers when, next thing you know, this guy hops off and jumps on this ladys car, he said.

The ordeal, Coloney added, could have ended tragically, according to the station.

For him to take it that far, its just out of control, Coloney said. To the point where many people couldve died in an instant.

Bullock said Tuesday she is a licensed gun carrier but did not have a weapon on her when the motorcyclist pointed a gun.

Im licensed to carry. I was just not scared. It did not faze me, she said.

Bullock said she wants justice and hopes law enforcement comes down hard on her attacker, especially because children could have been hurt.

I got kids. Its wrong, she said. Its just way different if it was just me and my girlfriend.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
In recent months we have taken a close look at some fairly exceptional airshow photography here at The War Zone. This has brought us very close to action including the moment of release of a countermeasures cartridge from an F/A-18 Hornet fighter , as well as the spectacle of a Polish Su-22 ground-attack jet using photo-flash flares to light up the night sky. Now, Twitter user and aviation photographer @Task_Force23 has shared with us a remarkable capture of an F-35A jet popping out a flare in its uniquely stealthy way.

The photo in question was taken on September 30 at the Pacific Airshow over Huntington Beach, California, which features an air display that takes place directly over the water. As to the aircraft, this is the Lightning II from the U.S. Air Forces F-35A Demonstration Team. You can read more about that team, and its pilot for this season, Maj. Kristin Beo Wolfe, in this previous War Zone story . Clearly evident below the rear fuselage of the jet is a small door, behind which a flare cartridge is seen in the process of ejection, just before it spools away and ignites in a fiery ball, as in the photo below.

https://www.twitter.com/Task_Force23/status/1708861142783902054?s=20

Of course, infrared decoy flares are a very popular addition to a wide variety of airshow display routines, by fixed-wing aircraft large and small, as well as helicopters. In the past, we have also looked at some of the restrictions that can apply to using these decoys. After all, while they look spectacular, they also come with their own risk, on account of their pyrotechnic nature.

Regardless, the F-35As routine at the Pacific Airshow made use of flares, although these countermeasures are perhaps not something immediately associated with the jet.

The full version of the image that appears at the top of this story, showing the moment of flare ejection, while a previously released flare burns brightly. @Task_Force23

As a stealth fighter, the F-35 series, of course, has a wide range of highly advanced tricks when it comes to avoiding hostile air defense systems and other sensors and weapons that the enemy might bring to bear against it.

Nevertheless, defensive countermeasures, in the form of radar-reflecting chaff and infrared decoy flares are tools in its repertoire and remain an effective way of protecting the aircraft from missile threats. Simply put, they are designed to spoof hostile heat-seeking missiles by providing a more enticing target.

Now, thanks to this photo from @Task_Force23, we can look in close detail at how the F-35A goes about launching a flare.

First, TF tells us about how they captured the shot:

I was hoping the 10 fps on my D500 would be able to catch the instant a flare popped out from the payload door but didnt expect to catch the moment just before the canister lights up. Was honestly aiming for something like the photo below.

@Task_Force23

My attention was actually on the visible compression and expansion waves on the jet while going over the shots on the computer (which are awesome in their own right), but then I noticed the small metal canister when zooming in to check for sharpness.

Just got really lucky with the timing on the shutter.

As for the jet, the key specialty is the fact that, prior to use, the F-35As expendable countermeasures are concealed behind dual flip-open doors, located immediately aft of the weapons bays, and these feature serrated edges to help with the aircraft's low observable radar signature.

The general layout of the defensive systems on a U.S. Marine Corps F-35B. The general location of the infrared countermeasures dispensers, as well as radio-frequency countermeasures dispenser, loaded with flares and towed decoys respectively, are the same as on the F-35A. Lockheed Martin



As to whats inside those doors, we know that, in the early years of the F-35As Air Force service, chaff countermeasures, which release radar reflective material to blind and confuse enemy aircraft and air defenses, were not included. Back in 2019, we reported on how the decision was taken to introduce chaff cartridges, after all.

It's also worth noting that, just behind the hatch for the expendable countermeasures on the right-hand side is another trapdoor, this time for the potential housing of an electronic warfare-enabled towed decoy known as the AN/ALE-70. This highly advanced store, four of which can apparently be carried, is something that we have discussed in detail in the past .

An annotated photo of an F-35C, showing the dual flip-open infrared countermeasures dispenser door (blue arrow) and the towed decoy deployment door located just aft of it (red arrow). Lockheed Martin



In terms of infrared countermeasures, we dont know for sure what flares were being used over Huntington Beach, although we have reached out to the F-35A Demonstration Team for more details. In the meantime, we can get an idea about what these cartridges cost, thanks to Pentagon budget documents dating back to 2018. The MJU-61/B flare, for example, cost $75 apiece, in 2018 prices. More capable is the MJU-68/B flare, which costs an eye-watering $3,000 per unit and would make for a very expensive fireworks display.

Another option is the MJU-66/B flare , with a price tag of $135 in 2018, and described by the U.S. Department of Defense as follows:

MJU-66 decoy Countermeasure Flare is an improved version of the MJU-64 providing increased decoy effectiveness and protection for the A-10, C-130, and F-35 aircraft and HH-53 and HH-60 helicopters and is being evaluated for other aircraft. It is a one-piece aluminum case containing a payload of advanced special material elements, loaded into a multiple jettison unit magazine installed on a countermeasure dispenser. When deployed into the air stream, the special material reacts to emit an infrared signal to decoy infrared-seeking missiles.

f35.com

The disparity in costs reflects the very different kinds of capabilities that different countermeasures flares can provide. At one end of the scale is the kind of flare that simply provides a heat source, which can be enough to beat a simpler threat. To defeat a more advanced threat, a countermeasure might not only need to match the host aircrafts thermal signature but might also need to perform aerodynamically in order not to simply fall away. As infrared seekers and their software and hardware backends improve, more advanced countermeasures will are needed.

The F-35A Demonstration Team performs over Lake Washington, including punching out flares, during the 2022 Seafair Air Show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NShwHGOA9sM

As well as airshow performances, air combat exercises, or real-world combat, theres another scenario in which an Air Force F-35A might employ flares. This is to provide a clear warning to an intercepted aircraft in peacetime, like the single-engine airplane that ventured into temporary restricted airspace over San Francisco in June this year. While it was intercepted by an F-35A, on that occasion the fighter wasnt permitted to use flares, but it was cleared to fly a  headbutt  maneuver  typically, flying close to the intercepted aircraft, before pulling up in front of them, sometimes in a steep climb, to get the pilots attention. As we suggested at the time, the low altitude of the intercept was likely a factor in no flares being authorized.

https://www.twitter.com/aeroscouting/status/1671201651426992128?s=20

All in all, the extensive box of self-protection tricks available to the F-35 pilot means that they can fly into combat against many types of threats with a good degree of confidence that they will survive. Nevertheless, infrared countermeasures have far more value than their use for airshow displays or getting the attention of a civilian pilot flying where they shouldnt.

With potential adversaries continually working to improve their air defenses, stealthy aircraft such as the F-35 will face ever more threatening environments that will demand a full spectrum of defensive capabilities  including ever more advanced expendable countermeasures, including flares  to ensure they can successfully complete their missions.

Contact the author: thomas@thedrive.com
Two North Jersey residents, one of them a Montclair State University police officer, were arrested last week and accused of a fraud scheme that included the trade of a PBA card, officials said.

The officer, Christopher Angst, 48, of Long Valley, and Michael McFadden, 54, of New Milford are facing charges for alleged insurance fraud.

McFadden allegedly created false documents saying Angst had a workers' compensation coverage policy for his C&E Professional Painting LLC, in Long Valley.

At the time, McFadden was employed as an insurance agent with Insuranze Associates in Hasbrouck Heights. However, the Morris County Prosecutors Office said, the defendant did not have a workers' compensation insurance policy.

An initial investigation revealed that Angst had falsely presented his painting business to a client as being insured, the Prosecutor's Office said.

NJ news This Paterson principal was transferred to another high school. He hasn't shown up to work

Those documents were unknowingly submitted to an insurance carrier by the client.

"It is also alleged that Angst gifted McFadden a gold Police Benevolent Association card in exchange for the documents," a press release said.

Angst is charged by summons complaint with one count of fourth-degree falsifying/tampering with records, one count of third-degree insurance fraud, one count of fourth-degree failure to provide workers' compensation, one count of fourth-degree forgery, and one count of third-degree conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.

McFadden is charged by summons with fourth-degree falsifying, one count of third-degree insurance fraud, one count of fourth-degree hindering, one count of fourth-degree forgery, and one count of third-degree conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Morris County charges two in fraud scheme involving PBA card
In January, residents of Chicago's 37th Ward and a coalition of community groups gathered in the cold to protest outside a planned Amazon warehouse in the city's West Humboldt Park neighborhood.

Demonstrators held signs demanding equality in hiring. They expressed frustration about being excluded from meetings on the project, and called for transparency from the local alderman and the e-commerce giant.

But they werent trying to keep Amazon from moving into the neighborhood. They wanted the warehouse to open sooner.

A job beats no job, said one ward resident.

After months of delays, Amazon will begin operating the delivery facility in early October and plans to hire for 350 full- and part-time jobs.

Community groups have attempted to wrangle commitments from Amazon related to local hiring and wages for around two years, but they have mostly stopped short of trying to keep the warehouse from opening.

In a neighborhood that has suffered from decades of disinvestment, many residents see the warehouse, shiny in blue and white paint, as a step forward.

At the same time, Amazon is facing significant federal scrutiny over working conditions and injury rates within its warehouses. Experts who study the warehousing industry questioned the long-term impact the facility, and its associated jobs, could have on the community.

We typically count the number of jobs that are coming in, said Nik Theodore, a professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. We have to pay a lot more attention to the question of job quality.

Is a job better than no job? Perhaps, said Beth Gutelius, research director for the Center for Urban Economic Development at UIC. But I think we underestimate, at our own peril, the long-term physical and mental health impacts of working at Amazon.

When workers there begin moving packages in October, the West Humboldt Park warehouse will be what Amazon calls a sub-same day facility. That means it will house inventory of popular items customers may want delivered on the same day  dog food, baby formula or diapers, for instance  that Amazon Flex drivers, who are not Amazon employees, will deliver out of passenger cars.

Hiring for the facility is underway. Amazon has thus far declined to commit to specific geographic hiring targets  some community organizations have called for the company to hire 60% of its staff from the West Side  but says it is working with community organizations to hire locally. Amazon said the vast majority of hires are from the city and that many live in and around West Humboldt Park.

The bottom rungs of the ladder were missing

On a sweltering day in late August, Terrance Whitehead gestured toward a nearby apartment building from the porch of his home just east of the new warehouse. Whitehead, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years, was glad it was opening.

In this apartment building right here, I know at least 10 people who need jobs, he said.

Whitehead would have wanted to work there himself, but suffered an injury doing maintenance work earlier this year. A ceiling fell in on him, causing him to break his hip. Now, he said, he cant work at all.

Finding employment continues to be a struggle for many on the West Side, especially in the decades since Chicago lost the manufacturing jobs that helped form the backbone of the citys economy, said Theodore, the UIC professor.

When companies moved manufacturing jobs overseas, a process that accelerated in the 1980s, Chicago workers lost their jobs and people stopped spending in neighborhoods such as West Humboldt Park, Theodore said.

Restaurants and department stores shuttered. Young people who might have gotten their first job working as a grocery clerk could no longer find work at their neighborhood supermarket, because they had closed too.

The bottom rungs of the ladder were missing for young people in neighborhoods like West Humboldt Park, Theodore said. Theres hope that with new development and new investment in the neighborhood, some of those rungs, the missing rungs on the ladder will be replaced, he said.

But its been a problem that was decades in the making. And I think its not an exaggeration to say a generation or two of young people have grown up in the neighborhood without those opportunities, Theodore said.

In the warehouses ZIP code, which spans parts of Humboldt Park and the Austin neighborhood, the unemployment rate over the five-year period from 2017 to 2021 was above 10%, compared with a city average of 8.4%, according to census data.

Young people in particular have struggled to find work. Close to 1 in 5 residents between the ages of 20 and 24 were unemployed over the five-year timespan. The median household income was $44,549.

The manufacturing jobs of the past were highly unionized, which led to upward pressure on wages and working conditions throughout the entire manufacturing sector, Gutelius said. Union density in the warehousing industry that has taken its place is much lower, she said.

Pay at the new Amazon warehouse will start at $19.50 an hour, above the city minimum wage of $15.80 but well below the floor of $28.50 that some community organizers have called for. Employees who work 30 hours or more a week will receive benefits including health, vision and dental insurance, parental leave, and a 401(k) match. About half of the jobs will be part time.

If you dont have bad legs, youll eventually get them.

In recent years, Amazon has faced significant scrutiny regarding working conditions and injury rates within its warehouses, sparking labor organizing among workers and drawing the attention of federal regulators.

In the summer of 2022, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened investigations into working conditions at six Amazon warehouses across the country, including one in north suburban Waukegan, Illinois. The probe arose after referrals from the U.S. attorneys office for the Southern District of New York, which said it was investigating possible fraudulent conduct designed to hide injuries from OSHA.

OSHA investigators found Amazon exposed workers to a high risk of musculoskeletal injuries  such as low back injuries, spinal disc damage and injuries to the hips, shoulder and hands  linked to the frequency with which they were required to lift heavy items, including packages.

In Waukegan, the investigations led to Amazon being cited twice for alleged violations: Once for exposing workers to injuries and once for failing to properly record work-related injuries, with total penalties in Illinois tallying up to less than $25,000.

While Amazon has developed impressive systems to make sure its customers orders are shipped efficiently and quickly, the company has failed to show the same level of commitment to protecting the safety and well-being of its workers, Doug Parker, assistant secretary for OSHA, said in a statement at the time.

When OSHA cited Amazon for alleged record keeping violations, the agency alleged the company had improperly classified injuries as not having required a worker to take time off work, or take on a job transfer or restriction, when in fact they did so. In one case in Waukegan, the agency alleged, a workers head injury was misclassified as a muscle strain.

Amazon has vigorously objected to the government citations and is appealing them.

The governments allegations dont reflect the reality of safety at our sites, and our publicly available data show weve improved injury rates in the U.S. by 23% between 2019 and 2022, said Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly.

The company also said it had reduced its rate of injuries requiring employees to take time away from work by 69% since 2019. It claimed its rate of such injuries was below the industry average.

This spring, an analysis of OSHA data released by the union coalition Strategic Organizing Center found that though the companys rate of injuries that required workers to be put on light duty, transfer duties or take time away from work dipped slightly in 2022 from 2021, its rate of those types of injuries were more than double the rate found in non-Amazon warehouses.

Amazon was responsible for 53% of all light duty or lost time injuries in the warehouse industry in 2022 despite employing 36% of American warehouse workers, the report found.

The company also disputes the methodology used in the SOC report, saying it is based on incomplete data.

Many large companies with similar operational footprints that should be included in such a calculation report almost all of their injuries under different reporting codes than we do, Kelly said. As a result, industry average actually represents only a small subset of the companies that have businesses similar to ours, and many are much smaller.

The company, which posted $514 billion in net sales last year, said it had invested $1 billion in safety initiatives from 2019 to 2022 and said it was investing an additional $550 million this year.

The vast majority of our employees tell us they feel our workplace is safe. We know there will always be ways for us to improve even further, and we will  well never stop working to be safer for our employees, Kelly said.

Amazon is a retailer that acts with a tech companys move fast and break things, ethos, Gutelius said. The company brings new technologies, such as tracking software, online to increase productivity and efficiency in its warehouses, she said.

But its kind of colliding with the limits, she said, of workers actual bodies and how fast they can work, and when they need breaks.

Katrina Washington, who lives in Austin, said she worked for Amazon for a couple of months a handful of years ago at a facility in Kenosha. The pay and benefits were good, she said, but she found the job exhausting and hard on her body.

The movements required were robotic  youre twisting, turning, bending, squatting, she said  and employees were required to work fast.

If you dont have bad legs, she said, youll eventually get them.

Her longest break during her shift was 30 minutes, she said. When she would get home at the end of the day, Washington said, she could barely eat. I was too exhausted. I was aching and everything.

Washington, 53, had an existing work-related back injury from her time as a certified nurse assistant in a nursing home, and left Amazon on a doctors orders related to that injury. She works part time for Get to Work, a community group that has been involved in organizing around Amazon in West Humboldt Park.

Washingtons son, James Shelby, has also worked for Amazon. He worked at a facility in Monee, Illinois, in 2021 and 2022.

Shelby, 33, said hed injured and then reinjured his knee working at Amazon. It was the worst pain I ever felt in my knee, he said. I could barely walk.

Still, hes considering applying to work for Amazon in West Humboldt Park.

This summer, Washington joined a protest in which residents called on Amazon to hire locally and pay workers higher wages. Shes concerned about the impact the warehouse could have on pollution in the neighborhood, but thinks it will ultimately be a good thing for the West Side.

If people get the jobs that they need, then itd be less violence, and less crime in the area, because they have something to look for, they have hope, she said. They have something to go to every day.

So many people have kind of burnt out

A few hundred jobs at Amazon wont be enough to turn the tide of disinvestment in a neighborhood such as West Humboldt Park, Theodore said. But the companys presence could serve as a positive market signal to other employers, and warehouse jobs at Amazon could help boost the resumes of young workers who are hired there, he said  if they can stick with the job.

Amazon has been scrutinized for its turnover rate, an issue plaguing the warehouse industry as a whole.

In 2022, an internal Amazon memo from the year prior reported by the technology website Recode showed the company was worried about running out of U.S. warehouse employees by 2024. In a 2021 story analyzing pre-pandemic data, reporters for The New York Times found the companys annual turnover rate was about 150%, close to double that of the retail and logistics industry as a whole.

Kelly, the Amazon spokesperson, said the leaked document was an early draft, and it wasnt appropriately refined or vetted, let alone finalized. He declined to share Amazons current turnover rate.

High turnover could compromise not just the tenure of prospective Amazon employees, but also the number of people Amazon is able to hire from the neighborhood, Theodore said.

The geography of the labor market for warehousing is getting larger and larger because of the high turnover, he said.

Tommy Carden, an organizer who works with Amazon warehouse workers in Will County, said when Amazon opened warehouses in Joliet, most of the people hired were from close by.

Over the past couple of years, that has become less and less true, said Carden, who works with the group Warehouse Workers for Justice. Workers at the facilities are coming from farther and farther away, Carden said.

So many people have tried it, Carden said, and so many people have kind of burnt out.

Kelly, the Amazon spokesperson, said attrition is something all employers face, but we want to do everything we can to make Amazon an employer of choice.

This is accomplished through offering good pay, comprehensive benefits, a safe workplace, and robust training and educational opportunities that are effective, yet always improving, he said.

Ald. Emma Mitts touted the jobs she said the facility would bring to her ward in written responses to questions from the Tribune. Lets give them an opportunity to showcase their employee working-related strategies, she said.

She said her office would address these issues with the appropriate workplace safety measures, legislative and regulatory agencies toward Amazon if and when they should ever become necessary.

Amazon will now be one of the only large employers in the neighborhood, said Adrienne Whitney-Boykin, executive director of the West Humboldt Park Development Council, one of the neighborhood groups that has partnered with Amazon on hiring efforts.

The lot where Amazons facility is has been vacant for years, she said. Whitney-Boykin hopes Amazons presence in the neighborhood could send a positive signal to other businesses.

Whitney-Boykin also thinks the company should address issues of workplace safety.

Were hoping that theyre rectifying them as they come into the neighborhood, she said. Because people will not let it stand; people will unionize and do everything else in order to make sure its fair.

Organizing efforts at Amazon have proven difficult, in part because of the high turnover of workers there. Workers at a Staten Island warehouse voted to unionize in the spring of 2022; Amazon is contesting that election. Elections in Bessemer, Alabama, and Castleton-on-Hudson, New York, are also contested. An attempt to unionize a third New York warehouse faltered.

Elsewhere, including in the Chicago area, workers have organized independently, outside of the federal unionization process through the National Labor Relations Board, sometimes with the assistance of workers centers such as Warehouse Workers for Justice.

In May, labor board officials filed a complaint against Amazon, alleging the company had illegally discouraged organizing efforts at four suburban warehouses last year, including by allegedly calling the police on workers who were collecting signatures on petitions for higher pay. Amazon denied the allegations in the complaints, which will move to a hearing before an administrative law judge in December.

In September, weeks before the West Side facility opened, residents gathered outside Amazon in protest again. Darian Davis, 26, attended the protest where organizers called for higher wages and commitments from Amazon related to the facilitys environmental impact.

Davis, who lives a couple blocks away, has been looking for work for about three months and said he planned to apply there. Hed heard the company has good benefits, such as a 401(k), and offered good pay.

People our age, you know, we need stuff like that to better our future, he said. We need stuff like that in our community because we dont get that most often.

Marcos Ceniceros, executive director of Warehouse Workers for Justice, puts it this way: Youre starving, he said, anythings gonna look and sound pretty delicious.
Crews from the Mamiraua Institute are researching why over 100 dolphins have been found dead in Brazil. | Associated Press

Over the past two weeks, more than 100 river dolphins have been found dead and beached on Brazilian Amazon river shores amid a severe drought in the area. Two more were found on Monday.

Most of the dolphins have been found in Lake Tefe, reported CNN, which is a branch of the Amazon River located in northwestern Brazil.

In Lake Tefe there are about 1,400 river dolphins, including the Tucuxis and red river dolphin species, Miriam Mormontel, a researcher at the Mamiraua Institute for Sustainable Development, told The Associated Press.

In one week, we have already lost about 120 animals between the two of them, which could represent 5 to 10% of the population, said Mormontel.

Experts suspect warmer-than-usual water temperatures are to blame for the deaths, as the area is experiencing severe drought, per NPR. The heat wave in the area has heightened water temperatures, which reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit in recent days.

Brazilian river dolphin species feed on fish, which local media has reported are also dying from the warmer water temperatures, making the situation even more dire, per NPR.

Related

How rare are river dolphins?

If these mortality rates continue to increase, we will enter a very critical situation, considering that both species are threatened to extinction, Mormontel told NBC.

Because of habitat loss or obstruction, pollution and hunting, all six species of freshwater river dolphins are endangered or critically endangered across the world, per the World Wildlife Fund.

Three species live in the Amazon, including Tucuxis, Amazon River dolphins and the Bolivian subspecies of the Amazon River dolphin, per WWF.

What efforts are being made to save the dolphins?

According to the WWF, freshwater dolphins can weigh up to 352 pounds and get up to 9.2 feet long, which makes it difficult to move the animals to safer waters.

The river is in its dry season, on top of a drought, making it impossible in some parts to move the animals via the waterway, reported CNN. Another concern is the carrying of possible disease into other water sources.

Transferring river dolphins to other rivers is not that safe because its important to verify if toxins or viruses are present (before releasing the animals into the wild), Andre Coelho, who is a researcher at the Mamiraua Institute, told CNN Brasil.

Why is the Amazon River dolphin important?

The freshwater dolphins are at the top of the food chain in the Amazon, which allows them to regulate environmental indicators, per the environmental news agency Mongabay.

If the dolphins are doing fine, it usually indicates a healthy river, which will mean a flourishing community for humans, companies and other wildlife species, per WWF. But if they are declining  like they are now  it doesnt bode well for communities along that span of the Amazon River.

Without waterways, many communities are becoming isolated, without access to good quality water, without access to the river, which is their main means of transportation, Ayan Fleishman, a geospatial coordinator at the Mamiraua Institute, told NPR.

According to NPR, Amazonas Gov. Wilson Lima declared a state of emergency due to the drought on Friday.

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The trial is underway for four family members in connection to a raid of a New Mexico compound in 2018 where a missing Clayton County boy was found dead and nearly a dozen other children were found living in squaller.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and others are facing kidnapping or terrorism charges following the raid. Authorities said they found the suspects living with 11 hungry children without running water at the encampment encircled by berms of tires with an adjacent shooting range where guns and ammunition were seized.

The badly decomposed body of Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, who had been reported missing by his mother in Clayton County, was eventually found in an underground tunnel at the compound.

During testimony over the last week, Abdul-Ghanis mother, Hakima Ramzi, talked about her love and devotion to a cheerful son who lived with severe developmental disabilities and frequent seizures  and her shock when her husband, Wahhaj, and his sibling accused her of casting spells on the boy.

He accused me of black magic, Im not that type of a woman to practice black magic, Ramzi said.

Ramzi said her denials fell on deaf ears. She said her husband and his sister traveled abroad to learn more about alternative healing based on the Quran.

After she demanded a divorce, Ramzi said Wahhaj took their son to a park and never returned. She tried unsuccessfully, she said, to track them by phone before turning to police and then child protective services.

During opening statements, the defense claimed that this was a typical Muslim family who wanted to live in a remote area of northern New Mexico, KOAT-TV reported.

Wahhaj, who is representing himself, played a video of Abdul-Ghani to try and show that he came from a loving family.

Wahhaj began to be perceived as combative, and the judge found him to be argumentative and asked that he save what he was saying for closing arguments.

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Authorities allege the family engaged in firearms and tactical training in preparation for attacks against the government, tied to an apparent belief by some that the boy would be resurrected as Jesus Christ and then explain which corrupt government and private institutions needed be eliminated.

Wahhaj, the boys father, along with his sisters Hujrah and Subhanah Wahhaj, and the latters husband, Lucas Morton, were charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, among other charges. Morton and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj were also charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. government personnel.

Because a cause of death was never determined federal prosecutors opted for kidnapping charges, but Siraj Ibn Wahhaj is the only one not yet charged with that because of his legal status as the boys father.

Prosecutors plan to present evidence that Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and his partner Jany Leveille, a Haitian national, took Abdul-Ghani in December 2017 to resettle in New Mexico, where they performed daily prayer rituals over the boy as he cried and foamed at the mouth. They also allege the child was deprived of medication as his health failed.

Leveille was initially charged with kidnapping and terrorism-related charges, but she has agreed to accept a reduced sentence on weapons charges. She has not appeared at the trial.

Defense attorneys for sisters Hujrah and Subhanah Wahhaj told the jury that terrorism allegations against the mothers and New York City natives are largely based on a fantastical diary written by Leveille about her belief that Abdul-Ghani would be resurrected.

Its all completely hypothetical, said Donald Kochersberger who is representing Hujrah Wahhaj. Its all just a fantasy.

He said the familys hardscrabble efforts to secure basic shelter in a harsh, remote environment are being misrepresented by prosecutors as terrorism.

He added that Abdul-Ghanis death shortly after arriving in New Mexico was a shocking and sad outcome for a boy with fragile health but that what the government construes as kidnapping really is just a family traveling together to New Mexico.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj warned jurors that the government will attempt to portray the closeness of family as terrorism.

He urged the jurors to make up their own minds about the credibility of testimony gathered by the FBI from interviews with children.

Attorneys for the defendants have said previously that their clients would not be facing terrorism-related charges if they were not Muslim. The grandfather of the missing boy is the Muslim cleric Siraj Wahhaj, who leads a well-known New York City mosque that has attracted radicals over the years, including a man who later helped bomb the World Trade Center in 1993.

The elder Wahhaj watched the trial Tuesday afternoon from the courtroom gallery.

Im here with an open mind, he said. Were told in my religion to stand up for justice even if its against your own family.

The trial is expected to last a month.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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A summer of detours came to an end Monday for drivers on Mount Baker Highway as the road opened for the evening commute between Noon and Britton roads with a new span over Squalicum Creek.

Officials at the Washington State Department of Transportation finished their inspections late Monday and the road opened about 4 p.m., spokeswoman R.B. McKeon told The Bellingham Herald.

Detour and closure signs were being removed and speed limits in detour areas will resume to nearly normal after four months, McKeon said in a phone interview.

Mount Baker Highway closed June 5 between Britton and Noon roads for an $8.8 million project to widen a culvert where Squalicum Creek flows under the road, allowing easier passage for migrating and spawning salmon. Its part of statewide efforts to boost stream flow because of a 2013 court ruling that said the state must protect salmon runs under treaties with its Indigenous communities.

Not all the work is done, however, and drivers should expect single-lane closures in the construction zone through early November, McKeon said.

Mount Baker Highway will be fully open from 3-8 p.m. daily, McKeon said.

But outside that time, drivers should expect single-lane closures through the work zone. There was no way to predict the timing of those closures, McLeon said.
Travel frenzy to reach new peak in China's "golden week" holiday period

Xinhua) 10:48, October 03, 2023

This photo taken on Sept. 29, 2023 shows passengers at Zhengzhou Railway Station in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province. (Xinhua/Li Jianan)

BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- With this year's super-long "golden week" spanning both the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holidays in full swing, Chinese people are fervently hitting the road to make the most of this eight-day holiday period.

On Sept. 29, the first day of the holiday period lasting until Oct. 6, China's railways handled about 20.1 million passenger trips, setting a new record for daily trip numbers and surpassing 20 million for the first time in history.

Analysts believe that this holiday period will usher in a new peak in travel, accelerating the rebound of China's tourism industry.

"This year's 'golden week' is likely to become the hottest one in the past five years, owing to the combined boost of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the National Day holiday and the Hangzhou Asian Games," said Li Jiwei, deputy dean of Meituan Research Institute.

TRAVEL ENTHUSIASM AT RECORD HIGH

Cross-the-board data reveals that millions of travelers are embarking on journeys during this extended holiday period, driven by robust demand for family reunions and leisure activities.

During this period, China's commercial passenger traffic across railways, highways, waterways and air travel will experience a complete recovery. The total passenger trips are expected to hit 490 million, a jump of 78.6 percent in terms of average daily number compared with the same period in 2022, data from the Ministry of Transport (MOT) showed.

The country is expected to see 190 million railway trips during the 12-day travel rush for the National Day holiday, which lasts from Sept. 27 to Oct. 8 and overlaps the Mid-Autumn Festival, according to the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

A total of 20.098 million railway passenger trips were made in China on Friday and 17.066 million on Saturday, and another 17.2 million passenger trips are expected to be handled by the railways on Sunday.

China's civil aviation sector is projected to handle over 21 million passenger trips during this period, with daily average domestic flight and passenger numbers expected to rise by 18 percent and 17 percent, respectively, compared to the National Day holiday period in 2019, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

A surge of travelers is anticipated to flood roads nationwide. During the holiday period, average daily expressway traffic is projected to reach 57 to 58 million vehicles, soaring 46 to 49 percent over the same period last year, according to the MOT.

Since this year's holiday period coincides with the latter part of the ongoing Hangzhou Asian Games, there is a strong demand for tourism, family reunions and attending events, which is expected to lead to a substantial increase in cross-provincial long-distance trips via highways, the MOT said, noting that cross-provincial and cross-city trips are expected to make up more than 70 percent of all highway journeys.

"Almost all my friends would travel somewhere during this holiday," said Wang Yifan, who works in Beijing, adding that she has merged her holiday with her annual leave for a family vacation to Europe.

As China makes every effort to facilitate cross-border travel, the country is expected to see an average of 1.58 million daily inbound and outbound passenger trips during the holiday period, a roughly 3-fold increase year on year, according to the National Immigration Administration.

TOURISM RECOVERY PICKS UP SPEED

With the "golden week" being the longest public holiday in the second half of the year, Chinese travelers are eagerly looking forward to indulging their wanderlust.

Data from the online travel agency Trip.com Group showed that domestic tour bookings for the holiday period increased by over 400 percent compared to the previous year. Specifically, driven by the allure of the Hangzhou Asian Games, bookings with Hangzhou as the destination experienced a remarkable year-on-year increase of over 500 percent.

According to online platforms Meituan and Dianping, as of Sept. 20, tourism consumption orders on the platforms for the National Day "golden week" holiday doubled compared with 2019, and the number of restaurant reservations grew by 112 percent.

"With bookings for scenic spot tickets, hotels, catering and other services increasing significantly, consumption demand across the country will be further unleashed during the eight-day holiday, which reflects the positive development trend of China's economy," Li said.

Some 62 percent of Chinese consumers plan to increase their spending on traveling in six months, which is much higher than the global average level, according to a report from global auditing and consultancy firm PwC.

This will create great opportunities for the tourism, hospitality and retail sectors, PwC said.

Orders for outbound travel also saw a significant rise, data from Trip.com Group showed. Group tour bookings to countries such as Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka and Kenya have increased significantly in comparison with the same period of 2019, the pre-epidemic level.

According to Zhang Yang, a researcher with the China Tourism Academy, outbound tourism has risen in popularity during the holidays, and related products from multiple travel service providers have been sold out.

"The gradual return of Chinese travelers to the global tourism market is injecting recovery momentum into the global economy," Zhang said.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Sheng Chuyi)
A New York judge will decide how to penalize Trump after ruling the former president committed fraud for years while building his real estate empire. Also in the news: Kevin McCarthy responded "bring it on" to a motion to remove him as House speaker and how a fateful copy machine meeting turned into a Nobel Prize.

 I'm Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. On October 3rd, he asked me what day it was.

Here's the news to know on Tuesday.

Donald Trump's real estate fraud trial begins in New York

In a civil trial expected to last three months, lawyers will try to determine how much former President Donald Trump and his companies will be penalized for fraud. Last week, a New York judge ruled that Trump committed fraud for years while building his real estate empire. Trump unexpectedly announced that he would attend the first day of the trial Monday in a move he's opted against in other recent trials. While the former president hasn't testified in the case yet, Trump and his allies did spend the day targeting New York Attorney General Letitia James, the judge in the case, and other officials, particularly as he seeks his second term in the White House. Read more

Sen. Bob Menendez's trial on bribery and corruption allegations is scheduled for next year.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (C) listens during Donald Trump's civil fraud case at a Manhattan courthouse, in New York City, on Oct. 2, 2023.

More news to know now

What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here.

Gaetz wants McCarthy off the job

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced a motion Monday night to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from the top position in the House.

His motion came after a contentious week of negotiations to avoid a government shutdown, during which Gaetz had previously threatened to oust McCarthy if the speaker looked across the aisle for support.

Hours before Saturday's midnight deadline, McCarthy and Republicans put forward a temporary deal to fund the government through Nov. 17. The stopgap, known as a continuing resolution, received bipartisan support in the House, with 209 Democrats and 126 Republicans voting in favor.

Gaetz's motion to vacate needs 218 votes to successfully remove McCarthy.

McCarthy defended his actions in the face of Gaetz's challenges, telling reporters Saturday, "If I have to risk my job for standing up for the American public, I will do that."

More from Washington: Meet Laphonza Butler, the EMILY's List president entering the Senate today.

House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) arrives for a meeting of the Republican House caucus on Sept. 30, 2023, in Washington, DC.

Jacksonville Sheriff's Office says use of force was justified

The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office has released a report detailing what led up to the arrest of LeKeian Woods, the Black man captured in a viral video handcuffed with swollen eyes and a bloody face over the weekend, and the reasons for the physical tactics used. The agency believes its officers "acted appropriately" in response to a suspected drug deal involving Woods, 24, after "witnessing him conducting a drug transaction." Read more

What Banned Books Week tell us about culture today

Libraries and schools are reporting a significant rise in attempts to ban or restrict books in the U.S. over the past three years. Banned Books Week, Oct. 1-7, draws attention to national and local efforts to remove or limit access to books in libraries, schools and bookstores. Banned books are not new, but a dramatic uptick in challenged books over the past few years, an escalation of censorship tactics, and the coordinated harassment of teachers and librarians has regularly put book banning efforts, and our current cultural moment, in focus. Read more

Karen Bingham holds a Let Freedom Read sign during a Rutherford County Library Board meeting on Monday, Aug. 28, 2023, at City Hall where books were banned.

Quick hits

Two Penn scientists awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for work with mRNA COVID vaccines

Two scientists who worked for decades in obscurity were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for research that led to the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. The prestigious award was given Monday to Katalin Kariko and Dr. Drew Weissman, who met in 1997 at a hallway copy machine at the University of Pennsylvania. Their work resulted in more than 600 million mRNA vaccines delivered to Americans as of early May to protect against severe COVID-19. Read more

Dr. Katalin Kariko and Dr. Drew Weissman.

Photo of the day: A famous backdrop for Paris Fashion Week

Stella McCartney transformed a street market near the Eiffel Tower into an eco-showcase, celebrating her highest sustainability percentage yet. Draped in nostalgia, McCartneys designs channeled 70s thrift shop vibes, recalling borrowed outfits from her iconic parents. Click here for the most glamorous collections, celeb sightings and eye-popping looks.

Models wear creations for the Stella McCartney Spring/Summer 2024 womenswear fashion collection presented Monday, Oct. 2, 2023 in Paris.

Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com or follow along with her musings on Twitter. Support journalism like this  subscribe to USA TODAY here.

Associated Press contributed reporting.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump trial, Gaetz, McCarthy, Jacksonville, banned books, Nobel Prize, fashion week, football: Daily Briefing
Family and friends gather Aug. 29 to pray during a candlelight vigil for Alejandro Fajardo-Torres outside of the AutoZone store at 8338 Sancus Blvd. near the Polaris commercial area. Fajardo-Torres, 43, was a customer at the store who was shot and killed Aug. 24 while trying to intervene during an armed robbery in which a store clerk was pistol-whipped.

Columbus police have arrested two men in connection with the fatal August shooting of a customer who tried to intervene in an armed robbery attempt at an AutoZone store in the Polaris commercial area.

Zackeyis Davis, 22, of the East Side, and Darius Wynn, 28, of the South Side, face charges in Delaware County Common Pleas Court of aggravated murder in the shooting death of Alejandro Fajardo-Torres, 43, according to court records. Davis was ordered held on $5 million bond, and Wynn was ordered held on $3 million bond during their initial court appearances on Monday.

In court records, police accused Davis and Wynn of trying to rob the AutoZone store, 8338 Sancus Blvd., at gunpoint around 5:10 p.m. Aug. 24. Fajardo-Torres, who was a customer and had a concealed carry permit, tried to intervene and help the store clerk, who had been pistol-whipped, police said.

Police accused Davis of shooting Fajardo-Torres, who they say died at the scene from his injuries.

Fajardo-Torres was at the store near his home to pick up a part for his vehicle, according to his fiance, who is among his survivors along with a 10-year-old son, as well as an extended family and large number of friends. A candlelight vigil held outside the store several days after the homicide drew a large crowd.

Police said at the time of Fajardo-Torres' death that they believed the robbery was linked to several others around that time in which auto parts stores were targeted.

Authorities ask anyone with information to call Columbus police homicide detectives at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS.

bbruner@dispatch.com

@bethany_bruner

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Suspects charged in fatal shooting of bystander at Polaris area AutoZone
A man was charged with first-degree murder related to a fatal shooting in north Phoenix on Sunday morning, according to the Phoenix Police Department. Court records indicated the event could have been planned.

Eric Dewayne Norwood, 41, was arrested in the murder of 39-year-old Ricardo Villalobos.

Around 12:30 a.m. Sunday, police responded to a shooting near North 27th and West Morten avenues. When they arrived, they found Villalobos suffering from a critical gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene by the Phoenix Fire Department.

Police learned from witnesses that a man and woman were seen running from the scene and began to search the area. According to police, officers quickly spotted two people who matched the description given to them by witnesses and detained them.

Detectives responded to the scene and later booked Norwood for first-degree murder and counts of armed robbery.

Maricopa County court records indicate the event was planned, as Norwood and the woman texted one another about their locations just minutes before police were called.

'I got one': Suspect asked if car door was unlocked before victim's death

According to court records, the woman accused of running from the scene with Norwood is his ex-girlfriend. She and Norwood exchanged messages about their locations just before Villalobos' death, court records show.

When police arrived, Villalobos was lying in the front yard of a residence with a gunshot wound to his head. Police later found one single bullet casing in the street nearly two houses east of where Villalobos was found.

Court records stated, that after multiple witnesses heard gunshots they also heard the sound of a car crash. They left their houses to see what happened and saw that Villalobos' car had crashed into several others parked in the front yard where police later found him.

One of the witnesses described seeing a man running east on Morton Avenue towards the Interstate 17 access road with a gun in his hand, court records show. They also described seeing a woman running with the man. Other witnesses had the same descriptions of the suspects, including details about the man's height and hair.

Police circulated the area and found Norwood and the woman near 24th and Northern avenues, court records show. They initially fled from police when they first attempted to contact them, but were detained.

Police found a 9mm handgun on Norwood, as well as a holster with blood trailing the path he had fled from police, according to court records. They also observed blood on Norwood's hands and on the woman's legs, court records showed.

One of the witnesses who saw the two run from the area positively identified both Norwood and the woman to be the people they saw running from the area, court records show.

Norwood told police that the woman did not have any knowledge about the incident, according to court records. He did not make any other statements during his interview with police.

The woman told police that Norwood was an ex-boyfriend, according to court records. The records go on to state that on that night, just before the incident, the two were in contact.

According to court records, Villalobos and the woman were sitting inside his truck. She told police he was wearing a condom and his penis was exposed. Then, an unknown subject opened the driver's door and said, "I want everything," she told police, according to court records.

She told police that she then left the car and heard a gunshot. She ran from the scene and told police that Norwood appeared, court records show.

However, the conversations that the two had before the incident suggest that Norwood could have been the person who opened the car door, according to a review of their cell phone records obtained through a police search warrant.

At 12:18 a.m., the woman texted Norwood, "I got one." She texted again eight minutes later that she and Villalobos were at a specific location.

Norwood texted her back, "I see you." At 12:27 a.m., Norwood asked if the door was unlocked.

Three minutes later, police were called to respond to the area for the shooting.

Phoenix Police said the investigation was still ongoing and no other arrests were made as of Monday afternoon.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Murder suspect, woman in truck with victim texted before shooting, Phoenix police say
This is part of Slates daily coverage of the intricacies and intrigues of the Sam Bankman-Fried trial, from the consequential to the absurd. Sign up for the Slatest to get our latest updates on the trial and the state of the tech industryand the rest of the days top storiesand support our work when you join Slate Plus.

Its here: the federal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former cryptocurrency magnate who is accused of defrauding customers of and investors in his crypto exchange FTX, which collapsed last year. Bankman-Fried undoubtedly makes for the most compelling character in this storya quick-thinking former Wall Street quant, always clad in cargo shorts and a T-shirt, who amassed a multibillion-dollar fortune before the age of 30, purportedly for the sake of giving it away for the greater good. The short version of the SBF charges, according to the feds, is that the mogul inappropriately used FTX customer money to allow his crypto hedge fund Alameda Research (which was supposed to have been kept entirely separate from FTX) to make huge bets on in-house tokens his companies had created. Then, when less-than-promising revelations regarding Alameda and FTX finances surfaced in November, investors lost faith in those firms and attempted to yank out their money en massecausing both companies to tank, and taking about $8 billion of customer funds with them. Along the way, SBF, his companies, his inner circle, and even his parents spent lavishly on marketing, real estate, and more.

Its a lot of wreckage for one defendantbut there are a lot more (very colorful!) figures in this story, many of whom will appear throughout the proceedings of U.S. v. Samuel Bankman-Fried, the federal criminal trial that begins this week in Manhattan. (There will be a second trial in March 2024, covering additional charges that wont be litigated this round.) Who was in Bankman-Frieds inner circle? Who might testify against him? What does this have to do with Enron? Ill tell you.

Company role: Founder of both FTX and Alameda Research

Charges: Seven counts encompassing wire fraud, securities fraud, commodities fraud, and money laundering

Trial role: The center of it all!

Best known as: The onetime crypto king whose shaggy clothes, powerful connections, and professed altruistic ideals earned him a brief but mighty period of influence in which his ventures touched everything from politics to journalism outfits to Super Bowl ads to the very future of international financebefore people realized he might just have been a fraud all along.

Other item of note: In the lead-up to this trial, SBF made things a lot worse for himself by attempting to discreetly contact former associates and leaking lots of legally prudent material to reporters, ultimately persuading his judge to move him from a cushy house-arrest deal to a period of detention in a particularly notorious Brooklyn jail.

Company role: Father of SBF and husband of Barbara Fried, early Alameda investor, pro bono counsel for Alameda and FTX, senior adviser at FTX.US, paid member of the FTX management team, other informal roles

Charges: N/A, though hes been caught up in the ongoing FTX bankruptcy suit

Trial role: Likely to be mentioned by the prosecution as an enabler of his sons rise (and subsequent fall) thanks to his significant contributions in getting high-profile figures interested in FTX, vouching for his sons integrity, and guiding FTXs business up through the bankruptcy

Best known as: A popular Stanford Law professor (though hes not teaching at the school this year) who first came to prominence for helping effect tax reforms in California

Other items of note:

Company role: Mother of SBF and wife of Joseph Bankman, informal adviser to FTX executives, self-professed point person on her sons political investments

Charges: N/A, although shes caught up in the bankruptcy suit alongside her husband

Trial role: Likely to be mentioned by the prosecution as an enabler of her sons rise (and subsequent fall) after receiving FTX funds for her super PAC, Mind the Gap, and her frequent encouragement of her sons activities

Best known as: A popular Stanford Law professor, expert in legal ethics, scholar of effective altruism and utilitarianism, and proponent of a philosophy that emphasizes results over abstract notions of right and wrong

Other items of note:

Company role: SBFs younger brother had no direct link to FTX or Alameda, but as with his moms political organization, Gabes nonprofit Guarding Against Pandemics received a loooooooot of FTX money, making up much of its budget.

Charges: N/A, though hes been investigated regarding the straw-donor charges on which SBF will be tried next year

Trial role: Likely to be mentioned as a beneficiary of/collaborator with his brothers schemes, especially those pertaining to their shared enthusiasm for effective altruism

Best known as: A dude who wanted to buy the island nation of Nauru so that he and his brother could carry out Dr. Moreaustyle experiments in creating a superhuman race. (Im not exaggerating.)

Other items of note:

Company role: Employee of Alameda Research from 201822, serving as co-CEO from 2021 through bankruptcy

Charges: Pleaded guilty in December to seven counts encompassing wire fraud, defrauding FTX and Alameda customers, as well as conspiracies to commit commodities fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering

Trial role: Likely star witness for the prosecution and general figure of intrigue, providing evidence including personal writings and testimony

Best known as: A blogger, including of a Tumblr in which she espoused the ideals of effective altruism, praised the wonders of Harry Potter, and dabbled in some race-science theories

Other items of note:

Company role: FTX co-founder and chief of technology, former Alameda employee

Charges: Pleaded guilty in December to wire fraud and three conspiracy counts of wire and securities fraud; also facing civil fraud charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Trial role: Likely witness for the prosecution

Best known as: The coding wiz who (as hes likely to confess at trial) built the digital backdoor allowing Alameda and FTX to illegally commingle funds

Other items of note:

Company role: FTX co-founder and director of engineering, former Alameda employee

Charges: Pleaded guilty in February to charges of wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance misdeeds; also facing civil charges from the SEC and CFTC

Trial role: Likely witness for the prosecution

Best known as: The guy who allegedly withdrew millions of dollars from Alameda and FTX to funnel toward various Democratic candidates and PACsincluding, in part, through Barbara Frieds Mind the Gap operation

Other items of note:

Company role: Former Alameda employee and co-CEO of FTXs Bahamian subsidiary, known as FTX Digital Markets; heavy transmitter of dark-money Republican donations from FTX folks, with the beneficiaries including a Long Island congressman named George Santos

Charges: Pleaded guilty in September to campaign finance violations and operating an illegal money-transmitting business, forcing him to forfeit $1.5 billion to the feds. His sentencing will occur in March.

Trial role: Salame will not be taking the stand thanks to his preemptive insistence on pleading the Fifthhowever, he has otherwise provided evidence for the prosecution, including internal messages with SBF and co.

Best known as: The hometown hero of Sandisfield, Massachusetts (population: 1,000), who bought $6 million worth of restaurants and commercial real estate there thanks to his FTX riches

Other items of note:

Company role: Former partner at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, which advised FTX while Miller served as general counsel for FTX.US

Charges: N/A

Trial role: Likely witness for the prosecution

Best known as: The guy who received a Signal text from SBF that led the presiding judge to file a witness-tampering charge against the disgraced CEO

Other items of note: See more at the Sullivan & Cromwell entry below.

Company role: Joined Caroline Ellison as co-CEO of Alameda Research in 2021, before stepping down just three months prior to the big implosion

Charges: N/A

Trial role: Nothing official, though his name is likely to come up in connection with Alamedas operations

Best known as: The guy who purchased a yacht named Soak My Deck

Other items of note:

Company role: CEO of FTX rival exchange Binance, early investor in FTX, and eventual knife-twister. His November 2022 tweets casting doubt on FTXs business helped kick off the downward spiral that led us here.

Charges: Nothing in this trial, although he and his companies are separately facing 13 counts from the SEC for misleading investors and engaging in securities fraud

Trial role: Likely to be mentioned, frequently

Best known as: The guy who spurred FTXs downfall, even though his own businesses are accused of their own sketchy practices

Other item of note: Binance has been having a time of it ever since the SEC charges landed in Juneamong other things, the fallout has cratered the exchanges once-record-high trading volumes and caused it to exit countries like Russia.

Company role: N/A

Charges: N/A

Trial role: Hes a district judge for the Southern District of New York

Best known as: An aggressive jurist whos presided over many high-profile cases, including the conviction of al-Qaida collaborator Ahmed Ghailani, the prosecution of 14 Gambino crime family members, Chevrons vengeful lawsuit against attorney Steven Donziger, Virginia Giuffres suit against Prince Andrew, and E. Jean Carrolls assault and defamation suits against Donald Trump

Other items of note:

Company role: Current CEO of FTX, having taken over the company after its bankruptcy filing in order to clean up the mess

Charges: N/A, though hes filed quite a few of his own against former FTX employees

Trial role: Likely to be invoked by SBFs defense as the guy who actually made things way worse for FTX than needed, because he took control of the firm from Sam, or something like that

Best known as: The guy who did all this for Enron back in the day

Other item of note: Ray infamously commented, in his first FTX court filing, Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred hereimplying that this whole mess is worse than Enrons!

Company role: This ones a doozy. The celebrated law firm advised FTX and Alameda on several mattersbrought into the gig by its former partner, FTX.US general counsel Ryne Millersuch as regulatory meetings with the CFTC, eventually also advising SBF to declare bankruptcy as the firm fell apart in November 2022. Now its been working on recovering FTX assets.

Charges: N/A

Trial role: Provider of legal documents that prosecutors may find useful; also is likely to be invoked by SBFs legal team as a wrongdoer that advised FTX to make the very bad decisions that the firm is currently attempting to unwind

Best known as: The scapegoat SBF has repeatedly blamed in the past for helping spearhead some sort of government witch hunt against him

Other items of note:

In addition to the aforementioned Larry David, who starred in that FTX Super Bowl commercial, there were a great many celebrities paid heaping piles of money to promote FTX. These stars are facing their own separate class-action lawsuit from customers who are angry over how these famous people of means may have led them into a scam, and you can expect many of these luminaries to be mentioned at this weeks trial. These included plenty of legendary athletesTom Brady, Steph Curry, Naomi Osaka, Shaq, David Ortizas well as other boldfaced names like Bradys supermodel ex-wife Gisele Bundchen and Shark Tanks own Kevin OLeary. Well see if any of them turn in a performance on the stand.
A decades-long mystery behind killer whales harassing and even killing porpoises without consuming them may have finally been unravelled.

Fish-eating killer whales, also known as orcas, may be killing porpoises either for fun as social play, as a hunting practice or as a mis-manifestation of their natural mothering behaviour, revealed a study, published last week in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

Researchers, including those from the University of California in Davis, assessed over six decades of records of this perplexing behaviour among Southern Resident killer whales in the Pacific Northwest that has long intrigued scientists.

This particular species of killer whale are an endangered population, numbering only 75 individuals, with their survival closely tied to the fortunes of another endangered species, the Chinook salmon.

Without enough of the salmon, scientists say these orcas are in danger of extinction. And these killer whales, that are known to kill porpoises, do not eat them as they have a completely different ecology and culture compared to the orcas that eat marine mammals, scientists explained.

So we must conclude that their interactions with porpoises serve a different purpose, but this purpose has only been speculation until now, study co-author Deborah Giles said.

The latest study comes as populations of killer whales on the Iberian Peninsula were seen sinking boats off the coast of Portugal and Spain on three occasions.

While the two populations of killer whales in the Pacific Northwest and the Iberian Peninsula are different with distinct cultures, researchers speculate their affinity for play behaviour may be common.

In the study, researchers analysed 78 documented incidents of porpoise harassment from 1962 to 2020.

The analysis suggests one hypothesis that suggests Southern Resident killer whales may be harassing porpoises likely as a form of social play to bond, communicate, or simply for fun among themselves  a behaviour that may benefit group coordination and teamwork.

Another hypothesis highlighted by the study said orcas may be killing porpoises to hone their salmon-hunting skills.

Researchers suspect these Southern Resident killer whales may be viewing porpoises as moving targets to practice their hunting techniques, even if they do not intend to consume them.

A third theory suggests the killer whales may be attempting to provide care for porpoises they perceive as weaker or ill  a manifestation of their natural mothering inclination to assist others in their group.

Mismothering behaviour  also known as displaced epimeletic behaviour to scientists  might be due to their limited opportunities to care for young, Dr Giles explained.

Our research has shown that due to malnutrition, nearly 70 per cent of Southern Resident killer whale pregnancies have resulted in miscarriages or calves that died right away after birth, she said.

While these theories exist, scientists said the exact reason may never be fully understood.
Constellations consist of star patterns glittering throughout the sky with a beauty that can be observed by peering up. However, theres one constellation that can only be seen in Southern California  and its one that you can live in.

Exterior

Constellation 167 is a four-bedroom, five-bathroom marvel that has landed on the real estate market for $11.99 million in Brentwood . The residence was designed by Eric Owen Moss, an award-winning architect who managed to transform neighborhoods across Los Angeles with his spellbinding and unique work, his website says.

Exterior

And Constellation 167 is no different.

Interior

Its peculiar yet arrestingly addictive design is a love letter to the geometry that exists in nature and life itself, a genius vision that is unmissable and unmatched the globe over, a news release about the home describes. The home feels alive, or that it at least must be a treasured relic of some future moment in space time.

Family room

Current owner, model and actor Nicole Nagel restored the home to all its original glory and added a lagoon complete with a swimming pool in an upgrade that was years in the making, the release said.

Interior

And the interior of the home is just as dramatic as its shapely outside.

Bedroom

Inside, light delicately travels throughout the industrial space as it gently dances across every surface, from the soft terrazzo flooring to burnished steel and mahogany, the release says. To exist here is to realize a process of never-ending discovery, the home gradually revealing fresh, picture-perfect moments to its inhabitants and their guests.

Bathroom

A majestic haven for the true creative mind; a museum-quality showplace to spark imagination and enliven the senses.

Swimming pool

The listing is held by Sally Forster Jones and Tamara Bakir of Compass and Marc de Longeville of Vista Sothebys International Realty.

Exterior

Brentwood is about 15 miles west of downtown Los Angeles.

Exterior

Peek inside this star-certified California home recently rented by J-Lo and Ben Affleck

Unusual home for sale in NY is nearly see-through. Youll just need a ton of Windex
A rendering of Northrop Grummans proposed space station under the NASA Space Act Agreement, which will serve as one of the replacements to the ISS if the company continues work on it.



A rendering of Northrop Grummans proposed space station under the NASA Space Act Agreement, which will serve as one of the replacements to the ISS if the company continues work on it.

NASAs plans to retire the International Space Station and replace it with commercial projects are not kaput, theyre just changing. Wrinkles are now appearing in Blue Origins plans for Orbital Reef, while Northrop Grummans unnamed space station project might not even happen.

Ars Technica reports that Northrop Grumman may be ending its contract with NASA to develop a private space station to help fill the void left behind by the soon-to-be-retired ISS. The outlet cites anonymous sources at the International Astronautical Congress meeting, which is currently ongoing in Azerbaijan, who claim that the company will be completely severing its contract under the Space Act Agreement. Instead, Northrop Grumman will be reportedly joining Voyager Space and Airbus to develop a commercial orbiting lab.

Read more

Blue Origin and NASA confirmed to Gizmodo on Friday via email that Orbital Reef is still full steam ahead, with Sierra Space serving as a sub-contractor. Sierra Space is expected to provide its Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) habitat for Orbital Reef. The habitats consist of a three-story platform designed for both low Earth orbit and long-duration missions that can house habitation and science efforts.



Announced in 2021, the planned space station passed a System Definition Review in August 2022, with NASA approving Blue Origins plans for the project, allowing the company to move into the design phase. Some staff originally assigned to the space station have reportedly been redirected to work on the Blue Moon lunar lander, according to Reuters. The lander is being developed after Blue Origin won a $3.4 billion contract to build and test a human landing system in collaboration with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Draper, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics. The fully reusable Blue Moon lander will hold a crew of four and is expected to be a part of the Artemis 5 mission, scheduled for launch in 2029. The outlet reports that Brent Sherwood, who serves as the companys head of Advanced Development Programs, is eying an exit by the end of the year.

We are actively engaged in designing and testing a multitude of deliverables to NASA for our CLD Phase 1 contract, and were excited about how this work will help shape NASAs CLD Phase 2 destination goals, a Blue Origin spokesperson told Gizmodo in an email today. Sierra is and will continue to be part of the Orbital Reef program. The spokesperson also told Gizmodo that Sherwood is simply retiring.

Meanwhile, Sierra Space announced a massive $290 million in Series B funding last week to develop its own commercial space station. At the same time, the company is looking to get its Dream Chaser spaceplane off the ground. Dream Chaser is designed to fly in low Earth orbit after hitching a ride on a rocket, like ULAs Vulcan Centaur, while handling its own atmospheric re-entry and runway landings. The plane can host three to seven crew members and up to 12,000 pounds (5,443 kilograms) of cargo, transporting it all to pivotal stops in LEO, including the International Space Station (or future commercial space stations, for that matter). The company revealed earlier this summer that it had conducted its first power-up of Dream Chaser, during which engineers simulated the power inputs that the spaceplane would generate with its solar array.

NASA announced in 2022 that the storied era of the International Space Station is set to conclude, with plans to decommission the ISS by 2030. After the crew departs, NASA will initiate maneuvers to guide the ISS to its final resting place near Point Nemo in the Pacific Ocean, the location most remote from any landmass. In September, NASA put out a request for proposals from U.S.-based private space companies to design a spacecraft to help with that deorbiting plan.

As the timeline tightens, the remaining space station construction contracts with private firms become increasingly crucial. Advisors to NASA previously raised concerns during last summers Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, warning that private replacements for the ISS will not be ready before it is scheduled to be decommissioned within the next decade. That NASAs private partners arent necessarily on the same page is hardly encouraging.

This article was updated to include comment from Blue Origin.

For more spaceflight in your life, follow us on X (formerly Twitter) and bookmark Gizmodos dedicated Spaceflight page.

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During the upcoming annular solar eclipse on Oct. 14 a 112-foot (34-meter) retired NASA radio telescope will be pointed at the sun to study what happens when sunspots are covered by the moon.

Part of the Solar Patrol citizen science program , it's a dry run for an experiment that will peak on April 8 next year during a total solar eclipse in the U.S.

Solar Patrol will study radio emission from the sun's inner corona, but exactly how and why is a story about radio telescopes, the sun's currently heightened activity and the incredible gift from nature of two solar eclipses in the same place within six months.

The NASA-funded project will use the Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope (GAVRT) in California's Mojave Desert, which used to be part of NASA's Deep Space Network until it was retired over a decade ago. It's now regularly used by students to study black holes , quasars and planets  operating the telescope remotely and collecting the data  but it's also used to make maps of the sun at radio wavelengths. Twice in the coming six months, GAVRT will be pointed at the sun in an effort to tease out sunspot data that can't otherwise be obtained. Here's how it's going to work.

Related: Don't panic if you see balloons hovering during America's two upcoming solar eclipses

What the radio telescope will see

Astronomers divide the sky into degrees, but each one is divided into 60 equal segments called arc-minutes. "The sun is 30 arc-minutes across, so at any given time our antenna can look at the radiation coming from within only a portion of the sun," Thangasamy Velusamy, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Space.com. Valusamy is working with educators at the Lewis Center for Education Research in Southern California on the Solar Patrol citizen science program. That means GAVRT can only 'see' about a fifth of the sun at any one time. "So what we can do best is to study the sunspots ," Velusamy continued.

Sunspots are disturbances in the sun's magnetic field that can be as big as a planet and are visible as dark spots on its surface. Solar Patrol shouldn't have any problem finding them on the days of the eclipse. After all, they're a daily sight right now as the sun waxes towards solar maximum, the height of the 11-year (or so) solar cycle . "I'm sure the sun will be very active," said Velusamy. "We will have plenty to choose from."

Don't expect any incredible images  this is radio astronomy, the study of the cosmos in radio wavelengths. "Ours will not be a picture show," said Velusamy. "We'll look at the sun at gigahertz wavelengths  radio emission  so we cannot make pretty or instant pictures," he said. It is possible to image the sun in radio wavelengths, but it takes about 30 minutes, he added.

What the radio telescope will study

partial solar eclipse with the moon appearing to take a 'bite' out of the sun. A large sunspot is visible on the surface.

Solar Patrol scientists will watch as sunspots are covered by the moon. (Image credit: Meggan Wood via Getty Images)

Solar Patrol will actually study "active regions"  the magnetically complex regions that form over sunspots in the sun's inner corona  as the moon moves over them.

"Radio frequencies don't look at the surface of the sun  the photosphere  the radio emission depends on the frequency you're looking at," said Velusamy. "We make maps at four different frequencies from 3-14 gigahertz, which means we can probe heights of 2,000 to 15,000 kilometers above the surface of the sun." That's crucial because it allows measurements of the magnetic field in the layers of the sun above the sunspots. "

A lot of space missions measure the magnetic field far away from the sun, but to connect it to what is happening in the sun we need these intermediate measurements," said Velusamy.

The difference an eclipse makes

a large antenna against a blue sky.

The Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope (GAVRT) is located California's Mojave Desert. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GAVRT)

Sunspots can be studied using a radio telescope at any time. Why do so during an eclipse? An eclipse reveals details on the sun a radio telescope can't otherwise detect. As it moves across a sunspot, the moon will block different portions of it at different times, allowing scientists to distinguish light signals coming from one portion versus another. "As the moon moves across a sunspot during the eclipse the power collected by the antenna will decrease," said Velusamy. How much it decreases depends on how bright the active region is, but the students will get two sets of data  one when the sunspot disappears behind the moon and the other when it reappears. "We'll be able to deconstruct the sunspots in very high angular resolution detail," said Velusamy.

Exactly where the telescope will be pointed will depend on where the sunspots are on the days of the eclipses, but if there are any  and it's highly likely there will be  GAVRT will detect subtle changes to the radio emissions from active regions. This same technique was first used during the last annular solar eclipse in the US in May 2012, when 83% of the sun was blocked by the moon as seen from Apple Valley.

Why April's eclipse is more important

For eclipse-chasers, totality  when the moon blocks all of the sun and twilight descends  is the big prize. That's not the case for a radio telescope.

Although GAVRT will be pointed at the sun during both solar eclipses coming up in North America, on neither occasion will the radio telescope see the best of either, with no 'ring of fire' on Oct. 14, 2023, nor totality on April 8, 2024. In fact, in October GAVRT will see 77% of the sun eclipsed by the moon while in April it won't quite reach 50%. That's largely irrelevant  the success depends on whether there are sunspots on the surface of the sun and whether the geometry means they're eclipsed by the limb of the moon. "The size of the eclipse doesn't really matter to us because we are looking at only localized regions within the sun," said Velusamy.

However, there are reasons why April's eclipse will be much easier for GAVRT to study than October's. "The sun will be very low on the horizon early in the morning on October 14, which will be very challenging," said Velusamy. At the beginning of the eclipse, the sun and moon will be just 14 degrees up in the southeast. "Our antenna can go down to 8 degrees, but it's not the best conditions for making observations." In April the eclipse begins a couple of hours later when the sun will be much higher up in the southeast  about 44 degrees.

It's for that reason that October's eclipse is something of a testbed for April's. October is also a time when the weather can be more challenging, though there's an upside to radio astronomy that all eclipse-chasers will be jealous of. "At least we don't have to think about clouds," said Velusamy. "Only optical astronomers have to worry about that."
William Byron (24) passes Corey LaJoie race during the NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, Sunday, Sept 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Randy Holt) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

NEWTON, Iowa (AP)  NASCAR announced Tuesday that it will finally bring its top Cup Series to Iowa for the first time.

Cup Series drivers will race at Iowa Speedway in Newton in June 2024, a weekend that will also include the second-tier Xfinity Series at the track about a forty-minute drive east of Des Moines.

Todays announcement is a triumph for incredible race fans around the world," said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR senior vice president for racing development and strategy. They have long sought a NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway, and were happy to finally deliver that for them.

NASCAR has held Xfinity and Truck series races at the 0.875-mile oval but none since 2019. Iowa Speedway has hosted IndyCar Series races for years, since it first opened in 2006. The NASCAR-owned track lists a 30,000 capacity.

Rusty Wallace, a former Cup series champion who designed the speedway, and former Cup champion Brad Keselowski were in attendance at the announcement outside of the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines. Keselowski said he's been pestering NASCAR leaders to bring the Cup Series to Iowa, calling the speedway one of the best tracks in the country and next year's race one of the can't miss events of 2024.

Gov. Kim Reynolds applauded the addition of Iowa to the schedule, saying Iowa has worked so hard over the years to establish itself as a racing destination. Reynolds noted the economic boost to the state from a Cup series event.

About 85,000 fans attended the speedway's IndyCar doubleheader over three days in July, the racing body said. Popular music artists Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney, Zak Brown Band and Ed Sheeran also brought star power  and big crowds  to the track for performances.

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
NATO says it is actively addressing incidents affecting its unclassified websites after a hacking group claimed to have stolen numerous strategic planning and research documents from the alliance.

The apparent cyber intrusions raise questions about NATOs ability to protect communication networks where the alliance shares unclassified but non-public insights into emerging technologies and security threats.

The trove of purported NATO documents posted online in the last week covers topics such as hypersonic weapons, threats from drones, and testing procedures for radioactive waste.

NATO is facing persistent cyber threats and takes cyber security seriously, a NATO official said in a statement to CNN on Tuesday. NATO cyber experts are actively addressing incidents affecting some unclassified NATO websites. Additional cyber security measures have been put in place. There has been no impact on NATO missions, operations and military deployments.

A hacktivist, or politically motivated hacking group, known as SiegedSec leaked the documents on the social media platform Telegram and claimed it was the second time in three months that they had hacked unclassified NATO websites. The hackers said this week theyd breached the lessons learned online portal, among others, where NATO shares strategic insights with military officials from the alliance.

The Daily Dot, an online news site, first reported on NATOs investigation into the hacking incident.

SiegedSec is known for a spate of hacks in the last 18 months of state and local US government websites, which they have sometimes targeted for restrictions on abortions or gender-affirming care.

Its unclear exactly why the hackers targeted NATO, but such hacktivist groups sometimes break into computer networks simply because they can. SiegedSec gleefully announced the release of the documents on Telegram.

The incident is a fresh reminder of the external and internal digital threats facing Western governments as they look to share intelligence amid Russias war on Ukraine.

A Massachusetts Air National Guardsman was arrested in April for allegedly posting online numerous classified documents related to that war and other US national security threats, raising concerns among US allies about the security of the shared intelligence.

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Back in 2015, the guided-missile cruiser Gettysburg began a lengthy modernization process that was supposed to enable the warships service life to be extended into the 2030s.

The congressionally mandated effort would go on to include six other Ticonderoga-class cruisers in the following years, a move that sought to maintain the Navys surface fires and air defense capabilities even after the warships standard 35-year service life came to an end.

Chosin, Cape St. George, Hue City, Anzio, Vicksburg and Cowpens joined Gettysburg in the so-called Cruiser Mod program, with contract announcements rolled out amid promises that modernizing the aging ships would keep them in the fleet for years to come.

The massive project aimed to upgrade combat systems and sensors while refreshing aging hulls, mechanical and electrical systems. But it involved laying up the ships for years while they waited their turn for deep dry dock makeovers.

Navy leaders told the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2015 that the phased modernization was an affordable framework to keep the cruiser fleet steaming.

Today, more than eight years after the modernization effort began, things have not gone as planned.

How mistakes in modernizing a US Navy cruiser can benefit destroyers

The Navy now concedes that just three of the seven ships will ever return to the fleet, and the sea service has either retired or sought to retire the other four after billions of dollars were spent on the effort.

The Gettysburg got back underway from Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, in February, more than eight years after its modernization period began, and is working its way back to operations. The Chosin is expected to rejoin the fleet later this year and work on Cape St. George continues.

But the Navy says the other four are too old and broken down for any more money to be spent on them. It abandoned the modernization efforts for Hue City and Anzio and retired them in fiscal 2022.

During a congressional hearing in April, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said that Vicksburg and Cowpens, which have already undergone extensive work, will never see another deployment, regardless of how much money we put into them.

Modernization costs skyrocketed as shipyards cracked the aging vessels open and discovered a myriad of unexpected problems, sending the cost of work beyond the announced contract awards of between $150 million and $175 million each.

Phased modernization meant cruisers sat idle for up to six years before the deep work began, with crews and contractors struggling to bring systems back online after prolonged inactivity, according to Naval Sea Systems Command, which admitted that cost estimates for the work came in far below what was actually required.

To date, the Navy has been unable to state precisely how much cruiser modernization has cost the service.

The Navy invested $2.4 billion in cruiser modernization from 2016 to 2021, Vice Adm. James Kilby, then the deputy chief of naval operations for warfighting requirements and capabilities, told the House Armed Services Committee in June 2021.

Kilby called the investment a significant amount of money at the time and added that its costing more than we thought it would.

Meanwhile, the Navy has had to man these ships even as the surface fleet struggles to fill gapped billets at sea, and the effort has sucked up precious time in the shipyards.

Theyre eating us alive in terms of our ability to get maintenance back on track, then-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said in early 2022. We are paying tens of millions of dollars beyond what we expected to because of growth work and new work on ships that are beyond their service life.

Outside of the seven modernization cruisers, top brass has warned that other cruisers have suffered water leaking into berthing areas and engineering spaces below the surface, and multiple cruisers have had to abandon deployments in recent years due to a myriad of issues.

Navy offers a new argument for decommissioning cruisers: Theyre not safe.

While modernization is expected to squeeze more work out of Gettysburg, Chosin and Cape St. George in the next few years, the Navys latest shipbuilding plan, released this spring, shows the service seeking to retire all of its remaining 13 Ticonderoga-class cruisers by fiscal 2027.

Three more Ticos, Bunker Hill, Mobile Bay and Lake Champlain, were decommissioned in San Diego just last month.

Chosin and Cape St. George would be decommissioned in fiscal 2027 if the Navy has its way, with Gettysburg retiring the year before.

This essentially means that the Defense Department would perhaps get a handful of extra deployments out of the ships for all the billions of dollars and manpower expended to modernize them.

The Navys proposed cruiser retirement schedule is subject to congressional approval, but both the House and Senate versions of the fiscal 2024 defense authorization bill seek to halt some of the retirements the Navy wants.

For fiscal 2024, which begins Oct. 1, the Navy seeks to decommission five cruisers, including Vicksburg.

Congress blocked the retirement of the cruiser Vicksburg this fiscal year, but lawmakers and staffers on both sides of the aisle now say the ship is in bad shape because the Navy allowed it to atrophy for years before the deep modernization work began.

They expressed frustration regarding how the Navy has carried out the cruiser modernization program, with several characterizing the process as one of hostile compliance or malicious compliance with Congress wishes to maintain the fleet.

Several pointed to Vicksburg as a prime example of Navy mismanagement of the effort.

The ship languished for years due to the timing of required work and the difficulty of modernizing the aging ship.

The guided-missile cruiser Vicksburg gets an underway replenishment in 2009, before it began a yearslong and ultimately doomed modernization effort. Service leaders now admit the ship will never return to operations. (Navy)

Vicksburgs modernization began in fiscal 2016 but it didnt enter the BAE shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia, until fiscal 2020.

And while BAE was awarded a $175 million contract for the ships work, costs to get the ship back into the fleet have since ballooned to roughly $500 million, according to the Navy.

These days, one House Armed Services Committee Democratic aide told Navy Times, the ship looks like a damn dumpster fire.

Morale among the Vicksburgs crew has turned horrible as the ship continues to languish in the shipyard as well, the aide said.

Rep. Rob Wittman , a Virginia Republican and vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called the Navys work on Vicksburg a disastrous maintenance availability.

The ship was slated for an overhaul that would have kept the ship sailing through for another decade or more, but the service delayed and avoided urgently needed work, allowing the vessels material condition to deteriorate past the point of no return, Wittman said in a statement.

It is as if the Navy never really means to get the Vicksburg back in action, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss, the Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member, said in a September press release.

In its shipbuilding report released this spring, the Navy noted the billions spent on the cruiser effort and the urgency with which it now seeks to divest itself of the warships, the fleets largest surface combatants, which were commissioned in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Navy acknowledges that some of these are CG Modernization ships, with significant sunk costs and no return on investment, the shipbuilding report states. However, it is not economical or fiscally responsible to complete them given the magnitude of the challenges associated with modernizing these ships in the manner chosen and the extensive remaining work to make them ready for sea.

A Navy budget book noted that retiring Cowpens in 2024 instead of 2026 would, by itself, save the Navy $130 million, Defense News reported in March.

In a statement to Navy Times, Navy Secretary Del Toro said the Navy is focused on building more Flight III destroyers, while making the best use of American taxpayer dollars, to deter the weapon systems and capabilities of our adversaries.

Continuing to spend money on legacy systems that do not contribute to our advantage in strategic competition is not a smart or effective use of taxpayers dollars, Del Toro said.

Navy leaders, including former CNO Gilday, have indicated that the service has learned lessons from its cruiser modernization efforts as it seeks to extend the service lives of certain guided-missile destroyers.

Capability gap

Lawmakers have expressed concern about how the Navy plans to fill the capability gap left by retirement of the last cruisers over the next few years, from its role overseeing air defense for carrier strike groups to its robust missile capacity, with vertical launch system, or VLS, cells that the destroyer fleet does not match numerically.

The Navys CG retirement plans will create a VLS cell bathtub in the fleet right as we enter a period of heightened risk with China in the mid-to-late 2020s, Wittman said in his statement to Navy Times. The Navy will not truly begin to recover from this trough until the mid-2030s.

Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., called the Navys work on the cruiser Vicksburg a disastrous maintenance availability. (Alex Brandon/AP)

The Navy says new and upgraded destroyers, led by captains, will take on the air defense mission for strike groups, but they have not addressed how the surface fires shortfall will be mitigated in the next few years.

Theres also the perennial question of how the Navy will grow to its goal of 355 ships if service leaders continue to retire more vessels than are being built.

The Navy must be right-sized, and our fleet cannot shrink, Wittman said.

Navy leaders have countered that a ship unable to get underway is of no use in a future fight.

Year three of a one-year avail

The seven cruisers tapped for modernization in the past decade were supposed to follow a similar line of work.

An initial maintenance stint modernized some spaces, and the ship was then manned by a skeleton crew of a few dozen while the ship sat pierside for years, awaiting its turn for the modernizations deep work.

But shutting down a ships systems for years led them to decay and atrophy, making the deep work availability that much more difficult.

Navy Times sister publication, Defense News, joined then-CNO Gilday during a visit to Gettysburg in early 2022, where challenges to the modernization program were apparent.

As of early 2022, Gettysburg was in year three of a one-year avail(ability), the ships commanding officer at the time, Capt. Megan Thomas, told Gilday.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Russell Smith visit cruiser Gettysburg and its leadership, Commanding Officer Capt. Megan Thomas and Executive Officer Matthew Dryden, on Feb. 4, 2022. (Megan Eckstein/Staff)

Some systems were upgraded early in the modernization effort but sat unused while the ship was in a reduced operating status for years, Thomas reported, and getting them going again was a challenge.

Officers aboard Chosin reported similar challenges during a Navy Times visit in August, as the ship neared completion of its own modernization journey.

Even things like ventilation work proved difficult aboard Gettysburg, as few ships use the same dated ventilation system, so maintenance teams had to fix components like motors instead of replacing them with spare parts.

A lot of electrical connections associated with the motor controllers have degraded over time, Thomas told Gilday. And of course, we had a large amount of contractors on and off this ship that are doing a lot of other cabling work.

Thomas also reported that planning issues had hindered Gettysburgs progress, as the original schedule called for concurrent activity by multiple contractors and subcontractors that was not deconflicted.

Miles of new cable was installed on the ship, Thomas told Defense News, but some of it got uprooted during subsequent work.

Crewing a cruiser during the life extension also proved challenging, she noted.

None of the sailors assigned to the ship when the program began were still with the ship as of early 2022, nor were they part of the crew during the dry-docking period.

As the US Navy scrambles to field more missiles in Asia, a tough decision looms for aging cruisers

I have one sailor who was assigned to USS Gettysburg before it went into (the modernization program), and now he came back as a (petty officer first class), and now hes a chief, she told Defense News. Great to have that kind of continuity, but one out of 338 does not a crew make.

Questions have been raised about the welfare of sailors while their ships are in extended maintenance following a suicide cluster among the crew of the aircraft carrier George Washington last year as that ship went through a massive mid-life overall.

Thomas advised her fellow cruiser captains to track crew morale while contractors work on their ships, however long those efforts continue.

Sailors join the Navy to get underway and see the world, she noted. And as we have gone through this availability, the number of times the goal posts have shifted has been very frustrating for them.

Defense News reporter Megan Eckstein contributed to this report.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed a bill on Monday that requires age verification on pornographic websites.

The new law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, requires the websites to verify users in North Carolina are over the age of 18 through a commercially available database or another commercially reasonable method for age and identity verification, according to the bill. However, websites are not allowed to keep any of the identifying information used to gain access to the sites.

The measure also allows parents to sue the owners of those websites for allowing their children to view the material.

Texas, Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Utah, Mississippi and Montana have passed similar laws, according to the N.C. Family Policy Council. But in August, a federal judge ruled that Texas law violates free speech restrictions that are banned by the First Amendment, Variety reported. The ruling was appealed by the Texas Attorney General.

When the laws went into effect, Pornhub, a website thats one of the most-visited websites in the world, saw its traffic drop by more than 80% in Louisiana. Users in Utah, Mississippi and Virginia were blocked from accessing the site, Politico reported.

How will it work?

Age verification in North Carolina hasnt been set up yet, but those who visit porn websites in states with similar laws are directed to a third-party site where they provide their government IDs, Wired reported.

Credit card information, face scans and online parental consent forms could also be used to verify ages, according to a briefing from the European Commission, where similar laws have been passed.

After a similar law went into effect in Virginia in July, most websites didnt adopt age verification methods, the Virginia Mercury reported.

If websites dont comply with the law, parents of minors who were allowed to view the content or anyone whose personal information was kept by the website can file civil suits against the companies for damages, according to the N.C. bill.

Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Alison Boden told the Mercury that a lot of pornographic websites arent based in the U.S., making it harder for them to be held accountable for breaking the law.

The actual legal jeopardy that an international company might face, especially since it would be like a private lawsuit from an individual, is not terribly high compared to what a U.S. company would face if sued by a person in Virginia, Boden said.

Why was the age verification law passed?

The age verification law passed as part of House Bill 8, which received overwhelming, bipartisan support. The bill, titled Various Statutory Changes, also includes new requirements about computer science education in middle and high schools and accreditation of schools.

The law is meant to protect children from the harmful effects of pornography, Sen. Amy Galey, an Alamance County Republican who introduced the proposal, said during a floor debate last month.

Moms and dads across the state of North Carolina are striving to protect their children from online predators in a number of different ways by monitoring their childs use, by putting parental controls on their electronics, Galey said. This will give them another important way where they can work to keep their children safe.

Exposure to pornography at a young age can lead to mental health issues, and encourage sexism and objectification, sexual violence and other negative outcomes, according to UNICEF.

North Carolinas law comes as more teens than ever are watching explicit content online.

A study from Common Sense Media, an advocacy organization that gives ratings to media and technology to decide whether theyre suitable for children, said nearly three in four teens between the ages of 13 and 17 reported watching porn online, and more than half reported seeing it before the age of 13.
Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican from Lincoln County, will serve as interim U.S. House speaker until someone is chosen to succeed Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, who was ousted Tuesday.

McHenry, 47, began serving in Congress in 2002 and served as one of McCarthys top allies in his role as House speaker. He had been floated as a potential successor if McCarthy were to be removed from his leadership role, but it remains unclear when a replacement could be chosen.

The speaker has a secret list of successors, and McHenry was at the top of the list. That made him the immediate successor.

McHenry told McClatchy Tuesday when asked about becoming speaker that his entire focus was on ensuring that McCarthy maintained his leadership role. But after McCarthy was voted out Tuesday afternoon, McHenry took control of the House and closed the hearing, slamming his gavel forcefully into the podium.

It was an unprecedented moment in U.S. history. No U.S. House speaker has ever been removed with a resolution to oust them. But when McCarthy made a deal in January with the far-right House Freedom Caucus in exchange for their votes he agreed to reduce the number of House members needed to call for his ousting to just one.

And Rep. Matt Gaetz took that opportunity Monday night, making a motion to remove his leader as their speaker. Gaetz and the Freedom Caucus used appropriations bills as a bargaining chip. But when McCarthy went behind their backs and worked with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown it launched Gaetz into action.

Before the vote, Rep. Jeff Jackson, a Charlotte Democrat, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, The Speaker denied his right-flank the shutdown they wanted, so this week theyll try to fire him. Jackson and other Democrats joined that right flank. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats voted to oust McCarthy because of the GOPs unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism, CNN reported.

North Carolina Republicans all voted to keep McCarthy, including Rep. Dan Bishop, a Charlotte-area Republican whos running for N.C. attorney general. Bishop said McCarthy is an accurate reflection of the House Republican Caucus, that one persons play call with roughly 5-7 potential supporters portends no path toward success and that hes leaving Congress and didnt want to impose this burden on an institution from which I am soon to depart.

Now, Congress has until Nov. 17 to pass a spending bill to avert a government shutdown but cant operate until a new speaker is chosen.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools appears to be banning books about crayons now.

Yes, really.

Following parent complaints, the district has apparently decided that Red: A Crayons Story may not comply with North Carolinas new parental rights law, which bans instruction on gender identity, sexual activity and sexuality in kindergarten through fourth-grade classrooms.

I took the liberty of reading Red: A Crayons Story, just to see what the fuss might be about. Its a picture book about a crayon that is told he is red, but cant do things that red crayons can do, like draw red strawberries, red hearts or red ants. Instead, everything he draws is blue. His fellow crayons suggest that if he works a little harder, or fixes whatever is wrong with him, he can do the things that red crayons are supposed to do. In the end, he realizes that hes actually just blue, and thats perfectly OK.

Real controversial, huh?

While the book could be used as an allegory for gender identity or sexuality, it doesnt have to be. It could represent just about anything that has to do with stereotypes or labels forced upon us by society. Its not promoting any agenda, other than the basic message that we should be true to ourselves and embrace our differences, instead of judging one another for them.

In fact, thats exactly what it was meant to teach in the classroom. CMS told me that the book was selected to teach kindergarten students about differences and acceptance, as part of the districts agreement to provide age-appropriate Title IX lessons to all students about harassment and bullying.

We received concerns from parents and guardians about the book as it relates to the Parents Bill of Rights, specifically, age-appropriate instruction for grades kindergarten through fourth grade, the district said in a statement. Upon further review the book was removed.

Whats interesting is that, about six years ago, Red: A Crayons Story was viewed as a palatable alternative to Jacobs New Dress, a picture book about a boy who likes to wear dresses. Jacobs New Dress was meant to be used as part of an anti-bullying program in first-grade classes. But Republican lawmakers caught wind of that plan and were prepared to step in, until CMS decided to replace it with Red: A Crayons Story instead. That seemed to be a good enough solution at the time.

But flash-forward to 2023, and reading books like Red: A Crayons Story to elementary school students may actually be illegal in North Carolina. The Parents Bill of Rights is apparently vague enough to cause CMS to steer clear of a book about crayons, despite the fact that it makes zero reference to gender identity or sexuality. I repeatedly asked whether Red: A Crayons Story would still be available to students in school libraries, but CMS did not respond.

Its a sign that our society may be regressing. Old tropes and tactics  like calling queer folks pedophiles, or book-banning  are being dusted off and recycled. Questions we thought were close to being resolved are being re-litigated. Requests to ban books at U.S. schools and libraries hit a 21-year high in 2022, and a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures this year.

We can see this regression by comparing North Carolinas present with its recent past. In 2016, House Bill 2 was such an extreme outlier that the nationwide backlash it received ultimately forced its repeal. In 2023, were passing laws like HB2 on a regular basis, and theres minimal political and economic fallout for Republicans.

The Charlotte Observer published an editorial about the Jacobs New Dress saga back in 2017, applauding CMS for choosing Red: A Crayons Story as a substitute instead of scrapping its lesson plans altogether.

By no means are gays and lesbians safe from bias and violence now, but progress has come slowly and inevitably, as it does for minority groups, the editorial said then. The same will happen, in small steps, with the transgender community.

That seemed like a reasonable prediction at the time. But thanks to an insurgence of reactionary conservatives, weve ended up in a much different place  one in which we reflexively ban anything that could possibly imply acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community, for fear that 5-year-olds might pick up on the metaphor.
A Midlands man is behind bars after drugs and guns were seized during a search of his property, the Kershaw County Sheriffs Office said.

Barry Todd Sullivan, a 51-year-old Cassatt resident, was charged with trafficking in methamphetamine (400 grams or more), possession of firearm by convicted felon, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, the sheriffs office said in a news release.

Both Kershaw County deputies and Camden Police Department officers were involved in the jointly executed search of a residential camper in the 2100 block of Old Georgetown Road West in Cassatt, according to the release.

The drug units seized nearly one pound of meth and at least two firearms, the sheriffs office said.

Sullivan is being held at the Kershaw County Detention Center, jail records show. His bond was set at $145,000 in the combined charges, according to jail records.

Sullivan is also facing a pending drug charge from a August 2021 arrest, Kershaw County court records show.
It was "a scene right out of a movie" as Charlotte Sena was rescued in a stunning scene Monday night, neighbors said.

"SWAT trucks and cop cars were here in seconds, guns out. There was a rapid succession of at least five flash-bangs," said "Michael," who lives near Craig Ross Jr., the man charged with kidnapping 9-year-old Charlotte from a New York state park over the weekend.

Law enforcement officers rescued Charlotte from a cabinet in Ross Jr.'s trailer behind his mother's property in Milton, state officials said. Michael's wife, "Erica," said she "grabbed my kids to hide them in the basement" as officers stormed in.

"At first, I saw two cars pull up on my grass, and as Im coming out to yell [to] get off the grass, police jump out with tactical gear and vests," Erica said. "And just like that, at least 15 SWAT trucks and police cars are all over the house, at least 30 officers, full gear, guns. The flash-bangs were right outside my bedroom. The concern was more, what if he runs into our yard and takes my kids or us as hostages?

CHARLOTTE SENA RESCUED FROM CAMPER CABINET; KIDNAPPING SUSPECT BUSTED AFTER LEAVING RANSOM NOTE

"During the raid, I caught a glimpse of her face, and I said, Thats her. Shes in there. And then I saw her getting wheeled into the ambulance. I just wanted to hug her and hold her until her mom came to get her and tell her shes safe. She became like everyones child. Everyone in the area loves her and wanted her to come home. And the police did, too. You can see and hear them exhale. They were high-fiving with smiles. It was an amazing outcome."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

A few hours before the raid, a couple of idling police cars seemed somewhat out of place at the mouth of a street leading to a cul-de-sac in the Senas' neighborhood in Greenfield, residents said.

It was shortly before 6 p.m. Monday when "Charlene" and her oldest daughter, "Briella," 11, noticed the police activity about 200 yards to the right of their home.

At that point, they did not know that Charlotte was allegedly being held against her will by Ross Jr. five minutes away in the other direction.

As time passed, they saw an ambulance. Then a helicopter circled overhead. Finally, a convoy of law enforcement vehicles, including state police and FBI, rolled through their neighborhood and stopped on the street near their home.

This image shows Charlotte Sena in the clothing she was wearing when she vanished in Moreau Lake State Park on Sept. 30, 2023.

"Then you just knew," Charlene told Fox News Digital Monday night. "They found Charlotte."

The little girl had been missing since Saturday when Ross Jr. allegedly abducted her from Moreau Lake State Park  a popular, 4,600-acre camping site nestled between Lake George and Saratoga Springs  where she was staying with her family.

CHARLOTTE SENA DISAPPEARANCE: NEW VIDEOS OF MISSING 9-YEAR-OLD RELEASED AS NEW YORK SEARCH CONTINUES

New York State Police check vehicles for Charlotte Sena, who was on a family outing in Moreau Lake State Park when she went missing Saturday evening, as officials conducted a search in Gansevoort on Monday.

Law enforcement in full tactical gear blasted through a camper behind Ross Jr.'s mother's double-wide trailer and found Charlotte in a cabinet, Gov. Kathy Hochul said during a press conference Monday night.

"They had what they call a dynamic entry, a tactical maneuver, and within the camper they located the suspect. After some resistance, the suspect was taken into custody, and immediately the little girl was found in a cabinet, covered. She was rescued," Hochul said.

"And she knew she was being rescued. And she knew that she was in safe hands."

This view shows a campsite on Loop A where Charlotte Sena was on a family outing in Moreau Lake State Park, New York, when she went missing Saturday evening.

No details about Sena's condition were released, but the governor said there does not appear to be "outward harm," and state police said she is "in good health."

The girl is recovering and being evaluated in a hospital.

Her aunt, Jene Sena, told Fox News Digital in a text: "We are just elated she came home."

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a press conference on Oct. 2, 2023, with regard to the disappearance of Charlotte Sena, who went missing Saturday evening and was found safe on Monday.

Sena's missing-persons case seized the region like a bear in a trap and robbed some families in the community of their sense of safety.

Charlene stopped letting her oldest daughter ride her bike or take the bus since news broke of the abduction, and she has been scared to let her two younger daughters play outside their own home.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY BOATERS FORCED TO FIGHT OFF PIRATES AS SEAFARING BANDITS RAVAGE COMMUNITY

"When I found out how close it was to me, it really hit home," Charlene said. "My oldest is 11 and my youngest is 5, and they ride through this part all the time."

"Now it makes me more suspicious of everybody because you're going on a bike ride, and you're that close to your family, and you're just gone in an instant."

New York Sate Police search for Charlotte Sena, who was on a family outing in Moreau Lake State Park when she vanished Saturday evening, in Gansevoort, New York, on Monday.

Search teams look for Charlotte Sena along the Moreau Lake State Park boundary in Gansevoort, New York, on Monday.

Charlene was referring to Sena, who had been riding her bike close to her family's campsite when she was snatched on "Loop A," which is easily accessible from Old Saratoga Road.

Only a rusted, brittle fence about chest-high that can easily be stomped on separates the park from that section of the campsite.

BODYCAM CAPTURES DRAMATIC SHOOT-OUT WITH MAN ACCUSED OF SLAUGHTERING FAMILY BEFORE HE VANISHES

Charlene said she has not seen the suspect in person but the thought of him living under her family's nose for years is terrifying.

"If he's a predator, it's a hunting ground for him. He could've been riding around this part when my kids were out," she said.

WATCH FAMILY VIDEO OF CHARLOTTE SENA

Safety and this type of alleged, brazen crime is not usually a concern for the typically serene setting near the Hudson River, residents near the state park told Fox News Digital.

Around the corner from the alleged abduction site, "Phil" and "Gail" have lived with their dogs in a beautiful home and take advantage of the scenery.

Gail likes to go for walks along the lake, and Phil likes to fish.

"Nothing like this has ever happened. It's very quiet," Phil said as a large group of rescue searchers walked by their home.

"It's scary now," Phil said. "The whole world is going to hell."

This map shows the search area for 9-year-old Charlotte Sena.

There was nowhere in the area to escape the crime. Seemingly everyone for miles knew about the case and were on edge. Flyers were posted all over gas stations, stores and food establishments while dozens of digital signs about an Amber Alert lined several major highways between New York City and Saratoga County, which is about 45 miles north of Albany.

By Monday afternoon, the search effort swelled from 100 to 400 people. Searchers told Fox News Digital on Monday afternoon that the park's terrain vastly varies, including steep elevations and brush so dense they had to split the shrubbery with every step.

At least a half dozen checkpoints were set up all around the park, where New York state troopers stopped every vehicle, checked trunks and asked for information.

State police search for Charlotte Sena, who disappeared during a family outing in Moreau Lake State Park on Saturday, in Gansevoort, New York, on Monday.

This case hit Briella, who is only two years older than Charlotte and has a sister who is one year younger than her, particularly hard.

"I was only thinking about [Charlotte]," she said. "Through school, that's all I was thinking about. I couldn't get anything on top of my mind. I was just praying and hoping she was OK because she's just a little girl."

CLICK HERE FOR MORE TRUE CRIME FROM FOX NEWS

At her young age, if she was in Sena's position, Briella said all she would be able to think about is: "Is anyone looking for me? Am I ever going to get back home?"

Charlene said she taught her girls to be safety conscious even before Sena's case rocked the area, and she uses safety code words that only her girls know.

An Amber Alert sign for Charlotte Sena is seen on Route 87 as officials searched for her in Gansevoort, New York, on Monday.

Ross Jr. allegedly left a ransom note in the Sena family's mailbox around 4:20 a.m. Monday, Hochul said.

Police traced the fingerprints on the note to Ross Jr.'s 1999 DWI arrest in Saratoga County and identified him as the suspect within 10 hours, according to the governor.

Hochul said most stories do not end like this, but "Charlotte will be going home."

"I'm happy we have a positive outcome," Charlene said as she smiled to her daughter.





Original article source: Neighbors of Charlotte Sena describe tactical raid to rescue 9-year-old from predator's camper
BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. -- Neighbors are speaking out after Craig Ross, Jr. was charged with kidnapping a 9-year-old girl from Moreau Lake State Park.

A fingerprint on a ransom note led to his arrest.

Police are working to see if Ross, 46, is linked to any other alleged crimes.

"I've been praying for 48 hours, since I got the first Amber Alert," said Carol Brown of Ballston Spa. Brown lives just down the road from the location where police found Charlotte Sena, hidden in a trailer behind the suspect's mother's home.

Brown knew something was up Monday night as her quiet neighborhood exploded with activity.

"The entire road lit up with police officers, helicopter overhead. Just like out of a movie," Brown said.

This drama had a happy ending. Charlotte was shaken but in good physical condition.

Web Extra: Read the complaint (.pdf)

Ross was grabbed by members of a local SWAT team. He's charged with kidnapping Charlotte from Moreau Lake State Park as she biked on Saturday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Ross set the stage for his own arrest by visiting the girl's home, putting a ransom note in the family mailbox early Monday.

"Inserts the ransom note, leaving a critical piece of evidence behind -- his own fingerprint," Hochul said.

A check of the print led cops to the suspect within hours.

Witnesses said the assembled first responders erupted with applause when Charlotte was found in good condition.

As for Ross?

"My family had an issue with him in the beginning of the summer," Brown said.

Brown said she came outside one day as her young grandson was in the yard.

"And standing over him, right over him, with his back to me, was that man," Brown said.

"You confronted him, he got on his bike and rode away?" CBS New York's Tony Aiello asked.

"Yes, and I believe with all my heart after last night that probably my grandson was 'this close,'" Brown said.

Rep. Gaetz says he will file a motion this week to oust Speaker McCarthy

The success, it caused problems, says The Blind Side author

Senators to visit China amid growing tensions
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This years Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman for their work on mRNA vaccines, a crucial tool in curtailing the spread of Covid-19.

The Nobel Prize committee announced the prestigious honor, seen as the pinnacle of scientific achievement, in Sweden on Monday.

It praised the scientists groundbreaking findings, which the committee said fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system.

Kariko and Weissman published their results in a 2005 paper that received little attention at the time, it said, but later laid the foundation for critically important developments that served humanity during the coronavirus pandemic.

The laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times, the committee added in a statement.

Rickard Sandberg, a member of the Nobel Prize in medicine committee, said, mRNA vaccines together with other Covid-19 vaccines have been administered over 13 billion times. Together they have saved millions of lives, prevented severe Covid-19, reduced the overall disease burden and enabled societies to open up again.

Kariko and Weissman were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for their work on the development of mRNA vaccines. - Steffen Trumpf/picture alliance/Getty Images

Kariko, a Hungarian-American biochemist, and Weissman, an American physician, are both professors at the University of Pennsylvania. Their work became the foundation for Pfizer and its Germany-based partner BioNTech, as well as Moderna, to use a new approach to produce vaccines that use messenger RNA or mRNA.

The revolutionary technology has opened a new chapter of medicine. It can potentially be harnessed to develop vaccines against other diseases like malaria, RSV and HIV. It also offers a new approach to infectious disease like cancer, with the prospect of personalized vaccines.

Messenger RNA

Researchers often compare DNA to a massive recipe book with all the instructions for life. Messenger RNA is a temporary single strand of the genetic code that cells can read and use to make a protein  a bit like a handwritten copy of a recipe in the cookbook analogy.

In the case of mRNA vaccines, the temporary genetic code is used to tell cells to make what looks like a piece of virus, so the body produces antibodies and special immune system cells in response. Unlike other vaccines, a live or attenuated virus is not injected or required at any point.

All that is needed is the genetic sequence. Vaccine makers dont even need the virus itself  just the sequence.

The impressive flexibility and speed with which mRNA vaccines can be developed pave the way for using the new platform also for vaccines against other infectious diseases, the Nobel committee said, adding that the technology may also be used to deliver therapeutic proteins and treat some cancer types.

The technology developed by Kariko and Weissman may also be used to treat other diseases. - Courtesy Penn Medicine

J. Larry Jameson, executive vice president of UPenns School of Medicine, praised the scientists work which he said changed the world.

During the biggest public health crisis of our lifetimes, vaccine developers relied upon the discoveries by Dr. Weissman and Dr. Kariko, which saved innumerable lives and paved a path out of the pandemic, Jameson said in a statement. More than 15 years after their visionary laboratory partnership, Kati and Drew have made an everlasting imprint on medicine.

The Nobel Prize announcements began in Sweden Monday and will continue throughout this week and into next, with awards in physics, chemistry, literature and economics set to be announced in the coming days. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in Norway on Friday.

The road to the Nobel

Kariko, 68, began her career in her native Hungary in the 1970s, when mRNA research was new. She, her husband and young daughter left for the United States after she received an invitation from Temple University in Philadelphia. They sold their car, Kariko told The Guardian, and stuffed the money  an equivalent of about $1,200  in their daughters teddy bear for safekeeping.

We had just moved into our new apartment, our daughter was 2 years old, everything was so good, we were happy, Kariko told the Hungarian news site G7 of her familys departure. But we had to go.

She continued her research at Temple, before joining the UPenns School of Medicine in 19xx. But by then, the initial excitement surrounding mRNA research had started to fizz out. Hope turned to skepticism: Karikos idea that it could be used to fight disease was deemed too radical  and too financially risky to fund.

She applied to grant after grant, but a string of rejections meant that in 1995, she was demoted from her position at UPenn. She was also diagnosed with cancer at the same time.

It was difficult because people did not believe that messenger RNA can be a therapy, Kariko told CNN, in an interview during the pandemic in December 2020.

But she stuck at it. Together with my colleague, Drew Weissman, at the University of Pennsylvania, we developed this method where we changed one component in the RNA which made it less immunogenic. It is possible to use it for different kinds of therapies, Kariko said.

Kariko and Weissman met by chance in the late 1990s while photocopying research papers. In 2005, they published their key discovery: mRNA could be altered and delivered effectively into the body to activate the bodys protective immune system.

Weissman told CNN that their technology is much more efficient than traditional methods of producing vaccines.

When the Chinese released the sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, we started the process of making RNA the next day. A couple weeks later, we were injecting animals with the vaccine, he said.

At the time Kariko said she was not at all surprised by the successful results of the trials conducted by Pfizer and Moderna. I expected that it would work, because we already had enough experiments, she said.

She celebrated the successful trial results with a bag of Goobers, chocolate-covered peanuts, her favorite candy. Im not an exuberant person, Kariko told CNN at the time.

CNNs Maggie Fox, Leah Asmelash and AJ Willingham contributed to this report.

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NEW YORK  Mayor Eric Adams  whose chief adviser believes the federal government should close the borders to address the migrant crisis  is traveling to South and Central America this week to learn more about the root causes of the crisis, his office announced Monday.

According to an advisory released by City Hall, Adams will start off the trip by visiting Mexico City on Wednesday. While there, he will attend the North Capital Forum, a conference focused on challenges facing the U.S. with topics that include economic development, innovation and national security.

The next day, he will head to Puebla, east of Mexico City, before traveling to Ecuador on Friday to meet with local officials to find out about their asylee integration programs, the advisory states.

On Saturday, the mayors bound for Colombia, where hell also meet with local officials and visit the Darien Gap, a section of the border with Panama that many migrants cross before making their way to the U.S. Hell travel back to New York late Saturday, according to his office.

The advisory states that the purpose of the trip is to foster relationships, learn more about the path asylum seekers take to get to the United States, and meet with local and national leaders about the situations on the ground leading to an influx of asylum seekers arriving in the U.S.

The Latin America tour comes on the heels of the mayors budget office issuing a memo to all city agencies instructing them that taxpayer dollars cannot be used for any travel expenses outside of NYC, citing concerns about the fiscal burden of the migrant crisis.

To that end, an Adams spokeswoman said the mayor is paying his own way while in Ecuador and Colombia. Edward Mermelstein, Adams international affairs commissioner, and Emanuel Castro, his immigrant affairs commissioner, will also go out of pocket to cover their own expenses.

Costs associated with the visit to Mexico will be covered by the U.S.-Mexico Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering ties between the two nations, the spokeswoman said.

The mayors travel also comes after Ingrid Lewis-Martin, his chief City Hall adviser, said in an interview that aired Sunday that federal authorities should seal the U.S. southern border to prevent more migrants from arriving.

We need the federal government, the Congress members, the Senate and the president to do its job: Close the borders, Lewis-Martin said in the interview on PIX11.

Lewis-Martins comment drew waves of criticism from local Democratic lawmakers, who accused her of echoing Republican talking points.

Amid the backlash, Fabien Levy, Adams deputy mayor of communications, issued a statement saying that of course this nation should continue to welcome immigrants  both those seeking asylum and those who are not.

According to the latest data from City Hall, the Adams administration continues to house and provide services for more than 61,000 migrants, most of whom hail from Latin American countries. Most of the migrants are fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries and hope to claim asylum in the U.S.
Spain's new cubesats will fly in space like a flock of geese

Europes next launch will send a trio of CubeSats to Earth's orbit that mimic birds flying in formation.

The endeavor, dubbed Advanced Nanosatellite Systems for Earth-observation Research, or ANSER, consists of three shoebox-sized satellites that will monitor Iberian waters as if they are a single, standard-sized satellite.

Launching on an Arianespace Vega-C rocket from Europes Guiana Space Center on Oct. 4 , the CubeSats will operate about 500 kilometers (310 miles) above Earth , maintaining an optimum distance of 10 km (6.2 miles) apart from each other. Notably, however, the spacecraft will not have onboard propulsion systems to keep them in formation.

Instead the satellites will use their wing-like flaps, which extend their wingspan by about six times, to maintain their relative positions. These flaps exploit the tenuous airflow at the fringe of Earth's atmosphere to control the satellites' positions.

Related: 'Artificial star' helps test satellite navigation systems (photo)

"ANSER is also the Latin name for the wild goose, a good example of birds flying in formation, adopting a leader-follower protocol, which is what our mission is emulating," Santiago Rodriguez Bustabad, who is overseeing the mission at the Spanish Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA), said in an ESA statement .

Rodriguez Bustabad explains that the trio will use a special navigation mechanism - developed for this mission in particular, known as "Differential Lift and Drag" maneuvers. For example, with these maneuvers, a spacecraft can increase its drag effect to produce a significant relative movement in orbit, maintaining control over the formation.

The CubeSats carry a fractionated hyperspectral imager named CINCLUS which is distributed across the three spacecraft. This and other cameras will seek to detect pollution or harmful microorganisms in waters down on Earth.

Rodriguez Bustabad notes that very small satellites, such as CubeSats or nanosats, have become more capable in recent years, with miniaturized sensors and components and lower cost to launch. But these still have limitations, such as in terms of power and resolution.

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"To have a real chance of achieving an operational Earth-observing mission we are leaning into distributed systems in the form of clusters and constellations ," Rodriguez Bustabad said, "together with miniaturization."

ANSER's launch will be facilitated by Vega's Small Spacecraft Mission Service. This ride-sharing service is part of the European Commission's In-Orbit Demonstration/In-Orbit Validation program aimed at testing new space technologies.

The main payload for the launch will be THEOS-2 (Thailand Earth Observation System-2), along with FORMOSAT-7R/TRITON, developed by the Taiwanese Space Agency (TASA).
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan complained about the bright-colored decorations at the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York City, saying the LGBT colors upset him.

The multi-colored lights were installed to promote the U.N.s sustainable development goals, which the session was intended to feature.

Erdogan told Turkish media that he wants to bring up the issue with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as Reuters reported. The Turkish leaders islamist government has recently toughened its stance on LGBTQ rights.

One of the issues that bothers me the most  is that when entering the United Nations General Assembly, you see the LGBT colors on steps and other places, he was quoted as saying by broadcaster Haberturk and others, according to Reuters.

How many LGBT are there in the world right now? However much right they have on these steps, those against LGBT have as much right as well, he said.

While the United Nations has made statements in support of the LGBTQ community, there are no explicit displays of pride flags or other displays specifically for the LGBTQ community at the U.N. building in New York.

The development goals are a list of 17 aspirational tasks for world leaders, with a deadline of 2030, including improving hunger, extreme poverty and climate change.

President Biden addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, using the opportunity to focus on the war in Ukraine.

Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequence, Biden said. But I ask you this: If we abandon the core principles of the U.N. Charter to appease an aggressor, can any member state feel confident that they are protected?

If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure? he said. I respectfully suggest the answer is no. We must stand up to this naked aggression today to deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also addressed the U.N. this week and called for reform in the body, citing Russias deadlock on the Security Council.

We should recognize that the U.N. finds itself in a deadlock on the matters of aggression. Humankind no longer pins its hopes on the U.N., Zelensky said in a speech at the Security Council.

Ukrainian soldiers now are doing at the expense of their blood what the U.N. Security Council should do by its voting; theyre stopping Russia and upholding the principles of the U.N.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Police in the Indian capital, Delhi, have raided the homes of prominent journalists and authors in connection with an investigation into the funding of news website NewsClick.

NewsClick's founder Prabir Purkayastha and a colleague were arrested. Police also seized laptops and mobile phones.

Officials are reportedly investigating allegations that NewsClick got illegal funds from China - a charge it denies.

Critics say the move is an intentional attack on press freedom.

Started in 2009, NewsClick is an independent news and current affairs website known to be critical of the government. In 2021, it was raided by tax authorities on allegations of breaking India's foreign direct investment rules.

The co-ordinated raids at 30 locations on Tuesday are some of the largest and most extensive on India's media in recent years. Police later confirmed they had arrested Mr Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty, the website's head of human resources.

One of the journalists Urmilesh (centre) is seen leaving a police station in central Delhi after questioning

"A total of 37 male suspects have been questioned at premises, nine female suspects have been questioned at their respective places of stay and digital devices, documents etc have been seized/collected for examination," a police statement said.

Opposition leaders accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of a "fresh attack on the media". But Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said investigative agencies were merely doing their job.

How did the raids happen?

Among those also questioned were journalists Abhisar Sharma, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Aunindyo Chakravarty, Urmilesh, Bhasha Singh, popular satirist Sanjay Rajoura and historian Sohail Hashmi. Some were taken to police stations.

Searches were also carried out at the website's office in Delhi, news agency ANI reported.

In Mumbai, activist Teesta Setalvad's house was also searched. Ms Setalvad has long fought for victims of the deadly 2002 riots in Gujarat state and has written articles critical of the government for NewsClick.

A source close to Mr Purkayastha told the BBC that more than 15 policemen arrived at the editor's home at 06:30 local time (01:00 GMT).

"They did not produce any warrants or paperwork, questioned him for several hours and took away all the electronic devices they found at home," they said. Later, news agencies showed him being taken away by the police in a vehicle.

Mr Rajoura's lawyer, Ilin Saraswat, said the comedian was raided at the same time and that police took away his laptop, his two phones, some DVDs of his old work and some documents.

"The police said that Mr Rajoura is not named in the current investigation, but since he has worked with the website, he will be interrogated. We have not been provided a copy of the police complaint," he added.

According to reports, the raids are in connection with a case registered against NewsClick in August after a New York Times report alleged that the website had received funds from an American millionaire to spread "Chinese propaganda".

Over 30 locations were raided in Delhi

It claimed that Neville Roy Singham worked closely with the "Chinese government media machine" and used his network of non-profit groups and shell companies to "finance its propaganda worldwide".

A case was reportedly registered against the website under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA, a draconian anti-terror law that makes it nearly impossible to get bail. NewsClick has rejected all the charges as false.

Who was raided?

All the people who were raided have been associated with NewsClick - some are employees, while others have worked on freelance projects.

Prabir Purkayastha, its founder and editor-in-chief, is the author of a number of books and a founding member of the Delhi Science Forum. During the 1975 Emergency - when civil liberties were suspended - he was jailed along with several opposition politicians.

Bhasha Singh is an activist and journalist who has reported extensively on manual scavenging and farmers' suicides. She has accused the government of being anti-women and on Monday appeared in a NewsClick video expressing concern over the increasing trend of members of the governing BJP praising the man who assassinated India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.

Abhisar Sharma is a prominent video journalist known for his critical views of the government. He worked for BBC Hindi before moving to work at the NDTV news channel. One of his last videos covered widespread protests by government employees against a new pension scheme.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, writer, journalist and filmmaker, is best known for his investigations into billionaire tycoon Gautam Adani and is facing several defamation suits filed by the industrialist. Earlier this year, he was mentioned in a report by Hindenburg Research which alleged that companies owned by Mr Adani had engaged in decades of "brazen" stock manipulation and accounting fraud - allegations denied by the industrialist who is perceived as being close to PM Modi.

#WATCH | Delhi: Journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta working as a consultant with NewsClick says, "Nine police personnel came to my home in Gurugram at 6:30 in the morning. They asked me various questions. I came with them voluntarily to the Special Cell of the Delhi Police. The pic.twitter.com/kgWCR1iWSG  ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2023

Sanjay Rajoura is a popular stand-up comedian who has worked in Bollywood and is part of the comedy-music trio Aisi Taisi Democracy (Democracy be damned). Mr Rajoura is known for biting political satire that often critiques India's ruling party. His work spans such topics as caste, masculinity, freedom of speech and fake news.

Sohail Hashmi is a historian, activist and filmmaker who's been holding talks and heritage walks on Delhi's history for over a decade. This month, Sahmat, a trust run by him, is organising programmes to observe the 75th anniversary of Gandhi's assassination.

Irfan Khan is a political cartoonist who has spent three decades working for some of India's biggest English and Hindi newspapers and TV channels. His cartoons use satire to comment on major news events and he has also worked with the Election Commission of India on voter awareness campaigns.

What's happening now?

The police are yet to share full details of their investigation - and it's not clear when they will do so - but the raids have angered many people. Some saw parallels with police raids during the 1975 Emergency under Indira Gandhi.

Journalists and news organisations condemned the raids, calling them another instance of the government's pattern of arbitrary and intimidatory behaviour".

The Press Club of India said it was "deeply concerned" and urged the government to "come out with details".

In a joint statement, the National Alliance of Journalists and Delhi Union of Journalists accused the government of targeting NewsClick for "their coverage of the issues of workers and farmers".

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, a number of media outlets have been investigated for alleged financial impropriety, raising fears about press freedom in the world's largest democracy.

Earlier this year, tax officials searched BBC offices in India, questioning staff about the organisation's business operations in the country. The searches in Delhi and Mumbai had come weeks after the broadcaster aired a documentary in the UK critical of Mr Modi's role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Tax officials also accused the Dainik Bhaskar newspaper of tax evasion in 2021 after its critical coverage of the government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group for journalists, has placed India in 161st place in its press freedom rankings this year. It said the situation in the country has deteriorated from "problematic" to "very bad" and compared it with Tajikistan (at 153rd) and Turkey (at 165th).

"One of the reasons why NewsClick is independent is because I think it is critical of the ruling government, because at this point of time, no mainstream media can afford to be critical of the government," Rana Ayyub, an investigative journalist in Mumbai, told BBC Newshour.

She said one of the reasons behind the raids on the organisation was "because it has been publishing news critical of the Modi government, especially over the last two, three years".

Additional reporting by Meryl Sebastian in Kochi and Simon Fraser in London

BBC News India is now on YouTube. Click here to subscribe and watch our documentaries, explainers and features.

Read more India stories from the BBC:
Shes worked at high levels in almost every place where Democrats are strong: a former top California labor official, president of an influential womens political organization and adviser to Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and other party luminaries.

Laphonza Butler will be the Senates only Black woman and just the third in its history, following Harris (2017-2021), now vice president, and Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, (1993-1999) the Illinois Democrat.

Butlerisnt all that well-known to the broader public but is someone who is deeply involved in Democratic politics/governance, said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of the nonpartisan Sabatos Crystal Ball.

And thats just what Senate Democrats badly need, activists said.

Butler understands the challenges faced by women of color who run for office  and who serve. We look forward to working with her to elevate and address those challenges, said Aimee Allison, president and founder of Oakland-based She The People, a political network of women of color.

When Butler is sworn in, possibly as early as Tuesday, Democrats will control 51 of the Senates 100 seats. But the party often doesnt move in lockstep, and last year, Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., blocked President Joe Bidens more ambitious economic initiatives, while Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Ind.-Arizona, became an independent.

Butler will serve the rest of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein s term, which runs through January 2025, though once a senator is elected next November they could take office sooner.

Chances are she wont be voting on the kinds of sweeping reforms Biden proposed in the last two years. Nor will she have the clout that Feinstein, a 31-year veteran, wielded as a member of two powerful committees (Judiciary and Appropriations)

But Butler is expected to bring stability and reliability to votes confirming judges, approving more aid to Ukraine and funding government programs.

David Huerta, president of SEIU California and SEIU United Service Workers West, celebrated Butlers appointment Monday morning, saying there is no one better to represent California.

Butler, former president of SEIU Local 2015, Californias largest labor union, is a visionary leader and a committed champion of justice for all, Huerta said.

Whether helping elect more women to office; advancing the interests of janitors, security officers, window cleaners, and food service workers; lifting up home care and nursing home workers ... she has already made an incredible difference for Californias working people, for women, and for communities of color.

Butler, labor and big tech

But not all union leaders are excited about Butlers appointment  including many who havent forgotten her time working with tech giants Uber and Airbnb.

In 2019, during her time at SCRB Strategies (now known as Bearstar Strategies, a Bay area consulting firm with strong ties to Newsom and other top Democrats) Butler advised Uber as it fought Assembly Bill 5, which expanded labor protections for gig workers by clearly defining the difference between an independent contractor and an employee. Uber and other gig economy tech companies like Lyft and Instacart pushed back against the bill, because it required them to reclassify many of their drivers as employees, and thus provide them higher pay and benefits.

In the 2020 election, California voters essentially overturned AB 5 by supporting Prop 22  a campaign into which Uber and Lyft pumped over $200 million  which legally designated ride-share app drivers and delivery service drivers as independent contractors.

Danny Raviart holds a fist in the air at a car rally against Proposition 22 at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020. The initiative would exempt app-based transportation and delivery services from a new state labor law, allowing them to continue to employ drivers as independent contractors.

Butler brings a valuable perspective to the companys efforts to improve work for drivers, Uber said in 2019, while Butler was advising the company during secret meetings with SEIU and Teamsters to negotiate driver demands.

Frankly, it is on brand for the governor to appoint someone who has actually represented some of the most labor-violating companies on earth, said Nicole Moore, Los Angeles-based president of Rideshare Drivers United, a group of more than 20,000 drivers in the state working for labor protections.

This is while ignoring the groundswell of workers standing up for rights, fair pay, and against tech exploitation. The train for worker justice is gaining power and speed and the governors showing hes not on it.

There was incredible concern, disappointment, and anger among unions and among workers in 2019 when Butler began consulting for Uber, said Veena Dubal, law professor at UC Irvine whose research focuses on the gig economy, workers rights, and the intersection of tech and labor.

Butlers pivot from focusing on labor to working for enormous tech firms spoke to a lack of ethical commitments and judgment, Dubal said.

It felt like she was using her connections in labor to advance her own career and make money for her consultancy firm.

Butler left SCRB Strategies to work on then-Sen. Kamala Harris 2020 presidential campaign, and then went on to AIrbnb as their director of public policy and campaigns before becoming president of EMILYs List.

Her position at Airbnb cemented concerns Dubal and many labor organizers already had about Butler going to the other side.

Her appointment to replace Dianne Feinstein was extremely disappointing, said Dubal, who, like Moore, said it was no surprise coming from Newsom.

Just days before appointing Butler, Newsom vetoed two bills that would have bolstered workers rights: one that would require a human safety operator in self-driving trucks  thats a good 300,000 union jobs, said Dubal  then a bill that would have given striking workers unemployment benefits.

Butlers appointment falls more in line with his vetoes, in choosing a candidate who has drawn a line in the sand with regards to whether shes fighting for workers rights or capitol rights.

The Democratic Insider





Most Democratic leaders who know her, or know her history, however, see her as a plus.

Laphonza is a champion for building a more inclusive and representative government and will certainly be a champion for women, people of color and LGBTQ+ people in the U.S Senate, said former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, President & CEO of the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute

Butler is president of EMILYs List, (EMILY stands for Early Money is Like Yeast) created in 1985 to elevate women supporting abortion rights into office and to gain influence. The group has become a fundraising behemoth, credited with helping elect women around the country.

It spent $4.2 million to help elect 58 Democratic House and Senate candidates in the 2022 election cycle, according to the nonpartisan Open Secrets, which tracks political money.

Democrats were pleased with the choice of Butler. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, called her a lifelong champion for women and girls and working families,

Thrilled to welcome such a strong champion of womens rights, labor, and reproductive freedom to the U.S. Senate  looking forward to working with you on so many issues, from protecting abortion rights to making child care more affordable and accessible! tweeted Senate President Pro Tem Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Debbie Walsh, president of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey, noted that since Harris left nearly three years ago, Theres been no black womans voice in the discussion in the conversation. Thats a void. Thats a voice for all of us.

Abortion opponents were furious about the Butler appointment.

The abortion lobby spends millions to elect Democrats who back its agenda of abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy, paid for by taxpayers. Democrats like Newsom, in turn, are beholden to the abortion lobby, said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. The pay-to-play system couldnt be more obvious, with an unelected Senate seat as the ultimate reward.
SAN FRANCISCO  In his first public remarks about his Senate appointment, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday its completely up to Laphonza Butler whether shell run for the seat previously held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein  before listing reasons why shed be an ideal candidate.

He also expressed some regret about saying last month he'd choose an interim senator as he praised the 44-year-old Butler.

I just think Laphonza Butler is uniquely positioned, simply the best person that I could find for this moment in this job, Newsom told reporters at a Democratic congressional fundraiser in San Franciscos Nob Hill neighborhood.

Butler, who will be sworn in Tuesday, hasnt publicly expressed her plans and isnt expected to make an announcement until after Feinsteins memorial on Thursday, according to a person with knowledge of her timeline.

She will serve out much of what was left in Feinstein's term, which was to end next year. She will have to decide soon if she wants to run for the seat  jumping into an active primary that includes three Democratic House members: Barabara Lee, Adam Schiff and Katie Porter.

Newsom, who had pledged in 2021 to fill the seat with a Black woman, if given the opportunity, said he has left the decision in Butlers hands, despite having earlier refused to name Lee to the post to avoid interfering with the race.

We didnt have that conversation. I said, This is up to you. That was the end of that conversation, Newsom said.

Whatever she decides, the governor said she would be an ideal candidate for the seat if she chooses to run for it. He noted Butlers age, as well as her background advocating for abortion rights, LGBTQ people and labor unions.

Ive got an incredible appointee, Newsom said.

Butler is president of EMILYs List, the national fundraising giant for Democratic women candidates. She previously worked as an adviser on Vice President Kamala Harris presidential campaign and led a union of long-term care workers. Butler has also done policy consulting work for corporate clients, including Airbnb and Uber.

You in some ways can't even make all of this up, if I had to literally design from the mind of imagination, put pen to paper, someone I would like, Newsom said. Including the time of life, shes just 44 years old.

Newsom told Meet the Press in September that he wanted a placeholder appointee to avoid tipping the scales close to the March 5 election.

That comment drew a furious response from Lee, who said it was an insult for Newsom to appoint a Black woman to a caretaker role.

On Monday, Newsom said the comment had been a hypothetical on top of a hypothetical because he didnt expect Feinstein to die in office.

With grace, I walked into it by saying I didnt want to get in the middle of the primary, Newsom said. I said what I said. Thats rearview mirror stuff right now.

Melanie Mason contributed to this report.
Kevin McCarthy has just been ousted from his position as Speaker of the House after an effort by hard-right House Republicans led to a historic removal, the first of its kind to date.

So, what could this mean, considering a pivotal seat in Congress is up for grabs, and both parties are scrambling to appoint a new House Speaker?

Well, Democrats believe that Rep. Hakeem Jeffries has a solid shot at the title.

Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries (Photo: Getty Images)

For some background, McCarthy was already facing intense scrutiny and criticism from his fellow GOP congressmen, especially hardline conservatives who worked to undermine his agenda, which reportedly wasnt aligned with the party at large.

Trending Today:

Donald Trump loyalists like Rep. Matt Gaetz and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene gave him a hard time for not taking measures that would impede the proceedings of Trumps various criminal indictments, support efforts to fund the war in Ukraine, or even support articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden. They deemed his oversight of the legislation needed to keep the federal government open as shaky after working with House Democrats.

Gaetz introduced the motion to vacate his seat, which was met with a 216-210 vote, making McCarthy the first-ever House Speaker to be dismissed from his post in the middle of a term.

House Democrats signaled their support for the removal effort early on, according to a letter written by House Minority Leader Jeffries, detailing their overwhelming dissatisfaction with McCarthys work as Speaker:

My statement on the chaos, dysfunction and extremism of the House Republican Conference. pic.twitter.com/1AAeBiFtPH  Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) October 3, 2023

Hakeem Jeffries, the next Speaker of the House, has a message for Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the House Republicans. He wants them to make a clean break from the MAGA extremists within the House GOP, and work with the Democrats to move the country forwards.pic.twitter.com/b95IMksC2h  Tony  Resistance (@TonyHussein4) October 3, 2023

Now, Democrats are moving to make Jeffries speaker of the House, which is quickly gaining support among Democratic congressional members and the public.

Republicans, youre welcome to join us and vote for Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker of the House.  Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) October 3, 2023

I am going to vote FOR a motion to vacate against Speaker Kevin McCarthy.



House Democrats stand united: In Hakeem Jeffries We Trust!  Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) October 3, 2023

Speaker Hakeem Jeffries sounds really good right about now. pic.twitter.com/CohEwMhBIo  Jack Cocchiarella (@JDCocchiarella) October 3, 2023

Rep. Pramila Jayapal just emerged from a Democratic caucus meeting with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, saying they will NOT save Kevin McCarthy, and praising Rep. Jeffries by saying "He is the person who should be Speaker of the House."



Who else agrees?  BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) October 3, 2023

Hakeem Jeffries has some serious game.  Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) October 3, 2023

Hakeem Jeffries kept the government open.



You worked next door. https://t.co/AON2qbtQGW  Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) October 3, 2023

So, whats next?

The House is now in recess after the vote, but the rules of the 118th Congress state that in the case of a vacancy in the office of Speaker, the next member named on a list submitted by McCarthy to the Clerk of the House in January will become Speaker pro tempore until a Speaker is elected, as reported by CBS News.

Pending such election, the member acting as Speaker pro tempore may exercise such authorities of the Office of Speaker as may be necessary and appropriate to that end, the rules state.

The first person on McCarthys list was Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, who was announced and appointed Speaker pro tempore.

Its still uncertain who could win the approval of enough House members to become the next official House Speaker, but McHenry will serve in the role until a new Speaker is elected.

Even if Jeffries garners enough support from his party, Republicans still hold a majority in the House of Representatives, with 221 to 212 seats.

Its also unclear how long it might take to elect McCarthys successor. It took 15 rounds of voting over a span of four days just to elect McCarthy, and that was only after McCarthy conceded to comply with their demands.

Read the original story here.
The House of Representatives will vote on whether to retain California Republican Kevin McCarthy as Speaker as early as 1pm ET on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.

Mr McCarthy reportedly announced the schedule of the no-confidence vote during a meeting of the House GOP conference this morning, not 24 hours after Florida Representative Matt Gaetz formally called for the motion to declare the office of Speaker of the House to be vacant.

The rapid action on whether to oust him as the leader of the House  a position that is second in the presidential line of succession  comes just hours after his Democratic counterpart, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, suggested that he and his leadership team would not whip Democrats to vote for or against retaining Mr McCarthy.

The New York Democrat told MSNBC on Tuesday that he had not made any decisions on how to handle the upcoming no-confidence vote, but said he and the rest of the Democratic caucus plan to discuss the matter when they meet this morning.

I care about what members of the caucus have to say. This is a vote of conscience in many ways and I am interested in hearing what every single member of the House Democratic family has to say on this issue and then well come to a collective decision at the end, he said.

Mr McCarthy spoke to reporters after the GOP conference meeting, telling them that he is confident because of who he is.

I dont give up. There are obstacles in my life. I have fallen many times. There was time I was going to speaker and I couldnt. But now I am speaker. Im the 55th speaker of the House ... each and every time, if it is an obstacle, I have viewed it as a challenge. We will solve the challenge, he said.

He added that his decision to allow the House to pass a stopgap bill to keep funding the government with Democratic support  something Mr Gaetz said violated the Speakers prior commitments to the GOP conference  had been the right move.

At the end of the day, keeping the government open and paying our troops was the right decision. I stand by that decision  if I have to lose my job over it, so be it, he said. I will fight for the American public and I will continue to fight.

He also said that Mr Gaetzs reasons for calling the no-confidence vote appeared very personal and accused the Floridian of not looking out for the country or the institution of the House.

Because as many as five or more Republican members have previously declared that they will not support keeping Mr McCarthy in his post, the Californian would need support from at least a small number of Democrats to defeat the no-confidence motion.

One progressive member of the Democratic Caucus, Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, told CNN over the weekend that she would absolutely in favour of a motion to remove Mr McCarthy.

On Monday, Ms Ocasio-Cortez reiterated her position. The third-term New Yorker, a member of the so-called Squad of young, high-profile progressives, told The Independent she was not worried that voting in favour of the motion would be enabling Mr Gaetz.

I think our priorities are Democratic priorities and we just assess the conditions of the moment, she said. Its really not about any one individual its about the decision we make as a team to really do as much as we can to deliver for people.
WASHINGTON (Nexstar)  Moments before entering a New York courtroom to begin a bench trial on business fraud, former President Donald Trump defiantly called the fraud case against him part of the single greatest witch hunt of all time.

The fraud charges could cost Trump control of some of his prized properties and as much as a $250 million fine.

Trump also lashed out at New York Attorney General Leticia James, who brought the case against him for lying about his wealth in financial statements to banks, insurers and others.

We have a racist attorney general whos a horror show, Trump said.

And he blasted Judge Arthur Engoron, who ruled on part of the case last week that Trump committed fraud for years by overvaluing or undervaluing his assets.

Hes a Democrat operative, Trump said of the judge.

This is a high stakes civil trial that could strip Trump of control of Trump Tower and other properties. In 2018 Trump valued his Mar-a-Lago estate at about $739 million. Prosecutors say that was about 20 times more than it was actually worth.

James, for her part, said the cases send a simple message.

Donald Trump and the other defendants committed persistent and repeated fraud, she said outside the court. No matter how powerful you are, no matter how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law.

Trump insists hes done nothing wrong.

What we have here, he said, is an attempt to hurt me in an election.

The trial could last through the end of the year. James is seeking a $250 million fine.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
A Yuba City woman was arrested Monday morning on suspicion of driving under the influence after a caller reported she was teaching her second-grade students at a Northern California elementary school while allegedly intoxicated. Sutter County Sheriffs deputies said she had a blood alcohol level more than two times the legal limit.

Deputies went at about 8:20 a.m. to Nuestro Elementary School in Live Oak to speak with the 57-year-old educator from Yuba City while she taught, a news release states. It added deputies also arrested the teacher on suspicion of child endangerment after reviewing video footage of her driving to school.

The woman was booked on suspicion of driving with a blood-alcohol level of more than 0.08%, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and child abuse that could lead to great bodily injury or death.

Bal Dhillon, principal of the Nuestro Elementary School and the districts superintendent, sent a letter Monday to parents where he thanked employees for reporting their concerns to the administrative staff and to sheriffs deputies. He added that he is limited in what he can divulge because its a personnel matter but that students safety remains their highest priority.

The District remains committed to ensuring that every child in our District is able to learn and thrive in a healthy, safe environment, the letter stated.

A long-term substitute will be teaching students, he added.
We are not in the business of ice cream: Big Oil is unapologetic in face of worsening climate crisis

Sorry, not sorry appeared to be the overarching message from the worlds most powerful oil and gas companies at an annual industry summit in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

The largest players in the fossil fuel industry gathered at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, just along the coast from where the Cop28 climate summit is being hosted by the UAE in a matter of months.

The oil and gas executives were buoyant, even defiant, about the industry which earned a record $4 trillion last year while countries face worsening climate disasters.

Weve got to step up and prepare for the decarbonised systems of the future, Tengku Muhammad Taufik, president and group CEO of Malaysias state energy firm, Petronas, said at a panel hosted by CNBC.

So, the debate has always been posed here, Im reminded of an old saying: If you want to keep everyone happy, sell ice cream. We are not in the business of ice cream  and Im reminded, there are people who are lactose intolerant. The indication here is we have to make some tough decisions and we have to be bounded by facts, rationality, practical steps but we will get there.

Emissions from burning fossil fuels are the primary driver of the climate crisis and countless scientific groups and non-governmental bodies, including the influential International Energy Agency, have called for a rapid transition to clean energy and no new oil and gas projects, to remain at the 1.5 degrees Celsius target of the Paris Agreement. Scientists say global emissions must be cut by nearly half in the next seven years to hold to 1.5C.

At the current 1.2C of global warming, countries are experiencing worsening storms, flooding, heatwaves, fires and drought.

But while clean energy investments are expected to hit $1.7 trillion in 2023, around $1 trillion is still being invested in coal, oil and gas putting the planet far off-course in its net zero goals. The oil and gas industrys spending on operations to redue emissions was less than 5 per cent of its upstream spending in 2022, according to the IEAs latest World Energy Investment report.

A view shows the destruction, in the aftermath of the floods in Derna, Libya on September 30, 2023, which killed more than 11,000 people (REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori)

Regardless, there was a sense of optimism from the stage. Vicki Hollub, CEO of Texas-based multinational Occidental Petroleum, described really exciting times for the oil and gas industry but conceded that they must regain societys trust.

I dont see where we are today as something that is going to end our industry although there are some out there that want it to go away. As we have done in the past, we will find ways to innovate out of this situation that were in, she said.

Patrick Pouyanne, head of French oil company TotalEnergies, said that he had been naive and admitted, we will not please the activists.

We will never make enough to please the ones which are against oil and gas, but my mission is not to please them, he added. Our mission is to deliver to the society the energy we need today and tomorrow and for that I feel comfortable.

Wael Sawan, chief executive of UK oil giant Shell, described his time at the top as a roller coaster.

Its the worst of times and its the best of times, he continued.

Demonstrators during a national protest for climate justice in Bern, Switzerland, on September 30, 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

The worst of times I think with the recognition it seems to be a time where we continue to polarise the debate more and more rather than actually converge given that we are trying to solve arguably the worlds biggest problem right now.

Sultan al-Jaber also spoke at Mondays event in the UAE capital. Mr Al-Jaber, head of the state-run Abu Dhabi Oil Company, is president of the upcoming Cop28 climate conference, a decision that has sparked anger and suspicion among activists and prominent figures including former US vice president Al Gore.

He called on oil and gas companies to be central to the solution to fighting the climate crisis, at the event.

That is our North Star. It is in fact our only destination. It is simply acknowledging and respecting the science. We must do this while also ensuring human prosperity by meeting the energy needs of the planets growing population, Mr al-Jaber said.

Abu Dhabi Oil Co. is planning to grow its operation to pump five million barrels a day.
On Monday, British military intelligence issued an update on the situation in the Black Sea. According to this, the Russian Black Sea Fleet is struggling to deal with concurrent threats on the southern flank of the Ukraine war and fleet activities are likely relocating to Novorossiysk in the face of threats to Sevastopol. Russia is now attempting to use naval air power to project force over the north-western Black Sea.

This is quite big stuff. It would seem that the Ukrainians have more or less pushed the Black Sea Fleet out of Sevastopol, its primary base, away to Novorossiysk on the other side of the Azov in pre-2014 Russia. Being able to use Sevastopol as a naval base is one of the main military reasons Russia needs Crimea. Another is to use it as a logistics hub, shipping in munitions and materiel for the land battle to the north.

It would seem, in the judgement of the British intelligence staff at least, that recent heavy strikes on Sevastopol  in which headquarters were blown up and docked warships damaged, perhaps beyond realistic repair  have made the port city untenable as a naval base.

That matters, because if the Black Sea Fleet cant operate from Sevastopol its reach into the northwestern Black Sea, bordered by the Ukrainian southern coast with its still-Ukrainian harbours, is reduced. And that means that the Russian ability to blockade Ukraine, to keep ships from taking cargoes to or from those harbours, is degraded. Russia has withdrawn from the previous agreement which permitted Ukrainian grain exports, and is now attempting to cut them off.

In theory, Russian warships could simply operate to the south, and interdict traffic between Ukraine and Turkeys Bosphorus strait, thus cutting Ukraine off from the wider world. But even on the high seas, warships can only legally interfere with ships of another flag state under certain circumstances (piracy, for instance). And Russian warships have no right to interfere at all with any ship inside another nations territorial waters.

This means that a ship staying within 12 miles of the coast is pretty safe all the way up the western Black Sea, as it is inside the territorial limits of Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. Military action by Russia in their waters would be an act of war against a Nato nation.

Its only when the ship is north of the Romanian border that its in Ukrainian waters, and considered fair game by the Russians. But its become clear that the warships of the Black Sea Fleet, understandably, dont want to operate close to the Ukrainian coast: the fate of the cruiser Moskva, sunk last year by shore-based Ukrainian missiles, still stands as a warning.

Last week, the first grain ships reached the Bosphorus from Ukraine, travelling down the coastal corridor: their captains no doubt emboldened to make the run by Ukrainian attacks on Sevastopol.

Now, with British intelligence assessing that not only can the Black Sea Fleet not operate close to the Ukrainian coast, it cannot even operate in safety from Sevastopol  it might seem that Russia is well and truly driven out of the western Black Sea.

But the same British update also sounds a note of caution. Russian warships may not be able to operate in the northwest, but the Black Sea Fleet also has its naval aviation units. In the Russian navy, these include shore-based aircraft as well as shipborne ones.

Most advanced militaries have long-ranging maritime patrol aircraft (MPAs), big planes able to range far over the ocean and detect (and in some cases, attack) shipping and submarines beneath. Russia has its powerful Tupolev Tu-142, the MPA version of the Tu-95 Bear heavy bomber. Nato calls the Tu-142 Bear F or Bear J, which means that in Western news reports it is often called a bomber, but its actually quite different in its weapons and capabilities. The Tu-142 dates from the 1960s, but a limited number of the big planes were overhauled and updated just a few years ago.

Just last month, British fighters scrambled to intercept a Bear-F and a Bear-J passing British airspace north of Scotland. The Tu-142s belong to the Northern and Pacific fleets, and are mostly based far from the Black Sea. In 2021, however, three of them were brought to the region as a response to the Black Sea Incident, in which Russia claimed the British destroyer HMS Defender had encroached on Crimean waters. Tu-142s had visited the Black Sea and conducted patrols previously.

But this time it seems there are no Tu-142s to spare. The Bear J has a crucial role in communications with Russian nuclear submarines, and as such probably fully employed at the moment. It would seem that there arent any Bear Fs that can be sent as reinforcements on this occasion either.

Thus the only MPAs the Black Sea Fleet has are a handful of ancient Beriev Be-12 flying boats dating from the 1950s. According to British intelligence, these are now carrying out maritime patrols from Crimean bases: but probably staying close to home focused mainly on incoming Ukrainian drone boat attacks, rather than probing dangerous Ukrainian airspace to the north and west.

The intelligence update also says that the Black Sea Fleet also has old but effective Su-24 Fencer and somewhat more modern (late Cold War vintage) Su-27 Flanker jets available for maritime strike missions, and that these have recently made a strike on the strategically located Snake Island.

Snake Island is strategic, among other reasons, because it sits in the western Black Sea just about at the top of the safe corridor where Romanian territorial waters begin. Russia seized it early in the invasion  the tiny Ukrainian garrisons uncompromising reply on being summoned to surrender by Russian ships has now passed into history  but Snake Island is a place which has been described as easy to take, difficult to hold and the Russians have since pulled out in the face of determined Ukrainian attacks.

If Russia still held Snake Island, it would be a bold merchant captain indeed who would sail past it to reach Romanian waters: but Russia doesnt. Russian jets have proved they can hit targets in the vicinity, but not that they know when or where there is a ship to be hit. Its most unlikely that the rickety old Be-12 flying boats are patrolling far enough west to provide useful intelligence.

If there were Tu-142s operating above the Black Sea as they are at the moment above the North Atlantic it would be a different matter. But it would seem that there are only enough of the big planes for the unseen, silent battle which is fought all the time in North Atlantic and Arctic waters. In that battle, Russia tries to get its submarines  including its nuclear missile submarines  in and out of harbour without them being tracked by Western forces, and the Western forces  particularly our submarines  try to avoid being located by prowling Tu-142s.

These are not times to relax about things like having ones nuclear deterrent at sea, ready to use, and undetected by the enemy. The most recent British nuclear missile submarine to come back off patrol two weeks ago had been out for a record-breaking six months, evidently having had to wait for problems to be fixed with her replacement.

A supposed peer adversary like Russia should be able to spare some resources from the deterrent struggle for the Black Sea, however. Western planes and drones are and have been very active there, which suggests that the West probably has a good picture of maritime comings and goings in the area.

But this is one of the many cases brought up by the Ukraine war, in which Russian paper strength, particularly in advanced air assets, has turned out to be an illusion. Its unlikely that Russia has a good picture of whats happening between Odesa and Snake Island.

We may see more grain ships making the run to and from Ukraine in coming weeks, as the Black Sea Fleet pulls out of Crimea to lick its wounds in Novorossiysk.

Lewis Page is a former Royal Navy officer

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Editors Note: Reality Check is a Kansas City Star series focused on bringing truth and transparency to local news coverage. This newsroom-wide project will bring fast facts to developing stories to ensure accountability in the actions and statements of local officials and institutions. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email tips@kcstar.com.

The Kansas Legislature spent more than $6,600 last week on a committee that promoted misinformation and false claims of election fraud.

The two-day meeting was the latest in a string of conspiracy-laced hearings in the GOP-controlled Legislature since 2020, when former President Donald Trump falsely claimed the election was stolen from him.

Sen. Mike Thompson, a Shawnee Republican who chaired the committee, handpicked who lawmakers would hear from as they studied elections. He chose a series of activists who lacked expertise on elections and a Florida-based think tank that has pushed for ballot restrictions.

He left out local election administrators.

The cost of the committee includes payment for salary and per diem for all 11 lawmakers, as well as staff pay. The cost does not include any mileage for lawmakers to travel to Topeka.

Davis Hammet, founder of voting rights group Loud Light, said he believed the two days of testimony did more harm to voter confidence than good.

This doesnt increase confidence in elections, they just created a platform for increasing doubt in elections because no one was there to counteract all these ridiculous claims, Hammet said.

But Thompson argued the groups who were left out already have the ear of lawmakers and that concerned Kansans needed a voice. Many of the activists he invited, however, are not based in Kansas.

These are folks who dont have ready access to these types of public forums and I thought giving them a voice for this so that we could listen to their concerns and have this kind of discussion was important, Thompson said.

Individuals presenting repeatedly debunked claims of election fraud and irregularities dominated the second day of testimony. The speakers, representing the Liberty Lions League, largely lacked any professional expertise on election systems. Instead, they were often individuals with backgrounds in computer science who sought to convince lawmakers without evidence that election machines had serious security deficiencies.

This included Mark Cook, a Colorado election denier who allegedly convinced an election official east of Denver to make unauthorized copies of the countys voting system. The Colorado secretary of state sued the county election official last year. Cook argued that Dominion Voting Systems had rigged the 2020 presidential election. The claims have been repeatedly debunked and resulted in an $800 million payment from Fox News to the company to settle a defamation case.

Lawmakers also heard from Thad Snider, a Johnson County man who filed an unsuccessful lawsuit last year seeking a redo of the 2020 presidential election and criminal prosecution of Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab , a Republican.

Snider argued ballot drop boxes and absentee ballots were prime spots for election fraud. He cited concerns he had about transfer documents, which Schwab and Johnson County Election Commissioner Fred Sherman have said do not actually indicate election fraud.

Another witness, Clint Curtis, a conspiracy theorist who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006 and 2008 and has claimed for decades that he was hired to rig the 2000 election in Florida, argued potential election hackers could guess which counties would be audited following an election to avoid getting caught. Kansas, however, chooses which elections to audit through a completely random process after an election is over.

Rep. Pat Proctor , a Leavenworth Republican who chairs the House Elections Committee, said he believed the Kansas Legislature could make changes to improve elections and increase voter confidence.

But he said the committee testimony provided incomplete information.

Its very hard to do when we have a contingent that is not really tethered to facts or evidence of any kind because the folks that are trying to make rational, reasonable arguments to fix stuff get painted with that brush, Proctor said.

Proctor said he didnt have an issue with the individuals testifying about their concerns about election equipment but that the Legislature also needs to hear from vendors, the League of Women Voters, Loud Light and county election officials.

Ive been going to election commissioners and election officers and county clerks and actually seeing how its done, Proctor said. I know that some of the concerns and issues that are raised here, they play in the area of peoples ignorance.

Some people dont know how the whole system works and a lot of the suspicions and concerns are living in this space where people dont really know how it works.

Rick Piepho, the secretary of the Kansas County Clerks and Election Officials Association, said the committee reached out to him about having county clerks testify. However, before Piepho could respond, he said, the Legislature had published an agenda for the committee that did not include the clerks.

At that point, he said, he backed off. He provided the committee with the information it requested but said he didnt want to get into a debate on the Friday stuff on all these different conspiracy theories.

He said pushing back on conspiracy theories is one of the largest challenges for clerks, especially when they are often asked to prove a negative, that fraud doesnt exist.

Thats one of our biggest struggles is how to combat some of the myths and disinformation out there, he said. When a chair of a committee gives a forum to these people to spout theories Im not sure that its good for anybody.

Thompson said he planned to ask for permission to hold a third day of election integrity hearings later this year. He said he may consider bringing in some of the voices that werent included in the first two days but he argued the views of those who worry about machines shouldnt be dismissed.

He said testimony from the Kansas Secretary of States Office the prior day represented the other side of the issue.

Its not about the expertise but I think you look at, for example, the work some of these people have done and theyve committed huge amounts of time, Thompson said. Experts dont necessarily come with a degree after their name or a company name to back them up.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization to Novavaxs COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, bringing the number of immunizations effective against the current circulating strain up to three.

Novavaxs vaccine, a more traditional protein-based shot that differs from the mRNA vaccines that have become commonplace, has been authorized for people 12 years of age and older. Previously vaccinated people are eligible for one dose while those who havent been immunized yet are eligible for two.

Todays authorization provides an additional COVID-19 vaccine option that meets the FDAs standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization, Peter Marks, director of the FDAs Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.

As we head into the fall season and transition into 2024, we strongly encourage those who are eligible to consider receiving an updated COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants.

This authorization comes just a few weeks after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gave the final sign-off on the updated mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

All of these shots are designed to target the XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant, and while this strain is no longer the predominant mutation that is circulating in the U.S., it is closely related to the dominant strain of the moment  EG.5  which accounts for about 30 percent of cases, according to the CDC.

Novavax expects doses will be available in thousands of locations in the U.S., across pharmacies, physician offices and public health clinics, as well as through government entities including the Bridge Access Program and Vaccines for Children, in the coming days, Novavax said in a statement.

The companys CEO John Jacobs said people should be able to get the updated shot at major pharmacies, physicians offices, clinics and various government entities within the coming days.

This years fall vaccine campaign against COVID-19, the first to have a commercialized approach without being largely subsidized by the federal government, has encountered a few early issues including some patients ending up having to pay out-of-pocket despite being insured and many locations still waiting to receive supplies.

Major insurers assured the Biden administration last week that the shots will be covered and that the early issues have been largely resolved.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, around 2 million people have been vaccinated so far. A recent survey indicated that about half of adults plan to get the updated COVID shots, though the majority of parents said they wouldnt be getting their children vaccinated.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
(This Oct. 3 story has been corrected to change the reference to Ozempic to say it's a diabetes drug, and not a weight-loss and diabetes drug)

By Maggie Fick

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The CEO of Novo Holdings said on Tuesday the controlling shareholder of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk was ready for a huge windfall from the runaway success of weight-loss drug Wegovy.

Novo Holdings invests and manages the wealth and assets of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, whose newly bulging coffers could make it a major philanthropist and environmental, social and governance (ESG) investor.

Referring to estimates that Wegovy and other drugs will generate returns of more than $12 billion in coming years, Novo Holdings CEO Kasim Kutay said: "If these forecasts are correct, that's a hell of a lot of money coming our way over the next decade and hopefully more."

He was speaking to journalists in Copenhagen, where the investment company, its owner Novo Nordisk Foundation, and the drugmaker Novo Nordisk are headquartered. Last month, the drugmaker overtook LVMH to become Europe's most valuable listed company, worth about 385 billion euros ($403 billion) - more than Denmark's GDP.

Novo Holdings holds 28.1% of economic (or A) shares and 76.9% of voting (or B) shares in Novo Nordisk, whose share price has nearly tripled since Wegovy's launch in June 2021. It has driven record profits along with diabetes drug Ozempic.

According to Berenberg analysts and Reuters calculations, the Novo Nordisk Foundation will receive about $12.5 billion in returns between last year and 2026. That would be roughly double its income in 2018-2021, before Wegovy launched in the U.S.

Novo Foundation CEO Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen said the windfall would be even higher when accounting for share buybacks. It sells B shares in a buyback to maintain its voting rights at the same level year to year.

The Foundation uses its returns to fund investments by its wholly owned investment and holding company, Novo Holdings, and to make charitable grants. The amount of money now at its disposal could make it hugely influential.

The foundation now has 180 employees, up sharply from just three in 2009, according to its website.

It had 108 billion euros in total assets at the end of 2022, the most recent available data.

Kutay said he believes Novo Holdings' systems and policies are robust and he is "cautiously optimistic" it can handle the ferocious growth in its wealth.

"It changes my life a lot. I've got to invest that money. It comes with a huge responsibility," said Kutay, who has led the firm since 2016. He previously worked for investment bank Moelis & Co and U.S. bank Morgan Stanley.

GROWTH

As its wealth grows, Novo Holdings will hire more people, potentially open more offices and expand its geographic presence, Kutay said.

Earlier on Tuesday, he said Novo Holdings had 160 employees as of June but is looking to grow to 180 next year. It has six offices globally, including one that opened in Shanghai this year to focus on investments in China.

It opened an office in Singapore several years ago, and has U.S. offices in Boston and San Francisco.

Novo Holdings' total returns of were down 6% in 2022, still outperforming its benchmark and many peers, Kutay said, despite negative underlying market trends.

Booming revenues are also transforming the ambition and size of investments.

Novo Holdings' deal size in healthcare will rise, particularly for its principal investments into well-established companies.

While it would previously have been comfortable investing $450 million in a company, now it could be as much as $900 million, Kutay said. He would expect to double the size of investments over the next six to seven years, he said.

Another potential project is for the Foundation to invest 200 million euros in setting up a vaccines and immunity initiative. Its infectious diseases chief Peter Lawaetz Andersen said this would be similar to Norway's Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which helps fund vaccine research.

The Foundation's board has yet to approve the plan, but Andersen said it would not have been possible without the Wegovy windfall.

Novo Holdings' early-stage investments team now has $200 million to deploy each year, Soren Moller, who heads the seed division, told Reuters.

That is big for a seed fund, he said, but he gave no comparable figure.

($1 = 0.9542 euros)

($1 = 0.8284 pounds)

(Reporting by Maggie Fick,; Writing by Josephine Mason; Editing by Louise Heavens, Catherine Evans and David Gregorio)
A report citing several PC hardware stores in Tokyo raises concerns about an impending shortage of Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards, particularly at the high end. Japan's ITmedia PC User has surveyed several electronics stores in Tokyo's famous Akihabara Electric Town district, and elsewhere, with the conclusion that "the stock of cards equipped with GeForce RTX 4090/4080 is thinning across the city."

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 stocks

If nothing else, the above-linked report signals that there is something of a supply / demand imbalance in play. It would be of greater concern if the supplies of higher-end RTX 40 family graphics cards were seemingly inadequate due to some strategic production decision by Nvidia and partners.

We know Nvidia is doing very nicely from the AI boom. So far we haven't observed any fallout on the consumer side of things. In other words, the AI GPU boom isn't seen to be affecting consumer GPU pricing like the crypto boom(s) did. However, business is business, and if Nvidia can rake in more cash from prioritizing AI GPU customers, then it would naturally do so.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 stocks

Returning to the new report from the Japanese brick-and-mortar retailers, retail back orders are said to be longer for GPUs priced in the JP  250,000 range. That would translate to US $1,670 today. One store owner thought the problem was a "worldwide supply shortage." The same person theorized that shortages might be intentional so Nvidia and partners can offload RTX 30 stocks.

Another PC outlet in Akihabara said that it sees high demand for the flagship RTX 4090, as well as the RTX 4070 Ti. Nevertheless, this store manager is "deliberately stocking up on RTX 4080 cards," as the time will come when this GPU isn't overlooked.

What About the US?

At the time of writing, the likes of Amazon and Newegg appear to have ample stocks of GeForce RTX 4090 models. Browsing the retail sites today reveals cards ranging from the most basic reference spec models to AiO cooler equipped and premium models from various brands.

Japan's ITmedia PC User report advises those interested in picking up one of the best graphics cards for gaming to keep an eye on stocks and trends. We could say the same to US residents. If you are interested in a top-end Nvidia GPU, but are waiting to pull the trigger, always watch the market carefully for price movements and stock levels.
With defendant O.J. Simpson, far right, looking on, lead defense team attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., second from right, examines a pictures of Simpsons next door neighbor Wolfgang Salingers estate, March 3, 1995, in a Los Angeles courtroom. | Reed Saxon, Associated Press

Orenthal James O.J. Simpson was acquitted in what reports call the trial of the century for two counts of murder on Oct. 3, 1995.

Heres why this case captivated an entire nation.

Related

What happened on the night of Nicole Browns murder?

The West Port Library Guide reported that on the night of June 12, 1994, Simpsons ex-wife and her friend Ronald Goldman were stabbed to death outside of her condominium in Los Angeles, and Simpson quickly became the prime suspect. Simpson was charged with several crimes, including armed robbery and kidnapping, according to Britannica.

CNN reported a timeline sequence of what happened on the night of the murders:

6:30 p.m.  Nicole Brown Simpson, her children and several others go to dinner at the Mezzaluna restaurant.

8:00 p.m.  Nicole Brown Simpson and her children leave Mezzaluna, and stop for ice cream on the way home.

9:15 p.m.  One of Nicole Brown Simpsons sisters call Mezzaluna to say that Nicoles mother had left her glasses at the restaurant. Ronald Goldman volunteers to return the glasses.

9-9:30 p.m.  Brian Kaelin, a friend staying in a guest house at O.J. Simpsons home, and Simpson go to McDonalds for dinner.

9:45 p.m.  Kaelin and Simpson return home.

9:48-9:50 p.m.  Goldman leaves the restaurant with a white envelope containing the glasses.

10:15 p.m.  While watching television, Pablo Fenjves, a neighbor of Nicole Brown Simpson, hears the cries and constant barking of a dog.

10:25 p.m.  Limousine driver Allan Park arrives at Simpsons home.

10:40 p.m.  Kaelin hears three loud thumps on an outside wall of his room.

10:40-10:50 p.m.  Park buzzes intercom several times but does not get any response.

10:55 p.m.  Park calls his boss and tells him Simpson is not home. He is told to wait until 11:15 since Simpson is always late.

Shortly before 11 p.m.  Park sees a Black person, 6-feet, 200 pounds, walking across the driveway towards the house.

About 11 p.m.  Kaelin goes to the front of the house to check on the noise. He sees the limousine driver at the gate. Several seconds later, Park again buzzes the intercom and Simpson answers. He says he had overslept and just gotten out of the shower.

11 - 11:15 p.m.  Simpson puts his bags in the limousine.

11:15 p.m.  Limousine leaves for Los Angeles Airport.

11:35 p.m.  Limousine arrives at airport.

11:45 p.m.  Simpson leaves on an American Airlines flight to Chicago.

12:10 a.m.  The bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are discovered outside her townhouse.

About 5 a.m.  Detectives Mark Fuhrman and Philip Vannatter arrive at Simpsons house.

5:15-5:30 a.m.  The detectives examine an apparent bloodstain on Simpsons Ford Bronco.

5:40-5:50 a.m.  Detective Fuhrman decided to jump the wall in order for police to get inside the estate. Once on the grounds, the detectives awaken Simpsons daughter, Arnelle, who is staying in a guest house. She takes the police to the house and telephones Cathy Randa, her fathers longtime assistant.

7-7:30 a.m.  Detective Vannatter declared the area a crime scene and goes to get a warrant to search the house.

Related

Why did O.J. Simpsons trial captivate the nation?

28 years ago Tuesday, Simpson was found not guilty for the two counts of murder he was charged with and yet people reportedly still feel that this case resonates for a couple of reasons.

USA Today reported that some of the ties to this case that keep people captivated today are the Kardashian connections to the case, the bloody glove featured in the trial, the pre-social media acquittal, racial tensions and of course the infamous low-speed car chase.

The trial itself began on Jan. 24, 1995, and the final verdict was decided on Oct. 3, 1995, resulting in finding Simpson not guilty of the charges pressed against him.

For more than eight months some 150 witnesses testified, though Simpson did not take the stand, according to Britannica.

White, Black, immigrants who were from different races, women and men, rich and poor  and everyone was glued to the television, Charles Ogletree, a professor at Harvard Law School who directs the schools Institute for Race and Justice said, according to The Washington Post.

The verdict decided all those years ago left the country then and even now reportedly split about whether or not Simpson committed the crimes.

It stood in, in a lot of ways, for race relations in America, UW-Madison professor Hemant Shah told, Spectrum News 1. Black man on trial for the murder of a white woman.

While some jurors still stand with their decision, others feel that they made the wrong call, according to Dateline NBC.

Given that standard and based on the amount of evidence that was presented, then yes, you would have to say that yes, he is guilty, the foreman and juror during the trial, Armanda Cooley said.

Marsha Rubin-Jackson, another juror on the trial reportedly stands by the verdict but details that if it was brought forward as a civil case, I would have to vote guilty.
One resident after another stood at a public hearing Monday night to say Ocean Springs city leaders had disrespected them with an unexpected Urban Renewal Plan, which targets properties in a historically Black neighborhood for blight, potential redevelopment or both.

The Urban Renewal Plan, released about six weeks ago, includes six areas throughout the city where Mayor Kenny Holloway says homes and businesses would qualify for grants and loans for property improvements and redevelopment. He and other members of the administration say Coast cities with urban renewal plans are receiving millions of dollars while Ocean Springs misses out.

He now acknowledges the administration should have talked with residents about the plan before moving toward its adoption. Instead of voting on the plan as anticipated, the city has put it on pause to hear from residents.

And residents had plenty to say.

The main area in contention is a neighborhood downtown where Black residents have handed down property for generations. The Urban Renewal Plan has come along at a time when high-end housing, a boutique hotel, restaurants and bars are being built downtown.

Hundreds of residents filled the chairs and lined the back wall at the civic center, with many signing up to speak. One member of the seven-member board, Rickey Authement, recused himself from the conversation because he owns property in the downtown area. Authement, who also represents the downtown area, then left the room.

Ocean Springs Mayor Kenny Holloway, right, listens as residents voice their concerns about a proposed Urban Renewal Plan during a public hearing hosted by the Board of Aldermen at the Ocean Springs Civic Center on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. Hannah Ruhoff/Sun Herald

Ocean Springs residents united in opposition to plan

While at least a dozen Black residents spoke during the meeting, many white residents also spoke out against the plan.

This is not an economic development plan, said resident Lori Carter. Its a developers plan. By endorsing this plan, youve made it very easy for developers to take houses for no good reason.

Residents clearly said they want to keep the fabric of their community.

That neighborhood means everything to us, said Cynthia Fisher, whose family has owned residential property downtown since 1920. Her family has gatherings in the neighborhood and grew up playing there.

Thats where we lived our lives, she said. Before those bars came in down there, yall didnt even think about that property.

Rana Oliver, who said she owns the historic Carter-Calloway House downtown, was one of the residents who said they were being disrespected.

Were youre fellow citizens, she told the aldermen seated onstage. I want to ask you, as my fellow citizens, where is your humanity?

Ocean Springs residents and members of We Shall Not Be Moved, an organization opposed to a proposed Urban Renewal Plan, listen as residents voice their concerns about the plan and how it was communicated during a public hearing hosted by the mayor and Board of Aldermen at the Ocean Springs Civic Center on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. Hannah Ruhoff/Sun Herald

Urban Renewal Plan moving forward

An attorney from the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Virginia, Suranjan Sen, said the citys plan is legally deficient. He said it includes language that is too vague when describing plans for properties. He also said notice to residents was lacking. The institute fights unfair eminent domain cases around the country at no charge.

Esther Payton, who said she is a sixth-generation property owner downtown, told the mayor and aldermen: Transparency: Your citizens should know what going on.

Doing things underhanded, sweeping stuff under the rug, thats not good. Be open. Be honest. Be up front.

Retired attorney Bob Smith said city leaders are losing residents trust, which will be hard to regain.

One resident said the Urban Renewal Plan should be scrapped.

After the meeting, which lasted almost two hours, Holloway told the Sun Herald: Were not going to stop the plan. Were going to try to find some common ground and move forward.

An Ocean Springs resident and her elderly mother address Mayor Kenny Holloway and the Board of Alderman during a public hearing hosted over the proposed Urban Renewal Plan at the Ocean Springs Civic Center on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. Hannah Ruhoff/Sun Herald

An Ocean Springs resident argues as another resident addresses the mayor and Board of Aldermen during a public hearing about a proposed Urban Renewal Plan at the Ocean Springs Civic Center on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. Hannah Ruhoff/Sun Herald
The Oconee County Sheriffs Office reported the following incidents:

NEW YORKER: On Sept. 19, Deputy Robert Perrin was dispatched to Walmart, where a loss prevention officer had detained a 39-year-old man from Bronx, N.Y., for shoplifting. The man attempted to leave without paying for a camping table and pack of T-shirts, all valued at $45.

SHOPLIFTER CAUGHT: On Sept. 21, Deputy Joshua Warren was dispatched to Walmart, where a shoplifting suspect had left the store with her companions. The 28-year-old Winder woman was confronted while leaving, and while she surrendered items in her cart, she refused to return items placed in her backpack. Warren spotted the vehicle on Epps Bridge Parkway and made a traffic stop, where she was taken into custody.

THEFT SUSPECT: On Sept. 22, Deputy Steven Heckler was dispatched to a home on Evergreen Park, where a 25-year-old woman reported the theft of her Rolex watch valued at $20,000. The watch was missing from a drawer in a bathroom, which had been undergoing a renovation. One of the two workers had sketchy behavior and was once seen hiding behind a door. A co-worker called this man, who was not at the job site, and he confessed to taking the watch, but would return it. He arrived at the house with the watch and some dental floss he also stole. The deputy took the 25-year-old man to jail on a felony theft charge.

Crime: ACC officer confronts man outside courthouse, ends up in fight

Crime: Oconee Blotter: Hit and run driver blames wreck on brake checking

THEFT MOTIVE: On Sept. 28, Deputy Steven Heckler was dispatched to a home on Beechnut Lane in Watkinsville, where a woman discovered that someone entered her vehicle, damaged the glove compartment and stole about $10 in change. The woman said the crime may have occurred in retaliation to her stance on a matter involving the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation in Watkinsville. The victim did not elaborate, but board members recently fired the executive director and the office administrator for undisclosed reasons. The woman explained that attorneys are now involved in the OCAF matter. The deputy spent about 45 minutes at the crime scene.

METH SEIZED: On Sept. 22, Deputy Lex Ogan was patrolling on Macon Highway, when he observed a black Ford Expedition turn in front of him causing the officer to hit his brakes to avoid a collision. After a traffic stop, the deputy noticed the man had glassy eyes and smelled of alcohol. The man explained he was headed to the Waffle House and about two hours earlier drank a Terrapin beer. Later the man admitted he had consumed liquor. After the 53-year-old Bishop man was charged with DUI, he was found in possession of meth, some in powder form and some in the form of pills and capsules. The deputy also found $1,578 cash. The man explained the cash by saying he had sold 10 Trey Anastasio Band concert tickets for $100 each.

GUNS STOLEN: On Sept. 23, Cpl. Pat Holl met with a 49-year-old Winder man, who explained he had loaned his vehicle to his son to attend a wedding on Hebron Church Road in Oconee. During the event, someone entered the unlocked vehicle and stole his Taurus G3 9mm pistol, along with his credit cards and drivers license. Deputy Boris Argueta also met with a 23-year-old Watkinsville man who attended the same wedding. This man reported someone entered his pickup and stole a Sig Sauer P365-X pistol with a Wilson Combat grip, along with a flashlight and headlamp.

METH SEIZED: On Sept. 25, Cpl. Kenji Dorsey responded just before midnight to a call at the Friendship Recreation Center off North Macon Highway, where a person reported seeing a Dodge Dakota pickup backed up to the swimming pool. The 40-year-old Comer man in the pickup explained he lives out of his truck, but he didnt know why he was at this location. During a search of the pickup, the deputy located some meth and took the man to jail.

SHOPLIFTERS CAUGHT: On Sept. 27, Deputy Annessa Glenn was dispatched to Walmart, where two roommates from Athens were spotting shoplifting a variety of products from cosmetics to hair supplies. The 19-year-old suspect placed some items in her purse, while the 20-year-old woman concealed items inside her clothing. They were confronted as they attempted to leave. The merchandise was valued at $433.

AGGRESSIVE SHOPLIFTER: On Sept. 28, Deputy Bill Reynolds was dispatched to Walmart for a shoplifting suspect, who just the previous day had become aggressive in the store. A loss prevention officer was with the suspect, who was ordered by the deputy to go inside an office. The 49-year-old Athens man just looked at the deputy, who repeated his command. The man finally complied and entered the office, but he began swearing and yelling that he had not stolen anything. The man was placed in handcuffs and the officer found concealed in his clothing a Mountain Dew, along with Snickers and Hersheys candies.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Oconee Blotter: Is crime linked to controversy at Oconee arts group?
The next time youre enjoying Montanas great outdoors, be on the lookout for peculiar creatures with a bizarre defense mechanism  shooting blood out of their eyes.

State wildlife officials want to gather more data on the rarely seen greater short-horned lizard, commonly known as the horny toad, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said in an Oct. 2 news release.

And you could help them do just that.

These lizards were once so common in Montana they were considered the second most abundant reptile along the Missouri River. In the late 19th century, they were only second to the western rattlesnake, officials said.

But nowadays theyre considered a species of greatest inventory need due to lacking data on their population and distribution, officials said.

Wildlife biologists have a tough time tracking them down because their elusive nature and cryptic coloration makes them camouflage experts, officials said.

This is where we can use outdoor recreationists help, because oftentimes people just accidentally come across one, biologist Nicole Hussey said in the release.

A bloody defense mechanism

But first, if you run into one, remember they can shoot pressurized blood out of their eyes, often to defend against canid and felid (canine and feline) predators.

The National Park Service posted about the unusual behavior on Instagram back in May.

Felt cute, might shoot blood out of eyes later... officials joked in the May 16 post. When they feel threatened, its final defense response is to shoot blood out of its eye sockets. As a result, the predator is often frightened and flees.

Shooting blood from their eyes also helps these critters remove foreign particles from the surface of its eyes, according to the Instagram post.

The blood has a repulsive taste that comes from consuming venomous harvester ants, officials said in the news release. Although they seem like they would make a good pet, please leave these fascinating critters where you find them.

Habitat and tips for spotting

Greater short-horned lizards are scattered throughout Montanas eastern range, often found hanging out on south or east-facing slopes of coulees, ridge tops, and sometimes open flats.

Their preferred habitats have sagebrush, creeping juniper, or rabbitbrush, with spare bunch grass, patches of bare ground and shale-like soil. Sometimes theyre found in some ponderosa pine sands.

Because they are masters of disguise, the sneaky lizards are typically easiest to spot when they move, officials said.

Some other tips to keep in mind are:

Adults are diurnal, so theyre most active during warmer daylight hours.

Their coloration blends in with the soil (called cryptic coloration), which can vary by location.

Look out for the features that distinguish them from three other lizard species that are more regularly documented in Montana. Horny toads have a broad, flattened body, and share the range with the common sagebrush lizard, which is much more slender.

Horny toad heads have a heart-shaped appearance from above.

What if you spot one?

If you spot one while youre out trekking around the countryside, make like a scientist and note the GPS coordinates, as well as the date, the number of horny toads you saw, and take a picture with something for scale, officials said.

Then report your findings to your local Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist:

Region 5 (Billings): Megan OReilly at moreilly@mt.gov

Region 6 (Glasgow): Nicole Hussey at hussey@mt.gov

Region 7 (Miles City): Brandi Skone at bskone@mt.gov

Large creature with colorful groin found scampering on tree. Its a new species

Scaly rainforest creature with leopard-like pattern turns out to be new species

Dwarf-like forest creature found inside hotel in Burundi turns out to be new species
Associated British Ports is investigating the potential of a site on the Cromarty Firth

A new offshore wind farm manufacturing and assembly base has been proposed for the shores of the Cromarty Firth in the Highlands.

Associated British Ports (ABP) plans to build the site at Pitcalzean Farm, just to the north of Nigg Energy Park.

The company has signed an agreement with the landowner and is to consult locally on the proposals.

The base would be within the boundaries of the planned Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport.

Calum MacPherson, chief executive of the freeport project, described the move as "massive news" for the area.

ABP said it was excited to be exploring options for a base on the firth.

Chief executive Henrik Pedersen said: "Offshore wind offers huge potential to generate green energy and - if the right conditions are in place - significant jobs and prosperity benefits to Scotland and the UK."

The offshore wind base is among a number of proposals for the planned freeport

Other developments have already been proposed for a freeport.

They include plans for a large sub-sea power cable factory next to industrial docks at Nigg.

In January it was announced Cromarty Firth and the Forth had been selected to host Scotland's first green freeports.

Also called free trade zones, freeports are designated areas where the normal tax and tariff rules of the country in which they are based do not apply.

They allow goods to be imported, manufactured and re-exported without being subject to checks, paperwork, or import taxes, known as tariffs.
SHALIMAR  A 29-year-old cold case has finally been solved.

During a during a press conference on Tuesday, the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office, along with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the District 1 Medical Examiner's Office, announced the identity of one of the victims of Keith Jesperson, also known as the Happy Face Killer.

Suzanne Kjellenberg, 34, has been identified as one of the victims of the 'Happy Face Killer.' Her identity was unknown for 29 years.

The remains found in Okaloosa County in September 1994 were those of 34-year-old Suzanne L. Kjellenburg.

"Suzanne deserves a voice," Sheriff Eric Aden said. "We're that voice for her today and this case has been years in the making."

Here is what we know.

Background of the Happy Face Killer

Jespersen was a long-haul truck driver during this time. In August 1994, he picked up Kjellenberg, who was best described as a drifter in Tampa. Authorities believe that she was raped, beaten and then strangled before her body was dumped in a wooden area off Interstate 10 near Holt.

Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden, along with representatives from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and District 1 Medical Examiner's Office announced the identity of the last unknown victim of the "Happy Face Killer."

Kjellenburg is believed to be the sixth of eight victims of Jespersen. He has admitted killing seven other women in California, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon and Nebraska from 1990 to 1995. For his crimes, Jespersen is currently serving seven life prison sentences with no possibility of parole in an Oregon prison.

After Jesperson was unhappy with the lack of media attention surrounding the crimes, he sent letters to Oregon media members to confess to the murders. Each letter contained a smiley face at the bottom, leading to the moniker of "The Happy Face Killer."

How was this latest victim identified?

In 1994, the Medical Examiner's Office received the skeletal remains and sent them to the University of Florida. The initial analysis showed that the remains were of a white female in the age range of 35 to 55. A clay reconstruction of her face was made, but there were no leads.

In February 1996, Jesperson admitted to killing Kjellenburg and told investigators that she referred to herself as either "Susan or Suzette."

In 2007, a new facial reconstruction was created, but to no avail. One year later, the Medical Examiner's Office sent additional anthropological analysis to the University of West Florida, and specimens were also sent to the FBI for DNA analysis and entry into the National Missing Persons DNA Database.

In late 2022, Dr. Deanna Oleske, the chief medical examiner for District 1, was at the National Association for Medical Examiners conference. A new approach for identifying remains through genealogy was discussed. A company called Othram, Inc. was brought up as one of the companies that uses this practice.

Six weeks after the remains were sent to Othram, it made the identification of Kjellenberg.

"It was unbelievable," said Oleske. "I had no idea we would do it in six weeks."

What's next?

A news release following the press conference notes that Jesperson has been charged with the murder of Kjellenberg. Officials will be working with the Oregon Department of Corrections to arrange prosecution in Florida. It is not expected that he will be extradited to Florida.

The family of Kjellenberg has been notified of the investigation and, according to the release, has expressed gratitude for the perseverance of the investigators. The family has also asked for privacy at this time.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: 'Happy Face Killer' victim identified in 29-year cold case.
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  Oklahomans looking for options concerning outstanding warrants will soon have an opportunity to get relief.

Oklahoma County is hosting a warrant-clearing event on Friday, October 13, from 9 a.m.  6 p.m. Options offered are pay your fees, set up a payment plan, or reschedule your court date.

Details are as follows:

Friday, October 13, 2023

9 a.m.  6 p.m.

Oklahoma County Election Board, 4205 North Lincoln Boulevard, Oklahoma City, OK (map)

Image courtesy Commissioner Carrie Blumert "X" account

 Find more Top Stories from KFOR.com

Check here to see if you have a warrant. Call 405-713-1550 for more information.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
Olivia Hill was sworn in Monday evening as a member of the Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County, becoming the first out transgender elected official in Tennessee.

Hill was elected September 14 as an at-large member of the council, which means she represents the entire city. She is also part of a council that has, for the first time, a majority of women.

Representation is everything, Hill said at the ceremony, Nashville TV station WSMV reports. Ive been approached by so many moms and dads and teachers and leaders that have thanked me for running because now a lot of the trans community has someone to see.

I paid a heavy price for my transition, and Ive lost most of my family, my friends, my career, and so many people that stand beside me, she continued. But some family members, including a cousin, attended the ceremony, as did friends and supporters of Hill.

And for the very first time since I transitioned, I stand before you to celebrate something special with my family present, she said. I ran this race as a qualified human, I didnt run this race as a trans woman, I didnt run this race as the first trans woman or as a woman at all. I only ran this race to showcase my experience and for a right to sit at the table.

Hill, a Nashville native and longtime LGBTQ+ advocate, was in the U.S. Navy from 1986 to 1995 and served in combat during Operation Desert Storm. After leaving the military, she worked at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She spent 26 years at the universitys power plant, retiring in December 2021 as its senior supervisor.

She transitioned during her time at Vanderbilt, but she ended up suing the university, alleging she faced extensive discrimination as she was going through the process. She filed suit in September 2021, and she and Vanderbilt agreed to a settlement three months later.

Hill also received honors from Vanderbilt, including the Chancellors Heart and Soul Award in 2019 and the citation as one of three LGBTQ Advocates of the Year by the universitys Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Life in 2020.

Hills priorities on the council will include improving infrastructure, with expansion of the citys public transportation system high on her list. I tried my best to run as a qualified human, Hill told The Tennessean. The fact that Im trans is just a part of who I am. Im here to help fix the broken parts of Nashville.

But, she said, I dont want to be a bull in a china shop. I want to go in. I want to meet with all the department heads. Start learning where the problems are and come up with the best solutions.

Along the way, she will provide trans visibility in a state that has seen a rash of anti-trans legislation passed, including a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth. A federal appeals court recently ruled that the ban can be enforced while a lawsuit against it is heard.

I just want to go in there and get busy, Hill told The Tennessean. And what that will do is the trans kids will be like Wow, shes doing it. I know theres going to be people watching me, waiting on me to fail.
Edward Zuniga said he'd given me everything he could.

Six years ago, I'd requested every document the school district had going back to 2000 regarding claims of sexual harassment by teachers at Rosemead High School, one of the schools Zuniga oversees as superintendent of the El Monte Union High School District. A two-page reprimand of a longtime business teacher, Paul Arevalo, was all the district could turn over, Zuniga said.

But that wasn't true. Though I didn't know it at the time, the district was sitting on a large cache of teacher disciplinary records going back to at least the early 1990s, including several instances where teachers admitted their behavior to administrators.

Each time I requested these disciplinary records under the California Public Records Act, the district gave a new excuse for why it wouldn't release them. First, Zuniga cited the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which protects student privacy. Then, Zuniga and the district's lawyers said that all information from a teacher's personnel file was exempt from disclosure. And then they claimed that, in balancing an employee's expectation of privacy, "the public's interest is furthered by maintaining the confidentiality" of teachers accused of sexually abusing or harassing children.

The district's repeated resistance to releasing these records is just one example of the ways administrators have kept embarrassing allegations against teachers under wraps  potentially enabling abuse to fester.

The vast majority of sexual misconduct in schools is never reported to law enforcement, research shows, with an estimated 1% to 5% of cases ever referred to law enforcement or child-protective-services agencies. Often, district disciplinary records are the only documentation of a teacher's conduct, as publicly available state credentialing records generally don't disclose details of investigations. Without access to these documents, parents may remain in the dark about whom they are entrusting their children with at school.

At Rosemead High, my alma mater, a culture of secrecy dominated an environment where misconduct flourished. Altogether, I corroborated dozens of instances of sexual misconduct, involving 20 different educators at Rosemead, over the past four decades, ranging from lewd remarks about children's bodies to yearslong sexual relationships with students.

In many cases, students and employees told me they had reported suspected abuse to administrators, which should have created a paper trail. Yet the district either refused to turn over any related documents to Insider or claimed they didn't exist.

Read more about Rosemead High:



The predators' playground



He was my high school journalism teacher. Then I investigated his relationships with teenage girls.



How a Southern California high school shielded a beloved teacher who groomed students for sex



Pain, anger, and disgust: Inside Rosemead High's reckoning





In September 2022, Insider and I filed suit against the district. A day later, we received more than a hundred pages of teacher disciplinary records. Many of the records were ones that district officials previously said didn't exist or weren't releasable. The case regarding additional records that have been withheld is set to go to trial October 9.

"All too often, school districts choose not to disclose records to the public which would result in embarrassing administrators," said Felix Tinkov, an attorney representing me and Insider in the case, who has previously obtained disciplinary records from other California school districts. In many cases, Tinkov said, this resistance stems from districts failing to properly investigate credible allegations in the first place, or a "notion that if it isn't made public, the problem will just go away."

Zuniga declined repeated interview requests, saying that he "cannot comment on personnel or student matters."

The district's head of human resources, Robin Torres, recently sat for more than seven hours to face questions under oath about the district's recordkeeping. Her answers shed light on several district practices that risk protecting abusers. She said, for example, that basic public records, such as a notice of termination given to a teacher, could be withheld if they're part of a legal settlement and that the names of outside investigators hired by the district were exempt from disclosure.

Insider is arguing that neither is true under state law.

Other revelations from Torres' deposition included:

Discarding records

The district threw away some investigative records after teachers left the district, Torres said  despite being required to keep certain records indefinitely. She said she was "not sure of the process of weeding those out," adding that the district was "looking at a process of being able to keep those electronically in the future, so as not to take up the space inside our file room." Torres also said she didn't know why some documents released by the district were incomplete.

Cursory investigations

In discussing investigations of several former teachers accused of sexual misconduct with students, Torres openly questioned whether her predecessors had done their jobs. "In my research, I would have expected to find additional information on these allegations," Torres said in describing the district's handling of sexual-harassment complaints against a former Rosemead health and safety teacher, Harlan Mayne. When asked about the district's investigation of the Rosemead choir director David Pitts' relationship with one of his former student accompanists, Torres said, bluntly, "It appears that there wasn't follow-through with this."

A failure to take misconduct seriously

Tinkov at one point asked Torres to read back a passage from a 2004 meeting in which an administrator directed Pitts to "stay out of our attendance area" if he wanted to continue dating his former student accompanist, who had recently graduated. "I would not expect to hear that from a management or leadership position," Torres said, shaking her head. "I would not expect that advice to be given."

Prioritizing 'employee rights' over transparency

A constant theme of the deposition was the concern that releasing investigative records to the public could "violate employee rights," and how to balance that against the safety of students. This tension was laid bare when Torres initially declined to even describe in generic terms the district's 2022 investigation of the chemistry teacher Justin Rosien. Pressed by Insider's attorney, Torres was instructed repeatedly by the district's lawyer not to answer questions "which would invite the district into a lawsuit for violation of his employee rights." Torres also said that notifying "anybody" of past discipline or investigation of a teacher would violate district policy.

The district's employee contract, negotiated by the local teachers union, doesn't limit the disclosure of records related to serious allegations of misconduct or behavior deemed "unprofessional." Anne Bazile, president of the El Monte Union Educators Association, said the union "has no direct involvement in any separation agreements." There was no sign they were involved in the nearly two dozen settlement and separation agreements the district released to Insider going back to 2010.

In several cases, district officials may have gone beyond shielding disciplinary records from the general public. In at least three instances, the district did not share misconduct allegations against Rosemead teachers with other schools that went on to hire them, a practice known as "passing the trash." The most recent example was Paul Arevalo.

On August 12, 2021, nearby Baldwin Park High School hired Arevalo as activities director with an annual salary of $112,913.

Before he transferred to the school, Arevalo was twice investigated by law enforcement and placed on administrative leave after students reported he'd sexually harassed them, though no criminal charges were filed. In both instances, Arevalo was allowed back in the classroom. (Arevalo declined to answer questions for this story; he previously told Insider that students and administrators had "fabricated accusations" against him.)

Arevalo didn't last long at Baldwin Park. On October 1, 2021, he resigned after less than two months.

Rosemead High teacher Paul Arevalo was investigated twice by law enforcement after students reported him for sexual harassment. Yet no disciplinary records were sent along to his next school. El Monte Union High School District

In response to a public-records request, Baldwin Park officials said there were no misconduct allegations against Arevalo during his brief tenure and they hadn't received any of the disciplinary records concerning him that the El Monte district released to Insider.

I asked Jose Gallegos, a retired assistant principal who investigated Arevalo's sexual harassment in 2017 of a student at Arroyo High, another school in the El Monte district, what he made of that. He was stunned.

"I can't believe they would let him transfer," Gallegos told me, saying that in his experience, school administrators typically respond to reference calls about teachers who've harassed or abused students by reciting only generic facts, such as dates of employment and subjects taught. The lack of additional information, Gallegos said, is "code  to not touch him with a 10-foot pole."

Baldwin Park's superintendent, Froilan Mendoza, declined to say what steps, if any, his office took to background Arevalo prior to hiring him.

In accepting Arevalo's resignation, Baldwin Park's head of human resources wished him "good luck in your next endeavor."

Correction: October 13, 2023  An earlier version of this story said Insider's September 26 lawsuit prompted the release of district personnel records. The district had previously maintained those records would be produced by September 30.

Read the original article on Insider
The Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) Aviation Sciences program has 250 student majors, making it the number one field of study for currently enrolled students. The major saw a 39 % increase in enrollment from fall 2022.

In years past, the universitys Business Administration field of study catered to the most matriculants. This year, Business Administration has the second highest number of majors followed by Interdisciplinary Studies.

ECSU offers the only four-year Aviation Science degree program in North Carolina with concentrations in flight education, aviation management, and professional aeronautics. In addition, ECSUs flight training is approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for Restricted Airline Pilot (R-ATP) authorization, which allows students to qualify as an airline pilot with 1,000 hours compared to the 1,500 hours requirement.

In September, the Department of Aviation and Emergency Management spent three days at the 2023 NAS Oceana Air Show in Virginia Beach, Va., as it continues to shine a light on and provoke interest in the field. Additionally, the program received a $15,000 contribution from Republic Airways to support scholarships and expenses, including check ride and FAA examination costs for students within the major.
A hapless bank robber captured easily five years ago after handing the teller a demand note with his name and birthdate written on the back, has been arrested again over a similarly ham-handed attempt to hold up the very same location, using a near-identical M.O., according to court filings.

On May 22, 2018, Michael Gale Nash robbed the First National Bank of Alaska (FNBA) branch at 201 W. 36th Ave. in Anchorage, and was sentenced to a prison term of 12 months and a day. In that case, Nash was apprehended while sitting on the curb directly outside the building, counting the $400 he made off with, police said.

On Tuesday, Nashwho has appeared on at least one worlds dumbest criminals listwas again captured outside the FNBA branch at 201 W. 36th Ave., in a Groundhog Day-esque rerun of his previous heist, states a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday in Anchorage federal court. Nashs court-appointed lawyer, Jamie McGrady, did not respond to a request for comment.

In his latest alleged foul-up, Nash, 49, showed up Oct. 2 at the FNBA branch on W. 36th Ave, just after 9 a.m., according to the complaint.

Witnesses stated Nash attempted to access the bank through the main door by pulling on the door several times, the complaint says. Two employees attempted to tell Nash the bank did not open until 10:00 am. Nash refused to leave and slipped a note through the doors to a bank supervisor. The supervisor saw the word robbery and immediately yelled for the bank door to be locked via [a] secondary locking mechanism and to call 911.

But instead of running away, Nash stayed firmly put, according to the complaint. Bank employees on the inside then started contacting colleagues who hadnt yet arrived for work and warned them about Nash, who some feared would take an arriving employee outside the bank or a customer hostage, the complaint states. Thats when a security guard in the bank walked up to the door and told Nash that if he didnt leave, the police would be called.

Nash replied that he would not be departing and to go ahead and call the police, the complaint continues.

Officers with the Anchorage PD arrived moments later, and confronted Nash at the bank entrance, the complaint says. The cops ordered Nash to the ground, and he eventually complied, according to the complaint. While Nash was being arrested, he made an excited utterance along the lines of this not being [his] first time robbing a bank, the complaint goes on.

U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska

The FBI joined the investigation and, along with the Anchorage officers, began to interview witnesses and examine evidence. They reviewed the note Nash allegedly slipped through the door, which read, This is a robberyput the money in a bag & I will walk out. This is a robbery. God help us all. (According to court filings, the note Nash passed in the 2018 read, This is a hold up. Please put the money they want in the bag. God help us!!!)

Nash refused to speak to investigators, but continued to make comments during the booking process along the lines of this not being [his] first bank robbery, according to the complaint.

FBI Anchorage ran [a] records check for Michael Gale Nash, the complaint states. The records check revealed that Nash was arrested, charged, and convicted for robbing the same FNB[A] at 201 W. 36th Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99503 in 2018.

For the 2018 robbery, Nash was given a 366-day prison term followed by five years of supervised release. It is unclear if Nash was still under court supervision at the time of Mondays arrest. His rap sheet includes past convictions for larceny, forgery, DWI, and a 1996 court-martialindicating a stint in the militaryfor distribution of drugs, according to the complaint in the 2018 case.

Following his arrest on Monday, Nash remains detained at the Anchorage Correctional Center, jail records show. His next scheduled court appearance has not yet been added to the docket. If convicted, Nash faces a maximum sentence of 20 years.

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One of Ukraine's biggest allies has run out of vital equipment to give it, report says

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (right) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) meet in front of a Challenger 2 tank at a military facility in Dorset, England, on February 8, 2023. Andrew Matthews/Getty Images

The UK has run out of tanks and missiles to donate to Ukraine, The Telegraph reported.

An unnamed senior officer told the outlet that other countries would have to help now.

The UK has been one of Ukraine biggest allies in the war, providing it with many weapons.

The UK, one of Ukraine's biggest allies in the war, has run out of crucial equipment to donate, a senior officer told The Telegraph.

"We've given away just about as much as we can afford," the military source, who was not named, told the outlet on Monday.

"We will continue to source equipment to provide for Ukraine, but what they need now is things like air defense assets and artillery ammunition and we've run dry on all that," the person said.

The British Ministry of Defence did not respond to Insider's multiple requests for comment.

The UK provided 2.3 billion in military support to Ukraine last year, according to government records.

It has been quicker than other allies to send Ukraine new types of weaponry, like its Challenger 2 tanks and Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

On Sunday, former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said in an op-ed in The Telegraph that he had urged the Prime Minister to increase military support still further.

He said his goal was for Britain to overtake Germany to become Ukraine's biggerst military supporter in Europe.

But the unnamed military official told The Telegraph that the UK should not be the only one to provide money to Ukraine, saying: "Giving billions more doesn't mean giving billions of British kit."

Other countries should also step in to shoulder the burden of supplying Ukraine with "more money and weapons," the person said.

Continued aid for Ukraine has come into question in recent days, after further support from Ukraine was excluded from a funding bill.

On Monday, the Kremlin said that Western fatigue with the war "will grow," The Guardian reported.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A Onewheel electric skateboard - a skateboard with a single wheel in the middle. The person stands either side of the wheel for balance.

All Onewheel electric skateboards sold worldwide will be recalled after four people died while riding them.

US watchdog the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalled all 300,000 devices sold in the US, citing a risk of crashes causing serious injuries.

Future Motion, which makes Onewheels, told the BBC the recall applies to all customers, not just those in the US.

A UK government spokesperson told the BBC it would make enquiries and "take action swiftly" if required.

Future Motion said that UK customers could visit its website to view their options, which range from a software update to a $100 (82) store credit, depending on the make and model of their skateboard.

Recall requests must be submitted through a link on Future Motion's website.

In the recall notice, the CPSC said there were four reported deaths involving Onewheels between 2019 and 2021, as well as significant injuries such as "traumatic brain injury, concussion, paralysis, upper-body fractures, lower-body fractures and ligament damage".

The watchdog said the four deaths were a result of head trauma, and the reports showed that in at least three of those incidents the rider was not wearing a helmet.

Future Motion and the CPSC both encourage people to wear protective equipment while riding, such as helmets and knee pads.

According to a legal document filed by the firm in September, it is facing 31 lawsuits in the US from people who "allege that they fell because the Onewheel stopped or shut off unexpectedly".

It said in the filings that no case relating to the electric skateboards had ever been tested in court.

The recall involves all models of Onewheel electric skateboards, which includes the original Onewheel, as well as the Onewheel+, Onewheel+ XR, Onewheel Pint, Onewheel Pint X and Onewheel GT models.

It is legal to buy electric-powered devices such as e-skateboards and e-scooters and ride them on private land, but it is currently illegal to use privately owned ones on roads, pavements and cycle lanes.

UK store halts sales

It comes after one UK store - The Snowboard Shop - pulled the electric skateboards from sale.

It said people who had purchased Onewheels would be notified while it looked into the issue, and it had approached the manufacturer for clarification.

It has chosen to keep the products on its website in order to provide a link to the product recall notice, but there is no "buy" button. Would-be customers can instead only "enquire" about them, and it is responding to enquiries with information about the recall.

Other distributors of Onewheel electric skateboards in the UK have also been approached for comment.

Last year, the CPSC urged people to stop using Onewheels. At the time, Future Motion objected and said they were safe "when operated following basic safe riding principles common to any board sport".

It said there was no reason for people to stop using their devices.

Haptic buzz

In a section of its website dedicated to the recall, Future Motion said it had "an innovative new safety alert feature" which some Onewheel owners could install via a firmware update in the coming weeks to make their devices safer.

The feature, named haptic buzz, is an alert that electric skateboard riders can "hear and feel when experiencing certain situations that can result in a crash", according to the firm's website.

"Haptic buzz is designed to work in conjunction with the existing pushback safety feature to help riders further recognize that the board's ability to balance may soon be exceeded so they can lean back and slow down to avoid crashing," it reads.

However, it can only be used by customers with Onewheel GT, Pint X, Pint, and XR devices.

Those with original Onewheel and Onewheel+ electric skateboards, which have since been discontinued, are instead entitled to a $100 (82) credit towards a new device - which retail between $1,050 and $2,200.

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Do you own a Onewheel electric skateboard? You can get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:

If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.
California is hiring in Stanislaus County and the state is looking to fill some of the positions soon, including one for an intern, an office manager and a lifeguard.

State jobs are known for offering competitive benefits and enrollment in the nations largest state public pension plan. Each position has specific requirements, which are linked.

Want to stand out when applying for California state jobs? Your guide to these departments

Here are five jobs posted on CalCareers, the states jobs website, that are in Stanislaus County. The positions were posted in the last 30 days, as of Oct. 3.

Environmental scientist | Permanent full-time

Work location: Home office/various dairy farms and milk processing plants

Department: Food & Agriculture

Salary: $4,145 to $7,926 per month

The environmental scientist conducts health inspections on dairy farms and milk/milk alternative processing plants. One position is available.

The application will close once filled, and the department reviews the applications at the end of every month.

Environmental services intern | Non-tenured intermittent

Work location: La Grange

Department: Fish and Wildlife

Salary: $2,868 to $3,823 per month

Environmental services interns collect fisheries data with the departments salmon monitoring teams in the San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers. There are multiple positions available.

The application closes Oct. 3.

Office manager | Permanent full-time

Work location: Modesto DMV field office

Department: Motor Vehicles

Salary: $6,718 to $8,407 per month

The office manager manages workloads and resources to ensure the field office is fully staffed and functional. There is one positions available.

The application closes Oct. 6.

State park peace officer supervisor (lifeguard) | Permanent full-time

Work location: Dos Rios Ranch

Department: Parks & Recreation

Salary: $6,298 to $8,558 per month

State park peace officer supervisors are responsible for the visitor services, public safety and law enforcement and aquatic functions of Dos Rios Ranch, a proposed new state park. There are multiple positions available.

The application closes Oct. 9.

Veterinarian | Permanent full-time

Work location: Stanislaus County

Department: Food & Agriculture

Salary: $6,669 to $10,513 per month

The veterinarian plans, organizes and performs activities related to animal health. There is one position available.

The application will close once filled and the department reviews applications multiple times a month.

What do you want to know about life in Modesto? Ask our service journalism team your top-of-mind questions in the module below or email servicejournalists@modbee.com.
There were riveting opening statements in the trial of three Tacoma police officers charged with killing an unarmed Black man. The historic trial finally got underway on Tuesday.

Both the state and the defense laid out their very different views of why and how 33-year-old Manuel Ellis died more than three years ago.

There were some dramatic moments today. In fact, this is actually the first time we have heard any of this in a court of law.

Cant breathe, sir, said Kent Liu. Cant breathe. Still cant breathe. Still cant breathe.

That is how the prosecutor handling the case began his opening statement.

Still cant breathe, sir, repeated Liu. Those were the last known words of Manuel Ellis, a 33-year-old man from Tacoma, who died on March 3rd, 2020.

The three officers Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins, both white, were both charged with 2nd-degree murder and 1st-degree manslaughter, and Timothy Rankine, who is Asian American, was charged with 1st-degree manslaughter.

Cell phone video showed their violent takedown of Ellis, tazing, tackling, and repeatedly punching the 33-year-old.

But the lawyer for Burbank said the cell phone video shows the end of the altercation and that it was Ellis who was violent at the start.

Officer Burbank doesnt know whats going on, said Brett Purtzer. He starts to roll the window down. He starts to roll the window down. And mister Ellis says I ought to punch you in the eff-ing face. Immediately Officer Burbank realizes this is going sideways and he is pinned in his vehicle.

Officer Rankines lawyer said they did not ignore Ellis when he said he couldnt breathe.

Theyre trying to say Officer Rankine did something untoward in this case to kill this man, said Anne Bremner. And its just not true.

We watched Officer Burbank leave the courthouse after the testimony was done.

Testimony actually began late because the lawyer for Matthew Collins said he would save his opening statements for after the prosecution presented its case. We are told that is unusual but not unheard of for a lawyer to make that decision.

Manny Elliss sister and mother will testify Wednesday. It is likely to be a very emotional day.
Editors Note: This is an analysis by Nataliya Bugayova, Kateryna Stepanenko, and Frederick W. Kagan for the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). This analysis was originally published by the ISW on Oct. 1, 2023, and has been republished by the Kyiv Independent with permission.

Russian President Vladimir Putin didnt invade Ukraine in 2022 because he feared NATO. He invaded because he believed that NATO was weak, that his efforts to regain control of Ukraine by other means had failed, and that installing a pro-Russian government in Kyiv would be safe and easy. His aim was not to defend Russia against some non-existent threat but rather to expand Russias power, eradicate Ukraines statehood, and destroy NATO, goals he still pursues.

Putin had convinced himself by the end of 2021 that Russia had the opportunity to safely launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine to accomplish two distinct goals: establish Russian control over Ukraine without facing significant Western resistance and break the unity of NATO. Putin has long sought to achieve these goals, but a series of events in 2019-2020 fueled Putins belief that he had both the need and a historic opportunity to establish control over Ukraine. Putins conviction resulted from the Kremlins failed efforts to force Ukraine to submit to Russias demands, Putins immersion in an ideological and self-reflective bubble during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Western responses to global events and Russian threats in 2021. Putin had decided that he wanted war to achieve his aims by late 2021, and no diplomatic offering from the West or Kyiv short of surrendering to his maximalist demands would have convinced Putin to abandon the historic opportunity he thought he had.

Read also: Our readers questions about the war, answered. Vol. 4

Putin has long tried to accomplish two distinct objectives: breaking up NATO and seizing full control over Ukraine. Putins core objectives from the start of his rule have been preserving his regime, establishing an iron grip on Russia domestically, reestablishing Russia as a great power, and forming a multipolar world order in which Russia has a veto over key global events. Establishing control over Ukraine and eroding U.S. influence have always been essential to these core objectives.

Putin has sought to break NATO and Western unity, but not because the Kremlin felt militarily threatened by NATO. Russias military posture during Putins reign has demonstrated that Putin has never been primarily concerned with the risk of a NATO attack on Russia. Russian military reforms since 2000 have not prioritized creating large mechanized forces on the Russian borders with NATO to defend against invasion. Russia deployed the principal units designed to protect Russia from NATO to Ukraine, which posed no military threat to Russia, in 2021 and 2022. In 2023 - at the height of Russias anti-NATO rhetoric - Russia continued to withdraw forces and military equipment from its actual land borders with NATO to support the war in Ukraine. Putins fear of NATO manifested in his preoccupation with the Wests supposed hybrid warfare efforts to stage color revolutions, which Russia claimed the West had done in various former Soviet states including Ukraine.

Putin has always been more concerned about the loss of control over Russias perceived sphere of influence than about a NATO threat to Russia. Putins actual issue with NATO and the West has been that they offered an alternative path to countries that Putin thought fell in Russias sphere of influence or even control. The color revolutions that so alarmed Putin were, after all, the manifestations of those countries daring to choose the West, or, rather the way of life, governance and values the West represented, over Moscow. NATO and the West threatened Russia by simply existing, promoting their own values, as Russia promoted its values, and being the preferred partner to many former Soviet states  which, in Putins view, undermined Russias influence over these states. Putin saw the ability to control former Soviet states as an essential prerequisite to reestablishing Russia as a great power, however. In simple terms, the West  and those in the former Soviet states who preferred to partner with the West even without fully breaking with Russia - stood between Putin and what he believed to be Russias rightful role in the world.

Putin therefore initiated policies attacking NATO unity and enlargement. Putin has made it a priority throughout his rule to prevent more former Soviet states and even other states, such as the Balkan countries, from joining NATO. The Kremlin has also sought to undermine the relationships between the members of the alliance. Putin accelerated his efforts to undermine Western unity and NATO following the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution that drove out Ukraines Russia-friendly president, Viktor Yanukovych, and brought in a pro-Western government. Russia responded by illegally occupying Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014.

The Russian occupation of Crimea and Donbas in 2014 was driven by Putins perception of a need and an opportunity to expand Russias power and establish control over Ukraine. The Kremlin sought to preserve strategic naval basing for the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea  an anchor of Russias power projection in the region. The Kremlin was concerned that a pro-Western Ukrainian government would end the lease agreement by which Russia had kept the Black Sea Fleet headquartered in Sevastopol. Crimea continues to provide strategic military benefits to Russia. Ukraine is rightfully focused on depriving Russia of these benefits by making Crimea increasingly untenable for the Russian forces. The occupation of Crimea and the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014 were also a stage of a larger effort to bring a significant portion of Ukraine under Russian control, effectively breaking the country up. Putin perceived a strategic opportunity to do so in the spring of 2014, as Ukraine faced a moment of vulnerability during its government transition after the Euromaidan revolution and as the West was focused on dampening rather than resolving any potential conflict in Ukraine. That effort to establish control over Ukraine failed because Ukrainians, in 2014 as in 2022, proved much more opposed to the idea of Russian overlordship than Putin had expected. Putins decisions to invade Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 had a core similarity: in both cases, Putin seized what he thought was an opportunity to realize a long-term goal because he perceived Ukraine and the West to be weak.

Read also: Abducting the future: How Ukrainian parents fight to rescue their children from Russia

Putin allowed his partially successful military intervention to be frozen by the Minsk II Accords in February 2015 when it became apparent that he could not achieve all of his aims at the time by force. He secured an important diplomatic victory by getting Russia recognized as a mediator rather than as a party to the conflict in Minsk II despite the fact that Russian military forces had seized Crimea, invaded eastern Ukraine, and remained in both areas actively supporting proxy forces that the Kremlin had stood up and fully controlled. He ensured that Minsk II imposed a series of obligations on Kyiv that gave Russia leverage on Ukrainian politicsand no obligations at all on Russia itself. Minsk II was the diplomatic weapon Putin had created to force Ukraine back into Russias orbit when his initial invasion had failed to do so.

Putin turned, in the meantime, to disrupting NATOs coherence. The Kremlin cultivated a partnership with Hungary - a NATO member - to block resolutions related to Ukraines NATO membership. The Kremlin launched a deliberate campaign to co-opt Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Putin took advantage of increasingly strained NATO-Turkey relations resulting from conflicting U.S. and Turkish approaches to the Syrian Civil War by engaging Turkey in years-long negotiations to persuade Ankara to purchase Russian S-400 air defense systems  prompting the U.S. to sanction Turkey in 2020. Putin repeatedly used the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline construction project to drive a wedge between the European Union (EU) and the U.S. and appealed to Germanys economic interests in Europe. Putin sought to benefit from the fact that Germany and France--but not the U.S. or any other NATO states--were parties to the Minsk II accords and then from the Normandy Format negotiations to drive wedges between the U.S. on the one hand and Paris and Berlin on the other over the Wests policy toward Russia and Ukraine. Putin fostered divisions among NATO and Western states to ensure that these states would not be united in their response to Russias aggression against Ukraine as well as to pursue his larger aim of breaking NATO. His approach had some success in the years leading up to 2022, but not enough to achieve either of his core objectives.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a press conference after the NATO-Russia Council meeting at the end of the NATO summit on April 4, 2008, in Bucharest, Romania. (Artyom Korotayev/Epsilon/Getty Images)

The prospect of Ukrainian NATO membership did not drive Russias invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russias fulminations about a NATO expansion in 2022 were efforts to shape the information space ahead of the invasion, not reactions to NATOs actions. The first NATO commitment to admitting Ukraine to the alliance came in the 2008 Bucharest Declaration, which promised Ukraine and Georgia paths to membership but took no concrete steps toward opening such paths. Successive annual NATO summits generated no further progress toward membership for either country. Putin intensified the narrative that NATO was a threat to Russia over the years, alleging by 2021 that Russia feared NATOs imminent expansion in Eastern Europe. NATO had taken no meaningful actions to enlarge at the time, however. Accession of new members to the alliance generally requires that they complete a formal Membership Action Plan (MAP) with specific measures agreed upon by the alliance and the prospective member state. NATO produced no MAP for Ukraine or Georgia, meaning that the formal process for their accession had not even begun.

NATO had taken no new formal steps toward Ukrainian membership by the time of the 2022 Russian re-invasion beyond restating the 2008 Bucharest Declaration promising Ukraine a path to NATO membership in a 2021 June communique that followed a massive Russian military buildup on Ukraines borders. Ukraine enshrined the commitment to joining NATO in its constitution in 2019, and NATO recognized Ukraine as an Enhanced Opportunity Partner in 2020 facilitating Ukrainian efforts to bring Kyivs military closer toward NATO standards. Neither of these events constituted formal steps toward NATO membership. The Enhanced Opportunity Partnership announcement, in fact, explicitly said that Ukraines new status does not prejudge any decisions on NATO membership." The blocks on Ukraines accession to the alliance that Putin had helped establish remained firmly in place.

Read also: Russia is covering Ukraine with landmines. Clearing them will be extremely difficult

Russia had thus succeeded by 2022 in freezing any move to bring Ukraine into NATO in accord with the 2008 declaration, and there was no plausible argument to make that any further enlargement of the alliance was imminent. Hungarys relatively pro-Russian position, tensions with Turkey, and NATOs unwillingness to absorb a new member state with an unresolved military conflict with Russia meant not only had there been no meaningful progress toward Ukrainian NATO membership by 2022 but also that no progress was on the horizon. Putin had effectively blocked Ukrainian accession to the alliance by the time he launched his full-scale invasionclear evidence that Russian fears of imminent Ukrainian NATO membership did not drive the invasion.

The prospect of Ukrainian NATO membership had most certainly not driven Russias invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Ukraine pursued a non-alignment policy, the NATO Bucharest Declaration notwithstanding, from 2010 through 2014. Ukraine renounced its non-alignment status in December of 2014 as a direct result of Russia invading Ukraine and illegally occupying three of its regions in 2014. This point is essential to keep in mind for those who argue that Putins goal is Ukraines neutrality.

The primary goal of the Kremlins anti-NATO rhetoric has been to justify Putins aggressive foreign policies that often had little to do with NATO. The Kremlins propaganda about NATO and the West has grown increasingly absurd over the years. Russian propagandists narratives about fictional U.S. weapon-producing biolabs on Russias borders, NATOs non-existent plans to establish a military base in Crimea, the supposedly imminent deployment to Ukraine of hypersonic missiles that did not even exist in NATO arsenals, or the threat of NATO LGBT instructors proselytizing Russian youth are just some examples. The Kremlin used these narratives as a tool to rally Russians against an external adversary to justify the Kremlins aggression abroad. The Kremlin has been also using NATO as an excuse to justify its own failures. Russian propagandists have been trying to explain Russias repeated battlefield setbacks against Ukrainian forces over the past 19 months by claiming that Russia is fighting the entire NATO when no NATO forces are fighting in Ukraine at all.

The prospect of a Ukrainian attack on Russians did not drive Russias invasion of Ukraine either. The Kremlin did not believe in a real threat from Ukraine  certainly not in February 2022. Putin framed Ukraine as a threat to Russia and claimed that Ukraine was planning to attack Russian-occupied territories and Russia in 2022. In reality, the Kremlin assessed Ukraines military capabilities and will to fight to be so weak that Russian forces would overrun the country in a matter of days. The notion that Ukraine posed any meaningful military threat to Russia is incompatible with the contempt shown for Ukrainian military power and will by the actual Russian invasion plan. The Kremlin began setting conditions to recognize the illegal Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics (DNR and LNR) independence from Ukraine in mid-January 2022 to set conditions to justify its war on the basis of a supposed need to "save Donbas." U.S. intelligence pre-bunked a series of planned Russian false flag attacks in occupied Donbas and disinformation campaigns that aimed to create a pretext for the invasion in January and early February of 2022. The false flag operations indicated that the Kremlin did not actually believe that a Ukrainian attack on Russia or on occupied Donbas was imminent. If there had been an imminent Ukrainian attack in preparation, then the Kremlin would not have needed a false flag attack. In reality, Kyiv was not preparing any attacks on Russia or occupied Donbas. These claimed fears for Russias sovereignty were a set of organized Kremlin information operations that aimed to create conditions for Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They were never based in reality, and it is unlikely that Putin ever believed in them.

Putins NATO and Ukraine narratives in advance of the invasion often contradicted each other  likely by design. Kremlin officials repeatedly claimed that further NATO expansion is a matter of life and death for Russia while claiming that Ukrainian military escalation in Donbas supposedly would put Ukrainian statehood into question. These narratives often contradicted each other as the Kremlin propaganda machine would switch from focusing on claims that NATO was the sole aggressor in Ukraine to claiming that Ukraine was planning an imminent attack on occupied Donbas or Russia. The Kremlin propaganda machine also repeatedly claimed that Russia was not planning to invade Ukraine--even ridiculing the idea on the eve of the invasion--and framed its escalations as responses to the Western failures to give Russia adequate security guarantees, simultaneously amplifying Putins theses on Russias historic right to Ukrainian lands. The narratives likely deliberately contradicted each other to mislead Western and Russian audiences understanding of Putins demands as well as to appeal to multiple different audiences at the same time.

Read also: Overcoming setbacks, NATO-trained brigade breaches Surovikin line in Zaporizhzhia Oblast

Putin may have feared NATO enlargement over the long term and may have believed that a US-led coalition was working to foster a color revolution in Russia to overthrow him, but those concerns cannot explain his decision to invade Ukraine in 2022. Russian fictional rhetoric notwithstanding, nothing about the NATO threat was more urgent in 2022 than it had been for years, and Putin could offer no plausible reason for thinking that it would become more urgent any time soon. We must look elsewhere for the explanation for the 2022 invasion, and therefore for Putins actual war aims.

Putins goals in Ukraine have always exceeded responding to some supposed NATO threat or conquering limited additional territory. Putin was not satisfied with illegally annexing Crimea and a portion of Donbas because territorial expansion was never his only goal. Putin sought to establish full control over Ukraine, including its foreign policy and even its internal political arrangements. Putin has been working on establishing control over Ukraine for years. He first tried to control Ukraine through economic influence and by attempting to establish pro-Kremlin political officials in the Ukrainian government, before turning to military means for the first time in 2014 when his previous efforts had backfired.

By 2021, all the ways in which Putin tried to regain control over Ukraine  short of a full-scale invasion  had failed. Putin failed to get Ukraine to join Russias Eurasian Economic Union in the 2000s and failed to get pro-Kremlin leaders in charge of the Ukrainian government in 2004. Putin failed to establish full control over Ukraine even when Yanukovych was in power. Putin was able to solidify some of his territorial gains in Ukraine through the Minsk II Accords that froze the front lines in Donbas, but he was unable to exploit those gains to achieve his full desired aims.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L), Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko (C), Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (R) during the Summit of the leaders of the EU, Ukraine's, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, on Aug. 26, 2014, in Minsk, Belarus. (Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images)

Putin tried to coerce Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (2014-2019) and later Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (2019-present) to legitimize the Russia-created illegal DNR and LNR, and Russias illegal occupation of Crimea in accord with Ukraines Minsk II commitments despite the fact that Russia and the proxies it created had not met their commitments. These efforts, if successful, would have legitimized the principle of Russian military intervention in Ukraine and secured for Russia a permanent lever of influence over Ukraines politics. (ISW documented this deliberate Kremlin effort in detail in 2019). Putin failed at that too.

Putins convictions about Ukraine and the West had likely further solidified over the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Putin entered a state of isolation during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, largely confining his interactions to a small group of trusted idealogues. He reportedly began becoming ever more preoccupied with Russias need to control Ukraine and avenge itself against the West for humiliating Russia in the 1990s. Sources familiar with Putins conversations revealed that Putin began to obsess over the past and completely lost interest in the present during the pandemic.

Putin had also just succeeded in a major domestic power play. Putin had faced a moment of vulnerability as the 2020 oil price crisis and the pandemic occurred in the middle of his campaign to retain power. Putin was attempting to amend the Russian constitution so that he could run again in 2024. Putins power play went unchallenged, however, and he successfully re-solidified his grip on power with constitutional amendments that effectively allowed him to rule for life. The success of this domestic power play also undermines the argument that Western hybrid warfare was somehow putting Putins own rule at risk. Putins domestic grip in 2021 was solid and faced no meaningful challenge.

Putin was likely emboldened by his false assessments of Ukraines capability and will to fight. Ukraine has fended off Russian attacks on its sovereignty over the years and grown in its resolve as a nation  a process that went largely unnoticed by Putin and his inner circle of advisors. Putin had told a European official in September 2014 that he could take Kyiv in two weeks, and had evidently maintained the same outlook since invading Ukraine in 2014 despite his military failures that year. Putin misattributed Kyivs unwillingness to yield to Russia to a small group of Ukrainian politicians controlled by the West (which the Kremlin usually refers to as the Kyiv regime) rather than to the growing self-determination of the Ukrainian people to remain a nation--a determination ironically driven in part by the Russian 2014 invasion and continued pressure. Putins propaganda in the lead-up to the invasion reveals that he and his ideologues lived in an echo chamber dominated by an alternate reality in which Ukrainians would welcome the Russian forces liberating them from the supposed oppression of the Kyiv regime."

Read also: Investigative Stories from Ukraine: Russian drone downed by Ukraine is full of Western components

Putin did not see NATO or the West as a power that would counter his ambitions in Ukraine either. A former unnamed intelligence official revealed that Putins "personal banker and close friend Yuri Kovalchuk, with whom Putin spent considerable time during his isolation, argued to Putin that the West was weak and that the time was ripe for Russia to demonstrate its military capabilities and defend its sovereignty by invading Ukraine. Former U.S. National Security Council official Fiona Hill stated that Putins decision to invade Ukraine was guided by his belief that the West was weak and distracted, and Western analysts argued that some of Putins elites supported his vision after concluding that the West was divided and in decline. Putin likely concluded that the West would not have the will or the strength to deter a swift military operation that would collapse the supposedly unpopular Zelensky government within days. This belief in the Wests weakness again undermines the Russian-created fiction that Russia had to act to preempt some Western aggressiona West too weak and divided to defend Ukraine was certainly not going to attack Russia out of the blue.

Putin, thus, likely made a decision to begin setting conditions for the invasion sometime in late 2020 or early 2021. Putin began amassing over 100,000 Russian forces on the Russian-Ukrainian international border and in occupied Crimea in March and April 2021. Russia retained some of these forces and equipment in western Russia to later participate in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.Russia also began transferring several landing craft and gunships from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea in early to mid-April 2021. The Kremlin explained away this troop buildup as a response to NATOs Defender Europe 21 military exercises, while Ukrainian military officials revealed in March 2021 that Russia was amassing forces as part of its preparations for the Zapad-2021 (West-2021) joint strategic exercises in western Russia and Belarus set to take place September 2021. Russian units began deploying to Belarus for the active phase of Zapad-2021 in late July 2021. Zapad-2021 exercises allowed Russian forces to prepare and secure logistics for reportedly 200,000 troops and these logistics would be crucial in Russias offensive on Kyiv and northeastern Ukraine from Belarus and western Russia.

Western responses to the Russian escalation on the Ukrainian border and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan likely reinforced Putins anticipation of a weak Western response. The West, including the US, signaled its intent to deter Russia via primarily diplomatic means during Russias military buildup on the Russian-Ukrainian international border in March and April 2021, taking military intervention off the table. U.S. President Joseph Biden spoke to Putin on April 13, 2021, and offered to meet him at a Geneva-based US-Russia summit on June 16, 2021. The call notably occurred on the same day the White House announced that Biden had decided to draw down the remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan and a day before Bidens announcement that the U.S. would complete the withdrawal by September 1, 2021. The Biden-Putin summit in Geneva did not achieve any diplomatic breakthroughs, of course. Washington's purely diplomatic approach to deterring a Russian threat against Ukraine and withdrawal from Afghanistan likely strengthened Putins convictions that the West would not resist his invasion by force.

Putin issued two ultimatums to Ukraine, the West, and NATO in 2021 in support of these objectives.

Putin first delivered an ultimatum to Kyiv in mid-July 2021. The ultimatum made explicit that there is no room for an independent Ukraine in Putins worldview. Putin published an essay on the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians on July 12, 2021, in which he noted that Ukrainians, alongside Belarusians, have always belonged to the Russian nation. The essay, which reportedly became required reading for the Russian military, openly questioned Ukrainian territorial integrity and claimed that modern Ukraine was a product of the Soviet era shaped on the lands of historical Russia. Putin reiterated theses that later became the focal points of his declaration of war against Ukraine in February 2022 - namely that Russia had been robbed of its historic lands, that Ukraine does not need Donbas, and that millions of Ukrainians are refusing the Kyiv-imposed anti-Russia project. Putin concluded the essay by stating I am confident that the true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia... For we are one people. The essay did not formally declare war against Ukraine, of course, but a Kremlin-affiliated outlet described the essay as Putins final ultimatum to Ukraine."

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Oct. 1 strikes on Russian plant disrupted missile manufacturing, military intelligence says

Putins ultimatum implied that Ukraines existence and territorial integrity depended on its decision to align itself with Russia - a policy course that the Ukrainian people repeatedly and explicitly rejected. It was not a call for Ukrainian neutrality, but rather for Ukraines absorption into the Russian orbit if not into Russia itself. Putin also notably released this ultimatum after the U.S. accelerated the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan on July 8, although he had obviously formulated it long before that.

Putin then issued an ultimatum to the U.S. and NATO in December 2021 that aimed to force the West into surrendering Ukraines sovereignty on its behalf and abandoning partnerships on NATOs eastern flank. Putins November 30 red lines speech and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) December 17 ultimatum documents demanded "security guarantees from the U.S. and NATO that amounted to the destruction of the current NATO alliance. The ultimatum demanded that NATO reverse its open door policy, rule out eastward enlargement, and halt the deployment of forces or weapon systems to member-states that joined NATO after 1997 - among other things. Putin explicitly demanded that Russia have an effective veto power over sovereign states ability to freely seek membership in NATO and over how the alliance operated militarily and politically. These demands would have required NATO to rewrite the North Atlantic Treaty that is its founding document and forced every NATO state to re-ratify a new agreement, a process that would almost certainly have broken the alliance. Putins ultimatum to the West also attempted to coerce the West into sacrificing Ukraines sovereignty.

Putins 2021 ultimatum to NATO and the West was an actual ultimatum, not the basis for a negotiation. Putin and his diplomats signaled that they were not interested in accepting any concessions short of forcing NATO to abandon its own principles and changing the framework of the world order. The security guarantees ultimatum was the Kremlins signal that it would no longer consider any compromises. The objective of the ultimatum was to weaken the alliance via internal friction, portray it as both weak and the aggressor, and legitimize the idea that Ukraine is part of Russias rightful sphere of control. The ultimatum also focused on preoccupying the West with the need to find a diplomatic solution  a solution that was no longer there and had not been for a while.

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 14, 2022. (KREMLIN PRESS OFFICE/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The behavior of the Russian Foreign Ministry (MFA) from October 2021 to January 2022 demonstrated Putins increasingly inflexible intent, as the Kremlin began to restrict Russian diplomats from pursuing meaningful negotiations in the lead-up to the invasion. The Russian MFA has never been independent of the Kremlin, of course  no foreign ministry is independent of its sovereign. But an August 2023 BBC investigation revealed that Russian top diplomats had lost the flexibility that makes meaningful diplomacy possible and begun acting like robots, reading scripted statements to Western officials as early as mid-October 2021 in contrast with their previous more normal engagement with their Western counterparts.

Former adviser to the Russian mission at the United Nations in Geneva, Boris Bondarev, recalled that Putins ultimatum shocked many Russian diplomats and claimed that he immediately knew that the Kremlins "security guarantees demands were ridiculous. Bondarev claimed that the Kremlin issued this ultimatum in a way that gave Russian diplomats no choice but to adopt a new inflexible protocol. Bondarev also recalled that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov screamed at U.S. officials, including First Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, stating that (Russia) needs Ukraine and that Russia will not go anywhere without Ukraine during a dinner amidst the bilateral US-Russian strategic stability talks in Geneva on January 10, 2022. Bondarev added that Rybakov vulgarly demanded that the U.S. delegation get out with (their) belongings (to the 1997 borders) as U.S. officials called for negotiations.

The U.S. and NATO, however, remained committed to the hope that diplomacy would change Putins determination at this stage. The US, for example, responded to the Russian ultimatum by reaffirming its commitment to Ukraine and to NATOs open door policy and offered to discuss the possibility of negotiations to address Russias issues with NATO predictability and transparency in Europe. The U.S. even offered to discuss a transparency mechanism that would confirm the absence of Tomahawk cruise missiles at Aegis Ashore sites in Romania and Poland  if Russia offered reciprocal transparency measures on two ground-launched missile bases of Americas choosing in Russia. Director of the Carnegie Berlin Center Alexander Gabuev recalled that Russian diplomats, with whom he had contact, were pleasantly surprised with U.S. proposals and thought that they could achieve agreements that would really strengthen (Russian) security. The Kremlin, however, was not interested. Putin was not, in fact, trying to counter a claimed NATO threat but rather was setting conditions for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Read also: With winter approaching, is Ukraines energy system ready for renewed Russian attacks?

The ultimatums were likely a perfect hedge from Putins perspective. NATO would have had to transform itselfincluding by rewriting its charter and basic rulesto meet the Russian demands, and Ukraine would have had to amend its constitution and abandon core principles of its sovereignty. Putin would no doubt have accepted such a full surrender with delight, but it was never on the cards, as he certainly knew. When the West predictably rejected his demands, Putin had established the superficial justification for launching a full-scale invasion with two goals in mind: conquering Ukraine and breaking NATO. Forcing the West to reject these ultimatums also provided the Kremlin with additional justification to blame the West for the war, as the Kremlin continues to do.

By 2022, no diplomatic offering from the West short of surrendering Ukraines sovereignty and abandoning NATO principles would likely have stopped Putin from invading Ukraine. Only the threat that the U.S. or NATO would intervene militarily might have deterred Putin, but the U.S. explicitly took such a threat off the table.

Putins objectives have remained unchanged despite the failure of his initial full-scale invasion in 2022 and despite Russian losses and setbacks since then. Even recent statements by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, presented by some as the potential basis for a settlement of the war, are actually just restatements of Russias ongoing demands. These demands include the removal of the Zelensky government and its replacement by a Russia-amenable regime, the neutralization of Ukraine which means both the permanent renunciation of possible NATO membership and the weakening of Ukraines military, abandonment of Ukrainian identity by Ukrainians, and the recognition of Russias de facto control over Ukrainian international and domestic policies and over Ukraines way of life  the type of control that the Kremlin has established on all Ukrainian territories Russia occupies. Russian officials and media have constantly repeated these demands, and Putin has offered no indication of any willingness to compromise on them.

Western discussions of the need to find a diplomatic resolution to the conflict on the assumption that it is stalemated are thus deeply misguided. ISW assesses that the conflict is not stalemated, for one thing. More important for this discussion, however, is the fact that Putin began this war with maximalist aims vis-a-vis Ukraine and NATO. He has not changed those aims, nor has he indicated any willingness to accept a lesser outcome because of any supposed stalemate. Even if he did show a willingness to negotiate some cease-fire along current lines, however, Ukraine and the West would be foolish to accept it. Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014 with aims far beyond what his means could achieve. He settled for freezing the conflict on terms advantageous to him not because he had moderated his aims, but so that he could pursue them in other ways. When it became clear that he could not achieve his aims through the manipulation of the Minsk II or Normandy Format frameworks and as he came to believe that both the Ukrainian government and the West were weak, he restarted his invasion on a massive scale. This invasion has failed to secure Putins aims as the 2014 invasion had. Why should the West and Ukraine expect any new ceasefire agreement or negotiation to resolve the conflict that Putin has created and has been stoking for a decade?

Past is prologue. A ceasefire or negotiation format freezing the conflict along the current lines, which are far more advantageous to Russia than the pre-2022 lines were, will be in Putins eyes nothing more than a kind of Minsk IIIa new mechanism by which to continue to pursue the same aims. Such a peace will be no peace at all. It will simply be an opportunity for Russia to rebuild its military and economic power, allow the Wests attention to be distracted, and seek to regenerate and benefit from cracks within Ukrainian society until it can resume its attacks.

The idea of providing Putin with an off-ramp and a face-saving opportunity completely fails to learn the lessons of the past nine years. Putin created for himself a diplomatic off-ramp in 2015 not because diplomacy convinced Putin to abandon his pursuit of Ukraine, but rather because he realized that freezing the front lines was his best option for continuing to pursue control over Ukraine. In 2014, the Kremlin overestimated support for Russia in Ukraine, underestimated Ukrainian resistance, and overestimated Russias ability to create a proxy force capable of achieving military objectives without a large-scale Russian deployment. As a result, Russia was able to secure only portions of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, instead of the originally planned six regions of Ukraine beyond Crimea. Russia would likely have secured even less had it not deployed the Russian military to prevent Ukrainian forces from liberating more territory.

Read also: Oleg Sukhov: The West lacks political will to ensure Ukraines victory

Putin stopped in 2015 because he recognized that his military efforts had failed to reestablish full control over Ukraine, that he had reached the limits of Russian power and his own risk tolerance, and that continuing the active conflict would have required the gamble of launching an unprepared and under-resourced full-scale invasion of Ukraine at the time. Putin chose instead to accept a temporary setback to advance his larger objective. The Wests last off-ramp for Putin did not secure peace. It led to the Kremlins eight-year-long campaign attempting to convert Russias limited military presence in Ukraine into political control over the country, and when that campaign failed, Putin resorted to full-scale invasion.

An enduring end to the current Russian war on Ukraine requires forcing Putin to accept defeat. Heand his successorsmust be made to realize that they cannot impose their will on Ukraine and the West militarily, cannot suborn Ukraine politically, and cannot prevail diplomatically. As long as the Kremlin cherishes the hope of successwhich any face-saving compromise settlement would fuelit will continue to seek to overcome its setbacks in ways that make renewed war very likely.

Ukraine and the West should seek a permanent end to this conflict, not a temporary respite. Renewed war will likely be larger in scale and even more dangerous to Ukraine and the West. It will be extremely costly as well since a renewed war once Moscow has rearmed and prepared will likely be far costlier and more dangerous. Demands to reduce the financial burden of supporting Ukraine now simply store up greater risk and expense for the future.

There is no path to real peace other than helping Ukraine inflict an unequivocal military defeat on Russia and then helping to rebuild Ukraine into a military and society so strong and resilient that no future Russian leader sees an opportunity like the ones Putin misperceived in 2014 and 2022. This path is achievable if the West commits to supporting Ukraine in the prolonged effort likely needed to walk down it. If the West is instead lured by the illusion of some compromise, it may end the pain for now, but only at the cost of much greater pain later. Putin has shown that he views compromise as surrender, and surrender emboldens him to reattack. This war can only end not when Putin feels that he can save face, but rather when he knows that he cannot win.

Editor's 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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Homes seen from Talavera Drive in Laguna Niguel smolder following the Coastal fire in May 2022. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Orange County filed two lawsuits Monday against Southern California Edison alleging the utility acted negligently in maintaining and operating its equipment, which resulted in the ignition of two wildfires that burned thousands of acres and forced massive evacuations.

One suit, which names Edison and T-Mobile, alleges the Silverado fire ignited in October 2020 after one of T-Mobile's lashing wires fell onto one of Edison's overhead primary conductors.

The second suit, filed solely against Edison, alleges the Coastal fire  which destroyed more than 20 homes in Laguna Niguel in May 2022  was sparked by an electrical failure on one of the utility's poles that supported a 12,000-volt distribution line. The failure caused "an arc that ignited susceptible ground vegetation," according to the lawsuit.

Read more: Utter chaos: How the Coastal fire destroyed O.C. mansions despite firefighters efforts

Court records don't show how much money the county is seeking. But it is asking for damages that include the reimbursement of staff labor and wages and money for damage to public infrastructure and restoration of land, along with costs for law enforcement, fire suppression efforts and money spent to run emergency operations centers.

"SCE and T-Mobile both had a duty to properly construct and maintain their electrical and telecommunications infrastructure and surrounding vegetation. SCE and T-Mobile violated these duties by knowingly operating aging and improperly maintained infrastructure," the lawsuit states, adding that had the companies "acted responsibly the Silverado fire could have been prevented."

Representatives for T-Mobile did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Southern California Edison spokesperson Diane Castro said the utility cooperated with the Orange County Fire Authority in its investigations into both fires.

"Our thoughts are with the communities who were impacted by the Silverado and Coastal fires," Castro said. "It wouldn't be appropriate for us to comment outside of the legal process on the specifics of ongoing legal action."

Read more: Is California's wildfire season finally over? Don't bet on it, experts say

The Silverado fire burned for 12 days in 2020 in an unincorporated area near Irvine, charring 12,466 acres and forcing tens of thousands of residents from surrounding communities to evacuate.

One lawsuit alleges that after the fire started about 6:45 a.m. Oct. 26 amid strong Santa Ana winds, Edison was slow to respond. The utility did not shut off power to the line in the fire zone until 36 minutes after the blaze ignited, "despite the circuit experiencing elevated amperage readings," the suit states.

The Coastal fire started around 2:40 p.m. May 11, 2022, near a wastewater treatment plant and quickly burned uphill. It tore through stately homes on Coronado Pointe as residents fled.

The land where the blaze broke out is considered by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to be a "very high fire hazard severity zone," the lawsuit states. This classification, the suit alleges, made it clear that Edison should use heightened safety measures in the area.

"We demand that the utilities responsible for the destruction of county assets, increased expenses, reduced revenues, and environmental damages, reimburse the County," Supervisor Katrina Foley said in a prepared statement. "In 2022, the California State Auditor found that the utilities are not doing enough to reduce wildfire threats throughout the State of California. We have a duty to protect our taxpayers and County assets."

Read more: Southern California Edison agrees to $550 million in fines for role in 5 wildfires

This is not the first time Edison has faced scrutiny over its role in wildfires.

Last May, a group of homeowners whose properties were destroyed in the Coastal fire filed a lawsuit claiming the utility's equipment was to blame for the blaze. That lawsuit is ongoing, according to court records.

Last October, the state forestry department sued Edison and T-Mobile, also alleging equipment failures caused the Silverado fire. That suit accused Edison and T-Mobile of failing to properly design, install and maintain equipment, alleging the issues caused arcing amid strong Santa Ana winds and sent sparks into the dry brush. That lawsuit is also ongoing, court records show.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
At first, Natalia Arno thought she was being paranoid (Thomas SAMSON)

When Natalia Arno stands up for any length of time, her right side goes numb, as do her back and her face.

That's because five months ago, she was poisoned, the activist told AFP in an interview in Paris.

The 47-year-old president of the Free Russia Foundation, an NGO, was in Prague when she noticed that something was wrong.

"The door to my room was ajar," she told AFP. "I immediately noticed a very strong, very unpleasant smell in the room. A fragrance, like something had been sprayed there".

She started looking for hidden microphones but then stopped, feeling silly for worrying.

As it turned out, she hadn't been paranoid.

At five in the morning, she woke up with a piercing pain in her mouth.

Alarmed, she booked a flight to the United States, where she lives, and an appointment with her dentist.

On the plane crossing the Atlantic, the pain spread to her armpits, chest, ears, eyes and legs.

"It was like all my organs were failing me," she recalled.

Tests showed that Arno had been exposed to a synthetically produced nerve agent. "My nerves were burned," she said.

Authorities in the United States and Germany -- where Arno spent time before going to Prague -- launched an investigation into suspected poisoning.

An exiled Russian journalist, who had been with Arno in Berlin for a meeting with opposition businessman and activist Mikhail Khodorkovsky, also fell sick.

Arno was diagnosed with polyneuropathy, a condition affecting many nerves in different body parts.

- 'We are efficient' -

It was the same condition that affected Vladimir Kara-Murza, an opposition figure who was in April sentenced to 25 years in jail for high treason after condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Kara-Murza's wife, Evgenia, told AFP he was poisoned twice, in 2015 and 2017, but survived against the odds.

Evgenia Kara-Murza said media investigations had established that the agents poisoning her husband were the same ones who had been behind the poisoning of Alexei Navalny with nerve agent Novichok.

Navalny, a key opposition activist, is serving a 19-year term for alleged extremism.

President Vladimir Putin's power is based on "aggression" and "intimidation", Evgenia Kara-Murza said.

"Without these methods of repression he would be nothing".

Her husband has been locked up in a penal colony in Siberia since September and kept in solitary confinement which in his condition is "illegal", she said.

But "for Russian authorities who torture people regularly, that word has no meaning", she said.

Amnesty International says that torture and ill-treatment are "endemic" in Russian prisons, in particular after the invasion of Ukraine, although this is denied by the Russian authorities.

Arno said that human rights activists are "like low-hanging fruit" for the Kremlin, which can reach them easily even in western countries with "its very long tentacles".

Attacks outside Russia, she said, prove that "we are efficient, we do something to irritate them".

Russia has always denied involvement in the number of high-profile poisonings against Navalny, Kara-Murza, double agent Sergei Skripal and other figures over the last years, although Western governments say evidence points very much to the contrary.

Arno said she had been the victim of harassment several times since leaving Russia "at gunpoint" in 2012, when FSB security service agents threatened her with decades in jail if she didn't go abroad.

When Arno and Evgenia Kara-Murza came to Paris for a forum with dozens of other Russian activists, the name of the restaurant booked for the event was kept secret until the last minute, and bottles had to be opened at the table, not before.

But "nobody was afraid", Olga Prokopieva, spokeswoman for the organising Russie-Libertes (Russia-Freedoms) NGO, told AFP. "They're not that easily stopped."

jf/jh/sjw/gil/jm
ORRVILLE  An Orrville High School math teacher is under investigation for allegedly retaliating against a student involved in a 2022 Title IX investigation, according to the teacher's personnel file.

This is the third investigation into questionable behavior by the teacher in two years.

The teacher was placed on paid administrative leave Thursday, Sept. 28, according to a letter sent by Orrville City Schools and signed by the outgoing Superintendent Jon Ritchie who declined to comment on the matter.

The teacher is barred from attending school events or entering school property and is not allowed to access the district's computer systems, the letter states. He is not allowed to have contact with school employees or students.

Orrville BOE: Parents allege teacher accused of inappropriate conduct is intimidating their child

The teacher, who is unnamed because no criminal charges have been filed, did not immediately respond to a comment request by email.

This came one week after when at a school board meeting, parents accused the teacher of intimidating their daughter. She was one of four female students who accused him of inappropriate behavior during the 2021 fall semester.

He was placed on administrative leave for the first time in February 2022 following those accusations. He remained on paid administrative for more than one year before returning in April 2023 following the conclusion of two investigations.

The Orrville Board of Education approved a three-year $80,712 renewal contract with the teacher.

Sexual harassment allegations

Two separate investigations conducted in 2022 looked into 12 allegations of inappropriate behavior and concluded two instances met the Title IX definition of sexual harassment "Unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the recipient's education program or activity."

The teacher was accused of touching a female student's thigh and face on multiple occasions throughout the school year during conversations. Multiple witnesses confirmed the allegation.

The conduct, according to the report, made the teen feel uncomfortable and at risk of sexual assault.

The teacher also was accused of commenting on and complimenting a female student when she wore short skirts. The report states he encouraged her to wear more short skirts and said he could see her body and thighs.

The attorney involved in the investigation determined the teacher's alleged comments  that the skirt was "a good look on you" and "you should wear that more often"  constitute sexual harassment.

In both cases, the attorney determined the teacher did not conduct himself in the same manner with male students and both allegations occurred on multiple occasions.

The report also recommended the teacher should not be terminated and should be monitored.

When he returned to the library to tutor in April, cameras were installed to monitor him.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Orrville teacher under investigation for retaliation against a student
FILE - An Afghan refugee family return to Afghanistan through Pakistan's border crossing, Torkham, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday, March 11, 2015. Pakistan's caretaker Interior Minister on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, asked all illegal immigrants, including Afghans, to go back to their countries voluntarily before October 30 to avoid mass arrest and forced deportation, sending a wave of panic, especially among 1.7 million Afghan refugees living in the Islamic nation without valid documents. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

ISLAMABAD (AP)  Pakistans government announced a major crackdown Tuesday on migrants in the country illegally, saying it would expel them starting next month and raising alarm among foreigners without documentation who include an estimated 1.7 million Afghans.

The countrys caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said the crackdown was not aimed at Afghans and would apply to all nationalities, though the vast majority of migrants in the country are Afghans.

The campaign comes amid strained relations between Pakistan and neighboring, Taliban-led Afghanistan over what the Pakistani government says are attacks in Pakistan by Taliban-allied militants who go back and forth across the countries shared 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) border and who find shelter in Afghanistan.

Bugti said that any migrants in Pakistan illegally should go back to their countries voluntarily before the end of October to avoid mass arrest and forced deportation. He said the government planned to confiscate the property and assets of illegal migrants, and would set up a special phone line to offer rewards to members of the public who tip off authorities about such migrants.

Anyone living in the country illegally must go back, he said.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesman for the Taliban government, said Wednesday that Pakistan's plans are unacceptable and that it should reconsider.

Afghan refugees are not involved in Pakistans security problems. As long as they leave Pakistan voluntarily, that country should tolerate them, Mujahid said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Although Pakistani police have routinely been arresting and deporting Afghans who have sneaked into the country without valid documents in recent years, this is the first time that the government has announced such a major crackdown on illegal immigration.

It was unusual for such a major shift in immigration policy to come during a caretaker government, which is intended to tide the country over during interim periods between the end of a five-year National Assembly and elections. Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul-Haq-Kakar took power in August and is supposed to rule until elections planned for the end of January.

A government statement said the new migration policy was endorsed during a high-level meeting Tuesday among Pakistans political leadership and the countrys powerful military.

Fazal Rehman, a 57-year-old Afghan fruit seller in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said he arrived in Pakistan 30 years ago and that his children have never been to Afghanistan. He said he had never felt the need to register with Pakistani authorities and now fears it is too late to do so.

We request the Pakistan government not to expel us in such a hasty way and allow us either to live here peacefully, or we should be given at least six months to one year time to go back, he said.

Pakistan has been a haven for Afghan refugees since millions fled Afghanistan during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation, creating one of the worlds largest refugee populations. Additional Afghans have fled since then, including an estimated 100,000 since the Taliban seized control of the country in August 2021.

Currently, there are 4.4 million Afghans living in Pakistan, including an estimated 1.7 million who are unregistered, Bugti said. Any Afghans who have registered with Pakistani authorities need not worry about the crackdown, he said.

Some 2.4 million Afghans have refugee status, Bugti said, which allows them to get a government ID card that they can use for everyday activities like banking or registering for school.

After seizing power in 2021, Afghanistans Taliban rulers announced a pardon for Afghans who had fled and urged them to come back, but most of them are staying in Pakistan or elsewhere in hopes of emigrating to other countries including the United States.

Zahid Hussain, an independent Islamabad-based journalist-turned-analyst, said that although the government has stressed that the crackdown isnt aimed at Afghans, he believes the policy has been prompted by the involvement of Afghans in recent terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil.

Hussain was skeptical that any campaign to expel undocumented migrants could be successful any time soon.

It will not be an easy task to accomplish as how can you detain or expel 1.7 million unregistered Afghan people? It is going to further strain ties between the two sides, he said. Let us see how the government implements the policy about the expulsion of illegal immigrants.

The outlawed Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, routinely claim attacks on Pakistani security forces. But they have distanced themselves from a pair of suicide bombings last week that took place hours apart and killed 59 people in southwest and northwest areas bordering Afghanistan. Nobody has claimed responsibility for those attacks.

Afghan officials say that Pakistans government is targeting Afghan refugees regardless of whether they have documentation to be in the country.

The Afghan Embassy in Islamabad said on X that Pakistani counter-terror police have arrested about 1,000 Afghan refugees in the last two weeks, and that about half of them had travel or immigration documents. It urged Pakistan to stop such operations because of their negative impact on the relationship between the two countries.

Pakistani officials have given no details of such arrests in recent weeks, nor of the charges the suspects would have faced.

Raees Khan, 47, another Afghan refugee who said he didnt feel the need to register with Pakistani authorities, said he has lived in Peshawar since 2007 and has been working in the transportation industry. He said it would take him much longer than a month to wind down his business and move with his wife and five children.

I have no idea what is going to happen with us after todays warning by Pakistan. We face forced expulsion, Khan said. This deadline should be extended at least for six months so that we can easily return to our country, he said.

-

Riaz Khan reported from Peshawar, Pakistan.
FILE PHOTO: Rescue workers clear the rubble from a damaged mosque, after a suicide blast in Hangu

By Asif Shahzad

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistan on Tuesday ordered all illegal immigrants, including 1.73 million Afghan nationals, to leave the country or face expulsion after revealing that 14 of 24 suicide bombings in the country this year were carried out by Afghan nationals.

It was not immediately clear how Pakistani authorities could ensure the illegal immigrants leave, or how they could find them to expel them.

Islamabad's announcement marks a new low in its relations with Kabul that deteriorated after border clashes between the South Asian neighbours last month.

"We have given them a November 1 deadline," said Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti, adding that all illegal immigrants should leave voluntarily or face forcible expulsion after that date.

Bugti said some 1.73 million Afghan nationals in Pakistan had no legal documents to stay, adding a total of 4.4 million Afghan refugees lived in Pakistan.

"There are no two opinions that we are attacked from within Afghanistan and Afghan nationals are involved in attacks on us," he said. "We have evidence."

Islamabad has received the largest influx of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Kabul in 1979.

Bugti was speaking in Islamabad after civil and military leaders met the prime minister and army chief to discuss law and order after a recent spate of militant attacks.

The violence has seen an unusual uptick since local Taliban militants known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of hardline Sunni Islamist militants, revoked a ceasefire with the government late last year.

The TTP wants to overthrow the Pakistani government to replace it with its strict rule under Islamic law.

Two suicide bombings targeted religious gatherings in Pakistan last week, killing at least 57 people. The TTP denied involvement. Bugti said that one of the suicide bombers had been identified as an Afghan national.

Islamist State also operates in the Afghan border regions and has been involved in attacks in Pakistan.

The Pakistani military has conducted several offensives against Islamist militants, mainly in the rugged mountainous region along the Afghan border, which it says forced them to flee to Afghanistan.

Islamabad alleges that the militants use Afghan soil to train fighters and plan attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies, saying Pakistani security is a domestic issue.

There was no immediate response from Kabul to Bugti's comments.

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Jon Boyle and Nick Macfie)
By Rich McKay

(Reuters) - The parents of a teenage school shooter who killed four students and wounded six other people in 2021 at his Detroit-area high school will stand trial for involuntary manslaughter, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.

The court, in Lansing, Michigan, ruled that it would not hear the appeal of the parents of Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the Oxford High School shooting. His parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, are seeking to avoid trial on four counts of involuntary manslaughter each.

The case appears to be the first time that parents of a teenage school shooter have been charged for involvement in their offspring's alleged crimes, and is seen by some as a litmus test on whether parents can be held accountable in school shootings.

The Crumbleys' attorneys, Shannon Smith and Mariell Lehman, were not immediately available for comment.

Prosecutors argued that the parents can be charged because they showed gross negligence for failing to secure the weapon. The Crumbleys have been accused of knowing their son was troubled and too young to own a gun, but buying him one anyway. The 9mm semi-automatic pistol was used in the slayings two years ago.

The parents had sought to have the charges thrown out.

In a terse, one-sentence ruling, the state Supreme Court in Lansing, Michigan, ruled that the "judgment of the Court of Appeals is considered, and it is DENIED, because we are not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this Court."

An Oakland County Circuit Court and a panel of three Michigan Court of Appeals judges have already ruled against the Crumbleys.

The Crumbleys' attorneys have argued that prosecutors cannot demonstrate that a juror could decide that a reasonably foreseeable outcome of the Crumbleys' alleged gross negligence was their son committing a shooting in November, 2021, the Detroit News reported. They said their son's criminal conduct was the sole cause of harm to the victims and the shooting was not reasonably foreseeable.

The Crumbleys each face charges connected to the deaths of Oxford High students Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17.

Ethan Crumbley has pleaded guilty to charges including one count of terrorism causing death and four counts of first-degree murder.

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2022, photo, Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of Ethan Crumbley, a teenager accused of killing four students in a shooting at Oxford High School, appear in court in Rochester Hills, Mich. The Michigan Supreme Court turned down an appeal Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, clearing the way for the parents of the Oxford High School shooter to face trial on involuntary manslaughter charges. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, file)

DETROIT (AP)  The parents of a teenager who killed four students at Michigan's Oxford High School lost an appeal Tuesday and will face trial on involuntary manslaughter charges, a rare case of prosecutors attempting to pin some responsibility for a school shooting on the perpetrator's family.

James and Jennifer Crumbley are accused of making a gun accessible to Ethan Crumbley and ignoring his mental health needs. The state appeals court said in March that the couple could face trial, and the Michigan Supreme Court let that decision stand in a one-sentence order.

Prosecutors in suburban Detroit had to show only that there was probable cause to put the parents on trial, a low threshold at this stage. The appeals court noted that an Oakland County jury will hear a more expansive case from all sides.

The shooter killed Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana and Justin Shilling at Oxford High, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) north of Detroit, in November 2021. Six students and a teacher were also wounded.

Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty to terrorism and murder. A judge last week said he is eligible for life in prison without parole.

Attorneys for the parents insist the school shooting was not foreseeable. They acknowledge that bad decisions were made but not ones that should rise to involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.

The teen and his parents met with school staff the day of the shooting after a teacher noticed violent drawings, but no one checked his backpack for a gun. He was allowed to stay.

The 17-year-old, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, will be sentenced Dec. 8. The judge will have the option of giving him a prison term that would make him eligible for parole in the decades ahead.

The Crumbley parents have been in custody since shortly after the shooting, unable to afford a $500,000 bond. Their son is in the same jail, though they have no contact with him.

Defense lawyers declined to comment on the Supreme Court's order, citing a gag order.

In Newport News, Virginia, the mother of a 6-year-old boy who wounded a teacher recently pleaded guilty to child neglect. The boy had used her gun.

In the Michigan case, Colin King, a psychologist who has met with the teen, described him as a feral child who was neglected by his parents. Judge Kwame Rowe said his home life was "not ideal, with his parents often drinking alcohol and arguing, but not terrible.

The teen appeared to have a loving and supportive family, Rowe said Friday. He went on family vacations, owned several pets and had visits from family. ... In defendant's own words, his childhood was good.

___

Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez
PATERSON  By the end of this year, city police officers will be working with mental health professionals when handling calls involving people going through emotional or mental crises, according to the New Jersey Attorney Generals Office.

But with the launch less than 100 days away, officials said they are still developing the details of how the Arrive Together program  which is already happening in various versions in 42 other New Jersey municipalities  will work in Paterson.

Sep 26, 2023; Paterson, NJ, USA; (Left) NJ Attorney General Matthew Platkin speaks during an event at which (center) Paterson PD officer in charge Isa Abbassi unveiled his strategic plan for city law enforcement at the Paterson Public Library. Mandatory Credit: Michael Karas-The Record

How will Arrive Together work in Paterson?

In many places  including Newark  Arrive Together sends teams of mental health workers with cops to the scene of someone going through an emotional disturbance.

But in the aftermath of the fatal police shooting of Najee Seabrooks last March, social justice activists in Paterson have spoken out against the standard Arrive Together model, asserting they want a program that leaves the police on the sidelines during the initial response.

If the situation poses a risk for the mental health responders, then the police should be called in as backup, said Paterson Black Lives Matter leader Zellie Thomas.

(Center) Zellie Thomas, an organizer for Black Lives Matter Paterson, before the start of a press conference calling for justice for Najee Seabrooks and local and state accountability at 200 Federal Plaza in Paterson on Thursday, March 16, 2023. Seabrooks, a member of the violence intervention group the Paterson Healing Collective, was fatally shot by Paterson police after a standoff while he was barricaded inside an apartment.

We dont want Najees death to be in vain, Thomas said. If they create a program that can still lead to peoples death, then thats not the program we want.

The Attorney Generals Office recently hinted that it may be considering a modification of the standard Arrive Together strategy.

We have heard from members of the Paterson community who made clear that they were not ready to embrace a co-responder model, said state spokesman Mike Symons, and we have learned through our successful launches across the state that it is important to meet communities where they are.

In some places, Arrive Together provides the mental health screeners with access to the crisis scene through a web call, officials said. In Atlantic County, the mental health workers speak to the person in crisis afterward, not during the emergency as it unfolds.

There is no indication that any place in New Jersey sends mental health workers to handle 911 crisis calls without a law enforcement presence. But Thomas said that approach has been taken in other states and worked well, without any mental health workers becoming victims.

Mayor Andre Sayegh did not respond to messages seeking his input for this story.

Top cop unveils Paterson PD plan: This is what Isa Abbassi plans for the Paterson Police Department over the next 2 years

Connect and Protect also launching in Paterson

In Paterson, Arrive Together is being rolled out simultaneously with a similar but separate program called Connect and Protect. St. Josephs University Medical Center is partnering with the Police Department on both programs.

Arrive Together is being funded with $10 million in state money shared among programs throughout New Jersey. The Attorney Generals Office started the initiative as a pilot program in 2022 in Cumberland and Union counties. Paterson wasnt added to the Arrive Together list until after Seabrooks was killed, even though the city had three police shootings of people going though emotional crises during the previous decade and the high-profile, controversial death of Jameek Lowery in police custody.

Paterson got a $550,000 federal Justice Department grant for Connect and Protect in 2022 and was in the early planning stages when police officers shot and killed Seabrooks in March 2023.

Pam Garretson, a spokesperson for St. Josephs, said Connect and Protect is expected to begin before the end of this year.

As the planning for the program is anticipated to becompleted in the month ahead, the next steps include the recruitment of two full-time behavioral health counselors to work in conjunction with local law enforcement officers in the field, Garretson said.

Counselors will be deployed with police, to assist in situations requiring greater support for individuals experiencing a serious mental health issue or crisis, the hospital spokesperson added. Once the counselors are recruited, the program is projected to launch before the end of the year.

St. Josephs has a stake in preventing deaths like Seabrooks. He had been employed as a violence intervention specialist for the Paterson Healing Collective, an organization that worked in partnership with the hospital in a program designed to help violent crime victims as a way of preventing retaliatory violence. Seabrooks had participated in various events with high-ranking St. Josephs staff members.

Another big challenge: Paterson police fall further behind in handling internal affairs complaints

Aftermath of Seabrooks case

Seabrooks was shot by two Paterson cops on March 2 after an almost five-hour standoff at a family member's apartment. Seabrooks himself was the one who called police to the scene, saying someone was out to get him.

The first officers who arrived largely kept their guns holstered and walked casually around the apartment, allowing Seabrooks mother to speak to him through the door of the bathroom where he had barricaded himself, as shown on videos released of the scene. One resident in the apartment told the patrol officers Seabrooks was on bad stuff, seemingly implying he had taken drugs.

Najee Seabrooks

But eventually, members of the Police Departments emergency response team wearing riot helmets and equipped with shields took over the scene, engaging in a lengthy negotiation with Seabrooks through a crack in the partially open bathroom door. At one point, Seabrooks started a fire in the bathroom, and the officers body-camera video recordings made it clear they could see he was wielding knives.

Seabrooks was fatally shot when he rushed from the bathroom toward the officers, holding a knife pointed at them.

Kevin Slavin, the President and CEO of St. JosephOs Health, speaks at the Reimagining Justice and Paterson Healing Collective office in Paterson, NJ on Thursday, Jan 19, 2023.

After the shooting, St. Josephs president, Kevin Slavin, issued a statement bemoaning the fact that the hospitals crisis intervention team was not called to the Seabrooks standoff.

We must ask the question  why were we not called? he said. And, we demand that this valuable community resource be used in the future for other individuals in psychiatric crises.

Paterson cops took that demand to heart. In the months after the Seabrooks shooting, city police officers alerted Paterson Press to a series of mental health crisis incidents in which officers contacted the hospital crisis team but were told it could not or would not respond.

Among the reasons that police officers written reports attributed to the crisis team was that the staff was busy with another case, that the person going through a disturbance didnt need an in-person visit from a mental health professional, and that the team wasnt going to a scene because the person in crisis was armed.

Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson NJ: Arrive Together program will launch, state says
Patrick Stewart has reflected on his decades-long acting career, including working with a young Tom Hardy on Star Trek: Nemesis.

The veteran actor, 83, first joined the popular sci-fi franchise as Captain Jean Luc Picard in the 1987 debut episode of the seven-season series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Hes since reprised his role in several different Star Trek movies and TV shows and most recently fronted the series Star Trek: Picard.

Reminiscing about his iconic role in his first memoir, Making It So  released on Tuesday (3 October)  Stewart recalled shooting the particularly weak 2002 film, Nemesis.

I didnt have a single exciting scene to play, Stewart wrote, according to Insider, and the actor who portrayed the movies villain, Shinzon, was an odd, solitary young man from London. His name was Tom Hardy.

Hardy, 46, made his first and only Star Trek appearance in Nemesis aged 24 at the time as Picards villainous clone Shinzon.

Tom wouldnt engage with any of us on a social level, Stewart said. Never said, Good morning, never said, Goodnight, and spent the hours he wasn't needed on set in his trailer with his girlfriend.

Clarifying that Hardy was by no means hostile, Stewart added: It was just challenging to establish any rapport with him.

The X-Men actor further admitted that he didnt ever expect to hear of Hardy again.

Patrick Stewart and Tom Hardy (Getty Images)

On the evening Tom wrapped his role, he characteristically left without ceremony or niceties, simply walking out of the door, Stewart remembered. As it closed, I said quietly to Brent [Spiner] and Jonathan [Frakes], And there goes someone I think we shall never hear of again.

It gives me nothing but pleasure that Tom has proven me so wrong, he added.

The Independent has contacted Hardys representative for comment.

Hardy, of course, has gone on to become a huge name in Hollywood, starring in several high-profile titles, such as Peaky Blinders, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises and Venom, among numerous others.

Stewart wrapped the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard in April. Picking up 18 years after the events of Nemesis, the show focuses on retired admiral Jean-Luc Picard. As hes still mourning the death of Lieutenant Commander Data (Brent Spiner), he is also preparing to step into the next chapter of his life.

Making It So: A Memoir is out now.
Ian Chiron was in Noosa National Park in Australia when he heard a strange noise.

I got out of the car and I heard the moan and I thought thats not right, Chiron told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC). It was concerning because I could continue to hear it.

When he looked out toward the ocean on Oct. 3, Chiron saw a pod of whales appeared to be gathered around a shark net, an unusual place to see them. So he called rescuers, he told the news outlet.

Other witnesses reported hearing the creature crying before contacting rescuers from the Queensland shark control program, according to The Courier Mail.

A Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Shark Control Program contractor released the whale calf from the net, a spokesperson from the department told McClatchy News in a statement. The contractor confirmed the entanglement around 7 a.m. The calf was released by 7:35 a.m, and it swam away and rejoined its mother.

Drone footage shows the humpback struggling before a rescuer grabs a handful of netting and pulls it off the creature.

Experts think the whale could have been trapped for several hours.

There is a high likelihood that the young whale became tangled overnight, and was only reported once the sun rose in the morning, Sea Shepherd, a nonprofit marine conservation organization, wrote in an Oct. 3 news release.

Before it was rescued, the whale appeared to be moving slowly, according to Taylor Ladd-Hudson, who filmed the rescue. The baby was on its own, and its mother was nowhere in sight.

I have seen many whale entanglements (this being my 3rd year in a row at Noosa) and I normally keep my cool and emotions under control but this time I couldnt help hide it. My eyes were watering and I started crying, the 14-year-old wrote on Instagram.

The entanglement and rescue come just days after another humpback calf was rescued from a shark net about 20 miles south on the west coast of Australia.

Although both rescues were successful, many shared their anger with the shark nets on social media.

Life literally pauses in anticipation watching this, one person wrote on Instagram. Knowing it was freed is assuring. ... until another is found entangled within days.

Shark nets have passed their expiry date, another person commented. Time has come to get the nets out now. Silent, indiscriminate killers.

These nets are absolutely disgusting, so heartbreaking, a third commenter wrote.

Officials said the netting is being replaced and is expected to be operational shortly.

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The Pentagon warned Congress last week that without a deal for more support for Ukraine, the administration only has enough money left to fund Ukraine's most urgent battlefield needs. A lapse in appropriations could force the U.S. to delay critical assistance to Ukraine as it continues to try to push back Russian forces.

The short-term bill Congress passed over the weekend to fund the government for 45 days did not include security assistance for Ukraine. Without the additional support, the Pentagon said it is close to exhausting all of the previously authorized assistance for Ukraine.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Pentagon comptroller Michael McCord said there is only about $1.6 billion out of the $25.9 billion allocated by Congress remaining to replenish U.S. equipment supplied to Ukraine from current Defense Department stocks. The long-term Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding, which is used to procure contracts for future weapons, has run out, according to the letter.

"Without additional funding now, we would have to delay or curtail assistance to meet Ukraine's urgent requirements, including for air defense and ammunition that are critical and urgent now as Russia prepares to conduct a winter offensive," McCord wrote.

There is still about $5.4 billion left to provide presidential drawdown authority packages of equipment from current stocks, due to an overvaluation the Pentagon discovered earlier this year, according to U.S. officials.

McCord said in his letter that U.S. troops are also seeing the effects of the shortfall. "We have already been forced to slow down the replenishment of our own forces to hedge against an uncertain funding future," he wrote.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday there will be another package of aid for Ukraine "soon  to signal our continued support for the brave people of Ukraine."

She said the remaining funds are enough to meet Ukraine's urgent battlefield requirements "for a bit longer" but called for a longer-term solution.

The White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have faced a barrage of questions about whether there was a secret side deal made between President Biden and McCarthy regarding additional Ukraine funding.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, who filed a motion to oust McCarthy as speaker Monday, demanded on the House floor Monday to know "what was the secret side deal on Ukraine?"

He accused McCarthy of "cutting a side deal to bring Ukraine legislation" to the floor in a vote separate from the short-term spending bill.

The president himself certainly fueled the idea, when CBS News asked him on Sunday, "Are you going to be able to trust Speaker McCarthy when the next deal comes around?"

"We just made one about Ukraine," he replied. "So, we'll find out."

In total, the Defense Department has provided about $44 billion in security assistance for Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.

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A high-ranking Pentagon official has been involved in dogfighting since at least 2002 and is accused of executing dogs that performed poorly in fights, according to a federal criminal complaint.

Department of Defense Deputy Chief Information Officer Frederick Douglass Moorefield Jr., 62, of Arnold, Maryland, and his friend Mario Damon Flythe, 49, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, are charged with facilitating a dog fighting ring, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Maryland announced in an Oct. 2 news release.

On Sept. 6, FBI agents searched Moorefields home, where they found five caged pit bull-type dogs in a windowless room of his basement along with items used to strengthen dogs for fighting  including weighted collars and heavy metal chains  and a device used for involuntarily inseminating female dogs, the affidavit says.

Agents also found blood stains from dogfights on the walls of Moorefields basement and an electrical plug and jumper cables suspected of being used to kill dogs who lost dogfights, according to prosecutors and the affidavit.

One of five caged pit bull-type dogs found at Moorefields home on Sept. 6, according to the criminal complaint.

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Tim Gorman told McClatchy News in a statement on Oct. 3 that the Department of Defense is aware of the criminal complaint filed against Moorefield, who no longer holds his Pentagon position.

We can confirm that the individual is no longer in the workplace, but we cannot comment further on an individual personnel matter, Gorman said and referred further inquiries to the Justice Department.

FBI agents also searched Flythes home on Sept. 6 and seized seven pit-bull type dogs, the affidavit says. Hes accused of breeding and training dogs there based on the evidence found at his property, including metal cages in the backyard, weighted collars and other items, according to the affidavit.

Information regarding legal representation for Moorefield and Flythe wasnt listed in court records as of Oct. 3.

As ugly and horrific as it is, dogfighting can be found just beneath the surface of civil society, with the perpetrators maintaining the veneer of mainstream participation in society, Wayne Pacelle, the president of Animal Wellness Action, a Washington, D.C.-based animal advocacy organization, said in an Oct. 3 statement in regards to the charges against Moorefield and Flythe.

No dog should endure the kind of pain and torment that fighting animals endure in the pit and after their handlers decide they are no longer useful to them, Pacelle said.

Fighting dogs disposed of

The search of Moorefields home came nearly five years after Anne Arundel County animal control officers found the bodies of two injured dogs inside a dog food bag in Annapolis, about 6 miles away from Moorefields house, in November 2018, the affidavit says.

Officers also found pieces of mail belonging to Moorefield inside the bag, according to the affidavit.

I conclude from the contents of the bag that Moorefield disposed of dead fighting dogs along with other pieces of his trash, FBI Special Agent Ryan C. Daly wrote in the affidavit.

Daly suspects the dogs died during a dogfight, based on their wounds, or that Moorefield killed each of them afterwards for performing poorly, according to the affidavit.

During the recent search of Moorefields home, he told Daly that animal control officers and Anne Arundel authorities have previously visited his home, the affidavit says.

No charges ever arose from those visits, according to the affidavit.

More on the case

Moorefield, Flythe and others are accused of regularly discussing dogfighting ventures and betting on fights over an encrypted messaging application, prosecutors said.

Moorefield and Flythe are accused of sponsoring a dogfight in May 2023, when they placed a $1,500 bet on it, the affidavit says.

When discussing their own dogfighting operations, Moorefield would go by the nickname Geehad Kennels and Flythe went by Razor Sharp Kennels, prosecutors said.

At Moorefields home, agents found a weighted dog vest with a Geehad Kennels label on it, according to the affidavit.

Weighted dog vest with Geehad Kennels on it, according to the criminal complaint.

Both Moorefield and Flythe are affiliated with other people prosecuted in separate dogfighting cases, the affidavit says.

If Moorefield and Flythe are convicted on the charges against them, theyll face up to five years in prison, according to prosecutors.

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A Pentagon official has been charged by federal authorities with promoting and furthering an illegal dog fighting ring in Maryland.

Frederick Douglass Moorefield, Jr., a Deputy Chief Information Officer for Command, Control, and Communications, for Office of the Secretary of Defense, and a co-defendant, Mario Damon Flythe, were indicted on Monday by the Maryland District Attorneys office.

According to a Justice Department press release, Moorefield and Flythe used the encrypted messaging application [Telegram] to discuss how to train dogs for illegal dogfighting, exchanged videos about dogfighting, and arranged and coordinated dogfights. Additionally, the pair exchanged information on the deaths of animals involved in their operation, gambling on fights, and tactics to evade detection by law enforcement.

During a search of Moorefields Maryland residence, authorities seized a device consisting of an electrical plug and jumper cables, which the affidavit alleges is consistent with devices used to execute dogs that lose dogfights. Between the residences of the two men, they also recovered twelve dogs, veterinary steroids, training schedules, a carpet that appeared to be stained with blood, and a weighted dog vest with a patch reading Geehad Kennels.

A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to The Washington Post that Moorefield is no longer in the workplace, but would not provide further details on the matter. According to a review of the criminal complaint against the pair by the Post, online records revealed that Moorefield had been involved in dog fighting for more than two decades. Shortly before their arrest, Flythe and Moorefield had allegedly begun experimenting with different types of performance enhancing drugs to improve [their] chances of winning dogfights.

In 2022, federal authorities indicted multiple individuals associated with the DMV Board, a D.C., Maryland, and Virginia-area dog fighting operation. Moorefield and Flythe operated within the same circles, and had crossed paths with authorities in the past. According to the Posts review, in 2018 Anne Arundel County animal control received reports of a bag containing two dead dogs, and mail addressed to Moorefields home, several miles from his residence.

If convicted, Moorefield and Flythe each face a maximum five-year sentence.

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The Pentagon on Tuesday warned the U.S. cannot sustain support for Ukraine too much longer without additional funding, urging Congress to act on a new aid package.

Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said the U.S. has $5.4 billion left to pull from Defense Department stocks and $1.6 billion available to replenish its inventory.

There is no money left for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allowed the Pentagon to purchase weapons directly from the defense industry.

Singh said a Pentagon team is constantly engaging with Congress to get another package for Ukraine passed.

We have seen bipartisan support for Ukraine in Congress and we urge members of Congress to keep their commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure the passage of support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment, she said at a briefing.

The Biden administration was dismayed after a short-term funding bill to keep the government funded until Nov. 17 did not include any new funding for Ukraine.

Ukraine is struggling in its counteroffensive against Russia in the southeast and will need to maintain a steady supply of ammunition, weapons and equipment from western allies to make more progress.

President Biden has warned that time is running out to get Ukraine the weapons it needs.

We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted, he said in a statement after signing the short-term bill. I fully expect the Speaker will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment.

The failure to include any more funding in the latest package is largely because of opposition from a band of far-right lawmakers in the House, who have leverage over Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

Congress has not approved Ukraine aid since December, when lawmakers passed the final of four packages that delivered a total of $113 billion in support for all of Kyivs needs. That included about $47 billion in direct security assistance.

Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord recently sent a letter to Congress saying the U.S. has been forced to slow down the replenishment of our own forces to hedge against an uncertain funding future.

McCord also said the U.S. might soon have to curtail delivery of critical defense weapons for Ukraine, according to the Associated Press, which obtained the letter.

Singh on Tuesday said the Pentagon could meet Ukraines battlefield needs for just a little bit longer.

We need Congress to act to ensure there is no disruption in our support, she said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Peoria-area Republican Congressman Darin LaHood joined 89 other House Republicans and one House Democrat in voting "no" on a resolution passed to avoid a government shutdown for 45 days.

The resolution, which passed on Sept. 30 mere hours before a government shutdown would have been triggered, put a 45-day stopgap in place to keep the government running.

In a Facebook post, LaHood said he voted no on the bill because it did not address "out of control spending addiction" and did not "address the crisis at our southern border."

"Families in #IL16 must meet a budget and its past time that DC do the same. With $33 Trillion in debt, Congress needs to change the way it spends or we will threaten the economic future of our kids and grandkids," LaHood's statement said.

LaHood of the 16th District and Illinois Republicans Mary Miller of the 15th District and Mike Bost of the 12th District voted no on the bill.

Miller said in a Facebook post she voted no to avoid participating in a "process to kick government funding down the road until the holidays, when Senate and House 'insiders' will agree to ram through some massive omnibus with Ukraine funding behind closed doors."

Bost, like LaHood, said in a release he voted no because the resolution did not include spending reforms or money to address "border security measures."

Illinois Democrat Mike Quigley of the 5th District was the only House Democrat to vote no on the stopgap spending bill.

Quigley told the Chicago Sun-Times he voted no because the resolution did not include any funding for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Members of Congress will now have until Nov. 17 to hash out a federal budget or risk triggering a federal government shutdown.

More: Congress dodged a government shutdown. Here are the winners and losers from a messy fight.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria Rep. Darin LaHood votes 'no' to avoid government shutdown
CENTER TWP.  A man has been arrested in Peru after being connected to a large wave of bomb threats across the United States, including a recent false report at the Beaver Valley Mall.

According to the Department of Justice, investigators discovered that 33-year-old Eddie Manuel Nunez Santos, of Lima, Peru, sent 150 bomb threats to school districts, synagogues, airports and hospitals across several states. In Pennsylvania, officials found that 24 school districts had received these fake bomb threats and the Beaver Valley Mall was evacuated after receiving a threat from Nunez Santos on Sept. 18.

The defendants relentless campaign of false bomb threats caused an immediate mobilization by federal and state authorities, diverting critical law enforcement and public safety resources, and caused fear in hundreds of communities across this country, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in an emailed statement to the Associated Press.

Investigators say that Nunez Santos had approached multiple teenage girls through an unnamed gaming platform, pretending to be a teenage boy named "Lucas." After contacting these girls, Nunez Santos would solicit them for sexually explicit photographs of themselves. When they refused, he would threaten to kill the teenagers, blow up their schools and use other threatening tactics to extort the victims for the child porn.

At least four of the victims in this tactic were 13-year-old girls, but initial reporting has not indicated how many victims were targeted by Nunez Santos through the platform. After making the threats, Nunez Santos would fill out an online form or directly email bomb threat hoaxes to the locations of his victims. Investigators say several of these threats also included the victim's phone numbers, with instructions for officials to contact the girls.

Most of the incidents mentioned in the charges occurred between Sept. 15 and Sept. 21, targeting several communities across New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Arizona and Alaska. In Western Pennsylvania, the false bomb reports caused evacuations of several school districts and forced the temporary closure of the Beaver Valley Mall in Center Township.

A warrant for the arrest of Nunez Santos was filed in the U.S. Southern District of New York and Peruvian police arrested the man on Sept. 26. When extradited to the United States, he will face charges of threatening interstate communications, making false information and hoaxes, attempted sexual exploitation of a child, attempted coercion of a child and attempted receipt of child sexual abuse materials.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Man arrested for bomb threats across United States, western Pennsylvania
Josh Kruger, a 39-year-old Philadelphia-based journalist and activist, was shot and killed in his home early Monday morning.

Kruger was shot seven times around 1.30am on 2 October and collapsed in the street after trying to contact someone for help. He was pronounced dead shortly after at a nearby hospital.

Related: Philadelphia officer surrenders after fatally shooting man sitting in car

Police believe the shooter knew how to get in or the door to Krugers home was unlocked as there were no signs of forced entry into the home, according to the Associated Press. No arrests have been made and no weapons have been recovered, but the police suspect the killing is domestic or drug-related. An investigation is ongoing.

Kruger had publicly noted of several incidents at his home preceding the shooting, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, including a former partner breaking into his home in April and a rock being thrown through his window in August, and someone came to Krugers home two weeks ago whom he didnt know looking for their boyfriend and threatening Kruger.

Kruger wrote about his own experiences with substance abuse and homelessness, contributing as a journalist to the Philadelphia Weekly, Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia City Paper.

We should feel offended or unsettled when we hear the word homeless not because we stigmatize those experiencing it but because we are ashamed at our own moral culpability in its existence and the continued harm it inflicts on the most vulnerable, Kruger wrote in a post two weeks ago on social media.

He worked for about five years as a spokesperson for the city of Philadelphia, handling the mayors office social media platforms and communications duties for the office of homeless services, leaving in 2021 to pursue work as a journalist.

Josh Kruger lifted up the most vulnerable and stigmatized people in our communities  particularly unhoused people living with addiction. As an openly queer writer who wrote about his own journey surviving substance use disorder and homelessness, it was encouraging to see Josh join the Kenney administration as a spokesperson for the office of homeless services, said the Philadelphia district attorney, Larry Krasner, in a statement. Josh deserved to write the ending of his personal story. As with all homicides, we will be in close contact with the Philadelphia police as they work to identify the person or persons responsible so that they can be held to account in a court of law.


Get in the robot.

A Tokyo-based robot manufacturer is selling a pilotable mecha robot that looks like it came straight out of Mobile Suit Gundam (or Patlabor if youre really cool) for a whopping $3 million.

Archax, named after a winged dinosaur believed to be the first bird on Earth, is a battery-powered robot on four wheels made by Tsubame Industries. The robot, which can be driven by a person from inside the steel cockpit in its chest, is 15 feet tall, weighs 3.5 tons, and (most importantly) can transform between an upright robot mode and a vehicle mode which can move at speeds up to 6 miles per hour. Yknow, just fast enough for jealous onlookers to get a generous eye full of your mecha in all its Tachikoma-esque glory.

Read more

And a video of its robot/vehicle mode transformation.



Unlike its anime counterpart, which often sees itself in the thick of explosive battles, Tsubame Industries CEO Tatsuo Yoshida told Reuters he hopes Archax will instead be used for disaster relief and space exploration.



Japan is very good at animation, games, robots and automobiles so I thought it would be great if I could create a product that compressed all these elements into one, Yoshida told Reuters. I wanted to create something that says, This is Japan.



As it stands now, Archaxs current model probably wont be space or battle-ready anytime soon but it is unquestionably an anime-inspired piece of machinery that looks as cool as its website repeatedly reminds visitors. Things may change after Macross co-creator Shoji Kawamori, who announced his collaboration with Tsubame Industries, brings his own anime mecha designs to life. I sure hope so. Archax will be on display at the Japan Mobility Show on October 26 and is available for pre-order if you have $3 million lying around somewhere.







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It was 10:30 p.m. when the phone rang. The BBC was calling from London and wanted to know if the rumors were true. Had Sen. Dianne Feinstein brokered a meeting between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to help mend fences after the brutal 2008 Democratic primary?

I did what any good press secretary would do: I said, Let me check, and immediately called my boss.

In a hushed voice, Feinstein told me, Dont answer your phone. In fact, she had brought the two sides together with a little shuttle diplomacy, and in doing so, helped heal the wounds of the Democratic Party so that we could (mostly) unite to win back the White House.

It was big news at the time and she wanted little of the credit. It is also emblematic of Feinsteins pioneering 54-year career of public service, which sadly ended when she died Thursday night at her home in Washington D.C. The 90-year-old U.S. senator believed that bringing people together could solve problems large and small  political, policy and national security.

After working the other supervisors and winning their votes, she became the first woman to serve as Board of Supervisors president in San Francisco history. She later went on to become the first woman elected as mayor, too.

You see, Feinstein was a true force of nature. She was a political bulldozer and woe to anyone in her way.

She would marshal facts, figures and arguments to make her case and wear down those on the fence. In 2004, while working to reauthorize the federal assault rifle ban (which she authored and was first enacted in 1994), Feinstein did what nobody thought possible. After talking to every Democratic senator and most Republicans, she won a vote in the Senate, 52-47. In the end, however, the effort failed because the National Rifle Association cynically worked with their Republican allies to pull down the reauthorization, essentially by sacrificing their own chief legislative priority along the way.

These are not isolated examples. This is what she did day after day, month after month, year after year.

The CIA did not want her to publish the Torture report  formally known as the Senate Intelligence Committee Study on CIA Detention and Interrogation Program  when she was chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. But she would not be dissuaded. She worked tirelessly to address every legitimate concern they had and made sure that the report saw the light of day.

She brought all sides of the California water wars together to forge various agreements that protected the environment, supported agriculture and ensured enough water for drinking.

She worked across the aisle to pass what at the time was the most significant legislation to reduce greenhouse gases by mandating dramatically increased fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks.

She passed numerous pieces of legislation to protect Californias environmental resources including Lake Tahoe, the California Desert and the San Joaquin River.

The list goes on.

Toward the end of her career, her critics said that politics passed her by. While she wasnt afraid to throw a punch, she was never the loudest, the most strident, the most political.

At her core and until the very end, she was a problem solver. She believed that if you understood a challenge well enough you could craft a practical solution that would make American lives better.

Sen. Feinstein will be deeply missed. For my money, she is the greatest senator in California history. I firmly believe that if there were more people like Feinstein in leadership roles in Washington D.C., we could find more common ground and make life better for more people in America.

Scott Gerber is the former communications director for U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and founder and partner of Vrge Strategies.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Dianne Feinstein was a true force of nature for California
Two Pitcairn police officers helped a local teenager tie his necktie for his first school dance over the weekend.

Pitcairn police posted on Facebook, saying a teenager and his mom came to the station for help.

The teenager, Z, was heading to his first school dance and his mom needed help tying his tie for him.

Officers stepped in to help, making sure the tie was tied properly and the length was correct.

Knowing that our residents know that they can come to our department and to our officers to assist them with a task so small of tying a tie is very important to us! the post reads.

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The deaths of two North Carolina men last summer may be related, including a 57-year-old who was found in a burning camper near a popular lake, the Rowan County Sheriffs Office said Tuesday.

But investigators say it wasnt the fire that killed him.

Deputies revealed the possible connection between the two killings after receiving the results of an autopsy on Salisbury resident Michael James Mitchke.

Mitchke died after being shot, the sheriffs office said in a news release, citing the results of an autopsy by the N.C. Medical Examiners Office.

A Charlotte Observer and News & Observer investigation published earlier this year revealed severe delays with state-required death investigations, with many taking more than a year. The backlog has created financial crises for families and slowed down criminal prosecutions, the reporting found.

In Mitchkes case, a pathologist reviewed the investigative autopsy in September, more than a year after he was found dead, medical examiners records show.

Mitchke was found in his burned camper on Aug. 21, 2022, on St. Peters Church Road, investigators said. Thats near High Rock Lake. He died before the fire, the sheriffs office said, citing the autopsy.

His killing may be connected to the fatal shooting of David Kenneth Land in Lands home on Poole Road on July 20, 2022, according to the sheriffs office.

The sheriffs office declined to say why they believe the shootings are connected.

Investigators said they continue to pursue leads in the deaths, including DNA evidence recovered from the scenes.

At the time, a 911 caller told dispatch they saw the camper Mitchke was in was on fire. Fire personnel found the residence completely engulfed. Mitchke was lying inside the home and was dead when firefighters arrived, according to a copy of the autopsy results.

His wife, the autopsy report says, had last seen him five hours earlier. The autopsy says Mitchke was shot four times.

A month prior, Land was found dead in a garage at his home. A friend who lived on his property in a camper found him, the autopsy report says. Hed been shot three times.

A $10,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in each case. Mitchkes family has offered an additional $10,000 reward.

Anyone with information about either case should call Rowan County sheriffs Detective Lt. Ryan Barkley at 704-216-8711 or text a tip to 704-213-3677.
The police chief who spearheaded a raid on a local newspaper in central Kansas resigned Monday, days after he was suspended from his role.

Marion, Kan., Mayor Dave Mayfield announced at a town council meeting Monday that Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody stepped down from his position effective immediately. Mayfield and City Council member Ruth Herbel confirmed his resignation to The Associated Press.

Mayfield suspended Cody on Thursday for reasons not made available to the public. The police chiefs resignation comes after he led an Aug. 11 raid on a local newspapers office and the home of its owner and publisher to seize computers and cellphones.

The raid on the Marion County Record sparked outrage across the country, with many critics labeling it as violation of the U.S. Constitutions protection for a free press. The newspapers editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, said the raid stressed out his 98-year-old mother enough to cause her death that weekend.

A local prosecutor said there was not enough evidence to justify the raid on the paper and the publishers home.

Its long overdue. You know, we had to wait more than six weeks to get him suspended, said Meyer told the AP. It kind of leads you to believe that theres some smoking gun somewhere that everybody knows about and were going to try to get ahead of it.

News of his resignation was first reported by the Marion County Record and the Wichita Eagle. Mayfield said patrol officer Zach Hudlin was appointed to serve as acting chief of police.

The Associated Press contributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Police have identified the deputy involved in a shooting early Saturday morning in Polk County on Highway 22 and the 18-year-old who died in the shooting.

Police have identified the 18-year-old shot and killed early Saturday morning on Highway 22 in Polk County, and the deputy who shot him.

Oregon State Police said in a media release that Polk County deputy Mike Smith, an eight-year veteran with the agency, shot and killed Isaac Ivan Ocegueda, 18, of Carlton. Police also said a 20-year-old male and a 17-year-old female were in the vehicle with Ocegueda.

Police said that at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning, an officer from Independence tried to pull over a vehicle and the vehicle fled.

Police deployed spike strips on Highway 22 at about milepost 23 west of Salem, stopping the vehicle. A person in the vehicle fled on foot and attempted to get into another vehicle. The person fired at responding officers, according to the media release, striking and injuring a Polk County deputy.

Police fired back, killing Ocegueda and injuring another person.

The media release did not state whether Ocegueda was the individual who shot and injured the deputy. It also did not include any information about possible charges against the other two individuals.

Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Police ID Oregon teen killed, deputy who fired fatal shots
Russia has accused Ukraine's Western allies of providing the intelligence that enabled them to strike the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol last week.

It was previously reported that the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet commander, Adm. Viktor Sokolov, was among the 34 high-ranking officers killed in the attack, but the claim was thrown into doubt after Moscow officials released footage of him allegedly still alive.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a press briefing Wednesday (September 27) that the attack was planned using surveillance data provided by NATO and other Western intelligence agencies. She particularly blamed the US and UK for providing the information Kyiv needed in planning the attack.

However, her claim could not be independently verified as intelligence agencies do not discuss such information with the public.

On the other hand, Kremlin officials have repeatedly menaced the West for its support for Ukraine.

Russia's Security Council chief and former president Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday (September 28) that the arrival of US-made M1 Abrams main battle tanks in Ukraine was pushing the West and Russia close to direct conflict.

Read Also: New Russian Units Allegedly Being Established; Will These Overwhelm Ukraine's Counteroffensives?

Ukraine: Intel Came From Russians Who Defected

While it can be confirmed that Western intelligence communities share their information with Kyiv, Ukrainian forces said the intelligence leading to the missile strike, which was allegedly executed using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles, reportedly came from Russian officers who defected to the Ukrainian side.

The Business Insider said that officers who were not paid by the Russian military sold information to resistance groups within Crimea, which enabled Ukraine to target an important meeting and maximize the casualties.

This was not the first instance that an intel report became crucial in some of Ukraine's biggest strikes. In February, The Washington Post reported that Western intelligence sources have described giving Kyiv information to help it target strikes against Russia.

Related Article: Ukraine Unveils 'Invisible' Underwater Kamikaze Stealth Drone Capable of Carrying Massive Explosives

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Thirty-four years after Krista Martin was found dead in her Kansas apartment, the Wichita Police Department have identified a suspect in her murder. The suspect, Paul Hart, was killed in a car accident in 1999, the police said in a news conference Monday.

The path from detectives collecting DNA from Martin's body to matching it to Hart was long, said Capt. Christian Cory of the Witchita Police, but he said his department is "not going to quit on these investigations, and shows the dedication to victims we'll continue to have."

Martin was 20 in 1989 when she died from blunt force trauma, police said. Wichita Police confirmed that Martin was sexually assaulted before her death, but investigators said they were never able to locate the object that killed her. Investigators were able to collect DNA from Martin's body, but at the time they were not able to match the evidence to anyone.

Detectives sent the DNA to the FBI crime lab, but analysts couldn't find a match. By 1992 the case had gone "cold"  until 20 years later, when Ember Moore, Martin's first-born niece, became involved.

"I first became involved in Krista's case in 2009 when I was 21 years old," said Moore at the news conference, noting to local media that she was older than her aunt when she was murdered.

Shortly afterward, the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center created a suspect profile using the DNA collected from Martin's body in 1989. The profile was sent to the national database, CODIS, but that query didn't lead to any matches, police said. In 2020, police started collaborating with private industry genealogists and the FBI to use Investigative Genetic Genealogy to solve cases.

Wichita Police Department homicide investigation timeline for Krista Martin who was murdered in 1989. Police identified a suspect thirty-four years after her death. / Credit: Courtesy Wichita Police Department

Genetic investigators constructed family trees to "connect the DNA" to potential family members of the suspect, said Ryan Williams, a supervisory agent at the FBI's Kansas City office. Martin's case was the first case in which the Wichita Police Department used the technology.

In April 2023, investigators identified a suspect, Hart, who lived in Wichita but died in a car accident in Memphis, Tennessee, in March of 1999.

Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said law enforcement presented all the evidence to him. "This was a case I would have charged if the suspect was alive to charge him," he said at the news conference.

Moore, the niece, said that the family was glad that they could have peace knowing Krista's suspected murderer was not walking around free. She also thanked the detectives; they "traveled all over the U.S. tracking down the suspect's family," she said.

Then Moore took a moment to remember her aunt. "She deserved so much more out of this life than what she ended up with," she said.

Rep. Gaetz says he will file a motion this week to oust Speaker McCarthy

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Police are investigating after a person was shot in West Seattle Monday night.

The King County Sheriffs Office said at 9:46 p.m., a person who was shot showed up at the North Highline Fire Station at 1243 Southwest 112th Street in White Center.

KCSO deputies arrived and the person told deputies they were shot at the 7-Eleven near 9401 Delridge Way Southwest in West Seattle.

The KCSO told the Seattle Police Department about the shooting and police are currently investigating.

The person was taken to a local hospital for their injuries.
A woman has been taken into custody after a multi-county pursuit in an allegedly stolen work truck that she used to ram police officers, drive through a fence and onto the wrong side of the 91 Freeway before exiting the vehicle in lanes of traffic and holing up in a nearby Dennys restaurant.

Officers with the La Habra Police Department initiated the pursuit of the vehicle in the area of Idaho Street and Imperial highway at around 8:15 p.m. The suspect then drove northbound on Carbon Canyon Road into Chino.

The female suspect led officers on a slow-speed chase on surface streets through Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Aerial footage from Sky5 showed the woman driving through red lights and stop signs.

Almost hour after the pursuit was initiated, the woman got onto the southbound 15 Freeway before transitioning to the westbound 91 and exiting in Corona where she wound up in a dead end.

There, the woman backed into police cruisers and while she appeared trapped at one moment, she reversed, pushing the cruisers back, and then drove forward through a fence, dragging it as she hopped back onto the 91 Freeway, where she was on the wrong side of the road.

Sky5 captured the moment that the truck, smoke billowing from the bottom of it, slowed to a stop on the 91 Freeway. The woman hopped out, ran across busy lanes of traffic into a parking lot where she lost the blonde wig that she had been wearing.

After pausing a moment, she ran into the rear of a Dennys restaurant. Customers and employees of the restaurant were evacuated as police surrounded the area, and the woman was eventually taken into custody.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego.
A woman suspected of stealing a utility truck led La Habra police on a multi-county pursuit late Monday that ended with a confrontation at a Denny's in Corona, according to authorities.

Toward the end of the hourlong pursuit, according to KTLA-TV Channel 5 footage, several police cruisers blocked the truck in a dead-end street in Corona. But the driver smashed through a line of trees and rammed through a chain-link fence before driving onto a freeway headed in the wrong direction. The vehicle's tires were smoking.

KTLA reported the pursuit began around 8:15 p.m. in the city of La Habra. It continued at a slow pace through Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties before the driver exited the 91 Freeway in Corona.

Read more: They trusted the Beverly Hills watch dealer. Then their luxury timepieces vanished

After exiting the freeway, the clash with law enforcement occurred. After the driver entered the freeway again headed in the wrong direction, she eventually exited the truck and ran into a nearby Denny's restaurant, as seen in KTLA aerial footage.

Police surrounded the Denny's and arrested the woman around 10 p.m., according to authorities.

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
FILE - This image made from surveillance video provided by the Marion County Record shows members of the Marion, Kan., Police Department confiscating computers and cellphones from the publisher and staff of the Marion County Record, Aug. 11, 2023, in Marion, Kan. The police chief who led the August raid on the small weekly newspaper in central Kansas has resigned, just days after he was suspended from his post, a City Council member confirmed Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. (Marion County Record via AP, File)

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  The police chief who led an August raid on a small weekly newspaper in central Kansas resigned Monday, just days after he was suspended from his post and following the release of body camera video of the raid showing an officer searching the desk of a reporter investigating the chief's past.

Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody's resignation was confirmed to The Associated Press both by Mayor Dave Mayfield and City Council member Ruth Herbel, following an announcement by Mayfield at Monday's council meeting. Mayfield had suspended Cody on Thursday for reasons that have not been made public. In a text message Monday night to the AP, he said he couldn't answer questions about the chief's resignation as it is a personnel matter.

Cody stepped down weeks after a local prosecutor said that there wasnt sufficient evidence to justify the search of the Marion County Record or searches at the same time of the publisher's home and Herbel's home.

The search of the newspaper put Marion, a town of 1,900 residents some 150 miles (240 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City, at the center of a fierce national debate over press freedoms and cast an international spotlight on Cody and his tactics. Cody faces one federal lawsuit, and others are expected.

Cody did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment about his resignation. His resignation initially was reported by the Marion County Record and the Wichita Eagle.

Its long overdue. You know, we had to wait more than six weeks to get him suspended, said Eric Meyer, the Record's editor and publisher. It kind of leads you to believe that theres some smoking gun somewhere that everybody knows about and were going to try to get ahead of it.

Recently obtained body camera video from the search of the newspaper shows that after an officer rifled through a desk drawer of the reporter looking into Cody's background, he beckoned Cody over to look at the documents hed found. The AP obtained the body camera video Monday through an open records request.

Cody then says, Keep a personal file on me. I don't care," the video shows. He's briefly seen bending over, apparently to look at the drawer, before the other officer's clipboard blocks the view of what the chief is doing.

Cody obtained warrants for the three raids by telling a judge that he had evidence of possible identity theft and other potential crimes tied to the circulation of information about a local restaurant owner's driving record. But the newspaper and its attorney have suggested he might have been trying to find out what it had learned about his past as a police captain in Kansas City, Missouri.

This was all about finding out who our sources were, Bernie Rhodes, the newspaper's attorney, said Monday.

Some legal experts believe the raids on the Records office and Meyer's home violated a federal privacy law that protects journalists from having their newsrooms searched. Some believe it violated a Kansas law that makes it more difficult to force reporters and editors to disclose their sources and unpublished material.

Herbel has called the search of her home illegal because of differences in the texts of the affidavit Cody used to get the warrant and the warrant itself. She said last month that she feared for her safety.

I'm glad we're rid of him, Herbel said.

Meyer blames the stress of the raids for the death the next day of his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, the paper's co-owner.

While the newspaper has questioned Cody's motives, the body camera video shows him repeatedly telling newspaper staffers that he is investigating how it and Herbel obtained information about the owner of two local restaurants, Kari Newell.

It grew into a monster, and it's got your name on it, Cody told Record reporter Phyllis Zorn, who had verified information about Newell online, after reading Zorn her rights, one video shows.

The video was released to the AP through a Wichita law firm representing the city. The same firm has been representing Cody in the federal lawsuit against him, filed by Deb Gruver, the Record reporter who'd been looking into Cody's past, who recently left the newspaper.

The video of Cody at Gruver's desk is from the body camera of Marion Police Officer Zach Hudlin. There appeared to be no corresponding video of the same moment from Cody's own camera.

The video shows that officers, led by Cody, searched the Record newsroom after interviewing Zorn, Gruver and the newspaper's business manager, and escorting them out of the building. Hudlin then goes through a drawer in Gruver's desk  after Gruver told the chief she had nothing to do with the reporting on Newell.

Hudlin asks Cody, You want to look through this desk?

Cody responds that Hudlin has the right to look through it, and Hudlin replies, I know. I'm asking, do YOU want to look through this desk?

After Cody goes to the desk, Hudlin tells him, You will understand shortly.

It's not clear from the video how closely Cody examined what was in the desk, and the object Hudlin found  described by Rhodes as a file on Cody's time in with the Kansas City, Missouri, police department.

Cody retired from the Kansas City police in late April, around the time the Marion City Council interviewed him. He took a big cut in pay: The Kansas City police paid him nearly $116,000 a year, while the Marion job pays $60,000 annually.

Meyer has said Cody knew weeks before the raids that the newspaper was looking into anonymous tips about why Cody retired from the Kansas City police. Meyer said when he asked Cody a question about it, Cody threatened a lawsuit.

___

Vancleave reported from Minneapolis and Ballentine, from Columbia, Missouri. Also contributing were Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Trisha Ahmed in Minneapolis; Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.
Atlanta police have released surveillance footage of a person of interest after a man was stabbed to death over the weekend.

Police said the man was found dead around 8 p.m. Sunday on Headland Drive.

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The victim has not been identified.

On Tuesday, police released surveillance video of a person of interest in the case.

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The video shows what appears to be a woman in jeans and a black jacket walking into a convenience store. Police said the person in the video is only a person of interest.

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The area where the man was found is a shopping center with a cell phone store and a bank, among other businesses.




A man who authorities say sexually assaulted and killed a 20-year-old woman three decades ago has been identified.

The Wichita Police Department named Paul Hart, who died in a traffic collision in 1999, a suspect in the 1989 death of Krista Martin, according to a Wichita Police Department statement Monday.

On October 2, 1989, tragedy struck when Krista Martin was discovered deceased in a residence in the 500 block of South Osage, the statement read.

Although DNA evidence was collected at the time of the incident, testing was not available. It was, nonetheless, carefully preserved, the statement said.

Investigators were unable to identify a suspect at the time despite conducting numerous interviews. But they continued to scrutinize the evidence, gather leads over the years and collect DNA from multiple individuals for comparison with the evidence from the scene, yet no match was found, according to police.

The case detective sent evidence to the Federal Bureau of Investigation between 1990 and 1992 in hopes of identifying a suspect, but the effort yielded no results, and the case was left unsolved, the statement said.

Although another attempt in 2009 to identify a suspect through the DNA evidence proved unsuccessful, the police department tried again in 2020.

In 2020, the Wichita Police Department, leveraging advanced technology, again sought the assistance of the FBI to re-evaluate the DNA evidence collected in 1989, the statement said.

After homicide detectives and federal authorities continued with their investigation through 2021 and 2022, they collaborated with private industry genealogists to scrutinize DNA profiles and attempt to identify a suspect.

Finally, in April of 2023, a possible suspect, Paul Hart, emerged, police said.

It was discovered that Hart died in a traffic collision in Memphis, Tennessee, in March of 1999, the statement said.

So law enforcement collected DNA samples from Harts direct relatives and through additional testing confirmed that Hart was the suspect in the 1989 homicide of Martin.

Detective Adam VanDerMolen told CNN that while Martins DNA was recovered from a sexual assault kit that was collected back at the time, police were only able to determine that she died by blunt force trauma  a blow to the side of her head.

There was never a murder weapon found that we know of, he said in an interview. We dont know what was used. This was a long road.

Police cant say for sure how Hart and Martin might have met, although VanDerMolen told CNN that Krista and Paul lived about six houses from one another at the time of the murder.

VanDerMolen added that through talking to Kristas family, Pauls family, his girlfriend at the time, and Kristas writings, we have not been able to find a true connection between them.

But some patterns about how Martin lived did emerge, which may point to how spent her final hours.

What we did learn, was that Krista was a very outgoing individual that frequented local drinking establishments and befriended people she encountered, VanDerMolen told CNN. It was not uncommon for Krista to get rides home from people she had recently met and invited them to her apartment.

He also said there was no forced entry at her home on the night of her death.

When Wichita police presented the facts of the case to Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett, it was determined that charges would be filed if Mr. Hart were still alive. As he is deceased, this case is now considered cleared, the Wichita Police Department statement said.

In a press conference Monday, Ember Moore, Krista Moores niece, thanked investigators and volunteers for their dedication in solving the case.

I am glad we can finally move forward and have peace knowing that Kristas murderer is not walking around free or amongst us, she said. Again, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone involved in bringing justice to Kristas case. She deserves so much more out of this life than what she ended up with.

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Police responded to a bomb threat made against a charter school in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles Tuesday morning.

The threat made via telephone against New Designs Charter School was received at about 8:17 a.m. Tuesday, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson confirmed to KTLA.

Officers were sent to the school, located at 2303 S. Figueroa Way, to determine if the threat was credible.

LAPD officials cleared the scene by 10 a.m. and declared that there was no credible threat.

Nancy Fontan contributed to this report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
A Carlsbad man was shot by police after leading officers on a foot chase through an Artesia neighborhood, police said, when they attempted to stop him for running a stop sign on a bicycle.

Brandon Sevier, 23, was arrested Thursday and charged with multiple felonies including assault with intent to commit a violent felony on a police officer, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon on a peace officer and shooting at or from a motor vehicle.

He also faced felony charges of possessing a firearm as a felon, drug possession and a misdemeanor for resisting, evading or obstructing an officer, along with a petty misdemeanor for failing to yield at a stop sign.

More: Artesia police shoot and injure man riding bicycle during attempted traffic stop

Police said Sevier at about 9 p.m. ran a stop sign on his bike at the intersection of 9th Street and Washington Avenue in Artesia and fled when an officer with the Artesia Police Department attempted to pull him over.

The chase continued down a nearby alley, police said, and a deputy with the Eddy County Sheriffs Office joined in.

Thats when police alleged Sevier pulled out a gun and fired at them, with both the police officer and deputy returning fire.

Sevier was struck by the officers gunfire and suffered minor injuries, police said.

More: Bandidos raids in New Mexico stem from 'all-out war' between motorcycle clubs, police say

He was arrested in the alley between buildings in the 500 block and 600 block of South 7th Street, records show, and taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

During a pat down, police said they found a substance they believed was methamphetamine on Sevier

Neither officer was injured in the shooting.

More: Man accused of stealing wife's search and rescue dogs now charged with plotting her murder

Police said bullet holes and projectiles were found in the Artesia police officers patrol vehicle and nearby building and fences.

The officers involved were not identified by the New Mexico State Police, which is investigating the incident.

The Artesia Police Department officer was placed on administrative leave during the investigation, the department said Friday.

Sevier was being held at the Eddy County Detention Center, amid a motion being considered by the court from the Fifth Judicial District Attorneys Office to hold him in pretrial detention.

He made his first appearance Monday before Artesia Magistrate Judge Jimmy Foster.

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on X, formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Police shoot Carlsbad man after foot chase through Artesia alley
Same-sex couples could soon have their marriages blessed in the Roman Catholic Church as Pope Francis considers same-sex unions ahead of a major meeting.

A letter by the pope, published by the Vatican on Monday, suggests the church will review if same-sex marriages could be blessed in the church, breaking a longstanding opposition to such unions. In July, Francis wrote an initial response to questions posed to him by five cardinals from the U.S., Africa, Asia and Europe asking him to affirm the church's teaching on same-sex marriage, the role of women, the authority of the pope and other issues.

The cardinals' questions came ahead of a major three-week meeting at the Vatican, called a synod, where LGBTQ+ Catholics and their place in the church are on the agenda.

Taking faith to the courts: How a Christian transgender man increased his faith by taking the fight over LGBTQ+ rights to religious schools

Already, LGBTQ+ rights groups are applauding the pope's unprecedented move.

"The allowance for pastoral ministers to bless same-gender couples implies that the church does indeed recognize that holy love can exist between same-gender couples, and the love of these couples mirrors the love of God," Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry  a Catholic LGBTQ+ advocacy group  said in a statement. Those recognitions, while not completely what LGBTQ+ Catholics would want, are an enormous advance towards fuller and more comprehensive equality.

What is the Catholic Church's stance on same-sex marriage?

Francis, who became head of the Catholic Church in 2013, has supported same-sex couples receiving the legal benefits of marriage. Since his papal inauguration, over a dozen countries including the U.S. legalized gay marriage.

Some Catholic priests in Europe also have blessed same-sex couples without censure from the Vatican. But the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a body responsible for promoting and defending Catholic beliefs, has said "God cannot bless sin" in response to same-sex marriages.

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, said the five cardinals' letter spoke to their hope for a return to a stricter church many Catholics saw under Pope Saint John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI , who appointed the five cardinals.

"It seemed to express a lot of fear that the synod would lead to profound changes in the church," Duddy-Burke said.

More: Where it's a crime to be gay: A visual guide to where LGBTQ+ rights are repressed

The five cardinals are Cardinal Walter Brandmueller of Germany, a former Vatican historian; Raymond Burke of the U.S., who was reassigned from his post on the Vatican's court on canon law; Juan Sandoval of Mexico, the retired archbishop of Guadalajara; Robert Sarah of Guinea, the retired head of the Vaticans liturgy office; and Joseph Zen, the retired archbishop of Hong Kong.

The possible movement within the church came to a head after the five priests initially sent the pope a letter in the summer, to which he replied in July. They then revised their questions and requested a yes or no answer from Francis. Without Francis' definite stance, the cardinals published their questions with a warning to other Catholics about the possible shift in the religion on Cardinal Burke's website.

Francis' reply, hours later, urged the cardinals to not be afraid of the synod. In it, he said pastoral charity requires patience and understanding, but priests cannot become judges "who only dent, reject and exclude."

For this reason, pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of benediction, requested by one or more persons, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage, Francis wrote. Because when a benediction is requested, it is expressing a request for help from God, a plea to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us to live better.

LGBTQ+ Catholics eager to learn Pope Francis' stance

Duddy-Burke is one of many Catholics globally who married in the church and had the ceremony blessed by a priest. She and her wife will celebrate their 20-year anniversary this month and being able to hold their wedding in a church meant the world to them and their families.

Not all LGBTQ+ Catholics can celebrate that.

Duddy-Burke said Catholics consider marriage blessings to be major and critical to their lives.

"I've been to so many ceremonies where one member is Catholic and the joy their family members have is so palpable, but there's often regret it can't be held in a Catholic church and the priest can't sign the marriage licenses," Duddy-Burke said.

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Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, said in a statement the pope's response urges Catholics to accept LGBTQ+ people.

Francis, meanwhile, has pushed leaders to not deny or punish LGBTQ+ people as anti-gay laws get passed across the globe.

The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association found that 64 of the 193 countries in the United Nations criminalize same-sex acts through imprisonment, whippings and even death.

"Pope Francis leadership recognizes the lived reality that LGBTQ people exist, that we form partnerships and families, and that we need the support of our communities, including our churches," she said. "This is not full marriage recognition, but it will make a significant difference in the lives of LGBTQ families and create a Catholic Church open to all, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity."

People celebrate outside the Supreme Court after the court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015.

Duddy-Burke said the Catholic Church today is more progressive than before because of grassroots efforts by local churches.

Church leaders in the U.S., Germany and Belgium are some of many who've blessed same-sex marriages without penalty from the Vatican.

The decision to bless same-sex unions could help the church become more engaged with the world, advocates say.

"It has the protentional of opening a door that has long been shut to same-sex couples," Duddy-Burke said.

Joseph Fons holding a Pride Flag, stands in front of the Supreme Court in 2020 after the court ruled that LGBTQ+ people cannot be disciplined or fired based on their sexual orientation.

Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard and Javier Zarracina, USA TODAY; Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pope Francis could open door for same-sex, LGBTQ Catholic couples
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under fire for failing to provide his WhatsApp messages to the COVID inquiry during his time as chancellor.

The situation comes despite the high court requiring ministers to disclose their communications for scrutiny. In Sunak's witness statement to the public inquiry, he claimed that he did "not have access" to the messages while running the Treasury because he had changed his phone several times and failed to back them up.

Rishi Sunak's WhatsApp Messages

The COVID inquiry will begin hearing evidence on Tuesday for its second stage, examining the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. It also requested key communications sent during the health crisis, from the end of January 2020 to the end of February 2022.

Prime Minister Sunak became the chancellor in February 2020, and his messages could include details of crucial pandemic decisions made by the Treasury, including "eat out to help out," bounce-back loans, and the furlough scheme, as per The Guardian.

The region's former prime minister, Boris Johnson, had also met fierce criticism when he said that he would hand over his pandemic WhatsApp messages only once government officials assessed the safety of the device that he was forced to discard in April 2021 for security reasons. His spokesperson said in July that the messages had been retrieved and given to the inquiry.

Johnson previously said he had been unable to access messages between Jan. 31, 2020, and June 7, 2020. These are significant dates during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, where thousands died. It comes despite the phone being in action until the following spring.

The former prime minister's statement suggested that other leading players in the government at the time, such as Sunak, Michael Gove, and Matt Hancock, could hand over their phones with WhatsApp or Signal messages instead. It remains unclear whether or not Johnson has handed over his diaries.

Read Also: British Finance Minister Urges To Raise Minimum Wage to Nearly $13.50 Per Hour

COVID Inquiry

The Cabinet Office earlier this year tried to seek an exemption from providing information and messages that it considered irrelevant to the inquiry's work. However, Baroness Hallett dismissed the request, according to Yahoo News.

In response, the government launched a legal challenge that the High Court later struck down in July. The latter then confirmed that the documents being requested need to be provided.

Now, the COVID inquiry is believed to possess unredacted WhatsApp messages between Johnson and 40 colleagues, including former No ten adviser Dominic Cummings, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, and Sunak.

The co-founder of COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, Matt Fowler, said that if Johnson and Sunak continue to not follow through with the requirement to provide the messages that they were asked for, they should face the full force of the law, he said that the lengths that the officials are going to cover up the WhatsApp messages are "absolutely obscene."

He added that if they had made half as much effort into learning from the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the region would be in a better position to act if and when the next health crisis comes, said iNews.

Related Article: EU Foreign Ministers Meet in Kyiv to Discuss Next Steps in Ukraine's War vs. Russia

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Pope Francis opened the door Monday for some Catholic priests to bless same-sex unions, hinting at a reversal of the official Vatican position that has put it at odds with many of its own progressive followers.

However, Francis outlined some major caveats, including that they should be decided on a case-by-case basis and not seen as equivalent to heterosexual wedding ceremonies.

As recently as 2021, the Vatican said it could not condone same-sex unions because God cannot bless sin. But on Monday, the pope signaled that there could be exceptions to that stance.

We cannot be judges who only deny, reject, and exclude, he said in a letter to five conservative cardinals who asked for clarity on the issue ahead of a major global gathering on the future of the church that begins Wednesday.

Though Vatican policy has not changed, Francis comments have been seen by some LGBTQ Catholics as a huge step in undoing the marginalization they still experience within the church despite his decade of modernization.

'Pastoral charity'

The remarks came in a letter written by Francis and published Monday by the Vaticans Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. He was responding to a list of dubia (literally doubts  or questions) presented by five conservative cardinals from Asia, Europe, Africa, the United States and Latin America.

They challenged him to reinforce traditional Catholic teaching on same-sex marriage and other thorny issues, such as womens ordination.

But in response, Francis said there may be forms of blessing, requested by one or more persons that could be granted on an occasional basis. He called for the clergy to show pastoral charity, including kindness, patience, understanding, tenderness, and encouragement.

Same Sex Catholic Church (Martin Meissner / AP)

The pope made it clear that these unions do not convey a mistaken concept of marriage, which he called the indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to procreation. He also said he believes same-sex unions are not morally acceptable from an objective point of view, and suggested they should not necessarily become a norm.

This emphasis on allowing these unions on a "pastoral" rather than official basis could be a reference to several Catholic priests in Germany who have recently openly blessed same-sex marriage in a direct confrontation with their diocese.

Francis made it clear he does not sanction any ecclesial structure officially blessing these unions. And his written remarks do not change anything officially; the last such guidance came in 2021 when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote a letter saying same-sex unions should not be blessed, something it would not have done had the pope felt differently.

Furthermore, Francis has as yet not chosen to issue a formal decree  such as a type of papal document called a motu proprio  which would signal a more official swing in the direction of the church.

Married and same-sex couples take part in a public blessing ceremony in front of the Cologne Cathedral in Germany on Sept. 20, 2023. (Martin Meissner / AP)

Nevertheless, his remarks have been seen by LGBTQ Catholics and other progressives as a momentous step in the cause of equal rights within the church.

Though the Vaticans latest statement about same-gender couples does not provide a full-fledged, ringing endorsement of blessing their unions, the document significantly advances Pope Francis work to include and affirm LGBTQ+ people, said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, an advocacy group based in Maryland seeking justice for LGBTQ Catholics.

It "implies that the church does indeed recognize that holy love can exist between same-gender couples, he said in a statement, describing it as "one big straw towards breaking the camels back of the marginalized treatment LGBTQ+ people experience in the Church.

The timing of the debate is significant, according to New Ways Ministry. Although the five conservative cardinals asked their questions in July, the letter has been published right before the Synod on Synodality, a meeting at the Vatican in which LGBTQ issues are on the agenda.

Francis, 86, who has encountered a number of health problems in recent years, is no stranger to progressive causes, having become a leading voice on issues from the climate crisis to refugees. On same-sex issues, he was asked months into his papacy about the sexual orientation of priests, responding: Who am I to judge?

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Pope Francis , flanked by children from the five continents, speaks from his studios window to the faithful gathered for the traditional Sundays noon blessing in St. Peters Square at The Vatican on Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023. | Riccardo De Luca, Associated Press

Ahead of a major meeting of Catholic leaders about the future of their church, Pope Francis has once again shown that hes full of surprises.

In a now-public letter penned in early July, the pope unexpectedly signaled that hes open to the possibility of priests blessing same-sex unions. He also suggested that more research could be done about ordaining female priests, according to The Washington Post.

We cannot be judges who only deny, push back and exclude, Pope Francis wrote about blessing same-sex couples. As such, pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or several people, that do not convey a wrong idea of a matrimony. Because when one seeks a blessing, one is requesting help from God.

Related

What has the pope said about same-sex marriage?

The popes new comments may fit with his past reflections on reserving judgment  he famously said Who am I to judge? about the idea of condemning gay priests in 2013  but they contradict his recent criticism of Catholic leaders in Germany who are already blessing same-sex unions.

Pope Francis has reprimanded Germanys Catholic leadership. He quipped to the head of its bishops conference last year that Germany already had one protestant church  We dont need two, The Washington Post reported.

A few months later, the pope said that, while homosexuality should not be criminalized, it remains sinful in the eyes of the church, as the Deseret News previously reported.

Its not a crime. Yes, but its a sin, Pope Francis told The Associated Press in January.

Catholic teachings on marriage

In general, Pope Francis has adopted a welcoming attitude toward the LGBTQ community even as hes kept traditional Catholic teachings on marriage in place, The Associated Press reported at the time.

In the newly released letter, the pope does not call for the church to rethink its position on marriage. Instead, he affirms that, in the churchs eyes, marriage is an exclusive stable and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to conceiving children, according to Catholic News Service.

The Church avoids all kinds of rites or sacramentals that could contradict this conviction and imply that it is recognizing as a marriage something that is not, he wrote.

In other words, the pope does not call for a full embrace of Germanys approach to blessing same-sex unions. He instead talks about how such blessings might sometimes be an appropriate expression of pastoral charity.

Pastoral prudence must adequately discern if there are forms of blessing, solicited by one or various persons, that dont transmit a mistaken concept of marriage, Pope Francis wrote.

What is the Synod on Synodality?

The popes new letter was written to a group of theologically conservative church leaders who had asked him to affirm that the church remains opposed to homosexuality and women priests.

Instead of doing what theyd asked, he reflected on the possibility of change.

Francis response to the cardinals ... marks a reversal from the Vaticans current official position, The Associated Press reported.

The retired cardinals, who have a contentious relationship with Pope Francis, were likely seeking to stir up debate and heighten anxiety ahead of a three-week meeting at the Vatican on the future of the church, according to the AP.

The meeting, called the Synod on Synodality, begins Wednesday.

Conservatives fear the synod process will open what they see as a Pandoras box, eventually leading to unprecedented change on priestly celibacy, the acceptance of homosexuality and the elevation of women in a historically patriarchal church, The Washington Post reported.

But Pope Francis and other Vatican leaders have urged critics to calm down, noting that the meeting is a chance for Catholics from around the world to get to know one another and reflect on their faith, not to enact controversial proposals.
(Bloomberg) -- Portugal plans to end the non-habitual resident regime that offers lower tax rates during 10 years for some people who move to the country as Prime Minister Antonio Costa takes further steps to face the countrys housing crisis.

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The regime will end for new residents in 2024 and will remain in place for those who already benefit from it, Costa said in an interview with CNN Portugal on Monday evening.

Earlier this year, the government also approved a plan to end its golden visa program for foreign property buyers as it tries to address the lack of affordable housing in one of Western Europes poorest economies following a surge in home prices.

It doesnt make sense to continue to keep a tax level for non-habitual residents, Costa said. That measure once made sense. Keeping that measure for the future is extending a measure of tax injustice that isnt justified, and is also a way of continuing to inflate the housing market. It shouldnt be inflated, quite the opposite, as prices that are absolutely unsustainable have been reached.

Housing prices in Portugal have continued to rise as demand from international buyers helps the market defy pressure from higher interest rates. The golden visa program and other incentives have helped attract property buyers from countries including China and the US.

The finance ministry said in July that a total of 89,000 people have so far benefited from the non-habitual resident regime. Those who qualify can get tax rates of 20% on income and 10% on pensions.

(Updates with details on housing prices in fifth paragraph, tax regime in sixth.)

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Local opposition to Indianas Economic Development Corp.'s LEAP project seems about as strong as some leaders' hopelessness that anything can be done to stop it.

The LEAP project would possibly pull up to 100 million gallons of water a day from Tippecanoe County and pipe it to Boone County in Indiana.

That didn't stop the West Lafayette City Council Monday from passing a resolution opposing the tapping of area resources to supply water to Lebanon, Ind., for the development of an economic district in Boone County some 40 miles away.

"Our passing of this resolution," said Council Member David Sanders, "doesn't stop the project. First thing is that, if no one expressed opposition, of course, it would go through, and there would be repercussions for the future."

The resolution against the Lebanon LEAP project -- which stands for Limitless Exploration Advanced Pace -- passed unanimously after a half dozen citizens also voiced their opposition to the possibility of losing millions of gallons of water for another Indiana community's benefit.

More: Negele, Deery commit to crafting legislation related to tapping of water resources

The state, the IEDC has explained, purchased land near the Wabash River aquifer with the hopes of extracting as much as 100 million gallons of water a day and piping it to Lebanon.

Lebanon, according to the IEDC, has the ideal location for a 9,000-acre for a megasite that could be a work site for 50,000 people working in advance manufacturing, mixed-use and corporate campuses.

Lebanon's water resources cannot supply 100 million gallons a day, a reality that brought the IEDC to Tippecanoe County.

"We're told that the project is of such-and-such of size," Sanders added, "if there is no opposition, no public discussion, no one is going to hold them to that size. I know that Mayor (Tony) Roswarski (of Lafayette) is very concerned about limiting the size of this pipeline, so, you know, it's for a dedicated use rather than just a free-flowing from the aquifer."

During discussion of the resolution, images of the Wabash River were projected on the council chamber's video screen. The photos, taken by Sanders on the morning of the Oct. 2 meeting, showed exposed dry areas of the Wabash River, not an issue, Sanders said, when water flow testing was conducted in June, "during the rainy season."

The banks of the Wabash River, a view captured from the Harrison Bridge between West Lafayette and Lafayette, draw in during drier months. Sanders took the photo on Oct. 2, 2023, the day the council passed a resolution opposing the LEAP project, which would pull as much as 100 million gallons of water a day from Tippecanoe County water sources.

Roswarski previously pinpointed when he first became concerned about the scope of the LEAP project.

We found out about this several several months ago, and had a quick meeting with the (Indiana Economic Development Corp.)," Roswarski said earlier this summer. We originally heard about 10 million (gallons a day), but then we heard it could go up as high as 100 million (gallons a day). When that number came out, we got a little bit more concerned.

Indiana state law dictates that the resources related to land belong to the owners of that land, so any water under the 9,000 acres would, by law, go to the purchaser.

I want to make clear to folks that we understand that we dont own the water," Roswarski told the Journal & Courier earlier. "The water in the aquifer, in Indiana law, if you own the land above, you have the right to tap the water. We understand that."

That reality didn't sit well with Cheryl Kirkpatrick, a West Lafayette resident who spoke Monday night during the public comment section of the city council meeting.

"I don't know anything about water," Kirkpatrick began, "this has nothing to do, that I'm going to talk about, about water. I have all these questions and not the answers for me. I want to know why Boone County got to sell 9,000 acres for $128 million. I want to know where did they get the $128 million to buy the land.

"Who owned the 9,000 acres? What was on the 9,000 acres? Why didn't the (IEDC) come to Tippecanoe County and buy 9,000 acres from us and we wouldn't have to build this 30-mile pipeline to Lebanon?"

Kirkpatrick said the project feels like a "done deal" when the IEDC has already spent millions of dollars purchasing acreage in Boone County.

"What would they do with the 9,000 acres if the deal falls through?" Kirkpatrick added.

Both Sanders and City Council President Peter Bunder noted that the "other side," representatives of the IEDC and the LEAP project, were not in attendance Monday to speak to the opposition or answer lingering questions.

"The other side doesn't come because they do not feel at all compelled to enter into this conversation because they've already had the conversation," Bunder said after the meeting adjourned. "We have our little oligarchies, everyone has theirs, so somewhere in Hamilton County four years ago made the brilliant idea that they would do this and they have done it.

"And so, it's like learning you aren't going to have a branch of (the Bureau of) Motor Vehicles anymore," Bunder cited as an example of the state making a decision without including local perspective, "and 'we're going to come up and tell you why you aren't going to have that branch anymore. So, we're not surprised."

The resolution to oppose the LEAP project, cosponsored by Sanders and Council Member James Blanco, was ultimately amended after another citizen, Jason Anderson, spoke during the public comment section asking that the council add the Teays River aquifer to the verbiage, which cited the Wabash River and its aquifer.

The Teays River, according to the Indiana Department of Conservation, enters Indiana in Jay County and runs northwest, crossing south of the Wabash River under Tippecanoe County.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: West Lafayette leaders pass resolution against tapping of county water
Possible California shark attack victim identified as 52-year-old male as photo is released of search

The National Park Service says local agencies are still searching for a swimmer who went missing in California waters following a reported shark attack, despite the Coast Guard calling off its effort.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Point Reyes National Seashore wrote Monday afternoon that the "Search continues for [a] missing swimmer off Wildcat Beach," sharing a photo of a boat in the water and helicopter in the air.

"The 52-year-old male was swimming with two friends. Witness reports seeing a shark but an attack is still unconfirmed," it added, describing the alleged incident on Sunday. "Ground & water search efforts continue w/ local agency support."

The Coast Guard was involved in the search up until Monday morning, according to The Associated Press.

COAST GUARD: REPORTED CALIFORNIA SHARK ATTACK PROMPTS SEARCH FOR MISSING SWIMMER

"We didn't find the individual so there's no way for us to confirm whether or not it was a shark attack," U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Hunter Schnabel told the news agency.

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Marin County firefighters determined that three men went for a swim at Wildcat Beach on Sunday when one of them was attacked by a shark, according to CBS San Francisco.

The other swimmers told first responders that there was a large pool of blood in the water and that they were swimming between 25 and 50 yards from the shoreline, the station added.

"To my knowledge, yeah, this could be the first fatal shark attack [in the Marin County area]. But we're hopeful that he'll be found," Marin County Fire Department Senior Captain Ben Ghisletta told CBS San Francisco.

SHARK BITES SOUTH CAROLINA SURFERS FACE AT POPULAR FLORIDA BEACH

Authorities also said to the station that the three swimmers, including the missing swimmer, were camping with up to 15 others at an area near the beach.

"Wildcat Beach is a 2.9-miles-long beach deep within the Phillip Burton Wilderness in the southern part of the national seashore," the National Park Service says on its website.

An aerial view of Point Reyes National Seashore in Inverness, California, on May 31, 2023.

"Hypothermia (the ocean water may be as low as 50F [10C]), sneaker waves, and rip currents are just a few beach hazards of which visitors should be aware while visiting Point Reyes Beaches," the site adds.





Original article source: Possible California shark attack victim identified as 52-year-old male as photo is released of search
EXCLUSIVE: The Democrat nominee in what could be one of this year's most unexpectedly close races is accusing his Republican opponent, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, and the governor's family of "corruption."

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Mississippi Democrat gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley, the second cousin to famed rock-n-roll legend Elvis Presley , went after Reeves and his sister-in-law, Leigh Reeves, over the nearly $1 million her small business brought in from numerous contracts with the state government, the governor's campaign and his inaugural committee since he was first sworn in as lieutenant governor in 2012.

"Tate Reeves family business is corruption  and it's wrong that his family has personally profited from hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer contracts during his time in office," Presley said.

"Tate Reeves dad underwrote his political career, and now Tate Reeves family has made nearly $800,000 in taxpayer money off state government, $150,000 from his secret inaugural fund, and thousands more off his campaign," he said.

REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN ADMITS HE WAS PRAYING FOR SMALL GOP HOUSE MAJORITY BEFORE 2022 MIDTERM ELECTIONS

Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, left, and Democrat gubernatorial nominee Brandon Presley

Leigh Reeve's company, Snapshot Publishing, LLC, was founded in 2004, but submitted no annual reports to the Mississippi Secretary of State's office until 2012, despite being required to do so by state law, according to data from the Secretary of State's office. The company was likely inactive during those years, part of which Leigh was working as the general manager of local magazine VIP Jackson.

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According to the Secretary of State's office, Snapshot Publishing was administratively dissolved in December 2011 after failing to file an annual report that year. However, the business applied to be reinstated on Jan. 26, 2012, just days after Reeves was sworn in as Mississippi's lieutenant governor.

Snapshot Publishing began receiving state contracts in 2014, and between that year and 2023  during Reeves' time holding statewide office as lieutenant governor from January 2012 to January 2020, and as governor from January 2020  it received $799,930 from the state of Mississippi with $84,075 in 2023 alone as of August.

GAETZ, MCCARTHY CLASH ON X FOLLOWING MOTION TO END SPEAKERSHIP: BRING IT ON

The work the business did for the state included various government agencies, and was largely labeled as "advertising and public information," according to statewide budget expenditure data. With the contracts, Snapshot Publishing jumped to one of the top 15 firms receiving public advertising funds in Mississippi, and has maintained that status since 2015, according to Mississippi Today.

After his election as governor in 2019, Reeves made Leigh the executive director of the now-dissolved inaugural nonprofit "For All Mississippi," which paid Snapshot Publishing $150,000 for work related to the inauguration, including for "marketing materials, gifts, printing and designs," according to a January 2021 report by the Mississippi Business Journal.

As recently as August 2023, Snapshot Publishing has continued to receive money from Reeves' campaign committee, which amounts to nearly $10,000 since 2020.

SUPPORT FOR BIDEN IN BORDER REGION CRUMBLING AS CRISIS BENEFITS ILLEGALS OVER AMERICANS: TEXAS' MAYRA FLORES

Fox spoke with legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center (CLC), a nonpartisan government watchdog group, which reviewed the data referenced in Presley's allegations and determined it was cause for real concern over the use of taxpayer and campaign dollars.

"The governors constituents have a right to know that their governor is acting in the publics best interest, not in the best interest of his familys wallet. This situation raises real questions as to whether thats actually the case," CLC legal counsel Danielle Caputo told Fox.

The governor's mansion in Jackson, Mississippi, in October 1971.

When reached for comment, Reeves' campaign blasted Presley and his party, and staunchly defended Leigh Reeves.

"It is pathetic how desperate the Democrats have gotten. Now theyre attacking the governors sister-in-law for being part of a large team that helps produce a Mississippi tour guide and prints koozies and signs for the inauguration," a campaign spokesperson said.

FORMER DEMOCRAT OFFERS ADVICE FOR TEXAS MAYOR UNDER FIRE FOR DITCHING DEM PARTY TO JOIN GOP

"These are advertising dollars, not profits, and they go toward printing, materials, staff and distribution  not in her pocket. Its her passion and lifes work to develop magazines and perform marketing at high levels, and Leigh is a successful businesswoman because of her own work ethic and merit," the spokesperson said.

They went on to call Presley's accusation a "pathetic misrepresentation," and pointed to previous Fox News Digital reporting showing the Democrat had taken campaign donations from solar utility entities he was in charge of regulating, and from a businessman linked to the Chinese Communist Party who had purchased art from Hunter Biden.

Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, arrives at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, June 25, 2023.

"I guess when Brandon Presley is running his campaign with Biden crime family money, all he can do is lash out and project," the spokesperson added.

Fox also reached out to Snapshot Publishing for comment but did not receive a response.

Polling in the race has consistently shown Reeves leading Presley, but by a relatively close margin for a deep-Republican state. The general election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 7.





Original article source: Potential nail-biter race in deep-red state heats up as Dem nominee accuses GOP governor, family of corruption
NELSON COUNTY  A preliminary hearing scheduled Wednesday for a Maryland man accused of killing a Wintergreen police officer in June has been postponed until next year, court records show.

Daniel A. Barmak, 23, is charged with capital murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, malicious wounding, and possession of a Schedule I or II drug, according to court records. He is being held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.

Daniel A. Barmak

Barmak is accused of shooting and killing Officer Christopher Wagner II, 31, the night of June 16 in Wintergreen. Wagner lived in Stuarts Draft.

During Wagner's funeral at the Augusta Expo Event Center in Fishersville, Chief Dennis Russell of the Wintergreen Police Department said the officer was ambushed by a "drug-fueled demon" when he was killed.

On the night of Wagner's slaying, the Wintergreen Police Department fielded an emergency call about Barmak allegedly assaulting two other men at a residence they were all staying at on Arrowood Lane. After calling police, the two injured men, both 23, fled the residence on foot. They were taken to UVA Health in Charlottesville for treatment of injuries that were not considered life-threatening, according to state police.

Wagner was the first officer to arrive at the residence. He reportedly encountered Barmak in the woods and a struggle ensued over Wagner's department-issued handgun. During the struggle, Barmak allegedly shot and killed Wagner. Barmak was also shot during the encounter, police said.

Wintergreen police and the Nelson County Sheriff's Office arrested Barmak, who had to be hospitalized, police said.

The police officer's department-issued handgun was recovered at the shooting scene in the woods. Inside the residence, authorities reportedly found illegal narcotics.

Following his arrest, Barmak's middle initial was listed as "M" by Virginia State Police in a press release. However, the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail said Tuesday his middle name is "Adam." Barmak was also initially said to be from Towson, Maryland, the home of Towson University. According to a 2023 commencement program on the school's website, a Daniel Adam Barmak graduated in 2023 with a degree in political science. Court records now state that Barmak is from Owings Mills, Maryland.

A preliminary hearing had been scheduled to take place Wednesday in Nelson County General District Court. Barmak's hearing is now scheduled for Jan. 17, court records show.

He remains at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.

Wireless tower in West Augusta, more solar plans, how to get legal notices: THE AGENDA

Staunton Pride: LGBTQ community models inclusivity, diversity at annual event

Two arrested following robbery at ATM near Fishersville

Brad Zinn is the cops, courts and breaking news reporter at The News Leader. Have a news tip? Or something that needs investigating? You can email reporter Brad Zinn (he/him) at bzinn@newsleader.com. You can also follow him on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Pre-lim for suspect in cop's slaying postponed in Nelson County
Hunter Biden on Tuesday plunged into a burgeoning Second Amendment fight: whether the government can disarm people who use illegal drugs.

Lawyers for the presidents son have repeatedly said they will defend him from three federal gun charges by arguing that the main federal law hes charged under is unconstitutional in light of a recent Supreme Court ruling  an argument that stands in stark contrast to President Joe Biden s advocacy for stricter gun laws.

And at Hunter Bidens arraignment in Wilmington, Del., on Tuesday, his legal team formally signaled an intent to mount a constitutional challenge to the charges, which accuse Biden of possessing a gun as a drug user and lying on a federal form when he bought it. Biden pleaded not guilty at the arraignment.



For decades, the federal Gun Control Act has banned drug users from possessing guns. But in 2022, the Supreme Court dramatically expanded Second Amendment rights  and, in some ways, obfuscated them  by ruling that U.S. gun restrictions are valid only if they resemble gun laws that existed in the Founding era. That ruling, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, teed off a host of conflicting lower-court rulings about just how closely todays gun laws must hew to those from the late 1700s.

The drug-users prohibition is among the gun restrictions facing new challenges after Bruen, as defendants argue that Founding-era laws only barred people from carrying firearms while intoxicated  not simply because they had become intoxicated in the past. And as Hunter Biden heads to trial next year, he will become the most famous defendant by far to lean on the Second Amendment, even as his father is expected to make gun safety a focus of his reelection campaign.

Since taking office, the president has taken a slew of executive actions and worked with a bipartisan coalition in Congress to pass the first gun legislation into law in nearly three decades, toughening background checks for young gun buyers, helping states implement red flag laws and keeping firearms from more domestic violence offenders. The president took a step further last month, announcing the first-ever federal office of gun violence prevention.

The Hunter Biden case will create political discomfort for both pro-gun groups and advocates for tighter gun rules.

A spokesperson for the National Rifle Association sent POLITICO a statement saying criminals ought to pay the price for their crimes. The spokesperson did not respond to a follow-up query about the NRAs position on whether the law banning drug users from possessing guns is constitutional.

Multiple high-profile gun safety groups, which are typically outspoken on Second Amendment jurisprudence and have close ties to the Biden White House, declined to comment on Hunter Bidens intent to launch a Second Amendment challenge.

More broadly on the legal question at hand, multiple organizations also declined to weigh in, though Brady United, in a statement to POLITICO said: We believe the federal law that bans that is constitutional. Their reticence to even discuss the underlying legal issue points to the political sensitivity of the case.

The Supreme Court will likely have to decide the laws constitutionality eventually, and experts say its hard to predict where the court will come down, as its conservative majority generally favors both loose gun laws and strict drug laws.

It does not survive under a faithful application of Bruen, at all, said Clark Neily, the senior vice president for legal studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Will the Supreme Court nevertheless uphold it? I would say even money there. Theres almost nothing that the average federal judge or Supreme Court justice wont do in order to avoid beginning to unravel federal drug prohibition.

The high court is already gearing up to resolve a related issue that emerged in the post-Bruen confusion: whether the Second Amendment allows the government to ban people under domestic violence restraining orders from possessing guns. The justices will hear that case, United States v. Rahimi, on Nov. 7. Its outcome could have major ramifications for the drug-users prohibition  and, by extension, Hunter Bidens criminal jeopardy.

Meanwhile, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in August that the drug-users prohibition is unconstitutional.

[O]ur history and tradition may support some limits on an intoxicated persons right to carry a weapon, but it does not justify disarming a sober citizen based exclusively on his past drug usage, the judges wrote.

Other courts, however, have upheld the drug-users prohibition. The 5th Circuits ruling is not binding on the courts in Delaware, where Biden is charged.

Prosecutors say the first son purchased a revolver in October 2018, a time when he has admitted he was addicted to crack cocaine. They also say that, as part of that purchase, he lied on a federal form by claiming he was not a drug user. At Mondays arraignment, a magistrate judge noted that Biden has been passing recent drug tests.

A lawyer for Hunter Biden, Abbe Lowell, said in court that he plans to challenge the constitutionality of the charges in a motion to dismiss, the Associated Press reported.

Bidens lawyers have been closely following Second Amendment jurisprudence for more than a year  and updating the Justice Department on it. In three letters obtained by POLITICO, the first sons attorneys argued to prosecutors that the ban on drug users possessing guns is doomed.

In a letter dated Oct. 31, 2022 addressed to the U.S. attorney supervising the probe of the first son, Bidens lawyers called the drug-user prohibition constitutionally dubious at best. Three months later, the attorneys sent the U.S. attorney, David Weiss, another missive flagging a move in the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals suggesting the court would rule that the Second Amendment bars the government from blocking non-violent people from possessing guns. Delaware is in the 3rd Circuit, making its rulings particularly pertinent. The next month, Bidens lead lawyer wrote to Weiss noting that a panel of judges in the Fifth Circuit had ruled on the Rahimi case, concluding that people under domestic violence restraining orders had the constitutional right to bear arms.

[I]t is patently clear that the statutes underpinning the Governments firearms case will be struck down, he wrote.

That isnt a consensus view. Brian Abbas, the director of the Center to Keep and Bear Arms at the Mountain States Legal Foundation, told POLITICO he expects the drug-user ban to be upheld because of conservative justices opposition to drug use.
Royalist is The Daily Beasts newsletter for all things royal and Royal Family. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Sunday.

Prince Andrew has defeated his brother the kings efforts to evict him from his vast Windsor home, Royal Lodge.

Despite the kings deep unease, the wildly unpopular Andrew will continue to live in regal splendor at the crenellated, 30-room mansion.

The former home of the famously extravagant queen mother is so huge that his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, has her own wing.

Last month The Daily Beast reported that Charles had defied expectations by partially rehabilitating Andrew, most explicitly by allowing him to be pictured with key family members at family events.

A friend of the disgraced prince said he had benefited from comparisons to Prince Harry, saying: Unlike Harry, Andrew has done everything he has been asked to, and Charles realizes that. He hasnt written a book, he hasnt given interviews. His [Andrews] primary concern has been to protect the monarchy. He is intensely loyal to the monarchy.

Now, it seems, his loyalty has paid off. The Daily Mirrors respected royal correspondent Russell Myers has reported in what appears to be a well-sourced piece that Andrew has fought off the kings attempts to get him to leave his home, and that having thus [dug in] his heelsthe King has relented and granted a stay of execution.

Myers wrote: Royal sources have confirmed the King and Andrew met privately at Balmoral at the end of August, during a royal family gathering, where the issues were discussed.

King Charles Offers Prince Andrew a Balmoral Olive Branch: Report

The result of these discussions seems to be that Andrew will now be allowed to stay there indefinitely, provided he continues to maintain the property, including making some substantial repairs thought to be urgent. Myers says Andrew spent more than 200,000 ($240,000) for roof repairs over the summer, which was characterized as an interim payment.

Reports that Charles wanted to kick Andrew out of the property first surfaced at the start of the year, with royal sources suggesting Andrew was being offered the consolation prize of Frogmore Cottage, the former home of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Royal Lodge was apparently being earmarked for Prince William and Kate Middleton. They may now move directly into Windsor Castle instead, some insiders believe.

A big part of the pressure brought to bear on Andrew, 63, has been financial, with his lease on the property requiring him to maintain and keep up the historic property, which requires an estimated 2million ($2.4 million) in repairs.

Andrews annual allowance of 250,000 ($300,000) was reportedly cut by the new king after the queen died, thus putting pressure on Andrews living arrangements.

However, there has been gossip among Andrews friends that his financial situation is less disastrous than has been reported, with some speculating that the financial settlement paid to Virginia Giuffre, thought to have been around $14 million, was written off in his mothers will.

Prince Andrew Settles With Rape Accuser He Called a Liar

Feeding into these rumors is the acquisition of a Mayfair townhouse by the couple in Sarah Fergusons name, thought to have been bought with the proceeds of the sale of Andrew and Sarahs chalet in Verbier.

One friend of the family said: Its not unusual for debts to die with your parents, and the late queen certainly had a soft spot for him. Its not the sort of thing one asks, but it has been gossiped about. How else does one explain them funding the property in Mayfair?

A source told the Mirror: Andrews stance has paid off. He has refused all attempts by the king to leave his home, [dug in] his heels and the king has relented and granted a stay of execution. He [Andrew] is in agreement that the property needs repairs, for which he has already paid more than 200,000 recently to sort out the roof and has said he will make the further necessary renovations. It seems the king just wants to move on for the time being which might be a good idea for everyone.

The Mirror said Buckingham Palace had declined to comment.

Andrews representatives did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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China, Germany willing to strengthen bilateral relations

Xinhua) 10:49, October 03, 2023

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Chinese lead person of the third China-Germany high-level financial dialogue, shakes hands with Christian Lindner, the federal minister of finance and the German lead person of the dialogue, prior to the talks in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 1, 2023. The third China-Germany high-level financial dialogue, co-chaired by He and Lindner, was held in Frankfurt on Sunday. (Xinhua/Zhang Fan)

FRANKFURT, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- China is willing to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with Germany and inject more positive energy into the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng said here on Sunday.

He made the remarks at the third China-Germany high-level financial dialogue in Frankfurt. The dialogue was co-chaired by He, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Chinese lead person of the dialogue, and Christian Lindner, the federal minister of finance and the German lead person of the dialogue.

China is willing to work together with Germany to implement the important consensus reached by both leaders of the two countries, He said.

For his part, Lindner said Germany is willing to strengthen practical cooperation with China in the fields of finance and economics and advance the development of Germany-China relations.

The two sides also exchanged in-depth views on macroeconomic issues, global economic governance, and China-Germany financial cooperation. They reached a number of consensus and achieved mutually beneficial and win-win results.

During the dialogue, He and Lindner jointly attended the China-Germany Financial Roundtable.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Sheng Chuyi)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is set to travel to Mexico to address the worsening migrant crisis in the Big Apple.

The Democratic lawmaker plans to go to Central and South America this week to foster relations with local leaders and learn more about the path taken by asylum seekers. The situation comes as NYC prepares for a potential record-breaking surge in migrants soon.

Eric Adams To Visit Mexico

On Monday, City Hall announced Adams' planned trip, which would have the mayor start from south of the border in Mexico City on Wednesday and then head to the nearby town of Puebla. This is where many Mexican migrants in New York City have traditionally come from. He will later travel to Quito, the capital of Ecuador.

On the final day of Adams' trip, he will go to Bogota, Colombia, and Darien Gap, where many migrants pass through on their way north. However, sources with knowledge of the planned travel said its underlying objective is to use local news coverage as a media blitz to talk migrants out of coming to the Big Apple, as per the New York Post.

The interim director of New York City's Asylum Seeker Operations, Molly Schaefer, recently sounded the alarm of a potential influx of up to 4,200 migrants in a week. In the past few months, officials from the city recorded an average of 3,000 people coming into the area every week.

A City Hall insider said there had been a surge of asylum seekers at the border recently, which he claimed has been discussed for a week at least. Officials also confirmed that preparations are underway in case of a rush of migrants, saying that the administration expects the daily count of asylum seekers to rise to 500 to 600 from the latest average of 300 to 400.

Kayla Mamelak said that they expect a surge in the area based on a surge at the southern border. She added that whenever there is a rise in the number of migrants at the border, there will most likely be an influx of asylum seekers in New York City as well.

Read Also: Texas Governor Belittles NYC Migrant Crisis, Claiming It's 'Calm' Compared to Theirs

NYC Migrant Crisis

City Hall aides also noted that Adams' planned trip is designed to examine what they describe as a misinformation pipeline encouraging migrants to continue crossing the border despite limited legal work opportunities in the United States and housing capacity in the Big Apple, according to NBC New York.

Adams will attend an international business conference on Thursday, where City Hall said the Democrat will speak with local and national leaders. The New York City mayor also plans to meet with local community organizations and asylee integration programs in Quito, Ecuador, to discuss how the asylum seekers are passing through the region and what is being done to stop them.

The trip comes on the heels of the NYC mayor's budget office issuing a memo to all city agencies that instruct them that taxpayer dollars cannot be used for any "travel expenses outside of the city. Officials cited concerns about the fiscal burden of the migrant crisis in the region, according to the New York Daily News.

Related Article: US-Mexico Border: Unlawful Migrant Crossings Reach Record-High

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
As Chicago prepares for an increase in the already steady stream of migrants arriving from the southern U.S. border this week, Gov. JB Pritzker is once again publicly pressuring President Joe Biden to play a larger role in coordinating relocation efforts.

There is much more that can and must be done on a federal level to address a national humanitarian crisis that is currently being shouldered by state and local governments without support, Pritzker wrote in a three-page letter to the White House on Monday.

Without naming GOP figures like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott , Pritzker blamed political leaders who have shipped people to our state like cargo in a dehumanizing attempt to score political points. But he also faulted the Biden administration for its lack of support for Illinois, which has already dedicated $330 million to addressing the influx of 15,000 migrants and counting.

Today, Illinois stands mostly unsupported against this enormous strain on our state resources, Pritzker wrote.

Since last August, Chicago has been one of the cities targeted by Republican leaders like Abbott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others whove paid for buses and air travel to relocate asylum-seekers from their states.

Migrants hail mostly from Central and South America, including a large contingent fleeing economic and political collapse in Venezuela. New York City, which began receiving migrants earlier in 2022, has seen more than 110,000 asylum-seekers enter the city in the last year and a half, though some have moved onto other places, including Chicago.

On Friday, Pritzkers office announced the state would send an additional $30.3 million to Chicago to address the needs of asylum seekers, along with roughly $11 million to be split among several municipalities in the Chicago area and $250,000 for downstate Urbana. The money represents nearly all of a $42.5 million line item in the states budget for the current fiscal year, which began in July.

The governor has been a vocal Biden ally, including in his monthslong effort to bring the Democratic National Convention to Chicago next summer. During a visit to Chicago in June, the president praised Pritzker as having helped me more than anybody in America in his 2020 election bid.

Read more: In Chicago visit, Biden heaps praise on Pritzker, touts economic recovery ahead of 2024; Chicago to host 2024 Democratic National Convention

In his carefully worded letter, the governor thanked Biden for steps his administration had taken to assist Illinois response to the migrant crisis, like providing modest funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But he was unequivocal in expressing the need for more federal aid.

The burden of funding the state and city have taken on is not sustainable only by our budgets, Pritzker wrote.

Untenable

Pritzker accused the federal government of abdicating responsibility for asylum-seekers once U.S. Customs and Border Protection releases the migrants after any initial detention at the border.

The states busing migrants to Illinois have typically given no warning to state and city officials, and the pace of arrivals has been accelerating in recent weeks. Volunteer groups have worked to fill in the gaps of the ad hoc response. Pritzker urged the Biden administration to take a much more active role in managing the transport and destination of the transport of asylum seekers.

Unfortunately, the welcome and aid Illinois has been providing to these asylum seekers has not been matched with support by the federal government, Pritzker wrote. Most critically, the federal governments lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois.

The governor also criticized the White House for having a disorganized and disjointed system for responding to leaders in states and cities taking on migrants. Pritzker recommended that instead of the current system of too many different federal department contacts  who are uncoordinated with one another, the federal government should create a single office with an identified leader to coordinate with state and city leaders.

The governor sent the letter one day after he, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the White House spoke on a conference call. Last week, tensions flared between Pritzker and the new mayors allies on the Chicago City Council after Johnsons administration signed a $30 million contract with a security firm to set up a base camp for migrants, many of whom are sleeping in airports and police stations across the city.

Work permits

At the end of August, when the number of asylum-seekers whod arrived in Chicago numbered approximately 13,000, Pritzker and other political and business leaders urged the Biden administration to allow Illinois to sponsor work permits for migrants. The idea is a bipartisan one that other states have also requested, especially as the U.S. economy still faces labor shortages in key industries while it continues to recalibrate from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read more: Pritzker, state leaders call on Biden to allow Illinois to sponsor work permits for migrants

In response, the Department of Homeland Security granted Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelan migrants last month while announcing plans to accelerate paperwork processing times. But Pritzker argued that TPS-eligible migrants will still have to wait months for their work authorization paperwork to clear, and he urged further action from Biden to cut the red tape. And for non-Venezuelan migrants, the governor asked Biden to waive the high cost fee to apply for TPS.

Mr. President, I urge you, (DHS) Secretary Mayorkas, and the rest of your administration to take swift action and intervene on our behalf and on behalf of the other affected states and their residents, as well as on behalf of the tens of thousands of asylum seekers who undertook a dangerous and difficult journey in hopes of attaining public safety and forging a better life for themselves and their families, Pritzker wrote.
Conservatives aligned with former President Donald Trump are coming out in opposition to the motion by Rep. Matt Gaetz , R-Fla., to vacate House Speaker Kevin McCarthy , R-Calif., over the stopgap government funding bill that passed late Saturday.

Gaetz threatened over the weekend that he would file the motion this week, which would aim to effectively oust McCarthy from the speakership after he accused McCarthy of making a "side deal" with Democrats to send additional aid to Ukraine. McCarthy, who said he supports arming Ukraine but not sending additional money to Ukraine, rejected the notion that a side deal took place with Democrats or President Biden.

"For all the crocodile tears about what may happen later this week about a motion to vacate, working with the Democrats is a yellow brick road that has been paved by Speaker McCarthy," Gaetz said during a floor speech Monday afternoon. "Whether it was the debt limit deal, the [continuing resolution] or now the secret deal on Ukraine."

"This is swampy log-rolling," Gaetz added. "The American people deserve single-subject bills. I get that a lot of folks might disagree with my perspectives on the border or on Ukraine, but can we at least agree that no matter how you feel about Ukraine or the southern border, they each deserve the dignity of their own consideration and should not be rolled together where they might pass, where each individually wouldn't. This is what we're trying to get away from."

HOUSE GOP MEMBERS SEEK TO EXPEL GAETZ AMID RENEWED THREAT TO VACATE HOUSE SPEAKER MCCARTHY

On Saturday, the House and Senate passed a stopgap government funding bill that Biden signed later that evening. The bill passed the House in a 335-91 vote and helped avoid a government shutdown  which would have resulted in thousands of federal employees being furloughed  and extended funding through mid-November.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Gaetz ultimately filed a motion to vacate on Monday evening, hours after he said in his floor speech to "stay tuned." The House is poised to vote on the motion Tuesday afternoon after a separate effort to kill the motion failed.

His actions garnered pushback from Republicans, including those who have traditionally been aligned with Trump.

GAETZ BLOWS UP AT MCCARTHY IN CLOSED-DOOR HOUSE GOP MEETING: 'FIREWORKS'

"Yes, that is correct," conservative commentator Mark Levin said Monday. "The guy who says McCarthy is the Democrats' speaker is plotting and scheming with the radical Democrats to take out a Republican speaker who is more conservative than he is (McCarthy backed the Freedom Caucus CR and the cuts and border security, which Gaetz and 4 others killed)."

"There are now numerous reports that Gaetz is doing this not because he insists that McCarthy interfered with an ethics investigation of him, which a speaker cannot do and has never done," Levin continued. "I might add that after two years it's about time the Ethics Committee release its report and either lift the cloud over Gaetz or clear him. Gaetz should demand this as well."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., came out in opposition to Gaetz's threatened motion to vacate House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said that while she shares substantive concerns with Gaetz about McCarthy's leadership, she won't support a motion to vacate.

"What I see is a system of failure and a federal government that serves the world first and America last and my desire for wanting to fix it is why I ran for Congress in the first place," the Georgia Republican said. "So, I agree with Matt Gaetz that things must change, but I dont agree that a motion to vacate will effectively create the changes needed to solve the intentional systemic failure that create the annual never-ending CRs and Christmas omnibus mega-spending packages."

"A [motion to vacate] of our speaker gives the upper hand to the Democrats during dangerous times while we have been handed over under the presidency of an ailing old man ridden with dementia [who] has spent over 50 years in Washington seats of power corruptly enriching himself and his family by delivering policy deals to foreign investors," she added.

REP BYRON DONALDS SAYS MCCARTHY IS 'IN TROUBLE' AFTER BUDGET DEAL: 'WE DIDN'T GET ANYTHING'

Additionally, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested that GOP leadership could expel Gaetz from the House Republican Conference and eliminate his committee assignments.

"Is Gaetz secretly an agent for the Democratic Party? No one else is doing as much to undermine, weaken and cripple the House GOP," Gingrich said in a social media post.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, left, and current Speaker Kevin McCarthy are pictured in November 2022.

Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, a former Trump aide who was endorsed by the former president, blasted Gaetz in a post on X on Tuesday, saying, "It says a lot that Matt Gaetz and his small crew of supposed conservatives are speaking from the Democrat side of the House chamber."

"Instead of working on appropriations bills, we watch as Gaetz joins with Democrats to halt our conservative agenda," he added.

And Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., who was endorsed by Trump during the 2022 election, blasted the effort to file a motion to vacate as counterproductive and self-destructive during a floor speech that preceded Gaetz's on Monday.

"We are faced with the threat that a Republican will move to vacate the Republican speaker of the House. It will only require four other Republican members to join the Democrats to achieve this result," McClintock said. "The immediate effect will be to paralyze the House indefinitely because no other business can be taken up until a replacement is elected."

"Just when we are on the verge of completing the appropriations process, that in turn will finally initiate discussions with the Senate that are vital to change the dangerous path that our country is on  I cannot conceive of a more counterproductive and self-destructive course than that," the California Republican added. "The supreme irony is that this is being initiated by self-described conservatives."

Also on Monday, former senior White House adviser Stephen Miller said McCarthy is "not going to be going anywhere" and called for unity among Republicans to solve border security issues.

"I think at this point in time, it's very clear that Kevin is not going to be going anywhere," Miller said in an interview with FOX Business. "He has the support of 218 members and I understand and I need to  everybody rise above. I understand all the emotions that are playing out right now."

"But for the love of God, we are losing this country, and we are losing it fast," he continued. "Republicans need to unify around the twin mission of stopping the open border invasion and stopping a government that has been weaponized against conservatives and Christians and anyone who does not subscribe to the tenets of the radical left."

Gaetz's office did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.





Original article source: Pro-Trump conservatives rail against Matt Gaetz over push to oust McCarthy: 'Self-destructive'
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Another wild weekend on Beale Street led to multiple altercations, two arrests, and a man being cited for having a loaded gun.

Four police reports were taken between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. Sunday. All of those cases involved some sort of altercation  from assaults to weapons violations and disturbances.

People want to have fun. Why cant we have fun instead of everybody bringing violence to Beale Street? said Jeremy Mays, who is visiting from North Carolina.

Video footage shows mass shooting in downtown Memphis

Two women, 23-year-old Destiny Lowe and 19-year-old Dandria Bruce, were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Officers said instead of leaving as instructed, the two tried to fight around 3:30 a.m.

Police also responded to at least two other physical altercations over the weekend. WREG reviewed footage that showed a brawl involving multiple women.

One woman who was punched in the face was taken to Regional One.

It was a busy night for officers who also issued a misdemeanor citation to a man who allegedly brought a firearm on Beale Street, which is illegal.

Detectives said the man was arguing with a group of men. Officers detained him and confiscated a Glock with an attached magazine loaded with 30 rounds and weed.

MPD launches downtown traffic control plan

We spoke with the man by phone, and he said he wasnt aware guns are prohibited on Beale Street. It is concerning for some tourists.

Im from Australia, so carrying firearms is pretty taboo, illegal, said Kierin Missan, who was visiting from Australia. While being in Memphis, we did witness someone else driving around with bandanas and carrying weapons, so it was pretty scary.

The Downtown Memphis Commission said in a statement, It seems he was spotted and picked up after our security had wrapped for the night. We appreciate MPD for being vigilant and helping to prevent a potential incident.

Two suspects arrested for disorderly conduct are due back in court later this month.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
A prosecutor who said she witnessed wrongdoing by the lead detective in YNW Mellys double murder case shed more light on the incident in an interview with the defense, according to court records.

Michelle Boutros, a Broward prosecutor of 20 years assigned to the Public Corruption Unit, on Friday recounted the events of the October 2022 incident and accused Miramar Police Detective Mark Moretti of unethical behavior. Defense attorneys filed the transcripts of Boutros interview on Monday to support their efforts to dismiss the case.

READ MORE: YNW Mellys lawyers urge judge to throw out rappers double murder case. Heres why





Melly, 24, whose real name is Jamell Demons, is accused of gunning down his childhood friends Anthony Williams and Christopher Thomas Jr. in a drive-by cover-up after spending the night of Oct. 26, 2018, at a Fort Lauderdale recording studio. Williams and Thomas, both aspiring rappers with the YNW collective, were known as YNW Sakchaser and YNW Juvy, respectively.

Melly is among the first defendants to go to trial after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law to lower the threshold for a death sentence to an 8-4 jury vote, from the previous requirement for a unanimous vote.

In late August, defense attorneys learned that Moretti was under investigation for an incident involving excessive use of force against a potential witness. They accused prosecutor Kristine Bradley of a Brady violation, or concealing information favorable to the defense, for allegedly not divulging details about an incident involving Moretti.

Under Florida law, prosecutors are required to disclose any information that may be favorable to the defense. The discovery of Brady violations, in some cases, have even led to overturned convictions.

Bradley, in court documents, said that Moretti was taking a statement from Jamie King, Mellys mother, in a conference room on the seventh floor of the Broward courthouse. Prosecutor Boutros, Kings attorney Robert Trachman and Broward Sheriffs Office Sgt. Jason Hendrick were present at the time.

Asst. State Attorney Kristine Bradley stands in front of a diagram of the trajectory of bullets into the car as she gives her closing argument in the trial of Jamell Demons, better known as rapper YNW Melly, at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, July 20, 2023. Demons, 22, is accused of killing two fellow rappers and conspiring to make it look like a drive-by shooting in October 2018. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

At some point, Hendrick stepped out, and Moretti executed a search warrant for Kings phone, according to Bradleys filing.

Shortly after, BSO deputy Adam Gorel arrived at the conference room. Moretti, according to prosecutor Boutros, subsequently told Gorel that he should say he was present when he executed the search warrant.

Moretti later asked Gorel whether he was there when the phone was taken, and Gorel said something along the lines of: I can be if you needed me to be, according to court records.

According to a filing by Christopher Killoran, a prosecutor with the Public Corruption Unit, Moretti told Bradley that the statement he made to Gorel  and Gorels response  were merely jokes. In a later filing, Bradley said she inaccurately relayed that she spoke with Moretti about this incident, and the detective explained it off as a joke.

But what did Boutros say happened?

In 2022, Boutros was first contacted by Bradley for a possible tampering investigation into Jamie King, Mellys mother. Thats why she was present when Moretti questioned King.

King was accused of tampering with two witnesses: Mariah Hamilton, Mellys ex-girlfriend, and Felicia Holmes, Hamiltons mother. Holmes ultimately took the stand in the first trial and told defense attorney Stuart Adelstein that she felt threatened by Bradley.

Jamie Demons King, mother of Jamell Demons, better known as YNW Melly, attends his double murder trial on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, at Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Mellys co-defendant Cortlen Henry, who was out on bond pending his trial, was arrested Monday night in Miami-Dade on witness tampering charges. Hes being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a warrant.

When detailing the incident with Moretti, Boutros said she was unaware that Moretti was going to serve the search warrant during the interview. She confirmed that no deputy was present at the time.

Obviously I dont want to be a party to the service of a search warrant because things happen when you become witnesses, as it did in this situation, she told defense attorneys.

When Moretti tried to seize the phone, King grabbed it and was doing something, she said. A scuffle quickly ensued.

The detective then pulled the phone from Kings hands, and she screamed, Boutros said. She didnt see exactly what happened, but she noted that King had an injury on her hand.

It was very uncomfortable, to say the least, she told defense attorneys.

Boutros said she doesnt recall Gorel saying anything else, but if he did, it was nothing of substance and nothing directed towards Detective Morettis request, his solicitation to have him lie.

The prosecutor said she reported Morettis statement to Christopher Killoran, her supervisor whos also on the Public Corruption Unit, and informed Miramar Polices internal affairs sergeant.

READ MORE: YNW Mellys lawyers want to remove the Broward prosecutors office from case. But why?

I told Mr. Killoran that I would no longer work on this case, and I would no longer work with Detective, and that I wanted to discuss it with administration.

Boutros said she didnt know when top officials at the State Attorneys Office spoke with Bradley, but said they did days after her report  a year ago.

Defense attorney Stuart Adelstein gives his closing argument in the trial of Jamell Demons, better known as rapper YNW Melly, at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, July 20, 2023. Demons, 22, is accused of killing two fellow rappers and conspiring to make it look like a drive-by shooting in October 2018. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)

I dont know if there were other conversations that took place at that time with [Bradley] about disclosure, Boutros told defense attorneys. I just know that when I spoke with administration they were equally upset about what happened and equally concerned about how to handle it from that point forward.

The first time Boutros heard about the incident since then, she said, was in July, when Miramar Polices internal affairs sergeant reached out to interview her. State Attorney Harold Pryor instructed Boutros to give a statement and tell the truth.

After tuning into a September hearing in Mellys case, Boutros reignited the conversation about turning over more information on the incident to the defense. She said she forcefully interjected herself in the Brady issue, and the State Attorneys Office discussed a possible criminal probe into Moretti  and the legal ramifications of his alleged actions.

Boutros said she expressed to Killoran that she felt the internal affairs investigation wasnt enough and had conversations about this with administrators as well as prosecutors in the appeals and homicide units.

Im not trying to get in anybodys business or anything, but I felt like this had to do with something that happened in my presence, she said during the questioning.

READ MORE: YNW Mellys lawyers are challenging evidence as retrial looms. Heres what  and why

Administrators, Boutros said, called Bradley into their offices to speak to her more about the Brady filings. Bradley told a different story: that she didnt speak to Moretti about his comments, and that she was going to file an updated notice.

Boutros said that Pryor told Bradley that her bar license was on the line if she filed the notice.

Prosecutor Kristine Bradley holds a piece of evidence after presenting it in court during the trial of Jamell Demons, better known as YNW Melly, on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Unless they had conversations afterwards where she was granted permission, that was against the wishes of administration, she told defense attorneys.

Nearing the end of the interview, the defense attorneys told Boutros that Bradley accused her of lying to others. Boutros said that she knew of a time that Bradley stormed into Killorans office and berated her character.

Well, thats OK. Boutros said. Again, Im just here to speak my truth, and people are going to be mad at me.
Russian attacks against Avdiivka and Illinivka in Donetsk Oblast wounded four civilians on Oct. 3, the regional prosecutor's office reported.

In the frontline town of Avdiivka, a projectile from a Russian tank hit a house, injuring a 63-year-old resident who was in the yard at the time, according to the report. The man suffered a mine-explosive injury, a shrapnel wound, and a broken leg.

Russia also launched a guided aerial bomb at the village of Illinivka in the Kramatorsk district, wounding two women aged 29 and 47 and a 43-year-old man, the prosecutors said on Facebook.

The attacks damaged houses, apartment buildings, an outbuilding, a commercial facility, and vehicles, added the prosecutor's office.

Illinivka is a southwestern suburb of Kostiantynivka, which lies roughly 50 kilometers north of Donetsk and 20 kilometers west of Bakhmut.

Meanwhile, Avdiivka is one of the major flashpoints of hostilities on the eastern front, suffering regular attacks by Russian forces.

Read also: Our readers questions about the war, answered. Vol. 4

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Quando Rondo shared this picture of him and his close friend and distant cousin on Instagram after Robinson was shot and killed in Los Angeles.

Chatham County prosecutors are requesting the Chatham County Superior Court not allow Tyquian Bowman, a Savannah resident and rapper also known by the name Quando Rondo, from entering Chatham County as he awaits trial, because he has been the target of a recent shooting, which fits a pattern, and his presence poses a danger to the citizens of Chatham County,

In June, Bowman was indicted by a Chatham County grand jury on charges of violating the street gang terrorism act and conspiracy to violate the Georgia Controlled Substances act.

In April, according to the indictment, Bowman instructed a co-conspirator to negotiate marijuana prices with another co-conspirators father. On June 4, Bowman and other co-conspirators allegedly traveled to Macon to purchase marijuana. On June 12, Bowman, who the indictment states was managing the Rollin 60s gang, directed other gang members to not carry firearms in cars he rode in.

According to the indictment, other gang members trafficked more than four grams of cocaine, about 20 grams of M30 pills, hydrocodone pills and 28 grams of fentanyl. Some used jail phones to schedule drug sales. Others sold drugs out of a house located at 1301 E. 39th St.

Bowman currently lives in Midway, Georgia, according to the motion. The restriction would allow Bowman to visit Chatham County for exceptions, such as work, medical treatment, court appearances, and meetings with counsel, according to the motion.

More: Quando Rondo named in gang indictment, accused of trafficking drugs

More: Quando Rondo released on $100,000 bail

More: Timothy Leeks, suspect in King Von murder, arrested for reckless driving in Savannah

More: In Session: Judge orders Quando Rondo to submit to drug tests, refrain from driving

State requests to modify bond conditions

To support the motion, Chatham County Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Brian DeBlasiis detailed multiple incidents in which Bowman was allegedly targeted.

On Sept. 20, at 9:38 p.m., near the Center Stage Barber Shop and A Fifth of Ink Tattoo Shop on 7010 Skidaway Road, a group of people shot at a group that included Bowman. According to the motion, witnesses reported hearing between 20 and 30 gunshots, and police recovered nearly 30 shell casings from the scene. At least four firearms were used in the attack, possibly including an AR-15 assault rifle. At least two people were shot during this incident.

Preliminary investigation suggests that the defendant and/or members of his entourage were the targets of this attack, the motion alleges.

Unfortunately, this latest incident fits a pattern in which the defendant has been targeted by violent attacks, the motion read. DeBlasiis then cited an incident that occurred on May 3, 2021, when Bowman and his entourage were shot at several times at a gas station in Blackshear, Georgia.

On Aug. 20, 2022, Bowman was in Los Angeles with close friend and distant cousin, Saviaya Robinson. The two were traveling together in a black Cadillac Escalade when they were shot at. Robinson died as a result of this attack. Bowman was not injured.

These incidents show that there are individuals or groups of individuals that are actively seeking to harm the defendant, the motion states. The assailants have time and again indicated that they have no respect for the lives of other humans, including members of the Chatham County Community. While the police are working diligently to solve the latest aggravated assault, it is clear that the defendant's continued presence in Chatham County poses a significant risk to members of our community.

A statement provided by a public relations consultant for Quando Rondo LLC, Kevin Grogan, claims the Chatham DA and the Savannah Police Department (SPD) have "targeted" Bowman.

"Tyquian is no stranger to trouble or tragedy," the statement reads. "The issue now? Does he get the same chance everyone else gets? No. He has been accused of serious crimes but hasnt been convicted of them. There have been over 249 aggravated assaults in Savannah this year, are the victims or potential victims being asked to leave the county? They arent."

In the statement, Grogran claims Bowman was not the intended target of the shooting on Skidaway Road nor was he the intended target in the murder of Robinson.

"Banning Mr. Bowman from Chatham County without a conviction is another unprecedented step the District Attorneys office has attempted since he was charged with violations of the controlled substances and street gang and Anti-terrorism act back in June of this year," the statement reads.

A trial docket call is scheduled for Nov. 29.

Drew Favakeh is the public safety and court reporter for Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at afavakeh@savannahnow.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Prosecutors petition court to keep rapper Quando Rondo out of Chatham County
Two women are accused of opening up illegal massage parlors in neighborhoods across the Carolinas.

The investigation started in Winston-Salem and led Homeland Security to bust massage parlors all over our area. Their locations span from Indian Trail to Rock Hill to Gastonia.

One of those locations is a home in Rock Hill on Saluda Street. At first glance, it may look like an ordinary house, but investigators said what was happening inside was not normal at all.

ALSO READ: Charlotte woman takes Massage Envy to court after sex assault allegations

One neighbor told Channel 9s Ken Lemon she suspected something wasnt right, but she was stunned when Lemon told her police and Homeland Security believe the home was part of a criminal enterprise.

This is one of those things you dont expect to happen next door, said Amy Cheever.

Cheever said there was a family living in the house next door, which is now vacant. But about two weeks ago, police and federal officers say they busted an illicit massage parlor at the home.

The details stunned Cheever.

Disgusting, terrifying, surprising, she said.

Investigators said that parlor wasnt the only one. Seven woman are facing charges in a prostitution sting, reportedly operating out of eight parlors in North and South Carolina. Six of them are in the Channel 9 viewing area.

ALSO READ: Charlotte woman claims therapist at massage spa inappropriately touched her

Cheever said she suspected something was off when she said someone put up a massage parlor poster and strangers started visiting the house.

Fancy cars, some different, every day, she said.

Police said the operators had a parlor in Indian Land. Chopper 9 Skyzoom flew over it Tuesday. And in Gastonia, people recognized one of the women arrested at a spa on Garrison Boulevard in Gastonia, and they feared people were living there too.

Investigators said all the locations were raised, though Cheever said she never saw police on Saluda Street.

Shock, just really shocked, she said.

Cheever said people have gone by the house since police made an arrest in Rock Hill. The signs that were there are gone, and investigators and neighbors hope any trouble that might have been there before is gone too.

The two women accused of operating the parlors have been identified as: Li Huang, 49, and Chongmei Wei, 59.

Huang was arrested and charged with felony promoting prostitution and felony continuing a criminal enterprise. She was given a $15,000 bond. Wei has outstanding arrest warrants for promoting prostitution and continuing a criminal enterprise.

(WATCH BELOW: Six people cited in York Co. prostitution, human trafficking investigation, deputies say)
Members of an armed forces color guard carry the casket containing the body of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein , D-Calif., at San Francisco International Airport, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, in San Francisco. | D. Ross Cameron, Associated Press

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein died of natural causes Thursday night at 90 years old. Preparations are now underway for her funeral and other acknowledgements of her long career in public service.

A public viewing will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 4, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. PDT on the steps of the San Francisco City Hall, and her funeral service on Thursday, Oct. 5, at 1 p.m. PDT will be open to the public at the same location. Following the public service, there will be a family-only ceremony for her burial, per CNN.

The public portion of the funeral will be livestreamed, and local news affiliates will provide live coverage of both the public viewing on Wednesday and the funeral service the following day. The funeral service was originally scheduled to take place at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, per NBC.

In order for lawmakers to attend her funeral, the Senate will adjourn early this week. Confirmed to attend are California Sen. Alex Padilla and Vice President Kamala Harris, according to Roll Call.

Feinsteins longtime friend Rep. Nancy Pelosi accompanied her body on a U.S. military plane on Saturday from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, per Politico.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom released a statement on Friday after news of her death broke:

Dianne Feinstein was many things  a powerful, trailblazing U.S. Senator; an early voice for gun control; a leader in times of tragedy and chaos. But to me, she was a dear friend, a lifelong mentor, and a role model not only for me, but to my wife and daughters for what a powerful, effective leader looks like. She was a political giant, whose tenacity was matched by her grace. She broke down barriers and glass ceilings, but never lost her belief in the spirit of political cooperation. And she was a fighter  for the city, the state and the country she loved. Every race she won, she made history, but her story wasnt just about being the first woman in a particular political office, it was what she did for California, and for America, with that power once she earned it. Thats what she should be remembered for. There is simply nobody who possessed the strength, gravitas, and fierceness of Dianne Feinstein. Jennifer and I are deeply saddened by her passing, and we will mourn with her family in this difficult time.

On Friday, the White House issued a proclamation celebrating Feinsteins life.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein was a pioneering American and a true trailblazer. In San Francisco, she showed enormous poise and courage in the wake of tragedy, and became a powerful voice for American values. In the United States Senate, she turned passion into purpose, and led the fight to ban assault weapons, also making her mark on everything from national security to the environment to protecting civil liberties, the statement said.
To an ordinary person, theres a lot that doesnt make sense about Harrington v. Purdue Pharma, a major case in which the Supreme Court will hear arguments this term. Its a bankruptcy case. But its not about people who are in bankruptcy. In fact, its about giving those people who arent in bankruptcy even more legal protection than they could get if they really were in bankruptcy. And its about whether those people can buy their way out of liability for any wrongdoing theyve donewithout a trial and without the consent of the people theyve harmed.

All of this in a bankruptcy case. Got that?

The backstory is easier to get. Its a story of how the Sackler family built its vast wealth from its company that aggressively sold opioids and hid their addictive natureand in the process, fueled an epidemic that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives.

Purdue was first convicted of drug-marketing crimes in 2007. But in the wake of that plea, the Sackler-run company only intensified its sales push (including paying kickbacks to doctors and others to increase opioid prescriptions). At the same time, as a federal district judge later described it, the Sackler family members involved with running Purdue were well aware of their personal liability. Concerned about how their personal financial situation might be affected, the judge wrote, the family began  withdrawing money from Purdue almost as soon as the ink was dry on the 2007 papers.

By 2019, Purdue and the Sacklers were facing a flood of lawsuits by opioid survivors and others who got caught in the epidemic. By then, the Sackler family members had siphoned off 75 percent of Purdues profits for themselves. Purdues board later put the firm in bankruptcy.*

The Sackler family members used Purdues bankruptcy to cut a deal with some of those victims and survivors and othersa deal the Sacklers couldnt get anywhere else. The deal, which was approved by 95 percent of those voting (though fewer than 20 percent of those who could vote did), lets the Sacklers pay up to $6 billion over 18 years in exchange for a broad release that, if it stands, will forever shield them and hundreds of others from facing people in court like Ellen Isaacs. Her son Ryan became addicted to opioids after a doctor prescribed OxyContin when he fell off a bridge and hurt his back. He died from overdosing on opioids in 2018.

Theres no way to measure whether and for how much the Sackler family members who ran Purdue should truly be liable, because theyve never stood trial for their actions at Purdue. In all this time, the Justice Department has not charged any of the Sackler family members with a crime. Unless that changes, it leaves any notion of justice to be had in a bankruptcy court. Or with the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court took this case to answer what a federal judge called the great unsettled question in the Purdue case: Does the bankruptcy code allow for a bankruptcy like Purdues to include protection (in the form of a liability release) for people who arent in bankruptcy, like the Sacklers? Sackler family members said they would not contribute money to the bankruptcy without such immunity.

Purdues bankruptcy judge approved a broadly worded release that covers hundreds of Sackler family members, their descendants, and others connected to Purdue and other entities. The release protects the Sacklers and the others from claims based on fraud and willful misconductsomething the bankruptcy code explicitly bars for people who are in bankruptcy.

A federal district court judge rejected Purdues plan, ruling that the bankruptcy code does not authorize releases like the one the Sacklers demanded. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed and upheld the plan. The Second Circuit panel reasoned, in part, that because the bankruptcy code does not explicitly prohibit releases, they are legal.

The publics bankruptcy watchdog for New York, William Harrington, appealed to the Supreme Court, and the solicitor general of the United States is representing him.

Upholding the Sackler release would leave in place a roadmap for wealthy corporations and individuals to misuse the bankruptcy system to avoid mass tort liability, the solicitor general wrote to the Supreme Court. The justices agreed to hear the case in Decemberand to pause Purdues plan in the meantime.

In sometimes stark language, a number of law professors argue in amicus briefs that the rationale invoked by the Second Circuit panel is being used to protect people outside bankruptcy and to strip survivors and others of their fundamental right to sue and be heard, forcing some of them to take a deal they dont agree to. They brand the Sackler release as abusive, a moral hazard, and a descent into lawlessness in Chapter 11.

A group of Canadian municipalities and First Nations protest the Sackler releasewhich voters did not get to approve separatelyas barring anyone, anywhere, anytime, from filing an opioid-related claim against thousands of individuals and entitiesincluding generations of Sackler family members born and unborn, along with officers, directors, trustees and others for Purdue and its related entitiesfor their roles in directing, assisting, and facilitating Purdues misconduct.

For its part, Purdue argues the Second Circuit got it right and that challenging the plan would only hurt the victims and survivors. Purdue said it had nearly universal supportamong those who votedfor a plan it calls fair and equitable.

Lawyers representing 60,000 victims agreed and asked the Supreme Court not to delay what they called a remarkable settlement. The settlement provides up to $750 million for individual survivors; most of the Sackler payment is slated to go toward opioid abatement measures.

The $750 million will have to go toward legal fees and other costs before going to survivors, however. And some survivors, including Ellen Isaacs, are now learning of the stringent requirements for documenting a family members OxyContin use in order to be paid.

A lot of bankruptcy experts think the court will reject these releases outright, based on the lack of explicit statutory authority and the constitutional problems with due process, separation of powers, and the right to a jury trial. Others say it could get more complicated. Purdues arguments that most of those voting approved the plan could hold sway, as could its arguments (backed by business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) that these releases are necessary in complex cases.

If Purdue wins, and the Sackler family members get to keep their release as is, expect bankruptcy courts to take over more and more mass tort cases. Critics say we can also expect owners of companies who want to hide massive wrongdoing to use Chapter 11 as an escape hatch. That could leave victims and survivors of that wrongdoing in this bizarre legal purgatory: overseen by a bankruptcy judge who does not have the power to rule on their claims against the wrongdoers but who has the power to prevent them from ever being heard.

* This article has been updated to clarify the chain of command prior to the bankruptcy filing.
Reuters

During World War II, Joseph Stalin imposed a draconian punishment for soldiers who retreated or left their posts without authorization: They would be made to join punishment battalions that would in turn be deployed to the most dangerous parts of the front, effectively a death sentence.

This year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has resurrected the practice of throwing penal units into battle, according to a report, with so-called Storm-Z squads shipped off to to the site of some of the most intense fighting in Ukraine. As with their Soviet predecessors, those who find themselves in such squads allegedly face extreme danger, as well as disregard from commanders who view their lives as less important than those of ordinary troops.

Kyiv May Be Accidentally Helping Russian Agents Penetrate Ukraine

According to a Reuters report, the penal units consist of between 100 and 150 members and are made up of both civilian and military offenders. The units are embedded within regular Russian army units and have typically been sent to the most exposed parts of the front and often sustain heavy losses, sources familiar with the squads said.

Storm-Z squads are made up of convicts who join in order to have their crimes pardoned and regular soldiers who are being punished for violating military disciplinary rules, according to the report. Unlike the mercenary Wagner Group, which similarly recruited convicts for the invasion of Ukraine, Storm-Z units are allegedly operating under the direct command of the Russian Defense Ministry.

Soldiers have reportedly been ordered into the units for disciplinary transgressions including drinking while on duty, using drugs, and refusing to follow orders. Once pressed into Storm-Z squads, troops are no longer held in the same regard as their former comrades.

Storm fighters, theyre just meat, one regular Russian army soldier said. He added that he had himself given treatment to a group of six or seven wounded Storm-Z fighters on the battlefield despite being ordered not to by a commander. The unnamed soldier, from Army Unit No. 40318, also said he sympathized with men thrown into the punishment units. If the commandants catch anyone with the smell of alcohol on their breath, then they immediately send them to the Storm squads, he said.

Troops in Storm-Z units have also spoken out about their desperate situation themselves. In June, a group of around 20 Storm fighters recorded a video complaining about their treatment, saying they refused to return to the front in Zaporizhzhia.

On the frontline, where weve been, we did not get deliveries of ammunition, one fighter says in the footage. We did not get water or food. The injured were not taken away: still now the dead are rotting. He went on to add, Were given dreadful orders that are not even worth carrying out, and We refuse to continue carrying out combat missions.

Although the Russian Defense Ministry has never acknowledged creating or deploying Storm-Z units, their existence emerged in April when the Institute for the Study of War think-tank shared details of a purported Russian military report about the squads being established. It said the Storm-Z companies were being created outside of conventional army unit structure and that their fighters were being given just 10-15 days of refresher training, a remarkably short amount of time to adequately train personnel (even reservists with some experience) to perform complex combat tasks and create unit cohesion.

On Friday, Putin said during a televised meeting with Russian servicemen that he was aware of convicts fighting in the army, specifically referencing two former inmates who had been killed in action. They gave their lives for the motherland and have fully absolved themselves of their guilt, he said.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Given the surge of over 125,000 individuals into New York City, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul announced the creation of 18,000 new jobs for qualified asylum seekers and migrants.

Employment for Asylum Seekers

Hochul said on Monday, October 2, that since evaluation and outreach began on August 24, the state's Department of Labor has found over 18,000 private sector job opportunities at 379 organizations throughout the state. These companies have identified tasks that might be filled by persons with legal work status.

In the figures provided by the governor's office, almost 24% of the available jobs are in the hotel and food services industry, spread among 90 separate enterprises. A further 79 organizations, or 21%, may be found in the health care and social support sector. A total of 10% of the available positions are in manufacturing at 38 companies, while 8%77 are in administrative support at 29 companies.

According to Fox News, Hochul said at a news conference, "We have to manage the fact that there are 125,000 people right now, up until tomorrow, have not been eligible to work, and have relied on public support for housing ... That is not a sustainable dynamic ... I'm going to call on businesses to sign up even more."

Mayor Adams' Contentious Plan

The identified job openings are dispersed across the state of New York, seemingly in coordination with Mayor Eric Adams' controversial decompression strategy to relieve pressure on the city. These regions include the Capital Region, Central Region, Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley, Long Island, Mohawk Valley, North Country, Southern Tier, and Western Region.

New York City offers 9,801 available jobs that asylum seekers may apply for.

Despite open opposition from or legal battles with local leaders, the state has identified 2,896 spaces in the Hudson Valley and 1,294 openings on Long Island for the relocation of largely male migrants to hotels for prolonged months-long stays.

Assisting Venezuelans

At a news conference on Monday, Hochul lauded the Biden administration for providing Venezuelans with temporary protection status and fast-tracking their applications for work permits. According to New York City estimates, over 15,000 Venezuelans will be able to get legal employment status in the next 30 days.

Meanwhile, about 60% of the migrants who have landed in New York City are not from Venezuela, according to the governor's estimate. More than 2,100 members of the National Guard have been sent to deal with the current migrant crisis, and Hochul has mobilized 250 of them to provide full-time case management services for asylum seekers.

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Russia is planning to increase its defense spending by 30%, leaked documents show, per UK intel.

This suggests that Moscow is preparing for the war in Ukraine to carry on for years.

Observers believe that Russia is hoping Western support for Ukraine will wane.

Russia is planning to dramatically increase its defense spending, suggesting it is preparing for the war in Ukraine to carry on for years, the UK Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update on Sunday.

Moscow is planning to increase its defense spending by up to around 30% of total public expenditure in 2024, documents "apparently leaked" by Russia's Finance Ministry suggest.

The proposed budget of 10.8 trillion rubles marks a 68% increase from 2023, and would total approximately 6% of the country's GDP, the Ministry of Defence said, adding that the move would likely be "at the expense of the wider economy."

The move echoes recent comments made by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who said there was a plan to increase the supply of modern weapons to the military by 2025.

"We continue to build up the combat power of the Armed Forces, including through supplies of modern weapons and improving the training of troops taking into account the experience of a special military operation," Shoigu said, per Russian news agency Interfax.

Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York City, told the BBC that Putin is "not going to give up. He's not going to waver, he's not going to blink, he's not going to make concessions."

She said that the Russian president was "waiting it out" in the hope that Western support of Ukraine would waver.

The US and other Western allies have been supporting Ukraine throughout the conflict by sending crucial aid and weapons.

However, a number of politicians in the US, particularly in the Republican party, have been increasingly critical of the amount of spending on Ukraine.

There have been growing fears among European allies that if a hardline Republican candidate, such as current frontrunner Donald Trump, were to win the presidential election in 2024, aid to Ukraine would take a significant cut.

Trump has repeatedly said that if elected he would end the war within 24 hours  without elaborating on how he would do that. He has also been unclear about how much he would support Ukraine.

Michael McFaul, the former US Ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama, said in August that Russian President Vladimir Putin was likely biding his time until after the election.

"Obviously, Putin is waiting for the outcome of the U.S. 2024 presidential election," he said. "If Trump is reelected, Putin has reason to believe that he could strike a much better deal on Ukraine."

Read the original article on Business Insider
By 1 oclock on Monday afternoon, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood had been swinging hammers into nail heads for the better part of an unseasonably warm October day in Charlotte  and quitting time was still hours away.

This, they agreed, was definitely going to leave a mark.

Oh, hell, the 61-year-old Brooks said, smirking, when someone asked if he thought his body would be aching when he woke up the next morning. Im sore right now. Yearwood, his wife and, of course, a fellow country music singer, laughed before adding: I mean, we exercise and stuff, but this is different. ... Ill feel it tomorrow, for sure.

But theyll be back here  at this massive neighborhood-in-progress not far from the airport in west Charlotte  on Tuesday, on Wednesday, on Thursday, and then on Friday, too.

Along with 900 other local, regional, national and international Habitat for Humanity volunteers. Working to build 23 homes at The Meadows at Plato Price and four more on New Pineola Road in just one week. As part of the global housing nonprofits Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project, the organizations first anywhere since 2019 due to the pandemic; and the first in Charlotte since the former U.S. president led a big early one with his wife in the Optimist Park community in 1987.

Yearwood and Brooks have long been considered country-music royalty, and two Julys ago he headlined a pair of sold-out shows at Bank of America Stadium at which she made cameos. They looked like superstars. On Monday, though, the couple looked like everyone else, as they have pretty much every time theyve participated in Carter Work Projects for Habitat between 2007 and 2019.

Brooks wore butterscotch-colored work pants and a black T-shirt from 2017s build in Edmonton in Alberta, Canada emblazoned with a cartoon hammer and the words Get Your Hammer On!

Yearwood had on black yoga pants, black rectangle glasses, and the same sky-blue T-shirt most of the other volunteers were wearing.

Country music power couple Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood participate in Habitat for Humanitys 2023 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project on Monday, October 2, 2023 in Charlotte, NC.

With their hardhats on, you honestly might have a hard time picking them out of the crowd swarming the house theyre building if you just showed up at The Meadows at Plato Place this week to gawk. Do not attempt it, however: The street where the work is being done is closed to the general public.

But while we cant help with any actual physical celebrity sightings, we can give you a glimpse of whats on Brooks and Yearwoods minds this week as they take over hosting duties for Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter  who turned 99 on Sunday.

Here are highlights from our conversation with the couple, edited for clarity and brevity.

Q. Hows it going so far?

Yearwood: Great!

Brooks: See that house behind us? Thats our house.

Yearwood: Were very proud of our walls.

Brooks: Yeah, I guess Ive been away from it too long. Cause this morning when I pulled up, I went, This aint never gonna work. (Chuckling.) And then next thing you know, walls are up.

Yearwood: And whats also cool is, if a house (by one group) gets done first, and somebody else is still working (on another), everybody will just move over and help that house get done  including the homeowner. So theyre actually getting to know their neighbors while theyre building their houses. By the time they all move in, theyre already a community.

Q. I watched Sunday nights opening ceremony online, and when they introduced you guys  right after that video presentation honoring the Carters legacy  Garth, you came out wiping away some tears. What made you emotional about seeing that?

Brooks: Man, Im a dad who has three daughters. So I cry at commercials now. Before we walked out, she goes, Dont cry. I said, Alright. Then they played that video. I look over and shes crying! So when she starts crying, (I did). Im just in love with the President and the First Lady. I just am. Im in love with them for what they do here. The way they act.

The thought of unity somehow is disappearing. Which I dont understand. You would think the longer time gets, the more unified wed all get. But they seem to be one of the greatest (champions for) unity, and I just miss that. I miss them.

Yearwood: Yeah, and watching the video, too, for me, was remembering all the builds weve been on together. We were on so many of those builds with them, and just their leadership, their kindness  like he said, theyre bringing everybody together and they dont take no for an answer. Its all about love. Youre gonna love each other, and theyre gonna show you how to do it, by the way they lead. Its something that we have to hold onto tightly, and keep going.

Brooks: He loved being around people, and made you want to be a better person.

Q. What are some other reasons why the Carter Work Project has become as important to you as it has?

Brooks: Do you have children?  People that dont have children, you talk about children and you just dont get it till you have a child. (If you hear about the Carter Work Project and havent ever done it) you might just go, Oh, thats cool. (But you just dont get it) until you swing that hammer, and you look down and the person right next to you is sweatin their ass off, and you look over and go, Oh. Thats the homeowner.

Yearwood: Theres a lot of ways to give. And you know, its great, however you give  if you sign a T-shirt for an auction, or you write a check  all those are great ways. But to come out here and swing a hammer alongside of the people who are working hard, theres just something about it. About getting your hands dirty. At the end of the day, you can see what you did! You have immediate gratification  like, We just put a wall up. So I think its that that we really enjoy.

We go home really tired, but its a good tired.

Country music power couple Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood participate in Habitat for Humanitys 2023 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project on Monday, October 2, 2023 in Charlotte, NC.

Brooks: Theres some girls from California that are here. We met at lunch. They paid to get here. And they paid a good amount to get here, just to come volunteer to build. And I think what it is, is the money that you spend, you cant get in return anywhere else what you get here. ... They pay money to come here to help people, cause it makes them feel so good. Its like Field of Dreams, when he goes, Theyll come here. They wont know why, but theyll give you 20 bucks ... because its money they have, but its joy that theyre looking for.

Q. But I think also part of the way  you understand this  that they get 900 people to come here is you two, right? Because your names are attached to it.

Brooks: You can try and blame it on us, which is very sweet, but I think its more because what were missing more than anything is love. And everywhere you look around here is love. Every sound you hear. Thats love. Those cheers you hear, thats love. Theres a lady sitting on a front stoop because she got overheated, and now two guys have her, thats love. Right? Man, if we all worked like this all the time  if we realized that skin color doesnt matter, if we realized that Republican, Democrat doesnt matter, pull together  see what we can do?

Q. So what are your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to building?

Yearwood: Well, he will pick up anything, he will get on the roof, hes the whatever-it-takes guy. This guy has been swinging from things for a long time, so hes not afraid of any of those jobs.

I am very bossy, and I am very Type A. But on a worksite, I love to just be told Hammer this nail here. This is where this goes. I love it. So Im just whatever you need done, let me know and Ill do it. Except I dont like to get on the roof.

Brooks: Were celebrities and were kind of the bosses of people (in everyday life), so we come here and we just love to be grunts. Just tell us. What do you want? ... (But) people are really kind of hesitant to tell us what to do.

Country music power couple Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood participate in Habitat for Humanitys 2023 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project on Monday, October 2, 2023 in Charlotte, NC.

Q. Do you feel like any of the volunteers seem distracted about working with you two, since youre celebrities?

Brooks: If Im working next to you, I want to know what kind of worker you are. Thats all I care about. I dont care if youre male, female, I dont care what your religious beliefs are, whatever. Are you helping me get this wall done as quickly as it can be?

Yearwood: And I think thats how most people (out here) feel.

Brooks: Yeah, the president often talked about Brad Pitt, and he spoke in the highest reverence with Brad Pitt, because Brad Pitt would get in there and work his ass off. And I think thats what this thing brings out in you: You realize that you owe it to the person sitting next to you to get that wall up and get it done right. Get it done safely, but get it up.

Q. You said earlier that you miss them being here. How different does this project feel, without the Carters?

Yearwood: It feels like hes here. I feel like hes looking over his shoulders right now. And Im sure hes asking how our house is doing.

Brooks: I told her at lunch, weve been on (lots of) these and  knock on wood  nones gone this smooth. I mean, this is like a machine going here. So I think hed be very, very proud.

Q. So what are you looking forward to most about this week?

Yearwood: Im just loving the build. I mean, I just really love getting in there. Like I said, Ill have blisters and Ill be tired tomorrow, but again, just taking direction and just kind of seeing it come together is really, really cool.

Brooks: Yeah, and try to remember, our headline for the next six days is not gonna be about a potential government shutdown. Its not gonna be about a trial. Its not gonna be about anything other than, Hey, Ashley ran a Sawzall today for the first time! We got that whole roof up, nobody got hurt! Thats our headlines. I love em. ...

The joy of not seeing depressing headlines here, its wonderful.
On September 25, Joe Biden made history as the first sitting president to walk a picket line when he joined striking members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) in Van Buren Township, Michigan.

Standing with UAW President Shawn Fain, Biden told the strikers through a bullhorn, "You deserve the significant raise you need and other benefits." But a big raise for the UAW could very well come at the expense of one of Biden's core campaign promises.

The strike began on September 15 when talks broke down between the UAW and the Big Three automakers (Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis). Among its demands, the union wants a 36-percent raise over four years, a 32-hour work week, and the reinstatement of pension and cost-of-living benefits that it gave up during the 2008 recession.

It also seeks protections as the industry transitions to a greater focus on electric vehicles (E.V.s), a central priority of Biden's presidency. This year the Environmental Protection Administration adopted rules that would require 67 percent of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2032 to be electric. "The UAW supports and is ready for the transition to a clean auto industry," Fain noted in August. "But the EV transition must be a just transition that ensures auto workers have a place in the new economy." Tied to that transition, the UAW's demands include the right to strike over plant closures and additional job protections in the event that plants shut down.

Autoworkers are right to be worried: According to a 2019 report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), traditional vehicles "have as many as 2,000 components in their powertrains," and "of the nearly 590,000 U.S. employees engaged in motor vehicle parts manufacturing, about one-quarternearly 150,000make components for internal combustion powertrains."

On the other hand, "an electric vehicle powertrain has only a few" components. "For example, Tesla has said its drivetrain has 17 moving parts, including two in the motor." As a result, E.V.s require significantly fewer parts and therefore fewer man-hours to build: "Electric vehicle powertrains, if built domestically and not imported, would generate production employment," the report noted, "but fewer employees may be needed than at present because vehicle battery packs have relatively few components and are less complicated to assemble than internal combustion engine powertrains."

A July 2023 report from the America First Policy Institute, a think tank founded by former members of Donald Trump's presidential administration, estimated that the Biden administration's E.V. mandate would cost 117,000 auto industry jobs, nearly half of them from Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana.

But the union's demands may not be feasible at the industry's current trajectory. The union is asking for more money and fewer hours as the industry transitions to E.V.s, but established companies are hemorrhaging money on the transition. After previously predicting that it may lose $3 billion this year on its E.V. division, Ford now anticipates a loss of as much as $4.5 billion. Last year, General Motors CEO Mary Barra told investors that the company didn't expect to make a profit on E.V.s until 2025.

Notably, the companies are struggling even after receiving billions of dollars in government subsidies. Most recently, at the end of August, the Biden administration authorized an additional $12 billion in grants and loans for companies to upgrade and retrofit their facilities.

Ford CEO Jim Farley said the UAW's proposals could send the automaker into bankruptcy, while Barra said they were not "realistic." Dan Ives, research analyst for Wedbush Securities, said in a note to investors that the UAW's demands, if fully accepted, could cause automakers "to pass these costs onto the consumer" by increasing E.V. prices by as much as $5,000 each.

By visiting an active picket line, Biden made his preference clear in the fight between unions and management. But depending on how the negotiations go, he may not be able to have it both ways: Either UAW members can get a big raise, or automakers can push forward in the transition to electric vehicles.

The post A Raise for Auto Workers May Imperil Biden's Electric Vehicle Ambitions appeared first on Reason.com.
WINCHESTER, Ind.  A Randolph County man is accused of breaking into a local home and trying to abduct a juvenile.

David Santiago-Hernandez, 31, of Union City, was charged last week in Randolph Superior Court with burglary and attempted kidnapping.

According to Union City police, Santiago-Hernandez on Sept. 27 entered a house in the 400 block of West Hickory Street through a rear window. While inside the home, officers reported, the Union City man "grabbed" a child, but then fled on foot.

A short time earlier, police said, Santiago-Hernandez had reported to Union City authorities that someone was trying to kill him. A woman described as his "significant other" told police he had been "acting crazy."

The burglary count filed Thursday is a Level 4 felony carrying up to 12 years in prison. Attempted kidnapping is a Level 5 felony with a maximum six-year sentence.

He continued to be held in the Randolph County jail on Tuesday, when he was also scheduled to appear at an initial court hearing.

At the time of his latest arrest, Santiago-Hernandez already faced a total of three charges in two cases pending in Randolph Superior Court  battery resulting in bodily injury, domestic battery and interference with the reporting of a crime.

In 2018, he was convicted of battery resulting in bodily injury, also in Randolph Superior Court, and was sentenced to three days already served in the county jail.

In other crime news:

Drug sentence: A Winchester man convicted of possession of meth was sentenced last week to nine years in prison.

A plea agreement in the Randolph Circuit Court case had called for dismissal of other charges pending against 50-year-old Eric T. Beer, including three counts of dealing in meth, the most serious a Level 2 felony carrying up to 30 years in prison.

Judge Jay Toney gave Beer credit for 212 days already served in jail.

The Winchester man was convicted of possession of a narcotic drug in 2019.

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: Union City man accused of burglary, trying to abduct child
The suspect accused of abducting nine-year-old Charlotte Sena from a New York campsite has now been charged with kidnapping.

Craig Nelson Ross Jr, 47, was arrested on Monday evening and charged with first-degree kidnapping in the early hours of Tuesday morning in a chilling case that was described as every parents worst nightmare.

The terrifying ordeal unfolded on Saturday evening when Charlotte was riding her bike in Moreau Lake State Park in Saratoga County.

When she failed to return  and her bike was found abandoned  her parents raised the alarm.

Almost 48 hours on from her abduction, the little girl was found alive in Mr Ross Jrs campervan, officials said  and the 47-year-old was arrested on charges.

It remains unclear if he has any connection to the nine-year-old or her family.

Heres what we know so far about the suspect:

The suspect

Craig Nelson Ross Jr, 47, was named as the suspect in the disappearance of nine-year-old Charlotte Sena.

He was arrested on Monday at his campervan around the back of his mothers house.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, he was charged with first-degree kidnapping and appeared for his arraignment in Milton Town Court.

He was then booked into Saratoga County jail at around 3.40am where he is currently being held without bail.

Police are attempting to determine if the Sena family was known to the suspect.

At a press conference on Monday evening, New York Governor Kathy Hochul revealed the address connected to the suspects vehicle was two miles from Charlottes home in Greenfield, New York.

Police will spend Tuesday interviewing Mr Ross Jr to determine if he had the nine-year-old under surveillance, Governor Hochul said.

The governor also said the suspects home is being searched by police to make sure he is not connected to any other cases.

Mr Ross Jr was identified by authorities after he drove to the home of Charlottes parents and left a ransom note on Monday morning, Governor Hochul said.

He literally drove up to the familys mailbox assuming they were not home, Ms Hochul said, adding that Charlottes parents were still at the campground at Moreau Lake State Park at the time, and officers who were monitoring the family home had been sent to another call in the area.

Police later tested the note for fingerprints and searched law enforcement databases for a match.

A match later came back as belonging to the 47-year-old suspect.

The abduction

Charlotte had been snatched while out on a solo bike ride in Moreau Lake State Park in Saratoga County, upstate New York, on Saturday evening.

The family later found her bike abandoned in the area  but no sign of little Charlotte.

Charlotte Sena, 9 (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children)

At around 6.45pm, the fourth-graders distraught mother called 911 to report her daughter missing.

Police issued an Amber Alert for the girls disappearance the next day.

The search for Charlotte included New York Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers, New York State Police, and the FBI, involving an estimated 400 search and rescue personnel. Assistance also came from 34 volunteer fire departments.

All told, the search area spanned over 46 linear miles within the 6,200-acre park.

The governor pleaded with the public for help locating the missing child.

We are leaving no stone, no branch, no table, no cabin unturned, untouched, unexamined in our search to find Charlotte, Governor Hochul said at a press conference on Sunday. If you know anything, if youve seen anything, if you hear anything, please contact 911 to tell us what you know.

They camped, they cooked out and theyre here to make memories, the kind that lasts a lifetime, she added. But instead, the day turned into every parents nightmare.

Moreau Lake State Park temporarily closed while authorities searched for Charlotte.

Police also manned checkpoints on roads nearby and searched passing vehicles.

The rescue

After getting a fingerprint match for Mr Ross Jr, law enforcement tracked him down to the campervan where he lived behind his mothers home.

Ms Hochul said that officers made a dynamic entry into the campervan and found the suspect inside.

Missing poster for Charlotte Sena (NYSP)

Mr Ross Jr was taken into custody after some resistance and little Charlotte was then found hidden and covered inside a cabinet.

She knew that she was being rescued. She knew that she was in safe hands, the governor said.

Charlotte outwardly seemed to be unharmed but was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure, the governor said.

Her parents were notified that she was found safe at 6.32pm  almost exactly 48 hours after she was reported missing  and the family was reunited on Monday evening.

A GoFundMe page for the Sena family has now raised over $18,000.

Please donate to help the family during this difficult time, a message posted on the fundraiser page reads. Any donations will go directly to her parents to help with any expenses while they transition back into some sense of normalcy.
The 46-year-old man accused of kidnapping 9-year-old Charlotte Sena in upstate New York wrote a ransom note with intent to get money, according to an arraignment memorandum released Tuesday.

Craig Nelson Ross Jr., abducted the girl and wrote a ransom letter with the intent to compel the payment of monies as ransom for her, the document states.

He is charged with kidnapping in the first degree, and police said further charges were anticipated. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for October 6, according to the document. He was remanded to Saratoga County Correctional Facility without bail, New York State Police said in a news release.

CNN has reached out to the defense attorney for Ross.

The details from the court document come a day after the 9-year-old girl was reunited with her family following a frantic two-day search for her whereabouts. Her family released a statement Tuesday thanking law enforcement for safely resolving her disappearance.

We are thrilled that she is home and we understand that the outcome is not what every family gets, the Sena family said in a statement. A huge thank you to the FBI, the New York State police, all of the agencies that were mobilized, all of the families, friends, community, neighbors and hundreds of volunteers who supported us and worked tirelessly to bring Charlotte home.

State police have held off on interviewing Charlotte about her kidnapping and time in captivity, according to sources briefed on the investigation. After a medical check, Charlotte was returned to her family so they would have time together. Investigators will use specially trained forensic interviewers who are skilled in conducting interviews of young victims and witnesses, sources told CNNs John Miller.

Investigators were able to find Charlotte thanks to the ransom note, state officials said. The note was dropped in the mailbox at the Sena familys home before dawn on Monday, and fingerprints on the note were instrumental in identifying Ross as a suspect, officials said.

Authorities then tracked him to a residence where law enforcement arrested him Monday evening and immediately found Charlotte hidden in a cabinet, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in a news conference.

The girl appeared outwardly physically unharmed and was taken to a hospital to be examined, the governor said.

Ross invoked his right to an attorney and has not been formally interviewed, sources told Miller.

The path to discovering Charlotte

Charlotte went missing on Saturday during a family camping trip at New Yorks Moreau Lake State Park, sparking an around-the-clock search involving hundreds of personnel from multiple agencies, including the FBI, state police said.

At around 4:20 a.m. Monday, less than 36 hours after she was reported missing, the suspect drove by the Sena family home and placed the ransom note in their mailbox, according to Hochul. Despite the early hour, Charlottes parents were still at the campsite searching for their daughter.

When state police, who were monitoring the home, discovered the note, they were able to recover fingerprints from the document and began running them through law enforcement databases to see if they could find a match, the governor said.

A hit came at 2:30 p.m., linking the fingerprint to Ross, the governor said. Ross fingerprint had been entered into the database for a 1999 incident of driving while intoxicated, she said.

That hit led investigators to a camper behind his mothers double-wide mobile home in Ballston Spa, New York.

Craig Nelson Ross - Saratoga County Sheriff's Office

Two state and federal SWAT teams descended upon the residence in helicopters, made entry and arrested Ross around 6:30 p.m., Hochul said. Charlotte was immediately found inside a cabinet.

She knew she was being rescued, the governor said. She knew she was in safe hands.

They were able to bring her to safety. And not long after, she was in the arms of her parents at a hospital, the governor added.

Ross resisted arrest and suffered minor injuries while being taken into custody, state police said.

In addition to the fingerprints, investigators also analyzed cell phone pings around the park at the time of Charlottes disappearance, Hochul told CNN Monday night. Additional insight came from park records, which contain information about visitors who paid an entrance fee or registered to camp overnight, she said.

With those cell phone records, they can go back in time and figure out how long he was in that park and whether he had been monitoring that family either overnight, or through the day or only for minutes, Lyons said. It could have been that lightning struck when he drove in and saw opportunity.

The property where Charlotte was found is registered to the suspects mother and is located almost 17 miles away from where she was last seen in Moreau Lake State Park, according to property records reviewed by CNN. The suspect also owns a property that is only 1,400 feet from the Sena family home, the records show.

CNN has reached out to the suspects mother and her then-husband, who purchased the Ballston Spa land together, but did not immediately receive a response.

Every parents worst nightmare

Law enforcement officers are seen at the site of the search for Charlotte Sena. - Spectrum News Albany

Charlottes parents were confronted with every parents worst nightmare when their daughter took off on her bike Saturday and didnt return, Hochul said.

The girl was last seen around 6:15 p.m. Saturday in Moreau Lake State Park, a popular recreation site about 45 miles north of Albany. She had been riding her bike with friends around one of the park loops and wanted to do one more loop by herself, according to the governor.

Charlottes mother reported her missing around 6:45 p.m. when her daughters bike was found abandoned in the loop and the 9-year-old was nowhere to be found, Lt. Colonel Richard Mazzone of the New York State Police said.

As time went on and the search for Charlotte expanded across several counties, authorities began to fear she had been abducted, Hochul said.

As each hour went on, hope faded. Because we all know the stories, Hochul said.

State police described Charlotte in a news release as a bright and adventurous girl who loves to be outside.

Charlotte has a huge heart and wants to create a club at her school for kids who dont have friends. She always put others first, state police said, assuring the public they were working tirelessly to find her.

By Monday morning, the search encompassed 46 linear miles and drew about 400 search and rescue personnel from state, federal and local law enforcement agencies, as well as private groups and dozens of volunteer fire departments, state police said.

It was an awesome sight to witness  everyone doing their job, Hochul said Monday night, thanking those who worked to find the girl.

There were a lot of parents out there among the ranks and everybody thinks, If it was my child, I would want everybody under the sun looking for them. And thats what this team did, she said.

Massive search team with specialty units was put together

Immense law enforcement resources from state and federal agencies were brought to bear after the childs disappearance.

The New York State Police Special Operations Response Team, an aviation unit with helicopters, fixed wing aircraft and a specialized drone team, was sent to the area. The unit was established for the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics as an elite state police counterterrorism team and has extensive training in rappelling from helicopters, fast roping from rooftops and hostage rescue.

State police dogs, hostage negotiators and major crimes detectives were all brought to the state police command center at Moreau Lake State Park, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

The FBI offered a full package of resources to support the investigation into Charlottes disappearance.

The bureau has a Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team, a rapid response entity made up of investigators who specialize in assisting local law enforcement, understanding that the first 48 hours in a child abduction case are the most critical.

Other teams included the Behavioral Analysis Unit made up of profilers who track and analyze serial killers, and Crisis Response Team agents specially trained in negotiating in kidnap and hostage situations.

Sources said another critical entity in this case was the Cellular Analysis Survey Team  a small group of agents that deploy to major cases and specialize in real-time tracking of cell phones and historical recreation of cellular records and trails.

Albany field office agents also worked with federal prosecutors to get subpoenas and warrants from federal magistrates to pull records, sources added.

The FBI delivered a large mobile command post that has encrypted satellite access to all major FBI databases. The bureau also brought in victim-witness advocates to help deal with family and friends of the victim, multiple sources briefed on the case said.

The FBIs jurisdiction in a kidnapping case follows the law created after the 1932 kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in New Jersey. Based on the Lindbergh Law, the FBI can enter any kidnapping investigation on the presumption the victim might be transported across state lines, making the kidnapping a federal crime.

And despite the Hollywood image of the FBI swooping in and big-footing the locals, in most cases  like the Idaho student murders, the Gilgo Beach serial killer case, or any number of active shooter situations  the FBI brings the full raft of bureau resources in a support role.

CNNs John Miller, Rachel Burstein Parks, Eric Levenson, Paul P. Murphy, Jennifer Henderson, Jared Formanek, Dave Alsup and Raja Razek contributed to this report.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Danielle Dion has spent much of the last 22 years aboard a Quoddy Link Marine whale watching tour boat in Canada.

Until about a decade ago, the senior marine biologist and naturalist could regularly spot her favorite species of whale, the North Atlantic right whale, which relied on the Bay of Fundy as a critical feeding habitat, she told McClatchy News.

They really have abandoned this as as a feeding habitat due to a lack of food, Dion said. They have mostly shifted completely out of the Bay of Fundy, further north, and about a third of the population is now visiting areas like the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in order to find food.

What was once a regular occurrence for Dion is now a rarity. The last time she saw a right whale was in 2019, and the species had yet to frequent the bay at all in 2023  until now.

Dion was leading a tour in the bay on Saturday, Sept. 30, when a whale appeared ahead of the boats stern, according to a Facebook post from the tour agency. It was a North Atlantic right whale, and there were three more alongside it.

To find right whales, not one but four individuals, was...I was in tears, Dion said. I had a hard time even talking to my passengers for a couple of minutes as I composed myself.

Dion and other experts aboard the ship photographed and documented the whales, using scarring and callosities to identify the whales and distinguish between them, she said. They contacted the Canadian Whale Institute, which confirmed the whales species identification.

It was an incredibly special experience, Dion said. I personally havent seen a right whale since 2019.

North Atlantic right whales are one of the most endangered species of large whales in the world, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Experts believe there are less than 350 individuals left in the population which has been experiencing an unusual mortality event since 2017.

Dion said changing water temperatures are likely behind the species abandonment of the Bay of Fundy.

Its happening fast, she said.

As of Oct. 2 at least some of the whales were still in the bay, Dion said.

I dont know how else to describe to my passengers other than to say its a privilege to spend time in the presence of a critically endangered species, Dion wrote in the agencys Facebook post. I was in AWE.

Other social media users shared their excitement on Facebook.

Ohh my heart!! This is so so amazing and Im so happy for everyone who had the experience of seeing such a beautiful species, one person commented.

WOW!! Wonderful to see these rare majestic creatures, another person commented.

Amazing pictures. Incredible day. A Right Whalewow, a third person wrote.

The Bay of Fundy is about 100 miles northeast of Bar Harbor, Maine.

Unusual clicking sounds lead divers to show of a lifetime. See creature encounter

Watch huge sea creature put on magical show for tourists in Canada. Its amazing

Watch phenomenal stampede of sea creatures in California. One for the books
Rasheem Carter Disappeared 1 Year Ago, And With No New Updates, His Mother Is Calling For A Federal Investigation | South_agency via Getty Images

The mother of Rasheem Ryelle Carter is still seeking answers after he went missing a year ago, and his remains were later found. Now, shes requesting a federal investigation into his death from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Rasheems mother, Tiffany Carter, shared her sons story with several outlets, recounting the necessary steps she had taken to find out more information about her sons death. However, she told ABC News official investigators on the case have not shared details with the family in several months.

If you [official investigators] have done everything you can, Tiffany told the outlet. Why I still dont have an answer to what happened to my son?

Blavity reported Rasheem sent his mother an alarming text on Oct. 1, 2022, from Taylorsville, Mississippi, where he worked. Tiffany said three white men were following her son in pickup trucks, and he feared for his life.

He told me on the phone that it was three trucks of white men trying to kill him, Tiffany Carter told ABC News. As any citizen of this world, youre going to try to get to a place of safety. And I thought telling him to go to a place of safety was the right thing to do as a mother because I wasnt close enough to get him, myself.

Laurel Police Department Chief Tommy Cox recalled Rasheem reporting the incident to the Taylorsville Police Department twice, stating he was concerned about his safety after the ordeal. He then asked police to give him a ride back to the Super 8 motel in Laurel, where he was living.

Police told HuffPost Rasheem asked for a ride, but they denied his request and said they were not a taxi service. However, Taylorsville Police Chief Gabe Horn said Rasheem filed a police report but did not press charges against those following him.

Horn also confirmed police couldnt give him a ride because it was out of the departments jurisdiction. Tiffany said she did not hear from her son after leaving the police station and filed a missing persons report with the Laurel Police Department on Oct. 2, 2022.

I called them and reported that my son was missing, I had not talked to him, and it was strange that we didnt talk, she said at the time, per HuffPost.

A month later, police found Rasheems remains in a wooded area south of Taylorsville, Mississippi. According to the familys attorney, Ben Crump, the 25-year-olds head was severed from his body, and his spinal cord was found in a separate location. The autopsy report later listed the official cause of death as undetermined.

On Feb. 23, the Mississippi Crime Lab told the family additional remains were recovered that matched Rasheems DNA. Since then, Tiffany said she has called the Mississippi Medical Examiners Office, which conducted the autopsy, multiple times for information and had not received a callback.

The grieving mother said she had not received her sons remains. Tiffany still believes something horrific happened to Rasheem, but God will handle everything.

I know this, something horrific was done to my son, Tiffany said. God knows and God will deal with everyone accordingly to what they have done.

Despite what Tiffany has gone through, she often worries about Rasheems 7-year-old daughter, who still sends text messages to his cell phone.

She texts that number, Daddy, I love you. I love you, all the time, Tiffany said. She listens to the videos and stuff that he sent her all the time. When I get her, my heart crushes every time cause she look just like him.
Editor's note: We asked members of the Kyiv Independent to share the questions they have about the war. Here's what they asked, and how we answered. Join our community to ask a question in the next round.

Question: What factors will swing the war decisively in Ukraine's favor?

Answer: One very simple conclusion that can be made from the last year of the war is that large-scale offensive operations have gotten a lot harder to do successfully for both sides than a year ago, and they are likely to only get harder.

Beyond this counteroffensive, both sides will look to take the upper hand in a war of attrition, to degrade the enemy more than they themselves are degraded so that they can attack again with more relative strength at some point. For this, the most important factors are manpower, drones, the capacity for longer-range strikes on logistics, and shells, shells, and more shells.

There don't look to be any other shortcuts anymore, but if Ukraine can truly gain free reign over the airspace in Crimea, the political and military consequences of that for Russia might just be the asymmetrical factor that can change the overall battlefield.  Francis Farrell, reporter

Read also: Russias southern mistake  Surovikin lines, Gerasimov tactics

Question: Now that the counteroffensive broke through the Russian front lines, how is Ukraine dealing with the minefields?

Answer: Minefields are still a very dicey business. You may have seen reports, including my own, repeat some Ukrainian commanders' words that they expect the mines to be less psychotically dense past the second line and so on because, in front of the first, there were straight up three to five of them per square meter.

And, it's not even ground, it's all wedged under obnoxiously dense ground foliage, which adds a whole other layer, while the Russian positions ahead are shooting you.

However, I've been admonished by a colonel in the know that the landmine density isn't going to fall off that hard. Russia has what seems like an inexhaustible supply of them, and they don't take very long to set up. So they're going to be a problem this whole offensive and beyond.

Now, as for how Ukraine is dealing with them.

The country is developing and using high tech tools like demining robots that can detect stuff, or at least can push or drag a plough-like thing that gets the mines, to clear a ground path through them.

These kinds of contraptions are sometimes affixed to tanks or other vehicles, but it's a great way to lose a tank to mines or someone just blasting it from up ahead. Ukraine also has and is making more drones with thermographic sights that can detect unexploded stuff in liberated areas.  Igor Kossov, reporter

Read also: Overcoming setbacks, NATO-trained brigade breaches Surovikin line in Zaporizhzhia Oblast

Question: Will Ukraine receive better tools to remove minefields?

Answer: Ukraine is trying to procure vehicles like this little guy, for front-line clearing, so the soldiers have some cover from frontal fire. It is mostly sourced from Europe.

However, these vehicles and more advanced stuff like robots are all pretty scarce, and according to my contact, a lot of front-line demining is also done by hand, with sensitive metal detectors. Ukraine doesn't get a lot of mine-clearing stuff as part of its military aid packages, as far as I'm told, and it could use as much of this stuff as possible.

There are many different variations on the type of vehicle I linked above, and Ukraine can use all of them, as well as any support that helps accelerate and scale up domestic ground drone production.  Igor Kossov, reporter

Read also: Russia is covering Ukraine with landmines. Clearing them will be extremely difficult

Question: Please discuss the appointment of Rustem Umierov as newDefense Minister. How it may affect Ukraine's ability to take back occupied territories?

Answer: It won't substantially affect Ukraine's ability on the front lines. Ukraine's Defense Minister is currently responsible for the procurement of weapons via formats like the one named after Ramstein and organizational stuff, like making sure soldiers have what to eat and what to wear.

Under Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, a number of corruption scandals damaged the ministry's reputation. However, overall, soldiers had food to eat and weapons to shoot from.

The big picture is overseen by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

There is room for improvement, but even if the ministry suddenly eradicates corruption and mismanagement, it won't have a decisive effect on the battlefield since Ukraine's lack of manpower, western jets, and long-range missiles isn't the ministry's fault, nor it can hope to fix these issues.  Oleksiy Sorokin, deputy chief editor

Read also: Who is Rustem Umerov, Ukraines soon-to-be defense minister?

Question: Zelensky has promised elections if the West furnishes the funding for them  assuming such funding is given, does this mean that other parties would be free in their political campaigns to criticize the handling of the war by Zelensky and his party?

Answer: Holding elections during an ongoing active war is absurd and less democratic than postponing them until everyone can vote and everyone can compete.

Political parties won't have funds to launch proper election campaigns while spending the money on political ads won't be supported by society.

President Volodymyr Zelensky's words about the willingness to hold elections if the West pays for it isn't a serious claim.

Millions won't be able to vote, candidates won't have the freedom to compete, and those who would have a chance to be elected are currently busy fighting Russian troops at the front.  Oleksiy Sorokin, deputy chief editor

Read also: Why Ukraine likely wont hold elections next year

Question: As more of Donbas and/or Crimea is recaptured, will Ukraine permit safe travel for Russophiles (or Russians) living in these areas who wish to leave for Russia? Will there be provision for those who remain to vote in the presidential elections next year?

Answer: Ukrainian men from 18 to 60 years of age aren't allowed to leave the country during martial law. What will happen after the war is over is hard to imagine, but I would assume that freedom of travel will be restored, and those who want to leave will have this ability.

Currently, it is unknown how many people in the long-occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and Crimea actually support Russia and wouldn't be able to live without the occupying state.

I'm confident Ukraine won't evict those people from their homes en masse Oleksiy Sorokin, deputy chief editor

Question: What is the best estimate of deaths on either side  tallying civilian and military casualties separately?

Answer: I think that although a lot of us were skeptical about the official Russian casualty figures published daily by Ukraine's General Staff, 19 months of war have shown them to be pretty much in line with official U.S. estimates, and to match the relative intensity of periods of fighting as the war goes on.

The latest neutral(ish) information we have from Washington about casualties from both sides was from this report from the New York Times in August, which puts Russian combat deaths at about 120,000 and Ukrainian at about 70,000  obviously with even more wounded on both sides.

I'm inclined to say these figures are probably in the ballpark. As for civilians  the big question is Mariupol. The nature of the fight there with a huge city surrounded like that has probably produced a number of civilian deaths that dwarfs everything else, but it might be a long time before we get solid numbers on that.  Francis Farrell, reporter

Question: Why do I see so many young, conscription-age men not in uniform in video scenes of Ukrainian cities?

Answer: Conscription-aged men are not obliged to go to the front unless they received a draft, and at least at the beginning of the war, there were enough volunteers (civilians who rose up to defend their country) to more or less hold the front line  with great difficulty.

There are also not enough weapons, uniforms, and basic provisions for the country to conscript everyone. Many men who aren't fighting are working in their civilian professions, thus helping to keep the country afloat amid the ongoing war.

This scenery, however, can be uncomfortable for Ukrainian soldiers who are on the front line after losing so many of their comrades and constantly fighting with a lack of manpower  with many worrying what could happen if the human resource ends before that of the Russians.

They say that many of the mobilized soldiers are over 40, and it's usually very tough for them to carry weapons/bulletproof vests/water (which could all add up to 40 kilograms) and walk a few kilometers (sometimes as long as six) to the zero line to defend or assault a position.

This normalcy seen in Kyiv and other cities far from the front line is part of a societal gap that is expected to widen further as the war continues to rage on and Ukrainian soldiers  many of whom are already extremely exhausted  keep doing everything to fight day by day.

While there are missile and drone attacks targeting cities far from the front line, Ukrainian soldiers mostly say they are frustrated that some members of the society are forgetting the war and the real cost of defending the territory.  Asami Terajima, reporter

Question: I'm fascinated by these cardboard drones. Can they fly through rain? How are they powered? How efficient are they compared to conventional artillery?

Answer: I only know what is publicly available information, and there are a few articles that go into detail on the specs. But, to be short, they are just one good example of a creative, lightweight, and low-cost aircraft that can be used for a number of different roles.

Here, what makes sense is recon and kamikaze missions.

For my last drone story, the head of the Defender Army showed me styrofoam recon/kamikaze drones, which fulfill a very similar role. While you could argue whether FPV drones (much cheaper and with a much shorter range) could start to replace normal artillery shells on the battlefield, these longer-range, fixed-wing drones fit a different niche that's not really equivalent to any traditional munition.  Francis Farrell, reporter

Read also: Deadly drone arms race intensifies as Ukraine, Russia embrace the future of war

Question: Which side is at greater long-term risk of running out of  soldiers, weapons, ability to pay for the war and/or internal support or at least willingness to go along with the war?

Answer: It's a numbers game, and it depends a lot on outside factors.

Russia has a larger population to draw people from, and honestly, they can probably keep dragging people off to war without major issues. Yes, some people will run, but overall the country has shown time and time again that you can never expect anything impactful to come from the bottom up.

As for weapons and finances, the most important factor for Ukraine is, of course, outside support, and there, I think the 2024 U.S. presidential elections will decide a lot.

For Russia, their huge military industry is stepping up production, but not enough to make up for losses and expenditures. There again, China is a big, looming question.  Francis Farrell, reporter

Read also: Our readers questions about the war, answered. Vol. 1

Read also: Our readers questions about the war, answered. Vol. 2

Read also: Our readers questions about the war, answered. Vol. 3

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Every TV, radio and cell phone in the country on Wednesday will emit a jarring buzz as federal authorities test out the nations emergency alert system.

Dont be alarmed: As the alert will make clear, its a regularly scheduled check-up of a system that can save lives in times of emergency.

Heres what you need to know.

What is the purpose of the test?

Wednesdays alarm will activate the U.S. governments nationwide alert system, which is designed to warn the nation about extreme weather events, acts of terrorism, and other public hazards.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is required by law to test that system at least once every three years, to make sure its still running smoothly. The last time they conducted this test was in 2021.

When will the test happen?

Emergency alert system

The test is scheduled to begin Wednesday at around 11:20 a.m. in Arizona, or 12:20 p.m. Navajo Nation time.

Authorities have blocked off a half-hour window for the test, but the alert itself should only last for around one minute.

What will I see and hear?

When the test begins, TVs, radios and cell phones will emit an electronic warning tone to capture your attention.

TV and radio stations will pause their programming to broadcast this message: This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public.

Cell phones will vibrate and bear a similar message in English or Spanish, depending on the phones language settings.

The test wont interrupt a phone call, and the audio signal might not sound if youve switched your phone to silent mode. It also wont reach devices that are turned off for the duration of the 30-minute test period, or not in reach of cell service.

Will Arizona authorities be involved?

Wednesdays test will be performed by FEMA, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission. But the warning system is the same one used by state, local, and tribal government agencies in Arizona.

FEMA and the FCC say theyre coordinating with those emergency managers to avoid confusion.

Arizona officials are helping to spread the word about the test.

Testing emergency communications systems ensures that when a crisis strikes, our words and warnings reach those who need them the most, bridging the gap between disaster and safety, Maj. Gen. Kerry Muehlenbeck of the Arizona National Guard said in a written statement.

Will the tests high-frequency signal cause health effects?

No. The audio signal that will sound in Wednesdays test has been used since the 1960s, and federal agencies arent aware of any adverse health effects from the signal.

Laura Gersony is a national politics reporter for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @lauragersony.

This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: What to know about Wednesday's emergency alert test on your phone, TV
The Kremlin confirmed Tuesday (October 3) that Russian President Vladimir Putin would travel to North Korea in the coming weeks in response to the visit North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made last month.

According to the Washington Times, which first broke the story, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted telling reporters that the dates for the Pyongyang visit would likely be finalized after the scheduled visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov this month.

"[Putin] is not yet going to North Korea," Peskov said. "He has an invitation and he accepted it with gratitude."

Putin's Limited Trips

Ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin has not ventured out of Russia this year beyond visits to Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, However, he recently announced that he would travel to China this month to discuss Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative with Xi Jinping.

Kim met with Putin at a spaceport in Russia's Far East region as part of an unusually lengthy five-day visit that included inspection tours of Russian nuclear strategic bombers, hypersonic missiles, and warships.

Despite Russia being part of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, Putin has opted not to come as it will take place in San Francisco next month. He was previously issued with a warrant of arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which prompted signatories of the Rome Statute to declare their intention to arrest Putin.

Read Also: Punishment Battalions: Drunk, Disobedient Russian Soldiers Deployed in Echo of Stalin

Western Fears of Moscow-Pyongyang Ties

Meanwhile, the US Biden administration expressed this week its renewed concerns that the North Korean-Russian alliance could include expanded shipments of North Korean artillery and other military equipment to sustain Putin's struggling forces in Ukraine.

"We continue to be concerned about increased ties between Russia and North Korea, especially as it comes to any potential transfer of weapons either from [North Korea] to Russia or from Russia to [North Korea]," US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a briefing Monday (October 2).

Related Article: North Korea Criticizes UN Nuclear Agency as US Mouthpiece for Joining Washington-Led Pressure Campaign

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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It's certainly not the first time Vince McMahon has been turned into a reaction meme. The post Where is the GIF of Vince McMahon crying from? WWE co-founder stars in another meme appeared first on In The Know.
A man charged in connection with a mass shooting in Boston last month that left five people injured, including a young brother and sister, has been ordered held on $1 million bail, officials said.

Gianni Johnson, 24, of Dorchester, was arraigned Tuesday morning in Dorchester District Court on charges including five counts of assault to murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, unlawful possession of a large capacity feeding device, unlawful possession of a machine gun, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building, according to Suffolk District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden.

Members of the Boston Police Homicide Unit, Boston Police Fugitive Unit, Lynn Police Department, and the U.S. Marshals Office arrested Johnson on Monday night.

Investigators are still searching for Micah Ennis, 24, of South Boston, who is wanted on warrants charging him with five counts of assault to murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, unlawful possession of a large capacity feeding device, unlawful possession of a machine gun, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building, the Boston Police Department said.

Ennis is described as Black, about 6 feet, 2 inches tall, 280 pounds, with a heavy build.

Officers responding to a report of a shot spotter activation in the area of 50 Ames Street around 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 17 found five people suffering from gunshot wounds in a courtyard, police said.

Those who were injured were transported to local hospitals.

I dont wish this on anyone: Mother of two kids shot in Dorchester denounces violence

Johan Howard, an 11-year-old sixth grader at Charles Taylor Elementary in Mattapan, has since been released from Boston Childrens Hospital after being shot in the leg. Juliana Howard, a 15-year-old sophomore at the Community Academy of Science and Health in Dorchester, is on a ventilator in critical condition at Boston Medical Center.

She remains in critical condition at Boston Medical Center, but Howards uncle says his 15-year-old niece seems to be recovering from four gunshot wounds.

Shes opening her eyes, shes responding a little, said Luis Montanez. Shes moving her hands. She moves her head. She kicks her legs.

In a statement, Hayden said, The brutality of sending bullets flying where people were gathered and children were playing should shock and outrage all of us and should unite usand I mean all of us, from every community and every sector and every level of societyagainst the glut of illegal guns in our city and the people so willing to use them. We need to recognize and treat gun violence as a societal epidemic. How else can we describe a brother and sister shot while playing outside their home on a warm late-summer evening?

The mother of the children, Joanna Algarin, spoke with Boston 25 following the shooting and said, No mother should be going through what Im going through. I dont wish this on anyone.

Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox added, We commend the cooperation from the residents of our City who are fed up with these reckless acts, and the incredible work and dedication of our Homicide Unit who have been working this case around the clock. We realize this cant erase the pain and suffering of the children and adults who were injured in this outrageous shooting. The Boston Police Department will continue to work to hold all of those responsible accountable for violence in our neighborhoods.

Montanez wasnt unhappy with the arrest -- but he wasnt especially heartened by it, either.

Mass shootings, nothing gets done, Montanez said. So why speak of it? It frustrates me because justice is not going to be justice. Obviously its going to happen again to somebody elses family. Thats where I get upset because why should somebody elses family have to go through something like this?

Anyone with information is strongly urged to contact Boston Police Homicide Detectives at 617-343-4470.

Johnson is due back in court on Nov. 2 for a probable cause hearing.

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

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Estrangement in a family is not uncommon; research suggests that 27% of Americans have cut off contact with a family member at some point. Most commonly, its adult children who cut ties with one or both parents.

Naturally, celebrities arent immune to these types of family issues. ActorKelsey Grammer recently told People that he has regret about his strained relationship with his eldest child, Spencer Grammer. Grammer and Doreen Alderman, Spencers mother, split when Spencer was only a toddler and Grammer was working long hours on the set of Cheers.

I let her down, Kelsey Grammer said, adding, I feel sorry about it, but Im also thankful that we had a chance to make amends.

Spencer Grammer is now 39, and she and her dad have not only reconciled, they are co-starring in a new Lifetime Christmas movie, The 12 Days of Christmas Eve, about a workaholic father who has a strained relationship with his adult daughter.

The filming was incredibly fun and wonderful to spend time with my dad, Spencer Grammer told People.

I think it was really healing for us, she added.

Spencer Grammer and Kelsey Grammer.

Spencer Grammer and Kelsey Grammer.

The 12 Days of Christmas Eve isnt the only holiday-themed movie featuring a parent-child reunion. The Noel Diary, one of the most popular movies currently on Netflix, depicts the first meeting of a father and son after decades without contact. The pair talk while setting up a Christmas tree.

Theres clearly something about the holidays that draws us to these stories of healing and forgiveness. Perhaps its the emphasis on gathering together with family, or the reflectiveness that the end of the year can bring.

If youre hoping to reconnect with an adult child who you became estranged from at some point in your relationship, here are some things to take into consideration.

Do your own work before reaching out.

If you are the one who initiated the estrangement, your strategy will be different, but the reality is that most estrangements are initiated by adult children, said Peg Streep, author of Verbal Abuse and Daughter Detox.

While some may view a child who is rejecting their parent as acting in a fit of pique, being emotionally immature, and specifically ungrateful, said Streep, it is a decision most often years in the making and preceded by previous attempts to draw boundaries.

Research shows the adult children also cycle in and out of estrangement often,

reestablishing contact and then breaking it again, said Streep.

Vinita Mehta, a Washington, D.C.-based psychologist, advised that before reaching out to an estranged child, it would be helpful to reflect on your own role in the breakdown of the relationship.

If its unclear to you why your child has cut off contact, try to find out from another family member or close friend why your child has chosen to go no-contact, said Mehta.

Be prepared to learn that your childs view is likely quite different from yours. Its also important to examine your own reasons for wanting to reconcile.

If you are reaching out to show youre the bigger person, because a fractured family is an embarrassment to you, because you want access to your

grandchildren, or because you want to set the record straight, the chances are good that the effort is doomed from the get-go, Streep said.

If your child doesnt see that you are open to admitting past wrongdoing and changing your ways, they will be less likely to engage. You should also make sure that you and your partner, whether its the childs parent or stepparent, are on the same page about the reconciliation.

Keep in mind that your adult child will be looking closely at your motivations, intentions, and sincerity, said Streep.

She recommends that you have a plan for changing your behavior, such as going into therapy.

Respect your childs boundaries.

Because feeling that boundaries have been crossed is a common reason for an adult child to cut off contact, its important that you respect your childs boundaries when reaching out.

This demonstrates that you take their feelings seriously, Mehta said. A letter or email may be received more easily received than a phone call, depending on the boundaries your child has set with you, she added.

In some cases, this may mean backing off and giving your child some more time.

Streep advised against the messenger scenario, in which a parent sends a third-party, such as a sibling or other relative, to advocate on their behalf. She said she has often seen this strategy end badly.

If there is a restraining order, any violence, or police or attorneys become involved, the connection is just too inflamed for anything productive to occur, said Joshua Coleman, a San Francisco-based psychologist and author of the book Rules of Estrangement: Why Adult Children Cut Ties & How To Heal The Conflict.

Gifts or letters that come back returned-to-sender are another signal that the wound is still too raw.

In such cases, I always tell parents to wait a year before responding, said Coleman.

Unfortunately, if your child expresses no desire for contact, you will have to respect that as well.

You can let your child know that the door will always be open and that your love is unconditional, said Mehta.

If this is the case, try to be compassionate with yourself and seek support from relatives and friends, Mehta advised. It may also be a time to seek professional help to process the pain and grief of losing your child  as well as the stigma that can accompany family estrangements.

Show them that you see their perspective.

Many adult children dont clarify their reasons for the estrangement or explain under what circumstances they would be open to communication again, so parents should proceed cautiously.

Coleman recommends writing what he calls the letter of amends (likely an email), in which he says a parents goal should be to find the kernel, if not the bushel, of truth to address the childs complaints about the parent.

In other words, you dont need to agree with every terrible thing your child has said about you, but you will need to show that you see their hurt and are ready to take ownership for the part you have played in it.

It may be helpful to remember that repair is a process, and your relationship wont heal overnight.

What happened had real origins and ... fixing things takes work, said Streep.

Be prepared to listen.

Show your child that you care about them by hearing them out, even when you dont agree with what theyre saying.

Be prepared to listen, do not judge and respect your childs feelings even if you disagree with their version of events, said Mehta.

You may very well hear a perspective that you find confusing or that you disagree with, she continued, but the goal is to hear them out so that you understand what they are feeling, not act as an arbiter of the facts.

Coleman advised that relationships in modern times are really based more on the adult model of friendship between parents and adult children. This sort of relationship is more egalitarian, more psychological, more mindful, he said.

Rather than feeling a duty to engage with you, adult children will choose to do so if they think the relationship will benefit them in some way, too, and that you will respect their boundaries and needs.

Related...
Its been a busy month in higher education as schools around the state are back in session.

From announcements of new administrators to enrollment updates, theres been plenty to keep up with.

Something thats been a big conversation at the University of Kentucky is enrollment numbers. While official numbers wont be available until later this fall, after the date when students can drop a class, UK President Eli Capilouto announced the preliminary fall enrollment numbers at the September board meeting. (If you missed it, the Herald-Leader published a story focused on college enrollment in Kentucky last month.)

Heres a quick overview:

Freshman enrollment is 6,481, the largest freshman class in UKs history and the second year in a row that number has topped 6,000.

Overall enrollment is more than 34,000, another record for UK.

UK has reached a 70% six-year graduation rate, a number that places it well above the national average and among top universities in the country. The national six-year completion rate is 62.2%, according to the National Student Clearinghouse.

Second fall retention (the number of students returning to UK for their second year) reached a record 87%.

Heres what else happened in Kentucky higher education last month.

Have something that should be considered for next months round-up? Contact higher education reporter Monica Kast at mkast@herald-leader.com.

New administrators at UK, NKU

Northern Kentucky University announced Cady Short-Thompson as its seventh president. She will begin in the role Oct. 2.

Short-Thompson comes to NKU after working as the CEO/Executive Director of Breakthrough Cincinnati, an educational equity nonprofit. She previously worked in higher education as a NKU professor, the provost of Hope College and dean of the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College. She has a doctorate from the University of Cincinnati.

UK announced two new deans last month.

The new dean of the graduate school is Padraic Kenney, who was announced earlier this year and approved by the board of trustees in September. His first day was Oct. 1.

Kenney was the associate dean for social and historical sciences and graduate education at Indiana University, and was previously the associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

UK also named an acting dean of the College of Communication and Information, Brandi Frisby. She began in the role on Oct. 1.

Frisby has been a UK faculty member for 13 years, and held various positions including senior associate dean and associate dean for student success.

Other big news was the new president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, Ryan Quarles.

Quarles is Kentuckys agriculture commissioner and was a Republican candidate for governor earlier this year. He finished second in the primary behind Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

University of the Cumberlands receives historic donation

The University of the Cumberlands received a $25 million donation toward student scholarships from the O. Wayne Rollins Foundation. Its the largest single donation to the university.

We are immensely grateful to the Rollins Foundation for their extraordinary commitment to our mission, said President Larry L. Cockrum. For over four decades, the Rollins Foundation has been instrumental in supporting our efforts to empower students and ensure they have the opportunity to obtain a college degree.

The university is matching the donation, meaning $50 million total will go toward scholarships. It will fund 500 scholarships annually, the university said.

Wheres the salary database?

We mentioned it in last months round-up, but for those who are curious as to when the UK salary database will publish this year, the university said its data will be finalized for the 2023-24 year in November. The Herald-Leader will publish the salary database on its platforms in the month of December.
Mexican soldiers guard a group of young men, rounded up after the night that came to be known as the Tlatelolco massacre, in Mexico City. (Associated Press)

Fifty-five years ago, Mexicos authoritarian government killed student demonstrators during a peaceful rally in Mexico City. It would later become known as the Tlatelolco massacre.

Mexico was the center of international attention in 1968 as it was set to host the Summer Olympics, an opportunity to showcase the nation's economic growth and stability.

In the months leading up to the international sporting event, students rallied against the Mexican government, which had been under the rule of one political party  the Institutional Revolutionary Party  since 1929. Activists fought against the governments economic and political suppression, particularly against labor unions.

On Oct. 2, 10 days before the start of the Olympics, an estimated 10,000 students peacefully assembled and demonstrated at the Plaza de La Tres Culturas. They chanted, No queremos olimpiadas, queremos revolucion! ("We don't want the Olympics, we want revolution!")

Read more: Citing track record, United Farm Workers endorses Biden for reelection

Government troops marched into the plaza and opened fire on the unarmed civilians, later claiming that demonstrators acted violently.

The exact number of deaths is uncertain. Estimates range from 44 to more than 400 deaths. In addition to the killings, more than 1,000 people were beaten and arrested. The massacre was initially portrayed as a violent student uprising, though countless interviews with survivors indicate that the demonstration was peaceful. Military reports indicate that at least 360 government snipers were positioned in buildings surrounding demonstrators.

Read more: Operation Lone Star transformed this Texas border town, but the battle didn't start there

In 2002, then-President Vicente Fox ordered a special prosecutor to investigate the mass shooting and other incidents pertaining to Mexico's "dirty war" against left-wing activists.

The investigation resulted in genocide charges against former President Luis Echeverria, who was interior minister and in charge of national security at the time under the administration of President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz.

Echeverria denied any wrongdoing.

Efforts to prosecute Echeverria failed in 2007. The special prosecutor's office was shuttered that same year, leaving many unanswered questions.

In 2008, Times reporters Tracy Wilkinson and Deborah Bonello wrote about the Tlatelolco massacres and its lasting impact on its 40th anniversary, noting that the attack has become a symbol of Mexico's entrenched culture of impunity, in which rampant killings and kidnappings are rarely resolved.

In 2018, a week before the 50th anniversary, a Mexican government agency finally acknowledged the mass killing as a state crime.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., left, one of House Speaker Kevin McCarthys harshest critics, answers questions from members of the media after speaking on the House floor in Washington on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. Gaetz has said he plans to use a procedural tool called a motion to vacate to try and strip McCarthy of his office as soon as this week. | Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is facing a challenge to his leadership after he successfully averted a government shutdown by passing a stopgap spending bill over the weekend.

But McCarthy still has his backers  including all three Utah Republican congressmen.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said he plans to try to oust McCarthy this week. He alleged on the House floor that McCarthy, R-Calif., cut a side deal to bring Ukraine legislation to this floor with President (Joe) Biden and House Democrats.

He said that neither Republican leadership nor conference members knew about the alleged backroom deal, pressing McCarthy for answers.

Related

These remarks come after Biden suggested that McCarthy promised to introduce a measure increasing aid to Ukraine, saying he hoped his friends on the other side of the aisle keep their word.

According to the Washington Examiner, McCarthy denied making any such promise and told reporters he wasnt worried about Gaetzs potential motion to vacate him.

They elected me to be speaker, so I made a decision. I thought it was best to keep the government open, he said. There was no guarantee Democrats would vote for it. ... But at times like this, I need to make decisions.

If Gaetzs motion to vacate doesnt pass the first time, he said he plans to raise it again multiple times, which could derail McCarthys legislative agenda.

Utah Republicans support McCarthy

Republican Rep. Burgess Owens, who represents Utahs 4th District, told the Deseret News he supports McCarthy  while questioning Gaetzs motives. When asked if McCarthy was uniquely positioned to lead the conference, Owens said that the speaker has been ready.

Ive never seen anyone who works as hard, who works to strategically and rationally open the door for everybody to come in and talk with him about their positions, he said.

On the other side, we have a guy like Gaetz. I dont think hes worked with anybody. Hes just not a person that is pulling us together. At the same time, everything hes doing right now seems to be very self-centered, to push us apart.

Who could replace Speaker McCarthy?

Rep. John Curtis, who represents Utahs 3rd Congressional District, told the Deseret News last week that McCarthy might be safer than he was earlier in his speakership since no one has surfaced to replace him.

I think theres a growing awareness that nobody can do this better than Kevin is doing it, he said.

Curtis raised the name of former House Minority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who is McCarthys right hand man and is, as Curtis said, very well respected. But, the Utah lawmaker said he assumed Scalises name is off the table because of his serious health problems.

I dont see anybody who can do this as well as Kevin and I think that has actually made his seat just a tad bit more secure, Curtis said.

Apart from Scalise, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., has also been brought up as a potential option, but Emmer has said he has no desire to challenge McCarthy.

I fully support Speaker McCarthy. He knows that and I know that. I have zero interest in palace intrigue. End of discussion, the Minnesota representative told Politico.

Related

Other Republicans in the House conference have also spoken up in support of McCarthy.

The problem is  and this is the same problem we saw with the 15 ballots at the beginning of the year  it is my belief that there is nobody at this point in time that has the majority votes in order to become speaker other than Kevin McCarthy, said Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va.

How many votes would Rep. Gaetz need to oust Speaker McCarthy?

To keep his role as speaker, McCarthy can only spare five Republican votes. Since a small group of House Republicans are expected to help Gaetz to try to oust McCarthy, the speaker will need Democrats to vote for him  or to use other legislative maneuvers to keep him in power.

But hardline Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., arent too happy to lend a hand.

Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN Sunday that she doesnt plan to support McCarthy. Its not up to Democrats to save Republicans, she said. I dont think we give up votes for free.

Its unclear what stance the other members of her caucus might take if the motion to vacate is introduced. The Washington Post reported that many Democrats might vote present, instead of yes or no, to avoid actively helping McCarthy. This would still benefit the speaker by lowering the threshold of votes he would need to keep his job.

This leaves House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a position where he can negotiate for his partys priorities in exchange for helping McCarthy. Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., said that the House minority leader has plenty of leverage.

McCarthy cant get to 218, Kuster told Punchbowl News, referring to the number of votes the Speaker needs. At the end of the day, Jeffries is the Wizard of Oz  he is the one behind the curtain.

GOP lawmakers might expel Rep. Matt Gaetz over ethics committee report

Gaetzs attempts to challenge McCarthys speakership have been met with pushback in the Republican conference.

Fox News reported that some GOP lawmakers are looking to expel the Florida representative if the Ethics Committee reports anything against Gaetz, who has been accused of alleged sexual misconduct as well as violating campaign finance rules, taking bribes and using drugs.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said on social media that trying to expel Gaetz from Congress, which requires a two-thirds majority in the lower chamber, may be a step too far.

However, Gingrich said, expelling him from the House Republican Conference and eliminating all his committee assignments and all resources other than those an individual member is entitled to would be a rational response to his suicidal efforts to cripple the House GOP.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, who stood firmly behind McCarthy when his bid for the speakership was faltering in January, also took to X and gave a lengthy explanation on why she opposes the motion to expel Gaetz.

Green said that the Republican family feud comes after Congress passed a continuing resolution, which she said, included borrowed money and borrowed time  and now, lawmakers must prioritize passing eight more spending bills.

All of this has the Democrats, who Americas electorate fired last congress, giddy with opportunity to take full advantage of gleaning prizes for themselves in exchange for votes, she said. All of this now has the House of Representatives on the verge of chaos and will only leave our majority weakened and dangerously fractured.

She said she believes Republicans across the country wouldnt tolerate any effort to expel Gaetz.

Republicans need to get off the power trips, stop the absurd drama, remember who the enemy is, stop fighting with each other, and get serious about solving the problems that produce annual systemic failure, Green said.

Contributing: Brigham Tomco
Rep. Dan Bishop plans to vote against a motion to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday afternoon, he announced in a tweet.

Mr. McCarthy is an accurate reflection of the current House Republican Conference, Bishop said in his statement online. Second, Congress operates by numerosity: there must be a substantial groundswell for an effort toward fundamental change. One persons play call with roughly 5-7 potential supporters portends no path toward success, only chaos.

The North Carolina Republican said thats why he hasnt previously moved to vacate the chair, the motion that Rep. Matt Gaetz has filed to try to unseat McCarthy.

Bishop said a reckoning is needed in the Republican Party to make it a force capable of confronting the crises  and opposition  we face. He said thats why he is focusing on running for state attorney general.

Frustration between Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, and McCarthy grew over the weekend after McCarthy brought to the House floor an 11th-hour, short-term funding bill that prevented the government from shutting down within hours.

Until then, the House Freedom Caucus, which counts both Bishop and Gaetz as members, had been using 12 appropriations bills as a bargaining chip against McCarthy in order to get him to meet their list of demands.

Many Republicans, including North Carolinas Reps. Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx and David Rouzer, threw their support behind McCarthy, even before Gaetz officially filed his motion Monday. It was clear that Gaetz did not have enough Republican support to get rid of the chambers leader with GOP votes alone.

But that would change if he could get enough Democrats on board. Its unclear how North Carolinas Democrats will vote Tuesday afternoon, but at noon McCarthy hadnt garnered the partys support as a whole.

With every vote, I will continue fighting tooth and nail to put eastern North Carolinians and the American people over divisive politics and chaos, Democratic Rep. Don Davis said in a news release Monday that did not commit to a position on McCarthys ouster.
Rep. John Curtis speaks at the second annual Conservative Climate Summit at Utah Valley University in Orem on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023. Curtis announced Monday he would continue in the House of Representatives and not pursue a Senate bid. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Few times in my life have been as gratifying as the last few weeks have been as I have considered a run for the U.S. Senate. I will always be thankful to so many who reached out to encourage me. Even considering a run for such an important office is an honor. To be viewed as a serious candidate has been exciting and humbling.

I have always known that trust is built on clear intentions, so its important that the residents of the state know and understand my plans. Id like to take this opportunity to explain not only my intent but also the reasons for my decision.

After many hours of consultation, prayer and contemplation, I have decided to stay out of the U.S. Senate race at this time.

My first reason for not jumping into the U.S. Senate race is very important to me. When I ran for my House seat, I made a commitment to the residents of the 3rd District. Weve accomplished a lot but my work for them is not done. I believe we need elected leaders who are more concerned about doing their job than getting the next job. To walk away now would leave a commitment unfilled. I want to finish the job.

Second, Ive never liked career politicians. Imagine my discomfort when I woke up one day and saw that I had become one. I got involved in politics to challenge the establishment, to replace entrenched incumbents and make way for fresh ideas. I invested considerable energy in shaking things up. The founders never intended for the United States of America to be run by career politicians. My integrity requires me to be true to the principles our nation was founded on, principles I deeply believe. When Ive accomplished what I set out to do in the House, it will be time for me to find other ways to serve my community. (A crossing guard might be a lot of fun.)

Third, if one is not careful, serving in D.C. will drain a little bit of a persons soul each day. It happens so slowly that even those close to us dont see it. It can pull at the emotional, spiritual and physical health of anyone who spends too much time in that environment. It becomes easier and easier to justify actions we disapproved of before arriving in D.C. Some of my congressional colleagues think its more important to be a good politician than a good person. I aspire to be a good person.

Fourth, Im getting things done for Utah in the House. I was recently named the ninth most effective Republican in that body. My staff was recently recognized as the No. 1 congressional office for accessibility and accountability. My team and I have worked very hard for the last six years to become effective in the House. Its now time to make this investment count by pursuing my priorities with resolve.

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I have begun a movement that corrects the climate and energy mistakes of the past and puts us on the right course. I believe the path I am pursuing will put Utah at the front of the nation  and our country at the front of the world  in creating sensible, sustainable energy policy. Ive realized that the best policies for the environment are also the best policies for the U.S. economy, for national security and for energy independence. I am working to make the U.S. not just energy independent, but energy dominant.

Much of the economy of the 3rd District is based on coal, oil and gas. The good people who work in these industries have been told for too long that they are the problem. I believe they are actually part of the solution.

Finally, my marriage is great. My relationships with my kids, their spouses and my grandkids are great. And I want these relationships to be better. Its the most important responsibility I have in this lifetime. Making a long-term commitment to serve in the Senate is not in harmony with my personal priorities.

I would like to express, one more time, my appreciation to those who have encouraged me and expressed confidence in me. It means more than you could know. I hope Utahns will understand and appreciate my reasons for wanting to stay the course.

John Curtis represents Utahs 3rd Congressional District
Rep. John Curtis announced Monday he wont run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Mitt Romney.

It was widely rumored Curtis might enter the race, and he said last week he was very seriously considering a run. But in an op-ed first published by the Deseret News Monday, Curtis said he wont run for Senate and instead plans to run for reelection to his 3rd Congressional District seat.

I will always be thankful to so many who reached out to encourage me, he wrote. Even considering a run for such an important office is an honor. To be viewed as a serious candidate has been exciting and humbling.

But, he said, if one is not careful, serving in D.C. will drain a little bit of a persons soul each day. It happens so slowly that even those close to us dont see it. It can pull at the emotional, spiritual and physical health of anyone who spends too much time in that environment.

He said running for Senate doesnt align with his personal priorities.

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(M)y marriage is great. My relationships with my kids, their spouses and my grandkids are great. And I want these relationships to be better. Its the most important responsibility I have in this lifetime, he said.

Curtis also said he believes he still has work to do in the House  especially with regards to his work on approaching environmental issues from a conservative perspective  and that he doesnt want to become a career politician.

According to Curtis campaign manager, Adrielle Herring, he made this decision for a few reasons.

He is on a roll in the House. He has become one of the most effective lawmakers in the body. But perhaps more importantly, Congressman Curtis loves the people of CD3 and feels a strong partnership with them. Hes relationship-driven and he wants to finish the work he undertook for the people who elected him, she said.

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Curtis announcement came the same day that Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson issued a press release saying he raised an additional $1 million for his campaign over the past three months, bringing his total cash-on-hand to over $3 million, including a $1 million loan from Wilson.

Wilson, who made his run for Senate official last week, was endorsed by more than 60 state Republican lawmakers earlier this year and also received a semi-endorsement from Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.

I just love Brad. I dont know what we call that. He doesnt need my endorsement. He didnt ask for my endorsement. Its just I really like Brad and think he would be really good but right now I dont even know whos running yet. Well obviously make those decisions if he asks down the road, Cox said at a recent press conference.

Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, who was the first candidate to announce he was running for Romneys seat, last month received an endorsement from Kari Lake, a frequent surrogate for President Donald Trump who is herself running for Senate in Arizona.

Lake said she was backing Staggs for Senate because he is an America first candidate. Staggs has endorsed Trump in the 2024 presidential primary and has received the endorsement from national right-wing figures like Charlie Kirk and Mark Levin.

Who has declared their candidacy for the 2024 U.S. Senate race in Utah?

Trent Staggs is the mayor of Riverton, Utah. He has served in elected office in Riverton for 10 years, first as a city councilor and then as mayor.

Brad Wilson is the state House Speaker, a position he has held since 2018. He was first elected to represent Kaysville in the state legislature in 2010.

Rod Bird Jr. is the mayor of Roosevelt, Utah. Prior to his election in 2017, he founded Paragon Oilfield Products, which provides pipes and hoses for industrial and agricultural use.

Tyrone Jensen is a self-described political commentator who ran for Utahs 2nd District seat in 2023 and 2020 as a Republican and as a write-in candidate in the 2018 Senate election.

Gabriel Blanco-Lobo is a data scientist in the Salt Lake City area, according to his LinkedIn.

Who else might enter the 2024 U.S. Senate race in Utah?

Kirk Jowers is the CEO and founder of ADDAX, an overlanding camper business. Jowers previously worked as president of North America for doTERRA, as director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics and as a legal counsel to congressional and gubernatorial candidates. Sources close to Jowers say he is considering a run.

Jason Chaffetz is a former congressman and currently works as a Fox News commentator and podcast host. He has also authored several books.

Carolyn Phippen is the executive director of Freedom Front, a pro-business lobbying group based in Utah. Utah GOP chair Rob Axson floated her name as someone who is seriously considering launching a Senate campaign.
WASHINGTON  Rep. Matt Gaetz , R-Fla., the Donald Trump ally and conservative bomb-thrower who has been a nagging thorn in leaderships side, filed a resolution Monday to force a vote to overthrow his political nemesis, Kevin McCarthy , as speaker of the House.

The House must now vote on whether to keep McCarthy on as speaker. It has until Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters on the steps of the Capitol, a beaming Gaetz predicted he has the votes to oust McCarthy  as long as Democrats dont move to save the speaker.

I have enough Republicans where, at this point next week, one of two things will happen: Kevin McCarthy wont be the speaker of the House, or hell be the speaker of the House working at the pleasure of the Democrats. And Im at peace with either result, because the American people deserve to know who governs them, Gaetz said.

During the past two weeks, Gaetz had issued a specific warning to McCarthy, saying he would try to oust him as speaker if he brought a short-term government funding bill to the floor that passed with help from Democrats.

True to his word, Gaetz made the motion to vacate Monday, just two days after McCarthy put a so-called clean continuing resolution, or CR, on the floor to avert a government shutdown, passing it with 209 Democratic votes and 125 Republican votes.

The House floor is normally loud and boisterous. But it was absolutely quiet as Gaetz stood up, buttoned his jacket, approached the well of the House and addressed the chamber Monday evening to announce the motion.

Asked by Rep. Jake Ellzey, R-Texas, who was presiding at the time, what his resolution was about, Gaetz replied: "Declaring the office of speaker of the House of Representatives to be vacant."

When he finished after about a minute, there was no reaction from the gathered Democrats or the Republicans as he walked away up the aisle.

Rep. Matt Gaetz and Rep. Kevin McCarthy speak in the House Chamber (Olivier Douliery / AFP via Getty Images file)

If all 212 Democrats voted to remove McCarthy, Gaetz would need just four other Republicans to oust him. A handful of conservatives, including Bob Good, R-Va., Eli Crane, R-Ariz., and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said they would join Gaetz's effort.

Other conservatives, like Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, said they were keeping an "open mind," while Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said that he was torn by the decision and that most of his constituents are saying vacate."

"Well, it's between two things for me. It's between voting against my friend, Kevin McCarthy, and voting my conscience," Burchett said. "And that's kind of where I'm at."

After he dropped the resolution, Gaetz said he hasnt cut a deal with Democrats to get rid of McCarthy, even though he has spoken to many of them privately.

"I have made no deal with Democrats, because I believe that Democrats should vote against Kevin McCarthy for free. It's Kevin McCarthy who's out there offering deals to Democrats," Gaetz told reporters. "I'm not offering anything, and I won't offer anything. ... When we stand here a week from now, I won't own Kevin McCarthy anymore; he won't belong to me. So if the Democrats want to adopt him, they can adopt him."

Defiant, McCarthy and his allies have lashed out at Gaetz, accusing him of seeking the limelight and holding a personal vendetta against McCarthy. They vowed to beat back Gaetz's efforts, and McCarthy has denied having any deal with Democrats to support him.

So be it; bring it on, McCarthy said Sunday on CBS News Face the Nation. Ill survive.

Just minutes after Gaetz filed the motion, McCarthy repeated those remarks on X: "Bring it on."

Bring it on.  Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) October 2, 2023

Asked to react to Gaetzs move, a GOP House member pulled out his phone and showed NBC News a fundraising pitch by Gaetz.

Said a McCarthy ally, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo.: "The only way that the motion to vacate can be successful is if 200-plus Democrats join with him, because 200-plus Republicans are adamantly opposed to his motion to vacate."

Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Gaetz "are on the same page," he said.

Gaetzs action comes after months of public tangling with McCarthy, who he says failed to live up to promises he made to conservatives during the speakers fight in January to significantly cut spending. In fact, it was Gaetz who led a band of 20 conservative rebels to oppose McCarthy for the speaker job, leading to 15 grueling rounds of voting before McCarthy finally triumphed.

By filing a so-called motion to vacate, Gaetz has triggered a future floor vote over removing McCarthy as speaker, though its unclear exactly when that vote might happen. McCarthy allies almost certainly will try to delay or thwart a vote by tabling the motion and referring it to a committee, but that might not work.

Gaetz's resolution "declaring the Office of Speaker vacant is privileged, meaning it takes precedence over other House business. Under House rules, privileged matters must be considered within two legislative days.

While he conceded he might not remove McCarthy on the first try, Gaetz vowed to keep filing resolutions, perhaps daily, to oust him. Every vote will weaken McCarthy, he predicted.

"This first vote will be my floor, not my ceiling," Gaetz said. "And I think that as we have more votes later, numbers will likely grow."

Conservative Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said moments after Gaetz filed the motion that he thought it was a "bad idea," though he said Gaetz "probably does" have at least five votes to remove McCarthy.

I dont support the motion to vacate, he said, noting that hes a rare Republican who filed the motion to overthrow Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in 2015. Massie said Gaetz has fewer grievances against McCarthy.

Were going to find out by the end of the week if this is sustainable, he said.

Gaetzs motion puts House Democrats in a political pickle given the GOP's razor-thin 221-212 majority. Democrats will have to decide whether to vote with McCarthy foes to topple him or side with McCarthy allies to bail him out.

But there has been little goodwill between Democrats and McCarthy, who criticized and then defended Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, reneged on a debt and budget deal with President Joe Biden and recently launched an impeachment inquiry into Biden.

After Gaetz filed the motion, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said hes a hard no on rescuing McCarthy and encouraged colleagues to follow suit.

Democrats should think long and hard about this. There is absolutely no upside to preserving Kevin McCarthy in the speakership. Its an unstable speakership, Connolly said. Upon examination, I do not understand what any Democrat would find of redeeming value to allow him to persist in the speakership. We should not enable, aid or abet his continuation in office.

Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., was more direct: Its not my problem to save his a--."

Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., a McCarthy ally, dismissed Gaetzs theatrics as a distraction from the process of funding the government, predicting Democrats will reject Gaetzs plan.

I think that there are a number of people that care about the institution and see through  very much see through what this is, Graves said. And so I fully expect that you would have Republicans and Democrats simply do whats right.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
A Taco Bell employee in Charlotte, North Carolina has been shot over the weekend by a disgruntled customer who allegedly did not receive the correct amount of change for his payment.

Local authorities in Charlotte responded to a shooting in the food chain Saturday night (September 30). When they arrived at the scene, they found the victim, who has not yet been named by police, sustaining two gunshot wounds.

The food chain worker was taken to hospital in a serious condition.

Read Also: FEMA, FCC to Conduct Emergency Alert Tests on Oct. 4-Here's What to Expect

Gunman Identified, Arrested

Witnesses to the shooting claimed that a 67-year-old man named Doll McLendon, grew aggressive in the drive-thru line after receiving his order and counting his change. He reportedly parked the car before entering the restaurant and began shooting.

McLendon then fled the scene but was tracked down due to license plate tracking and surveillance footage from the restaurant.

He subsequently surrendered in his home and was charged with assault with a deadly weapon "intent to kill inflicting serious injury and discharging a weapon into occupied property."

"Words were not being used and someone turned to a violent action with a gun," Major Torri Tellis of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said in a news conference. "At this point, we can't say what actually caused this."

Taco Bell eventually told USA Today in a statement that the company was "shocked" to hear of the incident and confirmed that the franchise owner in Charlotte was "working with the local authorities in their investigation and will be offering support to all team members present."

Related Article: Alaska: US Military Truck Accident Kills 2 Soldiers, Injures Dozen More-Here's What Happened

@ 2023 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman , D-N.Y., listens to fellow speakers before President Joe Biden speaks on the debt limit during an event at SUNY Westchester Community College on May 10, 2023, in Valhalla, N.Y. Bowman is accused of pulling a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building, where U.S. representatives have their offices as lawmakers worked to hash out a last-minute deal to avoid a government shutdown. | John Minchillo, Associated Press

Rep. Burgess Owens said the actions of a House Democratic lawmaker who pulled a fire alarm shortly before Saturdays vote to avoid a shutdown were exactly the same as those of Jan. 6 protesters.

Owens, who represents Utahs 4th District, made the comments in reference to Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., who was caught on camera setting off a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building less than an hour before the House passed a continuing resolution to keep government agencies funded through mid-October.

He pulled that lever on purpose to slow down our votes because they were trying to make sure that we did not win this last round, Owens told the Deseret News Monday. He should pay the same exact price that hes been OK with everybody else paying.

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Bowman has denied that his intention was to obstruct an official proceeding of Congress.

I was just trying to get to my vote. The door thats usually open wasnt open. I didnt mean to cause confusion. I didnt know it was going to trip the whole building. I thought (the alarm) would help me open the door, he said Saturday, according to a document given to fellow House Democrats containing talking points in defense of Bowman.

Bowmans explanation for how he failed to understand multiple warning signs placed on the doors has been met by skepticism from politicians and pundits from across the political spectrum, including many familiar with Capitol Hill.

This is not confusing at all. Theres a push bar on the door below the sign. Members of Congress see these signs all the time and know exactly what they mean. I cant even imagine thinking it has something to do with a fire alarm pull on the wall. Stop excusing his recklessness. https://t.co/h1lp5tQK4q  Justin Amash (@justinamash) October 1, 2023

Does anyone believe the I thought the fire alarm would open the door line? Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee asked Saturday in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Owens posted his response to the debacle only half an hour after the fire alarm caused the Cannon Building to be evacuated.

This socialist should be charged with the crime of attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, if reports are true. LOCK HIM UP! the post on X said.

In an interview with the Deseret News, Owens said Bowmans actions were just the latest in a long history of controversial behavior on the Hill.

Theyve been getting away with this immature theatrics for a long time. And this Congressman has been at the very lead of that, Owens said.

Bowman made news in March when he engaged in a yelling match with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., in the halls of Congress over gun control.

This is the same Rep. Jamaal Bowman who pulled the fire alarm in the House of Representatives, implausibly claiming he was just trying to open a door. Ironically, the awful scene he created in this video six months ago might have scared others enough to pull the fire alarm. https://t.co/yC0zHlH08I  Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) October 1, 2023

Owens says Bowmans decision to pull the fire alarm was a deliberate attempt to obstruct the Houses upcoming vote on a short-term funding bill and should receive the same scrutiny under the law as the actions of Jan. 6 protestors.

What hes done is exactly the same thing, Owens said. He should pay the same exact price that hes been OK with everybody else paying. There should be no one above the law.

Owens said Capitol law enforcement must treat this case similar to the rioters who breached the Capitol over two years ago so that Americans feel that partisans are treated fairly on both sides.

Over 1,000 individuals have been charged in connection with the riot that engulfed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Charges have ranged from assaulting law enforcement officers to remaining on restricted federal property and corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding, or attempting to do so.

Some of the riots organizers have been convicted of seditious conspiracy, with jail times ranging from 10 to 20 years.

Bowman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is the former principal of the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action in the Bronx. Owens said this background should have made Bowman particularly aware of the dangers of pulling a fire alarm in a public space without cause.

The New York representative received renewed criticism after it came to light that his list of talking points circulated among House Democrats included a suggestion that Bowmans defenders tell Republicans to focus their energy on the Nazi members of their party before anything else.

Bowman issued a statement Monday condemning his own staff for the inappropriate use of the term Nazi without my consent.

Multiple House Republicans, including Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., have proposed expelling Bowman from Congress. Such an action would require a two-thirds vote in the House  a near impossibility in an evenly split chamber.

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has called on the Department of Justice to prosecute Bowman under the same law they have used against Jan. 6 defendants.

Bowman is currently under investigation by the Capitol Police.
Convicted Dallas murderer and accused serial killer Billy Chemirmir was beaten and stabbed to death by his cellmate on Sept. 19, according to a report by the Texas Attorney Generals Office.

Chemirmir, the 50-year-old man convicted of capital murder in 2022 in the deaths of two elderly women, was beaten and stabbed, possibly with a pen, then dragged into the hallway of the prison, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot told Star-Telegram media partner WFAA.

The name of the cellmate has not been released, but Creuzot said he was also a convicted murderer, possibly from Harris County.

Chemirmir was being held at Coffield state prison in Tennessee Colony, about halfway between Dallas and Houston.

Chemirmir was convicted in April 2022 of capital murder in the death of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris and, in October 2022, was convicted of the same charge for killing 87-year-old Mary Brooks. While he was appealing the convictions, authorities in Dallas County suspect he was responsible for many more deaths.

In total, Chemirmir was facing charges of killing 22 North Texas women. He mainly targeted older women, many of them living in senior apartment communities, and stole their jewelry after killing them.

The report from the Texas Attorney Generals Office did not offer any details as to what led up to his death, only saying that he died of blunt force trauma and was also stabbed. Creuzots told WFAA Chemirmir was killed after arguing with his cellmate and he said something inappropriate.

The prison was on a lockdown, but the cellmate somehow managed to drag Chemirmir out of the cell, where he laid for 20 to 30 minutes before he was found, Creuzots said in the interview with WFAA. Other people saw what happened but did not call for help.
Washington state ranks fourth in the county in car fatalities and has risen in the past two years, according to a recent study.

The states roads have seen an increase of 36.27% in car crash deaths since 2021, a rate of 11.42 per 100,000 licensed drivers in Washington.

Compare those numbers to 2012, when Washington car crash fatalities were the seventh lowest in the country. In 2012, people died at a rate of 8.38 per 100,000 licensed drivers, according to the study.

The state with the highest increase in car fatalities is Oregon  with a 62.48% increase in the past ten years. Indiana and Illinois came in second and third.

The study was gathered by John Foy, an Atlanta personal injury attorney, using data collected from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

State leaders have been sounding the alarm all summer over what theyre calling a traffic crisis. According to data from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC), 417 people were killed in traffic incidents statewide through the end of July. That number was at 413 over that same period in 2022. Last year, the state saw its most traffic-related deaths since 1990.
A batch of emails obtained by a Washington D.C.-based ethics watchdog group reveals South Dakota state officials were ready to defend Republican Gov. Kristi Noem s decision in 2021 to accept a private donation to fund a National Guard troop deployment to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, released the emails Tuesday. Throughout the email threads, Noems former chief of staff Aaron Scheible and former SD National Guard Major General Jeffrey Marlette had a back and forth about the private donation payment. Additionally, emails questioned if the donation would be placed into existing state funds or if the guardsman would receive portions of the donation directly in their salaries.

Noem announced in late June 2021 that 50 National Guard troops would be deployed to the border. At the end of her announcement was a single line: The deployment will be paid for by a private donation.

More: South Dakota National Guard chief says private donation didn't affect deployment plans

In an email sent by Marlette on June 25 to Scheibe and Ian Fury, the Governors Director of Communication, he wrote, I think the statement, The deployment will be paid for by a private donation will start a flurry of inquiries from the media, but it is a true statement.

The Noem administration at first refused to disclose the size of the donation to the public, according to Argus Leader reporting. The administration privately informed state legislative leaders that the Willis and Reba Johnson Foundation, a Tennessee billionaire couple, had donated $1 million to support the mission.

More: Tennessee couple paying $1 million to send South Dakota National Guard troops to border

The total cost of the two-month deployment was $1.45 million, according to CREW.

Representatives from Sen. John Thunes, R-SD, office were already questioning the specific use of the funds, emails revealed. Jon Abdnor, one of Thunes policy advisors, asked about how the payment would be reimbursed and whether it would cover all costs of the deployment.

Other questions focused on whether the troops would be paid directly with the donation, according to the emails.

Dan Lusk, the Deputy Secretary for the Department of Public Safety at the time, wrote the donation would go to the emergency and disaster fund, not to the salaries of the guardsmen after Kristi Turman, the director of Emergency Services within DPS, had learned the Department of Defense and National Guard Bureau were discussing the legality of whether such a National Guard deployment could be funded with private dollars.

After the administration was criticized for accepting the donation, Congress passed legislation banning the use of private donations for interstate National Guard deployments.

More: Defense bill bans private funds for deploying National Guard like South Dakota did this summer

As media continued to chase the story about the private donation, Marlette sent another email to Scheible and Mark Miller, then Noems legal counsel, defending the choice to accept the money.

Marlette wrote accepting private donations to the state werent uncommon or illegal and the state had a history of partnering with private citizens for projects.

As I have stated, this is a National Security risk to our country and [sic] ul to our state, he wrote, before going on to explain that Guard troops had been deployed to the border.

He later noted in the email, This is a different approach, but I think it delivers the Governors important messages and the medias misguided assumptions that this is political, illegal or not within her powers.

Fury wrote in a statement Tuesday that the donation wasn't made to the state until after the deployment was authorized.

"We are grateful for the service of our National Guard soldiers," Fury wrote. "It is unfortunate that partisan liberal organizations continue to attack our troops to cover up for President Bidens failures at the Southern border."

In a statement Tuesday, CREW wrote, "Were dedicated to rooting out the influence of money in politics. Kristi Noems acceptance of a huge donation from a Tennessee resident to activate the South Dakota National Guard raised serious concerns of the influence of billionaires on our elected officials. This situation was not normal, the Noem administration clearly knew that, and South Dakota residents deserve to know how these decisions were made."

During the guards deployment in 2021, according to previous AP reporting, there were slow days and ultimately resulted in no seizures of drugs or confirmed encounters with transnational criminals.

More: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to deploy National Guard troops to U.S.-Mexico border

In June of this year, Noem, in her second term, announced 50 National Guard troops would be deployed to the border at the request of Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbot. Troops were deployed in September but details have remained few and far between about the length of the deployment, the total cost and the mission goal, according to South Dakota Searchlight.

Fury said in June the deployment would be funded by the Emergency and Disaster Fund.

Noem inspected the troops in late September, according to a release from the Governor's Office, along with South Dakota Adjutant General Mark Morrell and DPS Secretary Bob Perry.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: How SD officials defended a $1M private donation to the National Guard
Kevin McCarthy has been toppled in a right-wing revolt - the first time ever that a US House of Representatives Speaker has lost a no-confidence vote.

The final tally was 216-210 to remove the congressman as leader of the Republican majority in the lower chamber of Congress.

Hardliners in his party voted against him after he struck a deal with Senate Democrats to fund government agencies.

There is no clear successor to oversee the House Republican majority.

Congress has just over 40 days to agree on a deal to avoid another potential government shutdown.

Florida Republican Matt Gaetz , a Trump ally, filed a rarely used procedural tool known as a motion to vacate on Monday night to oust Mr McCarthy.

He accused the Speaker of making a secret deal with the White House to continue funding for Ukraine, amid negotiations to avert a partial government shutdown at the weekend. Mr McCarthy denies it.

At a private meeting of Republican politicians on Tuesday evening after losing his job, Mr McCarthy told colleagues he did not plan to run for Speaker again.

He later took aim at his political nemesis, Mr Gaetz, accusing him of attention-seeking.

"You know it was personal," Mr McCarthy told a news conference, "it had nothing to do with spending."

He said fundraising emails sent by Mr Gaetz amid the infighting were "not becoming of a member of Congress".

The hardliners who ousted him "are not conservatives", Mr McCarthy added.

He only became Speaker in January after a gruelling 15 rounds of voting in the chamber as Mr Gaetz and other right-wingers refused to support him.

To win over those hardliners Mr McCarthy agreed to make it possible for a single member to put forward a motion to oust him, which is exactly what Mr Gaetz ultimately did.

Mr McCarthy was supported by 210 Republicans but eight voted against him in Tuesday's vote, joining all Democrat members.

They were Mr Gaetz, Eli Crane, Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Tim Burchett, Bob Good, Matt Rosendale and Nancy Mace .

One vote against Mr McCarthy that surprised many came from Ms Mace - a moderate Republican from South Carolina.

She said afterwards: "I am looking for a Speaker who will tell the truth to the American people, who will be honest and trustworthy with Congress, with both parties."

Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries had said in a letter to colleagues that he would not provide the votes needed to rescue Mr McCarthy.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, a left-wing Democrat from the north-western US state of Washington, said before the vote: "Let them wallow in their pigsty of incompetence."

Despite Mr McCarthy's recent efforts to help the government avoid a federal shutdown, Democrats said they viewed Mr McCarthy as untrustworthy.

In May, he backed out of a spending deal with President Joe Biden following pressure from the Republicans.

Some had considered saving Mr McCarthy in return for concessions but the now former Speaker later ruled this out.

Democrats also felt betrayed by Mr McCarthy's U-turn in the days after the storming of the Capitol, when he first condemned Donald Trump's role and then backed him.

Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries refused to rescue Kevin McCarthy

The packed chamber - which Republicans control by a 221-212 majority - was mostly silent as members awaited the result of the roll call vote.

"The office of Speaker of the House is hereby declared vacant," said Arkansas Republican Steve Womack with a bang of his gavel, to audible gasps.

Earlier in the day the former president, Donald Trump, said on social media that the party should be "fighting the Radical Left Democrats" instead of each other.

North Carolina Republican Patrick McHenry, who supported Mr McCarthy, is now the interim Speaker. He put the House in recess for a week.

It is unclear if he will have the full powers of the office, or merely administrative powers and the ability to supervise a new election.

The rules do not state how long a person could fill in as an interim, though a vote on a new Speaker is planned for 11 October.

Louisiana Republican Steve Scalise and Minnesota Republican Tom Emmer have been mentioned as potential replacements for Mr McCarthy. Neither has expressed any interest in the role.

Representative Nancy Mace before voting Kevin McCarthy out as Speaker

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that President Biden is hoping the House would quickly elect a new Speaker, and noted that the "challenges facing our nation will not wait".

The last two Republican Speakers - Paul Ryan and John Boehner - left Congress after repeated tangles with their more conservative colleagues.

The so-called motion to vacate had only previously been used twice in the past century to remove a Speaker - in 2015 and 2010 - though never successfully.

(With additional reporting from Kayla Epstein and Max Matza)

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Light pollution is putting a real damper on the mating rituals of fireflies, a problem that majorly hurts their populations.

Just like light pollution affects our ability to see stars in the night sky, it also impacts a female fireflys ability to see a potential mate.

Whats happening?

In order to mate, male fireflies fly around and light their lanterns to attract the attention of a female on the ground. The female will light up if she wants to mate with a particular male.

This is the precursor to meetings, Avalon Owens, a research fellow at Harvard, told CBS News. So theyre not going to mate unless theyve had this little dance where theyve exchanged these light signals.

When male fireflies are putting on a show by street lights and other sources of light, the females might not be able to see the males because that fantastic light show is drowned out.

In a recent study, about half of firefly couples successfully mated in natural conditions, while not a single pair mated under bright lights.

Why light pollutions effect on fireflies is concerning

Currently, in the U.S. and Canada, there are 18 species of fireflies that are designated as threatened, which means theyre at risk of becoming extinct within the next 10 years or so. On top of that, researchers believe that nearly one-third of the 170 firefly species in North America are threatened, but they dont yet have enough data to know that for certain.

Some species of fireflies are in particular danger of extinction, like those in the American Southwest, and are being negatively affected by the decadeslong drought caused by the warming of the planet.

I like people to think of firefly extinctions as sitting in a room of candles, and its beautiful, Tufts University biology professor Sara Lewis told CBS. And if one of those candles gets extinguished, you probably dont even notice it, but if that continues, eventually, you are left sitting in complete darkness.

What can I do to help the firefly population?

One thing you can do is limit light pollution by closing curtains at night and buying motion-activated porch lights.

Fireflies live underground as larvae for as much as two years before turning into the flying insects we know and love. They feed on worms and slugs that feed in more natural environments.

You can also avoid using chemicals on your lawn. You can also help by letting your lawn grow a little. Leave some leaves on the ground that the larvae can live under or let that lawn grow more than you normally would.

Its just keeping this a little unkempt for them, Candace Fallon, a senior conservation biologist at the Xerces Society, an insect conservation group, told CBS. So whether thats not mowing a certain section or mowing infrequently. Maintaining native grass and tree cover and shrubs.

Join our free newsletter for cool news and cool tips that make it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  Tenants at Bella Estates say they desperately need help.

8 News Now first reported on the mold and structural problems residents are dealing with on Sept. 28. Since then, several other residents have reached out sharing similar stories.

My bedroom is completely covered in mold. My closet, everything, Anisa Vera said.

Vera and her four kids are now crammed into her living room.

The smell is horrible I dont even have my doors open, Vera said.

When 8 News Now asked Vera how she is able to sleep at night, she said, Im up watching my kids, making sure they are breathing.

However, it was Vera who was not able to breathe. She was rushed to the hospital a few weeks ago.

I collapsed, she said. The discharge papers showed her diagnosis was mold exposure.

We asked Vera if she brought the papers to the leasing office. She was told they dont need it.

Vera tells 8 News Now that no one from maintenance has come by to fix the problem.

(Photo courtesy Anisa Vera)

(Photo courtesy Anisa Vera)

(Photo courtesy Anisa Vera)

(Photo courtesy Anisa Vera)

(Photo courtesy Anisa Vera)

(Photo courtesy Anisa Vera)

(Photo courtesy Anisa Vera)

(Photo courtesy Anisa Vera)

(Photo courtesy Anisa Vera)

(Photo courtesy Anisa Vera)

8 News Now reached out to the landlords on Thursday when we first reported on the apartment complex.

Julia Furrule, the vice president of operations for Advanced Management Group (AMG), sent us an email saying, in part, We aim to fully resolve any outstanding maintenance items as our continued commitment to quality service and satisfaction of our residents.

However, residents said the response has been far from satisfactory.

They said there was nothing wrong with my apartment, Vera said.

On Monday morning 8 News Now went to the corporate office for AMG, but we were told no one was available to speak with us.

You want a property and be management and you want to have a complex  and you cant run them. Nor do you care for the families in this complex. Vera said.

While 8 News Now was at the office, we were told the owner of AMG would speak with us on Tuesday.

In Nevada, landlords have up to 14 days to safely fix and resolve a mold issue.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
Giselle Ramirez stands with a clipboard, gathering signatures to support a petition to decriminalize marijuana in Lubbock at the South Plains Fair Monday, Sept. 25, 2023, in Lubbock. Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune

LUBBOCK  Giselle Ramirez left work on a recent Tuesday afternoon and went straight to the north side of town. For more than three hours in 97 degree heat, she asked grocery shoppers to help her decriminalize marijuana.

Ramirez is volunteering for Lubbock Compact, a local advocacy group working on the cause. The group picked that grocery store location specifically  they say most marijuana arrests are in north and east Lubbock, where the residents are mostly Black and Hispanic.

"Im doing this to help my community stay out of jail for marijuana, Ramirez said. I dont believe anyone should go to jail for mota, our city has bigger problems.

The campaign to decriminalize recreational marijuana in Lubbock is the latest in a long struggle for cannabis supporters in the Lone Star State, which, unlike neighboring states, has long resisted legalizing the drug. If the suggested change becomes local law, Lubbock would be the largest Texas city to decriminalize the drug through the petition process.

Without statewide legalization for recreational use, some Texans have sought to at least decriminalize it. Residents in Denton, Killeen, Elgin, San Marcos and Harker Heights all approved ballot measures banning arrests and citations for carrying less than four ounces of marijuana in most instances. However, the local city councils have declined to put the voter-approved rules in place. And Bell County, which includes Killeen, has sued to block the change from going into effect.

Lubbock residents are familiar with the process of changing city rules by ballot initiatives. In 2021, Lubbockites overwhelmingly approved a so-called sanctuary city policy that sought to outlaw abortion in the city limits. Its unclear whether those voters would support the marijuana decriminalization policy.

[Voters in five Texas cities approved decriminalizing marijuana. Now city officials are standing in the way.]

Marijuana has been a point of contention in Texas. Lawmakers have gone as far as legalizing medical marijuana but have drawn the line when it comes to recreational use or lowering penalties for possession.

There have been efforts to change state law. Some bills, such as House Bill 218, a legislative push by Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, to reduce the penalty for possessing one ounce of marijuana and allow for convictions to be expunged in certain cases, was approved by the House. But the bill later died in the Senate.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has been a vocal supporter of lowering penalties for marijuana possession, arguing that the state's jails are already overcrowded.

At a campaign event last year, Abbott said he believes prison and jail is a place for dangerous criminals who may harm others, and small possession of marijuana is not the type of violation that we want to stockpile jails with.

Nathan Lewis gets signatures on a petition to decriminalize marijuana from Andrew Alcala, center, and Yvette Castillo, right, at the South Plains Fair Monday, Sept. 25, 2023, in Lubbock. Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune

Republican voters appear split on the issue  a recent University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll shows only 33% support less strict laws, while 32% think the laws should be more strict. Overall, 51% of Texans in the same poll say the states marijuana laws should be less strict. The February poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8%.

In West Texas, Lubbock Compact started the Freedom Act Lubbock petition in August and has until Oct. 18 to get 4,800 signatures by registered voters, with a goal of 7,500 in case some signatures are ineligible. With just under three weeks to go, the group is nearly there with an estimated 6,000 signatures.

If the petition is successful, the city council must vote to accept the groups proposal to decriminalize marijuana or reject it. If the council rejects the change  which Lubbock Compact leaders think is likely  the petition organizers can put it on the 2024 ballot for voters to decide.

City officials declined to comment for this story.

Adam Hernandez, communications chair for Lubbock Compact, said decriminalizing marijuana would be a step forward for the city of more than 260,000 people. The group, along with Ground Game Texas, a nonprofit organization that focuses on mobilizing voters, collected data showing disparities in how Lubbock police enforce marijuana-related crimes.

According to the report, Black residents account for 8% of Lubbock residents and Latinos make up 37% of the population. However, 29% of marijuana arrests are Black residents and 49% are Latinos.

Data also shows that about 52% of all marijuana arrests since 2018 involve people 25 years old or younger.

The report calls on the city to address the disparities.

A shirt promotes the decriminalization of marijuana in Lubbock at the South Plains Fair Monday, Sept. 25, 2023, in Lubbock. Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune

These findings should require Lubbock to reevaluate its marijuana enforcement priorities and implement a more common sense, equitable and just enforcement for all residents, the report said.

Even though young people of color are the ones being arrested in most cases, Hernandez suggested many people in Lubbock use marijuana.

Our senior populations use it for chronic pain, veterans use it for post-traumatic stress, people who have cancer use it as they go through chemo, Hernandez said. Theres all sorts of uses for it. If people could educate themselves on that, they may find they have friends and family who may be using it for something.

If the ordinance wins approval, it should lead to updated training for law enforcement, but it would not change how police deal with juveniles who are caught with marijuana, Hernandez said.

[Houston sues state in attempt to block new law that erodes cities power]

The effort in Lubbock to change city policy comes as state lawmakers have sought to stop cities from enacting policies they say go beyond state law. In Texas, cities with more than 5,000 people long have had the power to write their own policies. The new state law puts restrictions on some policy areas.

Charelle Lett, a legal expert with the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the decriminalization policy should stand if adopted.

As long as the ordinance isnt prohibited by state or federal law, which to my knowledge, there isnt a prohibition on decriminalizing marijuana in Texas so far, Lett explained, then they may have a good chance of getting this to pass.

Lett echoed Hernandezs sentiment, saying decriminalizing would have a big impact on Black and Latino communities that feel over-policed, and for the people being heard by city leaders.

A lot of the time, people in high places forget to listen to the community they are so-called serving, Lett said. Nobody knows what a community needs better than the community itself.

Since the petition started, Lubbock Compact and their volunteers have registered more than 150 new voters. And residents in nearby cities have expressed interest in replicating the effort for their towns.

Weve heard from people in Wolfforth, Levelland, Slaton and many more who want to see if they can do this too, Ramirez said. The decriminalizing movement is only going to continue to grow until we get marijuana legalized, which is what the majority of Texans want.
In this video image from an officer's body camera, Shanna Gardner peers up at an officer as he asks her some questions and advises her what's happening during her arrest in Benton County, Wash., on Aug. 17 in her ex-husband Jared Bridegan's murder plot in Jacksonville Beach.

Shanna Lee Gardner is cleared to be returned to Jacksonville to face multiple charges as a co-conspirator in the murder plot of ex-husband Jared Bridegan, according to the State Attorney's Office.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed the extradition warrant issued Sept. 13 by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis following Gardner's move to West Richland, Wash., and her arrest on Aug. 17 on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit a capital felony and child abuse.

Her husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, faces the same charges after his arrest in Orlando on March 16.

The first person arrested on Jan. 25 was 62-year-old Henry Arthur Tenon, who previously rented a home from Fernandez Saldana. He has already pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, stating he was the triggerman and agreeing to testify against the others, State Attorney Melissa Nelson previously said.

Mario Fernandez Saldana is arrested by the Orange County Sheriff's Office on March 16 in Orlando in the death of Jared Bridegan.

The State Attorney's Office said there is no official timetable for when Gardner, 36, will be transferred.

Fernandez Saldana, 35, had a pretrial hearing scheduled for Monday that was moved to Oct. 12, according to court records. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for both Gardner and Fernandez Saldana.

Shanna Gardner's husband: Bodycam shows a polite and relaxed Mario Fernandez Saldana during arrest in Bridegan case

Bridegan, 33, was shot on Feb. 16, 2022, after dropping his twin children off at Mario and Shanna's Jacksonville Beach home. He lived in St. Augustine and was on his way there with his 2-year-old daughter when he stopped because of a tire on Sancturay Road, police previously said.

Early in the case, police made it clear they didn't think the tire being there was an accident. It was a dark, residential road that Bridegan routinely took to get to Butler Boulevard. When he turned his hazard lights on and got out to move it, he was immediately gunned down, police said. The toddler was unharmed in her safety seat and nothing appeared to be stolen.

Jared Bridegan and daughter Bexley, who was in their car when he was shot and killed in Jacksonville Beach.

An arrest warrant states "the investigation into Bridegans background revealed a highly acrimonious divorce from his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, and a contentious relationship with both Gardner and Fernandez Saldana."

The indictment also specifies that Gardner and Fernandez Saldana are accused of conspiring between Nov. 1, 2021, and Feb. 16, 2022, to have Bridegan killed. For Gardner it states her involvement may have gone back as far as May 2015, which is a few months after she filed for divorce.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Shanna Gardner cleared to be extradited back to Jacksonville
By Jeff Mason and Heather Timmons

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Long-shot U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s likely independent bid for the White House may complicate the 2024 race by taking votes away from Democrat Joe Biden or Republican Donald Trump in critical states, political analysts said.

Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist, scion of the powerful political family and son of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, is expected to announce in Philadelphia on Oct. 9 that he will drop his challenge to President Biden for the Democratic Party's nomination, and run as an independent candidate instead.

The two-party system of Democrats and Republicans has dominated presidential politics for more than a century, but third party candidates have influenced the outcome in the past.

The success of Biden or Trump, the former president who is the frontrunner for his party's 2024 nomination, could come down to thousands of voters in a handful of critical states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Arizona. Independent voters, those not registered with either party, are likely to be a deciding factor in Arizona and others.

Kennedy's deep-pocketed backers and famous name, combined with a lack of broad enthusiasm for Biden and Trump, could help him take votes from their respective sides.

"Our concern about all third parties is that Donald Trumps support is limited  hes well below 50% - but very stable," said Matt Bennett, the co-founder of Third Way, a left-leaning political strategy firm. "Voters who would reluctantly pick Biden in a head-to-head with Trump might jump at the chance to vote for a Kennedy, even if they dont know much about him."

Some of Kennedy's public positions align more with the Trump supporters who have embraced anti-vaccination and conspiracy theories than with Biden's centrist and left-leaning base. Opinion polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight show Kennedy appeals more to Republicans than Democrats by a large margin.

Republican strategists said they see advantages and disadvantages to Kennedy's presence in the race.

"It could certainly siphon some votes from Trump, but it will certainly hurt Biden much more," said Republican strategist Ford O'Connell, who argued that Trump voters were more enthusiastic than Biden's.

Biden's 2024 re-election campaign declined to comment. Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Children's Health Defense, a non-profit organization Kennedy founded, spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, including that vaccinated children died at a faster rate, Reuters Fact Check found.

Dozens of young children died of measles in American Samoa in 2019 after anti-vaccine activists, including Kennedy, spread misinformation about the vaccines' safety in the island state, according to FactCheck.org and Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's vaccine education center.

Kennedy in July testimony to Congress said he has never been opposed to vaccines and never told the public to avoid them.

In July, White House officials joined a chorus of Democrats and medical professionals who criticized Kennedy for claiming in a video that COVID-19 was targeted to attack white and Black people and that Jewish and Chinese people are most immune.

Kennedy has also suggested anti-depressants cause school shootings, Wi-Fi radiation causes cancer and that the 2004 election that re-elected George W. Bush was stolen, according to FactCheck.org.

About 47% of Americans polled in September by Reuters/Ipsos said they were uninterested in getting the newest COVID-19 vaccine, with more than one-third of those saying they believed it was dangerous. Only 34% of Republicans said they would be interested in getting the updated vaccine, compared with 77% of Democrats.

HIGH FAVORABILITY, TRUMP DONOR

Kennedy has higher favorability ratings than either Trump or Biden, Reuters/Ipsos polling from September shows, with 51% of respondents having a favorable view of him compared to 45% for Biden and 40% for Trump. But Biden leads Kennedy by 50 points in opinion polls tracking the Democratic nomination race, according to an average of data by RealClearPolitics.

At 69, Kennedy might have an appeal to Americans looking for a younger candidate than Biden, 80, and Trump, 77. Some 86% of Americans said they believe the cutoff for serving as president should be age 75 or younger, Reuters/Ipsos polling last November showed.

Several Political Action Committees have already raised millions for Kennedy's campaign, and he has the backing of popular right-leaning podcasters and some Hollywood stars. He is married to actor Cheryl Hines.

American Values 2024 has raised $9.8 million, according to its latest Federal Election Committee filing, including a $4.3 million donation from Gavin de Becker, a security consultant, and $5 million from Timothy Mellon. Mellon, an heir to the Mellon banking family, donated $20 million to Trump's America First Action PAC in 2020, Open Secrets data show.

THIRD-PARTY SPOILER?

Kennedy would join academic Cornell West as a third-party candidate. West's campaign manager, Peter Daou, welcomed Kennedy in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, has flirted with running for president as a third-party candidate, and former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, who campaigned on the Democratic ticket in 2000 as former Vice President Al Gore's running mate, is the founding chairman of No Labels, a group that could put up a 2024 presidential contender.

Biden, in an interview with ProPublica, suggested Lieberman's group would help Trump.

"He has a democratic right to do it. Theres no reason not to do that. Now, its going to help the other guy. And he knows (that)," Biden said when asked about Lieberman. "Thats a political decision hes making that I obviously think is a mistake."

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Heather Timmons; editing by Lisa Shumaker and Grant McCool)
Just when you think that Elon Musk's life couldn't get any weirder, he is now facing a lawsuit as the owner of the social media company X Corp, formerly known as Twitter, by another company with the notable "X" mark on the company name.

X Versus X

For a very common title like "X," Musk will likely encounter a company that has a similar name, and now he has. An ad agency called X Social Media LLC claims that the Tesla CEO's rebranding effort is hurting their business and resorted to taking legal action.

The lawsuit states that X Corp is violating the common law of the State of Florida with "unfair competition and trademark and service mark infringement," as well as "violation of Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act."

Although the marketing agency is based in Florida and the social media company in Nevada, the court has "personal jurisdiction" over the defendant as X Corp has "transacted business, regularly does business. And supplies services in the State of Florida."

X Social Media says that it has been operational since 2016, founded by Jacob Malherbe in 2015. Upon adopting the name "X," Musk's social media site was registered as such in association with social media, business data, and promotion and advertising.

While X Corp using the "infringing mark" as a social media company may be harmless, Musk is also offering marketing services, which clashes with the business of the ad agency. As shown in The Verge, it "has caused and will continue to cause serious irreparable harm to X Social Media."

Read Also: X CEO Linda Yaccarino Says Creators Have Been Paid Almost $20 Million

Twitter to X

Elon Musk announced his plans to change the well-known brand Twitter to X back in July 2023, already knowing about the preexisting rights of X Social Media. Despite that, X Corp still proceeded with the rebrand and was a legal entity by April 2023.

The tech billionaire's obsession with the infringing mark "X" is no secret. His astronautics company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp, is more known for its shorter name, SpaceX. His son is even named X  A-12.

This is not the first time that Musk's rebranding stepped on the toes of other individuals. For instance, a user on what was formerly known as Twitter got the username @X first, but given that it is now the official name of the company, they decided to use it for themselves.

The problem is, X Corp did not exactly do so swimmingly. According to the former user of @X Gene X Hwang, the company only informed him of the takeover after it was already done. X Corp tried to compensate Hwang by offering merchandise and a tour of X headquarters.

Since @X was not only a name that the company was after but also a rare username, people believe that the company should've given Hwang financial compensation instead of merchandise and efforts to show appreciation through the tour.

What's worse is that the Hwang was given a much more complicated name. According to Tech Crunch, his username is now @x1234567998765. That just adds to the problematic rebranding, aside from wasting the years that Twitter has gone through building the brand.

Related: Twitter Took the @X Handle from an Existing User Without Asking
Californians will have a good view of the annular solar eclipse, aka a ring of fire eclipse, when it happens later this month.

An annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon, while at its farthest point from Earth, passes between our planet and the sun.

The dazzling event causes a dark circle that partially covers the sun but leaves an orange, fiery glow around the shadowed edges of the moon.

This is set to occur on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 9:13 a.m. PDT, and your ability to view the event will depend on the weather and your location.

Crowd uses eclipse glasses

To see all phases of an annular eclipse, you must view it from somewhere along the path of annularity, NASA stated.

California falls into the 70% to 80% maximum obscuration range, according to a NASA map, so residents and visitors should get a clear view depending on the weather.

However, even with cloud cover, the eerie daytime darkness associated with eclipses is still noticeable, NASA stated.

While the Moon will cover most of the Sun, it will never completely darken the star.

Because of this, it will not be safe to look directly at the sun, and eye protection must be worn.

NASA recommends wearing safe solar viewing glasses, described as eclipse glasses, or a safe handheld solar viewer at all times.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
A combination image shows the Nammuldi rock shelter before and after a mine blast by Rio Tinto in the Pilbara region

By Melanie Burton

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Damage caused to an Aboriginal rock shelter by mining giant Rio Tinto in August underscores the need for better heritage protection laws and a greater say for Indigenous groups promised in this month's Voice referendum, advocates say.

Rio admitted on Sept. 21 to damaging a rock shelter on Aug. 6 in Western Australias Pilbara region while blasting at a nearby iron ore mine. Rio is now working with the Muntulgura Guruma people to assess what had happened, it said.

Rio's destruction of rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in 2020 prompted a global outcry, the departure of top executives and a parliamentary enquiry that recommended an overhaul of Australia's Aboriginal heritage protection laws.

"Regrettably, it seems as though Rio's blast management plan has failed on this occasion leaving the Muntulgura Guruma People to pick up the pieces," said Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal Corporation (WGAC), which represents the Muntulgura, in a statement. "Any impact is of course unwelcome."

The blast on Aug. 6 led to the fall of a Pilbara scrub tree and one square metre of rock from the overhang of a rock shelter estimated to have been inhabited for 40,000-50,000 years.

Rio Tinto, which did not make a public statement for seven weeks, said it was sorry for the incident, and that it had taken steps to inform appropriate parties.

"As soon as we identified it, we informed traditional owners, we informed the regulator, we informed our employees at that mine site around what happened and that was for us the appropriate steps to take," Rio's iron ore boss Simon Trott told public broadcaster the ABC last week.

Lawmaker Warren Entsch, who led the parliamentary enquiry into Juukan Gorge, said Rio shouldn't have caused the damage in the first place, and should have been more transparent in disclosure.

"Clearly no lessons have been learnt," he told Reuters.

Rio said it has reformed its business since Juukan including changing its blast procedures to better protect heritage sites, revising internal governance including around policies, procedures and practices, and improving its transparency.

Reaction to the incident has been more muted compared to the outrage over the Juukan Gorge rock shelters so far.

Rio's initial assessment indicating no structural damage or impacts to cultural materials, which it had assessed via drone footage, had broker Morgan Stanley "somewhat relieved," it said in a note to clients.

VOICE FOR HERITAGE

Looming over the incident is Australias upcoming Indigenous Voice referendum set for Oct. 14 that would create a panel to advise parliament on issues affecting the Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islands communities.

James Fitzgerald, legal counsel at the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) said investors should be aware that industry self-regulation does not effectively manage the destructive impacts of mining.

"It's hard to think of a more compelling practical example of the need for an Indigenous Voice in the mining policy debate," he said. "As long as Indigenous people are not represented at tables where laws and policies affecting them are made, we will witness more unjust and unnecessary outcomes."

Rio and other major companies have spoken out in support of the Yes vote. But as the vote draws closer, the issue is becoming more contentious and support has dipped.

Some Indigenous supporters say fear that criticism of the latest incident may further erode backing for the referendum is contributing to the muted reaction.

"In speaking to traditional owners, there is a reluctance to loudly criticise heritage protection issues in the state at the minute in case it galvanises the no vote in the upcoming referendum," Jamie Lowe, CEO of land rights advisory body National Native Title Council, told Reuters.

The incident also comes as Western Australia is set to overturn its 2021 Aboriginal cultural heritage protection laws, introduced on July 1 after the destruction of the Juukan Gorge shelters. The law was repealed after just five weeks in force due to opposition from landowners.

A spokesperson for the state department regulating Aboriginal heritage protection said it was in contact with Rio Tinto but it was not investigating the latest incident.

"Aboriginal people are best placed to speak to matters relating to their cultural heritage, and whether or not it has been impacted. Should the Department receive a complaint from Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal Corporation, it will act immediately to investigate."

WGAC said it had not yet complained to the regulator but reserved its rights to do so once it had established the facts and would visit the site in the coming weeks.

(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
(The Hill)  Zelda Williams , the daughter of late actor and comedian Robin Williams , is speaking out against the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to recreate her fathers voice, calling it disturbing.

Williams wrote a social media post weighing in on AI amid the ongoing actors strike. The Hollywood union, SAG-AFTRA, has voiced concerns surrounding AI usage.

I am not an impartial voice in SAGs fight against AI. Ive witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/re-create actors who cannot consent, like Dad, Williams wrote in a story post on her Instagram page Sunday, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

This isnt theoretical, it is very very real. Ive already heard AI used to get his voice to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings, she reportedly added.

The SAG-AFTRA launched its strike earlier this year seeking better pay and working conditions. The union, which represents more than 160,000 members, has been in negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). It has raised AI recreations as a top concern.

Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance, Zelda Williams, 34, added in her post Sunday, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

These re-creations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people, but at their worst, a horrendous Frankensteinian monster, cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for.

Williamss remarks comes as her fathers voice is set to be used in a new short film, Once Upon a Studio, produced and distributed by Disney. Robin Williamss Aladdin character, Genie, will appear in the film.

Actor Josh Gad, who voiced Olaf in Disneys Frozen, wrote on Instagram the new film will use previously unheard dialogue recorded by the actor prior to his death and the late actors estate allowed use of the dialogue.

Williams, 63, died by suicide in 2014 after battles with anxiety, severe depression and Parkinsons disease.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
Ron DeSantis  presidential bid is tanking so hard hes now resorting to inflating crime statistics in blue states to try to make himself look better.

Recently the Florida governor has been claiming hes heard stories about increased crime rates in Los Angeles and San Francisco, even repeating a story about meeting people from California who were the victims of muggings. But because the Dont Say Gay Republican cant stop lying, the number of people who have been robbed in his story keeps increasing every time he talks about it.



Just being in Southern California over the last couple of days, my wife and I have met three people who have been mugged on the street, he said at the Republican debate on September 27.

California Governor Gavin Newsom immediately shot back against the ridiculously exaggerated claims of out-of-control crime levels in California. This may be an opportunity, I appreciate, to look up Jacksonville, Florida, and he may want to familiarize himself with Miami, Florida and his homicide rates, which are 100 percent higher than San Francisco, Newsom said, according to The New Republic.

DeSantis: My wife and I met three people who had been mugged in CA



Newsom: He may want to familiarize himself with Jacksonville and Miami pic.twitter.com/y0nWfuIN5o  Acyn (@Acyn) September 28, 2023

Despite this, four days later DeSantis doubled the number of victims in his ridiculous story. In the new version of this fable, he told Fox News Maria Bartiromo he and his wife Casey have come across six or seven people that had been mugged in the last year in southern California.

A Republican lying about crime to bolster their campaignwho would have guessed?

Just makin' sh1t up as he goes along.



That's the @GovRonDeSantis way. https://t.co/MMg4rAmN0j  SFDB (@sfdb) October 1, 2023

Not only has DeSantis been playing from the well-worn Republican playbook by talking about how lawless Democratic leaning states are, but hes also been bragging about how Floridas crime rate is at 50 year low.

Claiming that Florida is unsafe is a total farce, DeSantis said when he announced his futile bid for the presidency. I mean, are you kidding me? You look at cities around this country, they are awash in crime. In Florida, our crime rate is at a 50-year low.

But according to the Marshall Project, a nonprofit that covers criminal justice, these numbers are laughably incomplete, leaving out data from some of the biggest police departments in Florida, Queerty reports.

"About half of the agencies that police more than 40% of the states population are missing from figures the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) used for a state-wide estimation, the Marshall Project report reads.

DeSantis seems to be incapable of opening his mouth without spewing anti-LGBTQ+ hate or blatant and easily disputed lies. So, you know, hes a Republican.

Florida doesnt even report most of their crime figures to the FBI. In fact, only 8% of the Sunshine States police departments do. The Miami Police Department, the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office, and the St. Petersburg Police Department, are not included in the FBIs crime assessment.

It becomes obvious that DeSantis is lying about his experience of talking to California residents about the supposed uptick in crime when you realize that Floridas homicide rate is higher than Californias.

Crime is a real issue, but I find the hypocrisy, the unwillingness to be honest with the American people, and the unwillingness to take responsibilityRon DeSantis, take responsibility for his own crime rates in his own major cities. I find that curious, not surprising, Newsom said.
The British royal family has revealed a surprising fact about King Charles III.

On 29 September, the 74-year-old monarch paid an announced visit to the Global Underwater Hub in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. During his trip, King Charles checked out exhibits demonstrating underwater diving technology, underwater 3D image capturing, and eco-friendly artificial reefs.

To commemorate the visit, the royal family shared a unique detail about Charles that some royal fans may not know. Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, the royal family wrote: Did you know that The King is the first British monarch to be a qualified diver?

The royal family also posted several throwback photos of Charles diving over the years, wearing a red scuba suit decked out with diving equipment. According to the royal family, the then-Prince Charles undertook a half-hour dive under Arctic ice at Resolute Bay, Canada, in 1975.

Years later, the King dived underwater onto the Mary Rose, Henry VIIIs warship, nine times before it was raised from the seabed in 1982, they added, showing another image of young Charles diving excursions.

Many royal fans were shocked by the interesting tidbit, as one X user replied: I didnt know that, very interesting!

Oh wow, I really did not know that, another person said. Diving under ice is definitely something I could and would not do.

Thats an impressive royal first! Exploring under Arctic ice is definitely a unique dive for a monarch, a third fan wrote.

Did you know that The King is the first British monarch to be a qualified diver? 



In 1975, His Majesty undertook a half-hour dive under Arctic ice at Resolute Bay, Canada. pic.twitter.com/xJDmahDmNm  The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) September 29, 2023

Apparently scuba diving runs in the royal family. Charles father, the Duke of Edinburgh, served as president of the British Sub-Aqua Club from 1960 to 1963. According to the scuba diving club, Prince Philip felt strongly about the potential of the underwater world and the role that diving could play in advancing science and our understanding of the sea.

He first swam underwater in 1937 and learned how to dive with lessons taught in the swimming pool at Buckingham Palace. Prince Philip also made sure there were two Navy divers on the Royal Yacht to act as underwater escorts when he was able to go diving.

I didnt know that, very interesting!  Abigail (@abigailtaylor50) September 29, 2023

Oh wow, I really did not know that . Diving under ice is definitely something I could and would not do.   Suzanne Brmptn (@Suzanne_Brmptn) September 29, 2023

That's an impressive royal first! Exploring under Arctic ice is definitely a unique dive for a monarch.  David Eseosa (@DavidTopChap) September 29, 2023

Much like his father, King Charles passed his affinity for diving on to his own two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. During their visit to Belize last year, the Prince and Princess of Wales shared footage of a private scuba dive they took at South Water Caye.

The video showed Prince William and Kate Middleton donning scuba gear to go diving at the second-largest barrier reef in the world. The pair were seen swimming alongside each other as they gave the OK hand signal and viewed coral and marine life.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry went scuba diving with US Navy veteran Gabriel George in Hawaii in November 2022.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has, for the first time, published rules of engagement for civilian hackers involved in conflicts.

The organisation warns unprecedented numbers of people are joining patriotic cyber-gangs since the Ukraine invasion.

The eight rules include bans on attacks on hospitals, hacking tools that spread uncontrollably and threats that engender terror among civilians.

But some cyber-gangs have told BBC News they plan to ignore them.

'Spreading globally'

The ICRC, responsible for overseeing and monitoring the rules of war, is sending the new rules to hacking groups particularly involved in the Ukraine war. It is also warning hackers their actions can endanger lives, including their own if deemed to make them a legitimate military target.

Patriotic hacking has risen over the past decade. The ICRC statement highlights pro-Syrian cyber-attacks on Western news media in 2013.

But the worrying trend, accelerated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, is now spreading globally, ICRC legal adviser Dr Tilman Rodenhauser says.

"Some experts consider civilian hacking activity as 'cyber-vigilantism' and argue that their operations are technically not sophisticated and unlikely to cause significant effects," he says.

"However, some of the groups we're seeing on both sides are large and these 'armies' have disrupted... banks, companies, pharmacies, hospitals, railway networks and civilian government services."

Based on international humanitarian law, the rules are:

Do not direct cyber-attacks against civilian objects Do not use malware or other tools or techniques that spread automatically and damage military objectives and civilian objects indiscriminately When planning a cyber-attack against a military objective, do everything feasible to avoid or minimise the effects your operation may have on civilians Do not conduct any cyber-operation against medical and humanitarian facilities Do not conduct any cyber-attack against objects indispensable to the survival of the population or that can release dangerous forces Do not make threats of violence to spread terror among the civilian population Do not incite violations of international humanitarian law Comply with these rules even if the enemy does not

The ICRC is also imploring governments to restrain hacking and enforce existing laws.

The Ukraine conflict has blurred the boundaries between civilian and military hacking, with civilian groups such as the IT Army of Ukraine being set up and encouraged by the government to attack Russian targets.

The IT Army of Ukraine, which has 160,000 members on its Telegram channel, also targets public services such as railway systems and banks.

Its spokesman told BBC News it had not decided whether to implement the ICRC rules. The group has already banned attacks on healthcare targets - but said the wider civilian impact was unavoidable.

"Adhering to the rules can place one party at a disadvantage," the spokesman added.

Large groups in Russia have similarly attacked Ukraine and allied countries - including disruptive but temporary attacks, such as knocking websites offline, on hospitals.

Killnet's leader, Killmilk, plans to ignore the rules

"Why should I listen to the Red Cross?" a representative of Killnet, which has 90,000 supporters on its Telegram channel, asked BBC News.

Pro-Russian groups are accused of working directly for, or in conjunction, with the Kremlin. But Killnet strongly denies this.

Meanwhile, a representative of Anonymous Sudan, which in recent months has begun attacking technology companies and government services it says are critical of Sudan or Islam, told BBC News the new rules were "not viable and that breaking them for the group's cause is unavoidable".

And a high-profile member of the Anonymous collective told BBC News it had "always operated based on several principles, including rules cited by the ICRC" but had now lost faith in the organisation and would not be following its new rules.

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The Scene

CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y.  Early next year, Jason Schmidt, the district attorney of this quiet lakefront county in New York, will prosecute the man who allegedly tried to assassinate the British-American novelist, Salman Rushdie , last August. Its a case, Schmidt says, thats unsettled his local community and police force and will likely reverberate beyond Chautauquas borders.

Within our small community, this issue has upended us, you know, not just in our office because of compliance with discovery laws, but our local police agencies as well, Schmidt told Semafor in an interview from his basement operations in the Chautauqua County courthouse. His small staff of about 11  including lawyers, paralegals, and investigators  needed to process 30,000 files to prepare for trial.

He was also concerned with the lack of resources to ensure the communitys safety. Everybody recognizes that this may give rise to copycat crimes, he said. It could give rise to all kinds of problems, and so nobody wants to see that happen.

Schmidt, 56, became the countys DA in early 2021 after a legal career that began in private practice in New York City and migrated westward to Chautauqua, which sits just south of Lake Erie and the Canadian border. Schmidt campaigned in 2020 as a get-tough-on-crime Republican. But he said no one in Chautauqua was prepared for what happened on the morning of August 12, 2022: When, according to video footage, a young Lebanese-American man named Hadi Matar stabbed Rushdie 10 times as he was starting to speak at a literary festival hosted by the Chautauqua Institution. Rushdie survived the assault but lost sight in one eye and the use of a hand.

Rushdie, interestingly, hasnt been involved in preparations for the trial. Schmidt said hes sought to interview the writer in relation to what testimony he may provide, but has so far been stonewalled. I havent had a conversation with Mr. Rushdie. The closest Ive gotten is to his attorneys and his publicist, Schmidt said.

Matar has pleaded innocent to the charge of attempted murder in the second degree. But his mother has told reporters that her now 25-year-old son was a staunch supporter of the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for Rushdies death. Khomeini ruled that Rushdies novel, , was blasphemous, due to its depiction of Islams Prophet Mohammed.

Matar, at the time of the attack, possessed a fake ID with the name of a top commander in Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia based in Lebanon. Matar had made a series of trips to south Lebanon, according to his family, where he could have been trained and radicalized by Hezbollah. Schmidt told Semafor in August that the Department of Justice has opened a separate investigation into the Rushdie attack specifically focused on whether foreign actors were also involved.

Matars trial, which could begin as early as January, will likely be short and easy to prosecute, given the existence of the video footage. This is relatively straightforward, right? Its a stabbing, Schmidt said. We have the video. Still, the DA acknowledges that the fallout from the case could be far reaching.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

The View From Jason Schmidt

Q: When do you expect the trial to begin?

A: I dont dictate it. But I think early 2024. So, I could easily see this January, February 2024, maybe March. Right in that time period.

Q: Youre going to keep your case very much focused on just the attack, right?

A: Yeah, the four corners of that [attempted murder] statute, you know, keeps it relatively simple when you look at it.

Q: How much cooperation has your office had with federal investigators?

A: We had some interaction because the evidence that was developed  the physical evidence early on  the federal government wanted to review that as well. And they also have certain capabilities that we dont have, for instance, in extracting material from electronic devices. So, there was some degree of cooperation, but you know, theyve gone off on their side, and they generally keep to themselves and theres not any information sharing going on.

Q: Do you have a sense of what the federal government is looking into?

A: When we talk about motivation, were talking about potentially other actors that may be involved inside the country or outside the country. And those can be individuals; they could be organizations; they could be governmental entities. And I think that requires a whole other range of resources, and I think that that goes to the fact that right now, you really dont hear much, you dont see much going on. I think that investigation is so much more in depth and protracted than for us, which is a relatively simple and straightforward event.

Q: Do you have any evidence that anyone was helping the assailant?

A: I think the answer to that from my standpoint is no. Thats not to say Mr. Matar did not interact with other individuals concerning his motivations, but well beforehand. But I do think that the Chautauqua Institution promoted the event several months beforebecause they were gearing up for their summer season. Part of that might begin sometime in and around March. And at that point, if anyone were focused upon Mr. Rushdie, I believe you can Google him, and then the Institution would tie into that search term.

Q: What was Hadi Matars path to Chautauqua?

A: New Jersey to Port Authority, from Port Authority to Buffalo. And then from Buffalo, he hired a car, whether it was Uber or Lyft, I dont recall.

Q: What was found on Hadi Matar at the time of the attack?

A: He had a bag and inside the bag was a fake identification, cell phone, some prepaid credit cards. They refer to [them] as vanilla Visa cards, and I believe two knives.

Q: How long do you expect the trial to take?

A: Were really talking about a very easy case to prove. I would say, just offhand, that maybe youre talking about less than a week of actual presentation of evidence and opening presentation of evidence. In closing. I think the bulk of it may be the jury selection process. So maybe three weeks.

Q: Has Salman Rushdie been very involved in the case?

A: I havent had a conversation with Mr. Rushdie. The closest Ive gotten is to his attorneys and his publicist. And, so, youre not even sure: Were trying to get medical records. Were trying to get things. But I cant even talk to the guy. Hes got so many layers of people  youre dealing with a real VIP.

So, its a little odd here because were trying to prosecute our case. And weve had prosecutors here say, you know, were set. Hes got to show up, obviously, at trial; we need him. Ive let his attorneys know. But its funny. I did get the silent treatment...I said, listen, the case is going. I need to subpoena him. I want him here. I need your assurance, and then they never even responded.

Q: Do you think theres a chance he doesnt show up at trial?

A: I think he would because I think he recognizes, not just for him personally, but the trajectory of his life was changed by this. And it impacts, you know, the literary community. So, I think he would from a moral standpoint. I dont know what type of person he is, but I would think he will fully cooperate.
Russian attacks on power stations caused blackouts in Ukraine last winter. Now it looks like Moscow is starting early. Above, workers at the site of a station hit by strikes near Kyiv last year. (Ed Ram / Getty Images)

In most of Ukraine, the days and nights are still soft and summer-clear, with only a faint tang of autumn in the air. But if Russia has its way, winter will come early.

Moscow's signature strategy of the last cold-weather season is already being unleashed again this year, in the form of a thunderous barrage of strikes that Ukrainian officials said targeted electricity infrastructure in several parts of the country.

The Sept. 21 attacks, the first of their kind in six months, caused partial blackouts in half a dozen provinces, including in the capital region. It was an ominous sign of things to come  and a reminder of hardships past.

People walk past damaged buildings as night falls in Borodyanka, west of Kyiv, in November 2022. (Ed Ram / Getty Images)

Virtually every Ukrainian family has stories to tell about power-related privations last winter: major metropolises and tiny hamlets alike plunged into inky blackness; the run on generators and candles; the painstaking scheduling of daily activities  cooking, shopping, bathing  around pre-timed power cuts meant to preserve the grid.

I remember just standing at the bottom of all those flights of stairs in despair  very pregnant, my arms full of groceries, said 37-year-old Iulia Statnyk, a Kyiv photographer who lived in a 20th-floor apartment last winter. This year, she and her husband, together with their 10-month-old baby, have settled in a house equipped with a generator.

Read more: In Ukraines power-starved wartime capital, glimmers of light amid the darkness

Hoping to avoid a repeat of last winter, Ukraine has rushed to protect and harden its power grid, although for security reasons, officials are circumspect about some of the particular measures being taken.

IT worker Igor makes tea using a camping stove in his Kyiv apartment in near total darkness last November. (Ed Ram / Getty Images)

President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a U.S. television interview in mid-September, warned Russia that if last winter's pattern of hitting electricity infrastructure resumes, Ukraine would consider retaliation in kind to be fair play.

Over the last year, Ukraine has demonstrated that it can mount drone attacks deep inside Russia, including in Moscow, though Zelenskys government does not formally acknowledge responsibility for such strikes.

If you cut off our power, deprive us of electricity, deprive us of water, deprive us of gasoline, you need to know we have the right to do it, Zelensky told CBS' "60 Minutes." But even if it wanted to, Ukraine does not have the capacity to hammer Russian civilian power infrastructure as thoroughly and systematically as Moscow's forces did here.

We know that this winter, they will try again to break us.

Yuri Herasko, working on Ukraine's electrical grid

Ukraine described last winters attacks on the electric grid as an attempt to break peoples spirits and freeze the country into submission, but in many instances, the hardships fostered a sense of community.

In high-rise apartment buildings in Kyiv and elsewhere, neighbors banded together to leave emergency provisions in elevators in case people were trapped by unexpected outages: water, snacks, diapers.

Even so, many view the prospect of a fresh season of prolonged outages with dread. February, in all its freezing gloom, will mark the second anniversary of what has become a grinding conflict with no clear end in sight.

Read more: Sleepless in Kyiv: In Ukraine's capital, the stress of war weighs on everyone. How do people cope?

Last winter's waves of drone and missile strikes ultimately affected about half the Ukrainian energy sector, taking aim at power substations, hulking transformers and other key electricity infrastructure.

At one point last winter, Kyivs mayor, Vitaly Klitschko, even mused about the possibility of a mass evacuation if the power cuts made it impossible to provide running water. A Russian talk-show host expressed a fervent longing to see the Ukrainian capital drowning in raw sewage.

Amid those punishing strikes, Ukraine scrambled to stay ahead of mounting damage, with repair crews working around the clock and under fire, desperately jury-rigging old equipment and rationing precious power.

Along the way, electric crews gained the status of folk heroes, with people often calling out praise and encouragement when they see even ordinary repairs taking place.

"You can tell what we are doing is appreciated," said Mykola Marmur, a 44-year-old power worker from Mariupol, a southern city that was captured by Russia early in the war after having been nearly leveled by fighting.

Working on a recent day on the outskirts of Kyiv with a crew from DTEK, the country's largest private power distributor, Marmur said safeguarding the power grid was a point of national pride.

"I hope I can do this for my own city someday soon," he said.

Read more: Ukrainians are grateful for U.S. military aid. But some ask whether they deserve thanks too

Ukraine's drive to repair last winter's damage and shore up safety has been helped along by an infusion of Western support, including $375 million worth of electricity-related aid from the United States.

In early summer, the countrys energy minister, Herman Galushchenko, called it the most extensive repair campaign in the history of energy facilities.

One chilling aspect of Russias power-targeting airstrikes is that much of Ukraines energy infrastructure dates back to Soviet times, before the country attained independence in 1991.

Many of last winters most damaging attacks appeared precision-aimed at critical infrastructure like substations; the state-owned power distributor Ukrenergo said 70% of those were struck at least twice last winter. Some were hit again almost as soon as they were brought back online.

But the intensity of the attacks carried a bit of unexpected blowback: The strikes helped galvanize Western partners to shore up Ukraines air defenses. Even so, air defense remains a critical need heading into the winter  a precariousness that Zelensky stressed during a Washington visit in September and in recent talks with visiting European officials.

Read more: Grave by grave, police and war crimes investigators comb a Ukrainian forest

Read more: Will the people of Bucha, Ukraine, find justice?

In the capital region, the last punishing winter came only months after Russian forces occupation early in the war of several bedroom communities close to Kyiv, including Bucha, whose name became synonymous with wanton killings and torture of civilians.

Russian forces broke off their attempt to seize Kyiv itself in April 2022, but combat and deliberate vandalism by the occupiers left behind massive damage to the electrical grid, presenting power workers with their first big challenge of the war.

Workers repair infrastructure last year in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Electric crews have gained the status of folk heroes, with people often calling out encouragement when they see even ordinary repairs taking place. (Ed Ram / Getty Images)

In a span of only a month and a half, they managed to restore some 6,000 miles of power lines and more than 70 high-voltage substations in the Kyiv region, said Maksym Timchenko, the chief executive of DTEK.

The coming winter, he said in a statement to The Times, will be no less challenging than the previous one.

Read more: Rosh Hashana in wartime: As missiles fall, Jews in Ukraine find hope, even joy

In the drive to prepare for winter, there have been some missteps.

In an August report, the Atlantic Council cited slow delivery of large autotransformers, and reports that a large shipment of American energy-related assistance included some equipment incompatible with Ukraines grid.

On a recent day, in a fast-food parking lot beside a roaring multi-lane road, a DTEK crew was busy drilling through cement to reach buried high-voltage lines that needed refurbishing.

Read more: After an artist's studio was damaged in a Russian missile strike, he found a new medium: war debris

We know that this winter, they will try again to break us, said the crews supervisor, 48-year-old Yuri Herasko. To be ready for all kinds of difficult scenarios  that's our job, and were working just as hard as we can.

Workers repair infrastructure at a power station damaged by a Russian air attack last October. Some 70% of substations were struck at least twice last winter. (Ed Ram / Getty Images)

In Kyiv and elsewhere, people hoped for the best, but prepared for the worst.

Generators are again in demand, and where best to procure diesel fuel for them is a hot topic. Country dwellers assemble stacks of firewood, and people dig deep in junk drawers for flashlights and batteries.

"You would not believe the collection of candles I assembled," said Statnyk, the Kyiv photographer. "Every color and every scent  watermelon, apple, like 40 different kinds. Now we will just have to see what this winter will be like."

Read more: In Ukraine, a harvest of death as bodies of the fallen are returned to their hometowns

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its forces shot down a Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missile near the Crimean coast late on Oct. 3. Kyiv hasnt commented on the allegation.

The missile was purportedly destroyed over the northwestern part of the Black Sea at around 8:30 p.m. Moscow time, according to the ministry.

Meanwhile, Mikhail Razvozhaev, the head of Sevastopol's illegal Russian occupation government, claimed a drone was downed over the occupied Crimean city. Drone debris allegedly fell on a residential building near the Sevastopol Bay, which hosts Russias Black Sea fleet, Razvozhaev said on Telegram.

Read also: Increased attacks on Crimea disrupt Russian logistics, attempt to derail its southern defenses

No casualties have been reported in Sevastopol, but the drone remains shattered windows in some apartments, according to Razvozhaev.

These claims couldnt be independently verified.

Neptune is Ukraines ground-launched, domestically produced anti-ship rocket with a maximum range of 300 kilometers.

Ukrainian forces reportedly used Neptune missiles to destroy a Russian S-400 Triumph air defense system on Sept. 14 and sink Russias Black Sea flagship Moskva in April last year.

Read also: Uncertain Triumph: Ukraine picks apart Russias best air defenses in Crimea

Ukraine's military has recently increased its strikes on Russian military sites in occupied Crimea  however, the attacks usually aren't recognized officially. Media attribute them to Ukrainian troops based on confirmations from anonymous insider sources.

On Sept. 22, a Ukrainian missile strike on Sevastopol damaged the building of Russia's Black Sea Fleet headquarters.

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By Park Han-sol

The iconic Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw once remarked, The great advantage of a hotel is that it is a refuge from home life.

The Trinity at Grand Hyatt Seoul, the gallery that opened this summer in the luxury hotels lobby in Yongsan District, suggests a moment of respite for visitors through the works of two contemporary Korean creatives: Lim Chang-min and Hwang Seon-tae.

What connects the two artists in the exhibition, The Window: Space of Meditation, is their attempt to capture the element of serene tranquility within a space, all bathed in soft light pouring through windows, with not a living soul in sight.

In Lims Into a Time Frame series, still and moving images are blended on a single screen to give life to scenic landscapes from around the world.

The media artist combines photographs of building interiors with videos of nature framed through windows. The result is an immersive mix of stillness and gentle motion, creating a space for contemplation.

Artist Hwang employs a distinct combination of frosted glass and LED lighting to replicate the ethereal play of sunlight filtering through room windows. Through his Space with Sunlight series, characterized by its dynamic interplay of light and shadow, he offers viewers a brief yet alluring experience of a midday meditation.

The Window: Space of Meditation runs through Oct. 28. Admission is free.
The Antonov An-124 Ruslan was built in the 1980s as a strategic military airlifter for the USSR.

Both Ukraine and Russia have used the giant quad-engine freighter in the ongoing war effort.

Two engines from Ukraine's destroyed An-225 jet have been salvaged and sent to its An-124 fleet.

The world's largest airplane, the Antonov An-225 "Mriya," was destroyed in February 2022 after Russia's attack on Hostomel Airport near Ukraine's capital of Kyiv.

Ukraine has been busy salvaging what it can of the jet since March 2023, with three engines actually being repaired and sent to the fleet of An-225's sister jet: the Antonov An-124 Ruslan, a heavy-lift plane operated mostly by Russian and Ukrainian carriers.

Take a look at the giant aircraft, which has faced serious headwinds since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Originally built as a heavy strategic airlifter for the USSR, the Ukrainian-made An-124 took its first flight in December 1982 and eventually entered the Soviet Air Forces in 1986.

The An-124 flying in 1987. Jean Guichard/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Although Ukraine was still part of the USSR when the An-124 was built, the Antonov Company  then known as the Antonov Design Bureau  remained a part of Ukraine after the country's independence in 1991.

Several versions of the Ruslan have since been produced, such as the AN-124-100 commercial transport plane and the 150-tonne-payload AN-124-100M-150 variant.

An Antonov An-124. Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The original Ruslan was built for military transport, running long-range delivery missions, and air-dropping heavy cargo equipment, as well as troops.

The AN-124-100M-150 commercial freighter is the latest version of the Ruslan airlifter, having been modified to increase the payload capacity to a little more than 330,000 pounds and fly nearly 400 miles farther than its predecessor. Its maximum takeoff weight is about 886,000 pounds.

Its current-day commercial use has seen it carry things such as oil-drilling machines and aircraft engines.

Designed to carry awkward and oversize objects, the huge planes are powered by four Ukrainian-made Progress D-18T engines and sport a total of 24 wheels.

A helicopter being loaded into an An-124. Jens Schlueter/Getty Images

The An-124 was actually the precursor to the An-225, which was built at the request of the USSR to carry its Busan Space Shuttle.

A quick turnaround time required by the Soviets meant it was more efficient just to create a larger version of the already-proven Ruslan.

What makes its missions easier is the plane's unique nose-loading door  something that was also incorporated on the Mriya.

Officials empty an Antonov An-124 after landing in Turkey in 2018. Sergen Sezgin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The nose-loading door is only featured on a few other mammoth cargo planes, such as the Boeing 747 freighter, the US Air Force's Lockheed C-5M Super Galaxy, and Airbus' Beluga transporter.

The Ruslan has earned a number of Guinness World Records over the decades, carrying odd objects such as generators and trains.

The train an An-124 carried in 1994. Antonov

In 1993, the AN-124-100 carried a Siemens generator weighing 124 tonnes from Frankfurt, Germany, to New Delhi, making it at the time the heaviest single piece of equipment ever airlifted.

A year later, General Motors tapped Antonov to fly a 109-tonne locomotive from Ontario, Canada, to Dublin, Ireland. The journey took 12 hours, including two refueling stops, and set a record for transporting the "heaviest cargo (plus equipment) of 146 tons."

Only about half of the 55 An-124s built between 1982 and 2014 are still in service  most of them flying for Russia or Ukraine.

Some of Ukraine's An-124-100 cargo jets parked in Germany for loading, service, and maintenance in May 2022. Production of the An-124 ended in 2014. Kyryl Gorlov/iStock

The Antonov Company subsidiary Antonov Airlines operates five An-124 aircraft out of Germany on behalf of NATO and the Ukrainian government. The jets are also flying on some humanitarian missions.

Data from Planespotters indicates the Kremlin has 21 An-124s across cargo carrier Volga-Dnepr and the Russian Air Force. Several of which, however, have been confiscated after Western nations imposed sanctions against Moscow.

Now that the Mriya is gone, the An-124 aircraft has become the world's largest civil freighter  boasting a 10,000-tonne greater cargo hold compared with the C-5M Super Galaxy.

The An-124 was used to carry medical supplies during the COVID-19 outbreak. JP Black/LightRocket via Getty Images

Ukraine's An-124 stands about 68 feet tall and 227 feet long with a 240-foot wingspan. Its 150-tonne payload is greater than the 140 tonnes of weight the C-5M is capable of carrying.

The An-124 fleet across both Russia and Ukraine has, however, faced significant challenges since the war began.

A Russian military officer standing by an Antonov An-124 Ruslan at an airport in central France in July 2018. ALAIN JOCARD/AFP via Getty Images

A handful of the world's fleet of An-124s are either damaged or seized, even forcing Antonov to relocate from Ukraine to Germany after the destruction of Hostomel airport.

According to Antonov, one of its An-124-100s was destroyed at Hostomel, while another was damaged and taken out of service for further evaluation.

The damage to one of Antonov's An-124 aircraft in the aftermath of the attack on Hostomel. Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The company said in May 2022, "As a result of the Russian attack and occupation of the airfield, significant damage has been caused to its infrastructure, office buildings, hangars, as well as the destruction of the AN-74T, AN-26-100, and AN-225," Simple Flying reported.

Another of the five surviving An-124s actually narrowly avoided destruction when it took off from Hostomel airport just one hour before Russia's attack, Aviacionline reported.

Russia has also faced a string of challenges, including four of its An-124s being seized in Canada and Germany.

The Volga Dnepr Airlines Antonov An-124 grounded in Toronto in June 2022. Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images

Planespotters indicates eight of Volga-Dnepr's 10 Ruslans are parked. Aerotime Hub reported four of these were stuck abroad including one in Canada and three in Germany.

The solo An-124 sitting in Canada was confiscated following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions against the Kremlin.

Canada is now set to hand the An-124 back over the Ukraine to help with its continued war effort against Russia.

Even though Ukraine has lost a few of its An-124s, the Ruslan is still an important asset in the ongoing war effort.

Aviation enthusiasts watch Antonov Airlines An-124-100 UR-82029 land at East Midlands Airport in the UK in July 2020. Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Over the months, the An-124 has been used to deliver military cargo like the armored vehicles moved from Australia to the Ukrainian army in May 2022.

And, although the Mriya is now out of commission, it's still able to support the An-124 fleet thanks to some salvageable parts.

The An-225 as it looked on August 10 after being destroyed by Russia. Igor Lesiv/aerovokzal.net

Ukrainian journalist and photographer Igor Lesiv, who visited the destroyed An-225 in August, told Insider that three of the jet's six engines could be saved  two of which went to the An-124 fleet.

"D-18T engines were always rearranged between AN-225 and AN-124, so they are now used on Ruslans," he said.

Several other parts from the An-225 have also been saved, which the country hopes can one day be used to rebuild the beloved Mriya.

The six-engine Mriya when it was still flying. GLEB GARANICH/Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Antonov Company have announced commitments to rebuilding the legendary Mriya  a feat the country estimated in November to cost about $500 million.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Mriya in nearly all instances. It has been corrected.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Ukrainian Defence Forces killed about 360 Russian troops and destroyed 15 tanks and 40 artillery systems belonging to the Russians on the contact line over the course of 2 October.

Source: Pavlo Kovalchuk, spokesman for the Ukrainian General Staff, on air during the national joint 24/7 newscast

Details: Ukrainian General Staff reports that over the past 24 hours, the Russian Armed Forces lost:

360 military personnel;

15 tanks;

8 armoured combat vehicles;

40 artillery systems;

20 operational and tactical UAVs;

23 vehicles and tankers;

5 units of special vehicles.

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Russia accidentally exposed the locations of its secret bases and spy homes, per the Dossier Center.

It included them in a long list of buildings that are supposed to always have power, per the outlet.

The 434-page list was temporarily uploaded to the Moscow's city hall website, the outlet reported.

Moscow's city hall accidentally leaked the addresses of government safehouses, undercover facilities, and the homes of state operatives, the Dossier Center reported on Monday.

A 434-page list containing the addresses was uploaded on the city hall website. It appeared to be a guide for local electricity suppliers, wrote the investigative outlet, which was founded by the Russian opposition politician and activist Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The document, titled "Special Group," earmarked specific buildings that authorities wanted to stay connected to in the event of blackouts or power shortages, reported the Dossier Center.

When Insider checked the Moscow city hall website on Monday, the document was no longer available online.

Several officials signed the document, including Moscow's mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, the Dossier Center reported.

While most of the list covered the addresses of public institutions like metro stations, police headquarters, and hospitals, it also pinpointed secret locations like an ammunition depot in Leningrad and undercover facilities run by the Federal Protective Service, according to the Dossier Center.

In one case, the document even included the apartment numbers of two homes used by spies in Moscow, the Dossier Center reported.

A list of residential addresses also revealed at least six apartment buildings in Moscow that contain homes sold or given to intelligence officers in the Foreign Intelligence Service, Russia's top external intelligence agency, per the outlet.

About 10 other entries in the document listed buildings in Moscow used by agents of the Federal Security Service, Russia's internal security and counterintelligence agency, per the Dossier Center.

Further entries also revealed dozens of undercover offices and facilities used by the Federal Protective Service, which is responsible for guarding Russia's top leaders, and the Federal Security Service, the outlet wrote.

Many of these locations have already been identified as Russian intelligence facilities by investigative outlets such as Bellingcat, the Dossier Center noted.

Facilities and safe houses in the Primorsky, Leningrad, St. Petersburg, and Bryansk regions were also on the list, the Dossier Center wrote, showing screenshots of the document.

A spokesperson for the Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Russia has managed to use the status of a "foreign agent" as a successful tool for manipulating public opinion.

Source: UK Defence Intelligence review dated 3 October on Twitter, as reported by European Pravda

Details: UK analysts report that a new poll by the Russian state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Centre indicates that the Russian authorities are successfully using the concept of a "foreign agent" as a tool to manipulate public opinion.

The centre released the results of a survey on 26 September on the attitudes of Russians towards people and organisations registered as "foreign agents".

The centre claims that 61% of respondents said they consider "foreign agents" to be "traitors" who "disseminate lies" about Russia.

Russia has expanded its legislation on "foreign agents" since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. These measures have significantly narrowed the information space within Russia, making it increasingly challenging to articulate any point of view, including dissent on the war, that differs from the official line, the review says.

Background:

Earlier, the UK MoD reported that Russia is likely planning to significantly increase its war spending in 2024 and is preparing for a protracted war with Ukraine.

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The main priority for Russias budget for the next three years is strengthening the countrys military and supporting participants of its war against Ukraine, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Oct. 3, as cited by Forbes Russia.

Russia plans to spend 10.77 trillion rubles (around $107 billion) on its military in 2024, which is twice as much in 2023 and three times more than in 2021, before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Next year's military spending will become Moscow's largest budget item for the first time, surpassing social policies, Forbes Russia wrote.

Read also: Its a cult-like mentality: Historian Ian Garner on the militarization of Russian society

"The resources planned for next year make it possible to fully meet the objectives of the special military operation (all-out war against Ukraine)," Siluanov said at a budget hearing before the upper house of Russia's parliament.

The Kremlin also plans to allocate about $661 million for the production of drones to ensure over 40% of Russian drones are manufactured domestically, according to the finance minister.

On Sept. 15, the Ukrainian government approved the draft budget for 2024, under which over half of all funds will be spent on security and defense.

Ukraine's defense expenditures for 2024 amount to around $45.6 billion, which is $3 billion more than this year.

Read also: Tetiana Khutor: Are legal constraints an excuse for dragging feet on mobilizing Russian assets?

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The Russians have attacked Dnipropetrovsk Oblast with missiles and drones overnight; a total of 13 UAVs and a cruise missile have been shot down, but the city of Pavlohrad has been hit.

Source: Serhii Lysak, Head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration; Mykola Lukashuk, Head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Council, on Telegram

Quote from Lukashuk: "The enemy launched Shaheds and a cruise missile towards Dnipropetrovsk Oblast overnight. Our Air Force shot down the missile and 13 enemy drones. Unfortunately, hits occurred on the territory of a plant's premises in Pavlohrad. Two production buildings were affected."

PHOTO: MYKOLA LUKASHUK ON TELEGRAM

Details: The premises of a civilian business, a garage and a car caught fire due to the wreckage crash in the city of Dnipro. Emergency workers promptly contained the fire.

The Russians also deployed their artillery to attack Myrove hromada in Nikopol district overnight [a hromada is an administrative unit designating a town, village or several villages and their adjacent territories  ed.]. Two private residential buildings and an outbuilding were damaged.

PHOTO: MYKOLA LUKASHUK ON TELEGRAM

Lysak reported that no information indicating casualties had emerged.

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Russia shelled five communities along the Sumy Oblast border on Oct. 2, firing 13 times throughout the day, the Sumy Oblast Military Administration reported on Telegram. 50 explosions were recorded.

The communities of Bilopillia, Krasnopillia, Shalyhyne, Velyka Pysarivka, and Yunakivka came under fire.

The administration reported that the Russian military attacked with artillery, missiles, mortar, tank, and cannon shelling.

No casualties were reported.

Shelling is daily occurrence for the communities near Ukraine's northeastern border with Russia. Residents in the region's vulnerable border settlements experience multiple attacks per day.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Oct. 1 strikes on Russian plant disrupted missile manufacturing, military intelligence says

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The Russians are looting and stealing civilian vehicles in the occupied territories of Kherson Oblast. If people try to stand up for their property, the Russian soldiers open fire on them: the other day, they killed a woman in the village of Olhyno.

Source: Ukraines National Resistance Center (NRC)

Details: The NRC noted that panic is prevailing among the Russians due to the successful actions of the Ukrainian Defence Forces.

Plans to flee from the temporarily occupied settlements are increasingly being discussed among the rank and file of the Russian Federation.

Therefore, a growing number of cases involving looting and car thefts have been reported, particularly in Chaplynka, Zaliznyi Port, Mali Kopani and other towns and villages.

The National Resistance Center has acquired lists of Russian soldiers engaged in plundering.

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The Russian Defence Ministry (MoD) has claimed that their forces shot down a Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missile off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula on the evening of 3 October. Mikhail Razvozhayev, Russian-appointed sham "governor" of Sevastopol, has claimed that a UAV has been brought down.

Source: the Russian MoD; Razvozhayev on Telegram; Krymskii Veter (Crimean Wind) Telegram channel

Details: The authority claimed that air defence systems shot down the missile at 20:30. An air-raid warning was issued on the peninsula at 20:30, which lasted almost 50 minutes.

Meanwhile, Razvozhayev claimed that a drone had been shot down. Its wreckage crashed into the roof of a residential building, and several windows were smashed in several apartments. Emergency workers are dealing with the explosive items.

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Russia has accused Kyrylo Budanov , Chief of Ukraines Defence Intelligence; Mykola Oleshchuk , commander of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces; Oleksii Neizhpapa, commander of the Naval Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces; and Serhii Burdeniuk, commander of the Ukrainian drone regiment, of terrorism over the drone attacks.

Source: Investigative Committee (IC) of the Russian Federation

Details: Although Russia started the war and its army regularly attacks civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, Russias IC has indicted representatives of Ukraine's top military leadership for drone attacks on civilian infrastructure in the Russian Federation.

According to Russias IC, the investigation has gathered evidence of the involvement of Ukraines top military leadership in the organisation and execution of more than 100 airstrikes using aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles in the period from April 2022 to September 2023 in the territories of Moscow and Moscow Oblast, and other regions of the Russian Federation, and Russian-occupied Crimea.

Quote: "Charges in absentia of committing crimes under subparagraphs 'a' and 'c' of Art. 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (terrorist act) were brought against Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine; Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; Oleksii Neizhpapa, commander of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; and Serhii Burdeniuk, commander of the 383rd Separate Regiment of Remotely Controlled Aircraft of the Air Force of Ukraine.

It has also been established that the defendants involved their subordinate servicemen in committing the crimes."

Details: In the near future, the IC plans to "put them on the wanted list and choose a preventive measure in the form of taking them into custody in absentia".

Kyrylo Budanov, Mykola Oleshchuk, Oleksii Neizhpapa, Serhii Burdeniuk

Photocollage: Russia's Investigative Committee

The Investigative Committee will also continue to identify those involved in the "terrorist attacks".

Background:

Ukrainian special services and, possibly, members of underground forces in Russia have been conducting drone strikes against Russian military targets, including airfields with military aircraft and weapons production facilities, such as the aviation plant where Kh-59 missiles were manufactured.

However, in late September 2023, Ukrainian drones attacked a power substation in Russia's Kursk Oblast, which was connected to important Russian military facilities. The Security Service of Ukraine warned that if Russia continues to attack Ukrainian infrastructure, it will receive even more strikes in response.

Since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine, the Russian army has been attacking civilian targets - oil depots, railways, educational and cultural institutions - and last autumn and winter it was actively firing missiles and attack drones on energy facilities in Ukraine.

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By Lee Yeon-woo

Tensions are mounting in the financial industry amid speculation that the National Assembly may summon the chairmen of financial holding groups during the upcoming national audit. This year, the industry has faced criticism over its lack of internal controls  which have led to significant cases of embezzlement by employees  unfair trading and a surge in household debts.

According to sources in the financial industry, the National Assembly is expected to finalize the list of witnesses by Wednesday, following the Chuseok holiday.

"Various parties are currently in discussions regarding witness selection. Given the numerous financial challenges this year, there's a growing sentiment that summoning the chairmen of the financial holding groups is necessary," a source said.

The National Police Committee of the assembly will begin its financial audit on Oct. 11, targeting the Financial Services Commission. The Financial Supervisory Service will be under review on Oct. 17, followed by public financial firms such as the Industrial Bank of Korea, Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. and Korea Housing Finance Corp. on Oct. 24. A general inspection of any overlooked issues will take place on Oct. 27.

This year's emphasis is anticipated to be on the shortcomings in internal controls, given the series of significant financial blunders.

Last month, an employee from BNK Kyongnam Bank was found to have embezzled 298.8 billion won ($219 million) while working in the real estate project financing department from 2009 to July 2022. Additionally, employees from KB Kookmin Bank allegedly profited 12 billion won using insider information, and staff from DGB Daegu Bank were found to have opened over 1,000 client accounts without consent.

Even though CEOs of all five commercial banks attended last year's audit and pledged measures to prevent internal control mishaps, the recurrence of such financial incidents this year suggests they're set to face intense scrutiny and criticism again during the upcoming audit.

On the other hand, the likelihood of chairmen from five financial groups making appearances seems low. They are scheduled to attend the 2023 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group, which will take place from Oct. 9 to 15 in Morocco. After these meetings, they have activities to attend to individually, such as hosting investor relations events.

The chairman of BNK Financial Group is planning a visit to Vietnam starting from Oct. 15.

Regarding the allegations that overseas engagements are intentionally scheduled to overlap with the audit, the financial sector has asserted that the meetings attended by the chairmen are pre-arranged and the overlaps are unintentional.

However, given the myriad of issues in the financial sector, some argue that the chairmen should participate in the comprehensive national audit, if called as witnesses, especially when there are no scheduling conflicts.
Four top representatives of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were charged with committing "terrorist acts on Russian territory," Russia's Investigative Committee announced on Oct. 3.

The list includes military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk, Ukrainian Navy Commander Oleksii Neizhpapa, and commander of the 383rd separate regiment of remotely controlled aircraft, Serhii Burdeniuk. The announcement also alleged that the commanders had compelled their subordinates to assist them in committing the "terrorist attacks."

According to Russia's Investigative Committee, the "terrorist attacks" detailed were referring to drone strikes in Russia and occupied Crimea. Russian officials have regularly characterized attacks against targets in Russia and occupied Crimea as "acts of terrorism," such as the July 17 explosions on the Kerch Bridge, yet Russian forces strike non-military targets and civilians in Ukraine on a daily basis.

In contrast, the Ukrainian military has struck military targets or other infrastructure critical for the continuation of Russia's war against Ukraine. Representatives of Ukraine's allies in the West have voiced their agreement that these targets are legitimate, and that they approve of Ukraine's strikes within Russia and occupied Crimea.

The individuals would be added to a list of wanted persons.

Previously, the Investigate Committee added several members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to such a list, which was widely seen as a response to the ICC issuing arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova for overseeing the forced deportations of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Read also: With winter approaching, is Ukraines energy system ready for renewed Russian attacks?

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(Bloomberg) -- Russias seaborne crude exports jumped to the highest in three months in the week to Oct. 1, lifting four-week average flows to a level thats broadly in line with the countrys pledge to reduce overseas shipments.

Most Read from Bloomberg

About 3.72 million barrels a day of crude was shipped from Russian ports last week, a 24% increase from the previous seven days and the highest since the week ending July 2, tanker-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg show. That lifted the less volatile four-week average to about 3.3 million barrels a day.

The jump came after maintenance work disrupted flows from two key ports over the previous weeks, with shipments curtailed first from Kozmino on the Pacific coast and then from Primorsk on the Baltic.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in early August that the Kremlin would prolong export restrictions, while tapering the cut to 300,000 barrels a day from September until the end of the year, down from 500,000 for the previous month. The baseline for the reduction was average exports in May and June  when seaborne volumes hit new highs. Bloomberg calculations indicate that shipments through ports should be running now at about 3.28 million barrels a day.A combination of soaring exports and rising prices have boosted the Kremlins revenues from oil export duties, which set a new year-to-date high last week and rose to the most since mid-January on a four-week average basis.

While crude exports have rebounded strongly, Russia has temporarily halted overseas shipments of gasoline and diesel to tame surging pump prices at home. Shipments are expected to resume once the government and oil companies come up with a mechanism to ensure adequate supplies to local buyers. If the situation doesnt change, strict regulatory measures will be taken, comparable to those in force on the fertilizer market, Novak said.

Russia consumes only about half the diesel it produces, so a prolonged export ban could cause stockpiles to swell, requiring refiners to cut runs, which could in turn boost crude exports, or curtail crude production.

Russias oil refiners reduced daily processing rates in September to the lowest since May amid seasonal maintenance. Works are set to continue for the next several weeks, with the peak of offline capacities seen to last until mid-October.

Flows by Destination

Russias seaborne crude flows rebounded in the period to Oct. 1 on a four-week average basis to 3.3 million barrels a day, up from 3.2 million barrels a day in the period to Sept. 24. Shipments remain about 540,000 barrels a day below the highs seen between April and June.

All figures exclude cargoes identified as Kazakhstans KEBCO grade. Those are shipments made by KazTransoil JSC that transit Russia for export through Novorossiysk and the Baltic port of Ust-Luga.

The Kazakh barrels are blended with crude of Russian origin to create a uniform export grade. Since Russias invasion of Ukraine, Kazakhstan has rebranded its cargoes to distinguish them from those shipped by Russian companies. Transit crude is specifically exempted from European Union sanctions.

Observed shipments to Russias Asian customers, including those showing no final destination, edged higher to 2.76 million barrels a day in the four weeks to Oct. 1, from a revised 2.66 million barrels a day in the period to Sept. 24.

Even if all of the cargoes on ships without an initial destination eventually end up in India, shipments to the country will still be about 530,000 barrels a day, or 25%, down from their peak in May.

Adding the Unknown Asia and Other Unknown volumes to the total for India gives a figure of 1.62 million barrels a day in the four weeks to Oct. 1, down from a high of 2.15 million barrels a day in the period to May 21.

The equivalent of 235,000 barrels a day was on vessels signaling Port Said or Suez in Egypt, or which are expected to be transferred from one ship to another off the South Korean port of Yeosu. Those voyages typically end at ports in India or China and show up in the chart below as Unknown Asia until a final destination becomes apparent.

The Other Unknown volumes, running at 208,000 barrels a day in the four weeks to Oct. 1, are those on tankers showing no clear destination. Most of those cargoes originate from Russias western ports and go on to transit the Suez Canal, but some could end up in Turkey. Others could be moved from one vessel to another, with most such transfers now taking place in the Mediterranean.

Russias seaborne crude exports to European countries were unchanged at 183,000 barrels a day in the 28 days to Oct. 1, with Bulgaria the sole destination. These figures do not include shipments to Turkey.

A market that consumed about 1.5 million barrels a day of short-haul seaborne crude, coming from export terminals in the Baltic, Black Sea and Arctic has been lost almost completely, to be replaced by long-haul destinations in Asia that are much more costly and time-consuming to serve.

No Russian crude was shipped to northern European countries in the four weeks to Oct. 1.

Exports to Turkey, Russias only remaining Mediterranean customer, were stable at about 235,000 barrels a day in the four weeks to Oct. 1. Flows had topped 425,000 barrels a day in October, before falling sharply after a Group of Seven price cap came into effect in early December.

Flows to Bulgaria, now Russias only Black Sea market for crude, were unchanged at 183,000 barrels a day, the third week they have remained at that level. Thats almost three times as much as the country was importing at the lowest points between March and May and equal to the highest levels seen since June 2022. That increase in imports has come despite Bulgarian lawmakers recently approving a motion to end Bulgarias dependence on Russian crude sooner than permitted under a European Union import ban.

Flows by Export Location

Aggregate flows of Russian crude jumped to a three-month high of 3.72 million barrels a day in the seven days to Oct. 1. The end of maintenance work at Primorsk allowed Moscow to take full advantage of easing back on the export cut it implemented in July.

Figures exclude volumes from Ust-Luga and Novorossiysk identified as Kazakhstans KEBCO grade.

Vessel-tracking data are cross-checked against port agent reports as well as flows and ship movements reported by other information providers including Kpler and Vortexa Ltd.

Export Revenue

Inflows to the Kremlin's war chest from its crude-export duty jumped to $77 million in the seven days to Oct. 1, while four-week average income rose to $68 million. The weekly figure was the highest this year, while the four-week average was bigger than any since mid-January. Rising oil prices and the rebound in flows are both contributing to the increase in receipts.

Russias government calculates oil taxes  including export duty  using a discount to global benchmark Brent, which sets the floor price for the nations crude for budget purposes. If Russian oil trades above that threshold, the Finance Ministry uses the market price for tax calculations, as has been the case in recent months. The discount used to calculate taxes including export duty is set at $20 a barrel for September and subsequent months.

The duty rate for October has been set at $3.26 a barrel, based on an average Urals price of $77.03 during the calculation period between Aug. 15 and Sept. 14. That was $11.60 a barrel below Brent over the same period. Octobers duty rate sets a new high for the year.

Origin-to-Location Flows

The following charts show the number of ships leaving each export terminal and the destinations of crude cargoes from the four export regions.

A total of 34 tankers loaded 26 million barrels of Russian crude in the week to Oct. 1, vessel-tracking data and port agent reports show. Thats up 5.1 million barrels from the previous week.

A rebound in shipments from the Baltic port of Primorsk following the completion of maintenance work the previous week and a jump in shipments from Murmansk in the Arctic drove the increase.

Destinations are based on where vessels signal they are heading at the time of writing, and some will almost certainly change as voyages progress. All figures exclude cargoes identified as Kazakhstans KEBCO grade.

The total volume on ships loading Russian crude from the Baltic terminals rebounded from a five-week low, jumping back above 1.5 million barrels a day. Maintenance work at Primorsk had reduced the number of tankers loading at the port in the week to Sept. 24 to just four, half the number seen in the seven days to Oct. 1.

Shipments of Russian crude from Novorossiysk rose to a four-week high of about 540,000 barrels a day.

No cargoes of Kazakh crude were loaded at the port during the week, down from one during the previous seven days.

Four Suezmax tankers completed loading cargoes at the Arctic port of Murmansk in the week to Oct. 1, boosting flows to equal a record set back in mid-May.

Three tankers were drifting outside the port waiting to load at the end of the week.

Ten tankers loaded at Russias three Pacific export terminals, down by two from the previous week. The volume of crude shipped from the region fell back from a four-week high of 1.24 million barrels a day seen the previous week.

The drop in flows was driven by fewer shipments of the Sokol grade from the terminal at De Kastri and a lack of any tankers completing loading of Sakhalin Blend crude. Shipments from the Sakhalin Island terminal are running at one every other week.

The volumes heading to unknown destinations are Sokol cargoes that are currently being shuttled to an area off the South Korean port of Yosu from the loading terminal at De Kastri. Most of these are ending up in India.

NOTES

Note: This story forms part of a weekly series tracking shipments of crude from Russian export terminals and the export duty revenues earned from them by the Russian government. Weeks run from Monday to Sunday. The next update will be on Tuesday, Oct. 10.

Note: All figures exclude cargoes owned by Kazakhstans KazTransOil JSC, which transit Russia and are shipped from Novorossiysk and Ust-Luga as KEBCO grade crude.

If you are reading this story on the Bloomberg terminal, click here for a link to a PDF file of four-week average flows from Russia to key destinations.

--With assistance from Sherry Su.

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Rwanda, a small landlocked country in east-central Africa, is trying to recover from the ethnic strife that culminated in government-sponsored genocide in the mid-1990s.

An estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by dominant Hutu forces in 100 days.

Rwanda has striven to rebuild its economy, with coffee and tea production among its main exports, and economic development has helped reduce poverty and inequality.

Paul Kagame became president in 2000 and has effectively run Rwanda since 1994. While his government has maintained stability and economic growth, the US-based NGO Freedom House says it has also suppressed political dissent through intimidation, torture and suspected assassinations of exiled dissidents.

Read more country profiles - Profiles by BBC Monitoring

REPUBLIC OF RWANDA: FACTS

Capital: Kigali

Area: 26,338 sq km

Population: 13.8 million

Languages: Kinyarwanda, French, English, Swahili

Life expectancy: 64 years (men) 69 years (women)

LEADER

President: Paul Kagame

Rwanda President Paul Kagame

Paul Kagame has run Rwanda since his rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)army gained control of the country after the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people in 1994.

He was sworn in as vice-president and defence minister in the post-genocide government in July 1994, but was widely seen as the real power in Rwanda.

In 2000 parliament elected him president. He has won elections ever since, the last was in 2017 where official figures showed he won 99% of the vote, which many outside the country dismissed as a sham. He has said he will stand again in 2024.

To his admirers he is a visionary leader, but to his critics he is an authoritarian despot who tolerates no opposition.

MEDIA

Radio soap operas have been used to foster peace and reconciliation and to help heal the wounds left by the genocide

State TV and radio reach the largest audiences and operate alongside privately-owned outlets.

Self-censorship is commonplace, says Reporters Without Borders. Exile journalists operate online, prompting website blocking, says Freedom House.

TIMELINE

Rwanda is home to an estimated one-third of the worldwide mountain gorilla population

Some key dates in the history of Rwanda:

15th-19th Centuries - Clans in the area begin to merge into kingdoms. One of these, the Kingdom of Rwanda becomes increasingly dominant from the mid-18th Century, reaching its greatest extent in the 19th Century.

1884 - Berlin Conference sees partition of much of Africa by European colonial powers, following which Rwanda becomes part of German East Africa.

1914-1918 - World War One.

1914-18 - World War One: East African campaign see German forces defeated by British, Belgian and allied troops. Belgian army occupies both Burundi and Rwanda in 1916.

1922 - Ruanda-Urundi becomes a Belgian League of Nations mandate.

Both the Germans and the Belgians promote Tutsi supremacy, considering the Hutu and Tutsi different races.

1935 - Belgium introduces an identity card system, labelling people as either Tutsi, Hutu, Twa or naturalised.

1959-62 - The Rwandan Revolution: ethnic violence in Rwanda between Hutus and Tutsis. Tutsi King Kigeri V and thousands of Tutsis go into exile in Uganda following the violence.

1962 - Rwanda and Burundi become independent as separate nations. Rwanda, which had been a Tutsi monarchy under Belgian colonial authority is now an independent Hutu-dominated republic.

1963 - About 20,000 Tutsis are killed following an incursion by Tutsi rebels based in Burundi. Fighting between the two ethnic groups continues intermittently over the next three decades.

1973 - Juvenal Habyarimana seizes power in a military coup.

1990-1994 - Rwandan civil war. The rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) comprising Tutsi refugees, invades northern Rwanda from Uganda. The RPF condemns the Hutu-dominated government for failing to democratize.

1993 - Peace treaty signed.

1994 - Ceasefire ends when Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundi's President Cyprien Ntaryamira are killed when their aircraft is shot down by a surface-to-air missile. Most theories say the aircraft was shot down either by the RPF or government-aligned Hutu followers opposed to talks with the RPF.

Mr Habyarimana's death triggers the Rwandan genocide, perpetrated mainly by Hutus against Tutsis and moderate Hutus. About 800,000 people are killed.

1996-2003 - Rwanda's invasion of DR Congo marks the beginning of its lengthy involvement in the neighbouring country's two civil wars.

2003 - Voters back a draft constitution which bans the incitement of ethnic hatred. Paul Kagame wins the first presidential elections since the 1994 genocide.

2005 - Government begins the mass release of thousands who confessed to involvement in the 1994 genocide. Rwanda's 12 provinces are replaced by a smaller number of regions with the aim of creating ethnically-diverse administrative areas.

2015 - The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda holds its last hearings, 10 years after opening, and having convicted 93 individuals in connection with the 1994 genocide.

2017 - President Kagame re-elected with 99% of the vote in polls denounced as unfair by independent observers.

2022 - DR Congo, UN, US and others accuse Rwanda of sending its soldiers to fight alongside M23 rebels in eastern DR Congo, who face accusations of carrying war crimes against civilians. Rwanda denies this.

Thousands were killed and many more were displaced in the genocide of 1994
Deputies arrested a man suspected in a domestic violence incident last week, the Sacramento County Sheriffs Office said, and allegedly found firearms and fentanyl in his apartment during the arrest.

The 22-year-old man was arrested Thursday, sheriffs officials said in a social media post. The arrest was the result of a search warrant obtained after detectives identified the man as a suspect in a domestic violence case.

With the assistance of the Sheriffs Offices specialized enforcement detail, deputies served a high-risk search warrant and took the man into custody.

In their search, detectives found two loaded Glock handguns, extended magazines, cash and a large quantity of fentanyl, the Sheriffs Office said.

The man was booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence charges.

He was being held in lieu of $150,000 bail, but he posted bond Monday and was released, the Sheriffs Office said. He is scheduled to appear in Sacramento Superior Court on Oct. 11.
Days after Sacramento State officials announced that Capital Public Radio may be insolvent by January, the student member of CapRadios board of directors is asking for resignations of board officers and finance committee members.

In a letter to The State Hornet, the campus newspaper, Associated Students, Inc. President Nataly Andrade-Dominguez cited CapRadios financial difficulties and its lack of opportunities for students at the operation.

Im writing to you to publicly announce that I am requesting that the officers of the Capital Public Radio Board of Directors and the members of the Finance Committee resign, she wrote to The Hornet. I am asking for their resignations as a CapRadio Board member myself, and as ASI President, who serves as the sole representative for the entire student body at Sacramento State.

I dont want this to negatively impact our students, which is why I believe that these Board members should resign. As a recent audit shows, under their oversight, CapRadio has suffered financial instability, lack of accountability, lack of connections with Sac State students, and lack of willingness to work with University officials.

I also point to poor board management and internal handling of this issue. I believe these resignations will serve the best interests of the Sac State community and especially of its students. It is clear the Board needs restructure and accountability in order for us to move forward.

Andrea Clark, CapRadios board chair, issued a statement declining to comment directly on the move.

While the board values the role of our Sacramento State student representative to CapRadios board of directors, we will not comment on one members statement to the media, Clark said in a statement. Any board member, including our six University appointees, is welcome to raise concerns with the board or with board members directly.

The call for the boards resignation follows a tumultuous week in which an audit released by the California State University chancellors office found widespread financial mismanagement inside the operation.

The audit from the Chancellors Office of the 23-campus CSU system found widespread financial problems and lapses, including lax controls on employee credit card usage, a lack of documentation for some expenses and a failure to provide internships and training for university students.

The audit also found CapRadio had failed to tag all equipment valued at $500 or more, as required, with auditors discovering that five laptops or computers could not be found, and that in one group that was supposed to include 20 laptops valued at $757 each, only three could be found.

We also found that a physical inventory had not been performed during our audit scope period, and CPR management could not recall the last time the inventory was performed, auditors wrote. CPR management stated that this was due to staff turnover and because much of the new equipment and furniture purchased for the downtown locations were not ready for use, as the locations were still being renovated.

Auditors also found that outdated equipment was not removed from CapRadio ledgers and was instead being stored in the CapRadio building.

During our walk through performed onsite, we noted that disposals consisting of old studio equipment, wires, cables, printers, chairs, computers, telephones, and more were stored in two rooms at the CPR building, the audit said. Proper administration of property and equipment decreases the risk that assets may be lost, stolen, or misrepresented in financial statements.

The audit prompted university President Luke Wood to announce Sacramento State was taking over most of CapRadios operations other than journalistic and programming functions.

The university also said over the weekend that CapRadios finances are so dire that it may be insolvent by January.

Weeks before the release of the audit, the operation laid off 12% of its staff and cut programming.

Sacramento State holds the license for CapRadio, a National Public Radio member that operates KXJZ-FM (90.9) and KXPR-FM (88.9) and a network of repeater stations, including KUOP-FM (91.3). CapRadio also manages North State Public Radio, which has two stations owned by Chico State.
Schools in Boone County received grant funds from the state of Missouri in a second round of funding for the School Safety Grant Program.

The grant funding was announcement by Gov. Mike Parson and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The awards total $50 million.

Columbia Public Schools received the maximum award amount of $300,000.

A security buzz-in is seen outside the entrance of Frederick Douglass High School in Columbia. The school district, among many others, received state funding for safety improvements, the governor announced Monday.

In CPS, the grant will pay for a building access management system to track building visitors, upgrades to the buzz-in systems at school entry points, hardened doors for building entry points and additional security cameras.

The grant will add to the safety of students and employees, said district spokeswoman Michelle Baumstark in an email.

"The safety of our students, employees and campuses is a top priority for the district," Baumstark said. "It was important to the board and the district that we take advantage of every opportunity available to us to continue to enhance our security measures and implement best practices. The district is constantly evaluating safety and security and making sure that our systems support our schools and create safe environments for learning."

The school district also has a contract with the city of Columbia to provide police officers as school resource officers.

Other public school district in Boone County receiving the grants are: Centralia, $150,000; Hallsville, $150,000; Harrisburg, $100,000; Southern Boone School District, $200,000; and Sturgeon, $50,000.

Columbia private schools receiving the grant funding from public tax dollars include: Christian Fellowship School, $50,000; Our Lady of Lourdes Interparish School, $49,856; and Stephens College Children's School, $20,268.

It's important for schools to be prepared in case of threats, Parson said in a news release.

Improving the safety and security of our schools is an issue we can all support, and these grants help ensure our schools remain safe environments for Missouri children to learn, Parson said.

Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven thanked Parson and the legislature for the funding.

Missouri families continue to tell education leaders that ensuring their childs school remains safe and secure is their biggest concern, said Vandeven said in the release.

Roger McKinney is the Tribune's education reporter. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on X at @rmckinney9.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Columbia gets maximum $300,000 from State School Safety Grant Program
Following the shooting of three Salisbury University students off campus early last month, the administration announced a number of improvements to its security.

What happened in off-campus shooting of Salisbury University students

On Thursday, Sept. 14 at about 11:30 p.m., officers from the Salisbury Police Department responded to the 300 block of Ohio Avenue for a report of gunshots in the area. Upon arrival, officers discovered that three adult males had been struck by apparent gunfire.

The three victims were transported by Salisbury EMS to the hospital, where they were each treated for non-life-threatening injuries. In response to the incident, Carolyn Lepre, president of the university released a letter to the community announcing a list of improvements to campus security.

"Like you, the shooting that took place off campus ... left me in shock. It brings me great relief to share that all three of our students are out of the hospital and recovering well," Lepre said. "I am devastated that an act of inexcusable violence has impacted our campus. Events like this are far too prevalent in our society. The Salisbury University Police Department works incredibly hard to make sure our campus is safe and secure for everyone, but we recognize our students and employees live beyond the borders of our campus."

More on the SU shooting Three Salisbury University students shot in late-night, off-campus incident

Lepre noted the safety of the community is critical and the university "has been working to elevate our security and responsiveness."

Initiatives to improve security at Salisbury University

A Salisbury Police Department cruiser sits outside a crime scene in the area of Springfield Circle on Dec. 16, 2019 after a report of shots fired.

According to the university, such measures have included:

hiring five additional officers for the Salisbury University Police Department that will assist with patrols on campus and in the surrounding areas. Additionally, the university purchased new security technology and equipment;

reviewing the memorandum of understanding with local law enforcement agencies, including the Salisbury Police Department, Fruitland Police Department, and Wicomico County Sheriffs Office to assist with responding to calls and patrolling areas off campus;

establishing new preventative and detection measures across campus;

holding virtual and in-person information sessions so members of the SU community can ask questions and provide insights into security concerns and solutions;

and creating a new, dedicated task force of senior University leaders, including members of Cabinet, SUPD, and others to identify security risks and "enact decisive changes to keep campus protected," the letter stated.

"While we believe this incident is isolated and there is no immediate threat to campus, we are taking these proactive measures to guarantee our university and our people are as safe as possible," Lepre said. "As we continue searching for answers and a resolution to this horrible act of violence, we must emphatically assert that violence of any kind has no place in Salisbury."

More on Salisbury's new police chief Salisbury's new police chief is Air Force veteran and Parkside graduate. Get to know him.

Growing concerns with violent crime in Salisbury

Jamie L. Dykes, State's Attorney for Wicomico County, speak at a press conference on the death of Deputy First Class Glenn Hillard Monday, June 13, 2022, at the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office in Salisbury, Maryland.

State's Attorney Jamie Dykes addressed the incident in an email on Salisbury's recent wave of shooting incidents, saying "the very next evening, three students at Salisbury University were shot after they attempted to deny a group of uninvited guests entry into a house."

It comes as part of a recent wave of shootings in Wicomico County that began in September.

The Wicomico County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division is investigating the first incident that occurred in the area of the 800 block of Chippewa Blvd during the nighttime hours of Sept. 12.

The sheriff's office is also investigating the second shooting incident that occurred during the early morning hours of Sept. 14 in the area of the 800 block of Price Road. It was determined that numerous shots were fired but the shooting was not reported.

The sheriff's office did respond for a hit and run collision that appeared to be a result of vehicles fleeing the area after the shooting, the release said.

More on previous incidents 2-year-old killed in Salisbury, and 12-year-old charged with murder

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Off-campus shooting prompts Salisbury University to step up security
German to Me

A biography of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has dropped just in time for his trial to start  and it's full of bizarre and disparate tidbits that paint a complicated portrait of one of financial history's most idiosyncratic villains.

As the New York Times describes in a review of career biographer Michael Lewis' new SBF book, "Going Infinite," strange anecdotes abound in a recounting that can't decide whether the crypto scion is a hero, a heel, or something in between.

At the end of the book, for instance, the writer includes what may be an allegory for the entire debacle: an aside about Bankman-Fried's parents getting a German shepherd that's trained to kill if it hears a German-language command that they learned, but their son failed to memorize.

"So when Sam was in a room with the dog, it always felt as if some accident was waiting to happen," Lewis wrote. "It would have been very Sam Bankman-Fried to have been eaten by his own guard dog."

While the whole story sounds like a potential metaphor, the existence of the canine killer, named Sandor, was well-documented at the beginning of 2023 when the Bankman-Frieds welcomed the pup into their Palo Alto home while their son was on house arrest.

As Forbes reported at the time, Sandor was indeed trained to attack with a "secret word," and Puck revealed that SBF's parents got the dog for him as an unsolicited gift that, per his reckoning, had "just shown up" one day.

Anecdotal Evidence

In spite of the book's purported difficulty piecing together all the disparate parts of SBF, it does seem chock-full of the kinds of stories that only a "fly on the wall," as Lewis seemingly sought to be, could glean.

While it had been reported previously that former Democratic fundraiser Bankman-Fried had donated $1 million to a political action committee associated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the book revealed why he made that shocking donation: because, as the 31-year-old told the biographer, he wanted the aging Republican to "defeat the Trumpier candidates in the US Senate races."

Lewis also learned that SBF had planned to donate between "$15-$30 million" to McConnell to the same end, and as Puck reported last week, he also apparently met with the Senate majority leader.

The conservative payola in the biography didn't end there, either. SBF was apparently told, per the writer's recounting, that Donald Trump  whose own trial, coincidentally, begins this week in New York as well  wouldn't run for president again in 2024 if he was paid $5 billion. The degrees of truth in that statement are, of course, anyone's guess.

As he heads to trial, it's clear that SBF continues to resist categorization  which is, in part, why his story and downfall remain so compelling.

More on SBF: Ukrainian Man Who Lost Everything in FTX Scheduled to Confront Sam Bankman-Fried
By Jody Godoy and Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Sam Bankman-Fried's father and brother, as well as Donald Trump 's former spokesman Anthony Scaramucci , are among possible witnesses at the cryptocurrency exchange founder's fraud trial, according to a list read by a prosecutor in court on Tuesday.

Scaramucci, Bankman-Fried's father Joseph Bankman and his brother Gabriel Bankman-Fried were on a list of potential witnesses prosecutor Danielle Sassoon read in court during jury selection at the outset of Bankman-Fried's trial in order to see if any prospective jurors knew them.

The list included both proposed prosecution and defense witnesses, and there is no guarantee that those named will testify.

The trial, which is expected to last about six weeks, comes nearly a year after FTX's collapse shocked markets and tattered Bankan-Fried's reputation. Selection of the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates is set to continue on Wednesday, followed by opening statements.

Federal prosecutors say Bankman-Fried embezzled from customers at his FTX cryptocurrency exchange since its founding in 2019 until its November 2022 bankruptcy in order to prop up his hedge fund Alameda Research, buy luxury properties and donate more than $100 million to U.S. political candidates.

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. He has acknowledged inadequate risk management, but denied stealing funds. His lawyers have signaled in court papers they plan to argue that FTX's treatment of customer funds was proper, and that others at FTX and Alameda bore the bulk of the blame for their failure.

The defendant's parents - Bankman and Barbara Fried , both Stanford Law School professors - were sued last month by FTX's current management, which accused them of using company funds to enrich themselves. Lawyers for Bankman and Fried called the accusations "completely false."

Scaramucci served briefly as White House communications director during Trump's administration. His investment firm, SkyBridge Capital, once owned a stake in FTX.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan selected a pool of nearly 50 qualified jurors on Tuesday, after dismissing several who had personal or professional obligations or otherwise thought they could not be fair. That included one man who said he and his brother each lost money through cryptocurrency investments.

"It almost financially ruined him," said the man. When Kaplan asked if the man could nonetheless be fair, he responded, "I really want to believe that I could, but to be perfectly honest I believe that it would affect me."

BANKMAN-FRIED NOT OFFERED PLEA DEAL

At the outset of proceedings, Kaplan told Bankman-Fried in open court that it would ultimately be his decision whether to testify in his own defense, and asked Bankman-Fried whether he understood.

"Yes," the 31-year-old former billionaire replied. He was dressed in a suit and striped tie, with his once signature curly, unkempt hair cut into a neater trim.

Prosecutor Nicolas Roos said the two sides never engaged in talks about a potential plea deal and no such offer was made to Bankman-Fried.

Three former members of Bankman-Fried's inner circle - Alameda co-chief Caroline Ellison and former FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh - reached plea deals with the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan and are set to testify against him.

The jury may also hear from former FTX lawyers Daniel Friedberg and Ryne Miller, former FTX chief operating officer Constance Wang, former Alameda co-chief Sam Trabucco and Ryan Salame, the former chief of FTX's Bahamian subsidiary, according to the list Sassoon read in court.

Salame last month pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges but did not agree to cooperate.

Bankman-Fried has been detained since Aug. 11, after the judge found he had likely engaged in witness tampering - including by sharing Ellison's personal writings with a reporter. Ellison and Bankman-Fried are former romantic partners.

(Reporting by Jody Godoy and Luc Cohen in New YorkEditing by Amy Stevens, Lincoln Feast, Nick Zieminski and Matthew Lewis)
Sam Bankman-Frieds trial is due to begin in New York this week (Associated Press)

Sam Bankman-Fried was once hailed as the boy wonder of the crypto industry, an altruistic self-made billionaire who hung out with presidents and pop stars and had the ear of lawmakers from both parties in Washington DC.

Nearly one year after his cryptocurrency empire FTX imploded, the 31-year-old will go on trial in New York this week charged with committing one of the largest corporate frauds in US history.

Prosecutors are expected to argue that Mr Bankman-Fried siphoned billions of dollars from FTX customers to prop up his ailing hedge fund Alameda Research, while funding a luxurious life in the Bahamas.

They are expected to outline to the jury how he sought to gain political influence by making $100m in political donations prior to the 2020 presidential election to ensure light-touch regulations of the crypto industry.

In December, Mr Bankman-Fried was arrested at his $40m apartment complex in Nassau and indicted on fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance charges. He was extradited back to the US, and placed under house arrest at his parents Palo Alto home on a $250m bail.

His bail was revoked in August when a judge ruled that he had harassed his former girlfriend and fellow FTX executive Caroline Ellison, who is likely to be a star witness for the prosecution.

Mr Bankman-Fried has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn while awaiting trial.

Heres what to know about the trial, which begins in Manhattan on Tuesday with jury selection.

FTXs rise and collapse

Mr Bankman-Fried, known by his initials SBF, founded Alameda Research in 2017 after figuring out how to exploit a quirk in crypto values that saw Bitcoin trade for slightly less in Asia than in the US.

In 2019, he launched the FTX trading platform that was promoted to investors as a trusted, straightforward exchange. It made money by claiming a percentage of transactions.

When the value of Bitcoin soared in 2021, FTX became one of the largest crypto traders in the world worth an estimated $32bn.

Mr Bankman-Frieds profile soared as he amassed a net wealth of around $16bn while receiving fawning media coverage for his so-called altruistic beliefs and austere lifestyle.

FTX enlisted a band of celebrity backers including Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady, hired Larry Davis to front an expensive Super Bowl advert, and acquired the naming rights to the Miami Heats home arena.

Mr Bankman-Fried made around $100m in political donations to both parties, while attempting to influence cryptocurrency regulatory reform, prosecutors said in court filings.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, second right, is escorted out of Magistrate Court in the Bahamas following his arrest in late 2022 (Associated Press)

When crypto prices collapsed in 2022, cracks began to emerge in SBFs empire.

In November, the crypto trade publication Coindesk published a leaked balance sheet showing that Alameda and FTX were unusually close and Alamedas value was built on a foundation largely made up of a (digital) coin that a sister company invented.

The story sent shockwaves through the crypto world, and FTX customers raced to withdraw their funds, exposing an $8bn deficit in FTXs accounts.

Mr Bankman-Frieds personal wealth fell by an estimated $16bn in a single day on 8 November. Within days, FTX filed for bankruptcy days after and Mr Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO.

He was arrested in the Bahamas on 12 December.

The collapse sent a contagion through the crypto industry that caused several exchanges to implode and prices to collapse.

What are the allegations against SBF?

Prosecutors will claim that Mr Bankman-Fried orchestrated a wide-scale conspiracy to defraud FTX investors and the Alameda Research hedge fund exchange.

The founder and CEO of FTX allegedly used billions of dollars of customer funds for his personal use, and to make millions of dollars of political contributions to federal political candidates and committees.

Mr Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto, the Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler said in a statement last December.

Mr Bankman-Fried concealed the close ties between Alameda and FTX from investors, while effectively using customers funds as an unlimited line of credit to make undisclosed venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations, Mr Gensler alleged.

Around 90 US-based investors collectively lost $1.1bn, the SEC said.

Bankman-Fried was charged in the Southern District of New York with seven counts of fraud and money laundering, some of which carry a maximum prison term of 20 years in prison.

In June, prosecutors severed five charges from the current trial which were brought after his extradition from the Bahamas. He is expected to be tried on the separate charges in March.

In August, prosecutors dropped several campaign finance violation charges against Mr Bankman-Fried.

What will SBFs defence be?

Mr Bankman-Fried will have to convince jurors he didnt have any intent to rip off FTX customers, white collar defence attorney Mark Kasten of Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney told The Independent.

Rather, his defence attorneys will argue he was out of his depth.

Hes going to tell a story that starting a crypto company when he did was difficult, that this was the Wild West, and he wasnt operating an entity that fell neatly into any existing regulatory category, Mr Kasten, a member of the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Practice group, added.

Larry David appeared in a Super Bowl advert promoting crypto exchange FTX prior to its collapse (FTX / YouTube screen grab)

Given Mr Bankman-Frieds accomplishments, it will be challenging to paint him as a dunce.

Its going to be hard to say he was just a kid moving too fast in a young industry and he didnt know what he was doing. Because by all accounts, he is a very smart individual, Mr Kasten said.

Four former FTX executives have pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the companys collapse and could appear at trial after agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors.

Mr Kasten says that undercutting their claims will be critical to SBFs chances.

He has no chance of success if he doesnt pick apart the testimony of those testifiers, Mr Kasten said. To juries, somebodys right and someone is lying. And frankly, no one looks great here.

Mr Kasten told The Independent that the courtroom confrontation between Mr Bankman-Frieds attorneys and Ms Ellison could be critical.

SBF has spoken and written extensively about the reasons for FTXs collapse in media interviews, lengthy tweet threads and on Substack.

And he is likely to have to take the stand to convince the jury of his innocence, an inherently risky strategy for any defendant, Mr Kasten said.

Meanwhile, prosecutors will try to move the focus away from cryptocurrencies and present the allegations as run-of-the-mill fraud.

As much as Bankman-Fried wants to talk about how complicated cryptocurrency is, how new this was, the government will want to stay away from this, Mr Kasten told The Independent.

Its about representations that he made to the public and to investors, its about taking money out of one company to make another one whole.

Michael Lewis book

Acclaimed author Michael Lewis began working on a book about SBF prior to FTXs collapse, gaining extraordinary access as the tycoon endured his dramatic fall from grace.

The new book Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon will reportedly show how Mr Bankman-Fried was exploring the legality of paying Donald Trump $5bn not to run for president in 2024.

Mr Lewis told 60 Minutes on CBS he intended the book to be a Kind of letter to the jury.

Theres gonna be this trial. And the lawyers are gonna tell two stories, he said. And I think neither one of those stories is as good as the story I have.
Japan's Financial Services Agency and Korea's Financial Services Commission said on Tuesday they agreed to resume their regular "shuttle meeting" to strengthen ties to safeguard financial stability of the two East Asian markets.

The first round of such bilateral talks since 2016 will take place in Seoul on Dec. 19-20, the authorities said in a joint statement released after Japan FSA Commissioner Teruhisa Kurita and South Korea FSC Chairman Kim Joo-hyun met in Tokyo.

The two nations agreed in June to revive a $10 billion currency swap deal, a step symbolising a thaw in the diplomatic tensions amid increasing geopolitical risks in the region. (Reuters)
Feelings about cryptocurrency may be shaping the jury in Sam Bankman-Fried's criminal trial.

He's charged with fraud following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.

One prospective juror said he couldn't be objective given "everything negative" he's heard of crypto.

Cryptocurrency itself isn't on trial, but strong feelings about the virtual currency may be shaping Sam Bankman-Fried's criminal trial.

During an otherwise plodding day of jury selection on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, several prospective jurors shared some of their feelings about cryptocurrency.

Several said that they or their family members had invested in cryptocurrency in general. All of them lost money.

One potential juror, who was ultimately dismissed, said he would harbor bias in the case because he and his twin brother each experienced major financial losses after investing in cryptocurrency.

"I invested in crypto. I did lose a lot," he said. "My twin brother invested even more and it did finally ruin him."

Another potential juror said he believed he harbored a bias in the case because of "everything negative" he's heard about the tokens.

"I'm not sure I could be totally unbiased about crypto given the history and everything negative I've heard about it," he told US District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Tuesday afternoon.

Strong feelings about cryptocurrency, Kaplan explained, weren't relevant in the case. Prosecutors allege that former billionaire Bankman-Fried defrauded customers and investors of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange he ran. He did this by commingling funds with Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund he also controlled, they say.

Jurors, Kaplan said, would be tasked with determining whether Bankman-Fried's actions fell into the legal parameters of fraud.

After that man said he believed he would be biased  and explained that he had just started a new job and is supposed to be the best man at an upcoming wedding  Kaplan dismissed him from the case.

Lawyers and Kaplan must choose 12 jurors and six alternates for the trial, which is scheduled to last six weeks. They whittled the group of around 170 down to about 50 eligble jurors, which would be narrowed to 18 on Wednesday morning, before opening statements.

Familiarity with cryptocurrency, the dramatic collapse of FTX, or Bankman-Fried's case specifically isn't necessarily disqualifying to be a juror. Several prospective ones had said they'd learned about the case through news publications and podcasts. None said they were a customer or lender with FTX or Alameda Research.

Another prospective juror said she worked at the private equity firm Insight Partners, which she said lost money from investing in FTX.

But she didn't have any personal dealings with the company and could be impartial in the case by deciding "on the basis of the facts," she said. Kaplan didn't immediately dismiss her from the jury pool, but did before the end of the day.

(A spokeswoman for Insight Partners told Insider that the company had made a small investment in FTX and never held a position Alameda Research.)

A different potential juror said he doesn't "understand the cryptocurrency, how it works," even after asking his son to explain it to him.

"You probably have a lot of company in this courtroom," Kaplan dryly responded.

After he said "all I can think of is the Madoff case," that prospective juror was dismissed.

Other jurors raised different concerns. One prospective juror said she would have a problem rendering a guilty verdict if Bankman-Fried faced the death penalty.

The trial is not, Kaplan assured her, a death penalty case. She appeared comforted to learn that.

Kaplan did not mention that Bankman-Fried faces a potential  if unlikely  sentence of over 100 years.

This story was updated to include a comment from a spokeswoman for Insight Partners.

Read the original article on Business Insider
SAN DIEGO  The San Diego Gun Show is coming back to town after being turned away at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

Gov. Gavin Newsom prohibited all gun shows on state property, sending gun show organizers searching for alternative venues.

The fairgrounds were the perfect venue for a gun show, it is exactly the type of venue we needed, said Michael Schwartz from the San Diego County Gun Owners Pac.

Now, the San Diego Gun Show has headed off the coast.

We are having to be creative and improvise. We are out at a Masonic Temple out in the east side of the city of San Diego, theyve been very welcoming, Schwartz said.

Campland on the Bay storage facility erupts in flames

Gun control activists are unhappy with the new announcement.

Its hard to negotiate with someone who doesnt recognize the problem, said Max Coston from the Safer California Pac.

Activists believe if gun owners bought into safer storage, universal background checks and more gun training shootings could be curtailed.

Our country will continue to have a problem until we get to a point where we never see someone walk on campus and open fire or we also never see students have to do active shooter drills, Coston said.

Gun show organizers say their customer demographic has changed recently with most people buying guns responding to the rise in crimes.

This is not just hunters and hobbyists. Its not just a bunch of people wearing camouflage, these are everyday people who just want to protect themselves, Schwartz said.

The San Diego Gun show is scheduled on Oct. 21 at the East San Diego Masonic Lodge. Tickets are $15 and free for children under 12.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego.
SAN DIEGO  Riders taking public transit in San Diego County Wednesday will be able to travel for free in honor of California Clean Air Day, officials said.

The offer is valid on all Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) buses and trolleys, as well as North County Transit District (NCTD) Coaster and Sprinter trains, Mark Olson with MTS said in a news release Monday.

Conserving our planet is a priority for all of us. Initiatives like Free Ride Day provide an opportunity for residents to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainability by riding clean transportation options, said Stephen Whitburn, MTS Board Chair and City of San Diego Councilmember, District 3. And with record-high gas prices, taking transit not only helps the environment, it can help your wallet too.

Two San Diego-area restaurants among best in the country: Tripadvisor

SANDAG also offers free rides with Circuit, BCycle (unlock a BCycle Day Pass for free with code CLEANAIR23) and Bird (unlock two free rides with code BIRDCA23).

By using the Circuit app, travelers can access free rides in downtown San Diego with FRED, National City with FRANC, Oceanside with gOside Shuttle and Pacific Beach with The Beach Bug.

Pop-up MTS outreach events will be held at major transit centers from 6- 8 a.m. and 4- 6 p.m. on Free Ride Day.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego.
Cars drive on California Street in San Francisco. San Francisco could soon ban right-hand turns on red lights, making it the second-largest city in the country to adopt the traffic rule. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

San Francisco could soon ban right-hand turns on red lights, making it the second-largest city in the country to adopt the traffic rule.

The proposal, supporters said, could make the roads safer for bicyclists and pedestrians, encourage more people to walk, and cut down on the number of serious injuries in car accidents.

"Allowing turns on red results in deaths, injuries and collisions, as well as cars blocking or driving through crosswalks, making it more dangerous and stressful to cross the street," said San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston as he introduced the measure last week at a Board of Supervisors meeting. "We should be expanding no turn on red to every neighborhood."

Advocates for pedestrian safety have applauded the resolution, saying the proposed law could have a significant effect on reducing the number of pedestrians who are seriously injured by cars. Although some advocates said they were hopeful San Francisco would institute the rule, which New York previously adopted, the chances of a similar measure taking root in Los Angeles are slim, at least for now.

Read more: 'Not above the law': Families of Marines killed in crash push for prosecution of deputy

L.A. is "so car-centric" that people would think it was "the end of the world if we tried to implement this in Los Angeles," said Damian Kevitt, founder of Streets Are for Everyone, a nonprofit that pushes for safety improvements for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers.

In Los Angeles, advocacy groups have pushed to hold pedestrian-friendly events to get across to the public the need to walk more and drive less, as well as advocating for lowering speed limits on some streets and other measures to improve safety. But even the most ardent supporters are doubtful that a push to ban right turns on red lights would gain any traction in the county, at least for now.

"This is something that's going to take years of work to even get to the point where it would be considered in L.A.," Kevitt said.

Drivers in San Francisco, on the other hand, have already gotten a taste of what a ban on right-hand turns would look like.

Read more: 2 people using wheelchairs die in separate San Fernando Valley car crashes

In the fall of 2021, San Francisco banned right-hand turns on red lights in more than 50 intersections of the Tenderloin neighborhood.

According to an early assessment of the program from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the ban reduced the number of "close calls."

The agency found that about 92% of vehicles were observing the rule, and the number of cars blocking crosswalks during a red light decreased by 70%.

After the initial program, SFMTA recommended expanding the rule to business districts. Preston's resolution asks the agency to look at the possibility of expanding it across the city.

"It's an important step in the right direction," Preston said during the board meeting. "It's a step we need to take in the city."

Preston's resolution comes after a 4-year-old in a stroller was killed in August by a driver making a right-hand turn on a green light at the intersection of 4th and King streets.

The tragedy raised questions about pedestrian safety at that intersection and citywide. Shortly after the incident, San Francisco Mayor London Breed called on SFMTA to identify changes that could be made to the intersection, including removing one of its two right-turn lanes, and changing the traffic signal to show a yellow arrow, instead of a green light, to encourage drivers to yield to pedestrians.

According to one study by Jerry, an insurance comparison company that drew on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the number of pedestrians killed in car crashes reached a four-decade high across the country in 2021, reaching more than 7,000 people.

Read more: Car that crashed into firetruck in Compton was being chased, not racing, says family of woman killed

Another study, from Streets Are for Everyone, found that in the city of Los Angeles there were 159 pedestrians killed in car crashes in 2022, a 20% increase when compared with 2021.

In San Francisco, the city in 2022 saw 39 traffic deaths, including 20 pedestrians killed  the highest number of fatalities in 15 years.

San Francisco and Los Angeles chalked up those alarming numbers despite adopting Vision Zero, a commitment from city officials to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.

Officials have taken steps to reduce the number of fatalities. In February of last year, the Los Angeles City Council approved a plan to reduce speed limits on 177 miles of road by 5 mph. According to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, the project is underway.

Excessive speed is a leading factor in collisions, advocates said.

City officials also have pushed for more pedestrian-friendly events in recent years, such as CicLAvia, as a way of promoting walking and urging residents to drive less.

But taking up a fight to ban right turns on red lights in Los Angeles would be an uphill fight, advocates said.

"Our city is moving in that direction," said John Yi, executive director of Los Angeles Walks, a nonprofit that works with communities of color to advocate for pedestrian-safe infrastructure. "Is there a chance for this? I think so. But is it going to be easy? I don't think so."

Advocates, including Los Angeles Walks, have considered seeking this ban in Los Angeles but have decided to focus on other efforts that they believe could have a more significant effect, Yi said, such as reducing speed limits.

"Any time you try to restrict movement of cars, you have an entrenched electorate that pushes back on that," he said. "But this is part of a larger ecosystem of changes that need to happen."

There are some signs of change. In West Hollywood, for example, city officials are looking at a plan that would ban right-hand turns at red lights at the city's busiest intersections.

"The county as a whole may not be ready, but there should be places where this isn't a debate anymore," said West Hollywood Councilmember Chelsea Lee Byers, who proposed the plan.

City officials, at this early stage, haven't heard opposition to the idea, she said, which she credits in part to the city's small, pedestrian-friendly size and measures it has already taken to encourage walking.

Still, she agrees that implementing a similar rule countywide would be a challenge.

"It completely speaks to the challenges of breaking through car culture," she said. "It's why I see West Hollywood as part of that leadership of mobility justice," she said, referring to a movement to make streets safer for pedestrians and public transit more accessible.

The city expects to see a report on the measure from city staff and a consulting firm by next year, and she said she hoped the city would extend the proposed ban to other intersections in the future if the level of traffic at those sites increases.

Byers, who said she hadn't owned a car herself in seven years, said she'd seen firsthand the need for such a measure.

"My right of way as a pedestrian is often challenged by vehicles," she said. "I'm jealous of San Francisco."

Right-hand turns on red lights came to be through the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act, Kevitt said, which required states to allow the turns to receive federal funding.

Although the practice has never been found to reduce emissions or gas consumption, the measure was adopted as a way to cut down on idling cars at red lights during the 1970s oil crisis.

"But what we do know is that pedestrians are the ones that are most being hit and killed in traffic violence," Kevitt said.

It could be a while before a similar measure could be viable in L.A., but Kevitt said it's time the idea is considered. Smaller cities, such as West Hollywood, would be a start, he said.

"The right to drive is considered more senior than the right to live," he said. "That needs to change."

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A woman in San Francisco was seriously injured on Monday after a hit-and-run driver struck her, pushing her onto the path of a self-driving car, which trapped her, CBS News reported.

The incident took place Monday night in the SoMa neighborhood of the city, according to the San Francisco Fire Department. First responders received a 911 call for a pedestrian trapped underneath an autonomous vehicle.

The SFFD said that the single victim was "extricated from beneath the vehicle using rescue tools" and was transported to a local trauma center with multiple injuries.

Single victim extricated from beneath the vehicle using rescue tools and was transported to the local trauma center with multiple traumatic injuries.

Active investigation. 5th st south of market remains closed.



AVOID AREA https://t.co/QqtEVjboNb  SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) October 3, 2023

Captain Justin Schorr of the SFDD told CBS News that the woman was found "pinned" beneath the left rear axle of the vehicle, which was unoccupied.

Schorr said that the self-driving car's operating company, Cruise, was immediately contacted, and able to disable the car remotely, after which rescuers were "able to get the car up off her," using the "jaws of life" to free her. The victim was transported to the hospital with serious injuries. No update to her condition has been provided.

SFFD did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.

Oklahoma: Woman riding lawn mower at airport dies after plane wing strikes her

Cruise responds

Cruise, in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, detailed the incident stating they are actively working with police to help identify the driver who initially struck the victim.

"At approximately 9:30 pm on October 2, a human-driven vehicle struck a pedestrian while traveling in the lane immediately to the left of a Cruise AV," the car company stated in their post. "The initial impact was severe and launched the pedestrian directly in front of the AV."

"The AV then braked aggressively to minimize the impact," the company stated, while the driver of the other vehicle fled the scene. The AV was kept in place at the request of police.

(1/3) At approximately 9:30 pm on October 2, a human-driven vehicle struck a pedestrian while traveling in the lane immediately to the left of a Cruise AV. The initial impact was severe and launched the pedestrian directly in front of the AV.  cruise (@Cruise) October 3, 2023

(3/3) Our heartfelt concern and focus is the wellbeing of the person who was injured and we are actively working with police to help identify the responsible driver.  cruise (@Cruise) October 3, 2023

Cruise, owned by General Motors, is one of the two companies operating fleets of driverless cars in the city by the Bay. The other one is Waymo, owned by Google. Cruise runs the majority of its 240 Chevy Bolt electric cars in San Francisco and has pilot programs that offer driverless rides to the public.

Earlier, in January, San Francisco firefighters had to smash in the front window of a Cruise driverless car to get it to stop running over hoses at a three-alarm fire.

What does it mean for the city? Self-driving taxis get 24/7 access in San Francisco

In San Francisco: driverless cars, baffled humans and uncertain future

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Woman injured after hit-and-run accident pushes her under driverless car
Cryptocurrency firms are at the cusp of a breakthrough vote for their regulatory agenda in Congress. They are wooing members of both parties, preparing an ad blitz to push their proposals and targeting swing state lawmakers for support.

But they have one inescapable problem: Sam Bankman-Fried.

Jury selection for the failed moguls fraud trial is set to begin Tuesday at a federal court in Manhattan, and the daily headlines about his misdeeds are landing at the worst possible time for the industrys lobbying contingent  at least whats left of it after his fall triggered a crypto meltdown.

The House is preparing to vote on landmark bills that would set up regulations blessed by the industry. At the same time, lobbyists are trying to fend off a push by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and a growing list of crypto skeptics who want to crack down on financial crimes that use digital currency.

How it all shakes out may be impacted by Bankman-Fried's trial, where Washington's former go-to crypto magnate and a major source of campaign cash will fight charges that he orchestrated one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history at the helm of his FTX exchange.

If youre not familiar with the crypto industry  and this is the first time youre thinking about it  your impression is certainly not a positive one, said Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith, whose group is a leading crypto trade organization. He was a terrible ambassador for our industry.

The coming split-screen will test cryptos lobbying influence after it spent much of last year trying to rehabilitate the industrys image. Advocates have framed Bankman-Fried as an outlier whose alleged misdeeds could have happened in any corner of finance. But its a distinction that may not matter to lawmakers who have been on the fence, with many already going out of their way to distance themselves from the fraud and consumer protection concerns that have been front of mind since Bankman-Frieds arrest in November.

Sam Bankman-Frieds trial will remind everyone in Congress about the risks that an unregulated crypto industry poses for all of our constituents, for our economy and for international stability, Warren said in an interview.



A year ago, Bankman-Fried was a force in Washington. He showered lawmakers with campaign contributions  at one point pledging to spend $1 billion through the 2024 election  and became a familiar face on Capitol Hill. He was able to get meetings with regulators at the highest levels, after recruiting former top officials to help FTX navigate agencies and Congress.

Then his empire collapsed, and with it cryptos broader Washington influence operation.

The 31-year-old  now in jail  faces a slate of criminal fraud and conspiracy charges. Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried used $100 million in stolen FTX deposits to fund a massive political operation. He has pleaded not guilty.

In the aftermath of FTXs collapse, prices in the crypto market tumbled and a slew of other digital asset firms imploded. Lawmakers gave up donations from Bankman-Fried. Crypto-friendly legislation  including a bill he championed to revamp regulations  effectively died.

But crypto has seen a comeback in the last few months. House Republicans have approved bills that would set up a regulatory regime that digital asset firms have long sought. The bills would curb the reach of the Securities and Exchange Commission, an agency thats facing off with the biggest exchanges and token providers in court. The proposals would also boost the growth of so-called stablecoins used in payments.

In key respects, the end result of the House Republican legislation would resemble policy that Bankman-Fried had championed. The SEC would take a backseat to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a smaller agency thats historically played less of a role in regulating consumer-facing financial products.

The proposals would codify in law for the first time explicit actions regulators must take to police digital asset trading. At this moment, the agencies are operating in the crypto space using authority drafted for traditional financial markets, including stock trading and futures contracts.

Critics counter that the House plan would potentially weaken industry oversight rather than improve it.

The end goal is the same, said Lee Reiners, a lecturing fellow at the Duke Financial Economics Center. The industrys been pretty successful in preventing the [House GOP bill] from being tarred with any association to Sam.



Republican lawmakers are trying to brush off the SBF baggage before House floor votes this fall, but some see a potential challenge ahead.

Rep. Bill Huizenga, a senior Michigan Republican whos helping shepherd the bills, said he thinks more Democrats would be supporting the legislation if not for Bankman-Fried's downfall.

"That flame burned pretty close and hot next to a number of them," he said, referring to the millions of dollars Bankman-Fried spent to back Democrats. It is not unexpected to have them step back from their enthusiasm.

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, among the few Democrats who support the House bills, said he warned crypto lobbyists last week that they have a fundamental problem in this space.

I hear all these promises, but I say, How is this going to change the neighborhood in St. Louis, or the state of Connecticut, or the United States? he said. To the average member, [they see] $2 trillion lost over time.

House Republicans argue that the failure of FTX should compel more lawmakers to back their legislation.

Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), a senior member of the committee that drafted the bills, said Bankman-Fried is exhibit A for why Congress needs to act on the House legislation.

Reminding everybody about the bad behavior of some market participants will help us make the case for why some basic rules of the road are necessary, said Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), who chairs a digital asset subcommittee.

But in the Senate, crypto critics are on the rise and betting that a re-tread of the FTX and Bankman-Fried calamity will help grow their ranks.

Warren has a bipartisan group of 15 senators on her bill that would impose new anti-money laundering rules on digital asset trading. She said the trial will strengthen the case for her legislation.

The deep skepticism about crypto is even deeper with his arrest, Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said in an interview. All of these things contribute to the deep skepticism that the public has about crypto and how some pretty unscrupulous people are using it for some very unscrupulous purposes.
Myrtle Beach Safari owner and star of Netflixs  Tiger King  series Bhagavan Doc Antle was handed a $10,000 fine and and five-year ban on working with, possessing, trading or interacting with wild animals for five years in Virginia after a June conviction on wildlife charges.

Antle initially faced 13 counts of buying endangered species and cruelty to animals charges in the Frederick County Circuit Court. A verdict was reached after a week-long trial, according to online court records. Four additional charges were thrown out before the end of the trial due to insufficient evidence, according to Antles defense team.

This is a developing story
The parents of Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 when he fatally shot four of his classmates at school in November 2021, could face trial for the involuntary manslaughter charges filed against them.

The Michigan Supreme Court on Tuesday denied James and Jennifer Crumbley's appeal challenging a lower court's decision to allow the couple to stand trial.

The Supreme Court said it denied the appeal because judges "are not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this Court."

James and Jennifer are each facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter. Evidence filed against them so far includes text messages that appear to show how they ignored their son's pleas for help in the year prior to the shooting. Jennifer also said in a Facebook post prior to the shooting that she and her husband purchased a gun as a Christmas present for their son.

PARENTS FACING MORE CHARGES FOR KIDS' GUN CRIMES, EXPERTS SAY

Ethan Robert Crumbley, 15, left, charged with first-degree murder in a high school shooting, poses in a jail booking photograph taken at the Oakland County Jail in Pontiac, Michigan.

The day of the shooting, both parents met with Ethan's school counselor after he was caught with violent drawings in class. Prosecutors say the parents "flatly refused" to take him home that morning.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Hours later, Ethan took the gun his parents apparently purchased for him out of his backpack and killed 16-year-old Tate Myre, 16-year-old Justin Shilling, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin. He injured seven others.

OXFORD SCHOOL SHOOTER ETHAN CRUMBLEY CAN BE SENTENCED TO LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE FOR KILLING 4 STUDENTS

Ethan could face life in prison without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled last week.

Ethan Crumbley, at age 15, walked into Oxford High School the morning of Nov. 30, 2021, went to classes, met with the school counselor with his parents and was sent back to class before he took a gun out of his backpack and killed 16-year-old Tate Myre, 16-year-old Justin Shilling, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin.

In a March filing, the Michigan Court of Appeals laid out its reasoning behind allowing a trial for James and Jennifer Crumbley.

MICHIGAN JUDGE RULES OXFORD SCHOOLS, STAFF CANNOT BE SUED OVER 2021 ETHAN CRUMBLEY MASS SHOOTING

"Despite their knowledge of all of these circumstances, when given the option to help [Ethan] and take him out of school, defendants did nothing," the filing states. "They did not, contrary to the recommendations of [school counselor Shawn] Hopkins, take [Ethan] home and get him immediate medical help. Nor, when they decided to leave him at school, did they tell school officials about [Ethan's] history of mental health issues nor explain to them that [Ethan] had access to a gun similar to the one he drew on the math worksheet."

The filing added that neither James nor Jennifer Crumbley asked Ethan "if he had the gun with him nor did they look in his backpack. And, when they left the school, defendants did not go home and ensure [Ethan] had not taken the gun."

OXFORD HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING VICTIMS' ATTORNEY ALLEGES ARMED GUARD THOUGHT SHOOTING WAS A DRILL: GOOD MAKEUP'

Attorneys for the Crumbley parents argue they could not have predicted their son's plan to commit a mass shooting before it happened.

If James and Jennifer Crumbley do make it to trial, it would be the first of its kind.

The parents left their hometown of Oxford at the time of the shooting, and authorities, including the U.S. Marshals Service, issued an alert for their arrests. Their attorneys said they fled for their own safety and turned themselves in several days later.





Original article source: School shooter's parents can be tried for involuntary manslaughter, court rules
Most American schools operate for 180 days a year.

That leaves kids out of school for more than half the year.

Days off can ultimately be stressful for kids and parents.

"Why do we have to go to school every day?" my fourth grader whined as she climbed into bed.

I chuckled at how differently we were viewing things. My kids were about a month into the school year but had just completed their first full five-day week thanks to scheduled days off in our district and national holidays.

"You're definitely not there every day," I said. "You have more days with no school than days with school."

I paused to consider whether what I was saying was the truth, but simple math confirmed it was. Our district requires 180 days of school; that leaves 185 when schools are closed. As I tucked my daughter in, I felt validated  it's no wonder it's challenging to keep up with work when my kids are home more days than they're in class.

While going to school most days between September and May can feel like a lot for kids, 180 days can feel woefully inadequate for parents who struggle to find and pay for childcare when schools are closed. Having no school for more than half the year can lead to learning loss  also known as the " summer slide "  and missed social opportunities for kids, some experts say.

"While some time off is essential for mental and physical rejuvenation, an excessive amount can disrupt the rhythm of learning and potentially lead to academic setbacks," said Alex Anderson-Kahl, a school psychologist in Missouri.

Too many days off can limit parents' career opportunities

American kids go to school more than in the past. One hundred years ago, kids were in school for about 120 days , but by the turn of the 21st century, most schools were in session for about 180 days. Kansas has the longest required school year, at 186 days , while Colorado has the shortest required year, at 160 days.

No matter their schedules, many working parents feel overwhelmed by their kids' schedules. Briana Meade, a North Carolina mother of two, said she's passed up more challenging career opportunities because she knows she needs to care for her kids during their frequent days off.

She acknowledged that she's lucky to work from home but said that caring for her kids, who are 10 and 12, during their time off keeps her from achieving more professionally.

"It's super challenging to meet project deadlines when I am constantly being interrupted every 20 minutes by a kid who needs their rollerblades put on," she said. "There are very few dedicated time blocks for uninterrupted work. For someone who does deep-dive work that requires 'flow,' this means I rarely get much accomplished beyond admin, emails, and meetings."

Parents who can't work from home are often left paying for expensive childcare, leaving kids unattended, or taking free babysitting from sometimes questionable friends and family.

Children "may be left on that day with someone who will ultimately have a negative impact on their lives," said clinical psychologist Aura De Los Santos.

American kids have less school and more breaks than students in other countries

Compared to other developed nations, the US has a shorter school year and longer summer break. In Germany, Canada, and Australia, for example, pupils are in school for 190 to 200 days each year. South Korea has one of the longest school years, at 220 days .

"It's a long break, isn't it?" my Australian in-laws remarked time and time again when they visited last summer. In Australia, summer break typically lasts about six weeks, roughly half the length of summer vacation in the US.

Having a more consistent school schedule throughout the year  with fewer consecutive weeks off  can be important for children, who thrive on routine, said Avigail Lev, a clinical psychologist.

"To have a daily routine where you wake up at the same time, and you have the same classes, and there's a schedule is very good for kids," she said.

While kids must have time off school, shorter breaks are better for everyone, Lev said. A shorter summer vacation could also help address learning loss  currently, students lose up to 34% of their academic progress from the previous year during summer break.

"Ideally, a week off of school or two weeks at the most would be good," Lev said. "More than two weeks is too much for the kids and too much for the parents."

Kids need time to relax, but working parents need support

There are benefits to days off from school, experts say. Kids can relax, focus on extracurriculars, and, ideally, spend quality time with their families. However, too many days off school is difficult for parents and children.

"In theory, I like it because kids should have breaks from school," said Erin Heger, a Kansas mom of three. "But in a society with no support for parents, it's really disruptive and nearly impossible to give the kids what they need and also get work done and make an income."

The time out of the classroom can be especially difficult for students who need school as a reprieve, said Anderson-Kahl.

"Not every child's home life is amazing," he said. "For some students, school is the safest place they will be during the day. It can provide food, structure, and support for kids who may otherwise not receive it outside. Creating long breaks can impact these students in a more profound way."

Read the original article on Insider
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will lead a congressional delegation trip to China, Korea and Japan next week to advance U.S. economic and national security interests in the region, his office announced Tuesday.

He will take the trip with Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, and other colleagues during the Columbus Day recess.

Schumer has often urged the United States to take a tougher approach to China and last year spearheaded passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, which was intended to improve U.S. competitiveness with China.

The trip will include meetings with government and business leaders from each country as well as executives from U.S. companies operating in those countries.

It follows Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondos visit to China in August and Secretary of State Antony Blinkens visit in June.

Schumer plans to emphasize the need for reciprocity in China for U.S. businesses in order to level the playing field for American workers, according to his office.

The Democratic leader will also focus on maintaining the United Statess advantage in producing advanced technologies for its national security.

Schumer has made the future development of artificial intelligence one of his top policy priorities this Congress.

He will address the Chineses governments positions on human rights and the illicit export of fentanyl and discuss its role in the international community and potential areas of cooperation.

Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), John Kennedy (R-La.) and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) will also participate in the trip.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The United States has called on China to use its influence to encourage North Korea to take steps for de-escalation and return to diplomacy, the State Department said Monday.

Spokesperson Matthew Miller made the remarks amid expectations that an anticipated summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing this month would lead to a strengthening of cooperation among the two countries and North Korea.

"One of the things that we have urged in our conversations with Chinese officials -- something Secretary Blinken urged and other officials have urged -- is that China is uniquely positioned to use its influence with the DPRK to urge the DPRK to take de-escalatory steps and to urge the DPRK to return to diplomacy," he told a press briefing.

DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"We will continue to encourage them to use that influence to any degree that is possible that they are willing to do," he added.

Xi and Putin are expected to meet on the margins of an international forum on the Belt and Road initiative, a massive China-led infrastructure project, this month, after Putin met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at a Russian spaceport on Sept. 13.

The anticipated meeting would come as the U.S. has been strengthening trilateral security cooperation with its core Asian allies of South Korea and Japan in the midst of North Korea's evolving military threats, China's growing assertiveness and Russia's war in Ukraine.

Miller reiterated Washington's worries about deepening cooperation between Russia and the North.

"We continue to be concerned about increased ties between Russia and North Korea, especially when it comes to any potential transfer of weapons either from the DPRK to Russia or from Russia to the DPRK," he said. (Yonhap)
Sen. Laphonza Butler was sworn in to succeed the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein Tuesday. Shes the first Black lesbian serving openly in Congress and only the third Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.

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Vice President Kamala Harris , the first Black and South Asian woman to represent California in the Senate, swore her in. Butlers wife, Neneki Lee, held the Bible her during the ceremonial swearing in in the Old Senate chamber.

Butler, 44, was president of EMILYs List, which works to get Democratic women who support abortion rights elected. At different points, she led Californias largest labor union, was an adviser to Harris, and advised tech giants Uber and Airbnb as part of a prominent California political consulting agency.

She has not said whether she will run in either the special or general election to finish the end of Feinsteins term or one of her own to start in Jan. 2025.
Self-driving vehicle runs over, pins woman in San Francisco; operator claims human hit her first

A woman in San Francisco was found with life-threatening injuries late Monday after being run over and trapped under a self-driving car, authorities said.

First responders arrived at 5th and Market Streets just after 9:30 p.m. and found the woman underneath the left rear axle of a stopped Cruise autonomous vehicle, San Francisco Fire Capt. Justin Shore told FOX KTVU at the scene.

"Rescuers did not have any drivers or any passengers to ask about the nature of the injuries or how the victim came to be beneath the vehicle," Shore said.

Officers rendered aid to the woman and medics rushed to her a hospital for life-threatening injuries, said Officer Robert Rueca, a San Francisco Police Department spokesman.

CRUISE ROBOTAXI CRASHES INTO FIRETRUCK IN SAN FRANCISCO

Cruise said its autonomous vehicle remained at the scene of he crash at the request of police, while the driver of the other vehicle fled the scene.

Authorities said that the autonomous vehicle remained on scene and no driver was inside the vehicle at the time of the collision. It was unclear for how long the woman was trapped under the self-driving vehicle.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"Again, in this unique situation, we had no driver, passengers, nor any witnesses on the sidewalk to tell us how long she had been beneath the vehicle," Shore said.

Without a driver or witnesses, fire officials said it was unclear for how long the woman was trapped beneath the autonomous car.

Cruise, the company behind the autonomous car, gave an account of what happened in a statement issued on social media early Tuesday. The company that operates the self-driving vehicle said the incident began with a hit-and-run committed by a human driver.

"At approximately 9:30 pm on October 2, a human-driven vehicle struck a pedestrian while traveling in the lane immediately to the left of a Cruise AV," the statement said. "The initial impact was severe and launched the pedestrian directly in front of the AV."

Police said the department's Traffic Division was continuing to investigate the collision.

CALIFORNIA DMV REQUESTS CRUISE TO HALVE DRIVERLESS CAR FLEET AFTER COLLISION WITH FIRETRUCK IN SAN FRANCISCO

The driverless Cruise vehicle then "aggressively" hit the brakes "to minimize the impact," the company claimed. Cruise said the driver of the other vehicle fled the scene, while the driverless car remained on site at the request of authorities.

"Our heartfelt concern and focus is the wellbeing of the person who was injured and we are actively working with police to help identify the responsible driver," the company said.

The San Francisco Police Departments Traffic Division is leading the investigation.

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Authorities asked anyone with information about the collision to SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD.





Original article source: Self-driving vehicle runs over, pins woman in San Francisco; operator claims human hit her first
A Pentagon communications official last week was arrested and charged for alleged involvement in a Washington-area dogfighting ring for more than two decades, Maryland authorities revealed Monday.

Frederick Douglass Moorefield Jr., 62, of Arnold, Md., was a deputy chief information officer for command, control and communications at the Defense Department, according to his LinkedIn page. He was arrested Thursday on a charge of promoting and furthering animal fighting venture, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

The Washington Post first reported on the arrest.

Moorefield  who was charged along with friend Mario Flythe, 49, of Glen Burnie, Md.  is no longer working at the Pentagon following the charges, defense officials confirmed Tuesday.

We are aware of the criminal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Tim Gorman said in a statement to The Hill. We can confirm that the individual is no longer in the workplace, but we cannot comment further on an individual personnel matter.

Later Tuesday, DOD deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh would not say if Moorefield had been suspended, fired or allowed to retire due to the charges against him, referring reporters to the Justice Department.

She would also not reveal what level of security clearance Moorefield had at the time he was ousted.

I dont know the level of clearance that he had. Im not going to go into more specifics on it. Its an ongoing case, she said. I think these are some things that of course will come out in the investigation. Why or were behaviors caught when it should have been  thats something that will be revealed, of course, as the Department of Justice leads this investigation.

According to the affidavit, Moorfield and Flythe used encrypted messages on Telegram to discuss dogfighting with individuals throughout the United States. Moorefield used the name Geehad Kennels while Flythe used the name Razor Sharp Kennels to identify their respective dogfighting operations, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Maryland.

The two communicated on how to bet on and train dogs for the illegal dogfighting, discussed dogs that had been killed in such events, exchanged videos about the activity, and arranged and coordinated dogfights, the release notes.

They also discussed how to conceal their conduct from law enforcement, it adds.

The men were arrested after law enforcement officers searched their residences in Maryland on Sept. 6, when they found twelve dogs, veterinary steroids, training schedules, a carpet apparently stained with blood, and jumper cables which the affidavit alleges can be used to kill dogs that lose fights.

A replacement for Moorefield has not been named, Singh said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Milan Radoicic, photographed in February, was remanded in custody for 48 hours and handed over to the Belgrade public prosecutor's office (Andrej ISAKOVIC)

Serbia arrested on Tuesday the suspected leader of a group of gunmen who killed a Kosovo police officer on September 24, the interior ministry said.

Milan Radoicic was remanded in custody for 48 hours and handed over to the Belgrade public prosecutor's office, the ministry said in a statement, adding that police searched his flat and other properties. It did not say where he was arrested.

Radoicic, 45, is a businessman and former influential Kosovo Serb powerbroker.

He is suspected, along with "several unknown persons", of "unauthorised production, possession, carrying and trafficking of firearms and explosive substances as well as serious crimes against general safety", the prosecutors said.

Between January and the day of the attack, Radoicic was procuring the weapons from neighbouring Bosnia and then transporting and storing them at "unspecified locations" in Kosovo, they said in a statement.

During a hearing, Radoicic denied having committed the crimes he is suspected of, the statement said.

Meanwhile, Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani told CNN that her country wanted "to have Radoicic and other terrorists handed over to the Republic of Kosovo so that real justice can be delivered".

Formerly vice-president of the Serbian List (Srpska Lista), the main political grouping of Kosovo Serbs, he resigned from his post last week.

He was questioned by Serbian police for the first time on Saturday.

A few days earlier, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had stated that Radoicic was in "central Serbia" and available for questioning by the Serb authorities.

- Years of distrust -

Around 30 gunmen were involved in the hours-long shootout in the village of Banjska on September 24, after they ambushed a police patrol and later barricaded themselves in an Orthodox monastery near the northern border with Serbia.

The day after Kosovo's interior minister Xhelal Svecla accused Radoicic of leading the paramilitary commando.

Several days later, Radoicic himself said he had set up the armed group without the knowledge of Serbia.

Three other men have been arrested, suspected like Radoicic of "terrorism" by Kosovo prosecutors. Several dozen other suspects are believed to have fled into Serbia.

The killing of the officer brought years of distrust and bitterness to the surface -- as a war of words between Belgrade and Pristina, competing days of mourning, and calls for sanctions marred already fractious relations.

Kosovo's government has accused Belgrade of backing the entire operation, with Prime Minister Albin Kurti writing that the weapons and equipment used in the attack were "made by Serbian state-owned military arms producers".

The United States on Friday warned of "a large Serbian military deployment along the border with Kosovo" and called on "Serbia to withdraw those forces from the border".

On Tuesday, the White House said that Serbia has begun withdrawing troops from the Kosovo border after having warned of an unprecedented build-up.

"We have seen them start to move those forces away and that's a good thing," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told a briefing.

It followed the announcement by Serbia Monday that its troop numbers were back to normal near the border with Kosovo, which accuses it of trying to annex the Serb-majority north.

Kosovo, a former province of Serbia which broke away and declared independence in 2008 -- a status Belgrade has refused to recognise -- has long seen strained relations between its ethnic Albanian majority and its Serb minority population.

bur-rus/ljv/giv
Politician and wealthy businessman Milan Radoicic, center, Serb List leader Goran Rakic, left, and former mayor of the Serb part of the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica Milan Radojevic attend a special session of Serbia's parliament about the negotiating process with Kosovo, in Belgrade, Serbia on Feb. 2, 2023. Serbian police on Tuesday detained an ethnic Serb leader Milan Radoicic from Kosovo who was the alleged organizer behind a recent shootout with Kosovo police that left four people dead and sent tensions soaring in the region. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP)  Serbian police on Tuesday detained an ethnic Serb leader from Kosovo who was the alleged organizer behind a recent shootout with Kosovo police that left four people dead and sent tensions soaring in the region.

Police said they also searched the apartment and other property in Serbia belonging to Milan Radoicic, a politician and wealthy businessman with close ties to Serbia's ruling populist party and President Aleksandar Vucic.

Police gave no other details. A statement said Radoicic was ordered to remain in custody for 48 hours.

Later on Tuesday, prosecutors said Radoicic was questioned under suspicion of a criminal conspiracy, unlawful possession of weapons and explosives and grave acts against public safety.

Radoicic allegedly got weapons delivered from Bosnia to Belgrade before stashing them in abandoned objects and forests in Kosovo, prosecutors said. The statement said that Radoicic and others in his group on Sept. 24 allegedly endangered the lives of people in the northern Kosovo village of Banjska.

Radoicic denied the charges, the prosecutors said.

The arrest comes amid an international outcry over the Sept. 24 violence in which around 30 heavily armed Serb men set up barricades in northern Kosovo before launching an hours-long gun battle with Kosovo police.

Kosovo has accused Serbia of orchestrating the act of aggression against its former province whose 2008 declaration of independence Belgrade doesn't recognize. Serbia has denied this, saying that Radoicic and his group acted on their own.

Radoicic was a deputy leader of the Serbian List party in Kosovo, which is closely linked with Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party. He is know to own large properties both in Serbia in Kosovo, and has been linked by investigative media to shady businesses.

After the clash, Vucic has spoken favorably of Radoicic, portraying him as a true patriot who wants to defend Kosovo Serbs from alleged harassment by Kosovo Albanian authorities.

European Union and U.S. officials have demanded from Serbia that all the perpetrators of the attack, including Radoicic, be brought to justice. Radoicic, 45, has been under U.S. sanctions for his alleged financial criminal activity.

Serbia has said it has withdrawn nearly half of its army troops from the border with Kosovo, after the United Sates and the EU expressed concern over the reported buildup of men and equipment.

The flareup in tensions between Serbia and Kosovo has fueled fears in the West that the volatile region could spin back into instability that marked the war years in the 1990s, including the 1998-99 war in Kosovo.

That conflict ended with NATO bombing Serbia to stop its onslaught against separatist ethnic Albanians. Belgrade has never agreed to let go of the territory, although it hasn't had any control over it since 1999.

The latest violence in the village of Banjska was the most serious since the 2008 independence declaration. Serbia is an ally of Russia, fueling fears that Moscow was trying to stir up trouble in the Balkans to avert attention from the war in Ukraine.

Reflecting Western concerns over the situation, NATO has announced it would send more troops to its 4,500-strong peacekeeping force in Kosovo, known as KFOR. The mission was established in 1999, after Serbia was forced to pull out of the territory.

Washington and Brussels have sought to negotiate an agreement that would normalize relations between Serbia and Kosovo, but a tentative deal earlier this year has produced no progress.
, BELGRADE (Reuters) - - Serbian authorities on Tuesday detained Kosovo Serb politician Milan Radoicic and accused him of manufacturing firearms and trafficking them to Kosovo, after he said he was involved in a deadly shootout with Kosovo police 10 days ago.

Tensions between Belgrade and Pristina have soared since Sept. 24, when around 30 armed Serbs barricaded themselves in a Serbian Orthodox monastery near the village of Banjska, in the Serb majority north of Kosovo, resulting in a shootout with Kosovo police.

Three attackers and a Kosovo police officer were killed.

The Office of Serbia's High Public Prosecutor said in a statement that Radoicic was interrogated on Tuesday under suspicion of having joined with others in illegal manufacturing, possession and trafficking of fire arms and explosive materials.

It added Radoicic had allegedly been buying weapons, ammunition and explosive devices in the Bosnian town of Tuzla, to be delivered to Belgrade between January 2023 and September 24.

After delivery, he would transfer and store the weapons in various locations in Kosovo, either in deserted facilities or in the woods, the statement alleged.

On Sept. 24, Radoicic and his group "jeopardized lives of people in Banjska," the prosecutor said.

Radoicic denied any criminal activity. The prosecutor has asked a court to order Radoicic be kept in detention because he could flee.

Last month's gunbattle prompted new international concern over stability in Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority and declared independence from Serbia in 2008 after a guerrilla uprising and a 1999 NATO intervention.

Some 50,000 Serbs who live in north Kosovo do not recognise Pristina's institutions and see Belgrade as their capital. They have often clashed with Kosovo police and international peacekeepers, but last month's violence was the worst in years.

Radoicic, vice president of the Serb List party which is dominant in north Kosovo, admitted to taking part in the skirmishes, by saying he had come to Kosovo with the group "to encourage Serb people to resist (Prime Minister Albin) Kurti's terrorist regime". He was questioned by Serbian police last week over his remarks.

Radoicic's lawyer Goran Petronijevic could not be immediately reached for comment.

Pristina authorities had accused Belgrade of providing financial and practical support for the operation, something Serbian authorities denied. Kosovo and Western countries have also accused Serbia of a buildup of military presence in the so-called Ground Safety Zone, a 5 km-wide (3-mile) strip inside Serbia along the Kosovo border.

On Monday, Serbia's army commander General Milan Mojsilovic said the country has withdrawn some troops.

(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Additional reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
A settlement has been reached in the lawsuit filed in connection with the 2017 death of Kenneka Jenkins, the 19-year-old Chicago woman who died of hypothermia inside a Rosemont hotels walk-in freezer.

Cook County court records show the settlement was reached in August, though it has not been entered on the court docket as attorneys for Jenkins mother have asked that the terms of the agreement be sealed from the public.

On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Thomas Cushing denied the attempt, but asked that Jenkins mothers attorney resubmit the request. A status hearing in the case is scheduled for next week, and a trial was set for Oct. 16, court records show.

In asking to keep the settlement sealed, attorneys for Jenkins mother, Tereasa Martin, argued that Jenkins familys safety and privacy trumped any reason to require that the records be publicly filed.

The widespread publicity of this case, including uncontrolled speculation and social media commentary has resulted in various threats made against various individuals in the case including, but not limited to, Petitioner, witnesses, and Defendants in this matter, an attorney for Jenkins mother wrote in an unopposed motion to seal the settlement terms.

Due to public interest, and scrutiny, all parties are in agreement that the confidential terms, including settlement amounts, are in the best interest of all parties involved including the Petitioner and the Defendants.

An attorney for Jenkins mother did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Jenkins died of hypothermia inside a walk-in freezer at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosemont, and the Cook County medical examiners office ruled her death an accident.

Alcohol intoxication and the use of a drug for treating epilepsy and migraines were significant contributing factors, the office said.

The 19-year old was found inside the freezer on Sept. 10, 2017, after she disappeared from a room at the Crowne Plaza. She had attended a party with as many as 30 other people on the ninth floor and wasnt found until nearly 24 hours after her disappearance, after repeated pleas to the hotel and police by the family.

Surveillance videos released by police days later show Jenkins, alone, wandering through a kitchen area near the freezer not long after she disappeared.

The release of the footage did nothing to quell speculation around Jenkins death, and scores of speculative videos and true crime podcast episodes with thousands of views remain on YouTube. Beyond the internet sleuthing, Jenkins death spawned days of protests outside the hotel.

Jenkins mother initially filed a lawsuit in late 2017, but court records show she moved to dismiss that complaint after she changed lawyers.

Her current lawyers filed the now-settled negligence lawsuit in 2018 against the Crowne Plaza Hotels parent company, the hotels security company and a restaurant that had rented the freezer in which Jenkins was ultimately found. The lawsuit initially sought more than $50 million in damages.
Volunteers in Alabama were among a thousand or so across the country taking part in September's annual Sew-a-Thon Fundraiser for Sew Powerful, a Washington state-based Christian ministry to the people of Zambia.

In addition to raising money, those volunteers made special purses for a specific reason to be used by girls and young women in Zambia, a country with one of the highest poverty rates in Africa.

Zambian women often must stay home from school or their jobs during their menstrual periods because of a lack of feminine hygiene products or a method for carrying them. Many young women even drop out of school for those reasons.

These purses were made for girls and young women in Africa by the Shelby County volunteer group purSEWverance as part of Sew Powerful's annual "Sew-a-Thon" fundraiser.

Jason and Cinnamon Miles learned about the problem while working with the international nonprofit organization World Vision, and launched Sew Powerful in 2009.

Volunteers make the purses that can be used to carry feminine hygiene products and other items.

The purSEWverance chapter in Shelby County, for instance, hoped to make more than 300 by the end of September.

We are empowering women and changing lives, one purse at a time, said Debbie Pope, a former Etowah County resident, as she displayed pictures of purses made by the women in her group.

According to its website, Sew Powerful works to combat extreme poverty by creating jobs that provide training and tools to facilitate the creation of purposeful products.

Sew Powerful employs 96 seamstresses in Zambia, a life-changing blessing for those women and for the girls who benefit from the reusable hygiene pads they sew and school uniforms they sew.

Members of the Shelby County volunteer group purSEWverance are shown making purses for the girls and young women of Zambia as part of Sew Powerful's annual "Sew-a-Thon" fundraiser.

Those pads allow students to remain in school throughout the month, helping their academic performance and, according to Pope, giving them a chance to break the cycle of poverty with a quality education.

The organization also provides farm-fresh food and soap to help promote and enable the academic success of children throughout Zambia, while providing the dignity of work for adults.

The organization says its low overhead rate ensures that the majority of donations go straight to the program in Zambia.

For more information, visit www.sewpowerful.org.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Ministry provides special purses for women in Zambia
Patrick Herminie says police found nothing incriminating during a raid on his party's headquarters

The main opposition leader in Seychelles, Patrick Herminie, has been charged with witchcraft, along with seven others.

Police say the case is related to the discovery of two bodies exhumed from a cemetery on the island of Mahe.

He has denied the charges, telling local media that his prosecution is a "political show" to taint his image.

Mr Herminie plans to run in the 2025 presidential election under the banner of the United Seychelles Party (USP).

A magistrates court on Monday freed him and six of his Seychellois co-accused on bail of 30,000 Seychelles rupees ($2,100; 1,745), but ruled that a Tanzanian suspect should stay in custody until the next court appearance in November.

Mr Herminie and his co-accused face several charges, including possession of items intended for use in witchcraft, conspiracy to perform witchcraft and procuring services related to witchcraft, according to local media reports.

Prosecutors allege that the opposition leader's name appeared in a WhatsApp message between a Seychellois national and the Tanzanian suspect, who was arrested on 21 September at the main international airport.

The Tanzanian was found with items related to witchcraft, including stones, black wooden artefacts, small bottles of brownish liquid, a collection of powders, and documents with strange language and "demonic and satanic" symbols, they said.

The documents were similar to those found in Catholic churches and other places that had been vandalised in Mahe, Seychelles' largest island, prosecutors further alleged.

Mr Herminie, who served as the speaker of Seychelles' parliament between 2007 and 2016, told local media that more than 40 police officers had raided his party's offices in the capital, Victoria, on Friday.

He added that the officers searched for items related to witchcraft, including "bones, body parts, and objects associated with Christianity" but did not find any.

Mr Herminie described his arrest as "a political show" by President Wavel Ramkalawan to "eliminate those who he knows will remove him from power in the 2025 elections", the Seychelles News Agency reported.

President Ramkalawan has not commented on the case.

Mr Herminie has said he does not believe in witchcraft.

"In Seychelles' history, there has never been until now, a political party leader arrested for superstition and witchcraft. This is something new and it is shameful for Seychelles," he was quoted as saying.
The Coast Guard apprehended 22 Chinese nationals Tuesday suspected of attempting to illegally enter a western coastal city by boat, officials said.

The group of Chinese nationals, known to be around their 40s, faces charges of attempting to flee after jumping off the vessel in waters near a port in Boryeong, 140 kilometers south of Seoul, at 1:53 a.m., according to the officials.

Coast Guard officials arrived at the scene after being tipped off by military authorities on the unidentified boat approaching waters near the coastal city.

While 21 of the Chinese nationals were caught near the port after swimming their way to the coast wearing life vests, one of them fled the scene.

The police later caught the individual in Ansan, 29 kilometers south of Seoul, and handed the person over to the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard also went after the boat that smuggled the Chinese nationals, but the vessel left Korea's territorial waters at about 7:40 a.m.

It believes the boat came from China's eastern port city of Weihai and sent a request to Chinese authorities for cooperation in apprehending it.

A Coast Guard official said an investigation into the details of the crime has yet to take place as authorities are currently conducting a probe into the possibility of espionage. (Yonhap)
For the record:

1:56 p.m. Oct. 4, 2023: A previous version of this story said Dianne Feinstein was the first woman elected to represent California in the U.S. Senate. Feinstein and Barbara Boxer were elected to the Senate at the same time in 1992, but Feinstein was seated first because she was filling a vacancy.



The death of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Friday and Gov. Gavin Newsom 's selection of longtime political operative Laphonza Butler as her short-term replacement have thrust two critical questions to the forefront of the state's political scene:

Will Butler run for a full term in the Senate in next year's election? And if she does, how seriously will she shake up the race that is well underway?

The first question remains unanswered; Butler, who said she was asked on Saturday to fill the seat, said she has not decided.

"I genuinely don't know," Butler told The Times in her first interview since being appointed. "I want to be focused on honoring the legacy of Sen. Feinstein. I want to devote my time and energy to serving the people of California. And I want to carry her baton with the honor that it deserves and so I genuinely have no idea."

The second question had political experts divided as they digested the news of her appointment Monday. Whether Butler will serve 15 months and then step down, or enter the race herself, could upend the campaign strategies of the three prominent Democrats already running for Senate: Reps. Barbara Lee of Oakland, Katie Porter of Irvine and Adam B. Schiff of Burbank. Butler has deep ties to organizations that could help her mount a serious fundraising operation.

"Butler would be a very formidable candidate who's capable of making it into the top two," advancing from the primary to the general election, said Feinstein's 2018 campaign manager Jeff Millman, citing her fundraising prowess.

But that's if she plans to run.

"Most people believe that this race is too far along and that to run would be so violative of the democratic process," said former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who ran unsuccessfully for California governor in 2018.

"I don't expect that she will," he said. "I do think she'll do a very good job filling the shoes of a trailblazer."

Feinstein broke barriers as the first woman to represent California in the Senate, and Butler will be the first LGBTQ+ senator from the state. The deadline for her to decide to run in the March primary is Dec. 8, but to be included in the information guides sent to every registered voter, she'd need to file a candidate statement by Nov. 15.



Butler said that Newsom didn't ask whether she planned to run if selected.

"He said to me that whoever he appointed, he intended to make it clear that he would expect them to do whatever they wanted to do regarding that," she said.

Read more: California's incoming senator, Laphonza Butler, describes her whirlwind trip into history

Her selection comes after Newsom said last month he'd like to see a caretaker in the role, only to backtrack later after criticism from progressives. Lee, who is Black, ripped into the governor, saying that choosing a Black woman for a short-term appointment is "insulting."

Newsom committed in 2021 to appointing a Black woman if Feinstein's seat ever came open, an effort to placate frustration by Black leaders after he appointed Sen. Alex Padilla to replace then-Sen. Kamala Harris in the Senate after she was elected vice president. Harris' departure left the 100-member Senate without a single Black female member.

With Butler's swearing-in by Harris on Tuesday, there are now four Black senators, a record for a single time in American history.

Despite trailing in the polls and lagging in fundraising, Lee has said her candidacy wasn't just about positioning herself for an appointment in the event Feinstein left office early, and has been focused on raising enough money and garnering enough support to prevail in the March primary. Lee campaign focus groups and surveys done last month found that most California voters had little awareness about the Senate race and that Lee "will likely only need 27% of the vote to place in the top two," and advance to the general election, according to a memo from her campaign.

"I am running very hard to win this race," Lee said on CNN on Monday. "Of course, it would have been great because I did want to fill the vacancy.... But listen, we all have to just focus on what we're doing."

Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee of Oakland, Adam Schiff of Burbank and Katie Porter of Irvine. ()

Calls in recent weeks from members of the Congressional Black Caucus for Newsom to appoint Lee to fill a potential vacancy attracted increased attention to her campaign. The question now is whether she gets a bounce in the polls and will have stronger fundraising numbers. At the end of June, Lee had about $1.4 million in cash on hand, according to federal campaign finance reports.

Asked if she felt pressure to say no in light of the campaign in support of Lee, Butler heaped compliments on the leading candidates.

Theres at least three top-level Democrats that are in this race, all of whom have been running for a year and all of whom have been incredible public servants, Butler told The Times  adding that she spoke with Lee after Newsom chose her this weekend.

Both Porter and Schiff have raised far more than Lee. Schiff on Monday announced that he had $32 million in cash on hand after raising $6 million in the third quarter. Porter hasn't revealed her latest fundraising numbers but had $10.3 million in her campaign account through June.

Lee, Porter and Schiff applauded Newsom's pick, with the Oakland representative saying she looked "forward to working closely with her to deliver for the Golden State" and Porter issuing a statement praising Butler for "her career standing up for women and working families."

Political strategists and former elected officials said the fundraising prowess of Porter and Schiff gives them a substantial advantage in the March primary. Butler, they said, could put an operation together and has the chops to raise money quickly, but it would be a tall order.

"I don't care who you are, or how attractive you are as a candidate, or as a politician, or whatever," said longtime Democratic political strategist Garry South. "You cannot pull together a viable statewide campaign in a state like California in five months' time, especially with the holidays in the middle."

Read more: With Feinstein's death, what happens with her seat on Judiciary committee, other panels?

Veteran political strategist Bill Carrick, a longtime advisor to Feinstein, disagreed and said it wouldn't be too late for another candidate to enter the race.

None of the three leading Democratic candidates has held statewide office before, he said, and polling suggests that they all have relatively low levels of support.

"It's not like anybody starts with a built-in base," Carrick said. "I think ... most people don't know much about any of these people."

Butler is "extremely intelligent," Carrick said, and would bring a long and varied resume to the campaign trail, should she decide to run.

That includes more than a decade as the president of Service Employees International Union Local 2015, which Carrick called the "largest and most politically savvy" labor union in California, as well as her ties to the political fundraising world through Emily's List, which he said could help her quickly tap into a wide network of potential donors.

Emily's List is a powerhouse political organization that funnels millions of dollars each election cycle to help elect Democratic women who support access to abortion run for office.

"It gives you a large universe of women donors who respond in very efficient ways to fundraising needs," Carrick said.

Still the power of incumbency and having the title "appointed senator" in a primary where many voters know very little about the candidates is hard to discount, said Sara Sadhwani, a professor of politics at Pomona College.

"At the end of the day, we're still going to have voters who show up in the March primary to vote for their choice for the presidency who haven't thought as much about the statewide Senate race," she said.

"What the incumbency advantage really brings is a sense that people assume you're doing well in your job and want to put you back in there to continue your work. That being said people also know Adam Schiff. People also know Kate Porter. People also know Barbara Lee. This is where the campaign finance comes into play."

If Butler were to launch a Senate run, her campaign support system  financial or otherwise  would probably rely heavily on the organizations where she worked previously. The endorsements of Emily's List and SEIU 2015 will be coveted by the already declared candidates.

"Those three I'm sure have deep relationships with the very entities that she comes out of," said former California Gov. Gray Davis  who has yet to endorse in the Senate race. "Obviously she'll get a lot of attention in the short term. On the other hand, I can tell you how difficult it is to get well known in a state of 39 million people. It takes years and years."

Whether she runs for a full term or not, it's clear that Butler's star is rising in California politics  and the coming months may not be the last time she holds or seeks elected office.

Whether or not she chooses to exercise her right to file as a candidate in the next 60 days remains to be seen," said a person connected to the California labor community who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, "but I don't think this is the last time we will see her potentially put her name in the ring for elected office."

Times staff writer Taryn Luna contributed to this report.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
UPDATE: Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Shelby County District Attorneys off said the cases against the A1s Towing employees were dismissed because they were in General Sessions court, and they cannot subpoena the out-of-state victims even though they have been cooperative. The DAs office said it will continue pursuing the cases and expects them to go to criminal court. WREG was told they would be sending the cases to a grand jury.

MEMPHIS, Tenn.  The Shelby County District Attorneys Office has dropped criminal charges against at least four A1s Towing & Hauling employees arrested in six different incidents involving the towing of 18-wheelers.

In five of the cases, the A1s tow truck drivers were charged with carjacking after police said they took the big rigs by force. In another case, an A1s employee was charged with aggravated assault.

We contacted District Attorney Steve Mulroys office to find out why all the cases were dismissed on September 21 but have not received a reply.

Men facing charges for illegally towing big rig

On August 29, two days after A1s driver, Rufus Newson, and S-Line Truck Parking employee, Gary Rhodes, were arrested for illegally towing a tractor-trailer from a truck stop in Southeast Memphis, a Chancery Court judge ordered the charges against the men be dropped and expunged from their records.

Chancery Judge wants charges dropped in big rig theft case

Chancellor Melanie Taylor-Jefferson said the Memphis Police Department violated a previous court order prohibiting officers from going on private properties and enforcing rules.

The arrest was cleared for Rhodes, but Newson still faces a charge of theft of property, assault, and driving with a canceled or revoked license. He has a preliminary hearing set for Thursday.

Jeff Partlow, a driver with Western Express, said his semi-truck was illegally booted and towed from a gas station at South Mendenhall and Shelby Drive on August 30, and there was nothing police could do to stop it.

Partlow said he had just pulled into the Shell station to let his trainee use the bathroom, and his foot was still on the brake when an A1s truck pulled on the lot and booted his tractor-trailer.

Partlow said he paid a $276 fee to have the boot removed, but the A1s employees told him he didnt do it fast enough and they were towing his truck. He said it all happened in front of the officers.

His company was forced to pay $4,375 to get the truck back.

There were two officers that came out, and then the sergeant came out, and then the colonel came out. The colonel was talking to me and told me that their hands were tied because they had just had an injunction placed against them, Partlow said. The colonel told me if it turned criminal if he put his hands on me or damaged to the truck to call him back, and they could get involved.

The City of Memphis Permits Office told WREG it was investigating A1s Towing & Hauling, also known as A1s Xclusive Auto, after receiving nearly a dozen complaints from truck drivers from around the country.

City investigating A1s Towing after truck drivers file complaints

The Tennessee Attorney Generals Division of Consumer Affairs has also received several consumer complaints against A1s towing since 2022.

Last week, the owner of a truck stop in Fayette County got an injunction of his own to boot A1s Towing and S-Line from his property.

Tow truck company booted from truck stop

Abed Amrokbeer said he had signed a contract with S-Line Truck Parking to provide security and collect small parking fees but said S-Line and A1s began illegally booting and towing 18-wheelers, scaring away truck drivers.

Partlow said A1s towed three West Express Trucks in one day. He said it appears to be open season on truck drivers, and it will likely get to the point where truckers can no longer afford to come through Memphis or the Mid-South.

We have been doing it awhile. We are good at it. Thats what the boot guy told me. He said weve got good lawyers. He said the city is scared of us, Partlow said.

According to the citys booting ordinance, no vehicle with a boot may be towed unless the owner of the vehicle fails to contact the booting company within 24 hours, and the maximum fee for a boot removal is $50.

Partlow said A1s Towing & Hauling temporarily disabled his truck. He said the money his company had to pay A1s would be coming out of his paychecks.

Ive got a wife, and we have two kids and a baby on the way, and the $4,375 is coming out of each one of my checks until its all paid, he said.

If you believe you have been booted or towed illegally, you are urged to contact the City Of Memphis Permits Office at 901-636-6711.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn.  A master barber earned his credits and passed the exam, all while in custody at the Shelby County Correctional Center.

Ather Scott is the first inmate in Shelby County to obtain a master barber license through a Tennessee College of Applied Technology program.

Its part of a program aimed at helping offenders prepare to re-enter society and try to keep them from going down the wrong path again.

I put in the work. I cut some hair and learned a new skill. Just having this license makes me a total different person. I feel better, Scott said.

He and other inmates are clocking hours that go toward obtaining their barber license.

Scott applied for the program back in 2020, but the pandemic happened, and the program was shut down. When it got back up in 2021, Scott got a chance to re-apply.

That decision landed Scott in a booth in a barber shop inside the Shelby County Correctional Center, where inmates cut other inmates hair. Its also a classroom. Scott was among the 10 people holding the clippers the day WREG Investigators were there.

Scott entered the program in May 2021. His assignment was to complete 1,500 hours of training and memorize a hefty text book.

Its 800-900 pages, he said. I have never been to college, so I was like, this is going to be something new starting this book. I had to go back and get my dictionary out and everything to learn certain words and how to pronounce them.

Scott then went on to take the states two-part, master barber exam while still incarcerated. He passed.

I was relieved. I said all this hard work finally paid off, he said.

He is the first, but he wont be the last, corrections officials say.

We just know he is just the first of many, said DeAndre Brown, director of reentry under the Shelby County Division of Corrections. We spoke to him outside the barber shop, just feet away from his old cell.

Had I had opportunities like this while I was incarcerated, my life may have been different, he said.

When he was incarcerated here years ago, Brown said there werent many opportunities, programming, or services making it difficult when he got out.

I was left to figure it out when I got home. I thank God for a strong support system when I got home, he said. If we dont focus on this population, who will?

The Shelby County Division of Corrections releases thousands of inmates. For many, successful outcomes can be difficult to impossible.

Theyve burned bridges. They may not have a strong support system. Theyre homeless, unemployed. Many have a history of mental illness or substance abuse. All are risk factors for recidivism.

In Shelby County, about a third of those released return to prison within three years. Studies show both locally and nationally, one of the biggest problems is finding stable employment.

Studies also show when an ex-offender can earn a decent living, theyre less like to re-offend.

Prison can be the best thing that happens to people if we do it right, Brown said.

Brown said the goal is to help inmates find meaningful employment when they get out. They also help them with soft skills, mental health and substance abuse counseling, as well as guidance on reconnecting with their families.

They also offer other programs including a natural hair school, janitorial training and forklift operator training. They hope to continue to tap into federal funding to expand.

More from the WREG Investigators

Scott said he feels a lot better now than when he got there in 2018.

That night in August, he decided to drink and get behind a wheel. He crashed into a SUV on the interstate. A child was rushed to the hospital, where she later died.

He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. It continues to haunt him.

Even though I didnt want it to happen, I couldnt control the situation. I just had to accept what I had done, Scott said. I took different alcohol classes to better myself, and Im going to continue that with the help of re-entry when I get out.

He said a series of decisions landed him in the second booth on the left. Now, he said hes focusing on change to get the results.

Thats why I concentrated on doing this. Its like, its a push for me, he said. I said it must be Gods will to do this.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
A teen boy is facing manslaughter charges for selling fentanyl that killed another teenager, the Volusia County Sheriffs Office said Monday.

The overdose death happened in July in DeLand.

In August, a medical examiners report documented the victims cause of death as fentanyl toxicity, officials said.

According to Sheriff Mike Chitwood, investigators found conversations in the cell phone of the teenager who died of the fentanyl overdose where he told the 17-year-old dealer to warn him next time because the drugs were so powerful.

READ: Overjoyed: Police say Charlotte Sena found in good health; suspect identified

At Mondays joint news conference with the state attorneys office, Chitwood also said kids know where to get drugs, who the dealers are, and that fentanyl is showing up at area schools.

Its one reason he wants Narcan  a medication that can reverse the effects of a fentanyl overdose  placed at school campuses.

READ: Police: 2 juveniles shot at youth football practice in Apopka

State Attorney RJ Larizza said its not clear yet if the alleged fentanyl dealer will be charged as an adult.

Stay with WFTV.com and watch Eyewitness News for updates on this case.

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Maricopa County supervisors will need to pick a new county sheriff next year, but details on exactly what that process will entail are sparse.

Current Sheriff Paul Penzone announced Monday that he will step down in January and will not seek a third term in office. County officials said they were caught off guard by his announcement, which came during an afternoon press conference.

"I was shocked," said Supervisor Steve Gallardo, who represents a district that encompasses parts of Phoenix and the southwest Valley. "I wasn't expecting it ... but I respect his decision."

Now, the supervisors are faced with a high-profile vacancy.

It's just their latest elected position to fill. They've already had to appoint several state lawmakers this year, including Republican Sen. Shawnna Bolick, Democratic Rep. Quanta Crews and Republican Rep. Julie Willoughby.

In 2021, they appointed Republican Supervisor Tom Galvin to represent a district that includes much of the East Valley. That seat was previously held by former Republican Supervisor Steve Chucri, who resigned after recordings were released of him discussing unfounded suspicions of voter fraud after the November 2020 election.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors holds a special meeting to replace Liz Harris, the former District 13 state representative, on May 5, 2023, in Phoenix.

The supervisors also handpicked Republican County Attorney Rachel Mitchell. She replaced former Republican County Attorney Allister Adel, who was forced to resign over concerns about her management of the office and questions about her sobriety.

Penzone is a Democrat, so per state statute, supervisors must select a Democratic appointee even though the board is majority Republican.

Beyond that, it's currently unclear exactly what the selection process will look like, county officials said. For past appointments, supervisors have asked applicants to provide letters of interest, resumes, letters of recommendation and fill out a questionnaire. Then, they brought candidates in for interviews.

"The board determines the process, and there have been variations on this over the past five years," said county spokesperson Fields Moseley.

Steve Gallardo speaks at Maricopa County Board of Supervisors special meeting, saying he cannot support any of the three candidates to replace Liz Harris in the House of Representatives on May 5, 2023, in Phoenix, Ariz.

Gallardo, the lone Democrat on the board, said he is looking for someone with ample law enforcement experience who will run for office and be an "effective candidate."

"I'm not looking for a babysitter," he told The Arizona Republic.

What's at stake for the next sheriff?

Penzone's replacement will take over a law enforcement agency with many challenges ahead.

About a decade ago, a federal judge found that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office racially profiled Latino drivers in a 2008 class-action suit filed against former Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Now, the department is under federal oversight by a court-appointed monitor and still isn't in compliance with court orders.

The case, known initially as Melendres v. Arpaio, is growing increasingly expensive. So far, it has cost Maricopa County taxpayers more than $250 million  and counting.

Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio walks past the media during former President Donald Trump's rally at Legacy Sports Park in Mesa on Oct. 9, 2022.

Penzone said Monday that some of his greatest achievements included rolling back some of Arpaio's practices, including closing the outdoor jail known as "Tent City" and ending the use of pink underwear for incarcerated people.

Still, he expressed frustration that his department continues to be monitored by a federal court despite his efforts to reform the office.

Gallardo called the lawsuit a "cloud over the Sheriff's Office" and said he is looking for someone to move the department "in the direction of compliance."

"We knew from the beginning it was not going to be an easy fix in terms of getting into compliance," he said. "And you have seen progress, I will say that ... but we still have some ways to go."

The department's problems aren't just limited to the courtroom. MCSO oversees the county's jail system, which has long struggled with low staffing and recently seen a slew of deadly drug overdoses.

In January, a Maricopa County correctional officer was arrested on suspicion of attempting to smuggle fentanyl and methamphetamine into the Lower Buckeye Jail. While Penzone said investigators believe the officer acted alone, he devoted millions of dollars to implement a body scanning program to screen staff entering the jails for drugs and other contraband.

The appointed sheriff will also be on the frontlines of election security in Maricopa County as the country barrels toward a presidential election that is almost certain to see close margins in Arizona.

Gallardo said that supervisors must find a candidate up to the task and ready to face the public.

"How can you continue building that public trust?" he said. "I think that is number one."

Penzone could have some say in selection process

At Monday's press conference, Penzone said he would like some input in choosing his successor.

"If the Board of Supervisors allows me the opportunity ... I'd like my voice to be heard," he said.

Gallardo said Penzone "should be part of this process."

"I will always turn to Sheriff Penzone on any recommendations or thoughts or opinions," he said. "I think he should be engaged."

Gallardo said he also intends to seek community input.

"This is a very important office," he said. "We need to make sure we have the input of many in our society."

Republic reporter Jimmy Jenkins contributed to this article.

Sasha Hupka covers county government and regional issues for The Arizona Republic. Do you have a tip? Reach her at sasha.hupka@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SashaHupka. Follow her on Instagram or Threads: @sashahupkasnaps.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Maricopa County supervisors will pick a new sheriff. Process is TBD
Lawrenceville police shot and killed a driver accused of trying to steal one of the officers cars.

The shooting happened around 3 a.m. on West Pike Street near Old Norcross Road. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed that a driver died in the shooting. No officers were hurt.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Police said officers were conducting a traffic stop when a Kia Sorento sped past them. Police said the driver. later identified as 33-year-old John Michael Cicalo, of the SUV did a U-Turn, drove toward the officers and got out of the car.

Thats when officers said Cicalo tried to take off in one of their police cars. Police told Cicalo to stop and when he didnt, they shot him, according to the GBI.

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Cicalo died from his injuries.

West Pike Street will be closed from Old Norcross Road to Langley Drive during the investigation.

The GBI said this is the 74th shooting involving an officer they have been called to investigate this year.

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IN OTHER NEWS
The Lakeville Police officers commands are heard in the body cam video as he exits his police cruiser in the dark of night.

Drop the (expletive) gun! Drop the (expletive) gun right now! the officer is heard shouting to the Lakeville man who had confronted the officer who was monitoring traffic near Precinct and Pickens streets around 3:45 a.m. Friday.

Kill or be killed! the man shouts repeatedly as he approaches the officer.

Pickens Street. Ive got someone pointing a gun, the police officer says, as he radios for backup.

Drop the (expletive) gun! Drop the (expletive) gun right now! the officer repeats, as the man keeps shouting, Kill or be killed! The man shouts a derogatory word to the officer. Come on (expletive)! the man shouts.

The graphic video, recorded by a body camera worn by that Lakeville Police officer, captured the tense moments before police shot a Lakeville man who was taunting police with what appeared to be a gun. Prosecutors said the weapon wielded by the man was later determined to be a replica gun.

Police released the body cam video on Tuesday afternoon, one day after Timothy Hladik, 45, of Lakeville, was arraigned from his hospital bed at St. Lukes Hospital in New Bedford on charges including two counts each of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and threat to commit a crime. A not guilty plea was entered on Hladiks behalf.

In the video, the officer commands Hladik to drop the gun a total of 11 times.

After the officer calls for backup, Hladik brazenly continues to approach the Lakeville officer and his police cruiser while pointing what appears to be a gun. Shots are fired.

At one point during the confrontation, Hladik shouts: Nice shot, (expletive). You missed me.

Another voice is heard, that of an off-duty Massachusetts State Police trooper who stopped at the scene to help the officer. The off-duty trooper shouts: Drop it!

The Lakeville officer rushes back to nearby woods. Hladik, still pointing what appears to be a gun, continues to approach the Lakeville officer. More shots are fired.

Shots fired, the Lakeville officers says as he radios to police again. The trooper shouts out to the officer that he is with Massachusetts State Police.

Ive got one down, the officer tells dispatch. Out with a trooper as well.

Judge Sabine Coyne allowed the body camera footage to be released during Hladiks arraignment on Monday.

Hladik is due back in court for a dangerousness hearing on Oct. 12.

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

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MEMPHIS, Tenn.  A Tennessee Silver Alert has been issued for 71-year-old Johnnie Thomas, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

TBI: Missing 11-year-old found safe in Memphis

Memphis Police say that Thomas is listed as an endangered adult who was last seen walking away from the 1900 block of Pendleton Street near Bethel Grove on Monday.

Thomas is 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighing 172 pounds with gray hair and brown eyes. He was reportedly wearing a white polo with black stripes, black pants, and white shoes.

TBI says that Thomas has a medical condition that may impair his ability to return safely without assistance.

If you have seen Johnnie Thomas, please call the Memphis Police Department at 901-636-4479 or TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
Trump's campaign called on the Republican National Committee to halt future GOP primary debates.

Trump has already skipped the first two Republican primary debates in recent months.

Despite his absence, he's still the leading GOP presidential candidate.

After choosing to skip this election cycle's first two, former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign is pressing the Republican National Committee to cancel all of its remaining scheduled presidential primary debates.

In a joint statement released on Monday, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, the Trump campaign's senior advisors, said that the RNC needs to "immediately cancel the upcoming debate in Miami and end all future debates in order to refocus its manpower and money on preventing Democrats' efforts to steal the 2024 election."

"Anything less, along with other reasons not to cancel, are an admission to the grassroots that their concerns about voter integrity are not taken seriously and national Republicans are more concerned about helping Joe Biden than ensuring a safe and secure election," Wiles and LaCivita said.

A representative with the RNC did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

The Trump campaign's calls to put an end to the GOP's scheduled primary debates comes nearly a week after he decided to skip the second Republican debate that was hosted in California, which ultimately devolved into a deluge of the candidates yelling over one another.

The most recent debate, which included seven GOP candidates, was not the first time that Trump has chosen to skip the debate to instead watch his opponents from afar. He also skipped the first primary debate in late August, choosing instead to appear on a pretaped interview with former television host Tucker Carlson that went live just minutes before the debate began.

And while he did appear in several primary debates during his presidential run in 2015, he similarly skipped out on debating his GOP competition in Iowa in January 2016, which he said "turned out great."

Additionally, Trump also dropped out of the second presidential debate in 2020 after the Commission on Presidential Debates decided to make a scheduled debate between Trump and then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden take place online instead of in person because Trump had recently contracted COVID-19.

Though he has a history of missing out on debates, Trump far and away remains the GOP's leading presidential candidate in polling by a large margin. According to an average of national polls deemed "major" by FiveThirtyEight, the embattled former president is 41.7 percentage points ahead of the second-most popular candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The woman accused of orchestrating the murder of her Microsoft executive ex-husband and fleeing to the other side of the country with their children will finally be dragged back to the Sunshine State in handcuffs, officials said.

Shanna Gardner-Fernandez, 35, was arrested Aug. 16 in West Richland, Washington , more than 18 months after Jared Bridegan, 33, was shot to death in front of his toddler daughter in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.

At her first court appearance in Washington, she made the surprise and unusual move to fight extradition triggering extra paperwork and a monthslong delay.

EX-WIFE OF JARED BRIDEGAN ARRESTED IN MICROSOFT EXEC MURDER

Washington Gov. Jay Islee just signed off on her extradition after receiving a warrant from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last month, the Jacksonville State Attorney's Office announced Tuesday.

Criminal defense lawyer David Robbins said that Gardner-Fernandez may have fought extradition to remain in the cushy Benton County jail for as long as possible.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

FLORIDA EX-WIFE OF SLAIN MICROSOFT EXECUTIVE HIRES CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER

Once in Jacksonville, she will be housed at the overcrowded and run-down Duval County Jail.

"This year, 11 prisoners have died," Robbins said. "I can't think of a single reason why she'd want to be in Jacksonville in a hurry."

A family portrait of Jared and Kirsten Bridegan.

The 11-year-old twins she shares with Bridegan are still in school in Washington, and she may have wanted to remain close to them, he added.

Gardner-Fernandez is indicted on first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and child endangerment counts, for which she could face the death penalty.

MAJOR BREAK IN JARED BRIDEGAN MURDER MYSTERY AFTER EX-WIFE MOVES CROSS-COUNTRY

She is the third person arrested in the case. Her husband, Mario Fernandez, and admitted triggerman, Henry Tenon, 61, were collared months ago. Tenon, a former tenant of Fernandez, is cooperating with prosecutors.

The trio is accused of conspiring to gun down Bridegan Feb. 16, 2022, on a desolate road after he dropped off the twins he shares with Gardner-Fernandez at her house. The pair had been embroiled in a toxic battle over custody and finances since their 2015 divorce.

Bridegan's daughter, Bexley, whom he shares with his second wife Kirsten Bridegan , was in the car when he as shot to death. Kirsten was at home with their then-infant, London.





Original article source: Slain Microsoft exec Jared Bridegan's ex-wife to be extradited to Florida
Journalists from 17 countries visit China's Xinjiang

Xinhua) 10:57, October 03, 2023

Performers dance at the ancient city of Kashgar scenic area in Kashgar, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Sept. 4, 2023. The ancient city of Kashgar, located in southwestern Xinjiang, is the largest complex of raw earth buildings still in use in the world. (Xinhua/Li An)

URUMQI, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- A group of 22 journalists from 17 countries concluded a trip to northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Friday, after gaining first-hand knowledge about the region's economic and social development, diverse culture and the development of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The trip, which started on Sept. 21, took the journalists to various places in Xinjiang, including the regional capital city of Urumqi, Kashgar Prefecture and Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture.

At the Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar in Urumqi, Simon Max Zeise, a business editor of Berliner Zeitung, found the place to be bustling and a sign of prosperity, and he was keen to buy a present for his daughter.

Zeise said that he had seen the real Xinjiang during his trip. In Germany, you see some people living on the street. But here in Xinjiang, you don't see poverty and don't see people living on the street. They have work, get education and they can benefit from society.

"Xinjiang's economic development is impressive, and I think it has a good future," said Arman Bin Ahmad, a senior news editor at the New Straits Times in Malaysia.

Since ancient times, Xinjiang has been a region where diverse cultures meet. In the ancient city of Kashgar, the journalists strolled through the streets to learn about the rich folk culture.

"Xinjiang is a colorful region full of cultural, religious and ethnic diversity. We're happy to see all these differences living together peacefully," said Mohammad Reza Noroozpour, vice president of the Khabaronline news agency in Iran.

"It's just like a Persian carpet, weaving differences into a beautiful picture," he added.

During their nine-day trip, the journalists also visited the Xinjiang Islamic Institute in Urumqi and the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, and attended a lecture on protecting the freedom of religious belief in Xinjiang.

"Absolutely, there is freedom of religion in Xinjiang. Anybody who does not say that is ignorant," said Donovan Ralph Martin, CEO and editor-in-chief of the Daily Scrum News of Canada.

At the China-Kazakhstan Horgos International Border Cooperation Center, Yerzhan Bagdatov, director of Toppress.kz news agency in Kazakhstan was excited.

"The center in Horgos can be a bridge between Kazakhstan and China, and a bridge between China and European countries," said Bagdatov.

Meanwhile, Frank Willems, editor of ChinaSquare.be in Belgium, commented, "Actually, some trains also come from China to Belgium. Even in the town where I'm living in Brussels, we have trains from China, mainly transporting cars. And the cars sell very well in Belgium."

Willems added that he is looking forward to the development of China-Europe freight trains and the Belt and Road Initiative.

During the trip, the journalists also visited an exhibition on the fight against terrorism and extremism in Xinjiang, where they witnessed China's achievements in this regard through photos and video materials.

"I've been studying this topic for more than 10 years," said Mussolini Sinsuat Lidasan, a columnist with Davao Sun Star News of the Philippines. "The exhibition here is comprehensive. China has done a lot but the Western countries still need to learn from China. I hope countries can work together to tackle terrorism."

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Sheng Chuyi)
The gender ministry announced a plan Tuesday to strengthen educational support for the children of multicultural families next year, in an effort to address educational disparities and foster their growth as future talents.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said it will allocate 57 billion won ($42 million) to reinforcing educational support for the children and adolescents from multicultural backgrounds in 2024, nearly 2.5 percent more than this year.

It will add 30 new centers to offer basic academic support for such children, bringing the total to 168, and expand the program to cover students up to 6th grade.

The ministry will also open 30 more mental and career counseling centers for adolescents, making a total of 143 nationwide.

The ministry plans to initiate a new measure to provide subsidies to some 60,000 low-income multicultural families to help their children buy textbooks or go to study rooms.

Meanwhile, the education ministry laid out plans to double the number of mentors to help children of multicultural families adapt in school.

The labor ministry also said it will implement a pilot program to offer vocational training, including in the Korean language and other skills, to 200 adolescents. (Yonhap)
Warsaw, Poland  While Western support to provide military aid to Ukraine has been steadfast over the last nineteen months, a number of European states appear to be having a change of heart, opting to now prioritize domestic issues. Is European support for Ukraine doomed?

Since the wars outbreak in February 2022, Poland has established itself as one of Ukraines firmest allies, supplying tanks, armored vehicles, howitzers, fighter jets, short-range man-portable air defense, or MANPAD, systems, and munitions, among others, to its neighbor.

Some of these donated weapons are outdated Soviet-designed gear that Warsaw has long been planning to replace with new equipment. This includes the supplied T-72 tanks for which the U.K. has deployed a number of Challenger 2 tanks to Poland in an effort to partly bridge the capacity gap.

However, in other cases, deliveries to Ukraine created temporary gaps in the Polish militarys capacities. Among others, last spring, Warsaw donated Mikoyan MiG-29 fighters to Ukraines Air Force before it received the first deliveries of South Korean FA-50 aircraft the countrys Ministry of National Defence ordered in 2022.

As Poland is heading towards a general election on Oct. 15, the issue of Warsaws relations with Kyiv has found itself at the center of the ongoing campaign. Over the past weeks, these relations have become increasingly stringent, as the two countries governments have clashed over an extended ban on Ukrainian grain imports. With rural voters likely to decide on the forthcoming votes outcome, the issue rapidly escalated into a diplomatic spat.

In a Sept. 20 interview with local broadcaster Polsat News, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki declared that, while maintaining support for Kyivs fight against Moscows invasion, his government has halted weapon supplies to Ukraine to focus on arming Polands armed forces.

Ukraine is defending itself against a savage Russian attack, and we understand that this attack creates an extraordinary situation, Morawiecki said during the interview. We dont donate any arms to Ukraine anymore, because we are now arming ourselves with the most modern weapons.

Slovakia: Not a single round to Ukraine

Another important Eastern European partner Ukraine has been able to count on previously has been Slovakia. Over the last nineteen months, the country has donated and pledged a variety of military equipment to Kyiv directly as well as via the German Ringtausch program. This has included a dozen MiG-29As fighter jets from its inventories, mine clearance systems, air to air missiles, ammunition, self-propelled artillery and more.

Yet, similar to what has taken place in Poland, the country appears to be changing its stance on arming Ukrainian troops. This change of heart has been driven by the newly elected pro-Russian Prime Minister in Slovakia, Robert Fico. One of the politicians electoral slogans was Not a single round, for Ukraine, where he vowed to end military support to the war torn country.

During a press conference, following his victory on Oct. 2, Fico re-affirmed that this promise would be kept.

We are not changing that we are prepared to help Ukraine in a humanitarian way We are prepared to help the reconstruction of the state but you know our opinion on arming Ukraine, he told reporters.

The official has argued that Slovakia currently has larger issues beyond the war to tend to, such as the spike in energy prices and living costs.

When asked about the delicate political context surrounding military aid to Ukraine, including the possibility that Donald Trump could be in office in 2024, Olga Stefanishyna, Ukrainian deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration appeared confident.

Look, there are 17 different types of elections taking place around Europe, including within European institutions. It is certainly not the first or the last election of a U.S. President, but we are ready and prepared for that. We see a huge potential in strengthening bipartisan support for Ukraine, she told the audience on Oct. 3 at the Warsaw Security Forum taking place here.

Lets not forget that yes it was leaders, but also people backing up the support for Ukraine [that made a difference] One thing I am sure on earth, is that Europe will not let us down, the official added.

Earlier this week, dozens of European Union ministers gathered in Kyiv to show continuing support after the pro-Russian candidate won the election.
SAN MARCOS, Calif.  Authorities were able to deem a social media threat toward San Marcos Elementary School as not credible.

The threat was posted by an unknown person Sunday on the San Marcos Elementary Schools X, formerly known as Twitter, about a shooting scheduled to happen at the school, Sgt. Agustin Rosas with the San Diego County Sheriffs Department said in a news release Monday.

During the investigation, detectives found the original post from X came from a home in San Marcos, according to law enforcement. Authorities determined the school threat was not credible.

The sheriffs department said they have not brought anyone into custody at this time.

Campland on the Bay storage facility erupts in flames

On Monday, deputies patrolled San Marcos Elementary School before and after school out of an abundance of caution.

The safety of our school children is a priority for the Sheriffs Department and we take all such threats seriously, Rosas said.

If anyone hears threats or even potential violence, they can always approach the sheriffs departments school resource deputies or call the Anonymous Student Speaking Out Hotline at (888) 580-8477.

The investigation is ongoing.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego.
Ihor Klymenko , Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, has told journalists how the meetings of the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief are held.

Source: Klymenko in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda

Quote: "The president gathers the Staff members in a particular place. We listen to the commanders who are on the ground; they talk about the combat operations that are taking place, our positions, and what tasks are planned for the near future.

The president also listens to logistics and combat support issues.

All relevant problems are discussed there. For example, after the Russians begin to launch a large-scale fire on us, we are trying to figure out our mistakes and our strengths.

Commanders of various military branches may be invited to make a report.

Sometimes, quite a tough conversation may happen there because all the people are military and we are in a war state.

And the president needs to hear it all in order to understand what is happening on the front."

Details: An order by the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief is issued at the end of each meeting. In this order, each of the Staff members receives a corresponding task.

Klymenko emphasised that the military cabinet deals with operations planning, and immediately before it, the president determines who will be in this cabinet.

Klymenko said problems with mobilisation, issues of the military enlistment offices activities, etc. can be considered and discussed at the Staff meeting.

At the same time, Klymenko did not answer the question of whether plans, such as when the war might end, were announced there.

Quote: "[Klymenko becomes stricter  ed.] I will not talk about it. The Staff meeting is a private one, and this information is private."

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!
SpaceX's powerful Falcon Heavy rocket has breathed fire again.

SpaceX conducted a "static fire" test of a Falcon Heavy on Saturday (Sept. 30) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, the company announced on X (formerly Twitter).

During Saturday's test, team members briefly ignited the rocket's 27 first-stage engines while keeping the vehicle anchored to the launch pad. The trial helped prep the Falcon Heavy for the launch of NASA's Psyche asteroid mission, which is scheduled to take place from KSC's Pad 39A on Oct. 12.

Related: NASA's Psyche asteroid probe on track for October launch after 1-year delay

That liftoff will send Psyche on a long journey to its namesake, a bizarre metallic object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

If all goes according to plan, the probe will reach the asteroid Psyche in 2029, then study it from orbit for at least the next 26 months. The mission's observations could teach scientists a great deal about planet formation and the solar system's early days. Researchers think the asteroid Psyche may be the exposed core of a protoplanet, a building block whose cousins came together to build Earth and other rocky worlds long ago.

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The Falcon Heavy is the second-most powerful rocket currently in operation, after NASA's Space Launch System (though SpaceX's giant new Starship vehicle will become the champ when it comes online).

The Falcon Heavy has flown seven times to date, most recently in July. Psyche will be the rocket's first NASA mission.
Spain's Pedro Sanchez has vowed to be "generous" with Catalan separatists whose support he needs to remain in power (Thomas COEX)

Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez vowed Tuesday to be "generous" with Catalan separatists whose support he needs to remain in power after King Felipe VI tasked him with forming the next government.

Sanchez's Socialists came second in an inconclusive general election in July, in which the right-wing Popular Party (PP) won the most votes.

If Sanchez is to be reinstated as premier, he will need to pass a key parliamentary vote for which he will need the backing of a hardline Catalan separatist party cast in the role of kingmaker.

The king turned to Sanchez after PP leader Alberto Nunez-Feijoo failed in his own bid to win parliamentary support to be inaugurated as prime minister last week, having only managed to win support from the far-right Vox.

Sanchez, who has governed Spain since he led a successful no-confidence vote against former PP prime minister Mariano Rajoy in 2018, said he accepted the king's offer and would start talks with the different parliamentary groups on Wednesday.

"I will meet with all the different parliamentary parties except the far-right Vox, obviously," he told a news conference.

Sanchez will now have to seek support from at least 176 lawmakers within the 350-seat parliament in the vote which must take place before November 27.

If he fails, Spain will automatically be forced to hold new elections, most likely in mid-January.

- Barcelona protest planned -

Sanchez has proved to be a tenacious political survivor and is confident he will be returned to power with the backing of the hard-left Sumar along with Basque and Catalan regional parties.

But crucially, he will need the votes of seven JxCat lawmakers, who have demanded an amnesty for the hundreds of activists and politicians facing legal action over Catalonia's failed 2017 separatist bid which sparked Spain's worst political crisis in decades.

Such a move is vehemently opposed by the right and also crosses a red line for some within Sanchez's own Socialist party.

An anti-independence group is organising a protest in Barcelona on Sunday against the amnesty, and Feijoo and other top PP officials have said they will take part.

Sanchez acknowledged the negotiations "are going to be complex" but said he was "confident" they will be successful.

"One can't head a government... without understanding the political plurality of parliament or the territorial diversity of Spain. It is therefore time for... generosity," he added when asked if he would agree to the amnesty demand.

Among those who would benefit is JxCat leader Carles Puigdemont, who headed Catalonia's regional government during the 2017 secession bid.

He fled Spain shortly after and currently lives in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

- 'Heavy political price' -

Sanchez, who has sought to calm separatist tensions since coming to office five years ago, in 2021 pardoned Catalan separatist leaders who were serving long prison terms over the secession bid.

But he has always opposed an amnesty and his government has insisted Puigdemont should stand trial in Spain.

Catalan separatists are also pushing for an independence referendum which "threatens to throw a wrench into the negotiations," said Federico Santi, a senior analyst for Europe at Eurasia Group.

Unlike an amnesty, a referendum is "not something Sanchez could concede to without paying a heavy political price, even if it were legally feasible," he explained.

He said there was a 40 percent chance of Spain holding repeat elections.

Sanchez has firmly rejected a referendum.

On Tuesday, he defended his record on Catalonia saying his openness to dialogue and the pardons had reduced tensions in the wealthy northeastern region.

"What Catalans want is to turn the page," he said.

mg/hmw-ds/cw
(NEXSTAR)  In a historic move on Tuesday, the House voted to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his seat.

Stillness fell as the presiding officer gaveled the vote closed, 216-210, saying the office of the speaker is hereby declared vacant. This was the first time since 1910 that such a vote has been held, and the only time such a motion has been approved, according to The Hill.

Now, what comes next is largely uncertain. That includes who will become the new leader of the House Republican majority.

House makes history, removes McCarthy as Speaker

What we do know is who will serve as the speaker pro tempore, filling the office until a new speaker is chosen: a top McCarthy ally, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC).

McHenry was one of many Republicans who voted against ousting McCarthy.

He was chosen from a list McCarthy designated and shared with the House clerk earlier this year, following a process started after 9/11. He is serving his tenth term as the representative for North Carolinas 10th Congressional District, an area west and north of Charlotte. McHenry was elected Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, which has has served on since his election to Congress in 2004.

In 2019, McHenry was elected as the Republican Leader.

He could remain in the Speaker chair, some experts speculated Tuesday. Josh Huder, a senior fellow at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University took to X, formerly Twitter, saying there is no forcing mechanism for a new election, nor are there any overt restrictions on the power the pro tem would wield, Insider first reported.

Under the current Rules of the House of Representatives, the Speaker pro tempore may exercise such authorities of the Office of Speaker as may be necessary and appropriate to that end.

McHenry is expected to have the chief responsibility of presiding over the election for a new Speaker, but until then, the House will likely be able to do little else, The Hill explains.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WesternSlopeNow.com.
Bill Roedy has seen the attack ads  text messages and flyers sent from a political committee to voters around Miami Beach, depicting him in a British redcoat uniform and a tall bearskin cap.

British Bill Roedy lived in London for the last three decades, the ads read. Now hes back in the USA, and wants to be YOUR mayor.

Roedy has tried to laugh it off. My kids loved it and are going to frame it, he said in an interview last week from his oceanfront condo in South Beach.

But the former CEO of MTV Networks International is serious about becoming the next mayor of Miami Beach. In four months since entering the race, he says hes spent more than $1 million of his own money. He ran a TV ad during the NBA finals. His billboards appear over the entrances to the Julia Tuttle Causeway connecting Miami Beach and Miami. He has held meet-and-greet events throughout the city.

Were all in, Roedy said. We had to get our name out there.

READ MORE: A former MTV executive is running for Miami Beach mayor. Can he beat political insiders?

Increasingly, Roedy is also responding to political attacks as the November election approaches.

At 75, he is the oldest of four candidates to replace term-limited Mayor Dan Gelber. But as the only one who has never held political office  Steven Meiner, Michael Gongora and Mike Grieco are each active or former city commissioners, and Grieco was a state representative  Roedy is getting a crash course in nasty local politics.

He said hes tried to take the Michelle Obama route  when they go low, we go high  but now feels his campaign has to be more aggressive to counter attacks by his opponents.

That includes claims about his residency.

No matter where I went around the world, I always considered this my roots, Roedy said from his home at the north end of Ocean Drive. I never considered anywhere in the world home except Miami.

Bill Roedy, a former executive at MTV, is running for mayor of Miami Beach.

Long-time residents

Roedys campaign website says he and his wife, Alexandra, are long-time residents of Miami Beach since 1999. Thats when the couple bought a condo at Il Villagio, the year it was built.

They were married on the beach in 2000, held a memorial service for Bills mother on the beach that same year, and had one of their children in Miami Beach in 2001, the campaign site notes.

But opponents have dug up statements Roedy made in recent years that call his characterization into question.

In a March 2021 podcast interview with British music industry executive Chris Wright, Roedy said he went to London on a three-year contract with MTV in 1989, thinking it would be three years and then come back to the United States.

And here I am, 31 years later, Roedy said of London. I have British citizenship. I feel very close to the British culture. I still keep a foot, obviously, in America ... Here I am. Im not going anywhere.

Asked about those statements last week, Roedy said he was playing to the shows British audience.

Of course Im going to say I love Britain, he said.

Roedy said he generally spent at least four months of the year in Miami Beach after he moved to London, as he oversaw the MTV Networks Latin America headquarters on Lincoln Road.

I was here all the time, he said.

No one has challenged Roedys residency in court. Roedy said he hired a lawyer to ensure he complied with the citys rules, which require candidates to live in the city for at least a year before qualifying.

Last month, the Miami Beach city clerk deemed Roedy a qualified candidate after he submitted a copy of a Florida drivers license issued in 2019 and property tax receipts for each of the past three years. Records show he has not filed for a homestead exemption on his South Beach property.

Going vertical

Roedy likes to talk about going vertical  a reference to diving deeply into whatever place or task hes focused on at a given time. He used the phrase in the 2021 podcast interview about moving to London, and he uses it now to talk about his run for Miami Beach mayor.

Hes been doing his homework. Two books about Miamis history of crime and corruption sat on his kitchen table last week, marked in green pen from Roedys annotations: Sins of South Beach, by former Miami Beach Mayor Alex Daoud, and Organized Crime in Miami, by Avi Bash.

Going vertical, going deep  thats my personality, Roedy said.

At candidate forums and in interviews, Roedy has seemed comfortable engaging on a range of hot-button Miami Beach issues, such as spring break, homelessness, development and flooding. He has pitched himself as an independent voice, saying he wont take contributions from developers and would be a 24/7 mayor, unlike other candidates who have full-time jobs as attorneys.

There have also been mistakes from Roedy and his campaign team, which consists largely of former employees at the MTV office on Lincoln Road. One flyer in which Roedy pledged to take action for a resilient future featured an image of Hollywood, Fla., instead of Miami Beach.

At forums, Roedy has told voters he grew up here, but hasnt always specified that he first lived in Miami Shores and went to grade school in North Miami, not Miami Beach.

And he has taken heat for never having voted in a Miami Beach municipal election, according to county records, despite being registered to vote in the city with the Independent Party for more than two decades.

Roedy has voted by mail in general elections in 2000, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2016 and 2020, records show. Late last year, he changed his address on file with the Miami-Dade elections department from London to Miami Beach.

The fact is I didnt vote when I should have voted, Roedy said. You will never see me miss a vote going forward.

Former mayor is impressed

Roedy has gained admirers along the campaign trail, including some who have bristled at sparring between longtime politicians Gongora and Grieco.

Philip Levine, another former political outsider who funded his own campaign to become Miami Beach mayor in 2013, hasnt formally endorsed anyone but said hes been impressed by Roedys campaign.

He is clearly a guy that, similar to me, is putting his money where his mouth is, Levine told the Herald. My instinct is hes running for all the right reasons.

Roedy has touted his West Point education and service in Vietnam, his time spent commanding nuclear missile bases in Italy for NATO during the Cold War, his executive experience directing MTVs expansion, and his work on global health issues, including a multimedia campaign to fight the AIDS epidemic.

Responding to criticism from left-leaning Miami Beach politicos for serving as an adviser on the U.S. Department of States Foreign Affairs Policy Board during the Trump administration, Roedy said he never supported Trump, but wanted to continue working on global diplomacy efforts.

I try and bring people together, he said.

Roedy has just over a month left to convince voters. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote on Nov. 7, there will be a runoff Nov. 21.

Even if he doesnt win, he said, theres no question where hell live.

Here, he said. Where else would I live? This is it.
As three spiky creatures walked out of a rock cave in Australia, a nearby microphone captured their wheezing, exhales and cooing. The first-of-its-kind audio settled a scientific debate and suggested the animal may have a language of love.

The first time that researchers at Dryandra National Park heard an echidna make this cooing sound, they found it really unusual but didnt have any mechanism with us to record it, Christine Cooper told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Echidnas are spiky, egg-laying mammals native to and found across Australia, according to the Australian Museum. Reaching less than 2 feet in size, echidnas use their claws, snouts and long tongues to feed on insects.

Scientists have long believed that echidnas only made sniffing noises and had no vocalizations or auditory communication, according to a Sept. 26 study published in the Journal of Zoology. Instead, the animals were documented using forms of chemical and vibratory communication.

But while observing echidnas, Cooper and her co-authors heard several animals make dove-like cooing sounds, the study said. They documented five such instances, three of which were recorded.

Researchers identified four types of echidna sounds in their recordings: exhalations, wheezes, grunts and cooing tones.

The first-of-its-kind audio recordings were shared by Curtin University on Twitter, now rebranded as X. The cooing sounds softer and lower pitched than the wheezing or exhalation sounds that researchers identified as byproducts of the animals breathing.

The echidnas made the (cooing) sounds when they were alone or with another echidna, Cooper said in a Sept. 27 news release from Curtin University. However these sounds were made only rarely, and all the vocalizations recorded occurred exclusively during the breeding season.

The vocalizations might be the echidnas language of love, the release said.

Although we dont know the purpose or understand the meaning of the short-beaked echidnas grunting and cooing, the timing suggests that echidnas only find their voice when reproductively active, Cooper said in the release.

Researchers described the rare recordings as unequivocal evidence for vocalization by short-beaked echidnas, the study said.

Dryandra National Park is along the southwestern coast of Australia, about 80 miles southeast of Perth and across the continent from Sydney.

The research team included Cooper, C. Erbe, P. C. Withers, J. M. Barker, N. Ball and L. Todd-Jones.

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Jeffrey S. Saltkill will spend 20 years in federal prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to charges of child sexual exploitation.

The 36-year-old Springfield man was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool following a 2022 arrest in which investigators claimed Saltkill sent explicit text messages to an 11-year-old Minnesota girl after she posted her phone number to a chat website.

Saltkill reportedly posted as two separate people, including a teenage boy, when investigators said he engaged in sexual conversations and exchanged pornographic images with the child victim.

During their text exchange, court records said Saltkill planned to visit the girl in person. After Springfield police were alerted to the man's conversations with the victim, a federal investigator began posing as the girl in future correspondence.

When Saltkill proceeded to chat with the undercover investigator he believed to be the child, he said he was in her town to visit and also sent links to adult websites.

Saltkill told investigators after his arrest in Springfield that he was addicted to communicating with children and obtaining pornographic images. He said he had similar sexual communications with four or five additional minors within the last two years.

The longtime Missouri resident had no previous criminal history, according to court records.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield man sentenced to 20 years for child sexual exploitation
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo vowed Tuesday to strengthen Korea's global competitiveness by continuing to push for structural reform in sectors of labor, pension and education.

Han made the remark at a ceremony commemorating National Foundation Day, while warning of threats faced by the economy, including the global competition over technological hegemony, restructuring of global supply chains and changing demographics.

"By pushing for the three structural reforms in labor, pension and education in an unwavering manner, we will strengthen the country's competitiveness," he said. "We must now change the constitution of our economy and prepare for the future."

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration has sought to reform the three sectors since its launch in May last year.

Han also said the government will maintain its policy for fiscal soundness to restore Seoul's external credibility and boost its financial sustainability.

He vowed to push for a policy drive for exports by supporting companies in their efforts to win orders in the nuclear and defense industries, while pledging to conduct regulatory reform to encourage investment and technological innovation.

He also promised to provide more social services for seniors, those with developmental disabilities and multicultural families.

"We can become a truly advanced country once all members of society feel safe and enjoy a high standard of basic living," he said. "We will further expand the horizons of the Republic of Korea where various cultures can come together."

The Republic of Korea is the official name of Korea. (Yonhap)
Someone at former President Trump's $250 million civil fraud trial is definitely "lovin' it."

A "yuge" order of McDonald's was carried into the Manhattan court on Monday as trial proceedings took a break for lunch. Staff in suits were pictured hauling at least six brown paper bags into the Centre Street complex  where Trump is on trial for allegedly inflating the value of his businesses by $2.2 billion.

It is not clear who placed the order, but the former president has a well-documented love for the Golden Arches. When Trump occupied the White House, he was known to splurge on big orders and treat guests and staff to his favorite meal  a Big Mac, Filet-O-Fish, fries and milkshake.

In 2019, Trump served McDonalds, Wendys and Burger King to the NCAA national champion Clemson Tigers football team at the White House.

TRUMP CIVIL TRIAL CONTINUES FOR A SECOND DAY IN NEW YORK CITY

Staffers were seen carrying a large order of McDonald's to the Manhattan court building where former President Trump is on trial in a $250 million civil fraud case.

The former president has previously admitted to feeling better about eating fast food from McDonalds and Wendys due to hygiene and food-prep concerns, as well as taste.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"Im a very clean person. I like cleanliness, and I think youre better off going there than maybe someplace that you have no idea where the foods coming from. Its a certain standard," he said in a 2016 interview . "I think the foods good," he added.

Staff in suits were pictured carrying brown paper bags to the Manhattan courthouse where Trump appeared before Judge Arthur Engoron on Oct. 2, 2023, to face trial on fraud charges.

Trump may want some comfort food as he defends his business empire against allegations of fraud made by New York Attorney General Letitia James in a lawsuit.

The former president, who polls show currently leads the 2024 Republican presidential primary field by a massive margin, arrived in court in Lower Manhattan Monday morning for a non-jury trial, presided over by Judge Arthur Engoron, after a New York State Appeals Court rejected Trump's request to delay the civil trial.

TRUMP TO ATTEND SECOND DAY OF CIVIL FRAUD TRAIL IN NEW YORK: LIVE UPDATES

Former President Trump has a well-documented love for fast food. His reported favorite meal is a McDonald's Big Mac, Filet-O-Fish, french fries and milkshake.

Engoron last week ruled that Trump and the Trump Organization committed fraud while building his real estate empire by deceiving banks, insurers and others by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.

Engorons ruling comes after James sued Trump, his children and the Trump Organization, alleging that Trump "inflated his net worth by billions of dollars" and said his children helped him to do so.

Before entering the courtroom, Trump spoke to reporters, blasting the "disgrace" of a civil trial stemming from "corrupt" James lawsuit against him, and presided over by "corrupt" Judge Engoron.

Trump attorney Christopher Kise, in his opening statement Monday, said Trumps financial statements contained no false entries, and argued that prosecutors were relying on the word of a "known liar"former Trump attorney Michael Cohento establish wrongdoing.

TRUMP JUDGE FACES ONLINE BACKLASH AFTER SMILING, POSING FOR CAMERAS IN COURTROOM: 'PARTISAN DEMOCRAT CLOWN'

At least six bags of McDonald's were seen being delivered to the Manhattan courthouse where former President Trump is on trial.

Prosecutors claimed that Trump and his associates knowingly submitted false financial statementsbasing their theory on Cohens sworn testimony. The prosecution played a clip of Cohen stating that Trump would regularly task him and other lawyers with inflating his net worth, even if only to raise his placement on the Forbes wealth list. The video showed Cohen testifying that he witnessed this behavior on a regular basis from 2011 to 2015.

Trump's defense lawyers argued that James only began investigating Trump after she was elected attorney general in 2019 because of a campaign promise to "get Trump." Trump attorney Alina Habba said the Trump Organization's assets were actually "undervalued" and contested Engoron's valuation of Mar-A-Lago at $18 million, saying it would sell for "at least" $1 billion.

Trump will return to court Tuesday, when prosecutors are expected to take testimony from their first witness, Donald Bender of accounting firm Mazars USA LLP, to its overall case.

Bender's testimony focused on financial records dating back to 2011, which fell outside the statute of limitations. James has promised the prosecution would tie his testimony to something within the statute of limitations at trial today.





Original article source: Staff delivers at least 6 'yuge' bags of McDonald's to Trump trial in Manhattan
Stanford University has agreed to pay $1.9 million to the government to settle allegations that it purposefully did not disclose support to faculty members that came from foreign sources.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Monday that Stanford University did not disclose pending or current support for 12 faculty members from foreign sources when the institution applied for federal research grants.

From 2015-20, Stanford received grants from the Departments of the Army, Navy and Air Force, NASA and the National Science Foundation, all of which require disclosure of foreign funding to faculty members who receive the grants.

The DOJ says Stanford knowingly failed to disclose the information but did not specify where all the foreign funding came from. The government agency did name one of the sources was from a professors employment at Fudan University, which is in China.

Universities and their researchers must disclose all sources of current and pending support, including any foreign support, in federal research grant applications, said Brian M. Boynton, principal deputy assistant attorney general and assistant head of the DOJs Civil Division. The department will continue to ensure that grant applicants submit complete and truthful disclosures, so the government has full transparency into the applicants funding sources.

Stanford has agreed to work with the government to implement best practices in areas the school has violated.

We are pleased to have resolved this matter and remain firmly committed to supporting our researchers in meeting federal compliance responsibilities as they pursue their important work, Stanford said in a statement.

Stanford takes seriously the threat of foreign governments seeking to undermine U.S. national security. The University strives to be a leader in the research compliance area and is always actively seeking opportunities to enhance our policies and systems to ensure our faculty meets the expectations of our government partners and the public. We treat compliance matters as a high priority and will continue working with the National Science Foundation and other federal funding agencies on best practices in this area, the school added.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A 20-year-old Massillon man has been charged with felonious assault, accused of intentionally shooting an arrow into the chest of a 17-year-old on Saturday evening in Carroll County.

The incident was reported at 6:40 p.m. in the 4100 block of King Road, located just south of Lake Mohawk in Harrison Township.

The woman who called 911 to request an ambulance said the victim and the suspect had been shooting arrows. While on the phone with the caller, the dispatcher told the woman to keep applying pressure to the wound and keep the teen awake. The caller said the teen was breathing with difficulty.

"It's bad," she told the dispatcher.

On a recording of the 911 call, the injured boy can be heard moaning and making muffled responses to questions the dispatcher had asked of the caller, who knew the boy.

More: New Carroll County Sheriff Calvin Graham gets early start on career goal

In an affidavit filed in Carroll County Municipal Court to obtain an arrest warrant, Carroll County sheriff's deputy Erik Licht wrote that the defendant was in a physical altercation with the victim, his friend, when he was shot with an arrow. The victim said the defendant "went nuts," according to the deputy's statement. He wrote that emergency medical technicians said the victim told them his friend wounded him, and the injuries were not accidental.

According to the affidavit, another witness, the suspect's father, said he had seen the defendant and the victim rolling on the ground with a knife between them.

"The witness said both the defendant and the victim had possession of the knife at various times," Licht wrote.

The deputy reported taking two knives, two compound bows and several arrows from the scene.

The 20-year-old is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing in Carroll County Municipal Court on Wednesday, when a judge would decide whether to send the felony case to Carroll County Common Pleas Court.

Carroll County Municipal Judge Gary L. Willen set his bond at $250,000 cash or surety at an initial court appearance Monday, according to Carroll County Prosecutor Steven D. Barnett.

The condition of the victim was not known on Tuesday. His name was not released by authorities.

Reach Nancy at 330-580-8382 or nancy.molnar@cantonrep.com.

On X, formerly known as Twitter: @nmolnarTR

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Teen, 17, shot in chest with arrow Saturday in Carroll County
Andrew Warren, the Hillsborough County state attorney suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year, filed paperwork this week to run to get the job back in 2024.

That could mark the beginning of whats been widely speculated to be a contentious race between Democrat Warren and the Hillsborough judge DeSantis appointed to replace him, Republican Susan Lopez.

But a spokesperson for Warren said that Warren opening a campaign account Monday was not an announcement.

Filing that paperwork allows him to stay in legal compliance with state law and keep multiple options on the table as he determines his next steps, longtime Warren adviser Maya Brown said via email. With the national politics and statewide scrutiny the governor has injected into this local race, were being very methodical to show were following the law.

Once Andrew arrives at a decision, we will definitely let everyone know, she said.

But as of Tuesday afternoon, both Lopez and Warren were listed as state attorney candidates on the state Division of Elections website.

Elected twice as Hillsboroughs top prosecutor, Warren was escorted from his office by a sheriffs deputy in August 2022. DeSantis accused him of refusing to follow the law in certain cases. Warren called his ouster political theater by a governor running for president.

DeSantis then put Lopez, whom he had previously appointed to a judgeship, in the state attorneys seat.

Since then, Warren has fought unsuccessfully in the courts to be restored to office. An appeal is pending at the 11th Circuit.

Warrens national-news ouster and his ongoing battle to get his job back have made for some unusual moments at local political events, with both Lopez and Warren showing up.

This summer, Lopez announced she would run for state attorney in 2024.

In response to an inquiry from the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday about a Warren candidacy, a campaign spokesperson for Lopez issued a statement:

Andrew Warren left Hillsborough families less safe  partnerships with law enforcement were broken, crime victims families were ignored, and he put politics over public safety, said Ryan Smith. Andrew Warren failed Hillsborough families before. We wont let him do it again.

Lopez, he said, has restored trust with law enforcement, ensured the families of crime victims are supported, and put more criminals behind bars.

Warren pushed back in his own statement: My record on safety is indisputable  crime went down 30% in Hillsborough in five years, making it the safest large county in Florida  and the pretend state attorney telling lies doesnt change that.

He called Lopez a joke  an illegal political appointee installed in a job she didnt earn and isnt qualified for and accused her of groveling at the governors feet.

Hillsborough is less safe and our system is moving backwards, he said.

In August, DeSantis suspended another top Florida prosecutor, Monique Worrell, who was the elected state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties.
The State Bureau of Investigation reported that it handed over the Mi-2 helicopter to the Ukrainian military, which the former leadership of Motor Sich JSC tried to conceal from the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Source: State Bureau of Investigation (SBI)

Quote from SBI: "The State Bureau of Investigation initiated the arrest of this aircraft in June 2023 as part of an investigation into criminal proceedings on obstructing the legitimate activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and complicity with the aggressor state."

Details: In early reports, the media reported that the former leadership of Motor Sich deliberately damaged another helicopter so as not to transfer it to the military to perform combat tasks in the contact zone.

During the investigation, the State Bureau of Investigation found out that in May 2022, they ordered their subordinates to drive at least one more helicopter first to one of the European countries and then to the Middle East.

"All this was done to prevent its transfer to the Armed Forces of Ukraine," the bureau stressed.

PHOTO: STATE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

It is reported that the aircraft has already been returned to Ukraine and handed over to one of the combat units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Now, investigators of the State Bureau of Investigation are deciding whether to bring one of the former managers of the venture to criminal responsibility.

Background:

On 22 October, 2022, Ukrainska Pravda discovered that the Security Service of Ukraine had detained ex-MP Viacheslav Boguslaev and the honorary president of Motor Sich.

On 23 October, 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine confirmed the detention of the president of Motor Sich JSC and the head of the Department of Foreign Economic Activities of this enterprise: they were suspected of collaboration and complicity with the aggressor state.

According to the investigation, these officials acted in collusion with representatives of the Russian corporation Rostec, which is one of the main producers of weapons for the Russian armed forces associated with the Kremlin. The Russians have established transnational channels for the illegal supply of wholesale batches of Ukrainian aircraft engines to the aggressor country.

In April, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy introduced sanctions against ex-head of Motor Sich Viacheslav Boguslaev and the Russians.

On May, 2023 Viacheslav Boguslaev, suspected of collaboration and aiding the aggressor state, asked to be included in the list for exchange with Russia.

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!
Californias insurance commissioner has announced it will allow insurance providers to consider risks related to the changing climate when setting policy prices.

We are truly living in unprecedented times, said Ricardo Lara , the current commissioner. Theres no doubt that California is at an insurance crossroads. Making insurance more available is becoming critical for our entire economy.

Along with allowing companies to look ahead when setting policy prices, the commissioner will also require the companies to insure more Californians living in high-risk areas.

Before the announcement, news outlets including CBS News reported a growing problem of insurance companies deeming many whole areas of California, Florida, and Louisiana as essentially uninsurable under the existing state laws. Companies like State Farm had already announced they would not take on new policies in at least one of the states because of the increased risk.

The change in policy intends to keep insurance companies willing to offer insurance to all California homeowners. Still, California residents are more concerned with higher premiums that may result from the initiative.

The threat of wildfires and catastrophic flooding is costly enough, and higher premiums will just increase the cost of living even more.

Critics of the policy also indicate the risk of price gouging due to the higher premiums, which will mean more money in their pockets rather than those affected by disasters.

One study cited by NBC News indicated that 39 million Americans can expect higher premiums in the coming years, with high-risk states like Louisiana and Florida expecting unprecedented increases in payments. Insurance agencies like Farmers Insurance have already backed out of offering insurance policies in states like Florida because its too risky for them to insure homes and automobiles or offer umbrella policies.

Despite the increased barriers to insurance in disaster-prone regions, some studies have revealed that more people are moving into these areas than ever.

In one study by Redfin, the influx of people to flood-prone areas across the country between 2019 and 2020 was 103%, while fire-prone areas increased in population by 51%. Experts correlate this increase in population to low taxes and warm climates, but the increased cost of insurance and remediation following a storm may cause some folks to reconsider.

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North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein is visiting Charlotte to address state as well as local efforts to keep people safe from domestic violence in their relationships.

The discussion will occur Monday afternoon at Safe Alliance on East Fifth Street.

Stein will be joined by several local leaders, including District Attorney Spencer Merriweather, Mecklenburg Sheriff Garry McFadden, Safe Alliance President and CEO Laura Lawrence, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Deputy Chief Jackie Hulsey.

ALSO READ: Suspect in custody following domestic-related homicide in Albemarle, police say

A survivor of domestic violence will also participate in the discussion.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and is used as a time to raise public awareness about domestic violence and educate about the resources available to North Carolinians.

This year, 57 people have lost their lives to domestic violence homicides in North Carolina.

VIDEO: Mother killed in domestic violence shooting honored at vigil




A 13-year-old girl had just returned to her Springfield Township home from school on the afternoon of May 6, 2003, when, police said, a man who asked to use the phone entered the girl's residence and sexually assaulted her.

A lengthy investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police that included the collection of DNA evidence at the scene and from a discarded energy drink can in Florida has led to the filing of charges against the now-61-year-old man in the 20-year-old crime.

The man, Daniel Danzinger, of Fort Myers, Florida, was in police custody in Florida on Tuesday awaiting extradition to Erie County to face charges of burglary, indecent assault, unlawful restraint and simple assault in the crime. His expected arrival was not known Tuesday.

"I want to commend the Pennsylvania State Police and all agencies involved in their tireless efforts to see this case through," Erie County District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz said Tuesday in response to Danzinger's arrest.

More: How a bloody washcloth and DNA helped unlock the 34-year-old Erie murder case of Helen Vogt

Auto parts store inquiry turns violent

State police accuse Danzinger, then 40 years old, of attacking the 13-year-old girl at her home in the 12000 block of West Lake Road in Springfield Township on May 6, 2003, shortly after 3 p.m. Investigators reported at the time of the incident that the girl had just gotten off her school bus when a man approached her and asked for directions to an auto parts store before he attacked her.

According to information in the affidavit of probable cause filed with Danzinger's criminal complaint, the girl told investigators that the man asked if he could use her phone after she told him she was not good with directions, and asked her how old she was. The girl said as she went to look for the phone, the man entered the residence, tackled her to the floor and sexually assaulted her before fleeing, according to the affidavit.

A state police trooper who responded to the residence after the attack was reported collected evidence including suspected DNA evidence on a T-shirt and wash cloth, and they were sent to the state police DNA lab in Greensburg for testing. A DNA profile was developed from the evidence but was not matched to any known DNA profiles, investigators wrote in the affidavit.

Suspect developed and more evidence collected

Investigators said the DNA profile of the unknown male was later sent for genetic genealogy analysis, and from that two male siblings were identified as persons of interest in the case. Both lived in Ohio at the time of the incident, according to information in the affidavit.

With the assistance of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, state police identified an address in Florida where one of the people of interest lived. In January, a Florida investigator seized discarded trash from in front of the residence and forwarded it to the Pennsylvania State Police. A DNA profile taken from a discarded energy can drink matched the DNA profile from evidence collected at the sexual assault scene, investigators wrote in the affidavit.

More: Erie police: DNA links suspect to robbery, sexual assault of 14-year-old girl in October

State police in September interviewed a person who lives at the Florida address where the trash was collected and learned that the person did not consume energy drinks. The person told investigators that Danzinger was the only male who visited the residence, according to the affidavit.

On Sept. 25, investigators visited Danzinger's home and obtained a search warrant for swabs taken from the inside of Danzinger's mouth. The swabs were forwarded to the state police DNA lab and were determined to be a match to the DNA evidence collected from the sexual assault, investigators wrote in the affidavit.

Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Police use DNA to link Fla. man to Springfield girl's sexual assault
A law enforcement crackdown on Harbor area gangs exposed a vast criminal web stretching well beyond Los Angeles, with illegal drugs and guns being trafficked statewide, authorities announced Monday.

The four-month, multi-agency effort dubbed Operation Safe Harbor zeroed in on an organized crime group based in Los Angeles' gateway cities. It culminated in 27 arrests, the seizure of 14 firearms, including two privately made firearms  better known as ghost guns without serial numbers  and thousands of fentanyl pills and other illegal drugs, according to the California Department of Justice. Authorities also tracked the far-reaching arms of the alleged criminal enterprise, resulting in additional arrests and probes in Tulare and Kern counties, officials said.

Today weve taken dangerous drugs and weapons off our streets and protected the people of Los Angeles from the ongoing threats that this group caused," California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said at a news conference Monday. "Families in Los Angeles can go to bed knowing they're that much safer. ... We're committed to ending the fentanyl crisis [and] to preventing gun violence."

Bonta declined to share the name of the group or gang, saying he did not want to give them additional notoriety.

Read more: Crackdown on Harbor-area gangs reveals ties to Mexican Mafia

But for months, authorities have been focused on quelling gang activity in the Harbor area, specifically linked to the street gangs known as the Westside and Eastside Wilmas, conducting prior crackdowns on the groups in May and February. Officials said the latest operation and arrests built on the work from investigations conducted earlier this year.

"These arrests are the result of a continuing investigation into Mexican Mafia and cartel-affiliated street gangs which have plagued the Harbor area with violent crime, drugs and illegal guns," Donald Alway, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said in a statement. "The FBI will continue to devote resources to this strong law enforcement partnership with the goal of restoring safe streets."

The California Department of Justice and the FBI worked with the Los Angeles Police Department, the California Highway Patrol, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and drug enforcement officials across the state in the crackdown.

Read more: Eastside Wilmas armed gang members with ghost guns in L.A. Harbor area, authorities say

LAPD Chief Michel Moore credits the months-long focus on organized crime in the Harbor area for helping to lower crime there.

"When we look at the numbers year to date, shooting violence in the Harbor area is down 12% and violent crime is down 17%," Moore said Monday. He vowed that the law enforcement partnership would continue to work to dismantle the gang activity, pursuing the more influential leaders in the network.

L.A. Councilmember Tim McOsker, who represents much of the Harbor area, including Watts, Harbor City and Harbor Gateway, commended detectives for their work, calling it lifesaving.

"Over the last nine months  the first nine months of my term  I can't tell you how many times I've walked in vigil, I've gone to rosaries," McOsker said Monday. "I've sat in living rooms of widows and children and folks who have been lost, have lost their loved ones to illegal guns on the street, and to drugs, and to the primary and the secondary activities of these gangs."

Officials did not release the names of the 27 suspects who were arrested or details about specific cases, but said prosecutors will be looking to file felony charges including transportation of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance for sale, conspiracy to commit a crime and felon in possession of a firearm.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Officials announce a Steamship Authority vessel needs repairs after hard docking in Oak Bluffs on Monday.

According to the company the M/V Nantucket must be inspected by the Coast Guard before it can resume operations after sustaining minor damage.

No injuries were reported.

The vessel is expected to be out of service for an unknown period of time on Tuesday morning until it can be repaired.

To check on status click here.

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

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ROK-US alliance should be strengthened steadfastly

North Korea has recently revised its constitution to expand and boost its nuclear capabilities. Pyongyang's rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) included a new law into the constitution, indicating the drive to bolster the North's nuclear force is now permanent, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday. The North has refuted any possibility for discussion about its possible denuclearization.

The recent move follows a similar one made last year when the North institutionalized the preemptive use of nuclear weapons. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to increase the production of nuclear weapons exponentially and take the central role in cementing ties with countries that confront the United States and the West. Kim has enhanced the status of the agency in charge of developing missiles and satellites to provide more power and authority.

This means Pyongyang's bid toward nuclear buildup has entered a new phase. The North displayed a tactical nuclear submarine earlier this year and will likely test a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) soon. The U.S. Department of Defense said the North places the U.S. and its regional allies at risk. It went on to say the North can use nuclear weapons at any stage of military confrontations in its report, "2023 Strategy for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction." This means the North would possibly use nuclear weapons even at the initial stage of a potential war.

We cannot help but express a strong regret over the North's recent decision as it has had a far-reaching adverse impact on the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula. Further, it would darken the prospects for seeking solutions to regional security problems through dialogue and negotiations. It is nonsense that the North claims it would bolster ties with Russia "for the sake of world peace" in that it had been the target of international criticism for its repeated military provocations in violation of United Nations resolutions.

North Korea's endeavor to build up its nuclear arsenal prompts the need for us to boost the alliance with the U.S. further and join hands with global society in denouncing the Norths provocations. In this vein, it is timely that representatives from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan fired salvos at the North while calling for its denuclearization in a joint message delivered at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Against this backdrop, the South Korea-U.S. alliance which marks its 70th anniversary is especially meaningful. The alliance kicked off with the signing of the Mutual Defense Treaty between the South and the U.S. on Oct. 1, 1953. It has played a decisive role in preventing war on the peninsula. Now it has evolved into the current state where the two allies jointly discuss the operation of the U.S. nuclear arsenal through the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG).

Yet, we have still a long way to go. As the North has amended its constitution to bolster its nuclear force, the Korea-U.S. alliance must be fortified with steadfast sustainability. There should be a device to prevent the alliance from being undermined by changes in government. However, it does not necessarily mean the need to rely on a certain nation only for national security, given the fluctuations and shifts in international security and diplomatic situations. While maintaining close relations with the U.S., there should be more efforts to have brisker contacts and dialogues with China and Russia. As the North has been desperate to cope with the emergence of a new Cold War era, we also need to employ more proactive attitudes in dealing with the changed security environment.
Open banking, in which traditional banks release their data via application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable the development of new financial services for their consumers, has been one of the most significant disruptions in global payments over the past decade. Less than five years ago, this innovation, in which businesses use APIs to access customers financial accounts and provide an array of integrated and embedded financial services, took on in Africa.

In the latest development, South African fintech Stitch, which has built an end-to-end payments solution designed to meet the complex and evolving payments needs for its enterprise clients, is announcing some funding to become a market leader in this payments segment.

Stitch focuses on enabling businesses to build, optimize, and scale financial products and providing API gateways to improve the conversion for online payments and optimize payment operations of its clients. The Cape Town fintech has raised $25 million in an extension round of funding led by global fintech investor Ribbit Capital, bringing Stitchs total Series A to $46 million. Existing backers, including CRE Ventures, PayPal Ventures and the Raba Partnership, participated in the round.

This is Ribbit Capitals third investment in Africa after leading Chipper Cashs $30 million Series B and Waves $200 million Series A. Co-founder and CEO Kiaan Pillay said the team has been fortunate to have prominent local and international backers in its corner since it came out of stealth in 2021. Its earlier investors bought into the narrative that its team, targeting a vast market opportunity, could build and scale products that create value in a fledging fintech category. But as it enters the growth stage, having healthy growth numbers matters more, especially in this current venture capital slowdown.

Pillay acknowledging this, stated that the serendipitous alignment of strong traction and preexisting ties was critical in landing its lead investor and closing the round. It was a good happenstance that we finally started to find traction in a world where hard numbers are significant for investors like Ribbit, whose team weve known for a while, noted the CEO, adding that Ribbit Capitals strong understanding of the global fintech landscape and emerging markets will be invaluable to Stitch which is on track to process over 50 million transactions, totaling $2 billion in total payment volume (TPV) this year.

These figures are across seven product features Stitch has launched since early 2022. Stitch was a quasi-data, quasi-bank-to-bank payments platform before embarking on a feature release spree. Its clients, ranging from enterprises to entrepreneurs, could use its platform to access customers financial accounts and innovate around providing services such as personal finance, lending, insurance, payments and wealth management.

Now it has evolved into a full payment service provider. Customers can accept payments via pay by bank, debit and credit card, recurring debits, cash and manual bank transfer; manage, orchestrate and reconcile payments across multiple methods, providers and geographies in one dashboard with PayOS; and disburse funds via payouts. Several use cases include e-commerce checkouts, finance operations, financial services, lending and insurance, marketplaces and recurring payments.

Stitch says its end-to-end payment solutions is primarily offered to enterprise businesses in South Africa. MTN, Multichoice, the Foschini Group (TFG), Standard Banks SnapScan and Yoco are a few names. However, it still has a handful of startups and small businesses as customers in Nigeria and other African countries where it has licenses to operate, Pillay said in the interview. The fintech, whose competitors include Mono, Okra, Revio, and MoneyHash, also serves global PSP partners and is in talks to do the same with a few global consumer internet companies.

We moved away from being a single method platform to a next-generation PSP for local and global enterprises, said the CEO who founded Stitch with Natalie Cuthbert and Priyen Pillay. Initially, we just had a pay-in feature where we support bank and card payments. While weve added more, we now have an orchestration layer, which many enterprises use to manage payment methods and reconcile across different banks. And we do payouts, whether a disbursement, a refund, or a withdrawal. Our solution is attractive for global companies trying to enter the market for the first time because of the end-to-end process.

From the point of view of these consumer internet companies in the U.S. or Europe, South Africa is often seen as the gateway to Africa. Unlike other African markets, the country has a functional credit card system, which makes card integration straightforward. However, its still essential that these outfits consider other payment options in an African market where cards arent prevalent, which is where Stitch comes in. According to Pillay, the demands of local enterprise clients pushed the company to develop these product features, which he believes can be tailored to the needs of global clients, within the past year,

I dont think large enterprises only use us for a single method. I think one of the coolest metrics for us is within the first three months of going live with a large enterprise, weve seen almost every single one adopt a second or a third product because we can incrementally add things in a very modular way, he said. Were sort of playing in a space that we wouldnt have expected to, but because big merchants have demanded us to have more products, its been an easier place to get into and scale from there.

Stitch, which emerged from stealth in 2021, claims its platform offers customers better reliability, higher uptime, and quicker problem resolution by utilizing direct connections with banks and networks and removing intermediaries. In addition to its open banking features, Stitch provides client support, including localized insights into the payments landscape and custom-built, co-created solutions tailored towards removing the complexities of sending, receiving and managing funds. Its subsidiary, WigWag, enables small businesses and micro-influencers who sell goods and services on social media platforms to accept payment via a link and card.

The fintech has now raised $52 million in venture capital (including a $6 million seed). The company, which has over 80 employees, plans to use its Series A money to continue developing its platform, expanding its customer base, and seizing opportunities to serve new markets, Pillay expressed on the call.

Everything we do is client-focused. Well continue to optimize for what they have. And then scale geographically with them and deeper in products they already have, added the CEO. We also want to continue adding as many first-party payment methods as possible. Our value proposition has been precision engineering and deep infrastructure, so, for instance, we are looking at connecting to card and bank rails without intermediating. Things like this are often slow and capital intensive; thats why we raised.
A 19-year-old prolific burglary suspect was arrested after Tennessee police say they tracked a victims stolen AirPods to his home in Nashville.

Police called the suspect prolific because he was wanted in connection with 27 outstanding warrants related to 13 motor vehicle burglaries and thefts over the last nine months, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said in an Oct. 2 news release.

Investigators say the stolen Apple AirPods led them to the 19-year-olds home in north Nashville. When they arrived at his home Sept. 27, he fled from police, according to the release.

As police searched the property, they found 66 items belonging to 28 victims, including two AR-15 pistols, checkbooks, credit cards and a key programmer, police said.

Two stolen vehicles were also found in the driveway of the home, according to the release. One was a 1997 Honda Civic stolen Sept. 4, and the other was a Honda Pilot stolen Sept. 15, according to Nashville police.

Davidson County court records do not list an attorney for the man.

He is charged with 21 counts of motor vehicle burglary, three counts of theft, two counts of vehicle theft, and drug paraphernalia, Nashville police said in the release.

He was booked at Nashvilles Downtown Detention Center on Oct. 2, according to jail records. He is being held in lieu of a $232,000 bond, according to the release.

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Brockton Police say a student driver crashed into a home Monday evening causing significant traffic in the area.

According to police a student driver turned right from Manomet Street to Belmont Street when the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed through a fence before hitting the house.

Both occupants of the vehicle were not injured.

Officials said the foundation of the home was damaged due to the crash.

No additional information was provided.

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

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You may recall we did a Wallet Warning a year ago when it appeared that the government was going to forgive some student loan debt.

Student loan repayments will start again this month. Scammers know that many of you will be scrambling to restart paying your loans, and they are trying to capitalize on your confusion.

Their offers include helping you avoid repayment, lower your payments, or even get your loans forgivenfor a price.

Our partners at the Better Business Bureau have received multiple reports recently from Memphians getting bogus calls, texts, and emails promising student loan debt relief for a fee.

The scammers were asking for Social Security numbers or Federal Student Aid IDs to see if borrowers were eligible. The reported scam calls came from the 833 and 314 area codes and Caller IDs showed student loan center or education dept.

How to avoid getting scammed

'Student loans return'

First, never pay a fee to anyone who says they can help with your student loan debt.

Do not pay to sign up for any programs to lower your payments or get forgiveness  its all free and the only place you can sign up or find out if you are eligible for relief is www.studentaid.gov, the official government website.

Dont give away your Federal Student Aid ID login information. Anyone who says they need it to help you is a scammer.

Think something seems suspicious? Reach out to your lender directly.

Tips for restarting loan repayment successfully and affordably

Log in or Create an Account with the Federal Student Aid Office: www.studentaid.gov  there you will be able to review your loans and figure out who your loan servicer is.

Sign up for an income driven payment plan. For most people this will be the new SAVE plan that was just rolled out, which offers the lowest monthly payments based on income. You can find out more about SAVE and other income-driven repayment options at www.studentaid.gov/idr.

Anyone with older Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) loans should consolidate into a Direct Loan immediately to qualify for these new income driven repayment benefits  www.studentaid.gov will walk you through the steps.

Good rule of thumb! If you have federal loans that are not Direct Loans, look into consolidating them into Direct Loans.

If you work in the nonprofit or government sector, apply for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and your loans will be canceled once you have made ten years of payments.

Need more help? Visit www.studentaid.gov, www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org, or www.cancelmystudentdebt.org for more information.

If you would like to talk with someone about your financial situation and how to adjust your budget for monthly student loan payments, make an appointment with the Greater Memphis Financial Empowerment Center. You can meet one on one with a certified financial counselor at no cost, and they can help you set up a realistic plan. Call (901) 390- 4200 to request an appointment, or go to https://fecpublic.org/appointment- greatermemphis

Good news on the prescription drug front

The Biden administration took a big first step late last month toward reducing the cost of prescription drugs for tens of millions of Americans. It released a list of the first 10 drugs that will be subject to price negotiations with Medicare, kicking off a multiyear

process that should, if all goes according to plan, lower costs for the federal government and Medicare beneficiaries.

The list of 10 drugs includes medications for diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and cancer. They were selected through a process meant to prioritize the drugs that constitute the biggest share of Medicare spending and dont yet face competitors. These 10 drugs accounted for about $50 billion, or 20%, of Medicare Part D spending, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Regina Morrison Newman

Our goal with Wallet Warnings remains the same  to help you safeguard your money. If you have any questions or need any additional information about anything discussed here, please call (901) 222-0206. We are happy to help you avoid scams, fraud and predatory lenders. You work hard for your money, and we want to make sure scammers dont get it.

Regina Morrison Newman is the Shelby County trustee. To view all previous Wallet Warnings, visit https://www.shelbycountytrustee.com/313/Wallet-Warnings

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tips to help student loan borrowers repay debt and avoid scams
A Blue Springs man faces felony charges after he allegedly stabbed a person who gave him a ride, ran through residential backyards, attacked a random family and ended up in a confrontation where two other men were shot  one fatally  in Independence.

Prosecutors have charged Tyler C. Rizer, 28, with one count of first-degree assault and one count of armed criminal action stemming from the violent series of events Friday evening. He was being held Monday on a $500,000 cash-only bond in the Jackson County jail.

Charging documents filed in court identify Rizer as a suspect in the fatal shooting of Juavvion Bagsby, 29, of Independence, who was described by family members in public social media posts as a devoted husband and father. Bagsby was killed and another man was shot while Rizer was being confronted for allegedly invading property and assaulting two children.

The other person wounded, whose name was not included in charging documents, remained in the hospital Monday after being shot in the chest.

Court records indicated no charges filed against Rizer in the shootings as of Monday. There was also no record of a defense attorney for Rizer.

According to an affidavit prepared by an Independence police detective, officers were dispatched at 6:10 p.m. to the area of 40th Terrace and South Osage Street, where they found a man with stab wounds in a yard. A knife was also located nearby.

Witnesses reported seeing a suspect, who had approached them with one hand behind his back, and running him off the block. He was last seen on foot crossing lanes of Interstate 70.

As officers were on scene, roughly five minutes later, they heard gunfire coming from blocks away.

Other Independence officers were dispatched to what began as a disturbance and escalated to a shooting in the 4200 block of Osage.

One neighbor told police she sicced her dogs on a person who had run through her yard, according to court documents. He then jumped the fence and into another backyard.

Another resident said she was outside with her 3- and 5-year-old children when a man entered her yard. She tried to get into the house as the man assaulted them and threatened to kill them, the affidavit says.

The man, identified by police as Rizer, allegedly grabbed both children and wrestled with their mother before walking to the front of the residence. She told police she was on the phone with her husband, who arrived and confronted Rizer with a gun.

Then she heard gunshots and saw Rizer leave in her husbands car, a white Chevrolet Impala.

Less than an hour later, police in Kansas City responded to an auto crash at 17th Street and Jackson Avenue.

The stolen Chevy was involved in the crash. Witnesses told officers a man tried to carjack someone after that crash, according to the affidavit.

Early Saturday morning, Independence police were informed that Rizer had been taken to North Kansas City Hospital by Kansas City police. He was taken into custody following an unrelated call for service, the affidavit says.

The stabbing victim was interviewed by an Independence detective after coming out of surgery.

During the interview, he said a man had approached him asking for a ride to the store. As they were driving there, in the westbound lanes of I-70, the man allegedly removed a knife from the center console and began acting in a threatening manner.

The driver said he pulled over on the highway shoulder, tried to take his keys out and was then stabbed. He said he ran, while being chased, to the closest houses where he saw people outside.

At the time of the stabbing and shootings, Independence police say Rizer was wanted for outstanding felony warrants. He also has a history of felony convictions that include assault on a law enforcement officer, robbery, burglary and motor vehicle tampering, according to court documents.
TechCrunch

When Xs Circles feature shut down this week, the app formerly known as Twitter turned its back on the best product its shipped since the Quote Tweet. Like an Instagram Close Friends story, Circles allowed users to post to an exclusive, hand-picked group of up to 150 people, where they could be themselves without worrying about the personal or professional consequences. Now that Circles has been inexplicably axed, the chronically oversharing, young millennials among us are mourning its demise.
Celina Manzano takes her children to school at Pugh Elementary School in East Houston on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. Credit: Danielle Villasana for The Texas Tribune

For Celina Manzano, Pugh Elementary School in East Houston is no longer the welcoming place it used to be.

Manzanos family mostly speaks Spanish, so her son Maycols teachers used to provide them with translations of his homework and make time for her to ask questions. But under the leadership of the states recently appointed superintendent, most of those teachers left after they were required to reapply for their jobs.

Accommodations for Spanish speakers are practically gone, Manzano said. Maycol, who started second grade this year, has told her he doesnt want to go to school anymore.

Its been over a month since the Houston Independent School District started its first school year after the state ousted its democratically elected school board and replaced the districts previous leader with Superintendent Mike Miles. Since then, complaints have been piling up among Spanish-speaking families, who say they are not getting the support they need. In Houston ISD, about 36% of students are either bilingual or English learners.

The states takeover of the district was in response to years of poor academic outcomes at a single campus. Under Miles tenure, Pugh Elementary and more than 80 other campuses now operate under his New Education System, which he describes as an innovative staffing model that puts the focus on classroom instruction and improved student outcomes.

Classes used to be half in English and half in Spanish in dual-language schools like Pugh. Miles previously said that dual-language education would continue and even expand under the NES model, but parents say that support for Spanish speakers has dwindled.

Mike Miles, the state-appointed superintendent of Houston ISD, discusses public education in Texas' largest city at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Sept. 23, 2023. Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune

In particular, the new Science of Reading class  based on psychology and neuroscience research on how children learn to read and the skills they need to do so  is taught only in English.

You cannot read well if you cant decode, and you cannot decode if you dont do it in English, Miles said at a community meeting in July where he explained his approach to families. So were gonna do the science of reading, decoding and language comprehension in English, and then we will supplement [many English learners native] language, Spanish.

Miles told The Houston Chronicle last month he would try to keep reading instruction as close as possible to the 50-50 model, but his priority would be teaching children the science of reading, even if the uneven split means losing funding. State law requires dual-language programs to divide instruction equally between English and an English learners native language.

Miles did not respond to an interview request or emailed questions.

Parents say the changes have gone further than that, noting that this school year their kids are receiving no instruction or assistance in Spanish at all.

Marta Quinteros said her 8-year-old son Angel struggles to speak and understand English, and she feels like the district isnt doing enough to support her son like last year.

Quinteros said when she asked teachers and administrators at Scroggins Elementary School if they could explain lessons slower or in Spanish to her son, she was told they couldnt.

Angel has also had issues with bullying but told Quinteros he hasnt told anyone at school because he is afraid school officials will tell him he needs to speak English and he cant do it that well.

Im not going to learn English, Im not going to, Quinteros said her son has told her.

Duncan Klussmann, a clinical assistant professor of school leadership at the University of Houston, said Miles reforms are affecting Spanish-speaking and bilingual families because they do not allow for a lot of customization in students learning.

What we know about education is when 1,000 students walk into a building each day they all have very different needs that need to be addressed, he said. It's still yet to be seen if the system that has been put in place will address the needs of bilingual students.

Public education observers, teachers and parents have described Miles leadership and vision for the district as military-like and test-score-driven.

Several Houston ISD teachers and community members have criticized him for his my way or the highway approach, with Miles saying that those who dont like his changes can choose to leave the district.

If they don't want to work in that kind of culture, they need to make the decisions that's right for them, he said at a Texas Tribune Festival event in Austin last month.

Under the NES schools, which were selected for the most significant immediate overhauls, every teacher had to reapply for their jobs with no guarantee they would be rehired. Those who stayed are monitored to make sure they are sticking to the curriculum and instructional materials provided by Miles leadership team.

Educators say Miles system has a rigid approach to teaching. They are tasked with following a strict teaching schedule, which district leaders created to reduce the time teachers spend preparing curriculum. Detractors say it limits educators' ability to decide how to teach their classes.

Teachers who spoke to the Tribune and requested to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation said Miles system requires them not to spend time repeating lessons  even when they feel like students didnt fully understand the material  and to skip any ice breakers or socializing in their classes. Miles has monitors in NES schools to make sure teachers are not deviating from the curriculum.

Miles believes the bad experiences some teachers have described are purely anecdotal and has framed them as examples of the status quo thinking prevalent in the states education system.

David DeMatthews, an associate professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas at Austin who has followed Miles career, said his approach will likely boost test scores. But DeMatthews doubts that such a system will produce sustainable academic improvements or help create a conducive environment for learning.

That type of teaching is not going to be engaging over time. It's not going to be rewarding for teachers, DeMatthews said. This is a very fast-food approach to education.

But Miles also has people rooting for his success. Sue Deigaard, a former Houston ISD school board member, said while she agrees that Miles changes have been abrupt, the district probably needed them.

The intention to not waste another year for students who are behind is a commendable approach, Deigaard said. Our kids have had enough lost years.

But she added that the new leadership couldve done a better job at gathering input from the community, especially from people on those campuses that have experienced the greatest changes.

Klussmann said the underlying issue with the new system is whether Houston ISD leadership will give families options to opt out if its not working for them  especially in the midst of recent Republican efforts to allow parents to be more involved in decisions about their childrens education. One of the main arguments some Republican leaders have made for school choice  a proposal that would allow parents to use state funds to pay for their childrens private schooling  is that it would give low-income families more freedom to leave their school district if theyre not happy with it.

Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott called state lawmakers to return to Austin for a special legislative session starting on Oct. 9. He didn't indicate what the focus of the session will be but he has long said it would be on school choice, one of his biggest priorities this year.

State leadership and the Legislature really focused on parental choice this last year and the parents should have a say in the type of education that their child is getting, and I think [whether Houston ISD lets parents opt out] is going to be a test at the state level, Klussmann said.

Manzano said she is lucky to live in a school zone that would allow her to switch districts if she remains unhappy with the changes at Houston ISD  she could go to Galena Park ISD east of Houston  but many parents dont have that choice, and their kids must conform to the new rules or fall behind.

For both Manzano and Quinteros, if things dont change, they will look elsewhere for their childrens education.

If things continue like this, I have to take my son out of this school, Manzano said. I dont like whats going on.

Celina Manzano's children head to school at Pugh Elementary School in East Houston. Credit: Danielle Villasana for The Texas Tribune

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin and University of Houston 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 Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
SARATOGA COUNTY, N.Y. -- Craig Nelson Ross, Jr. was charged with kidnapping overnight in the disappearance of 9-year-old Charlotte Sena in Upstate New York.

Sena went missing Saturday evening at Moreau Lake State Park, about 35 miles north of Albany, while riding her bicycle.

Her family released a statement Tuesday acknowledging how fortunate they are she was found unharmed, hiding in a cabinet in the suspect's camper.

Web Extra: Read the complaint (.pdf)

"We are thrilled that she is home and we understand that the outcome is not what every family gets. A huge thank you to the FBI, the New York State police, all of the agencies that were mobilized, all of the families, friends, community, neighbors and hundreds of volunteers who supported us and worked tirelessly to bring Charlotte home," the statement read.

Craig Nelson Ross Jr. is charged with kidnapping in the disappearance of 9-year-old Charlotte Sena in Upstate New York. / Credit: Saratoga County Sheriff's Office

New video shows New York State Police and other law enforcement officers combing the Milton neighborhood where the girl was found Monday night.

"Our prayers have been answered," Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in a late night press conference.

Four hundred certified search and rescue personnel, including the FBI, launched a massive two-day search that ended when authorities say the suspect unintentionally handed them a break in the case.

"[He] literally drove up to the family's mailbox, assuming they were not home, 4:20 in the morning, opens the mailbox and inserts the ransom note, leaving a critical piece of evidence behind -- his own fingerprint," Hochul said.

Watch Gov. Hochul, state police give update on search

Police said Ross, Jr.'s fingerprints were in their database from a 1999 DWI case in Saratoga.

SWAT teams descended on his mother's property, where they found the little girl inside a cabinet in a camper parked out back.

"Excited. We came together, open the doors to pray, and we're seeing a miracle," said one searcher.

Read More: What we know about the massive search for the missing girl

"Happy. I can't imagine what the family is thinking and feeling right now," another added. "Especially being local, we live right here in this neighborhood, and we're all just breathing a a sigh of relief not just for them and their children but for all the children in the neighborhood. We feel safe again."

Ross, Jr. was charged with first-degree kidnapping, and state police say more charges are likely.

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Rep. Gaetz says he will file a motion this week to oust Speaker McCarthy

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EDMOND, Okla. (KFOR)  An investigation into an Edmond rape case from 1989 might finally be solved, thanks to the results of a decades old rape kit and a match to a suspect in California.

A recently filed affidavit recounts the case from October 3, 1989, when Edmond Police responded to reports of a sexual assault.

The victim told investigators she was hitchhiking along I-35 when she was picked up by a man and raped in a section of Edmond.

Although a rape kit was completed following the assault, it went untested for years.

A Sexual Assault Kit Initiative was established in 2017 by former Governor Mary Fallin to address a statewide backlog of untested kits; the programs efforts were reaffirmed by Governor Stitt in 2021.



Court documents also indicate the case was deactivated by police due to a lack of leads.

Without leads, detectives couldnt crack the case.

After the kit was finally sent to a lab in Virginia for testing in 2021, the results finally identified the suspect as 66-year-old Frank Haynes III.

Haynes had already been incarcerated in California and his DNA matched a profile already on file for the state of California.

While many states have statutes of limitations on rape or sexual assault charges, ranging from three to 30 years, court documents revealed leaving the state is actually what stopped the statute of limitations from expiring for this case in Oklahoma, and allowed the state to move forward with plans to prosecute the man.

Couple voices concern after security camera shows men shooting arrows across OKC neighborhood street

For most crimes, the statute of limitations is three years. For rape, it is 12 years, said legal expert Ed Blau Monday in an interview with KFOR.

Blau also confirmed that because the man moved to California, that stopped the statute from expiring.

Since the suspect moved out of state and has been out of state for a significant period of time, that [strikes down] the statute of limitations, thereby allowing the state of Oklahoma to prosecute him, he added.

 Find more Top Stories from KFOR.com

In an interview Monday with the station, community advocate Hillary Burkholder, CEO at Palomar  Oklahoma Citys Family Justice Center  said the prevalence for sex assault in Oklahoma is higher than the national average.

The national average is about 17 or 18% of women nationally [who] will experience rape in their lifetimes. And for Oklahoma, we have about 35 to 45% more than the national average reporting to law enforcement. We know that there are many that go unreported as well , she said.

Palomar partners with other community agencies to provide wraparound services to victims of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, stalking, elder abuse, and human trafficking.

Burkholder said in addition to practical services, the organization offers vital support.

I think its very important for survivors to have that sense of community, said Burkholder.

Earlier this year, reporting from the Tulsa World reported just under 3,000 untested rape kits across the state.

There are still actionable steps and important connections that can be made while waiting on the legal system, Burkholder said.

Sometimes its just being able to tell your story to someone who will believe you to connect with other survivors who have those lived experiences [and] can validate your same experience, she added. There is life after rape and sexual assault.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Switzerland and the United States have donated $8.4 million to Brazil's Amazon Fund to help stop deforestation and preserve the world's largest tropical rainforest, the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES) that manages the fund said on Tuesday.

Switzerland contributed 5 million Swiss francs ($5.4 million) and the United States $3 million, the bank said in a statement.

The U.S. donation is part of a $500 million contribution over five years announced by President Joe Biden in April at a climate meeting where President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva repeated Brazil's pledge to reach zero deforestation by 2030.

"These contributions reinforce the commitment and confidence of these countries in Brazil's environmental agenda and the Amazon Fund's actions in the region," the bank's social-environmental director Tereza Campello said.

The Amazon Fund was created in 2008 to raise donations to fight deforestation. Norway provided an initial $1 billion and Germany $68 million. More recently Britain and the European Union said they will contribute.

The fund supports the prevention, monitoring and combat of Amazon deforestation and fosters sustainable development. Since its creation, it has funded 102 projects with a total investment of 1.75 billion reais ($340 million), BNDES said.

($1 = 5.1550 reais)

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; editing by Grant McCool)
Korea's business circles, led by big conglomerates like SK and LG, are making all-out efforts in the country's final pitch to host the 2030 World Expo in the southeastern port city of Busan.

With less than two months to go before the selection of the host country, the business community is set to spend the remaining weeks carrying out campaign activities and events to win the hearts of countries across the globe.

The private sector committee for the World Expo bid, headed by SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, is scheduled to carry out a series of promotional events in Paris from early to mid-October in the last-minute push for the host bid.

The committee will host an expo symposium, a gala dinner and K-pop performance in the French capital in the second week of October.

Chey, who doubles as the chief of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, will spend considerable time in and around Paris to drum up support in the final weeks before the winner is announced.

"It's the harvest season. I'd like to reap every grain of votes. We should put in all our efforts and give it our best until the end. ... I believe the real race begins now," Chey said at the fourth government-private expo campaign committee meeting Tuesday.

Chey stressed the need to maximize the campaign efforts for regions that hold the casting votes, particularly the 20-member Caribbean Community and Common Market and the Pacific Island countries.

"Each country wants to know how sincere we are about the agendas of cooperation that were discussed and pledged. It's time that the government and private sector took quick and bold action," Chey said.

LG is planning to launch expo campaign events in Paris, London and Brussels between October and November.

LG will display a digital signage promoting the Busan expo bid on the display boards of four stores of major French retail chain FNAC.

It also plans to begin running expo advertisements on about 2,000 Paris city buses at the end of October, as well as 300 billboards to be placed in downtown Paris in early November.

LG has displayed various promotional digital signage in major world landmarks as part of its key campaign contributions, including the display at Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, Times Square in New York and London's Piccadilly Circus.

Hyundai Motor Group showcased a fleet of 20 art cars promoting Busan, including its Ioniq all-electric models and the premium Genesis sedans, in Times Square in New York during the U.N. General Assembly high-level week in September.

Samsung has also been stepping up its campaign efforts, most recently during the IFA tech show and other establishments in Berlin in early September.

Korea's Busan is one of the three candidate cities for the expo, along with Rome, Italy, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The host city is set to be announced on Nov. 28 in Paris by the Bureau International des Expositions, the international body in charge of overseeing the World Expo. (Yonhap)
Lawmakers offered strong reaction on Tuesday after, for the first time in U.S. history, the speaker of the House of Representatives was removed from his position.

By a 216-210 vote, the House voted to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., was named interim speaker. McHenry is in the position under a law passed after the Sept. 11 attacks in the event of a vacancy in the office, according to The New York Times.

Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts in a statement called McCarthy unworthy of presiding over the House.

This is a solemn day in the U.S. House of Representatives. Through his duplicitous misuse of power, profound disregard for the needs of the American people, and disloyalty to anyone but himself, Kevin McCarthy has proven unworthy of presiding over the House, Clark said, adding that Hakeem Jeffries is the only person in command of this Chamber, and House Democrats will be proud to cast yet another vote to put him in the Speakers chair.

Rep. Seth Moulton , a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, said he voted to remove McCarthy.

I voted to remove the Speaker because he cant be trusted. This is what happens when you sell your soul to the most extreme members of your caucus. Democrats bailed him out of a GOP-manufactured crisis once, we werent going to bail him out again, said Moulton, a Democrat, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

I voted to remove the Speaker because he can't be trusted.



This is what happens when you sell your soul to the most extreme members of your caucus.



Democrats bailed him out of a GOP-manufactured crisis once, we weren't going to bail him out again.  Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) October 3, 2023

Shortly after the vote to oust McCarthy, Massachusetts 3rd Congressional District Rep. Lori Trahan , in a social media post, called McCarthy a weak Speaker.

From day one, Kevin McCarthy has put his ambition ahead of the American people and his job before the institution. He was a weak Speaker, and his inability to lead has ground the Peoples House to a halt. Hardworking families deserve better, Trahan, a Democrat, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

From day one, Kevin McCarthy has put his ambition ahead of the American people and his job before the institution. He was a weak Speaker, and his inability to lead has ground the Peoples House to a halt.



Hardworking families deserve better.  Lori Trahan (@RepLoriTrahan) October 3, 2023

It marks only the second time that such a vote has officially come to the House floor. The first came in 1910 and involved Speaker Joe Cannon. The man known as Uncle Joe held on to his gavel but his power was diminished.

Republicans voting to remove McCarthy, R-Calif., included Matt Gaetz of Florida, Eli Crane of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Bob Good of Virginia, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Matt Rosendale of Montana.

Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat, said prior to the vote that he would vote yes to oust McCarthy.

Kevin McCarthy constantly opposes bipartisanship & shows he is untrustworthy, McGovern said. He handed over his gavel to MAGA extremists, creating chaos in Congress & dysfunction that hurts our country. Im not going to bail him out of this GOP civil war. Ill vote yes on the motion to vacate.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to reporters after a closed-door meeting with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and other House Republicans after Gaetz filed a motion to oust McCarthy from his leadership role, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Amy Carnevale, chairperson of the Republican Party in Massachusetts, said in a statement, Todays vote is further evidence of the polarization of politics. This Congress is broken and we need more elected leaders who will put the people first.

Tuesdays vote followed debate by members of both parties and followed a failed attempt by McCarthys allies to table the vote, The Washington Post reported.

Kevin McCarthy constantly opposes bipartisanship & shows he is untrustworthy. He handed over his gavel to MAGA extremists, creating chaos in Congress & dysfunction that hurts our country.



Im not going to bail him out of this GOP civil war. Ill vote yes on the motion to vacate. https://t.co/TN1vfyCEp3  Rep. Jim McGovern (@RepMcGovern) October 3, 2023

The previous House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was not present for the vote, as she was traveling to California to attend the funeral of Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

In a 218-208 vote, the motion to table failed, with 11 Republicans joining all Democrats present in defeating the resolution.

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

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Tarrant County commissioners voted against giving state funds to a local organization that aims empower girls after nearly 20 people showed up to the Tuesday meeting to speak out against the organizations political ideology.

Commissioners were asked to approve a $115,334 state grant for Girls Inc., a nonprofit helps nearly 20,000 girls in Tarrant County every year with health, education opportunities and workforce preparedness. It has operated in Tarrant County since 1976 and primarily focuses its work in Northside and Diamond Hill.

Five other organizations were approved to receive funds through the same state grant.

A motion to reject the contract went through 3-2, with Democrats Alisa Simmons and Roy Brooks voting in opposition.

Those against funding the organization were concerned about the messaging from the national organization promoted on its website and social media.

Social media posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, show Girls Inc. promoting Bisexuality Visibility Day. The organization has also taken stances on abortion.

The national organization of Girls Inc. operates separately from its local chapters, said the organizations board chair Brittany Christian, and it decided against accepting the national levels advocacy positions.

Jennifer Limas, the CEO of Girls Inc. of Tarrant County, said she understood the concerns, and said there were times she and other members of the local chapter disagreed with the positions pushed at the organizations national level that werent related to youth-serving programs.

Commissioner Roy Brooks, who has supported Girls Inc. for more than a decade, said those who came to the commissioners meeting to speak against the organizations political agenda had a political agenda themselves.

We are presented this morning with what I believe is a false narrative about Girls Inc. of Tarrant County, Brooks said. And one of the things that bothers me is that that false narrative was probably created by someone paid by your tax dollars.

Commissioner Alisa Simmons said turning down the funding would be a part of the ongoing assault on womens health. She said she was confused by the opposition shes seen in her email inbox.

This organization has a record of success and achievement, Simmons said. I am also a bit appalled at the tenor and vitriol. I mean, I wonder if some of those who sent emails and some of those who spoke wouldve crucified Christ.

Many of those who spoke said they do not agree with the national organizations views on abortion, transgender rights, sex education, free period products and the definition of who can menstruate.

As far as Girls Inc., where were they whenever we had a man on a womans swim team? resident Sheila Clemmons said. Where are they when we have men on track running against women? The thing is, is Girls Inc. really for the girls, or are they for an agenda?

Resident Aaron James said: You know, I hear a lot of people say that Girls Inc. does a lot of good for the girls. Well, Im sure that theres a lot of German citizens in Germany that that could say that the Nazis programs and clubs they had going on at the time were instrumental in making good citizens. But we know that divisive ideology is bogus.

Jolyn Potenza said: Young minds follow and trust what they are told by leaders as being the truth. Its like lambs being led to the slaughter. It is a bold-faced lie and, quite frankly, child abuse.

Leigh Wambsgaans, who co-founded the Southlake Family PAC with County Judge Tim OHare to fight against a cultural competence plan from being established in Carroll schools, said she didnt think the local and national chapters of the organization could be separated, and said she feared the organization was using low income children to promote a political agenda.

Conservative activist Carlos Turcios told the commissioners that Girls Inc. would be showing up to fight if the county ever decided to give funding to Turning Point USA, a conservative organization that organizes students to promote freedom.

Turcios led the Turning Point chapter at the UTexas Arlington during his time as a student.

OHare, who has four daughters of his own, said he was happy to hear there was a split between the local and national organizations, but he ultimately did not agree with the county funding Girls Inc.

He disagreed with the ideology being pushed by the organization, like helping children transition genders, removing the stigma around abortion and other items that OHare said could be interpreted as anti-police.

State law outlaws abortion and denies medical treatment like drugs and surgeries for children who wish to transition.

Either way, the county government should not be funding, nor should the county government be passing through money from some other source for an organization that is so deeply ideological and encourages the children that they are teaching to go advocate for social change, OHare said.

If Girls Inc. of Tarrant County wanted to change its name and dissociate, OHare invited the organization to come back next year for a chance at more funding. He said the narrative that girls wont be able to receive programming elsewhere was false.

Commissioner Manny Ramirez, a Republican who has three daughters, said he was raising his girls to be strong and independent and that every girl in the community deserved that too. Ramirez was troubled by the vitriol being tossed at Girls Inc. employees and board members, who he said were both conservative and not conservative as well as respected in the community.

At the end of the day, Ramirez could also not get on board with funding Girls Inc. because of its political advocacy that espouses troubling things that he said arent true.

Ramirez did not identify what things he believed werent true. Commissioner Gary Fickes did not speak at all.
Were learning more about a former University of Dayton (UD) professor arrested in a statewide human trafficking sting.

News Center 7 first reported on Michael Mastersons arrest on Monday. Today, the I-Teams lead investigator John Bedell uncovered new information and looked into the problem of human trafficking in the Miami Valley.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Former UD administrator, WPAFB SSG among over 100 arrested in statewide human trafficking sting

Masterson was an administrator at UD and one of 160 people arrested in the statewide sting, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost confirmed Monday.

The Director of Excellence at the University of Dayton was one of the johns charged. And candidly, I am shocked by the number of educated, disciplined, successful people that turned up in these stings like him. They know better, Yost told Bedell in a one-on-one interview.

>>PHOTOS: UD faculty member, WPAFB Airman among 160 arrested in large Ohio human trafficking sting

The university called Masterson a former faculty member in a statement to News Center 7 Monday. They also said they dont comment on individual personnel matters or ongoing investigations. Since then, the university has refused to answer any follow-up questions on Masterson.

Since then, the I-Team has obtained a new email from the dean of UDs business school. In the email, the dean wrote to some students, saying that the University has no indication the allegations against Masterson are connected to his prior employment here or that any unlawful behavior occurred on campus or with students.

>> I-TEAM: Really good news for homeowners; New law banning new MV Realty deals takes effect

In that same email, the dean said Masterson began teaching School of Business Administration in August 2022 and directed an experimental learning program.

Right now, we are focused on ensuring a positive educational experience for you as our students. A faculty member has been chosen to fulfill the instructional needs of our students in all the courses impacted by Mr. Mastersons departure, and another faculty member will take over the administrative-related responsibilities he had, the email read.

The I-Team is still working to confirm whether Masterson was on university time when he was arrested in Montgomery County last Wednesday. Hes been accused of trying to buy sex.

Two sources told the I-Team that he was teaching at UD as recently as the day after his arrest.

Bedell spoke with Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck on Tuesday. While he couldnt speak on the specifics of any cases tied to the sting, he did say his deputies took part in the operation.

>> Man facing charges in deadly Dayton shooting

Human trafficking is so difficult to deal with, Streck said.

He said human trafficking is prominent enough in our area that it led to the creation of the Miami Valley Human Trafficking Task Force.

Much like the drug trade, Daytons location makes it vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor because were within a days drive of many major cities.

For some reason, we have to figure out socially why we have so many people that are addicted to these substances, why we have so many people who are using prostitution and bringing it here, Streck said.

Michael Masterson, identified as a University of Dayton faculty member. (Contributed Photo Montgomery County Sheriff's Office)

Jason Goins, identified as a Major in the Air Force. (Contributed Photo/Montgomery County Sheriff's Office)

Shawn Rykken, identified as a staff sergeant in the Air Force stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. (Contributed Photo/Montgomery County Sheriff's Office)

Ramesh Karki, identified as a professor at Indiana University. (Contributed Photo/Montgomery County Sheriff's Office)

Brian Hubbard (Contributed Photo/Montgomery County Sheriff's Office)

John Cirulli (Contributed Photo/Montgomery County Sheriff's Office)

Anil Wagle (Contributed Photo/Montgomery County Sheriff's Office)

News Center 7's John Bedell approached former University of Dayton faculty member Michael Masterson at Dayton Municipal Court. Masterson was arrested as part of a large human trafficking sting in Ohio, according to the Ohio Attorney General. (AJ Ewry/Staff)

News Center 7's John Bedell approached former University of Dayton faculty member Michael Masterson at Dayton Municipal Court. Masterson was arrested as part of a large human trafficking sting in Ohio, according to the Ohio Attorney General. (AJ Ewry/Staff)

News Center 7's John Bedell approached former University of Dayton faculty member Michael Masterson at Dayton Municipal Court. Masterson was arrested as part of a large human trafficking sting in Ohio, according to the Ohio Attorney General. (AJ Ewry/Staff)
Follow-on financing has become harder to raise, which leaves startups striving for a Series A in a real bind.

Pre-downturn, startups with strong growth could be more confident about finding additional funds. Todays investors are looking for product-market fit and hard numbers that trend toward profitability.

If youre fundraising and someone wants to advise you on storytelling, you have my permission to skip that meeting and work on your data room instead.

Full TechCrunch+ articles are only available to members.

Use discount code TCPLUSROUNDUP to save 20% off a one- or two-year subscription.

At TechCrunch Disrupt, Tim De Chant interviewed three VCs to get their advice for founders who want to reach the next level:

Maren Bannon, co-founder and managing partner, January Ventures

James Currier, general partner, NFX

Loren Straub, general partner, Bowery Capital

Thanks for reading; have a great week!

Walter Thompson

Editorial Manager, TechCrunch+

@yourprotagonist

Adapting to a world with higher interest rates  a guide for startups

Cracked one hundred dollar bill

Image Credits: Mike Kemp (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

I once found myself driving a hybrid vehicle with a low battery and an empty tank in a rural area. I made it to a gas station by driving about 5 miles per hour.

The CFOs and VPs of finance out there are nodding right now: They know that trying to coast as far as you can with limited resources is stressful.

TC+ guest columnist Mohit Agarwal says scaling startups need to consider every savings option at hand, like negotiating with vendors or buying short-dated Treasuries.

Some boards will prohibit the buying of any form of securities, but most will be on board. After all, why not when there is a riskless 5%+ rate of return to be had.

How our new AI feature earned 5% adoption in its first week

Popcorn exploding out of the striped package. Clipping path included.

Image Credits: ktsimage (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Rolling out a new AI-enabled product feature is great  as long as it creates real value for customers.

In a post for TC+ that deconstructs the product development and engineering process they used, Gigasheet co-founder and CTO Garth Griffin explains why his companys second AI feature achieved a 10x better return on engineering effort.

SBFs trial promises to be just as riveting as the rest of the FTX drama

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Attends Hearing To Determine Bail Revocation

Image Credits: Michael M. Santiago (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Under Sam Bankman-Fried's leadership, crypto company FTX reached a $32 billion valuation before it collapsed and dragged the industry down with it.

Today, the former CEO is on trial in NYC, where he's charged with fraud and conspiracy. If found guilty, the 31-year-old could be sentenced to more than 100 years behind bars.

"Still, theres a lot of speculation about what the case could look like," writes Jacquelyn Melinek. "So to get to the meat of the matter, we spoke to a handful of legal experts on what to expect."

Get the TechCrunch+ Roundup newsletter in your inbox!

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To receive the TechCrunch+ Roundup as an email each Tuesday and Friday, scroll down to find the sign up for newsletters section on this page, select TechCrunch+ Roundup, enter your email, and click subscribe.

VC Office Hours: How data can help improve social impact investing

a door to symbolize VC Plus Office Hours

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Dominic-Madori Davis interviewed senior director of investment for Pivotal Ventures Erin Harkless Moore to learn more about how the part-venture fund, part-philanthropic organization operates:

In a world where so many investors prioritize vibes, why focus on data and analytics for social impact investing? You cant manage what you dont measure. We see the value in tracking the ownership percentages of diversity in our demographic data across the organizations. Looking at that data will let us know if were making progress.

Startups may have trouble finding their enterprise footing

Image of a blue piggybank wearing a belt atop a pile of coins.

Image Credits: s-c-s (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

According to a new survey from Battery Ventures, people who buy enterprise software aren't pinching pennies as hard as they used to.

"Contract approval timelines are no longer stretching longer, and focus on cutting SaaS spend more generally is fading," write Anna Heim and Alex Wilhelm in The Exchange.

"The kicker is that if you are selling AI-related software tools or tooling, you are probably having a better year than your friends who are building non-AI products."
Teddy Geigers new single Ive Made Mistakes encapsulates what's to come on her upcoming album Teresa.

The single, which is out Monday, is a raw conversation Geiger has about a former love. At the heart of the song is Geiger telling this person Ive made mistakes, but youre not one of them.

"Not giving up on you now/ What was once truly beautiful," she sings at the start of the song.

Its dumb to be like Everything happens for a reason, but everything that happens is valuable, Geiger tells The Advocate. The song, she says, is about wanting to pay tribute to the time two people had together.

"I've Made Mistakes" was one of the songs Geiger made while visiting Spain. Needing to take a break from the L.A. music scene, Geiger found herself hanging out with a small social network she developed while in the country for some time. There, she says she was able to reconnect to her way of making music after working so much with other artists helping them create their own sound.

"It was just really nice to be in like a new environment where I didn't know a ton of people," she says. Geiger explains that she "was able to just really spend a lot of time working on music and hanging out, playing guitar, and just doing that in a way that felt very organic."

Those moments eventually turned into songs that eventually became "I've Made Mistakes" and others on Teresa.

In a statement, Geiger said Ive Made Mistakes was about honoring relationships as they change. honoring, Stumbling and learning together, and falling apart and what we have learned from each other. Holding both that there are no mistakes, and even so owning up to that I have made mistakes."

Its about understanding that the relationship was in fact a beautiful thing.

Listen to Ive Made Mistakes below and check out Geigers album Teresa, which comes out on November 1.
The U.K. is running out of military equipment to send to Ukraine, the Telegraph reported on Oct. 2, citing information from a senior military chief.

The U.K. has given away as much as it can afford, the source told the Telegraph, adding that stocks have especially "run dry" on air defense and artillery ammunition.

While the British government "has already committed 14 Challenger 2 tanks," the source said it was unlikely the country would be able to donate any more tanks to Kyiv.

Weve given away pretty much everything we can afford to give, the military chief told the newspaper.

The U.K. therefore should be "encouraging other nations to give more money and weapons," rather than relying on its own military stocks, the source said.

The comments came the day after Ben Wallace, the former U.K. Defense Minister, wrote an article for the Telegraph in which he revealed that before his resignation in August, he had asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to increase military support for Ukraine.

"I asked the PM to match or increase the 2.3 billion pledged to Ukraine this year, to add to the 4.6 billion we have spent already," Wallace wrote.

Ukrainian forces "take U.K. equipment and achieve success rates far beyond expectations," he added.

Wallace had been U.K. Defense Minister since 2019 and played a key role in Britain's response to Russia's war on Ukraine.

As minister, Wallace made the U.K. the first country to provide Ukraine with weapons capable of reaching targets deep into Russian-occupied territories, namely by providing Storm Shadow missiles in May 2023.

Read also: Media: UK Minister says Ukraine has practically defeated Russias Black Sea Fleet

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  Threats against schools in Tennessee happen more than you might think.

Homeland Security told me that currently, when school is in session, theyll have three to four to five of these events across the state every week, said Sen. Ferrell Haile (R-Gallatin).

Haile said most of the time its just a student reacting to something frustrating them within the school, and he doesnt want them hit with too harsh a punishment. But other times, its more serious.

Currently, its a Class-A misdemeanor to make such a threat. Hailes bill would add a Class-E felony for a general threat of mass violence and a Class-D felony if that threat is targeted somewhere specific, like a place of worship, school or government building.

The misdemeanor carries a punishment of about a year or less in jail and a fine of $2,500 or less.

The Class-D felony carries between two and 12 years in jail and a potential fine of $5,000 or less.

Under this bill, the misdemeanor would still exist, but Haile said it would likely be used sparingly.

The reason that were leaving the misdemeanor in is because you might have a 14-year-old in school that makes an idle threat, he said. We dont want to make them into a felon.

The only group that has openly opposed the bill is Disability Rights Tennessee (DRT), which argues the language is too vague and will allow for the arrest of one-time outbursts from students.

It may not be the intent of the sponsor for this bill, if it becomes law, to apply to kids or to threats that arent credible, DRT Policy Coordinator Zoe Jamail said. But that is what the language of the bill does.

The nonprofit said the bill will also target students with disabilities. Were seeing that many of the children who are charged with the misdemeanor threats of mass violence are kids with disabilities, Jamail said.

Most importantly though, according to the nonprofit, if someone is reported for a threat, it requires multiple mental evaluations, which it argues could potentially lead to involuntary commitment.

It captures threats that might not have intent behind them or are otherwise not credible, Jamail said. We would like to see language that only captures credible threats.

But Haile said lawmakers addressed those concerns while writing the bill, and that those scenarios were front of mind while drafting.

We spent a lot of time on this, and we chased a lot of rabbits. We used a wall back there that was longer than that wall, Haile said, pointing at an adjacent wall in his office. It had sticky notes all over it.

The bill died in special session, but Haile said hell revive it for regular session in January.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
A horrifying video captured the moment Christopher Wright, a 38-year-old dad of three, was shot in the head Thursday after reportedly getting in an argument with a notorious criminal in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The man who allegedly gunned down Wright is Darryl Roberts, a 57-year-old nicknamed Too Tall who had been arrested 66 times prior, the New York Post reported. Cops said Wright got into an argument with Roberts and another man while en route to a high school reuniona spat captured by security cameras. Footage showed Wright say something to the men moments before a man identified as Roberts pulled out a gun and shot Wright, who instantly collapsed. Wright was rushed to a hospital but died there. Cops arrested Roberts on a murder charge after a brief manhunt. A GoFundMe fundraiser raised over $400,000 for the Wright family, which includes his wife, Acacia, and their three childrenDeclan, Abbott, and Aprilia, who was born in July. To know Chris was to love him, the fundraiser said. His warm presence, infectious smile, deep laugh, and big hugs were his signatures.

Read it at New York Post

Read more at The Daily Beast.
State Rep. Justin Jones (D) filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court against Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R) and other officials in the state House for expelling and silencing him in the legislative body.

In April, the Tennessee House voted to expel Jones after he protested gun violence following a school shooting in Nashville that left three adults and three children dead. After that, Sexton led the move to expel both Jones and state Rep. Justin Pearson from the chamber for speaking on the House floor without permission.

Jones protested gun violence by speaking on the house floor in April, was expelled, re-instated, and then during an August special session was prohibited from speaking the rest of the day when he spoke off-topic

No one is above the law, including Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, Jones said in a statement. This lawsuit is about challenging authoritarianism and ensuring the voices of over 70,000 people in District 52, one of the most diverse districts in our state, are not silenced by someone wishing to stomp out dissent.

The expulsion led Jones to lose his committee seats, according to the lawsuit, which says that between Jones protest and his expulsion, he was subjected to repeated personal and ad hominem attacks from Sexton and other Republican members of the House. The attacks cited in the lawsuit include accusations that Jones was trying to start a riot when he protested on the House floor and comparisons to Donald Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

State Rep. Justin Jones on Aug. 23, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee.

State Rep. Justin Jones on Aug. 23, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee.

After Jones was reinstated to the state House, the lawsuit claims, Sexton still imposed and abused new draconian and unconstitutional procedural rules to silence Jones during an August special session on gun violence. At the time, Sexton ruled Jones out of order after members of the chamber said he spoke off-topic, and he was not allowed to speak for the rest of the day. The lawsuit cites one instance of Jones being ruled out of order after saying, during a debate on police in schools, that what schools needed was more mental health professionals and higher wages for teachers.

Sexton did not respond to HuffPosts request for comment.

Jones lawsuit asks, among other things, for his expulsion to be declared unconstitutional and for him to be reinstated to his committee seats, with his seniority based on when he was first elected to the House.

Representative Jones has been, is, and will continue to be a voice for his

constituents in the Tennessee House of Representatives, the suit states.

Related...
I had to make the hard decision to terminate my pregnancy  and Tennessee law made it impossible to get it here.

I had to make the hard decision to terminate my pregnancy  and Tennessee law made it impossible to get it here."

A Tennessee woman who was denied an abortion earlier this year is using her experience to run for office in the state.

Because of the trauma Tennessees [abortion] ban has caused me, I have been dedicating my time to try and change their barbaric law, Allie Phillips said in her first campaign video, launched on Monday and first reported by the Nashville Post. That is why I am now running for the Tennessee state House of Representatives, District 75.

The lifelong Tennessee resident went viral earlier this year when she shared her story of pregnancy loss on TikTok. Phillips and her husband were elated when they found out she was pregnant with her second daughter in November 2022. The couple had decided to name the baby Miley Rose after the song Flowers by Miley Cyrus. And every night before bedtime, Phillips 6-year-old daughter, Adalie, would sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to her belly  a sign she was going to be a good big sister.

Im honored and excited to announce my candidacy for TN House of Representatives District 75! pic.twitter.com/qRgBslDlVT  Allie Phillips (@allie4tn) October 2, 2023

But during Phillips 19-week anatomy scan, her doctor told her the fetus had several fatal anomalies and that Miley Rose would not survive outside of the womb. In the same breath, the physician said they could not offer Phillips the critical care she needed, since months earlier Tennessee had enacted a near-total abortion ban after the fall of Roe v. Wade. The state law bans abortion at any stage, with no exceptions for rape or incest and limited exceptions for medical emergencies.

My doctor informed me that if I chose to stay pregnant, I would be putting my own life at risk, Phillips said in her campaign video. I had to make the hard decision to terminate my pregnancy  and Tennessee law made it impossible to get it here.

Despite the medical necessity of an abortion, Phillips was told she needed to leave the state to access care. The states abortion ban is vague in its exceptions and threatens physicians with felony charges if they break the law. This often discourages doctors from performing any abortions, even those that fall within the bans exceptions.

After calling several clinics, then booking flights and hotels, Phillips was able to travel to New York to get an abortion. But she was forced to grieve her pregnancy loss alone.

I was in a city Ive never been in, far away from my family, friends, doctors, caregivers, Phillips said on TikTok. I was in that clinic alone. I was told my daughters heart had stopped alone. I went into surgery and came out alone. Nobody, nobody should have to go through something like that alone.

This embedded content is not available in your region.

Now, Phillips is running for office in an attempt to change the severe abortion restrictions in place in her home state. Although the general election is not until November 2024, Phillips, who is running as a Democrat, needs time to gain support in a historically red district. If she wins the Democratic nomination in the August 2024 primary, Phillips will likely face off with incumbent Jeff Burkhart.

Phillips has shared her story dozens of times, including as a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed last month by the Center for Reproductive Rights against the state of Tennessee. The Center for Reproductive Rights filed lawsuits in three states, including Tennessee, on behalf of women who were denied medically necessary abortions.

No one should have to be at deaths door to receive essential health care, but that is exactly what happens when doctors are forced to practice medicine under threat of imprisonment, Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a press statement last month when the suits were filed.

Abortion bans across the nation are exposing pregnant people to risks of death, illness, and injury, including loss of fertility, Northup said. The women standing up today survived, but it is only a matter of time before someone does not.
A group of U.S. senators, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, plans to visit China next week and hopes to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a spokesperson for Republican Senator Mike Crapo confirmed on Monday.

Schumer's office said last month he was planning a trip to China, Korea and Japan co-led by Crapo but did not comment on Monday. The Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment.

Some senators are eager to boost engagement with China and address business-related issues between China and the United States.

A growing number of U.S. businesses are expressing frustration at operating in China, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said recently. "For U.S. business in many cases patience is running thin and it's time for action," she said.

Communication between U.S. and Chinese officials has increased in recent months, bringing some improvement in ties strained for years over issues such as Taiwan, the origins of COVID-19 and accusations of Chinese spying.

The Biden administration has placed curbs on chip exports to China, saying they aim to deny Beijing access to advanced technology that could further military advancements or rights abuses. China hit back with accusations of economic coercion. (Reuters)
The tension and stress of not knowing what happened to 17-year-old Imperial Stewart boiled over in the halls of Franklin County Municipal Court on Tuesday morning.

After hearings for a mother and son accused of lying to investigators in the case, courthouse security separated members of both families after a heated exchange in the hallway.

The verbal sparring happened moments after Municipal Court Judge Bill Hedrick set bond at $500,000 each for 18-year-old Mi'Quel Bowles and his mother, 40-year-old Tywisha Peterson, both of the Northeast Side.

Both Bowles and Peterson face charges of felony obstructing justice.

Franklin County prosecutors said Bowles and Peterson have both lied about their involvement and connection to a Sept. 20 suspected robbery that court records say may have led to the homicide of Stewart, who was last seen on that day near Cleveland Avenue and Huy Road.

Columbus police released information Sept. 25 about Stewart's disappearance, saying they suspected foul play and asked for help in locating a black 2006 Chrysler 300 that may have been involved.

Imperial Stewart, 17, has been missing since Sept. 23, 2023.

That car, according to court records, was later found "burnt out" in a portion of the Southeast Side of the city that is located in Fairfield County.

Police believe Bowles, a high school senior, was shot Sept. 20, the same day Stewart was last seen, with the shooting taking place inside the Chrysler, according to court records. The shooting, court documents said, occurred while Stewart was being robbed.

Michael Bowles, 20, the younger Bowles' brother and another son of Peterson's, is suspected of dropping Mi'Quel Bowles off at a family member's house after the shooting and robbery. Police also identified the elder Bowles as a person of interest but he has not been charged in connection with Stewart's disappearance.

Mi'Quel Bowles told detectives he was not in the car with his brother and had no knowledge of Stewart's disappearance or the robbery, according to court records. However, detectives wrote that multiple witnesses saw Bowles getting out of his brother's car at the family member's home. Physical evidence also contradicts his assertions that he was not in the car, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Imperial Stewart, 17, has been missing since Sept. 23, 2023.

Peterson is accused of being involved in a discussion of how to get rid of the Chrysler after Stewart's disappearance, according to court records. Peterson also lied to investigators about having any involvement in the case and said she was not at the home where the conversation took place, despite multiple contradicting witness statements, court records say.

Hedrick set bond for Peterson and Bowles at $500,000 each and ordered them to have no contact with each other or Stewart's family.

That order, however, did not extend to members of both families who were in the courtroom watching the proceedings. After Hedrick set bond in Bowles' case, a member of Stewart's family stood up and yelled "$500,000 ain't (expletive)" before the family left the courtroom.

In the hallway of the fourth floor of the Municipal Court, courthouse security separated the families after they exchanged heated words. Members of Stewart's family accused a man believed to be related to Bowles or Peterson of knowing where Stewart's body was located.

While police have not officially labeled Stewart's case a homicide, in court on Tuesday, prosecutors said they suspected the case is a homicide. Columbus police assigned homicide detectives to the investigation from the beginning, citing their belief that foul play may have been involved in Stewart's disappearance.

On Tuesday, Columbus police said they "now believe Imperial may be deceased."

Neither family spoke with reporters after the hearings on Tuesday. Stewart's family is offering a $10,000 reward for information.

Columbus police also said Tuesday that Genee Dumas, 39, and a 17-year-old girl face charges of obstruction of official business, tampering with evidence and resisting arrest.

Detectives interviewed Dumas' daughter  the 17-year-old girl  on Sept. 29, according to court records. During the interview, Dumas began smashing her daughter's phone against a desktop in the room they were in and telling her daughter to smash the phone, court records said. Dumas then pushed against officers who were trying to arrest her, court records said.

Dumas had her first court hearing on Sept. 30. Hedrick released her on her own recognizance in the case.

In addition to Peterson and Bowles, a 16-year-old boy also faces a charge of obstructing justice, according to police. The Dispatch is not naming the juveniles because they have not been charged as adults.

Police said they are still looking to speak with Michael Bowles to ask him about his knowledge of the case.

Anyone with information on Stewart's disappearance should contact detectives at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS. All calls to Crime Stoppers are anonymous.

bbruner@dispatch.com

@bethany_bruner

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Mother, son accused of lying in missing Imperial Stewart investigation
In a victory for Tesla, a California federal judge ruled over the weekend that a group of Tesla owners cannot pursue in court claims that the company falsely advertised its automated features. Instead, they will have to face individual arbitration.

U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam 's ruling isn't a win for the defensibility of Tesla's advanced driver assistance systems, Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD), but simply for Tesla's terms and conditions. The plaintiffs who filed the proposed class action in September 2022 did in fact agree to arbitrate any legal claims against the company when they signed on the dotted line, according to the judge. They had 30 days to opt out, and none chose to do so.

Forced arbitration has been a stalwart partner in the tech industry. Tesla's success in dodging a class action lawsuit could encourage other automakers to lean more heavily on this tactic.

"In some respects, it probably does put down a marker that these types of claims will likely face these types of challenges," Ryan Koppelman, partner at law firm Alston & Bird, told TechCrunch.

Koppelman noted that arbitration is a common legal strategy used by companies to avoid individual claims and class actions like this one.

In this specific case, a fifth plaintiff did opt out of arbitration, but Judge Gilliam ruled to dismiss their claims, as they waited too long to sue, according to court documents.

"The statue of limitation aspect is interesting because the claims at issue here had to do with what the Tesla products will be capable of in the future, as well as what they were supposedly capable of at the time of sale," said Koppelman.

The plaintiffs in the case all claimed to have spent thousands of dollars on unreliable and dangerous technology that has caused accidents, some resulting in death. Tesla has denied wrongdoing and moved to send the claims to arbitration, after citing the plaintiffs' acceptance of the arbitration agreement.

Judge Gilliam also denied the plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction "prohibiting the defendant from continuing to engage in its allegedly illegal and deceptive practices." In effect, the plaintiffs asked the court to force Tesla to stop marketing their ADAS as providing "full self-driving capability"; to stop selling and de-activate their FSD beta software; and to alert all customers that Tesla's use of terms like "full self-driving capability," "self-driving" and "autonomous" to describe the ADAS technology was inaccurate.

Falsely advertising Autopilot and FSD

The original complaint, filed in September 2022, alleged that Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk have been deceitfully advertising its automated driving features as either fully functioning or close to being solved since 2016, despite knowing full well that the capabilities of Autopilot and FSD dont live up to the hype.

The plaintiffs alleged that Tesla's ADAS cause vehicles to run red lights, miss turns and veer into traffic, all the while costing Tesla owners thousands of dollars.

Briggs Matsko, the named plaintiff in the lawsuit, said he paid $5,000 for his 2018 Tesla Model X to get Enhanced Autopilot. Tesla's FSD costs an additional $12,000.

The failed class action isn't the only time Tesla's so-called self-driving technology has come under scrutiny. Earlier this year, Musk was found to have overseen a 2016 video that overstated the capabilities of Autopilot.

The revelation came from a deposition from a senior engineer taken as evidence in a lawsuit against Tesla for a fatal 2018 crash involving former Apple engineer Walter Huang. The lawsuit alleges that errors by Autopilot, and Huangs misplaced trust in the capabilities of the system, caused the crash.

Tesla's ADAS is also being investigated by numerous state agencies. California's Department of Motor Vehicles also accused Tesla in July 2022 of falsely advertising its Autopilot and FSD systems. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) is actively probing 830,000 Teslas that include Autopilot. And the Department of Justice has requested information from Tesla regarding its Autopilot and FSD technology.
BOSTON  Birgit Claus Henn was called to Holliston in 2017 after residents there reported discolored tap water in their homes amid reports that several children were experiencing kidney problems and learning disabilities.

Residents had hoped that an expert such as Henn, an environmental epidemiologist, could figure out what was happening.

Henn, also an Boston University environmental health associate professor, and other experts determined that the towns public drinking water system contained various contaminants, including lead, barium and manganese, all of which can have adverse health effects on children.

As Massachusetts has no law requiring schools to prevent lead contamination in their water, advocates and legislators, including state Sen. Joan Lovely, D-Salem, and state Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian, D-Melrose, are pushing for bills that would implement mandatory health protections against lead in drinking water at both schools and child care centers.

Legislators are pushing for mandatory health protections against lead in drinking water at both schools and child care centers.

Baby teeth analysis: BU researcher advances cutting-edge tech in Holliston drinking water studies

We know that most of the (tested) schools and child care centers  have tested positive for lead, Deirdre Cummings, legislative director of environmental advocacy group MASSPIRG, said during a recent hearing of the Legislatures Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. We have no mandatory testing, prevention or remediation requirements for lead in drinking water at schools or child care centers.

Since 2016, more than 80% of taps tested in more than 1,700 Bay State schools and child care centers contained lead, according to Department of Environmental Protection data cited by MASSPIRG.

As a former public school teacher and mother to two school-aged sons, I am proud to have filed this legislation to promote the health and safety of students and teachers across the Commonwealth, said Lipper-Garabedian, in a statement. Im glad to be working with Sen. Lovely, MASSPIRG, Environment Massachusetts, the Massachusetts PTA, and others to press for health-based standards that ensure safe water for students and educators in our schools and child care centers."

In Framingham, only four of 19 city schools have been tested for lead by the state since January 2022.

Heres what legislation requiring lead remediation at schools would look like and why:

Health effects of lead in drinking water

Cummings said its especially important to implement protections for children as they are particularly vulnerable to lead, even at low exposure levels.

Henn said contaminants such as lead, copper and manganese are neurotoxins that can harm the neurological development of children.

Lead and copper continue to be an issue, and manganese is not just in Holliston; its in many communities, Henn said in an interview. It can be naturally occurring or anthropogenic because of industrial activities but ultimately, it's elevated levels in the drinking water.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to lead can also cause lowered IQ, hyperactivity, stunted growth, hearing problems and anemia in children.

Installing lead filtrations at drinking water outlets

Mandatory health protections would require schools and child care centers to install and maintain lead filters, according to bills filed by Lovely and Lipper-Garabedian.

Cummings said some school districts have already voluntarily installed lead filters in drinking water outlets. She said that although its a simple and inexpensive preventative method, it's not something every school has done.

I think there's a fear that this is going to be this huge expense, and the reality it's not, Cummings said. When you then think about what's the expense  I couldnt say that its not (an expense), but compare it to someones lifelong learning disabilities as a result of exposure.

Cummings added there are state resources that help schools counter the cost of lead filters, including the School Water Improvement Grants program. Massachusetts launched the program in 2020, aiming to provide grant funding for schools and childcare facilities to install water filters.

Increased testing and monitoring of school drinking water

Legislation would also require schools and child care centers to annually test drinking water outlets for elevated lead levels.

Henn said that during her time researching the public water system in Holliston, she found that the frequency with which water was tested and data about water contaminant levels were relatively sparse, both for Holliston and the state.

It's monitored, and yes, it's measured, but it's done less often than I would argue it should be done, Henn said. With a regulation, drinking water suppliers would be required to meet that level that's actually safe for everyone's health.

Cummings said although the DEP offers to test lead levels in schools and child care facilities, it's a voluntary program. So not all schools get tested.

The program itself is very good, they're rigorous, they have good testing methodologies, the advice that the DEP gives is great, Cummings said. The problem is that the program is voluntary.

Mandatory health protection legislation would require schools to test their water contaminant levels on a regular basis, as well as make water quality results available to the public.

No matter if you're from the Cape, or the Berkshires, or from Lowell, or New Bedford, Cummings said. It will be for all kids who go to school in Massachusetts or in a child care center.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: MA advocates seek required testing for lead in water at schools
AUSTIN, Texas  Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Yelp are suing each other over labels on the online review platform that designated pregnancy resource centers as providing "limited medical services."

Paxton filed a lawsuit against Yelp on Sept. 28 stating that the company violated Texass Deceptive Trade Practices Act by adding "misleading" language in notices on pregnancy resource centers listings on the website, according to a release. Yelp filed a lawsuit on Wednesday stating it published "truthful information about businesses that offer pregnancy-related counseling to the public" and said its disclaimers are constitutionally protected by the First Amendment. The company seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, according to the lawsuit.

With the dismantling of federal abortion rights, so-called "crisis pregnancy centers have become a focus in the renewed debate. The goal of these facilities is typically to dissuade women from having abortions, though supporters say they provide necessary care and counseling.

Before Roe was overturned, there were about 800 abortion clinics in the U.S. in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Researchers put the number of crisis pregnancy centers at anywhere from 2,500 to 4,000.

SUPREME COURT TOOK AWAY ABORTION RIGHTS: Mexico's high court just did the opposite.

Abortion in Texas

In Texas, state lawmakers effectively banned abortions in 2021 through Senate Bill 8, which prohibited the procedure as early as five weeks after a woman's last menstrual cycle. Upon the Supreme Court's ruling in 2022, a trigger law went into effect banning abortion in the state almost entirely.

Following the ruling, Yelp posted disclaimers on its site to alert potential customers that the resource centers do not provide abortion services. Messages included "may not have licensed medical professionals onsite."

The attorney general's office is suing Yelp for "misleading" consumers in the wake of Texas' restrictive abortion laws. Paxton is seeking injunctive relief and monetary damages of $1 million or more from Yelp, according to a case filed Thursday in Bastrop County state District Court in Central Texas.

Yelp cannot mislead and deceive the public simply because the company disagrees with our states abortion laws, Paxton said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. Major companies cannot abuse their platforms and influence to control consumers behavior, especially on sensitive health issues like pregnancy and abortion.

The US Supreme Court took away abortion. Mexico's high court just did the opposite.

Yelp lawsuit: 'This threat targets truthful speech'

On Wednesday, Yelp filed a preemptive lawsuit in a federal court in San Francisco against Paxton's office, calling prosecution of the company unconstitutional and affirming that its messages did not violate the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

"This threat targets truthful speech fully protected by the First Amendment, which Yelp months ago replaced with a notice that even the Attorney General admits is 'accurate,'" the lawsuit filing reads.

Yelp said a February letter from Paxton's office demanded that the consumer notice be taken down. The website changed the language to say that pregnancy centers do not provide abortions.

In a Thursday filing, Paxton's office wrote that pregnancy resource centers provide medical services to expecting mothers and families through access to prenatal services, such as pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and information about abortion. Paxton's lawsuit argues the original designation "could only have exacerbated consumer confusion."

"Whatever the merits of informing consumers about where they can seek an abortion, that goal is completely irrelevant to Yelps misleading consumer notice about whether pregnancy resource centers perform medical services or have licensed medical professionals on-site," Paxton's office wrote.

Yelp and Attorney General Ken Paxton are suing each other over reproductive health language.

Yelp CEO's stance on abortion rights

Paxton's lawsuit also made note of a 2022 statement from Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, in which he said the company and others need to "take action" regarding the right to abortion.

"Among other things, he boasted that Yelp provides special assistance to 'select organizations that are fighting the legal battle against abortion bans,'" Paxton's lawsuit reads.

Yelp's anticipatory lawsuit was filed in California on the grounds that Paxton is seeking to chill the speech of a California resident, according to the suit.

"The Attorney General's actions have already caused and, unless enjoined, will continue to cause Yelp irreparable injuries in California," the lawsuit reads.

Paxton argues that, although the original notice has been removed, the company "remains liable for penalties and other relief for the duration of its unlawful behavior."

Contributing: Vanessa Arredondo, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Yelp and Texas AG Ken Paxton sue over pregnancy resource centers
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) was carjacked about a mile from the U.S. Capitol on Monday night.

Cuellar was parking his car outside of his apartment in the Navy Yard area of Southeast D.C when three armed individuals approached the congressman and stole his vehicle.

As Congressman Cuellar was parking his car this evening, 3 armed assailants approached the Congressman and stole his vehicle, his chief of staff said in a statement. Thank you to Metro PD and Capitol Police for their swift action and for recovering the Congressmans vehicle.

His chief of staff confirmed that Cuellar was not injured.

According to the citys Metropolitan Police Department, an armed carjacking was reported at approximately 9:32 p.m. Victim information was not provided.

This is not the first time a member of Congress has been the victim of a carjacking. In December 2021, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) was carjacked at gunpoint in Philadelphia.

Cuellar has represented Texas 28th Congressional District, which encompasses the Rio Grande Valley along the U.S.-Mexico border, since 2005. Prior to that, he briefly served as Secretary of State under then-Gov. Rick Perry, and was a member of the Texas House of Representatives for 14 years beginning in 1987.

In 2022, Nancy Pelosi announced her support for Cuellar ahead of a runoff election later in May last year, despite pressure from pro-choice advocates who point out that Cuellar is the only Democrat in the House who opposes abortion. Pelosi called Cuellar a valued member of our caucus at the time.

This is a developing story.

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WASHINGTON  Rep. Henry Cuellar , D-Texas, was carjacked Monday night about a mile from the Capitol.

His chief of staff confirmed the incident in a statement and said he was not injured.

As Congressman Cuellar was parking his car this evening, 3 armed assailants approached the Congressman and stole his vehicle. Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement. Thank you to Metro PD and Capitol Police for their swift action and for recovering the Congressmans vehicle, the statement said.

Washington Metropolitan Police said an armed carjacking was reported at about 9:32 p.m. in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Southeast Washington. No information about the victim was immediately provided.

Punchbowl News first reported that Cuellar was the victim.

Reached for comment, a U.S. Capitol Police spokesperson said in a statement that Washington police were "investigating an armed carjacking that happened around 9:30 p.m. in DCs Navy Yard neighborhood."

"The victim has been identified as a Member of Congress, so the USCP has investigators working with MPD on this case. Injuries were not reported. Detectives are working to track down the suspects," the spokesperson added.

Cuellar's car was recovered about 2 miles away in the Anacostia neighborhood, two law enforcement sources told NBC Washington. No arrests have been made, the sources said.

Cuellar, 68, is not the first member of Congress to be the victim of a carjacking.

Two years ago, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., was carjacked at gunpoint in Philadelphia.

Cuellar was re-elected in November to a 10th term in Congress. His district stretches from the Rio Grande to parts of the San Antonio suburbs.

Rebecca Kaplan and Frank Thorp V reported from Washington. Zoe Richards reported from New York.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar (D) was carjacked at gunpoint on Monday night in Washington, D.C., about a mile from Capitol Hill, authorities said.

The lawmaker was unharmed, and police later recovered his vehicle. Three armed robbers, at least one of whom had a gun, approached Cuellar in the citys Navy Yard neighborhood around 9:30 p.m. before stealing the car and the congressmans luggage. Politico was the first to report the news.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, is seen after a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, June 8, 2022.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, is seen after a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, June 8, 2022.

I was just coming into my place, and three guys came out of nowhere, and they pointed guns at me, Cuellar told reporters Tuesday morning. I do have a black belt, but I recognize when you got three guns.

He added, They said they wanted my car, so I said sure. You got to keep calm in those situations, and they took off.

Cuellar thanked the Capitol and Metro Police and said hell leave it up to the House administration on whether or not Congress members should have more security.

The message is very simple: You gotta support law enforcement, he said.

His phone and tablet were also stolen. Its unclear if the car, which had Texas license plates, identified the owner as a member of Congress, The Washington Post noted.

As Congressman Cuellar was parking his car this evening, 3 armed assailants approached the congressman and stole his vehicle, his chief of staff, Jacob Hochberg, told media outlets. Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement. Thank you to Metro PD and Capitol Police for their swift action and for recovering the congressmans vehicle.

Related...
(Bloomberg) -- Rice University is losing out on potential faculty recruits who say they dont want to relocate to Texas because of factors including the conservative political environment.

Most Read from Bloomberg

University President Reginald DesRoches said some professors from the East or West Coasts are reluctant to consider Houston as the school pushes to hire 200 new faculty members. The private school is expanding its undergraduate enrollment to 4,800 students by fall 2024, a 20% increase from several years ago.

There are cases where sometimes people dont come to Rice because of the perception of Texas, DesRoches, who is the universitys first Black president, said in an interview Monday at Bloombergs New York headquarters.

He added that those who he can persuade to pay a visit are often impressed by Houstons diversity and cultural offerings, and that hes still been able to hire well qualified professors.

If we can get people to Texas, we can get people to Houston and they can see how cosmopolitan it is, how diverse it is, the rich culture, the museum culture, and the music culture, that we do well in recruiting people, he said in a later interview on Bloomberg Radio. Weve been able to so far recruit an exceptionally talented group of faculty to Rice. Were really pleased with that, and we will continue to work hard.

The school gets more than 31,000 applications a year from perspective students, far more than it can admit, he said.

The comments about recruiting new hires come after a survey last month of more than 1,900 college faculty in Texas, which found that about two-thirds wouldnt recommend the state to a colleague from elsewhere. More than a quarter said they planned to interview for positions outside of Texas. University professors tend to lean liberal, and the top issue for those expressing a desire to leave was the states political climate.

Texas Republicans in recent years pushed through bans on diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public universities, as well as some of the nations strictest bans on abortion and on gender affirming care for children. The GOP controls all statewide offices and has a majority in the state Senate and House.

DesRoches said having a diverse faculty was particularly meaningful for students from underrepresented backgrounds.

People underestimate how important it is that students see people that look like them in the classroom, DesRoches said. He says the university has doubled the percentage of Black faculty over the past five years to 4%.

Rice is the richest private university in Texas with an endowment of about $7.8 billion. Its aggressive expansion plans underscore a sharp dichotomy in higher education, in which some schools are growing quickly while smaller colleges are losing students and closing.

(Updates with comment on Bloomberg Radio in the fifth paragraph.)

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Rep. Henry Cuellar , D-Texas, was carjacked Monday night in Washington. He was not injured. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI

Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Rep. Henry Cuellar was the victim of a carjacking Monday night in Washington, D.C., his office told UPI.

The Texas Democrat was parking his car when three armed men approached him and stole his vehicle, Cuellar's chief of staff Jacob Hochberg told UPI in a text message.

"Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement," Hochberg said, adding that Cuellar's vehicle has since been recovered.

The carjacking occurred at 9:32 p.m. at New Jersey Avenue and K Street SE in the trendy Navy Yard neighborhood of the nation's capital, Paris Lewbel, deputy director of communications for the Metropolitan Police Department, told UPI in an emailed statement that confirmed the victim as "a member of Congress."

U.S. Capitol Police's Criminal Investigation Division has taken over the investigation, with Capitol Police assisting, Lewbel said.

According to D.C. Metropolitan Police statistics, there have been 750 carjackings this year, of which 75% involved a firearm.

The carjacking is not the first violent crime in the city this year involving politicians or their staffers as victims.

Almost eight months ago, Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., was attacked in the elevator of her Washington apartment building.

In March, a congressional staffer for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., suffered serious injuries in a stabbing on H Street NE.

And a member of Minnesota Republican Rep. Brad Finstad's staff was attacked by an armed man near the U.S. Capitol in June.
Congress averted a government shutdown Saturday by the skin of its teeth.

At the 11th hour, lawmakers reached a temporary deal, dubbed a continuing resolution, to keep the wheels churning until Nov. 17. As usual, both sides found a way to avoid work while looking like heroes  a real talent of politicians.

Some politicians ended up making more news than others, our own Sen. Ted Cruz among them, though whether the news is good or bad likely depends on how one views government spending.

Cruz was one of just nine Republicans who voted against the continuing resolution that stopped the government from shutting down. Just a few days earlier, Cruz gave an impassioned floor speech trying to rally support for a bill that would have ensured our members of the military would continue to receive paychecks if the government shut down.

Some might argue that voting for military members to receive paychecks during a shutdown while also, actually, voting against the bill that averted a government shutdown is a bit like stepping on a rattlesnake instead of actually just killing it. Cruzs comrades were far-right Republicans, like Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

Conservative hardliners demanded spending cuts that had zero chance of passing in the Democratic-controlled Senate and werent palatable for some moderate GOP lawmakers, Ken Tran wrote at USA Today.

Cruzs strongest possible opponent in his Senate race, Democrat Collin Allred, immediately used it against him, posting on X: Ted Cruz voted to shut down the government yesterday. He voted to force our service members and CBP agents to go without pay, and to deny Texans and our small businesses resources we need. Ted Cruz is too extreme for Texas. Together, we will replace him.

Ted Cruz voted to shut down the government yesterday. He voted to force our service members and CBP agents to go without pay, and to deny Texans and our small businesses resources we need.



Ted Cruz is too extreme for Texas. Together, we will replace him. https://t.co/YYfO7NkJ3z  Colin Allred (@ColinAllredTX) October 1, 2023

In Cruzs defense, such as it is, he did have a decent reason, one fellow conservatives will applaud. In a press release, Cruz said:

No one wants a government shutdown, and I have proudly championed the End Government Shutdowns Act, which would send the government into an automatic continuing resolution with a one percent reduction in spending if Congress could not get its act together to fund the government.

However, Democrats are opposed to spending cuts, or spending limits of any kind, even their own spending limit that they agreed to less than four months ago. This continuing resolution does nothing to address the acute crisis at the Texas-Mexico border, itself created by deliberate Democrat policies. I voted no.

While its impressive for Cruz to stick to his principles  principles he likely believes his conservative constituents share  politics is a game, unfortunately, and he must play the hand hes been dealt. He stood against a bill that wasnt going to pass, handing what political capital he had to Allred to use in campaign ads for the next year.

Theyll play on a loop, just wait.

Cmon Cruz, like Kenny Rogers crooned decades ago, You got to know when to hold em, and know when to fold em.

Cruz is right to try to curb spending and, of course, to prioritize the chaotic border. But given that there are dozens of opportunities throughout session to do so, it doesnt seem like the best time to become a stalwart against government spending is right before the government shuts down.

That said, hes no villain, and Allred should be careful to paint him as such. At least Cruz had a good reason that makes sense to his constituents. Everybody else who voted for the resolution, thus preventing the shutdown, doesnt get to walk away a hero, either.

Passing a bill that kicks the can down is like breaking into someones house  our house, ahem, actually  and then only stealing one gold necklace instead of all the cash, jewelry and other valuables around.

Thanks, but, no thanks.

We too have made a living out of reading peoples faces and we can tell when the governments out of aces and trying to play us all.
The Biden administration warned Beijing of its plans to update rules that curb shipments of AI chips and chipmaking tools to China as soon as early October, a U.S. official said, a policy decision aimed at stabilizing relations between the superpowers.

The Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, is working on an update of export restrictions first released last year. The update seeks to limit access to more chipmaking tools in line with new Dutch and Japanese rules, other sources said, and to close some loopholes in export restrictions on artificial intelligence (AI) chips.

"The PRC has been expecting an update around the one year anniversary, based on conversations with administration officials," the U.S. official said, using the abbreviation for People's Republic of China. The original rules were published Oct. 7, 2022.

U.S. officials provided the information to Chinese counterparts in recent weeks, the official said, which Reuters is reporting for the first time. The official declined to disclose details on the particular conversations.

Providing China with a heads up about the rules is part of a broader bid by the Biden administration to stabilize relations with Beijing. The outreach comes after a decision by the U.S. to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon sharply escalated tensions in February.

The Biden administration has also sent a series of high-level officials to China, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in August. Additionally, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in September.

The restrictions released last October sought to prevent U.S. technology from being used to strengthen the Chinese military by cutting off its access to advanced AI chips and curbing its ability to import the most sophisticated chipmaking tools from the United States.

The Department of Commerce declined comment, while a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington had "nothing to offer," when asked for comment on the warning.

"China firmly opposes the U.S.'s overstretching of the national security concept and abuse of export control measures to wantonly hobble Chinese enterprises," said spokesperson Liu Pengyu.

Former White House official Peter Harrell stressed that he did not know if the administration had warned China about the new rules, but said, if they did, it would represent "a bit of an inflection point" for the administration as it tries to avoid sending misunderstood signals.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also gave Chinese officials a warning in July about restrictions on U.S. investment in China released in August.

The Biden administration is hoping to clinch Chinese President Xi Jinping's attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco in November, too, an effort which also has weighed on the timing of the upcoming export rules' release.

Officials have sought to avoid publishing them in the immediate lead-up to the summit, which they saw as potentially jeopardizing Xi's attendance, sources said. Any rules not ready for publication by early October would likely be held until after the summit to avoid antagonizing China, they noted.

The Administration narrowed in on or near the one-year anniversary for a number of reasons ? including to establish a clear cadence, the official said.

But, the official added, the technical work needed to finalize the restrictions was not yet complete. "As of this moment, final plans are not in place," the official said on Friday.

Biden and Xi have not met in person since a G20 summit on Indonesia's resort island of Bali in November last year after Xi shunned the G20 meeting in India last month.

The United States, the Netherlands and Japan, which together control the world's top chipmaking equipment, agreed to coordinate efforts earlier this year.

The upcoming U.S. rules could hit ASML, the world's leading chip equipment maker and Netherlands' largest company, because its systems contain U.S. parts and components, as Reuters exclusively reported in June.

A spokeswoman for ASML declined comment.

It is not unusual for the U.S. to modify proposals before clearing regulations, so the restrictions, like the timing, could change. (Reuters)
Reuters has published an investigation into Russian Storm-Z units, where regular Russian soldiers are sent as a punishment.

Source: Reuters, citing 13 sources, including 5 Storm-Z soldiers, relatives of soldiers from these units, and servicemen from other units of the Russian army

Details: Reuters stressed that they had verified the identities of all the soldiers they talked to, using criminal records and social media accounts or talking with their colleagues and families.

One punitive detachment, Reuters says, has about 100-150 people and is part of regular army units. They are usually sent to "the most exposed parts of the front".

According to Reuters sources, there are at least several hundred Storm-Z soldiers who are currently at the front.

Three soldiers from the detachment said that they were offered a salary of about RUB 200,000 (about US$2,000) a month, although, according to them, on average they received about half of that amount.

The attitude towards them from other units is not the best. A Russian conscript who was near Bakhmut in May and June told Reuters that he provided medical assistance to a group of six or seven wounded Storm-Z fighters, disobeying his commanders order to leave them.

He described this as a typical example of the attitude of the Russian military towards soldiers from these units, saying "storm fighters, theyre just meat".

The penal squads primarily consist of convicts, although some regular soldiers have been sent there as punishment for disobeying orders.

Russian legislation on military discipline states that a soldier can only be sent to prison after being found guilty by a military court. None of the sources who informed Reuters that soldiers had been dispatched to Storm-Z mentioned that the men had taken part in a court proceeding.

The news agency emphasises that the issue of soldiers being punished by their own side is not covered by the Geneva Convention, a set of international laws of war.

Reuters also identified 2 of about 20 Storm-Z soldiers in Zaporizhzhia Oblast who refused to return to the front and recorded a video on 28 June complaining of poor treatment.

One of the fighters in the video said that they "did not get deliveries of ammunition. We did not get water or food. The injured were not taken away: still now the dead are rotting,"

Military police officers beat up two of the fighters and other members of their squad as retaliation for their uprising after the video was released, relatives of the two soldiers said.

Since then, they said, the two fighters had informed them that conditions had improved, but they were unsure of the exact date when the men would be able to leave the military.

Quote from Reuters: "There is historical precedent for military offenders being pressed into fighting units; in 1942, when the Red Army was retreating from a Nazi advance, Soviet leader Josef Stalin ordered soldiers who panicked or left their posts into punishment battalions deployed to the most dangerous parts of the front, according to a decree he signed."

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Fighters from a Storm-Z squad explain why they will no longer fight in Ukraine

Fighters from a Storm-Z squad explain why they will no longer fight in Ukraine

LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) -

Drunk recruits. Insubordinate soldiers. Convicts.

They're among hundreds of military and civilian offenders who've been pressed into Russian penal units known as "Storm-Z" squads and sent to the frontlines in Ukraine this year, according to 13 people with knowledge of the matter, including five fighters in the units.

Few live to tell their tale, the people said.

"Storm fighters, they're just meat," said one regular soldier from army unit no. 40318 who was deployed near the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine in May and June.

He said he'd given medical treatment to a group of six or seven wounded Storm-Z fighters on the battlefield, disobeying an order from a commander - whose name he didn't know - to leave the men. He said he didn't know why the commander gave the order, but claimed that it typified how Storm-Z fighters were considered of lesser value than ordinary troops by officers.

The soldier, who requested anonymity because he feared prosecution in Russia for publicly discussing the war, said he had sympathy for the men's plight: "If the commandants catch anyone with the smell of alcohol on their breath, then they immediately send them to the Storm squads."

When contacted by Reuters, an officer at unit no. 40318 declined to comment on Storm-Z and ended the call. The Kremlin referred Reuters questions to the Russian defence ministry, which didn't respond to a request for comment.

Russian state-controlled media has reported that Storm-Z squads exist, that they took part in intense battles and some of their members received medals for bravery, but it has not disclosed how they are formed, or the losses they take.

Reuters is the first news organisation to compile a comprehensive account of how the squads are put together and deployed, by speaking to multiple sources with direct knowledge of what is happening.

Like the soldier from unit no. 40318, the 13 people interviewed - who also include four relatives of Storm-Z members as well as three soldiers in regular units who interacted with the squads - all requested anonymity, citing fear of reprisals. Reuters verified the identities of all the fighters involved using criminal records, social media accounts, or by speaking to their fellow serviceman and their families.

The penal squads, each about 100-150 strong and embedded within regular army units, have typically been sent to the most exposed parts of the front and often sustain heavy losses, according to Reuters interviews with the people, who identified at least five Storm-Z teams fighting to repel a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the east and south.

Three of the five Storm-Z fighters interviewed by Reuters, and the relatives of three other Storm-Z fighters, described nightmarish engagements that saw much of their squads wiped out.

One fighter, with a conviction for theft who was recruited from prison, said all but 15 of the 120 men in his unit embedded with the 237th regiment were killed or wounded in fighting near Bakhmut in June.

The deployment of such squads marks a departure for Russia in Ukraine: while the Wagner mercenary group - now being disbanded after a June mutiny - sent convicts to fight on the frontline, the Storm-Z units come under the direct command of the defence ministry.

The squads also combine convicts who volunteer to fight in exchange for the promise of a pardon with regular soldiers being punished for disciplinary breaches, the people interviewed said.

The Storm-Z squads are useful to the Russian defence ministry because they can be deployed as expendable infantry, according to Conflict Intelligence Team, an independent organisation that's tracking the war. "The Storm fighters are just sent to the most dangerous parts of the front, in defence and in attack," the group, which was founded in Russia, told Reuters.

While the Russian defence ministry has never acknowledged creating Storm-Z units, the first reports of their existence emerged in April when the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think-tank, cited what it said appeared to be a leaked Russian military report on the formation of the squads.

Reuters wasn't able to determine how many soldiers in total are serving in the units, though the interviews with the people familiar with the matter point to at least several hundred Storm-Z fighters currently being deployed on the frontline.

Wagner had about 25,000 fighters engaged in the conflict, its late leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said at the time of his June mutiny.

President Vladimir Putin made reference to convicts fighting in the regular army on Friday. At a televised meeting with a small group of regular Russian servicemen, he said he was aware that two of their comrades, former prison inmates, had been killed in action. "They gave their lives for the motherland and have fully absolved themselves of their guilt," said Putin, adding that the convicts' families would be given help, without elaborating.

There is historical precedent for military offenders being pressed into fighting units; in 1942, when the Red Army was retreating from a Nazi advance, Soviet leader Josef Stalin ordered soldiers who panicked or left their posts into "punishment battalions" deployed to the most dangerous parts of the front, according to a decree he signed.

Ukraine's government has said it also releases some convicts if they agree to fight in the war.

FROM CUSTODY TO CARNAGE

Storm-Z is an unofficial term used by Russian troops, combining a term for assault troops with the letter Z, adopted by the military as a symbol of their invasion of Ukraine.

Artyom Shchikin, a 29-year-old from the Mordovia region in central Russia, was serving a two-year sentence for robbery handed down in December 2021 when defence ministry recruiters came to his jail asking if inmates wanted to go and fight in Ukraine, according to court records and two of his relatives.

He signed up because, even though he was scheduled for release in December this year, he wanted to wipe clean his criminal record plus earn money so his family could renovate their home, his family members said. Three Storm-Z fighters said they were offered wages of about 200,000 roubles ($2,000) per month, though said they had been paid roughly half that amount, on average.

By May this year, Shchikin was assigned to a penal unit within the 291st Guards Motorised Rifle Regiment and deployed to the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine, where Kyiv's forces are trying to break through Russian defences, the relatives added.

An official with the regimental headquarters didn't respond to Reuters questions.

Vladimir Rogov, an official in the Russian-installed administration in Zaporizhzhia who gives regular online updates about the conflict, has posted on Telegram that the 291st regiment was fighting in the region throughout the summer. Rogov didn't respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Shchikin's relatives last heard from him on June 18.

Days later, his unit's positions came under Ukrainian fire, the relatives said, citing conversations with two survivors from Shchikin's squad. Three comrades who had been in a trench with him were killed, another had his hand torn off, while Shchikin himself is missing, the relatives said. His body hasn't been recovered.

Shchikin's relatives said when they asked the defence ministry for answers about his fate, it either didn't respond or didn't give any definitive answers.

"They were from a Storm unit. For them, no one is going to be in a rush," said one relative.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the relatives' account of events.

DRUNK ON DUTY, USING DRUGS

While convicts form the core of the penal squads, some regular soldiers have been assigned to them as punishment for breaking discipline, according to two soldiers who said members of their units had been transferred in this way, as well as a Storm-Z fighter called Igor, a convict jailed for attempted murder.

The two soldiers, including the one from unit no. 40318, said officers had sent soldiers to Storm-Z for being drunk on duty, for using drugs, and for refusing to carry out orders.

According to Russian legislation on military discipline, a soldier can only be transferred to a penal unit if convicted by a military court. None of the people who told Reuters of soldiers being sent to Storm-Z said the men had participated in a court hearing. Contacted last week, the soldier from unit no. 40318 said there were no court hearings involved in such transfers, and Igor, the Storm-Z fighter, said he had no knowledge of court hearings having taken place.

The Geneva convention, a set of international rules of war, doesn't cover soldiers being punished by their own side.

REVOLT OF STORM-Z FIGHTERS

One group of about 20 Storm-Z fighters in Zaporizhzhia, who were part of unit number 22179, decided they'd had enough of their treatment, refused an order to go back to the frontline, and recorded a June 28 video complaining about their treatment. Reuters called numbers listed for the unit, but they were out of operation.

"On the frontline, where we've been, we did not get deliveries of ammunition. We did not get water or food. The injured were not taken away: still now the dead are rotting," said a fighter in the video, whom Reuters was unable to identify.

"We're given dreadful orders that are not even worth carrying out," he added. "We refuse to continue carrying out combat missions."

Reuters established the identities of two of the fighters involved in the revolt, and spoke to a relative of each man who corroborated the account in the video, which was published on June 28 by Gulagu.net, a France-based campaign group for Russian prisoners' rights, and reviewed by Reuters.

After the video was published, military police officers beat up the two fighters, and others in their squad, as punishment for their revolt, the two relatives said. Since then, they said the two fighters had told them that conditions had improved but they did not know when the men would be allowed to quit the military.

Russian officials have made no public comment about the incident, and the defence ministry didn't reply to Reuters queries.

The family member of one of the soldiers in the revolt, a man from Siberia who had volunteered to join Storm-Z from prison, said she dreaded news from the front.

"My God, let this end soon," she said of the war.

(Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya and Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Christian Lowe and Pravin Char)
FILE - Pope Francis, sitting in front of a replica of the icon 'Maria Salus populi romani'', addresses the participants into "Together", a vigil prayer for the Synod of Bishops with church leaders in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, three days ahead of the official opening of the XVI Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on 4 October. Pope Francis is convening a global gathering of bishops and laypeople to discuss the future of the Catholic Church, including some hot-button issues that have previously been considered off the table for discussion. Key agenda items include women's role in the church, welcoming LGBTQ+ Catholics and how bishops exercise authority. For the first time, women and laypeople can vote on specific proposals alongside bishops. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca, File)

VATICAN CITY (AP)  Pope Francis on Wednesday is opening a global gathering of bishops and laypeople to discuss the future of the Catholic Church, including some hot-button issues that have previously been considered off-limits for discussion.

For the first time, women and laypeople can vote on specific proposals alongside bishops, a radical change that is evidence of Francis belief that the church is more about its flock than its shepherds.

Here is some background on the Oct. 4-29 Synod of Bishops, which will be followed by a second session this time next year. That session is expected to put forward specific proposals for Francis to consider in a future document.

WHAT'S ON THE AGENDA?

The working document for the meeting was compiled by a committee after an unprecedented two-year canvassing of rank-and-file Catholics around the globe.

The final product is meant to stimulate debate and poses agenda items in the form of questions. But some of the questions also make clear a certain consensus was reached during the consultation phase.

For example, the document calls for concrete steps to promote women to decision-making roles in the church, including as deacons, and for ordinary faithful to have more of a say in church governance.

It calls for a  radical inclusion of LGBTQ+ Catholics and others who have been marginalized by the church, and for new accountability measures to check how bishops exercise their authority to prevent abuses.

From all corners of the world, greater inclusion and support for LGBTQ+ people have emerged as a top pastoral issue for the Catholic Church, said New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics.

WHAT'S THE CONTROVERSY?

Some conservatives have expressed doubts about the synod ever since Francis announced it three years ago. They have warned that bringing up for debate issues that have already been settled by the church risks schism.

They have penned articles, written books and hosted conferences. Just this week, five conservative cardinals from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas made their challenge to Pope Francis public.

In a letter posed as five questions, or dubia, they asked him to affirm church teaching on matters of doctrine, homosexuality, female ordination and church authority because they said the synod was sowing confusion.

Francis responded to the cardinals in a letter released by the Vatican on Monday. He explained that changes in the world stimulate the church to better understand and explain its teachings, and that the synod is a way to discern the path forward.

With much sincerity, I tell you its not good to be afraid of these questions, Francis told them.

WHOS COMING?

There are 365 voting members including the pope, 54 of whom are women. Their numbers are divided among delegates chosen by national bishops' conferences, members nominated by the pope himself and 10 priests and nuns chosen by religious orders.

In addition, there are around 100 experts and facilitators who have been brought in to help move the dialogue along as the meeting works through the agenda. But they won't vote on any final document.

Two late additions to the list are bishops from China, in an important signal of cooperation as the Vatican and Beijing try to improve ties particularly over the life of the Catholic Church in China.

Bishops Antonio Yao Shun from Jining in Inner Mongolia and Yang Yongqiang from Zhoucun of Shandong Province were nominated by Francis after the church in China put their names forward.

The archbishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Stephen Chow, said their participation was particularly significant.

Its a sign of goodwill and possibly that they realize the church in China and the government wants to say there should be closer, more episcopal contacts between China and the universal church, Chow told The Associated Press. Their presence is really speaking to that.

A SECRET SYNOD?

The two-year preparatory phase of the synod was marked by a radical transparency in keeping with the goals of the process for participants to listen to each other and learn from one another. So it has come as something of a surprise that Francis has essentially imposed a media blackout on the synod itself.

While originally livestreams were planned, and several extra communications officers were hired, organizers have made clear this is a closed-door meeting and participants have been told to not speak to journalists.

Paolo Ruffini, in charge of communications for the meeting, denied the debate had been put under the pontifical secret, one of the highest forms of confidentiality in the church.

He insisted that it was a liturgical moment of prayer and discernment, pointing to a 1990 essay by a late cardinal extolling the benefits of silence in communication.

No daily briefings are planned as in previous synods, though five are scheduled over the course of the meeting. Francis has defended the new regime as favoring real dialogue.

Challenged on the lack of transparency, Francis has said he didnt want political gossip leaking out with news of participants duking it out over tough issues.

This isnt a television show, he told reporters during an airborne news conference in August.
(UPDATE: The House of Representatives voted 216-206 on Tuesday afternoon to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy (RCalif.) as speaker of the House, with eight Republicans voting in favor of his dismissal. It is the first time in U.S. history that a sitting speaker has been ousted in this manner. The position will remain vacant until a majority of the House votes to appoint a new speaker.)

Ahead of what could be a dramatic afternoon in the House of Representatives, Rep. Thomas Massie (RKy.) occupies an unusual and possibly unique position.

Massie is the closest thing to a libertarian that you'll find in the House and a frequent ally of the right-wing Freedom Caucussome members of which are aiming to topple Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a vote that could come this afternoon. But in an interview with Reason on Tuesday morning, Massie offered a defense of McCarthy's speakership, and he warned that the Republican rebels might not understand the damage they would do by firing him.

"In many ways, this is a referendum on whether the House is going to try regular order or not, because the next speakerif Kevin is deposed todayis not going to say 'oh, if only we had tried more regular order, this could have worked out,'" Massie told Reason. "The next speaker is going to go back to the Old Testamentand we're going to devolve to the former method, which was an omnibus bill every year and gang warfare to try and get your thing in the omnibus bill."

For Massieand for anyone who wants to see Congress budget more responsibly regular order is a big deal. Effectively, that means that Congress should bring each of its 12 annual spending bills to the floor via the process that everyone learns in civics class: with committees voting on what to include in each, then amendments, and debate on the House floor before a final vote. Congress hasn't correctly completed that process on time since 1996.

As part of the compromise McCarthy reached with the House Freedom Caucus in January, he agreed to go back to that system.

He's been criticized for failing to follow through. While there are certainly personal issues involved in Rep. Matt Gaetz's (RFla.) attempt to dump McCarthy from the speakership, some of Gaetz's criticism is focused on McCarthy's unwillingness to send single-subject bills to the House floor.

Gaetz filed the motion to vacatea rarely used procedural tool that allows the full House to vote to remove a speakerafter McCarthy suspended the rules to bring a continuing resolution to the House floor on Sunday to prevent the government from shutting down. The bill passed with support from Democrats and against the objections of the Freedom Caucus.

Massie voted against the continuing resolution but said Tuesday it was "the least worst of a bunch of bad options." If the House bill hadn't passed, he said, it's likely that a Senate-drafted continuing resolution including a higher level of spendingmostly because of added military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, which was left out of the House measurewould have become law.

McCarthy's defenders argue that he's working to reform the budget process and needs more time to see it through.

Massie points out that McCarthy has allowed two Freedom Caucus membersReps. Chip Roy (RTexas) and Ralph Norman (RS.C.)onto the Rules Committee. Together with Massie, that's a voting block that can effectively control what bills reach the House floor, something that Massie says would have been unthinkable under previous Republican speakers.

"They have been listening to us and we have been guiding the process," he says.

Norman has also voiced support for keeping McCarthy in charge of the House. "I have been profoundly disappointed in several elements of Speaker McCarthy's leadership, but now is not the time to pursue a Motion to Vacate," he wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Tuesday morning.

If McCarthy survives today's vote, does that mean regular order will prevail and Congress will pass all 12 budget bills before the new continuing resolution expires in mid-November? Massie says there's "a good chance" that will happen.

On the other hand, "if Kevin fails today, we're going to get the Schumer-McConnell special," he says, referring to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (RKy.), who Massie believes will have the upper hand in any dealings with a leaderless House GOP caucus.

"And it's going to be an omnibus," Massie added, "and it's not going to be pretty."

The post Thomas Massie: 'The Next Speaker Is Going To Go Back to the Old Testament' appeared first on Reason.com.
PATERSON  A fatal shooting on Tuesday afternoon near a street recently targeted with a massive police presence has pushed Patersons three-day homicide toll to four, the same number of killings that happened in the four previous months in the city.

The Passaic County Prosecutor's Office announced Tuesday night that three people were shot around 3:45 p.m. on Tuesday near the corner of Rosa Parks Boulevard and Broadway.

A 23-year-old man from Riverdale was shot in the chest and pronounced dead at St. Joseph's University Medical Center, the prosecutor said. A 19-year-old man from Elmwood Park was shot in the torso area and was in critical condition, and a 57-year-old man from Paterson was shot in the leg and was in stable condition.

Law enforcement sources said one of the nonfatal victims appears to have been a passenger on a dollar bus that was riding through the area, the sources said.

A vehicle involved in the shooting headed north from Broadway, coming to rest at the same intersection of the liquor store at 230 Rosa Parks, which once was the base of operations for the notorious 230 Boys street gang, the sources said.

Since the summer, Broadway has been the focus of police walking patrols credited with cleaning up a major city gateway. The shooting happened on Rosa Parks, between Broadway and Fair Street, sources said.

Tuesdays homicide happened after Paterson endured three other killings in separate shootings on Sunday.

Chopper and extra officers on ground

Sep 21, 2023; Paterson, NJ, USA; Rookie Paterson Police Department officers (right) Jermey Brown and Roxana Lopez during a walking patrol on Broadway.

In response to the weekend outbreak of gun violence  one that included several incidents involving gunshots in which no one was injured  authorities on Monday night sent up a police helicopter to patrol the skies over the city while extra local and federal law enforcement officers were deployed on the crime-ridden streets.

Police officials would not divulge details of their overnight response to Sundays killings. As of Tuesday afternoon, authorities had not announced any arrests connected to the homicides.

As part of our crime reduction and violence suppression strategy, we leveraged all of our Paterson Police Department resources  including state and federal partners  to keep city residents safe and get those who choose to drive violence in our city off our streets, aid Rob Rowan, a spokesman for the Paterson Police Department.

We will continue to work closely with all of our law enforcement partners and utilize every available resource to keep Paterson safe, Rowan added.

The Rev. James Staton, a longtime community leader in Patersons anti-violence efforts, said he heard the noise from the helicopter above his home on Jefferson Street and knew right away that it was in response to the homicides.

Its not new. Weve had choppers before, Staton said. Its good to have them, but nothing takes the place of having beat police.

We cant keep being reactive, he added. We have to be proactive. We already know that presence is whats needed.

Police expand patrols

Five days before the killings, police officials announced they plan to expand the walking patrols that were so successful along Broadway in Paterson to other parts of the city, starting in mid-October. The plan included five daytime walking posts and six nighttime locations.

But none of the places where the walking patrols are planned are blocks where Sundays killings took place. Authorities have made public the names of two of three victims.

The Passaic County Prosecutors Office said 20-year-old Elijah Torres of Paterson was fatally shot at 6:36 a.m. on Sunday near the corner of Park Avenue and East 22nd Street in the 5th Ward. The name of the second victim, who was killed at 12:28 p.m. near Highland Street, has not been released. In the third homicide, 22-year-old Mary Taylor was fatally shot in the head near the corner of Cianci and Van Houten streets, among a group of people standing outside the Question Mark Bar.

Taylor grew up in Paterson and attended city schools. Her father, Michael Taylor, frequently attended Paterson Board of Education meetings about eight years ago to complain to school officials that his daughter was being bullied by classmates.

Focus on mental health: Will new Paterson program have cops and mental health pros 'Arrive Together'?

Aggressive and assertive, Taylor angrily confronted district officials in his frustration over the treatment of his daughter. Despite his hard-nosed approach, Taylor won respect from some district officials because of his passion and commitment to help his daughter.

Taylor could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. His daughters killing raised Patersons homicide toll for 2023 to 12. Last year at this time, Paterson had 22 homicides. Overall, violent crime has gone down significantly over the first nine months of 2023, officials said.

Staton, the pastor from Jefferson Street, said Paterson needs a sustained effort to combat its persistent problem with street violence.

Anything that works, he said, ultimately the funding runs out. All of a sudden, it just stops.

Special report: On Patersons Broadway, 12 cops patrol four blocks to build trust and stop crime

'Intelligence on the ground'

The Broadway police foot patrols were paid for with almost $1 million in extra funding from the state for the Paterson summer anti-crime initiative. As part of the New Jersey attorney general's takeover of the city Police Department, the state Legislature has earmarked another $10 million for law enforcement in the city between now and June 30. But officials have not revealed how they plan to spend that money.

Councilman Michael Jackson, who heard the helicopter on Monday night over his home, dismissed the law enforcement response as smoke and mirrors. He asserted that spending money on a helicopter and police overtime is not the best way to address the problem.

They need intelligence on the ground, Jackson said. What good is a helicopter going to do?

Jackson said the helicopter wont solve Patersons crime problem, and will only delay it.

Its like roaches when the light comes on; theyre going to hide, the councilman said. But as soon as the light goes out, theyre coming back out.

Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson suffers fourth fatal shooting as police patrol rises
From left: Republican presidential candidates North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and former Vice President Mike Pence, at the Republican presidential primary debate on Sept. 27, 2023. Inset, former president Donald Trump (AP/Getty)

After a summer of floods, fires, and relentless heat, more Americans than ever are blaming extreme weather events on the climate crisis.

New polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Researchrevealed that 87 per cent of Americans have experienced at least one extreme weather event in the past five years, and three-quarters believe that climate change at least partially played a role.

But as with most hot-button issues, views cut down party lines. Nearly all Democrats (93 per cent) connected more extreme weather events to the climate crisis, compared to just under half of Republicans (48 per cent).

Although liberals and independents have been more likely to accept the scientific evidence of climate change, Republicans are quickly catching up.

The most recent poll showed a six per cent jump in Republicans linking extreme weather and climate from when AP-NORC posed the same question in April. The US South, home to predominantly red states, has experienced brutal, 100-plus degree temperatures for long stretches this summer.

When compared to data from 2017, provided toThe Independent by AP-NORC, Republican numbers have nearly doubled. Only 27 per cent of Republicans thought severe weather was caused entirely or mostly by climate change six years ago.

Yet, growing concern among Republican voters doesnt appear to have registered with the partys current crop of presidential candidates.

At the first GOP debate in August, the climate crisis was largely dismissed by candidates after a young conservative asked how they would calm... fears that the Republican Party doesnt care about climate change.

The debate moderators then asked for a show of hands from candidates if they agreed that human behaviour was leading to rising temperatures. No hands went up.

Political newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire businessman from Ohio, was the most brazen in his denial. "The climate change agenda is a hoax, he told the audience, and was met with boos.

The remains of a destroyed home in Keaton Beach, Florida on August 30, 2023, following the passage of Hurricane Idalia (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Ron DeSantis obfuscated and criticised President Bidens response to the Maui wildfires. The Florida governor is attempting to walk the fine line between the leader of a state being battered by more intense hurricanes and sea-level rise, and an anti-woke, anti-science agenda.

Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley acknowledged climate change is real but downplayed Americas role and blamed China  despite the US being the second largest polluter and having caused the largest share of emissions over the past 200 years.

Former president Donald Trump, who has declined to attend the debates but has a commanding lead among voters, is a seasoned climate denier.

During his time in the White House, Mr Trump rolled back more than 100 environmental and climate regulations that allowed more oil drilling and eased off on industrial polluters.

He repeatedly denied the existence of the climate crisis while president and has continued out of office, claiming last year that rising sea levels were actually a good thing and would create more oceanfront property.

Braxton Hicks, seven, of Livingston, Texas, holds his face to a portable fan to cool off during a Little League tournament in Ruston, Louisiana on August 9. Summer 2023 has brought relentless 100-degree temperatures across large parts of the US south (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Last week, he heaped praise on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for rolling back UK net-zero targets. I always knew Sunak was smart, that he wasnt going to destroy and bankrupt his nation for fake climate alarmists that dont have a clue, Mr Trump wrote. On Friday, he told an audience in California that forest fires could be stopped if we dampen our forests with water.

These kinds of spurious statements are finding little purchase, particularly with young Republicans who are significantly more worried about climate change than older voters.

Another red flag for the Republican party is that swing voters, who will decide the 2024 election, are very much in favour of climate action and clean energy.

Some members of the Conservative Climate Caucus also appeared unconcerned by the lackluster Republican candidates responses on climate change.

I havent really put much thought into it, Rep Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee, told The Independent this week. I dont watch debates - its you bring your side, I bring my side and we both leave thinking weve won.

Congressman Tony Gonzales, who represents a district in southern Texas, said he was focused on migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border. I try not to pay attention to all the other noise, he added.

The Republican party hasnt always shown such aversion to environmental threats.

Former president Donald Trump speaks at the GOP Fall convention on September 29, 2023 in Anaheim, California where he told the audience that forest fires could be stopped if we dampen our forests with water (Getty Images)

The Clean Water and Clean Air Acts, bedrock legislation to protect Americans from pollution, were signed by former Republican president Richard Nixon in the 1970s. In the early 1990s, President George HW Bush signed the Global Climate Change Research Act and made key amendments to the Clean Air Act.

Christopher Barnard, president of the American Conservation Coalition, told The Independent he was baffled that Republican presidential candidates werent offering conservative solutions on the issue, describing the failure as a ticking time-bomb for the party.

Our message to candidates and campaigns has been that conservatives can either fumble on the climate issue, or they can win over independents, young Americans and young conservatives who care, said Mr Barnard, who leads the largest conservative environmental group in the US.

Some 81 per cent of Republicans, aged 18 to 44, think climate change is now a severe threat, or may get worse in the years ahead, according to a 2023 poll from Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions.

The first Republican presidential campaign in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 23, 2023 (REUTERS)

Mr Barnard said that Republican candidates were going to struggle to gain the trust of these demographics and win their votes if they ignored climate and environmental issues.

Especially in a general election where, more and more, these demographics are trending towards Democrats not Republicans, he added.

Mr Barnard favoured the rhetoric from candidates, Nikki Haley and Tim Scott, in the debate, and added that North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum has done great work on clean energy projects in his state.

We see some of the candidates start flirting with this [issue] but not enough yet to really convince young voters and independents, he said.

Theres an opportunity for Republican candidates to acknowledge this concern that young people have but to then come with better ideas  talk about the ways that the US can lead with innovation and grow the economy at the same time as protecting the environment.

Thats a message that resonates with people. Ignoring the problem, or fumbling on it, does nothing to increase your credibility with these key voter demographics.
In 2004, I was 11 years old, and Mean Girls was everywhereincluding in my middle school. Which is why, on principle, I boycotted my classmates new favorite film until I was several years older and slightly less sensitive to fictional displays of bullying. While I cant say its become one of my favorite movies, I can appreciate a great Lindsay Lohan performance as much as the next gal.

But even as a moderate Mean Girls liker, I want better for the superfans than this years official Its October 3rd stunt: chopping the entire film up into 23 parts on TikTok. To no ones surprise, its a terrible way to watch a pretty good movie.

Across 23 low-quality parts of variable length, Paramount has made all 97 minutes of Mean Girls available to watch for free, without ads. The trade-off, of course, is that you have to be as active a viewer as possible. TikTok doesnt automatically move forward once youve finished watching a video, which is normally fine. But what if you want to watch the movie on your desktop, as I did, in a separate window while you work? You may end up watching the same five minutes on a loop, lest you stop paying attention before it ends.

The better way to watch is on your phone, but that means you have to be aggressively involved with your bad-looking Mean Girls viewing. TikTok still doesnt offer picture-in-picture mode, which is why I never use TikTok; I have a very bad attention span and cant just do one thing at a time. (For context, Im watching a YouTube video, navigating between multiple Reddit threads, and editing two other stories while writing this piece.) So if youre watching Mean Girls on TikTok on your phone, youre going to be using your phone to watch Mean Girls and nothing else.

Its Fetch. But It Could Be Fetcher: Review of Tina Feys Mean Girls on Broadway

Maybe if you could watch the film in landscape mode, this would be less egregious. But watching it in 480p, with huge black bars filling the excess space above and below the video, is just plain unpleasant. The sound quality is great, which helps, but that doesnt make up for the annoyance of flipping between poorly transferred, weirdly edited segments of Mean Girls. Nearly every one of the 23 parts ends in the middle of a scene, which, sure, might ensure that youll watch the subsequent clip. But when each scene is so grainy to start with, its just another bullet point on the list of turnoffs.

Absurd as watching Mean Girls in chunks sounds, this is far from an original idea, as many TikTok devotees know. The social media phenomenon of watching bite-sized versions of popular movies and shows is now well-documented. Scenes from shows as different as Ugly Betty and Chicago Med can pop up on your For You Page without warning or context. Netflixs 2021 miniseries Maid even experienced a sudden resurgence in popularity this spring, thanks to fans giving it the TikTok-clip treatment.

As cringey brand accounts often do, the official Mean Girls TikTok page is hitching its wagon to this trend. The low-effort promo also capitalizes on both the omnipresent nostalgia for and the recent fervor around the 2004 filmtoday is known as Mean Girls Day; the movie version of the musical version of the original movie is out in Januaryto create this altogether terrible viewing experience. But there is a positive takeaway here: The TikTok stunt got me to rewatch Mean Girls for the first time since I was a surly high schooler, and this slightly less surly adult enjoyed it a lot more this time around. Yes, even with that ugly-looking video quality.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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James Kvaal knew the student-loan industry had problems when he started as Under Secretary of Education.

He said issues arose on the design-side and execution of student-loan programs.

Lack of funding for Federal Student Aid is also concerning for repayment, Kvaal said.

A top official in the US Department of Education knew the student-loan industry was broken when he started the job.

Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal joined President Joe Biden's administration in 2021. At that point, Americans were in the midst of the pandemic, and as a result, student-loan borrowers had not been required to pay their bills since March 2020. But that didn't mean the problems in the industry were at bay  in fact, that was far from the reality. Student-loan borrowers were continuing to struggle under big debt burdens they had been paying off for decades, and minimal regulation over federal loan servicers didn't help matters. Kvaal told Insider that he viewed it as "an untested experiment."

"We had people taking out more loans than they ever had before," Kvaal said. "And no previous generation had gone through something like this. At the department, obviously, we were in the student-loan pause, but the pause was papering over some fundamental problems."

After over three years, the student-loan payment pause has ended  interest started accruing again on September 1, and bills are now starting to become due. Kvaal said that prior to the pause, millions of borrowers were defaulting on their loans, a tiny percentage of borrowers received relief through Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and borrowers with disabilities continued to see their benefits garnished even though they qualified for relief  things he said were all a result of "deep-rooted structural problems in the loan programs on the policy design, but also on the execution side."

"It's really only in the last 10 or 15 years, as we started to look more closely at how many borrowers are struggling, that we've realized there's something really wrong with this system," Kvaal said.

If that's the case, why are those issues taking so long to fix? Kvaal pointed to limited resources the Education Department has to give to federal student-loan servicers, which he said has contributed to mismanagement over the years.

Ongoing challenges with borrowers

Borrowers need the industry to be functioning smoothly now more than ever with the transition back into repayment. Some have told Insider they have spent hours on the phone waiting for answers from their customer service representative to no avail, and others have received inaccurate billing statements they have struggled to get fixed.

Kvaal said he's aware of the challenges borrowers have had as they geared up for repayment, acknowledging that "student-loan programs are very, very complicated, and the servicers do not have the funding that we would like to give them to better serve borrowers." While that might be the case, he said his department is working to strengthen accountability over servicers through new contracts that will go into effect in the spring.

Some lawmakers want that process to move faster. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, for example, joined some of her Democratic colleagues in requesting information from four major federal servicers for the second time this year on their preparedness to help borrowers with repayment. When Warren first asked in July, the servicers' responses left her "deeply worried"  some of them anticipated customer service delays going into 2024, noting they do not have the resources they need to help the influx of borrowers calling in daily with questions.

It's also unlikely Federal Student Aid will receive a funding boost  House Republicans have proposed cutting funding for the agency, and with them holding a slim majority, the agency might have to facilitate the return to repayment without the resources it asked for. Kvaal said that prospect concerns him because "we need substantially more resources to continue doing the work that we do now."

What's next on the student-loan agenda

But more broadly, student-loan forgiveness has continued to be on borrowers' minds. After the Supreme Court struck down Biden's first plan to cancel student debt using the HEROES Act, the Education Department announced it would be pursuing a new route using the Higher Education Act of 1965. However, that route requires negotiated rulemaking  a process that could take at least a year due to a series of negotiation sessions and time for public comment.

The timeline leaves borrowers in limbo because they are entering repayment without knowing when, or if, they will receive a reduction to their balances. Kvaal said he hears "a lot of confusion and anxiety," and that "we're moving as fast as we can, and we are committed to delivering relief to as many borrowers as we can, consistent with the authority we have from Congress."

Aside from broad debt relief, Kvaal pointed to the department's new gainful employment rule  to be implemented in July 2024  that will keep borrowers from enrolling in programs that leave with with too much debt compared to earnings. He also recommended borrowers keep an eye on changes to the federal loan servicing reforms that will go into place next summer, which would give Federal Student Aid more control over servicers to strengthen accountability.

"We have a system that leaves millions of our young people with loans they can't afford," Kvaal said. "And we're going to keep fighting to help people with debts now that they can't afford, and to try to permanently reform the system so that we can stop unaffordable debts at their source."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Four people were placed into custody after a traffic stop on Sept. 25 on Interstate 77 in Iredell County, which led to the discovery of 152 cellphones, troopers said.

NC Highway Patrol troopers tell me a traffic stop in Iredell County led them to 152 cell phones. 20 have been traced back to being stolen from the Lost Lands Music Festival last month in Ohio. Four Orlando residents have been arrested. Troopers are working to reunite phones and pic.twitter.com/4w97nyBKeb  Joe Bruno (@JoeBrunoWSOC9) October 2, 2023

At least 20 of the phones were stolen from the Lost Lands Music Festival in Ohio last month.

State troopers are working with the Licking County Sheriffs Office in Ohio to determine if the remaining phones were also stolen from the music festival.

Piter Valenzuela, 29, Kimberlin Castellanos, 23, Yexon Castellanos, 28, and Yesica Castellanos, 30, all of Orlando, were arrested and each charged with possession of stolen property.

Valenzuela was also charged with possession of marijuana.

This investigation remains ongoing.
Actor Tom Hanks and CBS talk show co-host Gayle King on Monday were warning fans about ads featuring imposters generated by artificial intelligence.

"Beware," Hanks said in an Instagram post that evidently showed a copy of an unauthorized digital version of him.

"There is a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it."

The message had received more than 111,700 "likes" since the Academy Award winning actor posted it to his 9.5 million followers on Instagram on Sunday.

King, a co-host of CBS Mornings talk show, posted what she said was a bogus video clip of her enticing viewers to click on a link to learn about her weight loss "secret."

"I have nothing to do with this company," King said in her Instagram post.

"I've never heard of this product or used it! Please don't be fooled by these AI videos."

Safeguards against artificial intelligence being used to replicate screen talent was among the issues fought over during a writers strike that paralyzed Hollywood until a recent tentative deal.

The still ongoing strike by Hollywood actors has yet to be resolved.

Generative AI programs burst into the spotlight late last year, with ChatGPT demonstrating an ability to generate essays, poems and conversations from the briefest prompts.

AI models have added capabilities such as being able to generate digital imagery on command, raising fears the technology will be used to create "deep fake" pictures and videos that fool people into thinking them real.

Tech titans Google, Meta and Microsoft are among those racing to capitalize on the promise of generative AI while trying to avoid perils such as the technology's potential as a weapon for misinformation and cyber crime. (AFP)
NEW YORK  The criminal trial of former crypotocurrency golden boy Sam Bankman-Fried is set to begin in a Manhattan court on Tuesday.

The 31-year-old is facing a reckoning over whats been called one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history by federal prosecutors. Bankman-Fried faces a maximum of over a century in prison for seven charges including wire fraud and money laundering in connection with the collapse of FTX, his cryptocurrency trading platform.

Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Kaplan will consider arguments from the feds that the young billionaire stole billions of dollars from FTX customers to bankroll a lavish lifestyle in the Bahamas, party with celebrities and fund donations to U.S. lawmakers to influence cryptocurrency regulation, plus pay off debts of his failed crypto hedge fund Alameda Research.

Hes charged with defrauding investors to cover up the scheme and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Bankman-Fried has been in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since Kaplan revoked his $250 million bail bond in response to witness tampering allegations. Previously, he had been under house arrest at his parents home in Palo Alto, California.

His trial, beginning with jury selection Tuesday, is expected to last six weeks.

Federal prosecutors will reveal mountains of evidence, including encrypted chat logs, emails and diary pages on the jury, to show Bankman-Fried misused customer funds and made illegal political donations.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology grad known for his bushy hair and slovenly appearance has had a meteoric rise and dramatic fall.

He co-founded Alameda Research in 2017 and FTX in 2019. FTX quickly became one of the hottest crypto exchanges, hitting its peak in 2022 as millions of people across the globe bought and sold the digital currency.

As the company grew Bankman-Fried hobnobbed with such celebrities as Larry David, Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady, and FTX even purchased the naming rights for the Miami Heats home arena.

The exchange fell even quicker than it ascended, imploding over the course of just a few days last year as jittery clients withdrew their funds when the cryptocurrency market faltered  and FTX was revealed to have an $8 billion shortfall as Bankman-Fried allegedly used investor money to cover Alameda losses.

FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, and Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas in December before being extradited to the U.S.

Kaplan ordered him to the Brooklyn jail in August after feds accused him of attempting to intimidate lead witness Caroline Ellison  his ex-girlfriend and former Alameda executive by leaking her personal writings to The New York Times.

The trial is one of two he will face. A second criminal trial is set to start in 2024 on five counts filed after his arrest.

____
Trish Priller says she is no longer convicted Jan. 6 insurrectionist Christopher Worrell's court-appointed custodian.Worrell, of East Naples, convicted in May in his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capital insurrection, was released in custody of Priller in November 2021 with GPS monitoring and home detention. Priller, who was his girlfriend, is a former employee of The Naples Daily News.

"I am no longer Chris Worrell's 3rd-party custodian," Priller wrote in a text message to a Naples Daily News reporter on Monday following a voicemail asking about Worrell. "Please contact William Shipley his lawyer or the FBI for updates."

Four days before Worrell's sentencing on Aug. 18., Worrell absconded, ditching his GPS monitoring and the required communication with the court about moving. More than a month later, on Sept. 28, Worrell was captured at the East Naples home he shared with Priller where authorities found him unconscious, they said.

Christopher Worrell, 52, of East Naples, remains in custody on a hold for Hillsborough County. He's charged as a fugitive from justice with the FBI, obstructing justice and violating the conditions of his release.. He was awaiting sentencing for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection and captured last week more than a month after he disappeared..

More: East Naples 'Proud Boy' guilty in attack on Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol.

More: Convicted on Jan. 6 charges, recaptured Naples' Christopher Worrell sentencing likely soon

More: East Naples man involved in Jan. 6 insurrection freed, living with GPS monitoring in SWFL

Worrell, 52, was treated by first responders and taken to an undisclosed hospital under Collier County Sheriff's authority, according to a spokeswoman. He remained in the hospital, Monday, spokeswoman Michelle Batten said. Worrell was being held and awaiting transfer to Hillsborough County. The local FBI office is in Tampa.

Worrell likely will be sentenced for his part in the Capital attacks between Oct. 25 and Nov. 3, and U.S. Government authorities are asking that he be held in custody until then. He opted to let a judge hear the evidence rather than going before a jury. A Washington, D.C., judge found Worrell guilty after a 10-day trial.

On Jan. 6, 2021, after the loss of President Donald Trump's reelection, a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building. The mob hoped to prevent Congress from counting electoral college votes and keep then-President-elect Joe Biden from power.

A video of the attack appeared to show Worrell and others accused of storming the building, attacking police officers, breaking building windows and wreaking other damage. Worrell said he is a member of The Proud Boys, a far-right, neo-fascist group that advocates for and participates in politically motivated violent events.

Prosecutors have filed paperwork setting his sentencing on the insurrection between Oct. 25 and Nov. 3.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Jan. 6 Capital insurrectionist Christopher Worrell custodian removed
The truck driver involved in a crash that killed a Fairborn man and his two daughters has been sentenced.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Truck driver involved in crash killing Fairborn man, daughters facing charges; Warrant issued

Raymond Clifford of Orange City, Florida, pleaded No contest on three misdemeanor counts of vehicular homicide, according to online records filed in Cambridge Municipal Court.

He was sentenced to serve 180 days in Jail for all three charges, which will be served concurrently, meaning he will serve them at the same time, according to court records.

Clifford also received a suspended credit of 23 days, which lowered his sentence to 157 days in jail.

As News Center 7 previously reported, Clifford was driving a 2018 Freightliner commercial vehicle west on I-70 when it went off the left side of the roadway, crossed the median, and then struck a guardrail and a Nissan Versa carrying 45-year-old Nathan Johnson and his two daughters, Savannah, 15, and Karaline, 13.

Both Savannah and Karaline died at the scene, according to an Ohio State Highway Patrol crash report.

Nathan was taken to Ohio Health Hospital of Cambridge where he died.
Fulton county prosecutors in Georgia have approached several defendants about plea agreements in the sprawling criminal racketeering case dealing with Donald Trump s efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Tuesday.

Related: Trump ally is first to plead guilty in Georgia elections case

Plea agreements are common in such cases accusing defendants of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (Rico) Act, where prosecutors will often try and get individuals at the lower level of a criminal enterprise to flip and assist the prosecution in exchange for a lighter sentence or immunity. The district attorneys office has already reached immunity plea agreements with at least half of the fake set of electors in Georgia.

Michael Roman, the head of election day operations for the Trump campaign in 2020, rejected a plea agreement, a person involved in his defense told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. One of his lawyers told the paper that his legal team had sought to negotiate for dismissal of the charges against him in exchange for truthful testimony. An attorney for Roman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Several people who were involved in the breach of Coffee county election equipment as well as a scheme to harass the election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman have also been approached, the paper reported.

The Fulton county district attorneys office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Scott Hall, a bail bondsman who was involved in efforts to breach voting equipment in Coffee county, became the first of the 19 defendants to plead guilty last week. He received five years of probation, a $5,000 fine and 200 hours community service, and he agreed to write a letter of apology after pleading guilty to five counts of intentional interference of performance of election duties, a misdemeanor. Before pleading guilty, he gave a recorded statement to prosecutors, which they are likely to use as they make a criminal case against Sidney Powell, one of Trumps attorneys.

Trump and 18 of his associates were charged earlier this year on 41 counts of various crimes in Georgia, including racketeering and forgery, for their efforts to overturn the election. Two of the defendants, Powell and Ken Chesebro, have successfully severed their cases from the others and will be tried together soon after requesting a swift timetable. Jury selection is expected to begin in that case on 20 October.
By Jack Queen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The judge overseeing Donald Trump 's civil fraud trial on Tuesday imposed a gag order - promising sanctions for any violations - on the former U.S. president and others in the case after Trump took to social media to lash out at the judge's top law clerk.

Justice Arthur Engoron of the New York state court in Manhattan told lawyers for Trump and New York Attorney General Letitia James , who brought the fraud case, that such comments aimed at his staff were "unacceptable, inappropriate and will not be tolerated under any circumstances."

Acting during the trial's second day of testimony, the judge forbade both sides from speaking about his staff, and threatened "serious sanctions" if anyone did. The judge did not specify the nature of these sanctions but they could include a finding of contempt of court, which can carry fines and in rare cases jail time.

"Consider this statement a gag order," Engoron added.

James has accused Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization and others of inflating asset values over a decade to secure favorable bank loans and insurance terms, and exaggerating Trump's own riches by more than $2 billion. The trial could lead to the dismantling of Trump's business empire as he seeks to regain the presidency in 2024.

Engoron spoke after Trump shared a social media post by the clerk, who was identified by name, posing with Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who is not involved in the case. Trump referred to the clerk as "Schumer's girlfriend."

"How disgraceful!" added Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to face Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 election. "This case should be dismissed immediately!!"

Trump's post was later deleted.

James is seeking at least $250 million in fines, a permanent ban against Trump and his sons Donald Jr. and Eric from running businesses in New York, and a five-year commercial real estate ban against Trump and the Trump Organization.

TRUMP SAYS HE PLANS TO TESTIFY

Trump, in the courtroom for a second straight day, wore his familiar blue suit, red tie and American flag pin as he sat hunched over a table with his lawyers. Trump told reporters he plans to testify.

The government's first witness, Trump's former accountant Donald Bender, testified again on Tuesday as the attorney general's office tries to show that Trump and his family business deceived even the people reviewing his financials.

Under questioning from Kevin Wallace, a lawyer in James' office, Bender said financial statements he prepared for the Trump Organization were largely based on self-reported figures.

Jesus Suarez, a lawyer for Trump, questioned Bender on the accuracy of the financial reports and said the accountant "screwed up" by failing to notice major changes in the value of Trump's assets.

"His company is going through this hell because you messed up," Suarez said.

Engoron ruled before the trial that Trump committed fraud, and canceled business certificates for companies that control crown jewels of Trump's portfolio, including Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street in downtown Manhattan.

The trial, which could last into December, will review six additional claims including falsifying business records, insurance fraud and conspiracy, and address how much the defendants should pay in penalties.

Others expected to testify include the Trump Organization's former chief financial officer and controller, and Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen. Trump and his adult sons are also on James' witness list.

Earlier in the day, Trump renewed his attacks on James, telling reporters that the Democrat was "grossly incompetent" and had concocted a bogus case.

"Her numbers are fraudulent," Trump said. "She's a fraud."

Trump also faces four criminal indictments over his efforts to undo his loss in the 2020 election, his handling of classified documents, and hush money paid to a porn star. Trump has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty in all of the cases. He also faces a January civil damages trial for defaming a writer who accused him of rape, which he denies.

(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; additional reporting by Joseph Ax in New York and Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Amy Stevens and Will Dunham)
The civil trial against former President Donald Trump, his family and his business empire will continue Tuesday with more witness testimony as New York Attorney General Letitia James seeks to make her case that the Trump Organization overvalued its assets.

Trump attended the first day of the trial Monday and is expected to return Tuesday.

The court is expected to reconvene with James' office tying testimony from its first witness, Donald Bender of accounting firm Mazars USA LLP, to its overall case. Bender's testimony focused on financial records dating back to 2011, which fell outside of the statute of limitations.

Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the non-jury civil trial, said the questioning was a "waste of time" unless James' office could tie it back to something within the statute of limitations--something James' office promised to do Tuesday.

Former US President Donald Trump (C) sits with his attorneys inside the courtroom during his civil fraud case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James, at a Manhattan courthouse, in New York City, on October 2, 2023. Former US president Donald Trump was in court Monday for what he slammed as a "sham" civil fraud trial against him and two of his sons, with the case threatening the Republican's business empire as he campaigns to retake the White House.

TRUMP JUDGE FACES ONLINE BACKLASH AFTER SMILING, POSING FOR CAMERAS IN COURTROOM: 'PARTISAN DEMOCRAT CLOWN'

Mondays session marked an unprecedented scene in a Manhattan courtroomfeaturing the former president of the United States and current 2024 Republican presidential primary frontrunner and his children defending their business empire.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Before entering the courtroom, Trump spoke to reporters, blasting the "disgrace" of a civil trial stemming from "corrupt" James lawsuit against him, and presided over by "corrupt" Judge Arthur Engoron.

Engoron last week ruled that Trump and the Trump Organization committed fraud while building his real estate empire by deceiving banks, insurers and others by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.

Engorons ruling came after James sued Trump, his children and the Trump Organization, alleging that the former president "inflated his net worth by billions of dollars," and said his children helped him to do so.

Trump attorney Christopher Kise, in his opening statement Monday, said Trumps financial statements contained no false entries, and argued that prosecutors were relying on the word of a "known liar"former Trump attorney Michael Cohento establish wrongdoing.

Former US President Donald Trump (C) sits with his attorneys inside the courtroom during his civil fraud case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James, at a Manhattan courthouse, in New York City, on October 2, 2023. Former US president Donald Trump was in court Monday for what he slammed as a "sham" civil fraud trial against him and two of his sons, with the case threatening the Republican's business empire as he campaigns to retake the White House.

Prosecutors claimed that Trump and his associates knowingly submitted false financial statementsbasing their theory on Cohens sworn testimony. The prosecution played a clip of Cohen stating that Trump would regularly task him and other lawyers with inflating his net worth, even if only to raise his placement on the Forbes wealth list. The video showed Cohen testifying that he witnessed this behavior on a regular basis from 2011 to 2015.

Meanwhile, Trump attorney Alina Habba also highlighted that James began investigating Trump soon after she took her post as attorney general in 2019, after promising voters during her campaign that she would "get Trump" if elected.

NEW POLL REVEALS HUGE GAP IN CONCERN OVER BIDEN'S AGE VS. TRUMP'S IN HYPOTHETICAL 2024 MATCHUP

As for the Trump Organizations valuations, Habba argued they were not fraudulent and stressed that the state of Trumps financial condition was, in fact, "undervalued."

Habba continued by saying that prosecutors were essentially arguing that if an individual listed their home at one price, but it sold for a lower one, they committed fraud.

Trump's defense team argued that Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida estate, would sell for "at least" $1 billionmuch more than Engoron's valuation of $18 million.

Trump himself spoke to reporters outside the courtroom shortly after Habba's statement. He argued that he has been "defrauded" by Engoron's low valuation.

"We're wasting time with this trial. It's a disgrace," Trump said. "The judge already made up his mind. He's a Democrat. He's an operative."

The prosecution on Monday also called its first witness Donald Bender, from the accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP. Bender, who spent several years preparing Trumps tax returns, testified that he frequently interacted with Jeffrey McConney, the controller for the Trump Organization, to prepare statements of financial conditions, or balance sheets.

Bender said the information would be put into an engagement binder, and McConney or a member of his team would send an early draft of the statement and send backup schedules to cross-reference to make sure numbers were correct. Bender said he had to make sure the numbers on the statement they sent would match the numbers going into a spreadsheet.

Bender testified he didnt take any measures to ensure the information provided was true. He only raised an issue if something glaring stood out.

Attorney General Letitia James arrives for the start of the civil fraud trial of former President Donald Trump at New York State Supreme Court on October 02, 2023 in New York City. Former President Trump may be forced to sell off his properties after Justice Arthur Engoron canceled his business certificates and ruled that he committed fraud for years while building his real estate empire after being sued by Attorney General Letitia James, who is seeking $250 million in damages. The trial will determine how much he and his companies will be penalized for the fraud.

The Trump Organization was responsible for meeting generally accepted accounting procedures (GAAP), he said. Bender answered "yes" when asked if there were GAAP exceptions in multiple instances between 2011-2020. He said the Trump organization made the decision for a GAAP exception each time, and that he did not perform any additional accounting procedures to see if a GAAP exception was necessary.

AG MERRICK GARLAND CLAIMS IN INTERVIEW HE'D RESIGN IF BIDEN ASKED HIM TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST TRUMP

Bender testified that Mazars would not have issued the statement of financial condition for the Trump Organization if the firm was aware that any of the information was untrue.

But after nearly two hours of Bender testifying on 2011 financial documents, Judge Engoron criticized the prosecution, noting the documents in question fell outside the statute of limitations.

The Appellate Division in Manhattan decided this summer that James could no longer sue for alleged transactions that occurred before July 13, 2014, or Feb. 6, 2016, depending on the defendant.

"Unless you can relate the 2011 docs to something that happened later, this has all been a waste of time," Engoron said.

James office promised the judge to explain why it is relevant during Tuesdays session.

James, a Democrat, brought the lawsuit against Trump last year alleging he and his company misled banks and others about the value of his assets. James claimed Donald Jr., Ivanka , and Eric, as well as his associates and businesses, committed "numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation" on their financial statements.

That appellate ruling over the summer also dismissed Ivanka Trump as a defendant.

Fox News' Maria Paronich contributed to this report.





Original article source: Trump civil trial continues for a second day in New York City
The late-night shows returned to television on Monday for the first time in five months, and it seems at least one former president was watching.

Now that the strike is over, the talentless, low rated CREEPS of Late Night Television are back, Donald Trump ranted on his Truth Social website. I knew there was a reason I didnt want to see it settled - True LOSERS!!!

In another post, he called them poorly rated and not at all funny and claimed the shows were a major campaign contribution to Democrats.

Watch what is going on, he wrote. So interesting!

Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers were all back on the air on Monday after the resolution of the five-month-long writers strike, and all were heavy with jokes about Trump. Jimmy Fallon also returned to TV, although Trump was a much smaller part of his monologue.

John Oliver returned on Sunday night, while The Daily Show will resume next week.

Trump has long had a problem with the late-night shows for mocking him and has attacked Kimmel, Colbert, Jon Stewart, Saturday Night Live, and Alec Baldwin, among others.

Earlier this year, Rolling Stone reported that Trump White House officials made at least two phone calls in 2018 to a top Disney executive demanding that the network take action against Kimmel over his Trump jokes.

Disney is the parent company of ABC, which airs Jimmy Kimmel Live.

After the report, Kimmel blasted Trump as a fragile little snowflake who cant handle a little humor.

In addition, The Daily Beast reported in 2021 that Trump asked the Justice Department to investigate late-night comics who made fun of him. He was so obsessed, the website reported, that he asked his advisors if the Federal Communications Commission or courts could stop the jokes.

Theycouldnot.

Related...
Judge Aileen Cannon again hands former President Donald Trump s legal team a partial victory. Trump drops lawsuits against Arthur Engoron, the judge in the civil financial fraud case, as well as his former lawyer Michael Cohen, a key witness in multiple cases.

Classified documents

Judge pauses pretrial deadlines as she considers Trump's request to delay trial until after 2024 election

Key players: Judge Aileen Cannon, special counsel Jack Smith

Cannon issued a ruling Friday temporarily delaying a previously set schedule of deadlines stretching from October through May for the Justice Department to make classified documents available to Trumps lawyers and for the defense team to have time to review them, the Messenger reported.

Smith has charged Trump with mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House and obstructing the governments attempts to retrieve them.

The indefinite delay comes after Trump lawyers on Wednesday requested that Cannon push back the start date for the trial until after the 2024 presidential election.

Cannon has yet to rule on Trumps motion to move back the trial, but her order on Friday would appear to make it less likely that the trial would begin on the scheduled date of May 20, 2024.

Why it matters: If Trump succeeds in pushing back the trial and also manages to win reelection in 2024, critics fear that he will simply attempt to pardon himself if found guilty of the felony charges Smith has brought against him.

New York financial fraud

Trump drops lawsuit against judge, but moves to appeal his fraud ruling

Key players: Judge Arthur Engoron, Trump lawyer Christoper Kise, New York Attorney General Letitia James

On day five of Trumps New York trial to decide the punishment he, his adult sons and his family business must pay after Engoron found them liable for inflating their assets to obtain favorable bank and insurance rates, Trump dropped his lawsuit against the judge handling the case, the Daily Beast reported.

Trump filed suit against Engoron last month, saying the judge ignored appeals court rulings and was biased against him. Critics saw the lawsuit as yet another attempt to delay the case from moving forward.

Kise, meanwhile, was not in Engorons courtroom early Friday. Instead, he was filing what was later ruled an unsuccessful appeal of the judges fraud ruling.

On Thursday, Engoron set a deadline to ensure Trump complied with his order to dissolve his New York businesses.

Why it matters: Trumps lawyers have sued prosecutors, judges and witnesses in the many cases in which the former president is a defendant and they are perfectly within their rights to do so. Their bid to overturn Engorons ruling was denied Friday, but the appellate court did allow Trump to retain control of his real estate holdings for the moment, the Associated Press reported.

Trump drops $500 million lawsuit against Michael Cohen  for now

Key player: Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen

In a one-page court filing Thursday, lawyers for Trump announced they were dropping a $500 million lawsuit they had filed against Cohen, AFP reported.

"President Trump has decided to temporarily pause his meritorious claims against Michael Cohen, the filing stated. Once President Trump has prevailed in dealing with the witch hunts against him, he will continue to pursue his claims against Michael Cohen, who rightfully deserves to, and will be held accountable for his unlawful words and actions."

In response to the filing, Cohen said, "This case was nothing more than a retaliatory intimidation tactic, and his attempt to hide from routine discovery procedures confirms as much."

Trump had been scheduled to be deposed next week by Cohens lawyers in the case but cited conflicts arising from his civil fraud trial in New York and presidential campaign events.

Cohens court testimony will play a central role in the civil fraud trial as well as the criminal hush money case in New York.

Cohen served a three-year sentence on campaign finance, tax evasion and other charges from when he worked as Trumps lawyer and fixer.

Why it matters: The events packing Trumps legal and political calendar have become so numerous that it has become difficult for the former president to juggle them.

Read more:

USA Today: Reports: Trump revealed two nuclear secrets about U.S. submarines to Australian billionaire

The Hill: Georgia judge rejects Chesebro attempt to have charges dismissed

UPI: Georgia judge denies Sidney Powell bid to dismiss her Trump election interference case

____________________

Thursday, Oct. 5

____________________

Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Spencer Platt/Getty Images, Getty Images (4).

Judge Arthur Engoron issues an order meant to keep former President Donald Trump, his adult sons and business from avoiding punishment for fraud in New York. Meanwhile, Trumps lawyers file a slew of motions to dismiss or delay criminal cases against him.

New York financial fraud

Judge sets Oct. 26 deadline on plan for dissolution of Trumps New York companies

Key players: Judge Arthur Engoron, former federal judge Barbara Jones, New York Attorney General Letitia James

On day four of the civil trial to decide the penalties Trump, his adult sons and the Trump Organization must pay after being found liable for fraud, Engoron issued a ruling to ensure that the defendants comply with his order to dissolve their New York businesses, the Daily Beast reported.

In Wednesdays order, Engoron directed Trumps lawyers and James to submit suggestions for the appointment of an independent receiver to oversee the shuttering of the Trump familys New York businesses by Oct. 26.

His order also directs Trump, his adult sons and two top executives at the Trump Org. to inform the court about the creation of any new business entities and the transfer of assets.

Trump has already filed an appeal of Engorons decision that would effectively spell the end of his ability to conduct business in New York.

Why it matters: Engorons ruling is designed to preempt Trump from making secret transactions to skirt the courts punishment for being found liable for years of financial fraud.

Jan. 6 election interference

Trump lawyers seek dismissal of federal election inference charges

Key players: Judge Tanya Chutkan, special counsel Jack Smith

In a motion filed Thursday, Trumps lawyers said Chutkan should dismiss all charges related to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election because he was president when he undertook them, the Associated Press reported.

Breaking 234 years of precedent, the incumbent administration has charged President Trump for acts that lie not just within the outer perimeter, but at the heart of his official responsibilities as President, the long-shot motion states.

Trump has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

In his indictment, Smith said that while political candidates are fully within their rights to challenge the results of an election, Trumps actions clearly overstepped those bounds and constituted criminal acts.

Why it matters: Trump has already lost many court challenges that have attempted to shield his communications with staff members based on claims of executive privilege. If he were successful with this motion, the judges ruling would appear to all but erase any limits on the ability to find a president guilty of having committed a crime.

New York hush money

Trump asks judge to dismiss hush money charges

Key players: Judge Juan Merchan, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg

Trumps lawyers argued in a filing this week that Merchan should dismiss the 34 felony charges against Trump because Bragg waited to file his indictment until after Trump had declared his candidacy for president, CNN reported.

The indictment was filed six years after the conduct at issue, more than four-and-a-half years after DANY [District Attorney of New York] began to investigate it, and more than three years after DANY started presenting evidence to a grand jury, Trumps attorneys wrote in the filing, adding, The delay has prejudiced President Trump, interfered with his ongoing presidential campaign, and violated his due process rights.

In March, Trump was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from his $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors allege that the sum was paid to hide an extramarital affair from becoming public during the 2016 presidential election.

In social media posts, Trump often tries to make the case that the four criminal prosecutions against him are simply a ruse to keep him from winning reelection.

Why it matters: Seen as another long-shot, Trumps legal filing would, if successful, dash the criminal case against him in New York before it is scheduled to begin, on March 24, 2024.

Classified documents

Trump asks judge to delay documents trial until after 2024 election

Key players: Judge Aileen Cannon, Trump lawyers Christopher Kise and Todd Blanche, special counsel Jack Smith

In a motion filed late Wednesday, Trumps lawyers asked Cannon to delay the start of the trial on felony charges stemming from his mishandling of classified documents until after the 2024 presidential election, the Associated Press reported.

The case is currently scheduled to begin in Florida on May 20, 2024, but lawyers for the former president, who faces four overlapping criminal trials, said scheduling conflicts made that date impossible.

Kise and Blanche also said in the filing that prosecutors had yet to provide them with documents to review for their defense of Trump.

The Department of Justice says it has provided 1.28 million pages of documents to date. Last week, Smiths team said in its own filing that they would make available most of the remaining classified documents to Trumps lawyers by Friday.

Cannon, a Trump appointee, has raised eyebrows with what critics say are pro-Trump rulings in the case so far.

Why it matters: The pattern of attempting to delay the start of criminal trials until after the election could complicate holding Trump accountable if he is found guilty in federal court.

____________________

Wednesday, Oct. 4

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Judge Arthur Engoron. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Mary Altaffer/AFP via Getty Images, Shannon Stapleton/Pool via Getty Images, Getty Images)

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump file an appeal of a judges ruling that found him liable for financial fraud. Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis seeks a March 4 start date for the election interference trial and Rudy Giuliani files a defamation lawsuit against President Biden.

New York financial fraud trial

Trump files appeal of judges ruling finding him liable for fraud

Key players: Judge Arthur Engoron, New York Attorney General Letitia James

As the third day of Trumps New York civil trial got underway Wednesday to determine the penalties the former president, his adult sons and their family business must pay for illegally inflating their assets, Trumps lawyers filed an appeal of Engorons summary judgment ruling, Reuters reported.

On Sept. 26, Engoron sided with James, ruling that there was conclusive evidence that Trump had inflated his assets by as much as $2.2 billion in order to obtain favorable bank and insurance rates.

In their notice of appeal, Trumps lawyers stated that they were contesting each and every part of Engorons ruling.

As Wednesdays court proceedings broke for lunch, Trump again attacked Engoron, saying he already knows what hes going to do in the case and is run by the Democrats.

Why it matters: James is seeking at least $250 million in damages from Trump, his sons and their business, as well as an order that would prevent the Trump Organization from conducting business in New York. If the appeal of Engorons ruling is successful, it could wipe away all of those possible penalties.

Georgia election interference

Willis proposes March 4 start date for Trumps Georgia trial

Key players: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Judge Scott McAfee, pro-trump lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell

In a court filing Wednesday, Willis proposed a March 4 start date for the sprawling election interference trial of Trump and 16 others, NBC News reported.

In light of Defendant Donald John Trumps other criminal and civil matters pending in the courts of our sister sovereigns, the State of Georgia proposes certain deadlines that do not conflict with these other courts already-scheduled hearings and trial dates, Willis wrote.

Two of the defendants, Chesebro and Powell, will go on trial on Oct. 23.

Ultimately, it will be up to McAfee to decide when the Georgia trial will begin.

Why it matters: Trumps lawyers have sought to push the start of the trial back after the 2024 presidential election. Willis was unsuccessful in her bid to have all of the defendants tried starting on Oct. 23. With two other criminal cases and two civil ones set to take place as the presidential primary gets underway, Trumps legal calendar will be incredibly crowded.

As his legal bills mount, Giuliani files defamation lawsuit against Biden

Key players: Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, President Biden, Giuliani lawyer William OBrien

Faced with mounting legal bills stemming from his efforts to help Trump overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia and other states, Giuliani has filed a civil defamation lawsuit against Biden, the Hill reported.

In a 16-page complaint filed in New Hampshire, OBrien cited remarks Biden made in a 2020 presidential debate with Trump in which he referred to Giuliani as a Russian pawn, in a suit that seeks unspecified financial damages.

In the debate, Biden said, [Trumps] own national security adviser told him that what is happening with his buddy, Rudy Giuliani, hes being used as a Russian pawn; hes being fed information that is Russian, that is not true.

Why it matters: In addition to the legal bills he is racking up having to defend himself in Georgia, the loss of a second lawyer in that case, and a lawsuit filed by Hunter Biden, Giuliani is being sued by his own former lawyer for $1.36 million in unpaid legal bills.

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Tuesday, Oct. 3

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Photo Illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images (2), Getty Images (2).

The judge in the New York financial fraud trial against former President Donald Trump issues a partial gag order on the former president. The judge also clarifies remarks he made Monday about the statute of limitations in the case. Trump, meanwhile, says he will take the witness stand at the appropriate time.

New York financial fraud trial

Judge issues gag order after Trump attacks his clerk on social media

Key players: Judge Arthur Engoron

Engoron told Trump and his lawyers Tuesday that he was issuing a gag order for all parties from posting about any members of my staff, after the former president attacked Engorons clerk in a social media post, the Associated Press reported.

Personal attacks on members on my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and I wont tolerate it, Engoron said.

Before the lunch break on the second day of his financial fraud trial, Trump posted an inaccurate claim made on a satirical website that Engorons clerk was Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumers girlfriend.

Why it matters: Trumps attacks on judges, witnesses and prosecutors have increased calls for gag orders to be placed on him during the legal proceedings. Engorons is the first to be issued.

Engoron refutes Trumps claim that 80% of the charges against him will be thrown out

Key players: Judge Arthur Engoron

Engoron clarified a remark he made Monday regarding testimony about 2011 financial statements being introduced by prosecutors being a waste of time, ABC News reported.

An appeals court has ruled that 2014 is the end date for the statute of limitations for the financial crimes Trump, his adult sons and family business are accused of committing, and Trumps lawyers are seeking to have the judge toss out allegations made for anything earlier.

Lawyers with Jamess office, however, are making the case that Trump used inaccurate 2011 financial statements after 2014 to obtain more favorable loan and insurance rates.

I trust that you can relate the 2011 documents to something that happened later, Engoron told prosecutors on Monday. Or this has all been a waste of time.

At the conclusion of Mondays proceedings, Trump told reporters that Engoron had effectively indicated that the statute of limitations meant he would kick out 80% of this case.

It was a great credit to the court that the judge was willing to do this sort of overruled himself and I greatly respect that, Trump said.

In fact, Trump stripped Engorons remarks of their context.

Every use of false financial statements in business starts the statute of limitations running again, Engoron clarified Tuesday. I understand that the defendants strongly disagree with this and will appeal on those grounds.

Why it matters: In part, Trump has attended the trial to address the media during breaks to put forth his interpretation of the case against him. As Engorons message at the start of the second day indicates, Trumps declarations should be taken with a grain of salt.

Trump says he will testify at the appropriate time

Key players: New York Attorney General Letitia James

During a break in day two of Trumps $250 million financial fraud trial, the former president was asked if he planned to testify in the case, the Telegraph reported.

Yes, I will. At the appropriate time I will be, Trump responded.

James has indicated that she plans to call Trump and his adult sons as witnesses, as have Trumps own lawyers.

Why it matters: Engoron has indicated that the trial will last until the end of December. There is no indication yet when James may call Trump to take the witness stand and whether he will agree to answer questions or simply invoke his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.

________________

Monday, Oct. 2

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Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images, Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images, Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Getty Images (2).

Former President Donald Trumps civil financial fraud trial gets underway in New York. The U.S. Supreme Court  minus Justice Clarence Thomas, who recused himself  refuses to hear an appeal filed by lawyer John Eastman about shielding emails he sent to Trump. In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis subpoenas Bernard Kerik to testify in the case against Trump and 18 others.

Jan. 6 election interference

Supreme Court rejects Eastman appeal  and Thomas recuses himself

Key players: Pro-Trump lawyer John Eastman, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

On Monday, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by Eastman, who sought to block Congress from obtaining 10 emails he sent to Trump about overturning the results of the 2020 election, Reuters reported.

The emails were handed over to the House committee investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol, but Eastmans lawyers argued that they were protected by attorney-client privilege.

In 2020, U.S. District Court Judge David Carter ruled that the emails were not protected by attorney-client privilege because they were likely used in furtherance of a crime.

Thomas, for whom Eastman worked as a clerk, recused himself from the case.

Why it matters: Eastman has been charged with multiple felonies related to his efforts to overturn the election results in Georgia and could yet face federal charges. Legal challenges attempting to shield Trumps communications regarding the 2020 election plot have largely failed. Given the extensive efforts by Thomass wife, Ginni, to challenge the election results, this may not be the last case in which he will face calls to recuse himself.

New York financial fraud civil trial

Prosecutors: Trump gained $1B by lying to banks and insurers about the value of his assets

Key players: Prosecution lawyer Kevin Wallace, Trump lawyer Christopher Kise, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Judge Arthur Engoron

On the first day of the New York trial to decide how much Trump, his adult sons and his business will have to pay in damages after being found liable for years of financial fraud, prosecutors said Trump had gained $1 billion by inflating his assets in order to obtain favorable loans and insurance rates, the Telegraph reported.

This isnt business as usual, and this isnt how sophisticated parties deal with each other, Wallace said. These are not victimless crimes.

Kise countered by saying, There were no unjust profits, and there were no victims.

James, Trump and his son Eric all attended the trial. Asked why he had come even though he was not legally required to, Trump quipped, Because I want to watch this witch hunt myself.

Trump also tore into Engoron, calling him a Democrat operative and a disgrace.

Why it matters: Engoron will alone decide the amount of damages Trump, his sons and business will have to pay for illegally inflating their assets on loan and insurance forms.

Georgia election interference

Willis subpoenas Kerik to testify

Key players: Fulton County DA Fani Willis, former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, Keriks lawyer Tim Parlatore

Willis has issued a subpoena to Kerik, seeking his testimony in the case against Trump and 18 others accused of attempting to illegally overturn the election results in Georgia, CNN reported.

Kerik is an unnamed co-conspirator in the case. He took part in meetings with officials from other battleground states that Trump lost in 2020 to devise a strategy for contesting those results.

In response to Willis, Parlatore said that no competent criminal attorney would allow Mr. Kerik to testify absent a grant of immunity.

Short of being given immunity, Kerik will plead the Fifth Amendment on the witness stand, Parlatore added.

Why it matters: On Friday, bail bondsman Scott Hall became the first defendant in the Georgia case to cut a plea deal with prosecutors. Kerik has not been charged in Georgia, however, so it remains to be seen if Willis will agree to offer him immunity in exchange for his testimony.
Donald Trump's ex-accountant spent three hours recognizing documents on Tuesday.

Donald Bender's stultifying testimony kicks off Trump's monthslong fraud trial.

Trump isn't expected to be present for most of it.

The New York attorney general and Donald Trump's lawyers used dynamic visuals and bombastic language to savage one another in court on Monday.

Come Tuesday morning, the state found itself having to spend three hours asking Trump's former accountant Donald Bender to authenticate documents.

"Mr. Bender, do you recognize the document?" an assistant attorney general asked dozens of times. Bender  sometimes after nearly a minute of silently flipping pages  would say yes.

Then, the state's lawyer would ask Bender to go to the last page. He'd ask Bender if he recognized the signature of Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg , which was helpfully labeled "Allen Weisselberg," and that of Donald Trump Jr., helpfully labeled "Donald Trump Jr."

Bender, with his eye for detail, always did.

The state's lawyer would then ask Justice Arthur Engoron to take the document into evidence. One of Trump's lawyers would object. Justice Engoron would overrule the objection. Wash, rinse and repeat.

And so began a civil trial estimated by the judge to run for two months  and will hinge primarily on GAAP, or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

Attorney General Letitia James has accused Trump of years of fraud, by inflating annual financial statements by as much as $3.6 billion.

Trump has denied inflating his wealth, but Justice Arthur Engoron found before the trial started that the former president did in fact commit fraud. The trial will determine penalties, and whether anyone  like his two sons  intentionally broke the law.

As the questions and witness droned on, Trump's lawyer Alina Habba wiggled her foot in the air beneath the counsel's table. A reporter in the overflow room banged his head on the table.

New York Attorney General Letitia James sat like a statue, alert, with her hands folded on her lap.

The park across from the courthouse was festooned with fences, but relatively quiet, with even fewer protesters present than the measly 30 who gathered Monday.

Trump rotated between leaning forward toward the monitor, sitting back with his arms crossed, and exchanging whispers with lawyers Habba and Chris Kise  appearing, understandably, bored.

Once outside the courtroom, though, Trump once again performed for the cameras. He argued that James is corrupt and the case was a sham. His takeaway from Bender's testimony was that his financial statements were "very strong."

James is hoping the trial brings $250 million in penalties and that Trump and his adult sons are banned from ever running a business in New York state again.

She also seeks to ban Trump and the Trump Organization from borrowing from a New York bank and from purchasing real estate in the state for five years.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for their work on how electrons move around the atom during the tiniest fractions of seconds, a field that could one day lead to better electronics or disease diagnoses.

The award went to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne LHuillier for their study of the tiny part of each atom that races around the center and that is fundamental to virtually everything: chemistry, physics, our bodies and our gadgets.

Electrons move around so fast that they have been out of reach of human efforts to isolate them, but by looking at the tiniest fraction of a second possible ? one quintillionth of a second known as an attosecond ? scientists now have a blurry glimpse of them and that opens up whole new sciences, experts said.

The electrons are very fast and the electrons are really the workforce in everywhere, Nobel Committee member Mats Larsson said. Once you can control and understand electrons you have taken a very big step forward.

Their experiments have given humanity new tools for exploring the world of electrons inside atoms and molecules, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which announced the prize in Stockholm. They have demonstrated a way to create extremely short pulses of light that can be used to measure the rapid processes in which electrons move or change energy.

At the moment, this science is about understanding our universe, but the hope is that it will eventually have many practical applications.

LHuillier, who is only the fifth woman to receive a Nobel in physics, said she was teaching when she got the call that she had won. She joked that it was hard to finish the lesson.

This is the most prestigious and I am so happy to get this prize. Its incredible," LHuillier, of Lund University in Sweden, told the news conference announcing the prize. "As you know there are not so many women who got this prize so its very special.

Swedish news agency TT reached Krausz, of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, by phone in Germany, where it is holiday.

My colleagues are enjoying their day off, but I hope that we will meet tomorrow and then we will probably open a bottle of champagne, he was quoted as saying.

Agostini is affiliated with Ohio State University in the U.S.

The Nobel Prizes carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million). The money comes from a bequest left by the prizes creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896.

Last year, three scientists jointly won the physics prize for proving that tiny particles could retain a connection with each other even when separated. The phenomenon was once doubted but is now being explored for potential real-world applications such as encrypting information.

The physics prize comes a day after Hungarian-American Katalin Kariko and American Drew Weissman won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

Nobel announcements will continue with the chemistry prize on Wednesday and the literature prize on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economics award on Oct. 9.

The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobels death. The prestigious peace prize is handed out in Oslo, according to his wishes, while the other award ceremony is held in Stockholm. (AP)
Former President Trump expressed frustration Tuesday over infighting among Republicans just minutes before lawmakers in the House were set to vote on a motion from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to advance an effort to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves, why arent they fighting the Radical Left Democrats who are destroying our Country? Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The post came during a break in a New York fraud trial involving Trumps business empire, which the former president is attending in Manhattan.

The House is set to vote Tuesday afternoon on the effort to oust McCarthy as Speaker after Gaetz set the process in motion Monday night. The Florida Republican told reporters he had spoken to Trump but would not divulge details of their conversation.

Trump had played a role in McCarthy securing the Speakership in January after a historic 15 rounds of votes just after the start of the new Congress.

Given the narrow GOP majority in the House, a handful of Republican votes opposing McCarthy now could put his fate in Democratic hands, but Democrats have indicated they do not intend to vote to back McCarthy and help him retain the gavel.

Trump had not previously weighed in on the fight over whether McCarthy should remain Speaker. The former president has maintained a good relationship with McCarthy since leaving the White House in 2021. McCarthy traveled to Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida shortly after Trump left office, and the two have remained in touch.

Trump in January publicly and privately urged Republicans to back McCarthy for Speaker amid divisions within the party that led to several rounds of voting before the California Republican won the gavel.

Mychael Schnell contributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
On the second day of Donald Trumps bank fraud trial on Tuesday, the New York Attorney Generals investigators began to lay the groundwork to show that the business tycoons outside accountants wouldnt stand by his bogus real estate values.

The judge was shown agreements Trump made with WeiserMazars, the outside accounting firm he contracted year after year to compile his personal statements of financial condition.

AG senior enforcement counsel Kevin Wallace presented a notable cautionary warning on the first page of a 2017 engagement letter: You are responsible for the content of the financial statement, including the estimated current value of assets and the estimated current value of liabilities.

Trump, His Kids, and His Bankers: New York AG Lays Out Witnesses in Case

The letter later added, We will not express an opinion or a conclusion nor provide any assurance on the financial statement.

The achingly boring testimony of the AGs first witness, Trumps longtime outside accountant Donald Bender, inched along at a snails pace. But as it went on, it became clear that state investigators are strengthening the case that Trump and his top advisers were responsible for wildly inflating his richesnot his bean counters.

Who was responsible for preparing them? Wallace asked.

The Trump Org and the trustees, Bender responded, referring to a Trump Revocable Trust that was setup when Trump became president in 2017.

In one example, state attorneys pointed to the signatures of Trump Organization executive Don Jr. and the disgraced former company chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, who served time at Rikers Island jail for being a tax cheat earlier this year.

This marks the second time that the unassuming New York accountant has become a witness against his trusted client. Last year, the Manhattan District Attorney relied on his testimony to nail the Trump Organization for tax fraud.

In this separate case, which can be viewed as a continuation of an overall effort to hold the Trump family accountable for shady business dealings, state investigators are seeking to empty his bank accounts and boot him from the business world for incessantly lying about his wealth.

The Trumps legal defense teamChristopher Kise, Alina Habba, and Clifford Robertall objected repeatedly to use of financial statements and engagement letters from 2011 through 2016, raising already failed arguments that theyre too old to be litigated.

However, the judge kept overruling their protests and listened as the AGs office reviewed some red flags in those agreements.

In one, Mazars warned the Trumps that our engagement cannot be relied upon to identify or disclose any financial statement misstatements, including those caused by fraud or error. In another, the letter noted that the financial statements had curious exceptions to what are called generally accepted accounting principles.

The accounting firm, which later became Mazars USA, caused Trump severe embarrassment in February 2022 when it decided to ditch him as a client.

Trump Shares Surreal Courtroom Sketch of Him Sitting Next to Jesus

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who sat in the front row yesterday and received a menacing look while Trump walked by, appeared yet again on Tuesday. But Trump didnt give her any side-eye this time around.

Shortly before heading to the courthouse, Trump griped about the law that allows the AG to clamp down on dishonest corporationsone that, in this case, already resulted in the judge putting the famous Trump Organization on a path toward total disintegration. Last week, Justice Arthur F. Engoron concluded the Trump family and top executives committed bank fraud, and he yanked the Trump Organizations business license.

On Truth Social, Trump railed that the rarely used Executive Law that the N.Y.A.G. is proceeding under is VERY UNFAIR, and being used against me for that reason.

NY Executive Law 63 (12) does not require a victim, traditional elements of fraud are eliminated (the only such law!), the law allows a politically elected partisan prosecutor to convince a politically elected judge, who may be friends, to destroy even a Political Opponent. This law may not be Constitutional and is not FAIR, and that is why terrible A.G. James chose it to use against me!!! he posted.

His heated rhetoric followed statements he made Monday just outside the courtrooms doors, in which he continued to accuse the Attorney General and judge of election interference.

By contrast, however, Trump continued to remain quiet in court. The only evidence of his displeasure was the unchanging frown he maintained on his way into the room and at the defense table. He appeared furious on the trials first day as well, when his lawyers kept raising failed arguments with the judge and aired their grievances about having already lost so much of the case before it even started.

Trump, who it seems stayed up past midnight, raged online about late night show hosts who ridiculed the former presidents legal woes. Stephen Colbert, for example, poked fun at Trumps federal indictment for hoarding classified records at Mar-a-Lago and the way he piled them up in boxes in his mansions bathroom, joking that he left the launch codes in the splash zone.

Now that the strike is over, the talentless, low rated CREEPS of Late Night Television are back. I knew there was a reason I didnt want to see it settled - True LOSERS!!! Trump complained on Truth Social.

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Justice Arthur Engoron told Trump to stop posting online about his staff.

Trump on Monday shared a photo of the judge's clerk online and ranted about her to reporters.

Engoron called the attacks unacceptable and said he "will not tolerate them under any circumstances."

Justice Arthur Engoron at Donald Trump's New York trial on Tuesday issued a harsh warning after the former president repeatedly attacked his clerk on social media and during a press conference.

Trump posed to Truth Social, a photo of Engoron's law clerk, who was standing next to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

In it, he named the clerk and called her "Schumer's girlfriend."

"Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable and inappropriate and I will not tolerate them under any circumstances," Engoron said, in announcing the gag order.

"Yesterday I warned counsel of this and this was disregarded," he said.

Trump also ranted about the clerk during a press conference directly outside Engoron's courtroom door on Monday.

The gag order covers posts about any member of Engoron's staff.

"Failure to abide by this order will result in serious consequences," Engoron said.

Engoron said he ordered the post deleted, but it was already emailed "to millions."

A potential violation of the order could hold serious implications for Trump. Matthew Galluzzo, a New York City criminal defense attorney and former Manhattan prosecutor, previously wrote that Trump could face anything from a fine to a brief prison sentence if he were to ignore Engoron's orders. A court would only have to hold an evidentiary hearing about a potential violation to impose such a punishment.

Trump has long attacked judges and those involved in his legal issues. As a presidential candidate, he questioned whether Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge, could adequately preside over a class action suit against Trump University due to his ethnicity. Trump's comments in that case were plainly racist.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The first time Donald Trump talked privately about shooting missiles into Mexico to take out drug labs, as far as his former aides can recall, was in early 2020.

And the first time those comments became public was when his second defense secretary, Mark Esper, wrote in his memoir that Trump had raised it with him and asked if the United States could make it look as if some other country was responsible. Esper portrayed the idea as ludicrous.

Yet instead of condemning the idea, some Republicans publicly welcomed word that Trump had wanted to use military force against the drug cartels on Mexican soil  and without the consent of Mexicos government. Trumps notion of a military intervention south of the border has swiftly evolved from an Oval Office fantasy to something approaching Republican Party doctrine.

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On the presidential campaign trail and on the GOP debate stage in California last week, nearly every Republican candidate has been advocating versions of a plan to send U.S. Special Operations troops into Mexican territory to kill or capture drug cartel members and destroy their labs and distribution centers.

On Capitol Hill, Republican lawmakers have drafted a broad authorization for the use of military force against cartels  echoing the war powers Congress gave former President George W. Bush before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. They have also pushed for designating Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations  a related idea Trump flirted with as president but backed off after Mexico hotly objected. Now, if Trump returns to the White House in 2025, he has vowed to push for the designations and to deploy Special Operations troops and naval forces to, as he put it, declare war on the cartels.

The Republican Partys attraction to seeking a military solution to the drug problem is a reminder that the GOP  despite its populist shift toward anti-interventionism in the Trump years and the growth of a faction that opposes arming Ukraine against Russias invasion  still reaches for armed force to address some complex and intractable problems. Trump himself has been something of a walking contradiction when it comes to the use of force abroad, alternately wanting to pull back U.S. involvement overseas and threatening to drop bombs on enemies such as Iran.

The plans have angered officials in Mexico. Its president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has denounced the proposals as outrageous and unacceptable. It has been more than a century since the United States sent military personnel into Mexico without the Mexican governments assent.

Mexico has a bitter history with U.S. interference: Much of the southwestern United States was part of Mexico before the United States took it by force in the middle of the 19th century. To this day, Mexico generally does not allow U.S. agents with guns to carry out operations on its soil, in contrast to other Latin American countries that have agreed to joint operations with the Drug Enforcement Administration and invited the U.S. government to help train, equip and assist their own security forces.

Analysts have also warned about the potential for military action to cause significant economic damage. The plans could rupture the United States relationship with Mexico, its largest trading partner, and curtail other types of cooperation, including the arrest and extradition of criminals and Mexicos efforts to deter migrants from trying to cross illegally into the United States. Some Republicans view the threat of sending the military into Mexico as a negotiating tool to force Mexican officials to get aggressive with the cartels.

Generally, international law forbids a country from using military force on the sovereign soil of another nation without its consent, except with the permission of the U.N. Security Council or in cases of self-defense. But the United States has taken the position that it can lawfully use force unilaterally on another nations territory if its government is unable or unwilling to suppress a nonstate threat emanating from it, such as a threat from a terrorist group.

Republicans have described the Mexican criminal drug-trafficking networks as a national security threat, with some calling fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction.

Americans spend many billions of dollars a year on cocaine, heroin and other illegal drugs. For decades, the black market created by that demand has been heavily supplied by criminal smuggling operations across the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. But the rise of fentanyl  a powerful and fast-acting synthetic opioid that can be made cheaply from chemicals  has created a crisis. Fentanyl has been linked to more than two-thirds of the nearly 110,000 American overdose deaths last year, and lawmakers from both parties have been desperately searching for solutions.

Frustration has also mounted with the Mexican government, whose president has advocated a hugs not bullets policy to deal with drug crime, after crackdowns on cartel leaders by previous administrations led to widespread violence. The cartels, which resemble high-tech paramilitary organizations, have seized control of large areas in Mexico and have corrupted many officials in Mexicos government and law enforcement ranks.

The Biden administration  like previous administrations of both parties  has sought to partner with Mexico to stem the flow of drugs and has explicitly ruled out military action.

Chris Landau, who was Trumps ambassador to Mexico from 2019 to 2021, said the idea of using military force in a bordering country was a bad idea that would only make things worse. He warned it could create a new quagmire, invoking the aftermath of military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I understand the frustration, Landau added. I just think that a shootout at the O.K. Corral model is not going to solve it and will cause a lot more problems.

Origins in the Oval Office

The story of how the idea of sending military force into Mexico went from Trumps Oval Office to the center of the Republican policy conversation is complex and much more than a simple tale of lawmakers copying Trump.

Trumps proposal to shoot missiles at Mexican drug labs was not something he concocted out of thin air. It came up during a meeting and was affirmed by a man in uniform.

That man in uniform was not in the military chain of command, however: He was a medical officer and an unlikely person to be advising the president of the United States on military operations anywhere.

By late 2019 and early 2020, as the fentanyl crisis was intensifying, large-scale meetings in the Oval Office addressed how to handle the problem. Some participants felt the meetings were of little use because officials tended to perform for Trump, and he would perform for them.

When the idea of military intervention was brought up at one such meeting, Trump turned to Brett Giroir, who was there in his role as the U.S. assistant secretary for health. Giroir was also a four-star admiral in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, and he was wearing his dress uniform. His main point was that the United States was unable to combat the crisis with treatment alone, according to a person briefed on his comments.

It was clear from the way Trump singled out Giroir that he had mistakenly thought he was in the military because of his dress uniform, according to two participants in the meeting. Giroir, in his response, suggested putting lead to target, the two participants recalled. Trump did not betray what he thought about the idea, and White House officials, troubled by the moment, considered asking Giroir not to wear his dress uniform to the Oval Office again.

Giroir, in a statement, did not discuss the substance of the meeting, but said no one had suggested that military action alone would solve the fentanyl crisis. He also insisted that Trump had not mistaken him for a military officer.

He knew exactly who I was, that I was in the Public Health Service, and I was the opioids lead under the secretary, Giroir said. We had multiple meetings before that.

Jason Miller, a senior adviser on Trumps 2024 campaign, declined to address the Oval Office meeting or the discussion of sending missiles into Mexico.

During that same time period in late 2019, Attorney General William Barr had proposed to Trump the idea of using force inside Mexico, but he envisioned it as a policy they would pursue in a second term if Trump won the 2020 election. He thought the threat of unilateral action on the part of the United States would give the administration leverage to press the Mexicans to do more on their end to suppress the cartels.

Barr and Trump had a number of conversations about the issue. Barr mentioned a range of options for aggressive action, according to a person familiar with the discussions. But Barr was not advocating missiles, concerned that the wrong target might get taken out using such ordnance, the person said.

At least twice during 2020, Trump privately asked his defense secretary, Esper, about the possibility of sending Patriot missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs, and whether they could blame another country for it. Patriot missiles are not the kind that would be used  they are surface-to-air weapons  but Trump had a habit of calling all missiles Patriot missiles, according to two former senior administration officials. During one of the 2020 discussions, Trump made the comment quietly to Esper as they stood near the Resolute Desk, within ear shot of another Cabinet official. Esper, stunned, pushed back on the idea.

From Trumps Mouth to the 2024 Trail

After leaving office, Trump didnt stop talking about attacking the drug cartels. Instead, he turned the idea into an official policy proposal for his 2024 campaign for president.

In January, Trump released a policy video titled President Donald J. Trump Declares War on Cartels, in which he explicitly endorsed the idea of treating Mexican drug cartels like the Islamic State group  rather than treating them as transnational criminal organizations to be addressed using law enforcement tools.

Trump promised to deploy all necessary military assets, including the U.S. Navy to impose a full naval embargo on the cartels and to designate the major cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

And he pledged to order the Pentagon to make appropriate use of special forces, cyber warfare and other overt and covert actions to inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure and operations.

As a matter of international law, a crucial question is whether the United States would use military force inside Mexico only with the consent of its government or whether it would do so unilaterally without consent. Trump downplayed the prospect of war with Mexico in a recent interview with Megyn Kelly, the podcast host and former Fox News star.

But in a sign of how politically potent the prospect of sending troops into Mexico has become for Republicans, the campaign of his chief rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, highlighted Trumps comments to Kelly and emphasized that DeSantis has promised to take aggressive military action against the cartels.

Vivek Ramaswamy has promised to use our military to annihilate the Mexican drug cartels. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina has released a campaign ad vowing to unleash the U.S. military against the cartels. And former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina has said that when it comes to drug cartels, you tell the Mexican president, either you do it or we do it.

Miller, the Trump adviser, said that Trump had announced a detailed plan to eradicate the drug cartels and stop the flow of drugs into our country in the first week of January, and its good to see so many others now following his lead.

Operationalizing the Idea

The idea has taken on a life of its own on Capitol Hill.

More than 20 House Republicans have signed on to co-sponsor legislation proposed by Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas to enact a broad authorization for the use of military force against nine named cartels. It would also authorize force against any other foreign organization that the president determines meets certain criteria, including organizations related to fentanyl trafficking.

The proposed authorization for a war would end after five years unless Congress enacted a new bill to extend it. But its otherwise loose nature resembles the broad war authorizations Congress enacted after the 2001 terrorist attacks and before the 2003 Iraq War, both of which escalated into entanglements beyond what lawmakers originally envisioned.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who is a close ally of Trump, said he thought a president could bomb fentanyl labs and distribution centers on his own constitutional authority as commander in chief, without congressional authorization. But he also argued that if Trump became president again, the mere threat that he might do something like that could induce the Mexican government to take more aggressive actions.

As these problems go unmanaged and get bigger in scope, the solutions become more draconian, he said. And the one thing about Trump, I think if he does get a second term, I think youll see more cooperation by Mexico. I dont think well ever have to get to bombing labs  Mexico will adjust their policies based on Trump.

An Offense to the People of Mexico

The Republican rhetoric about attacking drug cartels inside Mexico is ricocheting around the halls of its government. The countrys leftist president has responded furiously and taken the extraordinary step for a world leader of attacking the Republican Party.

This initiative of the Republicans, besides being irresponsible, is an offense to the people of Mexico, a lack of respect to our independence, to our sovereignty, Lopez Obrador told reporters in March. If they do not change their attitude and think that they are going to use Mexico for their propaganda, their electoral and political purposes, we are going to call for not voting for this party, because it is interventionist, inhuman, hypocritical and corrupt.

From a Mexican perspective, it is the United States that is fueling the cartel violence  not only because American demand creates the market for the drug trade, but also because the United States makes it so easy to buy the firearms that end up in Mexico. Those firearms fuel gun violence in Mexico despite its tough gun-control laws.

Roberto Velasco Alvarez, the top North American official in Mexicos Foreign Affairs Ministry, specifically invoked the gun comparison as he called out Ramaswamy for promising U.S. military action inside Mexico.

If Mr. Ramaswamy is so concerned about whats going on in Mexico, well, the best way he could help us is to take away the guns that are literally being sold to Mexican cartels, he said in an interview.

As Mexico heads to a historic presidential election next year, when voters are expected to choose between two leading candidates who are women, whoever gets elected will most likely need to handle the tensions created by the Republican Party.

Rather than threats, we should work in a smart way, said Xochitl Galvez, a Mexican senator who has been chosen as the oppositions candidate and has openly rejected Lopez Obradors security strategy, adding that the hugs have been for the criminals and the bullets for the Mexican citizens.

But Galvez also criticized the Republican proposals to invade Mexico and called for shared and responsible cooperation. We cant keep blaming each other, she said.

c.2023 The New York Times Company
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Good evening. Susan Hall has claimed that Jewish people are frightened by Sadiq Khan , sparking furious demands for an apology from Labour.



Elsewhere, ministers are to rent prison cells overseas to help tackle the overcrowding crisis in Britains jails.

Sadiq Khan frightens Jewish people, claims Tory London mayoral candidate

Susan Hall has claimed that Jewish people are frightened by Sadiq Khan. The Tory candidate for Mayor of London made the remarks at an event hosted by Conservative Friends of Israel on the margins of the partys conference in Manchester. She was criticised by senior Labour figures as well as the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which said that the claims had no basis in reality.

Prison cells overseas to be rented to combat jail overcrowding

Ministers are to rent prison cells overseas to help tackle the overcrowding crisis in Britains jails. Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, was expected to announce the plan on Tuesday as figures showed there were only 258 places left in the adult male prison estate. The move comes on top of the Governments ambition to create 20,000 extra prison places by the mid 2020s, but amid concerns that planning rows could delay their construction.

Sam Bankman-Fried goes on trial accused of multi-billion dollar crypto fraud

Sam Bankman-Fried will go on trial today over allegations that he stole billions of dollars from customers of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange. Nearly a year after the companys collapse shocked markets and tattered his reputation, jury selection for his trial has begun. Mr Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy - and though he has acknowledged inadequate risk management, he has denied stealing funds.

Evening Briefing: Todays essential headlines

Suella Braverman | The Home Secretary warned that the UK faces a hurricane of mass migration in her speech at Tory conference this afternoon.

Comment and analysis

World news: 14-year-old boy arrested after deadly attack at luxury shopping centre

A 14-year-old suspected gunman was arrested after two people were killed and at least four wounded during a shooting spree at a luxury shopping centre in the heart of Bangkok. Hundreds of people fled the busy downtown mall into torrential rain and chaos after gunshots were heard, while videos shared on social media showed others taking cover in shops, restaurants and bathrooms as the shooter stalked the building.

Feature of the day

I made Prets extortionately priced sandwiches at home and this is what they cost

On the back of the chains recent price hikes, that daily baguette looks increasingly hard to justify.

Read the piece

Business news: AstraZeneca pays 350m to settle heartburn drugs lawsuits

British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has agreed to pay $425m (352m) to settle US lawsuits that claimed two of its heartburn drugs caused kidney damage. The company said it has settled claims relating to its Nexium and Prilosec drugs, bringing an end to litigation in Delaware and New Jersey.

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Sport briefing: Todays essential headlines

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FILE PHOTO: Supporters of Tunisia's Free Destourian Party take part in a protest in Tunis

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS (Reuters) -Tunisia's public prosecutor detained Abir Moussi , a prominent opponent of President Kais Saied , after she was arrested at the entrance to the presidential palace on Tuesday, lawyers said, the latest arrest targeting Saied's political rivals.

"Moussi was detained for 48 hours in charges of processing personal data, obstructing the right to work, and assault intended to cause chaos", lawyer Aroussi Zgir said.

Authorities were not immediately available to comment.

Police this year have detained more than 20 leading political figures, accusing some of plotting against state security. Saied has described those detained as "terrorists, traitors and criminals."

An assistant of Moussi said in a video on Facebook that Moussi was "kidnapped" in front of the Carthage Palace.

Moussi leads the Free Constitutional Party and is a supporter of late president Zine El Abidine ben Ali who was toppled by mass protests in 2011.

In recent months, the party has organised protests against Saied. Moussi accuses Saied of ruling outside the law, and said that she is ready to make personal sacrifices to save Tunisia.

In front of the La Goulette police station, dozens of angry Moussi supporters protested, shouting slogans against Saied amid a heavy police contingent who cordoned off the building.

Earlier on Tuesday, Moussi said in a video that she went to the presidential reception office to file an appeal in local elections expected at the end of the year. She said that this step was necessary so that she could later file an appeal in the Administrative Court.

Saied, a retired law professor who was elected president in 2019, shut down the elected parliament in 2021 and moved to rule by decree, actions his opponents described as a coup. Saied has said he needed to save Tunisia from years of chaos, denying his actions were a coup.

On Friday, jailed opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi, another critic of Saied, began a three-day hunger strike. Later five other prominent opposition figures also went on hunger strike in prison.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; editing by Grant McCool)
ISTANBUL (Reuters) -President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he expected concrete steps from allies in support of Turkey's counter-terrorism fight after a weekend bomb attack in Ankara, for which a Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility.

Erdogan was speaking after Turkish police staged raids across the country on Tuesday, detaining dozens of suspects over alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

"We want to see concrete steps from friends in addition to messages of condemnation," Erdogan said at an opening ceremony of a Council of State facility in Ankara.

"They should know that statements that condemn terrorism and console us will not heal our wounds."

Two assailants detonated a bomb near government buildings in Ankara on Sunday, wounding two police officers. Both attackers were killed.

The PKK, which is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, claimed responsibility for the attack, the first in the Turkish capital in years.

Turkey subsequently carried out air strikes on militant targets in northern Iraq and detained suspects in Istanbul on Monday, hours after the PKK made its claim of responsibility.

On Tuesday evening, Turkish air forces conducted fresh air strikes in northern Iraq and destroyed 16 targets consisting of caves, bunkers, shelters and depots used by the PKK, the defence ministry said.

It said many militants were "neutralised", a term used to mean killed, without giving a number.

State-owned Anadolu news agency reported that about 90 people in 18 provinces across the country were detained on Tuesday over suspected links to the PKK.

Several members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which ran under the Green Left party banner in this year's elections, were among those who have been detained, Green Left co-spokesperson Ibrahim Akin told a parliamentary meeting.

Separately, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said operations involving thousands of security personnel were carried out across the country targeting PKK "intelligence units", with dozens arrested.

During operations nationwide targeting people in possession of illegal firearms a total of 928 people were detained, he said on messaging platform X.

(Reporting by Burcu Karakas and Huseyin Hayatsever; Writing by Daren Butler; editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Ed Osmond, Mark Heinrich and Gareth Jones)
A member of Turkish security forces stands guard near a cordoned off area after an explosion in Ankara, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023. A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in the heart of the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Sunday, hours before parliament was scheduled to reopen after a summer recess. A second assailant was killed in a shootout with police. (AP Photo/Ali Unal)

ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  Turkish warplanes carried out new airstrikes against suspected Kurdish militant sites in northern Iraq on Tuesday, days after a suicide attack in the Turkish capital. Police, meanwhile, detained almost 1,000 people in raids across Turkey.

A defense ministry statement said the air raids hit 16 targets, including caves, shelters and depots, used by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK in the neighboring region. It said the operation aimed to protect Turkey's borders and prevent terror attacks.

It was Turkey's second cross-border aerial operation against PKK targets in northern Iraq since the attack in Ankara on Sunday.

Earlier, police conducted raids in several Turkish provinces, detaining close to 1,000 people, including dozens with alleged links to Kurdish militants. An opposition news anchor was also briefly detained.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said that 55 people suspected of being part of the PKK's intelligence structure were detained in 16 provinces. At least 12 other suspected PKK members were rounded up in a separate operation in five provinces, Yerlikaya wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The PKK claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, according to a news website close to the group. The group has led a decades-long insurgency in Turkey and is considered a terror organization by the United States and the European Union. Tens of thousands of people have died since the start of the conflict in 1984.

The interior minister later said that an additional 928 people suspected of holding unlicensed firearms or being connected to firearms smuggling were arrested during the operation, but he didn't immediately make it clear if the suspects arrested for illegal firearms were suspected of connections to the PKK.

He added that more than 840 firearms were confiscated during the operation.

A 73-year-old news anchor was also briefly detained Tuesday after she questioned details of the official account of the attack on opposition broadcaster Halk TV.

Aysenur Arslan was detained in her home after prosecutors accused her of terrorist propaganda and praising criminal activity for comments made during her television program on Monday morning.

Media freedoms in Turkey have eroded during President Recep Tayyip Erdogan s tenure, according to international monitors.

Much of the media have oriented itself to support Erdogan, while the few broadcasters that regularly criticize his policies are hit with fines or blackouts by the Turkish media watchdog RTUK. Turkey ranked 149th out of 180 countries in the press freedom index of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in 2022.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device near an entrance to the Interior Ministry, hours before Erdogan was set to address Parliament as it returned from its summer recess. A second would-be bomber was killed in a shootout with police.

Two police officers were slightly wounded in the attack. The suspects arrived at the scene inside a vehicle they seized from a veterinarian in the central Turkish city of Kayseri after shooting him in the head, officials said.

Turkish authorities identified one of the assailants as a PKK militant. Hours later, Turkeys air force carried out airstrikes on suspected PKK sites in northern Iraq, where the group's leadership is based. The Defense Ministry said a large number of PKK militants were neutralized in Sunday's strikes.

Yerlikaya didn't clarify whether the people rounded up on Tuesday were suspected of direct involvement in Sundays attack.

___

Robert Badendieck reported from Istanbul.
Two soldiers assigned to the 11th Airborne Division at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, were killed and a dozen more were injured Monday afternoon when their truck rolled over near the Yukon Training Area, according to local media reports.

According to Alaska News Source, 17 soldiers were riding in a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle on a dirt road near the training area outside the town of Salcha, when the driver lost control of the truck. It then flipped, killing two of the soldiers and sending as many as a dozen more to hospitals around the state.

In addition to the two deceased soldiers, a pair of troops suffered injuries severe enough that they were evacuated nearly 300 miles by air to Providence Medical Center in Anchorage, the states largest city, the report said. The less-injured soldiers were evacuated by ground and air to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. The New York Times reported that the injured troops had not been released from the hospital as of Monday evening.

First responders from the Alaska State Troopers, North Pole Fire Department, and Eielson Air Force Base responded to the scene, according to the local report.

The divisions spokesperson, John Pennell, told Alaska News Source that the entire 11th Airborne Division family is grieving the loss of these two soldiers and preparing to step forward for the families theyve left behind. Pennell did not immediately respond to an emailed query from Army Times.

As occurs with all fatal Army accidents, a local investigation and a safety investigation led by the Army Combat Readiness Center will seek to formally determine the cause of the crash. The identities of the fallen troops wont be released until 24 hours after their next-of-kin have been notified, in line with service policy.

In recent years, fatal tactical vehicle rollover crashes such as Mondays inspired lawmakers to require the Army and Marine Corps to study whether including built-in data recorders  or black boxes  in ground vehicles could improve their safety.
Brothers Minas Khacheryan, 86, and Grigor Khacheryan, 78. Minas Khacheryan's body has been found, but his brother remains missing. (Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department)

The body of an 86-year-old man who recently went missing was found under a bridge near an aqueduct in Lancaster early last week, and the search for his brother has been called off for now.

The man's 78-year-old brother, authorities said, was still missing Sunday after officials with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department searched the aqueduct, hoping to find the man.

Investigators and divers conducted searches last week for Grigor Khacheryan, who went missing along with brother Minas Khacheryan on Sept. 29. Another search was conducted Sunday of the aqueduct in Lancaster.

"Despite their efforts, Deputy personnel were unable to locate the missing person," the department said in a news release. "Additional searches may occur pending additional information."

Minas Khacheryan and his younger brother, Grigor, were reported missing Sept. 29 by family.

Sheriff's officials said the two had been last seen that morning in the 1000 block of East Chevy Chase Drive in Glendale. By Oct. 2, officials said the two had been spotted fishing near the California Aqueduct.

Family reported being concerned for the two. Grigor Khacheryan recently had open-heart surgery.

Minas Khacheryan's body was spotted Monday under a bridge at 195th Street West and West Avenue G in the aqueduct in Lancaster.

The cause of his death was still under investigation, officials said, but no foul play was suspected.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Two Army soldiers were killed and 12 more injured when their transport truck flipped on a road in a remote part of Alaska early Monday, the Army announced.

The soldiers were traveling down a dirt road en route to the Yukon Training Area in central Alaska when the truck flipped, The Associated Press reported. There were 17 soldiers of the 11th Airborne Division in the vehicle at the time.

Two of the injured soldiers were airlifted to a hospital in Anchorage, with the remaining injured treated in Fairbanks, Army spokesman John Pennell told the AP. Their conditions were not made available.

Were a real tight-knit group in the military, so right now, the entire 11th Airborne Division is grieving and preparing to provide whatever support is necessary for the families of the deceased and to help support those who are still in the hospital and dealing with their injuries, Pennell said.

The Army will investigate the crash, including sending an investigatory team from the Army Combat Readiness Center in Alabama, Pennell told the AP.

The names of the soldiers will be released after families are notified.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Two soldiers were killed and 12 others injured when a military vehicle flipped on its way to a remote training area in Alaska (Getty Images)

Two soldiers were killed and 12 others injured when a military vehicle flipped on its way to a remote training area in Alaska, according to officials.

The accident took place as members of the 11th Airborne Division travelled on a dirt road to the Yukon Training Area near Salcha, around 30 miles southeast of Fairbanks, the 11th Airborne Division said in a statement.

Officials said that the driver lost control of the transport vehicle in the incident on Monday, causing it to flip over.

The Army said that there were 17 soldiers in the vehicle at the time of the accident and that firefighters extracted them from its wreckage and treated personnel at the scene.

The 12 injured soldiers were flown and taken by ground ambulances to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. The two most seriously injured were then taken by air ambulances to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.

Were a real tight-knit group in the military, so right now, the entire 11th Airborne Division is grieving and preparing to provide whatever support is necessary for the families of the deceased and to help support those who are still in the hospital and dealing with their injuries, Army spokesperson John Pennell told the Associated Press.

The names of the two soldiers killed in the incident will not be released until 24 hours after the families have been notified.

The Army will investigate the accident.

In April, three soldiers in the state were killed when two military helicopters crashed near Fairbanks while on their way to Fort Wainwright from a training exercise.
In the West Pacific basin, a robust typhoon is taking aim at Taiwan, the northernmost tip of the Philippines and southeastern China with the impacts of heavy rain and gusty winds.

The center of Typhoon Koinu, known as Jenny in the Philippines, was churning near the southernmost coast of Taiwan late Wednesday.

Koinu was packing maximum sustained winds equivalent to that of a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale with maximum sustained winds of 103 mph. However, a weather station at Lanyu on Orchid Island, Taiwan, reported a wind gust of 212 mph as the eyewall of Koinu passed over the observatory late Wednesday, local time, but this was not yet officially reported by the Central Weather Administration.

AccuWeather Enhanced RealVue Satellite view of Typhoon Koinu on Wednesday, Oct. 4 as it approaches Taiwan.

The Central Weather Administration in Taiwan issued sea and land typhoon warnings Monday and Tuesday, alerting residents of the heavy rain and wind expected from Koinu. Beaches were closed beginning Tuesday in Kenting National Park, located in southern Taiwan, in preparation for the incoming storm conditions.

Additionally, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration issued tropical cyclone warnings for several northern provinces in the Luzon region.

Numerous flights were cancelled across Taiwan on Wednesday as Koinu knocked at the country's doorstep with an impressive rain and wind field. Schools and businesses across the region were also closed on Wednesday in preparation for the typhoon's arrival, according to Reuters.

The life of Koinu began last Wednesday, Sept. 27, when a tropical zone of low pressure formed near Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. By Friday, the feature organized into a tropical depression over the central Philippine Sea. Over the course of the weekend, Koinu ramped up to tropical storm strength (maximum sustained wind speed of 39 to 73 mph, or 63-118 km/h) by Saturday and reached Category 1 hurricane status (maximum sustained wind speed of 75-95 mph, or 120-152 km/h) by Sunday.

Between Sunday and Monday, the cyclone met the qualifications for rapid intensification as it trekked westward across the Philippine Sea, with equivalent strengthening from a Category 1 to a Category 3 hurricane. Rapid intensification is defined as a 35 mph (55 km/h) increase in the maximum sustained winds of a tropical cyclone over the course of 24 hours.

Another recent cyclone in the West Pacific to undergo rapid intensification was Typhoon Haikui, named Hanna by the Philippines, which moved across the basin from Aug. 27 to Sept. 6. The storm had a similar path to the projection of Koinu. It moved westward across the northern Philippine Sea and slammed into southern Taiwan and southwestern China. Haikui underwent rapid intensification less than 24 hours before making landfall, while Koinu is expected to gradually lose wind intensity as it nears Taiwan and southeastern China.

Typhoon Haikui was the first storm to make landfall in mainland Taiwan in four years, after Bailu in 2019.

Over the upcoming week, Koinu is forecast to slowly track across the northwestern Philippine Sea, approaching southern Taiwan and eventually locations in far southeastern China.

"Koinu is expected to pass over or near the Hengchun Peninsula of Taiwan late Wednesday night or Thursday morning, local time," AccuWeather Lead International Forecasters and Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls said.

AccuWeather meteorologists say that the storm may be equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane as it passes over southern Taiwan. However, bands of heavy rain and gusty winds had already arrived across parts of Batanes, Babuyan Islands, Taiwan, and northern Luzon, the largest and most populated island of the Philippines, by Tuesday night, local time.

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A general 1-2 inches (25-50 mm) of rain will spread across the northern Luzon region of the Philippines, western and northern Taiwan and parts of southeastern China. Higher rainfall amounts ranging from 2-4 inches (50-100 mm) can occur along the upslope regions in eastern Taiwan and along the coast of southeastern China, while 4-8 inches (100-200 mm) can spread along the far southeastern and east-central coast of Taiwan as the typhoon passes along the southern half of the country.

Rainfall totals can range between 8-12 inches (200-300 mm) across the far southeastern tip of Taiwan with the AccuWeather Local StormMax of 18 inches (450 mm). Heavy rain to this degree can bring impacts such as mudslides, road washouts, flash flooding and structural damage.

As the wind field from the storm expands, wind gusts between 40-60 mph (60-100 km/h) can spread from northern Taiwan to the northern Philippines and southeastern China, with gusts to 60-80 mph (100-130 km/h) possible across southern and eastern areas of Taiwan.

AccuWeather RealVue Satellite view of Typhoon Koinu approaching Taiwan on Wednesday, Oct. 4.

"Wind gusts to 120 mph (180 km/h) can occur in far southern Taiwan and Batanes with the AccuWeather Local StormMax of 155 mph (250 km/h)," Nicholls said.

The strongest wind gusts associated with Koinu can occur near the storm's center as it passes near southeastern Taiwan, AccuWeather forecasters say.

"Wind gusts of this magnitude can cause downed trees, power outages and structural damage. Due to the combination of rain and wind, we are forecasting a 2 on the AccuWeather RealImpact Scale for Tropical Cyclones in Taiwan and the Batanes," stated Nicholls.

Impacts from Koinu may be felt across southeastern China as early as Friday, local time, as it gradually tracks to the west into the upper half of the South China Sea. Moisture and wind from Koinu are expected to reach Hong Kong later this week into the weekend as the feature slowly tracks westward.

Looking ahead, AccuWeather forecasters warn that conditions across the Philippine Sea can remain conducive for additional tropical development this weekend into early next week.

Chances remain low for tropical formation at this time, but any feature that forms is likely to track west-northwest or northwest. Interests from the Philippines to Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan should remain alert for possible impacts later next week as a result.

The annual West Pacific Typhoon season takes place from May through October. Cyclone activity can still occur across the Pacific basin from November to April, although tropical development is less likely outside of these core months.

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 U.S. government announced indictments against 14 individuals and 14 firms across Canada and China for selling chemicals to drug dealers in cartels. The action marks one of the Biden administrations biggest crackdowns on the fentanyl epidemic, one of the deadliest drug overdose crises in years. The Drug Enforcement Administration said that Mexico and China are the biggest fentanyl sources for the U.S. and that most of the chemicals to make fentanyl flow in from China. The Treasury is also looking for anyone who benefits from the illegal drug sales and will go after their assets in addition to targeting networks trafficking the veterinary drug xyalizine, which often gets mixed with fentanyl. The Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Wally Adeyemo said Its the latest step in the rapid scaling up of our work targeting the financial flows that power the global illicit drug trade.

Read it at The Associated Pres

Read more at The Daily Beast.
United Nations  The U.N. Security Council voted Monday to approve sending a multinational force to Haiti with the goal of combatting extreme gang violence that has spiraled in recent years.

With 13 votes in favor, the Security Council approved sending a one-year, non-U.N. force that will be led by Kenya, which has committed to sending 1,000 security personnel. The force is expected to include personnel from Jamaica, Barbados and several other nations. The mission was authorized under the "use of force" provision of the U.N. Charter.

Both Russia and China abstained, allowing the measure to pass.

Although it is not a U.N. peacekeeping mission, the U.N. Security Council resolution gave its "blessing" to the mission, according to Sergio Franca Danese, Brazil's U.N. ambassador who currently holds the rotating presidency of the council.

Fires burn on streets in the Cite Soleil area on September 13, 2023 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. / Credit: Giles Clarke/Getty Images

What will the force be responsible for?

The U.N. has been trying for some time to send forces to Haiti to as civilians face hunger and gang violence that has cut off water and gas supplies, left thousands dead and driven an increasing number of Haitians to flee to the U.S.

The new international force  dubbed the Multinational Security Support Mission or "MSS"  is being sent at the request of the Haitian government and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. It will be tasked with protecting hospitals, schools, airports, ports and traffic intersections in conjunction with the Haitian National Police.

A senior Biden administration official told reporters on a call Monday that the Kenyan forces will not supplant the Haitian police, but "support and strengthen its ability to provide security for the Haitians over the long term."

The vote was "an expression of solidarity with people in distress," Haitian Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus told the Security Council. "It is a glimmer of hope for people who have been suffering the consequences of a difficult political, socioeconomic, security and humanitarian situation for too long."

Resident evacuate the Carrefour Feuilles commune in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on August 15, 2023, as gang violence continues to plague the Haitian capital. / Credit: RICHARD PIERRIN/AFP via Getty Images

What role will the U.S. have?

The Biden administration has been clear that it will not commit to "boots on the ground," but it is seeking $100 million from Congress to support the mission. It's expected that the Pentagon will also provide another $100 million of support  including intelligence, airlifts, communications and medical funds  to support training for the Haitian National Police.

These funds would be in addition to the $500 million that the U.S. already provides in development and humanitarian assistance to Haiti.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, in a statement issued Monday, called the U.N. vote "an important milestone in bringing much-needed help to the people of Haiti who have suffered for far too long at the hands of violent criminals."



He thanked the nations that committed forces to the mission and said it was "now crucial that we focus on making progress in mobilizing the international support necessary to deploy this mission swiftly, effectively, and safely. The people of Haiti deserve to feel safe enough to leave their homes, restore their livelihoods, and go to the polls to democratically elect a government that represents their interests."

"Haitians are leaving the country because of fear because of intimidation and being terrorized," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters in a call late Monday, adding that it was the Biden administration's hope that the mission "works to provide stability, it works to provide security [so] that fewer Haitians will feel the need to leave the country."

Knowing that past missions to help Haiti have been ill-fated, including an international peacekeeping force that brought cholera, Monday's resolution provides a mechanism for oversight to prevent abuses and sexual exploitation.

Smoke is seen in the Turgeau commune of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, during gang-related violence on April 24, 2023. / Credit: RICHARD PIERRIN/AFP via Getty Images

How effective will the force be at quelling violence?

Those who know Haiti's history remained skeptical after the Security Council vote.

A senior Biden administration official told reporters on a call Monday that the Kenyan force of roughly 1,000 officers will not supplant the Haitian National Police, but "support and strengthen its ability to provide security for the Haitians over the long term."

But the official expressed doubt as to whether sending forces alone would be enough, saying such action would be "insufficient without progress on the political side."

Amy Wilentz, author of "The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier" and a professor at the University of California, Irvine, told CBS News the mission was "unlikely to be a success."

"First, it's too small," Wilentz said. "There are an estimated 20,000 active gang members in Port-au-Prince, and they are heavily armed. So in combat, the Kenyans will be outmanned and perhaps outgunned."

Wilentz also noted the Kenyan police "have a quite poor human rights record in Kenya. In Haiti, they don't know the turf, don't speak the language."



Wilentz noted that the international force will be contending with the aftermath of twin crises  the assassination of former Haitian President Jovenel Moise in 2021 and the devastating 2010 earthquake erased decades of progress in rebuilding stability in Haiti.

Haitian journalist and broadcaster Michele Montas, who ran Radio Haiti Inter with her husband Jean Dominique for 30 years until he was assassinated, was positive about some aspects of the mission.

"In the terrible war that the gangs are waging against the population, the force might give some temporary breathing space to people who have been fleeing their neighborhoods for months as the gangs are gaining more and more territory," Montas told CBS News. But she added that, "without a real change and a responsible transitional government, the violence might be temporarily reduced, lives would be saved, major critical infrastructures might be functional again, but it can only be, in the long run, another failure."

China's U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said that while Beijing "appreciates Kenya's willingness" to lead the mission, "without a legitimate, effective, and responsible government in place, any external support can hardly have any lasting effects."

"If the council had taken this step at an earlier time, the security situation in Haiti might not have deteriorated to what it is today," Zhang said.

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The claim: Growth in UK butterfly population means climate change isn't happening

A Sept. 15 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows British media personality and political commentator Katie Hopkins discussing purported events in the U.K.

"The butterfly population in the UK has exploded  up by 338%  and butterflies are a marker of a very healthy environment," she says. "So now we can all just hope and pray that the next time Extinction Rebellion or Just Stop Oil gather that they are absolutely swarmed by an absolute mass of butterflies leaving them unable to speak or hopefully breathe."

Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil are environmental groups that advocate for government action to stop climate change

The post was liked more than 9,000 times within three weeks.

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Our rating: Partly false

While the population of one species of butterfly increased by 338% between summer 2022 and summer 2023, butterfly populations have declined overall in the U.K. since the 1970s, according to a local butterfly conservation and research organization. Multiple lines of evidence, including geographical changes in butterfly populations, show that climate change is occurring.

UK Butterfly populations have declined since the 1970s

Butterfly populations in the U.K. have declined overall, according to Sophie Hall, spokesperson for the Butterfly Conservation, a U.K. butterfly and moth conservation and research organization.

"In the U.K., long-term trends show that 80% of butterfly species have decreased in abundance or distribution since the 1970s," she said in an email. "On average, U.K. butterflies have lost 6% of their total abundance at monitored sites and 42% of their distribution nationwide over the period 1976-2019."

Fact check: Greenland's Petermann Glacier is shrinking; movement doesn't mean it's growing

Hall told USA TODAY that the population of one specific species of migratory butterfly  Red Admirals  did increase by 338% in the summer of 2023 compared to the summer of 2022, based on the organization's annual citizen science survey. However, that change does not mean that climate change isn't happening.

In fact, the population increase may be due to climate change.

"We believe the increase in Red Admiral numbers could be due to climate change and more of the butterflies ... choosing to overwinter here because of warmer temperatures," Hall said

Data shows human emissions are driving climate change

Global climate change is occurring because of an increase in the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases released by human activity. The physical process by which these gases delay the escape of heat into space and warm the planet is well understood and has been verified through observations and experiments.

This warming, which has been detected by multiple independent climate agencies, has already caused sea level rise, an increase in heat wave frequency and melting from ice sheets, glaciers and Arctic sea ice.

U.K. butterflies are also impacted by climate change. While the Red Admiral thrives in warmer temperatures, other species do not.

In general, U.K. butterflies and moths that live in the south and are adapted to warmer conditions have expanded their range northwards, Hall said. Species that thrive in colder, wetter climates have also retreated farther north or higher in elevation to escape warming.

Changes in the distribution of butterfly species are a clear indicator of the changing climate, Hall said. Without action, some species will have nowhere left to go."

USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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: Claim misleads on climate change, UK butterflies | Fact check
Britain's Home Secretary Suella Braverman delivers her keynote speech during the Conservative Party annual conference at the Manchester Central convention complex, Manchester, England, Tuesday Oct. 3, 2023. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)

MANCHESTER, England (AP)  U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman railed against unauthorized migrants, human rights laws and "woke" critics of her hard-line policies Tuesday, as she tried to secure her place as the flag-bearer of the Conservative Partys authoritarian law-and-order wing.

In her keynote speech to the governing partys annual conference, Braverman called migration a hurricane that would bring millions more immigrants to these shores, uncontrolled and unmanageable.

She said that U.K. governments had been far too squeamish about being smeared as racist to properly bring order to the chaos. But the Conservatives, she said, would give Britain strong borders.

Braverman hailed the governments moves to make it harder for migrants to seek asylum in the U.K., including a law that requires anyone arriving in small boats across the English Channel to be detained and then deported permanently to their home nation or third countries.

Despite being passed by Parliament earlier this year, the law hasn't yet taken effect. The only third country that has agreed to take migrants from Britain is Rwanda, and no one has yet been sent there as that plan is being challenged in the U.K. courts.

Braverman's speech to party activists contained little new policy and had the feel of an election rally. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak s Conservatives are lagging behind Labour in opinion polls with an election due by the end of 2024. Many members attending the four-day conference are looking ahead to a leadership contest that would likely follow a defeat.

Braverman, a Cambridge-educated lawyer, is unofficially campaigning for the support of the partys populist authoritarian wing by advocating ever-tougher curbs on migration and a war on human rights protections and liberal social values. She quipped that the Human Rights Act should be called the Criminal Rights Act, said trans women shouldn't be allowed on single-sex female hospital wards and vowed to remove gender ideology, white privilege, anti-British history from education and cultural institutions.

Braverman makes some Conservatives worry the party is regaining its image as the nasty party, as former Prime Minister Theresa May once called it. In recent years, the party has worked to shed its image as a bastion of jingoistic Little Englanders and to attract a more diverse membership. Sunak is the United Kingdom's first prime minister of color, Braverman also has Indian roots, and several other high-profile Cabinet members also have immigrant parents or grandparents.

Braverman said her critics had tried to make me into a hate figure, because I tell the truth  the blunt unvarnished truth about what is happening in our country.

Its an open question whether Bravermans tough views will work on the party, or the country. Gideon Skinner, head of political research at pollster Ipsos, told a meeting on immigration at the conference that Britons are divided on immigration and on how to deal with migrants who try to reach U.K. shores on small boats  but that the issue ranks behind the economy, inflation and the health system as a priority for voters.

Delegates greeted her speech with loud applause, but one Conservative politician in the room was led out by security after challenging Bravermans views on gender.

Andrew Boff, a member of the London Assembly, said Braverman has been talking trash about gender and making our Conservative Party look transphobic and homophobic.

This home secretary was basically vilifying gay people and trans people by this attack on LGBT ideology, or gender ideology, he said. It is fictitious, it is ridiculous.

The conference ends Wednesday with a speech by Sunak, who will try to shift gloomy polls and unite his fractious party by promising he'll make tough decisions "to do what I believe is right for the country in the long term. "

I think for too long politicians have just taken the easy way out focused on the short term. I want to do things differently, Sunak told the BBC on Tuesday.
MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British business and trade minister Kemi Badenoch said there was a "zero" chance of a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States under President Joe Biden's administration, citing his attitude to such deals.

Biden has frozen FTA talks with countries including Britain. Asked at an event at the Conservative Party conference what chance there was of something resembling a free trade deal under the Biden administration, Badenoch replied "zero."

However she said there would be other opportunities for co-operation such as over critical minerals and with individual states.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout)
A U.K. startup is preparing to send a satellite to space that will manufacture new semiconductor materials that could be used in electronic devices on Earth.

The company, Space Forge , lost their first experimental satellite in the failed launch of Virgin Orbit 's LauncherOne rocket from Cornwall, the U.K., in January. Their new satellite, called ForgeStar-1, is about to ship to the U.S. for a launch at the end of this year or in early 2024, Josh Western, Space Forge CEO and founder, told Space.com.

Space Forge has recently signed a collaboration agreement with American aerospace giant Northrop Grumman to provide space-made semiconductor substrates that Northrop can then further develop in their foundries.

Semiconducting materials are essential for all sorts of electronic technologies, but their manufacturing on Earth is costly and energy intensive. The vacuum and microgravity conditions of space, however, could allow completely new semiconductor materials to be developed much more efficiently, said Western.

Related: US Space Force wants to test how to build satellites in orbit with $1.6 million Arkisys deal

"Producing compound semiconductors is a very intense and very slow process, they are literally grown by atoms," said Western. "And so gravity has a profound effect, basically shifting the bonds between those atoms. In space you're able to overcome that barrier, because there's an absence of gravity."

Space, Western added, also provides a perfect vacuum, which is necessary to protect the sensitive material from contamination. In factories here on Earth, this vacuum has to be created by industrial machines. The combination of the microgravity and vacuum of space can enable researchers to create semiconductors that are "10 to 100 times more efficient semiconductors than you have on Earth," Western added.

The microwave-sized ForgeStar-1 satellite contains a miniature, automated chemistry lab that will allow the team to remotely mix various chemical compounds and develop new semiconducting alloys once the satellite is in orbit. But rather than sending the materials back to the planet, ForgeStar-1 will beam the results of these experiments to scientists digitally as this satellite is not designed to return to Earth.

Space Forge's future missions will be able to return to Earth with the products they made in space.

But the company's subsequent mission, Western said, will be built to survive the fiery return through the atmosphere and bring its products back to Earth. The company will not concentrate solely on semiconductor manufacturing but will use their satellites to host other industrial processes as well. Western said the first returnable satellite might be launched in two or three years.

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The global semiconductor industry is currently worth more than $500 billion and is expected to double in size by 2030.

"This growth is expected to require investment in high-end advanced wafer manufacturing materials, equipment, and services," Space Forge said in an emailed statement. "In-space manufacturing offers unique advantages, such as microgravity and vacuum conditions, that can lead to the creation of semiconductors with superior performance and reduced defects compared to those manufactured on Earth."
Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has added the three largest Chinese oil and gas companies to its "international sponsors of war" list, the agency's press service announced on Oct. 3.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC Group), and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) reportedly continue to buy crude oil and gas from Russia and invest in Russian energy projects.

NACP said CNPC and a subsidiary of CNOOC have a stake in a liquefied natural gas project in the Gyda Peninsula in Siberia called the Arctic LNG-2.

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony of the project. Once fully implemented, the Arctic LNG-2 could increase Russia's share of the global LNG trade to 15%, nearly double its current share, according to the NACP.

CNPC is also allegedly involved in a number of other Russian energy projects, including the Yamal LNG project, the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, and the Eastern SiberiaPacific Ocean oil pipeline.

The company agreed with Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom to make payments in their respective national currencies, "which strengthens and stabilizes the Russian ruble" despite international sanctions, the NAPC added.

The NACP added another major Chinese company, Alibaba Group Holding Limited, to its list of international sponsors of war on Aug. 17.

The company owns the online shopping portal AliExpress and was included on the list partly for supporting Russia financially by paying taxes in the country.

Its platforms also allegedly facilitate the sale of copper allegedly exported from the occupied territories of Ukraine.

The 'international sponsor of war' is designed to be "a powerful reputational tool," the NACP explains on its website.

The NACP aims to encourage the exit of international business from Russia, reducing the country's "financial and technological ability to kill Ukrainians."

Multinational companies like Unilever, Bacardi, and PepsiCo are currently included on the list.

Read also: Ukraine designates PepsiCo, Mars as international war sponsors

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Ukrainian forces shot down 13 drones and one missile over Dnipropetrovsk Oblast during nighttime attacks on Oct. 2-3, Governor Serhii Lysak wrote on Telegram.

Falling debris damaged civilian infrastructure, but firefighters quickly controlled the ensuing blaze.

In Pavlohrad, located 75 kilometers east of the regional capital Dnipro, a drone and other debris from downed drones struck a factory, causing a fire and other damage.

Also in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Russian shelling hit the Myrivska community, causing additional destruction to private homes.

Lysak wrote that no casualties were reported.

Read also: Our readers questions about the war, answered. Vol. 4

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Eastern Ukraine  Russia launched a fresh wave of drone attacks against Ukraine overnight. The Ukrainian Air Force said Tuesday that it downed all but two of the 31 exploding aircraft, but the latest assault highlighted the extent to which the war sparked by Russia's full-scale invasion more than a year and a half ago is increasingly a drone war.

Ukraine's military gave CBS News rare access to one of its new drone units, called the "Army of Drones," which has been successfully attacking Russian forces behind the front line. We watched as soldiers from the unit, part of Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade, practiced commanding fleets of the small aircraft to target and destroy enemy hardware and personnel.

One pilot, codenamed "Sunset," was flying a state-of-the-art R18 octocopter  a drone designed entirely in Ukraine. Each one costs more than $100,000, but even with that price tag, the R18s have proven cost effective, and devastatingly successful.

A Ukrainian soldier with a drone unit from the 24th Mechanized Brigade flies a Ukrainian-designed R18 octocopter UAV during a training exercise in eastern Ukraine, in early October 2023. / Credit: CBS News

Sunset told us the unit had already used them to destroy 10 Russian tanks since it started operating in May.

Equipped with thermal imaging cameras, the R18 turns deadliest after dark. The Ukrainian troops showed CBS News video from one of the devices as it illuminated a Russian Howitzer artillery piece hundreds of feet below, and then blew it up.

The 24th Mechanized Brigade's commander, codenamed "Hasan," said his forces had "destroyed $40 million worth of Russian hardware in the past month."

He said the unit was set to grow in manpower from about 60 to 100 troops, and they will need even more drones.

According to one estimate, Ukraine is using and losing 10,000 drones every month. With the war dragging on, Hasan acknowledged that ensuring a supply of the lethal weapons is an issue.

Ukrainian soldiers with a drone unit from the 24th Mechanized Brigade prepare a Ukrainian-designed R18 octocopter UAV during a training exercise in eastern Ukraine, in early October 2023. / Credit: CBS News

Most of the drones used by his forces come from China, he said. But Beijing officially banned its drone makers from exporting to Ukraine  and Russia  at the beginning of September. They still manage to get them through middlemen and third countries, but it's slower.

Boxes from China sat on a shelf in a concealed workshop, where another Ukrainian commander, "Taras," watched over his men working to adapt the drones they could get ahold of to kill, and repairing damaged ones to save money. That kind of warfare thrift is all the more important with new U.S. aid for Ukraine now suspended.

First U.S. tanks arrive in Ukraine

Since it was founded in May, the drone unit we met has struck communications towers, infantry hideouts and Russian soldiers, and Sunset had a message for Americans, including the politicians in Washington who will decide whether to continue increasing military support for his country:

"Thank you," he said. "We are not wasting your money. Drones save our lives."

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During the next two days, veterinary, sanitary and phytosanitary control from the Ukrainian-Polish border will be transferred to the port of Klaipeda in Lithuania for all agricultural cargoes bound for this port.

Source: Ukraine's Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food; Polish Minister of Agriculture Robert Telus, cited by European Pravda

Details: The agreement will galvanise transit through Poland.

"We have agreed on a crucial issue. Effective Wednesday, inspections of Ukrainian grain transiting through Lithuania will be moved from the Ukrainian-Polish border to Lithuanian territory, to a Lithuanian port," the Polish minister said, as reported by Polish RMF 24.

The official noted that "this is a good thing in building this transit, in building this solidarity corridor that we, as Poland, have built in Europe".

The Ukrainian ministry noted that Ukraine had proposed to move veterinary, sanitary and phytosanitary control from the Ukrainian-Polish border to a Lithuanian port and that the governments of Poland and Lithuania supported such a control mechanism and considered it a constructive step.

Background:

Earlier, the media reported that Lithuania would take over phytosanitary inspections of grain cargoes transiting through Poland from Ukraine.

This change in procedure is expected to allow more Ukrainian grain to be exported through Poland.

Earlier, reports emerged that Poland was still evaluating Ukraine's proposals on licensing agricultural goods.

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!
Ukraine has made gains in the south, one of the countrys top generals has said. General Oleksander Tarnavskyi said in a Telegram post that Ukraine forces had advanced in the Tavria sector.

Tarnavskyi, head of the southern group of forces, said his troops had conducted 1,198 assignments in the past 24 hours and that Russian forces had sustained losses of 261 men and a further 10 being taken prisoner.

Earlier, a UK defence minister said Russian navy ships have been forced to disperse to ports where they cannot have an effect on Ukraine inwhat he described as a functional defeat for the Kremlin.

James Heappey, speaking at a security event in Warsaw, said the Russian navy had been forced to disperse to ports from which it cannot have an effect on Ukraine.

He added that, despite the disappointment among Ukraines Western allies about the pace of Kyivs land offensive, the naval success was every bit as important as the land breakthrough in Kharkiv Oblast region.

Key Points

Putins navy has suffered functional defeat in Black Sea, says UK

Putin sends drunk soldiers to frontline to die in punishment squads

Ukraine strike Russian village with cluster munitions

Ukraine downs dozens of Russia-launched drones and one cruise missile

Inside the dark Storm-Z Russian punishment batallions

Grant Shapps slams Elon Musk s unhelpful Ukraine commentary

Ukraine makes gains in the south - top general

20:01 , Matt Mathers

Ukraine has made gains in the south, one of the countrys top generals has said.

General Oleksander Tarnavskyi said in a Telegram post that Ukraine forces had advanced in the Tavria sector.

Tarnavskyi, head of the southern group of forces, said his troops had conducted 1,198 assignments in the past 24 hours and that Russian forces had sustained losses of 261 men and a further 10 being taken prisoner.

File photo: Ukrainian soldiers operate a reconnaissance drone on the front line in the Luhansk Region (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Shapps should help end dispute at depot that supplies arms to Ukraine, says SNP

21:17 , Matt Mathers

The Defence Secretary has been urged to intervene in strikes taking place at a Scottish munitions depot after it was suggested missiles held there could help Ukraine win the war.

In a letter to Grant Shapps, the SNP called for him to resolve an ongoing dispute at DM Beith, North Ayrshire, which has led to a series of ongoing strikes.

It comes as another two-week walkout begins in the row over pay.

Ryan McDougall reports:

Shapps should help end dispute at depot that supplies arms to Ukraine, says SNP

ICYMI:Elon Musk mocked by Ukraines parliament over tweet taunting Zelensky

19:27 , Matt Mathers

Ukraines parliament and its speaker have taunted billionaire Elon Musk after he posted a meme on his social media platform mocking President Volodymyr Zelenskys pleas for assistance from the West against Vladimir Putin s forces.

Musk owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraines defence effort, but his statements have sometimes angered Kyiv since the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in February last year.

Full report:

Musk mocked by Ukraines parliament over tweet taunting Zelensky

EU promises 4.3bn in military aid to Ukraine during unprecedented Kyiv meeting

19:00 , Matt Mathers

The European Union (EU) promised Ukraine 4.3bn in military aid as its continuous support in the war against Russia.

The 27-nation bloc remained committed to help defeat a brutal and inhumane Moscow, said Josep Borrell, EUs high representative for foreign affairs. It comes after US Congress left Ukraine war aid out of its spending bill and a pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia.

Full report:

EU promises 4.3bn in military aid to Ukraine during unprecedented Kyiv meeting

ICYMI: Putins punishment battalions full of convicts and drunk recruits: Theyre just meat

18:30 , Matt Mathers

Drunk recruits. Insubordinate soldiers. Convicts.

Theyre among hundreds of military and civilian offenders whove been pressed into Russian penal units known as Storm-Z squads and sent to the frontlines in Ukraine this year, according to 13 people with knowledge of the matter, including five fighters in the units.

Few live to tell their tale, the people said.

Read the full report below:

Putins punishment battalions full of convicts and drunk recruits

Burger King still open in Russia a year after promising to leave

17:52 , Matt Mathers

Burger King remains open across Russia more than a year after the fast food chains owner promised to leave.

Restaurant Brands International (RBI), which owns 15 per cent of the fast-foods franchise business in Russia, told the BBC it had "no new updates to share at this time" on its exit.

The company said in March 2022 that it had started the process of leaving Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

McDonalds, Burger Kings biggest rival, has already left Russia.

(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Western allies running out of ammunition to give to Ukraine

17:35 , Matt Mathers

Western countries are running out of ammunition to give to Ukraine, Nato and the UK have warned.

Admiral Rob Bauer, Natos most senior military official, called on governments and their defence manufacturers to ramp up production to help Kyivs war effort.

We need large volumes, the BBC quoted him as saying. The just-in-time, just-enough economy we built together in 30 years in our liberal economies is fine for a lot of things  but not the armed forces when there is a war ongoing.

Polish president says Biden assured partners of continued support for Ukraine

17:20 , Matt Mathers

United States President Joe Biden assured leaders of G7 and European states of Washingtons continued support for Ukraine during a video conference, the Polish president said on Tuesday.

"He assured us that support for aid given to Ukraine continues, especially military aid.

He said he would secure this support in Congress," Andrzej Duda told a news conference.

Andrzej Duda (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

UK tells G7 and NATO leaders: We will support Ukraine for as long as it takes

17:04 , Matt Mathers

Prime minister Rishi Sunak told G7 and NATO leaders on Tuesday that Britain was prepared to support Ukraine with military, humanitarian and economic assistance "for as long as it take," his office said in a readout of a call.

"He ( Sunak) outlined the UKs ongoing military, humanitarian and economic assistance to Ukraine and stressed that this support will continue for as long as it takes," a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement.

US President Joe Biden convened the call amid concerns that support for Kyivs war effort against Russia was fading, especially in the United States where Congress excluded aid to Ukraine from an emergency bill to prevent a partial government shutdown.

File photo: Rishi Sunak (PA Wire)

UK minister hails functional defeat of Russia in Black Sea

16:16 , Matt Mathers

A UK government defence minister has hailed Ukraines functional defeat of Russia in the Black Sea over the past few weeks.

James Heappey, speaking at a security event in Warsaw, said the Russian navy had been forced to disperse to ports from which it cannot have an effect on Ukraine.

He added that, despite the disappointment among Ukraines Western allies about the pace of Kyivs land offensive, the naval success was every bit as important as the land breakthrough in Kharkiv Oblast region.

File photo: James Heappey (PA)

Grant Shapps slams Elon Musks unhelpful Ukraine commentary

15:33 , Matt Mathers

Defence secretary Grant Shapps has suggested recent tweets by Elon Musk mocking Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky are unhelpful.

The senior Cabinet minister made the comments at a Conservative Party conference fringe event in Manchester, hours after the billionaire entrepreneur used Twitter, now known as X, to take aim at Mr Zelenskys repeated requests for western support in the battle against Russian troops.

Mr Shapps, an avid social media user himself, expressed reservations about the owner of Xs recent attitudes to the war.

Full report:

Grant Shapps slams Elon Musks unhelpful Ukraine commentary

Two more vessels head to Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa - lawmaker

14:54 , Matt Mathers

Two vessels sailing under the flags of the Marshall Islands and Cameroon are heading towards the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa, a local Ukrainian lawmaker reported on Tuesday.

The lawmaker, Oleksiy Honcharenko, did not provide any details other than names - EQUATOR and MARANTA but posted images of vessels on the Telegram messaging app.

A senior member of the government said on Sunday that five other ships were on their way to Ukrainian Black Sea ports using a new corridor opened for predominantly agricultural exports following Russias decision to quit a U.N.-brokered wartime deal on safe shipments.

Zelensky visits troops fighting in northeastern Ukraine

14:35 , Matt Mathers

President Volodymyr Zelensky visited troops fighting in northeast Ukraine on Tuesday and met commanders to discuss the battlefield situation on one of the hottest fronts of the war with Russia.

Zelensky did not give the exact location of his visit but said he had met brigades fighting in the Kupiansk-Lyman sector in the northeast, where the Ukrainian military says Russian forces have been staging attacks.

"We met with brigade and battalion commanders to discuss the battlefield situation, pressing issues, and needs," he said on X, formerly known as Twitter, above photos of him meeting soldiers in a poorly lit room.

"Each of our combat brigades, each warrior who destroys the occupiers with every step forward, asserts that the Ukrainian victory will surely come. They are the power. I thank them for their service!"

File photo: Zelenksy in Washington (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

A deal to expedite grain exports has been reached between Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania

14:15 , Matt Mathers

Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania have agreed on a plan they hope will help expedite Ukrainian grain exports, officials said Tuesday, with needy countries beyond Europe potentially benefitting from speedier procedures.

The deal means that grain inspections will shift from the Ukraine-Poland border to a Lithuanian port on the Baltic Sea, according to a statement from the Ukrainian farm ministry.

Illia Novikov has the full report:

A deal to expedite grain exports has been reached between Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania

Zelensky thanks Europe for support as he marks EU day in Ukraine

13:47 , Matt Mathers

Volodymyr Zelensky thanked European countries for their support during the war in an address to mark EU day in Ukraine.

In a message posted on his X/Twitter account, Zelensky said international law can win now in Ukraine.

All of the support for Ukraine and every step done to assist us will return to those who support us with global security, he added.

When Russian aggression fails on our soil, the very idea of aggression will be defeated.

Watch a clip from his video message below:

All of the support for Ukraine and every step done to assist us will return to those who support us with global security.



When Russian aggression fails on our soil, the very idea of aggression will be defeated.



International law can win now in Ukraine. And it will. We will win. pic.twitter.com/TIGDirdMHl  Volodymyr Zelenskyy /   (@ZelenskyyUa) October 2, 2023

Armenias parliament has voted to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).

13:40 , Lydia Patrick

The move adds further strain to the countrys ties with its old ally Russia after the court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin over events in Ukraine.

Moscow last month called Armenias effort to join the ICC an unfriendly step and the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Armenias ambassador.

Countries that have signed and ratified the Rome Statute that created the ICC are bound to arrest Mr Putin, who was indicted for war crimes connected to the deportation of children from Ukraine, if he sets foot on their soil.

Armenian officials have argued the move has nothing to do with Russia and was prompted by Azerbaijans aggression towards the country.

Politicians voted to ratify the Rome Statute by a vote of 60-22. Armenias president must sign off on the decision, which will come into force 60 days after the vote.

Armenia ICC (PHOTOLURE)

A rundown of recent events

13:20 , Lydia Patrick

 Kyiv inches forward in counteroffensive

The Ukrainian counteroffensive makes advances in the south east as footage shows forces making progress in the northwest of Novomayorse, 18km southeast of Veylka Novosilk.

 Ukraine downs dozens of Russia-launched drones and one cruise missile

Ukraine destroyed 29 of 31 drones launched by Russia and one cruise missile, most of them targeting the regions of Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk, report the Ukrainian airforce.

 Brussels on the verge of unlocking billions in aid to Budapest

The EU is considering unlocking billions of euros for Hungary that were frozen over rule-of-law concerns as it seeks to win Budapests approval for aid to Ukraine including a start to membership talks for Kyiv, according to senior officials.

 Russia say they dont need more fighters

Russia has no plans for an additional mobilisation of men to fight in Ukraine as more than 335,000 have signed up so far this year to fight in the armed forces or voluntary units, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said today.

 Armenias parliament has voted to join the International Criminal Court

Armenias parliament signed the founding statute of the ICC, subjecting itself to the jurisdiction of the court in The Hague, Russian state news agencies said.

Drunk Russian soldiers sent to their deaths on front line as punishment

13:14 , Matt Mathers

Drunk and mutinous Russian soldiers are being sent to their deaths on the front line as punishment for their bad behaviour, it has been reported.

The soldiers are being used in Storm-Z human shield squads in the most dangerous battles on the front line.

They are often sent over the trenches in waves ahead of regular soldiers and heavy armour.

If the commandants catch anyone with the smell of alcohol on their breath, then they immediately send them to the Storm squads, one soldier told a Reuters investigation.

File photo: The bodies of Russian soldiers lay at the frontline in Andriivka, Donetsk region, (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

ICYMI - Yevgeny Prigozhins son set to be next mercenary boss

13:00 , Lydia Patrick

The 25-year-old son of Yevgeny Prigozhin is set to take over from his father and become the next boss of the Wagner group.

Pavel Prigozhin appears to be inheriting the vast majority of his fathers riches  including the mercenary group, properties, and about 100 million  according to a photograph posted on social media of what seems to be Prigozhins will.

He is now negotiating with the Russian national guard, Rosgvardia, over having the mercenary organisation rejoin combat in Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War said.

Wagner succession: Yevgeny Prigozhins son set to be next mercenary boss

ICYMI - Elon Musk mocked by Ukraines parliament over tweet taunting Zelensky

12:40 , Lydia Patrick

Ukraines parliament and its speaker have taunted billionaire Elon Musk after he posted a meme on his social media platform mocking President Volodymyr Zelenskys pleas for assistance from the West against Vladimir Putins forces.

Musk owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraines defence effort, but his statements have sometimes angered Kyiv since the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in February last year.

Musk mocked by Ukraines parliament over tweet taunting Zelensky

ICYMI - EU promises 4.3bn in military aid to Ukraine during unprecedented Kyiv meeting

12:20 , Lydia Patrick

The European Union (EU) promised Ukraine 4.3bn in military aid as part of its ongoing support in the war against Russia.

The 27-nation bloc remained committed to help defeat a brutal and inhumane Moscow, said Josep Borrell, EUs high representative for foreign affairs. It comes after the US Congress left Ukraine war aid out of its spending bill and a pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia.

Mondays meeting in Kyiv was touted by Mr Borrell as a historic first for the EU but it comes at an awkward time for the Western countries backing Ukraine.

With summer drawing to a close, Ukraines counteroffensive has failed to produce the victories that Kyivs allies had hoped to see before mud clogs the treads of donated tanks.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, quoted by his website, said he was sure Ukraine and the entire free world are capable of winning this confrontation. But our victory depends directly on our cooperation with you.

EU promises 4.3bn in military aid to Ukraine during unprecedented Kyiv meeting

Brussels on the verge of unlocking billions in aid to Budapest

12:00 , Lydia Patrick

The EU is considering unlocking billions of euros for Hungary that were frozen over rule-of-law concerns as it seeks to win Budapests approval for aid to Ukraine including a start to membership talks for Kyiv, according to senior officials.

Hungary cultivates closer ties with Russia than other EU states, and is seen as the key potential opponent to a decision due in December on whether to open accession talks with Kyiv, which would require unanimous backing of the unions 27 members.

At stake also is a bid by the EU executive Commission to have member states contribute more to the blocs joint coffers, to help fund more aid to Ukraine. That decision is also expected later this year and requires unanimity.

A senior EU official told Reuters that to sway Hungarys vote, the bloc expects to look at the status of billions of euros worth of EU handouts now frozen over concerns that Prime Minister Viktor Orban has restricted the independence of courts.

I cant imagine Hungary agreeing without there first being a solution to the blocked funds, said the official.

A second EU official confirmed there was a link between releasing funds to Hungary and EU plans requiring unanimity, including enlargement and budget talks.

Sources stressed, however, a deal was not a foregone conclusion and much also depended on Orban, who is faced with economic stagnation and a widening budget deficit at home.

Hungary needs the money urgently, which is an incentive for reform. The Commission needs Hungary to lift its vetoes on a number of issues in return, said an EU diplomat.

But I dont think the Commission will or can move without any movement on reforms from Budapest.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban addresses the 5th Demographic Summit in the Fine Arts Museum in Budapest (AFP via Getty Images)

Russia say they dont need more fighters

11:40 , Lydia Patrick

Russia has no plans for an additional mobilisation of men to fight in Ukraine as more than 335,000 have signed up so far this year to fight in the armed forces or voluntary units, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said today.

There are no plans for an additional mobilisation, Shoigu was shown telling top generals on state television. The armed forces have the necessary number of military personnel to conduct the special military operation.

Shoigu, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, hailed the patriotism of those who had signed up.

Since the start of the year, more than 335,000 people have entered military service under contract and in volunteer formations, Shoigu said. In September alone, more than 50,000 citizens signed contracts.

Those figures indicate that Russia has made significant progress both in signing recruits and in absorbing many fighters from the Wagner mercenary force into voluntary formations.

Putin ordered a partial mobilisation of 300,000 reservists in September last year, prompting hundreds of thousands of young men to flee Russia to avoid being sent to fight.

Putin hailed the patriotism of those who signed up (Sputnik)

Its a survival issue - Ukraine taking weaponary into their own hands

11:20 , Lydia Patrick

Ukraine worries their weapon supplies are running out- meaning they might have to take matters into their own hands, report Politico.

At the International Industries Defence Forum in Kyiv last week, the country found supporters are running out of weapons to send to Ukraine whilst others are sceptical of sending more as their own supplies dwindle, say Politico.

The managing partner at COSA Inteligence Solutions in Kyiv said: Its a survival issue.

Kyiv are now working on securing deals for countries across the globe to back them to produce weapons on their own soil and become self-sufficient.

Armenia ratifies statute to accept International Criminal Court jurisdiction

11:00 , Lydia Patrick

Armenias parliament signed the founding statute of the International Criminal Court, subjecting itself to the jurisdiction of the court in The Hague, Russian state news agencies said.

A spokeswoman for parliament said 60 deputies had voted to ratify the Rome Statute of the ICC, and to adopt a statement on retroactive recognition of ICC jurisdiction, and 22 had voted against.

The plan had been strongly opposed by Russia, Armenias formal ally, with which ties have become badly strained over Moscows invasion of Ukraine and Azerbaijans recapture of a region controlled for three decades by ethnic Armenians.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on suspicion of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds or more children from Ukraine, a claim dismissed by the Kremlin as meaningless. Joining the ICC means Armenia will be obliged to arrest Putin if he sets foot there.

Armenia says it has been discussing its plans with Russia, after Moscow warned it in March of serious consequences if it submitted to ICC jurisdiction.

Yerevan has said the move was always intended to address what it says are war crimes committed by Azerbaijan in a long-running conflict with Armenia, and is not aimed at Russia.

Moscow has nevertheless voiced increasing frustration with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has publicly said Armenias policy of solely relying on Russia to guarantee its security was a mistake, and pointedly hosted joint manoeuvres with U.S. forces.

World Court Ukraine Russia (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Russia facing functional defeat in the Black Sea  but Kyiv allies warn they are running out of ammunition

21:48 , Matt Mathers

Ukraine has achieved the functional defeat of Vladimir Putins prized Black Sea fleet with intensified attacks in recent weeks, a UK defence minister has suggested  but warned that Western allies are running out of ammunition to help Kyiv repel Russias invasion.

Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum from the Polish capital on Tuesday, James Heappey said the kneecapping of the major Russian naval force  including the recent strike on its Crimean headquarters  was every bit as important as Ukraines gains in Kharkiv last year.

Andy Gregory reports:

Putins prized Black Sea fleet functionally defeated by Ukraine

What did Elon Musk say about President Zelensky on X?

10:40 , Lydia Patrick

Early on Monday, Musk posted a meme on his platform X, formerly known as Twitter, showing Zelensky and the caption: When its been 5 minutes and you havent asked for a billion dollars in aid.

The Ukrainian leader and his top lieutenants have appealed to their allies throughout the war to secure billions of pounds of military aid to weather and push back Russias invasion.

The speaker of Ukraines parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, hit out at Musks jibe with his own post on X.

The case when [Elon Musk] tried to conquer space, but something went wrong and in 5 minutes he was up to his eyeballs in s***, an apparent reference to SpaceXs failed rocket launch in April.

Read the full story here

Musk mocked by Ukraines parliament over tweet taunting Zelensky

Ukraine to transfer controls of agricultural cargo to Lithuania's Klaipeda-minister

10:20 , Lydia Patrick

Veterinary and sanitary controls of Ukrainian agricultural cargo bound for the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda will in the next two days be transferred from the Polish-Ukrainian border directly to Klaipeda under a deal reached by Kyiv, Warsaw and Vilnius, the Ukrainian farm ministry said on Tuesday.

A ministry statement quoted Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky as saying the move was aimed at speeding up transit.

This aerial view taken on September 16, 2023 shows a combine harvester collecting sunflower seeds in a field outside Kryvyi Rig, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine (AFP via Getty Images)

Inside the dark Storm-Z Russian punishment batallions

10:00 , Lydia Patrick

Hundreds of military and civilian offenders are forced to the frontlines as part of Russian penal units called Storm-Z squads.

"Storm fighters, theyre just meat," said one regular soldier from army unit no. 40318 who was deployed near the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine in May and June.

He said hed given medical treatment to a group of six or seven wounded Storm-Z fighters on the battlefield, disobeying an order from a commander - whose name he didnt know - to leave the men. He said he didnt know why the commander gave the order, but claimed that it typified how Storm-Z fighters were considered of lesser value than ordinary troops by officers.

The soldier, who requested anonymity because he feared prosecution in Russia for publicly discussing the war, said he had sympathy for the mens plight: "If the commandants catch anyone with the smell of alcohol on their breath, then they immediately send them to the Storm squads."

The squads also combine convicts who volunteer to fight in exchange for the promise of a pardon with regular soldiers being punished for disciplinary breaches, the people interviewed said.

The Storm-Z squads are useful to the Russian defence ministry because they can be deployed as expendable infantry, according to Conflict Intelligence Team, an independent organisation thats tracking the war. "The Storm fighters are just sent to the most dangerous parts of the front, in defence and in attack," the group, which was founded in Russia, told Reuters.

Storm-Z is an unofficial term used by Russian troops, combining a term for assault troops with the letter Z, adopted by the military as a symbol of their invasion of Ukraine.

Russia Without Prigozhin (Sputnik)

Grant Shapps slams Elon Musks unhelpful Ukraine commentary

09:40 , Lydia Patrick

Defence SecretaryGrant Shapps has suggested recent tweets by Elon Musk mocking Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky are unhelpful.

The senior Cabinet minister made the comments at a Conservative Party conference fringe event in Manchester, hours after the billionaire entrepreneur used Twitter, now known as X, to take aim at Mr Zelenskys repeated requests for western support in the battle against Russian troops.

Mr Shapps, an avid social media user himself, expressed reservations about the owner of Xs recent attitudes to the war.

Grant Shapps slams Elon Musks unhelpful Ukraine commentary

ICYMI - EU promises 4.3bn in military aid to Ukraine during unprecedented Kyiv meeting

09:20 , Lydia Patrick

The European Union (EU) promised Ukraine 4.3bn in military aid as its continuous support in the war against Russia.

The 27-nation bloc remained committed to help defeat a brutal and inhumane Moscow, said Josep Borrell, EUs high representative for foreign affairs. It comes after US Congress left Ukraine war aid out of its spending bill and a pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia.

Mondays meeting in Kyiv was touted by Mr Borrell as an historic first for the EU but it comes at an awkward time for the Western countries backing Kyiv.

With summer drawing to a close, Ukraines counteroffensive has failed to produce the victories that Kyivs allies had hoped to see before mud clogs the treads of donated tanks.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, quoted by his website, said he was sure Ukraine and the entire free world are capable of winning this confrontation. But our victory depends directly on our cooperation with you.

Read the full story here

EU promises 4.3bn in military aid to Ukraine during unprecedented Kyiv meeting

Ukraine to build underground school in Kharkiv

09:00 , Lydia Patrick

Children in eastern Kharkiv will attend classes underground in a bid to protect them from Russian attacks.

Mayor Ihor Terekov said on the Telegram messaging app: Such a shelter will enable thousands of Kharkiv children to continue their safe face-to-face education even during missile threats.

According to Unicef, only a third of Ukraines schoolchildren currently study in-person, amid deadly Russian missile and drone attacks as well as shelling.

Ukraine to build its first underground school in Kharkiv, official says

More than 360 educational facilities have been destroyed while 3,417 suffered bombing and shelling in Ukraine since Russias invasion in February last year, the latest release from the country said.

Persistent attacks meant that only about a third of school-age children were fully attending classes in person and many were forgetting what they have already learnt, the Unicef said in its release last month, whose official figure of school destruction from the attack were four times higher.

It found that more than 1,300 schools have been totally destroyed in the 19 month-long-war.

It is not yet clear when the school will be built.

A local resident hold the hand of a child as they walk past a destroyed building following a C-300 missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on 31 March 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

Ukraine strike Russian village with cluster munitions

08:40 , Lydia Patrick

Kyiv hit the Russian village of Kilmovo with cluster munitions - damaging several houses.

The governor Alexander Bogomaz says there were no casualties, however the statement has not yet been verified and Ukraine have not commented.

Ukraines use of cluster munitions has stirred controversy as the powerful bombs are banned in over 100 countries, they release smaller bomblets that can kill over a wide spread area, with the explosive potential of unexploded weapons lingering for decades.

UN Cluster Munitions (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Kyiv inches forward in counteroffensive

08:25 , Lydia Patrick

The Ukrainian counteroffensive makes advances in the south east as footage shows forces making progress in the northwest of Novomayorse, 18km southeast of Veylka Novosilk.

The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces continued offensive operations in the Melitopol (western Zaporizhia Oblast) and Bakhmut direction to Russian counterattacks between September 13 and 30, says the Institute for the Study of War.

Stock image to show the counteroffensive (AP)

Ukraine downs 29 Russia-launched drones and one cruise missile

08:09 , Lydia Patrick

Ukraine destroyed 29 of 31 drones launched by Russia and one cruise missile, most of them targeting the regions of Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk, report the Ukrainian airforce.

The waves of overnight attacks lasted more than three hours, the southern command of Ukraines forces had said earlier.

Falling debris in the southeastern city of Dnipro caused a fire at a private firm that was quickly doused, said Serhiy Lysak, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Damage to manufacturing facilities at an industrial enterprise in the city of Pavlohrad led to a fire that was also put out, he added on the Telegram messaging app.

Sixteen drones were destroyed over the southern region of Mykolaiv, its governor, Vitaliy Kim, said.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Representational : Exploding drones loaded with shells lay inside a hay barn on the front line in the outskirts of Kremmina, Ukraine (AP)

Everything for the front: Russia allots a third of 2024 spending to defence

07:01 , Reuters

Defence spending will account for almost one third of Russias total budget expenditure in 2024, the governments draft plans show, as Moscow diverts ever more resources towards prosecuting its war in Ukraine.

Russia also plans to ramp up state borrowing to help fund what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine in the coming years and is counting on a recovery in oil and gas revenues to pre-invasion levels to do so.

Spending under the national defence section of Russias budget will total 10.78 trillion roubles (90bn) next year, or 29.4 per cent of total planned expenditure, according to the finance ministrys budget documents that outline the governments fiscal plans for 2024-2026.

In 2021, the year before Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, defence spending totalled 3.57 trillion roubles, 14.4 per cent of total spending. In 2022, the share of defence spending rose to 17.7 per cent, data on Russias electronic budget page showed earlier this year.

The budgets structure shows that the main emphasis is on ensuring our victory - the army, defence capability, armed forces, fighters - everything needed for the front, everything needed for victory is in the budget, finance minister Anton Siluanov said last week.

Lindsey Graham warns Trump that pulling the plug on Ukraine aid would be 10 times worse than Afghanistan

06:02 , Andy Gregory

US senator Lindsey Graham cautioned that if Donald Trump were to stop sending aid to the embattled country of Ukraine if elected president, the end result would be 10 times worse than Afghanistan.

When asked about how he would advise Mr Trump and other Republicans in Congress who have threatened to stop sending aid to the country, Mr Graham said on Face the Nation on Sunday: To President Trump and anybody else: if we pull the plug on Ukraine, thats 10 times worse than Afghanistan.

To stop funding Ukraine is a death sentence for Taiwan, the South Carolina Republican predicted. Putin will keep going. You missed all of World War II if you missed how this movie ends.

He then fired shots at members of his own party: To the Republicans who say Ukraine doesnt matter to us: youre wrong. Respectfully, youre wrong. The war gets bigger, not smaller.

If Ukraine can beat Russia, Mr Graham added, China is less likely to invade Taiwan and Putin gets stopped.

Kelly Rissman has the full story:

Lindsey Graham warns Trump of the dangers of pulling the plug on Ukraine

Watch: Houses left destroyed in Ukrainian city after Russian bombardment of residential area

05:03 , Andy Gregory

Shapps plays down Western splits over Ukraine amid push for extra funding

04:01 , David Hughes

Vladimir Putin would be foolish to believe internal political rows in the West were a sign that support for Ukraine is beginning to crack, Grant Shapps said.

The Defence Secretary suggested the possibility of Donald Trump winning the next US election would not necessarily result in the worst case scenario of America cutting its support.

The Western alliance has suffered a series of blows in recent days, with support for Ukraine dropped from a US stop-gap budget bill, election success for a pro-Russian party in Slovakia and rows between Poland and Kyiv over grain supplies.

But speaking at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Mr Shapps said the Kremlin should not over-interpret domestic political wrangles.

He said: Its very easy to sit here, think about the single issue of Ukraine and frame everything in that context and forget about domestic politics. Its always a mistake to think in that way.

Shapps plays down Western splits over Ukraine amid push for extra funding

Wagner succession: Yevgeny Prigozhins son set to be next mercenary boss

03:05 , Andy Gregory

The 25-year-old son of Yevgeny Prigozhin is set to take over from his father and become the next boss of the Wagner group, Telegram channels associated with the group have claimed.

Pavel Prigozhin appears to be inheriting the vast majority of his fathers riches  including the mercenary group, properties, and about 100 million  according to a photograph posted on social media of what seems to be Prigozhins will.

He is now negotiating with the Russian national guard, Rosgvardia, over having the mercenary organisation rejoin combat in Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War said.

My colleague Tara Cobam reports:

Wagner succession: Yevgeny Prigozhins son set to be next mercenary boss

Putins punishment battalions full of convicts and drunk recruits: Theyre just meat

21:54 , Matt Mathers

Drunk recruits. Insubordinate soldiers. Convicts.

Theyre among hundreds of military and civilian offenders whove been pressed into Russian penal units known as Storm-Z squads and sent to the frontlines in Ukraine this year, according to 13 people with knowledge of the matter, including five fighters in the units.

Few live to tell their tale, the people said.

Full report:

Putins punishment battalions full of convicts and drunk recruits

Elon Musk mocked by Ukraines parliament over tweet taunting Zelensky

02:04 , Andy Gregory

Ukraines parliament and its speaker have taunted billionaire Elon Musk after he posted a meme on his social media platform mocking President Volodymyr Zelenskys pleas for assistance from the West against Vladimir Putins forces.

Musk owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraines defence effort, but his statements have sometimes angered Kyiv since the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in February last year.

The speaker of Ukraines parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, hit out at Musks jibe with his own post on Twitter/X: The case when [Elon Musk] tried to conquer space, but something went wrong and in 5 minutes he was up to his eyeballs in s***, an apparent reference to SpaceXs failed rocket launch in April.

Ukraines parliament, on its official page on X, accused Musk of spreading Russian propaganda, posting its own version of the meme with a picture of Musk and the caption: When its been 5 minutes and you havent spread Russian propaganda.

Max Hunder has the story here:

Musk mocked by Ukraines parliament over tweet taunting Zelensky

ICYMI: Putins punishment battalions full of convicts and drunk recruits: Theyre just meat

21:51 , Matt Mathers

Drunk recruits. Insubordinate soldiers. Convicts.

Theyre among hundreds of military and civilian offenders whove been pressed into Russian penal units known as Storm-Z squads and sent to the frontlines in Ukraine this year, according to 13 people with knowledge of the matter, including five fighters in the units.

Few live to tell their tale, the people said.

Full report:

Putins punishment battalions full of convicts and drunk recruits

Shapps slams Musks unhelpful Ukraine commentary

01:06 , Dominic McGrath

UK defence secretary Grant Shapps has suggested recent tweets by Elon Musk mocking Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky are unhelpful.

The senior Cabinet minister made the comments at a Conservative Party conference fringe event in Manchester, hours after the billionaire entrepreneur used Twitter/X to take aim at Mr Zelenskys repeated requests for western support in the battle against Russian troops.

Mr Shapps, an avid social media user himself, expressed reservations about the owner of Xs recent attitudes to the war. I think its unhelpful, to be blunt, he said. I cant speak for him or his motivations. Hes a free individual, we live in a free world. He can tweet or X what he likes.

What Ukraine really needs is strong and steady friends who wont waver, he added.

Shapps slams Musks unhelpful Ukraine commentary

Watch: Explosions from drone attack in Ukraine seen from ferry on Danube crossing

Tuesday 3 October 2023 00:11 , Andy Gregory

Row over Ukraine aid continues in US Congress

Monday 2 October 2023 23:20 , Reuters

A last-ditch weekend spending agreement avoided a US government shutdown but left pro-Ukraine officials in Washington scrambling on Monday to determine the best path forward for securing approval for billions more assistance for Kyiv.

Leaders in the Senate, narrowly controlled by president Joe Bidens Democrats, promised to take up legislation in the coming weeks to ensure continued US security and economic support for Ukraine.

But in the Republican-led House of Representatives, Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he wanted more information from the Biden administration, and a Republican pushing for his removal as speaker accused McCarthy of cutting a secret deal with Biden to allow the House to vote on a bill.

Opponents of Ukraine aid, many of whom are close allies of former president Donald Trump as he seeks re-election to the White House next year, kept up their drumbeat against assistance for Kyiv on Monday.

Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, who said he would try this week to remove McCarthy as speaker, accused McCarthy on Monday of reaching a secret deal with Biden for Ukraine aide, amid reports that McCarthy had agreed to allow a House vote on assistance for Kyiv after the spending bill passed.

McCarthy later denied it. He called on the administration to arrange a briefing for House members about the path it sees to reach an end to the conflict.

Our members have a lot of questions, especially on the accountability provisions of what we want to see with the money that gets sent, he told reporters.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre urged Congress to move quickly. They dont have to wait 45 days to get this done, she told a daily press briefing, where she also expressed confidence the assistance would continue.

Analysis | Ukraine is increasing the pressure on Putin  it cannot afford support from the West to slip now

Monday 2 October 2023 22:33 , Andy Gregory

A meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv that the bloc hailed as historic came at a difficult time for the Western alliance that has poured weapons, money and support into Ukraines fight against Vladimir Putins forces, writes journalist and author Askold Krushelnycky.

Kyiv was facing two bruising political blows as, America, her most important supporter in the war against Russia, excluded aid to Ukraine from an emergency congressional bill to prevent a government shutdown  while a pro-Kremlin candidate won the biggest share of votes in a parliamentary election in neighbouring Slovakia. It comes as a row simmers between Ukraine and another of its neighbours and closest allies, Poland, over grain exports.

These unwelcome political jolts have dampened Kyivs attempts to maintain an upbeat appearance. But its one thing to bravely shrug off horrors inflicted by an enemy and much trickier to remain sanguine in the face of attacks by friends.

The Kremlin will always look to exploit any potential cracks it sees in support for Ukraine, with Putin seemingly willing to hang on in there because of a confidence that Western support, predominantly in America, would falter and fade leaving Ukraine vulnerable. Kyiv needs its allies to stand strong.

You can read more of Askolds thinking on the matter here:

Ukraine is upping the pressure on Putin  it cannot afford Western support to slip

US Congress didnt include funds for Ukraine in its spending bill. How will that affect the war?

Monday 2 October 2023 21:47 , Tara Copp, Lolita C Baldor

Ukraine had little reason to celebrate when U.S. politicians approved a spending bill on Saturday that averted a widely expected government shutdown. The measure didnt include the $6bn in military assistance that Ukraine said it urgently needed.

Now the Pentagon, White House and European allies are urging Congress to quickly reconsider. They warn that if the US stops sending ammunition, spare parts and air defences, Ukraine will be at risk of losing ground in its counteroffensive. They argue that if Russias invasion is not stopped in Ukraine, other nations  including Nato allies  could be endangered.

The gridlock comes as top Pentagon leaders prepare to meet next week with allies in Brussels where Ukraine is likely to be a hot topic. Here is a look at whats been provided to date and whats at stake:

Congress didn't include funds for Ukraine in its spending bill. How will that affect the war?

EU membership is strongest security guarantee bloc can give Kyiv, says top official

Monday 2 October 2023 21:01 , Andy Gregory

The strongest security commitment the EU can grant Kyiv is membership of the bloc, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters today in Kyiv.

Speaking at a news conference while leading a delegation of top diplomats on an unannounced visit to Kyiv, Mr Borrell insisted the EU was devoted to sustained engagement with Ukraine. Our resolve  is firm and will continue, he said.

He ticked off a list of ongoing commitments the EU has made and hopes to make, including proposed military aid of 5bn (4.3bn) next year, a target to train some 40,000 Ukrainian troops and possible joint arms industry ventures between EU and Ukrainian defence companies.

Other signs of the EU's commitment include help with cyber defense, a demining program to enable Ukraine's postwar recovery and the reform of Ukrainian law enforcement to crack down on corruption, Mr Borrell said.

But the EUs strongest security commitment for Ukraine is to grant it membership of the bloc, he added.

Zelensky aide says cheaper weapons could be more effective in countering Russian drones

Monday 2 October 2023 20:13 , Andy Gregory

An adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a reassessment of Western anti-aircraft systems being supplied to Ukraine, saying simpler and cheaper weapons could be more cost-efficient in countering Russias Iranian-made Shahed drones.

Mykhailo Podolyak said the issue was not just one of securing more anti-aircraft systems but primarily solving a mathematical problem lying in the economics of war.

While Western systems, like NASAMS and Iris-T, were used to down missiles, he said, using them to intercept Shaheds may not be cost-effective, Podolyak wrote in English on the X platform, formerly Twitter. Thus, it leads to depletion of allied stockpiles and long-term weakening, Mr Podolyak wrote.

The solution is obvious: in addition to mobile large-caliber machine guns, there are plenty of simpler and cheaper anti-aircraft systems available today that have proven themselves to be effective against Shaheds. These include Gepard and Vampire.

The Gepard is an anti-aircraft-gun tank made in Germany. The US-made Vampire counter-drone system consists of a laser-guided missile launcher than can be installed on a truck bed.

Such scaling-down, Mr Podolyak wrote, will minimise the effect of Russian raids and ensure long-term stability of Ukrainian skies and our neighbouring Nato countries.

EU remains united in support for Ukraine, foreign policy chief says in Kyiv

Monday 2 October 2023 19:14 , AP

The European Unions foreign policy chief has led a delegation of senior diplomats on an unannounced visit to Kyiv and dismissed concerns about political tension in the bloc over its long-term support for Ukraines fight against Russia.

Though largely symbolic, the informal meeting with Ukrainian diplomats demonstrated the EUs clear commitment to Ukraine in its 19-month-long war, Josep Borrell said. The EU remains united in its support to Ukraine... I dont see any member state folding on their engagement, he told a news conference in Kyiv.

The gathering was the first time EU foreign ministers have met outside the bloc  and in a war zone, according to Mr Borrell.

Mr Borrell insisted the EU is committed to sustained engagement with Ukraine. Our resolve... is firm and will continue, he said.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell attends the press conference in Kyiv (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

White House has been in touch with allies over potential delays in new Ukraine funding

Monday 2 October 2023 18:32 , Andy Gregory

The White House has been in touch with allies and partners about continued funding for Ukraine and those conversations will continue, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre has said.

The US Congress passed a stopgap bill on Saturday which extended government funding for more than a month and avoided a government shutdown  but did not contain any new aid for Ukraine.

Watch: Destruction in Ukraine's eastern village of Klishchiivka captured in aerial footage

Monday 2 October 2023 18:05 , Andy Gregory

Mexicos president criticises irrational US spending on Ukraine

Monday 2 October 2023 17:38 , Andy Gregory

Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has claimed US military spending on Ukraine is irrational, as he urged Washington to devote more resources to helping Latin American countries, as he has long done.

During his daily press conference, Mr Lopez Obrador criticised the US Congress for not freeing up money for the region, before making reference to wrangling last week on a stopgap funding bill that stripped out further aid for Ukraine.

I was just looking at how now theyre not authorising aid for the war in Ukraine, he said. But how much have they destined for the Ukraine war? $30-50 billion for the war. Which is the most irrational thing you can have. And damaging.

Mr Lopez Obrador has sought to keep Mexico neutral in the war, and criticised western military aid for Kyiv. He has also proposed peace talks to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict. A fortnight ago, he defended the presence of a Russian military unit in a weekend parade marking Mexicos independence day.

Slovakia summons Russian diplomat over pre-election interference

Monday 2 October 2023 17:05 , Andy Gregory

Slovakias foreign ministry has summoned a Russian embassy representative in protest over statements made ahead of Saturdays election by the head of Russias SVR foreign intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin.

The ministry said the comments, which it said were false, came during a pre-election moratorium on information that may benefit or harm candidates. It accused Russia of spreading disinformation, which Russia has denied.

The SVR said in a statment on Thursday that the United States had instructed allies to work with local business and political circles to ensure the voting results demanded by the Americans and that the pro-Western liberal Progresivne Slovensko  which the statement characterised as US proxies  should win.

The Slovak ministry said: The department of diplomacy strongly protests against the false statement of Russian intelligence which cast doubt on the integrity of the free and democratic election in Slovakia.

We consider such deliberately spread disinformation to be unacceptable interference by the Russian Federation in the election process.

The SMER-SSD party of leftist former prime minister Robert Fico, who has pledged to end Slovak military support for Ukraine and opposes sanctions on Russia, won the most votes in Saturdays election. Progressive Slovakia came second.

On Monday, Mr Fico received a mandate from president Zuzana Caputova to begin negotiations on forming a coalition government. His most likely partners are the moderate-left HLAS party, which analysts say would tame any policy change, and a small party of pro-Russian nationalists.

Two killed and 10 wounded by Russian shelling in Kherson, say officials

Monday 2 October 2023 16:32 , Andy Gregory

Two people have been killed and 10 wounded in the latest Russian shelling of Kherson, according to officials in the southern Ukrainian region.

Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said Russian forces bombarded residential areas, shops, medical infrastructure and other infrastructure overight.

One of the dead was a policeman killed in shelling on Monday morning, he said, and children were among those wounded in overnight attacks on the regional capital, which was recaptured by Kyiv last November after months of Russian occuption.

Roman Mrochko, head of Kherson citys military administration, said 22 people had been killed in shelling of the city and settlements around it in September alone.

EU foreign chief proposes new multibillion fund

Monday 2 October 2023 16:03 , Andy Gregory

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has proposed to Ukraine a new bilateral multi-annual envelope of the European peace facility of up to 5bn (4.3bn) for the next year  equating to around a 12th of the UKs projected annual defence budget in 2024/5.

I hope we can reach an agreement before the end of the year, he also said at a joint press briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine with Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kaluba.

Ukraine calls for transfer of frozen Russian assets to Kyiv to be expedited

Monday 2 October 2023 15:43 , Andy Gregory

Legal work should be accelerated on the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Kyiv, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

After a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Kyiv, Mr Kuleba said more clarity on the judicial aspects of how to transfer Russian assets would benefit both the EU and Ukraine.

These assets, he said, could help fund Ukraines reconstruction efforts following Russias invasion.

Britains defence secretary says Musk remarks on Zelensky were unhelpful'

Monday 2 October 2023 15:05 , Andy Gregory

The UKs defence secretary Grant Shapps has suggested recent social media posts by Elon Musk mocking Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky were unhelpful.

Speaking at a ConservativeHome fringe event in Manchester about posts by the Twitter/X owner, Mr Shapps said: I think its unhelpful, to be blunt.

He declined to criticise Mr Musk directly, saying its a free world, and adding: He can tweet or X what he likes. What Ukraine really needs is strong and steady friends who wont waver.

Irish minister says rifle training for Ukrainians is effectively humanitarian

Monday 2 October 2023 14:39 , Andy Gregory

Irelands foreign minister Micheal Martin has defended the decision to allow Irish soldiers to provide rifle training to Ukrainian soldiers as being a type of non-lethal aid, arguing it is humanitarian to defend your people.

Overall, by the way, can I say that our contribution relative to others is modest, to be frank, in terms of the training side. And up to now, its been primarily in casualty or combat casualty, he said on RTEs News at One.

When asked whether rifle training extended beyond non-lethal aid, Mr Martin said there was a degree of overstatement in some of the descriptions of Irelands assistance to Ukraine, adding: Its humanitarian to defend your people.

I think there is a basic self-defence issue there that we have to be conscious of in terms of civilians and so forth, the people who have joined the Ukraine defence forces, and I wouldnt overstate it at all, as some have endeavoured to do.

In the context of the European [assistance], we do not provide lethal aid, thats just a reality, thats the factual position, we dont.

Elon Musk mocked by Ukraines parliament over tweet taunting Zelensky

Monday 2 October 2023 13:25 , Barney Davis

Ukraines parliament and its speaker have taunted billionaire Elon Musk after he posted a meme on his social media platform mocking President Volodymyr Zelenskys pleas for assistance from the West against Vladimir Putins forces.

Musk owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraines defence effort, but his statements have sometimes angered Kyiv since the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in February last year.

Max Hunder reports:

Musk mocked by Ukraines parliament over tweet taunting Zelensky

German arms donations to Ukraine quadruple in last year

Monday 2 October 2023 13:15 , Barney Davis

German exports of military equipment to Ukraine grew more than fourfold so far this year, making Kyiv the main recipient of German arms, the economy ministry said on Monday.

Ukraine accounted for 3.3 billion euros ($3.48 billion) out of Germanys total value of authorised military exports of 8.76 billion euros in the first nine months of the year.

By contrast, for the same period last year, 775 million euros worth of equipment had been approved for Ukraine.

Germany has repeatedly promised to support Ukraine for as long as necessary following the Russian invasion in February 2022, which prompted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to speak of a turning point in Germanys attitude towards defence.

US omission of Ukraine funding a setback for Kyiv claims Kremlin

Monday 2 October 2023 12:30 , Barney Davis

The Kremlin said on Monday it believed a decision by U.S. Congress to pass a stopgap funding bill that omitted aid for Ukraine was a temporary setback for Kyiv.

Congress passed legislation on Saturday which extended funding for more than a month to avoid a government shutdown but did not include any aid for Kyiv, despite Washingtons status as Ukraines biggest financial and military backer.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: Obviously, this (the U.S. setback) is a temporary phenomenon. America will continue its involvement in this conflict, in fact direct involvement, said Peskov.

But we have repeatedly said before that according to our forecasts fatigue from this conflict, fatigue from the completely absurd sponsorship of the Kyiv regime, will grow in various countries, including the United States.

And this fatigue will lead to the fragmentation of the political establishment and the growth of contradictions.

US President Joe Biden assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a visit to Washington last month that Washington would maintain strong support for Ukraine in the war despite opposition from some Republican lawmakers.

Wagner succession: Prigozhins son set to be next mercenary boss

Monday 2 October 2023 11:57 , Barney Davis

The 25-year-old son of Yevgeny Prigozhin is set to take over from his father and become the next boss of the Wagner group.

Pavel Prigozhin appears to be inheriting the vast majority of his fathers riches  including the mercenary group, properties, and about 100 million  according to a photograph posted on social media of what seems to be Prigozhins will.

He is now negotiating with the Russian national guard, Rosgvardia, over having the mercenary organisation rejoin combat in Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War said.

Wagner succession: Yevgeny Prigozhins son set to be next mercenary boss

Two police officers among injured in Kherson blast

Monday 2 October 2023 11:24 , Barney Davis

A Russian air strike on a transport office in Kherson has injured two police officers, it has emerged.

The strike which came early on Monday morning injured 4, Kherson Oblast Prosecutors Office reported.

At least one of the victims is in serious condition, local officials reported.

According to the prosecutors, Russia carried out the attack at 10am most likely using artillery.

Russian forces targeted Kherson and the surrounding oblast 71 times over the past day, killing one person and injuring six others, including two children, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

Two officers injured in air strike (Kherson Oblast Prosecutors Office)

UK believes US and Poland will keep up their support for Ukraine despite election pressures

Monday 2 October 2023 11:18 , Barney Davis

Grant Shapps said he believed that the United States and Poland would maintain their strong support for Ukraine despite domestic pressures related to their upcoming elections.

Britain would continue to back Kyiv regardless of what happened elsewhere as it had since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, he said.

A weekend U.S. budget deal to avert imminent government shutdown did not include aid for Ukraine, while Poland, which elects a new parliament on October 15 has said it would no longer agree to new arms deliveries to Kyiv but rebuild its own stocks.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps (left) and Professor Malcolm Chalmers, Deputy Director-General of RUSI, during the Conservative Party annual conference (PA Wire)

Shapps, who on Sunday announced Britain was sending 4 Typhoon jets to Poland, said it was understandable that any tensions over backing for Ukraine would surface during an election but Polands support had been magnificent so far.

I very much hope and believe that when the elections happen there and things are more settled, a sensible, common sense approach will be taken, he said at an event at the Conservative party conference.

Ukraine respects Slovakia election minister says as new leader Robert Fico promises not a single round for war-torn nation

Monday 2 October 2023 10:53 , Barney Davis

Ukraines foreign minister said on Monday it was too early to assess the impact on Ukraine from the victory of a pro-Russian candidate in Slovakias parliamentary election.

Robert Fico, whose SMER-SSD party won Saturdays vote, was set to begin coalition talks on forming a government widely considered likely to join Hungary in opposing the European Unions military aid for Ukraine.

Ukraine respects the choice that the people of Slovakia made, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv.

I think its too early to judge how these elections will impact the support of Ukraine. We have to wait until the coalition is formed, he told reporters before greeting EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

Slovakia is a member of the NATO military alliance, which is backing Ukraine against Russias 19-month-old invasion, but many of its people are sympathetic to Moscows line that the West wants to annihilate it.

Fico, whose election campaign included a call of Not a single round for Ukraine, told a press conference on Sunday: We are prepared to help with the reconstruction of the state, but you know our opinion on arming Ukraine.

Russias Black Fleet struggling to deal with concurrent threats in south of Ukraine

Monday 2 October 2023 10:03 , Barney Davis

The Ministry of Defence has warned Russians are struggling to deal with threats coming from Ukraines southern flank.

The Naval Aviation component of Russias Black Sea Fleet has assumed a particularly important role in the Fleets operations as it struggles to deal with concurrent threats on the southern flank of the Ukraine war, the ministry posted on X.

Russia is attempting to use naval air power to project force over the northwestern Black Sea.

Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev talks on the phone as flames rise from the main headquarters of Russias Black Sea Fleet (AP)

They added: Su-24 FENCER and FLANKER variant combat jets conduct maritime strike operations, including at least one recent air strike on the strategically located Snake Island.

Ukraine says US support not waning as Rishi Sunak denies plans to send military instructors

Monday 2 October 2023 09:28 , Barney Davis

Ukraines top diplomat said the United States support for Kyiv was not weakening after a stopgap funding bill passed by U.S. Congress failed to include aid to Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said: We dont feel that the U.S support has been shattered... because the United States understands that what is at stake in Ukraine is much bigger than just Ukraine, he told reporters as he greeted European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv.

Its about the stability and predictability of the world and therefore I believe we will be able to find necessary solutions.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba speaks (Reuters)

There are no immediate plans to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Sunday, rowing back from comments by his defence minister who had suggested troops could carry out training in the country.

To date, Britain and its allies have avoided a formal military presence in Ukraine to reduce the risk of a direct conflict with Russia.

British defence minister Grant Shapps, who was appointed to the role last month, said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph newspaper that he wanted to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, in addition to training Ukrainian armed forces in Britain or other Western countries.

Russians launches wave of Robotyne counterattacks, US thinktank says

Monday 2 October 2023 08:29 , Barney Davis

Russian forces are making headway with tactical counterattacks in the Robotyne area.

Intense fighting has seen significant field fortifications have changed hands several times, the Institute for the Study of War said.

Geolocated footage posted on September 30 shows Ukrainian forces striking Russian troops trying to enter a trench system near the T0408 RobotyneTokmak road.

Ukraine had previously held the interconnected system of trenches, firing systems, and dugouts that lie between Robotyne and Novoprokopivka.

Pavel Prigozhins son topped to take over Wagner Group

Monday 2 October 2023 08:02 , Barney Davis

A US thinktank believes that Yevgeny Prigozhins 25-year-old son, Pavel Prigozhin, stands to inherit his deceased fathers millions and control of his mercenary fighters - the Wagner Group.

As he lay flowers at his dead fathers mural Pavel is already believed to be negotiating with the Russian national guard, Rosgvardia, over bringing the fighters back to combat in Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War said.

Pavel emerges as an alternative Wagner commander to Andrey Troshev, who has already signed up with the defence ministry and was publicly embraced by Vladimir Putin.

(Reuters)

It indicates some Wagner personnel are interested in rallying around a Prigozhin-linked alternative to the Kremlin and MoD-aligned Troshev, the ISW said.

It is unclear what the Kremlin thinks the relationship[s] between Wagner elements and the Russian government are, the thinktank said.

Governer warns Kherson to stay in shelters after one killed and two injured in Russian shelling

Monday 2 October 2023 07:49 , Barney Davis

Khersons regional governor warned people to stay in their shelters after overnight Russian strikes killed at least one person and injured six, including two children.

On the Telegram messaging app the governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said Russian forces had launched 71 attacks in the past 24 hours, aimed at the residential districts, as well as shops and medical infrastructure, among other establishments.

He posted: Kherson region, missile danger! Also, strike drones are moving towards the region! Stay in shelters!

Twenty of the air and land attacks targeted the city of Kherson, the regions administrative district, the governor added, while authorities promptly doused a fire sparked by shelling early on Monday.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

No plans to send British troops to Ukraine, says UK PM

Monday 2 October 2023 06:00 , Joe Middleton

British prime minister Rishi Sunak said on Sunday there were no immediate plans to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, rowing back from reported comments by his defence minister that he wanted to begin training Ukrainian troops in the country.

British defence minister Grant Shapps, who was appointed to the role last month, said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph newspaper that he wanted to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, in addition to training Ukrainian armed forces in Britain or other Western countries.

Hours after that interview was published, Sunak said there were no immediate plans to send British troops to Ukraine.

What the defence secretary was saying was that it might well be possible one day in the future for us to do some of that training in Ukraine, Sunak told reporters at the start of the governing Conservative Partys annual conference in Manchester.

But thats something for the long term, not the here and now. There are no British soldiers that will be sent to fight in the current conflict.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday said any British soldiers training Ukrainian troops in Ukraine would be legitimate targets for Russian forces.

Ukraine aid left out of US government funding package, raising questions about future support

Monday 2 October 2023 05:00 , Joe Middleton

Congressional supporters of Ukraine say they wont give up after a bill to keep the federal government open excluded Joe Bidens request to provide more security assistance to the war-torn nation.

Still, many lawmakers acknowledge that winning approval for Ukraine assistance in Congress is growing more difficult as the war between Russia and Ukraine grinds on. Republican resistance to the aid has been gaining momentum in the halls of Congress.

Voting in the House this past week pointed to the potential trouble ahead. Nearly half of House Republicans voted to strip $300m from a defence spending bill to train Ukrainian soldiers and purchase weapons. The money later was approved separately, but opponents of Ukraine support celebrated their growing numbers.

Ukraine aid left out of US government funding package that averted shutdown

Zelensky urges Ukrainian victory over Russia at national event honouring countrys military

Monday 2 October 2023 04:00 , Joe Middleton

Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Ukrainian soldiers for their efforts in the war against Russia and said ahead is our victory in an event celebrating the countrys military.

The Ukrainian president made the comments on Sunday while marking the Day of the Defenders, a national event honouring the countrys veterans and those killed in battle.

In an address published by the Kyiv Post, he said: Today we thank everyone who stood, stands and will stand strong. All those who were the first to take on a difficult battle.

Zelensky urges Ukrainian victory over Russia at event honouring countrys military

Russia shoots down five Ukrainian drones in Smolensk and Krasnodar regions

Monday 2 October 2023 03:00 , Joe Middleton

Russia said on Sunday that air defences had shot down five Ukrainian drones over the western Smolensk region and one over the southern Krasnodar region.

Air defences shot down a Ukrainian drone in the Krasnodar region at around 0500 GMT, Russias defence ministry said.

At around 0600 GMT, Russia shot down three drones over the Smolensk region and at 0700 GMT shot down two more over the region, Russias defence ministry said.

Ukraine needs more military aid, says top EU diplomat

Monday 2 October 2023 02:00 , Joe Middleton

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said during a visit to Kyiv on Sunday that Ukraine needed more military aid and he promised ongoing EU support.

Ukraine needs more capabilities & needs them faster, he said in a statement posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. He said he had discussed continuous EU military assistance during his first in-person meeting with Defence Minister Rustem Umerov.

We are preparing long-term security commitments for Ukraine, Borrell added.

This week the European Defence Agency said in response to questions from Reuters that seven EU countries had ordered ammunition under a procurement scheme to get urgently needed artillery shells to Ukraine and replenish depleted Western stocks.

Nothing will weaken Ukraines resolve in war against Russia, says Zelensky

Monday 2 October 2023 01:00 , Joe Middleton

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech released on Sunday that nothing would weaken his countrys fight against Russia, a day after the US Congress passed a stopgap funding bill that omitted aid to Ukraine.

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said separately he had received reassurances about further military assistance in a telephone call with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Secretary Austin assured me, he wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, using flags in place of country names, that U.S. support to Ukraine will continue and that Ukrainian warriors will continue to have a strong back-up on the battlefield.

Zelensky, in a recorded speech marking the Defenders Day holiday, did not address the vote in Congress directly, but reiterated his determination to fight to victory.

No one could shut down Ukraines stability, endurance, strength and courage, he said, echoing a Ukrainian verb often used to refer to power outages caused by Russian attacks.

He added that Ukraine would only stop resisting and fighting on the day of victory. As we draw closer to it every day, we say, We will fight for as long as it takes.

US President Joe Biden said on Sunday that Republicans had pledged to provide Ukraine aid through a separate vote and US support could not be interrupted under any circumstances.

Ukraine aid left out of US government funding package, raising questions about future support

Sunday 1 October 2023 23:59 , Joe Middleton

Congressional supporters of Ukraine say they wont give up after a bill to keep the federal government open excluded Joe Bidens request to provide more security assistance to the war-torn nation.

Still, many lawmakers acknowledge that winning approval for Ukraine assistance in Congress is growing more difficult as the war between Russia and Ukraine grinds on. Republican resistance to the aid has been gaining momentum in the halls of Congress.

Voting in the House this past week pointed to the potential trouble ahead. Nearly half of House Republicans voted to strip $300m from a defence spending bill to train Ukrainian soldiers and purchase weapons.

Ukraine aid left out of US government funding package that averted shutdown
For the second time in less than two weeks, it appears that the Russian resort city of Sochi was targeted by Ukrainian drones. Unconfirmed reports say that the helicopter operating ramp at the international airport there was struck during that attack on Sunday. The War Zone has not been able to verify if that was indeed the case.

Video emerged on social media showing a drone flying over that city - where Russian President Vladimir Putin often visits. Another video shows the drone crashing, creating a ball of fire and a lingering waft of smoke. It is unclear from the videos the extent of any damaged caused.

https://twitter.com/thenewarea51/status/1708424631143600262?s=20 https://twitter.com/maria_drutska/status/1708469174652096991?s=12\u0026t=BQRSNakUKt7_8ssZiGBW-A

The drone seen in the video appears to be a Ukrainian PD-1.

The drone seen over Sochi on Sunday. (Twitter screencap)

A Ukrainian PD-1 drone. (Ukrspecsystems screencap)

The PD-1 drone built in Ukraine. UkrSpecSystems

Sochi, located on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, is about 350 miles from the front lines. While a long way for a drone to fly if launched from territory Ukraine controls, it would have to fly through highly defended airspace for hours to get to its target. It's possible, if not probable, the drone took an even longer round over the Black Sea, avoiding Crimean airspace and that over the Sea of Azov. This would put the distance at around 535 miles. The PD-1 drone has a range, at cruising speed, of nearly 600 miles, according to its manufacturer, Ukrspecsystems .

Sochi is about 400 miles from the front lines. (Google Earth image)

Ukrainian drones attacked Sochi on October 1, hitting a parking lot of Russian helicopters in the Alder region of Sochi, the Ukrainian Pravda (UP) news outlet wrote Sunday . According to UP sources, the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) is behind the attack.

GUR commander Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov declined comment to us when we asked about the incident. There was no comment from either the Russian Defense Ministry or the regional governor, either. The official Russian TASS news agency said on its Telegram channel only that a drone was shot down over the Krasnodar Territory. Because of its appearance, six planes that were supposed to land in Sochi were redirected to alternate airfields.

The incident comes just 12 days after an oil depot in that city was hit by a suspected Ukrainian drone attack , sparking a huge fire.

"The drone fell 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from Russian President Vladimir Putin's residence in Sochi, according to Agentstvo, an investigative site launched in 2021.

Veniamin Kondratyev, governor of Russia's Krasnodar region, said on his Telegram channel at the time that a fuel tank caught fire, causing a blaze about 100 square meters in size. No casualties were reported.

https://twitter.com/yarotrof/status/1704391813040087522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1704391813040087522%7Ctwgr%5E806444f224c4bec8f3fd174e030097bbec350f04%7Ctwcon%5Es1_\u0026ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedrive.com%2Fthe-war-zone%2Fukraine-situation-report-russias-main-defensive-line-breached https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1704433626589409330?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1704433626589409330%7Ctwgr%5E806444f224c4bec8f3fd174e030097bbec350f04%7Ctwcon%5Es1_\u0026ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedrive.com%2Fthe-war-zone%2Fukraine-situation-report-russias-main-defensive-line-breached

While Budanov declined comment about the Sochi drone incident, the GUR did take credit for another drone attack in Russia on Sunday, this one on the Smolensk Aviation Plant. The GUR claimed that attack disrupted the production process of Kh-59 missiles .

According to confirmed data, three out of four drones hit the target, causing significant damage to the production facilities of the military enterprise of the aggressor state, the GUR said on its website.

Smolensk is about 200 miles north of the Ukrainian border. The GUR did not specify what type of drones it used in the attack.

The Smolensk Aviation Plant is located about 200 miles north of the Ukrainian border. (Google Earth image)

The Russian Defense Ministry (MoD) and the regional governor, however, claimed the drones caused no damage.

An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack by an aircraft-type UAV on objects on the territory of the Russian Federation was stopped, the Russian MoD said Sunday on its Telegram channel. Three Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed by air defense systems on duty over the territory of the Smolensk region.

The Kh-59 has been used to attack many types of targets in Ukraine .

Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions suffer the most from the use of such weapons, GUR said.

https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1708737330608058693?s=20

The systemic targeting of Sochi is an interesting revelation. The Russian president has a special affinity to the resort city and it is Russia's premiere warm-weather resort destination in the Summer. It also famously hosted the 2014 Olympics and Russia invaded Ukraine shortly after that event. With these factors in mind, it makes sense that Ukraine would add it to its list of target areas designed to disrupt Russian day-to-day life and bring the war home to the Russian populous. While it is unclear what exactly was being targeted in Sochi on Sunday or if anything was actually damaged, another Ukrainian drone strike in less than two weeks has to jangle nerves there.

As Budanov told us, these attacks are designed to wear down Russia's ability and will to fight and to discredit Russia's air defense systems on the world stage.

"It undermines the belief of the population in an all-powerful Russian regime that is the strongest one in the world," Budanov said in an exclusive interview during his recent visit to D.C. "They start asking those logical questions, like: "where's our air defenses that are supposed to protect us?" And they start blaming their authorities for that, for stealing all the money. The next aspect is strikes against critical military infrastructure. It includes oil refineries that supply fuel to the warfighting as well as the factories and plants that produce components for military equipment. So thats the overall picture." Budanov continues, "And from the political standpoint, we're also demonstrating the obvious inability of Russian air defense systems, which respectively makes them less lucrative on the world arms markets."

Before we head into the latest from Ukraine, The War Zone readers can catch up on our previous rolling coverage here .

The Latest

Little has changed on the battlefield over the past 48 hours, with neither Ukrainian or Russian officials reporting any significant territorial gains or losses. The intensity of the fighting, however, remains high.

Here are some key takeaways from the latest Institute for the Study of War assessmen t.

Russian forces are conducting tactical counterattacks in the Robotyne area as part of their elastic defense against ongoing Ukrainian offensive operations in western Zaporizhia Oblast. The situation south of Robotyne is fluid as some tactically significant field fortifications have changed hands several times.

Russian forces continued offensive operations along the Kupyansk-Lyman line, near Bakhmut, along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line, in the Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblast border area, and in western Zaporizhia Oblast and marginally advanced in western Zaporizhia Oblast.

https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1708973247935430790

Two days after Congress passed a last-minute stop-gap spending bill with no new aid for Ukraine, the White House on Monday announced that it will be sending more aid to Ukraine soon.

There is [a] strong, very strong international coalition behind Ukraine. And if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin thinks he can outlast us, hes wrong. Hes wrong. And so we will have another package of aid for Ukraine soon to signal our continued support for the brave people of Ukraine, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said during a press briefing, Politico reported . The publication added that the latest aid package will come later this week, according to a U.S. official.

The White House aid announcement comes amid concerns at the Pentagon that it will not be able to send weapons to Ukraine much longer if Congress does not provide additional funding.

The Defense Department still has $5.4 billion worth of weapons available to send to Ukraine, but is fast running out of money to replenish its own stockpiles, two U.S. officials familiar with the discussions told Politico. Without those funds, transfers of weapons may be curtailed due to U.S. stocks dropping below critical contingency levels with no planned replacements clearly delineated. This comes as there are growing angst over the cost of sending more weapons to Ukraine in some U.S. political circles.

https://twitter.com/TodayOnGlobe/status/1708908420366057734

Ukraine will receive 10 Australian-made Slinger counter-drone systems in 2023, the Australian ABC.net news outlet is reporting .

The publication claims they will be delivered under a future U.S. military aid package by the end of the year.

Produced by the Australian EOS defense technology firm, the Slinger was designed based on lessons from conflict regions like Ukraine.

The lightweight, mobile system marries a Bushmaster M230LF 30 x 113mm cannon  similar to that used on the AH-64 Apache and other platforms  with special rounds that are designed to counter airborne targets like drones. It fires lightweight 30mm Proximity Sensing Ammunition with radio frequency proximity-fuzed, high explosive fragmentation rounds, according to EOS . That ammunition is designed to produce a wider kill radius than standard rounds.

The result, according to the company, is a system that can defeat drones for far less money than it takes to shoot them down at close ranges with short-range missiles or other guided weapons.

When we asked the Pentagon about the reported Slinger delivery timeline, a spokesman told us that he didn't have any security assistance announcements to make today and it would be inappropriate to speculate on the contents of future packages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrJcAOa4pes

In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty , the general director of Turkeys Baykar Makina arms manufacturer hinted that his company may provide Ukraine with its advanced Akinci drone.

As for Bayraktar Akinci, this issue is under consideration, as far as I know, Halyuk Bayraktar told the publication. ...we can fully produce Bayraktar Akinci. We have permission for this from our government, which demonstrates how close we are to implementation.

Ukraine, he added, is the first country that has such permission. Defense cooperation requires state permits, and we have this permit. Therefore, the issue regarding Akinci is under consideration.

The Akinci is a medium-altitude, long-endurance drone that has the ability to strike harder and farther than the TB-2 that proceeded it. (Photo by BAYKAR/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The Akinci drone flies at a maximum altitude of between 30,000 and 40,000 feet with a maximum speed of up to 195 knots, has a payload capacity of 1,500 kg (more than 3,300 pounds) and can launch a wide array of smart munitions, including ones with standoff capabilities. It can also be equipped with multi-purpose AESA radar as well as other sensors and loiter for up to 24 hours, according to the company . It is a major step-up from the lighter and simpler TB-2 drone that was very pronounced in its effectiveness in the opening phases of the all-out invasion, but has since been significantly curtailed overall as a result of Russian air defenses.

https://twitter.com/jimdave2012/status/1708924212591669413

Russia is apparently turning to a 63-year-old amphibious aircraft to counter the modern scourge of Ukrainian uncrewed surface vessels .

In recent weeks, the Naval Aviation component of Russias Black Sea Fleet has assumed a particularly important role in the Fleets operations as it struggles to deal with concurrent threats on the southern flank of the Ukraine war, the U.K. Defense Ministry said in its latest assessment. Naval Aviation is emphasizing maritime air patrol operations, highly likely with a primary mission of the early identification of uncrewed surface vessels. A key Russian asset in these operations is the Be-12 MAIL amphibious aircraft, designed in the 1950s, flying out of bases in occupied Crimea.

https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1708713373964132794?s=20

The vast majority of the Be-12s built were used for anti-submarine warfare, as well as search and rescue and other patrol duties.

Ukraine, of course, has no submarines. However, the Be-12s abilities, even just as a visual observation platform, could make it a useful for spotting small, low-profile, highly maneuverable craft like Ukrainian USVs.

https://youtu.be/aep2D3TexFI?t=24

In 2022, six months after the full-on invasion began, we wrote a deep dive on the Be-12 and how Russia continues to use them in Crimea. You can check that out here.

A leaked document obtained by Politico seems to indicate that Biden administration officials are far more worried about corruption in Ukraine than they publicly admit.

According to the publication, the sensitive but unclassified version of the long-term U.S. plan lays out numerous steps Washington is taking to help Kyiv root out malfeasance and otherwise reform an array of Ukrainian sectors. It stresses that corruption could cause Western allies to abandon Ukraines fight against Russias invasion, and that Kyiv cannot put off the anti-graft effort.

Perceptions of high-level corruption the confidential version of the document warns, could undermine the Ukrainian publics and foreign leaders confidence in the war-time government.

Thats starker than what the State Department published in a public version of the 22-page document , Politico noted.

https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1708826884602302825

In an opinion piece for The Telegraph , former British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Ukraines counteroffensive is succeeding, but that Kyiv needs to recruit more young troops to counter massive Russian conscription.

Ukraine can also play its part, wrote Wallace. The average age of the soldiers at the front is over 40. I understand President Zelenskys desire to preserve the young for the future, but the fact is that Russia is mobilizing the whole country by stealth. Putin knows a pause will hand him time to build a new army. So just as Britain did in 1939 and 1941, perhaps it is time to reassess the scale of Ukraines mobilization.

Wallace also said that before he left his post, he asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to dramatically boost funding for Ukraine.

I asked the PM to match or increase the 2.3 billion ($2.78 billion) pledged to Ukraine this year, to add to the 4.6 billion ($5.57 billion) we have spent already, he wrote. The UK is no longer the biggest European donor  Germany is.

https://twitter.com/kyivpost/status/1708735188870570297?s=12\u0026t=BQRSNakUKt7_8ssZiGBW-A

The Ukrainian 28th Brigade released a wild video showing its troops in a fire suppression operation near Bakhmut. Running through the woods to the end of a tree line, one soldier jumps in a dugout and lays down fire from his rifle while another soldier stands and delivers several rocket-propelled grenade rounds at Russians in a tree line on the other side of an open field.

https://youtu.be/NNup3KokugU?t=213

Germany announced Monday it has delivered two more Wisent 1 MC tactical mine clearing vehicles to Ukraine, for a total of 10 so far.

Based on the Wisent 1 armor recovery vehicle, the mine-clearing variant has a full-width mine plow, a lane-marking system, a magnetic signature duplicator, a crane with 30-ton lifting capacity and a front-mounted high-lift adaptor.

https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1708494391386521775?s=20

Days after a Ukrainian attack that destroyed two Russian 2S9 Nona 120 mm self-propelled mortars, a Russian soldier returns to the scene and describes the carnage.

https://twitter.com/UKikaski/status/1708058824781770900?s=20

And finally, we've seen all kinds of weapons in this war, but Ukraine has designed one not just to destroy, but to insult while doing so. It's a Putin bust-shaped drone munition dubbed the "exploding Putin dildo of consequence." Its streamlined penis shape is packed with explosives and shrapnel and delivered by first-person video drone as a loitering munition.

https://twitter.com/saintjavelin/status/1708509429425926208?s=20

That's it for now. We'll update this story when there's more news to report about Ukraine.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com
Key updates on Oct. 3:

Zelensky meets soldiers fighting on Kupiansk-Lyman axis

Ukraine to procure 100 high-voltage transformers to prepare for Russian attacks on energy infrastructure

Ukraine adds Chinese oil, gas companies to 'international sponsors of war' list

Russian finance minister: Ukraine war is Moscows main budget priority

Bloomberg: U.S. military 'ready to deliver' cluster-armed ATACMS

President Volodymyr Zelensky visited combat brigades on the front line in Kharkiv Oblast fighting on the Kupiansk-Lyman axis, the President's Office said on Oct. 3.

Zelensky spoke to commanders about the operational situation on the battlefield, the progress of offensive and defensive operations, and the current issues faced by units.

The Kupiansk-Lyman direction is one of the hottest on the front. The Russian invaders are constantly trying to advance there, the Presidents Office said.

Zelensky was briefed on the units' critical needs, with the commanders most often mentioning anti-aircraft and electronic warfare equipment as well as certain types of ammunition.

The president also presented state awards to soldiers and combat medics, thanking them "for every day and night that you give for all of us, without sparing yourself."

"Each of our combat brigades, each soldier who destroys the invaders, asserts with each step forward that Ukrainian victory will certainly come," said Zelensky.

Russia has been concentrating its forces around Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast since mid-July, trying to regain positions lost during the Ukrainian surprise counteroffensive last autumn. The city was occupied by Russian forces in 2022 from Feb. 27 to Sept. 10.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote on Sept. 28 that Russian troops had reduced the tempo of their localized offensive operations on the Kupiansk-Svatove-Kreminna line.

Read also: Pro-Russian sympathies make life harder for soldiers, cops in Kupiansk district

Ukraine to procure 100 high-voltage transformers to prepare for Russian attacks on energy infrastructure

Ukraine will either manufacture or purchase 100 new high-voltage transformers as the country prepares for a repeat of last winter's Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, according to a report by The Economist on Oct. 2.

Due to previous strikes on Ukrainian factories, many of the transformers will need to be purchased from abroad. In order to protect them from Russian attempts to destroy them in the future, the foreign-made transformers will be stored in Poland or Romania until they are needed.

Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that Ukraine has gained considerable experience in dealing with large-scale attacks and their consequences, and engineers have developed innovative plans to protect critical infrastructure and keep power on.

However, he also cautioned that Russia may have learned from last winter's failure to fully knock out the electrical system, and may change their tactics.

Russia began attacks on critical energy infrastructure in Oct. 2022, causing widespread damage and massive disruptions to the power grid. According to The Economist, "the average Ukrainian home was without electricity for an average of five weeks" between October and December.

Russia already has begun to strike at Ukraine's critical structure this year, and Ukraine has put considerable effort into preparing for the inevitable escalation of strikes this coming winter.

Read also: With winter approaching, is Ukraines energy system ready for renewed Russian attacks?

Ukraine adds Chinese oil, gas companies to 'international sponsors of war' list

Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has added the three largest Chinese oil and gas companies to its "international sponsors of war" list, the agency's press service announced on Oct. 3.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC Group), and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) reportedly continue to buy crude oil and gas from Russia and invest in Russian energy projects.

NACP said CNPC and a subsidiary of CNOOC have a stake in a liquefied natural gas project in the Gyda Peninsula in Siberia called the Arctic LNG-2.

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony of the project. Once fully implemented, the Arctic LNG-2 could increase Russia's share of the global LNG trade to 15%, nearly double its current share, according to the NACP.

CNPC is also allegedly involved in a number of other Russian energy projects, including the Yamal LNG project, the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, and the Eastern SiberiaPacific Ocean oil pipeline.

The company agreed with Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom to make payments in their respective national currencies, "which strengthens and stabilizes the Russian ruble" despite international sanctions, the NAPC added.

The NACP added another major Chinese company, Alibaba Group Holding Limited, to its list of international sponsors of war on Aug. 17.

The company owns the online shopping portal AliExpress and was included on the list partly for supporting Russia financially by paying taxes in the country.

Its platforms also allegedly facilitate the sale of copper allegedly exported from the occupied territories of Ukraine.

The 'international sponsor of war' is designed to be "a powerful reputational tool," the NACP explains on its website.

The NACP aims to encourage the exit of international business from Russia, reducing the country's "financial and technological ability to kill Ukrainians."

Multinational companies like Unilever, Bacardi, and PepsiCo are currently included on the list.

Read also: Investigative Stories from Ukraine: Russian drone downed by Ukraine is full of Western components

Russian finance minister: Ukraine war is Moscows main budget priority

The main priority for Russias budget for the next three years is strengthening the countrys military and supporting participants of its war against Ukraine, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Oct. 3, as cited by Forbes Russia.

Russia plans to spend 10.77 trillion rubles (around $107 billion) on its military in 2024, which is twice as much in 2023 and three times more than in 2021, before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Next year's military spending will become Moscow's largest budget item for the first time, surpassing social policies, Forbes Russia wrote.

"The resources planned for next year make it possible to fully meet the objectives of the special military operation (all-out war against Ukraine)," Siluanov said at a budget hearing before the upper house of Russia's parliament.

The Kremlin also plans to allocate about $661 million for the production of drones to ensure over 40% of Russian drones are manufactured domestically, according to the finance minister.

On Sept. 15, the Ukrainian government approved the draft budget for 2024, under which over half of all funds will be spent on security and defense.

Ukraine's defense expenditures for 2024 amount to around $45.6 billion, which is $3 billion more than this year.

Read also: Its a cult-like mentality: Historian Ian Garner on the militarization of Russian society

Bloomberg: US military 'ready to deliver' cluster-armed ATACMS

The U.S. military is ready to send Ukraine some of its long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) armed with cluster munitions, Bloomberg reported on Oct. 3, citing the U.S. military's chief weapons buyer.

Doug Bush, the assistant secretary of the U.S. military for acquisition, logistics, and technology, said that the force has already identified the missiles that will be sent to Ukraine.

The U.S. military "has been postured for this eventuality for a while," Bush told Bloomberg, adding, "we're ready when and if the president decides to do this."

According to the U.S. military's official weapons handbook, cluster-armed ATACMS have a range of up to 300 kilometers (190 miles) and can carry up to 950 cluster munitions, Bloomberg said.

To fire the weapons, Ukrainian forces will need to make minor modifications to launchers already used to fire GPS-guided missiles, Bush added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has long been campaigning for the delivery of ATACMS, due to their ability to hit targets deep behind the front line.

On Sept. 22, multiple media outlets reported that Biden had agreed to deliver a limited number of the missiles.

The reports came shortly after Zelenskys four-day visit to the United States, during which he met with Biden and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The date or further details of the delivery of ATACMS have not yet been revealed.

Read also: US will reportedly give ATACMS to Ukraine. Will it change the war?

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Ukraine fires thousands of shells every day in defence of its territory

Western military powers are running out of ammunition to give Ukraine to defend itself against Russia's full-scale invasion, the UK and Nato have warned.

Adm Rob Bauer, Nato's most senior military official, told the Warsaw Security Forum that "the bottom of the barrel is now visible".

He said governments and defence manufacturers now had to "ramp up production in a much higher tempo".

Ukraine fires thousands of shells every day and most now come from Nato.

The admiral, who chairs Nato's Military Committee, said decades of underinvestment meant Nato countries had begun supplying Ukraine with weapons with their ammunition warehouse already half-full or even emptier.

"We need large volumes. The just-in-time, just-enough economy we built together in 30 years in our liberal economies is fine for a lot of things - but not the armed forces when there is a war ongoing."

UK Defence Minister James Heappey told the forum that Western military stockpiles were "looking a bit thin" and urged Nato allies to spend 2% of their national wealth on defence, as they had committed to do.

"If it's not the time - when there is a war in Europe - to spend 2% on defence, then when is?" he asked.

He, too, said the "just-in-time" model "definitely does not work when you need to be ready for the fight tomorrow".

"We can't stop just because our stockpiles are looking a bit thin," Mr Heappey said. "We have to keep Ukraine in the fight tonight and tomorrow and the day after and the day after. And if we stop, that doesn't mean that Putin automatically stops."

And that meant, he said, "continuing to give, day in day out, and rebuilding our own stockpiles".

"The elephant in the room is that not everyone in the alliance is yet spending 2% of their GDP on defence. That must be the floor for our defence spending, not the ceiling."

He added: "When it comes to the alliance, the US is increasingly looking east and west, and I think justifiably our colleagues in Congress need to see the European powers are spending their 2% to resource Nato equitably."

On Monday, EU foreign ministers held first ever summit outside the bloc in Kyiv, pledging continuing support to Ukraine

Swedish Defence Minister Pol Jonson said it was vital for Europe to get its defence industrial base in shape to support Ukraine for the long term.

"Because we're digging pretty deep now into our pockets, into our stocks," he said.

"And in the long run, I think it's crucial that Ukrainians also can procure defence material from the industrial base in Europe. We learned some hard lessons here about scale and volume, not at least when it comes to artillery ammunition."

The UK defence ministry says that since the start of the invasion in February 2022, the UK has given more than 300,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and is committed to giving "tens of thousands more" by the end of the year.

The US state department says that over the same timescale, America has given Ukraine more than two million Nato standard 155mm artillery rounds.

Such is Kyiv's dependence on US ammunition that there are real concerns among Nato allies about the possibility of Donald Trump being re-elected president next year.

They fear that US military support for Ukraine might diminish if Mr Trump were to seek some kind of political settlement with Moscow.

The difficulty is that despite attempts to ramp up production, Ukraine is using the ammunition faster than Western powers can replace it.

Nato and EU countries have agreed various plans to share expertise, agree joint contracts with defence manufacturers, subsidise production as much as they can.

But it appears that they are still struggling to meet the need.

Analysts say that in contrast, Russia appears much more able to gear up its wartime economy to replenish its own stockpiles.

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Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reiterated his belief that the United States will continue to provide assistance to Ukraine despite the internal political processes and the upcoming presidential election.

Source: Kuleba on air during the 24/7 national joint newscast on Tuesday, reported by European Pravda

Details: Kuleba recounted President Zelenskyy's last visit to Washington, during which he had "very frank and sincere conversations" with Joe Biden and representatives of the Republican and Democratic parties in the Congress.

"And there is no reason to say that America is not aware of the importance of the struggle that is now taking place in Ukraine for the world," he stressed.

Kuleba acknowledged that during the election process in the United States, there would be "some unexpected political steps by opponents".

"But thanks to the fact that the president had very substantive and focused conversations that resulted in additional support for Ukraine, we can count on the United States to continue supporting Ukraine," the minister added.

Background:

Last weekend, the US House of Representatives approved a budget to fund government agencies for 45 days without aid to Ukraine.

After that, US President Joe Biden called upon the Republicans in Congress not to allow problems with aid for Ukraine.

Ukraines Foreign Ministry said that the situation with the temporary stopgap budget will not affect the delivery and implementation of the previously agreed aid for Ukraine.

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Fighters from the Special Operations Forces of Ukraines Armed Forces have destroyed five infantry fighting vehicles, two trucks and a Russian field ammunition storage point on the Zaporizhzhia front.

Source: press service of Ukraine's Special Operations Forces

Details: The press service noted that information about the movement of Russian equipment was received during the combat missions on the Zaporizhzhia front.

A company of Achilles UAVs of the Special Operations Forces began aerial reconnaissance in order to identify and confirm targets.

The Russians decided to concentrate the probable reserve units in the strip of forest, but they were quickly spotted.

The information was quickly transmitted to Ukraines Defence Forces artillery unit, and they opened fire immediately.

The press service also noted that other Russian equipment was also damaged (and probably further destroyed) as a result of the detonation and fire that broke out there.

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Trump attends civil trial in NYC, attacks proceedings

Xinhua) 11:21, October 03, 2023

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before leaving the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Oct. 25, 2019. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

"This is a pure witch hunt for purposes of interfering with the elections of the United States of America. It's totally illegal," says Donald Trump.

NEW YORK, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The trials of Donald Trump began on Monday in a New York courtroom, where the former president made an appearance to fight the first of several government actions against him - a civil case that "imperils his company and threatens his image as a master of the business world," The New York Times reported.

The case, brought by Letitia James, New York's attorney general, takes aim at Trump's boasts about his net worth, accusing him of crossing from hyperbole into fraud. In some years, the attorney general's office contends, Trump, his adult sons and their family business inflated his riches by more than 2 billion U.S. dollars so that they could secure favorable terms from banks.

Trump walked past reporters in the hallway but did not stop to speak this time, after making multiple statements, attacking the proceedings, Judge Arthur Engoron and Letitia James. Engoron ruled last week that Trump and his co-defendants were liable for fraud in the attorney general's civil case, one of the seven claims that are a part of the lawsuit.

Trump was not required to appear in court Monday for the trial against him, his eldest sons, their companies and Trump Organization executives. But he chose to attend and sit in the Manhattan courtroom - while giving multiple statements attacking the proceedings as he entered and exited.

"I've been going through a witch hunt for years, but this is really now getting dirty between (special counsel) Jack Smith, and between all of these DOJ people helping them along," Trump said. "This is a pure witch hunt for purposes of interfering with the elections of the United States of America. It's totally illegal."

The New York attorney general's office asked Donald Bender, Trump's former accountant at Mazars USA, about the price of a penthouse apartment for Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump. "If I saw something that didn't make sense to me, or bothered me, I would ask him (the client, Trump Organization) about it," Bender testified.

Trump's last appearance in a New York courthouse was in April for his arraignment on criminal charges related to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. He is scheduled to go to trial in that case next year and is also under criminal indictment in three other cases in Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Sheng Chuyi)
The Russian occupying forces attacked Ukraine with 31 Shahed kamikaze UAVs and an Iskander-K cruise missile on the night of 2-3 October. Ukrainian air defence forces managed to shoot down 30 aerial targets.

Source: Ukrainian Air Force; Vitalii Kim, Head of Mykolaiv Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram; Ukrainian Defence Forces

Details: The Russians reportedly launched the Shaheds from Cape Chauda and the Iskander-K missile from the area of the city of Dzhankoi, both located in Russian-occupied Crimea.

The Ukrainian Air Force shot down a cruise missile and 29 Russian drones.

Quote: "Air defence was responding in southern and eastern oblasts: anti-aircraft missile troops, fighter aircraft, and units of mobile fire groups. The targets were engaged in the areas of responsibility of Air Command Pivden (South) and Air Command Skhid (East) within Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts," the Air Force said.

Vitalii Kim, Head of Mykolaiv Oblast Military Administration, said 16 Russian Shahed kamikaze drones had been shot down over Mykolaiv Oblast.

The official added that the Russians fired artillery on Kutsurub hromada around 04:02 [hromada is an administrative unit designating a town, village or several villages and their adjacent territories - ed.]. No casualties occurred.

Background:

Earlier, the oblast authorities reported that 13 drones and a cruise missile had been shot down over Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, but the city of Pavlohrad had been hit.

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Ukraine's Defence Forces repelled Russian attacks on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Shakhtarsk and Zaporizhzhia fronts and struck at the areas where Russian military personnel and their equipment were concentrated.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, information as of 06:00 on 3 October

Quote from the General Staff: "Over the last day, 35 combat engagements took place. In total, the enemy launched eight missile strikes and 47 air strikes and fired 27 times from multiple-launch rocket systems at both the positions of our troops and civilian facilities in our state."

Details: On the Lyman front, Ukrainian Defence Forces repelled Russian attacks near Makiivka in Luhansk Oblast.

On the Bakhmut front, the Russians attempted to regain their lost ground in the area of Andriivka in Donetsk Oblast, but to no avail.

In the area of responsibility of the Tavriia Operational Strategic Group on the Avdiivka front, the Russians sought to regain their lost ground near Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast, but to no avail. Furthermore, Ukrainian defenders successfully repelled Russian attacks east of Stepove in Donetsk Oblast. The Russians launched 10 unsuccessful attacks in the areas of Marinka and Novomykhailivka in Donetsk Oblast.

On the Shakhtarsk front, Ukrainian defenders repelled Russian attacks near Staromaiorske and Rivnopil in Donetsk Oblast.

On the Zaporizhzhia front, the Russians attempted to regain their lost ground in the area west of Verbove and south-east of Mala Tokmachka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, but to no avail.

The Ukrainian Defence Forces pursue an offensive operation on the Melitopol and Bakhmut fronts, inflicting losses in military personnel and equipment on the Russian occupying forces, further consolidating their positions and exhausting the Russians.

In the area of responsibility of the Odesa Operational Strategic Group on the Kherson front, Defence Forces engaged in counter-battery combat, destroyed storage points and successfully struck the Russian rear.

In the area of responsibility of the Pivnich (North) Operational Strategic Group on the Volyn and Polissia fronts, no significant change in the operational situation was recorded.

On the Sivershchyna and Slobozhanshchyna fronts, Russia maintains a military presence in the border areas, conducts active sabotage activities to prevent Ukrainian troops from moving to vulnerable areas, and increases the density of minefields along the state border in its Belgorod Oblast.

The Russians did not conduct any offensive (assault) actions in the area of responsibility of the Khortytsia Operational Strategic Group on the Kupiansk front.

Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian Air Force aircraft carried out 11 attacks on clusters of Russian military personnel, weapons and equipment, and another attack on a Russian anti-aircraft missile system.

Ukrainian Rocket Forces units destroyed a cluster of Russian military personnel, weapons and equipment, a command post, two electronic warfare stations and four artillery pieces belonging to the Russians.

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Ukrainian farmers have sown nearly 3 million hectares of winter crops as of Oct. 3, even as Russia's full-scale invasion has devastated arable land and Russian occupation has limited access to fields.

Meanwhile, Russias de facto blockade of Ukraines Black Sea ports and attacks on port facilities on the Danube River have depleted export volumes significantly.

By the start of October, farmers had sown 2.992 million hectares, including 1.7 million hectares of winter wheat, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on its website.

Winter wheat is the main winter crop in Ukraine, accounting for about 97 percent of Ukraine's total wheat production.

The area sown also included 1.087 million hectares of rapeseed, 109,000 hectares of barley, and 53,600 hectares of rye, according to Agriculture Ministry data.

Farmers in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy Oblast have sown the most winter grain, completing 87% of their forecast, while all oblasts have nearly finalized rapeseed sowing, the ministry said.

Because of favorable weather conditions, the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry now expects Ukraine to harvest 79.1 million tons of grain and oilseed in 2023, surpassing last season's harvest of 76.8 million metric tons.

The prediction is still behind 2021s record result of 86 million metric tons.

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Preliminary estimates place the wheat harvest at 21.7 million metric tons, barley at 5.7 million metric tons, and corn at 28.5 million metric tons.

Oilseed production could reach 21.6 million metric tons, while the sunflower harvest may hit 13 million metric tons and soybean production could reach 4.6 million metric tons.



Agricultural workers are only able to utilize 10.895 million hectares of land for spring and winter grains, which is 980,000 hectares less than last year.



The main issue plaguing farmers, however, is the export of their goods, brought on by Russia's continued Black Sea blockade and attacks on port infrastructure.



Last month, only 3.64 million metric tons of agricultural products crossed the border, down from 6.87 million metric tons in the same period last year, according to Agriculture Ministry data.



On Oct. 1, Ukraine exported 7,000 metric tons of grain, compared with 297,000 metric tons a year ago.



The Ukraine Grain Association (UGA) predicted last month that exports for the 2023/24 marketing year could potentially reach nearly 49 million metric tons.

In the previous marketing year (1 July 2022-30 June 2023), Ukraine exported 58 million metric tons of food products.

Read also: With winter approaching, is Ukraines energy system ready for renewed Russian attacks?

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Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has updated its 1 October assessment that Ukrainian forces lost positions in the trench system southwest of Robotyne: geographic footage released on 2 October and satellite imagery indicate that Ukrainian forces regained these positions sometime between 12 and 17 September and are currently holding them.

Source: ISW

Details: In addition, according to military analysts, Ukrainian troops have advanced slightly in the area of the border of Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts and near Bakhmut.

On 2 October, Russian troops continued their offensive on the Avdiivka-Donetsk line and advanced. The Russian military claimed the capture of several Ukrainian positions near Sieverne (6 km west of Avdiivka), Keramik (14 km northwest of Avdiivka) and Stepove (8 km northwest of Avdiivka), on 1 and 2 October.

Ukraines General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attacks east of Stepove and near Avdiivka, Keramik, Pervomaiske (11 km southwest of Avdiivka), Marinka (on the western line of the city of Donetsk) and Novomykhailivka (36 km southwest of Avdiivka).

Previously: On 1 October, experts from the ISW called the situation south of Robotyne unstable, tactically complicated and dynamic, as important field fortifications had changed hands several times.

To quote the ISWs Key Takeaways on 2 October:

A prominent Russian milblogger and front-line unit commander claimed that Russian Airborne Forces (VDV) Commander Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky "saved" the Russian 31st Guards VDV Brigade, which was fighting south of Bakhmut.

A Russian "Storm Z" assault unit instructor speculated that the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) removed Lieutenant General Andrey Sychevoy from commanding the Bakhmut direction due to his poor performance.

Ukrainian forces marginally advanced in the Donetsk-Zaporizhzhia Oblast border area and near Bakhmut on 2 October.

Prominent actors in the Russian information space continue to speculate about the possible future of the Wagner Group under Rosgvardia.

Interethnic tensions and claims about the superiority of Chechen "Akhmat" forces over regular Russian forces continue to generate controversy in the Russian information space.

Russian forces conducted a small-scale Shahed-131/136 drone strike on Ukraine on the night of 1-2 October after Russian forces conducted a record number of drone strikes targeting Ukrainian grain and port infrastructure in September 2023.

Russian forces conducted offensive operations near Kreminna, near Bakhmut, along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line, in the western Donetsk-eastern Zaporizhzhia Oblast border area, and in western Zaporizhzhia Oblast and reportedly advanced in some areas on 2 October.

The Russian "Vostok" Battalion continued to complain on 1 October that the Russian military command is not fulfilling its promises of having the unit fight as a second-echelon force and is not providing state awards.

Russian occupation officials continued to transport Ukrainian children to Russia under the guise of educational trips.

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(Bloomberg) -- The United Nations Security Council on Monday greenlit an international force for Haiti to rein in powerful gangs and clear the way for long-delayed elections.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Under the deal, Kenya will lead a Multinational Security Support mission for a year as backup for the Caribbean nations out-gunned and overwhelmed police force.

While the deployment has Security Council backing, it wont be overseen by UN Peacekeeping and will be funded through voluntary contributions.

Heavily-armed gangs control large parts of the capital as well as swathes of the countryside, and have paralyzed the economy with kidnappings, extortion and turf wars. The US hopes the deployment can help Haitis security forces restore stability, and views the extra personnel as a way to support existing police efforts rather than supplant them, senior US officials told reporters on Monday.

Read More: US Wants UN Approval for Kenya-Led Haiti Force Next Week

The US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the force would pave the way for long-term stability in Haiti. She called on other nations to join the US in offering support, and said it was imperative that the security forces deploy soon.

We are committed to surging assistance to this multinational mission, Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on Monday evening. We call on the rest of the international community to join us. We need more countries to step forward. If we act with urgency, the mission can deploy within months. And there is no time to waste.

The US previously announced it would provide $100 million to support the mission. The Bahamas, Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda have said they would be willing to contribute. With the UN vote out of the way, other nations are also expected to make commitments.

Kenyan Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua welcomed the adoption of the resolution.

Deploying a force to Haiti is politically fraught, after a UN peacekeeping force that was there from 2004 to 2017 unwittingly introduced cholera that killed thousands. Peacekeepers were also accused of sexual abuse of children.

The US officials said the mission would be monitored closely given rampant corruption in Haitis police. Kenyas security forces have themselves been accused of a series of human rights abuses, including torture and extra-judicial killings.

Read More: Dominican Republic Closing Its Border With Haiti Amid River Feud

The resolution passed with 13 votes in favor and two abstentions, from Russia and China.

In a statement, Chinas UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said the mission should begin meeting with the Haitian people and government immediately to build consensus and come up with a credible timetable.

Without a legitimate, effective, and responsible government in place, any external support can hardly have any lasting effects, Zhang Jun said.

Wave of Kidnapping

President Ariel Henry has repeatedly asked for security assistance, as the nation has been gripped by violence that has grown worse since the 2021 murder of President Jovenel Moise. Despite multiple promises to hold presidential and legislative elections, Henry has said that the security situation is so dire that they cannot take place.

Through Sept. 9 of this year, the country has seen 3,000 homicides and more than 1,500 kidnappings, the UN reported. In addition, some 200,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.

It is our fervent wish that Haiti, the first independent black republic, will soon be able to deliver for its people the prosperity they have always deserved, Jamaicas UN ambassador Brian Wallace speaking on behalf of the nations of the Caribbean community or Caricom.

(Updates with quote in sixth paragraph.)

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The New York judge in Donald Trump's civil fraud case issued a limited gag order against the former president Tuesday after he attacked the judge's clerk on social media while in court, according to The Messenger.

"Personal attacks on members on my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and I won't tolerate it [in my courtroom]," New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron said in court, according to the report. "Consider this a gag order for all parties from posting about any members of my staff," he added.

In a since-deleted post to Truth Social, Trump falsely called Engoron's principal law clerk Senate Majority Leader Chuck "Schumer's girlfriend" and linked to her Instagram account.

"Schumer's girlfriend, Alison R. Greenfield, is running this case against me," Trump wrote in the post. "How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!!"

While in court, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social attacking Judge Engorons clerk, calling her Shumers girlfriend and linking to her Instagram account.



Still no gag order. pic.twitter.com/xIHDmEdtrw  Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) October 3, 2023

"I have since ordered the post deleted," Engoron reportedly said.

The former president had doubled down on the claim to press outside the courtroom during a break in the trial, also adding a jab at New York Attorney General Letitia James, who filed the lawsuit against him. Engoron last week found Trump liable of defrauding banks and insurers in his statements of financial condition and began the trial Monday to consider the six remaining matters in the lawsuit.

"This trial is a rigged trial. It's a fraudulent trial. The attorney general is a fraud, and we have to expose her as that," he told reporters. "You see what's going on  it's a rigged deal. And frankly, you saw what was just put out about Schumer and the principal clerk  that is disgraceful."

This trial is a rigged trial ... You saw what was just put out about [Chuck] Schumer and the principal clerk  that is disgraceful.



 Donald Trump, seemingly referencing his TruthSocial post calling the judges clerk in his civil fraud trial Schumer's girlfriend pic.twitter.com/ZrBiEln1T8  The Recount (@therecount) October 3, 2023

As Politico reporter Betsy Woodruff Swan pointed out, however, the allegation Trump's attempting to push is connected to a long-running rumor about Schumer, D-N.Y., that the Associated Press reported began on a now-defunct satire website.

In 2017 the satire site America's Last Line of Defense created the story that Schumer had an "affair" in 1977 with his daughter's best friend from high school when the girl was 16, adding that Schumer's daughter "Lisa" had disclosed the scandal. But Schumer does not have a daughter named Lisa, neither of his two daughters had been born by 1977 and the details of the story are untrue.

An internet archive shows in 2018 the "about" section of the site read, "America's Last Line of Defense is a whimsical playland of conservative satire" and "Everything on this website is fiction."

At the time the satire piece ran, Alabama voters were set to vote in a special Senate election just days later, and Republican candidate Roy Moore had come under fire after allegations of him engaging in sexual misconduct with underage girls in the later 1970s rose to the fore.

Since then, several versions of the false story about Schumer have made the rounds on social media and right-wing websites as if it were true, AP reported.

While pushing the claims against Greenfield to reporters outside the courtroom Monday afternoon, Trump also lambasted the judge and his recent decision, calling Engoron a "disgrace" to other judges.

"He ruled that we lost part of the case because he's a Democrat club politician. He's a Democrat operative, and he's a disgrace to people that call themselves judges. And I hope my lawyers go in and I hope they fight him very hard because this guy's getting away with murder," Trump said of the judge.

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"Trump savaging the judge and judge's clerk in the courthouse?!?" MSNBC commentator Tristan Snell, a former prosecutor at the New York Attorney General's office, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "Literally ANY other party doing this would be slapped with contempt of court and be either paying a fine or being placed under arrest."

Trump savaging the judge and judges clerk in the courthouse?!?



Literally ANY other party doing this would be slapped with contempt of court and be either paying a fine or being placed under arrest.



pic.twitter.com/tCmvUun9W7  Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) October 3, 2023

"Mark my words: this is the first of many gag orders against Trump that will be issued by Justice Engoron in this case," predicted MSNBC legal analyst Katie Phang. "Also: the fact that Trump took the time to post this attack on his failing social media platform DURING the trial (the trial was on a brief recess) just goes to show how little respect he has for the judicial process."

Also: the fact that Trump took the time to post this attack on his failing social media platform DURING the trial (the trial was on a brief recess) just goes to show how little respect he has for the judicial process.  Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) October 3, 2023
Content moderation continues to be a contentious topic in the world of online media. New regulations and public concern are likely to keep it as a priority for many years to come. But weaponized AI and other tech advances are making it ever harder to address. A startup out of Cambridge, England, called Unitary AI believes it has landed on a better way to tackle the moderation challenge -- by using a "multimodal" approach to help parse content in the most complex medium of all: video.

Today, Unitary is announcing $15 million in funding to capitalize on momentum it's been seeing in the market. The Series A -- led by top European VC Creandum, with participation also from Paladin Capital Group and Plural -- comes as Unitary's business is growing. The number of videos it is classifying has jumped this year to 6 million/day from 2 million (covering billions of images) and the platform is now adding on more languages beyond English. It declined to disclose names of customers but says ARR is now in the millions.

Unitary is using the funding to expand into more regions and to hire more talent. Unitary is not disclosing its valuation; it previously raised under $2 million and a further $8 million in seed funding; other investors include the likes of Carolyn Everson, the ex-Meta exec.

There have been dozens of startups over recent years harnessing different aspects of artificial intelligence to build content moderation tools.

And when you think about it, the sheer scale of the challenge in video is an apt application for it. No army of people would alone ever be able to parse the tens and hundreds of zettabytes of data that are being created and shared on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Reddit or TikTok -- to say nothing of dating sites, gaming platforms, videoconferencing tools, and other places where videos appear, altogether making up more than 80% of all online traffic.

That angle is also what interested investors. In an online world, theres an immense need for a technology-driven approach to identify harmful content," said Christopher Steed, chief investment officer, Paladin Capital Group, in a statement.

Still, it's a crowded space. OpenAI, Microsoft (using its own AI, not OpenAI's), Hive, ActiveFence / Spectrum Labs, Oterlu (now part of Reddit), Sentropy (now a part of Discord), and Amazon's Rekognition are just a few of the many out there in use.

From Unitary AI's point of view, existing tools are not as effective as they should be when it comes to video. That's because tools have been built up to now typically focus on parsing data of one type or another -- say, text or audio or image -- but not in combination, simultaneously. That leads to a lot of false flags (or conversely no flags).

"What is innovative about Unitary is that we have genuine multimodal models," said CEO Sasha Haco, who co-founded the company with CTO James Thewlis. "Rather than analyzing just a series of frames, in order to understand the nuance and whether a video is [for example] artistic or violent, you need to be able to simulate the way a human moderator watches the video. We do that by analyzing text, sound and visuals."

Customers put in their own parameters for what they want to moderate (or not), and Haco said they typically will use Unitary in tandem with a human team, which in turn will now have to do less work and face less stress.

"Multimodal" moderation seems so obvious. Why hasn't it been done before?

Haco said one reason is that "you can get quite far with the older, visual-only model." However, it means there is a gap in the market to grow.

The reality is that the challenges of content moderation have continued to dog social platforms, game companies and other digital channels where media is shared by users. Lately, social media companies have signaled a move away from stronger moderation policies; fact-checking organizations are losing momentum; and questions remain about the ethics of moderation when it comes to harmful content. The appetite for fighting has waned.

But Haco has an interesting track record when it comes to working on hard, inscrutable subjects. Before Unitary AI, Haco -- who holds a PhD in quantum physics -- worked on black hole research with Stephen Hawking. (Apparently you can see her in a Netflix doc on the first image of a black hole, made using the Event Horizon Telescope.) She had an urge to shift her focus to work on earthbound problems, which can be just as hard to understand as a spacetime gravity monster.

Her "epiphany," she said, was that there were so many products out there in content moderation, so much noise, but nothing yet had equally matched up with what customers actually wanted.

Thewlis's expertise, meanwhile, is directly being put to work at Unitary: He also has a PhD, his in computer vision from Oxford, where his speciality was "methods for visual understanding with less manual annotation."

("Unitary" is a double reference, I think. The startup is unifying a number of different parameters to better understand videos. But also, it may refer to Haco's previous career: Unitary operators are used in describing a quantum state, which in itself is complicated and unpredictable -- just like online content and humans.)

Multimodal research in AI has been ongoing for years. But we seem to be entering an era where we are going to start to see a lot more applications of the concept. Case in point: Meta just last week referenced multimodal AI several times in its Connect keynote previewing its new AI assistant tools. Unitary thus straddles that interesting intersection of cutting-edge research and real-world application.

"We first met Sasha and James two years ago and have been incredibly impressed," said Gemma Bloemen, a principal at Creandum and board member, in a statement. "Unitary has emerged as clear early leaders in the important AI field of content safety, and were so excited to back this exceptional team as they continue to accelerate and innovate in content classification technology.

From the start, Unitary had some of the most powerful AI for classifying harmful content. Already this year, the company has accelerated to 7 figures of ARR, almost unheard of at this early stage in the journey," said Ian Hogarth, a partner at Plural and also a board member.
Research funding at the University of Utah hit a record $768 million in fiscal year 2023, marking a decade of year-over-year increases.

That includes a climb of more than $100 million since 2020, when it hit the $600 million mark, and a $500 million milestone in 2018.

To see that our research funding has hit another record year is a testament to our students, faculty, staff and community partners commitment to bringing solutions to the societal issues of today and tomorrow, said Erin Rothwell, the U.s vice president for research, in a statement.

The University of Utah is a top Research 1 institution, and our achievements both in the past and present reflect that, Rothwell said.

The Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine had $312 million in funding with the internal medicine and pediatrics departments contributing more than $113 million, followed by the departments of biochemistry and neurology contributing over $42 million.

Growth in research funding to several colleges and institutes also contributed to the new record: the Huntsman Cancer Institute, the David Eccles School of Business, the College of Social Work, the College of Architecture and Planning, and the Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute.

In 2019, the University of Utah was invited to join the prestigious Association of American Universities. Membership is limited to institutions at the forefront of scientific inquiry and educational excellence, AAU President Mary Sue Coleman said at the time.

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In total, 3,152 grants were awarded to U. principal investigators. In addition to $487 million in federal funding, other funders were the state of Utah at $36 million, $117 million from industry and $52 million from foundations.

Some of the federal funding agencies that contributed to the U.s record-breaking research funding in fiscal year 2023 included the National Institutes of Health at $291 million, the Department of Energy at $69 million, and the National Science Foundation at $55 million.

More than 8,300 employees are compensated by research dollars. Moreover, research has supported nearly $600 million in wages over the past three years.

Research is helping pay bills, put food on tables, and giving families better lives, Rothwell said in a statement. It also supports job creation and businesses through spending related to research.

University President Taylor Randall said the U.s decadelong growth in research funding helps to solidify its status as a national and global leader in innovation.

Discoveries at the U. are finding solutions to some of societys biggest challenges, bringing hope to issues that seem unsolvable, and inspiring generations of future researchers, he said.

Our goal of $1 billion in research support is within reach thanks to the passion, hard work and dedication of the U.s research community, Randall said.
The main hero of the Donald Trump fraud trial that kicked off Monday is, of course, Letitia James. New York's attorney general has worked tirelessly for years on investigating Trump's decades of criminal and corrupt behavior, resulting in a $250 million lawsuit accusing Trump and his two grown sons of running a fraudulent business. Her case is so airtight, in fact, that New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ruled Trump liable for fraud from the bench, rather than waste a jury's time figuring out what was indisputable from the evidence. The ensuing trial  which drew Trump himself into the Manhattan courtroom this week  is entirely about how serious the penalities will be.

There are weeks, maybe months to go before we learn how much Trump will have to pay for defrauding investors, banks and insurance companies over several decades. So we'll have to wait a bit for James to get her virtual ticker-tape parade for kicking the most hated man in New York real estate out of town. In the meantime, however, there's another well-known New York City politician who is owed a debt of gratitude for bringing some accountability to Trump's gold-painted front door: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

In our era of 24/7 media onslaught, four years can seem like like four lifetimes, so it's easy to forget that when Ocasio-Cortez arrived in Congress in January 2019, there was a lot of curiosity and outright skepticism about her among the Beltway press. She'd gotten there in improbable fashion, winning a 2018 primary against Rep. Joe Crowley  a power broker in Queens who chaired the House Democratic caucus and was seen as a possible successor to Nancy Pelosi. Before that, Ocasio-Cortez had been working as a bartender in a Manhattan taco joint. So the media was watching eagerly to see whether she'd rise to the occasion or fall flat on her face.

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Ocasio-Cortez's first big test came in February 2019, when Trump's former personal attorney and "fixer," Michael Cohen, testified before the House Oversight Committee. Cohen was about to go to prison for a campaign finance crime committed at Trump's behest, and told a genuinely moving story of crime and betrayal. But most of the Democrats on the committee whiffed this opportunity to ask questions of a guy who had been nestled within the Trump gang for years. Instead, they devoted their time to grandstanding for the cameras, rather than learning any new information about Trump's illegal dealings.

Except, of course, for the young congresswoman from a working-class, multiracial district in Queens and the Bronx. Much to the surprise and delight of mainstream journalists, Ocasio-Cortez was all business. She showed up with a long list of questions about how much Cohen knew about Trump's business dealings and whether the man currently in the White House had spent his previous career defrauding creditors and investors. Cohen's answer: Trump was criming all the time. The transcript is worth re-reading and relishing:

Ocasio-Cortez: To your knowledge, did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company? Cohen: Yes. Ocasio-Cortez: Who else knows that the president did this? Cohen: Allen Weisselberg, Ron Lieberman and Matthew Calamari. Ocasio-Cortez: And where would the committee find more information on this? Do you think we need to review his financial statements and his tax returns in order to compare them? Cohen: Yes, and you would find it at the Trump Org.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is winning high marks from the left for her questioning of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen this week.



The praise she's getting also may have caught the attention of Pres. Trump himself. https://t.co/La9ENp0SLN pic.twitter.com/y9BhcDBEtm  ABC News (@ABC) March 2, 2019

That line of questioning, in which Cohen confirmed that Trump routinely manipulated numbers to evade taxes while defrauding banks and insurance companies, was the first step on the long road to Trump making a stink-face in court on Monday morning. New York state regulators started to sniff around Trump's business. James had already been dealing with a smaller case involving Trump's charitable foundation, but Cohen's testimony opened the door to a much bigger investigation.

Three years later, James came out with the stunning  and largely irrefutable  accusations she's presenting in court this week: Trump's wealth is built on a sandcastle of lies. He doubles, triples or quadruples the valuations of his assets in order to get loans from creditors, and drastically undervalues them to evade taxes. With this shell game, the four-times-indicted ex-president lives like a rich man despite his proven inability to make much money from his business ventures. Everything Cohen said before that committee has pretty much proven true, and only AOC even thought to ask him about it.

The near-certainty that Trump's allegedly enormous wealth is an illusion has already been documented in reporting on his tax documents showing that he is deep in debt  perhaps as much $1 billion  even though inherited nearly half a billion from his father and earned another $427 million from his reality-TV star turn on "The Apprentice." All available evidence suggests Trump blew through that money and kept digging, creating a money pit so enormous that banks likely had given up hope of seeing any of it repaid. Yet Trump has kept up the illusion of immense wealth with his private jets and entourages, all paid for through dozens of opaque shell companies  and, as James' evidence suggests, through massive fraud.

He might have gotten away with it, too, if not for that nosy congresswoman from the outer boroughs. I'm a little surprised that almost no one seems to remember the crucial role Ocasio-Cortez played in this. At the time of the hearing, after all, she got an avalanche of good coverage for her showing, especially from journalists who were sick of listening to politicians bloviate rather than perform their constitutional duties of legislative oversight. Her willingness to do her actual job, however, didn't just make her look good by comparison. It got a very big ball rolling that could eventually demollish Trump's "business" in New York.

One reason AOC's role has been forgotten, I suspect, is that the Beltway press tends to think of "progressives" as entirely distinct from the people who really want to see Trump go to jail. Turn on MSNBC or CNN, after all, and the people talking on the Trump crime-and-punishment beat are often centrist Democrats and never-Trump Republicans, your Claire McCaskills and George Conways and the like. Progressive Democrats are usually called upon to talk about policy issues: health care, climate change, jobs programs and so on. So there's this unspoken assumption that progressives don't much care about corruption and accountability.

In fact, there's substantial evidence that progressives may put an even higher value on opposing corruption than their more moderate colleagues. For instance, progressives like Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania were among the first to call for the resignation of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., after his recent indictment on bribery and corruption charges. This isn't just about political progressives also being people of conscience. I think they understand how intertwined corruption and authoritarian politics are, and understand you can't fight one without fighting the other.

Authoritarians like Trump gain power by exploiting public cynicism. The more that voters believe that all politicians cheat the system, the more decent citizens will give up engaging meaningfully in politics at all. Eventually, the only people left in politics are the ones with no vision of a better world beyond a bitter desire to stick it to racial minorities, LGBTQ people and women. Getting people to believe in equal justice and functional government is a necessary prerequisite if folks like Fetterman and Ocasio-Cortez are to make any progress on the social and economic issues that matter most to them. It makes sense that AOC opened the door for the massive lawsuit that may bring Donald Trump's business empire crashing down. Maybe the main reason she's not taking more credit for that is that in the here and now she's busy trying to expose the corruption of House Republicans.
The rapid emergence of the Socialist Movement (MS) in various parts of the Spanish state (Basque Country, Catalonia, Valencia, Aragon, Castile and Madrid) is a fact to be celebrated by other communists in Spain and internationally. In underlining this important fact, the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) wishes to establish a dialogue and a fraternal exchange of views with the comrades of the MS, in order to clarify the tasks and tactics that lie ahead for the communist movement.

[Originally published in Spanish at luchadeclases.org]

The Socialist Movement is the name in common under which various communist organisations have grouped. All of these groups are fundamentally of a youthful character and have emerged relatively recently, and include: the Mugimendu Sozialista in the Basque Country, Horitzo Socialista in Catalonia, Purna in Aragon and Espacio por el Proceso Socialista in areas of Castile and Madrid.

It is a breath of fresh air and hope in the stale and stagnant atmosphere of the alternative left across the Spanish state, which has ended up accepting the status quo, and integrating into the system, which it proposes to merely patch up  if the system kindly allows them to do so.

The Socialist Movement is also a categorical answer to the impasse into which the pro-independence Left in the Basque Country and Catalonia has led the movement for national emancipation in these territories. Through it, thousands of young people had sought a militant space where they might attempt to combine national liberation with social liberation. But unable to consistently confront the Spanish capitalist state, the leaders of the pro-independence Left also ended up accepting the status quo in practice. They have been content to pursue a strategy of propping up the progressive PSOE-Unidas Podemos government at any price.

And last but not least, this new communist movement emerges as an alternative to the myriad of Stalinist groups and sects that swarm all over Spain, with their Spanish nationalist narrowness and national road to socialism. In general, they defend the crudest workerism, which scorns the democratic demands of other oppressed groups within the working class (by sex, gender, ethnicity, nationality, etc.). They thus find themselve participating in an undeclared united front with the postmodernist left in fomenting division within our class.

The Socialist Movement declares unequivocally that its goal is international communism and calls for the unification and organisation of a global communist movement. And it places the working class as the motor and axis of the struggle for this goal. The comrades also insist, correctly, on the need for the political independence of the proletariat. This objective and the central role of the working class in the struggle for communism fully coincide with our perspectives and strategy in the International Marxist Tendency (IMT). This has been the fundamental tenet of modern communism since its foundation more than 150 years ago.

The comrades of the Mugimendu Sozialista in the Basque Country have particularly demonstrated an impressive capacity for organisation and mobilisation / Image: GKS

The comrades of the Mugimendu Sozialista in the Basque Country have particularly demonstrated an impressive capacity for organisation and mobilisation, hosting events of all kinds (demonstrations, schools, activities and militant actions) with the active participation of thousands of young communists. The comrades of Horitzo Socialista have also emerged as a force to be reckoned with, having won over to an internationalist communist position a significant part of the rank and file of the pro-independence youth organisation Arran, in Catalonia and Valencia.

More modestly, the comrades of Purna and the Encuentro por el Proceso Socialista (EPS) are also beginning to appear as points of reference, proof of which was EPS excellent public meeting on 8 October 2022 in Madrid, attended by 250 participants.

The Socialist Movement has embarked on a courageous campaign of opposition to the social-democratic policies of Unidas Podemos and the pro-independence Left. The latter base their political activity on trying to achieve partial reforms through bourgeois institutions (parliaments, town councils, etc.) as an end in itself. They do this without questioning the class domination of the capitalist class, Spanish or nationalist, and when they fail to achieve such reforms, they shrug their shoulders and accept the cuts in social spending and the attacks on democratic rights imposed by the system.

The comrades of the MS are absolutely right when they say that in the present phase of organic crisis of the capitalist system, there is no room for meaningful and lasting reforms for the working class. This negates the very raison d'etre of social democracy, turning it into a collaborator in carrying out the bourgeoisies policies against working-class families. Only through the socialist transformation of society, in which the means of production will be collectively owned and democratically controlled by the working class, can humanity solve those problems that are rendered insoluble by capitalism in its present phase of terminal decline.

The MS has also drawn a line under the so-called movementist theories and methods, of the asambleario and anarchist type, which consider the struggle to be an end in itself. They are merely kinds of reformism turned inside out. They lack any political perspective of global transformation, and limit themselves to merely local changes and activity. They dissever partial struggles from the broader struggle against the system, and they neither build a political movement nor raise the level of consciousness of their participants. The MS correctly understands the struggle for reforms as an inseparable part of a broader struggle for socialism.

The need for dialogue

The MS has published a number of texts and has carried out many public activities in which its members have defended their most relevant views on a number of important issues: theory, tactics, organisation of the movement, the phases of the struggle for communism, and the abolition of class society. All this is very important and should be of interest to every communist militant.

The IMT takes the activity and positions of the MS very seriously, and we wish to engage in a dialogue with your movement. We wish to highlight those questions on which we fundamentally agree, and bring attention to those positions where we have different views in order to establish a healthy debate and exchange of ideas in order to clarify them.

That is why we are initiating a series of articles in which we would like to address very important issues where we see certain differences between our two organisations in relation to theory, strategy and tactics. Among others, these include: our balance sheet of the USSR and the reasons for its collapse, our strategies for the seizure of power by the working class and the achievement of socialism, the communist approach to the struggle for reforms, and what ought to be the character of a mass communist party. We will devote an article to each of these aspects over the coming period, beginning with the first of these points.

We would like to make it clear that in drawing up our critique of certain positions of the Socialist Movement we have mainly taken as our basis texts from Horitzo Socialista (HS) and Espacio por un Proceso Socialista (EPS), because they seemed to us to express the general positions of the Socialist Movement most clearly. However, we understand that both are very new organisations, and it is wholly possible that their positions are still in the process of development. Furthermore, it is not necessarily the case that all the organisations that make up the Socialist Movement in the Spanish state defend exactly the same positions in every regard.

The fall of the USSR and the state of global defeat

The following is the first of a series of articles devoted to analysing certain theoretical and strategic positions of the Socialist Movement. In our opinion, a clear and scientific understanding of the significance of the USSR and the reasons for its demise and fall are key for communists to correctly orient ourselves given the tasks before us.

The state of global defeat and the seizure of the state

The comrades of Espacio por el Proceso Socialista (EPS), who form a constituent part of the Socialist Movement (MS) at the level of the Spanish state, recently wrote an article summarising the fundamentals of their positions in terms of strategy and the theoretical basis of their activities  positions which are held in common by MS across the Spanish state. We refer to: Sobre medios y fines. Reflexiones para el momento politico.

To begin with, the article by the comrades of EPS states:

For the construction of such a [socialist] alternative, it is necessary to carry out a theoretical and practical recomposition of socialism. This recomposition, which starts from the definitive closure of the past revolutionary cycle and the failure of the various socialist expressions and proposals that emerged within it, has as its first objective to emerge from a state of global defeat in which we have been plunged for several decades, which has led to socialism being completely alien and little desired by the vast majority of the working class. [Emphasis in original.]

We do not share the somewhat gloomy tone of the comrades regarding the general situation  in reality, we are entering a stormy period of class struggle, which will open up innumerable revolutionary opportunities, and in which communist ideas are beginning to have an appeal among growing layers of the youth in many countries. However, we wish to focus on the conclusions that seem to derive from what they call a state of global defeat.

It is significant that the comrades of the MS do not begin with an analysis or historical balance sheet of what happened in the USSR / Image: public domain

With this term, the comrades seem to refer, on the one hand, to the demise of the USSR and other deformed workers states of the former Eastern bloc established after the Second World War; and, on the other hand, to the incontrovertible fact that the ideas of revolutionary Marxism and communism still represent a small minority on the Left globally. From this point of departure, the comrades seem to deduce that a revision or updating of revolutionary theory and of the means of fighting for communism are necessary (a theoretical and practical recomposition of socialism). This suggests that this defeat is explicable by a flaw in the theory itself, or a misapplication of the theory.

It is significant that, in drawing this conclusion in their various writings, the comrades of the MS do not begin with an analysis or historical balance sheet of what happened in the USSR, nor of the Russian Revolution itself, nor of the evolution of the Communist International. In fact, we cannot find  or have not been able to find  any such analysis in the writings published on their websites.

The correctness of an idea or theory, its correspondence with reality, can only be verified in practice. And, given this fact, it is not enough to deal only with the superficially given facts (the fact that the USSR no longer exists, for instance). Rather, it is necessary to conscientiously study the motor forces leading to the given outcome.

The only remote reference to be found in the material of the MS relating to the possible causes of the USSRs collapse, is the formers rejection of what they refer to as the assault or insurrectionary seizure of the state  a point which we will deal with later. From this, one could draw the conclusion that the evils that ruined the development of the USSR and communism flowed from the insurrectionary seizure of power by the Russian working class under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, which the MS understands as the seizure of the state.

It is thus supposed that, the state being an instrument of domination over the oppressed classes, that it absorbed the leading nucleus of the Bolshevik Party following the Russian Revolution of 1917, turning the latter against the oppressed classes, reproducing a dynamic of oppression and establishing a failed regime that ultimately collapsed.

The problem with this analysis is that, on the one hand, it leaves aside the Marxist theory of the proletarian revolution and of the state as formulated by Marx, Engels and Lenin. On the other hand, and more importantly, it overlooks the concrete historical events that took place.

An attentive study of the character of the Russian Revolution and of the history of the USSR has an important place in our debate with the comrades of the MS. This is because it is from the conclusions that they draw from these experiences, which we consider to be incorrect, that they have erected the precepts of their socialist strategy. Hence the relevance we attach to this question in this contribution, and to which we devote this first part of our debate with the comrades.

How did the Russian Revolution of 1917 triumph?

In the first instance, we must point out that the Bolshevik Party never seized control of the Russian state. In the same way, capitalist propaganda is also false when it states that the October Revolution of 1917 consisted of a coup d'etat or a putsch carried out by the Bolshevik leaders.

The Russian Revolution was the most democratic revolution in history. It lasted 9 months, from February to October 1917, in which period there existed a situation of dual power. On one side you had the official power of the bourgeoisie in alliance with the landed aristocracy, represented by the provisional government, which was established at the start of March 1917. At its disposal it had an arsenal of judges, state administrators, police and army officers. On the other side, you had the workers power, represented by the soviets: councils of workers delegates that emerged in the course of the revolution, which were elected directly in the factories, the workers quarters, and even in the villages and soldiers barracks.

The mass of workers and peasants followed and supported the power represented by the soviets. The Bolsheviks managed to achieve a crushing majority in the soviets across Russia by October 1917, through democratic votes in every factory, neighbourhood, village and soldiers committee. The seizure of power itself on 25 October (or 7 November, in the modern Gregorian calendar) was voted on and approved overwhelmingly at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets by hundreds of delegates representing millions of workers and peasants.

Had they not acted in such a way and seized power, the revolution would have been defeated, and what would have been established in Russia would not have been some idyllic bourgeois democracy, but a bloody military-police dictatorship.

And as we explained previously, far from taking control of the old Tsarist state, the old state was uprooted by the working class who set about building a new one based on the organs of workers and peasants power, soviets, that had emerged in the revolution, just as the Paris Commune had done 46 years earlier. The old army with its officer corps was dissolved, as was the hated police force, the old bourgeois institutions, the judiciary and the ministries.

Having clarified the real dynamics of the Russian Revolution and the way in which the working class seized power, we must go on to the most important question: if the Russian Revolution developed correctly, what are the essential reasons for the failure of the USSR? Why did it first degenerate and subsequently fall?

The degeneration of the USSR

The Stalinist bureaucracy had to launch a one-sided civil war against Lenins party / Image: public domain

To answer these questions, we must return to the facts. The most general cause of the bureaucratic degeneration of the USSR was isolation of the revolution over years in an economically and culturally impoverished and backward nation, under siege by imperialism, which carried out direct military interventions for three years after 1917. This isolation was confirmed by the failure of the revolutionary wave that shook the whole of Europe in the years immediately following: in Germany, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Bavaria, Spain, etc.

The main causes of these defeats were the treachery of the social democracy, which remained a mass force after turning leftward in words, and the youthful inexperience of the new communist parties that were being hurriedly formed but which failed to take advantage of the situation. This isolation lay at the root of the internal regression in the USSR, alongside the weariness and hardship of the working masses. As the latter gradually withdrew from political activity, their place was progressively filled by the apparatuses of the party and soviet state.

Far from the social contradictions in the USSR attenuating therefore, all of the above greatly exacerbated these contradictions. Far from relaxing, the power of the workers state was strengthened to extreme levels in order to prevent the disintegration of Soviet society. The dominant faction in the state apparatus and the Russian Communist Party had lost faith in the world revolution, and in the ability of the European working class to make revolution. As they established an increasingly bureaucratic control over the Soviet state and economy, they adopted a nationalist and conservative point of view. This was the faction headed by Stalin.

While the fundamental features of a socialist economy were maintained  i.e. collective ownership and planning  the workers democracy of the early years of the USSR that existed, during Lenin's lifetime, was crushed. The Soviet leaders adopted the standpoint of maintaining the status quo with the world bourgeoisie. The USSR became an end in itself, rather than a lever to advance international socialist revolution.

However, the process of bureaucratisation in the USSR was neither automatic nor inevitable. The ruling faction purged the left wing of the Communist Party led by Leon Trotsky, which demanded a return to revolutionary internationalism. The Stalinist bureaucracy had to launch a one-sided civil war against Lenins party, and in the course of the great purges, it eliminated the entire leading cadre of the Bolshevik party that had led the revolution in 1917.

The degeneration of the Communist International

The bureaucratic methods of leadership and mediocrity of the new ruling caste were expressed on the political plane in terms of analysis, orientation and actions both within the USSR and across the Communist International. Foresight, and a consistent socialist and internationalist policy were replaced by impressionism, opportunism and the defence of the narrow nationalist interests of the Russian bureaucracy. The result was a continuous political zig-zagging between left and right.

Using the authority that the Soviet regime enjoyed among communists in all countries, the Russian bureaucracy manoeuvred to prevent any democratic debate within the International on the factional struggle that arose inside the USSR after Lenins death and on all the momentous political developments that took place over the following decade.

The false policy established by the Communist International in each country led inexorably to bitter defeats from 1923 onwards: in Germany, China, Britain, Bulgaria, etc. In order to preserve their prestige and authority, the Moscow leaders blamed these defeats on national leaders, who they accused of misapplying the political line. Thus began the policy, first introduced by Zinoviev when he was in alliance with Stalin, of bureaucratically deposing and appointing national leaderships from Moscow without any democratic debate in the communist parties of each country. This neutered the development of political cadres trained through struggle, political debate and honest assessment of the parties policies. This bureaucratic mentoring of national communist parties continued with the beheading of parties under leaderships that escaped the control of the Moscow bureaucracy or that dared to question its policies.

As regards political and theoretical questions, as early as 1924 the leadership of the CPSU under Stalin promulgated the anti-Marxist theory of socialism in one country. According to this theory, it would be possible for the isolated Soviet Union to reach socialism through its efforts alone  an impossibility, as developments showed.

Socialism presupposes a level of productive and technological development, and social welfare superior to that of the most developed capitalist nation. This is precisely the historical justification for socialism. Furthermore, connected to this, socialism implies the gradual withering away of the state and of repression of all kinds, in flagrant contrast with the terrible bureaucratic and totalitarian regime imposed in the Soviet Union.

This policy would have far-reaching consequences for the national communist parties. If the USSR could build socialism without the need to extend the socialist revolution internationally, the primary task of the communist parties in each country would no longer be to advance their own socialist revolution, but to manoeuvre with their national bourgeoisie in order to prevent the economic and diplomatic suffocation of the USSR, which as the first and only workers state had to be preserved at all costs.

More than this, each communist party could lay down its own national road to socialism without the need for solidarity and international class struggle. Leon Trotsky brilliantly predicted that this would lead to the national-reformist, social-democratic degeneration of the communist parties in all countries. And this is what eventually happened. This became fully evident by 1933-34 with the policy of Popular Fronts. This policy promoted collaboration with a non-existent democratic bourgeoisie, and restored the two-stage theory that the Mensheviks had advocated during the Russian Revolution. According to the latter theory, the first stage of the revolution would involve collaboration with the democratic bourgeoisie against the remnants of feudalism in order to establish an advanced capitalist republic. Only after that, at an unspecified later date, would the struggle for socialism be posed.

Impressionism, the status quo, and the liquidation of the Communist International

The impressionist method of analysis led, as already mentioned, to continuous zig-zags to the left and right. These served to miseducate and disorient all the young communist parties internationally. The first shift  to the right  took place after Lenins death. In this period, the Soviet bureaucracy favoured capitalist accumulation in the Soviet camp, and they scorned the industrialising programme of the Left Opposition. Internationally, it was a period of appeasing the trade union bureaucracy in the West, and of the bourgeois Kuomintang in China. The result was terrible defeats for the workers.

The policy of the United Front, approved at the Third Congress of the Communist International, was thrown into the dustbin / Image: public domain

In the late 1920s, terror-stricken by how powerful the rich peasants (kulaks) had become, the Moscow bureaucracy took a sharp turn towards wild ultra-leftism. You saw the forced collectivisation of the Soviet countryside, which had catastrophic effects on agriculture, leading to famines; and the so-called Third Period policy, which was supposed to be the final phase of the struggle against capitalism, in which all other tendencies in the workers movement (Trotskyists, anarchists, social democrats, syndicalists) were denounced as enemies and counter-revolutionaries.

The policy of the United Front with other mass organisations of the labour movement, approved at the Third Congress of the Communist International, was thrown into the dustbin. This crazy ultra-left policy ended in the disaster of Hitlers seizure of power in Germany in 1933, as the refusal of the leaders of the German Communist Party to propose a united front of struggle against the Nazis to the Social Democrats allowed Hitler to come to power without serious opposition from the German working class, which was paralysed by its parties.

Finally, once Stalin had burnt his fingers with these policies, and fearing a war with Nazi Germany, he gave way to a new turn to the right. He declared a new epoch of Popular Fronts  i.e. alliances between the workers parties and democratic sectors of the bourgeoisie against fascism, at the price of paralysing all revolutionary action by the proletariat in those countries where it was applied.

The Popular Front, despite its appearance, has nothing to do with the Leninist policy of the proletarian United Front. Quite the contrary. The Leninist policy of world socialist revolution was supplanted by a policy of maintaining the status quo with the democratic powers of European capitalism, a policy that remained in place until the USSRs demise decades later. Crowning this policy was Stalins decision to dissolve the Communist International in 1943 as a gesture of goodwill towards his allies in the democratic capitalist countries in the midst of the Second World War.

Why did the USSR fall?

Despite the totalitarian character of Stalins regime, the collective ownership of the means of production and the planning of the economy enabled the USSR to develop the productive forces and make colossal progress over the following decades. By the early 1970s, the USSR had developed a sophisticated modern economy. The effects of extreme bureaucracy and the absence of democracy and workers' control, however, had begun to become clear. Economic growth had lost steam and was plagued by inefficiency, waste and corruption. By the early 1980s, a state of economic collapse loomed.

This provoked a struggle within the apparatus and the emergence of a pro-capitalist wing (represented by Yeltsin) that set out to end economic planning and reconvert the ruling bureaucracy into a new capitalist class, which would appropriate the wealth of the people, as indeed occurred in the early 1990s. A similar process was reproduced in Eastern Europe. Such was the ignominious end of the USSR and the historic defeat suffered by the world proletariat with the fall of the first (albeit degenerated) workers state in history.

The communist parties in the West formally broke with the USSR and Stalinism in the 1960s, but instead of adopting a revolutionary policy, they simply adopted a totally reformist policy, as we saw for example during the French general strike of 1968 and the revolutionary movement of the ill-named Transition in Spain. In reality, they are no different, in terms of tactics and programme, from any social-democratic party.

Theoretical generalisations, and their conclusions, must come from an attentive and exhaustive study of reality, and not be imposed on it. It was not a misapplication of Marxist theory, a misreading of Marxs Capital, the mistaken seizure of power or the evil genius of Stalin that caused the degeneration and fall of the USSR. Rather, it was concrete material factors, both objective (the isolation of a socialist revolution in a backward country) and subjective (the betrayal of social democracy and the absence or weakness of mass communist parties in the midst of the European revolution).

[We shall continue to publish further parts of this debate in the coming days and weeks.]
Sometimes even the U.S. military has to cut out the middleman. Sometimes theres no bomber available. And sometimes, death from above just absolutely, positively has to get there overnight (or as fast as possible). Thats what the USAFs Rapid Dragon system is for. Its a disposable weapons module that is palletized for cargo aircraft and allows even a C-17 Globemaster III to become an agent of change for the enemy.

Its sometimes said that if the Air Force suddenly becomes the only line of defense for American forces, then the American forces are in deep trouble. But with weapons like the Rapid Dragon, it might be the enemy whos in too deep.

The concept is simple its so simple, in fact, it was derived from an ancient Chinese siege weapon. The Air Force even stole its name. The Ji Long Che (or rapid dragon cart) was an ox-drawn cart that could fire 10-foot arrows in rapid succession from 500 yards away. It kept the weapon at a safe distance while providing any attackers with a lot to consider before they decided whether or not an attack was worth the effort.

Though the U.S. Air Force has a lot more advanced technology and the oxcart is now flying at thousands of feet above the earth, the concept is the same. A rapid deployment of projectiles, coming from a safe distance, in numbers that would make anyone think twice about pressing an attack. Also, the arrows are cruise missiles filled with high explosives.

Cruise missiles are usually fired by large bomber aircraft, but Rapid Dragons palletized cruise missile system allows C-130 or C-17 cargo planes to load and fire multiple short- or long-range missiles in just one pallet. With multiple pallets, the number of missiles increases. With a range of up to 1,900 kilometers, the system also keeps the vulnerable cargo plane at a safe distance while unloading a barrage at multiple targets. The Rapid Dragon now makes any fleet of Air Force cargo planes taking off or loitering a disturbing sight.

A U.S. Air Force combat systems officer with the 137th Special Operations Wing, Oklahoma Air National Guard, conducts a manned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission on an MC-12W during ATREUS 22-4 at Andya Space Defense Range, Norway, Nov. 6, 2022. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Brigette Waltermire)

Some might wonder why we need to turn airlift planes into bombers when we already have a sizable bomber fleet. There are a few reasons why giving cargo aircraft a bombers capability is a great idea. The C-130 is one of the greatest machines ever developed for military service. It can take off from a runway less than a third as long as a B-52 Stratofortress requires, and it doesnt even need that runway to be paved.

Since the system uses the planes existing cargo capabilities, airmen require little training to use it, and the plane needs no modifications. As it stands today, every American cargo aircraft now has the capability to fire a volley of cruise missiles at an enemy.

Also, a lot of American allies dont have strategic bomber fleets, but many of them have cargo aircraft that can use the palletized Rapid Dragon. This would give those allies a new, unique capability to defend themselves. Russia wouldnt have batted an eye if the U.S. had provided C-130s to Ukraine. As Russias long convoy of an invasion force ground to a halt for nearly a week, a fleet of C-130s firing Rapid Dragon cruise missiles could have decimated the 64-kilometer long convoy.

In July 2023, the United States successfully tested the Rapid Dragon at the Mobility Guardian Exercise in the Pacific region, which means theres very little chance the test went unnoticed by Chinas Peoples Liberation Army.
By Sriparna Roy and Michael Erman

(Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it authorized an updated version of Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in individuals aged 12 years and older, and the company's shares closed 8% higher.

The Maryland-based company, whose COVID vaccine is its lone marketed product, has adopted cost-cutting measures and is counting on commercial sales of its updated shot to help it stay afloat. The company has said it may not be able to remain solvent otherwise.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director last month signed off on broad use of rival updated COVID vaccines from Pfizer Inc with German partner BioNTech, and from Moderna. Those mRNA-based shots are recommended for use in people ages six months and up during the country's autumn vaccination campaign.

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will not meet again to discuss the Novavax shot, a spokesperson said.

"ACIP's recommendation last month, which was then approved by the CDC director, was inclusive of all FDA-licensed or authorized updated COVID-19 vaccines including those expected to be licensed or authorized in the coming months," the spokesperson added.

Novavax, whose protein-based shot uses a technology employed for decades to combat diseases, missed out on the pandemic vaccine windfall enjoyed by mRNA rivals due to manufacturing issues that delayed filing for approval when COVID was raging.

Novavax's original COVID shot received U.S. authorization in July 2022, long after Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were in use.

Fewer than 90,000 Novavax shots had been administered as of early May, according to government data.

Novavax CEO John Jacobs said the company is waiting for the FDA to allow release of the first batch of the updated vaccine, which it expects to happen in the coming days.

"Potentially as early as this week, certainly we would expect by next week, shots in arms," Jacobs said in an interview.

He said the vaccine should be available in the "vast majority of retail establishments across the U.S." as well as healthcare providers and through government programs.

The U.S. government ended the COVID public health emergency declaration in May, handing over responsibility for vaccinations to the private sector.

With the government no longer footing the bill for millions of Americans, insurance coverage stumbles that have slowed uptake of rivals' new vaccines may allow Novavax to catch up, Jacobs said.

"There's a strong demand signal. This is just the very beginning of the season."

All three of the updated shots target the XBB.1.5 variant of the coronavirus. XBB.1.5. is an Omicron subvariant that was dominant in the U.S. for much of this year but has since been overtaken by other variants as the virus continues to mutate.

Novavax has set the list price of its shot at $130 per dose, about in line with the $120 list for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and $129 for Moderna's.

Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with our newsletter Reuters Health Rounds. Sign up here.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
The US government has issued its first ever fine to a company for leaving space junk orbiting the Earth.

The Federal Communications Commission fined Dish Network $150,000 (125,000) for failing to move an old satellite far enough away from others in use.

The company admitted liability over its EchoStar-7 satellite and agreed to a "compliance plan" with the FCC.

Space junk is made up bits of tech that are in orbit around the Earth but are no longer in use, and risk collisions.

Officially called space debris, it includes things like old satellites and parts of spacecraft.

The FCC said that Dish's satellite posed a potential risk to other satellites orbiting the Earth at its current altitude.

Dish's EchoStar-7 - which was first launched in 2002 - was in geostationary orbit, which starts at 22,000 miles (36,000km) above the Earth's surface.

Dish was meant to move the satellite 186 miles further from Earth, but at the end of its life in 2022 had moved it only 76 miles after it lost fuel.

"As satellite operations become more prevalent and the space economy accelerates, we must be certain that operators comply with their commitments," said FCC enforcement bureau chief Loyaan Egal.

"This is a breakthrough settlement, making very clear the FCC has strong enforcement authority and capability to enforce its vitally important space debris rules."

The $150,000 fine represents a tiny proportion of Dish's overall revenue, which was $16.7bn in 2022.

However, the fine may still have an impact on other satellite operators, according to Dr Megan Argo, senior lecturer in astrophysics at the University of Central Lancashire.

"The fact that they've actually used their regulatory powers for the first time is certainly likely to at least make the rest of the industry sit up and pay attention," said Dr Argo.

"The fact that they have used it once means that they are likely to use it again.

"The more things we have in orbit, the more risk there is of collisions, causing high-speed debris. [This could] go on and potentially hit other satellites, causing yet more debris and potentially cause a cascade reaction," she added.

It is estimated that more than 10,000 satellites have been launched into space since the first one in 1957, with over half of them now out of use.

According to Nasa, there are more than 25,000 pieces of space debris measuring over 10cm long.

Nasa boss Bill Nelson told the BBC in July that space junk was a "major problem", which has meant that the International Space Station has had to be moved out of the way of debris flying past.

"Even a paint chip coming in the wrong direction at orbital speed, which is 17,500 miles an hour [could] hit an astronaut doing a spacewalk. That can be fatal," he said.

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The United States military kicked off two weeks of multilateral exercises with its Philippine allies and multiple international partners on Monday amid rising tensions between Manila and Beijing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Maritime Training Activity Sama Sama 2023 is the seventh and largest iteration of the drills as participants from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and Malaysia join the US and the Philippines, according to a US Navy press release.

The exercises off the Philippine coast will include drills on anti-submarine, surface and air warfare as well as land phases, the release said.

In Tagalog Sama Sama is a phrase that means together and there could not be a better phrase to capture the spirit of this exercise, said Capt. Sean Lewis, commodore of the US Navys Destroyer Squadron 7, in the release.

Together we can address a spectrum of security threats and enhance interoperability and with more nations participating than ever before, we can increase innovation and build a ready, united force that ensures stability in the region, he said.

Stability in the region is seen as being increasingly threatened by confrontations between Chinese coast guard and maritime militia units and Philippine vessels around disputed features in the South China Sea.

From territorial defense to countering transnational crimes, Samasama [helps] us to face an array of threats together, the chief of the Philippine Navy, Vice Adm. Toribio Adaci Jr, said at opening ceremonies in Manila on Monday, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency (PNA).

The US Navy, US Marine Corps, and Armed Forces of the Philippines joined partners to commence the seventh iteration of exercise Sama Sama in Manila on October 2. - USINDOPACOM

In an exclusive interview with CNN last week, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. equated Chinese behavior in the region to that of a schoolyard bully.

Recent incidents that have the region on edge include Chinese water cannons blocking the resupply of a shipwrecked Philippine military outpost, and a lone Filipino diver cutting through a floating Chinese barrier. Earlier this year, the Philippine coast guard accused a Chinese coast guard ship of pointing a military grade laser at some of its crew, temporarily blinding them.

I cannot think of any clearer case of bullying than this, Teodoro said. Its not the question of stealing your lunch money, but its really a question of stealing your lunch bag, your chair and even enrollment in school.

Beijing says it is Manila thats stoking tensions.

The current maritime conflicts between China and the Philippines are mainly caused by the Philippine side constantly stirring up troubles and spreading false information, Chinas Foreign Ministry told CNN.

China says Philippine vessels are intruding on its territory in the Spratly Island chain, despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling rejecting Beijings claim.

China claims indisputable sovereignty over almost all 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea, and most of the islands and sandbars within it, including many features that are hundreds of miles from mainland China. Along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan also hold competing claims.

Sama Sama features more than 1,800 personnel from the participating countries, many aboard warships from the Philippines, the US, the UK, Japan and Canada. The exercises will take place in the Philippine Naval Forces Southern Luzon area, with headquarters on the countrys Pacific coast, almost 300 miles (480 kilometers) southeast of Manila and about 560 miles (900 kilometers) from the Spratly Islands, according to the PNA.

Sama Sama will run through October 13.

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The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) unveiled a stamp Monday honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg , and former colleagues, family and friends gathered to celebrate the justices legacy both on and off the bench.

Now a new stamp will honor this outstanding American eminent jurist who gave so much to our country as a scholar, teacher, lawyer, judge and justice, Supreme Court Justice John Roberts said in opening remarks at the National Portrait Gallery.

The stamp features an oil painting of Ginsburg wearing her black judicial robe and white collar. Postal Service art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp with art by Michael J. Deas, which was based on a photograph by Philip Bermingham.

Ginsburg passed away at 87 in 2020 due to complications from pancreatic cancer. She served on the Supreme Court for 27 years.

Ginsburgs granddaughter, Clara Spera, called the stamp particularly special, among the tributes to her grandmother.

Of the many honors my grandmother has received, this stamp is especially fitting and not only because the Supreme Court has had occasion to interpret the postal clause found in Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution, Spera said.

Indeed, stamps played a large role in my grandmothers life from long before she ever sat on a federal bench, she continued, telling stories of Ginsburg as a mother and grandmother.

Roman Martinez IV, the chairman of the USPS Board of Governors, said the stamp honors not only Ginsburg, but in effect, the Supreme Court as well.

The one particular thing that I admire was her ability to persevere, her ability to fight for what she believed in, but to do it so in a civil way, Martinez said, who added the country needs more of Ginsburgs spirits amid sharpening divisions.

And as we Americans use her forever stamp, let us hope forever remember what binds us together as a nation, he continued.

Pointing out that the USPS receives thousands of suggestions each year for new subjects, Martinez said the postal service is proud to be issuing a stamp in Ginsburgs honor. Out of the 103 Supreme Court justices who have died, only 14, now including Ginsburg, have been on a stamp.

Nina Totenberg, an American legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio, said she interviewed Ginsburg dozens of times throughout the years. She remembered Ginsburg for changing the way the world is for American women and shared stories of their exchanges.

The first-class Forever stamp will be sold in panes of 20, according to the service. Each stamp costs 66 cents.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The Biden Administration is planning to deliver a new defense aid package "soon," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated at a press conference on Oct. 2.

"There is a very strong international coalition behind Ukraine," Secretary Jarine-Pierre said. "If Putin thinks he can outlast us, hes wrong. Hes wrong. And so, we will have another package of aid for Ukraine soon to signal our continued support for the brave people of Ukraine."

Within the last two days, Congress passed a controversial last-minute government funding bill to avoid a government shutdown that did not include additional aid for Ukraine. The bill represents an important loss for the Administration as support for Ukraine has remained a priority of President Biden since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a press conference earlier today that US lawmakers' failure to pass a resolution that includes funds for Ukraine is a disappointment.

"It is imperative that Congress take action," Miller said.

Further details on the suggested aid package have not yet been revealed.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Oct. 1 strikes on Russian plant disrupted missile manufacturing, military intelligence says

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The US Army is ready to send Ukraine long-range ATACMS missiles equipped with cluster munitions as soon as President Joe Biden approves the transfer.

Source: Bloomberg

Details: This was stated in an interview by Douglas Bush, the US Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition.

He said that the Army "has been postured for this eventuality for a while".

He stressed that the US is ready to "go fast".

There are several versions of the missiles, including those with cluster warheads or conventional warheads. The cluster MANPADS has a range of 25 to 300 kilometres. According to the official service manual, they carry 300 to 950 cluster munitions.

Bush said that the missiles the US will send have already been identified.

ATACMS missiles can be launched from the same launchers that Ukraine already uses to launch GPS-guided missiles in batches of six at a time.

The difference is that only one ATACMS missile is fired in a round from one launcher.

The modifications required to convert the launcher, as Bush said, are "not that much, some cables, some software  its not dramatic".

Quote: "Were ready when and if the president decides to do this."

More details: Last month, Bush told reporters that the US Army is preparing for the first deliveries of the first version of the replacement, the ATACMS, called the Precision Strike Missile. Both missiles are manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp.

US lawmakers have been urging Biden to send ATACMS to Ukraine for months, and people familiar with the matter said last month that the US president finally relented, telling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit to Washington last month that he was ready to do so.

Background:

According to NBC News, Biden told Zelenskyy at a meeting at the White House that Washington would transfer a small number of ATACMS missiles to help in the war against Russia.

Washington has previously explained its refusal to transfer long-range missiles by saying that the United States does not have sufficient stocks of these weapons. Another reason, which has been privately voiced by US officials, is the fear of escalation by Russia.

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 flags of the United States and China fly in Boston

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of U.S. senators, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, plans to visit China next week and hopes to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping , a spokesperson for Republican Senator Mike Crapo confirmed on Monday.

Schumer's office said last month he was planning a trip to China, South Korea and Japan co-led by Crapo but did not comment on Monday. The Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment.

THE TAKE

Some senators are eager to boost engagement with China and address business-related issues between China and the United States.

A growing number of U.S. businesses are expressing frustration at operating in China, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said recently. "For U.S. business in many cases patience is running thin and it's time for action," she said.

CONTEXT

* Communication between U.S. and Chinese officials has increased in recent months, bringing some improvement in ties strained for years over issues such as Taiwan, the origins of COVID-19 and accusations of Chinese spying.

* The Biden administration has placed curbs on chip exports to China, saying they aim to deny Beijing access to advanced technology that could further military advancements or rights abuses. China hit back with accusations of economic coercion.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Rosalba O'Brien)
US satellite television network Dish has been slapped with the first-ever fine by US authorities over space debris (JOE RAEDLE)

US authorities said they have issued a "breakthrough" first-ever fine over space debris, slapping a $150,000 penalty on a TV company that failed to properly dispose of a satellite.

On Monday the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) came down on Dish for "failure to properly deorbit" a satellite called EchoStar-7, in orbit since 2002.

"This marks a first in space debris enforcement by the Commission, which has stepped up its satellite policy efforts," the FCC, which authorizes space-based telecom services, said in a statement.

As the geostationary satellite came to the end of its operational life, Dish had moved it to an altitude lower than the two parties had agreed on, where it "could pose orbital debris concerns," the FCC said.

The commission said Dish, a US satellite television provider, pledged in 2012 to elevate the satellite to 300 kilometers (190 miles) above its operational arc.

But with fuel running low, it retired the satellite at an altitude just over 120 kilometers above the original arc.

"As satellite operations become more prevalent and the space economy accelerates, we must be certain that operators comply with their commitments," said FCC enforcement bureau chief Loyaan Egal.

"This is a breakthrough settlement, making very clear the FCC has strong enforcement authority and capability to enforce its vitally important space debris rules."

The FCC said the settlement "includes an admission of liability from the company and an agreement to adhere to a compliance plan and pay a penalty of $150,000."

In a statement Tuesday, Dish appeared to counter the FCC over disposal requirements, and argued that the commission's enforcement arm made "no specific findings that EchoStar-7 poses any orbital debris safety concerns."

"As the Enforcement Bureau recognizes in the settlement, the EchoStar-7 satellite was an older spacecraft that had been explicitly exempted from the FCC's rule requiring a minimum disposal orbit," a Dish spokesperson said in a statement.

"DISH has a long track record of safely flying a large satellite fleet and takes seriously its responsibilities as an FCC licensee."

- Collision risks -

The US aviation regulator, FAA, recently announced its intention to reduce space debris by requiring private companies to dispose of the upper stages of rocket launch vehicles by, for example, returning them to the Earth's atmosphere or moving them to a less congested "graveyard orbit."

The new regulation, which has yet to be definitively adopted, already exists for government space missions.

"If left unchecked, the accumulation of orbital debris will increase the risk of collisions and clutter orbits used for human spaceflight and for satellites," the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The European Space Agency estimates that around one million pieces of debris larger than a centimeter -- big enough to "disable a spacecraft" -- are in Earth's orbit.

They are already causing problems, from a near-miss in January last year involving a Chinese satellite, to a five-millimetre hole knocked into a robotic arm on the International Space Station in 2021.

With satellites now crucial for GPS, broadband and banking data, collisions pose significant risks on Earth.

bur-leg/bfm/mlm
United States lawmakers' failure to pass a resolution that includes funds for Ukraine is a disappointment, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a press briefing Oct. 2.

"It is imperative that Congress take action," Miller said.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a stopgap measure on Sept. 30 to avert a government shutdown. The bill funds the government for 45 days, but does not include provisions for further Ukraine aid.

Id like to echo the presidents disappointment that, despite longstanding and strong bipartisan support for Ukraine as it fights back against Russias invasion, that the continuing resolution that passed Congress on Saturday did not include desperately needed support, Miller said.

Miller also said that while the U.S. could continue offering security assistance to Ukraine "in the immediate term," much of that funding has already been depleted.

"Strong majorities in both houses support continued assistance to Ukraine, because this is not simply about Ukraine. This is about the world we live in," Miller said.

Miller said that allowing figures like Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to "do whatever they want to other sovereign countries" would ultimately prove "far more dangerous for the American people."

"Our allies, our adversaries, and the world will be watching," he said.

Read also: With winter approaching, is Ukraines energy system ready for renewed Russian attacks?

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The Are You a Communist? campaign is going from strength to strength in the Spanish section of the International Marxist Tendency. In just one month, thousands of posters and stickers have been put up across 12 different cities. Our posters carry the same simple yet effective message of the campaign as all our comrades in all other parts of the world: we invite all of you who identify as communists to join us in the fight against capitalism.

Posters have been put up in Basque, Castilian and Catalan, on university campuses, at high schools, in working-class neighbourhoods and in industrial districts, putting out the call to make students, workers and young people.

Seguimos llevando las ideas del marxismo a los campus y a la calle, unete a la Corriente Marxista Internacional para construir la organizacion comunista revolucionaria #SoyComunista #UneteCMI https://t.co/Y8A6cTPt1Q pic.twitter.com/kPqI198Abt  LUCHA DE CLASES (@_luchadeclases) September 29, 2023

Our campaign is eliciting a powerful response. The messages we get from write-ins are truly inspiring and push us to keep going and find more people like them. Here is a selection of a few weve received:

Our campaign is eliciting a powerful response / Image: Lucha de Clases

Throughout my whole life I have seen the lives of family and friends made miserable by following the ideal of a voracious economic system such as capitalism. I do not want to stand idly by in the face of this, I want a fairer world, one that, I believe, cannot be built on the basis of the current system.

From Logrono:

Because I consider myself left-wing and class-conscious. I have read a lot about philosophy and political science and I would like to be able to help society as much as I can. Therefore, considering that I believe that communism is the tendency that would help the workers the most, I would like to contribute in the most appropriate way I can.

From Mexico:

Because I believe in communism and socialism and I am against the capitalism and fascism disguised as democracy that we live in today and I am tired of doing nothing, I want to contribute to the Marxist cause for a political, social and cultural change that I am convinced that we young people will achieve.

Meanwhile, right-wing reactionaries have also been alarmed by our campaign, tearing down our posters and peel off stickers where they find them, while sectarians have attempted to jealously cover them up, tear them down, and have even gone as far as spray painting over our posters. But try as they might to rip down our posters, the QR code always seems to survive and fresh posters and stickers are soon up in their place.

Besides the posters, our comrades are present in dozens of campuses and public squares with our tables full of revolutionary Marxist material for sale, manned by comrades eager to spread the word of communism. With all this activity our forces are growing rapidly.

If youre a communist living in Spain, write to us and join us!
Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young (second from left), USDA undersecretary for research, education and economics and USDAs Chief Scientist, visited with Konda Mason (front right), founder and president of Jubilee Justice. Jacobs-Young was inspired to visit the non-profit farm and learn about it's farming operations after one of her staff learned about it.

Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young was energized by what she saw happening with the non-profit Jubilee Justice and their farming operation on the Old Baton Rouge Highway south of Alexandria.

Jacobs-Young, the USDA undersecretary for research, education and economics and USDAs Chief Scientist, was in Alexandria for the Louisiana Small Farmers Conference sponsored by the Southern University Agricultural Rease and Extension Center. She was inspired to visit the farm and learn more about it's operations after one of her staff researched and found out about it.

They were really thrilled to see all the work that we've done as Jubilee Justice in the last 3 1/2 years that we've been here in Louisiana, said Konda Mason, founder and president.

We've got to grow more food and being on a on a farm where they're using sustainable practices, where they're thinking constructively about climate change, about how to innovate, what type of management practices are going to lead to their resilience and diversifying their land and more importantly, feeding people. I'm just excited and I'm looking forward to partnering with this farm, said Jacobs-Young.

Mason moved to Louisiana from California in 2020 to start an experimental project growing rice using the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method. This method uses much less water and fewer seeds than the traditional method of growing rice. Its also more sustainable and environmentally friendly and much better suited for small farmers. The project turned out to be a success.

Since then, Jubilee Justice has expanded to include a solar powered rice mill and specialty store and an organic vegetable operation.

Mason and the rest of the Justice Jubilee crew started off the the undersecretarys visit by showing her and her entourage the organic vegetable operation. They also told them about the Alexandria Farmers Market where the vegetables are sold.

We showed them what we do, what we grow and the different varieties of things that we do that are different than your typical farms, said Mason.

One of those different things include hibiscus green that are the leaves of the plant that Jacobs-Young and members of her entourage were able to try.

Mason also told Jacobs-Young about the Alexandria Farmers Market accepting SNAP benefits and its $5 Kids Club token program that gives youngsters a $5 token to buy fruits or vegetables from any of the market vendors.

They were really surprised to hear that and very happy to hear that, said Mason.

Jacobs-Young was then taken to see the rice growing on an acre of land that they call Black Joy Rice, said Mason.

"That rice is about to harvest in about two weeks and so it was a perfect timing for them to come in to see this beautiful rice, said Mason.

She found that Jacobs-Young and the others who accompanied her had a wealth of knowledge about rice.

She was amazing, actually. She knew something about everything we talked about. And she's a scientist. She's the head scientist for the USDA, said Mason.

Jacobs-Young said hearing Mason talk about innovation, demonstrations and the trial and error in the experiments at the farm is good for the future, especially since it is projected that by 2050 the population will be over 9 billion people.

The last part of the tour included the rice mill. It was deeded to Jubilee Justice by Inglewood Farms. The mill opened earlier in the year and is operated by the non-profit and Black farmers and is the first of its kind in the southeast.

The undersecretary's visit made Mason feel like there was a true interest in what they were doing and in offering support to them, other Black farmers and disadvantaged farmers.

I felt like there were so many contexts. They just like kept talking and giving us so much information so we will follow through, said Mason.

Jacobs-Young also unveiled a new USDA initiative at the conference about coordinating all the information from their research on better health and translating it into digestible nuggets so that the everyday American knows what they can do to be able to improve the quality of life.

In some cases, their longevity could prevent chronic diseases and cancer through food and nutrition and healthy lifestyle changes, she said.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: USDA undersecretary inspired by Jubilee Justice farm in Alexandria
Trying to attack another drivers body with a car during a road rage episode and trying to use a chair to get into a womans apartment earned two Orlando metropolitan area lawyers suspensions from the state Supreme Court.

In alphabetical order...

READ MORE: Problems with drinking and divorce get Miami and Fort Lauderdale lawyers suspended

Christopher Dudley, Maitland

On Feb. 9, a New Smryna Beach woman told a 911 operator that a shirtless man was beating on her door, trying to get in, an arrest report said.

The arrest report said one neighbor heard what sounded like someone trying to get in a glass door and called another neighbor to check on her. Neighbor No. 2 confirmed she was OK, but looked out the window and saw, she told police, a young, thin male persistently trying to break a glass door with a chair.

Christopher Dudley

While they talked to police, when three officers and a Volusia County Sheriffs Office deputy found Christopher Dudley next to the apartment building. Dudley invoked his right to remain silent.

Dudley, 32, pleaded no contest to attempted burglary of an occupied dwelling and criminal mischief (police estimated he did about $500 of damage to the fence on his way to the house). Dudley officially got adjudication withheld and a two-year probation on Sept. 8.

Christopher Whittington Dudley, who joined the Florida Bar Oct. 5, 2021, was suspended on Sept. 18. The length is to be determined, but that might be irrelevant  Dudley told the state Supreme Court he is not (nor has been) practicing law, has no clients, cases or other legal obligations.

Mark Heimendinger, Oviedo

An investigation that started out like Rashomon revealed an incident that was more like Duel.

When Oviedo police officers answered a call in the 1000 block of Long Branch Lane on Dec. 17, they found Mark Heimendinger, a backpack and a Glock 9 mm with a full 24-shot magazine in the gun.

An arrest report said Heimendinger told police that Edgar Lutz was blocking the street with his truck while loading a trailer. The two exchanged words, Heimendinger claimed Lutz walked over to his car and threatened to kill him. Once Heimendinger told Lutz about the gun, he claimed, Lutz backed down without Heimendinger pulling out the gun.

Lutzs version were similar in that it involved he and Heimendinger, and dissimilar in every other way. He told police Heimendinger drove into the area brazenly and stopped 20 feet from him. Mark began flaying his arms around and shooting him the finger.

Lutz said Heimendinger got out of his car and chest bumped Lutz while slinging a sexist slur and threatening to kill him. Lutz said he called Heimendinger on his threat. Then, Lutz said, Heimendinger not only pulled the gun out but pointed it at Lutzs head and smacked Lutz in the head with it.

Mark then jumped into his vehicle and attempted to hit him with it, the report said. Edger jumped out of the way but was struck by the vehicle mirror.

An Oviedo police officer viewing video shot from a nearby homes surveillance camera said it was too far away to see the weapon, but does clearly show Mark attempting to strike Edgar with the vehicle.

Mark Heimendinger

On Aug. 25, Heimendinger pleaded no contest to aggravated assault, carrying a concealed firearm (Heimendingers concealed weapons license was suspended), misdemeanor improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon and misdemeanor battery. Though he received withheld adjudication on the felony charges, hes under Florida Department of Corrections supervision on a five-year probation.

Heimendingers suspension began Saturday. The length will be determined after 19th Judicial Circuit Judge Charles A. Schwab hears this discipline case as referee and makes a recommendation to the state Supreme Court.
A stamp honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was unveiled Monday. Photo courtesy of U.S. Postal Service/Facebook

Oct. 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. Postal Service has unveiled a new Forever stamp honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The stamp featuring the trailblazing justice who died Sept. 18, 2020, at the age of 87 while still on the Supreme Court bench was unveiled Monday during a first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., with friends, family and fellow justices in attendance.

"Now, a new stamp will honor this outstanding American eminent jurist who gave so much to our country as a scholar, teacher, lawyer, judge and justice," Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said during his speech at the ceremony.

With her inclusion on U.S. postage, she joins other members of the high court in being inducted into what Roberts called "the pantheon of philatelically honored justices" that includes Justices Charles Evans Hughs, John Marshall, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Thurgood Marshall and others.

"As the chief justice and on behalf of the court, I thank the Postal Service for honoring our late distinguished colleague and dear friend," he said.

The Forever stamp featuring the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an oil painting of a photograph taken of the Brooklyn native by Philip Bermingham. Image courtesy of U.S. Postal Service

Designed by USPS art director Ethel Kessler, the stamp's image is an oil painting based on a photograph of Ginsburg wearing her black judicial rube and iconic white-lace collar by Philip Bermingham.

Ginsburg joined the Supreme Court 30 years ago Aug. 10. She remained on the bench for 27 years until she died from complications of pancreatic cancer in 2020.

Clara Spera, Ginsburg's granddaughter and Harvard Law School lecturer, spoke during the ceremony, stating she was sure her "Bubbie" would be "thrilled" to join those with stamps whom inspired her, such as Susan B. Anthony.

"Her legacy, like theirs, will forever be stamped into the story of this great nation," she said.

The Forever stamp is available in panes of 20 at select post office locations, with the USPS stating it will serve as a tribute to the Brooklyn native and the impact she has left on society.
The details surrounding the death of an African doctoral student who attended school in Russia remain a mystery as the suspects family denies his alleged connection to a white supremacist group.

Francois Ndjelassili of Gabon was in the Ph.D. program and studied economics at Ural Federal University in Yekaterinburg, Russia, the Moscow Times reported. His friend, Diana Akue, told the outlet Ndjelassili died in mid-August after getting into a confrontation with several men at a Burger King. Her account comes after his friends previously told local media that he was called a negro and harassed before he was stabbed outside the restaurant by two men.

Francois Ndjelassili was reportedly killed in mid-August after a fight at a Burger King in Russia. (Telegram/Ural Federal University)

However, according to Akue, Ndjelassili was flirting with a woman before three Russian men she was with at the restaurant confronted him. The situation escalated into a physical altercation outside the fast-food establishment between Ndjelassili and only two of the men. Per the Times, the third man who was initially not a part of the brawl, later identified as Daniil Fomin, is accused of stabbing Ndjelassili in the armpit.

Trending Today:

The outlet reported that Fomin is allegedly linked to a Russian white supremacist group that was crowdfunding money for his defense team. However, his parents denied affiliation with the organization and said they cover his legal fees.

If its true the killer was really from that white supremacist group, then who knows what could happen after the court ruling? These guys could get very upset about it, Akue told the Times.

The incident put a spotlight on the violence that African students face while attending school in the country. According to Sputnik, more than 30,000 African students are getting an education in Russia, and officials predict that the number will soar as the government plans to offer more scholarships in the future. However, many of them are prone to violence due to racism, Akue said. Ndjelassilis death has raised alarms for her and the schools tight-knit African community.

We are all very scared, but we are at the same time angry, she told the Times. As were not in our country, all we can do is just to be careful. But we are very scared because of what happened.

Read the full story here.
Former White House chief of staff John Kelly has confirmed that Donald Trump called disabled veterans suckers and losers.

The Atlantic published a story in 2020 recounting Trumps visit to France two years earlier to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the end of World War I. Several senior staff members told the magazine that Trump refused to visit the graves of American soldiers buried near Paris because the cemetery is filled with losers. Trump also said that 1,800 U.S. Marines who died in the Belleau Wood were suckers for getting killed.

The White House denied the story at the time, but Kelly confirmed the details in a Monday evening interview with CNN. What can I add that has not already been said? he said, when asked if he wanted to comment on his former boss.

A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all suckers because there is nothing in it for them. A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because it doesnt look good for me. A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star familyfor all Gold Star familieson TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in Americas defense are losers and wouldnt visit their graves in France.

Kellys comments also confirm other stories that the Trump White House previously denied. One story is that during a visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day 2017, amid the graves of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, Trump asked Kelly, I dont get it. What was in it for them?

They were standing in front of Kellys sons grave at the time.

Kellys statement on CNN also confirms the story that, during a 2017 visit to France, Trump said he didnt want any wounded veterans in a military parade he was trying to have planned for himself. It doesnt look good for me, he said.

Kelly decried Trumps recent attacks on newly retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley. Kelly was furious that Trump suggested that Milley should lose his life for treasonin expectation that someone will take action.

Trump is a person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law, Kelly said. There is nothing more that can be said.

God help us.
During Paris Fashion Week, Viola Davis walked the Le Defile LOreal Walk Your Worth show at the Eiffel Tower on Sunday. Davis was photographed walking with her husband, Julius Tennon and later posed alongside their 13-year-old daughter, Genesis.

The family photo shows Tennon wearing a brown plaid blazer, tan trousers, brown dress shoes and a multi-printed button-down. Genesis wore a lime green dress with feathers accentuating the sweetheart top. Davis wore an all-black gown and gold heels.

After meeting on the set of the CBS television series City of Angels in 1999, Davis and Tennon have been dating for more than 20 years. The couple adopted their daughter in 2011 and have quickly made her the center of their world. Genesis is close to her parents, especially with Davis, who she inspires to be like  a legendary actress.

In honor of National Daughters Day, Davis shared sweet photos of moments with her daughter over the years on Instagram.

My daughter is my heart. #HappyNationalDaughterDay, Davis captioned the post.

Davis spoke to People in 2017 about her choice to adopt her daughter.

I wanted my life to mean and be something deeper. Thats when the urge came, and the urge was just very, very, very strong. So I have a kid now, and she is just the light of our lives.

Davis revealed her daughters ambitions to become a movie star in December 2020, People reported.

She does want to be an actress, she told Ellen DeGeneres. She says, Mommy, I know how to live the words. I know how to breathe the words. I know how to remember the words. And I said, Well, you gotta remember how to go to school and at 18, you need to remember how to get out of the house and pay your own bills.'

Genesis made her big screen debut in The Angry Birds Movie 2 in 2019, voicing the character Vivi. She worked with Gal Gadots daughter, Alma Versano, and Nicole Kidmans daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith, according to People.

Well, I would randomly be like, Oh, I have to go to this event with my mom, and then I would pause and be like, Hold up, wait a second, its about me!' Genesis told Variety about her first red carpet.
A rusty, multi-colored 1950s International pickup on Jan. 27, 2023, points the way toward award-winning The Butcher BBQ Stand in Wellston.

Four weeks ago, we asked you to begin voting in a Sweet 16, March Madness-style bracket on barbecue in Oklahoma.

You made your voices known, both in voting and in comments about those restaurants not included in the bracket. You hated some of the options, loved others and were very vocal about the seeding of the bracket.

This was our first large bracket and we learned a lot about what to do and what not to do, thanks largely to you, the readers, because of your engagement. Thank you for participating and being a part of this experiment.

Without further ado, the final round of voting is done and you chose The Butcher BBQ Stand, 3402 W State Highway 66 in Wellston as the winner of the Oklahoma's Best Barbecue Bracket.

A sampling of food offered Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, at The Butcher BBQ Stand in Wellston: Apple pie beans, smoked sausage jalapeno-cheese hot link, pulled pork, potato salad, ribs, chicken, burnt ends, turkey, pickles and onions, Twinkies and brisket.

Want to learn more about The Butcher BBQ Stand? Check out this story we ran earlier this year, and if you aren't headed to Texas for the Red River Rivalry game this weekend, it might be a good time to head to Wellston and try the stand's 'Cue yourself.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Who has the best barbecue in Oklahoma? See who you picked
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is trying to boot House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his leadership post over his deal with Democrats to prevent a government shutdown and claims that McCarthy cut a secret side deal with President Joe Biden on aid for Ukraine.

But at least one member of his own conference isnt having it.

Wake up, dude, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) told CNNs Jake Tapper on Monday. This is absolutely ridiculous, and its just him trying to latch on to something else to create chaos and try to use as a vehicle to remove the speaker.

Lawler insisted that Republicans under McCarthy are trying to create a bill to cut spending and advance other conservative causes but said Gaetz could put that in jeopardy.

We are doing the work, he said. This will be a major distraction from that work.

Lawler said other members of the GOP conference are growing tired of Gaetzs antics.

Matt has been a singular destructive force within the conference, and the American people should understand that what he is doing is not conservative, it is not conservative Republicanism, Lawler said. He is a charlatan.

Gaetz is under investigation by the Ethics Committee, and some members of the Republican conference are reportedly planning to try to push him out of Congress if he is found guilty.

See Lawlers full conversation with Tapper below:
Reed Wischhusen was found to have acquired police uniforms, one of which he was pictured wearing while holding a firearm - Avon and Somerset Police/ SWNS

A warehouse worker with a macabre interest in the Dunblane gunman built an armoury in his home and plotted to murder his former teacher and classmates, a court heard.

Reed Wischhusen, 32, filled his house in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, with pistols, submachine guns, bombs, grenades and poison to launch a hitman-style attack against 10 people at his old school, prosecutors have said.

Police officers shot Wischhusen three times when he pointed a handgun at them during a search of his home in November last year, jurors at Bristol Crown Court were told on Tuesday.

Five officers attended the address after receiving intelligence that Wischhusen was converting blank firearms into lethal weapons.

He survived the shooting but spent four months in hospital recovering from his injuries and was later charged with six firearms offences.

Jonathan Rees KC, opening the case for the prosecution, said the defendant had developed a macabre interest in infamous killers such as Thomas Hamilton, the Dunblane gunman, Raoul Moat and Ralph Maclean, an American who killed several US law enforcement officials.

The infamy of Hamilton, who in 1996 committed the worst mass shooting in UK history at Dunblane Primary School, and violent gunman Moat seemingly appealed to the defendant, Mr Rees said.

In a 1,700 word document, Wischhusen wrote the following: Revenge is on my mind, its a powerful motivator.

Jurors heard phase one of his alleged revenge plan was to kill 10 people using a converted pistol with a silencer, while wearing a disguise and wig.

Mr Rees told the court the defendant had listed ex-classmates, teachers and police staff who he believed had wronged him as targets.

This included a teacher Wischhusen said would spend the lesson bullying him and making fun of him, as well as a boy from school who had grabbed hold of him and pinned him against the wall for no reason.

However, he planned to spare two firearms officers who had turned down his licence application, so they would feel survivors guilt, the prosecutor said, with Wischhusen citing Hamilton as inspiration for this decision.

Firearms discovered

He intended to walk into his old school, Priory School in Worle, to shoot and kill teachers and throw pipe bombs before evading police, the court was told.

The alleged plan would culminate in an attack on Avon and Somerset Polices headquarters, where he would either plant and detonate pressure cooker bombs before opening fire on staff with sub-machine guns, or ambush officers and enter the building to let off explosives, the prosecutor claimed.

During the search of his home on November 28 2022, police found several firearms at various stages of conversion, including a submachine gun, and a large quantity of chemicals, pressure cookers and ball bearings - indicating Wischhusen had plans to build IEDs.

A vintage lathe and pillar drill were found in a concrete outhouse, which Wischhusen had used to adapt the firearms into live weapons.

He had also acquired police uniforms, including body armour, which he was pictured wearing while holding one of his adapted firearms.

Wischhusen denies having an explosive substance with intent to endanger life, having an explosive substance, possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, possessing ammunition with intent to endanger life and possessing a prohibited firearm without a certificate.

The trial continues.

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.
FILE - Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett smiles during an interview, May 7, 2018, in Omaha, Neb. Investors soon won't be able to follow Buffett's every move in HP Inc.'s stock if the billionaire's company keeps selling off shares of the printer and computer maker. That's because Berkshire Hathaway is about to drop below 10% ownership of HP after the latest sales of nearly 5 million shares that Buffett's company disclosed late Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  Investors soon won't be able to follow Warren Buffett 's every move in HP's stock if the billionaire's company keeps selling off shares of the printer and computer maker.

Berkshire Hathaways ownership of HP Inc. is about to drop below 10% after it sold nearly 5 million shares, according to a regulatory filing by Buffetts company late Monday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission requires investors who own less than 10% of a company to report their company holdings only on a quarterly basis rather than big investors who must disclose their actions closer to the time of a so-called triggering event, which can mean buying or selling shares.

Many investors do watch Buffett's moves closely because of his extremely successful track record over the years.

Not that long ago, Berkshire owned more than 12% of HP's stock before it started to trim its stake last month. Now it's down to 10.2% after several stock sales of the Palo Alto, California, company.

In the past 30 days, shares of HP Inc. have tumbled nearly 14%, but there has been a fairly broad sell-off across the tech sector. In the same span, shares of Apple Inc. have fallen 9%. But HP is still one of the biggest decliners among peers.

Buffett may be doing more than just trimming the investment, but he doesn't comment on stock sales like this any more than what he's required to disclose because he doesn't want to tip his hand while Berkshire might still be selling. He didn't immediately respond to questions Tuesday on these latest sales.

Berkshire amassed its HP stake early last year. Even after the latest sales, Buffett's Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate still held more than 100.9 million shares. Altogether, Berkshire has sold just over 20 million shares in the past month.

Throughout his investment career, Buffett has famously resisted investing in tech companies because he said he couldn't confidently pick out the long-term winners. But in recent years, Berkshire has bought a massive stake in Apple that ranks as the largest investment in its $350 billion portfolio. Buffett has said he considers Apple a consumer products company with extremely loyal customers, and he can understand that kind of business.

Besides investments, Berkshire owns an eclectic mix of companies, including Geico insurance, BNSF railroad, several major utilities and an assortment of manufacturing and retail businesses including well-known brands like Dairy Queen, See's Candy and Helzberg Diamonds.
Back in July, Chipotle revealed the  Autocado an AI-guided avocado-pitting robot prototype meant to help handle Americas insatiable guacamole habit while simultaneously reducing food waste . Today, the fast casual chain announced its next automated endeavor a prep station capable of assembling entrees on its own.

[Related: Chipotle is testing an avocado-pitting, -cutting, and -scooping robot .]

According to the companys official reveal this morning, its newest robotic prototypea collaboration with the food service automation startup, Hyphen creates virtually any combination of available base ingredients for Chipotles burrito bowls and salads underneath human employees workspace. Meanwhile, staff are reportedly allowed to focus on making other, presumably more structurally complex and involved dishes such as burritos, quesadillas, tacos, and kids meals. Watch the robot prototype plop food into little piles in the bowl under the workspace here:

https://youtu.be/VrnFqCx-nLw

As orders arrive via Chipotles website, app, or another third-party service like UberEats, burrito bowls and salads are automatically routed within the makeline, where an assembly system passes dishes beneath the various ingredient containers. Precise portions are then doled out accordingly, after which the customer's order surfaces via a small elevator system on the machines left side. Chipotle employees can then add any additional chips, salsas, and guacamole, as well as an entree lid before sending off the orders for delivery.

[Related: What robots can and cant do for a restaurant .]

Chipotle estimates around 65 percent of all its digital orders are salads and burrito bowls, so their so-called cobot (collaborative plus robot) could hypothetically handle a huge portion of existing kitchen prep. The automated process may also potentially offer more accurate orders, the company states.

Advocates frequently voice concern about automation and its effect on human jobs. And Chipotle isnt the only chain in questioncompanies like Wendys and Panera continue to experiment with their own automation plans. Curt Garner, Chipotles Chief Customer and Technology Officer described the companys long-term goal of having the automated digital makeline be the centerpiece of all our restaurants digital kitchens.

For now, however, the new burrito bowl bot can only be found at the Chipotle Cultivate Center in Irvine, Californiapresumably alongside the Autocado.
Former Vice President Mike Pence is speaking Tuesday afternoon in the first in a series of talks on international relations with GOP presidential hopefuls, hosted by Georgetown Universitys Institute of Politics and Public Service and the Associated Press.

Pence has staked out a more traditional Republican position on national security issues than some of his rivals. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has proposed a radical shift away from support for Ukraine in favor of improved relations with Moscow.

The former vice president, in contrast, visited with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in June. Pences commitment to bolstering Ukraines defense puts him in sync with many Republicans in Congress, although Ukraine skeptics have become increasingly vocal.

The talk is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. ET.

Watch the live video above.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is delivering her daily press briefing Tuesday afternoon.

Jean-Pierre is likely to be asked about the drama in the House, where Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has filed a motion to unseat Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

Democrats in the House could have a say in what happens, but Jean-Pierre noted Monday that President Biden is keeping his distance from the internal conflict.

This week the presidents focus has been on several actions highlighting health care policy.

These have included an event with actress and disability advocate Selma Blair to celebrate the anniversaries of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The briefing is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. EDT.

Watch the live video above.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
TechCrunch

SBI Holdings, a Japanese financial services conglomerate and one of the largest venture capital firms in the East Asian country, has made a $40 million multi-fund commitment to anchor pan-African VC firm Novastar Ventures future funds. Following the deal, SBI Holdings will take a minority stake in Novastar and get a non-executive seat in its board as SBIs adviser in Africa, Riki Yamauchi, joins Novastars investment team to ensure that the set partnership objectives are met.
It says something about the state of our political discourse that we were shocked  and pleasantly surprised  by the reaction of senior Kansas and Missouri Republicans when Sen. Dianne Feinstein , the California Democrat, died last week.

Please join me in keeping Senator Feinsteins family and friends in your prayers today, Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri wrote online. Although we were on the opposite sides of the aisle, Senator Feinstein was always warm and welcoming to me personally and other colleagues and she led a storied career. May she rest in peace.

His Missouri colleague, Senator Josh Hawley , offered similarly kind thoughts.

Erin and I were saddened to hear of the death of Senator Dianne Feinstein, Hawley wrote. It has been an honor to serve with her in the Senate and on the Judiciary Committee. No one was more welcoming when I came to the Senate than she, and no one was a better example. She was tough, incredibly smart, and effective. Always willing to work across the aisle to get things done, she was a person of unquestioned integrity. I admired her and will miss her in the Senate. Erin and I send our deepest condolences to her family.

Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas was less effusive, but still respectful:

Senator Dianne Feinstein proudly served our country and the U.S. Senate for over 30 years. Her legacy will always be remembered, he wrote. My prayers are with her family and loved ones. May she rest in peace.

Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas also offered kind comments, but that was no surprise  hes a conservative, but hes never been an ideological warrior.

We confess to having less lofty expectations of the regions other three U.S. senators. Their carefully cultivated political personas, particularly on social media, are built on reputations for fighting and scrapping, anger and grievance.

So the comments by Hawley and Schmitt, in particular, should function as a peel back the curtain moment for their constituents. If they are to be believed, their respective relationships with Feinstein  not just a Democrat, but a dreaded California Democrat  were kind and respectful. Missouris senators can actually be collegial with their Democratic counterparts, at least behind the scenes.

We dont often hear about that, do we?

There is always an element of performance in democratic politics. Often, though, it is difficult to tell our national debates apart from professional wrestling, where babyfaces and heels do snarling, boastful battle in the ring but can be friendly and cooperative backstage.

The difference, of course, is that senators  during TV news appearances, social media posts and formal debates  help set the tone for our larger national conversation. What they say and how they comport themselves actually matters to the rest of us.

Too often, our leaders try to rouse us to a perpetual state of rage.

So we would like to gently encourage Hawley, Marshall and Schmitt to use Feinsteins death and her funeral this Thursday as a starting point to more frequently say nice things  publicly  about their living colleagues across the aisle.

Civility is not the end-all-be-all of democratic debate. Americans have a variety of values and interests, and those differences are sometimes irreconcilable. Sometimes anger and outrage really are called for. But anger and outrage can also be the enemy of reasoned deliberation. Indeed, that often seems to be the point.

Furthermore, we dont expect Hawley, Marshall and Schmitt to become less conservative in order to make nice. Conservative doesnt mean the same thing as pugnacious.

We  Kansans, Missourians and all Americans  live in a dangerous, volatile moment. We need leaders who will pull us back from the brink.

Hawley, Marshall and Schmitt could be those leaders, if they choose. Now that we know its possible, we should expect it of them.
The four short films Wes Anderson has just released on NetflixThe Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan, The Rat Catcher, and Poisonare clearly intended as companion pieces. Adapted, like Andersons Fantastic Mr. Fox, from the stories of Roald Dahl , the shorts use a rotating repertory company of actors including Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel, Richard Ayoade, Rupert Friend, and Ralph Fiennes, the last of whom also plays Dahl, narrating the stories from a meticulous re-creation of the real Dahls writing hut. Their credits roll in the same yellow hand-scrawled typeface, and they share a flamboyant theatricality that makes them of a piece with Andersons most recent feature, Asteroid City. But Netflix has been strangely reluctant to present them as a set. Henry Sugar got a gala rollout at the Venice Film Festival last month, but critics werent even allowed to see the other three shorts in advance, and theyre not obviously linked on the streaming services website. But now that theyre all out, you can see why they were eager to keep Henry Sugar set apart. Henry Sugar, which, at 41 minutes, runs more than twice as long as all the others, is a delight, a playful and upbeat story about a wealthy man (Cumberbatch) who develops a complicated idea for making himself even wealthier, and in the process realizes hed rather give his money to charity. The subsequent shorts come to progressively darker ends, ranging from the melancholy to the macabre. Their visual presentation and rapid-fire dialogue make them instantly recognizable as Andersons, but their tone takes him into territory so unexpected it might be disorienting if his hand were not so sure.

Anderson has said it was the storys nesting-doll structure that drew him to Henry Sugar in the first placehe later used a similar series of matryoshka-like frames for The Grand Budapest Hoteland he realizes its concentric narratives with dazzling fluidity. We begin with Dahl (Fiennes) at his writing board, sharpening his pencils to commence the tale of Henry, as the camera slides sideways between sets to physically enter the story. In a notebook shelved among the books in his familys prodigious collection, Henry encounters the handwritten account of one Z.Z. Chatterjee (Patel), a doctor in a Calcutta hospital, who relates in turn the story of Imdad Khan (Kingsley), a carnival performer and mystic who has developed the ability to see without opening his eyes. There are even more layers than that: Dahl eventually reveals that Henrys story was brought to him by an intermediary, meaning that when Khan is telling his own story, about the yogi (Ayoade) who taught him the meditation techniques that allow his sightless vision, we are as much as five levels deep. (Thats as many as Inception.) Its not especially important to know whose story youre in at any given moment, since all the characters effectively speak with Dahls voice, reciting his prose right down to the I said. At one point, Chatterjee describes the look of astonishment on a colleagues face, and the colleague swivels around to make sure the camera gets a good look at it.

Barring the occasional Dahl drop-in, the other shorts dispense with the frames within frames. But they hold on to Henry Sugars ornate constructedness, as meticulous and mysterious as a Joseph Cornell box. In The Swan, the story of a young boy in the British countryside beset by sadistic bullies, Rupert Friends narrator strolls along hedgerows and wheat fields that mask hidden doors through which stagehands and supporting characters come and go. Its a brutal tale of childhood barbarism whose protagonist (Asa Jennings) is, among other things, tied to a set of active train tracks and shot with a hunting rifle, but Anderson keeps the violence implicit and offscreen, as if the storyteller himself cant quite bear to remember the details. Thats less true for The Rat Catcher, the most purely grotesque of the shorts, which features a snaggletoothed Fiennes spitting out a crimson gusher of rats blood.

Poison is the most unnerving of the lot, even though the threat that animates it may be entirely imagined. Harry (Cumberbatch), an Englishman living in postcolonial India, tells his partner, Woods (Patel), that theres a kraita small, intensely poisonous snakecurled up on his belly, having slithered under the sheets while he was reading in bed. Unable to move or speak above a whisper, he hisses instructions to Woods under his breath, eventually securing the arrival of a local doctor, Ganderbai (Kingsley). But the doctor can only do so much to treat a snakebite that hasnt happened yet, and the tension between the two grows until Harry spits out a racist tirade, calling Ganderbai a Bengali sewer rat.

Poison is the most frequently adapted of these stories, having been filmed for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, by the man himself, in 1958, and for the Dahl anthology series Tales of the Unexpected in 1980. Hitchcocks version ditched the storys racial subtext entirely, and both TV versions make Harry an alcoholic who has just gone on the wagon, muddying the question of what the poison in Poison is meant to be. The later version, whose introduction by a real live Dahl makes for an interesting comparison with Fiennes incarnation, does make its protagonists antipathy to his current surroundings clear, introducing him reading aloud from an anti-Raj anthem. But its their drunkenness that gets both men in the end, setting up a pair of moralizing twists that are at odds with Dahls unsettling and unresolved ending.

Anderson strips Poison, which runs only a few pages in print, back to its essence. Like the other postHenry Sugar shorts, it runs barely over a quarter of an hour, which allows for a degree of intensity that might be exhausting at feature length. As the corner of Cumberbatchs frozen mouth twitches, knowing any movement might cause the krait to strike, you tense up alongside him, even as it becomes more clear that the sharp tone of his exchanges with his Indian friend arent just a product of momentary stress. Theres a cruelty to these stories that makes you grateful for the chance to take a breath when theyre over. These are some of Andersons most beautiful films, and some of his ugliest subjects.

Race has rarely been an issue in Andersons movies. His ensemble casts have become less overwhelmingly white, but his universes tend to operate according to their own laws rather than the real worlds. (Even in his most overtly political movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel, the rise of European fascism is evoked only through stylized allusion.) And Poison seems like its going to leave the cause of Harrys antipathy for his local doctor just under the surface until it bursts free in a brief tirade. But the short doesnt treat this explosion as a catharsis, or a purgation. Kingsleys doctor recounts the story of a sheep bitten by a krait, and how, when it was cut open after death, its blood ran pitch, black as tar. It only takes a drop to poison a person, and then theres no saving them.

Rather than a tidy resolution, Andersons Poison ends both its own story and the cycle of Dahl shorts on an unnervingly indefinite note. It works the way a good short story does, outlining a situation or state of being and then leaving us to imagine the rest. (Poisons brief cutaway to Patels memory of a past hospital stay, a raw, freshly stitched gash stretched across his forehead, is the most jarring image in Andersons entire oeuvre, the more so because the short never returns to or explains it.) Few if any directors of Andersons stature have taken advantage of streaming to produce work outside the constraints of feature film running times, let alone major shortform work thats not just an opportunity to experiment or rake in some spon-con cash. The triumph of Henry Sugar and its companions should be an inspiration for others to follow suit.
The West Sacramento Police Department on Monday revealed details of a homicide investigation in which officers and medics at the scene believed a driver had died from injuries in a vehicle crash  before an autopsy two days later revealed he was killed by gunfire.

Police said the deadly shooting occurred Aug. 12 in the area of Ikea Court in what police detectives later determined was an attempted robbery during a botched marijuana deal in a parking lot.

Six total suspects have been arrested in the incident, police said Monday, including two juveniles.

The Yolo County District Attorneys Office has filed murder charges against Jayden Sevon Davis, 20; Lawrence James Cain, 22; and Rafi Bader Khani, 20; in the Aug. 12 shooting. The three men also face a charge of conspiracy to commit robbery, according to an amended criminal complaint filed Sept. 8 in Yolo Superior Court.

Davis and Cain also face a special circumstances enhancement to the murder charge, alleging they committed the crime during an attempted robbery. The victim is only identified as D.J. in the filed court document. The Police Department has not released his name.

Sacramento County Coroners Office records list 29-year-old David Marcus Jones, of West Sacramento, as a man who died in a homicide shortly before 2 p.m. Aug. 12, in the westbound lanes of Reed Avenue at Interstate 80 in West Sacramento. Jones death was initially classified as a vehicle crash in coroner records but has since been changed to a homicide.

Victim, suspects met in a Walmart parking lot

Prosecutors alleged in the criminal complaint that Cain set up a deal to buy marijuana from D.J. in West Sacramento, and he told Davis and Khani about robbing the victim. One of the would-be robbers brought a gun to a Walmart parking lot in West Sacramento, according to the complaint.

In the parking lot, Cain got in a vehicle with the victim and sent a text message to Davis about when to approach the car he was in, prosecutors said. One of the alleged co-conspirators then reached into the victims car and fatally shot him, according to the complaint.

Officers were called to the incident, which was initially reported as a single-vehicle crash on Reed Avenue, just east of I-80. West Sacramento police said the driver was pronounced dead, and officers and medics at the scene believed he died from injuries suffered in the vehicle crash.

Two days later, the Yolo County Coroners Office autopsy revealed the victim suffered a gunshot wound that killed him within minutes and likely caused him to crash, police said Monday. The drivers death was then ruled a homicide.

The Police Departments investigations division was notified of the autopsy findings and started a search for clues. Police officials said the homicide investigation led to several leads with help from the victims family and patrol officers.

Over the following weeks, detectives identified suspects and vehicles believed to be associated with the shooting death. Police said the detectives determined the victim was in possession of marijuana for sale, and he was in the area of Ikea Court for the purpose of brokering an illegal sale of marijuana.

An expended shell casing from the lethal shot was forensically examined and determined to match shell casings from two other shootings in the Sacramento region, which are still under investigation. The Police Department did not include any further details about those shooting investigations in a Facebook post Monday announcing the arrests in the homicide investigation.

Six people arrested in fatal shooting

The detectives identified four adults and two minors as being involved in the attempted robbery that resulted in the homicide. Police said one suspect was arrested in early September in Sparks, Nevada, along with a simultaneous arrest of a second suspect in Sacramento County. Two other suspects were taken into custody in West Sacramento.

As of Monday, all six suspects in the homicide have been arrested. The Police Department has not released any other information about the arrested suspects, including the names of the adults, the suspects ages or which criminal charges they face. Law enforcement agencies dont release the names of underage arrested suspects because they are minors.

The Sparks Police Department said Davis was arrested Sept. 4 on a homicide arrest warrant for a West Sacramento shooting, CBS 13 reported.

Its unclear which charges the three other arrested people face for their alleged involvement in the fatal shooting. West Sacramento police officials on Monday did not respond to phone calls and emails from The Sacramento Bee seeking further information about the arrests.

Court records show Davis, Cain and Khani remain in custody at the Yolo County Jail. They are being held without bail. The court has scheduled a preliminary hearing starting Nov. 1 to determine whether theres enough evidence for the defendants to stand trial as charged.
Providence's downtown is filled with a collection of creative and quirky spots, if you know where to look.

There are unusual bits of history, like the Greek-style Arcade building that has the distinction of being the oldest enclosed shopping mall in America. You can't trip without discovering a new restaurant that you want to try. There are festivals like WaterFire, which glows in a category of its own. And then there's the public art.

It's a bit of public art that brings us to this week's What and Why RI question, from a reader who wanted one of the downtown's landmarks explained. "What's with that squiggly clock ... in Providence?" they asked.

The Time Wave clock, with its squiggly design, was designed by California artist Robert Ellison as a playful counterpoint to the Shepard Company Building's more traditional cast-iron clock.

Providence's Time Wave clock

It's called the Time Wave clock.

Towering over Washington Street since 1998, the Time Wave clock was designed by California artist Robert Ellison, and it was picked from more than 180 proposals from around the country by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts as a public art piece to complement a renovation of the Shepard Company Building.

"There was a feeling that this stretch of Washington Street was pretty gray and blank," Randy Rosenbaum, then executive director of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, told The Journal when the clock was installed. "I think the selection panel that picked Ellison's work was looking for ways to bring it to life."

The Time Wave clock is raised by crane to its location on Washington Street in downtown Providence in 1998, under the direction of artist Robert Ellison, left, and his assistant Don Spitzer.

When designing the clock, the artist, who did visit Providence prior to submitting his design, said he wanted to create a counterpoint to the original cast-iron Shepard clock that stands on the other side of the building on Westminster Street. To juxtapose the formal design of that clock, he conjured up a 30-foot piece with squiggles and swooshes painted in bold purples, greens and yellow-oranges.

"It's meant to be very colorful and animated," Ellison told The Journal when he came to watch the piece being installed. "It's not supposed to be something you have to think too much about. It's supposed to be fun."

What and Why RI: The State House and Temple to Music are both RI landmarks. Do they use the same marble?

The state, through the Art in Public Places program, paid $80,000 for Time Wave.

What and Why RI is a weekly feature by The Providence Journal to explore our readers' curiosity. If you have a question about Rhode Island, big or small, email it to klandeck@gannett.com. She loves a good question.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: What's the squiggly clock in Providence? It's the Time Wave.
Nine states are along the path of the maximum eclipse, which stretches from Oregon to Texas . The peak solar eclipse will be visible across the Lone Star State from the Big Bend to the Gulf Coast of Texas.

Here's what you need to know about viewing the 2023 annular solar eclipse in Texas.

Annular solar eclipse

An annular eclipse is not a total eclipse, as the Moon doesnt entirely block the Suns light  only 90%. An annular eclipse happens when the Moon is at the farthest point in its orbit of Earth . During the maximum eclipse, known as annularity, the light from the Sun peaks out around the Moon, creating the "ring of fire" the annular eclipse is known for.

WHERE TO VIEW THE 'RING OF FIRE' IN OREGON DURING THE OCTOBER ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE

Unlike a total solar eclipse, you will need to wear special eclipse glasses during the entirety of the annular eclipse. Taking the glasses off at any point, even during the maximum eclipse, is unsafe.

The annular solar eclipse will cut a path from West Texas to the Gulf Coast, offering millions the chance to see the features this eclipse is known for, including the "ring of fire," the Diamond Ring and Baily's Beads.

Those smack dab in the middle of the 125-mile-wide eclipse path will have the longest time to see annularity.

Historic sites in the Lone Star State, including The Alamo Mission in San Antonio, are along the annular solar eclipse path on Oct. 14.

Even those on the outer edges of the eclipse path will have a brief chance to see the "ring of fire."

On the Gulf Coast, the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and Matagorda Island National Wildlife Refuge are on the northern limits of annularity. They can see the maximum eclipse for just over 1 minute.

In the U.S. , the eclipse begins in Oregon at 8:06 a.m. PDT, and the partial eclipse ends in southeastern Texas just after 1:30 p.m. CDT.

Each state from Oregon to Texas with the path of solar eclipse highlighted.

When the eclipse starts and ends, it will vary by only a few minutes across Texas, but a partial eclipse will be visible across the state just after 10:15 a.m. CDT.

Starting where the Texas panhandle and West Texas meet, eclipse viewers in Odessa will be able to see the "ring of fire" at 11:43 a.m. Annularity lasts for just under 5 minutes in West Texas. Maximum eclipse happens at 11:45 a.m. in Midland, also for about 5 minutes.

San Angelo and San Antonio are also along the 125-mile path of the maximum eclipse. Annularity in San Antonio begins at 11:52 a.m. and lasts just over four minutes.

Finally, the "ring of fire" exits Texas on the Gulf Coast and will be visible for about 5 minutes in Corpus Christi beginning at 11:55 a.m. CDT.

As the solar eclipse approaches, the forecast will firm up. In the meantime, the FOX Future Model shows almost no cloud cover over most of Texas for the eclipse.

SOLAR ECLIPSE FORECAST: SOUTHWEST LIKELY TO HAVE BEST VIEWING CONDITIONS FOR OCTOBER 'RING OF FIRE'

In Corpus Christi, the temperature will be warm, with a high in the upper 80s by the afternoon. In West Texas, temperatures will be more moderate, with a high forecast of around 85 degrees.

Stay with FOX Weather as the annular solar eclipse nears for a detailed forecast.





Original article source: Where to see the 'Ring of Fire' in Texas during the October annular solar eclipse
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) moved Monday to force a vote to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his post, setting into motion a process that propels Republicans into a tough decision: Support McCarthy, or vote to boot him?

At least five Republicans are joining Gaetz in backing McCarthys ouster  potentially enough to remove McCarthy from office, depending on technicalities such as absences and present votes, if all Democrats also support removing the Speaker.

A handful of other Republicans who previously opposed the Speaker, meanwhile, are running to his corner.

And a large number of GOP lawmakers  including those who previously opposed him  remain undecided or declined to reveal their position.

Here is how Republicans fall on the vote to oust McCarthy.

Supporters of ousting McCarthy

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)

Gaetz, a top McCarthy adversary, moved to force a vote on McCarthys ouster Monday evening.

He doesnt have my support anymore and he doesnt have the support of a requisite number of Republicans to continue as the Republican Speaker, Gaetz told reporters after unveiling his resolution declaring the office of Speaker to be vacant.

Gaetz warned that he will continue to force votes on ousting McCarthy if the first one fails.

It took Speaker McCarthy 15 votes to become the Speaker, the Florida Republican said earlier Monday. So until I get to 14 or 15, I dont think Im being any more dilatory than he was.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.)

Biggs said he was favorably disposed to Gaetzs move, clarifying that means he would be a yes.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.)

Burchett said Monday night that he is praying about how to vote on McCarthys ouster but said right now, he would support booting him from his post.

Really I see it as two things: One, do I vote against my friend Kevin McCarthy, or do I go with my conscience? Burchett said on CNN. Thats kind of where Im at. Im currently praying about it but I would, if it was right now I would vote to oust him.

Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.)

Lets roll, Crane wrote on X while reposting a video of Gaetz talking about the motion to vacate.

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.)

I said repeatedly in January that we cannot repeat the failures of the past where when Republicans have majority control, that we pass our major spending bills with predominantly Democrat votes, Good said Monday. For the Speaker to totally surrender and capitulate on Saturday to pass an unconditional [continuing resolution] with 209 Democrat votes and all votes in the Senate was a bad deal for the American people.

Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.)

Rosendale on Tuesday said that he would vote for the motion to vacate.

Our country is facing $33 trillion of debt. Our border is facing an unprecedented invasion. And instead of being energy dominant, we are now energy reliant. The House of Representatives and the American people deserve a leader who can challenge the status quo and put an end to this ruin, he said in a statement.

Rosendale was one of four House Republicans who voted present instead of supporting McCarthy on the 15th ballot to elect the Speaker in January.

Previous McCarthy opponents now supporting him

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.)

Bishop earlier this year was the first House Republican to voice support for removing McCarthy over how he was handling fiscal issues. But on Tuesday, Bishop said he would vote against the motion to vacate.

Congress operates by numerosity: there must be a substantial groundswell for an effort toward fundamental change. One persons play call with roughly 5-7 potential supporters portends no path toward success, only chaos, he said in a statement.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.)

Donalds said on Sean Hannitys radio show Monday that the motion to vacate was a major distraction.

Its going to take every all of the focus away from appropriations, said Donalds, who voted against McCarthy in the January Speakers race.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.)

Norman said Tuesday he opposes the motion to vacate. He voted against McCarthy in the January Speakers race.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas)

I think that the Speaker deserves the ability to finish this process, this years process, through the appropriations process, through the battle of funding government, through the Ukraine debate and border, and to honor the commitments hes made, Roy said on Hannitys radio show. He voted against McCarthy in the January Speakers race.

Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas)

I understand Matts position, but I have to go through the appropriations process. Weve got 45 days to get it done, Self said Monday. He voted against McCarthy in the January Speakers race.

To be determined and undecided

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.)

The Congresswoman is dedicated to being a leader for the 700,000+ people she represents and passing 12 individual appropriations bills to keep our government funded, Boeberts office said in a statement when asked about her motion to vacate stance Monday. She voted against McCarthy in the January Speakers race.

Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.)

Im in prayer about it. But I will tell you right now, you dont just do what would you think is the right thing  you do it at the right time, Brecheen said Monday. He voted against McCarthy in the January Speakers race.

Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas)

Im focused on the appropriations calendar, Cloud said Monday. He voted against McCarthy in the January Speakers race.

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.)

Clyde declined to comment on his position Monday. He voted against McCarthy in the January Speakers race.

Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.)

Rosendale was one of four House Republicans who voted present instead of supporting McCarthy on the 15th ballot to elect the Speaker in January. But he is staying coy about his vote, only saying Monday that members could now consider it.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.)

Mace, during a Monday appearance on The View, said, I havent decided yet what Im going to do when asked about how she would vote on an effort to oust McCarthy.

Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.)

Spartzs office said Monday she was open-minded and undecided.

Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas)

Hunt, a first-term lawmaker, told reporters Monday night ahead of Gaetzs announcement that he is keeping an open mind on the motion to vacate, noting that he will vote his district. He said he could not speculate until he had seen the resolution.

Hunt rushed back to Washington from Texas  where he had been with his wife and premature newborn in the hospital  during the January Speakership election to cast his vote for McCarthy.

Asked if McCarthy has been a good leader, Hunt responded, Weve had our challenges, obviously, within the delegation.

But again, democracy sometimes is messy, and this is what were working through step-by-stop, day in and day out, he added.

Updated Tuesday, Oct. 3 at 1:51 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The White House expressed confidence on Tuesday that regardless of the outcome of the vote to remove Kevin McCarthy , speaker of the US House of Representatives, from office, the Congress would approve new aid to Ukraine.

Source: European Pravda with reference to John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, at a briefing

Details: Kirby pointed out that the overwhelming majority of members of Congress support additional assistance to Ukraine, including the speaker of the US House of Representatives.

"I would add that regardless of what happens [with McCarthy's resignation  ed.], the entire House leadership supports continued assistance to Ukraine, and the vast majority of congressmen on the Republican side support continued assistance to Ukraine.

There is a small number of very active, small minority of members [of the Republican Party  ed.] who are opposed, but they do not represent their party. They do not represent the party leadership," he said.

At the same time, Kirby stated that disapproval of new aid to Ukraine could have terrible consequences on the battlefield.

"Under no circumstances can we allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted. Time is not in our favour. We have enough financial resources to meet Ukraine's needs on the battlefield for some time to come, but we need a decision from Congress," the White House official said.

The day before, Matt Gaetz, a representative of the far-right Republican Party, initiated the removal of McCarthy from the post of Speaker of the House of Representatives, citing the fact that he had secured the adoption of a temporary federal budget with the support of Democrats  contrary to the promises made during his appointment.

The vote on McCarthy's resignation is due by the end of Tuesday.

Background: US President Joe Biden called upon the Republicans in Congress not to allow problems with aid for Ukraine. The US Department of State has criticised Congress for not approving crucial aid for 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!






The White House on Tuesday warned of the potential fallout if Congress does not pass additional aid for Ukraine after assistance for Kyiv was left out of a short-term government funding measure.

John Kirby, a White House spokesperson on national security issues, told reporters that a lapse in military and financial support for even a short period of time could embolden Russia and leave Ukraine at a disadvantage.

It is imperative that we help them take advantage of every single day, Kirby said. A lapse in support for even a short period of time can make all the difference on the battlefield, just as creating such a lapse in support will make [Russian President Vladimir Putin] believe he can wait us out and that he can continue the conflict until we and our allies and partners fold.

Kirby argued that supporting Ukraine strengthens U.S. national security, and called it the right thing to do.

The White House has in recent days been outspoken about its ongoing support for Ukraine and the need for Congress to hold a vote on additional aid for the country, which Russia invaded in February 2022. The U.S. has provided billions of dollars in military and financial assistance since then and coordinated aid with allied nations.

The White House in August sent a supplemental funding request to Congress that included $24 billion in military, financial and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

Lawmakers did not approve additional Ukraine aid as part of a 45-day measure passed over the weekend to keep government funding at current levels and avoid a shutdown.

President Biden has been adamant that the U.S. will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes for Kyiv to win the war, and he has called on Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to hold a vote on additional funding, noting that there is bipartisan support for Ukraine.

A minority of Republicans have expressed opposition to continued support for Ukraine, arguing it is not in the United States interest to help Kyiv in its war against Russia. But a majority of lawmakers in both parties have continued to support Ukraine aid.

Biden held a call earlier Tuesday with allied leaders to discuss ongoing coordination in support for Ukraine in preparation for the winter months.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other state officials are no longer part of a federal lawsuit that alleged sweeping misconduct related to lead contamination of the Benton Harbor water system.

However, a federal judge concluded the lawsuit could proceed against city Mayor Marcus Muhammad, a former water department leader and the city as a whole. Other Michigan leaders still face comparable allegations in ongoing state lawsuits as well.

In a recent order, U.S. District Judge Hala Jarbou determined Benton Harbor residents and their lawyers did not show Whitmer or leaders of either the state health or environmental departments caused the contamination of the southwest Michigan citys water supply. Instead, allegations their indifference exacerbated the problem are not enough to keep them in the lawsuit, she determined.

Alleging that particular defendants, like Governor Whitmer, Mayor Muhammad, EGLE Director Liesl Clark, and MDHHS Director Hertel, were aware of the Citys water problems and failed to act does not state a substantive due process claim against them, Jarbou wrote.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other state officials were released from a federal lawsuit related to lead in Benton Harbor's drinking water.

The court is not obligated to infer unconstitutional conduct from a lack of action or to infer deliberate indifference, let alone a violation of the right to bodily integrity, from a lack of due care. Indeed, to do so would risk making the provision of clean water a constitutional obligation, such that any government official who failed to take affirmative action to correct a contaminated water supply would violate the Fourteenth Amendment.

Benton Harbor residents brought the lawsuit in November 2021 against Whitmer and many others. In addition to Whitmer, Jarbou dismissed Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel, former director Robert Gordon, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy former director Lisel Clark and EGLE department official Eric Oswald.

"Governor Whitmer has led the way in ensuring Benton Harbor residents have safe drinking water straight from their tap by implementing a whole-of-government approach and replacing lead service lines in Benton Harbor," said Whitmer spokeswoman Stacey LaRouche.

"Governor Whitmer remains committed to ensuring everyone can access safe drinking water so they can live healthy lives."

For years, Whitmer and her team said they did everything they could to adequately respond to lead contamination in the city, eschewing any comparisons to the Flint water crisis. In a statement, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel lauded the courts decision.

Today's ruling reflects the states proactive response to the water contamination in Benton Harbor, Nessel said Thursday, noting essentially no lead services lines remain in Benton Harbor.

State officials immediately acted to their best abilities to remediate the situation when they learned of elevated lead levels.

Lawyers representing Muhammad and former water plant operator Michael OMalley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Benton Harbor officials noted high lead levels in the citys drinking water in 2018. No amount of lead in water is safe, but regulators consider trace amounts allowable. The lead amounts exceeded these levels for years, despite local, state and federal officials arguing they were treating the water and working to replace lead pipes.

The lawsuit, and comparable state lawsuits, allege Michigan and city leaders deliberately misled residents about the quality of their drinking water while not doing enough to improve it. Despite Jarbous determination that the claims against state actors failed muster, lawyer Mark Chalos, who represents Benton Harbor residents, said they are pleased their case will proceed.

No government official should be permitted to deprive communities of safe drinking water, either by deception or deliberate indifference, Chalos said in a statement.

The Benton Harbor communitys claims against the state agencies and state officials are going forward in the state Court of Claims. The state court lawsuits detail the failures of leadership, including at the top levels of state government.

The federal court ruling largely mirrors an earlier report rendered by a magistrate judge who also reviewed the allegations. Both the magistrate and Jarbou agreed the claims against Whitmer and other state leaders failed to articulate actions that shock the conscience or otherwise mirror the egregious allegations included in Flint water crisis legal proceedings.

The Fourteenth Amendment protects against specific kinds of particularly egregious government actions. It does not require that all statements by government officials about public health risks be truthful and accurate. Nor does it require that government officials make good decisions, exercise reasonable care, or intervene to correct the conduct of others, Jarbou wrote.

While Benton Harbor is largely without lead service lines, many communities around Michigan and the country continue to battle lead in water. Experts encourage every resident to change any lead water piping in their homes.

Reach Dave Boucher at dboucher@freepress.com and on X, previously called Twitter, @Dave_Boucher1.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Whitmer, other Michigan officials dismissed from Benton Harbor lawsuit
The Biden administration sent a letter to Gov. John Bel Edwards last month saying Louisiana had underfunded Southern University in Baton Rouge by more than $1.1 billion over the last 30 years.

The Education Department looked at how much Louisiana had spent per student at both Louisiana State University and Southern University from 1987 to 2020.

Gov. John Bel Edwards addresses the Press Club in Baton Rouge on May 1.

LSU was funded by the 1862 Morrill Act, which gave land to states they could sell to establish colleges that taught agriculture and the mechanical arts. These schools are called land-grant universities.

In 1890, a second Morrill Act gave states a choice: either allow Black students to attend their land-grant schools or accept federal money to start a separate Black land-grant school. Southern states chose to create separate schools. Southern University was the result of the 1890 law.

More: What do states owe land-grant universities?

States that created separate schools for Black students were required to provide them with the same level of funding as the white schools. Almost no states met this requirement.

Land-grant universities also receive grants from the Agriculture Department for research and extension services. States are supposed to match those federal grants one-to-one. States regularly fail to provide Black land-grant schools with those matching funds.

The Education Department calculated the difference in funding using data the schools themselves submitted to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Here is a table of how much money Louisiana provided to LSU and Southern University annually between 1987 and 2020. (If the table does not load below, it can be found at this link.)

Todd A. Price is a regional reporter for the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at taprice@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why the Biden administration says Louisiana shortchanged Southern U
The Biden administration sent a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper last month saying North Carolina had underfunded North Carolina A&T State University by more than $2 billion over the last 30 years.

The Education Department looked at how much North Carolina had spent per student at its two land-grant schools, North Carolina State at Raleigh and North Carolina A&T State University, from 1987 to 2020.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper speaks to the press before the game on Aug. 18, 2023 at Pisgah Memorial Stadium in Canton, N.C.

North Carolina State was funded by the 1862 Morrill Act, which gave land to states they could sell to establish colleges that taught agriculture and the mechanical arts. These schools are called land-grant universities.

In 1890, a second Morrill Act gave states a choice: either allow Black students to attend their land-grant schools or accept federal money to start a separate Black land-grant school. Southern states chose to create separate schools. North Carolina A&T State University was the result of the 1890 law.

What do states owe: What do states owe land-grant universities?

States that created separate schools for Black students were required to provide them with the same level of funding as the white schools. Almost no states met this requirement.

Land-grant universities also receive grants from the Agriculture Department for research and extension services. States are supposed to match those federal grants one-to-one. States regularly fail to provide Black land-grant schools with those matching funds.

The Education Department calculated the difference in funding using data the schools themselves submitted to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Here is a table of how much money North Carolina provided to North Carolina State at Raleigh and North Carolina A&T State University annually between 1987 and 2020. (If the table does not load automatically below, it can be found at this link.)

Todd A. Price is a regional reporter for the USA Today Network. He can be reached at taprice@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why Biden says North Carolina shortchanged A&T State by $2 billion
The Biden administration sent a letter to Gov. Henry McMaster last month saying South Carolina had underfunded South Carolina State University by more than $469 million over the last 30 years.

The Education Department looked at how much South Carolina had spent per student at its two land-grant universities, Clemson University and South Carolina State University, from 1987 to 2020.

FILE - Gov. Henry McMaster points to the balcony after giving his State of the State address on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

Clemson University was funded by the 1862 Morrill Act, which gave land to states they could sell to establish colleges that taught agriculture and the mechanical arts. These schools are called land-grant universities.

In 1890, a second Morrill Act gave states a choice: either allow Black students to attend their land-grant schools or accept federal money to start a separate Black land-grant school. Southern states chose to create separate schools. South Carolina State University was the result of the 1890 law.

What do states owe: What do states owe land-grant universities?

States that created separate schools for Black students were required to provide them with the same level of funding as the white schools. Almost no states met this requirement.

Land-grant universities also receive grants from the Agriculture Department for research and extension services. States are supposed to match those federal grants one-to-one. States regularly fail to provide Black land-grant schools with those matching funds.

The Education Department calculated the difference in funding using data the schools themselves submitted to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Here is a table of how much money South Carolina provided to Clemson and South Carolina State annually between 1987 and 2020. (If the table does not load automatically below, it can be found at this link.)

Todd A. Price is a regional reporter for the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at taprice@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why Biden says South Carolina State shortchanged by $470 million
For the first time in U.S. history, a motion to vacate the Speaker of the House has succeeded, with the chambers Democrats shrugging as a small group of mostly far-right Republicans provided the crucial votes to oust Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy .

On Tuesday, Democrats voted unanimously alongside Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and seven other GOP members to remove McCarthy as Speaker. Despite talk over the weekend that some Democrats might cut a deal with McCarthy to save him, the Speaker ultimately refused to offer members of the opposition party any concessions, leaving Democrats united against him. In the narrowly divided House, only a handful of Republicans needed to join Democrats to create the majority needed to win the vote.

Even though the effort to oust McCarthy was instigated by Republicans, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged House Democrats to join them in voting against the Speaker. In a statement released before the vote, Jeffries explained his reasoning, saying McCarthy had brought this on himself by using his short tenure as Speaker to cater to extremists in his party. He pointed to the chaotic 15 rounds of voting that the House endured back in January to pick McCarthy as Speaker, a process in which McCarthy made concessions to far-right Republicans, including allowing any one member to force a motion to vacate.

It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War, Jeffries wrote. Given their unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner, House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican Motion to Vacate the Chair.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was out of town and missed the vote, also laid the chaos at the feet of the GOP, and said Democrats had no reason to help McCarthy.

The Speaker of the House is chosen by the Majority Party, Pelosi wrote on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. In this Congress, it is the responsibility of House Republicans to choose a nominee & elect the Speaker on the Floor. At this time there is no justification for a departure from this tradition. The House will be in order.

Over the weekend, as talk of Gaetzs plan to push for a vote to oust McCarthy intensified, Washington was buzzing with talk of even just a handful of Democrats making a deal with Republican leadership to shield the Speaker. Moderate Democrats remained under pressure through Tuesday afternoon.

In the end, no rank-and-file Democrats felt moved to help McCarthy or his party get out of a mess of their own making.

I think hes likely the most unprincipled person to ever be Speaker of the House, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, told reporters ahead of the vote. Hes disdainful, he lies about us, he lies about the process of governance. Its not even a question of whether or not we should take any particular action.

In a final, doomed plea ahead of the vote, it was Rep. Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican and a McCarthy ally, who suggested that Democrats might be making the right political move for them.

With this record of success that weve seen Kevin McCarthy and a Republican majority produce in a Washington run by Democrats, were going to throw that away, resulting in more liberal outcomes, not more conservative ones, McHenry told his colleagues. So I understand why the left is where you are today. You dont like an effective conservative majority, and I dont blame you. But on the right, rethink this.

Democrats are running some risk in that they are gambling that the next Speaker of the House wont turn out to be worse, in their assessments. But many Democrats in the chamber felt helping prop up McCarthys speakership carried its own risks.

This is the Republicans civil war and they haven't shown they can govern, California Rep. Ted Lieu, the vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told TIME immediately after the speakership vote. Hopefully the Republicans will be able to put forward someone that doesn't break his word and we'll see what happens. I am voting for Hakeem Jeffries.

Asked what happens if the next Speaker isnt Jeffries and refuses to work with Democrats, Lieu said Its too early to speculate.

Following the vote on the motion to vacate, McHenry was selected as Speaker Pro Tem of North Carolina off of a secret list put together by McCarthy. McHenry immediately called for a recess before the House began the process of selecting a new Speaker. When those votes do happen, McCarthy could continue to put his name forward. Possible successors include Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, and Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, all of whom backed McCarthy and say that they are not interested in replacing him.

Right now I think all of us are just trying to think through what the path ahead is, California Rep. Pete Aguilar, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told TIME immediately after the vote. Its incredibly unfortunate that we're in this situation, but the reality is Kevin McCarthy ran to the extremes at every possible turn from the very beginning. That's why it took them 15 votes, he made a lot of promises.

Nik Popli contributed reporting.

Write to Mini Racker at mini.racker@time.com.
Why did Rep. Matt Gaetz , a Republican who represents a portion of the Florida panhandle, decide to launch a rebellion that cost the speaker of the House his job?

Gaetz said in the House chamber that he wants to see a series of reforms to how Congress spends money through its budget process.

But other Republicans said his motives were far more selfish. Rep. Ashley Hinson, an Iowa Republican speaking during debate in the House chamber, criticized those causing chaos for their own personal benefit.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, center, speaks to members of the media outside the U.S. Capitol on Monday. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg)

There are a few different potential reasons why Gaetz might have seen it in his self-interest to send the House  and the Republican party  into disorder and uncertainty.

There are claims by Kevin McCarthy, the now-ousted Speaker, that Gaetz has a personal vendetta against him over a House ethics probe of Gaetz. There are ways that Gaetzs chaos mission, and the massive attention it draws him, may help him run for governor of Florida in 2026. There are also a lot of pressures and incentives in modern politics that reward this kind of anti-leadership style.

And, finally, there is the undercurrent of Trumpism that runs through all of it, which fuels whatever support there is for Gaetz from portions of the Republican electorate.

Reuters Explains: What is a motion to vacate, the procedure that ousted Kevin McCarthy?

But all of it runs together and forms a composite source of likely motivation.

Heres a rundown of each of those wellsprings.

Personal animus

McCarthy, a California Republican whose district includes parts of Fresno and Bakersfield, told CNBC that Gaetz is blaming me for an ethics complaint against him.

The House speaker said that an investigation by the House Ethics Committee  looking at potential bribery accusations and allegations that Gaetz broke sex-trafficking laws  happened in the last Congress and so he had nothing to do with it.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, on Tuesday. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg)

Its true that the probe was launched in 2021, when Democrats controlled the committee. But after the Justice Department conducted its own investigation and decided this past February not to bring charges, the Ethics Committee  now controlled by Republicans  reopened the Gaetz investigation in July.

McCarthy has said he didnt have any role in this, and he is not supposed to according to House rules. But McCarthy told CNBC that Gaetz blames him, and CNNs Jake Tapper told Gaetz Sunday that he had seen personal communications between you and other people in which you blame McCarthy for your ethics investigation.

Gaetz didnt argue with Tapper or deny the assertion.

A Gaetz run for Florida Governor

Gaetz reportedly hinted at a run for governor of Florida in 2026 at a political gathering in the state earlier this month.

Gaetz comes from a political family. His father was a state senator in Florida from 2006 to 2016, and rose to Senate president for two years, from 2012 to 2014. Don Gaetz , Matt Gaetzs dad, said this week that he will run for state senate again next year.

If Matt Gaetz does run for governor, then using Congress as a platform to build his political profile may pay dividends.

Pressure to be extreme, and rewards

Much of the reason many politicians run away from compromise, collaboration and productivity  and toward divisiveness and fighting  is that there are a multitude of pressures on them to do so. And there are also short-term rewards for such partisanship and gridlock.

Most members of Congress fear one thing more than anything else: losing their jobs. And the quickest way many of them could do so is in a primary election.

Primary elections are where each party chooses a nominee, usually in the spring or summer, ahead of the fall elections that happen every two years. The voters in these elections tend to be the most hardline on politics. These voters want their side to crush the other. They are often angered by politicians who work with the other party and see it as betrayal.

These are the voters who create the pressure on politicians to never give an inch. They exist in higher numbers in states that already lean right or left, and they are further concentrated in many congressional districts through something called gerrymandering. This is the redrawing of district boundaries to make it easier for each party to keep winning the seat in the fall elections.

A voter casts a ballot while children watch In Louisville, Ky. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

According to a recent report by a group advocating for doing away with party primaries, the vast majority of House members are effectively selected by a tiny sliver  about 10%  of eligible voters.

Extremism can also pays dividends. Attention is a valuable asset in modern politics, and outrage often draws plenty of it.

The incentive structure in this House is completely broken, said Rep. Kelly Armstrong, of North Dakota. He decried members of Congress who chase after clicks, TV hits and fame by acting disruptively.

With attention comes the ability to raise large amounts of money over the internet through small dollar donations of $5 and $10, from many of the same type of voters who participate in primaries: hyper-partisans who watch lots of cable TV and see politics as a blood sport. Congress, and the work it exists to do, have become collateral damage.
This is a test. This is only a test.

You are going to hear these words twice this month, with the first time being Wednesday at about 11:20 a.m.

A nationwide broadcast of the National Emergency Alert Test will be conducted by FEMA and the Federal Communications Committee (FCC), with a backup date of Oct. 11 at the same time in case there is a significant emergency somewhere in the nation.

The other test of emergency notification systems will be Oct. 19 at 10:19 a.m. PT for the annual Great Shakeout earthquake drill.

The test Wednesday will involve the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) that sound and appear on smartphones.

The EAS side of this test will be aired by TV and radio broadcasters, cable systems, satellite radio and TV providers, and on the National Weather Services NOAA Weather Radio network. The WEA version of this test will be directed to all wireless phone providers and received on cell phones. If your cell phone does not receive this test, contact your wireless provider. Keep in mind only cell phones that are turned off or set to airplane mode will fail to receive this test.

The test Wednesday exercises the national warning system  used only if there is a nationwide emergency and Americans can be rapidly informed. The test helps determine if there are any gaps in the warning system so they can be addressed before a real emergency arises. These tests go back to the Cold War era in the 1950s. Last years National Emergency Alert Test was postponed to this year.

The Great Shakeout is coming later this month

Oct. 19, is the worldwide Great Shakeout earthquake drill. This test of EAS and WEA starts at 10:19 a.m. PT with the goal to help save lives from an earthquake by practicing drop, cover and hold under a desk, table or other sturdy items together as a group or individually.

Millions of people around the world will again participate in this annual earthquake drill, including families, businesses, schools, healthcare facilities, faith-based organizations, neighborhood groups and more.

To participate, register in advance at Shakeout. Over 1.2 million people in Washington registered last year and so far this year, over one million people already have registered. Schools use this event as their October monthly emergency drill.

Like the National Emergency Alert Test, the Great Shakeout will be initiated by the National Weather Service with their EAS message airing on all radio and TV broadcasters cable systems, as well on the all-hazard NOAA Weather Radio Network. In addition, the network of over 100 All-Hazard Alert Broadcast (AHAB) outdoor siren and speaker systems from the outer coast to the North Sound will also be activated.

Like a fire drill at school or work, the Great Shakeout offers the moment to drop, cover and hold for a minute. Have fun with the event, like taking photos and videos while under a table or desk, and post them on social media.

Washington is earthquake country, second to California as the most-threatened state in the nation. The interior of Western Washington has a number of earthquake faults zig-zagging across the region. These faults include the South Whidbey Island fault, the Seattle fault, the Tacoma fault, and the Saddle Mountain fault. Geologic history shows all these faults can produce at least 7.0 magnitude earthquakes with substantial shaking.

And then there is the Cascadia Subduction Zone just off the Pacific Northwest coast history shows can produce around a 9.0 magnitude quake. This subduction zone is similar to those off Japan, which produced a major earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, plus off the coast of Alaska, the west coast of South America such as Chile, and around many Pacific Ocean basin coastlines.

The Great Shakeout drill also provides the opportunity to practice your backup communication plan. An earthquake will likely occur when we are not at home, and phones and transportation corridors may no longer be accessible. Know in advance how and who to reach in case phone and power systems are out of service.

These two emergency notification tests help ensure these warning systems will be there when needed, highlight the need to receive warning messages to ensure receipt in case one or more systems are offline, and reinforce the need for preparedness and readiness in case something unfortunate happens.

mynorthwest.com
A gun charge hanging over President Joe Biden 's son, Hunter, is rarely filed by prosecutors. Will it stand up in court?

Patrick Darnell Daniels was pulled over by police in April 2022 for driving a truck without a registration plate in Hancock County, Mississippi.

Inside his vehicle officers found marijuana cigarette butts and two loaded firearms.

The 26-year-old was charged under a law that bans users of illegal drugs from owning guns.

A judge denied him bail and ruled him a flight risk, citing a previous contempt of court, a history of substance abuse and a lack of stable residence.

He was convicted and sentenced last October to nearly four years in prison.

But in August an appeals court overturned Daniels' conviction. He was freed on 26 September.

Hunter Biden , 53, faces the same charge: possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance. It carries a maximum prison sentence of up to five years. He pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.

South Texas College of Law Professor Dru Stevenson, who has published research on gun charges against drug users, says it's unusual for such cases to make it to court.

"It's just really rare that they would go after someone and prosecute them for this," Prof Stevenson said.

"But this [Hunter Biden] is a high-profile person and there's been members of Congress demanding he be prosecuted."

Of the 7,454 people sentenced for illegal gun possession in 2021, only about 5% of them were charged due to drug use, according to US Sentencing Commission data.

As well as the charge related to possessing a gun while being an illegal drug user, Mr Biden faces two felony counts of lying about his drug addiction in a statement to a firearms dealer and on a federal form when he bought the revolver in October 2018 from a shop in Wilmington, Delaware. The twin charges are punishable by up to 10 years each.

Part of the reason why it's so rare to charge someone due to drug use, Prof Stevenson said, is that it can be hard to prove someone is a drug user and has a gun.

The president's son, however, wrote about his addiction to crack cocaine during the period of his life when he bought the pistol in his 2021 memoir Beautiful Things.

For those who do end up charged with illegal gun possession, it's usually a "slam dunk case", Prof Stevenson said.

"If they insist on pressing charges," he said, "I don't think there's any question that [Mr Biden] will be convicted."

The president's son - who is also under investigation for allegedly failing to pay federal taxes - has remained free while his case winds its way through the courts.

The gun-and-tax charges were to be rolled in to a plea deal that would have spared Mr Biden - who has no criminal record - prison time. But that agreement collapsed in July.

Congressional Republicans who are investigating Mr Biden's business dealings, and how much his father might have known about them, called the plea agreement a "sweetheart deal".

Mr Biden's attorneys have predicted the first criminal case against the son of a US president will never make it to trial.

They have argued that the gun charges are unconstitutional, citing a Supreme Court ruling last year - New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v Bruen.

In that decision, the justices expanded gun rights, writing that restrictions must be "consistent with this nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation".

In August the very same case was cited by the federal appeals court that overturned Patrick Darnell Daniels' conviction.

Judge Jerry Smith ruled: "At no point in the 18th or 19th Century did the government disarm individuals who used drugs or alcohol at one time from possessing guns at another."

Other cases involving the same prohibition against drug users possessing firearms - 18 USC 922 - have gone in favour of defendants after judges questioned whether the charges were constitutionally valid.

Paola Connelly was arrested in El Paso, Texas, after police responding to reports of a disturbance found firearms at her home on 28 December 2021.

Ms Connelly was charged after acknowledging to officers that she often smoked marijuana as a sleep aid and to help her anxiety.

But in April a federal judge threw out the case.

Jared Michael Harrison was pulled over for failing to stop at a red light in Lawton, Oklahoma, in May 2022.

He, too, was charged after police discovered marijuana and a loaded gun in his car.

But in February, another court dismissed that case.

Harrison's lawyer, Laura Deskin, told the BBC: "I will say I cannot imagine Mr Harrison ever contemplated that anything in his life could possibly intersect with or impact Mr Hunter Biden.

"But here we are!"
INDEPENDENCE, Mo.  Tragedy struck Friday night in Independence, Missouri, after a father of three was shot and killed protecting his wife and children.

The man accused in the shooting was arrested the following morning.

Kierra Turner wants the community to know her husband was a great man, a man of faith who made an impact on the people he met.

Turner and her husband Juavvion Bagsby have three boys.

Kansas City man pleads guilty in connection to 2022 deadly shooting

They loved their dad, Turner said in an interview with FOX4 Tuesday. They loved their daddy so much. They really do.

Friday night, his life was taken away in what began as a random situation.

According to court documents, 28-year-old Blue Springs resident Tyler Rizer approached a man at his home asking for a ride to Target. The man agreed, but during the ride, Rizer changed where he wanted to go.

The driver hopped on I-70 and started heading west. Rizer found a knife in the center console of the car. The driver pulled over on the interstate, tried to get out and was stabbed.

Download the FOX4 News app on iPhone and Android

The victim started running north to some homes at 40th Terrace and South Osage Street. Rizer, according to the probable cause statement, was chasing after him.

Neighbors confronted Rizer, so he ran across I-70, south toward 41st Terrace and South Osage where Turner was outside with her children. Rizer, according to the probable cause statement, started to grab the children and her by their necks.

It wasnt just me affected, Turner said. My children, my husband, people in the neighborhood. The guy just kind of came out of nowhere.

Turner called her husband who drove to their home with his handgun. Bagsby found Rizer just south of their home where a confrontation happened, along with Bagsbys next door neighbor. Both the neighbor and Bagsby were shot. Bagsby died of his injuries.

He loved his children. He loved me. He really did, Turner said. Given the circumstance, I know he would do anything to protect us, and thats what he died doing was protecting us.

Turner says these are the things she wants people to remember about her husband.

Topeka police arrest man accused in 5-year-olds death

Cherish your loved ones, hold your family tight, she continued. Not even trying to be funny, but you never know, and not in a million years would I have expected this to happen to me or my children, and its so easy to just not think about those things when its not you, but its true.

After the shooting, the statement says Rizer took Bagsbys car. He was involved in a crash at 6:58 that evening at 17th and Jackson in Kansas City, Mo. He tried to carjack another driver after that crash.

The statement says North Kansas City Hospital reached out to Independence Police early Saturday morning that they believed KCPD had brought Rizer to them. He was arrested.

View the latest headlines from Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas at fox4kc.com

The statement says Bagsbys neighbor was unconscious at a local hospital after surgery from the shooting. A police detective was able to talk to the stabbing victim after he had surgery as well.

If youd like to donate to Turners family, a GoFundMe has been set up in remembrance of Bagsby.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
YORK, Maine  Wiggly Bridge Distillery was denied their application to build two new barrel houses last week after board members expressed concern for the potential spread of whiskey fungus.

The fungus, called Baudoinia, has held the application up since last year as residents said they didnt want their home values and health harmed. Abutters have called for the board to reject the application in fear of the black fungus spreading as it has near major distillers in Kentucky.

The distillery, owned by the Woods family, has argued there are no known adverse health effects of Baudoinia, which feeds on ethanol produced during the whiskey aging process. The distillers also said they have taken steps to limit the amount of ethanol released and that their distillery will never have enough barrels to cause ethanol to travel to the nearest residence.

Dave Woods, left, and his son, David Woods, owners of Wiggly Bridge Distillery, pose in their barrel storage facility.

Planning Board members still voted 4-1 to reject the application after more than three hours of deliberations Sept. 28 in a room packed with residents opposing the project. Board members who passed the motion said they were convinced partly by a town-commissioned study from the University of Maine that stated Wiggly Bridge was the likely source of the Baudoinia.

Planning Board Chair Wayne Boardman, the lone vote against denying the application, acknowledged some unknowns make it difficult to know if the project should be approved. The board was tasked with determining whether the project violated town ordinance section 6.3.4, which prohibits dust, fumes, vapors, and gases from affecting neighboring properties.

We may not be able to prove definitively that the business is causing the whiskey fungus, Boardman said. There still may be a strong enough likelihood that were reluctant to approve it.

York Beach trash talk: Businesses, residents clash over carry-in, carry-out policy

Wiggly Bridge: Research shows expansion is safe

Wiggly Bridges father-and-son owners David Woods and David Woods II made their case in the meeting with a team that included their attorney and scientists who critically analyzed the University of Maine study. They cited statements by renowned Baudoinia expert James Scott that indicated the distillery is too far from the nearest residence for Baudoinia to reach it.

Attorney Lisa Gilbreath told the board Scott was quoted as saying it would take 20,000 barrels of whiskey aging at once for whiskey fungus to appear on a building that far away  approximately 200 yards. David Woods said his facility is going to increase from 1,153 barrels to up to 5,200.

Ethanols not really leaving the property, Gilbreath said. It takes 20,000 barrels to reach 200 yards.

Previous story: Wiggly Bridge Distillery expansion targeted by 'Whiskey Fungus Zone' campaign in York

Board member Brian Trafton said that statement did not line up with what he believed residents were seeing in the University of Maine study and on nearby buildings. He pointed to the RE/MAX building nearby where whiskey fungus has been found, though the Woods family pointed out that the business supports the expansion.

You cant tell me that its not going closer than that 43 feet over to the RE/MAX building, Trafton said. It just doesnt make sense.

The Wiggly Bridge Distillery in York wants to expand but some residents are opposed due to possible whiskey fungus.

David Woods said the steps recently taken by the distillery should prevent any ethanol from leaving the property. He said they have purchased an ethanol meter that has been reading zero since they altered the way they release ethanol from their stills. He said any whiskey fungus washed off nearby property would not reappear as a result.

The RE/MAX building, my belief the Baudoinia that was tested on it was done in our old style standard operating procedures, David Woods said.

Planning Board member Meredith Goodwin said she could not accept Wiggly Bridges argument that other facilities in York could be producing nearby Baudoinia. She said Hannaford has been cited as a potential source of whiskey fungus because they have a bakery despite the fact they do not actually produce baked goods there.

This is where you lost me, Goodwin.

A study shows Baudoinia, known as whiskey fungus, is likely being caused by Wiggly Bridge Distillery on Route 1 in York.

Goodwin said she was convinced there were ongoing violations at the site because of the nearby whiskey fungus. Town attorney Mary Costigan noted, however, no violations have been identified by the code enforcement officer.

Planning Board members considered granting the project preliminary approval with the condition that the two barrel houses not be used to store aged alcohol until it could be determined the whiskey fungus would not increase as a result. Goodwin, Trafton and Planning Board alternate Steven Friedman voted that motion down, however. Friedman also noted that a change in the use of the building would need to include more public input.

My sense is the Woods family has presented as strong a case as they possibly could, Friedman said. Like Meredith, Im not comfortable with the conclusions in the study.

When the vote to reject came, Boardman suggested they could take more time to find a solution without giving a flat denial of the project.

Weve been at this for a long time, Boardman said. I think theres still time to find a solution that would protect the safety and value of the properties without completely denying it.

Dead end? Vertex drops lawsuit against York over cell tower

Woods family evaluates next step for Wiggly Bridge expansion

David Woods said he is unsure what Wiggly Bridge will do next in their attempt to grow their business. They started 11 years ago and have produced award-winning spirits, first in a space at Short Sands Beach, then at their current location at 441 US-Route 1. They say they need to build more storage because they are running out of room to store barrels and finished products.

A sign on Organug Road near the middle school tries to persuade people to stop Wiggly Bridge Distillery from expanding in York.

The Woods family has seen a growing campaign against their project in the last year. A website called fungusfreeyork.com called for the project to be rejected. It noted that while no extensive research has been done regarding the health risk, the fungus can have a lasting impact on properties and nearby vegetation.

The site also linked to an online petition posted by Concerned Neighbors calling for the town to cite Wiggly Bridge for an existing violation. That petition has 259 signatures. Signs also appeared around town stating Whiskey Fungus Zone with the fungusfreeyork.com URL printed underneath.

Woods said the vote was disappointing. He said he is proud to be a York business owner, also owning York Oil and other businesses in town. He said York has not historically been business-friendly, however.

I love the town because Im from York, Woods said. But I dont like the lack of support of the business community.

Woods said he plans to watch the video of the meeting where his application was denied to take notes and then consider whether legal action will take place. He has previously said he would take the case to the Maine Supreme Court.

Theres a lot of options out there that we need to explore, Woods said. Appeals court, new piece of property, or I get so fed up with this town that I say, Let me sell everything and move down to Montserrat.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Whiskey fungus fears foil Wiggly Bridges expansion plans in York
WASHINGTON  A leading House lawmaker wants to see some hard details  and soon  from the F-35 Joint Program Office about how it plans to fix the jet fighters long-lagging availability rates.

And Rep. Rob Wittmans patience with the JPO on the fighters low readiness is starting to wear thin, he said in an interview.

Upgraded F-35 deliveries could slip to June 2024

Speaking to Defense News in his Capitol Hill office on Sept. 29, Wittman, the Virginia Republican who chairs the House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces, said he thinks the JPOs war on readiness plan is the right idea.

Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt, the F-35 program executive officer, told Wittmans subcommittee in a March hearing that the plan would mature sustainment processes and maximize F-35 availability for decades to come.

But Schmidt didnt offer more details at that hearing on what the plan would entail.

Since then, Wittman said, his committee hasnt heard much more to flesh out the idea.

In a general sense, [Schmidt] has the right idea in mind on the war on readiness, Wittman said. He hasnt shared with us any of the details, or the granularity of what you would want to know about how hes going to ensure that gets accomplished.

F-35s in various stages of production by Lockheed Martin at Air Force Plant 4 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Lockheed Martin)

Defense News has repeatedly asked the JPO for an interview on its plans for the war on readiness, so far without success.

If the JPO has used the last six months to work with F-35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin and nail down its plans for how to fix the fighters disappointing availability rates, Wittman said, that would be understandable and time well spent.

But I would say that the expectation about what would be a reasonable period of time to do that is probably coming quickly to a close, Wittman said.

I think weve tried to be patient, given them some room, Wittman continued. When asked if his patience is running out, he said, its at the very end of what would be reasonable, in the patience shown, yes.

In a statement provided to Defense News Tuesday, Schmidt said the war on readiness is solving problems with the top issues that degrade F-35 performance, and consolidating the fighters inspection requirements to reduce future maintenance needs.

The JPO is conducting readiness health assessments to figure out unique challenges partners, services and sites are having, and tell leadership about those problems so they can come up with plans to fix them, he said.

The JPO also stood up an F-35 Readiness Control Board to tackle persistent and emerging problems that drag down the fighters availability. Such boards are a common best practice in the Navy and commercial aviation, Schmidt said.

The entire enterprise, including the services, our international partners, [foreign military sales] customers, and our industry partners are utilizing a data-driven approach to drive improvements across the sustainment enterprise to improve readiness, he said. These recent actions continue moving us towards establishing the enduring mission capability our fleet requires.

A Government Accountability Office report from September, which outlined numerous problems hindering the F-35s availability and difficulties with the jets maintenance, said that the mission-capable rate for all F-35s was 55% earlier this year. That is well below the Air Forces goal of having 70% of its F-35As available to carry out their missions, and the Navy and Marine Corps goal of 75% for its F-35B and C variants.

In Tuesdays statement, Schmidt said the F-35 fleet is now at 58% mission capable, and has a goal to reach 64% by March 2024.

Wittman plans to have a hearing by the end of the year to hear more from the JPO on how it expects to solve problems with the jets sustainment and availability rates, and other issues with the F-35.

Wittman said he expects Schmidt to come to that hearing ready to explain how his readiness plan would work.

I would want some specificity, he said. At this particular point, theyve had enough time to examine the problem, to understand it.

Wittman called the GAOs recent findings deeply concerning.

Theres a lot of what we expect out of the aircraft, and theres some shortcomings there about what has been promised and then what is being delivered, Wittman said. Where has the due diligence been performed on this program with the Air Force and the JPO, on making sure that it meets these performance parameters? Theres several places where it has fallen short.

He plans to have a GAO representative appear at the hearing, and is talking with the subcommittees ranking Democrat, Rep. Donald Norcross of New Jersey, about adding GAO to the witness list.

Mind boggling

Wittman wants GAO to share its perspective on the F-35s readiness issues with the subcommittee, and then to ask the JPO and the Air Force why theyre in this position, or if theres a disagreement on the assertions and the findings of GAO, then whats their viewpoint?

The breadth of problems highlighted in GAOs report  such as a lack of spare parts and depot capacity for the military to repair broken parts, and the militarys difficulty in obtaining necessary technical data that makes it hard for its maintainers to fix the fighter  are worrying, he said.

The 55% mission-capable rate for the F-35 fleet is unacceptable, Wittman said, and the fact that these problems are happening in the face of the fighters $1.7 trillion life cycle cost, $1.3 trillion of which comes from its operation and sustainment, is mind boggling.

Its a new aircraft  why is it at 55%? Wittman said. You would think on a new production line,  you would learn pretty quickly what your maintenance and repair models would be. All of those things seem to be lacking in this.

It seems to be, just get the aircraft off the assembly line and let the Air Force essentially operate on its own afterwards, he continued. Thats a disconnect about how you need to make sure that youre managing the lifecycle cost of that aircraft.

In his statement, Schmidt said the war on readiness focuses on four key areas: solving the top issues that degrade the fighters availability, getting aircraft that have been down for long periods back to mission-capable status, getting maintenance at unit levels operating more efficiently, and streamlining the supply chain.

A crucial step towards making the F-35 affordable and available in the long term will be standing up repair operations at depots, Schmidt said. Depot repair facilities in the U.S., Europe, and Pacific regions have already been stood up to repair the F-35s air vehicle, propulsion and components, he said, and more are under way.

One option the Pentagon is considering to improve F-35 sustainment is entering into a limited performance-based logistics contract with Lockheed Martin. But it remains an open question as to whether such a deal would lower costs or improve aircraft availability, as Lockheed believes it would.

The Office of the Secretary of Defense is analyzing the proposed PBL deal  using data from the Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation  aiming to verify to lawmakers whether it would deliver the promised cost and readiness benefits.

Wittman said lawmakers are dissatisfied with how much information CAPE typically shares with them, and are having conversations to ensure CAPE provides details on their findings on the suitability of a PBL contract.

CAPE needs to do a better job of being transparent with Congress about how they give us that information, Wittman said. We had a very heart-to-heart talk with the CAPE director about making sure that they do that. Our concern is, they hold a lot of that information to themselves and then they end up making decisions that either arent informed by what Congress wants, or sometimes even potentially in contradiction to what Congress has said is the direction that needs to be pursued.

Wittman said he has not gotten any preliminary findings from CAPE about what they have found, and he was not sure when their study will be finished and provided to lawmakers.

When asked whether he is open to a PBL contract for the F-35, Wittman said he needs to see more information.

Im still in the discovery mode of how things need to happen with a potential PBL, Wittman said. The things that came out of the GAO report introduce more questions than they answer. I think a lot of those questions need to be answered before we get into the scope of determining the course for PBL.

TR-3 upgrade delays

The F-35 hearing Wittman is planning will also cover the repeatedly-delayed rollout of new F-35 upgrades known as Technology Refresh 3, which has halted the delivery of the latest fighters.

The TR-3 improvements will include better displays, computer memory and processing power, and will allow a even wider range of upgrades known as Block 4 in the future. TR-3 was originally meant to roll out in April 2023. But in recent months that deadline has slipped at least twice, and now may come sometime between April and June 2024. The government attributes the TR-3 hangup to software integration issues.

In the meantime, the government cannot conduct the needed acceptance flights on TR-3 fighters before taking possession of them, so dozens of constructed F-35s are sitting at Lockheed Martins Fort Worth, Texas facility.

When asked how confident he is that the F-35 program can stick to the current goal for finishing TR-3 and resuming delivery of the latest series of jets by next June, Wittman said he is hopeful  but that if you base it upon their historical performance, you might be a little suspect. He plans to ask the JPO at the hearing later this year how much progress they have made on resolving the TR-3 problem and how likely it is they can meet the deadline of next June.

Several issues have hampered the programs ability to make TR-3 work, Wittman said. The program needs more testbeds, he said, which prompted lawmakers to add more funding to this years National Defense Authorization Act to allow the program to do more testing on its TR-3 software.

But the TR-3 problem and lingering difficulty in getting its software to work shows that the Pentagon needs to rethink how it creates these systems and prioritize software creation first, Wittman said.

We have to look at software and data and the ability to do certain things in that realm first, and then design our hardware around that, Wittman said. Versus, build a great piece of hardware and then say, Well figure out how the software makes it work later. Were doing it backwards now.

Wittman said he plans to hold Lockheed Martin and the military accountable to ensure the F-35 is able to field the TR-3 capabilities it is meant to have. The fighters full capabilities must be realized so it can counter a potential threat from China in coming years, he said.

As they go through the testing, what happens is, the software gets to a certain point and then shuts down, Wittman said. I think thats because of inadequacies in how the information is gathered in that process.  They have some holes they have to fill in order to get to the place where the software is operational.
A woman says she was severely injured on a waterslide at a Disney park during her 30th birthday celebration.

She had severe vaginal lacerations and internal organ damage from the ride in Walt Disney World, she said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Orange County, Florida.

The woman is seeking more than $50,000 in the lawsuit, which was filed by attorney Alan Wagner of Tampa, after her 2019 trip to Disneys Typhoon Lagoon, where, the lawsuit said, the Humunga Kowabunga slide puts riders at risk of a painful "wedgie."

Typhoon Lagoon water park at Disney World. (Shutterstock)

Disney did not respond to a request for comment.

The woman went down the ride, which features three side-by-side enclosed slides, with her mother and her daughter.

"The slide caused [her] clothing to be painfully forced between her legs and for water to be violently forced inside her," the lawsuit says. "She experienced immediate and severe pain internally and, as she stood up, blood began rushing from between her legs."

She was wearing a one-piece swimsuit, according to the suit.

The woman was taken to a local hospital by ambulance, and she was later moved to another hospital to repair her gynecologic injuries, the suit says.

She "suffered severe and permanent bodily injury including severe vaginal lacerations, a full thickness laceration causing Plaintiffs bowel to protrude through her abdominal wall, and damage to her internal organs, it says.

Typhoon Lagoon  which opened in Orange County in 1989  is home to a large outdoor wave pool and other water-themed rides. Humunga Kowabunga, the park's fastest, steepest waterslide, sends riders down a five-story drop at nearly 40 mph, according to Disneys website.

At the top of the slide, riders are instructed to cross their legs at the ankles, according to the complaint. The woman alleges in her suit that she was put at risk for injury when she became airborne and was slammed against the slide, increasing the likelihood of her legs' becoming uncrossed.

"The risk of injury as a consequence of water being forced inside a womans body is far greater than it is for a man," the lawsuit says.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
A traffic stop on Interstate 77 in Iredell County led to the discovery of more than 150 cell phones, and one victim is hoping her lifeline is among the seized stash.

Investigators say 20 of the phones were stolen from the Lost Lands music festival in Ohio. Channel 9s Hunter Saenz spoke with one woman who lost her phone at that festival, and shes now desperate to get it back.

RELATED: Traffic stop leads to discovery of 152 possibly stolen cellphones

Bryanna Molina traveled from Texas to the Electronic Dance Music festival in September, but the fun times quickly turned into a nightmare while watching one of her favorite artists.

It was my first big festival, Molina told Saenz. I looked down at my fanny pack to get my phone to see what my glucose level, and I realized my phone was missing. My fanny pack was wide open, and some of my belongings scattered on the floor.

For Molina, her phone is more than just a device for calls, text messages, and social media. Living with diabetes, she uses her phone to check her glucose levels via Bluetooth connected to a device on her.

Which is stressful because it can be a very dangerous disease.

Days later, North Carolina State Highway Patrol troopers pulled over a car for speeding along I-77, and they found 152 cell phones. Four people from Orlando, Florida, were arrested and charged with 20 counts each of possession of stolen property.

The federal government is sending everyone an alarm; here's why:

Molina hopes one of the phones is hers.

It is a very serious thing to lose your phone, especially when it is so important to your health, Molina said.

Investigators are still working on the case and trying to see where the other 132 phones are from.

Molina has been in touch with detectives, and they know how desperate she is. She says, for now, shes pricking her finger every time she needs to check her glucose levels until she gets her phone back.

(WATCH: We dont have phone books anymore: Google listed business as permanently closed when it wasnt)
An unidentified woman is dead after a fatal shooting Tuesday afternoon in Augusta.

Just before 1 p.m. Tuesday, Richmond County Sheriffs Office deputies responded to the 1100 block of Maxwell Street for a shooting, according to a news release.

When deputies arrived, they found a woman who was shot at least once, according to the release. She died from her injuries.

"The investigation is in its early stages and no further information is available," according to the sheriff's office.

This story will be updated as new information becomes available.

Powerball winners: As Powerball lottery jackpot grows to $1.2 billion, two tickets in Georgia win $50,000

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Woman killed in Augusta shooting
A 22-year-old was arrested after police said she left her 3-year-old in the car to shoplift.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

On Sunday, just after 2 a.m., officers were called to the CVS Pharmacy on West Bankhead Highway regarding shoplifting.

Villa Rica Police later learned that the suspect, identified as Brooke Cheyenne Reynolds,22, of Rome had put items in her purse, heard a siren, and then left the store without paying for the items.

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Officials said Reynolds went back into the store without her purse and continued shopping. While investigating, authorities discovered a 3-year-old had been left alone in the vehicle.

According to Villa Rica, more items were found in Reynolds pockets, totaling $512. Police said Reynolds had been inside the store for nearly 30 minutes while the child was left alone.

Shes charged with theft by shoplifting and child abandonment.

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One of two women charged in the 2022 killing of a college student who was traveling with his girlfriend has been found guilty of murder and other federal charges.

Krystal Diane Pinkins, 37, was convicted of murder, robbery and unlawful use of a firearm during a crime of violence, U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona announced Friday.

Adam Simjee, 22, and Mikayla Paulus, 20, were traveling to Cheaha State Park in Clay County, Alabama, on Aug. 14, 2022, when Yasmine Marie Adel Hider, 21, flagged them down on a National Forest Service road in Talladega National Forest. Hider pretended to be stranded and asked for help giving Pinkins' car a jumpstart, but then robbed the couple, authorities said.

Simjee pulled out a gun he was carrying and managed to shoot Pinkins "a few times," Paulus told ABC affiliate WBMA-TV at the time. Hider, who was also armed, shot and killed Simjee.

Pinkins was found to have provided the gun used to kill Simjee and helped plan the robbery, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Alabama. She also watched the robbery and shooting from nearby woods before fleeing, the release said.

Pinkins was found at a "secluded" campsite about six hours after the shooting, the attorney's office said. As officers were arresting her, Pinkins' 5-year-old son ran from the woods with a loaded shotgun, but didn't fire, The Associated Press reported. The child was taken by child welfare workers, AP reported. Hider was also taken into custody and received treatment for her wounds.

Hider was among those who testified during Pinkins' trial. She is expected to plead guilty before the same judge that oversaw Pinkins' case on Oct. 4, 2023, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Alabama said.

The maximum sentence for robbery is 15 years in prison, and the maximum sentences for the other two charges are life in prison. Pinkins will be sentenced at a later date.

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McCLAIN COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR)  The third and final suspect in the 2018 kidnap and murder of a pregnant mother has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to life without parole.

Prosecutors said in 2018, Joshua Finkbeiner and his girlfriend, Stacy Harjo, believed 23-year-old Shaliyah Toombs stole Finkbeiners work backpack full of tools.

Shaliyah Toombs

The couple then went over to Toombs OKC apartment and held her at gunpoint, forcing her to go out to Finkbeiners truck and search for the bag. The man hanging out with Toombs, Daniel Vasquez, also went.

Prosecutors said it was Harjo, an alleged drug dealer, who told Finkbeiner to strangle Toombs. They said Toombs fought and clawed and begged while screaming Please dont and Im sorry, Josh.

After multiple tries, Finkbeiner stopped choking Toombs.

2 connected to 2018 murder of pregnant Oklahoma City woman receive deferred sentence

Prosecutors and investigators say Harjo then told Vasquez to finish the job.

Days later, Vasquez was found with her body in Goldsby and the couple was found in Arkansas.

Toombs was eight months pregnant with her third child.

Daniel Vasquez, Joshua Finkbeiner and Stacy Harjo

In 2021, Vasquez was convicted on two counts of first degree murder for his role in the murders and was sentenced to death.

Finkbeiner was convicted March 6, 2023, of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole.

Now, Harjo has pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including murder and kidnapping.

According to District Attorney Greg Mashburns office, she pleaded guilty to the following charges and received the following sentences:

Murder in the First Degree: Life without Parole

Murder in the First Degree: Life without Parole

Kidnapping: 20 years

Possession of a Firearm After Former Conviction: 10 years

Pattern of Criminal Offences: 2 years

All sentences will be served concurrently.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
(Bloomberg) -- Serum Institute of India Ltd., the worlds biggest vaccine maker, said its shot that gained a World Health Organization recommendation has the potential to significantly reduce fatalities from malaria, one of the globes most deadly diseases, particularly among young children in Africa.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The vaccine developed with researchers at the University of Oxford, known as R21, was recommended Monday by the WHO for use in Africa for children under five years old, the age group and continent that bear the brunt of a disease that kills more than 600,000 people a year.

We can protect the children and lives in Africa against this disease as soon as possible, said Adar Poonawalla , Serums chief executive officer, in an interview. It has the potential, if rolled out successfully, to save perhaps the most lives.

Malaria has been one of the worlds neglected diseases with 95% of cases and 96% of deaths occurring in Africa, many of them in the poorer countries of the continent. The lack of a lucrative market has meant relatively little impetus for development of a shot.

Its also been a tricky target for vaccine makers. The parasites that cause the deadly disease are prone to mutations that allow them to develop resistance to treatments. BioNTech SE, which developed the highly potent mRNA Covid vaccine in partnership with Pfizer Inc, is also working on a vaccine candidate for malaria. Last year, the WHO formally endorsed Mosquirix, the worlds first vaccine for the disease that was developed by GSK Plc and its partners.

Read More: First Malaria Vaccine Advances After Decades of Work

Approval of Serums shot should ease supply constraints as only 18 million doses of GSKs are available through 2025.

Serums immunization uses an adjuvant developed by Novavax Inc. to help raise an immune response to malaria and specifically targets a version of the parasite thats prevalent in Africa. The firm can produce 100 million doses of the vaccine a year, with 20 million already in stock, and expects to start distribution next year, Poonawalla said. Production capacity will be doubled over the next two years.

Twenty-eight African countries have expressed interest and 18 are ready to receive the vaccine, the CEO said. Shipments will primarily be distributed via Unicef and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, he said, as many countries wont have the money to pay for them.

The recommendation is a required step for the WHO to prequalify the vaccine through assessment of data relating to its efficacy and safety. Prequalification is a requirement for United Nations agencies such as Unicef and Gavi to deploy it.

The cost will be less than $4 a shot, cheaper than what is currently available, with three doses to be taken by children between five and 36 months of age with a booster to be taken a year later. The vaccines efficacy was shown in a clinical trial to be as high as 80% a year after the fourth dose was administered.

--With assistance from Bhuma Shrivastava and Janice Kew.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Ursula von der Leyen , President of the European Commission, congratulated Armenia on the ratification of the Rome Statute. Now the country is obliged to execute an arrest warrant for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin .

Source: von der Leyen on Twitter (X), reports European Pravda

Details: The President of the European Commission noted that with the decision of the Armenian parliament "the world is getting smaller for the autocrat in the Kremlin."

"I welcome the ratification of the International Criminal Court Rome Statute by the Armenian Parliament. Armenia has joined 123 states committed to the rule of law," she added.

Background:

The National Assembly of Armenia has passed a law ratifying the Rome Statute, the founding document of the International Criminal Court, which has issued a warrant for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Armenia signed the Rome Statute in 1998, but did not ratify it.

Yerevan has stressed the need to ratify the Statute and recognise its jurisdiction, emphasising that the risk of further military aggression against Armenia by Azerbaijan remains high, and that after ratification, Baku's war crimes will fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC.

States that have ratified the Rome Statute are obliged to arrest Vladimir Putin in the event of his arrival in their territory under a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in the context of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

As for Russia's concerns, Armenia's representative for international legal issues, Yeghisheh Kirakosyan, recently clarified that there is no question of Putin being arrested upon entering Armenia after the ratification of the Rome Statute, as current heads of state are granted immunity.

Earlier, Russia considered Armenia's intention to join the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) unacceptable and warned Yerevan about the consequences of such a step.

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!






While there is room for the US to continue supporting Ukraine, most of the security assistance has already been provided, so Congress needs to take action.

Source: a statement by Matthew Miller, US State Department spokesperson, at a briefing on 2 October; Holos Ameryky (Voice of America); Miller on Twitter (X)

Details: Miller did not specify how long the US would be able to provide assistance to Ukraine without a corresponding decision of Congress.

He noted that the White House is disappointed that "despite long-standing and strong bipartisan support for Ukraine as it fights back against Russias invasion, the continuing resolution that passed Congress on Saturday, did not include desperately needed support".

Miller said that "strong majorities in both houses of Congress support continued assistance to Ukraine because this is not simply about Ukraine".

Miller also stressed that suspending aid to Ukraine could be much more costly and dangerous for the American people: "We must continue to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position to defend itself. We cannot, under any circumstances, allow Americas support for Ukraine to be interrupted. Our allies, our adversaries and the world will be watching".

Quote from Miller: "While we have some remaining drawdown authority that we can draw on to continue to provide security assistance to Ukraine in the short term  in fact, we have another drawdown package coming in the coming days  USAI funding has been suspended, FMF [Foreign Military Financing  ed.] funding has been suspended. Those are contracting programs that allow us to contract for Ukraines  in the long term. So were not able to do that without further action by Congress.

It is about the world we want to live in. If we allow authoritarians like President Putin to do whatever they want to other sovereign countries, then the whole UN Charter will be shredded, and we are going to live in a world where this kind of aggression can happen anywhere, anytime."

Support for Ukraine is not simply about Ukraine  it is about the world we want to live in. A world where authoritarians like President Putin can do whatever they want to sovereign countries is far more dangerous for everyone. pic.twitter.com/lesyXJEBOU  Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) October 2, 2023

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
Russia has refused to compensate a soldier who was injured by his own comrades in Ukraine.

A court ruling against Khizri Kurazov, a corporal, says he was wounded by an accidental mine blast.

But he's not eligible for a standard $30,000 payment because he wasn't injured in the line of fire.

A Russian corporal wounded in Ukraine has been denied standard compensation for his war injuries because they were inflicted by his own comrades instead of Ukrainian forces, court documents show.

The case of Khizri Kurazov, a corporal of the military unit 3737 of the Russian Guard, was detailed in a September 8 ruling in Russia's southern district military court.

The ruling against Kurazov was earlier reported on by independent Russian media.

Kurazov, a contract soldier, was wounded in Ukraine by a mine accidentally detonated by fellow Russian personnel, according to the September 8 decision.

His injuries were certified by a Russian military hospital on March 14, and the cause of his wounds was listed as improper handling of ammunition by someone in his unit, the ruling said.

The corporal applied for a claim of 3 million rubles, or $30,000, according to the decision. Russia has disbursed these payments since early 2022 to soldiers wounded in the invasion of Ukraine.

But on May 25, an investigation run by Kurazov's combat unit found that the corporal's wounds weren't directly associated with any combat missions or tasks, and instead were inflicted by the mistakes of another serviceman.

It ruled that there were no grounds for the corporal to receive the lump-sum payment, and Kurazov's commander ordered a refusal of the claim, the judicial decision said.

A military court in the Nalchik Garrison also refused to grant Kurazov's payment on June 27, per the court filing.

Kurazov argued that the one-time payment to injured troops should be given to any Russian soldier wounded in Ukraine, including the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the filing said.

He appealed the Nalchik Garrison military court's decision, bringing his case to the southern district military court in Rostov-on-Don in August.

But a panel of three military court judges  Viktor Alekseevich Kostin, Dmitry Viktorovich Merkulov, and Magomedbasir Gapurovich Shuaipov  ruled on September 8 that the original decision should be upheld.

They agreed that requirements for the $30,000 payment include the soldier being wounded in direct combat. However, they added that Kurazov has the right to apply for other types of compensation.

Kurazov's refused claim is one of several that have been contested by injured Russian soldiers, such as contract soldier Aziz Magomedov, who was denied payment after receiving initial treatment in April 2022 at a city hospital instead of a military one, Radio Free Liberty reported.

Russia's Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The owner of an XL bully is facing jail after the unmuzzled dog attacked a 20-month-old toddler in the street.

Thomas Ackah, 29, of south-east London, pleaded guilty to charges of being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog at Bromley magistrates court on Tuesday.

The dog attacked the child in Greenwich, on Monday morning outside the Hilton Double Tree hotel.

His mother could be heard screaming at the scene, and was so distressed she could not give a statement, the court head on Tuesday.

A victim impact statement will be sought in due course, it was said.

Committed for sentencing

Wearing a dark blue jacket, Ackah was held on remand and committed for sentencing at Woolwich Crown Court on a date to be determined.

During the hearing, the court was played CCTV of the incident showing the dog grabbing hold of the child and biting it, with it taking several seconds for it to release its grasp.

Maureen Edwards, senior crown prosecutor, said: Mum was out with her 20 month old child. We can see the dog running at the child.

Weve seen the injuries, they are horrific, Ms Edwards said.

The aggravating factor is that the dog was an XL bully.

She added that the dog was dangerously out of control when it attacked the youngster.

The dog wasnt on the lead and was not muzzled, she said, adding that Ackah had not shown remorse for the attack and had questioned why he was held by police in handcuffs instead of the dog.

Its important to note that he didnt even ask about the child at the time and he seemed like he just wanted to hurry to leave the scene, Ms Edwards said.

The prosecution said that Ackah tried to flee the scene.

A doctor was walking past at the time and was able to assist. Ms Edwards said: It was lucky he was there.

The child was taken to A&E, and at the hospital the doctor said had the wounds been any deeper they would have been life-threatening.

Attempt to regain control

District Judge Sayed noted that Ackah did attempt to regain control of his dog, but added: XL bullies have been in the news quite a lot, they are big, muscular dogs.

Ms Edwards said that the doctor on scene had seen the defendant before, as he lives locally and told police that he recognised him, and he had seen him in the area before with two similar dogs.

Ackah stated in his police interview that he has friends who also have XL bullies.

The judge said it was a sustained attack as it took some effort and many seconds to get the dog off the child. The court heard that the dog, an apricot-coloured XL bully, had since been destroyed.

Defending, Chuda Sama said the incident was quite clearly disturbing but that her client had been trying to get the dog away.

He said I thought I could train it better, he was shocked by what had happened. She said that he had told her repeatedly its a baby, when reflecting on the dogs attack on the infant.

Ms Sama said this showed that Ackah, who works as a labourer, has got the natural instincts of a person who would react to this situation. He was in shock during this.

The judge accepted that the fact Ackah did not appear remorseful at the time did not mean he did not feel any remorse about what had happened.

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Bags containing a pillow, towel and bed sheets are placed on cots inside the dormitory tent during a media tour of a shelter New York City is setting up to house up to 1,000 migrants in the Queens borough of New York on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023. | Mary Altaffer, Associated Press

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appeared on Face The Nation Sunday, where she asked federal lawmakers to have a limit on who can come across the border.

It is too open right now, she said.

New York City is in the middle of an immigration crisis with over 180,000 migrants arriving since last spring and 10,000 more per month, The New York Times reported.

Hochul said that New York is one of the most diverse places on earth because of our welcoming nature ... its in our DNA to welcome immigrants. But there has to be some limits in place.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has discouraged migrants from coming to the city by distributing fliers at the southern border, saying there is no guarantee shelter or services will be provided, according to The New York Times.

In an address on Aug. 9, Adams said, We are past our breaking point. New York City has been left to pick up the pieces of a broken immigration system  one that is projected to cost our city $12 billion over the course of three fiscal years without policy changes and further support from the state and federal governments.

Hochul agreed with this statement on Face The Nation, calling on the federal government to implement more border control policies.

Congress has to put more controls at the border, she said. Instead of eliminating border patrol positions, we actually need to double or quadruple those numbers.

On Sept. 29, the Department of Homeland Security announced an 18-month extension to the temporary protected status of 472,000 Venezuelan migrants in the U.S., which allowed them to legally find work.

Additionally, New York City passed a right-to-shelter law in 1981, requiring the city to provide housing for all homeless who apply, per the Coalition for the Homeless. Adams, referring to this law, asked New Yorks judicial system to relieve the city of some of its legal obligations, according to The New York Times.

Recent immigrants to the United States lie on the sidewalk with their belongings as they talk to city officials in front of the Watson Hotel in New York on Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. | Seth Wenig, Associated Press
New York Student Sentenced To Year In Dubai Prison After Touching Airport Security Guard During Layover | GIUSEPPE CACACE/AF

A 21-year-old American college student was sentenced to one year in a Dubai prison after being accused of assaulting and insulting airport staff during a layover, according to legal experts. Elizabeth Polanco De Los Santos was denied boarding on July 15 while traveling through Dubai International Airport.

She was subjected to unpleasant, humiliating, and offensive searches when traveling from Istanbul to New York via the international hub.

Elizabeths experience transiting through Dubai International Airport has left our organization, Detained in Dubai, calling for increased travel warnings to U.S. citizens, founder Radha Stirling said in a statement.

Elizabeth only intended to transit through Dubai for six hours, but shes been there for months on end and has lost $50,000 in expenses and lawyers costs, she continued. Shes now been told she has a one-year prison sentence but that if all goes well, she will only be detained until she can book a flight out of the UAE.

Polanco De Los Santos was traveling to Turkey with a friend and had a 10-hour layover in the United Arab Emirates.

We thought it would be a more modern and futuristic city, but we were completely wrong, she said in a press release shared by Detained in Dubai, an organization that assists foreigners in the UAE.

Authorities told her to remove the doctor-mandated waist-training brace she wore while going through airport security. She hesitantly agreed and was led to a booth where women security officers took the trainer off in a rough manner, according to the press release.

I felt really violated, the student said, adding she was uncomfortable and afraid.

Polanco De Los Santos attempted to put the trainer back on, which usually requires two people and asked for help. The security officers blocked her exit, and the student nudged one of them while calling her friend for help.

I gently touched her arm to guide her out of the way, then desperately started crying to my friend for help, the 21-year-old said.

After the search came back clear, officials told her she would be detained for touching the female customs officer. She was kept for several hours as the officers filed a complaint, accusing Polanco De Los Santos of assaulting and insulting them.

Since the incident, she has been unable to return home to New York. Polanco De Los Santos apartment lease has expired, and classes at Lehman College, where she is enrolled, have resumed, according to the Economic Times.

An Aug. 24 court ruling required her to pay an AED10,000 fine ($4,500), but customs officials have appealed the decision. A new hearing is scheduled for Oct. 24, and, according to Detained in Dubai, Polanco De Los Santos may face jail time.

The 21-year-old reached out to the organization after it helped Tierra Young Allen, an American also detained in Dubai after being accused of yelling in public and violating the obscenity law. Allen was released and brought back to the United States after four months.
A 21-year-old New York student was said to have gotten a prison sentence after an airport search.

Elizabeth Polanco De Los Santos said she was accused of assault after nudging an airport official.

An advocacy group says Americans are falling victim to a "backwards" UAE justice system.

A legal advocacy group says a 21-year-old New York college student was sentenced to a year in prison over claims of "assaulting and insulting" the airport staff in Dubai after she gently touched a security officer's arm.

Detained in Dubai, an organization that provides legal assistance to foreigners in the United Arab Emirates, said in a press release that Elizabeth Polanco De Los Santos was transiting through Dubai International Airport from Istanbul to New York with a friend in July when she faced "degrading, painful, and humiliating searches."

The pair had chosen a 10-hour layover in Dubai over Paris.

"Elizabeth only intended to transit through Dubai for six hours, but she's been there for months on end and has lost $50,000 in expenses and lawyers costs," Detained in Dubai's founder, Radha Stirling , said in a statement .

"She's now been told she has a one-year prison sentence but that if all 'goes well,' she will only be detained until she can book a flight out of the UAE," Stirling added.

The UAE's Ministry of Justice didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

An earlier statement from Detained in Dubai said that after Polanco De Los Santos removed a medical waist-training brace upon request from female security officers at the airport, the officers refused to help her put it back on  a process that usually takes two people  and blocked her exit.

At this point, she "gently touched" the arm of one of the security guards so they could get her friend to help, she said in the press release.

Officials then told her she'd be detained for "touching the female customs officer," the report said.

Detained in Dubai previously described a miserable few months of moving hotels and waiting for court hearings for Polanco De Los Santos, a student at Lehman College.

And while Polanco De Los Santos may not serve the full year, Stirling said she would still be detained until she's allowed to leave the country.

"Even if she is allowed to be deported tomorrow, she will remain in prison until then, not knowing whether there will be further delays or whether, in fact, she will end up forced to serve the whole sentence," Stirling said.

"This is an extreme situation for a 21-year-old to go through," she added.

Stirling said Polanco De Los Santos was not the only American citizen to have fallen victim to what she called the United Arab Emirates' "backwards justice system."

Filing a criminal or civil case against someone in Dubai triggers a complicated legal process where the accused party is prohibited from leaving the country.

Stirling said local scammers were frequently relying on unsubstantiated claims to get significant settlement payments, citing the cases of Tierra Allen and Peter Clark.

Allen had to pay about $1,300 to have a travel ban lifted by local Dubai authorities, who arrested and detained her for months for "screaming in public" after a car crash, Detained in Dubai said .

The organization also highlighted the case of Clark, a Californian who paid $50,000 after being arrested and detained in Dubai for two months on charges of violating the country's drug laws after legally smoking cannabis before flying to Dubai.

"American citizens need to be aware that Dubai is a dangerous place to visit," Stirling said, adding: "Any country where a mere unevidenced allegation can result in lengthy imprisonment is an unacceptable choice for tourists, and Dubai needs to work hard to stop this kind of legal abuse."

Read the original article on Insider
By Lucy Craymer

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand is launching a new tourism campaign with Kiwi director and actor Taika Waititi to attract visitors after the sector was hammered by COVID-19 and border closures.

Tourism New Zealand on Wednesday will premiere a 3-1/2 minute promotional film featuring the Oscar winner and Jade Daniels, his stunt double in the HBO romantic comedy series "Our Flag Means Death" which is filmed in New Zealand.

Visitors from United States are a major target audience, said Rene de Monchy, chief executive for Tourism New Zealand. The film, shot in December 2022, will also play on social media platforms in Australia, Germany, the UK and parts of Asia.

"Competition is heating up and economic times are a bit tough in many parts of the world so we've got to keep being innovative and top of mind for people."

Prior to COVID and the closure of New Zealand's borders, international tourism was New Zealand's largest source of foreign exchange and accounted for about 5.5% of gross domestic product.

Tourists are returning but overseas visitors in July were still 16% lower than in July 2019.

The film, which cost NZ$689,000($409,890) to make, highlights activities like dolphin watching in Kaikoura on the South Island's east coast and wine tasting in the country's largest city Auckland.

($1 = 1.6810 New Zealand dollars)

(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Richard Chang)
As North Texas baked in record-breaking summer heat, customers of a small nonprofit water system near Azle were warned to stop outdoor watering because of critically low levels in the storage tanks brought on by high water use and a failing part that needed to be replaced.

The customers learned they could run out of water which didnt happen, but the Community Water Supply Corporation and its 1,250 customers are facing a perfect storm of setbacks, including low levels in Eagle Mountain Lake resulting in high algae levels and invasive zebra mussels that damaged equipment needed to treat the water.

Gary Bender, who lives near Azle, said he and his neighbors worry about the low water levels.

Weve been under pretty severe restrictions. Our landscaping is dying, he said.

Another water customer, Phyllis Tripolone, said she is frustrated that she is losing her yard since outdoor watering isnt allowed.

If were drinking the water, there should be a plan in place, she said.

Community Water Supply said in a Sept. 22 post on its website that the parts for repair have arrived but it was unsure when it would be able to shut down and make the repairs. It asks that customers continue to conserve water.

As you already know we are still dealing with the algae, but that issue will probably continue as long as we have low lake levels. We do not want to change out the parts at this time with the amount of algae in the lake for fear of damaging the new parts, the post reads.

We want to continued conserving water in effort to increase the water level in the tanks. This will allow us to have enough water stored in the tanks for the needed repairs to take place.

The Star-Telegram called the Community Water Supply Corporation office  which is only open Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings  several times requesting comments from the manager and board members. There was no response other than an invitation to an upcoming board meeting.

Community Water Supply purchases raw water from the Tarrant Regional Water District. The supply comes from Eagle Mountain Lake.

Chad Lorance, a spokesperson for the water district, said warm temperatures often lead to algae growing in reservoirs, which can cause problems for water treatment plants.

The takeaway is that what is occurring is not abnormal for our current conditions, Lorance said.

Lorance added that levels would be even lower in Eagle Mountain if the district didnt have a pipeline to send water from other lakes to Eagle Mountain. The district has moved 34.4 billion gallons of water into Eagle Mountain since the spring of 2022. That accounts for more than 80% of the water in the lake, Lorance said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky visited combat brigades on the front line in Kharkiv Oblast fighting on the Kupiansk-Lyman axis, the President's Office said on Oct. 3.

Zelensky spoke to commanders about the operational situation on the battlefield, the progress of offensive and defensive operations, and the current issues faced by units.

The Kupiansk-Lyman direction is one of the hottest on the front. The Russian invaders are constantly trying to advance there, the Presidents Office said.

Read also: Pro-Russian sympathies make life harder for soldiers, cops in Kupiansk district

Zelensky was briefed on the units' critical needs, with the commanders most often mentioning anti-aircraft and electronic warfare equipment as well as certain types of ammunition.

The president also presented state awards to soldiers and combat medics, thanking them "for every day and night that you give for all of us, without sparing yourself."

"Each of our combat brigades, each soldier who destroys the invaders, asserts with each step forward that Ukrainian victory will certainly come," said Zelensky.

Russia has been concentrating its forces around Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast since mid-July, trying to regain the positions lost during the Ukrainian surprise counteroffensive last autumn. The city was occupied by Russian forces in 2022 from Feb. 27 to Sept. 10.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote on Sept. 28 that Russian troops had reduced the tempo of their localized offensive operations on the Kupiansk-Svatove-Kreminna line.

Read also: Trained in the heat of battle: The journey of Kharkiv Oblasts Territorial Defense

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, reported on 3 October that he had held field meetings with everyone responsible for the defence and social and economic situation in the city of Kharkiv and Kharkiv Oblast.

Source: Zelenskyy in an address from 3 October

Quote: "A lot of issues important for the region [were discussed  ed.]. Specifically [those most essential] before winter, especially taking into account the constant Russian terror against Kharkiv and Kharkiv Oblast, and the attempts of the Russians to intensify the assaults on our positions."

Details: Zelenskyy reported that he had heard a report by Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces; a report by Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, and the report of the head of the National Police of Ukraine about the current protection measures in Kharkiv Oblast. The president also discussed the protection of Kharkiv Oblast from the Russian attacks and power supply of the region with the head of the Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration and the mayor of Kharkiv, the Minister of Energy, the head of Ukrainian state power company Ukrenergo and the head of the Ukrainian oil and gas company Naftogaz.

Quote: "At the meeting, there were orders concerning the preparation for the heating season, and those concerning the rebuilding, and physical protection of power facilities from Russian attacks. Everything must be done, some things require acceleration."

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!






President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met on Monday with Hanno Pevkur , Estonian Defence Minister, who is visiting Ukraine.

Source: Office of the President, as European Pravda reported

Details: Zelenskyy thanked Pevkur for Estonia's leadership in helping Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale war and spoke about the current situation at the contact line and the current needs of Ukraine.

Quote: "The parties discussed the possibilities of additional mechanisms of defence assistance to Ukraine from Estonia. The leading role of the Republic of Estonia in launching the IT coalition for Ukraine during the recent Ramstein meeting was also noted."

Details: They also discussed cooperation in the context of Ukraine's European and Euro-Atlantic integration.

In Kyiv, Pevkur also met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Rustem Umierov.

Background:

The Estonian Foreign Minister also visited Kyiv on Monday as part of the EU Council meeting, which was held outside the EU for the first time.

Last week, the UK and French defence ministers visited Ukraine before the Defence Industries Forum.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has inspected military equipment used in fighting on the Kupiansk front and presented awards to Ukrainian soldiers.

Source: Zelenskyy on social media

Quote: "It is an honour for me today to reward our soldiers who have distinguished themselves protecting our state. I am especially honoured to reward combat medics. Thank you for protecting Ukraine and Ukrainians! This is the most important mission. I wish you victory!"

Details: Zelenskyy said he had also inspected military equipment  Leopard 2 tanks and CV-90 infantry fighting vehicles used in combat on the Kupiansk front.

Zelenskyy discussed the results of their use with the crews. He said the soldiers were satisfied.

The Ukrainian president thanked the soldiers for the conversation and the chevrons they presented to him.

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!
Zendaya recreated one of Naomi Campbells iconic Louis Vuitton ads against a surprising backdrop.

The actors signature stylist, Law Roach , took to Instagram on 2 October to share the moment of Zendaya posing with the black and brown purse, which had the iconic logo for the luxury brand on it. In the video, the Euphoria star could be seen holding up the handbag and striking a pose, while standing in an elevator.

Roach proceeded to film the actor, as she went on to slightly arch her back and look up towards the ceiling. She had the bottom of the purse placed on the palm of one hand and held the bags straps with her other hand.

There was also a special meaning behind the elevator video, as it recreated one of Campbells 2004 Louis Vuitton photoshoots, in which she was holding the same multi-coloured bag as Zendaya.

Giving a little @naomi this Monday afternoon. Top and bag from @louisvuitton SS 2004, Roach wrote in the caption, referring to Zendayas gold shirt with puffy sleeves, which she paired with blue jeans. In the ad, Campbell was also wearing the same shirt.

In the initial photo shoot, Campbell could be seen with her hands on her hip, and the Louis Vuitton bag on her arm. She paired her shirt with matching gold underwear, while she had her hair in a high ponytail, and was wearing red lipstick.

Along with writing four red heart emojis in the comments of Roachs post, the model also re-shared the video to her own Instagram Story on 2 October. Many famous faces and fans also went to the comments of the stylists post to praise Zendayas recreation of Campbells photoshoot.

This just made my day, Marc Jacobs wrote, along with a red heart emoji, while another fan added: Obsessed is an understatement.

LITERAL SLAY. Naomi x Zendaya by Law Roach will break the internet, a third wrote.

The Dune stars elevator photoshoot came shortly after she attended Louis Vuittons Spring/Summer 2024 show during Paris Fashion Week. For the occasion, she wore a white gown with a plunging neckline and double zipper detail on the front. The zipper dress was zipped up from her stomach to her thighs, allowing the dress to showcase its slit.

For accessories, Zendaya opted for a series of gold rings and bracelets, while she had her straightened hair down and wore pink lipstick.

Along with the Disney Channel alum, some of the celebrities on the star-studded guest list for the show included Cate Blanchett, Gemma Chan, Jaden Smith, and the creative director of Louis Vuittons menswear, Pharell Williams.
A corporation that provides security and protective services at grassroots events has filed a defamation lawsuit against former 5th District Congressman Denver Riggleman and three co-defendants in connection with statements published about the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The complaint filed in December in Nelson Circuit Court on behalf of plaintiff 1st Amendment Praetorian (1AP) against Riggleman, a county resident and businessman who served a two-year stint in Congress that ended three days before the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc.; Henry Holt & Company, Inc.; and MacMillan PubGroup, LLC also are listed as co-defendants.

The suit centers on an edited excerpt from a book 'The Breach: The Untold Story of the Investigation Into January 6' by Riggleman and Hunter Walker; Hearst published it in the magazine Esquire and Holt and MacMillan published the book.

The complaint states 1AP was founded in 2020 to ensure each American can freely associate, gather and speak on matters of public concern without fear of retribution or physical harm. The suit says 1AP provided security for the media, including an ABC affiliate, on Jan. 6, which is described in the court filing as "one of the most dangerous days in the modern history of our republic."

A motion to dismiss response was filed in February by Brady Nicks, attorney for the defendants, and states the suit should not move forward in a state court because the suit does not satisfy basic jurisdiction requirements over Hearst.

"Virginia is not the world's defamation court and, because 1AP cannot clear the threshold required to sue Hearst in this state, 1AP's claims against Hearst should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction," the motion reads.

The motion states the subject of the book and excerpt  Congress's probe into the Jan. 6 insurrection  is a topic of national significance and does not focus on or mention any events that took place in Virginia. The response asks for the complaint to be dismissed without prejudice and refiled in New York since the plaintiff is not located in Virginia and would not be inconvenienced by litigating the matter in New York, which Nicks in the motion indicated is a more suitable place for it to go forward.

1AP is a Delaware-based corporation with a principal place of business in Dallas, Texas, according to court documents.

Neither 1AP or its security professionals engaged in violent or played any role in the attack on the Capitol, the complaint reads. Prior to publication of "the false statements and defamatory implication at issue in this case," the suit says defendants knew the FBI thoroughly investigated 1AP and cleared it of any wrongdoing.

"Defendants knew the truth, but printed egregious lies," the complaint reads.

The suit cites "false statements, defamatory implications and insulting words" in including 1st Amendment Praetorian among militant groups that took part in the attack on the Capitol. The filing claims 1AP was falsely portrayed as engaging in coordinated acts of "domestic terrorism."

Riggleman, who for a period after leaving Congress served as a senior staffer to the U.S. House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack, asserted in the book he and his teams of analysts used intelligence sources to "follow the radicals who sought to overturn the election for President Trump," the complaint reads.

"Riggleman told J6 Committee member Wyoming Representative (former) Elizabeth Cheney that he and shadowy organizations with whom he worked, including the Network Contagion Research Institute, could find out 'exactly who was behind' the attack on the Capitol," the suit reads.

The litigation further says Riggleman states the rhetoric of far-right militants, such as 1AP, eventually resulted in "a plan to converge on the Capitol" and his phone records analysis shows a web of extensive communication between "Trump associates," the former president's "inner circle" and militant groups, including 1AP.

The complaint claims Hearst did not fact-check statements about 1AP and "deliberately ignored" an April 2022 lawsuit the plaintiff filed in New Hampshire denying any role in the attack on the Capitol. In the suit, the plaintiff denies being a domestic extremist, militant group and states it did not engage in any violence that day and was not connected to Trump, his inner circle or anyone who stormed the Capitol.

The suit claims the defendants published the statements "with knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth" and it further states no one from 1AP has been charged with any crime relating the events of Jan. 6. The complaint states events described in the book and magazine excerpt as they relate to 1AP "never happened" and argues the co-defendants "fabricated facts, falsely attributed actions to 1AP," falsely implicated the plaintiff in an insurrection plot and "embroiled 1AP in their preconceived agenda to get President Trump."

"Sadly, even an 'intelligence' officer knows that the mere fact of phone calls and text messages proves nothing," the complaint further adds. The filing also states in the book the former congressman "harbors extreme spite and ill-will towards 1AP and others, including Trump and Michael Flynn, the retired United States Army lieutenant general who briefly served as the 24th U.S. National Security Advisor under Trump.

"Riggleman is eager to attribute crimes, violence and extremism to 1AP and others in order to inflict harm," the complaint reads.

The complaint states the former congressman has encouraged visitors to Silverback Spirits, his Nelson County distillery, to contact Holt with inquiries about the book. On Sept. 22, the plaintiff served defendants with written notice demanding the statements be retracted, removed from the internet and that they cease and desist any further versions of "The Breach" that contain false and defamatory statements, according to the litigation.

The book and its contents is continuing to cause damage to the plaintiff's business and reputation, the lawsuit states. It further states: "Defendants carefully chose their words and purposely mispresented facts" and 1AP was "humiliated, disgusted, angered and provoked by the insulting words."

The plaintiff seeks $50 million in compensatory damages, $350,000 or the maximum allowed by allow in punitive damages and permanent injunctive relief and is demanding a jury trial, according to court documents.

Attempts to reach Riggleman and Nicks for comment were not successful by press time.

A pretrial hearing set for Sept. 29 in Nelson Circuit Court on the litigation was continued, according to online court records. A trial date has not yet been scheduled, court records show.
The Central Virginia Planning District Commission (CVPDC) announced another round of grant awards to support affordable housing development in the CVPDC area.

Grant money totaling $476,800 was awarded to three providers  Greater Lynchburg Habitat for Humanity, Rush Homes and Amherst County Habitat for Humanity  to develop new affordable housing in the area, a news release states.

The CVPDC, through three rounds of its Virginia Housing PDC Development Grant, has awarded a total of $1,699,931 that will be used to develop 61 new affordable residential units across the Central Virginia Planning District, to include units in the town of Altavista, Amherst County, town of Amherst and Lynchburg.

Virginia Housing invested $40 million in Virginias 21 Planning District Commissions to create new partnerships and local solutions that deliver new housing units across the Commonwealth, Tammy Neale, chief of Programs at Virginia Housing said in the release. Central Virginia Planning District Commission has demonstrated tremendous leadership in the region, driving conversations around the importance of housing options and forging partnerships to deliver much needed new housing units.

In 2021, Virginia Housing, a leader in advancing affordable housing throughout the Commonwealth, awarded $40 million in grant funding to 21 Planning District Commissions in Virginia, the release states. The CVPDC was awarded $2 million to provide supportive funding to create at least 20 affordable units by June 30, 2025. The $1,699,931 of CVPDC-awarded funds to date will be leveraged by an additional estimated $12,317,192 in outside funding secured by the five development partners advancing affordable housing in the region.
The Youth Philanthropy Council is back after being on hiatus since 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a news release, the Greater Lynchburg Community Foundation (GLCF) is re-launching this local tradition for the 2023-24 academic year.

The Youth Philanthropy Council (YPC) consists of 27 outstanding seniors from 12 high schools in the region the GLCF serves including Lynchburg and the counties of Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell.

The primary role of YPC members is to award $15,000 in grants to deserving local nonprofit organizations, the release said.

This opportunity allows students to better understand how philanthropy impacts our community, the release states. Students are advised by local community leaders who guide them through the process of awarding grants.

Since its inception in 2003, the Youth Philanthropy program has been a rewarding experience for all those involved, Kathryn Yarzebinski, GLCF president and CEO said.

The Youth Philanthropy Council teaches high school seniors about how local nonprofits make their community better, she said in the release. As students go through the grantmaking process, they learn a lot of life lessons. This includes how to work through the steps of an eight-month process, how to critically read and evaluate requests for funding, and how to present their own independent findings and research to others. Most importantly, they are learning to sit around a table with people who may have very different perspectives and opinions, and respectfully communicate in order to come to a consensus.

The program was established as the centerpiece of the 30th anniversary celebration of the Greater Lynchburg Community Foundation in 2002.

Since 2003, Wells Fargo Investment Management has graciously provided the money for the annual $10,000 Youth Philanthropy Award. The Greater Lynchburg Community Foundation provides funding for an additional $5,000 award and other additional expenses of the program, the release states.

The YPC held its kickoff meeting on Sept. 20 at Central Virginia Community College and will meet periodically throughout the school year.

The students review grant applications, rate the applications, perform site visits of the top applicants and prepare presentations on these applications.

From this process, a final vote is taken to determine which agencies will receive the $10,000 grant and the $5,000 grant.

The Greater Lynchburg Community Foundation was established in 1972 to promote local philanthropy. The mission of the GLCF is to enhance the quality of life for neighbors in the area by the establishment of permanent endowments with income distributed annually to charitable organizations within the community.

Since 1972, the GLCF has granted more than $31 million to a wide variety of local nonprofit organizations including human services, animal welfare, arts, education and historical preservation organizations. In 2023, the GLCF awarded over $2.2 million to 211 charitable organizations, the release states.
Lynchburg Police are investigating a report of a gunshot in the Meadows Apartments that occurred Saturday.

According to the department, officers were clearing from a domestic violence call for service at the apartments on Yorktown Avenue at about 10:06 p.m. on Saturday, when officers heard a gunshot nearby. A resident also reported hearing a gunshot coming from an apartment's breezeway.

Officers completed a thorough search of the area and were not able to locate a suspect, LPD said in a release.

LPD's Forensics Unit processed a police vehicle that was believed to have been struck by gunfire but has not located any evidence at this point in the investigation, LPD said.

The department is asking anyone in the area with a doorbell or security camera that may have captured this incident to share the footage with law enforcement.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Detective S. Bond at (434) 455-6161 or call Central Virginia Crime Stoppers at (888) 798-5900. An anonymous tip also can be made online using http://p3tips.com or by downloading the P3 app on any mobile device. A cash reward of up to $1,000 may be available for tips that lead to an arrest, LPD said.
TOKYO, Oct 04 ( News On Japan ) - In response to an increasing number of "standing prostitutes" around Okubo Park in Tokyo's Kabukicho district, 35 women have been arrested in a police crackdown.

In recent years, there has been a growing presence of "standing prostitutes" soliciting clients in the vicinity of Okubo Park. Social media platforms have seen a surge in posts featuring interactions between clients and women engaged in such activities.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police began enforcing measures in and around Okubo Park on September 5, resulting in the arrest of 35 women between the ages of 21 and 46 on suspicion of violating the Anti-Prostitution Act.

According to police, the most common motivation among these women was a desire for money, which they intended to use for host clubs or on male idols.

Tokyo police have begun the process of explaining the crackdown to 110 host clubs in regards to soliciting prostitution.
TOKYO, Oct 04 ( News On Japan ) - The number of truants at elementary and junior high schools in Japan has reached a new high of almost 300,000 students, and reported bullying cases in all schools at about 690,000 during the 2022 academic year.

The results of a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) indicate that 299,048 elementary and junior high school students across the country were in non-attendance in the 2022 academic year, representing an increase of 54,108 students (22.1%) from the previous year.

This marks the 10th consecutive year of increase and continues to set new highs.

MEXT attributes this escalation to factors such as the prolonged impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in living environments, disrupted daily routines, and various restrictions in school life, all of which may have affected students' motivation to attend school.

The number of recognized bullying cases in elementary, junior high, and high schools reached 681,948, which is an increase of 66,597 cases (10.8%) from the previous year, setting a new record high. This increase is believed to be partly due to the resumption of extracurricular activities and school events, leading to increased interactions among students amid the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A record 923 cases were classified as "serious incidents of bullying," an increase of 217 cases (30.7%) from the previous year. Out of the serious bullying cases (923 cases), 357 cases (38.7%) were initially not recognized as bullying. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) believes that this indicates ongoing challenges in schools' recognition of bullying incidents.

Additionally, the number of students who reported suicide across all schools increased by 43 people compared to the previous year, reaching a serious situation that is close to the record high of 415 people in the 2020 academic year, with a total of 411 students.

For the first time, a survey on "suicide due to corporal punishment and inappropriate instruction by educators," commonly known as "instructional deaths," was conducted, resulting in one case in elementary school and one case in high school.
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP)  Israeli troops and tanks pushed deeper into Gaza on Monday, advancing on two sides of the territorys main city, as the U.N. and medical staff warned that airstrikes have hit closer to hospitals where tens of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter alongs
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Gabons post-coup ruler has visited The Congo to improve the relations between the two neighbors and lobby for the easing of his countrys international isolation after a group of military officers overthrew Ali Bongo Ondimba whose family had ruled Gabon since 1967.

General Brice Oligui Nguema, who met with Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso on Sunday (1 October), said his visit was aimed at improving the ties and easing Gabons international isolation following the coup. It is also to ease the sanctions we hope to once again take our place among the nations, said Gabons new strongman, whose country was suspended from the African Union and the Economic Community of Central Africa States (ECCAS) after the change of government. ECCAS has also ordered the immediate transfer of its headquarters from Gabons Libreville to the capital city of Equatorial Guinea. Many in Gabon saw Ali Bongos overthrow as an act of liberation rather than a military coup.

In a separate but related development, the Franco-Gabonese wife of Gabons deposed leader has been charged with money laundering and other offenses, including concealment and forgery, the public prosecutor said Friday (29 September), a month after a coup toppled her husband. She also faces other charges including concealment and forgery, he said. Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Valentin has been under house arrest in the capital Libreville since her husband was overthrown. Her eldest son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, has already been charged with corruption and embezzling public funds with several former cabinet members and two ex-ministers.
Morocco and Israel signed last week in Marrakech a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the establishment of an agricultural technology project focusing on aquaponics.

The agreement provides for the establishment of a center for agricultural studies. The institution is expected to serve as a hub for knowledge exchange and innovation in farming techniques, benefiting both nations.

Besides, Moroccan and Israeli agriculture teams are poised to launch a technological agricultural aquaculture field project. The initiative holds the potential to address agricultural challenges and enhance food production methods.

Israeli Agriculture Minister, Avraham Moshe Dichter, who signed the deal along with his Moroccan peer Mohammed Sadiki, told the press that the MoU is aimed at enhancing the exchange of knowledge and expertise in the fields of agriculture, wheat cultivation, and water.

This is a significant step forward for both countries, he said, expressing his conviction that within a few years, both nations will achieve outstanding results in terms of food security.

As part of the effort to strengthen relations between the two countries, Sadiki and Dichter held talks on the sidelines of the 2nd African Conference on Health Risk Reduction, convened in Marrakech last week. Their discussions focused particularly on prospects for bolstering cooperation in the agricultural and fisheries sectors.

The collaboration seeks to tap into each nations unique expertise to tackle shared challenges in the agricultural domain.

The African Conference on Health Risk Reduction actually focused on water management, environmental conservation, and food security.
2018 Nobel Prize Winner Denis Mukwege announced Monday plans to run for December presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in view of saving a country torn by insecurity.

I agree to be your candidate for president of the Republic, the surgical gynecologist, 69, told a packed auditorium in the central African nations capital, Kinshasa.

We cannot wait to act, tomorrow is already too late, he added.

The speech was broadcast live to two halls in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, where his announcement drew rapturous applause, Sputnik reports.

This city is the home of Mukweges Panzi hospital, which has specialized in treating survivors of sexual violence since opening in 1999 amid the ravages of the Second Congo War.

In September, the Congolese hero reportedly declared that his supporters had donated the $100,000 deposit needed to launch a run for the presidency.

DRC, known as one of the richest countries in the world, has been ravaged by internal conflicts opposing the state armed forces and myriads of rebels fighting for the control of the countrys mineral resources.

One such militia, the M23, has captured swathes of territory since launching an offensive in late 2021.

The elections will be held in December and candidates have until October 8 to submit their bids. Mukwege will face off incumbent leader Felix Tshiseked who is seeking another term in office after ascending to power in 2018.

Other declared opposition candidates include Martin Fayulu, who ran unsuccessfully in 2018, and two ex-prime ministers of Tshisekedis predecessor Joseph Kabila, Augustin Matata as well as Adolphe Muzito. Business magnate Moise Katumbi is also expected to announce a bid.
Egypts incumbent leader Fattah al Sisi announced Monday his plans to seek another term in office in the December presidential elections after assuming power in 2014.

I am heeding the call of Egyptians once again, and I am determined to run for president, El-Sisi stated.

O God, if someone is more worthy of it than I am, then I pray that you grant them success and aid them; but if it is I who is worthy of it, then I pray that you grant me success and aid me, the leader prayed in his speech before uttering May I be the one more worthy of it.

Al Sisi made the announcement during the final day of the Hikayat Watan conference, held in the New Administrative Capital.

The three-day conference which started Saturday shed light on the achievements of his administration in different fields.

Al Sisi first came to power in 2013 through a military coup that removed the countrys first ever democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi. He later won subsequent 2014 elections.

He won 2018 elections almost unopposed. He incited 2019 constitutional amendments that altered presidential term limits and became eligible to run for a third term in office that ends in 2030.

National Elections Authority (NEA) late last month announced that presidential elections will take place 10-12 December, with Egyptians abroad casting their votes 1-3 December.

Candidates have more than one week, 5 to 14 October 2023, to submit their bids.

Sisi has ruled Egypt with iron-fist as he prevented and muzzled opposition. Thousands of critics and activists, mainly from the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood have been arrested and hauled in jail on trumped charges.

The former army general turned politician and his supporters say the measures were needed to stabilize Egypt after the turmoil caused by the 2011 Arab Spring popular uprising in the country.
Photo: Family photo via AP

A 9-year-old girl taken from her family during a camping trip in upstate New York this weekend was found safe on Monday, and a suspect in her disappearance has been arrested. Often these stories dont end up like this, said Governor Kathy Hochul in a press conference on Monday, describing the return of Charlotte Sena to her family in good health. Hochul also described the dramatic effort to find Sena and arrest the suspect, Craig Nelson Ross Jr., who has been charged with first-degree kidnapping and allegedly tried to get a ransom payment in exchange for her return. Below is everything we know about Senas abduction, the investigation to get her home, and the suspect who allegedly took her from her family.

The abduction

On Saturday night, Senas family was camping at Moreau Lake State Park about 35 miles north of Albany and about 12 miles from her familys home in Greenfield, New York. According to Governor Hochul, Sena was riding her bike around a campsite loop with other children. She decided to take another lap by herself and never returned. Her mother called 911 after finding Senas bike around 6:45 p.m. Authorities issued an Amber Alert on Sunday, and state police Lieutenant Colonel Richard Mazzone said that it was quite possible that an abduction had taken place. Over 400 law enforcement officials  including forest rangers, police officers, and the FBI  were mobilized in the search.

How police found Sena and the suspect

According to Governor Hochul, the Sena family remained at the campsite over the weekend awaiting Charlottes possible return, while at their home in Greenfield, police watched from a distance to see if anyone appeared.

Around 4:20 a.m. on Monday, officers saw a man leave a note in the Sena mailbox. In court filings on Tuesday, prosecutors alleged that the note was a ransom letter with the intent to compel the payment of monies. (The contents of the note have not been revealed.) Investigators then pulled fingerprints from the message and found a match with a suspect, Craig Nelson Ross Jr., who was arrested for drunk driving in 1999.

Law enforcement officials traced Nelson to a double-wide trailer behind his mothers mobile home in Milton, New York, about 30 minutes away from the state park Sena was taken from. Around 6:30 p.m., two SWAT teams entered the trailer, where Sena was found inside a cabinet. She knew she was being rescued, Hochul said on Monday. She knew that she was in safe hands. According to state police, Ross initially resisted the SWAT teams entering his trailer and experienced minor injuries during the arrest.

The suspect has been charged

On Tuesday, Ross was arraigned at the Milton town court and charged with kidnapping. New York state police stated that he was remanded to Saratoga County Correctional Facility without bail.

Craig Ross Jr, 275 pounds, 64



This is the suspect who kidnapped Charlotte Sena off her bicycle, he has been booked into the Saratoga County Jail#CharlotteSena #CraigRossJr pic.twitter.com/3GcL4Ep5fD  Crime With Bobby (@crimewithbobby) October 3, 2023

In the Monday press conference, Governor Hochul said that Rosss motivations are still unclear. It is not known at this time whether he knew her or had her under surveillance for any length of time, she said.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Sena family said that they were thrilled that she is home and we understand that the outcome is not what every family gets.
In an appearance last weekend on Real Time With Bill Maher, Ron DeSantis was asked why he campaigned in 2022 with election deniers like Kari Lake. DeSantis said, accurately yet revealingly, that he wanted to see Republicans win key races. Maher asked why that wasnt a deal-breaker for him. DeSantis proceeded to point to Trumps first election:

Well, lets go back to 2016. Your friends in Hollywood were cutting ads telling the Electoral College to vote against Trump in the electoral college because it was stolen. They said Russia stole the election. For years, they said that. So dont act like this is like this is a unique thing in modern history.

What happened in 2016? Hillary Clinton did not, in fact, attempt to steal the election. Instead she conceded the morning after the election, gracefully delivering a speech calling him the victor and wishing him success:

Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans. This is not the outcome we wanted or we worked so hard for, and Im sorry that we did not win this election for the values we share and the vision we hold for our country.

Clinton made no attempt whatsoever to overturn the election result.

It is true, as DeSantis says, that some cast members of The West Wing and other Hollywood celebrities cut an ad urging the Electoral College to vote against him. While perfectly constitutional  the Electoral College was originally designed to permit electors to make their own judgments, and not all electors were formally required to follow their state decisions  it was undemocratic and destabilizing. It was also not an idea that Clinton or the Democratic Party was proposing.

It is also true that some people on the left claimed, absurdly, that Russian hackers changed voting totals to elect Trump, but this claim was never used in any attempt to change the election result.

DeSantiss comment is a good demonstration of the escalatory nature of whataboutism. The United States of America is a very large country. At any given time, there will usually be some far-out people on all sides saying or doing some crazy things. On a near daily basis, there are conservative talking heads calling for political violence or extra-constitutional measures.

If you can point to a crazy thing said by anybody who supports the other party to justify taking similar actions on your own, then the baseline of morally acceptable behavior would plunge quickly, as each party immediately adopts the most dangerous or extreme measures advocated by the most unhinged supporters of the other side. Political conflict would quickly escalate to civil war.

Maher, sadly, did not point out any of these things. DeSantiss campaign considered this exchange such a clear win it tweeted out the video.

The most persuasive account of how healthy democracies backslide into authoritarianism shows that the key actors are political allies of authoritarians, semi-loyal democrats who choose to endorse their anti-democratic actions because they care more about power than democracy.

DeSantis is a textbook example of a semi-loyal actor. Preserving democracy would mean, at the most minimum level, refusing to try to elect allies of Donald Trump who continue to endorse his attempt to secure an unelected second term. But by pointing to a kooky idea a handful of celebrities cooked up, DeSantis justifies his disgraceful collaboration.
Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Kevin McCarthy became the first Speaker of the House in American history to be formally voted out of the position on Tuesday thanks to a right-wing rebellion among Republicans. Eight of them joined all the Democrats to force out the Speaker hours after an earlier vote signaled the end was near.

The office of Speaker of the House of the United States House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant, Steve Womack, who presided over the dramatic session, announced following the vote. Thanks to a postSeptember 11 law designed to ensure continuity in government, the temporary Speaker (third in line to the presidency) is Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican.

Despite the historic humiliation, McCarthy, 58, had initially said he was planning to run for the post again, promising a repeat of the January spectacle that took 15 ballots for him to win  but he later reversed himself and announced he would not stand again for speaker. Then, as now, the opposition was led by Matt Gaetz, who filed whats known as a motion to vacate to start the process of dethroning the longtime California Republican.

A hush broke over the chamber when the first vote clearing the way for McCarthy to be removed was finally gaveled to a close. In a room that normally has a low buzz of background noise even when only two members are there, it was deathly quiet. In the silence, Gaetz walked up the center aisle of the chamber and then over toward the Democratic side of the room. There, he stood to manage the debate that immediately began about whether to remove McCarthy. Each side took its turn with McCarthy defenders like Republican whip Tom Emmer praising the Speaker as having overperformed expectations. In contrast, Gaetz gibed at those critics who argued that dethroning McCarthy would just lead to greater chaos. Chaos is Speaker McCarthy. Chaos is somebody we cannot trust with their word, he said.

It was a predictable outcome given Gaetz said in January that McCarthy would be in a straitjacket as Speaker given the conditions he negotiated with the hard right of the GOP conference to win their support. In the nine months since, McCarthy has been wriggling out of that straitjacket, leading to todays historic vote. In the spring, he relied on Democrats to raise the debt ceiling after conservatives rebelled. More recently, hes pushed through votes on aid to Ukraine and over the weekend to keep the federal government open, albeit until mid-November, while relying on the minority party as well.

If you throw a Speaker out who has 99 percent of their conference, kept government open, and paid the troops, were in a really bad place for how were going to run Congress, McCarthy said on Tuesday morning, seemingly resigned to his fate.

While Gaetz and his allies succeeded his short-term goal of ousting McCarthy, more Republicans spoke with utter disdain about the rebel leader from Florida. Dusty Johnson, South Dakotas at-large representative, called Gaetz a diabolical saboteur who was motivated by middle-school grudges against McCarthy. Stephanie Bice, representing Oklahomas fifth district, said Gaetz was using the American people as pawns in his narcissistic game of charades. (Steve Womack, a McCarthy ally, did say actually I kinda like Matt personally, though, I like a lot of people I have strong disagreement with.)

Democrats, meanwhile, simply had zero desire to bail out McCarthy, whom they viewed as fundamentally dishonest and untrustworthy.

Republicans expected McCarthy to try again, but he bowed out in a brief meeting of House Republicans. Speaking to reporters after, he delivered his own eulogy. I dont regret standing up for choosing governance over grievance. It is my responsibility. It is my job, he said, before criticizing those who ousted him.

They are not conservatives, McCarthy said of the breakaway Republicans who he accused of recently voting against spending cuts because they were not deep enough. He singled out Gaetz personally: It had nothing to do about spending, he said, adding, It was all about getting attention.

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Photo: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

Soon after Sam Bankman-Frieds crypto empire imploded last November, word got out that Michael Lewis  author of nonfiction classics like Liars Poker and The Big Short  had unfettered access to his subject during his billionaire rise to his downfall as an alleged fraud. Unfortunately for Lewis, it comes just as the authors reputation as a storyteller has taken a hit. A recent controversy around the motives of the family in The Blind Side  a movie based on his hit book of the same title  has only upped the stakes around the project. Lewis has framed his new book, Going Infinite, as a letter to the jury, the product of more than 100 interviews with SBF, which would presumably tell the story that everyone else has missed. The publication date, October 3, is the same day that jury selection begins for SBFs sprawling criminal trial, where the Justice Department will try him on seven counts of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering.

I got an early look at Going Infinite. It is not a perfect book. As journalism, it feels rushed; as a romp, it is not among Lewiss best. What makes SBF so challenging is that every little thing he has done and said has been pored over by an army of reporters. So, for Lewis, the books success boils down to one question: Can the most prominent business reporter in the world deliver the goods on the biggest alleged financial fraud of the past decade? And the answer, unfortunately, is no. Though, to his credit, Lewis did get a lot  particularly, the details about SBFs tanged and fraught relationship with Caroline Ellison, his ex who also helmed his hedge fund, Alameda Research. And when it comes to the question of fraud, Lewis got closer than anyone to getting Bankman-Fried to admit that hed knowingly done something wrong.

Heres the best of what is in the book  and the most important things Lewis missed:

1. SBF was at least aware that $9 billion had been siphoned off from his FTX customers and into his personal hedge fund  and that that created huge risks.

The year 2022 was bad for the crypto markets. After surging through the pandemic and into 2021, a sudden downturn led to two giant collapses with long-running ripple effects. The first was the collapse of TerraUSD and Luna, two interrelated cryptocurrencies that at their peak were worth tens of billions of dollars. The other was the collapse of Three Arrows Capital, a hedge fund that had heavily invested in those coins  and had borrowed billions from other crypto shadow-banking entities. (Both the founder of Terra and Luna, Do Kwon, and one of Three Arrows Founders, Su Zhu, are now being held in prison).

At the time, FTX was one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, and Alameda, his hedge fund, had a reputation as being a top-tier fund. Bankman-Fried himself had offered to personally save ailing crypto lenders with his own money, leading CNBCs talking heads to compare him to James Pierpont Morgan Sr., who swooped in to save the economy during the Panic of 1907.

Its been clear for almost a year now that that was always a mirage. Alameda borrowed nearly $9 billion in customer accounts from FTX in order to stay solvent  and ended up funding risky investments and SBFs own personal projects. When FTX started to collapse last year  part of a bank run orchestrated by Chengpeng Zhao, the CEO of rival exchange Binance  the improper relationship between the exchange and the hedge fund was revealed. But Bankman-Fried has always maintained it was a mistake  $8.8 billion that was mislabeled. The biggest accounting error in history maybe, but still just an oopsie.

Lewis is able to add to the sum total knowledge of SBFology by establishing Bankman-Fried knew about the borrowing and failed to do anything about it. About two months before everything collapsed, Ellison had directly told another one of FTXs co-founders, Nishad Singh, that she was worried that the risk of collapse was getting too great. According to Lewis, Singh then told SBF on the balcony of his infamous Bahamas penthouse that an account of the borrowed money was getting too risky. In October, he investigated this himself  and came to see that the funds were at risk. It was only then that he could see that Alameda had been operating as if the $8.8 billion in customers funds belonged to it. And by then it was too late to do anything about it.

2. But Lewis is weirdly vague about SBFs role in misallocating the funds.

How does such a large sum of money get quietly siphoned from one institution to another when both those firms are owned and controlled by the same man? On this, Lewis is silent. On page 217, he first acknowledges that the loan happened, but only in a passive way:

[FTX] had exempted Alameda 

For Alameda Research, however, an exception had been made 

Sams private trading firm was allowed to lose 

Lewis does not say who authorized the loans, or who knew about it, or really even why they happened. (The collapse of Three Arrows, a pivotal event in the larger saga that led to FTXs fall, is only mentioned in passing).

There is also no mention of the widely reported allegation that SBFs lieutenant Gary Wang had programmed in a back door to allow Alameda to borrow unlimited amounts of money without setting off alarm bells  and had done so at SBFs direction. This explosive claim has been around for nearly a year, and it does not even merit a mention in the book?

3. Lewis wants us to wonder: Did Ellisons ex-boyfriend bring down FTX?

Bankman-Frieds relationship with Ellison is a central theme of Going Infinite. Alas, no orgies, no polycule  but there is drama.

Ellison is largely represented here through Bankman-Frieds eyes, and in selected memos and reports that were made available to Lewis  a perspective that feels notably one-sided.

Not shockingly, she doesnt come across particularly well. In one quoted document from 2018, she writes out the pros and cons about why she should have left her former coworker and ex, Eric Mannes. (He told me he would probably never love me is one bullet point). She also wrote a memo to SBF where she laid out that not only did she have pretty strong romantic feelings toward her boss, but the thought of his disapproval was distracting and made her worse at her job. When Bankman-Fried responds, he says:

In a lot of ways I dont really have a soul. This is a lot more obvious in some contexts than others. But in the end theres a pretty decent argument that my empathy is fake, my feelings are fake, my facial reactions are fake. I dont feel happiness. What the point of dating someone who you physically cant make happy?

Lewis tries to make a kind of lovers revenge storyline here  and finds a suggestive scenario, if not actual proof. FTX collapsed in the wake of a story by CoinDesk (which has since won a Loeb Award for business journalism) detailing Alamedas holdings. That report showed how incestuous they were  and prompted Zhao to pull his money from FTX. Lewis notes that one of the contributors to the CoinDesk story was the current girlfriend of Ellisons Jane Street ex. The previous month, the couple had visited the Bahamas and stayed with employees of Alameda Research in Albany: Had the leak somehow originated inside the company? It is a question thats left hanging there without a satisfying answer. (For what its worth, the reporter who broke the story, Ian Allison, told me that hed first gotten the tip about a month before).

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Eric Mannes previous relationship to Caroline Ellison. He was her former coworker.
Jesus Christ, as depicted in the fake courtroom sketch Trump reposted. Photo: @dom_lucre/X

While Donald Trump is responsible for unhinged, incoherent content on Truth Social every single day, an image he posted on Monday evening stood out for being especially offensive and delusional. Tucked between video clips of Trumps remarks hours earlier outside a Manhattan courtroom, where he is being tried for fraud in a civil lawsuit brought by New York attorney general Letitia James, was a screenshot of a tweet from user Dom Lucre showing a fake courtroom sketch of Jesus by Trumps side.

The image is ridiculous, blasphemous, and confusing. Is Jesus supposed to be Trumps co-defendant or his attorney? Does the caption nobody could have made it this far alone mean Trump being hauled before the court for his decades of alleged business fraud is part of some divine plan? And who is this Dom Lucre anyway?

Well, youre going to be sorry you asked!

The X (formerly Twitter) account where the post originated belongs to Dominick McGee, a right-wing influencer and QAnon conspiracy theorist who made headlines in July when his account was quickly reinstated after he posted child sex-abuse imagery. The notorious image was made by Peter Gerard Scully, an Australian who was sentenced to life in prison plus 129 years last year for rape, human trafficking, and the sexual abuse of children as young as 18 months. After some of McGees more than half a million followers complained that he was banned over his politics, X owner Elon Musk stepped in to reinstate him. As the Washington Post reported, Musk claimed that only Xs content moderators had seen the material, though that doesnt appear to be the case:

Only people on our CSE team have seen those pictures, Musk tweeted, referring to the companys child sexual exploitation staff. For now, we will delete those posts and reinstate the account.

In fact, the image in question had drawn more than 3 million views and 8,000 retweets, according to Twitter statistics on a cached version of the tweet from Tuesday.

Once his account was restored, McGee claimed he was banned over Obama and that he hadnt even put up the widely viewed post containing child-abuse content.

Its unclear if Trump knows about this incident or just saw McGees post and thought, You know what, I am just like Jesus. But the episode serves as an important reminder: While its fun to laugh at Trumps outrageous antics, theyre often far more sinister upon closer examination. Thats why I wont be doing any further Googling about Trumps recent mid-speech tirade about possibly being eaten by a shark. Lets just enjoy it.
The North American lithium industry is likely about to get a $1 billion injection. The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is currently in talks with Canadian mining company Lithium Americas over a massive round of funding for its Nevada project. If the deal  the terms of which are currently being finalized  is inked, it would fund over half and as much as 75% of construction costs for the massive Thacker Pass project, thereby kickstarting the United States lithium era in earnest.

The historic loan would be the single-biggest ever awarded to a mining company by the DOE. The domestic lithium sector has already received a major boost under the Biden Administration, which views homeshoring lithium supply chains as a key part of its climate imperative. Earlier this year, the DOE awarded a $700 million conditional loan to Australian lithium company Ioneer for another Nevada-based project at the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Esmeralda County.

While the Ioneer project is already a huge development for the U.S. lithium production sector (which until recently has been an extremely small industry), the Thacker Pass project would majorly raise the stakes. Plans for the mine, huge to begin with, have only increased in scale  the project recently revised its budget to $2.27 billion, up from $1.06 billion. The mine has the potential to be North America's largest source of lithium for electric vehicle batteries and would bolster U.S. President Joe Biden's efforts to reduce dependence on Chinese supplies for the metal, Reuters recently reported.

Lithium is a key building block for many components of renewable energy technology and infrastructure. The rare Earth mineral is an essential ingredient in solar panels, batteries for renewable energy storage, and electric vehicle batteries, among other uses. Going forward, global demand for lithium is set to skyrocket. A report from Popular Mechanics published earlier this year calculates that an electrified economy in 2030 will likely need anywhere from 250,000 to 450,000 tonnes of lithium. In 2021, the world produced only 105not 105,000tonnes.

As such, securing a dependable and affordable source of lithium is critical for building up the United States green energy sector, as well as for meeting climate goals. The problem is that, at present, China holds a near-monopoly on many rare Earth supply chains, including lithium, and therefore holds a lot of leverage in global energy markets. As a result, the United States is extremely dependent on Chinese production and manufacturing to keep its own clean energy sector running in the near term.

The Biden Administration is determined to break away from that dependence  but building up domestic lithium supply chains will be difficult  and contentious. The massive Thacker Pass project has already faced opposition from environmentalists and Indigenous groups alike. Biden is walking a fine line by trying to balance the raw-material demands of the energy transition against campaign promises to protect the environment, Bloomberg reported late last month.

While a certain degree of NIMBY-ism is to be expected, as lithium mining is associated with acute environmental risks and negative externalities, its only fair that the United States shoulder some of this dirty job. Plus, there are serious benefits to developing such industries in countries with relatively strong environmental protection and oversight mechanisms like the United States.

What is more, homeshoring significant parts of the clean energy supply chain will be necessary for building up the United States clean energy sector and resolving geopolitical vulnerabilities and areas of potential energy insecurity. For years, the United States has been falling behind in the clean energy race, and it's high time that the nation gets serious about domestic decarbonization before it loses its foothold in a changing global market.

The United States is not the only country seriously ramping up lithium production and acquisitions. Around the world a modern-day gold rush is unfolding as nations try to snap up lithium acquisition agreements as fast as they can to keep up with demand as well as their own climate pledges. Producing lithium is not just a matter of energy security  its a matter of good economic sense.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

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The research took into account lifecycle emissions, considering factors like manufacturing, maintenance, and operation in countries like China, the US, and Germany.

Battery electric vehicles (BEV) are the clear winner when trying to reduce emissions in the transportation sector, according to Rystad Energy research. Despite incurring higher emissions in the manufacturing process of electric vehicles and an enduring reliance on fossil fuel power generation in many countries, the positive environmental impact of switching to a BEV over the vehicles lifetime is unmistakable.

Our analysis shows that battery-powered vehicles contribute at most half the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) of diesel or gasoline cars across their lifecycle, regardless of the country of operation. Even in countries where the power grid is dominated by fossil fuels, battery-powered cars emit about 50% of the CO2e of an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. As renewable sources replace coal and gas-fired generation, emissions related to the operation of BEVs could drop by 86%.

Our in-depth research of lifecycle BEV and ICE vehicle emissions considers every stage of the manufacturing process and the vehicles operation. This includes the manufacturing of the vehicles body, known as body in white (BIW), powertrain assembly, maintenance, fuel and electricity-related emissions, and battery production for BEVs. We are conscious that there are often societal and humanitarian impacts associated with EV manufacturing, battery production, and associated mining. However, this research is purely focused on the emissions comparison between battery electric and traditional-fuel vehicles.

Based on the current power generation mix in China, the lifecycle emissions of a BEV are about 39 tonnes of CO2e versus almost 85 tonnes for an ICE vehicle. The difference in the US is even starker. A BEV emits 42 tonnes of CO2e across its life in the US, 58% lower than a gasoline or diesel vehicle that emits more than 100 tonnes. Of these totals, emissions related to the extraction, refining, and burning of fossil fuels contribute about 90% of all ICE emissions. The breakdown of emissions across a battery-powered vehicles life is directly tied to its electricity consumption and how that power is generated.

Overall, battery electric vehicles are clearly the right technology to reduce emissions in the transportation sector. Switching to a BEV will reduce long-term emissions despite a larger environmental impact at the beginning of the vehicle's life. Contrary to some claims, electric car adoption is not a fools errand; it will slash emissions in the long run and accelerate the energy transition.

Abhishek Murali, senior clean tech analyst, Rystad Energy

Learn more with Rystad Energys Energy Transition Solution.

We selected five countries for our analysis  China, the US, India, Germany, and France  due to their diverse transportation factors like driving patterns, type of vehicle dominant in each country, and varying power mixes, both historical and forecast. Germany and France were chosen to reflect the European market in general and assess different power mixes, keeping other factors mostly similar. We used our base case power generation forecast for each country when evaluating lifecycle emissions to accurately reflect the evolving nature of electricity generation and its impact on BEV emissions. Each vehicle is expected to last 18 years, after which age most vehicles are scrapped.

Annual distance driven varies widely by country, with consumers in the US driving longer distances than every other country we studied. US vehicles travel on average about 23,000 kilometers (km) every year, compared to 19,000 km in China and about 13,500 km in Germany, France, and India. When forecasting emissions over the next 18 years, we predicted the evolution of driving distance based on historical data. Mileage in the US, China, and Europe is expected to fall about 1% annually based on official driving statistics and surveys, while distances driven in India are expected to increase by 0.5% per year as the country is still in the middle of its motorization period.

The power market holds the key

A countrys power mix will play a significant role in determining how quickly emissions reduction can be achieved when switching to BEVs. Whereas ICE vehicles become more emissions-heavy as they age, BEVs will emit less over the years as power generation becomes greener. For instance, in our base case scenario predicting the development of the US power grid, battery-powered cars will emit just 14% of the emissions equivalent from a gasoline or diesel car in 2041.

Stark contrasts can also be found in regions where most other factors are similar. Comparing Germany and France, the only deviation is in the emissions intensity of the grid. France, largely dominated by nuclear power, has about an 84% lower carbon intensity than Germany, which relies heavily on gas generation. Hence, emissions from charging an electric vehicle in France will be about 70% lower, resulting in around 37% lower lifecycle emissions.

Performing the same comparison for a coal-heavy power mix, in the case of India, results in 43% lower lifecycle emissions. Overall, adopting BEVs  even in a status quo power mix future  will be beneficial to the environment, especially in countries with high annual mileage like the US.

How much CO2 can electric vehicle sales displace?

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Using this power-mix analysis, we can estimate the volume of emissions avoided through BEV sales, assuming driving distance is the same across both vehicle types. The average displacement factor varies widely by country depending on driving patterns and model availability. For instance, China has low annual average mileage and widespread BEV model availability, leading to an almost 1:1 emissions displacement factor. However, BEV adoption in the US can vary hugely from state to state. California has an almost 1:1 displacement factor, but the national average is estimated at 0.6. European countries have anywhere from a 0.8 to 1.1 displacement factor.

To illustrate this, 5 million passenger BEVs were sold in China in 2022, versus 17 million ICE cars. Assuming each of these BEVs emits 39 tonnes CO2e in its lifetime and an ICE emits 85 tonnes CO2e, ICE sales would emit 1.4 gigatonnes CO2e total, while the BEVs sold will add about 200 million tonnes of CO2e to the environment. However, if the same 5 million BEVs had been ICEs, added emissions would have been around 430 million tonnes CO2e. Thus, BEVs result in a lifecycle emissions reduction of 230 million tonnes CO2e  almost 14% of total passenger car emissions. A similar analysis in the US shows this figure at 25 million tonnes CO2e.

By Rystad Energy

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Brazil will have its first energy exchange for power deals next year, which is expected to raise the volumes of energy-related financial products, the chief executive of the new exchange has told Reuters.

The fund L4 Venture Builder, B3 SA Brasil Bolsa Balcao, the operator of Brazils stock exchange, and Nodal Exchange, part of European Energy Exchange, are the companies creating the joint venture energy exchange N5X in Brazil.

The new energy exchange is expected to start operations next year. Its first offering will be a service to register power purchase agreements (PPAs) on the free market between power generators and large industrial consumers.

N5X will also look to offer electricity derivatives after it obtains regulatory approvals.

Brazil is a large power market but its energy-related financial products trading is underdeveloped.

There is an opportunity for the volume traded to be greater, Dri Barbosa, chief executive officer of the new exchange, told Reuters.

Brazil is the largest energy market and the largest electricity market in Latin America and has the seventh largest electricity generation capacity in the world, according to the International Trade Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Brazils installed capacity was 181.6 GW in 2021, a 3.9% increase from 2020, with remarkable growth from wind power, 21.2%, and solar power, 40.9%. Investment into the Brazilian electricity sector is expected to reach $94 billion by 2029, including utility-scale generation, distributed generation, and transmission projects.

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At the same time, the free power market in Brazil is growing fast, with over 4,800 consumer units joining the market between January and Augustthe fastest pace of migrations to the free market in Brazilian history, BNamericas reported last week, citing the Chamber of Electric Energy Commercialization, CCEE. The non-regulated market currently has around 35,540 consumers, mostly industries and companies in the services and trade sectors  and accounts for around 37% of the countrys total energy consumption.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

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BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Flowers are presented to heroes, as their spirit lives forever. A ceremony of presenting flower baskets to China's fallen national heroes was held on Saturday morning at Tian'anmen Square, Beijing, to mark the country's Martyrs' Day. Leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the state including Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Li Xi and Han Zheng, joined representatives from all walks of life to attend the event. It is the 10th Martyrs' Day since it was set in 2014. At the grand Tian'anmen Square, a bright Five-Star Red Flag flies high. In the center of the square, a huge display in the shape of a flower basket is placed, with words in it reading "Best wishes to the motherland," expressing the wishes for a more prosperous and stronger China. The Monument to the People's Heroes stands majestically. Eighteen wreaths composed of white chrysanthemums and other flowers on two groups of flower beds on the north side of the monument convey all Chinese people's deep memories of the fallen national heroes. As the clock was about to strike 10, Party and state leaders including Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Li Xi and Han Zheng arrived to attend the ceremony. The band of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) played the trumpets, blowing the "Martyrs' Day Bugle." "Guards of honor on your marks!" At the word of the command, the PLA's guards of honor marched to the front of the monument with parade steps and stood still, holding their guns. At 10 a.m., the ceremony commenced. The military band played the national anthem "The March of the Volunteers," and all participants sang to the tune. They paid a tribute of silence to the martyrs who devoted themselves to the liberation of the Chinese people and the development of the People's Republic of China. After that, a group of children holding flowers in their hands and facing the monument sang the song "We Are Communist Successors," and saluted to the monument as Young Pioneers. In front of the formations, nine large flower baskets were placed in a line in the names of the CPC Central Committee; the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress; the State Council; the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference; the Central Military Commission; the non-CPC parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and patriotic personages without party affiliation; people's organizations and the people from all walks of life; veterans, retired senior officials and relatives of the martyrs; and the Chinese Young Pioneers. "Eternal Glory to the People's Heroes," read the eye-catching characters in the red ribbons hung on the flower baskets. As the military band played the soulful "Flower Presenting Melody," 18 guards of honor steadily lifted the flower baskets, walked slowly to the monument and laid them on the pedestal. Xi and other leaders of the Party and the state walked up to the pedestal and stopped in front of the flower baskets. Blossoming lilies, bright-colored anthuriums, and fragrant oncidiums ... all were telling people's cherished memory of and sincere respect for the deceased heroes. Taking a few steps forward, Xi carefully straightened the ribbons on the baskets and led other leaders in a walk around the monument to pay tribute. From a new historical starting point, the 20th CPC National Congress has drawn an ambitious blueprint for realizing the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and advancing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization, sounding a clarion call of the times for forging ahead on a new journey. Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, inheriting the spirit of the martyrs and drawing on strength from it, the Party, the armed forces and the people of all ethnic groups are now marching on the new journey in confident strides, striving relentlessly for the building of a strong country and national rejuvenation. Children and representatives from all walks of life walked up to the front of the monument, laid flowers and paid tribute. The ceremony was presided over by Yin Li, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee. Members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, members of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, some vice chairpersons of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, state councilors, president of the Supreme People's Court, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, some vice chairpersons of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and members of the Central Military Commission attended the ceremony. Those who attended the ceremony also included leading officials from central authorities and the Beijing Municipal Government, leaders of the central committees of the non-CPC parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, representatives of personages without party affiliation, representatives of veterans, retired senior officials and relatives of the martyrs in Beijing, representatives of recipients of national medals and honorary titles in Beijing, representatives of ethnic minorities from across China and representatives from all walks of life in the capital.


The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear on October 6 pleas challenging the caste-based survey in Bihar. A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.V.N. Bhatti ordered that the matter will not be deleted from the causelist for Friday after it was mentioned that the state government released caste-based survey data on October 2.



On the day of Mahatma Gandhis Jayanti, the Bihar government released the much-awaited caste-based survey.



As per the report, Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) comprise 36.01 per cent of the population, the Other Backward Classes (OBC) 27 per cent, Scheduled Castes 19.65 per cent, Scheduled Tribes 1.68 per cent, while the Upper Castes constitute 15.52 per cent of the total population of over 13 crore people in the state.



Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has called for an all-party meeting on Tuesday to make policies in the interest of common people.



It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had repeatedly refused to pass any interim order staying the survey process or publication of the outcomes of the survey, though it was contended that the matter will become infructuous post publication of the data.



In the last hearing on September 6, the top court had deferred hearing in October on the clutch of special leave petitions filed against the Patna High Courts order dismissing pleas challenging the caste-based survey.



The petitioners before the apex court pleaded that only the Union government had the authority to conduct a census in India and the Bihar government had no authority to decide and notify the conduct of a caste-based survey in the state.










Freeport LNG has requested to return its export plant in Texas to full commercial operations, according to a new regulatory filing made late on Monday, Reuters has said.

Freeport LNG has asked the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to proceed with Phase 2 of its restart process for Dock 2a full return to operations would allow Freeport LNG to turn as much as 2.1 bcf/d of gas into LNG.

The second phase in Freeport LNGs restart includes the nitrogen cooldown of Loop 2s rundown pipeline system, and introducing hydrocarbons to Loop 2, the regulatory filing specified, adding that it requested a response by this Friday.

So far, the liquefaction trains, storage Tanks 1 and 2, and Dock 1 has been returned to service.

Feedgas into Freeport LNG fell three weeks ago to just 284.3 mcf/d on September 10. The drop off in feedgas into Freeport LNG came as Chevrons Gorgon and Wheatstone facilities in Australia began its striking action. Freeport was shuttered for eight months beginning in June 2022 after a fire. FERC granted approval for Freeport LNG to restart certain Phase 1 facilities on February 21 of this year, and approved Train 1s return to service and the remaining Phase 1 facilities on March 8. But feedgas to Freeport faltered again last month, canceling export cargoes as a result of the slowdown.

The gas markets have been particularly volatile with Freeports erratic throughput, strikes at some of Australias largest LNG plants, and Chinas gas demand on the rise as it looks to snap up LNG spot cargoes ahead of winter, and Eureops gas plant maintenance.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said on October 2 after meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest that Hungary may take over infrastructure projects that Germany suspended in the Bosnia-Herzegovina's Serb-dominted entity over Dodik's secessionist policies.

Germany in August announced a decision to suspend four infrastructure projects in Republika Srpska worth a total of 105 million euros ($110 million).

Dodik said Orban "expressed his willingness to substitute projects that Germany canceled.

But he said Germany still considered the contracts active, while Republika Srpska waits for Berlin to resolve so that the entity can "can realize these projects with the Hungarians and Prime Minister Orban in the best possible way and for mutual benefit."

Among the projects is the construction of a wind farm in Berkovici, a municipality in the far southeast of Bosnia. Additionally, Germany has suspended its work on the renovation of a hydroelectric power plant near Trebinje in the far south and a wastewater-treatment initiative in Gradiska in the north.

Republika Srpska previously sought financial assistance from the Export-Import Bank of Hungary, borrowing a total of 110 million euros at the end of the previous year. Hungary is also providing an aid program for farmers in Republika Srpska valued at 100 million euros.

Orban, a crucial ally for Dodik, has blocked European Union sanctions against the pro-Russian president of the Serbian member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, which also includes a Bosniak Muslim and an ethnic Croat.

Bosnia is still governed under the terms of a 1995 peace treaty known as the Dayton accords that divided the country into a Bosniak and Croat federation and a Serb-majority entity.

Dodik was designated for sanctions by the United States and Britain last year after saying that Republika Srpska would pull out of the Western Balkan country's joint military, top judiciary body, and tax administration.

Dodik also currently faces an indictment over a push to ignore decisions by international envoy Christian Schmidt and the Constitutional Court.

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His meeting with Orban in Budapest was their third official meeting in the past year. They previously met in the Hungarian capital in August and in October 2022 and in Banja Luka in June.

Dodik also made a controversial trip to Moscow last year for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. After his meeting with Orban, he said he would meet again with Putin "soon."

By RFE/RL

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Iraq is inviting international companies to bid for 30 new oil and gas projects in two licensing rounds until January 2024, as OPECs second-largest oil producer looks to boost crude production and reduce gas import dependence.

The so-called fifth plus and sixth licensing rounds will have lower royalty rates and profit-sharing agreements that are expected to be of less burden to investors, Al-Hakam I. Al-Neama, the head of the exploration contracts division at Iraqs Oil Ministry, said at the ADIPEC energy conference in Abu Dhabi, as carried by Reuters.

The fifth plus licensing round will aim to award 16 projects, including some that werent awarded in the fifth round, while the sixth round will award another 14 projects, according to the Iraqi official.

Despite being rich in oil and gas, Iraq has had to import gas from neighboring countries, including Iran, for fuel at its power plants.

Iraq lacks the gas processing plants necessary to process the associated gas extracted from its massive oilfields and continues to flare some of those gas volumes.

Iraq imports gas and electricity from Iran but has had trouble paying for those because of the U.S. sanctions on Irans energy sector. The U.S., while endorsing the Iraq-Iran energy deals to keep Iraq supplied with power and gas, has been pushing Baghdad to reduce its reliance on Iranian energy imports.

Last month, Iraqs Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani met in New York with representatives of dozens of U.S. energy companies to pitch potential investments in the Iraqi natural gas sector.

My government is serious about investment in gas and to be an active and powerful player in the gas market, the Iraqi official told Bloomberg Television in an interview.

Al-Sudani also met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly in New York at the end of September.

Secretary Blinken encouraged the Government of Iraq to continue sustainably developing energy resources and combating climate change and underscored U.S. support for re-opening of the pipeline with Turkiye, the U.S. Department of State said in a statement on the meeting.

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By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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While Turkey said on Monday that Iraqi oil exports would resume this week through a stalled oil pipeline, Iraq is saying that negotiations are still ongoing, an anonymous Iraqi official told Reuters on Tuesday.

We have further meetings soon and things will be more clear on how serious is Turkey to show some flexibility, the source said, implying that the negotiations were far from complete, and that Iraq expected more movement from Turkey before oil flows could resume.

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) suspended oil flows from Iraq to Turkey in March, ordering Turkey to pay the Iraqi government $1.5 billion in compensation for what it determined were unauthorized oil exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) between 2014 and 2018 via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline and the port of Ceyhan. But the deal between Turkey, Baghdad, and the KRG remains incomplete.

The stalemate between Iraqs state-run oil marketing company, the Kurdistan Regional Government, and Turkey has managed to disrupt oil flows through a vital pipeline from Iraqi Kurdistan through Turkey since March 25. Talks between the parties have dragged on for months, with 400,000 barrels of oil per day no longer flowing through the pipeline.

In May, Iraqs oil minister said that Baghdad and Erbil were set to reach an agreement over crude oil exports from the Kurdistan region within a maximum of two weeks. Instead, even five months has turned out to be an underestimation of the time it would take the parties to come to an agreement. In the meantime, the KRG has lost out on billions in oil revenues.

Iraq, OPECs second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia, is currently exporting oil only via its southern oil export terminals.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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The European energy system is currently unstable and could face challenges and shortages, according to Russias state-controlled gas giant Gazprom, whose deliveries to Europe have slumped since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The fact that the systemic deficit has not gone away is manifested not only by the higher price level in 2023 compared to the pre-Covid years, but also by the persistence of a stable contango in the natural gas market, Reuters quoted senior Gazprom managers Sergei Komlev and Alexander Shapin as saying in an in-house magazine.

This price behaviour means that, according to market participants, the energy security system in Europe, built in an emergency mode, is unstable and faces new challenges, Gazprom says.

At the end of the 2022/2023 winter heating season, Gazprom claimed that Europe would find it very difficult to refill its natural gas stockpiles ahead of next winter.

Just ahead of 2023/2024 winter, gas storage sites in the EU were 96% full as of October 1, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe. Europe hit its target to have storage 90% full by November 1 month in advance.

This year, Gazproms exports to Europe have slumped and dragged the gas giants profits down this year compared to 2022. Gazprom has reported a massive drop in its first-half net profit as deliveries to Europe plunged compared to the same period in 2022 when Russia was still supplying pipeline gas to its European customers.

The major drop in Gazproms gas deliveries to key customers was due to the halt of Russian pipeline gas exports to nearly all European countries. Weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Russia cut off supply to Poland, Bulgaria, and Finland.

Then Gazprom started to reduce supply via the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany in June 2022, claiming an inability to service gas turbine maintenance outside Russia due to the Western sanctions against Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine. This was weeks before the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines at the end of September 2022, which definitively closed all pipeline gas routes of Russias gas to Germany.

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By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Saudi Arabia may raise the official selling price of its flagship Arab Light blend for Asian buyers for the fifth month in a row, Reuters has reported, citing strong demand for the commodity.

The news outlet polled five respondents who said Riyadh could raise the price of the medium sour crude for November delivery by some $0.45 per barrel.

Last month, Saudi Arabia raised the official selling price for Arab Light for Asia by $0.10 cents per barrel to $3.60 a barrel over the Oman/Dubai average, the Middle Eastern benchmark, off which grades going to Asia are being priced.

The price increase was much smaller than an expected hike of $0.45 per barrel in a Reuters survey of five refining sources.

Meanwhile, speculation continues about whether the Saudis might decide to unwind their production cuts at the next OPEC+ meeting, scheduled for Wednesday.

We do not believe that the group will change its output policy, ING said in a note, referring to the common OPEC+ policy on production.

However, what is possible (and a JMMC meeting is not needed for this), is Saudi Arabia starting to ease its additional voluntary supply cut of 1MMbbls/d.

The prediction echoes one made last week by Rapidan Energy Groups president Bob McNally.

They do not want to deliberately over-tighten the market, because if you get a spike, then you get a demand collapse, and you get a bust, McNally told Bloomberg Television in an interview.

Not everyone agrees, however.

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"There is no sign that Saudi will revise its output cut decision at this moment. So we expect no change on their determination of defending oil prices," one of the Reuters sources for the poll said.

Indeed, it would be a risky move for Saudi Arabia to start ramping up production right now: prices will immediately slump, which would render the cuts until now pretty much pointless.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Roughly six weeks into the school year, the Omaha Public Schools is turning to outside companies to try to find special education paraprofessionals.

Its the latest development in the special education staff shortage at OPS, which has caused higher teacher caseloads, student transfers, virtual services, contracted transportation and more.

School board members approved an agreement on Monday with Local 226, the union that represents employee groups such as paraprofessionals, transportation, nutrition service, maintenance and secretaries.

The agreement allows the district to contract out its special education paraprofessional positions until May 31, 2024. Steve Owens, Local 226 president, said the positions will be given back to any OPS paraprofessionals the district hires.

They dont have enough paraprofessionals to cover the special education program  not many people apply for those jobs  so OPS came to me to hire outside contractors, Owens said. Weve done it with the bus drivers...I want to make sure the kids get the education they deserve.

Board members approved an agreement in August that allowed OPS to contract out special education bus driver positions to address a critical shortage.

In September, three elementary schools in North Omaha had to reassign their special education students to other schools because they had zero special education teachers. Roughly 1,200 students also had to switch to virtual speech pathology services because of a lack of pathologists in OPS.

The abrupt changes later prompted state senators to question the districts handling of its special education shortage in a public hearing.

As of Friday, OPS had 121 special education paraprofessional vacancies, according to the district. Starting special education paraprofessionals are currently receiving between $15.51 and $16.26 per hour. Next year, that amount will rise to $19.26 to $20.16.

Thank you to Local 226 President Steve Owens and the bargaining unit members for their understanding on this issue and their ongoing partnership in delivering the best we can for children, said Matt Ray, OPS interim superintendent, on Monday. We care very much about the students we serve. We are confronting  and rising to  the challenges we face.

Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of September 2023
ONONDAGA NATION TERRITORY  The Onondaga Nation has protested for centuries that illegal land grabs shrank its territory from what was once thousands of square miles in upstate New York to a relatively paltry patch of land south of Syracuse.

It took its case to President George Washington, to Congress and, more recently, to a U.S. court. All failed.

Now the nation is presenting its case to an international panel. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights recently allowed the Onondagas to pursue claims their land was taken unjustly by New York state, providing a unique venue for a land rights case against the United States by a Native American nation.

The U.S. government is not expected to abide by any opinion by the commission, which is part of the Organization of American States, a pro-democracy grouping of Western Hemisphere nations.

The Onondagas say they don't want to force people from their homes but they hope the novel case, which other indigenous advocates are watching, brings them closer to negotiations that might lead to the return of some land.

"We had to adapt to the coming of our white brother to our lands," said Sid Hill, the Tadodaho, or chief, of the Onondaga Nation. "And we just feel that with the talk about justice and equality and all these issues, then why isn't it there for us?"

Once the Onondaga Nation's territory stretched nearly 4,000 square miles in what is now New York.

Today, the federally recognized territory consists of 7,500 acres south of Syracuse. About 2,000 people live there, many in single-family homes on wooded lots. A tax-free smoke shop sits just off the interstate. A wooden longhouse used for meetings sits deeper in the territory, testimony to the residents' adherence to traditional ways.

Many feel crowded on their reduced land. They can't even fish the territory's creek because decades of salt mining upstream muddied the waters.

"We have freedom, but it's on a pinhead," said Kent Lyons, who has lived on the territory since 1970.

The Onondaga's case centers on a roughly 40-mile-wide strip of land running down the center of upstate New York from Canada to Pennsylvania. They claim ancestral land was appropriated over decades by New York, starting in 1788, through deceitful maneuvers that violated treaties and federal law.

The 1788 sale of some 3,125 square miles was agreed to by "wrong-headed people" who were unauthorized Onondaga negotiators, according to a letter to George Washington from the Onondagas and fellow members of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, Confederacy.

The nation received $33,380, an annuity of $2,430, clothes worth $1,000 and 150 bushels of salt for their land over several decades. They lost wide expanses of land where they once hunted, fished and lived.

The Onondagas effectively spent more than 200 years seeking recognition that their land was unlawfully taken. They're not seeking money as reparations, but land. Though Syracuse and crowded suburbs sit on much of the ancestral territory, nation attorney Joe Heath said there's land that could be made available, such as state parcels.

"We're not going to take land from people that don't want to give it," he said.

The nation filed a federal lawsuit in 2005 claiming the illegally acquired land was still theirs. A judge dismissed the claim five years later, ruling it came too late and would be disruptive to people settled on the land.

After the court loss, the Onondaga Nation and the Haudenosaunee petitioned the commission in 2014, alleging violations of provisions of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. Two claims were ruled admissible in May. Now the commission can consider the merits of whether the nation's rights to equality under the law and judicial protection were violated.

Heath said this was the first land rights case admitted by the commission from a Native American nation against the U.S., though it has heard other Indigenous cases against the United States.

The U.S. is an influential member of the OAS but human rights experts note that commission opinions are not considered legally binding to the U.S., which resists having international bodies telling it what to do.

"The State Department sends their professional lawyers, who are very talented, to make the arguments. And they participate. And then at the end of the day they'll say, 'But this is all non-binding, so we're not going to follow it,'" said Paolo Carozza, a Notre Dame Law School professor and former commission president.

The U.S. took no action after the commission in 2002 found it failed to ensure the rights of two Western Shoshone Nation sisters in Nevada who argued they were denied use of their ancestral lands, according to attorneys.

The U.S. already argued in response to the Onondaga petition that the commission has no business "second-guessing the considered decisions" of domestic courts.

A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. takes seriously petitions filed against it before the commission, calling that a "critical regional human rights body."

In the end, the Onondagas' biggest gain in pursuing the case is likely to be attracting more attention to their 240-year-old argument. Carozza said a ruling in favor of the nation also would add "moral weight" to their cause.

"I think a recognition that the human rights of Onondaga and other tribal nations have been violated is a powerful recognition and can be utilized in numerous ways of advocacy, and potentially be used in the courts down the line," said Matthew Campbell, deputy director of the Native American Rights Fund.

While an opinion could be years off, the Onondagas are used to waiting.

Jeanne Shenandoah, who has spent decades working to reclaim nation lands, said they will never give up hope.

"We are here, and have never not been here. People don't realize that," she said. "And that's why that acknowledgement is so important."

States with the biggest Native American populations States with the biggest Native American populations #51. Vermont #50. District of Columbia #49. New Hampshire #48. West Virginia #47. Rhode Island #46. Delaware #45. Maine #44. Hawaii #43. Wyoming #42. Kentucky #41. Connecticut #40. Iowa #39. Mississippi #38. Massachusetts #37. Arkansas #36. Tennessee #35. Indiana #34. South Carolina #33. Ohio #32. Kansas #31. Missouri #30. Pennsylvania #29. Nebraska #28. Louisiana #27. Idaho #26. Alabama #25. Maryland #24. Utah #23. New Jersey #22. North Dakota #21. Virginia #20. Wisconsin #19. Nevada #18. Minnesota #17. Michigan #16. Georgia #15. Oregon #14. Colorado #13. Florida #12. Montana #11. South Dakota #10. Illinois #9. Alaska #8. Washington #7. North Carolina #6. New York #5. New Mexico #4. Texas #3. Arizona #2. Oklahoma #1. California
As the half-ton pickup truck rolled up Lin Guytons leg, all she could think of was her rescue animals.

I dont have time for this. I have too much to do, she told herself. Until the truck stopped, and all I thought about was how painful it was.

Guyton, who runs the Epona Horse Rescue in Crete, Nebraska, last week fractured her right femur when her truck rolled up her leg after she accidentally put it into neutral instead of park when stopping at the Union Bank & Trust in Crete.

Shes still recovering at the Bryan Medical Center West Campus in Lincoln. But the 66-year-old wants to assure everyone that the 39 horses confiscated from the Blue Valley Veterinary Clinic and Pickrell Veterinary Clinic in Gage County are still thriving.

Vet Jennafer Glaesemann was charged Aug. 17 with 37 counts of livestock neglect after an estimated 15 to 17 horses died under her care. Guyton volunteered to take the horses at the rescue shes run for nearly 20 years.

These horses have an army behind them, Guyton said. I have an amazing group of volunteers.

Guyton needs some help now, too. Doctors have told her it will be six to eight weeks until her leg is healed.

Her regular volunteers have stepped up, taking on more of the morning feeds. There are also people helping in the evenings with more feeding and stall cleanouts.

A meal train is being organized for Guyton and her husband, Larry, and volunteers are helping to care for the other goats, horses and personal pets on the property.

At the time of the accident, several people near the bank rushed to her assistance, trying to hoist up the truck themselves.

A young man got a jack and was able to lift it up, Guyton said. Six more inches and it would have rolled on to my abdomen.

Guyton found out Monday that her rescue will care for the horses for at least another month, so that means rounding up more hay and volunteers.

Sgt. Tim Hanson, the primary investigator for the Gage County Sheriffs Office, said a complaint for disposition of the horses has been continued until Nov. 1. At that time, a judge will determine the fate of the animals involved.

They could be returned to Glaesemann or sold at auction. Guyton is hoping that she will be allowed to find homes for them instead.

Since the horses came to her rescue Aug. 17, she said many have put on 100 or more pounds in weight. Smokey, a 5-year-old black stallion, has gained 180 pounds.

The scary thing is weve gone through every lick of hay we had out there, Guyton said. Were working on finding more sources of good hay, good-quality hay that can be delivered.

Although Guyton said she has the funds to pay for the hay, Hanson said donations are welcome and would save Gage County taxpayers money. The animals also need vet and farrier care.

Hes been thrilled with donations so far, which have included a $10,000 donation from the Wayne Orin King Revocable Trust. Trustee Timothy Brutsche delivered the check in person.

We appreciate every little donation whether its 25 bucks or $10,000, Hanson said. Those all add up. It makes people feel good, and it does help a lot.
LINCOLN  Union College soon will be known as Union Adventist University.

The Board of Trustees for the four-year institution in southeast Lincoln approved the change Monday after nearly a year of exploring its options and surveying stakeholders.

The change will become official in May 2024, according to a press release, in order to provide adequate time for a transition and minimize confusion during the 2024-25 admissions process.

Chairman Gary Thurber said changing the 132-year-old schools name will better communicate Unions academic offerings while also retaining its deep connections with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

It also allows us to be distinct from other colleges named Union while reaffirming our connection to a faith that puts service first and welcomes all who want to experience an outstanding Christian education, Thurber said.

The process to change the name started a year ago after the Board of Trustees approved adding three new masters programs to the existing master of physician assistant studies at Union College.

President Vinita Sauder said several faculty approached her following that vote interested in dropping college in favor of university.

And Union officials also said the name will allow the Nebraska college to stand out from three other Union Colleges in the U.S.

With the change, Union Adventist University will become the 10th of 13 Seventh-day Adventist-affiliated school to use the moniker university in its name.

The new name will also reflect similar institution names like Southern Adventist University, Southwestern Adventist University and Washington Adventist University.

Sauder said that the name change would not affect the value of a Union education and that the college would continue welcoming students of all faiths.

We train our students to see the bigger picture and discover ways to solve problems, relieve suffering, and make the world a better place through Gods love, Sauder said.

Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of September 2023
Source: Ministry of Social Development





A man has been sent to jail for more than two years after he created a company to defraud taxpayers of more than $120,000 through the COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme.





Uatesoni Filimoehala, 40, also known as Watson Filimoehala, appeared for sentencing in the Auckland District Court on 29 September 2023 having admitted four charges of dishonestly taking or using a document.





The prosecution by MSD is part of a substantial continuing work programme aimed at providing assurance that those who received wage subsidy payments were entitled to them. More than 38 people have been brought before the courts for wage subsidy misuse to date.

Filimoehala, who was bankrupt at the time, registered 42 Construction Limited with the Companies Office on 17 April 2020, shortly after the Wage Subsidy Scheme was implemented.





He went on to submit six fraudulent wage subsidy applications for 42 Construction, with the first being submitted only a few hours after the company was registered.





Three of these applications were successful and a total of $126,532.80 was paid into Filimoehalas bank account. He also unsuccessfully applied for a further $42,491.20.





Subsequent checks by MSD found none of the employees listed in the fraudulent applications worked for 42 Construction. Some were actually working elsewhere and receiving wage subsidies for that employment.





There was also no evidence to suggest 42 Construction was trading at the time the fraudulent applications were made.





ENDS





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Two men died Thursday when their garbage truck went into a ditch and rolled over just south of Tilden in northeast Nebraska.

James Rose, 50, of Albion, Nebraska, and Juan Ruiz, 29, of Newman Grove, Nebraska, were pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Antelope County Sheriff's Office. The crash occurred about seven miles south of Tilden on Nebraska Highway 45.

Investigators determined that a garbage truck belonging to Bud's Sanitary Service of Newman Grove was heading north on Highway 45. The truck left the roadway and rolled into the west ditch.

First responders from Tilden and deputies from the Madison County Sheriff's Office assisted at the scene. The town of Tilden is located approximately 22 miles west of Norfolk.
BLOOMINGTON  The Bloomington-Normal NAACP will host a voter registration and voter check-up event during from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6 at 315 N. Main St.

The non-partisan event will help new voters to register online with TurboVote.org or via paper registration. The website sends people reminders on their phone to vote.

Volunteers will check to make sure registered voters are in the Illinois system and have the correct address listed. Information on how to be election judges will be distributed as well as upcoming election dates.

The NAACP will also have buttons and stickers for people who register or check their voter registration status.

Visit fb.me/e/3Q13k3kHK for more information.
BLOOMINGTON  Pour Bros. Craft Taproom, 236 E. Front St. in downtown Bloomington, is this week's pick for Eats of the Week.

The bar opened on Sept. 19 and is owned by Jason Fowler, Robbie Mathisen and Nathan Monroe. The group also owns three other locations in Peoria Heights, Champaign and Moline.

Fowler said Bloomington was actually supposed to be their second location, but COVID had other plans.

"Pour Bros. was the first pour-your-own beer wall in Illinois; we were the first location when we brought it to Peoria Heights seven years ago. There were very few even in the country at that time and it became an instant hit," Fowler said. "I actually started out as a customer, and my involvement (started) when they were getting ready to open a second location."

The Bloomington location is an 1880s building that used to be a horse stable where veterinarians treated the horses that ran the fire trucks. Epiphany Farms, which is right next door, was the firehouse.

The stable eventually become home to a series of local bars, including the 8 Bit Arcade Bar and, more recently, the Stable Hall Music Hall and Lounge.

"Our brand is built a lot on events, and you'll see that coming in the future. We do a lot of live music and community-related events," Fowler said. "When doing those things, I think one of the unique things is the service. You're able to get beer without standing in line. I think it's a hit because of that. Also, I think we have something for everybody."

Fowler added that the bar plans to launch its "Trivia on Tap" event at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 4, and with trivia specials each week. The bar is also getting ready to release a seasonal special lineup of four different drinks, but they are working on a full cocktail menu.

The bar will also host a Rockabilly Sunday, a tequila tasting event with El Bandido Tequila featuring other drink specials and music from Union Avenue, 5-8:30 p.m. Oct. 15.

While Pour Bros. is a full-service bar, it offers 24 taps on the wall including craft beers, meads, ciders and more.

Fowler said the rare and unique beers are often the most popular, as well as the sour and fruit beers and seasonal offerings like pumpkin or Oktoberfest.

Guests are able to taste test the beers by the 10th of an ounce before purchasing a full pint. The taps on the wall are frequently changed out as well, but Fowler said they try to stay consistent with the styles of beers they offer.

Pour Bros. doesn't offer a food menu, but Fowler said customers are welcome to bring in their own eats. "We have the best menu in the area because it's whatever you want to bring in," he said.

With the slogan Pour the Experience, customers often assume its a reference to the beer pouring from their taps, but it has nothing to do with that, Fowler said. They come in for the experience, whether that be the music we have going on or the event that day. It is custom to the people."

Fowler said they are also planning a grand opening event for later this month, featuring a cocktail class, pumpkin decorating contest, live music and more.

He added that the Bloomington location is already off to a good start after finishing its first full couple weeks, and he hopes it continues to grow and be successful.

"Between Epiphany, Rosie's, Jazz Up Front, Diggers, it is already a mainstay. We're adding to the Front Street experience and hopefully helping elevate what's already there and helping it grow," Fowler said. "It's amazing seeing how many fans we actually have from our other locations that are Bloomington-Normal based."

Photos: 2023 Brews at the Zoo at Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington Paula Pratt, Miller Park Zoological Society Director of Development; Tracy Patkunas, Peggy Hundley, Dee Frautschi Jeff Holtke, Ben Jeffreys, Tom Carroll, Erica Epperson Lisa Hicks, Katie Fudge Matthews Amanda and Dan Jones Enjoying the evening Tori Fowler Brad and Ronda Glenn Jeff and Donna Aldrich, Katie and Austin Myers Jacki Orton, Jenny MacPherson Jeremy Studebaker, Kelley Staub Lynden McGriff, Mike Endris Volunteers Liz Sullivan and Michelle Forbes Hanna Bacayo, Debra Ludvigsen, Pat Bacayo Helena Lefkow, David Page, Debi Turner Anne Himmel, Santino Lamancusa, Aianna Zachary Strolling through the zoo Carrie Adkins Todd and Natalie Schmidt Sara Kemp, Stephanie Meints, Nallely Cavazos Karlie Tucker, Kari Wade Thomas Garverick, Shelbi Frye, Vicky and John Lauth Chaparro Jaso, Ema Garcia Julie and Steve Kubsch Guests enjoying samples from Industry Brewing Mike Anderson and Jayne Jarigese Kait and Doug Whiston Red Panda Taylor Pena, Keegan Fitchorn and Cathy Wentworth serve Chris Godsey Mo Baybordi, Megan Howe, Shaun Rascoe Jared, Jennifer, Travis, and Rachel Gibson Mandy and Cari Evers, Jeni Reed Sarah Lessen, Rick Potocki Cassie and Emma Smith, Aly Frantzen, Tanner Crawford Emily Themer, Derek Mitzel Flamingoes Cheryl Magnuson, Erin Rogers Ben Jeffreys, Cathy Wentworth
BLOOMINGTON  A McLean County judge has ordered the release of a 19-year-old Champaign woman accused in a Bloomington shooting after authorities said it was an accident.

Cierra M. Sibley, accused of wounding a 21-year-old man on Friday night when she fired a weapon inside of a moving vehicle, is charged with reckless discharge of a firearm, reckless conduct and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

Judge Scott Kording ordered, after a lengthy detention hearing, that Sibley be released with pretrial conditions. In a separate hearing, he did order the detention of a 19-year-old man whose weapons charges stemmed from the police investigation into the shooting.

Youre obviously under a microscope here, Kording told Sibley. Dont take it for granted.  Any violations of the conditions in your situation could put your liberty at stake.

The prosecution sought to keep Sibley in custody based on what is commonly called the dangerousness standard  a provision of the Pretrial Fairness Act that allows for detention when a judge determines there is a threat to the safety of another person or the community that cannot be mitigated by release conditions.

Summarizing some of the evidence in the case, Assistant States Attorney Spencer Chikahisa said the defendant was in the back passenger-side seat of a vehicle on Friday when she took a pistol from her waistband.

And when she brought the firearm outwards, it went off, he said.

The shot struck a relative who was seated in front of her, Chikahisa said.

The driver took them both to a local hospital for treatment. Police have said the gunshot wound in the mans back was not considered life-threatening.

Sibley and the injured man told the police the shot was fired accidentally and the police indicated it was an accident in their report, Chikahisa said.

Sibley remained at the hospital with her relative and spoke with officers who responded, the prosecutor said.

In arguing for her release, Assistant Public Defender Carol Shegog-Parker noted that Sibley cooperated with police and did not try to deny the shooting.

The defendant also has no prior criminal history nor pending cases, and Shegog-Parker argued, given Sibleys history and the accidental nature of the incident, she does not pose a real and present threat to the victim or the community.

Since Sibley is under 21, she cannot legally carry a firearm. Chikahisa called this incident the nightmare scenario lawmakers might have imagined when passing the law that set the age limit.

This is exactly the reason why the law prohibits individuals who are under the age of 21 from possessing pistols, due to the dangerousness that they bring, he said. ... They may not treat it with the reverence that is needed.

Reminiscent of sentiments that Judge Kording has voiced at the end of several detention hearings since the Pretrial Fairness Act went into effect last month, Shegog-Parker said there is no blanket rule for detention in firearm cases, again pointing to Sibley's lack of criminal history.

Shegog-Parker also said her client would abide by any conditions ordered by the judge, including the surrender of firearms. Chikahisa argued the law already prohibited her from possessing a firearm, indicating he did not believe a court order would prevent her from carrying weapons again.

Kording said he was extremely concerned about the facts of this case and Sibley acted with considerable recklessness, noting the firearm she is accused of having was unsecured and she is not lawfully able to carry a gun at her age.

However, he said he did not believe Sibley posed a threat to the man who was injured in the shooting.

Weighing whether he believed the states evidence showed she was a threat to the community, Kording said her actions seemed reckless but not intentional.

He called the prevalence of gun violence a scourge but noted the circumstances of this case seemed exceedingly unlikely to occur.

I realize how this looks  but I have to base it off the evidence presented here, he said, denying the states petition to detain. Kording said he was not convinced that setting conditions for her release would not mitigate the threat.

The judge ordered that Sibley not use or possess a firearm or firearm ammunition, remain in Illinois and submit to pretrial supervision.

Kording did order the detention of Destiyon A. Anderson of Bloomington, though prosecutors say the 19-year-old was not present when the shot was fired.

Anderson had been in the backseat of the vehicle with Sibley earlier in the night but was dropped off before the gunfire, Chikahisa said.

During their investigation into the shooting, Bloomington police found the vehicle in a hotel parking lot. The same driver and Anderson were inside.

While in contact with police, Anderson retrieved a bag containing two guns from the backseat, Chikahisa said.

Anderson, 19, told police that the bag and one of the guns belonged to him, but the bag had not been in the vehicle earlier in the night, Chikahisa said.

Anderson is charged with two counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, as he is accused of possessing the firearms while underage and without a Firearm Owners Identification card.

Assistant Public Defender Joseph Moran argued the evidence regarding ownership was tenuous. He told the judge his client would be willing to abide by the strictest conditions, including electronic monitoring and home confinement.

Chikahisa argued it is always a danger to the community when individuals possess firearms unlawfully, noting Anderson was on probation at the time of the offense.

Kording said he was not sure how to keep the community safe in this case other than detention and he believed no combination of release conditions would ensure safety.

Anderson was ordered to be detained on the dangerousness standard.

Arraignments in both cases are scheduled for Oct. 20.

Photos: Girls 2A sectional golf at Ironwood Golf Course
BLOOMINGTON  Two adults are facing weapons charges after a man was shot Friday night from inside of a vehicle in Bloomington.

A statement from the Bloomington Police Department said officers were dispatched at 11:59 p.m. Friday to a wounded person arriving at Carle BroMenn Medical Center.

Investigators then learned a 21-year-old man had been taken by a personal transport to the hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound to his back, the statement said.

BPD said that gunshot originated from the same vehicle the victim was inside of as it traveled through Bloomington. Officers arrested two people on weapons charges, the statement said.

Cierra M. Sibley, 19, of Champaign, is charged with reckless discharge of a firearm, reckless conduct with great bodily harm, and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. All are Class 4 felonies.

Destiyon A. Anderson, of Bloomington, is twice charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, a Class 4 felony. Judge Scott Kording ordered that Anderson be detained pending trial, citing the dangerousness standard of the Pre-Trial Fairness Act. As of Monday afternoon, Sibley remained in custody pending her first court appearance; updates on her detention ruling status were not available by press time.

Police on Saturday said the victims injuries were not life-threatening. BPD spokesman Bryce Janssen told The Pantagraph on Monday that the gunshot did not hit the center of the victims back.

In a statement, BPD Chief Jamal Simington said he was thankful the incident didnt end with a more serious outcome.

He also wished the victim a quick recovery.

We encourage the community to utilize our anonymous tip line to report subjects unlawfully possessing firearms and those who are using firearms for illicit purposes, Simington said.

Police continue to investigate. Anyone with information is asked to contact Det. Law by calling 309-434-2527 or email jlaw@cityblm.org.

To provide information anonymously, you can reach the department's Crime & Intelligence Analysis Unit at 309-434-2963 or CIAU@cityblm.org.

Information can also be texted to 847411 by texting the word "BPDTIPS," followed by the tip information.
BLOOMINGTON  A Tennessee man will be held in McLean County custody pending trial after he was arrested on armed robbery charges.

Marcus T. Folks, 41, of Jackson, Tennessee, is charged with armed robbery and aggravated robbery, as well as several traffic violations, after police said he held a McDonalds employee at gunpoint in Bloomington before fleeing to rural Normal Township.

Assistant States Attorney Spencer Chikahisa sought to keep him in jail, arguing both that he posed a threat to the community and was at risk of fleeing to avoid prosecution.

Judge Scott Kording agreed and ordered that Folks remain in McLean County custody pending trial.

Chikahisa told the court Bloomington officers responded Saturday evening to McDonalds, 2410 S. Main St., where a drive-thru employee said a man in a vehicle with an attached trailer had pointed a gun at her and demanded money from the cash register.

The man was later identified as the defendant, Chikahisa said.

The vehicle that was believed to have been driven by the suspect was located later without the trailer, and officers attempted to stop it after seeing traffic violations, the prosecutor said.

The driver sped onto Interstate 55 and continued onto westbound I-74 before taking the exit at Carlock, traveling on Route 150 and ultimately crashing in a farm field in rural Normal Township, Chikahisa said. During the chase, the driver reached speeds topping 110 mph, the prosecutor added.

The driver fled on foot from the crash scene before being apprehended by officers, Chikahisa said.

Inside the vehicle, the prosecutor said, police found paperwork bearing Folks' name for a rental trailer that matched the description of the trailer attached to the suspect vehicle. They also found one of Folks shoes under the brake pedal and noted he was only wearing one shoe when apprehended.

During their search, police found $158, matching what was taken from McDonalds, the prosecutor said.

He also said a bicyclist found a gun Monday on Fox Creek Road, which was along the route taken by the driver. It matched the description of the gun used in the robbery.

Folks told police he was in the vehicle during the robbery but said he had been a back passenger, with two other men in the front seat. He said the other two had fled, Chikahisa said.

The prosecutor said responding officers only saw one person exit the vehicle after the crash and Folks clothing matched the description the McDonalds employee had given.

Assistant Public Defender Joseph Moran argued that authorities had not identified Folks as the person who committed the robbery, as he had not been identified beyond his dark shirt and hat, and they had not presented any evidence from the video footage recorded by the restaurants security cameras.

Moran noted Folks had a history of driving while his license was revoked, so of course hes not going to want to be pulled over, accounting for the fleeing and eluding accusations.

He said the timeline was unclear and it seemed like a lot of time had passed between someone robbing McDonalds and someone speeding down the interstate, arguing what Folks told police about others being in the vehicle should be taken into consideration.

Chikahisa said, All signs point to this defendant, given the evidence presented and argued.

The prosecutor called Folks a clear flight risk. Its not even really a risk  its a fact, he said, noting the police chase.

Kording said he believed there was a high likelihood that Folks would commit new offenses and not comply with court-ordered conditions of release, noting his previous violation of an order of protection.

The judge said he believed there was evidence in line with the "willful flight" standard for detention allowed during the Pretrial Fairness Act. Although Kording said he was not sure the defendant posed a threat to the McDonalds employee, he believed there was a threat to the community at large.

The judge set Folks arraignment for Oct. 20.
BLOOMINGTON  A Bloomington man is in custody being held on weapons charges.

Carl T. Riggins, 31, is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, unlawful possession of firearm ammunition by a felon, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and violation of the Illinois Firearm Owners Identification Card Act.

Assistant States Attorney Spencer Chikahisa filed a petition to detain, arguing that the threat he posed could not be mitigated by other pretrial conditions.

Judge Scott Kording granted the petition and the defendant was ordered to remain in McLean County custody pending trial.

During the detention hearing Tuesday, Chikahisa said Riggins was arrested after a witness told police they watched him crash his vehicle into an unoccupied parked vehicle, drive away while missing a tire, scattering sparks along the way, and then hit a curb before getting out and running away.

Police found the damaged vehicle and inside they discovered a .45 caliber pistol on the floorboard near the drivers seat and several documents bearing Riggins name, Chikahisa said.

The defendant was heavily intoxicated when officers found him about 1,400 feet away from the crashed vehicle. He was carrying a loaded .45 caliber pistol magazine in his pocket, the prosecutor said.

Chikahisa also noted an officer issued Riggins a citation for driving under the influence after he refused to submit to a breath test.

A K9 police dog searched the area and found a spent .45 caliber cartridge, though it is unclear how or when the bullet was fired, Chikahisa told the judge.

Riggins cannot legally carry a firearm or ammunition because of a past felony conviction.

Chikahisa called this a very scary scenario as Riggins appeared to be under the influence while behind the wheel and illegally carrying a weapon. He argued the defendant's attempt to drive and then run away showed he was trying to thwart the investigation or prosecution of this case.

Assistant Public Defender Carol Shegog-Parker argued Riggins should be released with conditions, noting he had completed probation, court supervision and substance abuse treatment successfully in the past.

She argued that Riggins did not pose a threat to any particular person or the community, and if released, he would be willing to surrender any firearms, undergo treatment and comply with any court order.

Chikahisa said Riggins already could not legally have a firearm, and he did not believe a court order would be enough to prohibit him from having them.

He argued the risk to the community increased tenfold when a person with substance abuse issues who got behind the wheel also possessed a firearm illegally.

Kording said he agreed that Riggins' release would create significant risk to the community, noting the defendant was already required not to have a firearm.

The judge also said he found the spent cartridge troubling.

He ordered Riggins to remain in custody pending trial. An arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 20.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has directed that the flags of the party fly at half-mast following the death of Mrs. Theresa Kufuor, wife of former President J.A. Kufuor.



The former first lady died at her home in Peduase on the Aburi mountain on Sunday (October 1, 2023).



She was 87 years old.



The NPP in a statement signed by its General Secretary, Justin Kodua Frimpong stated Mrs Kufuor was a beacon for female advancement, fostering initiatives to inspire and empower both young and adult females in various facets of life. The members of the ruling NPP, together with all Ghanaians whose lives were positively touched by her, extend our deepest condolences to former President John Agyekum Kufuor, their children, and the entire family.



We stand united with you in this time of sorrow, praying that the Almighty God grants all of us the fortitude to bear this great loss. In tribute to the memory of the late Mrs Kufuor, the NPP directs that all Party flags across the country be flown at half-mast for the next seven days. May her gentle soul continue to rest in perfect peace until we meet again on the resurrection morning. Damirifa Due!





NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY MOURNS THE DEATH OF HER EXCELLENCY MRS THERESA KUFUOR; DIRECTS PARTY FLAGS TO FLY AT HALF-MAST



The New Patriotic Party (NPP) deeply mourns the passing of Her Excellency Mrs. Theresa Kufuor, the beloved wife of former President John Agyekum Kufuor and former First Lady of the Republic which sad event occurred on October 1, 2023.



Mrs. Theresa Kufuor, who served as Ghana's First Lady from January 7, 2001, to January 6, 2009, dedicated her life to supporting her husband throughout his political career and to the service of humanity.



Inspired by her profession as a nurse, Mrs Kufour championed the cause of improved healthcare in our country. Notably, she established the Mother and Child Community Development Foundation (MCCDF) that supports the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of diseases, including HIV/ AIDS.



Mrs. Kufuor was also a beacon for female advancement, fostering initiatives to inspire and empower both young and adult females in various facets of life.



The members of the ruling New Patriotic Party, together with all Ghanaians whose lives were positively touched by her, extend our deepest condolences to former President John Agyekum Kufuor, their children, and the entire family. We stand united with you in this time of sorrow, praying that the Almighty God grants all of us the fortitude to bear this great loss.



In tribute to the memory of the late Mrs Kufuor, the NPP directs that all Party flags across the country be flown at half-mast for the next seven days. May her gentle soul continue to rest in perfect peace until we meet again on the resurrection morning.



"Damirifa Due!"

Signed

Justin Kodua Frimpong

(General Secretary)





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 Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has commended government for the proactive stance in introducing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses in secondary schools across the nation.



CEO of AGI, Seth Twum Akwaboah, extended this commendation during the second STEM Promotion Roadshow, held at Abomosu Senior High School in the Eastern Region on Monday, October 2, 2023.



Government needs to be commended for its forward-thinking approach in introducing STEM courses in secondary schools. This initiative not only equips our youth with essential skills but also positions Ghana to compete in the global landscape of innovation and technology. AGI applauds this commitment to STEM education as a pathway to a brighter future for our nation, he said



Building on the success of the nationwide STEM Promotion Roadshow launched earlier this year, the second of four earmarked exhibition event in Abomosu focused on illuminating the vast array of career opportunities within STEM.



The event garnered significant attention as it provided students, parents and other relevant stakeholders with valuable insights into the numerous opportunities that STEM education can unlock, showcasing the potential for rewarding and impactful careers.



It witnessed the presence of key figures, including the Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, renowned Auto-Technician Nana Afua Serwaa Adusei, Regional Education Directors, and other notable dignitaries.



Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum took the opportunity to announce the government's plans to introduce aviation and aerospace programs in 12 Senior High Schools, scheduled to commence in the upcoming academic year. This strategic move aims to equip Ghanaian students with the essential skills and knowledge required to excel in the ever-evolving world of STEM disciplines.



"STEM education is the cornerstone of our nation's progress, and by introducing aviation and aerospace programs in our secondary schools, we are paving the way for a brighter future. These initiatives equip our students with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in the ever-evolving world of STEM, ensuring they become innovators and leaders in the industries of tomorrow."



Minister Oppong Nkrumah on his part emphasized the critical importance of building a self-sustaining ecosystem for producing and servicing what we produce within the country. He said government is focused on investing in STEM education in the country and by this investment, government seeks to build an expanded pool of professionals who can build the various things we find all around us.



Madam Adusei, echoed similar sentiments. She encouraged parents to embrace STEM education and consider enrolling their children in STEM-focused schools. She said this will prepare the younger generation for the challenges and opportunities of the future.

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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Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has raised alarm over what he says is the sale of prime lands around Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to a private company under some shady circumstances.



In his latest expose tagged the 'Heaven Scandal' and published via his social media handles on Monday, October 2, 2023, the opposition MP accused the President and the Minister for Finance of granting approval for the transaction led by the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), on the blindside of parliament.



On the blind side of Parliament and the Ghanaian people, President Akufo-Addo and Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta have granted approval for our prime airport lands to be handed over under the most shady of circumstances to a company known as Heaven Builders Limited, he alleged.



He noted that the Managing Director of GACL, Mrs. Pamela Djamson-Tettey, in 2022, through a correspondence with the Managing Director of Heaven Builders, offered some 38.14 acres of the said land at a total cost of US$85,021,340.00.



In an outrageous sweetheart deal, the GACL assures Heaven Builders that they will become owners of 38.14 acres of prime airport land in the immediate environs of the Kotoka International Airport under the Airport City Phase 2 Project if they agree to carry out some dubious infrastructure such as roads and drains at a so-called cost of US$85,021,340.00.



It is most instructive that the offer letter does not provide any independent verification mechanism for really assessing that any claim by Heaven Builders that they have invested US$85 million in infrastructure is indeed accurate, he stated.



The MP noted that the deal strangely failed to disclose how the supposed infrastructure cost was arrived at and that it is more shocking that the GACL would not be allowed to raise its own funding for the supposed development.



Beyond the initial deal, Mr. Ablakwa, as part of documents shared in his expose, said the private company has gone ahead to make a counter-offer, demanding double the initial offer for a similar consideration.



Ghanaians would be more devastated to know that because this is a behind-the-scenes sleazy sweetheart deal, Heaven Builders have made a counter-offer in a letter dated 23rd January, 2023, signed by Frank Owiredu-Affum, a director, where they demand more land. (Letter attached)



Heaven Builders is now asking for a massive 62.14 acres for the same consideration. This is almost double what they were initially offered.



They are also demanding that the lease period be extended from 45 years to 99 years, he stated.



While pegging the current commercial value of land around the Airport Enclave at an average of $4 million per acre, Mr. Ablakwa noted that the offer given to Heaven Builders gives the company the chance of making in excess of US$152 million in profit at the expense of the state.



He further revealed that the situation around the deal has led to a sharp division within the management of GACL, with some managers opposing the deal while others are vehemently pushing the deal through.



According to the MP, the managing director of GACL at one point was threatened with dismissal over accusations of attempting to slow down the deal.



He emphasised that the minority in parliament will demand an inquiry into the deal and thus warned officials involved in the matter to prepare themselves to answer for their roles and actions.



Read the full publication below:



THE HEAVEN SCANDAL - PART 1



The Heaven Scandal is yet another classic manifestation of create, loot and share.



In recent days, leading members of the ruling New Patriotic Party have been publicly condemning the frightening levels of corruption, looting and plundering which is now the irrefutable legacy of the buccaneer Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration.



Alan Kyerematen has boldly called out the unscrupulous apparatchiks who have hijacked the NPP and are destroying Ghana.



Dr. Amoako Baah a few days ago confessed on TV3 that: We have stolen everything.



Dr. Arthur Kennedy in his latest epistle has decried the situation where our resources are destroyed to enrich a few.



Kennedy Showdown Agyapong has been captured in a viral video lamenting about how NPP is looting Ghana as if there is no tomorrow.



This latest expose  The Heaven Scandal is an incontrovertible confirmation of the public confessions of these top NPP insiders but it also reflects a tragic reality about how there will be no country left if Ghanaians do not rise up to demand an end to the pillage.



It is in this regard that I salute and applaud the youth who embarked on the #OccupyJulorbiHouse demonstration a few days ago.



I also commend colleague NDC MPs, Civil Society Organizations, other associations and the vast majority of Ghanaians who will be participating in tomorrows #OccupyBoGProtest



Facts about the Heaven Scandal



On the blind side of Parliament and the Ghanaian people, President Akufo-Addo and Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta have granted approval for our prime airport lands to be handed over under the most shady of circumstances to a company known as Heaven Builders Limited.



In an intercepted offer letter dated December 16, 2022, Managing Director of the Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), Mrs. Pamela Djamson-Tettey conveys the offer and allocations to the Managing Director of Heaven Builders Limited. (Intercepted letter attached)



In an outrageous sweetheart deal, the GACL assures Heaven Builders that they will become owners of 38.14 acres of prime airport land in the immediate environs of the Kotoka International Airport under the Airport City Phase 2 Project if they agree to carry out some dubious infrastructure such as roads and drains at a so-called cost of US$85,021,340.00.



It is most instructive that the offer letter does not provide any independent verification mechanism for really assessing that any claim by Heaven Builders that they have invested US$85million in infrastructure is indeed accurate.



Strangely, no one knows how that infrastructure cost was arrived at.



Even more shocking is the decision by the buccaneer Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government to adopt this model of a generous crony giveaway to Heaven Builders when GACL could raise their own equity for infrastructure even from our local banks considering the fact that GACL are the direct owners of this prime 93 acre land.



Ghanaians would be more devastated to know that because this is a behind the scenes sleazy sweetheart deal, Heaven Builders have made a counteroffer in a letter dated 23rd January, 2023 signed by Frank Owiredu-Affum, a Director, where they demand more land. (Letter attached)



Heaven Builders is now asking for a massive 62.14 acres for the same consideration. This is almost double what they were initially offered.



They are also demanding that the lease period be extended from 45 years to 99 years.



Heaven Builders and their collaborators are perhaps the most powerful and courageous prime land looters this country has ever seen.



At current commercial value, an acre of prime land at Airport can be averagely worth US$4million. Under the initial offer to Heaven Builders of 38.14 acres, they stand to make in excess of US$152million.



If their current demand for 62.14 acres is approved, they walk away with a cool US$248.56million as they smile to the bank.



Obviously, the faceless mafia behind Heaven Builders must assume Ghana belongs to them  but their days are numbered.



My unimpeachable sources within GACL have informed me about how top management is sharply divided about this Heaven Builders Affair. Those against the deal are upset about the naked thievery and future consequences, particularly, when the next NDC administration decides to prosecute.



The tension over this mega airport prime land loot almost cost the current Managing Director, Mrs. Pamela Djamson-Tettey her job when she was threatened with dismissal after being accused of delaying the deal and refusing to succumb to the outlandish counteroffer of Heaven Builders. This is what led to the workers union issuing a strongly worded statement on August 16, 2023 alleging that there was a plot to remove the Managing Director and warning of dire consequences if that happened. (Statement attached).



When Parliament resumes in a few days, we shall be demanding an enquiry into this Heaven Scandal. We shall also summon all those officials involved in this secret land grab  they must be prepared to explain why they kept parliament in the dark and didnt seek prior parliamentary approval.



This Mafioso-style looting of prime airport lands is another reason we must all be demonstrably angry at this regime, and ensure we show up for tomorrows OccupyBoG demonstration at 7am.



If this governments predecessors had behaved this way, what will they have inherited?



I shall publish more damning documents on this Heaven Scandal on Wednesday October 4, 2023 in Part 2.



We shall stop the Airport prime land looters!



For God and Country.





Source: ghanaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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In response to a determination issued today by the NZ Markets Disciplinary Tribunal, 2 Cheap Cars Group Limited (the Company) (NZX: 2CC ), acknowledged that it had breached NZX Listing Rules 2.1.1(c) and 2.13.2(c) pertaining to independent director requirements.

The breaches related to filling a sudden short-term vacancy at 2CC subsidiary, NZ Motor Finance Limited (NZMF) which is in run down mode, accounts for 1.2% of group revenue and at the time, was subject to restructuring.

Independent Director and previous Interim CEO, Gordon Shaw acted as a part-time consultant for eight weeks to oversee the collection and management of the NZMF loan book. It was a quick response to an urgent need as a new lower cost organisational structure was finalised, but the Board acknowledges that a broader consideration should have occurred.

2CC CEO, Paul Millward said that the breach was inadvertent and, while accepted and regrettable, had not caused loss to investors.

We certainly regret the breach, but it was not intentional. No question, we should have more carefully considered the implications with regard to ensuring independent director requirements were maintained at all times.

As a small cap company in turnaround mode, protecting shareholders interests remains at the forefront of all our decisions. That approach has seen us accelerate 2CCs recovery in 2023 with the share price lifting from 31.5 cents at the start of the year to 82 cents today, restoring considerable shareholder value, he said.

The Company noted that it had unsuccessfully appealed against the Tribunals assessment of the seriousness of that breach, the balance of aggravating and mitigating factors, and the consequent quantum of the final penalty imposed.

2CC disagrees with the Tribunals decision that the breach had the potential to cause a moderate impact on investors and the market, as its determination noted numerous factors which lessened the potential impact of the breach. The Tribunals resulting decision to apply Penalty Band 2, despite the lack of a disqualifying relationship, the limited nature of the role and the short period of the breach remains difficult for the Company to understand.

The Company also strongly disagrees with the Tribunals determination of compliance history as an aggravating factor, albeit one with a lesser weighting. As reported to the market at the time, the 2022 breach of NZX Listing Rule 2.7.1 was identified by NZ RegCo as unintentional and resulting from reliance on legal advice from a reputable law firm.

The Tribunal also referred to determination NZMDT 1/2023 NZX v Hallenstein Glasson Holdings Limited (HLG) in providing precedent for assessing the 2CC penalty parameters, despite HLG being referred to as a more serious breach and the breach occurring over a number of years. 2CC acknowledges the Tribunals views on this matter and its assessment of mitigating circumstances, but remains of the view, that the differential between the resulting penalties should be higher.

Company Breach period Fine

HLG 4 years $75,000

2CC 8 weeks $40,000

2CC Chair, Michael Stiassny said that while the Company accepts responsibility for breaches of the NZX Listing Rules, it disagrees with the determination of the penalty.

It is essential that all NZX Companies are held to the same standard, and the balance of aggravating and mitigating factors when assessing penalties for Listing Rule breaches are applied consistently. That formed the basis of our appeal and is reflected in our views above, he said.

Ends

For further information, please contact:

Michael Stiassny

Chairman

Mobile: +64 21 821 166

About 2 Cheap Cars Group* (2CC)

2 Cheap Cars Group is one of New Zealands largest used car retailers, also offering third party finance and insurance options. 2 Cheap Cars benefits from a vertically integrated supply chain, carefully controlling the process from procurement in Japan through to delivery of quality cars to our 12 car yards nationwide. Our mission is to deliver on our promise 2 Cheap Cars, driving better deals, every day.

*2 Cheap Cars Group was previously known as NZ Automotive Investments (NZAI).

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The UN has backed Kenya's offer to lead a multinational security force in Haiti in response to a plea from the Caribbean nation's prime minister for help restoring order.



Haiti has suffered from gang violence for decades but the current wave of brutality escalated after the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.



Gangs have taken control of large parts of the country, waging terror on residents and killing hundreds.



UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that a "robust use of force" is needed to disarm the gangs and restore order.



Greenlighting the deployment, the UN Security Council resolution approves the mission for a year with a review after nine months.



The new force will carry out joint security operations and will have the authority to make arrests in coordination with Haitian police, according to the resolution.



It will also aim to create conditions to hold elections. Haiti has not had an election since 2016.



Haiti's Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus called the decision "a glimmer of hope for the people that have for too long been suffering."



What has Kenya offered to do?



Kenya has said it would send 1,000 police officers to Haiti.



When this was first proposed in July, Kenyan officials said the officers would guard government buildings and infrastructure, but that plan changed after Kenya sent a fact-finding mission the following month.



The country now wants to deploy an intervention force that will neutralise the armed gangs, protect civilians and bring about peace, security and order.



Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua told the BBC that his country would also like to help Haiti rebuild vital infrastructure and establish a stable democratic government.



The Bahamas, Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda have said they will take part in the mission and the minister added that Spain, Senegal and Chile were also likely to deploy security personnel.



Mr Mutua said he expected the force to be in place by the beginning of next year.



What will the Kenyan police find in Haiti?



Haiti is experiencing a multi-faceted security and humanitarian crisis that Mr Guterres called "a living nightmare".



Swathes of the mountain-cradled coastal capital Port-au-Prince - some estimates say 80% - are either controlled or regularly terrorised by heavily armed gangs.



These gangs, with names in Haitian creole such as "Kraze Barye" (Barrier-Crusher) and "Gran Grif" (Big Claw), have over the last two years been robbing, looting, extorting, kidnapping, raping and killing.



Armed with automatic weapons smuggled in mostly from the US, the gang members often out-gun the local police, sometimes burning their vehicles and stations.



They control, or regularly raid, the main routes in and out of the capital.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A regional technical seminar, a two-day technical seminar on leveraging digitalization to extend social security coverage in West Africa has been held in Accra.



The seminar is being hosted by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), under the auspices of the International Social Security Association (ISSA)  an international organization for social security institutions, government departments and agencies of which SSNIT is a member.



The purpose of the meeting is to identify innovative solutions and practices in the use of digital and mobile technologies to extend social security coverage in the West African sub-region.



During the regional Social Security Forum for Africa, held in Abidjan, Cote dIvoire, in May 2023, one of the conclusions reached was that Social security in West Africa has made some progress over the past decade through the strengthening of legal frameworks and administrative structures.



Despite the progress made, large segments of the population in the region, particularly, workers in the informal sector and self-employed workers, remain without social security cover.



The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for the development of banking services for insured persons and the introduction of new services based on mobile phone technologies. This did not only cushion people from the effect of the crisis, but also created new opportunities to extend social security coverage to the difficult-to-reach category of workers.



It is against this background that the ISSA technical seminar has been organised to identify innovative solutions in the use of digital and mobile technologies to extend social security coverage to self employed persons and workers in the informal sector.



Speaking during the seminar, the Secretary General of ISSA, Marcelo Abi-Ramia Caetano expressed appreciation to Cote dIvoire for hosting ISSAs Liaison Office and to Ghana for accepting to host the Office for the next three years.



He indicated that Ghana was chosen to host the 2023 Seminar as well as the ISSA Liaison Office because SSNIT has shown commitment and leadership in social security administration thereby enhancing social protection in Ghana.



The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Hon. Ignatius Baffour Awuah, in his remarks noted that the region's inability to cover a large percentage of the workforce under social security schemes is partly due to a lack of digitalised procedures to ease the registration process.



This indicates that leveraging digitalization to extend social security coverage is critical. Therefore, investing in this to extend social security coverage is not an aspiration that can be deferred to the future. I therefore call on social security institutions within West Africa to take advantage of the emergence of digital technologies to bridge the wide coverage gap, Hon Baffour Awuah noted.



In his welcome address, the Director-General of SSNIT, Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, charged participants to focus on technology that impacts positively on service delivery and access to social security.



Let us not come at the discussions purely from an administrative point of view, but focus on how we can use available technology to truly impact the lives of our people. We cannot fail in this endeavour, because when you look at the map for social security coverage globally, you will find that Africa is one of the least covered areas even though our populations continue to grow at substantial rates.



We must find ways of using technology among other interventions to increase the reach of social protection for the vast majority of our people, Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang indicated.



Transfer of ISSA Liaison Office



The seminar also saw the Transfer of ISSA Liaison Office from Cote dIvoire to Ghana. Ghana has been chosen to host the Office from 2023 to 2026. The Office will be located at the Trust Emporium, Airport City in Accra and will be responsible for promoting excellence in social security administration in the West Africa sub-region.



The Office will also be responsible for developing dynamic social security systems and policies, serving as a communication channel between the West Africa sub-region and the ISSA General Secretariat, gathering information on region-specific interests, needs, and challenges among other functions.



About SSNIT



The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT or the Trust) is a statutory public institution charged under the National Pensions Act, 2008 Act 766 (as amended by Act 883) with the administration of Ghanas Basic National Social Security Scheme.



Currently, the Trust is the largest non-banking financial institution in Ghana. Its mandate is to cater for the First Tier of the Three-Tier Pension Scheme.



The SSNIT Scheme replaces part of lost income of Members due to Old Age, Invalidity or upon the death of a Member, where nominated dependant(s) receive a lump sum. It also pays Emigration benefits to non-Ghanaian Members who are leaving Ghana permanently.



The SSNIT Pension Scheme has an active membership of over 1.9 million contributors. In September 2023, the Trust paid a total of over GH372.87 million to some 241,675 pensioners.

Source: Prince Baffour Asamoah/Peace FM 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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Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah has described as unfortunate attacks on Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on his quest to lead the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2024 election.



He was optimistic that despite the attack ahead of their parts November 4 primary, Dr Bawumia will emerge as the winner and break the 8 for the Elephant party.



Bawumia is going to be the first candidate after late president Rawlings to win on his first attempt as president. He said in an interview with NEAT FMs morning show, Ghana Montie.



He added, Any candidate that is always attacking another candidate has no qualities of his to promote.



Listen to the interview below





Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









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A flagbearer hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto has said that the seeming polarization in the NPP in its current state can not guarantee the party victory in the 2024 general elections if the party fails to clean its house.



He said the party needs to work hard, close its ranks, and approach the 2024 general elections with a more united front to attract the needed votes that will ensure victory for the party.



According to him, it is a dent on the image of the party and the government to see millions of Ghanaians, mostly party members, wallow in abject poverty.



In the view of Dr. Akoto, it was the aspirations of many party faithful to have a spark in their life when the NPP won the 2016 general elections, having been in opposition for eight years.



However, their hopes were dashed following neglect by the party and the government, a situation Dr. Akoto described as very sad and unfortunate.



Addressing journalists at his Kumasi residence on Monday, October 2, 2023, the Cambridge University trained Agricultural Economist said the challenge at hand will require that the winner of the presidential primary of the party prioritize it and initiate measures to address it before going into the 2024 general elections.



He said the people had so much hope in the party that the neglect of its base has brought about apathy, which needed someone with smart thinking and strategies to win back their confidence.



That is why he has offered himself as the best bet to lead and retain power for the party in the 2024 general elections.



Ten months to the 2020 elections was when I even got a better view of what was going on. I was with President Akufo-Addo everywhere he went and the sentiments expressed by the people across the country were such that we couldnt escape the fact that the morale of the NPP activists on the ground was very low. And that is something that haunted some of us until the elections. We were able to escape defeat by the skin of the teeth. From 169 seats, we came to 137, and the NDC, also 137 seats in Parliament, noted the former Food and Agriculture Minister.



He added So, the NPP is not in a good place to contest to retain power next year, and we have to address this issue very seriously. Anybody who aspires to bear the flag of the NPP, that should be the priority. I have a very clear understanding of the problems on the ground because I have been a Member of Parliament in Kwadaso here in Kumasi for eight years in opposition. So, I understand the concerns expressed by the activists on the ground who are polling station executives, Electoral Area Coordinators, and Constituency Executives who are more than 200,000 and are being asked to cast their vote on the 4th of November to decide who will bear the flag of the NPP.



Dr. Akoto, who also worked with the UN systems for more than eighteen years passionately appealed to the delegates to look at his track record and give him their mandate to lead the party and retain power for the UP tradition.



When the party people are complaining about their denial and concerns, it really gets to my heart. So, I am strongly appealing to the over 200,000 delegates across the country, most of who are farmers, that the kind of policies that I have pursued to support them are unprecedented in terms of the supply of modern farm inputs, improved seeds and fertilizers, including their yields and production and getting them out of poverty and the kind of responses they gave me is something I appreciate a lot. The six years with the farmers in Ghana have shown that they can deliver us from poverty and our woes. I want to remind them not to forget these efforts that I made to support them and that the same enthusiasm and enlightenment that I gave in trying to support them in their work will be even more so if I lead this party and with their support, win the presidency come next year. Agriculture is going to be the centre of our attention in term of the allocation of public resources to help them to transform this country to bring us the surpluses in terms of foreign exchange, he underscored.



Suspension of Ashanti Region tour



Dr. Akoto used the occasion to officially announce the suspension of his tour to the Ashanti Region in order to mourn with the former President of the Republic of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor, who lost his wife, Theresa Kufuor, on Sunday, October 1, 2023.



The former Food and Agriculture Minister was scheduled to begin his week-long tour to the Ashanti Region this week by holding strategic meetings with key party members at different locations in the region.



This was to scale up efforts in rallying support for his presidential bid.



The NPP goes to the polls on November 4, 2023, to select a presidential candidate who will lead the party to the 2024 general elections.



Dr. Akoto is number 3 on the ballot paper. He placed 4th in the Super Delegates Conference held on August 26, 2023.



Over 200,000 delegates are expected to vote in the National Delegates Conference on November 4, 2024.

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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Independent presidential candidate Alan Kyerematen has been advised to consult extensively in filing his nomination forms with the Electoral Commission for the 2024 elections.



According to Kwaku Owusu Banahene, a communicator of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer hopeful must engage the services of Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan and Mrs. Charlotte Osei, who are both former Electoral Commissioners, to thwart any attempt by the NPP to have him disqualified by the EC.



When it comes to the filing of his forms, he should let Dr. Afari Gyan fill them out for him, and when he is done, Charlotte Osei should do the proofreading. She should scrutinize the documents carefully before he goes ahead to submit it.



"Else, the Electoral Commissioner will disqualify Alan. I am telling you, and you can mark it down. That is the avenue the NPP will use to have Alan Kyerematen disqualified, he stated on Peace FMs morning show on Monday, October 2, 2023.



Banahene noted that Mr. Kyerematen, who recently resigned from the NPP flagbearer contest, citing unfair treatment against himself and his supporters, commands a good following and will therefore prove a threat to the NPP.



He added that most current Members of Parliament who will lose in the NPPs parliamentary primaries will follow in the path of Mr. Kyerematen and contest the 2024 elections as independent candidates.















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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PPP National Chairman, Nana Ofori Owusu has egged the #OccupyBoG protesters on with their protest to the Bank of Ghana but asked them to continue it to the Ministry of Finance.



According to him, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta cannot be absolved from the protest.



He opined that there is no way the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, can sanction the printing of excess monies, which is part of the reasons for the demonstration, without the permission of the Finance Minister.



"Are you saying that if BoG prints excess money, it is not in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance or the Finance Minister?", he questioned.



He answered; "It's not possible that the Bank of Ghana Governor, on his own, can just go out and print excess amount of money into the system while at the time of printing, the Minister of Finance is not in the know. He plays a major part of it...the heat, the attack on the Governor is good."



He therefore stressed "the Finance Ministry cannot be absolved from this process...The Finance Minister should be made part of this protest because the Governor doesn't act in isolation".



Nana Ofori made these remarks on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show.





The Minority in Parliament and a section of the Ghanaian populace have embarked on demonstration against the Bank of Ghana (BoG).The demonstration dubbed #OccupyBoG Protest is to back their demand for the immediate resignation of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and his two deputies.The protesters, on Tuesday, October 3, converged at the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in the Greater Accra Region and have served notice not to stop picketing the Bank of Ghana until the Governor and the deputies vacate their offices.

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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Nana Akomea has asked Parliament to summon the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, to publicly respond to the allegations leveled against him in his adminstration of the Bank of Ghana.



The Minority in Parliament today embarked on a protest to the Bank of Ghana (BoG), asking the Governor and his deputies to resign, alleging they have poorly managed the Central Bank.



Among some of the accusations against the Governors are that the bank recorded a staggering loss of GH60.8 billion and printed money to finance their "champagne lifestyle", according to a post by Minority Leader, Cassiel Ato Forson.



"Governor Addison, printing of money is like alcoholism. The perceived good effect comes immediately, and the hangover comes after the party. You printed money to finance the champagne lifestyle on akpeteshie budget of the Akufo Addo/ Bawumia Government. Today, Gh is on its knees!", Dr. Ato Forson tweeted before their protest on Tuesday, October 3, 2023.



Addressing the issue, Nana Akomea admonished the Minority to utilize the option of bringing the Governor to Parliament and seek clarifications.



He argued it is not binding on the Governor to grant them audience during their protest but invoking the powers of Parliament will compel him to respond to the allegations.



"Parliament, let me make it clear, has the power to summon the Governor of the Bank of Ghana. With this demonstration, he can choose to come for your petition. He can send someone else to come for it and there's nothing you can do to him, but you can summon him to come to Parliament," he stated, stressing "so that we, the public, can follow the issues".



To him, "once they present a petition to the Speaker and the Speaker approves it and they summon the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, he will have to appear".



Nana Akomea gave these comments on "Kokrokoo" panel discussion programme on Peace FM Tuesday morning.





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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The Savannah Region is home to, not only her Sons and Daughters, but all and sundry without recourse to race, gender, religious affiliation or status. The unblemished Vice President of the Republic, H.E Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who is a proud son of Savannah Region in his own right, therefore does not need any welcome address from the reactive Savannah Region NDC.



It is worthy to note that, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia actively advocated, worked and mobilized for the creation of the Savannah Region. But for Dr. Bawumias work, how will the Savannah Region be created let alone for the (NDC), now claiming to have their Candidate hail from this region and the so called NDC Leaders themselves, associating as Savannah Regional officers. These so called executives were 'errand boys' in the former Northern Region.



The biggest ever accomplishment for Gonjas is the creation of the Savannah Region, and this remains the legacy of NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia. This achievement is absolutely unmatched.



It's also a grave disappointment that, a son [John Mahama] of the soil could look us in the face without shame, and tell us he left money aside before leaving office, for our basic problems to be addressed, after eight [8] years of holding executive powers as both Vice President, Interim President and Substantive President. This is highly insulting and a disrespect to Kegbanye and its descendants from their son. It is not only reckless, but shameless and utterly irresponsible for the NDC and JM to keep making those loose statements.



Again, it is quite shameful and pathetic, that as President for 4 and half years, and Vice President for 4 years, all the NDC can boast of in Savannah Region regarding John Mahamas reign is that, he has secured some phantom monies for projects that they can not account for. The statement that JM secured this, JM secured that, is not only unfounded, baseless and deceptive but shameful as well.



The abysmal performance of John Mahama in the S/R and the other four (4) Northern Regions have been exposed in a jaundiced and uncoordinated so-called 10 questions to the good Vice President, Dr. Bawimia. Isn't it shameful that the NDC, even though they had a son of the soil (Gonjaland) as Vice and Substantive President for eight consecutive years, could not sort out basic social amenity problems confronting the SR but are now counting on the NPP and Vice President Bamumia to do so?



If not for political gimmick, without moral instincts, what authority does a failed party in a regional creation fiasco have? Was it not this same JM, that emphatically stated that we cant have a Region? Why is he now desperately looking for an escape route?



How does a document sent to parliament on 20th December, 2016, 13 days after losing elections and 17 days to handing over executive power, seek for parliamentary approval to secure a loan which was never approved, amount to funds been secured? The NDC at the time, formed majority in Parliament, the Speaker of Parliament, who was the leader of the House, Hon. Doe Adjaho, was a staunch NDC. If not for deceit, ill intentions and face-saving theatrics, why would the Damongo Water Project loan agreement fail when several other agreements got approved? It is on record that JM is the only former President of Ghana who has the capital seat of the Traditional Kingdom he hails from, suffering from water problems. The NDC in the region should give us a break as the Nana Addo/ Bawumia Government is working tirelessly to get the capital seat of Gonja potable drinking water, just as they have done in Kpembe, Salaga, Yapei, etc.



The Construction Firm, Myturn, who is in charge of the project, went on site 4 days ago to carry out rehabilitation works on the Fulfulso-Damongo-Sawla road. Their equipment/machines can be found in Laribanga.



For the records, no college was established in Bole. A lecturer from Daboya, Dr Musah, spearheaded the establishment of a teacher training college in Daboya. A whole President couldn't do it for a whole 4 and a half years.



Today, North Gonja is currently home to the construction of a fully fletched District Hospital, the Polyclinic was built in the 70s by Busia, Renovated and upgraded by President Kufour. Currently, President Akufo Addo is providing a District Hospital. The people of North Gonja are not moved by the staged images collaborated by an NDC journalist.



John Mahama has failed to initiate and complete a single project in the S/R except to hoodwink and hijack late Professor Mills' isolated and attempted projects. The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia Government in almost seven (7) years has delivered incomparable projects and programs in the Region.



1. Creation of the Savannah Region,



2. Establishment of Decentralized Departments in Damongo, Bole, Salaga and Daboya,



3. Creation of North East Gonja District Assembly,



4. Upgradement of Damongo and Salaga Districts to Municipal Status,



5. Construction of ultra-modern Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC),



6. Provision of seven (7) Ambulances to the Region as part of 1D-1A,



7. Construction of state-of-the-art District hospitals in Daboya and Kpalbe as part of agenda 111,



8. Construction of over 400kms of roads in the Region including Yapei-Bunjai, Daboya-Mankarigu roads,



9. Electrification of 100s of rural communities in the Region,



10. Construction of Buipe and Bamboi hospitals,



11. Construction of township roads in Damongo and Salaga,



12. Construction of Laribanga Islamic SHS and infrastructure projects for existing SHS in DASS and NDESCO,



13. Unprecedented Job allocations and opportunities.e.tc.



Let it be said, forcefully, that the NDC and JM are the major setbacks that has ever been unleashed on Gonjaland. JM did not only abuse and misuse the privilege to change the course of his kinsmen, but also used, dumped and abandoned them to their fate.



Let the record be established that the achievements of Vice President Bawumia in Savannah Region far-dwarfs that of President Mahama, if he has any at all. And indeed, insha allahu, when Vice President Bawumia, with the massive support of Savannah Region, assumes the Presidency of Ghana, Gonjaland will see more development like never witnessed before.



Let the failed NDC/JM give us a break!



Signed:

Mohammed Issah

Savannah Regional Secretary, NPP

Source: Mohammed Issah Savannah Regional Secretary, NPP









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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French physicist Anne L'Huillier was the first to discover a tool to pry open the world of attoseconds.

The Nobel Physics Prize was awarded on Tuesday to three scientists for their work on attoseconds, which are almost unimaginably short periods of time.

Their work using lasers gives scientists a tool to observe and possibly even manipulate electrons, which could spur breakthroughs in fields such as electronics and chemistry, experts told AFP.

How fast are attoseconds?

Attoseconds are a billionth of a billionth of a second.

To give a little perspective, there are around as many attoseconds in a single second as there have been seconds in the 13.8-billion year history of the universe.

Hans Jakob Woerner, a researcher at the Swiss university ETH Zurich, told AFP that attoseconds are "the shortest timescales we can measure directly".

Why do we need such speed?

Being able to operate on this timescale is important because these are the speeds at which electronskey parts of an atomoperate.

For example, it takes electrons 150 attoseconds to go around the nucleus of a hydrogen atom.

This means the study of attoseconds has given scientists access to a fundamental process that was previously out of reach.

All electronics are mediated by the motion of electronsand the current "speed limit" is nanoseconds, Woerner said.

If microprocessors were switched to attoseconds, it could be possible to "process information a billion times faster," he added.

Graphic explaining discoveries made by the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize for physics.

How do you measure them?

Franco-Swede physicist Anne L'Huillier, one of the three new Nobel laureates, was the first to discover a tool to pry open the world of attoseconds.

It involves using high-powered lasers to produce pulses of light for incredibly short periods.

Franck Lepine, a researcher at France's Institute of Light and Matter who has worked with L'Huillier, told AFP it was like "cinema created for electrons".

He compared it to the work of pioneering French filmmakers the Lumiere brothers, "who cut up a scene by taking successive photos".

John Tisch, a laser physics professor at Imperial College London, said that it was "like an incredibly fast, pulse-of-light device that we can then shine on materials to get information about their response on that timescale".

How low can we go?

All three of Tuesday's laureates at one point held the record for shortest pulse of light.

In 2001, French scientist Pierre Agostini's team managed to flash a pulse that lasted just 250 attoseconds.

L'Huillier's group beat that with 170 attoseconds in 2003.

In 2008, Hungarian-Austrian physicist Ferenc Krausz more than halved that number with an 80-attosecond pulse.

Hungarian-Austrian physicist Ferenc Krausz was among the new Nobel physics winners.

The current holder of the Guinness World Record for "shortest pulse of light" is Woerner's team, with a time of 43 attoseconds.

The time could go as low as a few attoseconds using current technology, Woerner estimated. But he added that this would be pushing it.

What could the future hold?

Technology taking advantage of attoseconds has largely yet to enter the mainstream, but the future looks bright, the experts said.

So far, scientists have mostly only been able to use attoseconds to observe electrons.

"But what is basically untouched yetor is just really beginning to be possibleis to control" the electrons, to manipulate their motion, Woerner said.

This could lead to far faster electronics as well as potentially spark a revolution in chemistry.

"We would not be limited to what molecules naturally do," but instead could "tailor them according to need," Woerner said.

So-called "attochemistry" could lead to more efficient solar cells, or even the use of light energy to produce clean fuels, he added.

 2023 AFP
In Ukraine it was noticed by Ukrainian soldiers that many, if not most, of the Russian soldiers were in the army as contract (higher paid long term) soldiers and were from rural areas where jobs were scarce and poverty was increasing. Many of the military-age men had already served one or two years as conscripts. In the last year, military recruiters have been offering these veterans well-paid (by Russian standards) jobs as contract soldiers if they signed up for a few more years. Most of their pay could be sent directly to their families and there were substantial death or disability payments.

So far over 200,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine and in many rural towns it is noticeable that many men recently died in Ukraine. Thats made it difficult for recruiters, who have obtained most of their best recruits from these rural areas, where many men are accustomed to hunting or fishing. That means recruits who already know how to shoot and move quietly in the countryside, and are in need of a better paying job. As more local men die in Ukraine, fewer are inclined to join the army. This is a problem because most of the rural population of Russia has been slowly declining. In 1970 rural areas held half the population but currently it is only 37 percent and continuing to decline. A century ago, most Russians lived in rural areas but the movement to urban areas has been relentless and continuous.

Men in urban areas have access to more news, better education and more jobs. The urban men were not interested in joining the army as contract soldiers. It was voters from urban areas that led the opposition conscription, but so far the best they could do was get the term of conscript service reduced to one year. The current conscript laws prohibit conscripts from serving in foreign wars. The government tried to present the Ukraine War as an internal Russian matter. The government passed laws to that effect but most Russians still considered the Ukraine War a foreign war that was off limits for conscripts.

To get around this the government provided more cash bonuses to induce conscripts to become contract soldiers. This made sense to conscripts from poor regions but the urban conscripts were not interested, and concentrated on surviving their unfortunate circumstances. For urban military-age men, particularly in the Moscow and St. Petersburg areas, rampant corruption in the conscription bureaucracy provides opportunities for those with money to avoid conscription or at least avoid service in a combat unit.

As Russian conscripts and newly acquired contract soldiers continued to suffer casualties in Ukraine, the quality of those troops and their willingness to fight declined. This was accelerated by the even greater decline in the number of combat officers available in Ukraine. Russian officers were also reluctant to have a promising military career cut short by untimely death in Ukraine while trying to lead reluctant troops. Ukrainian forces more frequently encountered Russian units that seemed reluctant to fight, or surrender. The Russian government tried to deal with the situation by making it a criminal offense to surrender to Ukrainian troops. This has led a growing number of reluctant and desperate Russian soldiers to desert and not return to Russia. This makes them stateless but still alive. This is not a new problem and the UN refugee agency will issue travel documents to the stateless. This allows Russian deserters to move around outside Russia but they still encounter problems finding a job while also learning a new language. It is possible to covertly contact friends and family via the Internet to let them know you are still alive but thats about all you can do.

All this explains the poor morale and combat ineffectiveness of so many Russian troops in Ukraine. There are some elite commando or airborne units that will willingly fight but there are few of these units. Russian commanders have learned to use these units carefully because combat losses are not easy to replace. It takes months to train these elite troops, who are volunteers and there are fewer and fewer Russians volunteering to fight in Ukraine, even as a member of an elite unit. While all this limits the ability of the Russians to attack, most of their reluctant soldiers will operate on the defensive and take part in building defensive fortifications and planting landmines and other nasty surprises for any attackers. This is what the current Ukrainian offensive in the southeast has to deal with. Ukrainian forces make the most of this by using their long-range weapons, like artillery, guided rockets and aircraft delivered long range guided bombs or air-to-ground missiles to destroy Russian supply storage sites, transportation efforts and headquarters. This leaves a growing number of Russian units without ammunition or other supplies, even food. Many Russian troops still have their cellphones and can call home and complain about their increasingly desperate situation. Its illegal for troops to report on their situation and illegal for Russian media to publish or broadcast it. This slows down but does prevent the bad news from spreading inside Russia. Most Russians still support their government or simply try to avoid the war news. For those Russians who are involved because they have friends or family members in the military or subject to being recruited or conscripted, the bad news is a useful additional incentive to avoid being sent to Ukraine to fight. Those who do go have little enthusiasm for fighting but will shoot back if cornered and attacked.
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Just how welcoming Toronto and other global cities are to migrants can play a large role in their success at navigating physical and social barriers to reestablish their careers, found York University researchers.

The researchers wanted to know how big cities, such as Toronto, one of the largest international, financial, and business centers attracting skilled migrants from all around the world, enables or constrains migrant careers and integration. The answer, they say, is important for cities and organizations serving the migrant population as well as employers, policymakers, and even migrants.

The paper, "Untangling Space and Career Action: Migrant Career Recontextualization in the Host City," was published in the journal Academy of Management.

Local customs, educational job requirements, learning opportunities and the availability of social connections all form boundaries that can help or hinder the ability to navigate a new city. The recent study by York Professor Jelena Zikic of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies and former York Ph.D. candidate Viktoriya Voloshyna, now an Assistant professor at Thompson Rivers University, completed an in-depth study of migrants' lived-work experiences, across time and space to discover how cities and their artifacts, including the built cityscape, customs and practices, affect newcomers' capacities to learn and flourish in their careers.

Skilled migrants need to navigate the city's boundary objects, visual ones such as buildings like the Toronto Reference Library and layout of city streets, as well as non-visual ones including educational opportunities, degree accreditation requirements or certificates, to adapt, bridge or transfer their skills, and accumulate new knowledge to access local labor markets.

"Boundary objects can not only bridge but can accentuate boundaries between different groups and communities in the city," says Zikic. "Unlike locals who may easily navigate a city in search of opportunities, new migrants must quickly acquire 'host city know-how' to navigate local work opportunities. The study found three specific strategies that assist migrants both in finding work locally but more importantly in integrating into local society."

Big cities like Toronto are often chosen by skilled migrants as they are perceived to offer better career opportunities and environments conducive to social and family life, but once here, there can be many barriers to success.

"In Toronto, initial visual, spatial, and social experiences played a powerful role in migrant belongingness and in facilitating the search for local career opportunities," says Zikic. "City planning and migrant infrastructure, creating a more relatable and welcoming city, both socially and visually, not only impacts immediate settlement and navigation needs but can also impact migrant readiness for career action and integration."

The researchers found negative or unwelcoming experiences of settlement and job searching in the new city can have a lasting impact on migrants' relationships locally, and on how they choose to integrate. Migrants experiencing the city in negative or unwelcome ways can make them less inclined to connect socially and give back to the local society, and instead focus more on achieving personal career goals.

However, those with more positive initial work and social experiences may be much more externally focused and play a major role in giving back to their new local community.

In addition, the researchers found migrants recontextualize their careers through career orienting, cross-boundary career adaptation, and creative career action, which could include developing solutions or objects that build bridges, such as creating a phone directory of names and numbers of all the people from their country of origin.

The study looked at skilled migrants from a wide range of different countries, including Japan, Romania, Ukraine, India and Philippines.

More information: Jelena Zikic et al, Untangling Space and Career Action: Migrant Career Recontextualization in the Host City, Academy of Management Discoveries (2023). DOI: 10.5465/amd.2020.0156
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Already the world's hottest coastal environment in the summer, the shallow sea between the Arabian peninsula and southwestern Iran continues to heat at a breathtaking pace.

"The Middle East is one of the worst areas in terms of how rapidly temperature change is occurring," says Brian Helmuth, Northeastern professor of marine and environmental science.

In the past, geopolitical tensions among the gulf states precluded regional cooperation to address the effects of climate change and pollution in the water body known as the Persian or Arabian Gulf.

But an improvement in diplomatic relations among gulf nations presents "a window of opportunity" to develop a regional network of scientists to share data and come up with marine conservation strategies that cut across borders, Helmuth says in a Royal Society Open Science article he co-authored that was published Sept. 27.

The clock is ticking

Sea surface temperatures have been recorded as high as 99.5 Fahrenheit in Kuwait Bay. The result is "many of the (gulf's) species live close to their physiological limits," the article says.

A rise in temperature and salinity and a decrease in pH and dissolved oxygen "all make the gulf a laboratory for the most acute effects of future climate change," the report says.

It says the gulf "is also a hotspot for rapid coastal development" and suffers pollution from the oil industry, all of which are damaging to coral reefs, mangroves, mudgrass and seagrass habitats.

The situation has gotten so perilous that the only source of freshwater into the gulf, the Shatt Al-Arab River at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, has reversed its flow, says Nadia Al-Mudaffar Fawzi, a retired professor from the University of Basra, one of the report's co-authors.

The river's increased salinity threatens freshwater supplies in Basra, Iraq, says Al-Mudaffar Fawzi, whom Helmuth says has a courtesy appointment at Northeastern as a visiting professor due to their collaborations.

"Most of the issues come from political issues between the countries," says Al-Mudaffar Fawzi, who adds that the decreased river flow stems from the water's diversion upstream for electricity and agriculture.

"That's where we came up with the idea of scientists working together," she says.

"Scientists can act really fast, we can be nimble," Helmuth says. "We can respond quickly because we've already established relationships" with organizations such as the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Marine animal sanctuaries and stranding networks

The article in the Royal Society Open Science journal lays out an agenda that includes developing a regional network of scientists who can share data, work together on regional habitat mapping and identify gaps in knowledge that need to be addressed.

It also recommends establishing the gulf's first marine mammal stranding network as well as marine animal sanctuaries, called peace parks.

Marine animals including large mammals like whales and dugongs, a relative of the manatee, "ignore geopolitical boundaries" in their movements, Helmuth says.

The paper recommends establishing the gulf's first "transboundary marine park" in an area shared by Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia that is home to thriving dugong populations.

"The park might involve collaboration on pollution control. It can simply involve just protection from development," Helmuth says.

Smithsonian gets involved

The Smithsonian Institution convened the first meeting in January 2022 of the authors of the report, who have been meeting periodically ever since, says Helmuth, who has worked with Al-Mudaffar Fawzi and other scientists from Iraq for the past dozen years or so.

Al-Mudaffar Fawzi says the authors also include researchers from Iran and the Arab Gulf states. Individuals who are working in but not from Oman and Saudi Arabia also contributed to the report.

"This group worked wonderfully together. It was a really good experience. Hopefully it will continue with more people. My personal aim is to involve more women of Arab origin in the group," she says.

"The fence-mending that has happened throughout the gulf means that it's an opportune time for existing cooperations between scientists to be used as a template for stronger relationships between countries," says Nicholas Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian and a co-author of the report.

"A healthier gulf means healthier people who rely on its ecosystems," he says.

Signs of hope

Geography aggravates some of the stresses faced by the gulf. It has only one outlet, to the Indian Ocean, Pyenson says.

"But there are some hopeful spots," Helmuth says. "Our colleagues in Iraq discovered corals that are managing to survive. Understanding how we can identify resilient corals is a major restoration goal around the world."

Many of the paper's authors plan to meet in November in Doha, Qatar, to discuss the next steps, he says.

The goal is to have scientists in the gulf states work with their governments to share research and develop regional partnerships.

"Solutions can't happen in a vacuum," Helmuth says. "They really need to be coordinated."

More information: Clare M. Fieseler et al, Expanding ocean protection and peace: a window for science diplomacy in the Gulf, Royal Society Open Science (2023). DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230392 Journal information: Royal Society Open Science
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Hierarchy of calculation methods under the GHG Protocol. Credit: Emissions gaming? (2023).

New research by academics at King's Business School has shown that companies are able to "game" their reported greenhouse gas emissions to an extent that is both financially and environmentally material because of the discretion they have around the methods and datasets they use in their calculations.

They found that by choosing a more flattering dataset and method as the basis for their emissions calculations, companies could engineer a reported emissions total between 4.6 and 6.7 times smaller than the total they would be required to report if they used the least flattering dataset and method.

How do organizations calculate their greenhouse gas emissions?

Businesses use emissions factor datasets to help them to calculate the CO 2 equivalent (CO 2 e) emissions generated by each aspect of their business activities. The process involves multiplying each unit of activity by the relevant emission conversion factor and its scientifically understood global warming potential.

Three main global emissions factor datasets, as well as multiple national datasets, are approved under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. These are; the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Areas (DEFRA) database, the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and EXIOBASE, used by the European Union and multiple countries worldwide.

How can this be gamed?

There are currently no explicit rules requiring companies to disclose the datasets they use to calculate their CO 2 e emissions. The King's Business School team, comprising; David Aikman, Yao Dong, Evangelos Drellias, Swarali Havaldar, Marc Lepere and Matthias Nilsson, set out to understand the difference made by a company's choice of dataset and methods.

Their initial analysis found that the 'emissions factors' in the UK DEFRA dataset were on average 10% lower than those in the US-EPA dataset.

The team then took activity data from three real companies and prepared their CO 2 e emissions reporting based on the UK DEFRA and US EPA datasets. The case study companies' business models resulted in emissions produced in variety of different ways, including manufacturing and assembling products, transport, buying electricity and business travel. Each type of activity falls into one of three different "Scopes' for calculating emissions set out in the Greenhouse Gas protocol:

Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions are the direct emissions from sources that are controlled or owned by the company e.g. the quantity of fuels burned on-site or the quantity of fuel used in company-owned vehicles and equipment.

Scope 2 emissions arise from the generation of electricity bought and consumed by the company.

Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions from a company's activities, from the emissions from the goods and services it buys, to transport, waste processing, business travel and staff commuting. Where insufficient granular detail is available, businesses may calculate their emissions based on their spending on a type of activity.

Findings

The researchers found that "Scope 3" calculations varied the most when a different dataset was used, especially when they were based on the 'spend based' method of calculation.

Many companies rely on this method because the data needed is so readily available to them. Overall, the researchers found that, for the companies in the study, switching from the UK DEFRA to the US EPA dataset would have increased their reported CO 2 e emissions by an average 5.4%. Research implies that if the companies were listed, this would result in a 1.9% hit to their share price.

"This matters because if business can't, or won't, calculate CO 2 e emissions accurately, then we can't plot a proper path to keeping the global temperature at or below the 1.5C above pre-industrial levels that scientists see as a tipping point," says Dr. Marc Lepere, Executive Education Sustainability Lead, King's Business school and Founder & Chief Scientific Officer of Omnevue.

Making emissions calculations more reliable

To address the potential gaming of CO 2 e reporting, the researchers make five policy recommendations:

Regulate preparers of GHG emissions calculations and require external audit. Require reporting entities to disclose the proportion of all scopes that are covered and assured. Require reporting entities to disclose the methods and datasets used in their emissions calculations up front in their accounts and to restate historical data to aid comparison. Require reporting entities to calculate and disclose emissions using datasets that are representative of where the emissions producing activity takes place. Reporting entities should also report against different emission factor datasets, including both local and global. National agencies should investigate categories of emissions factors with large variances across datasets.

"Increasingly large sums of capital are being deployed either in line with Environmental, Social and Governance criteria or with the explicit aim of mitigating climate change. Investment managers need assurance that the data they are basing their decisions on is as robust and transparent as it can be. At the moment, it clearly isn't," says Professor David Aikman, Professor of Finance (Practice) and Director of the Qatar Centre for Global Banking & Finance.
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ESTCube-2 being carried into vibration testing. The CubeSat was tested against harsh launch vibrations at Stoneridge Electronics in Estonia. More specifically, the satellite undergoes a Quasi-Static Load, Sine and Random vibrations tests. These are different types of vibrations that ESTCube-2 has to withstand during its journey in space. Credit: University of Tartu

Estonia's next satellite will fly aboard Europe's Vega VV23 launcher later this week. While largely designed and built by undergraduate students, the shoebox-sized ESTCube-2 has ambitious goals in mind, including surveys of Estonian vegetation and the first successful in-orbit demonstration of "plasma brake" technology. Deployment of a charged microtether will slow the CubeSat's orbit, proving the prospect of helping to keep space clear of dangerous debris in the future.

If successful, ESTCube-2's plasma braking would mark the first use of electric sail, or E-sail, technology, devised by Pekka Janhunen of the Finnish Meterological Institute (FMI) as a propellant-free means of exploring the solar system. Beyond Earth's magnetic field, electrostatic charging of satellite tethers would cause them to repel protons of the solar wind, lending them momentum in the process.

Closer to Earth, the magnetosphere repels the solar wind. Instead an e-sail can perform the opposite function: the charged tether would repel the nearly stationary plasma making up our planet's ionospherean electrically active outer layer of our atmosphereand cause drag as a result, leading it to slow down and its orbit to decay accordingly.

The plasma brake consists of a thin wire, also known as a tether, which, when charged, creates an electrostatic drag in the ionosphere. The plasma brake can be used for deorbiting satellites and helping to clean up the low Earth orbit environment. Credit: University of Tartu

Hair-thick tether technology

Plasma brakes therefore offer a low-cost, low-mass method of quickly removing satellites from orbit after their mission ends, marketed commercially through Finland's Aurora Propulsion Technologies.

ESTCube-2's plasma brake e-sail is a 50-m long interweaved aluminum tether line made up of wires each just 50 micrometers (0.05 mm) in thicknessaround the diameter of the average human hair.

Pekka Janhunen explains, "Historically, tethers have been prone to snap in space due to micrometeorites or other hazards, so ESTCube-2's net-like microtether design brings added redundancy with two parallel and two zig-zagging bonded wires."

Student-built satellite

ESTCube-2 has been developed and built by a team from Tartu Observatory of the University of Tartu and student organization Tudengisatelliit.

The miniature mission also carries student-built microcameras to survey Estonian vegetation, based on a design originally developed for ESA's European Student Earth Orbiter mission.

Their results will be compared to the full-size Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, as well as a materials payload investigating the corrosive effects of "atomic oxygen" found at the top of the atmosphere, plus a software defined radio for amateur radio tests.

A 3-unit "CubeSat"a low-cost satellite built up from standardized 10 cm boxesESTCube-2 is due to fly on Vega's Small Spacecraft Mission Service, a rideshare service for small satellites. It secured its place through the European Commission's In-Orbit Demonstration/In-Orbit Validation program.

Early in-orbit testing for novel technologies

Managed on behalf of the Commission by ESA's Small Satellite Platform Unit, this program allows the early orbital testing of new technologies to make Europe's space sector more competitive.

"As a volunteer student project, this IOD/IOV program is ideal," explains ESTCube-2 project manager Hans Teras. "It fits nicely with our timeline, including the testing we needed to be sure of our performance. Well over 600 university students across all study levels have played some role in making ESTCube-2 happen, but the mission as a whole is very ambitious, pushing the boundaries of what students can do."

ESTCube-2 will fly a decade after its predecessor, ESTCube-1, which launched on a Vega in 2013. It too carried an E-sail payload from FMI, but a motor problem meant it failed to deploy.

ESTCube-2 is equipped with a stronger, more robust deploying motor that has undergone extensive mechanical testing.

"The ESTCube-2 team has invested eight years of development work in order to have another chance of testing the revolutionary E-sail propulsion concept in orbit," explains the University of Tartu associated professor Andris Slavinskis who led the transition from ESTCube-1 to ESTCube-2.

Kristo Allaje, Principal Systems Engineer of ESTCube-2, adds, "Last time we could encourage students to join us by the challenge of being the first Estonian satellite. This time we have to motivate them in another way, by asking them to enable excellent science."

Around a year into the mission ESTCube-2 will be spun up using its reaction wheels. The ensuing centrifugal force should help serve to deploy the E-sail in a sufficiently taut fashion.

If successful, the E-sail is expected to lower the orbit of ESTCube-2 much more rapidly than normal.

Follow-up mission ESTCube-LuNa is being designed to test an E-sail beyond Earth orbit, to prove its usefulness as a method of deep space propulsion.

ESA has recently studied E-sail technology as an economical means of prospecting asteroids.

Infographic on Estonia's ESTCube-2 CubeSat, due to launch on Europe's Vega VV23 launcher. Credit: University of Tartu

Earth monitoring and space effects study

ESTCube-2 pair of student-made microcameras designed have been optimized for the "Normalized Difference Vegetation" index to reveal plant health. The camera pair will be tilted as needed to observe Estonian territory as often as possible, offering more frequent revisits than other Earth observation missions.

Tartu University spin-off company Captain Corrosion is supporting a experiment mounted on ESTCube-2's hull. A set of 16 different materials will be evaluated for their resistance to 'atomic oxygen'a variety of oxygen normally encountered only in low orbits, known to eat away at satellite surfaces.

ESTCube-2's software defined radio will also be busy, including transmitting 8-second video clips prerecorded by Estonian citizens, connecting to Estonian schools along its swath and performing ranging experiments with amateur radio enthusiasts.

Vega flight VV23 is due for lift-off this week from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. Along with its main satellite payloads it carries multiple CubeSats including ESA's PRETTY mission investigating reflected satnav for environmental monitoring, the Proba-V Companion CubeSat testing the performance of a previously flown spectral imager aboard a CubeSat and other IOD/IOV CubeSats.
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Fruit characteristics of the orange subfamily and differences in fruit citric acid levels among Citrus-related genera, wild Citrus and domesticated Citrus. a, Fruits from Citrus (118) and Citrus-related genera (1930). 1, C. reticulata; 2, C. maxima; 3, C. medica; 4, C. polyandra (formerly Clymenia polyandra); 5, C. sinensis; 6, Citrus aurantium; 7, C. hongheensis; 8, Citrus paradisi; 9, Citrus limon; 10, C. indica; 11, C. linwuensis; 12, C. hystrix; 13, C. glauca (formerly E. glauca); 14, C. australasica (formerly M. australasica); 15, C. hindsii (formerly Fortunella hindsii); 16, C. ichangensis; 17, C. mangshanensis; 18, C. trifoliata (formerly Poncirus trifoliata); 19 and 20, A. buxifolia; 21 and 22, Citropsis gilletiana; 23, Aegle marmelos; 24 and 25, Murraya paniculata; 2628, Clausena lansium; 29, Glycosmis pentaphylla; 30, Bergera koenigii. Individual pieces of fruit from different pictures were collected and are shown together. Scale bars, 1 cm. b, Citric acid content of fruit pulp from Citrus-related genera and Citrus species. The numbers of independent samples used in this analysis are indicated and data are presented as the mean  s.d. Credit: Nature Genetics (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01516-6

A team of horticulturists, genealogists and germplasm specialists affiliated with multiple institutions in China, working with two colleagues from the U.S. and one from Australia, has found evidence that suggests citrus fruits originated in what is now southern China. In their study, reported in the journal Nature Genetics, the group built a family tree of citrus fruits using a variety of techniques.

Citrus fruits tend to grow in warm or tropical climates and come in many varieties, many of which are human cultivated. But up until now, it has not been clear where citrus fruits first appeared. Some had suggested they might have originated in certain parts of Australia, the foothills of the Himalayas, or southern areas in China. In this new effort, the researchers sought to find a more conclusive answer.

The researchers conducted a genetic study of 314 citrus or citrus-related plants. They also conducted fieldwork, venturing to places where citrus plants were thought to exist but were unverifiedthis allowed them to find and classify a large number of wild species. The team then used data from all of their combined sources to create a family tree for citrus fruits. They found that the species C. trifoliata was the oldest, at approximately 8 million years oldtoday, it grows in southern parts of China. That suggested that southern China is the birthplace of citrus fruit.

The researchers suggest that citrus fruit species growing in China could have made their way to what is now India when the Asian tectonic plate collided with the Indian tectonic plate approximately 25 million years ago. From there, they could have spread all the way to lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

As part of their work, the research team also found the gene responsible for controlling the amount of citric acid produced by a given fruitPH4. They found that when activated, it fires up a proton pump that promotes the production of citric acid, and by extension, the degree of tartness.

More information: Yue Huang et al, Pangenome analysis provides insight into the evolution of the orange subfamily and a key gene for citric acid accumulation in citrus fruits, Nature Genetics (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01516-6 Journal information: Nature Genetics

 2023 Science X Network
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Peatland fires have spread through Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra, which neighbors Jambi province.

An Indonesian city with a population of hundreds of thousands has shut schools for three days because of haze caused by large peatland fires, its mayor said Tuesday.

A prolonged dry season has caused higher risks of wildfires on the archipelago nation's major islands, stoking fears of repeat haze-belching forest fires that have also affected neighboring Malaysia and Singapore in recent years.

The city of Jambi on the western island of Sumatra, which has a population of around 600,000, has forced students to online learning from home over the toxic smog.

"The thick smog made us lay off students from preschool to junior high school," the city's mayor Syarif Fasha told reporters at Jambi city hall.

The school ban was from Monday to Wednesday, but would be extended if the haze continued, he said.

Authorities said the haze was caused by fires elsewhere, without specifying. Peatland fires have been raging in neighboring Palembang province for more than a month.

On Monday, air quality levels in Jambi reached 154 PM2.5fine particles that can penetrate deep into the lungsat "unhealthy" levels 11.4 times the annual air quality value set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The local government has also asked residents to wear masks and reduce outdoor activity as the air quality deteriorates.

It has been distributing masks on the street and at markets, according to an AFP journalist.

Schools in Palembang in South Sumatra and Banjarmasin in South Kalimantanall affected by hazehave also shifted to online classes, according to local media reports.

Parents in Jambi said they agreed with the decision.

"The haze is dangerous for health," said 35-year-old office worker Kusnadi Putera.

"There are additional costs (of children at home), but we have got used to it since the pandemic."

Siti Jamilah, a 55-year-old housewife in Jambi, said she was avoiding leaving the house apart from trips to the market for food.

"The eyes feel sore, and the air smells like something is burning," she said.

 2023 AFP
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Japan has seen its hottest September since records began 125 years ago.

Japan has seen its hottest September since records began 125 years ago, the weather agency said, in a year expected to be the warmest in human history.

The scorching September's average temperature was 2.66 degrees Celsius higher than usual, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on Monday.

This was "the highest figure since the start of statistics in 1898", the agency said in a statement.

This year is expected to be the hottest in human history as climate change accelerates, with countries including Austria, France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland each announcing their warmest September on record.

Across Japan last month, 101 of 153 observation locations broke an average temperature record, including in Tokyo, with an all-time high of 26.7 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit), in Osaka with 27.9C and in Nagoya with 27.3C.

The average temperature jump of 2.66C was "extraordinary" and "easily topped previous highs", weather agency official Masayuki Hirai told AFP on Tuesday.

"If this is not an abnormally high temperature, I don't know what is," he said.

French weather authority Meteo-France said the September temperature average in the country will be around 21.5 degrees Celsius, between 3.5C and 3.6C above the 1991-2020 reference period.

The UK, too, has matched its record for the warmest September since its records began in 1884.

The average global temperature in June, July and August was 16.77 degrees Celsius, surpassing the previous 2019 record, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said in a report.

In September, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders the climate crisis had "opened the gates to hell".

In his opening address at the Climate Ambition Summit, Guterres evoked this year's "horrendous heat" but stressed: "We can still limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees," referring to the target seen as needed to avoid long-term climate catastrophe.

 2023 AFP
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Credit: Southwest Research Institute

A new study led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Planetary Scientist and Associate Vice President Dr. Alan Stern posits that the large, approximately 5-kilometer-long mounds that dominate the appearance of the larger lobe of the pristine Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth are similar enough to suggest a common origin.

The SwRI study suggests that these "building blocks" could guide further work on planetesimal formational models. Stern presented these findings this week at the American Astronomical Society's 55th Annual Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) meeting in San Antonio. These results are now also published in the Planetary Science Journal.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft made a close flyby of Arrokoth in 2019. From those data, Stern and his coauthors identified 12 mounds on Arrokoth's larger lobe, Wenu, which are almost the same shape, size, color and reflectivity. They also tentatively identified three more mounds on the object's smaller lobe, Weeyo.

"It's amazing to see this object so well preserved that its shape directly reveals these details of its assembly from a set of building blocks all very similar to one another," said Lowell Observatory's Dr. Will Grundy, co-investigator of the New Horizons mission. "Arrokoth almost looks like a raspberry, made of little sub-units."

Arrokoth's geology supports the streaming instability model of planetesimal formation where collision speeds of just a few miles per hour allowed objects to gently accumulate to build Arrokoth in a local area of the solar nebula undergoing gravitational collapse.

Credit: New Horizons/NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/James Tuttle Keane

"Similarities including in sizes and other properties of Arrokoth's mound structures suggest new insights into its formation," Stern, the Principal Investigator of the New Horizons mission, said. "If the mounds are indeed representative of the building blocks of ancient planetesimals like Arrokoth, then planetesimal formation models will need to explain the preferred size for these building blocks."

There is a good chance that some of the flyby targets for NASA's Lucy mission to Jupiter's Trojan asteroids and ESA's comet interceptor will be other pristine planetesimals, which could contribute to the understanding of accretion of planetesimals elsewhere in the ancient solar system and whether they differ from processes New Horizons found in the Kuiper Belt.

"It will be important to search for mound-like structures on the planetesimals these missions observe to see how common this phenomenon is, as a further guide to planetesimal formation theories," Stern said.

More information: S. A. Stern et al, The Properties and Origin of Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth's Large Mounds, The Planetary Science Journal (2023). DOI: 10.3847/PSJ/acf317 Journal information: The Planetary Science Journal
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The aircraft have special windows that allow researchers to scan the water surface. Credit: Nino Pierantonio

The large-scale international survey SCANS-IV has estimated there are more than 1.4 million whales, dolphins and porpoises in the European Atlantic.

This international research project, the results of which were presented at the ASCOBANS (Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans in the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas) Advisory Committee meeting last week, was coordinated by Dr. Anita Gilles from the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover in Germany.

The cetacean sighting survey (SCANS-IV) is the fourth in a series of surveys that began in 1994 (SCANS) and continued in 2005 (SCANS-II) and 2016 (SCANS-III) to determine the population size and distribution of cetaceans in European Atlantic waters.

Mobilizing eight small aircraft and one research vessel from southern Norway to Portugal, SCANS-IV surveyed the European Atlantic in summer 2022 with the largest amount of search effort to date.

The most abundant species were harbor porpoise (409,000), common dolphin (439,000) and striped dolphin (187,000), with a further 146,000 either common or striped dolphins. Numbers of other species of dolphins estimated to be present were 126,000 bottlenose dolphins, 67,000 white-beaked dolphins and 4,000 white-sided dolphins.

Deep-diving whales that feed primarily on squid in offshore waters were estimated to be 3,000 pilot whales, 148 sperm whales and 5,000 beaked whales of several different species. This is an overall lower estimate than in the surveys before but, especially for this species group, constitutes a minimum estimate and is not fully comparable because important habitats in offshore waters west of Scotland were not surveyed in SCANS-IV.

Of the filter-feeding baleen whales, 12,000 minke whales and 13,000 fin whales were estimated to be present.

The occurrence of common dolphin increased in the Celtic Sea, as well as southwest of the U.K. and in the western part of the English Channel, suggesting that northward population range expansion found in the previous SCANS surveys, continues.

A different picture emerged for the most abundant cetacean, the harbor porpoise: The results indicate that the shift seen in harbor porpoise distribution in the North Sea from the northwest in 1994 to the south in 2005 and 2016 was maintained in 2022, with the distribution expanding even further in the Channel. Highest densities were found in the central and southwestern North Sea.

For harbor porpoise, white-beaked dolphin and minke whale in the North Sea, the series of abundance estimates shows no significant change in abundance over the 28 years covered by the surveys. However, the harbor porpoise population in the western Baltic Sea, Belt Seas and the southern Kattegat shows signs of a decline. HELCOM, the Regional Sea Convention in the Baltic Sea, recently assessed this population as not in being in good status due to unsustainable levels of bycatch in fisheries highlighting a need for conservation measures and further exploration of the pressures on this population.

For the other populations and species in the survey region, the SCANS team is looking forward to integrating the outputs from its sister survey, the Irish ObSERVE program, when available to further develop the picture of what has changed in species abundance and distribution since the last surveys.

Dr. Gilles, who presented the results to the international audience, said, "The results from these large-scale international surveys in the last three decades have greatly expanded our knowledge of the distribution and abundance of cetacean species in European Atlantic waters, enabling fisheries bycatch and other anthropogenic stressors to be placed in a population context and giving a strong basis for assessments of conservation status. The information now available forms a good foundation for a large-scale time series continuing in the coming decades."

The survey was a collaboration among scientists in eight countries bordering the Atlantic, namely Denmark, Germany, France, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Portugal and the U.K., and was supported by the governments of those countries.

The surveys covered an area of 1.7 million square kilometers from the Strait of Gibraltar, Portugal, to southern Norway in the north in summer 2022. Teams of observers searched along 75,000 km of transect line, recording thousands of groups of cetaceans from 17 different species.

The SCANS project is internationally recognized for its excellence in data collection and analysis standards. It also exemplifies coordination between EU Member States and neighboring countries to implement joint cetacean monitoring programs.

The new estimates of abundance will be integral to assess the impact of bycatch and other increasing anthropogenic pressures on cetacean populations. Furthermore, SCANS facilitates the delivery of coherent and consistent assessments for cetacean populations, as required by the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (or equivalent) assessments of Good Environmental Status as well as by Regional Sea Conventions such as OSPAR and HELCOM.

Matthieu Authier and Mathieu Genu (both at La Rochelle University, France) said, "The new SCANS-IV results are invaluable to understand what's happening to cetaceans in the Northeast Atlantic today." Dr. Laran (also at La Rochelle University) concurred, "This survey delivers a comprehensive overview of the distribution of cetaceans which is crucial knowledge in our time of global changes."

Nikki Taylor from JNCC in the U.K. commented, "Whales, dolphins and porpoises are highly mobile, many of which have ranges that go far beyond that of any single country jurisdiction. Widescale collaborative surveys such as SCANS are essential as a tool to understand the abundance and distribution of these animals at scales relative to their movements, to enable effective status assessment and management decisions."

Steve Geelhoed (Wageningen Marine Research, the Netherlands) said, "This series of summer surveys is essential for the conservation of cetaceans, and we need to start collecting data on this large scale in other seasons as well."

Provided by Stiftung Tierarztliche Hochschule Hannover
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The promise to "get tough on youth crime" is a New Zealand election perennial. This year, parties on both the left and right have pledged to crack down on young offendersdespite a lot of evidence that such approaches do not work in the long term.

Already, the Ram Raid Offending and Related Measures Amendment Bill is working through the legislative process. If passed, it would create a new offense within the Crimes Act, allowing the prosecution of children as young as 12, and prison sentences of up to ten years.

Labor, National and ACT all supported its first reading in parliament. Labor in government also announced new high-needs youth justice units, drawing criticism from opposition parties and justice reform advocates.

National is proposing a new "young serious offender" justice category, as well as the creation of "youth offender military academies." ACT wants 200 new youth justice beds and responsibility for youth justice to move from children's ministry Oranga Tamariki to the Department of Corrections.

According to current polling, parties on the right may be in a position to form the next government. If so, it seems New Zealand's youth justice system may take a more punitive turn.

Treating symptoms not causes

The country's youth justice system established a "new paradigm" in the early 1990s, after the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 became law. This offered a homegrown approach to families and their young people unique to New Zealand. The model of family empowerment, restorative justice, diversion from court prosecution and reintegration in society became known internationally.

While there was a turn towards more punitive adult criminal justice in Europe and the United States, New Zealand's system stayed relatively stable until 2008, when a National-led coalition government took power.

Youth justice was a central facet of National's election campaign to end three terms of Labor-led government. Announcing his party's "youth plan," National leader John Key said part of it was about "rolling up our sleeves to prevent New Zealand's youth crime problem from becoming tomorrow's crisis."

This included the now familiar election promise to introduce youth "boot camps," and to reduce the age of criminal prosecution to 12.

But as critics have long argued, a focus on "crime control" and "risk management" has seen punishment prioritized over addressing the root causes of crime and the best interests of young people.

This can be seen in the disproportionate impact of the criminal justice system on Maori and Pacific youth. According to 2021 data, Maori make up 67% of those in youth detention. Pacific youth account for 7%, and those who identify as both Maori and Pacific account for 13%. Young people who identify as neither Maori nor Pacific comprise only 13% of that population.

Failing to address the complex developmental and social drivers of youth crime means those statistics are unlikely to change.

What is working?

There is also considerable evidence of the influence young people's gradual cognitive and social development can have on criminal behavior.

These age-related factors include reduced impulse control, difficulty with future planning, greater risk taking and susceptibility to peer influence. At the same time, age also offers an increased potential for positive change.

Importantly, offending by children and young people is also often related to challenges at home and in communities, including poverty, housing instability, and poor physical or mental health.

Young people with fetal alcohol syndrome spectrum disorder, histories of trauma, brain injuries, and neurodiversity are all criminalized at proportionately higher rates than the general population.

The current evidence supports a less punitive approach to youth offending, through diversion or the use of specialist courts, based on promoting welfare and addressing the underlying causes of offending.

There is evidence in New Zealand that restorative justice reduces reoffending. Family group conferences have been shown to reduce the "frequency and seriousness" of offending for 70% of participants, with Rangatahi Courts also helping reduce reoffending and promote other positive outcomes.

And the police are proposing to broaden the scope of Te Pae Oranga Iwi community panels, which aim to intervene and help with family and personal problems, and have demonstrated a significant reduction in harm from adult (17 years or older) reoffending.

Trust the evidence

While these developments are encouraging, the investigation into "baby uplifts" by Oranga Tamariki, testimonies to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission, and reports of abuse in Oranga Tamariki residences, all raise serious questions about placing more young people in institutions.

Furthermore, New Zealand's rate of youth offending has been decreasing for some time. But there is a disproportionately high number of youth justice beds here relative to other comparable countries, especially considering the system struggles with mental health support.

The United Nations has already identified the human rights concerns with New Zealand's low age of criminal responsibility, punitive practices like "spit hoods," and the disproportionate numbers of rangatahi Maori in the criminal justice system.

An evidence-led approach to youth justice would involve Maori and see the expansion of specialist courts throughout the country. Rather than lowering the age of criminal responsibility, the eligible age for appearing in the youth courts would be raised.

Overall, the goal would be to minimize the imprisonment of young people, including remand in police cells and youth or adult detention facilities. And there would be much greater investment in iwi partnerships to provide wrap-around community services that are whanau-focused and culturally appropriate.

As the former chief science adviser to the prime minister reported in 2018, more resources directed at mental health, trauma, substance abuse and inadequate housing should be the basis of preventing more youth offending. A more punitive response may win votes but it will not solve the problem.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
When Russia decided to invade Ukraine, they knew they had to win quickly to prevent NATO nations from getting involved. Russia had done the math and realized that they were no match for NATO. This was especially true when it came to combat aircraft. The United States, with 13,200 planes, had the largest fleet of military aircraft in the world. Thats a quarter of 53,500 aircraft total for the entire world. The second largest fleet, 4,100 aircraft, belongs to Russia while number three is China with 3,200 aircraft. In terms of balance-of-power and who has what in potential conflicts, China comes off poorly. Having made enemies of South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, China finds these three nations have combined air forces slightly larger that China's. Add in several thousand American aircraft that can be brought in quickly and China is at a considerable disadvantage. Russia is an ally but its warplanes are largely elderly and many are close to retirement. In addition, Russia is the largest country in the world and many neighbors are actually or potentially hostile. The existing Russian air forces are needed in many other areas besides their Pacific Coast.

Plus, Russian combat aircraft have not been successful when facing Western fighters. This was obvious during World War II when the smaller German fighter force destroyed a large number of Russian combat aircraft, and held air superiority on the Eastern Front until forced to withdraw to Italy during the 1943 Battle of Kursk to fight the invading British and Americans. In the Korean War Russian pilots sometimes piloted North Korean MiG-15 jet fighters and American fighter pilots noticed this. The Russian pilots were more capable than the North Korean pilots. This was mainly because the Russian pilots were combat veterans even though they had not flown the MiG-15 until recently. There was another important difference. Russian pilots did not get as much training as their Western counterparts and operated under a cumbersome system where they were subject to control by ground controllers. This cumbersome Russian system was not eliminated until late in the Cold war, at the same time the MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters were entering service. Russia realized its pilots needed a lot more flight hours in training and annually after that if they were to have a chance against Western pilots. In peacetime Western fighter pilots fly between 100 and 200 hours a year. This is something of a NATO standard. Carrier pilots fly more than twice as many and that is why carrier pilots are considered, in general, more capable than air force fighter pilots. In the last decade China has been having its fighter pilots spend more time in the air and some Chinese get as much air time as their NATO counterparts. China recognizes that more flight time is needed to train pilots capable of defeating pilots who fly as many as 200 hours a year. This now includes Taiwanese, South Korean and Japanese fighter pilots.

Annual flight hours for fighter pilots must be taken into account when determining which country has the most effective air force. The number of aircraft alone is not a useful measure of air combat effectiveness. Since the end of World War II, the American air forces have had more combat aircraft and pilots with more flight hours than anyone else. During that time American air forces could achieve air domination, not just air superiority in any combat zone they were sent. Quantity, quality and more training are a winning combination. Those flight hours are expensive and the U.S. air forces are one the few countries that can afford to regularly pay for that many flight hours.

In terms of numbers, the United States and its allies have an overwhelming advantage as well as an edge when it comes to technology. All this comes at a cost, one the United States is having a particularly difficult time dealing with. It is even worse in Russia, where forced retirements, from old age or lack of money for maintenance, will soon see Russia slipping into third place.

The aging American warplane fleet will not shrink as rapidly and China has not been growing as fast as it could because a lot of inexpensive Cold War era aircraft are being replaced with much more expensive modern models. China does see that situation changing in their favor during the next two decades.

Currently the U.S. has more military aircraft because it has enormous shares of the world supply of support aircraft. America has 19 percent of fighters and bombers but 38 percent of all Special Mission (transport and reconnaissance) aircraft and 76 percent of aerial tankers. This enables the U.S. to move combat aircraft to any part of the world quickly and ready to go to work. No other nation has that capability. Other nations can move a small number of warplanes long distances but none have the need, or the budget, to do more. The American global reach is a major asset for allies worldwide and they are concerned about the gradual decline of that global reach. Without the Americans, many current U.S. allies would have to buy the support aircraft they need.

The most numerous American combat aircraft is the F-16, whose average is 29 years. The F-15s average 35 years. Worldwide these two aircraft account for 22 percent fighter aircraft used by all nations. Add in the U.S. Navy F-18 and these three are 28 percent of all fighters worldwide. There are 4,000 of these three models and the U.S. hopes to replace them with nearly as many F-35 stealth fighters. That effort is well underway with about 500 delivered so far. The question is, can the military budgets of the U.S. and export customers keep it up?

Two other issues remain unresolved. One is the age of combat aircraft. The F-35 was late arriving in large numbers and the F-16s and F-15s they were to replace are still in service. As aircraft age, maintenance costs rise and the air force budget is not rising to deal with that. As a result, readiness rates for these older aircraft have been falling during the last few years. At the same time, most of the aircraft have benefitted from tech upgrades. Not just new electronics but also components made of new materials. Despite all that, age and increasing maintenance costs eventually prevail in the form of lower readiness rates. However, with enough money and motivation, the older aircraft can still maintain high readiness rates. Sometimes that additional cost is found to be cheaper than developing and building a new aircraft.
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US satellite television network Dish has been slapped with the first-ever fine by US authorities over space debris.

US authorities said they have issued a "breakthrough" first-ever fine over space debris, slapping a $150,000 penalty on a TV company that failed to properly dispose of a satellite.

On Monday the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) came down on Dish for "failure to properly deorbit" a satellite called EchoStar-7, in orbit since 2002.

"This marks a first in space debris enforcement by the Commission, which has stepped up its satellite policy efforts," the FCC, which authorizes space-based telecom services, said in a statement.

As the geostationary satellite came to the end of its operational life, Dish had moved it to an altitude lower than the two parties had agreed on, where it "could pose orbital debris concerns," the FCC said.

The commission said Dish, a US satellite television provider, pledged in 2012 to elevate the satellite to 300 kilometers (190 miles) above its operational arc.

But with fuel running low, it retired the satellite at an altitude just over 120 kilometers above the original arc.

"As satellite operations become more prevalent and the space economy accelerates, we must be certain that operators comply with their commitments," said FCC enforcement bureau chief Loyaan Egal.

"This is a breakthrough settlement, making very clear the FCC has strong enforcement authority and capability to enforce its vitally important space debris rules."

The FCC said the settlement "includes an admission of liability from the company and an agreement to adhere to a compliance plan and pay a penalty of $150,000."

In a statement Tuesday, Dish appeared to counter the FCC over disposal requirements, and argued that the commission's enforcement arm made "no specific findings that EchoStar-7 poses any orbital debris safety concerns."

"As the Enforcement Bureau recognizes in the settlement, the EchoStar-7 satellite was an older spacecraft that had been explicitly exempted from the FCC's rule requiring a minimum disposal orbit," a Dish spokesperson said in a statement.

"DISH has a long track record of safely flying a large satellite fleet and takes seriously its responsibilities as an FCC licensee."

Collision risks

The US aviation regulator, FAA, recently announced its intention to reduce space debris by requiring private companies to dispose of the upper stages of rocket launch vehicles by, for example, returning them to the Earth's atmosphere or moving them to a less congested "graveyard orbit."

The new regulation, which has yet to be definitively adopted, already exists for government space missions.

"If left unchecked, the accumulation of orbital debris will increase the risk of collisions and clutter orbits used for human spaceflight and for satellites," the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The European Space Agency estimates that around one million pieces of debris larger than a centimeterbig enough to "disable a spacecraft"are in Earth's orbit.

They are already causing problems, from a near-miss in January last year involving a Chinese satellite, to a five-millimeter hole knocked into a robotic arm on the International Space Station in 2021.

With satellites now crucial for GPS, broadband and banking data, collisions pose significant risks on Earth.

 2023 AFP
In a press conference recorded late Monday Oct. 2, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, thanked the state police, New York State Park police and the hundreds of other responding agencies and volunteers for their efforts to catch the man accused of abducting Charlotte Sena from the Moreau Lake State Park on Saturday Sept. 30.

She was found alive Oct. 2 in a cabinet inside a travel trailer behind the suspects mothers house, Hochul said.

The suspect, Craig Nelson Ross Jr., 47, was taken into custody by a police SORT, or Special Operations Response Team. He sustained minor injuries as he fought capture, state police said. He is a mailman, according to our news partner WNYT Channel 13.

Charlotte was found healthy and brought to a hospital for a standard check, the governor said. The search ended after about 48 hours. The investigation is still ongoing.

As each hour went on, hope faded.when you get to 48 hours, hope starts to wane, Hochul said.

We hit that 48-hour moment, and I realized its going to be tough. You start thinking the worst, Hochul said.

The break came at 4:20 a.m. Oct. 2. While the familys home was guarded by state police, someone in a vehicle dropped a ransom note in the mailbox. A fingerprint was found on the note. Eventually fingerprints in a DWI arrest from 1999 in Saratoga Springs matched what was found on the ransom note, Hochul said.

From there it was a matter of bringing in the right crew and finding where Ross was.

Other than to say it was dark outside, neither the governor nor state police would talk about the vehicle or what was seen at the mailbox drop.

However, police dispatch scanner traffic at about 4:30 a.m. Oct. 2 issued a BOLO, or Be on the Lookout, alert from the state police, for a dark, Ford F150 four-door pickup truck, possibly maroon, with a large, white, ice chest or cooler in the back. They were asking officers to hold and notify if they found the truck.

The issue listed State Route 9N and crossroads to check, all emanating south and west of the Moreau Lake State Park. The Sena family lives in Greenfield. Route 9N runs through Greenfield and Hochul said Ross lives about two miles from the family.

The Post-Star cannot confirm that the BOLO was related to the search for Charlotte Sena.

As this is an ongoing investigation I cannot discuss the details (of the BOLO) you described below at this time. Thank you for your understanding, State Police Public Information Officer, Trooper Stephanie L. ONeil wrote in an email Oct. 2.

At least four trucks were stopped by police in the ensuing half hour. No one was detained in those stops.
Roots have dug their way into sewer pipes on Broadacres Road in Queensbury.

The root issue was noticed about four of five weeks ago during a periodic check when Queensbury Wastewater placed a camera through the water pipes to ensure they were in good shape, according to Queensbury Water Superintendent Chris Harrington.

We have a lot of roots going into the pipes, Harrington said.

A fairly common form of root control in the wastewater industry is the use of foam in the pipes to halt the growth of roots. This is a temporary root treatment that would have to be done every couple of years, according to Harrington.

Since the pipes are from the 1950s, Harrington suggested the more permanent solution of rehabbing the pipe, to the town board. Harrington recommended Delaware Engineering for the job because of their reliability and past inspection efforts.

Im asking the board for permission to hire Delaware Engineering to put plans and specs together to rehab the sewer system in Broadacres to extend it another 100 years, Harrington told the town board at a workshop Tuesday Sept. 26.

Delaware Engineering made a proposal to rehab the sewer system by lining the side of the pipe with what Harrington calls a sock, which adheres to the pipe preventing roots from entering. The roots will also be cut prior to liner installation, according to Harrington.

Once you seal that off, roots will stop looking for that water, Harrington said. This could fix the root problem for the foreseeable generations.

Its about 3,200 linear feet at $40 a foot, plus the manholes. Im saying were looking at about $165,000, Harrington estimated.

The sewer system on Broadacres Road was its own separate sewer district up until a few years ago before the Queensbury sewer districts were consolidated, Harrington said.

The Town Board will need to approve the job through a formal resolution at a meeting in the future. After the board passes the resolution, the job is expected to be completed next year.
The First Baptist Church of Whitehall and Out of the Box Worship Center attended the festival, posing a very unique question to believers  was Sasquatch on Noahs Ark?

Ive heard people say, maybe, Ive had people say, there must have been two of them, Pastor Pamela Bolton said with a laugh. People have had fun with it though.

Bolton said the church always tries to engage at events where open vendors are welcome.
EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP  The South Jersey Transportation Authority and a California-based real estate company have reached an agreement to redevelop about 400 acres of the Atlantic City International Airport property.

The SJTA will work with Industrial Realty Group LLC on a new mixed-use development in the northwest corner of the airport property, officials said Tuesday.

IRG spokesperson Lauren Crumrine said the agreement's purpose is to build a mixed-use, industrial development to potentially include air cargo, rail and over-the-road transportation.

Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson said the agreement "is conducive with our efforts to explore the development of an air cargo maintenance and repair facility that could result in hundreds of short-term construction jobs and many more long-term jobs."

The real estate company has also been working with the Atlantic County Economic Alliance on the deal, which officials said could translate to tens of millions of dollars in new private investment in the region.

Industrial Realty Group oversees 150 properties with more than 100 million square feet of rentable space in 31 states.

"We could not have found a better partner to make this project a reality and look forward to a rewarding and mutually beneficial business relationship with IRG for many years to come," SJTA Executive Director Stephen Dougherty said in a statement.

The SJTA tasked Dougherty in July 2022 with negotiating terms to execute a redevelopment agreement at the proposed piece of land.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
              Logistics   ...
EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP  Michael Charlton, who has been serving as AtlantiCare's interim president and CEO, will take on the role full time, the health care company said Tuesday.

AtlantiCare said its Board of Trustees named Charlton the company's new president and CEO after a selection process by Korn Ferry, an executive employment search firm. Charlton has been a board member since 2009, serving as its chairperson for six years.

Charlton has been acting as head of the company since June 1, taking over from Lori Herndon, who retired that month.

In the role, Charlton will continue overseeing AtlantiCare's operations, which is made up of more than 6,500 employees across New Jersey's five southernmost counties, the company said in a news release.

I am humbled and privileged to be leading a team of highly dedicated and passionate people who deliver great care to our patients and support to their caregivers, Charlton said in a statement. AtlantiCare carries a 125-year-old legacy of distinction in the quality of care that we provide, and I firmly believe that we are positioned for great achievements. I was born here, my roots are here and my goal is to honor that legacy by prioritizing patient-centered care and working tirelessly with our team to make a positive impact on the health and well-being of our community.

AtlantiCare names Michael Charlton interim president Michael J. Charlton, who has been an AtlantiCare Board of Trustees member since 2009, will t

AtlantiCare's board cited Charlton's experience in health care leadership in choosing to make his interim role permanent.

Michael is a proven, purpose-driven and visionary leader who knows AtlantiCare, our team, the communities we serve and the dynamic health care landscape, said David Goddard, the board's current chair. He excels at fostering collaboration and innovation to drive transformative change and advocating for policies and programs that address the health care and societal issues impacting our patients and caregivers."

Charlton also was a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Hospital Association and still serves on a national committee that is focused on the health care workforce, AtlantiCare said.

Prior to AtlantiCare, Charlton spent 31 years at Icon Hospitality, a food and beverage service company based in Galloway Township, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has a masters in health care leadership from Brown University, bachelor's degrees in business finance and health care administration/organizational leadership from the University of Delaware and the University of Louisville, respectively, and attended Holy Spirit High School in Absecon.
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An Atlantic City man pleaded guilty Monday to his role in a 2021 incident in which four people were found riding in a stolen car with guns, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office said.

Altarik Hopkins, 22, accepted charges of possession of a handgun for an unlawful purpose, resisting arrest by flight and obstructing the administration of law. He is expected to be sentenced to seven years in prison with 3 years of parole ineligibility, the Prosecutor's Office said in a news release.

On May 5, 2021, Atlantic City police attempted to stop a vehicle that had been reported stolen out of Vineland. Hopkins and his three juvenile co-defendants, ages 17, 16 and 14, ran from the stolen vehicle after crashing it at Delta and Adriatic avenues. A search of the vehicle led to the recovery of cellphones and two loaded handguns, one of which contained hollow-point ammunition. Police searched the phones and found timestamped videos of Hopkins and the juveniles passing around the guns while driving through rival gang territory in the stolen vehicle.

Hopkins, aka Cody Hood, admitted he possessed a loaded handgun with the purpose of intimidating rival gang members, the Prosecutor's Office said.

State Police identified one of the guns as being used in two prior shootings in Atlantic City, police said at the time.

Following his guilty plea, Hopkins asked to be released from the Atlantic County jail pending his sentencing. The state opposed that request, and Judge Donna M. Taylor agreed that Hopkins should remain incarcerated pending sentencing, which is expected to occur next month.
NORTH WILDWOOD  Well after Hurricane Lee and Tropical Storm Ophelia made their way north, successive high tides continue to steal sand from the citys few remaining sections of sand dune, sometimes in nibbles, other times in sizable bites.

Crews over the weekend installed steel bulkhead between the citys lifeguard headquarters at 15th Avenue and the ocean. Erosion this fall cut a 100-foot hole in the dune, otherwise leaving that section of town without protection.

The cost of the work, including the materials, equipment and labor, is about $400,000, Mayor Patrick Rosenello said Monday.

Rosenello continues to worry about far more significant costs if future storms breach the dunes elsewhere in his community.

While the area saw significant tides and powerful waves in September, the storms passed well off the coast. Rosenellos concern is over what will happen if a hurricane or noreaster brings more serious winds and tides, particularly to the area to the south of the most recent work, where there is no bulkhead or seawall behind the dunes.

Days after Ophelias waves slammed into North Wildwood, tides still crashed unimpeded into the seawall at Second Avenue, slopping salt water into the street and soaking the unwary. Erosion has been bad in that area in the north end of the barrier island for years, but now there is no beach for several blocks at high tide, with waves hitting the rocks.

Thank God we have that bulkhead there. Without it, about a quarter of the town would be gone, Rosenello said.

At the start of the year, the longtime mayor and the state Department of Environmental Protection were locked in a high-profile fight over the citys beach protection efforts, some of which the state argued were undertaken without the proper permits.

Ophelia draws sand from Jersey Shore beaches Another September weekend brought another miss from a northbound named storm at the Jersey Shore, which again avoided serious damage.

State officials argued in court filings that the installation of bulkheads could do more harm than good, while Rosenello countered that North Wildwood could not afford to allow the sea to breach the dunes.

The current project has DEP authorization, Rosenello said, and he believes the city and the state are in a more productive place.

We were spending a lot of time in court and spending a lot of time on filings that did nothing to improve shore protection, Rosenello said.

Over the weekend, a full moon and a steady wind kept the tides high, leading to coastal flooding and more erosion to the remaining dunes. With little or no beach between the dunes and the tide, the dunes dont stand a chance when the waves reach them.

In late September, DEP teams conducted post-storm surveys, but the results had not been posted as of Monday.

Vincent Grassi, a spokesperson with the DEP, said a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project to rebuild beaches and dunes is on the way, and that the state has reached agreements with all of the municipalities involved, including North Wildwood, Wildwood, Wildwood Crest and Lower Township, which governs the Diamond Beach section at the south end of Five Mile Beach.

As proposed, the project will take sand from Wildwood and Wildwood Crest beaches to rebuild beaches and build up dunes, in a process known as backpassing.

Back-passing technology provides high quality sand that is currently present on the beaches in the Wildwoods, reduces beach maintenance, has lower emissions than traditional dredging, and meets the goals of minimizing impacts to cultural or environmental resources, Grassi said in an email.

North Wildwood responds to DEP in beach fight In a lengthy letter to DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette, North Wildwood Mayor Pat Rosenello did not back down but outlined the citys position on beach replenishment, and avoided some of the rhetoric of previous exchanges.

The plan is to create a continuous dune line the length of the barrier island.

On Monday, Rosenello said the municipal agreements have been in place since the spring, but there remain more easements to acquire from private property owners, which has been a more difficult process.

He added that the Army Corps is also looking at using material dredged from Hereford Inlet or from another borrow area to add sand to the beaches, in addition to the sand taken from the extremely wide beaches in the south end of the island.

For years, North Wildwood trucked sand from Wildwood beaches to shore up the north end each winter.

Last winter, erosion reached a point where there was no longer a route for the trucks to take carrying the sand, and bringing the sand along the roads was not practical.

Rosenello believes that local work held off the current situation for eight or nine years.

According to details on the website of the Philadelphia District of the Army Corps of Engineers, the project has been in the works for close to a decade, and the final design plans are about 65% complete. A draft feasibility report put the estimated cost at $21.8 million, with a long-term cost of more than $58 million, but that report was completed in 2014, so those estimates have likely climbed.

Steve Rochette, a public affairs officer with the Army Corps, estimated the first project would cost between $20 million and $30 million. He said this week that it is up to the DEP to work out the real estate easements needed for the work to begin, and that the Army Corps is regularly coordinating with the state.

Construction is expected to begin between 18 and 24 months from now pending that ongoing real estate work, Rochette said.

In previous interviews, Rosenello has complained that his community is one of the few that has not seen any federal beach replenishment, even as neighboring communities have seen beaches rebuilt again and again. Most of the South Jersey shore towns have long-term commitments from the federal government to keep sand on their beaches.

DEP says North Wildwood beach work could threaten future state funding Shawn LaTourette, the commissioner of New Jerseys Department of Environmental Protection, scolded North Wildwood Mayor Pat Rosenello in a letter Thursday over the citys work on the beach.

The current estimate is that North Wildwood could see a federal beach project start in the spring of 2025, which will mean a year with almost no beach in many areas. The timing is ultimately up to the DEP and the Army Corps, Rosenello said.

If you hear anything, please let me know, he said.
STOCKHOLM  Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for giving us the first split-second glimpse into the superfast world of spinning electrons, a field that could one day lead to better electronics or disease diagnoses.

The award went to French-Swedish physicist Anne L'Huillier, French scientist Pierre Agostini and Hungarian-born Ferenc Krausz for their work with the tiny part of each atom that races around the center and that is fundamental to virtually everything: chemistry, physics, our bodies and our gadgets.

Electrons move so fast that they have been out of reach of human efforts to isolate them, but by looking at the tiniest fraction of a second possible, scientists now have a "blurry" glimpse of them and that opens up whole new sciences, experts said.

"The electrons are very fast, and the electrons are really the workforce in everywhere," Nobel Committee member Mats Larsson said. "Once you can control and understand electrons, you have taken a very big step forward."

L'Huillier, of Lund University in Sweden, is the fifth woman to receive a Nobel in physics.

"For all the women, I say if you are interested, if you have a little bit of passion for this type of challenges, so just go for it," L'Huillier said told The Associated Press.

The scientists, who worked separately, used ever-quicker laser pulses to catch the atomic action that happened at such dizzying speeds  one quintillionth of a second, known as an attosecond  much like the way photographers use fast shutters to capture a hummingbird feeding.

How small is that?

"Let's take one second, which is the time of a heartbeat," Nobel Committee chair Eva Olsson said. To get the realm of the attosecond, that would have to be divided by 1,000 six times.

Physicist Mark Pearce, a Nobel Committee member, said "there are as many attoseconds in a second as there are seconds which have passed since the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago."

But even when scientists "see" the electron, there's only so much they can view.

"You can see whether it's on the one side of a molecule or on the other," said L'Huillier, 65. "It's still very blurry."

"The electrons are much more like waves, like water waves, than particles and what we try to measure with our technique is the position of the crest of the waves," she said.

Electrons are key because that's "how the atoms bind together," L'Huillier said. It's where chemical reactions occur.

"Electrons are, even if we can't see them, omnipresent in our life  our biological life and also our technical life, in our everyday life," Krausz said at a news conference. "In our biological life, electrons form the adhesive between atoms, with which they form molecules and these molecules are then the smallest functional building stones of every living organism."

If you want to understand how they work, you need to know how they move, Krausz said.

At the moment, this science is about understanding our universe, but the hope is that it will eventually have many practical applications in electronics, diagnosing diseases and basic chemistry.

But L'Huillier said her work shows how important it is to work on fundamental science regardless of future applications because she spent 30 years on it before possible real world uses became more apparent.

L'Huillier was teaching basic engineering physics to about 100 undergraduates at Lund when she got the call that she won, but her phone was on silent and she didn't pick up. She checked it during a break and called the Nobel Committee.

Then she went back to teaching.

"I was very concentrated, forgot about the Nobel Prize and tried to finish my lecture," L'Huillier told the AP. She finished the class a little early so she could speak to the news conference announcing the prize at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.

"This is the most prestigious and I am so happy to get this prize. It's incredible," she told the news conference. "As you know there are not so many women who got this prize so it's very special."

L'Huillier said because the prize was a secret at the time, she wasn't allowed to tell the students what happened, but she said they guessed.

Agostini, an emeritus professor at Ohio State University, was in Paris and could not be reached by the Nobel Committee before it announced his win to the world.

Krausz, of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, told reporters that he was bewildered.

"I have been trying to figure out since 11 a.m.  whether I'm in reality or it's just a long dream," the 61-year-old said.

The phone call from the Nobel committee said "no caller ID" and Krausz usually doesn't answer those calls, but this time, he said, "I thought I'd try it and then it became clear that I can't hang up so quickly this time."

The Nobel Prizes carry a cash award of $1 million from a bequest left by the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.

The physics prize comes a day after two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
In a startling turn of events, residents of Delhi and northern India experienced strong tremors on Tuesday, following a series of earthquakes in Nepal and neighbouring areas. The seismic activity included multiple quakes, with magnitudes ranging from 3.1 to 6.2, raising concerns and prompting evacuations.

The seismic activity began with the first earthquake, which struck at 2.25 PM IST in Nepal. Within a span of just 25 minutes, Nepal experienced another significant quake measuring 6.2 in magnitude, followed by a third earthquake measuring 3.8 in magnitude 15 minutes later, and a fourth quake of 3.1 magnitude just 13 minutes after that. All these events occurred around 3.19 PM IST.

Additionally, an earthquake measuring 5.2 in magnitude was reported in Arunachal Pradesh at 3.27 PM IST, and shortly afterwards, a disturbance of 3.3 magnitude was recorded in Uttarakhand.

The epicenter of the most powerful earthquake was located 206 kilometers southeast of Joshimath in Uttarakhand and 284 kilometers north of Lucknow. The National Centre for Seismology (NCS) provided detailed information on the strongest quake, reporting it as a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred at 14:51:04 IST, with its coordinates at Lat: 29.39 and Long: 81.23, at a depth of 5 kilometers, in Nepal.

As news of the seismic activity spread, residents in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) reported experiencing strong tremors. Many evacuated office buildings and public spaces for safety. Videos capturing people rushing out of buildings quickly circulated on social media platforms.

The Delhi Police issued a statement urging residents to stay calm but move to a safe location outside of buildings. They emphasised not using elevators during such situations and provided the emergency contact number 112 for assistance.

Reports also indicated that tremors were felt in various parts of northern India, including Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow, Hapur, and Amroha. Parts of Uttarakhand also reported experiencing tremors in the aftermath of the consecutive earthquakes in Nepal. In addition to these areas, reports of tremors came in from Chandigarh, Jaipur, and other parts of northern India.

Authorities are closely monitoring the situation and providing guidance to ensure the safety and well-being of residents in the affected regions. The seismic events serve as a reminder of the unpredictable nature of earthquakes and the importance of preparedness in earthquake-prone areas.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has attributed the poor maintenance of city roads to a shortage of funds. According to PMC officials, a staggering Rs 700 Crore is required to maintain the 1,400 km network of city roads, while the budget allocation for this purpose stood at a mere Rs 193 Crore.

This revelation comes amid mounting criticism of the municipal corporation for the deteriorating condition of roads in the city. PMC had previously asserted that potholes were filled in advance of the monsoon season. However, activists and concerned citizens have accused PMC of not adequately addressing the road maintenance issue.

In response to the escalating concerns, the Municipal Commissioner issued an order directing the road department officials to complete road repairs before October 7. Failure to meet this deadline will result in disciplinary actions against the responsible officials.

Furthermore, PMC faced scrutiny when it announced the implementation of the Mission 15 VIP Roads project. Activists and citizens have called for a shift in priorities, insisting that PMC should focus on improving the condition of existing roads before embarking on such new initiatives.

This situation underscores the pressing need for increased funding and efficient allocation of resources to ensure the upkeep and safety of the city's road infrastructure. As road quality directly impacts the daily lives of Pune's residents, addressing these concerns remains a top priority for local authorities.
Nine police personnel, including two who are allegedly involved in criminal activities, have been suspended in the wake of the escape of Lalit Patil, a notorious drug trafficker, from the Sasoon hospital on October 2. The incident has sent shockwaves across the police force.

The suspended cops are Janardhan Kale, Vishal Thople, Swapneel Shinde, Digambar Chandanshiv, Mohini Dongre (woman police officer), constables Adesh Shivankar Naik, Natharam Kale, Pirappa Bansode and Amit Jadhav (all appointed Court Company).

The first four cops listed above have been suspended in connection with Patils drug-related activities from Ward 16 of Sassoon hospital, while the remaining five face for their alleged negligence in the case.

The escape of Patil has shed light on several shortcomings within the system. The lack of coordination between Sassoon hospital management, Yerwada jail administration and Pune police, along with lapses in police vigilance, allowed the accused to continue operating his drug racket from the hospital bed where he had been admitted for treatment and abscond as soon as it was exposed.

Acting on a tip-off, the police seized mephedron (MD), also known as party drug, worth Rs 2.14 crore from two aides of Patil near the Sassoon hospital just before his escape. The presence of Patil at the hospital necessitated the polices request for his custody. Medical professionals at Sassoon informed the police that Patil required surgery the following day.

How he fled

On Monday evening, while Patil was being taken for X-ray, he managed to overpower the police officers and make a daring escape. This raised questions whether he was helped to flee. Investigations into Patils activities were expected to expose the involvement of several high-ranking officials at Sassoon and in the city police force, sources in the police department said. Patil claimed to have forgotten the passwords to two mobile phones seized from him, potentially containing vital information.

Manhunt underway

Patil, a native of Nashik district, is believed to be in the company of his brother, Bhushan Patil. Pune police have deployed several teams to locate him, but as of now, no updates on his whereabouts have been released. Lalit Patil's medical history reveals treatment for various ailments, including tuberculosis, stomach ulcers, and the need for hernia surgery.

In response to the incident, officials from the Court Company and personnel from the police headquarters have been deployed to bolster security at Sassoon hospital, particularly in Ward No. 16, where inmates are treated.

Legal troubles, bail pleas

Lalit Patil had faced increasing legal troubles over the years, with eight unsuccessful attempts to secure bail within the last three years. The Pimpri-Chinchwad police consistently opposed his bail applications, making his escape all the more challenging. His most recent bail hearing was scheduled for October 10.

Despite four rejections at the sessions court, Patil sought bail four times at the Bombay High Court, all without success. Additionally, the Pimpri-Chinchwad police had opposed his continued stay in the prisoner ward at Sassoon, requesting his transfer to Yerwada jail. However, the transfer request was recently denied by the court, four months after it was initially made.

Recognising the high-profile nature of the case and the resources at Patils disposal, the government appointed a special public prosecutor to handle the case. The appointment was made at the request of the police, who sought to present their case and oppose Patils bail vigorously.

The Pimpri-Chinchwad police had expressed concerns that Patil might resume his illegal activities if he continued to stay in the hospital. With repeated bail denials, Patil extended his stay at Sassoon by citing various medical conditions. His bail is to be re-evaluated in the high court on October 10 and 16.
MANZINI  Despite threats by teachers to destabilise operations in schools, some school heads declared a smooth start to the writing of examinations for Form Vs in Manzini.

Yesterday, International General Certificate for Secondary Education (IGCSE) candidates sat for their first papers in History, which is an optional subject, and English Language Paper I, which is compulsory. The head teachers confirmed that the start was without incident in schools situated in towns. Candidates were settled well on time. It is worth mentioning that during a recent extraordinary meeting held by the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) members last month, it was resolved that teachers would make operations abnormal in schools, and sensitise pupils about the SNAT President, Mbongwa Dlaminis dismissal. The destabilisation of operations in schools, according to the teachers, would be done legally through effecting go-slows in schools as one of the measures to defend their president, who was fired by government last month. Mbongwa was dismissed after he was found guilty on all 109 charges of absenteeism, preferred against him by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC).

Meanwhile, during a visit to Mjingo High School yesterday, Head teacher Philile Dlamini told this publication that the school was overall well prepared for the examinations and candidates started on a good note. Invigilators were well trained; we set up the exam properly and instructions were read clearly to candidates. They know of their expectations and they came geared to write this morning. Above and beyond, they started well. I was there to monitor them the first 15 minutes and they looked settled and calm. It really took off on the right footing, the head teacher said. She assured that the candidates would excel because she believed that they were well prepared, with the teachers committing themselves early in the mornings and during holidays. She said she was confident that they would produce excellent results in the coming year.

Commitment

In the same breath, St Theresas High School pupils were also found seated calmly during the commencement of the morning paper, which started at 9am. Although the Head teacher, Albert Sihlongonyane, could not avail himself for an interview due to examination commitments, he granted this publication permission to take pictures of the candidates. Invigilators were seen reading instructions to the candidates at the start of the exams. Security was also visible at the school entrance to ensure that learners were writing without any disturbances.

Dino Dlamini, the Manzini Central High School Head teacher, said they were also prepared for the external examinations, which were progressing smoothly in the morning.

Last week, we had a prayer service at the school to prepare learners for the exam. Even teachers worked tirelessly in ensuring that learners attended Saturday classes and for this, we appreciate them immensely for their devotion, said the head teacher.

He implored parents to give pupils the opportunity and chance to study at home, while also monitoring that they were studying and not playing with their cellphones. He said parents should encourage learners to pray as this was a critical time, where they were faced with spiritual attacks.
When Kelsey Kays showed up to her first practice with The Textures she was nervous.

She took solace in the fact that she knew how to avoid microphone feedback. She may not have played with her bandmates yet, but she knew how to set up her audio equipment and she knew how to play in a group, skills she learned at 15 as an attendee of Common Chord's summer rock camp.

She has now been the front person for the group for four year.

On Thursday, Kays and The Textures will headline Common Chord's first ever QC FlavorFest, a fundraising event hosted at their Red Stone Room. QC FlavorFest will have live music and roughly 14 food and drink vendors from around the Quad-Cities offering a dish for attendees to sample. All proceeds for the ticketed event will go toward Common Chord's music education programs. The event will run from 5 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, and tickets start at $40.

Educational offerings by Common Chord include the Acoustic Music Club, a "music enrichment program" for youth and adults with disabilities, and Let's Band Together, a program that accepts instrument donations for refurbishment, then loans them for free to local youth. Common Chord also works with the Boys and Girls Clubs in Moline and Davenport to connect young musicians with professional mentors and provide support networks for at-risk youth.

QC FlavorFest is a huge fundraising opportunity for Common Chord to keep those programs thriving, said Steve Ahrens, Common Chord director of strategic initiatives.

"The music and the cultural community, the arts community, often is first to be on the chopping block in many ways," Ahrens said. "An event like this is important to help raise some dollars for these educational programs that benefit  directly  students."

The availability of those music education programs is crucial, both as a way to unite the Quad-Cities and keep youth engaged and learning, Ahrens said. He's hoping the QC FlavorFest will become an annual Common Chord fundraiser that eventually even outgrows the Red Stone Room.

The first FlavorFest tradition installed is the "Golden Kazoo"  with all the dining options available on Thursday, attendees will be able to vote for their favorite taste, and the leading vote-getter will receive the trophy.

There will also be a live, silent auction, for a variety of prizes, which include: a signed copy of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" on vinyl, a staycation at the Adler House, a custom designed piano and Ahrens himself, as your personal assistant for the day. The auction will close at 8 p.m. on Thursday, during the event, and is open now.

Food vendors for the event will come from all over the Quad-Cities, but Kays said she's most excited to try Molly's Cupcakes, which recently opened in Bettendorf. She's excited to see the local music and food scenes come together to support valuable music education programs, like the rock camp she once participated in.

"I feel like this is a convergence of so many aspects of the music community, and I think that includes the local eateries and restaurants and venues," Kays said. "I think our industries rely on each other often to support each other's businesses."
When Rock Island County judges rule on whether to release defendants under the Pretrial Fairness Act, their word is not necessarily the last.

The act abolished cash bail on Sept. 18. Now criminal charges fall into one of two broad categories  detainable and non-detainable. When people facing charges are eligible for detention, a judge must decide at hearings whether to hold them or release them on conditions.

The new law allows for both defense counsel and prosecutors to challenge the judges decision.

Weve probably filed in the neighborhood of 20 to 25 (appeals), Rock Island County Public Defender Hany Khoury said Friday.

Dora Villarreal, the county states attorney, said Friday that her office has nine or 10 appeals pending.

The Illinois Supreme Court spells out in one of its rules the circumstances in which a party can appeal, what the appellate court needs to resolve appeals, and the timeline for resolving them.

The local criminal prosecution continues while any appeals are under way, according to the rule.

The scenarios

A judges decision on detention. In cases where the judge rules against detention, the prosecution can appeal. If the judge jails a defendant, the defense counsel can appeal.

When a judge approves pretrial release. Judges can impose conditions that defendants must meet to remain free. Both the state and the defense can appeal an order setting conditions of pretrial release.

A defendant faces revocation of pretrial release. If a judge revokes a defendants release, defense counsel can appeal. Prosecutors can appeal if the judge denies the states petition to revoke pretrial release.

Paperwork and the timeline

Illinois appellate court system handles the detention and condition-of-release appeals.

A person taking issue with a local judges decision has 14 days to file a notice of appeal, the Supreme Court rule states. The notice must include what the appellant wants and why.

After someone files the notice to appeal, there are several deadlines for providing the appellate court with the files relevant to the arguments and the case, according to the rule. There is the possibility of court-approved extensions for some of these deadlines.

Once the appellate court gets the needed documentation, it has up to 14 days to decide on the appeal, the rule states. The appellate court can extend that deadline for good cause.

In total, a detention-related appeal could take up to 100 days, unless the court approves an extension of a deadline.

Man accused of murder appeals jail decision

Glen J. Evans Jr., 19, Rock Island, faces a count of first-degree murder, accused of shooting another man on Aug. 19, court records state. When the Pretrial Fairness Act became active, his bail was $1 million, and he would have had to post a $100,000 before the Rock Island County jail would release him.

Evans case was among the older cases the Rock Island County courts first reviewed after the act abolished monetary bail, according to court records. Evans hearing happened on Sept. 19.

Judge Frank Fuhr granted the states petition to detain Evans, and the Rock Island County Public Defenders Office appealed the same day.

Based on the Supreme Court rules timeline, his appeal could be resolved before the end of the year.

Another Form of Recourse

The appeal process is not the only way Evans detention status, or that of other defendants, might change.

Under the act, the local courts must regularly revisit defendants detention or pretrial release conditions, according to documents provided by the state and the 14th Judicial Circuit, which includes Rock Island County.

Once a judge detains a person, or releases that person, the act requires that the local court review those circumstances at each subsequent court hearing in the criminal case, the documents state.

The court has set Evans next hearing on the murder charge for Oct. 13.
After eight years as president and publisher of the Quad-City Times, Debbie Anselm is moving on.

Anselm announced Tuesday she accepted the position of executive director of the Iowa Newspaper Association. Anselm, who has been with The Times since 2015, will begin her new role Oct. 24. Her last day leading the Quad-Cities operation will be Oct. 20.

Before being named publisher, Anselm worked in a variety of media capacities, most recently as general manager of Times Media Co. in Munster, Indiana, a Lee Enterprises company.

In 2017, Anselm played a pivotal role in the acquisition of the Dispatch/Argus. In 2021, she was promoted to group president of Lees Iowa business unit, which along with the Quad City Times includes Sioux City, Mason City and Waterloo.

Following the example set by others and always forging a new path forward helped her succeed, she said.

As Ive been reflecting on the past two decades, what Im most grateful for are the people Ive had the opportunity to work with. Ive been fortunate to be mentored by exceptional leaders, inspired by friendships forged with colleagues and supported by extraordinary people in our community.

Its been such a privilege to work alongside Debbie, said Ava Thomas, president of Lee Enterprises Midwest Region. Her visionary leadership and transformative impact has led to unprecedented milestones throughout her career. While Ill miss Debbies strategic vision, unparalleled dedication and unwavering commitment to our companys mission, Im thrilled her new venture aligns with her passion and expertise. To be able to continue to work with Debbie through our strong partnership with INA is especially exciting.

Leadership and community involvement is a significant part of Anselm's life and character, she said. Anselm credited her parents for her work ethic, saying they reinforced the importance of setting a good example and giving back.

In the Quad-Cities, Anselm has lent her leadership and guidance to a variety of boards including the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce, Quad City Community Foundation, YMCA of the Mississippi Valley, Junior Achievement of the Heartland, United Way of the Quad Cities and the Iowa Newspaper Association.

This past year, she served as president of the INA. In that role, she was able to see the inner workings of the organization, how it champions the more than 240 newspapers in the state of Iowa, the work it does for other states and the commitment to journalism.

When the previous executive director accepted a new role, Anselm felt she had to apply.

Newspapers are an integral part of the communities we serve, Anselm said. I am grateful for the opportunities this position has afforded me to collaborate with other leaders to address some of our communities biggest challenges. From addressing literacy rates to leading recovery efforts from a historic flood, some of my most rewarding work has happened in this space. Im passionate about the role the newspaper plays in its community, and I believe more than ever people want us to succeed. Our future is bright, and Im ready to lead this movement in a strategic and purposeful way.

Debbie is an incredible leader, developer and colleague. While we are going to miss her, we are gaining a tremendous advocate for Lee Enterprises and our industry. We are thrilled for Debbie and her family, said Joe Battistoni, vice president of sales and marketing for Lee Enterprises.

Leaving Lee Enterprises will be difficult, she said.

"When I think about what we've accomplished as a team  we have a very compelling story to tell, and this role, for me, is an opportunity to help craft that story and be an advocate across the state for newspapers."
Certain piers of the old I-74 bridge, among the last remnants of the iconic bridge, will be demolished with explosives this fall and winter.

The demolition contractor, Helm Group, will use controlled explosives to remove several standing concrete piers, the former support structures of the bridge, between Bettendorf and Moline the morning of Oct. 15, beginning as early as 7 a.m.

A second round of pier demolition is slated for sometime this winter, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation.

It's among the final steps of demolishing the twin spans of the old I-74 suspension bridge, the first built in 1936 and the second span completed in 1960.

The contractor will use controlled explosives on four of the 22 piers  west-bound Piers B, C and D and east-bound Pier D.

The load charges are placed in vertical holes drilled in the remnants of the four piers, which are now just 2-3 feet above water. The explosives will be roughly 7-10 feet below water, said Mark Brandl, an onsite engineer contracted by the Iowa DOT.

Once the piers are blasted, the concrete rubble and rebar will be removed from the river by excavators, according to Brandl.

A pair of piers at Pier K, located in Sylvan Slough near the Moline riverfront, will remain to avoid disturbing a population of endangered mussels.

Another two piers are planned to be demolished with explosives later this year.

The contractor is removing the other 14 piers manually with a hammer excavator. Already, eight on the south end have been dismantled, Brandl said.

The use of explosives isn't necessary for demolishing the piers, Brandl said, but its quicker and cheaper than removing them manually with an excavator.

However, the contractor is only allowed to use explosives to demolish six of the 20 piers slated for removal as 12 are in an environmentally protected area and another two are too close to the Bettendorf levee.

The explosives will close the bridge, pedestrian path, and river to traffic on Sunday, according to IDOT.

The new I-74 bridge will be closed to traffic for about an hour the morning of Oct. 15, with a detour posted routing traffic to I-80, I-280 or the Centennial Bridge. The pedestrian bridge path will be closed for about 24 hours beginning the night of Oct. 14.

The river will close to traffic, too. The main navigation channel will be closed for up to 24 hours, beginning at 6 a.m. Oct. 15. Areas outside the main navigation channel will be closed for up to 72 hours, according to the Iowa DOT.

The towers and suspension cables were taken down with explosives earlier this summer, drawing crowds to the site and onlookers to the live stream online.

Officials encourage the public to view the demolition online via a livestream: iowadot.gov/i74riverbridge/Traffic-Cameras.

The new I-74 bridge, completed and opened fully in 2021, was decades in the making and cost about $1 billion.

Photos: Controlled explosives take down the last of the old I-74 bridge on Sunday.
DES MOINES  Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst doubled down on a request for information from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons regarding reports of sexual misconduct at a troubled federal prison in Illinois, near the Iowa border.

On Tuesday, Ernst sent a letter to Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters asking how the agency responded to and disciplined instances of sexual harassment against staff that were reported at U.S. Penitentiary Thomson in Thomson, Illinois.

Ernst first sent a letter in December 2022 with similar questions, and in the new letter said the agency's initial response was not adequate.

Im standing up for current and former USP Thomson staff who had to endure an unconscionable workplace environment, Ernst said in a written statement. I am dismayed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons slow response to this situation and apparent lack of corrective action, and I will continue pushing the agency to take this seriously on behalf of BOP employees across the country.

The Thomson prison closed its high-security special detention unit in February and began operating as a low-security facility. The bureau said at the time it had "identified significant concerns with respect to institutional culture and compliance with BOP policies." In August, it became a permanent low-security prison and named a new warden.

In 2022, Thomson employees, many of whom live in Iowa, complained of rampant sexual assault and misconduct taking place at the then-high-security prison. The union representing the employees said there were more than 275 reported incidents in 2022 and more than 500 in 2021. The incidents included inmates exposing themselves and masturbating in front of employees, as well as threats of sexual violence.

The prison reported 125 staff left in 2022, according to Ernst's letter.

The prison has also been plagued by allegations of abuse on inmates by staff. Prison guards were accused of overuse of solitary confinement, abusive use of restraints and racism, according to a July report from the the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. That report also alleged staff sexually assaulted inmates on multiple occasions.

In a written statement provided by Ernst's staff, the president of the union that represents employees at Thomson said the federal government must address the sexual assaults toward staff.

"The Federal Bureau of Prisons neglected its staff at USP Thomson, and many staff are still suffering trauma from the sexual attacks," said Jon Zumkehr, American Federation of Government Employees Local 4070 president. "The sexual attack on staff is a widespread problem, it should not be normalized as part of the job. The BOP must protect the staff, and they have failed."

Ernst asks for discipline information

In the letter, Ernst asked the bureau to provide its plan to address the incidents of inmate sexual assault that occurred at the Thomson prison and how inmates will be held accountable.

She also asked whether the agency is following its policy requiring a multi-disciplinary hearing for violations of rules against sexual misconduct by inmates.

She asked that the agency explain when a sexual misconduct offense rises to the level of prosecutorial punishment and how many code violations and prosecutorial referrals were made by UPS Thomson in 2022 and 2023.

In response to Ernst's December letter with similar questions, a Bureau of Prisons Official noted the change in security at Thomson and said no sexual harassment allegations have been made since that change.

"Whenever there are instances of misconduct, employees are able to report such conduct for appropriate action," the agency said in the letter, which was dated July 5, 2023. "Additionally, employees who report having been subjected to acts of sexual misconduct are provided with information about the Bureau's Employee Assistance Program, which provides counseling resources and, confidential, on-demand support to employees with personal or professional problems."

In her new letter, Ernst said the bureau's initial response was "frankly, unhelpful, as it did not answer any of my questions."

A Bureau of Prisons spokesperson declined to comment, saying the agency responds directly to members of Congress.

"Out of respect and deference to Members, we do not share our Congressional correspondence with media," said spokesperson Randilee Giamusso.
Get in the Halloween spirit when the annual Paranormal Investigations of the Historic Adams House return.

Deadwood History, Inc. and Black Hills Paranormal Investigations will host Paranormal Investigations of the Historic Adams House on Oct. 6 and 7, Oct. 13 and 14, and Oct. 20 and 21 at the Adams House, 22 Van Buren St. in Deadwood. Investigations will take place at 6, 7:30, 9 and 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $35; each investigation tour is limited to 20 people.

Advance reservations are required. Purchase tickets online at deadwoodhistory.com or call 605-722-4800 for more information.

Visitors will participate in a real paranormal investigation with professional paranormal researchers. Visitors must be at least 12 years old to participate, and youths ages 12 to 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

Black Hills Paranormal Investigations conduct investigations in South Dakota, eastern Wyoming, northwest Nebraska and southwest Montana. BHPI is dedicated to the study of paranormal phenomena. The group uses scientific methods, systematic processes, skepticism, and logical thinking for data collection and analysis.

BHPI does not enter an investigation looking to prove that paranormal activity or a haunting is taking place. They simply allow the evidence to tell the story.

The Historic Adams House is long regarded as one of Deadwoods most haunted sites. During the investigation tours, participants will search for paranormal activity in the Adams House using parascopes, para-lanterns, the Tempest, Rem-Pod, Onvoy ghost box, Pharaoh Box, Flux 2, Ovilus, digital audio recorders, laser grids, divining rods, K2s, and EMF meters.

Participants will hear about the history behind the darker stories associated with Adams House during each exclusive 90-minute paranormal investigation. The BHPI team will discuss documenting and analyzing the results of possible paranormal phenomena during the investigation and explain the findings from recent investigations of the Adams House.

After each paranormal investigation tour, group psychic readings will be available with Dani Jo Butler, owner of Sacred Soul, LLC. Readings will be held in the gentlemens smoking room  an area not typically open to the public  at the Adams House. Readings are limited to eight people; adults only. These are group sessions and individual readings are not guaranteed.

Butler is a psychic medium whose goal is to bring healing and a connection to the divine. She is a spirit-guided intuitive, teacher, author and healer.
The South Dakota Municipal League will be holding its annual conference in Rapid City Oct. 3 through 6 and as host, the City of Rapid City is inviting the public to a special Family Night Out event at Main Street Square.

The free Family Night Out event will be held Wednesday, Oct. 4 and will feature a special performance by musical artist Rowan Grace. The event is free to the public and will also include food trucks, yard games, s'mores at the firepit, vendor booths and activities.

Were proud to be hosting this years annual statewide municipal conference and very pleased to invite the public to a special evening of events and activities, said Mayor Jason Salamun. Were looking forward to showing hundreds of conference attendees what a night of fun is like in Rapid City and to share the energy and enthusiasm of our locals.

Vendor booths will include the Police Activity League with youth outreach trailer and nine-square game, Fire Department with Dexter, pop-up library hosted by Rapid City Public Library, Sustainability Committee, Youth City Council, Community Development with interactive parking app demonstration and City Human Resources.

The conference brings together leaders and public servants from municipalities throughout the state. Several information sessions, panel discussions and meetings with various topics important to municipalities and officials will be held. Breakout sessions for code enforcement officers, airport managers, human resource officers, police chiefs, finance officers, street maintenance and public works officials and other specialty areas will be convened.

Its a great way to connect with colleagues from around the state and meet fellow municipal employees and elected officials, said Salamun. Its important to share feedback and insights on the many issues impacting our communities and residents.

The Family Night Out event at Main Street Square is open to the general public and is part of An Evening To Explore for conference attendees to tour Rapid City sites, browse the downtown area, and visit downtown shops and galleries.
A batch of emails obtained by a Washington D.C.-based ethics watchdog group reveals South Dakota state officials were ready to defend Republican Gov. Kristi Noems decision in 2021 to accept a private donation to fund a National Guard troop deployment to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, released the emails Tuesday. Throughout the email threads, Noems former chief of staff Aaron Scheible and former South Dakota National Guard Major General Jeffrey Marlette had a back and forth about the private donation payment. Additionally, emails questioned if the donation would be placed into existing state funds or if the guardsmen would receive portions of the donation directly in their salaries.

Noem announced in late June 2021 that 50 National Guard troops would be deployed to the border. At the end of her announcement was a single line: The deployment will be paid for by a private donation.

In an email sent by Marlette on June 25 to Scheible and Ian Fury, the Governors Director of Communications, he wrote, I think the statement, The deployment will be paid for by a private donation will start a flurry of inquiries from the media, but it is a true statement.

The Noem administration at first refused to disclose the size of the donation to the public, according to Argus Leader reporting. The administration privately informed state legislative leaders that the Willis and Reba Johnson Foundation, a Tennessee billionaire couple, had donated $1 million to support the mission.

The total cost of the two-month deployment was $1.45 million, according to CREW.

Representatives from Sen. John Thunes, R-SD, office were already questioning the specific use of the funds, emails revealed. Jon Abdnor, one of Thunes policy advisors, asked about how the payment would be reimbursed and whether it would cover all costs of the deployment.

Other questions focused on whether the troops would be paid directly with the donation, according to the emails.

Dan Lusk, the Deputy Secretary for the Department of Public Safety at the time, wrote the donation would go to the emergency and disaster fund, not to the salaries of the guardsmen after Kristi Turman, the director of Emergency Services within DPS, had learned the Department of Defense and National Guard Bureau were discussing the legality of whether such a National Guard deployment could be funded with private dollars.

After the administration was criticized for accepting the donation, Congress passed legislation banning the use of private donations for interstate National Guard deployments.

As media continued to chase the story about the private donation, Marlette sent another email to Scheible and Mark Miller, then Noems legal counsel, defending the choice to accept the money.

Marlette wrote accepting private donations to the state werent uncommon or illegal and the state had a history of partnering with private citizens for projects.

As I have stated, this is a National Security risk to our country and to our state, he wrote, before going on to explain that Guard troops had been deployed to the border.

He later noted in the email, This is a different approach, but I think it delivers the Governors important messages and the medias misguided assumptions that this is political, illegal or not within her powers.

A spokesperson for Noems office has not returned a request for comment about CREWs report.

During the guards deployment in 2021, according to previous AP reporting, there were slow days and ultimately resulted in no seizures of drugs or confirmed encounters with transnational criminals.

In June of this year, Noem, in her second term, announced 50 National Guard troops would be deployed to the border at the request of Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Troops were deployed in September but details have remained few and far between about the length of the deployment, the total cost and the mission goal, according to South Dakota Searchlight.

Fury said in June the deployment would be funded by the Emergency and Disaster Fund.

Noem inspected the troops in late September, according to a release from the Governor's Office, along with South Dakota Adjutant General Mark Morrell and DPS Secretary Bob Perry.
The iconic skyline of New York City owes much of its grandeur to a group of skilled and fearless workers known as the Mohawk ironworkers. Hailing from the Akwesasne and Kahnawake Indian reserves in Canada, the Mohawk people have a longstanding tradition of ironworking. Their contributions have been instrumental in the construction of some of the worlds tallest skyscrapers. This week, we will delve into the rich history and remarkable legacy of the Mohawk ironworkers, who have fearlessly scaled the heights to shape the cityscape of New York.

For generations, the Mohawk people have been revered for their exceptional skills in ironworking. This craft has been passed down through families, with elders teaching the younger generations the art and techniques required to work with iron. As a result, Mohawk communities have become known for producing highly skilled ironworkers who are sought after for their expertise.

The term Mohawk skywalkers is a testament to the Mohawk ironworkers unparalleled ability to work at extreme heights with astonishing fearlessness. These individuals were not only adept at their craft but also possessed an extraordinary level of courage that set them apart in the construction industry. They earned this name due to their unwavering commitment to constructing skyscrapers, often without the extensive safety measures that are standard today.

The Mohawk tradition of ironworking began in the mid-1880s when they were hired as unskilled laborers to build a bridge over the St. Lawrence River onto Mohawk land. They quickly earned a reputation for being top-notch workers on high steel, and booming out from their Native communities in search of the next big job became a fact of life. During the 1940s and 1950s, many Mohawk ironworking families moved to the New York City area  as many as 700 families into Brooklyn  to aid in the citys vertical expansion.

During the early to mid-20th century, New York City experienced a construction boom, leading to the birth of some of the worlds most iconic skyscrapers. Among the towering structures they contributed to were the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center twin towers. Mohawk ironworkers played pivotal roles in these projects, performing tasks such as riveting, welding, and steel erection at dizzying heights above the streets of the city.

What sets the Mohawk ironworkers apart is their unwavering courage. Working at great heights, they confronted conditions that would deter many. Their ability to navigate the precarious perches of steel beams demonstrated a remarkable level of fearlessness. This courage was not only a testament to their exceptional skill but also an embodiment of their cultural pride and determination.

While the work of Mohawk ironworkers was instrumental in the construction of skyscrapers, it was not without its challenges. Safety standards in the early to mid-20th century were far less rigorous than those in place today. These workers often operated without the extensive safety equipment that has become standard practice. Their contributions came at great personal risk, emphasizing the extraordinary dedication that defined the Mohawk ironworkers.

In September 2001, after the collapse of the twin towers, Mohawk ironworkers returned to dismantle what their elders had worked on decades earlier.

A lot of people think Mohawks arent afraid of heights; thats not true. We have as much fear as the next guy. The difference is that we deal with it better. We also have the experience of the old timers to follow.

 Kyle Karonhiaktatie Beauvais (Mohawk, Kahnawake)
MBABANE- SNAT Secretary General (SG) Lot Vilakati is accused of having invited the police to a fist or baton fight at the SNAT Centre in Manzini.

These allegations were made by the Executive Secretary of the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), Nhlanhla Dlamini, in the matter where government is seeking an order barring the President of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Mbongwa Dlamini, from entering the courtroom where his matter will be heard.

Arguments

The applicant (government) also wants the court to debar President of the proscribed Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO) Sakhile Awviva Nxumalo and the SNAT SG, Vilakati, from coming into the court to listen to the arguments of Mbongwas matter. According to the applicant, Nxumalo and Vilakati were allegedly interfering with the exercise of the judicial power exercised by judges, with threats of naming and shaming them so long as they handled the matter of the SNAT president. The application is being opposed by the respondent, who contended that the Industrial Court had no jurisdiction to hear it.

In his replying affidavit, the TSC executive secretary submitted that; Lot Vilakati did the unthinkable on September 28, 2023 outside the court by touting the police to a fist fight at the SNAT Centre. I do not know why Lot and Mbongwa think legal issues will be sorted with terrorism acts, violence, belittling of court officials and threats. According to the TSC executive secretary, the police had now joined those to be attacked by Vilakati and those under him. He told the court that this assertion was highly contemptuous. According to Nhlanhla, the respondents were bragging that they knew the judgment of the main matter involving Mbongwa. He averred that the respondents, acting in common purpose to threaten the judges and the applicants, had the right to take the matter at hand by alerting the judge and members of the bench. He said it was telling that the respondents were not distancing themselves from the horrific utterances towards the members of the Judiciary and terrorism acts.

Lot is very dangerous and we await results from the Examinations Council in order to gauge the extent of the viruses that the computers were infected. We will also see the numbers of those who failed. He alleged that Vilakati even went to the extent of advising teachers to dodge classes by getting fake sick notes or take leave at once so that the external exams would be disrupted.

Strength

This was a show of strength to the court on how powerful they are and how they will protect Mbongwa. The future of the thousands and thousands of learners is of no moment to them, he argued. He went on to submit that the respondents were in the process of destroying their reputations and it was the applicants prayer that the members of SNAT and learners see the type of people Vilakati and Mbongwa were. Nhlanhla said the duo of Mbongwa and Vilakati had long deviated from the manadate of the teachers and were dealing with who and how the country should be ran, even trying to influence the members of the TSC to either resign en masse or decline their appointment, so that the appointing authority could be embarrassed, when he had done nothing wrong.

To deny that Vilakati invited political parties in the briefing is reminiscent of someone who cannot be trusted. Clearly the respondents are only concerned about not attending work and that nothing will be done to them, submitted the deponent. He brought it to the attention of the court that all those supporting Mbongwa were at work during the 109 days he was absent from work.

Defied

According to Nhlanhla, the members of the public sector unions tried their level best to force Mbongwa to attend to work, but he defied them. He told the court that Mbongwa recently chose to go to Botswana during his disciplinary hearing, without any authority from the TSC. I cannot take it out of the equation that the blind loyalty by Lot, who is always at work, is a campaigning strategy to be the next president of SNAT. The way the two disown members of the political parties and other union stakeholders when cornered was an issue, Nhlanhla alleged. He further alleged that the video of September 18, 2023, clearly showed Vilakati ushering members of the political parties to speak. The matter is still pending in court and appearing for the applicants is Assistant Attorney General Mbuso Simelane, while for the respondent is Lucky Howe.
The Secretary of States office says its taking a hands-off approach to new financial barriers erected around Montanas citizen initiative process earlier this year.

Some legislative leaders and activists had argued that Senate Bill 93, passed by Republican lawmakers and signed into law by Gov. Greg Gianforte earlier this year, would kneecap the ability of ordinary Montanans to pursue ballot initiatives.

The bill created a nonrefundable $3,700 fee that proponents said was designed to cover the costs incurred by state agencies tasked with reviewing and processing those initiative proposals. It also added new steps to the process of getting a proposal approved.

But it also included a carve-out, allowing those proposing initiatives to seek a waiver by demonstrating a financial inability to pay without substantial hardship. The language of the law doesnt get more specific than that, but allows the Secretary of States office to write rules to administer that fee.

The current implemented process used by the Secretary of State is to simply inform applicants that there is a fee, but a waiver may be granted if they respond attesting to financial hardship under the requirements provided by statute, Secretary of State spokesperson Richie Melby wrote in an email. The implemented process seems to be working well; we've had folks do both without issue or confusion.

The office has so far decided not to move forward with any rule-making, he added, and simply relies on self-affirmation, meaning they take the applicants at their word that they cant afford it. Melby cited similar practices in how the office allows self-affirmation in voter registration and candidate filing.

But the law also allows the office to rescind a waiver if it later finds that the applicant could have afforded the fee, based on financial disclosure forms. Melby declined to specify how the office would make that call, writing that the SOS office acts ministerially with regard to ballot committee financial disclosure. Those disclosure reports are overseen by a separate office.

A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of SB 93 is currently plodding through state district court in Lewis and Clark County. It was filed in May by a group of activists and delegates to Montanas 1972 constitutional convention and accuses the governor, attorney general and secretary of state of violating the peoples right to make laws through the initiative process.

Opinions vary among initiative proponents who have paid the fee since SB 93 went into effect.

By far the greatest expense that weve incurred so far is legal fees, just trying to interpret the law, said Doug Campbell, treasurer of the Montanans for Election Reform Action Fund.

He said the group opted to simply pay the fees for two ballot initiatives to change the way primaries and general elections work in Montana. But Campbell argued that the law hurts the ability of Montanans to exercise their constitutional right to bring ballot initiatives.

His ballot initiative political committee is one of just two that have so far registered with the Commissioner of Political Practices

Tony Hudson, a Republican school board trustee in Stevensville, hasnt registered a committee for his ballot initiative campaign, to designate American rodeo as Montanas official state sport. But he said he had no issue with the new price tag for submitting those proposals to the Secretary of State.

Anything worth doing probably isnt going to be for free, Hudson said. So while we sit around and want the government to reduce taxes, its pretty hard to do that and continue to offer free things to the public.

Hudson's ballot initiative last week became the second proposal to be approved for petition signatures for the 2024 election cycle. He sees it as a break from the more contentious proposals vying for the November ballot.

"I thought that this was kind of a cool ballot initiative, that this was something positive," Hudson said.
Sitting on a wool blanket inside a tipi on the University of Montanas campus Oval, Tyson Running Wolf stuffed tobacco into a pipe.

A fire in the center crackled, and the smell of burning sweetgrass filled the air.

Once it was lit, Running Wolf passed the pipe to Leonard Traveller, a Blackfoot knowledge keeper, who came down from Canada for the ceremony. Before sharing a prayer, Traveller spoke of unity.

Today, we will assist the Western world and the Indian world, or Native American world, or Blackfoot world to come together and move forward, he told the group. To decolonize, we have to understand colonization.  Im proud to say that despite colonization, we never lost our ceremony. This ceremony, its pure love. Its to heal us, to decolonize us.

Traveller said a prayer in Blackfoot as he blew smoke from the pipe. Running Wolf followed suit before passing the pipe, tip first, around the tipi  which was packed with dozens of UM students, faculty and community members, Native and non-Native.

As the pipe moved counterclockwise around the tipi, some people smoked from it, while others tapped it on their shoulders four times. Some people prayed, others listened, and some put their right hand over their heart, signifying taking in a prayer.

Blackfoot leaders took deep breaths, blowing clouds of smoke around their faces and used their hands to brush the smoke around their head and shoulders. But some non-Native participants were more hesitant. Not wanting to do something wrong or bring offense, most non-Native attendees took short, quick breaths from the pipe and looked to leaders for approval before passing it on.

When the pipe made its way around the circle, Running Wolf shook his head and smiled at the ground.

Powerful, he said. Then he addressed some non-Native members of the group.

Theres a lesson to take home, he said. Did you see how nervous you guys were? Some folks were really good at it, but some of you couldnt even pray. You were too nervous trying to figure out how you fit in. Thats how we feel when we come here. Understand that, and take it in.

Lona Running Wolf, Tysons wife, expanded on the idea.

Thats how people feel when we leave the reservation and go to university, she said. You wonder, 'Where do I fit in?' And lots of people give up and go home. But today, you were in our world.

Pipe ceremonies, which promote prayer and healing, are not often a public affair. But Mondays ceremony was different. It kicked off a series of events sponsored by UM and funded by a grant from the Mellon Foundation. The university was awarded $1 million to hold space for Indigenous elders, to connect Native students with traditional knowledge keepers and to educate non-Native students and faculty on ceremony and culture.

S. Neyooxet Greymorning, Native American studies professor, said aside from when the Payne Family Native American Center was dedicated, This campus has never seen anything like this before. This is the real deal. And Im not sure a lot of students will know that. They may think this is just a powwow, but its not. Its ceremony.

Lona said shes thrilled the university is opening its doors to explore Blackfoot culture at this level.

Most cultural opportunities (open to the public) are surface level, she said. This is different. Its a reflection of our elders willingness to open the door not only to our people but also to the world.

Events associated with the Mellon grant continued throughout the week. Community members attended several dinners and had the opportunity to build a sweat lodge and participate in a sweat ceremony.

Editors note: While pipe ceremonies are normally closed to photographers, Leonard Traveller gave the Missoulian permission to witness and photograph Monday's ceremony in an effort to share Blackfoot culture.
KATHMANDU, Oct 3: Nepal has been honored with the 2023 Future Policy Award for pursuing a mercury-free policy in healthcare and dentistry.





This prestigious award, presented by the World Future Council, is celebrated as the equivalent of an Oscar in the film industry and recognizes policies that contribute to improving living conditions for current and future generations.





Nepal has developed and implemented a policy aimed at completely phasing out mercury-based dental devices and banning the use of mercury amalgam in dental treatments by the year 2029.





The policy aimed at supporting efforts to mitigate global environmental pollution by closely monitoring the use of hazardous chemicals in production and practices. It primarily focuses on the prompt prohibition of dental amalgam in children below 15 and in expectant and breastfeeding mothers and this is the first policy of its kind in the entire Asia region.





In addition to Nepal, other countries were also recognized for their anti-mercury efforts and policies. Vietnam received recognition for its laws related to the production of mercury-free toys, Rwanda for its regulations concerning cosmetic production and cosmetics, and Denmark for its anti-mercury laws regarding packaging materials.





Nepal initially passed the policies on mercury-free healthcare services and mercury-free dental treatment on August 21, 2019, with a specific focus on children and women with special conditions.





It will be applied for all subsequently. The policy was passed by the Ministry of Health and Population, banning the use of mercury-based dental devices and dental amalgam.





Nepal's Ambassador to Germany, Ramkaji Shrestha, received the award during the 5th session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5) held in Bonn, Germany recently. This event was organized by the UNEP and hosted by the German government.





Upon receiving the award, Ambassador Shrestha expressed confidence that the recognition would inspire Nepal to further enhance its healthcare and dental services. Nepal has transitioned to alternative dental filling methods to eliminate the use of mercury in dentistry, significantly reducing the risk of mercury pollution.





Nepal has successfully promoted the use of digital thermometers, digital or android sphygmomanometers, and mercury-free dental fillings such as glass ionomer cement (GIC) and composite materials. These alternatives have replaced the use of mercury thermometers and mercury-based amalgams in dental treatments, according to Ram Charitra Shah, executive director of the Center for Public Health and Environmental Promotion (CFPHED).





Mercury is a hazardous chemical that poses particular risks to the health of children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers. It is typically used in the production of dental amalgam. Shah stressed that Nepal should promptly endorse the Minamata Convention on Mercury and take further efforts to promote better environmental conditions.




The State Health Commissioner has shot down HCA Healthcare's proposal to build a $234 million hospital in Hanover County.

Dr. Karen Shelton issued the denial Monday, citing a lack of need for another hospital in the region and the harm it would cause to rival health system Bon Secours, which already operates a hospital nearby.

"HCA has not demonstrated an institutional need for its proposed project," said Vanessa MacLeod, an adjudication officer for the state health department.

HCA can appeal the decision in court, but it's unclear if the health system will.

"While we respect the health commissioner's decision, we are disappointed in the outcome," said Pryor Green, a spokesperson for HCA. HCA's hospitals are "constantly evaluating gaps in access to care and developing approaches to better meet the needs of the community and our partners."

In January, HCA proposed a small, 60-bed hospital on Sliding Hill Road with a staff of 300 employees. HCA said it would move 60 beds, staff and equipment from the underutilized Retreat Doctors' Hospital in Richmond.

The health system named the project Ashland Hospital, even though it planned to build 7 miles south of Ashland, adjacent to Interstate 95. The proposal gained the support from the county's board of supervisors and other leaders.

Bon Secours, VCU Health opposed to plan

HCA said patients living in Hanover would receive care sooner if they didn't have to drive through the traffic on I-95 to Henrico Doctors' Hospital.

But the area's two other health systems, Bon Secours and Virginia Commonwealth University Health, logged their opposition. Dr. Marlon Levy, VCU Health's interim CEO, said HCA never demonstrated a need for a new hospital and never claimed its hospitals were too far away from its patients.

Mike Lutes, president of Bon Secours Richmond, called HCA's proposal "a thinly veiled attempt to increase its market share in the greater Richmond area at the direct expense of other providers."

Hanover has become a battleground for the health systems because of its aging population and wealth.

Before a system can build a new hospital, it must gain approval through a process called Certificate of Public Need, in which the Virginia Department of Health determines whether the facility would best serve the community.

Shelton determined the region isn't in need of a new hospital. Hanover County already has one nearby, Memorial Regional Medical Center, which is operated by Bon Secours, and a freestanding emergency room owned by HCA. The proposed site on Sliding Hill Road is just a few miles from these facilities and less than 20 minutes from three other HCA hospitals.

Altogether, the region has about a dozen acute-care hospitals, and the vast majority of the local population can reach one in 30 minutes or less, which is the state's benchmark.

At the three Henrico Doctors' hospitals, about 40% of beds sit unused. Given their low occupancy rate, it's unclear where HCA would find patients to fill a new hospital, McLeod said.

"Hospitals are plentiful and well distributed" in the area, she said. A significant number of the beds "lie empty on any given day."

$234 million cost 'not reasonable'

HCA argued that a new hospital would cut down the time it takes an ambulance to transport a patient. But Hanover County emergency management services told the health department having a hospital on Sliding Hill would reduce their drive time by only five minutes.

Another factor was the $234 million cost for the project, which includes purchasing the land. The high cost was "not reasonable in light of the proposed project's relative benefit," Shelton said.

The health commissioner also cited opposition from other health systems as another reason for denial. A new hospital likely would harm the other systems in the region, and state policy discourages opening new facilities that would undermine existing providers.

Moving staff and equipment from Retreat Doctors' to Hanover would mean taking resources out of a high-poverty locality and moving them to a low-poverty locality, McLeod said. That could hurt low-income patients' ability to receive treatment in the city.

Earlier this year, Bon Secours submitted plans to build a freestanding ER farther north in Hanover, and the health department has recommended approval, saying the facility would alleviate overcrowding at Memorial Regional.

When the health department recommended denying HCA's hospital proposal during the summer, HCA suggested building a freestanding ER on the Sliding Hill site instead, which could eventually become a full hospital. But the health department recommended denying that request, too.

From the Archives: Photos of the Richmond region in the 1980s
Richmond airline passengers could have an easier time to get to the Pacific Northwest and Alaska courtesy of a $1 million federal grant.

The grant will specifically help Richmond International Airport develop nonstop service to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the third-largest hub on the West Coast. It will also provide connectivity to other areas in the region.

The process for developing a route could take several years, according to an airport spokesperson. A similar grant award for service to Denver took about 2 1/2 years to complete.

The airport plans to use this significant funding to help obtain nonstop service to Seattle, Washington, which will provide greater connectivity and access between the people and business of Richmond region and the Pacific Northwest as well as to beyond points in Alaska and western Canada, said Perry J. Miller, president and CEO of the Capital Region Airport Commission.

The grant was received after a joint letter of support from U.S. Representatives Jennifer McClellan, Abigail Spanberger and Rob Wittman. It was also submitted alongside the Capital Region Airport Commission, ChamberRVA and the Greater Richmond Partnership and Richmond Region Tourism.

The grant was awarded to the commission, which manages the airport.

Richmond International Airport is an important hub for travel, tourism, and commerce in Virginias Fourth District, McClellan said. This funding will help further enhance their airport operations and support Richmonds growing economy.

RIC has only recently begun adding nonstop service to the West Coast, with direct routes to both San Francisco and Los Angeles. The route to Seattle is a third major city for Richmond travelers.

RIC set records earlier this year when it had 393,355 passengers in April, the most recorded for that month. Those numbers came after setting a record in March 2023, with 385,000 passengers, higher than any pre-pandemic tally for that month.

The airport is currently in growth mode, adding routes across the country with a variety of new permanent routes, like the one to Los Angeles plus other destinations like Las Vegas and Phoenix. Long-term plans call for flights to popular vacation routes in the Caribbean, and possibly Europe.

PHOTOS: Richmond International Airport
Police in Maryland have identified a suspect who stole a car at gunpoint as the Virginia inmate who escaped from a Henrico County hospital in August, according to the Virginia Department of Corrections.

Naseem Isaiah Roulack, 21, escaped from the supervision of two VADOC security officers at Bon Secours St. Marys Hospital in Henrico at approximately 5:50 a.m. on Aug. 12.

Police said the carjacking took place in Montgomery County, Maryland, on Friday.

The U.S. Marshals Service has indicated that Roulack should be considered armed and dangerous. The service is offering a cash reward of $5,000 for information that leads to the apprehension of Roulack, also known as Lil Nas. The U.S. Marshals Service can be contacted at 1-877-WANTED2, or tips can be submitted via the USMS Tips app.

Authorities warn that if you encounter Roulack, do not approach him. Anyone with information is urged to contact VADOCs fugitive line at 1-877-896-5764 and Virginia State Police by dialing #77 or 911.

Last week, Henrico Police Chief Eric English responded to public criticism over the way in which Henrico police have handled Roulacks escape. Roulack has been on the run since he walked out of St. Marys Hospital.

Following a large-scale incident, there will always be questions of what worked and what did not work well, English said in a statement.

English reported more than 40 Henrico police officers were involved in the search for Roulack on the morning of his escape as authorities attempted to capture (him) as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, that did not occur, English said.

Several Henrico residents who live in the area of the hospital previously said they did not receive timely notification or were not warned at all that Roulack was on the run. English admitted that the police response could have played out differently, but stopped short of issuing an apology.

We recognize at this point there was an opportunity to get the message out sooner, he said. While our sworn personnel were focused on the mission of apprehending (Roulack), we also understand the importance of keeping our community safe and communicating with them about an active incident.

Roulack, who was serving a 13-year sentence for aggravated malicious wounding, is being sought by Virginia State Police and the U.S. Marshals Service. He was last seen walking on Franklin Street with what appeared to be either a white towel or sheet over his head.

Roulack is a Black male who is 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighs 225 pounds and has brown eyes.

He has four identified tattoos, including one on his chest that reads Marie, one on his left arm that reads RIP Ish, one on his right cheek that reads Cut Throat and one on his right arm that reads Faith Is Seeing Light With Your Heart When All Your Eyes See Is Darkness.

Bringing Roulack back into custody is our top priority at the VADOC, said VADOC Director Chadwick Dotson. I thank our local, state and federal partner agencies for their tireless assistance in this case and urge anyone with information to contact us.

From the Archives: Jackson Ward in the 1970s and 80s
WASHINGTON  Americans view college campuses as far friendlier to liberals than to conservatives when it comes to free speech, with adults across the political spectrum seeing less tolerance for those on the right, according to a new poll.

Overall, 47% of adults say liberals have a lot of freedom to express their views on college campuses, while just 20% said the same of conservatives, according to polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression.

Republicans perceive a stronger bias on campuses against conservatives, but Democrats see a difference, too  about 4 in 10 Democrats say liberals can speak their minds freely on campuses, while about 3 in 10 Democrats say conservatives can do so.

If youre a Republican or lean Republican, youre unabashedly wrong, they shut you down, said Rhonda Baker, 60, of Goldsboro, North Carolina, who voted for former President Donald Trump and has a son in college. If they hold a rally, its: The MAGAs coming through. Its: The KKK is coming through.

Debates over First Amendment rights have occasionally flared on college campuses in recent years, with conflicts arising over guest speakers who express polarizing views, often from the political right.

Stanford University became a flashpoint this year when students shouted down a conservative judge who was invited to speak. More recently, a conservative Princeton University professor was drowned out while discussing free speech at Washington College, a small school in Maryland.

At the same time, Republican lawmakers in dozens of states have proposed bills aiming to limit public colleges from teaching topics considered divisive or liberal. Just 30% of Americans say states should be able to restrict what professors at state universities teach, the poll found, though support was higher among Republicans.

Overall, Republicans see a clear double standard on college campuses. Just 9% said conservatives can speak their minds, while 58% said liberals have that freedom, according to the polling. They were also slightly less likely than Americans overall to see campuses as respectful and inclusive places for conservatives.

Chris Gauvin, a Republican who has done construction work on campuses, believes conservative voices are stifled. While working at Yale University, he was once stopped by pro-LGBTQ+ activists who asked for his opinion, he said.

They asked me how I felt, so I figured Id tell them. I spoke in a normal tone, I didnt get excited or upset, said Gauvin, 58, of Manchester, Connecticut. But it proceeded with 18 to 20 people who were suddenly very irritated and agitated. It just exploded.

He took a lesson from the experience: I learned to be very quiet there.

Republicans in Congress have raised alarms, with a recent House report warning of the long-standing and pervasive degradation of First Amendment rights at U.S. colleges. Some in the GOP have called for federal legislation requiring colleges to protect free speech and punish those who infringe on others rights.

Nicholas Fleisher, who chairs an academic freedom committee for the American Association of University Professors, said public perception is skewed by the infrequent cases when protesters go too far.

The reality is that theres free speech for everyone on college campuses, said Fleisher, a linguistics professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. In conversations within classrooms, people are free to speak their minds. And they do.

Officials at PEN America, a free speech group, say most students welcome diverse views. But as the nation has become more politically divided, so have college campuses, said Kristen Shahverdian, senior manager for education at PEN.

Theres this polarization that just continues to grow and build across our country, and colleges and universities are a part of that ecosystem, she said.

Morgan Ashford, a Democrat in an online graduate program at Troy University in Alabama, said she thinks people can express themselves freely on campus regardless of politics or skin color. Still, she sees a lack of tolerance for the LGBTQ+ community in her Republican state where the governor has passed anti-LGBTQ legislation.

I think there have to be guidelines around hate speech, Ashford said. Because some people can go overboard.

When it comes to protesting speakers, most Americans say it should be peaceful. About 8 in 10 say its acceptable to engage in peaceful, non-disruptive protest at a campus event, while just 15% say its OK to prevent a speaker from communicating with the audience, the poll found.

If they dont like it, they can get up and walk out, said Linda Woodward, 71, a Democrat in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas.

Mike Darlington, a real estate appraiser who votes Republican, said drowning out speakers violates the virtues of a free society.

It seems to me a very, very selfish attitude that makes students think, If you dont think the way I do, then your thoughts are unacceptable, said Darlington, 58, of Chesterfield County, Virginia.

The protest at Stanford was one of six campus speeches across the U.S. that ended in significant disruption this year, with another 11 last year, according to a database by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech group.

Those cases, while troubling, are one symptom of a broader problem, said Ilya Shapiro, a conservative legal scholar who was shouted down during a speech last year at the University of Californias law school. He says colleges have drifted away from the classic ideal of academia as a place for free inquiry.
Rep. Bob Good, R-5th, said Monday that he will not vote for Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to keep his job, but his first priority is getting the House of Representatives to pass conservative spending bills without relying on Democrats for votes.

Good, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, voted against McCarthys election as speaker 14 times in January before voting present. He said he would support a motion to vacate the chair if other House Republicans propose one.

I will not vote to retain him as speaker, Good told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. I do not believe it would be possible for us to do worse.

While Im not pushing for it at this time, Im resigned to the fact were probably going there because the speaker is failing  hes failing the country, hes failing Republicans, hes failing to keep his commitments, and we cannot permit that to happen, Good said.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has vowed to file a motion to vacate the chair in response to House passage of a 45-day continuing resolution, or stopgap spending bill, on Saturday to avoid a shutdown of the federal government at midnight, when the fiscal year ended.

The resolution passed the House by a 335-91 vote, with 209 Democrats voting in support, along with 126 Republicans. Good, who represents part of Hanover County and outer counties around Richmond, and two other Virginia Republicans, Rep. Morgan Griffith of the 9th District and Rep. Ben Cline of the 6th District, were among 90 Republicans and one Democrat who voted no.

Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st, whose district includes parts of Chesterfield, Henrico and Hanover counties, and Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-2nd, whose Virginia Beach-based district includes a large military presence, voted for the stopgap spending bill, as did all six Democrats in Virginias U.S. House delegation.

Wittman said in a statement Monday that he would oppose the effort to remove McCarthy as speaker.

I will not support a motion to vacate, Wittman said. I believe Congress should remain focused on funding the government.

Good called the Saturday resolution a capitulation, a surrender to avoid what he called the temporary discomfort, inconvenience or pain of a government shutdown. He said the measure reneges on commitments in a proposed 30-day continuing resolution he had supported that would have cut non-defense discretionary spending by 30% while in effect and imposed border security policies that would have included construction of a wall along the southern frontier with Mexico.

The speaker needs to fight for something besides being speaker, he said.

The resolution did not include funding that President Joe Biden and other Democrats  including Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine  had wanted to aid Ukraine in its war against Russia, but Good said he has heard unconfirmed reports that the speaker had created what Good called a side deal to bring the proposed Ukraine funding to a separate vote in the House.

We plan to hold the speaker accountable to keep his commitments, he said.

Among those commitments were a pledge to pass all 12 appropriations bills by Sept. 30 to reflect about $64 billion less in spending in the new fiscal year than allowed under the Fiscal Responsibility Act that Biden signed on June 3 after reaching an agreement with McCarthy. The House passed four of those bills last week, but only after conservatives demanded the votes by force, Good said. The tail is wagging the dog.

Good called the vote on Saturday a validation of the concern that he and other conservatives raised in January, when they refused to elect McCarthy until the 15th ballot in a historic standoff that he said was necessary to prevent Republicans from allying with Democrats to pass legislation that failed to make significant cuts in federal spending.

Nothing has changed since I voted 14 times against him as speaker in January, Good said.

Every government shutdown since 1995 A brief look at every government shutdown since 1995 Disputes over spending, immigration and health care have triggered shutdowns of the federal government in recent years. Now disagreements over President Donald Trump's long-promised border wall are threatening to trigger a partial shutdown at midnight Friday. A look at recent government shutdowns: Nov. 14-19, 1995: Clinton and Gingrich's contract with America Republicans wielding their Contract with America gained control of both the Senate and House for the first time since 1954 and Georgia's Newt Gingrich was elected House speaker. Democratic President Bill Clinton, after the congressional midterm drubbing for his party, was dealing with the new world order. Emboldened Republicans were intent on remaking Medicare, Medicaid, welfare and dozens of other programs while also cutting taxes. Clinton vetoed a resolution to temporarily fund the government because of the Medicare premium increases it contained. After five days, a deal was reached to end the shutdown, but only for a few weeks so that negotiations could take place on the various spending bills funding the government for the remainder of the fiscal year. An estimated 800,000 workers were furloughed, though they would get paid retroactively, which is the historical practice. Dec. 16, 1995-Jan. 6, 1996: Shutdown round two and plane snub The Republican-led Congress and Clinton were still at odds on six of that year's spending bills when the short-term fix ending the first shutdown expired. An estimated 280,000 federal workers were furloughed. They eventually agreed to spending plans that enacted some of the cuts Republicans wanted, though less than they had originally sought. Republicans took a political hit for the shutdown, which closed national parks and Smithsonian museums. Undercutting the GOP was Gingrich's comment that the hard-line stand in negotiations was due in part to how Clinton and aides treated him and Senate GOP leader Bob Dole on an Air Force One flight. Gingrich complained that Clinton didn't discuss the budget on the return trip from Israel, where they had attended the funeral of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Gingrich also groused about having to exit through a back door on the plane. Oct. 1-17, 2013: 'Green eggs and ham' Republicans who controlled the House and several Senate GOP lawmakers targeted Democratic President Barack Obama's health care law. Democrats who held the majority in the Senate made clear the effort was futile. The shutdown was sparked when House Republicans insisted that a temporary funding bill contain changes in the health law, the Affordable Care Act, and Obama refused. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, helped inspire the effort when he spoke on the Senate floor for 21 hours and 19 minutes in urging Congress to cut off money for Obama's health care law. To fill some of the hours  and provide a bedtime story for his two young daughters  Cruz read Dr. Seuss' book "Green Eggs and Ham." But even some Republicans thought the effort was a mistake. North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr called it "the dumbest idea I've ever heard." The shutdown sent approval of the GOP plummeting in opinion polls. Senate leaders brokered an agreement after the House was unable to coalesce around a Republican-only approach. Jan. 20-22, 2018: 'Negotiating with Jell-O' Weeks of haggling between the White House and congressional Democrats focused largely on immigration issues, with Democrats pushing for protections for "Dreamers" who came to the U.S. as small children. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer repeatedly complained about Trump agreeing to something face-to-face and then saying or tweeting something completely different. Schumer said dealing with Trump was "like negotiating with Jell-O." The shutdown lasted just short of three full days, starting on a Friday night and ending the following Monday when Democrats dropped their demands in exchange for a promise from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he would address the immigration issue in the coming weeks. The deal was largely unpopular among Democratic voters, who blamed their representatives for caving in too easily. Feb. 9, 2018: One-man shutdown Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky single-handedly triggered the shortest shutdown in history with a filibuster that forced the Senate to miss a midnight deadline to approve a spending deal that Paul regarded as wasteful. As a result, the government technically ran out of money at 12:01 a.m. that Friday. But Congress members worked through the night and approved the bill at roughly 5:30 a.m. the same day, allowing the government to function normally with no interruptions. December 2018January 2019 Government shutdowns are longer Starting in 1976, the government has enacted a shutdown or funding gap 21 times. In 2019, Trump said he was glad to shutdown the government  The shutdown of December 2018January 2019 was the second to occur during the Presidential term of Donald Trump, and was due to a disagreement over negotiations for Trump's wall along the MexicoUnited States border. Trump sought to have the appropriation bill for 2019 include a funding measure on border security, providing $5.7 billion toward construction of the wall.
MANZINI  As a result of the political unrest in the country in 2021, the incoming politicians will receive E200 000 to cover security facilities in their residential homes.

This is stipulated in Finance Circular No. 2 of 2023, which constitutes the terms and conditions of service of parliamentarians, designated office bearers of the 12th Parliament and the attorney general (AG). The E200 000 allocated to all politicians, according to the circular, is a 100 per cent increment from Finance Circular No.2 of 2013, which stated that all parliamentarians were eligible to apply for loans up to E100 000 to cover for security facilities in their residential homes. The revised circular states that in 2021, the Kingdom of Eswatini saw a shift in the countrys security landscape, following the civil unrest in May/June 2021.

Adequate

It stated that it was the view of the Commission that the national commissioner (NATCOM) of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) remained ultimately responsible for ensuring adequate security within the kingdom. The circular states that the office of the natcom shall also conduct an evaluation of the private residence of all parliamentarians, designated office bearers and provide them with a report, setting out the required security upgrade for the private residences. All parliamentarians and designated office bearers are eligible to apply for loans up to E200 000 to cover security facilities in their residential homes. The loan will be sourced in line with the Civil Service Home Loan Scheme negotiated by the government with various local banks. The loans are payable back over a period not exceeding the term of office of the parliamentarians or designated office bearers, reads in part the circular.

Furthermore, it states that in addition to the security risk assessment, conducted in consultation with the countrys intelligence agencies, the NATCOM would also hold consultations with the Ministry of Public Service, to agree on the personnel complement, to address the security needs on the ground. Also, it states that the NATCOM, in consultation with the countrys intelligence agencies, shall assess, on a continuous basis, the risk to the prime ministers (PM)life and that of the deputy prime minister (dpm) and provide the necessary security required to protect them commensurate with their status. It states that this assessment and provision of security shall be made available to the PM and DPM, based on the security risk beyond their term of office.

Private

The circular further states that the security will be provided at both the official and designated private residence of the PM and the DPM. On the other hand, the new terms and conditions of service of parliamentarians, designated office bearers of the 12th Parliament and the AG, states that presiding officers, Cabinet ministers and regional administrators, shall each be allocated two night watchmen or a security firm. Also, the circular states that in line with global practice, government shall provide official residences to the PM, DPM and regional administrators. Where an official government residence is provided, it will be mandatory that the political office bearers occupy the government residence. In line with the Constitution of Eswatini and to more effectively co-ordinate government programmes and projects and improve service delivery under the Tinkhundla System of Government, it will be important for the regional administrator to be provided with an official residence and reside in the region in which they are assigned, reads in part the circular.

It states that in the event that an official residence was not immediately available for the PM, DPM or regional administrator, government shall develop a framework for providing the accommodation. This framework, it states, will facilitate the construction of government-owned accommodation in readiness for the 13th Parliament. As such, in these cases, the circular states that where the accommodation was not immediately available, these political office bearers can designate a privately-owned residence for use as an official residence when taking up office. A housing allowance will be paid in the interim. In the case of regional administrators, the private residence shall be within their region to promote service delivery and efficacy. Also, Cabinet ministers may also be provided with government housing. Thus, it states that these political office bearers may occupy, for official purposes, one government-owned residence and in such instances, they will not be eligible to claim housing allowance.
Virginias U.S. House delegation largely voted along party lines Tuesday on the measure to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

One Republican  Rep. Bob Good, R-5th  joined the delegations six Democrats in backing the motion to vacate the Speakers chair. Four Virginia Republicans voted against the measure.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, introduced the measure to remove McCarthy on Monday night, two days after the Speaker brought a measure to the House floor to avert a shutdown and keep the government open for 45 additional days. Gaetz asserted that McCarthy reneged on some of the promises he made in January to the most conservative members of his Republican caucus before the House elected McCarthy Speaker on the 15th ballot.

Good asserted in a floor speech Tuesday that McCarthy was more interested in remaining Speaker than in cutting spending.

The Speaker this past Friday in the Republican conference meeting made it abundantly clear that he was willing to do anything to avoid the temporary discomfort and the pressure of a pause in the 15% of nonessential federal government operations, which would guarantee that we would lose to the Senate Democrats and the White House, Good said.

If youre not willing to say no, then youre guaranteed to lose.

The House voted 216 to 210 Tuesday afternoon to remove McCarthy.

The Virginia Republicans who voted against the measure to oust the Speaker were Reps. Rob Wittman, R-1st, whose district includes parts of Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover counties, Jen Kiggans, R-2nd, Ben Cline, R-6th, and Morgan Griffith, R-9th.

DC games are a waste of taxpayers time, Kiggans posted Tuesday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Im focused on what Virginians elected me to do: govern. We must pass our remaining funding bills before times up. To detract from our ability to do so is wrong. Ill leave the gimmicks to unserious lawmakers with misguided priorities.

The six Democrats in Virginias delegation who voted to oust McCarthy are Reps. Bobby Scott, D-3rd; Jennifer McClellan, D-4th, whose district includes Richmond and parts of Chesterfield and Henrico counties; Abigail Spanberger, D-7th; Don Beyer, D-8th, Jennifer Wexton, D-10th and Gerry Connolly, D-11th.

McClellan said in a statement: Today is a solemn day for the House of Representatives, as Kevin McCarthy became the first speaker to be removed from his leadership position through a motion to vacate. Since day one of the 118th Congress, McCarthy has shown an inability to govern, a lack of leadership over his conference and an unwillingness to focus on the issues that matter to the American people.

From the Archives: Photos of the Richmond region in the 1980s
Authorities have released the name of the woman killed when a tire came off a car on Interstate 64 and struck her vehicle in York County over the weekend.

Tammy M. Parsons, 53, of Williamsburg, was driving her 2005 Ford Explorer east on I-64 with her husband and five children when a tire became uncoupled from a 2017 Jeep Renegade traveling west on the interstate at about 12:22 p.m. Sunday, state police said in a statement.

It is believed the tire bounced into the windshield of Parsons' vehicle around mile marker 241.

Parsons died at the scene, state police said. Her husband and the children were not injured.

Neither alcohol nor speed are considered factors in the wreck, police said. An investigation is ongoing.

The Virginia Gazette contributed to this report.
The banking industry has launched the refreshed the #JanganKenaScam national awareness campaign today, seeking to strengthen its efforts in combatting financial scams and fraudulent banking activities, as well as to convey an even more unified message in educating the public. Rolled out with the cooperation of the member banks of the Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM) and the Association of Islamic Banking and Financial Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM), the campaign is also supported by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), and Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM).

In a joint statement, the bank associations said that the refreshed campaign will be carried out on a greater scale than before, this time with a #JanganKenaScam Fest being organised in urban and suburban areas across Malaysia. To start, it will be held at Bertam (Penang) from today until 8 October 2023  in conjunction with Minggu Saham Amanah Malaysia  before moving to 1 Utama Shopping Centre in Petaling Jaya from 15 to 19 November.

The public will be able to check out experiential booths and informational exhibitions to brush up on their knowledge on scam-related topics, including scam tactics and ways to protect themselves.

Both ABM and AIBIM further cited data from a scam awareness survey by Rakuten Insights to highlight the importance of this refreshed campaign. For instance, nine out of ten customers said that they read scam alerts to learn about latest scam tactics, but only close to 60% feel ready to deal with scams. Furthermore, close to 80% of customers believe victims inadvertently reveal their banking credentials in scams.

We hope that the experiential aspect of the #JanganKenaScam campaign, coupled with the introduction of the anti-scam resource centre at the JanganKenaScam website, can provide the public with an avenue that enables them to understand the manipulation techniques used by scammers in financial scams, said the chairman of ABM, Dato Khairussaleh Ramli.

Similarly, the president of AIBIM, Dato Mohd Muazzam Mohamed said that the #JanganKenaScam campaign is a significant part of the banking industrys efforts in raising awareness and fighting against scams. He also stated that AIBIM and all its partners will continue to educate and equip the public with the necessary knowledge and tools to protect their online financial transactions.

Meanwhile, governor of BNM, Datuk Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour stressed that such industry-led initiatives are important in educating the masses. While security and technology measures are important, public awareness remains our strongest defence, he commented.

The #JanganKenaScam campaign was first introduced by the banking industry in October last year, under the umbrella National Scam Awareness Campaign. In addition to rolling out awareness campaigns, banks in Malaysia have also implemented various security measures to fight scams since last year, as directed by BNM and the government. These include migrating from SMS one-time passwords (OTPs) to a safer verification option, imposing a cooling-off period for selected transactions and banking activities, as well as introducing kill switches for customers.

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Argentinian extradited from Mexico to face sexual abuse charges

Mexico City, Mexico  A suspect accused of sexually abusing two minor children has been extradited to Argentina. In compliance with the Extradition Treaty signed between Mexico and the Argentine Republic, the Attorney Generals Office (FGR), extradited a person of Argentine nationality required a Buenos Aires court.

According to the FGR, Ruben J was wanted for simple aggravated sexual abuse and simple sexual abuse aggravated by custody for two minors who were in his care. In both cases, the extraditable obtained photographs and filming of said sexual acts, the FGR said in their statement.

Subsequently, the Government of Mexico granted the extradition of the requested person to the Argentine Government after he was detained in February in Morelia, Michoacan.

The fugitive was handed over at the Mexico City International Airport (AICM), to the Argentine agents designated for his final transfer.
Authorities report 17 convictions this year against international passengers at Cancun Airport

Cancun, Q. R.  Authorities have convicted a total of 17 international passengers charged with various offences at Cancun International. The convictions stem from routine luggage checks at the airport since the beginning of the year.

In a statement, the Fiscalia Especializada de Control Regional (FECOR) delegation in Quintana Roo reported on the incidences. The airport arrests were made in coordination with Guardia Nacional (GN) and Aduana y el Servicio de Administracion Tributaria (SAT).

The agency reported that during the period from January 1 to September 23, 2023, they have obtained 17 convictions against international passengers responsible for violations of the Federal Firearms and Explosives Law.

Likewise, seven firearms, 27 magazines and 335 cartridges of different calibers were seized from passengers arriving at Cancun International. In addition to weapons and ammunition, $88,500 USD and 30,000 Euros have been seized from international passengers related to tax crimes comparable to smuggling, they said.

International passengers arriving with firearms, ammunition and undeclared cash have lead to 17 convictions. Photo: GN 2023.

Each of these events were carried out at the Cancun International Airport so far in 2023 in coordination with the National Guard (GN) and Customs and the Tax Administration Service (SAT).

The last event happened in early August inside the Cancun International Airport after a passenger from Miami was found entering the country with $32,000 undeclared US dollars in cash.
Lopez Obrador tries two-for-one after the capture of Roemer in Israel

Mexico City, Mexico  Andres Roemer, former diplomat of the Mexican Foreign Service, was detained by Israeli authorities Monday. During his press conference, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador confirmed the arrest.

He said that Roemer will be extradited to Mexico, although there is no extradition agreement between Mexico and Israel.

This person was arrested in Israel and is going to be extradited, he said explaining that this man is accused of alleged acts of sexual harassment and other crimes. So, today we were informed that in this case extradition has already been granted or will be granted.

Roemer had been a fugitive in Israel since the Attorney Generals Office (FGJ) of Mexico City issued an arrest warrant in March 2021 on charges of rape. Interpol issued a Red Card against him in May of the same year after more than 60 women reported having been abused by him.

Roemer, 57, was Mexicos consul in San Francisco, California. He also carried out philanthropy work and served as a goodwill ambassador to UNESCO, an organization that broke off relations with him after the cases of alleged sexual rape became public.

With the extradition of Roemer at hand, the President took the opportunity to call on the Government of Israel to also capture and hand over Tomas Zeron who directed the Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) of the Attorney Generals Office (PGR) during the investigation of the Ayotzinapa case in 2014.

We hope that the Israeli authorities will help in the case of the extradition of Mr. Zeron who is involved in the unfortunate fact of the disappearance of the young people from Ayotzinapa. Fundamentally in the creation of the so-called Historical Truth, said Lopez Obrador.
Some time ago, no one outside of Google can say for sure, a left-handed artist and self-described dorky ... shaggy haired animator from San Francisco painted McAfee Knob outside Roanoke.

Nate Swinehart works at Google Doodles, the team responsible for the customization of the logo on the search engine website.

Monday, there it was  his glorious depiction of McAfee Knob sitting on the front page of the search engine before however many millions of people use the site every day.

This sent the hiking community abuzz, including at the offices of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, which emailed its membership of some 25,000 people.

It was a wonderful surprise and an excellent opportunity especially going into the fall, said conservancy spokeswoman Ann Simonelli.

A group of artists called doodlers inside Google customize the company logo for the search page, a tradition begun in 1998, putting out a different version daily. The first concerned Burning Man, the Nevada festival. The second was about Bastille Day. Some 5,000 doodles have appeared. Monday, it was the Appalachian Trails turn. Google centered the knob scene on the page, but also linked to a 12-page slideshow with more AT paintings.

The AT conservancy did not know this was coming in advance. Simonelli thinks the 55th anniversary Monday of the passage of the National Trails System Act, which established federal protection for the AT and Pacific Crest Trail on the West Coast, explains the honor. That act also established a cooperative management system for the AT that joins the efforts of the conservancy, National Park Service and other partners, Simonelli said.

Hawk Metheny, vice president of trail management, emailed a personal message to the conservancy membership telling of his AT trek, along with a reminder that the organization accepts donations.

The drawing duties fell to doodle artist Swinehart, who traveled to the AT and got to work, according to a description on google.com explaining how the imagery came together. Swinehart, a Google search shows, has a website where he posts his work. Im just your average dorky, slightly spazzy, shaggy haired, left-handed animator living and working in SF, it reads.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the construction of a temple in Roanoke on Monday.

The planned Roanoke temple will be the third one in Virginia, which is home to 97,000 members in 210 congregations, the church said. There are nine congregations in the Roanoke area that meet in chapels, all of which are located a significant distance from any temple until the recent opening of one in Richmond in the spring.

The Latter-day Saints describe themselves as a temple-building and temple-loving people who operate 177 temples today across the globe. There are 54 temples under construction and five under renovation and 79 announced temples proposed, its website said.

Virginia is getting attention this year, with the church announcing a new temple in Winchester in April and dedicating the newly built Richmond temple in May.

Church officials have not chosen a site or drafted a timetable for the Roanoke project, a church representative at the Salt Lake City, Utah, headquarters said.

When choosing new temple sites, officials strive to maximize the number of members who can drive to one within two hours, an area official said.

Roanoke is nicely situated right on highway 81, church spokesman Jan-Erik Jones said. Were thrilled, this is going to be a bless for all of our members.

While a chapel is akin to a traditional church building, a temple is a ornate edifice for ceremonial and special events with large gathering areas and and air of permanence, Jones said. Mormon temples do not include residences. Nor do temples host regular, routine worship services, which occur in the chapels, he said.

Temples are literally houses of the Lord, the church website said. They are places where individuals can go to make sacred promises with God, feel His Spirit, and escape from the hectic demands of day-to-day life.

The highest living figure in the church on Sunday identified 20 locations around the globe for future temples. The church by custom announces new temples at its twice-a-year general conference, which took place this past weekend.

The church linked to an online video of the announcement, which featured President Russell Nelson saying the ordinances and covenants of the temple are of eternal significance. We continue to build more temples to make these sacred possibilities become a reality in each of your lives.

He then read out the city names.
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NHLANGANO  Buying of votes, bribery and other corrupt practices are some of the things that certain MP candidates losers believe cost them a seat in the august House.

Some of the candidates, who lost in the Member of Parliament (MP) position, claimed to have voiced out their frustrations with the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), but nothing was done. Maseyisini MP candidate Thembelihle Mabuza, who lost in the secondary elections, was of the view that certain laws were not adhered to or were blatantly breached.

Mabuza, in an interview, said they were told not to give food parcels to the electorate but she saw some candidates doing exactly that. However, she conceded that the electorate was more interested in what you brought when campaigning; something she did not do as a first-timer, given the instruction by the EBC.

According to Mabuza, some of her competitors had been in Parliament in previous years, and she believed they were given funds to campaign. She alleged that food parcels such as rice were freely distributed to the voters, hence they (candidates) were able to capture the electorates favour. The people are hungry and were more interested in food than what you would do for them in Parliament, she said. Mabuza said she did everything to win the elections and discovered that the voters were fond of her, but her only downfall was that she went to them empty-handed during campaigns. Mabuza did not hesitate to state that she would no longer stand for elections in future as she would not have the financial muscle to compete. The new Maseyisini Constituency MP-elect is Nokuthula Dlamini, who obtained 3 090 votes while Mabuza got 553. Mabuza, however, said she was willing to assist the winning MP in the event she needed help.
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Governments Campaign to Squelch It" is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
" " Anthropologists often interact directly with the people they are studying, trying to come to terms with complex subjects like poverty and violence. iStockphoto/Thinkstock

Anthropologists often pursue education as a career track, sharing their knowledge with university students. Many of those students might study anthropology in hopes of landing exciting fieldwork, perhaps in some far-flung location.

And for these audacious souls, there is plenty of adventure to be had. For instance, they often work in disaster areas, helping organizations handle refugee crises or take on humanitarian problems in the aftermath of catastrophes, such as Hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 terror attacks.

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Anthropologists may even take up residence in a new country so as to become fully engrossed in an unfamiliar culture. Doing so lets them readily observe and interact with locals and develop any necessary language skills.

Embedded in this kind of intimate, close proximity research, anthropologists might encounter intense situations. Disease control organizations need social scientists to help understand certain populations, perhaps an ethnic subset in a large urban area that's suffering from an outbreak of a virus such as HIV. An anthropologist might explore the city, interact with sick and frightened people and try to help halt the virus' spread.

Military units often employ anthropologists to help commanders develop a better understanding of an occupied land. In the United States Army, anthropologists interview local citizens to gauge their attitudes toward invading forces and to forge ties with local leaders, all in an attempt to increase safety and security for both citizens and soldiers.

Work like this is dangerous, and anthropologists sometimes put their lives at risk. However, the pay is much higher than with cushier gigs.

War zones aren't the only places anthropologists might encounter danger. Cities with gang violence problems send social scientists to interview and investigate the issues contributing to gang formation and violence. They might spend a lot of time directly in harm's way attempting to help citizens with conflict resolution and communication-development skills.

These scientists might trade in harrowing adventures for safer jobs in a corporate or academic setting. Successful anthropologists who work as private consultants can build their resumes to fit specific interests, and they have the flexibility to change career paths. For example, they might dedicate much of their time to working on family planning challenges in developing countries, and then return to their country of origin to tackle the same kinds of problems.

As academics and professionals, anthropologists are a lot like the human race itself  full of diversity and mystery, curiosity and wonder. Anthropology is truly a human endeavor that seeks deeper truths and knowledge about what human beings really are, and one that may help us guide our species' long-term survival.
What's astounding is not the level of success the company has achieved but the timeline in which it has done it. IBM history dates back to 1911, Microsoft and Apple to the mid-1970s.

The most popular search engine doesn't have to look back nearly so far: All things Google began in 1995.

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That's when Sergey Brin, a 21-year-old student at Stanford University, took University of Michigan graduate Larry Page, just a year older, on a tour of the campus. Legend has it that the two disliked each other and bickered the entire tour. But it must not have been a complete disaster because Page enrolled in Stanford and began working to fulfill the requirements of his Ph.D. program in computer sciences.

" " There he is, Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, checking out a product launch at eBay headquarters in 2010. See more Googleplex pictures. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Page considered several topics for his doctoral thesis but finally settled on the World Wide Web, which, although growing in the mid-1990s, was still little more than a curiosity. Page decided to focus his attention on the link structure of the web. Was it possible, he wondered, to use links between web pages to rank their relative importance? And if this was indeed possible, could he develop an algorithm  a set of mathematical rules  to count and qualify every backlink on the web?

By 1996, Page was knee-deep in the project, but the complexity of the math proved challenging. He reached out to Brin, the outspoken grad student who first introduced Page to the Stanford campus. Brin began working with Page to further refine and develop the math, so they could rank links pointing to a site according to importance.

They named the resulting algorithm PageRank and then inserted it into BackRub, a search engine they built that started crawling the Web, beginning with Stanford's home page and working outward from there, across the 10 million online pages that existed at the time.
Image of Lahaina taken on September 28. Credit: Monique Chyba/University of Hawaii at Manoa

Four University of Hawaii-led projects received a total of approximately $800,000 in expedited RAPID grants from the National Science Foundation in the wake of the deadly Maui wildfires. RAPID funding is used for proposals having a severe urgency with regard to availability of, or access to data, facilities or specialized equipment, including quick-response research on natural disasters.

Three projects focus on data science, and have a concentrated effort to help prevent and react to future wildfires in Hawaii. They include: a multi-hazard monitoring and detection system, computer modeling to assist wildfire response, and wildland and urban fire modeling using high performance computing models. They will address contributors to fires such as invasive grasses and non-native trees such as cook pines and eucalyptus. The fourth project focuses on the human element and involves UH researchers meeting with educators, youth, community members and cultural practitioners to understand the wildfire impact on K12 education and learn how trauma-informed STEM education could assist with processing and recovery.

Multihazard monitoring and detection system

The Lahaina fire was exacerbated by drought, high temperatures and winds from Hurricane Dora which passed south of the islands. This project combines UH's climate mesonet system (a densely located set of observation stations) with Northwestern University's Sage Artificial Intelligence-enhanced instrument platform to build a multi-hazard monitoring and detection station for natural disasters such as fires, high winds and floods. The system is being deployed near the Lahaina fire site, to gather data vital to the recovery effort.

The project will gather essential climate and pollutant data to aid clean-up activities in Lahaina, and obtain performance and reliability data, guiding both instrument enhancements and Lahaina's recovery planning. This project provides essential data for informing Lahaina's recovery, while highlighting the advantages of adopting recent climate science and cyber-infrastructure advancements. Where possible, local students on Maui will be recruited to participate in the instrument construction, data gathering, analysis and visualization effort.

The project is led by principal investigator and information and computer science Professor Jason Leigh, and co-principal investigators Thomas Giambelluca and Christopher Shuler from UH Manoa's Water Resources Research Center.

"We are deeply pained by the tragic loss of lives and property in the Lahaina fire," Leigh said. "It's a somber reminder of the powerful forces of nature that are poised to impact our islands at any time. We hope that our insights and advancements in state-of-the-art technology can help pave the way for better understanding and perhaps preventing such heart-wrenching incidents in the future."

Computational modeling of wildfire management

Accurate and timely predictions of how a wildfire could spread are essential to inform people, minimize the loss of lives and mitigate damage through effective suppression activities. It is critical to improve on these processes in the aftermath of the devastation of the Lahaina fires. This project, led by UH Manoa graduate faculty and Maui resident Alice Koniges, will develop wildfire computer models that have the potential to save human lives and infrastructure in future wildfires using mathematical concepts called level-set methods and Hamilton-Jacobi equations.

This research will produce a new model to provide an understanding of the complex algorithmic and mathematical basis for wildfire response that can aid in resource allocation in a real-time disaster situation such as the Lahaina wildfire. A particular emphasis is on improving human evacuation models.

The project is joint with Professors Andrea Bertozzi and Stanley Osher from UCLA and Professor Hannah Kerner of Arizona State University. The project will also involve high school and community college students from the Aina Data Stewards program on Maui, a program co-founded/co-led by Kerner that teaches students basic concepts in machine learning and data science while enabling them to contribute to active research projects through field data collection.

The project will consider the additional risks due to fuel from non-native trees and grasses as well as terrain effects in the wildfire modeling. Additionally the project will engage and train Ph.D. students in mathematically-based methods of disaster mitigation and modeling.

"We are grateful to have experts in mathematical modeling help us to better understand and prepare for future disaster events," lead principal investigator Koniges said. "Additionally, the training of the next generation of modeling experts will help the future of our island communities."

Wildland and urban fire modeling

With Lahaina being in an isolated location with limited wind and environmental observations, other data sources will help to advance modeling and simulation research before these sources are lost. This project will capture data from multiple sources including social media and time-stamped photosorganized with AI-enhanced methods for data gathering, processing and infusion. UH Maui College students will play a critical role in this project.

The work will show the importance of data in the understanding of how a wildfire is propagated inside a community and its interaction with urban structures, with an additional goal of educating the public and enabling the Hawaii government and emergency response personnel to make decisions in the aftermath of the disaster.

The project will use advanced AI techniques deployed on UH's high performance computing resources, as well as resources from the National Science Foundation and other national infrastructure to process the large volumes of data needed to tune and validate fire propagation and atmospheric simulations. The collected data will be archived and made publicly available.

The principal investigator of the project is Maui resident David Eder who is on UH Manoa's graduate faculty in the Physics and Astronomy Department, and co-principal investigators Sean Cleveland, a computational scientist with UH's Hawaii Data Science Institute, and fire modeling experts at University of Nevada, Reno, University at Buffalo, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

"We focus on the use of high performance computing facilities, both at UH and nationally, and the best available computational models to help understand better the sequence of tragic events that have touched and devastated so much on Maui," Eder said. "Working directly with students to understand and prevent similar events is one small thing we can do to help."

Trauma-informed STEM education

In this project, UH researchers will focus on Maui's educators and youth. They believe that to move forward from the tragedy, it is important to understand the impact of the multiple layers of immediate trauma on K12 education and learn how trauma-informed STEM education could assist with processing, healing and recovery.

As residents and STEM educators in the state of Hawaii with rich and deep roots in communities on Maui, the researchers will apply a framework that was developed by principal investigator and College of Education Professor Tara O'Neill. It involves connecting with communities, learning from the place, people, kupuna and moolelo. It requires asking and providing kokua and engaging at the invitation of the people in the place.

The horrific fires provide an invaluable source of knowledge related to both the layers of trauma resulting from catastrophic events, such as wildfires, and how trauma-informed STEM education can provide tools for recovery from trauma. There are several excellent schools and community-based STEM education programs on the island of Maui.

The project's goal is to partner with the individual educators, community members and cultural practitioners connected with several of these programs to build knowledge (understand the nature and impact of trauma), and work with the community to build emotionally healthy STEM learning environments where the focus is processing and healing and STEM content and activities are applied as tools for processing and healing.

This project is led by O'Neill, and co-principal investigators UH Manoa Department of Mathematics Professor Monique Chyba, Associate Professor Yuriy Mileyko and UH Maui College Assistant Professor Thomas Blamey.

"Our goal is to understand the impact of the multiple layers of immediate trauma on K12 education to work with the community to build long-term interventions," O'Neill said. "We believe the information we learn can help inform more mindful short-term and long-term planning by the Hawaii Department of Education and other state institutions."

Chyba added, "Learning, teaching and helping is why I came into academia, and I am honored to be able to try to do exactly that with this project."

Provided by University of Hawaii at Manoa
FLORENCE  The Greater Florence Chamber of Commerces annual Kickin Chicken Wing and Chili Festival will happen Oct. 20 in the 100 block of South Dargan Street, Downtown Florence, from 5 to 9 p.m.

There are a couple of cooker openings left for area business and individuals to compete in the wings and chili contest. Each year Florence-area chefs and company cookers compete for local judges and for the coveted Peoples Choice Award sponsored by Community Broadcasters. For those interested in competing in the cook-off with their special sauces for wings and chili, contact the Florence Chamber at 843-665-0515.

The chamber supplies all the wings needed for the wing cookers, but the chili supplies are the cookers responsibility. A minimum of seven gallons of chili is required for the festival. The wing cookers will be expected to cook between 80 and 120 pounds of wings during the evening.

Besides wings and chili, a variety of other fun food offerings will be available.

The adults in the crowd will enjoy a wide selection of domestic and craft beer and a nice selection of wine. There will also be plenty of water and Pepsi products available.

The festival attendees will be entertained with live music by The Inland Band, a Country & Rock group from Florence, until the winners of the wings and chili cook-off will be announced at 8:45 p.m.

This years event is made possible by Raines Co. and Synergi Partners along with support from Willcox, Buyck & Williams, Victors, South Carolina Federal Credit Union, MPD Electric Cooperative, Florence Regional Arts Alliance, Florence Downtown Development Corp. and the City of Florence.
JAKARTA (Reuters) -Short video app TikTok said it will halt transactions on its platform in Indonesia from Wednesday following the country's new ban on e-commerce trade on social media.

TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, said in a statement on Tuesday that it would coordinate with Indonesia's government regarding its future plans.

"Our priority is to remain compliant with local laws and regulations. As such, we will no longer facilitate e-commerce transactions in TikTok Shop Indonesia," the company said.

The Indonesian government has said the ban, imposed last week, is aimed at protecting offline merchants and marketplaces, adding that predatory pricing on social media platforms is threatening small and medium-sized enterprises.

It was unclear from the statement whether TikTok will create a new e-commerce app, separate from its social media app.

TikTok's decision is in line with the Indonesian government's grace period to comply with the new rule of one week, to avoid the threat of closure.

At a Jakarta wholesale market, vendors like Nilam, who goes by one name and sells locally-made pants, fear being left out of pocket. She said she earns 80% of her revenue on TikTok Shop and does not know how she can replace the platform.

"I'm very confused as to where I'll earn money," Nilam said, adding that she hoped TikTok Shop can reopen.

TikTok had pledged to invest billion of dollars in Southeast Asia, mainly in Indonesia, over the next few years in a major push to build its e-commerce platform TikTok Shop.

The company has 125 million active monthly users in Indonesia and has been looking to translate the large user base into a major e-commerce revenue source.

E-commerce transactions in Indonesia amounted to nearly $52 billion last year and of that, 5% took place on TikTok, according to data from consultancy Momentum Works.

(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman and Stanley Widianto; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor and Susan Fenton)
SIOUX CITY -- Sioux City police responded to a disturbance Wednesday afternoon at a west side Casey's, marking the second such incident to occur at the convenience store this week.

According to the Sioux City Police Department's log, officers were called to a fight in the 1700 block of Casselman St. at 3:06 p.m.

Community Policing Sgt. Tom Gill said the fight between five girls, who are students at West High School, was "totally unrelated" to Monday's disturbance at Casey's, 1727 Casselman St., which court documents indicated involved at least a dozen people.

"Apparently they got into it earlier on in the day, but it wasn't a big thing," Gill said of the girls. "And, then, after school, they all met up at the Casey's, which seems to be the meet-up spot for fights, and they started fighting. There was five of them. They were all charged with disorderly fighting."

Gill told The Journal that Monday's incident, during which an officer tased a man, stemmed from a fight that took place at Walmart on Floyd Boulevard on Friday. He said Tuesday that a total of eight people had been arrested in connection with that disturbance at Casey's. The number of people arrested grew again on Wednesday, when Gill said several more juveniles, who are students at West High and Middle schools, as well as a few adults, were charged with participating in a riot.

"A bunch of parents showed up at the police station wanting to know what was going on with their kid," Gill said. "A couple of the parents that showed up today were also involved in that fight on Monday, so they were arrested right from the police station."

Gill said the manager of the Casey's on Casselman Street is looking into hiring off-duty officers to provide security after school.

"They used to have off-duty officers there because that used to be a real problem spot for thefts," he said. "I don't know why they quit doing it."

Monday melee

According to documents filed in Woodbury County District Court, law enforcement had information that a group was planning to meet another group Monday after school to fight.

At 2:12 p.m. Monday, officers responded to "a large fight involving weapons" in the parking lot at Casey's. Upon arrival, they discovered that an 18-year-old had been stabbed multiple times. The victim was taken to a Sioux City hospital for treatment of "non-life-threatening" injuries.

Gill said the victim was released from the hospital, but a suspect had not yet been arrested and charged in the stabbing.

Court documents stated over 11 people had been involved in the initial fight. Then, while officers were on scene investigating, multiple people, at least five, began to try to fight one person, according to the documents.

K Three J. Joseph, 41, of Sioux City, was allegedly involved in the fights and tased by an officer. Officers told Joseph to stop chasing after a male party, but he continued to do so.

"The defendant failed to obey officers commands and was tased. The (defendant) continued to try to roll out of control, grabbed the taser and attempted to remove it from the affiant," the documents stated.

Joseph was charged with participating in a riot and disarming a police officer, both class D felonies, and interference with official acts, a simple misdemeanor.

Micky Machuo, 31, of Sioux City, was charged with participating in a riot and going armed with intent, both class D felonies, and assault while displaying a dangerous weapon, an aggravated misdemeanor.

"Defendant was involved in the fights observed by officers. Defendant was observed picking up a bat and chasing after victim," the documents stated.

Jesipena Wasan, 22, of Sioux City, Kemson Lukas, 18, of Sioux City, Mempy Wasan, 42, of Sioux City, and Karinta Wasan, 40, of Sioux City, have all been charged with participating in a riot in connection with the incident.

Police said Monday that two juvenile females were also charged with assault on a police officer, interference with official acts and felony rioting.
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Several Siouxland colleges and universities reported robust enrollment numbers this fall, with many showing steady year-over-year growth.

Universities and colleges around the area have released their 10th-day enrollment data, a metric used by the higher education community to review student body changes each semester.

Here's a look at total enrollments this fall, compared to last year, for schools in the Journal's circulation area.

Briar Cliff University, Sioux City

2023: 941

2022: 928

2021: 1,001

Briar Cliff Universitys fall enrollment grew 1.4 percent compared to 2022, with a stable freshman class size. The university also had a 5 percent increase in first-time students, for a total of 214.

Other trends this year include the students growing interest in business and nursing educational tracks in the undergraduate and graduate programs, according to the university. They also saw an increase in transfer students, having 33 more transfer students compared to last year.

The universitys international program also grew, with an increase of 25 students compared to last year.

Briar Cliff University school enrollment Taylor Hofer, a Briar Cliff University sophomore from Sioux Falls, carries his tray to a table while eating lunch at the school's Stark Studen

Morningside University, Sioux City

Morningside declined to share enrollment numbers for 2023.

2022: 2,180

2021: 2,319

Morningside University reported stable enrollment this year, according to a news release.

They also reported having the largest population of new and returning international students this year in the universitys history with 110 students from 31 different countries.

Their diverse cultures, experiences and perspectives enrich our academic community, fostering a global learning environment that is both inclusive and vibrant, said Terri Curry, vice president for student life and enrollment.

Areas that saw an increase in enrollment included a 44 percent enrollment increase for the RN to BSN program and a 33 percent increase to the doctor of nursing practice program. Their graduate education initial licensure teacher intern program had a 119 percent increase.

"Amidst a period when many educational institutions are grappling with significant enrollment decreases, Morningside has managed to maintain steady enrollment," said Morningside President Albert Mosley. "The modest yet promising growth in certain areas is testament to our concerted efforts to broaden access and opportunity for all learners, including nontraditional and advanced students."

Western Iowa Tech Community College, Sioux City

2023: 5,076

2022: 5,152

2021: 5,451

Western Iowa Tech Community College reported a decrease in overall enrollment, but an increase in new college students. They also reported increases in the racial and ethnic diversity at the college.

The college reported 110 new college students, a 10.4 percent increase, according to a news release.

This double-digit increase is both welcome and promising, given the downward trend of enrollments across the state and across the country over the last couple of years, said Terry Murrell, President of Western Iowa Tech.

The overall drop in student enrollment was attributed to the drop in concurrent enrollment students, meaning high school students who are enrolled in college courses, according to the release.

A 34 percent increase in Black and African American students was reported. The group now represents 10 percent of the colleges student body. They also reported that Hispanic and Latino students represent 24.7 percent of the study body, just shy of the 25 percent threshold required to be considered a Hispanic Serving Institution.

Western Iowa Tech is on track to be the first college or university in the state of Iowa to hold a Hispanic Serving Institute designation, said Dean of Students Tawnya Beermann.

Buena Vista University, Storm Lake

2023: Did not respond to the Journals requests for total enrollment.

2022: 1,973

2021: 1,959

Buena Vista University reported the highest undergraduate enrollment in eight years, as well as record graduate enrollment.

The freshman class is made up of students primarily from Iowa and the Midwest region, according to a news release. Many of those students are reported as first-generation.

"We are thrilled to welcome such a talented group of students to BVU, many of whom are from our home state and the first in their family to take this next step," said Buena Vista University President Brian A. Lenzmeier.

Dordt University, Sioux Center

2023: 1,911

2022: 1,858

2021: 1,786

Dordt University reported the largest enrollment in its history, exceeding the record set last year. This is the third year in a row the university has done so.

The enrollment also includes a record-breaking freshman class, with 498 students, according to a news release. The record was originally set in 1998.

To have Dordts undergraduate enrollment grow by more than 15 percent over the last decade while higher education overall has contracted by nearly 15 percent is certainly an encouragement, said Dordt President Erik Hoekstra.

The university had a freshman-to-sophomore retention rate of 85 percent, which Greg Van Dyke, director of admissions, said contributed to the overall enrollment record.

University of South Dakota, Vermillion

2023: 9,868

2022: 9,856

2021: 9,464

The University of South Dakota reported the largest main campus incoming class since 2018, with record enrollment in first-time, full-time students from South Dakota and Nebraska, international students and students enrolled in high-demand health sciences graduate programs.

The university broke its international student enrollment record for the third year in a row, with 606 international students enrolled, a 206 student increase compared to 2022. The growth is attributed to the universitys computer science program, which had a 20 percent increase in new graduate students and an 18 percent increase in the departments artificial intelligence program, according to a news release.

The university had a 7 percent increase in first-time, full-time students from South Dakota and a 22 percent increase from Nebraska, said Scott Pohlson, vice president for enrollment, marketing and student services.

In health sciences programs, the university reported an 18 percent increase in pre-nursing, a 31 percent increase in pre-dental hygiene, and a 31 percent increase in enrollment for the Ph.D. in health sciences.

Growth continues to be part of our plans at USD. However, it also creates some unique challenges for us to address, particularly with housing, Pohlson said. This spring, we gave out a record number of housing exemptions to returning students due to the growth in new students."

Northeast Community College, Norfolk

2023: 4,781 with an estimated 560 students yet to be enrolled in the colleges job training and safety courses due to a processing change.

2022: 5,219

2021: 5,072

Northeast Community College reported enrollment stability, with an increase in dual enrollment students and international freshmen.

Northeast reported having 4,781 students enrolled with an estimated additional 590 students yet to be enrolled in the colleges job training and safety courses, according to a news release. The college is estimated to have 127 more students than in 2022, which was the largest enrollment in 10 years.

For international enrollment, Northeast reported having the largest class of freshman international students in the last 10 years, with 42 new students.

This years figures also reported 1,972 high school students that were dual enrolled, a 199 student increase compared to last year.

We are more than holding on our own at a time when there are fewer students overall with smaller class sizes entering college, said Vice President of Student Services Amanda Nipp.

Northwestern College, Orange City

2023: 1,715

2022: 1,712

2021: 1,585

Northwestern College reported record enrollment for the fifth year in a row. The college also reported records of graduate student enrollment and international student enrollment.

This falls enrollment is three students higher than last year, according to a news release.

For the second year, Northwestern has set a record with 543 graduate students enrolled in masters degree programs in education, physician assistant studies and counseling, up from 531 last year.

International student enrollment also hit a record, with 48 undergraduate students enrolled, with eight more students compared to last year.

We feel blessed to be starting the year with our fifth straight fall enrollment record, especially at a time in which many other schools are seeing declines, says Tamara Fynaardt, Northwesterns vice president for enrollment and marketing. Its rewarding to see large numbers of both new and returning students who are attracted to Northwestern because of our commitment to help them stand out academically, spiritually and relationally, and be prepared to lead lives of significance.

Northwest Iowa Community College, Sheldon

2023: 1,792

2022: 1,811

2021: 1,716

Northwest Iowa Community College reported having the second-largest fall class in the institution's history.

The new record is a 1.05 percent decrease from last years record enrollment but surpassed the third-highest fall enrollment, which occurred in 2019 with 1,777 students, according to a news release.

This years fall class may be the second-largest incoming class in NCCs history, but it signifies the highest level of credits ever taken from NCC, said Kristin Kollbaum, director of marketing and communications. Furthermore, it represents a 10% increase in enrollments over the past decade, underlining NCCs strong commitment to providing high-quality, affordable, and accessible programs that align with the needs of Northwest Iowans.

Wayne State College, Wayne

2023: 4,595

2022: 4,394

2021: 4,249

Wayne State College reported record enrollment for the seventh year in a row.

The fall enrollment is a 4.6 percent increase compared to last year, according to a news release. The college reported a 6.6 percent increase in its undergraduate student population.

The college did report a 3.4 percent decrease in its graduate student enrollment.

There are many bright spots for us, but the slight decrease in graduate students certainly does not reflect our intent to be the college of choice for students in our region, said Marysz Rames, president of Wayne State. We are proud to have held our own as college enrollments have dramatically declined elsewhere, but we also know there is always more work to do to demonstrate the value of a Wayne State degree against the current headwinds of doubt about the cost and value of a 4-year degree.
SIOUX CITY  The Sioux City Council unanimously approved first consideration of a zoning text amendment to the municipal code Monday, which would allow Siouxland Community Health Center to operate a mobile shower unit in its Pierce Street parking lot.

The Health Center obtained the shower unit in 2019 and had been operating it from June through September, until this year.

The lack of a "principal structure" on the Health Center's property at 924 Pierce St., which is zoned General Commercial, is problematic, as accessory use is prohibited in General Commercial without a principal structure, according to city documents. The Health Center constructed a parking lot on its Pierce Street property and took down the structure, which was formerly a Great Southern Bank drive-through site.

"This falls exactly under the no good deed goes unpunished," Mayor Bob Scott said before the vote.

City staff proposed that the Health Center operate the mobile shower unit at its primary location, 1021 Nebraska St., or at the Warming Shelter, 916 Nebraska St., instead of the remote parking lot. But the Health Center contends that isn't an option because the parking lot at its Nebraska Street site is too busy for the shower unit to be operated next to the clinic. The Warming Shelter's property isn't suitable to park a trailer either, because the driveway is too steep.

Joel Vos, an attorney representing the Health Center, told the council the Health Center first tried to obtain a temporary use permit for the mobile shower unit, but was denied. He said the Health Center went "several rounds" with the Sioux City Planning and Zoning Commission.

"It feels like we're being punished for trying to do good in this community," Vos said.

Health Center CEO Mari Kaptain-Dahlen said individuals who are experiencing homelessness use the mobile shower unit, as well as people living in the neighborhood who have inadequate plumbing in their homes and those who come to the city to interview for jobs. She said the mobile shower unit, which has provided more than 1,800 showers in four years, is a "vital part" of the Health Center's mission.

"Our mission with the mobile shower unit has been to assist individuals with basic health services. Being clean is not only a fundamental public health tenant, it also affords individuals a sense of self-worth and personal dignity," she said.

The zoning ordinance text amendment would allow hospitals, clinics, medical labs or urgent care facilities to conduct health screenings, testing and offer showers through a mobile shower unit in parking lots they own in Public Institutional or General Commercial zones.

"I think it's very limited and I think that it's a good text amendment," Mayor Pro Tem Dan Moore said before the vote.

City documents noted that staff have received concerns from the neighboring property owners regarding the placement of Siouxland Community Health Center's mobile shower trailer. Kaptain-Dahlen told the council the Health Center has received no complaints from businesses in the community.

The documents also noted that the Health Center "has not provided adequate responses" to staff's concerns regarding draining the shower tanks and its future plans for expanding its campus. Kaptain-Dahlen told the council that American Septic drains the waste tanks on a regular basis.
FBI Dedicates Additional Investigative and Victim Specialist Resources to Indigenous Women and Children in Indian Country

The FBI is announcing the results of Operation Not Forgotten, which dedicated over 40 FBI special agents, intelligence analysts, staff operations specialists, and victim specialists to 10 FBI field offices whose designated regions support women and children in Indigenous communities. During Operation Not Forgotten, over 220 cases were handled by investigators during the resource surge.

Recognizing the importance of a comprehensive approach to combating crime in Indian Country, investigative personnel and victim specialists collectively deployed to tribal areas to examine cases and focus resources on seeking justice for women and children who have been victims of crime.

Operation Not Forgotten reflects the FBIs relentless and continued commitment to ensuring the safety and security of women and children in Indigenous communities, said FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate. By expanding our presence in Indian Country and working closely with tribal law enforcement agencies and community advocates, the FBI aims to achieve meaningful and impactful progress in solving these cases and bringing justice for victims and their families and loved ones.

The FBIs personnel surge reaffirms its dedication to support ongoing investigations and provide collaborative support to our tribal counterparts, diligently upholding community well-being. The enhanced presence enables the FBI to provide timely response and support in investigations related to violent crimes, drug trafficking, gang activity, and other criminal offenses that disproportionately affect women and children in Indian Country.

In coordination with investigative teams, the victim specialists working in Indigenous communities provide critical support to victims and their families during extraordinarily challenging times. In the immediate aftermath of a crime, victim specialists fill a critical need that helps victims, their families, the community, and the agents. These victim specialists have received specialized training to understand the cultural sensitivities and unique needs of Indigenous victims, ensuring that voices are heard, rights are protected, and the necessary resources for healing and recovery are received.

This initiative, along with the FBI's broader Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) strategy, emphasizes the FBIs continued dedication to address the violence impacting Indigenous communities. The FBI is committed to maintaining close collaboration with tribal law enforcement agencies, tribal governments, and community members to build safer communities and protect the rights of all individuals.

Individuals with any relevant information are encouraged to visit tips.fbi.gov to submit an online tip or contact their local FBI office.

FBI field offices receiving dedicated personnel:

Albuquerque

Detroit

Denver

Minneapolis

Oklahoma City

Omaha

Phoenix

Portland

Seattle

Salt Lake City

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Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Representative of His Majesty the King for Humanitarian Works and Youth Affairs, Chairman of Bapco Energies, attended Adipec 2023 in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Shaikh Nasser was accompanied by Dr Mohamed bin Mubarak Bin Daina, Minister of Oil and Environment, Special Envoy for Climate Affair and representatives from Bapco Energies Group.

Held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE , Adipec 2023 successfully convened global energy leaders, uniting them to confront the pressing challenges facing the global economy amid the current energy crisis.

Themed Decarbonise. Faster. Together, Adipec 2023 issued a rallying call to action to all stakeholders involved in the energy transition to demonstrate tangible commitment to climate action.

Shaikh Nasser participation underscores Bahrain's stance within the energy trilemma and highlights the vital significance of upholding the Kingdoms COP26 pledge.

This commitment encompasses achieving Net-Zero emissions by 2060, reducing emissions by 30 percent, and doubling investments in renewable energy by 2035.

Bahrain's participation in Adipec 2023 reiterates its commitment to leading the global energy transition and confronting the challenges posed by the current energy landscape.

With a forward-looking strategy and strong commitment to climate action, Bahrain stands poised to play a proactive role in shaping the future of energy. --OGN/ TradeArabia News Service
A federal judge in New York has dismissed a lawsuit that accused McDonalds and Wendys of misleading consumers with ads that show bigger, juicier burgers than their restaurants actually serve.

In an opinion released over the weekend, U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez said the images on the companies websites  which the plaintiff was challenging  note the weight of the meat and the calories each burger contains.

Gonzalez also said the plaintiff, Justin Chimienti, failed to prove that a reasonable customer would be misled by the ads. Gonzalez said the ads are considered puffery, akin to other companies' use of models to make their products more visually appealing.

Wendy's and McDonald's didn't immediately respond to messages left Tuesday seeking comment.

The suit was one of several false advertising lawsuits filed recently against fast food companies by New York attorney James Kelly. A message seeking comment from Kelly was left Tuesday by The Associated Press.

In August, a federal judge in Florida refused to dismiss a class action lawsuit Kelly filed against Burger King claiming that the company's ads overstate the amount of meat in its Whopper burger and other sandwiches. Kelly has also sued Taco Bell and Arby's.

Lawsuits accusing food and beverage companies of misleading customers  for putting fewer chips than expected in a bag or advertising artificial flavors as real vanilla, for example  have grown more common in recent years.

Perkins Coie, a law firm that tracks class action suits, said 214 were filed against food and beverage companies in 2022 and 101 were filed in the first six months of this year. Thats a big increase from 2010, when just 45 were filed.

Today in history: Oct. 3 1944: Siegfried Line 1967: Woody Guthrie 1974: Frank Robinson 1991: Bill Clinton 1995: O.J. Simpson 2003: Roy Horn 2008: O.J. Simpson 2011: Amanda Knox 2013: African Migrant Deaths 2016: Vladimir Putin 2017: Yahoo
The central Iowa city that publicly condemned one of its police officers for multiple instances of excessive force is now being sued for false arrest and assault.

In April, the city of Toledo in Tama County announced that as part of an internal investigation it had reviewed various body-camera videos involving several individuals arrested by Officer Kyle Howe. At the time, City Attorney Michael Marquess issued a statement indicating Howe had resigned.

Marquess added that after viewing the videos, city officials were shocked and dismayed by Mr. Howes abhorrent behavior in what we believe to be several instances of unnecessary force. His actions and language in these instances do not reflect the values and integrity of the rest of the Toledo Police Department. The city condemns Mr. Howes behavior in the strongest possible way and has severed all ties with him.

Prior to his resignation, Howe was the focus of a KCRG-TV report that included body-camera footage of Howe conducting a March traffic stop in which he physically restrained 31-year-old Shyla Wolf, who was suspected of driving while barred.

The Tama Toledo News Chronicle subsequently posted to its YouTube channel a series of videos from traffic stops conducted by Howe, some which show Howe pushing people to the ground and yelling, seemingly without provocation, Stop resisting!

Two separate lawsuits were filed against Howe and the city this week in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, each alleging false arrest, assault, battery, negligent supervision and civil rights violations.

One of the lawsuits was filed on behalf of Wolf, who was pulled over by Howe on March 30, 2023 on suspicion of driving without a valid license. According to court records, Wolf had three small children with her in the car, ages 6, 8 and 10. Howes body-camera video, later made public, shows him telling Wolf shes going to jail and Wolf attempting to call someone to come pick up her children.

Howe intervenes by telling her step out of the car. While attempting to arrest Wolf, Howes body camera falls offs, but he can he heard on the video telling her, Stop resisting, and, Stop fighting or youre going to get tased, to which Wolf responds, Im not doing anything.

After two other police officers arrived on the scene, Howe can be heard telling them, Alright, we gotta figure out whats going on with these kids. She was trying to get them involved to fight me. And then she decided she was going to fight me.

Howe charged Wolf with three counts of felony child neglect, driving while barred, and interference with official acts. Those charges are still pending.

Separately, attorneys for Lang Leonard of Tama County have filed a lawsuit against Howe and the city over a search warrant that Howe and other officers executed at his home on Feb. 7, 2023. The warrant was based on a report that a child had tested positive for methamphetamine after being inside the home.

One officers body-camera footage allegedly shows Howe approaching the door to Leonards residence and yelling, Police, search warrant, after which Howe immediately kicked down the door. Howe can then be heard screaming, Let me see your hands, and, Get on the ground!

The lawsuit alleges the video shows Leonard was already on the ground, positioned on his knees, and that he repeatedly responded, I am on the ground.

According to the lawsuit, Howe and another officer can then be seen slamming Leonard face first into the ground. With Howe on top of Leonards back, and Leonards hands trapped underneath his own body, Howe allegedly can be heard yelling, Put your hands behind your back! The lawsuit claims the video captures another officer yelling, Do you wanna get tased? and Howe yelling, Taser, taser, taser!

The video allegedly documents Leonard crying out in pain as the Taser was deployed.

Officer Howe, as hes tasing Leonard with his full body weight on Leonards back, can be heard yelling, Stop resisting, the lawsuit alleges. Leonard was not resisting; he was being assaulted.

Leonard, who was bleeding from his forehead, was then informed that he was being placed under arrest for interference with official acts, the lawsuit claims. Court records indicate no criminal charges were filed in the case.

The entire encounter reportedly lasted just over one minute.

The lawsuit also claims that while the footage shows Howe wearing a body camera with a blinking red light, indicating it was recording, Police Chief Dan Quigley later reported Howes body-camera footage did not exist. The lawsuit and the search warrant indicate Quigley was on the scene when officers entered Leonards home.

Howe intentionally deleted camera evidence of him assaulting Leonard in order to hide it, the lawsuit alleges.

Howe and the city have yet to file a response to the lawsuit.
DANBURY, Iowa  A former Northwest Iowa city clerk may have made more than $175,000 in personal purchases on a city credit card over two years, according to a report from State Auditor Rob Sand.

The report details an investigation into the city of Danburys finances between March 2020 and May 2022, when former city clerk Stacy Rockdaschel was responsible for nearly all of the citys disbursements, receipts, payroll and other financial reporting.

The auditors office found close to $100,000 in retail and wholesale clothing purchases on the citys credit card during that time. Rockdaschel owned a boutique in town at the time, the report said, and city officials were concerned she was using city funds to purchase items for the business.

That store, the Dasch Boutique, closed shortly after Rockdaschel resigned from her city clerk position, according to court records.

Another $32,000 in city purchases during Rockdaschels tenure could not be accounted for, and there was an estimated $26,500 in missing utility cash payments.

Rockdaschel worked as the Danbury city clerk from March 19, 2020, until May 15, 2022, when she resigned. In spring 2022, the Danbury mayor gave Rockdaschel negative performance reviews and expressed concerns about billing being doubled up and her clocking in hours that were not worked.

After she resigned, city officials reached out to the Woodbury County Sheriffs Office over those financial concerns.

Rockdaschel referred a request for comment to her attorney, who did not immediately respond. Danbury Mayor Brock Boyle and Woodbury County Sheriff Chad Sheehan also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Thousands spent on clothes, home goods

According to the report, $75,500 in city funds was spent on fashion wholesaler FashionGo, along with almost $20,000 in other retail clothing expenses.

The auditors investigation also found close to $45,000 was spent on PayPal and Venmo purchases for womens clothing, skin care products, home decor items and social media services. The auditors office could not find documentation for an additional $10,800 in PayPal purchases.

Another $14,800 was spent on various retailers like Bump Box and Etsy, as well as tickets to the Omaha Zoo and grocery items. The investigation found $16,700 in payments for personal online business services and social media.

The investigation also found $17,600 in Amazon purchases, most of which could not be accounted for because they lacked documentation. More than $1,000 of those purchases were found to be for personal items.

Rockdaschel did not agree to be interviewed by the state auditor's office, the report says.

Undeposited cash

The auditors office also found thousands of dollars in missing cash collections for utilities and a local rented event space.

The city did not maintain receipt lists for utility collections and Rockdaschel did not present a monthly utility reconciliation to the council, the report says.

During the 27 months that Rockdaschel worked as city clerk, only $3,900 in cash deposits were made to the citys bank account for utilities, the report says. In the six months before and after her tenure, deposits ranged from $6,000 to $7,000. On average, only about $143 was deposited each month Rockdaschel was clerk, while the months before and after saw more than $1,000 in cash deposits on average.

The auditors office estimated that $26,500 in cash utility payments were not deposited in the citys accounts during Rockdaschels tenure.

The investigation also found thousands of dollars were unaccounted for in rentals of a city shelter house. The city operates the shelter, and residents can rent it for events for a $125 fee.

Rockdaschel was responsible for collecting, recording and depositing the cash and check payments for the shelter house. The shelter was rented 105 times, according to the citys event calendar, for a total of $13,125. But city officials could only locate four applications, and the auditors office could only connect 47 reservations, totalling $5,875, to deposits in the citys bank account.

The auditors office found the city was not following proper financial oversight procedures, and Rockdaschel had control over too many areas of the citys finances without any outside review.

Auditor calls for more oversight

According to the report, city officials did not compare expenses and receipts, require itemized documentation of all expenses, or review the citys bank statements or credit card statements.

The auditors office recommended that bank statements be reviewed by an official who does not collect or disburse city funds, and bank reconciliations should be done each month.

City officials should also regularly review the citys credit card statement and ensure all purchases have supporting documentation, the report said.

City officials have a fiduciary responsibility to exercise authority over its funds, efficiently and effectively achieve its mission, provide oversight of the Citys operations, and maintain the public trust, the report said.

Search warrant filed

Copies of Sands report have been filed with the state Division of Criminal Investigation and Woodbury County Sheriffs office, the report says. No criminal charges have been filed, but court records show two search warrants were executed for Amazon purchases in Rockdaschel's name made with the city credit card.

According to the warrants, Rockdaschel contacted the city of Danbury after resigning and said she had been dealing with fraud and possibly identity theft. The warrant also notes that she failed to appear for an interview with Woodbury County Investigations.

The first warrant, issued on Aug. 23, returned 43 transaction records. The second warrant, executed on Aug. 31, broadened the request and noted that the 43 records did not reflect all the fraudulent charges on the citys credit card statement.
Dear Prudence,

My wonderful husband has become a shell of his former self, and I feel both conflicted and responsible. We discussed the possibility of children before marrying. He always wanted them, and I was very unsure. I told him I have deep-rooted abandonment issues and PTSD from violent past relationships, and hes been very patient and kind with me. After some soul-searching, I realized I was ready to have a child. But I really only want one. He was devastated. Only one? Thats almost as bad as not having any! Now he wont look at me, he wont touch me, and he doesnt smile anymore. Its been a month, and Im walking on eggshells.

He says he still loves me and that its not a deal-breaker, but my decision has left him unmotivated at work, at home, and everywhere else. I make significantly more money than him. I purchased the house we live in and could carry our mortgage if he lost his income. However, if I let go of my demanding career, we would not be able to make ends meet. Because hes a small business owner, I hardly see him. He recently revealed that he dreams of making enough money to allow me to stay at home and raise multiple children, while also paying for his parents and relatives retirement. Although I applaud his selflessness, this isnt what I envision for myself. And if I do think of being a full-time caretaker, my thoughts selfishly drift into business concepts I could pursue in my free time.

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He blurted out last night that he feels like hes a failure. He said he failed to sell me on his vision and that if he had done a better job of painting a picture of our future that I would be open to it. Am I being too practical or cold? I feel absolutely horrible seeing him so down. I also feel guilty, knowing that if I would just say yes to his dream, he would be over the moon. What next steps can I take to improve his morale and outlook?

Out of Alignment

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Im deeply concerned that you feel preemptively selfish for merely thinking about wanting to work in a future where you quit the job you clearly enjoy and give up your financial independence in order to satisfy your husbands desire for a stay-at-home wife and mother. Your husband is capable of having a rational, respectful conversation about children, and you are entitled to ask it of him. Yes, its an emotional topic, but a month of the silent treatment and maudlin, self-pitying declarations is absolutely ridiculous. Hes already succeeded in making you feel selfish and worry youre being cold, even though youre the only person whos compromised on the subject. Moreover, hes convinced you that its somehow selfless that he fantasizes about you staying at homea thing that, it bears repeating, you did not express interest in doing. Your concern should not be improving his morale and outlook; he is having a tantrum and does not need to be coddled out of it. Please talk to your friends and a therapist about how you can effectively advocate for yourself in this relationship without falling prey to his manipulative tactics and guilt. Its possible that your husband will realize his sulking is counterproductive and unhelpful and decide instead to find a workable compromise with you. But if he doesnt, I think its time to reconsider whether you want to have even one child with him.

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Dear Prudence,

I am a young woman and physician in training. I am terrible with names and work with a rotating team of nurses, social workers, nursing assistants, and other physicians. I work at several hospitals on several teams. I tend to refer to people as my dear or my love. This includes everyone: my patients, other doctors I work with, social workers, etc. The other day at work, I was speaking with a staff member. I said, Thank you so much, my dear, for your help earlier. Later that day she told me she doesnt like nicknames and asked me to call her by her name. I apologized and thanked her for telling me. In the future, I will call her by her name (which I wont forget)! Is this a practice I should stop for everyone? I mean it kindly, and my intention is to be warm. I am cognizant of my role as the doctor with nurses and social workers (even if I am in my first year of training) and dont want to come across as patronizing or make anyone uncomfortable. This interaction has made me second-guess myself. Am I no worse than a creepy male boss?! Is there a kind term of endearment that would be more neutral?

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I have no interest in ranking you on a scale of creepy male bosses, but yes, you should stop calling other people who work at these hospitals my love. And you definitely shouldnt be calling your patients my love, eitherthat goes beyond warm and friendly and into pet names for a significant other territory. Just say Thank you so much when you dont know someones name, or ask them for a reminder of their name. You dont have to apologize to everyone youve ever used a term of endearment withjust knock it off. You can maintain a sense of warmth by using eye contact, smiling, and saying thank you, but leave the my dears and my loves for your friends and loved ones.

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How to Get Advice From Prudie

 Send questions for publication to prudence@slate.com. (Questions may be edited.)

 Join the live chat every Monday at noon. Submit your questions and comments here before or during the live discussion.

 Call the voicemail of the Dear Prudence podcast at 401-371-DEAR (3327) to hear your question answered on a future episode of the show.

Dear Prudence,

I am a bisexual man who recently got engaged to my wonderful boyfriend, Pete. Before that I was married to my high school girlfriend, Kate. We got married after an accidental pregnancy and faced enormous family pressure. (Both our families are evangelical Christians.) We both loved our daughter, but the marriage was never happy, and we divorced when she was 4. Now were great friends and co-parents, and our daughter is 14. Both Kate and I like each others partners. Everything should be great, but both Kates family and mine are behaving outrageously. Obviously they handled my coming out as bisexual after the divorce very badly, but wed at least settled into a frosty silence on the subject, which was fine by me since I only see them a few times a year.

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Now that Im engaged, all bets are off. My parents received the news coldly and immediately wanted to know if I understood how tacky it would be to have a big second wedding. We do want to have a big wedding! My parents and sisters have started spamming me almost daily with emails and Facebook messages linking to articles with titles like Top 10 Tacky Wedding Behaviors and How to Have a Second Wedding With Class. My former in-laws got angry with my daughter for being excited about our wedding and told her it wasnt a real wedding and she shouldnt attend. Kate has roundly scolded them for it and isnt sure she wants to speak to them again. Our daughter doesnt want to see any of her grandparents.

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I just feel terrible. I have tried for so long to keep the peace with my complicated extended family. My fiance has met them exactly once and is not keen to repeat the experience. Now I am wondering if it would be OK to just cut them all off or if that would be a bad thing for my daughter. Ive always encouraged her to have an independent relationship with her grandparents, whatever my problems with them may be. Im scared to send her to see my parents next week. How should I handle these people, and whats the best thing to do for my daughter?

Is It Tacky?

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People who use the words classy and tacky do not have good taste and can be safely, routinely ignored. I understand your desire to make sure your daughter can have a relationship with her grandparents, but at a certain point, her own values and desires have to come into play. Shes a teenager, and her feelings of anger and hurt are totally understandable. Her grandparents have insulted her father and her family, and she has the right to say shes not ready to see them yet. When she is ready to see them, check in with them before your daughter goes to make sure they can agree to not criticize or badger her for supporting your wedding. If they cant, dont send her over.

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You can set a boundary with your in-laws and parents (for example, Until you can refrain from criticizing my sexuality or telling me I have to have a tiny, shame-based wedding, we wont be able to get together) while still leaving the door slightly open for future reconciliation should they decide to start behaving themselves. Not all estrangements are permanent, and it may be that a solid, sustained consequence like not seeing you for a while will teach them to keep quiet when they cant say anything nice. It may even lead to an eventual change of heart.

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And tell them why youre blocking their emails and social media messages. Then block them! My God, you dont have to put up with that sort of nonsense for another minute. Have a wonderful, splashy wedding.

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Help! Do We Have to Speak Kindly of My Cruel Father-in-Law at His Funeral?

Danny M. Lavery is joined by comedian Josh Gondelman on this weeks episode of the Dear Prudence podcast.

Dear Prudence,

My boyfriend of seven years and I both want to get married one day, probably soon. However, it was always my plan to live in a small town close to nature as soon as I graduate medical school. I despise life in the big city and have always looked forward to escaping it. He doesnt want to live in a small town ever, and his career really wouldnt allow for it. Plus, he loves the big city. This is the biggest of several differences in our life plans. Im ready to give up my dreams to be with him, but however deeply I love him, I think Ill be miserable. I dont want to lose him. Will this doom us? What can we do?

Urban vs. Rural

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This feels like a helpful corrective to the first letter. Although I cant guarantee you two will work it out, at least so far neither of you has attempted to bolster their position by sulking, withdrawing, throwing out passive-aggressive barbs, or making the other person feel responsible for their misery. The most important thing you two can do now is have a completely honest conversation about what you are and arent prepared to do about your future living situation. Since youve lived in a big city, hate it, and sincerely believe youd be miserable, I dont think that youve failed to give cities a try. What kind of partner could you be to your boyfriend if you were constantly miserable? Would it be worse to lose him while parting ways lovingly and respectfully, or to lose him because you grow so choked with resentment that your relationship became unbearable? Dont let the conversation be dominated by wishful thinking or what you hope the other person wants to hear. Only you two can determine what compromises are worth trying. Be honest, be realistic, and only make decisions you think you can really live with.

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Dear Prudence Uncensored

My fear is that he is trying to guilt and manipulate you into becoming financially dependent on him.

Danny Lavery and Nicole Cliffe discuss this letter in this weeks Dear Prudence Uncensoredonly for Slate Plus members.

Dear Prudence,

People often comment on my son, saying, Oh, what a beautiful little girl! I usually respond cheerfully with, Thanks! Hes a boy, but I understand why you say thathes really pretty! He is almost 2, and I dont dress him in especially girly clothes. His hair has gotten long, so we put the bangs up in a small ponytail on top of his head, which he loves. Is this OK for now? We arent anchored to gender stereotypes, so we dont mind if he looks ambiguous as a toddler. But will he mind getting called a girl at some point? Should I dress him in more standard boy clothes or cut his hair or have a stronger response to strangers comments?

Cute Toddler Problems

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It would be weirder if you started dressing your toddler against both your own tastes and his inclinations in the interest of getting strangers to call him a boy when they pay him compliments in passing. The fact that lots of toddlers dont look immediately and legibly like boys or girls is entirely neutral, and you dont need to start buying him gingham button-downs from the J. Crew baby collection just because every once in a while someone says, Oh, what a cute little girl. As he gets older, strangers may stop reading him as a girl, at which point the problem you fear will never come to pass. Or maybe he doesnt mind at all. If it does bother him and he would like to get a haircut or have more input on his outfits, you can chop the ponytail or give him more say in what clothes he puts on in the morning (which youd probably already do, because as kids get older they naturally start to exert more autonomy in small-scale decisions, like what shoes they wear). But youre not doing anything wrong, and you dont have anything to worry about.

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[See how Rumaan Alam answered this question in Tuesdays Care and Feeding column.]

Dear Prudence,

Ive never been in a relationship of any kind. I recently ended things with a guy I had been on a few dates with but didnt especially like. Im starting to suspect dating just isnt in the cards for me. I dont know if I even really enjoy itit always feels like a chore. My friends think Im being too pessimistic and Im too young to shut myself off to all aspects of modern dating. Im in my early 20s, and Im not going to swear off dating forever. I just want to focus on myself and doing the things I actually enjoy. Is this normal? If so, how do I explain to my nosy friends and relatives why I never bring a date?

Single, Not Looking

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The great thing about deciding not to date is that at any moment you can change your mind and start dating, if you decide you would like to! If your friends ask Why didnt you bring a date tonight? you can answer I didnt want to, and then enjoy yourself. If they seem desperate for an explanation, you can walk them through the difference between pessimism and self-awareness: I dont think its pessimistic to prioritize the things I enjoy, like my friendships and my hobbies and time spent alone, over something that feels like a draining chore, like dating. If you enjoy dating, I hope you get to do it often, but at least for right now, its just not for me.

Classic Prudie

My wifes younger sister has at times flirted with me, which my wife has laughed off, even when her sister said something about wanting to have my baby. Well, this sister just got kicked out by their parents, and at the moment is living with us. Ive never cheated, but Im not sure I can trust myself here. I am, after all, a guy. How can I tactfully express to my wife that we need to figure out something else ASAP?
Kevin McCarthys days as House speaker are over! It all happened incredibly quickly, but if you think back to the concessions he made to get the title in the first place, maybe its not that surprising. Things still seem to be a bit of a mess on Capitol Hill, with both parties regrouping to figure out whats next. You can catch up on the congressional chaos of the day here.

A colonoscopy for crypto

Theres so much more at stake in the FTX trial than the fate of disgraced CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. His alleged misdeeds are inextricable from the industry that built him up, let him thrive, and ultimately gave him the space to detonate himself, Alex Kirshner writes. He considers the ways in which this trial serves as a reckoning for the crypto industry at large.

Plus: Theres the mysterious rival, the ex-girlfriend hedge fund CEO turned star witness  and maybe Tom Brady? Nitish Pahwa breaks down whos who at the FTX trial.

Falling for fakes

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The Supreme Court cant stop falling for phony plaintiffs! Sarah Lipton-Lubet takes a closer look at how right-wing groups are constructing straw-man plaintiffsand how the GOP-appointed justices have been all too happy to play along.

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Plus: Jay Willis considers how the Supreme Courts odd couple, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Neil Gorsuch, have come out swinging on behalf of criminal defendants.

Trump on trial

Speaking of court  Trump is in one again this week (physically, even)! If youre losing track of his various legal woes at this point, Shirin Ali is here to catch you up on whats going on with his New York fraud case, and what he potentially stands to lose.

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Plus: Ben Mathis-Lilley looks ahead to Trumps upcoming year of trials, and thinks through what that might mean for the 2024 presidential primary.

A strange constitutional loophole 

 has allowed Laphonza Butler to be appointed as the new interim California senator, despite being a resident of Maryland. Huh? Mark Joseph Stern explains how that works. (And work it didKamala Harris swore her in next door to all the McCarthy drama today.)

Twilight of the 80s action gods

The Expendables franchise is dying. Jody Rosen reflects on the end of a great American tradition.

An intentional distraction

Defenders of Elon Musks George Soros comments are objecting to an argument no one is actually making, Emily Tamkin writes. She digs into one of the most annoying modern debates about antisemitism.

Today, Slate is  * WALKING THE STREETS OF BAKERSFIELD

Pour one out for Kevin McCarthy!

Thanks so much for reading, and well see you tomorrow.
Of the many federal agencies that Republicans oppose on principle, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has the distinction of being one of the few they were complaining about before it even existed.

In the years since, conservatives have taken every imaginable angle on demeaning, defanging, or abolishing the CFPB, which Congress created as a direct response to the 2008 financial crisis. Railing against its unconscionable infringements on personal liberty and consumer choice became a staple of Republican stump speeches overnight. In 2015, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz introduced a bill to repeal the bureau, a stunt hes repeated several times since. In a harebrained bid to hollow out an agency his party could not eliminate, President Donald Trump installed Mick Mulvaney, who as a congressman smeared the bureau as sick, sad, and a joke, as its chief in 2017. Per the New York Times, Mulvaney showed up for work no more than two or three days a week, a few hours at a time.

Republicans came closest to dismantling the bureau in 2020, when a much-hyped legal challenge to the bureaus leadership structure, which limited the presidents ability to fire the director, made it all the way to the Supreme Court. But in a surprise ruling in Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Chief Justice John Roberts handed the bureau a reprieve, loosening the restrictions on the presidents removal power but otherwise allowing the bureau to continue its work. Conservatives who had hoped to celebrate the public death of Sen. Elizabeth Warrens brainchild were crushed: By ratifying most of the bureaus unconstitutional design, the ruling will encourage Congress to create more agencies that violate the separation of powers, the Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote.

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It is not a surprise, then, that anti-CFPB activists have wriggled their way back to the court, which is now even more conservative than it was three years ago. On Tuesday, the justices heard oral argument in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America, a case about a different purported constitutional fatal flaw in the bureaus design: this time, the manner in which Congress funds its operations. Of course, the object this time is the same: Republican Party politicians have been fighting the very existence of this bureau for 13 years and counting. CFSA gives the Republican Partys Supreme Court justices their latest, best chance to win that war.

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The Constitutions appropriations clause provides that no Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law. Over the past two centuries, Congress has exercised this broadly defined power in a broad array of ways. You are likely most familiar with Congress annual efforts to pass an appropriations bill, during which Republican lawmakers invariably use the threat of a government shutdown to drain the coffers of government agencies whose agendas they dont like.

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Hoping to protect the bureau from becoming a perennial hostage in Washingtons dumbest ritual, Congress chose to fund the bureau differently: Under the Dodd-Frank Act, the CFPB gets its money from the Federal Reserve, which is funded by interest on securities it owns and fees assessed to the institutions it oversees. The question in CFSA is whether Congress decision to insulate the bureau from political brinkmanship complies with the appropriations clause. The government says that an act of Congresshere, the aforementioned Dodd-Frank Act, which Congress passed in 2010is enough. The CFSA, a group of payday lenders represented by Jones Day and backed by basically every trade association and conservative nonprofit in America, says it isnt. But theyre unwilling to stop there: If the bureaus funding structure is unconstitutional, they contend, then everything the bureau has done since its inception must be unconstitutional, too.

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Related From Slate The Supreme Courts Oddest Pairing Comes out Swinging on Behalf of Criminal Defendants Read More

It is hard to overstate how untethered from reality this argument is. At least six federal district courts and one federal court of appeals have rejected it. The Supreme Court has previously held that compliance with the appropriations clause merely requires Congress to pass a law. When litigating this case in the court below, CFSA thought so little of this arguments chances of success that it spent only two pages briefing it.

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Unfortunately, the court below in this case is the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, a federal appeals court controlled by a gaggle of Trump appointees who are perpetually auditioning for a spot on Leonard Leos Supreme Court shortlist. And last year, a three-judge panel of, yes, all Trump appointees seized the opportunity, declaring that the bureaus perpetual insulation from the annual appropriations process cannot be reconciled with the appropriations clause. This is inspiring stuff: The 5th Circuits respect for Congress power of the purse is so profound that its unelected judges have created for themselves a veto over how Congress exercises it.

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This decision, if ratified by the Supreme Court, would devastate the bureaus ongoing efforts to protect veterans, farmers, rural Americans, and people of color from the most predatory products the financial services industry can dream up. It would cast doubt on the continued viability of other similarly funded regulators, including the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and open the door to future challenges to Social Security, Medicare, and other vital entitlement programs. In an amicus brief, a mortgage trade group diplomatically acknowledges that it has disagreed with some of the CFPBs past actions, but warns of catastrophic consequences for the housing market, which could grind to a halt if the CFSA gets its way. In other words, we do not love the CFPB, but we do not love plunging the nation into financial chaos, either.

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At oral argument on Tuesday, the liberal justices had quite obviously had enough of both the 5th Circuits fondness for playing with matches and Jones Days willingness to supply accelerants. Some Supreme Court cases are a battle of proposed tests, but Noel Francisco, the Trump solicitor general who argued the case for CFSA, could not even settle on one, much to the liberal justices frustration. Justice Sonia Sotomayor told him she was at a total loss in trying to understand his argument in the first place. Justice Elena Kagan variously characterized his argument as decisively rejected by our history, flying in the face of 250 years of history, and profoundly ahistorical. She also lightly mocked his contention that the fact that the bureau has never reached its funding cap renders the cap legally meaningless. Maybe its good evidence that the CFPB should be doing more, she said.

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As she was yesterday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was probably the courts most vocal questioner. At times, she sounded like she was on the verge of incredulous laughter, asking Francisco how he could glean an unstated congressional obligation to fund government in fixed, time-limited increments from the single word Appropriations, and castigating him for manufacturing a constitutional problem by imagining a constitutional provision that does not actually exist. We cant just suddenly decide that things are troubling without some kind of legal reference point, Jackson told him.

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A few conservatives appeared skeptical, too, if not as contemptuous as their liberal counterparts. (Contemplating your power to torpedo the global economy can be a sobering exercise.) Justice Amy Coney Barrett jumped in on Jacksons line of questioning, observing that Franciscos case lacks the textual hook of cases like Seila Law that deal with the presidents removal power. Justice Brett Kavanaugh sounded even more baffled at oral argument than he usually does, suggesting that a congressional appropriation that Congress could change at any time simpy by passing a new law is by definition not perpetual, entrenched, or permanent. These adjectives, he said, are a little strong here.

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Ultimately, the liberals may be able to cobble together a majority to stave off a judicially induced Great Depression. But even if the bureau survives this time, for as long as the court is controlled by a conservative supermajority, conservative activists will keep cooking up deranged arguments they think can win five votes. For the liberal justices, meanwhile, holding at bay the most dangerous, least coherent silliness the 5th Circuit has to offer is the best outcome they can hope for. This burden is tremendous and thankless, and its only going to get heavier in the months and years ahead.
India has told Canada it must withdraw 41 of its 62 diplomats from the country by next Tuesday, the Financial Times reports. The two countries were embroiled in a diplomatic spat in September after Ottawa accused the Indian government of involvement in the killing of a prominent Canadian Sikh in Vancouver last June. India dismissed the allegations as absurd.

The Financial Times, citing sources familiar with Indias request, also reported that India has threatened to waive the immunity of those diplomats who are ordered to leave the country and still remain in the country after October 10. The foreign ministries in New Delhi and Ottawa have so far not responded to a request for comment.

Justin Trudeau PHOTO: AP

Relations between the two countries soured in September after the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said Canadian authorities were investigating substantiated allegations of Indian agents links to the killing of a Sikh By Hardeep Singh Nijjar last June. Canada subsequently expelled the head of Indias intelligence service in Ottawa, and India dismissed the allegations of involvement in the killing as absurd and responded by expelling a senior Canadian diplomat.

Nijjar was shot dead last June in a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh community. He was a vocal supporter of the creation of an independent Sikh state, to be formed from parts of India and part of Pakistan. Nijjar was branded a terrorist by the Indian authorities and accused of carrying out terrorist attacks in India, which he denied.

READ MORE India suspends visas for Canadian citizens

India has repeatedly complained about the activities of Sikhs abroad, especially in Canada, where the largest diaspora lives. They fear that they could revive a separatist movement that advocates for the establishment of its own state. The Indian state of Punjab was rocked by a violent Sikh separatist movement in the 1980s and 1990s, when thousands of people died.
According to data from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Latino-owned businesses have witnessed a rise in loan support. The increase, over 1.5 times, showcases the dedicated efforts to foster equitable growth among small business owners.

The SBAs recent findings, unveiled in Orlando by Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman alongside Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Chairwoman Nanette Barragan and fellow CHC members, paints a promising picture for the future of Latino entrepreneurs.

Considering small businesses crucial role in the nations economy, this upward trend in support could have significant implications. Latino-owned enterprises contribute more than $800 billion annually, reinforcing the nations position on the global competitive stage.

Discover the Zoho Ecosystem Sell Your Business Drive Traffic to Your Website Advertise Your Business Here

We are seeing a small business boom and the fastest creation rate of Latino-owned businesses in over a decade, Guzman remarked. She attributes the positive trajectory to the Biden-Harris Administrations steadfast dedication to bridging historic gaps in lending, primarily to this vital entrepreneurial segment.

Backing her sentiments, CHC Chairwoman Barragan emphasized the administrations purposeful efforts. While acknowledging the long road ahead to ensure full equality, she praised the SBA and Biden Administration for enabling more Latino businesses across the U.S. to access crucial funding.

In FY 2023 alone, over 7,300 SBA loans, through the 7(a) and 504 programs, have been secured by Latino-owned businesses. This significant increase from previous years  with loans amounting to $2.8 billion and comprising 12.2% of SBA-approved loans  reveals the administrations proactive approach towards inclusivity.

Recent data suggests a renaissance period for small businesses in the U.S., especially among women and people of color. Since President Bidens inauguration, over 13.6 million new business applications have been filed, which is 65% higher than the pre-pandemic rate. Notably, the Latino-owned business segment has grown over 20% faster than before the pandemic.

Small Business Deals

Several Congress members, including Darren Soto and Maxwell Frost, have lauded the administrations efforts. Emphasizing the crucial role of Latino businesses in Florida and beyond, they credited the SBAs initiatives for offering lifelines to entrepreneurs often sidelined by larger financial institutions.

Key strategies propelling the growth include the expansion of the Community Advantage Program, the $100 million Community Navigator Pilot Program from Bidens American Rescue Plan, and the recent launch of the Latino Prosperity Tour. Additionally, the administration has tripled the number of Womens Business Centers at Hispanic-Serving Institutions and introduced reforms to address enduring capital access gaps.

The SBAs primary business loan initiative, the 7(a) Loan, along with the 504 Loan program, are pivotal for many small business owners. With guarantees up to $5 million and $5.5 million, respectively, these loans enable entrepreneurs to secure working capital, among other essentials. Furthermore, the SBAs guarantee encourages lenders to support businesses that might not usually qualify, offering them better repayment terms and conditions.

This signifies a promising era for small business owners, especially in the Latino community. As the U.S. seeks to emerge stronger from global economic challenges, the Biden-Harris Administrations commitment to supporting all entrepreneurial sectors may pave the way for a more inclusive and thriving future.
So, just what is a SERP?

Imagine someone doing a search in Google for a word or phrase. Google will return results for that particular search on a Google search results page.

Youve seen SERPs many times. Above is an example of a SERP in the Bing.com search engine.

The acronym SERP, or sometimes the plural form SERPs, tends to be used in discussions about search engines or search engine optimization. It might be used in a sentence such as: You appeared number 3 in the SERPs. Translation: When we did a search in Google for the type of product your company sells, your website appeared as the third result down on the search page in Google.

The person making that statement usually means the website appeared number 3 after all the paid ads (outlined in yellow in the image above).

But not always  its also possible to buy a number 1 position in the SERPs, simply by buying pay-per-click ads from a search engine like Google or Bing. Thats because there are two types of results returned on most search engine pages in Google, Bing or other engines:

Organic results  These are results that come from natural placement in the search engine hierarchy. If you have good content on a useful page with links pointing to it, that page may show up high in the search results for people searching on a relevant term or phrase.

These are results that come from natural placement in the search engine hierarchy. If you have good content on a useful page with links pointing to it, that page may show up high in the search results for people searching on a relevant term or phrase. Paid search results  As the phrase implies these are purchased ads. You buy text ads that show up at the top or top right column of the page. They are commonly called pay per click ads because most of the time the advertiser pays only when someone clicks on the ad. In Google these are called AdWords. In Microsofts Bing they are called Bing Ads.

Either type of result can result in your website appearing high in the search engines for a specific word or phrase. But of course, paid ads can be expensive unless you really know your way around the bidding system for buying paid search ads.

Aspect Description SERP (Search Engine Results Page) A SERP is the page displayed by a search engine in response to a user's query, containing a list of web pages relevant to the search query. Common Usage of SERP The term SERP is often used in discussions about search engines or search engine optimization (SEO). Example of SERP Example of a SERP Plural Form of SERP SERP can also be used in its plural form, SERPs. Usage in a Sentence You appeared number 3 in the SERPs." Translation: Your website ranked third on Google's search results page. Organic Results Organic results are non-paid listings based on relevance to the search query. They appear naturally in SERPs. Paid Search Results Paid search results are advertisements purchased by advertisers. They appear at the top or right of SERPs. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads Paid search results are commonly known as pay-per-click (PPC) ads because advertisers pay when users click on them. Achieving High SERP Rankings Websites can achieve high rankings in SERPs through organic results (good content and links) or paid ads (PPC campaigns). Impact of SERP Rankings Higher SERP rankings lead to increased visibility and more clicks, as users often click on the top results. Paid Ads vs. Organic Results While paid ads can provide instant visibility, organic results require time and effort but can be cost-effective. Bidding System for Paid Search Ads Effective management of PPC campaigns requires an understanding of the bidding system on platforms like Google AdWords and Bing Ads. Organic Results and SEO Achieving high rankings in organic results often involves SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies.

So why are SERPs important?

Studies show the higher up you appear in the search results, the more likely someone searching will click over to YOUR site. Most SERPs consist of multiple pages. A search for a popular term will return dozens, hundreds or thousands of search result pages. In the example pictured above, over 700 million results were returned.

Imagine being a searcher faced with all of those SERP pages. Who has the patience and time to click through them all? No one.

Therefore, the Web pages that appear highest in the search engine results pages are more likely to get clicked and get the traffic. That usually means that if you want to get meaningful traffic, your business needs to appear on the first page of the SERPs or possibly the second or third page.

Who uses the acronym SERP?

SERP is a technical acronym. Most of the time the people using a term like SERP are search engine optimization professionals or marketing professionals. If you hire a professional to help you with your search engine placement  or even just read up on the topic yourself  sooner or later you will encounter this term.

Either way, as a small business owner or manager who realizes the importance of your business being found online you will want to know what a SERP is. The more you know, the better informed the business decisions you make. And youll be better able to hold your own with the people or firms you hire.

Navigating SERPs: Your Roadmap to Search Engine Success

Understanding how search engine results pages (SERPs) work is essential for anyone looking to make their online presence more discoverable. Heres a comprehensive guide to help you navigate the world of SERPs effectively:

SERP Basics : Start by grasping the fundamentals of SERPs. A SERP is the page that search engines like Google or Bing display after a user enters a query. It contains a list of results relevant to the search query.

: Start by grasping the fundamentals of SERPs. A SERP is the page that search engines like Google or Bing display after a user enters a query. It contains a list of results relevant to the search query. Organic vs. Paid Results : Learn about the two primary types of results on SERPs: Organic Results: These are non-paid results that appear based on their relevance to the search query. Achieving a high rank in organic results requires effective search engine optimization (SEO). Paid Results: Paid search ads, like Google AdWords or Bing Ads, appear at the top or side of the SERP. Advertisers pay when users click on these ads.

: Learn about the two primary types of results on SERPs: Importance of SERP Ranking : Understand the significance of ranking on SERPs: Higher-ranking pages receive more clicks: Studies show that users are more likely to click on results appearing near the top of SERPs. Visibility is key: With potentially hundreds of SERP pages for a single query, appearing on the first page is crucial for visibility.

: Understand the significance of ranking on SERPs: Role of SEO : Recognize the role of SEO in SERP rankings: SEO involves optimizing your website to improve its chances of ranking higher in organic SERP results. On-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO are essential components of SEO strategies.

: Recognize the role of SEO in SERP rankings: Keyword Research : Conduct thorough keyword research to identify the terms and phrases potential customers use to search for products or services similar to yours. Targeting the right keywords can improve your SERP ranking.

: Conduct thorough keyword research to identify the terms and phrases potential customers use to search for products or services similar to yours. Targeting the right keywords can improve your SERP ranking. Content Optimization : Create high-quality, informative, and engaging content on your website. Optimized content can help you rank higher in organic SERP results.

: Create high-quality, informative, and engaging content on your website. Optimized content can help you rank higher in organic SERP results. Monitoring and Analytics : Implement tools like Google Analytics to monitor your websites performance on SERPs. Analyze data to identify areas for improvement in your SEO strategy.

: Implement tools like Google Analytics to monitor your websites performance on SERPs. Analyze data to identify areas for improvement in your SEO strategy. SERP Positioning : Strive to rank within the top positions on SERPs to maximize visibility and click-through rates. Ranking in the top three results is particularly valuable.

: Strive to rank within the top positions on SERPs to maximize visibility and click-through rates. Ranking in the top three results is particularly valuable. User Experience : Focus on providing an excellent user experience on your website. User-friendly navigation, fast loading times, and mobile responsiveness can impact your SERP ranking.

: Focus on providing an excellent user experience on your website. User-friendly navigation, fast loading times, and mobile responsiveness can impact your SERP ranking. Mobile-First Indexing : Be aware of Googles mobile-first indexing, which prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in SERP rankings. Ensure your website is responsive and optimized for mobile users.

: Be aware of Googles mobile-first indexing, which prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in SERP rankings. Ensure your website is responsive and optimized for mobile users. Local SEO : If you have a local business, optimize your website for local searches to appear in local SERP results, such as Google Maps listings.

: If you have a local business, optimize your website for local searches to appear in local SERP results, such as Google Maps listings. Competitor Analysis : Study your competitors SERP strategies to identify opportunities for improvement. Analyze their keywords, content, and ranking positions.

: Study your competitors SERP strategies to identify opportunities for improvement. Analyze their keywords, content, and ranking positions. Continuous Improvement : SEO and SERP rankings are not static. Stay updated with algorithm changes and trends in SEO to adapt and improve your strategies continually.

: SEO and SERP rankings are not static. Stay updated with algorithm changes and trends in SEO to adapt and improve your strategies continually. Professional Guidance: Consider seeking assistance from SEO professionals or agencies if you find the world of SERPs and SEO too complex to handle on your own.

Aspect Description SERP Basics A SERP (Search Engine Results Page) is the page displayed by search engines like Google or Bing in response to a user's query. It lists relevant search results. Organic vs. Paid Results SERPs contain two primary result types: Organic Results (non-paid) and Paid Results (advertisements). SEO influences organic results, while paid ads require advertiser payments. Importance of SERP Ranking Higher-ranked pages on SERPs receive more clicks. Being on the first page is crucial for visibility, as users rarely venture beyond it. Role of SEO SEO (Search Engine Optimization) involves optimizing websites to rank higher in organic SERP results. It includes on-page, off-page, and technical SEO strategies. Keyword Research Conduct keyword research to discover search terms potential customers use. Targeting relevant keywords enhances SERP ranking. Content Optimization High-quality, engaging, and optimized content can improve organic SERP rankings. Content is a critical factor in SEO success. Monitoring and Analytics Implement tools like Google Analytics to monitor SERP performance. Data analysis guides SEO strategy improvements. SERP Positioning Higher positions on SERPs, particularly in the top three results, lead to increased visibility and click-through rates. User Experience An excellent user experience, including mobile responsiveness and fast loading times, can positively impact SERP rankings. Mobile-First Indexing Google's mobile-first indexing prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in SERP rankings. Ensure mobile optimization for better rankings. Local SEO For local businesses, optimizing websites for local searches is essential to appear in local SERP results, including Google Maps listings. Competitor Analysis Analyzing competitors' SERP strategies helps identify opportunities for improvement. Examine their keywords, content, and ranking positions. Continuous Improvement SEO and SERP rankings are dynamic; stay updated with SEO trends and algorithm changes to continually enhance your strategies. Professional Guidance Seek assistance from SEO professionals or agencies if navigating SERPs and SEO becomes too complex to handle independently.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a SERP, and how does it work?

A SERP, or Search Engine Results Page, is the page displayed by a search engine, like Google, in response to a users query. It contains a list of web pages relevant to the search query, ranked based on relevance and other factors.

Whats the difference between organic and paid results on SERPs?

Organic results are non-paid listings that appear based on their relevance to the search query. Paid results are advertisements that appear at the top or side of the SERP, and advertisers pay when users click on them.

Why is it important to rank high on SERPs?

Higher-ranking pages receive more clicks and visibility. Being on the first page of SERPs is crucial because users rarely venture beyond the initial results.

What is SEO, and how does it impact SERP rankings?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of optimizing your website to improve its ranking in organic SERP results. It involves various strategies and techniques to make your site more search-engine-friendly.

How can I optimize my website for better SERP rankings?

Start with keyword research to target relevant search terms. Create high-quality content, optimize on-page elements, and build high-quality backlinks. Implement technical SEO improvements for a well-rounded strategy.

What tools can I use to monitor my websites performance on SERPs?

Google Analytics is a popular tool for tracking website traffic and SERP performance. Other tools like Google Search Console and third-party SEO software can provide valuable insights.

Is mobile optimization essential for SERP rankings?

Yes, mobile optimization is crucial. Googles mobile-first indexing prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in SERP rankings. Ensure your site is responsive and provides a great experience on mobile devices.

How can I improve my local SERP rankings for a small business?

Focus on local SEO by optimizing your Google My Business listing, obtaining online reviews, and creating location-specific content. Consistency in NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) information is also vital.

Can I track my competitors SERP strategies?

Yes, competitive analysis is valuable. You can study your competitors keywords, content, and ranking positions to identify opportunities for improvement in your own strategy.

Are SEO and SERP rankings static, or do they change over time?

SEO and SERP rankings are not static. Search engines frequently update algorithms, and user behavior evolves. Continuous improvement and adaptation are essential for maintaining high rankings.

Should I seek professional help for SEO and SERP optimization?

If you find SEO and SERP optimization complex or time-consuming, consider consulting with SEO professionals or agencies with expertise in these areas. They can provide valuable guidance.

For more on this topic and related topics, see:

SEOBook: Search Engine Marketing Glossary

SearchEngineLand: What is SEO?

Google: Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (PDF)

3 Ways to Perform SEO on a Shoestring Budget

Small Business SEO Trends to Keep an Eye On
What is bootstrapping in the context of business? In this piece we define what it means to bootstrap a company, with examples and the steps for how an entrepreneur fund for such a company. We point out advantages and disadvantages.

What is Bootstrapping? A Bootstrap Definition

Bootstrapping means to get into or out of a situation using your own resources. A bootstrapped business is a company without outside investment funds.

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Entrepreneurs refer to bootstrapping as the act of starting a business with no outside money  or, at least, very little investment. Bootstrapping means launching a business without the help of venture capital firms or even significant angel investment. Bootstrapped companies are not the kind that draw media attention from huge funding rounds.

The founding entrepreneur, known as the bootstrapper, is the one sole investor in the beginning. The founders only investment capital might be personal savings  and of course the time he or she spends working for free to get the business up and running. Bootstrapping requires plowing the money earned from customers back into the business . In other words, the bootstrapping entrepreneur relies on cash flow to grow their business in the place of outside capital.

Youve heard the old saying about pulling up by your bootstraps. When it comes to startups, the bootstrap definition means to do something on your own.

How Do You Bootstrap a Company?

You bootstrap a company by starting with a small amount of your own funds. As the business gets going, you re-invest revenue earned from customers back into the business to finance daily operations, development and expansion plans.

Small Business Deals

It takes three steps to bootstrap a company:

1. Find Seed Money

Start with personal savings, or perhaps some friends and family funding to get going. This is called seed money or a startup stake. A related technique at this stage is to start out with a side business, where the founder continues to work a day job to keep body and soul together. The founder then uses day-job earnings to fund the side business. In short, the founder manages to scrape up enough resources to get the business off the ground. The business is launched on a shoestring budget.

2. Launch a Minimum Viable Product or Service, Fast

Release a minimum viable product as soon as possible. For a software company, online business or any business requiring advance product development, launch as soon as you have a viable offering. Fast is better than perfect. The faster you get going, the faster you get to the next step.

3. Use Customer Funds to Grow

Get money from customers quickly, and use it to fund operations and expand. That customer funding is pumped back into the business. Therefore, it is essential to close sales early and fast. Sales revenue keeps the business operating and, eventually, finances growth.

Growth is often slow, because the company first has to meet its operating expenses to stay in business. But committed entrepreneurs find ways to increase sales, which in turn gives them more capital to invest in their business.

Steps to Bootstrap a Company Description Find Seed Money Start with personal savings or "friends and family" funding as seed money to initiate the business. Consider side businesses or part-time work to supplement initial funds. Launch a Minimum Viable Product Release a minimum viable product or service quickly, prioritizing speed over perfection, especially in software, online businesses, or ventures requiring product development. Use Customer Funds to Grow Generate revenue from customers promptly and reinvest those funds into daily operations and business expansion. Close sales early and focus on increasing sales for sustainable growth.

For additional tips on how to bootstrap a company, read: 10 Tips for Bootstrapping a Startup.

What Bootstrap Funding is NOT

Bootstrapping does not mean giving up a chunk of equity in exchange for bringing on investors.

Bootstrapping does not mean going out to get a big loan to start a business, either. Yes, some startups may take on loans or lines of credit along the way. Others lean heavily on credit cards. A few may even get microloans or small local grants.

But credit is typically a short term fix to fund specific growth activities such as buying equipment, or to smooth out cash flow dips. In a bootstrapped business, credit often comes later, not immediately upon starting up.

Getting credit at some point is a proven technique for companies to spread out the demands on their cash, through monthly payments. The trick to this technique is to seek credit only when revenue streams are finally reliable enough to ensure you can make the loan payments. Remember, the founder still has to pay the monthly payments or debt service out of funds earned in the business.

In other words, DO use credit wisely in targeted ways such as to even out seasonality or expand. DONT saddle yourself with a big honking loan as the main source of funds to start the business.

Bootstrapping is Minimalism Applied to Business

Starting a bootstrapped business is a litmus test for an entrepreneur and a challenge for everyone involved in running the business. So what does it really take to start a business this way?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines minimalism as follows:

 a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity.

When companies use this approach for their business culture, they are practicing bootstrapping. Such businesses avoid spending except where absolutely necessary and work within their means, finding ingenious ways to get by with less.

What are Some Examples of Bootstrapping?

There are some famous examples of bootstrapping. Think of all the stories you see on social media of a famous billionaire launching a business in a garage. That is a boot-strapped story. Lets look at a few examples:

Spanx  The Spanx bootstrapped story starts with a brilliant idea. Unable to find the right undergarment for a party, Spanx founder Sarah Blakely took scissors and cut the feet off a pair of pantyhose. The rest, as they say, is history. Blakely used $5000 from savings to develop the products using her mom and friends to test her prototypes. With no money for a fancy office, she ran the business out of her apartment. She also controlled costs by being a sales and marketing department of one.

Apple  The Apple bootstrapping story is just as inspiring. Entrepreneurs Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded this powerhouse company in 1976. But the original headquarters where Wozniak hand built the Apple I wasnt on some Silicon Valley tech campus. It was in a bed room at the suburban home of Jobs parents. Eventually the company moved to the garage when they needed more space.

Dell  Entrepreneur Michael Dell founded the iconic brand that now bears his name from his dorm room at the University of Texas at Austin. There, Dell built and sold computers made from stock components. He eventually dropped out of school as the business grew. In 2019 Michael Dell was ranked 18 on the Forbes 400 list of billionaires.

HP, Cisco, eBay, Oracle and Microsoft are other popular examples of companies that started from humble beginnings and grew. Other names are not quite as big, but still impressive. Braintree, TechSmith, Envato, Litmus, iData, BigCommerce, and Campaign Monitor were all started with boots strapping.

You can find a list of companies that started with little or no outside investment, grew organically and posted $1 million plus in revenues in 37Signals Bootstrapped, Profitable and Proud series.

Examples of Bootstrapped Companies Description Spanx Founder Sarah Blakely used $5000 from savings to develop undergarment products, running the business from her apartment and controlling costs as a one-person sales and marketing department. Apple Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple in a suburban home and later moved to a garage when they needed more space for their early computer development. Dell Michael Dell founded Dell from his dorm room at the University of Texas at Austin, building and selling computers made from stock components. HP, Cisco, eBay, Oracle, Microsoft These tech giants all had humble beginnings and grew significantly over time. Braintree, TechSmith, Envato, Litmus, iData, BigCommerce, Campaign Monitor These companies started with limited outside investment and achieved impressive growth organically.

Bootstrapped Businesses Never Seem to Have Enough

Enough people, resources and cash, that is.

Starting a business with nothing may sound romantic. But behind the cool look at what Im accomplishing factor you must face the realities of limited human resources, tight budgets, and little or no growth capital.

Bootstrapping is not necessarily an easy route to grow your company. Because of the need to keep down the cost, bootstrapped companies face huge barriers to growth. Consider these downsides:

Bootstrapped companies tend to be strapped for cash. They always need new sales.

These companies may not be able to hire the innovative talent they need in order to grow.

Bootstrapping results in these companies taking more time to scale than VC-funded companies.

The founders may become risk-averse and as a result miss growth opportunities.

Yet, there are enough success stories to make bootstrapping a viable option for starting your next business.

First Law of Bootstrapping: Focus on Profits

Bootstrapping requires a very different mindset from the management mindset in a venture-funded or angel-funded company. Bootstrapped companies must focus on profits to keep on going. They have no outside investment dollars to spend  no ready pile of money to buy whatever they want. They must make money if they are to survive. Profits are the one way to keep funding the business.

When you have outside funding, your mindset and behavior will be very different. Outside investors are looking for high growth and an exit strategy. They want to make a return on their capital as fast as they can. They may push growth at a loss in the early years, marching toward that payoff when they can cash out.

A bootstrapped entrepreneur, on the other hand, is typically in it for the long haul. Usually the founding entrepreneur expects to be around for a long time, slowly and quietly growing.

And for that, a bootstrapper needs to deliver value and develop paying customers. He or she has to be able to make payroll, pay the bills, and still fund the companys growth  all from the money the company earns.

Bootstrapping Requires Guts, Passion and Skill

Founders who bootstrap must amass a wide variety of skills, defy tradition, network like crazy, innovate on a regular basis and find answers to problems daily.

Bootstrapping also requires fortitude, guts and passion. Bootstrapping entrepreneurs have to do the following:

Risk everything theyve got.

Plan.

Put sweat equity into their businesses.

Learn to barter when they dont have cash.

Refine the art of hiring or outsourcing while stretching their tight financial resources.

Hustle.

Create.

Make things happen!

Every entrepreneur knows the startup statistics: about half of business fail by year five. A smart entrepreneur focuses on forward progress and never looks back.

Bootstrapping Brings Out the Best in Entrepreneurs

Bootstrapping is a tested way to become a better business person, says serial entrepreneur Matt Clark. The founders end up learning about themselves along the way  and accomplishing more than they originally thought possible.

Bootstrapped companies are resourceful, accountable and careful. Successful ones usually find at least one high-margin product or service to start out with. They build loyal customers, partnerships, and recurring revenue streams into their business model. They gradually grow their marketing and sales, and scale up when they have the funds.

Their founders learn lessons the hard way, often becoming better business people. Many bootstrappers become walking examples of the old adage, That which does not kill me makes me stronger.

Bootstrapping brings out the best in entrepreneurs. Successful bootstrapping entrepreneurs are enthusiastic, passionate and relentless. They dont give up on their dreams.

Bootstrappers wake up earlier, spend longer days at work, know how to keep their wits about them even under pressure, know how to eliminate unnecessary distractions and are often very productive, reports Fox News. Bootstrappers are also natural savers, can go hungry until they become profitable and are naturally minimalist in their outlook on life. They are also committed to the long-term.

Thats why teams that collaborate while bootstrapping stick together longer and the companies that bootstrap become inspirations for others.

Best Businesses to Bootstrap

Finally, people often ask, what are the best businesses to bootstrap? You can bootstrap any business that doesnt require a large startup stake. The types of businesses that are the best to bootstrap can be started with little money. See: businesses to start with less than $100 or any one you start with $1000. Franchises, on the other hand, can require hefty up front fees. Therefore, franchises are not the best bootstrapping candidates.
Political parties spent more than 21 million on the 2023 campaign.

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The parties that gained at least 3 percent of all the votes in the September 30 early election will receive a state contribution.

Among these are also the far-right movement Republika and Hungarian minority party Aliancia that did not clear the 5-percent threshold and won no seats in the parliament.

In total, the parties will receive more than 92 million in contributions from the state budget, the Dennik N daily writes.. Moreover, the parties that gained more than 2 percent of votes, like Demokrati led by ex-PM Eduard Heger, will get back their 17,000 deposit for running in the election.

The contribution is comprised of three parts; for the sum of votes (13.04/vote), their operation and number of mandates.

As the winning party, Smer will receive more than 23 million, followed by Progresivne Slovensko with more than 18 million, Hlas with more than 15 million, the coalition of OLaNO a priatelia with more than 9 million.

KDH (Christian Democratic Movement), SaS and SNS (Slovak National Party) will get more than 7 million, more than 6 million, and almost 6 million, respectively.

Related article

Related article News digest: Victorious Fico expects a post-election phone call from the president Read more

Although Republika and Aliancia did not get elected, they will receive more than 3 million each.

Many parties that were elected financed their campaign from previous state contributions. Progresivne Slovensko funded its campaign thanks to loans and big money from entrepreneurs, including Slido creator Peter Komornik. Hlas received a bank loan from Fio Bank.

Transparency International Slovakia estimates that political parties spent almost 21 million on their campaigns. The amount is not final, though. According to TIS, the total amount of campaign expenses will exceed the 2020 record: 23.6 million.
The dog's owner received a fine.

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Police in Slovakia caught on a speed camera what appeared to be a smiling dog driving a car. The incident happened in the village of Sterusy, Trnava Region.

When the police stopped the 31-year old driver, he insisted that his dog had suddenly leapt into his lap. However, camera footage showed this was not the case as there was no sudden movement in the car, the police reported on social media on Friday, September 29.

Rather than the dog, it was the man who was given a fine. The police did not specify whether it was for speeding, or failing to secure the pet in the car.

In the social media post, the police urged drivers to take into account the safety of their pet. Even a small animal can cause serious harm.

Foreign media noticed the incident

A number of media outlets around the globe reported on the incident, including the BBC website, Spiegel, Le Figaro, public broadcaster in Poland.

Here is a brief selection from English-speaking media:

1) Sky News Australia

video //www.youtube.com/embed/hTpZI_5_IyA

2) CBS Evening News

video //www.youtube.com/embed/s-s8HDKtgD8

3) New York Post

4) Business Insider

5) BBC News

6) Fox News
In mid-September, a Russian diplomat was expelled.

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Almost three weeks after the Slovak Foreign Ministry expelled a Russian diplomat and summoned Russian ambassador Igor Bratchikov, the ministry summoned Bratchikov again.

In its statement from October 2, the ministry writes that the reason is the statements made by Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia Sergey Naryshkin during the 48-hour election moratorium in Slovakia.

On September 28, Russias intelligence service published a press release on its website. Naryshkin accused the USA of interfering in the Slovak parliamentary election. The vote took place two days after the press release, on September 30.

The upcoming elections in Slovakia can hardly be perceived as a democratic expression of the will of the people free from external influence, the press release reads, claiming that the liberal party Progresivne Slovensko is expected to win and form a government loyal to Washington.

The Slovak election was won by the populist party Smer, led by former three-time PM Robert Fico.

Pro-Russian party wins election

On October 2, Fico was asked by President Zuzana Caputova to try to form a government. Fico holds pro-Russian views and refuses to support Ukraine militarily. He also called the Slovak president a US agent.

The Slovak Foreign Ministry slammed the Russian intelligence service for questioning the integrity of free and democratic elections in Slovakia.

We consider such deliberately disseminated disinformation to be inadmissible interference by the Russian Federation in the electoral process in Slovakia.

The manipulation of election results is practically impossible in Slovakia. If, for example, a member of the electoral commission wanted to change the results, there are still nominees of other parties sitting in who can prevent them from doing so.

The Russian embassy in Bratislava, a notorious disseminator of disinformation and propaganda in Slovakia, denied the Slovak ministrys allegation.

According to a Focus poll from August 2023, 72 percent of Slovaks do not trust Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twenty-four percent trust him. As for Smer supporters, 44 percent trust Putin. Only Hungarian PM Viktor Orban is considered to be more trusted by Smer supporters.
They will remain in place for 10 days. Subsequently, border checks can be extended by 20 days.

Czechia and Poland will reintroduce temporary border controls with Slovakia from midnight. (Source: X/Mariusz Blaszczak)

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Due to the growing number of illegal migrants, the Czech Republic, Poland and Austria will reintroduce temporary border checks with Slovakia from midnight.

The numbers of illegal migrants to the EU are starting to grow again, said Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS). We dont take the situation lightly.

But acting Slovak Prime Minister Ludovit Odor has been calling for a European solution. In his view, the individual steps of EU member states will only create a cascade effect.

We will all pay money for it but the result will be very muddy, the Slovak PM said. In this case, the whole thing has been triggered by Poland, where an election will soon take place, and the Czech Republic has joined in.

Odor added that Slovakia will react to the measures announced by its neighbours on Wednesday.

Border checks until October 13

Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan (STAN) said that the announced border checks will be random and along the length of the border with Slovakia.

Citizens need a valid passport or identity card to cross the border, the Czech Interior Ministry said.

The Czech police will mainly focus on road and railway border crossings, but border checks may also concern pedestrians and cyclists. Even people near the border should have valid documents on them because anyone can be checked.

The temporary border checks are currently planned until October 13. Their possible extension will depend on the current situation, the Czech ministry said. Czechia took the same step last September and extended these border checks until February of this year. Illegal migrants still managed to cross the Slovak-Czech border and continue their journey to western Europe.

The reintroduction of border checks can be prolonged for periods of up to 20 days, but the overall period of border checks shall not exceed 2 months.

There are 27 former border crossings between the Czech Republic and Slovakia, of which 17 are road, seven are railway and three river crossings.

Slovakia finds itself in eye of illegal migration storm Read more

Closed tourist border crossings

The information about temporary checks on the Polish-Slovak border has already appeared on the EUs website.

Polands Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski thinks that the announced border checks are very likely to be extended after October 13. He added that Poland has been patrolling the Slovak-Polish border and checking suspect vehicles in the past two weeks, during which 551 illegal migrants were detained.

The Polish army will help the Polish Border Guard inspect the Polish-Slovak border, including eight road border crossings and three railway crossings.

Crossing tourist border crossings, e.g. mountain crossings in the Tatra Mountains, will be prohibited and will be considered illegal border crossing, said the Border Guard.

Guarded Polish-Slovak border crossings that can be crossed: ROAD: Radoszyce, Periwinkle, Muszynka, Piwniczna-Zdroj  Mnisek nad Popradom, Jurgow, Chyzne, Korbielow, Zwardon - Skalite Platforma; RAILWAY: upkow  Palota, Muszyna  Plavec, ZwardonSkalite; PEDESTRIAN (only for EU citizens, their spouses and children): Ozenna, Konieczna, Leluchow, Niedzica, Lysa Polana, Chochoow, Winiarczykowka, Ujsoy, Boron, Zwardon - Myto, Jaworzynka  Cierne Skalite. Source: Polish Border Guard

Fico: We will use force

In the first eight months of this year, Slovakia detained 24,500 illegal migrants. For all of 2022, the police detained 10,900 refugees. The police had detained just hundreds of illegal migrants per year before.

Slovakia has long said that it does not have the resources to protect the 655-km border with Hungary. It has argued that such a measure would not tackle illegal migration but disrupt the life of people near the border instead.

On Sunday, October 1, the winner of the Slovak election, Smer leader Robert Fico, announced that if his party Smer forms the government, this cabinet will adopt a decree to reintroduce border checks with Hungary.

Fico, who has held anti-immigration positions for many years, even threatened to use force against illegal migrants last weekend.

It will not be a pretty picture, he said.
Trains to Vienna will end in Marchegg.

Trains connecting Vienna with Bratislava via Marchegg will not operate in October and November 2023. (Source: SME - Marko Erd)

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The operation of trains connecting Bratislava with Vienna through the Austrian town of Marchegg will be suspended for a month due to renovation work on the railroad in the town.

Trains will only be dispatched from Bratislava to Marchegg. Here, people can use buses connecting Marchegg with Schonfeld Lasse and Ganserndorf.

Read also:

Read also: Changes to Bratislava city transport during tram line reconstruction announced Read more

Renovation work on the tracks in Marchegg will last from October 9 to November 14.

To get to Vienna, Slovakia's national railway carrier ZSSK recommends passengers to use trains leaving from Bratislava's Petrzalka railway station. The trains run via the Austrian town of Kittsee.

The trains IC 44 and IC 45 Kosice - Bratislava (main railway station) - Vienna will run without restrictions. The same concerns the train RJX 160/167 connecting the Slovak capital with Zurich HB.

ZSSK recommends that passengers use Bus 93 to transfer between the Petrzalka station and the main railway station.
No trains to Vienna through Marchegg from next week, interview with popular graffiti artist, and get your passport ready.

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Good evening. Here is the Tuesday, October 3 edition of Today in Slovakia - the main news of the day in less than five minutes.

Special prosecutor slams Fico for his threats

Special Prosecutor Daniel Lipsic during a press briefing on October 3, 2023. (Source: TASR - Jaroslav Novak)

Special Prosecutor Daniel Lipsic condemned Smer leader Robert Fico's attacks on the prosecutors of the Special Prosecutor's Office.

"I consider it unacceptable that political power threatens representatives of judicial authorities," he said. He emphasised that high-ranking persons are also being prosecuted today. "Dozens of persons have been convicted."

The Special Prosecutor's Office supervises, for example, cases related to the parties Smer, Hlas and SNS - all the three may form the next government.

Lipsic, a former politician and lawyer, does not plan to leave the post of special prosecutor even if Smer forms the government. The police chief, Stefan Hamran, has confirmed several times that he will resign from his position if Fico comes to power.

Quote: "I have never run away from any fight and I will not run away now." (Lipsic on October 3)

Background: On Sunday, after the election, Fico said that Smer is ready for personnel changes in law enforcement institutions, but its goal is not changes in the basic infrastructure of these institutions. He wants to replace Lipsic, some prosecutors and Hamran. "Nobody will arrest them. That's a matter for law enforcement," Fico said Fico on October 1. Hlas leader Peter Pellegrini wants to get rid of Hamran and Lipsic too. All senior officers in the police can be dismissed without giving a reason, according to the current civil service law. In the case of Lipsic, Fico would need a relevant reason to lay him off.

More stories from The Slovak Spectator website

Illegal migration: Poland, Austria and Czechia will reintroduce border checks from midnight. Slovakia will respond to the move of its neighbours on Wednesday.

Poland, Austria and Czechia will reintroduce border checks from midnight. Slovakia will respond to the move of its neighbours on Wednesday. Transport: People travelling to Vienna by train are advised to use the station in Bratislava-Petrzalka due to renovation work in Marchegg.

People travelling to Vienna by train are advised to use the station in Bratislava-Petrzalka due to renovation work in Marchegg. Election: Slovakia's Foreign Ministry slammed the Russian intelligence service for questioning the integrity of free and democratic elections in Slovakia.

Slovakia's Foreign Ministry slammed the Russian intelligence service for questioning the integrity of free and democratic elections in Slovakia. Travel: The extensive restoration of the Western Palace of Beckov Castle, western Slovakia, is completed.

If you like what we are doing and want to support good journalism, buy our online subscription with no ads and a print copy of The Slovak Spectator sent to your home in Slovakia. Thank you.

PODCAST FOR TUESDAY

Slovak graffiti artist loved by Americans and Germans

Doke, Graffiti artist and videomaker from Slovakia. (Source: Facebook/DokeTV)

Martin Hirner, better known as Doke, the man behind the YouTube profile DokeTV, is a Slovak graffiti artist. Not only is he famous for his videos on the popular social network, but Doke has also been listed as the second top graffiti TikTok Influencer on InBeat's list of Top 10 Graffiti TikTok Influencers in 2023.



Listen to the podcast with Doke.

EVENT FOR WEDNESDAY

Illustrated children's books return to Bratislava

The Biennial of Illustrations in Bratislava (BIB)  the international exhibition of original illustrations of books for children and young people, opens on October 4. It will present the best works from the world of children's illustration in the last 2 years until December. The event is organised by BIBIANA, International House of Art for Children.

In other news

The Constitutional Court ruled that the compulsory imposition of the penalty of forfeiture of property for certain crimes is at odds with the constitution . The chief justice of the Constitutional Court, Ivan Fiacan, said that such an obligation contradicts the principle of proportionality of punishments. At the same time, it can create disproportionate interference with property rights. On the other hand, the Constitutional Court does not consider it justified to exclude the penalty

of forfeiture of property from the catalogue of available repressive instruments and has no reason to question it, as long as it meets the basic constitutional parameters.

. The chief justice of the Constitutional Court, Ivan Fiacan, said that such an obligation contradicts the principle of proportionality of punishments. At the same time, it can create disproportionate interference with property rights. On the other hand, the Constitutional Court does not consider it justified to exclude the penalty of forfeiture of property from the catalogue of available repressive instruments and has no reason to question it, as long as it meets the basic constitutional parameters. The 10th edition of the international defence and security technology fair IDEB Defense & Security opened in Bratislava on Tuesday .

. Total deposits for Saturday's parliamentary election in the Fortuna betting office reached almost 2 million. Bettors bet the most on the victory of the Smer party. The highest bets were worth almost 8,000.

Sutovske Jazero lake in northern Slovakia. (Source: Daniel Stehlik.)

WEATHER FOR WEDNESDAY: In some places, we can expect temporarily increased cloud cover and occasional showers. The highest daytime temperature will rise to 23C. Wednesday will be cooler in Zilina Region and in Upper Spis. (SHMU)

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P.S. If you have suggestions on how our news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231002/floridas-gaetz-files-motion-to-remove-mccarthy-from-house-speakership-1113869465.html

Florida's Gaetz Files Motion to Remove McCarthy From House Speakership

Florida's Gaetz Files Motion to Remove McCarthy From House Speakership

US Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) officially filed a motion late Monday to call for the removal of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

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americas

kevin mccarthy

house speaker

speaker of the house

matt gaetz

republicans

steve scalise

alexandria ocasio-cortez

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https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/0a/01/1113832002_0:160:3072:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_6e5fd685370a59e3a94e0c47d5c6bf7e.jpg

US Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) officially filed a motion late Monday to call for the removal of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a move likely to put the lower congressional chamber into chaos just days after a government shutdown was averted.Gaetz has been threatening McCarthy with a "vote to vacate" his position since the deal to avert the government shutdown was made. Gaetz has accused MacCarthy of making a "secret side deal on Ukraine" with Democrats. Gaetz and dozens of other House Republicans have stated their opposition to further funding of Kiev by Washington and aid to Ukraine was ultimately cut from the stop-gap funding bill.After filing the motion, Gaetz told reporters that he had enough Republican votes to oust McCarthy, unless he gets help from Democrats.The House will have two days to consider the measure, though it could be taken up earlier. A simple majority will be needed to oust McCarthy. Republicans have a slim nine-seat majority in the House. Typically, when House speakers are appointed, the minority party votes in unison against the nomination. If that holds for votes to vacate, Gaetz would only need a handful of Republicans to join him in removing McCarthy.However, this is largely uncharted waters. There has only been one vote to vacate the speakership in 1910. In more recent times, former Speaker John A. Boehner was threatened with the prospect but it was never voted on and Boehner resigned soon after.Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has already come out against Democrats coming to the aid of McCarthy, saying in an interview on US television on Sunday that her party doesn't "give up votes for free" and that she would "absolutely" vote to remove McCarthy.Other Democrats may consider voting to keep McCarthy however, especially since he reached across the aisle to pass the spending bill. However, his move to open a formal impeachment inquiry against US President Joe Biden has also angered Democrats, making any potential vote difficult to predict.Even if they decide against voting to keep McCarthy, Democrats could skip the vote or vote "present" which would lower the total number needed for a majority and make it easier for Republicans still loyal to McCarthy to defeat the measure without official support from the Democrats.Gaetz told reporters that in the event a vote for a new speaker is held, he would vote for Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), among other candidates. Scalise is the number two Republican in the House and his name was floated as a potential alternative when McCarthy struggled to secure the speakership at the start of the year.In fact, McCarthy only managed to secure the speakership after making various concessions and only after a 15th ballot was held in January 2023, a fact that Gaetz used to hint he isn't done with his attacks on McCarthy, even if this motion fails.It took Speaker McCarthy 15 votes to become the speaker, Gaetz said. "Until I get to 14 or 15, I dont think Im being any more dilatory."In order the secure the nomination and appease 20 Republican hardliners, McCarthy agreed to a series of procedural reforms, including that any lawmaker can call for a vote to vacate the position.McCarthy remained defiant in a post on X (formerly Twitter) apparently responding to the motion.McCarthy previously dared Gaetz and the other Republicans who oppose his speakership to try and remove him."If someone wants to remove because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try," he told reporters on Saturday morning ahead of the late Saturday vote to pass the spending bill.To avoid the vote entirely, McCarthy could hold a vote to table the resolution, which could then refer the motion to a committee favorable to him or kill it outright. Gaetz told reporters he hopes "that someone emerges out of this historic process who has greater vision and greater clarity and greater trust and confidence and more integrity," than McCarthy for the speaker position.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230107/that-was-easy-huh-kevin-mccarthys-bumpy-ride-to-speakers-chair--1106102898.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230922/frustrated-mccarthy-says-gop-hardliners-want-to-burn-the-whole-place-down-after-failed-vote-1113574123.html

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matt gaetz, kevin mccarthy, house speakership, motion to vacate, house of representatives
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/azov-militant-to-resume-role-as-leader-of-extremist-military-unit-1113888842.html

Azov Militant to Resume Role as Leader of Extremist Military Unit

Azov Militant to Resume Role as Leader of Extremist Military Unit

In July, four Azov* commanders returned from Turkiye to Ukraine. Russia considered the transfer of the Azov leaders by Ankara to Kiev to be a violation of the agreements reached before.

2023-10-03T16:31+0000

2023-10-03T16:31+0000

2023-10-03T16:31+0000

world

russia

ukraine

azov

turkiye

dmitry peskov

kremlin

nazi

nazi collaborators

ukrainian neo-nazis

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Denys Prokopenko, a notorious Azov fighter, has returned to Ukraine by Turkiye and been restored as the head of the terrorist assault brigade. He is now responsible for training military staff, reports Ihor Klimenko, Ukraine's interior minister.Prior to being taken prisoner by Russian troops in Mariupol, Prokopenko served as an Azov commanding officer.Volodymyr Zelensky paid a visit to Turkiye on July 7, which led to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan agreeing to release Azov's top command and return them to Kiev (including Denys Prokopenko, Sviatoslav Palamar, Serhii Volynsky, Oleh Khomenko, and Denis Schlega).The Azov officers were captured in a raid on the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol last May. Four months later, in September, Russia and Ukraine agreed to a prisoner exchange. The swap resulted in 215 Ukrainian and 56 Russian captives returning home. Under the deal between the two sides, the Azov fighters were supposed to remain in Turkiye until the end of the conflict.The Kremlin considered the handing over the Azov leadership to be a gross violation of the agreements on Turkiyes side. According to Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, Ankara was pressured into it. Turkiyes decision could be attributed to the failed Ukrainian counteroffensive, as well as to the outcome of the NATO summit, held in Vilnius in mid-July 2023.Last August, the Russian General Prosecutors office filed a lawsuit in Russia's Supreme Court with the aim of designating Azov as a terrorist organization and to ban its activities. Experts judged that Azov's ideology includes scientific racism (a belief that the human species can be differentiated into biologically distinct races), legally based racial segregation plans, as well as the denial of democracy, morality, and international law.According to pundits, members of Azov have targeted their political opponents and ethnic minorities, harassed Russian-speaking Ukrainian citizens, kidnapped and tortured people of Donbass, and been implicated in numerous war crimes.*Terrorist organization banned in Russia.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230921/us-may-be-supporting-neo-nazis-by-aiding-ukraine-congressmans-letter-to-blinken-and-austin-1113566796.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230806/nato-instructors-trained-neo-nazi-azov-battalion-soldiers-in-2021-1112420084.html

russia

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azov battalion, azov regiment, azov nazi, nazi azov, azov, nato trained ukrainian neo-nazi, ukrainian nazia, ukrainian nazi, nazis in ukraine, nazi in ukraine, nazism in ukraine, nazi state
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/canada-increases-crackdown-on-media-trump-begins-trial-in-nyc-and-govt-shutdown-averted-1113868833.html

Canada Increases Crackdown on Media, Trump Begins Trial in NYC, and Govt Shutdown Averted

Canada Increases Crackdown on Media, Trump Begins Trial in NYC, and Govt Shutdown Averted

On todays episode of The Backstory, host Rachel Blevins discussed current events including Congressman Jamal Bowman pulling a Congressional fire alarm, and the US Supreme rejecting a Trump disqualification case.

2023-10-03T04:03+0000

2023-10-03T04:03+0000

2023-10-03T09:27+0000

the backstory

radio

china

european union (eu)

disinformation

canada

empire

propaganda

ndaa

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https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/0a/02/1113868676_0:0:1920:1080_1920x0_80_0_0_ccab237126a703b968c6c7f12912c61e.png

Canada Increases Crackdown on Media, Trump Begins Trial in NYC, and Govt Shutdown Averted On todays episode of The Backstory, host Rachel Blevins discussed current events including Congressman Jamal Bowman pulling a Congressional fire alarm, and the US Supreme rejecting a Trump disqualification case

In the first hour, Rachel spoke with Mark Sleboda, International Relations and Security Analyst, about Slovakian elections, Ukraine fatigue spreads, and EU leaders meeting in Ukraine. Mark spoke about the goals of the elite class in Europe and the political theater argument between Poland and Ukraine. Mark discussed the upcoming elections in Poland and Britain's posture towards Russia.Rachel spoke with Jason Goodman, founder of Crowdsource the Truth, about Attorney General Letitia James's 'get Trump' agenda, high school antics in Congress, and the commitment of Ukraine. Jason spoke about the Republican-led Congressional hearings and the childlike behavior of Democrats in Congress. Jason critiqued the actions of New York Democrat Jamal Boman and video evidence of Bowman pulling the fire alarm.In the second hour, Rachel spoke with KJ Noh, Author, journalist and geopolitical analyst, about America's claims of Chinese threats, Obama's Asia Pivot, and the information war surrounding China and Russia. KJ Noh detailed the former rules-based order and Washington's unable to deal with a multi-polarity on the globe.Rachel spoke with Kelly Anne Wolfe, CEO of Canadian Democratic Defense Association, about another Canadian convoy for children, the Canadian government is in turmoil, and online content in Canada receives government regulation. Kelly spoke about recent legislation to regulate online content and a possible second convoy meet-up in Canada.The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.comCatch us at 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1390AM, 1140AM

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Rachel Blevins

the backstory, ukraine aid, drone warfare, jamal bowman, trump's fraud trial, china's dominance, chinese disinformation, slovak elections
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/could-biden-keep-arming-ukraine-as-pentagons-ukraine-funds-dry-out-1113892246.html

Could Biden Keep Arming Ukraine as Pentagon's Ukraine Funds Dry Out?

Could Biden Keep Arming Ukraine as Pentagon's Ukraine Funds Dry Out?

President Joe Biden has called upon American lawmakers to approve a new multi-billion package for Ukraine as funding for Kiev is drying out. Why has the Ukraine military aid become a sacred cow for the US establishment, and is it capable of keeping it uninterrupted?

2023-10-03T17:02+0000

2023-10-03T17:02+0000

2023-10-03T17:02+0000

ukraine

joe biden

analysis

opinion

michael maloof

kiev

washington

pentagon

congress

republican

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https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/08/1f/1113004603_0:0:3071:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_c1ae8fe610eba425ac330aa13800a13c.jpg

Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord has warned US lawmakers that the Department of Defense (DoD) has roughly $5.4 billion for Kiev in the presidential drawdown account and $1.6 billion left from the $25.9 billion in the congressionally approved Ukraine package. He warned that the US is swiftly running out of money while it has to replenish its own military stockpiles.The warning came after the GOP-controlled House of Representatives passed a stopgap measure to avoid the government shutdown which did not include funding for Ukraine. On Sunday, President Joe Biden fretted and fumed over the delay: "We cannot under any circumstances allow America's support for Ukraine to be interrupted," he said.So, why the rush?Republican opposition to Ukraine aid appears to have been gaining momentum in Washington. Last Thursday, roughly half of House Republicans voted to exclude $300 million for Ukraine from the Pentagon spending bill. Even though the money was later approved in a separate proposal to fund Kiev, the trend has triggered concerns in the US mainstream press.On Saturday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy did not include $6 billion for Ukraine (part of a new $24 billion package for Kiev requested by the White House) in a stopgap measure to keep the government running until November 17.It appears that members of congress did not want to clash over McCarthy's move as the spending deadline loomed and the measure was quickly passed. "I support being able to provide the weapons to Ukraine, but America comes first," McCarthy explained to a US broadcaster on October 1. "More Americans are dying on our border than Americans are dying in Ukraine."It's Unclear How Biden Will Continue to Arm UkraineMeanwhile, the Pentagon's Ukraine money may end very soon, given the way the Ukrainians are burning through all of this ammunition, according to Maloof. He expects that any ability to replenish Kiev is probably going to end by November 17.Under these circumstances, it's not clear how the US government is planning to ensure continuous help for Ukraine, he noted.Neither Americans Nor Europeans Want War With RussiaBoth Americans and Europeans seem to be getting tired of Washington's proxy war in Ukraine, per the former Pentagon analyst. September polls indicated that 41% of respondents believe Washington is sending too much aid to Kiev. When it comes to their political affiliations, 62% Republican voters said the US aid to Ukraine is excessive, with 17% of Dems sharing the same stance. In July, 55% of US respondents said Congress should not approve more funding for Kiev.Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, the Slovakian parliamentary elections resulted in the victory of ex-Prime Minister Robert Fico, who had promised to halt Bratislava's military aid for Kiev.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/uk-runs-out-of-weapons-to-send-to-ukraine--reports-1113880172.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/ukraine-loses-two-thirds-of-its-revenues-as-us-funding-dries-up-1113873811.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231002/us-state-department-suspends-long-term-contracting-for-ukraine-1113865030.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231001/does-absence-of-ukraine-funding-in-us-congress-shutdown-stopgap-bill-mean-end-of-support-1113844293.html

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joe biden, aid to ukraine, pentagon running out of money for ukraine, house stopgap measure, no aid for ukraine, pentagon weapons ukraine, biden pledged to keep arming ukraine, ukraine running out of ammo, ukraine running out of weapons, ukraine fatigue, us border crisis, volodymyr zelensky, president's drawdown authority, government shutdown
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/czech-republic-introduces-border-controls-with-slovakia-from-wednesday-1113885980.html

Czech Republic Introduces Border Controls With Slovakia From Wednesday

Czech Republic Introduces Border Controls With Slovakia From Wednesday

The Czech Republic has decided to introduce controls at the country's border with Slovakia as part of measures to counter illegal migration starting October 4, Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said on Tuesday.

2023-10-03T13:12+0000

2023-10-03T13:12+0000

2023-10-03T13:12+0000

world

border

border controls

slovakia

czech republic

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Earlier in the day, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said that Warsaw is introducing controls on its border with Slovakia for 10 days with the possibility of extension. The measures were taken in coordination with Poland and will last 10 days, until October 13, with the possibility of further extension, the minister added. Later in the day, Slovakia's Dennik N newspaper reported that the Slovak government would discuss the issue of border control on Wednesday. In mid-September, the country's former prime minister and the Smer party leader, Robert Fico, called on the Slovak government to reintroduce border controls with Hungary. Slovak Prime Minister Ludovit Odor responded by saying that border measures would not solve the problem of undocumented migrants, but would require increased government spending. Slovak police detained 17,529 undocumented migrants in the first seven months of this year, an increase of 15,611 compared to last year, the Balkan Insight news portal reported, adding that as of September 3, police had detained more than 27,000 people. Slovak police chief Stefan Hamran said at a press conference last month that migrants do not stay in Slovakia, but go to other European countries, especially Germany and Austria, where they ask for asylum.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230923/germany-seeking-to-introduce-border-controls-with-poland-czech-republic---minister-1113615587.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/eu-reportedly-mulls-unblocking-hungarys-billions-in-return-for-approval-of-ukraine-support--1113876179.html

EU Reportedly Mulls Unblocking Hungary's Billions in Return For Approval of Ukraine Support

EU Reportedly Mulls Unblocking Hungary's Billions in Return For Approval of Ukraine Support

The European Commission may reportedly unblock 13 billion euros ($13.6 billion) for Hungary in order to secure Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbans support for a 2024-2027 budget top-up, including assistance to Ukraine.

2023-10-03T09:32+0000

2023-10-03T09:32+0000

2023-10-03T10:01+0000

world

hungary

ukraine

european union (eu)

viktor orban

ursula von der leyen

josep borrell

european commission

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https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/03/0f/1093897453_0:0:3185:1792_1920x0_80_0_0_1e2b9d252ec7b3035eacc93e635c1def.jpg

The European Commission is believed to be mulling over unblocking 13 billion euros ($13.6 billion) for Hungary in order to secure Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbans support for a 2024-2027 budget top-up, including for assistance to Ukraine.European authorities could release the frozen funds by late November, officials were cited by a media publication as saying.Cohesion funds are designed to help less developed members of the 27-country bloc with a gross national income per capita below 90 percent of the EU-27 average.In September 2022, the European Commission froze EU funds earmarked for Hungary, citing concerns over the situation with human rights and alleged violation of EU rules. While initially the frozen sum was estimated to be around 7.5 billion euros ($7.8 billion), in December 2022, EU countries agreed to lower the overall sum of withheld funds to 6.3 billion euros ($6.5 billion). In exchange, Budapest launched a spate of judicial reforms in May. According to European Commission spokesman Stefan de Keersmaecker, Hungary is now expected to offer "clarifications" on the process, and once this has been done, the commission will continue its assessment."'Blackmail Against Budapest'The Hungarian prime minister has repeatedly said that the EU has been withholding funds from his country to influence its positions on issues ranging from migration and sex education, to anti-Russia sanctions. However, Hungary has displayed steadfast commitment to its stance despite pressure from the EU. Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto also stated earlier that "Brussels and the liberal propaganda machine" are prepared to use all forms of "blackmail" against Budapest.It was also reported that Hungary believes that the EU has spent a part of its share of frozen funding on supporting the Kiev regime. Besides being adamantly against joining the West's drummed up anti-Russia sanctions, Viktor Orban has repeatedly warned of the dangers that continuously pumping aid to Ukraine is fraught with. According to the Hungarian prime minister, it should be obvious to everyone that "the Third World War ould be knocking on our door so we have to be very careful, as he gave an interview earlier to Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.Amid the Ukrainian Armed Forces futile attempts to break through the Russian defensive lines in a counteroffensive that President Vladimir Putin said had brought no result, causing significant losses in manpower and NATO-gifted weaponry, supporting Ukraine is increasingly a divisive issue. The European Union's plans to hike up funds channeled to Kiev come amid a tussle in the United States between the Democrats and Republicans over whether or not to continue to fund Ukraine. Washington has spent a massive $75 billion on assistance to Ukraine, but US President Joe Biden has signed a short-term funding bill to avoid a government shutdown that does not include new funds for Kiev. The US Department of Defense has "exhausted nearly all available security assistance funding for Ukraine," one Pentagon official reportedly said.As for Europe, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Sunday that the bloc had allocated 85 billion euros ($89.8 billion) in support to Ukraine, of which over 25 billion euros had been provided in the form of military assistance."Our military support to Ukraine has reached the figure of 25 billion euros. And altogether - military, civilian, humanitarian [aid] - have reached the figure of 85 billion euros, which is the highest amount in the world," Borrell said at a press conference in Kiev, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.Moscow has repeatedly condemned foreign military aid to the Kiev regime, which only serves to prolong the conflagration. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov previously warned that any cargo containing weapons to fan NATO's proxy war against Russia in Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russia's military.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230929/orban-eu-may-have-given-hungarian-money-to-ukraine-1113790834.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231002/hungarys-fm-shuns-eu-diplomats-summit-in-kiev-to-meet-business-execs-1113852767.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231002/borrell-says-total-amount-of-eu-assistance-to-ukraine-reaches-898bln-1113847876.html

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Svetlana Ekimenko

hungary's frozen eu funds, to unblock hungary's eu funds, to release budapest's frozen funds, hungary to block any funding for kiev, funds for ukraine, increasing eu budget for 2024-2027
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/experiments-were-carried-out-why-ukrainian-soldiers-becoming-antibiotic-resistant-1113885591.html

'Experiments Were Carried Out': Why Ukrainian Soldiers Becoming Antibiotic-Resistant

'Experiments Were Carried Out': Why Ukrainian Soldiers Becoming Antibiotic-Resistant

A European healthcare system found that Ukrainian citizens who have arrived for treatment often have dangerous bacteria and antibiotic resistance. Western media raised the alarm about this phenomenon that might threaten the entire continent.

2023-10-03T15:24+0000

2023-10-03T15:24+0000

2023-10-03T15:24+0000

europe

world

biolab

ukraine

us centers for disease control (cdc)

bioweapon

biological weapon

biological warfare

biological experiments

antibiotic resistance

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https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/101343/74/1013437434_0:218:3834:2375_1920x0_80_0_0_420c4dbe1fdbf284dabef47774434343.jpg

Hospitals in several European countries have recorded significant growth of antibiotic resistance among Ukrainians arriving for treatment. So far, the exact cause of this remains unclear. The first case was announced in a research letter for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Germany in August, when a Ukrainian soldier was diagnosed with a number of dangerous infections that were not treatable with antibiotics.Western media recently highlighted that similar incidents were registered in several unnamed European countries, where wounded soldiers and refugees from Ukraine had gone. They cited hospital and hygiene infrastructure problems in Ukraine as one of the reasons the diseases spread, making it harder to take the usual precautions against antibiotic resistance. Media also pointed out the absence of tests to determine the correct antibiotic use in Ukrainian hospitals. Therefore, infections and antibiotic-resistance are often found only in Europe.However, experts told Sputnik that antibiotic resistance could be a sign that these people had undergone biological experiments.Dangerous BacteriaThe German CDC report claims the first case was officially registered in Germany. The wounded Ukrainian soldier was taken from Dnepropetrovsk to Kiev first, and then to an American military hospital in Germany. It was only when he was there that he was tested for infections and the unexpected discovery was made.According to the CDC, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Klebsiella pneumoniae can cause pneumonia, meningitis, as well as infections in wounds and in the urinary tract.Ukrainians, both military personnel and refugees, can be carriers of dangerous infections across both Ukraine and Europe. Thus, US researchers warned European countries of an increased risk of the spread of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDR):Nevertheless, immunologist Vladislav Zhemchugov, an expert in especially dangerous infections, believes that there is no epidemic risk in Europe because of the hospital-acquired nature of infection transmission. But antibiotic resistance is a serious problem.Biological Weapon AgentsLow standards of healthcare and uncontrolled use of antibiotics may not be the only causes of resistance. Igor Nikulin, former UN Commission on Chemical, Bacteriological, and Biological Weapons inspector, suggests there is another reason for such a dangerous trend. He explained that biological weapons agents - people who underwent biological experiments - were also resistant to antibiotics. There has been a clear example of such a phenomenon in the US.Russian MoD Warned About This Last YearIn July 2022, a report from Russia's Ministry of Defense claimed that Ukrainian military personnel were involved in experiments to assess the tolerance of dangerous infectious diseases.He also noted that Russian healthcare experts found antibodies against pathogens of a number of infectious diseases in Ukrainian prisoners of war: 33% of them were sick with hepatitis A, more than 4% had a fever with renal syndrome, while 20% had West Nile fever. According to the Russian military chief, these figures significantly exceeded the statistical average.Apparently, Ukrainian military personnel have already been treated for the listed infectious diseases, Igor Nikulin explained:

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230815/robert-kennedy-jr-admits-existence-of-us-bio-labs-in-ukraine-1112605514.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230412/us-working-on-universal-genetically-engineered-bioweapon-russian-parliamentary-investigation-1109381193.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230310/us-failed-to-deactivate-biolabs-in-ukraine-before-military-operation-as-washington-claimed-moscow-1108257926.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230201/truth-too-big-to-hide-how-washington-fails-to-sweep-ukraines-biolab-revelation-under-rug-1106893548.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230623/us-uk-seeking-to-destabilize-central-asia---russian-security-council-1111418617.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/floridas-gaetz-to-fall-flat-on-his-face-in-bid-to-oust-mccarthy-from-house-speakership-1113887253.html

Florida's Gaetz to 'Fall Flat on His Face' in Bid to Oust McCarthy From House Speakership

Florida's Gaetz to 'Fall Flat on His Face' in Bid to Oust McCarthy From House Speakership

Kevin McCarthy is not likely to be ousted from his position as House Speaker, Steve Abramowicz told Sputnik, adding they "don't have the votes."

2023-10-03T14:57+0000

2023-10-03T14:57+0000

2023-10-03T16:13+0000

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Kevin McCarthy is not likely to be ousted from his position as House speaker, Steve Abramowicz, owner and CEO of Mill Creek View, told Sputnik.They don't have the votes, he insisted.The Republican-controlled House of Representatives may have succeeded in passing a last-minute deal to extend government funding for 45 days and avert a shutdown, but the drama on Capitol Hill is far from over. What the convoluted process of hammering out a stop-gap budget bill has highlighted clearly, however, is the growing inner rift within the US political establishment over budget spending and, specifically, Ukraine aid.On October 2, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) began the process for holding a vote to remove Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, thus threatening to throw the lower chamber of Congress into further chaos.Matt Gaetz is going to try to bring a motion to vacate, but he's going to fall flat on his face, political commentator Angie Wong told Sputnik.Meanwhile, you and I, we may not have a government budget because of him. I don't support this," she added. According to Wong, people dont want to be part of this fight because the only person going down in all of this is Matt Gaetz.The Republican from Florida has been threatening McCarthy with a "vote to vacate" his position since the agreement was struck to avert a shutdown, accusing the speaker of making a "secret side deal on Ukraine" with the Democrats. Gaetz, along with dozens of other House GOP members, has voiced opposition to further funding of the Kiev regime by Washington. That is how additional aid to Ukraine was ditched from the stop-gap funding bill. However, on Sunday, Joe Biden appeared to suggest in a comment to reporters that he had made a deal with McCarthy to pass a temporary government budget bill. Biden said he expected McCarthy to keep his commitment to secure passage and support needed to fund Ukraine.This prompted Gaetz to question angrily on the House floor on Monday:US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy denied the existence of a secret deal on Ukraine aid between him and US President Joe Biden."No, that's not true at all. There is no side deal with President Biden," McCarthy said in an interview late on Monday, adding that he had not spoken with the president for months.Still, Rep. Matt Gaetz earlier went on record as saying it was time to rip off the Band-Aid, and move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy. Gaetz has accused McCarthy in a plethora of interviews of being in brazen, material breach of agreements struck with House Republicans back in January, when he ran for speaker. Its worth recalling that at the time, it took 15 rounds of voting to gain the support McCarthy required to secure the post.The House will now have 48 hours to consider the measure, with a simple majority needed to oust McCarthy. Republicans hold a slim nine-seat majority in the House. Typically, when House speakers are appointed, the minority party votes in unison against the nomination. If that holds for votes to vacate, Gaetz would only need a handful of Republicans to join him in removing McCarthy. One Democrat -- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- was cited as saying she would vote to remove McCarthy.Several GOP representatives, like Rep. Rick Allen, R-Georgia, urged Gaetz against filing the motion against McCarthy, warning that such chaos among Republicans was what the Democrats would rejoice in."It's our job to do the American people's work. If we disrupt the leadership in our conference, you're gonna destroy everything we've worked for for the last almost a year," Allen said.Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) also slammed Gaetzs diatribe of delusional thinking.McCarthys response to Gaetzs threat was, So be it. Bring it on. Lets get over with it and lets start governing.Political commentator Angie Wong speculated that Gaetz was "going to look like a fool because he's a bully that cannot win."Wong was making reference to the rules of the House that allow for any single lawmaker, whether Democrat or Republican, to make a motion to vacate the chair.Angie Wong reiterated that Matt Gaetz was walking a thin line" on the issue of McCarthy.According to the pundit, there is a real opportunity if he [Gaetz] doesn't stop his shenanigans, that Kevin McCarthy and crew will find a way of ousting him. They've already said we have the House ethics investigation into you."Media reports have been suggesting some House Republicans are exploring the possibility of expelling Gaetz, depending on the findings of the Ethics Committee, which is investigating allegations of sexual misconduct, bribery, and campaign finance violations, among other alleged offenses. Gaetz has denied he committed any crimes."They haven't released a single droplet of content, but we know what's in there. And when they do release it, he's done for. So this is like do or die for him, Angie Wong underscored.For more in-depth analysis of current affairs, tune in to our Sputnik Radio shows.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231002/floridas-gaetz-files-motion-to-remove-mccarthy-from-house-speakership-1113869465.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/mccarthy-denies-existence-of-secret-deal-with-biden-on-ukraine-aid-1113881679.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/government-shutdown-avoided-slovakia-election-rfk-jr-running-independent-1113870103.html

Government Shutdown Avoided; Slovakia Election; RFK Jr. Running Independent?

Government Shutdown Avoided; Slovakia Election; RFK Jr. Running Independent?

The US government has avoided a shutdown, and RFK Jr. is reportedly leaning towards leaving the Democratic party due to DNC election interference.

2023-10-03T04:06+0000

2023-10-03T04:06+0000

2023-10-03T09:57+0000

the critical hour

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Government Shutdown Avoided; Slovakia Election; RFK Jr. Running Independent? The US government has avoided a shutdown, and RFK Jr. is reportedly leaning towards leaving the Democratic party due to DNC election interference.

Mark Sleboda, Moscow-based international relations security analyst, joins us to discuss Ukraine. The Slovakian election has concerned US neocons as the new leader has vowed to stop supporting the Ukraine conflict. Mark Sleboda says "that this is the first government that was part of the NATO EU effort to support the Kiev regime that has fallen."Jim Kavanagh, whose work can be found at Jim' Kavanagh's Substack, thepolemicist.net, and Counterpunch, joins us to discuss the government shutdown. A government shutdown has been avoided and further aid to Ukraine is in question. Dr. Jim Kavanagh says they are simply delaying decisions about spending all across the board. He also says the right-wing has put McCarthy in a serious political bind over new spending. This is a symptom of a divided country. Also, the support for the Ukraine war is eroding.Misty Winston, radio host and political commentator, joins us to discuss the Biden impeachment and the 2024 election. The impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden is proceeding in the US House of Representatives. Misty Winston says that this is the frontline fight for truth. The ruling elite are controlling the narratives, and the Biden stuff is being portrayed as under attack by the GOP. She says that people fall for it, and the elite use repetition to convince people that falsehoods are true.KJ Noh, peace activist, writer, and teacher, joins us to discuss Asia. Kim Jong Un's official visit to the Russian Federation may show that the days of North Korea's isolation may be over. KJ Noh says that North Korea has never been strategically isolated. He argues that North Korea has increased its cooperation with Russia in important ways. He also says that this is the rising multipolar world, and it is related to the African states that are kicking out the French.Laith Marouf, broadcaster and journalist, joins us to discuss the Middle East. New Zealand's labor party has committed to recognizing Palestine. Laith Marouf says that this is important because it comes from New Zealand in that large numbers of indigenous people residing in that nation have supported the Palestinian cause. He says that the West has been colonizing and genociding people for centuries and refusing to recognize the humanity of their victims.Dr. Gerald Horne, Professor of History at the University of Houston, TX, author, historian, and researcher, joins us to discuss Africa. South Sudan's President has met with Russian President Putin to discuss closer energy and trade ties. Dr. Horne says that President Putin will meet with President Xi Jinping in a few days, which will be critical. He says that the US and Israel wanted to break up Sudan due to its military regarding the Palestinian question. Also, the oil deal will come from this meeting concerning the US Empire because it will increase Moscow's influence on the world oil market.Dan Kovalik, writer, author, and lawyer, joins us to discuss Canadian fascism. Canada and the US Empire are set for their clandestine race war against Russia. Dan Kovalik says that we are seeing a whitewash and revision of history. Over time, people in the West have been slowly taught that the US and Germany were on the same side in WW2. He also says the West allied with Nazis after WW2 to use the Nazi network against the Soviet Union.Niko House, political activist, independent journalist, and podcaster, discusses censorship. Kit Klarenberg argues that the CIA and NSA created Google. Niko House says the CIA is tied in with many prominent Silicon Valley companies. He argues that the unlimited funding for these operations allows them to overtake their competitors.The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.comCatch us at 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1390AM, 1140AM

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/how-clinton-used-russias-1993-crisis-to-dupe-yeltsin-on-natos-eastward-march-1113895633.html

How Clinton Used Russias 1993 Crisis to Dupe Yeltsin on NATOs Eastward March

How Clinton Used Russias 1993 Crisis to Dupe Yeltsin on NATOs Eastward March

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the bloody finale to the 1993 Russian Constitutional Crisis  which saw the streets of Moscow turned into a... 03.10.2023, Sputnik International

2023-10-03T19:01+0000

2023-10-03T19:01+0000

2023-10-03T19:33+0000

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In the early morning hours of October 4, 1993, Russian security forces loyal to President Boris Yeltsin surrounded the Russian parliament building  where Vice President Alexander Rutskoy, parliamentary chairman Ruslan Khasbulatov, hundreds of rebellious Supreme Soviet lawmakers, and ordinary citizens opposed to the Yeltsin government and its political and economic reform agenda were holed up. Pro-Yeltsin forces made preparations to storm the building after the brewing constitutional crisis turned violent on the night of October 3, as supporters of the Supreme Soviet made an attempt to take over the Ostankino Television Center.At 7 am, flares were lit, signaling the start of an operation to storm the building and smoke lawmakers out, with armored personnel carriers ramming through makeshift barricades along the Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment, and tanks rumbling down Kutuzovsky Prospect, positioning themselves on Novoarbatsky Bridge and firing into the building, as Army and special forces units peppered it with small arms fire.By mid-day, with the parliament building heavily damaged and on fire, and dozens of its defenders killed and hundreds wounded, the leaders of the anti-Yeltsin insurrection announced readiness to lay down their arms to prevent further bloodshed and escape certain death.What Triggered the Constitutional Crisis?The October crisis, also referred to as Black October, was the culmination of a political dual power crisis which began to take shape in the immediate aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. The Yeltsin governments Western-supported shock therapy economic reform agenda, which impoverished tens of millions of Russians overnight, plus his attempts to consolidate more and more power into the hands of the presidency, met with growing opposition from the parliamentary majority. Under the political system that Yeltsin and the Supreme Soviet inherited, lawmakers maintained significant powers to block, stall, sabotage or at water down reforms, making the October crisis all but an inevitable in the long run.On September 21, 1993, after more than a year-and-a-half of bitter back-and-forth wrangling for power with the Supreme Soviet, Yeltsin appealed to the nation on television and issued Decree No. 1400  ordering the dissolution of parliament and scheduling elections to the State Duma  a new parliamentary organ meant to replace the Supreme Soviet, for December 1993.Under the constitution, Yeltsin did not actually have the authority to dissolve or interfere with the functioning of any elected organs of state power, with the document making clear in no uncertain terms that if he attempted to do so, his powers would cease immediately.Thousands of Muscovites and people from across Russia descended onto the streets of Moscow to show their support for the Supreme Soviet, with Yeltsins backers staging their own gatherings, and street protests often turning into violent confrontations between demonstrators and riot police. Electricity, heating, food deliveries and other amenities to the Supreme Soviet were cut off, with the building blockaded by security forces loyal to the president.Americas Role During the CrisisThe fall 1993 crisis posed a major threat to Washington  which had just gained a firm friend in the figure of Boris Yeltsin after the collapse of the USSR, and did not want to lose him, or worse, see the return to power of communist and/or radicalized patriotic forces threatening US plans for Russia and Eastern Europe.In 2018, the Clinton Presidential Library released a large trove of transcripts of conversations between Yeltsin and President Bill Clinton, revealing, among other things, the dramatic extent to which Washington sought to control Moscow through the reform process from the highest level, while simultaneously taking advantage of Russias political, economic and military weakness to push through the Clinton White Houses NATO expansion agenda.On September 21, 1993, the same day that Yeltsin issued Decree No. 1400, he and Clinton spoke by phone, with the US president assuring his Russian counterpart that he had Washington's full support, and asking how the hardline measures would affect Yeltsins position and the process of reform in Russia.Bill, the Supreme Soviet has totally gone out of control. It no longer supports the reform process. They have become communist. We cannot no longer put up with that [sic], Yeltsin said, confirming that effective immediately and until the December vote, Russia would be ruled by presidential decree.All democratic forces are supporting me, Yeltsin assured.I intend to be in touch with our allies in Europe and Asia to underscore the importance of support for reform in Russia at this critical juncture. I just want to say again that you will have my support and the support of the American people, Clinton said, adding that a $2.5 billion aid package was in the works.Details Still Shrouded in Mystery30 years on from the events of fall of 1993, some crucial details surrounding the clashes between the pro-Yeltsin security forces and defenders of the Supreme Soviet remain murky. For example, according to official tallies, between October 3-4, the violence at the Supreme Soviet and the Ostankino Television Center claimed the lives of 158 people (including 130 civilians and 28 military personnel and police), with 750+ people wounded. But tallies by Russian journalists and historians put the death toll much higher, with some estimates of fatalities of 1,500 or more people.Another blank spot in events surrounding Black October relate to the mysterious, never-identified snipers who took part in the violence, including numerous reports over the years that the bloodshed may have actually been unleashed by sharpshooters firing from the rooftops of the American Embassy, situated about 500 meters from the parliament building. Russian security service sources and parliamentarians cited by historians, documentary filmmakers and even a few government officials have indicated that fire coming from the rooftops of the Embassy targeted security personnel, White House defenders and even civilians, with the possible aim of stir[ring] up a rebellion and incit[ing] fratricidal war within Russia.Yeltsins After Action Report to ClintonOn October 5, while the Supreme Soviet building was still smoldering, and the streets around it were cleaned of smashed barricades, rubble, wreckage and blood, the Russian and US presidents held a second telephone call, in which Clinton reiterated his close support for Yeltsin, and stressed that he had followed the events closely.Bill, thank you very much for your support, which I knew and felt would be coming. Now that these events are over, we have no more obstacles to Russias democratic elections and our transition to democracy and a market economy. The fascist organizations that had been active in these events have now been banned, so now I feel that all will be fine. Its too bad that some people were killed, but this is the fault of those who were the first to open fire and acted in a provocative way, Yeltsin said, pointing the finger squarely at the Supreme Soviet's defenders.Yeltsin assured that he had restored full control over the situation, and that regional leaders, including those who had expressed support for Rutskoy, were changing their support to us, with the courts to decide what punishments to mete out to the rebellious lawmakers.Opportunity for NATOBoth before and immediately after the October crisis, the United States took advantage of Yeltsins domestic political weakness to flirt openly with the idea of NATO expansion toward Russias borders. Moscows efforts to cozy up to Washington toward formal alliance status were first rebuked by Clintons predecessor, George H.W. Bush, who clarified in February 1992, just weeks after the Soviet collapse, that the Russian-US relationship would be one of friendship, not alliance.I tell you plainly that we favor a different approach, one that leads to a truly pan-European security system, an approach predicated on collective (but not on the basis of bloc membership) actions to prevent and resolve the crises and conflicts that now have Europe in turmoil. Security must be indivisible and must be based on pan-European structures, Yeltsin added.The primary threat to Europe is now posed, not by confrontation between East and West but by a new generation of inter-ethnic conflicts. Quantitative expansion of NATO will hardly solve the problem of how to counteract these conflicts effectively. What needs to be done is to augment crisis prevention and peacemaking on a fully continental scale, the Russian president argued.Yeltsin also warned that while he personally did not see potential NATO expansion as an automatic indication of the alliance turning against Russia, it was important to take into account how our public opinion might react to such a step. Not only the opposition, but moderate circles as well, would no doubt perceive this as a sort of neo-isolation of our country in diametric opposition to its natural admission into the Euro-Atlantic space, he wrote.In late October, several weeks after the Supreme Soviet's rebellion was routed, Clinton Secretary of State Warren Christopher visited Moscow to assuage Yeltsins concerns, assuring him that the approach for future new membership in [NATO] was inclusive and non-discriminatory, and that the Partnership for Peace  a NATO initiative designed to ramp up diplomatic cooperation with countries in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, would be an alternative to NATO expansion, not a precursor to it.This is genius! a relieved Yeltsin exclaimed, saying the brilliant idea would ensure that Russia would not be treated like a second-class citizen but be equal partners with the West.Christopher later claimed that Yeltsin didnt appear to understand him, possibly because he was inebriated, and alleged that Yeltsins foreign minister, Andrei Kozyrev, failed to explain to the Russian president that the Partnership for Peace could indeed ultimately lead to NATO membership.Weeks after the December 1993 elections, Clinton finally addressed the NATO expansion issue personally in a phone call with Yeltsin.Can I make one other point? Clinton asked near the close of their long December 22, 1993 conversation after chewing the fat about elections, the new Russian parliamentary system, economic reforms and Western assistance. Please do, Yeltsin said.Its about our foreign policy agenda. I will be in Brussels for the NATO Summit and in Prague before I see you and will want to discuss Russian participation in NATOs Partnership for Peace proposal, Clinton said.I hope we can agree on cooperative efforts to dispel those fearsIt will be important to allay concerns by producing concrete movement on Ukraine nuclear issues and also on the Baltics. I dont know where you are on that, but I think it would be a good way to demonstrate the positive changes you have already brought to Russian foreign policy, the US president said.Clinton did not respond directly to Yeltsins point about possible Russian membership in the alliance, smoothly shifting the conversation to another topic.In January 1994, before his visit to Moscow, Clinton met with leaders of the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, confirming that the Partnership for Peace program was simply a track that will lead to NATO membership.NATO Expansion 'Sows Seeds of Mistrust'By the end of that year, finally fully cottoned on to Washingtons plans to incorporate Eastern Europe, but not Russia, into the bloc, Yeltsin asked Clinton point black at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe summit in December 1994 why the US had chosen to sow the seeds of mistrust.Europe is in danger of plunging into a cold peace. History demonstrates that it is a dangerous illusion to suppose that the destinies of continents and the world community in general can somehow be managed from one single capital, Yeltsin said.Yeltsin repeated his opposition to alliance expansion several times after that. Washington ignored the complaints, formally announcing plans to incorporate Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary into NATO in 1997. The expansion, warned against by top US foreign policy minds, including containment doctrine guru George Kennan, laid the foundation for Russian-US distrust, ultimately culminating in the Ukrainian crisis and NATOs proxy war against Russia using Kiev.In April 2022 in a column in The Atlantic, Clinton retroactively attempted to whitewash his role in fomenting the conflict in Ukraine, claiming that throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, we left the door open for Russias eventual membership in NATO.The idea that we ignored, disrespected, or tried to isolate Russia is false. Yes, NATO expanded despite Russias objections, but expansion was about more than the US relationship with Russia, Clinton wrote. The former president went on to cite Russias special military operation in Ukraine as proof that he made the right call, ignoring Washington's explicit commitment to Moscow not to expand "one inch east" of a reunified Germany in 1990.NATOs Expansionism: A Historic Inevitability?Dr. Matthew Crosston, a professor of national security at Bowie State University, told Sputnik that unfortunately, the palpable positive energy and excitement experienced by many Russians and ordinary Americans after the end of the Cold War quickly took a back seat to plans by Washington policymakers to maximize as much as possible the reality of what was considered the greatest historical victory ever achieved by the United States.There was a very famous article written around this time period by Francis Fukuyama, entitled The End of History. Its main de facto premise was that the greatest ideological competition had concluded and democracy had won, thus signaling no other serious ideological competitions to be had. It was the end of history and the ultimate victor was American democracy. This wasnt exactly what Fukuyama meant, of course. But it was the conclusion that Washington took from the article and lived with pretty much to this day. Certainly, that mentality dominated the entire 90s when it came to how the United States acted toward the new Russian Federation: we won; you lost. From this point forward, your best path, Russia, is simply following the advice we offer you and do exactly as we tell you, Dr. Crosston explained.Yeltsin, Crosston believes, clearly wanted the best for Russia and wanted to create a new relationship dynamic between the United States and his country, but soon realized that the US was not going to work with him to make it possible to craft a truly brand new and profoundly different relationship between the supposedly former rivals. The former Russian president truly believed if he open-heartedly embraced a cooperative relationship with America that the US would reciprocate and not take advantage. That belief was unfortunately somewhat naive, and it was manipulated by some of his closest advisors within his own Kremlin team, according to the observer.Ultimately, the academic emphasized that NATOs prevailing doctrine after the Cold War revolved around the idea of keeping Russia an enemy, with the old way of thinking causing the least disruption to existing institutional bureaucracies in Washington.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20181003/russia-1993-crisis-moscow-1068561879.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/hungary-got-no-statements-from-european-commission-on-unlocking-136bln---minister-1113893986.html

Hungary Got No Statements From European Commission on Unlocking $13.6Bln - Minister

Hungary Got No Statements From European Commission on Unlocking $13.6Bln - Minister

Hungary has so far received no official statements from the European Commission on the possibility of unfreezing 13 billion euros ($13.6 billion) in EU funds or any conditions for this move, Hungarian Minister for Regional Development Tibor Navracsics stated on Tuesday.

2023-10-03T17:26+0000

2023-10-03T17:26+0000

2023-10-03T17:26+0000

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Earlier in the day, a british newspaper reported that the European Commission was considering releasing the funds for Hungary to solicit Budapest's support for a new increased common budget, which includes aid to Ukraine. He added that Budapest was waiting for confirmation from the European Commission that there is a possibility to unfreeze the funds. Hungary expects to settle outstanding matters with Brussels by the end of 2023, the minister stressed, opining that his country had met all requests brought by the European Commission. Navracsics also emphasized that Hungary received no request from Brussels to approve more assistance to Ukraine from the EU budget in return for the unblocking of funds. He suggested that the commission could consider both issues simultaneously but ruled out a package decision on them. The speech comes days after Gergely Gulyas, the Hungarian prime minister's chief of staff, hinted that Hungary might veto further EU funding for Ukraine unless Brussels unfroze budget money it was withholding from Budapest over alleged noncompliance with EU values. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has proposed topping up the 2024-2027 EU budget with an additional 66 billion euros, most of which will be used to support Ukraine over the next four years.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/eu-reportedly-mulls-unblocking-hungarys-billions-in-return-for-approval-of-ukraine-support--1113876179.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230929/orban-eu-may-have-given-hungarian-money-to-ukraine-1113790834.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230817/russia-grows-richer-while-west-bleeds-trillions-amid-failed-sanctions--funding-ukraine-1112666650.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/india-demands-that-canada-withdraw-some-40-diplomats-by-october-10---reports-1113873315.html

India Demands That Canada Withdraw Some 40 Diplomats by October 10 - Reports

India Demands That Canada Withdraw Some 40 Diplomats by October 10 - Reports

India has demanded that Canada repatriate roughly 40 diplomats from the country by October 10, following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's remark that New Delhi may have been linked to the murder of a Sikh independence activist in Canada, media reported, citing people familiar with the demand.

2023-10-03T04:25+0000

2023-10-03T04:25+0000

2023-10-03T04:25+0000

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One of the sources told the media that Canada had 62 diplomats in India, adding that New Delhi had told Ottawa to reduce the number by 41 people. Another source said that New Delhi had threatened to revoke the diplomatic immunity of Canadian diplomats who remained after that date, the report said. India has reportedly said it wanted "parity" in the number and grade of diplomats posted in each nation. Trudeau said in September that Canada was examining "credible allegations" potentially linking Indian officials to the June 18 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar by two masked gunmen in Surrey, British Columbia. The prominent separatist leader campaigned for the creation of an independent Sikh state in India called Khalistan. Following the incident, Canada expelled a high-ranking Indian diplomat allegedly linked with Indian foreign intelligence. In response to Ottawa's actions, the Indian authorities announced their decision to expel a senior Canadian diplomat and asked him to leave the country within five days. The Indian Foreign Ministry later urged its citizens planning to visit or currently in Canada to exercise extra caution in view of "growing anti-India activities."

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230927/hybrid-war-why-do-the-us-and-canada-protect-extremists-1113737989.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230928/us-canada-seek-to-destabilize-india-through-khalistan-separatist-movement-1113771194.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/india-to-create-intelligence-posts-along-chinese-border---reports-1113882870.html

India to Create Intelligence Posts Along Chinese Border - Reports

India to Create Intelligence Posts Along Chinese Border - Reports

India will create Border Intelligence Posts (BIPs) to monitor Chinese activity, including military buildup and incursion attempts into Indian territory, along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Indian media reported on Tuesday citing sources.

2023-10-03T11:15+0000

2023-10-03T11:15+0000

2023-10-03T11:15+0000

asia

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Intelligence officials deployed on the border will operate in collaboration with troops of the Indian Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and report any unusual activity from the Chinese side, the Indian newspaper reported citing an official who claimed anonymity. India and China have thousands of square miles of disputed borderlands between them, from the Ladakh region, which is triangulated with Pakistan's Kashmir claims, to Arunachal Pradesh to the east of Bhutan. Border conflicts are a permanent fixture of India-China relations, as both countries do not have a marked border but rather the so-called Line of Actual Control, created after the 1962 war between both nations. A new escalation took place in Ladakh in May 2020, when a series of conflicts between the Chinese and Indian militaries broke out in the Lake Pangong area, after which New Delhi and Beijing increased their military presence in the region. After the withdrawal of most of the deployed troops in February 2021, the two sides held several rounds of talks at the level of diplomats and corps commanders stationed in the region. A new pullback of troops took place in Ladakh in September 2022, after which China and India continued to discuss the remaining issues in border areas between their militaries and diplomats.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230623/indian-prime-minister-visits-us-amid-row-with-china-1111405118.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/mass-anti-government-rally-takes-place-in-berlin-1113875928.html

Mass Anti-Government Rally Takes Place in Berlin

Mass Anti-Government Rally Takes Place in Berlin

Sputnik is live as protesters gather in Berlin to mark German Unity Day.

2023-10-03T10:50+0000

2023-10-03T10:50+0000

2023-10-03T10:50+0000

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Sputnik comes live as thousands of people take to Berlin's streets on German Unity Day to protest against the coalition government's policies. Berlin-based groups are holding rallies on the streets of the German capital, calling for transparent political dialogue and peace talks in Ukraine.On German Unity Day, ministers and members of the federal government customarily hold ministerial talks at the Dialogue Forum; this year, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius will announce a turning point in the country's security policy. Follow Sputniks feed to find out more!

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/nazism-isnt-nuanced-internet-rips-op-ed-blaming-complicated-history-for-canada-nazi-row-1113883227.html

'Nazism Isnt Nuanced': Internet Rips Op-Ed Blaming 'Complicated History' for Canada Nazi Row

'Nazism Isnt Nuanced': Internet Rips Op-Ed Blaming 'Complicated History' for Canada Nazi Row

Outrage drove internet users to converge upon a recent X post linked to an op-ed by POLITICO Europe, claiming that 'Fighting against the USSR didnt necessarily make you a Nazi.'

2023-10-03T13:18+0000

2023-10-03T13:18+0000

2023-10-03T13:38+0000

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Outrage, indignation, revulsion  these powerful emotions drove Internet users to converge upon a recent stomach-churning post on X (formerly Twitter) linked to an op-ed by POLITICO Europe."Holocaust revisionism" by "Hitleritico" was how sickened users branded the piece that the European edition of the German-owned news organization had whipped out amid the ongoing scandal over honoring a Ukrainian Nazi veteran in Canada's Parliament.The story brazenly applied the word nuanced and complex when referencing Nazism, understandably making many readers blood run cold. Referring to the mass outrage over the Hunka row, the outlet wrote that it stems from his enlistment with one of the foreign legions of the Waffen-SS, fighting Soviet forces on Germanys eastern front. The author of the story titled Fighting against the USSR didnt necessarily make you a Nazi, printed on October 2, went on to ludicrously stipulate that it was a demonstration of how when history is complicated, it can be a gift to propagandists who exploit the appeal of simplicity.To unravel the meaning of this phrase for you, the outlet actually suggested that, history is complicated because fighting against the USSR at the time didnt necessarily make you a Nazi, and simple narratives like everybody in the SS was guilty of war crimes are more pervasive because theyre much simpler to grasp.Needless to say, the publication's post on X was inundated by replies and community notes. (The latter allow users to collaboratively add context to what are perceived as potentially misleading posts. If enough contributors rate that note as helpful, the note is publicly shown on a post.)Waffen-SS members had to swear allegiance to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, which would necessarily make them Nazis, one community note reads, adding a link to the Waffen-SS article on Wikipedia.Nazism was not complex and nuanced, users wrote, pointing out that it actually is very simple, the Waffen SS were very bad.Users slammed POLITICO for publishing straight up holocaust revisionism.Others on the Internet social media platform questioned if this is for real, and what on earth the outlet was doing, and demanded the post be deleted.Simply put, Hunka is a nazi and he should be behind bars, underscored the replies and community notes.Still others on the Internet homed in on how the entire row and depiction of it on such media platforms demonstrates that Canada has a long and consistent history of supporting fascists as long as it opposes socialists or communists.Moscow, outraged by the honoring of a Ukrainian Nazi veteran in the Canadian Parliament, has since pointed out that the crimes of Nazism have no statute of limitations."Such a sloppy attitude towards memory, and memory should be preserved in relation to the Nazis, no matter how old they were, there is no statute of limitations for these crimes ... such sloppiness, of course, is outrageous. It is outrageous," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.However, at the same time Russia has no illusions about the prospects for the extradition of Yaroslav Hunka, Russian Ambassador to Ottawa Oleg Stepanov told Sputnik.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230925/untold-story-of-how-canada-became-a-safe-haven-for-ukrainian-wwii-era-nazis-1113656627.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/outside-of-partisans-few-americans-want-to-vote-for-biden-or-trump---poll-1113871452.html

Outside of Partisans, Few Americans Want to Vote for Biden or Trump - Poll

Outside of Partisans, Few Americans Want to Vote for Biden or Trump - Poll

Most voters are not enthusiastic about Biden and Trump being their respective parties' nominees, with every group other than party members indicating a dislike for the candidates.

2023-10-03T02:53+0000

2023-10-03T02:53+0000

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A Monmouth University poll released on Monday shows that outside of members of their party, few US registered voters are happy about the prospect of voting for either US President Joe Biden or former US President Donald Trump for the 20204 election. While the poll shows voters are not happy with either choice, Biden performed significantly worse than his likely Republican opponent in most of the survey's questions.Only 37% of voters say they are either very or somewhat enthusiastic about Trump becoming the Republican nominee for president, and an even lower percentage, 32%, say the same about Biden.The only group of voters that Trump and Biden performed well in were those inside their respective parties, though Trump outperformed Biden there as well. Some 78% of Republicans said they were enthusiastic about Trump, with 47% saying they were very enthusiastic. Another 68% of Democrats said they were enthusiastic about Biden but less than a third (29%) of Democrats described themselves as very enthusiastic about the prospect of a Biden nomination.Independents are particularly turned off by both likely candidates from the two major parties. Only 32% of Independents say they will definitely or probably vote for Biden. Trump performed slightly better, with 43% saying the same about him.The findings left roughly 25% of Independent voters saying they will definitely not or probably not vote for either candidate. Combined with the 14% of Democrats who say the same about Biden and the 12% of Republicans who say that about Trump, a total of roughly 51% of registered voters are considering either voting for the partys other candidate, not voting at all, or planning to vote for a third-party candidate.There has not been a significant third-party candidate since Ross Perot in 1992, when the outsider businessman briefly led in the polls and ended with 18.91% of the popular vote.Another concerning response in the poll for the Biden administration seems to be a lack of support from what would traditionally be his base. More than half of the respondents who said they identify as liberal (regardless of party affiliation) are either not at all enthusiastic or not too enthusiastic about a Biden nomination. By contrast, only 38% of voters who identified as conservative felt the same about Trump.The poll also reflected previous polling about the two candidates ages. About 48% of voters in the questionnaire said they feel Trump is too old to serve another presidential term, while 80% said the same about Biden. The commander-in-chief is currently 80 years old while Trump is 77. While three years does not seem like a big gap between the two, other factors may be in play, including a series of high-profile gaffes by Biden, including multiple incidents where he seemed to shake hands with thin air.The one silver lining in the poll for the Biden administration is that voters do not yet see the impeachment inquiry against him as something worth being impeached over. Only 34% of voters say Bidens actions are worthy of impeachment, with an additional 16% saying he may have violated [his] oath but not in a way that warrants impeachment.By contrast, 46% of voters say Trump committed a crime in his response to the 2020 election and another 29% say he did something wrong but not criminal.Meanwhile, only 27% of voters say the legal troubles of first son Hunter Biden will make them less likely to support Biden in the election.Biden was also viewed slightly less unfavorably than Trump, with 45% of respondents saying they have a "very unfavorable" view of him, compared to 50% of voters who said that about Trump.The survey was conducted between September 19 and 24 among a total of 737 registered US voters.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230626/none-of-the-above-more-us-voters-reject-trump-and-biden-than-back-each-one-1111472895.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230722/how-democrats--republicans-stole-votes-from-the-greens-libertarians-in-2020-1112065719.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230828/biden-too-old-to-serve-second-term--poll-1112941500.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/poland-ukraine-may-face-complex-relations-in-coming-months---govt-1113886892.html

Poland, Ukraine May Face Complex Relations in Coming Months

Poland, Ukraine May Face Complex Relations in Coming Months

Poland and Ukraine may experience complex relations in the coming months, but Warsaw does not intend to meet Kiev's economic expectations regarding the grain embargo, Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller stated on Tuesday.

2023-10-03T13:40+0000

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2023-10-03T14:07+0000

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"[We are] not freezing relations, but we know very well that Ukraine also has its own economic interests, for example, in the field of agriculture, and we will not be able and will not want to live up to these expectations from Ukraine," Muller told reporters, describing the relations between the two countries as "complex" in the near future. However, "this does not mean that these relations will be bad," Muller added. The Poland-Ukraine relations have deteriorated significantly in recent months over the influx of Ukrainian grain into the European Union. Poland, alongside Slovakia and Hungary, unilaterally extended a ban on duty-free Ukrainian grain imports after EU-imposed curbs lapsed on September 15. Ukrainian Deputy Economy Minister Taras Kachka said that Kiev viewed the decision as unlawful and would soon introduce an embargo on a number of Polish agricultural products in response. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, in turn, has vowed to expand the list of Ukrainian products banned from import.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230913/ukraine-grain-conflict-divides-eu-again-1113351729.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/poland-warns-ukraine-failure-to-respect-its-interests-to-affect-every-decision--1113874328.html

Poland Warns Ukraine That Failure to Respect Its Interests Will Affect Every Decision

Poland Warns Ukraine That Failure to Respect Its Interests Will Affect Every Decision

Marcin Przydacz, the head of the Bureau of International Policy of the Office of the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, has warned Ukraine against alienating trusted partners, like Warsaw, according to a local media report.

2023-10-03T06:31+0000

2023-10-03T06:31+0000

2023-10-03T09:53+0000

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Ukraine has been warned by Poland not to alienate trusted partners, according to a local media report.Marcin Przydacz, head of the Bureau of International Policy of the Office of the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, was cited by local media as warning Kiev that promises from larger countries are not necessarily better than the concrete actions of smaller states. The presidential advisor emphasized that disrespect for Poland's interests could affect "every" decision the country makes. Przydacz was quoted as adding that although he understands why Ukrainian authorities and President Volodymyr Zelensky should want to seek additional support elsewhere in Europe, trust is of great importance in foreign policy.Poland supported Ukraine based on the interests of its own security. But we also have other interests. If they are not respected, it will obviously affect every decision we make, he was cited as saying.Elsewhere in the interview, the official stressed that although Poland will cooperate with Ukraine if their interests coincide, when their interests diverge, Warsaw is determined to rigidly defend its [own] interests.The remarks came as the spat between Ukraine and Poland has escalated after Kiev filed a lawsuit against Warsaw with the World Trade Organization (WTO). The dispute was triggered by the Ukraine grain shipment deal. European Union member states that border Ukraine had long objected to the fact that the duty-free import of Ukrainian produce to the bloc caused havoc in their own markets. Furthermore, Polish farmers are a vital tranche of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) partys electorate as it seeks a third term mid-October.Consequently, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that his country - among the top suppliers of arms to Kiev together with the US and the UK - was no longer supplying weapons to its neighbor. It would, instead, focus on rearming itself.Shortly after, however, Polish President Andrzej Duda clarified that what the PM actually meant was that Warsaw will not transfer new weapons to Kiev that Poland is currently buying as part of the modernization of its army.Government spokesman Piotr Muller added that Poland is supplying weapons to Ukraine only under the previously made agreements.Against the backdrop of these developments, Moscow predicted that tensions between Kiev and Warsaw will heighten."We see that there are certain tensions between Warsaw and Kiev. We predict that these tensions between Warsaw and Kiev will increase," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in September, adding that tensions between Kiev and other European states will inevitably also increase over time.Nevertheless, despite the spat, Warsaw remains one of Kievs main supporters amid Russias special military operation. Since the beginning of the Russian special military operation, Warsaw has sent $3.3 billion of military supplies to Kiev, which include tanks, fighter jets, multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), artillery and ammunition.Moscow has frequently warned those in the West showering Ukraine with weapons that they were only prolonging the conflict by fanning the flames of NATO's proxy war with Russia.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230922/experts-ukraine-poland-spat-signals-resurgence-of-national-interests-over-natos-pro-kiev-agenda-1113591740.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230924/how-is-poland-aiding-ukraine-1113627501.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230922/polands-move-to-stop-arms-supplies-to-ukraine-deals-real-blow-to-kiev-1113580317.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/protest-against-military-supplies-to-ukraine-gathers-4000-in-berlin---police-1113895245.html

Protest Against Military Supplies to Ukraine Gathers 4,000 in Berlin - Police

Protest Against Military Supplies to Ukraine Gathers 4,000 in Berlin - Police

BERLIN (Sputnik) - About 4,000 people attended a rally in Berlin on Tuesday, calling against sending weapons to Ukraine, as well as for the resignation of the... 03.10.2023, Sputnik International

2023-10-03T18:04+0000

2023-10-03T18:04+0000

2023-10-03T18:04+0000

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"According to preliminary estimates, around 4,000 people have taken part in the march," the police said. Some 350 people have gathered to oppose the protest, without disrupting the march itself, the police also said, adding that there were only a few verbal altercations as the procession passed through the city. Around 230 police officers were deployed to oversee a number of different protest actions across the city. The march, which started near the Berlin Cathedral, had been called by activists close to the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and the Querdenker movement, which had earlier opposed coronavirus restrictions. The latter is considered to be a right-wing populist group and brings together several radical-right organizations, including Pegida. Protesters call for the resignation of the current German government, claiming it made mistakes in the country's energy policy and enforced unlawful coronavirus restrictions. They also demand the halt of weapon supplies to Ukraine and call for diplomatic resolution of the Ukrainian conflict and resumption of cooperation with Russia. Western countries have been providing military aid to Ukraine since the start of the Russian military operation in February 2022. The aid evolved from artillery munitions and training in 2022 to heavier weapons, including tanks, later that year and in 2023. The Kremlin has consistently warned against continued arms deliveries to Kiev.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230710/us-europeans-depleted-their-weapons-stockpiles-fighting-russia-in-ukraine-1111797051.html

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germany, ukraine, alternative fuer deutschland (afd), europe, berlin, ukraine crisis, ukrainian conflict, ukrainian crisis, energy crisis, europe's energy crisis
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/russia-to-offer-schedule-of-meetings-of-nuclear-five-closest-to-be-held-in-un---moscow-1113874486.html

Russia to Offer Schedule of Meetings of 'Nuclear Five,' Closest to Be Held in UN - Moscow

Russia to Offer Schedule of Meetings of 'Nuclear Five,' Closest to Be Held in UN - Moscow

Russia will propose to its partners a schedule of consultations within the framework of the "Nuclear Five" and the closest meeting at the level of experts will be held on the sidelines of the meeting of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in New York, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has told Sputnik.

2023-10-03T04:56+0000

2023-10-03T04:56+0000

2023-10-03T04:56+0000

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"The closest meeting will be on the margins of the opening session of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly. What is next? We will first present it to our colleagues, and then it will probably become known," Ryabkov said. At the same time, the deputy minister noted that the Russian-US dialogue on strategic stability is not directly related to these meetings as the "Nuclear Five" format has its own agenda. "By the way, we want to amend it and not minimize everything to nuclear risks only. Nuclear risks are important both as a topic and as a subject - this will continue to be discussed. But the agenda should be expanded, including through the work on the new review cycle of the NPT [Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons], as well as subjects related to the interaction of the group of five states, permanent members of the UN Security Council, on issues that the so-called nuclear radicals impose on the international community on the subject of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This does not apply to our bilateral topics with the United States," Ryabkov said. The "Nuclear Five" is the informal group of the five nuclear-weapon states, namely Russia, China, the United Kingdom, the US and France. Last year, the group's behind-closed-doors meeting was held in Egypt's Cairo under the chairmanship of the US, with the participation of the countries' foreign and defense ministers.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20221102/moscow-calls-on-nuclear-big-five-to-reject-provocations-involving-wmds-1102968453.html

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nuclear five, russian deputy foreign minister sergey ryabkov, russia to offer schedule of meetings
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/russian-armed-forces-repelled-all-attacks-in-soledar-artemovsk-direction---shoigu-1113878731.html

Russian Armed Forces Repel All Attacks in Soledar-Artemovsk Direction - Shoigu

Russian Armed Forces Repel All Attacks in Soledar-Artemovsk Direction - Shoigu

Units of the Russian armed forces' Southern group have repelled all attacks in the Soledar-Artemovsk (Bakhmut) direction, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday.

2023-10-03T09:30+0000

2023-10-03T09:30+0000

2023-10-03T09:34+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

sergei shoigu

russia

ukraine

general staff

russian defense ministry

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Russian troops in the special military operation zone significantly weakened Ukrainian military's combat potential and inflicted serious damage on them, the minister said. The Ukrainian armed forces also failed all attempts to break through the defenses of the Russian armed forces in the Verbovoe and Rabotyno areas in the Zaporozhye direction, the minister added.The General Staff of the Russian armed forces does not plan to launch additional mobilization, there are enough military personnel in the army to conduct the special operation, Shoigu said.More than 335,000 people have joined the Russian armed forces under military contracts and as volunteers since the start of the year, with more than 50,000 people having signed contracts in September alone, Sergei Shoigu said.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230927/shoigu-inspects-factory-of-tactical-missiles-corporation-in-moscow-region-1113733407.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/thai-prime-minister-orders-postponement-of-arms-procurement-to-2024-1113878188.html

Thai Prime Minister Orders Postponement of Arms Procurement to 2024

Thai Prime Minister Orders Postponement of Arms Procurement to 2024

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin ordered the country's defense ministry to put off arms procurement plans to the 2024 fiscal year, so the government could use budget to help the people, Thailand's Bangkok Post newspaper reported on Tuesday.

2023-10-03T09:05+0000

2023-10-03T09:05+0000

2023-10-03T09:05+0000

asia

thailand

f-35a

arms

gripen

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"The PM wants the budget to be spent on urgent efforts to help the people. Budgets that have already been approved will remain unchanged," the newspaper quoted sources as saying on Monday. By deferring buying armament the prime minister wishes to redirect budget for rather urgent needs, such as help people affected by natural disasters. Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) commander Phanphakdee Phatthanakul confirmed that the government had asked the armed forces to put special attention to dealing with disasters. Meanwhile, the commander said that RTAF would set up a working panel to consider procuring new fighter jets in the 2025 fiscal year. He clarified that the prime minister had earlier said that if Thailand was to buy any military equipment from other countries, they would have to convince them to buy Thai products as part of the deal in return. At the same time, Phanphakdee denied information of RTAF acquiring three Sweden's Gripen jet fighters soon, after the United States refused to sell F-35A aircraft to Thailand. He said that RTAF was not looking forward to procuring jet fighters in the 2024 fiscal year because of the country's economic situation. The new jets procurement deals could be considered in the fiscal year 2025 as Phanphakdee said, but there is no certainty whether these would be Gripen or F-16 aircraft. The official said that RTAF would have to replace F-16 fighters fleet eventually for decommissioning between 2028 and 2031.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230902/thai-king-approves-composition-of-new-government-led-by-prime-minister-thavisin---decree-1113068453.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/the-donald-v-new-york-five-moments-from-trumps-civil-trial-1113872670.html

The Donald v. New York: Five Moments From Trump's Civil Trial

The Donald v. New York: Five Moments From Trump's Civil Trial

Donald Trump was joined by his co-defendants in the New York State Attorney General's Office lawsuit against them for alleged real estate fraud.

2023-10-03T04:44+0000

2023-10-03T04:44+0000

2023-10-03T05:37+0000

donald trump

letitia james

mar-a-lago

manhattan

deutsche bank

mona lisa

new york

donald trump organization

americas

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Monday marked the official 'day one' of courtroom proceedings in the civil fraud trial in which former US President Donald Trump and company are alleged to have engaged in nefarious business practices that centered around the misevaluation of various real estate properties.The trial was brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has told reporters that she remains confident that "justice will prevail" in the matter. The official is seeking at least $250 million in fines and a permanent ban against Trump and his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, from conducting any business in the state.So, what were some key takeaways from the day's events?Trump Account Posts While Ex-Prez Inside CourtIn the lead-up to Donald Trumps civil lawsuit trial in New York, the former president repeatedly called the case, along with the multitude of other cases against him, a politically-motivated witch-hunt. That Trump continued to make that assertion and attack Attorney General Letitia James when arriving at the courthouse, during recess and after the days events surprised no one; however, what raised some eyebrows was Trumps Truth Social account posting while the former president was in the courthouse.The posts did not come before opening statements - no one is accusing Trump of posting during the trial - but his account did post several videos of James talking about suing Trump while he was sitting inside the Manhattan courtroom.The Trump defense team had tried to argue that James suit was politically motivated by pointing to comments she made during her campaign about going after Trump. Judge Arthur Engoron and an appellate court ruled against the argument and Engoron reminded Trumps defense team of that when they attempted to bring it up during opening arguments.Barring Trump From NY Business DealsNew York is where Trump first entered the public view. Now, decades later, the state attorney generals office is looking to bar the former commander-in-chief from ever being able to carry out business in the Empire State.Kevin Wallace, of the AG's office, argued Trumps alleged fraudulent financial statements resulted in banks taking on a hidden risk to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.The attorney generals office alleges Trump inflated the value of properties he owned by the billions between 2011 and 2021 in order to secure favorable loans and insurance arrangements, with some property values reportedly being inflated by over $2 billion.Some of those properties include Trump Park Avenue and the famed Mar-a-Lago Florida resort, which was raided by multiple FBI agents looking to retrieve troves of classified documents that were being stored on the grounds.Trump Lawyers Argue Real Estate Highly SpeculativeTrump defense attorney Chris Kise countered in his opening arguments by saying that Trump made his billions by utilizing his real estate knowledge - not by engaging in fraudulent business practices.Kise also pointed out that while the leading German Deutsche Bank valued Trumps net worth at $2 billion less than he did, they still underwrote a loan for him. That is evidence, Kise argued, that real estate valuations can vary greatly.The lawyer went on to remark that when is comes down to business in the Big Apple, "this is what happens every day in this city."In order to ground the argument, reports have indicated that the Trump camp is seeking to call in witnesses from Deutsche Bank.Trump Properties the Mona Lisa of Real EstateAnother Trump defense attorney, Alina Habba, argued that Engorons valuations of Trump properties were wildly inaccurate, comparing the estates to the Mona Lisa, which is commonly said to be the most valuable painting in the world.That is not fraud, that is real estate," she added. The judge ruled that Mar-a-Lago was worth $18 million in a ruling last week.Habba and Engoron went on to spare over the issue, with the judge arguing that the financial statements were meant to show what their value was, not what they could theoretically be sold for. These statements of financial condition were current, current market value. The point is what were they worth then.First Witness Takes StandDonald Bender, a former accountant and tax consultant for Trump was called as the first witness in the case, and was promptly moved to be disqualified by the Trump team although Engoron ruled against them. Bender testified he largely relied on financial information provided by the Trump organization, while also noting that when he noticed mistakes he would point them out to the Trump organization. In fact, in one incident Bender recalled that he pointed out a discrepancy involving the penthouse of Trumps daughter Ivanka Trump. Bender said he corrected the number at least twice.The discrepancies with the penthouse were mentioned in documents in the case.Bender is expected to continue his testimony on Tuesday.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231002/new-york-civil-fraud-trial-part-of-us-government-election-interference-effort---trump-1113862256.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/uk-runs-out-of-weapons-to-send-to-ukraine--reports-1113880172.html

UK Runs Out of Weapons to Send to Ukraine  Reports

UK Runs Out of Weapons to Send to Ukraine  Reports

The United Kingdom has run out of weapons which can be sent to Ukraine, and should encourage other countries to boost their efforts

2023-10-03T09:51+0000

2023-10-03T09:51+0000

2023-10-03T09:51+0000

military

united kingdom (uk)

ukraine

nato

weapons

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"Weve given away just about as much as we can afford  We will continue to source equipment to provide for Ukraine, but what they need now is things like air defense assets and artillery ammunition and weve run dry on all that," the report cited a source as saying. The source also said that the UK is not the only country supporting Ukraine, therefore, other allies can provide more funds and ammunition and share the burden. The military chief said that the UK can send no additional Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, since its own armed forces need them to upgrade into Challenger 3. Last month, UK Defense Minister Grant Shapps said that London would deliver "tens of thousands" more artillery shells to Kiev. He added that the UK planned to have 30,000 Ukrainian soldiers trained by the end of this year. Western allies began pouring weapons and ammunition into Ukraine shortly after Russia launched its military operation in the country in February 2022. The Kremlin has repeatedly warned against further escalation leading to NATO's direct involvement in the conflict.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231001/uk-pm-sunak-says-remarks-on-british-soldiers-in-ukraine-misreporting-1113841534.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/ukraine-loses-up-to-285-military-in-donetsk-direction---mod-1113886170.html

Ukraine Loses Up to 285 Troops in Donetsk Direction - MoD

Ukraine Loses Up to 285 Troops in Donetsk Direction - MoD

Ukraine has lost up to 285 military in the Donetsk direction over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

2023-10-03T13:14+0000

2023-10-03T13:14+0000

2023-10-03T18:19+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

ukraine

donetsk

russia

russian ministry of defense

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Over the given period, the Russian Armed Forces repelled three attacks by Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk direction, another three in the Krasny Liman direction, and one in the South Donetsk direction. Ukraine also lost over 120 troops, both killed and wounded, as well as 10 pieces of military equipment in the South Donetsk direction, the statement read.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/watch-russian-d-30-howitzers-hammer-ukrainian-troops-in-krasny-liman-direction-1113882659.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/us-police-chief-abruptly-resigns-weeks-after-raid-of-kansas-newspaper-1113901859.html

US Police Chief Abruptly Resigns Weeks After Raid of Kansas Newspaper

US Police Chief Abruptly Resigns Weeks After Raid of Kansas Newspaper

Marion County Police Chief Gideon Cody resigned on Monday, six weeks after he led a widely-condemned raid on a local newspaper.

2023-10-03T22:52+0000

2023-10-03T22:52+0000

2023-10-03T22:49+0000

americas

marion

kansas

kansas city

police

missouri

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The police chief of a small town in Marion County, Kansas, abruptly resigned on Monday after his raid on the Marion County Record's offices and other locations garnered nationwide attention and condemnation.Dave Mayfield, who serves as the county's mayor, announced Marion Police Chief Gideon Codys resignation during a city council meeting. Cody was suspended from his position on Thursday, more than six weeks after the raid and following proclamations from Mayfield that Cody would not be punished until after the Kansas Bureau of Investigations (KBI) finished its investigation into the incident.There has been no word of the KBI finishing its investigation and Mayfield declined to comment on why Cody was suspended before his resignation.The August raid included the newspapers office, the owners home, a reporter's home and the home of the vice-mayor. All of the raids happened simultaneously and utilized nearly the entirety of the forces on-duty officers.Simultaneously, a reporter for the paper was investigating Codys past as a police captain in Kansas City. Cody abruptly resigned from that position a year before he would have received his pension and took the police chief job in Marion, despite a $50,000 reduction in pay. The paper had heard from multiple sources that Cody was facing demotion before his resignation due to sexual misconduct allegations.The paper also decided not to publish a report on that because no sources would go on the record and the Kansas City Police Department declined to provide documentation, though they did ask Cody about the allegations.A short time later, the Marion Police Department conducted its raids, alleging the newspaper accessed the information it had on Newell illegally. The paper claimed it obtained the information through public information and the city eventually confirmed the information was publicly available online.Five days after the raid, the countys attorney Joel Ensey withdrew the search warrant used in the raid, saying it was legally insufficient. A leaked email would later show Ensey was contacted by Cody about his plans to raid the paper, and which included his justifications for the raid according to local reports.Mayfield appointed patrol officer Zach Hudlin as acting chief with the approval of the city council. In bodycam footage of the raid, Hudlin can be seen searching a reporter's desk, where he finds a folder marked with Codys name. It's said the file contained details about the outlet's investigation into him, including the identity of sources. Hudlin can be heard informing Cody about the file in the bodycam footage.Cody eventually admitted he was facing demotion before retiring from his job in Kansas City, according to local reports. Bodycam footage also revealed him telling Newell after the raid that he had evidence to share with her but didnt want to put it in a text message. Another portion of the video reportedly reveals him telling a deputy that he was having trouble turning off his bodycam but wanted to tell him a story once he turned it off.The papers owner, Eric Meyer, told national media after Codys suspension on Thursday that although he was happy about the result, he finds the timing suspicious.Meyer also expressed concerns about Hublins appointment, saying his actions during the search exceeded the scope of the warrant.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230815/chilling-story-for-press-freedom-raid-on-small-town-newspaper-sparks-first-amendment-concerns-1112600263.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230815/trump-ga-charges-loom-peace-activists-smeared-kansas-newspaper-raid-1112594244.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/vulnerable-abrams-tanks-in-ukraine-may-be-swiftly-detected--destroyed-by-russias-uavs-1113878355.html

'Vulnerable' Abrams Tanks in Ukraine May Be Swiftly 'Detected & Destroyed' by Russia's UAVs

'Vulnerable' Abrams Tanks in Ukraine May Be Swiftly 'Detected & Destroyed' by Russia's UAVs

Abrams tanks supplied to Ukraine by West will be vulnerable because of the wide use of Russia's advanced drones during combat operations, military expert Gustav Gressel told German media.

2023-10-03T13:35+0000

2023-10-03T13:35+0000

2023-10-03T13:35+0000

us

m1 abrams tank

m1a1 abrams tank

joe biden

dmitry peskov

leopard 2

lancet

ukrainian counteroffensive attempt

russia's special operation in ukraine

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Abrams tanks supplied to Ukraine by its Western donors will be increasingly vulnerable because of the wide use of Russia's advanced drones during combat operations, military expert Gustav Gressel told German media.Furthermore, the time factor was singled out by the expert. Gressel underscored that last autumn, when Ukraine was begging for Western tanks, Russian forces did not have as many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at their disposal. Accordingly, the significance of the arrival of Western battle tanks has been diminished, the military expert acknowledged.Throughout Ukraines botched counteroffensive, Russias Lancet loitering munition/kamikaze attack drones have wreaked havoc on Ukrainian forces, relentlessly destroying the Kiev regimes manpower and weaponry donated by NATO. The Russian army uses Lancet drones in the special operation zone to target various Ukrainian military assets such as howitzers, air defenses, multiple launch rocket systems, as well as command and observation posts, and gatherings of troops.As for the much-heralded arrival of the M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, the United States reportedly began delivering these to Ukraine in late September. These tanks are part of a 31-tank package approved by the Biden administration. Close to 500 Ukrainian soldiers have undergone a 10-week course on how to operate and maintain the M1A1 at the US Armys Grafenwohr training facility in West Germany. However, Abrams armor will not be able to jumpstart Ukraines stalled offensive, experts told Sputnik. The Ukrainian soldiers, after their crack training routine, will have only the most basic skill levels associated with the M1A1 Abrams, lacking any tactical or operational skill. Their gunnery skill will also be rudimentary, pundits added, describing the M1A1 as no more than a "death trap" when facing off against Russian military equipped with modern tank-killing weapons.Since Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine in 2022, the United States and its NATO allies have eagerly supplied the regime in Kiev with a variety of weapons and military equipment, ranging from small arms and body armor to multiple launch rocket systems and main battle tanks. The Kiev regime has also received battle tanks from Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and North Macedonia, Slovenia - initially upgraded versions of Soviet-era models. However, as Ukraines manpower and weaponry losses mounted, Western tanks began to be funneled to the Kiev regime by NATO members such as Germany, Spain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Portugal. In the wake of the Leopard 1 and 2 tank shipments, and with the UK sending its Challenger 2 tanks, the United States finally announced in January that a battalion of Americas best tanks would be sent to improve Ukraines ability to maneuver in open terrain.Now, the arrival of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine comes as Russian forces have been successfully taking on Ukraines NATO-equipped army, with dozens of Leopard 1s and Leopard 2s knocked out, and at least two of Britains "unbeatable" tanks destroyed earlier this month.As for Moscow, it succinctly commented that, "these [Abrams] tanks will burn too", in reference to the shipment of Abrams tanks to Ukraine. Western weapons deliveries will be unlikely to change the balance of power on the battlefield, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized, adding that the US continues to increase its involvement in the conflict, and the Russian Army is honing its countermeasures skills.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230930/scott-ritter-abrams-tanks-will-become-mobile-steel-coffins-for-ukrainian-crews-1113821460.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230926/abrams-achilles-heel-how-russia-will-deal-with-american-tanks-in-ukraine-1113688746.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20231003/what-is-usaid-doing-in-georgia-1113891522.html

What is USAID Doing in Georgia?

What is USAID Doing in Georgia?

US bilateral relations with Georgia (the country, not to be confused with the American state) seem a bit tarnished, and its USAIDs activities in Georgia that are to blame.

2023-10-03T17:31+0000

2023-10-03T17:31+0000

2023-10-04T08:58+0000

georgia

us embassy

usaid

washington

us

coup

unrest

revolution

color revolution

us agency for international development (usaid)

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The Georgian State Security Service (GSSS) has accused the agency of funding an NGO that trained Georgian youth to organize unrest, the start of which was planned for October-December this year. The US Embassy in Tbilisi stated that the allegations were false. But Georgian authorities were not satisfied with this answer, describing the US response as astonishing and insulting. So, is the US spending money in the Caucasus country, and if so, for what purposes? Sputnik investigates.What Happened?On Monday, the GSSS made a statement that three Serbian citizens from the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), funded by USAID, went to Tbilisi to teach youth and local NGO leaders to organize unrest.According to the Georgian security service, from September 26 to 29, representatives of several local NGOs and civil activists underwent training in a hotel in Tbilisi. These individuals were trained to act, in particular, against the government, the State Security Service, and other agencies. They were also taught the technique of creating pickets and artificial traffic jams.The same day, Georgian Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili asked USAID for clarifications regarding funding in organizing a coup, and cited the incident as a dark day in the history of American aid to Georgia.In response, the US Embassy in Tbilisi said all the allegations were false and that USAID would continue to support Georgian organizations who support people to secure the future they determine.On Tuesday, the chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party, Irakli Kobakhidze, found the US Embassy's official reaction astounding and insulting to the Georgian public.USAID Projects in GeorgiaAs the US Embassy noted, USAID has been working in Georgia since 1992 and has already provided more than $1.9 billion in funding. There are more than 39 ongoing projects supported by USAID with a total value of approximately $373 million, and an annual budget of more than $70 million. Here are the most significant ones.USAID has been working in almost every sphere in Georgia through the US Embassy in Tbilisi, political scientist and director of the Center for Islamic Studies of the Caucasus, Shota Apkhaidze, told Sputnik."Organizations that influence elections are also financed [by USAID]. When preliminary research is carried out, some kind of exit polls are done in order to subsequently influence the pre-election situation, and then the election results. They [USAID] finance political parties, where monitoring and preparation for elections are carried out. USAID also sponsors various institutions that are related to political processes. USAID has funded approximately 60 major projects recently. This also applies to the media. It is very important to understand that small online media in Georgia are mostly funded directly through USAID. If you go to the page of any such liberal, pro-Western media, you will definitely find that USAID finances them," the political scientist further explained.Poses Real ThreatThe expert highlighted that US actions taken via USAID pose a real threat to Georgia's sovereignty, since the situation could develop into a coup detat.Before this precedent, USAID's activities in Georgia had not raised any questions, Shota Apkhaidze noted. But now the escalation between the West and Georgian authorities is already reaching its peak.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231002/georgia-awaits-usaids-explanations-on-funds-for-training-in-organizing-unrest-1113854648.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230504/cia-staged-color-revolutions-hacker-attacks-around-globe--chinese-cybersecurity-center-1110083713.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230510/turkish-interior-minister-accuses-us-of-meddling-in-presidential-election-1110233766.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230928/armenias-pashinyan-sold-out-nagorno-karabakh-to-us-interests-1113767192.html

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us-georgia relations, us-georgia, us meddling, american meddling, organize unrest, unrest in georgia, coup in georgia, georgia-european relations, usaid, american aid, overthrow government, american aid, us organizes coup, us destabilizes world, us involvement, color revolution, color coup, georgia coup, coup in georgia, color revolution in georgia
The second session of three-year-olds went behind the gate in the $3 million Massachusetts Sire Stakes program at Plainridge Park on Monday afternoon (Oct. 2) and the close competition produced five new lifetime marks, only two winning favourites and seven different trainers each winning one division over the lightning fast track.

Six of the seven divisions were split, more specifically for male trotters and fillies of both gaits and each went for $40,000.

The only group that went as one $75,000 division was the glamour boy sophomore pacers in which Rooster Bennett (So Surreal-Teddy Ballgirl) crowed loudest again. Yannick Gingras bided his time in second with Rooster Bennett while Good Will Lindy (Mitchell Cushing) set a :25.3 quarter. But as the leader began stopping at the half, Gingras pulled Rooster Bennett and took control at that station. Now established on the point, Rooster Bennett rationed out the speed to three-quarters and finished strong in the lane, holding off a game So Rock N Roll (Kevin Switzer Jr.) to win by 1-3/4 lengths in 1:53.

It was the second straight Massachusetts Sire Stakes win for Rooster Bennett ($2.60), who is owned and bred by his trainer Nancy Longobardi, in partnership with Domenic Longobardi.

The fastest mile of the stake card was turned in by the pacing filly Dame (Dudes The Man-Seat By The Window), who is also two-for-two in the Sire Stakes this year. Jim Hardy sent Dame to the front in the non-betting event that took place before the first race and never looked back. After setting panels of :28, :57.2 and 1:25.2, Dame scooted home in a swift :27.1 to stop the clock at 1:52.3, giving her a new lifetime mark. The time was also just one-fifth of a second off the stakes record.

Dame (pictured above) is owned and bred by Stephen Richard and trained by Jolene Andrews.

The second group of filly pacers went an equally impressive mile as South St Dottie (Western Maverick-No Shadows) turned in a career mile. Nick Graffam took the lead from post one with South St Dottie and got to the half in :56.3 when the heat really came. Azariya (Yannick Gingras) and Danceforthemoney (Shawn Gray) were in the outer flow heading to three-quarters and closing ground in the last turn. Danceforthemoney was right on South St Dotties wheel at the top of the stretch and paced alongside her all the way to the wire. But she came up a neck short as South St Dottie hung on to win in 1:53.3 to establish a new lifetime mark.

South St Dottie ($8.60) is owned and bred by Jan Donaway and is trained by Mike Graffam.

The first group of male trotters was bested by Yo Lucky Moni (International Moni-Unbelindyble), who got his victory on the strength of a career-best effort. Jimmy Whittemore also cut the mile with Yo Lucky Moni, who took a two-length lead to the :58.4 half. International Man (Yannick Gingras) got into the action on the outside up the backstretch and got to within one-half length of Yo Lucky Moni at the top of the stretch. But as they headed down the lane, Yo Lucky Moni would not be denied and won by a length in 1:54.4.

Yo Lucky Moni ($20.80) is owned by Verlin Yoder and trained by Marissa Chadbourne. Lindy Farms of Connecticut bred the winner.

In the second split for male trotters, Wallop (Walner-Love N Lindy) garnered his second straight Sire Stakes win and fifth straight overall. Yannick Gingras sent Wallop to the front and got to the half in an easy :59.1 before Walters Keepsake (Nick Graffam) moved first-over from third to apply some pressure. Wallop maintained control, but the pesky Walters Keepsake wouldnt go away. The two trotters battled all the way to the line where Wallop won by a neck in 1:57.1.

Wallop ($2.60) is owned by Thestable Wallop Group and is trained by Melissa Beckwith. Wallop was bred by K R Breeding.

The winners of both filly trots also took lifetime marks.

Laurens Hoopla (E L Titan-Tattoo You) took the lead past the quarter and was in full flight to the half in :57. She was a loose leader heading up the backstretch and into the last turn where the heavy favourite The Wise One (Yannick Gingras) had made her way from fourth to second and was only a length away from the leader. However, that was as close as she would get as Laurens Hoopla was very strong in the lane and won by 1-1/2 lengths in a lifetime-best 1:54.4.

Laurens Hoopla ($25) is owned and bred by Ray Campbell Jr. and trained by George Ducharme.

The second group had a runaway winner in Poppy Wow (Crazy Wow-Tori Hall), who got a perfect rating from Ivan Davies. After backing down the second quarter to :30, Davies tapped the gas and Poppy Wow opened up four lengths at three-quarters. From there, she swelled up and trotted home all alone on top by seven lengths in 1:55.4, which was a new lifetime mark.

Poppy Wow ($17.40) is owned by Shirley Michaud along with Earl and Kathy Beaman, who also bred the winner.

Live racing will resume at Plainridge Park on Tuesday, Oct. 3 at 2 p.m. when the second leg of the Massachusetts Sire Stakes goes behind the gate featuring the states best bred two-year-olds. Also, there will be a $17,932 carryover in the Wicked Hi-5 pentafecta wager in race six.

(Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts)
Culpeper County Public Schools recently reported progress in closing pandemic learning gaps for its students, according to a release last week from school division spokeswoman Laura Hoover.

All ten CCPS schools are state accredited this year. Chronic absenteeism remains an issue for students, but is improving, the release stated.

School division Executive Director Rob Hauman presented an instruction update on Sept. 25 to the Culpeper County School Board, including recently released Virginia Department of Education 2023-24 Accreditation Ratings based on 2022-23 Standards of Learning (SOL) data.

State accreditation is based on English, math and science SOL pass rates for all students, achievement gap summaries in English and math, and student engagement and outcomes, which includes chronic absenteeism. Dropout rates, graduation and completion index and college, career and civic readiness are also included for high schools.

All CCSP schools are accredited based on this years ratings, according to Hoover. Sycamore Park Elementary is listed as accredited with conditions. The school earned the 2023 VDOE Exemplar Award for Continuous Improvement.

All CCPS elementary schools met the level one state standard in 21 out of 30 academic indicators. For Culpeper middles schools, math achievement and the math achievement gap met the level one standard.

In Culpeper public high schools, English, math and science scores met the level one standard except for one, Hoover said. The high schools also met the level one standard for college, career and civic readiness, new this year.

Like most schools across Virginia, Culpeper schools continue to struggle with chronic absenteeism after attendance rates declined after the pandemic. Most of the schools fall within level two for chronic absenteeism  an improvement over last year.

During the 2021-22 school year, 33.9% of students missed 10% or more of the school year, making them chronically absent. Last school year, that number fell to 24.5% of students.

We will continue to work to reduce this number, Hoover said.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin weighed in last month on the issue of chronic absenteeism in Virginia public schools.

If students arent in school, they will not catch up  parents, we need you engaged. We know your lives are busy. We need you to get your kids to school, he said, according to the CCPS release.

Looking at the data overall, the real story is that when students attend school, they make steady progress, Hoover said.

School matters. Since the pandemic shutdown, CCPS has been addressing the academic needs of our students strategically and the data is trending upwards, she stated.

The school divisions approach has included support for teachers professional growth and effective instruction for all grade levels, which includes curriculum reframing to meet students where they are, according to Hoover. In addition, CCPS offered three years of summer academy programs and extended day programs to address unfinished learning.

We are closing gaps. The focus should not be on lost instructional time but on the hard work that is being done to close instructional gaps and highlighting the successes along the way, and there are many, said Karie Lane, CCPS Director of Elementary Instruction.

According to the fall state assessment data, all CCPS elementary grade levels are starting this school year higher in reading than last years students, except for one. In math, all elementary grade levels are starting higher than they started last year.

Looking at our data, this years fifth grade students are back to pre-pandemic norms and the third and fourth graders will be before they go to middle school, Lane said.

The data shows us that what we are doing matters. The instruction that occurs with our students every day makes a difference. The growth that we are seeing in our schools is a testament to the teachers, paraeducators and administrators who are doing the work with our students, Hoover said.
Lied Scottsbluff Public Library childrens librarian Deb Carlson will retire at the end of this week, closing the book on 46 years spent spreading the message of lifelong readership and unconditional compassion.

It all began when Carlson, who was studying elementary education at Graceland University in Iowa with a minor in library science, decided to ask for a summer job. The library gladly took her on. After her college graduation, she stayed on part-time while also teaching kindergarten.

Although she loved both jobs dearly, Carlson soon found herself at a crossroads. Would she pursue teaching or the library full-time? With some encouragement from her future husband, Clay, she made a decision that would shape the rest of her life as well as countless others.

At the end of that year, I could see that the childrens librarian was going to retire in a couple of years, she said. At the library, I felt like I could get out there more and touch more lives. The rest is history.

A few years later in 1982, Carlson accepted the position of childrens librarian at Lied Scottsbluff Public Library. She inherited many solid programs from her predecessor, but she began to identify unmet needs and opportunities right away.

Over the years, Carlson added evening storytime events for kids whose parents worked day jobs, a Teacher Tote program to support local educators, Cradle Catchers and countless others, including one of the librarys most impactful efforts: Kinder-Carding.

We felt like we were reaching kids with storytime, but if they fell through the cracks, we wanted to get them when they were school age, Carlson said.

She partnered with the Star-Herald to turn Kinder-Carding into a reality. At that time, the decision was made that for the program to be a success, Carlson would need to personally visit every kindergarten classroom in Scottsbluff.

That program has now run for nearly 30 years, guaranteeing that every kid in town over multiple generations has been given an opportunity to sign up for a library card and meet Carlson face-to-face.

With a career spanning 46 exciting years and thousands of smiling faces, Carlson said it is difficult to pinpoint specific favorite memories. Instead, she said, that all of her best memories were of times when she and her team knew, without a doubt, that they had made a difference in the lives of the kids they served.

The library is more than a place to get books and materials, and I think they feel valued and important. They come here because they feel cared for, she said. I really feel like I was put here for a reason, because I genuinely love these kids.

Carlson also highlighted the relationships shes had the opportunity to build with not only kids, but with families, teachers and coworkers.

And maybe the hugs, too, she added.

Another standout from Carlsons career was the complete overhaul and addition to the library building, which was completed in 2011. That effort, she said, incorporated many of her enduring philosophies about the importance of reading and libraries as a whole.

We marketed it as The Communitys Living Room, and Ive always felt that way, she said. I want them to feel like theyre coming home when they walk in the doors. And if theyre comfortable in their library, theyll use it.

That passion ties directly into another: the importance of reading aloud. Carlson shared a favorite quote from childrens author and illustrator Rosemary Wells that summarizes her feelings on the subject.

Put your child in your lap and read aloud. In the pages of the book you will find a tiny vacation of privacy and intense love, she quoted.

Carlson said she believes that the experience and importance of reading aloud should not be forgotten as kids grow up, a philosophy that helped her quickly identify a kindred soul in the Lied Scottsbluff Public Librarys current director, Richard Landreth.

Landreth said that in their time together, he and Carlson bonded over their shared belief that people of all ages love to be read to aloud. In his eyes, no one is better suited to that calling than Carlson, who put her energy and charisma on full display through decades of storytime sessions.

She just has this way of pulling us in, and we want to listen to her read, he said. Shes going to be missed so badly. Her energy, the excitement she brings to all the programs  shes just phenomenal.

When asked what drove her decision to firmly root herself in the library for so many years, Carlson recalled the many opportunities shed turned down throughout the years that might have offered a better paycheck. To her, no amount of money could replace the sheer joy that she experienced by doing exactly what she was meant to do.

Success can be found at every rung of the ladder, she said. I loved what I did, and if I was happy doing that, having more money wasnt important.

And I never wanted to write a resume, she added, with a laugh.

So what comes next? Carlson said that she will first have to take some time to explore who she is outside of the job that has defined her for so many years.

I identify with this job to where its a part of me, she said. Im not going to lie, Ive got a little angst about who I am. But what I know for sure is that I want to spend more time with my 2-year-old grandson, with family, with former coworkers.

No final plans have been announced regarding the position of childrens librarian, but Landreth said that the library plans to continue full steam ahead with programming. As for Carlson, she urged the community to keep up its support of the library and her successor.

I hope Ive served the community well enough that they will continue to bring their children to the library and support the library in our endeavors, she said.

Carlsons contributions to the library and the community that she served for 46 years will not be forgotten any time soon. Landreth acknowledged her accomplishments by offering the highest praise that a book lover could possibly craft.

Shes leaving quite the legacy, he said. Its amazing. Shes helped create what Ive been calling a culture of reading literacy here in Scottsbluff, and what better praise is there?

How does one say goodbye after so many years of hard work and dedication? Carlson, an educator through and through, wanted to give one final lesson about simply being alive and loving others.

If everybody could just learn to give a little more of themselves, Ive found people will open up, she said. You cant be afraid. Youve just got to open up and let them in.

Carlsons final day at the Lied Scottsbluff Public Library will be Friday, Oct. 6. Families in search of one last storytime have two chances remaining on Thursday, Oct. 5 at 10 a.m. and 6:15 p.m.

A reception will also be held to honor Carlson on Sunday, Nov. 5. The event will be open to the public, with more details becoming available in the coming weeks.
Scottsbluff City Council members approved the citys one- and six-year street improvement plan Monday night. The plan places them in compliance with Nebraska state law under the Nebraska Board of Public Roads, Classifications and Standards.

Its one of the requirements for us to get our highway allocation funds, so well receive $1.945 million from the state, and thats one of the requirements, we have to have a one- and six-year plan, City Manager Kevin Spencer told the council.

The plan included $863,000 for one project that calls for improvements around Avenues I and K as well as 28th and 29th Streets. It also allocated $3.5 million for a 20th Street improvement project. Both of those projects are scheduled for the next year.

Those are the two that are on the one-year, and those really are the only ones that matter at this point in time, Scottsbluff Public Works Director Mark Bohl said. Theyre the only ones that are funded.

Projections on the six-year plan included $88,000 for residential development in the Northridge Subdivision and $100,000 for the paving of Avenue I near Sandstone Estates.

Not only is it a good idea  we can kind of project out and it should coincide with our comprehensive plan and things like that  but it helps to guide us, Spencer said.

The city also approved an addendum to its agreement with the City of Minatare to supply water. The addendum reflects recently approved changes to Scottsbluffs utility rate structures.

Minatare receives water from Scottsbluff at a wholesale rate that had not been raised for some time. Spencer said he felt the rate was overdue to be increased. The addendum increased the rate for the City of Minatare from 67 cents to 81 cents per 1,000 gallons.

Spencer said the increase was only to bring the rate up to date and to offset the cost to citizens of Scottsbluff.

We wholesale that water to them ... we provide it at a wholesale rate, he said. Their ratepayers shouldnt have to pay for our infrastructure and our improvements.

Mayor Jeanne McKerrigan signed a proclamation naming Oct. 5-8 as Support Citizens with Intellectual Disabilities Week.

Later in the meeting, two measures were heard on first reading. They will appear on the councils agenda twice more as the council did not choose to waive two additional readings before bringing the ordinances to a vote.

The first measure would repeal the citys concealed-carry ordinance, as the state Legislature has passed a constitutional carry law that supersedes the city ordinance.

The second called for the removal of a Deaf Child Playing sign on Avenue F that the council feels is no longer necessary as it was installed over a decade ago.

Scottsbluff City Council will meet again at 6 p.m. Oct. 16.
A 62-year-old Texas man is in jail in Lincoln after he accidentally shot his 12-year-old grandson Saturday evening at a wedding west of Denton, Nebraska, according to Lancaster County sheriffs deputies.

Michael Gardner of Odessa, Texas, was set to officiate the wedding at Hillside Events and, in an attempt to gather the crowds attention, planned to fire a blank from his revolver into the air around 5 p.m. Saturday, Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said.

But when Gardner cocked back the hammer of his Pietta 1860 snub nose revolver, it slipped, Houchin said, sending a projectile into his grandsons shoulder.

The 12-year-old, also from Texas, was taken by ambulance from 12400 W. Denton Road to a Lincoln hospital before being moved to Childrens Hospital in Omaha, Houchin said. His injuries arent thought to be life-threatening.

Houchin said Gardner had made his own blank round, putting black powder into a .45-caliber casing and gluing it closed.

What we believe is the glue is what injured the child, Houchin said.

Deputies seized the handgun and the spent casing, he said.

Gardner turned himself in to authorities Monday morning at the Lancaster County Jail, where he was arrested on suspicion of felony child abuse, a charge usually reserved for intentional injuries.

Houchin said the extent of the boys injuries and the use of a firearm led deputies to seek the felony charge. Gardner hasnt yet been charged with a crime, but he is expected to make his initial court appearance Monday afternoon.

Its just kind of neglectful to take a gun out, that has blanks, and fire it amongst people, Houchin said.
This weekend, Congress narrowly avoided a government shutdown. After a turbulent week, the House of Representatives passed a short-term bipartisan spending bill. The Senate approved the bill hours before the deadline of Oct. 1.

From 2005 to 2013, I served as a member of the Nebraska Legislature. During that time, we ran into a major budget shortfall. All of us in the Unicameral worked together and compromised to find solutions to that fiscal crisis. We were legislators, so we legislated. In the end, we made tough decisions and funded government in Nebraska.

As your U.S. senator, Im committed to working hard to ensure that we get our job done here in Washington, D.C., and fund the U.S. government. Thats why I voted in favor of this weekends bill that gives Congress more time to work through the regular appropriations process without a government shutdown.

The negotiations were having in Washington are important. But political fights shouldnt hurt the average American by shutting down access to vital government services, or forcing our military and border patrol agents to work without pay. In Congress, we need to make tough decisions to ensure that our government stays funded for the long term.

Instead of going on TV or Twitter to fight, my priority is working with my colleagues to find real solutions. We need to do more than just keep the government open  we also need to address our overwhelming $33 trillion national debt. Our debt keeps climbing, putting our childrens futures in jeopardy. More than that, its putting our national security in jeopardy.

As a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I take our national defense extremely seriously.

The United States is facing two peer nuclear adversaries, China and Russia, for the first time in history  so now is not the time to shut down operations. By shutting down our government, we are projecting weakness to our adversaries. The national debt is already threatening our national and economic security, but a government shutdown would exacerbate those issues.

Thats one reason I cosponsored the Pay Our Military Act last week. This bill, led by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), ensures that members of our military branches  Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Coast Guard, and Space Force  will be paid in the event of a government shutdown during Fiscal Year 2024. Our dedicated military men and women shouldnt miss a paycheck because of political fights in Washington. Congress needs to take action to protect this nations military readiness and make sure members of our Armed Forces receive the pay they have rightfully earned.

Congress will have to make some tough decisions as we near the new deadline of November 17. Its vital that we address the crisis at our southern border and limit our spending to what needs to be addressed. But if we are ever going to seriously address our nations financial crisis, Members of Congress must work together on responsible policies.

Governing by crisis management may be popular here in Washington, but it hurts the people of this country  and its not the Nebraska way. Instead, I want our work in Congress to be marked by transparency and accountability to the American people. Over the next few weeks, Ill continue working with my colleagues on a reasonable and responsible spending plan that supports families and addresses the important issues facing our nation.

Thank you for participating in the democratic process. I look forward to visiting with you again next week.
The bombing in question was specifically concentrated on al-Boukamal city, al-Souria Net.

Israel has escalated its actions against Iranian militias in eastern Syria. In a recent airstrike, unidentified aircraft targeted Iranian militia facilities in the region, an attack attributed to Israel by the Assad regime.

The Syrian state news agency, SANA, cited a military source who reported that the airstrike struck military positions in the vicinity of Deir-ez-Zor in eastern Syria. Two soldiers were wounded, and there were significant material losses. The source stated, At approximately 11:50 PM on Monday, February 10, 2023, the Israeli enemy conducted an aerial assault on some of our armed forces positions near the city of Deir-ez-Zor.

Local observers confirmed that the intensive bombardment affected multiple locations in eastern Syria, including Jabal al-Harash in Deir-ez-Zor and the town of al-Hari in al-Boukamal. The primary target of the attack was Iranian militia sites near the city of al-Boukamal, situated on the Syrian-Iraqi border.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the airstrike resulted in the deaths of six individuals of non-Syrian nationality and injuries to four members of the Syrian regime forces, with two in critical condition. The raids, believed to be carried out by Israeli forces, targeted three Iranian militia sites in the Al-Humaydah area of al-Boukamal city in Deir ez-Zor.

According to the Observatory, the attack also led to the destruction of the radar facility belonging to the Electronic Security Brigade of the Iranian militias in the Harabesh neighbourhood of Deir-ez-Zor city. This brigade comprises military units affiliated with the Syrian regime and Iranian militias aligned with it.

This incident is not the first time that Deir-ez-Zor Governorate has been subjected to airstrikes, as previous years have witnessed assaults by the international coalition and Israel on military installations controlled by Iranian militias.

The bombing in question was specifically concentrated on al-Boukamal city, located on the border with Iraq, which holds significant strategic importance for Iran, both militarily and economically. The city has become a major military hub for Iran, attracting repeated strikes from American and Israeli forces, notably targeting the Imam Ali base.

Additionally, al-Boukamals significance lies in its role as a vital land transportation hub, serving as Irans gateway to the Mediterranean and Lebanon. It is the sole corridor linking Tehran, Baghdad, and Syria, making it a focal point of regional geopolitical dynamics.

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.
To facilitate smoother exports from Syria to China, it has been proposed to use the port of Aqaba in Jordan, according to Athr Press.

Plans to boost Syrian product exports to China are in motion, as revealed by Muhammad al-Hallaq, a member of the Board of Directors of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce, during a recent meeting of the Syrian-Chinese Business Council.

During the meeting, a comprehensive plan and operational strategy were formulated to increase the export of Syrian products to the Chinese market. Al-Hallaq emphasized the importance of aligning these exports with Chinese preferences and identifying products that are in demand but currently lacking in Chinese markets. These products include anise, cumin, cottonseed, essential oils, black seed, chicken legs (in substantial quantities, as they are popular and essential in Chinese cuisine), soap, laurel, bay leaf, and dried vegetables, all of which can provide added value.

The effort to boost exports is part of a broader strategy to better understand the Chinese markets requirements and enhance the presence of Syrian products there. While there is demand in China for live agricultural products such as vegetables and fruits, exporting them directly from Damascus to China is challenging due to the extended transit times involved.

To facilitate smoother exports from Syria to China, it has been proposed to use the port of Aqaba, Jordan. This would help reduce transportation costs and circumvent the absence of a direct shipping route from Latakia and Tartous. Aqaba offers the advantages of efficient export processes and frequent, non-stop shipping.

In terms of imports, discussions have included the possibility of merchants from Damascus markets like Al-Hamidiyah and Al-Asrouniyya importing strings and toys. While importing strings is allowed, the import of toys is restricted because they are considered luxury items. However, if these toys serve as complementary components for the local toy industry, there should be no issue with their import.

Regarding export visas, a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Business Council and the Chinese Embassy to expedite the visa issuance process. This agreement aims to grant visas to all industrialists, merchants, and their employees within 72 hours, with visa durations ranging from three months to a full year, providing greater flexibility for those involved in trade between Syria and China.

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.
Israeli media has reported that Israel is considering providing military and material support to demonstrators in Syria's Suweida, according to Hashtag Syria.

Israeli media has reported that Israel is considering providing military and material support to demonstrators in Syrias Suweida Governorate, who are advocating for political change, improved living conditions, and the implementation of International Resolution 2254, which calls for the protection of civilians, unrestricted humanitarian aid access, and the cessation of armed actions.

Ehud Yaari, the chief commentator for Middle East affairs on Israeli Channel 12, has suggested a strategy for supporting these demonstrations. He proposes opening a humanitarian corridor through the village of Al-Anat, which is approximately 54 kilometres from the city of Suweida, along the Syrian-Jordanian border. According to Yaari, this corridor could be used for Druze trucks to transport both Israeli military and humanitarian supplies along a 55-kilometer route.

However, several challenges are associated with this proposal. First, King Abdullah II of Jordan appears reluctant to intervene independently in the Syrian conflict, despite improved relations between the Hashemite monarchy and the Druze community. Its worth noting that the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan belongs to the Druze Unitarians sect.

Second, Yaari highlights that the Biden administration has taken limited action regarding what it has termed the Druze revolution.

Third, establishing such a corridor for the Druze would require a broad consensus from Western and Gulf countries.

Yaari suggests that the corridor idea could be developed in stages and, if necessary, could involve providing the Druze with weapons to defend their territory. This would likely require a joint military effort involving American, Jordanian, and Israeli aircraft to secure shipments if the situation demands it.

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.
Recent heavy rainfall has caused significant damage to camps in northern Syria, according to Zaman al-Wasl.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights has confirmed that recent heavy rainfall has caused significant damage to camps in northern Syria. They are urgently appealing to the United Nations and humanitarian organizations for assistance in addressing the needs of these affected camps.

In an official statement, the network reported that the camps located near the town of Armanaz in the western countryside of Idleb Governorate, namely al-Zummar, Shahrnaz, and Bustan al-Juma, have suffered material damage due to the heavy rainfall on October 1, 2023. This rainfall resulted in the destruction and sinking of 40 tents, including damage to a school tent in the Zummar camp. Furthermore, the heavy rains led to the formation of torrential floods in the region.

The network emphasized that these recurring weather-related incidents are exacerbating the already challenging conditions faced by displaced individuals in these camps. They are urgently appealing to international relief organizations, particularly the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Organization, to swiftly respond to the essential needs of the affected camps. Additionally, they are requesting additional tents to be provided to camp administrations for emergency situations, ensuring the safety and well-being of the displaced populations.

204 arrests

On the flip side, during the month of September, the Syrian Network for Human Rights meticulously documented a total of 204 arrests, comprising 12 children and 6 women, across Syria. It is worth noting that more than half of these cases occurred in areas under the control of regime forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces, primarily linked to protests.

In their monthly report, the networks findings revealed that out of the 204 cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, 161 cases escalated into enforced disappearances. Regime forces were responsible for 84 of these cases, including five children and three women, while the Syrian Democratic Forces accounted for 72 cases, including six children and one woman. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham was implicated in 14 cases, and all armed opposition factions, including the National Army, were involved in 34 cases, which included one child and two women.

The report further detailed the geographic distribution of these arbitrary arrests and detentions in September, highlighting that Aleppo governorate recorded the highest number of cases, followed by Deir-ez-Zor, Hassakeh, Damascus countryside, Damascus, Idleb, and Daraa.

The report underscored that individuals are being arrested for participating in the grassroots movement advocating for democracy in Syria, engaging in political, human rights, media, relief activities, and similar pursuits. Security agencies often level multiple charges against them under coercion, intimidation, and torture. These cases are recorded in official documents, and the suspects are subsequently referred to the Public Prosecution. Most of them are then transferred either to the Terrorism Court or the Military Field Court, both of which fail to meet the minimum standards of impartiality and fairness, resembling more of a military-security apparatus than an impartial judicial institution.

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.
A local arts supporter is trying to donate a statue of explorer William Clark that would accompany the sculpture of Sacajawea in Lake Sacajawea Park.

But John Widmer, who is personally funding the proposed art, said hes hit roadblocks in getting the city interested in the new piece.

Through his role in the Longview Public Service Group, Widmer was a major booster for the Sacajawea statue when it was added to the park in 2005 and the R.A. Long bench statue set up in 2006. Both of those pieces and the proposed Clark sculpture were all made by the same artist, Jim Demetro.

It would be my last hoorah for the city, Widmer said. The historical factor is good and it would make a nice addition to whats out there now.

Demetro has made multiple identical statues of Meriwether Lewis, Clark and Sacajawea that have been placed in the Pacific Northwest to commemorate the trip by the Lemhi Shoshone guide and the two American explorers across the continent.

Widmer said his plan was to place the Clark statue placed next to the Sacajawea statue near the footbridge across the lake. He originally hoped to complete the statue for the Go 4th Festival in July, but Demetro said the sculpture was not finished as of the end of September.

So far the statue has gotten a limited reception by the city. Widmer first took the project to the Historic Preservation Committee in April, who had questions about what the statue looked like and the location. The committee weighed in on the project because Lake Sacajawea has additional preservation rules due to its place on the National Register of Historic Places.

The statue was never approved by the Preservation Committee and has never been formally discussed by the Parks Advisory Commission.

The lack of another group supporting the project, such as the Longview Outdoor Galley, may be hampering Widmers approval. Longviews Assistant City Manager Ann Rivers said some city staff also had concerns about diluting the lakes focus on Sacajawea.

Its Lake Sacajawea and thats who we are honoring, Rivers said. If you were doing both (Lewis and Clark), you might be able to pass the test better.

Widmer said he chose to focus on Clark because he had closer ties to Sacajawea of the two explorers. Clark became the guardian of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, Sacajaweas son who was born during the expedition, after Sacajawea died in 1812 and paid for years of his education.

Rivers said Longview is reviewing the rules around gifting the city items like public sculptures that would need ongoing maintenance.
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A United Airlines Boeing 787 approaches for landing in Lisbon, Sept. 2, 2023, with the setting moon in the background. United Airlines is making its second massive order of new planes in less than a year, more than 100 in all, as the carrier renews its fleet. The most recent order announced Tuesday, Oct. 3, will include 50 Boeing 787-9s for delivery between 2028 through 2031, and 60 Airbus A321neos for delivery between 2028 and 2030. Credit: AP Photo/Armando Franca, File

United Airlines is making its second large order of new planes in less than a year, more than 100 in all, as the carrier renews its fleet.

The most recent order announced Tuesday will include 50 Boeing 787-9s for delivery between 2028 through 2031, and 60 Airbus A321neos for delivery between 2028 and 2030.

The agreement comes with options for up to 50 more Boeing 787s and for an additional 40 A321neo aircraft at the end of the decade.

The airplanes will be larger than those United is replacing. The Chicago-based company said that in 2019 it averaged 104 seats per North American departure. By 2027, United anticipates the figure climbing more than 40% to more than 145 seats.

"I'm convinced our strategy is the right one as we continue to add new, larger aircraft to take full advantage of our growing flying opportunities both internationally and domestically," United CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement on Tuesday.

Financial terms were not disclosed. The 787-9 has a list price of $292.5 million, while the A321neos have a list price of $129.5 million. Airlines routinely negotiate deep discounts on aircraft orders.

In December, United ordered 100 new Boeing 787s to replace planes nearing retirement age and to expand its international flying. The company ordered 200 Boeing Max jets and 70 planes from Airbus in June 2021.

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

This summer, Amazon lost an A.

Morgan Stanley Capital International, or MSCI, a New York-based investment research firm, dropped Amazon from a grade A rating to a BBB in August.

MSCI uses that scalewhich runs from AAA to CCCto tell investors how well a company is doing on several non-financial factors that may matter to shareholders, like carbon emissions, executive pay and diversity.

The scale is part of the world of ESGa type of investing that is billed as a way for shareholders to put their dollars toward companies that align with their values. E stands for environmental, S for social, G for governance. Workforce diversity and equity, customer satisfaction and labor relations are captured in the social catchall, while governance references board composition, executive compensation and political donations.

MSCI is one of dozens of firms that rank companies on ESG factors, hoping to help other firms make decisions about which companies to include in stock portfolios that are organized around ESG metrics. Those firms market the portfolios to investors as a way to use stock holdings to further their personal values.

Amazon is included in some of the largest ESG funds, like BlackRock and Vanguard. It's not listed in Fidelity's climate action fund but it does have a spot in the firm's women's leadership fund. Amazon's 11-person board of directors includes five women.

But in August, the tech and e-commerce giant lost points in two ESG indicators: MSCI downgraded the company and the Science Based Targets initiative, a United Nations-backed organization that acts as a watchdog of corporate climate goals, removed Amazon from its list of companies that have committed to net zero emissions targets.

As Amazon faces increased pressure to reduce its impact on the climate and improve working conditions in its warehouses, two issues that fall squarely into E and S, the change raised the question: Could Amazon lose its status in the world of ESG investing?

The short answer: Probably not.

"I don't think it makes a difference," said Ann Terlaak, a business professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tensie Whelan, a professor from New York University, said the "average fund" would likely continue investing in the company.

Daniel Hanson, the head of the U.S. Sustainable Equity team at Neuberger Berman, a firm that has invested in Amazon since 2022, said the change wouldn't impact his firm's decision.

Neuberger Berman uses third-party indicatorslike the MSCI ranking system or the Science Based Targets initiative endorsementas part of its research when determining where to invest but never as a deciding factor.

He likened the decision-making process to driving a car: Third-party indicators are the dashboard, where lights and numbers give the driver information about what's going on in the car. But relying only on that dashboard means drivers aren't looking out the windshield to see what's going on in front of them.

"That instrument panel is just a starting point," Hanson said. "I'm definitely going to look through the windshield down the road."

Amazon's changing score

The Science Based Targets initiative, a United Nations-backed organization that validates net-zero plans, removed Amazon from its list of companies taking action on climate goals in August.

The net-zero standard requires companies reduce their climate impact to a negligible level, first by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and then offsetting pollution that remains with carbon-capturing initiatives, according to SBTi. To prevent global temperature from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsiusa goal of the Paris Agreementthe agency said most companies should aim to halve emissions by 2030.

SBTi said it took Amazon off the list because the online retailer failed to follow through on its commitment to set a credible target for reducing carbon emissions. The removal followed a change in SBTi's policies that gave companies a six-month grace period to set a target before marking them as "commitment removed" on a public dashboard.

Amazon said the organization's requirements changed, making it "difficult" to submit a target in a "meaningful and accurate way." The company says it is still in contact with SBTi, as well as other organizations to set science-based targets.

Internally, Amazon has committed to eliminating or offsetting all of its carbon emissions by 2040. But, in the five years since it made that pledge, its total carbon footprint has grownfrom roughly 51 million metric tons in 2019 to 71.5 million metric tons in 2021.

Amazon's carbon footprint declined 0.4% in the past year, dropping to 71.2 million metric tons in 2022, according to the most recent company data from July.

It's not clear what led to the change in Amazon's MSCI grade, nor is it clear whether it's related to Amazon's environmental goals or SBTi's endorsement. Most ESG ranking systems consider the exact formula for a grade to be proprietary information. MSCI did not respond to questions about what caused the downgrade.

Amazon said it believes the change in grade was due to a change in MSCI's system. The firm reclassified Amazon in March 2023from the discontinued internet and direct marketing retail sub-industry to the consumer discretionary sector, where it now sits. That changed the weight of each pillar of E, S and G, Amazon said.

MSCI had raised Amazon's score in December, after two years at a "BBB," before knocking it back down six months later. Both scores place Amazon in an "average" ranking, above "laggard" companies but not quite a "leader" in MSCI's eyes.

Variability in ESG

Because there is so much variability at each rung of the ESG-spherefrom how firms rank a company's ESG score to how funds decide which scores to look atit can be difficult to knock a company like Amazon out of the running.

"There's a whole series of different approaches to sustainability in terms of investing," said Whelan, who founded the Center for Sustainable Business at NYU. "And within those different approaches, different fund managers use different tools and different ways of doing it. That's part of the challenge."

That benefits Amazon, Whelan said. Because the tech and e-commerce giant is so diversified, there are a lot of factors for firms to consider when giving it a score.

Hypothetically, if Amazon were to lose points for an increase in carbon emissions, it could gain points for a salary increase for its hourly warehouse workers. One falls into the environmental (E) category while the other falls into social (S) and the two could balance each other out.

Similarly, if Amazon were to be removed from one ESG fund, it is such a hot commodity on the stock market that it would likely still be included in others.

"There's a variety of sources fund managers are using to evaluate whether or not a company should be put on some sort of caution list. I don't think it's that black and white," said Maria Lettini, the CEO of U.S. Sustainable Investment Forum, a D.C.-based organization that includes investment firms, mutual fund companies, banks, credit unions and other financial institutions.

In some cases, Lettini said, ESG funds will hold on to a company even if it isn't meeting all its ESG benchmarks. If they sell, they risk someone else gobbling up the shares who isn't interested in ESG and won't put shareholder pressure on the company to take action.

"It's proven to be more effective to engage with a company to change their practices than to reduce your holdings in a certain companyonly to be purchased by a company that may not care as much as you," Lettini said.

A 'dangerous narrative'

After 10 years of teaching corporate sustainability, Terlaak, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has come to believe the ESG system isn't working the way it was supposed to.

Rather than acting as a way for investors to find companies that align with their values, the ratings have come to include almost every big-ticket company, from Amazon to Exxon. Because there is so much variability in the way ESG scores are calculated, the rankings have diminished in meaning, she said.

This can create a "dangerous narrative," Terlaak said, where companies avoid regulation because lawmakers assume the market will keep them in check.

"It allows us to look away from the heart of issues we need to undertake," she said. "Turning to the private sector for a solution to a problem as large and systematic as social inequality and environmental degradation is not a good idea."

"The private sector itself won't solve this. ... It won't change the trajectory we're on whatsoever."

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently put out new guidelines in an effort to combat what it calls deceptive, misleading marketing practices and "greenwashing" by investment funds. The new rule requires that 80% of a fund's portfolio matches the asset advertised by its name.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have started to push back against the ESG movement, arguing it poses a threat to the country's financial systems and is promoting investment decisions that are politically motivated and not transparent.

Bo Han, a professor at Seattle University, said it comes down to "how much does the fund manager reallywink winkcare about ESG ratings?"

"There's two incentives they can pursue: One is they care about ESG because they care about the world. The other is they care about ESG because investors care about ESG," he continued. It's still not clear which incentive wins out, Han said, but many fund managers "talk the talk much more loudly than they're willing to walk the walk."

Visit seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

2023 The Seattle Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Landing a helicopter on a ship's flight deck is one of the most challenging and complex maneuvers demanded of a Navy pilot. Unlike a runway, the landing area of any ship is small and a constantly moving target that sways with the sea. Solutions have been proposed to automate ship landing. Still, none have effectively held up to the added challenges helicopter pilots face when nature delivers gusty winds, especially in the wake of a ship, low visibility and other challenging environments.

The U.S. Navy is pursuing a solution capable of adapting to these difficult conditions and is turning to Texas A&M University researchers to develop the next generation of fully autonomous vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. By combining an optimal aircraft design with a robust machine learning algorithm, the researchers are proposing a new approach to automated aircraft ship landing at rough seas.

"When a helicopter pilot tries to land on a ship deck, they don't actually look at the moving deck," said Dr. Moble Benedict, associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M and the project's principal investigator (PI). "If they look at the moving deck, it will disorient the pilot, so they are trained to look at a specialized equipment on the ship called the horizon bar, which is a green, lighted, gyro-stabilized strip that provides the pilot an artificial horizon."

Recent studies focused on tracking the ship's deck rather than the horizon bar by using cameras, GPS and lidar to track the moving ship and adjust the aircraft to match its motion. Instead, Benedict and Dr. Dileep Kalathil, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and co-PI on the project, are automating the landing process by mimicking a pilot's behavior while tracking the horizon bar.

"Reinforcement learning is a class of machine learning for developing the control algorithm for autonomous systems," said Kalathil. "We are developing a reinforcement learning control algorithm so precise that even if a vehicle is changing course or is in the presence of heavy winds, it can still track the horizon bar."

Benedict and Kalathil have proven success in using reinforcement learning to track and safely land an unmanned aerial system (UAS) in various conditions, including moderate horizontal winds, foggy visibility and changes in course and speed. Now, they're merging their respective disciplines of aerospace engineering and electrical and computer engineering to build on these advancements. The researchers have developed an algorithm robust enough to tolerate adverse weather conditions and precise enough to continue tracking through course changes and varying speeds. Credit: Advanced Vertical Flight Laboratory

"My focus will be on designing a new generation of UASs for robust ship-based operation and high efficiency while understanding their flight dynamics," said Benedict. "And Dr. Kalathil's focus is on using reinforcement learning to make this autonomous process more robust for highly uncertain environments."

Ultimately, the Navy is interested in three elements: an aircraft that is runway independent, meaning it can take off and land vertically; cruise efficiency so the aircraft can fly for long durations at a time; and lastly, the ability to land on moving ship decks safely and successfully.

Benedict is applying his expertise in rotorcraft to designing VTOL aircraft concepts that are gust-tolerant and efficient, which may include foldable wings when transitioning from vertical flight to fixed-wing cruise. Using simulations, wind tunnel testing and flight tests, he'll analyze the performance and dynamics of these concepts to build a subscale model that will complement the control systems developed by Kalathil.

Using his expertise in reinforcement learning, Kalathil is developing an algorithm that is robust enough to handle rough conditions and optimized to use real-time data to adapt quickly, reacting similarly to a pilot.

"One of the main challenges for autonomous ship landing is the unpredictable nature of rough seas," said Kalathil. "But if we have a wind sensor in the UAS assembly that measures the speed and direction of the wind, then we can use that information to counteract that specific condition."

This adaptability addresses the simulation-to-reality gap faced by other developments. Kalathil is also looking at using a collaborative console to control multiple UASs.

More information: Vishnu Saj et al, Robust Reinforcement Learning Algorithm for Vision-based Ship Landing of UAVs, arXiv (2022). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2209.08381 Bochan Lee et al, Intelligent Vision-based Autonomous Ship Landing of VTOL UAVs, arXiv (2022). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2202.13005 Journal information: arXiv
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Twenty years ago, nanotechnology was the artificial intelligence of its time. The specific details of these technologies are, of course, a world apart. But the challenges of ensuring each technology's responsible and beneficial development are surprisingly alike. Nanotechnology, which is technologies at the scale of individual atoms and molecules, even carried its own existential risk in the form of "gray goo."

As potentially transformative AI-based technologies continue to emerge and gain traction, though, it is not clear that people in the artificial intelligence field are applying the lessons learned from nanotechnology.

As scholars of the future of innovation, we explore these parallels in a new commentary in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. The commentary also looks at how a lack of engagement with a diverse community of experts and stakeholders threatens AI's long-term success.

Nanotech excitement and fear

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, nanotechnology transitioned from a radical and somewhat fringe idea to mainstream acceptance. The U.S. government and other administrations around the world ramped up investment in what was claimed to be "the next industrial revolution." Government experts made compelling arguments for how, in the words of a foundational report from the U.S. National Science and Technology Council, "shaping the world atom by atom" would positively transform economies, the environment and lives.

But there was a problem. On the heels of public pushback against genetically modified crops, together with lessons learned from recombinant DNA and the Human Genome Project, people in the nanotechnology field had growing concerns that there could be a similar backlash against nanotechnology if it were handled poorly.

These concerns were well grounded. In the early days of nanotechnology, nonprofit organizations such as the ETC Group, Friends of the Earth and others strenuously objected to claims that this type of technology was safe, that there would be minimal downsides and that experts and developers knew what they were doing. The era saw public protests against nanotechnology anddisturbinglyeven a bombing campaign by environmental extremists that targeted nanotechnology researchers.

Just as with AI today, there were concerns about the effect on jobs as a new wave of skills and automation swept away established career paths. Also foreshadowing current AI concerns, worries about existential risks began to emerge, notably the possibility of self-replicating "nanobots" converting all matter on Earth into copies of themselves, resulting in a planet-encompassing "gray goo." This particular scenario was even highlighted by Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy in a prominent article in Wired magazine. A whiteboard primer on nanotechnology  and its responsible development.

Many of the potential risks associated with nanotechnology, though, were less speculative. Just as there's a growing focus on more immediate risks associated with AI in the present, the early 2000s saw an emphasis on examining tangible challenges related to ensuring the safe and responsible development of nanotechnology. These included potential health and environmental impacts, social and ethical issues, regulation and governance, and a growing need for public and stakeholder collaboration.

The result was a profoundly complex landscape around nanotechnology development that promised incredible advances yet was rife with uncertainty and the risk of losing public trust if things went wrong.

How nanotech got it right

One of usAndrew Maynardwas at the forefront of addressing the potential risks of nanotechnology in the early 2000s as a researcher, co-chair of the interagency Nanotechnology Environmental and Health Implications working group and chief science adviser to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Project on Emerging Technology.

At the time, working on responsible nanotechnology development felt like playing whack-a-mole with the health, environment, social and governance challenges presented by the technology. For every solution, there seemed to be a new problem.

Yet, through engaging with a wide array of experts and stakeholdersmany of whom were not authorities on nanotechnology but who brought critical perspectives and insights to the tablethe field produced initiatives that laid the foundation for nanotechnology to thrive. This included multistakeholder partnerships, consensus standards, and initiatives spearheaded by global bodies such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

As a result, many of the technologies people rely on today are underpinned by advances in nanoscale science and engineering. Even some of the advances in AI rely on nanotechnology-based hardware.

In the U.S., much of this collaborative work was spearheaded by the cross-agency National Nanotechnology Initiative. In the early 2000s, the initiative brought together representatives from across the government to better understand the risks and benefits of nanotechnology. It helped convene a broad and diverse array of scholars, researchers, developers, practitioners, educators, activists, policymakers and other stakeholders to help map out strategies for ensuring socially and economically beneficial nanoscale technologies. UNESCO calls for broad participation in deciding AIs future.

In 2003, the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act became law and further codified this commitment to participation by a broad array of stakeholders. The coming years saw a growing number of federally funded initiativesincluding the Center for Nanotechnology and Society at Arizona State University (where one of us was on the board of visitors)that cemented the principle of broad engagement around emerging advanced technologies.

Experts only at the table

These and similar efforts around the world were pivotal in ensuring the emergence of beneficial and responsible nanotechnology. Yet despite similar aspirations around AI, these same levels of diversity and engagement are missing. AI development practiced today is, by comparison, much more exclusionary. The White House has prioritized consultations with AI company CEOs, and Senate hearings have drawn preferentially on technical experts.

According to lessons learned from nanotechnology, we believe this approach is a mistake. While members of the public, policymakers and experts outside the domain of AI may not fully understand the intimate details of the technology, they are often fully capable of understanding its implications. More importantly, they bring a diversity of expertise and perspectives to the table that is essential for the successful development of an advanced technology like AI.

This is why, in our Nature Nanotechnology commentary, we recommend learning from the lessons of nanotechnology, engaging early and often with experts and stakeholders who may not know the technical details and science behind AI but nevertheless bring knowledge and insights essential for ensuring the technology's appropriate success.

The clock is ticking

Artificial intelligence could be the most transformative technology that's come along in living memory. Developed smartly, it could positively change the lives of billions of people. But this will happen only if society applies the lessons from past advanced technology transitions like the one driven by nanotechnology.

As with the formative years of nanotechnology, addressing the challenges of AI is urgent. The early days of an advanced technology transition set the trajectory for how it plays out over the coming decades. And with the recent pace of progress of AI, this window is closing fast.

It is not just the future of AI that's at stake. Artificial intelligence is only one of many transformative emerging technologies. Quantum technologies, advanced genetic manipulation, neurotechnologies and more are coming fast. If society doesn't learn from the past to successfully navigate these imminent transitions, it risks losing out on the promises they hold and faces the possibility of each causing more harm than good.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain greets UAW members as they strike the General Motors Lansing Delta Assembly Plant in September 2023.

Ford and General Motors said around 500 more workers have been temporarily laid off due to "knock-on effects" from the ongoing strike at Detroit's "Big Three" automakers.

The two companies sent home the employees who were left without work following United Auto Workers strikes on assembly plants, Ford and GM said Monday.

The UAW launched a targeted strike on September 15 on GM, Ford and Stellantis, calling stoppages at a handful of plants, while leaving most of the union's 146,000 US hourly auto workers on the job.

On Friday, the UAW expanded the strike for the second time, ordering additional stoppages at GM and Ford plants but sparing Stellantis due to progress in the talks.

GM said the UAW's strike on Wentzville, Missouri and Lansing, Michigan plants "continues to have negative ripple effects."

The company is sending home 130 workers at Parma, Ohio and 34 in Marion, Indiana who "have no work available," a company spokesman said in an email.

Ford said it directed about 330 employees in Chicago, Illinois and Lima, Ohio not to report to work.

"Our production system is highly interconnected, which means the UAW's targeted strike strategy has knock-on effects for facilities that are not directly targeted for a work stoppage," Ford said in a statement Monday.

The two companies, along with Stellantiswhich was formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and the French PSA Grouphad previously sent home nearly 3,000 workers who were unable to perform work due to the strike.

With Monday's action, the total in this pool of workers is near 3,500.

Initially, the UAW called on some 13,000 members at the three automakers to stop work, then added another 5,600 a week later due to lack of progress in negotiations.

A further 7,000 were added the following week to bring the total to some 25,000.

 2023 AFP
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A terms of service agreementthat long list of legalese that most people ignorecould cost Samsung millions of dollars in a mass arbitration action over the Illinois biometric privacy law.

A Chicago federal judge ruled the South Korean electronics giant must pay more than $4 million in filing fees to begin an arbitration case brought by 50,000 petitioners alleging their Samsung Galaxy devices violated the law by using facial recognition technology without consent.

Filed last year with the American Arbitration Association, the petitioners paid more than $2 million in initial filing fees, but Samsung refused to pay its share, according to the lawsuit.

Employing the only legal recourse allowed by Samsung's terms of service agreement, the mass arbitration action could result in hundreds of millions in damages, with payouts of $5,000 or more to the individual petitioners, said Jonathan Gardner, a New York-based attorney whose firm, Labaton Sucharow, brought the claims.

Both Samsung and its attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.

Samsung's terms of service agreement prohibits class-action lawsuits and requires users to resolve disputes "exclusively" through individual arbitration. The agreement designates the American Arbitration Association to hear the cases.

But a coordinated online recruitment effort created the mass arbitration, an alternative to class-action lawsuits that has gained traction in recent years, with 50,000 Illinois Samsung Galaxy owners filing claims Sept. 7, 2022. The petitioners paid their share of the initial filing fee, but on Sept. 27, Samsung notified the American Arbitration Association it would not pay its share of the fees, contending the petitioner list included discrepancies such as deceased claimants and non-Illinois residents.

Samsung did pay the fee for 14 petitioners who had moved to California, where the state imposes sanctions in the event of nonpayment for arbitration cases.

The American Arbitration Association "cannot comment on active cases," a spokesperson said Thursday.

Attorneys for the petitioners took their case to Chicago federal court in October 2022, seeking to compel Samsung to pay the fee for the other 49,986 Samsung Galaxy owners in Illinois and begin the arbitration process.

In his Sept. 12 ruling, U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber dismissed more than 14,000 petitioners who failed to show they resided within the court's jurisdiction in the Northern District of Illinois. But as to the broader arbitration action, he said Samsung needed to pay the $4.125 million fee and adhere to the dispute resolution rules it laid out in its own terms of service agreement.

His opinion and order borrowed a line from Shakespeare to indicate Samsung was essentially blown up by its own legal device.

"The company may not have expected so many would seek arbitration against it, but neither should it be allowed to blanch at the cost of the filing fees it agreed to pay in the arbitration clause," Leinenweber said. "Alas, Samsung was hoist with its own petard."

Samsung filed an appeal of Leinenweber's ruling Sept. 15 with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court in Chicago.

Gardner said it is "not an appealable order" and expects the 7th Circuit to reject the case. He is planning to refile the petitions to get the mass arbitration moving forward for the nearly 36,000 Illinois Samsung owners that remain qualified, according to the ruling. And when Samsung gets its bill, he expects the company will have to pay it.

For Samsung, there may be a lot more money at stake than the initial $4 million filing fee.

The arbitration alleges Samsung violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act through its Gallery app, the default photo viewer installed on its Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Through the app, Samsung "collects, uses and stores" biometric identifiers such as face scans of Illinois residents without consent, the arbitration claims allege.

The state's biometric privacy act, which was passed in 2008, is considered the strictest in the U.S. and requires companies to get permission before using technologies such as facial recognition and fingerprint scans to identify customers or employees.

The law allows $5,000 per person in damages for "intentional or reckless" violations and $1,000 for "negligent" violations.

In 2021, a California federal judge approved a landmark $650 million settlement for Illinois Facebook users in a class-action lawsuit over alleged violations by the social media giant of the biometric privacy law. Facebook, now known as Meta, also announced it would shut down its facial recognition system and delete more than a billion facial recognition templates it had stored.

Nearly 1.3 million Illinois Facebook users who successfully filed claims collected about $428 each from the settlement. Labaton Sucharow was co-counsel in the Facebook class-action lawsuit.

In February, the Illinois Supreme Court opened the door to significantly higher damages in a case involving a Chicago White Castle manager when it ruled that biometric privacy claims accrue every time information is gathered without consent.

Gardner said the arbitration will argue that Samsung intentionally violated the biometric privacy law. Each image collected would represent two violationsone for not obtaining user consent and one for not having a destruction policymeaning each petitioner could represent at least $10,000 in damages, he said.

"And we will argue that every photograph, every time they collected biometric information, is a separate violation," Gardner said. "So the violations will start to stack up."

Taking the Samsung case to federal court also made public the usually private world of mass arbitration, where resolutions often remain undisclosed beyond the participants.

For many companies, mandatory arbitration has long been a way to insulate themselves against potentially costly class-action lawsuits. The rise of mass arbitration may be causing some companies to rethink the strategy, Gardner said.

Mass arbitration has "emerged as a way of resolving a large number of individual claims" in consumer and employment disputes, the American Arbitration Association said in a page devoted to the growing practice on its website.

Gardner said his firm has settled more than 15 mass arbitration cases in recent years, generating multimillion dollar payouts. While unable to disclose the private settlements, the Samsung arbitration could significantly eclipse the rest, he said.

"Samsung is the biggest, the largest number of clients," Gardner said. "That translates to the largest exposure for the company, the largest amount we would insist upon recovering."

2023 Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Texas A&M AgriLife has expanded the reach of its beef cattle expertise with two international initiatives led by a professor in the Department of Animal Science in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Reinaldo Cooke, Ph.D., the Burkhart Endowed Professor for Beef Cattle Research, leads the 44 Farms-Texas A&M International Beef Cattle Academy, which has expanded beyond online courses to offer live training events in participating host countries.

Cooke has also taken a leadership role in organizing a major international beef cattle conference in Brazil. The conferences Portuguese title translates to New Focuses on Cattle Production and Reproduction. It draws more than 2,000 participants annually from among the worlds major cattle producers, scientists and technology leaders.

Meeting international demands for live beef cattle instruction

The first international live course of the academy, now in its sixth year of operation, was a one-day training event that took place in Campeche, Mexico, in June. More than 500 participants attended.

The next event is slated for October in Guatemala.

There was a massive response to our online international offerings, Cooke said. After six years, people from all over the world are aware of these courses as well as the annual short course in College Station, and they are eager to partner with us to offer these events in their countries.

The single-day international courses are adapted from the three-day Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course, which drew more than 1,900 participants to College Station this year. Texas A&M University faculty experts in beef cattle production, led by Cooke, speak at the international live courses.

The course schedule covers about a dozen new and fundamental beef cattle production concepts. They span forage and grazing, nutrition, health, reproduction, genetics, beef quality and new advances in each area. A review of the Mexico event by The Brahman Journal called it exemplary, well organized and professionally executed.

Taking this event international also advances our mandate as a U.S. land-grant institution to extend agricultural expertise far and wide, Cooke said.

Taking the reins of an international beef cattle conference

Cooke is now preparing to further extend the academy across international industry and academia in March in Brazil with his leadership role in organizing the 26th edition of New Focuses on Cattle Production and Reproduction.

He aims to grow the conference as the worlds premier forum for beef cattle and dairy idea exchange. It includes real-time translation in two 1,000-attendee halls, topically split between beef and dairy presentations. An industry trade show also takes place.

This is one of the worlds largest and most influential cattle conferences, and it takes place in Brazil, the largest cattle industry in the world, Cooke said. Leading this conference and expanding our on-site live courses through the 44 Farms-Texas A&M International Beef Cattle Academy represents a major step by Texas A&M AgriLife to share our vast beef cattle expertise benefiting production, lives and livelihoods across the globe.
At-home COVID test kits available

The Brazos County Health District announced Monday that it will offer free at-home COVID tests for residents.

Residents can pick up their free tests at 201 N. Texas Avenue in Bryan between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The person picking up the tests must be over 18 years of age and are limited to four tests per family.
Newly released body camera footage shows state Sen. Charles Schwertners February arrest for suspicion of drunk driving after refusing to take a breathalyzer test. Travis County prosecutors dropped the charge in July, saying there was not enough evidence to secure a conviction.

The video was released to The Texas Tribune on Friday in response to a public records request. It shows Schwertner, a Georgetown Republican who represents Bryan-College Station, being pulled over in the early morning hours of Feb. 7 in Austin. The officer tells Schwertner he was driving between two lanes, and Schwertner apologizes, saying he and his passenger were changing channels and stuff.

State Rep. Claudia Ordaz, D-El Paso, can be seen in the front passenger seat with Schwertner as he is being pulled over. In a statement, she said, I had no involvement in this matter other than being a passenger at the time of this incident and was fully cooperative with authorities at all times. I regret this incident occurred, and in the future, I will use more caution to prevent this type of unfortunate circumstance.

The video goes on to show Schwertner repeating he had not been drinking, performing field sobriety tests and being handcuffed. He was released from the Travis County jail later that day, telling reporters he was deeply apologetic and made a mistake.

Schwertners lawyer, Perry Minton, declined to answer questions about the video and instead provided a brief statement.

This is the video the Travis County Attorneys Office viewed when it rejected any charges against Senator Schwertner months ago, Minton said. Its time to move on to newsworthy stories.

The Tribune provided the video to both Schwertners and Ordazs offices shortly after it was released Friday evening. Minton provided his statement Saturday morning, while Ordaz did not respond with a comment until shortly before publication.

In the video, Schwertner tells the officer he was picking up Ordaz at the airport and they had gone out to dinner at Whataburger. Ordaz tells the officer they are parked at her place, and Schwertner confirms it is where she lives.

The officer asks if they have been drinking and both say no. The officer asks Schwertner to come out of the car, and once he does, the officer tells Schwertner he notices a strong smell of alcohol on his breath. The officer asks again if Schwertner had anything to drink, and Schwertner says no.

A little while later, the officer continues to ask Schwertner whether he has been drinking, at one point asking him to rate how drunk he is on a scale of zero to 10. Part of the audio of the exchange is missing, but Schwertners response is audible.

Im sober, Schwertner says. Zero.

The officer proceeds to conduct field sobriety tests on Schwertner, during which his wife apparently arrives at the scene.

My wife just showed up, Schwertner says, explaining he was distracted while balancing on one foot.

They try to restart the exercise, but Schwertner is still distracted.

Belinda. Belinda, Schwertner says. Shes an attorney.

While a voice can be heard offscreen, the words are inaudible. It is unclear who exactly Schwertner was referring to as an attorney. Neither Belinda Schwertner nor Ordaz are listed as attorneys in either of their public profiles.

The officer and Schwertner resume the exercise, but Schwertner becomes impatient. He asks the officer if the length of time he has been balancing is sufficient, and the officer tells him that is not for him to decide.

Officer, this is getting to be a interrogation, Schwertner says.

The officer says all he is trying to do is get Schwertner to follow instructions for a standardized field sobriety test. Schwertner insists he has done everything the officer has asked him to do and tells the officer he is acting inappropriately.

Schwertner ultimately completes the test and he and the officer walk over closer to a police car, where a second officer assures Schwertner he is going through a standardized thing and not getting any unique treatment. A third officer presents Schwertner with what he calls a preliminary breath test, explains it detects alcohol and asks if he would like to take it. Schwertner says no and is handcuffed and told he is under arrest for driving while intoxicated.

The video goes on for about another half hour, showing Schwertner being placed in a police car, calmly interacting with officers and arriving at the jail.

At one point, Schwertner asks the first officer if he can sit in the front of the police car. The officer says he has to put Schwertner in the back due to policy. Schwertner gets in the back of the car and sighs.

Ive done so much for you guys, Schwertner says.

The officer replies that he appreciates it but he is just doing his job. Schwertner says he understands.

While Schwertner is in the car, the arresting officer is approached by another officer.

I need to call the watch commander because thats a senator, a Texas state senator, and theyre in the legislative session right now, the other officer says before adding in a reassuring tone: You do everything right. Everybodys treated the same.

Schwertner was booked into the Travis County jail at 2:12 a.m. and charged with driving while intoxicated. He received a personal recognizance bond and was released from jail shortly after noon that day.

Im deeply sorry, apologetic to my citizens and my family, Schwertner told reporters as he left the jail. I made a mistake.

The officer who arrested Schwertner wrote in an affidavit for probable cause that in addition to the smell of alcohol on his breath, Schwertner had bloodshot, glassy, watery eyes, was confused, and had slurred speech patterns. The officer also described Schwertners demeanor as polite, sleepy, cooperative.

Travis County Attorney Delia Garza announced July 18 that there was not enough evidence to continue with the case. She also said Schwertner voluntarily submitted to alcohol counseling and alcohol monitoring with no violations. Minton, Schwertners lawyer, said it was the right decision based strictly on the evidence.

After Schwertners arrest, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said there was zero excuse for drunk driving, especially by a member of the legislature whose conduct should be held to a higher standard. Patrick added he would withhold further comment until the final outcome of this issue in court. Patrick has since not commented on the situation.

Schwertner chairs the Senate Business and Commerce Committee and has served in the upper chamber since 2013. He represents Senate District 5, a Republican-friendly district that covers the north Austin suburbs and spreads east to include Brazos County.

Schwertner, 53, previously had a personal controversy in 2018, when he was accused of sending sexually explicit photos of his genitals to a graduate student at the University of Texas. He denied the allegations, saying that someone else sent the messages using his LinkedIn account and another privacy phone messaging app that belongs to him.

A university investigation did not clear Schwertner of wrongdoing but said it could not prove Schwertner sent the texts. Investigators said Schwertner was uncooperative.

After the allegation, Schwertner voluntarily gave up his chairmanship of the Senates Health and Human Services Committee.
AUSTIN  The pressure on Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan is only increasing since the impeachment trial of the states attorney general.

Ken Paxton, who was acquitted on impeachment articles alleging wrongdoing by the Texas Senate, is calling for Phelan to step down from his job following what he has called a sham impeachment and the death of multiple bills favored by conservatives during the regular session.

Joining in the call for Phelans resignation is former President Donald Trump, multiple conservative lawmakers within the House and state GOP leadership.

Phelan, R-Beaumont, has often been accused by more conservative members of not being conservative enough, leaving him as an odd man out among Texas big three, which also includes Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott.

The upcoming special session  which starts Oct. 9  on school choice and border issues is likely to put even more strain on Phelans credentials as speaker.

Phelan is facing opponents in the Republican primary heading into the 2024 election  the first time hes had such a challenge since he was elected in 2014. Paxton has threatened to support Phelans opponents. In one of his interviews following the impeachment trial, the attorney general said he would spend a lot of time in Beaumont.

Phelans office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the calls for his resignation or his future plans.

But the speaker likely can expect continued scrutiny in the coming months.

I think hes lost credibility at this point, said Abraham George, the chair of the Collin County Republican Party. A lot of county parties are against him.  Like it or not, when that happens, it may be time for him to step down.

Much of the recent tension began in May when Paxton sent a seemingly out-of-nowhere statement calling for Phelans resignation, accusing the leader of being drunk on the job.

A Phelan spokeswoman quickly shot back at that time that Paxtons request was a last-ditch effort to save face as a House ethics panel revealed they were investigating the attorney general. House representatives overwhelmingly voted to impeach Paxton just a few days later.

Phelan has not publicly addressed the more recent calls for him to step down.

In an interview on Fox News recently, he spoke only about a surge of migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border. In an op-ed in his hometown newspaper, he lashed out at Patrick and senators for the verdict that cleared Paxton and allowed him to return back to office.

After that op-ed ran, Patrick called Phelans essay disgusting in a social media post and went even further, saying the editorial proves he is unworthy of his leadership position.

Patrick, who oversees the Senate, immediately lashed out at House members for their process and investigation that led to Paxtons impeachment. He called for changes to the state constitution because of it.

Phelan immediately shot back, saying the Senate trial was biased and that Paxtons acquittal was orchestrated from the start.

Meanwhile, the Texas GOP executive committee called on the speaker to resign in a resolution approved on a 58-2 vote in September. The resolution cited Paxtons impeachment, the death of several bills prioritized by the states Republican party and appointing Democrats as chairs of legislative committees.

Some lawmakers and conservative activists point to conservative proposals that Phelan failed to pass due to the legislative clock running out or procedural tactics from Democrats, such as those regarding border security or efforts to ban discussions of race and racism in higher education as knocks against Phelans record.

A spokesman for the Texas GOP did not respond to emailed questions about the speaker.

Soon, lawmakers will return for what could be multiple special sessions for Abbotts push to sign a bill that would allow for public funds to be used for private school tuition.

A bill that established education savings accounts, and also included pay raises for teachers and increased money for public schools, died in the House during the regular session following opposition from Democrats and rural Republicans.

County Republican parties are likely to have their own votes in coming weeks that will showcase an unfavorable view of Phelan.

George, the Collin County GOP chair, said that during his groups next meeting on Oct. 9, members will vote on resolutions condemning Phelan. Paxton is from Collin County.

What should be happening with pressure like this from the state party, from other county parties, would help his opponent in the next primary, George said.

In recent days, some House members have rallied behind a different colleague for the speakership. The representatives vote on who should be leader of the Capitols lower chamber. In January, Phelan comfortably defeated Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, as members elected him to his second term as speaker.

Tinderholt and others were among those posting public support for Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo. Smithee was praised by Patrick for being one of the 23 House members who voted against impeaching Paxton.

Before casting his vote in May, Smithee said the House had not properly followed the rules of evidence in its investigation into the attorney general.

Rep. Smithees speech was one of the most honest and courageous speeches I have ever heard in the House, Patrick said from the Senate floor moments after Paxtons acquittal.

Smithee announced his reelection campaign earlier last week and in it acknowledged how turbulent its been for legislators. In a radio interview Friday, Smithee said he isnt planning on running for speaker.

GOP Rep. Charlie Geren of Fort Worth thinks that the calls for Phelans ouster are wrong and ignoring proposals that have become law during the speakers tenure, such as Texas six-week restriction on abortions and bans on gender-related care, which were conservative priority bills.

They forget all the conservative legislation that has passed under his leadership, Geren said. So either they are misinformed or theyre ignorant of all the legislation.
The U.S. Department of Educations Office of Civil Rights has determined that the Virginia Department of Education excluded some students with disabilities from taking a field test of the new integrated reading and writing assessment.

Dawn Shelley, a current member of the Spotsylvania School Board and special education teacher in Stafford County, filed a complaint in March alleging that the VDOE discriminated against students with disabilities by not providing the field test in alternate formats to accommodate these disabilities.

When I heard about the (field test), I also heard that some (individualized education plan) accommodations were not going to be available for many of our students with disabilities, Shelley said. I thought, thats discrimination against our students.

In a Sept. 26 letter, Jennifer Barmon with OCR informed Shelley of the offices determination that the VDOE did not make these accommodations and that the state agency has agreed to implement a resolution that will bring it into compliance.

The VDOE administered the stand-alone integrated reading and writing field test between March 6 and April 28, 2023. The test, given online to students in grades 5 and 8, asked students to read a nonfiction passage, answer four to six questions about the passage and respond to a writing prompt about it.

The deidentified results of the field test were to be used by the VDOE to determine the viability of the passages and writing prompts and develop training materials for how to score the test.

According to an Aug. 12, 2022 memo from then-state superintendent for education Jillian Balow about the upcoming field test, a read-aloud accommodation will be available for eligible students; however, paper, Braille, and large print test forms will not be offered during the field test. Other accommodations usually used when administering an online writing test (e.g., auditory aids, visual aids, etc.) that do not require a special test form are available for eligible students.

According to Barmons letter, the VDOE estimated that 5,000 students did not take the field test and that for some, this was because it was not provided in alternate formats to accommodate their disabilities.

OCR is concerned that this may not have accurately measured the performance of students with these types of disabilities and that the VDOE may not have accounted for how such students may have performed in its assessment of the validity of the stand-alone test, Barmon wrote. OCR is additionally concerned that the VDOE may have denied these students with the opportunity to take what could potentially amount to a practice exam in real-life testing conditions.

OCR is responsible for enforcing Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities by public entities, including public schools.

The office also enforces Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance.

According to the resolution agreed upon by both parties, VDOE will issue an internal memo by Oct. 6 to all staff who work on the integrated reading and writing test, stating that it will make the test available in alternate formats, including paper, Braille, large print and audio.

The resolution tasks VDOE with providing training to all internal staff on the memo and the requirements of Section 504 and Title II.

VDOE has also agreed to determine whether or how its exclusion of some students impacted the results of the field test and to provide an analysis of its findings to the OCR by Oct. 6.

Shelley, who at the beginning of September announced a write-in campaign to challenge Republican Phillip Scott for the 63rd District House of Delegates seat, said she asked the VDOE earlier this year why it would not be providing the field test in alternative formats.

They told me ... it was just a field test, so it didnt count, she said. I told them it was hurting our students, and that they were not allowing our IEP students to be on a level playing field with their non-disabled peers  therefore, not equitable. I told the VDOE I would be filing a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights because it was unacceptable and they didnt seem to care.
Arm has released security patches to contain a security flaw in the Mali GPU Kernel Driver that has come under active exploitation in the wild.

Tracked as CVE-2023-4211, the shortcoming impacts the following driver versions -

Midgard GPU Kernel Driver: All versions from r12p0 - r32p0

Bifrost GPU Kernel Driver: All versions from r0p0 - r42p0

Valhall GPU Kernel Driver: All versions from r19p0 - r42p0

Arm 5th Gen GPU Architecture Kernel Driver: All versions from r41p0 - r42p0

"A local non-privileged user can make improper GPU memory processing operations to gain access to already freed memory," Arm said in a Monday advisory. "There is evidence that this vulnerability may be under limited, targeted exploitation."

The issue, credited to Maddie Stone of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) and Jann Horn of Google Project Zero, has been addressed in Bifrost, Valhall and Arm 5th Gen GPU Architecture Kernel Driver r43p0.

Google, in its own monthly Android Security Bulletin for October 2023, said it found indications of targeted exploitation of CVE-2023-4211 and CVE-2023-4863, a severe flaw impacting the WebP image format in the Chrome web browser that was patched last month.

Exact specifics surrounding the nature of the attacks are still unclear, but indications are that they may have been weaponized as part of a spyware campaign targeting high-risk individuals.

Also resolved by Arm are two other flaws in the Mali GPU Kernel Driver that allow for improper GPU memory processing operations -

CVE-2023-33200 - A local non-privileged user can make improper GPU processing operations to exploit a software race condition. If the system's memory is carefully prepared by the user, then this in turn could give them access to already freed memory.

- A local non-privileged user can make improper GPU processing operations to exploit a software race condition. If the system's memory is carefully prepared by the user, then this in turn could give them access to already freed memory. CVE-2023-34970 - A local non-privileged user can make improper GPU processing operations to access a limited amount outside of buffer bounds or to exploit a software race condition. If the system's memory is carefully prepared by the user, then this, in turn, could give them access to already freed memory.

This is not the first time flaws in Arm Mali GPU Kernel Driver have come under active exploitation. Earlier this year, Google TAG disclosed that CVE-2023-26083 was abused in conjunction with a series of four other flaws by a spyware vendor to penetrate Samsung devices.
An inmate at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution assaulted multiple staff members Saturday resulting in serious injuries to two of them, according to a prison spokesperson.

The assault occurred during a random cell search that afternoon.

Dayne Urbanovsky, director of strategic communications for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, said when the inmate was taken out of his cell for a search, he used his head to strike staff members in the face.

Staff members ultimately restrained him and removed him from the area.

Urbanovsky said one prison employee was treated at the hospital for a broken nose and another for a mild concussion.

The inmate responsible hasn't been identified. But she said findings of an investigation into the incident will be provided to the county attorney for determination of criminal prosecution.

The inmate also will face the NDCS disciplinary process, which includes sanctions such as loss of good time.
7,000 employees of Taiwan-invested footwear firm strike work in central Vietnam

By Tri Duc Tue, October 3, 2023 | 4:00 pm GTM+7

Nearly 7,000 workers of footwear maker Viet Glory Co. Ltd., or 90% of its workforce, began a strike Monday afternoon demanding changes to unfair benefit policies of the Taiwan-invested firm.

The firm, located in Dien Chau district, Nghe An province, said it has responded to the workers demand and asked them to return to work Tuesday. However, as of Tuesday morning, the strike had not ended, with workers claiming the firm had not met all their demands.

Striking workers assemble outside Viet Glory factory in Nghe An province, central Vietnam, October 3, 2023. Photo courtesy of Phu Nu (Women) newspaper.

The workers are demanding improvements in base salary, conduct of both foreign and Vietnamese high-level staff, maternity policy, recalibration of timekeeping machines, meeting schedules and working conditions, Le Manh Hien, vice chairman of Dien Chau district, told The Investor.

The firm has said it has already implemented or will implement policies in line with workers demand, including retraining of high-level staff, early end of shifts for pregnant workers, recalibration or repair of timekeeping machines, adjustments to meetings and beyond-schedule meetings counted as overtime work and more bonuses.

It has also pledged to review requests related to year-end bonuses and toxicity allowance in line with Vietnams laws.

However, regarding the demand for higher base salaries, the firm said that the current VND4.13 million ($169.4) was already higher than the minimum requirement under the law at VND3.64 million ($149.3). Given the current situation of operations, the company said it cannot change it and asked for the workers understanding.

It also reminded workers that anyone not working for five days in a month without permission will be laid off.

Construction of the Viet Glory factory began in May 2020, with a first phase investment of $22 million. The 8-hectare plant was expected to employ 10,000 people and produce 25 million products a year.

In July 2021, Nghe An province approved the second phase of the project, with an additional investment of $22 million for an additional annual output of 9.6 million products with 6,000 more workers.

The company had faced similar protests around the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday in 2021 and 2022, and some workers quit their jobs on their own, citing unfair benefits and low wages.

Vietnam recorded 157 labor strikes in 2022, up 46.7% year-on-year, according to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, also the head of trade unions in the country. A majority of cases were in foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), particularly in the southern region, the confederation said.
Raffles Medical Group to acquire majority stake in HCMC's American International Hospital

By Tri Duc Tue, October 3, 2023 | 6:27 pm GTM+7

Singapore-headquartered Raffles Medical Group (RMG) will spend $45.6 million on acquiring a majority interest in the American International Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

In a Monday release, RMG noted that the deal was subject to some conditions and relevant regulator approvals.

With the transaction, RMG will also enter an agreement to manage the hospital operations, striking a strategic partnership with HCMC-based My My Trading Services Company Ltd., the hospitals investor and a subsidiary of Tien Phuoc Group.

The valuation of the hospital was in the same range of that made by Savills Vietnam, the RMG release said.

American International Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo courtesy of Tien Phuoc Group.

It said the move will enable RMG to meet growing demand for private healthcare services in Vietnam. The move was also part of RMGs long-term strategy to further diversify its hospital operations beyond Singapore and China and "build stronger resilience in both healthcare and hospital services towards geographical and revenue mix diversification."

Since its completion in 2018, American International Hospital has recorded steady growth. It has 120 beds and a staff strength of 500, including 60 doctors.
Vietnam needs breakthrough incentives for semiconductor development: expert

By Minh Tuan Tue, October 3, 2023 | 11:05 am GTM+7

The Vietnamese government needs to consider incentives beyond the existing regulatory framework to stimulate the development of its fledgling semiconductor industry as the country seeks further integration into global chip-related supply chains, an eminent expert has suggested.

In a talk with The Investor, Pham Chi Lan, former vice president of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said that during its decade-long presence in Vietnam, Samsung, the largest foreign investor in the country to date, has not succeeded in creating an ecosystem of supporting industries here. Most of its suppliers come from its home country, not Vietnam.

Pham Chi Lan, former vice president of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI). Photo courtesy of Dau Tu (Investment) newspaper.

Lan, therefore, proposed that incentives for the semiconductor industry be bolder than those granted for Samsung and other high-tech projects.

The government has to learn lessons from the past when it comes to preferences. We need to attract sectors that can transform our economic structure and export composition and really engage the participation of Vietnamese businesses, Lan stressed.

She recalled a lesson Prof. Nguyen Mai, former Vice Chairman of State Committee for Cooperation and Investment, now Ministry of Planning and Investment, has repeatedly spoken about. At Mais proposal, the then Prime Minister Phan Van Khai established a task force to persuade Intel to build its plant in Vietnam at a time the U.S. chipmaker was considering three other alternatives  India, China, and Thailand. The mission was accomplished when the government granted breakthrough incentives for Intel, including its first-ever financial support.

Lan proposed three criteria for semiconductor investors. First, they should come from a country with source technologies such as the U.S., Europe or Japan, not from a country that steals technology from others. Second, their home countries should not be caught between a geo-economic competition of powers. Third, they need to commit to involve Vietnamese firms in their supply chains.

Strong interest from U.S. chipmakers

Lans reminder comes at a time when a host of multinational corporations are looking to Vietnam as a highly potential destination for semiconductors. Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said last week that the country has all the conditions and factors required to develop a semiconductor ecosystem.

Vietnam made international headlines during U.S. President Joe Bidens two-day visit to Hanoi last month, during which bilateral relations were upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership  the highest designation in Vietnams diplomatic hierarchy.

In July, U.S. Secretary of Finance Janet Yellen came to Hanoi touting friend-shoring, a strategy designed to secure U.S. semiconductor supply chains in amiable nations.

Foreign interest in Vietnams semiconductor potential is not a fresh story. California-headquartered Intel opened its Vietnam plant in 2010 and has produced more than 3.5 billion products, putting Vietnam on the worlds chip map. Vietnam makes up over 50% of its global output.

Inside Intel's chip plant in Vietnam. Photo courtesy of IPV.

During Bidens Hanoi visit, senior executives of Intel, Amkor, Marvell, and GlobalFoundries joined an innovation and investment summit in the presence of Biden and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Much of Chinhs working visit to the U.S. last month centered around cooperation in high technology and innovation, including semiconductors. U.S. firms highly valued the potential of Vietnams semiconductor industry, and even talked of setting up chipmaking plants in Vietnam.

Among them, Synopsys signed agreements with Vietnams Ministry of Information and Communications and National Innovation Center (NIC) on assistance to foster the semiconductor industry, including personnel training and a chip design incubator.

Besides, the NIC signed a memorandum of understanding with Cadence Design Systems on capacity building and development of semiconductors. Other deals on workforce training were inked between Vietnams FPT Semiconductor and Silvaco, and the NIC and the University of Arizona.

Legal framework for incentives in place

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung stated last week that semiconductor investors will enjoy the highest preferences available under Vietnamese legislation.

Investors in high-tech projects, including semiconductors, are entitled to exemption to and reductions of corporate income and import taxes, and land rentals.

In addition, the government has issued a decree guiding the implementation of the Law on Investment, and other decisions that detail criteria for high-tech classification and special incentives.

Notably, Clause 5, Article 20 of the Law on Investment 2020 clearly states: The government submits to the National Assembly to decide on the application of investment incentives other than the investment incentives prescribed in this law and other laws in case it is necessary to encourage the development of a particularly important investment project or special administrative-economic unit.

Lan expressed hope that the government will consider more appealing policies for this industry. Article 20 of the Law on Investment adopted in 2020 and effective from January 2021 opens up space for the government to make bold decisions to attract critical investments that Vietnam really longs for.

We need better mechanisms, and I expect the government to use its authority to the maximum for the benefit of the semiconductor industry. They can discuss thoroughly the incentives before asking for endorsement from the National Assembly, Lan suggested.

As Vietnam plans to apply the Global Minimum Tax from next year, Lan suggested the Vietnamese government make grants to offset this tax.
Vietnamese firms bound to be part of semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem: VinaCapital exec

By Lan Do Tue, October 3, 2023 | 7:02 pm GTM+7

Sooner or later, Vietnamese firms will be part of the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem and the nation should train engineers accordingly, says Don Lam, general director and founding partner of VinaCapital.

Lam was speaking at the 2023 Investor Conference organized by VinaCapital in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday. More than 150 international investors attended the conference, the highest since its 2005 inception.

Lam said investors were very interested in green energy, wind power, technology, semiconductors and hi-tech sectors.

Last week, VinaCapital advised many Taiwanese companies to invest in Vietnam, and they expressed keen interest in the semiconductor industry. The companies were more confident about their potential investments after U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to Vietnam, he added.

Lam noted that until recently, FDI into Vietnam was mainly in textiles, footwear and electronics; now it was moving to chips and semiconductors. Vietnam's way of developing the FDI sector was very sustainable, he stressed.

Don Lam, general director and founding partner of VinaCapital, speaks at the 2023 Investor Conference in Ho Chi Minh City, October 3, 2023. Photo coutersy of VinaCapital.

He added that through discussions with Taiwanese companies, the world's leading place in semiconductor production, initially they will invest directly in Vietnam, but gradually they will have an ecosystem.

What Vietnam needs is human training. Vietnam should train engineers in this industry because the industry has huge potential. Sooner or later, Vietnamese companies will involve in the ecosystem of semiconductor manufacturing before long.

Nguyen Hoai Thu, general director of VinaCapital securities investment fund, commented that Vietnam was on the semiconductor world map with Intel's investment. In 2020, Vietnam's semiconductor export was $4.2 billion, well behind first-placed China with $35.6 billion. In Southeast Asia, Vietnam was third behind Singapore and Malaysia.

Among Vietnamese companies, FPT has occupied pole position in this industry. In 2022, they produced advanced chips using their own designs. FPT also has an advantage in training human resources because it runs a university.

The semiconductor chip industry employs 1.2% of Taiwans workforce, but accounts for 20% of the territory's GDP.

From a macro perspective, Andy Ho, general director of VinaCapital's Investment Council, said that the elevation of U.S.-Vietnam ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership during President Joe Bidens Vietnam visit will have a huge impact on the domestic economy in the long run.

It is expected that the U.S. will increase its FDI capital injection into Vietnam. The country has also benefited significantly from the U.S.-China trade spat. Chinas exports decreased by about 13% while that of Vietnam grew by 7% in the 2018-2022 five-year period. Other countries in Southeast Asia also recorded lower growth rates than Vietnam.

The U.S.-Vietnam comprehensive strategic partnership, the highest in Vietnams diplomatic hierarchy, has placed the bilateral relations on par with Vietnam's relationships with China, Russia, India and South Korea.
Expert Viewpoint

When Does It Make Sense to Move Legacy Technology to the Cloud?

As school districts have returned to campus this fall, education leaders will be monitoring IT and ed tech spend. Performance and cost will be top of mind. While many districts continue to move to cloud environments due to their collaboration capabilities, scalability, and improved security, sometimes legacy systems can make sense too.

Legacy systems  including mainframes, operating systems, computer labs, desktop devices, applications, and network equipment  remain critical to K12 operations. IT leaders may choose to keep these systems because they are highly customizable. Legacy systems may still meet the district's needs, which alone can outweigh the costs and heavy lifting of moving to the cloud.

Legacy technology is here to stay, but IT leaders must be cognizant of the cybersecurity risks that these systems pose  and whether a move to the cloud is best for the district.

As schools continue to monitor their districts performance throughout the year, lets look at these risks when it makes sense to migrate to the cloud and how districts can do so without compromising visibility, performance, and security.

Vulnerabilities in legacy systems can make schools attractive targets

Sputtering laptops, desktops with insufficient memory, outdated software, and overloaded WiFi networks are some classroom technology challenges teachers and administrators frequently encounter as school kicks off. Aside from interrupting the daily activities of teachers, students, and IT pros, many of these technologies are no longer supported by vendors and go unpatched  leaving them highly vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Due to squeezed budgets, schools are particularly vulnerable because outdated, unprotected systems are easier to penetrate. In September 2022, the Los Angeles Unified School District was targeted in a ransomware attack that exploited an unpatched vulnerability impacting 640,000 students just as they returned to school.

Because most cyberattacks against the education sector result from security weaknesses in ed tech providers' products and systems and schools, remain a top target, districts always need to consider ways to be one step ahead of bad actors.

When to migrate to the cloud

To solve the security and technology modernization needs of K12 schools, some believe the answer is to completely replace older, legacy technology with cloud-based solutions. But the cloud also comes with challenges. If migration plans aren't executed properly  and with security baked in from the get-go  service availability, school operations, and budgets can suffer.

What legacy infrastructure makes sense to migrate to the cloud? Some systems are easier and less costly to move  such as migrating a school district's email platform from on-premises to a supported cloud solution like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.

However, migrating more complex, customized, and outdated legacy tech can lead to challenges. In these cases, starting small with the cloud may make sense while maintaining some on-site systemsa state of hybrid IT.

Achieving visibility into hybrid IT environments

But as districts shift towards hybrid IT, they must achieve centralized visibility into these complex, distributed environments  on-premises, in the cloud, and across multi-clouds. Instead of relying on disparate performance and security monitoring tools, newer approaches stress observability.

Observability gives IT pros end-to-end oversight of IT infrastructure, network, and services  while eliminating tool sprawl, reducing alert fatigue, and simplifying administration and support.

Instead of reacting to security and performance issues as they occur, observability enables a proactive approach, continuously and automatically analyzing the hybrid environment, detecting anomalies, and predicting conditions that may impact users or capacity constraints. And it does so seamlessly and automatically, even as more services are deployed.

Combining the benefits of legacy and the cloud: securely and with confidence

Not all schools have the budgets to upgrade legacy technology immediately  or even the time to do the extra work throughout the year. But they can start small by shifting certain systems and applications to the cloud. And, when they're ready, further their cloud modernization efforts , confident they have complete observability across their expanding hybrid environment and the agility to ensure service availability and stay one step ahead of cyber threats.
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CARBONDALE  John G. Gilbert worked as the education senator alongside his close friend SIU President Delyte W. Morris in helping transform Southern Illinois University from a small teachers college to a major university in the 1960s and 1970s.

Now, a lithograph of Gilbert by renowned artist Herbert Fink is directly across from a photograph of Morris and his wife, Dorothy, at the entrance of Morris Librarys browsing room after an unveiling on Sept. 29.

For Gilberts son, J. Phil Gilbert, who is also chair of the SIU Board of Trustees, said the portrait of his father is precisely where it belongs.

Its almost surreal, said Phil Gilbert, a senior judge with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. They worked together for so many years to build this university. To have their pictures near each other is very heartening.

John Pollitz, dean of Library Affairs, is pleased with where the etching is placed. Having Gilbert and the Morrises  who are on a tandem bicycle  facing one another at the browsing room entrance has symbolic meaning, he said.

That room has been a tradition in Morris Library from its very beginning, he said. State Sen. Gilbert was a critical ally to Dr. Morris as he grew SIU into the innovative university that invigorated the region.

Phil Gilberts family, including his sister, Pam, who is also an SIU graduate, were among those attending the ceremony, along with others including Glenn Poshard, SIU System president emeritus and former U.S. House representative; SIU System President Dan Mahony, SIU Carbondale Chancellor Austin Lane and John Jackson, a visiting professor with the SIU Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.

SIU was my fathers love

The Gilbert family has a long connection to the university. John G. Gilbert, a Carbondale native, graduated from SIU in 1933 and went on to the University of Illinois School of Law before opening a private practice. His father, John P. Gilbert, graduated from then-Southern Illinois Normal College and later headed the schools biology and agriculture department, and his mother, Dora Gray, also attended SIU. John G. Gilberts daughter and Phil Gilberts sister, Pam, graduated from SIU in 1964.

John G. Gilbert served as Jackson County states attorney and later as a state senator from 1960 to 1972. In addition to his work with Morris on SIU Carbondale, Gilbert was also instrumental in the creation of SIU Edwardsville and the SIU School of Medicine in Springfield.

Then-Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson noted in a 1987 letter to Gilbert that his efforts were crucial in establishing the Illinois Board of Higher Education, on which he served, and the magnificent system of community colleges in the state.

When John G. Gilbert died in 1989, then U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, who served in the Illinois General Assembly with Gilbert, also noted Gilberts contributions to education, and stated SIU wouldnt be what it is today without John Gilberts efforts.

Artist close to the Gilbert family

Phil Gilbert said that Fink, who was recruited to SIU by Morris, surprised him with the portrait of his father a few months after John Gilberts death. Fink and his wife, Polly, were good friends with the Gilberts, and Phil Gilbert recalls Fink saying the lithograph  from a picture of Gilberts father  was for the kindness that John G. Gilbert had shown them throughout the years and for all he has done for SIU, I felt I needed to do this.

Fink came to SIU in 1961 and later became director of the then-School of Fine Art and dean of the then-College of Communications and Fine Art until his retirement in 1987. Fink died in 2006. His creations are included in major collections in the U.S., including the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Art Institute of Chicago and more.

Time to come home

The portrait has been in Judge Gilberts law office and later in his chambers in U.S. District Court in Benton since 1992. While Gilbert has no plans to retire from the bench, he discussed the portrait with his family, and the belief was it belongs to the university.

This portrait needs to go back home. It needs to be at the university that he loved and dedicated his life to building, Gilbert said.
Federal officials say South Carolina should make up for decades of underfunding for S.C. State University, which they say totals nearly $470 million.

Gov. Henry McMaster was one of 16 state governors to receive letters from U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack asking states to increase funding for historically Black land-grant colleges and universities.

South Carolina State University has received $469.9 million less in state funding than the states other land grant institution, Clemson University, over the last 30 years, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics cited in the letters.

These funds could have supported infrastructure and student services and would have better positioned the university to compete for research grants, Cardona and Vilsack said in the letter to McMaster. South Carolina State University has been able to make remarkable strides and would be much stronger and better positioned to serve its students, your state, and the nation if made whole with respect to this funding gap.

A total of $13 billion is owed to HBCUs in the 16 states that received letters, Cardona and Vilsack said.

The federal government could enter a partnership to fill the funding gap for S.C. State if South Carolina cannot do so on its own, with the feds providing $2 for every $1 from the state, the letter said. This would also avoid litigation that has happened in other states, including Florida, Maryland and Mississippi.

S.C. State has received record funding  more than $100 million  over the last three state budget cycles to help improve university facilities and infrastructure, S.C. State President Alexander Conyers said in a statement. This includes ongoing projects to improve residence halls, classroom buildings and the upcoming new student center.

I will just simply say to you that that's no secret, Conyers said at S.C. State's Board of Trustees meeting on Sept. 21. If it is a secret, it is certainly the worst-kept secret there is. We know that HBCUs across the country have been underfunded for a number of years.

What we must do is focus on the future  working with our members of the General Assembly, working on better funding methodologies, working on more funding, like we received this year. Not necessarily to make up for the last 30 years or the last 127 years, to be exact, but to just fix us going forward to make us better to invest in the students at South Carolina State the same way that we invest in students at our other public universities.

In a statement from the Governors Office, spokesperson Brandon Charochak said McMaster, has been and will continue to be a staunch supporter of South Carolina State University and all our HBCUs in action, deed and appropriation.

McMaster has made access and affordability one of his highest priorities, Charochak said. The Biden administration is simply off base.

Charochak did not immediately respond to questions about if McMaster disputes the claim that S.C. State has been underfunded.

He did note that funding for public state universities is allocated by the General Assembly, not the governor. The governor does present a proposed budget to the General Assembly each year.

The legislature has been easier to convince to give money to S.C. State in the past few years, Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter said. The Orangeburg Democrat is vice chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, which helps develop the states budget.

S.C State has worked to improve its administrative and fiscal accountability, which in turn has improved its reputation at the State House, she said.

Cobb-Hunter says shes still disappointed S.C. State is not receiving as much funding for its infrastructure improvements as Clemson, given S.C. States enrollment growth and net-positive operating cost.

S.C. State asked the House Ways and Means Committee for $209 million, including $195 million for infrastructure and capital projects, in state funding in January.

The university ultimately received $54 million in the budget, which was vetoed by McMaster in June and will be voted on again when the legislative session resumes in January 2024.

Cobb-Hunter voted against the budget, citing the amount of money allocated for S.C. State. She was also frustrated, she said, that the money came from the Senate's amendments to the budget, rather than from the House.

The $54 million will be used to replace the university's Turner Hall, university officials have said. Cobb-Hunter said she pushed for the budget to include funds for a new library on campus, which S.C. State has said would cost $30 million.

The university received a then-record $52 million in the 2022-23 budget, which paid for the renovation of Sojourner Truth residence hall and expansions to the student center.

S.C. State is budgeting for $25 million in state funding for the 2023-24 fiscal year, according to Conyers report to the universitys board on Sept. 21. That is up from $22 million the year before.

South Carolina was one of nine states among the 16 that have made strides to improve the funding gap in recent years, according to the letters.

(Its) an ongoing struggle, but I believe it's one that we are winning, Cobb-Hunter said. The perception of the university has changed, the leadership has changed and people seem to all be rowing in the same direction, which makes it a little easier.

It's still a tough sell. And I have been extremely disappointed. I was extremely disappointed in this last budget, that S.C. State didn't get more than they did.

Some lawmakers are hesitant to vote for funding for S.C. State because it is an HBCU, she said. The unequal funding will put students of color at a disadvantage when the U.S. Supreme Courts recent affirmative action ruling increases non-white students need for HBCUs, she said.

Cobb-Hunter said she was glad the Biden administration was sending the message to states about HBCU funding. The Biden administration has made a point of reaching out to HBCUs, including when the president spoke at S.C. States convocation in December 2021.

She is hopeful the letters will promote discussion about funding for S.C. State and HBCUs in the legislature, but is not confident that the state will take up the federal governments offer to partner for more funding.

I don't think South Carolina will take the secretary up on his offer, she said. I hope I'm wrong, because it would seem to me that if we aren't going to appropriate state dollars, the least we could do is make way for the federal dollars to be used. Because here's the newsflash: if we don't use it, some other state will and that has been the pattern, unfortunately, in this state.

S.C. State, which opened in 1896, is the only public, four-year HBCU in the state. The university was founded with federal funding by the Second Morrill Act of 1890, according to the National Archives.

The 1890 act founded land-grant colleges for Black students who had been shut out of the original land-grant colleges founded by the 1862 Morrill Act, including Clemson.
A family-style restaurant chain's Orangeburg location is listed for sale. It is still in operation.

Shoney's at 1490 Chestnut Street is on the real estate market with an asking price of $700,000, according to the commercial real estate website Crexi.

The 5,363-square foot restaurant has been on the market since July 25.

Attempts to reach restaurant General Manager Matthew McAlister were unsuccessful.

A public relations official with Shoney's took a message and said someone from the company would be in touch. No one from the company reached out in time for this story's deadline.

The restaurant occupies about half an acre near the intersection of Chestnut Street and Columbia Road.

The Orangeburg restaurant is the only Shoney's in The T&D Region. Six years ago, the Shoney's in Santee closed its doors after two decades in business.

There are currently eight Shoney's in the state, according to the restaurant chains website.

The restaurant provides traditional American-style food such as hamburgers, chicken, steaks, fish, sandwiches, salads and desserts.

Shoney's also became known for its breakfast bar beginning in the 1980s.

Shoneys is headquartered in Nashville. It operates in 17 states, according to its website.

Shoney's began in 1947 when a drive-in restaurant was opened in Charleston, West Virginia.

Five years later, the name was changed to Big Boy Restaurants  only to be renamed three years later to what is now known as Shoneys.
The American Red Cross of South Carolina has announced that it is honoring Dwight Priest Jr., a senior at Claflin University studying psychology, for collecting 96 units nationwide.

Kashif Alston, a junior at South Carolina State University studying mechanical engineering, and Kaiyah Robinson, a sophomore at Allen University studying biology, also were selected for the ambassadorship.

A senior at Claflin University studying psychology, Priest is in the second year of his ambassadorship and a member of the inaugural cohort.

The national program is part of the American Red Cross Sickle Cell Initiative, which aims to raise awareness of the inherited blood disorder impacting an estimated 100,000 Americans  the majority of whom are of African descent  and increase donations from blood donors who are Black. Blood donations from individuals of the same race or similar ethnicity and blood type have a unique ability to help patients experiencing a sickle cell crisis.

"To be a part of this program is a blessing to me. I didn't know much about sickle cell before participating in the program, and I learned why we need to help collect as much blood as we can," said Priest about his experience as an HBCU ambassador to influence his peers to donate blood.

"Sometimes, when people ask questions about giving blood, they ask out of fear. You have to build up their confidence with your confidence. If Im confident and let them know that theyll be all right and give them a good understanding of why they should give, theyre more willing to give," he said.
(TBTCO) - Cac quan chuc Cuc Du tru Lien bang My (FED) uoc cho la se giu nguyen lai suat on inh o muc cao nhat trong 22 nam khi ket thuc cuoc hop keo dai hai ngay vao thu tu, 1/11. Tuy nhien, cac nha au tu va nha kinh te se theo doi cac dau hieu e thay lieu lai suat co giu nguyen nhu vay hay khong - hoac lieu ngan hang trung uong co con nghi rang ho co the can phai tang lai suat tro lai trong nhung thang toi hay khong?
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Community members can start applying to participate in this years Shop with a Cop event, where children in need are able to purchase presents for Christmas.

Kids can get gifts for themselves, as well as other family members, on Dec. 2 and Dec. 3, the Natrona County Sheriffs Office announced.

The Natrona County Sheriffs Office, the Wyoming Highway Patrol and Casper, Evansville and Mills police departments will be helping children pick out presents during the event, the statement said.

Local authorities welcome the opportunity to work with families in our community, especially those with underprivileged children who may not have the same opportunities as other children, the statement said.

The event is made possible through a partnership with both Walmart locations in Casper.

Applications are due by 5 p.m. on Nov. 17, the statement said. They will be accepted by all Natrona County law enforcement agencies and other participating agencies, which include the Midwest Police Department, Wyoming Game and Fish, Natrona County Airport and U.S. Customs.

The applications are available online through the Casper Police Department and the Natrona County Sheriffs Office website, the statement said. Then, they need to be mailed or dropped off at a participating agency.

Families will be notified of their application status beginning the week of Nov. 27. The agencies strive to make this a positive experience for the children.

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.
WASHINGTON  Americans view college campuses as far friendlier to liberals than to conservatives when it comes to free speech, with adults across the political spectrum seeing less tolerance for those on the right, according to a new poll.

Overall, 47% of adults say liberals have a lot of freedom to express their views on college campuses, while just 20% said the same of conservatives, according to polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression.

Republicans perceive a stronger bias on campuses against conservatives, but Democrats see a difference, too  about 4 in 10 Democrats say liberals can speak their minds freely on campuses, while about 3 in 10 Democrats say conservatives can do so.

If youre a Republican or lean Republican, youre unabashedly wrong, they shut you down, said Rhonda Baker, 60, of Goldsboro, North Carolina, who voted for former President Donald Trump and has a son in college. If they hold a rally, its: The MAGAs coming through. Its: The KKK is coming through.

Debates over First Amendment rights have occasionally flared on college campuses in recent years, with conflicts arising over guest speakers who express polarizing views, often from the political right.

Stanford University became a flashpoint this year when students shouted down a conservative judge who was invited to speak. More recently, a conservative Princeton University professor was drowned out while discussing free speech at Washington College, a small school in Maryland.

At the same time, Republican lawmakers in dozens of states have proposed bills aiming to limit public colleges from teaching topics considered divisive or liberal. Just 30% of Americans say states should be able to restrict what professors at state universities teach, the poll found, though support was higher among Republicans.

Overall, Republicans see a clear double standard on college campuses. Just 9% said conservatives can speak their minds, while 58% said liberals have that freedom, according to the polling. They were also slightly less likely than Americans overall to see campuses as respectful and inclusive places for conservatives.

Chris Gauvin, a Republican who has done construction work on campuses, believes conservative voices are stifled. While working at Yale University, he was once stopped by pro-LGBTQ+ activists who asked for his opinion, he said.

They asked me how I felt, so I figured Id tell them. I spoke in a normal tone, I didnt get excited or upset, said Gauvin, 58, of Manchester, Connecticut. But it proceeded with 18 to 20 people who were suddenly very irritated and agitated. It just exploded.

He took a lesson from the experience: I learned to be very quiet there.

Republicans in Congress have raised alarms, with a recent House report warning of the long-standing and pervasive degradation of First Amendment rights at U.S. colleges. Some in the GOP have called for federal legislation requiring colleges to protect free speech and punish those who infringe on others rights.

Nicholas Fleisher, who chairs an academic freedom committee for the American Association of University Professors, said public perception is skewed by the infrequent cases when protesters go too far.

The reality is that theres free speech for everyone on college campuses, said Fleisher, a linguistics professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. In conversations within classrooms, people are free to speak their minds. And they do.

Officials at PEN America, a free speech group, say most students welcome diverse views. But as the nation has become more politically divided, so have college campuses, said Kristen Shahverdian, senior manager for education at PEN.

Theres this polarization that just continues to grow and build across our country, and colleges and universities are a part of that ecosystem, she said.

Morgan Ashford, a Democrat in an online graduate program at Troy University in Alabama, said she thinks people can express themselves freely on campus regardless of politics or skin color. Still, she sees a lack of tolerance for the LGBTQ+ community in her Republican state where the governor has passed anti-LGBTQ legislation.

I think there have to be guidelines around hate speech, said Ashford. Because some people can go overboard.

When it comes to protesting speakers, most Americans say it should be peaceful. About 8 in 10 say its acceptable to engage in peaceful, non-disruptive protest at a campus event, while just 15% say its OK to prevent a speaker from communicating with the audience, the poll found.

If they dont like it, they can get up and walk out, said Linda Woodward, 71, a Democrat in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas.

Mike Darlington, a real estate appraiser who votes Republican, said drowning out speakers violates the virtues of a free society.

It seems to me a very, very selfish attitude that makes students think, If you dont think the way I do, then your thoughts are unacceptable,'" said Darlington, 58, of Chesterfield County, Virginia.

The protest at Stanford was one of six campus speeches across the U.S. that ended in significant disruption this year, with another 11 last year, according to a database by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech group.

Those cases, while troubling, are one symptom of a broader problem, said Ilya Shapiro, a conservative legal scholar who was shouted down during a speech last year at the University of Californias law school. He says colleges have drifted away from the classic ideal of academia as a place for free inquiry.

An even bigger problem than speakers being disrupted by protesters is students and faculty feeling that they cant be open in their views. They cant even discuss certain subjects, said Shapiro, director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute think tank.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks staff has expanded the region of the Yellowstone River it is testing fish for levels of a toxic contaminant following a June train derailment near Reed Point.

Were looking to get an analysis from near Big Timber, so get well away from the incident, below again at the incident for our third sample and then going down below Billings to get another sample to kind of get our arms around the extent of this, whats natural and what might be attributed to the incident, Region 5 supervisor Mike Ruggles told the Environmental Quality Council on Wednesday.

Two previous tests of fish tissue have shown contamination from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, more easily referred to as PAHs. A 2019 National Institute of Health study noted the contaminant is ubiquitous in the environment and can cause adverse environmental effects.

The source of the contamination is mainly from crude oil and gas, but it is also found naturally occurring in some regions at low levels.

Its kind of tricky determining the source of the PAHs because its naturally occurring  in the shale on the bottom of the Yellowstone River  tailpipe exhaust (from vehicles traveling down the interstate), oil and gas refinery and from the asphalt materials, James Fehr, deputy director for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, told the EQC.

Ruggles told the council a website search quickly shows this is an issue worldwide. Ive read several papers in the last month and a half and the general guidance in the U.S. is through the EPAs analysis piece, so that is what we track back as our base.

As a result of the positive tests, the states Fish Consumption Advisory Board has advised anglers to avoid eating fish caught in the Yellowstone River between Reed Point and the Highway 212 bridge in Laurel. Expanding the testing area could give FWP an idea of whether the train derailment is responsible for the high PAH levels.

Seventeen Montana Rail Link train cars derailed, with 10 falling into the Yellowstone River, on June 24 while crossing a bridge just west of Interstate 90. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.

Of the 10 cars that fell into the river, six contained molten asphalt, three contained molten sulfur and one was carrying scrap metal. The last of the cars was pulled from the river on July 2 and the bridge was rebuilt and operational by July 22.

It is estimated the derailment released 400,000 to 440,000 pounds of molten asphalt into the Yellowstone River when it was running at high flow. So far, cleanup crews have recovered 230,000 pounds of asphalt  about 55% of the total, Fehr said.

Although cleanup crews are no longer scouring the river on a daily basis, as they were after the derailment, teams are still being dispatched as calls come in from the public. MRL has posted signs along the river featuring a QR code that can be scanned to share information on the location of any asphalt.

So theyre not on site but they are basically on call, Fehr said, noting last week 36,000 pounds of asphalt was retrieved as the Yellowstone Rivers water level has dropped.

In the meantime, DEQ enforcement is in the process of working up a notice of violation of the Water Quality Act that will be sent to MRL. The agency is also calculating penalties for the violation, as well as cost recovery for the state. No dollar figure has been announced on the expense of the incident.
Marijuana advocates are taking stock of their options to get two initiatives onto the 2024 ballot after a misunderstanding led them to believe the measures didnt qualify when, in fact, it appears they did.

Last month, Compassionate Options Wyoming, Wyoming NORML and the Wyoming Libertarian Party announced in a statement that they were considering political and legal options after allegedly receiving mixed guidance from the Secretary of States Office over different administrations.

The misunderstanding concerned the number of signatures needed to get the groups marijuana initiatives  one to decrease penalties for use and possession of cannabis, the other to legalize access to medical marijuana  on the ballot for Wyomings 2024 elections.

Based on some of the guidance, they concluded their marijuana initiatives didnt qualify for a vote in next years elections. They believed they had thousands fewer signatures than needed, so the organizers didnt even submit them to the Secretary of States Office before their March deadline, the organizers spokesperson Apollo Pazell said.

But it appears that they actually did have enough signatures.

These revelations mark what seems to be a significant milestone for advocates of legalizing marijuana in Wyoming. One of the organizers, Wyoming NORML, tried to get a medical marijuana measure on the 2016 ballot. But according to Wyoming NORML Executive Director Bennett Sondeno, the group was only able to get about 13,000 signatures  far fewer than the requirement.

It was pretty bleak, he said.

This time around, Wyoming NORML had help from the Wyoming Libertarian Party and Compassionate Options Wyoming, as well as paid professionals, to collect signatures, Sondeno said. They far surpassed the number of signatures they had collected during their previous attempt.

To get the initiatives on the 2024 ballot at this point, the organizers would have to recollect signatures and submit them to the Secretary of States Office before the upcoming legislative session, according to guidance that an employee with the office emailed to Sondeno last month.

Sondeno said recollecting the required signatures before the session is unrealistic given the impending winter and short timeframe. Whats more, he estimated it would cost roughly $350,000 to collect the signatures  money they simply dont have at the moment.

The groups intend to see if the deadline to submit the signatures and validate the measure for 2024 could be extended beyond the session, Sondeno and Pazell said.

The situation, Pazell said, also points to questions about how the initiative process could be clearer to prevent something like this from happening again. Organizers confusion didnt extend just to the number of required signatures, but also to deadlines and other parts of the process.

It was basically the entire process that was really convoluted and confused, Pazell said. I think this will be the first time that Im saying this, but I think its something that legislators should look at.

Its unclear if a situation like this has happened before in Wyoming. There arent many examples of serious ballot initiatives to compare with, Pazell noted; Wyoming hasnt successfully passed a ballot initiative since 1991.

Wyoming requires organizers to gather the number of signatures equal to 15% of votes cast in the last general election to get a measure on the ballot. That requirement is the highest in the country, according to Ballotpedia. Organizers also have to reach that 15% threshold in two-thirds of the states counties. The petition has to be signed on paper, in person.

Once the sponsors get their petition form from the state, they have 18 months to gather the required number of signatures. They have to submit their petition with the signatures before the start of the legislative session in the year that they aim to have their initiative on the ballot.

The groups gathered roughly 36,000 signatures for both initiatives before their deadline in March, according to Pazell. They originally announced a higher number of signatures for each measure but had to throw out some out for a variety of reasons  there were some repeat signatures and some of the signees werent registered Wyoming voters, for example.

When the organizers received their petition from the Secretary of States Office in September 2021, when former Secretary Edward Buchanan was in office, it was impossible to know what the signature requirement would be based on 2022 voter turnout; the elections hadnt occurred yet.

The signature requirement based on 2020 voter turnout was 41,776 signatures. Their measures didnt reach the 15% threshold for two-thirds of Wyomings counties based on that requirement.

But the Secretary of States Office now shows on its website that, in fact, only 29,730 signatures  based on 2022 voter turnout  are required to get an initiative on the 2024 ballot.

Under this requirement, the measures would have qualified for Wyomings 2024 ballot, Pazell said.

I think there needs to be clarity in the law, Pazell said.

He suggested the number of required signatures be based on voter turnout of the most recent general election at the time that organizers receive their petition for the Secretary of States Office rather than at the time they must submit those signatures to the office.

Ironically, such a provision would still have hurt the organizers initiatives since they didnt meet the required threshold based on 2020 voter turnout. But having that clarity  not having to guess at how many signatures are needed  would give organizers a framework to understand how much money, time and volunteers they need, Pazell said.

I think that its important that the law be very clear so that people who want to exercise this right have the ability to do so accurately.

Pazell said Compassionate Options Wyoming, Wyoming NORML and the Wyoming Libertarian Party are also considering challenging the distribution requirement  the requirement to reach the 15% threshold in two-thirds of Wyomings counties  in federal court. Distribution requirements have been found unconstitutional by courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, on several occasions, according to Ballotpedia.

The requirement, Pazell said, violates one man, one vote  a rule under the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution that requires one persons voting power to be about the same as anothers within the same state. The rule relies on a series of U.S. Supreme Court cases to define the meaning of that equality.

Pazell said organizers have tried to pursue a legislative remedy to change this requirement, but there hasnt been much appetite to do so. The groups, he said, hope to take the issue to court around the end of October or beginning of November if they arent able to initiate a legislative remedy before then.

Though the misunderstandings occurred over three different administrations in the Secretary of States Office, including those of Buchanan and interim Secretary Karl Allred, the organizers statement aimed criticism specifically at Secretary Chuck Gray.

In the statement, Sondeno complained Gray and his team should have provided the same deference and professionalism to the cannabis petition as they had to a recently-certified petition related to property taxes.

Why did they not undertake a comprehensive review of the initiative process while there was a pending initiative on the table? Their behavior deprived Wyomingites of their rights, Sondeno said in the statement.

The cannabis petition organizers also claim that they last communicated with the Secretary of States Office on Feb. 4, and that the number of required signatures had not been updated on the offices website at that time.

But according to internal emails Gray shared with the Star-Tribune, the website was updated to reflect signature requirements based on 2022 voter turnout on Dec. 6  before Gray took office. At the time, former Uinta County GOP State Committeeman Allred was serving as the interim secretary of state. (Gray took office in January.) Gray also disputed the date when the organizers last had a conversation with his office.

In response to the organizers statement, Gray said in an email to the Star-Tribune that its claims are lies and attempts to make up inaccurate excuses for the fact that they did not complete the statutory initiative process.

Gray also said Pazell worked as a paid operative for Sen. Tara Nethercott, who ran against him in the 2022 Republican primaries for the secretary of state post.

Pazell is the managing principal consultant of Oquirrh Mountain Strategies, which Nethercotts candidate committee paid $4,000 for advertising and miscellaneous expenses last year, according to records with the Secretary of States Office.

Pazell clarified multiple times that the organizers didnt see the situation surrounding the marijuana initiatives as a nefarious thing.

I understand the [current] Secretary of State has responded with a little bit of political accusations, Pazell said. We just want to be clear we dont think this was malicious.

Pazell added in a follow-up call with the Star-Tribune that the organizers really truly viewed this as an error.

We view it as a process story, not a political story.

Despite the setback, the organizers said in the statement that theyre encouraged to know their petition seems to have successfully collected the required number of signatures and would have been on the ballot for the 2024 elections had it not been for this misunderstanding.

Either way, this fight is not over, former lawmaker and Wyoming Libertarian Party member Marshall Burt said in the statement.

Patients, veterans, and Wyoming families succeeded at collecting the signatures. This measure will be law no matter how hard they try to refuse our rights.

Burt, who lost reelection last year to Rep. Cody Wylie, R-Rock Springs, didnt respond to the Star-Tribunes request for comment.

Although these initiatives wouldnt have much of a financial impact on the state if they passed, there would be many benefits for Wyomingites, Pazell said.

It would allow people access to this medicine, he said.

The most important thing is what we hear from veterans, MS patients, cancer patients, Alzheimers patients, dementia patients, chronic pain patients... Pazell said. The number one group we hear from are veterans, who tell us this would assist with their PTSD.

The Wyoming Medical Society, which previously opposed legalizing medical marijuana because it would subvert the U.S. Food and Drug Administration process for developing and approving medications, did not respond to a request for comment.

The decriminalization of marijuana, he added, would provide a level of forgiveness.

The excessive amount of punishment that is falling on people for the private decision to consume a plant in their private home without causing harm to others...can destroy peoples lives permanently, Pazell said.

In Wyoming, law enforcement isnt seeing the evidence of harsh sentences for those convicted of simple possession of marijuana, said Allen Thompson, the executive director of the Wyoming Associate of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police.

Im just not seeing how this is ruining peoples lives, Thompson said.

Thompson said that the evidence shows marijuana use does harm the individual and long-term sobriety has more benefits.

He referenced a recent Columbia University study, which found that teens who use cannabis recreationally are two to four times more likely to develop psychiatric disorders, such as becoming suicidal or having depression, compared to those who dont use marijuana at all.

Rather than what we are saying, or other groups are saying, research the data and come to your own fact-based conclusion, Thompson said.

At the same time, there have been multiple public and private polls done that show Wyomingites support medical marijuana and decriminalization at some level, Pazell said.

One 2020 poll from the University of Wyoming shows more than half of residents support legalizing cannabis for recreational use, and 85% are in favor of legalizing medical marijuana.

Anecdotally, a lot of people were surprised to know that Republicans were heavily supportive of it, and they accounted for about 80% of the signatures, Pazell said.

Of course, some of that has to do with the fact Wyoming is overwhelmingly Republican, he said. But it still shows there isnt even a partisan divide. It transcends politics as well. Its just an appetite for this change.

This article has been updated to correct the initiative that Bennett Sondeno referred to in the marijuana organizers statement.

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Three out-of-state activists placed flyers and rocks with discriminatory statements Thursday evening near a University of Wyoming sorority that made history last year by becoming the first to admit a transgender woman, police and LGBTQ advocates said.

University police responded near the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority house after the three activists began placing flyers on vehicles parked along King Avenue, school spokesman Chad Baldwin told WyoFile. The three also placed rocks painted with messages on the ground and wrote in chalk on the sidewalk.

Many of the messages, Baldwin said, related to the sororitys admission of the transgender sister. Wyoming Equality, an LGTBQ advocacy group, described the messages as derogatory, hateful and intimidating.

Out-of-state extremists tried to intimidate a UW sorority today  they vandalized the campus and menaced young women with hateful messages printed on stacks of rocks, Wyoming Equality Director Sara Burlingame said in a statement late Thursday. This is how you know they arent from Wyoming: They were cowardly and cruel.

The sororitys decision to admit Artemis Langford drew national attention  and often scorn  from right-wing media outlets and groups. It also prompted a federal lawsuit that was dismissed by a judge last month.

A Colorado-based group thats posted transphobic statements on its social media accounts shared a photo Wednesday on Facebook and Twitter of what appears to be a stack of rocks painted with anti-transgender messages. One message misgendered Langford. The group said it was going to the University of Wyoming to drop these around the kappa kappa gamma house.

The same group posted a video Friday afternoon of the activists placing stickers and painted rocks on UW property around the campus and the sorority. They later hung a banner targeting Langford from an overpass.

Police were alerted to the incident around 5 p.m. Thursday. They told people leafleting cars that doing so without the consent of the vehicles owners violated a city of Laramie ordinance. The people removed them.

The group had also placed more than 20 painted rocks on the ground. Those were removed and kept by police and others, Baldwin said.

Officers did not issue any citations, Baldwin said, noting that chalk writing does not permanently deface property. Those messages were washed off by UW employees.

The three people involved left the scene between 5:30 p.m. and 5:40 p.m., according to the university.

Of even greater concern is the fact that this group had crossed state lines to bring their brand of hate and intimidation to target a specific UW student and sorority, Burlingame said. We stand firmly against any form of personal targeting or harassment, and we pledge our support to the affected student during this distressing time.

In an interview Friday, Burlingame noted that terrible speech can also be protected by the First Amendment. While the university might be limited in its response as a result, the public doesnt have to tolerate hate speech, she said.

You have the right to take it from your car. Erase it from the sidewalk, she said. Youre under no obligation to let that stand at your college.

UW said it would continue to provide enhanced security around the sorority.

Past concerns

Thursday nights incident at the sorority is the latest in a string of events thats caused unease within the schools LGBTQ community. In December, a Laramie church leader who frequently preaches on the campus brought a sign to the student union breezeway challenging Langfords gender while naming the student.

The university soon suspended church elder Todd Schmidt from tabling in the student union for a year on the grounds his behavior violated school rules on discrimination and harassment. Schmidt, in turn, continued to preach at other places on the campus and filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the ban.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Nancy Freudenthal granted a preliminary injunction that stopped the suspension while the case proceeded. She concluded Schmidts actions did not meet the legal definition for harassment and that his speech fell within a broader debate about gender identity, which is protected by the First Amendment.

UW President Ed Seidel announced in an email to the campus community Thursday afternoon  before the latest incident  that the schools lawyers would not challenge the injunction, which had allowed Schmidt to resume tabling at the student union. The judges ruling indicated the school was unlikely to win at trial.

While our motive in suspending Schmidts tabling privileges was to protect our students, we have accepted the preliminary ruling and wish to move forward, Seidel wrote in his message to the campus. We will be watching closely to make sure that Schmidts speech  and that of others  does not go beyond the legal bounds recognized in this ruling and established in decades of case law.

Schmidt had already returned to tabling at the breezeway following the judges ruling last month, Baldwin said. He had not violated any university rules since returning.

Even with the schools decision not to fight the injunction, the case is not technically over. Theres no indication of a settlement in court records.

Free expression and inclusion

Seidels announcement on the preliminary injunction came in a broader email that stressed the importance of protecting free expression at the university while also encouraging respectful dialogue. He noted that UW, like many institutions across the country, has faced challenges in striking that balance.

The university, he said, plans to allow a broad range of speakers and activities. Next month, that will include both a student-organized drag show during the annual Shepard Symposium on Social Justice and an appearance by Riley Gaines, a former college swimmer who advocates against the inclusion of transgender athletes in womens sports.

Universities, Seidel wrote, play a unique role in society by offering a neutral forum for debate.

Providing such a forum does not mean the university either endorses or condemns the different perspectives expressed, he wrote. What it does mean is that, as our free expression group states, UWs adherence to impartiality reaffirms the intellectual freedom of all at UW to seek and receive information without restriction and enjoy unfettered access to all expression of ideas through which any side of a question, cause or movement may be explored.

Last year, Seidel formed UWs Freedom of Expression, Intellectual Freedom and Constructive Dialogue Working Group as the school waded through free speech issues. The group released a report with multiple recommendations this summer.

Lawsuit

The sorority admitted Langford in the fall of 2022. That decision received little attention at first, save for a story in the student newspaper the Branding Iron. But later the decision spurred a frenzy among conservative media outlets and groups.

In April, seven of Langfords sorority sisters filed a federal lawsuit that sought to void her membership because shes transgender. The plaintiffs argued the sorority broke its bylaws and breached housing contracts when it admitted Langford. They also accused her of inappropriate behavior.

Langfords attorneys vehemently denied those allegations, and the judge in the case later ruled they were not relevant to the lawsuit and unbefitting in federal court. The same judge last month dismissed the suit entirely, concluding the sorority sisters attorneys had failed to adequately state a claim. Further, the judge said he would not define what a woman is or interfere with a sororitys membership decisions as it is a private organization.

Lawyers for the sorority sisters have filed a notice indicating they plan to appeal the judges decision, though they also had the option of refiling the original lawsuit.
Before the railway system closed, and reversed the fortunes of vast swathes of Trinidad, there was a thriving village called St Johns, deep in the interior of Trinidad, where people lived with little complaint.

No one became rich, but no one went without since there was wildlife cavorting right behind your house, you ate what you planted in forest gardens, and people lived in airy homes constructed strong by the village men using the timber pulled out of the bush by bison power.
Commissioner of Police Erla Harewood-Christopher during the promotion ceremony for 921 police officers at the University of the Southern Caribbean Auditorium in St Joseph on September 22. - Photo from the TTPS social media page.
I really cant understand what the hype is about with respect to the President calling out t
The Humane Societys board also said it is seeking an independent investigation into allegations of potential wrongdoing that has played out for weeks on social media.

Over the past several weeks, there has been a significant amount of concern expressed and questions raised regarding the transfer of 318 small animals to a family-run private group in Maricopa County facility, the board said in a news release.

The saga started Aug. 7, when 318 small animals  including guinea pigs, rats, hamsters and rabbits  were transferred to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona from its counterpart in San Diego.

The board confirmed the animals were immediately transferred from Humane Society facilities in Tucson to a family-run private group in Maricopa County the same night they arrived.

Farley, in an earlier email to the Star, described the group as a family-funded, family-run non-501c3 rescue in a close-knit community that works with many families in their community to help animals,

However, animals activists in both San Diego and Tucson have said they are skeptical so many animals were placed in a facility so quickly.

The plausibility of one single rescue placing so many animals in such a short period of time, it seems too good to be true, said Nina Thompson, a spokeswoman for the San Diego Humane Society. Were a huge organization, San Diego Humane Society, we cant place that many animals in such a short period of time.

The Humane Society here said on a news release this weekend that it is in communication with the private group in Maricopa County.

There were 254 of the transferred animals successfully placed in adoptive homes and there is no evidence the animals were harmed, the board here said in its news release. The board also said it would try to get as much information about the transfer and well-being of the animals to help alleviate concerns that have been raised.

The actions taken by HSSAs board to suspend CEO Steve Farley and Chief Programs Officer Christian Gonzalez in response to this matter is a step in the right direction, but we are deeply saddened and angered by the potential outcome of our animals, San Diegos Humane Society said Sunday in a statement.

The organization still considering legal options and is hiring a private investigator to find out what happened to nearly 250 animals that still have not been accounted for, the statement continued.
I've never opened a restaurant, but I can imagine how difficult it is.

With the permits, health inspections, renovations and everything in between, at least 21 restaurants and cafe have braved our slowest season and opened businesses that have likely become their babies  and maybe their livelihoods.

This summer, Tucson welcomed a Ukrainian food truck, a vintage-inspired nightclub, a pickleball destination and a dim sum den, among others. Here are the details.

Agave House

The long-awaited Agave House opened in Main Gate Square in June. The group behind the restaurant also owns Gentle Bens and Bacio, both of which are also in Main Gate Square. The sit-down Mexican restaurant is said to have a modern flair, serving shrimp ceviche, bone-in pork chop, enchiladas and tacos with fillings like birria, carne asada and sweet potato.

Agave House also boasts more than 100 agave spirits infused in both cocktails and cuisine.

For more information, visit Agave Houses website.

Blush

This vintage-inspired restaurant and nightclub was in the Instagram limelight when it opened with its hot-pink neon signs and cocktails. The restaurant is inspired by the 1950s  paintings of women in historical clothing hang on the wall, Elvis Presley croons through the speakers and ice cream soda has a place on the magazine-style menu of American favorites.

Down the hall is Blush After Dark, a nightclub where large prints of old Hollywood starlets hang next to vintage Playboy magazines and cocktails are named after 90s pop culture references. When day turns to night, the music transforms from 1950s serenades to the tunes of the early 90s.

Caffeine Cauldron

Tucson Games and Gadgets is in three Tucson-area malls and has a speakeasy-style bar tucked into one of them. This month, owner Mark Kadow opened something new: a cafe dubbed Geeky Grinds. The name has has since changed to Caffeine Cauldron, and it's made to be a coffee haven for pop culture, book and game geeks.

Caffeine Cauldron, also at Tucson Mall, offers coffee and roasts from Yellow Brick Coffee and Geek Grind Coffee. Expect weekly events for karaoke, trivia and book clubs.

Charro Chico

Barrio Charro closed its doors this summer, but Si Charro  the family-owned group behind popular restaurants El Charro and The Monica  opened Charro Chico in its place. The new fast-casual eatery serves a menu of tacos, burritos, enchiladas and bowls that can be customized with carnitas, pollo asada, short rib beef, birria or vegan calabacitas.

For more information, visit Charro Chicos website.

Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers

Sometimes thats all you can ask for  cold beer and cheeseburgers. This Phoenix-born chain opened its first Tucson-area location in September with burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs and wings.

For more information, visit Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers website.

Corbetts

Possibly the best part about Corbetts is the atmosphere  the pickleball courts, the live music playing throughout the massive patio clad with murals and an outdoor bar. Partners behind the eatery hope downtown-area Corbetts will become a destination on a street thats often overshadowed by Fourth Avenue and Congress Street.

The menu includes burgers (which you can Gronk up with an additional patty), salads, sandwiches and specialties like prime rib and tacos. Corbetts is also open for brunch.

Dirty T Tamarindo

Theres a good chance youve spotted Dirty T Tamarindos spicy candies at markets, shops or even gas stations around town. Owner Alana Solis opened a brick-and-mortar in August, complete with a grand opening celebration featuring mariachis, mural painting and vendors.

Solis uses her tias chamoy recipe to coat popular candies like Watermelon Rings and Gushers. While you can still find them at pop-ups and stores all over town, the brick-and-mortar will also sell snacks like paletas and Tosti-locos.

El Jefe Cat Cafe

El Jefe Cat Lounge opened on Halloween in 2019  its where you can sit with 30 adoptable cats, feed them treats and watch them swat at birds on a TV. But this summer, the lounge expanded with a cafe next door. Now, you can get a drink or treat from the cafe and bring it over to the lounge to play with the kitties. One of the specialties is El Jefe Cafecito  a shot of espresso, Mexican Coke and brown sugar cinnamon syrup topped with whipped cream and cinnamon.

Gear Shifters AZ

Gear Shifters is dubbed a place for Tucson motorcyclists to meet and hang out. And its a cafe! According to KGUN9, Gear Shifters is also a spot for bikers to buy and sell used gear like jackets, pants and even bikes. Find specialty drinks like pumpkin spice and strawberry mocha.

For more information, visit Gear Shifters AZs Facebook page.

Jaimes Pizza Kitchen

Gabriel Moreno grew up in the back office of his grandfather Jaimes now-closed bar and grill on Fourth Avenue. He helped open The Italian Peasant in Tubac in 2010 and worked at Pizza Luna in Tucson until it closed in 2022. He started Jaimes Pizza Kitchen in a ghost kitchen and has since moved into a brick-and-mortar on Congress Street. Stop in for a pie or a slice (they even have focaccia pizza).

JoJo's Restaurant

The eatery formerly known as LaCo, and La Cocina before that, has changed its name to JoJo's Restaurant, debuting a new menu alongside the name change. The same family is involved in the restaurant, though matriarch Jo Schneider is taking a step back and the kids are stepping up. We always want to remember and pay tribute to the heart that she brings into the space, JoJo's said on Instagram.

The menu features handhelds like a birria dip and mushroom chorizo baguette, in addition to entrees like ribeye, cod and rigatoni.

For more information, visit JoJo's Restaurant's website.

Juniper

In August, Iron John's Brewing Company closed its downtown location and reopened as Juniper the following month. Juniper is a gin-focused bar specializing in gin-centered cocktails made from a selection of gin from around the world. Iron John's beers are also on the menu.

For more information, visit Juniper's website.

Just Churros

When National Churro Day rolled around on June 6, Just Churros opened its very-anticipated brick-and-mortar. Known for its yellow food cart at events around town, the brick-and-mortar serves the churros we all know and love. Also on the tiny menu: churros a la mode, churro smores and a churro ice cream sandwich.

Though Just Churros dates back about a decade, the true lineage dates back to 1981 when owner Ricky Pintors tata started selling churros in Douglas. Pintor is a third-generation churrero  his grandfathers recipe goes back generations.

Las Originales Carnitas El Michoacano

In August, food truck Carnitas El Michoacano moved into a brick-and-mortar. The menu has tacos with birria, cabeza and carnitas, plus quesadillas, quesabirria and the classic soup, bichi. People love the quesabirria and according to Yelp, they handmake their corn tortillas!

For more information, visit Las Originales Carnitas El Michoacanos Facebook page.

Lucky Panda

If theres one thing I know for certain: Tucson gets excited when dim sum comes to town. Lucky Panda is Tucsons newest dim sum spot  and its one of the only. It comes from Danyan Dawn Lew, the owner of midtown favorite Guilin Chinese Restaurant, who has dreamt of opening a dim sum eatery in Tucson.

Lucky Panda has a walk-up counter and an a la carte ordering style for its Cantonese-inspired dim sum dishes like tender chicken feet, BBQ pork buns and shu mai, among Americanized Chinese items.

Monsoon Chocolate Cafe + Market

Im not a big lover of chocolate ice cream, but Monsoon Chocolate Cafe changed my mind. Their single-origin chocolate ice cream is the best Ive ever had.

Monsoon Chocolate, known for their beautiful bonbons, opened the midtown cafe and market over the summer, where youll find their gorgeous chocolates, ice cream and luscious desserts, plus drinks like frozen hot chocolate and cocoa nib horchata. Their original location on 22nd Street is now their factory and gift shop, though its temporarily closed.

For more information, visit Monsoon Chocolates website.

Stacks Book Club

Books and coffee probably go together just as well as peanut butter and jelly. Stacks Book Club is a new bookstore in Oro Valley where youll find hundreds of books, plus gift items made by local makers. You can get coffee and pastries alongside your book hunt.

Stacks brews Yellow Brick Coffee and serves hot and iced tea from Maya Tea Company. Beer and wine are also on the menu, in addition to grab-and-go food from Floras Market Run and pastries from Cals Bakeshop, Prep & Pastry and Breadsmith. Stacks might also be the only place in town that offers coffee flights.

Tandem American Eatery

According to Tucson Foodie, Tandem American Eatery comes to us from Patrick and Ayana Malarchik, who met at Union Public House before moving to Sierra Vista. The newly-opened eatery serves burgers and sandwiches like lobster rolls and a veggie sandwich with sweet potato, plus Tandem Toast, which is artisan bread topped with additions like smoked shrimp, roasted tomato or short rib.

For more information, visit Tandem American Eaterys website.

TiTi Boba Corner

One of Tucsons newest boba spots is TiTi Boba Corner, where they say happiness is a cup of tea with a good friend. Youll find a drink menu with their popular ube-taro-brown-sugar concoction, plus slushes and fruit teas. They also have a handful of food options: popcorn chicken, shrimp and fried octopus balls.

For more information, visit TiTi Boba Corners Instagram page.

Ukies

Food truck Ukies brings modern Ukrainian cuisine to Tucson  dumplings called varenyky, holubtsi cabbage rolls, European hand pies known as zrazy and soups borscht and zurek. The food truck has become home to Tucson thanks to owner Kat Vandiveer, according to KGUN9, who has been making Ukrainian food since she was 9.

Location: Comida Park at the Tanque Verde Swap Meet, 4100 S. Palo Verde Road

For more information, visit Ukies website.

Wings y Mas

Get wings in more than a dozen different flavors at Wings y Mas. Nachos, bacon-and-cheese-covered tots and Tosti-locos are also on the menu. Come Wednesday and get 12 wings for $12.

For more information, visit Wings y Mas Instagram page.

On the horizon
PHOENIX  The state Land Department on Monday canceled one of the controversial leases of state land to a company that has been growing alfalfa for export to Saudi Arabia.

An aide to Gov. Katie Hobbs said the legal reason for the cancellation has nothing to do with Fondomonte Arizona pumping of the water from beneath the land, an action that nearby landowners have complained is drying up their own wells. Instead, he said, it is based on the failure of the company to correct a violation dealing with how fuel is stored on site.

And Christian Slater said the move is not a pretext to allow his boss to deal with an unpopular situation of having Arizona groundwater pumped to feed cattle in Saudi Arabia, a country that does not allow that crop to be grown there because of its high water use.

"It was clear that we found significant default on their lease," he told Capitol Media Services, a problem he said actually dates back to 2016.

There was no direct mention of the fact that these agricultural leases, unlike many others to other tenants on state lands, involved growing alfalfa for the Middle East kingdom. But the company is suggesting that the alleged default is not the real reason for the action.

"Fondomonte will explore all avenues to ensure there is no discrimination or unfair treatment," it said in a prepared statement.

And Hobbs also made it clear that, whatever the legal reason to yank the lease, much of this is really all about the water.

"It's unacceptable that Fondomonte has continued to pump unchecked amounts of groundwater out of our state while in clear default of their lease," she said in a prepared statement. "I'm proud my administration has taken swift action to hold defaulting high volume water users accountable and bring an end to these leases."

Monday's move to cancel the 640-acre lease was only the first step. Hobbs said the state will not renew three other leases of state land by the company totaling 2,880 acres when they expire this coming February. The governor's office said the Land Department determined that the leases in the Butler Valley are "not in the best interest of the (land) trust's beneficiaries due to excessive amounts of water being pumped from the land -- free of charge."

"I will continue to do everything in my power to protect Arizona's water so we can continue to sustainably grow for generations to come," the governor said.

Hobbs made no mention, though, that the lease of state lands in rural areas comes with the right to pump water from beneath the property to grow crops there.

As to why it has taken until now to deal with the 2016 default, Slater said , "you'd have to ask the Ducey administration about that."

And Hobbs also took a slap at the former governor and his agency chiefs.

"I'm not afraid to do what my predecessors refused to do: hold people accountable, maximize value for the state land trust, and protect Arizona's water future," she said in a prepared statement.

There was no immediate response from Ducey.

Fondomonte is not likely to give up quietly.

"We believe the state is mistaken that the company is in breach of its lease," the company said in a prepared statement, saying the governor's office has made "factual errors."

"Fondomonte is adhering to all the conditions of the lease, and thus we have done everything required of us under these conditions," the statement says.

The company also was critical of the decision not to renew its other leases.

"This would set a dangerous precedent for all farmers on state land leases, including being extremely costly to the state and Arizona taxpayers," Fondomonte said.

Fondomonte has 30 days to appeal.

The move comes two months after the governor, in an interview with Capitol Media Services, said she was looking at whether changes in state law could give her the authority to decide who can lease state lands and what activities can take place there.

She acknowledged that statutes generally require state trust lands to be managed to obtain their "highest and best use" and maximize the financial return to the state and the beneficiaries of the trust, mainly public education.

It was that requirement that resulted in Fondomonte being able to lease more than 3,500 acres of state land for more than a decade and, as part of that deal, pump the water beneath it to grow alfalfa in western Arizona. That lease generated nationwide publicity and calls for Arizona officials to cancel the leases.

Hobbs said at the time the issue isn't that simple  or that discrete.

"Fondomonte is where all the eyes are," Hobbs said. But she noted the company is not the only one growing crops on state land.

"It would be treating one leaseholder differently than others," Hobbs said.

And then there's the question of whether the state could decide that they don't want to lease land for growing alfalfa just because it's getting exported versus the fact that farmers grow other crops like vegetables which are shipped out of Arizona and, sometimes, out of the country.

"That's a really valid question," the governor said. "We can't just unilaterally yank one lease because we don't like that alfalfa's going to Saudi Arabia."

And none of this deals with the related issue that some of this farming is done on privately owned land where gaps in state laws limit the ability of the state to restrict how much groundwater owners can pump. All that, Hobbs said, makes the questions raised even more complex.

In April, however, the state was able to revoke a pair of well-drilling permits it issued to Fondomonte last year.

That, however, was based on a technicality that the company's approval to make improvements on state land had expired. It did not bar Fondomonte from continuing to pump water from the wells it already has.

What's behind this latest action by the Land Department could fall into the same category.

In the cancellation notice to the company, Robyn Sahid, the executive deputy commissioner, said Fondomonte was notified in 2016 that it was in default of one of the leases, this one for 640 acres, because it had failed to ensure that "motor fuels or regulated substances shall be stored in secondary-contained above ground tanks." She said the company responded days later it would implement the required secondary containment.

Then, in December 2016, the Land Department vacated the default on the condition that the problem would be solved "within one year."

But an inspection conducted two months ago "revealed that fuel storage tanks remained in roughly the same location as was found'' during the 2016 inspection.

"Accordingly, the default relating to secondary containment for fuel storage tanks has not been cured, and the time for during the default has long since expired,'' the notice issued Monday states. And it is effective in 30 days.
PHOENIX  Katie Hobbs says shes the governor, no matter where she goes  no matter what else.

Hobbs acknowledged Monday that the Arizona Constitution spells out that the powers and duties of the governor go to the next in line of succession on the governors absence from the state. That is currently the secretary of state.

When that person is gone, the powers fall to the attorney general who is next, followed by the state treasurer and, if it ever gets that far, the superintendent of public instruction.

But the governor told Capitol Media Services thats not how she sees things.

I dont stop being governor when I leave the state, Hobbs said. Im actively engaged in everything thats going on.

And what of the constitution? Hobbs said time  and things like cell phones with worldwide coverage  has made that irrelevant.

Our Constitution was enacted in 1912, she said. Technology has rapidly advanced since then.

The issue arose most recently when a series of events this past week resulted in Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Attorney General Kris Mayes  all Democrats like the governor  being out of the state at the same time. That left Treasurer Kimberly Yee, a Republican, to put out a statement that she would be acting governor.

Yee said that she would have the power to name directors of state agencies after Hobbs withdrew their nominations in a spat with the Republican-controlled Senate, which has rejected some of her picks and has yet to act on others. But Yee said in her statement she would refrain from doing that. And she also said that she would not exercise the powers of the governor to call the Legislature into special session.

Hobbs was not amused.

Quite frankly, this was a partisan political stunt that Yee pulled, Hobbs said Monday.

It only got worse when some out-of-state news organizations and bloggers, unaware of the Arizona Constitution, started writing about it.

I think that this incident created a lot of uncertainty for Arizonan for a lot of people who, quite frankly, should know better, who were texting around, Why did the governor step down? Whats going on?  Hobbs said.

And Hobbs said the problem is not with the constitutional language.

There was a failure of civics education and a failure of journalism ... in terms of how that story played out, Hobbs said.

Still, the governor conceded that verbiage does, in fact, have some meaning  up to a point.

For example, Hobbs said that when she is out of state, Fontes is absolutely free to issue proclamations and take other gubernatorial actions. But she said there is a check on all that.

If its something that I am not in agreement with, I would come back and I would undo it, Hobbs said. She said the same thing would have happened had she tried something like that when she was secretary of state and Republican Doug Ducey was governor.

So does the constitutional provision about who is acting governor needs to be repealed or amended?

I think clarity is important, she said. I dont know that requires a constitutional amendment.

Then what about a test case?

I dont know the answer to that, Hobbs responded. I think theres some other ways to provide some clarity.

While Arizona courts have never addressed the question, there is some precedent  on both sides of the argument  from other states that have similar constitutional provisions.

In 1979 Republican Mike Curb, the lieutenant governor of California, took several actions while Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown was out of state, including a nomination for the state court of appeals.

Brown, on his return, withdrew the nomination, arguing that constitutional language governed only in cases of emergency.

The state Supreme Court rejected that argument. But the justices did agree that Brown could withdraw the appointment.

But the Missouri Supreme Court concluded in 1991 that the lieutenant governor does not become acting governor on the physical absence of the elected governor from the state, but only when the governors absence makes that person unable to perform his or her duties.

Yee, for her part, remains convinced that the Arizona Constitution means exactly what it says. And she chided Hobbs for suggesting otherwise, comparing it to what Yee said were the governors illegal actions last week in withdrawing her nominees for department heads and renaming them executive deputy directors to avoid confirmation.

While Katie Hobbs chooses again to circumvent the law as she has done with the Senate confirmations, she is failing to abide by the constitution in this case as well, Yee told Capitol Media Services on Monday.
The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

Goats are particularly good at one thing: Eating. Unlike a horse or cow that leaves noxious weeds behind, goats eat the whole menu of pesky weeds, bushes and small trees. That means goats can be one of the answers to the growing problem of tinder-dry, highly flammable forests.

In Durango, Colorado, former firefighter Jonathan Bartley runs a business called DuranGoats, along with partner Adrian Lacasse, and its so popular theyre booked daily. Their herd usually works along the wildland-urban interface of the San Juan National Forest, clearing undergrowth around private houses in heavily wooded, steep areas at the towns periphery.

Thanks to his work, Bartley has come to a conclusion about newcomers to the West: When people move here thinking Id love to live in the woods, theyre probably making a big mistake. If they do choose to live surrounded by trees or next to a forest, though, he has advice.

Because utilities cut off electricity during fires, he suggests buying a generator to keep sprinklers for irrigation running. He also advises homeowners to install a metal roof to repel wind-driven sparks. Always, he adds, have a go-bag ready with your most important stuff if flight becomes necessary. Most of all, he wants homeowners to create flame breaks around their house with gravel while also cutting back trees and shrubs within 30 feet of the house.

That last bit of advice is key. Firefighters triage neighborhoods, he said, picking winners and losers. When they scan neighborhoods quickly, they tend to give defensible homes extra resources while deciding that the brushy, overgrown properties are going to be lost causes.

Bartley knows fire well. He worked for a private company called Oregon Woods as part of a hand crew of 20 based in Eugene, Oregon. There, the Holiday Farm Fire started within a half-mile of his house. From that experience, he learned that our approach to wildfire is backward: We react, rather than manage landscapes ahead of time. Spending a few million dollars on fire mitigation would have saved hundreds of millions of dollars.

These days, he said, Im still fighting fires  just with goats.

Bartley is quick to point out that fire itself is beneficial to forests. Even Cal-Fire, the firefighting arm of the state of California, says on its website, Fire removes low-growing underbrush, cleans the forest floor of debris, opens it up to sunlight and nourishes the soil.

The problem across the West, Bartley said, is so many unmanaged dense forests full of deadfall and brush  ladder fuels  that allow fire to climb into tree canopies. By the time wildfire gets into the treetops to become crown fires, Bartley said, firefighters have evacuated and are miles away.

Everyone knows that western wildfires are becoming worse. Half of the 10 biggest fires in the United States this century all burned in this region. When wildfires grow massive and super-hot, they destroy forest ecosystems, leaving nearly sterilized bare ground thats perfect for flammable cheatgrass to invade. That sets up burned areas to burn again, often quickly.

Bartley has big ambitions for his goat herd, which can clear a quarter-acre in a day. DuranGoats charges $400 daily, he said, much less than the cost of a crew of landscapers armed with weed whackers and loppers on hilly, broken terrain. Moreover, the goats sharp hooves churn the dirt and fertilize it with poop and pee, setting up a regenerative cycle that improves the soil.

In northwestern Montana, former journalist David Reese has a similar business called Montana Goat. His herd moves daily, and once the animals strip leaves off small trees and gobble up the cheatgrass and knapweed, he said, its quick work to chainsaw small trees and dead branches.

Like Bartley, Reese has found he has almost more business than he can handle. He plans to scale his herd to 400 goats, while Bartley aims to build up to 100 goats. Both are angling for bigger contracts from homeowners and also government agencies.

Finding four-legged workers is easy. A male dairy goat has a life expectancy of a week, said Bartley. Theyre not plump like meat goats, have no dairy value and often are dispatched at birth.
Expanded thoughts on Pareto principle

Re: the Sept. 30 letter The Pareto principle.

While I wont debate the writers opinion regarding bureaucratic inefficiencies, I disagree with citing the Pareto principle as a tried and true application to justify his opinion that 20% of workers contribute to 80% of production. The principle was derived from Vilfredo Paretos observation that 80% of Italys land was owned by 20% of the population. Joseph Juran expanded this concept to quality control; 80% of effects (or defects) can be eliminated by addressing 20% of the causes. To attribute human production in government or the private sector in the manner the writer chooses is a stretch and doesnt have significant documentation in the literature regarding the Pareto principle. He should do his research before making such a claim. Finally, in this vein, would we feel just as safe with 80% fewer security personnel at the airport? Maybe so, we would certainly have more time standing in line to think about it.

Philip Baca

Northeast side

Whats the plan, GOP Legislators?

In May, the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature appropriated $624 million for the nations most expansive private school voucher program. This irresponsible program has already blown through this budget.

As of this week, the ESA voucher program is $16,836,664 in the red, with 67,294 enrollees who receive an average amount of $9,523 (according to ADE ESA Voucher Quarterly Report). An additional 748 students are signing on to use vouchers each week (the majority are current private school and homeschool students). The programs cost is currently growing by $7,123,204 per week  or $30.5 million a month.

By the end of this school year, the program is on track to cost the state $290.3 million more than the legislature budgeted  47% over budget. Given Arizonas current economic forecast, our surplus funds cannot cover this spiraling growth next year, because the state will not have surplus funds available.

The Republican-controlled Legislature seems to have no strategic plan for covering these skyrocketing costs.

Rachel Rulmyr Ed.D.

Oro Valley

Federal shutdown and state parks

The next time the federal government is on the brink of a shutdown, how about using state lottery funds not for funding federal facilities, but for funding a couple of state park days where all state park and recreation areas are open to the public for free?

John Leech

Foothills

Something to consider while voting

A YouTube contributor, Beau of the Fifth Column, publishes videos based on fact and logic. I believe he said it best. Vote for the person who is going to make your life better, not for the candidate who want to make life worse for someone else.

Larry Robinson

Northwest side

Biden: clear, concise and articulate

Re: the Sept. 29 article A letter from one old guy to another.

Mr. Lindstrom believes its time for Biden to retire and let the young folks takeover, because apparently the way our President walks and talks isnt good enough for Mr. Linstrom. Since Lindstrom is a year older than Biden, he declares he is entitled to publicly promote his personal views of ageism towards the President.

Mr. Linstrom fails to support the negative views he holds towards Biden. He commends Biden for being a good president, for having a brilliant career, and for accomplishing so much. Yet gives no rational reasons for Biden to retire. He ignores Bidens lifelong stuttering problem, which causes him to pause when speaking, and the stenosis in his spine which explains the stiffness in his gait. Neither of these have any relationship to Bidens cognitive abilities.

I heard Biden give a 20-minute interview yesterday with ProPublica. He was clear, concise and articulate. Biden shows not just clarity but humility, something more politicians should emulate.

Linda Dugan, AZ Star

editorial advisory board member

Midtown

Failed program should be held responsible

Re: the Sept. 30 article Residents forced to leave failed Tucson sober-living property.

The homeless people being evicted from the Ocotillo Hotel and Apartments are not tenants. Tenants pay rent. They are paid guests and temporary ones at that, of a drug treatment program scam. There is no reason that Ocotillo should continue to house them, unpaid for and under false pretenses. As a business, it needs an income to sustain these people, and that is no longer forthcoming. To get lawyers involved sounds like an additional scam where the temporary status of these people is being exploited. The lawyers should be going after the scam program and not the property owners of this hotel. There were months that these guests, given housing, could have bettered their situation and started to give back to the community that has been supporting them for years. Where is their responsibility in any of this?

Christie Cummins

Midtown

TUSD Bond request

Dear TUSD Board,

Thank you for sending out the information about the use of Bond monies if we approve it. I understand that a huge amount will go to the favorite Tucson High, which certainly has needs. I saw the list of all the improvements you hope to use for other schools. What I want to see is the list of schools that will receive these improvements and specifically what improvements will be made to each. Until I see this, I am sad to say, I will vote no. There always seems to be a bit of favoritism to the schools that have the most political clout. I have a hard time trusting what you will do. Prove it and give me the details!

Arlene Kutoroff

East side

Heartened by Letters to the Editor

Re: the Sept. 30 letter The Pareto principle.

Kudos to all Star Letter writers, published or not, for railing against injustices and standing up for what you believe! Yes, this includes everyone who writes in, whether you think theyre misguided, whacky or evil. Congratulations for duking it out here on the Letters pages and not in the street, and upholding the core principle of our Democracyfreedom of speech. I end up learning about topics I didnt even know were topics and learning more about topics I thought I already knew.

Its you that make Tucson a vibrant city to exchange ideas. Passionate but civil discourse encourages our youth to more actively participate in a civic life. Totally realize that what I read in the Star Letters might not represent all Tucsonans, but if the Pareto principle holds true  that 20% of the workers produce 80% of the results, then were going to have a leg up on what we need now more than ever: an informed citizenry. Stand up and be counted!

Rick Rappaport
Chicago Tribune. September 28, 2023.

Editorial: Bearish on Illinois, Portillos takes Italian beef to the Sun Belt

The first season of The Bear, a Hulu TV series about life behind the counter at a Chicago beef stand, gave the rest of the country an appetite for thinly sliced meat on wet, gravy-dipped buns. Now, one of the Italian beef sandwichs finest practitioners is taking this local culinary classic nationwide.

At an investor conference on Sept. 19 in Dallas, the Portillos restaurant chain outlined plans to expand from nearly 80 outlets to an eye-popping 920, or more, over the next 20 years. Among other developments, the Chicago-based chain unveiled a new design that will reduce the size of future restaurants, streamline their kitchens and embrace drive-thru and takeout options.

We wish Portillos good luck as it brings this justly beloved hunk of Chicago goodness to far-flung markets. But what caught our eye is the companys downbeat outlook for the future of its home state.

One of the main reasons Portillos cited for its planned forays into new markets across the Sun Belt is that it needs to go where the people are going  and it says thats not here.

Illinois population is expected to shrink by 300,000 over the next 10 years, the chain told investors. So, to keep the beefs flowing, it needs greener pastures. As Portillos said in its presentation, Build it where you know they will come.

Thats a shame for more reasons than one. For starters, Portillos will need to enter less-familiar markets, making the expansion riskier than if the company stayed closer to its beefs-loving Illinois roots. Wall Street has reacted to the plan with measured skepticism: Portillos stock price is down more than 25% since the summer.

According to a transcript of its investor presentation, the chains executives expressed confidence in their ability to open successful restaurants in the Chicago area, even in out-of-the-way locations. Describing their store in north suburban Gurnee, for instance, they complained that its location is inconvenient, and all but invisible from the busy highway nearby.

Doesnt matter. Like all its Chicago-area stores, the Gurnee restaurant racks up eye-popping annual sales volumes as local customers seek it out. Portillos Chief Executive Michael Osanloo told the group, Investors, you love this restaurant. It is a home-run restaurant, he said. Happens to be in the back end of a mall, very difficult to access, zero visibility. In any other state, this restaurant is a failure. In Chicagoland, it does $11.3 million.

Chief Development Officer Michael Ellis explained that Gurnee does so well because its Chicago, right? Its our backyard. And while I love that destination aspect of our brand, I dont want to count on that in any way, shape or form as we go into new markets outside of Chicago.

For those markets, Portillos will need to pay up for much better locations where customers wont have to hunt through confusing parking lots to find their fix of beef. Opening stores with smaller kitchens, dining rooms and staff will keep costs down for each location as well. But the key to the expansion strategy, the executives told investors, is a growing population.

I like waking up in the morning and knowing that in Texas, in Florida and Arizona, youve got somewhere in the low single-digit (sales growth) coming just because of population growth, Osanloo said. Thats our strategy in a nutshell. Were going to states that are growing really fast. Portillos has opened 10 outlets in the Sun Belt so far, he noted. We think that this is where we are going to be pushing hard for the next decade.

The Illinois Exodus strikes again.

As this page has noted for years, states that lose population lose more than just people. States in decline lose seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. They lose taxpayers to shoulder the tax burden, students to spread the costs of operating schools, homebuyers and renters and, of course, consumers to buy those juicy sandwiches.

Why is Illinois shrinking even as other Midwest states eke out at least modest population gains? The weather does not explain why Illinois is in the minus column but not, say, Minnesota.

To us, its obvious. Illinois has a long history of fiscal mismanagement that has led to an enormous pension debt. Along with government overspending, that massive debt propels upward pressure on income and property taxes. As fewer productive people make the state their home, an ever-greater burden falls on those remaining. In the city of Chicago, given the stated intent of the new administration, higher taxes and the associated impetus to exit feel all but inevitable in coming months.

Fiscal mismanagement and high taxes arent the only reasons why Illinois loses population while other states gain, but its an obvious contributing factor, and there are steps that could help. We draw your attention to our recent series outlining possible solutions to our ongoing state pension crisis. Innovative thinking there is the only way to ease long-term tax pressures across the state and give frustrated residents a reason to stay.

Portillos, see you in Arizona. Order us a No. 1 beef sandwich with fries and a drink, and maybe a Chicago hot dog on the side. Nothing like a taste of Chicago with a panoramic desert view, and without taxes that can ruin everyones appetite.

Arlington Heights Daily Herald. October 2, 2023.

Editorial: Permanent relaxation of seniors driving test requirement is reasonable, safe

When it comes to older drivers, Illinois has some of the most stringent requirements of all 50 states. Later this month, that could ease somewhat, but the state will still have strict safety-oriented rules in place.

Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced last week that he wants to make permanent a pandemic-era policy change that had more to do with convenience and health at crowded secretary of state bureaus than road way safety. The change temporarily pushed to 79 the age at which seniors are required to take a drivers test to renew their license.

Previously, that age was 75. It was due to return to that point today, but Giannoulias office filed emergency rules to extend the policy until an Oct. 17 hearing, when officials can determine whether to let it become permanent, suggest modifications or seek further review.

The argument for making the change permanent is sound. Seventy-five years old isnt exactly the new 50, but as the National Council on Aging reports, citing a 2021 study, Todays older Americans are healthier overall and living independently for longer.

And, more to the point of driving safety, Giannoulias cited data from his office and the Illinois Department of Transportation showing that drivers older than 75 are involved in fewer crashes than those of almost any younger age. This held true even during the pandemic-era relaxation. So, pushing back the mandatory drivers test until age 79 is a more-than-reasonable adjustment.

Though aging affects everyones vision, hearing, motor skills and reaction times, it also affects every individual differently. So, fixing a specific age at which driving restrictions should become more stringent is a subjective and inexact science. The secretarys proposal lets data speak for the notion of easing restrictions, while allowing Illinois strong focus on safety for drivers in their 80s and beyond to stay in place.

Under those rules, drivers older than 79 would still have to take a test to renew their licenses, those 81 to 86 would still have to renew their licenses every two years and those beyond 87 would still have to do so annually.

While extending its support for making permanent the age-79 threshold for mandatory drivers tests, the AARP aptly noted that policymakers should focus on a persons mobility or other indicators of driving behavior, regardless of age, when setting license standards.

Ryan Gruenenfelder, outreach and advocacy manager at AARP Illinois, was unquestionably correct when he told Capitol News Illinois last week that age alone is not determinative of driving performance.

But age certainly can affect driving performance. Illinois strict policies acknowledge that while accommodating older drivers with undiminished skills. Giannoulias modification recognizes the demonstrated experience that the threshold for mandatory testing to monitor those accommodations can safely be adjusted to a higher age.

Decatur Herald and Review. September 29, 2023.

Editorial: Booster could save many lives

Even the youngest baby boomers probably have memories of standing in line to receive the polio vaccine.

The lines were long because parents remembered that, even in their recent past, everyone was at least aware of someone whod been debilitated in some way by polio. If there was a potential to avoid this dread disease, they wanted themselves and their children to be in on it.

Flash forward to 60-plus years later, and were confronted with just the opposite. People cant wait to not get this years COVID booster. They might not be as loud as those who werent vaccinated the first time around, but youll still hear them.

Hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID have risen in recent weeks, and COVID remains a leading cause of death, with roughly 7,300 people dying of the disease in the past three months.

The politicization of and misinformation surrounding vaccines is sad and has proven fatal to some. We remain in a world where vaccines are the best answer we have to potentially fatal illnesses.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends new COVID-19 booster vaccines for all  but many who need them most wont get them.

About 75% of people in the United States appear to have skipped last years bivalent COVID booster.

The 2021 vaccine diminishes over time. Boosters are strong protection. The groups most needing the vaccine are older adults and immunocompromised people.

Public health experts say re-upping vaccination is also important for those in group housing, like prisons and nursing homes, where the virus can move swiftly between people in close quarters.

People aged 75 and up have accounted for more than half of the countrys pandemic deaths. But whereas the first vaccines were quickly taken up in nursing homes, boosters have been less popular, with fewer than 55% of residents in Arizona, Florida, Nevada, and Texas getting the bivalent booster released last year. At some facilities nationwide, rates are below 10%.

Jails and prisons have seen some of the largest U.S. outbreaks  yet booster uptake there often appears to be poor.

Outside of the urgency of the moment in 2021, data suggests that the people getting booster doses are often not those most at risk.

Costs are outrageous as well. Moderna and Pfizer have more than quadrupled the price of the vaccines to about $130 a dose, compared with about $20 for the first vaccines and $30 for the last boosters.

Black and Hispanic people have faced higher hospitalization and death rates than white people throughout the pandemic. Uneven rates of booster uptake may complicate issues further.

As recently as five years ago, saying polio had been eradicated was essentially accurate. Cases in 2017 in the U.S. were in double digits. In 1968, there were an estimated 350,000 cases.

Vaccination rates and improved sanitation have crippled but not eliminated polio. While the likelihood of an epidemic of polio is unlikely, part of that depends on vaccinations.

Despite the memes your friend posts on social media, theres no proven connection between vaccines and autism. Vaccines dont overload or weaken the immune system. Theres no mercury in vaccines.

Most importantly, the World Health Organization has listed vaccine hesitancy as one of the biggest threats to global health.

The foot soldiers in the war against polio were the ones who took the vaccine and helped halt the disease in its tracks.

When did we start ignoring our science just for contrarians sake?

END
Terre Haute Tribune-Star. September 29, 2023.

Editorial: Independent study best way to assess proposed pipeline

The concept of drawing up to 100 million gallons of water daily from a Wabash River aquifer near Lafayette and pipelining it to a high-tech industrial park 35 miles away in Boone County has won over at least one group of Hoosiers.

The people behind the project.

As for the rest of Indiana, most residents want more proof that the idea makes sense and will not harm the states greatest natural resource  the Wabash.

And that verification needs to come from a completely independent source.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation has proposed building a pipeline from Lafayette to central Indiana, where the LEAP Research and Innovation District is located. Eli Lilly is building a $3.7-billion research and manufacturing campus there. The IEDC aims to attract future-focused businesses to join Lilly in the industrial park in Boone County, one of the affluent counties surrounding Indianapolis.

Water from the more water-abundant Tippecanoe County on the banks of the Wabash will ensure the LEAP park can support future investors there, and addresses an expected future water shortage in central Indiana, according to the IEDC. It will also allow cities and towns along the pipelines 35 miles to use the water for housing and economic-development projects those places could not otherwise pursue, the IEDC says.

Also, the IEDC says the process is in the early phases of design and planning, so the cost of the pipeline and who will pay for that cost cannot yet be determined. And, for the same reason, the IEDC says it cannot yet determine where LEAPs treated wastewater will be discharged.

What the IEDC has determined, though, is that initial tests indicate the Wabash Alluvial Aquifer in Lafayette  identified by an Indiana Finance Authority study as the most reasonable place for a new water source for central Indiana, according to the IEDCs LEAP Lebanon FAQs  will be able to support the targeted demand without negatively affecting the river or its related aquifer. The IEDC announced those results last week.

The testing is being done by a firm hired by the state  INTERA, an environmental and water resource consulting firm from Texas.

More testing by INTERA is planned and a conclusive report will be released to the public by the end of the year, the IEDC says. And, third party experts from Purdue, Indiana and Ohio State universities will review the data collected, conceptual models and conclusions.

Those testing plans and third-party reviews are useful, but should be a halfway point.

Communities along the Wabash have legitimate concerns about the impact of the venture on water availability and quality, their wildlife-related outdoor facilities and already endangered wetlands.

The cost of the pipelines construction and long-term maintenance is no small issue, either.

Those questions and the pipelines overall feasibility should be studied by a fully independent entity. Though many parts of such an independent survey of the project might parallel the findings of the state-hired firm, Hoosiers deserve to know the conclusions are not being influenced by the state.

Indiana does not have a strong record of caring for its natural resources. Its one-party government has dismissed regulations regarding water, air and land uses. Indiana has the most polluted rivers and streams in the nation, according to last years Environmental Integrity Project report.

In light of that history, a full study by an entirely independent agency should be sought. If its findings mirror those of the state-hired firm, that will only bolster the IEDCs plan. If such a study reaches a different conclusion, Hoosiers deserve to know that.

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. September 29, 2023.

Editorial: Indianas candidate eligibility rule conflicts with Constitution

John Rust of Jackson County is a sixth-generation egg farmer and chairman of the Seymour-based Rose Acre Farms whos seeking the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in the May 2024 primary. His race for the office could be over before it starts.

The self-described conservative Republican filed his campaign committees statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission July 1. But state GOP officials said earlier this month that Jackson County Republican Party Chairwoman Amanda Lowery wont approve Rusts candidacy due to his voting record.

In 2021, state lawmakers changed Indianas election law. It now says candidates can only run in a primary election if they voted in the same partys primary in the previous two election cycles  although the party chair in the would-be candidates county of residence can override the rule by issuing a waiver.

Rust voted in the Democratic primary in 2012, the Republican primary in 2016, but skipped the 2020 and 2022 primaries. Lowery says he doesnt qualify to be a candidate, and she wont sign a letter of certification affirming he is a member of the GOP.

Its clear to me that this law is in place to protect the power and control that political parties have over elected offices, Rust said in a news release. It prioritizes the political elite over Indiana voters and is against the spirit of the 17th Amendment of the United States Constitution, which specifically grants the power to choose United States senators by the people and took that power away from state legislatures.

Giving county-level party chairs the ultimate power to determine who is a member of the Democratic and Republican parties also appears to conflict with Hoosiers First Amendment right to free association.

Twenty-nine ballot challenges were filed in 2022 against 24 candidates  and the majority were based on the two- primaries rule, according to reporting by The Center Square, a nonprofit online media entity based in Chicago. And in January of last year, state Rep. Curt Nisly, R-Milford, attempted to amend the states election law to return to the one-primary rule.

He said a person running for a seat in the General Assembly only must have lived in Indiana for two years under state law, but the two-primaries rule means the potential candidate now has to have lived in Indiana for at least four years before running.

It appears like this wasnt vetted properly, Nisly said from the House floor.

But the obvious clash with another state election rule didnt move lawmakers to legislate a fix.

Allen County Republican Party Chairman Steve Shine supports the states two-primaries rule for would-be political candidates. He said a voting history that extends beyond a single primary ensures a candidates commitment to the partys philosophy.

And if a potential candidate flunks the two-primary rule, he said party chairs can weigh other factors such as contributions to party candidates or activism in party- affiliated causes in determining eligibility for a primary race and issue a waiver allowing the persons candidacy.

I have absolutely done that before, without equivocation, Shine told The Journal Gazette Monday. I have done that for candidates in municipal elections, county elections and for those attending the state convention. I know the individuals. I know what they stand for.

Rusts legal challenge was filed in Marion County Superior Court and names Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales, the Indiana Election Commission and Jackson County GOP Chairwoman Lowery as defendants. Ultimately, he wants the two-primaries rule declared unconstitutional, and for a judge to issue an injunction, allowing his name to appear on the 2024 Republican primary ballot.

Hoosiers deserve and are constitutionally guaranteed the right to free association. The two-primaries election rule offers county-level party chairs the power to determine which would-be office seekers are true party members.

No state law should supersede the Constitution.

END
Kansas City Star. September 28, 2023.

Editorial: Do Eric Schmitt and Andrew Bailey support Trumps threat to shut down free speech?

Here is how you can tell true First Amendment defenders from the charlatans: They stand up for the right to free expression even when they disagree with the speech in question.

The fakers? They stand up for the speech of their friends, and only their friends.

Two Missouri Republicans  U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt and Attorney General Andrew Bailey  very much like to cast themselves as free speech warriors. Both men had a hand in Missouris ongoing lawsuit against the Biden administration for the pressure it put on social media companies to suppress COVID-19 disinformation during the darker days of the pandemic, and both men frequently mention it in their own online postings.

Schmitt, in fact, on Sunday posted the results of a recent poll from Real Clear Politics, a right-leaning outfit, that suggests Democratic voters are somewhat weaker on free speech protections than their Republican counterparts.

Just 53% of Democrats said speech should be legal under any circumstances according to the poll, while 74% of Republicans supported that statement. And only 31% of Democrats agreed that I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Fifty-one percent of Republican voters agreed with that idea.

Tell me more about Threats To Democracy, the senator sneered.

On Monday, meanwhile, Bailey went online to decry the Biden administrations hiring of ex-intelligence officials who, he said, tried to censor information about Hunter Bidens laptop on the eve of the 2020 presidential election.

Were not going to let Joe Biden destroy free speech in America, Bailey wrote.

We dont necessarily agree with Schmitt and Bailey on some of the particulars of the cases they mention. But in a general sense theyre right: The First Amendment, and the free speech rights it guarantees, is a critical foundation of our democracy.

Too bad Donald Trump  the ostensible leader of their party, a man to whom both Schmitt and Bailey have demonstrated unswerving loyalty  doesnt agree.

Truth Social vow to investigate media for treason

On Sunday evening, the former president went on his Truth Social network and threatened  should he win the White House once again  to bring down the full force of government power on NBC News and its owner, Comcast, for the crime of publishing mean stories about him.

They are almost all dishonest and corrupt, but Comcast, with its one-side and vicious coverage by NBC NEWS, and in particular MSNBC, often and correctly referred to as MSDNC (Democrat National Committee!), should be investigated for its Country Threatening Treason, Trump wrote.

Under a second Trump presidency, he wrote, the LameStream media would be thoroughly scrutinized for their supposedly unfair reporting on him.

Why should NBC, or any other of the corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE?, Trump wrote. They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! The Fake News Media should pay a big price for what they have done to our once great Country!

Trumps statement was almost directly the opposite of I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. One could scarcely imagine a more direct threat on the news medias First Amendment rights.

In such circumstances, you might expect true defenders of free speech to leap to NBCs defense  to chastise the former president gently, perhaps, and urge him to find a more Constitution-friendly way to work out his anger toward his interlocutors.

Instead, Schmitt and Bailey remained publicly silent. No social media posts, no cable news appearances, no press releases.

Thats not a surprise. Schmitt (eventually) received Trumps endorsement during his Senate run last year. Bailey has already endorsed Trumps latest run for the White House. Both men have supported Trump and taken his support knowing full well the former presidents contempt for constitutional niceties and civil liberties. Weve asked their offices for comment, but had received no reply as of press time.

Missouris leading Republicans have every right not to speak out on matters of public importance, of course. Thats covered by the First Amendment too. The rest of us are free to judge their silence  and what it says about the consistency of their free speech commitments.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch. September 28, 2023.

Editorial: Ashcroft is determined to thwart a fair abortion vote any way he can

Next to the phrase bad faith in the dictionary should be the official portrait of Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. Having been slapped down in court this week for his deliberately improper handling of a pending abortion-rights referendum, he now vows to appeal, even though he never had a case.

The obvious goal is and always has been to tie up the question in court long enough to potentially cause activists to miss deadlines for gathering signatures to get abortion rights on the Missouri ballot next year. Ashcroft apparently cares nothing about the fact that he is transparently misusing his official powers for his own political gain.

He clearly thinks voters in next years gubernatorial race wont hold him accountable for this crass and cynical abuse of authority. They should.

At issue is Missouris new abortion ban, enacted minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. It bans abortion from the moment of conception in all cases, even rape and incest, with the sole exception of medical emergencies. Doctors who violate the ban can face up to 15 years in prison.

No state in America has a more draconian abortion law. And Ashcroft and his fellow right-wing Republicans have apparently come to understand that even in conservative Missouri, it may not survive a statewide referendum.

After all, of the seven states that have considered abortion-related issues on a statewide ballot since Roe fell, every single one  even the red states of Kansas and Kentucky  has come down strongly on the side of protecting reasonable abortion rights.

So Ashcroft, determined not to let Missouri voters have a clear up-or-down vote on the issue if he can help it, has been using his state-funded office to sabotage the current effort to get an abortion-rights referendum on the ballot.

As secretary of state, Ashcroft is responsible for crafting ballot language to describe the proposed referendum. Under state law, that language is required to be neither intentionally argumentative nor likely to create prejudice either for or against the proposed measure.

Abortion-rights activists are proposing several different versions of the referendum, which contain various levels of detail as to when abortion might or might not be regulated by the state. But none is accurately described by the ballot language Ashcroft is trying to foist on the voters.

His proposed language  which, again, is required by law to be free of biased wording  would tell voters that the referendum allows for dangerous, unregulated and unrestricted abortions from conception to live birth.

Thats not unbiased ballot language, its a right-wing campaign screed designed to appeal to the Republican base that Ashcroft is wooing in next years increasingly competitive GOP primary for governor.

Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem saw right through it. In a ruling Monday, Beetem correctly found that Ashcrofts language was argumentative and does not fairly describe the purposes or probable effect of the proposed ballot measures. Which is putting it mildly.

Beetem rewrote the language to offer voters a sober description of the proposals, including their protections for contraception and reproductive health care generally, which Ashcrofts language ignored.

Each of six ballot summaries that Beetem re-wrote for the differently worded measures begins by telling voters the proposals would establish a right to make decisions about reproductive health care, including abortion and contraceptives, with any government interference of that right presumed invalid.

That accurately describes the intent of the proposals, free of rhetorical hysteria. So Ashcroft is doubling down on the hysteria.

His vowed appeal of Beetems ruling will almost certainly end up at the same place, but it will further stall the referendum effort. Missouri taxpayers are funding this gross abuse of state powers and resources to thwart a fair vote on the issue. Voters shouldnt forget that the next time Ashcrofts name is on the ballot.

Jefferson City News Tribune. October 1, 2023.

Editorial: Sunshine Law benefits us all

Even after 50 years on the books, Missouris Sunshine Law may be one of the most misunderstood and misapplied statutes in the Show-Me State.

Passed in 1973 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Missouris Sunshine Law made Missouri one of the earliest advocates of open records and meetings. The law specifically states meetings, records, votes, actions and deliberations of public governmental bodies are to be open to the public.

The underlying premise is that Missourians are best served when the publics business is conducted in the view of the public.

Sadly, thats not always the case.

Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit this week against a suburban St. Louis school board that allegedly strayed significantly beyond the scope of the law.

The lawsuit stems from a June 14 closed meeting of the Wentzville Board of Education in which board members were receiving legal advice and details on a students request to use a different bathroom.

The discussion was allowed to be held in closed session under an exception under Missouris Sunshine Law for discussion of legal matters.

But the board strayed from the original purpose of the closed meeting, Baileys lawsuit alleges, because it became a discussion about transgender students bathroom access.

In an affidavit in the lawsuit, two board members allege the board considered whether there should be exceptions for notifying parents when students request bathroom accommodations, such as in cases of parental abuse.

Accepting legal advice on this particular case would be allowable under Missouris Sunshine Law, but venturing out into a discussion about a policy on bathroom access clearly is not allowed and should have been discussed in an open session.

Parents have the right to know who is in the bathroom with their children, Bailey said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. Members of the Wentzville School Board knowingly and purposefully denied parents that right when they shrouded the transgender student bathroom usage policy in secrecy, directly violating the Open Meetings Law.

According to the affidavit, other board members also spoke against having the discussion about restroom access in closed session, but the debate continued.

Just as troubling as the alleged closed-door policy debate is a recently proposed ethics policy of the board. Under that policy, members who spoke out against the closed-door discussions could face retaliation.

The policy would punish board members who make comments that could be interpreted as undermining the administration and making disparaging remarks about other members.

In this instance, the policy would undermine the clear intent and application of the Sunshine Law by potentially punishing board members who would break ranks with the school board.

The Sunshine Law is clear in its intent and application. The publics business is to be conducted in the presence of the public as much as possible.

The law does provide 25 exceptions, including the discussion of legal matters, that would permit a closed session. But the law is abundantly clear: Missouris Sunshine Law is to be liberally construed and their exceptions strictly construed to promote this public policy (of open meetings and records).

Whether due to ignorance or indifference, too many governmental agencies fail to meet the standard laid out by the Sunshine Law. And because of it, Missourians suffer the consequences.

In an effort to address any ignorance of the law, the Missouri Sunshine Coalition has been working with the attorney generals Sunshine Law compliance director to hold trainings around the state to educate officials and the public about the law.

In an effort to address the indifference, we are heartened by the attorney generals lawsuit to openly confront violations of the law.

Both of these approaches benefit us all.

Dennis Ellsworth, executive director of the Missouri Sunshine Coalition and a former newspaper editor, explains why the law is vital for our future.

The important understanding is the Sunshine Law works for everyone -- young or old, those of all races and incomes, whether your allegiances are with Republicans, Democrats or another political movement, he said. We all have a stake in seeing to it that the Sunshine Law is preserved, strengthened as necessary, and broadly embraced by the public.

END
Andrea Eger Tulsa World Staff Writer Follow Andrea Eger Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Union High Schools National Teacher of the Year spoke in Tulsa on Tuesday about what a hard time to be in public education it is for teachers.

Rebecka Peterson, a math teacher named 2023 National Teacher of the Year by the Council of Chief State School Officers, offered the keynote address titled For the Love of Teaching at the Oklahoma Retired Educators Associations annual state convention.

OREA President Paula Squires said she invited Peterson to speak about her classroom experience working amid unusually tense conditions and a historical shortage of teachers that makes those who remain subject to more pressure, more directives and more scrutiny than ever before.

Peterson said teachers working today face extraordinary challenges because there is so much healing to do in a post-pandemic world.

She shared how she made it through her early struggles as a teacher about a dozen years ago by working to identify at least one good thing she observed at school each day.

She wrote a blog about those observations that helped her begin to see how she could intentionally create daily good experiences for her students and eventually led her to ask her students to take up the practice of focusing on a source of joy or gratitude through brief, weekly writing exercises.

Former students have contacted her to tell her theyve kept up the habit years later.

In her experience, those interactions between teacher and student lead to real connections that she believes are healing.

As she toured the state as 2022 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year, she met teachers who were more effective educators because they knew that to connect to their students meant learning their stories.

She offered some real world examples, such as dealing with a student who resorted to cheating because of certain trouble at home if she didnt bring home perfect grades, or knowing another student put his head down in class sometimes because he was homeless and trying to sleep in his car.

A common professional development message is building relationships with students is the key to classroom management. But that sounds transactional, doesnt it? Peterson asked. Its simply how you and I are created to be.

Peterson shared her own story of immigrating to the U.S. as a child of Swedish-Iranian descent. She had already lived in several other countries because of her parents work as medical missionaries and felt untethered.

Public school teachers in the U.S. welcomed her, praised her aptitude for math and encouraged her to pursue higher education based on her academic strengths.

She attributes her own career choices and approach to students to how she was treated by those teachers she encountered.

Equity cannot happen without public education, and public education cannot happen without teachers, she told a room full of several hundred educators. You hold our democracy. This is the kind of freedom not afforded to every child on this earth. And regardless of our governance structure, we know education is liberation.

As an Iranian-American woman, I stand before you to say that liberty for all is no guarantee but rather is a product of a nation of people insisting that we belong to each other.

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Randy Krehbiel Tulsa World Staff Writer Follow Randy Krehbiel Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

A report ordered by Gov. Kevin Stitt says Oklahomas child welfare system needs more people, more supports and better pay to meet its objectives.

The report was released Monday as the Legislature prepared to meet at Stitts behest to consider tax cuts.

I applaud the task force for approaching (its) work with meticulous urgency, and I look forward to collaboratively implementing (its) recommendations alongside public and private partners, Stitt said in a press release.

The governor created the task force with a Jan. 10 executive order. Its marching orders were to come up with recommendations to speed up permanency (final placement with biological or foster parents), to further reduce reentry (a return to the system after permanent placement), to identify risk factors that lead to removal from homes and to provide support for biological parents.

According to the report, Oklahoma has one of the best reentry rates in the nation, meaning a relatively low percentage of children return to the system after permanent placement.

The flip side is that permanency takes longer in Oklahoma than all but a few other states.

The goal, then, is to maintain the low reentry rate while shortening the time to place children permanently.

The report says obstacles include high staff turnover due to overwork and low pay, a stressed foster parent corps whose stipends barely cover the most basic needs of the children in their care, and poor access to services for biological parents trying to get their lives in order so they can regain custody of their children.

The report notes that Oklahoma struggles with high rates of the most common risk factors that lead to removals, including poverty, adverse childhood experiences and substance abuse.

Statewide, the report says, about 70% of removals from the home are linked in some way to substance abuse. The rate likely would be higher if it werent for the fact that in the states most populous county, Oklahoma, it is only 56%.

Tulsa Countys rate is 71%.

The state needs a dramatic overhaul of service availability, the report states. Parents involved in the system frequently are required to complete services as part of a condition of reunification.  Too often, however, biological families are left waiting for weeks or months to begin essential services, and/or are unable to find any requisite services in their community whatsoever.

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Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton Tulsa World Staff Writer Follow Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

In light of an appeal, the Muscogee Nation Supreme Court has issued a stay in a civil lawsuit from two freedmen descendants seeking tribal citizenship.

Dated Monday, the order grants a request from the Muscogee Nation Attorney Generals Office on behalf of the Muscogee Nation Citizenship Board to refrain from reviewing tribal citizenship applications from freedmen descendants while a lawsuit from Rhonda Grayson and Jeffrey Kennedy is pending on appeal before the Muscogee Nation Supreme Court.

The order and opinion of the District Court represents a significant change in citizenship procedures for the Nation, wrote Muscogee Nation Chief Justice Richard Lerblance. Requiring the appellant to immediately comply with the District Courts ruling while an appeal is pending and before this court has issued its final ruling on the matter could cause undue harm to the appellant and to the respondents, as well as any other individual(s) who may choose to apply for citizenship on the basis of the lower courts ruling.

Citing the Treaty of 1866, District Court Judge Danette Mouser issued an opinion Wednesday that reversed and remanded a decision by the Muscogee Nations Citizenship Board that denied Grayson and Kennedys citizenship applications.

However, a notice of appeal was filed within 48 hours of Mousers order.

The Muscogee Nation Constitution was adopted in 1979 via referendum vote and approved by the Department of the Interior. Article III of the constitution restricts tribal citizenship eligibility to individuals who are the lineal descendants of Muscogee (Creeks) listed on the final rolls compiled by the federal government via the Dawes Commission in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

However, in 1866, the Muscogee Nation had signed a treaty with the United States government that, among other provisions, provided equal rights and privileges to the tribes freed slaves and their descendants, as well as to Black Creeks and their descendants.

That treaty is the same one that the U.S. Supreme Court cited in 2020 in its McGirt v. Oklahoma ruling to determine that the Muscogee Nation reservation had never been disestablished and was still in effect.

In 2019, a judge with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a federal lawsuit from Grayson, Kennedy and several other descendants of individuals listed on the Muscogee freedmen rolls on the grounds that they had not exhausted all possible remedies through the tribal court system.

That dismissal prompted Grayson and Kennedy to reapply for tribal citizenship and, after their applications were again rejected, file a civil suit in Muscogee Nation District Court against the tribes Citizenship Board, which is charged with reviewing citizenship applications.

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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

With the nearest ones located in Oklahoma City and northwestern Arkansas, the news that they are getting a temple here has been an answer to prayers for Tulsa-area members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Everyone is very excited. My phone began blowing up (with calls and messages), Michael Bright, an area church spokesman, said of the announcement over the weekend that a temple was planned for Tulsa.

People here have been praying very hard for this for a long time, he said.

Tulsa was one of 20 new temple locations announced by leaders of the Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon Church, during the weekends General Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Church officials said its the second-highest number of new temples announced at one time in the history of the church.

Oklahoma has one temple in Oklahoma City, with more than 90 individual congregations meeting statewide. Another temple was dedicated recently in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Announcements about new temples are kept under wraps, so the news came as a surprise, Bright said.

No details have been made public about the location or timetable, he said, adding that he estimates the project to be at least three to five years away.

Bright is president of the Broken Arrow stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Oklahoma. A stake is a geographic area composed of local congregations, he said.

Brights is one of five stakes in northeastern Oklahoma, which among them have around 35 congregations and 15,000 members. The Tulsa temple will become the closest temple for many of these churchgoers, he said.

Church members meet for their regular weekly worship services in meetinghouses, or church facilities, in their respective communities. But temples, as spaces for special worship services and ceremonies, play a pivotal role in members faith experiences, Bright said.

Temple worship for us is so important, he said. Its a sacred place where we draw closer to Jesus and make covenants with him as we continue to strive to be like him.

Its been a mission of the church to have temples as close to members as possible, he said.

Bright and his wife moved to the Tulsa area from Denver. He said everywhere theyve lived previously, including Hawaii, theyve enjoyed the close proximity of a temple.

The church has 177 temples operating worldwide, with another 54 under construction, five in renovations and 99 announced, church officials said.

The 20 new temples planned include five in South America, four in Africa and one in Cancun, Mexico.

The plans call for six new temples in the U.S. Along with Tulsa, sites include Kahului, Hawaii; Fairbanks, Alaska; Vancouver, Washington; Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Roanoke, Virginia.

Bright said said it didnt take him long to realize how intrinsic faith was to community life in Tulsa.

Something we noticed since we moved here: the first question many people ask is Have you found a church yet? I just love that. And I love the interfaith spirit here.

We disagree on some things, but we agree on so much more, like loving God and being a good citizen. I see that spirit here like nowhere else Ive been.

Bright said the temple will be a good addition to a community like Tulsa that prioritizes religious faith.

These temples are beautiful structures and serve as reminders of whats most important, he said. I believe everywhere theres a temple, its a blessing to the community.

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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  The Oklahoma Senate on Tuesday started and ended a special session without taking up a tax cut requested by Gov. Kevin Stitt.

Members, I had not planned on doing the following motion today, Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, said from the floor. With the governor not answering the call and showing up in special session in the Appropriations (Budget) Committee for a session that he called and has not articulated a plan, I will, Mr. President, move that when the clerks desk is clear, pursuant to Article V, Section 26 of the Oklahoma Constitution, the second extraordinary session of the 59th Legislature adjourn sine die on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, at 2:27 p.m.

Stitt on Sept. 11 called lawmakers back into special session starting Tuesday to reduce the states 4.75% income tax and find a pathway toward its eventual elimination, among other things. It takes five days to get a bill to the governors desk.

Treat said that if the governor had showed up at the 10 a.m. Appropriations Committee meeting, the Senate would have heard him out and stayed in session.

Treat said he was very disappointed that the governor chose not to do so, adding that he was in the building holding a press conference.

It is the height of irony and hypocrisy to put in a call for budget transparency and then say I am willing to meet behind closed doors with your caucus, but I am not willing to meet in an open meeting, Treat said.

A component of Stitts special session call was to make the state budget process more transparent.

I dont know what the governor really wants, other than what he tweets and what he told you all at the press conference today, Treat said.

While the governor has called for reducing the size of government, this last year Stitt presented the largest proposed executive budget of any governor in state history, Treat said.

Stitts office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Senates decision to end the special session.

Stitt held his Tuesday morning press conference to bolster his case for a tax cut, something the Senate has been reluctant to undertake.

The governor was joined by House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, and Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, an organization that opposes all tax hikes.

McCall said the House Republican Caucus supports cutting taxes, adding, We think it is good policy.

The Legislature needs to be responsive to inflation, the speaker said.

Overall, when you have surpluses and a strong performing economy, that is the perfect time to lower taxes on the people of the state of Oklahoma, McCall said.

The House had previously passed several tax cuts and sent them to the Senate, where they died.

The House gaveled in Tuesday with plans to work on Wednesday.

House Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols, R-Oklahoma City, speaking on the House floor, said residents should get a tax break this year and not have to wait.

A 0.25 percentage point tax cut would cost $95 million this year and $240 million the following year, the governor said.

We can absolutely do it when we have these kinds of surpluses, Stitt said at his press conference. After all, we have a $5.4 billion savings account.

Stitt declined the Senates invitation to appear before its Appropriations Committee on Tuesday morning to lay out his plan, but senators heard from other presenters concerning the states financial picture.

Following the committee meeting, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, said he was personally opposed to a tax cut.

The point I have made all along is you dont use one-time money for ongoing expenses, and so even though we have got $1.8 billion in carryover, again some of that money is already spent; it is one-time money, Thompson said. If you do a tax cut, that is a continuing expense.

Some senators with more tenure remember significant budget shortfalls when lawmakers had to make cuts to state agencies and services.

State Question 640, passed by voters in 1992, requires a supermajority of legislators or a vote of the people to raise taxes. A few years ago, the Legislature mustered supermajorities in both chambers to raise taxes to pay for a teacher pay raise.

This was the second time Stitt had called lawmakers into special session to cut taxes. The last time, the Senate vowed to study cuts but took no vote on lowering taxes.



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Hana Micron, a major business in South Koreas semiconductor industry, plans to pour US$1 billion into chip production in Vietnam by 2025, according to both local and regional media.

The South Korean manufacturer of chip packaging and memory products told Nikkei it is moving equipment to its new, second factory in Bac Giang Province, located in northern Vietnam.

The new factory, spanning an area of over six hectares, was inaugurated in the Van Trung Industrial Park on September 16.

The first factory, put into operation in neighboring Bac Ninh Province in 2017, specializes in producing integrated circuit (IC) boards used in mobile phones and other smart electronic devices.

During the inauguration ceremony of the second factory, Hana Micron chairman Choi Chang Ho said the group plans to raise its investment to over $1 billion by 2025.

At that time, the factory is set to gain $800 million in revenue and create over 4,000 jobs, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

Hana Microns Bac Giang project plays a key role in the socioeconomic development of the region and ... follows the development direction of the government, human resource manager Hwang Chul Min told Nikkei.

It will create opportunities to attract more high-tech projects and lay the foundation for the development of the semiconductor production ecosystem.

Bac Giang hosts three Apple suppliers and, together with Bac Ninh, is known for making the bulk of Samsung phones globally.

According to the Bac Giang authorities website, another semiconductor factory invested in by Taiwan will start operations there in 2024.

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Vietnamese startup AirCity, which specializes in the management of buildings, apartments, and dormitories using technology, has revealed that it secured investment from South Korean investment fund Sopoong in the initial seed funding stage.

Details of the invested amount remain undisclosed.

AirCity, established in 2021, is a technology-driven startup focused on managing various types of properties, including rental buildings, dormitories, apartments, and offices.

The company employs advanced solutions like Internet of Things (IoT) technology and artificial intelligence (AI) cameras to enhance building management, reduce costs, and enable remote monitoring, optimizing efficiency and minimizing manpower and time wastage.

In addition to these technological advancements, AirCity offers comprehensive management services to homeowners, facilitating quick and cost-effective solutions to daily tasks.

They also extend services directly to residents, including repair, cleaning, and door-to-door delivery.

As of now, AirCity has managed almost 100 buildings, providing technology solutions for around 2,000 rooms and serving nearly 3,000 residents, according to its website.

The startups ambitious objective is to expand its reach to manage 100,000 buildings in major Southeast Asian cities.

In addition to Sopoong, which is well known in the Vietnamese market with previous investments in ventures such as Selex Motors, Cooky, and Forte Biotech, AirCitys latest round of fundraising also saw participation from the prior round investor, Antler of Singapore, as well as contributions from angel investors.

Le Hoang Nhat, co-founder and CEO of AirCity, revealed that the newly-raised funds will be utilized to further enhance their technology platform, incorporating new functionalities to support building operations, including the integration of hardware that bolsters security and safety through facial recognition technology.

Simultaneously, they will introduce a utility application designed for residents and service providers, aiming to optimize management efficiency and elevate the overall user experience.

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Rescuers have recovered the body of a 10th grader who was swept away by floodwater in Nghe An Province, north-central Vietnam after conducting a two-day search and rescue operation.

Authorities in the provinces Quy Hop District completed procedures to hand over the body of the student to his family on Tuesday afternoon.

The deceased was identified as Ngo Quoc Chinh, 16, a native of Quy Hop.

Before the fatal incident happened, Chinh and Luong Minh Huu, 17, both from Quy Hop 3 High School were riding an electric bike from Quy Hop Town to Chau Cuong Commune at around 0:30 am on Sunday this week.

When the boys arrived at a spillway bridge in Chau Cuong, they found the bridge barricaded due to rising water level in the river after a heavy rain.

They decided to remove the barricade and crossed the bridge.

Unfortunately, they and the electric bike were swept away by floodwater when they reached one third of the bridge.

Huu managed to swim ashore but Chinh went missing.

Hundreds of rescuers were dispatched to locations along the river which spans over six communes in the district to search for the missing victim.

His body was found on Tuesday morning near a riverbank in Tho Hop Commune, some 20 kilometers away from the spillway bridge.

In related news, a 14-year-old boy in the provinces Quynh Luu District died after he jumped from a bridge into a river for bathing and was then swept away by heavy water on Monday afternoon.

Statistics from the provincial steering committee for natural disaster prevention and control show that torrential rains and flooding between September 25 and 29 in the province had left two people dead, two others injured, and over 2,300 houses inundated.

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Police in Ho Chi Minh City are investigating the death of a young girl who died after eating cream puffs taken from a Mid-Autumn Festival event at a local apartment complex.

Six-year-old P.N.Q. died late Sunday evening after eating cream puffs on Friday evening which were taken from a Mid-Autumn Festival event hosted by the Palm Heights apartment complex in Thu Duc City, an administrative district of Ho Chi Minh City, said Pham Khanh Phong Lan, head of the Ho Chi Minh City Food Safety Management Board.

The cream puffs, produced by a well-known bakery, were donated to the event by a local coffee shop to be given out to children and staff at the building.

Q.s mother, a service worker at Palm Heights, brought some extra cream puffs from the event to her home in Thu Duc late Friday night. She stored them outside of the refrigerator and ate them the next morning with her children, Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper reported.

By the afternoon, all three were vomiting and had diarrhea. They then visited a local clinic where they were given medicine, but it did not help.

On Sunday afternoon, they visited Le Van Thinh Hospital and were given different medicines.

Despite the medicine, Q.s health continued to decline. Her mother brought her back to the hospital at 11:00 pm that evening, but by that time she had already fallen into a coma.

Her blood pressure was too low to be measured and doctors said her skin was pale and cold to the touch.

She was immediately put under cardiopulmonary resuscitation but eventually passed away, Dr. Tran Van Khanh, director of the hospital, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday evening.

According to Dr. Khanh, Q. was not admitted to the hospital on her first visit because she appeared to be stable, calm, and alert.

By Sunday, five other reports of children being poisoned by the same batch of cream puffs given away at the event had been made to the management board.

The board said it has provided some samples of the cream puffs to local health agency for testing and is coordinating with the municipal authorities to determine the cause of the food poisoning.

Thu Duc City Police are investigating the cause of the childs death. The Food Safety Management Board has sent an official dispatch to the citys Health Department requesting verification [of the incident], Lan told Tuoi Tre.

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Police in southern Vietnams Ho Chi Minh City are probing a suspected murder following the discovery of the dead body of a newborn baby girl, with injuries thereon, in a local rented house, local police reported Monday.

The investigation has been launched after one of the tenants at the house, located in Alley 246 on Bach Dang Street in Binh Thanh District, detected a bag suspiciously containing a baby corpse and reported the finding to police on Monday noon.

Local police officers rushed to the scene and they found the bag containing the corpse of a baby girl with two injuries, possibly caused by a sharp and pointed object, on her body.

The bag had been placed at the door of a bathroom on the first floor of the house.

Investigators are questioning a young woman allegedly to be the dead babys mother to verify the incident.

Meanwhile, Dan Tri online newspaper reported that the Binh Thanh District Hospital on Monday notified local police of a suspicious case, in which it received a young female patient with signs of having delivered but she failed to identify where her baby was.

The 21-year-old woman, N.T.B.T., came from Binh Thuan, a province in south-central Vietnam.

Police came to the hospital to question the woman and then examined her rented room, in the aforementioned alley, and discovered the bag containing the babys corpse.

As of Tuesday morning, the woman was still under care at the hospitals Obstetrics Department, like other newly-delivered women, Dan Tri said, citing a hospital representative.

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Typhoon Koinu, carrying winds of 183 kilometers per hour, brought heavy rains to waters northeast of the Philippines Luzon Island at 7:00 am on Tuesday before it began its journey toward the East Vietnam Sea, said the national weather center of Vietnam on the same day.

Koinu was moving northwest at about 10 kilometers per hour and could be centered in northern Luzon on Wednesday morning, packing intense wind gusts.

The storm will likely move west-northwest and head toward the southern coast of Taiwan.

It is forecast to enter the northeastern part of the East Vietnam Sea and move along the coast of Chinas Guangdong Province on Thursday morning, the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said.

The typhoon is expected to unleash increasingly strong winds in the northeast of the East Vietnam Sea starting from Tuesday night.

The national steering committee for natural disaster prevention and control on Tuesday told coastal provinces from northern Quang Ninh Province to south-central Khanh Hoa Province to keep a close watch on Koinu and notify fishing boats and vessels of the storm to take precautionary measures.

Authorities in these localities should also prepare for rescue operations.

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Police in southern Vietnams Dong Nai Province have arrested a man for allegedly kidnapping a three-year-old girl and holding her for an US$82,000 ransom.

Nguyen Thanh Son, from Long An Province, was detained on Monday evening while traveling on a long-haul bus from Dong Nai to Lam Dong in the Central Highlands, according to Dong Nai police.

Earlier at about 3:00 pm on the same day, Son visited a kindergarten in Long Ans Tan An City and lured L.M.C., the daughter of his acquaintance, into his car.

The man then drove the little girl to Ho Chi Minh City. During the drive, he sent several texts to the girls parents demanding a ransom of VND2 billion ($82,100) for her safe return.

After paying the ransom, the girls parents reported the case to Long An police, who later identified Son as a key suspect.

Local police then coordinated with their counterparts in Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai Province to launch a joint search for Son.

At about 9:30 pm the same day, Dong Nai police found and detained Son when they stopped a long-haul bus on National Highway 20.

Son told police officers that he had left C. in a hotel room in Ho Chi Minh City before boarding a long-haul bus to Lam Dong.

Dong Nai police then notified their colleagues in Ho Chi Minh City and Long An to rescue the little girl from the hotel room and send her back to her family.

Son confessed to investigators that he knew C.s father and committed the crime in order to get money to pay off his debts.

Dong Nai Police have extradited Son to Long An for further investigation.

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The Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism has said it will propose the government revise the international tourist target for this year to 12.5-13 million from the eight million set at the beginning of the year.

Vietnam welcomed 8.8 million international visitors in January-September, exceeding the full-year target of eight million, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Doan Van Viet said at a recent conference to review the performance of the sector in the nine-month period.

The number of domestic tourists totaled 93 million, reaching 93.5 percent of the target, Viet informed.

He said Vietnams policies to remove bottlenecks in immigration have boosted the tourism sectors development.

In particular, the Vietnamese government issued a resolution to grant e-visas to citizens from all countries and territories.

The country allowed extending the validity of e-visas granted to foreigners entering the country to 90 days from no more than 30 days for single entry or multiple entries.

It also lengthen the visa-free stay to 45 days from 15 days for citizens of 13 countries, regardless of passport types or entry purposes, as long as they meet the entry requirements as per Vietnamese laws.

The government had also asked the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism to review and adjust the international traveler target this year to match the reality and spur tourism recovery and development.

The ministry and the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism projected that Vietnam may welcome at least 1.1-1.2 million foreign travelers per month in the rest of the year.

The number of local tourist arrivals is expected to hit 102 million.

Meanwhile, deputy head of the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism Ha Van Sieu said that tourism had yet to recover in a comprehensive manner, even in tourism hubs, due to the Russia-Ukraine military conflict, Chinese travelers hesitancy in traveling abroad, and limited tourism promotion programs.

In the last quarter of this year, the tourism sector will focus on effectively adopting the governments solutions to lure international travelers.

The authority will hold conferences with tourism firms to remove their obstacles to attract foreign tourists, especially in large tourism centers, such as Da Nang, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, and Ha Long.

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Two local men were killed on the spot and a third died in a local hospital following an incident at a paving stone workshop on Monday morning in Nghe An Province, north-central Vietnam, a local official confirmed on the same day.

The fatal accident occurred at around 10:30 am at a paving stone workshop owned by N.V.Ph., 31, a native of Nghi Hoa Commune, Nghi Loc District, according to a leader of the Nghi Loc administration.

Several stone slabs fell on the three workers while they were attempting to carry them across the workshop.

The stone slabs immediately killed H.V.T., 31 and N.V.S., 29, both residents of Nghi Loc.

H.V.K., 45, a native of neighboring Thanh Hoa Province, was severely injured and was rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition, but he later sucummbed to his injuries.

Police have launched an investigation to determine the root cause of the incident.

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The Vietnam Pho Festival 2023, slated for this weekend in Tokyo, Japan, aims to build global recognition for Vietnamese culinary culture by bringing cuisine which embodies the essence of Vietnam to Japan, Matsuo Tomoyuki, chairman of the Japan-Vietnam Cuisine Association, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Though many Vietnamese restaurants in Japan offer pho to customers, the taste doesnt typically match up with bold pho flavor found on the streets of Vietnam due to a lack of ingredients and the different culinary preferences of Japanese people.

I see common cultural values in the two peoples. I think all Japanese people know that pho is important to Vietnamese people and love the dish, Tomoyuki said.

Perhaps a major reason pho generally appeals to the Japanese is the fact that most Japanese people eat rice every day and pho noodles  a major component of pho  are made from rice.

Other major draws include the fact that pho is generally considered healthy and the relative lack of heat and spice compared to other cuisines.

Matsuo Tomoyuki answers questions from Vietnamese 'pho' restaurant owners about their experience preparing food in Japan. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre

I often visit Vietnamese eateries to eat pho and other kinds of noodle soups because they taste good and are very digestible, Tomoyuki shared.

A bowl of pho consists of broth, rice noodles, herbs, and meat  usually beef or chicken.

Similarly, ramen  a Japanese favorite which originated in China  also features broth, noodles, herbs, and meat. Just as with pho, ramen flavors differ by region.

For ramen, Sapporo-, Hokkaido-, and Fukuoka-styles are among the most popular. With pho, Ho Chi Minh City- and Hanoian-styles are among the favorites.

At the Vietnam Pho Festival, Vietnamese pho brands will showcase different pho flavor profiles.

We should not compromise [with food]. Instead, we should adhere to our own styles and stories, Tomoyuki said, adding that each style of pho offers its own unique story for diners to discover.

'Pho' Dau in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre

Not only does Tomoyuki have plans to showcase pho at the festival, but he also plans to put the spotlight on demonstrating how to make pho noodles and cook pho.

I want to introduce to Japanese people to pho. I want them to know how to prepare and combine the anise, cinnamon, cardamom, beef, and beef bones. I want them to know how to make pho noodles, he said.

'Pho' spices. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre

The Vietnam Pho Festival marks the seventh edition of the Day of Pho (December 12), hosted annually by Tuoi Tre newspaper.

This years event is co-organized by Tuoi Tre and Saigontourist Group in coordination with the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Vietnam-Japan Friendship Association, and several Japanese partners.

Among the many chefs scheduled to attend Vietnam Pho Festival 2023 are winners of the Hoa Hoi Vang (Golden Star Anise) award Nguyen Tien Hai, Nguyen Tu Tin, and Pham Quang Duy.

'Hoa Hoi Vang' is awarded each year during the 'Day of Pho' to honor pho chefs from across Vietnam.

Participating restaurants at this years event include Pho Dau, Pho Hai Thien, Hotel Majestic Saigon, Pho Phu Gia, PhoS, Sen SASCO, Pho Ta, Binh Tay Food, Pho VGCC, and Pho Thin Bo Ho.

The festival will be rolled out in association with national carrier Vietnam Airlines, Suntory Beverage & Food, Southern Airports Services Joint Stock Company (SASCO), Dai-ichi Life, Simply Food, and ALSOK.

Miss Intercontinental 2022 Le Nguyen Bao Ngoc is this years ambassador for the festival.

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Screen Producers Australia has announced its Ones To Watch for 2023, twelve emerging producers to be mentored by established industry professionals.

Were thrilled to welcome the 11th iteration of the Ones To Watch program in 2023. The program has built a reputation as a platform for early-career producers to bolster their careers, opening doors to new industry connections and as a way for them to fine-tune their existing skill sets, said SPA CEO Matthew Deaner.

Again, this year, we have been overwhelmed with the calibre of applications from the next generation of Australian storytellers. We are confident that this years cohort, similar to past participants, will embrace opportunities for personal and professional growth offered throughout the program, solidifying their careers into the future.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our program partners for their continued support, and to wish the Ones To Watch luck as they begin the six-month program and look forward to meeting in-person at Screen Forever 38 in March 2024.

This years cohort is comprised of talented producers from across Australia, already creating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories through live-action and animation, fast-paced social media series, gritty crime drama, horror fantasy, offbeat romantic comedies, and culturally explorative documentaries.

Ones To Watch is SPAs much-loved professional development and mentoring program for early-career screen producers looking to accelerate their careers in Australias bold and unique screen sector.

Over the coming months, the Ones To Watch will be matched with leading Australian producers for 1-on-1 mentoring and will take part in an exclusive webinar series to develop their creative slate and business skills in the lead-up to Screen Forever 38. Each participant will also be given the opportunity to apply for the Ones To Watch Screen Internship, supported by Screen Australia, to secure placement with a production company anywhere in the world to the value of AU$20,000.

The twelve producers selected for this years program are:

Alexandra Doering  Infamous Pictures (NSW)

Amy Parry  Anaphora Productions (QLD)

Gillian Crosby  GGG Films (VIC)

Jodie Kirkbride  Get Back Jojo (SA)

Lisa Albert  Fringe Dweller Films (VIC)

Michael Hudson  Third Impact Films (VIC)

Monique Mulcahy  Strange Mage (VIC)

Nara Wilson  BiRiny (SA)

Stephanie Cole  Not a Phase (WA)

Tessa Mansfield-Hung  Freelance (VIC)

Tobias Willis  KEWL Studios (VIC)

Vee Shi  Niu Studios (VIC)
Warner Bros Discovery has given the clearest indication yet that the HBO Max (now known simly as Max) platform will launch in Australia in 2025, the AFR reports.

Jean-Briac Perrette, Warner Bros Discoverys president of global streaming and games, told media executives in Bali at a summit last week, Well do Europe before the Olympics, which we have to get done because we have the Olympics coming in Paris next summer. And then we will get to Asia.

Asia continues to be critically important, but we have to do it in that sequence. And we will get to Asia before the end of next year with our existing markets and then roll out to new markets again, starting in 2025.

Mr Perrette told the Media Partners Asia APOS event that Warner Bros Discovery would probably look to launch in a market like Australia after that.

Australias a critically important market for us, where again we think our content is very strong for that market, he added.

Such a move would significantly impact Foxtel / Binge having exclusivity on the prestigious HBO catalogue, having enjoyed titles such as Game of Thrones, The White Lotus, Succession, House of the Dragon and The Last of Us to lure subscribers.

Foxtels licensing deal renewed earlier this year spans content from HBO, Max Originals, Warner Bros. and Discovery.

In March Foxtel Group Chief Content and Commercial Officer, Amanda Laing told TV Tonight, The beauty of this deal is that it provides our partnership with optionality. What that really means is that our partnership continues, no matter what options Warner Bros / Discovery wish to pursue in Australia.

Foxtels licensing deal is reportedly up for negotiation in 2025.
The BBCs royal correspondent who was famously described by the King as an awful man is retiring after nearly five decades with the corporation.

Veteran broadcaster Nicholas Witchell, who has covered the royal family since 1998, will retire next year after joining the broadcaster as a graduate news trainee in 1976.

In 2005, the-then Prince of Wales was caught on a microphone making remarks about Witchell who had asked a question about the royals upcoming nuptials to Camilla Parker Bowles during a photoshoot in the Swiss Alps.

After 47 fantastic years we will be bidding farewell to Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell, who will be retiring next year. Nick has reported from across the world and presented key BBC News shows. Thank you for your remarkable service! pic.twitter.com/yq2jzAhhAq  BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) October 3, 2023

He said: Bloody people. I cant bear that man. I mean, he is so awful, he really is.

The BBC said: After 47 fantastic years we will be bidding farewell to royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell, who will be retiring next year.

Nick has reported from across the world and presented key BBC News shows.

Thank you for your remarkable service!

Charles with his sons William and Harry during a skiing trip in 2000 (PA)

Witchell broadcast the confirmed news of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on August 31 1997 and provided live radio commentary from outside Westminster Abbey at her funeral.

The 70-year-old first joined the BBC after finishing a law degree at Leeds University, later becoming a BBC reporter in Northern Ireland in 1979 covering the assassination of Earl Mountbatten and the IRA hunger strikes during his several years in the role.

He then became a news reporter for television news in 1982 where he covered the Falklands conflict, as well as covering Margaret Thatchers 1983 general election campaign for the BBC, before returning to Belfast to become the BBCs Ireland correspondent.

He was one of the founding presenters of the Six OClock News with Sue Lawley in 1984, before becoming the main presenter of the re-launched Breakfast News programme from 1989 to 1994.

Witchell then returned to frontline reporting for the BBC, for Panorama, and then as the BBCs royal and diplomatic correspondent from 1998.
OCO Global, the Belfast-headquartered trade, investment and economic development advisory firm, has won a new multi-million pound, five-year contract with the Department for Business & Trade (DBT) to support inward investment in the UK. Pictured is Gareth Hagan, OCOs CEO

OCO Global, the Belfast-headquartered trade, investment and economic development advisory firm, has won a new multi-million pound, five-year contract with the Department for Business & Trade (DBT) to support inward investment in the UK.

The contract has enabled OCO Global to open a new office in Nottingham, its third in the UK, and expand OCOs existing work with DBT which is led primarily from its Belfast office.

OCO analysts are supporting a drive by DBT to attract higher value investment into the UK focusing on emerging growth sectors such as quantum mechanics, net zero and sustainability. The Belfast firm provides potential investors with bespoke research to support their decision-making processes.

The Nottingham office will initially include five senior analysts specialising in foreign direct investment (FDI). OCO also believes there are opportunities to grow its operations in the Midlands based on the regions strengths in emerging sectors such as Clean Technologies.

Gareth Hagan, OCOs CEO, said: Competition for inward investment has always been fierce but current geo-political events in Ukraine and China, and the impact of Covid-19 on national finances have put immense pressures on supply chains and talent retention.

Governments have responded globally by moving the focus of their support for inward investment from quantity to quality. The UK has been at the forefront of this shift. Consequently, the decision-making process for investors has become increasingly complex and the need from DBT for enhanced high-end research from our Belfast and Nottingham teams continues to grow.

Earlier this year a survey of 74 investment promotion agencies across OCOs international client base found that 75% had developed specific strategies to attract quality rather than quantity FDI projects.

Quality includes projects centred on innovative technology, better qualified jobs and those based in strategically important sectors such as energy and digital. Of the 10 largest FDI greenfield projects announced in 2022, six related to renewable energy and three centred on semiconductor manufacturing.

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Naomi Byrne, OCO Global managed services director who leads the DBT account, added: OCO has been working with DBT for over 12 years and in that time weve been involved in some of the largest inward investment projects announced in the UK.

Were delighted to have secured additional work from the Department and the expansion into Nottingham gives us a platform to tap into wider economic opportunities in the Midlands. The city has a strong university base and talent pipeline, and the region has an excellent manufacturing base with emerging strengths in Digital Content, Life Sciences and Clean Technologies.

OCO offers firms advice on international market opportunities and we see a long-term opportunity to grow this side of our business in Great Britain.

Last year the UK had the largest number of high-value FDI projects in Europe  788 compared to second ranked Germany with 461. The UK also created more high-value employment through FDI than any other country in Europe  25,010 jobs in R&D and headquarter operations 1 .
SWNS

A delivery driver has been caught on camera appearing to steal a childs pumpkin while dropping off an Amazon package. The pumpkin, which belonged to Justin Thomass three-year-old daughter Lillianna-Rose, was hidden behind the wall at the front of their home in Blean, Kent. After picking it up at a vegetable patch, the pumpkin was kept outside until Lillianna-Rose was ready to carve it for Halloween, but it was snatched before she had the chance. Mr Thomas 33, explained: My daughter picked the biggest pumpkin she could find being a three-year-old. Instead of keeping it indoors where it could go funny, we left it outside behind the wall so no one could see it and thought we could bring it back in before Halloween so she could carve it. On Saturday I had an email saying a parcel had been delivered and left behind the wall. When I got home it was lashing it down with rain so I grabbed the parcel and took my youngest daughter inside. It wasn't until I went downstairs the next morning I noticed the pumpkin had gone. I looked back on the cameras to see if anyone had been lurking and I discovered it was the delivery driver. Footage appears to show the driver pulling up in a van and dropping off the package before loading the pumpkin into the back of the vehicle. Lillianna-Roses uncle has since replaced the pumpkin to spare her the disappointment, but Mr Thomas says the fact it was only a pumpkin is not the point. We told her it had shrunk because the new pumpkin is a bit smaller, he said. I couldn't bring myself to tell her some man had stolen it. I know it's only a pumpkin but that's not the point, it shouldn't have happened. What if next time it is something else? Mr Thomas reported the incident to Amazon who issued the father-of-two an apology. The firm has launched an investigation into the incident and also offered Mr Thomas a 20 reimbursement and a 25 gift card as a goodwill gesture. A spokesman for Amazon said: Were looking into this with our delivery service provider and were in direct contact with the customer. While happy with their response, Mr Thomas, a binman, says it has put him off ordering from Amazon again in case the driver returns. He added: They said they will investigate what has happened but they can't keep me up to date because of data protection. I understand that, but I want to know if this driver is still out there visiting peoples properties. I would hate for someone to lose their job this close to Christmas, but this shouldn't be happening. The theft was reported to police. A spokesman for the force said: Officers have received a report that a pumpkin was taken from outside a property in Tyler Hill Road, Blean. It is alleged to have occurred at about 4.40pm on Saturday.
Donald Broadley , Author provided

Around the world, natural history museums hold a treasure trove of knowledge about Earths animals. But much of the precious information is sealed off to genetic scientists because formalin, the chemical often used to preserve specimens, damages DNA and makes sequences hard to recover.

However, recent advances in DNA extraction techniques mean that biologists can study the genetic code of old museum specimens, which include extremely rare or even recently extinct species. We harnessed this new technology to study a snake from the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe that was run over in 1982, and discovered it was a new species. Our research was recently published in PLOS One.

The Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe, a mountain chain on the border with Mozambique, create a haven of cool and wet habitats surrounded by savannas and dry forest. They are home to many species that are found nowhere else.

Here, a mysterious population of snakes first drew the attention of scientists around 1920. An unusual snake displaying a cobra-like defensive hooding posture was spotted in the grounds of Cecil Rhodes (prime minister of the Cape Colony in the late 19th century) Inyanga Estate in Nyanga.

This snake had unusual markings with red skin between its scales, creating the effect of black dots on a red background when its hood is extended. None of the other cobras found in the area match this description.

More snakes like this were reported in the 1950s, but no specimens were collected.

A rare find

The mystery surrounding these sightings piqued the interest of the late Donald G. Broadley, now considered to be the most eminent herpetologist (reptile and amphibian expert) of southern Africa. In 1961, Broadley was given some severed snake heads and identified the mystery snake as a rinkhals (Hemachatus haemachatus), a species otherwise only found in South Africa, Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland) and Lesotho.

A handful of specimens were observed and measured in later years, but the landscape has been drastically altered by forestry. The rinkhals from Zimbabwe has not been seen in the wild since 1988 and is feared to be extinct.

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This population lives 700km away from other, more southerly populations, which made us suspect it may be a separate species. But the genetic material contained within the specimen from Zimbabwe was degraded, meaning we couldnt do the DNA studies needed to confirm whether it is a different species from other rinkhals.

New technology

However, the latest DNA extraction and sequencing methods have been developed over the last ten years to help biologists study the remains of ancient animals. We used the new techniques to examine the Zimbabwe rinkhals specimen. Our study showed they represent a long-isolated population, highly distinct from the southern rinkhals populations.

Based on their genetic divergence from the other rinkhals, we estimate that the snakes in Zimbabwe diverged from their southern relatives 7-14 million years ago. Counting a snakes scales can help identify what species it is. Subtle differences in scale counts, revealed by our analysis of other specimens, provided enough evidence to classify the Zimbabwe rinkhals as a new species, Hemachatus nyangensis, the Nyanga rinkhals.

The scientific name nyangensis means from Nyanga in Latin.

Hemachatus nyangensis has fangs modified to spit venom, although the behaviour was not reported from the few recorded interactions with humans. The closely related true cobras (genus Naja), some of which are known to spit venom, do so with the same specialised fangs that allow venom to be forced forwards through narrow slits, spraying it toward animals that are threatening them.

Venom in the eyes causes severe pain, may damage the eye, and can cause blindness if left untreated. Venom spitting appears to have evolved three times within the broader group of cobra-like snakes, once in the rinkhals, and twice in the true cobras in south-east Asia and in Africa.

A connection between human and snake evolution

Scientists think this defence mechanism may have evolved in response to the first hominins (our ancestors). Tool-using apes who walked upright would have posed a serious threat to the snakes, and the evolution of spitting in African cobras roughly coincides with when hominins split from chimpanzees and bonobos 7 million years ago.

Similarly, the venom spitting in Asian cobras is thought to have emerged around 2.5 million years ago, which is around the time the extinct human species Homo erectus would have become a threat to those species. Our study of Nyanga rinkhals suggests that the third time venom spitting evolved independently in snakes may also have coincided with the origin of upright-walking hominins.

If a living population of Nyanga rinkhals was found, fresh DNA samples would help us to more accurately determine the timing of the split between the two species of rinkhals and how this compares to hominin evolution. Technological advances may be giving us incredible insights into ancient animal lineages but they cant make up for an extinction. We still hope a living population of Nyanga rinkhals will be found.

The possible relationship between venom spitting and our early ancestors is a reminder that we are part of the Earths ecosystem. Our own evolution is intertwined with that of other animals. When animals become extinct, we dont just lose a species - they take part of our history with them.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Axel Barlow has no active funding. He has previously received funding from NERC and Horizon 2020.

Wolfgang Wuster receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust.

Tom Major does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Conservative Susan Hall has been accused of deploying dog-whistle politics in her bid to be Londons mayor after claiming Jews are frightened under Labours Sadiq Khan.

Senior Labour politicians urged the Tory candidate to retract the divisive and disgusting remarks as the Board of Deputies of British Jews said there is no fear present at all in the community.

But Ms Hall doubled down on her remarks, arguing that she has many friends who are considering not just leaving London because of their fears but leaving the country.

Mr Khan is facing a challenge from Ms Hall as he seeks a third term as London Mayor, a post he has held since 2016.

At a Conservative Friends of Israel event on the fringes of the Tory conference in Manchester, Ms Hall said: I live in north London and I know the wealth and joy of the (Jewish) community.

But I tell you something else, I know how frightened some of the community is because of the divisive attitudes of Sadiq Khan.

One of the most important things we can do when I become mayor of London is make it safer for everybody, but particularly for our Jewish community.

So I will ask for as much help as I can in London because we need to defeat him, particularly for our Jewish community.

Margaret Hodge, who is Jewish and represents the east London constituency of Barking, said that this dog-whistle politics is beneath us all.

She said that Mr Khan has always called out antisemitism, adding: If she had any integrity, Susan Hall would immediately retract her remarks.

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary who represents Londons Ilford North, said Ms Halls attack was divisive and disgusting and urged Tories to call this out.

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, the MP for Tottenham, in north London, said: This is an ugly dog whistle, from a Tory politician whos only strategy is to spread fear.

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Sadiq Khan stands for all Londoners and has repeatedly fought antisemitism. Susan Hall should withdraw her statement immediately and apologise unreservedly.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said Mr Khan has always treated our community with friendship and respect as London Mayor.

We hope to co-host the key mayoral candidates at a 2024 Jewish hustings, where it will be clear that while London Jews may have varying political views, there is no fear present at all, the group said.

Ms Hall defended her remarks on GB News, arguing that the policing in London means that many Jewish people do not feel safe.

And I will never apologise for defending the Jewish community, she said.

Ive got so many (Jewish) friends that are literally talking of leaving the country because they dont feel safe going to Israel.

She claimed that attacks on Jewish people have literally doubled since Mr Khan entered City Hall.

There were 542 antisemitic hate crimes in London in 2016/17 when Mr Khan came to power, and 836 in 2021/22, according to parliamentary research of Scotland Yard figures.

This is not a doubling and the briefing note said of the increase, in part this may be due to better recording methods.

But the most recent year did see a much higher spike than in previous years. The researchers attributed this to violence that occurred in the Middle East in May 2021.
Lucas (left) with his brother (Isaac) collecting the Chief Scout Platinum Award. Photo: Angela Backhouse

Lucas Backhouse, from Garstang, Lancashire, was a member of the 1st Garstang Scout group, along with his three brothers, when he took his own life in October 2021. He was 18-years- old.

28 scouts and explorers, aged 10 to 18 years, from Garstang, Great Ecclestone, Fleetwood, Thornton Cleveleys and Carleton took part in the overnight camp in Waddecar near Garstang. They had to carry and cook their own food, set up camp and navigate almost 25km of local terrain through checkpoints to complete the challenge.

Lucas family joined the scout groups during the campfire to hear Lucas story and share ideas for those struggling with their mental health and where to go for help.

Nicky Dennison, District Explorer Scout Commissioner explained: Im so proud of all the scouts and explorers stepping up to The Lucas Challenge on the back of such tragedy. Knowing how to look after our mental health and where to go for practical help is so important for all young people.

We are delighted that we could strengthen the mental health message across the Wyre district so scouts could get together to walk, talk and learn new skills  doing what scouts do best.

Ahead of the challenge, Chief Scout himself, Bear Grylls also offered his support for The Lucas Challenge: Your kindness and incredible achievements inspire me every day. I want your explorers/scouts to know that every one of them is a shining light. Keep learning, keep helping others and never give up.

Angela Backhouse, Lucas mum, commented: Death by suicide is the single cause of death of under 35s in the UK. This is not OK. We feel humbled that the scouts have launched this annual event in memory of Lucas. Lucas loved all things scouting and experienced many happy hours on camps and the scout hut with his friends. No family should have to deal with the loss of a child through suicide and if we can help just one other young person get support when it is needed, that has to be a good thing.

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1.

The Lucas Challenge  more details: https://www.wyrescouts.org.uk/lucas-challenge/lucas-backhouse/

2.

The Backhouse family have raised over 20,000 for the charity Papyrus  prevention of young suicide https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/just4boys

3.

PAPYRUS is a UK-wide charity with offices in north west England, south west England, West Midlands, London, Northern Ireland, north Wales, south Wales, and Scotland.

4.

Suicide is the biggest killer of people aged 35 and under in the UK (Papyrus)

5.

Over 200 schoolchildren every year in the UK are lost to suicide (Papyrus)

6.

In Sept 2023 the Government have pledged to invest 2.3 billion extra a year into mental health services, and have set out their aim in the NHS Long Term Plan for an additional 345,000 children and young people to access NHS-funded mental health support by 2024.

7.

Lucas achieved his Chief Scout Platinum Award, aged 16 years.
Missing Shane Agnew (Photo: PSNI)

Earlier this week a post on Police North Belfast asking for assistance in locating the 23-year-old said he had been last seen at 1am in the area of Boucher Crescent on 27th September 2023.

The post described Shane as 6ft 3 ins tall and slim with short dark brown hair.

He was last seen wearing grey bottoms and a white and black Adidas top with white hood.

Read more: Here are some of the properties available for less than 80K in Northern Ireland
Armenias parliament voted Tuesday to join the International Criminal Court, a move that further strains the countrys ties with its old ally Russia after the court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin over events in Ukraine.

France welcomed Armenias ratification of the ICC, with foreign minister Catherine Colonna commenting on X, formerly Twitter, "I welcome the decision of the Armenian parliament... The struggle against impunity for crimes is a condition for peace and stability".

Moscow last month called Yerevans effort to join the the ICC an unfriendly step, and the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Armenias ambassador. Countries that have signed and ratified the Rome Statute that created the ICC are bound to arrest Putin, who was indicted for war crimes connected to the deportation of children from Ukraine, if he sets foot on their soil.

Armenian officials have argued the move has nothing to do with Russia and was prompted by Azerbaijans aggression against the country.

Lawmakers voted to ratify the Rome Statute by a vote of 60-22. Armenias president must sign off on the decision, which will come into force 60 days after the vote.

Armenias relations with Russia have frayed significantly in recent years.

Moscow also blames Yerevan for damaging ties with Russia by embracing the West, including hosting U.S. troops for joint military drills.



Read more on FRANCE 24 English



Read also:

UN mission arrives in Nagorno-Karabakh for first visit in 30 years

Gunfire in Nagorno-Karabahk persists between Armenian, Azerbaijani forces

Moscow, Baku to decide future of Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh
(Reuters) - French battery maker Blue Solutions, a unit of Bollore Group, has signed on Tuesday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Taiwan's Foxconn , and its subsidiary SolidEdge to develop solid-state batteries for electric bikes.

The groups said in a joint statement the collaboration will initially target Indonesia, where the market goal is to reach 13 million electric bikes by 2030.

(This story has been corrected to fix the name and location of Foxconn in paragraph 1)

(Reporting by Pierre John Felcenloben, Editing by Louise Heavens)
Visit to Jaranwala (Image: Islamic Relief)

Representatives of Bradford - including Bradford West MP Naz Shah and the Dean of Bradford - have travelled to Pakistan to show solidarity for Christian families.

In early September, violent riots broke out in Jaranwala and mobs torched or vandalised churches and Christian families' homes.

More than 1,000 Christian families were affected and provided with emergency aid from charity, Islamic Relief.

Many families were forced to flee, with children and elderly people among the homeless, sleeping out in the open fields.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Dean of Bradford and Bradford West MP during their visit to Jaranwala

Dean of Bradford and Bradford West MP during their visit to Jaranwala (Image: Islamic Relief)

Peoples food stocks and belongings were also destroyed in the blaze.

Islamic Relief joined civil society groups, religious scholars, and the government of Pakistan in strongly condemning the attacks.

It also supported children and adults in need of mental health support after witnessing extreme violence and destruction.

Bradford's representatives witnessed how communities in Pakistan pulled together and supported their neighbours in the aftermath of the attack.

They also saw the important role faith can play in easing tensions and building better understanding between communities.

Ms Shah said: "No community religious or otherwise should be persecuted and driven out of their homes because of the faith they choose to believe in."

The Very Reverend, Andy Bowerman, said: "We pray that our short visit will be part of the narrative for change."
Bob Geldof has said the fight for food is the fight for life at a global summit in Belfast.

Geldof also said sustainability in a finite world is a myth and called for new solutions to the global food crisis.

The singer and songwriter opened the plenary session on hunger at the One Young World Summit at the ICC centre.

The summit has brought thousands of young leaders from across the world to the city to discuss global problems.

The Band Aid creator said sustainability is a myth (Jago Communications)

On Monday Geldof, who is known for co-writing the Band Aid hit Do They Know Its Christmas? to raise money for the famine in Ethiopia, said that hunger is an ongoing global issue.

There are still millions, as weve heard all morning, who go to bed hungry at night, he said.

That is sickening. It disgusts me. It is unnecessary, it is stupid. And it can stop. It is a very easy thing to feed the world.

Geldof said that our current understanding of sustainability would not be able to keep up with the pressure humanity can expect to face in the future.

Over 820 million people as we keep hearing suffer from chronic undernourishment, he said.

With the current population growth by 2050, as everyone knows, we will need to produce nearly 50% more food.

We are asking of the planet more than it has to give. Sustainability in a finite world is an oxymoron. Its a myth.

For decades, Ive attended all the conferences and spoken at most. Ive heard more or less the same thing everywhere all the time.

Id love today to be hearing something different.

He added: Is it not the task of One Young World to lead these rooms, and think together, and devise new methods, new thought, just newer ways of doing things?

Because its not as simple as just producing more food. Our methods of production, distribution and consumption needs a renaissance of thought and innovation.

Geldof said hunger remained the biggest health issue in the world.

Right now, the WHO tells us that malnutrition is the greatest single threat to global public health. One in three people suffer from some form of malnutrition, he said.

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At least one in three of us dont grow, to be able to activate their minds to its highest level. Well, that impacts everything. Its a pandemic in silence.

Bob Geldof speaking at the One Young World Summit in Belfast (Jago Communications)

Geldof said he had seen the true impact of starvation and malnutrition in his years of fighting those problems.

We are sentient, dignified human beings. We are at the beginning of a deeply serious food crisis and you people here are at the forefront of this battle and stopping it, he said.

Mobilise, innovate, collaborate. The tools literally are at your fingertips.

But its the fire, its a sense of just how awful, how wrong dying of hunger

I have held a two year old, who could be any age, who looked like some Martian, huge head, distended belly

Ive held this child in my hands as they voided their life out of themselves, as they shit their lives through my fingers and died. No, thats not human.

And I use these explosive words so that you maybe feel what I saw, what I experienced.

I use those words as a corrective to the cliche of sustainability, which doesnt need to be a cliche but its just something we say to believe were involved in it.

He added: Its your world. Your fight. The fight for food is literally the fight for life.

Geldof concluded his speech at One Young World by quoting poet Seamus Heaney.

Heaney, the great Northern Irish poet, talked about the moment where hope and history rhymes, he said.

Barack Obama used it a lot in his speech, so One Young World, can this be it? In this city where hope and history rhymed, can we do it?

Can that be what we leave Belfast with? Can that be what these people help talk us through  the hope that in this moment in human history  can it rhyme?

Can we also catch what he wrote about in that poem, the great longed for tidal wave of justice?

It is not just that some of us eat and others dont  thats not just, it is wrong, it is stupid, it is self-defeating.

At the end of that poem (The Cure at Troy) Heaney says: believe that the further shore is reachable from here.

So, ladies and gentlemen this only works, the only reason Kofi (Annan), (Muhammad) Yunus and myself, Queen Rania and Mary (Robinson) pitch up, is because genuinely in our lives the further shore that we can imagine is reachable from here.

The One Young World Summit will continue in Belfast until Thursday.
GENEVA (Reuters) - Only a few hundred people remain behind in the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, including the sick, disabled and elderly, an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) official said on Tuesday, describing the empty streets as "surreal".

Azerbaijani forces took control of the enclave on its territory populated by ethnic Armenians, triggering an exodus of more than 100,000 Armenians.

"The city is now completely deserted," said ICRC team lead Marco Succi via videolink from the Karabakh capital, known as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan.

"The hospitals....are not functioning; the medical personnel left; the water board authorities left; the director of the morgue also left. So this scenario, the scene is quite surreal."

An ICRC team was now combing the streets with megaphones seeking stranded residents, he told a Geneva press briefing. One whom they found was Susanna, an elderly, bed-ridden cancer patient who was beginning to show signs of Anaemia and malnutrition despite provisions left by her neighbours.

"On a personal note, I must say it's quite difficult to find the most vulnerable in need, in circumstances like this and finding Susanna all on her own was really an emotional moment," he said. She was evacuated by ambulance to Armenia.

Asked about an Azerbaijani presence in the capital, he said its police forces were patrolling the streets.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Alex Richardson)
The image marks Black History Month. I shows the back of a person wrapped in a Pride flag in front of a black background. The person has short crew cut hair with tight curls on top. They have one arm raised in a fist. Satyrenko via Shutterstock

October marks Black History Month, giving us an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the achievements and impact that the Black community has had in Ireland and abroad.

Origins of Black History Month

Although Black History Month is traditionally associated with the US, beginning in 1970, its origins go as far back as 1926 when a week was established to commemorate the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

The tradition was eventually recognised in the United Kingdom in October 1987, marking the 150th anniversary of Caribbean emancipation.

Black History in Ireland

Today, Black History Month is marked globally, including here in Ireland, where celebrations are recorded as having started in 2010.

As well as paying tribute to slavery abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and Charles and Sarah Lenox Remond, who visited Ireland on different occasions during the mid to late 1800s at the invitation of the Hibernian Antislavery Society, we also recognise the importance of Black Irish in mainstream culture such as Phil Lynott, Paul McGrath and more recently, Samantha Mumba and Ruth Negga.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Black and Irish (@black_andirish)

Checkered Past

As well as celebrating the achievements of the community, it is important that Black History Month serves as a reminder of how Ireland has failed our Black Irish family.

From the detention of children of interracial relationships in mother and baby homes to the abhorrent Direct Provision system which remains in place today, Ireland is by no means innocent of oppression and racism.

Whilst we still have a long way to go in uncovering and recognising our Black heritage, it is vital that we record these wrongs in order to learn from them in the future.

LGBTQ+ Community

With the escalation in homophobic and transphobic legislation in many African, Middle-Eastern and US states, Ireland has been receiving an influx of LGBTQ+ refugees.

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Many LGBTQ+ people seeking International Protection in Ireland are detained in the Direct Provision system. This may result in them being assigned accommodation conflicting with their gender and/or being placed in abusive situations with homophobic, biphobic and transphobic people.

As well as this, whilst persecution under sexual orientation or gender is considered grounds for seeking International Protection, the requirement to prove this to authorities can be extremely intrusive and traumatising, leading to added pressures on LGBTQ+ people.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Direct Provision Action Group (@enddp_actiongroup)

Queer Racism

Coupled with this, many Black and people of colour (POC) report frequent instances of racism from within the LGBTQ+ community. From challenges in being accepted to microaggressions on dating apps to verbal and physical abuse in clubs and bars, integrating into the queer scene can be difficult.

Black Queer Irish

Despite these institutional and social obstacles, Irelands Black queer community is thriving. Many of the most vocal opponents to the Direct Provision system and the International Protection process identify as LGBTQ+, including Bulelani Mfaco, spokesperson for MASI (Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland) and Beryl Ohas, journalist and cultural mediator with the International Organization for Migration.

Black Queer Creatives

Black queer Irish are also at the forefront of the burgeoning Black Irish art scene. Some of the artists leading the charge include music producer and artist Renn Miano, musician and poet Jess Kavanagh, poet and playwright Felispeaks, writer and curator Diane Bamineke, journalist and filmmaker Zainab Boladale, artist and activist Ozaro Azams, and visual artist and filmmaker Venus Patel.

Not only are each of these creatives achieving notoriety in their own practices, but among them, many have been behind forging spaces and collective projects for other emerging black creatives such as Origins Eile, Fried Plantains Collective, DiaXDem, Queer Black Book Club and many more.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Black Queer Book Club (@black.queerbookclub)

With the Black Irish community steering the way in which their voices are used, Ireland is assured a richer and more vibrant history for generations to come, so lets make sure we support and bolster our Black Irish LGBTQ+ family to make sure these histories can never be erased again.

The post The importance of celebrating Black History Month in the Irish LGBTQ+ community appeared first on GCN.
Queen Rania of Jordan speaking with media during her visit to the Conway Education Centre at Conway Mill in Belfast (Photo: Liam McBurney)

She also said the group was helping to restore refugees dignity and that nobody chooses to become a refugee.

Queen Rania  in Northern Ireland for the One Young World Summit  was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and has been a vocal advocate for refugee and womens rights.

The Queen visited the Conway Education Centre (CEC), a community-based education facility situated between the Falls Road and the Shankill Road in west Belfast, and met members of the refugee community who have made their home in Belfast.

Queen Rania of Jordan (right) listening to Abdisalam Abdiaziz during her visit to the Conway Education Centre at Conway Mill in Belfast, during her visit to the One Young World Summit

It was so encouraging to see a woman in her 60s or 70s saying how she feels like she has been reborn here, Queen Rania said. In most countries refugees are just trying to survive, whereas here you see them really thriving and finding themselves again. And so the example that you have here is something that we can really look at. The people of Northern Ireland and the community centres are looking at the refugees, the human behind the refugee, theyre looking at the person, not just the political tool that sometimes leaders use for fear-mongering or for getting more votes in elections.

In 2015, the CEC introduced a number of programmes to serve Belfasts growing refugee population, including English language classes and a homework club for primary and secondary school students. Based on the feedback of refugees participating in courses, Conway recently launched a capacity-building programme to help adult refugees build on their existing skills and enhance their independence.

The children and adults who gathered at the centre on Tuesday told Queen Rania about how these programmes helped them to establish themselves in Northern Ireland. The Queen also spoke to several of the older women in Arabic. She said the CEC enabled them to build relationships as well as receive support.

This is really giving value to the human and understanding that nobody chooses to become a refugee, she said. I think in all this debate and all these passions that are elicited from talking about refugees, people really forget that its not a choice. Nobody wants to be uprooted from their country and its not just the home that they lose, its the people and places that theyre familiar with that defined their lives and its so difficult to be uprooted from all of that. So having a welcoming environment like the Conway Education Centre, that provides education which is really an entry point for young people, its not only a basic right, but it helps them restore their dignity, gives them a chance of life and just gives them hope.

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Queen Rania of Jordan (right) speaking with centre manager Pauline Kersten after a visit to meet refugees from the Conway Education Centre at Conway Mill

Queen Rania also said there was an opportunity for the exchange of ideas between Jordan and Northern Ireland in dealing with the global refugee crisis.

I think other countries like Jordan can have these kinds of partnerships and cooperation so that we can exchange experiences because, as you know, in Jordan, one in eight people in my country is a refugee. Weve taken in over a million Syrian refugees, she said. So I think we have a lot in common but again, I just want to pay tribute truly to the people of Northern Ireland for their generosity and hospitality, and the example that they set for everyone in the world, so thank you.

The One Young World Summit has brought thousands of young leaders from over 190 countries to meet in Belfast to discuss global issues such as hunger and climate change. The summit has been recognised by the City of Belfast and the UK Government as being part of the official celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

Queen Rania gave the keynote address at the opening ceremony.

Queen Rania of Jordan during her visit to the Conway Education Centre at Conway Mill in Belfast (Photo: Liam McBurney)

Mona Arnous is a refugee and volunteer at the CEC who originates from Syria and learned to speak English aided by teachers from the centre. Ms Arnous, who is hoping to go on to study nursing at Queens University Belfast, said it was an honour to meet Queen Rania.

I never thought I would maybe one day meet the Queen herself. It was a shock for me when I received the invitation from Conway. I think shes such a wonderful person. Shes very sweet, she said. When she came in I was just fine. Its just like talking to a normal person. She made me feel really nice and calm. She was such a chill person.

The One Young World Summit will continue in Belfast until Thursday.
Warrant Officer (retired) Joel Lawrence sadly passed away at the age of 101 in his home in Cornwall. (Image: Supplied)

THE family of a veteran who survived being shot down over the Burmese jungle and evaded capture by Japanese soldiers has been joined by the Royal Air Force to commemorate his incredible life.

Warrant Officer (retired) Joel Lawrence, a former wireless operator on the Dakota Mk 3 aircraft during the conflict with Japan in the Second World War, sadly passed away at the age of 101 in his home in Cornwall.

At a discreet ceremony held in Truro, the Lawrence family were accompanied by personnel from RAF St Mawgan to pay their respects and to keep alive the legacy of Joels incredible exploits in the jungles of Burma.

Falmouth Packet: At a ceremony in Truro, the Lawrence family were joined by personnel from RAF St Mawgan to pay their respects

At a ceremony in Truro, the Lawrence family were joined by personnel from RAF St Mawgan to pay their respects (Image: Supplied)

Born in Hastings in November 1921, Joel Lawrence was 18 when he joined the RAF, qualifying as a wireless operator and air gunner in 1940. He joined No. 139 (Jamaica) Sqn at Horsham St. Faith, near Norwich, in February 1942, from where his squadron left for India.



Joel's son, Jack, said: "Not long after arriving in India, his squadron was absorbed into 62 Sqn and tasked to air supply the British and Allied ground troops fighting against the Japanese army in Burma.

"On May 15, 1945, he was due to go for two weeks rest and recuperation away from daily ops, up in the hills, but was persuaded to do one last flight by in Burma by his Commanding Officer before taking a break. Dad had argued that he did not want to fly with the newly arrived young pilot, who was straight out of flying school, but agreed to go on this one last flight, He added.

Falmouth Packet: Joel Lawrence was 18 when he joined the RAF, qualifying as a wireless operator and air gunner in 1940.

Joel Lawrence was 18 when he joined the RAF, qualifying as a wireless operator and air gunner in 1940. (Image: Supplied)

The team at RAF St Mawgan were able to track down the original 62 Sqn records from May 1945 for the family, through the Air Historical Branch, which gave the following account:

"Whilst flying at 700 ft over Myangnya on the way to a supply drop near Rangoon, their Dakota was hit by anti-aircraft fire. The crew could see no visual effect immediately, so carried on course. After a few minutes they noticed that one of the starboard petrol tanks had lost over 100 gallons, so they decided to turn back immediately to try and reach base.

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Shortly afterwards the starboard engine set on fire and spreading to the wing, the load was jettisoned in preparation for a forced landing. An SOS was sent giving a position at the coast they hoped to reach, but as the propeller would not feather, they could not climb over the last range of hills.

Despite burns on his face, the pilot made an excellent landing in a paddy field South of the village of Talakwa and all crew survived. The port engine started burning as soon as the aircraft stopped. In the hurry to get out, nothing was recovered except only one revolver, one round of ammunition, one button-concealed compass and a map. Two members of the crew even left their shirts behind. They immediately ran from the aircraft into the jungle as they knew that there would be a Japanese hunter force in the vicinity."

Wing Commander Helen Simpson, the RAF St Mawgan Station Commander said: We are so honoured to be able to support Joels family during this difficult time, and to keep alive his incredible story.

Falmouth Packet: Joel was transferred to Truro in 1966, where he worked until retirement.

Joel was transferred to Truro in 1966, where he worked until retirement. (Image: Supplied)

RAF St Mawgan is home to the Defence Survive Evade Resist Extract (SERE) Training Organisation (DSTO), where thousands of military personnel are trained each year on what to do should they find themselves isolated, just as Joel did, and so this ceremony seems all the more poignant for everyone here who supports that training.

Shortly after the crew had escaped the wreckage, they were taken in by the Karen, an indigenous and friendly tribe who had seen the aircraft crash, trailed them and covered up the rather obvious tracks the crew had left.

The Karen showed them places to hide, brought food and water, and informed them that the local Burmese were not friendly and had only a few days previously handed over the crew of a Beaufighter to the Japanese, who beheaded them.

Falmouth Packet: Joel in 1943

Joel in 1943 (Image: Supplied)

Over the next few days, Joel and his fellow airmen evaded the heavily armed Japanese patrols who were hunting them, by moving from village to village, hiding in the jungle by day and sleeping in the tribal settlements at night with sentries posted to warn of any enemy approach. After several river crossings and close encounters with the Japanese, the team met up with a British Special Operations Agent who had parachuted into the area with transmitters and further instructions.

Several more days of evading and navigating through the treacherous jungle saw Joel finally make it to the coast, where a rescue boat had arranged a rendezvous to recover the crew.

Warrant Officer Andy Ives, an instructor in Personnel Recovery at DSTO said: Joels story really resonates with us, and it helps us to better understand the way we need to prepare our people that will be placed at risk of isolation should unfortunate events happen. Not only is it important that we recognise the bravery of the downed crew, but it is also important we learn the lessons of the past to better prepare for the future.

Falmouth Packet: Joel on horseback

Joel on horseback (Image: Supplied)

Many of the procedures and tactics the crew employed are as relevant today as they were then in ensuring their safe recovery. We will be celebrating Joels life and his amazing account at our forthcoming symposium dinner, where we will present a vignette of Joels story to all in attendance he added.

After almost three-and-a half years in India, Joel returned to the UK with his squadron in November 1945, and after 10 years in the RAF, Joel left the Service, aged 28. He worked as a forester with the Forestry Commission in the Cotswolds while studying land management at Cirencester Agricultural College.

Falmouth Packet: Joel was remembered at a ceremony in Truro

Joel was remembered at a ceremony in Truro (Image: Supplied)

After qualifying, his first post was as land agent at Whipsnade Zoo. He went on to work in the North East of England with the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food until he was transferred to Truro in 1966, where he worked until retirement. He went on to work in the North East of England with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food until he was transferred to Truro in 1966, where he worked until retirement.

Reflecting on the emotional ceremony and his late fathers life, Jack Said; Seeing the Royal Air Force here today, says that what he did out in India for those three long years was important, and it mattered.
Ethnic Armenians have been fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh (Irakli Gedenidze/Reuters)

What is happening now, at an astonishing rate, in Nagorno-Karabakh is effectively ethnic cleansing on a mass scale.

A formerly autonomous province of Azerbaijan, populated overwhelmingly by people of Armenian ancestry, Nagorno-Karabakh has simply emptied itself out, after a short clash between the rival Caucasian states. It has created another humanitarian crisis and another wave of refugees in a world with no shortage of either.

Karabakh has led a precarious existence since the end of the Soviet Union, which once encompassed Armenia and Azerbaijan and mostly smothered such tensions. With the Russians gone, the area has been the subject of a succession of bloody struggles for supremacy over the succeeding decades. Before the latest outbreak of hostilities, about 120,000 of Karabakhs residents remained, from around 200,000 at the end of the Soviet era in 1991.

By September, the population had dwindled to 65,000. Now it is thought that somewhere between only 50 and 1,000 ethnic Armenians remain. It is an exodus of historic proportions. It has not been achieved, quite, at the end of a gun or by gangs clearing families from their homesteads; but folk memories of past persecutions have forced the people to flee for their lives, carrying as much of their belongings as their cars will hold.

The proximate cause of the mass movement was the proclamation by the Azeri government that the province will no longer enjoy its autonomous status  a fatal breach of trust. As a self-governing oblast in Soviet times and after, its status as an Orthodox Armenian region within Azerbaijan at least gave it some minimal legal protractions against fear of domination by the Turkic and Muslim population that surrounded it.

As an exclave, it was always vulnerable to menace, and such fears sometimes turned to reality, but the people could cling to the hope that the international community, and the powers that interfered in the region so freely, Russia and Turkey, might honour it. Now it has gone.

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Nagorno-Karabakh has been anything but stable for many years, and often close to disaster. Now, for all the tragically wrong reasons, the central cause of the volatility  the people of the province  has literally melted away across the borders on the move to Armenia. Western nations often complain about the scale of irregular migration and the numbers of refugees seeking asylum; well, here are about 100,000 hopeless souls arriving over a matter of days in a country, Armenia, which is poor and ill-equipped to accommodate them.

For a whole variety of reasons, the West has a vested interest in providing sufficient humanitarian aid to prevent the present crisis provoking further trouble. There are also geopolitical reasons to offer Armenia friendly assistance. Traditionally, Russia was the ally and protector of Armenia and its minority population within Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani governments looked to Ankara for support.

To an extent, and like other proxy wars such as the Yemeni conflict played out between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the fortunes of Armenia and Azerbaijan mirrored those of their regional superpower mentors. Yet since a soft revolution in Yerevan a few years ago, Armenia has tilted towards the West.

Vladimir Putin has grown more impatient towards his former loyal junior partner, and basically acquiesced in Azeri aggressions, despite having brokered a peace accord a few years ago. Now President Putin finds himself having to deal with more pressing issues than Armenia.

This does represent for the West a rare opportunity to acquire influence in the region, protect Armenia and its people from further abuses, and, in partnership with Turkey, ensure that the war in Ukraine doesnt somehow spill over into the Caucasus, and potentially drag Georgia and Turkey itself into a wider conflict.

One immediate priority, which would also help ease delivery of aid, is the opening of the border between Armenia and Turkey.

In the words of one Armenian crossing the border into a safer but uncertain future, for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, its over, and everything is lost. It is now too late for the West to save their original homeland, and Nagorno-Karabakh no longer exists in the meaningful sense it once did. It is not too late to save its hungry and homeless former inhabitants.
South Korean singer and actress Jennie Kim arrives for the screening of the film "The Idol" during the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 22, 2023. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP) (Photo by LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images)

Although other leading fashion brands will not agree, without question, Chanels Spring/Summer 2024 show which is taking place now (at the time of writing) on October 3, 2023, during Paris Fashion Week, will be one of the highlights of the event. BLACKPINKS Jennie Kim has already been spotted in Paris as she attended band mate Lisas final performance at Crazy Horse and reportedly arrived at the cabaret show straight from the airport.

A-list celebrities who attended Lisas Crazy Horse cabaret shows included Elvis actor Austlin Butler and supermodel girlfriend Kaia Gerber, rapper Tyga and Spanish pop star Rosalia. Although Jennie Kim was obviously keen to support her bandmate Lisa at Crazy Horse, the main reason why she is in Paris is to attend Chanels Spring/Summer 2024 show.

BLACKPINKS Jennie Kim has been the face of Chanel Beauty since 2017 and became a global ambassador for the fashion brand in 2019. Vogue Singapore reported in July 2023 that for her Met gala debut and in honour of Karl Largefeld, Jennie sifted into a specially recreated dress out of the houses 1990 archives, holding her own in the maisons signature codes: of black and white and camellia blooms.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 01: Jennie Kim attends The 2023 Met Gala Celebrating "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 01, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

In my opinion, Jennie Kim was one of the best dressed stars at the Met Gala 2023. I loved everything about her vintage Chanel outfit, and adored the opera style gloves. This is not the first time I have loved Jennie Kim in Chanel. In October 2019, she attended the Chanel spring/summer 2020 show and wore faded jeans, a bow top, and purple jacket with bag, of course all Chanel.

I also believe that Jennie Kim completely eclipsed all around her when she wore a bridal-esque Chanel dress for The Idol premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this year. The corset style dress, which was designed by Virginie Viard, was from Chanels spring 2020 couture show. What made the show particularly memorable was that it was Virginies first Chanel show as creative director following the passing of Karl Lagerfeld.

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I also adored the white long sleeve mini dress Jennie Kim chose to wear for the autumn/winter 2019 Chanel show. In June 2023, Jennie Kim looked very stylish in a Chanel bonnet and white lace tights that she wore to the Chanel Metiers DArt show in Tokyo.

I cant wait to see which Chanel outfit she chooses to wear for their Spring/Summer 2024 fashion show. Watch this space
Morning View (Photo: gina)

When the general election is held next year  and it has to be held next year unless it is held in the very opening days of 2025  the Tories will have been in power for 14 years.

No party, Conservative or Labour, has since the Second World War won a general election after such a long stint in office. The public gets tired of governments after such a long spell, as it is doing with the current administration. The Labour Party lead over the Conservatives is not as a big as it was a few months ago, but it remains double digits.

Rishi Sunak is being accused of pivoting to the right in order to pander to prejudices and secure re-election. He has become more outspoken on immigration, on the ultra low emissions zone in outer London, on 20mph limits, on slashing the scale (and thus cost) of the HS2 high speed rail link, and on reforming benefits. On tax cuts however, a perpetual demand of the Tory right, Mr Sunaks chancellor says now is not the time.

Now is indeed not the time, because this has been a big spending government. The importance of some of these issues was understood at the start of the Conservative rule in 2010: George Osborne embarked on much-derided austerity, which was in fact an overdue return to UK fiscal responsibility, and benefit reform, like austerity, was championed by David Camerons government and brought in long overdue measures like the benefits cap, but ran out of steam.

As Ukraine shows, money is needed in defence. And Northern Ireland is a further issue on which the government should have moved to the right  unapologetically defending the nation state, ie the UK, from separatist tactics of attrition in Scotland and NI.
Letters to editor (Photo: JP)

I note the continuing refusal of unionist elected politicians to attend and serve in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

I recall the history of the Province over the last fifty years or so: the atrocities, the Good Friday Agreement, Brexit, the Trade and Co-operation Agreement, and (latterly) the Windsor Framework.

I wonder whether unionist leaders would prefer a hard border with the Republic of Ireland (with customs checks) to the present arrangements.

I remember that, during the UK's membership of the European Union, the Customs Union and the Single Market, all political parties supported Stormont and devolution.

Things worked.

It is Brexit that has created the present conflict.

The ongoing need of Northern Ireland for peace and co-operation are a major reason why Brexit should never have been contemplated or carried out.

Brexit has caused problems for the whole of the UK.

It should be reversed.

This is the issue that will not go away.

David Harries, Bridgend, South Wales
Offshore Irish Sea project marks significant milestone as leaders at North Channel Wind progress the potential for over one gigawatt of floating wind turbines in the Irish Sea, off the coasts of Antrim and north Down. Pictured are new generation floating wind turbines. Credit: Provence Grand Large

Project leaders at North Channel Wind say they have reached a number of significant milestones as they progress the potential for over one gigawatt of floating wind turbines in the Irish Sea, off the coasts of Antrim and north Down.

According to officials, the two year bird and mammal survey has reached the halfway point, a geotechnical desk study confirms that the sites under examination are suitable for the development and a draft marine licence application has been submitted to the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs for permission to carry out marine surveys.

Project director Niamh Kenny highlighted that as much progress is being made on a number of fronts before the next stage of the development.

Offshore Irish Sea project marks significant milestone as leaders at North Channel Wind progress the potential for over one gigawatt of floating wind turbines in the Irish Sea, off the coasts of Antrim and north Down. Developers are pursuing a timeline which would see the wind turbines begin supply to the Northern Ireland grid in 2030. Pictured are new generation floating wind turbines. Credit: Provence Grand Large

She continued: Our initial and voluntary consultations indicate a high level of support for the offshore wind project. This is based on a broader appreciation that the climate emergency is upon us and that we need to rapidly transition from reliance on fossil fuels and embrace the new technologies which will provide emissions free and reliable electricity.

A series of consultations were conducted along Northern Irelands east coast from Carnlough to Bangor and more are expected in the coming months. Offshore and onshore scoping are also under way to identify possible landing sites for cabling to shore and grid connection, as are designs for a new substation.

In addition, SBM Offshore, the company backing North Channel Wind, provided evidence to industry insiders by inviting them to witness the final stages of construction of floating wind turbines at the PGL shipyard in Marseille earlier this month.

Ms Kenny explained: While progress is good there are a number of risks ahead not least the lack of an Assembly whose support we need for legislative purposes. Offshore wind requires a new connection policy which cannot proceed without legislation, nor can we provide a decommissioning policy for the wind turbines without legislation.

North Channel Wind is now appealing to the Crown Estate, owners of the seabed, to make leases available as soon as possible. Ms Kenny says a leasing round which is competitive is needed so that investors can quickly determine clear pathways for their investment.

In the meantime, North Channel Wind is pursuing a timeline which would see the wind turbines begin supply to the Northern Ireland grid in 2030. This would be in time to meet the ambitious Northern Ireland target of 80% of electricity from renewable sources, which was set by the Assembly in 2022Offshore wind is seen as a vital component in helping to achieve the targets.
The European Council President condemned Russia's peacekeeping forces, present in Nagorno-Karabakh since a peace deal was brokered by Moscow in 2020, for standing aside as Baku launched its military action.

"It is clear for everyone to see that Russia has betrayed the Armenian people," Michel told Euronews' Global Conversation.

"Russia wanted to have soldiers on the ground to guarantee this peace and security agreement. But we see that the military operation was launched without the slightest reaction from the Russian peacekeeping forces in the territory. The European Union, on the other hand, had no force or military presence on the ground," he added.

Baku recently regained control of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian separatists after launching a military offensive. An estimated 100,000 ethnic Armenians have since fled in fear of persecution as Azerbaijani forces tighten their grip on the region.

Experts say Baku's actions amount to a war crime, and Armenia has accused its neighbour of pursuing ethnic cleansing.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has also condemned Russia for ignoring signs of Bakus escalation and failing to protect Armenians residing in the isolated, mountainous region. The Kremlin responded by accusing Pashinyan of succumbing to Western influence.

'Extremely disappointed' by Azerbaijan

Michel has played a leading role in recent EU attempts to de-escalate the decades-old conflict, convening both sides for talks in Brussels as Pashinyan looked to the West for support.

But the bloc has come under fire for its unfruitful mediation efforts and for refraining from sanctioning Azerbaijan. Members of the European Parliament hailed Michel's mediation attempts a "total failure", accusing EU leaders of failing to name the aggressor and ignoring Armenias pleas.

Michel rejected this criticism, telling Euronews that "European mediation, which was conducted in parallel with others such as that of the US, enabled us to advance, for example with prisoner exchanges, and to better understand how to improve the connectivity of this region to ensure better future stability."

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"We also made progress on texts that aim to ensure a future peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan."

"But having said that, I am extremely disappointed by the decision that was taken by Azerbaijan and I have expressed that very firmly to President Aliyev," he added.

Michel said EU intervention was critical in ensuring the re-opening of the Lachin corridor - which had been blockaded by Azerbaijani forces for months, preventing essential supplies from reaching the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh - and assured the bloc would continue to provide humanitarian support.

"We are very committed to supporting Armenia, which is receiving a high number of refugees who have left their home region in Nagorno-Karabakh," Michel explained. "We also need to remain engaged at a political and diplomatic level to make sure that theres a very clear reaffirmation of the respect for the territorial integrity of Armenia."

"We will not give up," he affirmed.

Peace depends on 'will of both sides'

Michel is expected to sit down with the two countries' leaders as well as French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the sidelines of a summit of the European Political Community on Thursday in Granada, Spain. Similar talks were held at the previous two EPC summits in October 2022 and June 2023.

Peace, he said, will require "a negotiation that can pin down commitments from both sides" although "there is a great responsibility on the side of Azerbaijan, which launched this military operation."

"Its now up to Azerbaijan to show goodwill by engaging while respecting international law to protect the rights and security of the entire population that lives in Azerbaijan, including the Armenian population," he added.

He refrained from labelling the forced exodus of the Nagorno-Karabakh population as an attempt at ethnic cleansing.

"Its true that the immense majority of the Armenian population has left the region and probably in fear of how they will be considered by the Azerbaijani authorities. A large part is now in Armenia, and thats why the EU must deliver humanitarian aid," he said.

Azerbaijan still 'a partner' for the EU

He also said that Baku remains an EU partner despite its brazen attack.

"Azerbaijan is a partner today, yes, its a partner. That doesnt mean the relationship is simple. No, its not simple. Are there difficulties? Yes, and these difficulties are real and should be understood," he explained.

He denied that the EU had turned a blind eye to signs of hostilities when EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed Baku a trustworthy partner in 2022, striking a deal to double EU imports of Azerbaijani gas by 2027 in a bid to wean off Russian fossil fuel imports.

"I understand the argument, but its not correct," Michel said. "We showed Europe's ability to very quickly diversify energy supplies following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and therefore we now have many options in terms of energy supplies."

When asked if the EU should reconsider its gas deal with Baku, Michel said: "Of course. What we now need to look at is how to normalise the relationship between Armenia and Azerbaijan so that we can firmly and incontestably ensure the mutual recognition of the territorial integrity of both countries."

"We will encourage a normalisation process that can lead to commitments on both sides to respect the promises they have made. And the absolute priority is to ensure that there are negotiations on territorial borders," he explained.

"It is the European mediation process that secured progress in this regard, on a peace treaty to normalise the relationship and also on what we call connectivity, that is, the possibility both for the populations of both Armenia and Azerbaijan to be able to move in the region."

Michel also told Euronews he is confident EU and Western support to Ukraine remains unwavering, despite the Polish government and Slovak election winner Robert Fico vowing to veto the bloc's future supply of weapons. Cracks have also recently appeared in Washington's support to Kyiv, with senior officials questioning the Ukrainian armed forces' counter-offensive strategy.

"There are risks of fissures and breakdowns, but that does not mean we are not vigilant," he explained.

"We are vigilant, because EU unity requires effort, political work, collaboration and diplomacy," he added.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie talks to the News Letter editor Ben Lowry at the Conservative Party conference on Monday October 2 2023. The DUP are not attending the event (Photo: Ben Lowry)

Doug Beattie spoke to the News Letter from the Conservative gathering in Manchester yesterday, where the DUP has not sent any politician this year.

He said: It's important that I can be here to engage with these people. If unionism isn't here making our case heard, then where else would you be?

Mr Beattie said: It's important that we engage with government and here we are at a conference where the UK government has all come together, there's people here from the ministers for health, for education, for defence and of course the secretary of state and as well as other internationals including the EU Ambassador to London. There's no point standing on the peripheries shouting and making noises. You need to get into the arena and that's why I'm here and I'm talking to people and I'll be meeting the secretary of state later on today to press the issues that I have.

When asked if his message was a general unionist message, or a specific one that unionists need to go back to Stormont, the UUP leader replied: Well I think that there's a number of messages. First of all is a Northern Ireland message. Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom, it's an integral part of the United Kingdom so my position is to how do we safeguard that position within the United Kingdom. I believe that is through a functioning devolved government and I've been pressing for that.

"That's my position. I accept other people have have a different position in regards to that and all positions I suppose we have to listen to but nobody's coming up with a plan B in regards to Northern Ireland. To allow it to decay in the manner it is now is just not good enough.

What about the Jamie Bryson critique of unionists who want to return to Stormont under the Irish Sea border?

People think that Jamie Bryson is the voice of all loyalism. And God help him, because he has offered up absolutely nothing in his critique, said Mr Beattie. "Yes, he's outlined the problems. We have outlined the problems. But at least we're outlining solutions as well, which he has not done. And for the last 18 months, we have had no devolved government. It has achieved absolutely the sum of zero.
The Assembly Speaker, Alex Maskey, welcomed Mr Hilary Benn MP, the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, to Parliament Buildings today. Mr Benn is on his first visit to Northern Ireland since his appointment as Shadow Secretary of State earlier this month. During his visit he will also meet with each of the political parties to learn more about the current political situation from their perspective. Picture: Michael Cooper

On Tuesday he was greeted on arrival at Parliament Buildings in Stormont by Speaker Alex Maskey, before going on to meet the main five parties.

The visit comes as the Stormont Assembly remains collapsed amid DUP protest action against internal UK trade barriers created by Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol.

The party says the framework deal struck by the EU and the UK to reform the protocol does not sufficiently address its concerns and has made clear it will not accept a return to devolution until the Government provides further assurances, by way of legislation, over Northern Irelands place in the UK internal market.

Talks between the DUP and the Government have been ongoing over the summer.

One of the main parts of the framework  the green/red lane system for the movement of goods  became operational at Northern Ireland ports on Sunday.

Mr Benns first meeting on Tuesday was with Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle ONeill and North Belfast MP John Finucane.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Mr Finucane said they had a very positive and constructive meeting.

Top of the agenda in our message to him was the need to restore the assembly, to restore the executive, to have ministers in place at the job they were elected to do over a year ago, he said.

We are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, we have a health service that demands action to begin to tackle the crisis in our waiting lists and the many other problems in our public services.

But we were also keen to stress that we dont want to miss the opportunities of the economic potential that we now have here. We also have a very significant and sizeable delegation coming from America in a couple of weeks led by the US presidents special envoy Joe Kennedy.

Mr Finucane added: People voted in a historic election over 18 months ago now, and the very least that they deserve is to have ministers in place, doing the job they should be doing.

I dont think there is any excuse for the DUP to be remaining out of government  they need to get back in and respect the outcome of last years election without delay.

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DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he is continuing to engage with the government in terms of negotiating a solution to unionist concerns around post-Brexit arrangements.

Every negotiation has a beginning and an end, and we will no doubt reach a moment where both sides will recognise that we have taken this as far as we can. Were not there yet, and thats why were continuing to engage with the government on these issues, he said.

I want to find a solution. Im not planning for failure, Im planning to get this done because we want to see Northern Irelands place within the United Kingdom properly protected and respected in UK law, and we want to see a functioning Stormont.

Alliance leader Naomi Long praised Mr Benn for his level of engagement with, and knowledge of, issues in Northern Ireland.

She said the focus of their conversation was around efforts to resurrect the Stormont Assembly.

We also did raise our concerns about issues such as reform, both of our finances and public services, and about the need for us to be able to do that in a way that reflects the fact that Northern Ireland does have higher levels of need, she said.

I was very impressed both with his levels of interest and also his levels of knowledge. I would have expected nothing else and it was a very good meeting.

She said she hoped future meetings with Mr Benn will take place in the context of a functioning Assembly.

This current situation where we have no Assembly, no devolution is just not a sustainable position for Northern Ireland to be in, and it is not good for the people who we represent, who are languishing on waiting lists, who are struggling with their finances, who cant access childcare and who are facing all of the multiple demands and challenges that everyone else faces but doing it without the support of the people they elected to take on these challenges on their behalf.

On Monday Mr Benn met staff from the Wave Trauma Centre, which supports Troubles victims and relatives of those bereaved, as well as making a visit to Queens University Belfast.

Mr Finucane said the governments controversial new Legacy Act was also discussed during his partys meeting with Mr Benn.
HA NOI  The Ministry of Industry and Trade believes that the appropriate use of the stabilisation fund would be important to restrain increases in petroleum prices and reduce the impacts of these increases on the countrys socio-economic development.

From the beginning of this year, petrol prices have been raised 16 times with a total increase of VN3,500 per litre. The latest increase was on September 21, which brought the petrol price to nearly VN26,000 per litre.

Petrol prices are forecast to continue to increase towards the end of the year due to moves by major world producers to tighten supply.

According to the Mercantile Exchange of Viet Nam (MXV), Russia, the world's third-largest oil producer with a market share of 13 per cent globally, after the US' 16 per cent and Saudi Arabia's 13.5 per cent, has put a squeeze on the oil market with a diesel export ban, threatening to aggravate a global shortage.

Countries that imported fuel from Russia have been forced to look for supplies from other markets, and oil refineries around the world need to increase capacity to meet demand.

Pham Quang Anh, director of MXVs Information Centre, said that the move to tighten oil exports would increase petroleum prices in the last four months of this year. Brent oil prices are forecast to increase to $90-95 per barrel, while the price range of $100 per barrel would largely depend on the economic situation, especially the growth of the US and Chinese economies.

The continued increase in fuel prices might heavily weigh on the consumer price index (CPI), Anh said, adding that it was important to seek measures to stabilise petroleum prices.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that domestic petroleum prices had increased continuously due to fluctuations in the global oil market and the world economy over concerns about moves to tighten supplies by major producers.

According to a joint decision of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance, in the recent adjustments of petroleum prices on September 21, VN300 was used from the petrol price stabilisation fund for each litre of petrol, diesel oil, and kerosene, a very modest level compared to the funds balance of more than VN7.4 trillion.

Regarding the use of the stabilisation fund, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the use of the fund was implemented in accordance with the finance ministrys circular 103/TT-BTC, which states that the fund is used when the increases in petrol prices are from 7 per cent.

Seven recent increases in petrol prices were all below 7 per cent, meaning that the fund had not been used in these adjustments, the ministry stated.

Expert Nguyen Tien Thoa said that it was necessary to amend regulations about the use of the petrol price stabilisation fund to ensure it works to stabilise petrol prices.

Expert Vu Vinh Phu said that the existing taxes and fees on petrol remained at high levels, an important factor pushing up domestic retail petrol prices.

Reducing taxes and fees related to petrol imports could help lower petrol prices, Phu stated.

Viet Nam also needed to build a transparent oil and petrol market in line with regional and global markets, which would help better harmonise benefits between the State, enterprises, and residents, he stated.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that in order to restrain increases in petrol prices, the ministry proposed solutions to the Prime Minister, including the efficient use of the stabilisation fund.

A representative from the Ministry of Finances Price Management Department said that petrol was among essential goods and its price increase would significantly affect prices of other goods and services.

The Ministry of Finance would enhance cooperation with other ministries, agencies, and localities to tighten price management, to prevent unreasonable increases in prices, and to strictly handle speculation.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam is still on the watch list of FTSE Russel for a possible reclassification from frontier to secondary emerging market status, the global index provider FTSE Russel said in its September report. However, the opportunity for the stock markets upgrade may become clearer next year.

The country has been on the watch since 2018.

FTSE Russel said that Viet Nams reform progress is slower than expected, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Viet Nam has yet to meet the delivery versus payment (DvP) criterion, which is currently rated as Restricted due to the market practice of conducting a pre-trading check to ensure the availability of funds prior to trade execution, FTSE Russel said.

Meanwhile, as the market does not experience failed trades, the settlement - costs associated with failed trades criterion is unrated.

It added that Viet Nam would need to improve the process for the registration of new accounts and the introduction of an efficient mechanism to facilitate trading among foreign investors in securities that have reached, or are approaching, their foreign ownership limit.

FTSE also highlighted the role of the Vietnamese Government in accelerating the progress.

Even though the reform progress is still slow, the Governments commitments in boosting the upgrade is clearly showed. Moreover, the State Securities Commission (SSC) is working hard to seek a workable solution to the issue of prefunding, FTSE said.

FTSE Russell said it continued to maintain a constructive relationship with the SSC, the World Bank Group and E&Y who were supporting the wider market reform programme, and other key market authorities.

According to SSI Securities Corporation, authorities are using a lot of resources to ensure satisfaction of criteria from rating organisations such as FTSE Russell and MSCI.

In fact, quantitative criteria are not a major obstacle for Viet Nam as the stock market already has a sufficient number of representative stocks, the securities said.

It also noted that among barriers set by major international rating agencies and financial institutions, the prefunding requirement is the main obstacle hindering the upgrade of the stock market.

Regarding short-term solutions, many proposals are currently discussed such as amending Circular 120 to remove the regulation that foreign investors need to have 100 per cent of money in their accounts to make orders.

In addition, the maximum foreign room depends on the decision of each company, as long as it complies with regulations, according to SSI Research said that. Therefore, in the long term, it is necessary to maximise foreign room for most industries and limit it to only a few truly necessary sectors.

On the other hand, the implementation of the KRX system is a necessary condition while the presence of a central counterparty clearing house (CCP) mechanism is a sufficient condition for transactions to be performed and payment risks to be controlled.

According to the plan, the preparation of KRX is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

SSI Research believes that this period is the right time for upgrading the ranking of the Vietnamese market, creating a path to welcome large capital from other professional foreign investment funds.

The opportunity to be upgraded by FTSE Russell may become clearer in 2024 and the possibility of being upgraded by MSCI in the following years will require more efforts and determination of all market participants.  VNS
HA NOI  A business delegation from the Lower Saxony State of Germany on Monday paid a visit to the headquarters of PVI Joint Stock Company (PVI) in Ha Noi, signifying a strengthened cooperation between businesses from the two countries.

The meeting aligned with the visit of Lower Saxony's premier, Stephan Weil, who is accompanied by representatives of more than 40 businesses from Lower Saxony to Viet Nam on Monday.

During the meeting, the German states premier shared about Lower Saxony's strengths. As Germany's second-largest state, Lower Saxony is renowned for its robust industrial development, notably as Europe's largest automobile industry cluster, featuring prominent names such as Volkswagen and Continental. Moreover, the state plays a pivotal role in Germany's renewable energy sector, particularly in wind and biomass, aligning well with potential collaboration in Viet Nam's gas energy transition planning.

Germany holds a significant position as Viet Nam's largest trading partner in the EU, with bilateral trade reaching 18 billion euros (over US$19 billion) in 2022. Conversely, Viet Nam is Germany's most prominent trading partner in ASEAN. Presently, over 500 German companies have established their presence in Viet Nam.

From a local cooperation perspective, trade between Viet Nam and Lower Saxony was valued at 1.4 billion euros ($1.46 billion) last year, equivalent to more than one-tenth of the trade revenue between the two countries.

HDI Global SE, based in Lower Saxony and wholly owned by the Talanx Insurance Group, is investing in PVI. With ownership of more than 50 per cent of PVI's equity, HDI Global SE provides crucial support in management expertise, product development, risk management, and human resources.

Stephan Weil commended the productive cooperation between PVI and HDI in recent years, highlighting their established and prestigious standing in both countries' insurance industry. Meanwhile, Hoang Quoc Vuong, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Petrovietnam, expressed Petrovietnam's commitment to supporting PVI comprehensively, from strategy and mechanisms, aiming to solidify its leading position domestically and globally.

Vuong also shared Petrovietnam's responsibility in leading the energy transition and renewable energy development in Viet Nam, aligning with the strengths of German enterprises in technology, policies and financial resources. He called for support from Lower Saxony's authority to facilitate cooperation between Petrovietnams units and German enterprises in these areas, emphasising the need for PVI to play an active role in enhancing and supporting this collaboration.

Jens Wohlthat, PVIs Chairman of the Board of Directors, highlighted the company's expansion in various Asian markets, leveraging HDI Global SE's global network to provide insurance solutions domestically and internationally. PVI's success story underscores the power of strategic collaboration.

The visit of the Lower Saxony delegation, comprising many large German businesses, not only signifies a crucial step in consolidating trade and investment relations between Viet Nam and Germany but also strengthens the ties between PVI and German investors. This development opens up new prospects for long-term cooperation, particularly in expanding industrial insurance activities, an area in which PVI has demonstrated strength over the years.  VNS
MEKONG DELTA  Experts said salt water intrusion in the Mekong Delta could intensify in the coming months as the dry season leaves coastal regions exposed.

Heavy rains at the end of September 2023 have not reassured people in the Mekong Delta because the relevant data leads to forecasts of a fierce dry season and a prolonged drought in the near future.

Localities and people in the Mekong Delta are racing to respond to drought and saltwater intrusion in the dry season of 2023-2024, a dry season that is forecast to come early and be severe.

Le Thanh Hieu, a farmer in Hau Giang Province's Long My District, said that from October to Tet (Lunar New Year), salt water could penetrate deeply into the inland canal, and sometimes the salinity concentration could rise to more than 10. Therefore, the government often recommended that people in affected areas sow the winter-spring rice crop early and use salt-tolerant rice varieties.

Hau Giang Province has about 12,000 hectares of winter-spring rice crop and more than 18,500 hectares of fruit trees that are likely to be affected by saltwater intrusion from sea tides.

In the 2023-2024 Winter-Spring rice crops, the Mekong Delta has sown 1.47 million hectares, with an estimated output of 10.6 million tonnes. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has assessed that 108,000 hectares of shrimp and rice production in the Ca Mau peninsula are likely to lack clean water. In the case of saltwater intrusion similar to that of the 2015-2016 dry season, about 60,000 hectares of Winter-Spring rice and 43,000 hectares of fruit trees in Long An, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Ta Vinh, and Soc Trang are at risk of water shortage.

Reports from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development show that flood water in the Mekong River Delta is currently at near the average level of past years.

Tonle Sap in Cambodia, an important source of additional water for the Mekong Delta in the dry season, is now at a level lower than the average of recent years.

Saltwater intrusion this dry season is likely to be higher than average, affecting the operation and collection of water for agricultural production and people's livelihoods.

In order to proactively implement solutions to prevent and combat drought and saltwater intrusion, the ministry has requested the People's Committee of localities in the Mekong Delta to urgently monitor the development of the hydrometeorological forecasts and saline intrusion.

Localities have been asked to develop scenarios and reaction plans to prevent and control drought and saltwater intrusion in line with the current situation in each locality, including plans to cope with extreme saline intrusion as happened in the years of 2015-16 and 2019-20.

Localities need to target areas likely to be affected by saltwater intrusion to direct and deploy appropriate response solutions. These areas would be given priority to get water supplies for people's daily life, livestock farming and crops of high economic value in case of drought or saltwater intrusion.

Localities have also been required to target fruit trees at risk of being affected by saline intrusion, quickly calculate and balance water sources, and strengthen the construction of dispersed water ponds to ensure enough water to maintain the development of trees.

Tran Hoang Nhat Nam, deputy director of Tien Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the province had dredged canals and installed pump stations to store freshwater in the canals, actively ensuring water for both daily life and production in the dry season.

In addition, Tien Giang was urgently completing a saltwater prevention sluice gate on Nguyen Tan Thanh Canal in Chau Thanh District, located 420 metres from Tien River. The project would prevent salinity and provide domestic water and irrigation for 1.1 million people and 128,000 hectares of production land in Tien Giang and Long An provinces.

Meanwhile, Le Huu Toan, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Kien Giang Province, said that to ensure clean water for rural areas and island districts, the People's Committee of Kien Giang Province had directed the department to coordinate with relevant units to control the sewer system in Rach Gia City and along the Cai Be River to effectively preserve fresh water and prevent salinity.

In addition, this locality was also accelerating the repair of culverts, installation of valves for 17 coastal sluices, and bconstruction of dams to prevent salinity to ensure agricultural production.

In other provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta, they are urgently dredging canals, digging ponds and wells and building temporary dams to store fresh water for emergency situations. Ongoing construction of irrigation works and works to keep water fresh, control salinity, canal systems, and water pipelines in high-risk areas must be completed as soon as possible.

Localities will be in charge of monitoring saline intrusion in at-risk areas and promptly informing the communities.  VNS
HA NOI  There are only few days left before the European Commission (EC)s fourth on-site inspection in Viet Nam over the fight against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

With its efforts in addressing limitations over the past nearly six years, Viet Nam hopes that this will be an opportunity to remove the yellow card that the EC has imposed on its seafood since October 20, 2017, due to its fishing and fishery management not meeting EC regulations.

In essence, the EU's regulatory system allows the traceability of imported seafood, and the classification of exporting countries to the EU by a system of colour-coded cards, comprising green, yellow, red, and, most severe, a cessation of trade. With the yellow card, all Viet Nams seafood exports to the EU are subject to a pre-check. As a consequence, the cost of seafood export to Europe has increased, and the volume has decreased due to the extended delivery time. The EU's IUU regulations require that seafood entering Europe must have complete traceability information, including fishing ground, fishing time, type of vessels and ports for their departure and return, fisheries law compliance, and whether the laws match EU regulations or not.

As the EU ranks among the top five largest importers of Vietnamese seafood, the imposition of the yellow card has resulted in a continuous decline in Viet Nams seafood exports to this market since 2017, according to the report titled A Trade-Based Analysis of the Economic Impact of Non-Compliance with Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing  The Case of Vietnam jointly published by the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) and the World Bank (WB).

Compared to the 2017 figures, seafood exports to the EU decreased by 12 per cent in 2019, equivalent to US$183.5 million. This downward trend continued in 2020, dropping by 5.7 per cent from the previous year. In 2022, the revenue reached only $1.3 billion, but the EU still remained one of Viet Nams top five major buyers.

Efforts to have yellow card lifted

Right after receiving the yellow card in 2017, Viet Nam proactively responded to EC recommendations. The country promptly enacted the Fisheries Law and established fishing vessel data covering registration and the issuance of fishing licences from central to local levels.

Relevant ministries, agencies, and coastal provinces and cities of Viet Nam have implemented IUU fishing prevention tasks and solutions in line with directives of the permanent members of the Party Central Committees Secretariat, the Prime Minister, and the National Steering Committee on IUU Fishing Prevention.

However, Viet Nams efforts have yet to meet the expectations of the EC, and in November 2019, the commission issued four groups of recommendations that Viet Nam needed to implement regarding the legal framework, the monitoring, inspection, and control of fishing activities, the certification of seafood volume and traceability, and law enforcement.

"It is a must to be aware that combating IUU is not just a form of response, but it is for the interests of the nation and people. It preserves the countrys image, fulfilling international commitments, and affirming Viet Nam as a responsible member of the international community, particularly in protecting the marine environment and ecosystem," said Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at a meeting with representatives from 28 coastal cities and provinces over the IUU combat on December 1, 2022.

To materialise the EC recommendations and prepare for the fourth working session with the EC inspection team, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang on February 13 signed Decision No. 81/Q-TTg, issuing an action plan on IUU combat.

Accordingly, relevant ministries, agencies and localities have reviewed all fishing vessels in localities, completed the registration, the marking of fishing vessels, the issuance of fishing licences, and the installation of vessel monitoring system (VMS) equipment as required. Simultaneously, they have updated 100 per cent of fishing vessel data in the National Fisheries Database (VnFishbase), compiled a list of fishing vessels not engaged in fishing activities and those that are likely to violate fishing regulations, which has been sent to competent agencies, and assigned tasks to specific agencies and individuals. They have put an end to the illegal operations of fishing vessels in foreign waters, investigated and handled all of the violations, and stepped up the dissemination work.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung uc Tien said as of the end of August, the number of fishing vessels nationwide dropped by 10,000 from 2019. All fishing vessels with a length of 6 metres or more have been registered and have their information available in VNFishbase. The number of fishing vessels measuring 15 metres or more in length equipped with the VMS reached 97.86 per cent. The Vietnam Fisheries Society has 90 associations in 16 out of the 28 coastal provinces and cities, with nearly 18,000 members. Alongside these associations, there are 5,810 offshore production teams in the country, bringing together 48,000 vessels and 252,000 fishermen.

Viet Nam on right track

Through inspections, the EC has concluded that Viet Nams efforts to have the yellow card lifted are on the right track, and that the fight against IUU fishing has been prioritised by the Vietnamese Government and yielded marked results. The EC has also emphasised a clear legal framework" and pledged to support Viet Nam to remove the label as soon as possible.

For Viet Nam, transforming its fishing industry to a modern, sustainable and responsible sector, and changing the mindset of fishermen remain a big challenge, requiring the strong determination of all stakeholders, especially in implementing the EC's recommendations to prevent fishing vessels from encroaching on foreign fishing grounds.

Experts have called the yellow card a significant risk for Viet Nams seafood industry. However, from a positive perspective, it can be seen as a crucial "examination" that will help upgrade and enhance the reputation of Vietnamese seafood. It also opens up opportunities for the country to enter demanding markets because the EU has some of the strictest requirements. Once Viet Nam implements all of its recommendations, the country would form a sustainable production chain and confidently export seafood products to other promising markets. This is also roadmap for Viet Nam to protect its seafood resources, and marine and ocean ecosystem and biodiversity, and ensure sustainable livelihood for coastal communities. VNS

**Major milestones in yellow card impositionOctober 23, 2017The EC issued a yellow card warning against Viet Nams fisheries, along with nine groups of recommendations that Viet Nam needed to implement to remove the card.May 2018The EC conducted the first inspection.November 2019The EC conducted the second inspection and reduced the recommendations to four: legal framework, the monitoring, inspection, and control of fishing activities, the certification of seafood volume and traceability, and law enforcement.The EC conducted the second inspection and reduced the recommendations to four: legal framework, the monitoring, inspection, and control of fishing activities, the certification of seafood volume and traceability, and law enforcement.From 2020 until nowDue to the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU could not conduct another inspection. The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development provided updates and a report on the implementation of the recommendation for the EC.October 2023The EC delegation, expected to include representatives from the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) and the EC Delegation in Viet Nam, will come to Viet Nam for the IUU fishing issue from October 10-18.
QUANG NAM  The central province's College and Orient Human Design Inc and Japan have signed an agreement on high-quality manpower education and work-practice programmes for Vietnamese students in Japan, creating a sustainable and skilled human resource for both Japan and Viet Nam.

Rector of the Quang Nam College, Vu Thi Phuong Anh, said the two partners will be offering supportive training courses for Vietnamese students, including Japanese language training, accommodation, and working placements at Japanese businesses.

She said the deal would help Vietnamese students obtain an accredited certificate for official working conditions in the Japan market upon graduation.

Executive chairman of Orient Human Design Inc, Kamiya Ryokichi, said the human resource training cooperation would help Japanese and Vietnamese businesses recruit qualified manpower in both markets.

He expressed satisfaction with the capabilities of students from the provincial college who are working in Japan, and the company will collaborate with the college in further supporting Vietnamese students in the future.

Representatives of Quang Nam College also undertook working visits to Frieden Company  a livestock and processed foods enterprise  and Yamazaki Industrial Company to discuss human resource training and working programmes in the coming years.

Frieden Company has been providing practical and working courses for 40 engineers and students from Viet Nam at eight livestock farms of the company in Japan. It also covers 80 per cent of housing costs for Vietnamese students.

The company plans to open a branch in Quang Nam Province to promote cooperation and investment in livestock and processed food chain development.

The Quang Nam College rector said the institution trains around 1,800 students per year, and the Japanese human resource market will provide a positive opportunity for Vietnamese students and the college to improve its education quality system in the near future.  VNS
GIA LAI  In Chu Puh District of the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai, rescue teams successfully saved four children caught in turbulent waters due to an unexpected flood.

Le Quang Thai, chairman of Chu Puh District's People's Committee, said the flash flood engulfed the area around 3.30pm on Monday as the children were guiding cattle across the Thac 2 stream in Thuy Phu Hamlet, Ia Blu Commune.

The surge in water levels, triggered by heavy rainfall upstream, left the children marooned mid-stream. One child was carried away by the swift current but was fortunately rescued by locals.

The remaining three found refuge on a rocky ledge in the stream to escape the rapid waters.

Upon being alerted, local officials and rescue teams from both the province and district worked to aid the children. Within two hours, all were safely returned to dry land.  VNS
BANGKOK One person was killed and six wounded in a shooting in a packed Bangkok shopping mall on Tuesday, a Thai medical official said in revising down an earlier toll, with police arresting a 14-year-old suspect.

Hundreds of people fled the upmarket Siam Paragon mall in the heart of the Thai capital as shots rang out around 4:30pm local time, witnesses said.

The Metropolitan Investigation Bureau of the Royal Thai Police said on its official Facebook page that officers had arrested a 14-year-old boy over the shooting.

Video footage showed a long-haired boy wearing a black shirt, glasses and a cap with a US flag motif being taken into custody by police.

Yuthana Srettanan, director of the Erawan Emergency Centre, told reporters that one woman had been killed, correcting his initial report of three deaths.

"The deceased is a Chinese national, according to the preliminary examination," Yuthana told reporters.

Six people were wounded, he said, with five in critical condition. All but one of those who were shot were women.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said he was monitoring the situation closely.

"What I care about most right now is the safety of all citizens," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"I ask all workers to monitor the situation, and may everyone be safe."

'Multiple gunshots'

Witnesses described chaotic scenes as the attack unfolded at Siam Paragon, one of Bangkok's top shopping destinations, hugely popular with tourists and Thais alike.

"At around 4.30pm, I heard loud gun noises, continuously, about 10 times," said Thanpawasit Singthongkham, 31, who works at a Japanese restaurant in the mall.

"Then the department store announced that there was a shooting. The emergency sign was turned on and everyone ran to get out."

In footage shared with AFP, he recorded a scrum of terrified shoppers scrabbling under metal security gates blocking shop entrances, before they fled down emergency stairwells as sirens blared.

In another video, shared on Facebook and verified by AFP, scores of people can be seen in the mall's basement car park being directed by loudspeakers.

Dozens of police vehicles and a number of ambulances could be seen outside one of the shopping centre's main entrances in the wake of the shooting.

"I heard multiple gunshots -- about three times -- and saw people running around towards the exits," said Nattanon Dungsunenarn, who was shopping in a branch of Boots pharmacy.

"It was very chaotic and seemed like many people didn't know what exactly was going on."

'Terrified'

People were still being escorted from the mall, while bystanders could be seen walking along the gridlocked road outside.

"We didn't know what was happening, then staff from a shop asked us to go inside and said there was a shooter," said Chinese tourist Xiong Ying, 41.

"Everyone was trying to find a place to hide. So many people were terrified, just like a scene in the zombie movies.

"I now feel quite scared. It happened just like two minutes after we left by crossing the bridge. We even took photos there."

The shooting comes just days before the one-year anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in recent Thai history, when an ex-police officer armed with a knife and gun attacked a nursery, murdering 24 children and 12 adults.

In 2020, a former army officer went on a rampage in a shopping mall in Korat, murdering 29 people and wounding scores more.  AFP
The ceremony to award the scholarships took place at the AIG Building in Ho Chi Minh City on September 30, marking the group's first scholarship offering that is now expected to be held annually to motivate disadvantaged students and enhance their studies.

Le Nguyen Doan Duy, business development director of AIG, said that the group has held the guiding principle of Help yourself, Help others, Help life since its inception, prioritising resources for community activities that aim to build a sustainable future of mutual development.

"The Asian Kite Scholarship is AIG Group's hope for the future of the younger generation. We expect to encourage students to nurture their dreams and continue their efforts to achieve greater academic excellence, thereby inspiring a love of learning among the next generations of AIGs labour force in particular and the community in general," Duy said.

The scholarship fund includes two elements. The Dreaming Kite aspect has the goal of supporting individuals with special circumstances who are striving to excel in life. It encompasses financial support and carries a message of encouragement, creating conditions for students with difficult circumstances to have the opportunity to pursue their dreams and change their lives.

Meanwhile, the Continued Kite scholarship is part of its mission to educate and develop the younger generation. This scholarship represents the spirit of dedication, hard work, and the attitude of constantly learning to achieve excellent achievements, encouraging the nation's younger generation to strive and develop themselves.

For more than 20 years since its establishment, AIG has continuously promoted responsible investment and community activities as its stated principles.

AIG Group wants to create a professional, friendly working environment, paying attention to the quality of life of its employees and their families, thereby generating the Asian House, where every AIG member can find support and trust at work and in their daily lives.

AES Vietnam fosters regional talent through scholarships As part of AES Vietnam's annual scholarship initiative, in place since 2017 to foster high-quality, local talent for the energy sector in light of the country's increasing demand, the AES Future Energy Scholarship has been awarded to five University of Phan Thiet (UPT) civil engineering students.

CME Solar offers scholarships to poor students in Tinh Bien CME Solar has carried out an initiative granting scholarships and educational support packages to students and residents of Tinh Bien town in the southern province of An Giang.

Shinhan Bank Vietnam organised Bike Run event to present bicycles and scholarships to students at SOS Childrens Village Vietnam, attended by the First Lady of the Republic Korea Shinhan Bank Vietnam (Shinhan Bank) organised the Bike Run event to present bicycles and scholarships to underprivileged students at SOS Children's Village Vietnam. The First Lady of the Republic of Korea, Kim Keon Hee attended the meaningful event. This is one of the First Lady's activities during the trip to accompany President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Suk Yeol on his state visit in Vietnam.

Fast Retailing Foundation awards scholarships to six Vietnamese students With a commitment to continuously contribute to the positive development of people and social communities in Vietnam, the Fast Retailing Foundation, a subsidiary of Fast Retailing Group (the parent company of UNIQLO), has given scholarships for university training in Japan to six outstanding Vietnam students.
Financial institutions are focusing more on sustainable credit, photo Dung Minh

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) last week announced an investment of $150 million in local currency sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs) issued by BIM Land JSC and Thanh Xuan JSC.

The investment includes $100 million by BIM Land and the remainder by Thanh Xuan JSC, both subsidiaries of BIM Group.

As the first local currency SLBs in Vietnam, they aim to boost their businesses, create jobs, and support Vietnams low-carbon growth model. The funds will be used for the Thanh Xuan Valley project and water- and energy-saving solutions at BIM Land hotels, potentially reducing 4,000 metric tonnes of CO2 annually, equivalent to emissions from almost 900 petrol-powered vehicles driven for a year.

Private capital is key to Vietnams green transition. The issuance of the first local currency SLBs in the country will signal the viability of innovative green financing instruments as an alternative source of capital for climate-smart projects, said Thomas Jacobs, IFC country manager for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

While SLBs are not yet popular in Vietnam, Vietnamese banks are also focusing more on the development of sustainable credit. Earlier in September, VPBank secured a $300 million 7-year bilateral loan commitment from the US International Development Finance Corporation to enhance financial access for smaller businesses, especially those led by women, and support green and sustainable projects in Vietnam.

Prior to VPBank, a number of major Vietnamese banks have received substantial loans from foreign financial institutions due to their active participation in funding green projects.

At the Vietnam Climate Forum held on September 21, Phan Thanh Hai, deputy CEO of BIDV, revealed that the bank has established a steering committee for environmental, governance, and social issues as well as a sustainable finance project management team as part of its institutional development.

The banks business strategy through 2025, with a vision to 2030, includes the development of green credit, positioning the bank as an eco-friendly institution. BIDV will focus on climate adaptation, energy transition, clean transportation, and more, he said.

As of June 30, BIDV has been involved in nearly 1,780 projects totalling $2.81 billion in green project loans and accounting for 4.1 per cent of its total loans. Notable areas include renewable energy, water resource management, waste management, pollution prevention, and sustainable agriculture.

At MB, after five years of prioritising green credit, this sector now accounts for approximately 8-10 per cent of the banks total loans, which is higher than the industry average of 4.2 per cent. By the end of 2022, MB had disbursed over $1.8 billion for green projects, directed towards agricultural and rural development, rooftop solar projects, wind ventures in the Central Highlands and elsewhere, and credit products for individual customers in the agricultural sector.

Foreign credit institutions have made notable advancements in the domain of green credit. In July, Standard Chartered Vietnam and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment convened a seminar which recommended the initiation of a voluntary pilot carbon exchange, in preparation for the forthcoming mandatory emissions trading system scheduled for 2028.

The establishment of voluntary carbon credit exchanges is a strategic move that will support Vietnam in achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Standard Chartered commits to providing sustainable development products and services, as well as consulting service for businesses during their investment and financial planning, stated Nguyen Thuy Hanh, deputy general director and head of Corporate, Commercial, and Institutional Banking at Standard Chartered Vietnam.

Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Pham Thanh Ha expressed hopes that credit institutions and foreign branches will gain a better understanding of Vietnams legal environment. This will allow them to explore climate investment opportunities through the local financial sector and capital markets more effectively, he emphasised.

Banks join in promoting green credit Commercial banks in Vietnam have been actively offering loans for green projects and expanding green credit through mobilising capital from international credit institutions.

Green credit balance figures on positive trajectory While green credit balances at commercial banks are growing, Vietnams legal framework on the issue has yet to be completed, making it difficult for implementation.
The initial two offerings, Irganox 1010 BMBcert and Irganox 1076 FD BMBcert, are certified by TUV Nord for mass balance according ISCC Plus standards.

These industry-first solutions support the use of renewable feedstock and help customers meet their sustainability targets.

These industry-first solutions support the use of renewable feedstock to replace fossil feedstock and help BASFs customers meet their sustainability targets.

The BMBcert offerings contribute to a reduction in fossil feedstock demand. At the beginning of the value chain, fossil-based raw material is replaced by ISCC-certified bio-based feedstock and a corresponding amount is attributed to the product according to a mass balance approach.

Via the attribution of these sustainably sourced renewable feedstocks, the products cradle-to-gate carbon footprint is significantly reduced by up to 60 per cent, compared to the global average product carbon footprint of conventional grades.

The certified additives thus contribute to sustainable development by saving fossil resources, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and advancing the use of renewable feedstock.

This unique solution enables customers to differentiate their products from the competition and helps them achieve their sustainability goals; all without compromising on performance and quality.

The solutions are drop-in replacements for Irganox 1010 and 1076. They offerings are identical to conventional grades in performance, quality and product stewardship and regulatory aspects. As a result, customers do not need to requalify the new additives or reformulate their products.

By leveraging BASFs highly integrated global production network of interconnected sites and plants, we are able to produce these industry-first, low carbon footprint, drop-in solutions with the same performance characteristics, said Joerg Bentlage, head of Global Product Management and Plastic Additives at BASF.

As we advance our own journey to a more circular economy, we aim to drive a sustainable transformation towards renewable feedstock within the industries we serve through innovative and strategic customer partnerships, Bentlage added.

The two solutions will initially be produced at BASFs site in Switzerland, with additional availability of Irganox 1010 FF BMBcert and Irganox 1076 FD BMBcert from McIntosh in the United States in early 2024.

BASF Vietnam and Think Playgrounds launch seventh public playground in Ho Chi Minh City BASF Vietnam and Think Playgrounds have joined forces to inaugurate the seventh public playground in Binh Tan district, marking the commencement of the summer holiday and World Environment Day.

BASF contributes to a greener and more prosperous future Erick Contreras, managing director of BASF Vietnam and chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnams Green Growth Sector Committee, spoke to 100 CEOs at a meeting held on September 14 as part of the Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum.

BASF Vietnam targets sustainability of its value chain On the sidelines of the Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum held from 13 to 16 September, Erick Contreras, managing director of BASF Vietnam, spoke to VIRs Binh An about the circular economy and its implications for Vietnam.
On October 2, BSR held an initial rating results announcement ceremony in Hanoi with the participation of Ho Sy Hung, vice chairman of the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises, Bui Minh Tien, member of Petrovietnam's Board of Members, Nguyen Van Hoi, chairman of BSR, Bui Ngoc Duong, CEO of BSR, leaders of the State Securities Commission of Vietnam, as well as commercial banks, partners, and consultant firms.

Fitch Ratings' assessment of BSR is similar to that of its parent company PetroVietnam.

Bui Ngoc Duong, CEO of BSR said, "We believe that by obtaining an international credit rating, we will be able to broaden our funding sources and develop a sustainable debt financing strategy. It will be a perfect testimonial of our strength and the confidence that is placed in our strategic, operational, and financial profile."

BSR plays a key role in refining and processing for Petrovietnam, supplying 35 per cent of the country's fuel demands and accounting for 43 per cent of all oil refinery capacity.

With its strong financial standing, BSR has around VND19.8 trillion ($835.5 million) in cash balance, VND31 trillion ($1.3 billion) in charter capital, over VND67 trillion ($1.6 billion) in total revenue, and VND75 trillion ($3.2 billion) in total assets.

Bui Ngoc Duong, CEO of BSR

Bui Minh Tien from Petrovietnam said that the company plays a critical role in ensuring the energy security of the nation. As BSR is one of the most important subsidiaries in the value chain, Petrovietnam will continue to provide it the utmost support.

"Our commitment to BSR is well recognised by Fitch Ratings, as can be seen in the full rating report it published that assesses the parent support and links as high. We will not be complacent about where we are now. We will look for additional enhancements in our rating levels as we grow into the future," Tien asserted.

Over the years, BSR has operated the Dung Quat refinery factory at optimal capacity, meeting the increasing demands of the market. Even during shortages, BSR has cemented its position as a key fuel producer, contributing to stabilising the supply and partially compensating for the shortage of petrol, which is vital to drive the national economy.

The Dung Quat refinery factory is maintaining the high capacity of its production activities. In the first eight months of the year, the production and business targets were all met or exceeded.

This credit rating by Fitch Ratings will be a useful tool for investors to identify and evaluate potential opportunities, and for BSR and Petrovietnam to realise the strategic goals they have to develop the economy.

Foreign ownership ratio in Binh Son Refinery slips From 4.74 per cent two years ago, the foreign ownership ratio in Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co., Ltd. (BSR)  the operator of Dung Quat Oil Refinery  has slipped to 0.07 per cent.

Binh Son Refining withdraws HNX listing application Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Joint Stock Company (BSR) has sent a document to the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) to withdraw its registration for listing shares on the northern bourse.

More oil refineries required in Vietnam Highly volatile petroleum prices in the global market and the fact that the current domestic supply can only meet about 70 per cent of the demand have underlined the need for more refineries in the country.
The partnership represents a powerful synergy, in which some of Vietnams most successful business leaders will identify the best entrepreneurial talent and raise a glass of world-renowned Carlsberg to celebrate their success.

"Back in 1847, Carlsberg Danish Pilsner was brewed for the first time due to our founders start-up mindset. Ever since, Carlsberg has constantly pursued to brew better beer and a better world. The collaboration with Shark Tank Vietnam embodies our commitment to constantly brew and support the next generation of visionary entrepreneurs in Vietnam, both in our own industry and beyond that, said Onno Rombouts, managing director of Carlsberg Vietnam. "We have an endless thirst for progress and were excited to celebrate the next generation of visionary entrepreneurs in Vietnam."

Onno Rombouts, managing director of Carlsberg Vietnam

Beyond bringing the simple pleasure of a perfectly balanced and refreshingly crisp Pilsner to the Shark Tank community, the partnership between Carlsberg and Shark Tank Vietnam is a commitment to celebrating the entrepreneurial achievements that fuel success, innovation, and economic prosperity in Vietnam.

Both organisations are eager to begin this exciting journey together, inspiring the nation and driving forward the wave of success that defines Vietnam's dynamic business landscape.

Brewed from Carlsberg's unique yeast and the finest malt, Carlsberg Danish Pilsner delivers a distinctive aroma with a perfectly balanced taste. Always optimistic in adversity, it blends well with the Vietnamese entrepreneurship spirit. Explore Carlsberg Danish Pilsner products at Carlsberg Vietnam.

Carlsberg launches premium beer to celebrate 175 years With the introduction of its signature line of Carlsberg Danish Pilsner in Vietnam, the Danish beer company continues to work in the pursuit of perfection.

Carlsberg president visits Vietnam to mark 175-year journey In celebration of its 175th anniversary, the president of Carlsberg Group visited Vietnam and expressed his long-term commitment to the group's key market in Asia.

Huda pioneers beach carnival in Central Vietnam Huda promises to bring an explosive summer to people in the central region, with tonnes of memorable activities in an epic beach carnival.

Brewing a better Carlsberg through its people On August 3, Carlsberg Vietnam received two important awards, Best Companies to Work for in Asia 2023 and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion award in the Asian Human Resources Awards category.
This project is part of Generali Vietnam's community initiatives to bring a better life for Vietnamese children. The budget for the project comes from the companys annual fundraising initiative. The offering raised funds for the building of a kitchen and other auxiliary facilities for 81 disadvantaged children in Dien Bien.

Over VND250 million ($10,264) from the donation has been transferred to the NFVC to build a fully equipped new kitchen, including utensils, a covered dining area, and a new water tank, for children in the remote village of Xa Dung B.

It is home to 81 children from the Thai and Hmong ethnic groups, and the teachers there dream of being able to offer nutritious meals for the children, with a new tank to store clean water.

Thanks to the partnership between Generali Vietnam and the NFVC, the Bep am cho em programme is being implemented with the hope of contributing to bringing more delicious, cleaner, and better quality meals to the children there.

Alongside the building of the kitchen, Generali Vietnam has also implemented other meaningful activities, such as granting 10,000 free meals to the children at Ban Mai kindergarten, and its staff and agents have participated in donating books and toys.

During the launch ceremony, volunteers prepared a full lunch and celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival with the children. There were many engaging activities, such as a magic show, games, lion dancing, moon cake eating, and more. With the gifts, Generali Vietnam hopes the children can enjoy a warm and fulfilling Mid-Autumn Festival.

In September, Generali Vietnam also started the construction of the Dong Dong branch school of Son Ca kindergarten in Quang Tri province, marking another heart-warming project on Generali Vietnam's journey of extending love to children.

The project uses funds from Generali Vietnam's Suc khoe trao minh  Truong moi trao em campaign within the framework of The Human Safety Net's Global Challenge 2023.

Since its launch in June, this community initiative has raised nearly VND527 million ($21,638), of which VND500 million ($20,529) was sent to the NFVC to build and renovate schools for disadvantaged children from the Bru Van Kieu ethnic minority at Dong Dong branch school.

Dong Dong hamlet faces a range of economic challenges. Every day, 72 children ranging from 24 months to five years old attend classes in less-than-ideal conditions due to a shortage of classrooms. Teachers and students have to share rooms, often moving between indoor and outdoor locations and studying in a temporary storage room on rainy days or a covered yard on sunny days.

With funding from Generali Vietnam, the construction of classrooms and auxiliary items will take place, helping to overcome the inadequacies when organising both educational and recreational activities.

This is the third key project for which Generali Vietnam, in collaboration with the NFVC, has conducted fundraising since 2022.

Dinh Tien Hai, director of the NFVC remarked, With the fund's mission of serving as a compassionate bridge to connect donors with children in difficult circumstances, we are pleased to have essential construction projects sponsored by Generali Vietnam quickly accomplished and put into operation to support needy children across the country. Hopefully, Generali Vietnam and the NFVC will continue to enhance this partnership to promote care, protection, and education for Vietnamese children.

The representative of Generali Vietnam said that its strategic community agenda has been developed on the foundation of practicality, sustainability, and the engagement of staff, agents, and the broader community.

The extensive reach and enthusiastic support for the Bep am cho em programme is a strong testament to the values that Generali Vietnam pursues on its journey of trying to become a lifetime partner to millions of Vietnamese families.

In recognition of the companys proactive and sustainable contribution, Generali has been awarded the prestigious Saigon Times Corporate Social Responsibility certification for three consecutive years.

Generali Vietnam also received organisational and individual commendations from the Minister of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs in 2020 and 2021, recognising its outstanding contributions to Vietnamese childrens wellbeing and protection.

Generali confirms its extremely solid capital position Generali has delivered strong profit growth in the first quarter of 2023 and confirmed its extremely solid capital position.

Generali Vietnam launches campaign to support Vietnamese children In the Month of Action for Children 2023, Generali Vietnam Life Insurance Co., Ltd. has collaborated with the National Fund for Vietnamese Children (NFVC) to officially launch the Suc khoe trao Minh  Truong moi trao Em (Health for Us  School for Kids) fundraising campaign.
Antonia Zahn-Weber, CEO of the Munich-headquartered manufacturer, mentioned the plan at the meeting with Chairman of Ha Tinh Peoples Committee Vo Trong Hai in Germany on September 28.

Zahn-Weber said that the plant will cover 250 hectares in Vung Ang Economic Zone and will have an annual output of 1.1 million tonnes.

The plant will be installed using modern technology and apply a circular, eco-friendly, and automated model, which will match Ha Tinhs target of sustainable development.

The German investor first expressed its intention to develop the project in Ha Tinh at an investment promotion event organised by the local peoples committee in May.

In welcoming the investment, Hai highlighted Ha Tinhs advantages, including Vung Ang-Son Duong Port, which is capable of accommodating ships of up to 300,000 tonnes; abundant workforce, and streamlined administrative procedures.

He urged the manufacturer to cooperate with local authorities to field survey locations for project implementation.

Ha Tinh, home to a mega steel complex run by Taiwanese group Formosa, recorded a 4.37 per cent on-year growth in its index of industrial production in the first eight months of this year, according to provincial data. Stainless steel output in January-August was over 3.31 million tonnes, up 6.25 per cent.

Hyosung Vietnam to invest nearly $1 billion in carbon fiber plant Hyosung Vietnam has announced plans to invest approximately $1 billion in a carbon fiber manufacturing facility, solidifying its strategic position in Vietnam's industrial landscape.

SSA Marine and Gemadept set to spearhead $6.7 billion Cai Mep Ha logistics centre US-based SSA Marine and Vietnam's Gemadept are partnering to develop the Cai Mep Ha Logistics Centre in Vietnam, with a projected valuation of $6.7 billion.

Erex explores possibility of developing biomass power plant in Ha Tinh Japan's Erex Co. Ltd. is exploring the possibility of developing a biomass power plant with a capacity of 50MW in the central province of Ha Tinh.
This growth, driven by a young, tech-savvy population, increasing internet penetration, a growing middle class, and a shift in shopping habits, has created a surge in demand for effective last-mile delivery, warehousing, and order processing solutions.

Vlad Savin - Head of Business Development Acclime

In 2022, the e-commerce market in Vietnam was valued at $14 billion, representing a compound annual growth rate of 26 per cent compared to the previous year. Retail e-commerce transactions accounted for about 8.5 per cent of the total sales of retail goods and consumer services. In terms of retail goods alone, online retail in 2022 accounted for 7.2 per cent of the total retail goods, an increase from 6.7 per cent in 2021.

Acclimes signature industry report E-Commerce Pivot in Vietnam 2022 anticipated that shoppertainment would become a significant trend in Vietnams e-commerce landscape. This was validated when TikTok surpassed Lazada to become the second-largest platform in Vietnam in the second quarter of 2023, after Shopee.

The logistics industry, often referred to as the backbone of e-commerce, has also seen significant growth.

In 2022, the warehouse and logistics sector grew by 12 per cent. The World Banks Logistics Performance Index in 2023 ranked Vietnam 43rd out of 139 countries, indicating improvements in trade and transport-related infrastructure, efficiency of customs processes, international shipments, tracking and tracing, logistics competence, and timeliness.

The rapid growth of e-commerce has put pressure on companies to deliver goods as quickly as possible. As a result, many are investing heavily in their in-house logistics systems to improve delivery speed and flexibility. This trend presents considerable opportunities for logistics providers and tech-enabled ordering and warehousing solutions.

The efficiency of last-mile delivery is a key factor in e-commerce, as it represents the final step in the journey of a product to the customers doorstep. In Vietnam, there has been a surge in demand for fast and reliable last-mile delivery services, leading to heightened competition among logistics companies to optimise their delivery networks, reduce delivery times, and provide real-time tracking options for customers.

A majority of e-commerce platforms in Vietnam have their own in-house logistics systems, accounting for around 70 per cent of order fulfilment. This allows for greater flexibility in managing the customer experience, ensuring the shortest order processing time and delivery time at the lowest cost, optimising resource use, and reducing fraud.

However, developing and maintaining in-house logistics requires a significant pool of supply chain experts, financial capacity, and technology. As a result, about 60 per cent of e-commerce participants opt for third-party logistics groups to ensure they can meet customer expectations in a timely manner.

E-commerce giants in Vietnam have developed their own logistics ecosystems - Shopee Express, Tiki Now, and Lazada Express - to optimise storage, pick-up, delivery, and return times during peak seasons. In-house systems help businesses control quality, speed, and performance. Cost is another benefit of managing internal logistics systems, as e-commerce providers can leverage internal staff flexibility to deliver products efficiently to metro areas at a lower cost per unit than third-party logistics.

With the rise in online orders, there is an increasing need for strategically located warehousing and fulfilment centres across the country. Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi are the main e-commerce hubs in Vietnam, offering strategic locations and supportive infrastructure. An increasing number of logistic providers have invested in large-scale warehouses and logistics centres in these areas.

Logistics companies are investing in expanding and modernising their warehousing infrastructure to meet this demand. Investments are being made in logistics software such as in warehouse management and transportation management systems, as well as automation solutions to keep up with the increase in orders. Some companies are incorporating this visibility into a control tower to manage costs, improve customer service, and drive continuous improvement.

Several e-commerce and logistics businesses have started initiatives to elevate sustainable business practices in e-commerce. For example, Lazada Logistics plans to deploy 100 delivery e-motorbikes with the aim of reducing carbon outputs. This would make the company the first e-commerce platform in Vietnam to incorporate green delivery within its logistics processes. Delivery company Ahamove plans to roll out a fleet of 10,000 e-bikes by 2025 across Vietnam.

Shipping firms eye rosier future Vietnam's import-export sector is showing signs of improvement amid rising demand from major markets such as the United States and Europe. Since early July, world markets have witnessed a recovery in sea freight prices, a signal to many that the shipping industry has overcome the challenging times of the previous eighteen months.

Logistics groups go green to add to net-zero goals Logistics enterprises are gradually participating in supporting the green production and circulation of goods in the country, as well as exporting and importing with more sustainable criteria.

Logistics investors heat up the market The race to expand logistics market share continues to heat up, as both domestic and foreign enterprises increase investments in this field.
From a low starting point with a 1989 GDP per capita of $100, Vietnam has grown to become one of the most attractive investment destinations in Asia over the past 30 years, with GDP per capita increasing to $4,100 in 2022, according to the General Statistics Office.

Trang Bui, country head of Cushman & Wakefield Vietnam

Meanwhile, in the first eight months of 2023 alone, the total registered foreign direct investment capital in Vietnam reached nearly $18.15 billion, an increase of 8.2 per cent compared to the same period in 2022. This indicates that Vietnam is currently a shining star in Southeast Asia.

Our annual survey of top global clients in 2022 saw over 60 per cent of respondents rank India as their preferred emerging market (excluding mainland China) in which to invest. On a first- and second-place preferred basis, Vietnam was the emerging market of choice, taking almost 80 per cent of the votes, just ahead of Indias 75 per cent.

Notably, with a large market scale and a rapidly increasing number of online consumers, Vietnams e-commerce market also has a spectacular growth rate. Specifically, e-commerce revenue continues to record impressive growth in the first half of 2023, estimated to reach $10.3 billion, up about one-quarter over the same period, accounting for 7.7 per cent of goods and revenues in consumer services nationwide.

Anticipating demand

With the development of the e-commerce industry, Vietnam has become the go-to destination for many businesses in manufacturing and logistics. This goes hand-in-hand with increased demand for high-quality logistics real estate.

Especially in the last few months of the year, when demand from the retail market is forecast to double, the thirst for factory and warehouse supply becomes even more severe.

Currently, the total warehouse supply in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City only reaches more than 2 million sq.m and 5 million sq.m, respectively. High occupancy rates are recorded in industrial zones and warehouse logistics in major cities, especially Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, reaching nearly full capacity in some areas.

We forecast that this demand will become increasingly greater in the near future and our calculations show that supply might not be able to meet demand soon, which is why competitive pressure is increasing for retail and transportation businesses.

Regionally, Vietnam is connected to Chinas southern economic corridor including many prominent regions such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, Fujian, and Guangdong. This is the economic region chosen as the headquarters of many giants in manufacturing, biochemistry, commerce, and electronic technology.

According to our estimations, this region accounted for more than 30 per cent of Chinas total GDP in 2021, playing a significant role in attracting investment capital and economic development.

Early on in its development, Vietnams industrial sectors received a wave of investment from global electronics businesses, such as Panasonic (1971), LG Display (1995), Canon (2001), Foxconn (2007), Samsung (2008), and Fuji Xerox (2013), and more recently from corporations such as Pegatron, Goertek, and Jinko Solar. Right now is the golden period, as Vietnam is looking at the opportunity to increase the value of manufacturing supply chains and the regions GDP.

Notably, US President Joe Bidens recent state visit concluded with many agreements on comprehensive cooperation and development of high-tech and semiconductor manufacturing between the two countries.

With favourable geographical characteristics, as well as a strongly developed infrastructure and a series of investment promotion policies from the government, Vietnam possesses the necessary factors to attract a series of queen bees to further contribute to its GDP. The impressive numbers and promising forecasts we observe show that the potential of logistics in Vietnam is huge, it can become a golden egg for investors with strong vision and potential.

Offering priority

Infrastructure is an essential part needed for the country to achieve its full potential and successful development of the logistics market. According to PwC, Vietnam is the top country in Asia in infrastructure investment and is spending about 5.7 per cent of GDP in this field.

Nationwide, there is a total road length of less than 600,000km, of which national roads are more than 25,500km. The amount of highway network currently in operation is 1,240km, with construction underway for about 14 routes and sections, equivalent to 840km.

Major cities like Hanoi will focus on giving priority to the Ring Road 4 project, while Ho Chi Minh City will prioritise Ring Road 3 to strengthen connections to neighbouring localities, increase freight connections, and reduce logistics costs to seaports.

For railways, the national railway network has a total length of 3,143km and has 277 stations, with two lines connecting to China at Dong Dang and Lao Cai. In particular, the north has road, waterway, and railway routes connecting directly to Shenzhen, known as Chinas Silicon Valley, creating new advantages for businesses wishing to expand and diversify production in the region.

Vietnams seaport system has received investment attention with its current scale and technology reaching the international level, especially the container port system (two major seaports of Vietnam are Haiphong and Ho Chi Minh City, which are in the top 50 major container ports in the world). The seaport system, meanwhile, boasts almost 290 ports and a total wharf length of nearly 100km.

According to the Vietnam Maritime Administration, the total volume of goods through the ports of Vietnam in 2022 is estimated to have reached more than 730 million tonnes, up 4 per cent compared to 2021. Of which, exports reached 180 million tonnes, down 3 per cent, and imported goods reached 209 million tonnes, down 2 per cent.

In addition, for the first time, ocean carriers were able to provide direct services from Vietnam to North America and Europe without the need for feeder vessels to connect to regional transit hubs such as Singapore or Hong Kong. It is estimated that containers can save about $150-300 per TEU going to and from Vietnam.

The government also set a goal that by 2030, Vietnam will be able to meet the needs of import and export of goods, trade between regions throughout the country, and transshipment and transit for countries in the region as well as cater to the internal transport demand from both local and international passengers. The seaport system will be able to serve a volume of goods of 1.4 billion tonnes (of which container goods are 47 million TEU) and 10.3 million passengers.

The manufacturing industry is the heart of a countrys economic development, and the health of an economy is directly proportional to the efficiency of its logistics system.

Therefore, improving efficiency will help manufacturers, transport and logistics service providers, and trade regulators minimise avoidable delays, thereby increasing production quality and reducing business costs.

With these attractive conditions, Vietnam is capable of competing with Dubai and Hong Kong, or even Singapore or Shanghai, not only striving to become a global goods transshipment centre, but also a supply chain link and extended arm of the worlds factory.

Shipping firms eye rosier future Vietnam's import-export sector is showing signs of improvement amid rising demand from major markets such as the United States and Europe. Since early July, world markets have witnessed a recovery in sea freight prices, a signal to many that the shipping industry has overcome the challenging times of the previous eighteen months.

Logistics groups go green to add to net-zero goals Logistics enterprises are gradually participating in supporting the green production and circulation of goods in the country, as well as exporting and importing with more sustainable criteria.

Logistics investors heat up the market The race to expand logistics market share continues to heat up, as both domestic and foreign enterprises increase investments in this field.
Facing the trend of more large-scale manufacturers in the world planning to move production facilities to Southeast Asian countries, the demand for logistics services and warehouse facilities, in particular, is forecasted to have strong growth steps.

Modernising logistics services by applying AI in management and using green, clean, and environmentally friendly technology will be an inevitable trend in the near future.

To clearly identify the trends, opportunities, and challenges facing these changes, under the auspice of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, VIR and SLP Vietnam jointly organise the Logistics Summit 2023.

The conference is expected to have the participation of 300 delegates, consisting of leaders of state management agencies, industry experts, domestic and foreign business associations, and businesses providing and using logistics services, manufacturing enterprises in many different fields are currently renting factories and warehouses, and investment consultants.

The summit includes two discussion sessions on identifying logistics trends in Vietnam and creating opportunity for logistics development.

At the first session, experts and businesses will focus on discussing and analysing the importance of having a system of clear and favourable policies and regulations in shaping the logistics industry in Vietnam, government initiatives to promote an environment conducive to growth, attracting investment and promote competitiveness, and the impact of international trade agreements on the logistics industry.

Also included will be the ongoing global change in supply chains, relocation of manufacturing facilities, opportunities in drawing in overseas funding and making Vietnam a preferred production and distribution centre, and challenges and strategies for Vietnam to utilise global changes and strengthen its position in regional and global supply chain networks.

Other hot issues are the development of Vietnam's logistics infrastructure, planning and implementation of logistics centres, capabilities of service providers in forwarding, road transport, customs, and cross-border operations, and more.

In session two, the summit will analyse and discuss in depth the growth drivers for the logistics industry, the trend of developing modern and green logistics services, and evaluating the opportunities open to businesses in the context of needing to diversify supply chains.

At the same time, the summits speakers, panellists, and experts will also discuss solutions to remove bottlenecks in logistics infrastructure development, such as insufficient planning and legal frameworks and a shortage of available land.

The event will take place on October 5 at the InterContinental Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City, and will be streamed on Facebook, YouTube, and other online platforms of VIR.

The growth drivers for logistics arena Vietnam is attempting to boost its logistics efficiency in order to compete with others in the region. Head of Business Intelligence at Dezan Shira & Associates, Pritesh Samuel, analyses the drivers and hurdles in logistics development.

Applying global practices to Vietnam Industrial and logistics infrastructure development and operation platform SLP is utilising its experiences to meet the increasing demand of global partners to invest and expand in Vietnam. Edwin Chee, COO of SLP Vietnam, talked with VIRs Binh An on the companys development strategy.

Logistics landscape changing through e-commerce overhaul The promising e-commerce sector in Vietnam, which has seen exponential growth and is projected to surpass regional counterparts such as Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore, has had a profound impact on the logistics industry.
Nguyen Hoang Hai, acting CEO of Eximbank

Starting from October 3, Nguyen Hoang Hai, 45, has been appointed by the board as acting CEO of Eximbank.

"I am honoured to serve in this new capacity and steer Eximbank towards new horizons," commented Hai.

Holding an international business administration master's degree from Radboud University, Netherlands, he brings nearly two decades of experience in financial banking.

Hai formally joined Eximbank on August 2 in the capacity of deputy CEO. His prior roles include being a board member at ABBank Investment Council, deputy CEO of ABBank Asset Management, and both board member and CEO of EVN Finance.

In parallel moves, Eximbanks board accepted the resignation of Tran Tan Loc as CEO, effective October 2. Pham Quang Dung has similarly stepped down as deputy CEO. However, both gentlemen will continue serving on Eximbank's board.

Eximbank is not the only bank in Vietnam witnessing such executive changes. On October 2, PGBank disclosed chairman Nguyen Phi Hung's resignation from the board, a mere three months after taking up the role.

"It is with a heavy heart that I take this decision," Hung was quoted saying.

This came in the wake of several other board members of PGBank tendering their resignations recently, leaving only Nguyen Manh Hai and Dinh Thanh Nghiep in their current positions.

Further in the banking spectrum, VIB has reappointed Han Ngoc Vu as CEO for another four-year term, starting from October 1.

Additionally, Vietbank has announced the appointment of Tran Tuan Anh, with nearly 25 years of financial experience, as new CEO.

ABBank has decided on Pham Duy Hieu to serve as its acting CEO, replacing Le Thi Bich Phuong. This is the third time Hieu has been vested with this responsibility at ABBank.

Meanwhile, SeABank, a part of Hanoi-backed BRG Group, has delegated Le Quoc Long, standing deputy CEO, with the responsibilities of acting CEO, overseeing the bank's operational activities.

MB ranked in Top 5 most reputable banks On the morning of August 4, Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB) secured its position in the Top 5 Vietnamese banks at an awards ceremony, a testament to its vital contributions towards its sustainable growth in the banking sector.
UB office in Batu Kawan Penang, Malaysia

UBCT, which on September 29 was rebranded to UB Group, was founded in 1995 in an attempt to revolutionise inventory tracing in the semiconductor industry. The company embarked on a transformative journey, starting with a focus on specialised machine servicing within the molding industry.

By 2006, the company transitioned into research and development, specialising in material management systems and development for the semiconductor Industry. Over the years, it evolved and expanded, introducing innovative software solutions for dashboards and command centres and successfully implementing total lights-off manufacturing solutions in collaboration with their Shanghai counterpart.

In 2017, the company shifted its focus to cutting-edge automated warehouse solutions. Subsequently, a new division emerged, dedicated to AI and autonomous robotic solutions, embracing the future of automation.

The rebranding to UB Group this year reflects its commitment to advancing smart manufacturing and logistics technologies.

Rebranding from UBCT to UB for a fresher look, simplified name, and better experience

Embracing the future

As Vietnam sets its sights on Industry 4.0, UBs smart solutions stands as a catalyst for change. This innovative company specialises in critical ecosystems, prepared to redefine industry standards in Vietnam.

1. Smart logistics solutions: The heartbeat of efficient industry operations lies in impeccable logistics, and UBs smart solutions are primed to elevate this vital component. The smart logistics solutions are designed to optimise warehousing and logistics operations, ensuring they run seamlessly and efficiently.

These solutions leverage on an array of advanced tech including automated storage and retrieval systems, radio-frequency identification, and barcode scanning to guarantee swift, precise, and secure storage and retrieval of goods.

Moreover, UBs smart solutions offer in-house logistics solutions featuring autonomous mobile robots that minimise human error, enhance accuracy, and optimise space and time for inbound and outbound materials handling. The result is a well-orchestrated workflow, reduced costs, heightened customer satisfaction, and a competitive edge in the market.

2. Smart manufacturing solutions: These solutions represent a paradigm shift in production processes. They encompass materials handling automation, a pivotal component in elevating productivity and ensuring safety.

Drawing on cutting-edge technologies like AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and big data analytics, UBs smart solutions facilitate digitalisation, optimisation, and innovation.

The ultimate goal is to empower businesses to eliminate waste, amplify efficiency, increase profitability, and maintain a competitive edge. Their lights-out solutions also pave the path to fully automated factories, positioning Vietnam as a global industry leader.

3. Tech innovation: What sets the company apart is an unwavering commitment to delivering technology innovation customised to meet the unique business goals and challenges of clients.

By leveraging on the latest technologies and best practices, UBs smart solutions design, develop, and implement solutions tailored to specific needs and preferences. Dedication does not end at implementation; it provides ongoing support and maintenance to ensure optimal performance and reliability.

A collaborative approach

In an ever-evolving industrial landscape in Vietnam, UBs smart solutions are not just a provider but a partner for businesses in this country. Their commitment to innovation and excellence positions them as a driving force in Vietnams journey towards industry leadership.

As the country embraces Industry 4.0, this forward-thinking company is ideally positioned to support growth, drive efficiency, and foster innovation. Together with UBs smart solutions, Vietnamese businesses can leverage on technology to achieve unprecedented levels of productivity, quality, safety, and sustainability.

The integration of cutting-edge technologies and innovative solutions brings forth a multitude of benefits for Vietnamese businesses and industries.

1. Enhancing productivity: Efficiency is the cornerstone of competitiveness in the modern industrial landscape. The smart manufacturing solutions empower manufacturers to optimise their processes, leading to increased productivity. Whether its through materials handling automation or Industry 4.0 implementation, businesses can expect streamlined operations and faster production cycles.

2. Elevating quality: Consistency in product quality is vital for market success. UBs smart solutions ensure that quality standards are maintained throughout the supply chain and production processes. This means fewer defects, higher customer satisfaction, and a stronger brand reputation.

3. Data-driven insights: In the era of Industry 4.0, data is king. UBs smart solutions harness the power of data through technologies like IoT and big data analytics, enabling businesses to make informed decisions based on real-time information. Predictive maintenance and demand forecasting become a reality, reducing downtime and optimising resource allocation.

4. Sustainability: Environmental concerns are driving businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable practices. UB offerings are designed with sustainability in mind. By minimising resource consumption and reducing waste, they contribute to a greener, more sustainable future for Vietnamese industries.

5. Competitive advantage: Staying ahead of the competition is paramount. UB provides the tools and technologies that enable businesses to do just that. By embracing Industry 4.0 and automation, companies can adapt more quickly to changing market demands, reduce costs, and ultimately gain a competitive edge.

Autonomous forklift handling of warehouse pallet without manual intervention

Technological innovation

UBs commitment to technological innovation is the driving force behind its success. The companys solutions are designed to meet customer expectations for high efficiency, space-optimised storage systems, intelligent inventory management, smart factory and warehouse monitoring and control, light out solutions, AI deep learning for advanced process control, and more.

What sets UBs solutions apart is the ability to deliver technology innovation that aligns precisely with the unique needs and preferences of its customers.

The company employs the latest technologies and best practices to design, develop, and implement solutions that are customised to individual business requirements.

Moreover, it provides continuous support and maintenance to ensure the optimal performance and reliability of its solutions.

UB is more than a provider of cutting-edge solutions; it is a partner in transformation. The companys commitment to innovation, excellence, and customer-centricity makes it an ideal ally for Vietnamese businesses looking to thrive in the age of Industry 4.0.

With UBs support, Vietnamese industries can leverage on technology to achieve unprecedented levels of productivity, quality, safety, and sustainability. The partnership between UB Group and Vietnamese businesses embodies the spirit of progress and innovation, paving the way for a brighter, more prosperous industrial future in Vietnam.
The conference, held in mid-September, attracted 13 businesses from 11 countries and two research centres, including Nissin Foods Group (Japan), Nongshim (South Korea), Monde Nissin (the Philippines), Baixiang Food (China), Indofood (Indonesia), Nestle Malaysia (Malaysia), and Acecook Vietnam (Vietnam).

Member companies of World Instant Noodles Association (WINA) gathered at the food safety meeting in Vietnam

At the conference, participants shared and discussed many important contents related to current food safety risks and response solutions that need to be implemented. This is an extremely urgent issue that greatly affects the development of the entire instant noodle industry, they said.

During the event, members reviewed the progress of implementing a number of the industry's sustainable commitments made at the 10th summit taking place in August 2022, focusing on nutrition and health, sustainable environment, food safety, and solving other social problems.

These are all commitments that contribute to enhancing the value of the industry in the new development era.

Members also shared progress in implementing their goals in the past year and reaffirmed that the entire industry will continue to focus on the four priority areas.

As part of the meeting, after summarising the content, the event discussed plans for upcoming activities towards the 11th WINA Summit in 2024, while calling on members to jointly implement their sustainability commitments of the industry.

WINA was established in 1997 and now boasts 132 member businesses from 23 countries and territories.

Since its establishment, WINA has had many practical activities contributing to promoting the development of the industry. They include providing information related to quality improvement and food safety assurance for instant noodles, and collecting and providing necessary information for member businesses, such as information about instant noodle demand worldwide.

It also carries out communications activities to increase demand for instant noodles; organises summits to exchange ideas among members; and organises meetings about food safety and food assistance.

Acecook Vietnam became a member of WINA in 2011 and was appointed as an executive member. In addition to Acecook Vietnam, Nissin Foods Vietnam and VIFON are also regular members of the association.

Demand in Vietnam is on the rise each year. According to WINA data for 2022, Vietnam's total demand for instant noodles ranks third in the world at about 8.5 billion packages, and ranks first in terms of the average number of packages consumed per capita. On average, each Vietnamese person eats 85 packs of instant noodles a year.

Acecook to open restaurant of cup noodles Acecook announced to open its first cup noodle restaurant, named Acecook Buffet Mi Ly, located in the first and largest Aeon Mall, Haiphong on December 14.

Vietnam ranks third in world in instant noodle consumption With 7.03 billion packages of instant noodles consumed in 2020, Vietnam ranks third in the world for instant noodle consumption, behind only China/Hong Kong and Indonesia, according to a report by the World Instant Noodles Association (WINA).
Ascension Providence announced Tuesday that it will close the DePaul Center, which offers inpatient and outpatient behavioral health services, by the end of the year.

The center will cease operations Dec. 1, with the outpatient clinic ceasing operations by Dec. 31.

The closure marks the second Ascension Providence-run clinic to close this year, after Ascension sent a letter to patients in August announcing the ear, nose and throat clinic would close by Oct. 31, and the hearing center, located in the same building, would close by Sept. 1.

The closure of DePaul will leave a gaping hole in McLennan Countys mental health care network, which has been long suffering from a shortage of resources, according to several Waco-area health officials.

DePaul was one of a few centers in the county that offered both inpatient and outpatient services. Other centers include Oceans Behavioral Hospital, and a few facilities operated by the Heart of Texas Behavioral Health Network offer one or the other.

In a press release, Ascension Providence President Philip Patterson said the closure is due to DePaul not being able to keep up with needed renovations and expansion.

Ascension Providence DePaul Center has served us well over the years, Patterson said. Unfortunately, the center is not adaptable to renovation and expansion in a way that will meet evolving industry standards and the growing needs for mental and behavioral health in the community, especially among those who are most vulnerable.

Ascension said it will continue to collaborate with public and community partners to strengthen and enhance mental and behavioral health services in the Waco area, including work with the Heart of Texas Behavioral Health Network to expand crisis diversion services.

A collaboration between the Behavioral Health Network and local health care providers recently received $8 million in state funding to expand crisis diversion services, and the funding will help boost the networks Diversion Center, slated to open later this month. The Diversion Center will host the Behavioral Health Networks crisis call center, which will be moved from DePaul after the center closes.

The press release also says Ascension will continue to serve mental and behavioral health patients through the hospitals emergency department, housed in a seven-bed Green Unit before being transferred to other facilities, such as the Diversion Center or Austin State Hospital, depending on circumstances.

The press release also says plans are in place to ensure continuity of care for current customers, and Ascension Providence is working with DePaul clinic associates to determine possible transitions to other positions within Ascension Texas.

Lance Kelley, chief behavioral health officer at Waco Family Medicine and a board member of the Heart of Texas Behavioral Health Network, said he was not surprised at DePauls closure due to rumblings over the past few years about financial troubles the center has faced.

Kelley said he had heard DePaul was on an unsustainable path by operating continuously at a revenue loss. He said the problem is not unique to DePaul and is being seen at many psychiatric centers nationwide. Kelley said state funding for mental health services has not been good for many years now, with Texas being ranked dead last in the United States by Mental Health America in terms of access to mental health care.

Kelley said the closure of DePaul will have a dramatic impact on the Waco area. Kelley said a large number of available beds for inpatient mental health care will be lost with DePauls closure.

Its a huge loss, Kelley said. Ever since I first heard about this, it has caused me lots of concern.

Kelley said the loss is especially tough because of how long DePaul has been a mainstay in the community. Providence opened the first psychiatric unit in Central Texas, Miriam Hall, in 1952 at Providence Hospital. The DePaul Center itself followed in 1984.

Kelley said McLennan County is designated as Health Professional Shortage Area by the Health Resources and Services Administration, with a rating of 13 out of 26 in terms of severity. He said McLennan County is not in as dire a situation as some other counties, but there are still long wait times between patient referrals and actual appointments.

Dr. Adam Falcone, a cardiologist at Waco Cardiology Associates and president of the McLennan County Medical Society, also said he had heard rumblings about issues facing DePaul. Access to mental health resources is difficult throughout Texas, Falcone said.

Falcone said there has been an overall lack of services in Waco at least since he arrived in McLennan County in 2015. He said many mental health care networks have been trying to strengthen the resources offered, but it is difficult to attract needed doctors and to build necessary facilities.

In a statement, Heart of Texas Behavioral Health Network CEO Daniel Thompson said DePaul had seen years of low reimbursement rates, something that many providers of behavioral health care face in caring for vulnerable patients.

As a long-term healthcare partner of Ascension Providence DePaul, we have been aware of their financial challenges, which have been directly influenced by these low rates and the generous provision of charity care for the uninsured or underinsured, Thompson said. Regrettably, however, with the current rate of inflation and rising healthcare costs, such models of care are challenging to sustain.

Thompson said the Behavioral Health Network will continue to work with local leadership and health care partners to explore funding opportunities to bring better care to McLennan County. He said the $8 million in state funding awarded this year was only a part of a $30 million request the Behavioral Health Network made in partnership with Waco Family Medicine, Ascension Providence and Baylor Scott & White Hillcrest. Thompson said the full amount would have significantly assisted DePaul in remaining open.

This model, via State General Revenue, would have expanded bed capacity, created a psychiatric residency program and expanded crisis services, Thompson said. Regrettably, this System of Care model was only partially funded, with Crisis Capacity being fully funded to HOTBHN. The expanded crisis services at HOTBHN that this partial funding will support will, unfortunately, have less of an impact on our community, given DePauls unfortunate announcement.

Thompson also said DePauls closure will place a great strain on the behavioral health system in McLennan County. Thompson said McLennan County ranks 10th highest in the state for individuals waiting at the county jail for inpatient psychiatric help.

Facilities such as DePaul have been able to take some of this strain off our system, so this is a tremendous blow to the system of care, Thompson said.

Thompson said the soon-to-open Diversion Center will offer similar services to DePaul, but will have only a fraction of available beds: 16 compared to the more than 40 offered at DePaul.

Despite this closure, we will continue to work with Ascension for Emergency Department admissions, Thompson said. However, an ED is not a replacement for traditional inpatient care, which we will no longer have available in our region.
Moody police arrested a 39-year-old man Friday after a family member reported the man had sexually abused a young relative over a two-year period.

Anthony Germaine Jennings, of Moody, was booked into McLennan County Jail on first-degree felony charges of indecency with a child and continuous sexual abuse of a young child, a second-degree felony charge of sexual assault, and a state jail felony charge of sexual coercion.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, police in Texas City were informed of the abuse Aug. 12, when a family member called after learning of the abuse. During an interview Aug. 21, the child told police the abuse happened between 2018 and November 2020 while the child was staying with Jennings at a residence in Moody, the affidavit says.

The affidavit says the child was 8 when the abuse started.

The affidavit says Jennings intimidated the child into performing sexual acts, and the child indicated to police that the assaults happened every time the child was left alone with Jennings. The affidavit also says Jennings forced the child to watch pornography with him.

The affidavit says the abuse stopped in 2020 because the child was relocated to Texas City after Child Protective Services informed a family member that it was unsafe for the child to remain at the residence in Moody. The affidavit says CPS had received an anonymous tip about the abuse and interviewed the child, but the child lied about the abuse because Jennings had threatened to kill the child and the childs mother if the child reported the abuse. The affidavit also says the family member who reported the abuse was unaware of the allegations until they made the report in August, believing the unsafe conditions indicated by CPS were related to drug use at the household in Moody.

Because the alleged incidents happened in Moody, Texas City police referred the case to the Moody Police Department, the affidavit says.

Jennings remained jailed Monday on $650,000 bond.
Doris Kearns Goodwin encouraged empathy even for political enemies at a Baylor University appearance this week while reflecting on her Pulitzer Prize-winning, 50-year career as a presidential historian.

Empathy was Goodwins watchword as she gave the annual Beall-Russell Lecture in the Humanities on Monday at Baylor Universitys new Mark and Paula Hurd Welcome Center ballroom. She is the author of numerous biographies of presidents, including Lyndon B. Johnson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Democracy is in peril when we begin to view people of different class, different belief, different party, or who live in diverse places, as other, Goodwin said during a guided talk hosted by Baylor history senior lecturer David Smith.

Goodwin said Americans may be able to get back on track if a leader, after winning a victory, would follow the example of Lincolns second inaugural address and instead of denouncing the other political party, would say with malice toward none with charity for all  let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nations wounds.

Abraham Lincoln learned empathy as a young boy after his mother died, teaching himself to read, while his father would shoo him outside to do farm work and hire him out to other farmers as well, Goodwin said.

Teddy Roosevelt learned empathy as a state legislator in New York when labor organizer Samuel Gompers took him to see the working conditions and hours of poor people rolling cigars in New York, she said. Roosevelt, who had grown up in a wealthy family, learned the workers were not other.

Before Gompers showed him those people rolling cigars, TR didnt see the need for a bill to regulate their working hours, she said. Afterward, he supported that bill.

FDR, who also had an upper-class background, learned empathy during polio treatments, when he was surrounded by people of all different classes, Goodwin said.

Life struck him down with polio, Goodwin said. But instead of staying down and growing bitter, he learned empathy and rose to the highest office in the land.

Texas own LBJ learned empathy in 1928 as a school teacher in Cotulla, southwest of San Antonio. He saw how the children of Mexican immigrants felt when treated as other by the surrounding white society. LBJ used that experience to propel civil rights laws after he became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Goodwin said she learned from her own time working for LBJ as a White House Fellow while she was in graduate school in the 1960s not to judge him from the outside but to understand him from the inside.

The presidential historian also said judging the past by the standards of today leads to misunderstanding.

We shouldnt call George Washington bad because he had slaves. We shouldnt call Abraham Lincoln bad because he talked colonization for African Americans. We should understand that he never would have been elected (the first time) in Illinois if he hadnt been for those anti-Black laws, Goodwin said.

We have to take the journey with the people were studying. They didnt know how it would end. We have to learn what they learned along with them. We should judge the past by what was done, not what wasnt done, she said.
Editor's note: Voters have amended the Texas Constitution 517 times since 1876, and they will get the chance again Nov. 7. This is the first of a series of Tribune-Herald articles examining the intention and implications of the 14 amendments on the ballot.

The ballot language of Proposition 1 on next months state constitutional election is simple, asking for a vote for or against The constitutional amendment protecting the right to engage in farming, ranching, timber production, horticulture, and wildlife management.

The mechanics of the amendment, which would add a 36th section to the state Constitutions Bill of Rights, are more complicated.

The amendment would limit but not eliminate the power of municipal governments to regulate agriculture.

Broadly, governments seeking to regulate generally accepted agriculture practices would have to show clear and convincing evidence of an imminent danger to public health and safety. In most cases, laws and regulations have no such burden of proof.

Meanwhile, the definition of generally accepted practices remains under development.

The amendment on the Nov. 7 ballot statewide would build on multiple statutory changes approved in this years legislative session that expand the states right-to-farm statute, which has been in place since 1981.

The new laws limit local-level regulation and have already led the city of Waco to change its zoning laws. Related legislation also strengthens protections that agricultural operations have from lawsuits.

The amendment also includes exceptions to the clear and convincing standard for regulations that preserve the states natural resources, and allows state agencies to protect animal health or crop production. The Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service is in the process of developing a manual laying out the specifics of what qualifies as a generally accepted agricultural practice in the state.

The idea for a constitutional amendment arose largely as a strategy for pushing back against and anticipating municipal actions that harm producers on the outskirts of growing metropolitan areas, said Dalton Moore, chief of staff for state Rep. DeWayne Burns, R-Cleburne. Burns was one of five authors of House Joint Resolution 126 calling for the constitutional election. Burns also was an author of House Bill 1750, one of the pieces of legislation that took effect Sept. 1 to expand the right-to-farm statute.

We just felt that this was something that needed to be taken to the next level, because farming and ranching is the backbone of the economy in Texas, Moore said of the decision to pursue a constitutional amendment on top of the related statutory changes.

The measure does not remove anything in the Constitution, but adding it will mean another election, rather than legislative action alone, would be required to roll it back. Proposition 1 is aimed at conflicts between agriculture and development that has sprawled into formerly rural areas, a set of conflicts that largely has not arisen in the Waco area even as it grows.

During committee hearings, James Lockridge testified that the city of Farmers Branch in Dallas County mowed his hay fields based on grass height requirements, wiping out significant revenue, then sent him the bill for the mowing. He also later faced fines for not quickly moving hay bales.

Farmers Branch by early this year rolled back its grass height limits based on state law in place before this year's changes, but Lockridge also discussed similar challenges in other North Texas cities.

In an interview this month, McLennan County Agrilife Extension Agent Shane McLellan said the type of conflicts that motivate Proposition 1 have not cropped up in the Waco area.

The city of Waco, most of our smaller towns in our county, theyre ag friendly, McLellan said. They work with ag producers.

He said the measure is about anticipating conflict points that arise as new developments and new people move in next to farms and ranches, especially in situations when people moving into a newly developed area do not have a basic understanding of agriculture.

While there have been no high-profile conflict points locally, new housing and other development taking over farmland is a familiar dynamic. The Ritchie Road area, China Spring, the Highway 84 corridor and Hewitt in recent years have seen thousands of suburban homes take the place of cropland, with picket fences rather than barbed wire now bordering many fields.

A long list of agriculture associations have endorsed Proposition 1. The Texas Farm Bureau and 22 other groups have backed the Right2Farm Texas political action committee formed to support the measure.

But the Cameron-based Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance opposes the amendment as placing undue limits on regulation and being overly broad and ambiguous. Practical implications of the change remain to be worked out, raising uncertainty rather than consistent and practical regulation, alliance Executive Director Judith McGeary said.

The limits on action against farms could, for example, leave organic producers without recourse if a neighbors operations are contaminating their crops with seeds or pesticides that do not meet organic requirements, McGeary said.

There are a lot of small farmers who live next large farms, and theres nothing in this that protects them, she said.

The amendment and related right-to-farm expansions also hinge on unelected Extension Service officials yet-to-be-developed definitions of generally accepted agricultural practices, she said.

There is an immense amount of power being put in the hands of the Extension Service, McGeary said.

Based on the already-expanded right-to-farm statute, the city of Waco has made two ordinance amendments, one to allow agricultural operations in all zoning categories and the other to make the language of its grass height limits match the state statutes.

It says vegetation height limits, with a minimum allowance of one foot, can only apply to a farm, ranch or wildlife management area within 10 feet of a public right-of-way or a neighboring property that includes an occupied residence.

Planning Director Clint Peters said Waco historically has not applied its grass-height requirement to farms, and the zoning limits have largely been a moot point because the zoning classes that did not allow farming were limited to areas of town that are already developed and impractical for agriculture.

Peters said the city also has some agriculture-specific provisions, such as requirements to keep animal pens a certain distance from a property line, and it is waiting on the Extension Services guidance to ensure those provisions can remain unchanged.

As of right now, we feel like those comply with state law, Peters said.

The Extension Service has experts in a range of agricultural practices developing its manual, though it has not yet established a timeline for completing the task. House Bill 1750 requires it be developed as soon as practicable.

Once the initial draft of the manual is ready, it will be peer-reviewed within the Extension Service, and the services legal counsel will review it before it is submitted to the Legislature, said Chris Elam, strategic initiatives lead in the Extension Service directors office.

Statutory changes

Under the House Bill 1750 provisions already in effect, a city that wants to create any requirement for an agricultural operation must obtain and review a report by a city health officer or consultant that presents clear and convincing evidence there is no less restrictive way to protect people in the immediate vicinity of the agricultural operation from its negative effects.

Those effects include the imminent danger of explosion, flooding, an infestation of vermin or insects, physical injury, the spread of an identified contagious disease that is directly attributable to the agricultural operation, the removal of lateral or subjacent support, an identified source of contamination of water supplies, radiation, improper storage of toxic materials, crops planted or vegetation grown in a manner that will cause traffic hazards or discharge of firearms or other weapons.

The report also will have to explain any recommendation for a requirement limiting a generally accepted agricultural practice that the Extension Service manual identifies as not posing a risk to public health.

In addition to House Bill 1750, another new law expanding the states right-to-farm statute has added new limits to the types of lawsuits that can be brought against established agricultural operations.

All 50 states have some form of right-to-farm law that, like Texas 1981 version, exempts agricultural operations from nuisance lawsuits. Nuisance lawsuits provide a way for property owners to challenge actions by neighbors that interfere with the use of their property, often industrial operations that create excessive noise, light, odor or runoff.

The measure that passed as House Bill 2308 expands the protection for farms beyond nuisance lawsuits to include other actions to restrain agricultural operations. Though the statute previously singled out nuisance lawsuits, courts already applied it to other actions, according to an explainer by Texas Agriculture Law Blog author and Extension Service agricultural law specialist Tiffany Dowell Lashmet.

For example, an appeals court dismissed both nuisance and trespass claims an El Paso County landowner filed in a case dating to 2003 against a neighboring dairy after manure ran across the plaintiffs property.

The right-to-farm protections previously applied to operations in place for at least a year, with a separate start date established for any expansion. House Bill 2308 now places each operation under a single start date, with a new start date if an operation is substantially changed, defined as a material alteration to the operation of or type of production at an agricultural operation that is substantially inconsistent with the operational practices since the established date of operation.
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By Lars McKie

On the outskirts of Linkoping is the Malmen Airbase, today the main base for the Swedish Armed Forces helicopter units and home to the Royal Swedish Air School. Linkoping is located on the Ostergotland plain, in the south-east of Sweden, and the city, known mostly for its university and high-tech industry, also rightly claims the title of the cradle of Swedish aviation.

The location was originally suggested by aviation pioneer Carl Cederstrom who, in 1910, gained his wings at the Bleriot flying school, becoming the 74th pilot to qualify and the 1st for Sweden. The area was well suited for aviation activities and by 1913, the newly formed Armeflyget (Army Air Corps) was established in this location, which has housed numerous military units since that time. When Army and Navy units merged, forming the Swedish Air Force in 1926, the airfield became home to Ostgota Flygflottilj F3 as well as other divisions and squadrons.

The city of Linkoping is also home to the Saab company, which since the 1930s has been building aircraft. Initially building airplanes on license, but with what would turn into WWII looming the Swedish government tasked Saab with establishing domestic development and production of military aircraft. This policy is still continued to this day, and has through the decades following WWII produced some of the most iconic fighter aircraft ever developed. It is here that airplanes such as the J29-Barrel, A32-Lansen, 35-Dragon, 37-Viggen, and todays flagship the modern fighter 39-Gripen are built.

With these deep roots in Swedish aviation heritage, it was only natural that the Flygvapenmuseum (Swedish Air Force Museum) was established here. The core of the museum we see today was opened to the public in 1984, and has expanded several times since.

Preamble to a museum

The artifacts (aircraft, engines, instruments, and uniforms) started with a collection saved from scrapping by Col. Gosta von Porat, the commanding officer of Ostgota Wing F3 between 1934 and 1941. However, this Malmen-collection was inside the air base, inaccessible to the public, until moved to (what were meant to be temporary facilities) outside the base in 1967. These temporary facilities remained in use for decades while plans for a new museum on Malmen Air Base were developed.

At last, on 8 March 1984, the first of the brand-new purpose-built exhibition halls was inaugurated by Swedish king Carl XIV Gustaf. Five years later a second hall was opened, enabling 60 aircraft to be placed on exhibition.

The museum today exhibits an extensive overview of Swedish aviation history from 1910 to the modern airframes of today. Over three levels, and two large hangar-sized exhibition halls, the displays also cover both world wars and the roles Sweden played in them. The museums next display is devoted to providing an insight in what Sweden was like, and what role the nation played, during the Cold War era as a neutral country wedged between NATO and the Warsaw Pact nations.

Warbirds on display

The museum owns over 300 individual aircraft and helicopters, though only about 50 are on display within their own exhibitions. The rest are in storage or on loan to other museums  not only in Sweden but to museums all over the world.

Because the Swedish Air Force flew numerous types of aircraft, the collection covers a very wide range of airplanes. Among many notable aircraft on display, here are a few highlights:

The only complete Junkers Ju 86K left in the world. Concerned by the developments in the late 1930s, and at the outlook of war, Sweden purchased several aircraft from Germany. Designated B3 in Swedish service, it was used as a medium bomber. This particular aircraft was delivered to Sweden in 1938. This was the first all-metal aircraft used by the Swedish Air Force, and as a testament to its sturdy design, it remained in service, transitioning to a transport role in the 1950s, until 1958 when it made its final flight.

Another unique aircraft is the Saab B18. This indigenous Swedish twin-engine aircraft made its maiden flight in 1942, and was the second type that Saab designed. There were only 244 produced, and the type was taken out of service in the late 1950s. Unfortunately, not a single airframe was saved and preserved. The B18 on display in the museum was salvaged from the bottom of Harnosand harbor where it sank after a forced landing in 1946. The aircraft is today in a state of continuous restoration while on public displayed in one of the museum halls.

The exhibition also includes more well-known types, all flown by the Swedish Air Force, such as a J26 (P-51D Mustang), a S31 (Supermarine Spitfire Mark XIX), Saab B17A, a TP47 (Catalina PBY-5), J9 (Seversky Republic EP-1 Model 106)  the list is long, and this is before mentioning a single jet aircraft.

The Catalina affair  a Cold War crisis

In 2009 the museum opened an exhibition covering a remarkable piece of Cold War history. The Catalina Affair was a military confrontation in 1952 where Soviet Air Force fighters shot down two Swedish aircraft over international waters in the Baltic Sea, triggering a major diplomatic crisis.

The first aircraft to be shot down was an unarmed Swedish Air Force Tp79 (# 79001), a derivative of the Douglas DC-3. The aircraft was built in 1943 as 42-5694, and had been sold to Sweden in 1946 post-war after having been stationed in Africa. On this fateful day the aircraft with its eight-man crew was on a signals intelligence-gathering (SIGINT) mission.

During the subsequent search and rescue, a Soviet fighter engaged and shot down a second aircraft, a PBY-5 Catalina with a crew of seven. Luckily, they managed to ditch the aircraft with no fatalities.

The Tp79 / DC-3 aircraft remained lost until it was rediscovered in 2003. After 52 years, the remains of the DC-3 were salvaged and lifted to the surface then transferred to a Naval base for forensic investigations and preservation. The remains of four of the eight-man crew were found and positively identified from inside the wreckage.

The wreck of that specific aircraft and several artifacts are today on public display in the museum. Bullet holes in the fuselage are evidence of the attack it received.

Restorations

The museum workshop undertakes maintenance and restorations. Currently, the workshop is in the process of restoring a TP81, a Grumman G-21A Goose. The Swedish Air Force acquired one aircraft in 1951 to serve in the north of Sweden stationed at F21 Lulea. The one aircraft served valiantly as an ambulance aircraft until 1962 when it had an incident on takeoff, resulting in the total loss of the aircraft.

The Goose under restoration in the museums workshop is not an original Swedish example, but one acquired from the Caribbean in a trade deal which arrived at the museum in 1986. Then placed into storage, it was not until 2016 that the aircraft was brought out for restoration.

Archives, library, and restorations

Within the museum, there is also a large archive holding thousands of documents dating back to the early 1900s. Drawings, pilot logbooks, newspaper clippings, correspondence, photographs, and even private documents from aviation pioneers have been donated to the museum. The museum employs a wide range of skilled personnel all with the common goal to preserve and maintain the collection. Just to the side of the main museum buildings is the workshop where technical maintenance and restorations take place, which we hope to cover in more depth in later updates on the museum activities.

For more information, visit www.flygvapenmuseum.se
Last week, social media went abuzz with the news that the National Museum of The United States Air Force acquired an example of a Sukhoi Su-27 (NATO reporting name Flanker), with the museum announcing that the Flanker is set to go on display in the museums Cold War Gallery this fall. As one can imagine, there is quite a background story behind how an example of an aircraft designed to counteract the McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle and the Grumman F-14 Tomcat ended up in the NMUSAF.

Designed during the 1970s, the Su-27 was introduced into the Soviet Air Force during the mid-1980s, but by then, the USSR was in decline and would ultimately collapse on December 26, 1991. This would lead to its successor state, the Russian Federation, developing a variety of subsequent designs to complement the original, such as the Su-30, the Su-33, Su-34 strike aircraft, and Su-37, among others. Further designs included carrier-based variants and the Shenyang J-11, which was built for and flown by the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force. Additionally, there remained Flankers in service with other nations across the world, from Angola to Vietnam, and from Indonesia to Kazakhstan. While the Su-27 remains fairly common in several post-Soviet states, hundreds of Flankers have been used by both sides of the current Russo-Ukraine War in air-to-air engagements or in supporting ground offensives. While the outcome of the ongoing war remains to be seen at this point, it seems likely the Flanker will remain in the skies for years to come.

In the United States, there are known to be at least four Flankers, which were imported to the United States to be used for adversarial training by contractor pilots. These contractor pilots use the Flanker to allow US fighter pilots to gain valuable first-hand experience in mock engagements with an opposing states aircraft. These mock engagements typically take place at Groom Lake and Tonopah Test Range over central Nevada. Additionally, Soviet-manufactured aircraft have been used in radar tests to evaluate the effectiveness of American radar units. The first two aircraft, two Su-27Ps, were shipped from Belarus in 1995, while two more aircraft were shipped from Ukraine. The NMUSAFs new Flanker is from the latter pair.

Constructed in 1988 as construction number 96310408027(f/n 05-02), this particular Flanker is a Su-27UB operational trainer (also known as a Flanker-C). It was flown by the Ukrainian Air Forces 831st Tactical Aviation Brigade (which had previously been called the 831st Fighter Aviation Regiment while it was part of the Soviet Air Force) with the code Blue 61, based out of Myrhorod Air Base, near Myrhorod (known by its Russian name of Mirgorod during the Soviet era), in Poltava Oblast, southeast of Kyiv. Shortly after its decommissioning, Blue 61 was acquired by the American contractor Pride Aircraft in Rockford, Illinois, along with another Flanker-C of the 831st, Blue 66 (construction number 96310418210, f/n 11/05). The two aircraft were completely overhauled in Zaporizhia, Ukraine from 2007 to 2008, made their first post-overhaul flights in August of 2008, and were soon disassembled and flown to the United States aboard an Antonov An-124 Ruslan transport plane (NATO reporting name Condor). Reassembly by Pride Aircraft began in early 2009, with the Saturn AL-31 engines being zero-timed and the cockpit instruments converted to Western standards to aid flight instruction and operation. The two aircraft were registered with the FAA as N131SU (c/n 96310418210) and N132SU (c/n 96310408027), with N131SU becoming Blue 31 and N132SU Blue 32, though they both kept the light gray, dark blue and light blue camouflage pattern typically seen on Ukrainian Flankers.

Soon after their respective overhauls, they were used by Tactical Air Support, and their logo appeared on the tail fins of both aircraft. Later on, Blue 31 and Blue 32 were offered for sale by Pride Aircraft, with the option for either a combined sale or for individual sale. In 2011, Pride Aircraft sold both aircraft and they were officially noted in FAA records as being owned by Meridian Inc. in Wilmington, Delaware, but for the most part, both aircraft were kept on a low profile, with the lack of information leading to all kinds of speculation as to their disposition.

It came as quite a surprise, therefore, when Blue 32 was seen parked in front of the storage hangars at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base that have been reserved for the National Museum of the USAF. The museum has been keeping its card close to its chest, but with them pushing to place the aircraft on display in their Cold War Gallery this fall, it seems likely that more information will be made public by that time. With the current war in Ukraine, it would be especially interesting if the museum would return the aircraft to its original livery from the 831st Tactical Aviation Brigade, considering the Brigade is involved in the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensives. As further updates become available to us in the future, we will share them with our readers.
WATERLOO -- The Black Hawk County Democrats will host a chili supper fundraiser Thursday at the UAW Hall, 2615 Washington St.

County and Waterloo elected officials will cook. Sides will include cornbread, coleslaw, pie and beverages. Tickets are $25, available at the door, or in advance online at https://secure.actblue.comdonate/fallchilifest2023.

Doors open at 5 p.m., followed by social hour, silent auction and chili tasting and voting from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Dinner begins at 6:30 p.m., followed by a program by Mary Jane Cobb, executive director of the Iowa State Education Association. Elected officials and party representatives will provide brief remarks.

For more information email info@blackhawkdemocrats.com, or call (319) 236-2992.

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CEDAR FALLS  The United States and the University of Northern Iowa have become a second home for eight Ukrainian students.

That was evident Friday when UNI President Mark Nook gave his personal welcome to the students on the opening night of a Kamerick Art Building exhibit meant to raise awareness about the Russia-Ukraine War. They were seated in the front row among a crowd of close to 150 people who applauded loudly after Nooks words.

We recognize your resilience, your commitment to your education, and what you are doing took a great deal of sacrifice to be here, said Nook. You took a risk that few people in this room would have been willing to take, to travel to a foreign country and get an education.

The emotion was raw when Nook and host parent Brock Johnson got choked up talking about the students impact and the support theyve been shown.

They joined Oksana Grybovych Hafermann, UNI chief of staff and Ukraine native, in describing what it meant for the university to be their home during the conflict and emphasized that an army of people have given time and resources to help the students transition to campus.

Johnsons wife, Alli, and Ukrainian student Liza Yaryshkina, 17, rose to hug him as he struggled during his speech. The couple has been host parents to Yaryshkina. It was an example of the love on display as part of the endless stream of support people have been showing the Ukrainians since they arrived on campus for their first semester.

The 11 paintings in the exhibit were in the dimly lit space off West 27th Street and were crafted by Des Moines artist Scott Charles Ross, a Waterloo native.

In March 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Ross noted he wanted to craft art related to the horrible event but had no direction and ended up relying on the photos taken by a photojournalist for inspiration.

I believe God ordained him to be in the position to open up his heart and use his skills in this way, said Beverly Hansen, 88, of Cedar Falls, one of the attendees. She had been a host parent to a Chilean student and has refused to stay put in my rocking chair, volunteering her time to help others.

Rosss first and only painting with color was representative of a bombed theater where about 600 people lost their lives. The other linen canvases were composed of charcoal and oil, demonstrating an absence of life; death and emptiness.

I was putting my emotions on canvas. Whats going on in the world and in this country was very disturbing and got the best of me, Ross said.

Ross met the students and asked what his and others responsibilities should be related to the war. He found his calling in creating the work to raise awareness and selling it to raise funds to help support their education and transition to the United States.

Its nice when all of a sudden something happens here in the state of Iowa, Ross said. You get some awareness and attention and people stand up and commit to helping out these students. What else are they going to do? Theyre removed from their parents and cant get loans or anything.

At least with the temporary protective status they can work part-time and help themselves through school. But, still, they need to exist in our minds. Were sort of taking care of them until either the war is over or they move on with their lives.

The art will move around campus in the coming months. The exhibition was on display at the UNI Gallery of Art through Sunday, and will be back on display there as part of showcases from Oct. 19 through Nov. 9. Following that, Ross work will be displayed at the UNI Museum at Rod Library, 1227 W. 27th St., through February.

Providing support

In addition to hosting Yaryshkina for nearly two years spanning her time as a high school exchange student and transition to UNI, the Johnsons also are taking another step to support the Ukrainian students financially.

The couple started the nonprofit Humanitarian Scholarship Fund of Iowa in June and raised thousands of dollars for Ukrainian refugees seeking any form of higher education, from trade school to a four-year degree. The plan is eventually to broaden the aid to all refugees.

There are so many refugee students here in Iowa, and its hard for them to pay for college, said Alli Johnson. There are no resources.

Its a scary thing to have to pay for school, and it costs more in this country, added Brock Johnson.

Even scarier is whats happening on Ukraines soil.

Yaryshkina is one of seven (six women and one man) to arrive in the U.S. in August 2021 through the Future Leaders Exchange Program and graduate from an Iowa high school.

Because of the war, they havent been able to return to their families in Ukraine.

Another Ukrainian student, Ulyana Karplyuk, was not part of the exchange program. She and her mother, Svetlana, who was in the audience, were forced to leave the country shortly after the war started. They are living with family in Cedar Falls.

Its very emotional, and its not happy, said Brock Johnson while reflecting on the artwork. Their homes are being destroyed and people are dying  but thats what makes their stories so remarkable. These kids are success stories.

At the event, the students talked about what it meant to feel welcomed and what they were doing at UNI. But many also talked about where they were from in Ukraine and what they left behind.

My parents are still back there, said Olya Hinchak, 17. They were trying to leave in the first week of the invasion but the line was too long, so they never left after that.  When you wake up every morning, youre just grateful.

Yes, you may be 10 minutes behind your schedule and youre running to your class, but youre just so thankful you have that kind of experience compared to some other one.

The University of Northern Iowa was able to identify merit scholarships as well as contributions from local donors to help provide support and offset some of the cost of tuition and fees. Even with scholarships, students need to cover costs including remaining tuition, books, and room and board.

We were incredibly excited to see Scott and the university step up, said Brock Johnson. Everybody is using their own gifts to help push the effort forward.

To make a contribution to UNIs Ukrainian Student Scholarship Fund, visit: foundation.uni.edu/ukrainian-students.

Close Close to 150 people attended the opening night of the Kamerick Art Building exhibit on Friday meant to raise awareness about the Russia-Ukraine War. Ukrainian student Liza Yaryshkina hugs her host father Brock Johnson of Des Moines as he struggles to get through his remarks at the art gallery opening Friday. Ukranian student Daria Gramotieieva delivers remarks Friday during the opening night of the Kamerick Art Building exhibit meant to raise awareness about the Russia-Ukraine War. The 11 paintings in a UNI exhibit were in the dimly lit space off West 27th Street and were crafted by Des Moines artist Scott Charles Ross, a Waterloo native. The 11 paintings in a UNI exhibit were in the dimly lit space off West 27th Street and were crafted by Des Moines artist Scott Charles Ross, a Waterloo native. Most of the Ukrainian students were sitting in the front row Friday for the opening night of the Kamerick Art Building exhibit meant to raise awareness about the Russia-Ukraine War. Ukranian student Odee Shtefanchuk delivers remarks Friday during the opening night of the Kamerick Art Building exhibit meant to raise awareness about the Russia-Ukraine War. Ukrainian student Liza Yaryshkina hugs her host father Brock Johnson of Des Moines as he struggles to get through his remarks at the art gallery opening Friday. Carla Luck, left, and Susan Durnell look at the Children charcoal and oil painting on Friday at the University of Northern Iowas Kamerick Art Building. Joe Marchesani, a retired audio and video professor, looks at the 'Church of St. Nicholas the Miraculous' charcoal and oil painting on Friday at the University of Northern Iowa's Kamerick Art Building. Opening night of UNI art exhibition spreading awareness of Ukraine-Russia War Close to 150 people attended the opening night of the Kamerick Art Building exhibit on Friday meant to raise awareness about the Russia-Ukraine War. Ukrainian student Liza Yaryshkina hugs her host father Brock Johnson of Des Moines as he struggles to get through his remarks at the art gallery opening Friday. Ukranian student Daria Gramotieieva delivers remarks Friday during the opening night of the Kamerick Art Building exhibit meant to raise awareness about the Russia-Ukraine War. The 11 paintings in a UNI exhibit were in the dimly lit space off West 27th Street and were crafted by Des Moines artist Scott Charles Ross, a Waterloo native. The 11 paintings in a UNI exhibit were in the dimly lit space off West 27th Street and were crafted by Des Moines artist Scott Charles Ross, a Waterloo native. Most of the Ukrainian students were sitting in the front row Friday for the opening night of the Kamerick Art Building exhibit meant to raise awareness about the Russia-Ukraine War. Ukranian student Odee Shtefanchuk delivers remarks Friday during the opening night of the Kamerick Art Building exhibit meant to raise awareness about the Russia-Ukraine War. Ukrainian student Liza Yaryshkina hugs her host father Brock Johnson of Des Moines as he struggles to get through his remarks at the art gallery opening Friday. Carla Luck, left, and Susan Durnell look at the Children charcoal and oil painting on Friday at the University of Northern Iowas Kamerick Art Building. Joe Marchesani, a retired audio and video professor, looks at the 'Church of St. Nicholas the Miraculous' charcoal and oil painting on Friday at the University of Northern Iowa's Kamerick Art Building.
WATERLOO  Six neighborhood eyesores will soon be razed after the City Council approved moving forward with demolition.

An $82,000 contract was awarded to Lehman Trucking and Excavating on Monday to demolish multiple abandoned houses, including one that was named among the states most endangered properties in February. Lehman submitted the lowest of four bids. The engineers estimate was $70,000.

The company has until Dec. 29 to tear down the houses at 1804 E. Fourth St., 637 Ankeny St., 207 Lafayette St., 208 Sunnyside Ave., 212 Sunnyside Ave. and 1318 Martin Road. Before demolition, any asbestos must be abated at all properties. The houses at 212 Sunnyside Ave. and 1318 Martin Road are scheduled for abatement.

The Lafayette Street house, built in 1913, was put on a Preservation Iowa list of most endangered properties after being nominated by the Waterloo Historic Preservation Commission. The statewide organization recognizes historic buildings and advocates for their preservation.

For the past few months, Cedar Falls residents Larry Stumme and Michael Blackwell have spoken during the councils public comment period asking the city to address blighted properties in Waterloo. The two spoke again Monday before the contract was approved.

(The properties) are still neglected and dangerous and scores of dilapidated homes are still lowering the value of neighborhood homes, Stumme said. How long will the victims of your neglect need to wait?

The two left after public comment and were not present for the demolition bid award.

After public comment ended, Mayor Quentin Hart addressed members of the public who believe the city is not doing its part.

He disagreed that this administration or my administration has been derelict in our ability to reinvest in those neighborhoods that I grew up in. Hart said although he is an elected official, the comments are personal to him.

He referenced a July work session that detailed the process of 657A of Iowa Code, which allows the city to obtain the title of an abandoned property. During that presentation, Community Planning and Development Director Noel Anderson said since the city is a public entity everything has to be bid out, which takes time.

Once a property is acquired by the city, it can send out a request for proposals to rehabilitate the home. If that doesnt work out, the city will look to demolish the structure. Anderson said the city bids out multiple buildings once or twice a year because it is less expensive than doing one property at a time.

After the houses are destroyed, the city hopes to build infill development, new construction on an existing plot that uses existing streets and sewers. Infill incentives are $5,000 per unit and have been implemented in the city since 2017.

Waterloo resident Odell Sallis said he wanted more information and communication about how people in the neighborhoods with blighted structures could work on rehabilitating a house or create that new development.

Councilmember Rob Nichols agreed with Sallis and reiterated that one of his main platforms when running for office was to focus on housing.

There are opportunities there (for residents) to invest in their community and neighborhoods and homes and to take advantage of that equity, and really advance opportunities for them and their family, Nichols said.

In other business the council approved:

A request from PWM Companies for a site plan amendment for a development that includes two 138,000-square-foot buildings, one 20,000-square-foot building and one 5,000-square-foot building in phase one and 425,000 square feet of buildings in future phases near 4719 Ansborough Ave. The buildings would be for manufacturing businesses.

An independent contractor agreement for a massage therapist at the Cedar Valley Sportsplex.

Two agreements with JSA Development to rehabilitate the properties at 716 Commercial and 425 Franklin streets.
WATERLOO  A man whose name has been on the ballot multiple times in recent decades is vying again to take the helm of the city of Waterloo.

Wayne Nathem, 80, is running for mayor in the Nov. 7 election. One of his biggest goals is to lower property taxes by changing how tax increment financing districts work.

He said the city of Waterloo needs TIF recipients to start paying taxes a lot sooner.

The city has 10 TIF districts. When new development is created in a district, property taxes dont go to public services but rather are diverted to the TIF district to finance development. Most TIF districts have 20-year lifespans before the money is released to the city.

Nathem wants the TIF process to have five- to 10-year lifespans.

Right now with a TIF district, theyre not paying taxes until the 18th, 19th and 20th year, he said. Its the citizens of Waterloo whos picking up the property tax bill for those thats getting a freebie in that area.

He said those getting freebies are businesses developing there. Many development agreements in TIF districts include tax rebates to draw businesses to Waterloo.

Its time for changes so they start paying taxes a lot sooner, he said. And by doing that, itll also lower your property tax.

Also on November ballot is a referendum to change how local option sales and service taxes are allocated. Currently, 100% is allocated to maintaining the citys roads. The new proposal is for 80% to be for roads and 20% for property tax relief.

Nathem said if hes elected he will be a watchdog for things to go where theyre supposed to go. He doesnt believe 20% will actually go toward tax relief but will go to the general budget.

When asked if LOSST money is going where it shouldnt, Nathem said he tried to check into that but no one gave a straight answer.

Even with 100% going toward road maintenance for the past three decades, he doesnt think the projects are being managed correctly. He said the most concerning roads are Broadway Street and West Donald Street.

Nathem said, if elected, hed be able to solve these problems due to his past business experience.

Id take the bull by the horns and steer us in the right direction, he said.

Hes run businesses for about 50 years. He operated Nathem Enterprises, doing business as CBC freight, for more than 20 years, calling it a mom and pop trucking company.

Nathem is also no stranger to appearing on ballots in Black Hawk County. Most recently, he ran for mayor unsuccessfully in 2015, when Mayor Quentin Hart was first elected.

This will be Nathems fourth run for the position. He also ran unsuccessfully in 1993 and 1995. In 1994, he unsuccessfully ran to join the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors. He campaigned for a City Council seat in 1985 as well as for county treasurer in 1998, both without success.

Hes lived in Waterloo since 1963 and in Ward 3 since 1970. He said when knocking on doors, many people recognized him as that guy who speaks up at City Council.

I think there needs to be a different face sitting in that seat, he said. I would speak what I think should be said.

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WATERLOO  The 2023 Cedar Valley Business Hall of Fame will take place at 5 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center.

Presented by First Interstate Bank, formerly Great Western Bank, the black-tie gala is the 29th year Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa has recognized distinguished business leaders who have established a legacy of leadership within their industries and community.

Three laureates will be inducted into the Cedar Valley Business Hall of Fame: Dennis Clark of Clark & Associates, Cork Peterson of Peterson Contractors Inc., and as an entrepreneur, ReShonda Young of Bank of Jabez will be inducted.

The business leaders were nominated by community members, and then selected by an independent committee. These individuals were recognized for epitomizing five key standards of excellence: impact on their industry or organization; integrity as an ethical business leader; commitment to bettering the community; leadership qualities; and an entrepreneurial spirit in starting or significantly advancing local businesses.

We are proud to sponsor the Junior Achievement Cedar Valley Business Hall of Fame in its 29th year, and we cannot wait to celebrate the accomplishments of these great honorees. Their dedication to the community is admirable and deserves the recognition, Jim Miller, Cedar Valley market president of First Interstate Bank, said in a news release.

Highlights of the evening include video biographies of each laureate and students from local schools will serve as hosts and escorts to reinforce the purpose of the event, which is to inspire children to visualize success.

Junior Achievement programs empower young people to own their future economic success by enhancing the relevancy of education. Not only do programs help young individuals realize what they can become, but they also help them see what they can change in the community around them. The Cedar Valley Hall of Fame honors Eastern Iowa businesspeople who have shown by example the importance of achieving a high level of success both personally and professionally.

Tickets are on a first come first serve basis. For tickets or additional details, contact Junior Achievement at (319) 862-1100 or email Emma Disterhoft at edisterhoft@jaeasterniowa.org.

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DECORAH  The annual benefit auction for Vesterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School, will be held online from noon Saturday until 9 p.m. Oct. 15. Items are available to view now at www.biddingforgood.com/VEST-AUCTION.

The auction has 78 items, including one-of-a-kind folk-art pieces by artists working in the Norwegian tradition. There is a tremendous selection of rosemaling (Norwegian decorative painting), weavings, traditional needlework, Norwegian clothing, and creative woodworking.

Theres also the chance to win an eight-day European river cruise for two in 2024 from Viking, or a stay in Colorado.

Many of the pieces are donated by Vesterheim gold medalists and exhibition ribbon winners from Vesterheims biennial judged competition, The National Norwegian-American Folk Art Exhibition.

Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Vesterheim Annual Fund in support of Vesterheims Folk Art School, which has provided classes since 1967 in fiber arts, woodworking, painting, cooking, jewelry, blacksmithing, knifemaking, and more. At the Folk Art School, students and instructors create a community of learning and experience the joy of making something by hand.

Vesterheim is very grateful to everyone who donated to this auction. Through exceptional support from artists and donors, combined previous auctions have raised more than $180,000 for the Folk Art School, Molly Thompson, Vesterheim benefit auction coordinator, said.

Please help support Vesterheim Museum and help keep these wonderful Norwegian folk-art traditions alive, Thompson added.

Contact Thompson at (563) 382-9681, or mthompson@vesterheim.org, with auction questions.

Vesterheim offers innovative and interactive exhibits, classes, and programs, both at the dynamic campus and park in Decorah and online at vesterheim.org and Vesterheim social media. For more information on exhibits, classes, programs, tours, membership opportunities, and ways to donate and volunteer, connect at vesterheim.org, (563) 382-9681, and Vesterheim, 502 W. Water St., P.O. Box 379, Decorah, IA, 52101-0379.
Bil Lepp hopes the stories he tells remind listeners of memories in their own lives, which they can then go on to share with their loved ones.

The West Virginia native is a professional storyteller who will return to Winona for the second year of the Sandbar Storytelling Festival from Oct. 12-14 in Winona.

Lepp will share his Appalachian-based tall tales at Saint Marys University. He began his professional storytelling career after finding success at the annual West Virginia Liars Contest.

He said he didnt know, back in the 1990s, that storytelling existed beyond the local liars contest and sharing stories around the kitchen table with his family.

But, after connecting with a professional storyteller in 1998, Lepps storytelling career blossomed and he has traveled to tell his stories since.

Lepp said to tell his humorous tall tales is just an absolute pleasure and an honor.

I sit at my desk and I write the stories and I think to myself, 'Is anybody going to laugh at this?' And then when I get up on stage and people do laugh at this, it's very gratifying, Lepp said.

Lepp is one of six storytellers taking the stage during the festival, with a lineup that also includes Diane Ferlatte, Kao Kalia Yang, Kevin Kling, Kim Weitkamp and Motoko.

They are top-shelf people," Sandbar Storytelling Festival's founding artistic director Hywel "Taff" Roberts said. "They know their work, and they are really inspiring.

He said that most of the storytellers  who will also visit multiple area schools during the festival  have been sharing their stories for at least 20 years.

Roberts said it's "gratifying" to have the festival return for a second year.

"We've been working hard on it," he said. Other storytelling events have been held year round throughout the community by the festival's organizers.

Lepp said he enjoyed telling his stories to Winonans last year and wanted to return.

It was just such a wonderful show to be part of," he said.

He said he liked introducing the audience  which varied greatly in age  to storytelling for adults.

It was really nice to go into a place where the festival organizers worked so hard to get so much of the community to see what storytelling is, and I think because of that, this festival is just going to grow and grow, Lepp said.

The professionals won't be the only ones able to tell stories in front of crowds during this year's festival. Roberts said the public is welcome to participate in a storytelling competition.

Contestants will need to participate in a pre-competition screening Oct. 10, where nine people will be chosen to share five minute stories on the stage Oct. 14.

There are no age limits for the competition and pre-screening registration is required at bit.ly/CompPrescreen or by calling 507-703-6001.

In addition to the storytelling, there will be music performances Friday from the Wingdam Jammers and the Buffalo Gals on Saturday.

To view a full schedule of events and to buy tickets for the festival, visit sandbarstorytellingfestival.org.
When Viterbo University set out to build an engineering bachelors degree program, the foundation of the plan rested on one major building block: attaining ABET accreditation.

ABET, which stands for Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, certifies through its accreditation process that colleges and university degree programs meet the quality standards of the profession for which that program prepares graduates.

An institution cant seek ABET accreditation review until graduating its first cohort in a program, so when Viterbos first engineering students started in 2018, they couldnt be sure their degrees would carry the weight that comes from ABET approval. Viterbo associate engineering professor Emily Vanderfleet made it her mission to make sure ABET granted retroactive accreditation to cover the programs pioneering graduates.

Vanderfleet recently learned that mission had been accomplished, and Viterbos engineering program is celebrating with an open house from 35 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6, on the second floor of the Viterbo D.B. and Marge Reinhart Center for Ethics, Science, and Technology. The event will feature a display of engineering projects and opportunities to tour the engineering lab and talk with engineering faculty, current students and alumni as well as representatives of the companies that supported the programs development.

We are very excited about the news because ABET is the gold standard in engineering academic accreditation, said Vanderfleet, who chairs the Viterbo department of engineering, math, and computer science. This affirms the quality of our program and expands the range of opportunities for our engineering graduates.

Sought worldwide, ABETs voluntary peer-review process is highly respected because it adds critical value to academic programs in the technical disciplines, where quality, precision, and safety are of the utmost importance. Developed by technical professionals from ABETs member societies, ABET criteria focus on what students experience and learn.

ABET accreditation reviews look at program curricula, faculty, facilities and institutional support and are conducted by teams of skilled professionals from industry, academia and government, with expertise in the ABET disciplines.

Engineering degrees from ABET-accredited schools are required for some jobs, especially in government and military. But even when its not required, having that kind of degree can be a big help in attracting better job offers.

Weve been planning from the very beginning to seek ABET accreditation because we knew that was something important and we wanted students who came through our program to have as many opportunities as possible, Vanderfleet said.

Viterbos 10 engineering graduates so far all have landed jobs, even without official ABET accreditation. One 2022 graduate landed a job with a firm that required a diploma from an ABET-accredited institution, but it took Vanderfleets assurances that Viterbo was on the path to accreditation before they hired him.

Many of Viterbos engineering graduates work for companies where they interned as students. In addition to providing the chance for students to get real-world work experience, area companies also have offered their expertise and advice through the programs advisory board, which Vanderfleet noted was singled out for high praise in the ABET review.

The ABET evaluation team remarked on how impressive ours was in terms of the range of disciplines represented and how involved each of those eight companies were, Vanderfleet said. The board is incredible. Even if its a last-minute ask, theyre excited to help and super supportive.

Viterbos Engineering Advisory Board includes representatives from Braun Intertec, Chart Industries, Dairyland Power Cooperative, Fastenal, Inland Packaging, J.F. Brennan Co., Mathy Construction Co., Trane Technologies and Western Technical College.

The advisory board also includes two alumni members from the class of 2022: Jacqlyn Mathews, a product design engineer at Trane Technologies, and Jacob Lee, an automation engineer with Tailored Label Products and Manufacturing.

Mathews and Lee both recently came back to campus to take part in a panel of professional engineers offering insights to Viterbo students, and both expressed excitement about the ABET accreditation.

Im pretty excited about it, Lee said. There are some opportunities it opens up and it really shows the work that the professors and others at Viterbo have put into the program.

I think its really exciting for the program itself and for the companies that have put so much time and effort and resources into helping us build our program, Mathews added. I think it really shows all the work that everybody combined has put in to make this happen for the students.

Vanderfleet emphasized that one important component of achieving and retaining ABET accreditation is continuous improvement. Feedback from alumni like Lee and Mathews is vital for the improvement process as their professional experiences will help strengthen the way Viterbos program prepares new engineers for the workplace.
Senior citizens in Columbia County will have an opportunity to learn about financial and estate planning, new technologies and how to plan for the unexpected at Portage TRIADs annual fall conference on Thursday.

The event takes place from 1:30 to 4 p.m. in the Portage Municipal Building, 115 W. Pleasant St.

The workshop is free and will feature door prizes, senior-centered presentations and information booths, along with free food and drinks.

Representatives from St. Croix Hospice, SSM Health, Moments Hospice, Agrace Hospice, Brightstar, Our House Senior Living and the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Columbia County will attend.

Registration starts at 1 p.m., and walk-ups are welcome. The workshops first segment, at 1:30 p.m., will be an attorney-led financial and estate planning course. At 2:15 p.m. Portage High School students will assist with any technology-related questions, and at 3 p.m. participants will have the chance to learn how to plan for the unexpected with a social worker. In the last segment, at 3:45 p.m., seniors will have an opportunity to ask any remaining questions pertaining to the next chapter in their lives.

The Portage TRIAD group is composed of senior citizens throughout Columbia County who work to reduce crimes against the elderly through education, publications and socialization, said Megan Jahoda, Portage TRIAD group organizer and community service officer for the Portae Police Department.

The group meets at 1 p.m. on the second Monday of each month in the basement of Portage City Hall and offers seniors a chance to socialize as well as to stay informed about issues that can have an impact on their lives, organizers said.

A lot of our seniors live by themselves, said Jahoda. This group gives them the opportunity to get out and see people they normal wouldnt get to see, but it also informs them about things they may not know about ... I like to think this group keeps you young.

In addition to its monthly meetings, TRIAD holds two community events throughout the year, the fall conference and workshop and a spring bingo and spaghetti dinner.

The group also assists the Portage Police Department with its two yearly drug take-back collection days, where any expired or unused medications are properly collected and disposed of, organizers said.

The next drug collection day will take place from 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 28. at the Portage Public Library.

To join the Portage TRIAD group or to pre-register for Thursdays conference, call the Portage Police Department non-emergency line at (608) 742-2174.
Republicans who control the state Senates elections committee voted Tuesday against confirming Democratic Gov. Tony Evers appointment of Joseph Czarnezki to the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission  sending the matter to the GOP-controlled Senate, where Republicans could vote to fire him.

If Republicans vote to fire Czarnezki, it would  at least temporarily  create a 3-2 Republican majority on the commission, though Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who appointed Czarnezki earlier this year, has pledged to work quickly to name a new Democratic member to the agency to bring it back to its standard 3-3 partisan split.

The Senate committee on shared revenue, elections and consumer protection voted 3-2, along party lines, against Czarnezkis appointment, with Republicans on the committee taking aim at Czarnezki for being one of three Democratic members of the agency who abstained from voting on the reappointment of the commissions nonpartisan administrator Meagan Wolfe earlier this year in an effort to prevent the Senate from firing her.

I cannot support that person when there is such clear dereliction of duty already done, committee chair Sen. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, said before Tuesdays vote.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission in June split on a vote to reappoint Wolfe in a bid by Democratic commissioners to block her nomination from reaching the Senate. The three Republican members of the bipartisan commission voted to nominate her, and the three Democratic members, including Czarnezki, abstained. Czarnezkis appointment is the only one currently before the committee.

Senate Republicans have argued that the deadlocked vote actually constituted a majority since the three commissioners who cast votes voted in favor of appointing her. Others, including Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, have said an appointment can only be sent to the Senate by a vote from at least four members of the commission.

The Senate last month voted 22-11, along party lines, last month to reject what Republicans contend was the nomination of Wolfe in an effort to remove her from the position she has held since 2018. Kaul immediately filed a lawsuit, arguing there had been no nomination and the move by Senate Republicans blatantly ignored Wisconsin law. Wolfe has pledged to continue in her role pending a court decision on the matter.

Speaking with reporters after Tuesdays vote, Czarnezki said its his understanding that the commission will vote again on Wolfes appointment.

I think the commission will eventually take a vote on the administrator, but again thats just my opinion, Czarnezki said. I havent discussed it with any other commissioners, but thats just how I feel about it.

The six-member commission consists of three Democratic and three Republican appointees and is tasked with providing the states more than 1,800 local clerks with guidance and resources for administering elections. Four commissioners  two Republicans and two Democrats  are selected by their respective legislative leaders. Czarnezkis seat is one of two that must be filled by a former municipal or county clerk. The former clerk seats are appointed by the governor from a list provided by the states political parties and confirmed by the Senate.

Next steps

Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, said hes not worried that a vote by the Senate to fire Czarnezki would result in a temporary 3-2 Republican majority on the commission.

The governor can appoint faster than the Senate can fire, and there is going to be a Democratic former clerk in this position that the governor appoints off of a list provided by the Democratic Party, Spreitzer said.

I certainly hope the full Senate will confirm (Czarnezki). I think he makes a great commissioner. But if they choose not to confirm him, there will be another Democratic former clerk in this position.

Evers described efforts by legislative Republicans to reject his appointees as really kind of stupid politics in a post on social media Tuesday.

Lets be very clear: there will be no daylight between a floor vote by Senate Republicans to reject the governors appointments and naming appointments to replace them, Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback added in a subsequent social media post.

Wolfe has been the subject of scrutiny from legislative Republicans since the commission made changes to certain procedures in the 2020 general election in response to the COVID-19 pandemic  changes that have spurred some conservatives to falsely accuse her of malfeasance.

Much of the GOPs criticism over the states 2020 election has been fueled by former President Donald Trump, who continues to make baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 vote. A recount, court decisions and multiple reviews have affirmed that President Joe Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin by almost 21,000 votes.

Czarnezkis resume

Czarnezki, a former Milwaukee County Clerk, was appointed to the commission earlier this year by Gov. Tony Evers to fill the agencys Democratic seat formerly held by Julie Glancey. The term is set to expire in 2026.

Czarnezki earned a bachelors degree in economics and political science, as well as a masters in political science with an emphasis in public administration, from UW-Milwaukee, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He was elected to the state Assembly in 1980 and reelected in 1982. He was later elected to the state Senate in 1983 and reelected twice in 1984 and 1988. Czarnezki was elected Milwaukee County clerk in 2008 and 2012 and served on the Milwaukee County Board from 2020 to 2022.

Last month, Republicans on the Senates sporting heritage committee voted against confirming four of Evers appointees  Sharon Adams, Dylan Jennings, Sandra Dee Naas and Jim VandenBrook  to the Department of Natural Resources policy board. The committee voted unanimously to recommend confirming Evers appointee Paul Buhr.

The committees votes come as the board prepares to implement a new wolf management plan in Wisconsin, which does not include a hard population cap, despite demands from hunters and farmers for a specific numerical limit.

Gubernatorial appointees can serve in their respective roles without a formal confirmation from the state Senate. However, a vote by the chamber to reject confirmation amounts to firing that nominee.

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FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2022, photo, Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of Ethan Crumbley, a teenager accused of killing four students in a shooting at Oxford High School, appear in court in Rochester Hills, Mich. The Michigan Supreme Court turned down an appeal Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, clearing the way for the parents of the Oxford High School shooter to face trial on involuntary manslaughter charges. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, file)
FILE - President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office of the White House, Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington. The White House says Biden has been in touch with U.S. allies and partners to discuss continued support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Tuesday's conversation came after Biden signed legislation late Saturday to keep the U.S. government funded. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Republican presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence, right, next to AP National Politics Reporter Meg Kinnard, left, the moderator wave as they arrive, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, to an Associated Press 2024 GOP Presidential Candidates Conversations on National Security and Foreign Policy event, held in partnership with Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service, at Georgetown University in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
India tells Canada to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country, an official says

An official says India has told Canada to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country, ramping up a confrontation over Canadian accusations that India may have been involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in suburban Vancouver
The whole college admissions process can be overwhelming, for students and parents both. And the costs of testing and applications can seem never-ending. But more and more families are getting a boost in the admissions competition by hiring a consultant to advise on everything from high school course selection to essay writing to interview prep. A recent study shows that the hiring of private college counselors has almost tripled in recent years. These college admissions consultants often dont come cheap. In more expensive regions of the country, they can charge up to $10,000 per student, though some offer a sliding fee scale or assist needy families pro bono.

Finding a consultant is easy. Families can search the websites of the Higher Education Consultants Association (HECA) or the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) for referrals. But if you cant find a great consultant for free  as most families cannot  is hiring one worth the cost? Experts say that depends on your family ... and your kid. If a student is already on track by working with a caring school counselor, they dont necessarily need additional help.

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HECA President Scott S. Garbini, founder and lead consultant of Garbini Education and Career Consulting in New London, Connecticut, says, Sometimes I have an initial consultation with a parent or guardian, and I explain that they are already doing everything they need to be doing.

If the family or the student feels at sea, however, a consultant can simplify the college admissions process. Most families who work with a consultant begin during a students freshman or sophomore year in high school. But Lindsey Ringenbach, the director of college consulting at Advantage College Planning in Raleigh, North Carolina, says its OK to start later: We have worked with some students up to the fall of their senior year.

Families who do hire a consultant should make sure the person is someone who can work well with both the student and their high school guidance office, says Angelica Melendez, an adviser to college-bound students at Luther Burbank High School in San Antonio. Melendez has had successful collaborations with consultants in the past. 

If the family is up-front with the counselor and it's a collaboration to help the student meet with the goal, it's the best way to move forward," she says. But if the student tells the consultant something different from what they tell the counselor, it can cause issues.

And even if your child is basically on track, you may find that hiring an independent consultant offers one attractive perk: It allows you to outsource all the nagging about essays and deadlines to somebody else.
In the annals of human history, archaeological sites stand as invaluable time capsules, offering glimpses into past civilizations. Yet, tragically, the march of time and the whims of humanity have led to the irreversible destruction of many of these precious remnants. From the grandeur of ancient cities reduced to ruins by conflict to the pillaging of cultural treasures in the pursuit of profit, these archaeological sites bear the scars of our collective disregard for our shared heritage.

Bamiyan Buddhas

The Bamiyan Buddhas were statues located in the Bamiyan Valley of central Afghanistan. They were carved into the cliffs during the sixth century and were considered significant cultural and historical treasures. The larger of the two stood at a towering height of 175 feet, while the smaller one measured approximately 120 feet.

However, they were lost to the world in 2001 when the Taliban regime deemed them idols that must be destroyed.

This prompted international outrage and a meeting of ambassadors from the Organization of the Islamic Conference called for the regime to save the figures. India even offered to take the statues, so they could still be displayed, but these pleas were ignored. The Buddhas were destroyed with a combination of heavy machinery and explosives over several weeks. All that remains now is the inlet in the rock where they once stood.

City of Palmyra

The city of Palmyra was once a well-preserved archaeological site that dated back to the Roman era in Syria. Its home to many treasures, including the Temple of Bel, the Arch of Triumph, and numerous statues and tombs. In addition to artifacts from this period, researchers made discoveries in Palmyra dating as far back as the Neolithic period.

This all changed in 2015, however, when the city was targeted for destruction.

The Islamic State took control of the region and embarked on a deliberate campaign to obliterate its cultural heritage. The group targeted many of the most iconic historical places in the city, leaving destruction in their wake.

Despite the irreparable damage that was done, UNESCO and other organizations were able to document and assess the damage once the Syrian Army recaptured it. They also began restoring various monuments, including the Arch of Triumph.

Library of Nalanda University

The destruction of Nalanda Mahavihara, a renowned ancient Buddhist monastery and center of learning, occurred in 1202 CE during the invasion of Bakhtiyar Khilji. It was opened in 427 CE, and many historians say it was incredibly important to the emergence of academic pursuits in the following years. It housed thousands of students and scholars from various parts of the world and was considered a hub of ancient knowledge.

The assault resulted in the complete ransacking and burning of the institution, leading to the loss of invaluable manuscripts, scriptures and artifacts. According to a BBC article, the campus was so large that the fire burned for three months. Although it was partially restored and remained in operation until the 1400s, it predominantly stands in ruins today.

It is now a UNESCO site that preserves the remaining structures of Nalanda.

City of Persepolis

The city of Persepolis was dated to 515 BC. Located in present-day Iran, it met its tragic fate in 330 BC when the army of Alexander the Great ravaged it during his conquest of the Persian Empire.

The magnificent capital was set ablaze and looted, resulting in the extensive destruction of its palaces, temples and intricate artworks. Supposedly, this was done as an act of vengeance for when the Persians burned many Greek cities.

The loss of Persepolis was a devastating blow to ancient Persias architectural marvels and cultural heritage. The ruins of still remain, giving a glimpse of the citys former grandeur. Today, Persepolis is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, attracting visitors worldwide who come to marvel at the remnants of this once majestic city.

Old Summer Palace

The Old Summer Palace in China, also known as Yuanmingyuan, was built during the 18th and 19th centuries to serve as the home to members of the Qing Dynasty. It was a vast property, spanning over 800 acres.

It suffered a devastating fate during the Second Opium War. In 1860, British and French troops looted and set fire to the palace complex, resulting in widespread destruction. Priceless treasures were pillaged or lost in the flames, including irreplaceable art, rare manuscripts and ancient artifacts.

The destruction of the Old Summer Palace was a significant blow to Chinas cultural heritage, as the palace represented centuries of imperial history and artistic achievements. Some restoration efforts have been made, but, for the most part, the site has been turned into a park where visitors can walk about and see the remains for themselves.

Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House in Valletta, Malta suffered a tragic fate on the night of April 7, 1942 during World War II. Originally built in 1866, it was damaged during a fire in 1873 and repaired a few years later. It was a stunning architectural feat and considered by many to be one of the most incredible buildings in Valletta.

It was tragically destroyed when it was hit during a Luftwaffe bombing raid, reducing the structure to a smoldering ruin. Despite the destruction, the spirit of the Royal Opera House lives on, with efforts made to preserve its memory and rebuild a new theater in its honor. As of 2013, the site was turned into an open-air theater situated amongst the ruins of the Royal Opera House.

Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall

The Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall opened in 1915 along the Motoyasu River, within the business district of Hiroshima, Japan. The building is better known as the Atomic Bomb Dome after it was mostly destroyed during the bombing on August 6, 1945.

Located near the hypocenter of the explosion, it was left in ruins, with its dome structure partially intact, thanks to steel and stone building materials.

Plans were initially to tear the building down, but this was heavily contested and, ultimately, it was transformed into a memorial for the event, due to how well-preserved it was. Between 1950-64, the surrounding area was turned into the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

More from us: Restored Footage Shows San Francisco Just Days Before the Devastating 1906 Earthquake

The Atomic Bomb Dome now serves as a stark reminder of the tragic consequences of nuclear warfare and the loss of countless lives. Despite its destruction, the domes survival has made it a poignant symbol of peace and turned it into a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


Steelpoortdrift and Tweefontein Projects Update

Perth, Oct 4, 2023 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Vanadium Resources Limited ( ASX:VR8 ) ( TR3:FRA ) is pleased to provide an update on the progress of the Steelpoortdrift Vanadium Project (the "Project") in Limpopo, South Africa. Following the release of the Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS") in October 2022, the Company has been busy progressing various workstreams with respect to the development, construction, offtake and financing of the Project.



HIGHLIGHTS



- Environmental authorisations and water use licence applications progressing well with approval expected H1 CY2024



- Social and Labour Plan amendments submitted to regulators for review after receiving clear community encouragement and support



- Front-end engineering design ("FEED") commenced with designs and tender packages to be finalised ahead of Final Investment Decision ("FID")



- Both VR8 and Matrix have reaffirmed their commitment to enter into agency and offtake agreements to achieve the outcomes envisioned in the memorandum of understanding concluded in May 2023



- Agreements to increase the Company's interest in the project to 86.49% remain conditional with one awaiting South African Reserve Bank ("SARB") approval and both being conditional upon the Company deciding, in its discretion, to proceed with the transactions.



- Environmental Impact Assessment for construction of Rope Conveyor between Steelpoortdrift and Tweefontein operations initiated



- VR8's engineering and support team to be expanded to include a Concentrate Manager, Salt Roast Leach ("SRL") Manager, Infrastructure (Power & Water) Manager, Contracts Manager, Mine Manager and HR Manager



- Various power and water solutions under investigation for provision to both the Steelpoortdrift and Tweefontein operations



- To mitigate construction risks, Project delivery model expected to lean on multiple Engineering, Procurement and Construction ("EPC") contracts over core elements of the operation, with oversight by experienced project managers to mitigate interface risks



- Updated project implementation plan includes a revised target for FID to be targeted for H2 CY2024 with first production in H1 CY2026



- Negotiations continue with potential financing and offtake parties as the Company seeks to conclude binding offtake agreements and engage lead arrangers of construction funding solutions



Mr John Ciganek, Managing Director of VR8, commented: "We are pleased to have made significant progress on the Steelpoortdrift Vanadium Project since finalising the DFS as we continue to plan for construction. The Company, our engineers and advisers are working hard to progress critical path items and ensure that the preparations are completed both diligently and efficiently to mitigate technical and financing risks. While the modified implementation plan includes a revised FID target, the plan now includes optimised processes and allows for greater visibility around construction, which will provide greater certainty and reduce overall project risk resulting in a more optimised and robust project. We look forward to achieving key developmental milestones in the coming months and updating the market as we deliver against the refined implementation plan."



ENVIRONMENTAL AUTHORISATION & WATER USE LICENCE APPLICATIONS



Following the completion of the DFS, the Company has worked closely with Red Kite Environmental Solutions (Pty) Ltd ("Red Kite") to prepare and apply for the relevant authorisations, licences or permits relevant to both the Mine / Concentrator ("Concentrator") and Salt Roast Leach ("SRL") sites. The initial Environmental Authorisation Applications and Scoping Reports for both sites have now been completed and reviewed, with acceptance of the final Scoping Reports received from the relevant authorities in June 2023.



The current focus of the Company and Red Kite is preparing and finalising the Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Management Program for each site. These are both well progressed and will be distributed for public comment in September 2023 before being submitted for final approval. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy ("DMRE") will assess the applications for the Mine / Concentrator site, while the SRL site application will be considered by the Limpopo Economic Development, Environment & Tourism. The current guidance provided to the Company regarding the timing of final approvals of these applications is early H1 CY2024.



Integrated Water Use Licence Applications for both sites have been significantly progressed and are in the final phase of the application process with the Department of Water and Sanitation ("DWS"). Technical reports have been drafted for each application in preparation for a consultation and review process before final submission to the DWS. Minor changes to the water usage following updates to the plant design will require review by the DWS before the reports can be finalised and submitted. It is expected that the initial review and final assessment by the DWS will take approximately three months, with approvals currently expected in early H1 CY2024.



SOCIAL AND LABOUR PLAN, COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & RE-ZONING APPLICATIONS



A key component of obtaining and maintaining the Mining Right is to have a Social and Labour Plan ("SLP") approved by the DMRE. Vanadium Resources (Pty) Ltd ("VanRes"), as the entity holding the Mining Right, had the original SLP approved in order to be awarded the Mining Right and has continued to update the SLP as the Project has evolved. Following the release of the DFS, the SLP required a number of amendments based on the updated designs and planning that underpinned the Ore Reserve Estimate. The Company has continued to work with Sound Mining Xcellence (Proprietary) Limited ("Sound Mining") to ensure that the appropriate processes and background work is completed to meet the required regulations.



The additional work undertaken on the SLP by Sound Mining and the Company has included an assessment of the impact of the proposed activities on the local communities, including both the social and economic impacts and benefits. It also includes significant planning and development of procedures around employment, training, procurement and potential infrastructure to ensure that the Project has a positive socio-economic impact.



Significant engagement and consultation with the local communities is a key part of this work to ensure a full understanding of the matters of importance to each community and that the best solutions are implemented to achieve beneficial long-term development. The Company has built strong relationships with the local communities and has had productive engagement and discussions throughout this process.



The revised SLP has been completed and provided to the DMRE for review, with approval expected to take approximately three to four months following submission.



In parallel with the SLP, the Company has also progressed re-zoning applications to ensure the relevant zoning is in place for the land on which the mining and concentrating activities will take place. While the Mining Right has been granted over the whole property, Steelpoortdrift 365-KT, it is important that the individual areas are zoned appropriately for the activities that will take place including mining, concentrating and installing the photovoltaic ("PV") solar plant. The appropriate applications have all been prepared and were recently submitted to the Municipality for their review and approval.



ENGINEERING - DESIGN, TENDERING & AWARDING CONTRACTS



As previously announced, the Company appointed Mr Alex Oehmen as the General Manager Operations in February 2023. He immediately commenced an internal review of the process flowsheets, equipment selection and designs for the Concentrator plant and SRL plant. Several minor changes to the initial design and equipment selection were identified as part of this review, with the changes focused on improving the efficiency and reliability of the operations to ensure it will achieve the targeted vanadium pentoxide specifications and production rate.



The Company has now commenced work on the front-end engineering design ("FEED"), working with the key engineering firms for the Concentrator and SRL plants to make the Project construction ready. The current focus is on locking down the final detailed designs of the plants and drafting maps to show the position of equipment and plant in relation to each other. These maps, one for each site, include waste disposal sites, buildings, roads and various other relevant plant. The FEED work will also include schedule optimisation and the development of the Project Execution and Operational Readiness plans.



As the detailed designs are completed, a tender will be drawn up for each specific piece of plant/equipment by the appropriate technical experts and reviewed from a legal/contract perspective. Finalisation of these tenders is expected by the end of CY2023, at which point they will be issued to pre-identified suppliers. The Company expects to receive responses to the tenders in H1 CY2024, and once received, the Company will aim to award tenders and finalise contracts in early H2 CY2024.



CONTRACTOR DELIVERY AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT



In preparation for FID and construction, the Company has been finalising the delivery strategy for the Project. The Company plans to implement a series of Engineering, Procurement and Construction ("EPC") contracts across the Project with a view to ensuring that the appropriate engineering firm and/or equipment manufacturer has the necessary expertise, experience and ability to provide relevant performance guarantees and liquidated damages for that part of the plant. Given the specialised nature of key pieces of equipment, the variety of suppliers required and the experience of local engineering firms, the delivery will be split into a series of EPC contracts instead of one individual contract.



The Company has identified several suppliers for the key pieces of plant and equipment, with many of these having specific experience in the vanadium industry. To reduce the number of construction packages, several sections of the equipment will be combined into packages to be managed as a mini-project within the wider construction scope.



To assist in coordinating the vendors and individual EPC contracts, a Project Manager will be appointed for each site who will be tasked with managing the interface risks, together with a further Project Manager who will oversee the entire development and construction of the Project. While the costs of adopting this EPC delivery model are potentially higher than the Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management model, the fixed price contracts will provide greater certainty and reduce overall project risk. All contracts, including project management, will include incentives around delivering the project on time and on budget as well as liquidated damages where relevant.



On this basis, the Company has identified relevant engineering firms with appropriate experience in the construction and operation of vanadium projects to develop detailed designs and tender packages with a view to ensuring that the Company maintains close control of the flowsheet, equipment selection and preferred engineering firm and/or supplier.



STEELPOORTDRIFT AND TWEEFONTEIN PROJECT UPDATE



In addition to the above workstreams, the Company is progressing the following key areas around the project:



- Site Access Road: Preparations are underway for the construction of an alternative site access road to the Steelpoortdrift project from the main road that will bypass the existing access road through community residential areas in the interests of safety to the community and efficiency of operations. The Company is in the process of obtaining quotes and the relevant approvals required.



- Solar Power: Kadoma Investments (Pty) Limited ("Kadoma") has continued to advance the proposed 35MW PV solar plant which will be located adjacent to and will supply power to the SRL site at Tweefontein.



Kadoma has also been recently engaged to assist in designing the 10MW PV solar farm at the mining and concentrator site at Steelpoortdrift.



- Rope Conveyor: Discussions with potential suppliers and initial analysis show a rope conveyor transporting the concentrate to the SRL site would be a more economic and efficient way than by trucks as proposed in the DFS. The Company plans to mandate a group to complete a Pre-Feasibility Study on the Rope Conveyor to better understand the economics, timing and environmental impact.



- Project Management Team: The Company has commenced recruitment of additional engineers and staff to assist with the management of the Project and preparing for Construction.



- Acquisition of SRL Site: The Company remains in discussions with Kadoma with respect to an extension of the timing for the option to acquire the proposed SRL site from Kadoma (currently set to expire on 30 September 2023). The Company expects to exercise the option prior to expiry but has the support of Kadoma to extend this option if required.



- Increased Project Interest: Having concluded agreements to increase the Company's interest in the project to 86.49%, one transaction remains conditional upon South African Reserve Bank ("SARB") for approval and both are conditional upon the Company deciding, in its discretion, to proceed with the transaction after receiving legal advice in relation to the "once empowered, always empowered" principle that the transaction may complete without reactivating minimum Black Economic Empowerment ownership requirements and whether it is a requirement for the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy to consent to an amendment of the mining rights held by VanRes pursuant to the agreements. At this stage, the Company has obtained approval from SARB with respect to Obeec (Pty) Ltd (in relation its 7.95% shareholding of VanRes) and SARB has requested the holder of Math-pin Trust ("Math-pin") to restructure the entity into a company structure, which has been completed and is about to be resubmitted to the SARB. No guidance on the timing of SARB's decision with respect to Math-pin is available and both agreements will remain incomplete until a final decision by the Board of the Company to proceed as been made. The conditions are to be satisfied or waived by the Company by no later than 23 October 2023, unless renewed. Once any one of the agreements have become unconditional, the Company will announce it.



A revised Project timeline is set out below in line with the updated project implementation plan with FID targeted by H2 CY2024. While the revised timeline is a delay to the original FID target, the Board and Management are confident in the implementation plan and are focused on delivering a high-quality project that is robust, efficient and will maximise the potential value of the Steelpoortdrift deposit.



OFFTAKE PROCESS



Following the completion of the strategic placement to Matrix in May 2023, the Company has been focused on negotiating the terms of agency and offtake agreements for 40% of vanadium products produced from Phase 1 operations of the Project over a 10-year term. While the initial four-month exclusivity period granted to Matrix has expired, the Company is pleased to report that these discussions are progressing with Matrix and that both parties have reaffirmed their commitment to seek to enter into agency and offtake agreements to achieve the outcomes envisioned in the memorandum of understanding concluded in May 2023. The outcome aimed for by both parties is consensus that will ensure mutually beneficial terms and terms that are both suitable to potential construction debt financiers and to the Asian market.



Significant interest has been shown in the remaining agency and offtake available, with multiple indicative term sheets and expressions of interest provided to the Company over the last six months from North American and European groups. Following evaluation of the available options, the Company has progressed discussions and entered into negotiations with a view to securing an agency and/or offtake agreement and strategic equity investment. While the Company is pleased to have progressed negotiations on securing further agency and/or offtake, there is no guarantee that these discussions will culminate in a completed transaction.



FUNDING PROCESS



As previously reported, the Company is pleased to have several potential funding pathways available to finance the Project having received a number of non-binding indicative term sheets from debt financiers. Discussions with potential debt financiers have continued as the Company aims to progress to obtaining credit approved term sheets and ensure that the Project is ready for a due diligence process. With the engineering and technical side of the Project progressing well and the preparation of binding offtake agreements taking place, the Company will aim to proceed to mandating debt financiers during the next few months.



*To view tables and figures, please visit:

https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/8256TFR1





About Vanadium Resources Limited





Vanadium Resources Limited (ASX:VR8) (FRA:TR3) is developing the Steelpoortdrift Vanadium Project, a 74% owned, tier 1, licensed mining project located in the Limpopo Province of South Africa (86.49% interest subject to completion as announced in May 2023).

The Steelpoortdrift project is titaniferous magnetite deposit and is located in the prolific Bushveld Geological Complex within a known mineral and vanadium producing area. Accordingly, the Project is within reach of proven processing plants, railway and road options, ports and utilities.

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YouTube/Instagram Celebrity

The 'World War Z' actor took inspirations from the Goop founder for his gender neutral beauty line and she has nothing but good words for his new business venture.

Oct 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Gwyneth Paltrow praised her ex-partner Brad Pitt's Le Domaine Skincare line. The "Fight Club" star, 59, released his gender neural line last October and his former fiancee - whom he was with from 1994 to 1997 - was on his PR mailing list to receive some of the goodies, and they have her seal of approval.

"It's good. Yeah, it's really beautiful," the 51-year-old star said to The New York Times. Brad was actually inspired by Gwyneth's lifestyle brand Goop to start his own brand. He told Vogue magazine last year, "I love what Gwyneth's done [with Goop]. She is still a really dear friend, and she has built this empire. She has always had that in her as a curator, and it's been a lovely creative outlet for her."

The luxury line Le Domaine is described as "science-meets-nature" with a face cream, cleanser and serum available. Brad said, "I know there are new products nearly every day that people are trying to launch, but if I hadn't seen a real difference visually in my skin, we wouldn't have bothered."

The Hollywood star went on to state that he doesn't want to be seen as "running from ageing." He said, "It's a concept we can't escape, and I would like to see our culture embracing it a bit more, talking about it in those terms. Something we discussed [in founding Le Domaine] was this headline of 'anti-ageing'. It's ridiculous. It's a fairytale. But what is real is treating your skin in a healthy manner."

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The 'Woman in Gold' actress finally addresses the backlash over her casting as former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the Guy Nattiv-directed feature film.

Oct 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Dame Helen Mirren has admitted there is a "very delicate balance" to playing people with a different heritage. The 78-year-old star stars as former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in Guy Nattiv's biopic "Golda" although her casting was met with a backlash because she is not Jewish and she "can see" why some are uncomfortable with her role.

"I think I can see, but sometimes I can't see, because, I can't see who in this room is Jewish. We are all such an amazing mix and certainly I don't have an issue with Kirk Douglas playing a Viking. Kirk Douglas was Jewish," Helen said on the BBC's "Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg".

Bradley Cooper also faced criticism for wearing make-up to amplify the size of his nose as he depicts conductor Leonard Bernstein in the Netflix film "Maestro" and Mirren realises the pitfalls of playing characters from different cultures.

The "Calendar Girls" star said, "I think the whole question of assuming a certain physiognomy because you're playing a particular race, there is something offensive about that. On the other hand, if you're playing Leonard Bernstein and this is really what Leonard Bernstein looked like, you know, maybe it's a good idea. As I say, it's a very delicate balance."

"Golda" explores the life of Israel's first female Prime Minister, particularly during the Yom Kippur War, and Helen is aware of the controversy surrounding Golda's treatment of Palestinians. She said, "All I'm doing is playing Golda during the period of the Yom Kippur War. I'm not explaining her or rationalising her or reappraising her. I'm just playing a woman of that age dealing with that situation."

Mirren also said that she was inspired by Golda's leadership during the conflict - when Israel was rocked by a twin attack by Arab powers Syria and Egypt on the morning of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.

"The Queen" actress said, "Just the fact she didn't put on power suits and walk around like, 'I'm running a country.' On the contrary, she just stayed exactly who she was before she became prime minister. It was an incredibly important moment in female history, for me personally, to see that happen."

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The 'Beverly Hills, 90210' actress keeps mum on criticisms targeting her amid alleged financial issue and instead proudly commends her children for their kindness.

Oct 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Tori Spelling has applauded her children for their "kindness" and "empathy." The "Beverly Hills, 90210" actress, 50, who has been staying with her five kids in a motorhome amid widely rumoured financial troubles, posed with son Liam, 16, and daughter Stella, 25, before they attended their high school's dance over the weekend.

"I'm sorry, little Monkey and Buggy can't come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, 'cause they're grown!" She captioned the snap posted to her Instagram on Sunday, October 1.

"Little mama had to get one pic with my babes. Forever in my eyes they'll appear their 2 and 3 year old selves with me holding their hands. Now, both taller than me. It happens!"

Tori went on to praise her eldest two children for their "kindness, empathy and confidence" and called them "wise and aware and just really cool humans."

She concluded her post, "Proud to be their mom. I trust these 2 because they are just good kids and GET IT! So filled with love and beaming with proudness as mama helps baby birds take flight. No doubt these 2 will soar! And, best of all, they deserve to!"

Tori also has children Hattie, 12, Finn, 11, and Beau, six, with her estranged 56-year-old "Due South" actor husband Dean McDermott.

Her post comes after she was trolled for apparently splashing out on fillers despite living with her children in an RV.

The actress was targeted online after she posted a series of photos and videos of her posing alongside her former co-star Brian Austin Green, 50, on a red carpet for a '90s Con event in Tampa, Florida, at the end of September.

Many said it was clear she'd had "work done" to her face and questioned how she could afford it amid reports she is struggling to find cash after moving into a motorhome on a campsite with her brood. Others defended Tori, saying she looked "great" and urged her to do what "makes her feel confident and happy."

It's been widely reported the actress has been struggling with money following her separation from Dean, who announced their split in June in a now-deleted social media post, following 17 years of marriage to Tori.

The split came one month after the actress revealed her kids were ill from "extreme" mold in their rental home that resulted in her first checking her family into a $100-per-night motel before moving them to an RV in August.

Tori and her mother are also said to have been virtually estranged since Candy Spelling, 78, was named by her late TV producer titan husband Aaron Spelling as the sole heir of his $600 million fortune.

But Tori posted a series of throwback images of her and Candy last month with a message that referred to "tickle fests" and ice cream fights with her mum and 44-year-old brother Randy Spelling.

An insider has told Page Six Candy had found a place for Tori and her grandkids to live after they moved out of their family home, but she was turned down.

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The 'Queen's Gambit' actress and 'Peaky Blinders' actor celebrate their union with family and friends, roughly a year after they secretly tied the knot in courthouse.

Oct 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Anya Taylor-Joy and Malcolm McRae invited a string of VIPs to witness them say "I do" for the second time during a star-studded wedding in Italy. The actress, 27, and musician, 29, married in a courthouse wedding last summer, but were joined by more than 150 of their closest friends and family to finally celebrate their nuptials over the weekend.

Model Cara Delevingne, along with Julia Garner, Nicolas Hoult, Miles Teller and his wife, Keleigh, was among their guest list.

Anna and Malcolm reportedly got hitched at the historic Palazzo Pisani Moretta, a 15th-century palace, on Venice's Grand Canal. Before the big day, Anna was spotted enjoying a cup of coffee on her balcony before getting glammed up.

Hours later, the actress emerged on the same terrace in an unconventional bridal look - choosing a beige ballgown with colourful embroidered birds and flowers across the corset-like bodice and full skirt, instead of the traditional white wedding gown. But the "Peaky Blinders" actress kept some tradition by completing her look with a stark white veil.

She and Malcolm, who started dating in May 2021, have kept most of their relationship out of the public eye. But Page Six exclusively revealed in July 2022 that the pair secretly tied the knot.

According to our sources, the couple got married in an intimate courthouse wedding in the US before the Netflix star had to fly to Australia for a project.

Malcolm said he was so smitten with Anna when they met he went home afterwards and wrote a song about her. He admitted on Instagram in March 2022 about his track "Really Want to See You Again", "I wrote this song for Anya two days after meeting her."

The same month, Anna told British Vogue about their romance, "I said to my partner the other day that he was my hobby. I've finally found someone who will happily sit in silence with me reading. We're basically 80 years old and 7 at the same time, and it works really well."

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Back in 2022, the reality TV star caught heat for her relationship with the fashion brand when it was under fire over an ad featuring children holding teddy bears with BDSM harnesses and costumes.

Oct 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Kim Kardashian is back to show support for Balenciaga. While she didn't walk for the brand, "The Kardashians" star modeled a Balenciaga dress during Paris Fashion Week following controversy surrounding its BDSM-themed promo involving kids.

In a new photo posted on the luxury fashion house's official Instagram account on Sunday, October 1, Kim could be seen modeling Look 61 from the Spanish brand's Summer 24 Collection. The look consisted of 3D Molded Wet Dress, Sock-On-Heel Pantaleggings and Knife Pantashoes

Upon learning of Kim's return to the brand, Internet users immediately expressed their thoughts in the comments section which is limited. "Ugh I thought Kim was done with Balenciaga, but look how cute," one person wrote. "That was quick," another user commented.

Further blasting the SKIMS founder, one other added, "Shes such a loser for this she has absolutely no morals." Others ridiculed the ensemble with one saying, "Oil spill but make it fashion." Echoing the sentiment, another said, "Trash bag dress from a trash company."

Back in November 2022, Kim caught heat for her relationship with Balenciaga when the fashion company was under fire over an ad featuring children holding teddy bears with BDSM harnesses and costumes. The KKW Beauty founder eventually broke her silence in a statement, in which she explained why she didn't immediately speak up about the matter.

"I have been quiet for the past few days, not because I haven't been disgusted and outraged by the recent Balenciaga campaigns, but because I wanted an opportunity to speak to their team to understand for myself how this could have happened," Kim, who has four children with ex-husband Kanye West, wrote at the time.

"As a mother of four, I have been shaken by the disturbing images. The safety of children must be held with the highest regard and any attempts to normalize child abuse of any kind should have no place in our society - period," she cocncluded. The "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" alum also revealed in a separate post that she was "re-evaluating my relationship with the brand."

Kim further reflected on the ordeal when she appeared in an episode of "Angie Martinez IRL" podcast in December of the same year. "Even with the Balenciaga thing, it was like, everyone was like, 'Why aren't you speaking out? Why aren't you speaking out?' " the reality TV star recalled. "And I'm like, 'Wait, I'm not in this campaign. I don't know what's happening. Let me, like, take a minute to research this.' "

"And then as soon as I saw what everyone was seeing on the internet and the reality of the situation, I completely spoke out and gave my thoughts on child porn and completely denounced it," she added. "Because I didn't say, 'F**k you, Balenciaga,' that's it, people got mad at that. So, it's like they're mad if I don't speak out, they're mad if I do speak out and if I don't cancel [the brand]."

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Ahead of the Disney+ show's season 2 premiere, its executive producer Kevin Wright discusses why the Kang the Conqueror depictor's arrest didn't impact the series.

Oct 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Jonathan Majors' domestic violence charges have greatly affected his career, but his involvement on "Loki" remains intact. Ahead of the Disney+ show's season 2 premiere, its executive producer Kevin Wright discusses why the actor's arrest didn't impact the series.

Speaking with Variety, Kevin assured fans that the Kang the Conqueror depictor would return for the sophomore season. The EP shared that the arrest had no impact on filming, which was wrapped in 2022, because the upcoming season "is the first Marvel series to never have any additional photography."

"The story that is on screen is the story we set out to make," Kevin explained. "We went out there with a very specific idea of what we wanted this to be, and we found a way to tell it in that production period. It's very much what's onscreen on Disney+."

Kevin also said that there hasn't even been a discussion about replacing the actor following his scandal. "I know as much as you do at the moment. It felt hasty to do anything without knowing how all of this plays out," he shared.

Jonathan was taken into custody on March 25 after an alleged domestic dispute with his girlfriend. After being delayed three times, his domestic violence trial is currently set to begin on October 25.

Elsewhere in the interview, the executive producer talked about casting Ke Huy Quan as OB. "We were in London, so I had at least some version of our scripts. The way the process works, they're always being rewritten, but OB was in there, and his introduction scene was almost exactly as originally written. I would like to say it was in early spring, which was maybe just two months before we started shooting. We were casting, and 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' was playing in L.A. and in New York, but it hadn't gone nationwide yet," Kevin recalled.

"I think it was going the very next week. We had gotten a call from our casting director who said, 'Hey, I'm about to put together a list for OB - just initial thoughts. But before I do that, I really think you guys should meet Ke, and I think it should be Ke. I think you guys should meet with him quick, because probably by Monday, he's going to have a lot of offers for different things," he continued.

They finally got on a Zoom together with the Oscar-winning actor alongside directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. He added, "We pitched him the show and this character. We shared that introduction scene with him and maybe the full script. And then we called in the big guns that Monday; Kevin Feige got on the phone with him and said, 'Ke, I know you read the script. I know you talked to the guys. We really think you should do this. I really want you to join the Marvel family.' And he had already made up his mind over the weekend. It was like, 'I'm there. I've been a huge fan of this for a long time.' "

Season 2 of "Loki" will premiere on Disney+ on October 5.

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The 50-year-old cast member of 'The Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip' reveals on on her X page that one of her sons had to call 911 after she collapsed.

Oct 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Brandi Glanville has claimed being so stressed from the "threat of a bad edit" of "Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip" is "partly" why she collapsed and was rushed to hospital. The 50-year-old reality revealed on Sunday, October 1 that one of her sons had to call 911 after she collapsed.

She wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that, "I collapsed at home this am and my SON had to call 911 for help!" The former star of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills", who has Mason Edward, 20, and Jake Austin, 16, with ex-husband Eddie Cibrian, added, "You guys have no idea the amount of stress I m dealing with."

Brandi later suggested that her drama with Caroline Manzo on the spin-off show has left her fearing how the show will edit it together. She then showed the medical team looking after her and quipped that she can't escape Bravo as she had a Dr. Cohen like "Real Housewives" boss Andy Cohen and nurse Ciara, seemingly reminding her of "Summer House" star Ciara Miller.

She captioned a picture of the notice board, "No escaping @BravoTV even in the ER !! Look at my Dr. and nurses name. being held hostage by the threat of a bad edit is partly the problem. (sic)."

It was reported that Brandi allegedly inappropriately touched "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" star during their trip to Marrakech, Morocco for the programme. Addressing the allegations, she said, "I like resolution. I would just like to talk to her and figure this out. But I don't think that's happening, and that's unfortunate. I'm kind of stuck waiting until the show comes out."

The former model claims she has lost work due to the "gossip." She continued, "When there's gossip about you out there it's devastating. No one wants to work with you. All of my jobs cancelled. It's been really difficult."

Brandi says she and Caroline were "very intoxicated" at the time. She posted to X, "I can speak on anything I want to speak on, it was at the end of an 18-hour work day at our belly dancing party and I'd like to see footage on it beforehand as both myself and Caroline were very intoxicated."

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Meanwhile, it is said that the 59-year-old 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' actor's jewelry designer girlfriend has become 'very close' with the Oscar winner's inner circle.

Oct 4, 2023

AceShowbiz - Brad Pitt has yet to bring his girlfriend Ines de Ramos to meet his kids, whom he shares with ex-wife Angelina Jolie. If a new report is to be believed, the "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" actor "isn't in rush" to do so.

"It's not that he doesn't love Ines, it's just that he wants to ensure this relationship is going the distance before he takes that major step," an insider told Us Weekly on Monday, October 2.

The source went on to say that the new couple's "relationship is stronger than ever." It was also said that the jewelry designer has even become "very close" with the Oscar winner's inner circle.

However, the "Fight Club" star, who has Maddox (22), Pax (19), Zahara (18), Shiloh (17) and twins Vivienne and Knox (15) with the "Maleficent" actress, allegedly doesn't want to "push things unless it unfolds organically" when it comes to his family. The insider further noted that while Brad has "dated a few women over the years," none of them have met his children.

Brad and Ramon were first romantically linked in November 2022. At the time, the pair, who allegedly had been dating for a few months before going public with their relationship, were spotted together at a Bono concert in Los Angeles, months after her split from Paul Wesley.

The couple further proved that they were getting serious when they were snapped making out on the "Bullet Train" star's birthday last December. The two later went to enjoy a getaway to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where the designer sunbathed topless.

Another report claimed the couple is "doing great." The insider told PEOPLE in July, "The two have been spending a lot of time together this summer as they truly enjoy each other's company and are very into each other," adding that they are "going very strong. It's apparent to anyone who sees them together."

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The 'Bodak Yellow' hitmaker is accused of being 'in denial' after she reacts to Ye claiming that she doesn't write her own verses by posting an old interview video wherein he raves over her talent.

Oct 4, 2023

AceShowbiz - Cardi B has been trolled by social media users over her nonchalant response to Kanye West's Illuminati allegations. Instead of clapping back at the Atlanta rapper, she tried to fight the claim by posting a video of his glowing reviews of her talent.

The internet was trying to pit Cardi against Ye after a segment from an unreleased documentary leaked online on Sunday, October 1. In the viral footage, the controversial rapper bashed the Bronx femcee as saying, "Cardi B is a plant by the Illuminati."

"She doesn't write her raps," the Yeezy designer continued to claim. "She's just there to sound as ignorant as possible. She's literally replaced Nicki Minaj purposely she thinks it's a blessing from the universe, it ain't no f**king blessing."

Cardi seemingly didn't care about his Illuminati diss or she didn't get it as she reacted by posting a clip of an interview Ye took part in last year with Hollywood Unlocked. During the interview, the "Gold Digger" spitter spoke about their collaboration with Lil Durk.

"My cousins were saying 'come by here' yesterday but I was finishing that verse for your girl, you know what I mean. Like I always believed in her, since she was on the show, period," the "Donda" artist said.

Cardi captioned the clip with a red heart emoji on X, formerly known as Twitter. The tweet, however, has since been removed after she was savagely mocked by social media users.

"This means nothing he still said u a plant you think you ate," one person commented under Cardi's post. "Oh she's in denial," another remarked.

"This proves nothing sweetie you're still a fraud," a third wrote, while a fourth asked, "What's more believable? A behind the doors conversation or an interview with ur friend who just coerced him to do a collab with u?"

Someone else, meanwhile, seemingly praised Cardi for taking the high road, noting, "NOW THATS HOW U RESPOND!"

Cardi has not directedly responded to the backlash, but she has posted a video in which she warned her haters. "People love Cinderella, so Cinderella gets a glass house," she said, seemingly comparing her situation to that of the fictional princess. "Let me keep it cute. Leave me the f**k alone," she added.

The 30-year-old claimed she has years of worth of "receipts" that will "bring this Internet into f**king shambles." She ominously warned, "You don't even f**king know. It will be crazy. This s**t will go down!"

"Leave me alone, cuz you're not gonna be ready for that. Let me mind my business...," she further told her critics, before concluding in the video, "Don't try to bring Belcalis out. Love Cardi B. Leave me there."

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The 26-year-old Los Angeles rapper, who was arrested back in November 2022, receives the sentence after pleading guilty to charges of battery and discharging a firearm at or into an occupied structure in July.

Oct 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Blueface managed to avoid jail time in his Las Vegas shooting case. The "Thotiana" emcee has been sentenced to three years probation after entering a guilty plea.

The 26-year-old, born Johnathan Porter, pleaded guilty to charges of battery and discharging a firearm at or into an occupied structure in July. As a part of the plea deal, the rapper is not allowed to consume alcohol or drugs, possess weapons, or contact the victim.

Blueface will also have to avoid the Las Vegas Strip and the city's downtown area, except for work-related business.

Responding to the sentencing, Blueface's lawyer, Kristina M. Wildeveld, said in a statement, "This morning Mr. Porter was sentenced to probation not to exceed three years and he has the ability to earn a reduction to a gross misdemeanor charge upon successful completion of his probation." The attorney added, "We were pleased that the Court followed the negotiations of the parties in this matter Mr. Porter is ultimately just looking forward to getting back to focusing on his music career and moving forward with his life."

Kristina went on to note that there was "a strange moment" during the sentencing hearing on Monday, October 2. "The complaining witness raised his phone to take a selfie with Mr. Porter from the lectern as he was finishing his victim impact statement," she claimed. "That was a first for us in our decades of litigation advocacy."

The shooting case occurred at the Euphoric Gentlemen's Club in Las Vegas on October 8, 2022. It all started after a man joked about Blueface chatting with "some females in a cheap vehicle." The rap star didn't like the joke and members of his entourage allegedly hit the man "multiple times."

The man later returned to the club in his truck and asked the crew, "Who hit me?!" But Blueface and his crew might have thought he was "going for a gun," leading to the rapper allegedly firing shots at the man's truck as he fled. Cops claimed they did find bullet marks on the truck while its owner suffered what appeared to be a "bullet graze wound" on his left hand.

Blueface was arrested and booked into Clark County Detention Center for attempted murder before appearing in court on November 16. He was later released from police custody on a $50,000 bail.

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The 'N***as in Paris' hitmaker voices his frustration during his marriage to the 'Kardashians' star in a clip surfacing online, which was from an unreleased documentary about him in 2018.

Oct 3, 2023

AceShowbiz - Kanye West expressed his frustration about his marriage to Kim Kardashian in a new leaked video. In the clip, which was from an unreleased documentary about him in 2018, the "Donda" artist said "The Kardashians" star tended to focus on his "negative" side and even called him "crazy."

"I feel like my wife does believe in me, but she has a tendency to focus on the negative. And she'll call me 'crazy' and say 'you're ramped up' more than she'll say 'you're a genius,' " the 46-year-old hip-hop star lamented. "Like I get 'you're crazy' a lot more than 'you're a genius.' "

"And it's from this person that has an opening in my heart. Because, I close my heart to people when they start being too negative," Ye added, before reflecting on his decision to "cut off" negative people from his life and his African trip. "If I was that ramped up, how was I able to meet with the president of Uganda the next day."

Ye and Kim finalized their divorce in March 2022 after six years of marriage. Following the split, the rapper wed Bianca Censori, an Australian architect who has worked for Yeezy since 2020.

In a July episode of "The Kardashians", Kim admitted that she feels "so bad" for her ex over his anti-Semitic controversy. "I feel so bad for him. I don't even think he feels bad for himself," the SKIMS founder, who shares four kids with Ye, told her sister Khloe Kardashian in footage which was filmed in October 2022. "I don't even know if he knows how. I just feel so bad."

In a confessional, the "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" alum noted, "It's really confusing for me. It's so different than the person that I married because that's who I loved, and that's who I remember." She went on to say, "I'll do anything to get that person back... The whole situation is sad and I don't know how to emotionally manage it."

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After the 'Wild n Out' star was determined to have died from plastic surgery complications, now her death is ruled as accidental and her plastic surgeon won't face a criminal investigation.

Oct 4, 2023

AceShowbiz - Jacky Oh's death has been determined as accidental. The TV star - whose real name was Jacklyn Smith - was famed for appearing on the MTV sketchy comedy show "Wild n Out" alongside Nick Cannon but passed away at the age of just 32 earlier this year as a result of complications caused by cosmetic surgery but it has now been reported that her doctor will not face a criminal investigation over her death.

"The medical examiner ruled Jacky's death accidental, and homicide detectives will not launch a criminal investigation," the Miami Police Department told TMZ.

Initially, a cause of death had not been given but a representative for the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office confirmed to People on Friday, September 29 that she died during a cosmetic procedure.

A BET Media Group spokesperson said, "We are deeply saddened by the passing of Jacklyn Smith, known to the world as Jacky Oh, a talented Wild 'N Out family member whose impact will be forever treasured and missed."

The statement went on to recall that Jacky - who is survived by her three children to Nova, six, Nala, two and 11-month-old Prince and their father, her longtime boyfriend, D.C. Young Fly - was a "tremendous mother" and the media group as well as its stars sent their condolences to the family.

It continued, "More importantly, she was a tremendous mother to three beautiful children. The BET Media Group extends our sincere condolences to the Smith family, DC Young Fly, B Simone, Nick Cannon, and all friends who loved and cared for Jacky Oh during this difficult time."

In her final Instagram post - which has since been deleted - showed she had been in the Californian city for a "mommy makeover" and teased her millions of followers that a YouTube video documenting the experience would be on the way.

In the caption of her last post, she wrote alongside a picture of herself posing with plastic surgeon Dr. Zachary Okhah, "Getting ready for my mommy makeover with Dr Zach!! Stay tuned to my YouTube for the full reveal!"

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ABP Group, a prominent media conglomerate, has officially named Yash Mehta as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the education division of Ananda Publishers, the esteemed publishing arm of the group. Yash, a highly experienced professional, brings with him a remarkable track record, unique expertise, and robust skills poised to guide the organization in establishing a significant presence on the educational landscape of the country. Operating from Delhi, Yash will assume responsibility for overseeing all educational entities within the ABP Group.

Yash's professional journey is distinguished by a diverse and rich background in the education sector. Prior to joining the ABP Group, he served as the Executive Director at Oxford University Press (OUP), where he held the position for an impressive five years, playing a pivotal role in driving substantial growth for the University Press. Before that, Yash served as the country lead at Macmillan Education India, where he spearheaded Macmillan's education business in India and neighbouring markets such as Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Middle East, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Yash's career exemplifies extensive experience and leadership in the education industry.

On the appointment of Yash Mehta, Dhruba Mukherjee, Director of Ananda Publishers, expressed, We were looking for an individual with a rich and diverse industry experience, having a vision for the future and a passion to win. Yash brings on the table all this and more. He leads from the front and under his leadership we expect our education businesses to grow in scale, size and impact.

Yash Mehta, displaying great enthusiasm about his new role, stated, I am greatly looking forward to this important next chapter. This is a critical time for the publishing industry, where the needs are changing at an unprecedented pace. The release of the NEP 2020 and the NCF 2023 coupled with emerging technologies and changing demands in education present new challenges and opportunities that require us to adapt and evolve. Keeping up with the increasingly dynamic needs of education will require decisiveness in planning and implementing strategic initiatives. This platform will provide me an opportunity to realize my potential in delivering educational solutions for an enduring positive impact on society. I will work towards the growth and success of the group and the satisfaction of all the stakeholders.

Yash, a management graduate with over two and a half decades of professional experience spanning the banking, telecom, real estate, financial services, and education sectors, has also served as the Joint Secretary at the Association of Publishers in India (API) for two consecutive terms.
NDTV, India's most trusted news network, is back with the triumphant 10th season of 'Banega Swasth India', which is Indias longest running public health campaign. This milestone period marks a decade of unwavering commitment to promote health, wellness, and unity across India.

Banega Swasth India was started nine years ago by NDTV, in partnership with Dettol. In the last 9 years, this multiple award-winning campaign has reached more than 24 million children in India through a series of programmes, innovations, activities and toolsall aimed at making hygiene an inextricable part of everyones lives.

In its 10th year, the campaign focuses on One World Hygiene for Global Health and Well-being with the power of 10 Dus Ka Dum, and highlights the strengths, learnings, experiences and achievements of the Banega Swasth India campaign. The primary aim ofOne World Hygiene is a reminder to show empathy and solidarity with those who may not have access to essential hygiene resources. It's a call to action to bridge the gap between the privileged and the underserved, ensuring everyone can lead a healthy life. The 10th season will also look forward to Dus Kadam - the emerging challenges that the campaign aims to address.

Dettol and NDTV's 'Banega Swasth India' initiative has grown stronger and become the hope of millions. The event is a forum that has attracted the most powerful and influential voices in support of the cause, from Vice Presidents and Chief Ministers to Oscar winners, Magsaysay awardees and Nobel laureates, all compassionate individuals to address and take action on some of the country's most critical health issues. This initiative has been acknowledged publicly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for its impact on public awareness. The live event on October 2nd every year, highlights how better hygiene and nutrition can improve Indias health.

With a focus on promoting health and wellness across India, the 10th season was graced by a number of distinguished guests including Smt. Droupadi Murmu, Her Excellency the President of India; Shri Eknath Shinde, Chief Minister of Maharashtra; Shri Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India; Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Government of India; Shri Conrad Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya; Shri Brajesh Pathak, Deputy Chief Minister and Cabinet Minister of Medical Education, Medical and Health and Family Welfare, Government of Uttar Pradesh; Shri Ashok Gehlot, Chief Minister of Rajasthan and Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, LGBTQIA activist. Apart from these famous dignitaries, Bollywood celebrities such as Rakul Preet Singh and Bhumi Pednekar also graced the gathering. The program also featured performances by charismatic artists such as Daler Mehndi, Neha Kakkar, Adnan Sami and sensational Nagaland rapper Moko Koza.

Ayushmann Khurrana, Campaign Ambassador states Banega Swasth India has been a journey of hope, awareness and positive change over the last 10 years. In this monumental 10th season, lets take Dus kadam to fulfil the campaign's aim, One World Hygiene. I am reminded that health is indeed our greatest wealth. Together, we can inspire millions to live healthier lives and build a stronger and happier India.

Sanjay Pugalia, CEO & Editor in Chief, AMG Media Network, Director, NDTV Limitedstates, With this triumphant season 10 of Dettol Banega Swasth India we like to express our gratitude and educate the people that One World Hygiene is not just a concept; it's a commitment to a healthier, safer, and more compassionate world. Let's come together, transcending boundaries, and make it a reality. Our future depends on it.

Kris Licht, Chief Executive Officer, Reckittstates, We are enormously proud of Banega Swasth India and we are grateful to our partners for joining us in our pursuit of a cleaner, healthier world. As we celebrate this important milestone recognising our 10 years of partnership, we must continue to innovate and find new ways to elevate Banega Swasth India, including ensuring we leave no one behind.

Gaurav Jain, Executive Vice President, Reckitt South Asia states, With the 10th season of Banega Swasth India, the One World Hygiene inspires us all to work together for a healthier and brighter future of India. We are turning the spotlight on the future, fostering global unity for a healthier tomorrow.

Ravi Bhatnagar, Director-External Affairs and Partnerships, South Asia, Reckittstates, As Banega Swasth India celebrates a decade of tireless dedication, we are reminded that in the fight against climate change, One World Hygiene encourages sustainable hygiene practices that protect human health and the environment to ensure a healthier planet for future generations. Hygienic world lies in unity, strength and relentless pursuit of a healthier world.

Over the years, NDTV-Dettol Banega Swasth India leads to many firsts by reaching 850,000 schools with hygiene content, hygiene olympiad, hygiene play parks, hygiene music album, Indias first climate resilient schools, folk art and delivering hygiene programmes that are culturally adaptive. Indias first-ever public health and hygiene-focused podcast Swasthya Mantra was also launched as part of the program, along with Hygieia, an online game.

Dettol and NDTV have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014. Into its tenth season, Banega Swasth India embarks on a journey of transformation. This year the goal is to envelope the whole world. The goal of good hygiene & health has to be a global goal  One World Hygiene. In this season, a newly formed council of Padma awardee doctors created a roadmap for One World Hygiene.
PubMatic, an independent technology company delivering digital advertisings supply chain of the future, today announced the availability of its newest offering, Activate, in the Asia-Pacific region. PubMatics new end-to-end supply path optimization (SPO) solution allows buyers to execute non-bidded direct deals on PubMatics programmatic platform, accessing premium video and CTV inventory at scale.

Since launching in the US and EMEA in May, Activate has gained traction across every region, with an active pipeline of more than 50 advertisers, agencies, and campaigns live through multiple global agency holding companies. Following this success, the solution is being launched in the Asia-Pacific region with partners including dentsu APAC, iQIYI, KINESSO India, Madison Digital, and Wishmedia.

Activate represents a new industry paradigm by creating a single layer of technology that directly connects buyers and sellers of digital media. Activate allows a smooth shift from conventional direct transactions to programmatic private marketplace (PMP) or programmatic guaranteed (PG) deals. The platform gives media buyers more control over their omnichannel video investments by facilitating transactions across PubMatics premium CTV and online video inventory within a unified platform.

PubMatics launch of Activate in the Asia-Pacific region marks a significant milestone in our efforts to revolutionize the industrys programmatic marketplace, said Rajeev Goel, Co-Founder and CEO of PubMatic. Activate is an extension of our successful SPO strategy that addresses advertiser demand for solutions that deliver a better return on video and CTV investments.

At dentsu, we prioritize adtech maturity, focusing on transparency and control in the programmatic supply chain for efficient, high-quality media delivery. Our partnership with PubMatic plays a pivotal role in our supply curation and SPO practices, said Sunil Naryani, Chief Product Officer, Media at dentsu APAC, who supports the Carat, iProspect, and dentsu X agencies in the region. With PubMatics Activate, we anticipate delivering enhanced value to our clients by bridging the gap between buyers and sellers and further streamlining the supply chain, unlocking opportunities to maximize working media for their video and CTV investments.

iQIYI is a long-time partner of PubMatic. Together we are committed to delivering innovation in the CTV ecosystem, said Andy Sun, General Manager of Sales Operations, International Business Department at iQIYI. Were excited to be a launch partner for PubMatics Activate solution and look forward to continuing to work closely together to drive effective programmatic CTV advertising.

PubMatic is a key player in the programmatic ecosystem, and were excited to explore how Activate can benefit our CTV clients, said Paras Mehta, Business Head at KINESSO India.

PubMatic is a valuable partner across India, helping us deliver transparent and effective solutions for advertisers, said Suchi Jain, General Manager and Head of Programmatic at Madison Digital. Were excited to see their continued innovation in streamlining video and CTV buying for our clients.

Wishmedia is dedicated to providing advertisers in Korea with best-in-class digital advertising solutions, said Meejoo Na, Chief Operating Officer at Wishmedia. Were thrilled to be a launch partner for PubMatics Activate and look forward to our clients benefiting from a more efficient digital supply chain, and greater ROI on their video and CTV spend.

Non-programmatic insertion orders are expected to account for almost 60% of CTV and 18% of online video transactions by the end of 2023, according to industry estimates. Activate represents a nearly $65 billion expansion of PubMatics total addressable market.

Built leveraging technology from PubMatics 2022 acquisition of Martin, Activate is fully integrated into PubMatics growing software suite, including the PubMatic Sell-Side Platform and Connect.
Buffalo Soldiers, an award-winning full-service creative agency with a digital heart, has bagged the social media advertising and engagement mandate for the iconic global writing instruments brand "Parker" in India (manufactured and marketed by Luxor Writing Instruments Pvt. Ltd. in India). The account was won following a multi-agency pitch and will be serviced from the agencys Delhi-NCR headquarters.

"Buffalo Soldiers only works with marquee brands or brands that aspire to be part of daily conversations. It doesn't get more marquee or iconic than Parker. We are honoured and excited to work together with Parker," said Sumon K Chakrabarti, Co-founder & CEO of Buffalo Soldiers.

As part of the mandate, the agency will focus on further building Parkers digital presence in India and concentrate on growing the social media base by implementing an aggressive digital growth strategy. It will also focus on various marketing opportunities for Parker on social media.

Bhaskar Basu, COO, Luxor Writing Instruments Pvt. Ltd., said: "We have chosen to collaborate with Buffalo Soldiers due to their forward-thinking approach in the digital realm, which aligns with our vision for Parker. Parker is an iconic brand globally and in India, renowned for its exquisite and wide range of writing instruments, combining rich legacy and timeless elegance with an unmatched writing experience. Digital engagement is a key strategy for us, with many current and future Parker enthusiasts using the medium to form their brand choices and impressions.

Together with Buffalo Soldiers, we wish to strengthen Parkers social media presence and introduce innovative concepts online as well for other media in the near future. Our digital engagement strategy will target both current Parker patrons as well as a new young and aspiring audience online," Basu added.

Buffalo Soldiers will be handling strategic content, design, and performance management across all social media channels for the Parker brand. Going forward, the agency has been engaged in developing new creative communication for the Parker brand as well.

The agency will work closely with Parkers in-house team on social media management, organic growth for the brands social media presence, and performance marketing strategy.
Times Innovative Media Ltd (Times OOH), Indias leading outdoor advertising company, has further strengthened its presence in Goa with a significant acquisition of advertising rights at Goa International Airport, Dabolim, for the next seven years.

Under the contract awarded by the Airport Authority of India, Times OOH has been granted the rights to market advertising opportunities both inside and outside the airport premises. Known for its strategically placed, premium-quality media assets, the company plans to renovate the media sites at the airport to offer top-tier advertising solutions to its clients. Dabolim Airport will feature a strategic mix of static, digital, and unique sponsorship opportunities, providing a diverse range of advertising options.

Goa International Airport, Dabolim, remains a leading destination for tourists traveling from within India and abroad, serving various international and national flights originating from major Indian cities. Furthermore, its proximity to the South Goa makes it an attractive choice for tourists. In the fiscal year 2022-2023, the airport handled approximately 7.89 million passengers.

This marks the second significant acquisition by the leading OOH company in the state. Prior to this, Times OOH successfully secured media rights at Manohar International Airport, Goa. With a focus on both national and international travelers to Goa, Manohar International Airport has received praise from passengers and advertisers alike for its design and media offerings. Times OOH has established a strong foothold in the western region by adding Dabolim Airport to its strong media inventory portfolio through its already existing media rights at Mumbai Airport, Mumbai Metro One, Ahmedabad Digital Billboards and Manohar International Airport, Mopa.

Shekhar Narayanaswami, President of Times OOH, emphasizes With the acquisition of advertising rights at Goa International Airport, Dabolim we are establishing our exclusive presence in Goa. These media rights will enable us to make investments that meet international standards and provide delightful solutions to our clients. Goa is a preferred travel destination throughout the year. Now with media rights for both the airports we would be able to create memorable experiences for the traveller as well as provide a platform where advertisers can innovatively experiment and engage with their target audience

Times OOH offers comprehensive media solutions across Airports, Metro, and Street furniture in India and Mauritius.
Vijay Varma, the talented actor known for his versatility and dedication to his craft, has been on a career high. The year 2023 has been an eventful one for Vijay Varma. After delivering back-to-back superhits on OTT platformsfrom Dahaad and Lust Stories to Kaalkoothe has now stunned audiences with his latest role in Jaane Jaan. In this recent release, he portrayed Inspector Karan Anand, a role that required intense physical training.

He took to Instagram to share a behind-the-scenes video, offering a sneak peek into his workout regimen. In the video, Vijay is seen engaging in training sessions.

Seeing the video, its clear that this actor puts in a tremendous amount of effort to embody a character perfectly. He pushes his limits, focusing on weightlifting and martial arts training. In his post, he captioned it, A lot went into creating Karans physicality. Grueling training sessions and working through pain turned out to be the most satisfying experience. I had the best support from action director @prateekparma.

Special thanks to @rujuta.diwekar and @jinals89, who helped me with nutrition and discipline, as well as my trainer Ivan Fernandes and physio Arun.

#JaaneJaan is now streaming on Netflix.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Vijay Varma will next be seen in Homi Adajanias Murder Mubarak, alongside Sara Ali Khan, and the much-awaited Mirzapur 3.
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

Bern, 03.10.2023 - Switzerland is stepping up its support for civilians in Armenia and the region by releasing almost CHF 1.5 million in funding, to be shared among the main humanitarian actors on the ground.

In less than a week, more than 100,000 people from Nagorno-Karabakh have fled to Armenia and face now challenging humanitarian circumstances. The Armenian authorities are working to host these people in the best possible conditions, particularly in view of the coming winter.



Faced with this emergency, the FDFA has decided to release almost CHF 1.5 million to support humanitarian efforts on the ground, of which CHF 500,000 will be allocated to the ICRC. The remainder will be divided among the main UN actors on the ground in the next few days. This additional funding comes on top of the CHF 1 million already granted to the ICRC by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for its operations in the region in 2023.

Address for enquiries

FDFA Communication

Federal Palace West Wing

CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland

Tel. Press service: +41 58 460 55 55

E-mail: kommunikation@eda.admin.ch

Twitter: @SwissMFA

Publisher

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home.html




The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down three petitions moved by ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in connection with a drug seizure case and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh for each petition. A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Rajesh Bindal observed that the petitioner is repeatedly approaching the courts.

The court directed the petitioner to deposit the fine amount of Rs 3 lakh total with the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association. One of the petitions by Bhatt has sought to transfer the trial of the matter to another court alleging the concerned trial court judge was dealing with the matter unfairly.

On earlier occasions too, the Supreme Court rejected the plea filed by former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt challenging a Gujarat High Court direction setting a timeline for a drug seizure case and slapped him with a fine of Rs 10,000. Then Bhatt challenged the Gujarat High Court order which issued a direction of completion of trial in a drug case against him within the stipulated time.

A Gujarat court in June 2019 sentenced former Sanjiv Bhatt to life imprisonment in another custodial death case dating back to 1990. Earlier, The Supreme Court on May 10 declined the plea filed by ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt seeking to adduce additional evidence in the appeal he filed in the Gujarat High Court challenging his conviction in a custodial death case.

A bench of justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar dismissed the plea filed by Sanjiv Bhatt. Bhatts lawyer has taken the top court through the deposition of three witnesses who were doctors. The court observed that it is required to be noted that, as such, the deposition of the said witnesses was as such considered by the trial court after all those three witnesses were thoroughly cross-examined. Now the deposition of the 3 witnesses is to be considered and re-appreciated by the High Court at the time of deciding the Appeal, it said.

Having gone through the impugned order passed by the High Court, we see no reason to interfere with the same in the exercise of powers under Article 136 of the Constitution of India, the top court said. Any observations by this Court on the deposition of the aforesaid 3 witnesses may ultimately affect the case of either party in the Appeal, which is yet to be considered by the High Court. Therefore, the Special Leave Petition stands dismissed, the order stated.
Lisa Evans is the new chief executive officer of Birmingham-based Bradford Health Services.

The substance abuse treatment and recovery service has 40 facilities across the Southeast.

Evans most recently served as the corporate COO at Perimeter Healthcare, overseeing hospitals and facilities in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas. During her five years there, the company saw revenue growth of almost 20%.

She also served in executive roles for Universal Health Services (UHS), Strategic Behavioral Health and Hospital Corporation of America (HCA).

Evans has achieved several honors, including the Arkansas Governors Award, and was the first behavioral health CEO named to the Arkansas Hospital Associations Board of Directors.

The depth of this teams experience makes Bradford the industry leader in respecting and supporting those who suffer from the effects of addiction, Evans said. Assuming the lead for Bradford is an honor. We will continue to practice client focused treatment while innovating service delivery to address the needs of those who are struggling to access care.
Krispy Kreme is considering selling Insomnia Cookies in order to focus on doughnuts.

In an announcement, the company said it was exploring strategic alternatives, even considering an all-cash sale.

Insomnia Cookies, which Krispy Kreme bought a majority stake in back in 2018, now has more than 250 locations. There are four in Alabama - in Auburn, Birmingham, Mobile and Tuscaloosa, according to the website.

Krispy Kremes aim with the deal was to push the cookie brand internationally. The company now is forecast to generate $230 million in sales this year, with about 45% of its revenue coming from online sales.

Krispy Kreme CEO Mike Tattersfield said that its time for the next strategic step for both companies.

Krispy Kreme has 13,000 locations in 37 countries.

This story was modified at 2:57 p.m. Oct. 3 to correct the amount of online revenue for Insomnia Cookies.
Grab a margarita, munch on some chips and consider this question: Whats the best Mexican restaurant in Birmingham? Your answer may be different from ours, and thats a very good thing. The metro area boasts a wealth of crave-worthy eateries that specialize in Mexican cuisine  fine dining, fast casual and everything in between.

AL.com has been showcasing its picks for the best food in Alabama, and as far as were concerned, Birmingham is the star of the show. The Magic City, after all, has won seven James Beard Awards, and the citys chefs and restaurants regularly appear as finalists and semi-finalists for the accolades known as the Oscars of the food world.

If AL.com had some special dining awards to give out  say, focusing on five places that make us want to eat Mexican food every single day  heres where wed bestow them. Now lets head out the door for a fajita fix; just thinking about this topic is making us hungry.

READ: AL.coms top 5 picks for barbecue, pizza, burgers, ice cream, hot dogs, doughnuts, breakfast, fried chicken and meat-and-three in Birmingham.

Chicken Tinga Tostada at El ZunZun, a Mexican restaurant in Vestavia Hills, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. (Mary Colurso | mcolurso@AL.com)

5. EL ZUNZUN

4105 Crosshaven Drive in Vestavia Hills. el-zunzun.com

Heres the first thing you should know: This casual Latin American eatery is named for a tiny Caribbean hummingbird that flies from Mexico to Alabama. And the second thing? El ZunZun was founded by Becky Satterfield, the owner of Satterfields Restaurant. She teamed with chef Angela Schmidt in 2019, opening El ZunZun in the Cahaba Heights neighborhood of Vestavia Hills. Flavor and authenticity are important to the food served at El ZunZun, from the chicken tortilla soup served as an appetizer to the hot churros (fried donut sticks covered in cinnamon sugar) on the dessert menu. Carnivores have been known to drool over the beef short rib enchiladas with homemade mole sauce, and the pork carnitas are a slow-cooked dream. The diverse menu also features crispy fish tacos, street corn, chile relleno, pan roasted salmon, homemade pork rinds and a mouth-watering queso. Confession: We became a fan of El ZunZun as soon as the server set down the huge chips paired with two kinds of yummy salsa.

Order this: The Chicken Tinga Tostada is tasty and satisfying  and a good starter dish for first-timers. Youll get a crispy tostada heaped with shredded chipotle chicken, crema, lettuce, avocado, queso fresco and cilantro, paired with green rice and black beans. Dont forget to order a margarita, if youre inclined to imbibe. Theyre refreshing, potent and not too sweet, which is exactly how we like em.

Shrimp Diabla at Sol Y Luna features smoky tequila-chipotle shrimp. (Cary Norton/Birmingham magazine)

4. SOL Y LUNA

920 Lane Parke Cour in Mountain Brook. solylunabham.com

Sol Y Luna was a groundbreaking eatery when it opened in Birminghams Lakeview neighborhood in 1997, introducing many folks here to Mexican tapas-style dining. These are basically small plates of food, served with beer, wine, cocktails or tequila. Think of tapas as savory bar snacks, best when ordered in abundance and shared with congenial companions. Sol Y Luna closed in 2013, causing tapas fans to groan, but the restaurant has returned in fine style at the Lane Parke shopping center in Mountain Brook. Then and now, Sol Y Luna elevates the tapas experience, with elegant dishes such as Shrimp Diabla, cilantro mint chicken skewers, iron skillet mussels, crabmeat enchiladas and puntas de puerco (oven roasted pork tenderloin medallions). The hearty eater in your life may be hesitant to try tapas, and  were not going to lie  ordering several dishes when youre in full dinner mode can be a pricey experience. But the food is top-notch at Sol Y Luna, and we think of this place as a wonderful splurge destination.

Order this: You cant go wrong with Shrimp Diabla, a signature dish that features tequila and chipotle flambe jumbo shrimp, served on a bed of garlic mashed sweet potatoes with fried flour tortilla strips. Another scrumptious option? Fried duck empanadas, served with chimichurri sauce and queso fresco. Pair these with a tequila sampler  three half-shots from a premium selection  and youll be on your way to tapas heaven.

Grilled salmon with poblano peppers, corn, garlic mashed potatoes and queso fresco at Cantina Tortilla Grill in Homewood, Alabama. (Mary Colurso | mcolurso@AL.com)

3. CANTINA TORTILLA GRILL

162 Oxmoor Road in Homewood. cantinabirmingham.com

Cantina Tortilla Grill was ultra-popular in Pepper Place during its run there, 2003-2019. Like Sol Y Luna, it was founded by Guillermo Castro, a chef who grew up in Mexico and had a magical touch with food. Castro, who died in 2011, remains a dominant force on Birminghams dining scene, thanks to family members who keep his spirit alive with Castros signature cuisine. After a four-year hiatus, Cantina recently returned with a new location in West Homewood, at the former site of Little London Kitchen. As before, this casual eatery offers dishes that are fresh and flavorful. There are eight different types of tacos on the menu, including tangy shrimp, shredded chicken tinga, vegetarian and Cuban. The Truck Fries, heaped with chicken or tenderloin, are ideal for folks with growling tummies. And we cant get enough of the homemade quacamole, served with a basket of crispy chips. (Diners will notice, by the way, that chips and salsa arent automatic on the tables here; you have to order them like guacamole or queso.)

Order this: Our go-to at Cantina is the grilled salmon filet, served with poblano peppers, corn, garlic mashed potatoes and queso fresco. Its one of the Platos Grandes, or large plates, and every bite is delicious. Also, the margaritas here are highly recommended, whether youre in the mood for key lime or prickly pear.

A quarter fried chicken plate with pinto beans, rice, pickled vegetables and a habanero-vinegar dipping sauce at Little Donkey Mexican Restaurant in Homewood, Ala.(Bob Carlton/bcarlton@al.com)

2. LITTLE DONKEY

2701 18th St. South, Suite 200 in Homewood; 5363 U.S. 280, Suite B100 in Hoover. thelittledonkey.com

Have you ever heard of a Mexican restaurant thats famous for its fried chicken? Welcome to Little Donkey, an eatery that brings a Southern kick to authentic Mexican food. When Little Donkey opened its first location in Homewood in 2012, long lines snaked outside the building, as folks waited to try this twist on a well-known cuisine. Now Little Donkey is a beloved staple on our dining scene, thanks to chef Joshua Gentry. There are two locations in the Birmingham metro area, and a third in Montgomery. The fiery fried chicken has earned kudos from websites such as The Daily Meal, and this dish certainly brings the heat, as the bird is brined in three different chilies. But the menu has treats aplenty, such as a smoked pork burrito bowl, smoked beef brisket burrito, Gulf shrimp fajitas and queso con carne. There are four different kinds of salsa  gotta appreciate that  and over-the-top nachos that can be loaded with beef, chicken or pork.

Order this: Fried chicken, of course. Newcomers might want to start with the fried chicken sandwich, which features a chicken breast topped by chipotle crema and Wickles Pickles, plus a choice of side dish. (Mexican street corn, anyone?) Little Donkey also offers some appealing cocktails, such as the Rosemary Sage Paloma and Oaxaca Old Fashioned.

Grilled chorizo meatloaf is a signature dish at El Barrio, a restaurant in Birmingham. (AL.com file photo/Joe Songer)

1. EL BARRIO

2211 2nd Ave. North in Birmingham. elbarriobirmingham.com

El Barrio might not be the most authentic Mexican restaurant in Birmingham, but this excellent eatery tops our list for its creative cuisine, upscale/funky decor and inviting atmosphere. Brian Somershield and Geoff Lockert of Trattoria Centrale opened El Barrio in 2011, and the place (whose name translates to The Neighborhood) became an immediate hit. Its easy to see why. The inventive dishes are Mexican inspired, and include plantain nachos, grilled chorizo meatloaf, Masa roasted trout, bacon quesadillas, Barrio cornbread and a luscious orange cake. Everything tastes so darn good  yes, it sounds basic, but theres no higher praise  and repeat visitors may find themselves simply going down the menu and ordering something new each time. More traditional dishes (such as roasted chile relleno, chunky guacamole, ceviche, chicken enchiladas and pork tacos) are made with equal care and flair. The owners of El Barrio aimed to be bold and imaginative, boosting the dining profile of downtown Birmingham. Mission accomplished.

Order this: Go for the gusto with the grilled chorizo meatloaf, served with spinach, cotija-mashed potatoes, ranchera sauce and cumin sour cream. Its a longtime specialty at El Barrio, but we just think of it as fancy comfort food. And if youre feeling adventurous, try the spicy margarita, made with jalapenos and orange liqueur.

MORE ON ALABAMA FOOD:

Alabamas best breakfast: Our Top 10

Alabamas best fried chicken: Our top 10

Alabamas best meat-and-three: Our Top 10

Alabamas best burgers: Our Top 10

Alabamas best pizza: Our Top 10
Late night came back Monday, with an assist from Jason Isbell.

The Alabama native and Grammy-winners band Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit served as the musical guest during the first episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! since the Writers Guild of America strike ended in September.

Kimmels other guest was Hollywood icon Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appeared in the shows cold open to spring Kimmel from late night limbo and reassure him, Youll be back, to borrow the signature line from his sci-fi action classic The Terminator.

After an extended monologue catching up on all the trending stories the show missed -- like the writers strike, Donald Trumps indictments, Lauren Boeberts night at the theatre, U2s performance at the Las Vegas Sphere -- Kimmel interviewed Schwarzenegger and then welcomed Isbell to help re-usher the show into the late night landscape.

This is his album, Kimmel said from his desk, holding a copy of the vinyl. Its called Weathervanes, and here with the song When We Were Close, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.

Playing his custom-made Fender Telecaster, Isbell and his band performed the eighth track from his ninth studio album (sixth with the band), which released in June. About the signature guitar, AL.coms Matt Wake wrote The Isbell Tele grabs eyes even before it grabs ears. There 59-style Telecaster Custom body features a chocolate sunburst finish and cream double-binding, while Fenders aging process adds patina and the feel of a well-used instrument.

On Isbells latest album, Wake wrote, Weathervanes...finds Isbell, a former Muscle Shoals and Green Hill resident, hitting a new peak, eight solo albums in. The albums vocals, music and production equal his always razor-sharp lyrics. Its the kind of recording that hits that rare intersection of art and commerce that makes big acts huge.

Watch Isbells performance on Kimmel in the video above.

Isbells huge 2023 continues in October, in which he follows the release of his newest album with an acting appearance in Martin Scorseses highly anticipated and already-critically acclaimed drama Killers of the Flower Moon, which hits theaters everywhere Oct. 20. The film also stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone. We finally caught a glimpse of Isbell in the films second trailer.

Isbells summer tour made a stop at Avondale Brewing Co. in June. AL.coms Mary Colurso raved about the home-state show: Emotional impact was achieved through Isbells fine vocals, finessing or powering through the lyrics, and the understated genius of his guitar work. Isbell stands and sings, stands and plays, stands and delivers. The 19-song set list also included When We Were Close.

The 146-day WGA strike ended after the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached an agreement on a new three-year contract, prompting the late night talk shows to make a swift return with their writers and crew back to work.

Isbell and Schwarzenegger rounded out Kimmels guest list, while The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon had Matthew McConaughey and John Mayer, while The Late Show with Stephen Colbert welcomed Neil deGrasse Tyson and his shows house bandleader Louis Cato.

More on Jason Isbell:
A 29-year-old man was found shot to death Tuesday morning in the front yard of a Sylacauga residence.

Sylacauga police were dispatched at 10:30 a.m. to Fluker Street in the Drew Court housing community, said Chief Kelley Johnson.

When they arrived, the found Miles Dontae McGhee unresponsive. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

The chief said circumstances surrounding the shooting remain under investigation by police, Talladega County Drug and Violent Crimes agents and the Talladega County District Attorneys Office.

Our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of Miles Dontae McGhee during this difficult time, Johnson said. The Sylacauga Police Department is dedicated to resolving this case swiftly and responsibly.

No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information is asked to call investigators at 256-401-2464, the police tip line at 256-249-4716 or Central Alabama Crime Stoppers at 334-215-STOP (7867).
A 3-year-old girl found dead in the bathtub of her fathers east Alabama home two years ago had more than 50 signs of trauma covering her body and her head had been shaved, according to a lawsuit filed in her death.

Aydah DiMaso was found dead Oct. 4, 2021.

Her father, 25-year-old Nikolas DiMaso, is charged with capital murder, and her stepmother, 32-year-old Haley Dee Metz, is charged with aggravated child abuse and conspiracy to commit aggravated child abuse.

Family said DiMaso got custody of Aydah less than eight months before her death, despite her maternal grandparents fight to have her in their care.

Attorneys for Aydahs family have filed a lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Human Resources and individual caseworkers for their alleged roles in the girls death.

DHR has not yet responded to a request for comment.

The lawsuit, filed by Birmingham attorneys Tommy James of Tommy James Law and Jeremy Knowles of Morris Haynes, alleges multiple failures by DHR and caseworkers to protect Aydah from ongoing abuse and neglect.

The suit alleges systematic failings and neglect that allowed the young child to remain in a severely harmful environment despite clear indications she was in danger.

This case represents an egregious failure of the system that is supposed to protect our most vulnerable children, James said.

Aydahs death could and should have been prevented. We are seeking justice for Aydah and accountability for those whose conduct resulted in her tragic death.

According to charging documents against DiMaso, Aydah was killed with DiMasos hands and/or fists.

She was found unresponsive after family members asked police to go to the DiMaso home on Crestview Drive in Gadsden that Monday afternoon for a welfare check.

Saying that my heart is shattered is an understatement but what keeps me moving forward is the anger that I have towards this corrupt system, Shundra Powe Davis, Aydahs grandmother, said in a Facebook post shortly after Aydahs death.

I will fight this system to the end.

Aydah DiMaso was killed Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. Her father is charged with capital murder. (GoFundMe)

She knows I wont rest until I know that her death was not in vain, Davis said.

I want everyone to know how hard we fought to keep her safe, how the system failed us on every level and how so many other families all over the country are going through the same hurt dealing with this horrible system.

The lawsuit details multiple instances where the defendants had prior knowledge of Aydahs dangerous living situation.

Allegations of physical abuse, neglect, drug use, and unsafe living conditions were repeatedly reported, but no action was taken to remove Aydah from harms way, the lawsuit states.

According to the lawsuit, Aydahs filthy living conditions included animal feces and urine throughout the home, reports of DiMasos drug use, particularly a heroin addiction, and observations of Ayda exhibiting sudden behavior changes.

When police performed the welfare check that Monday, Aydah was found unresponsive in the bathtub.

Preliminary observations indicated she had been deceased for an extended period of time, the lawsuit states. Subsequent examinations revealed both recent and old bruises on her body.

It was discovered Metz had advised DiMaso to place Aydah in the bathtub, believing it would keep her body temperature warm, the lawsuit states.

DiMaso confessed to physically abusing Aydah, including forcefully slamming her to the ground and kicking her in the stomach, the suit contends.

The lawsuit alleges Aydah had a previously broken left arm that was in the process of healing, multiple healing rib fractures, scratch marks from head to toe on her torso, back and legs, and deep cut on the bottom of her entire foot.

She had not been taken to the doctor since her father had gotten custody of her.

DiMaso and Metz are still awaiting trial.

While these individuals must answer for their heinous actions, DHRs repeated failures are equally at fault, James said. We must hold every individual and entity responsible for this tragedy accountable.

This case is not just about Aydah; it is a wake-up call to every individual and institution tasked with protecting our children, James said. The system failed Aydah at every turn. We owe it to her and every child in the system to ensure this never happens again. No child should suffer the way Aydah did.
Florence police say a man assaulted his mother with a hammer Monday night just before barricading himself inside an apartment that he then set on fire.

Sgt. Ryan Kelly said the incident began about 8:30 p.m. when police responded to an apartment complex in the 1900 block of Darby Drive on a domestic violence call.

Malcolm D. Allen, 39, had reportedly assaulted his mother with a hammer. The woman escaped when officers arrived and was transported to North Alabama Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries.

Immediately after, Kelly said Allen barricaded himself in the apartment and refused to speak to officers. While attempting to communicate with him, the officers heard a smoke detector and noticed smoke and flames inside the apartment.

Residents of the surrounding apartments were evacuated, and officers were able to pull Allen to safety through a window.

Florence firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, limiting most of the damage to Allens apartment.

Allen was arrested for first degree arson and second degree domestic violence. He is currently being held in the Lauderdale County Detention Center without bond.
People who build and launch NASAs deep space probes are usually an interesting crowd. But its hard to top the OSIRIS-REx sample return mission with its team ranging from North Alabama rocket builders to a British rock star.

The samples that landed flawlessly in the Utah desert Sept. 24 started with the flawless launch of the collector by an Atlas V rocket built by United Launch Alliance on the Tennessee River in Decatur. In between launch and drop came sample scooping on the asteroid Bennu 63,000 miles away.

Weve also learned that OSIRIS-REx did its work on Bennu with a queens help - specifically Queen rock guitarist Brian May, who has a PhD in astrophysics. May is a friend of asteroid sample mission leader Dante Lauretta. The two share an interest in space and a passion for Tucson, Az.

As the OSIRIS-REx mission progressed, I couldnt help but share some of the latest developments with him, Lauretta wrote in the preface of Bennu 3-D: Anatomy of an Asteroid, a book he co-authored with May. " . . . To my delight, Brian showed a keen interest in the mission and the science behind it. It was clear that he was not just a casual fan, but a true space enthusiast and an advocate for space exploration.

Mays contribution was developing stereoscopic images of Bennus surface, May said in the book. Such images add a depth effect to flat images. The effect has been been compared to 3D glasses.

The crater targeted for samples  the Nightingale Crater  had a boulder at one edge but scientists were after deposits in the middle. It got them but weak gravity plus loose particles also meant dust and fragments flying around the crater, NASA said. Some landed in the OSIRIS-REx sample chamber and some landed elsewhere in the spacecraft.

All those samples made it to the Utah desert landing zone. OSIRIS-REx itself did a drop with no stop; its on the way to another asteroid. But the sample return by parachute, NASAs first, was a big success with about 250 grams of material. About 60 grams were expected.

May wasnt there; his regular job got in the way. Im rehearsing for a Queen tour, but my heart stays with you as this precious sample is recovered, May said in a video on NASA TV Sept. 25.

The rock star scientist is excited by what may be in the sample box. This box when it is opened of material from the surface of Bennu can tell us untold secrets of the origins of the universe, the origins of our planet and the origins of life itself, May said on his website. What an incredibly exciting day.
A Birmingham teen has been charged in connection with a shooting Sunday in the parking lot of a Pelham shopping center.

The suspects name is being withheld because of his age. He is 16.

Authorities say the shooting happened during the sale of a cell phone brokered on Marketplace.

The teen is charged with shooting into an occupied vehicle, first-degree assault and two counts of attempted murder, according to court records made public Tuesday.

The shooting happened at 6:45 p.m. Sunday at the Southgate Village shopping center in Pelham. None of those involved lived in Pelham but met there for the transaction, police said.

The 16-year-old was standing outside the victims vehicle when he fired three times, according to police.

The 21-year-old victim was struck twice. Family posted on Facebook that he has undergone two surgeries for his injuries, which includes a shattered pelvis.

The victims girlfriend was with him at the time of the shooting and is listed as an attempted murder victim in court records.

The girlfriend was in the drivers seat of the vehicle, and the victim in the passengers seat when the shooting happened.

The young suspect ran to a nearby motel and left the area in a white car that was waiting for him. He was taken into custody in Birmingham within a few hours.

Police said both the suspect and the victim brought guns to the transaction.

Police said while public parking lots during daylight hours are generally safe places to conduct marketplace transactions, citizens must consider that risks exist.

If anything about the environment or individuals involved causes any concern, we recommend canceling the transaction, police said in a statement.

The Pelham Police Department does offer two Safe Trade Zone parking spaces marked with green paint on the south side of their building at 32 Philip Davis Street.
A 47-year-old man is in custody after Charlotte Sena  a 9-year-old girl who went missing at a state park in Saratoga County in New York state  was found hidden in a camper cabinet Monday evening.

Charlotte was taken to an area hospital, but she was safe and healthy, troopers said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul held a news conference Monday night to describe how the girl was found and the man taken into custody.

A ransom note left in the mailbox of Charlottes family home in the town of Greenfield is what led officers to her abductor, Hochul said. The man had pulled up to the mailbox in front of the Sena family home, leaving a note inside, she said.

The note had fingerprints on it, which assisted authorities in tracking down a suspect, Hochul said. The suspects fingerprints were in law enforcement database. Around 2:30 p.m., officers matched a fingerprint to that of a man arrested for a DWI in 1999 in Saratoga, she said.

From there, officers found a home where the man -- Craig Nelson Ross Jr. -- was living, Hochul said. The home was only two miles away from Charlottes home in Greenfield.

Around 6:32 p.m. Monday, officers found a double-wide home with a camper parked behind it where Ross lives, she said.

Troopers moved in and Ross resisted arrest, the governor said. Troopers said he sustained minor injuries during the scuffle.

Charlotte was found covered inside a cabinet inside the camper. Charlotte appeared to not physically be harmed, but was taken to a hospital, Hochul said.

On Tuesday morning, Ross was charged with first-degree kidnapping, troopers said. Additional charges are expected to be brought. Ross is being held in the Saratoga County Correctional Facility without bail, troopers said.

Contrary to earlier reports, Ross is not a registered sex offender. They also said it is not known at this time whether Ross knew Charlotte or had her under surveillance for any length of time.

Its been a long two days but tonight our prayers have been answered, Hochul said.

Charlotte was reunited with her mother, father and two sisters -- 4 and 10 years old.

The governor thanked the State Police and others who worked so tirelessly to find Charlotte. It is because of their efforts that Charlotte will be able to return home safe to her family.

Often these stories dont end up like this -- every second is key, Hochul said. Theres a lot of pressure and split decisions are made. Its not just a life is hanging in the balance, its an innocent childs life is hanging the balance.

More than 400 police officers, firefighters and other certified search and rescue personnel looked for the fourth-grade girl who went missing Saturday night in Moreau Lake State Park in Gansevoort in Saratoga County.

Approximately 400 certified search and rescue personnel are actively searching for Charlotte E. Sena, 9. The searchers include law enforcement agencies, 34 volunteer fire departments, and private search and rescue groups. (Photo provided by state police)

The missing girl was headline news nationally. Hochul came to the park and also met with the girls parents.

On Saturday, Charlotte was riding her bicycle with her cousins around a loop at the park, and she decided to ride the loop an additional time by herself. She was last seen around 6:15 p.m. Saturday.

When about 10 minutes passed and Charlotte didnt return from her ride, her parents started looking for her.

Law enforcement search efforts began around 7 p.m. Saturday. State police issued an Amber Alert Sunday. The search continued Sunday and Monday.

Charlotte was with her family for a camping weekend at the park. They live in the nearby town of Greenfield in Saratoga County.

Charlotte was just elected as an officer for her schools student council at Corinth Central Elementary School. She and her family were having a typical day of camping, the governor said.
The father of two young children drowned by their mother in Semmes last week wrote on a GoFundMe page started by his sister that his estranged wife had been struggling with mental issues and was having an identity crisis since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nancy Johnson drowned 2-year-old Jacob Johnson and 5-year-old Mia Johnson in the bathtub of their home before hanging herself in a hall closet, Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch said last week.

The childrens father, and Nancy Johnsons estranged husband, Derek Johnson, was the one who made the horrifying discovery of the bodies last Thursday.

The GoFundMe page started by his sister, Kendra Bandock, to assist Derek Johnson includes a statement from him in which he says the children were suddenly taken from this world in the worst way possible and the house had once been filled with joy and happiness.

Burch said last week there were clearly some psychiatric issues with Nancy Johnson, while court records show Derek Johnson had subpoenaed her psychiatric records from USA Medical as part of the couples divorce proceedings.

She let the teaching and rumors of the world consume her and no matter how I tried to help her she pushed me away and I could not force her to get help, Derek Johnson wrote in the GoFundMe post, which as of Tuesday afternoon had raised $6,125 out of a goal of $25,000 to assist Johnson with debts on the home, including property taxes.

He also indicated a desire to tear out a bathroom that I cant possibly stare at where my children were drowned.

Derek Johnson wrote that he and Nancy Johnson had been in a custody battle for six months and that, at one point, she kidnapped the children for about 2 1/2 months.

The amount of happiness and love that emanated from Mia and Jacob was very apparent to all that they were around, their father wrote. Our house was filled with joy and happiness, their future was so bright in every way possible.

Derek Johnson also indicated hed like to write a book about his experiences to help others dealing with mental illness in a relationship.

There is a wonderful and terrible story to tell the world that I hope helps others stop future dangers to their children.

If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, reach out to the 24hour National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255; contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741; or chat with someone online at suicidepreventionlifeline.org. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours.
After nearly three decades, a woman killed by the so-called Happy Face Killer near Crestview, Fla., has become the seventh of his eight victims to be positively identified.

Through the efforts of Florida investigators, working in conjunction with Othram, Inc., a leader in forensic testing, the woman has been identified as Suzanne J. Kjellenberg, officials announced during a Tuesday press conference.

Keith Hunter Jespersons trail of victims stretches from Oregon to California to Nebraska to Florida, with the first victim found in January 1990 and the last in March 1995.

Jesperson, an interstate truck driver, was dubbed the Happy Face Killer by an Oregon reporter after he began writing to media and law enforcement and drawing smiley faces on the letters. The Canadian-born serial killer is currently serving three consecutive life sentences in Oregon for the three murders committed there.

Most of the victims were sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled by the 6-7, 255-pound Jesperson.

In February 1996, Jesperson admitted to an Okaloosa County investigators that he had killed a woman in August 1994 and dumped her body near the Holt exit on Interstate 10. He said at the time he believed the womans name was Susan or Suzette.

Although they knew the identity of her killer, the womans identity remained a mystery until March of this year, when Othram was able to develop a comprehensive genealogical profile through which leads were produced that led investigators to identify Kjellenberg as the Florida victim.

Members of Kjellenbergs family reside in Wisconsin and have been notified, Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden said Tuesday. He said they were grateful for the perseverance of investigators, but also asked for privacy.

Last month, a team including Okaloosa investigators Kelly Henderson and Aaron Pittman, along with Mark Zagar from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Florida Assistant State Attorney Michelle Sandler traveled to Oregon State Penitentiary to meet with Jesperson.

Before the interview, Jesperson was presented with a document assuring him the State of Florida would not seek the death penalty for Kjellenbergs murder.

As of todays date, Jesperson has been charged with the murder of Suzanne Kjellenberg, Aden said.

During the meeting, Jesperson again confessed to the crime, telling investigators he had met the woman (Kjellenberg) at a truck stop near Tampa in August 194 and she accompanied him to the Florida Panhandle. She was headed for Lake Tahoe, Nev., Jesperson said.

The two stopped at a rest area along I-10, with Kjellenberg sleeping in the bed inside the truck. Jesperson said when he sat down next to her, she began screaming and wouldnt stop.

Jesperson said he was fearful a nearby security guard would hear the womans screams (he was not allowe to have unauthorized passengers).

So I killed her, he said, chillingly. You have to consider that after so many people, it was just the easiest thing to do.

Jesperson also said he was concerned that when he moved the body, the large spaghetti dinner the woman had eaten would come up, so he tied two plastic zip ties around her neck.

I figured that way, when I moved her, nothing would come out, he said.

Jesperson drove Kjellenbergs body to the Holt exit. Her body was found by a inmate on a road work crew on Sept. 14, 1994.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of so many over so long, the remains of Suzanne Kjellenberg, the final unidentified victim of Jespersons cross country murder sprees, can finally leave the Medical Examiners Office, and return home, Aden said.

Although Aden referred to Kjellenberg as the final unidentified victim, one of Jespersons victims remains unidentified -- a woman he referred to as Claudia, whose body was found near Blythe, Calif., in August 1992.

Kjellenberg is the second of Jespersons victims to be identified in the past 18 months. In April 2022, authorities in Santa Clara County, Calif., identified Patricia Skiple as his fifth victim, whose body was found near Santa Nella, Calif., in June 1993.
An 81-year-old South Florida man has been ordered by a judge to be sent to Canada where hes charged with the fatal strangling of an American woman nearly 50 years ago in one of the countrys oldest and most infamous cold cases.

Rodney Mervyn Nichols, who was arrested in July at his assisted-living facility in Hollywood but was released on bond, must surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service for his extradition to Ontario at a future date, according to an order issued Monday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Jared Strauss in Fort Lauderdale federal court.

In 1975, 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, 48, would not be known to authorities until 2021, based on a DNA sample of her exhumed body that matched up with her relatives.

Nichols was charged with Langfords murder, based again on DNA technology along with a confession.

There is probable cause to believe that the fugitive before this court, the same person identified in the extradition request from the Government of Canada, committed the offense for which extradition is sought, Kraus wrote in his order issued Monday.

Now the U.S. Department of State must certify the surrender order before Nichols can be legally extradited to Canada.

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.

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 should be allowed to return to his assisted-living facility in Hollywood where he had lived in recent years until the extradition request from Ontario.

Krauss, citing these conditions, allowed Nichols to stay at the Hollywood facility with an electronic monitor while he awaits extradition by the U.S. Marshals Service to Canada.

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.

Police said 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.

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.

2023 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A former Shelby County teacher is under arrest on child sex charges.

Helena police on Tuesday announced the indictment against Richard Bailey Granger. He is charged with seven counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a child and one count of first-degree sodomy.

Granger, 40, was a former teacher at Helena Middle School.

Police Chief Brad Flynn said the investigation began in December when the victim came forward to make a report of the past sexual abuse. The chief said the victim was not a student at the school.

Detectives presented the case to a Shelby County grand jury in August, which returned the indictments against Granger.

Details of his alleged crimes have not yet been made public.

It wasnt immediately clear when Granger left Alabama, but he was living in Panama City at the time of his arrest.

He was taken into custody in Florida on a fugitive from justice warrant. He remains held in the Bay County Jail pending extradition to Alabama.
Huffman Baptist Church in Birmingham plans to sell a surplus parking lot that will become a Jacks restaurant on Parkway East.

An earlier proposal by the church to sell the lot to a company that planned to put a car wash there was denied rezoning by the Birmingham City Council in January after opposition from the Huffman Neighborhood Association.

On Tuesday, the City Council approved rezoning for the new Huffman location for the Jacks Family Restaurants chain, which was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Homewood.

Jacks intends to build our newest prototype restaurant, said Jim Avery, vice president of development for Jacks Family Restaurants. It will include a covered porch with rocking chairs, like the restaurant in downtown Homewood, he said.

Theodore Debro, president of the Huffman Neighborhood Association, thanked the council for rejecting the car wash and said it resulted in a better outcome with a restaurant that residents will welcome to their area.

We think this is going to be a great addition to our neighborhood, really a gateway to our neighborhood where we can have coffee, fellowship and really get to know our neighbors even better, Debro said.

We had something good come out of something bad, said City Council member Valerie Abbott. Everybody won, except the car wash.

The Jacks restaurant is planned for 9701 Parkway East. It will have 42 parking spaces and seating for 68 diners inside, along with a fireplace.

In January, church representatives said the congregation decided to sell the land to help fund ministries.
A three-judge federal district court will hold a hearing Tuesday on three proposed Alabama congressional district maps drawn by a special master appointed by the court.

The court is expected to choose a map for Alabama to use in next years elections. A new map is needed because the court ruled that the one passed by the Legislature in July failed to fix a likely Voting Rights Act violation.

The court issued a preliminary injunction on Sept. 5 blocking the state from using the Legislatures map. Special Master Richard Allen and his team submitted three proposed maps on Sept. 25, as ordered by the court. The court gave parties in the case and others three days to file objections to the maps and set the hearing for Tuesday to consider the maps and those objections.

The states lawyers have defended the Legislatures map and asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency stay on the district courts order, which would have allowed the state to use the Legislatures map. But the Supreme Court denied the states request last week.

Attorney General Steve Marshall and Solicitor General Edmund LaCour wrote that special masters maps were racial gerrymanders. Marshall and LaCour represent Secretary of State Wes Allen, who is the state defendant in the case. They say the maps wrongly put race ahead of traditional redistricting principles like compactness and preserving communities of interest.

Tuesdays hearing is the next step in litigation that started two years ago. Three groups of plaintiffs challenged the map the Legislature passed in 2021 to comply with the requirement for reapportionment after every census. It included one majority Black district, District 7, and six heavily white districts, the same as every plan in Alabama since 1992.

In January 2022, the three-judge court ruled that the plan likely violated the Voting Rights Act because it did not give Black voters the same opportunity as other voters to elect a candidate of their choice. The Supreme Court put that ruling on hold and allowed the 2021 map to be used in last years election. But in June, the Supreme Court affirmed the three-judge courts finding of a likely Voting Rights Act violation.

The three-judge court gave the Legislature a chance to fix the map. But the map passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature in July did not add a second district that was majority Black or close to majority Black, one where Black voters would have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.

Allen, in his report and recommendation to the court, wrote that the three plans he submitted were not drawn to obtain racial population targets. Allen said the maps follow the courts instructions on adhering to traditional redistricting principles while also fixing the likely Voting Rights Act violation.

Allen wrote that he and his team, including cartographer David Ely, sought to minimize changes to the 2023 map passed by the Legislature, with no changes to Districts 3, 4, and 5, and minimal changes to Districts 6, and 7. There are substantial changes in Districts 1 and 2, which cover most of the southern half of the state.

Read more: Why are Birmingham lawmakers eyeing a run for Congress in South Alabama

The congressional map passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature, left, and Remedial Plan 2 proposed by the special master for the federal court, which has blocked Alabama from using the Legislature's map. Like all three of the special master's plans, Remedial Plan 2 raises the Black voting age population in District 2 partly by splitting Mobile County, moving most of the population of the city of Mobile from District 1 to District 2. (Monica Keener/mkeener@al.com)

Allens three maps are similar to one proposed by the two groups of plaintiffs who filed the Voting Rights Act challenge. They retain a majority Black voting age population in District 7 and raise the Black voting age population in District 2 from 40% on the Legislatures map to about 50%.

A performance analysis based on recent election history showed the Black-preferred candidate would have won most elections in the redrawn District 2.
A woman working at Six Flags Over Georgia during the parks annual Fright Fest event Sunday died after she fell out of a van on the property and hit her head, authorities said.

Andrea Crook, 43, of Villa Rica, died at Grady Memorial Hospital after being injured just before 5:15 p.m., Cobb County police said in a statement. Crook was treated at the scene before being taken to Grady alive but suffering from life-threatening injuries.

According to the initial investigation, police said Crook was one of several Six Flags employees riding in the cargo area of a van on park property. Crook fell out of the back of the van as it drove through an uphill, left-hand curve on Harbor Way, suffering a severe head injury when she hit the pavement, according to police.

Officials did not say how Crook was able to fall out of the rear doors of the van. No charges were announced.

Six Flags corroborated the incident details in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Park representatives said their own emergency medical crew and those from local agencies responded to the accident and provided first aid.

Our hearts and our thoughts are extended to the family of the employee as well as all those impacted by this tragic automobile accident; we are heartbroken, Six Flags Over Georgia park President Dave Zellner said in a statement.

Immediate support is being provided to those affected by the accident, park representatives said.

Six Flags is also cooperating with and supporting Cobb police as they investigate the incident, representatives told the AJC.

Fright Fest lasts for about six weeks, beginning in mid-September and running through Halloween. Attractions such as haunted houses, themed scare zones and Halloween shows are added to the parks usual operations, requiring Six Flags to hire many temporary workers.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Cobb police detectives at 770-499-3987.

 Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.

2023 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Rep. Henry Cuellar left the U.S. Capitol late Monday, made a quick Whole Foods stop to grab sushi and then parked in front of his D.C. apartment building.

As he climbed out of the car, he was accosted by three young men in masks.

They were a few feet away with guns pointed at me. They said they wanted the car, Cuellar recounted to reporters Tuesday, describing how he was able to remain calm as he analyzed the situation. I got a black belt in karate, but you know - you know when to use it and when not to use it . . . my sensei would have been very proud of me.

Cuellar, 68, said he was alone when it happened and was glad his daughter wasnt with him. The Laredo Democrat said the message from the incident was to support law enforcement and touted his own record in that department.

He voted with Republicans this year to block a measure approved by the D.C. Council to overhaul the districts criminal code, a move critics denounced as going soft on those behind crimes such as carjacking. He also sided with Republicans in voting to block a police accountability measure approved by the D.C. Council.

Youve got to support law enforcement and Ive been doing that for a long time, Cuellar said.

As Cuellar walked through the hallways of the Capitol complex Tuesday morning, he was repeatedly stopped by Republican colleagues offering him hugs, handshakes and well-wishes.

He told reporters he did not think he had been targeted or that the carjackers even knew he was a member of Congress.

They had masks, but you could still see that they were young . . . They were three punks with guns, he said.

Cuellar characterized it as one more carjacking in a city where the nightly news is dominated by violent crime. Despite political rhetoric about a lawless southwest border, communities in south Texas have significantly less crime than a city such as Washington, D.C., he said.

He cites the difference in crime stats between his hometown of Laredo and Washington often enough that Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, brought it up on a call Tuesday morning.

He says, Hey, you proved your point last night, Cuellar said.

Cuellar said many other House members have apartments in his building, including some Democratic leaders, but that he would leave further commentary on member security to those in charge.

The incident occurred about 9:30 p.m. in D.C.s Navy Yard neighborhood, about a mile south of the Capitol, according to police. Cuellar said the carjackers simply parked his vehicle elsewhere, perhaps hoping to retrieve it later.

But police were able to track it down quickly, thanks in part to the Apple AirTag he had left in the car.

Did he leave the AirTag in the car intentionally in case of a carjacking?

Ive got three brothers who are peace officers, Cuellar said. Ill leave it at that.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser texted him to say the police are doing everything they can to catch the perpetrators.

Cuellar said it appeared the only thing the carjackers actually stole from the car was a dash cam. He told police they were 4-for-4 in recovering his car, iPhone, iPad and briefcase and that 5-out-of-5 would be catching the carjackers.

He repeatedly thanked police for their good work.

They were outstanding. We helped them track the car. They got the car rather fast, Cuellar said. And I got my sushi back.

-------

2023 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A north Alabama judge sentenced a man to life in prison for traveling to meet a 13-year-old girl for sex, prosecutors said Monday.

Christopher Dean Moyer pleaded guilty to traveling to meet a child for sex, electronic solicitation of a child and transmitting obscene material shortly before he was set to go on trial Aug. 21, said 9th Judicial District Attorney Summer Summerford. The 9th district encompasses Cherokee and DeKalb counties.

At Moyers sentencing hearing Monday before 9th Judicial Circuit Judge Shaunathan Bell, prosecutors showed evidence that included messaged from Moyer to a person who Moyer thought was a 13-year-old girl, Summerford said.

The messages included images and details to meet with the presumed child for sexual purposes, according to the DA.

Moyer was arrested when he showed up to meet the girl. At the time of his arrest, he was found with a gun, a controlled substance, petroleum jelly, shaving cream, razors and an extra motorcycle helmet; most of the purchase were bought an hour before the meeting at a Walmart in Centre, Summerford said.

Predators in our community are on notice that this type of behavior will not be tolerated. Children, and parents, should be able to go about their everyday lives without worrying about who is trying to gain access to their children. We appreciate the maximum sentences handed down by Judge Bell in these cases, said Summerford. These cases were prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Stanna Guice and Brady Burns.

Bell gave Moyer the maximum sentence for each of the three counts -- life for traveling to meet a child for sex and 20 years each for electronic solicitation of a child and transmitting obscene material.
A carpentry and construction teacher at an Alabama high school was dumbfounded to learn on Tuesday that he had earned his program a $100,000 grand prize from Harbor Freight Tools Tools for Schools program.

School and company officials broke the happy news to Scott Larson, a teacher at the North Baldwin Center for Technology, with an announcement ceremony between classes. A strategically placed school bus concealed the preparations from Larsons view until he walked past following a group of students.

How are you? asked Sarah Brown, a district manager for Harbor Freight. I dont know yet, said Larson, realizing he was the center of attention. He later added that he thought Id get an email if there was news about his application to the program.

North Baldwin Technology Center teacher Scott Larson poses with students after being awarded a $100,000 Harbor Freight grant that will support the school's construction program.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

Brown said that the 2023 grant program had received 1,009 applications from all 50 states. On Tuesday, 25 skilled trades teachers nationwide were being awarded $1.5 million in prizes, she said. Larson was one of five recipients of the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence.

Brown said the program was designed to address a shortage of workers by spotlighting and supporting the efforts of teachers. There are significant infrastructure projects happening across our country while at the same time we are facing a severe shortage of skilled trade workers, she said.

The North Baldwin Center for Technology is a part of the Baldwin County School Systems Career Technical Education Program. Its programs include Welding, Agri-Science, Building Construction, HVAC, Automotive, Graphic Design, Cosmetology and Health Sciences. It also offers college credits in dual enrollment programs with Coastal Alabama Community College.

Larson said he was in his 14th year of teaching after working as a carpenter and remodeling contractor. It has been a rewarding experience, he said, particularly when he sees former students making their way in the world. He likes it when he can run into somebody in the Tractor Supply parking lot and theyre making twice as much money as Im making and doing really well, he said.

Its basically just teaching them how to use tools, how to build stuff, but mostly its really about teaching them the skills they need to succeed, he said of his daily work. You know, the problem-solving skills, the employability skills, being creative, communication skills, team working skills. So when they do finally get out there in the work force, they succeed.

Scott Larson, an instructor at North Baldwin Technology Center, helps students select lumber for a project.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

Most of the time when we talk to industry people they say, Send me somebody thats a good worker and knows how to use a measuring tape, and well do the rest, Larson said. We try to give them a few more skills than that when we send them out there working. Mostly what theyre missing out there is those employability skills, you know, people ready to go to work, show up with their tools, a good attitude, who can work as part of a team, show up on time every day. Apparently its hard to find.

After grabbing a slice of cake, Larson quickly was back at work, directing students as they got down to business. A range projects were in progress, from a partially built boat to some chairs that students were making for themselves. Larson said students also have been building chicken coops and dockside boxes that will store life vests provided by the Baldwin County Parks Department at public boat launches.

Larson said there wasnt a single big-ticket item hed like to see the grant money spent on. In the past, he said, hes won small grants of a couple thousand dollars or less, and those had helped him add equipment such as a computer-controlled router and a laser engraver. He might spend some of this money on a rigging trainer, to help students learn how to safely move heavy materials, or a plumbing trainer. Everybodys screaming for help, plumbers included, he said.

Adam Sealy, center, principal of North Baldwin Technology Center, commends teacher Scott Larson for winning a $100,000 Harbor Freight grant that will support the school's construction program.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

It would also help buy lumber and other goods, he said. If we need materials we dont have to scrounge around for money, he said.

Adam Sealy, the principal of the school, praised Larson for pursuing the grants on his own time after school hours. Its going to go a long way in our building construction program, he said of the Harbor Freight award.
Although Alabamas Republican delegation in the House of Representatives stood behind Kevin McCarthy, the California congressman was removed as speaker after eight Republicans joined the chambers Democrats to oust him Tuesday.

McCarthys deal with Democrats that avoided a government shutdown over the weekend sealed his fate among a group of renegade House Republicans. The group is headed by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who set McCarthys ouster in motion.

All six of Alabamas GOP House members voted to keep McCarthy in the speakers chair, but the California congressman did not survive the 216-210 vote to remove him.

Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, suggested he supported McCarthy as speaker because he believed the infighting among Republicans was a distraction from the partys goals on government funding:

I voted against the motion to vacate. See my full statement below: pic.twitter.com/oDLEyITln1  Rep. Barry Moore (@RepBarryMoore) October 3, 2023

Rep. Jerry Carl, R-Mobile, had the same rationale.

I voted against removing Speaker McCarthy because this is nothing more than a distraction from the real issues that matter to Americans, he tweeted. We need to focus on securing the border, cutting wasteful government spending, countering the Biden admin, and stopping the woke agenda.

I voted against removing Speaker McCarthy because this is nothing more than a distraction from the real issues that matter to Americans.



We need to focus on securing the border, cutting wasteful government spending, countering the Biden admin, and stopping the woke agenda.  Rep. Jerry Carl (@RepJerryCarl) October 3, 2023

Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, said he was disappointed in McCarthys removal.

Our nation currently has many challenges, and certainly the debt of this country, and the crisis at the border, are issues that must be dealt with. Republicans must find a way to work together to do the most we can do until we can grow our majority. We dont give up because we cant win everything today, he said. I will never give in and never quit fighting to solve the debt problem and the disaster at the border.

Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Hoover, said McCarthys ouster is reflective of how divided our nation is, including among Republican members of the House.

While I am deeply disappointed about where we are, we still must find a way to govern, the congressman said.

Our country faces a $33 trillion debt crisis threatening the future of all Americans  those living and those yet to be born, Palmer continued. Our border is not secure, threatening not only our economy but also our national security. As Republicans, we must find a way to come together and choose a leader who can unify our party and has the ability to address these issues head on. We have a job to do for the American people, and they deserve a unified majority focused on whats best for the nation.

Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, was among the 208 Democrats to vote to remove McCarthy.

This is a sad and unprecedented day for America. Government works best when we have two functioning political parties that are willing to put people over politics. What is clear is that House Republicans are divided among themselves and have unleashed chaos, dysfunction, and extremism at every turn, she said. My Democratic colleagues and I remain willing to find common ground, but it is up to House Republicans to end this GOP civil war.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
Kevin McCarthys tenuous tenure as speaker has come to an end after eight months when eight Republicans joined every Democrat in the House to remove him from his post on Tuesday.

Who are the eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy?

The group is led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who spearheaded the effort to remove McCarthy after the California Republican made a deal with Democrats to to temporarily fund the government and avoid a shutdown.

Earlier this year in January, during the contest for Speaker of the House, there was a group of lawmakers who wanted to change the way Washington, D.C., operates before allowing Kevin McCarthy to ascend to the speakership. These concessions included passing single-subject spending bills, votes on a balanced budget and term limits, the full release of the January 6th tapes, committing to not using Democrat votes to pass legislation that advances the priorities of Joe Biden, and more, Gaetz said in a news release Tuesday explaining why he moved to oust McCarthy.

For the last eight months, Speaker McCarthy has been in breach of that agreement, Gaetz continued. While there have been minor improvements, like taking a vote on term limits in the House Judiciary Committee and passing some single-subject spending bills, this progress was only made after Rep. Gaetz put pressure on Speaker McCarthy and forced him to do it. All of Speaker McCarthys failure theater resulted in him teaming up with Democrats to pass a continuing resolution that funds Ukraine, funds Jack Smiths election interference against President Trump, abandons E-Verify, and does nothing to put the interests of the American people first.

Joining Gaetz in voting for McCarthys removal as speaker were Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Bob Good of Virginia, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Ken Buck of Colorado and Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina.

Here is what the eight Republican congressmen have said about the vote to remove McCarthy:

I support Motion to Vacate.



Speaker McCarthy has failed to demonstrate himself as an effective leader who will change the status quo.



He has gone against many of the promises he made in January and can no longer be trusted at the helm.  Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) October 3, 2023

Unfortunately, Kevin McCarthy violated his promise to the American people and the Republican Conference by working against them repeatedly and supporting ploys to aid the Left. This demonstration of failed leadership is exactly why I plan on supporting the motion to vacate this  Matt Rosendale (@RepRosendale) October 3, 2023

Rep. Bob Good: "Now is, and was, the time. With the Democrats driving the fiscal bus off the cliff at 100mph, we cannot simply be content to be the party to slow it down to 95 just to sit in the front seat and wear the captain's hat." pic.twitter.com/bFNavpThnq  ForAmerica (@ForAmerica) October 3, 2023

I came up here to represent the residents of northern AZ & I will use every single tool at my disposal to break the cycle of incompetency & dishonesty thats been allowed to steamroll the American people for far too long.



Thanks to @bradleydevlin & @amconmag. https://t.co/4MxLeMxmt5  Rep. Eli Crane (@RepEliCrane) October 3, 2023

My statement on my intention to vote for the motion to vacate. pic.twitter.com/4vrlp2XUra  Rep. Tim Burchett (@RepTimBurchett) October 3, 2023
As blue-collar philosopher Eric Hoffer reportedly observed some years back, Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket. Ibram X. Kendis brand of antiracism skipped the first two phases. It was conceived as a racket.

Like most rackets, Kendis depended for its success on finding suckers to support it. Kendi found his at Boston University. In a perverse effort to atone for imagined sins, the BU administration funded a Kendi brainchild, the Center for Antiracist Research. Hysteria over the death of George Floyd inspired the center, but hysteria alone cannot sustain it.

After suddenly laying off over half his employees last week and with his center producing almost nothing since its founding, writes David Decosimo in the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Kendi is now facing an investigation and harsh criticism from numerous colleagues complaining of financial mismanagement, dysfunctional leadership, and failure to honor obligations attached to its millions in grant money.

No surprises here. Kendi is just one racial bunco artist out of many. Doing research for my new book, Untenable: The True Story of White Ethnic Flight from Americas Cities, I reviewed the work of four of the leading lights in this movement, specifically on the subject of white flight.

Two, Kendi and Ta-Nehisi Coates, are Black; two, Robin DiAngelo and Tim Wise, are White. What they have in common is that none of them gives any evidence of ever having spoken to a White person who fled. Evidence only spoils the con.

Not even academics who specialize in White flight bother to speak to its victims. Princetons Leah Boustan concluded a New York Times op-ed with the remarkable observation, To complicate the picture, few of [the fleeing Whites] left personal accounts, and they may not have been able to articulate exactly why they moved.

For my book, I spoke to at least fifty White people who fled collapsing ethnic communities. Everyone with whom I spoke knew exactly why they left. Its just that no one bothered to ask them. What I heard over and over was the rationale one childhood friend, a Democrat, gave for finally leaving our Newark, New Jersey, neighborhood.

It became untenable, my friend told me. What I asked what untenable meant, he answered calmly, When your mother gets mugged for the second time, thats untenable. When your home gets invaded for the second time, that is untenable. Multiply my friends experience by a million or so, and you have the true story of White flight as it unfolded in cities big and small across the northeast and north central United States.

The antiracists traffic not in truth but in propaganda. Most urban whites preferred flight over fight, wrote Kendi in his National Book Award winner, Stamped from the Beginning. Real estate agents, speculators, and developers benefitted selling fleeing whites new suburban homes. America experienced an unprecedented post-war boom in residential and new highway construction as white families moved to the suburbs and had to commute farther to their jobs.

This conspiratorial caricature of post-war urban America may help Kendi win awards, but it bears little relation to reality. In 1954, my parents used the GI Bill -- a model welfare system writes Kendi sarcastically -- to buy an 1880s fixer-upper on a Newark block home to several black families as well as immigrants from 14 different countries. An elderly female boarder came with the house. We would live in that house for the next ten years until the Highway Department took it.

Among my childhood friends we were the only homeowners. As I learned in my research, people loved this neighborhood, in no small part because of the Catholic church and school at its center. They did not want to leave. Blockbusting explained nothing about a community of contented renters who did not rely on public schools. An explosion of violent crime -- the citys homicide rate increased sixfold between 1950 and 1972 -- explained a lot.

Kendis parents, who went by the name Rogers, seem to have been wary of the public schools in their native Queens, New York. They sent young Ibram to a Christian elementary school. When his mother, a business analyst, and his father, a tax accountant, moved to a largely white Virginia suburb, they sent young Ibram to the public high school. It was presumably good enough -- and safe enough -- for him to attend.

Kendis fellow antiracists are as conspiracy-minded as he is. In The Case for Reparations, an overpraised article in the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates argues that housing segregation wasnt simply the work of individual home owners. It was instead the intended result of government policy. White flight, Coates insists, was not an accident -- it was a triumph of racist social engineering.

This isnt sociology. This is fiction. Government agents have always been more clumsy than clever, and in Newark, more greedy than either. In our case, the authorities socially engineered us out of our home simply because we stood in the way of a major federal payday for the city.

Born in 1975 to a radical family -- Ta-Nehisis father, Paul Coates, had been a Black Panther -- young Coates did not have to wander far from home to find his ideology. Paul Coates ran Black Classic Press, a radical publishing house. Coatess mother was a schoolteacher and one of the four women who bore Paul Coates his seven children.

Coates attended Howard University but never got around to graduating. Degrees were for lesser mortals. In the age of forced diversity, Coates had no need for a Black press. He found his audience on the white-bread pages of the Atlantic, a mother lode of guilt waiting to be mined.

Sensing the potential of the antiracist movement, Whites have begun to colonize it, few more shamelessly than Robin DiAngelo. Here is how DiAngelo sums up White flight in her preposterous bestseller, White Fragility: White families fled from cities to the suburbs to escape the influx of people of color, a process socialogists [sic] term White flight. They wrote covenants to keep schools and neighborhoods segregated and forbade cross-racial dating.

DiAngelos analysis of White flight is no more accurate than her spelling of sociologist. Her dissertation abstract was predictive of where she was heading. I used Whiteness theory to frame my observations, she explains, which defines Whiteness as a set of racialized relations that are historically, socially, politically and culturally produced.

I missed my calling. DiAngelo makes more than $700,000 a year warning enlightened White people about their fragile, melanin-deprived brethren. Were DiAngelo -- born Robin Taylor -- to tell the true story of Americas great ethnic diaspora, her speaking fees would shrivel to nothing.

Like many in the White franchise of the antiracist biz, Tim Wise seems obsessed with the 1950s hit show, Leave It to Beaver. The show speaks of a time, Wise says with attempted sarcasm, when everything was in its place, before all the struggles for equality and justice came along in the 60s and messed everything up. Today, he imagines, You have a whole political movement that is based on escaping into that fantasy.

In the world according to Wise, White flight began as soon as communities and schools came to have even small numbers of people of color in them. This is a stunning conclusion in that it ignores very nearly all real-world evidence.

Wises one true observation, however ironic its intent, is that the sixties did mess everything up. The loosening of sexual mores during that ill-starred decade, coupled with government policies that rewarded fatherlessness, created a crisis in the black community that endures to this day.

And now Kendi may be messing everything up for his colleagues. He conceived a research institution dedicated to ignoring the root causes of a crisis his funders hoped to resolve. The BU brass actually hoped to scale this nonsense up. Now, with their eyes open, they may be helping to pull it all down.

Jack Cashills new book, Untenable: The True Story of White Ethnic Flight from Americas Cities, is available in all formats.

Image: Montclair Film
Everyone who watches crime dramas such as CSI, NCIS, Castle, or Bones, knows that every episode focuses on the issue of Motive. The reason is obvious. Correctly assessing Motive an important consideration in figuring out who has committed what crime.

Why then has the issue of Motive on January 6 been swept off the stage of public discourse?

To many, asking such a question may appear provocative, even uninformed. After all, Democrats have repeatedly told us the Motive for January 6: Trump, according to them, wanted to foment an "insurrection. Yet if that Motive were really so obvious, why has it been necessary for the anti-Trumpers to repeat it so relentlessly, literally many times every day?

If we examine the true Motive for ourselves, we soon discover that the repeated cries of "insurrection" have tried to stifle analysis of the actual January 6 Motive in favor of accepted "fact. Despite that relentless attempt, or rather because of it, we should ask ourselves: just who actually had the Motive to disrupt the congressional deliberations taking place in the Capitol Building?

The Electoral Count Act, in place since 1887, sets forth procedures by which in a joint session of Congress, presided over by the Vice President, can raise concerns about election irregularities. Using that legally established framework, senators such as Cruz, Hawley, and Johnson, together with House members, proposed to follow the statutorily provided process to review voting irregularities in certain swing states.

Trump wanted these procedures to go forward unimpeded. They were, however, anathema to anti-Trumpers, who wanted the procedures to stop, or better yet, never to get started.

On January 4th, Vice President Mike Pence, knowing that he was to preside over the proceedings, explained why he thought it would be good for the American People to let the legal process play out, declaring:

"I know we've all got doubts about the election. I share the concerns of millions of Americans about voting irregularities. I promise you this Wednesday [January 6] we'll have our day in Congress. We'll hear the objections. We'll hear the evidence.

There was nothing secretive about Pence's declaration. With full transparency, he announced that he wanted the process to go forward, and why.

In the years since January 6, Pence has consistently reiterated his belief that the process would have been beneficial. Despite years of facing demands that he recant, Pence has not deviated from that conviction.

For example, in an interview on ABC News on November 22, 2022, Pence said:

"I was fully prepared to make sure that we had all the arguments, concerns that members of Congress had brought. But... the riot... that ensued eclipsed all that..."

In an interview by Judy Woodruff of PBS News on December 1, 2022, she repeatedly tried to get Pence to change his mind by advancing false premises. Nevertheless, Pence stuck to his conclusion:

...I did support the objections that were filed in the Congress, because the Electoral Count Act allows for, that objections that were filed by member[s]... are to be considered under the Electoral Count Act... The fact is that there were irregularities that took place in the election... And the possibility that there would emerge evidence of fraud was always there... I thought... quite honestly, that channeling the great concern of millions of Americans about the 2020 election into the legal process... in the Congress of the United States, would be very useful, to hear of the irregularities..."

In a subsequent interview on ABC News on March 19, 2023, Pence reiterated:

"I think it was worthwhile that the Congress debate the objections and consider the facts and then move forward with the peaceful transition.

As it turns out, there was nothing peaceful when the proceedings that Trump and his supporters wanted to go forward unimpeded were instead disrupted by the January 6 riot.

Trump and Pence did disagree on the potential next step after the joint session. They did not disagree at all, however, on the desirability of using the statutory procedures to bring information about the election to the wider court of public opinion. Both Trump and Pence were in favor of transparency and Free Speech on that topic of intense public interest.

By contrast, it was the Democrats who did not want that information made public. They wanted to make sure that the People, using Pence's words, would not get to "hear the evidence. They, not Trump, had the Motive to disrupt the process taking place in the Capitol.

In sum, no one could reach any other conclusion about the contrasting Motives on January 6, if each would just ask, and honestly answer, two basic questions:

1) Did Trump want the process interrupted?

2) Did the anti-Trumpers want it stopped?

The answers to these two questions are so clear, despite the blitz of "Insurrection!", that it would be possible to wrap up the discussion of Motive at this point. Yet because the Left has been so relentless to deflect consideration of actual Motive, it is useful to point out that there is an abundance of corroborating evidence. Here is a partial list:

1) Before January 6, it was the Democrat mayor of D.C. and the Democrat speaker who turned down Trump's offer of troops to protect the proceedings in the Capitol, thereby making the path for disruption more open.

2) After January 6, both the mayor and speaker turned D.C. into an armed military zone, with thousands of troops, heavy military equipment, barricades, and barbed wire. The disruption had already succeeded, and now it was useful to make vivid the false "insurrection" narrative. (It never came, and finally the pretense and waste of taxpayer dollars became too embarrassing to continue).

3) It was Democrats in the joint session who tried to truncate the proceedings.

4) When Trump talked to his supporters before they went over to the Capitol, he told them to do so "peacefully and patriotically -- not the advice one would give if one wanted the proceedings disrupted.

5) Only about one percent of the protesters in D.C. actually entered the Capitol. If Trump's Motive was to disrupt the process, then he must be accounted one of the most ineffective "insurrectionists" of all time. In fact, it was the 99 percent who stayed out of the Capitol that followed his request.

6) Even among that one percent, video the Democrats tried to hide shows that many who entered the Capitol did so at the invitation of the Speaker's Capitol Police, who opened the doors for them and waved them in.

7) The Left not only tried to hide the fact Trump told his supporters beforehand to be peaceful, but also tried to suggest that Trump did nothing to discourage the disruption. A quick review of the timeline demonstrates the opposite. The first protester entered the Capitol at 2:12 P.M. Then:

a) Just 26 minutes later, Trump tweeted: "Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay Peaceful.

b) At 3:13 Trump tweeted again "to remain peaceful.

c) At 4:17 Trump released a video in which he said: " ...you have to go home now. We have to have peace."

d) At 6:01 Trump tweeted: "Go home with love & in peace."

These tweets were removed by the social media censors. Why did they do so, if not to delete evidence that it was Trump who did not want the proceedings disrupted?

8) On the next day, shortly after Twitter temporarily unlocked his account, Trump released a video condemning the Capitol building disruption. He said he was "outraged," hardly the sentiments of a man who wanted the proceedings interrupted.

9) After the Capitol was cleared and the joint session reconvened, the statutory proceedings were truncated. The Democrats had achieved their disruption Motive.

10) It was the Democrats who later led the rewrite of the Electoral Count Act to remove the procedures that were interrupted on January 6.

11) Both before and after January 6, the Democrats have attempted in multiple channels to quash any claims of 2020 election irregularities, i.e. have pursued the same Motive as disrupting the January 6 joint session.

12) Disruption of government business they do not like is a consistent Democrat strategy, which they not only pursue but praise. Examples include the coordinated "absenteeism" of Democrat State legislators in Texas, disruption of legislative work in the Tennessee State House, disrupting meetings of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, praising Antifa and BLM attacks on Federal buildings, and pulling a fire alarm to prevent an unwanted vote in Congress.

In summary, corroborating evidence confirms just who had, and who had not, the Motive to disrupt the January 6 proceedings. The American People should not be deflected from exercising their own independent judgment on this question. They should realize that Trump was concerned about the 2020 election irregularities and wanted them aired on January 6, and still wants that evidence to be heard. It is the Democrats who resisted then, and still do.

Image: TapTheForwardAssist
Here in Australia, our politicians are promoting a divisive and racist change to our constitution by referendum  the creation of an indigenous "voice" with undefined powers. Voting is underway now.

According to Reuters:

SYDNEY, Oct 3 (Reuters)  Support for a proposal to amend Australia's constitution to enshrine recognition of Indigenous people has edged higher, according to a poll published on Tuesday, although most voters intend to reject the change in a referendum now underway. Early voting on whether to recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution and create a "Voice to Parliament" to give them an avenue to advise the government on matters affecting First Nations Australians began on Monday.

"Indigenous" means "born here," so most of us are indigenous. And for all of us, our earliest Australian ancestors came from somewhere else.

But these politicians are referring to the Australian aboriginal minority, who, like all Australians, had ancestors from somewhere else, but are the oldest inhabitants on the continent.

To divide indigenous Australians on the basis of skin color or length of ancestry is more about politics than about justice.

We are all Australians, and constitutional changes that promote apartheid policies should be rejected.

Australia is now home to Aboriginals, as well as those descended from Islanders, English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Dutch, Italian, German, Scandinavians, Melanesians, Greeks, Kiwis, Afghans, Africans, Chinese, and others. Most have made permanent homes here. All who embrace Australian citizenship and obey Australian law should be treated equally before the law.

People identifying as Aboriginals already have eleven voices in federal Parliament  more than justified by their numbers in the population.

Moreover, huge government departments and billions of dollars are already representing aboriginal interests. The "voice" will create another layer of race-based bureaucrats and delay every significant political decision

Despite having "native title" to far more land per head of population than most other Australians, many aboriginals live in degraded communal enclaves with poor community protection, especially for women and children. They need individual freehold titles, not communal titles controlled by bureaucrats, academics, and politicians.

Many Australians distrust proposals supported by big government; big business; trade unions; and the state-owned broadcasting company, the ABC.

Ordinary Australians are continually insulted by being "welcomed" to events by people stomping around in red nappies, blowing smoke, and making drainpipe noises. Most of these ceremonies are modern inventions. We do not need to be welcomed to our own country.

For these and many other reasons, I will be voting "NO."

Viv Forbes has spent much of his long life in grazing, exploration, and mining in outback Queensland and Northern Territories. He has visited mission stations and employed aboriginal people. He learned firsthand how the Claimant Industry delays everything and enriches lawyers on both sides. He believes that "the voice" would make things far worse for Australians.

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.
The original House Un-American Activities Committee deserved the condemnation it received. Citizens have the right to believe as they wish and belong to law-abiding political parties of their choosing. We should never suffer for political thought.

Some declare there can be no such thing as "un-Americanism" in a country where men have the liberty to believe however they see fit. But that is spuriousness. It falls to pieces under examination.

A definition of Americanism would begin with the Constitution. By design, it is open to democratic alteration. One can disagree with a given passage. But to challenge the entire document's validity and declare this nation itself illegitimate is not a matter of marginal amendment, but wholesale rejection.

Those who don't respect that document are still American citizens whose rights deserve protection. But their status is merely geographic. They are un-Americans in America.

A new HUAC could advance the legitimate cause of national self-defense. That means focusing on subversive activities.

A September LawOfficer.com post noted that Georgia was pursuing prosecution of 61 environmental activists connected to Antifa.

"When Antifa is not committing the felony crime of arson in Seattle, WA or Portland, OR, they are organized to prevent conservative speakers from coming to events in dozens of college campuses across the country, they have been violently preventing speakers from presenting their messages," the site warned.

Also that month, the Post Millennial reported that an Oregon Antifa blogger had claimed responsibility for vandalism at the World Forestry museum.

The blogger asserted: "To truly defend the forests requires the destruction of capitalism altogether. Knowing there can be no dialogue with what must be destroyed, we turn to the attack."

In 2022, USA Today noted that Black Lives Matter 2020 rioters caused two billion dollars of damages, including arson, for which 10,000 were arrested. That's not counting violence perpetrated against police, who are official representatives of the people and our laws.

News footage from that disgusting period captured anonymous, armed Antifa hordes, in city after city, wreaking mayhem and defying the democratic order. They and BLM must be officially designated "domestic terrorists" and prosecuted accordingly.

One cannot omit citation of the ongoing war against Donald Trump and his tens of millions of MAGA supporters. It has seen the perversion of governmental agencies like the DOJ and FBI, who expend countless hours and millions of taxpayer dollars to interfere with the legitimate workings of the electoral process in violation of popular sentiment.

Add in efforts to remove Trump from state ballots, denying citizens the ability to support the candidate of their choosing. In America.

Government has been infiltrated by prosecutors and judges who would frustrate the people's will by rendering Trump unable to participate in the electoral process  not to mention Deep State bureaucrats who, during President Trump's service, sought to undermine his lawful decisions.

It is the constitutional responsibility of government to safeguard the national welfare. The current atmosphere demands a new HUAC  but this time, it must respect civil liberties.

Image: JSMed via Pixabay, Pixabay License.
The old adage is that a lie will travel halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants (or boots) on. Thats what CNN and former Trump White House Chief of Staff John Kelly are counting on because theyre resurrecting debunked claims that Trump attacked Americas veterans and those who died in battle. After all, as the late, unlamented Harry Reid said in 2012 after lobbing charges against Mitt Romney that he knew were false, helping to keep Mitt out of the White House, Romney didnt win, did he?

John Kelly is another member of the military cadre that turned so hard against Donald Trump, despite having served as Donald Trumps Secretary of Homeland Security and Chief of Staff. I have no idea why that happened. Was it because he was always a NeverTrumper whom the Vichy Republicans placed near Trump (who desperately needed people in his administration) to rein him in or spy on him? Or was it because he was a true believer who found Trump the man untenable?

Actually, I dont believe that second hypothetical because of the fact that Kelly is now asserting provable lies against Trump. That doesnt sound like a disenchanted man suddenly speaking the truth. That sounds like a Vichy Republican whos no longer spying on the chief but, instead, is lying about the chief.

This saga starts with a hit piece in The Atlantic right before the 2020 election. According to that article, Trump savaged veterans and those who died serving the United States:

Donald Trump, in a White House meeting, asked that a military parade exclude wounded veterans, because "nobody wants to see" amputees. My story here: https://t.co/4PUGrR7tCS  Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) September 3, 2020

According to that article, Trump was supposed to visit Belleau Wood, the site of one of the U.S. Marines most famous battles in June 2018. He allegedly refused to go there, however, because it would mess up his hair and, moreover, he had no respect for the suckers and losers who died that day. However, people with first-hand knowledge, including John Bolton, who despised Trump, were adamant that this was a lie. I was there, [Bolton] said, about the decision to cancel the Belleau Wood trip, and I didn't hear that.

Moreover, contemporaneous documents establish unequivocally that Trumps visit wasnt canceled because of Trumps haircare or disdain but because his transport couldnt travel there in heavy rain:

Regarding the lede of this story: I obtained documents from the Navy via #FOIA about Trump's 2018 trip to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris and the documents say his transport was canceled by the Navy due to rain. https://t.co/oNWsvAPy1z pic.twitter.com/keFtW7QC8b  Jason Leopold (@JasonLeopold) September 4, 2020

White House official has sent an image of redacted email apparently showing "bad weather call" was indeed cause of Trump not attending Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in 2018.



Dan Scavino and Stephen Miller were also both there - and deny Atlantic storyhttps://t.co/jQNgHX0Fd7 pic.twitter.com/Gzre4oYEs9  Rob Crilly (@robcrilly) September 4, 2020

Trump is also not a man who pulls back in revulsion from those injured serving their country:

Nor is this a man who disrespects the military (one of my favorite Trump clips):

If you want disrespect for the military, I give you two see-it-with-your-own-eyes examples:

Nevertheless, despite all this proof that Trump didnt run from Belleau Wood, insult veterans, or back off from amputees, CNN and Kelly have raised that zombie:

What can I add that has not already been said? Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all suckers because there is nothing in it for them. A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because it doesnt look good for me. A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family  for all Gold Star families  on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in Americas defense are losers and wouldnt visit their graves in France.

So, why the lie? Well, for the same reason they told the lie in 2020: Because they could and it was good for the Democrat campaign. Heres Joe Watch Checker Biden repeating the lie:

Reporter: "When you hear these remarks -- 'suckers, losers, recoiling from amputees' -- what does it tell you about President Trump's soul and the life he leads?"



Joe Biden: "...You know in your heart, you know in your gut, it's deplorable. It's deplorable." pic.twitter.com/Q2BBsY4N4e  The Hill (@thehill) September 5, 2020

The thing to understand is that Democrats dont just play to win. After they win, either by fair means or foul, they grind their opponent in the dust, whether in a gulag or concentration camp or simply by destroying their lives and reputations so irrevocably that they can never recover. Its a two-fer. Not only do Democrats rid themselves of a current opponent, but the mangled body of their enemy (or their enemys reputation) also serves as a warning for all who would stand against them. (See, e.g., Andrew McCarthys powerful essay and Victor Davis Hansons interview with Tucker.)

I sincerely hope these tactics backfire this time around. But that will only happen if Americans can drag themselves away from their easily available, legal pot, their video games, their reality TV, and their streaming video series long enough to realize that something has gone terribly wrong with their country under the Democrats aegis. If they recognize that Trump is the first step, not the last, in the countrys takeover, maybe, just maybe, theyll wise up.

Image: Internet meme with apologies to Martin Niemoller.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a lifelong, true, loyal leftist, suddenly became popular among conservatives because he was one of the few leftists to speak out against COVID vaccines. This wasnt any particular wisdom on his part; hes always opposed all vaccines. However, because of this stance, when RFK Jr threw his hat in the Democrat primary ring against Biden, some conservatives got excited. This man, they thought, would siphon votes away from Biden, handing Republicans a win. But thats not what will happenand RFK knows it. In other words, hes another weapon against Republicans.

Ive never trusted RFK, despite his stance against the COVID vaccination. As noted, that stance is because hes anti-vax across the board, not because hes about small government and individual liberty. Where the rubber hits the road is that hes a climate fanatic and anti-gun fanatic, which means that I have no interest in him whatsoever. He wants huge government and no individual liberty. Hes been trying to moderate his stance lately, but hes got a history.

Image: RFK Jr. Rumble screen grab.

Moreover, while Im sure that Rabbi Michael Barclay is correct that RFK is not an anti-Semite (and, indeed, his father was very pro-Israel), and that he will say the right things when called upon, that doesnt mean hes one of the good guys. I havent forgotten that, before RJK Jr announced his candidacy, he enthusiastically praised both Louis Farrakhan and Roger Waters, two arch-antisemites. Hes trying to distance himself from those associations, but they haunt him like a bad smell.

Still, mostly based on his vaccine stand, conservatives imagine him defeating Biden in the primaries or even being part of a Trump ticket. Now that hes planning to run as an independent, though, RFKs ultimate loyalty to the Democrat party is starting to shine through.

We all know an independent cant win. That means that, if RFK Jr is running as an independent, hes running as a spoiler. That is, hes running to siphon votes away from someone. And RFK Jr knows exactly whose votes hell be siphoning: Trumps. In other words, hes running to ensure that the Democrat wins:

I take more votes from President Trump than I do from President Biden.

According to Sundance, at Conservative Treehouse, this was always the plan: [H]aving seeded the background for favorable republican [sic] support, running as an independent now becomes the most effective way to stop Trump. [snip] This is all about stopping Donald Trump.

I should note that this doesnt mean that RFK Jr is working with Biden. The fact that Biden refuses Secret Service protection to give RFK Jr shows that, currently, Biden views RFK Jr as more of a threat than he views Donald Trump.

If, God forbid, something happens to RFK Jr (and, while I dont like the man, I certainly dont wish him ill), Biden will deal with Trump when the time comes. The same forces that got Biden into the White House in 2020 will still be present in 2024, everything from election fraud to legal mail-in balloting to a complicit media, so he has every reason to believe hell win a second time as he did the first.

The only takeaway for readers of this site should be that RFK Jr is not a friend to conservativism, and hes not a substitute for any of the Republican candidates, no matter how bad some of them are.
It appears that the fentanyl epidemic has gotten so bad in New York City that the authorities have requested that all residents carry Narcan (generic name naloxone) to treat overdose victims in the street. Naloxone is an "opioid antagonist" that can reverse the life-threatening effect of overdoses. The city health department is offering training to people on how to use the drug, which is now over-the-counter. One health official opined that Narcan should be in everyone's first-aid kit and even available at subway stations.

The catalyst for what would once have been considered at outlandish request was the death of a two-year-old boy who died after exposure to fentanyl. That's not all: New York City experienced a 12% jump in overdose deaths last year (that's more than 3,000 people), in 2022.

Why is this happening? Failure to control our southern border has led to the importation of a whole slew of dangerous drugs by drug cartels. It's said the cartels are now the fifth largest employer in Mexico. If you're wondering who's controlling the border, it's not the Mexican government, and it's certainly not we. It's they.

Opioids are so deadly because of their tendency to interrupt your ability to breathe, especially when taken in high doses or in combination with other recreational drugs. You should be able to recognize the signs and symptoms of someone who's overdosing. Expect to see shallow, slow breathing, a slow pulse, pale and cold skin, blue lips or fingernails, and altered mental status. Unlike the dilated pupils seen with some drugs, opioids cause pupils to be pinpoint in appearance.

If you encounter someone who is unconscious, he needs Narcan immediately. Fortunately, the drug can return normal breathing quickly, within two to three minutes in many cases. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has specifically approved the use of Narcan as an over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray. It's effective when given correctly.

Narcan nasal spray usually comes in a package with two doses. If the first dose is ineffective, you can give a second dose without worrying about any additional side-effects. Even if you're not sure the victim used opioids, give him Narcan anyway. It doesn't cause harm, and it's safe to take even when you don't have opioids in your system. It's best to give Narcan as soon as possible; the longer you wait, the more likely it might be too late for the victim.

Someone who begins breathing again after receiving Narcan can relapse after 3090 minutes if he has very high amounts of opioids in his system. Because of this, it's important that you call emergency services and stay with the person until help arrives to make sure he doesn't deteriorate. This may not be the easiest thing to do, as many victims wake up confused, agitated, and combative.

Here's how to administer Narcan:

Lay the person flat on his back, making sure his mouth is clear and the airway is open.

Open the outer package of Narcan and peel back the inner packaging of the nasal spray.

Hold the spray container with your thumb at the bottom of the plunger and your pointer and middle fingers on either side of the nozzle.

Tilt the person's head back. Support the back of the neck, and insert the nozzle into a nostril. Your index and middle fingers should touch the bottom of the nose.

Firmly press the plunger to deliver the dose into the person's nose; remove the device once it's delivered. There's only one dose per spray device, so don't press the plunger until you're ready to deliver the drug.

In extreme cases, you may still need to support the victim's breathing with CPR techniques after the first dose is given. If the person starts breathing again and becomes responsive in short order, the Narcan worked. You can rotate him onto his side in the CPR recovery position and monitor him.

If, in two to three minutes, the person is still unresponsive or not breathing, or if breathing difficulty returns, administer the second dose of Narcan (each container comes with two spray devices) in the opposite nostril.

You should be able to find Narcan at your local pharmacy; it might even be available for free. Every state and insurance plan has its own rules, but one thing is sure: it will be an over-the-counter drug. You don't need a prescription.

Unless things change for the better on the border, expect the opioid epidemic to continue unabated. There's apparently no interest in the current administration to solve our border crisis, leaving cities like New York to exhort its citizens to save overdose victims on their own. That means 100,000 or more Americans will die every year for the foreseeable future. It seems strange to say it, but maybe it isn't such a bad idea to have some Narcan around in these troubled times.

Joe Alton, M.D. is a physician, medical preparedness advocate, and NY Times bestselling author of The Survival Medicine Handbook: The Essential Guide for When Help Is NOT on the Way.

Image: Gov. Tom Wolf.
The cliche Nigerian Prince scam with its conspicuous swindlers targeting vulnerable marks turns out to be weirdly appropriate when that mark is a progressive governmentwhat else would you expect though from an apparatus controlled by the stupidest people on earth?

Its one of the oldest ripoffs on the web (and in the world, as it actually precedes the internet age), and behind the scheme are Third World fraudsters running a criminal enterprise and preying on the oblivious. However, given the prominence of the scam in the digital era, and the accompanying hullabaloo, youd think that a federal government with basically limitless resources could avoid low-rent scammers operating an obvious financial crimes business and youd be totally wrong, considering the bureaucratic and elected idiots at the controls.

An article published just yesterday at The European Conservative relayed that in Sweden, a country completely drowning under rapidly increasing (often violent) crime, found that the criminals in the country are now exploiting the ineptitude, bureaucracy, and big spending of a progressive government:

Amid a violent gang problem that has spiraled so far out of control that the prime minister is considering deploying the military to attenuate the problem, Swedens Economic Crimes Authority has sounded the alarm that organized criminal gangs are diversifying their enterprises, warning that theyre setting up various ventures that are eligible to receive state funds. The authority, whose mandate is to investigate and prosecute financial wrongdoing, says that, with their foray into state-supported businesses like healthcare clinics, vaccination centers, family home operations, and operations aimed at caring for unaccompanied migrant minors, gangs now make more money from financial crime than narcotic sales, the Swedish new portal Samnytt reports. We see that people are making inroads into health care, operating health centers, and vaccination clinics, Sara Persson, who serves as a crime specialist at the Economic Crimes Authority, told the state-run broadcaster Sveriges Radio.

Also, according to Persson, this organized welfare fraud is estimated to be costing the countrys taxpayers SEK 6 billion which is the equivalent to $540 million USD, and accounts for roughly twice as much as the gangs make from the drug trade. So who are these gangs? Well, according to a 2022 report by Denes Albert:

The urban crime gangs dominating Swedish cities are almost exclusively made up of immigrants, according to Amir Rostami, a leading criminologist and professor who based his findings on police data. In Sweden, the number of gang-related crimes is increasing every year, and as a result of mass and uncontrolled immigration, the authorities are losing control over more and more areas where migrant gangs are taking power. It is not enough for many immigrants to come to Sweden from a less developed country and enjoy the benefits. They want excitement and want to get rich quickly, says criminologist Rostami.  Regarding migrant gangs, the criminologist highlighted that the business is passed down within the family. He said that fathers and other relatives teach young males in the family to commit crimes. Rostami argues that it is an almost insurmountable task for society to bring these individuals into a crime-free way of life and requires far more resources than are available or can be reasonably allocated to the task.  According to Rostami and police records, all of the countrys convicted gang leaders are first- or second-generation migrants.

Oh the joys of multiculturalism! Seriously, how anyone can expect that importing hordes of people who have no respect for life or the Wests traditional rule of law, will net a benefit to the host country, is beyond me.

If criminals have raked in more than half a billion dollars by defrauding the government, doesnt that say something about the credibility, capability, or policies of said government? How can this be an acceptable standard? And these are the types of people who think theyve earned a right to more control over my life and more my money?

As they say in Sweden, the political class has skita i det blaa skapet.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.
A recent poll conducted by research firm Consumer Science and Analytics Institute (CSA) found that 41% of French citizens would support banning people from flying more than four times in their lives in an attempt to combat climate change.

That number rose to an incredible 59% among 18- to 24-year-olds. The proposed limit, suggested by engineer Jean-Marc Jancovici, would apply to air travel for business and pleasure combined. The poll, which surveyed 1,010 French residents 18 and over, found that support for air travel restrictions in general was far higher among younger age groups. (Yet I doubt many of them would be keen to give up flights to Ibiza, Cote d'Azur, Berlin, or Prague, for example.)

This should be seen for what it is: a scary example of tyrannical virtue-signaling.

How did Jean-Marc Jancovici, engineer, arrive at four as the number at which flights should be capped? Does the length of the flight(s) matter? What kind of airplane? And he's considering flying to a party on Ibiza on par with traveling to a family wedding or funeral?

It's unbelievable how willing many folks are to believeanything. The "progressive" left is turning Western nations into moron factories. Precisely how many annual train trips should Europeans be allowed to take? How many trips by automobile should we all be "allowed" each year? What is the maximum mileage bequeathed to us by our elite rulers? Ships? Should we be limited to one cruise in our lifetimes?

For that matter, how many times can we mow our lawn, Mr. Jancovici? Should we be allowed to have a lawn? May we set our air-conditioning in the summer to 74? No? 78? 84? Can those of us who experience extremely cold winters turn the heat up to 70? 65? Is 58 okay? (All temperatures in Fahrenheit for the edification of European readers.)

Is owning a snowmobile verboten? An ATV? Motorboat? Certainly a rowboat would be tolerable, no? Although they, too, need to be manufacturedusing much energy and materials and causing greenhouse gases to be injected into the atmosphere. Come to think of it, it's the same for bicycles and skateboards and running shoes, and...

Seems like the politicians and "experts" are telling us to "go fly a kite."

Unless we are diligent and determined, it is likely just a matter of time until we are locked down and confined to our abodes once again.

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.
The migant surge has its uses for certain elements in the U.S. - for Democrats, voters, for business interests, cheap labor; for NGOs, more federal funding, and for the U.S. military beset with a recruiting crisis, seeing all those single, military-aged young men stream over, they seem to be a gold mine.

We see scattered references to it all over.

Here's a report from NPR interviewer Tom Bowman with a military recruiter:

BOWMAN: But even if you want to join the Army, you might not make the cut. A recent Pentagon study found less than one-quarter of America's youth would qualify for military service without a waiver because they're overweight, have criminal records or mental or physical health problems. So how are they trying to make up for those lost numbers? The Army is increasingly turning to those who recently arrived in the United States. The Army is also hiring more immigrant recruits like Sergeant 1st Class Nouella Lacson, whose family came from the Philippines. She's standing at a card table covered with brochures, lanyards and dog tags. NOUELLA LACSON: Most of my applicants are immigrants 'cause I kind of relate to them, you know - a lot of them.

Recently arrived? Would that include the current border surge? Border surge was the news on Sept. 25. The rules of military recruitment of foreigners normally means green card holders only .. but according to this immigration attorney, there are exceptions:

Certain immigration benefits may be available to members of the U.S. armed forces and/or their immediate relatives. Unauthorized aliens may consider joining the military as a way to procuring status, but it is not a simple path. Undocumented immigrants are generally barred from serving in the military, though occasionally (especially in times of military need) an undocumented person might be allowed to join the armed forces in spite of this rule.

Given the abuse of the asylum system permitted, where literally millions of people are allowed to apply for a program that was instituted to permit entry to people in exceptional specific conditions of government persecution, one can reasonably infer that the Milley- and post-Milley military would find all the exceptions and waivers for illegals that it would like to find.

Perhaps that explains the refusal of the Milley Pentagon during the last years of the Trump administration to guard the border, and to assist the Border Patrol since then only with paperwork. They see a recruiting pool.

The Christian Science Monitor also did a long piece on the growing prevalence of foreigners in the military, dated June 12:

Struggling to overcome recruiting shortfalls, the Army and the Air Force have bolstered their marketing to entice legal residents to enlist, putting out pamphlets, working social media, and broadening their outreach, particularly in inner cities. One key element is the use of recruiters with similar backgrounds to these potential recruits. It is one thing to hear about the military from locals here, but it is something else when its from your fellow brother, from the country youre from, said Ms. Bidari, who was contacted by Army Staff Sgt. Kalden Lama, the Dallas recruiter, on a Facebook group that helps Nepalese people in America connect with one another. That brother was in the group and he was recruiting and he told me about the military. The military has had success in recruiting legal immigrants, particularly among those seeking a job, education benefits, and training as well as a quick route to becoming an American citizen. But they also require additional security screening and more help filling out forms, particularly those who are less proficient in English.

The original headline, which remains in its URL, but has since been changed, originally read that the military "prioritizes the recruitment of immigrants to combat shortfalls." One assumes the military must have pressured them to change it, maybe to avoid getting angry inquiries from Republican congressmembers.

This piece raises questions about how many of these people are getting security clearances that ordinary Americans don't get. There was this statement from a recruiter:

We have to take exceptional measures to be able to thoroughly vet and go through the security clearance investigation, he said, adding that in many cases the immigrants are not immediately put in jobs that require top secret clearance.

Many cases? Why didn't he say all cases? What are foreigners from countries such as "Cameroon, Jamaica, Kenya, the Philippines, Russia, and South Africa" doing with U.S. top secret security clearances?

They have sworn no loyalty oath to this country, nor are they obliged to be loyal to this country. A few months ago, the U.S. Navy caught a couple of recruited Chinese-American spies within its ranks, at least one of whom had acccess to restricted sensitive information, and handed over to the Chicoms "U.S. naval exercise plans, operational orders and photos and videos of electrical systems at Navy facilities." His Chinese spymaster mockingly congratulated him on finally getting his U.S. citizenship.

Prosecutors said Wei, who was born in China, was approached by a Chinese intelligence officer in February 2022 while he was applying to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, and admitted to the officer that he knew the arrangement could affect his application. Even so, at the officer's request, Wei provided photographs and videos of Navy ships, including the USS Essex, which can carry an array of helicopters, including the MV-22 Ospreys, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday. The indictment alleges Wei included as many as 50 manuals containing technical and mechanical data about Navy ships as well as details about the number and training of Marines during an upcoming exercise. Wei continued to send sensitive U.S. military information multiple times over the course of a year and even was congratulated by the Chinese officer once Wei became a U.S. citizen, Grossman said. He added that Wei "chose to turn his back on his newly adopted country" for greed.

What, again, was that guy doing in the military at all, and how many higher-ups in the wokester military waved him through without any of the patriotism niceties?

Now, one is tempted to be a little more sympathetic to illegal migrants who are willing to serve in the U.S. military, given its ardors, and can respect the laws the enable those who serve a faster path to citizenship as well as safety from deportation for their relatives, which is normally how these things are done. Those who serve sincerely deserve that much, they aren't the welfare chiselers or criminal element or political activists with the entitlement mentality that we see so often coming.across our border.

But not all of them actually want to become U.S. citizens, according to this July 24 report from the indy publication The Conversation:

Service in the military means an expedited path to U.S. citizenship, and many assume that the desire to get U.S. citizenship is what pushes immigrants to enlist. I interviewed 72 noncitizens from 28 countries who enlisted in the U.S. military for my book, Green Card Soldier: Between Model Immigrant and Security Threat. I learned that the fast track to citizenship is not as important in explaining immigrant enlistments as economic factors like poverty and debt, and cultural factors, such as valuing warrior masculinity and legitimization of war.

Which kind of leaves out the flag and patriotism.

And it raises questions about what kind of military we are starting to see emerging these days -- a military full of foreigners with no particular loyalty to the U.S., willing to shoot at Americans if the orders from a Democrat dictatorship come down to that? It seems insane that the military would target those who owe no loyalty to the U.S. and may not even want to become U.S. citizens as their "priority" recruitment targets because Americans are supposedly so inadequate. Replacement theory, anyone? Yes, it's concerning that most young Americans can't get into the military even if they want to, owing to criminal records, obesity and other health conditions, (but apparently not drug-heavy transgenderism). But turning to foreigners, particularly those who have broken the law to enter our country raises the specter of developing a very different kind of military to the patriotism-infused one we know and expcet. Do these people die in wars for us, or do they frag their officers to avoid it? Do they heed the Constitution with its First Amendment or do they happily break it the way the FBI has done, putting themselves above the law to spy on and censor Americans? Do they maintain loyalty to the U.S. by keeping its secrets or do they hand them over any time an agent from the motherland crosses paths with them for extra cash?

Those are serious questions and given that this is the trend, they are bound to come up more in the future. Maybe it's time to insist on citizenship and evidence of loyalty or at least an intention to get that citizenship, with a deadline, for the growing numbers of foreign recruits to the military. Otherwise, it may become unrecognizable.

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
Eric Hoffer used to marvel at how the Catholic Church was able to distinguish the essential from the cosmetic in its teachings, calling it its discovery of the secret to survival.

That brings us to Pope Francis's statement on whether the Catholic Church was all in for gay "marriage," as many on the left had eagerly anticipated might be declared at the current Church synod meeting. Synods are gatherings of the faithful that are periodically held, which a determined faction of the Church has been attempting to get the pope onboard for. The press was full of such high hopes, as were individual leftists. The synod will start on Oct. 4.

That hoopla triggered a response from five retired conservative cardinals, including Joseph Cardinal Zen of Hong Kong, persecuted for his faith by the atheistic Chicoms, who asked the pope in turn to reiterate the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman.

5 conservative cardinals challenge pope to affirm church teaching on gays and womens ordination ahead of #synod2023 https://t.co/5ZwECogpjP  Nicole Winfield (@nwinfield) October 2, 2023

According to NPR:

In his new letter, Francis reiterated that matrimony is a union between a man and a woman. But responding to the cardinals' question about homosexual unions and blessings, he said "pastoral charity" requires patience and understanding and that regardless, priests cannot become judges "who only deny, reject and exclude." "For this reason, pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of benediction, requested by one or more persons, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage," he wrote. "Because when a benediction is requested, it is expressing a request for help from God, a plea to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us to live better." He noted that there are situations that are objectively "not morally acceptable." But he said the same "pastoral charity" requires that people be treated as sinners who might not be fully at fault for their situations. Francis added that there is no need for dioceses or bishops conferences to turn such pastoral charity into fixed norms or protocols, saying the issue could be dealt with on a case-by-case basis "because the life of the church runs on channels beyond norms."

More detail can be read here.

What's he saying here? Is he saying that priests can bless gay "marriages" and with that open the gates to having the Church perform gay "marriage," as a headline of a Catholic News Service piece published in the Jesuit publication "America" implied?

Read the answer, and it does not sound like it.

He says that priests can bless individuals, so long as they are clear that it isn't gay "marriage" they are blessing. Presumably, if it were a same-sex couple, the priest could bless the individuals involved, but there isn't going to be a blessing or recognition or endorsement of gay "marriage" here. Presumably, a same-sex couple could be blessed for having a friendship that doesn't include sexual relations, let alone cruising for a third partner together, which is what a lot of gay "marriages" amount to.

Yes, he used nice language and appeared to be open to gay "marriage." He also growled and grumbled at the retired cardinals in his usual cantankerous manner aimed at conservatives.

But it's pretty obvious he wasn't giving his OK to gay "marriage," not by a long shot, even if it annoyed him not to, because he essentially can't.

Based on the looks of this, the pope finds the conservative critics useful as a foil, in order to convince the lefties that he's on their side, which he is based on his other statements and acts. But he can't change doctrine and, to his credit, didn't try to.

A harsher interpretation can be read here:

This is right, with the emphasis on 'appears to'. Francis revels in confusion. It's confusion that seems to benefit liberals, but he won't quite say what they're desperate to hear. It's a mixture of nudge-nudge, wink-wink and plausible deniability. This would make him a terrible https://t.co/mwXCq1EqhI  Damian Thompson (@holysmoke) October 2, 2023

And it was probably so from the beginning. Here's a photo of the pope standing for a picture with Fr. James Martin, S.J., whose ministry is focused on gay Catholic "inclusion" and who is widely believed to be in favor of the Church recognizing gay "marriage." Notice that one of these faces looks happier than the other:

I'm grateful for a visit with the Holy Father today, where we had a wonderful, in-depth conversation at the Casa Santa Marta. I'm so grateful for his gracious welcome. pic.twitter.com/MVIrkbacQb  James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) September 29, 2023

Martin is a nice guy and probably was happy with the pope's statement as good enough. He seemed pretty happy to be at the synod at all, which conservative Catholics felt excluded from and, according to the Washington Post, viewed with "dread," given all the leftist nuts out there who will be at the event.

Martin is on the left and seems pretty radical, but compared to what's seen in Europe, he is not that radical. Some of these factions who are giving the pope real problems are in places such as Germany, where clergy already are blessing gay unions and threatening to break up the Church. While the pope is clear that he can't stand conservatives, those Germans are a real problem and need to be pushed back upon, which he seems to recognize and be willing to do, albeit not because he likes to, but because he has to.

This might explain why the pope made the statement he made, creating the appearance of being open to gay "marriage," but not the substance.

In reality, he gave the lefties nothing here. The lefties may be cheering, but the bottom line is, he gave them nothing. Church doctrine on marriage stands, and he knows he can't alter it. His leftist pals can think he gave them something if they want to, but Eric Hoffer's observation remains operative.

Image: Twitter screen shot.
Nearly five decades after the sinking of the Titanic, another tragedy struck in the oceans. A Danish liner was on her maiden voyage off the coast of Western Greenland, when she collided with an iceberg and sank on January 30, 1959 with the loss of all crew and passengers on board. Like the RMS Titanic, she too was deemed the safest afloat.

MS Hans Hedtoft was built by Frederikshavns Vrft at Frederikshavn in northern Denmark. The 271-feet long, 2,857-ton freighter had been specially designed for the Danish government to withstand the harsh conditions of the North Atlantic Ocean, particularly along the desolate shores of Greenland. With its double hull and seven sealed compartments, along with fortified bow and stern sections, the ship was engineered for resilience. It was equipped with state-of-the-art instruments, ranging from radar and gyrocompasses to Decca Navigators and radio-equipped life rafts. Captain P. L. Rasmussen proudly proclaimed, This ship means a revolution in Arctic navigation, while a government official confidently asserted, Now we can sail to Greenland all year round.

Nonetheless, not everyone held faith in the ship's construction. Knud Lauritzen, a private shipowner, contended that the Hans Hedtoft's steel plates ought to have been welded, rather than riveted, as the riveting of plates onto a solid framework does not provide sufficient resistance against ice pressure. This critique was dismissed by some as the resentful words of a private operator who preferred the government to charter his vessels rather than constructing its own.

Hans Hedtoft sailed from Copenhagen on her maiden voyage on 7 January 1959, reaching Julianehaab, Greenland, in record time. In Greenland, Hans Hedtoft called at Nuuk, Sisimiut and Maniitsoq before returning to Julianehaab.

On 29 January, she began her return journey to Copenhagen. On board were 40 crewmen, a cargo of frozen fish, and 55 passengers, including one of Greenland's two representatives in the Danish Parliament, and six children. The following morning, after rounding Cape Farewell, the southernmost tip of Greenland, the ship ran into a storm and visibility dropped to a mile. At 13.56p.m. the telegraphist on the weather station Prins Christians Sund picked up an SOS from the ship stating that the ship had collided with an iceberg. Its position was given as approximately 20 miles south east of Greenlands most southerly part, Kap Farvel. Within an hour, another message was sent stating that the engine room was flooded.

At 15:12 pm, a message came from the ship informing that the ship was sinking. A small West German ocean-going trawler, the Johannes Kruss, and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Campbell turned toward the stricken ship. Another German fishing trawler radioed that she was on the way. At 17:41 came the final message from the Hedtoft: "Slowly sinking and need immediate assistance."

For the next several days and nights, ships and airplanes combed the area looking for traces of the missing ship and her freight of 95 human beings, but no wreckage was found, except a lifebuoy which washed ashore on the Faroe Islands some nine months after the ship sank.

The most curious thing about the sinking was that the ship was equipped with three lifeboats, each capable of carrying 35 people each. In addition, it had two 20-man lifeboats and four self-inflated rudder life rafts with automatic distress beacons. It was possible to evacuate the entire ship, yet for some reason, no lifeboats were deployed. Perhaps they had hoped help would arrive. Perhaps the captain decided to keep everyone aboard until the last possible moment because the seas were too rough to attempt launching the lifeboats.

MS Hans Hedtoft remains the last known ship sunk by an iceberg with casualties.

In 2005, the Queen of Denmark unveiled a monument at Copenhagen to commemorate the 95 people lost on Hans Hedtoft.

References:

# HIGH SEAS: Little Titanic, Time

# The ship - lost on its maiden voyage, Qaqortup Kommunia
ARM has issued a warning about active exploitations of a security vulnerability in its Mali GPU lineup. The flaw exists in Kernel device drivers for the GPUs and allows a local non-privileged user to make improper GPU memory processing operations to gain access to already freed memory. The attacker can leverage this access to load and execute malicious code to exploit other vulnerabilities on the device. They can also install malicious payloads for spying on the user.

ARM has detected active exploitations of this Mali GPU vulnerability

Tracked as CVE-2023-4211, this vulnerability was discovered by Maddie Stone of Googles Threat Analysis Group and Jann Horn of Google Project Zero. It affects ARMs Midgard GPU Kernel Driver (version r12p0  r32p0), Bifrost GPU Kernel Driver (version r0p0  r42p0), Valhall GPU Kernel Driver (version r19p0  r42p0), and the 5th Gen GPU Architecture Kernel Driver (version r41p0  r42p0).

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The company says it has already released patches for the issue on the latter three drivers with version r43p0. It has urged vendors to contact its support team for patch details for the Midgard GPUs. However, ARM also noted that it has found evidence of limited, targeted exploitation of this vulnerability. Users with a device featuring the affected Mali GPUs should update their devices as soon as possible to stay safe from potential security risks.

As noted by ArsTechnica, Google has already pushed the patch for CVE-2023-4211 to Pixel devices with the September security update. The Android maker has also released the patch for affected Chromebooks. However, Google phones arent the only ones affected by this vulnerability. Samsungs Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S21 series, Motorola Edge 40, OnePlus Nord 2, and phones from Asus, Redmi, Honor, RealMe, Xiaomi, and Oppo are at risk too.

Some MediaTek chips and Linux devices also make use of the affected Mali GPUs. Many of these devices dont seem to have received the patch yet. Hopefully, the OEMs will give importance to their users safety and roll out the patch soon. If you havent received a new security update recently, be vigilant and avoid installing apps from unknown sources. The device driver on patched devices will show as version r44p1 or r45p0, the report states.

ARM has reported two more Kernel Driver vulnerabilities

ARMs latest security advisory mentions two more vulnerabilities in Mali GPU Kernel Drivers allowing improper GPU memory processing operations. Tracked as CVE-2023-33200 and CVE-2023-34970, the company has already released patches for both security flaws on all affected platforms. Theres no evidence of any exploration of these vulnerabilities yet. However, users should still update their devices to avoid potential exploits in the future.
Three credit unions have sued Apple for its alleged monopoly on mobile wallets on its devices. Despite Apples efforts to dismiss the case, a judge has ruled that the company must be held accountable for its business practices.

Every once in a while, we hear about unions, smaller companies, and customers rights advocates that file antitrust lawsuits against Big Tech over their monopoly in the market. For instance, Google was repeatedly brought to court for an alleged search and online advertising monopoly. As for Apple, the Cupertino-based company will go to court for Apple Pay policies.

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Credit unions protest against Apple mobile wallet policies on iPhone and Apple Watches

By default, Apple doesnt let mobile wallet apps on iPhones and Apple Watches access the NFC chip. NFC connectivity is necessary to perform contactless transactions. Thus, third-party apps cannot make contactless transactions, and the Apple Wallet app is the only app on iPhones and Apple Watches capable of doing so.

The only way for third-party apps to make contactless transactions on Apple devices is to sign up for Apple Pay and pay a fee to the company for each transaction. The European Union and Australia have investigated Apples mobile payment policies since 2019 for a potential antitrust violation.

In response, Apple argues that such claims are baseless as customers can use physical cards for contactless payments. The company further added other options, like QR codes, are also available to customers. Apple could be correct, but many customers prefer to use mobile wallet apps due to their convenience.

Additionally, mobile-based contactless transactions are much safer than using physical cards. For example, if your card is stolen, the thief can make a purchase without security measures like a PIN or signature. Apple Pay, in contrast, uses EMV Payment Tokenization to secure the payments. The iPhones also require Face ID or Touch ID authentication to access the Apple Pay app.

According to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White, Apple has forced over 4,000 banks and credit unions to use Apple Pay. This act has resulted in at least $1 billion of excess fees. Also, it harms consumers by minimizing the incentive to make Apple Pay safer and easier to use.
Google vs DoJ trial is ongoing, and all kinds of interesting info is coming from it. Remarks of Googles Vice President for Finance, Michael Roszak, came to light. The Google exec basically compared the search business with the cigarettes or drugs business. This happened years ago.

A Google exec compared the search business with cigarettes or drugs businesses

He did that during a training offered by the company on communications in July 2017, reports Livemint. That info was spotted in the document released online by the Justice Department.

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To be more accurate, this is what Roszak said: Search advertising is one of the worlds greatest business models ever created there are illicit businesses (cigarettes or drugs) that could rival these economics, but we are fortunate to have an amazing business.

Roszak continued: Weve essentially been able to ignore one of the fundamental laws of economics  supply and demand. We could mostly ignore the demand side of the equation (users and queries) and only focus on supply side of advertisers, ad formats, and sales. That actually gives a really nice explanation of what its like to be a top dog in the search business.

He also noted that Google was smart about it. He said that the company used smart marketing/distribution investments in order to get its product basically everywhere.

The DoJ hopes this will help its case, while Google doesnt think its relevant at all

The Department of Justice (DoJ) is hoping that this document, amongst many others, will help it prove Googles anticompetitive tactics to remain in a dominant position when it comes to the search business.

On the flip side, Google was against this document even being used in the trial. Why? Well, the companys lawyers said that this document is not a business record, and thus it does not reflect the opinion of the company.

Furthermore, a Google spokesperson clarified things while talking to Bloomberg. This document was apparently drafted for a public speaking class. It was supposed to be hyperbolic and attention-grabbing.
Google just gave us a proper 360-degree look at the Pixel Watch 2 design, right before the launch event. As a reminder, the Pixel Watch 2 will arrive alongside the Pixel 8 series tomorrow, October 4.

Google shows us the Pixel Watch 2 design in its entirety prior to launch

Having said that, the company shared this animated GIF via X (formerly known as Twitter). You can see the tweet itself below, along with the aforementioned GIF. If some of you confuse this watch with the original Pixel Watch, well, we cant blame you.

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This is the one 2 watch. Meet #PixelWatch 2 live at #MadeByGoogle in  days and sign up for updates at the Google Store: https://t.co/HXgTytwqYn pic.twitter.com/E4KWJmevDU  Made by Google (@madebygoogle) October 2, 2023

Google seems to be sticking with the Pixel Watch design. The Pixel Watch 2 will, of course, bring improvements on the inside, and in the software department.

It will look like its predecessor

Were here to talk about the design, though. Many people loved the design of the original Pixel Watch, so Google decided to stick with it. Youre still getting a minimalistic design here, with a circular display, and a rotating crown on the right.

That rotating crown will double as a physical menu button, and a secondary button will be included on the right side. Google is sticking with its proprietary connects for watch bands, unfortunately.

You can also check out the heart rate sensor on the bottom of the watch, as its shown in this animated image. The same goes for one of Googles watch bands, a silicone one were familiar with.

Automatic workout tracking will be a part of the package

Now, one major addition to the Pixel Watch 2 will be automatic workout tracking. That is something the original lacked, and many people requested it, so Google is adding it.

Were also hoping that the second-gen product will offer considerably better battery life. The original Pixel Watch didnt exactly shine in that department. The watch will also be waterproof, and it will be offered as a pre-order perk if you decide to get the Pixel 8 Pro.
A few months ago, Microsoft suffered a major breach that gave Chinese hackers access to certain unclassified data. This includes the emails of certain individuals affiliated with the US government. Initially, the breach was said to affect over 25 accounts, but that number was far from the actual figure the hackers were able to access.

New information now clarifies that the hackers were able to steal over 60,000 US government employee emails. That number is outrageous, and it further highlights the need for tighter security measures within the government. Even though the security flaw came from Microsofts part, it was able to expose a ton of emails to bad actors.

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The emails stolen belong to US staff working in East Asia, the Pacific, and Europe. With these emails, the hackers can move on to perform phishing attacks on unsuspecting individuals. Here is all you need to know about this security breach and how the government is working to avoid such from repeating itself in the future.

Over 60,000 US government emails in the possession of Chinese hackers highlight the need for better information security

The Storm-0558 Chinese hackers are said to be responsible for the Microsoft breach. From this breach, they were able to get access to tons of US government emails. Over 60,000 emails of various US government staff in various locations are in the possession of these hackers.

All emails in the possession of these hackers are unclassified, meaning that they dont hold any confidential information. However, these hackers can still put them to use while trying to carry out phishing attacks. The attack that gave away these emails took place in July 2023 and went unnoticed for a while.

However, the US government was able to tip Microsoft to the attack, hence prompting an urgent response. It took Microsoft some time to understand how these hackers were able to get access to their system. After some research, it became clear that the Chinese hackers were able to get access to a consumer key for this attack.

With the key, they were not only able to get access to Microsofts system but also to steal users emails. In a recent briefing, Senator Eric Schmitt threw light on the need for the US government to harden their defenses against these types of cyberattacks and intrusions in the future. Certainly, this wont be the last cyberattack that the US government will have come its way.

With adequate protective and preventive measures, the US government will be able to defend against such attacks. This will not only protect the government and its employees but also the citizens at large. Large data companies also need to ensure they build resilient security systems that can withstand such attacks, hence protecting user information.
The launch of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro, featuring the 7nm 5G-enabled Kirin 9000S chip, has confused American officials because SMIC was decades behind the competition last year. However, according to a new report from the South China Morning Post, the Kirin 9000S might not be a 7nm chip after all.

Why is SMIC using 7nm technology important to the US?

In 2020, when the US imposed restrictions on Huawei, the company lost its ability to conduct business with almost all Western companies. While the US did allow Huawei to source the non-5G-enabled Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, the company invested resources in developing chips with SMIC, which was still using the age-old 14nm node process.

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However, the tables turned with the launch of the Kirin 9000S chip, as it was not only capable of accessing 5G services but also had performance on par with the 7nm chips. However, if true, this would have put SMIC in violation of the US sanctions. Moreover, with recent reports of the company stockpiling raw materials for the Kirin 9000S chip, it seemed that SMIC was preparing for stricter US sanctions.

How did Huawei achieve the performance?

According to the report, Minatake Mitchell Kashio, CEO of electronics research firm Fomalhaut Techno Solutions, explained that Kirin 9000S is not the true 7nm marvel its claimed to be but is, in fact, a product of SMICs 14nm process. Additionally, he highlighted that Huawei and SMIC used special techniques to enhance the chips performance, bringing it in line with the capabilities of a 7nm processor.

Therefore, the chips production didnt breach U.S. sanctions, as SMIC had the capacity for 14nm chip manufacturing pre-ban. Moreover, it will also mean that the performance of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro isnt as impressive as thought earlier. However, despite the report, the benchmark scores of the Kirin 9000S chips align with true 7nm chips, thus making the reports uncertain.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has confirmed the company is ready to pay billions of dollars to Apple to make Bing the default search engine on Safari. Nadella also said Googles business practices are hurting competition in the search market.

Google and Bing are two major rivals in the online search industry. Microsoft has spent piles of money to make Bing a worthy competitor for Google, including using ChatGPT technology and incorporating advanced AI capabilities into it. Despite efforts, Googles reign in the market seems unshakable, as the tech firm currently holds over 90% of the worlds search engine market share.

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Google is also the default search engine on almost all devices available. Besides Android, which is a Google product, the company paid $20 billion to Apple to stay as the default search engine on Safari in 2022. Googles reign has prompted the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to open a probe into the companys business practices. Satya Nadella has now appeared in court to testify before a judge about the case.

Satya Nadella says Bing could replace Google on Apple devices

According to Nadella, Googles status as the default search engine on devices is crushing Bing as a business and a product. He added Bing cant keep up with Google without scale and user data.

Microsofts plans to make Bing a more competitive and bigger product ends with Apple. Nadella said Microsoft is ready to pay Apple $15 billion a year to make Bing the default search engine on Safari.

A part of the DOJ probe into Google focused on Apples payments. In 2022, DOJ attorney Kenneth Dintzer told a federal judge, Google invests billions in defaults, knowing people wont change them. They are buying default exclusivity because defaults matter a lot.

Given that Google paid $20 billion to Apple in 2022, Microsoft would have a hard time convincing the Cupertino company to make Bing the default search engine. Its also unlikely that the lawsuit could force Google to stop paying billions to Apple.

Microsofts decision to embrace AI and add it to Bing revived the companys hope for competing with Google. However, ChatGPT and Bard are making it harder for Bing to compete. Soon, Apple could also join the AI bandwagon with a ChatGPT-like service.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified October 2 as part of the ongoing antitrust trial between Google and the DOJ. In his testimony Nadella said of Google that Its really Googles web, and everyone is just playing in it.

The statement refers to the difficulty of breaking into the search market. Even for a company like Microsoft, one of the highest valued companies in the world, competing against Google in search is no easy task. The basis of the trial since it began is that Google allegedly illegally operates a monopoly in the search market. Using its considerable market power to force competitors out of the space or otherwise overshadow them through various tactics.

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In past trial days its been said by DOJ litigator Kenneth Dintzer that Google has applied numerous methods to ensure it stays on top. Including paying companies like Apple and other manufacturers to make Google the default search engine on their devices. Google has also allegedly trained employees to avoid using certain words that could make them sound like monopolists. As well as deleting certain logs from internal communications by turning the history of those chats off.

Microsoft CEO says Bing faces considerable obstacles to gain marketshare from Google

Nadellas statements are mostly in reference to questioning about Googles dominance. But they also affirm claims made by the DOJ that its increasingly difficult for competitors to break into search due to Googles exclusive deals.

By securing these deals, Google gets more eyes on search which results in more gathered data. Which leads to more revenue that Google then dump into more deals. This flywheel effect as its called makes it hard for other competitors to gain any traction. According to Nadella, Microsoft has considered shopping a deal to Apple to replace Google search as the default on Apple devices with Bing. A deal that Nadella states would likely cost billions in short-term losses.
Google is in the hot seat now, as the company is engaged in a massive antitrust lawsuit. On Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the stand to voice his concerns on the matter, and he voiced some of his opinions and fears regarding the companys grip on the search market. According to CNN Business, Microsoft worries about how Googles dominance will affect the future of AI.

First and foremost, what is the lawsuit about?

Large companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and others usually have a large portion of a certain market. Google has such a tight grip on the search engine market that the United States DoJ (Department of Justice) dragged it into court on suspicions that Google maintains a monopoly on the market.

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Its the most used search engine in the world, and its grip makes it hard for other search engines to thrive. The trial is expected to go on into November, so an official verdict is not in sight for the near future.

Microsoft worries about how Googles dominance will affect the future of AI

Nadella took the stand during the trial and he mostly talked about how Google has the search market covered. Microsofts Bing browser on desktop is sitting in the low teens in terms of market share. Meanwhile, Bing couldnt even crack a 10% market share. Google, on the other hand, is the default search engine for much of the world.

He then moved on to an interesting subject, AI. Nadella spoke about how Google is such a large company with so much access to peoples data to train its LLMs. This, Nadella argued, would give the company an unfair advantage. Ostensibly, with access to so much more data, the company could easily make its AI much better than the competition.

This is definitely a strong point that the Microsoft CEO brought up. Googles dominance gives it access to a ton of data from across the internet. The government is just starting to crack into how companies obtain data to train their AI. If its true that Googles size gives it an unfair advantage, then this case might not go well for the company.
The launch of Huaweis Mate 60 Pro, featuring the 7nm 5G-enabled Kirin 9000S chipset, has surely raised alarms in America, considering just last year, Chinas SMIC was light years behind the competition. Now, in a recent development, SMIC has reportedly (via Phone Arena) placed big orders for the raw materials of the Kirin 9000S chip possibly in anticipation of stricter US sanctions.

The Crux of the issue

After the US first implemented trade sanctions on Huawei, the company lost its ability to buy chips from other US companies, including TSMC, the biggest smartphone chip producer. Although the US did allow Qualcomm to sell its Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chips to Huawei without enabling 5G services, the company started developing homegrown chips with SMIC, which was using the outdated 14nm process node at the time.

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However, a significant change occurred with the launch of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro, as the chip powering the device, i.e., Kirin 9000S, not only accessed 5G services in the country but also ran on the much more efficient 7nm node process.

Despite Huawei still being two generations behind in the cutting-edge 3nm A17 Pro chip powering the latest iPhones, it is no surprise that the US government would be looking into this recent development.

Possible reasons behind SMIC stockpiling raw materials

While some in the industry believe its a proactive measure against potential new sanctions from the US, others argue that SMIC might be positioning itself to meet Huaweis demands. This is because Huawei is optimistic about selling up to 20 million units of the Mate 60 Pro. Moreover, given that the devices sales are expected to continue shipping into the next year, SMICs move to increase procurement of raw materials could allow Huawei to be on track to becoming the smartphone giant it once was.

The United States may strengthen the tightening of its advanced process-related efforts to prepare in advance to avoid a chain-cutting crisis, or it may be necessary to Increase raw material inventory levels to meet customer order needs, reads the translated report.
Right now, were all waiting to see how the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will perform. While thats the case, there are already rumors surrounding the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. Similar to the Mediatek Dimensity 9300, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 may have issues that will need to be ironed out before launch.

The flagship Snapdragon chip range is set to have a massive change, as Qualcomm is moving away from the ARM architecture for the 8 Gen 4. This is a major shake-up, as the mass majority of mobile chips use the CPU architecture from ARM. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, however, will be powered by Qualcomms custom CPUs called Oryon.

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Back in 2021, Qualcomm acquired a company called Nuvia in the hopes that it would be able to create its own custom CPUs to take on the massively popular Apple A-series chips. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be the first chip to use this architecture, but there might be some hurdles.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 might have some issues that will need to be fixed

Right now, we dont have too much information on this chip, what information we have is on early production hardware. This chip is not slated to launch until next year, so there could be several changes in the meantime.

According to WCCFTech, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is running into some power consumption issues in its early testing. This is despite being manufactured on TSMCs N3E process. This process is said to be rather power-efficient compared to the N4P process of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. That seems odd, and it doesnt look great for this chip. Power efficiency is one of the most important aspects of a chip. If the chip is having serious power consumption issues, it still has a ton of time to fix them before the launch.

In the case of Nuvia, unlike the 8cx Gen 4, it seems that the 8 Gen 4 provides decent performance, but there are serious issues with power consumption. https://t.co/mTffBT5bGy  Revegnus (@Tech_Reve) October 3, 2023

Rumored specs

An early leak from Tech_reve said that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 provides decent performance, but were still talking about early hardware. Based on the leaks, it looks like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be an octa-core processor. It could have two higher-powered performance cores with six lower-powered efficiency cores.

More information on this upcoming chip will come out as it nears its official release. Hopefully, it will be able to go toe-to-toe with Apples future chips.
When Elon Musk rebranded Twitter as X Corp., there were concerns about potential lawsuits challenging the new name. Thats because Microsoft, Meta, and hundreds of other companies have trademark rights over the letter X. Unsurprisingly, one of those companies has sued X alleging trademark infringement. Florida-based ad agency X Social Media has filed a lawsuit claiming that Twitters rebranding has caused consumer confusion and lost revenue.

X has been sued by X Social Media for trademark infringement

In an official complaint filed in federal court in Florida, X Social Media states that it has used its registered trademark X SOCIALMEDIA since early 2016 (via Reuters). Over the years, it has created a distinctive X branding associated with its social media advertising services. The company alleges that Twitters recent rebranding to X has affected its business and market reputation.

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According to X Social Media, Elon Musks X benefitted from the global media attention. It has wielded its social media clout, marketing resources, and overall national notoriety to dominate consumer perception of its X mark, the plaintiff alleges. This has quickly caused reverse confusion as consumers now associate X Social Media as part of X Corp. Thats despite the latter firm existing more than eight years before the inception of X Corp.

Even online searches for X Social Media tend to guide people towards the rebranded Twitter, the complaint states. The company says this has caused and will continue to cause serious irreparable harm to its business. It has already suffered a loss in revenue that correlates with X Corp.s rebrand and use of the mark X. X Social Media adds that this reverse confusion could continue to its financial detriment in the future.

The firm says this is a willful act from Elon Musk, who was already aware of its trademark. It wants the court of law to hold him and X Corp. accountable under four different violations: Registered Trademark and Service Mark Infringement, Florida Common Law Unfair Competition, Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, and Common Law Trademark and Service Mark Infringement.

The lawsuit seeks to reverse Twitters X rebranding

X Social Media is seeking a judgment directing X Corp. to remove the use of the X branding across its apps and services. In other words, it wants to reverse the Twitter rebranding. It is also seeking various other judgments in its favor, including monetary damages. It remains to be seen whether the ad firm has a strong case in its hands. Considering the crowded field of X trademarks, X Social Media may be fighting a tough battle here.
(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 3 - At least 21 people are dead and 12 are injured after a bus plunged from an overpass above a railway line between the Venice districts of Mestre and Marghera on Tuesday, the local prefect's office said .

Four or five people are unaccounted for, officials said.

The bus burst into flames after falling around 10 metres from the overpass.

Premier Giorgia Meloni expressed her "most profound condolences" and said she was thinking of the victims and their families and friends.

Police sources said that two children were among the victims and Veneto Governor Luca Zaia confirmed that minors were involved in the disaster.

"The victims and injured are of various nationalities, not just Italians," Zaia said in a social-media post.

"The operation to extract the bodies (from the wreckage) and identify them is ongoing". (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 3 - With regard to the judgement of the Catania judge, Iolanda Apostolico, who upheld the appeal of 4 Tunisian migrants against their detention in the Pozzallo reception centre, ruling illegtimate the government's migrant decrees, the government's intention is to proceed with the appeal to the supreme Court of Cassation, within the envisaged 60 days, the state attorney's office and the interior ministry said Tuesday.

This is in consideration of the fact that the consider the Italian regulations to be "entirely consistent with the European norms and with the Constitutional dictates", unlike what Apostolico found.

The appeal is being followed by the Viminale (interior ministry) offices together with the Avvocatura dello Stato (State attorney's office).

photo: Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 3 - Police used batons in Turin on Tuesday in clashes with a group of people protesting against Premier Giorgia Meloni.

The premier is taking part in the Festival delle Regioni (Festival of Regions) event in the northern city on Tuesday.

"Meloni you are not welcome in Turin," read a banner carried by some of the protestors.

The clashes broke out when the protestors, numbering about 300, tried to break through a police cordon (ANSA).


Suella Braverman warned that a hurricane of mass migration is coming as a fellow minister stressed the need to be careful in the language used on the issue.

The Home Secretary used her Conservative conference speech in Manchester to warn about the scale of the movement of people around the world, and said millions could seek to enter the UK.

Mrs Braverman, whose parents came to the UK from Kenya and Mauritius in the 1960s, said unprecedented mass migration was one of the most powerful forces reshaping our world.

The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming, she said.

Because today, the option of moving from a poorer country to a richer one is not just a dream for billions of people.

Its an entirely realistic prospect.

Following Mrs Bravermans speech, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said that politicians needed to be careful about how immigration policies are discussed.

Speaking at a conference event hosted by The Spectator, she said: We live in a multiracial society.

Were very, very comfortable with that because if we werent you wouldnt have a prime minister that we have, we wouldnt have the Home Secretary or the Business Secretary that we have.

But we have to be very careful about how we explain and express immigration policies, so that people arent getting echoes of things that were less palatable.

Science Secretary Michelle Donelan declined to repeat the language used by Mrs Braverman on the migration crisis

She told BBCs Newsnight: I would say its a big problem, my language is different to her language I think that shes trying to emphasise how important it is that we tackle something that the British public are deeply concerned about.

That is why we are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to tackling illegal immigration because its fundamentally unfair.

Mrs Bravermans speech drew heckles from the Conservative chairman of the London Assembly Andrew Boff, who took umbrage with her allusion to the poison of gender ideology.

The Home Secretary suggested the Human Rights Act, introduced under the last Labour government, was among a series of laws and regulations which had enmeshed the Governments effort to tackle the small boats crisis in the English Channel.

Home Office figures have confirmed that more than 25,000 people have been detected crossing the Channel in small boats this year.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman arrives at the Conservative Party annual conference (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The Prime Minister has made tackling the crossings one of the five priorities of his leadership, with Mrs Braverman warning against luxury beliefs in open borders, and that Britain under a Labour government would go properly woke.

Mrs Braverman said the future could bring millions more migrants to these shores, uncontrolled and unmanageable, unless the government they elect next year acts decisively to stop that happening.

Talking about illegal immigration, she said: Our country has become enmeshed in a dense net of international rules that were designed for another era. And it is Labour that turbocharged their impact by passing the misnamed Human Rights Act.

Im surprised they didnt call it the Criminal Rights Act.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman is applauded after delivering her keynote speech (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Returning to the theme of human rights later in her speech, the Home Secretary confirmed she would bring forward a new law, aimed at preventing registered sex offenders from changing their identities.

She said: Let me tell you something. I dont care if anyone thinks this is interfering with their human rights. Its time to worry less about the rights of sexual predators and more about the rights of victims.

Ms Braverman said the Tories stand with the many against the privileged woke minority.

We stand with the many, the law-abiding, hard-working common-sense majority, against the few, the privileged woke minority with their luxury beliefs who wield influence out of proportion to their numbers, she said.

Warning about how under Labour Britain would go properly woke, she said: Things are bad enough already, we see it in parts of Whitehall, in museums, in galleries, in the police and even in leading companies in the City, under the banner of diversity, equity and inclusion, official policies have been embedded that distort the whole purpose of these institutions.

Highly controversial ideas are presented to the workforce and to the public as if theyre motherhood and apple pie: gender ideology, white privilege, anti-British history. And the evidence demonstrates that if you dont challenge this poison, things just get worse.

At this point, Mr Boff, a proud member of the Conservative Party  who was sat near the front of the hall, could be heard to shout out.

He was then hauled out of the conference centre, and told members of the press Ms Bravermans speech was making our Conservative Party look transphobic and homophobic.

Our party has a proud record of standing up for LGBT+ rights and she is destroying it, he added.

Meanwhile, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick suggested Boris Johnsons administration had not been tough enough on reducing legal migration to the UK.

I feel that, and I think Suella would agree, that there were wrong choices taken when we left the European Union. By Boris Johnson and his administration, he told LBC.

And that has led to far too many people coming into the country  and that we now need to correct those.
Calls for the restoration of the Stormont Assembly dominated the first of shadow secretary of state Hilary Benns discussions with political parties in Northern Ireland.

The Labour veteran is taking part in his first visit to the region since being appointed shadow secretary of state last month.

On Tuesday he was greeted on arrival at Parliament Buildings in Stormont by Speaker Alex Maskey, before going on to meet the main five parties.

The visit comes as the Stormont Assembly remains collapsed amid DUP protest action against internal UK trade barriers created by Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol.

The party says the framework deal struck by the EU and the UK to reform the protocol does not sufficiently address its concerns and has made clear it will not accept a return to devolution until the Government provides further assurances, by way of legislation, over Northern Irelands place in the UK internal market.

Talks between the DUP and the Government have been ongoing over the summer.

One of the main parts of the framework  the green/red lane system for the movement of goods  became operational at Northern Ireland ports on Sunday.

Mr Benns first meeting on Tuesday was with Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle ONeill and North Belfast MP John Finucane.

Sinn Fein North Belfast MP John Finucane speaks to reporters at Parliament Buildings in Stormont following a meeting with shadow Secretary of State Hilary Benn (Sinn Fein/PA)

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Mr Finucane said they had a very positive and constructive meeting.

Top of the agenda in our message to him was the need to restore the assembly, to restore the executive, to have ministers in place at the job they were elected to do over a year ago, he said.

We are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, we have a health service that demands action to begin to tackle the crisis in our waiting lists and the many other problems in our public services.

But we were also keen to stress that we dont want to miss the opportunities of the economic potential that we now have here. We also have a very significant and sizeable delegation coming from America in a couple of weeks led by the US presidents special envoy Joe Kennedy.

US special envoy to Northern Ireland for economic affairs Joe Kennedy (Niall Carson/PA)

Mr Finucane added: People voted in a historic election over 18 months ago now, and the very least that they deserve is to have ministers in place, doing the job they should be doing.

I dont think there is any excuse for the DUP to be remaining out of government  they need to get back in and respect the outcome of last years election without delay.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he is continuing to engage with the government in terms of negotiating a solution to unionist concerns around post-Brexit arrangements.

Every negotiation has a beginning and an end, and we will no doubt reach a moment where both sides will recognise that we have taken this as far as we can. Were not there yet, and thats why were continuing to engage with the government on these issues, he said.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (left) and East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson speak to the media in the Great Hall at Parliament Buildings at Stormont in Belfast, after meeting Hilary Benn (Rebecca Black/PA)

I want to find a solution. Im not planning for failure, Im planning to get this done because we want to see Northern Irelands place within the United Kingdom properly protected and respected in UK law, and we want to see a functioning Stormont.

Alliance leader Naomi Long praised Mr Benn for his level of engagement with, and knowledge of, issues in Northern Ireland.

She said the focus of their conversation was around efforts to resurrect the Stormont Assembly.

We also did raise our concerns about issues such as reform, both of our finances and public services, and about the need for us to be able to do that in a way that reflects the fact that Northern Ireland does have higher levels of need, she said.

I was very impressed both with his levels of interest and also his levels of knowledge. I would have expected nothing else and it was a very good meeting.

She said she hoped future meetings with Mr Benn will take place in the context of a functioning Assembly.

This current situation where we have no Assembly, no devolution is just not a sustainable position for Northern Ireland to be in, and it is not good for the people who we represent, who are languishing on waiting lists, who are struggling with their finances, who cant access childcare and who are facing all of the multiple demands and challenges that everyone else faces but doing it without the support of the people they elected to take on these challenges on their behalf.

On Monday Mr Benn met staff from the Wave Trauma Centre, which supports Troubles victims and relatives of those bereaved, as well as making a visit to Queens University Belfast.

Mr Finucane said the governments controversial new Legacy Act was also discussed during his partys meeting with Mr Benn.
Claims that SNP rebels are working with the Scottish Conservatives to bring down the Bute House Agreement are entirely false, First Minister Humza Yousaf has said.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said on Monday at the UK partys conference in Manchester that he had spoken to SNP MSPs about potentially voting with his party against the agreement with the Government and the Scottish Greens.

He also claimed he had discussions with SNP backbenchers over their frustrations with the governing partys approach to leadership.

Kate Forbes and Ash Regan  former SNP leadership candidates  have both rejected the claims made by the Scottish Tory leader.

Referencing the comments from Ms Forbes and Ms Regan, Mr Yousaf told journalists on Tuesday: I dont think thats the case. He name-checked a couple of MSPs who have since said that the story is entirely false.

He added: Douglas Ross own MSPs dont seem to talk to Douglas Ross, so I dont expect that SNP MSPs will be forming a queue.

I think his story doesnt stack up and everybody in the SNP knows that the Conservatives work against Scotlands interests.

So, I dont imagine any elected SNP MSP or MP would want to be talking to Douglas Ross or certainly aligning themselves with the Conservative Party.

Mr Ross, MP for Moray, told the conference on Monday: I have spoken to members of the SNP who have raised concerns with me about the direction of their government and would look at ways that Parliament can hold the SNP to account, and that clearly shows a frustration with some members of the current governing party of Scotland that their own leadership is not listening to them.

I have been contacted, and I have had discussions, with backbench members of the SNP.

He also said he hoped the rebel MSPs would speak out on the SNP-Green coalition, adding: I hope some of these dissenting voices in the SNP will get behind that and vote the Greens out of office.

Douglas Ross said he has had discussions with SNP backbenchers (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Ms Forbes took to X, formerly Twitter, to dismiss the claims. She said: Douglas Three Jobs Ross hardly spends any time in Scot Parl or speaking to his own party colleagues.

Which is only one of the many, many reasons why Ive never said more than a passing hello to him since he was elected.

Conference hyperbole compensating for a failed Tory Gov.

Ms Regan said: Constructive dialogue within @theSNP is essential for growth; but lets be very clear: the future of our party, and of Scotland itself, is too important to be swayed by backroom talks with those who dont share our vision for an independent nation.

Scottish Tory MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston said: Douglas very deliberately, and rightly, did not name the SNP figures who contacted him.

However, I would urge all of those in the SNP who are alarmed at the malign influence the extremist Greens are having on Scotland to work with the Scottish Conservatives and others to help remove them from government.

Its no good someone like Kate Forbes complaining about the SNP-Green coalition betraying our Highland constituents, if shes too obsessed with independence to work with us to do something about it.
Woody Harrelson is set to return to the London stage starring in a satirical dark comedy alongside Andy Serkis and Louisa Harland.

The three-time Academy Award nominee, 62, returned to the West End almost two decades ago starring in Tennessee Williams The Night Of The Iguana at the Lyric Theatre in 2005.

Ulster American will see Harrelson play Oscar-winning actor Jay Conway at Londons Riverside Studios with a preview set for December 4 and opening night on December 13, with the play running until January 28.

Harrelson will star alongside The Lord Of The Rings and The Batman actor Serkis, who will play English director Leigh Carver, and Derry Girls star Harland as Northern Irish playwright Ruth Davenport, in the play written by David Ireland.

Woody Harrelson and Andy Serkis (Ian West/PA)

The play is billed as a pitch-black comedy that will see the three characters begin rehearsals for a new play that could transform their careers, but when it transpires they are not on the same page, the night threatens to spiral out of control.

It first premiered in 2018 at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and later received the annual Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award and the Scotsman Fringe First Award.

Director Jeremy Herrin said: Im delighted that this rollercoaster of a play has summoned such a stellar roster of talent to join us for this pitch-black comedy at the beautifully refurbished Riverside Studios.

Ive always admired David Irelands fearlessness and the way he manages to skewer pretension in its many guises.

Its an honour to bring the legend that is Woody Harrelson to London; to welcome Andy Serkis back to the stage after so much success in the movies; and to enjoy the brilliant Louisa Harland going toe-to-toe with them both.

Itll be a thrilling evening and I cant wait to see our audiences reaction to this explosive show.

Derry Girls star Louisa Harland (Matt Crossick/PA)

Hollywood star Harrelson most recently earned an Oscar nomination in 2018 for his supporting role in Martin McDonaghs Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, following his supporting actor nomination in 2010 for his role as Captain Tony Stone in The Messenger, as well as his first nod for best actor playing Larry Flynt in 1996 drama The People Vs Larry Flynt.

He will next star alongside Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum in the Greg Berlanti-directed film Project Artemis, which is set around the 1960s space race.

Harrelson and Serkis both starred in Planet Of The Apes, while Harland starred in Harrelsons feature film Lost In London in 2017.

Second Half Productions has announced it will offer 200 free tickets of the upcoming play to West London NHS staff through their partnership with Tickets For Good.

Tickets will go on general sale at 10am on October 12 with priority booking open from 10 October.
Helen Mirren stole the show at the L'Oreal catwalk as part of Paris Fashion Week. (Getty Images)

Dame Helen Mirren continues to have fun with style, hitting the catwalk in an incredible metallic look during Paris Fashion Week.

The actor, 78, showed off a bold, crimped hairstyle as she rocked the runway for the LOreal spring/summer 2024 show.

Wearing a bronze, sequinned gown with dramatic sleeves that trailed behind her, the Golda star, appeared at the Walk Your Worth event, which also featured Kendall Jenner, Elle Fanning and other famous faces of the beauty brand.

Proving that age is no barrier to style, Mirren looked every inch a golden goddess while strutting her stuff on the catwalk.

In the fabulously fun look, Mirren's hair was blow dried into an oversized style as she showcased the off-the-shoulder shimmering gown.

Read more: Helen Mirren shares inspiring midlife message (Yahoo Life UK, 3-min read)

Helen Mirren appeared on the runway with Elle Fanning. (Getty Images)

Of course it isn't the first time Mirren has delivered an age-defying appearance at Paris Fashion Week.

Back in 2021 she stole the spotlight at the L'Oreal Paris looking razor sharp in an embellished, monochrome trouser suit, with fans praising the star's look on social media.

"Dame Helen Mirren spent Sunday afternoon looking fierce on the catwalk for L'Oreal in their latest show at Paris Fashion Week," one wrote.

STILL THINKING ABOUT HELEN MIRREN IN PARIS FASHION WEEK, another added.

"Dame Helen Mirren is a goddess," yet another agreed.

Dame Helen Mirren looked fierce at the L'Oreal show in Paris in 2021. (Getty Images)

Last year she also experimented with dopamine dressing at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, opting for a vibrant green paisley skirt, paired with a crisp white button-down shirt.

Not one to be left uncomfortable, the star donned pink suede ballet flats for the occasion, and swept her signature white hair back to reveal dangling earrings.

Read more: Helen Mirren, 77, walks red carpet with her grandson at Shazam! film premiere in LA (Yahoo Life UK, 2-min read)

Helen Mirren picked a vibrant green paisley skirt for the event in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Getty Images for for CinemaCon)

Read more: Helen Mirren's youthful red carpet glow was created using these bargain products (Yahoo Life UK, 2-min read)

The outfit and her appearance at CinemaCon came after the actor also landed the cover of People magazines Beautiful Issue, shot by Andrew Eccles, in a grey long-sleeved top, with a ruffled waistcoat on top.

Her signature white hair swept back to show her natural make-up, which, as one of the brands spokespeople, was all LOreal Paris.

Dame Helen Mirren was awarded the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in February 2022. Getty Images)

"I love the word 'swagger' because I think swagger means Im confident in myself, I'm presenting myself to the world, Im enjoying the world around me, she told the publication.

"I think what is called the beauty industry should be called the swagger industry, she added. Were giving people swagger."

The British actor has certainly built up her swagger over the years, not only on screen  with some 140 credits over 55 years  but off, too.

The star was later seen donning a pair of multi-coloured wide-leg trousers, which she paired with another white button-down shirt (this time in broderie anglaise, and with a vibrant orange vest underneath), as she stepped out in Las Vegas following her appearance at CinemaCon.

Watch: Dame Helen Mirren on playing characters with a different heritage
A man has been arrested after another man was seriously injured in a dog in Sunderland, Northumbria Police said.

The force said it received a report of an attack at an address in Maple Terrace in Shiney Row, Sunderland, at around 6.55pm.

A man in his 50s was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

The force said a 44-year-old man was arrested in connection with the incident and remains in custody, while the dog was destroyed at the scene to ensure the safety of the public.

An investigation has been launched after a man was seriously injured by a dog in #Sunderland. Around 6.55pm today (Tuesday), we received a report that a dog had injured a man outside an address on Maple Terrace in #ShineyRow. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/xqfxfNlhfn  Northumbria Police (@northumbriapol) October 3, 2023

A second dog was also seized from the address as a precaution, police said.

Northumbria Police have assured the public there is no wider risk to the community.

Officers will remain in the area to offer reassurance to the community at this time.

Police have urged people not to speculate online about the dogs or the attack while enquiries are ongoing, including on social media.

Emergency services attended and the man in his 50s was taken to hospital with serious injuries. A 44-year-old man was arrested in connection with the report and remains in police custody. The dog was destroyed at the scene to ensure the safety of the public. 2/5  Northumbria Police (@northumbriapol) October 3, 2023

They have not confirmed what breed of dog was destroyed or seized.

The latest attack comes as the Government looks to ban American XL bully dogs in response to a series of attacks.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to ban the breed in September under the Dangerous Dogs Act by the end of the year.

An official spokesman for Mr Rishi said a transition period would be introduced, with details likely to follow a consultation on the plan.

Owners could face a requirement to neuter their dogs and muzzle them in public, the Governments chief vet has suggested.

Police activity on Maple Terrace in Shiney Row (Tom Wilkinson/PA)

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said in September: We will need to safely manage the existing population of these dogs. Exactly what that looks like will be a topic for the consultation.

And there will need to be some sort of transition period.

Early in September, a 60-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of possessing a dog dangerously out of control after two men and an 11-year-old girl were injured by an XL bully crossbreed in Birmingham.

In a separate incident Ian Price, a 52-year-old from Staffordshire, died in hospital after being attacked by two XL bullies.

Police cordons remained in place at Maple Terrace overnight.

A large police presence was at the scene on Wednesday morning, with officers stationed in Maple Terrace and neighbouring Lowerson Avenue.

Around half of Maple Terrace was cordoned off at the side of the street which overlooks a grassy area popular with dog walkers.

One man said he had heard about the attack, and that a window had been broken during the incident.

But he did not remember seeing any XL bullies in the area.

He said: Theres dogs all over here.
The Defence Secretary has been urged to intervene in strikes taking place at a Scottish munitions depot after it was suggested missiles held there could help Ukraine win the war.

In a letter to Grant Shapps, the SNP called for him to resolve an ongoing dispute at DM Beith, North Ayrshire, which has led to a series of ongoing strikes.

It comes as another two-week walkout begins in the row over pay.

DM Beiths non-craft workers, who move munitions and supplies around the site and load them for shipment, are striking for better pay.

Martin Docherty-Hughes has written to the Defence Secretary (Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament/PA)

In the letter, sent on Monday, the SNPs defence spokesperson at Westminster, Martin Docherty-Hughes, accused the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of failing to engage with workers to end the pay dispute.

The striking workers are represented by trade union GMB Scotland.

Andy Start, chief executive of Defence Equipment and Support (DEaS), part of the MoD, said he is unable to speak with GMB Scotland until next month in Bristol.

However, Mr Docherty-Hughes urged the defence secretary to intervene and ensure representatives travel to Beith to meet workers.

He said management had shown a lack of urgency and a callous attitude towards striking workers who had previously postponed strike action to allow for talks on better pay.

No increased offer was made, and Mr Docherty-Hughes says the workers deserve recognition, respect and a better wage.

He added: Travelling to Beith would be an important gesture to rebuild trust.

I am writing to ask you to bring some urgency to the resolution of this dispute and encourage the DEaS chief executive to travel to North Ayrshire ahead of this scheduled meeting in a months time.

The striking non-craft workers at Beith, who have won cross-party support of Ayrshire MPs and MSPs at Holyrood, provide logistical support to the craft workers, who assemble the weapons.

GMB previously warned of a widening gap between the non-craft and craft workers pay and bonuses.

Speaking during the Conservative Party conference on Monday, Mr Shapps said: With weapons like Storm Shadow, everywhere in Russian-occupied Ukraine is on the front line.

The war is consuming weapons, ammunition and, yes, people at an appalling rate.

If Ukrainians are to prevail against the evil assault on their homeland, we must remain steadfast.

Chris Kennedy, GMB organiser, said Mr Shapps acknowledgement of such weapons and their importance underlines why he must help resolve the DM Beith dispute.

He said: The importance of our members work is not in dispute and the Defence Secretary is only the latest to emphasise their crucial role supplying our own armed forces and Ukraines.

It is beyond time for a fair offer to be made and this dispute to be resolved.

We are ready to talk today, we were ready to talk yesterday and we would be ready to talk tomorrow but we cannot talk to ourselves.

The decision-takers, the people who can actually resolve this dispute, should be in Scotland now. The disregard and disrespect shown to such important workers has gone on long enough.

Before Grant Shapps leaves Manchester he should be phoning DEaS and telling its management to get back around the table because that is the only place this dispute can end.

An MoD spokesperson said: The proposed strike will have no effect on our ongoing support to Ukraine.

A generous pay offer is on the table which would significantly improve the pay of the workers in dispute, beyond the recent 2023 pay award which has already significantly uplifted base pay for these specific workers.
Sunak silent on HS2 decision as he seems set to axe lines northern leg

Rishi Sunak has insisted he will not be forced into premature decisions as the Prime Minister continues to refuse to say whether he will scrap the northern leg of the HS2 line.

There is widespread expectation that Mr Sunak will axe the project due to cost concerns, but he has refused to settle speculation or even confirm whether a decision has been made.

Mr Sunak, in Manchester for the Conservative Party conference, could use his set-piece speech on Wednesday to announce the decision but is likely to soften the blow by spending on other projects for the North.

In a series of broadcast interviews, the Prime Minister repeatedly referenced his decision to water down the timings for a series of net zero measures, suggesting that showed he was prepared to make tough long-term choices.

As I do with all the things I go through, I take the time to get it right and do what I think is right for the country, he told Sky News.

I think its right that Im not going to get forced into making premature decisions. Not on something thats so important, that costs this country tens of billions of pounds.

The HS2 scheme was given a budget of 55.7 billion in 2015 but costs have ballooned, with an estimate of up to 98 billion  in 2019 prices  in 2020.

Since then soaring inflation will have pushed costs even higher.

Questions about the project have overshadowed Mr Sunaks first party conference as Prime Minister, but Mr Sunak denied that proceedings in Manchester have been chaotic.

He is expected to hold an emergency Cabinet meeting to sign off the measures during his party conference in the city most directly hit by the cut to HS2.

(PA Graphics)

The Times reported that after intense lobbying from within his Cabinet he will say the line will terminate in Euston, in central London, rather than the western suburb of Old Oak Common.

Tory mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street on Monday made an impassioned last-ditch appeal to Mr Sunak not to cancel the link between Birmingham and Manchester.

Not ruling out resigning over the issue, he warned Mr Sunak not to turn his back on a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

When you make decisions, as I did on net zero, there are always going to be people who criticise you when youre doing big things, Mr Sunak insisted.

Labours Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham was among those hitting out at the Prime Minister.

If theyre about to pull the plug, that would just be a desperate act of a dying Government with nowhere left to go, he said.

An expanded Northern Powerhouse Rail project linking cities, and cash for potholes and bus routes, could be announced to sweeten the pill of curtailing the project feared to have spiralled past 100 billion.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrives at the Conservative Party annual conference at Manchester Central convention complex (Peter Byrne/PA)

Mr Sunak, whose Richmond constituency is in North Yorkshire, said: I want people everywhere to feel that this Government is backing them Just at this conference, we announced a billion pounds for 55 towns across the UK, including many in the North and Midlands, why?

More people live in towns than in cities, theyre often ignored by Westminster politicians Thats me backing millions of people across our Midlands and northern towns with the funding and tools they need to change their communities for the better.

But Mr Burnham said reports of extra projects will not deliver the new east-west line promised in the last three Conservative manifestos, adding: The North is being betrayed and people here wont forget it.

A decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2 would also be overruling the concerns of Tory former prime ministers Boris Johnson, Theresa May and David Cameron.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said Mr Street was only speculating on the future of HS2 and that no formal decision has been made.

Speaking at a fringe event, hosted by the Centre for Policy Studies, Mr Hunt said: He has done an incredible job, but he is speculating on what he thinks a decision might be, rather than talking about what the actual decision may be, and no formal decision has been made.

Mark Reynolds, chief executive of Mace Group, which is building a new station in Birmingham and also in Euston if that part of the project continues, said the central London terminus was crucial.

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: If anyone thinks that ending from Birmingham to Old Oak Common is going to be strategic infrastructure, that is a waste of money and you might as well scrap the whole lot, which is ridiculous.

What we have to do is invest in Euston because Euston also provides the capacity for Birmingham to Manchester, and that needs to be done as well.

This is likely to be Mr Sunaks last party conference before a general election, widely expected to be held next year.

Speaking to Sky News, he said he would be prime minister at the next Tory gathering.

But he also insisted that he was going to do what I believe is right for the country in the long term.

Asked if he was willing to be unpopular to do that, he told BBC News: Im prepared to persuade people that what Im doing is right.
Some Police Scotland officers have no vetting record, a watchdog has found.

A review of the forces vetting procedures found no requirement for vetting for rank and file officers and staff to be repeated beyond recruitment checks.

His Majestys Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland Craig Naylor said this is a significant risk and called for all personnel to be re-vetted at least every decade.

He said: I do not believe that any officers or staff should be able to go through the entirety of their service having only been vetted at the time of their recruitment.

Police Scotland Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs said a re-vetting programme is being introduced.

The His Majestys Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) review found that before the single force was created in 2014, vetting was varied, inconsistent and not always recorded effectively, but since the late 2000s this has improved, and vetting currently conducted is of a good standard.

The report states: No check nor review of officers and staff employed by the legacy forces was carried out when the new organisation began and some have no vetting record.

There is no clear process for Police Scotland workers to advise of a criminal conviction or a significant change in personal circumstances such as a new partner or address.

It also found a disproportionate number of cases where the appropriate refusal of vetting has been overturned and clearance granted.

The watchdog flagged these historical cases to Police Scotlands force vetting manager and the anti-corruption unit so they can assess risk and whether clearance remains appropriate.

Among 15 recommendations, Mr Naylor called for a new law to be created by the Scottish Government to ensure a minimum level of vetting for all in Police Scotland and to enable the Chief Constable to sack anyone who cannot maintain suitable vetting.

He also called for annual integrity reviews to be held which would note any change in personal circumstances to help identify risks.

These changes should be prioritised above the random review of recruitment vetting for 3-5% of officers and staff, which Police Scotland has already announced, the watchdog said.

Craig Naylor carried out the review (Liam McBurney/PA)

Mr Naylor also called for vetting clearance to be reviewed following misconduct proceedings.

He said: A thorough and effective vetting regime is vitally important to assess a persons integrity and it reassures the public appropriate checks have been carried out on those who are placed in a position of trust.

There is no doubt the publics confidence in and the reputation of policing has been damaged by officers who have behaved inappropriately and broken the law.

Significant steps have been undertaken following recent high profile cases in England to ensure that officers and staff have been checked and any risks identified, highlighted and managed appropriately.

Losing intelligence to terrorists or serious organised criminals is a threat which Police Scotland rightly takes seriously but exposing a vulnerable person to an individual who wishes to harm them is, to me, abhorrent and steps need to be taken to provide assurance that the protection of the vulnerable is prioritised.

The review followed Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick, 48, being sacked after being unmasked as a serial rapist.

HMICS independently reviewed 870 vetting case files which had been completed by Police Scotlands force vetting unit staff between 2019 and 2022.

Mr Speirs said: The safeguarding of our values and standards has never been stronger and HMICS rightly highlights the high standards of our vetting.

Over 5,000 officers and staff are vetted to an enhanced level with annual reviews and we will ensure all roles have the right clearance levels.

Weve invested to enable additional checks for new recruits before they are sworn into office and, working with staff associations and unions, we are introducing a programme of re-vetting.

We know the onus is on us to earn public confidence and will carefully review this report to identify any further improvements which can strengthen our vetting.

Speaking to reporters in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, Scotlands First Minister Humza Yousaf said: We will consider, of course, as will Police Scotland.

I think theres a recommendation for the Scottish Government in terms of potential legislation, well give that full consideration, as youd imagine we would with a report of this nature.

When it comes to the creation of Police Scotland, the report made it clear that there are vetting procedures in place for new officers coming into the service. There are some recommendations for what to do for those legacy officers who entered the force pre the creation of Police Scotland.

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay said: In the wake of numerous cases of serious wrongdoing, and to maintain public confidence, SNP ministers must ensure that the force has sufficient resources to conduct these vitally important background checks.

Scottish Liberal Democrat deputy leader and former police officer, Wendy Chamberlain, called on Police Scotland to do far more to prevent potentially dangerous individuals holding positions of authority.
More than 25,000 people have been detected crossing the English Channel in small boats so far this year, Home Office figures confirm.

Some 472 people made the crossing on Monday, taking the provisional total for 2023 to 25,330.

There were 45,774 arrivals in 2022.

On Saturday 537 people made the crossing, with a further 28 on Sunday, meaning more than 1,000 arrivals have been recorded in the past three days.

(PA Graphics)

Nine boats were detected on Monday, which suggests an average of around 52 people crossed the Channel per boat.

The total number of small boat arrivals so far this year is around 23% below the equivalent number at this point last year.

Just over 33,000 people had made the crossing by October 2 2022, compared with 25,330 detected so far in 2023.

The Home Office reiterated that the unacceptable number of people making the crossing is placing an unprecedented strain on our asylum system, adding that its priority remains to stop the boats, with the Small Boats Operational Command working alongside French authorities and other agencies to disrupt people smugglers.

A spokesperson added: The Government is going even further through our Illegal Migration Act, which will mean that people arriving in the UK illegally are detained and promptly removed to their country of origin or a safe third country.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made stopping the crossings one of key pledges for this year.

He said the numbers being lower at this time in the year than they were at the same point in 2022 didnt happen by accident but because were doing a bunch of things.

New deal with Albania, tackling crime gangs my view on this is simple. It should be the British people who decide who comes to our country and not criminal gangs, he told GB News.

The numbers this year are down by a fifth  first time thats happened, that someones brought the numbers down. So look, those plans are working.

But Labour said 32,956 people have made the crossing since Mr Sunak became Prime Minister, continuing a dismal record of failure.

Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock compared the figure to Boris Johnsons premiership, saying: Rishi Sunak promised the British people that he would stop the small boats.

Yet, within his first year as Prime Minister Sunak has already overseen more than half the Channel crossings that Boris Johnson oversaw during his entire three-year premiership. That is a dismal record of failure.

The 1,000 arrivals since the start of Tory conference also demonstrate once again that nothing Rishi Sunak or Suella Braverman have done has made the slightest difference and it remains the case that the number of arrivals on any given day is entirely dictated by weather conditions in the Channel.
A statewide crackdown on patrons of sex workers netted 160 arrests, mostly of men suspected of being "johns," Ohio's attorney general announced Monday.

"Operation Buyer's Remorse" reached every corner of Ohio and swept up a 17-year-old suspected of soliciting a sex worker and an 84-year-old suspected of the same, the attorney general's office said.

The weeklong operation netted 149 such arrests, the office said in a statement. The 11 other people included suspects accused of what the office described as "promoting prostitution," covered under state law prohibiting the act of compelling sex work.

"That's what makes this pernicious," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a video produced by his office. "You're contributing to the demand for human trafficking."

In Toledo, the U.S. Border Patrol, one of the 100 law enforcement agencies involved in the operation, participated in warrant-based searches of five massage parlors the attorney general's office described as "illicit" in nature.

Six people connected with the locations were arrested on suspicion of compelling prostitution, the office said.

A handful of suspects were arrested and accused of seeking to have sex with children or possessing drugs or guns, the office said.

Yost characterized the operation as a victory in U.S. law enforcement's war against human trafficking, difficult-to-define criminal activity that often overlaps with age-old sex work.

"Law enforcement across Ohio teamed up in a concerted effort to stem the demand that fuels human trafficking, Yost said.

James Schultz, the police chief in Willoughby, Ohio, spoke about human trafficking in the attorney general's video. "The people that are involved in it at the ground level really are the victims," he said.

"Theyre compelled to do this," he said of sex workers. "Theyre forced to do this."

Behind the arrests were eight task forces across the state that organized stings in late September to lure suspects to fake encounters with sex workers, according to the statement and the video.

More than 100 survivors of human trafficking were contacted during the operation, the office said. In its video, the office also described the contacts as "potential victims." They were offered information about social services, it said.

None of the suspects was specifically accused of human trafficking. Ohio has a law against human trafficking, which was not cited in any of the arrests the attorney general's office listed.

The video included an unnamed detainee who said: "I'm not a bad person. I just enjoy sex. I'm not going to lie."

Organizations representing sex workers and civil liberties did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The groups, along with some academics, have long decried the criminalization of sex work, even in cases like this one, in which sex workers were not targeted.

The Yale Global Health Justice Partnership in 2020 said in a document about sex work policy, "There is no evidence that criminalizing sex work deters those who may sell or buy sex."

"The evidence shows that criminalization, whether full or partial (the latter only targets buyers), makes sex work more dangerous; drives sex workers into more isolated locations; impedes the use of safety and harm reduction strategies; makes it more risky to report violence and abuse from clients, managers, and law enforcement; and increases risk of exposure to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections."
Charlotte Sena vanished after going for a solo bike ride (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children)

It began as a family camping trip.

It then turned into every parents worst nightmare.

Charlotte Sena, 9, was visiting a campsite in upstate New York with family and friends when she decided to go on a bike ride with a group of close friends on Saturday evening.

After doing a couple of loops of the campsite with the group, the nine-year-old decided to go around Moreau Lake State Park one more time by herself. But she never returned.

What followed next was 48 hours of growing fears for her safety as law enforcement feared she was in imminent danger.

Then, on Monday night, positive news came.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the little girl had been found safe and that her alleged abductor Craig Nelson Ross Jr, 47, was in police custody.

Heres what we know so far about the case:

Last sighting

Before going missing, Charlotte was last seen at around 6.15pm on Saturday evening riding her bike in Loop A of Moreau Lake State Park, according to Lt Col Richard Mazzone of the New York State Police.

When she failed to come back, her family and friends went looking for her.

The little girls bike was found abandoned in the same area  but there was no sign of little Charlotte.

At around 6.45pm, the fourth-graders distraught mother called 911 to report her daughter missing.

Police were on site by 7pm on Saturday, Governor Hochul said in a Sunday afternoon news conference.

Charlotte Sena, 9, vanished Saturday evening from Moreau Lake State Park in Saratoga County, New York (New York State Police)

Last evening, she went out on a bike ride; it wasnt dark, right around dinnertime, and did a couple of loops with close friends she considers her cousins, Governor Hochul said.

And then she decided after going around True Bay, she said she just wanted to go around one more time by herself  be that big girl, do it by herself.

Literally 15 minutes later, she hadnt come back yet, the governor said. And thats really when the nightmare begins.

Amber Alert issued

Police issued an Amber Alert for the missing girl on Sunday after search teams failed to track her down.

Multi-agency search and rescue teams were deployed to find her, including aviation, canine and civilian support, Lt Col Mazzone said.

Two drones and airboat search teams, including six underwater rescue teams, were also deployed.

We also have the Schenectady Fire Office assisting with the search, given that Charlotte is the niece of one of the members of the Schenectady Fire Department, Governor Hochul said.

Police said search efforts continued through the night on Saturday.

In addition to our massive search efforts, our Bureau of Criminal Investigation has been conducting interviews with those in the park and around the region as well as pursuing all investigative leads, Lt Col Mazzone said.

We are leaving no stone, no branch, no table, no cabin, unturned, untouched, unexamined in our search to find Charlotte, Governor Hochul said.

Officials said they believed it was quite possible the fourth-grader was abducted.

Charlotte found safe

On Monday night, New York officials announced that the little girl had been found alive  and that a suspect had been taken into custody.

In a press conference, the governor said the break in the case came at around 4.20am ET on Monday when the suspect drove to the home of Charlottes parents and left a ransom note.

He literally drove up to the familys mailbox assuming they were not home, she said, adding that Charlottes parents were still searching the campground at the time, and officers who were monitoring the property had been sent to another call in the area.

Police later tested the note for fingerprints and searched law enforcement databases to see if they could find a match, and identified the suspect as 47-year-old Craig Nelson Ross Jr.

Investigators were able to determine Mr Ross was living in a campervan behind his mothers residence and used two SWAT teams to make entry into the campervan, Ms Hochul said.

They had what they call a dynamic entry tactical maneuver, and within the camper they located the suspect, she said.

The New York Governor said the missing nine-year-old was found hidden in a cabinet.

Governor Hochul said Charlotte appeared to be in good health, but was taken to a hospital, which is customary.

The fourth-grader has now been reunited with her parents.

Speaking about her rescue, governor Hochul said: She knew she was being rescued. She knew she was in safe hands.

Suspect charged with kidnapping

Mr Ross Jr, 47, was charged with first-degree kidnapping in the early hours of Tuesday morning and appeared for his arraignment in Milton Town Court, according to local outlet Times Union.

He was then booked into the Saratoga County jail at around 3.40am on Tuesday morning.

He is now being held there without bail.

As well as the fingerprint, the governor also told CNN that authorities used cell phone pings from people in the area where the nine-year-old was last spotted to help find the suspect.

They were checking all the different cell phones that have been in the vicinity of this park, she said.

The governor said authorities also had information from those who came to the park as campers because they had to register and people there for the day paid an entrance fee.

So, you could start circling around possible suspects based on the cell phone data, who is in the park and also then ultimately, the ransom note, she said.

It was extraordinary to see how they traced it down to an individuals home, the governor added. The home was surrounded by law enforcement and helicopters and they were able to bring her to safety. And not long after, she was in the arms of her parents at a hospital.

The suspect resisted being taken into custody and sustained minor injuries, the governor said.

Over $17,000 raised

Prior to Mondays discovery, a GoFundMe page set up for the family of Charlotte Sena had raised over $17,000.

The page was originally set up to raise money for the search efforts for the missing child, but the money will now go to the nine-year-olds parents to help them transition back into some sense of normalcy.

Please donate to help the family during this difficult time, a message posted on the fundraiser page reads. Any donations will go directly to her parents to help with any expenses while they transition back into some sense of normalcy.

Missing poster for Charlotte Sena (NYSP)

At a press conference on Sunday, before the nine-year-old was found, the fourth-grader was described as a joyful child who was recently elected a class officer for student council.

Everybody thought of her as just a really nice girl - the kind everyone wanted to be friends with, the kind that looked out for other children, Ms Hochul said. The pride of every parent.

Ms Hochul added: On a picture-perfect fall day here in upstate New York, Charlotte Senas family and friends gathered for a weekend of friendship and food and enjoying one of the last few days of good weather... so the kids could have a chance to be in nature, have a chance to be kids.

They were here to make memories - the kind that last a lifetime. But instead the day turned into every parents nightmare, said Governor Hochul.
WASHINGTON  Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas for the first time recused himself from a case involving the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by then-President Donald Trump's supporters as the Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal brought by former Trump legal adviser John Eastman.

Thomas, under fire over claims of ethical lapses, had participated last year when the court rejected Trump's bid to prevent White House documents from being handed over to the House committee investigating Jan. 6.

Then, Thomas was the only justice to signal support for Trump's legal arguments.

This time, Thomas stepped aside in the case involving Eastman, who was one of his law clerks.

The case also involved the now-defunct Jan. 6 committee, centering on the efforts by Eastman, a former law professor, to prevent his former employer, Chapman University of Orange, California, from handing over archived emails sent from or to Eastman's account.

As is typical for justices, Thomas did not explain why he recused himself. In addition to Thomas' professional history with Eastman, another reason he might have stepped aside is that some of the released emails reportedly mentioned Thomas as being the justice likely to be most receptive to Trump's arguments.

The case was effectively moot even before the Supreme Court's action Monday, as the committee obtained relevant emails and has concluded its investigation.

Eastman had pushed the discredited argument that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the power to refuse to certify the 2020 presidential election results.

He has also been indicted in connection with efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

Eastman recently vouched for Thomas after various news reports alleged that the justices had fallen short of ethical standards. Separately, he faces disbarment proceedings in California over his role in the election.

Thomas had faced criticism for failing to recuse himself from Trump's Jan. 6 case because his wife, the conservative political activist Virginia Ginni Thomas, had been a vocal supporter of Trumps efforts to overturn the election.

John Eastman in Los Angeles (Jae C. Hong / AP file)

Anthony Caso, Eastmans lawyer, said in an email Monday he was disappointed that the Supreme Court did not throw out the district court ruling that allowed the emails to be disclosed now that the case is moot.

Caso previously wrote in a court filing for the appeal that the lower court decision "cast aspersions not just on Dr. Eastman but also on his former client, the former president of the United States."

Court rejects 14th Amendment case

In another Trump-related case, the court rejected a long-shot legal challenge Monday seeking to block Trump from being elected president again.

The justices turned away an appeal filed by John Castro, a write-in Republican candidate for president, who represented himself in the case and has filed similar lawsuits.

Castro argued in his appeal that Trump is ineligible to be on the ballot under the Constitution's 14th Amendment because of his "aid and comfort to the convicted criminals and insurrectionists that violently attacked our United States Capitol on January 6, 2021."

It is just one of several cases around the country seeking to block Trump from being on the ballot by invoking the 14th Amendment, which says no one shall hold any office who engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the [U.S.], or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.

Although some legal scholars have backed the argument, others have dismissed it, pointing out the difficulty of enforcing the constitutional provision and questioning whether Trump's actions rose to the level of "insurrection or rebellion."

Trump faces criminal charges for his role in events leading up to Jan. 6, and he was also impeached by the House of Representatives, then controlled by the Democrats, in the days after the episode. The Senate acquitted Trump when it fell short of the 67 votes needed to convict him.

Although the Supreme Court could end up weighing in on the issue before the 2024 election, Castro's case seemed like an unlikely contender, in part because after he lost in a federal district court in Florida, he filed his appeal directly at the high court instead of going through the normal appeals process.

The judge who handled the case was Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who attracted scrutiny for her role overseeing another criminal case involving the former president, in which he has been accused of unlawfully retaining government documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida after he left office.

Even before the Supreme Court rejected Castro's appeal, it had signaled a lack of interest in the case by not even asking Trump's legal team to file a response.
Former President Trump on Monday was quick to fundraise off of his fraud trial in New York after proceedings wrapped for the day.

Trumps campaign blasted out a fundraising email with a subject line of I just left the courthouse roughly 20 minutes after court was dismissed in Manhattan, where the former president had been present.

The fundraising blast repeated many of Trumps claims about the investigations and charges against him, including that the trial is political in nature and a continuation of a witch hunt.

Politicians, drunk with power, are weaponizing the legal system to try and completely destroy me  and, ultimately, imprison me for the rest of my life as an innocent man. And why do they want to stop me so bad? the email asks.

Because they know that Im on the verge of winning the 2024 election in a landslide and upon taking office, will take away their power and return it to YOU, the American people, it continues. So, let me say for the millionth time that NOTHING can break me.

The fundraising email was similar to those Trump has sent after indictments and court appearances in other criminal proceedings, including federal cases in Washington, D.C., and in Florida, and it underscored how the former president and his campaign have sought to capitalize politically on Trumps legal woes.

Monday marked the start of Trumps fraud trial in a sweeping civil case alleging decades of fraud by him and his businesses.

Following a multiyear investigation, Jamess office sued Trump, the Trump Organization and his two adult sons  Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.  last September, claiming the former presidents company falsely inflated and deflated the value of its assets to receive lower taxes and better insurance coverage.

The attorney generals office is asking for $250 million in financial penalties and a ban on Trump and his children from serving as officers or directors of New York companies.

Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump liable for fraud last week, ruling New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) proved the crux of her case.

The decision stripped some of Trumps business licenses and raised the potential for him to lose control of some of his famed properties. Engoron also rejected Trumps effort to throw out the case, allowing six remaining elements to proceed to trial.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Engoron and James over the case, including in the hours before the trial was set to begin.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
James Craig, the former Detroit police chief who was disqualified from Michigans Republican primary for governor last year after failing to collect enough valid signatures, announced Tuesday that he will seek the states open Senate seat in 2024.

Craigs decision sets up a potentially fractious primary in a state where the GOP recently has suffered historic losses, in part by nominating candidates who hew closely to former President Donald Trump and his election conspiracy theories.

Former Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican with establishment appeal who has been critical of Trump, is already in the race. Craig has signaled that he will align himself more with Trumps vision for the party.

"Americans want better, and they want something different, and we're going to give it to them," Craig says in a video posted to his new Senate campaign website.

The video, which features footage of past interviews with former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, emphasizes issues like crime and includes images of Craig in uniform.

"I'm James Craig," he says straight to the camera at the end of the video, "and I'm running for U.S. Senate."

The Michigan seat is opening with the retirement of longtime Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat, and is one of the races that could help determine partisan control of the chamber. Rep. Elissa Slotkin has locked down key support in her bid for the Democratic nomination. Actor Hill Harper is also running in that primary.

Craig takes a shot at Slotkin in his introductory video: "These are individuals who are political servants, not public servants," he is heard saying as images of Slotkin, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and President Joe Biden appear on screen.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes accused Craig of having a "long record of dodging accountability" in a statement responding to his candidacy.

"Michigan Republicans nasty, chaotic Senate primary has gone from bad to worse," Barnes said. "Their intra-party fight is guaranteed to leave them with a nominee who is badly damaged and out of step with working families."

Craig's high name recognition in Detroit and his law enforcement background  he also has served as a police chief in Cincinnati and Portland, Maine  helped make him the early favorite for the GOP nomination for governor in 2022. But his campaign was the target of an alleged forgery scheme that resulted in him lacking enough valid petition signatures to qualify for the primary ballot. Tudor Dixon, a conservative commentator who landed Trump, won the nomination and lost to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a landslide.

Remember The Gong Show? Rogers  referring to a late 70s televised talent show where losers were voted off by the sound of a gong  said in an interview earlier this year when referring to his party's losses last year. I think we got a double gong.

The Senate primary field could widen more, with former Rep. Peter Meijer, a Republican who voted to impeach Trump after the Capitol riot in January 2021, considering a bid.
The recent congressional deal to fund the government through Nov. 17 forestalls a shutdown  in the United States. But its a bad deal all the same because it undermines support for Ukraine and boosts Russian President Vladimir Putins hopes for war fatigue among Ukraines Western allies.

The Sept. 30 deal finances most government operations for the next seven weeks but excludes $24 billion President Biden requested to continue aiding Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders. Some Republicans oppose further aid to Ukraine, and stripping that from the spending package was a concession they demanded  and got  in exchange for enough votes to pass the deal.

It doesnt mean the United States is abandoning Ukraine. There is still majority support, including nearly all Democrats and many Republicans, for further Ukraine aid in Congress and there are ways to approve that aid through separate funding measures. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he supports Ukraine aid but wants it to be combined with tough new policies on immigration and border security.

Since the US aid will likely materialize, the problem isnt an interruption of US weaponry for Ukrainian forces. The problem is that US support for Ukraine has now been politicized, like just about everything else in the country. Thats exactly what Putin wants and it probably means lies and disinformation about Ukraine will besiege voters as the 2024 election heats up. Putins propagandists will probably mount their own disinformation effort as they did in 2016 by trying to discredit Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton.

Biden has said repeatedly that his administration will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes. But thats a bit wishy-washy. As long as it takes to do what? Biden has never spelled out what a winning outcome looks like and that may be deliberate. Expelling all Russian forces from Ukrainian territory may be impossible, yet its impolitic to acknowledge that. Without saying so, Ukraines allies do need to leave room for some kind of negotiated settlement that ends the fighting but leaves Russia with territory it doesnt deserve.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a wreath laying ceremony at the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington, as first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, looks on. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo, File)

Its time, however, for Biden to make a more forceful public case for why its good for America  and American taxpayers  to help Ukraine defeat Russia. It shouldnt be hard. So far the United States has provided $47 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, plus $30 billion in economic and financial aid for a total of about $77 billion. The United States is the biggest donor nation in raw dollars but as a percentage of GDP, its only 15th. The United States can afford to keep giving.

US military aid to Ukraine represents about 5% of the total US defense budget. Considering what it buys, that money is extremely well spent. Russia and China are Americas two main geopolitical rivals. Ukraine has severely damaged Russias army and it continues to weaken Russia militarily and politically literally every day. Containing Russia is an overt US national security goal, with a good chunk of the defense budget devoted to that cause. Ukraine is helping fulfill that goal without a single American service member involved in the fight.

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Russia would hold the West hostage to its oil and natural gas reserves if it could. Putin has already tried, and largely failed, to push up world oil prices and freeze Europeans during the winter by cutting off gas supplies. A Russian victory in Ukraine would bolster Putins bid to be the leader of a new kind of global pariah alliance that tries to bully the rest of world economically. Defeat in Ukraine, or even an open-ended quagmire, will further diminish Putins power over world energy markets and consumer budgets.

Western resolve in support of Ukraine also sends the message to China that an invasion of Taiwan would be a disastrous act of self-sabotage. Some Americans may not care whether a democratic Taiwan falls to the Chinese communist party. But they should care about the economic consequences, which at a minimum would be a severe trade shock that would send prices soaring and render many products unavailable. If the United States responded militarily it could slash 5% off US GDP, according to the Rand research organization. That would be double the damage of the Great Recession in 2007-2009. The best way to deter a Chinese move against Taiwan is to relentlessly punish Russia for its territorial grab in Ukraine, with no expiration date.

McCarthy says his top priority is immigration, not Ukraine  as if the United States, which has 15 Cabinet-level agencies and a $6.3 trillion annual budget, cant do two things at once. Biden could grab that as an opportunity to solve one of his own persistent problems. Voters give Biden poor marks on immigration and its not surprising why. The relentless flow of migrants to the southwest border is straining state and city governments nationwide and creating the impression of a nation overrun. Even some Democrats are now calling for new limits on inbound migration.

So why doesnt Biden accept some of the Republican ideas on immigration as part of a deal to arm Ukraine for another year? While explaining how stalwart American support for Ukraine is, and why, Biden could try to win some points for attacking a migration problem that so far has gotten the better of him. And when the next budget deadline comes in November the only thing anybody should be trying to shut down is Russias misbegotten war in Ukraine.

Rick Newman is a senior columnist for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @rickjnewman.

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WILMINGTON, Del. Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to three firearms charges during his arraignment in a federal court in Delaware on Tuesday, amid a high-profile legal battle that has pit the presidents son against his Justice Department as the 2024 presidential campaign gets underway.

After twenty-five minutes of discussion, Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, entered the plea on his behalf. Lowell said the defense would be making a number of motions in a case that the president's son had months ago hoped to put behind him, including on the constitutionality of the charge related to his purchase of a handgun. Lowell also said to expect a request for an evidentiary hearing ahead of the Nov. 3 motions deadline set by the judge.

Hunter Biden, 53, the son of President Joe Biden said that he understood the nature of the charges against him, barely blinking before responding to the judge, "Yes, your honor."

Absent from the hearing were the tensions that erupted during the younger Biden's July appearance before a different judge overseeing the case, when he had expected to finalize a plea deal. This time the president's son embarked on a new phase of legal peril that could see further charges forthcoming over his alleged tax crimes.

Wearing a grey suit, Hunter Biden spoke with his attorneys in muffled tones and barely a glanced around the room. He exited the hearing through a side door.

Hunter Biden was denied a request to appear by video, with a magistrate judge siding with government prosecutors to say that Hunter Biden should not receive special treatment in this matter.

Hunter Biden arrived in the courtroom shortly before 10 a.m. ET. accompanied by the defense lawyers. The hearing lasted less than 30 minutes. The judge reiterated Hunter Biden's conditions for release and said that he would be subject to random testing as he refrains from drugs and alcohol. He has been tested already a number of times, the judge said.

The case has placed Joe Bidens family in the spotlight ahead of the 2024 presidential election, with scrutiny of Hunter Biden intensifying amid his indictment by a special counsel and the case unfolding against the backdrop of his fathers campaign.

Nearly two months after a deal with prosecutors fell apart in a dramatic courtroom scene, Hunter Biden was indicted last month in federal court on three counts tied to his possession of a firearm while using illegal drugs.

Two counts accuse him of lying on a federal form about his use of narcotics when he purchased a Colt Cobra revolver in Delaware in October of 2018. The third count claims he possessed a gun while using a narcotic.

Still open is a yearslong inquiry into Hunter Bidens alleged tax evasion.

In the original case, charged in June, a joint filing with prosecutors said Hunter Biden had the gun for 11 days, during which he purchased and used crack cocaine regularly. The firearm was subsequently discarded in a trashcan outside a supermarket in Greenville, Delaware, according to the filing.

The initial plea deal in which Hunter Biden agreed to a deferral program for a single gun count collapsed in open court as U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, questioned the terms of the agreement.

Under the terms of the deal, Hunter Biden would have pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges in return for prosecutors recommending a sentence of probation, while a separate felony gun charge would have been dropped as part of a two-year diversion program.

After the judge requested both parties return with more information, Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty. Talks between his team and prosecutors then fell apart, extinguishing the possibility of a deal. He later reshuffled his legal team, elevating attorney Abbe Lowell.

Lowell said Hunter Biden plans to fight the gun charges, which he argues are not constitutional. On Tuesday, Lowell said this would be among several motions filed by the defense "that won't be a surprise."

His team has lately gone on offense, filing a barrage of separate lawsuits against the Internal Revenue Service, Rudy Giuliani, and former Trump aide Garrett Ziegler, whom he claims violated privacy and computer fraud laws.

Charges linked to Hunter Bidens taxes could be filed within the coming month, in Washington, D.C., or California, where he has been a resident in recent years.

The case comes as the Justice Department has also undertaken the unprecedented move of indicting a former president, Donald Trump, in two separate cases.

In Washington, House Republicans continue to seek answers on whether the Justice Department granted Hunter Biden favorable treatment as it investigated him. Republicans have also launched an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden that is expected to probe his sons business dealings as they search for evidence of wrongdoing.

The White House has denied any involvement by the president in the Justice Departments case or his sons business affairs.
Former Trump White House chief of staff John Kelly is blasting his onetime boss over disparaging remarks he says the then-president repeatedly made about service members and veterans and for what he called Trump's untruthfulness about his positions on various groups as well as on abortion.

In a statement to CNN published Monday, Kelly delivered a scathing criticism of former President Donald Trump while confirming reporting in The Atlantic in 2020 that detailed the comments he made during his presidency.

"A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all suckers because there is nothing in it for them,'" Kelly said of Trump. "A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because it doesnt look good for me. A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family  for all Gold Star families  on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in Americas defense are losers and wouldnt visit their graves in France.

The Atlantic reported that Trump privately made damning statements against U.S. service and veterans, such as the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who had been a Vietnam prisoner of war, and former President George H.W. Bush, who was shot down as a Navy pilot in World War II. During a visit to France in 2018 for the centennial anniversary of the end of World War I, Trump also reportedly called Marines who died at Belleau Wood suckers and fallen soldiers at Aisne-Marne American Cemetery losers.

Kelly also slammed Trump as someone "who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women. A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about."

He continued, A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason  in expectation that someone will take action, an apparent reference to Trump's recent statements about Army Gen. Mark Milley, who just retired as the chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

There is nothing more that can be said, Kelly added. God help us.

Reached for comment by NBC News, Steven Cheung, Trump campaign spokesperson, said: "John Kelly has totally clowned himself with these debunked stories hes made up because he didnt serve his President well while working as Chief of Staff."

Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, left as Trump's chief of staff in 2018. His tenure had been marred by conflict, with reports at the time describing disagreements between Kelly, Trump and West Wing staff.

Kelly found himself in the crosshairs of his former boss in 2020, when Kelly came to the defense of then-Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who had reported his concerns about Trumps July 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. During the phone call, Trump asked Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden, his son Hunter and Democrats. The phone call led to Trumps first impeachment by the House, but the Senate later acquitted Trump on two charges, of abusing his power and obstructing Congress.

During Kellys time in the Trump White House, speculation grew that he was exhausted and frustrated with his role as well as with Trumps mercurial temperament.

Kelly first served in the Trump administration as secretary of Homeland Security. Trump appointed him as chief of staff in July 2017 after his predecessor, Reince Priebus, was ousted after six months on the job.
WASHINGTON  Laphonza Butler was sworn in Tuesday to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who died last week at age 90.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been a longtime ally of and adviser to Butler, administered the oath of office, prompting boisterous applause from the Senate floor and gallery.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom moved quickly to select Butler, who was the president of EMILYs List, on Sunday. She is the third Black woman to serve as a senator, following Harris until she became vice president and Carol Moseley Braun, D-Ill., in the 1990s.

Butler, the first openly LGBTQ person to represent California in the chamber, will serve alongside fellow California Democrat Alex Padilla.

After her swearing-in ceremony, President Joe Biden called Butler to congratulate her, the White House said.

Laphonza Butler smiles during the ceremony. (Stephanie Scarbrough / AP)

Butler had led EMILYs List, a group focused on electing Democratic women who support abortion rights, since 2021, when she became the first Black woman to lead the organization.

"I am honored to accept Gov. Newsoms nomination to be a U.S. Senator for a state I have long called home, Butler said in a statement Monday. I am humbled by the Governors trust. Sen. Dianne Feinsteins leadership and legacy are immeasurable. I will do my best to honor her by devoting my time and energy to serving the people of California and the people of this great nation."

Butler resides in Maryland, but a spokesman, Matthew Wing, told NBC News on Monday that she had re-registered to vote in California.

With her swearing-in, the Democrats again have a 51-49 majority; it puts them in a position to fill Feinsteins seat on the Judiciary Committee, which is deadlocked.

Feinstein had said she would not run for re-election in 2024. Major contenders in the Senate race are Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.

Before Feinsteins death, Newsom had said he planned to make an interim appointment if he needed to fill her seat, because he did not want to tip the scales toward any of the current candidates.

He made it clear, however, that no restrictions were put on Butlers appointment and that she was free to run if she wanted. Butler will serve out the rest of Feinstein's term, which ends in early 2025. She has not yet indicated whether she plans to run for the seat.
Warning: Spoilers from Season Five of Love Is Blind below.

Only two couples remained on Season Five of Love Is Blind after Taylor Rue and Jared JP Pierce decided to call it quits, just a few days after they got engaged.

Taylor and JP immediately connected in the pods and he proposed halfway through Episode Two, making them the first official couple of Season Five. But when they met for the first time, it was clear something was missing.

Their first conversation was punctuated by long, awkward pauses, and JP started sweating. To lighten the mood, Taylor joked that her eyelashes were going to fall off. These are fake, by the way. You cant tell? she asked.

JP responded, You can tell, but said she looked pretty.

She later mentioned the gap between his teeth in her confessional interview and revealed she probably wouldnt have gone after him in the real world.

They flew to Mexico for a couples getaway with the other couples in Episode Four and their labored conversations continued. Taylor called out her fiance for lacking the open communication he had in the pods. They argued and Taylor decided to end the engagement in Episode Six.

She speaks about the breakdown of their relationship in an interview with TODAY.com.

Taylor says their engagement in the pods felt fast.

But it felt right, she says. I mean, it is fast. Youre dating this person quickly. But we had a very strong connection.

As for why their relationship fizzled in the real world? The teacher seems just as confused as some viewers likely were.

Taylor says she's still "trying to figure out" why she and JP couldn't connect after the pods.

Thats probably a good question for JP because I know I was myself in the pods and I was myself in Mexico. I felt like I just fell in love with this version of JP that wasnt in Mexico. That was scary, she says.

Taylor reiterates that she is still trying to process their breakup and figure out what went wrong.

When she voiced her concerns to JP in Episode Six, he explained that he shut down after seeing her in person because he was surprised by how she looked.

I understand that you tried to present yourself and look as best you could, but I feel like if you wouldve presented yourself like this, without any makeup, it would have been better, he told her.

He said she seemed fake during the reveal and told her to not wear makeup going forward. She refused and said would make her own decisions.

Taylor spent the night in another hotel room before returning the next morning and taking off her engagement ring. She said she couldnt see a future with them.

Taylor tells TODAY.com JPs remarks about her makeup was not the reason she left, although she acknowledges it was hurtful.

But, you know, I can handle a comment here and there and everybody has their opinions, she says. But, for me, ultimately, I left because the emotional connection that JP and I had built in the pods was completely thrown out the window in Mexico.

JP and Taylor. (Netflix)

On the show, couples move into an apartment rented out by Netflix and live together before their weddings. Taylor says she knew she couldnt continue the experiment knowing co-habitating was the next step in the process.

She shares, I had never lived with a guy before and so thats a huge step in a relationship. And because I had one foot out the door, one foot in the door, I didnt feel like moving forward with our relationship would have been smart for either of us.

The kindergarten teacher continues, So I just followed my heart and because I wasnt 100% and I dont think he was 100% about mewe both deserve thatthats ultimately why I walked away.

Looking back at her experience on the Netflix dating series, Taylor says she wouldnt change anything. She also says they asked each other deep questions in the pods and she felt confident in their connection when she agreed to marry him.

No, I dont have any regrets. I learned a lot from it, she says.

Taylor also confirmed in an interview with E! News that she has spoken to JP since their fallout in Mexico. She said her former fiance contacted her after filming ended, but she "just wasnt ready" at the time.

"I was like, 'I dont want to talk to you, I dont want to see you,'" she shared. But, she eventually changed her mind.

"And then a couple of months back, I actually reached to him and we had good conversation, but we actually didnt talk about anything that really needs to be talked about, so still waiting for that," she said.

Fans will likely see them discuss their breakup when the cast reunites at the upcoming Season Five reunion.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Jellybean went through six weeks of training to became a canine court advocate in Wayne County, Michigan.

A courtroom might seem scary, but a prosecutor's office in Michigan is trying to help change that with the addition of a four-legged friend. With a little tail wag or a quick pet, this cute pup is putting victims and witnesses, both children and adults, at ease.

The Wayne County prosecutor's office on Monday announced the arrival its newest staff member, Jellybean. Half black Labrador and half Golden Retriever, she is working as a canine court advocate.

Jellybean was adopted in February of 2023 by Mark Hindelang, the offices chief of information and technology, and became certified as a canine advocate in April.

Jellybean had to undergo six weeks of training to acquire specific skills to become part of the Canine Advocacy Program, which is, managed by CARE House of Oakland County, Michigan.

She must not react to courtroom distractions, needs to be able to walk on a lead without pulling, and to remain in a 'sit/stay' position while her handler moves out of her sight range, according to a news release.

Now, Jellybean goes to work every day with Hindelang, while her handler, Child Advocate Jamie Buchholtz, continues to work with her on training twice a week  and also provides her with working opportunities.

The effect Jellybean has on nervous or vulnerable victims really needs to be seen to be believed," Buchholtz said. "She has a calming effect on nervous children and adults who must come to court to discuss difficult facts.

Canine court advocates soothe victims, witnesses

A Michigan statute allows the dog to be present in court for children under 16, and Jellybean's services can also go beyond that.

She has not yet been involved in a trial, but Jellybean has been present for many pretrial interviews with victims of all ages," the release says. "She has been present in interviews with child victims, adult victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and is requested for witnesses of homicides. She does not need to be present in the courtroom to be a benefit to victims and witnesses.

More: 'He's the calm in the storm': Meet Tater Tot, Summit juvenile court's new therapy dog

Prosecutor Kym Worthy said its been a long-standing goal to add a four-legged special victim advocate to serve crime victims and witnesses.

I have wanted to have a canine advocate for years, but several things must come together for this to happen. I am so pleased that Mark and Jamie have shown such commitment and dedication to provide our crime victims with an exceptional new advocate, said Worthy.

Jellybeans contribution has already been invaluable. She is helping to soothe children and adults who are faced with a difficult and unusual situation. We look forward to her service for years to come.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Canine advocate Jellybean calms victims and witnesses for Mich. court
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned on Monday of a nightmare scenario for the internet if Googles dominance in online search is allowed to continue, a situation, he said, that starts with searches on desktop and mobile but extends to the emerging battleground of artificial intelligence.

Nadella testified on Monday as part of the US governments sweeping antitrust trial against Google, now into its 14th day. He is the most senior tech executive yet to testify during the trial that focuses on the power of Google as the default search engine on mobile devices and browsers around the globe.

Taking the stand in a charcoal suit and tie, Nadella painted Google as a technology giant that has blocked off ways for consumers to access rival search engines. His testimony reflected the frustrations of a long-running rivalry between Microsoft and Google whose tensions have permeated the weeks-long trial. (Google didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Central to Googles strategy has been its agreements with companies such as Apple that have made Google the default search engine for millions of internet users.

You get up in the morning, you brush your teeth, you search on Google, Nadella said.

Nadella testified that every year he has been Microsofts CEO, he has unsuccessfully sought to persuade Apple to switch away from Google as its default search partner. Nadella added that Microsoft has been willing to spend close to $15 billion a year for the privilege. (A senior Apple executive, Eddy Cue, testified last week that Apple has always considered Google the best search product for its users, a claim echoed by Google itself throughout the trial.)

However, even more worrisome, Nadella argued, is that the enormous amount of search data that is provided to Google through its default agreements can help Google train its AI models to be better than anyone elses  threatening to give Google an unassailable advantage in generative AI that would further entrench its power.

This is going to become even harder to compete in the AI age with someone who has that core advantage, Nadella testified.

Despite being profitable, and despite investing some $100 billion in it over the past 20 years, Microsofts Bing search engine has only a single-digit market share in mobile search, and only slightly more  into the teens  in desktop search, Nadella said, adding that one of his dreams has been to see Bing account for at least 20% of the market in both segments.

Bing has struggled to grow its market share in part because being the default search provider for billions of devices means Google receives enormous amounts of data through search queries that helps Google understand at scale what users are likely to be interested in, Nadella noted. And for years, that dynamic data has enabled Google to stay ahead of Bing, he added.

Every misspelling of a new movie, every local restaurant whose name you mistype, Nadella explained, is a very critical asset to have your search quality get better. And because the physical world is constantly changing, capturing shifts in search trends are essential to helping a search engine stay relevant as historical data becomes less relevant. Nadella previously led Microsofts cloud computing business and before that had spent several years overseeing the engineering team responsible for search and advertising at the company, making him well-versed in Bings various challenges.

Now, Nadella has said that the same data advantage could create even more of a nightmare as large language models compete on the basis of the data they are trained on.

What is concerning is, it reminds me of what happened with distribution deals [in search], he testified.

Under questioning by a Google attorney, Nadella admitted that in some cases, defaults are not the sole determinant of success: Google was able to overcome Microsofts own Internet Explorer defaults on Windows PCs to become the market-leading desktop web browser.

But Nadella attributed Googles success to the relative openness of the Windows platform, arguing that on more tightly controlled mobile operating systems, and in search, default status plays a much larger role than in competition for desktop web browsers.

AI training

In addition to training its models on search queries, Google has also been moving to secure agreements with content publishers to ensure that it has exclusive access to their material for AI training purposes, according the Microsoft CEO. In Nadellas own meetings with publishers, he said that he now hears that Google wants  to write this check and we want you to match it. (Google didnt immediately respond to questions about those deals.)

The requests highlight concerns that what is publicly available today [may not be] publicly available tomorrow for AI training, according to the testimony.

While Microsoft and Apple have their own defaults  for example, by making Apple Maps the default maps app on iOS devices  Google goes much further than other tech companies in using carrots and sticks to keep people using its products by default, Nadella claimed. He cited Googles licensing requirements that make Googles Play Store a required installed app as a condition of using the Android operating system  another topic of dispute in the trial. The equivalent would be if Microsoft threatened to withhold Microsoft Office if Bing were not the default search engine, Nadella said, a move he claimed would not be in Microsofts business interests.

Acknowledging that Google would not be in its dominant position without Microsofts own antitrust battles with the US government in the 1990s, Nadella said the situation involving Google today is vastly different. Internet search and, particularly on mobile devices, is the single largest software business opportunity in the world.

Googles dominance in search is reinforced when websites and publishers optimize for Googles search algorithm and not Bings, when advertisers flock to Google and when users stick to whats familiar, Nadella argued.

In his fruitless negotiations with Apple, Nadella said he has tried to argue that Bings current role is little more than as a useful tool for Apple to bid up the price of hosting Google as the default search provider  but that Bing provides an important counterweight to Google and that Apple should consider investing in the Microsoft alternative for competitions sake. Nadella has also proposed running Bing on Apple devices as a kind of public utility, he said.

Lets say Bing exited the market, Nadella said. You think Google would keep paying [Apple]?

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A sixth lawsuit has been filed against a former Johnson County teacher and choir director who pleaded guilty of sexually exploiting students at the Catholic school where he worked for more than two decades.

On Friday, 13 victims and their parents filed a joint lawsuit against Joseph Heidesch, 47, who in December pleaded guilty to secretly filming students changing at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park, which was also named as a defendant.

In June, a Johnson County District Court judge sentenced Heidesch to five years and eight months in prison after Heidesch pleaded guilty to one count of sexual exploitation and 25 counts of breaching privacy.

Between 2016 and October 2021  when Heidesch was arrested and charged  he recorded and saved hundreds of videos that showed at least 25 victims either getting undressed, or in some cases, nude, court documents show.

The suit accuses Heidesch, who worked at the school for 22 years, of a continuing and pervasive scheme for the purpose of his own sexual arousal and gratification as a child sexual predator.

Heidesch is currently being held at Winfield Correctional Facility in south-central Kansas.

Neither the school nor attorneys for the plaintiffs or defendants could immediately be reached for comment Monday.

The latest lawsuit

The victims listed in Fridays lawsuit span Johnson and Leavenworth counties in Kansas and Jackson County, Missouri. All are female. All were minors at the time of the crime, and all were members of the school choir when it was under Heideschs direction.

The victims and their parents in the lawsuit said Heidesch, as an educator, was trusted to provide a safe educational environment.

Instead, Heidesch required all students to change into choir robes in his private office as part of his choir class. Unbeknownst to the students, he also installed a video camera in his office where he recorded students undressing for his own sexual arousal and gratification, according to Fridays lawsuit.

All 13 students in Fridays lawsuit were recorded on various occasions without their consent, according to the suit. Heidesch then saved and sorted the recordings into files labeled with each students name on a hard drive. Its not known if Heidesch uploaded the sexually explicit videos to the internet.

The lawsuit goes on to accuse the school of failing to stop Heidesch from contacting students on their personal phones or from changing in his private office, which are known signs of grooming by child sexual predators.

In all, the suit accuses the teacher and school of negligence, negligent failure to train and supervise, invasion of privacy, outrageous conduct causing severe emotional distress, agency liability, breach of fiduciary duty, premises liability, unjust enrichment and violation of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act.

Heideschs conduct as a trusted teacher and choir director toward minor students was so extreme and outrageous in character that it goes beyond the bounds of decency, the suit reads.

Multiple lawsuits filed against Heidesch and St. Thomas Aquinas High School are still pending in Johnson County District Court.

Other victims who previously came forward to accuse Heidesch in lawsuits alleged he made of girls change their clothes in his office under the guise of trying on new sizes, even when they said they didnt want to. Some also accused school personnel of knowing Heidesch was asking students to change in his office and communicating with them through his cellphone, court documents said.
By Xinghui Kok

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Singapore said it was expecting more arrests and seizures as the Asian financial hub investigates one of its biggest cases of suspected money laundering, in which the value of assets seized now stands at S$2.8 billion ($2 billion).

Simultaneous raids in mid-August by authorities of the city state known for its low crime rate led to the arrest of 10 foreigners and the seizure of luxury properties, cars, gold bars, designer handbags and jewellery worth S$1 billion.

"This case is a reminder that even the most stringent preventive measures can be circumvented by determined criminals," Josephine Teo, the second minister for home affairs, told parliament on Tuesday.

The government will set up an inter-ministerial panel to review the anti-money laundering regime, reflecting learning points drawn from the case, she said.

She was one of three cabinet ministers responding to almost 60 questions filed by lawmakers on the case.

Indranee Rajah, the second minister for finance, will chair the inter-ministerial committee comprising political office holders from the central bank and the home affairs, law, manpower and trade ministries.

They will review four areas: Preventing corporate structures from being abused; getting financial institutions to collaborate with each other and with authorities; getting third party players like real estate agents to guard against money laundering; improving detection capabilities.

The government said it was inspecting financial institutions suspected of involvement in the case and would launch enforcement action against any of them, and their staff, if they were found to have breached central bank requirements.

Agencies are also reviewing processes that include the central bank's approval for family offices to get tax incentives, and to consider regulating high value assets such as luxury cars and bags.

Any changes, however, should not "end up unduly inconveniencing legitimate businesses and customers", said Teo.

The case had been on the radar of police since 2021, after the filing of suspicious transaction reports by financial institutions, Teo said.

She dismissed as "completely untrue" speculation in local and international news outlets that the operation was carried out at the behest of China.

"We started investigations because we suspected that offences had been committed in Singapore," Teo added. "Once we confirmed our suspicions, we acted."

(Reporting by Xinghui Kok; Editing by Martin Petty, Clarence Fernandez and Alison Williams)
President Biden convened a call Tuesday with other world leaders who have backed Ukraine in its war against Russia as the White House seeks to offer reassurances about its support for Kyiv despite Congress failing to approve more aid in recent days.

Biden spoke with leaders from Canada, Germany, Japan, Italy, Poland, Romania, the United Kingdom and France. The heads of the European Commission and European Council were also on the call, the White House said.

The White House has in recent days been outspoken about its ongoing support for Ukraine and the need for Congress to hold a vote on additional aid for the country, which Russia invaded in February 2022. The U.S. has provided billions of dollars in military and financial assistance since then and coordinated aid with allied nations.

Lawmakers did not approve additional Ukraine aid, which the White House had requested, as part of a 45-day measure passed over the weekend to keep government funding at current levels and avoid a shutdown.

Biden has been adamant that the U.S. will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes for Kyiv to win the war, and he has called on Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to hold a vote on additional funding, noting that there is bipartisan support for Ukraine.

Speaker McCarthy and the majority of House Republicans must keep their word and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine as it defends itself. We are the indispensable nation in the world  lets act like it, Biden wrote Tuesday morning on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Biden told reporters Sunday that he and McCarthy had just made a deal about Ukraine, but provided no details. McCarthy has denied that there is any side deal about Ukraine funding.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not elaborate Monday on whether the two leaders had reached some kind of agreement about bringing up Ukraine funding for a vote, but she instead pointed to the large bipartisan support for Ukraine aid in Congress.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The United States Capitol Police delivered a new update on Rep. Jamaal Bowmans (D-N.Y.) decision to pull the fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building on Saturday ahead of the House passing a stopgap measure to fund the government.

The Capitol Police said in a Monday update that it is still investigating the incident, which it said took place at about 12:05 p.m. Saturday. The Capitol Police said its officers evacuated the people from the building, floor-by-floor, while D.C. Fire & EMS responded.

While the Capitol Police did not identify Bowman in its update, it said a man was seen trying to exit the door in the Cannon Building and then pulling the fire alarm that prompted the evacuation. It also noted that officers had previously placed signs with clear language that explained the door was secured and marked as an emergency exit only.

The update that the Capitol Police provided seems to address Bowmans explanation for his actions. The New York Democrat has maintained that he pulled the fire alarm by accident, saying that he thought it would open a closed door.

Today, as I was rushing to make a vote, I came to a door that is usually open for votes but today would not open. I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door. I regret this and sincerely apologize for any confusion this caused, he said in a statement.

But I want to be very clear, this was not me, in any way, trying to delay any vote. It was the exact opposite  I was trying urgently to get to a vote, which I ultimately did and joined my colleagues in a bipartisan effort to keep our government open.

Republicans have accused Bowman of intentionally trying to stop the vote and have launched an investigation into the incident. They are also preparing to introduce legislation to expel Bowman from the House for his actions.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) said Monday that she plans to introduce a resolution to expel Bowman.

Today Ill be introducing my resolution to EXPEL @RepBowman for his pathetic antics to delay congressional proceedings 12 HOURS before a shutdown, she wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Of all people, a high school principal knows what a FIRE alarm does. No one is buying the excuses & he must be held accountable!

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A parking garage at St. David's Medical Center reopened on Aug. 10, 2023, after a vehicle exploded the previous day. No one was injured, and the hospital was not damaged.

A Jonestown man pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Austin to possessing a pipe bomb that detonated in a hospital parking garage in August.

Court documents show that on Aug. 9 Raymond Luke Garner, 38, parked his pickup truck in a parking garage at St. Davids Hospital at 919 E. 32nd St. in Austin. A short time later, there was an explosion in the back of Garners truck, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office of the Western District of Texas.

Security camera footage showed Garner arriving at the parking garage in a white Tacoma, taking items out of the truck and walking away, shortly before the explosion, according to court documents. Debris could be seen being thrown from the vehicle at the time of the explosion. Video showed that there were several vehicles turning onto that level of the garage at the time, and people were seen walking on foot across the driving lane from the explosion.

No one was injured, and the hospital was not damaged.

Previously: Austin cops arrest man connected to explosion at St. David's Medical Center garage

Investigators found the remains of a pipe bomb near Garners truck, the release said, as well as a homemade high explosive, circuit boards/timers, electric matches and other items.

While he was detained by police, Garner contacted another individual to move a box out of Garners home, prosecutors said. That box was later found to contain, among other things, a quantity of the high explosive, precursor chemicals and electric matches. Searches at other locations revealed a recipe for the high explosive, remote control devices and other components for destructive devices.

Garner admitted that he was in possession of an unregistered destructive device on Aug. 9, and was arrested.

Garner pleaded guilty to one count of possession of an unregistered destructive device and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The case was heard in U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman's court. Court records did not show a date for Garner's sentencing as of Monday.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force were the lead federal agencies investigating the case. The Travis County sheriffs office, Austin Police Department, Austin Fire Department and Cedar Park Police Department assisted with the investigation.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Man pleads guilty in connection to explosion at St. David's Hospital
ISTANBUL (Reuters) -President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he expected concrete steps from allies in support of Turkey's counter-terrorism fight after a weekend bomb attack in Ankara, for which a Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility.

Erdogan was speaking after Turkish police staged raids across the country on Tuesday, detaining tens of suspects over alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

"We want to see concrete steps from friends in addition to messages of condemnation," Erdogan said at an opening ceremony of a Council of State facility in Ankara.

"They should know that statements that condemn terrorism and console us will not heal our wounds."

Two assailants detonated a bomb near government buildings in Ankara on Sunday, wounding two police officers. Both attackers were killed.

The PKK, which is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, claimed responsibility for the attack, the first in the Turkish capital in years.

Turkey subsequently carried out air strikes on militant targets in northern Iraq and detained suspects in Istanbul on Monday, hours after the PKK made its claim of responsibility.

State-owned Anadolu news agency reported that about 90 people in 18 provinces across the country were subsequently detained on Tuesday over suspected links to the PKK.

Several members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which ran under the Green Left party banner in general elections, were among those who have been detained, Green Left co-spokesperson Ibrahim Akin said at a parliamentary meeting.

Separately, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said operations involving thousands of security personnel were carried out across the country, targeting PKK "intelligence units", with dozens arrested.

During operations nationwide targeting people in possession of illegal firearms a total of 928 people were detained, he said on messaging platform X.

(Reporting by Burcu Karakas; Writing by Daren Butler; editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Ed Osmond and Mark Heinrich)
By Lunga Masuku

MBABANE (Reuters) - Fifty one men and eight women were elected to Eswatini's parliament in last week's election, with a strong showing for pro-royalist candidates in results expected to make little difference to the politics of Africa's last absolute monarchy.

The southern Africa nation has been ruled by King Mswati III since 1986, when he inherited the crown from his father, Sobhuza II. It went to the polls on Friday to elect politicians who effectively function as the king's advisers with no executive power. The electoral commission published the results on Monday.

Political parties are banned in the country of about 1.2 million people, but individual candidates are allowed to run for seats in the House of Assembly every five years.

Of the parliamentarians elected in Eswatini, which changed its name from Swaziland in 2018, most were seen as being loyal to the king and also included former journalists and teachers.

In addition to the 59 elected members of parliament, the king will appoint 10 more to the House of Assembly at his discretion, which will include five women.

An African Union-led election observation mission said women continued to be underrepresented in parliament.

Many Swazis are reluctant to criticise the 55-year-old king despite rising anger that fuelled violent pro-democracy protests in 2021.

Mswati has also been accused by pro-democracy campaigners of consistently evading calls for meaningful reforms that would push the country towards democracy.

(Reporting by Lunga Masuku, Writing by Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Tim Cocks and Alison Williams)
John Kelly, the longest-serving White House chief of staff for Donald Trump, offered his harshest criticism yet of the former president in an exclusive statement to CNN.

Kelly set the record straight with on-the-record confirmation of a number of damning stories about statements Trump made behind closed doors attacking US service members and veterans, listing a number of objectionable comments Kelly witnessed Trump make firsthand.

What can I add that has not already been said? Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all suckers because there is nothing in it for them. A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because it doesnt look good for me. A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family  for all Gold Star families  on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in Americas defense are losers and wouldnt visit their graves in France.

A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women, Kelly continued. A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason  in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

There is nothing more that can be said, Kelly concluded. God help us.

In the statement, Kelly is confirming, on the record, a number of details in a 2020 story in The Atlantic by editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, including Trump turning to Kelly on Memorial Day 2017, as they stood among those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery, and saying, I dont get it. What was in it for them?

Those details also include Trumps inability to understand why the American public respects former prisoners of war and those shot down in combat. Then-candidate Trump of course said in front of a crowd in 2015 that former Vietnam POW Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, was not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who werent captured. But behind closed doors, sources told Goldberg, this lack of understanding went on to cause Trump to repeatedly call McCain a loser and to refer to former President George H. W. Bush, who was also shot down as a Navy pilot in World War II, as a loser.

CNN reached out to the Trump campaign Monday afternoon, telling officials there that a former administration official had confirmed, on the record, a number of details about the 2020 Atlantic story, without naming Kelly, and seeking comment. The Trump campaign responded by insulting the character and credibility of retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley, who had nothing to do with this story. An updated statement from a Trump campaign spokesperson on Tuesday said, John Kelly has totally clowned himself with these debunked stories hes made up because he didnt serve his president well while working as chief of staff.

The Atlantic article also described Trumps 2018 visit to France for the centennial anniversary of the end of World War I, where, according to several senior staff members, Trump said he did not want to visit the graves of American soldiers buried in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris because, Why should I go to that cemetery? Its filled with losers. During that same trip to France, the article reported, Trump said the 1,800 US Marines killed in the Belleau Wood were suckers for getting killed.

And Kellys statement adds context to a story in the book The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021, by Susan Glasser and Peter Baker, in which Trump, after a separate trip to France in 2017, tells Kelly he wants no wounded veterans in a military parade hes trying to have planned in his honor. Inspired by the Bastille Day parade, except for the section of the parade featuring wounded French veterans in wheelchairs, Trump tells Kelly, Look, I dont want any wounded guys in the parade.

Those are the heroes, Kelly said. In our society, theres only one group of people who are more heroic than they are  and they are buried over in Arlington.

I dont want them, Trump said. It doesnt look good for me.

The story squares with another recent story from Goldberg in The Atlantic, a profile of retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, in which Trump does not react well to seeing severely wounded Army Captain Luis Avila singing God Bless America at a welcome event for the new chairman. Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded.

Kellys statement also refers to a remark Trump made in response to that same article, which describes Milley, in the closing days of the Trump presidency in 2020, receiving intelligence that the Chinese military feared Trump was about to order a military strike on it. Milley, in a call authorized by Trump administration officials, reassured his Chinese counterparts that such a strike was not going to happen.

That call was first reported in 2021 in the book Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, but Trump said this past week on his social media site that the call was an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.

Asked for reaction to the suggestion that he deserves execution, Milley told Norah ODonnell of 60 Minutes that he wouldnt comment directly on those, those things. But I can tell you that this military, this soldier, me, will never turn our back on that Constitution.

Kellys statement to CNN comes days after former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson sat down with CNN in an interview promoting her new book, Enough, and warned the public that Donald Trump is the most grave threat we will face to our democracy in our lifetime, and potentially in American history.

Enough, interestingly, contains a scene in which Hutchinson and then-White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin push back against Goldbergs 2020 story. Griffin issued a statement to The Atlantic after that story posted denying the report.

Reached for comment over the weekend, Griffin said, Despite publicly praising the military and claiming to be the most pro-military president, theres a demonstrable record of Trump bashing the most decorated service members in our country, from Gen. Mattis to Kelly to Milley, to criticizing the wounded or deceased like John McCain. Donald Trump will fundamentally never understand service the way those who have actually served in uniform will, and its one of the countless reasons hes unfit to be commander in chief.

No other presidential candidate in history has had so many detractors from his inner circle. His former secretary of defense, Mark Esper, told CNN in November 2022, I think hes unfit for office.  He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.

Trumps former attorney general, Bill Barr, told CBS in June that he is a consummate narcissist. And he constantly engages in reckless conduct.  He will always put his own interests, and gratifying his own ego, ahead of everything else, including the countrys interests. Our country cant, you know, cant be a therapy session for you know, a troubled man like this.

This story has been updated with additional reaction.

CNNs Kristen Holmes contributed to this story.

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A U.S. federal appeals court has granted a conservative groups request to temporarily block a Black-owned venture capitalist firm from awarding grants exclusively to Black women entrepreneurs.

In a 2-1 decision, judges from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the American Alliance for Equal Rights motion for an injunction on Saturday, temporarily halting the Fearless Fund, a Black women-owned venture capitalist firm, and its foundation from awarding its Fearless Strivers Grant exclusively to Black women.

The alliance has argued the grant violates Section 1981 of the U.S. Code, which guarantees equal rights for all people to make and enforce contracts within the jurisdiction of the United States, without favor or discrimination based on race.

We conclude that the plaintiff (AAER) has established that the defendants (the Fearless Fund) racially exclusionary program  the Fearless Strivers Grant Contest  is substantially likely to violate 42 U.S.C. 1981, Judge Robert Luck and Judge Andrew Brasher wrote in their opinion.

The decision overturns a lower courts ruling last week that found the grant could continue because the funding was protected by the First Amendment.

But appellate Judges Luck and Brasher rejected that argument in their ruling writing, although the First Amendment protects the defendants right to promote beliefs about race, it does not give the defendants the right to exclude persons from a contractual regime based on their race.

The injunction requires the Fearless Fund and its foundation to halt the grant selection process for the duration of the alliances lawsuit.

The decision gives momentum to the latest of a series of lawsuits filed by conservative activist Edward Blum, the same man behind the Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College lawsuit, which led to the Supreme Court dismantling affirmative action in colleges and universities in June.

The members of the American Alliance for Equal Rights are gratified that the 11th Circuit has recognized the likelihood that the Fearless Strivers Grant Contest is illegal, Blum, the founder and president of the alliance, told CNN. We look forward to the final resolution of this lawsuit.

Both judges who granted the injunction were appointed by former President Donald Trump. Judge Charles Wilson, who dissented, was appointed to his seat by former President Bill Clinton.

In his dissent, Wilson said he would have denied the alliances motion for an injunction and urged appellate judges to take caution when intervening with decisions withheld by the lower courts.

Wilson, who implored judges to consider the context of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, noted the law granted Freedmen basic economic rights, and that Congress enacted 1981 as the remedial mechanism for bringing these protections to life.

It is a perversion of Congressional intent to use 1981 against a remedial program whose purpose is to bridge the gap in venture capital funding for women of color founders  a gap that is the result of centuries of intentional racial discrimination, he wrote.

(The) irreparable harm that will result from the granting of this injunction will not be felt by AAER  Black women will suffer irreparable harm.

Fearless Fund is an Atlanta-based company that was started in 2019 to break down the barriers Black women face trying to secure resources and funding for growing their business.

Their website lists corporate giants including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Fifth Third Bank and Mastercard as partners. Fearless Fund runs a separate non-profit organization called the Fearless Foundation, where it gives charitable donations and grants to women of color entrepreneurs, according to co-founder and COO Ayana Parsons.

The Fearless Foundations Strivers Grant exclusively awards Black women entrepreneurs grants for up to $20,000.

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Concerns over Kenyas human rights record have cast a shadow over a UN decision that gave Kenya the go ahead to lead an armed multinational force to Haiti amid brutal gang violence in the Caribbean country.

For a year, the multinational force, comprising 1,000 Kenya police personnel is expected to combat criminal gangs responsible for a wave of killings, kidnappings and rape in Haiti.

But human rights groups argue that Kenyas history of human rights abuses must be evaluated.

On Tuesday, Amnesty International Kenya urged UN member states, human rights organizations and citizens to thoroughly examine the human rights and humanitarian implications of deploying an armed multinational force to Haiti.

Kenyas police have often been criticized for a violent approach towards containing demonstrations. Dozens of civilians were killed during anti-government protests in the East African country in July this year.

The UN expressed concern at the time about police brutality during the protests in Kenya, adding that up to 23 people may have been killed during the demonstrations.

Kenyas foreign minister Alfred Mutua dismissed the UNs comment, describing it as inaccurate but did not provide a figure on the death toll.

The Kenya National Civil Society Center has also opposed the deployment of the countrys police personnel to Haiti, accusing it of extrajudicial killings.

The Kenya Police Service is notorious for its excessive use of force and continues to take the flak to the large number of extrajudicial killings and arbitrary execution of protestors during the recent anti-government protests, the organization was quoted by CNN affiliate, Citizen Digital.

A collective moral duty

Kenyan President William Ruto called the outcome of Mondays vote overdue and a critical instrument that will provide a different footprint in the history of international interventions in Haiti.

In a media statement on Tuesday, Ruto said he was delighted that the UNSC had directly answered his call, citing his recent speech at the United Nations General Assembly regarding the need for a framework of a multinational support force in Haiti.

Ruto said the decision marks an important moment in the history of global multilateralism, and argued that it enables the nations of the world to discharge a collective moral duty of securing justice and security for all peoples of all nations.

For us in Kenya, this mission is of special significance and critical urgency. We experienced the harrowing brunt of colonialism, as well as the long, difficult and frustrating struggle In our struggle, we always had friends  true, loyal and determined friends. The people of Haiti, our dear friends, today stand in need. It is our fundamental moral obligation to be their friend indeed, by standing with them, Ruto said.

Kenya has in the past played a major role in supporting UN peacekeeping initiatives and African Union peace missions. A senior Biden administration official said Kenya had demonstrated the capacity to lead international security missions of this type and to adhere to UN human rights and accountability standards.

A big gamble

The US has pledged to provide $100 million in direct support for the multinational force in Haiti, however some in Kenya are skeptical.

Political analyst Herman Manyora told CNN that many Kenyans believe that the countrys mission to Haiti is an unnecessary risk and a big gamble thats motivated by President Rutos move to please the international community.

Many people believe the president of Kenya is out to please the international community. Hes out to be a darling of the west. He has been on a charm offensive to please the outside world, to appear to be an African statesman, Manyora, who is a lecturer at the University of Nairobi and founder of The Nairobi Review, said.

Manyora also expressed concern that a language barrier and the unfamiliar terrain in Haiti might pose a threat to the Kenyan security forces.

Haiti speaks French, we dont speak French. They have their unique history, we dont even understand that history. Theres a lot of insecurity (in Haiti). Gangs are on the loose, guns are everywhere  heavy weaponry. What stake does Kenya have to be able to take those chances in a terrain that is foreign and dangerous?  Its such a big gamble.

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VALLETTA (Reuters) - A supporter of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi who was involved in the hijacking of an aircraft to Malta in 2016 has been jailed for 10 years by a Maltese court after he pleaded guilty.

Ali Ahmed Lano Saleh was one of two men who hijacked an Afriqiyah Airlines Airbus A320 to Malta on Dec. 23, 2016.

The plane had been on an internal flight in Libya when the two hijackers ordered the pilot to divert to Rome. They landed in Malta instead because of a lack of fuel.

The hijackers had threatened to blow up the plane, but their weapons later turned out to be fake and the 109 passengers were released unharmed. The hijackers' demands were never made clear.

The hijack mastermind, Soko Moussa Shaha Ali, was jailed for 25 years in 2020.

In sentencing Saleh, the court said it had taken into account the fact that he had pleaded guilty, that the passengers were released quickly and unharmed, and that he was not the mastermind of the hijacking.

(Reporting by Christopher Scicluna; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Deborah Kyvrikosaios)
An online personality who amassed a large following for his To Catch a Predator-style content was killed in Michigan after confronting two teens.

Robert Wayne Lee, 40, who was known to his more than 50,000 Instagram followers as Boopac Shakur, died Friday after confronting an 18-year-old male, according to a statement by the Oakland County Sheriffs Office. Though authorities initially said Lee had accused the teen of being a pedophile, according to multiple media outlets, the prosecuting attorneys office later clarified that there was no evidence the meeting was planned or part of a sting operation.

According to the sheriffs offices initial report, Lee confronted the 18-year-old, who was accompanied by a 17-year-old, at a Pontiac restaurant.

In a Tuesday news release obtained by HuffPost clarifying the circumstances surrounding Lees death, the 17-year-old was identified as a 16-year-old.

The encounter rapidly escalated when the 16-year-old pulled out a pistol and fired several shots at Lee before fleeing, authorities said.

Robert Wayne Lee, who went by

Robert Wayne Lee, who went by "Boopac Shakur" online, died at an Oakland County, Michigan, hospital.

Lee was taken to a hospital, where died from his injuries, according to authorities.

Both teens were arrested the following day, and their cases have since been turned over to the Oakland County prosecuting attorneys office.

In statement to HuffPost on Monday, a spokesperson for the prosecutors office said the teens cases are currently being reviewed for consideration of homicide charges.

Lees online pursuits have led to the arrest of multiple suspects in sexual predator cases, including Jared Frederick Salisbury, an Oakland County sheriffs deputy who was charged with attempting to solicit a girl he believed was 15 years old  but who turned out to be Lee undercover. Salisbury was fired from the sheriffs office, and his case has not yet gone to trial.

In an interview with The Oakland Press in January, Lee described himself as a concerned citizen.

Theres a lot of kids out here, and a lot of pedophiles, Lee told the news outlet. They could be people sitting next to you. I want to uncover as many as I can.

Lee told The Oakland Press he had faced several difficult encounters, including one person who tried to hit him and another who pulled out pepper spray.

There are people on my Instagram account who say theyll be following me home, that they know what I look like and where I live and will kill me if I dont take the video down in six hours. It never happens, he said.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard cautioned against private citizens taking investigations into their own hands.

While we certainly understand his desire to hold child predators accountable, many times well intentioned individuals who engaged in this dont know the standard of evidence required for convictions and often underestimate the potential for violence, Bouchard said in the statement. When we have arrested predators in such circumstances, they have rammed police cars and exhibited other violent behavior in attempts to escape.

People in his community and others who followed him online described him as a hero. They showed their support on a fundraising page created after his death. Money was set to go toward funeral expenses and his daughters future.

He leaves behind a legacy of bravery and service that has forever impacted our lives, organizers wrote.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Meta's Oversight Board plans to open a case examining an altered video of U.S. President Joe Biden that was flagged by a user on the company's flagship social media service Facebook, the board said in a statement on Tuesday.

The board, which is funded by Meta but run independently, said the case would "examine issues related to manipulated media on Meta's platforms and the company's policies on misinformation, especially around elections."

(Reporting by Katie Paul; Editing by Chris Reese)
By Alexander Tanas

CHISINAU (Reuters) -Moldova's Constitutional Court cleared the way on Tuesday for members of a banned pro-Russian party to run in local elections as independent candidates or as members of other parties.

The court's ban on the opposition Shor party, imposed in June, still stands.

The court issued its latest decision after considering a complaint by members of the party, which is headed by exiled businessman Ilan Shor and accused by the West and the Moldovan government of trying to destabilise the country.

Announcing the ruling, a senior court member, Serghei Turcan, said an amendment banning Shor party members from participating in elections "had no objective criteria and was too general" and did not respect the right to be elected.

The local elections, including for city mayors, take place on Nov. 5. Shor's allies have registered a new party called "Chance", and a party that already existed, "Revival", is considered close to Shor.

Marina Tauber, a senior Shor party leader, hopes to run as an independent candidate for mayor in Balti, Moldova's second largest city.

Shor, who lives in Israel, was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in jail in April over a $1 billion bank scandal and money laundering, and has had sanctions imposed on him by the United States and European Union.

The Constitutional Court declared his party unconstitutional in June after months of protests led by the party, at which demonstrators demanded the resignation of President Maia Sandu and her pro-Western government over rising prices.

Sandu has accused Shor of attempting to destabilise Moldova and undermine the former Soviet republic's bid to join the EU. She has also accused Russia of plotting to overthrow her.

Shor has denied the protests were part of a Russian threat or of attempts to destabilise Moldova, which borders Ukraine and EU member Romania.

Russia, which has about 1,500 troops stationed in Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniestria, has denied plotting to overthrow Sandu.

(Reporting by Alezander Tanas, Writing by Yuliia Dysa, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
MADRID (AP)  Spains King Felipe VI asked Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday to try to form a new coalition government following talks with political party leaders to determine which of them had the best chance of securing majority support in parliament.

Spain's equivalent of House speaker, Congress of Deputies President Francina Armengol, announced the decision after the king concluded his two days of talks and then summoned her.

Sanchezs Socialist party finished second behind the conservative Popular Party in Spains July 23 election. The monarch first asked Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo to try to form a government, but Feijoo failed to win sufficient parliamentary support last week.

I have accepted the kings petition, Sanchez said during a Tuesday news conference in which he promised to work for a progressive government.

Sanchez, 51, has been Spains prime minister in a minority leftist coalition for the past five years and is the countrys acting leader until a new government is formed. He said Tuesday that he would consult all parties except the extreme-right Vox as he seeks to put together a governing majority.

Vox received the third-highest number of votes in the election, which produced a splintered parliament made up of 350 legislators from 11 parties, making the path to power difficult for any one of them.

Sanchez's initially plans to try to form a coalition with Sumar, a movement of small left-wing parties that finished fourth in the election. If no government is in place by Nov. 27, another national election would take place on Jan. 14.

Lawmakers rejected Feijoos second appeal for support Friday on a 177-172 vote. Sanchez, whose party holds 122 seats, hopes he can persuade those who voted against Feijoo to give him the 176 votes needed for a majority.

The Socialists showed that strategy could work when Armengol defeated the Popular Party's candidate for the Congress of Deputies' presidency 178-139 on Aug. 17.

To continue as prime minister, Sanchez needs support from two small parties that want independence for northeastern Spain's Catalonia region. In exchange, both parties have demanded a self-determination referendum for the region and an amnesty for possibly thousands of people who participated in a failed 2017 push for Catalonia's secession.

The Popular Party and ally Vox have vowed to fiercely contest any proposal for an amnesty or independence referendum.

Although Sanchez pardoned several high-level Catalan separatists who were convicted in the secession push, he has ruled out a referendum and avoids mentioning a broader amnesty. But he insists he wants to continue normalizing relations with Catalonia, where tensions have decreased enormously in recent years.

Sanchezs outgoing minority coalition government delivered bold policies in such areas as womens rights, labor issues and climate change.

Sanchez said the election results and the parliamentary rejection of Feijoos candidacy for prime minister showed a majority of people in Spain favor a more diverse government and reject the right wings conservative vision for the country.

If Spaniards said anything on July 23, it is that one cannot preside over the government of the nation without understanding the political plurality of the parliament or the territorial diversity of the nation, he said Tuesday.

___

Associated Press writer Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, contributed to this report.
By David Latona and Belen Carreno

MADRID (Reuters) -Spain's acting Prime Minister predicted "complex talks" with other political parties to form a government on Tuesday, after he was nominated to seek their backing for a new mandate.

Pedro Sanchez said he would work on securing support not only to form a government, but also to pass legislation as a minority coalition for the rest of his second four-year term.

To win an investiture vote the Socialist leader needs support from potential coalition partners such as the hard-left Sumar, as well as several Catalan and Basque nationalist parties.

If no candidate secures a majority by Nov. 27, a repeat general election has to be called.

"I am willing to work to form as soon as possible a progressive coalition government with enough support to guarantee the stability that the country needs," Sanchez said.

In an inconclusive election on July 23, the Socialists won fewer seats than the conservatives of Alberto Nunez Feijoo.

Sanchez was invited by Spain's King Felipe VI to try to form a governing majority after Feijoo last week failed in his bid to become prime minister.

Sanchez believes he can muster enough backing for his candidacy, which would include Catalan separatist parties Junts and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), which are demanding an unpopular amnesty in exchange for their votes in parliament.

While avoiding explicitly mentioning an amnesty during a press conference in Madrid, Sanchez defended as a success his 2021 decision to pardon Catalan leaders jailed over a failed independence bid in 2017.

Sanchez said the crisis - which prompted the conservative government at the time to temporarily impose direct rule from Madrid - "brought nothing good".

"It was a crisis of which no one can feel proud - I wasn't leading the government then," he said. "Since then I have tried to overcome that situation."

He argued that political conflicts need to be resolved "in the political field and not elsewhere", and now was the time for "politics, generosity and leadership".

"If July 23 told us anything about Spaniards, it's that you cannot lead the government of this nation without understanding the plurality of parliament and the diversity of the country."

Junts and ERC last week approved a resolution saying they would not support an investiture vote unless the government committed to "creating the conditions" for a fresh referendum on Catalan independence.

Asked about a referendum, Sanchez said Catalans were looking to "turn the page" and to find a "reunion" with Spanish society.

"He has drawn a red line at the referendum on self-determination," said Pablo Simon, a professor in political science at the Carlos III university in Madrid.

Feijoo, who used his own investiture bid to criticise Sanchez for contemplating an amnesty, said on Tuesday that his opponent was doing the bidding of Junts leader Carles Puigdemont and predicted "dark negotiations" in the coming weeks.

"No matter what Mr Sanchez says, what is important is what Mr Puigdemont says," Feijoo said.

Sanchez said he would like to complete the talks and set a date for a vote "as soon as possible", adding that he would start talks with the main parties on Wednesday, beginning with his Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz, the head of Sumar.

"I am going to put my heart and soul into a negotiation that is not going to be an easy one," he said.

House Speaker Francina Armengol said earlier that Sanchez had yet to share his proposed schedule for the investiture vote.

(Reporting by David Latona, Belen Carreno Emma Pinedo and Inti Landauro; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing by Andrei Khalip, Nick Macfie and Alexander Smith)
All eyes are on the House Freedom Caucus this week, and Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina by extension, after Speaker Kevin McCarthy made a successful last-minute bid Saturday afternoon to save the country from a government shutdown.

Members of the ultraconservative caucus say McCarthys actions Saturday betrayed promises he made to them in order to gain his leadership position.

On Monday night, Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida and a member of the caucus, filed a motion that called for McCarthys removal as House speaker.

As lawmakers stake out their positions for a vote on Gaetzs motion that could come as early as Tuesday, one of McCarthys closest allies leapt to his defense.

We have a speaker who has performed well in the major battles for the year, said Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican from Lincoln County. This motion doesnt conform with his performance in his record as speaker.

Until Saturday afternoon, the Freedom Caucus was using many of the 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the federal government as a bargaining chip against McCarthy in order to have him meet a list of their demands. McCarthy tried to meet them halfway by trying to pass a temporary government-funding measure with provisions to appease the most conservative members of his caucus, but that was voted down.

With just hours left before the government would be forced to shut down, McCarthy decided to run a bill that would extend government funding for 45 days and was clean enough to garner Democratic support.

The Republican speakers last-ditch effort to keep the government open passed the House 335-91 before going on to win approval from the Senate and President Joe Biden.

But in doing so McCarthy drew the ire of the House Freedom Caucus, something he anticipated.

If somebody wants to make a motion against me, bring it, McCarthy said during a news conference Saturday prior to the vote. There has to be an adult in the room. I am going to govern with whats best for this country.

North Carolinas objections

Bishop, a typically outspoken member of the Freedom Caucus, has stayed fairly quiet on the matter of who should be speaker now. But not about McCarthys bill.

I would NEVER vote for a clean CR (continuing resolution) to perpetuate the corruption of federal government spending and debt, Bishop tweeted before the vote. But this is even worse, as I will share. HARD NO. HELL NO. Catastrophic failure of leadership.

He took issue with the timing  the bill had a timestamp from the night before but wasnt presented until moments before it hit the House floor  and with the need for Democratic votes to pass the bill.

Tells you everything you need to know, Bishop tweeted.

Neither Bishop nor his staff responded to messages from McClatchy asking if he would support ousting McCarthy. He was on the House floor when Gaetz made his motion but could not be found following speeches.

The only other member of North Carolinas delegation to vote against the resolution was Rep. Greg Murphy, a Republican from Greenville. His vote was an about-face from comments he made before the caucus in a private meeting Saturday urging his colleagues to avoid a shutdown, reported Chad Pegram of Fox News.

On Twitter, he wrote that he ultimately couldnt support the bill because it contained too much spending.

The greatest, invisible threat to our country is the unsustainable growth of our debt, Murphy wrote in a statement on Twitter. It is a silent killer that has us in a death grip. I previously voted to fund the government and secure the border, but at a lower expense level.

Motion to vacate

By Sunday, Gaetz told CNNs Jake Tapper that he planned to file a motion to vacate, a rarely used procedural vote that would oust McCarthy from his speakership.

From the House floor Monday morning, Gaetz told the speaker he might be able to save his job if he could explain an alleged deal between himself and Biden over funding Ukraines defense against Russia.

Mr. Speaker, I would ask that these questions be answered soon because there may be votes coming today or later this week that could be implicated by the answers to these questions, Gaetz said. Members of the Republican Party might vote differently on a motion to vacate if they heard what the speaker had to share with us about his secret side deal with Joe Biden on Ukraine.

Support for McCarthy

By 2 p.m., Republicans began releasing statements supporting McCarthy.

McHenry, whose name was among those floated as a potential replacement for McCarthy despite being one of the speakers top allies, tweeted his support.

Speaker McCarthy has delivered consistent, conservative leadership, he wrote. We need his steady hand to make good on our Commitment to America. We have more work to do to secure our border and rein in spending. Wasting time on a motion to vacate is a disservice to the American people.

Asked about whether he would accept the speakership if offered, McHenry told McClatchy Monday evening that he was focused on ensuring that McCarthy has a successful speakership.

Thats what Im completely focused on the whole time, McHenry said.

Rep. David Rouzer, a Republican from Wilmington, tweeted out that McCarthy deserved support.

Only in a perverse world of the irrational would Speaker McCarthy be removed for the leadership he has provided in guiding a razor-thin majority to major conservative wins, including $2 trillion in spending cuts, passage of the strongest border security bill in a generation, the streamlining of energy infrastructure projects, and shining a light on corruption within our government, Rouzer wrote.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from Banner Elk, told McCarthy in a tweet that she stands by him.

With Speaker McCarthy at the helm, weve delivered historic wins for Americans since Day 1, Foxx wrote. A motion to vacate is asinine & a waste of valuable time. We have more work to do  none of which involves playing petty games while the clock ticks down.

Lawmakers have until Nov. 17 to pass another government spending bill that would need to pass both the House and Senate and receive the presidents signature.
CAIRO (AP)  The United Nations top official in divided Libya on Monday called for a unified mechanism to lead the reconstruction of a coastal city that was wrecked by devastating floods last month.

U.N. Special Envoy for Libya Abdoulaye Bathily said in a statement that such a mechanism is required amid unilateral and competing initiatives by Libyan actors and institutions on the reconstruction of the Mediterranean city of Derna and other flood-impacted areas.

Devastating rainfall and floods, triggered by Mediterranean Storm Danial, hit parts of eastern Libya last month. The floods overwhelmed two depleted dams outside Derna on Sep. 11, causing massive waters that washed away residential buildings to the sea and left as much as one-third of Dernas housing and infrastructure damaged, according to the U.N.s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Government officials and aid agencies have given estimated death tolls ranging from more than 4,000 to over 11,000. The bodies of many of the people killed still are under rubble or in the Mediterranean, according to search teams.

As Libya remains divided, with two rival administrations claiming legitimacy and each wanting to oversee the reconstruction of Derna, Bathily called for a unified national mechanism ... required to effectively and efficiently take forward the reconstruction efforts in the flood-affected areas.

He urged Libyan rival authorities and their international partners to facilitate the establishment of the unified mechanism to ensure transparency and accountability.

Following the disaster, many in and outside Libya called for an international investigation, reflecting the deep public mistrust in state institutions. The two dams had not being maintained for decades despite repeated warnings that they were depleted.

Bathilys call for a unified mechanism quickly gained support from the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, and Italy.

The five governments said in a joint statement that they strongly support a proposal to deliver transparent and accountable relief and response to the reconstruction needs in the wake of the flood disaster.

The oil-rich North African nation has been in chaos since 2011, when an Arab Spring uprising, backed by NATO, ousted longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. For most of the past decade, rival administrations have claimed authority to lead Libya.

The countrys east and south have been under the control of Gen. Khalifa Hifter and his self-styled Libyan National Army, which is allied with a parliament-confirmed government. A rival administration is based in the capital, Tripoli, and enjoys the support of most of the international community.
Pope Francis opened the door Monday for some Catholic priests to bless same-sex unions, hinting at a reversal of the official Vatican position that has put it at odds with many of its own progressive followers.

However, Francis outlined some major caveats, including that they should be decided on a case-by-case basis and not seen as equivalent to heterosexual wedding ceremonies.

As recently as 2021, the Vatican said it could not condone same-sex unions because God cannot bless sin. But on Monday, the pope signaled that there could be exceptions to that stance.

We cannot be judges who only deny, reject, and exclude, he said in a letter to five conservative cardinals who asked for clarity on the issue ahead of a major global gathering on the future of the church that begins Wednesday.

Though Vatican policy has not changed, Francis comments have been seen by some LGBTQ+ Catholics as a huge step in undoing the marginalization they still experience within the church despite his decade of modernization.

'Pastoral charity'

The remarks came in a letter written by Francis and published Monday by the Vaticans Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. He was responding to a list of dubia (literally doubts  or questions) presented by five conservative cardinals from Asia, Europe, Africa, the United States and Latin America.

They challenged him to reinforce traditional Catholic teaching on same-sex marriage and other thorny issues, such as womens ordination.

But in response, Francis said there may be forms of blessing, requested by one or more persons that could be granted on an occasional basis. He called for the clergy to show pastoral charity, including kindness, patience, understanding, tenderness, and encouragement.

Same Sex Catholic Church (Martin Meissner / AP)

The pope made it clear that these unions do not convey a mistaken concept of marriage, which he called the indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to procreation. He also said he believes same-sex unions are not morally acceptable from an objective point of view, and suggested they should not necessarily become a norm.

This emphasis on allowing these unions on a "pastoral" rather than official basis could be a reference to several Catholic priests in Germany who have recently openly blessed same-sex marriage in a direct confrontation with their diocese.

Francis made it clear he does not sanction any ecclesial structure officially blessing these unions. And his written remarks do not change anything officially; the last such guidance came in 2021 when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote a letter saying same-sex unions should not be blessed, something it would not have done had the pope felt differently.

Furthermore, Francis has as yet not chosen to issue a formal decree  such as a type of papal document called a motu proprio  which would signal a more official swing in the direction of the church.

Married and same-sex couples take part in a public blessing ceremony in front of the Cologne Cathedral in Germany on Sept. 20, 2023. (Martin Meissner / AP)

Nevertheless, his remarks have been seen by LGBTQ+ Catholics and other progressives as a momentous step in the cause of equal rights within the church.

Though the Vaticans latest statement about same-gender couples does not provide a full-fledged, ringing endorsement of blessing their unions, the document significantly advances Pope Francis work to include and affirm LGBTQ+ people, said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, an advocacy group based in Maryland seeking justice for LGBTQ+ Catholics.

It "implies that the church does indeed recognize that holy love can exist between same-gender couples, he said in a statement, describing it as "one big straw towards breaking the camels back of the marginalized treatment LGBTQ+ people experience in the Church.

The timing of the debate is significant, according to New Ways Ministry. Although the five conservative cardinals asked their questions in July, the letter has been published right before the Synod on Synodality, a meeting at the Vatican in which LGBTQ+ issues are on the agenda.

Francis, 86, who has encountered a number of health problems in recent years, is no stranger to progressive causes, having become a leading voice on issues from the climate crisis to refugees. On same-sex issues, he was asked months into his papacy about the sexual orientation of priests, responding: Who am I to judge?
Pope Francis has suggested for the first time that people in same-sex unions could be blessed by Catholic priests on a case-by-case basis, a seeming reversal of previous statements.

The Pope made the suggestion in a letter to his harshest critics within the Catholic ranks, written in response to a letter from five conservative cardinals with formal questions  called a dubia (Latin for doubt)  which is an official request for a yes or no answer from a sitting pontiff regarding his running of the Church.

The cardinals, Walter Brandmuller, Raymond Leo Burke, Juan Sandoval Iniguez, Robert Sarah and Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, first sent the letter to Pope Francis on July 10. It focused on an upcoming October meeting of bishops, asking what impact it could have on Churchs teaching, and included questions about the Popes intention to bless same-sex unions, and whether he intends to open the door to women priests through ordination.

Unsatisfied with the Popes initial response, according to a blog post by American Cardinal Raymond Burke, the five cardinals reworded the dubia letter and sent it again on August 21, citing the gravity of the matter, according to Burke.

The Vatican then released a letter in Spanish dated September 25 signed by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, the Vaticans new chief of doctrine. The response includes Pope Francis answers to the dubia, signed Francis.

On the issue of homosexual unions, the pontiff reiterated that the church only recognizes marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but opened the door for blessings of individuals in same-sex unions, the letter shows.

When you ask for a blessing, you are expressing a request for help from God, a prayer to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us live better, the Pope wrote, adding that a clergy must show pastoral prudence must adequately discern if there are forms of blessing, requested by one or various people, which do not convey a wrong concept of marriage.

The Popes response appears to contradict his statement in March, when he said the Church could not bless same-sex unions, because they could not bless sin.

The latest development appears to be a nod to a decision made by the German Church in March and carried out in August, in which same-sex unions received a Catholic blessing by several priests in the city of Cologne.

On the issue of womens ordination, the pontiff was clear that he upheld the words of the late Pope John Paul II, who said in 1994 that the (Catholic) Church had no authority to ordain women, but said that the issue needed to be studied in order to educate those who doubt it, the letter said.

If is not understood and the practical consequences of these distinctions are not drawn, it will be difficult to accept that the priesthood is reserved only for men and we will not be able to recognize the rights of women or the need for them to participate, in various ways, in the leadership of the Church, the Pope added.

On the issue of the impact the upcoming meeting of Catholic bishops may have on the churchs teaching, Pope Francis was vaguer, writing, Both the hierarchy, and the entire People of God in different ways and at different levels can make their voice heard and feel like part of the Churchs journey. In this sense we can say that yes, synodality, as style and dynamism, is an essential dimension of the life of the Church.

He also added that attempts to sacralize or impose a certain synodal methodology that pleases one group, transforming it into a norm and an obligatory path for everyone, because this would only lead to freezing the synodal path.

The upcoming Synod in Rome has been met with skepticism by the conservative corners of the Church who have expressed concern both that women will have a voice, and that the Churchs teaching is not carried out by consensus.

John Allen in Rome contributed reporting

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A rare jaguar was spotted on trail cameras in southern Arizona, suggesting to scientists that the endangered species could be slowly re-establishing its population in the US after years of habitat loss and other human impacts.

The big cat, a juvenile male, was spotted on cameras in March and May in the Sierra Vista Ranger District of Arizonas Coronado National Forest, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Jaguars are only seen sporadically in Arizona, which along with New Mexico forms the northernmost tip of the creatures 18-country range.

These photos show that despite so many obstacles, jaguars continue to reestablish territory in the United States, Russ McSpadden, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a news release. This is a wonderful reminder that these big cats move great distances across the landscape. It drives home the importance of protecting connected habitat for these elusive, beautiful felines.

The images from the camera were too blurry to specifically identify the jaguar that was seen, according to wildlife experts.

There have only been three other jaguars seen in the past decade in the state, according to the Arizona Republic.

In 2012, a cat named El Jefe (The Boss in Spanish) was spotted in the Santa Rita Mountains, then reappeared in Mexico in 2015.

Another jaguar dubbed Sombra (Shadow in Spanish) was seen north of the Chiricahua Mountains since 2016.

Another specimen, Yoko (Yaqui for jaguar), was filmed multiple times in the Huachuca Mountains in recent years, only to cross the border into Sonora and be killed by a rancher. Yoko was found dead in 2019.

All of these jaguars were males. A female hasnt been seen in Arizona since 1949.

"Males are the ones that expand and disperse. This means that when a jaguar becomes an adult it has to find new territories. There are more records of jaguars in the United States and in the border with Mexico because they are exploring for new territories," Ganesh Marin, a University of Arizona doctoral candidate who has helped monitor jaguar activity in the state, told Arizona Republic

Females, meanwhile, stay closer to their original territory and migrate more slowly, he said.

"At this point we only know that the population of jaguars (meaning males, females and cubs) is 100 miles south from the border, in the heart of Sonora," he added in his interview with the paper.

Wildlife advocates said the most recent jaguar spottings, not far from the former site of Arizonas illegal shipping container border wall, underscored the need to protect cross-border wildlife corridors.

In August, the state agreed to pay $2.1m to the US government for damage to the border done by the wall, following a lawsuit from the Department of Justice against Arizona.
WASHINGTON - Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, was carjacked Monday night by three armed assailants in Navy Yard near the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

Jacob Hochberg, Cuellars chief of staff, said in a statement that as Cuellar was parking his car, three armed assailants approached the Congressman and stole his vehicle.

Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement, Hochberg said.

D.C. police said the incident occurred at 9:30 p.m. at New Jersey Avenue and K Street SE and that at least one of the robbers had a gun, according to The Washington Post. However, the police did not identify the victim.

Cuellars aide indicated the congressmans car was recovered but it is unclear whether arrests were made, the Post reported. The D.C. police are working with the Capitol police to track down the carjackers.

Cuellar is not the only member of Congress to be assaulted in D.C. this year. Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., was attacked in her apartment building in February and suffered bruises.

Contributing: Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rep. Henry Cuellar carjacked by robbers in Navy Yard near the Capitol
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)  Tropical storm Philippe dropped heavy rains in the northeast Caribbean on Tuesday, forcing governments to close schools in the region as forecasters warned of flash flooding.

The storm was located about 55 miles (90 kilometers) northeast of St. Thomas on Tuesday afternoon and had winds of up to 45 mph (75 kph). Philippe made landfall in Barbuda late Monday and was moving northwest at 10 mph (17 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

A tropical storm watch was in effect for the British Virgin Islands. Forecasters warned that the strongest winds and rains would be felt by islands located south of the storm's center as Philippe moves north of the Leeward Islands on Tuesday.

Officials in the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda closed schools and government offices, while those in the French Caribbean territories of St. Martin and St. Barts closed schools.

Meanwhile, officials in Guadeloupe said the storm knocked power out to 2,500 customers and left several communities without running water. It also forced two road closures and left one community isolated as crews worked to reopen roads.

Philippe is expected to turn north-northwest late Tuesday and then take a path north into open waters on Wednesday.

Forecasters said between 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain was expected from Anguilla south to Montserrat, including St. Kitts and Nevis and the British Virgin Islands, with a maximum of 12 inches (30 centimeters). Up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) was expected for the remaining Leeward Islands and the northern Windward Islands, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands and northeast Puerto Rico.
Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York in a $250 million lawsuit that could alter the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel Trump to the White House.

Trump is back in the courtroom for the second day of the trial, in which he, his sons Eric and Don Jr., and Trump Organization executives are accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used "numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation" to inflate Trump's net worth while lowering his tax burden.

Trump has denied all wrongdoing and his attorneys have described him as a "master of finding value where others do not," arguing that Trump's alleged inflated valuations were a product of his business skill.





Latest Developments





Oct 3, 4:15 PM

Judge admonishes Trump after he posts about clerk



As court resumed after the lunch break, Judge Engoron admonished Donald Trump for a post he made this afternoon on his Truth Social platform regarding Engoron's clerk, Alison Greenfield.

"Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable and inappropriate. Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff," the judge said in his admonishment.

The post, which included a photo of Greenfield with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, made unsubstantiated claims about her connections with Schumer and falsely claimed that Greenfield is "running" the case against Trump.

Trump apparently made the post, which linked to Greenfield's Instagram account, while the former president was sitting in the courtroom.

PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump attends the trial of himself, his adult sons, the Trump Organization and others, in a civil fraud case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James, in New York City, Oct. 3, 2023. (Dave Sanders/Pool via Reuters)

The post was deleted shortly before the judge's admonishment, but it was up for at least an hour and a half. Engoron lamented that the sentiment was shared to millions.





The judge did not mention Trump by name but noted the post came from one of the defendants.

Greenfield sits at the bench to Engoron's immediate right and he is often seen conferring with her over legal and logistical matters.





-ABC News' Peter Charalambous, Aaron Katersky, Soo Rin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kendall Ross





Oct 3, 2:37 PM

Trump says he's attending trial to 'expose' AG



Former President Donald Trump said he is attending his civil trial to "expose" New York Attorney General Letitia James, during an exchange with ABC News.

Asked by ABC News' Aaron Katersky why he was attending the trial even though he's not required to be there, Trump replied, "Because this trial is a rigged trial. It's a fraudulent trial."

"The attorney general is a fraud, and we have to expose her as that," Trump said after exiting the courtroom for the afternoon break. "You see what's going on. It's a rigged deal."

James has said of her probe, "No matter how powerful you are, no matter how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law."

The statements from Trump follow the conclusion of the state's lengthy direct examination of longtime Mazars accountant Donald Bender, who testified about the procedures Mazars and the Trump Organization used to compile a central piece of evidence in the case -- Trump's statements of financial condition between 2011 and 2020.

PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump appears in court for a civil fraud case at a Manhattan courthouse, in New York, on Oct. 3, 2023. (Dave Sanders/Pool via AP)

Trump appeared attentive during the testimony, often studying the exhibits displayed on the court's screens -- including a recurring spreadsheet titled "Jeff Supporting Data" prepared by co-defendant and Trump Organization executive Jeffrey McConney, which contained the source information for the financial statements.





Bender testified about a specific red notation spelled "PBC" that appeared on the Excel file across multiple years. The notation -- indicating that the files were "Prepared By [the] Client" -- seemed to emphasize how much of the accounting was done by the Trump Organization rather than Mazars.





Testifying about letters of representation issued by the Trump Organization in support of the statements, Bender addressed specific language in the letter stating that the Trump Organization had included all the relevant records and data needed for the statements.





"We have not knowingly withheld from you any financial records or related data that in our judgment would be relevant to your compilation," the letter read.





But Bender testified that he later learned that meaningful information was indeed omitted -- information he said he learned in 2021 during meetings with prosecutors.





When asked repeatedly if Mazars would have issued the statements if they knew the Trump Organization had withheld information, Bender repeated that Mazars would not have issued the statements.





-ABC News' Aaron Katersky, Jack Feeley and Peter Charalambous





Oct 3, 12:49 PM

Judge mixes focus, humor on the bench

Justice Arthur Engoron appears to be enjoying his time overseeing the trial today, including correcting the attorneys for the state on minor issues.



"The correct word is withdrawn, not strike," Engoron interjected at one point, after a state attorney attempted to "strike" the record so he could rephrase a statement.

PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump and Justice Arthur Engoron of the state Supreme Court listen to opening arguments from his lawyer Alina Habba, during the trial of Trump, his adult sons, the Trump Organization and others in a civil fraud case (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters)

Later, Engoron smiled and signaled a thumbs-up when the same attorney adjusted his language and "withdrew" his words from the record to rephrase.



The veteran justice, who has served on the bench in New York for more than 20 years, has a reputation as a reliable albeit unusual judge, according to past and former associates.





Oct 3, 12:26 PM

Trump calls case a 'scam,' says he might testify

Exiting court during the break, Trump told reporters positioned nearby that the financial statements being reviewed in court included disclaimers, which his legal team has argued absolves him of wrongdoing.

PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump speaks at a Manhattan courthouse, where he attends the trial of himself, his adult sons, the Trump Organization and others in a civil fraud case, in New York, on Oct. 3, 2023. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

"This case is a scam," Trump said during his walk back to court.





When asked if he would consider testifying, Trump said he might.





Oct 3, 12:25 PM

Ex-accountant addresses 2012-2016 financial statements

An attorney with for the New York attorney general's office spent the first hour of direct examination methodically walking Mazars accountant Donald Bender through the Trump Organization's financial documents from 2012 through 2016.

PHOTO: This courtroom sketch shows Judge Arthur Engoron listening to testimony from accountant Donald Bender during the fraud lawsuit trial of former President Donald Trump, Oct. 2, 2023, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams/AP)

As he addressed each document, Bender reiterated that the Trump Organization and its trustees were responsible for the accounting principles used in the records, the disclosures in reports, and the information from which the reports were based.





The state appears to be using Bender's testimony to not only get Trump's financials statements into evidence, but also to demonstrate the relatively consistent process the Trump Organization used to compile and finalize their statements of financial condition over a decade.





Oct 3, 10:52 AM

Judge clarifies statute of limitations remarks



Justice Arthur Engoron, who was a frequent target of Trump's attacks yesterday, began the trial's second day by clarifying some of his closing remarks about the statute of limitations in the case.

After court yesterday, Trump construed his remarks as a victory, suggesting "80% of the cases is over" after leaving court on Monday.

Engoron apologized for his comments and stated that any future real estate deals "restart" the statute of limitations --- meaning that the attorney general's office needs to "connect the dots" to include the evidence about a 2011 deal discussed on Monday.

PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump attends the trial of himself, his adult sons, the Trump Organization and others in a civil fraud case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James, in New York City, Oct. 3, 2023. (Shannon Stapleton/Pool via Reuters)

"I understand that the defendants strongly disagree on this and will appeal on this ground," Engoron said.





He concluded his remarks by reminding counsel not to relitigate issues already decided -- something that Trump's attorneys seemingly did on Day One of the trial.





"This trial is not an opportunity to relitigate what I have already decided ... that is why we have appeals," Engoron said.





Oct 3, 10:41 AM

Trump again attacks AG on way into court

Former President Donald Trump continued his attacks on New York Attorney General Letitia James before entering the courtroom for the second day of his $250 million civil fraud trial in downtown Manhattan.

PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump speaks to the press as he arrives at a Manhattan courthouse in a civil fraud case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James, in New York City, Oct. 3, 2023. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

"She ran on the basis 'I will get Trump' without knowing anything about me," he said to reporters outside court.



Both Trump and James are present this morning in court, where state attorneys are set to continue their direct examination of longtime Mazars accountant Donald Bender.





Oct 3, 9:42 AM

Trump expected in court for 2nd day



Former President Donald Trump signaled he will be in court again Tuesday morning in a post on his social media platform.

"See you in Court Tuesday morning," Trump posted.

PHOTO: Security is set up, as the trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump, his adult sons, the Trump Organization and others in a civil fraud case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James continues, in New York City, U.S., Oct. 3, 2023. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

The former president then went on to attack New York Attorney General Letitia James. He claimed he had a "good day at trial" during Monday's proceedings.





-ABC News' Lalee Ibssa





Oct 2, 6:15 PM

1st witness eyes Trump's decade-old financial statements



Testifying about the preparation of the Trump Organization's statements of financial condition in 2011, former Mazars USA accountant Donald Bender said Trump executives largely provided the input data for statements, in addition to dictating the standards by which the work was completed.

"We would cut and paste that information into a new worksheet," Bender said about the approach taken by Mazar after receiving new data from co-defendant Jeffrey McConney of the Trump Organization.

When asked about the compliance with the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles -- which Bender testified are the standards for accounting in the United States -- Bender repeatedly placed responsibility in the lap of the Trump organization.

"That was the Trump Organization's responsibility," Bender testified about GAAP compliance.

Bender acknowledged that he rarely questioned the inputs from the Trump Organization, and when he did, he largely dealt with McConney and executives other than Trump and his adult sons.

PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump speaks at a Manhattan courthouse, where he attends the trial of himself, his adult sons, the Trump Organization and others in a civil fraud case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James, in New York City, Oct. 2 (Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters)

Repeatedly asked by the state attorney if Mazars would have issued the statements if they had known the Trump Organization included material misrepresentations in their data, Bender reiterated that Mazars would not have issued the statements.





When Judge Engoron remarked at the end of the trial day that the state would still need to present further evidence to prove that the 2011 statement was within the statute of limitations, Trump seized the statement as a partial victory.





"The last five minutes was outstanding, because the judge actually conceded that the statute of limitations  is in effect," Trump told reporters as he was leaving court.





Engoron, however, did not completely rule out the 2011 evidence during trial, instead appearing to remind counsel that they need to show the 2011 statement represents an ongoing concern that falls within the statute of limitations.





Testimony is scheduled to resume on Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET.





Oct 2, 3:50 PM

Ex-accountant says statements were 'Trump Org's responsibility'



Prosecutors have called their first witness to the stand: Donald Bender, a former accountant at Mazars USA, the firm that for years handled Trump's taxes.

Bender testified at length about his involvement in compiling Trump's statements of financial condition between 2011 and 2020, which he described as "balance [sheets] of Mr. Trump's assets and liabilities."

Bender said the standards and inputs for the statements were largely decided by Trump Organization executives.

PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump sits alongside his lawyer Alina Habba at a Manhattan courthouse, in New York City, Oct. 2, 2023 in this courtroom sketch. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters)

"That was the Trump Organization's responsibility," Bender said about the accounting standard used in the statements.





As Bender answered the state's questions, Trump was seen taking notes at the defense table.





Bender described spending roughly half his time on Trump's business and personal financial matters toward the end of his career at Mazars.





The firm severed its business relationship with Trump last year after learning of the attorney general's findings during the AG's probe.

Click here to read the rest of the blog.
Richard the emu (Stephanie Moilan / Facebook)

An Arizona woman is grieving her pet emu after a fatal encounter with law enforcement.

A rope was put around the neck of the female emu  named Richard  as police officers tried to put the bird into a squad car, Fox10 reported.

Stephanie Moilan said, You cant put a lasso around their neck, trying to yank on them and get them to do what you want them to do. Youre going to kill them. She added, It was so inappropriate. It was completely unnecessary.

Ms Moilan called Richard, who was six years old, awesome.

You could hand feed her. Id go out and pet her and cuddle her, said Ms Moilan.

The incident reportedly transpired after her emu escaped. Ms Moilans neighbour, Michael Davis, said he saw the bird outside of his window: He was just very calm, just wandering around. Not aggressive at all. Not threatening.

Richard was obviously in distress, and she was kicking and screaming as officers tried to put the bird in the car, Mr Davis told 12News.

Richard the emu (Stephanie Moilan / Facebook)

Then, Mr Davis said he saw the emu collapse after it seemed to choke: I dont think that it needed to happen the way that it did.

The Maricopa County Sheriffs Office told the outlet that officials arrived at the scene after they received a call about an emu on the loose. During the corralling, The bird collapsed and died, police wrote.

She was just so much fun, the grieving owner said. Im really going to miss her. However, Ms Moilan contested the sheriffs office description: There was no corralling. I dont think you need a lasso for that.

We are absolutely heartbroken and devastated, she wrote on Facebook. We loved Richard so much. She brought my family, friends and me so much joy, laughter, curiosity and love!! She didnt deserve this!!


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Warning signals that Indias Maldivian policy was fraying had been visible for some time

The victory of Opposition candidate Mohammed Muizzu in the Maldives presidential election seemed imminent when he led in the first round, though falling short of the 50 per cent vote that was needed for an outright victory. (Image : Twitter)

The victory of Opposition candidate Mohammed Muizzu in the Maldives presidential election seemed imminent when he led in the first round, though falling short of the 50 per cent vote that was needed for an outright victory. The run-off was also enabled by a split in the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party. The breakaway faction of Mohamed Nasheed put up Ilyas Labeeb, who garnered seven per cent of the vote. In addition, the Maldives Development Alliance also swung its support behind Mr Muizzu once the wind had shifted.

The eventual winner is a former minister for construction in the government of former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, who is jailed on corruption charges. The winning alliance consisted of Dr Muizzus Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and Mr Yameens Peoples National Congress. Mr Yameen fired the opening shot in 2022 with the India Out Campaign in order to polarise the electorate. Mr Yameen as President (2013-18) tilted heavily towards China, including by endorsing President Xi Jinpings Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which India opposes on multiple counts.

Thus, the battle lines were drawn between the party in power that espoused an India First policy versus one that favours closer access to Chinese finance and technology for infrastructure development. A key project installed with Chinese help was a sea bridge linking the capital Male to the island with the airport.

The United States opened an embassy in the Maldives during President Solihs term, aligning itself with the Indian desire to restrict the Chinese presence and influence in a key archipelago in the Indian Ocean. Significantly Maldives is close to the American base at Diego Garcia, which is used for its Gulf operations. The Maldives has also been on the radar of the Western nations for having provided, on a per capita basis, the largest number of foreign fighters to Al Qaeda. It continues to have a significant number of supporters of the Islamic State (IS), especially its South Asian branch christened IS (Khorasan). The Guardian newspaper has reported a US treasury department listing of 20 individuals who are members or financial facilitators of ISIS, IS(K) and Al Qaeda.

For India, therefore, the concerns are twofold: Chinese entrenchment in Indias maritime neighbourhood and Islamic radicalism affecting India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, naturally not wishing to betray Indias key concerns, promptly greeted the winner, Dr Muizzu, expressing the hope that time-tested bilateral relations would only strengthen. However, the concerns can hardly be discounted as the President-elect dealt directly, as the minister in charge, with Chinas BRI projects in the Maldives in 2013-18.

Warning signals that Indias Maldivian policy was fraying had been visible for some time. The above-mentioned anti-India campaign of Mr Yameen was followed by an attack on an India-sponsored yoga event in 2022. This illustrates that when India undertakes global cultural campaigns, their impact in each country must be assessed. In the Maldivian archipelago, with a population of half a million Muslims, the domestic majoritarian politics of the BJP will be watched closely. Those opposed to India would exploit the doubts and fears in the minds of the people. The Maldivian Opposition used the argument of nationalism and independence of the Maldives to attack President Ibrahim Solihs government, debunking it as an Indian lackey. External affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visited the Maldives when this campaign had already taken hold. He did offer more assistance and goodies but it was a belated attempt to counter the bogey of Maldivian independence being compromised by the Indian military presence on the islands. It was forgotten during the toxic debate that the Indian armed forces had intervened in 1988 to counter a mercenary-led attempt to overthrow the then Maldivian government.

The Guardian newspaper has also alleged that China has played a role in shaping the anti-India narrative. Apparently, Maldivian journalists and influential figures were taken on all-paid trips to China. The latest report of the US governments Global Engagement Centre, which monitors foreign disinformation and propaganda, examines the Chinese threat. It notes that Beijing has invested billions of dollars to construct an information ecosystem in which the PRC propaganda and disinformation gain traction. It is unclear what, if any, counter-measures India had undertaken to help a vital ally facing a crucial election in the Maldives.

The President-elect, Dr Muizzu, got the government to immediately shift the convicted former President Yameen from jail to house arrest. He has promised during his campaign to release him once he assumes power. He also claimed that his victory signifies the peoples decision to win back Maldivian independence. These may just be words to enable public catharsis after highly polarising electioneering. He must realise that cultural and historic links of the Maldives with the Indian mainland cannot be replaced by China. But once he releases Mr Yameen, the anti-India groups may get more vocal. The President-elect may be clever enough to realise that Mr Yameen, if unshackled, may turn out to be a much bigger problem for him before becoming one for India.

Observers are noting that the presidential election has not only been about choosing which out of China and India would be allowed more influence, but also between liberal values that Western nations and India represent and the Islamic forces in the Maldives. The BJP, hardly seen as vocal defenders of religious freedom in India, cannot nail the Chinese persecution of their Muslim Uyghurs. Thus, ironically, the Islamic forces in Maldives are aligning with China as the defender of Maldivian ethnic-religious and political independence.

The Sino-Indian contest for influence in each others neighbourhood will persist until the two nations can settle the terms of engagement in a world transitioning to a new world order. The Maldives will be seen as a win for China for now. It remains to be seen if Dr Muizzu is mature enough, unlike his political mentor Abdulla Yameen, to avoid getting caught in an India-China diplomatic wrangle.

However, a few conclusions are fairly obvious. One, how an Indian government handles its Muslim minority at home will influence its ability to handle its Muslim neighbours. Two, what the US realised long ago, dealing with democracies is more complex than autocratic regimes. Three, India has to be proactive in assessing the threats to friendly governments in its immediate neighbourhood -- continental or maritime. Nepal and the Maldives are now in danger of excessive Chinese influence. In Sri Lanka, the jury is still out. In the final analysis, Indian diplomacy gets tested the most, not at G-20 summits, but in dealing with its neighbours.
China has turned down requests for more investments in energy and infrastructure due to rising attacks and insecurity, uncertain about the fate of the current government. Some experts say money flows could resume after next year's parliamentary elections, but Pakistan's economy is still at risk of default and Beijing is reassessing the chances of long-term gains from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Islamabad (AsiaNews)  China has turned down Pakistans requests to invest in new projects in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the mega infrastructure project launched ten years ago by China to expand trade with Africa and Europe. The main cause is the countrys political instability and security problems.

Two officials who attended a conference between diplomats from the two countries reported this information after seeing the minutes from the meeting.

The two told Nikkei Asia that China rejected Pakistan's proposal to connect the port of Gwadar, the hub of Chinese infrastructure investment, to the national electricity grid in Karachi.

Beijing also dismissed Islamabad's objections to the Gwadar coal-fired power plant. Pakistan wanted to move it to another site to use domestic rather than imported coal.

China's approach to Belt and Road investments is guided by prudence and long-term sustainability, said Andy Mok, a senior research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing think tank.

Like any investment process, China is adapting its BRI investment process based on experience and a deeper understanding of how to more effectively align investments with strategic objectives," which is essential for the initiative's long-term success, Mok added.

Beijing has invested more than US$ 50 billion in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), one of the core components of the BRI. The Joint Cooperation Committee, CPEC's highest decision-making body, met for its eleventh meeting in October last year.

In recent years, several attacks have been perpetrated against Chinese workers in Pakistan due to opposition by the Balochistan separatists against Chinese investments at the port of Gwadar.

This year, terrorist attacks are up across Pakistan, this according to the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), an independent think tank based in Islamabad. In the first nine months, at least 700 civilians and members of the security forces lost their lives in attacks, the CRSSs latest report indicates.

This represents a rise in casualties of about 19 per cent over 2022, with Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban, and the Islamic State (IS) group as the main culprits. IS is believed to be responsible for two suicide bombings that took place last week.

Pakistan's recent political instability began in April last year, when Parliament backed a vote of no confidence against then Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has generated political turmoil ever since against his successor, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his administration and Pakistans military.

Since August, the country is led by a caretaker government ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections in January 2024. Meanwhile, the Pakistani economy has plummeted and the country has not yet defaulted only thanks to international and bilateral loans.

Foreign exchange reserves are an historic low because the government has failed to generate tax revenues and increase productivity. As a result, due to liquidity shortages, Pakistan has failed to make a US$ 1.2 billion in overdue payments to Chinese power producers.

According to some analysts, Chinese investments could resume without problems after next year's elections, but not all experts agree.

"Although China needs Pakistan as a partner for geopolitical reasons, the Chinese are reluctant to commit more funds than necessary," said Jeremy Garlick, an associate professor of international relations at Prague University of Economics and Business.

In his view, the Chinese government "does not believe anymore that it can get economic returns from CPEC."
by Nirmala Carvalho

The case of Fr. Kuriakose Mattam in Idukki. "I disagree with the belief that the BJP is not a party for Christians." The party flaunts his words to dismiss criticism of the Modi government over failures to act against violence in Manipur. Hindu nationalists' courtship of Kerala's large Christian community.

Idukki (AsiaNews) - A Syro-Malabar Catholic priest from Kerala has been relieved of his duties by his diocese of Idukki after joining the BJP, the Hindu nationalist party. Fr Kuriakose Mattam, 74, was serving at St Thomas Church in Mankuva. He was welcomed into the party by Idukki district president K S Aji on Monday.

After we learned that he was interested in joining our party, we went to meet him and he agreed to join, Aji wrote in a Facebook post, sharing images of the priest wearing a saffron shawl.

I don't agree with the common belief that the BJP is not a party for Christians - commented Fr. Mattam -. I read newspapers and have an understanding of the situation in the country. It is essential for our times that people of all faiths come together. I hope to have other opportunities to work together."

Fr. Antony Vadakkekara, public relation officer from the Syro-Malabar Church, told AsiaNews, "Fr Kuriakose Mattam seems taken membership in a political party according to the media reports. Fr Mattam is temporarily suspended from his position as the Vicar with immediate effect. He is an elderly priest about to get retired in a few months. Prompt action is taken because the parishioners are agitated with the suspected move from their Vicar. And according to the Canon law priests taking membership in any political party is a serious violation of their promise and commitment as a priest. However, the diocesan bishop and the authorities concerned will hear Fr Mattam before further proceedings".

Meanwhile, local political leader Aji is heralding the priest's entry into the BJP as a response to those who criticize the party, accusing it of connivance with the ethnic violence that has been ongoing for months in Manipur and which is causing serious suffering to the local Christian community.

It is probably no coincidence that the story of Fr. Mattam is taking place in Kerala, a state where Christians make up 18% of the population and where the BJP, currently in opposition at a local level, has been conducting an active campaign towards them for some time.

Photo: Flickr / Ya, saya inBaliTimur
Thon Ratha, Phuong Keo Reaksmey, and Long Khunthea will not travel to Sweden for the prestigious Right Livelihood Award. They are currently serving a 14-month suspended sentence and a three-year travel ban for raising environmental awareness. Meanwhile, Vietnam detains green energy expert Ngo Thi To Nhien, a sixth environmentalist jailed in two years.

Phnom Penh (AsiaNews)  A Cambodian court has denied travel papers to three environmentalists, recipients of the so-called alternative Nobel. All three were convicted with a suspended sentence and a foreign travel ban for their activism and awareness raising on environmental issues.

The three were due to travel to Sweden next month for the prestigious Right Livelihood Award, the Associated Press (AP) reported. However, Phnom Penh Municipal Courts chief prosecutor, Chreung Khmao, ruled that the visit was not necessary", despite a request by their lawyers.

Thon Ratha, 31, Phuong Keo Reaksmey, 22, and Long Khunthea, 25, had applied to travel from 24 November to 1 December to receive the prize, better known as the alternative Nobel in the fields of environment and ecology.

All three are members of Mother Nature Cambodia, an NGO that shared the 2023 edition of the much-coveted award with Phyllis Omido, a Kenyan community activist, and SOS Mediterranee, a humanitarian group that rescues migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Stockholm-based Right Livelihood Foundation chose the NGO for its fearless and engaging activism to preserve Cambodias natural environment in the context of a highly restricted democratic space.

This contains an implicit reference to the regime once headed by former Prime Minister Hun Sen, who resigned this year to make way for his son Hun Manet, a budding dynasty that has always shown zero tolerance towards protests, human rights, and environmental issues.

In June 2021, the three award recipients were convicted of inciting others to commit a felony as part of their work to protect the countrys natural environment between 2017 and 2020.

In December of last year, their appeal was turned down but their 14-month sentence was suspended. They are still banned from travelling abroad for three years.

Am Sam Ath, a senior member of Licadho, a Cambodian human rights group, bemoans the courts decision. In his view, the three should have been encouraged to go for the sake of the country and as a good example for new generations.

Meanwhile, even in Vietnam, the authorities continue their crackdown against environmentalists. Thi To Nhien, who works with United Nations on a US$ 15.5 billion project to eliminate fossil fuels, was the prime target.

The executive director of an energy policy think tank was detained and could face charges of appropriating documents of agencies and organisations, a Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security spokesman told reporters.

Her arrest shows that Vietnamese authorities will not tolerate environmentalists, so much so that some six, including Thi, have been arrested or charged in the last two years on trumped-up evidence.

The other five were charged with tax evasion, including climate activist Hoang Thi Minh Hong, who was recently handed down a three-year prison sentence.

Nhien, who has worked as a researcher for the World Bank and USAID, is the executive director of the Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition.

She was arrested on 15 September in the capital, a few days after US President Joe Bidens visit to Hanoi (hailed as a diplomatic success in the media), during which he raised human rights and environmental issues with his Vietnamese hosts, who made pledges on human rights, seemingly not respected.
by Santosh Digal

Illiteracy and drug addiction in the Philippines often go "hand in hand." That's why Divine Word Missionary Fr. Beltran for the past 5 years has started a program that is helping more than 1,000 former drug addicts to graduate from high school and become active members of the community again.

Manila (AsiaNews) - Helping former drug addicts who have dropped out of school to finish their studies, as an integral part of their rehabilitation program. In a country where the fight against drugs has been sadly marked by extrajudicial killings, the Divine Word Missionary priest Fr. Benigno P. Beltran is showing that betting on education is the only true path.

We started this project within the Sacred Heart Parish in the Kamunging neighborhood of Manila, supported by the Department of the Interior and the Department of Education. The idea is to provide an educational opportunity to former drug addicts who have not finished high school, he says.

The program was started five years ago with 30 participants and today it has over 1000 who also follow the lessons online: "We believe that education is the best way to give them a future and a job, as well as cultivating the hope that they are away from drugs", says Father Beltran, who is also a social worker in the center and executive director of the NGO Sandiwaan Center for Learning at Smokey Mountain in Manila which offers various training programs for these people.

When they complete their education and obtain a qualification, they can contribute to the socio-economic development of the entire community, explains Father Beltran.

According to the 2019 National Drug Use and Abuse Trends Survey, 4.7 million people between the ages of 10 and 69 have used drugs. However, only about 1.67 million people, or two out of 100 Filipinos, can be defined as current drug users.

The Philippine Department of Education estimates, on the other hand, that there are nearly seven million young people who do not attend school and are illiterate.

At the end of the training in the center of p. Beltran provides many former drug addicts with the equivalent of a high school diploma recognized by the ministry.

During the program, various courses are offered starting from basic literacy, but there are also proposals such as the "Alternative Learning Systems" which guarantees the possibility of learning in an informal and less scholastic way.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Susanna Parkkinen, a girl from the Baltic region of Ingria, decided to open a museum of the diaspora of her native people in a small village in Finland. "I'm not doing it because I have separatist tendencies; we never felt part of the Soviet or Russian world. I just want to go back to my roots."

Helsinki (AsiaNews) - A Russian girl originally from Ingermanlandia, the Russian name for the Baltic region of Ingria, Susanna Parkkinen, has decided to open a museum of the diaspora of her native people in a small village in Finland, restoring an enormous building historical.

Ingria extends in the areas along the Neva river basin, on whose estuary in the Gulf of Finland St. Petersburg was built, and the Narva river up to Lake Ladoga, bordering the Russian region of Karelia and affecting the entire Russian area that lies overlooks the Baltic Sea.

The Ingermanlandi, or Ingrians, have never formed an autonomous nation, except for a short period in the year 1920, when a part of Ingria intended to reunite with Finland, and the descendants of this ethnic group are now reduced to a few hundred people.

The village of Puykkola, where Susanna's project is being developed, is 12 kilometers from the northernmost city in Finland, Kemijavri, and on the shore of a small lake there is a large house, painted in the typical Falun red colour. Parkkinen explains that the raw material to obtain this color is found only in Sweden, and is very effective in protecting the wood from the great cold of the north, so it then also spread to Finland.

The entire village is part of a protected area, with the formula of the "typical northern Finnish landscape", and Susanna's house is also under the protection of the State, dating back to the mid-19th century, but with the possibility of carrying out restorations .

Three years ago Susanna moved here from the Leningrad province to open the museum there. Despite being born near St. Petersburg, she considers herself only an "ingra", not a Russian: "I don't do it because I have separatist tendencies, but as a form of escape to return to my origins... in my family we have never felt part of the Soviet or Russian world, we felt different."

Before her, her father, Pavel Parkkinen, has always been an activist of "ethnic restoration", trying to resurrect the Ingrain culture from the underground, and was the first president of the "Ingermanland Union", Inkerin Liitto.

The idea of the museum it was passed down to subsequent generations by elderly relatives, and many projects were discussed. The last attempt to open one in Russia dates back to a few years ago, in the village of Tajtsy, where a wooden house with a library has also been preserved, which was rented for a certain time, with the promise of entrusting it for at least 50 years. Funds were raised and a restoration began, but the lease was not then renewed, without refunding the money spent; then Susanna decided to look outside the borders.

There was availability in Lapland, but Susanna and her friends discarded the idea, as it is not the true homeland of the Ingri. It would have been a shared museum for the many small Finno-Ugric nationalities of the region: the Finns of Murmansk, the woodland Finns of Sweden, the Kvens and other related ethnic groups, such as the Karely, the Izhora, the Vod', Vepsy and Saami.

So the choice fell on this house, built by Swedish soldiers during the Winter War, collecting antique tools and furniture from everywhere, even if many things had been preserved by the owners; The ancient large Tchaiknik was brought from Russia, the tea kettle that stands above the central stove of the inhabitants' gathering room.

Parkkinen does everything with her money and strength, after leaving the construction company that she managed, trying to put into practice the many indications passed down by her father, who, despite his advanced age, still supports her daughter in her feat.

In the restoration of ancient Ingermanland, as Susanna explains, the main stimulus is the idea of redemption from the many repressions suffered by its people in the past, but also the hope of a rebirth in the future, not only of the small Ingri people, but of all the peoples of the great north, and of all Russia.
The Crystal Mill: how to get there and how to shoot it
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Google must pay $3,000 to a Brazilian woman whose face was revealed on Street View, a feature bundled with Google Maps and available on mobile devices and the web.

Street View offers access to street-level imagery captured by cameras installed on cars, bicycles, or backpacks carried by Google contractors. The search giant puts all images together and provides Internet users with exploration options for any location in the world, promising to protect privacy by blurring people's faces and car registration plates.However, the privacy protections don't always work as expected, and a 61-year-old woman decided to move a dispute with the company to the court after she failed to have her face blurred on Google Maps' Street View The woman appeared in the photos captured by the Google Maps cars and could be seen in front of the house in Sao Paulo where she was working as a cleaner. Anyone using Street View was able to explore the location and see the woman's face, which Google failed to blur for an undisclosed reason.The woman says she contacted the company two times to request the removal of the image, but Google did not respond. When she filed the lawsuit, Google promptly blurred the photo, no longer exposing her face.The Sao Paulo State Court of Justice ordered Google to pay $3,000 for moral damages, acknowledging that while Google Maps' Street View is a valuable tool for Internet users, the service must respect people's privacy. According to the local media , Judge Enio Zuliani emphasized that Google must not post photos on Street View that allow netizens to identify the persons on the street.Google hasn't released a statement on the case, so it's unclear why the automatic blurring technology didnt work and why the company did not take action when the woman contacted the company.According to Google's privacy policy, users have the right to report a photo or request it to be blurred if it contains their faces, homes, or other identifying information. The company offers a dedicated form for such requests, explaining that it "reviews your report as fast as we can."Google isn't the only company offering street-level imagery in its navigation app . Apple has also developed a similar service called Look Around and bundled with Apple Maps. The Street View alternative is particularly focused on high-resolution images. Its availability is still limited, but expanding Look Around has become one of Apple's top priorities, especially as the company is working around the clock on turning Apple Maps into a more powerful Google Maps rival. Apple also uses automatic blurring technology for the images appearing on Look Around, with people's faces and license plates hidden before a photo makes its way online.
It doesn't matter where you are in the world; you've probably heard the name Super73. Well, this time around, we take a look at a few of the works you've surely missed.

Photo: Super73

Photo: Rough Crafts

Photo: Super73

EV

Ladies and gents, since 2016, the world has been home to Super73, an e-bike brand born in Orange County, California. Over the years they've made a name for themselves by crafting EVs that are as unique as the people that ride them What I mean to say is that customization is at the heart of how Super73 does business, and when you look into grabbing one of their two-wheelers, you'll get the chance to create your own tailored e-bike. Sure, within a few boundaries, but you get the idea.Another way they grew to be seen in movies, in magazines, and in Hollywood mansions is by collaborating with some of the world's most renowned names and brands. In this spirit, I've chosen to bring to light some truly custom Super73 jobs that you've probably never seen. Oh, and don't go looking to pick up the phone; these aren't available to the public To kick off this exploration of Super73 magic, I want to bring to light the rather bare and not-at-all-broken Cafe Racer Super73 developed on its own. Why is the version so dang important? In my opinion, it stands as a symbol of everything that this brand stands for and tries to recreate with each two-wheeler to pop off their assembly lines.No, they don't just stand for the looks and simplicity that a cafe racer-style two-wheel brings, but the experience itself. Imagine yourself on that powder-coated silver chrome stallion, feet sitting still on a pair of pegs, and nothing but the twist of a throttle to make you zoom around town. All the while, massive 5-inch cross-section tires give off the motorcycle feeling. Personally, I feel we can consider this Super73's flagship.The next machine that I feel is in tune with the spirit Super73 aims for is the Rough Crafts version we see. If the name Rough Crafts sounds familiar, it means you're into motorcycles, and if Winston Yeh can support an e-bike brand, why are some motorcycle riders so hardheaded when it comes to loving e-bikes? A discussion for another day.With this version, Super73 and Rough Crafts aimed to "seamlessly blend" moto heritage with e-mobility. Did they succeed? Well, let's have a look. First off, this version no longer has that classic gaping hole in the middle where we would typically set an engine block. Instead, Super73 and Rough Crafts use body panels to seal this hole and give off a motorcycle look.The moto look and feel is also completed with the cafe racer-style seat, but above all, the way the rear wheel is set on a swingarm. A massive spring and shock can be seen, too, reminiscent of motorcycles once again. The inverted fork, too, brings some moto magic The only feature I couldn't really understand was the wheels. Not only do they break away from motorcycle designs by completely filling the hub, but I'm a person who often stares at bicycles, track bikes included, and this feature looks ripped right off a track bike; something to do with aerodynamics. Oh, and this one has pedals!Up next, Super73 took things to an entirely new level and one that I haven't seen e-bikes in, albeit are sure to fit with gusto and ease. If you've ever heard of the Wall of Death, then you have some idea as to what Super73 and Marvin Prinssen, AKA Marvellous Marv, have in store for us here.Yes, the Wall of Death is that gravity-defying dance of motorcycles within the confines of a walled arena. In short, by understanding how inertia, gravity, and horsepower can be tamed to create a playground, people can ride their motorcycles up walls and do so regularly for a thrill or a dollar However, the moment you throw an e-bike into the mix, the results may not be as favorable as if you did this with a motorcycle. And so, Super73 decided to whip up anthat could handle the stresses of riding up and around walls.To do so, the spokes of the copper wonder we see have been reinforced to handle the Gs exerted on the bike during a Wall of Death event, and the rigid front fork is designed to do the same. To ensure you stick to your seat, anti-slip materials are used, and to ensure you achieve what you set out to do, a throttle function is in place, the latter being a must because there's no way you're pedaling around in the arena.The best part of this story is that this machine actually ended up performing on the Wall of Death, ridden by Marvelous Marv himself. Before you go on, let me point out that you shouldn't attempt any of the stunts you see in the video below, but do enjoy the show. Marv even pedals this thing around.If you've been wondering why Super73 is getting so much attention , it's clearly not just because they build cool e-bikes; they build cool e-bikes with purpose!
Some people like their eggs fried, others hard-boiled. A very small number of people like their eggs habitable, self-sufficient, very eco-friendly, and, more importantly, highly mobile. Those people are Ecocapsule owners.

Ecocapsule is a very unique tiny home that boasts all the qualities mentioned above. It's very compact and has a reduced carbon footprint both due to its size and production, it's self-sufficient and eco-friendly, and very mobile because it can be moved from location to location by simply plopping it onto a trailer. The Ecocapsule, often referred to as the tiny home of the future, is now back with a fresh iteration.The Ecocapsule is the creation of architects Tomas Zacek and Sona Pohlova, who started out as Nice Architects and now go by Nice & Wise. The idea for it was introduced as a concept study in 2014, followed by a scale model in 2015, and, following incredible  and incredibly positive  feedback, the first prototype in 2016. NextGen is technically the third model in the lineup, though all three are the same model with some variations.The Original Ecocapsule is the flagship model, while Space is the stripped-down version. The NextGen is the updated and upgraded version, which brings a different interior layout and a slightly larger frame that allows for more storage and a larger interior.The Ecocapsule takes the sustainable approach and combines it with the concept of downsizing to create the perfect, modern, mobile house for today's city dweller. It's an egg-shaped structure that, despite the high mobility claim, doesn't move under its own power. However, it's light enough that it can be moved by trailer, packed inside a shipping container, or even hauled by helicopter to the top of a mountain if that's your thing and you have the budget for it.The house looks like an egg, but it sits on four legs that give it stability on most terrains. The shell is fiberglass over a steel frame, and it features a double door and a single window on the opposite side. The roof is covered in solar cells, and there's a retractable wind turbine on one end for generating electricity throughout the day.The rounded exterior also helps with rainwater collection, so the Ecocapsule comes with its own water treatment and filtration system. Between the ability to generate drinking water, to create its own electricity, and the waterless separating toilet, the Ecocapsule remains off the grid for as long as you want, or supplies last.NextGen is all these things as well, but it is better to be worthy of the name. It's longer than its predecessor, the Original, by 0.53 meters (1.7 feet), so it's now 5.2 meters long (17 feet). It still fits inside a shipping container for transport, though.The floor is lower than in the Original because the battery and water system previously housed there have been moved to two exterior system compartments. This allows for new storage options: Nice & Wise estimates there'll be at least 550 liters (19.4 cubic feet) more of storage space available with this upgrade.The production process has also been streamlined and optimized to allow for faster production rates but reduced costs . The layout is different, following feedback from existing customers and the larger Ecocapsule fanbase and aiming for easier assembly and lower costs. The maker notes that a curved shelf in the Original model will be discontinued, while the dining table on the wall will move under the bed, from whence it will appear only when needed.Nice & Wise is exploring "alternative materials and plastics" for furniture in a move to create biodegradable furniture that's lighter and cheaper but without losing any points in terms of quality or craftsmanship.For the time being, the only look inside the cabin shows the same kind of sleek, minimalist furniture that is more in tune with Scandinavian functionality than the general understanding of luxury.Given the very compact footprint, the layout is essentially the same, but with some changes that make it feel different . The double door now swings open like a regular door (the Original had gullwing doors), opening the interior to the outside. You have the small kitchen to the left at the end of the capsule and the bathroom right in front. The other end of the pod is taken up by the lounge area, which becomes a bedroom at night.The NextGen model was introduced in March this year, but details like the full spec list or pricing are still unavailable. The Original had 880W of solar cells and an additional 750W from the wind turbine, so we reckon these still apply to the NextGen. Changes to the overall weight should be expected since NextGen was specifically designed with weight reduction in mind.As a point of reference, the Original Ecocapsule starts at 99,900 (approximately $104,700 at the current exchange rate), while the Space is 69,900 ($73,250) and goes higher as you personalize it. NextGen should go into production next year, which is when we'll find out more details about it.But one thing's certain: these tiny homes might be all these amazing things, but they're not affordable. They're still very popular with glamping units and private individuals looking for a tiny home like no other. Actress Susan Sarandon owns one , which she had shipped to a plot of land in Costa Rica where she wasn't allowed to build anything more traditional.
SUV

Since the start of 2023, the Japanese automaker introduced significant and minor models to the North American region  from the Prius Prime plug-in hybrid to the expanding Nightshade family and from the Corolla Cross Hybrid to the N400 Tacoma or 2024 Land Cruiser superstars.Lexus wasn't too far behind, either, premiering the all-new, first-ever TX as the posher counterpart of the newly-introduced 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander eight-seat three-row crossoveror the J250-based Lexus GX. However, the spotlight remains on what the namesake Toyota brand is doing, as the new Land Cruiser (also called Prado or 250 in some regions to avoid confusion with the larger J300 Land Cruiser that arrived in 2021) is rumored to spawn a baby SUV.It is all Toyota's 'fault,' of course. The commotion started during the international presentation of the light-duty 2024 Land Cruiser at home in Japan when the officials sat on stage with a couple of SUVs to show their differing front fascia with round or squared headlights. Behind them, on the big screen, two shadowy silhouettes were portraying an upcoming electric SUV and something just as rugged as the Land Cruiser but smaller Speculation has run rampant across the rumor mill about the potential introduction of a compact Land Cruiser version to go alongside the J250-series mid-size Land Cruiser (plus Lexus GX) and the full-size J300 Land Cruiser (plus Lexus LX) and form one big, happy, off-road focused family. If that happens, we might as well see Toyota deliver a spiritual successor to the retro-styled FJ Cruiser, after all.However, it won't necessarily come with direct lineage if we are to trust the rumor mill because there's a new name on the line  at least according to the latest reports. As such, it seems that Toyota is preparing a 2025 Land Hopper model in the compact field to be the main attraction at the company's booth during the upcoming Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo.This new event takes place from October 26 to November 5 at Tokyo Big Sight - Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, the organizer, decided this year they will cast a wider net beyond automakers by rebranding the well-known Tokyo Motor Show as a mobility venue. Anyway, it remains to be seen if Toyota indeed premieres their alleged 2025 Land Hopper SUV there, as nothing is official yet.No worries, if you want to see a potential version, the imaginative realm of digital car content creators is always ready and willing to oblige. For example, the Halo oto channel on YouTube provides fresh automotive info corroborated with their virtual designs; now, there are some CGI ideas about the rumored Land Hopper. The resident pixel master previously illustrated the potential look of a baby Land Cruiser, but they now wanted a fresh approach to go along with the rumored 'Land Hopper' nameplate.As such, this one seems more inspired by all potential sources of inspiration  the old-school Land Cruisers, such as the 70 series, the dearly departed FJ Cruiser, and also a little the 2024 Land Cruiser . What do you think? Is this idea better than what they previously showcased, or should we just take this with a massive grain of salt, ignore it, and wait for the real deal to arrive at the end of the month?
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Case in point, 1016industries decided to promote their carbon aero body kit from the Lamborghini Huracan in a unique way  by horsing around. They parked the Italian supercar next to a stable, opened the frunk, filled it with hay, and brought a horse to feed from it.Needless to say, the result is something that you don't see every day, hence why these images seem to be on the verge of going viral. And it is certainly worth noting that no animals were harmed during the unique photoshoot involving the said horse and a very raging bull.As for the exotic beast in question, it appears to be in the EVO specification . If that's the case, then you're looking at 631 hp (640 ps/471) produced by the 5.2-liter naturally aspirated V10 and 443 lb-ft (600 Nm) of torque. It needs 2.9 seconds to sprint to 62 mph (100 kph) from zero and has a top speed exceeding 202 mph (325 kph).Unveiled in early 2019, the Huracan EVO boasts a performance that's very similar to the Performante. It also gets a rear-wheel steering system, an upgraded all-wheel drive, clever aerodynamics, and additional goodies. When it was still on sale, this model had an MSRP of $261,274 in the United States and 165,256 (equal to $201,607 today) in the United Kingdom.In the meantime, Lamborghini has stopped accepting orders for all Huracans , regardless of the configuration. Word on the street is that they will keep making it until 2024 to meet the demand, and subsequently, it will roll off the assembly line for good, with the automaker pulling the plug on it. The Italian brand won't be left without an entry-level supercar, as they are currently working on its successor.Sitting below the bigger and more powerful Revuelto, the yet-unnamed model has been scooped doing its thing in the open multiple times. It still looks instantly recognizable as a Lambo and has some serious firepower. A V8 with forced induction allegedly powers it, backed up by electricity. It's been reported that it has around 850 horsepower combined, which would make it a bit punchier than the Ferrari 296 GTB, which is one of its biggest rivals.The Huracan's successor will premiere towards the end of 2024, CEO Stephan Winkelmann said, and it will likely enter production shortly after. Chances are deliveries will commence in early 2025.
Micromobility devices are not the only new stars of city traffic. Microcars, mostly with electric powertrains and high performance, are also popping up at every street corner, changing the face of urban transportation.

Photo: Patak Motors

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ICE

The Swiss Microlino is enjoying great popularity, French giant Citroen launched the quirky Ami micro-car in 2020 and has developed several variants since, while the Renault Twizy released in 2011 is still going strong and is seen by many as the quintessential microcar.Joining a rapidly expanding field of microcars is Slovakia-based startup Patak Motors, which aims to revolutionize electromobility with an innovative light transporter called the Rodster.Don't worry; there is no typo in the name there. This is how Patak Motors has baptized its retro-inspired, two-seater electric microcar . The Rodster (not the Roadster) is touted as an "extraordinary vehicle with classy design and contemporary driving qualities" and is designed to be homologated as an L7e-A2 vehicle in Europe, which means drivers as young as 16 years old can hop behind its wheel in certain countries.With a design that pays homage to classic roadsters from the 1930s, the compact machine embraces the retro aesthetic with an open top and skinny spoked-rim wheels. Describing the microcar on its website, the company claims the "Rodster has all the essential features of a perfect city companion. Flexibility, dynamism, safety, and compact dimensions. And above all, a design that speaks for itself."In terms of size, it measures just 132.2 inches in length (336 cm), 54.9 inches (139.5 cm) in width, and 53.4 inches (136 cm) in height, dimensions that make it easy to maneuver and squeeze into parking spaces. It is also lightweight and agile, weighing in at 992 pounds (450 kilograms) without the battery.There seem to be two versions of the small two-seater electric car. The so-called Stage 1 iteration of the Rodster features a single rear-mounted permanent-magnet synchronous motor with an output of 20 horsepower (15), paired with a 10battery. In this configuration, the microcar is able to reach a top speed of 80 mph (129 kph) and accelerate from 0 to 31 miles per hour (0 to 50 kph) in 7 seconds. Meanwhile, the driving range is estimated at 62 miles (100 kilometers) on a full charge.For the Stage 2 version, the only thing that changes is the battery capacity, as this one comes with a 20 kWh unit, which doubles the driving range to 155 miles (250 kilometers). The battery will recharge to 100% in four to nine hours using a regular 220-volt household outlet.Besides these two electric versions , Patak Motors is also working on an internal combustion engine variant of the Rodster, which will be equipped with a single-cylinder four-stroke water-cooled engine that delivers 20 hp. Top speed for this version will be 77 mph (125 kph).Regardless of the powertrain, the Rodster comes with four-wheel disc brakes, a rain protection cover, central locking, and a tire repair kit. It will also have a classic-looking interior with a three-spoke steering wheel, a wood decor dashboard, and faux leather upholstery.Some optional features will also be available for those who want extra comfort, including heating, speakers, fast charging, parking sensors, and an analog speedometer.It's worth mentioning that the Slovak manufacturer hasn't yet started production of the Patak Rodster, but the company has signed a partnership with Evektor, a Czech aircraft manufacturer, to handle the production of the microcar , which is scheduled to begin in August 2024. Deliveries, meanwhile, are expected to begin in November 2025.In terms of pricing, theversion is the cheapest, starting at approx. $17,800 (16,900). The base electric variant of the Rodster will start at $24,000 (22,900), while the long-range electric microcar is priced from $26,800 (25,400).
Ford confirmed it canceled dealer orders for the 2023 F-150 Lightning in the US and Canada. The Blue Oval says the decision was made because of the model year switchover and has nothing to do with the UAW strike or lack of demand. The strike impacted Ford's production at two important plants, although the Rouge EV Center, where the Lightning is produced, was not affected.

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Electric Vehicle

Ford is among the traditional carmakers best positioned to take on Tesla in themarket. While the Mustang Mach-E is struggling to compete with the Model Y, the F-150 Lightning is among the best-selling electric pickups in the US. However, the Blue Oval's EV efforts have been hampered in the past months by production halts, faulty F-150 Lightning batteries, and, recently, the UAW strike.Against this background, we've heard rumors that Ford canceled dealer orders for the F-150 Lightning across the US and Canada, and discussions on forums and social media linked this to the current UAW strike or even lack of demand for Ford's electric pickup. Although the strike has not directly impacted Ford's Rouge EV Center, where the electric F-150 is produced, it wreaked havoc among Ford's parts suppliers.In some cases, rumors are even more alarming, claiming Ford shut down the F-150 Lightning completely. That would've been preposterous, so we tried to find out what this is all about. It turns out the rumors have consistency as Ford indeed canceled some dealer orders for the F-150 Lightning in the US and Canada. However, the reason behind this move might be more benign than most people thought.We've contacted Ford and learned that the canceled orders have nothing to do with the UAW strike or the demand for the electric pickup. Instead, the move was prompted by Ford running out of build slots for the 2023 model year as it prepared for the MY24 production start. According to Ford, this decision only affects dealer orders, and no customer orders have been canceled by Ford. Of course, this doesn't mean dealers haven't canceled customer orders after Ford canceled theirs.Sometimes, there's no smoke without fire, and it turns out this time there is some merit to the F-150 Lightning production halt. Ford is indeed limiting dealer orders to prepare for the 2024 model year, but the start of production is still months away. Ford was expected to continue building the 2023 model for a while. This didn't happen because Ford decided to perform "additional quality checks" at the RougeCenter (REVC).Last month, Ford issued the CSP bulletin 23B57, instructing dealers to verify about 40,000 F-150 Lightning trucks built after October 14, 2021. The problem lies with the high-voltage battery , which sometimes throws error code P0B24  Hybrid Battery Voltage Unstable. Ford will offer a software update to detect these problems and replace the faulty battery modules (or rather the entire pack) of those affected free of charge. Based on discussions in the f150lightningforum.com, some owners have already been notified to schedule battery replacement based on a remote diagnosis.We're unsure if this campaign is related to the "additional quality checks" cited by Ford as cause for the 2023 F-150 Lightning dealer order cancelations. Given the timing (the CSP 23B57 was issued on September 13), it might very well be the cause. The good news is that Ford is investigating and will fix these issues for the 2024 model year. Orders for the refreshed model are expected to open in January
If you were an Allied pilot during the Second World War and saw a German Focke-Wulf Fw 190, one of two things would happen. Either you soil yourself in terror and kiss your rear end goodbye, or you start engaging in some of that pilot stuff and hope you come out of it in one piece. Nowadays, seeing one of the 30 or so Fw 190s that still remain is something of a right of passage, regardless of what side you thought had the better airplanes. But to outright own one? Now that'd turn you into a demigod among av-geeks.

But Platinum Fighter Sales out of Redondo Beach, California, is offering just such an opportunity to whoever can fork out enough cash to take it off their hands. This particular Fw 190 is the later-model A-8 variety. First leaving German factories in February 1944, just in time to take part in the defense of the Normandy beaches from the Allied invasions during D-Day. Spoiler alert, they weren't successful in said defense, but it'd be wrong to place the blame for such an awful conflict on an inanimate machine with some less-than-reputable characters behind the stick.Half-baked attempts to anthropomorphize a fighter plane aside, this particular Fw-190A-8 made its first flight sometime before the end of the war in 1945 before a hard landing just before the war's end brought a premature end to its service. Its immediate history after the fact is somewhat up in the air, what with the government that ordered its construction imploding like a red hot nougat bar bathing in a deep fryer for too long.What is known for certain is that at some point, a man named Dan Kirkland purchased the major remaining components of the airframe before it underwent a comprehensive and full restoration supported by the Flug Werk GmbH group of Germany. In this restoration, every nut, bolt, and wayward piece of the airframe was painstakingly rehabilitated over a period of some years before it was assembled back together and made to look like it did the day it left a German factory almost 80 years ago. Except this time around, the internals underneath are anything but stock.For one thing, the BMW 801 14-cylinder radial engine native to the Fw 190 A-8 has been replaced by a Shvetsov ASh-82 derived from, if you can believe it or not, the Soviet Lavochkin La-5 and Petlyakov Pe-8 bomber. The very same Soviet aircraft that Luftwaffe pilots tried to shoot down in their Focke-Wulfs during the war. If that doesn't get Hermann Goering spinning in his non-existent grave, nothing will. But heck, when you're a rotund, drug-addicted megalomaniac whose Air Force bombed countless civilians, we're much less inclined to feel bad about it.Though the plane is currently based out of Sweden, its current North American advertising listing is serviced through Platinum Fighter Sales, and its asking price of 1,795,000, or $1,880,495 and change, seems like a reasonable enough price. We've seen Spitfires and Mustangs sell for considerably more lately. But what do you fine folks think? Would you love to fly around all day in a German icon of World War II powered by a freakin Soviet engine? Or would you rather own a Mustang ten times out of ten? Let us know in the comments below.
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"France has given its agreement to the conclusion of future contracts with Armenia which will allow the delivery of military equipment to Armenia so that it can ensure its defense," Colonna told a joint news conference with her Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan.

She declined to shed light on those contracts, saying only there are things that were already agreed between Armenia and France and that are in progress.

The French government has condemned Azerbaijans September 19-20 military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh that paved the way for the restoration of Azerbaijani control over the region and displaced its virtually entire ethnic Armenian population. President Emmanuel Macron suggested last week that Baku might now attack Armenia as well.

French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said afterwards that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia are an absolute objective for us. Lecornu did not rule out arms supplies or other military aid to Armenia, saying that Paris is already examining Yerevans defense needs.

Speaking after talks with Mirzoyan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Colonna noted that Azerbaijan has continuously armed itself to take action, using its oil revenues and Turkeys military assistance.

She said Paris has also proposed that the European Union expand its monitoring mission along Armenias border with Azerbaijan and help Yerevan from a special fund designed to boost EU partners defense capacity.

Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian revealed in July that the Armenian government requested technical assistance from the European Peace Facility (EPF) but was rebuffed by Brussels.

Colonna signaled French arms supplies amid Armenias mounting tensions with Russia, its longtime ally, which are calling into question its membership in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Mirzoyan insisted that Paris is not pressing Yerevan to leave the CSTO in return for such aid.

Russia has long been Armenias principal supplier of military hardware and ammunition.
3 October 2023 18:00 (UTC+04:00)

Rena Murshud Read more

The German Federal Foreign Office considers Azerbaijan's consent to the visit of the UN mission to the Garabagh region of the country to be a positive step, Azernews reports.

This is stated in the publication of the German Foreign Ministry on the social network X.

It is a positive step that #Azerbaijan has allowed UN observers into #NagornoKarabakh for the first time. They need a permanent presence, as only transparency can build trust in Azerbaijan's promise to protect the rights of all residents & returnees to the region.  GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) October 3, 2023

Let us recall that the day before, following the visit of the UN mission to the Garabagh region, the organization issued a corresponding statement.

It is also worth noting that the Armenian side despised such a step by the UN. The RA Ambassador at Large Edmon Marukyan wrote in his X that the UN mission that recently visited Garabagh did everything to legitimize the ethnic cleansing carried out by Azerbaijan.

I look forward to the UN investigation into the activities of these representatives, Marukyan noted.

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Rena Murshud is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @RenaTagiyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
3 October 2023 22:17 (UTC+04:00)

They are involved in terrorism, sabotage and subversion. Continuous operational work was carried out against them - facts and evidence were collected, and a circle of suspects was determined.

All the criminals detained today were hostile to the Azerbaijani people and pursued a policy of terror. For many years after their illegal resettlement to the historical Azerbaijani lands, they carried out genocide against our people, burning out everything in Azerbaijans Garabagh. Separatists committed terrible war crimes against Azerbaijanis during the first Garabagh war. Brutal acts of genocide were carried out in dozens of our settlements. People were subjected to unimaginable torture. The crimes of these persons were not limited to the second Garabagh war.

Over all these years, the necessary facts, investigative materials, and evidence have been collected, and now, after the complete restoration of the sovereignty of our country, all criminals will receive their well-deserved punishment as part of the investigation. In general, a criminal case will be opened against each terrorist.

Baku stood by its promise  bringing those criminals to court. This is the day of judgement for them!

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
3 October 2023 08:30 (UTC+04:00)

Qabil Ashirov Read more

It won't be wrong if some claim that the biased stance of the West paved the road for the bloody Garabagh War that lasted over 30 years and cost the lives of thousands. It is crystal clear that Armenia, devoid of any resources, could not dare to start any military aggression against Azerbaijan in the 1990s. The West pampered and spoiled Armenia to such an extent that Yerevan was sure that all its atrocities and crimes would be unpunished. Western NGOs, politicians, and especially media outlets had done their best to force Azerbaijanis to accept then-realities. To justify their heinous claims, they used to exemplify the German-French relations and say that the two countries had fought in WWII, but today they had a good relationship. They did not hesitate to travel to the invaded territories, prepare the programs, and participate in the events. However, they prepared to turn a blind eye to the massacres committed by Armenians such as Khojaly, Meshali, and so on.

Even, nobody remembered the four UN resolutions that demanded immediate withdrawal from the Armenian side. However, the 44-day War in 2020 and the anti-terror activities in 2023, totally changed everything. By force, Azerbaijan pushed Armenia to fulfill the before-said resolutions. Following these two events, the rhetoric of Western mass media, NGOs, and politicians changed instantly. They promptly remembered ethnic cleansing. As if taking instructions from one center, all Western media outlets commenced speaking about the so-called ethnic cleansing conducted by "Azerbaijan against Armenians in Garabagh".

Some Western politicians ardently speak and note that they will not allow any 'ethnic cleansing' (that actually does not exist). They have gone the extra mile to require imposing sanctions on Azerbaijan. However, for some reason, they did not denounce ethnic cleansing conducted by Armenia in the 1990s. They did not hurry to impose sanctions upon Armenia when Yerevan expelled over one million people of different origins from their hometowns and leveled down cities, towns, and villages. It is obvious that the Western media, jointly with other international organizations, have been trying simultaneously to demonize Azerbaijanis and create an image of innocent civilian peaceful Armenians. As if the victims are not one million Azerbaijanis who were forced to leave all his/her savings, property, and hometowns, but Armenians who illegally tried to appropriate all belonging to the Azerbaijani IDPs and refugees. As if we, Azerbaijanis, are all bloodthirsty who crave for a war, but Armenians are poor peace-loving civilians who try their best to evade a war.

For this purpose, i.e. creating an innocent and civilian Armenian image, the Western media resort to all kind of impudence. Take the Economist, for example. The article "What We Have We (Mostly) Hold" in 1996, starts with the sentence "Nowhere have the Armenians been as energetic and tough as in Nagorno-Karabagh".

The article praises the Armenian invasion and speaks wholeheartedly about economic development in 'Azeri-free' lands. However, the same Economist shamelessly calls the anti-terror activities conducted by Azerbaijan in 2023 genocide and ethnic cleansing. It reminds me of the motto some people are more equal.

It should be mentioned that the Economist is not the only Western media that manipulates realities. For example, German DW has taken an interview with an "innocent, peace-loving" Armenian old woman. In the interview, the woman says in Russian:

No, I will never return there because the Azerbaijanis will not give [Karabakh to us]... artsakh will not be given to us, if we don't fight again if the Armenians dont rebel, take it.

However, DW translates it as:

In Deutsche: Nein, ich glaube Azerbaijan nicht. Ich glaube das nicht, wie sie sagen wir tun es nicht. Ich weie es noch nicht. Das ist einfach nicht wahr, which translated into English as No, I dont believe Azerbaijan, I dont believe what they say, that they wont do anything. I don't know that yet. It's simply not true."

Another example of Armenia-centric, Anti-Azerbaijani bias of the Western jounalism. This time @DeutscheWelle is intentionally milding down a revenge seeking Armenian to present her as a pacifist victim:



The Armenian woman accually says:

No, I will never return there because the pic.twitter.com/2uUd5yCtFM  9000rpm (@mingo677) September 29, 2023

It seems DW does not know that all Azerbaijanis are bilingual and most of them are fluent in Russian and English.

In a nutshell, I would like to conclude that such games have not worked so far, and it will not further. The West cannot save Armenia with such games. As for reconciling and forgetting everything like the Germans and French, we Azerbaijanis are ready. But we want that reconciliation with Armenia to be the same as Germany and France. For example, Germany paid good compensation to France and some parts of former Germany came under the control of France. Even, as is known, Germany divided into two parts after WWII. So, we will be very happy if Armenia pays good compensation, some parts of Armenia, such as Zangazur, come under the control of Azerbaijan, and Armenia is divided into two parts.

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Qabil Ashirov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @g_Ashirov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
3 October 2023 13:40 (UTC+04:00)

Elnur Enveroglu Read more

In Armenia, young children are brought up in the spirit of revanchist, terrorist and bloodthirsty. In recent days, the videos shared on social media networks have been widely showing minors using weapons, getting involved in military training and similar activities.

A group of Armenian terrorists, who could not get rid of the illusions they formed in their brains for many years, became more aggressive after the fiasco of separatism in Garabagh and allegedly spread loud opinions about returning to Garabagh in the future.

Currently, the most active supporter of Armenian terrorism is the non-governmental organization VoMa of Armenia. The terrorist organization, where Gucci model Armine Harutyunyan received armed training, has not given up despite Azerbaijan's decisive victory.

The gang, founded by so-called professional soldiers and a group of "veterans" in 2014, is engaged in gathering financial support to implement anti-Turkish and anti-Islamic principles. Although it may not sound unusual, we must note that currently, young children are included in the military exercises organized by VoMa. By providing real weapons and explosive devices to minors in the age group of 13-16 years and indoctrinating them in savagery, the organization is clearly violating the law in a serious way.

Although VoMa does not have a special financial base, today financial assistance is provided to the organization from the account of the Armenian diaspora, lobbyists and a number of foreign organizations and companies pursuing anti-Azerbaijani and anti-Islamic pronciples. VoMa, which has developed its own website, allegedly wants to organize a complete defense system and says that it needs 100,000 US dollars per month for making a tough military structure.

It should be noted that the VoMa terrorist organization is not the first in the Middle East and the Caucasus. Before that, a large number of organizations with different names were established for the spread of terrorism in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and other countries, and all of them were destroyed during anti-terrorist operations.

Armenian separatists show the same attitude towards children as they treated Armenians in Garabagh. The enemies of humanity, who can no longer brainwash adults, use children as tools as a last resort. The absence of patriotic feelings in Armenia is inevitable. Because the one who does not have a homeland does not have a sense of homeland. Many people in Yerevan also understand this and knew in advance that the latest situation in Garabagh would happen at some point. As they saying goes, You shouldn't take what doesn't belong to you. Armenia wanted to take the Azerbaijani lands by force, but time prevailed again.

VoMa doesn't want to back down

The 'Threats' section on the website of the terrorist organization, into which an official investigation was opened by Azerbaijan after the Second Garabagh War, is particularly striking.

Describing Armenia as an 'outpost' against the Turks for 1000 years, VoMa reminds that with the collapse of Byzantium, the Turks were waiting at the walls of Vienna. Claiming that Armenians fought alone against the Ottomans, the organization particularly emphasizes its Christian identity.

Besides, claiming that Armenia is not only a wedge in the Islamic or Turkish world, but also a wedge in the body of ailing Eurasia, VoMa writes that if this does not happen, 'aggressive' Turkiye will reach the borders of Russia and Iran, and even the Great Wall of China. Arguing that any conflict with Turkiye would mean a 'world war', the illegal armed organization concludes its fantasies by claiming that a 'strong' Armenia will prevent the outbreak of a world war.

Armenian mercenary groups who are wanted internationally by Azerbaijan

During the First and Second Garabagh War, various information was obtained about the use of mercenary soldiers by Armenia. Facts about the recruitment of Armenians from Syria, Lebanon and Palestine into the army were also revealed during the Second Garabagh War. Any party that does not belong to the Armenian army and participates in the war against the Azerbaijani army based on certain interests from outside is considered to have grossly violated Azerbaijani legislation as well as international laws. For this reason, the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan appealed to the Interpol regarding the above-mentioned facts and started an international search for the war criminals.

Despite this, currently more than 300 war criminals have not been arrested. Some of them live in Yerevan, and some live in foreign countries. No initiative is taken to surrender criminals. On the contrary, all diaspora and lobby organizations, including the Armenian authorities, are forming financial resources with the claim and desire to gather military forces again against Azerbaijan. It is a fact that Anna Hagopyan, the wife of the Prime Minister of Armenia, participated in military exercises during the Patriotic War, which spread only a negative impression to armenian community.

Today, the Armenian side is trying to send a 'message' to Azerbaijan by involving minors and persons who do not have the right to military service in armed training. However, on September 20, after the last anti-terrorist measures carried out by the Azerbaijani Army, the world witnessed that thousands of illegal armed groups surrendered by raising a white flag. Therefore, neither Armenia nor Armenian lobbyists abroad can achieve anything with such dramatic scenes.

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Elnur Enveroglu is AzerNews deputy editor-in-chief, follow him on @ElnurMammadli1

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
3 October 2023 16:40 (UTC+04:00)

By Parvin Mirzazadeh

Vardan Oskanyan, the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, and now a man without a specific type of activity, decided that it was time to return to the Armenian political Olympus, from where he fled miserably in 2008, after the change of power in the country. At the beginning of the 2000s, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vardan Minasovich presented himself as a man of the West in the leadership of Armenia, which was then focused on a close alliance with the CSTO and the EAEU.

In those days, Oskanyan literally did not leave the capitals of Western states, where on the sidelines he assured his colleagues that the then president, the militant R. Kocharyan, was determined to change the countrys foreign policy orientation as soon as the Garabagh issue was resolved in favor Armenia. It was then that Vardan Jan, who had a mind-boggling diplomatic career, was appointed to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, only because he always boasted of his connections with Western politicians and the influential foreign diaspora, and had a good command of English, which distinguished him favorably from other members of Kocharyans team, who were mainly representatives of the Karabakh clan, militant bandits coming a long way through the First Garabagh War.

As the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia for 10 years (from 1998 to 2008), Oskanian distinguished himself by blatantly lying to the international community, speaking about the readiness of the Armenian side to come to a peace agreement with Azerbaijan. At the same time, he took an irreconcilable position at the negotiations under the auspices of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, where he demanded that the occupation of Azerbaijani territories be recognized as the legitimate right of the winner Armenia.

Everyone already knows how it all ended. The unlucky diplomat V. Oskanyan lost his lucrative sinecure - the post of head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2008, falling out of favor with the third President of Armenia Serzhik Sargsyan, who himself preferred to control the cash flows coming from the foreign diaspora, without the need for such intermediaries, who put the lion's share of the proceeds money in his pocket for a bad day. Left out of work after resigning from the post of minister, Vardan Minasovich tried his luck in the domestic political field and even at some point took part in parliamentary elections as an opposition candidate. But alas, luck turned away from him and for many years Oskanian vegetated in the margins, only occasionally appearing in public.

The Velvet Revolution of May 2018 and the coming to power of pro-Western forces led by N. Pashinyan gave Oskanyan hope of returning to the Armenian political establishment, but the new Armenian authorities did not need the old seasoned liar with suspicious connections in the North and West and Vardan Minasovich went to the bottom again. Thus, Vardan jan remained silent until November 2020, when he decided to get down to business in order to return to power again on the wave of dissatisfaction with Nikol for the defeat of Armenia in the Second Garabagh War. And Oskanian suffered.... Over the past three years, he has not left the front pages of the Armenian media, where he wholeheartedly throws mud at the current Armenian authorities for capitulation, inability to conduct diplomacy and the loss of national identity,

Vardan Minasovich seemed to have perked up after a long lethargic sleep. He began to speak on all possible media platforms on occasion and without occasion, harshly criticizing the current Armenian authorities and promoting himself as the new savior of the illusory dream of Miatsum-Artsakh, which has already rotted in the dustbin of history. Either V. Oskanyan assured the Armenian society that he knows how to return the lost Azerbaijani territories, then he said that it is necessary to change the philosophy of the negotiation process, where Armenia should take a tough position that will bring success. The incorrigible liar V. Oskanian lies just to arouse interest in his person, whose reputation is already greatly damaged by the criminal acts of his unlucky son.

Having grown a beard for greater respect, V. Oskanian has adopted new technologies and widely uses social networks, hoping that influential representatives of the Armenian diaspora will notice him and open their wallets to him again so that he can regain his former, lost luster for years of forced vegetation in the shadows. All his speeches and tweets are sharp criticism of Nikol Vovaevich, whom he still cannot forgive for rejecting the hand extended by Vardan Minasovich. Its no secret that he was so hoping to return to the comfortable chair of the head of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, and N. Pashinyan chose and preferred the former unlucky speaker, an art critic by profession, Ararat Mirzoyan.

The latest events of September 19-20, 2023, which buried all the hopes of the world Armenians for a possible revenge, leading to the final end of the conflict and the elimination of the remnants of the separatist regime on the territory of Azerbaijan, inspired Oskanian to a number of new opuses on social networks (since the Armenian masses The media have already stopped publishing the former minister), full of malice, Turkish phobia and ignorance of the basic norms of international law.

To begin with, someone who has grown old in the field of lobbying the interests of the worlds Armenians stood up to defend Rubik (R. Vardanyan), who was arrested in Azerbaijan for supporting terrorism, who still has to while away long days in prison and whom he clearly always disliked for possible competition in domestic politics front.

However, money does not smell. Oskanyan rushed into the attack, demanding the immediate release of Rubiks Cube, citing the fact that the Azerbaijani authorities allegedly do not have the right to detain an Armenian citizen who was defending his people. Of course, such zealous act of Vardan Minasovich, generously paid for by members of the Rubiks family, was enthusiastically greeted by fans of the arrested R. Vardanyan, but did not find a response at all among ordinary Armenian citizens, for whom the fate of the fugitive Moscow billionaire oligarch is far from interests. Apparently, the beacon of Armenian diplomacy, who was constantly proud of his deep knowledge in the field of international law, forgot that any citizen of Armenia, before visiting Azerbaijan, must first obtain a visa, R. Vardanyan illegally entered the territory of the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan, without the consent of the relevant Azerbaijani authorities with a Russian passport, later renouncing his citizenship. For a long time, Ruben financed the separatist regime under the pretext of providing humanitarian assistance, carried out the illegal construction of military infrastructure in the occupied Azerbaijani territories and facilitated the resettlement of citizens of third countries there, was engaged in the theft of the regions natural resources, and much more. It was R. Vardanyan, being a citizen of Russia, who sent his over-aged son to serve in the Armenian army in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, which he always showed off to the leaders of the foreign Armenian diaspora as an example of his hyperpatriotism and taught them to do the same.

This is only a short list of the crimes committed by Vardanyan, and for all these acts the client of the free lawyer V. Oskanian will have to answer to the court and then spend many years in Azerbaijani correctional institutions.

Realizing that you cant make money especially on a failed map of Ruben Vardanyan, especially since the diaspora in the West doesnt care about it, Vardan Minasovich made a sensational statement that can be qualified as his new know-how.

A short quote from his speech: I often hear the opinion that for 30 years we have been told that artsakh cannot be part of Armenia. I am now throwing down the gauntlet to these people: if these people, someone from 1998 to 2020 will show me a statement from the head of any serious country, which says that artsakh (meaning the former occupied territories of the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan) is part of Azerbaijan, or the issue of artsakh should be resolved within the framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, I will ask for forgiveness all of you".

Well, what can I say after that? Apparently, the hapless liar needs to be reminded of 4 UN Security Council resolutions, and the decisions of the Budapest and Lisbon OSCE Summits, the resolutions of PACE, OIC, NATO, the Non-Aligned Movement and many other respected international and regional organizations, statements of dozens of individual countries, including Italy, Egypt, Turkiye, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Romania, Hungary, China, the USA, Russia and many others, which clearly and specifically expressed support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, including the Garabagh region, without any exceptions or reservations. So its time for Mr. V. Oskanian to shave his beard and apologize for his lies and misinformation, so that the citizens of Armenia deceived by him can spit in his face for the fact that he led them by the nose for many years and called for them to fight to the victorious end.

Continuing to lie, V. Oskanyan, in his next slanderous speech, again accused the current Armenian authorities of saying that if they had followed the essence and context of the Tripartite Statement of November 10, 2020, Garabagh and the Lachin corridor would have been Armenian. Well, the former minister could not have come up with more nonsense, since judging by his speech, he cannot forgive N. Pashinyan for being left without a job at a time when he could have earned good money and at the same time raised his rating in the eyes of rich sponsors.

Well, first of all, the reading and interpretation of the Tripartite Statement in the distorted version of Oskanian is fundamentally different from what is written there. In reality, the Armenian side did everything possible to not fulfill these promises. As for the former ministers complaints that the Armenian leadership was rushing in different directions, looking for support on the side, for the first time he told the truth, but distorted the meaning of these rushing. After all, attempts by official Yerevan not to fulfill its obligations under the Tripartite Statement and the search for new mediators who could influence Azerbaijan were the main reasons for the Armenian sides deviations from fulfilling the points of this document.

Well, in order to exalt himself in the eyes of the audience, Vardan Minasovich stated that when he was the head of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the Madrid Principles were adopted as the basis for negotiations within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, which would ultimately lead to a referendum on independence of the Armenian population . Having puffed out his cheeks with importance after this sensation, Oskanyan forgot to add that at the same time, Armenia had to ensure the liberation of all occupied Azerbaijani territories, withdraw its troops, ensure the return of refugees and displaced persons, and then the future of the Armenian population had to be decided on referendum, which was to be held on the territory of the entire Azerbaijan, and not, as proposed by the Armenian side, only on the territory of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous surrounding.

What a short memory this former chief Armenian diplomat has. Surely, he still thinks that no one will refute his lies and no one will bring him to light.

And at the end of his spacious speech, Oskanian said his main smart thought. They say that for him, in spite of everything, the Garabagh issue is not closed, which finally put an end to himself as a more or less serious diplomat. If for Vardan Minasovich the conflict is not over, then for the whole world this issue is closed once and for all. Probably, this incorrigible liar and rabid revanchist, who still lives in the past, wants to shed rivers of blood again, placing new victims on the altar of artsakh-miatsum, without soiling his sleek hands, which from birth held nothing except a spoon and fork. But all this will not change the course of history.

As President Ilham Aliyev stated, speaking on September 29, 2023 in Zangilan at the second Azerbaijan National Urban Planning Forum: I advise both the leadership of Armenia, and those who stand behind them, and those who may be thinking about some unacceptable plans regarding Azerbaijan "not to test our patience once again. We are patient, but firm, and we can prove that we are right. Not because we have power, but because the truth is on our side." So Mr. incorrigible liar should not try Azerbaijans patience again, because the truth and international law are on the Azerbaijani side and the entire world community knows about this.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
3 October 2023 21:30 (UTC+04:00)

Rena Murshud Read more

The Armenian Parliament ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in its last session. It is interesting that the ratification coincides with the birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to whom Armenians once took refuge. According to the claim, the decision will enter into force on October 7, that is, on the birthday of President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. But although there is no evidence to say that this was a premeditated plan, Erivan's desire to prepare an unforgettable "gift" to the Russian leader is quite clear.

It should be noted that according to the ratified document, Vladimir Putin may be arrested during his visit to Armenia. This decision was proposed by Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Armenia on September 11. According to him, if the CSTO does not fulfill its obligations, the Hague court will significantly strengthen the security of Armenia.

Such a decision of the Prime Minister was not welcomed in the country, it is even noted that this decision will lead to deep cracks in Armenia-Russia relations in the future and even more serious complications.

Russian political analyst Darya Grevchova, who commented to AZERNEWS, expressed her views on the issue. According to the political scientist, such a step by Pashinyan is the hardest slap for Russia.

"Armenia's current ratification of the Rome Statute shows that it has taken unfriendly steps towards Russia and is a clear manifestation of its enmity towards Russia. Although Pashinyan, who avoids Russia, has repeatedly declared that he cannot arrest Vladimir Putin, today everyone understands very well that these are empty words, and in fact, Pashinyan can take any action. Therefore, Vladimir Putin, of course, will not risk and check Pashinyan in this way."

Saying that the step taken by the Armenian leader is a blow against the Kremlin, the expert interpreted the matter as follows: "Because Armenia is a member of both the CSTO and the Council of Europe. There are also great economic relations between the countries. Most importantly, a large number of Armenians live in Russia, about 2.5 million, and huge Armenian diasporas are located in Russia. Now, this kind of policy of Pashinyan towards the west is an action to fulfill the orders of the Western and European forces. Such a step of the prime minister is also an indication that he puts his own interests above the interests of the Armenian people. If Pashinyan cared about the interests of his people, he would do everything to improve the situation. But Pashinyan appeals to Western patrons in order to remain in power, breaking relations with Russia, as well as creating a second Ukraine from his own country in the future," the expert said.

Darya Grevchova unequivocally stated that Russia will react negatively to the ratification of the Rome Statute. Also, Moscow will declare that Yerevan is taking unfriendly steps. Nevertheless, concrete action or reaction against Armenia is not expected yet.

"Russia is aware of everything and clearly sees that Pashinyan, with the help of Western curators, is trying to distance him from the South Caucasus. He wants to blame Russia for all the difficulties that Armenia is currently facing. The large protests that are currently taking place on the streets of Yerevan are also a provocation designed to disrupt the alliance between Russia and Armenia. All this will have a negative impact on our relations.

Whatever Pashinyan does is his sovereign right. But it should be noted that the West's intention is to harm Russia indirectly by means of Armenia. Helping and promising a better future for Armenians is not a characteristic of the West at all," the Russian political scientist added.

In conclusion, speaking about the effects of Pashinyan's political manoeuvres in the South Caucasus in the context of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, Darya Grevchova noted that this situation will have a positive impact on the region.

"Russia will get closer to Azerbaijan and become its main reliable partner in the Transcaucasus. Various economic and logistically important projects will be developed with Azerbaijan. In addition, it is known to everyone that Azerbaijan has close relations with Turkiye. Also, Turkiye is one of the countries that does not join sanctions against Russia. Therefore, Russia's cooperation within the Azerbaijan, Turkiye triangle will only be beneficial for all sides. Also, Moscow's interest in the development of transport corridors in addition to the region is very great. Therefore, all this will affect the strengthening of Russia-Azerbaijan and Russia-Turkiye relations. As for Armenia, its current policy is no more than to marginalise itself in this alliance," the expert added.

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Rena Murshud is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @RenaTagiyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
3 October 2023 17:51 (UTC+04:00)

By Akbar Hasanov, Day.az

Everything about this news is funny. As the Armenian media happily report, Nancy Pelosi and 75 members of the US Congress called on the presidential administration to impose sanctions on Azerbaijan, stop US military assistance to Baku, provide humanitarian assistance to the population forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh, and place international observers in the Lachin corridor".

Lies, as we see, here sit on lies and drive with lies. As we have already mentioned in previous publications, the United Nations (UN) has not recorded any evidence of negative behavior towards the Armenian residents of Garabagh, who leave these territories of their own free will and move to Armenia. This has already been stated by the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Armenia, Kavita Belani.

In addition, the UN mission, which recently visited the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan, published a final statement. In the places it visited, the mission did not detect damage to civilian public infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and housing, as well as cultural and religious sites. The mission saw that the government of the Republic of Azerbaijan is preparing to resume medical services and some public services in the city, the statement reads.

But that was not all. The statement also said that the mission had not received any complaints from either local residents interviewed or interlocutors regarding incidents of violence against civilians since the ceasefire. Additionally, while passing through Aghdam, the mission noted the destruction in that city during the Armenian occupation and the need for mine clearance, as well as reconstruction efforts undertaken by the Azerbaijani government.

This alone is enough to understand how absurd, cynical and smelling a mile away of Armenian cognac and dollars the initiative of the American congressmen led by Nancy Pelosi looks. But Ill add one more important fact here so that their stupidity can be seen by everyone. The fact is that even the US State Department refused to call the departure of Armenians from the Garabagh economic region of Azerbaijan ethnic cleansing.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the United States takes allegations of "ethnic cleansing," "genocide" and other atrocities seriously: "We are aware of the situation. We will not hesitate to take appropriate action to respond to allegations of atrocities and bring those responsible to justice." "When we have evidence that it happened. But, as always, the decision to commit genocide or ethnic cleansing is a deliberate, fact-based process. I certainly can't talk about that right now."

Actually, the Garabagh Armenians cannot even be called refugees. They (Garabagh Armenians) are actually entering the country whose passport they hold (Armenia), so they are not refugees, said world-renowned regional security expert Robert Cutler about the return of Garabagh Armenians to Armenia. And this is the truth that biased American congressmen do not want to hear.

Their goal is simple and obvious - to help Armenia, which lost the war, feel at least something resembling the taste of victory in its mouth. At least in the form of condemnation of Azerbaijan. Such attempts failed twice in the UN Security Council. And now, as we see, there is an attack through the American Congress. At the same time, there are steps that run counter to the national interests of the United States. Severing relations with the leading state of the South Caucasus, which is Azerbaijan, in addition to the obvious complication of relations with Turkiye, which plays an indispensable role for the United States - and all this for the whim of a bunch of biased American congressmen?!

Yes, each of them carries a price tag. We all already know the price of Nancy Pelosi. In particular, her visit to Yerevan cost Armenian taxpayers $120 million. Of which $50 million is a one-time contribution to the Democratic Party, and the balance of $25 million is the cost of the visit itself, including flights and security for 72 hours. This is a perfect example of political corruption. But in the USA they prefer to pretend that this is not so.

They generally pretend that they do not see the US Armenian diaspora buying up congressmen and senators. Even after some of them, like the notorious Menendez, are caught taking bribes and receive serious charges against them, including charges of trading in secrets of national importance. Considering all this, we are faced with only one question - how much did this entire anti-Azerbaijani campaign cost the Armenian diaspora in the United States? We are talking, I suspect, about hundreds of millions of dollars. Which would be better spent on direct and open assistance from the Armenian diaspora in the United States for the Armenian minority in Garabagh. But the fact of the matter is that they crave something completely different. They are working on how to reignite the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. And now we will see whether the White House will follow the lead of these provocateurs. In my opinion, it is unlikely that the United States can afford such a luxury. Armenia, even if there is an attempt to encourage it for the adoption of the Rome Statute, was not, is not and will not be for the United States a state equal in importance to Azerbaijan, and even more so to the Azerbaijani-Turkish tandem.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
3 October 2023 16:18 (UTC+04:00)

Rena Murshud Read more

The participation of the Mexican delegation in events dedicated to World Habitat Day will help strengthen cooperation with Azerbaijan in the field of urban planning, Azernews reports.

Mexican Ambassador to Azerbaijan Maria Victoria Romero Caballero said this at a press conference.

As part of the trip to Azerbaijan, the Mexican delegation visited Zangilan, where Mr. President spoke at the opening of the forum, who spoke about the process of restoring the liberated territories. I believe that the participation of the Mexican delegation in such an event will help us strengthen our cooperation in the field of urban development, the ambassador said, noting that it is a great pleasure for the Mexican Embassy to host representatives of the state of Queretaro in Azerbaijan.

She added that Azerbaijan is passing the baton of hosting this event to Mexico.

It should be noted that representatives of government agencies of the Mexican state of Queretaro arrived in Baku to participate in the forum Urban Planning Week 2023, held in cooperation with the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT) and the State Committee for Urban Planning and Architecture of Azerbaijan.

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Rena Murshud is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @RenaTagiyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
3 October 2023 17:38 (UTC+04:00)

The State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) issued a statement regarding the sale of foreign currency and noted that sold funds in the amount of $164.5m during September 2023, Azernews reports.

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3 October 2023 18:21 (UTC+04:00)

A regular meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Small and Medium Business Development Agency (KOBIA) under the Ministry of Economy was held, Azernews reports, citing KOBIA.

As the ministry reported, at the meeting chaired by the chairman of the Supervisory Board, Minister of Economy Mikail Jabbarov, information was presented on the activities of KOBIA in the first half of 2022 and 2023, as well as priority areas of development planned for 2024. Measures aimed at developing and supporting small and medium-sized businesses and other issues on the agenda were discussed.

KOBIA Board Chairman Orkhan Mammadov made a presentation on the activities of the agency for the relevant period and reported on the work done in the direction of development of small and medium-sized businesses, increasing their knowledge and skills, expanding access to financial resources and markets, as well as protecting the interests of KOB.

It was noted that during the reporting period, 22 KOB development centers held more than 1,000 trainings for almost 12,000 KOB subjects and persons willing to start their own business, provided consulting services to more than 2200 KOB subjects, and trained more than 500 business specialists. With the issuance of 51 "Startup" certificates, which provide tax incentives for innovation activities to micro and small entrepreneurs, the number of KOB subjects who received this document reached 105.

40 KOBs in the sphere of education, and science, AZN 747.000 were allocated for research and support of projects. At the request of entrepreneurs and on the initiative of COBIA 18 internal market researches were conducted.

Participation of 1133 SMEs in 23 exhibitions was supported. During the reporting period, 25 KOBs utilized the support mechanism for access to trade networks. With the opening of 20 KOB-friendly offices that provide on-site support and services to KOBs, the number of existing offices reached 45.

In 2023, the number of KOB houses increased to 3 with the commissioning of "Baku KOB House", which provides services to entrepreneurs in a single space by public and private institutions. From year to year, there is a positive dynamic of growth in the number of entrepreneurs using the services of KOB houses.

In 2022, KOB Houses will provide more than 73 thousand services to entrepreneurs. In the first half of 2023, more than 197 thousand services were provided. During the reporting period, 14 surveys were conducted with the participation of more than 3,300 SMEs.

Applications were received from 6 KOB subjects under the KOB cluster mechanism, which was implemented this year, and relevant work is being done in this direction.

At the meeting the opinions of the members of the Supervisory Board were heard, discussions were held and relevant decisions were made on the mentioned directions and other issues.

Within the framework of the meeting, Minister of Economy Mikail Jabbarov and members of the Supervisory Board familiarised themselves with the activities of "KOB Baku House" and met with the staff of KOBIA.

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3 October 2023 14:05 (UTC+04:00)

Laman Ismayilova Read more

As part of her visit to Kyrgyzstan, President of the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation Gunay Afandiyeva has visited the Kyrgyz National University Kyrgyz National University named after Jusup Balasagyn.

Gunay Afandiyeva met with the university professors, lecturers (faculty) and students, Azernews reports.

At the meeting, the foundation president was awarded the title of "Honorary Professor of the Kyrgyz National University" for contribution to the preservation of the material and spiritual heritage of the Turkic peoples, as well as strengthening cultural exchange between them.

The decision to award the honorary title to Gunay Afandiyeva was made by the Academic Council of the University on June 29, 2023.

The Rector of the Kyrgyz National University Tolobek Abdyrakhmanov presented Gunay Afandiyeva with a diploma and expressed gratitude to her on behalf of the university for extensive activities aimed at developing the integration process in the Turkic world.

Gunay Afandiyeva thanked the rector and the teaching staff of the university and expressed satisfaction with the stay in the homeland of ancient Manas, the outstanding writer of Chingiz Aitmatov.

She spoke about the ongoing cooperation between the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation and Kyrgyzstan.

Gunay Afandiyeva stressed the importance of preserving the common Turkic culture, noting that supporting initiatives in the field of education and promoting cultural exchange between different peoples is among the foundation's multifaceted activities.

She also presented the Kyrgyz National University with a book of Azerbaijani scientist Adil Jamil "Manas Epic and Turkic Epic Tradition", prepared by the foundation and dedicated to the study and analysis of the epic "Manas" in Kyrgyz and Azerbaijani languages, as well as the book " Sagymbaydyn Manas", published by the organization jointly with the Turkic Academy.

Initiated in 2012, the foundation provides assistance in the protection, study, and promotion of Turkic culture and heritage through supporting and funding various activities, projects, and programs.

The organization carries out its activities in cooperation with TURKSOY and the Turkic Academy.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @lmntypewriterrr

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Azerbaijan's Honored Artist Inna Kostina has demonstrated her batik art works in Latvia city of Liepaja.

Co-organized by the Azerbaijani Embassy in Latvia and Liepaja Museum, the exhibition "Silk Universe" brought together the Liepaja municipality representatives, cultural figures, journalists, as well as art connoisseurs, Azernews reports.

Speaking at the event, Liepaja Museum director Dace Karkla expressed satisfaction that the institution she heads is hosting an exhibition of renowned Azerbaijani artist.

She underlined that the current exhibition is an excellent opportunity for a deeper understanding of the Azerbaijani and Latvian cultures.

Liepaja Museum director expressed confidence that the exhibition will contribute to the further strengthening of cultural ties between Latvia and Azerbaijan.

The First Secretary of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Latvia Bakhtiyar Musayev, poke about Inna Kostina's art, noting that the artist's art works on the themes of Absheron and the Simurg bird, as well as kelagayi, unite major elements of Azerbaijani culture and identity.

He recalled that Traditional art and symbolism of kelagayi was included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on November 26, 2014.

Artist Inna Kostina informed the guests of the event about the exhibition. She stressed that the ideas expressed in the works presented at the exhibition reflect the spirit, customs and traditions, and spiritual values of the Azerbaijani people.

Over the past years, Inna Kostina has taken part in more than 250 various exhibitions. Inna Kostina is famous as an original painter as well as one of the best silk painting specialists on the batik technique.

Since 1987, her works have been represented at the museums and galleries in countries like Azerbaijan, Russia, Georgia, Italy and many others.

The artist also spoke about the kelagayi, which she worked on for 30 years.

Batik art works with the image of the Simurgh bird, kelagayi collection and beautiful landscapes aroused great public interest. The exhibition was widely covered by local media in Latvia.

On the same day, Inna Kostina gave a lecture to students of the Liepaja School of Music, Art and Design, where she shared her experience, spoke about Azerbaijan's rich cultural heritage and batik art.

The exhibition will last until November 26.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @lmntypewriterrr

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3 October 2023 11:31 (UTC+04:00)

The US State Department has not confirmed Armenia's allegations of "ethnic cleansing" in Garabagh, spokesman Matthew Miller said at a press briefing, Azernews reports.

According to Miller, the US takes allegations of ethnic cleansing, genocide, or other atrocities seriously, Miller said: "But as always, the decision on genocide or ethnic cleansing is based on a thoughtful, fact-based process. It's not something I can talk about with any degree of finality from this podium."

Miller also said the US welcomes the UN team's mission to Garabagh. He added that the US would urge Azerbaijan and Armenia to return to peace talks.

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3 October 2023 15:17 (UTC+04:00)

Rena Murshud Read more

Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan - Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev published statistics on humanitarian assistance provided by the central authorities of Azerbaijan to the Armenian residents of Garabagh as of October 3, Azernews reports.

At the moment, more than 40 tons of food and hygiene products, 40 tons of flour, more than 200 tons of fuel, and more than 22 tons of drinking water have been delivered to the Armenian residents of Garabagh, along with other essential items.

It should be noted that the Republic of Azerbaijan has begun practical activities for the reintegration of Armenian residents living in the Garabagh region. In this regard, Ramin Mamedov, appointed responsible for contacts with the Armenian residents of Garabagh, met with representatives of the Armenian residents in the cities of Yevlakh and Khojaly on September 21, 25, and 29, 2023.

During the meetings, plans of the Republic of Azerbaijan for reintegration were presented and discussions were held around this.

It was noted that reintegration is carried out within the framework of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the basis of the Constitution, laws, and international obligations of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Regardless of ethnic, religious, or linguistic affiliation, equal rights and freedoms of everyone are guaranteed, including the safety of everyone.

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Rena Murshud is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @RenaTagiyeva

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3 October 2023 10:00 (UTC+04:00)

Chairman of the State Committee for Work with Religious Institutions (SCC) Mubariz Gurbanli met with a delegation headed by the religious leader of the Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Azernews reports.

According to the report, the chairman of the committee informed the guest in detail about the religious situation in our country, the model of coexistence based on respect and trust, and the activity of DQIDK. Noting that the majority of Azerbaijan's population is Muslim, the Committee Chairman said all religions are treated equally in Azerbaijan. Freedom of religion is fully ensured in our country, there is an ideal balance between secularism and religious values.

M. Gurbanli noted that 995 religious institutions are registered with the state, 37 of which are non-Islamic, and financial aid is regularly allocated to support the activity of religious confessions existing in the country.

The chairman of the National Institute of Religious Education in Azerbaijan informed about the state of religious education in Azerbaijan and noted that the Azerbaijan Institute of Theology, established by the decree of President Ilham Aliyev, is a specialized educational institution in this field and attached great importance to the contribution to the training of professional theologians and theologians.

Noting that Azerbaijan demonstrates an exemplary model of inter-religious dialogue and coexistence, Justin Welbin positively assessed Azerbaijan's secular approach to religion. The guest emphasized the importance of creating all necessary conditions for equal activity of non-Islamic religious communities in the republic and the activity of the National Council for Religious Affairs in this direction.

At the end of the meeting, attended by British Ambassador to Azerbaijan Fergus Auld and Azerbaijani Ambassador to the UK Elin Suleymanov, the guests were presented books published by the State Committee in English, which talks about the climate of religious tolerance in our country.

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3 October 2023 11:56 (UTC+04:00)

Abbas Ganbay Read more

Head of the Press Service Department of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Aykhan Hajizada responded to the statements of the Finnish Ambassador to Azerbaijan with residence in Ankara, who is also the Ambassador to other countries of the South Caucasus Kirsti Narinen, Azernews reports.

The relevant publication was posted on the Azerbaijani diplomat's page on social network X (formerly Twitter).

 committed numerous atrocities agnst Azerbaijanis, while  never targeted Armenian civils, instead ensuring safe environ for their reintegration. Turning a blind eye to the fact confirmed @UN, @UNOCHA, @ICRC, @Refugees that  did not force ns out is nothing but a hypocrisy. https://t.co/udAWabYCOS  Aykhan Hajizada (@Aykhanh) October 2, 2023

"Armenia has committed numerous atrocities against Azerbaijanis, while Azerbaijan has never attacked civilians of Armenian origin, on the contrary, it has provided a safe environment for their reintegration. Turning a blind eye to the statements of the United Nations, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees that Azerbaijan does not evict Armenians by force is nothing but hypocrisy," the statement reads.

It should be noted that the Finnish diplomat said that the Armenian residents of the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan allegedly left the region not voluntarily, but faced "fear of violence".

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3 October 2023 14:26 (UTC+04:00)

"On the occasion of the 14th anniversary of the signing of the Nakhchivan Agreement, which laid the foundations of the Organisation of Turkic States, we warmly congratulate on the Day of Cooperation of Turkic States," the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, Azernews reported.

Started in 1992 as "Summits of Heads of State of Turkic-speaking countries", this process has now turned into a full-fledged international organization thanks to the strong will and joint efforts of the participating countries.

The Organisation of Turkic States aims to rapidly expand and deepen cooperation among member States, harmonize national capacities, and promote peace and stability as a responsible and responsive regional player on the world stage.

Turkiye will continue its tireless efforts to further strengthen Turkic cooperation and make the Turkic world "stronger together," the statement said.

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3 October 2023 11:07 (UTC+04:00)

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Dear Mr. President,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my most sincere congratulations to you and all your people on the occasion of October 3 - German Unity Day.

We attach great importance to the development of relations of friendship and cooperation between Azerbaijan and Germany. It is gratifying that our countries enjoy the active and fruitful cooperation in the political, economic and humanitarian areas.

Azerbaijan is determined to strengthen relations with Germany and continue mutually beneficial cooperation. I am sure that both our intergovernmental relations and our mutually beneficial interaction within the European Union will continue to develop and strengthen.

On this remarkable day, I extend my best regards to you, and wish the friendly people of Germany everlasting peace and prosperity.

Sincerely,

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 30 September 2023

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3 October 2023 12:07 (UTC+04:00)

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Republic of Iraq Abdul Latif Rashid, Azernews reports.

The letter reads:

"Dear Mr. President,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I cordially congratulate you and all your people on the occasion of the national holiday of the Republic of Iraq and extend my best wishes.

I believe that through our joint efforts, Azerbaijan-Iraq relations will continue to develop and strengthen in an atmosphere of friendship and cooperation.

On this festive day, I wish you good health, success in your activities, and the friendly people of Iraq everlasting peace and prosperity.

Sincerely,

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 2 October 2023"

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3 October 2023 12:20 (UTC+04:00)

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to the President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Suk Yeol, Azernews reports.

The letter reads:

"Dear Mr. President,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I sincerely congratulate you and all your people on the occasion of the national holiday of the Republic of Korea.

Relations of friendship and cooperation between Azerbaijan and Korea have good traditions. We are pleased with the development dynamics of our intergovernmental relations and the expansion of our mutually beneficial cooperation.

The Korean companies have been operating very successfully in Azerbaijan for many years. The companies representing your country can contribute to the restoration and reconstruction works carried out in our liberated territories through the use of advanced and modern technologies. By taking advantage of the existing opportunities, I believe that through our joint efforts we will continue to deepen our relations and effective cooperation, which have great potential.

On this festive day, I wish you good health, happiness, and the friendly Republic of Korea everlasting peace and prosperity.

Sincerely,

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 30 September 2023"

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3 October 2023 23:50 (UTC+04:00)

A large-scale International Conference on Cybersecurity  The Importance of Cybersecurity in the Digital World: Approaches, Challenges takes place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on October 3-4, Azernews reports, citing Kabar.

The event is organized by the Cyber Security Center of the Republic of Uzbekistan with the support of the British company DIALOGUE.

The platform will bring together more than 260 participants from foreign countries and representatives of government agencies in the IT sector.

The meeting takes place at the Hilton Tashkent City hotel.

The conference will cover the main issues of cybersecurity: vision of the future development of cyber threats, the latest technological solutions and innovations in protection, and security of critical assets.

At the event, experts will deliver speeches, analyze exciting cases, and discuss the latest digital attacks and ways to counter them.

The planned joint event will provide a platform for regional and international government cybersecurity centers and commercial communities to meet, establish international partnerships, and discuss market trends in the industry.

As part of the international conference, a solemn award ceremony will be held to award the winners of the first cyber defense exercises held in Tashkent  Cyberkent 2023.

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3 October 2023 20:35 (UTC+04:00)

Turkiye expects concrete steps from friendly countries against terrorism, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. Azernews reports, citing Anadolu Agency.

"We want to see concrete steps from our friends along with condemnation. It should be known that statements soothing us and condemning terrorism will not be a balm for our wounds," he said at the opening ceremony of the Council of State's training center.

Reminding that Turkiye has sacrificed thousands of people to terrorism, Erdogan said: "We truly cannot comprehend the tolerant attitude shown to the bloodthirsty killers."

"We cannot explain to ourselves or to our nation the lack of any action against the terrorist leaders despite folders full of evidence," he said.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Interior Ministry building in the Turkish capital, while another terrorist was killed by security forces at the entrance. Two police officers suffered minor injuries in the attack.

The Turkish Interior Ministry confirmed the links of the attackers to the PKK terrorist group.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkiye, the PKK  listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the US, and EU  has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

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Mexicana Airlines will not resume flights to Bakersfield next month as was hoped, but could return when the current economic downturn ends, of
https://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bfl-kentucky-10223.html

Bass Fishing League (BFL) News

BUCHANAN, Tenn. (Oct. 2, 2023)  Boater Jake Lawrence of Paris, Tennessee, caught 10 bass weighing 36 pounds, 14 ounces, to win the two-day MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League tournament on Kentucky-Barkley Lakes in Buchanan, Tennessee. The tournament was the fifth and final regular-season event for the Bass Fishing League LBL Division. Lawrence earned $6,398 for his victory.



There are a lot of fish out there, but theyre just not in a good mood, Lawrence said. Ive never in my life had so many fish come up and follow my bait and not finish the deal.



Lawrence said a cool snap a couple of weeks before the tournament dropped the water temperature by about eight degrees to near 70, and a recent warm trend raised temps back up to around 80. He said he thinks if the warmer temps had held off, tournament weights would have been better.



I really had to make the most of what I had, Lawrence said. I didnt have a specific area or spot. I had a generalized pattern, but I was more or less covering a tremendous amount of water to come across them. The key this week was to find more than one bass.



I could find single bass all over the place, but I could not get them to bite, Lawrence continued. So, I would cover ground until I found a little wolfpack of two to six fish. I could get those to bite. Once one went after it, the others would try to take the bait from them.



Lawrence said he spent the first of competition fishing 15 miles in either direction of the Paris area but felt he couldnt go back to the same water Sunday.



Once they get wise to you, theyre done, Lawrence said. So, Sunday I ran up to the Moors area and spent half my time up there. It really didnt pan out the way I had envisioned up there, so I ran back to the Paris area and finished it out fishing new ground.



Lawrence said he caught the majority of his fish on an unnamed Jenko Fishing prototype bait that is slated for a spring release, although he did catch one of his weigh fish on a Jenko Fishing Booty Shaker Swimbait.



I dont know if that bait needs to be a prototype bait much longer after winning a couple of events here recently, said Lawrence, who also won the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Pickwick Lake Super Tournament on Sept. 10. This week just topped off a few good weeks for me. I really enjoyed this tournament. I didnt know if I was going to win this one. Every win is special, and this was just a cool way for things to work out lately.



The top 10 boaters finished the tournament in:



1st: Jake Lawrence, Paris, Tenn., 10 bass, 36-14, $6,398

2nd: Matteo Turano, Puryear, Tenn., 10 bass, 36-1, $2,824

3rd: Dustin Vaal, Farmington, Ky., 10 bass, 33-0, $1,882

4th: Clint Knight, Lewisburg, Ky., 10 bass, 31-1, $1,518

5th: Harrison Terry, Burns, Tenn., nine bass, 30-12, $1,630 (includes $500 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)

6th: Richard Meuth, Henderson, Ky., 10 bass, 25-7, $1,035

7th: Hunter Fillmore, Waynesville, Ohio, 10 bass, 25-1, $941

8th: Toby Corn, Paducah, Ky., eight bass, 25-1, $847

9th: Sam Boss, Paducah, Ky., 10 bass, 24-13, $753

10th: Bill Schroeder III, Benton, Ky., seven bass, 23-14, $659



Lawrence also had a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 13 ounces that was the heaviest of the event in the Boater Division and earned the Big Bass Boater award of $750. David Workman of Harrisburg, Illinois, won the Co-angler Division and $2,995 Sunday after catching a two-day total of eight bass weighing 17 pounds, 11 ounces.



The top 10 Strike King co-anglers were:



1st: David Workman, Harrisburg, Ill., eight bass, 17-11, $2,995

2nd: Jeff Akers, Benton, Ky., eight bass, 17-9, $1,422

3rd: Ryan Luper, Bowling Green, Ky., five bass, 14-14, $948

4th: Todd House, Hawesville, Ky., six bass, 13-15, $864

5th: Ethan Wheeler, Water Valley, Ky., three bass, 10-12, $1,140

6th: Jedidiah Baggett, Tennessee Ridge, Tenn., three bass, 9-6, $522

7th: Sean Obrien, McKenzie, Tenn., five bass, 8-13, $474

8th: Rodney Childerson, Pocahontas, Ill., three bass, 8-3, $427

9th: Matt Chumbler, Carbondale, Ill., three bass, 8-3, $379

10th: Dennis Taylor, Murray, Ky., three bass, 7-3, $332



Ethan Wheeler of Water Valley, Kentucky, caught the largest bass in the Co-angler Division, a fish weighing in at 4 pounds, 10 ounces. The catch earned him the Berkley Big Bass Co-angler award of $371.
WATCH: Joe Biden says climate change 'is even more frightening than a nuclear war' pic.twitter.com/PF2tPdJmsC  Daniel Turner (@DanielTurnerPTF) September 10, 2023

JOE BIDEN: "The Indian looks at John Wayne and points to the Union soldier and says, 'He's a lying, dog-faced pony soldier!' Well there's a lot of lying, dog-faced pony soldiers out there about global warming.." pic.twitter.com/YCya96xzyV  ALX  (@alx) September 10, 2023

Considering what real news is available for all to witness, and in great specificity, should one pursue what is true outside of the channeled realm of the corrupt corporate /legacy media, and: Is Institutionalized Corruption real, and is it a hindrance to sustaining our Constitutional Republic now, and for future generations of American citizens? Yes No Not sure 257 total vote(s) What's your Opinion?



poll#206

In stripping away the heavy varnish of fakery by the heavy handed Corrupt Corporate Media; in taking a true view of what is real, right now with clear open eyes: How do you see this 46th President of these States United; what is your visceral first impression of Joe Biden after nearly 3 years on the job? A good man, wise and kind The Socialist President A president in praise of his son The Non Patriot President A successful president The Idiot President A knowledgeable president A corrupt president A perfect leader of the Democratic Socialist party The man is married to a "Doctor" 369 total vote(s) What's your Opinion?



President Joe Biden spent part of his overseas trip wringing his hands over the possibility that global temperatures could rise by 1.5, calling the prospectBiden made the comments from a Hanoi, Vietnam, press conference - during which he also referred to those who didn't buy into climate alarmism asand claimed that he'd borrowed the line (which he's used before) from an old John Wayne movie.Biden first called on his Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry, who he said had forgotten more about emissions than most could ever learn.he said.Biden continued, going on to say that the larger and wealthier nations should be doing what they could to prevent developing nations from employing those same strategies.Biden added.During the same press conference, Biden referred toas- a line he's used before and claims he picked up from a John Wayne film.Biden prefaced, adding,The president went on to say something about the headdresses and Union soldiers who were apparently trying to get the Native Americans to go with them somewhere, promising them they'd be taken care of.Biden continued.But despite Biden's insistence that he stole the line from the Duke, TMZ reported that the quote - as Biden delivered it - does not actually exist. Instead, it appears to be a strange mash-up of John Wayne lines crossed with a 1952 Tyrone Power film titled
By: Bill Lee

Up until 2014 our state was top in the country for movie and TV production for decades. But after the state legislature failed to renew the industrys tax credits many companies began to leave the state. Marcie Kelso, the head of the North Carolins Production Alliance reported that this industry made up over 4000 jobs. This is a little know fact to most North Carolinians.

Wilmington North Carolins was rivaling California and many of your most loved productions on screen and Television were filmed there. Now after a long dry spell the industry is getting a boost.

Cinespace, a company out of Canada, has acquired Screen Gems Studios in Atlanta Georgia and in Wilmington North Carolina. Mayor Bill Saffo of Wilmington North Carolina is happy a big studio with Los Angeles connections will be moving into Wilmington North Carolina. In addition, Mayor Saffo is also happy Dark Horse Studios is providing space for motion pictures. Two Studios in Wilmington North Carolina ready to go online for what looks like a very busy season of playing catch-up after the strike is completely over. As of right now, the Writers Guild has made a decision to go back to work so youll see your late-night shows and your talk shows back online.

It will take some time to get new television shows and movies back on track. Im sure the crew in the Wilmington area will be excited about the new studio bringing a multitude of work to a starving film community caught in the wake of the strikes with the Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild.

By Bill Lee
Leftwing Governor Roy Cooper wants to follow Germany and straightjacket North Carolina with expensive and unreliable wind and solar energy. In following that path, Cooper has vetoed SB 678 that would add nuclear energy to what is termed "clean" energy in North Carolina. Nuclear energy is much cheaper to produce than wind and solar energy, and is dependable unlike fickle intermittant wind energy and unreliable solar that never produces at night or in lots of common weather conditions.

Cooper got RINOs to give him NC's Green New Deal, HB951, to go down the wind and solar rabbit hole and opposes the belated attempt to add nuclear.

A good comparison of electric rates is between wind and solar obsessed Germany and next door France which relies mosly on nuclear power. Germany's electric rates are over twice those of nuclear powered France. Of course, coal powered Poland is even cheaper. France is now doubling down on nuclear with a bunch of new nuclear power plants. Poland, Sweden, and Norway are doing the same. Indeed, Sweden recently repealed it policy of pushing wind and solar and is now wholely in the nuclear camp.

The RINO leadership of the NC legislature sold consumers down the river on the NC Green New Deal, HB951, but they are trying to soften that somewhat with SB678, which is at least a step in the right direction.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/regulatory-reform-clean-energy-proposals-vetoed-by-governor
Last year, an Iowa family filed a lawsuit against Iowa City-based ASC ENT Medical Services and one of its physicians after their 2-year-old son died following a routine procedure. The couple has now added the state of Iowa as a third defendant in the case, according to an Oct. 2 report from The Gazette.

The 2-year-old died after a routine procedure to put tubes in his ears and remove his adenoids.

The amendment alleges that the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, overseen by the state of Iowa, allowed a resident to be involved in the child's operation without informing or receiving consent from the family.

"Through the course of discovery, information relating to an additional potentially liable party has come to the plaintiffs' attention," the amendment reads.

According to the lawsuit, Thomas Simpson, MD, an otolaryngologist and chair of the Iowa City Ambulatory Surgery Center's board of directors, was the primary surgeon for the procedure. It alleges he was assisted by fourth-year medical resident Ryan Smith, MD.

The amended lawsuit alleges that Dr. Smith never identified himself to the child's mother as someone who would be involved in the procedure.

In previous court documents, Dr. Simpson and the ASC have denied many of the allegations made against them.






Here are three major ASC-related deals made in September:

Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health officially added Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Sansum Clinic to its healthcare system. Since the start of partnership discussions, Sutter and Sansum have championed the expansion of Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Foothill Surgery Center, which is now opening newly constructed operating rooms. UnitedHealth Group is looking to take a majority ownership stake in Guilford (Conn.) Surgery Center. The surgery center sold a 49 percent non-controlling interest to Surgical Care Affiliates, which is part of UnitedHealth's Optum division, in 2022. Now, the surgery center is seeking permission from state regulators to sell an additional stake to SCA and UnitedHealth to give them 58 percent controlling interest. Amedisys shareholders approved a $3.3 billion acquisition by Optum. Optum announced plans to merge with Baton Rouge, La.-based home and hospice care provider in June.
Pittsburgh-based UPMC Children's Hospital Foundation received an $8 million donation, its largest gift to date from an individual.

The gift was from the estate of David Duchini, who died in 2007. Mr. Duchini ran a trucking company and wanted his assets to be distributed to philanthropic organizations. The donation will support UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, according to an Oct. 3 UPMC news release.

"For Mr. Duchini, he wanted to take care of his family, friends, and of course make a philanthropic impact. After our discussion of his values, we decided that UPMC Children's was a clear choice. Nationally renowned, with innovations and breakthroughs, the overall care at UPMC Children's is unparalleled. Mr. Duchini would be proud of this gift and the future it will create for countless children," Helene Naftali, Mr. Duchini's financial advisor, said in the news release.
Following reports about the influx of thousands of migrants to New York City in the last year alone, the city's health and hospital system  which oversees 11 acute care facilities, five skilled nursing facilities, and 50 other care locations  asserts that "its hospitals are in no way strained" in their capacity to provide that care, a spokesperson told Becker's.

The statement from the spokesperson for NYC Health + Hospitals was shared following an Oct. 3 report from NBC that stated the influx of migrants had been "placing an enormous strain on the city's public hospital system." A statement that the NYC Health + Hospitals spokesperson refuted.

"Our hospitals are more than capable of sustaining care for these migrants alongside our normal patient population," the spokesperson told Becker's.

He also pointed to the New York City Mayor's Management Report for 2023, which shows that the system's unique primary care patient volume increased 3.2 percent, and there was a 5.4 percent increase in NYC Care enrollment numbers as well due to possible causes including "growing confidence in the program, new arrivals to New York City and increased enrollment capacity." The report also notes that the system's overall time to the next available appointment on average is 12 days for adults and 13 for pediatric patients, which is under its target of 14 calendar days. There was also a decrease in the number of uninsured patients in the last year, the report highlights.
Walgreens investors and analysts like the news that the company is close to hiring a CEO with healthcare experience, Bloomberg reported.

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance rallied late last week, rising a nearly one-year high of 6.4 percent Sept. 29, after a report that the company was eyeing former Cigna and Express Scripts executive Tim Wentworth to replace Rosalind Brewer, who stepped down as CEO in August, according to the Oct. 2 story.

"We believe a CEO with a strong managed care and pharmacy benefit background would be a positive development for Walgreens and a promising step toward a potential turnaround," RBC Capital Markets analyst Ben Hendrix said in a note Oct. 1, according to the news outlet. "We believe the leadership transition presents an ideal time to level-set expectations."

In relaying Ms. Brewer's departure, Walgreens' board chair said the company would look for a "successor with deep healthcare experience to lead in today's dynamic environment." That could include someone from the hospital industry, analysts told Becker's. Walgreens has made big bets on healthcare with its huge investments in VillageMD, Summit Health and CareCentrix.

Mr. Wentworth is a "very capable executive with a good track record and reputation, and a lot of goodwill with the Street," Jefferies analyst Brian Tanquilut told Bloomberg, as well as "big company experience that could be useful in the turnaround process for Walgreens."
Texas-based Medical City has named Jonathan Clarke, MD, chief medical officer for two of its hospitals, a 603-bed acute hospital in Plano and a 98-bed acute hospital in Frisco.

Dr. Clarke is board-certified in emergency medicine and is also a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, according to an Oct. 2 news release shared with Becker's.

Dr. Clarke will join Medical City after departing his role as chief medical officer at HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast.

His role takes effect immediately.
Ethical dilemmas are on the horizon as more tech and retail companies enter the healthcare space, according to an Oct. 3 Forbes viewpoint piece by Sachin Jain, MD, president and CEO of SCAN Group and SCAN Health Plan.

Nearly a decade ago, CVS Health made the decision to stop selling cigarettes. By walking away from $2 billion in revenue and millions in profit, the company sent a message to stakeholders that it was "truly in the business of health," according to Dr. Jain.

However, the company continued to sell sodas and sodium-laden foods. At the time, CVS' CEO said foods with poor nutritional value are different from cigarettes because there is no amount of tobacco that can be considered safe, even in moderation.

As more large companies  including Walmart, Amazon, Costco, Apple, Microsoft and Google  crack the healthcare industry, these tensions may be harder to dismiss, Dr. Jain says. It is counterintuitive for retailers to sell obesity-inducing food and alcohol, yet offer healthcare services; similarly, tech companies' platforms can have adverse effects on mental health and help spread misinformation, making healthcare providers' jobs harder.

"If we aren't comfortable selling tobacco to customers with lung disease, why are we comfortable selling sodas to diabetics? And alcohol to people whose health is compromised by it?" Dr. Jain wrote. "It's hard to justify being in both businesses without at least some more deliberate effort to resolve the moral tension."

These decisions are rarely black and white, according to Dr. Jain. He recommends that retail and tech companies openly acknowledge the tension to build trust with consumers. By striving for balance  for example, adding fresh fruits and vegetables to shelves stocked with unhealthy snacks, and even discounting the healthier options  and setting ambitious goals to improve healthcare, companies can both increase revenues and improve health.

"Don't pretend selling primary care next to Cheetos is 'normal,' or that promoting misinformation while selling healthcare devices and services is 'business as usual,'" Dr. Jain wrote.

If retail and tech companies fail to acknowledge the paradox, "the more cynical among us might be right in saying CVS's grand bargain on tobacco was a meaningful exception and the diversification into healthcare isn't anything more than a revenue land grab," Dr. Jain said. "I hope they prove the cynics wrong."
The healthcare field as a career path for women is a tale of two journeys. According to McKinsey, healthcare outpaces other industries in its representation of women. Women account for 75 percent of entry-level healthcare roles, 70 percent of manager roles and 61 percent of senior manager or director roles. But the numbers change dramatically as promotion and retention rates and external hiring fail to keep pace to increase representation at the top. Just 45 percent of healthcare vice presidents are women and only 32 percent of women make it to the healthcare C-suite.

Bucking these national trends is Tufts Medicine. All five member organizations of the Tufts Medicine system are led by women, which is creating a new dynamic at the top of the health system and providing a unique set of role models for aspiring healthcare professionals in the Boston area.

These executives represent a unique blend of women whose early careers were connected to organizations within the current Tufts Medicine health system and those who were attracted to senior leadership roles at an organization that has a long track record of valuing women leaders.

Amy Hoey, the first woman and first nurse to become president of Lowell General Hospital, started her career as a unit secretary at St. Johns hospital  now Lowell Generals Saints Campus. Amys career has spanned being a nursing unit manager, CNO nursing officer and COO before becoming president in 2022.

She credits her career path to being a naturally curious person who likes to problem solve and seek out opportunities. Women in healthcare arent always able to see channels for professional growth, but volunteering and saying, yes with frequency can open doors and lead to rewards, said Hoey.

Since starting in healthcare in 1986, she has welcomed the presence of more women in male-dominated roles. In environments where less trust and collaboration existed, Amy sees visible signs of people lifting each other up and celebrating their successes. With five women presidents across the Tufts Medicine system, we have helped to create a strong sense of comradery and common purpose, said Hoey.

She hopes that the culture she and the other presidents are creating makes Tufts Medicine a destination workplace where employees see opportunities for career advancement at an organization.

Emily Young is another Tufts Medicine executive whose career advanced within the health system. As president of the Tufts Medicine Clinically Integrated Network, a network of private practice and employed physicians as well as academic providers, Young credits her many female mentors with creating collaborative and safe environments where she could grow her career, which began at Blue Cross and Blue Shield New Hampshire and Tufts Health Plan.

Because she has benefitted from inclusive environments throughout her career, Emily is fostering the same experience in her organization, particularly for the next generation of female physician leaders. As female physicians have watched their male counterparts get further ahead, its been rewarding to create a more level playing field for aspiring female physicians.

Young says that broader representation makes people feel more at ease and changes meeting dynamics. When Im in meetings with all men, the environment can be much more challenging. It can take a lot of effort to feel included and to find opportunities to engage.

While healthcare is making steady progress, Young says there is still room for improvement. As deals get bigger and the stakes get higher, the pool of female representatives in the room gets smaller. That needs to change. We need to keep pushing and ensure that gender remains a key consideration with DEI initiatives.

Diana Richardson didnt start her career at Tufts Medicine, but healthcare was a focus as she worked at the front desk of an ambulatory practice. Her career has taken a non-linear path but has culminated in being appointed COO of Tufts Medical Center in 2019 and president in 2022. Her extensive and diverse experience in healthcare operations, including support services, IT and facilities, has helped as healthcare has become more integrated. No parts of the mission and vision are optional. To manage strategy, finance, workforce shortages, DEI, IT and all of the other complexities, you have to be excellent in all aspects of leadership.

She credits her peer women presidents with creating an immediate comfort level for her. Weve been able to quickly create a community that would have been different if I hadnt been a woman. There was an immediate connection that is not typical in traditional work settings, said Richardson.

Despite having distinct personalities, the five presidents take advantage of what each brings to the table. We each bring something different to every meeting and we have our own lanes, but everyone is comfortable expressing her own personality. We tend to be direct and are willing to say what is often difficult, but we also know how to take the temperature down and focus on our vision, according to Richardson.

Outside of meetings, the presidents text each other and are continually working together. Ive had great female colleagues and bosses in my career, but this community of women presidents at Tufts Medicine is something special, said Richardson.

Kelly Corbi joined Tufts Medicine as president of MelroseWakefield Hospital and Lawrence Hospital in 2022 following a career spanning community and academic medicine, ambulatory services, skilled nursing and home health care, and managed care. Prior to Tufts Medicine, Corbi served as system COO for SolutionHealth and was system chief integration officer for LifeBridgeHealth, a five-hospital health system.

Corbi says it was rewarding for her as a job candidate to see so many women leaders. Im used to seeing one or two women in the C-suite, but here we have the reverse. Its so exciting and it makes me really proud, she said.

Corbi has noticed a higher level of engagement and ease with having difficult conversations. Women tend to put things on the table sooner and make decisions instead of letting things linger. I also dont have to wonder if Ive been heard or if Im using the wrong tone, she said.

Tone is something that Corbi has noticed as an area of concern for women executives. Women worry about sounding aggressive, instead of confident and in charge. We should learn to not change our style because thats where our effectiveness is. We need to continue to be who we are. People want strong, effective and transparent leaders. Women can be all those things, said Corbi.

Tufts Medicine is creating a collaborative culture, with the values being demonstrated by these women leaders serving as visible signs of progress. The women presidents are very supportive of each other. We meet weekly to check in with each other. We help each other with projects. When times are tough, we step in to listen and provide suggestions. This is a completely unique experience in my career, said Corbi.

Patricia OBrien is the newest of the five and is serving as president of Tufts Medicine Care at Home. OBrien has a vivid recollection of the first time the presence of her female colleagues struck her. I was walking into a room at a board retreat, and I saw this line-up of the four other women presidents. It was astounding, she said.

OBrien has worked in roles where female voices have been diminished or lost. Its unfortunate because we can add so much, especially to culture discussions and decision-making processes. In one role I had, a male colleague had to come into a room full of men to tell them to listen to me when I was describing a high-stakes situation. It was disheartening that they didnt believe what I was saying until my colleague stepped in, she said.

OBriens experiences at Tufts Medicine have been different. There is much less competition to be heard in our meetings. Were not trying to gauge when and where to have our voices heard, so we can be effective and engaged instead of jockeying for position, she said.

OBrien also speaks to the far-reaching impacts having women leaders has on the Tufts Medicine system. The fact that there are so many women leaders at Tufts Medicine really speaks to the spirit of inclusiveness at our system, she said. I hope people are seeing us as an example of what representation looks like. I know thats true for the women we work with who frequently pull one of us aside to say how proud they are to work at an organization with women in key roles, said OBrien.
Trinity Health Grand Haven (Mich.) Hospital, part of Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health, has withdrawn recognition of SEIU Healthcare Michigan as the bargaining agent of about 200 employees.

In a news release about the decision, the hospital cited a petition it received Sept. 28 that it says indicated that the SEIU has lost majority support of the colleagues it has represented since November. The petition followed a decertification election that took place Sept. 18-19.

The hospital said it received the petition before the counting of the ballots Sept. 29.

"Although the results of the election were in favor of the union, the notice to the SEIU of the withdrawal of recognition was delivered 10 days after the election and prior to the ballot count, thereby taking precedence over the outcome of the election," the release reads.

Trinity Health Grand Haven cited federal labor law allowing an employer to withdraw its authority to bargain with a union when there is objective evidence that the majority of the union members wish to leave the union.

The National Labor Relations Board website states that an employer may "withdraw recognition from a union that has actually lost majority support if the union's presumption of majority status is rebuttable."

"The majority of colleagues have told us they don't want this union," Shelleye Yaklin, president of Trinity Health Grand Haven, said in the release. "We are happy to honor their wishes and are proceeding under federal law with direct partnership. We have notified the SEIU that we have withdrawn recognition of the union and are terminating further bargaining."

After withdrawing recognition of the union, Trinity Health Grand Haven implemented across-the-board wage increases for workers, including those formerly represented by the SEIU, according to the hospital. The increases took effect Oct. 1.

Meanwhile, the union contends that it is illegal for the hospital to withdraw recognition from the date of the decertification election forward for one year. SEIU said in a statement online that Trinity Health Grand Haven is obligated to return to the negotiations and bargain in good faith.

"We remain committed to returning to the negotiating table to win a contract that respects all front-line workers, wins fair raises every year for every worker, and prioritizes safe staffing," Ricky Kauffman, lead radiology tech at the hospital, said in the union's statement. "We are prepared to return to negotiations as soon as possible, but if Trinity continues to violate the federal law, we will pursue every legal avenue available to hold them accountable."

SEIU has filed various complaints with the National Labor Relations Board.
















At least three hospitals have been accused of violating the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act this year in cases in which they allegedly did not provide appropriate care to pregnant patients experiencing medical emergencies.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, providers across the nation were left to navigate a patchwork of state restrictions on abortion. HHS aimed to add clarity to the nation's shifting abortion landscape a month later when it issued guidance to hospitals underscoring that abortion is covered under EMTALA, a decades-old federal law requiring Medicare hospitals to provide all patients appropriate emergency care.

This includes "an appropriate medical screening, examination, stabilizing treatment and transfer, if necessary, irrespective of any state laws or mandates that apply to specific procedures." HHS previously specified that "stabilizing treatment could include medical and/or surgical interventions, including abortion," and that EMTALA preempts state law where abortion is prohibited and does not make exceptions for the health or life of a pregnant person.

In September, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a complaint with HHS accusing Oklahoma Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City of denying an abortion to a woman with a "dangerous" and "nonviable pregnancy." The complaint was filed on behalf of a 26-year-old Oklahoma resident, Jaci Statton, who was transferred to the facility, where medical staff allegedly acknowledged the woman's condition was "serious and that pregnancy was threatening her life" but said they were unable to provide an abortion until her condition deteriorated further. Ms. Statton ended up traveling out of state to receive care.

Becker's previously reached out to the hospital and HHS and will update this story if more information becomes available.

In May, CMS launched probes into two hospitals  Freeman Hospital West in Joplin, Mo., and the University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, Kan.  for allegedly failing to provide stabilizing care to a pregnant patient who was advised her pregnancy was no longer viable. The patient was nearly 18 weeks pregnant when she experienced a premature rupture of membranes.

"Although her doctors advised her that her condition could rapidly deteriorate, they also advised that they could not provide her with the care that would prevent infection, hemorrhage and potentially death because, they said, the hospital policies prohibited treatment that could be considered an abortion," HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a letter to hospitals regarding the investigations at the time. "This was a violation of the EMTALA protections that were designed to protect patients like her."

An HHS spokesperson told CNN that both hospitals were working toward compliance with the federal law in May. Becker's has reached out to HHS regarding the status of the probes and will update the report if more information becomes available.
Children's Hospital Colorado has filed a legal challenge to the Defense Health Agency's planned reimbursement changes to Tricare that the Aurora-based system said would significantly lower the amount it is paid for outpatient services.

The new federal rules, which were scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, would disproportionately affect its Colorado Springs location, which serves a high percentage of Tricare patients, according to an Oct. 3 news release from the pediatric health system.

The system alleges that the planned reimbursement changes would account for an almost 40 percent reduction in outpatient reimbursement and threatens its ability to maintain the current level of care for the entire Colorado Springs community, "including military and nonmilitary patients and families alike."
Newark, Del.-based ChristianaCare has reserved $47 million to settle a kickback lawsuit filed by a former member of its executive team, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sept. 29.

Ronald Sherman  the health system's former chief compliance officer  filed the lawsuit in 2017, alleging ChristianaCare violated the False Claims Act and anti-kickback laws through its relationship with Neonatology Associates, a Newark-based physician group.

The health system provided free services from its employed physicians, residents and nurse practitioners to physicians employed by Neonatology Associates in exchange for referrals to Christiana Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, according to the lawsuit. This relationship allegedly began in 2010 and continued into 2014, when the Neonatology Associates physicians became ChristianaCare employees.

According to the publication, under federal law, hospitals cannot pay physicians for referrals.

The suit alleges ChristianaCare participated in a "similar kickback scheme" in neurosurgery, cardiovascular surgery, urologic surgery and Christiana Hospital's ear, nose and throat practice.

In the year that ended June 30, the health system reported a $22.6 million operating income for the year, reduced by a $45 million reserve for the whistleblower settlement. An additional $2 million was previously set aside for the case, according to the report.

The health system told Becker's it is unable to comment on this pending legal matter, but "look[s] forward to sharing information when and if a settlement is finalized."





Editor's Note: This story was updated Oct.3 at 8:44 a.m. to include a comment from ChristianaCare.
From a New York cardiologist agreeing to relinquish his practice as part of a settlement agreement, to a nurse practitioner convicted in a $200 million scheme, here are 10 healthcare billing fraud cases Becker's reported since Sept. 19:

1. The former medical director of a Texas hospice company was sentenced to 50 months in prison for his role in a scheme that submitted more than $150 million in false claims to Medicare.

2. An Ohio woman who falsely represented herself as a physician and her physician husband were sentenced for a healthcare scheme that led some patients to believe they had cognitive diseases.

3. A Minnesota psychologist was sentenced to two years in prison for fraudulently billing Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community for over $800,000.

4. The owner of two telemedicine companies pleaded guilty to his role in a $44 million fraud scheme involving medically unnecessary durable medical equipment.

5. A Charlotte, N.C., physician was found guilty of making false statements in connection with a scheme that defrauded federal benefits programs of more than $5 million.

6. The Justice Department has obtained $372 million in judgments against Kentucky businessman Rajen Shah and his companies for a laboratory testing scheme that targeted Medicare.

7. A medical equipment provider was ordered to pay $12 million in damages and penalties after being found liable in a Medicare fraud scheme.

8. A New York City physician agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle allegations he overbilled Medicare for services provided to nursing home residents.

9. A Florida nurse practitioner was convicted in a $200 million Medicare fraud scheme.

10. A New York cardiologist agreed to pay $6.5 million and relinquish his practice to settle allegations he paid millions of dollars in kickbacks for patient referrals.
Hospitals contain many security features designed to keep unwanted threats out  think locked entrances, metal detectors, etc.  but they're less equipped to keep certain people in, says Tony Pope, vice president of the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety.

Nationwide, authorities have reported at least five incidents of people in custody escaping from hospitals in the past two months. In one instance, a man tied together towels to rappel down the side of New York City-based Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital. In another, security footage captured a man calmly walking out of St. Louis-based Mercy Hospital South at 4 a.m.

"While it is certainly not what we want to see and it is rare, prisoner escapes in general do not surprise me," Tony Pope, vice president of the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety, told Becker's.

That's because unlike prisons or jails, hospitals aren't designed to be secure facilities. The ability to easily exit hospitals is required for fire and other safety reasons, said Mr. Pope, who also serves as chief of police at Columbus (Ind.) Regional Hospital.

"However, the recent escapes of serious violent felons that have made the news are rare and tend to be more surprising," he added.

There is no single, national effort to track data on prisoner escapes from hospitals, so trends surrounding the prevalence of these incidents are unclear. The U.S. Department of Justice does track data on prisoner escapes overall, which shows a significant drop over the last two decades. Nationwide, 2,231 people escaped from state and federal prisons in 2019, down from 5,168 in 2000, federal data shows.

Prisoners with intentions to escape will look for opportunities any time they leave a secure area, including when they are taken to the hospital for treatment, Mr. Pope said.

While the custodial officers escorting prisoners are primarily responsible for ensuring they remain safe and in custody, hospital police and security officers also have a vested interest to protect the security and safety of everyone within the healthcare facility.

"Anytime a prisoner or someone in custody enters into our facility, they should be seen as a high-risk patient," Mr. Pope said. "That should trigger a response from the healthcare facility police and security to assist that custodial officer to have an elevated level of awareness. They should be working with them to help maintain a safe and civil environment in that area."

Below are five best practices for hospitals to improve collaboration with law enforcement officials and reduce the likelihood of prisoner escapes.

1. Foster collaborative relationships and strong communication with law enforcement. Mr. Pope said it's crucial for hospitals to develop a good collaborative working relationship with law enforcement agencies. He recommended facilities also develop a preplanned process for law enforcement to follow when bringing a prisoner to the facility, whether he or she is being treated as an inpatient or in the emergency department.

Ambulance bays are often an ideal place to have prisoners enter the facility, as it's a secure area and allows the prisoner to quickly be brought into the hospital's interior hallways, reducing the chances for them to escape. If preplanned, hospital security can also be at the entry point to aid in security support.

"When you have a structured plan in place, I think the prisoner senses that as well," Mr. Pope said. "If they're predisposed to try to escape, and they realize that there's a plan in place, people are communicating and everyone is on the same page, it reduces the chances that they're going to try."

2. Standardize internal hospital processes. Hospitals should create a prisoner patient policy that security and clinical staff are educated on. Hospital security and police should also work to hardwire processes into their daily operations that keep them up to date on all high-risk patients in their facilities, especially those in law enforcement custody. This information allows hospital police to plan for frequent security rounding or increase security presence in appropriate areas, Mr. Pope said.

The International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety also has a rich library of educational resources and guidelines on prisoner patient security that hospitals can reference, according to Mr. Pope.

"If your security director or hospital police chief is not involved in IAHSS, he or she is missing out," he said.

3. Create a law enforcement or forensic patient orientation packet. Once security protocols are established, hospitals should create an orientation packet that outlines everything law enforcement officers should know when bringing prisoners to the facility for treatment. Packets should include information on:

Procedures for responding to unusual clinical events and incidents.

Standard precautions (universal body substance precautions).

The distinctions between administrative and clinical seclusion and restraint.

The hospital's channels of clinical, security and administrative communications.

Important policies that apply to all persons who are on hospital property.

Patient's rights and confidentiality.

How to interact with patients, employees, and customers of the hospital.

Emergency and evacuation procedures.

Confidentiality expectations.

"This allows the custodial officer to understand what's going on around them, what's expected of them, and also how to get a hold of your security department if they need support," Mr. Pope said.

4. Designate areas for high-risk patients. Hospitals should also consider designating certain rooms to accommodate prisoners and other high-risk patients, especially in the ED. Leaders must ensure these rooms do not contain medical equipment or other items that could become weapons and do not have areas where a patient could hurt themselves, Mr. Pope said.

5. Don't assume escapes won't happen at your hospital. Mr. Pope stressed the importance of hospitals proactively investing time and energy to mitigate any vulnerabilities that might lead to prisoner escapes.

"The outcome of such an incident can range from the prisoner simply escaping with nobody hurt all the way to the unthinkable loss of life," he said. "You just cant afford to have a mindset that this only happens somewhere else."
Healthcare is not immune to shortages and other workforce challenges stemming from factors such as financial strain, burnout and employee departures. However, a bright spot recently emerged in a new analysis from Altarum.

The analysis of monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data found that healthcare employment is 3.2 percent above where it was before the COVID-19 pandemic began in February 2020 and now is above the 2.6 percent increase in non-healthcare employment over the same period. Hospital employment specifically is 2.1 percent above its pre-pandemic level, and ambulatory care setting employment is 7.8 percent higher. At the same time, employment in nursing and residential care is 5.7 percent lower than its pre-pandemic level.

Skilled specialist positions such as physicians, advanced practice providers and nurses are still short. But the data raises the question: What jobs are driving healthcare growth?

Perhaps recent coverage and interviews by Becker's shed some light on the issue.

For example, we reported that Renton, Wash.-based Providence experienced a record year for hiring, filling 33,000 positions so far this year, about 19,000 of which were filled by external candidates. This represents a 15 percent increase in total fills and a 23 percent increase in external hires compared with 2022. Providence has also seen close to a 20 percent increase in retention.

"These factors, working together, have led to some of our lowest vacancy rates, though some units and clinics remain understaffed," spokesperson Melissa Tizon told Becker's. "We're aiming to continue improving, so we can decrease caregiver burnout and ensure every unit and clinic has the capacity to serve our communities as fully as possible."

The 33,000 positions filled are largely registered nurses and other nursing roles, such as certified nurse assistants, according to Ms. Tizon. The other jobs included in this figure are other patient-facing roles, such as medical assistant, environmental services technician, patient services specialist, food service attendant, emergency tech, respiratory care practitioner, security officer, and phlebotomist.

In a prepared statement shared with Becker's, Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser said it has hired more than 50,000 front-line employees in the last two years, and included in this year's new hires are more than 9,800 people hired into jobs represented by the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. Kaiser said both parties agreed in April to a goal of hiring 10,000 new people for coalition-represented jobs by the end of this year. Kaiser expects to reach this goal by the end of October, if not sooner.

A spokesperson told Becker's the most commonly filled roles include medical/clinical assistant, aid/assistant clerk, licensed vocational nurse-licensed practical nurse, housekeeping and service representative.

Another area of hiring worth noting is in the IT realm. Large health systems  including Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare and Houston-based Memorial Hermann  have switched their EHRs from Oracle Cerner to Epic, potentially affecting IT jobs. Pittsburgh-based UPMC announced in September that it will be transferring 6 million patient records from nine EHRs to Epic Systems. This task will involve 600 information technology technicians and as many as 1,200 physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other clinicians, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Sept. 5.

Monica Wharton, executive vice president and COO of Memphis, Tenn.-based Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, also identified data analytics as a growth opportunity.

"Data analytics plays a big role in what we're trying to do in healthcare as we use our data to inform our decisions more," she told Becker's. "That is key not only from a quality perspective but also operationally within the health system.

"Right now, everybody from a financial perspective is ensuring that they take a look at their operations to see, 'How can we be more efficient in our operations?' Because it's about the right care at the right time at the right cost for our patients. And so, definitely, anything in data analytics is also a growth opportunity I would say in healthcare right now."

While the jobs numbers are improving overall, some departments within hospitals may still be feeling the strain from staffing shortages.

Brenda Simpson, DNP, RN, division senior vice president and chief nursing officer, facilities, at Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health, told Becker's she has noticed accomplishments when it comes to retention, specifically related to clinician roles. But she acknowledged that vacancy remains a challenge.

"I know we are below our region in terms of vacancy rates. So we're very pleased, and we really believe listening to our clinicians and acting on their voice is what's going to retain," Dr. Simpson said during an interview about summits that allow front-line clinicians to consistently weigh in on staffing plans.

"But we still see vacancies. I know that we're specifically struggling with imaging technologist and imaging roles as well as surgical tech roles. And I don't think we're alone in that," she said.

Moving forward, clinical and nonclinical staffing shortages are likely to persist, Fitch projects. But hospitals and health systems at the same time continue to eye growth opportunities and hire a variety of roles.
The world of work has undergone a dramatic transformation since the beginning of the pandemic with remote working emerging as a prominent feature.

Tomorrow, Ulster University Economic Policy Centre is set to release new research which reveals a striking trend in Northern Ireland.

The adoption of remote working appears to be significantly trailing behind not only other regions in the UK but also regions across the Republic of Ireland.

As the working world seems to be radically changing, we have been asking why this contrast exists and what role do businesses and managers have to play.

Read more Arts educator originally from US thanks rise in remote working during pandemic for move from Belfast to countryside

Rewinding to a pre-pandemic world, approximately a fifth of workers in the Republic engaged in remote working in some way, albeit with the majority working from home sometimes opposed to regularly. In stark contrast, NI lagged behind at a mere 9%.

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic challenged our preconceived ideas of the workplace and the capabilities of technology to facilitate remote work.

Suddenly, the traditional office was no longer the sole option. Government restrictions resulted in soaring levels of remote working, across the island of Ireland approximately 40% of employees worked remotely, although some estimates would put this figure much higher in the RoI.

However, following the relaxation of restrictions the rates of remote working in NI have since receded, reverting to patterns that closely resemble the pre-pandemic status quo observed in other parts of the UK and RoI.

As of quarter one 2023, the levels of remote working in NI stood at 17%, a sharp contrast to the UK and RoI averages of 31% and 34%, respectively.

Read more Irish TikTok office rolls out return-to-office tracking app as it changes remote working policy

This discrepancy becomes even more pronounced when comparing this figure to capital cities: Dublin recorded 42% of workers still working remotely, with London close behind with 41%. Estimates for the Belfast area would also likely be higher than the NI average, though we lack data to confirm this.

Why the difference? Several factors, all acting simultaneously, account for this divergence. To begin with, NI's economic landscape, characterised by a lower concentration in sectors associated with remote work, such as ICT and finance, has a direct bearing on its capacity for remote work.

One example is with self-employed individuals, who are generally more inclined to embrace remote work. NI has a similar proportion of self-employed workers compared to the Republic, but fewer of them work in those sectors closely linked to remote working when compared to RoI and the UK.

Government policies on remote working may play an influential role. RoI has introduced legislation granting employees the right to request remote work, while in NI, a more general "flexible working" option is offered. In theory, remote and hybrid working should make cross-border working more feasible.

The previous attractions that drew workers across borders such as higher compensation and broader opportunities still stand but may now be further complimented by the need to only commute to the office a certain number of days a week, if at all.

Yet, differences in government policies, such as tax implications for RoI workers working remotely for companies north of the border, may dampen this potential. These distinctions have real-world implications for workers on either side of the border.

Read more Businesses cut costs as they open offices away from city centres  research

Beyond these quantifiable factors lie the less tangible details of the working world that shape the overall success of remote working in individual firms. Employee behaviour, job quality, and arguably most influential, management practices have a role to play. Managers were forced to adapt to this evolving work environment.

Some have embraced the flexibility that remote work offers, whilst others have struggled with the transition and the lack of visibility when managing their teams.

Managements ability to adjust has in turn shaped the experience of many employees across the island of Ireland. One thing is clear: effective management practices will be instrumental in shaping not only the future of remote work but working practices more widely.

Management experiences aside, employees across the island have shared similar experiences, voicing the positive aspects of remote work, including heightened well-being, improved work-life balance, and increased job satisfaction.

Employee feedback is considerably more positive than during the pandemic when issues such as balancing home-schooling, lack of social opportunities and feelings of isolation were much more common.

The pandemic has undoubtedly altered the way we work. Remote and hybrid working, once outliers, are now firmly established as working patterns. However, its adoption is far from uniform, as highlighted in Northern Ireland.

As we look ahead, questions loom around the impact on productivity, innovation, high-street spending and employee training. Locally, labour market conditions are beginning to show signs of slackening which may give managers with the secret desire to return to the office the mandate to do so.

Collectively, these factors will shape the permanence of remote working in this continuously evolving world of work. Time has yet to tell whether remote working is here to stay or if it will be looked back on as phenomenon resulting from the pandemic.

Ana Desmond is an assistant economist at the Ulster University economic policy centre. Eoin Magennis is the principal economist
There are daily debates and discussions in our local media about what the future holds for Northern Ireland.

When those conversations turn to the development and prosperity of the regional economy, its generally agreed that one of the keys to success is the fantastic young talent we have here.

Talent was a major theme of the NI Investment Summit, which I attended last month along with hundreds of potential overseas investors in NI, and it is right that we continue to shine a light on how brilliant the people of this region are.

But, as a former chair of the Northern Ireland Skills Council, Im also aware that there is a huge amount of untapped talent in our region.

That talent could be unlocked if we can give a greater number of people access to the skills and training they need to have a shot at a career in one of the high value industries we expect the new NI to be built around.

Education is one of the key themes of the One Young World summit, which will bring over 2,000 young leaders to Belfast this week.

The need for greater social inclusion isnt a challenge unique to Northern Ireland but creating opportunity for those furthest from it is a longstanding issue that 25 years on from the Good Friday Agreement we appear no closer to solving.

A real limiting factor and obstacle to prosperity for many is whats sometimes referred to as the digital divide. Being digitally excluded  not able to access technology, connectivity and the skills to use it  is a growing problem, which has been exacerbated by both the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.

Digital skills connect people to social interaction, to education, to health services, to new or better jobs, to community infrastructure and government services, to consumer rights, and to democracy.

Its no surprise then that theres a clear correlation between digital exclusion and social exclusion.

This divide was brought sharply into the spotlight during the pandemic when lockdown meant schools were forced to teach children online. It quickly became clear far too many children did not have access to the laptops or tablets they needed to participate in lessons.

But the problem goes beyond hardware. A Deloitte-backed report by FutureDotNow, an industry coalition focused on improving the digital skills of working age adults across the UK, tracked the ability of different regions of the UK to complete 20 essential digital work tasks.

It found that only half (50%) of working age adults across all UK regions and nations could complete all 20 tasks. In Northern Ireland, 12% of the workforce could not complete any of the essential digital work tasks, a figure which was worse only in the West Midlands. Despite the scale of the digital divide, only 23% of the workforce have had any digital skills training from their employer.

Digi skills

The figures confirm global findings from the UN, which has warned that without decisive action the digital divide will become the new face of inequality.

So, what can be done about it. At Deloitte we believe organisations like ourselves have the expertise, the resources and the reach to make a difference. The first way we can do that is by providing access to technology.

Through the donation of reconditioned laptops we have supported thousands of the most vulnerable children to stay connected to education during the pandemic and well multiply this through our global network.

Since the initiative launched in January 2021 over 12,000 laptops have been donated through charitable organisations, including more than 350 in Northern Ireland which have been distributed through our partner school Hazelwood Integrated College, and charity partner, Simon Community.

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We also want to help build the skills necessary to use technology. Our firm has an ambition to help 100 million people across the world to access such skills, education and employment by 2030.

But we cant do this alone  it needs a collective effort to ensure that the advances in technology are used for the common good  and that means putting people at the centre of our digital future.

The local economy is evolving as NI takes advantage of global growth in areas such as business and financial services, cyber security and advanced manufacturing.

It is vital that we have people with the skills to fully exploit the opportunities that are available right now and which will be available in the future.

That journey could begin with your business donating laptops. One laptop can make a big difference to what happens next for someone who doesnt have one.

Jackie Henry is UK managing partner for people and purpose at Deloitte. The One Young World 2023 Belfast Summit continues until Thursday.
A bedroom at the block of student accommodation on Bruce Street, now sold by operator Vita Group to Savills Investment Management

Vita Group has announced the sale of student accommodation at Bruce Street in Belfast, part of a 300m transaction

Belfasts newest student accommodation block has been sold as part of a deal worth 300m.

Vita Group, which launched the Bruce Street accommodation last month, has agreed the deal with Savills Investment Management acting on behalf of a client.

The 300m deal is one of the biggest transactions involving purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) this year.

As well as the 270 studios on Bruce Street, the deal for a total of 1,340 beds also includes Cannon Park in Warwick and Iona Street in Edinburgh.

Vita Student will continue to operate the assets on behalf of Savills Investment Management.

Prices for residents at the Bruce Street studios, which were built by Co Tyrone construction company McAleer & Rushe, range from 184 to 303 per week.

Ioannis Verdelis, chief investment officer for Vita Group, said: Were delighted to sign this deal with Savills Investment Management.

"The UKs purpose-built student accommodation market continues to be an exciting and resilient asset class for investors as demand from students for high-quality PBSA continues to outstrip supply, creating an attractive proposition for any investor.

We look forward to building on our relationship with Savills Investment Management as we deliver Vita Students class-leading brand experience for our residents across their buildings.

Adrian Martin, director at Savills Investment Management, said: This strategic acquisition underscores our conviction for the long term resilience of the PBSA sector in the UK.

"The acquired assets are examples of best-in-class buildings, and Vita is an operator with a compelling reputation.

A bedroom at the block of student accommodation on Bruce Street, now sold by operator Vita Group to Savills Investment Management

Vita Student described Bruce Street as the worlds best student living experience. Prices include the cost of utility bills, super-fast connectivity and a gym, as well as complimentary breakfast and tea and coffee.

Queens University has also announced further investment in student accommodation. It announced last month that its investing 100m in another 460 student rooms at three new sites around the city.

The accommodation is being built at Laganbank, Brunswick Street and Dublin Road.

Around 45,000 full-time students already live in Belfast, but Queens has said 3,000 more rooms will be needed in the next five years for its attendees alone.

Queens has appointed construction company Graham, based in Co Down, to build the accommodation at Dublin Road. It will occupy part of the site of the former Movie House cinema.
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A 52-year-old Belfast man who took part in online sex chats with a decoy posing as a schoolgirl has avoided being sent to prison.

Ronald Alexander Hoy sent inappropriate photographs of himself to someone he believed to be a 14-year-old child and asked for similar images in return.

At Belfast Magistrates Court today he was sentenced to three years probation and made subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) for five years.

Hoy, previously of Greenville Road in the east of the city, pleaded guilty to attempted sexual communication with a child on dates between September 13-18, 2021.

Prosecutors said the sting operation was mounted by a paedophile hunter group based in Sunderland.

Hoy had been chatting online with someone using the name Scarlett, believing that it was a girl aged 14.

He engaged in sexual conversation with the decoy, sent inappropriate pictures of himself and requested inappropriate pictures from the decoy, a Crown lawyer told the court.

Hoy was arrested by police after another group in Northern Ireland, Parents Against Predators, were alerted to the operation.

Defence barrister Mark Farrell accepted there were aggravating features to the offence.

But he argued: The harm (done) is low because there was no child involved, it was actually a decoy.

Mr Farrell added that Hoy has been forced to move to an undisclosed address due to the case attracting attention within his local community.

Passing sentence, District Judge Steven Keown stressed the offences justified immediate custody.

He decided, however, that imposing a prison term at this stage would do nothing to manage any risk still posed by Hoy on his release.

Mr Keown instead ordered the defendant to complete the terms of his probation and SOPO, and placed him on the sex offenders register for five years.

The judge warned: If there is a breach or further offending, he will go to jail for as long as I can stand over.
"I never set foot inside the building"

A Co Antrim man has said he only attended a disused pub that housed a secret cannabis factory to smoke joints.

Dean Gary Steven Harrison took to the witness box at Belfast Crown Court today (Tuesday) where he made the case that he visited the premises on 23 separate occasions not to help run the operation but simply to buy the class B drug to feed his addiction.

The 28-year-old denies charges of cultivating cannabis and causing criminal damage on December 5, 2019, as well as dishonestly using electricity on dates between October 8 and December 6 that year.

It's the Crown's case that Harrison was one of a number of men involved in running the drugs factory in the disused Favourite Bar at Irish Quarter West in Carrickfergus.

The premises was searched by the PSNI on December 5, 2019, with prosecuting barrister Gareth Purvis telling the jury officers uncovered a "complicated and sophisticated cannabis growing operation."

The jury of seven men and five women have already been shown CCTV footage of several men, including Harrison, who were recorded at the premises on numerous occasions on dates between October 8 and December 6, 2019.

Harrison, who lives in a tower block in Rathcoole, Newtownabbey, was called to give evidence today and he was asked by defence barrister Rachael McCormick about these visits to the disused pub.

Harrison accepted it was him on the footage and when asked why he was there, he replied: "I was down buying cannabis. I was a heavy cannabis user at that time.

"I needed to have that cannabis in my system every single day. I needed it."

Ms McCormick asked her client why on some occasions he was present at the premises for short periods whilst other visits lasted up to two hours.

Harrison answered by saying that on some occasions he needed cannabis in his system so badly that he rolled a joint at the scene and smoked it there instead of waiting until he got home.

He was also quizzed about the frequency of his visits in the nine-week period and said that he usually bought around 20's worth each visit.

When asked by Ms McCormick why he didn't buy larger quantities during these visits, Harrison said: "If I bought more cannabis, I would have smoked it all that day."

He was also questioned about what was inside the disused pub - but denied ever entering the premises.

Telling the jury "I never set foot inside the building", Harrison was also asked if he was involved in growing the cannabis found within the property, to which he answered "no, certainly not."

Harrison was then questioned about why he didn't tell police this when he was arrested and interviewed. He responded by saying he didn't want to admit to the police he was "down there buying cannabis".

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Under cross-examination by Crown barrister Gareth Purvis, Harrison was again questioned about the visits and reiterated his claim he was simply purchasing cannabis for personal use.

Mr Purvis then pointed out that two relatives whose company he was in during several of the visits were also arrested and have pleaded guilty to drugs offences.

Harrison said that whilst that may be correct, he had no involvement in the drugs operation as he was just "down there getting cannabis to get into my system."

After being told by Mr Purvis that his claims - including standing outside the building smoking joints - were "ridiculous", Harrison replied "that's your opinion."

The trial continues.
A teaching union in Northern Ireland has said any plans to ban mobile phones from classrooms here would be unworkable after it was revealed the UK Government is planning to introduce the measure in classrooms in England.

And its been warned that any plans to enforce the rule in schools would be counter-productive.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan announced the plan during the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, saying she believes mobile phones pose a serious challenge in terms of distraction, disruptive behaviour and bullying.

Headteachers will now be told to ban students from using devices during the school day in new guidance to be issued.

Already, many schools expect pupils to put their phone away when in school, while other schools allow pupils to keep phones in their bags.

The Department for Education is now set to issue the new guidance for schools in England which would also urge them to ban pupils from using phones during breaks.

Justin McCamphill, NASUWT national official for Northern Ireland, said any move to bring in a phone ban will have little effect on the behavioural problems they are trying to address and are simply diverting attention from the real issues teachers are facing.

If the Government introduces blanket bans that are unenforceable, this will make the behaviour crisis worse, not better, he said.

Justin McCamphill, Northern Officiall with teaching union NASUWT.

A recent survey by the teachers union of its members in the UK on behaviour suggested that teachers biggest concerns were verbal and physical abuse.

The majority of teachers surveyed suggested that poor social skills following Covid-19 restrictions had affected pupil behaviour  and a smaller number of teachers reported that mobile phones caused behavioural issues in class.

Mr McCamphill added: This behaviour crisis has become embedded on this Governments watch. The lack of joined-up solutions, multi-agency working and properly resourced behaviour support are just some of the systemic factors making a challenging situation worse.

Teachers across the country would welcome more support around dealing with the problems caused by social media. But abusive use of mobile phones is not just confined to the classroom and we need to see better support for schools and families when problems arise.

The Government needs to focus on properly supporting the work of teachers and headteachers rather than announcements designed to detract attention from more than a decade of policy failure.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders union NAHT, said the announcement could present a big challenge for schools.

Most young people wont just stop bringing their phones to school, and there could be parental opposition too, as there are practical reasons why pupils may need a mobile phone such as while travelling to and from school, he said.

We are also concerned that a blanket ban wont work for all schools  we query whether this new policy has actually been sense checked at all with the profession.

Unfortunately, a ban on mobile phones in school can cause more problems than it solves, leading to pupils becoming more secretive about their phone use, meaning problems are hidden from staff and therefore more difficult to spot and address.
Police have issued a warning after a Chinese student in Northern Ireland was scammed out of 200,000.

In a fake phone call in recent weeks, the woman was told she was suspected of being involved in money laundering.

The PSNI said that two other men posing as officers from Beijing Police spoke to her and threatened her with arrest if she did not pay 200,000.

After transferral of the funds, the woman never heard from the men again.

Detective Superintendent Richard Thornton said: This is a really despicable, calculated crime.

These fraudsters contacted the student online, and even went as far as dressing in uniforms claiming to be officers from Beijing Police.

These fraudsters went to great lengths to make themselves appear genuine, but thats the last thing they were.

The PSNI received two similar reports last year of scammers who had targeted Chinese students studying in Belfast.

They lost a total of 105,000 to fraudsters who claimed they were from the Chinese Embassy and Chinese police.

Mr Thornton said: Being aware of the signs of scams can help prevent these fraudulent crimes and keep people and their money safe.

The reality is scammers will stop at nothing to trick you out of your money, for your loss and their gain.

Being scam aware can make all the difference.

The PSNI said the easiest way to stop a scam is to apply five rules  always hang up the call immediately; always delete texts requesting personal information or bank account details; never call the number back; never click on links in text, or respond to unsolicited texts; never transfer money to another account.
The Queen of Jordan has said a Belfast community group is helping refugees to thrive and find themselves again as she visited the organisation.

She also said the group was helping to restore refugees dignity and that nobody chooses to become a refugee.

Queen Rania was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and has been a vocal advocate for refugee and womens rights.

The Queen visited the Conway Education Centre (CEC), a community-based education facility situated between the Falls Road and the Shankill Road in west Belfast, and met members of the refugee community who have made their home in Belfast.

Queen Rania of Jordan listens to refugees tell their stories of arriving in Belfast and learning English (Liam McBurney/PA)

It was so encouraging to see a woman in her 60s or 70s saying how she feels like she has been reborn here, Queen Rania said.

In most countries refugees are just trying to survive, whereas here you see them really thriving and finding themselves again.

And so the example that you have here is something that we can really look at.

The people of Northern Ireland and the community centres are looking at the refugees, the human behind the refugee, theyre looking at the person, not just the political tool that sometimes leaders use for fear-mongering or for getting more votes in elections.

In 2015, the CEC introduced a number of programmes to serve Belfasts growing refugee population, including English language classes and a homework club for primary and secondary school students.

Based on the feedback of refugees participating in courses, Conway recently launched a capacity-building programme to help adult refugees build on their existing skills and enhance their independence.

The children and adults who gathered at the centre on Tuesday told Queen Rania about how these programmes helped them to establish themselves in Northern Ireland.

Queen Rania of Jordan visited the Conway Education Centre (Liam McBurney/PA)

The Queen also spoke to several of the older women in Arabic.

She said the CEC enabled them to build relationships as well as receive support.

This is really giving value to the human and understanding that nobody chooses to become a refugee, she said.

I think in all this debate and all these passions that are elicited from talking about refugees, people really forget that its not a choice.

Nobody wants to be uprooted from their country and its not just the home that they lose, its the people and places that theyre familiar with that defined their lives and its so difficult to be uprooted from all of that.

So having a welcoming environment like the Conway Education Centre, that provides education which is really an entry point for young people, its not only a basic right, but it helps them restore their dignity, gives them a chance of life and just gives them hope.

Queen Rania of Jordan met a number of refugees (Liam McBurney/PA)

Queen Rania also said there was an opportunity for the exchange of ideas between Jordan and Northern Ireland in dealing with the global refugee crisis.

I think other countries like Jordan can have these kinds of partnerships and cooperation so that we can exchange experiences because, as you know, in Jordan, one in eight people in my country is a refugee. Weve taken in over a million Syrian refugees, she said.

So I think we have a lot in common but again, I just want to pay tribute truly to the people of Northern Ireland for their generosity and hospitality, and the example that they set for everyone in the world, so thank you.

The One Young World Summit has brought thousands of young leaders from over 190 countries to meet in Belfast to discuss global issues such as hunger and climate change.

The summit has been recognised by the City of Belfast and the UK Government as being part of the official celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

Queen Rania gave the keynote address at the opening ceremony.

Mona Arnous is a refugee and volunteer at the CEC who originates from Syria and learned to speak English aided by teachers from the centre.

Ms Arnous, who is hoping to go on to study nursing at Queens University Belfast, said it was an honour to meet Queen Rania.

I never thought I would maybe one day meet the Queen herself. It was a shock for me when I received the invitation from Conway. I think shes such a wonderful person. Shes very sweet, she said.

When she came in I was just fine. Its just like talking to a normal person. She made me feel really nice and calm. She was such a chill person.

Pauline Kersten, centre manager at the CEC, said the visit was amazing.

The Queen had an opportunity to get introduced to all of them and to have a chat, she said.

Because they have so many stories, to talk to the refugees about how their life in Belfast is, the services that they received from Conway and how that has helped them in settling in Belfast and making a life for themselves.

Queen Rania of Jordan shakes hands with centre manager Pauline Kersten after the visit (Liam McBurney/PA)

Ms Kersten also said that she hopes the Queens visit will highlight the need for a refugee integration strategy in Northern Ireland.

I think the visit of the Queen helps to highlight the issue that refugees are not only people that need charity, but that they also have a lot to offer.

But I think as long as there is no official refugee integration strategy, we dont have any policy on accommodation of refugees.

So that means that many refugees and asylum seekers are housed in areas of multiple deprivation where its already difficult to survive.

So if you add big groups of newcomers to that you create more community tension. You dont provide opportunities for integration, you create community tension.

So I think thats something for the powers-to-be to look at so that theres a better policy or that there is a policy  because at the moment theres not  that theres a policy of settling refugees and asylum seekers in all the different areas of Northern Ireland and not only in the poorest and most deprived areas.

The One Young World Summit will continue in Belfast until Thursday.
A DUP MP has accused the Secretary of State of talking rubbish about the Windsor Framework arrangements now in force across Northern Ireland.

Sammy Wilson also suggested the rules may not be rigorously enforced in order to minimise problems with the new trading system.

I suspect the Government will not want any issues to come to the fore, so I dont know how rigorous the checks are at the minute, or if they are being given a bye to avoid negative headlines, he told the Belfast Telegraph.

There is a loophole built into the legislation to allow them to do that if they have to.

The Government is only required to implement the rules in accordance with capacity. And as there are no border control posts yet, there is no capacity.

It comes after Chris Heaton-Harris described the measures as unbelievably straightforward on the day that green and red lanes became operational.

On Sunday, he said the rules governing trade between NI and Great Britain will work unbelievably well as he urged the public to wait and see how frictionless the controls will be.

But Mr Wilson believes problems are on the horizon and is warning that small retailers will be hit the hardest.

Rejecting Mr Heaton-Harris claims, he said: Those complying with green-lane rules have to have custom papers, they need to obtain trusted trader status, they need to label goods that are not for use in the EU and they must be able to prove items are not going to the EU.

If they cant do that [then] they have to use the red lane, which requires border checks. That is not straightforward.

Bigger supermarkets are diverting supply chains to the Republic and other places in the EU to avoid difficulties. There is already a large divergence of trade into the Republic because the system is so complicated.

The changes mean that goods can move from GB to NI through a green lane which involves reduced checks and paperwork through a trusted trader scheme for businesses.

The red lane is reserved for goods moving through NI into the Republic of Ireland and elsewhere in the EU that must be subject to enhanced checks.

Speaking to BBC News NI from the Conservative Party Conference, Mr Heaton-Harris said the paperwork required for trusted traders is the same for goods moving from his constituency in Daventry to the Isle of Wight.

The process is unbelievably straightforward  so straightforward that 1,600 new businesses have registered to use the green lane, he added.

People will see goods moving freely from GB to NI; I think the best way to judge it is to look at what is practically happening. People will find that it will operate unbelievably well.

Mr Wilson said nobody who is being truthful believes trading will be problem free.

The Secretary of State is talking rubbish, he added.

Mr Heaton-Harris can spin it all he wants  he just looks more and more foolish or more and more devious.

He is not a stupid man; he knows full well the implications because, of course, he campaigned to leave the EU. Now he is defending the very thing he once opposed. Its amazing what public office can do to people.

The East Antrim MP also scoffed at the NI Secretarys comparison to the Isle of Wight.

It just simply is not true, Mr Wilson said.

"There are no green and red lanes going to the Isle of Wight or from London to Edinburgh.

When asked if unionist concerns over an Irish Sea border are a myth, Mr Heaton-Harris said how people perceive things is exactly down to them.

I am a politician and I know points of theory and principle are important, but, practically, have a look at what is going on People will see goods moving freely moving from GB to Northern Ireland, he added as he urged people to reserve judgment to see if trade is frictionless or not.

A UK Government spokesperson said 1,600 new businesses who werent benefiting from previous schemes have now registered under the new UK Internal Market Scheme, meaning they can now move goods free from costly tariffs.

They added: We will continue to work with traders over the coming weeks and months to maximise use of the new green lane.
DUP still waiting for a response from the Government over submitted documents

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson will sound out feeling in the DUP on a possible return to Stormont at an internal gathering tomorrow night.

Although the meeting of the partys executive in Lurgan is routine and was scheduled some time ago, sources said that the leader would take soundings informally on members views on restoring devolution.

However, no proposals will be put to those present, and the DUP is still waiting on the Governments response to documents it has submitted.

With anger growing among loyalist grassroots over speculation that the party is preparing to compromise, DUP figures moved to deny a sell out is imminent.

Claims that the party officers, and in particular Nigel Dodds, werent shown the papers submitted to the Government were dismissed as Alice in Wonderland allegations.

Party representatives said they were available to meet and engage with anyone who had concerns.

Speaking at Stormont yesterday after meeting shadow secretary of state Hilary Benn, Sir Jeffrey said talks are continuing with the Government, and he was not planning for failure.

Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn signing the visitors book during his meeting with Speaker Alex Maskey on Tuesday. Pic: PA Wire

He said: There remain issues that need to be resolved. We will continue that engagement until we get to an outcome.

We are not yet in the space where we have an outcome, where we have got a solution to the very real problems that have been created by the Northern Ireland Protocol, that are harming our economy and that fail to respect our place within the UK and its internal market.

Sir Jeffrey said they have made some progress in discussions, but there is further to go if we are to get to a place where we believe we have got what we need to both respect and protect Northern Irelands place within the UK and its internal market, and well keep working at that until we get that solution.

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He added: Every negotiation has a beginning and an end, and we will no doubt reach a moment where both sides will recognise we have taken this as far as we can. Were not there yet, and thats why were continuing to engage with the Government on these issues.

I want to find a solution, Im not planning for failure, Im planning to get this done.

UUP leader Doug Beattie said he believes the DUP meeting on Thursday will be their stock take in terms of negotiations with London, and he didnt foresee movement until next week at the earliest.

I think I still know what is going to be offered to the DUP. I think I still know where we are in regards to that, but I dont think thats been offered yet, I dont think thats going to be offered this week, it might be offered next week, I dont know, he said.

So I think that meeting of the DUP on Thursday will be their stock take for their executive, to say, This is where we are, this is what weve asked for, these are the papers weve put in, and these are the answers were waiting to get. I dont think much will change this week.

UUP leader Doug Beattie

It was the shadow secretary of states first visit to Northern Ireland since his appointment. Sinn Fein MP John Finucane said he had a very positive and constructive meeting with the Labour politician.

Top of the agenda in our message to him was the need to restore the Assembly, to restore the Executive, to have ministers in place at the job they were elected to do over a year ago, he said.

People voted in a historic election over 18 months ago now, and the very least that they deserve is to have ministers in place, doing the job they should be doing.

I dont think there is any excuse for the DUP to be remaining out of government ... they need to get back in and respect the outcome of last years election without delay.

Alliance leader Naomi Long praised Mr Benn for his level of engagement with, and knowledge of, issues in Northern Ireland.

She said the focus of their conversation was around efforts to resurrect the Stormont institutions. This current situation where we have no Assembly, no devolution is just not a sustainable position for Northern Ireland to be in, she added.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said it was time for Sir Jeffrey to show courage: I hope that all of the space that Jeffrey and the DUP have been given over the past number of months is going to finally be used at some point, but thats a question for the DUP.

When youre charged with leadership, sometimes you just have to go ahead and lead, and were all waiting.

Mr Benn said he had constructive discussions with the parties and he was in Northern Ireland to listen and to learn and to seek the trust and confidence of all communities to try and be an honest broker.
No Stormont means no funding from UK-wide government scheme for NI as 55 towns to receive 20m boost

Not a single Northern Ireland town features on a Government scheme to turbo-charge overlooked towns with tens of millions of pounds in funding.

A total of 55 towns across the UK will each receive 20m over the next decade to revive their high streets and tackle anti-social behaviour.

But not a single one from Northern Ireland is included on the list.

The Government has blamed the absence of an Executive for towns here not benefiting. However, with a general election on the horizon, that was met with scepticism, particularly after it emerged that the bulk of the towns targeted were in Tory constituencies and marginal seats.

It means towns here that could have been in line to receive the funding from a 1.1 billion government scheme are missing out on a much-needed boost from the Department for Levelling Up.

Funding allocation takes into account gaps in skills, pay, health and deprivation. The government said this was to ensure funding goes to the places that need it most.

Officials said that in Northern Ireland, they would work with a restored Executive to determine the approach to providing funding.

But SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan said many towns here are in need of support now.

The north is made up of towns that have been overlooked by both the British Government and Stormont for decades, he said.

That we have been totally excluded from this Tory scheme shows how disengaged they are with the issues impacting families across the north and how little they are invested in the future of this place.

Mr McCrossan said he would raise the issue with officials.

At a time when the Irish Government is investing more and more in positive projects in the north it speaks volumes that we have been left out at a time of such great need, he added.

I will be raising this investment with Stormont officials to see if any conversations took place regarding this project and whether we are likely to receive any additional funding as a result.

SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan

The scheme was announced as the Conservative Party conference gets under way in Manchester.

The 55 towns receiving a share of the funding include 44 in England, seven in Scotland and four in Wales. The government said it will work with local councils and the devolved administrations to determine how towns in Scotland and Wales will benefit.

But those in Northern Ireland will be left behind. The Governments Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said no money would yet be heading across the Irish Sea.

When contacted by the Belfast Telegraph, the Department said: In Northern Ireland, we look forward to working with a restored Executive to determine the approach to providing support there.

Sky News reported that 34 of the 55 towns are in constituencies represented by the Conservatives - or 62% of the locations. The Tories hold 54% of the seats in the House of Commons.

Ten of the Conservative seats benefitting are in the so-called red wall, which was vital for the party's 2019 election victory.

Alliance MLA Patrick Brown expressed scepticism at the motivation behind the funding.

"It is disappointing to see Northern Ireland missing from this list, he said.

"No doubt political uncertainty here doesn't help. But ultimately, this announcement reeks of party politics rather than an objective assessment of priorities.

"It is happening at the Conservative Conference and the list of towns seem heavily weighted towards marginal seats."

Towns on the list will receive a 10-year 20m endowment-style fund to be spent on local peoples priorities, like regenerating local high streets and town centres or securing public safety.

The aim is to unlock more private sector investment by auctioning empty high street shops, reforming licensing rules on shops and restaurants, and supporting more housing in town centres.

The government said half-empty high streets, run-down town centres and anti-social behaviour undermine towns in every part of the UK.

It said the announcement marks a change in approach that will put an end to people feeling like their town is ignored by Westminster and empower communities to take back control of their future, taking long term decisions in the interests of local people.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said: We know that in our towns the values of hard work and solidarity, common sense and common purpose, endeavour and quiet patriotism have endured across generations. But for too long, too many of our great British towns have been overlooked and undervalued.

This will empower communities in every part of the UK to take back control of their future, taking long term decisions in the interests of local people. It will mean more jobs, more opportunities and a brighter future for our towns and the people who live and work in them.
The Labour Partys new Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary is set to meet Stormonts main political parties later today, as he makes his first visit to Belfast since his appointment.

Hilary Benn was named the partys Northern Ireland representative last month replacing Peter Kyle who was appointed shadow minister for science, innovation and technology.

He is set to meet members of the DUP, Sinn Fein, SDLP, UUP and the Alliance Party in what has been described as introductory meetings.

The son of veteran Labour member Tony Benn, Mr Benn met with Queens Universitys civic engagement team on Monday, who said in a post on the social media website X (formerly Twitter) they were delighted to welcome him.

Mr Benn also met with members of Wave Trauma, a support group for those bereaved by loss caused by the Troubles.

"We heard such powerful testimony from those who have been bereaved, injured and traumatised by the Troubles, and who are still seeking justice and want to know what happened to their loved ones, wrote Mr Benn on X.

An MP since 1999, serving in the Blair and Brown governments, Benn is an unusually high-profile figure for the role of shadow Secretary of State.

During his time as chair of the Brexit committee at Westminster, he was heavily involved in the detail of the UKs divorce from the EU and the Irish Sea border problems.

Mr Benns visit comes as the red and green lane process of the Windsor Framework came into force on Sunday which is intended to reduce trading friction between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Earlier this year, prior to his appointment to Northern Ireland, Mr Benn said he was pleasantly surprised by the the Windsor Framework, adding: The EU has had to move a long way and I think it is a very sensible proposal.
UUP leader Doug Beattie has said a constructive meeting was held with the Shadow Secretary of State for NI during which they discussed closer relationships between the UK and EU as a way to solve problems with the Windsor Framework.

The DUPs Stormont boycott has been ongoing since February 2022 in protest at the internal UK trade barriers created by Brexits NI Protocol.

On Tuesday, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said a party meeting arranged for Thursday is to deal with routine party business as issues around the Windsor Framework remain unresolved.

Some progress has been made, he said, but the DUP needs to get to a position where we believe weve got what we need to both respect and protect Northern Irelands place within the United Kingdom and its internal market  and well keep working at that until we get that solution.

On the prospect of reaching a deal, Sir Jeffrey added: Im not planning for failure, Im planning to get this done.

Speaking on the BBCs Evening Extra programme UUP leader Doug Beattie described a meeting with Shadow Secretary of State for NI, Hilary Benn, as very good as the Labour politician was engaged and knowledgeable.

He reiterated the governments position in regards to the Windsor Framework and that is its not going to be renegotiated, this is it, this is where we are, its really important that the UK repairs its reputation globally, that means its signed up to a deal and is going to have to adhere to that deal, Mr Beattie explained.

But he did say there are issues within that Windsor Framework that were going to have to deal with. And he talked about how we deal with that including how we make the green lane more green so we dont even have a green lane, its just trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Issues can only be dealt with, Mr Beattie said, if youre in the arena making your case.

He said Mr Benn suggested that closer relationships between the UK and EU would ease an awful lot of these problems  including a bespoke SPS arrangement.

The Upper Bann MLA said one of the big issues is divergence and he believes a bespoke SPS veterinary deal would help, adding that it is a good way to go.

SDLP MLA Matthew OToole said Mr Benn was primarily in listening mode as he challenged the idea that the entirety of his brief is to meet the DUPs demands.

He added: Or what the DUP want this day of the week, whats going to happen at a DUP meeting or what might not happen at a DUP meeting, what Jeffrey Donaldson said, or what he had for breakfast.

At the minute our health service is in a terrible state we have an ecological crisis at our biggest natural resource and weve a crisis in special educational needs, we basically have public services buckling beyond the point of no return.

He believes the DUP could have claimed progress in February to restore devolution and if the party doesnt make its mind up soon there will have to be talks about fundamental change.

Both politicians got a sense Mr Benn could be the future Secretary of State for NI with Labour performing well in the polls.
Kerry Condon was one of the many stars front row at Louis Vuitton (Vianney Le Caer/AP)

Actors Kerry Condon and Saoirse Ronan represented Ireland at Paris Fashion Week, sitting front row at the Louis Vuitton show.

Condon  who starred in Martin McDonagh-directed film The Banshees Of Inisherin  tapped into the trend for gothic glamour in an all-black outfit.

She wore a black mini dress with a deep-V neckline, knee-high leather boots and a jacket over the top.

Kerry Condon (Vianney Le Caer/AP Photo)

This isnt the first time Condon, 40, has attended a Louis Vuitton show  she went to her first fashion show in March this year and saw the French fashion houses autumn/winter 2023 collection.

Speaking to WWD after that show, she said she loved almost everything  particularly the coats. When asked about her personal style, she added: I also love my Aran sweaters and claddagh ring; my things from Ireland, from home.

Little Women and Brooklyn star Saoirse Ronan was also front row, wearing a more experimental design from the brand.

She wore an Art Deco-inspired glittering floral gown, with a white ribbon wrapping round the waist and collar.

Ronan, 29, has become known for her chic choppy bob, and celebrity hairstylist Adir Abergel gave her a fresh trim for the show.

The fashion-forward bob fell just above her chin, with her blonde hair in beachy waves.

Ronans beauty look was done by German make-up artist Nina Park, who has painted the faces of celebrities like Tilda Swinton, Zoe Kravitz and musician Olivia Rodrigo.

Her make-up was kept simple and pared back: glowing skin with her freckles showing through, a light blush and peach-toned lips.

Louis Vuittons creative director, Nicolas Ghesquiere, presented a retro-meets-Noughties-inspired spring/summer 2024 collection on the runway.

Models walked the runway in a room swathed in orange, intended to feel like the draped sails of a hot air balloon.

The brand described the collection as fusing quintessential Parisian fashion with vintage style codes in an audacious ode to French elegance.

Silky bomber jackets were paired with wide, low-slung leather belts and flowing skirts, giving a distinctly Y2K impression.

A model walks the Louis Vuitton runway (Vianney Le Caer/AP)

Elsewhere, Ghesquiere leaned into a relaxed aesthetic with silky loose pyjama-style trousers and shirts, while structured shoulders on jackets gave an Eighties vibe.

Louis Vuitton started life making trunks, and bags remain a major feature of every collection. Models carried everything from slouchy holdalls to miniature hand-held bags in bright orange, while some had old-school camera cases slung around their necks.

Condon and Ronan werent the only celebrities in attendance.

Zendaya (Vianney Le Caer/AP)

Brand ambassador and Euphoria actor Zendaya, 27, stunned in a daring white floor-length gown, with a gold zip detailing down to her navel.

She wore a similar dress in her first advertising campaign for the brand. Shot in the south of France, she was pictured clutching a matching white Louis Vuitton bag with gold hardware.

Cate Blanchett (Vianney Le Caer/AP)

Tar actor Cate Blanchett, 54, has been making the rounds this fashion week, also attending the Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney shows. She wore a chic Louis Vuitton black jumpsuit with a geometric print around the neckline and a statement belt.

Pharrell Williams (Vianney Le Caer/AP)

Musician and fashion designer Pharrell Williams, 50  who is the creative director Louis Vuittons menswear arm  wore a double denim outfit of a tailored suit-style jacket and jeans.

Regina King (Vianney Le Caer/AP)

One of actor Regina Kings best red carpet moments was in a Louis Vuitton gown, when she wore a structural blue and silver dress with statement shoulders to the 2021 Oscars.

For Paris Fashion Week, King, 52, donned balloon-style red trousers with a white top underneath and edgy leather bib.

Ana de Armas (Vianney Le Caer/AP)

Actor Ana de Armas, 35  who debuted a campaign for Louis Vuittons high jewellery line in June  watched the show in a gold brocade matching set with a bralette underneath.
Sara Phelan SC, chair of the Council of The Bar of Ireland and Sean Guerin SC, chair of the Criminal State Bar Committee with criminal law barristers as they withdraw services over pay restoration at Criminal Courts of Justice (Cillian Sherlock/PA)

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has denied that the criminal justice system in Ireland is collapsing as barristers go on strike over fees.

It follows The Bar of Irelands recommendation of a one-day withdrawal of service for criminal law barristers.

It comes on the same day as rank and file gardai officers began a protest over roster issues by refusing to undertake voluntary overtime.

Mr Varadkar told the Dail that the issue of criminal legal aid fees was being examined by ministers as part of the budgetary process.

Criminal barristers say their fees remain below 2002 levels in nominal terms, following a range of cuts applied during the financial crisis.

They say the 2008 government also unilaterally broke the link between fees paid to barristers with increases applied under public sector pay agreements in 2008.

Barristers say they have suffered a pay cut in real terms of more than 40% over the past 20 years while every other group of workers in the criminal justice system has seen pay restoration implemented.

They say this is despite a range of additional reforms and changed practices being delivered by barristers.

The action, which is in pursuit of determining the fees payable to barristers by the Director of Public Prosecutions under the legal aid scheme, comes one week ahead of the Budget next Tuesday.

More than 100 barristers gathered outside the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin on Tuesday morning as part of the action.

Speaking to reporters, chair of the Council of The Bar of Ireland Sara Phelan said there is pent-up frustration among members.

She added: What brought us to this point is the failure of successive governments to actually reverse pay cuts that were applied during the austerity era, when the reversal of those pay cuts was actually recommended by the Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2018.

Were expecting the minister and I suppose the various ministers and indeed the Government to take notice of the fact that we are here.

There is a show of support for this action, barristers are very frustrated, and hopefully there will be progress in the budgetary process.

Ms Phelan warned a pipeline of young criminal practitioners will leave the system if the issue is not resolved.

She said: Our stats show that about two thirds of criminal practitioners leave the criminal bar after six years and if we dont have that pipeline coming through, we wont have an experienced skillset amongst criminal practitioners, both to prosecute serious crime and, therefore, victims of crime wont have their rights vindicated in a timely manner.

Secondly, we wont have experienced defence practitioners to defend those accused of serious crime who obviously stand innocent until proven otherwise.

Chair of the Criminal State Bar Committee Sean Guerin said the DPP was unable to find senior counsel for serious cases on two occasions this year.

He said: The unavailability of counsel with those skills and that experience is a threat to the integrity of the criminal justice system.

Mr Guerin stressed the dispute was for barristers both defending and prosecuting crime.

He said: At every level, engagement with the criminal justice system as a citizen requires a sufficient cohort of skilled and experienced practitioners to be available to act for people.

Ms Phelan said she was hopeful there will be a change for barristers in the budgetary process but said members would have to decide on the next step if that does not happen.

Asked about the impact on court proceedings, she said Tuesday, which is the first full day of the new legal year, was chosen to avoid disruption for the most number of people.

Speaking during leaders questions in the Dail, Labour TD Aodhan ORiordain told Taoiseach Leo Varadkar the criminal justice system had effectively collapsed under his watch.

He said: Fine Gael has held the Department of Justice in an unbroken manner for 12 years, but today the criminal courts are not sitting because criminal barristers have withdrawn their labour.

Fine Gael has nobody else to blame. Why are you collectively bystanders as the criminal justice system falls almost in its entirety today in Ireland?

What have you done since July 12 to today to try to resolve that dispute?

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he understood why barristers had gone on strike (Brian Lawless/PA)

Mr Varadkar responded: On behalf of the government we recognise the important and essential role played by barristers in undertaking criminal legal aid work.

(Justice) Minister (Helen) McEntee is currently engaged in discussions with the Minister for Public Expenditure on the issue of criminal legal aid fees as part of the budgetary process.

He added: I dont think the criminal justice system is collapsing, this is a one-day withdrawal of labour.

Barristers are protesting and theyve every right to protest.

I can understand the case they are making.
Oxford University vice-chancellor Professor Irene Tracey said she was disturbed by hateful rhetoric about trans issues on social media (Cyrus Mower/Oxford University/PA)

The University of Oxford should have done more to support its trans community who faced threatening and abusive language, its leader has said.

Professor Irene Tracey, vice-chancellor of the university, said she was disturbed by an amplification of discourteous, intolerant and hateful rhetoric on social media under the guise of free speech.

The university is creating a series of discussions on challenging topics to showcase what engaging with different views and beliefs, in a courteous manner, can look like, Prof Tracey has said.

Her comments came after protests were staged outside an Oxford Union talk by Professor Kathleen Stock in May over her views on gender identity.

The row saw a group of Oxford University academics and staff sign a letter supporting the right of transgender students to speak out against Prof Stock days before the event.

People protest in Oxford where Professor Kathleen Stock was due to speak earlier this year (Jonathan Brady/PA)

In her first oration, or formal speech, to the university as vice-chancellor, Prof Tracey said: I was deeply saddened to learn of the abusive and threatening language and behaviours that our trans community suffered this year.

We should have done more to support them; rest assured, lessons were learned.

In this university, I expect more and we will continue to strive to create a culture of tolerance and respectful disagreement on key issues of the day.

Prof Tracey previously defended the right for Prof Stock to speak as a matter of freedom of speech.

In May, Amiad Haran Diman, president of the universitys LGBTQ+ Society, said they had received threatening, homophobic and transphobic messages online after speaking out against Prof Stock.

In her speech on Tuesday, Prof Tracey said: Free speech has been centre stage this year.

I have been clear about our role in the university sector to protect free speech: it is core to how we teach subjects and expose students to different views and it also goes hand in hand with our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.

I have publicly acknowledged that this means some legal free speech will be hard for some individuals to hear.

However, I am also disturbed by what I witness as an amplification of discourteous, intolerant and hateful rhetoric on social media platforms under the guise of free speech.
One of the first female police drivers in Scotland told of her joy at being able to do her job without a male chaperone after she helped smash the glass ceiling in the 1950s.

Mary dArcy Kincaid, 91, started out as a police officer in Edinburgh in 1953, at a time when women had to rely on male colleagues for a lift  or get the bus.

Three years later, she saw a job advert for police drivers, and applied as it did not specify a gender, although it was aimed at men.

She applied and following discussion with the then chief inspector, she was accepted onto the course, but recalled some resistance from colleagues.

Mary dArcy Kincaid during her early days as a policewoman in Edinburgh (Police Scotland/PA)

In 1957, she went to Cyprus for a year along with three other women officers, to help with recruiting and training female police officers there, and to assist with searching women at roadblocks.

She was promoted to sergeant, and returned to Edinburgh in 1958, where she worked for two years before joining CID.

She was one of two women who formed the first crime team for City of Edinburgh Police in 1961.

Photographs showed her wearing a skirt suit as part of her uniform and posing with a police dog.

Mary, who now lives in Gloucestershire, returned to Edinburgh to be given a tour of her old patch and visited St Leonards Police Station, made famous by Ian Rankin novels.

She recalled her joy at the freedom she felt by being able to drive a CID vehicle.

After she moved down south, she served as a magistrate in Westminster, and she has been married for 53 years.

Assistant Chief Constable Emma Bond praised Mary for driving progress in the police when she joined 70 years ago.

Mary said: I was so excited when I sat my entrance exams and passed, and so began my City of Edinburgh Police journey.

When the memo circulated inviting applications for police drivers, I thought, why not? After all, they had not specified male or female constables, so I took my chance.

I loved driving, and knew I could do it well, as part of my role.

Despite some reluctance from some colleagues, I couldnt believe it when I was invited to go for my driver training.

I passed with flying colours, and so my driving as a police constable began.

This really meant that I no longer needed a male police constable to drive me to a job, take a bus, or walk  I could drive one of the many CID vehicles.

Senior officers, including Ms Bond, were in attendance at St Leonards Police Station to greet Mary and her family before taking her on a tour of her former beat.

Ms Bond said: Welcoming Mary and listening to her experiences and perspective was a real pleasure.

Much has changed to improve the representation of women in all ranks and roles in policing over the course of the last few decades thanks to inspirational figures like Mary, quite literally, driving progress.

Police Scotland is absolutely determined to continue to build on the progress led by trailblazers like Mary, to address sexism and discrimination in policing and across society and improve experiences for our officers and staff and the people who we serve.
Indonesian security forces remove one of five West Papua National Liberation Army members killed during a gunfight with security troops in Modusit village, Papua HIghlands province, Indonesia, Oct. 2, 2023.

Indonesian security forces vowed to keep hunting for rebels who seek to establish an independent state in the restive region of Papua after government forces killed five suspected insurgents over the weekend.

The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), an insurgent group, promised retaliation as it accused state forces of killing the fighters while they were asleep.

The bodies of the five rebels were retrieved Monday by a joint force of military and police units after an alleged gunfight two days earlier in Pegunungan Bintang, a regency in Papua Highlands province, police spokesman Ignatius Benny Ady Prabowo said.

The military and police will intensify their pursuit of the armed criminal group that always disturbs the public and disrupts the security situation, Benny said in a statement.

One of those killed Saturday was identified as Otobius Bidana Mimin, 38, a local rebel commander wanted by authorities for allegedly taking part in a deadly attack on a civilian facility two years ago, said Bayu Suseno, spokesman for the Joint Task Force for Peaceful Cartenz. The military and police unit operates in Papua.

We are still hunting down other members of the armed criminal group, Bayu told BenarNews.

The TPNPB is the armed wing of a separatist movement that has been fighting for independence from Indonesia since the 1960s.

It has been active in several areas of Papua, especially in the central highlands, where it attacked security forces and civilians accused of spying for the government.

The groups spokesman, Sebby Sambom, said the five rebels were killed despite showing no resistance and that the raid was a collaboration between the military and native informants.

TPNPB will retaliate because the five members were not resisting, but were surrounded while sleeping and killed, he told BenarNews via WhatsApp.

The rebels were in a house in Modusit village when the military and police surrounded and attacked with snipers and other troops, Sambom said.

The bodies of the fallen TPNPB members were mutilated like animals, he alleged.

Samboms group grabbed headlines after a unit in Nduga regency abducted a New Zealand pilot working for an Indonesian domestic airline on Feb. 7.

The spokesman declined to give details about the pilot, noting the New Zealand government had not been willing to negotiate with his group.

In August, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins urged the rebels to release the pilot, Philip Mehrtens, immediately.

Benny, the police spokesman, said officials have been informed that Mehrtens was alive and well.

The Papua region has a history of documented and alleged human rights violations by Indonesian security forces and police, while separatist rebels have been accused of committing violence against civilians.

In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded Papua, a former Dutch colony like Indonesia, and annexed it.

In 1969, the United Nations sponsored a referendum where only about 1,000 people voted.

Despite accusations that the vote was a farce, the U.N. recognized the outcome, effectively endorsing Indonesias control over Papua.

Violence has surged in recent years after rebels killed at least 19 road workers in 2018.

Theo Hesegem, director of the Papua Justice and Human Integrity Foundation, expressed concern about the renewed cycle of violence and called for dialogue between security forces and rebels through a neutral third party.

We dont want more bloodshed to happen, he told BenarNews. We want Papua to be safe and for people to live peacefully.

Nazarudin Latif in Jakarta contributed to the report.
Malaysia will shut schools and begin seeding clouds to induce rainfall if air quality worsens in parts of the country, the Department of the Environment said, amid accusations that haze from forest fires in neighboring Indonesia was behind the pollution.

Malaysian air quality was deteriorating, particularly on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, with a growing number of areas recording unhealthy readings of above 150 on the Air Pollutant Index (API), Wan Abdul Latiff Wan Jaffar, the departments director general, said late Monday.

Malaysia last week blamed fires on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and parts of Borneo for spreading a noxious haze across its borders.

Wan Abdul Latiff said measures to improve air quality such as cloud seeding would be activated when API readings stayed above 150 for more than 24 hours.

Schools and kindergartens must also stop outdoor activities when API levels reach 100, and close if they climb above 200, he said in a statement.

For this purpose, schools, kindergartens and nurseries are required to constantly monitor the API readings, he said.

If the reading trend shows an increase towards 200, preparations need to be implemented to close the relevant schools, kindergartens and nurseries.

Malaysias Ministry of Health has advised people in affected areas to stay hydrated, reduce outdoor activities and wear masks if they need to go outside.

Some 315 hotspots had been detected in Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo island, 49 in Sumatra and one in Peninsular Malaysia, according to Singapore-based ASEAN Specialized Meteorological Centre (ASMC) on Tuesday.

Dry weather in Sumatra and Kalimantan meant that elevated hotspot activity and widespread moderate-to-dense haze were likely to continue to affect southern parts of the region, the ASMC said.

Forest fires are an annual occurrence in Indonesia, where they are often lit to clear land for pulpwood and palm oil plantations. In 2019, fires that ravaged large swathes of Indonesian forest cost the country U.S. $5.2 billion in damage and economic losses, the World Bank estimated.

Haze from the blazes caused hundreds of thousands of people to suffer from respiratory health diseases, halted airport operations and temporarily closed hundreds of schools in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

But on Monday, Indonesias Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya disputed Kuala Lumpurs claims that fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan were the source of the recent poor air quality.

We continue to follow the developments and there is no transboundary haze to Malaysia, she said in a statement.

Transboundary haze act

Environmental watchdog Greenpeace, meanwhile, called on members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to each enact a domestic transboundary haze law to tackle the recurring haze problem in the region.

Many of the responsible companies that contribute to haze locally and globally are not being held accountable, it said in a statement Tuesday.

The domestic transboundary act must compel companies to pay reparations to victims of transboundary haze pollution, as well as accelerate preventive action in hotspot areas through health support.

In May, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, the Malaysian minister of natural resources, environment and climate change, said that a law on transboundary haze was under review.

He said the government needed to consider diplomatic relations, challenges in obtaining evidence for prosecution and the sovereignty of the country allegedly responsible for the haze pollution.

Niz Nazmi said legislation alone would not solve transboundary haze as had been highlighted by Singapores Transboundary Haze Pollution Act 2014, which has struggled to obtain evidence.

A law to deal with transboundary haze was proposed by Pakatan Harapan when it was in power in 2018 but it was shelved in 2020 by Muhyiddin Yassins government.
This aerial photograph shows a general view of Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby, May 19, 2023.

Thousands of residents of Papua New Guineas capital suffered a shutdown of water and power on Tuesday as disgruntled landowners stopped the operations of a crucial reservoir and hydro-power plant.

The Koiari owners of the Sirinumu Dam, which supplies water for the capital Port Moresby and the Rouna hydro-power station, undertook the action because Papua New Guineas government had not paid them 15 million kina (U.S. $4.1 million) of royalties promised since 2018.

Police are proceeding with caution to engage with those involved in the shutdown of water and power generation facilities to ensure there is no further damage and to have services restored, Police Commissioner David Manning said in a statement.

State-owned PNG Power told Port Moresby residents on Tuesday morning to expect heavy load shedding  a euphemism for power cuts  due to the protest action.

PNG Water said the landowners had stopped the supply of water to a treatment plant that supplies Port Moresby.

Therefore there is no water being supplied to the city until further notice, the utility said in an outage notice.

At least one hospital in Port Moresby scaled down its operations to emergency services only, according to a provincial health authority notice seen by BenarNews.

Papua New Guinea, the most populous Pacific island country with more than nine million people, grapples with challenges such as corruption, lack of roads and basic healthcare in many regions as well as frequent tribal violence.

The country has one police officer for about every 1,800 people  nearly four times less than the level recommended by the United Nations to ensure law and order, according to a report published by the Griffith Asia Institute earlier this year.

Cars travel on a road in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, May 19, 2023. [Adek Berry/AFP]

The protesters believe corruption is the reason for why the government hasnt made the payments to the Koiara who own the land, said a landowner who did not want to be named.

Delay in making payments lies within the Finance and Treasury Department, the landowner told BenarNews.

Protesters had blocked the road to the Sirinumu Dam with trees, as shown in photos circulating online.

As of nightfall in Port Moresby on Tuesday, the water and power supply was still disrupted.

The police statement said discussions were underway at the political level and their progress would help determine what steps police could take next.

Preparations would be made to intervene to end the protest but only as a last resort, it said.

I appreciate that the landowners of Koiari have grievances that they are seeking to rectify but causing harm and distress to other people is not the way to resolve this issue, Manning, the police commissioner, said.
Parents and guardians watch as students gather inside a public school in Quezon City, Metro Manila, on the first day of its reopening, Aug. 22, 2022.

Education authorities in the Philippines said Tuesday they had launched investigations after a 14-year-old grade school student died after a teacher allegedly slapped him in the classroom about two weeks ago.

The boys mother told local radio stations that her son had died on Monday. He fell into a coma after complaining about an earache and headache following the alleged slap.

Francis Jay Gumikib, a student at Penafrancia Elementary School in Antipolo City, east of Manila, was slapped by his teacher on Sept. 20, the boys mother, Elena Minggoy, alleged in radio interviews.

She said her son was still able to go to school for three days, but on Sept. 26, he started vomiting and complaining about intense pain and loss of balance.

Francis was admitted to the intensive care unit of the government-run Amang Rodriguez General Hospital, where he died on Monday morning.

Upon admission, he underwent a CT scan and X-ray, and there they found out that there was bleeding in his brain and [a] blood vessel rupture, Minggoy told Radyo Pilipinas.

Recounting her sons account, Minggoy said that the teacher slapped him while scolding him during an exam. According to her son, the teacher pulled his collar and his hair before slapping him on the face.

My son told me that after he was slapped, he temporarily went deaf. He also told me, My ears hurt, Ma, she said in a separate interview with Teleradyo. He said, I feel like there are many creatures creeping on my head. Please bring me to the hospital now, I cannot take it.

While corporal punishment is prohibited in the Philippines, there are sporadic reports from parents about such incidents in schools.

BenarNews could not immediately reach the teacher for comment but understood that he had been suspended, pending investigations.

Meanwhile, Minggoy called on Vice President Sara Duterte, who also holds the position of education secretary, to help get justice for her sons death.

Duterte had yet to issue a statement, but the Department of Educations spokesman, Michael Poa, told reporters on Tuesday that the citys schools division was investigating the incident.

A regional office of the Department of Education also launched a probe, officials said.

The City Schools Division Office in Antipolo issued an order on Tuesday directing a fact-finding team to look into the death.

The Antipolo City Police are also investigating the possibility of filing criminal charges.

Lt. Col. Ryan Manongdo, the Antipolo City police chief, told reporters that they were waiting for the autopsy report to determine the cause of the childs death and that they may press criminal charges.

Basilio Sepe and Gerard Carreon contributed to this report from Manila.
Police had a 14-year-old in custody after he allegedly killed at least two people and injured others during a shooting spree at an upscale Bangkok mall Tuesday, according to the national chief and spokespeople of hospitals where victims were taken.

The suspect  whose name was withheld because of his age  was apprehended within an hour of the shootings that caused pandemonium at Siam Paragon, one of the top malls in central Bangkok, authorities said. Police officers rushed to the scene to pursue the suspect who surrendered at a nearby hotel.

Except for Thailands insurgency-stricken Deep South, mass shootings are relatively rare in the majority-Buddhist country, and gun violence carried out by teenagers is even rarer.

There were two people who died and five others who were injured, Gen. Torsak Sukvimol, the national police chief, told reporters.

Torsak said the teen had been treated for mental health issues at the Rajavithi Hospital but failed to take his medication.

He said something told him to kill this and that person. As far as when we talked to him, he barely spoke sensibly, [he] was oblivious, Torsak said.

A police officer handcuffs the teen suspected of the fatal shooting at the Siam Paragon shopping mall in Bangkok, Oct. 3, 2023. [Courtesy Pathumwan Police station]

As of 11 p.m. Tuesday (local time), those killed were identified as Zhao Jinnan of China and Moe Myint of Myanmar, while the injured were identified as three Thais, a Laotian and a Chinese national, according to the hospitals.

Babah and Mama are here

On X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin extended his condolences to the victims families.

I am deeply saddened to hear of your loss in the shooting at Siam Paragon and wish the families of the deceased, as well as those of the injured, to stay strong, he said.

The crown prince of Johor, Malaysia, said he witnessed the attack from a nearby hotel lobby, according to a post on his Facebook page.

People were shouting and running into the hotel from the mall when the shooter started firing, Ismail Ibrahim, the crown prince, said in the post.

He said he and his security team carried his family to safety in the hotel basement.

[T]he only thing on my mind was how many shooters were there, what weapons they had and what was the situation. We had to be on alert and be prepared for any circumstance because all we knew at that point were the gunshots we heard.

I still have images of me telling my kids, everything is going to be OK. Babah and Mama are here, and telling them to get down while waiting for the car, he wrote. My security team and I stood in front of my family, creating a human shield to protect them at all cost.

The security team took the crown prince and his family to the Singapore Embassy because it was closer than the Malaysian Embassy where they are preparing to fly back home.

Ismail Ibrahim acknowledged and paid tribute to those killed in the shooting.

May God bless their innocent souls, he said.

Modified weapon

Torsak, the police chief, said the teen had modified a blank gun to fire bullets, adding investigators had not determined how he obtained it. Online sales of illegal weapons in Thailand are not uncommon, according to authorities.

The suspect played violent online shooting games, Torsak said. Videos circulating on social media allegedly showed the suspect practicing how to replace magazines in the gun before the shooting.

Thailand has experienced mass killings in recent years, including one less than a year ago.

On Oct. 6, 2022, an ex-police officer in northeastern Thailand stabbed and fatally shot dead at least two dozen pre-school children at a daycare center in Nong Bua Lam Phu province.

In 2020, an active-duty soldier suffered a psychotic break, killing at least 29 people and injuring dozens of others at four locations in Nakhon Ratchasima province. He was gunned down after an hours-long standoff.

According to a 2020 study by the Geneva-based organization Small Arms Survey, Thailand has the highest number of firearms in civilian possession among ASEAN countries with more than 10 million firearms in civilian hands as of 2017  about 15% of the population.
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STOCKBRIDGE  Since it was built in 1886 for the Vanderbilt and Sloane families of Gilded Age fame, the Elm Court mansion and its lush grounds have seen its share of ups and downs.

Since 2012, its been in a holding pattern.

But the purchase last year by real estate entrepreneur Linda Law has once again set things in motion at the estate.

Law, who lives mostly in Lenox and part-time in Californias Silicon Valley (Menlo Park), purchased Elm Court for $8 million in December after a developer abandoned a 10-year effort to build out a $50 million resort on the 89-acre property.

That was a steep discount from the $12.5 million asking price when the previous owner put it back on the market in 2020.

Now rebranded as the Vanderbilt Berkshires Estate, the site is undergoing additional, substantial renovations for its next chapter. About $3 million has been spent so far on what will ultimately be an $18 million investment to transform the property into a 30-room hotel.

This is magnificent, however no ones ever been able to make it successful, Law said. No one could hold on to it since the original owners [the Sloane and Vanderbilt families] as a result of high operating costs, maintenance expenses and much-needed renovation costs to preserve the property. I wanted to give it a name thats fresh and free from a decade of contention, citing the failed joint venture between Amstar Group and Travaasa Experiential Resorts.

Last week, the Stockbridge Select Board voted 3-0 to keep in place the existing zoning special permit that allows the resort operation. Evidence provided by attorney Elisabeth Goodman showed that substantial renovation work had been undertaken by Law and her partners.

Its a huge investment that shes making in this property and in Stockbridge, Goodman told the board. She submitted a lengthy list of renovations completed, noting that six full-time employees are working on the project.

A similar permit extension request is expected to go before the Lenox zoning board soon, since that town owns 3 acres of the property  the main entrance and the frontage along Old Stockbridge Road.

During a two-hour tour and discussion last week, Law, property co-owners Richard Peiser, professor of real estate development at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and contractor Raymond Ranta outlined their vision for the historic estate.

Its based on a master plan: Renovation of the Manor House and alternatives to the hotel annex are being explored, which will include less density than the existing special permit, Law pointed out. The new plan calls for 18 new units to be added to the dozen existing suites.

Renovations would include an elevator plus electrical, HVAC, significant structural work, public space and guest room enhancements.

The on-site work will be all-cash without financing  the money is there, Law said.

In addition, as required by the Lenox special permit, theres a roughly $10 million offsite infrastructure project along Old Stockbridge Road, including sewer and water extensions and sidewalks.

Law had sold the high-end Blantyre resort in Lenox for $15 million in November 2021. She and her investor-partners had purchased the property from the Fitzpatrick family for $8.7 million in June 2017, including the value of the business, furnishings and equipment.

Closed since December 2021 for renovations, Blantyre is scheduled for reopening in late 2024.

Now, Law acknowledges second thoughts  I made a mistake; I knew it the day I sold it.

Elm Court, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was built in 1886 as the summer home of William Douglas Sloane, whose family owned a prominent furniture company, and Emily Thorn Vanderbilt, the granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt. It was the last 19th century Berkshire Gilded Age Cottage still under original family ownership when it was sold in 2012 by Robert Berle and family members, descendants of the Sloane and Vanderbilts.

Details about the high-profile user of the Vanderbilt Berkshires Estate remain under wraps for now, Law said.

When we get this finished, therell be a bright light shining over Lenox and Stockbridge because of the high-profile user, she said.

Its hard, hard work, but I know its going to happen, Law said, despite her self-described extremely pessimistic nature.

I always think nothings going to work. This, I know, is going to work," she said. "The Vanderbilt Berkshires Estate will be a wonderful addition to our community."

Elm Court timeline . . .

1886: The Elm Court mansion, constructed for the Gilded Age's Vanderbilt and Sloane families, opens.

1948: Descendants begin operating it as a boutique inn, but it closes in 1958 and the property is abandoned for 42 years, falling victim to decay and vandalism.

2002: Following extensive renovations, members of the Berle family, descendants of the original owners, reopen Elm Court as a luxury boutique destination for weddings, but it closes in 2009 during the Great Recession.

July 2012: The Berles sell the Elm Court estate for $9.8 million to resort developer Front Yard LLC, an affiliate of real estate investment company Amstars Travaasa Experiential Resorts. It had been placed on the market in 2005 for $21.5 million, reduced to $17.5 million a year later, and finally to $14 million before the property temporarily was taken off the market at the end of 2006.

Sept. 8, 2014: The Stockbridge Select Board approves a special permit with conditions for Front Yard's Travaasa Experiential Resort project.

June 29, 2015: After six meetings, the Lenox Zoning Board of Appeals votes 4-1 to approve the project with special conditions.

Aug. 3, 2015: Eight Lenox and Stockbridge neighbors of Elm Court file an appeal in Massachusetts Land Court, suing the Lenox ZBA and Front Yard LLC.

July 17, 2017: The court dismisses the lawsuit; a smaller group of neighbors takes the case to the state Court of Appeals.

Nov. 10, 2017: The Court of Appeals lawsuit is dismissed following a private settlement between the developer and the neighbors.

July 9, 2018: The Stockbridge Select Board extends its special permit through Sept. 6, 2019.

June 3, 2019: Front Yard/Travassa's local attorney files for additional extensions of the Lenox and Stockbridge special permits.

July 23, 2020: The Stockbridge Select Board approves a two-year extension through Sept. 6, 2022. The Lenox ZBA extends its special permit until Nov. 10, 2022.

Oct. 19, 2020: Front Yard/Travaasa places Elm Court on the market for $12.5 million.

December 2022: Front Yard LLC sells Elm Court for $8 million to Linda Susan Law, trustee of the Linda Susan Law Trust.

October 2023: Law and her partners gain an extension of the existing zoning special permit from the Stockbridge Select Board as they scope out plans for a 30-room boutique hotel at Vanderbilt Berkshires Estate, the new name for Elm Court.

Source: Eagle archives
This Story in History is selected from the archives by Jeannie Maschino, The Berkshire Eagle.
Drury High School students depart from buses for the first day of school in 2022. After-school programming is coming to the high school, which announced on Tuesday that it had netted a federal grant.
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Toulon: la mission locale propose de passer le code et le permis pour 250 euros

La mission locale de Toulon propose aux jeunes en difficulte de passer le code et le permis pour 250 euros.
The first song in the Bible and the last are remarkably similar. Both are a spontaneous, praise-filled celebration of Gods redemption.

For 400 years the children of God were enslaved by the Egyptians. When they cried out to God, He sent Moses to facilitate their deliverance. But Pharaohs heart was hard; he had no intention of freeing his captive laborers. God demonstrated His power and softened Pharaohs heart by sending 10 successive plagues upon Egypt. Through the first nine plagues, Pharaohs oppressive grip on the slaves grew tighter. But the 10th plague was so powerful, so unspeakably horrific, that it finally shattered Pharaohs resistance and caused Him to let Gods people go.

During their exodus, Pharoah burned with regret and decided to pursue the freed slaves. One final barrier stood between Israel and freedomthe Red Sea. As Pharoah and his army gained ground, the children of God found themselves trapped until Gods hand moved through Moses and opened the great body of water, allowing the Israelites to cross on dry land. When the Egyptians followed, the waves engulfed every horse and rider in Pharaohs army.

Upon their deliverance, Moses and the Israelites burst into spontaneous praise.

I will sing to the LORD,

for He is highly exalted.

The horse and rider

He has thrown into the sea.

The LORD is my strength and my song,

and He has become my salvation.

He is my God, and I will praise Him,

my fathers God, and I will exalt Him. (Exodus 15:1-2)

Israels 18-verse deliverance song (Exodus 15:1-18) is a detailed recap of Gods miraculous deeds and His power to defeat the enemy. But as Israel collectively sang about Gods strength, provision, mercy, and justice, the lyrics evolved into a faith-filled prophetic view of Gods continued victory on their behalf.

The last song in the Bible is found in the book of Revelation. Scripture refers to this final song as the song of Moses and of the Lamb. (Revelation 15:3) In this passage of Scripture, John has just witnessed the saints overcome the power of the Beast through their faithful obedience to Christ. Seven final tribulation plagues are administered by seven angels, but the saints stand by a sea of fiery glass and sing their song of triumph to the One who has secured their redemption.

Great and marvelous are your deeds,

Lord God Almighty.

Just and true are your ways,

King of the nations.

Who will not fear you, Lord,

and bring glory to your name?

For you alone are holy.

All nations will come

and worship before you,

for your righteous acts have been revealed.

Both the first and last song in Scripture center on Gods redemptive power to deliver His people out of slavery and into the promises prepared for them.
A plaque on The Statue of Liberty reads:

"'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp! cries she

With silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

This poem on Lady Liberty became a rallying cry for the numerous immigrants coming upon land at Ellis Island. As John T. Cunningham wrote:

The Statue of Liberty was not conceived and sculpted as a symbol of immigration, but it quickly became so as immigrant ships passed under the torch and the shining face, heading toward Ellis Island. However, it was [Lazarus's poem] that permanently stamped on Miss Liberty the role of unofficial greeter of incoming immigrants.

Today, that beacon seems to be a point of controversy rather than a torch of invitation. Debate is raging about the soul of America. Who are we? While American Christians may ask that question, and rightly soul, there is another question which motivates us even more  what does the Bible say?

Defining Terms: Migrants, Asylum Seekers and Refugees

Before engaging in any conversation, it is good to define terms. This is especially true when entering into what might be a heated discussion. There are different categories which often fall under the category of immigration, but there are legal definitions which separate them.

Who is a refugee?

According to Amnesty International: A refugee is a person who has fled their own country because they are at risk of serious human rights violations and persecution there. When a persons government cannot or will not provide protection for them, someone must flee. Often, they are fleeing war, violence, or persecution.

In order to be a refugee, one must meet certain criteria. And the determination is made on a case-by-case basis. According to the USCIS, In making this determination we consider the conditions in the country of origin and evaluate the individuals credibility. We also confirm that security checks have been completed and the results of the checks are reviewed and analyzed before approval."

As one might imagine, this process can take time. This is where another category is helpful, asylum seeker.

What is an asylum-seeker?

Every refugee was once an asylum-seeker. According to Amnesty International:

An asylum seeker is a person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country, but who hasnt yet been legally recognized as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim. Seeking asylum is a human right. This means everyone should be allowed to enter another country to seek asylum.

The right to seek asylum is enshrined in not only US but also international law. The qualifications are similar but an asylum seeker follows a different process. Its a complicated process that involves many different federal agencies. Current wait times are about four years long and asylum seekers can stay in the country while their application is pending.

What is a migrant?

There is no accepted definition of a migrant. But we know that a migrant is not an asylum seeker or a refugee. They are people who have left their home country seeking work, study, joining family, or simply starting a new life. Some leave because of difficult circumstances in their home country  but not those which would arise to the level of seeking asylum or refuge (like being devastated by a natural disaster).

A migrant holds a different legal status than one who is seeking asylum or refuge. Though they all seem to fall under the umbrella of discussions about immigration, technically an immigrant is one who chooses to leave their country of origin (again it could be for reasons of great difficulty) and a refugee is compelled to leave their country of origin.

For this article, we will be discussing the biblical response to migrants, not asylum-seekers or refugees. Those are important, but slightly different discussions.

Does the Bible Talk about Immigrants?

Its somewhat difficult to parse these distinctions in the Scriptures though. In some instances, it is clear that a person is seeking asylum. But in many instances the Bible seems to use words like stranger, sojourner, foreigner somewhat interchangeably. It can mean those seeking asylum and it can simply mean someone migrating to another country to move away from hardship.

If one considers the story of the Israelites in Genesis and Exodus, they were not leaving their homeland because of persecution or the threat of war. They left because they were starving. This would not meet the criteria of asylum seeking, so we would consider them as migrants. Keep this in mind as we consider Leviticus 19:34. There it says, "The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God." The Bible repeatedly emphasizes the importance of welcoming and showing kindness to strangers or immigrants.

It could potentially be argued that Deuteronomy 10 is talking about asylum-seekers. But again, the LORD connects it to their identity in Egypt. Deut. 10:18-19 says, He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. A similar statement is made in Exodus 22:21 about not mistreating foreigners residing among you.

The Bible also has many examples of immigrants in the Scriptures.

Who Were Some Immigrants in the Bible?

Ruths story is one of immigration. Again, shes seeking to leave hardship, not necessarily any sort of persecution or war. She is a Moabite woman who came to Israel with her mother-in-law Naomi. She became part of the community of Israel, though a foreigner.

Often referred to as the "father of faith," Abraham is a significant biblical figure who left his homeland, Ur of the Chaldeans, and became an immigrant in the land of Canaan. God made a covenant with Abraham, promising to give his descendants the land they were dwelling in.

Moses spent a significant part of his life as an immigrant in Midian after fleeing from Egypt. It was during this time that he encountered God at the burning bush and received his call to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

Some like to mention that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were immigrants. Technically, they would fall under the category of an asylum-seeker. The same would be true of David seeking asylum with the Philistines. The same could be said of the early Christians who scattered because of persecution.

How Does the Bible Say Christians Should Treat Immigrants?

We can debate laws and such within our nation when it comes to the receiving of immigrants, how to handle asylum-seekers, and whether or not to provide refuge as a nation. But the Scriptures call us to a certain response as individuals engaging flesh and blood immigrants.

First, we are called to compassion and empathy. The Bible calls Christians to treat immigrants and foreigners with compassion and empathy. Leviticus 19:24 is a reflection of God's heart for all people, regardless of their nationality or background.

Secondly, we are to respond with both justice and fair treatment. God is just, and His desire is for His people to act justly as well. Again, Deut. 10:18-19 shows us Gods fatherly care. This does call us to be people of truth as well. There ought to be structures for providing legal immigration. The system should be both just for those seeking to migrate to a country and just for the citizens who already reside there.

It is also important for Christians to remember our own history. God called the Israelites to remember their own history of being migrants to Egypt who were eventually enslaved. Their freedom was bought for a price and they ought to reflect this in their interaction with others. This call is extended in the New Testament in Ephesians 2:12, when Paul reminds the believers of their previous history. Gods plan of redemption extends to the entire world, and His love knows no national boundaries. We must reflect this in our love and care for all humanity.

Next, we should consider the Great Commission. I remember as a student in seminary at Louisville, marveling at the number of people groups represented in our apartment complex. We found that many of these were from unreached people groups  places where we cannot at present get the gospel. Yet, God had graciously brought these people to us. The Great Commission calls us to think missionally about this question of immigration. This commission underscores the global scope of the Gospel message and the importance of reaching out to people from every background.

Lastly, we must consider our unity in Christ. In Christ, believers from various nations and backgrounds are brought together as one body (1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:28). The unity of believers transcends cultural and national differences, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all who belong to Christ.

What Can I Do to Show the Love of Christ to Immigrants in My Area?

Regardless of your political opinions on this issue, we know that we are to show the love of Christ to immigrants in our area. That is not up for debate. How do we do this, though?

We can start by extending a warm welcome and practicing hospitality, inviting them into our community through social events and meals. What a great honor it would also be for us to take the time to learn about their culture and traditions, and listen to their stories with genuine interest. They have likely been through an awful season. A listening ear could be balm to their soul.

We can also offer practical assistance with navigating local services, job searches, as well as language learning. Most immigrants desire to be part of the community in which they are living. Can you imagine coming to a new place where you do not speak the language, you have very little (if any) possessions, you dont know anyone, and now youre supposed to start a life? We can assist with some of those difficulties and show the love of Christ.

As we show the love of Christ, we should also pray for opportunities to share the Gospel. If we arent living the gospel before them, though, our words will be empty and perhaps even harmful. We can pray for them and love them well. Ultimately, your compassionate acts of kindness and friendship can make a significant impact on the lives of immigrants in your community, reflecting the love of Christ.

Yes, this is a heated topic within our nation. But the love of Christ is never optional.

Source

Cunningham, John T (2003), Ellis Island: Immigration's Shining Center, Arcadia Publishing, pp. 4648,

Photo credit: Getty Images/FatCamera

Mike Leake is husband to Nikki and father to Isaiah and Hannah. He is also the lead pastor at Calvary of Neosho, MO. Mike is the author of Torn to Heal and Jesus Is All You Need. His writing home is is husband to Nikki and father to Isaiah and Hannah. He is also the lead pastor at Calvary of Neosho, MO. Mike is the author of Torn to Heal and Jesus Is All You Need. His writing home is http://mikeleake.net and you can connect with him on Twitter @mikeleake. Mike has a new writing project at Proverbs4Today

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Radiotherapy is an essential component in the management of cancer patients that is used either alone or in combination with surgery or chemotherapy. But the availability of quality and affordable radiotherapy services and skilled personnel is a critical requirement for the fight against cancer in countries such as India. In addition, would the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in radiotherapy bring about ease of operations or add up to the burden? Lets dig deeper.

The global market for radiotherapy is expected to increase at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.3 per cent from 2022 to 2031 to reach $11.9 billion. Out of which, the Indian radiotherapy market is projected to increase from $126 million in 2022 to $250 million in 2030, at a CAGR of 9 per cent.

Radiotherapy technology has advanced quickly in recent years, and high-income nations now have access to a wide variety of innovative radiotherapy treatment alternatives. Because radiation therapy can damage normal cells, medical imaging such as x-ray, computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), are being used to help precisely target the radiation dose to the cancer.

Compared to CT-guided radiotherapy, MRI-guided radiotherapy is more expensive. Because an MRI-linear accelerator requires more time per fraction than a standard linear accelerator, as well as more expensive equipment and skilled employees, it can only treat a few patients. The time per treatment fraction is anticipated to decrease as this technology continues to advance. Treatment on the MRI-linear accelerator will likely continue to be more expensive than on a standard linear accelerator, though. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends one medical linear accelerator per million population in developing countries.

At present, the key players in the Indian radiotherapy landscape such as Varian Medical Systems, Elekta, Siemens Healthineers, and Accuray, are mostly global but with extensive operations in India. These leading players have recently launched advanced technologies in the Indian market to take radiotherapy to the next level.

From linear accelerators (linacs), brachytherapy devices, and Gamma Knife radiosurgery, to oncology informatics, Swedish firm Elekta has been consistently pushing the boundaries of medical technology. The flagship in their lineup is Elekta Unity, an advanced MR-Linac system that seamlessly integrates a high-field MR magnet with a linear accelerator. This game-changing technology enables clinicians to visualise tumours in real-time during radiation therapy, ushering in a new era of precision treatment. Recently, the introduction of the first Elekta Unity MR-Linac in India took place at Yashoda Hospital, Hyderabad.

According to Manikandan Bala, Managing Director, India and Senior Vice President, Intercontinental, Elekta, The changing shape, size and location of tumours and their surrounding structures requires adaptive treatment planning. Through personalised adjustments to treatment plans, advanced technology enhances treatment efficacy while minimising dose spillage.

The company has also recently collaborated with American firm GE HealthCare to expand access to precision radiation therapy solutions in India.

Sharing a similar ambition to improve patient accessibility to advanced precision cancer therapy, Mumbai-based startup Karkinos Healthcare has partnered with Elekta to acquire more than ten linear accelerator (linac) systems to be strategically deployed across the country.

Addressing skill gap

Although newer technologies and precision care for cancer treatment are being introduced in India, a critical aspect of skilled labour still remains a challenge. The broad use of cutting-edge therapies is hampered by a lack of qualified radiation oncologists and healthcare specialists educated in cutting-edge radiotherapy techniques. Improving patient outcomes requires addressing the skill gap and funding training programmes for healthcare personnel.

A recent initiative in this regard was announced by another Swedish medtech company C-RAD, the global leader in surface-guided radiation therapy (SGRT) solutions, with the establishment of its first-ever Experience Centre in India at Faridabad. Set up as a joint project with its India partner Marrsis Disha, the facility will train and upskill clinical professionals in precision radiotherapy.

SGRT is a tattoo-free alternative for patients who require radiation therapy. The technology uses advanced 3D camera technology to track and monitor patient movements during set-up and treatment. We want to use this Experience Centre as a platform to promote cutting-edge technologies like SGRT. There is a huge unmet demand for radiation therapy equipment in India and not every patient is able to get treatment in time", said Rohan Mehtani, Chief Executive Officer, Marrsis Disha.

Elekta has also initiated a similar approach by launching a collaborative educational facility in Mumbai, with Bengaluru-based HealthCare Global Enterprises (HCG). The training centre will focus on providing radiation oncologists, radiotherapy technologists and medical physicists with the necessary skills and training on the latest treatment techniques and technological advancements in radiation therapy (RT).

Dr B S Ajaikumar, Executive Chairman, HealthCare Global Enterprises says, Through these training programmes we hope to move the needle from basic radiotherapy techniques to high precision radiotherapy treatment strategies such as image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), adaptive RT, stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). Equipping medical professionals through effective learning solutions can significantly improve efficiency and patient outcomes.

Besides generating a skilled workforce, another issue in India is the lack of knowledge and instruction on radiotherapy as a possible treatment for cancer and other illnesses. Radiotherapy-related myths and misconceptions can be dispelled by promoting public awareness campaigns and carrying out educational programmes. The bulk of modern treatment facilities are concentrated in urban areas, making it difficult to ensure an equitable distribution of radiation facilities and services across the nation's many regions. To ensure that everyone has fair access to healthcare, radiation services must be made more widely available in rural and distant areas.

How would AI help?

Adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a leading trend in the global radiotherapy devices market and is gaining significant popularity. The incorporation of AI innovation in disease care is expected to improve the exactness and speed of analysis, help clinical dynamics, and lead to better results. Ethos therapy is the first AI-powered personalised cancer care delivery system in radiation oncology, developed by US-based Varian Medical Systems, now a part of Siemens Healthineers.

Back in 2022, HCG Cancer Hospital, Bengaluru, announced the launch of Indias first Varian Ethos therapy. The Ethos Radiotherapy applies Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to generate adapted plans within minutes to guide doctors while the patient is still undergoing treatment. Radixact X9 Tomotherapy by US-based firm Accuray is another advanced AI-based cancer treatment technology available in India. And these adoptions are gradually increasing.

But then arises the question that people from low-income families may find it difficult to get treatment because of the expense of sophisticated radiation equipment and procedures. For many people seeking radiation treatment, affordability is still a problem, which causes inequalities in access to high-quality care.

On the other hand, the global shortage of radiologists is a pressing concern impacting patient care worldwide. And AI is apparently revolutionising radiology by expediting diagnoses, enhancing efficiency, and serving as valuable decision support.

While spending on AI in India is anticipated to reach $11.78 billion in 2025 and add $1 trillion to the country's economy by 2035, AI might be able to offer more than just financial advantages. Access to care can be increased and made more egalitarian with AI-enabled medical technology but in an affordable manner.

---------------

PPPs hold immense potential to accelerate AI implementation in radiotherapy across India

Dileep Mangsuli, Executive Director and Head of Development Center, Siemens Healthineers

In 2022, there were an estimated 1,461,427 new cancer cases in India. Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven innovations can make radiotherapy more accessible and efficient, attracting both healthcare providers and patients. It can enhance treatment accuracy, reduce side effects, and optimise resource allocation by harnessing AI for treatment planning, precise dose calculation, and real-time tumour tracking. This technology can also address the shortage of skilled radiation oncologists by assisting in treatment decisions.

Challenges faced by AI applications in the radiotherapy market in India:

Infrastructure disparities: Limited access to advanced radiotherapy equipment and expertise, especially in rural areas, hinders the widespread adoption of AI in healthcare.

Data privacy and security: Protecting sensitive patient information is crucial, necessitating robust measures against unauthorised access or data breaches.

Education and training: Specialised training for healthcare professionals in AI utilisation is essential for effective implementation.

Moreover, accurate contouring of organs-at-risk (OAR) is a critical but challenging step in radiation therapy planning. AI and technological advancements offer automated solutions, reducing workload and standardising CT simulation steps. These automated OAR contouring solutions provide clinically usable results, with over 95 per cent of contours being accurate. They enhance efficiency, accessibility, and integration in clinical environments, expediting the treatment process.

Private-public partnerships (PPPs) hold immense potential to accelerate the implementation of AI in radiotherapy across India. Over 95 per cent of cancer centres are concentrated in urban areas, leaving rural regions underserved. While 70 per cent of the population still lives in rural regions, the majority of cancer treatment facilities are located in urban centres. This scenario indicates a critical need for such collaborations. Moreover, AI-driven automation of organs-at-risk contouring, a pivotal aspect of treatment planning, can significantly benefit from technological advancements. AI's ability to process complex data efficiently addresses the challenge of accurate OAR contouring. This, in turn, streamlines the treatment process, making it more accessible and effective. By combining resources and expertise, private-public partnerships can play a pivotal role in revolutionising radiotherapy in India, ultimately leading to improved patient care and outcomes.
Stem cell research stands as a high-priority field in India, as evident by the recent developments. In May 2023, US-based StemCures announced a significant investment of $54 million to establish India's largest stem cell manufacturing laboratory in Hyderabad. Additionally, Stempeutics Research has made significant strides by commercialising India's first allogeneic stem cell therapy, known as Stempeucel, a pioneering treatment designed to rejuvenate blood flow in ischemic tissues, offering hope to patients worldwide. These milestones exemplify India's commitment to advancing stem cells research. Lets explore the advancements in this sector.

The Indian government is bullish on the stem cell sector. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has been actively involved in supporting projects spanning various aspects of stem cell research, including basic biology, translational research, gene editing technology development for potential therapies, and the creation of animal models for human diseases. The DBT allocated funds totaling Rs 7,345.58 lakh during the period from 2019 to 2022.

There have been a flurry of activities in this space in recent times. The introduction of Stempeutics Research's Stempeucel in partnership with Cipla in 2020 marked a groundbreaking achievement in India's stem cell sector. It secured the distinction of being the first allogeneic cell therapy product approved for commercial use in India and globally, as the world's inaugural stem cell product for the treatment of Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI) due to Buergers Disease and Atherosclerotic Peripheral Arterial Disease.

Stempeucel, which took over 12 years to develop, represents a revolutionary therapy designed to augment the body's innate ability to restore blood flow in ischemic tissue. Currently, the firm is planning to enter other international markets, including the US, EU, and Japan.

In 2022, Stempeutics in collaboration with Alkem Laboratories, launched the first 'made-in-India' off-the-shelf cell therapy product known as StemOne to treat Knee Osteoarthritis (OA). It is the first approved allogeneic cell therapy product for commercial use in India to address knee OA. The firm is also evaluating stem cell therapy for diabetic foot ulcers and in May 2023, announced the completion of patient enrollment for this critical phase 3 study.

While the United States, the European Union, and China currently lead in preclinical mesenchymal stem cell research, India has achieved a significant milestone with the approval of its stem cell product, Stempeucel. In contrast, both the USA and China have yet to obtain approval for any stem cell products. Stempeucel obtained approval for two specific conditions, poor circulation and knee pain resulting from osteoarthritis, and is derived from the culture expansion of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. With this precedent established, it is anticipated that this development will serve as a catalyst for future advancements in stem cell therapies. This holds significant promise for India, as it possesses immense potential in addressing various medical conditions that presently lack effective treatment options, said Dr Sairam Atluri, Founder, StemCures USA.

In May 2023, StemCures announced its intention to invest $54 million in establishing India's largest stem cell laboratory in Telangana.

In August 2022, Bengaluru-based cell therapy company Eyestem successfully raised $6.4 million in Series A funding. They are currently developing EyeCyte-RPE, an experimental treatment intended for Dry Age-related Macular Degeneration (Dry AMD).

In September 2023, Eyestem submitted an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the Central Drugs Standards Control Organization (CDSCO), paving the way for the commencement of first-in-human trials for Eyecyte-RPE.

Research institutes in the country have played a crucial role in understanding the molecular-level intricacies of stem cells. This understanding has been pivotal in identifying the underlying causes of diseases, thus paving the way for the development of improved treatment approaches.

To that effect, on September 6, 2023, SKAN Research Trust (SKAN) partnered with the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (CSCI) from the University of Cambridge to bring cutting-edge stem cell research to India. This collaboration aims to advance disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment through targeted stem cell research projects in the field of regenerative medicine.

In August 2023, researchers at IIT-G (Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati) developed a method to transform regular human skin cells into iPSCs (Induced pluripotent stem cells), which can be programmed into different adult cell types, offering significant potential for treating diseases like diabetes, cancer, paralysis, and Alzheimer's. This approach bypasses the traditional extraction of stem cells from embryos or specific body parts, addressing ethical and practical concerns. Using a safe, integration-free method, the team introduced genes into skin cells, making them iPSCs, which maintained their genetic integrity and versatility for differentiation into various body cell types.

Speaking about other developments in this space, Dr Subadra Dravida, Founder, Transcell Biologics, said, Hematopoietic stem cell transplantations on cell therapy model becoming the first line of treatment in curing blood cancers; The regenerative medicinal value of stem cells in repair and regeneration addressing defects to manage diseases like osteoarthritis, autism, muscular dystrophies are the latest developments. The breakthrough innovation where India can become global leader is in the field of applying stem cell technology integrated into the digital revolution to offer safety efficacy testing as a solution to the global pharma and biopharma industries replacing animal testing and outdated contract testing strategies.

Hyderabad-based Transcell Biologics, a knowledge driven technology investing entity has evolved from its inception as an R&D unit to a fully integrated biotechnology enterprise encompassing a well balanced business portfolio offering indigenous technologies on biobanking, in vitro products for drug discovery research, intellectual property in regenerative medicine/Immunotherapy for clinical practice.







A long road to accessibility

Experts are bullish on stem cells' future in the country, with exciting developments in store.

The breakthrough innovation of integrating stem cell technology with digital revolution on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools is the next big thing, breaking grounds, unravelling the stem cell tech potential becoming application reality. The strength of this digital animal free testing strategy that leverages stem cell tech and AI/ML tools is for every pharma and biopharma player adding value in their discovery, development and manufacturing for real time applications speaking on the affordability as well as accessibility to the end user, said Dr Dravida.

Stem cells, often regarded as miraculous for treating genetic disorders, remain beyond the reach of many patients in need. These cells hold the potential to cure numerous diseases. The cost of stem cell transplant therapy ranges from Rs 5-8 lakh, depending on the specific disease being treated, according to PayBima report.

Experts believe that additional investments are necessary within the field of stem cell research. While the current situation is promising, it calls for increased funding to establish India as a prominent player in stem cell research.

Given that these stem cells are considered living drugs, it is imperative to exercise meticulous attention during the manufacturing process to ensure both potency and safety. The manufacturing facility must adhere to both current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) and regulatory guidelines. Clinical trials are essential to establish the safety and efficacy of these therapies, albeit they may result in increased costs. However, India's advantage lies in its access to a comparatively less expensive yet highly knowledgeable labour pool, which can help mitigate some of these challenges. Presently, India appears to be a fertile ground for innovations in various fields, including medicine. It is conceivable that over the next decade, mesenchymal stem cell therapy will gain momentum and widespread acceptance. While the high cost associated with this therapy may pose challenges in terms of patient access, India has demonstrated its capability to overcome such challenges, as evidenced by its successful Chandrayaan mission. This suggests that India has the potential to address and find solutions for the affordability and accessibility issues related to advanced medical treatments like mesenchymal stem cell therapy, said Dr Atluri.

The stem cells field is often plagued with controversy both globally and in India. In December 2022, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) revoked NeuroGen Brain and Spine Institute's licence for providing stem cell therapy (SCT) to children with autism. Stem cell therapy is still experimental for autism, lacking enough data for definitive claims. The Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) recommended against its use due to potential risks, adverse reactions, and limited understanding of long-term effects. However, in September 2023, the Delhi High Court granted permission for two children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to continue their stem cell treatment, emphasising that abruptly stopping the treatment may not be in the best interest of the patients.

Stem cell research is a highly promising field, especially in regenerative medicine. It presents innovative ways to treat various diseases and conditions. Moving forward, ethical, regulatory, and accessibility considerations will be crucial in shaping this sector.

Ayesha Siddiqui
Generative AI is selling itself to emerge as the new frontier in the horizon for the booming healthcare industry. Highlighting some of the significant developments in this technology space, this article has a few Indian leaders voicing their opinions on exploring Generative AI to progress their businesses and services.

Generative AI solutions are touted to address high-touch areas throughout the healthcare value chain to drive unified experience and improve business outcomes for healthcare organisations. The technology can help researchers more easily access, identify and correlate data, mine large troves of research data for possible connections, and even automate the time-intensive tasks of drafting clinical trial communications and helping translate them to different languages.

Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) in their own strengths are partnering with various healthcare and pharma giants to bring this cutting-edge technology at integration level. To cite a recent collaboration, Google Cloud in late June 2023 announced a collaboration with Mayo Clinic to transform healthcare with Generative AI. Mayo Clinic will deploy Generative AI to improve the efficiency of clinical workflows in anticipation to make it easier for clinicians and researchers to find the information they need in a shorter time, and ultimately help improve patient outcomes.

Google currently assists many other leading healthcare and life sciences companies including Bayer Pharmaceuticals, HCA Healthcare, and Meditech with its Med-PaLM 2. Generative AI especially will be seen deployed in new drug discoveries. Developing new pharmaceutical products is time intensive and costly. According to a research paper published in NCBI, the entire process, from ideation to launch, can take up to 12-15 years and cost over $1 billion. There are some parts of this complex process that AI may be able to speed up. So, Bayer Pharmaceuticals is exploring how Generative AI solutions, like Google Clouds Vertex AI and Med-PaLM 2, can help bring drugs to market faster.

EVERSANA, one of the leading providers of commercial services to the global life sciences industry, teamed up with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate Generative AI use cases across the life sciences industry. EVERSANA and AWS expect to pharmatise the use of AI across the life sciences industry, offering security and privacy controls and adhering to ethical frameworks for responsible AI development, to ultimately benefit patients, healthcare providers and payers.

AWS is very bullish on deploying AI tools in healthcare. The company recently unveiled AWS HealthScribe, an AI-powered tool that automates the process of clinical documentation for doctors. This new service allows physicians to effortlessly generate comprehensive transcripts, extract essential details, and create summaries from their interactions with patients. The goal of AWS HealthScribe is to enable healthcare professionals to dedicate more time to creating innovative care solutions and conducting research for their patients rather than mundane documentation.

On August 17, 2023, American medical software giant Epic and Microsoft announced their expanded partnership to bring Generative AI to the forefront of the healthcare industry. The companies are teaming to help clinicians better serve their patients and to address some of the other most urgent needs, from workforce burnout to staffing shortages. The companies aim to bring AI to healthcare at scale, integrating conversational, ambient, and Generative AI technologies across Epics Electronic Health Record (EHR) ecosystem. The outcome of this is expected to witness tangible results in enhanced patient care, increased operational efficiency, improved healthcare experiences, and in supporting the financial integrity of health systems globally.

Applications in pharma and healthcare

Generative AI is globally touted as a tool with transformative powers, driving innovation and vested with the ability to reshape the landscape of drug discovery and patient care. Its application in pharma and healthcare can be broadly classified into three main areas: Drug Discovery and Development, Medical Imaging Analysis and Diagnosis, and Personalised Medicine and Treatment Optimisation.

a) Drug Discovery and Development: About one-third of the $1 billion it costs to develop a drug is spent on its discovery, which generally spans between three to six years. Unlike traditional methods, Generative AI can help generate novel drug candidates based on researcher-provided criteria and constraints.

Gartner predicts that by 2025, Generative AI will be used by 50 per cent of drug discovery and development initiatives. This translates into a potential reduction in costs and timelines associated with the development of new drugs by decreasing the need for expensive and time-consuming experimental trials.

The power of Generative AI playing a crucial role in accelerating drug discovery and development processes can be seen with a few partnerships signed between technology and pharma majors recently. Two years back, NVIDIA helped AstraZeneca work on a transformer-based Generative AI model for chemical structures used in drug discovery, which was one among the very first projects using GenAI.

This article will be incomplete without the mention of Insilico Medicines drug discovery success using Generative AI. The companys end-to-end platform, Pharma.AI, has produced three novel drugs in clinical trials, including a lead drug for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis that is in Phase II trials, the first fully Generative AI drug (with both an AI-discovered target and AI design) to reach this stage.

Nitesh Mirchandani, SVP & Global Head, Life Sciences & Services, Birlasoft, says, "Generative AI stands on the brink of revolutionising the healthcare sector. Its aptitude for scrutinising extensive datasets, refining medical imagery, simulating diverse medical scenarios presents transformative potential to drive progress in patient care, hyper personalised treatment plans, and accelerate medical research. Further, it holds the capability to expedite and streamline the discovery of pharmaceuticals in a cost-efficient manner to improve the overall healthcare delivery. At Birlasoft, we have crafted a game-changing Gen AI Automation platform for our pharma clients, reshaping pharmacovigilance, swiftly identifying, and categorising medical literature, expediting responses, and aligning with pharmaceutical industry demands.

b) Medical Imaging Analysis and Diagnosis: Generative AI is widely applied in medical imaging analysis, helping to interpret and enhance medical images, such as X-rays, MRI scans, and CT scans. SigTuple, Qure.ai, Niramai Health Analytix, Tricog Health are a few Indian startups who have already deployed Generative AI in this segment.

And the future is now as we see Google Health working to build lightweight, multimodal Generative AI models for medical imaging. By grafting language-aligned vision encoders onto a fixed large language model (LLM), Google is able to solve previously challenging tasks using an approach they call ELIXR. This ELIXR is trained using images and their free-text radiology reports.

Similarly, Project InnerEye from Microsoft Research is developing machine learning and open-source software to empower healthcare organisations and innovators to develop their own solutions that can assist clinicians in planning radiotherapy treatments so that they can spend more time with their patients.

c) Personalised Medicine and Treatment Optimisation: Generative AI is employed to analyse large-scale patient data, including genetic information, medical history, and lifestyle factors, to tailor medical treatments specifically for individual patients. A few hospitals are already using AI-based prediction technology to reduce the number of cardiac arrests by more than 86 per cent in the ICU. By leveraging AI models, healthcare providers can predict patient outcomes, identify risk factors, and optimise treatment plans.

INDIA primed to adopt Gen AI

Indias Chandrayaan-3s success is a testimony to the adoption of digital technology to develop indigenous solutions. It is obvious that the country is racing to keep pace with the developments in technology, and Generative AI will be no exception.

On August 22, 2023, Deloitte announced the launch of its Global Generative AI Market Incubator that will promote innovation in Generative AI and serve businesses in India and across the globe. With the Generative AI boom leading to its soaring global demand, it is considered a significant step towards nurturing tech innovation and talent in India and enabling enterprises to achieve their business objectives. At present, Deloitte has active global engagements in the areas of drug discovery, customer experience, content generation, and personal avatars marking over 100 corporations in the past six months. These engagements demonstrate the increasing relevance of Generative AI.

As per a 2023 NASSCOM report, the integration of data and AI into healthcare could potentially boost India's GDP by $25 to $30 billion by 2025. The strategic mechanisms for AI-driven transformation will be significant in augmenting Indian healthcare services, fostering improved quality, reduced costs, heightened accessibility, and a strong focus on patient care, experience, operational efficiency, and research and development.

Shweta Berry, Director Marketing & Head of Strategic Alliances at Aeris Communications believes the healthcare sector is on a transformative phase because of Generative AI, which holds immense potential for elevating patient care and results. She says, Generative AI possesses the capability to process vast volumes of data, enhance medical imaging, simulate diverse medical scenarios, and predict outcomes. This technology can play a pivotal role in addressing the scarcity of adequately qualified medical experts, bolstering preventive care and overall quality of life, generating more precise diagnoses and treatment strategies, and ultimately enhancing patient outcomes. Consequently, AI could wield substantial influence over India's public health landscape, aiding in the battle against pandemics and epidemics.

According to Sriraman R, Chief Architect, Digital Innovation & Solutions, Marlabs, as India's healthcare landscape is marked by limited resources, a shortage of qualified professionals, and uneven medical access, AI solutions offer a remedy. Especially in drug discovery, Generative AI expedites the identification, prediction, and refinement of drug candidates, streamlining affordable medication development. AI-driven telemedicine bridges gaps in remote areas, facilitating virtual consultations and diagnoses. Generative AI's versatility extends to translating medical records into multiple languages and realistic simulations, enhancing healthcare staff training.

Amidst great potential, challenges like ethical concerns, biased data, regulations, and infrastructure gaps persist. Collaboration among AI experts, healthcare practitioners, government, and businesses become pivotal for responsible integration of Generative AI in India's burgeoning $372 billion healthcare market, predicted to contribute $1 trillion to the economy by 2035, with AI investment projected to reach $11.78 billion by 2025.

The adoption of Generative AI in the healthcare industry has been faster than one could imagine. Generative AI will keep evolving and advancing, so organisations require an agile strategy and integrated approach to leverage underlying opportunities while ensuring there are no biases being introduced in the process, opines Mohit Sood, Regional Managing Principal, ZS. Soods company, ZS, is helping healthcare clients in getting better products to the market faster. By integrating Generative AI capabilities in analytics used in drug development and brand planning, Sood claims the company has helped reduce effort and time by more than 30 per cent and has helped achieve a 2-4x time faster speed to execution.

Sharing another key perspective, Neeta Singal, Director, Molecule AI, opines that India's strong foundation in IT and software development positions it favourably to excel in AI solutions for life sciences and healthcare  spanning drug discovery, medical imaging analysis, disease prediction, and personalised treatments. Also, according to Neeta Singal, leveraging its vast and diverse population, India can harness abundant data to train AI models tailored to its populace.

In applications like drug discovery, AI's appeal lies in expediting drug development by streamlining certain processes. The integration of Generative AI might reduce the need for extensive wet lab testing, impacting business and employment at contract research organisations (CROs). Similarly, AI's potential to produce more drug candidates could render some roles redundant for medicinal chemists at major pharmaceutical companies. This trend extends to in vivo tests as well. While AI's enhanced productivity and economic efficiency might foster job growth overall, it is plausible that certain positions will be displaced, says Neeta.

Investments in this field have certainly surged over tenfold, with Indian startups securing over $500 million since 2022. This surge translates into fresh employment prospects across various roles, including AI researchers, data scientists, AI engineers, healthcare AI specialists, and bioinformatics experts. Professionals capable of bridging AI and medical expertise, as well as those well-versed in ethics and regulations, are also going to be in demand.

So far, we have seen the rosy picture of what can be expected out of Generative AI applications. While Generative AI indeed offers numerous advantages, there is constant warning to companies adopting this technology to be cautious and consider several potential challenges and risks that are associated with biased data and other matters that infringe ethical functioning. Generative AI can inadvertently produce content that is offensive, biased, or inappropriate. It might also be used for malicious purposes like generating fake news, deep fakes, or fraudulent content. Companies need to ensure that their AI models are designed to mitigate these risks and uphold ethical standards. Also, AI models can learn biases present in the training data, leading to biased outputs.

India especially has tremendous work to do in mitigating these biases in an efficient manner. The future prospects of India embracing Generative AI to develop domestic solutions hold potential benefits. However, there are certain areas that need attention for successful implementation. Firstly, effective data collection processes should be established, learning from practices in other countries, India can gain insights into creating comprehensive patient records to support treatments and intelligent systems. Secondly, data privacy regulations play a crucial role, particularly when dealing with sensitive patient data. Comparing regulations in other nations, India needs to strengthen its data protection laws to ensure the safe and ethical use of healthcare data. Thirdly, enhancing healthcare efficiency is vital, considering Indias lower doctor-to-patient ratio compared to global standards. There are around 60-65 doctors per lakh of population, which is almost half of what is the global standard for any developed country or economy. Learning from Western counterparts, India can adopt strategies to optimise healthcare delivery, thereby addressing the unequal distribution of resources across different regions, opines Bhaskar Roy, Client Partner APAC and Bangalore Centre Head, Fractal.

Brink of a new era

As we move forward into a future where AI-driven solutions are seamlessly integrated into healthcare, its crucial for stakeholders  from researchers and practitioners to policymakers and technology developers  to collaborate closely. By fostering interdisciplinary partnerships, maintaining a strong ethical framework, and continuously refining the technology, the future can ensure that Generative AI becomes a force for good in healthcare. As its capabilities expand and its reliability strengthens, we're on the brink of a new era where precision medicine and patient outcomes are revolutionised, ultimately leading to healthier and more fulfilling lives for individuals around the world.

In conclusion, to emphasise the necessary adoption of AI in healthcare, I would like to quote Google's Chief Health Officer, Karen DeSalvos, statement that she shared with The Washington Post recently  AI won't replace doctors, but doctors who use AI will replace doctors who dont.

Anusha Ashwin
The reimagination of health systems in India is turning towards a central role being played by point-of-care tests that are accessible and affordable, to enable early detection and timely treatment of a number of diseases impacting India. This not only includes the current monsoon related spike in malaria cases that has surged by 40 per cent over last year's count, but also makes us reflect upon the fact that for the majority of tuberculosis (TB) testing, age-old microscopy technique still holds a major share. Addressing this demand for high-quality, point-of-care molecular diagnostic systems that is higher than ever today, Goa-based in-vitro diagnostic company Molbio Diagnostics is accelerating work on newer technologies. In conversation with BioSpectrum, Sriram Natarajan, Director and Chief Executive Officer, Molbio Diagnostics spoke in detail about the countrys healthcare challenges and the companys contribution in attending to those challenges with novel ideas.

What is in store for Molbio Diagnostics in FY 23-24 and beyond?

We've acquired a majority stake in Prognosys Medical Systems, a renowned digital health company and manufacturer of a wide range of Digital X Ray machines including portable and Ultra-portable machines. In addition to opening up Molbio's entry into the radiology segment, this enables us to provide end to end solutions for tuberculosis (TB) elimination, using the artificial intelligence (AI) powered X-ray for screening high risk population and Truenat for same day confirmation and reporting. This active case funding approach helps detection of TB and other pulmonary conditions even in asymptomatic cases thus closing the gap of the missing millions. We have also entered into a collaboration with SigTuple to jointly develop an AI-enabled point-of-care, portable digital microscope for various haematology applications including complete blood count (CBC). This will enable universal access to these basic tests for early and accurate diagnosis at the point of care.

How do you foresee the growth of AI in the diagnostics industry? What challenges might you encounter while working with new and emerging technologies?

AI is poised to play a significant role in the diagnostic industry. While currently the major application is focused on Image Analysis, this will extend to practically all diagnostic solutions to improve performance and efficiency and reduce errors. The current data protection rules, clinical validation protocols, regulatory framework all need to evolve in parallel for more efforts and faster uptake of this tool.

Molbio has also put its focus on blood disorders such as sickle cell anaemia and thalassemia. What are the strategies planned out to improve detection and treatment of these conditions? What about other blood related disorders in India?

One of the companies we are collaborating with is Shanmukha, a startup at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and developers of the high-performance optical spectroscopy (HPOS) technology for Sickle Cell and thalassemia. We are working together to further simplify this technology and increase its scope to other haemoglobin disorders.

How much revenue was generated during FY 22-23? How much growth is expected this fiscal? Are you planning new investments to develop new products?

Molbio generated a revenue of about Rs 350 crore in the year 2022-23, a significant fall from the previous two years. This was because of a steep fall in COVID testing and the slow recovery of testing for TB and other diseases. The current year is seeing a full recovery and the revenue is expected to return to the previous levels. While our R&D is working on many new projects, we continue to collaborate with like-minded startup companies for joint development and commercialisation.





Is 2023 a difficult target with regard to the Centre's TB elimination plan? How is Molbio working in this direction?

The programme has to focus on replacing the poor sensitive smear microscopy with molecular test as the front line test. Inspite of rolling out Truenat and CBNAAT since many years, majority of TB testing still happens with microscopy. There is also a need to increase active case finding to rope in the missing symptomatic and asymptomatic patients in the population as these are all people who continue to spread the disease. While Truenat continues to be the only point-of-care technology for replacing microscopy at the peripheral centres, with the Prognosys acquisition, Molbio is now able to offer end to end active case finding solutions, both fixed and mobile. Molbio is also collaborating with Docturnal on their cough based voice vocalisation technology and Stellar Diagnostics on their serological Triage test to further strengthen mass screening efforts.

How is the point-of-care testing space evolving in India?

Point-of-care testing is still in nascent stages with few programmes like TB and sickle cell gaining focus. However, considering that over 80 per cent of the population still does not have timely access to basic testing, the need is huge. While lack of funds is a major limiting factor, there is a need for more innovations in the way healthcare is delivered at the point-of-care level. Molbio is currently working on innovative technology based approaches that could be viable and replicable options.

Could you share more details about your recent collaboration with CrisprBits for launching innovative CRISPR-based point-of-care tests?

We have collaborated to leverage the capabilities of both organisations to accelerate the development, validation and delivery of impactful point of care tests. The synergy derives from a common focus on nucleic targets for diagnostics.

Is the concept of gene editing slowly making a mark in the biotech industry in India?

Gene editing is used extensively in contract research services for cell lines and creating transgenic models for experimental work. Commercial use in bio production has been hampered by complexities of the IP and the freedom to operate. The technology itself is now fairly accessible for well-trained molecular biologists and has to be considered as a one among the tools within a well-trained molecular biologists kit.

What are your expectations from the government that can improve healthcare in the country?

Healthcare being still largely public sector oriented, funding needs to substantially increase to achieve Health for All. While this can happen to some extent at the budgetary level, mandating a certain percentage of CSR funding to healthcare could be another way.

Market assurance to Make in India startups is essential to promote innovations in the domestic industry.

Dr Manbeena Chawla

(manbeena.chawla@mmactiv.com)
R21 and RTS,S vaccines act against P. falciparum, the deadliest malaria parasite and the most prevalent on the African continent

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended a new vaccine, R21/Matrix-M (developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India), for the prevention of malaria in children. The recommendation follows advice from the WHO: Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) and the Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG) and was endorsed by the WHO Director-General following its regular biannual meeting held on 25-29 September.

WHO also issued recommendations on the advice of SAGE for new vaccines for dengue and meningitis, along with immunization schedule and product recommendations for COVID-19. WHO also issued key immunisation programmatic recommendations on polio, IA2030 and recovering the immunization programme.

The R21 vaccine is the second malaria vaccine recommended by WHO, following the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine, which received a WHO recommendation in 2021. Both vaccines are shown to be safe and effective in preventing malaria in children and, when implemented broadly, are expected to have high public health impact. Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease, places a particularly high burden on children in the African Region, where nearly half a million children die from the disease each year.

Demand for malaria vaccines is unprecedented; however, available supply of RTS,S is limited. The addition of R21 to the list of WHO-recommended malaria vaccines is expected to result in sufficient vaccine supply to benefit all children living in areas where malaria is a public health risk.
SigTuples AI100 with Shonit is the premier solution for AI assisted digital pathology

SigTuple, a Bengaluru-based medtech startup that develops Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered digital microscopy solutions, has announced that its path-breaking device AI100 with ShonitTM (Peripheral blood smear application) has received US FDA 510(k) clearance.

This is the first integrated hardware and AI medical device, and the first product in AI assisted digital microscopy from India to obtain the coveted clearance and one of the handful of companies in the world to obtain it.

For all haematological disorders like blood cancers, infections, anaemia & allergies, the microscopic examination of the peripheral blood smear (PBS) is the gold standard test, but microscopy today is predominantly a manual process - necessitating a highly skilled pathologist to be present on-site.

SigTuples AI100 with ShonitTM is the premier solution for AI assisted digital pathology, wherein a physical sample is digitally imaged through a microscopic lens & the AI models extract each cell and then classify it into over 30 different cell types. The pathologists can now review the samples remotely. Further, the AI helps make the pathologist be more efficient, by automating most of the review. Thus, the same pathologist can now handle a much larger number of samples than what she/he can currently, eliminating the need for an additional manual review.
Populations in many low- and middle-income countries often have limited or no access to conventional healthcare resources or dedicated spinal health professionals

Low back and neck pain or spinal pain are considered the leading causes of years lived with disability in most countries and age groups. Individuals with chronic low back pain have been shown to experience more difficulty in managing their health, particularly in utilising health information on optimising lifestyle habits. Another study says that functional disability, cognitive impairment and mental health conditions are strongly associated with spinal pain.

The lower back comprises the lumbar spine, which is formed by vertebral bones, intervertebral discs, nerves, muscles, ligaments, and blood vessels. The spinal cord ends at the top of the lumbar spine, and the remaining nerve roots, called the cauda equina, descend down the remainder of the spinal canal. While the lumbar spine is sturdy and resilient, it is subject to a high degree of stress and loads, which causes various problems, resulting in pain.

According to experts, the prevalence rate of lower back pain in the Indian population is higher as compared to global and other ethnic populations especially in women, rural population and elementary workers. The estimated prevalence of lower back pain in India is reported to range between 42 and 83 per cent of the total population. Recent evaluated data of 1355 young Indian administrative service aspirants and medical postgraduate aspirants, lower back pain prevalence was found to be 42.4 per cent per year and 22.8 per cent per week in young Indian adults aged 18 to 35 years.

As a result, experts in India have recommended the G20 countries for introducing National Spine Care Programmes, to reduce the numbers of people suffering from spine related ailments.

While there is a great need to focus on spine care, especially in India and other developing countries, experts are currently exploring the role of artificial intelligence (AI) for spinal care. One of the most promising applications of AI in back health lies in its ability to assist with early detection and diagnosis of spinal conditions. Machine learning algorithms can analyse radiological images to identify patterns that might be overlooked by the human eye, helping to detect issues such as disc degeneration, spinal stenosis, or fractures early on.

For instance, researchers in Canada are using AI to develop a data-driven scoring tool to assess spine motor dysfunction. On the other hand, Brigham Young University researchers in the US are deploying AI for pinpointing causes of back pain and helping prescribe patients with treatments that will help.

Pune-based health tech startup DeepTek holds one more example. It has developed a product called DeepSpine - an AI powered lumbar spine quantification and metrics tool designed to analyse MRI lumbar spine images. The tool was launched at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting in Chicago, USA earlier this year.

According to the American College of Radiologists, lumbar spine MRI is the preferred imaging modality to rule out causes of complicated lower back pain and to decide whether conservative or invasive therapeutic approaches should be considered. Subsequently, the number of MRI studies of the lumbar spine has been rising over the last decades at a much higher rate than the number of trained radiologists who could adequately interpret the MR images, which is a major challenge.

Populations in many low- and middle-income countries often have limited or no access to conventional healthcare resources or dedicated spinal health professionals. Supporting populations and communities in self-managing their conditions is therefore paramount. Even in high-income countries, back pain afflicts millions of people resulting in an enormous impact on the healthcare industry and the economy. Effective management and prevention are therefore key, and this years World Spine Day on October 16 calls for greater global commitment to tackling spinal pain and disability by governments, communities, and public health bodies.

Dr Manbeena Chawla

Executive Editor

(manbeena.chawla@mmactiv.com)
Jem's Birding & Ringing Exploits in the Eastern Province and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia
As reported by business executives across Africa, influencer marketing is gaining prominence among business-to-business (B2B) brands, outperforming brand-only marketing by a remarkable 67%. As a response to the global rise, Ogilvy has joined forces with research partner Opinium and LinkedIn to conduct the first ever global study of B2B influence, exploring how B2B marketers can harness the power of influence, to make meaningful impact on business performance.

This ground-breaking research paper titled Influencing Business: The Global Rise of B2B Influencer Marketing' delves into the next significant growth opportunity for brands aiming to influence decisions, stimulate growth, and cultivate meaningful connections among enterprises. Spanning 11 markets, which include the US, UK, France, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kenya, South Africa, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia, the study showcases insights gathered from over 500+ senior marketers, complemented by an interview series featuring brands who are utilising B2B influence.

Thought leaders and commentators have migrated to new media spaces to create business communities, reshaping how people share, learn, and discuss business.

 Sanesh Maharaj, Ogilvy

There is exceptional value for businesses, in participating and earning attention within these emerging spheres of influence. Our research validates this industry shift with proven results from credible business leaders, says Sanesh Maharaj, Ogilvys South Africa head of influence. "Thought leaders and commentators have migrated to new media spaces to create business communities, reshaping how people share, learn, and discuss business. This transformation is redefining the future of stakeholder engagement.

Since 2016, the global market has grown over 20 times, with 62% of TikTok users making purchases based on app reviews and promotions. This study highlights the significant impact of B2B influencer marketing on brand perception and purchase decisions.

The South African B2B landscape is set to grow exponentially, due to unique purchase point triggers. Businesses seek increased conversions, relying on data, services, and content creators for digital endorsements and brand integration, says Zimasa Vabaza, entrepreneur and content creator. More businesses will need creators who can help drive awareness; making content creators indispensable for businesses to sell and tell their story.

Goldman Sachs predicts the Creator Economy will hit $500bn by 2027, with leading social platforms like YouTube (2.2B), Instagram (1.4B), and TikTok (1B) reaching nearly five billion monthly active users. This growth is driven by daily content creators.

The report covers South Africa, Kenya, and global markets, revealing key findings such as:

In African industries, technology (56%) leads in influencer marketing, followed by financial services and healthcare. In South Africa, retail (62%) takes the lead, while Kenya leads in property and real estate (54%). These trends are influenced by each country's unique economic advancements and socio-economic demands, with opportunities in financial services (41%) and healthcare (29%).



73% of South African decision-makers are more receptive to information from research organisations, showing a preference for data-driven insights, followed by business leaders (48%) and industry journalists or reporters (36%).



In Kenya, 64% of business executives highly value industry-expert consultants.



Across Africa, 59% of executives confirm that external B2B influencers positively impact employee performance by inspiring new ideas and boosting productivity.



Globally, 49% of c-suite marketers believe influencers enhance the brand's credibility and trustworthiness.

"The data yielded from this B2B research has provided invaluable insights into the opportunities that lie ahead for our clients and South African business at large. Ogilvys Influencer offering is positioned to venture into new frontiers, enabling us to gain a distinct competitive edge," says Samantha Presbury, managing director of Ogilvy Public Relations.

Businesses are propelled to grasp the value of authentic partnerships, as they can dominate industry conversations, shaping their reputations. Moreover, in the ever-evolving e-commerce landscape, entrepreneurs and businesses are harnessing influencers to boost sales and create entirely new ventures within the creator economy's realm.




What's Next with Aki Anastasiou has achieved over five million views, and many of South Africa's top companies have taken advantage of this incredible reach by sponsoring an entire season of the podcast.

Whats Next with Aki Anastasiou is South Africas leading ICT video podcast.

Since launching in 2020, it has achieved over 5 million views  and many of South Africas top companies have taken advantage of this incredible reach by sponsoring an entire season of the podcast.

Click here to sponsor a season of Whats Next.

These businesses identified the value of having their branding positioned across the official Whats Next website, as well as on MyBroadband, YouTube, Facebook, and Spotify for the duration of an entire Whats Next season.

Thanks to this, they reached thousands of viewers per interview  many of whom are key business decision-makers.

The list of companies to take season sponsorships on Whats Next includes:

Discovery Bank



Infobip



Sage



Microsoft



SYSPRO



Accenture



Liberty



Fedgroup



Africa Data Centres



SAP



Dimension Data

Become a sponsor

Your business can sponsor an entire season of Whats Next with Aki Anastasiou.

MyBroadbands marketing team will oversee your sponsorship campaign to ensure your brand is featured across all of Whats Nexts creative elements, and provide in-depth reporting on the exposure you receive.

Click here to sponsor a season of Whats Next.




Toys R Us and Babies R Us come together with the launch of a brand-new concept store in line with global interior trends in Rosebank Mall store in Johannesburg.

Image supplied

The new store is a pilot for a roll-out which will be implemented nationwide in the coming years and includes the convergence of both Toys R Us and Babies R Us in which the brands champion joy while helping parents on their journey from pregnancy through raising children.

The store design is focused on customer shopping behaviour and combine the Toys R Us and Babies R Us offering in one space while keeping the experience relevant and enjoyable.

With a focus on key brands, an extensive product range including the latest brands and play patterns as well as information signage throughout to guide parents purchasing decisions. The new store's aim is to create a fun environment with moments of magic and calm while providing an engaging shopping experience and a space relevant to kids and their evolving world.

Image supplied

Were incredibly excited to present this new store to the South African market, there are several new areas that parents and kids can look forward to including a pause seating area, a mama room for breastfeeding, helpful assistance with our silent salesmen as well as a gift registry for both baby showers and kids birthday celebrations, says Catherine Jacoby, marketing manager at Toys R Us.

Jacoby explains that the store has been designed in-line with global interior trends and offers much needed assistance to parents during each stage of their childs development, ultimately the purpose of the store is to bring joy to our customers. We have included helpful areas like, how to choose a car seat, choosing the right stroller to suit your lifestyle and measuring the correct bicycle which we believe will be a valued addition to parents visiting the stores and will assist them in their buying decisions.

The layout of the store has been heavily influenced by our research around childrens play patterns and toy trends and includes areas for kids to engage and play with the products, she says. Todays shoppers are savvy, and authenticity matters more than ever to these conscious consumers, and this is no different in the toy space as shoppers lookout for toys that offer deep play value.

Image supplied

Jacoby adds that consumers are more driven by the experiences they have than ever before. While todays kids are growing up as digital natives, their parents care about the memories their children are making in the real world and are looking to how they can customise their play experiences.

She continues: Giving back is very important to us, which is why we have implemented a donate joy, donate a toy initiative in this store, which will remain as a standard feature, she adds. Over and above the new additions to the store, our toy and baby experts will ensure that any advice parents are looking for is on-hand with the added benefits of lay-by offering as well as click and collect for online shopping and a free gift-wrapping station.

This store has launched just in time for the festive season, Jacoby says. Were looking forward to welcoming kids, parents and family members of all ages to experience the power of play.
The rise in electric vehicle (EV) adoption is creating promising chances for the Eastern Cape province, known for its strong presence in local vehicle manufacturing, and for tech companies aiming to collaborate with the automotive industry.

Sy Gourrah | image supplied

The region has the potential to expand its manufacturing capabilities to include EVs, which could pave a promising path for the industrys transformation in line with smart technology advancements.

This could bring various benefits to the province such as increased employment opportunities, new technologies, and could also encourage the establishment of private-public partnerships.

It is also likely to advance smart technologies and solutions that would facilitate infrastructure development with drastically reduced emissions, creating a sustainable transportation sector.

The Eastern Cape province is currently the largest exporter of vehicles and due to the demand for EVs in Europe, the province is well-positioned to manufacture them on its existing production lines.

The Automotive Industry Development Centre (AIDC) Eastern Cape has already been aligned to the establishment of local EV-building capabilities and the development of the required skills.

Factors driving adoption

Increasing climate change concerns and the mandatory reduction of carbon emissions in most European countries are driving the adoption of EVs, which will mitigate air pollution and reduce the reliance on fossil fuels.

However, the global automotive landscape is currently shifting not only to EVs but also to digitalisation and smart technologies, which are playing a pivotal role in the digital transformation of South Africas manufacturing space.

As a result, the Eastern Cape needs to keep pace with emerging trends in the automotive sector, especially as the advancement in battery technology has increased the viability and performance of EVs, making them more appealing to customers.

It is therefore key for South Africas major automotive industry hub to keep up with automakers that are currently transitioning to electric mobility and moving away from internal combustion engines.

EV manufacturing is aligned with the advancement of several other smart technologies, such as battery management, performance optimisation, efficiency, and safety systems. EVs generate a large amount of data that needs to be analysed from sensors, control units and communication modules.

Additionally, smart grids and charging infrastructure, along with remote vehicle monitoring systems, would have to be integrated for the large-scale rollout of EVs.

Partnership opportunities

This is likely to create opportunities for companies to partner with the province, as well as automotive industry players for the supply of charging stations and related infrastructure across the country. Similarly, manufacturers and assemblers of batteries that can provide battery storage in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner will likely get the opportunity to partner with players in the automotive industry.

The transition to EVs is one of the biggest disruptors of the modern automotive industry and a driver of innovative solutions around electric mobility.

One of the ways to accelerate this transition is through the expansion of the charging infrastructure network within the country, but the implementation of these projects will require the appointment of the appropriate technological partners.

Local technology companies that want to partner with the automotive industry must remain innovative with their products to meet the needs of the changing manufacturing environment.

The shift towards EVs not only provides local businesses with the perfect opportunity to partner with EV makers for the provision of services and products, it also enables them to play their part in ensuring the sustainability of the environment.
In South Africa, where the youth unemployment rate has surged to a staggering 61%, as revealed by Trading Economics, it's clear that traditional career paths are facing unprecedented challenges. Moreover, the expanded definition of unemployment, encompassing those discouraged from seeking work, remains daunting at 42.6%.

Content creators, LadyPogba, Auntydisik and TechGirlZA. Photo by Lwando Nqweniso and Hayley Felix. Image supplied.

However, these alarming statistics have sparked a wave of creativity among the youth, propelling them to explore alternative avenues to secure their livelihoods, distinct from conventional careers. One such path gaining prominence is the world of content creation in response to the expansion of digital platforms and the soaring demand for captivating online content.

TikTok stands firmly committed to empowering and uplifting South African content creators through its transformative #LevelUpAfrica programme. Launched in 2021, this pioneering initiative has elevated the careers of hundreds of South African content creators and fostered a vibrant and supportive community.

A journey of discovery

At the heart of this programme lies an immersive in-person experience where content creators ranging from entry all the way up to public figures embark on a journey of discovery. Through a series of exclusive educational masterclasses, the creators are immersed in TikTok's best practices and equipped with insights into the Community Guidelines, best use of the tools in the app as well as the platforms Trust and Safety guide, ensuring they are equipped with the knowledge and skills to craft engaging and responsible content.

Bianca Sibiya, TikTok's head of content operations for sub-Saharan Africa, emphasises the platform's commitment to nurturing and supporting the inherent creativity of South Africans. She remarks, "The #LevelUpAfrica programme has amplified South African creators' voices and unlocked valuable economic opportunities. It has empowered them to cultivate their personal brands and explore potential collaborations and partnerships, enabling many to grow into multipotentialites underpinned by their passions".

Sibiya adds, "The programme is South Africa's premier content creator education experience, offering a platform for creators to unlock their potential, enhance their TikTok skills and embark on a journey into a realm of endless creativity."

Content creator Yoliswa Gumede shared her experience of the #LevelUpAfrica programme and key insights she acquired: The most important lesson that I learned while I was attending these events is defining my unique selling point as an influencer that helped me build my brand and my community on TikTok. That helped me hyperfocus on the type of content I wanted to create and the type of community I wanted to create on TikTok.

"I feel like I can now clearly define my identity as a content creator and the type of community I would like to grow on my page," she adds.

Rosemary Zimu and Swanky. Photo by Lwando Nqweniso and Hayley Felix. Image supplied.

The programme is not confined to South Africa alone; it forms part of TikTok's broader initiative to grow this programme across sub-Saharan Africa. The inaugural gathering of diverse creators in South Africa for 2023 underscores TikTok's enduring commitment to supporting and empowering creators and the creative economy in the region.

Some of the benefits of partaking in the #LevelUpAfrica programme include:

Content support, product tools training and guidance for 2023



Access to TikTok's exclusive events and masterclasses



Connecting and collaborating with other creators



Collaborative opportunities with brands



Exclusive TikTok merchandise



Matching creators with relevant internal and external paid opportunities

TikTok's #LevelUpAfrica programme celebrates the success of South African content creators, promotes diversity, and unlocks economic opportunities, all while recognising the urgent need for alternative career paths.
The much-anticipated Tshakhuma Mall has opened its doors to provide convenient retail to the community of Tshakhuma and surrounds.

Image supplied

The 11,500m2 Mall, anchored by Shoprite, will provide essential retail for the local community who have previously had to travel as far as Makhado to fully satisfy their retail needs.

Developed by McCormick Property Development (MPD) in partnership with Aha-naha Properties, the mall is completely self-sufficient. The site already has its own borehole and sewerage and wastewater management plant, with solar installation planned for October 2023.

In line with our strategy of developing sustainable retail that is not reliant on municipal services, Tshakhuma Mall is one of our most self-sufficient developments to date, explains MD of MPD, Jason McCormick.

Tshakhuma Mall is the first of four malls in MPDs immediate pipeline for Limpopo with Mehlareng Mall, Madombidzha Mall and Leeuwfontein Crossing all in line for development to commence.

Construction on the project started just under a year ago and the build included a number of community upliftment projects to ensure the community benefits not only from employment and micro-economic opportunities but also from lifestyle opportunities and improvement.

Projects that the development team assisted with included the donation and installation of a paved road for the Tshakhuma Clinic which is within 5km of the Mall. Lack of access for ambulances in the area had previously resulted in community members having to carry patients to the clinic on their backs but the road has now been paved to improve access to healthcare, explains the project manager, Peter Wefelmeier.

The team at Tshakhuma Mall have also assisted with the painting and re-tiling of the Tribal Offices in the area and the donation of large umbrellas to protect the nearby fruit sellers from the harsh outdoor elements. A revamp of the local SAPS office is planned before the end of 2023.

We continue to be community-driven with each new development, explains McCormick. The mantra of local first and a better South Africa for all continues to motivate us to do more with each new project we tackle.

Located along the R524 in Thohoyandou, the site is a prime location for the many retail requirements in the area and is situated alongside the province's largest fruit market. The tenant mix includes a strong fashion and banking mix with TFG, the MRP Group, Pepkor, Ackermans, The Studio 88 Group, Woolworths and Truworths all represented. Standard Bank and FNB branches are complimented by ATMS from Capitec, Nedbank and ABSA. Roots Butchery, KFC, Steers and Debonairs all contribute to the total retail offering. A fully equipped taxi office and rank is also located on-site.

The Mall is a single-level development with two iconic grey and yellow entrances creating a landmark for the area. A graffiti mural and a living wall add a prominent selfie spot for the shoppers to enjoy. High ceilings, natural lighting and well-ventilated spaces all contribute to the aesthetic and comfort of the centre.

We are confident that the opening of Tshakhuma Mall is another first-class development that will contribute to the upliftment of the local communities and areas that we are committed to serving. Developing retail is our mission but developing communities is our passion, concludes McCormick.
In this digital age, media monitoring services have emerged as an indispensable tool for political parties gearing up for the polls.

Image supplied. The role of media monitoring in the upcoming elections is vital says Lordwish Langa, MD of CLIPTrack Media Coverage

As South Africa approaches another pivotal election season, political parties find themselves at a crossroads, facing the formidable challenge of effectively managing their media presence and public perception.

Navigating the Complex Media Landscape

The South African political landscape is a dynamic and complex arena where parties vie for voter support against a backdrop of diverse voices, opinions, and rapidly evolving narratives.

The media, spanning print, online, broadcast, and social platforms, serves as both a conduit and a battleground for political messages. Given this, media monitoring has become a critical element of the pre-election media management playbook.

3 reasons why media monitoring is important

Crisis Communication Management Media monitoring provides political parties with a real-time radar for potential crises or controversies. Here's why it's crucial: Early Detection: Media monitoring tools offer real-time alerts, enabling parties to swiftly identify emerging issues and respond promptly, mitigating reputational damage.

Sentiment Analysis: These services offer sentiment analysis, helping parties gauge public sentiment surrounding their campaigns. By understanding how their actions and messages are perceived, parties can tailor their responses accordingly.

Competitor Tracking: Political parties can monitor their rivals, keeping tabs on their media coverage and responses to emerging issues. This competitive intelligence allows parties to stay ahead of their opponents. Measuring Media Coverage Media monitoring services offer comprehensive tracking across all relevant media channels. Here's why it's essential: Comprehensive Monitoring: These services encompass print, online, broadcast, and social media. This holistic approach ensures that no media outlet or platform goes unnoticed.

Data-Driven Insights: Media monitoring tools provide detailed metrics on media coverage, including reach, frequency, and media type. This empowers parties to gauge the effectiveness of their communication efforts and make informed decisions.

Monthly Reports: Regularly delivered media analysis reports offer deep insights into campaign performance. These reports not only provide a retrospective view but also offer actionable recommendations to refine campaign strategies. Optimising Campaign Strategies Media monitoring plays a pivotal role in honing campaign strategies for political success: Tailoring Messages: Through media monitoring, parties can identify which campaign messages resonate most with the electorate. This insight allows for the customization of messages to address voter concerns effectively.

Targeted Media Engagement: Parties can identify influential media outlets and journalists to engage with, amplifying their campaign messages and ensuring broader coverage.

Adaptation and Refinement: Continuous media monitoring allows for the ongoing refinement of campaign strategies. Parties can adapt to changing circumstances, seize emerging opportunities, and optimise their outreach efforts.

Media monitoring a compass

As South Africa stands on the brink of yet another consequential election, the role of media monitoring in the media management strategy of political parties cannot be overstated.

It's a compass that guides parties through the labyrinthine media landscape, helping them steer clear of crises, measure their media footprint, and refine their campaign strategies. In a world where information is power, media monitoring is the key to political success. I

t's time for all political parties to embrace it fully as they embark on their journey to win the hearts and votes of the South African electorate.
With one-in-five vehicles on South African roads fitted with locally produced Dunlop tyres, the tyre manufacturer is forging ahead with a multi-billion-rand investment project backed by its Japan-based parent company, Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI). This is set to boost local tyre production capacity as more Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) look to domestic tyre producers to meet their vehicle specifications.

The R1.7bn investment drive was announced during the 50th anniversary of Dunlops Ladysmith manufacturing plant. The production facility first opened its doors in October 1973 and has since been at the forefront of tyre production in South Africa. Sumitomo Rubber South Africa (SRSA), the South African operation of SRI, manufactures Dunlop tyres and distributes the Sumitomo and Falken tyre brands.

Speaking during a visit to the plant on Monday, 2 October 2023, Minister of Trade Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel, said, "I welcome today's announcement of a new investment of R1.7bn. This investment will provide a boost to local production, strengthen the factory's output, and support local jobs. Furthermore, the new investment will aid in the modernisation and improvement of the plant. It also marks a significant step toward achieving President Ramaphosa's R2tn target for new investments over the next five years.

He added, South Africa has an 88-year history of tyre manufacturing, and this plant is Africa's largest tyre producer. The investment announced today serves as a clear signal of the confidence that international investors have in South Africa and reflects the progress we have made with the SA Automotive Master Plan."

His Excellency, Ushio Shigeru, Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of South Africa, expressed his support for the future of the countrys automotive industry and applauded the government for its initiatives in expanding the electric vehicle production and market.

The Embassy of Japan has been a great supporter of Japanese company activities here in South Africa. It is a pleasure to see Sumitomo Rubber's further successes in its local operations, which has brought skills development and local youth empowerment, he said.

SRSA CEO, Lubin Ozoux, said the milestone anniversary for Dunlop comes at a critical time. With the backing of our parent company, we are investing significantly into our passenger car radial production facility to make a larger impact in the automotive industry. The plant will be able to run a wider set of products, producing more tyres that meet and exceed OE specifications, and that are safety-tested for all South Africans. At the same time, it gives us the opportunity to continue our investment in our local community and municipality, creating a vibrant environment for us all to thrive.

Dunlop holds approximately 20% of the local OE market and has agreements in place with Toyota, Nissan, Isuzu, Hino, Tata, Scania and UD Trucks, effectively resulting in one-in-five vehicles on South Africa roads being factory fitted with tyres produced from the Dunlop Ladysmith plant.

The investment includes new plant equipment and machinery, such as a new mixer, new tread line, and new sidewall line, which will increase passenger car tyre production capabilities, efficiencies and product offering to further support the OE market. This comes off the back of SRSAs multi-billion-rand investment in 2018 in a state-of-the-art 180,000m Truck and Bus Radial (TBR) factory at the plant, facilitating local manufacture of truck and bus tyres.

Sustainability

With a demand for global environmental impact reduction from the automotive industry, Dunlops new high-spec, technology-driven equipment and optimised production processes will reduce the plants environmental impact, aligned to Sumitomo Rubber Industries global sustainability goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The new equipment will improve current process capability and decrease our overall plant waste by over 60% once the investment is complete. Power consumption will be significantly reduced, and the equipment will also have the capability to produce very low rolling resistance tyres that will meet help meet future emissions requirements for OE manufacturers who choose to use our products. Our new mixer, with improved technology, will result in an energy saving of approximately 300KWH, said Ozoux.

Local employment and economic investment

Sumitomo Rubber South Africa, through Dunlop Tyres, is proud to play its role in economic growth and job creation, buoyed by the commitment by local and national government to smooth the path for investment growth and opportunities.

SRSA holds strong market share in Africa with a branded presence in 23 African countries, supplying car, van and SUV tyre markets to Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Kenya and neighbouring countries Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The latest investment plans further entrench Dunlop as an employer of choice in the region, committing investment into the local automotive manufacturing sector. Dunlop hired 1257 people into the company between 2014 to 2023, made up of permanent staff members, expats, temporary employees, fixed term employees, graduates, in-service trainees, apprenticeships, and learnerships, with 90% of employees residing in the uThukela District Municipality, within which the Alfred Duma Local Municipality is located.

Dunlop plays a vital role in the Ladysmith economy as we are one of the largest employers in the town. In addition, our spend in the local economy has a multiplier effect on job creation and sustaining local businesses. We have endeavoured to source locally, and a local Ladysmith supplier has been developed as SRSAs main mould management vendor, said Ozoux.

The time is always right for investment and development, and we thank the relevant stakeholders and partners for lending their support to a conducive manufacturing industry. We are excited to see what the next 50 years hold for Dunlop, for the community and the greater OE manufacturing industry nationally, he concluded.
HR and finance enterprise cloud applications maker Workday has appointed previous senior VP of services, Fredrik Nylander, in the role of senior vice president of North and emerging markets. His jurisdiction will span across the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, South Africa, and the Nordics. Nylander's new position will see him reporting directly to Angelique de Vries-Schipperijn, the president of EMEA. Tasked with leading cross-functional teams across his region, Nylander's primary focus will be to support customers, stimulate business growth, and cultivate innovation within the organisation.

Fredrik Nylander. Source: Supplied

We are lucky to have a leader of Freds calibre and experience rotate into Field Sales from the customer experience organisation, said De Vries-Schipperijn. We looked for a leader who could not only support the growth of our business in these countries but drive the engagement within our organisation. Freds deep knowledge of our solutions, vast experience as a leader in the industry, and proven commitment to promoting an inclusive culture make him the best fit for the role.

We have a great opportunity to bring the value of our solutions to these emerging markets, enabling organisations to become data driven as they move to and transform in the cloud, said Nylander.

The focus on expanding Workdays global footprint has never been stronger. Our continuous innovation in artificial intelligence and machine learning, industry-leading customer satisfaction, and consistent execution put us in a great position to achieve that growth in this region.

Nylander joined Workday in 2018 as Group Vice President Services EMEA, bringing a wealth of knowledge from over 25 years of experience in the tech industry. Prior to joining Workday, Nylander served as Microsofts Head of Services Sales for the APAC region. Prior to this, Nylander held senior leadership positions at SAP and Oracle, proving his strong capabilities in the application software industry.
X, formerly known as Twitter, has inked a deal with celebrity Paris Hilton, focusing on live shopping and exclusive content.

Paris Hilton. Source: YouTube.

This is part of CEO Linda Yaccarinos plans to reinvigorate the platform. Under this two-year agreement, Hilton will collaborate with X to produce four original video programs annually, including content for its emerging live shopping segment, along with content for other X features like its Spaces audio function.

According to reports the deal also includes a revenue-sharing arrangement between Hilton's 11:11 Media firm and X, described as mutually beneficial. This partnership serves as a trial for Yaccarino, who aims to boost revenues after a decline of 60% in the US, following Elon Musk's acquisition of the platform.

Last week Yaccarino said in an interview with CNBC's Julia Boorstin at the Code Conference that the platform will be profitable by 2024. She faced significant backlash after she struggled with questions about X's user metrics and Elon Musks continuing interference in the running of the platform.

Partnerships with the likes of Hilton are a crucial component of her strategy to enhance viewership, increase advertising sales, and streamline sponsorship and brand agreements between advertisers and content creators.
The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development is looking at the possibility of a vaccination to contain the spread and impact of avian influenza. Minister, Thoko Didiza, met with the retailers on Monday to discuss the impact of avian influenza, also known as 'avian flu' or 'bird flu', in South Africa. This follows a meeting held with the South African Poultry Association last Friday and engagements that have been taking place between government officials and the industry.

Source: whuiiiyourlife via Pixabay

During the meeting, Didiza briefed retailers on the containment measures that have been taken to limit the spread of the disease, as well as possible solutions to manage such outbreaks in the short and the medium term, including vaccinations.

It was evident from [Mondays] engagement that the main challenge is primarily on the egg production side, where there are supply constraints in some regions of the country. In response to this challenge, the Minister is focusing on measures to improve the availability of egg supply to consumers and simultaneously putting measures to contain the spread of the disease.

"Moreover, the Minister is embarking on the efficiency improvement in issuing import permits for egg products to ensure sufficient supplies for consumers. In addition, the Minister is looking at the possibility of vaccination and currently reviewing applications by various suppliers," the department said in a statement.

On the broiler side, Didiza and Trade, Industry and Competition Minister, Ebrahim Patel, are assessing some trade instruments to ease the supply of chicken meat.

According to the statement issued by the department last week, as of 21 September 2023, a total of 50 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H7 outbreaks and 10 HPAI H5 outbreaks have been reported in the country, with 37 HPAI H7 cases confirmed in Gauteng.

The number of chickens that have died is 107,705, while the reported number of chickens that were culled is 1,318,521.

Based on these reported figures, there has been a total loss of 1,426,226 chickens, the department said.

The reported number of chickens that have died of HPAI H5 is 98,249, while the reported number of chickens that were culled is 1 156 283, bringing the total loss of 1,254,532 chickens.
Yoco has provided over R2bn in cash advances to more than 50,000 merchants. As it continues to evolve, Yoco Capital seeks new avenues to empower and inspire business owners to foster growth.

Source: Supplied.

Beyond traditional business financing, there are now several players in the market offering cash advances to small businesses but a core consideration for business owners is choosing a partner that can help to centralise their money.

Yoco is forging a path towards becoming a financial ecosystem for its merchants: offering payments, funding, and business management under one roof.

Yoco merchants use capital to buy stock and equipment, and open new locations and in doing so, expand their businesses  they stimulate growth in South Africa, says Adam Duxbury, capital lead at Yoco.

It is deeply rewarding to see what business owners are capable of achieving when they are equipped with the right tools and the funding they need.

With the nationwide issue of load shedding, many merchants have turned to Yoco Capital as a solution for buying inverters, generators, and other power solutions.

Yoco Capital is exclusively available to merchants who trade with Yoco. It provides them with a simple, convenient, and fast way to obtain funds. Merchants are pre-approved and only need to select the amount and repayment period that suits them best; with the money typically reflecting in one business day.

A tailored, fast, and transparent process

The entire process is done in the Yoco app or portal, and takes just a few minutes, eliminating the need to take time off from work, to visit a bank or fill out paperwork. Unlike traditional business financing which requires a business to have been trading for 12 months or more, Yoco Capital is available to merchants whove been trading for as little as three months with Yoco.

The merchant experience is central to how we have built Yoco Capital. Through regular interaction with our users, we aim to make the process of getting capital not only fast and simple  which are Yoco values across all products  but also tailored and flexible for the merchant. With Yoco Capital, you always know where you stand in terms of repayments and fees which are shown upfront as a fixed cost.

Repayments are automatically deducted from all card payments processed through Yoco. In an industry first, repayment terms are structured around the merchant: when sales slow down or stop, repayments do too  making this a lifeline for thousands of entrepreneurs grappling with the challenges of starting and running a business.

A healthy cash flow starts with clear visibility of your money. By bridging payments and funding, business owners are better able to predict the flow of their money and make better decisions for their business. merchants have greater control over where their money goes and how they choose to use it, concludes Duxbury.
The SA Innovation Summit 2023 (SAIS23), held in Cape Town last week marked another milestone in the narrative of technological advancement. The summit, sponsored by the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), a branch of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), and hosted by the City of Cape Town, served as a pivotal gathering point for Africa's burgeoning startup ecosystem.

As a division in the agency of the Department of Science and Innovation, TIA is tasked with creating an ecosystem that empowers startups to find the light, said TIA Acting Executive: Innovation Enabling, Vusi Skosana, adding we are creating a gateway into Africa, and our partnership with the SA Innovation Summit ensures that these opportunities are made easier.

His statement was prompted by the City of Cape Towns challenge to transform the Mother City into the go-to destination for Africa and beyond, particularly in the realm of tech and intelligence that drives the desire for success. Alderman James Vos urged attendees to push for committed actions and to use the three days to find solutions for the city and our continent.

Africa's premier ideas destination

The week was kick-started with the Von Seidels Cocktail & Connect event, which served as a catalyst for stimulating dialogue and paved the way for a series of discussions and interactions that will further the cause of African excellence.

SAIS23 fostered connections and discoveries that will power the next phase of technological development and allowed stakeholders to see each other in a new light. Long-term partners Vexila and the City of Cape Town deepened their relationship when the City was treated to the full suite of products and unlocked new opportunities to innovate in critical electricity infrastructure.

This value unlock underlines the essential role of the summit as a platform to establish business partnerships.

If you want to scale a business you cant do it one customer at a time, were the wise words spoken by Wetility founder Vincent Maposa in his Masterclass. You need business-to-business relationships. Capital can be quite shy and those shy investors will have nuggets of information that they dont share easily  you need to meet as peers.

Platforms such as the Venture Stage, in collaboration with SAIS partner, Sage, serve as the launching point for forging these connections. Visionary founders use this platform to showcase their ideas, aiming to garner the admiration and interest of potential investors.

Taking innovation to the people

This year summit partner UVU Africa streamed the event live at the Khayelitsha Bandwidth Barn to help empower communities in the space that they occupy.

If we dont participate as Africans, there is no incentive for technology to serve us, said Mindjoy founder Gabi Immelman in response to a discussion about the perceived threat of generative AI.

In his closing remarks, Vusi Skosana challenged the summit organisers to strive for even more inclusivity in future events. Invite schools and rural communities to come and see the good work that we are doing here.

He explained that the TIA mandate extends to igniting innovation in the circles just outside the founders and participants in the room. He added words of praise, encouragement and support to the audience that made SAIS 2023 a success.

Thanks and awards

Congratulations to the award winners, but to those of you who didnt receive anything, this is not a failure. It was another opportunity to learn. When you win next year, it is because you came this year and did not win  value your lessons because wherever you go from here, youll be able to make a better pitch, said Skosana.

The awards he is referring to are for the various pitch competition winners who presented to judges at the Sage Venture Stage.

SA Innovation Summit award winners:

Inventors Garage:

3rd Place - CT Labs

2nd Place - Wheelchair Doctor

1st Place - SenGeny

Africa Earth Observation Challenge:

3rd Place - Drone Service Niger

2nd Place - ZR3i

1st Place - SnooCode

TIA Pitching Competition:

3rd Place - LIQID Medical

2nd Place - SwiftVEE

1st Place - Water Hygiene Convenience

Boost UP Stand UP Pitch Competition:

3rd Place - PasswordKid

2nd Place - Chemyx

1st Place - Bophelo

(Additional winner - Aria Cosmetics)

Its exciting to be among people who believe in the future and wake up every day to build it. We would like to thank all the participants, including industry-leading speakers, innovative exhibitors, and electrifying side events, said SAIS CEO Buntu Majaja.

SA Innovation Summit 2023 served as a melting pot where tech elites, visionary entrepreneurs, investment giants, policymakers, and thought leaders came together. We look forward to welcoming you again next year for another unforgettable experience.


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Defence Minister Rajnath Singh poses for a group photo with Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R. Hari Kumar and others during the 'Defence Accounts Department Day' celebration event at Controller General of Defence Accounts, in New Delhi, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023. A PTI Photo

NEW DELHI (PTI): India needs stronger armed forces with modern equipment to become a developed nation by 2047, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday while underlining the need for effective utilisation of financial resources by the three services.



Singh made the remarks after launching several digital initiatives of the Defence Accounts Department (DAD) during its 276th annual day celebrations at Delhi Cantonment on Sunday.



Describing the DAD as the "guardian of defence finance", he emphasised the need to bolster the internal vigilance mechanism so that any suspicious activity can be detected and reviewed immediately.



This, he said, will not only help in dealing with the problem quickly but also increase the trust of the people in the department.



"If we wish to create a developed nation, we will need stronger armed forces with modern arms and equipment. Therefore, it is necessary to effectively utilise the financial resources available to us," Singh said.



"There should be a fine balance between the demands of services and the allocation of available resources," he said.



Singh also suggested to the DAD for the creation of an in-house standing committee that can research and study market forces and provide high-quality market intelligence to the field officers.



During his address, Singh appreciated the organisation for its efforts towards enhancing the country's defence capabilities through a transparent and efficient financial system.



Terming accounting as extremely important for an individual, organisation and the nation as a whole, he said, "Our wants are unlimited, but the available resources are limited."



He commended the DAD for ensuring judicious use of resources while extracting optimum output.



The digital initiatives launched included an integrated defence finance dashboard for the Ministry of Defence -- SARANSH (Summary of Accounts, Budget and Expenditure for Raksha Mantralaya) and BISWAS (Bill Information and Work Analysis System and e-Raksha Awaas).



While Singh lauded the DAD for coming out with numerous digital initiatives, he exhorted it to develop its professional capabilities to deal with the complexities arising out of the constantly-evolving times.



He urged it to collaborate with reputable institutions such as Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to develop and adopt customised training modules, as per requirements.



Singh urged DAD officials to keep in mind two broad aspects while extending financial advice -- realistic assessment of the demand of the user agency and understanding of the product's market.



He stressed the need to pay attention to the fact whether there is a need to buy a product or not and if a similar product of equal or greater effectiveness is available somewhere else in the market at a lower cost, according to the defence ministry.



This understanding will further increase the quality of financial advice, he said.



To develop such an understanding, Singh suggested the creation of an in-house mechanism, a standing committee of experienced people who can research and study market forces and provide high-quality market intelligence to the field officers.



"Big banks and financial institutions develop in-house economic intelligence and research teams. On similar lines, the DAD needs to develop an in-house team for market research and intelligence," he said.



The defence minister also recommended collaboration with industry associations and business schools for extensive study of market conditions.


NEW DELHI (PTI): Indian Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande has begun a four-day visit to Tanzania with a focus on building a stronger military partnership between the two countries.



Gen Pande is scheduled to meet the top civil and military brass of the east African country including President Samia Suluhu Hassan and Defence Minister Stergomena Lawrence Tax, officials said.



"This visit of the Chief of Army Staff further consolidates the high-level bilateral defence engagements and close defence ties shared between India and Tanzania," the Army said.



"The visit promises to not just celebrate the existing collaborations but also pave the way for a stronger future partnership," it said in a statement on Monday.



Gen Pande will also hold wide-ranging talks with Tanzania's Chief of Defence Force General Jacob John Mkunda, the officials said.



In addition, interaction with the Commander of the 101st Infantry Brigade General Saidi Hamisi Saidi is also scheduled.



Besides Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam, Gen Pande will also visit the historical city of Zanzibar, and Arusha.



Gen Pande will also be addressing the National Defence College and interact with Major General Wilbert Augustine Ibuge, the Commandant and the faculty of the institution.



Gen Pande's visit to Tanzania coincides with the second India-Tanzania mini DEF-EXPO being held at Dar es Salaam which will showcase the growing prowess of India's indigenous defence industry.



"The bilateral defence relationship between India and Tanzania has been robust and thriving," the Army said.



It said the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on defence cooperation in October 2003 laid a strong foundation for the ties.



This cooperation was further underscored by the second meeting of the India-Tanzania Joint Defence Cooperation Committee held in Arusha, Tanzania in June this year, the statement said.


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The musical based on the hit film Mean Girls will come to London in 2024, it has been announced.

The arrival in the West End will coincide with the 20th anniversary of the 2004 film, starring Lindsay Lohan as outsider Cady Heron who has been raised in Africa and who arrives at an American high school where she must navigate the world of The Plastics  the girls who rule the school.

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The film, written by 30 Rock star Tina Fey, starred Rachel McAdams as leader Regina George, while Amanda Seyfried and Lacey Chabert played her acolytes Karen and Gretchen.

You can sit with us next spring! Tickets go on sale Wednesday 1 November for #MeanGirlsUK at the @savoytheatreldn. Sign up for our exclusive fan pre-sale: https://t.co/93BrJst8HM. #MeanGirlsMusical #WestEnd pic.twitter.com/BtRutQYcmv Advertisement  Mean Girls Musical (@MeanGirlsStage) October 3, 2023 Advertisement

The musical show has already been a hit on Broadway, where it opened in 2018 and has since embarked on two national tours.

The news of the West End opening was announced on October 3rd  known as Mean Girls Day in reference to a scene in the film in which Cady is asked what day it is by the boy she has a crush on.

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Fans have latched onto the date for years and the stars of the film often celebrate the day by sharing throwback photos.

The show  written by Fey, composer Jeff Richmond, lyricist Nell Benjamin and director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw  will open at the Savoy Theatre in London in June 2024.

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Fey said: Were so excited to bring Mean Girls to London, where everyone already knows what Regina means.

Producers Lorne Michaels and Sonia Friedman added: Mean Girls is a timeless comedy that for decades has connected with generations of audiences across the globe.

Having worked together for several years on this production, we are immensely proud and excited to be bringing this stage musical, led by this incredible writing and creative team, to Londons Savoy Theatre.

Tickets go on sale on November 1 2023.
Simon White of the IFAs forestry committee has appealed for a reasonable solution for landowners and farmers who have lost hundreds of millions of euro worth of trees because of ash dieback.

The consequences of not doing so, would be an absolute disaster he told RTE radios Morning Ireland.

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Minister of State Pippa Hackett is expected to bring the Ash Dieback review to Cabinet today, in advance of its publication. The ash tree, a native species, is under grave threat of elimination due to a fungal parasite known as ash dieback, first identified in Ireland in 2012 among a consignment of ash trees imported from Europe.

It has since been discovered in every county in Ireland and has the potential to kill up to 90 percent of existing ash trees, according to research from the State agriculture development authority.

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For landowners and farmers who were encouraged to plant woodlands, the disease is nothing short of a disaster with costs estimated in the region of between 800million and 1billion according to Mr White.

The figure is made up of lost income but includes costs of up to 7,000 per hectare to remove diseased trees.

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A review committee visited many of the landowners involved. We're hoping that the review committee has listened. They gave the impression that they were listening and they engaged with us while they came and saw the woods. They saw the devastation.

"They listened to what people are saying and the individual cases, a lot of elderly people who had planned on this for their pensions and their livelihood, who were passing on dead land onto the next generation. And so they seemed to listen. So we're hoping that they will have listened to the actual solutions that we put forward.

Mr Smith pointed out that when dairy farmers lose animals they are compensated. I think the people growing the trees deserve to be counted, they should be compensated. This has been a massive, long, ongoing injustice.
Former President Mary McAleese, who is also a Doctor of Canon Law, has welcomed comments from Pope Francis about blessings for same sex couples, but has pointed out that his stance is a complete contradiction of what he said previously.

Speaking on RTE radios Morning Ireland, she said: it's a complete contradiction of what the Pope himself said through a document that was issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in 2021.

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At that time, they were trying to stop blessings of gay couples, gay married couples, you might remember that the German Synod had decided that this was something that they planned to do.

"And the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the Pope's full approval, slammed that door firmly shut, said it was not possible.

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So what you had then was really a remarkable reaction from priests and bishops and laity in the Synod sort of taking place, a synodal journey that's taken place for the last two years, there has been virtual unanimity among the faithful, including priests and bishops, many bishops, that this was simply not acceptable.

"And then we had the remarkable thing that happened in Belgium last year when Bishop Bonney issued a new liturgy precisely for gay couples, gay married couples who wanted a blessing in the Catholic Church.

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"So this is Francis losing the old tin ear and listening to the voice, the very strong voice that has come from right around the world and will certainly be heard. Well, it will be heard inside the Vatican, it will not be heard outside because you know there's going to be a closed session and secret session, but it will be heard undoubtedly."

Prof McAleese acknowledged that this was not a change to the Catholic definition of marriage. What it is, and in fairness to the priests and bishops who have already been offering these blessings, they are not saying that these are an extension of Catholic marriage.

"They are saying these are simply what they are - a blessing of an existing loving relationship and that they don't in any way impact on the church's teaching.

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This was a very strong point made by the Belgians who developed the liturgy. They said, look, this doesn't offend Catholic teaching at all. There's no ceremony.

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"There's no big church ceremony. There's nothing that equates to Catholic marriage. All that this is, is a recognition that people who have a loving relationship and who believe in a God are entitled to ask for a blessing.

You might remember back in 2021, the document from the congregation, The Doctrine of the Faith, actually went as far as saying that Catholic married gay couples were not capable, their words, not mine, were not capable of receiving or expressing God's grace.

"Well, that provoked an absolute outrage among priests and certain bishops and the faithful, including even bishops here in Ireland.

"And I have to say that part of the change in attitude from Pope Francis has been greatly helped, I think, by the work that was done here in Ireland, in the Irish version of the Irish part of the Synod by Ursula Halligans LGBTI focus group, and they're the group that put a report together and thank you to the Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran, who asked them to do it. And their document really went viral. Just went viral.

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When asked if she thought that Pope Francis would now lead by example and bless same sex couples, Prof McAeese said that was what would be expected. I mean, that's what we would expect, is it not? From the man who is, after all, the leader who led us once in the wrong direction and now has the courage to lead in another direction?

"I'd like to think so. But in any event, whether he does or whether he doesn't, and in some sense it doesn't really matter because, frankly, these blessings are happening every day of the week.

The forthcoming Synod had started out as the Popes Synod, he had tried to shape the agenda away from issues that were contentious or difficult, she said.

But in fact, what has happened is that all over the world, on five continents, remarkably with great consensus right around the world, people have said, no, this is our first opportunity to put on the table the things that we've been discussing, the things that we are worried about, women and the church, the exclusion of women, the exclusion of LGBTQ people, the problem with vocations and the compulsory celibacy, the access to the sacraments, particularly communion of people who are divorced and remarried.

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"All of these things are now on the Synod agenda in Rome.

People, not the Pope, can take credit for what is on the agenda for the Synod, she added.
Issues in an appeal brought by an alleged member of a dissident republican paramilitary group against his extradition to the UK could be referred to the European Court of Human Rights.

Sean Walsh (56) is wanted in Northern Ireland to face charges of IRA membership stemming from a police surveillance operation on a meeting of senior paramilitaries in Omagh, Co Tyrone, in July 2020. He denies the claims.

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The possibility of a reference to the European court arose during the one-day hearing of Mr Walshs Supreme Court appeal against the High Courts decision to permit his extradition.

During the Tuesday hearing before seven judges, Chief Justice Donal ODonnell questioned the parties about the consequences that would flow if the court found Mr Walsh should not be extradited.

Mr Justice ODonnell asked what would happen if Irelands Supreme Court found Mr Walshs fundamental rights would be breached by the surrender only for the European court to subsequently decide there was no breach.

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Mr Walshs senior counsel Ronan Munro, instructed by Mulholland Law solicitors, said there is a duty on the State executing a warrant to scrutinise a possible breach of an accuseds rights under the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights.

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John D Fitzgerald SC, for the Minister for Justice, said his initial thought was that no issue of European Union law is engaged in the appeal.

Mr Justice ODonnell asked the lawyers on each side to file submissions on the possibility of questions that should be referred to Europe if the court decides this is required.

Mr Walsh, who is currently detained in a prison in this State, claims the extradition would breach his rights as 2021 UK legislation precluding people convicted of terrorism offences from release under licence halfway through their sentence was found to be incompatible with Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) yet remains in force.

The UK Supreme Court, however, held that the sentencing provision Mr Walsh challenges is compatible with Article 7.

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Reduction

On Tuesday, the Irish Supreme Court heard Mr Walsh would only be entitled to a maximum of a 33 per cent reduction to his custodial sentence, rather than the previous 50 per cent, under the UKs Counter Terrorism and Sentencing Act of 2021.

This more limited reduction would be subject to later approval by the parole commissioners at the two-thirds point of the sentence, creating more uncertainty that did not occur under the previous regime, the court heard.

Mr Munro, appearing with barrister Mark Lynam, said the scope of the penalty his client faces if convicted has been redefined by this legislation.

He told the court it has jurisdiction to refuse to surrender his client on the basis of a breach of his fundamental rights. The Irish court is in as good a position as the UK court to determine the issues raised, he submitted.

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Mr Fitzgerald, with Anthony Hanrahan BL, said any potential sentence imposed is still a contingent matter. He submitted that the Supreme Court should not prevent the UK from trying Mr Walsh on very serious issues.

Mr Walsh, of Ballinlough, Douglas, Co Cork, faces four charges including that he was a member of the IRA, that he was involved in directing IRA activities and that he was involved in an alleged conspiracy to direct a terrorist organisation.
A teenager is to stand trial in the Central Criminal Court accused of sexually abusing a boy, aged around nine, in Dublin over a two-year period.

The boy (17), who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at the Dublin Children's Court facing 10 charges: one count of sexual assault, three for aggravated sexual assault, and six for oral or anal rape.

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The offences allegedly occurred from 2019 to 2021. Gardai commenced an investigation when a witness claimed he saw the accused with the victim and alerted his mother.

Judge Brendan Toale noted that all the charges, except the sexual assault allegation, had to go forward to the Central Criminal Court automatically.

However, the teenager had a right to ask the Children's Court to accept jurisdiction and run a separate trial on the sexual assault charge.

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The judge heard an outline of the evidence for that alleged offence.

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Detective Garda Olivia Jones said that on a date late in 2021, a witness reported to gardai that he saw the accused, then 15, and the younger boy behind a wall.

He claimed to gardai that he saw the complainant on a chair with his trousers down, facing the wall with his bottom exposed.

They left, but the witness followed to report it to the child's mother and gardai conducted specialist interviews.

The court heard it was alleged the younger boy told gardai that during the sexual assault incident the teenager "put his willy in my hand".

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The defendant's clothes were forensically examined. When questioned by gardai, the accused claimed the child's trousers fell, and he made denials.

The judge did not have to hear evidence about the other charges, but the detective described the sexual assault as "interconnected with the other incidents".

The accused has no prior criminal convictions.

Behavioural issues

At an earlier stage, the defence said the teenager was immature, had linked in with mental services, and had ongoing behavioural issues.

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The preliminary hearing was also told that he had been affected by family problems and "behavioural issues manifested after that".

State solicitor Ana Bridgeman cited legal authorities with rulings that sequential trials shall not operate unless exceptional circumstances arise.

Judge Toale held that there should be one trial for all the charges in the Central Criminal Court.

A book of evidence was served on the teenager and Judge Toale granted a return for trial order.

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The boy's appearance date before the Central Criminal Court is yet to be set, but it will be in the coming months. He remains on bail with conditions to stay out of parts of Dublin and to obey a curfew.

The boy, accompanied to court by his parents, was granted legal aid, including junior and senior counsel representation.

He and his parents were told to notify the State if he intended to use an alibi at his trial. Gardai were also ordered to furnish copies of interview videos to the teen's lawyers.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.
Three men arrested in connection with an investigation into 160 million of cocaine seized on a bulk cargo ship off the coast of Ireland are to appear in court on Tuesday.

The men are expected to appear at Mallow District Court in Cork at 10:30am on Tuesday.

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Three other men have already appeared at Wexford District Court this week in relation to the seizure.

Another man remains in custody, gardai confirmed on Monday, while another man has been released without charge.

A total of 2,253kg of cocaine was found on the MV Matthew cargo ship after members of the Irish Army Ranger Wing captured the vessel off the Co Cork coast by abseiling from a helicopter last week.

An Garda Siochana said the seizure was the largest in the history of the state.

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Police believe the cocaine, seized after the dramatic military operation at sea, was destined for distribution beyond Ireland, potentially into the UK and continental Europe.

A fishing trawler that grounded off the coast of Co Wexford late on Sunday was also being monitored as part of the operation, amid suspicions it was en route to rendezvous with the cargo ship.

It comes as TD Cathal Berry, a former deputy commander of the Army Ranger Wing, told BreakingNews.ie: "It could have gone horribly wrong with the lack of backup. Conducting that mission with one helicopter was operating on the edge, beyond the frontier of normal operations."

Mr Berry pointed out that the helicopter was initially in Athlone on a medical operation. "When the helicopter was taken from Athlone, you'd wonder how many medical calls were unanswered? That's a vital service."

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"One helicopter for two taskings... a medical tasking in Athlone, and the counter-narcotics tasking in Cork. That is further evidence of how poorly resourced the Defences Forces have been, even in the last two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, it has been continuing to go into free-fall."

He said a mechanical fault, even as small as a warning light on the helicopter, would have forced the Defence Forces to abort the operation.
Cuban seamstress Yamidely Cervantes has bought a new sewing machine for the first time in years, plus a refrigerator and a cellphone - all on Russia's dime.

She said her 49-year-old husband Enrique Gonzalez, a struggling bricklayer, left their home in the small town of La Federal on July 19th to fight for the Russian army in Ukraine. Days later, he wired her part of his signing-on bonus of about 200,000 roubles (1,908) which she received in Cuban pesos, Cervantes told Reuters.

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That represents a windfall on the economically stricken communist-run island. It's more than 100 times the average monthly state salary of 4,209 pesos ($17 in the informal market), according to the national statistics office.

Few places feel the pinch more than La Federal, a community of about 800 people on the outskirts of Havana where one in four residents are unemployed, government data for 2022 shows.

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On the 100-metre dirt road where Ms Cervantes lives, at least three men have left for Russia since June, and another had sold his home in anticipation of going, she said.

You can count on one hand those who are left. Advertisement

"You can count on one hand those who are left," the 42-year-old said as she surveyed the street from a small terrace where she'd repurposed two broken toilet bowls as flower pots.

"Necessity is what is driving this."

Reuters traced the stories of those four men, together with more than a dozen other Cubans recruited to go to Russia from districts in and around the capital Havana, ranging from a builder and a shopkeeper to a refinery worker and phone company employee. Eleven of the men ended up flying to Russia while the other seven got cold feet at the last moment.

Interviews with many of the men plus friends and relatives, together with a trove of WhatsApp messages, travel papers, photos and phone numbers they provided to corroborate their accounts, paint the most detailed picture yet of how Cubans are flocking to shore up Moscow's war machine.

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The Kremlin and Russian defence ministry didn't respond to queries about Cubans being recruited for their military. The Cuban government also didn't respond to queries for this article.

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News of Cubans ending up in the Russian military hit headlines this month when the Havana government - a longstanding ally of Russia that says it is "not part of the war in Ukraine" - said it had arrested 17 people connected with a human-trafficking ring that lured Cubans to fight for Moscow. Reuters could not establish the identities of those involved in the alleged trafficking ring and when or whether they were arrested.

Mystery recruiter

The recruits identified by Reuters volunteered to go to Russia to work for the military following overtures on social media from a recruiter who identified herself as "Dayana". In La Federal, for example, all nine recruits identified by Reuters signed up to fight in the war. In Alamar, an eastern Havana suburb, most of the five men signed up for non-fighting roles such as in construction, packaging of provisions and logistics.

Ms Cervantes' husband Gonzalez, speaking via video call from a Russian military base outside the city of Tula, south of Moscow, told Reuters he was one of 119 Cubans training there. When he arrived in Russia, he said, he had signed a contract to work for the military, translated into Spanish.

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"Everyone here knew what they were coming for," he said, smiling in military garb as he gave Reuters a digital phone tour of the camp, ringed by pine trees. "They came for the war."

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Gonzalez said the 119 Cubans there were being trained to fight in the war, though still wasn't clear where they'd be sent.

"I have several friends in Ukraine, and they are in places where bombs are falling but they haven't actually been in confrontations with Ukrainians," he added. "Everything is good here, but when we go there, we will be in a war zone."

Reuters was unable to contact any of the other men who joined the military, though confirmed via WhatsApp messages and photos that they had flown to Russia and two are now in Crimea.

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Contacted for comment on the recruitment of Cubans into the Russian military, Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said: "I can confirm that the Ukrainian embassy in Havana has reached out to the Cuban authorities on this matter."

A US State Department spokesperson said the United States was monitoring the situation closely. "We are deeply concerned by reports alleging young Cubans have been deceived and recruited to fight for Russia," the spokesperson said.

Dayana in camouflage cap

The Cuban recruitment activity identified by Reuters began weeks after a May decree issued by president Vladimir Putin that allowed foreigners who enlisted with the military on year-long contracts to receive Russian citizenship via a fast-track process, along with their spouses, children and parents.

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In La Federal, word of the army work began to spread in June, according to the residents interviewed. Offers to join up, shared via Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, became the talk of the town, with Dayana named as the contact.

More than two dozen young men interviewed by Reuters in and around Havana spoke of the scale of the exodus.

Cristian Hernandez, 24, broke into laughter when asked how many people had left the area around La Federal. "A tonne of people," he said. "Almost all of our friends have gone over there."

Yoan Viondi, 23, who lives a few-minute bike ride up the road from the main drag, said he knew about 100 men in Villa Maria, the district that includes La Federal, had been recruited for the Russian war effort since June.

He said a friend gave him the WhatsApp contact for Dayana, a Cuban woman who he said bought plane tickets for recruits. Dayana was also mentioned as a key contact by most of the recruits and relatives Reuters spoke with.

Viondi wasted no time.

"Hi, good afternoon," Viondi said to her in a July 21st message, viewed by Reuters. "Please I need information."

Russian citizenship

Dayana, who appears in her chat icon as a dark-haired woman in a camouflage cap, responded with contract terms almost instantaneously, according to time stamps. The first line of the message states: "This is a contract with the Russian military by which you receive citizenship."

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The contract was for one year and offered a signing bonus of 195,000 roubles followed by a monthly salary of 200,000 roubles, plus 15 days of holiday after the first six months of work.

Those terms are in line with those relayed to Reuters by other recruits and their families.

"If you're in agreement, you should just send (a copy of) your passport," Dayana's message read.

Within two minutes, Viondi had sent a digital copy of his passport. One hour later, Dayana responded in an audio message heard by Reuters: "Perfect, tomorrow I'll be able to tell you what day you will travel," she said.

Reuters was unable to reach Dayana for comment on the number used by Viondi and others, or to confirm her full name.

'I won't die of hunger'

In the end, despite his initial enthusiasm, Viondi became anxious about going to Russia and cut contact with Dayana. He stressed that the people who signed up in La Federal knew they would be going to fight.

"It's hard living here. Everyone said, 'If I choose this, I wont die of hunger in Cuba," he said. "But they knew where they were going. I knew perfectly well where I was going too."

Viondi told Reuters neither Dayana, nor anyone else, had asked him to keep their interactions a secret.

He said he maintained contact with at least four friends who had signed contracts in Russia with the army and that, as far as he knew, "they were fine". Most, he said, were now in Ukraine.

Cuba is mired in its worst economic crisis in decades, with long lines for even the basics like food, fuel and healthcare, spurring an exodus of Cubans to the US, Latin America and Europe last year.

Alina Gonzalez, president of a neighbourhood block committee in La Federal tasked with mobilising support for the communist-run government, recalled the excitement stirred by the Russian military work.

Many men jumped at the opportunity in her neighbourhood, she said, including her nephew Danilo.

"The one that lives over there? He went with his wife and two children. That one over there, with his wife. And the mother of another lives further down," she said.

Roberto Sabori told Reuters that many of the men who left - including his 30-year-old son, Yasmani - had done so in a hurry, keeping their plans secret from even their families.

"I heard he was leaving the same day he left," said the 53-year-old, who lives around the corner from Gonzalez, adding that his son had called him as he prepared to board a flight from the resort town of Varadero to Moscow.

"He never told me anything."

Mami, I can't take it.

Ms Cervantes, the seamstress of La Federal, recalls the desperation her husband Gonzalez, now in Russia, had felt in the months before he left. "Work, work, work," she said of his life. "One day, he said to me, 'Mami, I just can't take it anymore'."

"One day he told me, 'I'm going to Russia. He showed me the photocopy of his passport, and had the ticket and everything. That was the 17th (of July) and he left on the 19th."

While Ms Cervantes chose to stay behind, Reuters confirmed through WhatsApp photos and videos that at least three wives from La Federal had joined their husbands in Russia, as well as at least one child.

Ms Cervantes said her cousin, Luis Herlys Osorio, had enlisted in the Russian army weeks after her husband departed, and that his wife, Nilda, was also now in Russia: "She went, and so did many of the women in the neighbourhood."

Reuters reviewed photos on social media of Nilda, with two other wives from La Federal, at a rented home in the city of Ryazan in western Russia. Osorio is in Crimea, Cervantes said.

Cuba has sent mixed messages this month about its citizens fighting for Russia.

On September 8th, when it announced the trafficking-ring arrests, it also said it was illegal for its citizens to fight for a foreign army, punishable by life in prison.

Days later, though, Cuba's ambassador in Moscow said Havana didn't oppose Cubans "who just want to sign a contract and legally take part with the Russian army in this operation". Within hours, Cuba contradicted its envoy, reiterating that Cubans were prohibited from fighting as war mercenaries.

Gonzalez objects to being called a mercenary. The former bricklayer, who had received his Russian passport, likens his decision to fight with Russia to that of the Cubans who fought in a Soviet-backed war in Angola in the 1970s.

In that war in southern Africa, widely viewed as a Cold War proxy conflict, Cuba deployed tens of thousands of troops to fight for a communist guerrilla group supported by Moscow against a rival, US-backed anti-communist movement.

"I'm following their example," Gonzalez said of those Cuban fighters in Angola, adding Moscow had been a steadfast ally of Cuba for decades and the Soviet Union had provided economic aid to the island.

"Russia helped to maintain my family."
Armenias parliament has voted to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The move adds further strain to the countrys ties with its old ally Russia after the court issued an arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin over events in Ukraine.

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Moscow last month called Armenias effort to join the ICC an unfriendly step and the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Armenias ambassador.

Armenia has voted to join the International Criminal Court, which earlier this year indicted Russian president Vladimir Putin for war crimes (Hayk Baghdasaryan/PHOTOLURE via AP)

Countries that have signed and ratified the Rome Statute that created the ICC are bound to arrest Mr Putin, who was indicted for war crimes connected to the deportation of children from Ukraine, if he sets foot on their soil.

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Armenian officials have argued the move has nothing to do with Russia and was prompted by Azerbaijans aggression towards the country.

Politicians voted to ratify the Rome Statute by a vote of 60-22. Armenias president must sign off on the decision, which will come into force 60 days after the vote.

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Armenias relations with Russia have frayed significantly in recent years.

In 2020, Moscow brokered a deal that ended a six-week war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It mandated that Armenia cede to Azerbaijan large amounts of territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Azerbaijan with a predominantly Armenian population.

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Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh have been leaving the region since Azerbaijan took control (AP Photo/Aziz Karimov)

Russia then sent some 2,000 peacekeepers to the tumultuous region and Armenia has accused the troops of failing to prevent recent hostilities by Azerbaijan that led to the country taking full control of the region.

The Kremlin, in turn, has accused Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan of precipitating the fall of Nagorno-Karabakh by acknowledging Azerbaijans sovereignty over the region.

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Moscow also blames Armenia for damaging ties with Russia by embracing the West, including hosting US troops for joint military drills.

It remains unclear whether Mr Pashinyan might take Armenia out of the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organisation, a group of several former Soviet nations, and other Russia-led alliances. Armenia also hosts a Russian military base and Russian border guards help patrol Armenias frontier with Turkey.
Long-shot US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr's likely independent bid for the White House may complicate the 2024 race by taking votes away from Democrat Joe Biden or Republican Donald Trump in critical states, political analysts said.

Mr Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist, scion of the powerful political family and son of Senator Robert F Kennedy, is expected to announce in Philadelphia on October 9th that he will drop his challenge to president Biden for the Democratic Party's nomination, and run as an independent candidate instead.

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The two-party system of Democrats and Republicans has dominated presidential politics for more than a century, but third-party candidates have influenced the outcome in the past.

The success of Mr Biden or Mr Trump, the former president who is the frontrunner for his party's 2024 nomination, could come down to thousands of voters in a handful of critical states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Arizona. Independent voters, those not registered with either party, are likely to be a deciding factor in Arizona and others.

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Mr Kennedy's deep-pocketed backers and famous name, combined with a lack of broad enthusiasm for Mr Biden and Mr Trump, could help him take votes from their respective sides.

"Our concern about all third parties is that Donald Trumps support is limited  hes well below 50 per cent - but very stable," said Matt Bennett, the co-founder of Third Way, a left-leaning political strategy firm. "Voters who would reluctantly pick Biden in a head-to-head with Trump might jump at the chance to vote for a Kennedy, even if they dont know much about him."

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Some of Mr Kennedy's public positions align more with the Trump supporters who have embraced anti-vaccination and conspiracy theories than with Mr Biden's centrist and left-leaning base. Opinion polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight show Mr Kennedy appeals more to Republicans than Democrats by a large margin.

Republican strategists said they see advantages and disadvantages to Mr Kennedy's presence in the race.

"It could certainly syphon some votes from Trump, but it will certainly hurt Biden much more," said Republican strategist Ford O'Connell, who argued that Trump voters were more enthusiastic than Mr Biden's.

Mr Biden's 2024 re-election campaign declined to comment. Mr Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Conspiracy theories

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Children's Health Defense, a non-profit organisation Mr Kennedy founded, spread Covid-19 vaccine misinformation, including that vaccinated children died at a faster rate, Reuters Fact Check found.

Dozens of young children died of measles in American Samoa in 2019 after anti-vaccine activists, including Mr Kennedy, spread misinformation about the vaccines' safety in the island state, according to FactCheck.org and Dr Paul Offit, the director of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's vaccine education centre.

Mr Kennedy in July testimony to Congress said he has never been opposed to vaccines and never told the public to avoid them.

In July, White House officials joined a chorus of Democrats and medical professionals who criticised Mr Kennedy for claiming in a video that Covid-19 was targeted to attack white and Black people and that Jewish and Chinese people are most immune.

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Mr Kennedy has also suggested anti-depressants cause school shootings, Wi-Fi radiation causes cancer and that the 2004 election that re-elected George W Bush was stolen, according to FactCheck.org.

About 47 per cent of Americans polled in September by Reuters/Ipsos said they were uninterested in getting the newest Covid-19 vaccine, with more than one-third of those saying they believed it was dangerous. Only 34 per cent of Republicans said they would be interested in getting the updated vaccine, compared with 77 per cent of Democrats.

High favourability, Trump donor

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Mr Kennedy has higher favourability ratings than either Mr Trump or Mr Biden, Reuters/Ipsos polling from September shows, with 51 per cent of respondents having a favourable view of him compared to 45 per cent for Mr Biden and 40 per cent for Mr Trump. But Mr Biden leads Mr Kennedy by 50 points in opinion polls tracking the Democratic nomination race, according to an average of data by RealClearPolitics.

At 69, Mr Kennedy might have an appeal to Americans looking for a younger candidate than Mr Biden, 80, and Mr Trump, 77. Some 86 per cent of Americans said they believe the cutoff for serving as president should be age 75 or younger, Reuters/Ipsos polling last November showed.

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Several Political Action Committees have already raised millions for Mr Kennedy's campaign, and he has the backing of popular right-leaning podcasters and some Hollywood stars. He is married to actress Cheryl Hines.

Robert F Kennedy and Cheryl Hines. Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

American Values 2024 has raised $9.8 million, according to its latest Federal Election Committee filing, including a $4.3 million donation from Gavin de Becker, a security consultant, and $5 million from Timothy Mellon. Mr Mellon, an heir to the Mellon banking family, donated $20 million to Mr Trump's America First Action PAC in 2020, Open Secrets data show.

Third-party spoiler?

World Is America heading towards its last election in 20... Read More

Mr Kennedy would join academic Cornell West as a third-party candidate. Mr West's campaign manager, Peter Daou, welcomed Mr Kennedy in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

US senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, has flirted with running for president as a third-party candidate, and former US senator Joe Lieberman, who campaigned on the Democratic ticket in 2000 as former vice president Al Gore's running mate, is the founding chairman of No Labels, a group that could put up a 2024 presidential contender.

Mr Biden, in an interview with ProPublica, suggested Mr Lieberman's group would help Mr Trump.

"He has a democratic right to do it. Theres no reason not to do that. Now, its going to help the other guy. And he knows (that)," Mr Biden said when asked about Mr Lieberman. "Thats a political decision hes making that I obviously think is a mistake."
A serving officer in L0ndon's Metropolitan Police raped two women in 11 days after meeting them in bars while off duty, a court has heard.

Suspended Pc Rupert Edwards (30) is alleged to have raped one woman in Epsom, Surrey, on August 26th, 2022 and the other in Lambeth, south London, on September 5th, 2022, Inner London Crown Court heard on Tuesday.

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Edwards, from Ashtead, Surrey, denies attacking the complainants, who are in their 20s and 30s.

Prosecutor Robert Brown said the first complainant met Edwards on a night-out and later danced with him, before kissing the defendant, who she found attractive at a bar.

They later got a cab back to her home and had consensual sex at least once, possibly twice, Mr Brown said.

The complainant claims she later told him: I cant go again but the defendant pulled her leg up and initiated further sexual intercourse, Mr Brown said.

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Metropolitan Police officer Rupert Edwards (glasses) leaves Inner London Crown Court, where he is charged with two counts of rape (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

The prosecutor said she did not consent to this and the defendant knew that, but carried on regardless.

He said the woman slept until noon the next day, at which point Edwards left.

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She then tried to put the incident out of her mind and get on with her life, before it was later reported to police in November 2022.

A video of her police interview in December 2022 was played to jurors, in which she appeared tearful as she recounted the alleged rape.

She said: I was saying to myself in my head: Im being raped right now, but its like I froze. I just couldnt do or say anything else (after saying I cant go again), so I just let it happen.

The woman later added: He didnt say anything at this point but in my mind I thought: Well, Ive said it now, I should only have to say once'.

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Mr Brown said the second count of rape on the indictment relates to another woman who was interviewed by police on September 6th, 2022.

She said she had met Edwards on a night-out and recalled kissing him before they took a taxi back to her home, jurors heard.

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Mr Brown said the woman recalls engaging in consensual sex with him at the address, but said she told him from the outset there could be no intercourse because they did not have any condoms.

The woman said Edwards agreed to this but that she was later awoken when he raped her, jurors heard.

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Mr Brown said she challenged him on what he was doing, and Edwards then apologised and left.

He added: She says she was angry and confused because he had told her he was a police officer and so she sent him a text (at 4.51am) thanking him for destroying her faith in the justice system.

She then called 999 and reported the incident to the police, he said.

The officer, attached to the South West Basic Command Unit, was then arrested on suspicion of raping her in September 2022, and was bailed and suspended from duty.

He was taken to a police station and interviewed under caution, and, in a prepared statement, he denied the allegation, Mr Brown said.

On December 8th, 2022, he was further arrested on suspicion of raping the first complainant and charged the following day.

He was taken to the same police station, interviewed under caution and denied the allegation, Mr Brown said.

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Mr Brown said that in a prepared statement given to police Edwards claimed that all sexual activity with the first claimant was consensual and at no point did she indicate that she was not consenting.

He said Edwards told police the second complainant never said that she did not want sexual intercourse without contraception, and that they had engaged in consensual sexual activity.

The trial continues.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.
US president Joe Biden assured leaders of G7 and European states of Washington's continued support for Ukraine during a video conference, the Polish president said on Tuesday.

"He assured us that support for aid given to Ukraine continues, especially military aid. He said he would secure this support in Congress," Andrzej Duda told a news conference.

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Mr Biden has said that American aid to Ukraine will keep flowing for now as he sought to reassure allies of continued American financial support for the war effort.

But time was running out, the president said in a warning to Congress.

We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted, Mr Biden said in remarks from the Roosevelt Room after Congress voted late on Saturday to avert a government shutdown by passing a short-term funding package that dropped assistance for Ukraine in the fight against Russia.

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Voting in the House this past week pointed to potential trouble ahead, with nearly half of House Republicans voting to strip $300 million from a defence-spending bill to train Ukrainian soldiers and purchase weapons. The money was later approved separately, but opponents of Ukraine support celebrated their growing numbers.

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Then, on Saturday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy omitted additional Ukraine aid from a measure to keep the government running until November 17th. In doing so, the Republican closed the door on a Senate package that would have funnelled $6 billion to Ukraine, roughly a third of what had been requested by the White House.

Both the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the stopgap measure, with members of both parties abandoning the increased aid for Ukraine in favour of avoiding a costly government shutdown.

Mr Biden said that deal was made to keep the government running and he worked to reassure US allies that the funding would be there. - Additional reporting from AP
Police have made almost a thousand arrests across Turkey during raids targeting people with alleged links to Kurdish militants days after a suicide bomb attack in Ankara.

Interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said police carried out raids in 16 Turkish provinces, detaining 55 people suspected of being part of the intelligence structure of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

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At least 12 other suspected PKK members were rounded up in a separate operation in five provinces, Mr Yerlikaya wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Turkish interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said police carried out a series of raids (AP/Ali Unal)

The PKK claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, according to a news website close to the group. The group has led a decades-long insurgency in Turkey and is considered a terror organisation by the United States and the European Union. Tens of thousands of people have died since the start of the conflict in 1984.

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A 73-year-old newsreader has also been detained after questioning details of the official account of the attack on opposition broadcaster Halk TV.

Aysenur Arslan was detained in her home after prosecutors accused her of terrorist propaganda and praising criminal activity for comments made during her television programme on Monday morning.

Press freedoms in Turkey have eroded during Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan s tenure, according to international monitors.

Much of the media has positioned itself to support Mr Erdogan, while the few broadcasters that regularly criticise his policies are hit with fines or blackouts by the Turkish media watchdog RTUK. Turkey ranked 149th out of 180 countries in press freedom index of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in 2022.

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Turkish police talk to passers-by after the explosion in Ankara on Sunday (AP Photo/Ali Unal)

The interior minister later said that an additional 928 people suspected of holding unlicensed firearms or being connected to firearms smuggling were arrested during the operation, but he did not immediately make it clear if the suspects arrested for illegal firearms were suspected of connections to the PKK.

He added that over 840 firearms were confiscated during the operation.

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On Sunday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device near an entrance to the Interior Ministry hours before Mr Erdogan was set to address Parliament as it returned from its summer recess. A second would-be bomber was killed in a shootout with police.

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Two police officers were slightly wounded in the attack. The suspects arrived at the scene inside a vehicle they seized from a veterinarian in the city of Kayseri after shooting him in the head, officials said.

Turkish authorities identified one of the assailants as a PKK militant. Hours later, Turkeys Air Force carried out air strikes on suspected PKK sites in northern Iraq, where the groups leadership is based. The Defence Ministry said a large number of PKK militants were neutralised in the strikes.

Mr Yerlikaya did not clarify whether the people rounded up on Tuesday were suspected of direct involvement in Sundays attack.
US representative Henry Cuellar is back at work after being carjacked on Monday night by three armed attackers less than a mile from the Capitol in Washington DC.

Mr Cuellar, from Texas, said he was good and even joked about the frightening experience. He said the robbers came out of nowhere, and they pointed guns at me.

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I looked at one with a gun, another with a gun, and I felt one behind me, he said. They said they wanted my car, and I said, Sure. You got to keep calm under those situations, and they took off.

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His chief of staff Jacob Hochberg released a statement on Monday night saying: As Congressman Cuellar was parking his car this evening, three armed assailants approached the Congressman and stole his vehicle. Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement.

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It was the second assault on a member of Congress in the District of Columbia this year. In February, Democrat Angie Craig was assaulted in her apartment building, suffering bruises but escaping serious injury. Her chief of staff said the attack did not appear to have been politically motivated.

Mr Cuellar thanked the US Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department for their work, saying the message is very simple: youve got to support law enforcement.

He said the attackers were masked but he could see they were young.

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They recovered the car, they recovered everything, but what really got me upset is they took my sushi, he joked.

Mr Cuellar spoke to reporters after attending a meeting with fellow Democratic members of the House of Representatives. Colleague Brad Schneider said Mr Cuellar was acknowledged by colleagues during that meeting, saying were all grateful that he is safe.

It could have been so much worse, Mr Schneider said. We just pray for him.

US Capitol Police issued a statement saying officers were working to find the carjackers and were being assisted by the Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI. The statement said Mr Cuellars car, a white Toyota crossover, was found abandoned and crime scene technicians were processing the scene.

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We have a number of leads, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said. Our investigators are focused, determined and working around the clock.
Equippers Worship - Desert River | DREAM Label Group

Los Angeles, CA - Today, New Zealand worship team Equippers Worship releases their new EP, Desert River available on all digital retail and streaming service providers via DREAM Worship. Songs from the 4-song EP were produced by David Darby, Joshua Huirua and Kepz Tumai and co-written by Robert McCann, Shonbanet Tiatia, Isaac Sutherland, Kenan Stephenson, Joshua Huirua, David Darby, Sarah Silvester and Kepz Tumai.

The Desert River EP was inspired by our Church Conference theme this year, where the river flows everything will live (Ezekiel 47:9). These songs celebrate the life-giving power of Jesus that revives, refreshes and revitalizes.  - Equippers Worship

Songs Desert River have earned key features on Spotifys New Music Friday Christian and Worship Now, Apple Musics Free Spirit and New In Christian, and SOZOs Worship 2023.

Desert River Track listing:

1. Living Water

2. More Than Enough

3. In Surrender

4. Mighty Name



Connect with Equippers Worship:

Facebook | YouTube | Instagram | TikTok





ABOUT EQUIPPERS WORSHIP:

Equippers Worship is the sound of the Equippers Churches Movement. Equippers is a global network of Churches with the mission of "Equipping people for life, through faith in Jesus Christ" and worship has always played an important role in that.

ABOUT DREAM WORSHIP:

DREAM provides artists with a genuine approach to how real artist development should be done. By allowing for a partnership as a business model, DREAM artists empower themselves to develop and carry out a real vision for their lives as they affect other peoples lives with their music and message. Incorporating social media, press, radio and touring, DREAM is helping its artists grow together as a family. DREAM was founded in 2008 and has grown into multiple la- bels and a publishing company.
He faces an uphill battle. Three of his closest advisers have pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against him. Prosecutors have accumulated millions of pages of digital evidence, including text transcripts, financial records and emails, and they plan to introduce about 1300 exhibits at the trial. The judge, Lewis Kaplan, has repeatedly sided with the prosecution in procedural disputes, rejecting expert witnesses the defence had hoped to call and allowing the government to use evidence that Bankman-Fried had contested. For the past month and a half, Bankman-Fried has also had to prepare his case from a jail cell in Brooklyn, after Kaplan revoked his bail, ruling that he had tried to interfere with witnesses. It doesnt appear that theres any sort of path to victory for Bankman-Fried, said Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor. Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda, will testify against Bankman-Fried. Also looming over the trial is the question of whether Bankman-Fried, who is unusually garrulous for a criminal defendant, will testify  a high-risk move that defence lawyers tend to discourage.

It will surely be painful for him to remain quiet if he believes or convinces himself that the government is mischaracterising his transactions and his closest associates are making up stories about him, said Daniel Richman, a law professor at Columbia University and a former federal prosecutor. The downside is he might not respond well to forceful cross-examination. A representative for Bankman-Fried declined to comment. A spokesperson for the US attorneys office for the Southern District of New York, the division that is prosecuting Bankman-Fried, also declined. Loading Known for his signature outfit of T-shirts and shorts, Bankman-Fried rose to prominence as a rare good guy in the loosely regulated world of crypto. He founded FTX in 2019 and raised $US2 billion ($3.2 billion) in venture funding, promising to work with regulators to write new rules for the industry. He was also a prolific political donor, contributing more than $US5 million to support Joe Bidens 2020 presidential run. Then, over four frantic days in November, FTX and its sister hedge fund, Alameda Research, imploded, with customers unable to withdraw more than $US8 billion in deposits. The companies filed for bankruptcy, and Bankman-Fried was charged with counts including securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. A count accusing him of violating campaign finance law was eventually dropped, along with a handful of other charges, though all could be revived at a second trial next year.

The key figures Many of his closest allies have turned on him. Caroline Ellison, Alamedas CEO and Bankman-Frieds on-and-off girlfriend, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. She was joined by two co-founders of FTX, Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, who admitted to conspiring with Bankman-Fried to defraud customers. A fourth high-level executive, Ryan Salame, also pleaded guilty, without agreeing to cooperate. The collapse of FTX sent shockwaves through the world of crypto. Credit: AP After his arrest, Bankman-Fried was confined to his parents house in Palo Alto, California, where he entertained guests and had a pickleball court installed in the yard. In August, Kaplan revoked those privileges and sent him to the Metropolitan Detention Center after he shared some of Ellisons private writings with The New York Times. Ellison is poised to be a crucial figure at the trial. She, Wang and Singh were close friends with Bankman-Fried and lived together in a five-bedroom penthouse in the Bahamas, where FTX had its headquarters. But even within that tight circle, Ellison had unique access  and a long romantic history with her boss that could create one of the most dramatic and personal moments of the trial.

In court filings, prosecutors have previewed some of the evidence they plan to present, including notes that Ellison took at meetings with Bankman-Fried, as well as spreadsheets that kept track of illicit money flows. Prosecutors have also lined up testimony from FTX investors and customers who lost money in the firms collapse. It doesnt appear that theres any sort of path to victory. Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti The contours of Bankman-Frieds defence are less clear. After FTXs bankruptcy, he blamed an accounting error that he said had caused billions of users dollars to vanish without his knowledge. He has also criticised his colleagues, especially Ellison, saying she failed to manage risk at Alameda. And in legal filings, Bankman-Frieds lawyers have indicated that theyll argue that outside law firms authorised his actions at FTX. More recently, the defence has also suggested that FTXs use of customer deposits to make investments was akin to how a bank operates. The problem for Bankman-Fried is that FTX was an exchange, a type of company that isnt supposed to put customer money at risk. As the trial approaches, the defence has faced setbacks. Bankman-Fried has had trouble getting access to documents from jail, his lawyers say, because of a spotty internet connection and battery problems with a laptop he was given.

Kaplan has mostly dismissed those complaints. Last month, he rejected the defences attempt to stop prosecutors from citing evidence related to FTXs bankruptcy filing and Bankman-Frieds resignation from the company. The judge said those events were intertwined inextricably with the charges. And in a ruling Sunday, he said he might limit the defences ability to argue that some of the decisions made at FTX involved lawyers. Loading The issues in this case are pretty straightforward, Kaplan said at a court hearing last week. The pretrial disputes have put the defence on the back foot. But ultimately the legal wrangling could help Bankman-Fried mount an appeal if he loses at trial. The defence here is doing a really nice job of creating a record on that, said Jordan Estes, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan. Theyre setting up this theme that theyre not getting due process, theyre not getting a fair trial.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Its a busy time for Jane Harrison. Actually, thats something of an understatement. Try this for size: play already staged in a new production by the Sydney Theatre Company? Tick. Novel published? Tick. Opera production? Tick. Is there anything left for thisFirst Nations novelist, playwright and researcher? Oh yes, she is also the director of Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival, taking place for the third time in March next year. See what I mean about busy? And the bulk of that activity stems from one core idea that she had yonks ago: how would Indigenous Australians have reacted to the sight of ships assembling offshore in 1788? The outcome is The Visitors  play at the Sydney Theatre Company, novel in the shops and, shortly, opera from Victorian Opera at the Melbourne Arts Centre. The premise is quite simple: six elders and one young man  an ersatz elder  come together to thrash out the best response to the arrival of the pale aliens on board their nowee. Jane Harrisons idea turned into a play, a novel and an opera. Credit: Janie Barrett Harrison, whose first play, Stolen, about five Indigenous children who had been forcibly removed by the authorities, was greeted with acclaim in 1998, made her first notes for The Visitors at the time of the Howard government intervention in the Northern Territory in 2007. (That occurred a couple of years after her second, Rainbows End, had made its theatrical debut.) I remember feeling very upset at the time. A colleague  had said people will think Im a paedophile just because Im Aboriginal and a man. Harrison, who was working in Aboriginal affairs at the time, considers herself a feminist playwright, but decided she wanted to write something that reflected the Aboriginal men she knew  men, she says, who were knowledgeable, kind, family men and good partners.

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The research had shown that in fact Aboriginal women were doing quite well in all the social indicators, but that men had fallen behind a little bit. I wanted to do something that shows they have agency, resilience, strength and power. As is the way, she might have made some notes about the idea, but it was another four years before she actually started writing it. In the meantime, she saw the stage version of 12 Angry Men, which gave her an idea for the plot of The Visitors, you know, the one person whos in the jury who manages to change peoples minds. But she wasnt optimistic about getting the play put on  she says it was a time when people werent looking for plays about men  and wrote the first 5000 words of the novel, thinking it might be easier to get it published. She did get a contract for it. But then the play was staged  and won an award  at the Sydney Festival in 2020. After the British ships are spotted, a message stick is sent around the local mobs and an elders meeting is called at Warrane (Sydney Cove). As Harrison writes, an elder from each of the surrounding countries is expected to attend. There are seven characters in the novel, and Harrison gives them all contemporary names  Lawrence, Gary, Gordon, Joseph, Nathaniel, Walter and Albert  and dresses them in suits and smart modern clothing. (The play, however, has two women attending the meeting.) If theyd been naked  as they would have been  I think it would have again fallen into that trope of the noble savage. I wanted to portray them as senior men, as senators really, representing all the clans. And I sort of wanted to mess with peoples heads in putting them in clothes. I didnt want them to be othered.

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She said colonisation was a disempowering concept for Indigenous people. But I also think its disempowering for non-Aboriginal people because it gets us all stuck in this paradigm where we cant move. So I wanted to explore the idea: what if Aboriginal people had agency around that event? And what if they could decide whether the visitors landed and were welcomed to country or whether they were sent away? The Visitors in its iteration on stage at the Sydney Theatre Company. Credit: Daniel Boud Although the reader  and the audience  knows what happens and the consequences for the Indigenous population, Harrison wanted to draw them in, build the tension and get them to suspend their disbelief. The weather is extreme, tempers fray, the debate is heated, with each of the seven having their own response. Its the first time really that perspective from the First Nations point of view has been shown. Everything else weve ever heard or were taught at school was from the white point of view. Harrison researched widely, even taking in a book about the 38 species of cicada found in the Sydney area. But there was no oral research with present-day elders. I wanted to focus on the account from the white perspective, because that way they couldnt be labelled as myths or stories, she said. I wanted to use the words of the colonisers themselves. Even in things like William Dampiers description of Aboriginal people. I turned that on its head and had my characters saying that about the people they were encountering. It was Dharug composer Christopher Sainsbury, who had worked on the first iteration of the play, who suggested The Visitors to Victorian Opera artistic director Richard Mills, with whom he had studied. Once he agreed, Mills gave Harrison a masterclass in how to write a libretto  this is an aria, slash this, highlight this  and playwright Tom Holloway told her to write big, so big ideas.

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My background is as an advertising copywriter so I wasnt precious about cutting, Harrison says. Theres a lot of material thats lost, obviously, in slashing it down to 20 pages from [the plays] 60 pages. But the music is amazing and that tells the story. Harrison is a Murawari woman who grew up in the Dandenongs. Her Indigenous heritage is through her mother, who came from northern NSW. Her father died when she was nine, but by then her parents had already divorced. Loading It was a small family unit  my sister and me. I always knew I was Aboriginal growing up, she said. We didnt grow up in that extended family network that so many Aboriginal people do, but my mother was very proud of her heritage. Later in life her mother became something of an activist and a great letter writer. After she died, Harrison found letters from people, including composer Peter Sculthorpe, with whom she had communicated about the appropriation of Aboriginal culture. With the referendum for the Indigenous Voice to parliament only a week away, Harrison, who says she has been pessimistic about its prospects for success, says its time for more listening to what is needed in Aboriginal communities. She hopes that rather than taking the No slogan to heart, people who dont know try to find out about the Voice. Its just a vehicle for conversations to be had. The endings of the opera and play differ from that of the novel. The first two conclude with what the elders decide to do; the latter has a powerful coda and a devastating last line.

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Frances most famous actor Gerard Depardieu has written an open letter to prominent French newspaper Le Figaro denying rape and sexual assault allegations against him.

Depardieu was indicted in 2020 on charges of rape and sexual assault over an alleged incident in 2018.

French actor Gerard Depardieu attends the Der Geschmack der kleinen Dinge (Umami) premiere in January in Berlin. Credit: Tristar Media/Getty Images

In the letter, published on October 1, Depardieu alluded to the allegations of rape and sexual assault tied to a 2018 lawsuit filed by Charlotte Arnould, whose parents are old friends of his.

Without naming Arnould, Depardieu says a woman came to my home a first time, lightly, and willingly stepped into my bedroom. She says today that she was raped there.
High-profile orthopaedic surgeon Dr Munjed Al Muderis has been accused of denying the bleeding obvious during his defamation trial against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes.

During cross-examination in the Federal Court in Sydney on Tuesday, Dr Matt Collins, KC, barrister for the media outlets, was repeatedly told by Al Muderis that he did not recall specific interactions with patients and disputed the allegation he was inattentive to patients after their surgery.

Surgeon Munjed Al Muderis outside court in Sydney. Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Al Muderis is suing the newspapers and current affairs program over reports published and aired in September 2022. He alleges the reports convey a range of defamatory meanings, including that he negligently performed osseointegration surgery and provided inadequate aftercare.

In response to a December 2014 letter tendered in court and addressed to former patient Anna Rochford that mentions her consultation request for osseointegration services at his clinic, Al Muderis said he could not have offered the services because he didnt have the skills or experience.
Former ABC presenter Emma Alberici has told an inquiry a police detective was hung out to dry after appearing on Lateline to speak about a high-profile investigation, despite her superior being aware she would be on the show.

Alberici broadcast an interview in April 2015 with Pamela Young, who was then a detective in charge of the investigation into Scott Johnson, a 27-year-old PhD student who fell to his death from a cliff in Manly in 1988.

Emma Alberici pictured last week at the LGBTIQ hate crime inquiry; (inset) Scott Johnson.

Police believed for years that Johnsons death near a gay beat could have been suicide, but his family insisted it was not. His killer was jailed for nine years for manslaughter earlier this year.

Alberici on Tuesday said the Johnson family had criticised police, and she agreed to speak to Young on Lateline to balance media reporting of the case.
The case of a former Queensland childcare centre manager, who was charged after she spoke to the media about alleged paedophile Ashley Paul Griffith, has been mentioned in court.

Yolanda Borucki reported Griffith to police after another teacher claimed they saw him kissing a child. Credit: A Current Affair

Yolanda Borucki, 59, who was a former manager at a chain of Brisbane childcare centres, is facing a charge of computer hacking, after she was raided by police in relation to their investigation into Griffith.

Police were to allege Borucki illegally accessed and distributed confidential documents relating to her former employment at a Brisbane centre.

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Borucki spoke to A Current Affair in August, where she detailed how she had reported Griffith to police after another teacher claimed they saw him kissing a child almost a year before he was arrested.

Griffith, whose identity was revealed on Tuesday following changes to Queenslands law, is currently facing more than 1600 child abuse charges, alleged to have been committed against 91 girls at childcare centres across Brisbane and Sydney.

Police would allege the documents Borucki accessed contained private information of children allegedly abused, their families, and Griffith, whose charges include 136 counts of rape and more than 600 counts of indecent treatment of a child.

The Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday heard Boruckis legal team had sought disclosure of a statement made by both the arresting officer, and the complainant, the Uniting Church.

Boruckis case was adjourned to November 1, following disclosure of the statements.
An anti-Chinese government activist has been ordered to pay more than $3000 after his placards about the Tiananmen Square massacre were judged to be illegal advertising.

Drew Pavlou was found guilty in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday for failing to obtain consent for a regulated activity and not complying with a direction to cease from an authorised person.

Drew Pavlou said the area where he set up his placards should not be applicable to the councils laws on authorised activities. Credit: Attila Csaszar

Pavlou set up a folding table and placards near the entrance to the Queen Street Mall at the Chinese consulate in Brisbanes CBD on May 17, 2022.

He displayed signs that said Nothing happened on June 4, 1989. Change my mind, referring to the date when the Chinese military violently quashed a protest in Beijing, and the governments efforts to censor discussion of the massacre.
A childcare worker accused of sexually abusing 91 young girls across Brisbane and Sydney can now be identified as Ashley Paul Griffith.

Griffith, 45, from the Gold Coast, was charged last year with more than 1600 offences, including rape and indecent treatment of children.

Police allege the offences were committed across 10 Brisbane childcare centres between 2007 and 2013, and from 2018 to 2022, and a centre in Sydney between 2014 and 2017.

Media outlets were previously unable to publish the identity of people accused of sexual assault crimes until they had been committed to stand trial.
JUNE MARGARET HEARN July 5, 1931-October 1, 2023

Born June Mackinnon, at the height of the Great Depression in 1931, June became the first working-class (and female) student from the slums of Collingwood to go to the University of Melbourne, where she obtained a bachelor of arts, before teaching for several years at Preston Girls High and Collingwood High School.

In her 30s, she returned to Melbourne University completing a master of arts and PhD, and forging a brilliant career as a leading academic and regular public commentator on industrial relations. While there she became the first female head of the Melbourne University Staff Association. After several years lecturing at the University of Melbourne and the Melbourne Business School, in 1982 she accepted an offer to become dean of the Faculty of Arts and head of the Toorak Campus of Victorian College.

In 1987, she became director and CEO of the Hawthorn Institute of Education, and following its amalgamation with the University of Melbourne, became a professor and in 1997 the inaugural managing director of Hawthorn International Education Ltd. Throughout her post working life she served on numerous government and semi-government boards and advisory committees, including serving as the first female deputy chancellor of Monash University (2001-2006).

Forever proud of her working-class background, June remained a staunch advocate for economic and social justice in all her public roles. In the 1940s, she was active in the Eureka Youth League and in the early 50s, at the height of the Cold War, she joined the Communist Party of Australia.
A row over federal spending is clouding the final phase of the referendum on the Indigenous Voice to parliament, with No campaigners demanding an audit of the money spent on First Australians and a former federal minister backing the call.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton linked the spending to the Voice debate by saying the money should be checked to ensure it was going to the most deserving people, hours after leading No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price called for the audit.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said he would have more to say about auditing Indigenous programs after the referendum. Credit: Kate Geraghty

But Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said she had made changes in June to address an audit that highlighted what she called the clearly deficient safeguards in place during nine years of Coalition government.

Former Indigenous affairs minister Amanda Vanstone argued for a complete audit to discover where the spending was doing most good and where it was not working, after days of debate over total federal and state outlays worth about $33.4 billion.
Manchester: What happens in the Taiwan Strait is everybodys business.

Thats the view of James Cleverly, British Foreign Secretary, who said any conflict over Taiwan would collapse Chinas economy and take other countries with it.

Cleverly, who comes under sharp criticism from hawkish Conservative MPs for being too dovish on China, said that if Xi Jinping were to take over the island, as the Chinese president has threatened, that would constitute a massive failure of foreign policy.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said disruption across the Taiwan Strait is everybodys business. Credit: AP

I have said this multiple times and directly to the Chinese government, disruption across the Taiwan Strait is everybodys business, Cleverly told an event on the sidelines of the Conservative Party conference under way in Manchester.
Police say a man who used Airbnb to rent a room in the US state of Georgia robbed the homes owner at gunpoint.

A homeowner in the metro Atlanta suburb of Buford called the police saying an armed man who had rented his basement through the room-sharing app had fled after stealing his wallet.

An Airbnb guest robbed an Airbnb robber. Credit: Alamy

According to a police report, the renter checked in late on Tuesday and within an hour sent a text message to the owner upstairs saying the toilet was leaking. The homeowner told officers he was checking the toilet when he turned to see renter pointing a gun at him.

He said the renter bound his hands and feet with zip ties and fled with his wallet, which contained cash and credit cards, according to police.
New York: The judge overseeing Donald Trumps fraud trial has placed a partial gag order on the former president after he posted a message to social media targeting court staff.

The move came on the second day of the civil trial against the incendiary Republican, who a judge ruled spent years fraudulently inflating the value of his properties for financial gain.

As he appeared in court to once again face off against Judge Arthur Engoron and New York Attorney-General Letitia James, Trump put up a post on his Truth Social website showing Allison Greenfield, the judges clerk, standing next to Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer.

In the picture, Trump mocked Greenfield as Schumers girlfriend and demanded that the case against him be dismissed.
But his ongoing attempts to appease his right flank didnt work, leading to the motion being introduced by Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, a loyal ally of former president Donald Trump. Gaetz has often accused McCarthy of breaking promises to conservatives to cut spending. The last straw was the decision to work with Democrats to pass a last-minute stopgap bill that prevented the US government running out of money, at least for now. He also claimed McCarthy had made a secret deal with Democrats about ongoing funding for Ukraine  something that Gaetz and other Republicans oppose. Trump himself weighed in on social media while attending his own fraud trial in New York by asking: Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves, why arent they fighting the Radical Left Democrats who are destroying our country? The Speaker of the House is second in the line of succession after the vice president in the event the president becomes unable to serve.

Chief deputy whip and McCarthy ally Patrick McHenry is now serving as the temporary Speaker, but has adjourned the House while Republicans  who had not settled on a replacement in the event their coup was successful  work out a way forward. While McCarthy could have defeated the challenge if enough Democrats voted to save him, it became clear early on this was not likely. After a strategy meeting called by Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries on Tuesday morning, the overwhelming feeling among members was that the onus was on Republicans to save their own party from extremists in their ranks. Democrats were particularly aggrieved that McCarthy launched an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, reneged on a bipartisan deal over the debt ceiling and continued to support Trump after the January 6 Capitol attack.

We encourage our Republican colleagues who claim to be more traditional to break from the extremists, end the chaos, end the dysfunction, end the extremism, Jeffries told reporters after his caucus meeting. We are ready, willing and able to work together with our Republican colleagues, but it is on them to join us. McCarthy, however, continued to put up a confident front ahead of the vote, despite the fact he could only afford to lose a handful of Republican votes in order to save his job. Im an optimist because theres no point in being anything else, he told reporters ahead of the vote. It is what it is.

Asked if he would put his hand up for speakership again if he lost the job, he replied: Well see what happens. Loading But by lunchtime, his fate seemed all but sealed when Jeffries sent a letter to caucus members saying: Given their unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic manner, House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican Motion to Vacate the Chair. Former speaker Nancy Pelosi  who was not present to vote because she was in California mourning the death of late Senator Dianne Feinstein  also weighed in. The Speaker of the House is chosen by the majority party. In this Congress, it is the responsibility of House Republicans to choose a nominee and elect the Speaker on the floor. At this time, there is no justification for a departure from this tradition, she said.

Earlier, McCarthy sought to head off his removal with a procedural vote that would have killed off Gaetzs motion, but in an ominous sign, he couldnt get the numbers. Republicans control the House by five votes, with 218 seats to 222. In the end, the motion to vacate him succeeded. Eight Republicans sided with Democrats: Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Tim Burchett, Eli Crane, Bob Good, Matt Rosendale and Nancy Mace. The escalation of tensions within the Republican Party comes after Congress on Saturday was able to pass a stopgap bill to avoid what would have been the federal governments fourth partial shutdown in a decade and allow money to continue flowing  at least for now. Had a shutdown occurred  which looked all but inevitable until the 11th hour  millions of troops and public servants would have been furloughed or left without pay, travellers could have faced airport chaos across the country and poor families would have struggled to access much-needed services and food assistance. The stopgap bill will instead keep agencies open until mid-November and funded at current levels, allowing Congress to buy some time as it works on a longer-term solution. Tuesdays events, however, have left the House in a state of limbo.
Australia's housing crisis is deepening, and the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggests that the federal government's goal of building 1.2 million new homes in five years is under threat.

Despite an uptick in the latest monthly data, building approvals are still well below the long-term average.

While residential building approvals rose 7% in August, it followed steep drops in July (-8.1%) and June (-7.9%).

Its encouraging to see a monthly rise in approvals but its still well down on a year ago, said Kent Leicester (pictured above left), managing director of Queensland property developer KDL Property Group.

It highlights the need to take action to assist councils and infrastructure authorities with quickening the approval processes, Leicester said. Councils and water authorities need external assistance to reduce the backlog in getting key residential housing projects approved to tackle the nations housing crisis.

Building approvals key to housing crisis

To address the housing crisis, the federal government has developed a 10-year National Housing and Homelessness Plan to improve access to safe and affordable housing.

The plan includes the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF), which will create 30,000 new social and affordable homes in its first five years, and the Housing Accord, which aims to deliver 1.2 million well-located homes between 2024 and 2029.

To achieve this, an average of 240,000 net new homes will need to be constructed every year in the five-year period but the figure is already forecasted to be well behind.

Leicester said despite these ambitious plans to boost housing supply, including new and affordable social homes, slow approvals made these plans difficult to achieve unless they receive more support to assess applications.

The authorities we deal with for our projects in southeast Queensland are already stretched and under-resourced, and as a result it has been taking a long time to get everything over the line, Leicester said.

As developers, we fully understand and empathise with the difficulties they have, and we need to find a way to help them process these applications.

We have residential sites ready to be added to the housing market, but the land is caught up in approval roadblocks.

Disparity between the states

The data also highlighted the stark difference in total dwelling approvals between the states.

While Victoria (+22.2%), NSW,(+12.5%), and Western Australia (+12.3%) saw significant rises, falls were recorded in Queensland (-26.9%), Tasmania (-10.1%), and South Australia (-6.9%).

The data mirrored the latest lending indicators, which showed total housing rose 2.2% to $24.8 billion after a fall of 1.1% in July. However, it was 9.4% lower compared to a year ago.

For owner-occupier housing, the value of new loan commitments still saw a rise in Queensland (2.9%) and NSW (2.1%) but it was well below South Australia (12.9%), WA (4.9%), and Victoria (4.0%).

The value of new loan commitments for investor loans told a similar story with WA rising by 14.1% while Queensland fell 4.2%. NSW and Victoria both saw a modest rises of 1.3% and 0.2%, respectively.

Concerning situation overall

While some states are building new homes faster than others, the situation overall is well below what is needed to reach the target.

The Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA), which represents 2,500 companies in Australias property development industry, called the situation concerning.

In response to the July figures, UDIA National predicted dwelling completions will be around 30% lower than the long run average 18 months from now if housing supply and productivity is not ramped up immediately.

UDIA National has been warning of a major contraction in new housing construction and productivity for some time, and that prediction is coming true just at the time when we need to be increasing new housing supply and re-stocking our pipeline, said Max Shifman (pictured above right), UDIA National president.

Total building approvals for July across Australia  shown in the graph below  were 23% lower than the long-term average.

With Augusts building approvals falling nearly 3,000 homes below the long-term monthly average, it marked the eight consecutive month of below average results.

It's essential to note that housing completions typically reach about 90% of approvals across all dwelling types, with an approximately 18-month delay in converting approvals to completion, as reported by UDIA National.

However, the institute predicted new housing completions in 18 months time will fall to 33% or more below the long run average, unless significant changes are implemented to boost housing supply.

The numbers are worse for attached dwellings specifically, where approvals are now 34% lower than the long run average.

This means future completions for apartments will be closer to 44% below the long run average, and frighteningly, well below the levels needed to deliver the 1.2 million housing target agreed by National Cabinet.

The ever-worsening reduction in new housing supply is leading to skyrocketing house prices and rentals, and we predict this becoming much worse over the next 18 months, Shifman said.

While strong demand may be returning to the market, there has been no commensurate improvement in development-ready land supply.

One way forward

Leicester said one way forward would be for councils and other authorities to consider alternative options that could utilise the assistance of certified private planning practitioners to help with the approvals process.

There needs to be a faster process implemented where they can use certified or trusted support from private industry to get through the backlog of applications, he said.

It could help development applications and critical sewer and water connection applications to be approved in acceptable timeframes, thereby boosting much needed supply to the housing market.

Developers want to help governments to realise the targets to boost the supply of housing, said Leicester, but we are hamstrung because we cant get our projects approved as the process is so slow due to councils lacking the human resources to get it done faster.

It would help councils to get more eyeballs on these planning applications to fast-track the approvals process.

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Finsure Group has grown its loan book to $100 billion as the mortgage broker aggregator seeks to expand its business nationally and abroad.

In what it claims to be the fastest aggregator to reach the milestone, the news comes as Finsure announced another all-time record settlement month in August of $4.16 billion.

Founded by John Kolenda in 2011, Finsures growth has advanced rapidly in recent years, with its broker network approaching 3,000 brokers and settlement records also shattered.

Finsure CEO Simon Bednar said the aggregators loan book had almost doubled in size over the last two years, a period which included the challenges of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Given Finsure has only existed for just over a decade, this is an astonishing result, said Bednar (pictured above). Other aggregation businesses have taken decades to achieve a loan book of this size. Considering our relatively brief history, reaching $100 billion in 12 years is simply amazing.

This accomplishment is a credit to all of Finsures management team and staff and the service they provide as well as the loyalty of our highly valued brokers, who are currently joining our network at a rate of 550 per year.

Partnership driving growth

Unlike some others in the market, Finsure positions itself as a full-service provider, with its offering covering business planning and support mechanisms including flexible commission structures, marketing, and educational workshops and events.

It also includes its customer relations management (CRM) platform Infynity, which had automation capabilities since its launch in 2019.

Sold by BNK for $151.6 million in cash, Finsures partnership with current parent company MA Financial Group over the past two years has been successful so far.

The ASX-listed financial services group posted generally positive results in August despite a challenging macro environment, with Finsure being the main driving of this growth.

Bednar said MA Financial Group had helped accelerate Finsures growth and provided tremendous opportunities for brokers.

In the last two years weve broken our all-time best settlement month eight times, he said.

More than a million loan applications have been created through our systems, while over 400,000 customers have been serviced with a loan through Finsure brokers, and more than $1.5 billion paid to brokers and referrers during the Groups history.

Finsure NZ and other overseas ventures

Finsure in July this year established Finsure NZ in its first overseas venture.

Based in Auckland and headed by Country Manager, Jenny Campbell, Finsure NZ said it aims to up the ante in providing support services for New Zealand financial advisers.

Bednar said Finsure is also examining further moves into other international markets, which will provide its brokers with opportunities to explore and expand into additional markets.

We are looking to expand overseas too and become the first truly global premium aggregator offering multi award-winning marketing, technology and business support services, he said.

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FILE PHOTO: A view shows branded oil tanks at Saudi Aramco oil facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019.

(Photo: REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD)

Saudi Arabia and Russia ramped up their daily oil exports by 1 million barrels in September. Saudi Arabia's daily maritime oil exports surged by over 800,000 barrels, while Russia increased its daily exports by 325,000 barrels through Baltic and Black Sea ports. However, even with this uptick, both countries' export volumes remain well below their July levels. If the oil was directed to refineries on Saudi's western coast, September's export figures would be even lower.

This September rebound was anticipated, following Saudi Arabia's 30-month export low. However, Saudi Arabia had previously pledged to maintain significant production cuts until the end of this year.

Since this summer, Middle Eastern oil-producing countries have primarily used their oil domestically, mainly due to increased electricity demand for air conditioning, which has limited export volumes.

Currently, Russian oil prices are nearing $100 per barrel, significantly surpassing the $60 cap imposed by the G7. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently noted that the price cap is no longer effective in penalizing Russia.

Saudi officials have not commented on the oil export data. Figures indicate that China, as Saudi Arabia's top oil buyer, saw its highest oil imports from the kingdom in five months.

Meanwhile, with the growth in natural gas demand, Saudi Aramco is seeking to acquire more liquefied natural gas (LNG) operations.

Last week, Saudi Aramco announced a $500 million acquisition of a stake in MidOcean Energy, which includes an option to further increase its holdings. The company has four LNG extraction projects in Australia. The head of upstream operations at Saudi Aramco stated that this investment would enable the company to meet the growing global demand for LNG, especially in key markets like Asia and Europe, where more LNG export infrastructure is being developed.

Data shows that global LNG trade has grown from 100 million tons in 2000 to nearly 400 million tons in 2022, which explains Saudi Aramco's interest in entering the natural gas market.

The official mentioned, "We foresee a structural long-term growth in the LNG market, and Saudi Aramco aims to be a leading player in the global LNG industry."

He added that Saudi Aramco is diversifying its operations, expanding its LNG business, and reducing carbon emissions. With the current increase in global natural gas demand, Europe is looking to replace Russian gas, while Asian countries are seeking cleaner natural gas as an alternative to coal and oil.

Currently, Saudi Aramco is also seeking more natural gas and LNG acquisitions domestically to meet both its local and export demands.

It's understood that by 2030, Saudi Aramco plans to increase its natural gas production by 50% compared to 2021. The company's Jafurah gas field is expected to commence production in 2025, reaching a daily output of 2 billion cubic meters by 2030. Producing more natural gas will help Saudi Arabia reduce its oil consumption, thereby freeing up more oil for export.
Seval Yildirim named UB vice provost for inclusive excellence

As a university committed to achieving social justice in all of our endeavors, we are delighted to welcome a scholar and leader with such an impressive record of advancing equity and inclusivity in higher education. 

The vice provost for inclusive excellence serves as UBs chief diversity officer, reporting jointly to the president and to the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.

BUFFALO, N.Y.  Seval Yildirim, vice president for diversity initiatives and chief diversity officer at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has been named vice provost for inclusive excellence at the University at Buffalo.

As a university committed to achieving social justice in all of our endeavors, we are delighted to welcome a scholar and leader with such an impressive record of advancing equity and inclusivity in higher education, Tripathi said. I have every confidence that Professor Yildirim, in this critical role, will harness her experience and creative vision to ensure that we continue translating our most cherished values into action and build upon UBs reputation as a welcoming scholarly community that celebrates, and thrives on, our diversity of backgrounds, cultures and lived experiences.

Enhancing campus diversity and promoting a university-wide culture of equity and inclusion are critical to UBs goal of becoming one of the Top 25 public institutions in the nation. Within this context, Yildirim will lead and enable UBs efforts to further develop a culture of equity and inclusion across all units of the university.



She will be responsible for assessing current initiatives and shaping a unified, comprehensive strategy for inclusive excellence that is aligned with UB's mission and universitywide efforts to continue to cultivate innovation in the inclusive excellence space.



Weber and Tripathi noted that Yildirim brings to UB extensive administrative experience in equity, diversity and inclusion, including in the areas of recruiting and retaining faculty and students from underrepresented groups, promoting inclusive pedagogy and classrooms, and building high school-to-university pipelines.



As vice provost, Professor Yildirim will play a key role in partnering with UBs other senior leaders, unit diversity officers, and academic and academic support units across campus to further UBs goals around inclusive excellence, they wrote.



She will oversee the Office of Inclusive Excellence, which is responsible for leading, enabling and monitoring UBs efforts to institutionalize the culture of equity and inclusion university-wide to build campus diversity, enhance teaching and scholarship, increase cultural understanding, and foster a welcoming campus environment.



At UNLV, Yildirim is responsible for aligning and expanding the universitys EDI-related initiatives to promote student, faculty and staff success. She oversees the Office of Diversity Initiatives, the Intersection: Academic Multicultural Resource Center, the First Gen Network and the Undocumented Student Program.



During her tenure at UNLV, she has led efforts to increase faculty diversity in STEM fields, and has worked on forming the University Council of Inclusive Excellence, forming the Native American Taskforce, and helping create a taskforce to make recommendations on addressing microaggressions and bullying.



In addition to her role as chief diversity officer at UNLV, Yildirim is a professor of interdisciplinary studies and law, focusing on secularism, religion and state relations and individual rights in liberal democracies. She also served as pro bono counsel and legal consultant on various individual rights cases across the United States.



I am so excited to join the UB community and return to New York. I have known UB to be an outstanding research university, and I am looking forward to working with colleagues across the university and the community at large on continuing to build a campus that is an inclusive and nurturing environment for all, says Yildirim. I am so impressed by all the diversity, equity and inclusion work that has already been accomplished at UB, and know that I will have an enthusiastic campus community supporting me as we continue to advance inclusive excellence at UB.



Prior to UNLV, Yildirim was associate vice provost for faculty affairs and development and co-chief diversity officer at California State University, San Bernardino. A professor of law at Whittier College prior to joining CSUSB, Yildirim has also held visiting faculty positions at Harvard, UC Berkeley, Villanova University, and New York University.



Yildirim holds a JD and LLM from New York University School of Law, an MA in international affairs from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University and a BA from Randolph-Macon Woman's College.


Realty major DLF is likely to start construction of its new 25 lakh square feet shopping mall in Gurugram this quarter at a cost of around Rs 1,700 crore to expand business amid surge in demand for quality real estate space from retailers.

At present, DLF has a retail footprint of around 42 lakh square feet comprising nine properties, including malls and shopping centres, mainly across Delhi-NCR. Around 3.4 lakh square feet retail portfolio is under DLF Ltd and rest under the DLF Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL), a joint venture between DLF and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.

In an interview with PTI, DLF's Vice Chairman and MD (Rental Business) Sriram Khattar highlighted that the retail sector has bounced back sharply post-COVID pandemic and there has been a strong growth in footfalls and sales in shopping malls.

"We are likely to start construction of Mall of India, Gurugram in the third quarter of this fiscal year," said Khattar, who has recently been elevated to this new position. Asked about the investment on this upcoming mall, he said the company already owns the land historically while the construction cost is estimated to be around Rs 1,700 crore.

Khattar said the company is constructing a premium mall in Goa of around 6 lakh square feet.

DLF is also developing high-street shopping centres near its housing projects to cater to the requirements of people living around. It is already constructing these shopping centres at DLF-phase 5, Gurugram and Moti Nagar, Delhi.

In an investors' presentation for the first quarter of 2023-24 fiscal, DLF had said, "Significant increase in retail presence; Portfolio to grow to 2x in next 4-5 years." DCCDL's consolidated revenue during the April-June quarter stood at Rs 1,412 crore, reflecting an year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 12 per cent. The consolidated profit for the quarter stood at Rs 391 crore, a y-o-y increase of 21 per cent.

Its revenue from retail business stood at Rs 187 crore during the first quarter of this fiscal year.

At the group level, DLF has clocked a 12 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 527 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal from Rs 469.57 crore in the year-ago period.

Also Read DLF Q1 results: Consolidated net profit rises 12.2% to Rs 527 crore Why individual investors' share in mutual funds assets is surging Need to upgrade brokers' skills for better real estate services: FICCI-JLL DLF to launch 2 luxury housing projects in Gurugram: MD Ashok Tyagi DLF, Godrej Prop: Realty stks still have room to build gains, say analysts Blue Dart Express announces 9.6% hike in shipment prices starting next year IL&FS Group discharges debt worth Rs 35,650 crore by September 23 Vedanta to complete sale of steel assets by March 2024: Anil Agarwal IOC to invest over Rs 2,600 crore to set up greenfield units in northeast HDFC Bank revamps top management, seeks to propel mortgage business

Total income rose marginally to Rs 1,521.71 crore in the April-June period of 2023-24 financial year from Rs 1,516.28 crore in the year-ago period.

DLF Group is primarily engaged in the business of development and sale of residential properties (the development business) and the development and leasing of commercial and retail properties (the annuity or rental business).

It has developed more than 158 real estate projects and developed an area in excess of 340 million square feet. The group has an annuity portfolio of over 42 million square feet.

DLF Group has land banks to develop 215 million square feet across residential and commercial segments.
Fair trade regulator CCI on Tuesday granted approval for the acquisition of Lanco Amarkantak Power by PFC Projects, REC, SJVN and Damodar Valley Corporation.

PFC Projects, which is into electricity generation and distribution, and REC, which is a non-banking financial company, are subsidiaries of Power Finance Corporation (PFC).

SJVN is mainly into hydroelectric power generation while DVC is a statutory corporation. The latter is engaged in the businesses of power generation, transmission, and water management.

The proposed combination relates to acquisition of 100 per cent shareholding of Lanco Amarkantak Power by PFC Projects, REC, SJVN and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), according to an official release.

Lanco Amarkantak Power Ltd is into power generation.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said it has approved the proposed deal.

Deals beyond a certain threshold require approval from the regulator, which keeps a tab on unfair business practices and promotes fair competition in the marketplace.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday held a meeting with Dominican Republic Vice President Raquel Pena Rodriguez and discussed further strengthening of bilateral ties, particulary in trade, commerce, education, defence, space and renewables.

In a post shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, Jaishankar stated, "Delighted to meet VP @RaquelPenaVice of the Dominican Republic this evening in New Delhi Discussed further strengthening of our bilateral ties, especially in trade & commerce, education, defence, space and renewables. Exchanged views on regional and multilateral issues as well."

Earlier in the day, Dominican Republic Vice President Rodriguez met President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan. On meeting Rodriguez, President Murmu emphasised that capacity building is one of the central pillars of Indian-Dominican Republic cooperation.

"She was happy to note that recently, India has organized two Special Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) training courses for Dominican Republic officials, in the critical fields of cyber security and remote sensing," the President's Secretariat said in a statement.

Noting the 25th anniversary of India-Dominican Republic diplomatic relations, the President said, "The timing of this visit is very apt as India and the Dominican Republic are marking the 25th anniversary of their diplomatic relations."

She further stressed that the bilateral relations between the two countries are warm and friendly, "anchored on the strong foundation of shared values of democracy, and a broad convergence of views on global issues."

President Murmu noted that the Dominican Republic is India's 8th largest trading partner in Latin America, according to the statement. Moreover, she showed confidence noting that there is a potential to further diversify the trade basket.

She said there is scope for working together and exchanging our experience and expertise in areas such as pharmaceutical products, marine science, meteorology, disaster resilient infrastructure and digital payments technologies," the statement said.

Dominican Republic Vice President Rodriguez also met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. The two leaders held discussions on various aspects of bilateral ties.

Taking to X, Om Birla stated, "Had a fruitful discussion with HE Ms. Raquel Pena, VP of Dominican Republic on various aspects of our bilateral relationship. Informed her about the historic #NariShaktiVandan Act. HE Pena thanked India for COVID vaccines under #VaccineMaitri and voiced support for closer ties."

Also Read EAM Jaishankar inaugurates Indian Embassy in Dominican Republic Dominican Republic V-P Raquel Pena Rodriguez to visit India from Oct 3-5 Jaishankar's 4-nation visit to Central and Latin America begins today Trade turnover between India, Dominican Republic has reached $1 bn: EAM Jaishankar discusses Indo-Pacific state with Colombian counterpart Duran 50% willing to make 5G shift want to spend less than Rs 20K: Ericsson MPs raised concerns on climate change: Jairam Ramesh after House panel meet Arrests of Indian journalists on the rise, especially in the past decade Canada wants private talks with India to resolve diplomatic dispute Parl panel hears experts on bills to replace IPC, CrPC, Evidence Act

Rodriguez also paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat. In a post on X, Rodriguez stated, "Today I visited the Mahatma Gandhi memorial in New Delhi, a tribute to one of the most influential leaders in the fight for Indian independence. Having the opportunity to be here strengthens the commitment to continue working for a more peaceful and harmonious future for all."

Raquel Pena Rodriguez arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday on a three-day visit to India. She will also deliver a lecture on India-Dominican Republic relations at the Indian Council for World Affairs.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a press release said, "The visit is significant as it is takes place at a time when India-Dominican Republic bilateral relationship is entering its 25th year." Notably, the two nations established diplomatic relations on 04 May 1999.

MEA in the press release said, "Dominican Republic is an important partner of India in the Latin America and Caribbean region. The visit of the Vice President of the Dominican Republic, comes closely on the heels of that of External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar to that country in April 2023. It will provide another opportunity to continue high level discussions to further deepen and broaden our mutually beneficial relationship.
A Kerala-based journalists union Tuesday condemned the Delhi Police raids on news portal NewsClick and its journalists during the day, calling it an encroachment on the freedom of media and "a blatant violation of democratic rights".

The Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) said the "illegal and anti-democratic" raids were carried out without revealing the reason for the same and the police seized mobile phones, laptops and other electronic equipment from the scribes.

The Delhi Police on Tuesday arrested two persons including NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha in connection with a probe into the portal's foreign funding.

The arrest came after the Delhi Police searched 30 locations connected with the online news portal and its journalists in a case filed under the anti-terror law UAPA following allegations that it received money for pro-China propaganda.

"The Kerala Union of Working Journalists strongly condemns the illegal police raids conducted at the residences of prominent journalists at the national level and taking many senior journalists into custody, on Tuesday.

"This can only be viewed as part of an attempt by the authorities to arm-twist and intimidate the journalists into refraining from pursuing news," it said in a release.

KUWJ state president M Vineetha and general secretary R Kiran Babu said such acts of the police "amount to encroachment on the freedom of media and a blatant violation of democratic rights".

They demanded that the Union government take stringent legal action against those who ordered the raids.

Also Read Amid NewsClick raids, Editors Guild of India condemns police action Delhi Police raids homes of journalists linked to NewsClick in UAPA case Neville Roy Singham: The American millionaire with NewsClick-China links Modi a coward for raiding journalists: AAP slams Centre on NewsClick raids China takes 'approriate' action, denies visas to 2 Indian journalists CAG suspects corruption in distribution of student scholarship in Odisha SAMPRITI: Indian, Bangladesh armies commence joint military exercise EAM, Dominican Republic Vice Prez discuss strengthening of bilateral ties 50% willing to make 5G shift want to spend less than Rs 20K: Ericsson MPs raised concerns on climate change: Jairam Ramesh after House panel meet
India's wanted gangster Sukhdool Singh, who was fatally shot last month in northwest Winnipeg city in Canada, was associated with terrorist entities like designated Khalistani terrorist Arsh Dala for acquiring sophisticated weapons to run his syndicate.

India's federal probe agency National National Investigation Agency (NIA) had mentioned the fact in one of its charge sheets filed in a special court in Delhi in March this year naming Sukhdool and 21 others.

As per the charge sheet, Sukhdool, who also went by the alias Sukh Duneke and was known as a notorious criminal in India for allegedly organizing hits on rival gang members there, and a few gang members such as Gaurav Patyal fled India and ran their syndicate from abroad.

"To run their gangster syndicate they needed sophisticated weapons. Hence they got associated with terrorist entities like Arsh Dala who is a designated individual terrorist and works closely with Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF). Arsh Dalla and KTF work against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India," reads the charge sheet.

A resident of Duneka village in Punjab's Moga district, Sukhdool, 40, was shot dead in the Canadian city of Winnipeg by unidentified people, with officials terming it "a result of inter-gang rivalry".Sukhdool's killing came amidst diplomatic tensions between India and Canad over the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar by unidentified assailants in British Columbia's Surrey in June 2023.

In the charge sheet, the NIA has stated that the criminal syndicates in the quest for sophisticated weapons, started using the money generated through their existing extortion rackets to fund the procurement of sophisticated weapons not only from within the country but also from across the border with the help of Khalistani associates.

"In return, these criminal syndicates started carrying out targeted killings and extortions for the Khalistani associates. This created a symbiotic terrorist-gangster network between gangster and Khalistani elements. With most of the associates of the Khalistani network either being based abroad or lodged inside jails, their requirement of the shooters to carry out targeted killings is being met by the cadres of this syndicate who in turn gets sophisticated weapons from across the border with help of Khalistan associates" the charge sheet read.

Also Read Sukha Duneke, who featured on NIA's list, shot dead in Canada's Winnipeg NIA arrests close aide of foreign operatives of pro-Khalistan terrorists Rohini court shootout accused Tillu Tajpuriya killed in Tihar Jail Another Hindu temple vandalised in Canada with Khalistan referendum posters NIA raids in 6 states against terror-narcotics smugglers-gangsters nexus Committee formed to investigate Nanded hospital deaths: Maha minister SC defers hearing on Naidu's plea till Mon, asks AP govt to file documents Probe agencies free to take action as per law: Anurag on raids at NewsClick 2 directors of realty firm M3M granted bail by SC in money laundering case SC refuses plea seeking direction to declare Ram Sethu as national monument

Arshdeep Singh Gill alias Arsh Dalla, named as the number one accused in the chargesheet, Gaurav Patyal, Sukhdool Singh and other key members of the terrorist syndicate have their networks in Canada, USA, Europe, the Middle East, Thailand, Dubai and the Philippines, the charge-sheet mentioned.

It has also been revealed during the NIA investigation that their jail-based associates like Bhupi Rana, Sukhpreet Singh, Kaushal Choudhary, and Amit Dagar-- all named in the charge sheet, have established their own control rooms abroad to increase their area of influence.

Amit Dagar and Kaushal Choudhary have their associates like Dinesh Gandhi, Daler Quote and Neeraj Pandit-- other accused named in the charge sheet-- in different countries to run the syndicate smoothly.

"The accused persons based abroad are operating the syndicates by using virtual mobile numbers to evade Law Enforcement Agencies whereas accused persons lodged in Indian jails are running syndicate operations through mobile phones," states the charge sheet.

The charge sheet filed in the NIA case (RC-38/2022/NIA/DLI) pertains to a criminal conspiracy, hatched by the members of the criminal syndicate Gaurav Patyal, Sourav Thakur Sukhdool Singh, Gurpinder Singh, Kaushal, Neeraj Sehrawat alias Neeraj Bawana, Sunil Balyan alias Tillu Tajpuria, Amit Dagar, Bhupinder Singh and their associates, based in India and abroad to carry out terrorist acts in Delhi and other parts of the country.

These accused had conspired to recruit youths to commit terrorist acts in India with an intention to strike terror in the minds of people, pointed out the charge sheet, adding "These gang members along with their other associates were planning to carry out terror activities in Delhi and different parts of the country by executing targeted killings, using lethal Firearms and explosives."

"The terrorist gang members were using cyberspace and social media to publicize these crimes to create widespread terror amongst the public at large. Some of the gang leaders members are operating from jail and others are absconding and operating from different parts of India and foreign countries" read the chargesheet.

The case was originally registered by the Special Cell of Delhi Police on August 7 last year.

Appreciating the gravity of the offence and its international ramifications in the instant crime, the Central government directed the National Investigation Agency to take over the investigation on August 26 last year.
Office leasing in the top nine Indian cities increased by 33 per cent to 15.8 million square feet (msf) in the July-September quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, according to a report by real estate consultancy CBRE South Asia titled "CBRE India Office Figures Q3 2023".

Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad were the primary contributors to the absorption during the September quarter, collectively accounting for approximately 60 per cent of total transaction activity.

According to the report, small-sized (less than 10,000 sf) to medium-sized (10,000  50,000 sf) transactions were the main drivers of office space take-up in the quarter, contributing 86 per cent of the share.





Also Read: The proportion of large-sized deals (more than 100,000 sf) saw a marginal increase, moving from 6 per cent in the previous quarter to 7 per cent in the July-September quarter. Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi NCR led the way in the closure of large-sized deals during the quarter.Also Read: Net office leasing rises to 18-month high of 10.37 mn sq ft in Jul-Sep: JLL

In sectoral terms, the share of banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) firms made up 29 per cent of the total leasing activity in the office sector for the quarter. This was followed by technology companies with a 23 per cent share and engineering and manufacturing companies at 10 per cent.

"American and domestic firms equally led the absorption in the July-September period, each holding a 42 per cent share," the report stated.

In the said quarter, the overall office space supply across the nine cities soared to 19.3 msf, marking a 94 per cent year-on-year increase. Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune dominated new completions, contributing 77 per cent of the share.

"Bangalore, followed by Delhi NCR, Chennai and Hyderabad, are expected to drive absorption in 2023. Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata are also likely to see steady space take-up during the year. Additionally, global and domestic technology firms and consulting companies are exploring opportunities in selected Tier-II markets, attracted by improved infrastructure, a skilled talent pool, and competitive rental options," said Anshuman Magazine, chairman and CEO for India, South-East Asia, Middle East & Africa at CBRE.

Also Read Retail leasing in India jumped 24% between January and July: CBRE report Strong economy to take office leasing to 40-45 mn sq ft in 2023: Colliers Led by Twamev, Apple, retail leasing in Delhi up 65% between Jan and June Real estate demand firm, retail leasing up by 130% YoY: CBRE Report Residential sales in India poised to breach decadal high this year: CBRE Godrej Group in advanced talks to conclude split of businesses: Report End of Work-from-home: IT cos nudge employees to prepare for 5-day office Long weekend spurs hotel occupancy in Shimla to 70%, recovery begins Metal stocks rally defies global peers, not backed by fundamentals Fighter jets, choppers in IAF list of domestic projects worth over Rs 3 trn

"This year, we expect a surge in investments in workplace technology, better coordination across functions and a heightened emphasis on transforming workspaces," added Ram Chandnani, managing director of advisory and transaction services at CBRE India.
Google on October 2 announced Chromebook Plus, a certification program for laptops that offer improved performance than regular Chromebooks. Devices with the Chromebook Plus label will have built-in Google apps and AI capabilities, said Google in a blog. All Chromebook Plus laptops come with the following guaranteed hardware specifications:

CPU: Intel Core i3 12th Gen or above, or AMD Ryzen 3 7000 series or above

RAM: 8GB+

Storage: 128GB+

Webcamera: 1080p+ with Temporal Noise Reduction

Display: FullHD IPS or better

Google said the Chromebook Plus devices will have support for Google Photos HDR, Portrait Blur, and Magic Eraser features. Besides, the laptops will support creative apps such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Express and LumaFusion. The Chromebook Plus devices will support offline file sync feature, which would allow users to edit a doc file on their Google Drive in offline mode and the file would automatically sync on other devices linked with Google account once the internet connectivity is available.

Google promised free AI-Powered Chrome OS features for Chromebook Plus such as AI-based writing assistant, AI-generated custom wallpapers, and AI-generated video call backgrounds. These features, however, would be available in coming months.

Google also announced a new video chat control panel for Chromebook Plus models. The panel has the option to improve lighting, add background blur and turn on noise cancellation during a video call.

The Chromebook Plus laptops will be available in the US market from October 8, and are expected to come to India soon.
Katalin Kariko , alongside Drew Weissman, have been awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research on mRNA vaccines, which was instrumental in combating the Covid-19 pandemic. The University of Pennsylvania, where Kariko had previously been on the path to professorship, has been celebrating the success by retweeting Nobel Prize posts on the scientist, posting on the UPenn blog and adding them to the "Penn Notables" page. However, during her interview with the Nobel Prize committee, Kariko revealed that her history with the Ivy League was a tremulous one and that the institute had not extended support for the very research she and Weissman were now receiving global recognition for.

Following the completion of her PhD in 1982, Kariko faced rejection from several labs in Europe. In 1985, Kariko and her husband decided to leave the communist regime in Hungary with their young daughter. Kariko reportedly smuggled research materials by sewing them into her daughter's teddy bear.

Upon arriving in Philadelphia, a job at Temple University eventually led to her dismissal due to clashes with her boss. Kariko continued her research at the University of Pennsylvania or UPenn, where she faced repeated troubles securing funding for her research. She had met Drew Weissman during her tenure at UPenn, and the two had started comparing their research and discoveries on mRNA.

In 1995, UPenn gave her an ultimatum: abandon her research or face a demotion and a pay cut. The university was reportedly dissatisfied with Kariko's inability to generate adequate funding for her research. During the time, many scientists were turning away from mRNA research, leading her UPenn bosses to consider mRNA "impractical", according to a report by Wired UK. During this time, Kariko was also battling cancer and her husband had become stranded in Hungary following visa issues.

"I thought of going somewhere else, or doing something else... maybe I'm not good enough, not smart enough," she revealed to the Nobel Prize committee.

Kariko stated that UPenn compelled her to retire due to her relentless pursuit of mRNA vaccine research.

"I was kicked out, from Penn, was forced to retire. Then my husband supported me and said that, you know, when (I) finally visited Germany and found that maybe BioNTech is the right place," she said.

Kariko's departure from UPenn in 2013 marked a turning point. She embraced an opportunity at BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals as the Vice President. According to Wired UK, UPenn had refused to reinstate her, stating that she was not "faculty quality". When Kariko told them about her departure, she claimed they laughed and said, "BioNTech doesn't even have a website."

Although UPenn is currently celebrating her achievements, the institution remains silent about her past struggles with the institute. The university issued a statement praising the "mRNA pioneers," highlighting their contribution to therapeutic advancements and pandemic response.

UPenn's President, Liz Magill, has lauded Kariko and Weissman's unwavering dedication, emphasising their ongoing commitment to their field.

After transcripts of her interview with the Nobel Prize committee were released, netizens expressed their anger towards the university for their past dismissal of the Nobel laureate. The Wired article from 2020, where Kariko spoke in greater detail about her time at UPenn and her treatment from her bosses, has also resurfaced and been reshared by many people on the X (formerly Twitter) platform. Mostly, people feel UPenn is piggybacking on Kariko's success without acknowledging their past actions.

Eric Feigl-Ding, the co-founder of The World Health Network, called out the institute, telling them to apologise to Kariko. Feigl-Ding wrote, "UPENN needs to apologise to Nobel Prize 2023 winner Dr. Kariko."

????UPENN needs to apologize to #NobelPrize2023 winner Dr. Kariko: "UPenn told me that theyd had a meeting and concluded that I was not of faculty quality. When I told them I was leaving, they laughed at me and said, BioNTech doesnt even have a website. @Penn -- apologize! pic.twitter.com/LgoTKgUi6j October 2, 2023

The University of Pennsylvania has yet to comment on the backlash it is currently receiving.

Also Read: 2023 Nobel Prize in medicine goes to Katalin Kariko, Drew Weissman
Botify, a leading performance marketing platform for organic search, announces an exciting advancement in calculating returns associated with organic search, known as Return on Organic Search Spend (ROSS). The new calculation model sets the industry standard for how enterprise brands and marketers measure and enhance their marketing investments. This coincides with heightened organizational efforts to maximize and employ cost-effective strategies to engage audiences and prioritize profitable channels for sustained growth and success.

There's a pressing need for a standardized measurement framework to accurately measure the impact of organic search with confidence, as exists for ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend), to enable an informed and direct comparison, explained Adrien Menard, CEO and co-founder of Botify. The value that a holistic, data-driven search strategy brings is often overlooked and misunderstood, and thats what we aim to change with ROSS.

Historically, calculating organic search returns has been challenging due to delays between optimizations and results, limited performance visibility, and a reliance on manual engineering processes instead of automation. This isolation of SEO from the broader marketing toolkit has forced long-term reliance on paid methods to enhance brand visibility.

By shifting this mindset with a model like ROSS, Botify is aiming to transform the value, and understanding of organic search. When fully leveraged, ROSS has the potential to de-silo SEO, empowering brands to make better decisions about how paid and organic search work together to drive profitable and sustainable brand findability.

Botify has successfully validated the ROSS model in early testing, by utilizing existing organic and paid search data provided by participating customers. The results enable the ability to elevate SEO across organizations by surfacing its true value, scalability, and sustainability of the measurement.

As a data enthusiast, the idea of a fresh approach to measuring organic search impact is inspiring, and its connection to ROAS will help us develop a more holistic approach to search and promote SEO within the organization, said Tony Fong, Manager, Marketing - SEO + Deep App Linking at PUMA Group. I cant wait to explore and elevate our search game.

Along with ROSS, Botify is delivering additional platform functionality to further empower its customers to measure organic search impact. Specifically:

Paid search data integration to facilitate a holistic search strategy.

Split-testing capabilities to quickly uncover which optimizations will deliver the most impact.

A revenue dashboard for a comprehensive, shareable view of marketing investments, for both paid and organic search.

Botify is committed to empowering customers with precise and reliable insights for measuring ROI in SEO. The company has, and will continue, to revolutionize organic search, prioritizing innovation and the advancement of ROSS - solidifying it as a new industry benchmark.

Learn more about why ROSS is needed.

About Botify

Botifys leading performance marketing platform for organic search, coupled with expert support services, are the secret to being found in the new search era. Fueled by AI and a proprietary unified data model, Botify empowers organizations to protect and grow web traffic organically, driving sustained profitability and brand authority.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003343377/en/
Epsilon Group, India's premier battery materials manufacturer, today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Johnson Mattheys lithium-ion phosphate (LFP) cathode active material technology centre in Moosburg, Germany. Financial details of the acquisition remain undisclosed.

The state-of-the-art facility boasts best-in-class technical capabilities and a workforce with expertise in LFP chemistry, comprehensive product and process development capabilities, and a versatile customer qualification plant designed to verify new materials for large-scale production.

The acquisition allows Epsilon to go to market with a proven high performance cathode active material produced at scale.

"At Epsilon, we envision a world galvanized by sustainable energy alternatives," said Vikram Handa, managing director of Epsilon Group. "Our advancement in anode research and manufacturing was a first step, and this acquisition underscores our commitment to serving our global clientele with sustainable and reliable material."

Strategic Advantages

The Moosburg research and development (R&D) centers strategic location offers Epsilon a unique advantage to tap into the European battery materials talent pool and to cater to its global clientele. By leveraging the existing infrastructure and capabilities of the Moosburg facility, Epsilon aims to significantly reduce the technology development and scale-up timeframe. This acquisition serves as a catalyst for Epsilon's ambitious plans to eventually cater to 100 GwH of demands. In alignment with its vision, Epsilon has previously announced a $1.1 billion investment in the establishment of a 100,000-ton cathode battery materials manufacturing facility in Bellari, Karnataka, India, with subsequent expansions in Europe. Epsilon also has plans for a $650 million manufacturing facility in the U.S.

The global electric vehicle market, valued at $380 billion in 2022, is projected to soar to $1.5 trillion by 2030, according to Fortune Business Insights. Cathode materials are pivotal to this growth trajectory. Benchmark's report further underscores the urgency, indicating a need for $40 billion in cathode materials production investments to bridge the gap between the current supply and anticipated demand by 2030.

About Epsilon Group

Epsilon Group is at the forefront of battery material solutions, producing high-caliber, innovative, and environmentally conscious lithium-ion battery (LiB) materials. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Mumbai, Epsilon's mission resonates with supporting the global battery industry's transition to clean and green energy. With a significant presence spanning Europe, North America, and South-East Asia, Epsilon continues to set industry benchmarks. www.epsilonam.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003334232/en/
Racold, one of Indias leading home appliance brands, redefines the water heating landscape with the introduction of a premium range of water heaters. Brand has unveiled the highly anticipated 2023 editions of the new Omnis and Altro ranges of water heaters. A new range of water heaters is designed in Italy by renowned Italian designer Umberto Palermo. These stunning designs elevate and complement the interiors of the urban bath spaces. Cutting-edge offerings exemplify Racold's unwavering dedication to delivering innovative, modern, and energy-efficient water heating solutions.



The newly unveiled water heaters aim to cater to the diverse requirements and evolving preferences of customers through innovative features and solutions. Designed with utmost care, they have been meticulously built to ensure convenience, safety, efficiency, and the sheer joy of bathing.



Sharing his views on the new launch, Mr. Mohit Narula, Managing Director and Country Manager (India), Ariston Group India Pvt. Ltd., said, Racold has been known for quality and innovation for over 60 years. We continuously invest in understanding consumer needs and their evolving buying and usage behaviors. Such studies have helped us develop the right product. The new range of water heaters has been developed to address the key pain points of new-age consumers. Our water heaters offer excellent energy efficiency and improved convenience, apart from giving better control. The avant-garde features include voice control, IoT-enabled smart app-based control, digital display, and advanced microprocessor-based features like auto diagnosis and many more. The new Omnis range, along with its existing portfolio, delivers a 5-star BEE rating, which will save energy for its users and underlines our commitment to manufacture the most energy-efficient products for sustainable and inclusive growth."



Sharing his thoughts on achieving this milestone, Mr. Emanuele Stano, Vice President, Asia, said, India is a focus market and a growth accelerator for Ariston Group. A young and growing population, coupled with economic development and infrastructure, are the pillars for solid and reliable expansion in a business category. Ariston Group is a global leader in thermal comfort and energy efficiency, and our purpose is to provide Indian consumers with high-quality hot water solutions while protecting the environment. The combination of Racolds heritage, synonymous with thermal comfort in India, and the Italian tradition of the Ariston Group is a winning combination created and developed to best meet Indian consumers' demand and taste."



Omnis 2023: The premium range of storage geysers with unmatched innovation, connectivity, and convenience



Omnis DG Wi-Fi: A true master-piece that offers unprecedented control over the hot showers and will make anyone re-think the level of convenience this water heater can offer to its users. Available in an elegant black color, it comes in two capacity options: 15 and 25 liters. Omnis DG WiFi comes with the Voice Control feature, which allows users to interact with and control water heaters using Alexa or Google Assistant with the help of simple voice commands. Now simply say, Alexa, turn on the water heater".



The other notable feature of Omnis DG WiFi is its artificial intelligence-based ECO functionality, which offers reduced energy consumption without compromising on comfort. Furthermore, users can access real-time notifications and monitor energy consumption through the built-in Wi-Fi control feature, accessible via the Racold Net app.



Omnis DG: Omnis DG is a technologically advanced water heater designed to deliver superior performance, utmost safety, and user convenience. Available in two-color options, namely Sandstorm Gold and Black, this model comes in different capacities of 10, 15, and 25 liters.



The standout features of this water heater include a digital display with touch control and advanced microprocessor-based auto-power-off and auto-diagnosis functionalities. Its industry-first silver ion technology effectively prevents the growth of bacteria, providing safe and healthy hot water every time.



The microprocessor in Omnis DG supports two of the most powerful features, namely auto-power-off and auto-diagnosis. The auto-off functionality allows users to pre-set a timer to switch off the water heater automatically, whereas the auto-diagnosis functionality offers the utmost safety to its users by continuously monitoring the product's performance and ensuring that it operates within safe parameters.



Omnis R: This water heater is available in attractive Charming Grey and Premium White colors and is available in three capacity options: 10, 15, and 25 liters. Designed to prioritize safety and give unmatched performance. Omnis R comes with a Children Care Mode, which ensures the safety of children at home against accidental exposure to extreme hot water in the shower. The new Omnis R also features Titanium Plus Technology, giving it unmatched durability and tank protection from corrosion in hard water conditions. It is further enhanced by the Safety+ feature, which provides three layers of protection. Additionally, the inclusion of Flexomix enables a consistent supply of hot water for longer showers.



Altro 2023: The new age of stylish instant geysers for faster water heating



Altro i+: This premium instant geyser is available in elegant gray side rings, offering two capacities to choose from, i.e., 3 and 6 liters. It offers an array of innovative features, such as an intuitive smart LED ring to let users know when the hot water is ready and a customized application with kitchen and bath modes for added convenience.



The 6-liter variant stands out with its Duronox technology, which provides protection against hard water and extends the product's life. On the other hand, the 3-liter model excels at faster heating with two heating power options of 3 kW and 4.5 kW.



Altro i: The Altro i instant water heater offers two different capacities: 1 and 3 liters, and two-color options, Grey and Blue (exclusive to the 3-liter variant). This recent release is an Italian master piece design that flaunts swirl wave design with dual LED indicators to enhance the aesthetics of user's space. It is specifically designed with high pressure resistance, making it suitable for installation in high-rise buildings. Additionally, it offers faster heating capabilities (3 Kw and 4.5 Kw) and incorporates an anti-siphon system for added safety and prevention of backflow.



Altro i DN: Racold has introduced the latest model in a grey color ring option, featuring a capacity of 3 liters. This advanced water heater is specially made to operate in hard water conditions with cutting-edge Duronox technology combined with SS#316L for superior performance and durability. Equipped with key features like Safety Plus for 3 layers of safety, faster heating, anode for a longer life of the water heater, high pressure resistance for high-rise buildings, and dual LED indicators for enhanced visibility.



So, get ready to embrace the future of water heating with Racold and experience a whole new level of comfort and satisfaction.
In the presence of the Saudi Fund for Development Board of Directors Chairman, H.E. Ahmed Al-Khateeb, the SFD Chief Executive Officer, signed today in Riyadh, two development loan agreements worth a total of $140 million USD to support infrastructure development with the governments of The Bahamas and the Republic of Mauritius. The CEO also signed a letter of intent with the Republic of San Marino to explore potential cooperation in the economic, cultural, and transportation sectors. The agreements and letter of intent signed at World Tourism Day 2023, hosted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231002466217/en/

In the presence of the SFD Board of Directors Chairman, H.E. Ahmed Al-Khateeb, the SFD CEO, H.E. Sultan Al-Marshad signing a letter of intern agreement, with the Republic of San Marino (Photo: AETOSWire)

The first development loan agreement, worth $70 million USD, was signed with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments & Aviation of The Bahamas, Hon. Isaac Chester, to fund the Family Islands Airports Renaissance Project, which aims to develop and raise the capabilities of airports in the Exuma Islands and increase the number of visitors to the airports from 237,000 to 285,000 visitors annually.

The second development loan agreement, worth $70 million USD, was signed with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism of the Republic of Mauritius, Hon. Louis Steven Obeegadoo, to fund the Construction of Riviere des Anguilles Dam Project. This project will protect the natural environment from floodings, and provide a reliable source of water for drinking, irrigation, and industrial use.

The letter of intent was signed with the Minister of Tourism of the Republic of San Marino, Hon. Federico Pedini Amati will enable the government and SFD to explore potential infrastructure development cooperation in the economic, cultural and transportation sectors. This signifies the beginning of a new development relationship between SFD and San Marino.

These latest development agreements were signed as part of the SFD's commitment to support sustainable development in developing countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) around the world. They will also contribute towards the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 6, Clean water and sanitation, SDG 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth, and SDG 9, Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.

In line with its mission to promote global sustainable development, SFD has funded more than 700 development projects worth US$18.7 billion in over 90 countries around world.

*Source: AETOSWire

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231002466217/en/
Takeda (TSE:4502/NYSE:TAK) today announced that, following discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it will be working with the FDA towards a voluntary withdrawal of EXKIVITY (mobocertinib) in the U.S. for adult patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) Exon20 insertion mutation-positive (insertion+) locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease has progressed on or after platinum-based chemotherapy. Takeda intends to similarly initiate voluntary withdrawal globally where EXKIVITY is approved and is working with regulators in other countries where it is currently available on next steps.

This decision was based on the outcome of the Phase 3 EXCLAIM-2 confirmatory trial, which did not meet its primary endpoint and thus did not fulfill the confirmatory data requirements of the Accelerated Approval granted by the U.S. FDA nor the conditional marketing approvals granted in other countries.

The EXCLAIM-2 trial was a Phase 3, multicenter, open-label study designed to investigate the safety and efficacy of EXKIVITY as a monotherapy versus platinum-based chemotherapy in first-line EGFR Exon20 insertion+ locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC. No new safety signals were observed in the EXCLAIM-2 trial. Full data from the trial will be presented at an upcoming medical meeting or published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Our steadfast commitment to pursue solutions for people with high unmet needs led us to develop and launch EXKIVITY as the first oral therapy designed for patients with EGFR Exon20 insertion+ metastatic NSCLC, said Awny Farajallah, MD, head of Global Medical Affairs Oncology at Takeda. We have been fortunate to witness the impact EXKIVITY has had on this previously underserved population and are encouraged to see the advancements made since its approval to introduce new therapies for these patients. We hope that findings from the EXCLAIM-2 study will inform future research and development for this disease.

Takeda is committed to ensuring patients receiving EXKIVITY can maintain access, as appropriate and in consultation with their healthcare provider. We are actively assessing access mechanisms with regulatory authorities. Patients currently being treated with EXKIVITY should consult their healthcare provider. For questions related to ongoing access, please contact us at [email protected].

Takeda will continue to assess the impact of the withdrawal and update our full-year, consolidated forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024 (Fiscal Year 2023), as appropriate and necessary.

About EXKIVITY (mobocertinib)

EXKIVITY is a first-in-class, oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) specifically designed to selectively target epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) Exon20 insertion mutations. EXKIVITY was approved based on the results from the platinum-pretreated population in the Phase 1/2 trial of EXKIVITY in patients with EGFR Exon20 insertion mutation-positive (insertion+) metastatic NSCLC. For more information about EXKIVITY in the U.S., healthcare professionals may visit www.exkivity-update.com. For the U.S. Prescribing Information, including the Boxed Warning, please visit www.exkivity-update.com/prescribing-information.

About EGFR Exon20 Insertion+ NSCLC

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common form of lung cancer, accounting for approximately 85% of the estimated 2.2 million new cases of lung cancer diagnosed each year worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.1-2 Patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) Exon20 insertion mutation-positive (insertion+) NSCLC make up approximately 1-2% of patients with NSCLC, and the disease is more common in Asian populations compared to Western populations.3-7 This mutation carries a worse prognosis than other EGFR mutations, as EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs)  which do not specifically target EGFR Exon20 insertions  and chemotherapy provide limited benefit for these patients.

Takeda is committed to continuing research and development to meet the needs of the lung cancer community through the discovery and delivery of transformative medicines.

About Takeda

Takeda is focused on creating better health for people and a brighter future for the world. We aim to discover and deliver life-transforming treatments in our core therapeutic and business areas, including gastrointestinal and inflammation, rare disease, plasma-derived therapies, neuroscience, oncology and vaccines. Together with our partners, we aim to improve the patient experience and advance a new frontier of treatment options through our dynamic and diverse pipeline. As a leading values-based, R&D-driven biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan, we are guided by our commitment to patients, our people and the planet. Our employees in approximately 80 countries and regions are driven by our purpose and are grounded in the values that have defined us for more than two centuries. For more information, visit www.takeda.com.

Important Notice

For the purposes of this notice, press release means this document, any oral presentation, any question and answer session and any written or oral material discussed or distributed by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda) regarding this release. This press release (including any oral briefing and any question-and-answer in connection with it) is not intended to, and does not constitute, represent or form part of any offer, invitation or solicitation of any offer to purchase, otherwise acquire, subscribe for, exchange, sell or otherwise dispose of, any securities or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction. No shares or other securities are being offered to the public by means of this press release. No offering of securities shall be made in the United States except pursuant to registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or an exemption therefrom. This press release is being given (together with any further information which may be provided to the recipient) on the condition that it is for use by the recipient for information purposes only (and not for the evaluation of any investment, acquisition, disposal or any other transaction). Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of applicable securities laws. The companies in which Takeda directly and indirectly owns investments are separate entities. In this press release, Takeda is sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Takeda and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words we, us and our are also used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release and any materials distributed in connection with this press release may contain forward-looking statements, beliefs or opinions regarding Takedas future business, future position and results of operations, including estimates, forecasts, targets and plans for Takeda. Without limitation, forward-looking statements often include words such as targets, plans, believes, hopes, continues, expects, aims, intends, ensures, will, may, should, would, could anticipates, estimates, projects or similar expressions or the negative thereof. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions about many important factors, including the following, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements: the economic circumstances surrounding Takedas global business, including general economic conditions in Japan and the United States; competitive pressures and developments; changes to applicable laws and regulations, including global health care reforms; challenges inherent in new product development, including uncertainty of clinical success and decisions of regulatory authorities and the timing thereof; uncertainty of commercial success for new and existing products; manufacturing difficulties or delays; fluctuations in interest and currency exchange rates; claims or concerns regarding the safety or efficacy of marketed products or product candidates; the impact of health crises, like the novel coronavirus pandemic, on Takeda and its customers and suppliers, including foreign governments in countries in which Takeda operates, or on other facets of its business; the timing and impact of post-merger integration efforts with acquired companies; the ability to divest assets that are not core to Takedas operations and the timing of any such divestment(s); and other factors identified in Takedas most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F and Takedas other reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, available on Takedas website at: https://www.takeda.com/investors/sec-filings/ or at www.sec.gov. Takeda does not undertake to update any of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release or any other forward-looking statements it may make, except as required by law or stock exchange rule. Past performance is not an indicator of future results and the results or statements of Takeda in this press release may not be indicative of, and are not an estimate, forecast, guarantee or projection of Takedas future results.

Medical Information

This press release contains information about products that may not be available in all countries, or may be available under different trademarks, for different indications, in different dosages, or in different strengths. Nothing contained herein should be considered a solicitation, promotion or advertisement for any prescription drugs including the ones under development.

References

Sung H. Global Cancer Statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN Estimates of Incidence and Mortality Worldwide for 36 Cancers in 185 Countries. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33538338/. Accessed September 20, 2023 American Cancer Society. What is Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer? https://www.cancer.org/cancer/non-small-cell-lung-cancer/about/what-is-non-small-cell-lung-cancer.html. Accessed September 20, 2023. Riess, Jonathan W. Diverse EGFR Exon 20 Insertions and Co-Occurring Molecular Alterations Identified by Comprehensive Genomic Profiling of NSCLC. https://www.jto.org/article/S1556-0864(18)30770-6/fulltext. Accessed September 20, 2023. Fang, Wenfeng. BMC Cancer. EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations and response to osimertinib in non-small-cell lung cancer. https://bmccancer.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12885-019-5820-0. Accessed September 20, 2023. Kobayashi Y, Mitsudomi T. Not all epidermal growth factor receptor mutations in lung cancer are created equal: Perspectives for individualized treatment strategy. Cancer Sci. 2016;107(9):1179-1186. doi:10.1111/cas.12996. Accessed September 20, 2023. Yatabe Y, Kerr KM, Utomo A, et al. EGFR mutation testing practices within the Asia Pacific region: results of a multicenter diagnostic survey. J Thorac Oncol. 2015;10(3):438-445. doi:10.1097/JTO.0000000000000422. Accessed September 20, 2023. Kris MG, Johnson BE, Berry LD, et al. Using multiplexed assays of oncogenic drivers in lung cancers to select targeted drugs. JAMA. 2014;311(19):1998-2006. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.3741. Accessed September 20, 2023.

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Today, October 3, the State Council Of Educational Research And Training (SCERT) will disclose district-level DElEd admission examination results. Candidates can check the website scertpet.co.in once it is announced. The PET findings were revealed on September 24, and the deadline to apply for online therapy concluded on September 30. The seat assignment results for the first round of Assam DElEd 2023 counselling will be available on October 5, as planned. Candidates can acquire the seat allotment result by following the simple steps outlined below.

Details on Assam DElEd 2023 District-Wise Rank Release

The Assam DElEd (Diploma in Elementary Education) is a two-year professional course, aimed at training teachers for primary level teaching. The candidates are selected based on their district-wise performance, and today's much-anticipated rank publication will pave the way for the next phase of the admission process.

How to Check the District-Wise Rank for Assam DElEd 2023?

Students looking to check their district-wise rank need to head to the official website of SCERT.

After landing on the homepage, one has to find and click on the link that displays 'Assam DElEd 2023 district-wise rank'.

It will lead to a PDF file, listing out the ranks as per the applicants' districts.

Candidates are suggested to download this PDF for future reference.

What's Next After the Assam DElEd 2023 District Rank List Release?

Once the district-wise rank list is out, it will mark the end of the first major phase in Assam's DElEd 2023 admission process. After this, the candidates whose names appear in the list can progress to the next stage of admissions. They may have to attend counselling sessions and complete formalities like document verification. Further updates about the process will be announced at appropriate times on the official SCERT website.
The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) in India has recently announced the examination dates for SSC Stenographer 2023. As per the official notification, the Tier-1 Computer Based Test (CBT) is scheduled to be held on October 12 and 13. The admit cards for the exam will be issued soon on the official website ssc.nic.in. This information is important for all aspiring and eligible candidates who are about to sit for the examination to take note of.

Details about the Tier-1 examination

The SSC stenographer examination 2023 comprises of a Tier-1 computer based test followed by a skill test. The candidates qualifying the Tier-1 examination would then be evaluated on their stenography skills. The admit cards for the Tier-1 examination are expected to be issued soon by the Staff Selection Commission. Candidates must keep a close watch on the official website for the release of admit cards to download them at the earliest possible. This is an important document that is to be carried to the examination centre.

Procedure to download the SSC Stenographer 2023 admit card

To download the admit cards, candidates will need to visit the official SSC website.

After navigating to the SSC Stenographer section, they would find a direct link to download the admit cards for the SSC Stenographer 2023 Tier-1 examination.

Candidates should fill in the required details and verify them before submitting.

Once the admit card appears on the screen, they should download and print it for future reference.

Preparation tips for SSC Stenographer 2023

Candidates preparing for the SSC Stenographer 2023 examination should focus on their typing speed as well as accuracy. They should practice on a regular basis and become comfortable with a computer keyboard. It is also recommended to solve previous years' question papers and take mock tests to understand the examination pattern better. Regular revision and staying updated with current affairs would also help in cracking the General Awareness section. Additionally, maintaining a regular study routine and a healthy lifestyle would ensure their ability to perform well in the examination.
In what comes as a bit of a shock, Mazda has announced that will cease production of the CX-8 in its home market of Japan by December 2023. ...
Recently, the federal government, which pledged $650 million to the Ukraine war effort, cut $1 billion from Canada's military budget.

Once again, the professionals who protect Canada's sovereignty will be required to continue with antiquated equipment, making it difficult to maintain our NATO commitments, not to mention other operational commitments.

Our military will continue to rely on equipment that other countries discarded 30 years ago, as those countries continue to modernize and support their service personnel.

Why is it the current (Canadian) government continues to undermine its support to the very people we rely upon to protect this country?

It is no wonder Canada is currently experiencing retention and recruitment problems in all branches of its armed services.

The current government should be ashamed of the way it treats members of our military.

Allan Widmeyer, West Kelowna
Photo: The Canadian Press

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. says it has raised US$12 billion for its latest global private equity fund.

The company says Brookfield Capital Partners VI is the largest private equity fund it has raised.

The fund includes institutional investors, including public and private pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, endowments and foundations, and family offices.

Brookfield has committed US$3.5 billion to the fund.

It says, to date, the fund has committed about US$4 billion to acquire six businesses.

Brookfield Asset Management has US$850 billion of assets under management.
Most are unaware of what the City of Penticton and the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen have been plotting.

The regional district bought 80 acres of farmland at 1313 Greyback Mountain Road for a composting and biosolids facility. It applied to the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) to remove 55 acres from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).

The ALC denied the application, the RDOS appealed and the ALC denied the appeal.

After this failure, the city and the regional district came up with a new plan. Why not rezone the non-ALR part (25 acres)? It is currently zoned as a resource area but resource area site specific would get it what it wants.

On Sept 26, the RDOS announced a public meeting for Oct 4 about the construction of an organics composting facility at 1313 Greyback Mountain Road in Penticton, adjacent to the Campbell Mountain Landfill. The RDOS is seeking to rezone the property in order to permit the construction of an organics composting facility at the site.

If permitted, the rezoning would allow a composting operation in Phase 1 and a biosolids (sewage sludge) facility in Phase 2 on the ALC land. As of writing this letter, the RDOS has not submitted an application to the ALC.

There is nothing sustainable about spreading biosolids on land where we grow food. In addition to some nutrients, this contaminated mixture contains persistent pollutants that accumulate in soil until the land can no longer grow most crops. The worst thing about Phase 1 is it will lead to Phase 2.

Both scenarios would vastly increase trucking through Penticton (school zones and playgrounds included) along Upper Bench Road or Vancouver Avenue and up Reservoir Road. The latter of which is already remarkably busy. There are line-ups at landfill already, stopping traffic going up past it.

The additional trucks would come from Penticton, Keremeos and Electoral Areas B, D, E, F, G, and I, a huge area.

(The property in question) is the calving grounds for our Greyback Elk herd, is home to California Bighorn sheep and the endangered Northern Pacific rattlesnake. It is directly east of the landfill, which is in view of anyone looking up past Munson Mountain.

The Campbell Mountain Trail Network is immensely popular with many people who hike, bike or walk dogs there. Frequently, the parking lot at Spiller and Reservoir Roads is full and overflow vehicles line the roads on either side. Children and adults go on foot into the Campbell Mountain area for events and recreation.

The proposed facilities, across from the parking lot, pose a very real potential for large trucks to encounter pedestrians on that rural road, which is a frightful thought.

Attend the public hearing on Oct 5 at 7 p.m at the Penticton Seniors Drop-in Centre (Ken Wignes Room) at 2965 South Main Street in Penticton.

Also, attend the public information session, on Oct 4 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Uplands Elementary School, 145 Middle Bench Road in Penticton.

Please sigh the petition here.

Jacquie Jackson, Penticton
DOE funds C-Crete Technologies US$2m to develop cement-free concrete

03 October 2023

C-Crete Technologies is developing a method for using carbon dioxide captured at industrial sources or from the air as an ingredient in its cement-free concrete, in work accelerated by US$2m of funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE).

"The DOE funding will help propel C-Crete's already eco-friendly product into the exceptional category of carbon-negative building materials, possibly the first pourable, ready-mix concrete product to achieve this longtime goal of the industry," the company said in a statement.

Around 80t of C-Crete's cement-free concrete was recently poured in the foundations, shear walls and floor slab of a commercial building and more projects are underway. The CO 2 incorporated into the product (whether captured from the air as the concrete cures or from industrial point sources), could be used in a diluted form, eliminating the costly step of separating it from other gases. Once mineralised in the concrete, the diluted CO 2 would make the new material stronger, tougher and more durable than conventional concrete.

At the core of C-Crete's innovation lies its patented high-performance, cement-free binder technology that uses different local materials as feedstocks. C-Crete's binder produces almost no CO 2 in its manufacturing and continues to absorb it from the air over time. Its scalability and cost-parity with conventional cement make it a viable alternative to ordinary Portland cement, a statement by C-Crete said.

The DOE's support for C-Crete's work underscores the profound impact that innovative approaches can have in the battle against carbon emissions, the company noted.

"We are committed to crafting a cement-free, ready-mix, carbon-negative concrete that doesn't just mitigate carbon emissions but actively contributes to reversing climate change," says Rouzbeh Savary, PhD, founder and president of C-Crete Technologies. "Our aim is nothing short of revolutionising this hard-to-abate, carbon-heavy sector of the construction industry."

"We need to do testing to get the use of next-generation materials like C-Crete's right, and that requires early adopter field trials," says Donald Davies, a developer and structural engineer with 33 years in the business, whose building in Seattle was the site of C-Cretes first commercial pour. "It's exciting to be a part of helping C-Crete on this important next step forward."

Published under
JSW Cement makes approach for Heidelberg Material's Indian cement operations

03 October 2023

JSW Cement, the building materials business of steelmaker JSW Group, is in initial talks with Germany's Heidelberg Materials to acquire the latter's 13.4Mta cement businesses in India, according to The Economic Times of India.

JSW Group has reportedly made an unsolicited offer to acquire Heidelberg Materials' local entities that primarily have capacities in the Indian peninsular.

The report further added that Heidelberg Materials is yet to make a final call on its India exit strategy and, according to sources, the company may opt for a bidding process to allow other potential buyers to participate in the process.

Heidelberg Materials has more than 13Mta of cement capacity in India, of which 6.3Mta is in the hands of listed entity Heidelberg Materials India, while 7.1Mta is owned by the closely-held Zuari Cement.

If concluded, the divestment will mark the second exit of a multinational cement producer from India following the departure of Holcim in 2022 (which sold Ambuja Cements and ACC to the Adani Group in a closely contested bidding  and in which JSW Group also participated).

JSW Cement expects to increase its capacity from 19Mta at present to 60Mta in the coming five years, Parth Jindal, managing director of JSW Cement, said in a recent interview. The company aims to be amongst the five largest cement makers in India, he said.

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The Tennessee Attorney Generals Office on Monday filed a complaint against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The complaint raises claims under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) stemming from "defendants failure to produce documents regarding the release of immigrant detainees into Tennessee."

Tennesseans have a right to know what the federal government is doing in Tennessee. ICEs rejection of transparency is all the more troubling because of the humanitarian crisis resulting from ICEs misdirected priorities, said Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. No federal official is exempt from public accountability.

He said in late 2022, Tennessee learned that ICE planned to transport potentially thousands of single adult noncitizen detainees from ICE detention facilities in Louisiana and release them into Tennessee pending final removal proceedings. ICE officials, the state learned, had been cooperating with Tennessee-based organizations and municipal employees to carry out the release plan.

Tennessee subsequently submitted a series of FOIA requests to ICE seeking records and third-party communications about the Biden Administrations plan and any detainee releases into Tennessee. However, ICE has not produced a single document.

Tennessee had no choice but to file suit so that the people of Tennessee can learn the scope of detainee releases and evaluate the resources necessary to respond, the attorney general said.

You can read the complaint in its entirety here.
The Chattanooga volleyball team was well represented in this weeks Southern Conference Player of the Week awards, as both Gylian Finch and Elaine Redman took home Offensive Player and Setter of the Week honors, respectively, as announced by the league office on Monday.The Chattanooga duo lit up the competition in the teams pair of road matchups against ETSU and UNCG this past weekend, helping guide the Mocs to a perfect 2-0 record and the teams first two conference wins of the 2023 season.For Redman, this now marks the third time this season that she has been recognized as the Southern Conferences Setter of the Week, having never received the award last season in her first year at UTC.However, Redman was a MAC West Setter of the Week during her freshman campaign at Toledo, where she eventually went on to be named to the MAC All-Freshman Team before transferring to Chattanooga.As for Finch, this is her first time being honored by the SoCon in the 2023 season as well as just the second time of her career that shes received the title of Offensive Player of the Week. The last time Finch received the award was in the final week of the 2019 season, when Finch was only a sophomore.Finch and Redman are joined this week by Woffords Abbey Richman, who received Defensive Player of the Week honors.Gylian Finch, OH, Gr.  Offensive Player of the WeekFinch proved to be a crucial piece of the UTC offense in the teams four and five-set victories over ETSU and UNCG over the weekend, as the grad student tallied a staggering 45 kills over the two road matchups. Both matches would also mark double-doubles for the Mount Morris, Illinois, native.Finch opened her weekend with a team-leading 17-kill night in Johnson City, where she was also able to notch an additional 12 digs. She then followed this up by putting up a monstrous 28-kill, 12-dig performance at UNCG to close out the weekend, which not only marked a new career-high in kills for the grad student but also stands as a new individual match-high for the Mocs this season.With her 45-kill weekend, Finch officially moved up into fourth on Chattanoogas all-time kills leaderboard, sitting at 1,228 in her career. The outside hitter also now sits at exactly 1,000 career digs after her pair of 12-dig matches. Finch has logged double-digit kills in six consecutive matches for UTC, along with having double-doubles in each of her last three matches.Elaine Redman, S, Jr.  Setter of the WeekChattanooga native Elaine Redman continued what has been a dominant season for the junior setter this past weekend, with the junior logging 98 total assists for the Mocs in the teams pair of matches against ETSU and UNCG.Redman opened her weekend with a double-double against the Buccaneers, putting up 48 assists and 11 digs alongside three blocks and two kills. She then carried that momentum into her match against the Spartans, notching a 50-assist performance while tying her career-high of four blocks in the matchup. The junior has now recorded 30+ assists 12 times, 40+ assists eight times and 50+ assists twice in the 2023 season.With her double-double against ETSU Redman now stands at eight double-doubles this season, marking a new season-high total in the category for her in her career. Her previous best of seven in a season came while she attended Toledo. Redman now sits at 2,406 assists in her collegiate career, with 1,349 coming while with the Mocs and the other 1,057 coming with the Rockets.
A man on Chestnut Street told police he and a man in the room next to his were in a verbal altercation. The man said for the past two days, the other mans alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. and every five minutes after that. The man said he attempted to contact hotel staff to speak with the other man, however, they informed him there was nothing they could do over the matter. The man then knocked on the other mans door and asked him if he would just wake up so his alarm would stop going off and bothering him. He said the other man then told him to go away and used obscenities towards him before closing the door. The man said he then knocked on the door again and the other man opened the door and said if he knocked on the door again, he would "pop" him. Police then spoke to the other man who said he has a hard time waking up so he sets multiple alarms. He said when the first man confronted him, he just closed the door on him after asking him to go away. The other man said he didnt say he would "pop" him when asked about the phrase. The first man wanted a report to be done over the altercation.

* * *

Police were called to Sherwin Williams at 450 Cherokee Blvd. for a disorder between a man and a woman. Both said they got into an altercation and the woman wanted the man to leave. The man was already attempting to leave. He had video footage of some of the argument and you could see him trying to get out of the car. The woman did show some markings on her face. However, they were not consistent with her story and appeared to be old. The mark above her eye had already started having some bruising. The mark on her neck also didnt match with what she said. The marks were red and not pink, indicating they were older. The woman had a cut on her knuckle that looked old as well. The man had no marks seen on him. He didnt have any marks or chaffing on his hands consistent with hitting someone. He denied ever touching the woman. When these inconsistencies were pointed out to the woman, her entire demeanor changed. She went from wanting the man arrested to just wanting to leave. She said she only wanted him to take his stuff and go. None of the marks on the woman appeared fresh and to have occurred during any altercation with the man. He had a friend come pick him up and both went their separate ways.

* * *

While on routine patrol, an officer saw a suspicious vehicle at the dead end of Stuart Street. It was a black Chevy Blazer with tags from North Carolina registered to a man. The location where this vehicle was found was the property of Norfolk Southern Railroad and in the past stolen vehicles have been located in this same spot. The officer eventually found a man in the area who said he was just taking photos of the rail yard as a hobby of his. A warrant check was conducted showing no active warrants for him.

* * *

A man told police he was involved in a motor vehicle accident with another vehicle the day before, but no report was made. He said he was rear-ended by a Chevy HHR in the 3700 Block of North Terrace Road. He said they exchanged information and both left. He said the insurance information given to him by the other driver was not verifying and he needed to make a report of the incident. An officer attempted to make contact with the other named driver and was hung up on.

* * *

The manager at Mapco at 7701 Lee Hwy. called about people behind the business. The manager left before police arrived, so the officer didnt know if she wanted the people trespassed. The officer found a man and woman sleeping behind the Mapco. They were checked for warrants and then they left.

* * *

The owner of St. Johns Restaurant at 134 N. Market St. reported to police that someone had stolen a check he placed in the mail intended for EPB, and altered it to be personally cashed in the amount of $8,166.25. The check was from an account tied to the restaurant.

* * *

A woman told police she was driving southbound on Interstate 75 when a piece of drywall came from underneath a truck in the roadway in front of her, and hit her windshield and driver-side mirror. Both the driver and passenger stated they had no injuries at this time.

* * *

A man told police he had invested money into an accounting firm in Chattanooga. Recently in the news, the business had shut down and there were rumors of a possible Ponzi scheme going on within the company. The man said he had been working with the company for the past two years but had recently not been paid and was in default starting in March through September. He was owed approximately $32,000 from investments and wanted to report this incident to the Chattanooga Police Department. This report will be forwarded to CPD's Fraud Division for follow-up.

* * *

A woman spoke to police over the phone and said she is a truck driver and was currently out of town. She said her sister was allowed to use her vehicle, a Saturn RLY, to drive to New Jersey to handle some legal issues she had there. The woman said while her sister was there, she got reconnected with her abusive ex and has not returned to Chattanooga. The woman said the ex has a history of damaging vehicles when angry. The woman said she didnt want to report the car stolen at this time but just wanted some documentation of the whole situation.

* * *

A man told police his white 2008 Buick Lacrosse was stolen from 4629 Shallowford Road. He believes he had left the keys in the vehicle when he went inside to lock up his business. He didnt see who took the vehicle. Police entered the vehicle into NCIC as stolen.

* * *

A woman told police she had parked in the parking lot at 7236 Bonny Oaks Dr., and, when she returned to her black Escalade, the rear passenger window was shattered.

* * *

A woman was at work at Warehouse Row at 1110 Market St. when a man entered the store. He began to speak with her and then asked her to go on a date. She refused and said she had a boyfriend and not available. The man then asked for her Instagram and she provided it. She was nervous to tell him no because of an uneasy feeling she had while speaking with him. Once she provided it on a piece of paper, he left the store. Later that night the woman removed her photos from her Instagram account; though private, she deleted her account. The man then showed up to her place of work over the following few days attempting to make contact with her and even brought in his pet squirrel. Eventually a store employee at the womans request spoke with him, along with Warehouse Row Security, and asked him to not return to the store and to no longer ask their employees personal questions. The man was agitated by this confrontation but ultimately left the store, but only to sit outside with his arms crossed and watch the employees from the window. At this time, it is believed that the man may have problems with social cues and behavior but is not a threat. An officer went over safety plans with the woman at her request and how to deal with any other situations like this should they ever arise again. The man is described as a white male, 6'-6'4", thin build, thick country accent and country style clothing and a pet squirrel that rides on his shoulder.
Sequatchie, Tn., a small, unincorporated village in Marion County, economically speaking, isnt much to see these days, but natural beauty abounds. The area lacks investment, services, and jobs for those who live there.

But it wasnt always this way. Sequatchie was once a thriving village with resources, self-sufficiency, strong community ties, and a spirit of optimistic industrialization. Like many towns, cities, and villages across America, it has fallen into disrepair and some might say forgotten. Many of those who cared enough to nurture and feed the village to its great successes have long since died or moved elsewhere.

One exception in Sequatchie is the Glancy Sherman Mansion. Built in 1927 and lived in by Glancy Sherman and his wife, Bertha Ann Tower, the manor still displays the glory of its founding and stands as a proud reminder of what Sequatchie once was. Many would argue that Sherman (born in 1862 in Wellsburg, PA; died in 1935 in Sequatchie) was the villages true founder.

While it is true that in 1889, a group of New Englanders officially founded the town to mine it of its natural resources, Sherman, an agent of these businessmen brought in initially to assist in stripping the land, became enamored with the beauty of the setting and the people of the community. He began leading a structured development of the town, making a spring available to provide a fresh water supply, constructing dams to deliver electricity and control flooding prior to Tennessee Valley Authoritys development, building roads, and nurturing extensive agriculture on his expansive property.

Sherman was involved in many industrial ventures, from being president, general manager, and treasurer of Sequatchie Handle Works, to seeing the potential in this small sawmill that he developed into a large, international operation offering employment to many in the community. He also owned a tourist hotel and a gas station.

While hard work, industrialism, and entrepreneurship are hallmarks of Glancy Sherman, perhaps he should most be remembered for his deep philanthropy and caring for his community. Sherman unostentatiously extended care, help, and resources to the young of the community and people in need. He gave away acres of land to the Girl and Boy Scouting programs, set up tents on his lawn for shelter during the Depression, and held punch and ice cream socials to bring the community together.

Today, the Glancy Sherman Mansion has a new owner: Sequatchie native John A. Smith, and he is taking Shermans spirit very much to heart. Mr. Smith, founder of cybersecurity company Conversant Group, and his family returned to Sequatchie to maintain the mansion and its extensive grounds as well as to rally the community to improve the villages civic function. Mr. Smith is known for his philanthropy and generosity in the Chattanooga area, providing funding for STEAM education, youth programs, food banks, veterans organizations, and other causes. Now, he is focused on taking the baton from Glancy Sherman to rally the community to help restore Sequatchie. Because the people who currently reside in Sequatchie still have an enduring spirit kindled decades ago at its founding, all that is needed is a spark of caring and some investors willing to assist, he notes.

Mr. Smiths current focus is holding the First Annual Glancy Harvest Festival on Oct. 21 from 3 p.m. central until past dark at the Glancy Sherman Mansion. Mr. Smith rallied allied businesses eSentire, First Citizens Bank, BuiltWell Bank, LBMC, Chambliss Bahner & Stophel, Conversant Group, and Enzoic to cosponsor the event with the goal of raising funds for the volunteer fire department.

The Harvest Festival will feature food, music, games, crafts, and fireworks, and come with the spirit of community Sequatchie hasnt seen in some time. But for John Anthony Smith, this is just a start. He said he intends to start a charity with the overall goal of uniting the community, battling poverty, aiding those with addictions, improving civic function, and reducing depression.

He said, We are seeing so many communities fall into disrepair - its really sad to see. We cant sit, inactive, waiting for the government to come make our communities thrive. I love Sequatchie - the people here are my friends and family, and I want to see it and them thrive. This festival is a great start, but it is only a beginning. The goal is to continue to rally a sense of community pride and build on it, restoring Sequatchie in the spirit of Glancy Sherman.

Perhaps Glancy Sherman and John A. Smith are onto something - as American towns and cities continue to degrade, its time for its citizens to not only take action, but to find the spirit of caring that founded our villages and towns in the first place.
The license plate readers recently installed by Southern Adventist University started a long discussion about the use of surveillance during the Collegedale Commission meeting Monday night. The school put them in for safety at the campus but the city has nothing to do with them other than responding if something of concern is reported to the Collegedale police, and help is requested. The city, however, does have three LPRs around town and Police Chief Jack Sapp was questioned about how those are being used.

The LPRs will ping police if the image of a tag is captured which is associated with a stolen vehicle, missing person or a person with an outstanding warrant among other offenses. The police can also enter a hot list which flags a tag if there is information available that ties it to a crime. If a tag is recognized by the cameras, the LPR system will alert police.

Abuse of the system is the concern, but Chief Sapp said every time an officer does a search of images, they must put a reason it is being done and any access to the system has an audit trail to track down who has used it. He said that the LPR system has been responsible for recovering multiple stolen vehicles, tens of thousands of dollars and multiple missing persons in the three years that they have been used in Collegedale.

Chief Sapp told the commissioners that almost every agency in Hamilton County now has LPRs and they all are capable of networking in the Chattanooga area and throughout the country. Cameras now can track a suspicious vehicle throughout different states as it travels. Data recorded by these devices is purged after 30 days, and is only kept if there is a reason for interest in the tag.

The city is also investing in other video recording devices to assist the police. Collegedale has received a grant that allowed the city to purchase 10 body cameras for the police department in addition to those bought earlier in the year. The grant was accepted so that the department will have enough for use by the citys reserve officers plus a few extras. Now the body cameras used by Collegedale have been standardized and are all a single type made by Axon. These cameras do not record unless they are activated to do so. When video is captured, it is sent to a server and kept in the event data is needed later. The commissioners voted to approve this purchase unanimously.

To be in compliance with Federal Aviation Administration regulations, the Collegedale Airport has to clear trees to remove obstructions to visibility and keep the runway approaches safe. Some trees are on property along Apison Pike that is owned by McKee. The city has received a letter from McKee with stipulations for the process for giving access to their property.

A change order was approved at the meeting for the Tucker Road Greenway sidewalk in the area of the Norfolk Southern Trail derailment. It has been determined that the slope of the new sidewalk is at an angle that will require a handrail. The commissioners were told that the grade of the property did not change, but that the original sidewalk there had been built before the requirement was in place. Norfolk Southern has agreed to pay the additional cost of $19,840 for the handrails.

City Manager Wayon Hines announced that Edgmon Road will be completely closed for repairs for two weeks beginning Oct. 16 until Oct. 27 to repair a section of road near the sewer pump station that is failing. A flashing digital message board has already been put up to notify of the upcoming road closure.
Officials with the City of Collegedale invite the public to join them at a special presentation on Tuesday, Oct. 10 by Ryan Byford, director of Airport Operations, as he discusses current projects and reveals the vision for the future of the Collegedale Municipal Airport. The presentation begins at 6 p.m. at Chestnut Hall at The Commons, 4950 Swinyar Dr. in Collegedale.The Collegedale Municipal Airport was recently awarded a $1.28 million grant from the Tennessee Department of Transportations Aeronautics Economic Development Fund. During the Oct.10 event, Mr. Byford will present the plan on how the monies from the grant will benefit the airport, in addition to unveiling the expansion plans that are anticipated to create over 40 new jobs and provide additional tax revenue.I want the community to feel connected and engaged with their airport, said Mr. Byford, and thats my goal for this event.For more information, contact the Collegedale Municipal Airport at 423-236-5008, on their website at Collegedale Airport or on their Facebook page @CollegedaleAirport.
Across the state of Tennessee, many judges are struggling to effectively administer justice in their courtrooms. The state must rely on court-appointed attorneys to provide mandatory legal counsel, but the pool of available attorneys has shrunk considerably, court officials said.

Every day we hear from judges who must find lawyers to represent citizens who are constitutionally entitled to legal counsel. They tell us that the system is teetering on the brink, Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Holly Kirby said. Court proceedings cant happen without court-appointed attorneys, but attorneys cant afford to take cases at the current rates. The criminal justice and juvenile court systems are running out of options.

Nearly half of all cases with a court-appointed attorney are in juvenile court and involve families and child welfare.

I have been on the bench for 10 years and it has never been so dire, Hamilton County Juvenile Judge Rob Philyaw said. In the past year, we have lost at least 13 attorneys who no longer take court appointments. We have over 2,000 cases a year that must have a court-appointed attorney.

Judge Vicki Snyder, a general sessions and juvenile court judge in Henry County, also reports that her list of available attorneys to take appointments in either general sessions or juvenile cases is the shortest it has ever been in her 17 years on the bench. At times the court is struggling to hold preliminary hearings in the time frame required by law.

Juvenile cases are a particular problem because they can go on for an extended period of time and can be very challenging, Judge Snyder said. Attorneys are dedicated to helping children and families, but sometimes they can only do it for so long.

Tennessees reimbursement rate for court-appointed attorneys is the lowest in the country. Tennessees court-appointed attorneys are paid $50 an hour, a rate that has not changed since 1997. There are total caps in place for almost all cases, and lawyers are reimbursed at the end of the case. This can take months, if not years.

A 2017 Indigent Representation Task Force that included judges, attorneys, legislators and others found the rate inadequate and recommended raising it to between $75 to $125 an hour. Since then, the Supreme Court has made multiple budget requests for funds to increase the rate or otherwise support the program, but it has only received enough to eliminate the difference between in-court and out-of-court work and increase caps.

In January 2023, the Administrative Office of the Courts worked with the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury to determine whether the state is meeting its constitutional and statutory obligation to provide citizens effective assistance of counsel. Specifically, the Comptroller reviewed the impact on the court system of the low hourly rate of compensation for appointed counsel in non-capital cases. The Comptrollers investigation is still pending.

$50 an hour was not adequate in 2017, when the Indigent Representation Task Force did its study. Its even more inadequate today. Change must come, Chief Justice Kirby said.

Technically, the Supreme Court sets the rates under its rules. But the rates cant be raised unless the overall budget for the program is increased. The budget is set by the General Assembly.

Like all of State government, were required to be fiscally responsible. The Supreme Court cant increase compensation rates unless the General Assembly increases the budget. If we started paying higher rates without a budget increase, the program could run out of funds before the end of the fiscal year and some folks would be paid nothing at all, Chief Justice Kirby said. This is for Tennessee families and children. It has to be a collaborative effort among all three branches of government.

The Administrative Office of the Courts will make a significant budget request to support increasing the attorney hourly rate to $80 in its proposed budget for FY 2024-25. The request will be aimed at increasing hourly rates and caps in an effort to stabilize the criminal justice and juvenile court systems

Paying lawyers such low rates does not make the cases go away. It just means cases are delayed, overturned, or returned to the trial court on appeal. That doesnt help anyone, Chief Justice Kirby said. Victims are left waiting without justice and are retraumatized by additional proceedings. Children linger in foster care. Witnesses move and misremember, evidence deteriorates. Its not efficient or cost-effective. Our citizens expect and deserve a fair, efficient, unbiased justice system. Right now, these issues hinder us from being able to give it to them. We look forward to working with judges, the General Assembly, the Governors Office, and all others concerned with the administration of justice to resolve the problem.




Prince William established the first Earthshot Prize several years ago, and Kate has always accompanied him to the ceremony. However, this year, she is choosing to stay behind while he jets off to Singapore.

Prince William and Kate Middleton have spent much of their marriage at one anothers side. The two have attended plenty of royal events together, but they have also each found their own individual places in the royal family and attend a number of events solo, too. However, when it comes to the Earthshot Prize ceremony, William and Kate have always attended alongside each other  until now. This year, William will attend the event in Singapore on his own, while Kate stays behind in the United Kingdom.

Prince William and Kate Middleton attend the Earthshot Prize Ceremony in 2022 | Samir Hussein/WireImage

Prince William and Kate Middleton will not attend the Earthshot Awards together this year

The Earthshot Prize was founded back in 2020 as a collaboration between Prince William and David Attenborough. Each year, five winners are selected to receive the coveted award, which is given in response to environmentalism contributions. And each year, the ceremony takes place in another part of the world. Last year, William and Kate ventured to Boston for the event; it was the first time the event was held in the United States. This year, the ceremony will be held in Singapore, but in a turn of events, Kate is actually not going to attend.

Kate is reportedly staying home to take care of the couples three children, who recently started a new school year at the Lambrook School. And it seems that some people have an issue with Kate not attending the event, while others dont mind. Express reports that royal commentators from Sky News Sydney discussed Kates decision. Kate isnt going to be accompanying William to the Earthshot Awards, so she can stay home with the kids, royal commentator Caroline Di Russo said. The commentary has gone into a meltdown, and I dont see what the big deal is.

I think its just another way for the Prince and Princess of Wales to move the family into modern times, said commentator Jenna Clarke. Where, the former Prince and Princess of Wales would do everything together. Now, William is going over there [to Singapore] to talk about the climate, and Kate is staying home to focus on events that mean a lot to her, whether it be children, education, early childhood, and things like that.

Its not unusual for Prince William and Kate Middleton to spend certain events apart

When it comes to raising a family, the kids have to be taken into account, and it looks like William and Kate worked it out in such a way that she would stay home while William travels; Kate is technically not affiliated with the Earthshot Prize but usually accompanies William because she wants to. This time, though, Kate is opting out of Singapore and choosing to remain home with the kids. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle often do the same. Harry spent time in Singapore for a charitable event over the summer, and Meghan did not accompany him in order to stay home with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. If anything, the independence aspect proves that the royal family can have strong marriages while also remaining independent from their spo
Robyn Brown and Kody Brown have emerged as the villains of Sister Wives over the last several seasons. While it is easy to see how their bond has led to problems between Kody and his other wives, Robyn Brown wont hear any of it. In the series most recent episode, Robyn shut down any talk that she might have played a role in the decimation of Kodys other marriages. She called her sister wives feelings ridiculous and bogus.

Robyn Brown calls her sister wives feelings ridiculous and bogus

Over the years, there has been a lot of talk about the Brown familys troubled dynamic. In recent seasons, both members of the Brown family and TV viewers have suggested that Robyn Brown turned Kody Brown against his other wives. Now, Kodys fourth and legal wife is punching back.

Kody Brown and Robyn Brown in an episode shot at home for TLCs Sister Wives | TLC

In the Oct. 1 episode of Sister Wives, Robyn sat down for a confessional and took some shots at her former sister wives. She said their belief that she has turned Kody against his three former wives is ridiculous and bogus. She went on to say that the other wives had trouble with Kody because they didnt deal with their own issues.

Robyn has claimed a lack of communication has always been a problem for Kody with his other wives. While likely true, things have certainly gotten worse since Robyn appeared. It would be impossible for Kody to communicate with them if he was spending all of his time with Robyn. He has done just that since moving the entire family to Flagstaff, Arizona.

Janelle and Christines feelings arent 100% wrong

Sure, Sister Wives viewers havent seen Robyn directly influence Kodys relationship with his other wives. Still, her influence is problematic. Christine and Janelles feelings about Robyn and how Kody treats her are not wrong. In fact, it has long been theorized that Robyn has been sneakily pulling Kody away from his other wives for years. Since Robyn came into the family, the focus has been 100% on making her comfortable. Kodys attempts to make Robyn happy have been to the detriment of everyone else.

The Brown family all together | TLC/YouTube

When Robyn first came into the family, she brought debt. The group paid it off for her. She wanted to open a jewelry business, and the family funded that, too. Neither action benefited the family. Instead, it was for Robyn specifically. The familys hasty move from Las Vegas to Flagstaff, which caused physical separation and financial strife, was reportedly to benefit Robyn.

Kody has also held Robyn up as the gold standard of a polygamist wife. He has carried on about how Robyn has been given scraps and that he opts to stay with Robyn more than his other wives because shes loyal. He has ignored his other wives, and Robyn has been totally fine with that. Shes only taking issue with everything now because shes being blamed.

All in all, its very easy to see that Janelle and Christines feelings about Robyn and her role in the Brown familys downfall are far from ridiculous and bogus. Robyn might have been trying to defend herself, but she sure didnt endear herself to fans by minimizing and dismissing Christine and Janelles feelings. Over the last three seasons, Robyn has shown a startling lack of empathy. It doesnt look like that will change anytime soon.
Violet's bombshell pregnancy announcement on 'Before the 90 Days' left Riley reeling -- and wondering if he really was the father of her baby.

Was Violet really pregnant with her boyfriend Rileys baby? The 43-year-old from Vietnam, who appears on 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days Season 6, stunned her ex when she revealed she was expecting. He was so shocked that he doubted the pregnancy was real. But, as Violent explained during the Before the 90 Days tell-all, she was not spinning a story about expecting a baby with Riley.

Violet drops a bombshell on Riley on 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days

Violet and Rileys volatile relationship was featured in the latest season of the 90 Day spinoff Before the 90 Days. The two connected online, but Riley, 48, had issues trusting Violet. He even hired a PI to investigate his girlfriends past and find out whether she was really divorced.

When Riley and Violet finally met in person for the first time, things were awkward and tense. After his visit to Vietnam, it seemed their relationship was over. Then, Violet suddenly wanted to reconnect, much to Rileys surprise. Soon, he found out why. She was pregnant, and he was the father of the baby. But Riley wasnt convinced Violet was telling the truth.

Riley doubted he was the father of Violents baby

The reason why I have doubts right now is because Violet has lied to me in the past, Riley said.

According to Riley, he was taking a medication that made it virtually impossible for him to get a woman pregnant. Naturally, he was skeptical that Violets baby was his  or that she was pregnant at all.

So, Im kind of like, how? But miracles do happen and life finds a way, he said. So I dont know if shes actually pregnant. Or maybe she is and its not mine.  But I dont want to be wrong and be a piece of crap.

This whole baby thing is not adding up, he said.

During the 90 Day tell-all, Violet reveals she had a miscarriage

So, was Violet really pregnant with Rileys baby? Or was she just trying to trick him into marriage (as his friend Tiffanie suspected) or con him into supporting another mans child? During her virtual appearance on the tell-all episode, which aired Oct. 1, she said she wasnt lying about the baby. She really was pregnant, but sadly experienced a miscarriage.

Because I am old and my health is not good, I could not keep the pregnancy, a tearful and emotional Violent said. I really love my children, so that was a painful experience for me.

Nonetheless, Riley still seemed somewhat skeptical of Violets story. However, he did reveal that he and Violet planned to meet up in the near future, since she was planning a visit to the U.S. on a tourist visa. She said she hopes they could be friends going forward, while he seemed open to the idea of a romantic reconciliation.

Follow Riley and Violets story on 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days Season 6, now streaming on Max.

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A cyclist rides past a sign for the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on the Seattle waterfront, Dec. 10, 2021, in Seattle. Lewis Anthony Rath, of Maple Falls, Wash., who falsely claimed Native American heritage to sell his artwork at downtown Seattle galleries, was sentenced on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023, to probation and community service, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Plaintiff Rhonda Grayson speaks outside of the Muscogee Nation court building after a hearing challenging the Muscogee citizenship board on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022, in Okmulgee, Okla. A tribal court judge for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma has ruled in favor of two descendants of Black slaves once owned by tribal members. District Judge Denette Mouser, based in the tribe's headquarters in Okmulgee, ruled late Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023, in favor of two Black Muscogee Nation freedmen, Grayson and Jeff Kennedy, who had sued the tribe's citizenship board for denying their applications.
Sarah Feinberg was a Marine Corps combat veteran, a Wharton Business School graduate, and a Christian mother of three when she left her job at one of the countrys biggest defense contractorsand filed a lawsuit under a whistleblower statute. Feinberg says she was prompted by the Holy Spirit and her moral convictions.

Eight years later, in September 2023, her role as a whistleblower netted a $69.8 million payout, a portion of one of the governments largest procurement settlements to date at $377.45 million.

Back in 2015, Feinberg had discovered that her employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, was essentially billing the US government to cover the costs of its unprofitable work for other countries and for private sector companies, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

After trying to fix the billing problems internally for nine months, she came to believe that Booz Allen had no intention of ending their method of defrauding the US government. She resigned in 2016, got a lawyer, and filed a qui tam lawsuit under the False Claims Act.

The act levies monetary damages against those who attempt to swindle government programs. It also allows private citizens to sue on the governments behalf and get a portion of the settlement or compensation. After several years of investigation and negotiations, Booz Allen and the US government settled.

Feinberg lives in the Washington, DC, area and works as CFO at National Journal. She also volunteers as her churchs treasurer.

During an interview with CT on the first not-too-hot day of autumn, she apologizes for the noise of the helicopters flying above.

The worst is when the Ospreys come through, she says of the aircraft known for their noise and powerful rotor wash. Those came out when I was in the Marine Corps. I was a logistics officer, so Id have to attach stuff under the Ospreys. I would just get blown over.

If the military taught her about getting up after getting blown over, business school taught her humility and how to ask questions and listen in rooms filled with smart people. Along with her faith, both helped her weather the twelve months in 2015 and 2016what she calls the worst year of my lifeand the publicity that came with the recent payout.

How do you fit in compared to other whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and Reality Winner?

They didnt go about reporting it in the right way. They just exposed it to the public to let the public make [the judgment]. I think that there is a place for that. Thats why I ultimately went into journalism afterwards: because I think journalism is critical to holding leaders accountable.

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But the way that Snowdenwho was also a Booz Allen employeedid it was just leaking information, not actually trying to hold anyone accountable.

What I discovered through this process is that there are ways to do it correctly. I think DOJ is very ineffective at enforcement, but it is the right way to do it, versus just exposing it to the public.

Youve raised objections to the settlement. Can you tell me about that?

The DOJ is very proud of the settlement, because its the one of the largest procurement fraud cases in history. I dont think that matters. I think what matters is the amount in comparison to the actual fraud. The settlement amount further incentivizes them to do the wrong thing.

Their stock prices are at an all-time high. The individual who told me that the government is too stupid to figure this out is now the CFO of a federal contractor. So, theres been really no repercussion.

A lot of people see something unethical, they try to do something about it, but its ineffective. Theres no settlement. It just gets quashed. Even for you, this has not been as effective as youd hoped.

I recognize that Im one of the luckiest people everdefinitely the luckiest whistleblower everwith the fact that I actually got a portion of the settlement. That is not normal.

Ive got three kids who are ages 8 to 12, and theyve seen me going through it. Just having them see this, one of the things I want to be really clear about is that when you do the right thing, usually what happens is we see our reward in heaven and not here.

My boss here at National Journal is a Christian also, and when I told him what was going on and why I had to be out of work for the last couple of weeks, he was so excited. I think he said, Just think about how amazing this reward is here on earth, and think about those who dont get to see the fruit of doing the right thing here. How much greater is their reward in heaven. That was such a great insight. People are getting to see that this is what should happen when you do the right thing. It usually doesnt.

Can you tell me what trying to undo the fraud was like and how your faith factored in?

If you remember what was going on during this period of time in 2015 to 2016, what I was seeing was those of my faithevangelicalswere turning against refugees and immigrants. My party, the Republicans, were aligning themselves behind a sexual predator who had authoritarian tendencies. And then my company, which I loved, was also engaging in fraud.

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There was such moral clarity: This is wrong, and people have to stand up. So it made it, I think, easier for me to see, I am in a situation where I can do the right thing and I have a responsibility, therefore, to do it. I feel like it was very much a Holy Spirit thing.

We ended up taking in a refugee family in the fall of 2015. I didnt know how my church was going to respond to that. I sent out this email to our church asking for help on getting this house set up for them, watching my twinswho were about five months old at the time. We got about 30 responses within 30 minutes from our church, which is not a big church. It was really neat to see how just stepping up and doing the right thing can bring others to also support that.

So, I had that mental model going into presenting this to the leaders at Booz Allen. The idea that you just have to inform people of what the right thing is, or you just have to set an example, and then they just follow.

It was shocking to see that not being the case. It changed my perspective. Before this, I thought people didnt do the right thing because they didnt know what the right thing to do wasthat they just needed to be educated. What I learned through this is that no, there are people who will do whatever they think they can get away with.

I felt like I was very naive up to that point. So I have to be careful to not become cynical.

What role did your Christian community play during this time?

It was really helpful to have Christian community. But I couldnt openly share what was going on.

Following the 2015 situation where I saw the church rejecting refugees, I didnt have a crisis of faith, but I had a crisis of institution. I didnt trust the church, but I was able to come to rely on my churchthe Church of the Resurrectionbecause I trusted that they would be willing to do the right thing in a situation as volatile as the refugee crisis and also how they were responding to the political pressures at the time and not going along with what most evangelicals were doing.

Having that trust in my church allowed me to stay involved and have that constant spiritual formation as I was going through the most difficult time in my life.

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So, losing your faith in institutions can have benefits?

Yeah. And then how much do you tear down from that? A lot of Christians are going through deconstruction, and I think its positive in a lot of ways. You do find that a lot of what was there is cultural and not biblical. Its just, what will they rebuild with?

Youve got this huge award now, and youve probably had some time to think about it. What are the principles that are guiding you as you deal with this?

I have kind of a sense of extreme responsibility. How do I steward this well? And how do I get back to the causes that drive accountability? The things Ive really come to care about over time are justice and truth. My involvement in media is really addressing the truth aspect of that. Im asking, What are areas that I can further justice in my community?

My husband [former congressional candidate Evan Feinberg] runs an anti-poverty nonprofit, the Stand Together Foundation, and the organizations are truly transforming lives and recognizing the dignity in humans. So I want to be supportive of causes like that. I want to be supportive of Christian causes, like my church. My sister [Kate Rode] runs an organization called Harvest Bridge that supports pastors on the ground in Nepal and Myanmar. I want to support what shes doing there. I feel like those dollars go further than anywhere else. And then I also want to think through what causes are redemptive and not just moneymaking.

Would you say your lifestyle has changed?

No, and I dont think its going to change. My kids are still in public school. Were not moving. Were still doing the same things.

I joined The Washington Post in 2016, and I loved it. It just drove my passion for credible and trustworthy reporting. Thats been my passion since then. I think that will be what I continue to do. Right now, Im at Atlantic Media for National Journal. I want to focus on furthering journalism at the local and the national level.

I want to be very clear: My husband is not leaving his job. Hes very passionate about what he does.

So, movie rights?

No one wants to hear an accounting story.

Susan Mettes is an associate editor at CT.
Small towns rarely get to tell their own story on the national stage. More often, someone else tells it for themsomeone whos never stepped foot in the town square, who has no local roots, who has a political agenda and wants an all-American prop.

For years, the narrative of Portsmouth, Ohio, was one of addiction and unemployment. The town has been called ground zero in Ohios opioid epidemic and the pill mill of America. But, like any small town in Appalachialike Caldwell, Ohio, the town where I was raisedthats not the whole story of Portsmouth. A new documentary about a Portsmouth CrossFit gym, Small Town Strong, tells a fuller tale and sets an example for churches in communities like this.

Filmed over a four-year period, Small Town Strong follows Dale King and his team at Portsmouth Spartan Kettlebell Club (PSKC). But it takes a broader look, too, at the towns fight against addiction through the lens of one womans recovery and rise to managing one of Kings other businesses, where she helps coworkers make recoveries of their own.

That central figure is Sarah. After a traumatic childhood, Sarah became addicted to opioids and other drugs for 16 years. But by the time the filming of Small Town Strong finished, shed been clean for more than three years, and she was one of many both formerly and currently dealing with addiction whove found PSKC to be a path to lasting change. They come to the gym for the exercise, yes, but also for the accountability and community. Its a final Hail Mary when nothing else has worked to break the pattern of addiction.

For his part, King is a Portsmouth native who returned from two tours in Iraq to a town devastated by the opioid epidemic. His hometown felt war-torn too: An addiction bomb was dropped here, and we were dealing with the fallout, King says.

Having learned and practiced CrossFit in the military, he kept it up for his own personal fitness and mental health. Then, in 2010, a friend asked him to teach her how to use kettlebells, and before he knew it, he needed a warehouse to hold his growing classes. Seeing the business potential, he took a risk, invested in a bigger space, and PSKC was born. This hillbilly rehab, as King calls it, continued to grow and began to partner with local addiction treatment centers. King now has two other businesses that employ dozens, including many who are recovering from addictions and/or have a criminal record.

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The most striking thing to me about King, however, isnt his biography or business record. Its the opportunity for redemption he has made. We take the people that have been forgotten, the people that have been cast away, the people that no one wants, he reflects. Because its my brother, its my cousin, its my friend. And theyre trying.

The comparison to church begs to be made (Matt. 25:3146), and Kings mother makes it in Small Town Strong. Dales gym is what a church should be, she says. Its not just a place to work out. Theres a community of people that sincerely care about each other. And that comparison isnt just a nice observation about PSKC and the community of accountability, friendship, and sacrifice King has cultivated there. Its also an invitation for the local church to ponder how well its welcoming people like Sarah.

Three lessons stood out to me as I watched the documentary. First, Small Town Strong beautifully illustrates the life-changing power of being known and embraced despite our failures. PSKC is a space where people are comfortable trying something new, failing, and showing up the next week anyway. Have we created a culture like that in our congregations? Would those with no church background and those struggling with addiction feel as welcomed in our sanctuaries as they would in Kings gym? Or does church membership only work for those who already have their lives together?

My hometown is about three hours north of Portsmouth. Ive lived in Chicago for the last 15 years, but I still love Noble County and love visiting Faith Baptist Church in Belle Valley, where my parents have served for more than 35 years.

Faith Baptist has an active ministry for men and women with addictions, including helping people with criminal records find meaningful work by writing letters for court hearings, providing references, and making connections with business owners. Members of the church are on the frontlines any time theres a flood, fire, or other disaster nearby. The church hosts and pays for funeral dinners for complete strangers (not that there are any real strangers in a small town). Guys I knew in high schoolguys with rough backgrounds and little interest in churchnow attend regularly and bring their kids to the Awana program. People show up to hear the Word of God, but they also show up because they know theyre loved.

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Second, that love requires caring about the whole personabout their addictions, housing needs, and employment status. James said it best:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, Go in peace; keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (2:1417)

Of course, sharing the good news of Jesus is central to the work of the church, and, like all of us, a person in the turmoil of addiction needs a life-changing encounter with Christ. But our preaching should be inseparable from our action to meet peoples physical, mental, and emotional needs.

And that brings me to my third lesson, which is that fitness can be a ministry tool. CrossFit is not the gospel, and the gym is not the church. But the church can have a gym.

Fitness is the most underutilized connector of people and solver of problems  in the community, says Billy Dever, Kings friend and a local attorney whose story is pivotal in Small Town Strong. I cant tell you how many guys have stayed sober [in] the community weve developed because of this group fitness model.

For churches serving those grappling with addictionand not only rural churchesfitness is an underused asset. Exercise has clearly been identified as a tool that can be used in the recovery process, says doctor Tom McCoy in the documentary. Whether its CrossFit that focuses on high intensity, cardiorespiratory training, straight cardio. All of these things have been established to establish more functional brain pathways and bringing that [neurological] balance back into place.

An exercise ministrywhether hosted in the church basement or in partnership with a local gymcould be a powerful way to provide encouragement, accountability, and an entrance point to life in the church.

Small Town Strong doesnt mention it, but King is a Christian, too, as he told me in our text conversation. In his own words, hes way closer to a sinner than a saint, just trying to help. That modesty underplays the significance of what hes built in Portsmouth, though, and my prayer is that local churches in towns of all sizes would be as invested in our communities as King is in his. My prayer is that we, too, would seek the forgotten, cast away, and unwanted, just as Jesus sought us.

Jacob Zerkle is a husband, father of three, and attorney in the Chicago area. He and his older brother are CrossFit enthusiasts and lovers of Appalachian Ohio.
'Abandonment of our moral duty': Advocates slam Biden's inaction on Nagorno-Karabakh crisis

WASHINGTON  Human rights advocates and members of Congress demanded the Biden administration cut military aid and sanction Azerbaijan for what Armenian leaders have called the ethnic cleansing of 120,000 Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh.

On Friday, the nonprofit In Defense of Christians hosted a press conference alongside March for the Martyrs, the 120,000 Reasons coalition and Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Brad Sherman, D-Calif., to discuss international Christian persecution.

Speakers raised concerns Azerbaijan is possibly committing genocide against ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, a self-declared Armenian breakaway state recognized by Armenians as the Republic of Artsakh but internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. Until last week, the region had a predominantly Christian population.

But after Azerbaijan reclaimed control of the region via a 24-hour offensive last month, thousands of ethnic Armenians have fled to seek refuge in Armenia and elsewhere. Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan of "ethnic cleansing" last week, warning that "in the coming days there will be no Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh."

The offensive was predated by a monthslong blockade that began in December 2022. Azerbaijan sealed off the Lachin Corridor, which connects Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh. The blockade of the Lachin Corridor deprived Armenians of food and other vital resources.

Two weeks ago, Azerbaijan seized the Nagorno-Karabakh region. According to local officials, at least 200 ethnic Armenians, including 10 civilians, reportedly died.

Christian residents were forced to flee their homes in a mass exodus. Some, however, are unable to leave Nagorno-Karabakh, which raises concerns about their welfare and whether they will be arrested or harmed.

Tereza Yerimyan, director of government affairs at the Armenian National Committee of America, condemned the Biden administration for failing to break Azerbaijan's blockade.

She expressed disappointment at the United States' failure to live up to the proclamation, "Never again," stating that Azerbaijan's actions violate international law, including multiple sections of the Genocide Convention.

"We gather here today to hold our government accountable," she said. "To save all that can be saved and to rededicate ourselves to the proposition that this must never happen again  to those remaining on the ground in Artsakh, those living in fear today in Armenia, or any people anywhere around the world."

Yerimyan criticized President Joe Biden's remarks before the United Nations General Assembly last month, where he rallied support for Ukraine.

During his speech, the president stated, "If we abandon the core principles of the United Nations to appease an aggressor, can any member state of this body feel confident that they will be protected?"

While Yerimyan acknowledged that there is "truth" in Biden's words, she contends that there has been "no action to follow them up." She asserted that the U.S. has not taken action against Azerbaijan President Ilham Heydar, who she believes is this generation's Saddam Hussein.

"A shameful abandonment of our moral duty," she said. "A dangerous signal to the authoritarians of this world. A green light for the next genocide."

In an interview with The Christian Post, Yerimyan called it a "failure" of U.S. policymakers to enforce Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which restricts assistance to the government of Azerbaijan to prevent conflict with neighboring Armenia.

"If you don't actually show that you're willing to take punitive measures against them, they're going to continue what they've done," she said, warning that Azerbaijan is taking an example right out of Turkey's "book."

Between 1915 and 1923, an estimated 1.5 million Armenian Christians died after they were expelled from the Ottoman Empire, now known as Turkey. As Yerimyan noted, Turkey denied the existence of the Armenian Genocide, and it took over 100 years before the mass killing was finally acknowledged as a genocide by the U.S. government.

"This is just a continuation of that," Yerimyan said.

Smith, who also spoke at the event, warned that what is happening now is "the second Armenian Genocide." The congressman has chaired two hearings on the issue, one of which occurred in June, while the other hearing took place last month.

On Sept. 22, Smith introduced House Bill 5686, or Preventing Ethnic Cleansing and Atrocities in Nagorno-Karabakh Act of 2023. The legislation would require the U.S. State Department to develop a plan to "promote long-term security" and "the well-being of ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh" through security provisions.

The provisions include dispatching U.S. diplomats to the region to monitor the situation and report further abuse and the institution of a 24-hour video monitoring of Armenian cultural sites. In addition, the bill would authorize humanitarian assistance to Armenians impacted by the blockade and the recent attack on Nagorno-Karabakh and impose sanctions on the officials behind the attack and blockade.

Under the legislation, the U.S. would provide military financing to Armenia and terminate its military aid to Azerbaijan by repealing the presidential waiver of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act.

In an interview with CP, Smith called for building a "crescendo" around the issue, stressing the need for the Biden administration to take action, praising Yerimyan's speech.

"That was powerful," he said. "You've got to call it out, whether it's Bush, Trump, or anyone on the Republican side, particularly on human rights abuses. Don't bite your tongue."

Gia Chacon, the founder of the March for the Martyrs, an organization that advocates on behalf of persecuted Christians worldwide, cited Open Doors' 2023 World Watch List during her speech. According to the report, more than 360 million Christians were persecuted for their faith last year.

"We are witnessing an era where it has never been more dangerous to be a believer in Christ," she said, noting a "genocide underway" in Armenia.

Chacon also highlighted Christian persecution in countries like Nigeria and Iraq.

In an interview with CP, Chacon emphasized the responsibility of faith leaders in the U.S. to raise awareness about the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and global Christian persecution. The advocate cited Hebrews 13:3, which calls Christians to remember fellow believers imprisoned for their faith.

"And we also know because of Scripture that when a member of the Body of Christ suffers, we all suffer," she said. "So, we absolutely have an obligation not only to be speaking about these issues but to encourage our congregation and be coming together as a Body of Christ to pray for our brothers and sisters."
ND state Sen. Doug Larsen, wife and sons killed in tragic Utah plane crash

Decorated military aviator and North Dakota State Sen. Doug Larsen, his wife, Amy, and their two young sons died tragically Sunday after a single-engine aircraft the senator was flying crashed shortly after he took off from the Canyonlands Regional Airport in Utah.

The Grand County dispatch center received a report at 8:26 p.m. on Sunday about an isolated incident involving an aircraft taking off from the airport "then crashing into the ground," according to a release from the Grand County Sheriff's Office.

First responders  including the Grand County Sheriff's Office deputies, Grand County EMS, Moab Valley Fire Department, Canyonlands Regional Airport, and Classic Air Medical  found the aircraft "in a remote area bordering Canyonlands Regional Airport."

"Tragically, the pilot of the plane, North Dakota State Senator Douglas Larsen, his wife, Amy Larsen, and their two youngest children did not survive the crash," the release stated.

Fabian Salazar, an air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said during a press conference Monday that Larsen was flying a Piper Cherokee PA-28140 aircraft, and the cause of the crash is still under investigation.

A preliminary report on the crash will be ready in about two weeks, Salazar said, while a final report would be ready within the next year and a half.

Grand County Sheriff Jamison Wiggins said he has been providing as many updates as possible to the Larsen family and described the aftermath of the crash as "a tough scene."

"Last night, I was on the scene and tried to provide the family with the most updates that I possibly could at the time," Wiggins said Monday. "It's very tragic. It's very sad. Like I said to the Larsen family, as a first responder, it was a very tough scene."

Though investigators couldn't say much about Larsen's flight experience, local news outlets report that he was a decorated North Dakota Army National Guard aviator who first enlisted on March 14, 1994, as a combat engineer before becoming an aviation officer on Oct. 19, 2006.

He was mobilized in 2009-2010 to Iraq as the company commander for Charlie Company of the 2-285th Assault Battalion, and in 2013-2014 to Washington, D.C., in support of Operation Noble Eagle with the 1-188th Air Defense Artillery Battalion.

Amy Larsen had also been learning how to fly.

In a Facebook post on Dec. 22, 2020, Larsen noted how his wife "flew her first flight as a pilot" and "shot her first handgun" in recognition of "Yea Amy Day."

Larsen, a Republican, has been praised by those who knew him as a "man of faith" and "patriot."

"On behalf of the NDGOP, we offer our heartfelt sympathy to the extended Larsen family. Senator Doug Larsen (D34) was a man of faith and a patriot who served in the National Guard. His voice will be missed in the North Dakota Senate," North Dakota GOP Chairwoman Sandi Sanford said in a statement.

In an email to fellow senators cited by The Associated Press, Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue said the family was returning to North Dakota after visiting family in Arizona when their plane crashed.

"They were visiting family in Scottsdale and returning home. They stopped to refuel in Utah," Hogue said.

"I'm not sure where the bereavement starts with such a tragedy, but I think it starts with prayers for the grandparents, surviving stepchild of Senator Larsen, and extended family of Doug and Amy," Hogue noted. "Hold your family close today."

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a 2024 Republican presidential hopeful, recalled Larsen as a "tenacious advocate for individual rights and the freedoms he defended through his military service."

"We extend our deepest sympathies and prayers to his family and friends and join his legislative colleagues, National Guard brothers and sisters and the Mandan community in mourning the tragic passing of Sen. Larsen and his family," Burgum said in a statement.
Pastor allegedly tried to kill his family because they were being evicted

A Kansas pastor who attempted to murder his wife and their 5 children on Sept. 16, allegedly told police the family was scheduled to be evicted from their home that day and he thought it would have been better if they all died than find out they would become homeless.

Former Crossroads Christian Church children's pastor, Matthew Lee Richards, 41, who attempted to murder his wife and children by stabbing them and setting the house they had lost on fire with them inside, told police in an affidavit cited by Law and Crime that he thought that it would be better if they all died rather than for his kids to have to deal with the trauma, of being homeless.

The defendant said that he had not been honest with his wife regarding their financial situation and the fact that they were supposed to be evicted that very day, detectives noted in the affidavit. They had not packed anything and no one in the family knew they were being evicted.

The family appears to have lived in their four-bedroom, 2.5 bathroom home in Shawnee since it was purchased in December 2016. Civil court records cited by the Kansas City Star show that in November 2022, a foreclosure petition was filed for the home.

Richards, who had been working as a seventh-grade English teacher at Christ Preparatory Academy since 2020, according to his staff biography, and his wife, Stephanie, who is the director of Crossroads Christian Preschool and Parents Day Out, owed $155,429 on their mortgage at the time.

Public records indicate the home was sold in June.

Richards, who did not want his family to find out the truth, according to the affidavit, confessed to investigators that I stabbed my family, and called himself a monster.

The Shawnee Kansas Police Department announced in a statement that the 41-year-old former Crossroads Christian Church children's pastor was charged with five counts of attempted murder and one count of aggravated arson with risk of bodily harm.

Investigators say they were called along with the local fire department to the pastor's house for a report of a disturbance and a house fire at 3:47 a.m. on Sept. 16.

They soon discovered that the pastor's children and wife suffered "laceration injuries of varying degrees." His wife and two of his children remained hospitalized, while his 19-year-old son, along with two of his other children, were released from the hospital.

According to the affidavit, police received several 911 calls about Richards attack.

One of the callers said their dad [was] chasing them with a knife and the dispatcher could hear a fire alarm sounding in the background, the affidavit said. An additional caller stated she had been stabbed.

When police got to the scene, smoke was billowing from the house and an explosion blew out the garage doors. One of the children told officers They were all in bed when dad came around stabbing everyone and they all ran outside. He stated his dad stabbed him, the affidavit said.

Investigators said after Richards was treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation, he confessed that I stabbed my family in an interview.

Crossroads Christian Church has now set up a benefit fund for the Richards family on its website but did not immediately respond to a request from The Christian Post to comment. Christ Preparatory Academy where Richards worked as an English teacher also declined to offer comment when contacted by CP on Monday.
PCUSA anti-hunger program to give $1.1 million in grants to nonprofits

A program of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has announced that it will be awarding $1.1 million in grants to various groups focused on ending hunger in the United States and abroad.

The Presbyterian Hunger Program, which is part of the PCUSA Presbyterian Mission Agency, announced last week that it's giving $1.1 million in grants to several nonprofits worldwide.

The Rev. Rebecca Barnes, coordinator of the Presbyterian Hunger Program, told The Christian Post that this was part of an annual awarding of grant money by the PHP Advisory Committee to combat the root causes of hunger.

Grant funds result from Presbyterian generosity that we receive and steward through the annual One Great Hour of Sharing special offering in Presbyterian congregations, Barnes said.

The One Great Hour of Sharing offering is usually collected during Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. Our Advisory Committee can support working on the root causes of hunger and poverty through that money.

The approved grant projects, according to Barnes, are the ones found to be compatible with the PMAs goals of seeking to eradicate poverty, dismantle structural racism, and build congregational vitality and attempt to empower communities and families, care for Creation, and fight the vestiges of colonialism.

Groups that have been approved for grant money in the United States include: the Agricultural Justice Project of Gainesville, Florida; the Black Farmed Fund of New York, New York; Coalition of Immokalee Workers of Immokalee, Florida; the Faith Action Network of Seattle, Washington; the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance of Los Angeles, California; the National Farm Worker Ministry of Raleigh, North Carolina; Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition of Nashville, Tennessee; and the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy of Richmond, Virginia, among others.

Groups that are receiving grants based outside of the United States include: the Action For Rural Women's Empowerment of Uganda, the Asociacion Fenix of Nicaragua, the Centro de Estudios Regionales para el Desarrollo de Tarija of Bolivia, the Ecumenical Development Foundation of Zambia, Good Shepherd Collective of the Palestinian Territories, Kaalmo Relief and Development of Somalia, Mouvement Paysan de Papaye of Haiti and Praja Abhilasha of Sri Lanka, among others.

Barnes told CP that these organizations were chosen based on our prior working relationships and knowing about their work through common networks, coalitions and trusted partners on the ground.

We have a set grant budget based on the anticipated revenue for the year from our special offering that is evenly divided between international and national grantee partners, Barnes continued.

Additional criteria include ensuring that the work we support is rising from within the community itself, led and owned by those community members and that our grants are going to local communities worldwide most impacted by hunger, poverty, and environmental injustice.

Barnes also told CP that she hopes that the local communities receiving the grants receive the funding as a tangible sign of financial support and a relational act of solidarity and appreciation for their incredible efforts.

We know that hunger will continue to be an immense challenge both in the U.S. and internationally and that our grants will be small, but we hope they are still an important part of ending hunger, poverty and injustice, she added.

We pray through our efforts that we are faithfully answering Gods call to stand with impacted communities and to help create the world God desires.
Samaritan's Purse gives 16 new homes to survivors of 2021 Kentucky tornado

Evangelical relief organization Samaritan's Purse has given away 16 houses in a 60-home subdivision to people who lost nearly everything in a tornado that hit Western Kentucky in 2021 and killed around 80 people.

Following a tornado in Mayfield on Dec. 10, 2021, that destroyed hundreds of homes, Samaritan's Purse gifted 16 houses in a subdivision called New Hope Acres to families who lost their homes in the storm.

"I was in Mayfield shortly after the storm hit, and the damage was indescribable. So many people were in shock and suffering. Everything they had was gone in an instant," said the Rev. Franklin Graham, the president and CEO of Samaritan's Purse.

Graham met each family and dedicated each house to God while welcoming the families into their new residences in an event held last Friday.

"After the storm, I was here on Christmas Eve, and we served a dinner," Graham told those at the dedication of the homes. "We began to look at the despair and the hopelessness that so many people were going through. I was talking to the Lord and asking: 'What can we do, how can we help? How can we help make a difference?'"

"God provided the funding, and we realized He wanted us to do something. We decided to come here and build 60 homes. We come here today not only to thank God, but to dedicate this property, these houses and the families who will be living here, we dedicate them all to God and His glory."

The EF-4 tornado killed roughly 80 people and destroyed more than 1,000 houses. Samaritan's Purse sent around 2,000 volunteers to assist over 700 families affected by the disaster.

"I thank God that Samaritan's Purse was able to respond immediately with thousands of volunteers and that we're now able to complete these new homes to help families get back on their feet. We are providing these homes in New Hope Acres for free. We want the people of Mayfield to know that God loves them," Graham said.

The new community of homes was intentionally given the name "New Hope Acres." Graham said there had been "so many people here who had no hope and this is the new hope right here."

"And that hope is found in God and His Son Jesus Christ. We wanted a place in this community that spelled out hope," Graham continued.

Each home is fully furnished, with the neighborhood consisting of two, three and four-bedroom floor plans.

Dennis and Latasha Hayes received one of the completed homes. The married couple survived the storm by huddling together with friends and family members in their old home.

Latasha recounted that the tornado striking her house sounded like a train, with the room where her friends and family members took cover being the only part of the house that survived.

"We shouldn't have made it out, so we were blessed to walk out of something so devastating," she said, according to a release from Samaritan's Purse.

Another new homeowner, Megan Williams, said she cried and thanked God when she heard that Samaritan's Purse was giving her a new home.

"Since the tornado, I've felt like I've just been in a race, but the finish line kept getting pushed further away," she said.

"But now it's here, and my shoulders are a whole lot lighter. It was breathtaking when I walked in here today. I had never heard of Samaritan's Purse before, but now I'll never forget you all," she added.

"I've gotten close to so many people from Samaritan's Purse. They've been wonderful. The journey's been long, but it's worth the wait. I can't say thank you enough to Samaritan's Purse. This house is a blessing. God is good."

All the families getting a new home participated in "Foundations of Hope," a six-week course overseen by local Mayfield congregations for homeowners to aid their financial management skills and other points of disaster recovery.

Samaritan's Purse is not only donating the homes in New Hope Acres, but it is also building 21 additional homes in the greater Mayfield area. Fourteen of these homes have already been completed.

Samaritan's Purse has also provided furniture replacement for 100 families and installed 174 storm shelters capable of withstanding an EF-5 tornado.

"Disasters and crises are happening more and more frequently around the world. Things aren't getting better, they seem to be getting worse, and we want to help those who are suffering when their needs are greatest," Graham said.
Andy Stanley defends conference for parents of 'gay kids,' says homosexuality is not a 'behavior,' but a 'defining attraction' Pastor reveals prior invitations for openly gay men to speak at church, says North Point teaches 'biblical marriage'

Andy Stanley is finally sharing his thoughts about criticism over his involvement in a recent conference for Christian parents of what the megachurch pastor repeatedly referred to as gay kids.

Stanley, whose North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, hosted the Unconditional Conference last week, spoke candidly to his congregation in a message Sunday that, unlike the rest of the churchs sermons, was not live-streamed on North Points digital platforms.

In an audio recording of the sermon leaked to social media, Stanley addressed a number of topics, including the controversy surrounding the Unconditional Conference and the churchs theological stance on marriage.

The 65-year-old Stanley began the message by explaining why the church opted not to stream the sermon as usual.

Ive made it a habit to never say anything out there that I haven't said in here first, he said. So I feel like I need to respond out there to some of the criticism, but before I respond out there, I wanted you to hear it from me first, and thats why we chose not to stream the message online.

Stanley then defended criticism he received last month from Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who described the message of the Unconditional Conference as a departure from historic normative biblical Christianity.

Stanley deflected the criticism by saying Mohlers version of biblical Christianity is the problem.

His version, this version of biblical Christianity, is why people are leaving Christianity unnecessarily, he added. Its the version that causes people to resist the Christian faith because they cant find Jesus in the midst of all the other stuff and all the other theology and all the other complexity that gets globbed on to the message.

He then moved on to the matter at hand by recapping North Points history of responding to what Stanley repeatedly referred to as either gay kids or same-sex attracted kids.

Stanley offered a language disclaimer in which he noted that when a Christian student comes out as LGBT-identified, they have rarely engaged in any same-sex sort of behavior, which he called an important distinction.

The realization that they are even drawn in the direction of same-sex attraction is terrifying to a middle schooler and terrifying to a high school student, he said. They don't embrace it, they resist it.

They find themselves in a battle not against a behavior. They find themselves in a battle against a defining attraction that they did not choose but somehow has chosen them.

The pastor also repeated an assertion he made in a message he delivered in January in which he suggested that God has failed to answer the prayers of some of the LGBT community who asked Him to change their hearts.

In his comments Sunday, Stanley again drew a distinction between homosexuality as a behavior and what he described as an immutable characteristic.

They pray, they beg God to take it away, he said. ... They are literally afraid they are going to Hell, not because of anything theyve done, but because of who they are.

Stanley also defended a decision to invite two openly gay men, Justin Lee and Brian Nietzel, to speak at the Unconditional Conference. Both men are in same-sex marriages.

According to Stanley, who acknowledged the two men were at the center of all the controversy prior to the conference, both Lee and Nietzel had been previously invited to speak at North Points quarterly meeting of Parent Connect, a ministry for parents of LGBT-identified children.

We had already heard what they were going to say. We already knew how effective they were at connecting with parents of gay kids in particular, he said.

Heres the thing about Brian and Justin: their stories and their journeys of growing up in church and maintaining their faith in Christ and their commitment to follow Christ all through their high school and college and singles and all up to the time that they were married, their story is so powerful for parents of gay, especially kids, that its a story gay parents and gay kids need to hear.

But it was the closing of Stanleys message that brought what was perhaps the most surprising element of the entire sermon: his stated commitment to teaching his congregation what he called a New Testament sexual ethic and declared that North Point teaches marriage is between a man and a woman.

Sex is for married people, he said. We talk about, we teach about marriage the same way that Jesus and the apostles did. Every instruction in the Bible regarding marriage references or assumes a husband and a wife, a man and a woman.

So biblical marriage is between a man and a woman. Weve never shied away from that.

In response to the message, Denny Burk, president of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and professor of biblical studies at Boyce College and Southern Seminary, described Stanleys message as subversively anti-Christian.

Its an anti-Christian message because it tells sinners that they dont need to repent of their sin in order to be a Christian, Burk told The Christian Post via email Monday. Its subversive because the message is cloaked in a veneer of Christian-ese. Its designed to persuade the consciences of Christians of a message that is incompatible with basic Christian teaching.

Burk added Stanleys message was a direct contradiction of texts like Ephesians 5:5-6, For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

He said while he views Stanley as a false teacher, his teachings have already disqualified him from pastoral ministry.

I hope and pray that he repents and turns back from this unfaithful teaching. But even if he does, I think this teaching has already disqualified him from being a pastor, Burk asserted.

He has failed to obey Pauls command to Titus: He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
Former Loudoun County superintendent found guilty of retaliating against teacher

In a split decision, a jury found former Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler guilty of retaliating against a former special education teacher who complained about the districts response to her complaints about being groped in her classroom.

A jury comprised of one man and six women found Ziegler guilty of retaliation and prohibited conduct by a public employee on Friday after a five-day trial. However, the jury did not find the former LCPS superintendent guilty of punishing an employee for testifying before a jury.

"Justice has finally been served in Loudoun County," Attorney General Jason Miyares said in a statement.

"Nearly two years ago, Loudoun County Public Schools and the Loudoun County School Board were thrown into the public spotlight for all the wrong reasons. One of the casualties of their neglect and mismanagement led to the retaliatory firing of a dedicated and caring school teacher. Today, my office brought a measure of justice for Erin Brooks. The Office of the Attorney General will always be a voice for victims, and were grateful for the jurys verdict."

As The Loudoun Times-Mirror reported Friday, Zieglers attorney indicated that his client plans to appeal the conviction. The former superintendent is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 4 and faces up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.

In response to a Monday inquiry from The Christian Post, Loudoun County Public Schools told the outlet that it did not have a statement to offer on the verdict.

According to the report, Ziegler recommended to the school board in June 2022 that Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School should not renew the contract of special education teacher Erin Brooks. The recommendation came after Brooks allowed Ian Prior, executive director of the political action committee Fight for Schools, to speak for her during a school board meeting in March 2022.

Brooks had formally complained on Feb. 28, 2022, that a 10-year-old disabled boy in her classroom was groping her and her teaching assistant, Laurie Vandermeulen.

As The Loudoun Times-Mirror reported last month, Brooks testified that the groping started happening 30 to 40 times per day for several weeks after the boy returned from winter break in January 2022.

The former special education teacher said that the administration had a feeble response to her complaint, and a piece of cardboard Brooks was supposed to put in front of her to prevent the groping was shown to the jury. Brooks was also told to wear an apron to deter the student from groping her.

The teacher emailed Prior in March 2022, and the conservative testified on Sept. 28 that the teacher and her assistant did not provide him with any confidential information. During the school board meeting, Prior told the board that a student had inappropriately touched two staff members, and he urged the district to resolve the issue.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Ziegler fired Brooks for contacting Prior to speak before the board on her behalf. Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School Principal Diane R. Mackey testified on Sept. 27 that the groping stopped after the student was moved to another classroom.

The principal said Brooks did not provide the student with an iPad to help him communicate, which is part of the boys Behavioral Intervention Plan, according to The Loudoun Times-Mirror.

Mackey speculated that this was the reason for the students behavior toward Brooks, arguing that Brooks was not following the approved intervention plan. The students last day in the classroom was March 22, 2022, the same day Prior spoke for Brooks and her teaching assistant before the school board.

The teacher had also sent 26 emails about the situation to her teaching assistants personal email address, which Brooks claimed was to document the districts response. According to Zieglers statement during the June 2022 school board meeting, Brooks and Vandermeulen improperly distributed student records without the consent of the boys family and the school staff.

While the jury determined that Ziegler did not renew Brooks contract due to the situation with the student, the jury found that the former superintendent did not retaliate against the teacher for her grand jury testimony in April 2022.

Ziegler will also stand trial on Feb. 26 on a separate misdemeanor charge related to a June 2021 school board meeting, where the superintendent falsely informed parents concerned about the districts proposed trans bathroom policy that the district had no record of any sexual assaults in bathrooms.

A male student wearing a skirt sexually assaulted a female student inside the girls bathroom on May 28, 2021, at Stone Bridge High School. The same male student sexually assaulted another girl a few months later after he was transferred to Broad Run High School.

Prosecutors for the case were appointed by Attorney General Miyares, who announced the unsealing of four indictments against Ziegler in December 2022 following a special grand jury investigation into the districts handling of the sexual assaults.

Before the announcement of the indictments, the Loudoun County school board voted to fire Ziegler after a grand jury report criticized the district leaders for their response to the two incidents.

The report cited the school board meeting where Ziegler denied that any sexual assaults had taken place, referring to the former superintendents claims as a "bald-faced lie." The grand jury report also criticized the school board and district's "lack of cooperation" throughout its investigation.
More Republicans view Trump as 'person of faith' than his GOP rivals: poll

More Republican voters see former President Donald Trump as a person of faith than his top rivals for the GOP presidential nomination, some of whom have made their Christian faith a central aspect of their candidacies.

A poll conducted by HarrisX for Deseret News asked voters whether they see the most prominent political figures as people of faith. The results of the survey are based on responses collected from 1,002 registered voters between Sept. 8-11, with a margin of error of +/-3.1 percentage points. Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed classified themselves as people of faith.

When asked if Trump, the current frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, was a person of faith, 53% of Republicans answered in the affirmative. While Trump and his surrogates have often pointed to his accomplishments on behalf of people of faith as reasons why Christians should vote for him, the candidate himself does not discuss his faith as much as others do.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, an outspoken Evangelical Christian, was also viewed as a person of faith by a majority of Republican voters (52%). Pence brought up his faith at a Florida rally in 2020 as he campaigned for Trumps re-election, declaring that the dogma lives loudly in me. Less than half of Republicans characterized all of Trumps other rivals for the Republican nomination as people of faith.

Just 47% of GOP voters saw Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a person of faith, followed by 31% for both Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and former South Carolina Gov. and United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. DeSantis, who was raised Catholic and went to Catholic grade school, recently discussed his efforts to raise his young children in a Christ-centered household. Haley is a convert to Christianity from Sikhism.

Scott is a member of Seacoast Church in Charleston and was recently honored with the Christian Statesman Award by D. James Kennedy Ministries. In a recent interview with The Christian Post, D. James Kennedy Ministries CEO Rob Pacienza described Scott as an obvious choice for the recognition in light of his voting record and what he stood for, standing for Gods design for marriage and family, protecting the life of the unborn, and protecting religious liberty in this nation.

Thirty percent of Republican voters believed that entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, a Hindu, who is the only non-Christian among the GOP candidates, is a person of faith.

Fewer than one-quarter (23%) of Republican voters agreed that President Joe Biden is a person of faith. A practicing Catholic, Biden touts the importance of faith in his life as he faces criticism from Catholic Church leaders for supporting abortion, a concept that violates the teachings of the church.

Even smaller percentages of Republicans categorized former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (22%) and Vice President Kamala Harris (12%) as people of faith. Christie is a Catholic, a fact he brought up during a speech at the Faith & Freedom Coalitions Road to Majority conference earlier this year. Harris identified herself as well as Biden as people of faith during the 2020 vice presidential debate.

However, self-declared Evangelical respondents were much more likely than other Republican participants to see Pence as a person of faith rather than Trump. Specifically, 65% of Evangelicals agreed that Pence is a person of faith compared to 37% who said the same for Trump.

Deseret News reported that Catholic voters and non-Evangelical Protestants were also more likely to say Pence is a man of faith, showing the perception of Trump as a man of faith was more related to voters political identity than their religious identity.

Not surprisingly, much smaller percentages of Democrats (14%) and Independents (19%) thought that Trump was a person of faith. While a majority of Democrats (66%) believed that Biden was a person of faith, a lot fewer Independents (33%) viewed that characterization as applicable to the president.

Nearly half of Democrats (45%) believed that Harris is a person of faith, while 38% of Democrats categorized Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, a practicing Mormon, as a person of faith. Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and outspoken Trump critic, was also viewed as a person of faith by 42% of Independents and 35% of Republicans.

As noted in the report about the survey results, The Deseret News/HarrisX Poll also showed that many Americans arent sure whether or not politicians are people of faith. Half of those polled said they werent sure if Ramaswamy, Haley, Scott or Christie were people of faith. Almost that many said the same about Harris.
Manipur violence escalates as insurgents cross over from Myanmar

Entering its fifth month, violence in Manipur has intensified, with insurgents seen directing mobs and participating in attacks on security forces, even as the death toll has climbed to at least 200. Kuki-Zo tribal Christians make up the majority of the casualties.

The unrest, which began on May 3, has led to a resurgence of banned groups and a spike in fatalities, raising concerns about the states stability, according to reports in the Indian media.

According to the Press Trust of India, militants were observed guiding mobs in the Hindu Meitei region of Imphal Valley, where pictures of two missing teenagers had incited violence.

Officials noted that during an attack on a police party, armed men in black uniforms were directing agitated youths. The security agencies had warned that militants from Meitei groups like the United National Liberation Front and Peoples Liberation Army were mingling with the crowds.

Citing security analysts, ThePrint reported that the situation has changed dramatically since the ethnic violence erupted five months ago. Over 175 people have been killed and more than 1,100 injured across the state, according to Manipur police. The BBC has reported the death toll at 200, although unofficial figures suggest the actual count could be significantly higher.

According to the Kuki-Zo Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum, at least 137 people from the Christian community have been killed and over 200 villages have been destroyed.

Around 4,537 arms and 632,000 bullets have been looted, mainly from Manipur Police Training Centre at Pangei in the Meitei area of East Imphal and other locations.

According to ThePrint, on the Kuki-Zo side, insurgents have reportedly joined hands with village defense forces. On the Meitei side, insurgents have returned from Myanmar and are actively resisting the Kuki-Zo demand for a separate administration.

The violence has reportedly also led to a spike in extortion demands by insurgent groups in both valley and hill areas. In the Imphal area, ransom notices were served to shopkeepers by banned outfits. In the hills, groups like the United Kuki Liberation Front and Kuki National Army are allegedly demanding money from non-locals.

The situation is further complicated by the threat of cross-border infiltration from Myanmar, where several insurgent groups have found a safe haven. Rebel camps are reportedly located on the southern side of the border and further north near Moreh and Tamu.

The violence erupted in Manipur following a controversial court order for the state to consider extending special economic benefits and quotas, previously reserved for the tribal Kuki-Zo people, to the Meitei population. It would also give the state government-backed Meiteis the right to buy land in the hills where the Kuki-Zo people live.

The government has deployed about 50,000 soldiers, armed police and other security personnel to enforce buffer zones between the two communities. Despite these measures, mobs have looted more than 4,000 weapons and half a million rounds of ammunition from police in Manipur, according to official estimates.

Lt. General P.C. Nair, director general of the federal paramilitary force Assam Rifles, recently described the situation as unprecedented, highlighting the large number of weapons within both communities as a key concern, according to The Wire. Mobs surrounding forces, women blocking roads are new hurdles for the force trained to fight armed insurgents, he said.

Nair added, We are here only to curtail the levels of violence.  But more importantly, we are talking to multiple civil society organizations and various stakeholders to get them to hold talks.

In July, the European Parliament passed a resolution urging the Indian government to urgently restore peace in Manipur.

There have been concerns about politically motivated, divisive policies promoting Hindu majoritarianism, and about an increase in activity by militant groups, the resolution stated. There are also accounts of partisan involvement by security forces in the killings have increased distrust in the authorities.
Supreme Court lets rulings against undercover pro-life activists stand

The United States Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeals of multiple pro-life activists who are facing heavy fines for releasing undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood employees discussing the harvesting of baby body parts for profit.

The pro-life activist group known as the Center for Medical Progress garnered national headlines in 2015 when it released a series of undercover videos that showed Planned Parenthood officials and other abortion providers discussing illegal activities, such as altering the way an abortion procedure is performed to acquire a baby's organs, tissue and limbs in tact.

In an orders list released Monday morning, the high court declined to hear the combined cases of Center for Medical Progress et al v. National Abortion Federation and Steve Cooley et al v. National Abortion Federation.

Additionally, the Supreme Court declined to hear the combined cases of Troy Newman v. Planned Parenthood Federation et al, Sandra S. Merritt v. Planned Parenthood Federation et al. and Albin Rhomberg v. Planned Parenthood Federation et al.

The refusal to hear the appeals allows earlier court rulings against the pro-life activists to stand, which could result in the activists being forced to pay millions of dollars in damages.

Liberty Counsel, which is helping to represent Merritt, released a statement on Monday warning that the refusal to hear the cases has far-reaching First Amendment consequences involving free speech and undercover journalism.

The legal group then quoted from its petition to the Supreme Court, in which they asked if the First Amendments Free Speech Clause protects newsgathering journalists, who operate under an alias to document and expose what they reasonably believe to be unlawful conduct, from being subjected to punitive liability for fraud.

This case concerns whether, and to what extent, the press may raise the First Amendment as a defense against generally applicable tort laws when undercover journalists gather and publish truthful news of significant public importance, they added.

Since releasing the undercover videos, the CMP activists have found themselves dealing with a wave of litigation from Planned Parenthood and the NAF, who have accused the pro-life group of selectively editing the videos and violating confidentiality agreements. However, CMP also publicly released the videos in their entirety and were reviews by The Christian Post at the time.

In April 2020, U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick of the Northern District of California ordered CMP, its founder David Daleiden, and others tied to the group to pay over $1.2 million in damages related to Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, arguing that CMP violated the California Business & Professions Code.

Last October, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously upheld a lower court ruling requiring the activists to pay $2.4 million in damages.

Ninth Circuit Judge Ronald M. Gould, a Clinton appointee, authored the panel opinion, rejecting the argument that the pro-life activists actions were protected by the First Amendment and journalistic practices.

Invoking journalism and the First Amendment does not shield individuals from liability for violations of laws applicable to all members of society. None of the laws Appellants violated was aimed specifically at journalists or those holding a particular viewpoint, wrote Gould last year.

The two categories of compensatory damages permitted by the district court, infiltration damages and security damages, were awarded by the jury to reimburse Planned Parenthood for losses caused by Appellants violations of generally applicable laws.

The CMP activists were also the subject of prosecution from the state of California, in a move that brought concern from many, including the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times.

In a 2017 editorial, while not agreeing with the CMPs claims, the LA Times editorial board expressed concern over the proceedings, believing that then California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was engaging in "a disturbing overreach."

"It's disturbingly aggressive for Becerra to apply this criminal statute to people who were trying to influence a contested issue of public policy, regardless of how sound or popular that policy may be," stated the editorial board at the time.

"Planned Parenthood and biomedical company StemExpress, which was also featured in the videos, have another remedy for the harm that was done to them: They can sue Daleiden and Merritt for damages. The state doesn't need to threaten the pair with prison time."
5 questions preachers should ask themselves

Communicating Gods message is an extraordinary privilege with immense accountabilities to God and people, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness (James 3:1).



Preachers present the Word of God in a unique context. No other setting comes with such a subservient demeanor. People listen passively with reverence, and with an implicit expectation that hopefully something will be learned.



This weekly forum is a golden opportunity for preachers to communicate biblical themes that should resonate with people. We cannot allow the Sunday sermon to become a mere formality that congregants sit through because its a weekly ritual. Here are five questions that I believe will challenge Gods spokespeople to produce messages that are continually robust.

What is the point of my message?

In preparation, a preacher should identify the purpose of the message by asking oneself what exactly will be communicated? Without a determined point, rambling will most likely ensue. By remaining on point a preacher focuses on crafting a message that flows, and people can pursue the unfolding direction. Thus all components, the intro, scriptural commentary, relevant citations of scholars, engagement with cultural thought, anecdotes, and humor too, should coalesce to deliver the point. If anything does not fit that point, its fluff and congregants will likely become restless.



The most successful preacher of all time was arguably Billy Graham. Throughout his decades long ministry, his sermons continued to contemporize with relevance. His cited references, anecdotes, and engagement with the cultural thought of the day, continued to make a single point: That God loves you and sent Jesus to die for your sins. May we habitually ask ourselves what is the point of this message?

Am I seeking to please people?

Is the message seeking to please a group of people or to satisfy a cultural trend? Needless to say, a preachers determined biblical point may not please everyone. Those who disagree should still be compelled to consider the point of the message. Humans are built with the capability of being convicted by truth. A message should thus presuppose that everyone needs the grace of God, regardless of ones position in society, income bracket, or power to influence. A preachers passion in communicating biblical convictions indiscriminately by proper tone and intelligent insight should challenge everyone. The message should bear in mind that as spokespeople for God, our integrity cannot allow favoritism. So lets always be mindful that God shows no partiality (Rom. 2:11).

What will be the great takeaway?

What is the points call to action? Or, what is the learning for people? If the message made its point coherently, the takeaway will be clear to everyone. They should takeaway something that inspires Christian faith and increases their knowledge of God. It should make a contribution to fight the good fight of the faith (1 Tim. 6:12) in our cultural context. A message should thus purpose to provide a God given benefit that people can understand and use to strengthen their Christian faith. Again, Graham made the takeaway so clear that everyone understood what the Gospel meant and required. Throughout the changing decades, he invited people to come just as you are. Even those who declined were cognizant of Grahams intended takeaway.

Am I owning the takeaway?

Surely, a preacher should acknowledge ones own intentions to fulfil the takeaway, and to strive personally towards a deeper Christian faith. As Paul said, Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own (Philip. 3:12). A preachers own character cannot help but be imbedded in the message. For example, a message on the virtue of Christian humility requires of the preacher to appreciate the intended commitment that acknowledges the pitfalls of pride. Such a message would come from a personal framework that appreciates the joys of pleasing God, even at the expense of our own egos.



When a preacher is wholeheartedly committed to the proposed call to action, it will be reflected in the point made to congregants.

Is Gods voice in the message?

Throughout history, inspiring messages are remembered for how they seemed to come from a divine source. You can still read the classic sermons of the giants of preaching, Spurgeon, Wesley, Edwards, and others, whose voices seemed to have a distinct anointing. Its as if their voices were plugged into the Spirit. They also grasped their Lords teaching insomuch that their people could experience similarily what was said of Jesus: No one ever spoke like this man! (John 7:46).



These preachers walked closely with God and so had a heightened discernment of the applicability of Scripture for their contextual challenges. Today, personal hunger for God will likewise provide insights of Christian faith for us and then we can translate their relevancy for our challenging times. When God speaks through us, congregants cannot help but note that something inspiring was indeed communicated.

Conclusion

Mainstream culture has purposed to make preachers feel embarrassed of their message. Its not time to dilute messages in order to please cultural thought. Its time for devout preachers to double down on their biblical convictions. Its time to allow the Spirit to liberate us from cultural intimidation. Its time to study how to articulate the ageless message of the Gospel, with intelligence, insight, and cultural discernment. Its time to take our preaching to the next level of cogency. Its also time to have a real sense of urgency. As Paul said, For if I preach the Gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel! (1 Cor. 9:16).

Great preachers have always been personally devoted to their Christian faith. They remained conscious of being Christians first, preachers and teachers second. May we purpose to be likewise in our times.
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Press Release

October 3, 2023 "Kahit saang sulok ng Pilipinas, tutulong ako sa abot ng aking makakaya," says Bong Go as he aids fire victims in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi Senator Christopher "Bong" Go, through a relief operation conducted by his staff, provided assistance to 653 fire victims in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi on Tuesday, September 26. The distribution activity was held at Barangay Pag-asa covered court where the fire victims received food packs and drinking water. There were also select recipients of a bicycle, a mobile phone, and a new pair of shoes from the senator. Meanwhile, a team from the National Housing Authority conducted an on-site assessment where qualified families may receive necessary housing assistance to help them rebuild their homes. "Yung mga mag-qualify ay maaaring mabigyan ng National Housing Authority ng ayuda pambili ng housing materials tulad ng pako, yero at iba pa upang maisaayos muli ang kanilang mga tirahan," Go said in a video message. Go has emphasized that the modernization of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) represents a substantial advancement in strengthening the capabilities of first responders. Republic Act No. 11589, also known as the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) Modernization Act was authored and co-sponsored by Go in the Senate. The mandated modernization program includes procurement of new fire equipment, expansion of manpower, and conduct of specialized training for firefighters, among others. "Magdasal po tayo at ipagdasal po natin 'yung mga mahal natin sa buhay. Ang gamit po ay nabibili. Ang pera po ay kikitain rin po natin, magsipag lang tayo. Subalit 'yung perang kikitain ay hindi po nabibili ang buhay. Ang nawalang buhay po ay wala na. A lost life is a lost life forever," Go said. "Kahit saang sulok kayo ng Pilipinas, tutulong ako sa abot ng aking makakaya. Iyan po ang aking ipinangako sa Pilipino. Hindi ko po matiis na nakaupo lang po sa opisina habang ang mga kababayan natin dito ay nangangailangan po ng tulong," he added. Go, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, likewise urged those with health issues to visit Datu Halun Sakilan Memorial Hospital in the town where they can conveniently avail of medical assistance through the Malasakit Centers. There are currently 159 Malasakit Centers nationwide that have assisted over seven million poor and indigent Filipinos. The Malasakit Centers Act was principally authored and sponsored by Go to ensure that underprivileged Filipinos have convenient access to medical assistance programs from Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Health (DOH), Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). "Tutulungan ho kayo ng Malasakit Center at kung kailangan niyo po ng dagdag na tulong, lapitan niyo lang po ang aking opisina. Bukas po ang aking opisina para po sa inyong lahat. Nandirito lang po ako para magserbisyo sa inyo at tumulong sa abot ng aking makakaya," he reassured. Meanwhile, the senator also continues to push for the establishment of Super Health Centers nationwide. Through the efforts of fellow lawmakers, 307 Super Health Centers were funded in 2022 and another 322 in 2023 nationwide including two in Tawi-tawi. The centers offer database management, out-patient, birthing, isolation, diagnostic (laboratory: x-ray, ultrasound), pharmacy, and ambulatory surgical unit. Other available services are eye, ear, nose, and throat (EENT) service; oncology centers; physical therapy and rehabilitation center; and telemedicine, which makes remote diagnosis and treatment of patients possible. Lastly, the senator is the principal sponsor and one of the authors of the recently passed Republic Act 11959 or the Regional Specialty Centers Act. The said law mandates the establishment of Regional Specialty Centers within existing DOH regional hospitals. "It's a multiyear plan. Halimbawa, kung may problema sa heart, kidney, lung, neonatal, mental, ito pong mga ortho sa mga may karamdaman sa buto, o kahit cancer... ilalagay na po sa lahat ng DOH regional hospital sa buong Pilipinas ang mga specialty services na ito para ilapit po natin ang serbisyo medikal sa ating mga kababayan," explained Go.
Former Charity Commission chair Baroness Stowell has urged large charities to avoid contentious debates to halt a worrying divergence in public trust in the sector.

Speaking at a Conservative Party conference fringe event yesterday, Stowell said she had observed a worrying divergence in public trust when it comes to charities and this is affecting some people's propensity to give.

The reason why I'm highlighting this divergence, is because those who have a lower trust in charities are influenced so much by the big name charities, and more national brands and charities, that I think it's even more important that these larger charities recognise their responsibility for upholding the reputation and brand of charity as a whole, she said.

It's even more important in this potentially diverging picture, which I think is quite worrying, that they are conscious of not making that divergence worse, and staying out of contentious debates, where it is leading some people to feel sort of less confident in the charitable sector.

Also speaking at the event, backbench MPs urged greater government action to engage with the charity sector, including the creation of a minister for philanthropy.

Meanwhile, Charities Aid Foundation chief executive Neil Heslop called for a national strategy for philanthropy and charitable giving.

Stowell: We should not make everything a charity

Stowell said society shouldn't rush to try and make everything a charity.

I think there's been a trend over the last 20 years to turn things that might be a public service that is directly funded by the taxpayer into something which is a charitable thing, she said.

And I don't think that necessarily helps, I don't think it helps distinguish in people's mind the difference and distinctiveness of charity, which is, again, I think, important to generate people's confidence to give.

I think that it's incumbent on charities to be as open and as honest as possible about the tensions that exist in terms of sometimes where they have to invest money in order to create the opportunity to make a difference, not to be defensive about it to get on the front foot to show that they know the importance on them of being accountable to the people that they're relying on to do the good work that they want them to do.

Damian Green, Conservative MP for Ashford, said: We need to extend the debate beyond simply the provision of money to charities and people with philanthropic impulses [...]

And that's particularly true of older people who are fitter for longer, and who seek to have some kind of purpose in later life, but it's also true of others as well. And that use of time for charitable volunteering is absolutely ideal.

Minister for philanthropy

Jo Gideon, Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, said: I would join the call for a more positive approach to philanthropy from government, and possibly even a minister for philanthropy. Because I think that we need to harness the good.

In Britain, we have a different attitude to wealth and therefore to philanthropy. We don't praise the wealthy for donating, we criticise them for being so wealthy and that is the fundamental problem I think that sits deep within our culture.

Green also said Britain did not have the same philanthropic culture as countries such as the USA.

He said it was an observable fact that individuals, particularly successful individuals in the USA, feel an instinctive obligation to donate because they have done well out of the way that society is run.

If we want that kind of culture, we're not only going to have to become a much lower tax society with all the implications that has about public services and what we expect from our welfare state, but also change our attitude to the institutions that we go through in our lives, he said.

Green said that the government would do better to try and start changing the culture to make sure that people regarded it as part of their civic duty to do this, and particularly people who have the advantages of financial stability.

CAF: Government should bring in a national strategy

Neil Heslop, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, said the government should consider bringing forward a national strategy for philanthropy and charitable giving.

He said the UK had a smaller proportion of our society giving on a regular basis and philanthropy is therefore crucial.

The whole question of philanthropy policy is not one that is traditionally very high on the public agenda, he said.

But we think at this point in our history, it's important that it is raised up and put on people's agenda, really, because we're at a very important point in the sector's history.

Heslop called on the government to see the sector in its entirety for the potential that it offers.

He said the sector is very often invisible in economic terms and it has much greater potential than we have yet fully realised and part of that is because the way that the government operates means the connection between its economic contribution is difficult to recognise in government statistics.

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In November 2021, Disclose, an investigative news organization in France, published a five-part series called the Terror Memos. The site reported, based on confidential government documents, that a few years ago, the French intelligence services collected information on behalf of the autocratic government of Egypt as part of a counterterrorism operationonly for Egyptian officials to use the intelligence to target and kill civilians, including drug- and people-traffickers, in the border region between Egypt and Libya. French law enforcement subsequently opened an investigation, on the grounds that the leak may have compromised national security secrets and risked revealing the identity of a protected agent. But French officials never denied that the documents in Discloses possession were genuine.

Two weeks ago this morning, at 6am local time, a squad of intelligence agents and magistrates with counterterrorism responsibilities showed up at the home of Ariane Lavrilleux, a journalist who worked on the investigation, in Marseille. The agents brought with them equipment capable of accessing data from electronic devices, according to Lavrilleux, who said she learned that officials had been surveilling her for some time. The agents took Lavrilleux into detention for forty hours, before releasing her without taking further action (at least for now). Around the same time, officials went after a former military functionary, apparently on suspicion that he was among Lavrilleuxs sources; last week, a judge ruled that much of the material the agents took from Lavrilleuxs home could go forward as evidence in the case. Lavrilleux said she was bemused as to how the case had cleared the high bar of public interest that French authorities must satisfy to go after a journalists sources. She described the judges ruling as scandalous.

This was not the first time that the French state had attempted to surveil or interrogate a journalist: as far back as the seventies, intelligence agents disguised as plumbers were caught trying to bug the offices of the satirical and investigative magazine Le Canard enchaine in an episode that came to be known as Watergaffe; since President Emmanuel Macron took office in 2017, various investigative reporters, including several from Disclose, have been raided or summoned for official questioning in a bid to learn more about their sources. Indeed, mere hours after Lavrilleux was released, police in Lille summoned three journalists from Liberation in connection with a series of stories they wrote about a police killing.

But the extent of the action against Lavrilleux was unprecedented, as various French journalists associations have noted. And the timing was inauspicious. Today marks the start of a sweeping consultation on the right to news and information in France thatwhile independently overseen, including by the head of Reporters Without Borderswas set up by Macron, who promised during his reelection campaign to help journalists fulfill their essential mission, and whose office launched the initiative earlier this year by situating it in the tradition of the French Revolution.

And, more broadly, today also marked a key vote in the European Parliament, the legislative chamber of the European Union, on a new law, itself sweeping, that is aimed at buttressing press freedom across the bloc but that various countries, including France, have been accused of trying to water down. Together, these recent developments, among others, show that press freedom in the EU is more fragile and contested than the blocs reputation for liberal values might suggest. Two years ago, after several journalists were killed in EU member statesincluding Daphne Caruana Galizia, in Malta; Jan Kuciak, in Slovakia; and Peter R. de Vries, in the NetherlandsI wrote that lofty official rhetoric doesnt always keep members of the media safe. Such rhetoric, it turns out, isnt even a defense against official hypocrisy.



In September 2021, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, which is part of the EUs executive arm, name-checked Caruana Galizia, Kuciak, and de Vries in her annual State of the Union address, and described press freedom as giving voice to all other freedoms. She pledged action to protect those who create transparencythe journalists. A year later, the commission put forward a proposal, called the European Media Freedom Act, which it said would protect media pluralism and independence in the EU, including by requiring that member states protect journalists sources, bolstering the independence and funding of public broadcasters across the bloc, and ensuring strong safeguards around the use of spyware against journalists. Vera Jourova, the Commissions vice president for values and transparency, said that no journalist should be spied on because of their job.

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The proposal followed other recent EU efforts to protect journalists safety and clamp down on nuisance lawsuits, as well as separate legislation regulating content on big online platforms (which my colleagues Mathew Ingram and Jem Bartholomew have covered recently). Among press-freedom watchers, the initial reaction was broadly positive, with some reservations; various experts picked over the new proposals technical provisions, not least a section that, they warned, could restrict platforms ability to moderate disinformation by allowing its peddlers to self-define as legitimate news.

Then, over the summer, an EU body that brings together ministers from member states published revisions to the proposal that, among other things, would grant national officials greater latitude to use spyware against journalists on security grounds. Press-freedom groups warned that this new language would be open to abuse; according to an analysis by Reporters Without Borders, it would also expand the field of investigations in which officials can spy on journalists, from those involving only the most serious crimes to a list that includes the trafficking of cars and hormonal substances. According to The Guardian and other outlets, France pushed hard for the new language, as did the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, and Greece, where powerful spyware has recently been used against reporters.

Since then, the proposed legislation has gone through review by committees and lawmakers in the European Parliament, many of whom have criticized the idea of broad spying powers. A couple of hours ago, the Parliament voted to approve a revised text that would, according to a press release, justify the use of spyware against journalists only as a last resort measure, on a case-by-case basis, and if ordered by an independent judicial authority to investigate a serious crime, such as terrorism or human trafficking. Under the EUs byzantine procedures, the final language will now be subject to negotiation among the Parliament and national leaders.

Some critics, however, think that even the Parliaments language does not go far enough, and would prefer a blanket ban on the use of spyware against journalistsand in any case, member states retain ultimate power over their national security, making a ban of any description hard to enforce. And if the negotiations drag out, they could run into two potential buzz saws: elections next summer to the European Parliament, and the ascent shortly afterward of Hungarywhose authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, has clamped down on independent journalismto the rotating presidency of the European Council, a position that comes with agenda-setting power.

In the past, Hungary has been accused of targeting journalists using Pegasus, a particularly potent spyware tool whose Israeli manufacturer, NSO Group, has been blacklisted by the Biden administration. Other EU governments are also clients of NSO; recently, critics of the use of such tools, including prominent figures in the European Parliament, have urged the bloc to regulate their use, and ban them at least in the meantime, but the area remains unresolved. The use of spyware against journalists is only one facet of the broader European Media Freedom Act, but it is a particularly important one. Recently, we were reminded why.



In February, Galina Timchenko, the cofounder and publisher of Meduza, an independent Russian news site that operates from Latvia, attended a confidential meeting with other exiled Russian journalists in Berlin. Months later, she received a notification from Apple warning that her phone had been the target of a state-sponsored hack. Meduzas technical team contacted Access Now and Citizen Lab, two outside organizations that specialize in tracing such attacks, and concluded that Timchenkos phone was infected with Pegasus shortly before the meeting.

Timchenko was the first Russian journalist known to have been infected with Pegasus, and initially, the likeliest explanation seemed to be that the Kremlin was responsible, directly or indirectly. (Who else cares about me? Timchenko remembers thinking.) But NSO has said that Russia is not a client, and while the companys word is hardly gospel, there are good reasons why this would be the case, not least that Russia has potent spyware capabilities of its own. According to The Guardian, Timchenko and her colleagues at Meduza now believe that a European state likely surveilled her. Germany and Estonia are believed to have access to Pegasus. So is Latvia, Meduzas host country, which is home to many independent Russian journalists but has recently treated some of them with suspicion.

Meduza only has circumstantial evidence for this proposition, and if an EU member state did hack Timchenko, it may be impossible to prove which one. That the idea is plausible, however, reflects poorly enough on press freedom in the bloc. So, too, in a related but slightly different vein, does Frances treatment of Lavrilleux. Also today, protesters were scheduled to take to the streets in several French cities, including Marseille, in defense of press freedom. In an interview with 20 Minutes, Lavrilleux noted the coincidence of the timing with the European Parliament vote and the opening of Frances news and information consultation. Todays rallies, she said, are another opportunity to remind people and to put the protection of sources on the agenda.



Some news from the home front: Kyle Pope, CJRs editor and publisher for the past seven years, has told the publications staff that he plans to step down later this month. A statement from him follows:

It has been a great privilege to edit CJR during seven of the most challenging years for journalism, from the rise of authoritarianism in the US and around the world to the challenges of social media and the crisis in local news. Through it all, CJR has stayed true to its twin goals of advocating for the free press and serving as a watchdog of journalism.

Now I have decided to devote my energies to another urgent crisis before us. Four years ago, I cofounded Covering Climate Now, a collaborative aimed at helping journalists produce more and better coverage of the most important story of our time. Much progress has been made. But the need remains urgent, which is why later this month, Ill be leaving CJR to join the Covering Climate Now leadership team full-time.

Ill have more to say in coming weeks about what Ive learned over the last seven years at CJR. But for now, I simply want to say thank you to our funders and board, particularly Rebecca Blumenstein, our chair, and Steve Adler before her; to Jelani Cobb, Steve Coll, and everyone at the Columbia Journalism School; and most of all to CJRs staff and contributors, who have ensured that the review has remained the most authoritative source of journalism news and analysis in the world.

You can read more about Kyles new role at Covering Climate Now here.



Other notable stories:

ICYMI: In defense of the Taylor Swift and Beyonce beats

Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
PALEMBANG, Indonesia (AP)  More than 300 forest and peatland fires on Indonesia`s Sumatra island caused hazy skies across the region on Monday, prompting government officials to ask people to work from home.

The military, police and local government were working together to extinguish the fires, which were burning in 316 places across South Sumatra province, but their work was complicated by the extreme dry weather, said Iriansyah, the head of the South Sumatra Disaster Management Agency.

The smoky haze drifted from the fires toward Palembang, the capital of South Palembang province, causing unhealthy air conditions for the area`s 1.7 million people.

There is a high potential for people to suffer from respiratory tract infections, coughing, shortness of breath and eye irritation, said Iriansyah, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

The government in South Sumatra last week called on schools to delay their opening time, as the haze tends to decrease during the day. But on Monday, the schools asked students to attend classes online, as the air quality had worsened and was categorized as dangerous.

We are worried as the haze is getting worse in Palembang.  Many children are sick and we can only pray that this disaster will pass quickly, Umi Kalsum, a private sector worker and mother, told The Associated Press on Monday.

Forest and peat fires are an annual problem in Indonesia that strains relations with neighboring countries. Smoke from the fires has blanketed parts of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and southern Thailand. Some parts of Malaysia said they experienced smoke from the Indonesian fires since last week.

Malaysia`s Environment Department chief Wan Abdul Latiff Wan Jaffar last week said the return of smog in some parts of the country was due to hundreds of forest fires in Indonesia.

Overall, air quality in the country has deteriorated, he said in a statement. Forest fires that occur in the southern part of Sumatra and the central and southern parts of Kalimantan, Indonesia have caused haze to cross borders.

But Siti Nurbaya Bakar, Indonesia`s Environment and Forestry Minister, said in a statement on Monday there has been no transboundary haze from Indonesia to Malaysia.

Satellite data from Indonesias Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency shows that the haze in Indonesia was in several areas in Sumatra and Borneo islands. Wind direction in Indonesia is generally from southeast to northwest- northeast.

We continue to follow developments and there is no transboundary haze to Malaysia, she said.

She added that authorities are working on the ground and in the air to put out the fires in South Sumatra, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan provinces, including some areas in Java.

Indonesias National Disaster Management Agency in September said that there are six provinces in Indonesia where forest and peatland fires are most common, including South Sumatra province, where a big peatland fire burned for days in August.

Tarigan reported from Jakarta, Indonesia. Associated Press journalist Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)  Tropical Storm Philippe is threatening to unleash heavy rains and flash flooding in the northeastern Caribbean on Monday before eventually spinning north into the open Atlantic, where it could strengthen into a hurricane around midweek, forecasters say.

The storm was about 80 miles (130 kilometers) east-southeast of Barbuda late Monday morning. Top sustained winds were at 50 mph (85 kph) with higher gusts, and Philippe was moving west-northwest at 7 mph (11 kph).

A tropical storm warning was issued for Barbuda, meaning that tropical storm conditions were expected on that island within 12 hours. A tropical storm watch was in effect for Antigua, meaning that such conditions were possible in that area. Forecasters said people in the northern Leeward Islands should monitor the storm`s progress as Philippe`s center was forecast to pass near or just northeast of the archipelago on Monday night.

The warning for Barbuda was issued as the storm moved a bit further west than initially expected, with the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology saying Philippe has not been a well-behaved storm or predictable in its trajectory. Initially it was projected to hit Puerto Rico as a depression.

Philippe was forecast to turn north-northwest by late Tuesday and then north on Wednesday into open waters.

Rainfall amounts expected through Tuesday include 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters) for Antigua and Barbuda and 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) for the rest of the Leeward Islands, the hurricane center reported.

Heavy rainfall from Philippe also could produce isolated to scattered flash flooding across Antigua and Barbuda through Tuesday, according to the advisory.

Officials in the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe warned of copious rains starting Monday afternoon, with accumulation of up to 4 inches (10 millimeters) in some areas.

Forecasters said strong wind shear is expected to prevent Philippe from strengthening in coming days, but shifting conditions could allow it to become a hurricane later in the week.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
This year, the Cook County docket has seen an influx of class action claims seeking redress under an older Illinois privacy statute, the Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA), no doubt due to the statutes extreme statutory damage provisions. GIPA, enacted in 1998, provides a private right of action and permits recovery for actual damages or for statutory damages of $2,500 per negligent violation and $15,000 per intentional or reckless violation of the statute. The potential for massive awards has clearly caught the eye of the plaintiffs bar. Indeed, despite sporadic filings over the past decade, nearly 30 cases have been brought under GIPA in 2023 in Cook County alone, the majority of which have been filed in the last two months.

GIPA contemplates even greater damage awards than another oft-litigated Illinois privacy statute, the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which allows statutory damages of up to $1,000 for each negligent violation, and up to $5,000 for each intentional or reckless violation.[1] The stated goal of GIPA is to facilitate voluntary and confidential nondiscriminatory use of genetic information and encourage the exchange of records to improve patient health care and care coordination. 735 ILCS 513/5(4) and (5). As a means to this end, the statute proscribes the transfer and disclosure of genetic information without explicit written consent. Additionally, and significantly, the statute prohibits insurers from using genetic testing for non-therapeutic or underwriting purposes and prohibits employers from soliciting or requiring genetic testing as a condition of employment and/or using genetic testing to affect terms of employment.

The term genetic testing in the statute is extracted from HIPAA and includes: the individuals genetic tests; genetic tests of family members; the manifestation of a disease or disorder in family members; and requests for or receipts of genetic services by the individual or the individuals family member.

The lawsuits filed in the past year follow the same general format and allege that certain employers requested family medical histories as a part of hiring processes in which physicals are required. One plaintiffs firm compares these hiring practices to the dystopia portrayed in the 1997 film Gattaca, in which individuals are classified as valids or in-valids depending on their individual genetic profiles. In the film, these genetic profiles determine what type of employment each individual can pursue. These lawsuits ask the courts to view family histories taken as part of an employer-mandated physical as propelling society toward this dystopian future.

As dramatic as this claim may be, the potential for annihilating damages could make these cases equally dramatic for employers in Illinois.

Takeaways:

Class action filings seeking damages under GIPA have increased drastically in the past year. Employers should evaluate whether they are collecting genetic information of employees, including through physicals required for certain positions. Take caution: disregarding the provisions of GIPA could subject employers to fines of up to $15,000 per violation of the statute.

Footnote: [1] BIPA specifically excludes biological materials regulated under GIPA. See 740 ILCS 14/10.
A California appellate court ruled again Monday that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can cause direct physical loss or damage to property, notching a rare policyholder for a real estate business seeking coverage for business income lost because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A panel of the 2nd District of the Court of Appeal reversed a decision by the Los Angeles County Superior Court to dismiss a breach-of-contract and bad faith lawsuit filed by JRK Property Holdings against 13 insurers that together provided business-interruption coverage for up to $250 million.

The panel ruled in an unpublished portion of its opinion that the COVID virus can cause a direct physical loss or damage, a finding that it has made in previous cases. A published portion of the ruling found that a pollution exclusion in the insurance policy did not bar coverage for a loss caused by viruses.

On the other hand, the panel upheld the Superior Courts dismissal of complaints against two insurers  RSUI Indemnity Co. and Evanston Insurance Co.  that had pathogen exclusions in their policies. It remanded JRKs lawsuit against its other 11 insurers back to the trial court.

JRK owned 100 hotel and residential properties in 22 states when the coronavirus forced a shutdown of nonessential businesses in early 2020. In May 2021, the company filed a lawsuit against its insurers after they failed to pay its claim for income lost because of those shutdowns, alleging breach of contract and bad faith.

JRK said in its civil complaint that it had 178 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at its residential properties. At least 60 of its residential properties had at least one positive test result from a resident. The company alleged it was statistically certain that the COVID virus was present on all of its properties.

While most state and federal courts have ruled that a virus cannot cause a direct physical loss or damage that is compensable under a commercial property insurance policy, California appellate courts have been divided on the question.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled in several cases that SARS-CoV-2 can cause a direct physical loss or damage if it is physically present on a property. The panel cited previous 2nd District rulings that found the virus that causes COVID can cling to surfaces for up to 28 days and cannot be removed by simple cleaning.

JRK similarly alleged the COVID-19 virus hangs in the air and attaches to property for extended periods of time, the opinion says. Studies have shown that fomitesphysical surfaces that promote infectioncan become infectious on a whole range of surfaces, including stainless steel, wood, paper, plastic, glass, ceramic, cardboard, and cloth, many of which are used throughout JRKs properties 

The opinion notes that the California Supreme Court will eventually have the last word when it rules in three appeals that it has accepted for review. But in the meantime, the opinion says, JRK pleadings are sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss, called a demurrer in California. The appellate panel directed the 11 insurers whose dismissal motions were reversed to pay JRKs legal costs on appeal.
ROCKY RIVER, Ohio -- Ever wonder about the effects of social media on adolescents? Rocky River parents got some answers Sept. 27 during a Town Hall meeting at the Beach School Professional Development Center in Rocky River.

Authors and researchers Dr. Emily Weinstein, a psychologist, and Dr. Carrie James, a sociologist, joined the Town Hall via Zoom. They shared information gleaned from detailed interviews with adolescents and teens on how they view social media and, more importantly, how they really react to it themselves and with their peers and parents.

The presentation, and also the name of Weinsteins and James book, was entitled Behind Their Screens -- What Teens are Facing and What Adults are Missing.

There didnt seem to be much good news about what teens are seeing online, beginning with pornography at about age 12.

Superintendent Michael Shoaf, Assistant Superintendent Elizabeth Anderson and Communications Specialist Greg Murphy were in the room with several dozen residents.

The authors were clearly on top of their research and, after relating teen experiences, provided some important information. One blatant piece of data, they said, was that TikTok is the most dangerous social media. It sucks them into more and more activity and pulls them in to the point that the content becomes a struggle.

They urged Rocky River students to share with their parents all they see and do on social media. And parents should practice with their kids responses to what they may see and hear and to what they may be pressured into doing.

It was also noted that parents should listen carefully to what their kids most want them to understand.

After the presentation, Anderson relayed some questions to Weinstein and James. It probably would have taken a lot more time for them to continue answering questions from parents, as social media was clearly represented as something that will go on and has some very negative elements that can hurt children and have negative impacts in both the schools and in families.

Shoaf noted afterward, It was wonderful to see many of our parents and community members attend the Town Hall meeting, and I hope everyone was able to learn some new concepts about helping teens make informed decisions about their online activities.

The presentation was very insightful, and the speakers did an excellent job summarizing the key themes and takeaways from the book.

It was great to hear the speakers emphasize the need for open and honest communication between parents and their children.

The book is available on Amazon.com. The reviews are worth reading, as many gave compliments not only to their research, but also to their advice.

Read more from the West Shore Sun.
SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Construction likely wont begin until 2027, but the Lee Road Action Plan continues to generate a lot of buzz and, already, some recognition in the larger urban planning and development community.

With the $26 million infrastructure portion of the project set to go into the engineering and design phase late next year, the Ohio Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA Ohio) last week gave the 2023 Best Practice award to Shaker Heights for its community engagement effort.

Shaker Heights Planning Director Joyce Braverman also picked up the APA Ohio Presidents Award for the work that has spanned her entire career and also includes the equally catalytic Van Aken District, laid out in stages as Shakers new downtown.

Those accolades came Sept. 29, but two days earlier, the Northeast Ohio Chapter of Women in Transportation Seminar (WTS) International bestowed another award upon Braverman and two of her colleagues, who have all assisted in putting the Lee Road Action Plan together.

Shaker Heights Principal Planner Kara Hamley ODonnell, City Economic Development Director Laura Englehart and Braverman teamed up to receive the WTS Innovative Transportation Solutions Award, recognizing a major transportation project led by women.

The Lee Road Action Plan came into existence over the course of two years that included extensive community engagement, Braverman noted in a city press release.

We are grateful that this project has received so much local support and now regional and state recognition, too, Braverman said.

But it was years in the making before that, APA Ohio officials noted, citing longstanding mistrust by residents who felt neglected, left out and overlooked for the investment they saw elsewhere, especially after the housing market crash and Great Recession of 2008.

Over the last decade, the City of Shaker Heights has dedicated staff to creating sustained engagement, supporting neighbors, fostering partnerships and building trust.

This led to a multi-pronged approach, conceived to show the city listened to input, set expectations for involvement in future plans and solidified that citizens can affect the future of their neighborhoods, the APA Ohio award summary noted.

Approved in March, the Lee Road Action Plan creates a vision for the comprehensive transformation of Lee Road south of Van Aken Boulevard in Shaker Heights into a thriving commercial district that is attractive, walkable, bikeable and transit-friendly, city officials stated.

Developed over three phases, the robust public process reached out to residents in nearby neighborhoods, as well as business and property owners on Lee Road.

Almost 700 individuals participated via in-person and virtual meetings. Nearly 2,400 respondents participated in online polls and a survey.

Residents of the Moreland and Lomond neighborhoods in Shaker Heights deserve to be proud of this plan, which was prepared with their active involvement throughout the planning process, noted APA Ohios jurors.

Back at the Presidents Award, jurors also commended Braverman for uniting transit-oriented development, parks and recreational planning, grant-writing, both short- and long-term planning, zoning, design guidelines, transit infrastructure and public participation to transform the city.

And this was done all while constantly looking towards a sustainable future, APA Ohio officials further noted.

There is also the regional collaboration with the City of Cleveland that recently resulted in a $4.7 million joint grant application for a connecting bikeway earning Regional Priority status as part of the Shaker Heights Lee Road Action Plan.

The combined effort received the highest bonus points from the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) Board of Directors last month, with nearly $1.4 million now in the pipeline for Shaker and $3.3 million coming to Cleveland.

Both cities worked out a plan for a protected bikeway along the west side of Lee Road that will now extend from the Chagrin-Lee corridor south to Harvard Road.

Meanwhile, the city continues to look for additional funding sources on the Lee Road Action Plan to reduce the local share on the infrastructure, with nearly $18 million amassed so far.

We are not immediately going to have a new corridor with private development that springs up overnight, Englehart told City Council earlier.

Public investment spurs private investment, but that will take time. And how that evolves will take some art and some science.

AppleFest returns

The Shaker Historical Societys AppleFest community festival will make its return Saturday (Oct. 7) from noon to 4 p.m., a free, family-friendly event will be held on museum grounds at 16740 South Park Blvd., just east of Lee Road.

Organizers noted that the site was actually home to Shaker apple orchards in the 19th century, and promises a festive afternoon filled with lively entertainment, fun activities, and delicious baked goods.

AppleFest is a revival of a fall festival held annually from 1989-1998 that celebrates the legacy of the North Union Shakers in present-day Shaker Heights, a press release noted.

In 2022, the Shaker Historical Society welcomed nearly 350 people from all over Northeast Ohio to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Shaker village and the 75th anniversary of the society.

This year, the museum is excited to partner with many community organizations, including the Shaker Heights Public Library, Cleveland Metroparks, Hale Farm and Village, Larchmere Fire Works, and Lake Erie Ink to offer a full schedule of activities and demonstrations.

AppleFest also marks the opening of Musings: Drawings from the Great Pause, an exhibition featuring local artist Nancy Schwartz-Katzs everyday reflections through observational sketches done during the pandemic.

To keep her art fresh during the COVID-19 pandemic, Schwartz-Katz began a Drawing a Day project in her sketchbooks.

Musings is made possible in part by state tax dollars allocated by the Ohio Legislature to the Ohio Arts Council (OAC).

For more information, visit www.shakerhistory.org.

Read more from the Sun Press.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  A man wanted in connection with two homicides, including the fatal shooting of a 3-year-old last week, has been arrested, police say.

Devonte Parker, 28, was taken into custody Monday by police and members of the U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force, according to a Cleveland police spokesman. Police did not say where Parker was arrested.

Parker is the latest person taken into custody in connection with the shooting death of 3-year-old Luis Diaz on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, in Clevelands Stockyards neighborhood. Juan Davis, 35, of Cleveland Heights, is charged with aggravated murder and is being held in jail on a $2 million bond. Katherine Treadway, 30, of Cleveland, is charged with murder and is being held on a $500,000 bond.

On Thursday, Luis was inside a vehicle with his mother and 11-month-old brother when a car sped down the street and sprayed bullets, police said. Luis, who was shot in the back through his car seat, was pronounced dead at MetroHealth Medical Center, police say.

A man standing near the vehicle was also shot but survived.

Luis death is the fifth reported homicide this year for a toddler 3 years old or younger in Cleveland. His death is also the only one that stemmed from a shooting.

Parker also is a suspect in the May 21 shooting death of Jalen Dalton, 29, in the citys St. Clair-Superior neighborhood on the East Side. Dalton was shot in the neck and arm while sitting in his vehicle at about 2:10 p.m. in the 900 block of East 75th Street, police said.

Police said Dalton was in a car with another man when they began arguing with people in another vehicle. The people in the cars then began shooting at each other. The car Dalton was in crashed into a pole after the shooting.
GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio  A Columbus man was arrested Monday after he hid cameras in a childs home in order to record the victim nude, police say.

Brian Trissel, 51, is charged with pandering obscenity involving a minor, tampering with evidence, and voyeurism, according to Franklin County Municipal Court records. He is being held in the Franklin County jail.

Police say the victim, whose age and gender were not released, told another person on Aug. 31 they had discovered what they believed to be hidden cameras in their residence in Grandview Heights, a suburb of Columbus. The cameras reportedly were set up to record the victim in a private setting and in various states of nudity.

Police say the person the victim contacted is mandated by law to contact police.

Evidence recovered by detectives identified Trissel as a suspect, police say. Its believed he made numerous recordings of the victim while they were nude over a long period of time, according to police.

Police did not say how Trissel knows the child, but said there is no evidence there are other victims.
WASHINGTON, D. C.  Ohio Congress members from both political parties expressed exasperation with U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetzs successful bid to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday and said they want to focus on governing the country instead of feuding.

Gaetz, a Florida Republican who opposed selecting McCarthy as speaker in January, on Monday filed a motion to vacate the speakership. It triggered votes on Tuesday to decide whether Californias McCarthy could keep the job.

The measure to remove McCarthy passed the House of Representatives by a 216-210 margin, as eight Republicans voted with Democrats. None of Ohios Republicans voted to remove McCarthy. It was the first time in history that a House Speaker has been unseated through a motion to vacate.

If you throw a Speaker out that has 99% of their conference, that kept government open and paid the troops, I think were in a really bad place, McCarthy said before the vote.

After a House Democratic caucus meeting on Tuesday, Democrats said they wouldnt bail out McCarthy.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York called on Republicans who claim to be to more traditional to break from the extremists.

End the chaos, end the dysfunction, end the extremism, Jeffries told reporters. We are ready, willing and able to work together with our Republican colleagues, but it is on them to join us to move the Congress and the country forward.

A group of 11 Republicans, including Ohios Warren Davidson, voted with the legislative bodys Democrats against tabling Gaetzs resolution to get rid of McCarthy. That set up the final vote on McCarthy as speaker. But Davidson subsequently voted with the rest of Ohios Republicans against forcing McCarthy to leave his post.

All Ohio Democrats voted to oust McCarthy, except for Akons Emilia Sykes who missed the vote. A spokesperson for Sykes said she was dealing with a personal family matter and wasnt able to get to the Capitol before votes ended. A statement from Sykes said she would have supported Gaetzs resolution.

My constituents deserve a Speaker of the House who will work together with any member, no matter their party, to find common ground and bipartisan solutions, said a statement from Sykes. People in my district simply dont care about partisan infighting between House Republicans. They care about paying their bills, putting food on the table, accessing affordable healthcare, and feeling safe in their communities. Instead of wasting time with political games, Im focused on addressing the real problems my constituents face.

The Republicans who teamed up with Democrats to remove McCarthy were Gaetz, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Matt Rosendale of Montana.

Davidson, a Miami County Republican who voted against the weekend spending deal that kept the government open, suggested on social media that McCarthy and Gaetz might still be able to unite to accomplish the partys goals.

He proposed that Republicans strive to vote on all 12 government funding bills by Nov. 17, and if it doesnt succeed in signing those bills into law before expiration of the temporary funding measure passed over the weekend, pass a new temporary bill that would cut government spending by 1%.

If our conference wont fight for our bills, there will never be a negotiation with the Senate, Davidson wrote. I believe this would produce the most effective alternative possible at this point. We only have a majority if we work together to use it.

While Gaetz denounced McCarthy as a failure and criticized him for not relying exclusively on Republican votes to pass the bill that stopped a government shutdown, most of Ohios GOP Congress members disagreed with that assessment and said they supported McCarthy.

McCarthy ally Dave Joyce, a South Russell Republican whom Gaetz attacked in a recent video, said that under McCarthys leadership, House Republicans delivered on their promise to pass bills that would reduce government spending, secure the nations border and fight the Chinese Communist Party.

He released a statement on Tuesday that described Gaetzs effort as nothing more than a tantrum aimed at personal and political gain. It stands contrary to the deep conservative values the one  or select few  espousing it claim to ardently defend.

Joyce urged Congress to instead focus its attention on passing all 12 appropriations bills through regular order, which is something that Gaetz himself has demanded.

Failure to consider them to entertain one members personal vendetta against the Speaker goes against the will of the American people and therefore the mandate of all elected representatives in this chamber, Joyce said. I continue to support not only Speaker McCarthy, but the office which he holds. These warrantless attacks threaten not only him, but the integrity of this entire institution.

Many other Ohio Republicans said they felt the same way.

Although Champaign County GOP Rep. Jim Jordan is friends with Gaetz, and describes him as a talented member of the Judiciary Committee that Jordan chairs, he told Bloomberg he thinks McCarthy has done a good job, and he doesnt support getting rid of him. Jordan also says he wants to stay on in his current job and wouldnt accept the speakers job.

Jordan said weve done what we told the American people we would do, under McCarthys leadership on issues such as passing tough border security and immigration legislation, and legislation that would deal with energy problems and cut the number of Internal Revenue Service agents, although the U.S. Senate hasnt acted on those bills.

He has kept his word. Jordan said on the House of Representatives floor. I think we should keep him as Speaker.

At every turn, @SpeakerMcCarthy has demonstrated the courage and relentless determination to unite our country and deliver on our Commitment to America, said a statement that Zanesville Republican Troy Balderson posted on social media. I stand with Kevin. Now lets get back to work!

Rep. Max Miller, a Rocky River Republican, made repeated social media posts to support McCarthy.

One post said Congress should focus on doing its job & not be distracted by personal agendas, and that the nation needs McCarthys strong leadership. Miller, a former White House aide to ex-President Donald Trump, stressed in a separate post that MAGA is not trying to remove McCarthy. He said Gaetz is putting himself first, instead of the United States.

It says a lot that Matt Gaetz and his small crew of supposed conservatives are speaking from the Democrat side of the House chamber, Miller wrote in another post. Instead of working on appropriations bills, we watch as Gaetz joins with Democrats to halt our conservative agenda.

U.S. Rep. Bob Latta, a Bowling Green Republican, posted a statement that praised McCarthys steady and principled leadership, and pledged to continue supporting and working alongside Speaker McCarthy in our mission to cut reckless spending, secure the border, and deliver results for the American people.

U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, a Dayton Republican who chairs the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, posted that Ousting @Speaker McCarthy is not the answer.

This year, @HouseGOP has cut $2 trillion in spending, streamlined energy permitting, and rolled back soft-on-crime laws, Turner said on social media. He will hold Democrats responsible for their open-door immigration policies that have created our border crisis.

U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, a Marietta Republican, dismissed the anti-McCarthy effort as a waste of time on personal vendettas.

This group did not come here to govern, they came here to get social media clicks and to advance themselves, said Johnson. We had an election for Speaker in January. It was settled. Its time to get back to the business the American people, who gave us a House majority, sent us here to do.

U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup, a Cincinnati Republican, posted a statement that said McCarthy is leading the way allowing us to vote for conservative priorities through regular order in the Peoples House. Were doing this in the face of a Democrat Senate and WH; we cant afford to hand the House over to Democrats too.

Even Ohio Democrats say theyre fed up with Gaetz.

Cincinnatis Greg Landsman describes Gaetz as a fire starter, who creates chaos for the sole purpose of getting on TV.

Attention should be put on working together, not on this guy, Landsman said on social media.

A statement from Rep. Shontel Brown, a Warrensville Heights Democrat, said Republican dysfunction is preventing the House of Representatives from fulfilling its responsibility to govern.

I hope todays somber events end this sad era so that we can advance an agenda that delivers results by putting people over politics, 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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COLUMBUS, Ohio  Planning on voting in Ohios Nov. 7 election, which will decide separate proposals to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and legalize recreational marijuana for adults?

The deadline to register to vote or update your registration is coming up soon.

That deadline is Tuesday, Oct. 10, and early voting begins the next day, Wednesday Oct. 11. Elections officials are reminding the public that elections offices and other government offices are closed on Monday, Oct. 9, in observation of Columbus Day, in case that affects voters plans.

Tony Perlatti, director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, said early voting requests for the Nov. 7 election so far are higher than they were at the same point ahead of the August election, which saw unusually high voter turnout for an off-year special election thanks to the presence of a controversial state ballot issue amendment that would have made it harder for future constitutional amendments to pass.

Through Monday, county elections officials had processed 27,641 vote-by-mail applications, compared to 18,347 at the equivalent time ahead of the August election. That leads Perlatti to believe that voter turnout in Cuyahoga County will exceed the 38% that cast ballots in August.

For November 2022 gubernatorial election, we had 47% turnout, and I think that is very realistic to see that for this election, Perlatti said.

While the Nov. 7 election could include a number of local ballot issues, all Ohioans will have the option of voting on State Issues 1 and 2. Issue 1 would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, almost certainly nullifying the states heartbeat abortion law that bans the procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy  although the law is on hold due to an ongoing legal challenge  while Issue 2 would change state law to legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 years and older.

Voting yes would approve each proposal while voting no would reject them.

How do I register to vote in Ohio?

You have options. Voters can register online at the Ohio Secretary of States Office website. If youre already registered to vote, its a good idea to check your registration to make sure its up to date. You can do that online, too.

To do either online, you will need to provide your:

Ohio drivers license or Ohio identification card number

Name

Date of birth

Current address

Last four digits of your social security number

Ohioans also can register to vote by mail. Here is a form you can print from the Ohio Secretary of States Office. You also can register in person at the Ohio Secretary of States Office, at your county board of elections, at Ohio BMV offices, public high schools or vocational schools, public libraries and any number of county government offices.

To be eligible to vote in Ohio, you must be a U.S. citizen at least 18 years old, live here for at least 30 days prior to the election you plan to vote in and be registered to vote for at least 30 days before that election.

What if I dont have an Ohio ID?

This presents complications, especially since Gov. Mike DeWine signed a new law in January requiring voters to show a photo ID in most instances. But its still possible to vote in Ohio without one. Some voter-rights groups have begun promoting ways to get around the law, often specifically targeting college students who came to Ohio for school from out of state.

First, if you want to get an in-state ID, you can visit your local Bureau of Motor Vehicles location. Theres an identity-verification process and a cost associated with getting an Ohio drivers license. But under the new voter ID law, Ohio also offers free state IDs to people who request them. Note, if you have an out-of-state drivers license, it will be canceled if you apply for an Ohio state ID, according to the BMV. Once you successfully apply for your ID, the BMV will give you a temporary ID you can use to vote while you wait the permanent one to arrive.

If you cant get an Ohio ID, you can register to vote without one, but you must do so by mail or in person. The state form offers voters the option of providing the last four digits of their social security number as proof of identity.

Ohios new voter ID law requires you to show one when you vote, but there is a workaround. You can vote by mail without an ID, again providing the last four digits of your social security number as proof of identity. Republicans left this exception in state law when they passed their photo ID law, citing senior citizens who vote by mail but no longer have valid drivers licenses.

Once Ive registered, what are my options to cast a ballot?

Voters can either vote early, by mail or in person, or on Election Day. Elections officials in Cuyahoga County encourage voters to consider voting by mail, because it reduces lines on Election Day and makes their jobs easier by spreading out administrative work.

How do I get an absentee ballot?

You have fill out a form to request a mail ballot, also called an absentee ballot, and return it to the board of elections office in your county. You have to provide the same information you do when you register to vote or update your registration.

You can request a form online at the Ohio Secretary of States Office. Or, Ohioans also can print this absentee ballot request form.

County boards of election also provide their own forms, such as this form from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

Any of those forms will work. But they have to be returned to the county board.

County elections offices will accept absentee ballot requests early. But they cant mail ballots to voters until Oct. 11.

One thing to consider: The address voters mark on their absentee ballot request must match the address where they are registered to vote. So voters who have moved since the last election should make sure to update their registrations before requesting an absentee ballot.

Are there common mistakes people make on the forms?

There are several. Voters filling out the form must provide their date of birth. Some voters incorrectly write in todays date when they do that.

Some people also forget to mark the correct election date. For this election, you have to mark November general election.

Some people also forget to sign the form and date it.

Is there a deadline to submit that?

The deadline to submit your absentee ballot request form is Tuesday Oct. 31. County boards of elections offices must have your form by the close of business that day, 8:30 p.m.

Can I keep track of my absentee ballot and whether the board of elections received my request?

Yes, you can track your absentee ballot online. The Ohio Secretary of States office has a tool where you can select your county. That will direct you to your local board of elections website, where you can look up the status of your ballot request or ballot.

What else is on the ballot this year?

This depends on where you live. In Cuyahoga County, a number of communities have local school levies and charter amendments, including Cleveland, which will vote on a participatory budgeting amendment that Republican state legislators have proposed blocking through a law change. Tony Perlatti, director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, said voters should still vote on the measure just in case the bill stalls, or in case the issue gets tied up in court if the bill and the charter amendment both pass.

Cuyahoga County also has a countywide tax issue: a 2.1-mill renewal and 0.4-mill increase for Cuyahoga Community College.

When does in-person early voting happen?

For the first, second and third weeks of early voting (Oct. 11-27), early-voting hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The hours are different for the final week, Oct. 30 through Nov. 5, although well publish those at a later date.

How do I know where to go to vote early in person?

Go to the board of elections office in your county. Here is a list of locations.

What if I want to vote on Election Day? Can I just do it the old-fashioned way?

Yes. Most Ohioans still vote on Election Day.

What forms of photo ID are acceptable for voting in person?

Acceptable forms of ID are an Ohio drivers license, the free Ohio identification card the state began offering as part of the photo ID requirement, a temporary ID issued by the BMV, a passport or passport card, or a U.S. or state military ID.

While some states accept them, college IDs are not acceptable in Ohio.

What if I request an absentee ballot and change my mind or forget to return it?

As long as you havent filled it out and returned it, you can still vote early and in-person.

Those going to vote early and in person can bring their blank ballots with them, and elections workers are required to try to collect them so they can be destroyed. But voters dont have to bring them, under guidance issued in 2020 by Secretary of State Frank LaRose.

You also can still vote in-person on Election Day. But youll have to cast whats called a provisional ballot, which means your vote wont be counted for days while elections workers verify you arent trying to vote twice.

Do I have to declare a political party when I vote?

No. The Nov. 7 election is a nonpartisan election.

Andrew Tobias covers state politics and government for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer
LYNDHURST, Ohio -- Legacy Village is up for sale.

The shopping center went on the market last week without an asking price, according to Mitchell Schneider, founder and executive chairman of First Interstate Properties.

Schneider said that a pension fund, which has been a partner in Legacy Village, decided that it wanted to offload some of its older holdings to put money into new projects.

Legacy Village opened in 2003 as an alternative to traditional indoor shopping malls at the time by offering streetfront stores and a center designed to be walkable much like Crocker Park that followed shortly after in Westlake.

The wide listing of current tenants includes retail stores such as Nordstrom Rack, L.L. Bean and Crate & Barrel, and restaurants such as the Cheescake Factory.

Twenty-two years is a long holding period for a pension fund, Schneider said, noting that that the relationship went back before the centers opening.

They have a number of projects that are in development and they have an interest in harvesting some capital from older investments that theyve made into some of their newer projects. Theyve been a great partner for a long period of time and were going along with their interest in trying to explore that.

Schneider did not name the pension fund.

He said that though things are very premature, there has been a lot of interest in the property. He hoped to find a new owner that could pay the right price and that can be a great steward and continue to maintain it as a thriving asset and, hopefully bring additional development to the site, and continue to add density grow the assets into the future.

First Interstate Properties holdings include also include Avon Commons, Steelyard Commons, among others. Earlier this year, Chris Goodrich was named president of the development company, taking over the position from Schneider.

A history of the estates and Legacy Village and the property site:

1917: The Boltons build Franchester Place on 110 acres.

1921-22: The Blossoms build Blossom Estate.

1985: TRW, Inc. buys the Bolton estate, eventually building its headquarters on the property

1991: Emily Elkins Blossom dies.

1992: TRW, Inc. buys the Blossom property.

November 2000: Lyndhurst voters narrowly approve zoning change to build Legacy Village on a portion of the property. It passes by 76 votes.

July 2002: Northrop Grumman Corp. buys TRW for $7.8 billion.

December 2002: TRW donates the Bolton property to the Cleveland Clinic and sells its remaining 67 acres to First Interstate.

October 24, 2003: Legacy Village opens.

Summer 2004: Legacy Village launches summer event series, including The Race, Legacy Live and The Taste of Legacy.

Summer 2005: Legacy debuts Art in the Village festival.

Megan Sims covers real estate for cleveland.com. See previous work at this link.

Also:

New apartment building may check a lot of boxes for those who want to live in Gordon Square

City Club of Cleveland readies its fresh, new space for opening next week in Playhouse Square

Clevelands Warner & Swasey building up for conceptual approval at Planning Commission
Sign up for Reckons latest newsletter dedicated to the fight for reproductive justice, a weekly repro rundown covering the good, the fair-to-middlin' and the ugly in repro news. Enter your email to subscribe to Reproductive Justice with Reckon.

The Ohio Supreme Court is hearing a case that could reinforce the states 6-week abortion ban, or fetal heartbeat law, making abortion in the state once again illegal once there is a detectable fetal heartbeat of the unborn human individual, according to the law. This comes a little over a month before the General Election, when Ohioans are set to vote on whether abortion will be constitutionally protected.

The abortion ban was first signed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019, but abortion providers filed an injunction soon after that, preventing the law from going into effect on the basis that it violated the constitutional rights that Roe v. Wade upheld. When Roe fell in June 2022, Atty. General Dave Yost asked the court to lift the injunction since the state now had newfound power to regulate abortion  and it did.

This ban was enforced for about three months until September 2022 when a restraining order came into play. Abortion is now allowed until 22 weeks, impending the state overrides the lower courts.

All the women of childbearing age in Ohio are at the mercy of four conservative justices on the state Supreme Court, said Sen. Kent Smith.

Why is six weeks problematic?

Not everyone knows theyre pregnant at six weeks. A study at the University of California-San Francisco found that 1 in 3 people find out theyre pregnant at six weeks or after, and two in three between the ages of 15-19 finding out after six weeks.

In Ohio, 25% of a sample of abortion patients didnt even know they were pregnant before six weeks, and about 80% got an abortion after six weeks. This group also had lower income and low education attainment, then those who found out sooner.

It leaves more chances for a pregnant person to be denied abortion only because they realized too late. Experts also say the phrasing of this policy is inaccurate.

According to Ohio Policy Evaluation Network (OPEN), the term fetal heartbeat is not a legitimate term. For one, at the 6 week gestation point an organism is considered an embryo, and not yet at the fetal stage. Secondly, an embryo at 6 weeks only measures around one or two millimeters and does not have a developed heart or cardiovascular system, so it cannot have a heartbeat. The activity an ultrasound picks up could be throbbing of tissue in the embryo, but it is not a formed organ, according to the Guardian.

Research also suggests that the anti-abortion laws present in Ohio are not representative of the opinions of those directly affected by it  women and birthing people of reproductive age in the state. According to research conducted by Dr. Mikaela Smith and her team, 59% agreed that safe and effective abortion should be available to people in their community. 69% agreed that a woman should not fear being arrested or going to jail for having an abortion.

However 52% said their view on abortion depends.

Traveling for care impacts access in the Midwest

Because Ohios current law doesnt hold exceptions for abortion, senator Smith explained the negative impact strict abortion bans have, pointing to the case of a 10-year-old Ohioan girl forced to travel to Indiana to terminate a pregnancy that resulted from rape.

I mean, we would be back to that type of scenario where parents would have to patients would have to travel for reproductive healthcare, regardless of age, law enforcement would be investigating miscarriages as potential murderers. Doctors could be getting prosecuted, senator Smith said.

When the six-week ban was enacted, most Ohioans seeking abortion care traveled to Michigan, Illinois or Pennsylvania, according to Dr. Mikaela Smith, Research Scientist at OPEN.

Dr. Smith points out that sometimes people travel to other states even in areas where abortion is legal just because its geographically closer than the closest clinic in their state, citing eastern Ohio, which borders Pennsylvania as an example.

So theres some natural interstate travel for abortion care but its when a whole state is not able to provide it and then you have all of these people traveling out of state, and then [thats] also putting additional pressure on the states in which abortion is still available, Dr. Smith said.

Illinois is reporting 1,140 more abortions per month post-Dobbs, as many other Midwestern states enacted strict abortion bans.

Theyre having to drive through multiple states sometimes to get care or they might have to even drive past clinics that are technically providing care, but because of wait times because of increased patient flow, said Dr. Smith.

An estimated 1,500 people were not able to access abortions in the state while the six-week ban was enforced, forcing the decision between traveling out of state, self-managing an abortion, or carrying the pregnancy to term. Self-managed abortions which result in emergency healthcare scenarios, could be subject to criminalization, and disproportionately impact BIPOC communities, especially Black pregnant people.

If the court decides to throw away this case Preterm-Cleveland v. David Yost, the 6-week ban could be reenforced before Ohioans have the opportunity to vote on Issue 1 in November.

The ticket on Ohios 2023 ballot allows citizens to determine the future of reproductive access in the state, potentially establishing the right to ones own reproductive medical treatment, including abortion.
 
General Motors and Ford Motor on Monday said they are indefinitely laying off another 500 workers at four Midwestern plants because of the impact on some of the facilities of the United Auto Workers strike in its 18th day.

Ford on Monday said it was furloughing a total of 330 workers at its Chicago Stamping and Lima, Ohio Engine plants, while GM furloughs include 130 at its Parma, Ohio Metal Center and 34 at its Marion, Indiana Metal Center.

The UAW on Friday said it would strike at GM's Lansing Delta Township assembly plant that makes the Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Traverse SUVs after previously striking at GM's Missouri assembly plant and 18 parts distribution centers.

GM last month said it had idled its Fairfax, Kansas, plant because of a parts shortage stemming from the strike, resulting in 2,000 indefinite layoffs. Ford said last month it temporarily laid off about 600 workers at a Michigan auto plant because of the strike. Chrysler parent Stellantis has furloughed nearly 370 workers in Ohio and Indiana.

UAW President Shawn Fain on Friday expanded the first-ever simultaneous strike against the Detroit Three to a GM Lansing, Michigan plant and a Ford Chicago assembly plant, but Stellantis was spared after last-minute concessions.

The UAW was holding new bargaining sessions with GM and Stellantis on Monday, and the union said it reached a new labor agreement with Volvo Group's Mack Trucks covering 4,000 workers just before a Sunday night deadline.

The tentative agreement that includes significantly increased wages must still be ratified, the union said.

JPMorgan in a research note on Monday estimated the strike has cost GM $191 million and Ford $145 million, but said there was some cause for optimism about a deal, citing reports that the two sides were "close on pay and benefits."

The GM and Ford CEOs on Friday blasted the UAW, hours after the union escalated the strike. The UAW responded on social media that neither had attended bargaining talks.

Anderson Economic Group estimated total losses from the first two weeks of the strike to be $3.9 billion, including $325 million in wages, $1.12 billion in losses for the Detroit Three, $1.29 billion for suppliers and $1.2 billion for dealer and customer losses.
U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) attends a House Committee on Rules meeting regarding government spending legislation at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on September 22, 2023.

WASHINGTON  Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., the Donald Trump ally and conservative bomb-thrower who has been a nagging thorn in leadership's side, filed a resolution Monday to force a vote to overthrow his political nemesis, Kevin McCarthy, as speaker of the House.

The House must now vote on whether to keep McCarthy on as speaker. It has until Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters on the steps of the Capitol, a beaming Gaetz predicted he has the votes to oust McCarthy  as long as Democrats don't move to save the speaker.

"I have enough Republicans where, at this point next week, one of two things will happen: Kevin McCarthy won't be the speaker of the house, or he'll be the speaker of the House working at the pleasure of the Democrats. And I'm at peace with either result, because the American people deserve to know who governs them," Gaetz said.

During the past two weeks, Gaetz had issued a specific warning to McCarthy, saying he would try to oust him as speaker if he brought a short-term government funding bill to the floor that passed with help from Democrats.

True to his word, Gaetz made the motion to vacate Monday, just two days after McCarthy put a so-called clean continuing resolution, or CR, on the floor to avert a government shutdown, passing it with 209 Democratic votes and 125 Republican votes.

The House floor is normally loud and boisterous. But it was absolutely quiet as Gaetz stood up, buttoned his jacket, approached the well of the House and addressed the chamber Monday evening to announce the motion.

Asked by Rep. Jake Ellzey, R-Texas, who was presiding at the time, what his resolution was about, Gaetz replied: "Declaring the office of speaker of the House of Representatives to be vacant."

When he finished after about a minute, there was no reaction from the gathered Democrats or the Republicans as he walked away up the aisle.

If all 212 Democrats voted to remove McCarthy, Gaetz would need just four other Republicans to oust him. A handful of conservatives, including Bob Good, R-Va., Eli Crane, R-Ariz., and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said they would join Gaetz's effort.

Other conservatives, like Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, said they were keeping an "open mind," while Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said that he was torn by the decision and that most of his constituents "are saying vacate."

"Well, it's between two things for me. It's between voting against my friend, Kevin McCarthy, and voting my conscience," Burchett said. "And that's kind of where I'm at."

After he dropped the resolution, Gaetz said he hasn't cut a deal with Democrats to get rid of McCarthy, even though he has spoken to many of them privately.

"I have made no deal with Democrats, because I believe that Democrats should vote against Kevin McCarthy for free. It's Kevin McCarthy who's out there offering deals to Democrats," Gaetz told reporters. "I'm not offering anything, and I won't offer anything. ... When we stand here a week from now, I won't own Kevin McCarthy anymore; he won't belong to me. So if the Democrats want to adopt him, they can adopt him."

Defiant, McCarthy and his allies have lashed out at Gaetz, accusing him of seeking the limelight and holding a personal vendetta against McCarthy. They vowed to beat back Gaetz's efforts, and McCarthy has denied having any deal with Democrats to support him.

"So be it; bring it on," McCarthy said Sunday on CBS News' "Face the Nation." "I'll survive."

Just minutes after Gaetz filed the motion, McCarthy repeated those remarks on X: "Bring it on."

Asked to react to Gaetz's move, a GOP House member pulled out his phone and showed NBC News a fundraising pitch by Gaetz.

Said a McCarthy ally, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo. "The only way that the motion to vacate can be successful is if 200-plus Democrats join with him, because 200-plus Republicans are adamantly opposed to his motion to vacate."

Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Gaetz "are on the same page," he said.

Gaetz's action comes after months of public tangling with McCarthy, who he says failed to live up to promises he made to conservatives during the speaker's fight in January to significantly cut spending. In fact, it was Gaetz who led a band of 20 conservative rebels to oppose McCarthy for the speaker job, leading to 15 grueling rounds of voting before McCarthy finally triumphed.

By filing a so-called motion to vacate, Gaetz has triggered a future floor vote over removing McCarthy as speaker, though it's unclear exactly when that vote might happen. McCarthy allies almost certainly will try to delay or thwart a vote by "tabling" the motion and referring it to a committee, but that might not work.

Gaetz's resolution "declaring the Office of Speaker vacant" is privileged, meaning it takes precedence over other House business. Under House rules, privileged matters must be considered within two legislative days.

While he conceded he might not remove McCarthy on the first try, Gaetz vowed to keep filing resolutions, perhaps daily, to oust him. Every vote will weaken McCarthy, he predicted.

"This first vote will be my floor, not my ceiling," Gaetz said. "And I think that as we have more votes later, numbers will likely grow."

Conservative Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said moments after Gaetz filed the motion that he thought it was a "bad idea," though he said Gaetz "probably does" have at least five votes to remove McCarthy.

"I don't support the motion to vacate," he said, noting that he's a rare Republican who filed the motion to overthrow Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in 2015. Massie said Gaetz has fewer grievances against McCarthy.

"We're going to find out by the end of the week if this is sustainable," he said.

Gaetz's motion puts House Democrats in a political pickle given the GOP's razor-thin 221-212 majority. Democrats will have to decide whether to vote with McCarthy foes to topple him or side with McCarthy allies to bail him out.

But there has been little goodwill between Democrats and McCarthy, who criticized and then defended Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, reneged on a debt and budget deal with President Joe Biden and recently launched an impeachment inquiry into Biden.

After Gaetz filed the motion, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said he's a "hard no" on rescuing McCarthy and encouraged colleagues to follow suit.

"Democrats should think long and hard about this. There is absolutely no upside to preserving Kevin McCarthy in the speakership. It's an unstable speakership," Connolly said. "Upon examination, I do not understand what any Democrat would find of redeeming value to allow him to persist in the speakership. We should not enable, aid or abet his continuation in office."

Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., was more direct: "It's not my problem to save his a--."

Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., a McCarthy ally, dismissed Gaetz's "theatrics" as a distraction from the process of funding the government, predicting Democrats will reject Gaetz's plan.

"I think that there are a number of people that care about the institution and see through  very much see through what this is," Graves said. "And so I fully expect that you would have Republicans and Democrats simply do what's right."

 Rebecca Kaplan and Kyle Stewart contributed.
Journalists wait for the announcement of the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics at Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Oct. 3, 2023.

Scientists Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for "experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter", the award-giving body said on Tuesday.

The prize, which was raised this year to 11 million Swedish crowns (about $1 million), is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Physics is the second Nobel to be awarded this week after Hungarian scientist Katalin Kariko and U.S. colleague Drew Weissman won the medicine prize for making mRNA molecule discoveries that paved the way for COVID-19 vaccines.

Created in the will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, the prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace have been awarded since 1901 with a few interruptions, becoming the arguably highest honour for scientists everywhere.

While the sometimes controversial award for peace can hog the limelight, the physics prize has likewise often taken centre stage with winners such as Albert Einstein and awards for science that has fundamentally changed how we see the world.

Last year, Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger won the prize for work on quantum entanglement, where two particles are linked regardless of the space between them, something that unsettled Einstein himself who once referred to it as "spooky action at a distance".

Announced on consecutive weekdays in early October, the physics prize announcement will be followed by ones for chemistry, literature, peace and economics, the latter a later addition to the original line-up.
Charging points at an underground car park in England. The number of EVs on our roads is increasing. Peter Titmuss/UCG | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

Driving is changing. Today, hybrids and pure electric vehicles are a common sight around the world, and the overall size and heft of cars  whether they're fully electric or use internal combustion engines  is increasing. From the accessibility of EV charging points to noise levels, new designs and technologies have already created a range of issues that will need to be addressed in the years ahead. Parking garages (known as multistory car parks in the U.K.) are one area where the proliferation of EVs and bigger vehicles is expected to have a major impact. Earlier this year, the London-based Institution of Structural Engineers published updated design guidance for car parks. The wide-ranging document covers all structures where cars can be parked  including those on multiple levels, underground or within residential and office buildings  and how they are designed, built and maintained. The guidance has been written for all stakeholders involved in car park design. One potential issue relates to the load of what we drive. According to the institution, the average vehicle's weight has increased from 1.5 metric tons in 1974 to nearly 2 metric tons in 2023.

In a statement, it said the reason behind the weight increase was "due to electric and hybrid batteries and the size of cars increasing." "This extra load and the changing fire safety requirements are all considerations not just for new car parks, but for existing structures too," it added. Speaking to CNBC, Chris Whapples, a fellow of the institution and contributor to the guidance as an author and overseeing consultant, said some of the market's top-end executive cars and long-range SUVs were now coming in at over three metric tons. When the guidance was released in June, there was much focus on the potential collapse of some car parks under the weight of heavier vehicles. "It is something we have to consider, but we mustn't be too alarmist about it," Whapples told CNBC. "The thing to bear in mind is that the ones that cause the damage, if you like, are the heavy vehicles  not the vehicles that are heavier than they were 40 years ago but still within the capacity of the design for car parks," he went on to explain. The latter type of vehicles are still in the majority, he said. Nevertheless, the trend for bigger vehicles shows no sign of letting up. "We're seeing increasing numbers now of SUVs, large executive cars  both fossil-fueled and battery ones  and pickup trucks, which are immensely heavy."

The cumulative load of these vehicles in parking garages could present some challenges in certain circumstances. "If one pickup is significantly overloaded and that car park is weak, that's a potential disaster waiting to happen," Whapples said. Planning and preparation is, therefore, key  hence the updated guidance. "We said, as an industry, we must actually check our car parks out and make sure that that's not going to happen," Whapples said. "Because what we want is the public to maintain confidence in our car parks and structural engineers." One way of doing this is to make sure that garages are structurally assessed. "If it's not strong enough, then it will need strengthening," he added. "It may not need strengthening everywhere, it might be just individual elements." If this option turned out to be "prohibitively expensive," Whapples said that vehicles could potentially be screened before entering these garages. Another possible solution could see the "heavyweights" remaining on the ground floor.

Fire safety and sprinklers

When it comes to electric vehicles, another area of concern relates to fire safety. That's because while EV fires aren't common, putting them out can be challenging. "To actually extinguish an EV fire is very, very difficult  particularly if the battery is on fire, because you've got so much energy that's locked in," Whapples said. He went on to highlight the potentially crucial role sprinkler systems could play going forward, especially in underground facilities. "Although the sprinkler system will not put out the car fire, it will reduce the rate of spread within the car park, so it's constantly ... 'quenching' the car next to the one that's on fire, and stopping that one from catching fire." This should give the fire service time to get to the site and tackle the flames.

While EV fires are a "worry," Whapples highlighted that vehicles using gasoline also have the potential to ignite and create challenging situations.

Not 'anti-EV'

Discussions about how parking lots and garages need to change to accommodate new types and sizes of vehicle extend beyond the U.K. In Feb. 2023, the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, launched a task force focused on developments related to the "fire safe deployment of recharging points in covered parking garages." AVERE, The European Association for Electromobility, co-leads the task force alongside the Commission. In a statement sent to CNBC, the Brussels-headquartered organization said the task force "aims to create guidelines to help national and local authorities implement rules to welcome EVs in covered car parks while maintaining fire safety." The statement also said the "rise of e-mobility  helps us mitigate climate change and brings new questions, including weight and the impact on car parks."

EV charging and parking spots at a site in England. The number of EVs on our roads is increasing, creating challenges and opportunities for parking lot design. Dana Kenedy | Istock | Getty Images
Growth in long-term fundamentals should outweigh short-term headwinds for HP , according to Bank of America. The bank double upgraded shares of the technology company to a buy from underperform rating Tuesday. It also lifted its price target to $33 from $25. The new forecast points to more than 28% upside potential from HP's Monday closing price of $25.67. Shares of HP are down more than 4% since the start of the year. The stock has also fallen 23% since hitting a closing high for the year in mid-July, with the S & P 500 down 5% during that same period. This "recent material underperformance" gives HP an attractive valuation, wrote analyst Wamsi Mohan. HPQ YTD mountain HPQ ytd chart Despite a weaker near-term macro backdrop due to softer demand in China and rising competition from Japanese peers, Mohan pointed to HP's strong fundamentals as catalysts for the upgrade. The analyst cited tighter cost controls, growth from an improving PC outlook and increased operating profit dollars. "In our opinion, this multiple is justified given it balances near-term pressures the company is facing vs. long term opportunities," he wrote. "[Positive] drivers include an improving PC market backdrop, improved profitability from cost actions and stable to higher free cash flow over the next several years." Besides a recovering PC outlook and cost actions that should improve profitability, as another tailwind, Mohan also highlighted HP's shift to a higher upfront profitability model in the printing industry.  CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden convened a call with top U.S. allies Tuesday to stress the United States commitment to aiding Ukraine as hard-line House Republicans push back on further support for that embattled nation.

Biden spoke with the leaders of the G7 countries, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Commission and the European Council to coordinate support for Ukraine.

"The leaders agreed that [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin has made a strategic miscalculation in invading Ukraine and pointed to the stark Russian losses on the battlefield and loss of capability as evidence of that," according to a readout from the U.K. of the call, which also included leaders of Poland and Romania.

"They underlined that Ukraine and the Western alliance are both stronger and more united than they were before Putin's full-scale invasion," the readout said.

Biden's call came as he tries to push funding for Ukraine through Congress.

Despite bipartisan support in the Senate, a handful of hard-line Republicans in the House have rejected any additional aid.

On Saturday, Biden signed a stopgap funding measure passed by Congress to avoid a shutdown of the federal government. The measure notably lacked aid to Ukraine.
Da-kuk | E+ | Getty Images

Cybersecurity mishaps are expensive. The average total cost of a data breach in 2023 is $4.45 million, a 15.3% jump from 2020, according to IBM, and just over half of organizations plan to increase cybersecurity spending as a result. But some experts say that more isn't always better. The latest AI also presents internal risks of costly data misuse related to sensitive information employees may plug into large language models of generative artificial intelligence systems. And there is risk that as AI speeds the development of software, new iterations will roll out so quickly that flaws may be missed. In any event, the approach to cybersecurity budgets is changing, and AI's impact on data breaches and employee use, and misuse, plays a major role. "We're already seeing machine learning, which is a subset of AI, offering some real value in fraud detection, incident analysis and vulnerability analysis," said Mike Scott, CISO of Immuta, which handles data security for companies like Mercedes-Benz and ADP. Scott, former CISO of Wendy's, added, "The bad actors have that same access. They're able to expedite their attacks the same way that we're trying to expedite solving them." As organizations make cybersecurity budget decisions amid fiscal year 2024 planning, AI looms larger, and as companies continue their migration to the cloud, CISOs, CIOs and other cybersecurity advocates within an organization must know how to prove the value of their increasingly crucial initiatives to stay enough paces ahead.

Less panic, more preparedness

Experts view cloud migrations and AI as the two biggest threats to an organization's cybersecurity right now. Andrew Casey, CFO of cloud security company Lacework, said that cloud migrations are cost- and workflow-effective, but that changes in the cloud happen in microseconds. "Every company is going to have to be concerned about how well they're protecting their assets and information as they move to the cloud," Casey said. "It introduces a whole new set of security risks." Casey also recognizes that developers are creating software faster with AI. "If we're developing software faster, we're introducing vulnerabilities faster. If we're introducing vulnerabilities faster, you better be able to catch those as they're happening," he said. Meanwhile, Scott said the risks of data misuse differ from data breaches because in a breach both the vulnerabilities and the culprits start from the inside. With a data breach, companies can use their insurance, but "if they misused data, they violate multiple contracts, potentially laws," he warned. Policy around things like the use of generative AI can mitigate this, but cyber blockades are also key. Scott says that a company's AI may be the first emerging technology to be cloud-first, given the historically slow pace of cloud migration for larger organizations. This fuses together two risks, showing cyber leaders must take a nuanced approach moving forward. When it comes to budget discussions, it's important to know that CFOs are focused not just on protection, but also growth. "If I continue to grow my business, then I've got to have a software partner that's going to allow me to have a decrease in cost relative to the revenue that I bring in," Casey said. Budget conversations for 2024 will likely differ in one key way, experts say: less panic, more preparedness. From the CFO's perspective, Casey expects less short-term focus and more concentration on the long term. That could be good news for CISOs who want to push cybersecurity projects that look years ahead. "I think CISOs can leverage the AI buzz to go in and really expedite some projects they've been wanting to do," Scott said. "If we want to do AI in 2025, like experts are predicting, and we want to start really dipping our toes in, this is a critical year for us to build all the right controls and have our base infrastructure ready to go."

Presenting cybersecurity investments to CFOs
A vial labelled "Novavax V COVID-19 Vaccine" is seen in this illustration taken January 16, 2022.

Novavax 's updated Covid vaccine won the backing of the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, putting the shot on track to roll out weeks after new jabs from Pfizer and Moderna reached Americans.

The FDA authorized Novavax's single-strain vaccine, which targets omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, for emergency use in people ages 12 and up.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is including Novavax's shot in the same recommendation it issued last month for updated vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. That recommendation says all Americans ages six months and older can receive an updated Covid jab.

Novavax said in a statement that doses of the shot will likely be available within the next few days.

"Novavax's authorization today means people will now have the choice of a protein-based non-MRNA option to help protect themselves against Covid-19, which is now the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S.," said Novavax CEO John Jacobs in the statement. "In the coming days, individuals in the U.S. can go to major pharmacies, physicians' offices, clinics and various government entities to receive an updated Novavax vaccine."

Public health officials see Novavax's vaccine as a valuable alternative for people who don't want to take messenger RNA shots from Pfizer and Moderna, which teach cells how to make proteins that trigger an immune response against Covid. Novavax's shot fends off the virus with protein-based technology, a decades-old method used in routine vaccinations against hepatitis B and shingles.

Around 2 million Americans have received the updated Covid vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna so far, the Biden administration said last week, even as patients eager to get their dose have been met with unexpected insurance delays and availability issues.

Regardless, all three shots are expected to help the U.S. combat the spread of Covid this fall and winter, when the virus usually spreads at higher levels.

The nation is already seeing a surge in cases and hospitalizations. While levels remain far below previous Covid waves in the U.S., it's still the first notable uptick since last winter and has even prompted the return of mask mandates for a handful of businesses and schools.

The rise is driven by newer strains of the virus that are gaining ground nationwide as XBB.1.5 gradually declines. That includes EG.5, or Eris, an omicron strain that accounted for 29.4% of all cases as of Saturday, according to the CDC.

A Novavax spokesperson said last month its new Covid vaccine generated a "broad immune response" against Eris and another fast-spreading strain called XBB.1.16.6  both of which are descendants of omicron.

But it's unclear whether the company's new vaccine will protect against BA.2.86, a highly mutated omicron strain that health officials are watching closely despite its small number of cases. Novavax last month said it was still testing its vaccine against BA.2.86.

The rollout of Novavax's new shot comes months after the end of the U.S. Covid public health emergency.

The end of that declaration means all three manufacturers will sell their updated shots directly to health-care providers and vie for commercial market share. Previously, the government purchased vaccines directly from manufacturers at a discount to distribute to all Americans for free.

During the advisory meeting last month, Novavax said the list price of its vaccine is $130 per dose.

Federal and corporate programs are aiming to fill the gap for uninsured Americans. That includes the Biden administration's Bridge Access Program, which will provide Covid vaccines at no cost to underinsured and uninsured people.

It's unclear how many Americans will actually roll up their sleeves and take the new vaccines from Novavax, Pfizer and Moderna.

But roughly 42% of Americans surveyed by the CDC in August said they "definitely will" or "probably will" get a Covid shot this fall, Dr. Megan Wallace, a CDC epidemiologist, said during the advisory meeting.
United Auto Workers (UAW) members and supporters on a picket line outside the General Motors Co. Flint Processing Center in Swartz Creek, Michigan, US, on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023.

DETROIT  An ongoing strike by the United Auto Workers union against the Detroit automakers had little to no direct effect on General Motors' third-quarter U.S. new vehicle sales.

The Detroit automaker on Tuesday reported a 21.4% increase in sales from July through September, compared to still subdued sales in the third quarter of 2022, when the industry was still recovering from supply chain issues.

GM's increase significantly outpaced auto analyst expectations for the overall industry of 15% to 16% for the third quarter. Sales of every one of the Detroit automaker's brands rose compared to a year earlier.

Not all automakers faired as well as GM in the quarter. But their sales largely climbed in terms of vehicles sold compared to a year ago. Third-quarter sales results reported Tuesday included: Toyota Motor up 12.2%; Hyundai Motor up roughly 9%; Kia up about 14%; Mazda up about 22%; and Honda up roughly 53%.

Stellantis was an outlier, as sales slid 1.3%. The company's decline is notable, but not likely to be attributed to the UAW strikes. Stellantis' sales have struggled as it attempts to retain high profits achieved in recent years by not discounting its vehicles as much as it has historically. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Though work stoppages may not have hit their results yet, GM and other companies likely will face sales and supply chain problems if the UAW's strike, which began Sept. 15, is expanded or prolonged. Only 25,200 workers, or roughly 17% of UAW members covered by the expired contracts with GM, Ford Motor and Stellantis, are part of the work stoppages.

UAW has been gradually increasing the strikes since the work stoppages began, after the sides failed to reach tentative agreements by Sept 14. The targeted, or "stand up," strikes are taking place instead of national walkouts in which all plants simultaneously strike.

National strikes affect the companies more quickly. The targeted walkouts aim to preserve the union's funds and prolong the work stoppages to keep the automakers off keel.

The impacts of the strikes will likely begin showing in October for certain vehicles such as the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickups, where work stoppages have affected production, according to Cox Automotive chief economist Jonathan Smoke.
The Gmail application is seen on a portable device on Dec. 6, 2017.

Google will make it harder for spammers to send messages to Gmail users, the company said Tuesday.

The company said it will require emailers who send more than 5,000 messages per day to Gmail users to offer a one-click unsubscribe button in their messages.

It will also require them to authenticate their email address, configuring their systems so they prove they own their domain name and aren't spoofing IP addresses.

Alphabet-owned Google says it may not deliver messages from senders whose emails are frequently marked as spam and fall under a "clear spam rate threshold" of 0.3% of messages sent, as measured by Google's Postmaster Tools.

Google says it has signed up Yahoo to make the same changes, and they'll come into effect in February 2024.

The moves highlight the ongoing fight between big tech companies and spammers who use open systems such as email to send fraudulent messages and annoy users. For years, machine learning techniques have been used to fight spam, but it remains a back-and-forth battle as spammers discover new techniques to get past filters.

"These changes are like a tune-up for the email world, and by fixing a few things under the hood, we can keep email running smoothly," wrote Google product manager Neil Kumaran in a blog post. "But just like a tune-up, this is not a one-time exercise. Keeping email more secure, user friendly and spam-free requires constant collaboration and vigilance from the entire email community."

Google's changes could also affect some legitimate marketers who use email aggressively to market to or keep up with their customers, especially the requirement to allow users to quickly unsubscribe.

About half of all emails sent in 2022 were spam, according to an estimate from Kaspersky Anti-Virus.
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Hong Kong Disneyland Resort is opening a new land inspired by Disney's blockbuster "Frozen" movie franchise. The area, called World of Frozen, is set to open on Nov. 20, 2023. World of Frozen is a recreation of Arendelle  a fictional village featured in the "Frozen" movies that is home to the Disney sisters, Elsa and Anna.

Disney's Elsa and Anna at World of Frozen in Hong Kong Disneyland. Source: MSL Singapore

The new land will feature attractions like a "Frozen Ever After" boat ride and a "Wandering Oaken's Sliding Sleighs" roller coaster. "Frozen Ever After is the first attraction at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort to feature Walt Disney Imagineering's most advanced, all-electric Audio-Animatronics figures," according to a press release. These are lifelike robots that can move and talk, and which are present in attractions, such as Walt Disney World's Hall of Presidents and Tokyo DisneySea's Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull.

Two Audio-Animatronic figures of Disney's Olaf and Sven in the "Frozen Ever After" boat ride. Source: MSL Singapore

World of Frozen will be Hong Kong Disneyland's largest expansion thus far, although a representative from Hong Kong Disneyland declined to disclose the the exact measurements to CNBC Travel.

Getting in early

Guests who book packages through the travel company Klook can experience World of Frozen before it opens to the public.

Guests meet the "cast members" at Hong Kong Disneyland's World of Frozen. Source: MSL Singapore

The company is selling a "First Look at Arendelle" package, which comes with two park tickets and a one-night hotel stay, for $880. The package, which is available to overseas visitors, grants entrance to the new area from Nov. 4  more than two weeks ahead of the official opening date.

A look into World of Frozen

World of Frozen recreates iconic scenes from the "Frozen" movies, including the the Ice Palace  the location where Elsa unleashes her icy powers for the first time  and Arendelle Castle, home of the movies' royal family, according to the press release. The new park area is inspired by designs from Norway, from "dragestil" architecture  complete with pointed roofs embellished with dragon heads on the ends  and exterior floral paintings, called rosemaling.

Rosemaling, a floral decorative folk painting from Norway, can be seen painted on the buildings in World of Frozen. Source: MSL Singapore
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WASHINGTON  The House of Representatives on Tuesday ousted Republican Kevin McCarthy as speaker, the first time in history that the chamber has dethroned its leader in a no-confidence vote. McCarthy, of California, was voted out as speaker when a small band of eight hardline conservative Republicans joined all Democrats to approve a "motion to vacate" introduced by GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, of Florida, a longtime foe of McCarthy's. The final vote was 216-210. Moments after the vote ended, Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, a close McCarthy ally and Financial Services Committee chairman, assumed the role of speaker pro tempore and gaveled the chamber into recess. McCarthy told colleagues Tuesday evening that he will not be running for speaker again, NBC News reported. In his first remarks since losing the speakership, McCarthy said he "wouldn't change a thing," and that he feels "fortunate" to have served as speaker.

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McCarthy's ouster was effectively set in quick motion on Saturday when he pulled off a surprising legislative victory, getting Democrats to join Republicans in approving a short-term funding bill that avoided a government shutdown. While McCarthy pleased the White House with that move, it fueled already simmering resentments over his leadership among far-right members of the GOP caucus. Several of McCarthy's supporters have said they plan to offer his name for the next round of speaker votes. But other members of GOP leadership have also been floated as potential replacements, including Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota and Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana. Both of them are popular among rank-and-file Republicans.

Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks to reporters after he was ousted from the position of Speaker by a vote of the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. October 3, 2023. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

The last time a motion to vacate vote occurred on the House floor was in 1910, when then-Republican Speaker Joseph Cannon survived it. McCarthy's hold on the speakership had been tenuous since he was elected in January, due to a small clique led by Gaetz who are unhappy with the Californian. One source told NBC News on Tuesday that some McCarthy allies were "begging" a number of Democratic House members to vote with them to save his speakership. "We need Kevin McCarthy to remain as our speaker," Emmer said during the debate. "We're going to stay focused on our mission of delivering common sense wins for the American people." Gaetz said, "The one thing that the White House, Democrats and many of us on the conservative side of the Republican caucus have in common is McCarthy said something to all of us at one point that he didn't really mean and never intended to live up to."

U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is trailed by reporters after a House Republican conference meeting, where they discussed an attempt by Gaetz to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. October 3, 2023. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

"There's nothing selfish about wanting a speaker of the House who tells the truth," he said. Gaetz said that McCarthy no longer represents the interests of the GOP caucus after the speaker worked with Democrats to pass a stopgap funding bill to avoid a government shutdown over the weekend.

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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday lashed out at Rep. Matt Gaetz, saying that the fellow Republican lawmaker who is seeking to oust him has "personal things in his life that he has challenges with."

McCarthy's jab on CNBC's "Squawk Box" came less than two hours before he told the Republican caucus that he would bring Gaetz's motion to vacate his speakership to the House floor Tuesday afternoon.

In February, the Department of Justice ended a two-year criminal sex trafficking investigation of Gaetz without filing charges against the Florida congressman.

McCarthy on Tuesday accused Gaetz of targeting him because of a House ethics investigation into Gaetz's conduct that was also the subject of the criminal probe.

"He's blaming me for an ethics complaint against him that happened in the last Congress," McCarthy said. "I have nothing to do with it."

"He wants me to try to wipe that away," McCarthy said.

"I'm not going to do that. That's illegal," the California lawmaker said.

"And you know what? If some way I lose my job because I uphold the law [and the] continuity of government, so be it."

Asked for comment, a spokesman for Gaetz referred CNBC to remarks the congressman made about McCarthy on Monday.

"For some people, policy failures are recast as personal because their own failures are personally embarrassing to them," Gaetz had said.

Gaetz on Monday night filed a resolution that seeks to remove McCarthy as speaker.

Gaetz's move came two days after McCarthy, with Democratic support, passed a stopgap funding bill in the House that avoided a government shutdown.
An activist at the offices of Rep. Michelle Park Steel in Cypress, California, on Feb. 24, 2023 Araya Doheny | Getty Images

Social Security is essential to older Americans' financial security, yet there always seems to be a new headline about how the benefits are at risk. Douglas Boneparth, a certified financial planner and president and founder of Bone Fide Wealth in New York, said clients ask him how they can prepare for their retirement if Social Security benefits are slashed  or even eliminated. "We work with a relatively young clientele, and they aren't too confident today's system will be the one they inherit when they retire" Boneparth said. "They want to hedge their bets." CNBC asked Boneparth, a member of CNBC's Advisor Council, if he could provide an example of how much more people would need to save if they have to fund their retirement with a smaller Social Security benefit, or none at all.

Workers would need to triple savings

CFP Clifford Cornell, an associate financial advisor at Bone Fide Wealth, provided a scenario of a 30-year-old woman who earns $75,000 a year and already has $20,000 saved for retirement. The woman plans to leave the workforce at age 65 and to spend about $40,000 a year in retirement. Her life expectancy is 90. In order not to run out of money in retirement, she'd need to save $375 a month in her workplace 401(k) plan  if the Social Security program remains fully in place. Cornell assumed a 6% annual return before retirement and 4% after. More from Personal Finance:

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White House moves ahead with new plan to cancel student debt If Social Security benefits were cut in half, she would need to save $750 a month to not run out of money in retirement, or double the amount based on a fully funded program. If the program were completely done away with, she'd need to save $1,125 a month, or triple the amount. Social Security is the main source of income for Americans age 65 and older. With the benefits, about 10% of older adults already live in poverty, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The share of older people living in poverty would swell to nearly 40% without the benefits. The average retired worker receives about $1,840 a month. "The old-age poverty rate would soar if Social Security benefits were cut," said Richard Johnson, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. "Millions of seniors would be unable to afford basic needs, like food, shelter and health care. Many seniors would have to turn to their children for financial help."

The future of Social Security

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The Social Security program has been weakened by a rise in people retiring and the fact that people are living longer. About 10,000 baby boomers retire every day on average. Since beneficiaries are living longer, the program has been paying recipients over a longer period of time. The share of workers paying into the system  via payroll taxes  has been falling relative to the number of beneficiaries, creating an imbalance. As a result, without any action from lawmakers, the trust fund that supports Social Security benefits for retirees is estimated to run dry in 2033. If the trust fund is depleted, it doesn't mean benefits would go away entirely. Workers would continue to pay Social Security payroll taxes, and those collected funds would still be payable to retirees. However, there would be cuts. About 77% of promised benefits would be payable if the trust fund runs out, according to the Social Security Administration.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is bullish on the benefits of artificial intelligence, which is already being used by thousands of employees at his bank, and he predicts it'll usher in the norm of a shortened workweek.

"Your children are going to live to 100 and not have cancer because of technology," Dimon said Monday in an interview with Bloomberg TV. "And literally they'll probably be working 3 days a week."

Dimon says the bank's investments in AI "will add huge value" and is being leveraged across the firm's research, trading, customer service and other functions.

When asked if the technology is likely to replace some bank jobs, he responded that "of course" it will, but that "technologies always replace jobs."

He added the bank hires some 30,000 people a year, and that he expects many displaced workers will be transferred to new locations and roles within the company.

As many as 300 million jobs around the world could be affected by AI, according to a recent Goldman Sachs report.

And about 1 in 5 American workers have a job with "high exposure" to artificial intelligence, according to Pew Research Center, though it's unclear if AI would enhance or displace these roles.

Tech innovations also create new jobs and opportunity: AI technology could improve labor productivity and boost global GDP by as much as 7% over time, Goldman Sachs' report noted.

Dimon's comments on a shortened workweek may be more about efficiency than flexibility. He's been a longtime critic of remote and hybrid arrangements.

While Dimon has previously said remote can work for some jobs like coding, those in research, and women in caregiving roles, the arrangement doesn't apply to all roles, especially those in leadership.

JPMorgan Chase began its return-to-office campaign in September 2020 with fits and starts over the next few years. In April 2023, the bank sent a memo asking its managing directors to work from the office for five days a week.

"I don't know how you can be a leader and not be completely accessible to your people. I do not believe you can be a leader and not be accessible to your people," Dimon told The Economist.

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Check out: The 40-hour workweek started with autoworkersnow they're trying to make 32 hours the new norm
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Bernard Looney gestures as he addresses the gathering on the second day of the three-day B20 Summit in New Delhi on August 26, 2023. Arun Sankar | Afp | Getty Images

Former BP CEO Bob Dudley on Tuesday said that Bernard Looney's abrupt resignation last month came as a shock and denied any prior knowledge of the latter's past personal relationships with colleagues. Dudley, who worked at BP for 40 years and led the company as CEO for nearly a decade, said the British energy major would soon find a suitable successor and that Looney's departure would likely not impact the firm's strategy. Looney succeeded Dudley, who stood down as BP CEO in 2020. Looney resigned with immediate effect on Sept. 12 after less than four years on the job. He informed the company that he was not "fully transparent in his previous disclosures" about relationships with colleagues before becoming CEO, BP said. Citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported that Looney had promoted women with whom he had undisclosed past relationships, adding that his relevant romantic relationships with BP colleagues took place before his promotion to CEO. CNBC was unable to independently verify the reports. "It's a shock to the organization. It came out of nowhere, and I think that the company has great assets, great people," Dudley told CNBC at an oil and gas conference Tuesday, the Abu Dhabi International Progressive Energy Congress.

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"It is not about one person, and it won't be long before there will be replacements in there, and the company will do fine, because it is a really strong company with a wide spectrum to its portfolio," he added. Asked whether there was a valid accusation that he might have known more about the situation, given his time mentoring Looney, Dudley replied, "I didn't know anything about it and neither did the deputy CEO and others and the board. Should have I known? I don't know. Maybe I was a bit naive, but I had no clue. No clue at all."

'Things at BP are OK'

Looney's surprise departure has raised questions about the outlook for BP, although current and former executives have insisted that the firm's medium- and longer-term strategy remains the same. "Things at BP are OK. We move forward as you would expect, despite the change that happens," interim BP CEO Murray Auchincloss said Monday during a CNBC-moderated ADIPEC panel session. Auchincloss said that the company remains "firmly committed" to the outlook it laid out earlier in the year, emphasizing that "the strategy is not an embodiment of a single individual, it is the embodiment of a management team and a board."

Murray Auchincloss, interim chief executive officer of BP Plc, speaks during a panel session at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

"Look, we laid out an update to the strategy in February, seven months ago, that's a strategy that's endorsed by the management team, endorsed by the board. One person leaving does not change the strategy," Auchincloss said. "It's focused on providing energy today as cleanly as we possibly can," he added. "On the transition growth engine, it's unchanged. We have five of them. We in particular like biofuels, both sustainable aviation fuel and biogas." Dudley  who now chairs the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, an organization backed by BP, Saudi Aramco, Exxon Mobil and other Big Oil firms  echoed Auchincloss' view. He said BP's strategy would likely remain "business as usual."

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It's impossible to eliminate stress from work entirely  but you can reduce your risk of burnout with a simple routine adjustment, says Nicholette Leanza, a psychotherapist based in Beachwood, Ohio.

One of the earliest signs of burnout, according to the World Health Organization, is energy depletion. You might find it increasingly difficult to concentrate on tasks at work, or feel less motivated to do your job.

When that happens, Leanza recommends a simple practice that can protect your brain from stress and trick it into being more productive: activity pairing.

Here's how it works: Any time you're assigned a difficult or stressful task at work, pair it with an activity that relaxes you or brings you joy.

For example, you can listen to your favorite music while responding to a frustrating email, or give yourself a hand massage during a long, grueling meeting.

"Incorporating small self-care activities into your work routine really helps notch down the tension," says Leanza. "Once your brain gets stuck in a negative thought pattern and your anxiety flares, it's that much harder to accomplish anything, let alone think clearly."

Activity pairing, she adds, helps you identify healthy strategies to cope with stress and practice a few soft boundaries at work so that "even if you don't love your job, it's more tolerable."

Research has shown that walking in nature, listening to music, playing with a pet and meditating, among other activities, can all trigger the release of "feel good" hormones such as dopamine, serotonin and endorphins.

Combining work with relaxing activities can also "take the power away from stress and help you feel more in control of whatever situation you're in," says Leanza. "It really is the best-kept secret to preventing burnout."

Want to earn more and land your dream job? Join the free CNBC Make It: Your Money virtual event on Oct. 17 at 1 p.m. ET to learn how to level up your interview and negotiating skills, build your ideal career, boost your income and grow your wealth. Register for free today.

Check out:

How to be happier at work, says Ivy League-trained expert who's led workshops at Google, Microsoft

3 sneaky signs you're burned out at work, according to a neuroscientistand what to do about it

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A year ago, Sam Bankman-Fried was revered as a titan of the industry and living large at a $40 million penthouse in the Bahamas, while he ran a crypto empire valued at $32 billion. On Tuesday morning in a Manhattan federal court in New York, the now disgraced founder and ex-CEO of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX will stand trial for allegedly masterminding one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history. Here is what you need to know about the multi-week trial that starts today, the government's case against 31-year-old Bankman-Fried, and how we got here.

The trial(s) against Sam Bankman-Fried

Tuesday marks the start of the first of two separate criminal trials against the man once celebrated as a titan of the industry. In the first trial, Bankman-Fried faces seven criminal counts related to the collapse of the crypto empire he built, including wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering. A superseding indictment alleges that Bankman-Fried misused billions of dollars worth of customer money for personal purchases, including buying more than $200 million of upscale real estate properties in the Bahamas, as well as to cover bad bets made at his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research. The government says customer cash was shuttled to Alameda via two channels: Users depositing cash directly into accounts held by Alameda and through a secret backdoor that was baked into FTX's code. Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, who contend that more than $8 billion of customers' money has gone missing, also allege that Bankman-Fried defrauded FTX investors by covering up the scheme. The government has separately accused SBF of using customer funds to make more than $100 million in campaign contributions for the 2022 midterm elections. The full list of charges are: Conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers of FTX.

Wire fraud on customers of FTX.

Conspiracy to commit wire fraud on lenders to Alameda Research.

Wire fraud on lenders to Alameda Research.

Conspiracy to commit fraud on customers of FTX in connection with purchase and sale of derivatives.

Conspiracy to commit securities fraud on investors in FTX.

Conspiracy to commit money laundering. A conviction on all counts could land him more than 100 years in prison. Bankman-Fried, who is the son of two Stanford legal scholars, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Bankman-Fried's criminal trial is expected to last up to six weeks, and it kicks off at 9:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday with jury selection. From there, the prosecution will take roughly four weeks to lay out its case, and the defense will take another one to two weeks to present its side. It's not yet known whether Bankman-Fried will testify, but the witness roster is expected to include his top deputies at FTX and Alameda, who also happened to comprise his innermost social circle before his crypto empire imploded. The list of cooperating witnesses anticipated to take the stand include Bankman-Fried's ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, and his ex-best friend from high school math camp and former MIT roommate, Gary Wang. Ellison, who is the former chief executive of Alameda Research, and FTX co-founder Wang, both pleaded guilty in December to multiple charges and have been cooperating with the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan for months. Since August, Bankman-Fried has been held in a jail in Brooklyn, New York, after having his multimillion-dollar bail revoked for witness tampering, after allegedly leaking to The New York Times the private diary entries of Ellison, who is expected to be a star witness for the prosecution. Court documents filed so far indicate that lawyers for Bankman-Fried could present an "advice of counsel" defense. That's where they would say that he was following the guidance of FTX lawyers and didn't realize that what he was doing was illegal. Judge Lewis Kaplan has already ruled, however, that this defense strategy cannot be included in their opening remarks since it might risk prejudicing the jury from the start. A second criminal trial is slated for March 2024 that will deal with additional charges brought after Bankman-Fried's extradition to the U.S. from FTX's headquarters in the Bahamas.

Samuel Bankman-Fried's poster in downtown San Francisco. MacKenzie Sigalos | CNBC

How we got here

The Kimchi Swap put Sam Bankman-Fried on the map. The year was 2017, and the ex-Jane Street Capital quant trader noticed something funny when he looked at the page on CoinMarketCap.com listing the price of bitcoin on exchanges around the world. Today, that price is pretty much uniform across the exchanges, but back then, Bankman-Fried previously told CNBC, he would sometimes see a 60% difference in the value of the coin. His immediate instinct, he said, was to get in on the arbitrage trade  buying bitcoin on one exchange, selling it back on another exchange, and then earning a profit equivalent to the price spread. "That's the lowest hanging fruit," Bankman-Fried said in September. The arbitrage opportunity was especially compelling in South Korea, where the exchange-listed price of bitcoin was significantly more than in other countries. It was dubbed the Kimchi Premium  a reference to the traditional Korean side dish of salted and fermented cabbage. After a month of personally dabbling in the market, Bankman-Fried launched his own trading house, Alameda Research  named after his hometown of Alameda, California, near San Francisco  to scale the opportunity and work on it full time. Bankman-Fried said in an interview with CNBC that the firm sometimes made as much as a million dollars a day. Part of why SBF earned street cred for carrying out a relatively straightforward trading strategy was because it wasn't the easiest thing to execute on crypto rails five years ago. Bitcoin arbitrage involved setting up connections to each one of the trading platforms, as well as building out other complicated infrastructure to abstract away a lot of the operational aspects of making the trade. Bankman-Fried's Alameda became very good at that, and the money rolled in. From there, the SBF empire ballooned. Alameda's success spurred the launch of crypto exchange FTX. In April 2019, Bankman-Fried and Wang  along with University of California, Berkeley, graduate Nishad Singh  founded FTX.com, an international cryptocurrency exchange that offered customers innovative trading features, a responsive platform and a reliable experience. FTX's success begat a $2 billion venture fund that seeded other crypto firms. Bankman-Fried's personal wealth grew to around $26 billion at its peak. Bankman-Fried was suddenly the poster boy for crypto everywhere, and the FTX logo adorned everything from Formula One race cars to a Miami basketball arena. He went on an endless press tour, bragged about having a balance sheet that could one day buy Goldman Sachs, and became a fixture in Washington, where he was one of the Democratic Party's top donors, promising to sink $1 billion into U.S. political races before later backtracking. It was all a mirage. As crypto prices tanked in 2022, Bankman-Fried boasted that he and his enterprise were immune. But in fact, the sectorwide wipeout hit his operation quite hard. Alameda borrowed money to invest in failing digital asset firms in the spring and summer of 2022 to keep the industry afloat, then reportedly siphoned off FTX customers' deposits to stave off margin calls and meet immediate debt obligations. A fight on Twitter, now known as X, with the CEO of rival exchange Binance pulled the mask off the scheme. Alameda, FTX and a host of subsidiaries Bankman-Fried founded filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware. Bankman-Fried lost 94% of his personal wealth in a single day; was arrested in the Bahamas; was subsequently extradited to the U.S. and taken into custody; was released on a $250 million bail to his parents' California home; and then later remanded back into custody for alleged witness tampering. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors and regulators have accused Bankman-Fried of not just having perpetrated a fraud, but having done so "from the start," according to a filing from the Securities Exchange Commission. SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulators, alongside federal prosecutors from the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, say that Bankman-Fried was at the heart  indeed, the driver  of "one of the biggest financial frauds in American history," in the words of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. Federal regulators at the CFTC say that just a month after founding FTX.com, Bankman-Fried, "unbeknownst to all but a small circle of insiders," was leveraging customer assets  specifically, customers' personal cryptocurrency deposits  for Alameda's own bets. Rehypothecation is the term for when businesses legally use customer assets to speculate and invest. But Bankman-Fried didn't have permission from customers to gamble with their funds. FTX's own terms of use specifically forbade him, or Alameda, from using customer money for anything  unless the customer allowed it. And from FTX's inception, there was a lot of customer money. The CFTC cited 2019 reports from FTX which pegged the futures volume alone as often exceeding $100 million every day. Using customer money for Alameda's bets constituted fraud, the CFTC alleges. From the very genesis of FTX, regulators allege, Bankman-Fried was using customer funds to bankroll his speculative investments. It was a steep fall from hero to villain. But there were a lot of signs.

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A lousy crypto hedge fund

Despite the deck being stacked in Alameda's favor, the hedge fund offered terrible returns. A court filing indicated that Alameda lost more than $3.7 billion over its lifetime, despite public statements by FTX leaders touting how profitable the trading arm was. Alameda's losses and lending structure were a critical component of FTX's eventual collapse. Alameda didn't just allegedly play fast and loose with customer money. The hedge fund borrowed aggressively from multiple lenders, including Voyager Digital and BlockFi Lending. Both those companies entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in 2022, and FTX targeted both for acquisition. Alameda secured its loans from Voyager and BlockFi with FTT tokens, which FTX minted itself. Bankman-Fried's empire controlled the vast majority of the available currency, with only a small amount of FTT actually circulating at any time. Alameda should have acknowledged the fact that its tokens couldn't be sold at the price that they claimed they were worth, the CFTC alleges in its complaint. This was because any attempt by Alameda to sell off their FTT tokens would crater FTT's price, given how much of the available supply Alameda controlled. Instead of correctly marking its tokens to market, though, Alameda marked their entire hoard of FTT at the prevailing market price. Alameda used this methodology with other coins as well, including Solana and Serum (a token created and promoted by FTX and Alameda), using them to collateralize billions in loans to other crypto players. Industry insiders even had a nickname for those tokens  "Sam coins." The tables began to turn in May 2022 after the collapse of Luna, a stablecoin whose implosion and subsequent crash devastated other lenders and crypto firms and sent crypto prices plunging. Major Alameda lenders, like Voyager, declared bankruptcy. Remaining lenders began to execute margin calls or liquidate open positions with customers, including Alameda. The CFTC alleges that between May and June 2022, Alameda was subjected to "a large number of margin calls and loan recalls." Unbeknownst to investors, lenders, or regulators, Alameda lacked enough liquid assets to service its loan obligations. But while Alameda was illiquid, FTX's customers  who had been constantly reassured that the exchange, and Bankman-Fried, were determined to protect their interests  were not.

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The fraud  exposed

Bankman-Fried stepped down from his leadership position at Alameda Research in Oct. 2021 in what CFTC regulators claim was a calculated bid to cultivate a false sense of separation between FTX and the hedge fund. But he continued to exercise control, regulators claim. Bankman-Fried allegedly ordered Alameda to increase its use of customer assets, drawing down massively on its "unlimited" credit line at FTX. "Alameda was able to rely on its undisclosed ordinary-course access to FTX credit and customer funds to facilitate these large withdrawals, which were several billion dollars in notional value," the CFTC filing reads. By the middle of 2022, Alameda owed FTX's unwitting customers approximately $8 billion. Bankman-Fried had testified before the House that FTX boasted world-class risk management and compliance systems, but in reality, according to the firm's own bankruptcy filings, it possessed almost nothing in the way of record-keeping. Then, on Nov. 2, the first domino fell. Crypto trade publication CoinDesk publicized details on Alameda's balance sheet which showed $14.6 billion in assets. Over $7 billion of those assets were either FTT tokens or Bankman-Fried-backed coins like Solana or Serum. Another $2 billion were locked away in equity investments. For the first time ever, the secretive inner workings of Alameda Research were revealed to be a Potemkin village. Investors began to liquidate their FTT tokens and withdraw their holdings from FTX, a potentially calamitous situation for Bankman-Fried. Alameda still had billions of collateralized loans outstanding  but if the value of their collateral, FTT, fell too far, their lenders would execute further margin calls, demanding full repayment of loans. Allegedly, Alameda had already been unable to fulfill loan obligations over the summer without accessing customer funds. Now, with money flowing out of the exchange and FTT's price slipping, Alameda and FTX faced a liquidity crunch. In a now-deleted tweet, Bankman-Fried continued to claim FTX was fully funded and that customer assets were safe. But on Nov. 6, 2022, four days after the CoinDesk article, the crack widened into a chasm, thanks to an old investor-turned-rival, Changpeng "CZ" Zhao. Zhao founded Binance in 2017, and it was the first outside investor in FTX, funding a Series A round in 2019. FTX bought out Binance in 2021 with a combination of FTT and other coins, according to Zhao. Zhao dropped the hammer with a tweet saying that because of "recent revelations that have came [sic] to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books." FTX executives scrambled to contain the damage, and Alameda traders managed to fend off outflows for two days, holding the price of FTT at around $22. Publicly, Bankman-Fried continued to operate as if all was well. "FTX is fine. Assets are fine," he wrote in a tweet on Nov. 7 that has since been deleted. But at the same time Bankman-Fried was tweeting reassurances, internally, executives were growing more and more alarmed at the increasing shortfall, according to prosecutors. Bankman-Fried and other executives admitted to each other that "FTX customer funds were irrevocably lost because Alameda had appropriated them." It was an admission that flew in the face of everything Bankman-Fried would claim publicly up through the day of his arrest, a month later. By Nov. 8, the shortfall had grown from $1 billion to $8 billion. Bankman-Fried had been courting outside investors for a rescue package, but everyone declined. FTX issued a pause on all customer withdrawals that day. FTT's price plummeted by over 75%. Bankman-Fried was in the midst of a high-tech, decentralized run on the bank. Out of options, he turned to Zhao, who announced that he'd signed a "non-binding" letter of intent to acquire FTX.com. But just a day later, on Nov. 9, Binance said it would not go through with the acquisition, citing reports of "mishandled customer funds" and federal investigations. Two days later, Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO of FTX and associated entities. FTX's longtime attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell approached John J. Ray, who oversaw Enron through its bankruptcy, to assume Bankman-Fried's former position. FTX filed for bankruptcy that same day, on Nov. 11, 2022. A month later, Bankman-Fried was arrested by Bahamian authorities, pending extradition on charges of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. Bankman-Fried, a devotee of a philosophy known as "effective altruism," was apparently driven by an obsessive need to quantify the impact he had on this world, measured in dollars and tokens. He drafted a spreadsheet which measured the influence that Alameda had on the planet (and determined it was nearly a net wash). Billions of dollars of customer money were left floating in venture funds, political war chests and charitable coffers, although John Ray's team has clawed back more than $7 billion so far. Almost a decade ago, Bankman-Fried posed a hypothetical question to his friends and family on his personal blog: Waxing poetic on effective altruism, he asked rhetorically, "Just how much impact can a dollar have?" "Well, if you want a one-sentence answer, here it is: one two thousandth of a life," he said. The CFTC alleges that over $8 billion of customer funds are missing. Some customers have doubtless lost their life savings, their kid's college funds, their future down payments. By Bankman-Fried's own math, his alleged misdeeds were worth four million lives.  CNBC's Rohan Goswami contributed to this report.
Southeast Asian countries are expected to be key demand drivers for the LNG market by 2030, industry watchers say.

Trade in global liquefied natural gas rose to a record in 2022, fueled largely by a surge in demand from Europe as the region moves away from relying on Russian pipelines following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. However, Europe's demand for LNG is expected to recede in a few years.

Tony Regan, the Asia-Pacific gas lead from NexantECA, an energy and refining advisory, expects LNG demand from Europe to peak in 2027, before falling in 2030.

"This is where I think all the action is actually going to be: Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia," said Regan.

Vietnam is a bright spot for the LNG market, said Regan forecasting strong growth in demand from the country over the next few years largely because of the government's Power Development Plan 8.The plan stipulates that all coal plants must be converted to alternative fuels or retired by 2050.

"Very strong growth in demand over the next few years, because 13 of the new power plants that have been proposed on the plan are going to be LNG fired, and then another 10 also gas fired. So that's going to create a strong pull on energy from Vietnam," said Regan.
Former President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media while arriving for the second day of his civil fraud trial in New York on Oct. 3, 2023.

A judge issued a gag order Tuesday after Donald Trump attacked the judge's law clerk on social media and in comments to reporters covering his New York business fraud trial.

"Consider this a gag order on all parties with respect to posting or publicly speaking about any member of my staff," Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron said on the second day of the former president's civil trial.

Engoron said personal attacks on his staff were unacceptable and intolerable.

The judge was angered by Trump's post earlier Tuesday on his Truth Social site that included disparaging comments about the clerk alongside a photo of her posing with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Trump in that post had called the clerk "Schumer's girlfriend" and accused her of "running this case against me."
Ukraine's top diplomat said on Monday Washington's support for Kyiv was not weakening, and played down the significance of a stopgap funding bill passed by U.S. Congress that omitted aid to Ukraine.

U.S. and other Western military assistance has been vital for Ukraine to fight back against the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in February 2022.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv was in talks with Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress, and that the drama around the stopgap bill that averted a government shutdown on Saturday was an "incident" rather than something systemic.

"We don't feel that the U.S support has been shattered... because the United States understands that what is at stake in Ukraine is much bigger than just Ukraine," he told reporters as he greeted European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv.

"It's about the stability and predictability of the world and therefore I believe we will be able to find necessary solutions."

Kuleba said the question was whether what happened in the U.S. Congress at the weekend was "an incident or a system".

"I think it was an incident," he said. "We have a very in-depth discussion with both parts of the Congress - Republicans and Democrats. And against the background of the potential shutdown, the decision was taken as it was.

"But we are now working with both sides of the Congress to make sure that it does not (get) repeat(ed) again under any circumstances," he said.

 Reuters
"Financial inclusion," defined as individuals and businesses having access to useful and affordable financial products, has declined in the U.S., according to new industry research.

The U.S. fell to fourth place, from second, this year in the second annual Global Financial Inclusion Index compiled by the Centre for Economics and Business Research in London and Des Moines, Iowa-based Principal Financial Group. Singapore continued to hold the top spot.

Singapore is followed by Hong Kong, Switzerland, the U.S. and Sweden in the 2023 rankings, according to the research, which examined 42 markets worldwide. Singapore's small size, with a population of just six million people, helps it in the ranking, but it is also boosted by its commitment to financial literacy, financial technology adoption and employer support.

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A country's employers, financial systems and governments are the pillars for what makes a system inclusive, which, in turn, affects consumer sentiment.

Consumer sentiment in the U.S. is down across financial systems and employers but is especially pronounced when it comes to the government. The percentage of people who feel the government acts in a way that helps them feel financially included declined to 50% in 2023, from 72% in 2022. Political polarization, evident in developments such as the recent threat of a federal shutdown, make matters worse.

"It creates uncertainty and causes people to delay decisions that they might otherwise make about purchase around savings, and you don't want to paralyze people's decision-making around financial security," Dan Houston, Principal Financial Group Chair and CEO, told CNBC in an exclusive interview.
U.S. President Joe Biden makes a statement to the news media ahead of a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, U.S.

The Biden administration warned Beijing of its plans to update rules that curb shipments of AI chips and chipmaking tools to China as soon as early October, a U.S. official said, a policy decision aimed at stabilizing relations between the superpowers.

The Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, is working on an update of export restrictions first released last year. The update seeks to limit access to more chipmaking tools in line with new Dutch and Japanese rules, other sources said, and to close some loopholes in export restrictions on artificial intelligence (AI) chips.

"The PRC has been expecting an update around the one year anniversary, based on conversations with administration officials," the U.S. official said, using the abbreviation for People's Republic of China. The original rules were published Oct. 7, 2022.

U.S. officials provided the information to Chinese counterparts in recent weeks, the official said, which Reuters is reporting for the first time. The official declined to disclose details on the particular conversations.

Providing China with a heads up about the rules is part of a broader bid by the Biden administration to stabilize relations with Beijing. The outreach comes after a decision by the U.S. to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon sharply escalated tensions in February.

The Biden administration has also sent a series of high-level officials to China, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in August. Additionally, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in September.
McCormick (MKC) is increasingly becoming an attractive investment opportunity, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Tuesday, as shares of the spice maker sank after a mixed before-the-bell earnings report.

The stock dropped 10%, extending its 2023 slide to about 18.5%. It's firmly below its pre-Covid-pandemic levels. McCormick shares, which ended 2019 at roughly $85 apiece, traded around $68 each Tuesday.

"The fact that the stock is back to where it was before Covid tells you that there might be some value here," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street."

If you like this story, sign up for Jim Cramer's Top 10 Morning Thoughts on the Market email newsletter for free.

Overall, Cramer said he believes McCormick's business is doing well while acknowledging some pain points in the company's third-quarter results. Volumes declined 2% in the three months ended Aug. 31, which McCormick attributed, in part, to a slower-than-expected economic recovery in China.

"They did not report a good quarter. They have better guidance," Cramer said, referring to McCormick's adjusted full-year earnings per share outlook being revised higher.

The recent weakness in McCormick's stock may be tied to U.S. government bond yields reaching multiyear highs, Cramer suggested. That's also been a headwind for the overall market lately. "It's a great company caught up in the vortex of this very moment involving the 10-year [Treasury] tyranny," he said.

Cramer's Charitable Trust, the portfolio used by the CNBC Investing Club, does not own McCormick. However, the Trust does own consumer stocks Procter & Gamble (PG), Estee Lauder (EL) and Constellation Brands (STZ). Mexican beer powerhouse Constellation is set to report its quarter after the bell Thursday.
The Armenian parliament on Tuesday voted to join the International Criminal Court, which earlier this year indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes connected to the deportation of children from Ukraine.

The move is likely to further strain Armenias deteriorating relation with its ally Russia, which last month called Yerevans push to join the ICC an unfriendly step.

Countries that have signed and ratified the Rome Statute that created the ICC are bound to arrest Putin if he sets foot on their soil.

Armenian officials say the effort to join ICC has nothing to do with Russia and was prompted by Azerbaijans aggression against the country.
The president-elect of the Maldives said he would stick to his campaign promise to remove Indian military personnel stationed in the archipelago state, promising he would initiate the process.

Mohamed Muiz told his supporters gathered on Monday night, October 2, at a celebration of his election victory that he wouldn't stand for a foreign military staying in the Maldives against the will of its citizens.

"The people have told us that they don't want foreign military here," he said.

Its a serious blow to India in its geopolitical rivalry with China in the India Ocean region, where the Maldives' presidential runoff election on Saturday was seen as a virtual referendum on which of the regional powers would have the biggest influence on the archipelago. Outgoing President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who was elected president in 2018, was battling allegations by Muiz that he had allowed India an unchecked presence in the country. Muizs party, the Peoples National Congress, is viewed as heavily pro-China.

Muiz's main campaign theme was about an alleged threat to the Maldives' sovereignty by some Indian military personnel on an island, part of the party's yearslong India out strategy.

Solih insisted that the Indian militarys presence in the Maldives was only to build a dockyard under an agreement between the two governments and that his countrys sovereignty wouldnt be violated.

Former President Abdulla Yameen, leader of the Peoples National Congress, made the Maldives a part of Chinas Belt and Road initiative during his presidency from 2013 to 2018. The initiative is meant to build railroads, ports and highways to expand trade  and Chinas influence  across Asia, Africa and Europe.

Yameen was transferred on Sunday from prison to house arrest, already fulfilling one of Muiz's campaign promises before he officially takes office on November 17.

The Maldives is made up of 1,200 coral islands in the Indian Ocean, located by the main shipping route between the East and the West.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 3)  NOW Telecom, an affiliate of listed media and technology holding firm NOW Corp., has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in its tussle with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) over the group's supposed 2.6 billion unpaid obligation to the government.

In a 22-page comment filed at the Supreme Court dated Sept. 1, but only released to the media on Tuesday, Now Telecom maintained that it does not owe the state 2.6 billion.

It asked the high court to compel the NTC to recompute the supervision and regulation fees (SRF).

Now Telecom said the regulator's computation was "erroneous."

The firm said that the NTC based the SRF not on the subscribed and paid-up capital of 1.39 billion, but on the 13.57 billion, which is the sum of the capital stock and the additional paid-in capital (APIC) of 12.17 billion.

"The DOJ (Department of Justice) and the NTC have declared that any increase in the amount of paid-in capital stock resulting from debt to equity conversion should not be included in the computation of the SRF," the document read.

NOW Telecom further said that out of the 12.17 billion, about 11.51 billion was used to settle debts with only over 654.52 million left in 2005 until 2022.

"Assuming, only for the sake of argument, that APIC is part of capital stock, the purported APIC of 11,517,356,272 should only be considered as such in 2004 since this amount was created and used to wipe out or reduce the petitioner's deficit in 2005," NOW Telecom said.

The Supreme Court is also urged to delete the imposition of any penalty and interest.

"We are confident that this SRF issue will be finally resolved. NOW Telecom continues to appeal to the Marcos administration to affect a level playing field, for NOW to compete head-on with China Telecom/DITO and Huawei-equipped Smart and Globe," Mel Velarde, NOW Group Chairman, said in a separate statement.

Late in 2021, the NTC through the Office of the Solicitor General asked the Supreme Court to resolve the issue, citing the government's need to raise more funds for its COVID-19 response.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 3)  Filipino rock band Kamikazee was booted out of their performance at the Kasanggayahan Festival in Casiguran, Sorsogon due to their "attitude problem," according to the governor.

"Hihingi ako ng paumanhin, hindi [na] matutuloy ang Kamikazee. Wala tayong magagawa, bayad 'yun kaso may mga attitude," Sorsogon Gov. Boboy Hamor announced a few moments before the band's scheduled performance on Sunday night.

[Translation: I'm sorry, Kamikazee will no longer continue. There's nothing we can do, they are already paid for their performance, but they have attitude.]

Hamor said he didn't allow the band to stay at their hotel in Recidencia Del Hamor and sent them to the airport instantly after the incident. He added that Kamikazee is now banned from entering the province.

"Hindi na yun makakabalik sa Sorsogon Hindi tayo puwedeng bastusin na mga taga Sorsogon," the governor said.

[Translation: They can't come back to Sorsogon The people of Sorsogon should not be disrespected.]

Hamor did not give specific details of the band's action, but reports have said Kamikazee refused to take a photo with Sorsogon's tourist attraction Thousands Light Roses, which they earlier agreed to do so.

Kamikazee was supposed to perform along with other local bands Imago and I Belong To The Zoo.

They are known for their hit songs "Narda," "Huling Sayaw," "Doo Bi Doo," and "Halik."

The band has yet to issue a statement on the matter.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 2)  The Court of Appeals (CA) junked the petition for mandamus filed by NOW Telecom Company Inc. (NOW Telecom) against the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and former NTC Commissioner, now Commission on Audit Chairman Gamaliel Cordoba, in connection with the firms application for a provisional authority to operate a cellular mobile telephone service within specific frequency ranges.

The CAs Special Ninth Division ruled on Sept. 28 that NOW Telecom failed to show it had a clear legal right over the frequencies it sought; and NOW Telecom did not prove any ministerial duty on the part of NTC which it neglected to perform.

The mandamus petition sought to compel NTC and Cordoba to comply with the order of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA), which deemed automatically approved by operation of law NOW Telecom's application for a provisional authority to operate in the frequency range 1970 megahertz (Mhz) - 1980 Mhz paired with 2160 Mhz to 2170 Mhz and 3.6 gigahertz (Ghz) to 3.8 Ghz frequency ranges.

But ARTA reversed its previous decisions and formally recommended NOW Telecom's application for frequency assignment to the NTC.

The CA said NOW Telecoms right to be issued the frequencies is still in legal limbo since the case is still pending before the Office of the President.

It bears reiteration that the writ of mandamus may only issue if the party claiming it has a well-defined, clear, and certain legal right to the thing demanded, the CA noted.

NOW Telecom also argued that the issuance of the frequencies is a ministerial, not a discretionary act that may be compelled by mandamus.

However, the CA disagreed, citing the National Telecommunications Act (R.A. 7925), which granted the NTC discretion in implementing the law's policies and objectives.

Given the NTC's prior disqualification of NOW Telecom due to non-compliance with legal requirements, the CA asserted that ordering immediate assignment of frequencies would infringe upon the NTC's lawful discretion.

We should therefore refrain from intervening in the discretionary functions and prerogatives of the Executive department. Moreover, considering that NOW Telecom failed to establish that it has a clear legal right over the concomitant frequencies, this Court is powerless to grant the remedy prayed for in the petition, the court said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 2)  Six police officers are facing a murder case over the Aug. 2 killing of 17-year-old Jemboy Baltazar in Navotas.

Named in the document filed at the Navotas Regional Trial Court on Monday are Police Executive Master Sergeant Roberto Balais, Jr., Police Staff Sergeant Gerry Maliban, Police Staff Sergeant Antonio Bugayong, Jr., Police Staff Sergeant Nikko Esquilon, Police Corporal Edmard Blanco, and Patrolman Benedict Mangada.

RELATED: Trigger-happy police: The killing of Jemboy Baltazar

The cops were looking for an alleged murder suspect and were told the suspect was on the boat Baltazar and his friend Mario were cleaning.

They then opened fire at Baltazar even though they had yet to verify the target. Police later realized it was a case of mistaken identity.

Some of the cops involved in the incident said in their affidavits that they fired shots into the water and that they did not intend to hit Baltazar.

RELATED: Navotas police chief relieved, faces admin complaint over 17-year-old killing
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 2)  The group suing former president and incumbent Pampanga 2nd district Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo over an alleged misuse of the Malampaya fund almost one-and-a-half decades ago said it has built a solid case against the lawmaker.

Pete Ilagan, president of consumer group National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms Inc. (NASECORE), said in an interview on Monday that the complaint may appear like it's resurrecting old arguments from a 2013 case that was dismissed by the Office of the Ombudsman, but this fresh pleading involves a bigger sum  38.807 billion in royalties  that was not tackled in the 2013 graft case which covered only 900 million.

Central to the argument was whether or not that multi-billion Malampaya fund was used as mandated by the law that created it.

RELATED: New graft complaint filed vs ex-Pres. Arroyo over Malampaya Fund misuse

Ilagan argued that Arroyo, during her term as Philippine president, disbursed the Malampaya fund for projects other than those related to energy exploration and ensuring energy security.

His basis was a 2017 Commission on Audit (COA) report which found that, between 2002 and 2013, the Malampaya fund received over 173.280 billion in royalties, of which 38.807 billion was disbursed upon Arroyos order.

"When this was filed by the NBI in 2013, a month later, the Supreme Court decision came out explaining that the President cannot abuse the phrase in Presidential Decree 19 which says for any other reason as maybe directed by the President because it is too encompassing, Ilagan said.

Asked why the group is filing the charges just now using as basis a six-year-old document, Ilagan said they requested for a copy of the 2017 COA report earlier but it was made available to them just this year.

The time lag should not weaken the case, he added, pointing out that Arroyo should be held accountable.

The COA audit report came out only in 2017 and we were able to obtain a copy of that only this year. And we did a lot of research on that and based on the recommendation of our volunteer lawyers, we have a good case. We have a good case on this issue," Ilagan said.

Asked whether they also pleaded that the funds that were allegedly diverted be recovered, Ilagan said it will be the Ombudsmans call.

Its up to the Ombudsman now. The Ombudsman knows better. Ang importanteng message natin is kung ang ordinaryong tao na nagkakamali, nape-penalize, how much more for the highest executive position given to a public servant? Dapat maging model siya," he added.

[Translation: Its up to the Ombudsman now. The Ombudsman knows better. The important thing is if an ordinary person who did something wrong is penalized, how much more for the highest executive position given to a public servant? They should be the model.]

CNN Philippines reached out to the camp of Arroyo but has yet to receive a response.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 3)  The legal team of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is confident the graft complaint filed against her would be junked as they denied claims the multibillion-peso funds from the Malampaya project were misused.

Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, the legal counsel of now Deputy House Speaker Arroyo, said Tuesday that they have yet to receive the official copy of the charge.

"So we cannot make any specific comments as of this time. Suffice it to state that based on newspaper reports, the complainant admits that the funds concerned were used for public purposes," he said in a statement.

"Therefore, in accordance with settled legal principles, Pres. Arroyo has done no wrongdoing during her term, and we are confident that these charges will be proven false, in the same manner that other accusations made before them have been shown to be baseless," Topacio added.

National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms, Inc. (NASECORE) president Pete Ilagan and Boses Ng Konsyumer Alliance, Inc. (BKAI) president Roger Reyes slapped Arroyo with a fresh complaint, alleging that she abused her presidential discretion.

The complainants argued that the 38.807 billion intended for the exploration and development of indigenous energy resources was spent instead on other projects.

On Monday, NASECORE said the complaint against Arroyo was solid.

READ: NASECORE says graft case vs. Arroyo is solid
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 3)  United States President Joe Biden expressed his gratitude to the Filipino American community on Tuesday, as October marks Filipino American History Month in the US.

"To our Filipino American community: Thank you for all you do to ensure our nation continues to be the land of opportunity," Biden said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The US president also honored "the rich heritage and traditions of millions of Filipino Americans."

On Sunday, the White House joined in the celebration, stressing that Filipino Americans "have helped forge the very idea of America."

"This Filipino American History Month, the Biden-Harris Administration is proud to honor generations of Filipino Americans who have ensured our nation remains a land of hope, opportunity, and optimism," it said.

Data from the US showed in February that there were over four million Filipino Americans living there.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 3)  The Caraga regional police on Tuesday said it has secured a compound occupied by Socorro Bayanihan Services, Inc. (SBSI) members in Surigao del Norte amid allegations of abuse by the group.

Yung peace and order sa area ay ating mine-maintain, Caraga Regional Director PBGen Kirby John Kraft told CNN Philippines The Source.

[Translation: We are maintaining peace and order in the area.]

Kraft said personnel from the Socorro police station and the Provincial Mobile Force Battalion have set up a monitoring station and an assistance desk to maintain peace and order in the area.

He said they are making sure that residents are free to enter and leave the compound.

The police made their presence felt in Sitio Kapihan as lawmakers investigate the alleged abuses being committed by SBSI, including sexual harassment, forced labor, trafficking, and child marriage.

After conducting a hearing last week, Sen. Bato dela Rosa told CNN Philippines he was convinced the Socorro group operates as a cult, and its real leaders were hiding behind Jey Rence Quilario, also known as Senior Aguila.

Kraft said the help desk has not received any complaints or requests from residents so far.

To further ensure security, he said the local police conduct mobile patrols inside SBSIs 353-hectare compound.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 3)  Nearly a month into the implementation of a price ceiling on rice, an official said the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) have recommended to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to lift the measure.

Bureau of Plant Industry Director Glenn Panganiban said the DA and the DTI made the joint recommendation after seeing that the supply of rice has become stable and that global prices are improving.

Yun yung [Thats the] indication. From our parameters naman, mukhang ready na [it appears were ready], but of course it's all upon the president to decide on it, Panganiban told reporters in a Malacanang briefing.

The Palace said Marcos discussed the possible lifting of Executive Order (EO) No. 39 during a sectoral meeting with the DA, the DTI, and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) on Tuesday.

It said NEDA also supports the proposal and recommends a number of interventions to complement the move. They include logistics support to rice traders, financial aid to farmers and unconditional rice price subsidies to poor consumers.

Under EO No. 39, regular milled rice may only be sold for up to 41 per kilo, while the price cap on well-milled rice is at 45 per kilo.

Marcos issued the directive amid a spike in the prices of the commodity, which he has attributed to hoarding and smuggling.

The order states that the price ceiling shall remain in effect unless earlier lifted by the president upon the recommendation of the Price Coordinating Council or the DA and DTI.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 3) The Department of Trade Industry (DTI) on Tuesday said it has resubmitted a 200 million budget proposal for the establishment of Center for Artificial Intelligence Research (CAIR) in San Pedro Laguna.

The AI center will house data scientists, researchers, and engineers whose AI projects will support the needs of MSMEs and startups, large companies and multinationals, DTI Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba said during the Senate deliberations on the proposed 2024 budget of DTI and its attached agencies.

"The goal of course is for us to become an AI center of excellence in the region in the near future," Aldaba added about the proposal being submitted by the department

She said the center will provide training and capacity building on AI "so new products and services, IPs will come out to this center."

DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual and Aldaba confirmed that Aboitiz and UnionBank have provided them a space in San Pedro, Laguna but the department has yet to utilize it due to lack of resources.

Senator Loren Legarda then suggested that DTI begin the AI research activities first while waiting for the approval of the infrastructure.

However, Aldaba said the agency has no sufficient space to fully cater to research activities, adding that it needs supercomputers and salaries to hire staff.

"We do a lot of workshops and seminars to help people become aware of the usefulness of adapting to AI technologies," Aldaba noted.

Aldaba added that the DTI already has an AI roadmap and is forming a task force to craft a governance framework that would address concerns regarding artificial intelligence.

AI can also be used to promote bad things but what we are promoting is good AI and responsible AI," she said.

In the same hearing, Pascual said that the Philippines should participate in more international conferences to promote its economic sector.

"Participation in international conferences. This will entail significant expenses so we need funding for these activities. We need to be seen and heard by prospective foreign investors," he said.

The proposed 2024 budget of DTI is 7.909 billion, including 5.319 billion for the Office of the Secretary and 2.341 billion for attached agencies.




Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 3)  Palawan 3rd District Rep. Edward Hagedorn, who also served as long-time mayor of Puerto Princesa, died on Tuesday. He was 76 years old.

His office made the announcement through his official Facebook page but did not specify the cause of death.

Our dear Congressman died peacefully on October 3rd, 2023, after 76 years of shining his light into the world, the statement read.

The lawmaker died at 4:09 a.m., according to the City Information Department of Puerto Princesa.

He was the citys local chief executive from 1992 to 2001, and from 2002 to 2013.

Last February, Hagedorn revealed during an event that he was diagnosed with cancer. Palawan News later reported that it was pancreatic cancer.

Hagedorns office said his family has not yet discussed any public funeral service arrangements but it will post the details as soon as these are finalized.

Cong. Ed's life speaks volumes, particularly in his role as a champion for the environment, tourism, agriculture, and peace and order. His efforts created inclusive spaces for the community and inspired a collective desire for change. It's hard not to be infected by his energy and laughter, which he freely shares with everyone he encounters, it wrote.

The local government of Puerto Princesa noted that during Hagedorns term as mayor, the Puerto Princesa Underground River was chosen as one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature. It said among his other legacies were the establishment of the city baywalk and the construction of the city coliseum and the New City Hall.

Hagedorn joined the senatorial race in the 2013 polls but lost. He was elected congressional representative of Palawan in 2022.

In a statement, House Speaker Martin Romualdez mourned the death of his colleague, whom he said was filled with laughter, wisdom, and profound insights.

More than his roles in the political arena, Cong. Ed was a guiding light and inspiration to many of us personally. His passion for the environment, tourism, agriculture, and peace was not just a professional pursuit, but a reflection of his soul, Romualdez said.
More than two years ago, when the Colorado Supreme Court found that juries, not judges, must decide if people accused of felony drunk driving are repeat offenders, it prompted defendants found guilty of other offenses to wonder whether their own prior convictions were something prosecutors must prove to juries beyond a reasonable doubt.
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Press Release

October 3, 2023 Keeping the Flame of Freedom Alive: Case Study of Percy Lapid Mabasa

University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City

October 3, 2023

SPEECH OF SENATOR RISA HONTIVEROS Magandang magandang umaga po sa ating lahat, mga kasama. Allow me to greet: My colleague, former and hopefully soon to be again Senator Kiko Pangilinan; Our National Artist Virgilio Almario; Our friends from the diplomatic community, including Laure Beaufils, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the Philippines; Dalibor Micka, charge d' affaires of the Czech embassy in Manila; Samantha Parkes, of the United States embassy in Manila and Renuka Randhawa, second secretary, political section of the UK embassy in Manila; President Jimenez of the University of the Philippines; Likewise ang lahat ng kabataan na pag-asa ng Inang Bayan na nandito; Veronic and Ka Roy, Glenda Gloria and Kara David. Let me also greet our organizer, the Center for People's Media- Philippine Media Advocacy Asia (CPM-PMAA), our friends from the academe, as well as Ka Percy's friends and colleagues in the media. I thank all of you for lending your time, your ideas, and your support for this important discussion. Exactly one year ago, Percival Mabasa, or Ka Percy Lapid, paid the ultimate price for speaking truth to power. Ka Percy was killed by men who sought to silence him and end his fiery brand of journalism. After all, his reporting offended and irked people of power and influence. From corruption, human rights abuses and government mismanagement, Ka Percy was never afraid to tell the truth, and to advocate for what is right. For Percy Lapid, the truth was always worth telling - no matter how difficult, unpopular, or deadly it is to do so. His story, unfortunately, is all too common in our supposedly free and democratic country. In 2022, the global watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists ranked the Philippines as the 7th most dangerous country in the world for media workers, only behind active warzones like Somalia, Syria, Iraq, and South Sudan. After Ka Percy's killing, the list of slain Filipino journalists has only grown longer. In June of this year, broadcaster Cresenciano Bunduquin was killed in Oriental Mindoro - the third media personality to be killed during the administration of this president. Beyond threats of physical violence, Filipino media workers also operate in an environment where journalists may be slapped with civil, criminal or administrative charges due to their reporting - as in the case of independent online outfit Rappler. Our journalists have to deal with rampant disinformation and propaganda campaigns - especially in the online space - which not only affect their reach and distribution, but also incite real-world violence against those in the media industry. Make no mistake: these attacks on journalists - whether physical or otherwise - represent a worsening challenge to Philippine democracy itself. Every slain journalist weakens our collective ability to speak truth to power, to demand justice, transparency and accountability, and to defend our basic rights. Upholding press freedom, and protecting our journalists starts with the promotion of the rule of law. To dismantle the culture of impunity regarding media killings, we must identify, investigate and prosecute those behind these heinous acts. The Philippines has a sorry track record when it comes to achieving justice for media killings. According to a report in 2022 by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), of the 176 media workers killed in the Philippines since 1986, only 19 have resulted in convictions. Ka Percy's case offers a unique opportunity to turn things around and set a model for obtaining justice in media killings. Earlier this year, several high-ranking government officials were formally indicted for their roles in the death of Ka Percy, including former BuCor chief Gerald Bantag. I remain hopeful that Bantag and the other accused individuals on the run will be brought before the courts to face the charges against them. I believe that, sooner rather than later, justice for Ka Percy's death will be achieved. While we continue to clamor for the successful investigation and prosecution of media killings, we should also work on fostering an environment that guarantees journalists not only safety from physical violence but also legal harassment. In the Senate, I have filed Senate Bill No. 1593, which seeks to finally decriminalize libel in the Philippines, and end the weaponization of criminal laws to stifle the freedom of the press. Alongside our growing coalition of partners within and outside the Senate, I will continue to push for the decriminalization of libel. I believe that more and more people are seeing that journalists should not be made to face criminal charges simply for doing their jobs. It is clear that much of the reforms which must be undertaken to stop media killings and better protect press freedom in the Philippines lie with the government. However, that does not mean that the rest of the country, and the world, should only watch and hope for the best. Every voice and demand for justice counts - be it from the inside the government, the diplomatic circle, the academe, the media industry and even everyday Filipinos. We must never tire of standing in solidarity, and of speaking up for those who could not. Friends, we owe it to Ka Percy, and to every single journalist slain in the line of duty, to continue to seek and speak the truth, and to continue the fight for genuine freedom of the press and expression so essential to our democracy. No ifs, and no buts. Before ending this sharing, allow me to send a message to the wife and children of Ka Percy Lapid - Ma'am Liza, their beautiful and talented children, and Ka Roy, who is similarly courageous and faithful to the cause. We pray that you have found peace, joy and love, one year after Ka Percy's passing, and thanks to the friends who made that search possible. Know that your family is never alone in your quest for justice - we are all with you. As I have said in the past, death could never silence Ka Percy and all the slain Filipino journalists. Their fight for truth and justice speaks so loudly to all of us, even now. We are listening. We will not be cowed. And we will continue the fight. Marami pong salamat sa inyong lahat at mabuhay.
Wasco county purchases of war bond sand treasury securities in the third war loan which ends tonight stood this morning at a total of $1,108,912.06, which is 105 percent of the county quota of $1,054,700, with several hours yet to go. Further tabulations will be reported either on Monday or Tuesday.

 The Dalles Chronicle
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Well, my gaggle of giddy gibbons, it's a ginormous week here in the land o' Googley matters.

We've got Le Google's official fall hardware event on Wednesday, with the coming launch of this year's new Pixel 8 flagship phones and a new Pixel Watch to join 'em. And we're expecting to see the long-awaited arrival of Android 14 any day now, too.

It's a lot to watch for, and odds are, none of it will deliver any immediate satisfaction to you as an Android-observing animal. But while you wait (and perhaps salivate), good golly, have I got just the treat for you.

It's a simple app you can install on any Android device this minute to add a whole new dimension of usefulness into your current purse and/or pocket companion. It takes a cue from Apple, in a way, but also ties into a long-standing (and long-underappreciated) classic Android component and brings some refreshingly fresh energy into that arena.

This thing is so darn good, in fact, it'll make you wonder why Google doesn't give it to us as a stock Android element right out of the box. But on the plus side, since it isn't part of the platform as of yet, you don't need any particular Android version to run it. All you need is a point in the right direction and roughly 20 seconds of time.

Prepare to be pleased.

[Get fresh 'n' zesty tips in your inbox with my Android Intelligence newsletter. Three new things to try every Friday!]

Android in standby

The feature with which we're about to fiddle is an Android-friendly version of the StandBy Mode concept introduced for iPhones as part of the iOS 17 update last month.

That system, in case you've forgotten or maybe just tune out such Apple-scented topics, is a nifty notion that turns your phone into an info-totin', interactive display anytime it's charging and not in use. You can choose from numerous specialized widgets and have 'em shown side-by-side on your screen while the device is sitting around and effectively create your own custom Smart Display without any extra hardware or meaningful effort.

And the app you need to make it happen is a spiffy little ditty called StandBy Mode Pro.

Once you install it on your favorite Android gizmo and get it set up initially, it'll automatically kick in anytime your phone is plugged in and sitting in the horizontal (landscape) position. It'll show you things like the current time and date, a scrollable view of your upcoming calendar appointments, the latest weather, or a collection of interactive audio panels to control any actively playing music, podcasts, or platypus sound anthologies.

JR

There's even a mode that shows you a live view of Earth from the International Space Station, if that's your (space) jam.

JR

You can swipe side to side to switch from one configuration to another and then swipe up and down to scroll through the available widget options within each pattern.

JR

(Yes, that's what my schedule actually looks like as of late. It's a long story.)

And anytime your phone is charging, you'll have that useful view of relevant information in any arrangement you like.

StandBy Mode Pro has a handful of interesting options that let you control the nuances of your device's downtime presentation, too, including a night mode that makes the app's interface especially dim for sleepytime hours and a portrait-mode version of the standby interface.

Some of those (including both the night mode and the portrait mode) require a one-time $4 upgrade to the app's premium version to work. But all the main features work fine even if you don't opt to shell out that dough.

Oh, and a side note: If you've got one of Google's Pixel Tablets, this actually makes for an even nicer and more robust docked-state setup than what that device gives you on its own. (Hey, Google: Are you listening?)

JR

Now, if you prefer a more self-made version of this concept with a combination of standard Android widgets, you can make that happen, too. (We went over the steps for that earlier this summer!) This is Android, after all, and the choice is in your hands. Plus, you don't need your device-maker's permission to do something new and interesting.

But for a simple, sleek, and supremely impressive out-of-the-box experience, the setup from StandBy Mode Pro is pretty tough to beat.

The app does require a handful of permissions to operate, by the way, but they're all reasonable requests that are genuinely required for what it needs to do. And the developer is clear about the fact that no data is ever collected or shared in any way.

It may not be Android 14 or a fancy new Pixel, but it's a pretty spectacular upgrade  and it's ready to be applied to whatever Android device you're carrying this second, no rollouts or purchases required.

Some weeks, it just doesn't get much better than that.

Sign up for my Android Intelligence newsletter to get more practical tips, personal recommendations, and plain-English perspective on the news that matters.
'What time is it, and where are we,' asks one of 20 aircraft targeted by fake GPS signals, after getting lost in the airspace

Fake GPS signals from an unknown source on the ground in the Iran-Iraq area misdirected at least 20 airline and corporate jets in the last two weeks, media reports said, citing flight data intelligence crowdsourcing website OPSGROUP.

A representational image of an aircraft midair. Image Courtesy: Unsplash





Forbes reported that the site, which boasts of a membership of 8,000 pilots, flight dispatchers, schedulers, and controllers, started reporting the GPS spoofing incidents since Monday.



The fake GPS signals sent from the ground took over the aircrafts inbuilt navigation, OPSGROUP stated.



Earlier this week, OPSGROUP reported that, [Twelve] separate reports have been now received by OPSGROUP, and in most cases the [Inertial Reference System] becomes unusable, VOR/DME sensor inputs fail, the aircraft UTC clock fails, and the crew have been forced to request vectors from ATC to navigate.

Since then, reports of GPS spoofing have risen to 20. In one such incident, an Embraer 650 business jet crew, en route from Europe to Dubai, nearly entered Iran airspace (OIIX/Tehran FIR) with no clearance after both GPS navigation units aboard the airplane and GPS signals to both pilot/co-pilot iPads were lost.

The crew reported that the Inertial Reference System (IRS), an independent, standalone system that can compute position without GPS signals help, didnt work anymore.



According to the Times of India, this is largely related to the functioning of the IRS system in modern commercial jets. Each plane is equipped with 2-3 separate IRS units and two independent GPS receivers to determine the aircraft's position. However, since IRS can be susceptible to inaccuracies, many modern commercial jets use inputs from both IRS and GPS to calculate a more reliable 'GPIRS position'.

TOI quoted Captain Amit Singh, an air safety expert, as saying, The aircraft system will show a disagreement between IRS and GPS signal and if at this point crew do not disable the GPS signals, the aircraft will be steered off its flight path.

The Forbes report cited OPSGROUP as saying that airplanes, both commercial and business, that traverse Airway UMB688 in northern Iraq (a major air route connecting Europe and the Middle East) have encountered total failures in their navigation systems due to deceptive GPS signals. These incidents seem to involve more complex cyber elements beyond simply substituting accurate GPS position data with misleading coordinates.



In a separate incident, a Bombardier Challenger 604 business jet needed continuous ATC radar guidance to reach its destination in Doha, Qatar, as it experienced a loss of GPS signal.



According to Times of India, Ops Group said in its report that among aircraft waylaid by rogue GPS signals were the Boeing 777, 737 and 747. The report added that a targeted 777 was led so much off course that the crew was forced to ask Baghdad ATC, What time is it, and where are we.

Indian carriers Air India, IndiGo and Vistara overfly this airspace en route destinations like San Francisco, Istanbul, Baku and London. Air India and IndiGo operate 777 on these routes, with IndiGos 777 aircraft operated by Turkish Airlines, according to TOI.

Times of India quoted a senior commander of an Indian carrier, who requested anonymity, as saying, We dont fly airway UM688, but we do overfly the Iranian air. We haven't experienced spoofing but, on a flight, last week we experienced GPS jamming.


Everyone should own a collection of weapons, to protect themselves from looking well-adjusted. The appeal of this arsenal has nothing to do with genuinely wanting to hurt anyone in particular. Instead, youre fascinated by these tools power and weirdness. For that reason, we recommend dispensing with the swords and guns hoarded by your typical vanilla nutcase. Instead, seek out such out of-the-box solutions as...

5 Rods From Up in Space The very first weapon (and the first bit of technology, period) was probably a rock that one human threw at another. We moved from there to hurling more sophisticated types of rocks, in increasingly elaborate ways. Later, we realized we could attack each other much more forcefully using the power of explosives. But in the 1950s, Boeing engineer Jerry Pournelle proposed going back to a projectile that used no explosives, just pure kinetic energy. The difference here is these projectiles would come from straight above. State Farm We killed the dinosaurs this way. We can also kill Kevin. Wed keep a satellite in low Earth orbit, and wed stock it with tungsten cylinders, 25 feet tall and 2 feet wide. Then when we finally lose patience with our enemies, we drop the rods to Earth, and they hit Toronto at 7,000 miles per hour. Pournelle dubbed this Project Thor, while other people have called it Rods from God. The cylinders would strike like a nuke but without any radiation. Some defense experts have questioned the benefits of such a weapon. If we wanted to launch tungsten missiles, we could do so from the ground. Pournelle was using his imagination as a sci-fi writer rather than engineers prudence, argue these naysayers. This may be true, but the imagination here is the point. Rods from space would be cool; how do they not understand this? Also, while nations have signed treaties banning certain types of weapons from space, these treaties say nothing about kinetic bombardment. Meanwhile, if you yourself launch rods from space, as a private citizen, no country even has jurisdiction over you to prosecute you  and if they claim they do, you can just drop a tungsten rod on them. Advertisement

4 Power-Sapping Dust Picture a bag of ground-up graphite. Its quite useful for lubricating locks and for leaving stains on wooden parts of your home. Throw it at someones face, and you can make them look like a coal miner, and also feel like a coal miner, because it will choke them. Now, lets think bigger. We launch this graphite from a plane onto a target. Here, we rely not on graphites blackness or slipperiness but its conductive nature. The targets are power stations and power lines. Coated with clouds of this conductive powder, the electrical system breaks out with short circuits, everywhere. One day in May 1999, NATO tried spraying this graphite across a few strategic locations in Serbia. Instantly, 70 percent of the country lost power. Jovan Markovic Picture this, but dark. Advertisement The graphite bomb is considered relatively non-destructive because we dont actually demolish any of these electrical facilities. We merely induce short circuits, which can be repaired. Its also classified as a nonlethal weapon. Its totally nonlethal, so long as we assume absolutely zero people the country were relying on electricity to stay alive that day. Advertisement

3 Lightning on Command For all our technological progress, the weather remains largely out of our control. We cant blow apart rain clouds when we want to go out and play; we cant summon rain clouds when we want to get wet and wild. We have had some success, however, with teasing output from clouds that happen to already be in place. When we see a cloud, we can seed it with dust and then demand credit when rain follows. We do the same thing with hail, teasing baby hailstones out before they get bigger and hit us like tungsten rods. Advertisement We can do that with lightning as well, only its a harder process. Theres no substance, as far as we know, that we can spray into clouds to coax out lightning bolts. Instead, we launch rockets into clouds, trailing copper wire coated in Kevlar. This electrically connects the cloud to the ground. You know that story about Ben Franklin flying a kite during a thunderstorm to pull electricity down (the story that didnt actually happen)? This is like that, but with rockets, so its even more patriotic. Rockets trailing miles of wire tend to be unwieldy, and the process also doesnt always work. So, around 15 years ago, scientists moved to the next logical step: lasers. They fire lasers at clouds, and this creates a channel along which electricity can travel. Electricity travels upward from the ground to the sky, discharging particles in the cloud and setting off a lightning strike  thats a little-known fact about lightning, by the way; the electricity actually travels upward. Gavin Spear/Unsplash But the pain travels downward. Advertisement Advertisement So far, the stated goal of the lightning project has been similar to the hail one: inducing small strikes now to prevent larger ones later. The scientists have to say that, due to pesky international treaties against weaponizing weather. Once they perfect the system, however, we trust theyll do the right thing and use lightning for its true purpose of destruction and fear.

2 The Nuclear Rifle Nukes remain the ultimate weapon, inhibiting the creativity of people everywhere. When a room of people write a blockbuster and ask themselves how to kill an army of aliens, they figure we can nuke the entire city or leave the heroes to fight with pistols and fists from a few yards away  nothing exists between those extremes. Never mind that we had artillery that could strike from 50 miles away more than a century ago. Advertisement But what if we could combine the destructive power of nukes with the inconvenience and personal risk of boots on the ground? That was the question answered by the M-28 Davy Crockett Weapon System, a 1960s tool for firing a nuke from a mounted rifle. Chuck Hansen Named after Davy Crockett, due to Rep. Crocketts many years of nuclear research. It was a teeny nuke, whose explosive impact was measured not in kilotons but tens of tons. Thats because you dont need more than a teeny nuke to kill everyone within 500 feet. The soldier who fired the nuke would stand well outside that radius, as the rifle could launch its warhead a couple miles. Still, neutron radiation has a habit of drifting wherever the wind blows, so the gunman was advised to take shelter behind a hill. Advertisement The army phased out the Davy Crockett by the end of the decade. They reasoned that an individual soldier launching nuclear war could have some downsides. Advertisement
Sadly for the so-called Strike Force Five, the window to make original jokes about Lauren Boeberts Beetlejuice breakdown barely lasted longer than her date once she got handsy.

By now, the news is nearly old enough to be a grandmother in Colorado, but to recap: Congresswoman Boebert attended a performance of the Beetlejuice musical adaptation in Denver on Sunday, September 10th. During the show, Boebert vaped openly, tried to sing along with the professionals, and rubbed her male companions penis before security booted her out of the theater. Anyone looking for color commentary on the embarrassing (for Boebert and democracy) incident during the last few weeks needed look no further than the entirety of the internet to find all the funniest Beetlejuice/handjob double entendres and digs on the dating life of the House of Representatives walking reality show.

Unfortunately for Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and John Oliver, the late-night hosts didnt have their talented and underappreciated writers present to fill their teleprompters with topical gags about Boeberts date night. Well, much like the AMPTP, the returning hosts decided that making the most obvious move possible this far after the fact was a simple case of better late than never.

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Olivers addition to the three-weeks-late Boebert bashing was plainly the most effortful as he spent two full minutes pretending to report on economic conditions in Italy while interspersing his writers many digs on the ridiculous incident. Colbert lands on the other end of the spectrum, with some drawn-out pantomime supporting the punchline that Boebert was trying to start him like a lawnmower. Fallon and Kimmels quips land in the middle of the road, which is exactly how Id describe both of them as hosts.

Overall, late-nights late arrival to the Boebert burns was predictable and lacked much of a punch. Still, the worst may be yet to come  I dread to think what lukewarm funny face = funny sketch take Saturday Night Live will have on the incident after mulling it over for a month.
Sandell says that without an understanding of threats, cyber teams rely on reactive, assurance-based security controls, "having access to quality threat intelligence allows them to proactively remediate any security control gaps -- hopefully before the threats eventuate in their environment."

CTI comes to CISOs from various channels; some intel is free, and much of it is fee-based. Although some CISOs have the resources to gather their own threat intel, most obtain it from government agencies, researchers, and ISACs. CISOs also buy threat intelligence from commercial cybersecurity companies; vendors provide that intel through feeds and reports and/or through automated updates to the technologies and services they sell to security teams.

Operationalizing threat intel is key to a defense strategy

Experienced CISOs, security researchers and other security leaders say the availability of and access to threat intel aren't issues -- nor are they the reasons behind the survey findings indicating no or limited threat intel within some organizations.

The real issue, experts say, lies in whether and how well security teams can operationalize threat intel. The use of threat intel happens in three ways, says Forrester principal analyst Brian Wrozek.

The first is tactical, a use that's often automated. For example, security tools that block dangerous IP addresses are automatically updated as the tool makers get intel about new addresses deemed problematic.

The second is operational, a step up on the security maturity scale, where CISOs and their teams are using intel to inform their incident responses. For example, intel can inform a team about what next steps to expect if they see a certain type of threat within their environment.

The third is strategic, which is the most sophisticated use of threat intel. This is where CISOs integrate intel with the threat landscape, their IT environment, their organization and their industry to shape strategic decisions within the security function and for the organization overall.

Making intel a part of everyday security operations

It's in those second two areas where many CISOs aren't yet effectively using threat intel. "Threat intel is not part of the everyday operations of CISOs," says Sergio Tenreiro de Magalhaes, chief learning officer at Champlain College Online and an associate professor of cybersecurity and digital forensics.

Yet it's in these two areas that threat intel can deliver significant advantages, as threat intelligence enables organizations to more accurately prioritize their limited security resources, better prepare their defenses and make smarter decisions about where to go next.

Urbanowicz says such applications of threat intel are essential for creating a "threat-informed defense."

"CISOs have to prioritize on what matters most to them, their sector and their industry, because there's not a budget to do all things or cover all bases," he says, explaining that threat intel gives CISOs the perspectives needed to do that. "We want to look at trends, which direction are threat actors moving in, what are those trends telling us about the future, and how all those things that a threat actor is doing informs us about what we need to be doing."

Jason Rader, vice president and CISO of Insight and a former executive with RSA, the security division of EMC, says threat intel allowed his team to prevent any potential incidents following the disclosure of critical vulnerabilities within Apache Log4j.

He says having a team that has operationalized the use of threat intel "is almost the definition of going from reactive to proactive; it's about preventing the fires, not just fighting them."

Others agree with that assessment.

"While not using threat intelligence doesn't guarantee a security incident, it can leave an organization less prepared and more vulnerable to cyber threats," adds Bryon Hundley, vice president of intelligence operations with the Retail & Hospitality ISAC.

"The consequences of not using threat intelligence can include a lack of visibility into emerging threats, slower detection and response, ineffective incident response, compliance risk, and financial loss. Also, threat actors use their own form of threat intelligence so it's in the best interest of organizations to do the same."

Boosting threat intelligence capabilities

Like much in security, making effective use of threat intel at all three tiers -- tactical, operational, and strategic -- is easier said than done, with veteran security leaders saying CISOs typically face myriad challenges in their efforts on this front.

As is often the case in cybersecurity, challenges in getting the right talent for this task are a top barrier to success, Urbanowicz says. CISOs generally focus on hiring technically competent workers, and in most cases, that approach works. However optimizing the value of threat intel requires analytical skills and situational awareness -- skills that enable security teams to turn data into actionable items.

"Threat intelligence is a little bit more of a qualitative state; it requires a more analytical mindset -- and [workers with that mindset] are not the first ones to be hired," Urbanowicz says.

That security talent also needs enough insights into the organization's IT environment, business operations, strategy and sector, too. Those insights allow the intel analysts to, first, identify what threat intelligence feeds and reports matter most to the organization and, second, home in on the data within those intelligence reports that's most meaningful for the organization and its unique security posture.

The security team then needs to know what to do with those nuggets of intelligence -- whether that means fine-tuning a security event and information management (SEIM) system, investing in new tools that better target the identified threats or adjusting business strategy in response to a changing threat landscape.

Tenreiro de Magalhaes says CISOs often face an overarching barrier as they try to tackle these other challenges: that is, getting the funding required to purchase the intelligence reports and to pay for the staff required to make use of the intelligence.

"Cyber teams are generally flat out trying to keep an organization safe and respond to ongoing operational demands, [so] it's very easy for a task like this to get deprioritized," Sandell adds.

But that de-prioritization may not be an option much longer, says Wrozek, the Forrester analyst, explaining that the effective use of threat intel "is becoming more and more a requirement for your security program."

CISOs seem to have gotten the message.

A majority of CISOs are boosting their threat intelligence capabilities this year, with Forrester Research reporting that nearly two-thirds of surveyed security decision-makers increased their spending on such technologies from 2022 to 2023.

Forrester also found in its 2022 Security Survey that 22% of security technology decision-makers identified improving threat intelligence capabilities as a top tactical IT security priority -- making it No. 3 on the list of top IT security tactical priorities.

"There are so many threats out there. How do you make sense of it all? How do you prioritize?" Wrozek says. "You prioritize and you improve decision-making based on intel."
The Chartered Institute of Information Security (CIISec) has secured funding from the UK Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) to expand its Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) in cybersecurity. The CyberEPQ offers training in topics across the cybersecurity spectrum, from the history of computing and cryptography to digital forensics and the human factor in cybersecurity, to help prepare students for a career in cybersecurity. Students also gain access to CIISec's development programme, designed to support individuals at all stages of their careers, from apprenticeships to executive positions.

The funding will support places for 400 students for 2023/24, three times the number in 2022/23, CIISec said. It comes following a successful first year for the CyberEPQ, with 68% of the 132 students taking part securing grades in the A* to B category. A third of the students were female, CIISec said.

Funding will be used to attract diverse cybersecurity talent pool

A key focus of both CIISec and the UK government is to attract a more diverse pool of talent into the cybersecurity industry. The funding from DSIT, alongside assistance from CIISec's corporate partners, will be a crucial element in this, with CIISec increasing the number of state schools involved in the CyberEPQ by 56%, CIISec said.

CIISec has also recruited a dedicated school liaison coordinator to manage and support both teachers and students throughout the program, with plans underway to upgrade the curriculum to reflect advancements in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and blockchain, it added.

"We're excited to embark on this next phase of the CyberEPQ program, which promises to play a pivotal role in attracting and nurturing diverse talent in the cybersecurity industry," commented Amanda Finch, CEO of CIISec. "The continued support from DSIT and the dedication of our partners and members will be instrumental in achieving these goals."

Half of UK businesses suffering from a basic cybersecurity skills gap

The UK's cybersecurity sector is growing at pace, and so is the demand for skills, which is why the government is investing in a new and diverse generation of cybersecurity experts, said cyber minister Viscount Camrose. Earlier this year, a DSIT report found that half of UK businesses are suffering from a basic cybersecurity skills gap, with a third battling more advanced skills shortages in relation to aspects of security such as forensic breach analysis, storing or transferring personal data, or detecting and removing malware. Just 17% of the cybersecurity workforce is female, with only 14% of senior roles held by women, according to the report. People from ethnic minority backgrounds make up 22% of the sector's workforce, with 14% of those in senior cybersecurity roles from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Dozens of global cybersecurity experts have raised concerns about the proposed vulnerability disclosure requirements of the EU's Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). An open letter signed by representatives from a wide range of organizations including Google, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the CyberPeace Institute, ESET, Rapid7, Bugcrowd, and Trend Micro claimed that the current provisions on vulnerability disclosure are counterproductive and will create new threats that undermine the security of digital products and the individuals who use them.

The letter was addressed to Thierry Breton, commissioner for internal market, European Commission; Carme Artigas Burga, state secretary for digitalization and artificial intelligence, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Spain; and Nicola Danti, rapporteur for CRA, European Parliament.

The EU CRA aims to set out new cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements, bolstering cybersecurity rules for hardware and software to protect consumers and businesses from inadequate security features. It was first put forward by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, in September 2021, with an initial proposal published in September 2022. It is currently being crafted by EU co-legislators.

In July, several IT and tech industry groups issued a list of recommendations for improving the EU CRA. The associations urged the co-legislators not to prioritize speed over quality in finalizing their positions to avoid unintended outcomes, citing problematic aspects that need to be addressed in the current proposal.

Unpatched vulnerabilities must be disclosed within 24 hours of exploitation

Article 11 of the CRA requires software publishers to disclose unpatched vulnerabilities to government agencies within 24 hours of exploitation. This means that dozens of government agencies would have access to a real-time database of software with unmitigated vulnerabilities, without the ability to leverage them to protect the online environment and simultaneously creating a tempting target for malicious actors, the letter read. "There are several risks associated with rushing the disclosure process and having a widespread knowledge of unmitigated vulnerabilities," it added.

Risks include misuse, exposure to malicious actors, hampering of research

The risks posed by the current vulnerability disclosure proposals include misuse for intelligence and surveillance, exposure to malicious actors, and negative effects on good-faith security research, according to the letter.
Through the throng loomed a familiar, froggy grin: Nigel Farage was at the Conservative conference for the first time since 1988. He was there, he insisted, as a GB News presenter.

Activists queuing for the Great British Growth Rally fringe event went mad when they spotted him. There were shouts of 'Nigel!', as if the Messiah had been glimpsed. A crush of bodies surged towards him as a single organism, seeking selfies.

While Farage the humpback whale gorged on this Tory bait ball, there came a distant, panicked sound of Rishi Sunak's spin doctors wrestling for control of the news agenda. 'We cannae hold her, captain!'

The lunchtime rally, hyped as a major rebellion, was easily the biggest draw of the day. The queue snaked for miles. They wanted to hear Liz Truss, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Dame Priti Patel make the case for economic stimulation from tax cuts and lower spending. This time last year Ms Truss tried the first without, alas, remembering the second.

She floated to the stage on her tippytoes. 'Make Britain grow again' slogans echoed Donald Trump's 'make American great again'. Reminders of her ex-prime ministerial status were evident. She had a security detail. A burly press officer carried her small, cream-coloured clutch bag. At first I thought it was a Cornish pasty. Nearby sat Ms Truss's husband Hugh, a slight sadness in his eyes.

Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss attends the Britain's Conservative Party's annual conference in Manchester on Monday

The lunchtime rally, hyped as a major rebellion, was easily the biggest draw of the day. The queue snaked for miles. They wanted to hear Liz Truss, (pictured on Monday)

Reminders of her ex-prime ministerial status were evident. She had a security detail. A burly press officer carried her small, cream-coloured clutch bag. Pictured: Liz Truss at the conference on Monday

The event was a glorious circus. Getting into it was like boarding an Indian train. Press photographers were there en masse. In the trade we call them 'monkeys' because they climb over everything. This was a zoo's worth of monkeys.

Mr Farage's arrival only added to the frenzy, boom mikes swinging and TV camera men skittling activists with their tripods.

Sky News' Beth Rigby was much evident in vermilion trouser suit and a Joker's smile.

The BBC's Nick Robinson knelt at the front, the better to interview rebels. How good to see the corporation on its knees, and the day not even Sunday.

Ms Truss's own trousers were too short  just like Rishi. She held her hands wide apart, Sir Simon Rattle about to bring the Berlin Philharmonic to thrilling life.

But despite the build-up, the rally fell short of an act of mischief. Solid arguments for lower taxes were put but without any ad hominem Tabasco.

Liz Truss is pictured at the Great British Growth Fringe Rally on Monday at the Manchester Central Convention Complex

Liz Truss is pictured leaving the Great British Growth Rally, a fringe event where she spoke on Monday alongside Dame Priti Patel, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Ranil Jayawardena during the Conservative Party conference in Manchester

Former British prime minister Liz Truss, Conservative MP Ranil Jayawardena, former Home Secretary Priti Patel and former Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured left to right) attend the Great British Growth Rally fringe event on the sidelines of the Conservative Party's annual conference in Manchester

The PM was actually praised for having pushed back some of the Net Zero deadlines. Sir Jacob's speech was clever and courteous. No one in our politics is as skilfully fluent.

Ms Truss more cartoonable. 'Let's stop taxing and banning things,' she bawled, her straight, slightly loopy fringe swinging from side to side.

'We're sitting on 50 years of sustainable gas. Unleash that gas!' No naked flames, please.

Having bitten the air enough, she floated back to her seat, as if tip-toeing on Angel Delight.

In the main hall Jeremy Hunt made his 'big speech'. It lasted all of fifteen minutes. Arriving, he waved his left hand as if de-fluffing an enormous duster.

He is a gangly, donnish figure with an egret's neck and a husky voice. 'The level of tax is too high,' he croaked. But there was no word on cutting them. Not yet.

Liz Truss is pictured posing for selfies for young conservative delegates at the Conservative Party Conference

Liz Truss is pictured at the Conservative Party Conference on Monday

Sometimes you want a chancellor to be boring. This may still, just, be one of them. Not that Mr Hunt is entirely without political personality. There is a grain of experience there and dry humour.

'Our friends in the Office for National Statistics changed their minds' about the state of the economy, he said. That 'friends' was judiciously ironic.

'Don't bet against Britain,' he continued. 'It's been tried before and it never works.' George Soros might disagree.

Kemi Badenoch, business secretary, scored herself a few runs, despite nerves. 'We are on the side of those who toil, not those who tweet,' she averred. Then the Tannoy told us that Mel Stride, pensions secretary and world-class bore, was going to make a speech. Stampede for the bars.
Well, blow me down with my desk fan. Turns out that, as a middle-aged woman going through what all middle-aged women must at some point go through, I'm not just menopausal, I'm also disabled.

Such is the claim in a landmark employment tribunal brought against Leicester City Council by a former social worker, Maria Rooney, 52, who claims she was poorly treated because she was suffering symptoms of the menopause.

It's a hugely significant case, and one backed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, chaired by Baroness Faulkner, who said every employer in the country should take note of Ms Rooney's claim, which began hearing evidence yesterday and is expected to last 16 days.

'Menopause symptoms can significantly affect someone's ability to work,' she said, adding: 'As Britain's equality regulator, we will continue to intervene in cases such as this and hold employers to account by using our unique powers.'

Right. In that case, pass me my blue badge, hand me my special parking space  oh, and if it's all the same to you, I'll take the rest of the week off. Got a bit of bloating, you see, and I'm a little bit tired and hot  and last week, if you remember, I forgot where I left my car.

SARAH VINE: Turns out that, as a middle-aged woman going through what all middle-aged women must at some point go through, I'm not just menopausal, I'm also disabled (file image)

Sorry for the inconvenience, but I can't help it: I'm disabled, see.

What unutterable nonsense. Look, I'm the first person to acknowledge what a nightmare the menopause can be for some women: not all, I should stress. It's like menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth  some of us sail through it, others (me) find ourselves on a hormonal roller-coaster ride from hell.

READ MORE: Experts reveal the overlooked menopause symptoms which no one talks about Advertisement

The menopause is the meanest of them all. It has none of the excitement and promise of pregnancy and childbirth; there is no reward for your suffering in the shape of a cute little bundle. No baby showers, no gifts, no flowers. Just an inescapable sense that you are withering on the vine, and that nature wants you dead.

The weight gain, the exhaustion, the lack of sleep: they are all cruelly reminiscent of those early days of motherhood, and yet all you have to show for it is a sweaty top lip, a few extra hairs on your chin and an unshakable sense that your purpose in life is effectively over.

The depression is real  so real, in fact, that a lot of perimenopausal and menopausal women end up being prescribed antidepressants by their doctors instead of HRT, which is what they really need.

If you ask me, every GP in this country should be told that if a woman over 40 walks into their surgery complaining of feeling low, the first thing they should do is check her hormone levels.

It goes without saying that employers and colleagues need to be respectful, sympathetic and tolerant towards the extra challenges the menopause presents. That's just common courtesy. And if they aren't, then women who feel they have been discriminated against  demoted, passed over, mocked or in any way poorly treated  have a right to take their bosses to task.

Maria Rooney, 52, claims she was poorly treated because she was suffering symptoms of the menopause

It's a hugely significant case, and one backed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, chaired by Baroness Faulkner (pictured)

But disabled? No. Being menopausal does not make you disabled, any more than having your period or being pregnant does. This legal claim feeds into the narrative of female victimhood that I vehemently despise. And it effectively hands ammunition to every sexist pub bore, every wannabe Andrew Tate out there, reiterating and reinforcing the toxic notion that women are the weaker sex.

Suffering  menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, menopause  is what shapes us. And yes, it can be tough. But none of this makes us weak: on the contrary, it makes us strong. It is, in many ways, our superpower.

Classifying the menopause as a disability diminishes all that. Women already face opposition in their daily lives from men who resent the fact we are occupying jobs they see as rightfully theirs; this is only going to make that latent resentment worse.

And far from reinforcing women's position in the workplace, it will only make us a potential liability in the eyes of employers. Women my age have enough trouble finding jobs. Who's going to take us on if they're worried we might, at any point, just down tools and claim 'disability'?

No one.

The worst thing about the menopause is the awful feeling that your life no longer has any useful purpose. This short-sighted legal action will only help make that fear a depressing reality for more women.

I can't wait to see Liz Truss's diary!

There is much speculation about who might play Liz Truss after the rights were reportedly sold for a dramatisation of her short tenure as Prime Minister.

Rosamund Pike, Gillian Anderson and even Meg Ryan have been touted. My choice? Renee Zellweger.

Who better to play politics' answer to disaster-prone Bridget Jones? In fairness to Bridget, though, even she never managed to crash the economy.

Rosamund Pike, Gillian Anderson and even Meg Ryan have been touted to play Liz Truss. My choice? Renee Zellweger (pictured)

A sinister sight on our streets

The far-Left 'Young Communist League of Britain' marched in sinister military formation outside the Conservative Party conference in Manchester this week, wearing hooded black coats and red bandanas and waving flags featuring the hammer and sickle.

We rightly condemn any such behaviour from the far-Right  so why are this lot free to intimidate and threaten with no penalty?

The far-Left 'Young Communist League of Britain' marched in sinister military formation outside the Conservative Party conference in Manchester this week

After the birth of my first child, which involved a long, painful labour that ended in an emergency Caesarean section, I was told I'd need an elective for my second.

Back then, I had the best care possible from kind and attentive medics. Yet with so many young doctors now apparently more interested in their own welfare than their patients' wellbeing  evidenced by the fact non-emergency C-sections are among the thousands of operations being postponed by industrial action this week  I fear my experience would not be the same today.

Hard labour from Tory peer

Lord Frost's suggestion at the Tory party conference to raise the state pension age to 75 sounds good in theory  unless your job involves physical labour. How could we ever expect anyone who left school at 16 to work as a builder or a farmer into their mid-70s?

Ministers, even former ones, sometimes forget: not everyone has someone else to carry their bags for them.

I'm in no position to say whether Britain is or is not the best country in which to be black  but Kemi Badenoch thinks so, and she seems like an intelligent woman to me. One thing I will say: when I lived in France and Italy, I witnessed far more casual racism than I've ever seen here.

That does not mean Britain is perfect. But it's a damn sight better than most places. We shouldn't lose sight of that.

What on earth is the East Midlands Ambulance Service doing telling staff they can take up to a year's paid leave if they experience symptoms relating to the 'andropause' (aka the 'male menopause')?

I'm certainly not one to make light of the problems faced by men  and Laurence Fox is not my type anyway  but seriously?
Supermodel Linda Evangelista has opened up about the guilt she felt at not speaking out about her experience in her marriage to a man who later was at the centre of multiple allegations as part of the fashion industry's Me Too moment.

The Canadian supermodel, 58, appeared on the first episode of Kirsty Young's new BBC Radio 4 podcast Young Again where she reflected on her marriage to Gerald Marie at the age of 22, and branded her younger self an 'idiot' for tying the knot so young.

She broke down in tears when she discussed allegations of rape and sexual misconduct against her ex-husband, the former boss of Elite Models, which first surfaced in 2020. The allegations, which Marie denies, relate to the 1980s and 1990s and, due to a statute of limitations in France, police announced earlier this year that they were closing the investigation.

Speaking about the allegations now, Evangelista, who was married to Marie for five years, said she wonders if things could have been different had she spoken up about the abuse she claims to have suffered at his hands at the time.

Through tears, she told Young: 'If I would have spoken up and said something about what was happening to me that maybe they would have come forward at that time and the statute of limitations wouldn't have worn out.'

Canadian supermodel Linda Evangelista, 58, revealed in conversation with Kirsty Young that she felt 'guilty' when she learnt about sexual assault allegations against her ex-husband

She added she felt 'guilty' for not saying something sooner - however Young was quick to point out she should not shoulder the blame for things her ex-husband has allegedly done.

As the supermodel recalled marrying Marie when she was 22 years old and he was 37, she said: 'I was so certain that this man loved me this charming, charming, lovely man.'

She added she was 'naive' and encouraged any young women in the same situation today to 'listen to your parents' as she wishes she had done at the time.

At the time the allegations against her ex-husband surfaced, the supermodel came out in support of Marie's accusers and praised them for speaking out.

Gerald Marie and Linda Evangelista (pictured) married when she was 22 and he was 37 - but in 2020, Marie became the subject of several sexual assault allegations from other models

Evangelista is the first guest on Kirsty Young's new BBC Radio 4 podcast Young Again, which invites famous faces to reflect on their youths

In an AppleTV+ series released last month, Evangelista further revealed the models accusing her ex-husband had given her the 'courage' to speak out but that their allegations 'broke my heart'.

She stated in documentary The Super Models: 'Thanks to the power of all these women coming forward, God bless all of them, it gave me the courage now to speak...

'I would love that justice be served. I would love for aholes like that to think twice and be afraid and I would love women to know that they're not alone.'

As she revealed her guilt to the podcast host, Evangelista added she has undergone therapy to come to terms with the allegations against her ex-husband, and has learnt that none of the accusations about his behaviour are down to any of her own actions.

At the end of the episode, a statement from Gerald Marie, issued by his legal team, read: 'Allegations that he committed crimes against models in the 1980s and 1990s are false and defamatory.' It added that he 'is and will remain innocent'.

In relation to the claims he was abusive towards Evangelista during their five year marriage, Marie's lawyers say he 'firmly objects to the defamatory and false allegations made against him'.

Elsewhere in the podcast, which is the first in Kirsty Young's new series and her first radio venture since stepping down as the host of Desert Island Discs since being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, Evangelista discusses a horrifying experience that happened to her when she was just 16 years old and first entering the modelling world.

She recalled visiting Tokyo, Japan alone (and expressed surprise that her 'strict Italian parents' allowed her to go) where she was due to meet with a modelling agency.

However, when she arrived, Evangelista claimed she was asked to strip off so her measurements could be taken - despite the fact such details were already on her casting card.

She claimed she was then asked if she would be interested in 'nude photos' and knew that she had to 'get out of there'.

The supermodel said she left the casting studio and desperately tried to call her mother from a payphone on the street - but a kind man, who saw her struggling with coins, offered to let her use his phone. When she finally got through to her parents, they ordered her to come straight home.

Looking back on her younger modelling days, Evangelista also expressed regrets she had over how she spoken at the time - referring to a now notorious quote for which she is often remembered.

In the October 1990 issue of Vogue, she said: 'We have this expression, Christy [Turlington] and I. We dont wake up for less than $10,000 a day.'

As she now reflects on the quote, which received backlash at the time, Evangelista admitted she regrets saying it because 'it didn't sound nice' and joked that 'it won't go away' as people still bring it up in reference to her career 33 years later.

However, she explained she never meant for the quote to be taken in the context it was, and insisted she only ever wanted to say that she understood her worth.

'I don't want to be known for that, I don't want that to be my legacy,' she said.

After shooting to fame in the 1980s for her stunning looks, Evangelista also spoke to Young about body image following a difficult few years when she fell into 'the lowest depths of self-loathing' after being left 'brutally disfigured' by Zeltiq's CoolSculpting fat freezing procedure.

CoolSculpting is the brand name for cryolipolysis, a procedure which cools fat to a temperature so frozen, dead fat cells can be excreted out of the body through the liver.

Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2010, cryolipolysis was first offered in UK clinics shortly afterwards. It has proved both popular and successful for many patients looking to reduce fat without the surgeons knife.

Last year, after keeping a low profile for several years, the supermodel revealed the effects she had suffered from her rare adverse reaction to the procedure in an interview with People Magazine. She has since settled a $50 million lawsuit with Zeltiq.

Addressing her side effects with Young, Evangelista said: 'If somebody would have told me there's a very, very, very slim chance, instead of the fat freezing and melting away and you eliminate it, it's going to grow, bigger and it's going to be rock hard, do you still want to do this, Linda? I think the answer would have been no. I wouldn't have risked my livelihood.'

She added that, after suffering the rare side effects, she tried to research other people who had been affected in the same way, but there was 'nothing out there'.

Reflecting on the fact that she does not have her old figure back even after two attempts to correct it through liposuction, the supermodel said she's learning to live with, and love, her new body.
Jordan LaMattina, from Florida, got a new tattoo but it was missing something

No one wants a permanent reminder of their mistakes, but that's what happened to one unfortunate tattoo artist.

Jordan LaMattina, a photographer from Florida , decided to get a matching tattoo with her best friend, Mandy, who was visiting her from Alabama , to commemorate their friendship.

The pair landed on a design that read, 'Everything's fine,' which was designed by Mandy - explaining it's a joke between them to use the phrase when something isn't fine.

It wasn't until after Jordan's new ink was complete that they realized the 'Y' was missing - giving the tattoo a whole new meaning.

Jordan LaMattina, a photographer from Florida, decided to get a matching tattoo with her best friend, Mandy

It wasn't until after her new ink was complete that they realized the 'Y' was missing - giving the tattoo a whole new meaning

Jordan's hysterical reaction was captured in a now-viral TikTok video, showing her almost breathless with laughter as she looks at her new ink, while the tattoo artist looked on horrified.

'He's mortified and I think it's so much better,' Jordan captioned the post, which has been viewed more than 8.1 million times.

In the background, someone can be heard saying: 'This is not your fault. This is the greatest, this is the greatest moment of my life.'

When the camera zooms in, you can see the ink on her hand reads 'everthing's fine,' instead of the intended: 'everything's fine.'

'I didn't notice [the mistake] because I have ADHD, she (Mandy) didn't notice it because she's dyslexic,' Jordan explained in a video. 'I approved the stencil.'

'It is not [the tattoo artist's] fault,' she continued, adding: 'We were so distracted.'

In a follow-up video, the women explained their stencil had been looked at by several people - and no one had picked up on the spelling error.

It wasn't until Jordan was showing Mandy's wife her fresh ink that they picked up on the fact it was missing something - to their amusement and the tattoo artist's horror.

Both the women said the spelling error was not the tattoo artist's fault, saying they were 'so distracted'

Luckily Jordan thought the spelling error was hilarious, with the now-viral video capturing her hysterically laughing after she realized what the tattoo said

Mandy confirmed her version did have a Y, but the best friends think the accidental redesign was actually a 'perfect' way to capture their chaotic friendship

'His face was white because he couldn't tell if I was sobbing,' Jordan recalled.

'I could not breathe. [You] can see me constantly trying not to move because I'm trying not to pee myself.'

'It was one hundred percent my fault, my design,' Mandy chimed in.

When it came to Mandy's turn, her tattoo did end up having a Y.

But the best friends think the accidental redesign was actually a 'perfect' way to capture their chaotic friendship.

Thousands of people commented on how calm the women were - and applauded them for not blaming the tattoo artist.

'Lol classic that's actually even more funny,' one person wrote.

'Omg I luv that tat and this makes it a billion times better poor dude [has] ptsd though,' another laughed.

Everything is not fine: can you spot the tattoo artist's mistake

Some users commenting saying they preferred the misspelled version, and after watching some of the pair's videos together think it encapsulates their friendship perfectly

Some users said they would have made the same mistake.

'Took me way too long to realize what was wrong,' one viewer admitted.

'The way I had to watch it 20x to realize what was wrong,' someone else wrote.

Jordan's hilarious tattoo blunder comes just days after it was revealed that supermodel Cara Delevingne also suffered a similar issue with one of her own inkings.

The 31-year-old fashion star posed topless to show off the design - which features an abstract image of a woman's face above the Italian phrase 'Dormiveglia', which means 'semi-conscious state'.

Tattooed alongside the word is the dictionary definition - however it has now been pointed out that Cara's tattoo artist, Matteo Nangeroni, replaced the word waking with the word walking, thereby changing the phrases meaning entirely.

Instead, her design reads: Dormiveglia: The space that stretches between sleeping and walking.

When Nangeroni posted images of Caras new tattoo on his Instagram account, followers were quick to point out the different wording, which he insisted had been the models vision.

Noo you spelled it wrong, its supposed to be waking not walking, one person wrote, while another added: Walking or waking? Beautiful tattoo though.
Royal fans have slammed a new fiction book apparently inspired by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, accusing the author of portraying the Duchess as a white woman.

Her Royal Highness, by American author A.J. Arnault, follows the story of British royal named Prince Archie who falls in love with a violinist named Lucy, who he meets in New York.

A.J. first shared the story on fanfiction site Wattpad, before deciding to release it on Amazon in December this year, and the cover image features a red-headed man with a white heroine wearing a red dress reminiscent of Meghan Markle's scarlet gown at the 2021 Salute To Freedom Gala in New York City

One poster on X - formerly known as Twitter - wrote: 'The audacity of a writer to use Prince's Harry likeness on the cover of her book & then to have the female lead be a white woman WEARING a copy of Meghan Markle's dress.

'That's the COVER! And to add insult you name the main character Archie? How did you think this was OK?'

According to SoapSpoiler, A.J. has issued an apology for any hurt caused, saying: 'As someone who has never indie published before, I made the decision to release Her Royal Highness on Netgalley to garner such feedback.

Royal fans have slammed a new book about a fictional Prince 'Archie' - a British royal who becomes embroiled in a romance with an American woman

'It became clear to me, however, that there were some themes and elements to the story that were problematic to say the least, and I immediately began work to correct those issues, including scheduling another round of edits.

'As I received more negative criticism and realized that I had caused harm to those in all communities, but especially the black community, I was deeply saddened, embarrassed and ashamed.'

Elsewhere one reviewer on Goodreads even dubbed the book 'blatant fanfiction about a real married man and the woman who thinks she should be the Princess'.

A synopsis on the site, where the book has 2.41 stars out of five (with 29 ratings and 22 reviews) summarises the plot: 'When a heartbroken violist is photographed with the Prince of Wales the night before his brother abdicates the throne, their wild one night stand becomes a royal engagement.'

The story starts when Prince Arthur - later dubbed 'Archie' - travels to New York City to make an appearance at a charity gala alongside a Lucy Almont, 'who owns a failing charity and was recently dumped by her fiance'.

But after spending 'a steamy night' with her, the royal learns that his brother, the current King of England, has abdicated the throne.

Now - with photos showing the prince out and about with a woman sporting an engagement ring - Archie is pressured into marrying his one night stand.

'Will Archie and Lucy be able to convince the public that their love is real, or will their farce come to light and ruin them both?' the plot summary ends.

Her Royal Highness, by A.J. Arnault, also features an illustration with a woman wearing a red dress reminiscent of Meghan Markle's scarlet gown at the 2021 Salute To Freedom Gala

Social media users have expressed their horror at the writer's 'audacity' while one reviewer even dubbed the book 'blatant fanfiction about a real married man and the woman who thinks she should be the Princess'.

However, not everyone found the book so bad, with Goodreads harbouring a few positive reviews.

Others on social media felt that the author was trying to get 'free publicity'.

'You are giving her far too much airtime... which was her intention,' one poster said.

'Without the controversial look to Harry's likeness, Meghan's CH dress on a white woman and the prince's name being Archie, she wouldn't have received any notice, now EVERYONE'S talking about her...'

'Absolutely LOVED this! The writer's style is my favorite to read...funny and fun, with a lot of wit and heart,' one said.

'Loved Lucy and Archie, their meet cute, everything about their romance. Can't wait to read the next book!'

'To be perfectly honest- I was a little shocked at how good this book was,' another admitted.

'I'm a sucker for a royal romance and the second I saw the cover with the cartoon prince who is the spitting image of Prince Harry I said sign me up.

'However, because it was so obviously inspired by a real life prince I was prepared for the possibility that this could be a really poorly written fan fiction.

Social media users were outraged, with some going as far as to call A.J. 'racist' as she paired the seemingly Prince Harry-inspired character with a white woman, while the Duchess of Sussex is mixed race. The couple pictured last month

'Within only a few pages I knew I had greatly misjudged this book and was in for a good time.'

According to Goodreads, Her Royal Highness is expected to be available on December 1 of this year.

It is understood that A.J. - a known author on fanfiction site Wattpad - first had the story up on her profile before deciding to publish it.

A post from her on the popular writing site, from earlier this year, says: 'Hi everyone! Just a little reminder that today is the last day to read Her Royal Highness before it comes down!

'Thank you to everyone who has read Archie and Lucy's story! This will be my very first published book, and I can't wait to hold a copy in my hands!

'Thank you for all of your support.'

When asked by MailOnline for comment, A.J. said: 'I posted an apology on my Instagram and I will not be publishing this book as intended. The only copies that were released were ARCs through Netgalley. This is my only comment.'
Multimillionaire celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has said he would prefer a 'normal' life and to run a pub if he could go back in time.

The cook, who has written 27 cookbooks and made dozens of TV series, is one of the most recognisable faces in the hospitality industry.

However, reflecting on his success in an interview with presenter Kirsty Young, he has revealed he would quite like to opt for a life of 'anonymity'.

Speaking as the third guest on BBC Radio 4's Young Again podcast, he suggested he would 'go to the pub' and have 'a normal life'.

'I would be aware that anonymity is our most valuable gift that we will never give any currency to, and to have just enough and to trot on and to be the best you can at your thing. And just like, be part of a community and have a mutuality and an equality,' he said.

Jamie Oliver, 48, who has an estimated net worth of 200million and has written 27 cookbooks, has revealed he would choose a life of 'anonymity' given his time again

Oliver burst on to the scene in 1999 as The Naked Chef on the BBC, before moving to Channel 4 where he fronted the Jamie's Kitchen documentary, following the establishment of the Fifteen restaurant.

Since then he has written the equivalent of one cookbook per year for his entire career and is now estimated to have a net worth of around 200million.

However, after being raised in a pub in north Essex owned by his parents, the celebrity chef reminisced fondly on his upbringing and arguing for the importance of the pub environment in British culture.

'I was never bored, I was never lonely. I was dyslexic, I was hyperactive... but in a pub I bounced around,' he recalled.

Oliver revealed his five children (pictured this year at his and wife Jools' vow renewal) have had a 'tricky' time growing up in the public eye

Oliver burst on to the scene in 1999 as the Naked Chef on the BBC (pictured) before continuing his TV career on Channel 4

Jamie Oliver appears on the third episode of Kirsty Young's BBC Radio 4 podcast Young Again

Although he admitted he 'always had a score in [his] pocket' throughout his childhood, Oliver insisted that he didn't receive pocket money from his parents, and that he worked in the pub to earn his money, washing pots and cleaning toilets.

Speaking about his own children, who range from five to 21 years old, he said the older kids in the brood had 'seven or eight tricky years' at school because they were being raised by a father who was under scrutiny as a public figure.

'[They were] getting grief because of me,' he said, arguing that 'celebrity and children is not a good combination'.

He said: 'It's definitely not healthy for kids, full stop. But we're committed now.'

When asked by Young if he would go back and choose a private life if he had his time again, Oliver replied: 'Definitely.'

He added: 'If I came back on Earth and did it again, I would go to the pub.'

Acknowledging that he is 'grateful' for the things he has had in his life, Oliver admitted it is 'a big job to maintain 24/7 Jamie Oliver, Family Oliver'.

The celebrity chef went on to express his hopes for the future, based on the campaigns he has previously backed which aim to improve the overall health of the nation.

Elsewhere in the interview, Oliver addressed the 'failures' in his career, including the collapse of his restaurant chain, Jamie's Italian, in May 2019.

A plunge in profits and an exodus of customers forced Oliver to pull the plug on the chain, which saw the closure of 22 sites and the loss of 1,000 jobs.

Speaking to Young, he said: 'I've failed at lots of things but that was a particularly painful one.'

Looking back on the issues within the business, he recalled opening the first Jamie's Italian in Oxford when he was 28, at which time he had the determination to want to fight the recession gripping the economy.

However, he admitted: 'Our structure was wrong and I wasn't clever enough to know it... but we had this golden seven or eight years.' He added he never took a wage nor a dividend throughout the entirety of the business.

As he prepares to open a restaurant on Catherine Street in central London in the next few months, he said: 'It's my second chance and possibly my last chance.

'And I'm not coming back cockily I promise you, I'm vulnerable. But I wake up shaking, I'm excited every day.'

He revealed that the site is owned by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, who is now his 'landlord'.

Describing the menu at the restaurant, he said it refers to his memories of being 12-18 years old.

'It's a homage to Mum and Dad, really,' he said.
A man who was a teenager when he wed his friend's mother weeks after meeting at her son's funeral has paid a gushing tribute to his older wife on her 80th birthday.

Gary Hardwick, now, 26, and his Walmart worker wife Almeda, 80, from Tennessee are no stranger to controversy, and even have a joint OnlyFans account selling explicit content to their subscribers.

And it seems their passion continues to grow, with Gary describing Almeda as his 'babydoll' and his 'queen' in an emotional birthday tribute to mark her milestone.

The full Instagram post said: 'Happy birthday to the most amazing wife in the world. Today is not only your day, but most importantly, today is about celebrating the birth of such a wonderful & true woman with such a heart of gold.

'I'm the luckiest husband for everyday that I get to wake up beside you. You make me the happiest man each and every day and I want to always make you the happiest woman.

Gary Hardwick was only 17 when he wed Almeda, a Walmart worker, just two weeks after they first met at her son's funeral and then again at a children's birthday party

'You deserve the world and until my last breath I'll work hard to give you that. All of my happiest moments are moments I share with you. I hope you have the best birthday ever today and I hope you enjoy all of your surprises my love.

'You're truly the love of my lifetime and I love you with every beat of my heart. Here's to celebrating my queen. Happy Birthday Babydoll'.

Gary, in his mid-twenties also cheffed up some wine-infused salmon for the senior citizen - and treated her to some wine to mark the occasion.

Gary was just 17 when he wed Almeda in a $200 ceremony two weeks after they first met at her son's funeral and then again at a children's birthday party.

Despite raising eyebrows with their relationship, Almeda has insisted that it's true love and her husband is mature for his age.

Meanwhile, Gary has spoken openly about their sex life, saying: 'The first time we made love was on our wedding night. It was an amazing experience. There was such a deep connection there. She's a wonderful lover'.

Since then, they've had some of their TikTok videos reporterd, with Gary explaining: 'We had some of our content pulled down, it was reported for "sexually explicit content".'

A year after their big day, the Hardwicks admitted that a lot of people disagree with their relationship, including Almeda's son, who hasn't spoken to her since the day she met Gary.

The Tennessee couple, who are no stranger to controversy, also have a joint OnlyFans selling explicit content to their subscribers - and have even had some TikToks reported due to their adult nature

Aaron and Indiana Elliott, two of Almeda's six grandchildren, also found it difficult to accept their relationship  particularly Aaron, who is three years older than his step-grandfather.

Aaron, said: 'I only called him grandfather once and it was when I was drunk. In my head, I see him as a friend more than a grandfather. But you know, our grandmother is happy.'

Indiana, 17, added: 'How can you not be supportive about that?

'For me personally, whenever they first got together it was a little bit weird. But I mean, we live in the 21st century and those things really shouldn't matter.

'My mom on the other hand is very outspoken, because you know there's an age difference between him and my mom too. So it's a little weird to see your mother walking around with someone the same age as your own kids.'
Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi's ex-fiancee has revealed the sweet nickname given to his and Princess Beatrice's daughter Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi.

Dara Huang, who shares seven-year-old son Christopher Woolf, known as Wolfie, with Edo, unveiled the title in a comment left on her ex partner's birthday tribute to Sienna.

Property developer Edo shared an adorable photo of his daughter to Instagram to mark her second birthday, with the 39-year-old writing: 'Harry birthday baby girl. You bring us so much love and joy every day.'

In the picture, Sienna, who is facing away from the camera, dons a sombrero and a long sleeved frock with a red floral print as she walks barefoot along a pathway which is layered with a soft material.

Commenting on the image, glamorous American architect Dara wrote: 'Happy birthday Cece', alongside red heart emojis.

Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi 's ex-fiancee has revealed the sweet nickname given to his and Princess Beatrice 's daughter Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi (pictured)

Dara Huang, who shares seven-year-old son Christopher Woolf, known as Wolfie, with Edo, unveiled the title in a comment (pictured) left on her ex partner's birthday tribute to Sienna

Beatrice and Edo's daughter, who is currently tenth in line to the throne, turned two on September 18.

Royal fans first glimpsed Sienna earlier this year when her aunt, Princess Eugenie, posted a photo on Instagram of the toddler with her cousin, August (Eugenie's eldest son) as they looked mesmerised by the penguin enclosure at London Zoo.

Weighing 6lbs 2oz, Sienna arrived on September 18, 2021, at 11.42pm at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

Sienna is a name with Italian origins, perhaps chosen because of Edo's roots. Meaning 'orange red', it could also refer to the Duchess of York's fiery hair.

Beatrice, who had a close relationship with her late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, decided to honour her by including Elizabeth in Sienna's name.

Although Beatrice is a princess, her daughter Sienna, who is the late Queen's 12th great-grandchild, does not have a royal title.

Only grandchildren of the monarch through the male line are automatically entitled to the styling of HRH. King Charles could bestow a title on his great-niece if desired, but it is unlikely to be asked for.

Sienna is currently placed in tenth position in the royal line of succession, under her mother Princess Beatrice.

Commenting on the image, glamorous architect Dara (pictured) wrote: 'Happy birthday Cece', alongside red heart emojis.

Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi pictured in the grounds of the Royal Lodge after their wedding

The change meant that Beatrice's younger sister Princess Eugenie moves down to eleventh in line.

Sienna will, however, receive a title through her father's family as the toddler has other nobility in her blood.

Her father, Edo, is descended from Italian aristocracy and will inherit the family's seat, the 18th-century Villa Mapelli Mozzi palace in northern Italy.

This makes Beatrice and Sienna Italian 'Contessas' and 'Nobile Donna'. Such titles are not officially recognised in Italy anymore. They can still, however, be used as a sign of respect.

When the couple announced Sienna's name in October 2021, Edoardo shared a print of their daughter's feet and wrote: 'Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi. Our life together has just begun, and I can't wait to see all the amazing things that await us.

'Feeling so much love and gratitude for my amazing wife, baby Sienna and [her half-brother] Wolfie. These are the days I never want to forget. This week, a friend said to me the sweetest saying. that with every child you grow a whole new heart.'

Later, the official royal family social media page posted the same image, with the caption reading: 'The couple have said, 'We are all doing well and Wolfie is the best big brother to Sienna.'

Sienna was christened on April 29, 2022, at the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace. It was revealed by Hello in May that nutritionist Gabriela Peacock is one of the young royal's godparents - with Beatrice also being godmother to her daughter, Iris.
Queen Rania of Jordan looked typically stylish as she greeted refugees during the One Young World Summit in Belfast.

During her visit to the Conway Education Centre, the royal, 52, listened to refugees who told their stories of arriving in Belfast and learning English.

She looked chic in a bright green sweater which she paired with navy trousers and stilettos.

The elegant royal's brunette locks were styled in sophisticated wavy curls for the occasion.

The annual summit convenes the brightest young leaders from over 190 countries and 250 organizations, to showcase the immense potential of youth-driven action in shaping peace and progress worldwide.

Queen Rania of Jordan looked typically stylish as she greeted refugees during the One Young World Summit in Belfast

The summit has been recognised by the City of Belfast and the UK government as being part of the official celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

Her Majesty gave a speech during the One Young World opening ceremony yesterday.

She said it was a 'privilege' to be in Belfast celebrating the 25th anniversary and she told the audience how her father-in-law King Hussein of Jordan reacted on hearing the news of the historic peace deal.

According to News Letter she said: 'I distinctly remember when the Good Friday Agreement was signed.

'I happened to be with His Majesty that day, having a casual conversation over dinner with the TV in the background.

'I remember how his face just lit up at the news. ''If they can do it in Northern Ireland, then we in the Middle East can to'', he said.'

The royal, 52, listened to refugees who told their stories of arriving in Belfast and learning English during a visit to the Conway Education Centre

Queen Rania of Jordan shook hands with centre manager Pauline Kersten after a visit to meet refugees from the Conway Education Centre

The elegant royal's brunette locks were styled in sophisticated wavy curls for the occasion

It comes after Queen Rania looked stunning in a floral pink dress when she attended a graduation ceremony at The International Academy - Amman in June.

The striking royal wore a beautiful lace dress in pale pink by Italian fashion brand Dolce and Gabbana for the ceremony.

She customised the fitted, long-sleeved number with a slim silver waist belt with a gold clasp.

Rania, who is often praised for her impeccable taste, paired the flounce-hem, knee-length dress with Dior's elegant rose gold and blush mesh pointed toe pumps.

The fresh and summery outfit was complemented by her Dolce and Gabbana Sicily small tote bag in a pale grey.

She looked chic in a bright green sweater which she paired with navy trousers and stilettos

Her Majestys glam makeup enhanced her flawless features which was enhanced by a pink lip

Queen Rania (third right) meets refugees from the Conway Education Centre as she attends the One Young World Summit at Conway Mill

Her Majesty gave a speech during the One Young World opening ceremony yesterday

Queen Rania's jewellery was elegant while original, especially her striking pink '1919' ring by Lebanese designer Ralph Masri.

The mother-of-four, who founded the International Academy - Amman in 2004, wore her highlighted hair loose and kept her make-up natural for the important occasion.

In an open letter on the school's website, Queen Rania explains hat when she opened the school almost two decades ago 'it put forward a bold and optimistic mission: instilling a lifelong love of learning in its students, and arming them with the curiosity, compassion, and confidence to become the leaders of tomorrow.'

She wrote: 'We aimed to foster a new generation of global citizens, able to serve as agents of change without ever losing sight of their roots.'
Queen Margrethe looked sophisticated in blue for the occasion in Copenhagen

The Danish royals appeared to be in high spirits as they arrived at the opening of the Danish Parliament at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen earlier today.

Queen Margrethe, 83, put on an elegant display in a royal blue suit, complete with an equally sophisticated fascinator.

Upon her arrival, the Danish monarch greeted her eldest son, Crown Prince Frederik, with a warm hug and a kiss.

The heir to the throne, 55, looked dapper in a black suit, which he matched with a crisp white shirt.

Meanwhile, Frederik's wife, Crown Princess Mary, looked typically stylish in a cream ensemble as she stepped onto the red carpet.

Crown Princess Mary, 51, looked elegant in a cream midi dress at the opening of the Danish Parliament

The mother-of-four, 51, wowed in a chic cream midi dress, which she paired with a lavish black hat.

The royal looked elegant in the stunning dress, which featured a stylish black belt around the waist.

Princess Mary styled her brunette locks in soft curls, and her glam makeup enhanced her flawless complexion.

Queen Margrethe looked thrilled with the arrival of her younger sister, Princess Benedikte of Denmark.

The monarch welcomed her sibling, 79, with open arms and a beaming smile.

Benedikte, the second daughter and child of King Frederick IX and Queen Ingrid of Denmark, opted for a purple look for the event.

The royal looked radiant in a mid-length purple coat, which she paired with a cream blouse and a sleek pencil skirt.

The family took to the Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen to mark the opening of the Danish Parliament, as the first Tuesday in October is the first day of a new parliament and new year in Denmark.

Queen Margrethe of Denmark (pictured left) greeted her sister Princess Benedikte (pictured right) with a warm hug

The Danish monarch offered a warm kiss and a hug to her eldest son Crown Prince Frederik (pictured left)

The event day begins with prayers at the Christiansborg Palace Church before the royal's arrival.

Later, the longest-serving member inaugurates the sitting in the Parliament Chamber.

The Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, and her husband, Bo Tengberg, were also in attendance.

Mette Fredriksen, 45, the youngest prime minister in Danish history, donned a chic red dress while arriving hand in hand with her husband.

Bon Tengberg looked dapper in a navy suit, which she paired with a crisp white shirt and crimson tie, following the colours of the Danish flag.

Princess Benedikte opted for a sophisticated purple coat and matching pumps for the annual event

It comes after Princess Mary proved once again that she's a thrifty royal by wearing a beautiful strapless floral gown to King Carl Gustaf's Golden Jubilee in Stockholm last month.

The Danish Crown Princess stunned in floor-length black and white floral print dress by Danish designer Lasse Spangenberg.

She arrived for the festivities alongside Crown Prince Frederik, 55, and Queen Margrethe of Denmark.

The Australian-born royal has donned the gorgeous gown twice before - once on September 6, 2017 hosting a dinner celebrating the Mary Foundation's 10th anniversary and again on August 8, 2018 at a gala dinner hosted by Queen Margrethe.

For the occasion she refreshed the recycled look with blue and silver jewellery, dainty hair clip, black belt, black clutch bag and a thin black neck scarf that draped to the back of the dress.

Princess Mary looked elegant in the stunning dress, which featured a stylish black belt around the waist

The Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen (left), and her husband, Bo Tengberg (right), were also in attendance

Her hair was waved and fingernails were painted red, while Prince Fredrick wore a navy suit and bow tie.

The last time Princess Mary wore the dress in 2018 it had black piece of fabric spanning from the chest, across her right shoulder and onto her back.

She and Prince Fredrik wore their blue royal sash to symbolise their role in the Danish Royal Family.

The jubilee was four days of celebration that culminate with a military parade through the capital.

The royal family as a whole put on a glittering display as they arrived at the event.
The wife of the real life Wolf of Wall Street has shared the truth about that controversial scene of the movie that showed her husband kissing her aunt.

Nadine Macaluso, 55, who now works as a marriage counselor and family therapist in California, met Jordan, 61, when she was just 22 years old and working as a model.

The two soon became engulfed in a whirlwind romance, tying the knot in 1991 and welcoming two children together, before they ultimately divorced in 2005 after 14 years of marriage.

And after they went their separate ways, Nadine accused the financial crook of physical and mental abuse, which she said was fueled by his rampant drug addiction and multiple infidelities.

The wife of the real life Wolf of Wall Street has shared the truth about that controversial scene of the movie that showed her husband kissing her aunt

Nadine Macaluso, 55, who now works as a marriage counselor and family therapist in California, met Jordan Belfort, 61, when she was just 22 years old and working as a model

The two soon became engulfed in a whirlwind romance , tying the knot in 1991 and welcoming two children together, before they ultimately divorced in 2005 after 14 years of marriage

Their relationship was portrayed in the 2013 flick Wolf of Wall Street, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan and Margot Robbie as Nadine, who was renamed Naomi for the movie

Their tumultuous relationship - as well as Jordan's illicit stock market scheme, which saw him steal nearly $200 million from investors - was portrayed in the wildly popular 2013 flick Wolf of Wall Street, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan and Margot Robbie as Nadine, who was renamed Naomi for the movie.

The model-turned-therapist has become a viral TikTok star recently for spilling secrets about their marriage - and revealing which scenes of the Martin Scorsese film were accurate and which were exaggerated for the sake of views

The model-turned-therapist has become a viral TikTok star in a recent months for spilling numerous secrets about their marriage - and revealing which scenes of the Martin Scorsese film were accurate and which were exaggerated for the sake of views.

Most recently, she addressed the part of the movie where Jordan shared a smooch with her aunt.

The scene took place when the crook went to visit Naomi's much-older aunt, named Emma, played by Joanna Lumley, in England to ask her if he could put one of his bank accounts in her name in a desperate attempt to avoid being caught by the government.

After she agreed to help, they sat down on a bench together, where she warned him not to let 'money' or 'drugs' get the best of him.

'What can I say, I'm a drug addict?' he told her. 'I don't know why I'm telling you all of this.'

'You're easy to talk to. I suppose it's just my job, all these people are dependent on me, tens of millions of dollars are at stake, sometimes I feel like I've bitten off more than I can chew.'

'You're a man with large appetites,' she responded, before a voice inside Jordan's head asked the audience, 'Is she f**king hitting on me?'

Most recently, she addressed the part of the movie where Jordan shared a smooch with her aunt

The scene took place when the crook asked Naomi's much-older aunt, named Emma, if he could put one of his bank accounts in her name. After she agreed to help, he gave her smooch

According to Nadine, however, the tender moment never actually happened in real life. She said it was 'fiction,' adding, 'Thank God'

'It's just hard to control the anxiety sometimes and to relax, let go,' he continued.

'To release the tension?' she asked, which prompted his inner voice to add, 'She is hitting on me. Holy s**t.'

He then leaned in and planted a kiss on her lips - but she quickly pushed him off.

She then reminded him of what's most important: 'Stability and family,' adding, 'You take care of my niece, and I'll take care of the [bank account],' to which he said, 'Deal.'

According to Nadine, however, the tender moment never actually happened in real life.

'Fact or fiction? Did my aunt actually kiss the Wolf on the park bench like in the movie Wolf of Wall Street?' she said in a recent TikTok video. 'Fiction. Thank God.'

Jordan's ex-wife also opened up about the moment that he asked her to marry him in another video, and it turns out, it was a lot less romantic in real life than it was in the movie.

In the flick, he popped the question during a lavish dinner date, but Jordan actually proposed to Nadine in his car outside of her 'favorite fast food restaurant,' the Brooklyn sandwich shop Roll N Roaster.

'Let me break down my engagement to the Wolf. We actually got engaged in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York, in front of my favorite fast food restaurant, Roll N Roaster,' recalled Nadine.

'We're in his white Testarossa and he pulls out this beautiful, five-karat emerald ring and asked me to marry him.'

The therapist added that while she 'said yes,' she had a bad feeling about it deep in her 'gut.'

Jordan's ex-wife also opened up about the moment that he asked her to marry him in another video, and it turns out, it was a lot less romantic in real life than it was in the movie

In the flick, he popped the question during a lavish dinner date, but Jordan actually proposed in his car at of her 'favorite fast food restaurant,' the Brooklyn sandwich shop Roll N Roaster

The therapist added that while she 'said yes,' she had a bad feeling about it deep in her 'gut.' Her ring is seen left in the movie and right in real life

'I said yes, but inside, my gut said, "Uh oh,"' she explained, ending the clip with some advice to her followers: 'Listen to your gut.'

Back in August, Nadine spoke out in detail about the harrowing 'abuse' and 'trauma' that she endured when she first tried to leave Jordan - revealing that he lit her clothes and jewelry on fire and 'kicked her down the stairs.

While discussing the 'horrific' part of the movie that showed Jordan beat Naomi before attempting to steal their daughter while he was high on cocaine - Nadine admitted that while some of it wasn't true, he did get violent with her and try to take their children away when she told him she wanted to end their marriage.

In the scene, Naomi told Jordan that she wanted a divorce, that she's going to request full custody of their two kids, and that she'll only allow him to visit if he agreed to the divorce then and there - which sparked a fierce reaction from the stock broker.

But according to Nadine, that's not how it went down in real life. She stated in a TikTok video, 'That scene starts with me telling Jordan that I'm going to take his children from him. That never happened.

'I never told Jordan once - when he was in jail, when he got indicted, or any other time - that I would take his children from him.'

In the movie, as Jordan became more and more enraged, he started to get physical with Naomi - ultimately punching her in the gut, grabbing their daughter from her bed, and trying to drive away with the youngster before crashing into a wall.

'What actually happened was, as you see in the movie, Jordan had a severe drug addiction and I was really thinking he was going to kill himself,' Nadine said.

'What I said to him was, "I'm not going to sit here and watch you kill yourself." So I told him I was going to leave him unless he went to rehab.

Back in August, Nadine spoke out in detail about the harrowing 'abuse' she endured when she first tried to leave Jordan - revealing he lit her clothes on fire and 'kicked her down the stairs

She spoke about it while discussing the 'horrific' part of the movie that showed Jordan beat Naomi before attempting to steal their daughter while he was high on cocaine

In the scene, Naomi tells Jordan that she wants a divorce, that she's going to request full custody of their two kids - which sparked a fierce reaction from the stock broker

As Jordan becomes more and more enraged, he starts to get physical with Naomi - ultimately punching her in the gut and trying to drive away with their daughter

Nadine admitted that while some of what it wasn't true, Jordan did get violent with her and try to take their children away when she told him she wanted to leave

'He lit my clothing and jewelry on fire, he threw them in the fireplace and he got really, really angry with me.

'He told me he was going to take my daughter to Florida, and I was like, "No, over my dead body."

'At that moment was when he got violent with me and he kicked me down the stairs. That was actually how that scene happened in real life.'

In a different video, she opened up about the 'cruel' and 'unkind' response that Jordan had when she confronted him about what she was put through during a dinner date six months after he had gotten sober and finished his stint at rehab.

And she said his reaction opened her eyes to how much of a 'narcissist' he really was.

'I said to him, "Jordan that was so hard what I had to endure with your drug addiction and abuse. It was just so traumatizing,"' she recalled.

'And he goes, "It wasn't that bad." Right in that moment, my heart closed. His insensitivity and callousness towards the pain that he caused me was worse than the abuse.'

In another TikTok, Nadine dished on her and Jordan's wedding, which took place on the stunning Caribbean island of Anguilla.

She explained that while they look 'so happy' in the photos, they actually had a massive argument over his drug use the night before, which left her feeling 'deeply, deeply sad.'

'We look so happy, we don't we? But none of our guests knew that we had a rip-roaring fight the night before,' she revealed.

Nadine (seen with their two kids) stated in a TikTok video, 'That never happened. I never told Jordan - when he was in jail or when he got indicted - that I would take his children from him'

But she said he got 'really, really angry' when she told him she wanted to leave, adding: 'He got violent and he kicked me down the stairs. That was how that scene happened in real life'

Jordan (seen left in the movie and right in real life) spent 22 months in prison after it was revealed he had scammed more than 1,500 people through an stockbroker scheme in 1999

In another TikTok, Nadine confirmed that she and Jordan are 'still friends' and that they are focused on co-parenting their two kids

'Jordan took 10 Quaaludes and got wasted and I was devastated. When we went back to our room I told him that, I was so angry.'

Nadine has since remarried, and she has been with her new husband, John Macaluso (seen), who has three kids from a past relationship, for 23 years now

Nadine said that 'the fight got them nowhere' and left them at odds, adding that they 'never reconciled' before the ceremony.

'[We fought] the night before our wedding - but what was I gonna do? We had 200 people on the island for the wedding,' she continued.

'So what did I do? I put on the dress and showed up with a smile on my face, but inside I was deeply, deeply sad.'

Jordan spent 22 months in prison after it was brought to light that he had scammed more than 1,500 people through an elaborate stockbroker scheme in 1999 - all while he was married to Nadine.

Nadine has since remarried, and she has been with her new husband, John Macaluso, who has three kids from a past relationship, for 23 years now.

In another TikTok, Nadine confirmed that she and Jordan are 'still friends' and that they are focused on co-parenting their two kids.

'We're both strong personalities, but at the end of the day, we both love our children and he gets along great with my [new] husband,' she dished.
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden looked typically chic purple suit dress for a church meeting at Uppsala Cathedral today.

The royal, 46, oozed sophistication in the tailored ensemble which she paired with a matching fascinator for the Church of Sweden's annual church meeting.

The mother-of-two opted for black heels, and she completed her look with burgundy leather gloves and a designer handbag as she walked through the town in wet weather.

Victoria swept her hair into a neat bun for the occasion and opted for glamorous makeup.

She added a bit more glamour to the outfit with a pair of silver drop earrings.

Crown Princess Victoria Looked chic purple suit dress for a church meeting at Uppsala Cathedral on Tuesday

The Swedish royal, 46, oozed sophistication in the tailored ensemble which she paired with a matching fascinator for the Church of Sweden 's annual church meeting in Uppsala, Sweden

The royal appeared in great spirits as she beamed during the church service.

It comes after the Crown Princess and King Carl Gustaf attended an arts seminar in Stockholm together last week.

The Swedish royals beamed with joy as they took their seats at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts to learn more about 'The King's House from Vasaborg to Italian Villa'.

The event took place at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, which is one of the several Swedish Royal Academies.

It comes after royals from all over the world have headed to Sweden to mark the 50th Jubilee of Carl at the start of the month.

The Swedish royal family put on a glittering display as they attended the Golden Jubilee celebrations in Stockholm.

Carl Gustaf is the first king in the Swedish monarchys more than 1,000-year history to reach 50 years on the throne.

And following the death of Queen Elizabeth II last year, hes the second-longest reigning European monarch alive today, after Queen Margrethe, who celebrated her 50th anniversary on Denmarks throne last year.

The mother-of-two opted for black heels and she completed her look with burgundy leather gloves and a designer handbag

Victoria swept her hair into a neat bun for the occasion and opted for glamorous makeup

She added a bit more glamour to the outfit with a pair of silver drop earrings and a matching necklace

The jubilee was four-day celebration that culminated with a military parade through the capital.

King Carl ascended to the throne on the death of his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf, on 15 September 1973.

He is the youngest child and only son of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Vasterbotten, and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

He married Silvia Sommerlath in 1976, three years after his accession.

The royal couple share three children - Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, 45, Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, Duke of Varmland, 43, and Princess Madeleine of Sweden, Duchess of Halsingland and Gastrikland, 40.
The pair both shared sweet posts for their anniversary to their Instagram

Barack and Michelle Obama have shared gushing anniversary tributes to one another, despite celebrating their special day thousands of miles apart - as the former First Lady continues to live it up in Europe on Steven Spielberg's yacht.

The former President of the United States, 62, and his wife, 59, tied the knot at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago on October 3, 1992 - 31 years ago.

And while they weren't together on their wedding anniversary, the couple made sure to commemorate 31 years of marriage with touching posts for one another on their respective social media accounts.

Barack described his wife as 'brilliant, kind, funny, and beautiful' in his, adding that he's 'lucky' to have her.

Barack and Michelle Obama have shared gushing anniversary tributes to one another, despite celebrating their special day thousands of miles apart

The former President, 62, and his wife, 59, tied the knot at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago on October 3, 1992 - 31 years ago. They're seen at the wedding

Michelle has been living it up on Steven Spielberg's $250 million superyacht off the coast of Italy recently (seen), alongside Tom Hanks and his spouse, Rita Wilson

Barack, on the other hand, was pictured leaving a restaurant in Beverly Hills over the weekend (seen)

'Happy anniversary, sweetheart,' he captioned a post that showed him and Michelle standing together in front of a large, green field.

'@MichelleObama, you're brilliant, kind, funny, and beautiful - and I'm lucky to call you mine.'

The two wore matching navy blue ensembles, as they smiled from ear to ear and cozied up in the sweet snap.

As for Michelle, she uploaded a photo that featured her and her husband of more than three decades posing in front of a city backdrop.

'31 years, and a lifetime ago,' she wrote. 'I love going through life with you by my side, @BarackObama. Happy anniversary, honey.'

Michelle was pictured relaxing on Steven's $250 million superyacht off the coast of Italy alongside the acclaimed director and his wife, Kate Capshaw, as well as Tom Hanks and his spouse, Rita Wilson - while Barack was spotted across the globe in California.

Photographers caught her swimming, sunbathing, and snorkeling with her famous friends over the last few days.

Barack, on the other hand, was pictured leaving a restaurant in Beverly Hills over the weekend.

And while they weren't together on their wedding anniversary, the couple made sure to commemorate 31 years of marriage with touching posts for one another on their social media

Barack described his wife as 'brilliant, kind, funny, and beautiful' in his, adding that he's 'lucky' to have her

As for Michelle, she wrote that she 'loves going through life' with him 'by her side'

Michelle has spent the last few weeks enjoying a lavish European vacation without her husband. The last time the couple was seen together was at the US Open in early September

The mother-of-two has spent the last few weeks enjoying a lavish European vacation without her husband, also visiting Madrid, Spain, and the Spanish island of Mallorca.

The last time they were seen together was at the US Open in Queens, New York, in early September.

Their anniversary comes just weeks after a convicted felon (seen) made wild gay sex claims about Barack

Their anniversary comes just weeks after a convicted felon made wild gay sex claims about Barack.

Last month, con man Larry Sinclair alleged that the politician performed oral sex on him twice in Chicago in 1999, and that he witnessed him buying and smoking cocaine during an appearance on former Fox host Tucker Carlson's show.

Larry - who has a lengthy criminal history, including convictions on forgery, fraud and larceny charges, and has served prison time in Arizona, Florida, and Colorado - first made the claims in 2008, while Barack was gearing up to run for president.

At the time, his accusations were roundly condemned as an attempted political hatchet-job. He has never offered any proof of his claims against the former president.

Larry's accusations were given a new lease of life last month, however, after The New York Post released a letter written by Barack in 1982, when he was 21 years old, to his girlfriend Alex McNear.

Last month, con man Larry Sinclair (seen) alleged that the politician performed oral sex on him twice in Chicago in 1999 during an appearance on former Fox host Tucker Carlson's show

Michelle and Barack first met in 1989 when they both worked at a law firm in Chicago. The future president became smitten with Michelle almost immediately, but she was uninterested

Despite her turning him down multiple times, Barack did not give up - and when she finally decided to give him a chance, the two fell hard and quickly for one another

In it, he wrote that he 'loves making love to men daily, but in the imagination,' according to the publication.

Michelle and Barack first met in 1989 when they both worked at a law firm in Chicago.

It's been said that the future president quickly became smitten with Michelle, but she was uninterested in him.

Despite her turning him down multiple times, Barack did not give up - and when she finally decided to give him a chance, the two fell hard and quickly for one another.

They wed in 1992, and welcomed their first daughter, Malia, six years later, and their second daughter, Sasha, two years after that.

Over the years, the couple have spoken candidly about their martial struggles, with Michelle describing the 'resentment' she had over having to put her career on hold to be a mother while Barack's continued to flourish, and her 'stress' over being propelled into the public eye, despite making it clear that she wanted nothing to do with the spotlight.

They wed in 1992, and welcomed their first daughter, Malia, six years later, and their second daughter, Sasha, two years after that

Over the years, the couple (seen in 2008) have spoken candidly about their martial struggles, with Michelle describing the 'resentment' she had over having to put her career on hold

She also said she did not want any part of the 'messy' political world or the 'exposure' that came with it, but that she eventually came around. The family is seen in 2008

Last year for their 30th anniversary, they celebrated by re-creating their honeymoon and traveling along the coast of California together

As he slowly made his way up the ranks in the US government, Michelle did not want any part of the 'messy' political world or the 'exposure' that came with it, with her stating after he decided to run for Senate: 'Dont expect me to do any campaigning. In fact, you shouldnt even count on my vote.'

But she eventually came around after she realized the enormous impact he could have on young, black children across the nation if he did become America's first president of color.

Unfortunately, tensions only grew during their time in the White House - thanks to the immense 'pressure' that came with 'needing to get everything right and be "on" at every moment,' as well as Barack's focus on his work rather than his family.

Despite all of their problems, Michelle and Barack never gave up on one another, and the President later explained that even during their darkest times, they did not stop showing each other 'respect.'

'Even if Michelle drives me crazy sometimes, I never thought that there was anybody who I would rather be with,' he said.

Last year for their 30th anniversary, they celebrated by re-creating their honeymoon and traveling along the coast of California together.
The King joked he 'might not be around' in 24 years to visit a sawmill he first went to in 1999 as he thanked workers for buying thousands of tonnes of timber from the Balmoral estate.

Charles, 74, joked with staff at the James Jones and Sons Limited in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire.

The mill has purchased timber from the King's Scottish estate for more than 34 years.

The sawmill opened in 1962 and primarily serves the Scottish market, but also exports to Australia and New Zealand.

It was rebuilt in 1991, and Charles visited eight years later when he was Prince of Wales, which some workers remembered.

The King joked he 'might not be around' in 24 years to visit a sawmill he first went to in 1999 as he thanked workers for buying thousands of tonnes of timber from the Balmoral estate

Charles, 74, joked with staff at the James Jones and Sons Limited in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire

But said he does not know whether he will 'be around' for a further visit in another 24 years time.

The King thanked 'marvellous' workers for processing timber from Balmoral and asked about the price of it.

Company chairman Tom Bruce-Jones, whose father welcomed Charles in 1999, joked it was 'too expensive'.

Charles said: 'Well done everybody thank you very much for all the efforts you made.

'Thank you for dealing with some of the Balmoral timber.'

'Whether I will be able to come back in another 24 years, I don't know if I will be around.

'I hadn't realised what an area you cover around the world, it depends on all the marvellous people who put so much into it.'

He wore a hard hat and hi-vis for most of the visit, which is believed to be the first time he has done so since becoming King.

The mill has purchased timber from the King's Scottish estate for more than 34 years

The sawmill opened in 1962 and primarily serves the Scottish market, but also exports to Australia and New Zealand

The king donned a hard hat for a tour of the site

King Charles III during a visit to the James Jones and Sons sawmill in Aboyne today

The sawmill now trades indirectly with the Balmoral Estate, including high-quality pine, but the working relationship goes back decades.

It recently had a 15 million investment to increase sustainability and produces construction timber, which can be used as a substitute for steel and concrete.

It can transform one large log into 24 smaller pieces in a single pass with the production process using 100 per cent of the log, with sawn timber going to market, while chips and sawdust go for chipboard and bark to horticulture.

Any remaining residues are used to fire the biomass boiler to heat kilns for timber drying.

The King was introduced to the site manager, primary processing manager and saw-line operator at the five-generation firm.

He also unveiled a plaque commemorating the visit, which was made on-site, and signed the visitor book.

The sawmill now trades indirectly with the Balmoral Estate, including high-quality pine, but the working relationship goes back decades

King Charles III looks at old pictures of himself and Queen Elizabeth II on previous visits during a visit to the James Jones and Sons sawmill in Aboyne

The King was introduced to the site manager, primary processing manager and saw-line operator at the five-generation firm

King Charles III arriving for a visit to the James Jones and Sons sawmill in Aboyne

Apprentice Kieron Cassie, 21, said: 'I think a fair few folk have been feeling excited.

'He asked me a couple of questions. The plaque was made here.'

Saw doctor Robert Booth, 62, has worked there 46 years, and remembered Charles' visit in 1999, when he caught workers out who were taking an early lunch break.

Mr Booth said: 'I was sitting on my bum and Prince Charles walked in.

'We were told to keep working, we didn't think he would come in. It was like a privilege.

'He spoke about the environment and he seemed pretty concerned about it.

'He asked how long the saws last and what happens to them.'

Charles climbed to the top of the site to get a good look

King Charles III with Lord Lieutenant Sandy Manson and company chairman Tom Bruce-Jones (right)

King Charles III talks with site manager Duncan Cassie as he visits the James Jones and Sons sawmill

Angus Milligan, 48, said: 'It's a great honour, we appreciate the fact the Royals spend time here. People come and spend money hoping to see the royals.

'He comes up here and is able to be himself, it's an escape.'

Mr Bruce-Jones said: 'We were honoured to welcome His Majesty to our Aboyne site to demonstrate the extent of investments and technology upgrades.

'We discussed the significant benefits of productive forestry acting as carbon sinks and the merits of continuing to meet and exceed annual planting targets across the UK.

'We were able to showcase the environmental advantages of UK-grown structural timber products to support our collective views on building future houses sustainably.'
Malia Obama was spotted enjoying a smoke break with a friend in Los Angeles on Friday, just a few weeks after her younger sister, Sasha, was seen puffing on a cigarette.

The 25-year-old screenwriter was dressed for fall in a cozy blue cardigan sweater with a colorful geometric pattern and wide-leg tailored dress pants paired with black lug-sole boots.

Malia, who has been smoking for years, had a large bag slung over her shoulders and a stainless steel water bottle tucked under her arm as she enjoyed a cigarette.

She was standing in a parking lot, next to a black SUV, while chatting with a friend, who was wearing a plaid blazer, jeans, and sneakers.

Malia Obama, 25, was spotted enjoying a smoke break in Los Angeles on Friday

The screenwriter had a large bag slung over her shoulders and a stainless steel water bottle tucked under her arm as she puffed away on her cigarette

Malia joined by a friend, who was dressed in a plaid blazer, jeans, and sneakers

The former first daughter was fresh-faced and her long rust-colored braids were worn loose around her shoulders.

It is possible that she is back in the writers' room and on a work break after the nearly five-month-long Writers Guild of America strike ended last week.

Malia moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a screenwriter after graduating from Harvard University in 2021.

She scored a lucrative position as a writer on Donald Glover's Amazon show, Swarm, which premiered earlier this year.

The Chicago native previously worked as an intern on Lena Dunham's HBO series Girls in 2015 and at The Weinstein Company in 2017.

Malia was also photographed leaving a convenience store on Friday with her cellphone and car keys in her hand.

The afternoon outing comes a couple of weeks after her sister, Sasha, 22, was spotted smoking in her car after enjoying a solo spa trip in mid-September.

The Obama girls seem to have inherited their father's taste for nicotine.

The afternoon outing comes just a few weeks after her younger sister, Sasha, 22, was spotted smoking in her car after enjoying a solo spa trip in mid-September

Malia had her free arm wrapped around her waist while chatting with her pal

It is possible that she is back in the writers' room and on a work break after the nearly five-month-long Writers Guild of America strike ended last week

Malia moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a screenwriter after graduating from Harvard University in 2021

The former first daughter scored a lucrative position as a writer on Donald Glover's Amazon show, Swarm, which premiered earlier this year

Malia and her friend were photographed standing in a parking lot, next to a black SUV

Malia was dressed for fall in a cozy blue cardigan sweater with a colorful geometric pattern and wide-leg tailored dress pants paired with black lug-sole boots

Former President Barack Obama was also a regular smoker prior to entering the White House and was seen chewing on Nicorette gum several times to fight the habit.

In his memoir 'A Promised Land,' he credits his daughter Malia with getting him to quit, writing that she 'frowned' at him after 'smelling a cigarette on my breath.'

He said he 'ceaselessly' chewed nicotine gum to stop.

Sasha followed in her big sister's footsteps when she moved to Los Angeles last year after transferring from the University of Michigan to the University of Southern California to finish college.

She graduated in May with a bachelor's degree in sociology, but her next moves remain unknown.

The sisters share an apartment, and they are often seen out and about in LA  both together and apart.

Malia was photographed running some errands last Wednesday, including a stop at a party supply store, where she grabbed a pack of glow sticks, among other items.

A few days prior, she was caught cozying up to a mystery man behind a tree after having lunch at Erewhon together.

Malia and her friend were also seen walking away, but it's unclear if they were headed in separate directions

The Obama girls seem to have inherited their father's taste for nicotine

Former President Barack Obama was also a regular smoker prior to entering the White House and was seen chewing on Nicorette gum several times to fight the habit

In President Obama's memoir 'A Promised Land,' he credits his daughter Malia with getting him to quit, writing that she 'frowned' at him after 'smelling a cigarette on my breath'

It's unclear if they were hugging or kissing.

She also enjoyed a dinner date with the rapper Anime last week.

While Malia was seen out and about in California, her parents celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary on Tuesday.

The former first couple sharing gushing tributes to one another online, despite spending the day apart.

Barack and Michelle tied the knot at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago on October 3, 1992.

The former first lady wrote in her tribute that she 'loves going through life with [Barack] by her side,' but when it came to their anniversary, they were separated by thousands of miles.

Michelle was pictured relaxing on Steven Spielberg's $250 million superyacht off the coast of Italy alongside the acclaimed director and his wife, Kate Capshaw.

They were also joined by Tom Hanks and his spouse, Rita Wilson, while Barack was across the globe in California.

Malia was also photographed leaving a convenience store on Friday

She had her cellphone and car keys in her hand as she walked out the glass doors

Malia was fresh-faced and her long rust-colored braids were worn loose around her shoulders

The Obama sisters share an apartment, and they are often seen out and about in LA - both together and apart

Malia was also spotted enjoying a dinner date with the rapper Anime last week

The last time the married couple was seen together was at the U.S. Open in Queens, New York, in early September.

Barack and Michelle were also apart when former con man Larry Sinclair came forward to make wild claims about the former president.

Sinclair alleged during an appearance on former Fox host Tucker Carlson's show last month that the politician performed oral sex on him twice in Chicago in 1999 and that he witnessed him buying and smoking cocaine.

The felon has a lengthy criminal history, including convictions on forgery, fraud, and larceny charges, and has served prison time in Arizona, Florida, and Colorado.

He first made the claims in 2008 when the then-senator was gearing up to run for president.

Sinclair has never offered any proof of his accusations, and they were roundly condemned as an attempted political hatchet job.
Queen Maxima of the Netherlands was effortlessly chic in a retro-print midi-dress as she attended the FMO Future of Finance Conference in Amsterdam today before heading to a police network 'Roze in Blauw' (Pink in Blue) celebration as part of Diversity Day.

The royal, 52, showed off her autumnal wardrobe as she sported the patterned burgundy, orange and white frock, accentuated by its silky fabric and flowy sleeves.

The mother-of-three teamed her ensemble with scarlet heels and a handy cherry clutch.

She even made sure her ornate beaded earrings matched the colour scheme and styled her blonde tresses into a sleek windswept blowout.

Maxima opted for a make-up look which accentuated her eyes, finishing off with a dusky pink lipstick, before wrapping a rainbow flag around herself.

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands was effortlessly chic in a retro-print midi-dress as she attended the FMO Future of Finance Conference in Amsterdam today before heading to a police network 'Roze in Blauw' (Pink in Blue) celebration as part of Diversity Day

The royal, 52, showed off her autumnal wardrobe as she sported the patterned burgundy, orange and white frock, accentuated by its silky fabric and flowy sleeves

The royal, 52, showed off her autumnal wardrobe as she sported the patterned burgundy, orange and white frock, accentuated by its silky fabric and flowy sleeves

The conference kicked off yesterday, and today features talks on issues around a responsible finance digital ecosystem, food system transformation and lessons from financial institutions.

Queen Maxima was pictured smiling up a storm at the event, and was at one point seen speaking on stage.

The royal is clearly passionate about finance as she was in 2009 appointed the UN Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA), a role which sees her advise the Secretary-General and push for support of low-income groups and SMEs around the world.

The bi-annual conference has been around for 13 years has each time seen more than 400 professionals from some 60 countries attend.

It comes as the European monarch looked elegant as she made a working visit to the 1931 Congress Center in Den Bosch last week.

She was sophisticated in a navy tailored jumpsuit at the opening of the UNLimited festival of the Association of Universities.

As honorary president of the MIND Us Foundation, Maxima has a special interest in the mental well-being of students.

The royal oozed confidence as she made her way into the venue, teaming her outfit with bright red stilettos.

Maxima is known for her bold style and today was no exception

Typically stylish Maxima coordinated her earrings with her dress

Rainbow royal! Maxima added extra style with the rainbow flag

The mother-of-three teamed her stunning ensemble with scarlet heels and a handy cherry clutch

She even made sure her ornate beaded earrings matched the colour scheme and styled her blonde tresses into a sleek windswept blowout

Maxima opted for a make-up look which accentuated her eyes, finishing off with a dusky pink lipstick

Queen Maxima was pictured smiling up a storm at the event, and was at one point seen speaking on stage

The royal is clearly passionate about finance as she was in 2009 appointed the UN Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA)

The conference kicked off yesterday, and today features talks on issues around a responsible finance digital ecosystem, food system transformation and lessons from financial institutions

The bi-annual conference has been around for 13 years has each time seen more than 400 professionals from some 60 countries attend

She completed her ensemble with a matching leather handbag and drop earrings.

During the two-day festival, more than five hundred participants will exchange knowledge and experience.

The event will show how universities work towards better education and research to make an even bigger impact on their region.

Queen Maxima also looked confident as she took to the stage to give a speech.

The royal had also recently showcased her sartorial flair during a trip to Amsterdam.

Maxima, together with State Secretary Van Ooijen of Health, Welfare and Sport, visited initiatives that reduce loneliness in a community centre based in the heart of the Netherlands.

The visit was intended to promote Loneliness Awareness Week, encouraging people to create supportive communities through conversations with family, friends or colleagues about loneliness.

She re-wore a printed pussy bow blouse and green cactus leather midi skirt, both by Natan.

She added a bold flash of colour, accessorising with her trusty Gianvito Rossi cobalt blue court shoes. In her hand, she carried a small clutch bag, which appeared to be made from the same fabric as her skirt.
A wildlife scientist has revealed the true reason why some people are more prone to being bitten by mosquitoes than others.

While many believe different blood types attract mozzies, biology researcher Ellie Sursara said the insects tend to bite people who have a higher metabolic rate and therefore emit more carbon dioxide.

The 35-year-old, from the Gold Coast Hinterland, told FEMAIL people release more CO2 when they are pregnant, excessively sweating or drinking alcohol.

Mosquitoes also thrive in warm, balmy weather, so an Aussie barbecue with people enjoying a beer is a haven for the pesky bugs.

Ellie said there are some measures people can take to avoid an itchy mozzie bite; however, the most effective method is to cover up and stay clean.

Wildlife scientist Ellie Sursara (pictured) has revealed why some people are more prone to mosquito bites than others and shared how to avoid getting bitten this summer

Many have argued mosquitoes are attracted to specific blood types; however, Ellie said there was little concrete evidence to support the claim.

'The question about whether mosquitoes prefer a certain blood type is controversial and quite debatable,' she said.

'It's obviously an area that is still being explored, but the current consensus is that it's people who have a high metabolic rate.'

More carbon dioxide, which female mosquitoes are drawn to when reproducing, is released from those with a higher metabolic rate.

'Male mosquitoes don't bite, so if you've got a bit more lactic acid or heat coming from your body, you'll be bitten by a female mosquito,' Ellie explained.

Mosquitoes tend to bite people with a higher metabolic rate because they release more carbon dioxide. This happens in people who are pregnant, sweating or drinking alcohol (stock image)

'Basically what they do is they derive some proteins from our blood and they use that to produce their eggs. So it's part of getting their proteins for their reproduction.'

The bad news, Ellie says, is that if you are prone to mosquito bites, there is little that can be done to prevent them; however, there are some ways to lessen the risk.

'Preventing mosquito bites is quite difficult. You're probably going to find that it's going to happen unless you're maybe just out of the shower, not drinking alcohol, not pregnant and wearing long pants,' she said.

Wildlife scientist Ellie Sursara's top tips for preventing mosquito bites this summer Cover up: Try to wear long sleeves, trousers and socks.

Try to wear long sleeves, trousers and socks. Don't sweat it: If you're spending time outdoors, make sure beforehand you're not too sweaty as perspiration attracts mozzies.

If you're spending time outdoors, make sure beforehand you're not too sweaty as perspiration attracts mozzies. Act early: Light citronella candles and spray yourself with aerosol repellents before you get bitten

Light citronella candles and spray yourself with aerosol repellents before you get bitten Be water wary: Stagnant water is a breeding ground for mozzies so change your pet's water bowl frequently and don't over-water plants. Remove old puddles or containers of water and invest in a pool cover. Advertisement

'One of the best things to do to prevent mosquitoes is to cover up. Wearing long pants and having socks is ideal because obviously the less surface ratio you have, the less likely you are to be bitten.'

Climate is also a significant factor.

'Mosquitoes thrive in generally hot and humid climates... if you were going to go to Tasmania, you're not as likely to be swarmed by mosquitoes as you would in Cairns or some other tropic,' Ellie said.

Ellie said aerosol repellents many apply to their skin can be hit-and-miss when it comes to stopping mozzie bites, and are often used once it's too late.

'Aerosols work for some people and not for others. They do work but they don't do anything if you've been bitten,' she said.

'If you're outside and you're having a barbecue, you're worried about everything else first and then the mosquito bite comes into your mind after you've been bitten.'

'They're good preventative measure, but they don't do a whole lot after you have been bitten and that's when most people tend to want the relief and the remedy.'

Before an outdoor gathering, Ellie also recommended lighting citronella candles early in the evening and making sure there are no pools of stagnant water nearby.

'Make sure you don't have water bodies that lay out for days and days. So fresh dog bowls, don't over water plants and use pool covers,' she suggested.

Ellie is very prone to being bitten by mozzies herself and has had her fair share of bites as she's 'very outdoorsy' and often pursuing her wildlife photography hobby with her partner.

'I could be sprayed in aerosols and sitting next to a citronella candle and they would still come for me,' she said.

Ellie swears by the Bug Bite Thing - a suction tool that provides instant relief for itching, swelling and stinging caused by mozzies, and has just been released in Australia

'They're so itchy, they can start to ruin the rest of the evening or hike. You just feel like you're scratching constantly.'

She now swears by a unique new product that has just launched in Australia called the Bug Bite Thing, a suction tool that provides instant relief for itching, swelling and stinging caused by mozzies.

'It's actually a really handy tool just to have in your daily kit, whether it's a walk or a hike or a barbecue outside,' Ellie said.

'You do have that instant remedy for the itching and the redness. I haven't seen a product like it and I've probably tried everything.'
The American expat shared the differences between Australia and the US

Jenay, from Seattle, has lived in Queensland for a year

An American expat has revealed the most noticeable differences between the US and Australia - and how life Down Under has both disappointed and pleasantly surprised her.

Jenay, from Seattle, moved to the Gold Coast after spending years dreaming about Australia's sunny beaches and stunning sceneries.

After spending twelve months in Queensland, Jenay has shared her first impressions of the country.

'I made this list two weeks after moving to capture my first impressions - I've been here for over a year now and want to review it,' she said.

The American woman said the meat tasted different in Australia and had trouble with the bus and birdlife.

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Jenay, from Seattle, moved to the Gold Coast after spending years dreaming about Australia's sunny beaches and stunning sceneries

Jenay was shocked when she tasted Aussie bacon for the first time.

'Bacon is not the American bacon I'm used to - it's ham,' she said. 'Set your expectations accordingly!'

However, one of the 'best' aspects of living in Australia had to do with its alcohol.

'All the wine is screw top - which is super convenient and holds the wine better!' she said.

The American expat was unprepared for the unusual wildlife threat lurking behind every corner.

'I was expecting sharks, spiders, and snakes,' she said. 'But no one told me about the birds.'

Jenay revealed that she had developed ornithophobia after moving to the Gold Coast.

She was also surprised when she waited a bus stop only to see the bus zoom past her because she didn't know she had to stop it.

'The buses don't stop unless you physically hail them - it only takes one time to learn it.'

Jenay revealed that she 'loved' how casual everyone Down Under was with praise.

'I love how everyone says 'legend' here, whether you're holding the door open for somebody or saving a baby from a burning building - you're a legend.'

Key differences between Australia and America * Australian bacon tastes different to what Americans are accustomed to * Most Aussie wines are screw top instead of corked for convenience * Buses Down Under need to be hailed and will not stop otherwise * Aussies use the word 'legend' a lot to thank people * Birds in Australia are deadly and there's always a risk of being swooped Advertisement

Many were confused by some of Jenay's observations - but others thought she was 'bang on'.

'Bacon is bacon - and ham is ham,' one said. 'They are not the same at all.'

'There are different types of bacon here, so you just need to purchase the right type for your tastes/needs,' another advised.

'I feel like we are constantly trying to warn people on snake videos. Snakes will leave you alone, a magpie will take your eye out because you exist,' one warned.

'So true about the deadly birds - they haunt my nightmares,' a man said.
A man was shocked after his life-long battle with acne 'suddenly' ended after he moved overseas.

Tom*, from the northeast US, was used to having oily skin and acne peppered around his face and back.

He has now been in Madrid for a week - and his acne completely disappeared over the span of seven days.

Tom was shocked because other than his location, he hasn't made any significant changes to his life - he still drinks bottles of Fanta, indulges in dairy, and uses the same soap and shampoo.

He was delighted to discover that Madrid's dry weather was a huge contributing factor to his acne clearing up - as humidity often leads to clogged pores, increased sebum production, and encourages bacteria reproduction.

A man was shocked after his life-long battle with acne 'suddenly' ended after he moved overseas - and he's not the only one [stock image]

He shared the strange fact on Reddit.

'Why did my acne almost immediately clear up when I moved to Madrid?' he asked. 'I lived in the northeast of the US before, and we had very humid summers.'

'I had acne on my back for a few years but it's nearly completely gone.'

Tom also revealed that while he was consuming less sugar in general, he was still partial to soft drinks and sweet pastries.

According to Australian experts, there are several causes for back acne - such as family history, hormones, stress, and environment.

Dermatologist Dr Mei Tam shared that oil glands getting blocked with dead skin cells is one of the main causes of the skin condition.

'Anything that causes friction on your back can result in acne. This is known as acne mechanica,' Dr Tam revealed to All About Acne. 'A backpack, the strap from a handbag, chairs or gym equipment can irritate your skin and trigger acne.'

The professional further explained that the climate and constantly living in an area with high humidity causes back pimples.

Many others revealed that moving to drier climates from chronic humidity also helped their acne.

'I moved somewhere with a really dry climate for university and my skin cleared up after a few weeks,' one said.

'I lived in the US for 20 years. When I moved to a dry climate, I noticed skin and hair improvement,' another added.

Others shared different theories on why Tom's acne cleared up.

'It could also be less sugar,' one said. 'Lots of my acne went away after moving from the US to Europe because of the sugar reduction - rest left due to dairy,' a man shared.

'Something you were eating was causing an inflammatory response,' one theorised. 'Sugary products, seed oils, carbs you no longer eat?'

'Maybe it's because you have new sheets and pillowcases,' another said.

*Names have been changed for privacy reasons.
A record 56 children in Washington states foster care and child welfare system died or nearly died in 2022 after ingesting illegal drugs, including the ultra-potent synthetic opioid fentanyl.

The total number of children under the states care who ingested a drug either accidentally or intentionally in 2022 was about equal to the total from 2019 through 2021 combined, according to a report from Washington State's Office of the Family and Children's Ombud's (OFCO).

The department receives its data from Washington's Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), which notifies OFCO when a critical incident occurs. These include children fatalities and near fatalities.

Roughly 38 of the instances recorded in 2022 involved fentanyl, by far the biggest driver of opioid overdose deaths in Washington and the United States at large.

Instances of accidental drug poisoning involving children is hardly confined to Washington state. In 2021, more than 100 infants and children died from accidental fentanyl poisoning in the US, up six-fold from 2018.

In Washington, more than 8,000 children rely on the welfare system, including foster care, yet the latest report from the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families detailing the health and safety of children in its care suggests more could be done to keep them safe.

In 2022, a total of 56 children involved in Washington state's child welfare system were poisoned by drugs. Of that total, 38 of the poisonings involved fentanyl

Twenty-four children aged 11 and younger accidentally took a drug in their family's home. Four of the incidents involved intentional overdoses by youth ages 13 to 17

The state foster care system, which cares for more than 8,000 children, aims to help children thrive physically, emotionally and academically, nurtured by family and community.

The application process to be a foster parent is comprehensive and includes at least one training session in child-rearing tools such as behavior management and trauma-informed care.

The latter is particularly important given many children enter foster care after being removed from high-risk homes.

In about 36 percent of cases, a child is removed from their home and placed in foster care as a result of a parents substance misuse.

In fact, the number of cases of children entering the foster care system due to parental drug use has more than doubled since 2000.

The application process also includes a home visit, during which an agent of the state inspects the home in person, meets the prospective foster family, and makes sure the environment is stable and nurturing.

The process culminates in the foster family receiving a license to act in the states place and take care of a child in need.

However, the state-issued report, which detailed the number and situation of overdoses and accidental poisonings among Washington kids in foster care or who had received services from the state's child welfare system, hints at flaws in a system meant to protect vulnerable children after they have been placed with a licensed family.

Of the 85 child deaths and 62 near-deaths recorded in Washington's welfare system from January 2022 to December 2022, 34 near-deaths and 22 deaths were due to accidental drug poisonings and overdoses.

Sixty-seven percent of those total instances involved fentanyl. Twenty-four of the children were 11 years old or younger, and an even larger proportion of poisonings among this age group were caused by fentanyl  79 percent.

Nine of the accidental ingestions and overdoses were in infants while another 14 were toddlers. The report did not say how many overdoses were fatal and how many were prevented using an overdose reversal drug.

The problem in Washingtons system has grown steadily worse over the years. The 2022 total of 56 accidental drug consumptions and overdose is up from 32 in 2021, and again from 13 in 2020.

DailyMail.com reached out to OFCO but the department has not returned our request for comment.

Deaths caused by fentanyl in the US surged in the 2010s. At the start of the decade, 2,666 Americans died of a fentanyl overdose. This figure shot up to 19,413 by 2016. Covid made the situation worse, with a record 72,484 deaths recorded in 2021

Fentanyl users on the streets of Portland, Oregon. The drug readily manufactured in Mexico is flooding across the porous southern border in pill form. The pills known on the street as 'blues' cost anywhere between $3-5 a pop and are first crushed then superheated on foil with the vapor inhaled through a tube

In addition to requiring a license and home visits before allowing a family to take a child in, the state performs yearly wellness check-ins on children in their foster familys homes.

But the state is only required to check in on a random sample of at least 10 percent of homes. In 2022, they checked in on just over 13 percent of households, and the annual rate hovered between 11 and 12 percent on average.

The report concluded with a litany of recommendations to bolster worker training to better spot and address fentanyl overdoses as they happen as well as situations in which a child may be abused or neglected.

The OFCO already runs a program that distributes medication lockboxes to families to safely store their medication, but it does not provide families with the lifesaving overdose antidote Naloxone, which typically costs between $35 and $65.

The rate of accidental fentanyl poisoning in Washingtons welfare system is increasing alongside those rates in the greater state of Washington as well as the country overall.

The state is required to check in on a random sample of at least 10 percent of foster homes in the state. There are about 8,000 children in Washington currently in foster homes

In Washington, 65 percent of fatal drug overdoses in 2022 were caused by a synthetic opioid, mostly fentanyl, according to data from the University of Washingtons Addiction, Drugs and Alcohol Institute.

That was a considerable increase from 2021, when fentanyl accounted for around 50 percent of overdose deaths. Just seven years ago it was eight percent.

Deaths involving synthetic opioids nationwide have risen consistently since 2016, a time when fentanyl was first showing signs of polluting the illicit drug supply, typically heroin, on a large scale.

Since then it has ravaged large swathes of big cities like Philadelphia and San Francisco to sprawling rural communities.

Of more than 107,000 fatal drug overdoses in 2022, an estimated 68 percent, more than 72,000, involved a synthetic opioid such as fentanyl. Thats about 199 people on average dying every day.
Women's rights campaigners and health experts today welcomed Steve Barclay's commitment to fight wokery and restore 'common sense' in the NHS.

The Health Secretary detailed the move in a speech at the Tory Party conference as he slammed the 'unacceptable' use of gender-neutral language on advice pages for female-only conditions like cervical cancer.

Sex-specific language has now been 'fully restored' on offending health sections as a result of his intervention, he announced.

Mr Barclay also boasted that he had stopped the NHS from 'ordering staff to declare pronouns to each new patient'.

As part of his speech in Manchester, Mr Barclay revealed he was 'going further' as he unveiled proposals to ban trans women  biological men who identify as being the opposite gender  using female-only hospital wards.

He argued it was 'vital womens voices are heard' and the 'privacy, dignity and safety of all patients are protected'.

Trans-inclusive terms like 'chestfeeding' and 'birthing person' have crept into usage within hospitals and medical settings over the past few years despite backlash from campaigners and health experts.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay (pictured here at the The Conservative Party Conference today in Manchester) has set out how he is prompting the use of 'sex-specific' language in the NHS

Woman, breast feeding and vagina all used to be standard terms used within the medical community. But they are just a selection of words that have been replaced by some woke NHS trusts, private hospitals and charities as part of an inclusivity push

'We know what a woman is, and I know the vast majority of NHS staff and patients do too,' Mr Barclay said.

'That is why I ordered a reversal of unacceptable changes to the NHS website that erased women for conditions such as cervical cancer, and stopped the NHS from ordering staff to declare pronouns to each new patient.'

Outside the conference hall, Mr Barclay added: 'We need a commonsense approach to sex and equality issues in the NHS  that is why today I am announcing proposals for clearer rights for patients.

'And I can today confirm that sex-specific language has now been fully restored to online health advice pages about cervical and ovarian cancer and the menopause.

'It is vital womens voices are heard in the NHS and the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients are protected.'

MailOnline reported in July that the NHS had backtracked on the roll-out of gender-inclusive language across these pages.

Mr Barclay could go further on woke language, it is thought. A source close to him told The Telegraph: 'The Secretary of State is fed up with this agenda and the damage its causing, language like "chestfeeding", talking about pregnant "people" rather than women.

'It exasperates the vast majority of people, and he is determined to take action on it.

'He is concerned that womens voices should be heard on healthcare and that too often wokery and ideological dogma is getting in the way of this.'

Health experts have repeatedly warned that such de-sexing in the NHS is dangerous because it can overcomplicate vital health messaging for women.

One of those, Professor Jenny Gamble, a midwifery expert from Coventry University, praised Mr Barclay's announcement.

'These changes are very welcome. Sex matters in health care and clear communication is vital,' she told MailOnline.

Mr Barclay also revealed plans to ban trans women accessing sex-specific spaces in the NHS, in a move to give men and women the right to only share wards with those who match their biological sex.

'We will change the NHS constitution, following a consultation later this year, to make sure we respect the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients, recognise the importance of different biological needs and protect the rights of women, he said.

Under the proposed changes, trans patients could be housed in separate accommodation or their own rooms.

It marks a reverse 2021 NHS guidance that said trans patients could be placed on single-sex wards on the basis of the gender with which they identified.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman today backed the move, stating that trans women 'have no place in women's wards or indeed any safe space relating to biological women'.

She said: 'The Health Secretary is absolutely right to clarify and make it clear that biological men should not have treatments in the same wards and in the same safe spaces as biological women.

'This is about protecting women's dignity, and women's safety and women's privacy. And that's why I'm incredibly supportive and I welcome the announcement today by the Health Secretary.'

A spokesperson for With Woman, a coalition of activists and maternity workers, told MailOnline they welcomed Mr Barclay's plans 'to use clear language'.

They said: 'This makes health information and public health messaging clear and accessible to those who need it most, ultimately benefiting women and their babies as health advice is likely to be easily understood.

'We also welcome this commitment to single sex wards that will help ensure the dignity, privacy and safety of women in hospital, and already in a vulnerable situation.'

Ex-Health Secretary Sajid Javid promised to reverse gender neutral language in NHS advice after MailOnline revealed the term 'women' had been quietly erased from menopause advice in June. His successors have yet to commit to the same

Mr Barclay's speech marks a change in NHS policy to better balance the needs of women with other groups such as those with gender dysphoria, they added.

Feminist author Milli Hill told this website that it's 'great to see' that the Government is making 'the important distinction between sex and gender in health care'.

She said: 'Not only is clarity in health care messaging essential and potentially life saving, but many women don't like to see the use of words like "women" and "mother" diminishing in use, because they feel their identity is being eroded to suit a very small minority.

'It's also very good news for women's safety and dignity that sex-specific wards will be provided.'

The Daily Mail revealed in August this year that shocking NHS rules mean patients who only occasionally identify as women can share female-only hospital wards.

This guidance means that trans women can use the facilities they wish, regardless of whether or not they have had surgery or legally changed sex.

Many NHS hospitals make it clear patients need only temporarily present as women to enter female-only bays and bathrooms.

Additionally, some women have reported being denied care or having their operations delayed after requesting care from only female staff.

Mr Barclay's commitment to erase gender-neutral language in the NHS comes a year after MailOnline's coverage of the issue last year prompted then-Health Secretary Sajid Javid to vow to reverse the language changes.

How dare you say 'women'! From chestfeeding to bonus hole, how woke gender-neutral language is sweeping the NHS and medical world

'Chestfeeding', 'second biological parent', and 'bonus hole' are just some gender-neutral terms that have swept the medical profession.

Proponents of such woke phrases claim they are more inclusive to trans patients, who might be triggered by biological terms like 'breast' or 'vagina'.

But experts have raised alarm over the movement, warning it is overcomplicating vital health messaging.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay has promised to reverse the tide of 'ideological' inclusive language in the NHS.

Here, MailOnline has collected examples of gender-neutral language that have swept the world of healthcare:

The term chestfeeding is used throughout the page with the term 'breast' omitted. Breastmilk likewise has been replaced with 'milk from the chest'

Breastfeeding - chestfeeding

The NHS website's page on chestfeeding, under its 'Having a baby if you're LGBT+' section, is targeted at trans and non-binary patients who have given birth.

It makes no mention of breasts and refers to breast reduction operations as 'top surgery'.

The page has been criticised as 'ideological' and accused of 'normalising' a potentially dangerous chest-binding technique.

An April 2022 report from the LGBT Foundation said 'traditional' terminology around breastfeeding 'may induce dysphoria or discomfort for trans and non-binary parents', who may prefer the term chestfeeding to breastfeeding.

The Government-funded report urged the NHS to use inclusive language and not 'guess the language someone might use to describe themselves based on how they look or sound, or who they are in a relationship with'.

READ MORE: NHS managers are told not to offer sympathy to female colleagues worried about sharing toilets with biological men in woke handbook Advertisement

Breast milk - human milk

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust began referring to breastmilk as 'human milk' in official guidance in February 2021.

In a web page, it unveiled 'gender inclusive' phrases it wanted its staff to use.

These included terms like 'human milk' rather than 'breast milk' to avoid offending transgender people.

At the time, the Trust  which has since merged to become University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust  said using 'gender inclusive' phrases was part of a drive to stamp out 'mainstream transphobia'.

The move was welcomed by inclusivity campaigners at the time, with the group TransActual tweeted: 'This is fantastic, well done. Let's hope many more trusts follow suit. Everybody deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.'

The guidance, titled Gender Inclusive Language in Perinatal Services, has since been taken down.

Expectant mothers - pregnant people

During the height of the pandemic, an NHS Trust sparked a row by calling expectant mothers 'pregnant people'.

NHS East of England tweeted a quote in May 2021 from one of their antenatal and newborn screening coordinators which said: 'Our job is to implement all the screening programs for pregnant people and their newborn babies.'

The post from triggered a debate at the time, with one person writing on social media: 'Pregnant women. Fixed it for you.'

Another tweeted: 'Women! Pregnant women. Stop this nonsense.'

In the document it asks 'patients of childbearing potential' for the date their last menstrual period started

Cromwell Hospital (pictured) has come under fire after referring to women as 'patients of childbearing potential'

Father - parent, co-parent or second biological parent

In its February 2021 guidance, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust called for the term 'father' to be replaced.

It suggested using 'parent', 'co-parent' or 'second biological parent', depending on the circumstances.

However, it said the language changes do not always apply when talking with patients one-on-one, as wording should then 'reflect the gender identity of the individual'.

Maternity service - perinatal service

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust became the first in the country to formally implement a 'gender inclusive' overhaul in February 2021.

Under the move, its maternity services department was deemed too gendered and instead renamed as 'perinatal services'.

Perinatal care is a broad term for the treatment a woman receives both while she is pregnant and for the 12 months after she gives birth.

Here are some examples of the woke language changes that have engulfed NHS communications. Some of these examples have been taken from national NHS communications while others are used by individual hospitals

Mother - birthing people or birthing parent

An NHS Trust used the term 'birthing people' instead of 'mothers'.

NHS Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust said it was seeking 'birthing people' to provide feedback on its perinatal services in a social media post last August.

But the Trust, which specialises in mental health treatment, was accused of leaving biological females out of the conversation by its failure to use the terms 'women' or 'mothers' in its communications.

Some members of the public called it 'dehumanising' and 'dangerous nonsense'.

Similar language trickled through to midwifery degrees over the last year.

At the University of Bradford, an internal document detailing the course specifications for midwives who trained in 2022/23 refers to 'childbearing people' four times and 'birthing people' eight times.

In contrast, the word 'women' is mentioned just three times in the 11-page document, while 'mother' is not mentioned at all.

At Cumbria University, all references to mothers on the course description for students who started in 2022/23 were replaced with 'birthing parents'.

The midwifery course pages at Kingston and Cardiff universities also talk about 'birthing people' and 'pregnant people' respectively, although they do also mention 'women'.

Vagina - bonus hole

A charity suggested the vagina could be referred to as 'the bonus hole' to avoid upsetting non-binary or trans men.

Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust featured the term on a page for health professionals who are treating patients suffering from the disease.

The trust insisted it was not suggesting the term should be used by all women  but added it was important to reach trans men and non-binary people.

But female rights campaigners last month rounded on the alternative glossary, branding it both 'misogynistic' and 'utterly dehumanising'.

NHS Digital has now partially amended the webpage to include the word 'women' once at the end

Vaginal birth - frontal birth or lower birth

The term 'vaginal birth' was labelled gender-loaded by the LGBT Foundation in an April 2022 report.

The document, based on a survey of 121 trans Brits on their experience of pregnancy, recommended that healthcare staff use 'frontal' or 'lower birth' instead.

The charity also said some trans and non-binary people would benefit from having a private space in hospitals to give birth, so that they are not made uncomfortable by seeing women.

It detailed the experience of one trans person, who said: 'I didn't have to go to a ward full of women after giving birth, I was actually provided with a private room for me and baby which was very helpful and accommodating for me and my gender identity.'

Woman - patient of childbearing age, anyone who has a cervix, period or ovaries, people who know they are pregnant

In another example of wokery, NHS advice pages about women's health were found to have quietly scrubbed the word 'women'.

An early version of the NHS menopause page described it as being 'when a woman stops having periods and is no longer able to get pregnant naturally'.

But this was quietly changed in May last year to: 'Menopause is when your periods stop due to lower hormone levels.'

However, in an update the term 'women' features again. The advice now states that the menopause 'usually affects women between the ages of 45 and 55'.

Another web page on ovarian cancer used to state it was 'one of the most common types of cancer for women'.

But it was updated in February 2022 to state 'women, trans men, non-binary people and intersex people with ovaries' can be affected.

Like the menopause page this was updated following outrage over the changes to have the term women reintroduced.

The health service also came under fire for removed references to 'women' from its pages about miscarriages.

Its site swapped 'women who know they're pregnant' with 'people who know they are pregnant'.

In June last year the NHS reinstated the word 'women' on the page after receiving a barrage of criticism.

In a case in August this year, Cromwell Hospital in London, which is not part of the NHS, was criticised for asking 'patients of a childbearing potential' if they could be pregnant rather than stating 'women'.

Women - 'people who bleed'

A taxpayer funded health information page on periods was harshly criticised last year for omitting women and girls and instead referring to 'people who bleed'.

The 84,000 guidance on periods was published by Bloody Brilliant, an online resource commissioned by the devolved Labour Government and NHS Wales.

It was set up in 2021 with the aim of 'breaking the taboo around periods by encouraging conversation on one of the most normal, natural topics'.

The website consisted of half a dozen period-related topics, including the science behind menstruation, advice about using period products such as tampons, and how to support those going through the process.

But it failed to mention women or girls once in its guidance, instead being described as 'anyone with a uterus'.

In a section about ending period stigma, the website says: 'No more hiding, covering up or awkward euphemisms, we need some straight-talking.'

Medics and campaigners described the language as 'infuriating' and 'confusing', warning it would complicate health messaging for vulnerable girls.

Bloody Brilliant, an NHS commissioned website designed to provide information about periods and bust stigma surrounding menstruation, has been slammed for refusing to mention 'women' and 'girls', instead referring to 'people who bleeds'

After MailOnline exposed the story, the branch of NHS Wales responsible for the advice confirmed the language would be changed to include 'women' and 'girls'.

'We want Bloody Brilliant to be a resource that is authentic and relevant to our audience and so we have listened carefully to recent feedback on our use of language,' NHS Wales Health Collaborative said in a statement.

'Having considered a wide spectrum of views, we will be making some changes to include referring to young women and girls rather than "people who bleed".'

Menstruation is a process unique to biological females and trans women cannot have one.
Striking NHS doctors have pledged to continue until the next general election in their desperate pursuit of extra cash.

Junior medics and consultants are halfway through a 72-hour walkout designed to bring hospitals to a standstill.

Thousands even travelled to Manchester to rally outside the Tory party conference.

Professor Philip Banfield, council chair of the British Medical Association, which is coordinating the action, said NHS staff are prepared to strike until the next general election, expected by December 2024, 'and beyond' to secure a bigger pay rise.

Ministers have repeatedly refused to accept demands from the BMA to give both groups bigger pay outs during a cost-of-living crisis. Rishi Sunak today argued doctors were offered 'more than anyone else in the public sector and they refused'.

In a speech, Professor Banfield urged the Prime Minister to make a 'credible' pay offer to end the dispute. Junior doctors have demanded 35 per cent while consultants have called for 11 per cent.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, asked if he would be willing to meet the British Medical Association over the strikes, told BBC Breakfast: 'Of course we are, we've tried multiple times.' He added: 'Weeks after I became Prime Minister I announced record funding for the NHS

Official data released today shows strikes by consultants and junior doctors last week including a joint one-day walkout meant 133,494 routine procedures and appointments had to be rescheduled. It takes the total number of appointments cancelled to 1,018,648

As part of the unprecedented walk-out, junior doctors and consultants are only offer 'Xmas Day' levels of staffing until 7am Thursday. Pictured, junior doctors and consultants from the British Medical Association (BMA) protesting outside the Conservative Party annual conference in Manchester

Speaking at a BMA rally outside the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Professor Banfield said: 'We will not let down future generations of doctors. We will strike until the next general election  and beyond if that is what it takes.'

Asked if things would change under a Labour government, he said that Labour health spokesman Wes Streeting recognised doctors' pay had gone down, and the BMA would seek to secure a 'credible' deal from him.

Professor Banfield said he is confident that the BMA will get a mandate from members to continue industrial action.

He said: 'The members have been unequivocal and they are incredibly organised and really determined.

'They feel that this is a once-in-a-generation time to alter the future for doctors, and for patients. We just cannot put up any longer with driving doctors at all levels away.

'It is not just disappointing, it's completely ridiculous that a Government with responsibility for a health service is treating its experts in this way.'

The Government gave junior doctors a pay rise worth between 8.1 and 10.3 per cent.

Consultants were handed an extra 6 per cent as part of the deal, recommended by the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration's (DDRB).

But the BMA, which has organised the series of strikes, says doctors have seen their pay erode by up to 35 per cent over the last 15 years.

As a result, junior doctors have called for a full restoration of pay, while consultants have set their demand at 11 per cent.

In July, Mr Sunak said No10's 2023/24 pay offer to junior doctors and consultants was the Government's 'final offer'.

The BMA however immediately rejected the rise, vowing to crack on with strike action.

As part of the unprecedented walk-out, both consultants and junior doctors will only offer 'Christmas Day' levels of staffing until 7am Thursday, meaning only emergency care is unaffected.

Vivek Trivedi, co-chair of the BMA's junior doctors committee, said he finds it 'surprising' the Government is 'still unwilling' to negotiate.

'Ultimately, we know what the effects of year-on-year pay cuts are to our workforce's morale, retention, and now actually even recruitment,' he said.

'If the Government wants to have any sort of workforce in the future to be able to treat patients in a timely manner, then we need to do something to fix that. It's just so surprising that they're still unwilling to talk about how we can end this dispute.'

Strikes have been ongoing in the NHS since December 2022, leading to the cancellation or postponement of almost 1.1million appointments.

Waiting lists for elective treatment on the NHS currently stand at a record 7.7million.

Mr Trivedi said the disruption to appointments is 'wholly the Government's fault'.

He said: 'It was completely within their power to stop any strike action from ever happening if they had just treated our profession with respect and came to the table at the start to negotiate and put an offer on the table.'

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has insisted strikes are the 'number one reason' for record NHS waiting times.

He was challenged over the claim on ITV's Good Morning Britain today, but said the Government had 'stabilised' backlogs, which were 'forecast to start going down until industrial action started'.

Professor Banfield said he is 'really sorry' to patients but 'an enormous number of appointments and operations are cancelled every day for lack of resources and staff and a lack of investment in the NHS'.

Professor Philip Banfield (pictured), council chair of the British Medical Association, which is coordinating the action, said NHS staff are prepared to strike until the next general election, expected by December 2024, 'and beyond' to secure a bigger pay rise

Pictured: BMA members protest outside the Mancheser Library during the Conservative Party annual conference in Manchester

Pictured: BMA members protest outside the Manchester Library during the Conservative Party annual conference in Manchester

'We are making this stand now in order to get better investment so we can crack on with the waiting list and get people the treatment that they need,' he added.

Asked this morning if he would be willing to meet the BMA over the strikes, Mr Sunak told BBC Breakfast: 'Of course we are, we've tried multiple times.'

He added: 'Weeks after I became Prime Minister I announced record funding for the NHS. I come from an NHS family, of course I care about it, and we've resolved industrial action everywhere else across the public sector.

'So when you've got the BMA on your programme I hope you ask them, did you ask them, why is it the Government has fully accepted the recommendations of an independent body  not me  who said the doctors should get a 9 per cent pay rise which, by the way, is more than the nurses, more than hospital porters, more than anyone else in the public sector and they refused?

'So why is it that's OK for them when everyone else in the public sector has accepted the recommendations of an independent body and got on with it and they haven't?'

Mr Sunak defended his spending on the NHS, adding: 'We've behaved entirely correctly, entirely reasonably.'

Prior to this week's walk-outs, junior doctors had staged 22 days of strike action, with consultants taking to the picket lines on six separate days.

Radiographers across England have also taken industrial action from 8am today, with hospital bosses fearing tens of thousands of patients will have scans cancelled.

NHS executives warned that the combined walk-outs put patients at 'the highest level of risk in living memory', and affected 'many more groups of patients who haven't been disrupted by previous strikes'.

Many routine hospital appointments and treatments, including cancer care, have already been postponed as a result of industrial action.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay today vowed to 'take on' and 'stand up' to the 'militant' NHS union leaders.

He told the Tory Party Conference that the 'militant' BMA strikes 'have resulted in countless cancelled appointments and pose a serious threat to the NHS recovery from the pandemic'.

Mr Barclay said: 'Their consultants and junior doctors committee are relentless, demanding massive pay increases even if that means diverting resources from patients and despite junior doctors already having received a pay rise of up to 10.3 per cent.

'But it doesn't end there, they are even planning on taking the Government to court over our plans to let patients see their own test results on their own phones rather than taking up a GP appointment.

'This clearly shows the BMA leadership is not on the side of change and they are not on the side of patients.'

It comes after it was revealed that pregnant women are having their planned C-sections cancelled amid the disruption.

One anonymous woman, who is 39 weeks pregnant, said it felt like she had 'lost all control' of her birth. She claims her 'earliest replacement date' is more than a week after her due date, adding: 'I was told I should not go over my due date.'

Campaigners warned the delays might be a 'breach of human rights law'.

'I was told I should not go over my due date. The earliest replacement date is more than a week after my due date,' the unidentified woman told Sky News.

'I feel like I have now lost all control of the birth.

'I think I will be pushed for an induction before the C-section booking if I have not gone into labour.'

Planned caesareans are usually done from the 39th week of pregnancy. The risk of stillbirth is higher in mothers-to-be who go over 42 weeks.

Radiographer strikes will also limit the chances of patients using cancer, A&E and maternity services getting a scan or X-ray.

Consultants in England have taken to the picket lines on four separate days so far this summer, while junior doctors have staged 19 days of strike action this year. Both will return to the picket lines together on October, 2, 3 and 4. Radiographers are also set to join medics by walking out for 24 hours from 8am on October 3. The strike days also coincide with Rishi Sunak's first Tory party conference as leader and prime minister

The BMA, which has organised the series of strikes, says doctors have seen their pay erode by up to 35 per cent over the last 15 years. Pictured protesting medics outside the Conservative Party annual conference in Manchester

Hospitals are being brought to a standstill because of joint 72-hour action by junior doctors and consultants. Pictured striking doctors from the BMA demonstrating outside the Conservative Party annual conference

Senior leaders also warned the real impact of strikes is masked by the data, as many hospitals have stopped booking in surgeries and other appointments on announced strike days.

But patients have been urged to still attend appointments if they have not been told it is cancelled  as some doctors are still working.

The latest joint strike between medics follows their first combined industrial action in September led to almost 130,000 NHS inpatient and outpatient appointments being rescheduled.

In total, 2million appointments are thought to have been cancelled since the series of strikes began.

NHS stats show around 7.68million patients in England  or one in seven people  are now waiting for procedures such hip and knee replacements.

READ MORE: Return of common sense! Anti-woke campaigners praise pledge to end gender-neutral language in NHS and stop trans women from using female-only wards as Steve Barclay vows to protect women's dignity Health Secretary Steve Barclay (pictured here at the The Conservative Party Conference today in Manchester) has set out how he is prompting the use of 'sex-specific' language in the NHS Advertisement

This includes almost 390,000 patients who have waited at least one year for treatment, often in pain.

It is the highest figure since records began in 2007.

For comparison, around 4.4million were stuck in the system when the pandemic reached the UK.

Mr Sunak claimed strikes were the 'number one reason' for the NHS waiting list hike.

He told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'The reason that waiting lists are going up is because we've got industrial action because doctors are on strike.

'Now, I've sat down and tried to do the reasonable thing.'

But after GMB presenter Susanna Reid intervened to say 'no, that might be one of the reasons', he responded 'that is the number one reason'.

Mr Sunak added: 'But if I could just finish, if I could just finish, it's really important.'

Ms Reid responded: 'That is not the number one reason. There was already a backlog.'

Mr Sunak could be heard saying 'no, no' as Ms Reid highlighted the pre-pandemic backlog.

However, he added: 'If you look at what was happening to it we had stabilised it, it had stopped going up and it was forecast to start going down until industrial action started. That's the reality of it.'

Yesterday the BMA also claimed doctors are 'fed up' of being labelled the problem.

It said a new survey of 1,765 adults showed that Government attempts to blame medics for 'cripplingly long' waiting lists have not convinced the public.

More than two in five respondents blamed the Government for the increase in waiting lists for elective treatment in England, which have risen from 2.6million in 2010 to almost 7.7million.

This is almost three times the number who blame striking doctors (15 per cent), the union argued.

Professor Phil Banfield, the BMA chair of council, said: 'Doctors are fed up of being told we are the problem with the NHS.'

Around 7.68million patients in England - or one in seven people - were in the queue in July for procedures such hip and knee replacements, official figures show. This includes almost 390,000 patients who have waited at least one year for treatment, often in pain. The monthly performance data showed the waiting list grew by more than 100,000 between June and July

He added: 'It is not fair for the Government to continue to blame doctors or other healthcare workers for their own failure to properly resource the health service in England.

'What we see today is that the public largely sees through that excuse.

'Many more appointments and operations are cancelled outside the strike days because of a shortage of beds, staff or operating capacity due to the relative chronic underfunding.'

Consultants, junior doctors and radiographers will hold a rally at lunchtime on Tuesday near Manchester Central, which is hosting the Conservative party's annual conference.

Hospital consultants yesterday urged Mr Sunak to let the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) get involved to try to bring an end to their pay dispute.

The BMA last month announced that specialist, associate specialist and specialty (SAS) doctors will hold an indicative ballot for industrial action.

These doctors work alongside junior doctors and consultants in hospitals, but some also work in the community.

Last month, BMA members in Scotland accepted the SNP Government's offer of a 14.5 per cent pay increase for junior doctors and doctors in training over two years.
Maternity ward says pain relief method is a 'distraction' from pain of giving birth

Women giving birth are being told to squeeze a comb to manage labour pain under health service guidance.

The bizarre technique was suggested as a pain relief method by Surrey and Sussex NHS Healthcare Trust's maternity department.

In a post on its Instagram page, it said the alternative 'birth comb' method can help women cope with contractions when giving birth.

It claims this is down to the brush activating 'acupressure points' in the creases of the palm, distracting from pain and sparking the release of feel-good hormones.

However, the trust received mixed reactions to its supposed 'labour hack'.

Surrey and Sussex NHS Healthcare Trust's maternity department posted information about the comb 'labour hack' to Instagram, pictured above. The maternity department suggests that holding a comb could help with the pain of labour contractions

Surrey and Sussex NHS Healthcare Trust, pictured, explains the method can be used as a 'distraction'

When a comb is squeezed in the palm of your hand, the pressure 'distracts your brain' and helps the 'body to release endorphins', the trust said in its post.

It is based on the 'pain gate control theory', which claims your brain can only focus on a certain number of sensations at a time, it wrote.

'The nerve endings in your hands are close to the skin surface, therefore the pressure signals they send to the brain can override the pain signals being sent to your brain from contractions or surges,' the post says.

Other methods that also work on this theory include TENS machines, massage, sacral pressure and heat packs, according to the trust.

The post concludes with an image of a woman in labour clutching a comb and urges women to 'be sure to pack one in your hospital bag'.

Pain relief in labour There are several ways to manage the pain of giving birth. The NHS suggests learning to relax, stay calm and breath deeply can help as well as taking paracetamol to relieve pain in the early stages of labour. Other methods include: Gas and air: This is a mixture of oxygen and nitrous oxide gas which you can breath through a mask or mouthpiece. It will not remove all the pain but it can help to reduce it.

This is a mixture of oxygen and nitrous oxide gas which you can breath through a mask or mouthpiece. It will not remove all the pain but it can help to reduce it. Pethidine injections in labour: A pethidine injection into the thigh or buttock can relieve pain and help you to relax.

A pethidine injection into the thigh or buttock can relieve pain and help you to relax. Epidural: An epidural is a type of local anesthetic. It numbs the nerves that carry the pain impulses from the birth canal to the brain. It should not make you sick or drowsy.

An epidural is a type of local anesthetic. It numbs the nerves that carry the pain impulses from the birth canal to the brain. It should not make you sick or drowsy. Remifentanil: This goes into a vein in your arm. You control it yourself by pushing a button. It works quickly and wears off after a few minutes. You can use it up until your baby is born, but it can make you feel breathless.

This goes into a vein in your arm. You control it yourself by pushing a button. It works quickly and wears off after a few minutes. You can use it up until your baby is born, but it can make you feel breathless. Water birth: Being in water can help you relax and make the contractions seem less painful.

Being in water can help you relax and make the contractions seem less painful. TENS machine: TENS stands for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. It has been suggested to be most effective in the early stages of labour. It works using electrodes which are taped on to your back and connected by wires to a small battery-powered stimulator. Holding this, you give yourself small, safe amounts of current through the electrodes; this is said to stimulate the body to produce more natural painkillers, called endorphins.

TENS stands for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. It has been suggested to be most effective in the early stages of labour. It works using electrodes which are taped on to your back and connected by wires to a small battery-powered stimulator. Holding this, you give yourself small, safe amounts of current through the electrodes; this is said to stimulate the body to produce more natural painkillers, called endorphins. Alternative methods: Acupuncture, aromatherapy, homeopathy, hypnosis, massage and reflexology. Source: NHS Advertisement

However, the advice, first posted six days ago, hasn't gone down well with everyone.

One social media user questioned why women giving birth aren't given 'adequate pain relief'.

Another added: 'On behalf of me and the PTSD that I still have from the lack of pain relief, kindly shove the comb.'

However, others claimed squeezing a comb acted as a useful distraction from the pain while in labour.

One said: 'I did not believe a comb could help me through contractions... but to my surprise... it really did. Of course, along with the help of the amazing midwives, too.'

A second said: 'I'd have been lost without my combs. I just used cheap plastic ones from Boots and they did the job just fine. Definitely recommend this to all my mama to be friends.'

The NHS recommends other alternative pain relief methods for labour, including acupuncture, aromatherapy, homeopathy, hypnosis, massage and reflexology.

But most of these techniques are not proven to provide effective pain relief, the health service notes.

Surrey and Sussex NHS Healthcare Trust's maternity department explains in its post that a comb is a 'distraction technique rather than a method of pain relief'.

It added that there are 'lots of different pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches to pain-relief in labour'.

The trust acknowledged that the use of a comb is 'not for everyone' and that different methods of easing pain will work at different stages of labour'.

'But this is a technique we have been asked about and are keen to share what local families have been telling us,' it added.

The trust said the Instagram post was shared as information to facilitate choice and personalisation in early labour and help women can seek control without intervention.

Emily Neiman, a nurse-midwife at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, has previously explained that holding a comb may work for some women during labour.

In a 2019 article, she wrote that its effects are thought to be down to it acting as a distraction, acupuncture or the brain only being able to process so many sensations at once  and therefore acting as something else to feel instead of contractions.

Ms Neiman put the hack in the same category as breathing techniques, walking around and using a birthing ball during labour.
'Chestfeeding', 'second biological parent', and 'bonus hole' are just some gender-neutral terms that have swept the medical profession.

Proponents of such woke phrases claim they are more inclusive to trans patients, who might be triggered by biological terms like 'breast' or 'vagina'.

But experts have raised alarm over the movement, warning it is overcomplicating vital health messaging.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay has promised to reverse the tide of 'ideological' inclusive language in the NHS.

Here, MailOnline has collected examples of gender-neutral language that have swept the world of healthcare:

Woman, breast feeding and vagina all used to be standard terms used within the medical community. But they are just a selection of words that have been replaced by some woke NHS trusts, private hospitals and charities as part of an inclusivity push

The term chestfeeding is used throughout the page with the term 'breast' omitted. Breastmilk likewise has been replaced with 'milk from the chest'

Breastfeeding - chestfeeding

The NHS website's page on chestfeeding, under its 'Having a baby if you're LGBT+' section, is targeted at trans and non-binary patients who have given birth.

It makes no mention of breasts and refers to breast reduction operations as 'top surgery'.

The page has been criticised as 'ideological' and accused of 'normalising' a potentially dangerous chest-binding technique.

An April 2022 report from the LGBT Foundation said 'traditional' terminology around breastfeeding 'may induce dysphoria or discomfort for trans and non-binary parents', who may prefer the term chestfeeding to breastfeeding.

The Government-funded report urged the NHS to use inclusive language and not 'guess the language someone might use to describe themselves based on how they look or sound, or who they are in a relationship with'.

READ MORE: NHS managers are told not to offer sympathy to female colleagues worried about sharing toilets with biological men in woke handbook Advertisement

Breast milk - human milk

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust began referring to breastmilk as 'human milk' in official guidance in February 2021.

In a web page, it unveiled 'gender inclusive' phrases it wanted its staff to use.

These included terms like 'human milk' rather than 'breast milk' to avoid offending transgender people.

At the time, the Trust  which has since merged to become University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust  said using 'gender inclusive' phrases was part of a drive to stamp out 'mainstream transphobia'.

The move was welcomed by inclusivity campaigners at the time, with the group TransActual tweeted: 'This is fantastic, well done. Let's hope many more trusts follow suit. Everybody deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.'

The guidance, titled Gender Inclusive Language in Perinatal Services, has since been taken down.

Expectant mothers - pregnant people

During the height of the pandemic, an NHS Trust sparked a row by calling expectant mothers 'pregnant people'.

NHS East of England tweeted a quote in May 2021 from one of their antenatal and newborn screening coordinators which said: 'Our job is to implement all the screening programs for pregnant people and their newborn babies.'

The post from triggered a debate at the time, with one person writing on social media: 'Pregnant women. Fixed it for you.'

Another tweeted: 'Women! Pregnant women. Stop this nonsense.'

In the document it asks 'patients of childbearing potential' for the date their last menstrual period started

Cromwell Hospital (pictured) has come under fire after referring to women as 'patients of childbearing potential'

Father - parent, co-parent or second biological parent

In its February 2021 guidance, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust called for the term 'father' to be replaced.

It suggested using 'parent', 'co-parent' or 'second biological parent', depending on the circumstances.

However, it said the language changes do not always apply when talking with patients one-on-one, as wording should then 'reflect the gender identity of the individual'.

Maternity service - perinatal service

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust became the first in the country to formally implement a 'gender inclusive' overhaul in February 2021.

Under the move, its maternity services department was deemed too gendered and instead renamed as 'perinatal services'.

Perinatal care is a broad term for the treatment a woman receives both while she is pregnant and for the 12 months after she gives birth.

Here are some examples of the woke language changes that have engulfed NHS communications. Some of these examples have been taken from national NHS communications while others are used by individual hospitals

Mother - birthing people or birthing parent

An NHS Trust used the term 'birthing people' instead of 'mothers'.

NHS Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust said it was seeking 'birthing people' to provide feedback on its perinatal services in a social media post last August.

But the Trust, which specialises in mental health treatment, was accused of leaving biological females out of the conversation by its failure to use the terms 'women' or 'mothers' in its communications.

Some members of the public called it 'dehumanising' and 'dangerous nonsense'.

Similar language trickled through to midwifery degrees over the last year.

At the University of Bradford, an internal document detailing the course specifications for midwives who trained in 2022/23 refers to 'childbearing people' four times and 'birthing people' eight times.

In contrast, the word 'women' is mentioned just three times in the 11-page document, while 'mother' is not mentioned at all.

At Cumbria University, all references to mothers on the course description for students who started in 2022/23 were replaced with 'birthing parents'.

The midwifery course pages at Kingston and Cardiff universities also talk about 'birthing people' and 'pregnant people' respectively, although they do also mention 'women'.

Vagina - bonus hole

A charity suggested the vagina could be referred to as 'the bonus hole' to avoid upsetting non-binary or trans men.

Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust featured the term on a page for health professionals who are treating patients suffering from the disease.

The trust insisted it was not suggesting the term should be used by all women  but added it was important to reach trans men and non-binary people.

But female rights campaigners last month rounded on the alternative glossary, branding it both 'misogynistic' and 'utterly dehumanising'.

NHS Digital has now partially amended the webpage to include the word 'women' once at the end

Vaginal birth - frontal birth or lower birth

The term 'vaginal birth' was labelled gender-loaded by the LGBT Foundation in an April 2022 report.

The document, based on a survey of 121 trans Brits on their experience of pregnancy, recommended that healthcare staff use 'frontal' or 'lower birth' instead.

The charity also said some trans and non-binary people would benefit from having a private space in hospitals to give birth, so that they are not made uncomfortable by seeing women.

It detailed the experience of one trans person, who said: 'I didn't have to go to a ward full of women after giving birth, I was actually provided with a private room for me and baby which was very helpful and accommodating for me and my gender identity.'

Woman - patient of childbearing age, anyone who has a cervix, period or ovaries, people who know they are pregnant

In another example of wokery, NHS advice pages about women's health were found to have quietly scrubbed the word 'women'.

An early version of the NHS menopause page described it as being 'when a woman stops having periods and is no longer able to get pregnant naturally'.

But this was quietly changed in May last year to: 'Menopause is when your periods stop due to lower hormone levels.'

However, in an update the term 'women' features again. The advice now states that the menopause 'usually affects women between the ages of 45 and 55'.

Another web page on ovarian cancer used to state it was 'one of the most common types of cancer for women'.

But it was updated in February 2022 to state 'women, trans men, non-binary people and intersex people with ovaries' can be affected.

Like the menopause page this was updated following outrage over the changes to have the term women reintroduced.

The health service also came under fire for removed references to 'women' from its pages about miscarriages.

Its site swapped 'women who know they're pregnant' with 'people who know they are pregnant'.

In June last year the NHS reinstated the word 'women' on the page after receiving a barrage of criticism.

In a case in August this year, Cromwell Hospital in London, which is not part of the NHS, was criticised for asking 'patients of a childbearing potential' if they could be pregnant rather than stating 'women'.

Women - 'people who bleed'

A taxpayer funded health information page on periods was harshly criticised last year for omitting women and girls and instead referring to 'people who bleed'.

The 84,000 guidance on periods was published by Bloody Brilliant, an online resource commissioned by the devolved Labour Government and NHS Wales.

It was set up in 2021 with the aim of 'breaking the taboo around periods by encouraging conversation on one of the most normal, natural topics'.

The website consisted of half a dozen period-related topics, including the science behind menstruation, advice about using period products such as tampons, and how to support those going through the process.

But it failed to mention women or girls once in its guidance, instead being described as 'anyone with a uterus'.

In a section about ending period stigma, the website says: 'No more hiding, covering up or awkward euphemisms, we need some straight-talking.'

Medics and campaigners described the language as 'infuriating' and 'confusing', warning it would complicate health messaging for vulnerable girls.

Bloody Brilliant, an NHS commissioned website designed to provide information about periods and bust stigma surrounding menstruation, has been slammed for refusing to mention 'women' and 'girls', instead referring to 'people who bleeds'

After MailOnline exposed the story, the branch of NHS Wales responsible for the advice confirmed the language would be changed to include 'women' and 'girls'.

'We want Bloody Brilliant to be a resource that is authentic and relevant to our audience and so we have listened carefully to recent feedback on our use of language,' NHS Wales Health Collaborative said in a statement.

'Having considered a wide spectrum of views, we will be making some changes to include referring to young women and girls rather than "people who bleed".'

Menstruation is a process unique to biological females and trans women cannot have one.
Taking a common antibiotic within 72 hours of having unprotected sex could lower the risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), especially among the LGBTQ+ community.

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced it will seek input from the general public on its proposal to offer the inexpensive antibiotic doxycycline as part of a regimen called doxy-PEP to gay men, men who have sex with men and transgender women who have unprotected sex.

The agency believes the antibiotic could potentially prevent 40 percent of STIs, such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis, which have exploded into an epidemic across the US.

Dr Jonathan Mermin, director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP), said: 'Doxy PEP is moving STI prevention efforts into the 21st century. We need game-changing innovations to turn the STI epidemic around, and this is a major step in the right direction.'

The agency recommends one 200 mg dose of the medication be taken after unprotected sex and it will seek public comment on its proposal until November 16.

Doxycycline is a cheap antibiotic that has been sold in the US for more than 50 years. Research shows it could have promise in reducing the risk of STIs

In 2021, Mississippi topped the list with a total of 1,266 STDs per 100,000 persons. Gonorrhea rates were the highest in the country, with 427.7 infections per 100,000

Doxy-PEP is only meant to lower STI risk, and the traditional morning-after pill, Plan B, should still be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

A person may be at risk for an STI if they have unprotected sex with someone who already has an infection.

Earlier this year, the CDC warned the US is in the midst of an 'STI epidemic' that shows 'no signs of slowing.'

The most recent CDC figures show there were 176,713 syphilis cases in 2021, the highest since 1950 and up a third from 2020.

The report also found a surge in congenital syphilis, which occurs when a baby is born with the infection after catching it from the mother during pregnancy.

Cases of this disease rose by 32 percent from 2,148 in 2020 to more than 2,800 in 2021. This resulted in 220 stillbirths and infant deaths in 2021, the CDC said.

Cases of gonorrhea also increased, rising nearly five percent from 677,769 cases in 2020 to more than 710,000 in 2021, the highest yearly total in four years.

Cases of chlamydia, the most common STI in the US, saw an increase from 1.58 million cases in 2020, to 1.64 million in 2021.

Despite this roughly four percent increase, total yearly cases of chlamydia have declined since 2019, when more than 1.8 million cases were reported. This could be due to Covid social distancing and less testing being performed during the pandemic.

Doxycycline is an inexpensive antibiotic that has been sold in the US for more than 50 years. It's usually used to treat bacterial infections, such as urinary tract infections and respiratory tract infections, as well as skin conditions like rosacea, which causes red skin and a rash.

However, research shows it could now have promise in reducing the risk of STIs.

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), involved 501 gay men, bisexual men and transgender women in Seattle and San Francisco with a history of STD infections. The participants each took one 200 mg doxycycline pill within 72 hours of unprotected sex.

Participants who took the pills were about 90 percent less likely to get chlamydia, 80 percent less likely to get syphilis and more than 50 percent less likely to get gonorrhea compared with people who did not take the medication after sex.

There is less evidence suggesting doxy-PEP is effective in cisgender and heterosexual men and women, though experts believe that may change as more studies are conducted

Total cases of STDs  chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis  have been trending upwards for the previous seven years. Infections fell in 2020, but CDC officials said it was likely cases had in fact continued to rise, but were not detected due to a drop in testing during the Covid-19 pandemic

Doctors at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Washington said: 'The combined incidence of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis was lower by two-thirds with doxycycline postexposure prophylaxis than with standard care, a finding that supports its use among [men who have sex with men] with recent bacterial STIs.'

There is less evidence suggesting doxy-PEP is effective in cisgender and heterosexual men and women. However, Dr Mermin said this may change as more research is done.

Citing continuous study in this field, the San Francisco Department of Public Health endorsed doxycycline's use as a prophylactic in October last year.

The department said: 'Doxy-PEP is the first biomedical prevention tool that has been shown to be effective and well-tolerated, community awareness is growing, and many providers in SF are already prescribing doxy-PEP to their patients at risk for STIs.'

State statistics from the CDC found that Mississippi and Louisiana have the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the US.

In 2021, the most recent data available, Mississippi topped the list for highest gonorrhea rates in the country, with 427.7 infections per 100,000 people.

Cases of chlamydia, a bacterial infection, were also high at 750 per 100,000. And the cumulative number of syphilis rates that year hit 88.3 per 100,000.

After Mississippi, the state with the second-highest STD rate was Louisiana. The chlamydia rate in that state was 730.1 per 100,000, while the gonorrhea rate stood at 354.5 per 100,000 residents.

Alaska had the third most STD rates overall, but according to the state's Department of Health and Social Services, rates of gonorrhea and syphilis have been climbing there for years.

And in 2021, state health officials counted 447 cases of syphilis, a 24 percent increase over the 2020 total.

The likely contributors include a relatively young population  which makes up over 50 percent of all STD cases in the US. Much of Alaska is also remote, which limits the availability of healthcare, and the public health infrastructure is severely lacking.

After Alaska came South Carolina, which recorded 1,052 STDs per capita in 2021. It recorded the fourth-highest rates of chlamydia, with 703 cases per capita.

The state had the lowest rates of syphilis on the list, with 40.1 cases per capita.

In South Dakota, which rounded out the top five states, there is limited access to healthcare in rural and Tribal lands. There, syphilis has exploded by more than 1,800 percent, from 41 cases in 2016 to 785 in 2021.

When the CDC will formally recommend doxycycline as a de facto morning-after pill remains to be seen, but officials will have many factors to consider before then, such as the drug's adverse health risks.

For instance, when combined with the blood thinner warfarin to treat or prevent blood clots, doxycycline can thin out blood further, raising a person's risk of severe bleeding and bruising.

Other medications, including over-the-counter antacids and some barbiturates, sedative medications usually used to treat seizures and insomnia, render the medication less effective.

Doxycycline can also cause nausea and vomiting, bloating, dizziness, chills, constipation, and, in more severe cases, rashes, swelling and hives, and blurred vision.
In it he also accused one official of 'rewriting' social distancing scientific advice

Excerpts of Sir Patrick's pandemic diaries were shared at the Covid Inquiry today

Experts were used as 'human shields' for the Government, whose officials 'cherry-picked' science to justify Covid decision-making, Sir Patrick Vallance's pandemic diaries claimed.

The Chief Scientific Adviser, who regularly addressed the nation alongside ministers during press conferences, wrote that Downing Street sought to justify its actions by claiming they were 'following the science'.

And he accused an unnamed official of 'completely rewriting' scientific advice on social distancing, the Covid-19 Inquiry in London heard today.

Sir Patrick's previously undisclosed contemporaneous notes described the intervention as 'extraordinary'.

And he described No 10 as being 'at war with itself', leaving then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson 'caught in the middle'.

In diaries kept during the pandemic, Sir Patrick Vallance, the Chief Scientific Adviser, who regularly addressed the nation alongside ministers during Covid press conferences, wrote that Downing Street sought to justify its actions by claiming they were 'following the science'. Pictured, Sir Patrick during a Downing Street conference in December 2021

Sir Patrick also accused an unnamed official of 'completely rewriting' scientific advice on social distancing, the Covid-19 inquiry in London heard today. Pictured, bereaved families holding pictures of their loved ones as they stand outside the opening hearing of module two of the Covid Inquiry in London today

Others accused Mr Johnson, who was admitted to intensive care after falling ill with Covid in April 2020, of 'flip-flopping', and of poor and delayed decision-making.

Meanwhile Dominic Cummings, the former Downing Street senior adviser, is said to sent a message to one colleague saying the Cabinet Office was 'terrifyingly shit' as the Government pondered introducing the first, unprecedented lockdown measures in March 2020.

Hugo Keith KC, lead counsel to the Inquiry, told the first day of the probe's second module into Government action that 'the WhatsApp messages between ... Johnson, Cummings and others betray a depressing picture of a toxic atmosphere, factional infighting and internecine attacks on colleagues'.

And he said Mr Cummings claimed Cabinet was 'not the place for serious discussion or decisions'.

Mr Keith said: 'It was a rubber stamp, the main function of which was to function as political theatre.

Read more: Payout system for Brits who suffered vaccine damage during pandemic needs overhaul, Covid inquiry told Advertisement

'Perhaps more importantly, he says Cabinet committees were scripted  ministers were given scripts to read out, and conclusions were drafted in advance, so problems were simply not grappled with.'

Mr Keith suggested Mr Cummings, who left No 10 in November 2020 after a series of internal rows, was 'himself a source of instability'.

Mr Keith also referred to several entries in Sir Patrick's daily notebooks, revealing frictions at the heart of Government.

In one, Sir Patrick said: 'Morning PM meeting, (Mr Johnson) wants everything normal by September... he is now completely bullish.'

In another, from May 2020, he wrote: 'Ministers tried to make the science give the answers, rather than them making decisions.'

Sir Patrick, a member of Sage (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies), added: 'I am worried that a "Sage is trouble" vibe is appearing in Number 10.

'There is a paper from No 10 Cabinet Office for one metre, two metre review (into Government's social distancing measures).

'Some person has completely rewritten the science advice as though it's the definitive version. They've just cherry picked  quite extraordinary.'

Mr Keith said the diaries 'speak of Sage, of the CMO (Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty) and the CSA being positioned as human shields'.

He added: 'Sage was a scientific advisory body, it produced the science.

'It couldn't integrate economic and societal considerations. So who did? The Government of course.'

And he said then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak's 'eat out to help out' scheme designed to support the hospitality sector went ahead without the approval of the most senior scientific advisers, nor was it informed by evidence on the impact it would be likely to have on infection transmission.

Mr Keith said inquiry chairman Baroness Heather Hallett would have to determine the extent to which the Government may have dawdled while Covid cases began ramping up internationally in the start of 2020.

Hugo Keith KC, lead counsel to the Covid Inquiry, today told the first day of the probe's second module into Government action that 'the WhatsApp messages between ... Johnson, Cummings and others betray a depressing picture of a toxic atmosphere, factional infighting and internecine attacks on colleagues'. And he said Mr Cummings claimed Cabinet was 'not the place for serious discussion or decisions'. Pictured, bereaved families outside the Covid Inquiry in London today

Mr Keith also suggested Mr Cummings, who left No 10 in November 2020 after a series of internal rows, was 'himself a source of instability'. Pictured, Dominic Cummings with then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in September 2019

He said: 'Some argue that had the Government reacted with greater urgency and to greater effect in January and February, it might not have been forced into making the extraordinary, far-reaching decisions that it later found itself obliged to take.'

He said: 'Never again can a virus be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering.'

The hearing opened with a 20-minute film featuring testimonies from those bereaved and affected by Covid.

One widower, Alan Handley, whose wife Susan died with Covid, hit out at government officials for flouting restrictions on the day less than a dozen people were permitted to gather for her funeral.

He said: 'To compound the grief of my wife's passing, on the day of her funeral  only eight people were allowed to attend  and then to find out the day of my wife's funeral, under those draconian restrictions, that government officials were holding parties on the very same day... My wife deserved better.'

Baroness Hallett appeared moved by the footage, and said she needed to reach conclusions and make recommendations to reduce suffering in the future 'when the next pandemic hits the UK is pressing'.

She said: 'I say "when" the next pandemic hits the UK because the evidence in module one suggested it is not if another pandemic will hit us but when.'

More than 230,000 people have died with Covid-19 in the UK.

The inquiry, which has already cost in excess of 40million, is set to conclude in 2026.
Male menopause policies are in place at several NHS trusts  despite its official website describing the term as 'misleading' and 'unhelpful'.

Managers are being advised to recognise symptoms from hot flushes to emotional changes as symptoms of male menopause or 'andropause', affecting men in their 40s and 50s.

Men should be helped through 'physical and emotional symptoms' in the same way as women going through menopause, according to these guidelines.

Managers have been told to make considerations  such as providing portable fans and different uniforms  to ease their symptoms.

Affected men should be referred to Occupational Health or may even be permitted to take extended periods of paid leave if symptoms become incompatible with work, some policies suggest.

Managers are being advised to recognise symptoms from hot flushes to emotional changes as symptoms of male menopause or 'andropause', affecting men in their 40s and 50s

Campaigners said it was another example of the NHS 'ignoring biological reality' and moving away from evidence-based language.

Last night, NHS England denied it was national policy  with its own clinical website even suggesting it is not a clinical condition - but rather 'an unhelpful term sometimes used in the media'.

It states: 'This label is misleading because it suggests the symptoms are the result of a sudden drop in testosterone in middle age, similar to what occurs in the female menopause. This is not true.'

It comes as East Midlands Ambulance Service is reportedly allowing men to take up to a year's paid leave for menopausal-like symptoms.

Tina Richardson, deputy director of human resources at East Midlands Ambulance Service, told the Telegraph male staff could receive up to a year of sick pay for symptoms of andropause.

What is the 'male menopause'? Some men develop depression, loss of sex drive, erectile dysfunction, and other physical and emotional symptoms when they reach their late 40s to early 50s. This is sometimes referred to as the 'male menopause'. However, the NHS says this label is 'unhelpful' as it suggests symptoms are the result of a sudden drop in testosterone in middle age, similar to what occurs in the female menopause, when this is not the case. Although testosterone levels fall as men age, the decline is steady at about 1% a year from around the age of 30 to 40, and this is unlikely to cause any problems in itself. Instead, the NHS says symptoms may be caused by stress, depression, anxiety, the result of smoking or heart problems or a 'midlife crisis'. Advertisement

She said: 'As well as having menopause guidance we also support anyone within the organisation who is affected directly or indirectly by the andropause.

'We provide occupational sick pay for up to 12 months based on service length. That will support absences which may result from symptoms of the andropause or where time off for medical appointments is required.'

Elsewhere, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's 'menopause policy and guidance' states menopause 'is defined as a biological stage in both women and men's lives'.

It states all line managers should be willing to discuss symptoms including hot flushes, emotional changes, low energy, sexual function and even 'swollen or tender breasts' with men.

The policy aims to 'foster an environment in which colleagues can openly and comfortably instigate conversations or engage in discussions about menopause'.

It suggests staff who feel 'unsupported' can speak to HR or a member of their union.

Male menopause, which is sometimes medically known as the andropause, is marked by a gradual change in testosterone levels.

As with women, the term is used to describe the period in an adult man's life when his hormone levels fall, potentially causing symptoms including erectile dysfunction, depression, anxiety and rapid fat gain.

But there is considerable debate within the medical community whether it constitutes being recognised as a condition.

Doncaster and Bassetlaw NHS Teaching Hospitals also lists male menopause as part of its policy on menopause.

It says: 'Employees should be encouraged to discuss the impact of their menopausal symptoms on their work-life and encourage them to access the support offered.

'Managers should be ready and willing to have open discussions about the menopause, appreciating the personal nature of the conversation, and treat the discussion sensitively, confidentially, and professionally.'

Meanwhile, an NHS National Menopause Improvement Programme offers 'education packages' for clinicians.

Those who sign up can expect 'a workforce support model that will be pioneered in the NHS and shared with other industries and sectors'.

While the programme predominantly focuses on women, it goes on to say menopause will be experienced by 'other colleagues including trans and intersex, but you may not hear from this group.'

It also cites the East Midlands Ambulance Services' andropause guidance as a 'case study of good practice'.

The trust yesterday appeared to row back on the policy, with a spokesperson for the trust stating there is no separate or special leave policy to allow staff to take 12-months sick leave on full pay.

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy, Sex Matters, said it 'beggars belief' that the NHS would have these policies

She said: 'This is part of an overall trend in HR to ignore, even deny, biological reality.

'Men don't experience menopause, and so this policy is both silly and wasteful. When money is tight it's best used to solve real issues, not invented ones.'

Elaine Miller, women's health campaigner and fellow of the chartered of physiotherapists, said: 'If we want to have a health service that is effective, we need to have evidence-based language.

'There's no consensus among urologists that and is a real thing. So it seems really counter-productive for NHS trusts to be managing resources on a condition that doesn't exist.

'It's dangerous and counterproductive to men's health  they should be concentrating on things that exist in mid-life such as cardiovascular health and men's mental health. Not things that are made up.'

An NHS spokesperson said: 'This is not national NHS policy.'
Households could soon have to pay up to 44 per cent more for water, with some paying almost 200 extra a year.

Proposed bill increases over the next five years will pay for 96billion of improvements to the UK's water network - including building 10 new reservoirs and cutting leaking pipes by 25 per cent.

But the price hikes will also pay for the number one issue the public has with water firms - pumping sewage into the waterways.

Water firms have laid out their five-year investment plans in documents filed yesterday to water regulator Ofwat.

Running total: Water firms have told the regulator how much they plan to increase bills

Overflowing: Water firms sparked widespread anger over how much sewage is being discharged into UK rivers and seas

To pay for these upgrades, the average home will end up paying an extra 7 a month in water bills by 2025, or 84 a year, according to Water UK, the water firm trade body.

That will rise again to an extra 13 a month, or 156 a year, by 2030.

The largest planned increases will come for homeowners supplied by Southern Water.

The water firm wants to hike its current average bill of 439 by 193.16 by 2030, making it 632.16.

Exactly how much you pay will vary depending on where you live, as well as how much water you use for those who have a water meter.

It will also vary depending on how your water firm plans to carry out upgrade work.

Here is how average water bills are set to change with each of the largest water firms.

How your water bill is set to change

Southern Water

Average bill now: 439

Increase by 2030: 44 per cent, or 193.16 a year, bringing the total to 632.16.

Southern Water chief executive Lawrence Gosden said: 'We know that our past performance has not lived up to our customers' and our regulators' expectations. We acknowledge those failings and are doing everything we can to address them.

'Customer bills will increase but we will mitigate the effects by spreading increases over the regulatory period and significantly increasing our support for vulnerable customers.'

Big spender: The biggest water bill hikes come from Southern Water, and will affect millions of people living in Kent, Sussex and the Isle of Wight

Thames Water

Average bill now: 456

Increase between 2025 and 2030: 38 per cent, or 174.60 a year bringing the total to 630.60, though this could change.

Thames Water's proposals for 2025-30 said: 'If we were to adopt a 'rise and flat' bill profile during 2025-2030, the average monthly bill will rise by 14.55.

Alternatively, we could introduce lower bill increases at the start of the next price control period, but this would mean steeper rises over time.'

Severn Trent

Average bill now: 419

Increase by 2030: 33 per cent, or 138.96 a year, bringing the total to 557.96.

United Utilities

Average bill now: 443

Increase by 2030: 16 per cent, or 75 a year, bringing the total to 518.

South West Water

Average bill now: 476

Increase by 2030: 22 per cent, or 108 a year, bringing the total to 584.

Yorkshire Water

Average bill now: 446

Increase by 2030: 24 per cent, or 111 a year, bringing the total to 557.

Northumbrian Water

Average bill now: 391

Increase by 2030: 18 per cent, or 70.38 a year

Wessex Water

Average bill now: 504

Increase by 2030: 30.9 per cent, or, 156 a year, bringing the total to 461.38.

Anglian Water

Average bill now: 492

Increase by 2030: 15.5 per cent, or 76.65 a day, bringing the total to 568.65.

Are these price hikes confirmed?

No, not yet. All the proposals are part of water firms' plans for how they will improve their services over the next five years.

Water regulator Ofwat is now auditing these plans to check they are fair and that customers only pay for improvements - not for correcting past mistakes by water companies.

Consumers will also be able to challenge water firms' plans directly, through a series of public meetings that will be held by Ofwat.

Down the drain: Customers will have to pay more for water if firms' hikes are approved

These meetings will be called 'Your Water, Your Say', and will let consumers give feedback to each water firm and ask them questions.

Ofwat chief executive David Black said: 'The water industry needs to deliver a step change in investment and performance to clean up our rivers and seas, while also helping to ensure that we can meet the challenge of climate change.

'Company business plans are an important first step in the price review process.

'Ofwat's role is to forensically scrutinise their proposals, to ensure any increase in bills is justified, efficient and delivers significant improvements in river and bathing water quality.

'We will assess how companies are helping customers to afford any bill increase.'

A statement from Water UK said: 'In May, water companies apologised for not giving sufficient attention to the issues the public care about, such as overflow spills, and promised a plan to change this.

'Today's investment proposals will begin that work, and while it will take time to overhaul 100,000km of old sewers, the industry is determined to act.'

An Ofwat spokesperson said all bill changes and investment ideas will be fleshed out next May and then signed off in December 2024.

What is happening with my 2024 water bill?

Currently water firms have not announced any plans for changing water bills from next April. These companies normally release their plans in February of the same year.
If an old family friend asked to borrow 50 and promised to repay you, many of us wouldnt hesitate to help.

But what would you do if, when the friend returned the loan, you realise they had paid you too much?

Ebony King, 34, found herself in this exact position at the end of her final year of secondary school more than a decade ago  and it lead to an astonishing series of events that derailed her life.

Aged 19, Ebonys top marks at school had secured her a place at a London university to study psychology.

Her friend repaid her as promised a while later by transferring the money to her passbook account. This is an old type of account which did not have online banking.

But when she went to withdraw it, she found he had overpaid her by a couple of hundred pounds.

Loan ordeal: Ebony King, 32, (pictured), became unwittingly involved in a money laundering operation when she offered to lend 50 to an old family friend

I called him immediately to let him know, says Ebony. He said it must have been an accident and could I please get the cash from the bank and give it back to him.

I didnt question it  I handed him the cash and thought that was the end of it.

Around six months passed without incident. But then, out of the blue, the police dramatically raided her mums house in Dagenham.

There was a loud bang at the door, and it was the police looking for me. I was so shocked and confused, she says. They said they were going to arrest me and take me to the station but I didnt know what for.

It emerged that the money sent to her account was the proceeds of an online scam. By allowing the money to sit in her account and cashing it out, Ebony had become a so-called money mule and complicit in the handling of laundered money.

Last week, Money Mail revealed the shocking extent to which young people are being recruited to carry out seemingly innocent banking activities for criminals.

Victims are approached by scammers who use clever ploys to gain access to their bank accounts to launder illegal money.

Money transferred into mule accounts can originate from fraud or scams, drug dealing or people trafficking.

In many cases, the unsuspecting mules are told that if they allow money to be paid into their bank account and they cash it out or send it on to another account, they can keep a cut for themselves.

But in others, such as Ebonys, victims simply believe they are helping a friend.

Even if you are unaware the money you are transferring was illegally obtained, you can be prosecuted for money laundering.

Clean: Ebony's criminal record has finally cleared 12 years later

Ebony was landed with a criminal record and convicted of concealing, converting, removing and transferring criminal property. Her family friend vanished and was never charged or convicted.

It could have ruined my life. They used me as a scapegoat and acted like I was the mastermind behind the operation. I was still a teenager, she says. I got rejected for jobs and had a terrible credit rating for a very long time. I was lucky and found employers who listened to my story and understood what had happened.

Ebony, who today tells her story for the first time, says she now has the confidence to speak out because her criminal record has finally cleared 12 years later.

She found work as a patient adviser at the NHS and has had three children.

But she says she was unable to trust close friends for a long time.

I found it really hard to trust anyone after it happened and I didnt want to have a bank account, she says.

In 2019, she founded the charity ElevateHer in Barking and Dagenham, East London, to provide support to vulnerable teenage girls and young women.

I found it really hard to trust anyone after it happened and I didnt want to have a bank account

She has now partnered with Snapchat and Barclays to raise awareness of money mules and will be going into schools to teach pupils about the risks. Money muling convictions can result in up to a 14-year prison sentence in the most extreme cases. However, most mules who were unaware of what they were involved in are not convicted.

Ross Martin, head of digital safety at Barclays, says: Ebonys story is sadly one thats all too common. Never accept money into your account if you dont know where its come from. If youve already received money and are unsure of its origins, do not send it to anyone else, and contact your bank immediately.

Ebony went on to study psychology and counselling at the University of East London and eventually graduated. I didnt let it stop me. And I know so many young people today who are facing this risk so I wanted to help them, she says.

Bait: Social media platforms advertise ways to earn easy money using pictures of bank accounts with high balances to draw people in

How social media can trap your children

Social media platforms have opened the floodgates for criminals to recruit money mules. They advertise ways to earn easy money using pictures of bank accounts with high balances to draw people in.

They also create duplicate social media profiles to impersonate users and trick their friends into allowing their bank accounts to be used.

Money Mail and This is Money's Stop The Social Media Scammers campaign is calling on tech giants to introduce tougher ID verification to stop fraudsters setting up accounts so easily.

The most common way a money mule is contacted is on Instagram, according to Lloyds Bank. Fraudsters then move the conversation to messaging app WhatsApp  also owned by tech giant Meta.

Liz Ziegler, fraud prevention director at the bank says: Typically, the mule will be instructed to move funds from the bank account to foreign exchange platforms (who ask few questions), from which the recruiters collect the cash.

It is so much worse today because young people are being approached on social media platforms

In the past year, Ebony has spoken to hundreds of local children as young as 12 who have been involved in money muling.

She says: It is so much worse today because young people are being approached on social media platforms, she says.

Young people are very trusting online and it makes them easier targets. Its also a cashless society, which makes you ask less questions about bank transfers.

They are scared to tell their parents they need the money for something and see this as an easy way of getting some.

One in five Barclays customers who has been a victim of money mule scams was under the age of 21. It is therefore crucial for young people, and their parents or guardians, to be aware of the warning signs, Mr Martin says.

Marketplace scam: Criminals will often buy something on an online trading platform like Facebook Marketplace and send too much money

Learn the warning signs

Nicola Harding, of We Fight Fraud and a criminology professor at Lancaster University, says that the traditional method for criminals to recruit mules is offering an easy way of making money.

People who fall victim often have a connection to the person who ropes them into it, which creates a false sense of legitimacy.

However, in a lot of cases, the mule becomes ensnared when trying to act honestly. Criminals will often buy something on an online trading platform like Facebook Marketplace and send too much money.

'They then ask for a refund to their bank account and they provide new account details for the transfer, she says.

Most people will send the extra money back because it is the right and honest thing to do. You would have to be very streetwise to realise that it is a scam. They have built trust because you have their money.

In other cases, scammers will take control of the persons bank account and then they dont need help to push transfers through.

If you are worried a child you know might be involved in money muling, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. If you have become involved, call Crimestoppers, the police, your bank and Action Fraud, says Ms Harding.

j.beard@dailymail.co.uk
Motorists could soon be able to detect if they're over the legal drink-drive limit while they're cleaning their teeth.

The 'world's first breathalyser toothbrush' has been described as a 'game-changing invention designed to freshen up the drink driving conversation and help Britons avoid taking to the roads over the limit the morning after a night of consuming alcohol'.

Called the 'Brushalyser', it could be on the market by 2024, according to insurer Direct Line.

The 'world's first breathalyser toothbrush': Direct Line says the device is currently under development but could be on the market next year

The insurer says the gadget will make people think twice before driving on a morning hangover by 'embedding breath testing seamlessly into Britons' morning routines'.

It operates like most normal electric toothbrushes you can buy in shops today.

However, once a user has finished brushing, they can blow into the breathalyser on the back of the toothbrush handle to check they're below the alcohol limit to behind the wheel.

A light flashes red and vibrates if they are over the limit, and glows green if it's safe to drive.

It operates like most normal electric toothbrushes you can buy in shops today

Once a user has finished brushing their teeth, they can blow into the breathalyser on the back of the toothbrush handle

This image of the reverse of the toothbrush show where the breathalyser is located

If the driver blows a sample over the legal drink-drive limit, the light flashes red and vibrates

A negative test sample sees the light on the toothbrush glow green signalling the motorist is safe to drive

The toothbrush is still currently undergoing testing but could be released as early as next year.

The gizmo was unveiled just days after the Department for Transport confirmed road casualty figures in Britain had risen by 10 per cent in 2022 compared to a Covid-restriction-impacted 2021.

It found that deaths on our roads had returned to pre-pandemic levels - and impairment through drugs or alcohol was identified as one of the most common causes, with 10.4 per cent of reported fatalities including a driver who was over the limit.

Road deaths have risen as a result of increased traffic levels following the pandemic, the Government says, with figures now almost on par with 2019 stats

Direct Line's own research suggests that a quarter of British adults admit to driving the morning after a night out, despite feeling under the influence of alcohol.

In a poll of 2,000 drivers, it found that younger motorists aged 18 to 34 are the biggest offenders, with half confessing to getting behind the wheel the morning after a night out.

Lorraine Price, head of motor insurance at Direct Line said: 'The breathalyser toothbrush aims to remind people they could be over the limit the morning after drinking, and ties breath testing seamlessly into Britons' morning routines.

'We're mindful this is in early development stages, but change is needed now, so we're urging people to get clued up on how long it takes to sober up.

'They could even consider buying a breathalyser for their home or car to test themselves before taking to the road in the morning.'

Direct Line isn't the only industry insider considering additional use of breathalysers in cars.

Vehicle makers including Spanish manufacturer Seat have been developing alcolocks, which are breathalysers built into the ignition system of vehicles that require a legal sample to be taken before the engine can be started and the motorist drive away.

These are aimed at those with previous convictions for drink driving, with the Government coming under pressure to introduce them as soon as possible.

DirectLine hopes the device will tackle the number of drivers who unwittingly get behind the wheel in the morning while still over the alcohol limit from drinking the night before

Dr Joeran Koechling, an expert in the field of research into why people drink and drive called the device an 'incredibly smart invention'

The Brushalyser device has already received backing from Dr Joeran Koechling, who recently led a University of Cambridge study into the reasons behind drink driving and particularly how accurately drivers can estimate their fitness to drive after drinking alcohol.

He said: 'I've spent years studying road casualty data and while it's always been concerning, the fact that people are openly confessing to taking to the roads while feeling under the influence of alcohol is shocking.

'This invention is incredibly smart. It embeds breath testing into a drivers' morning routines seamlessly, even the visual reminder of seeing the breathalyser section on the back while you're brushing your teeth acts as a prompt to take stock and test your alcohol levels.

'Road traffic injuries have become the leading killer of people aged five to 29 years, and recently, the World Health Organization has said that alcohol-related traffic accidents are one of the major causes.

'Our own study specifically showed drivers are strongly misjudging their alcohol levels, meaning people consider themselves fit to drive when in fact they have dangerous levels of alcohol in their blood.'

A recent study by Sheffield University has found that roadside breathalysers used by police may be penalising shorter and older drivers

Police breathalysers penalise short and old drivers

Another recent study, this time carried out by Sheffield University, found roadside breathalyser tests carried out by police risk wrongly criminalising shorter and older people.

This is because they have been identified as likely having insufficient lung capacity to blow into them to provide a conclusive reading, the research suggests.

If a driver is unable to breathe hard enough into the machine after being stopped by an officer then their sample may be deemed invalid and they can then be automatically charged with a criminal offence.

There are approximately 4,000 convictions for 'failure to provide' in the UK each year, and punishment can include driving disqualifications and a maximum of six months in prison.

However, the university found that many people are simply not physically able to provide a satisfactory breath sample.

Analysis of 280,000 people in the UK Biobank who completed lung capacity tests showed that a 'significant minority' don't have strong or big enough lungs to provide a valid sample for the machines.

This is particularly true for older people, women, smokers and those who are short, it concluded.

Galen Ives, who led the study, said: 'Although there are procedures currently in place to gather alternative samples in cases where someone using an evidential breath test machine fails to provide a valid sample, the current belief by the authorities is that unless they have a respiratory illness, everyone should be able to use them.

'We now know this to be false, therefore it's vitally important that police forces are alerted to the fact that certain groups of people are more likely to be unable to use these machines, and they therefore should adopt a more equitable application of the law for individuals who aren't obviously obstructing the course of the investigation, and take an alternative sample, such as a blood or urine test.'
The Prime Minister's decision last month to delay the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars by five years to 2035 sparked a mixed response.

While many motorists welcomed the extended stay of execution for internal combustion engine (ICE) models, manufacturers and industry bodies criticised Rishi Sunak's moving of the goalposts having already invested billions of pounds in electric vehicle (EV) projects to meet the original deadline of 2030.

However, an industry expert warns there is a major 'elephant in the room' that will still be a headache for drivers despite the delay to the petrol-diesel new car ban - a lack of qualified technicians to maintain them.

Will there be enough qualified mechanic to fix and maintain the massive number of EVs on UK roads by 2035? The current growth in training suggests not

Lawrence Whittaker, chief executive at used car warranty provider Warrantywise, says there is an urgent need to ramp-up the number of mechanic and garage technicians to fix EVs when they go wrong and to maintain them for the future.

His concern is that failing to increase qualified mechanic numbers could spark a rise in premiums on warranties and also delays to repairs.

'Despite Rishi Sunak's recent decision to delay the ban of new petrol and diesel vehicles until 2035, a delay of five years on the previous plan, it remains evident that the UK will still likely face a shortage of EV technicians by that time,' Mr Whittaker explains.

'I've heard arguments from manufacturers, comments from all areas of the automotive and transport industry about how we need a cohesive strategy about the EV implementation and ICE ban.

'However, no-one is talking about the fact that, regardless of this date moving, we don't have the talent to look after the EVs of today, and we're not doing enough to prepare for the future regardless of if that's 2030 or 2035.'

Lawrence Whittaker, CEO at used car warranty provider Warrantywise, says there is an urgent need to ramp-up the number of mechanic and garage technicians to fix EVs when they go wrong

The Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) - the body that represents those working within the sector - has for years warned that the nation is lagging behind in terms of the number of qualified mechanics to work on EVs.

This point was raised back in 2020, shortly after the original 2030 ban on new ICE passenger cars was announced, with the IMI penning an open letter to then-PM Boris Johnson warning of the enormous skills gap in the aftersales sector.

Three years ago, the IMI said just one in twenty technicians had the appropriate qualifications to work on electrified cars.

And the uptake in training is accelerating at a far slower pace than EV ownership.

Steve Nash, chief executive at the IMI, said in August: 'More electric and hybrid vehicles are joining the UK car parc every day, but the number of technicians trained to safely maintain, service and repair them is simply not keeping pace, creating a real postcode lottery.

'Urgent attention is required to address the skills gap, enhance training initiatives, and ensure an adequate supply of qualified technicians to meet the evolving demands of the rapidly growing EV sector.'

It warns today that there will be a potential shortage of 20,000 qualified 'TechSafe' technicians to work on EVs by 2030, rising to a 36,000 shortage by 2032.

'What will we need in 2035? Who knows, but the problem isn't going away judging by these figures,' Whittaker said.

This IMI graph shows the forecasted skills gap created by a lack of training mechanics to work on EVs over the next decade

The general assumption is that EVs are easier to maintain due to having fewer moving mechanical parts, but issues with their advanced hardware and software requires additional training and qualifications

The Climate Change Committee predicts the number of EVs in the UK will increase from 1.1million recorded in early 2023 to 28million by 2035, with the help of the recently-confirmed zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate forcing car makers to sell an larger proportion of battery vehicles each year from 2024.

While EVs have fewer moving parts than cars that run on petrol or diesel, only those with a TechSafe qualification can work on them.

'It's worth highlighting that EVs are, however, more complex due to the added technology versus a traditional ICE-powered car - and while they have fewer 'moving parts', it's this added hardware and software that cause them to have a habit of going wrong in different ways than their ICE counterparts, ' Whittaker says.

'It's why they [EVs] will always require trained, certified technicians to fix and maintain them.

'Yet, despite a push from the UK government including education regulators such as Ofqual, SQA, CCEA, and Qualifications Wales, IMI warns current economic pressures may result in cuts to funds usually available for training, leading to fewer businesses investing in the necessary TechSafe qualification for its technicians.'

And the IMI says there has already been a slowdown in the uptake of TechSafe training.

During the first quarter of 2023, it certified just 3,345 skilled technicians - that's a 10 per cent drop in EV qualifications in comparison to the same period in 2022.

The IMI concluded that growing economic pressures are having an unprecedented impact on businesses, leaving less money to spend on training technicians.

Another reason for this decline could also be down to the automotive industry's vacancy rate, which currently stands at approximately 26,000 unfilled positions.
This related to acid-reflux medicine in Nexium and Prilosec

The settlement is regarding product liability litigations

AstraZeneca will pay a $425million (351million) settlement to bring an end to claims in US courts regarding its heartburn drugs Nexium and Prilosec.

Reports suggest the settlement comes in the wake of claims the pharma giant failed to warn patients about potential risks associated with the drugs.

The FTSE 100 Anglo-Swedish firm said the agreements will resolve claims that were still pending in the District Court of New Jersey and the Superior Courts in Delaware and New Jersey.

However, it said the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing.

The Anglo-Swedish firm revealed that it is to pay $425million (around 351million) in product liability litigations related to Nexium and Prilosec

AstraZeneca said it 'continues to believe these claims are without merit and admits no wrongdoing in the settlement agreement'.

It added: 'These settlements avoid continued costly litigation and allow the company to move forward with its purpose of delivering life changing medicines to millions of patients around the world.'

The company also reported that a single case did remain open in the US District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, with the trial scheduled for 15 April, 2024.

Nexium and Prilosec are prescription only drugs used to treat patients with acid-related symptoms and diseases.

Last month, AstraZeneca reported positive results in a breast case drug trial in which an experimental drug slowed progression of the disease.

The pharma giant told shareholders the drug has led to 'statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement' in slowing down a type of breast cancer in trial patients compared to chemotherapy.

Datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd) was jointly developed by the British-Swedish group and Japanese global healthcare company Daiichi Sankyo.

AstraZeneca shares are up by 0.60 per cent in morning trading on Tuesday
Britain's information watchdog has warned companies that employee monitoring must be 'necessary' and 'proportionate', with those overstepping the mark facing potential legal action

The Information Commissioner's Office said on Tuesday that employers must 'respect the rights and freedoms of workers,' who must be told 'the nature, extent and the reasons' for monitoring in a way they can easily understand.

Employee monitoring, which is not banned under UK information law, is a growing phenomenon, with businesses embracing new technology to ensure workers are on task amid the post-Covid boom in flexible working.

The boss is watching: Employee monitoring has become much more prevalent in the wake of the pandemic amid the remote working boom

But the development is not a welcome trend among most Britons, 70 per cent of whom feel it would be intrusive to be monitored by an employer in any way, according to research conducted by the ICO.

Despite this, research suggests 96 percent of businesses with either a remote or hybrid workforce use some form of employee-monitoring software. This is up from just 10 percent before the pandemic.

Monitoring can include tracking calls, messages and keystrokes, taking screenshots, webcam footage or audio recordings, or using specialist monitoring software to track activity.

In data protection law guidance to employers in both the private and public sector, the ICO also said bosses must have 'a lawful basis' for processing workers data  such as consent or legal obligation  and only keep information 'relevant to its purpose'.

Emily Keaney, deputy commissioner for regulatory policy at the ICO, said: 'Today's workforce is concerned about monitoring, particularly with the rise of flexible working - nobody wants to feel like their privacy is at risk, especially in their own home.

'As the data protection regulator, we want to remind organisations that business interests must never be prioritised over the privacy of their workers.

Transparency and fairness are key to building trust and it is crucial that organisations get this right from the start to create a positive environment where workers feel comfortable and respected.

'We are urging all organisations to consider both their legal obligations and their workers' rights before any monitoring is implemented. While data protection law does not prevent monitoring, our guidance is clear that it must be necessary, proportionate and respect the rights of workers.

'We will take action if we believe people's privacy is being threatened.'
Do you have a 'smart' device in your home? If you think the answer is 'no', then you are almost certainly mistaken.

Smart devices have slowly taken over, whether we realise it or not  from printers and speakers to fridges and televisions. And all of them might be 'spying' on us.

The idea of 'smart homes' is that every major appliance in the house can be connected to the internet, and, in turn, to your smartphone.

This transforms your phone into a remote control for your home, even when you are out.

Smart devices have slowly taken over, whether we realise it or not  from printers and speakers to fridges and televisions. And all of them might be 'spying' on us

Turn the dishwasher on while you walk the dog; brew a cup of tea as you brush your teeth (with a smart toothbrush which will tell you if you've cleaned your upper molars for long enough); look inside the fridge even when you're in the supermarket.

There is hardly a device or gadget that cannot be rendered 'smart'.

But what we gain in convenience, we may be losing in privacy.

The advent of smart devices means we are constantly placing personal data into the hands of some of the world's biggest manufacturers: our photo albums, address books, precise location, even intimate details about our health and our sex life.

All of it is being harvested via once-innocuous appliances such as washing machines, ovens and televisions.

Last month, consumer organisation Which? highlighted the problem in an eye-opening report that asked 'Why are our smart homes spying on us?'.

Indeed. And how are they doing it?

There are two main methods. First, many appliances may not have a camera or microphone to spy on you, but do have trackers  software  that can send data about how you use it to the manufacturer.

What does the manufacturer do with the data? They could sell it to advertising companies, notably Google, Meta (the parent company of Facebook) and TikTok.

More worryingly, many manufacturers also insist you connect your appliance to a related phone app.

'Potentially, then your phone becomes a stepping stone to giving away other stuff like contact information [from your address book] to the manufacturer,' says David Emm, senior security researcher at cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab.

You will often be asked to grant the app privacy permissions, and most people do not read the full details; some apps automatically access personal details, such as your name, email and location, as a default.

Many car manufacturers even seem to collect details of your sex life, a detail buried deep within their privacy policies. As soon as you hook up your phone to your car, for example, it can download your entire address book, and often your text messages, too.

Car makers can theoretically see what you've been looking at online and what your onboard cameras are recording. Parked outside the GP surgery for half an hour? Your car knows you're seeing the doctor.

'I think it's a massive abuse of trust,' says Tony Smith, chief technology officer at Rightly, a company that helps consumers gain more control over their personal data.

So which devices should you be wary of, and what information are they gathering?

Car

Most cars are now computers on wheels. It's great when you need to know your tyre pressure, but terrible for privacy.

The Mozilla Foundation, which champions internet privacy and investigated auto firms, said: 'Modern cars are a privacy nightmare...They can collect super-intimate information about you  from your medical information, your genetic information, to your sex life, to how fast you drive, where you drive and what songs you play in your car  in huge quantities.'

They do this by accessing your phone, which you have to 'pair' with the car to play music or use your phone as a key fob, allowing you to unlock the car or locate it when necessary.

Connected: Many modern cars record personal data by accessing your phone, which you have to 'pair' with the car to play music

Once they have accessed your phone, they can examine your health tracking apps and other personal information, like texts.

All of the 25 car brands Mozilla probed scored poorly. The worst was Tesla. This year it emerged that Tesla employees had shared videos recorded by cameras in customers' cars.

Next came Nissan, whose privacy policy includes collecting data on your 'sexual activity'.

Kia also states that it can collect information about your 'sex life or sexual orientation information' in their privacy policy. How do they that?

'We're not sure  which makes it even more problematic,' state the Mozilla researchers, who say Kia and Nissan have not commented on the issue.

Once your phone is linked to the car, and you have given permission to the car company to access your data, it could, in theory, trawl through your health apps or dating apps to find out more about your sex life. But we don't know if they have ever done this.

Six car firms say they can collect your 'genetic information'.

Sleep tracker

Fitness trackers are increasingly common, not just to monitor people's steps and heart rate while exercising, but also their sleep during the night, their stress levels and their menstrual cycles.

Xiaomi, a Chinese company, makes one called a Smart Band, which is well regarded and fairly cheap. Some models cost as little as 35.

However, researchers at the Mozilla Foundation have concerns over what data Xaomi is handing over to third parties.

Though Xiaomi stresses it only shares information where it is legal and legitimate, Mozilla concludes: 'This device collects a lot of personal information and we can't exactly tell where all that personal information is going in the confusing world of privacy policies we reviewed.'

Doorbell

Smart doorbells allow you to see and talk to anyone at your door  even when you are in another country  via an app on your phone that connects to a camera and microphone on the doorbell.

Ring, owned by Amazon, is the most successful smart doorbell on the market and says 'your privacy is our priority'.

Fine: Doorbell manufacturer Ring gave 'every employee  as well as hundreds of Ukraine-based third-party contractors  full access to every customer video

However, this year it was fined $5.8 million (4.6 million) after the U.S.-based Federal Trade Commission found Ring gave 'every employee  as well as hundreds of Ukraine-based third-party contractors  full access to every customer video, regardless of whether the employee or contractor actually needed that access to perform his or her job function.'

Ring insists it has beefed up its security since then and denies breaking the law.

Security camera

Modern 'smart' security cameras make it possible to monitor suspicious activities outside your home  via your mobile phone.

Which? highlighted how some major manufacturers require you to provide not just your name and email to register the device, but also your date of birth and precise location.

Ezviz is a Chinese brand owned by Hikvision, itself partly controlled by the Chinese state.

Last year, the UK government banned Hikvision CCTV cameras from sensitive public sites over fears that footage could be accessed by the Chinese authorities.

Which? found that it shared data with a large number of companies, notably Pangle (TikTok's business marketing unit), Huawei, the Chinese phone maker, as well as Google and Meta, the parent company of Facebook.

Television

Most TVs are 'smart'  and stream BBC iPlayer, Netflix or Disney+ shows from the internet.

But they gather data, too. Using Automatic Content Recognition, TV makers monitor what you watch and sell the information to advertisers to target their ads.

Most TVs let you opt out, but LG, Samsung and Sony add it to an 'accept all' in the privacy policy.

Amazon Echo smart speaker

Voice-activated smart speakers, such as Amazon Echo, Google Nest, Bose or Sonos play radio and music, set timers and turn on lights.

But they have to be always listening to hear commands, so do they monitor conversations to profile you? Amazon insists not and says it doesn't sell data on.

Baby monitor

Baby monitors used to be simple: they sent any crying noise to parents via a radio frequency.

Now, most monitors run over wi-fi, allowing you to capture the room's temperature and include video  letting you receive the footage on your phone, even when you are not in the house.

Some even include a 'sock' that wraps around the baby's ankle to measure heart beat, oxygen levels and sleep patterns.

Video feed: Most baby monitors run over wi-fi, allowing you to capture the room's temperature and include video  letting you receive the footage on your phone

Most manufacturers process and store huge amounts of your child's data. Take Cuboai, a top-rated monitor, which in its privacy policy says it uses AI technology to work out if a child is in danger  for instance, if their face is covered.

'Therefore, to enhance the performance of our service... we collect, process, and utilise the voice recordings, photos, images, and other personal data of children (under the age of 12) using our products.'

Washing machine

Most modern washing machines want you to pair the appliance with the manufacturer's app on your phone. This, they say, is to optimise the smooth running of the machine.

But it means handing over information about yourself. Hoover, for instance, will not allow use of the app without knowing when customers were born, and  if you are using an Android phone  it wants access to your phone's address book, according to Which?.

It also wants your location, claiming it needs this information for 'weather forecast for optimal planning of laundry cycles'.

Oven

Bosch boasts that its Series 8 accent line sensor oven is AI-powered.

The days of having to poke a cake with a skewer to find out if it is perfectly baked are over. Now cameras inside the oven, and technology connected to the HomeConnect app, mean the oven will ping you a message when it's done.

But in return, you have to give up lots of data including your location, video and image data.

Fridge

Some smart fridges have a digital screen on the door, from which you can message your kids when you are at work, telling them what's for tea. Some include internal cameras so you can see on your phone  when at the supermarket  if you have run out of milk.

LG has an app called ThinQ, which connects various LG appliances to a voice-activated speaker such as Alexa or Google Nest, meaning you can demand the fridge make more ice by just shouting across the room.

By downloading ThinQ you agree to LG collecting your name, location, your voice and profile picture.

Its privacy policy states it shares data with third parties including Google: 'We may collect personal information about your online activities on websites and connected devices over time and across third-party websites, devices, apps and other online features and services,' says LG.

Like many such policies, the wording is broad and vague, covering almost everything you do online, meaning you're giving a fridge manufacturer the right to harvest huge amounts of personal data.
A probationary police constable has been found dead in a cop car while on duty, after just two months on the job.

Jayden Ruiz, 23, was working the afternoon shift at Brewarrina Police Station, in remote northern NSW, on September 6.

His body was found in a police car along the Kamilaroi Highway, about 30km west of the station, at about 4.30am.

A spokesperson for NSW Police said the homicide squad is investigating the death, but added: 'Initial inquiries suggest there are no suspicious circumstances.'

His father Andro Ruiz told Daily Mail Australia: 'Jayden never showed any signs of depression.

'His work mates all said the same thing.'

Jayden Ruiz is pictured with his father, Andro, on the day he graduated from Goulburn Police Academy as part of Class 358 in June

Jayden Ruiz was working at Brewarrina Police Station (pictured) when he took his own life

Andro said he had spoken with his son three days earlier, on Father's Day, but everything seemed fine.

'Jayden was his happy self,' he said. 'We are so devastated.

'I feel destroyed as he was my only son.'

Mr Ruiz started training to become a police officer in 2019, a year before he formally applied, because he knew he had to be physically fit enough to land the job.

His father said the photograph of them together at his graduation ceremony was 'probably the happiest time of his life'.

'The smile on his face, honestly, that photograph shows it all,' he said.

'Imagine putting all that effort in and getting exactly what you want.'

Before the funeral last Tuesday, his colleagues signed a bear that was made from police shirts and decorated with Mr Ruiz's official nametag.

Mr Ruiz's colleagues signed a bear made from police shirts, with Mr Ruiz's nametag on the hat (pictured)

Mr Ruiz graduated Goulburn Police Academy in June before he was posted to Brewarrina - about 800km north of his family home on the state's Central Coast.

In the weeks following his death, police officers from across the country flooded social media with tributes.

READ MORE: Female cop shoots herself at police station in the middle if the day Advertisement

'How tragic is this death of a young man at the beginning of his career. So very sad,' one person wrote.

Someone else said: 'RIP brother. I'm sorry you didn't get the help you desperately needed.'

Others commented on the difficulties of graduates being stationed in remote areas, away from their families and friends.

One officer who was also stationed at Brewarrina said it was an 'extremely challenging place to live... and lonely even with a partner'.

The police spokesperson said: 'A critical incident team from State Crime Commands Homicide Squad will investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident, who will prepare a report for the Coroner.'

'The investigation will be subject to an independent review.'

'Support services have been made available to his colleagues and the officers at the station and will also be offered to all staff and employees.'

For confidential crisis support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.
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A group of young techies renting out 'sleeping pods' in downtown San Francisco received an unwelcome wake-up call when a team of inspectors came to document possible code violations they fear could shut down their fledgling operation, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

It was just last week that the city announced plans for the investigation, after seeing media coverage showcasing the pod housing complex that opened in June in the citys SoMa neighborhood.

DailyMail.com was there Monday when a three-member team from the Bay City's Planning and Building Department arrived at 10am armed with notepads and cell phone cameras. They headed up to the top floor where they poked their heads into the pods where several residents were still sleeping  one snoring aloud.

'Are these fastened to the floor or are they just standing?' one of the two male inspectors asked, referring to the rows of stacked bunks.

Officials spent about half an hour checking out the facility and left after warning the co-owners of Brownstone Shared Housing, which operates the startup, that they may be forced to kick out their tenants.

Kelly Wong, a senior planner, giggled as she quizzed the owners on what exactly the pod house is, and why they apparently haven't followed protocols to convert the former San Francisco Fire Credit Union building into this new use.

Brownstone Shared Housing co-founders Christina Lennox and James Stallworth gave DailyMail.com a tour of their sleeping pod complex in San Francisco charging residents $700 in monthly rent

Stallworth, who lives in the bunk below Lennox, started the business in 2021 based on their own prior experiences with 'housing insecurity'

The double-stacked row of beds occupy just the top floor of a three-story property, which provides about 5,500-square-feet of living space that's all theirs

'We're just going to have to figure out what kind of use it is to see if it is permitted,' Wong said, smiling.

'I mean, technically, because you didn't get permits for any sort of like conversion or changes from the bank to this new use, that technically is a violation of the planning code,' she explained.

After conducting an internal review, the city will decide whether to move forward with enforcement, order remedial action, assess penalties or force a mass eviction.

'This is show and tell,' Christina Lennox, the 29-year-old co-owner, quipped to a DailyMail.com reporter.

Lennox and her business partner are attempting to alleviate California's housing crisis with their new venture that allows techies to rent out 'sleeping pods' out of a former bank in San Francisco.

After the crew left, the co-owners were left anxiously awaiting the outcome of the internal review that could result in remedial action penalties and possible eviction.

The following day the city posted a Notice of Violation at the entrance, citing them for work without permit and unsafe building for installing 30 sleeping pods constituting an illegal change of use.

The Notice of Violation was posted on Tuesday citing the company for working without a permit and illegal change of use among other violations

They were also cited for lesser offenses including replacing a toilet with a shower stall in the basement without the necessary permit. They were given 30 days to file an application for the change of use, 60 days to obtain that permit, and 90 days to complete any required work to gain compliance  or otherwise it could be shut down.

The complex is already near capacity, with 28 of the 30 pods full. The units rent for $700 a month.

The new pods, fitting no more than a twin sized mattress and just four feet high, may appear spartan, but DailyMail.com can reveal that the actual living quarters are quite cushy.

When they crawl out of their beds the occupants get free rein over a three-story building downtown.

DailyMail.com spoke with the co-owners and several of the residents at the site last week a few days before the inspection.

'This is our very own Pod Castle!' Christian Lewis, 26, said, kicking back on a couch in the lobby of a 5,500-square-foot pod complex he's called home for the past month.

Lewis, who founded the AI startup Spellcraft, drew widespread attention when he showcased his sleeping pod on X, formerly Twitter, garnering 2 million views.

The young entrepreneurs received a startling wake-up call on Monday October 2, when officials from San Francisco's Planning and Building Department dropped by for an inspection

Kelly Wong, a senior city planner, led the three-member team around the new pod housing complex to inspect whether the housing startup complies with building codes

One inspector is seen checking out a tiny sleeping pod, documenting their findings pictures and video

Co-founders James Stallworth and Christina Lennox are pictured looking on and answering questions as the team made their rounds

Brownstone Shared Housing, which has opened similar properties in Palo Alto, San Jose and Bakersfield, told DailyMail.com that they aspire to massively expand, eventually housing as many as 10,000 people in California.

They are also offering to sell their custom beds to the government to use in homeless shelters.

'That is my personal goal  to end homelessness in this city,' said Christina Lennox, who started the business with James Stallworth  now her fiance.

'We can maximize their capacity and provide a more comfortable and private space for homeless people.'

But the media attention may have caused a hiccup in those plans.

The city Department of Building Inspection announced last Tuesday that they were t investigate whether Brownstone had the proper permits.

'We are aware of the issue and have opened an investigation to determine if there is a code violation,' Patrick Hannan, a department spokesperson, told The San Francisco Standard.

Last year, the Palo Alto operation, with 14 pods, was cited for multiple code violations including wiring issues, unpermitted remodeling and other concerns, The Standard reported.

But Stallworth seemed caught off guard when asked Tuesday about the new investigation, telling DailyMail.com that they're happy to work with the city to resolve any issues.

The new pods, fitting no more than a twin sized mattress and just 4 feet high, may appear spartan, but the actual living quarters are quite cushy

Lennox, who sleeps in one of the pods, directly above her fiance, said she designed the pods herself with an eye toward comfort

The two entrepreneurs, who are engaged to be married, are currently shacked up in a separate bedroom that previously served as a master suite for a bank executive

'Hm, interesting,' he said when asked about the then breaking story. 'We did our due diligence, and anything they have an issue with, we can work with them and talk about it, make any fixes.'

Without even knowing what the issues were, Stallworth pointed out that there's a misconception that the sleeping pods were built into the structure. He said there was, in fact, no construction involved with the installation.

He also rejection the notion that their tenants are living in cramped conditions, noting that far more people worked in the credit union building when it was operational.

Lennox, who sleeps in one of the pods, directly above her fiance, said she designed the pods herself with an eye toward comfort.

The pods, likened to coffins in some of the media coverage, look more like modern bunk beds, equipped with their own lights, outlets, and black out curtains, with dividers separating each unit to provide some privacy.

But the double-stacked row of beds occupy just the top floor of a three-story property.

Residents roam freely in a building that includes five bathrooms, two plush lounges, workstations, a kitchenette, and loads of storage space.

Residents get free reign over a building that includes five bathrooms, two plush lounges, workstations, a kitchenette, and loads of storage space

A dirty communal sink is seen at Brownstone Shared Housing

A leftover filing cabinet from the previous bank tenants has been converted into a communal dresser at a shared closet space

Co-founders Christina Lennox and James Stallworth gave DailyMail.com a tour of the communal closet area that formerly served as a storage room

And when they step outside, it's into a neighborhood that has some squalor but also prime dining, museums and nightlife.

Compared to the median $3,000 that local renters must shell out for a one-bedroom apartment, it's a serious bargain. And these folks don't have to sign a yearly lease or sweat a deposit or fees.

Tech entrepreneurs have swapped up many of the units, as they seek their own piece of the AI gold rush in the Silicon Valley.

A chalkboard shows where residents must sign up to use bathroom facilities at the shared housing facility

'There's a lot of talent here in this house,' Lewis, who moved from Chicago to start Spellcraft, marveled to DailyMail.com, as he stepped out into the California sun with his hair in a ponytail and computer stuffed in a backpack.

'A lot of us are working in tech, are super young and want to live as cheaply as possible.'

Stallworth, 31, and Lennox met a decade ago while working for the California State Auditor's Office. They say they started the business in 2021 based on their own prior experiences with 'housing insecurity.'

Stallworth, for his part, said he couldn't find affordable housing when he was a college upperclassman in Stanford, so moved into a 'hack house' filled with bunk beds where he lived rent free by working on the property's website.

Lennox told DailyMail.com that she nearly went homeless before she landed the state job, and then became a landlord for a hack house in Sacramento.

'I remember crying in my car just like wishing something like this existed,' she said, providing an emotional plug for her business.

Resident Farhan Gilani, who moved to the housing complex from New York City just last week, is seen working from the communal living room

With the medium rent at staggering $3,000 a month, tech entrepreneurs have swapped up many of the units, as they seek their own piece of the AI gold rush in the Silicon Valley

The pods, likened to coffins in some of the media coverage, look more like modern bunk beds, equipped with their own lights, outlets, and black out curtains, with dividers separating each unit to provide some privacy

The new spot, which opened in June in Mint Plaza, has already filled 28 of its 30 beds, with plans to be fully operational by October

'I was sobbing my eyes out. I didn't even care how awful the house was. I just needed a roof over my head. I would just want a bunk bed and a toilet.'

They opened the first pod house in Bakersfield in 2021. The new spot, which opened in June in Mint Plaza, has already filled 28 of its 30 beds, with plans to be fully operational by October. Their combined occupancy across their four properties now stands at 50.

And the working couple have made a point of living in each facility. In San Francisco, they're shacked up in a separate bedroom that previously served as a master suite for a bank executive.

They said they love it so much that they even hang out in their pods when they're awake.

A sign indicates a leaking sink at the Brownstone Shared Housing complex

Stallworth, who has the bottom bunk, said he curls up on his mattress to conduct video calls with prospective tenants, screening them personally.

'We screen people for their personality,' he explained. 'One of the things we look for in the interview is - Do you have a reason to be here? People are here for a reason, whether it's work or school. It turns out that here's been a lot of people in AI who have gravitated toward our house.'

Lennox told DailyMail.com that she spends hours just relaxing in her pod.

'For me it has a calming effect,' she said as she climbed inside.

'So whenever I feel stressed or anxious, I like to go inside and then just put on my headphones so I can listen to some music.

'Of course, it has a light so you can dim the lights and just chill out,' she continued. 'You can retrofit it any way you want because we have the hanger bars and mirror and everything. So I like to do my skincare routine in here.'

They sometimes crawl into each others pods  they say to watch movies on their laptops. But one thing they insist they don't do is bed together.

They think that would send a bad message to their housemates who sleep just outside their room and are discouraged from having overnight guests.

'I sleep in my own bed, so it's not like weird for anyone else,' Lennox said, sitting with her legs dangling from her mattress.

Palo Alto: The startup has similar properties in other parts of the Bay Area, including a 14-pod complex in Palo Alto that go for $900 a month

Bakersfield: Lennox and Stallworth opened the first pod house in Bakersfield in 2021. Pods at this location rent for $500 a month

'We definitely follow our own rules,' her fiance echoed from below.

As with many of the residents, the job doesn't give them much time for their personal lives.

'We're engaged, but we actually put it (our wedding) off every year because we're always working on something,' Stallworth said.

'Our priority is making sure we're solving this problem and then our personal lives definitely come second.'

Their housemates, located outside their door, similarly don't seem to mind sharing a double-stacked row of pods with 28 people. Many barely sleep as they pursue their own AI tickets out of here.

'I'm focused on work,' said Farhan Gilani, 33, stretched out on a velour love seat, typing away on his MacBook as he reached out to investors for his AI streaming marketplace.

'Everyone's working on their startup and collaborating with each other,' said Gilani, who moved here from New York City just last week. 'There's quite a lot of creative, entrepreneurial energy here right now. It captures the Silicon Valley moment well.'

The residents couldn't help but recognize their own sweet deal, especially when they look outside to see the dozens of homeless people sleeping on the plaza and surrounding streets, many strung out on drugs or mentally ill.

Residents of the pod home tell DailyMail.com say that they feel for those folks, even if they aren't about to invite them inside - even if their rent was taken care of.

'They'd probably come in here and destroy the f***ing place and smoke crack,' Lewis told DailyMail.com.

Stallworth said tenants don't have to worry about that.

'That's not necessarily our goal with what we're offering here,' he said. 'Because people who are chronically homeless have needs that go beyond housing. Putting them with other people without the infrastructure in place, that's not our product.'

But doing their part to cure homelessness is still their ambition.

'Certainly our beds themselves can be useful to people doing that work,' he said of the pods, which sell on their website for $2,500 a piece.
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.
Dressed in overalls with their faces covered in grime, these men would likely make the heart of a health and safety inspector skip a beat.

The pylon painters - seen in Great Washbourne, Gloucestershire in 1974 - were among nearly 1,000 people pictured by photographer Daniel Meadows over the course of 14 months.

Also among his pictures is the drab scene in the coal and steel-producing town of Workington, in Cumbria, with a workers' cottage standing in front of a smoke-spewing chimney.

A third photo shows a shop keeper in Sheffield standing next to boards appealing for 'trumpets, guitars, banjos, flutes and violins', all of which he is prepared to pay cash for.

Mr Meadows, who is now a respected photographer with several collections to his name but was then unknown and in his early 20s, travelled around the UK in a re-purposed double decker bus that dated back to 1948.

Dressed in overalls with their faces covered in grime, these men would likely make the heart of a health and safety inspector skip a beat. The pylon painters - seen in Great Washbourne, Gloucestershire in 1974 - were among nearly 1,000 people pictured by photographer Daniel Meadows over the course of 14 months

This photo shows a shop keeper in Sheffield standing next to boards appealing for 'trumpets, guitars, banjos, flutes and violins', all of which he was prepared to pay cash for

The vehicle, which cost 360, doubled up as a dark room where Mr Meadows could develop his pictures.

On his 10,000-mile trip he photographed 958 people living in 22 towns and cities, including Plymouth, Barrow-in-Furness, Stratford-upon-Avon and Southampton.

Mr Meadows, from Great Washbourne, called his project the Free Photographic Omnibus.

After taking pictures and developing them on the bus, he would hand out free pictures to his subjects the next day.

Some of the people he pictured would go on to be friends of his for decades.

Mr Meadows (above), who is now a respected photographer with several collections to his name but was then unknown, travelled around the UK in a re-purposed double decker bus that dated back to 1948

Two residents walk past a workers' cottage in Workington, a coal and steel town in Cumbria

A group of performers from Circus Hoffman in Plymouth, Devon, are seen in August 1974

A woman awaits the outcome of a strike meeting in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in November 1974

A Mrs Byford and another woman poses for a photo outside a church in Stratford-upon-Avon while holding bunches of flowers, March 1974

Tattooist Ron Ackers is seen in April 1974 displaying some of his own inkings

Two young women display their interesting fashion choices as they pose for a photo in Southampton in May 1974

Brothers Steven and Anthony Weldrake pose for photos in Hartlepool, Cleveland, September 1974

The owners of 'The Pape Shop' in Attercliffe, Sheffield, pose for a photo outside their store as a an advert for bitter is displayed next to them. October 1973

A man lies on a bench in Newcastle in September 1974 as the city's gas supply is worked on

Speaking to The Times, Mr Meadows, who has enjoyed a long career as a respected photographer since his initial trip, admitted the project 'wasn't easy'.

He told how he would regularly get a parking ticket soon after parking up.

The photographer added: 'I loved taking my lead from random encounters with strangers.'

His images - 150 in total - are being printed in the Book of the Road, published by Bluecoat Press.

Order a signed copy of Daniel Meadows's Book of the Road from bluecoatpress.co.uk.
Pope Francis has given his cautious backing to blessing same-sex unions, responding to five conservative cardinals who challenged him to affirm church teaching on homosexuality ahead of a big meeting where LGBT+ Catholics are on the agenda.

A letter written by Francis to the cardinals on July 11 after receiving a list of five questions, or 'dubia', from them a day earlier suggested such blessings could be studied if they were not confused with sacramental marriage.

The Vatican holds that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and woman and has long opposed gay marriage, but even Francis has voiced support for civil laws extending legal benefits to same-sex spouses.

In some parts of Europe Catholic priests have been blessing same-sex unions without Vatican censure.

Francis's response to the cardinals marks a reversal from the Vatican's current official position.

Pope Francis has given his cautious backing to blessing same-sex marriage in a letter to cardinals challenging him on church teachings on homosexuality

In an explanatory note in 2021, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said the church could not bless gay unions because 'God cannot bless sin'.

The New Ways Ministry advocacy group said the letter 'significantly advances' efforts to make LGBT+ Catholics welcomed in the church and 'one big straw towards breaking the camel's back' in their marginalisation.

In his new letter, Francis reiterated that matrimony is a union between a man and a woman, but added that 'pastoral charity' requires patience and understanding and that priests cannot become judges 'who only deny, reject and exclude'.

'For this reason, pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of benediction, requested by one or more persons, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage,' he wrote. 'Because when a benediction is requested, it is expressing a request for help from God, a plea to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us to live better.'

He said there are situations that are objectively 'not morally acceptable', but the same 'pastoral charity' requires that people be treated as sinners who might not be fully at fault for their situations.

Francis added that there is no need for dioceses or bishops conferences to turn such pastoral charity into fixed norms or protocols, saying the issue could be dealt with on a case-by-case basis 'because the life of the church runs on channels beyond norms'.

Francis reiterated in his letter that matrimony is a union between man and woman but added that priests could not just 'deny, reject and exclude'

The Pope was challenged by the five cardinals, conservative prelates from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, to affirm church teaching on gay people, women's ordination, the authority of the pope and other issues.

They published the material two days before the start of a major three-week synod at the Vatican which includes LGBT+ Catholics and their place in the church on the agenda.

The signatories were some of Francis's most vocal critics, all of them retired and of the more doctrinaire generation of cardinals appointed by St John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI.

They were Walter Brandmueller of Germany, a former Vatican historian; Raymond Burke of the US, whom Francis axed as head of the Vatican supreme court; Juan Sandoval of Mexico, the retired archbishop of Guadalajara; Robert Sarah of Guinea, the retired head of the Vatican's liturgy office; and Joseph Zen, the retired archbishop of Hong Kong.
The New York City owl that was sprung from Central Park Zoo by vandals has ballooned in size since officials said they were leaving him to roam free.

Flaco has grown significantly in the seven months since he was let out of his cage in February after feasting on the Big Apple's rat population, witnesses claimed.

The impressive Eurasian eagle owl has become somewhat of a celebrity after he escaped the zoo on February 2 and learned to live on his own.

Wildlife photographers, nature lovers and tourists alike have been enthralled by the unusual sight of the bird of prey perching on roadside trees, hunting rats and showing off his six-foot wingspan.

Flaco usually resides in the city's star-studded Upper East Side, with fans claiming he's 'definitely gotten a lot bigger' since being let loose.

The New York City owl that was sprung from Central Park Zoo by vandals has ballooned in size since officials said they were leaving him to roam free

Anke Frohlich, a New Yorker who caught impressive photographs of Flaco in flight, said she has seen him eat four rats in one sitting

Anke Frohlich, a New Yorker who caught impressive photographs of Flaco in flight, said she has seen him eat four rats in one sitting.

'I have observed Flaco eat up to four rats a night, which, from what I have heard, is four times what he used to eat in the zoo,' Frohlich told DailyMail.com.

'He has definitely gotten a lot bigger since his escape and he has found his voice. His hoots are full and strong. He makes himself heard across Central Park.'

Among the customary crowd of people at the foot of Flaco's perch in the park last week, several remarked that he had grown 'much bigger' - noting the irony of his name which means 'skinny' in Spanish.

Kathy Robles, 73, who lives just over the river from Central Park in New Jersey, told DailyMail.com the bird has become 'buff' since escaping by 'using muscles he never had to use before'.

'He waddles around, so he's using his leg muscles and breast muscles,' said Robles, who has built a Flaco Facebook following of more than 500 people.

'He pounces on rats, and he's got to be really strong. His feet are amazing - they are huge, they are like big hands with these gigantic talons attached.

'People do call them murder mittens, and I can see why.' Robles said she believes New Yorkers can 'really identify' with Flaco because of his spirit of survival in the concrete jungle.

'A lot of New Yorkers might identify with being captive to, you know, your job, rat-race kind of place, New York City can be so harsh,' she said.

'And as a non-native animal, this is an immigrant basically who has taken over Central Park.

'People look at that and I think they have an affinity towards him because of his background, and that he is surviving, and nobody in the beginning thought that he would really make it.'

'I love the way a lot of New Yorkers respond to him,' she added. 'I love that they're really curious about him because a lot of people these days are not that curious about things in nature.'

Kathy Robles, 73, who lives just over the river from Central Park in New Jersey, told DailyMail.com the bird has become 'buff' since escaping by 'using muscles he never had to use before'

Barrett, who lives close to Flaco's usual perches, said the bird has attracted 'hundreds if not thousands of people' to the north-eastern edge of Central Park

Investor David Barrett, 59, who runs a popular Manhattan birdwatching account on Twitter, has been documenting Flaco's development since the night of his escape.

'He's been a New York City celebrity ever since that night,' he told DailyMail.com. 'So it's been exciting to follow Flaco.

'I saw changes right away. Flaco initially was not so adept at flying - certainly not so adept at landing - but he got better at it.

'And amazingly - this is the most incredible thing of all - Flaco taught himself to hunt in a matter of a few days. That was not expected.

'Historically animals raised in captivity, which was the case with Flaco, do not have the ability to survive well in the wild. They don't learn survival skills.

'Flaco is, as far as we know, the only wild Eurasian Eagle-Owl in all of North Americaanother reason that visitors come to Central Park to see him,' he added.

Barrett, who lives close to Flaco's usual perches, said the bird has attracted 'hundreds if not thousands of people' to the north-eastern edge of Central Park.

He said visitors from all over the world message him on his @BirdCentralPark Twitter account, which has 80,200 followers, to ask him where they can catch a glimpse of NYC's famous owl.

Central Park Zoo aborted a mission to recapture the owl just weeks after he escaped, partly due to 'strong public sentiment in favor of Flaco remaining free'.

Utah tech worker and wildlife photographer Ryan Stott, 46, extended a recent work trip to New York by one day in the hope of catching sight of the coveted owl.

'The whole experience of seeing such a beautiful bird in such a unique place was incredible,' he said.

Stott added that due to Flaco's noticeable heft he 'wasn't overly concerned' about how he would fare over the winter

Self-described 'devoted owl watcher' and real estate worker David Lei has also captured mesmerizing pictures of the bird (pictured)

Stott added that due to Flaco's noticeable heft he 'wasn't overly concerned' about how he would fare over the winter.

Self-described 'devoted owl watcher' and real estate worker David Lei has also captured mesmerizing pictures of the bird.

'His appearance varies, sometimes he fluffs up, and appears bigger,' the 35-year-old New Yorker told DailyMail.com.

'He's also quite expressive. That's part of the reason owls are so charismatic, they've got these big, beautiful eyes.

'When he was released from the zoo he was very alert, with his ear tufts up all the time. But now he seems quite relaxed almost all the time.'
A mother and son from Phoenix say they are devastated after their escaped pet emu was killed when officers from Maricopa County Sheriff Office attempted to capture the bird and force it into the back of their patrol car.

The bird, known as 'Richard' was known to occasionally break free of its enclosure but would always make it back home alive.

On this occasion, a neighbor called the local police department to help assist but things took a tragic turn.

Officers attempted to lasso the six-and-a-half-year-old emu but in doing so appeared to damage the bird's long and fragile neck.

Cellphone footage shot of the incident shows officers standing around the bird which can be seen lying flat on the ground after apparently choking the bird following the police restraint.

Arizona police offers attempted to wrangle a wandering Emu but ended up killing it

Video sees officers struggling with the unusual pet as they tried to get it into a police car

At one point a deputy can be seen with his hands around the bird's neck before trying to drag it into the vehicle

Officers were struggling from the start as they tried to force the bird into the vehicle

Footage of the failed 'arrest' sees the bird struggling against two officers, wildly flapping its wings as it attempts to break free.

One of officers could be seen with his hands around the birds neck while another shot shows a rope around it.

At one point both rear doors to the patrol car were open and officers appeared to drag it by its neck into the vehicle.

When that approach failed, the bird suddenly appeared lifeless with its long neck hanging upside down.

Police officers could then be seen attempting to revive the bird by giving it some water - but it was no use and the emu remained unresponsive.

Officers tried to use a rope to 'corral' the animal into the back of their squad car

Officers then attempted to revive the bird as they placed a bowl of water on the ground

The bird's lifeless body can be seen lying next to the Sheriff's car

There was little that officers could do following the tragic incident

'You can't put a lasso around their neck, trying to yank on them and get them to do what you want them to do. You're going to kill them,' said the bird's owner Stephanie Moilan to Fox 10. 'It was so inappropriate. It was completely unnecessary.'

Moilan described the unusual pet as 'awesome.'

'You could hand feed her. I'd go out and pet her and cuddle her,' she added. 'She was just so much fun,' Moilan said through tears. 'I'm really going to miss her.'

Michael Davis who captured the tragic chain of events on camera says he believes the police were heavy-handed in their response.

'I don't think that it needed to happen the way that it did. He was just very calm, just wondering around. Not aggressive at all. Not threatening,' said Davis.

'Everyone that was out here witnessing it said 'Is it breathing? Are you choking it?' The emu was obviously in distress and kicking and screaming as deputies tried to get her in the car. Then it stopped moving. Unfortunately, nobody knew what to do at that point,' Davis told 12 News.

'You can't put a lasso around their neck, trying to yank on them and get them to do what you want them to do. You're going to kill them,' said the bird's owner Stephanie Moilan

The bird had been seen walking around but was not being aggressive towards anyone

The emu, known as Richard, is seen during better times

Moilan's child enjoyed playing with the bird and would regularly hose it down

Davis says the officers were ill equipped and untrained to deal with the situation.

Officials with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said deputies arrived on the scene following a call for the loose emu and 'during the corralling, the bird collapsed and died.'

Moilan does not agree with the police's version of events.

'There was no corralling. I don't think you need a lasso for that,' said Moilan.

'I think that they were thoughtless. My 11-year-old's first response was, 'did they call animal control? Did they call wildlife response?'

In a Facebook posting online, Moilan wrote: 'We are absolutely heartbroken and devastated. Richard was tortured and killed Thursday by #MCSO #maricopacountysheriff #richardtheemu.

'Richard was my baby. She was sweet, gentle, had a rocking Mohawk, drummed like nobody else, loved cuddles, playing in water, going on walks, knocking on the kitchen window, getting treats, being with her babies (the chickens), loved noodles and me brushing her hair. We loved Richard so much. She brought my family, friends and me soo much joy, laughter, curiosity and love!! She didn't deserve this!!'

The Maricopa County Sheriff Office have released a statement to DailyMail.com in connection with the incident, explaining their actions.

'When deputies encounter wild animals in populated neighborhoods we are always going to try to err on the side of caution, in the interest of public safety.

'While responding to this call, deputies analyzed the situation and took in consideration that the emu had been loose before and had previously kicked a Deputy Service Aid in the leg.

'An attempt to contact the Dept of Agriculture for assistance was unsuccessful.

'The deputies who responded used the resources available to them at the time and attempted getting the emu out of the neighborhood unharmed but, unfortunately, they were unsuccessful.

'The emus exact medical status prior to the incident is unclear. While it is unfortunate the emu died, MCSO has closed this matter and continues to work toward keeping County neighborhoods safe daily.'
A picture of New Zealand Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon eating KFC has sparked debate online, with health experts arguing that he was promoting unhealthy eating.

Mr Luxon posted a photo on social media, where he's seen smiling, eating a box of KFC chicken, reflecting on his long day of campaigning.

His party is currently the favourite ahead of Labour as New Zealanders get ready to vote on October 14th

'Dinner after another day campaigning to rebuild the economy and get our country back on track #chicken,' Mr Luxon wrote.

But the image has resulted in severe backlash online, including from the President of the Australian Medical Association, Professor Steve Robson.

New Zealand Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon (pictured) has been slammed online after posting this image of himself eating KFC less than two weeks out from the election

'What a disappointing image and message,' he said.

Professor Robson told Daily Mail Australia that it was frustrating seeing one of New Zealand's political leaders promoting unhealthy eating.

'New Zealand has bountiful food offering some of the healthiest foods in the world. It is so disappointing to see a political leader associated with food of little or no nutritional value when there are so many healthy options,' he said.

'The AMA is campaigning to support measures to restrict advertising and targeting children with unhealthy food advertising.'

Many others on social media were also quick to call Mr Luxon out: 'Aww come on Chris Luxon, you are better than this. Doing blatant promotional work for a fast food company is shameless.'

'I'll remember not to look to Luxon on health policy...' commented another.

'Pity you had to advertise junk food, but I suppose you want the general population to identify with you,' wrote a third.

But some saw the lighthearted side to Mr Luxon's post.

'Don't worry Chris it'll be even more finger-licked good when you win the election. Get that champers ready!,' wrote one person.

'NZ thanks you for your work. I'll be calling you PM in a few short months,' said a second.

New Zealand's National Party is well ahead in the polls over Labour after two terms in office.

Labour was polling in the mid-to-high 30 per cent range at the start of the year - enough to retain government with the help of the Greens and the Maori Party.

But the party has since slumped to the 20 per cent range - a far cry from Labour's 50 per cent under Jacinda Ardern at the 2020 election.

In contrast, National is in the high 30s and looks set to govern in coalition with right-wing parties ACT, and possibly New Zealand First.

The National party is well ahead in the polls over Labour after two terms in office (pictured, Mr Luxon casting his ballot in Auckland)

In terms of preferred prime minister, both Mr Luxon and Chris Hipkins (pictured) remain relatively close

In terms of preferred prime minister, both Mr Luxon and Chris Hipkins remain relatively close.

A 1News Verian Poll published last week had both men at 23 per cent.

Advance voting has opened up for Kiwis ahead of polling day on October 14.

The nation's electoral commission opened more than 400 polling places across the country on Monday.
Army helicopters flying at a low range coupled with fierce electrical storms are causing an odd sex frenzy among crocodiles on a rural farm.

John Lever, owner of The Koorana Crocodile Farm near Rockhampton in Queensland, noticed that his crocodiles have been especially fertile since Singaporean Chinook helicopters began flying over his farm.

Experts are trying to understand why the helicopters, combined with recent electrical storms, are having such a significant impact on crocodile mating season.

But professors from the University of Queensland and Darwin University are at odds about what exactly is the cause of the amorous activity.

Leading theories point towards crocodiles mistaking the reverberations from helicopters as mating calls and changes in biometric pressure as explanations.

Singaporean Chinook helicopters (pictured) are causing crocodiles at Rockhampton's Koorana Crocodile Farm in Queensland to begin mating early

Recent electrical storms and a warmer than average winter had also helped create perfect breeding conditions for crocodiles (pictured), owner of the farm John Lever said

Dr Cameron Baker, who specialises in the ecology, behaviour and social structure of the estuarine crocodile at Darwin University, thinks that male crocodiles are mistaking the distinct thuds of the Chinook as mating calls from competing crocs.

'It might be producing a very low-frequency "thump, thump" as it hits the water. That may just coincidentally be similar to some of the sounds big male crocodiles produce to say, "Hey, this is my turf",' Dr Baker told ABC.

READ MORE: Female crocodile's 'virgin birth' Zookeepers discovered that an 18-year-old female American Crocodile, an apex predator growing up to 20ft, was guarding a clutch of 14 eggs in her enclosure, despite not having seen a male in over a decade. Advertisement

The Singapore Armed Forces have been holding bilateral military training operations in the Shoalwater Bay Training Area about 100 kilometres north of Rockhampton since 2020.

Officers flying the Chinook helicopters use the Koorana Crocodile Farm as a marker point to change course mid-flight.

Mr Lever said that every time they pass over it elicits the same response, and he also believes it has something to do with their thumping sound.

'We had a big Chinook that came down low because the guys wanted to take some pictures of the crocodiles. They were hanging out the door  and of course, Chinooks have got a big thump, thump, thump, like that,' he told the publication.

After the Chinook left Mr Lever said that his crocodiles quickly began mating.

Crocodile mating season spans from September to April in North Queensland which coincides with the wet season, sparking another theory from Dr Barker.

'They're probably using (Chinooks) as a bit of a cue to say, "Hey, the wet's coming"  and it's a good time to start mating so the eggs are ready to be laid at just the right time,' Dr Baker said.

This year Mr Lever said that an especially warm winter coupled with early-September thunderstorms have created the perfect mating conditions.

Crocodiles usually vocalise to each other when they are ready to mate, according to Mr Lever.

Because they do not have sophisticated voice boxes, the reptiles simply vibrate their windpipes to send messages through the water.

The added vibrations of electrical storms and low-flying helicopters help make the most out of mating season, which only lasts a matter of minutes.

Dr Cameron Baker (pictured), a crocodile specialist at Darwin University, believes that crocodiles might be mistaking the sound of helicopters for mating calls from other crocs

The thumping sounds of the Chinooks are similar to the guttural calls of crocodiles looking for a mate

Professor Craig Franklin, who specialises in Zoology at the University of Queensland, said that crocodiles mate during storms because of a change in barometric pressure.

'We don't know what happens in farms, but our research shows that in the field they respond to rainfall events  and of course, they're often associated with a change in barometric pressure,' Professor Franklin said.

'These would all be signals that the crocodile relies upon to time its breeding activity.'

The Koorana Crocodile Farm produces roughly 2,000 eggs per year, of which 1,200 result in a hatchling.

Droughts and dry summers like the ones seen in 2020 can drastically reduce these numbers, which heavily impacts the profitability of the farm.

The farm faced six years of El Nino conditions in the 1990s, but the Bureau of Meteorology announcing that El Nino would hit this year does not seem to have impacted this season's production forecasts.

Severe thunderstorms hit coastal Queensland at the beginning of September and unpredictable weather conditions have continued since then.

Chinook helicopters are also a staple of this time of year since Australia signed a military training treaty with Singapore which has led to 14,000 Singapore armed forces personnel operating in the area.

The treaty allows Singaporean troops to participate in unilateral training in the region for up to 18 weeks a year for the next 25 years.
One of the first ever people in Australia to be convicted of terrorism offences has been released on parole.

Faheem Lodhi was granted the release recently by Federal authorities after serving a 20-year sentence and is now back in the community, News Corp reported.

Lodhi is reportedly plying his former trade as an architect and draftsman following the release order.

Convicted terrorist Faheem Lodhi (pictured) was granted parole after he was among the first to be imprisoned over terrorism related offences

The 53-year-old is understood to have been released without any court-ordered notice requiring him to be monitored by police, the Herald-Sun reported.

A control order was also not placed on Lodhi meaning that he is free to travel overseas among several other provisions granted by the ruling.

This includes the ability to contact certain individuals and the freedom to possess and use certain items.

Lodhi is among only a handful of individuals who have been released on parole after being found guilty of terrorism offences.

The federal Attorney-General's Department told Daily Mail Australia in a statement that specific information about Lodhi's case would not be provided.

'As a matter of longstanding practice, the Attorney-Generals Department does not disclose the details of individual federal offenders, including detail about decisions made in relation to federal parole matters,' a department spokesperson said.

The ruling by the authority does carry conditions which Lodhi must abide by however, it is a significant decision which could provide a pathway for other offenders to have their sentence reviewed.

Lodhi was sentenced in June 2006 to 20 years behind bars after he was found guilty of plotting to bomb the national electricity grid and three army bases in Sydney.

His sentence included a 15-year non-parole period.

He was arrested in 2004 after spies at ASIO (Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation) uncovered his plans to order chemicals and instructions he had in his possession which could be used to make bombs.

In October 2003, ASIO officials raided Lodhi's home in Lakemba in Sydney's west, where they seized several other documents.

This included aerial images of several army barracks in Sydney including the Holsworthy and Victoria army bases and HMAS Penguin in Mosman, on Sydney's lower north shore.

Lodhi (pictured) was found guilty by a jury of plotting to commit several terrorism related offences including plans to bomb the national electricity grid and several army bases in Sydney

Lodhi (pictured) was earlier denied parole after his bid to be released was denied twice by former attorney general Christian Porter in 2019 and 2020

Officers also obtained a so called 'terror manual' - a 15-page notebook full of handwritten notes in Lodhi's native language of Urdu - which contained instructions on how to make several explosives.

During his trial at the NSW Supreme Court Lodhi denied at the time that he had sought after or had possession of any these items.

Lodhi, who emigrated to Australia in 1998 from Pakistan, had his bid to be released on parole rejected twice by former attorney-general Christian Porter in 2019 and 2020.

He was reclassified as a low-risk prisoner while he served part of his sentence at the Wellington Correctional Centre near Dubbo, 400 kilometres west of Sydney.

Lodhi initially served the first couple of years of his sentence in the Goulburn Supermax Prison.

He denounced his own and other extremist acts, with his lawyer telling a court in 2020 that their client 'admitted his guilt and been able to face the pathway that led him to offending and the erroneous path he took'.

Editor's note: A previous version of this article wrongly stated Faheem Lodhi was granted release by the NSW Parole Authority. Mr Lodhi's release was not granted by the NSW State Parole Authority, but rather by Federal authorities. Daily Mail Australia apologises for the error.
Distressing video has surfaced showing paramedics desperately attempting to revive a young attendee at the fatal Knockout Festival in Sydney - as photos show what the event was really like.

Two men died, while six other revellers ended up in hospital after attending the event at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday night.

A festival goer sitting in the grandstand shared footage from the festival emergency responders and medical personnel providing first aid to an unwell reveller being shielded by a sheet.

Hundreds of revellers surround them, most of them oblivious to the medical emergency unfolding just metres away, as loud music continued to blast across the stadium.

Mr Lee is pictured with his friend Joey Hungg at his birthday celebration five weeks ago

It is not suggested that anyone pictured has taken any illicit substances

It is not suggested that anyone pictured has taken any illicit substances

READ MORE: Jason Lee dies after attending Knockout festival Advertisement

Aussies who attended the festival claimed the man being treated later died.

'Mate of mine was right next to him. That was the guy who died,' one wrote.

Other shocked revellers recalled seeing paramedics treating other festival goers after the mercury soared past 35C earlier in the afternoon.

'The amount of people I saw getting carried out on stretchers and being put in ambulances is ridiculous,' one wrote.

Another added: 'That was our first rave last night, and couldn't believe how many times towards the end of show people were being dragged out on ambo carts.'

A third wrote: 'My friends and I had to help a dude rolling in the dirt until medic arrived because security refused to touch him or treat him like a human. Stay safe.'

Knockout Outdoor festival drew in 53,000 people, with 27 charged with drug possession and four with supplying illicit substances.

Jason Lee, 26, died after attending the festival. Mr Lee called his friend Julia An and asked her to come find him at about 11.44pm. Moments later, he collapsed, was rushed to hospital in a critical condition and died.

Another festival attendee, 21, later collapsed at a hotel on George St, at Chippendale. He was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital and died.

He was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital where he also died.

NSW Police are investigating whether Mr Lee or the unnamed 21-year-old had taken drugs before their deaths.

Two men in their 20s have died after attending the Knockout Festival at Sydney Olympic Park

Advocates have renewed calls to introduce pill testing at music festivals after a tragic start to festival season. It is not suggested that anyone pictured has taken any illicit substances

Many revellers took off their shirts as temperatures soared past 30 degrees. It is not suggested that anyone pictured has taken any illicit substances

'It's not specifically being treated as a suspected drug overdose,' Det Supt Simon Glasser told reporters on Sunday.

'We look at all avenues. Anything could have happened.'

Despite this, Superintendent Glasser issued a warning about the dangers of taking illicit substances at the festivals.

READ MORE: Refusing pill testing and setting sniffer dogs on kids is causing deaths: Expert Fact-box text Advertisement

'This shows that people can die at music festivals,' he said.

'Drugs can have some horrible consequences. When you mix that with the heat of yesterday, it's an added risk factor that can cause adverse affects.'

Revellers have echoed renewed calls by advocates for the NSW government to introduce pill testing at music festivals similar to the ACT.

Some reported seeing festival goers taking multiple drugs at once due to the increased presence of police and drug dogs at the festival.

Other revellers came forward to report a bad batch of drugs circulating around Sydney.

'[I] had noticed that quality has been more rubbish than usual but also suppliers jackin out s** drugs to make a profit, and then s*** like this happens cuz our government refuses to allow pill testing,' one person wrote.

The two festival goers lost their lives on the first weekend of the festival season in Sydney which was kicked off by Knockout.

Emergency and medical personnel were captured provided assistance to a reveller who collapsed at the Knockout festival on Saturday night

Thousands of music fans converged on Sydney Showgrounds for the Knockout festival. It is not suggested that anyone pictured has taken any illicit substances

Across town that same night, another 27,000 attended Listen Out festival in Centennial Park, where a number of revellers were also treated by paramedics.

The NSW government has been urged to introduce pill testing in the hope of avoiding more deaths this festival season.

Jennifer Ross-King broke down in tears while expressing her condolences to the men's families.

She lost her own daughter Alex, 19, who tragically died from a drug overdose while attending the FOMO festival in western Sydney almost five years ago in January 2019.

A coronial inquest later found she died from MDMA toxicity after the teen ingested two capsules before entering the Parramatta venue so she wouldn't be caught by police.

The Knockout festival in Sydney (revellers pictured) kicked off the city's festival season. It is not suggested that anyone pictured has taken any illicit substances

It is not suggested that anyone pictured has taken any illicit substances

It is not suggested that anyone pictured has taken any illicit substances

It is not suggested that anyone pictured has taken any illicit substances

It is not suggested that anyone pictured has taken any illicit substances

READ MORE: Teen's decision to swallow two MDMA capsules because she feared cops would catch her ends in tragedy Advertisement

'I'm so sorry to the families of the two young people who have passed,' an emotional Ms Ross-King told reporters on Monday.

'I am so sorry that you are now in the same position as I am and so many other families unnecessarily.'

She issued a powerful plea to NSW Premier Chris Minns.

'I'm begging you to make change now, so no one else loses their child,' Ms Ross-King begged.

Greens MP Faerhmann added: 'It's incredibly frustrating that governments don't seem to act unless there's a crisis but then all they've done after the crisis is commission reports and then not act on the recommendations,'

'It's going to be a very hot summer and it's going to be a very dangerous summer unless Chris Minns acts.'

But health minister Ryan Park said pill testing would not be a silver bullet to stop deaths or serious harm from the use of illicit drugs.

'We all have a role to play in this space but no one particular initiative is going to give complete coverage and ensure everyone goes home safely,' he said.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has become the latest Democrat to beg President Joe Biden to divert migrants away from his state.

It comes just two years after declaring his state the 'Most Welcoming State in the Nation' and expanding immigrant protections.

Pritzker joins New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy among liberals who have professed pro-migrant policies but asked that they not be housed in their jurisdiction.

Chicago alone has seen 13,000 migrants arrive in the city since August 2022, and the surge is expected to cost taxpayers $302 million by the end of the year.

In the letter, Pritzker calls the crisis in his state 'untenable' with 'lack of intervention and coordination at the border,' demanding he stop laying the crisis on the hands of leaders from the Democrat Party.

'Allowing just one state to lay the burden upon a certain few states run by Democrats is untenable,' Pritzker wrote.

Just two years after declaring his state the 'Most Welcoming State in the Nation' and expanding immigrant protections, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has become the latest Democrat to beg President Joe Biden to divert migrants away from his state

We are a nation that has welcomed immigrants and refugees since our founding, and we have done so in a bipartisan manner. It cannot be that just a few cities and states should now bear the cost of this effort alone.'

The second-term governor, who has been fantasized by some as a potential replacement for the 80-year-old Biden, made several demands to stop the crisis.

'Unfortunately, the welcome and aid Illinois has been providing to these asylum seekers has not been matched with support by the federal government,' Pritzker wrote.

He recommended the White House name a point-person as a go-between to cut down on red tape and asked the federal government to further manage where migrants are relocated.

Pritzker's other suggestions included providing financial support to state and local governments for various services, accelerating employment authorization and approving the state's requests for federal services.

Just two years ago, however, Pritzker bragged about how welcoming the state was toward migrants in a press release naming Illinois the 'Most Welcoming State in the Country.'

'Throughout my governorship I've directed my administration to adopt policies that make Illinois a welcoming state for immigrants, and I'm proud to sign these accountability measures into law to advance our cause,' Pritzker said at the time.

In the letter to Biden, Pritzker calls the crisis in his state 'untenable' with 'lack of intervention and coordination at the border,' demanding he stop laying the crisis on the hands of leaders from the Democrat Party

A family from Venezuela outside the Chicago Police 12th District station

Migrants are given supplies outside the District 12 station of the Chicago Police Department

A migrant father from Venezuela feeds his 15-month-old son in the lobby of a police station

'Every family, every child, every human being deserves to feel safe and secure in the place they call home. I am committed to making sure that value defines what it means to live in Illinois.'

The announcement included a new 'Welcoming Illinois Office' and expanded services for migrant families.

It comes as Chicago residents are becoming increasingly concerned about a surge of asylum seekers arriving on buses from southern states. Many of the migrants have been transported north from Republican border states in a bid to prove the Democrats' open arms policies are a disaster.

The number of migrants who need shelter in Chicago has continued to increase in recent months, and city leaders have stated they will follow New York's lead in turning different locations around the city into shelters for migrants.

'We've identified multiple locations around the city that can be suitable to treat the family and individuals who are here by law, seeking asylum constitutionally and legally, to have a place that recognizes their dignity,' Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

Chicago officials have yet to specify which locations they are looking at, but they will reportedly be climate-controlled military-grade tents, according to alderwoman Maria Hadden.

The former Halsted Indoor Mall parking lot at 115th and Halsted Streets could be one of the locations for a planned tent camp, CBS Chicago reported. The space was supposed to be redeveloped into affordable housing but is currently sitting vacant

Last week, Chicago Democratic lawmakers traveled to New York City to 'bring back' lessons on how to deal with a migrant surge in the Windy City.

Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson has quietly signed a $29million contract with a security firm to build migrant base camps. Chicago has seen 11,000 migrants arrive since August 2022

Hundreds of migrants are being hidden behind this black curtain at Chicago 's O'Hare Airport, where asylum seekers have reported inhumane living conditions with families left sleeping on the floor for up to 10 days

Furious New Yorkers heckled Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was leading their visit, outside the iconic Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, which has become the center of the migrant scandal in the Big Apple.

The lawmakers were forced to cut the press conference short as the crowd kept drowning out Ocasio-Cortez.

'Close the border! Close the border! Respect the constitution AOC! I am your constituent!' one man shouted over the congresswoman's speech into a megaphone.

As the migrant crisis continues to worsen in Chicago, mayor Johnson has also faced backlash over a proposed 'mansion tax' on sales of homes of more than $1 million, as his administration continues to push higher tax on households earning over $100,000.

The newly elected mayor wants to push a hike in taxes in order to fight homelessness in the city.

Johnson believes people that own properties worth $1 million in the third-largest city in the U.S. are 'rich, and should pay if they sell those homes.'

He also wants to create city-run grocery stores to promote 'equitable' access to food after half of the city's Walmart and Whole Foods stores closed.

Chicago officials have said they will build tent shelters for migrants like the ones in New York City. Camps for migrants setup at Randall's Island in New York are seen above

Johnson's new moves are set to help 'repair past harms that have contributed to purposeful disinvestment and exclusion and lack of food access' in historically underserved communities.

Meanwhile, the Windy City has suffered an 86 per cent rise in motor vehicle theft rates over the last year - from 42,512 incidents reported in 2022 to 54,983 so far this year.

Overall, this figure has rocketed by 227 per cent since 2019, when 35,711 motor vehicle thefts were reported.

Murder rates have also risen by 19 per cent over the past four years under the disastrous reign of the last Chicago Mayor, Lori Lightfoot, while robberies are up 30 per cent.
Mr Barclay will also set out a return to using 'sex-specific' language in NHS

Patients will have the right to share ward with people of same biological sex

Trans women patients will be banned from female hospital wards under proposals to be announced by the Health Secretary today.

Steve Barclay will unveil the plans to push back against 'wokery' in the health service amid concerns that women's rights are being sidelined.

The move will also see 'sex-specific' language return to the NHS, meaning terms such as breastfeeding will no longer be replaced by 'chestfeeding'.

Mr Barclay said: 'We need a common-sense approach to sex and equality issues in the NHS. That is why I am announcing proposals for clearer rights for patients.

'And I can confirm that sex-specific language has now been fully restored to online health advice pages about cervical and ovarian cancer and the menopause.

Health Secretary Stephen Barclay will announce plans today to ban trans women patients from female wards, amid concerns women's rights are being sidelined (file image)

'It is vital that women's voices are heard in the NHS and the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients are protected.'

The changes will give men and women the right to share wards with people of the same biological sex and have intimate care only from those of the same sex, The Daily Telegraph reported last night.

A source close to Mr Barclay told the newspaper: 'The Secretary of State is fed up with this agenda and the damage it's causing, language like "chestfeeding", talking about pregnant "people" rather than women. It exasperates the majority of people, and he is determined to take action.

'He is concerned that women's voices should be heard on healthcare and that too often wokery and ideological dogma is getting in the way of this.'

The proposals follow 2021 NHS guidance that said trans patients could be placed on single-sex wards on the basis of the gender with which they identified.

Mr Barclay will use his speech to the Conservative conference to announce a consultation on changes to the NHS constitution in order to strengthen protection for women.

Mr Barclay will also set out a return to 'sex-specific' language being used in the NHS, eradicating gender neutral terms such as 'chestfeeding'

Under the proposed changes, trans patients could be housed in separate accommodation or their own rooms.

Maya Forstater, executive director of campaign group Sex Matters, praised the plans, telling The Telegraph: 'This is fantastic news  the return of common sense.'
Prince Andrew has reportedly been given permission by the King to stay indefinitely at his Royal Lodge home in Windsor after he hammered out a deal with the monarch.

The disgraced Duke of York is said to have forked out more than 200,000 for roof repairs on the royal mansion over the summer - a sum which has been described as an 'interim payment'.

He must now work to reassure his brother that he can cover the extensive repair costs on the 30million 30-room home - which are thought to be in the region of 2million.

King Charles has granted his younger brother the 'stay of execution', The Mirror reports, after the pair were at loggerheads over the duke's residency at the house.

A source suggested at the time that Andrew, who was forced to quit royal duties over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, could leave the property and instead be put up in the far smaller Frogmore Cottage.

The disgraced Duke of York is said to have forked out more than 200,000 for roof repairs on the royal mansion over the summer

Andrew, who took over the house from the late Queen Mother on a long-term lease, has ploughed up to 7million of his own fortune into renovations

Suggestions mounted that he could be forced to permanently 'downsize' to the Windsor cottage after Prince Harry and Meghan left it and moved to the US.

But sources said that despite the dramas surrounding Royal Lodge and the costs needed to repair it, the Duke of York was adamant that he would remain in his home.

He is even believed to have refused to leave the premises during building works for fear he 'might never get back in'.

Amid the quarrel, one of Andrew's friends described how there had been a 'cooling of relations' between him and the King.

Charles then held out an 'olive branch' to his brother by inviting him to Balmoral over the summer along with Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York.

The brothers are said to have engaged in crisis talks during a family gathering there in late August, during which time the issue of Andrew's tenancy was thrashed out.

Charles then held out an 'olive branch' to his brother by inviting him to Balmoral along with Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York

Royal Lodge has seven bedrooms across the two top floors and Andrew shares the lavish mansion with just his ex-wife Sarah.

But the Grade II-listed mansion is in desperate need of repairs on top of the roof maintenance Andrew has already paid for, including work to solve a damp problem throughout the property.

Andrew took over the house from the late Queen Mother on a long-term lease and has ploughed up to 7million of his own fortune into renovations.

Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.
Senior Tories launched a last-ditch bid to save the northern leg of HS2 last night as Rishi Sunak was poised to scrap it.

The party's conference has been engulfed by a furious row over the high-speed rail line's future, with the PM warned that scrapping the Birmingham to Manchester leg would be 'turning your back' on levelling-up.

West Midlands Tory mayor Andy Street warned the PM on social media: 'I won't let HS2 go without a fight.'

He later said at a fringe event: 'If you tell the international investment community you are going to do something, you bloody well have to stick to your word.

'You will be turning your back on an opportunity to level up  a once-in-a-generation opportunity.' Dame Priti Patel suggested the PM should look at reducing costs rather than scrapping the northern leg.

Going nowhere: This engineering track shows how the route from Birmingham was set to join the existing West Coast line at Handsacre, Staffordshire. Instead it comes to a rather forlorn end and the northern leg now faces the scrapheap

Senior Tories launched a last-ditch bid to save the northern leg of HS2 last night as Rishi Sunak was poised to scrap it. Mr Sunak (centre) is pictured arriving at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester on Monday

She told Times Radio that Mr Sunak should have gone 'over the numbers with a slide rule'. 'Because to cancel it is a pretty drastic step forward,' she added.

However, a Tory source said the PM was expected to confirm the scrapping of the Manchester leg in his conference speech in the city tomorrow.

The source said Mr Sunak was 'ready to have the argument' about the issue, adding: 'This is not something we are ashamed of  we are doing the right thing, making sure that public money is well spent and that transport infrastructure in the North actually gets the improvement it deserves rather than throwing good money after bad.'

If the HS2 northern spur is scrapped, a dirt track in the Staffordshire countryside marks the end of the line for the project.

Drone shots show where the construction team have plotted out the route to the point where it would join the existing West Coast mainline at Handsacre before continuing on to Crewe.

The project has been dogged by delays, with costs spiralling from around 30billion to more than 100billion.

Dame Priti Patel suggested the PM should look at reducing costs rather than scrapping the northern leg. She told Times Radio that Mr Sunak should have gone 'over the numbers with a slide rule'. Ms Patel is pictured giving a speech at the Great British Growth Rally on Monday

However, a Tory source said the PM was expected to confirm the scrapping of the Manchester leg in his conference speech in the city tomorrow. The source said Mr Sunak was 'ready to have the argument' about the issue. Pictured: Workers at the Old Oak Common Station construction site for the HS2 high-speed railway in north west London on September 29 this year

The HS2 project has been dogged by delays, with costs spiralling from around 30billion to more than 100billion. Pictured: A road sign is seen as construction continues of the HS2 high speed rail project, near Amersham, Britain on September 29 this year

The PM could use his speech to announce that tens of billions could instead be ploughed into other transport projects to level up the North. These would focus on East-West rail connectivity rather than North-South, along with road projects.

The minister for rail and HS2, Huw Merriman, appeared to all but confirm its fate yesterday.

Speaking at a conference fringe event, he said HS2 was 'crowding out other opportunities to deliver more across the country'.

Downing Street yesterday insisted 'no final decisions' had been made, while government sources suggested that a significant delay is still on the table. Mr Street acknowledged that the PM has 'inherited a very difficult situation'. He added: 'Indeed he is right to try and get a grip of this situation. But gripping this situation means re-examining it.

'It does not mean giving up, admitting defeat you could say, or cancelling the future.'

He said HS2 was about a lot more than 'just a railway' and that it had become a debate about 'Britain's ability to do the tough stuff successfully'. He has written to Mr Sunak urging him to consider offering a stake in the project to major private firms to reduce the cost to the public purse.

A spokesman for Chancellor Jeremy Hunt set hares running yesterday by refusing to deny plans on HS2 had been approved in the Treasury. Mr Hunt is pictured on Monday as he arrives on stage to speak during the second day of the the Conservative Party Conference

Engineering and construction giants Arup, Mace and Siemens are said to be interested following meetings with Mr Street.

Ministers have refused for two weeks to deny that the rail route is to be curtailed again, after the Birmingham to Leeds leg was canned in 2021.

A spokesman for Chancellor Jeremy Hunt set hares running yesterday by refusing to deny plans on HS2 had been approved in the Treasury, carefully saying: 'It's not the Treasury's announcement... it's for the Prime Minister.'

Earlier in the day, Mr Hunt indicated that he wanted to cut costs, telling LBC: 'I need to have an answer why it costs ten times more to build high speed rail in this country than it does across the Channel in France.'
EXCLUSIVE

A devastated loved one has relived the panicked final words of a festivalgoer who collapsed at an electronic music festival at the weekend and died.

Jason Lee, 26, fell ill at the Knockout Outdoor festival at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday evening.

Mr Lee called his friend Julia An and asked her to come find him about 11.44pm. Moments later, he collapsed, was rushed to hospital in a critical condition and died.

'His last breaths were used on telling me he will send his location and to come find him,' Ms An recalled.

Jason Lee, 26, died after attending the Knockout dance festival at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday

Ms An said she spent hours trying to find him when she received a call saying he was fighting for life in hospital.

'When his mum and sister got there, he had already passed.'

Mr Lee, who died at Concord Hospital, was one of two people who died after attending the hard-style music festival.

Another festival attendee, 21, later collapsed at a hotel on George St, at Chippendale. He was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital and died.

NSW Police are investigating whether Mr Lee or the unnamed 21-year-old had taken drugs before their deaths.

Detective Superintendent Simon Glasser said police were waiting for autopsy reports before concluding how the men died.

'It's not specifically being treated as a suspected drug overdose,' Det Supt Simon Glasser told reporters on Sunday.

'We look at all avenues. Anything could have happened.'

Despite this, Superintendent Glasser issued a warning about the dangers of taking illicit substances at the festivals.

'This shows that people can die at music festivals,' he said.

'Drugs can have some horrible consequences. When you mix that with the heat of yesterday, it's an added risk factor that can cause adverse affects.'

Police on Tuesday revealed a 23-year-old man, identified as Trong Ha Nguyen, has been charged with alleged drug offences by detectives investigating the death of the 21-year-old.

Nguyen, from Victoria, was arrested at Sydney Airport around 4.20pm on Monday and searched by police who allegedly found $13,535 in cash.

Mr Lee was one of two men who died after attending Knockout Outdoor Festival (pictured) at Sydney Olympic Park

Pictured: drugs allegedly seized by officers at the festivals over the weekend

He was charged with supply self-administered prohibited drug causing death and dealing with property proceeds of crime less than $100,000. He has been refused bail and will appear at Downing Centre Local Court on November 30.

Meanwhile, more than 70 people were charged over drug offences at both of the festivals.

Around 85 people out of the 27,500 people who attended Listen Out were allegedly detected with drugs, according to NSW Police.

Knockout Outdoor festival drew in 53,000 people, with 27 charged with drug possession and four with supplying illicit substances.

In the wake of the deaths, revellers came forward to report a bad batch of drugs circulating around Sydney.

'[I] had noticed that quality has been more rubbish than usual but also suppliers jackin out s** drugs to make a profit, and then s*** like this happens cuz our government refuses to allow pill testing,' one person wrote.

Some attendees complained over the heavy policing of the concert and the use of drug dogs which was causing some drug users to panic and use all their drugs at once to avoid arrest.

Detectives will investigate both cases and autopsies will be carried out to determine how the men died.

Reports will be prepared for the coroner.

The deaths come as debate continues to rage over whether pill testing should be introduced at festivals, with pressure on the government to implement facilities likely to increase if the two fatalities turn out to be overdoses.

Pill testing trials at the Canberra's Groovin the Moo festival in 2019 found seven tablets contained lethal substances Nethyl pentylone, which has been linked to multiple overdoses at overseas festivals.

All seven revellers discarded the pills once they found out what they contained.

Last month, radio presenter Ray Hadley called for the government to take action and implement the facilities, warning revellers would die without them.

Tributes flow to Jason Lee

Mr Lee's friend Ms An described him as the 'most loyal friend, son [and] brother'.

She said he was the 'type of guy who would take the shirt off his back' for anyone in need.

He had been supporting his single mum who has health conditions.

'Everybody who had the fortune of being his friend knows he was the most stand up guy,' she said.

'He was always looking out for other people and being considerate of them, lending an ear, putting others before him.'

She said Mr Lee 'never shared his burdens' and even in his last moments, 'he could barely ask for help'.

Ms An said Mr Lee had only just recently celebrated his 26th birthday. Now his family are planning a funeral.

She called on the community and everyone touched by Mr Lee's 'one-of-a-kind presence' to help his family with the financial costs of laying him to rest.

'Jason has touched upon so many people's lives, and everybody who was his friend I'm sure can agree,' she said.

Mr Lee is pictured with his friend Joey Hungg at his birthday celebration five weeks ago

'Just like Jason, his mum is trying to figure things out on her own.

'Nobody should see their child go before them.'

A GoFundMe has smashed its $35,000 target within 24 hours of being launched - raising $36,411 by Monday morning.

Meanwhile, friends have flocked online to pay tribute to the young man whose life was tragically cut short.

Joey Hungg said she had woken up on Sunday to a 'nightmare'.

'I'm in shock and still can't believe this is real. Jason I'm so thankful to have known you and thankful for the memories we made.

'Thank you for being there for me each and every time I needed you.

'I never thought I would have to say goodbye so soon and I really don't want to.

'I miss you so much already panda'.

Friend Michel Fu-Strelnikov told Daily Mail Australia that words could not express Mr Lee's ' kindness, compassion and generosity towards everyone around him.'

'Jason was family and left an indelible mark on all of us, he had a heart of gold and selflessly always put others needs above his own,' she said.

Some 53,000 people attended Knockout Outdoor festival on Saturday

'The memories will forever be etched in our hearts and as we mourn we will also celebrate the beautiful life he lived.'

Joanna Wei described Jason as a 'gentle giant' who had the 'most beautiful soul.'

'He always had so much love and time for those around him and wouldn't think twice about going to ends of the earth for them,' she said.

'During one of our last phone calls, he mentioned that he was only a year from finishing university and was so excited to graduate.

'He was constantly trying to better himself, not for his own sake, but because he wanted to provide for his family and spoil his friends.
Australians could be waiting up to 13 days to find out if the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament has succeeded at the ballot boxes.

Polling experts are predicting a clear outcome on October 14, but if it's tighter than expected the result could come down to postal votes, which take longer to count and could delay the outcome.

When polling booths close at 6pm, the Australian Electoral Commission will set to work counting - and double counting - every vote cast that day.

Additionally, a vast majority of votes from early voting centres will also be counted. It is the postal votes which could delay the outcome.

While a small proportion of these votes will be counted on referendum night, the majority will take several days to tally.

Australians could be waiting up to 13 days to find out if the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament has succeeded at the ballot boxes

When polling booths close at 6pm, the Australian Electoral Commission will set to work counting - and double counting - every vote cast that day

The AEC said: 'Like in a federal election, if the overall result is close it may require up to 13 days after polling night for a result to be known.

'This is the timeframe allowed under referendum legislation for postal votes to come back to the AEC for inclusion in the count.'

Every single ballot paper must be counted by hand, and double checked to ensure the results are accurate.

Hired scrutineers will also be stationed across the nation to oversee 'every aspect of the count', and results will be uploaded to the AEC's virtual tally room in real time.

The AEC will only formally call the result when it is mathematically impossible for any other result to occur, they said.

Informal votes will also be tallied.

Every single ballot paper must be counted by hand, and double checked to ensure the results are accurat

For the referendum to succeed, a Yes vote must prevail across the nation as well as secure a majority in four of the six states.

While the Yes vote has been trending down for months, the most recent Guardian Essential poll has now revealed a slight uptick.

Some 49 per cent of respondents said they intend to vote No - down two points from last fortnight - while 42 per cent say they will vote Yes.

About eight per cent remain undecided.

But the 'hard No' group is now sitting at 42 per cent, compared to just 30 per cent of 'hard Yes' voters, while 13 per cent say they're 'soft Yes' voters and seven per cent are 'soft No'.

Australians have been repeatedly warned to ensure they clearly write 'yes' or 'no' on the ballot paper to avoid unintentionally nullifying their vote.

Hired scrutineers will also be stationed across the nation to oversee 'every aspect of the count', and results will be uploaded to the AEC's virtual tally room in real time

The AEC confirmed earlier in the campaign that ticks could be interpreted as a Yes vote on the day, but a cross would not be counted as a No because they're more open to interpretation.

There were further concerns after it was revealed some postal voters received two ballot papers in the mail - prompting assurances there was no possibility people could vote twice.

Melbourne voter Terry Guest said he and his wife both received an extra postal vote and claimed they were told to 'just disregard one of them and shred it if possible'.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) said the extra ballots are sent when voters submit two postal vote applications with different details.

However, only one postal vote will be accepted per voter, because every postal vote is checked against the electoral roll.

The AEC advises anyone who received an extra ballot to return one and destroy the other.

In spite of the forecast outcome, Yes campaigners and insiders tell Daily Mail Australia they're still confident they can win come October 14

In spite of the forecast outcome, Yes campaigners and insiders tell Daily Mail Australia they're still confident they can win come October 14.

Grandfather Gav Harris, who is campaigning up to 20 hours a week in western Sydney, said there's a positive vibe on the ground.

'People will say they're already voting Yes, or they'll smile, they'll beep their horns from their cars. I'd say there's a lot more support than negative feedback,' he said.

But another common reaction is simply confusion or a lack of interest.

'The undecided vote is still huge,' he said. 'People are still disengaged.'

These are the people the Yes23 campaign thinks are the key to turning the tide.

While cost of living pressures and other factors remain at the forefront of everyday Aussies' minds, as the referendum date nears people will inevitably start to ask more questions.
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT

A husband and wife from the US are accused of torturing dogs following an international investigation into a disgraced crocodile expert who raped and mutilated pets on camera in Australia.

Lucas Russell VanWoert, 25, and his wife Heather Marie VanWoert, 32, were arrested following a raid of their Ohio home in September 2022 and hit with a range of charges relating to animal cruelty.

Their arrests came after a joint investigation by US and Australian authorities to identify those responsible for creating a disturbing video called '1Bitch9Pups', which circulated on Telegram and abuse websites six months earlier, in March 2022.

The film was made by British-Australian zoologist and academic, Adam Britton, who was arrested in Darwin a month later and charged with almost 60 offences relating to bestiality, animal cruelty, and the possession of child exploitation material.

He recently pleaded guilty to all charges in Darwin's Supreme Court on September 25 and is awaiting sentence.

The VanWoert's weren't involved in the production of Britton's video, according to documents filed in the US District Court, but Britton and Mr VanWoert exchanged 705 photos and videos of animal abuse with one another from about November 2020.

Lucas and Heather VanWoert (pictured) were arrested following a raid of their Ohio home in September last year

Adam Britton (pictured) confessed to animal abuse, bestiality, and for the possession of child exploitation material

The shared files included footage of Mr VanWoert raping and torturing at least four dogs in the sleeper cabin of a tractor trailer, which he then shared with Britton on Telegram under the pseudonym 'Graves'.

Detectives tracked the filming location to a truck stop in Michigan, which eventually led them to Mr VanWoert.

Part of the reason authorities were able to identify him was because his face and a distinctive sun-shaped tattoo on his arm were visible in some of the footage.

He was not arrested during the raid at his property, but voluntarily confessed to engaging in sex acts, beating, and strangling a dog at his former workplace in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and placing its body in a dumpster.

He was charged with creating 'crushing' videos, which relates to animals being stomped on or impaled to satisfy a sexual fetish, and distributing obscene material.

Along with images and footage of animal abuse, detectives also found child exploitation videos on his electronic devices.

Heather VanWoert (pictured with her husband) was arrested and hit with 12 charges relating to animal cruelty

Heather VanWoert (mugshot pictured) was charged after her husband, Lucas VanWoert, confessed to charges relating to bestiality and animal cruelty

Mr VanWoert was not released on bail and faces 12 years behind bars.

In November 2022, his wife Mrs VanWoert was arrested and hit with 12 charges relating to animal torture.

On Sunday, Daily Mail Australia revealed that Jaden Young Korse, age 24 from Kentucky, edited Britton's depraved videos before they went online.

As with Mr VanWoert, Britton met Korse in an online community dedicated to people who get sexual gratification from animal abuse, known as zoosadists.

They developed a friendship on Telegram, Britton's pseudonym was 'Monster' and Korse called himself 'Gorvaged', and bonded over their shared obsession with animal cruelty.

In a few videos which showed Britton sexually abusing and torturing dogs, he held up signs that read 'Gorvaged' in an apparent effort to thank him for editing his work.

Korse and Britton were eventually identified in April 2022 thanks to dedicated internet sleuths who were disgusted by the footage and worked tirelessly to bring those involved to justice.

However, Korse had struggled with addiction from the age of 13 and died from an accidental fentanyl overdose on December 21, 2021.

Jaden Young Korse (pictured) was from Kentucky in the US, and edited Britton's videos under the name 'Gorvaged'

Britton primarily used his Monster pseudonym to speak with like-minded people on Telegram, but Korse helped him create another called Cerberus - which is a three-headed dog in Greek mythology - to release his twisted content 'anonymously'.

Britton's arrest came just a month after he uploaded '1Bitchh9pups' to an abuse website in March 2022.

Sources say he wanted it to be the best known 'shock video' on the internet, but all it did was anger internet users who were disgusted with the obscene levels of violence and scoured the video looking for clues.

Eventually, one person noticed an orange City of Darwin leash on one of the dogs and one user in particular managed to identify Britton reported him to the police.

The non-publication order was lifted when Britton pleaded guilty in Darwin's Supreme Court on Monday.

He pleaded guilty to 37 counts of animal cruelty, 10 counts of raping or attempting to rape a dog, and four counts of possessing or transmitting child abuse material in Darwin's Supreme Court on Monday.

The non-publication order on his name was then lifted.

Britton will be sentenced in Darwin Supreme Court on December 13.
Her husband says she's 'doing well' in recovery

A shark attack survivor is making progress with her recovery in hospital after undergoing emergency surgery.

Pamela Cook, 65, had gone for a swim when she was attacked by a shark at Beachport in South Australia, just before 8am on Monday.

She was bitten on the leg, suffering serious injuries.

Ms Cook was helped to shore by bystanders before paramedics arrived and took her to Mount Gambier Hospital, about 85km from Beachport.

Her husband, Greg Cook, revealed in an update that his wife was 'talking' and 'doing well'.

Shark attack survivor Pamela Cook (pictured), 65, is making progress with her recovery after undergoing emergency surgery

'She got bitten on the ankle first and she thought it was one of the swimmers coming up behind her, and she looked around and couldn't see and she thought 'holy s***',' he told the ABC.

'Then she saw the shark come and took a piece of her thigh out, didn't take her thigh out, sort of just took a bite.'

Ms Cook, who works at a local pub, had been swimming with community group Beachport Sea Urchins and Slugs at the time.

Her husband said nearby swimmers helped her to a ladder, which Ms Cook managed to climb up after being bitten.

Mr Cook added that one woman 'took her top off and made a tourniquet' while others grabbed towels and blankets to stem the bleeding.

She was taken to hospital and had emergency surgery.

She is expected to be there for four or five days and will then be sent home to undergo further rehabilitation.

Ms Cook had been swimming with a local community group at a beach when she was bitten on the leg by a shark

Emergency services raced to the scene of the serious shark attack near Beachport Jetty in Beachport, South Australia, on Monday

One swimmer believed the shark that had attacked Ms Cook 'looked like a white pointer, but not a big one', according her Mr Cook.

Others have pointed towards a juvenile great white.

Flinders University shark ecologist Charlie Huveneer told the public broadcaster that a great white shark or a bronze whaler was likely responsible for the bite.

Beachport Hotel owner Geoff Wells told The Adelaide Advertiser that the small community was in 'shock' following the attack.

'We're only a small community and we're all in a bit of shock. I've been here for eight years and nothing like this has happened before,' he said.

A local said the swimmers were a 'wonderful group of ladies' who would gather at Waterfront Cafe at the jetty following their morning swim.

Drone pilots will scour the waters with Phantom 4 drones up to 800m offshore and 500m north and south of the jetty to see if they can locate the shark (stock image)

'They are a very close-knit group and it's really going to hit them hard,' she said.

SES South Australia is preparing to launch drones to locate and identify the shark.

'Our crews have been requested to assist South Australian police with a drone search,' an SES spokesman said.

The pilots will scour the waters with Phantom 4 drones up to 800m offshore and 500m north and south of the jetty, the spokesman said.

The attack comes just weeks after a shark attack at Port Macquarie in NSW left surfer Toby Begg fighting for his life in hospital.
A man who allegedly stole a police van before he crashed the vehicle while taking it on a joy ride to McDonald's has been arrested.

The terrifying incident happened at Anzac Avenue in Mango Hill, around 40 kilometres north of Brisbane early on Tuesday morning around 3am.

The man was allegedly driving the van to Macca's before he crashed the vehicle, writing it off.

A man who allegedly stole a police vehicle to go on an alleged joy ride to McDonald's crashed the van (pictured) in Brisbane's north early on Tuesday morning in a terrifying incident

The 37-year-old man then fled the scene on foot after he managed to get out of the van, forcing officers from Queensland Police to give chase.

He was arrested on Boundary Road in Narangba around 3.21am about 7km from the crash scene.

The man was allegedly armed with a knife before he was arrested by authorities.

Earlier, officers tried to stop the man from allegedly stealing the vehicle after they unsuccessfully tried to taser him.

They also brought out a firearm during their initial exchange with the man before officers tasered him a second time following the crash.

He was taken to Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital after he suffered non-life threatening injuries.

A spokesperson from Queensland Police said the man is under police guard at the hospital.

After he crashed the vehicle (pictured), the man took off on foot when he managed to exit the van as officers from Queensland police gave chase before he was arrested nearby at Narangba

No one was injured and police have not laid any charges.

Police are expected to address the media about the incident later today.

Vision from the scene of the shocking crash shows the vehicle badly damaged with its front bonnet crumpled and torn apart after it appeared to have crashed into a tree.

The van's door as well as its roof and several parts of the vehicle's exterior were also torn apart.

The man is believed to be assisting officers with their inquiries as police conduct investigations into the incident.
Allitt was handed a minimum 30-year sentence in 1993 for the child murders

'Angel of Death' serial killer nurse Beverley Allitt will go before a panel of experts today in her first steps towards release, according to reports.

She will appear before a mental health tribunal where she will be assessed for a potential transfer to a mainstream prison for the first time since her sentence began.

The former nurse, now 54, killed Liam Taylor, seven weeks, Timothy Hardwick, 11, Becky Phillips, two months, and Claire Peck, 15 months, over the course of 59 days at Grantham Hospital in Lincolnshire in 1991.

She was handed a minimum 30-year sentence in 1993 for murdering the four children and attempting to kill nine others.

However, she spent just a week in prison before she was diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder.

'Angel of Death' serial killer nurse Beverley Allitt will go before a panel of experts today in her first steps towards release

She will appear before a mental health tribunal where she will be assessed for a potential transfer to a mainstream prison for the first time since her sentence began

Allitt could now be moved from Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire (pictured) to a mainstream prison

Allitt could now be moved from Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire to a mainstream prison, The Mirror reports.

Allitt's reign of terror: A timeline of the murders February 23, 1991: Allit claimed her first victim, seven-week old Liam Taylor March 5, 1991: She killed 11-year-old Timothy Hardwick after he was admitted to the ward having suffered an epileptic seizure April 1991: She gave two-month-old Becky Phillips an insulin overdose after she was admitted to the ward for gastroenteritis April 1991: One-year-old Claire Peck died after she was left alone with Allitt following an asthma attack 1993: Allitt received 13 life sentences Advertisement

This means that Allitt could apply for parole six months after a potential move to the new prison.

But her victims and her families have said they feel 'terrified' at the thought of the killer going free once again.

Alan Usher's daughter Kayley was just 15 months when Allitt attempted to kill her by injecting an air bubble under her arm.

Kayley survived but has been left with long-term health issues such as with fine motor skills, hearing and mobility.

Mr Usher told The Mirror: 'Allitt should never have been in a hospital, she should have been sent to prison.

'Can you imagine if she were freed? It would destroy Kayley. She's be terrified, looking in cupboards and around the house because she didn't feel safe.'

Alan and his wife Sharon adopted Kayley when she was a toddler and the family still live in Grantham.

Allitt took the lives of four children and tried to kill nine others by tampering with their injections.

Originally her crimes were suspected to be down to natural causes, but blood samples retained from nine of the children who had collapsed or died revealed that they had been injected with lethal doses of insulin, potassium or lignocaine.

After a lengthy trial, Allitt was found guilty of four murders and nine counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and was given 13 life sentences.

Alan Usher's daughter Kayley was just 15 months when Allitt attempted to kill her by injecting an air bubble under her arm

Beverley Allitt enjoying her freedom as she practises her needlework in a top security hospital

Beverley Allitt pictured leaving court in 1991 after being arrested on suspicion of murder

It was claimed in mitigation that she was suffering from Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy.

READ MORE: The chilling comparisons between killer nurses Lucy Letby and Beverley Allitt Advertisement

This is a syndrome where a parent or caregiver causes an injury, usually to a child, to then gain attention as the carer.

The paediatric nurse claimed her first victim, seven-week old Liam Taylor, on February 23, 1991, by injecting him with a large dose of insulin.

She killed 11-year-old Timothy Hardwick on March 5 that year after he was admitted to the ward having suffered an epileptic seizure.

In April that year she gave two-month-old Becky Phillips an insulin overdose after she was admitted to the ward for gastroenteritis.

One-year-old Claire Peck died after she was left alone with Allitt following an asthma attack, also in April 1991.
She also announced plans for 'minimum service levels' during university strikes

Downing Street has threatened to pass legislation to ban mobile phones in classrooms if schools fail to act on new guidance.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan yesterday confirmed that she would order heads to outlaw devices in lessons and during break times.

She said teachers are struggling with the impact of phones in the classroom and need support in a bid to tackle disruptive behaviour and online bullying.

But No10 said the Government could go further and introduce new laws to enforce the guidance if it is not heeded.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said yesterday: We will issue guidance to schools to take immediate actions for leaders to do the right thing by their pupils and teachers.

Schools have been threatened with new legislation banning mobile phones from the classroom if they fail to act on new guidance

It will include real-life best-practice examples from schools that are already successfully doing this.

Compelling schools to make the change by putting the guidance on a statutory footing and therefore legislating would take time.

So we obviously keep that under consideration, if needed, but we think its better to act swiftly, which is why were issuing this guidance.

Downing Street said the guidance would bring consistency to phone use in schools, while the Department for Education said it would lead to improvements in behaviour.

Mrs Keegan announced the new guidance  first revealed in yesterdays Daily Mail  during her keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

In a confident address, she drew heavily on her own state school education in Knowsley, Merseyside  sparking fresh claims that she is positioning herself as a future Tory leader.

The Education Secretary said: Today, one of the biggest issues facing children and teachers is grappling with the impact of smartphones in our schools.

The distraction, the disruption, the bullying. We know that teachers are struggling with their impact and we know that they need support.

So, today we are recognising the amazing work that many schools have done in banning mobile phones and we are announcing that we will change guidance so that all schools will follow their lead.

In her conference keynote speech, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan also announced a consultation into 'minimum service levels' at universities, in response to ongoing UCU strikes

Mrs Keegan also announced she would launch a consultation on introducing new Minimum Service Levels in universities to protect students from being held to ransom by the University and College Union (UCU).

The UCU has held 19 days of strike action so far this year, according to the Department for Education.

She said: Many will still want to go to university and that will be the right choice for them, and if they do they should get the education that they paid for, that is common sense, right?

Apparently not, because over recent years we have seen constant strikes, we have students not getting the education they paid for, and some not even having their degrees marked. This is outrageous behaviour.

She also said it was common sense for parents to be told what their children are being taught in schools, and for girls to have separate toilets to boys.

Ms Keegans mobile phone crackdown was welcomed by former BBC newsreader Kate Silverton, who is now a child therapist.

She said it was about time ministers acted, and suggested children under 16 be barred from using phones with access to the internet to reduce the potential for online harms.

But unions said proposals to curb smartphones with internet access were unworkable and would make the current behaviour crisis worse

But unions said the proposal was unenforceable.

Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said: If the Government introduces blanket bans that are unenforceable, this will make the behaviour crisis worse, not better.

And Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders union NAHT, said the announcement could present a big challenge for schools.

He said: We are not sure how it would work in practice and how it could be successfully implemented in a wide range of schools.

Most young people wont just stop bringing their phones to school, and there could be parental opposition too, as there are practical reasons why pupils may need a mobile phone such as while travelling to and from school.
Children were left suspended five metres in the air

More than a dozen kids were left stuck in the air after a theme park ride malfunctioned as technicians desperately worked to get them free.

Distressed parents had to wait 30 minutes as Dreamworld staff tried to free their children, who were left suspended five metres in the air on Thursday night.

The Gold Coast amusement park's Humpty-Go-Round ride suddenly stopped working at 8:30pm and the last child was not freed until after 9pm.

Children were left suspended five metres in the air for more than 30 minutes on Thursday after the Dreamworld Humpty-Go-Round ride malfunctioned

Stressed staffers worked to get children off of the ride while parents watched on at 8:30pm

All children were able to get off the ride safely but parents were still shaken as the park's security tried to prevent them taking photos, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports.

Parents of the children said that they heard a 'cracking noise' as mechanics yanked a panel off the ride which caused it to 'drop violently' with the children on board.

'At first it was a bit novel seeing the ride had malfunctioned and frozen, the kids were laughing and carrying on, but pretty soon a whole lot of staff appeared and the situation got a little dicey,' one parent told the publication.

'It looked like there was a fair bit of panic in the eyes of the staff - they seemed to be really struggling to figure out how to get the kids down safely.'

The children quickly became impatient and some looked frightened, according to the parent.

Michael Wormald, whose child was stuck on the ride, said that Dreamworld's response was swift and calm.

The ride stalled when decorative collars became dislodged at the beginning of the ride, according to Mr Wormald.

'While the ride was being worked on the operator was constantly on the microphone ensuring everyone on the ride knew it was being solved as soon as possible,' he wrote on social media.

A woman from customer care was also seen walking around speaking to families to make sure that they were okay.

The 'violent drop' happened when technicians initially tried to lower the ride but failed to do so.

They continued working until the ride was able to be lowered enough to use a small step to help the children off.

'The engineers went around one by one to get everyone off and then the first aid officers made sure everyone was okay and ensured that no one had a sore back/neck,' Mr Wormald wrote.

The malfunction occurred within minutes of the ride starting and technicians immediately began trying to resolve the issue, according to one parent whose child was on the ride

A spokesperson for Dreamworld confirmed that there had been a malfunction on Thursday and that ensuring the children's safety was their top priority.

'The Humpty-Go-Round experienced an unscheduled stoppage as a result of its safety system functioning as expected,' the spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.

READ MORE: Dreamworld owners deny blame for horrific water slide injury Owners of Dreamworld theme park reject liability claims for a gruesome genital injury which happened on a water slide. Advertisement

'The process to lower the ride was conducted and our team was in communication with all guests for the duration.

'We understand the inconvenience for our guests, however safety is our first priority and at no time was safety compromised.'

The latest incident followed reports an eight-year-old girl suffered a horrific genital injury on the Full6 ride at Dreamworld's sister park WhiteWater World in November.

The owners of Dreamworld's parent company, Ardent Leisure, denied that the girl's injuries were their fault and that her mother had no entitlement to damages.

They claim that since the unusual injury was not a foreseeable risk and they did not have a duty to protect the girl from it, according to The Courier Mail.

Ardent also said that the $1million in damages sought were 'excessive and wholly disproportionate to the true nature and full extent of the injury'.

The mother, who is from Logan in Brisbane's north, is also suing Swimplex Acquatics, who designed and built the ride but they are yet to file a defence.

No date has been set for the hearing.
White House staffers have blamed President Joe Biden's dog Commander's biting problems on the unfriendly expressions of Secret Service agents.

The 2-year-old German Shepherd reportedly had his 11th bite of one of the president's key protectors just last week - but is said to be pleasant around West Wing staff.

Secret Service emails obtained by Judicial Watch in July revealed the dog had bitten or threatened at least 10 people, making this the 11th incident involving it.

According to those on Biden's staff, Commander's behavior around the Secret Service doesn't make any sense to them.

Some have suggested that while staffers greet Commander with a smile, Secret Service agents tend to be colder.

'The White House is just a crazy environment for a dog,' an ex-White House official said. 'There are enormous men with guns acting suspiciously hostile everywhere.'

White House staffers blame President Joe Biden's dog Commander's biting problems on the supposedly unfriendly faces of Secret Service agents, as they say the First Dog is usually pleasant

'Everyone loves him,' said a current member of the staff, who claims that workers are often excited to find time to say hello and scratch Commander behind the ears.

'He's always so friendly.'

West Wing staffers told Politico that there was never any sense that Commander was violent and that he's never shown any anger toward them.

'It's shocking that he can be so aggressive,' said staff member claimed. 'I've never seen him like that.'

Similarly, Biden's former German shepherd Major was forced to move away from the White House after he was caught biting agents.

Biden's staff fears the same fate may be dealt to Commander if he continues to show his teeth, with one suggesting the pooch could be sent away by Thanksgiving.

'We do wonder how much longer they can keep him around. At a certain point, it becomes impossible.'

White House Communications Director Elizabeth Alexander has given a statement on the bites in the past.

'As we've noted before, the White House can be a stressful environment for family pets, and the First Family continues to work on ways to help Commander handle the often unpredictable nature of the White House grounds,' she said.

According to those on Biden's staff, Commander's behavior around the Secret Service doesn't make any sense to them, with another suggesting that, while staffers greet Commander with a smile, Secret Service agents tend to be a little colder

The 2-year-old German Shepherd reportedly had his 11th bite of one of the president's key protectors just last week

'The President and First Lady are incredibly grateful to the Secret Service and Executive Residence staff for all they do to keep them, their family, and the country safe.'

Commander most recently bit an agent on September 25.

'Yesterday around 8pm, a Secret Service Uniformed Division police officer came in contact with a First Family pet and was bitten,' USSS chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement to DailyMail.com.

'The officer was treated by medical personnel on complex.'

One agent was sent to a local hospital after the dog bit them on the arm and leg, and one was attacked when Jill Biden let him off his leash.

The agent also had to use a steel shield to fend him off from another attack.

Commander Biden bit a Secret Service agent on Monday night at the White House - above the dog is seen on the South Lawn with groundskeeper Dale Haney in August 2022

Joe and Jill Biden's former rescue pup Major is spending more time in Delaware as newly revealed emails show he bit more people that the White House previously disclosed - above the dog is seen on the South Lawn in March

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also blamed stress for the dog's behavior.

'As you all know, the White House complex can be unique and very stressful. That is something I'm sure you can all understand,' Jean-Pierre said in July.

'It is unique and it is stressful for all of us. So you can imagine what it's like for a family pet or family pets, more broadly.'

She added that the first family was 'working through ways to make the situation better for everyone.'

At the time of the released emails in July, the White House said the Bidens were working through new training and leashing protocols for Commander but didn't detail what they were.

In the batch of emails released in July, Secret Service officers called the dog 'freaking crazy,' argued he would have been 'put down' if he didn't belong to the Biden family and said he needed a muzzle.

On November 10, 2022, Jill Biden 'couldn't regain control' of Commander as the dog charged another member of the Secret Service.

The same month, the German Shepherd clamped down on an agent's arm, resulting in him needing to seek medical treatment.

The 2-year-old German Shepherd has been involved in 11 biting incidents

Commander was a birthday gift to President Biden from his brother James and sister-in-law Sara.

The Biden's welcomed Commander to the executive residence as a puppy in December 2021.

He was a birthday gift to President Biden from his brother James and sister-in-law Sara.

Commander is not the first pet of the Bidens' to cause some issues for the first couple.

Another one of the Bidens' German Shepherds, Major, also bit staff and Secret Service agents.

The dog moved out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2021 and re-homed with 'family friends'.
A teenage girl who was allegedly raped by a 13-year-old male patient at Perth Children's Hospital mental health unit has opened up about her horrifying ordeal.

Florence (not her real name) and her parents have told her story to the ABC in the hope that it may stop the same thing from happening to anyone else.

She was 13 at the time of the alleged assault last year and felt being interviewed about it could be detrimental to her mental health, so she wrote about it.

'Knowing I'm not the only one genuinely shatters me,' Florence wrote. 'We were supposed to be protected.'

Mixed sex mental health wards are normal in Australia, but Florence didn't know that and was shocked to find boys in the same area as her when she was admitted.

A teenage girl who was allegedly raped by a male patient at Perth Children's Hospital mental health unit last year has opened up about her shock at the ordeal (stock image)

Florence woke up to find a male patient in her hospital room - earlier that day he allegedly told her he was going to drug the nurses so he could 'do stuff' to her.

'I was just frozen, knowing he was so much larger than me,' she said.

READ MORE: US marine stationed in Australia charged with rape Advertisement

After the alleged rape, Florence waited for somebody to come to her help her, but said said it was hours before anyone checked on her.

'I fell asleep hugging my knees up to my chest, hoping he wouldn't come back in.'

She had become a patient in the hospital after allegedly being raped by a stranger she met online three months earlier.

Florence's parents feared she might try to take her own life and brought her to the mental health ward.

'That was the worst day of our life or so we thought,' her father Luke (not his real name) said.

Her mother Rachel (not her real name) said: 'I remember leaving her (at the hospital) and just crying the whole way home because as a mum, you just want to be there for your baby.'

The parents cannot understand how an alleged second sexual assault happened in a hospital.

'Absolutely gut wrenching that the same thing happened to her in less than three months. That actually broke me,' Luke said.

A year on, they say they still have no real information on what happened to Florence.

'We've had to fight so hard just to find out the basic details of what happened to our little girl that night,' Rachel said.

A review of Florence's assault found the staff on duty did not do their hourly checks between 12.30am and 3.30am as they had 'sequestered' themselves in the nurse's station.

Rachel and Luke said they were told this was because the nurses were afraid of the male patient who allegedly attacked their daughter.

'There's security at that hospital 24 hours a day. I do not understand why this happened, why no one was called,' Luke said.

The family has not been able to get the CCTV footage from the night, but the review said that at 12.33am the vision showed the male patient crawling across the floor and going into Florence's room.

There are also some discrepancies between what the review found - the nurses stayed in their station - and what the notes on the CCTV footage showed - some nurses were seen walking around and checking patient's rooms.

The family believes they should be allowed to view the video footage, that it is the only way they will understand what happened.

Valerie Jovanovic, Western Australia's chief executive of Child and Adolescent Health Service told Daily Mail Australia that 'immediate and comprehensive support was provided to those involved and referrals were made to relevant authorities'.

'A full review was conducted immediately by the Child and Adolescent Health Service and independent investigations undertaken by the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist and the Mental Health Advocacy Service  both independent statutory bodies,' she said.

'Recommended actions have since been taken and further work continues.'

She added that '$7.7million was allocated recently to make changes to the ward ... I want to reassure families that patient safety remains our highest priority.'

Florence's parents are worried that she will not be able to go to a hospital for care in the future.

Florence was 13 at the time of the alleged assault in Perth Children's Hospital (pictured) and felt being interviewed about it could be detrimental to her mental health, so she wrote about it

'When she's older, what if she wants to have a baby? How is that ever going to work for her with the extreme trauma that she's experienced?' Rachel said.

Their daughter said she doesn't blame the male patient who allegedly assaulted her - she said the hospital had a duty to keep her safe.

'Even though that boy wrecked a part of me, I know he was let down by the system too.'

This story and others will be broadcast on Triple J's Hack program on Tuesday at 5.30pm.
The US Embassy in Georgia addressed allegations made by the State Security Service against USAID. The embassy firmly denied these accusations, describing them as false and not representative of the true objectives of their assistance in Georgia. The embassy emphasized its long history of supporting the Georgian people since 1992 and stressed the transparency of its assistance efforts."Allegations made publicly today against one of our assistance projects are false and fundamentally mischaracterize the goals of our assistance to Georgia. USAID has been supporting the Georgian people since 1992. As always, our assistance is transparent, and we welcome any opportunities to discuss any concerns the government may have.The right of citizens to freely voice their concerns and aspirations is foundational to any democracy and is a value shared by both of our countries. USAID has collaborated with CANVAS for more than two years to help people to speak up for the issues that matter to their families and communities. We have partnered with CANVAS to deliver training to mothers advocating for better cancer treatments for children, and to people advocating for the rights of elderly citizens in their communities.Despite these unwarranted attacks, we will continue to support Georgian organizations who support people to secure the future they determine and deserve and to secure their fundamental rights guaranteed by the Georgian constitution," reads the US Embassy's statement.Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili addressed the State Security Service's accusations against USAID and Canvas-Georgia, stating that he "will not allow destructive forces to harm the country again." According to him, this occurred for the first time in 2003 with the Rose Revolution."It is concerning that citizens from a foreign state come to our country and conduct training sessions here, all under the guise of providing education to individuals in the field of art and culture. Meanwhile, they are promoting calls and training on how to stage a revolution and overthrow the government through violent means. It appears that these individuals have not learned anything new and are incapable of adapting to the present. Despite so many years having passed, they remain stuck in the past, seemingly thinking it's still 2003. However, it's now 2023, and we have been in power for over 11 years. Rest assured, we will not allow any disruptions or destabilization in our country caused by these non-existent, destructive, and radical forces. I want to emphasize that today, our state is strong," stated the Prime Minister.
READ MORE: Trump makes wild claim that 80% of fraud case could be THROWN OUT because statute of limitations has expired

He also confirmed on the record to CNN that Trump had lied about his position on abortion, on evangelical Christians, and on Jews

Kelly, Donald Trump's longest serving White House chief of staff, says he witnessed the former president insult wounded vets

John Kelly, Donald Trump's former chief of staff, has released a damning statement claiming the president did call service members who died fighting 'losers and suckers.'

Kelly went on to support separate claims Trump didn't want to include military amputees at a 2018 White House event, when he allegedly said their presence 'doesn't look good for me.'

In a statement to CNN, Kelly wrote: 'What can I add that has not already been said? A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all "suckers" because "there is nothing in it for them."

'A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because "it doesnt look good for me."

'A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family  for all Gold Star families  on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in Americas defense are "losers" and wouldnt visit their graves in France.'

President Donald J. Trump greets Army Captain Luis Avila during the Armed Forces Welcome Ceremony at Joint Base Myer in Virginia, USA, on September 30, 2019

Kelly served under Trump from 2017 to 2019 and says he directly witnessed many of the claims he now says he can verify.

He also alleges that his former boss lied about his stance on key issues including abortion, with the 45th president claiming to be staunchly pro-life.

Kelly did not offer further details on the alleged hypocrisy.

He concluded his screed with 'God help us,' suggesting he is none too-pleased about the thought of a second term in office for Trump.

Kelly said Trump had not been 'truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life,' but did not clarify further. He was moved to take action after Trump accused Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley of treason.

Trump became aggressive after an unflattering Atlantic magazine piece detailed the former president's alleged slurs about a disabled vet invited by Milley to sing at a 2019 event.

President Donald Trump stands with John Kelly in a photo from 2017

John Kelly's blistering statement in full 'What can I add that has not already been said? 'A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all "suckers" because "there is nothing in it for them." 'A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because "it doesn't look good for me." 'A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family  for all Gold Star families  on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America's defense are "losers" and wouldn't visit their graves in France. 'A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women. 'A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason  in expectation that someone will take action. 'A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law. 'There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.' Advertisement

The piece claims that Trump unleashed a vile tirade about the war hero's appearance.

The article referenced Milley's welcome ceremony in Virginia where Army captain Luis Avila's wheelchair struggled to move after the ground was sodden by rain.

Avila was a five-tour veteran who was blown up in an IED attack in Afghanistan, and was chosen by Milley to sing 'God Bless America' at the event. Avila is an amputee who's suffered a stroke, a heart attack and brain damage - and Milley chose him to sing in the belief that he was a true American hero.

But after the veteran's wheelchair almost toppled, Trump allegedly told Milley - within earshot of several witnesses - 'Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded.'

Kelly's comments all but confirmed the claims made in The Atlantic piece.

In a previous story published by The Atlantic, editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg alleged that Trump turned to Kelly during a Memorial Day service in 2017 and remarked about his confusion regarding the sacrifices made by soldiers.

At the time, Kelly and Trump were standing among the headstones in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery where Afghanistan and Iraq war vets were laid to rest.

'I don't get it. What was in it for them?' Trump allegedly said to Kelly.

That same day, Trump and Kelly laid flowers on the grave of Kelly's son - Robert Michael Kennedy - who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2010.

Alyssa Farah, former White House Director of Strategic Communications, issued a denial at the time that Trump had made the comments.

Speaking after Kelly's statement she told CNN: 'Ultimately, I took the former president's word, which of course was "I would never disparage the military" and went on record.

'I really applaud General Kelly for coming forward and saying this so definitively now.

'He (Trump) doesn't understand the Constitution and the role of the military.'

John Bolton, Trump's former national security advisor, said: 'I don't have any doubt what John Kelly said was true, none whatsoever.'

Bolton said it showed Trump was a 'coward' and didn't like seeing wounded soldiers because he feared something like that could have happened to him.

He told CNN: 'I think the cowardice analysis is correct. I'm appalled that he could be elected president again.'

Trump also got into hot water for his comments about prisoners of war (POWs), including his public and on-the-record statements about Sen. John McCain.

McCain, an Arizona Republican and Vietnam POW, was 'not a war hero,' according to Trump via a speech he made in 2015, three years before McCain's death from cancer.

'He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured,' the then presidential hopeful said.

Behind closed doors, the attacks on the well-respected military vet did not stop.

Goldberg's article alleged that Trump used to repeatedly call McCain a 'loser.'

It also stated Trump would refer to former President George H. W. Bush, a Navy vet whose plane was shot down in World War II, as a 'loser' as well.

Trump himself dodged the draft a total of five times, once for 'heel spurs' in his foot and four times for college.

Trump and Kelly laid flowers on the grave of Kelly's son - Robert Michael Kennedy - who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2010. Trump allegedly said to Kelly 'what's in it for them' while discussing those who died in wars on the same day

Donald Trump and Army Captain Luis Avila in 2019. Avila was severely wounded by an IED

According to Kelly, Trump said that being pictured with amputees 'doesn't look good for me'

Trump's comments on Sen. John McCain and his time as a prisoner of war were addressed by Kelly in the statement to CNN

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Kelly's statement also commented on the attacks Trump launched prior to the 2016 election regarding the Gold Star Khan family.

Khizr Khan spoke during the Democratic National Convention that year and gave a tribute to his son Humayun, who received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart after he was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2004.

Ghazala Khan - Khzir's wife and Humayun's mother - stood quietly during the speech while wearing a headscarf.

'If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me,' Trump said.

Kelly's remark about Gold Star families references Trump's 2018 visit to France where the former president was set to visit a Paris gravesite for World War I American soldiers.

Several key staff members said Trump had no interest in visiting the cemetery because, 'Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers.'

An article around the same time reported that Trump called the 1,800 Marines killed in the Belleau Wood 'suckers' for getting killed.

'Those are the heroes,' Kelly said. 'In our society, there's only one group of people who are more heroic than they are  and they are buried over in Arlington.'

Khan and his wife Ghazala (pictured) on stage at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, where the father of late Gold Star veteran criticized Donald Trump

Pictured: Humayun Khan was killed by a car bomb in Iraq back in 2004 at the age of 27

Additionally, Kelly alleged that Trump spent a significant portion of his campaign and presidency lying to constituents about his true beliefs on major issues.

'A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,' Kelly continued.

He also called the former president and four-time indicted individual a 'person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about.'

'A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason  in expectation that someone will take action.

'A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.'

Trump was criticized throughout his one-term presidency for admiring the rules of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and even North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

'There is nothing more that can be said,' Kelly concluded. 'God help us.'

CNN reached out to Trump's team for a statement Monday prior to publishing the story with Kelly's comments but came back with insults aimed at Milley.

Campaign officials reportedly insulted Milley's character and credibility despite him having nothing to do with the story.

President Donald Trump and John Kelly in a photo from July 2017

John Kelly visits the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial in Belleau

The statements come just days after CNN spoke with former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson who warned that 'Donald Trump is the most grave threat we will face to our democracy in our lifetime, and potentially in American history.'

Several other members of Trump's inner circle have spoken out about the former president, warning of the dangers he allegedly presents.

Former secretary of defense, Mark Esper, told CNN in November 2022 that he thinks Trump is 'unfit for office.'

'He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well,' Esper said.

Former attorney general, Bill Barr, told CBS earlier this year that he believes Trump is 'a consummate narcissist.'

'And he constantly engages in reckless conduct.  He will always put his own interests, and gratifying his own ego, ahead of everything else, including the country's interests,' Barr continued.

'Our country can't, you know, can't be a therapy session for you know, a troubled man like this,' Barr shared.
Relatives of Minneapolis crime victims are demanding that the new district attorney change her approach, after the killers of their loved ones were given what they think are excessively lenient punishments.

Mary Moriarty, 59, became the Hennepin County in January this year, after 30 years as a public defender.

Her campaign website described her as 'a fierce advocate for fighting systemic injustices', who 'put a spotlight on racial biases in the criminal legal system.'

In her nine months in office, she has angered victims' relatives with her recommendations for sentencing - even clashing with the liberal Soros-backed attorney general for Minnesota, Keith Ellison.

In her first week, she sparked outrage by dropping charges against a 35-year-old man accused of raping a 14-year-old girl, due to a technicality. He cannot be retried for the same crime, CBS News reported.

Moriarty said she was 'deeply remorseful and apologetic' to the child, who endured grueling testimony before the case was dismissed.

Mary Moriarty took over as Hennepin County attorney in January, and has come under fire for her approach to prosecutions

Moriarty, a 30-year veteran public defender, has defended her sentencing, saying it is appropriate - despite the state attorney general taking the highly unusual step of taking over one case

Last week, one angry mother stood in the courtroom to protest what she saw as lenient sentencing for the drug dealer whose fentanyl-laced pills killed her daughter.

Kailey Caspersen died in May 2021, aged 25, after taking pain killers sold to her by Jesse Lietzau.

Lietzau was charged with third-degree murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years, but prosecutors asked for probation and up to 240 days in jail.

The 25-year-old has five misdemeanor convictions on his record, including theft, damaging property, disorderly conduct, violating a no-contact order and being a public nuisance, according to Twin Cities.com.

He will be sentenced in November.

Kailey Caspersen died in May 2021, aged 25, after taking pain killers sold to her by Jesse Lietzau

Lietzau admitted that he knew the pills had fentanyl in them, but didn't tell his client: Moriarty is not seeking the maximum 25-year sentence, but rather probation and up to 240 days in jail

Lietzau admitted that he knew the pills had fentanyl in them, but didn't tell his client.

Kailey's mother, Nancy Caspersen, held up signs in court reading: 'Why are drug dealers getting away with murder?'

She told The Star Tribune: 'It ain't fair. It's not right. She's my only child.

'It makes me feel like she didn't matter to these people.'

Another grieving mother, Catherine Markey, herself a prosecutor, pleaded with Ellison to overturn Moriarty's decision regarding her son's murder.

Stephen Markey, a 39-year-old paralegal, was shot and killed in broad daylight in June 2019 by Jared Ohsman, 17, and 15-year-old Husayn Braveheart, as they attempted to steal Markey's car.

Ohsman was tried as an adult and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison in July, 2020.

But Braveheart has been offered five years probation if he pleads guilty, meaning if he behaves he will not serve a single day of a 261-month prison sentence behind bars.

'It is an insult to my son, but that's not the point,' said Markey's father, Jerry Markey.

'My son is gone. Nothing brings him back.

'But it is also a danger to everyone who lives in Hennepin County. Do you want your daughter to park your car where this guy can see her and potentially carjack again? This man is violent multiple times. He has shown it. He deserves a long prison sentence.'

Stephen Markey, a 39-year-old paralegal, was shot and killed in broad daylight by two teenagers trying to rob him and steal his car

Moriarty has defended her decision to recommend only probation for Markey's killer, Husayn Braveheart, who was 15 when he shot him dead

Moriarty insisted probation was the right punishment, insisting that Braveheart has been 'extraordinarily responsive to the carefully selected treatment.'

She added: 'If we disrupt that progress, we will jeopardize public safety and risk everything when he comes back to the community. We cannot take that risk.'

Ellison last week refused to overturn Moriarty's decision.

'Ultimately, all elected officials, including county attorneys, are accountable to voters for their decisions,' he said.

Ellison did, however, take over the high profile case of Zaria McKeever, 23, who was murdered in her Brooklyn Park home on the orders of a jealous ex boyfriend.

In April the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, took the highly unusual step of removing Moriarty from the case and handing it to Ellison.

Zaria McKeever, 23, was murdered in her Brooklyn Park home on the orders of a jealous ex boyfriend in November 2022

The murder was allegedly orchestrated by McKeever's ex, Erick Haynes, 22, and carried out on his request by two teenage brothers, aged 15 and 17.

Attorneys originally moved to certify the two teenage brothers as adults so they could stand trial for second-degree murder alongside Haynes.

But in February, Moriarty changed course and offered the boys a plea deal that would spare them a lengthy adult prison sentence in exchange for their testimony against Haynes.

McKeever's relatives were outraged by the deal, and petitioned Walz for Moriarty to be removed from the case. Walz agreed.

'A prosecutor is a minister of justice, and justice is comprised of both accountability and mercy,' Ellison said in a statement.

'While I share the belief that too many juveniles are involved in the adult criminal-justice system, accountability for the seriousness of this crime has been missing in this case.'

Moriarty in response called Ellison's decision unprecedented and 'deeply troubling.'

On Saturday, she told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that she was determined to stick to her principals.

'I think it takes a lot of courage actually to act upon what you say you're going to do,' she said.

'I knew we would get a lot of pushback.

'But if you're truly going to make change, if you truly are about your values, and you want to have integrity, and you believe in research and look at the data, these are the right decisions and I stand by them.'
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has promised to head a probe into government spending on Indigenous affairs.

The Senator for the Northern Territory and no campaigner made the pledge during a Fair Australia event held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre on Monday night.

Her comments come after it was revealed The National Indigenous Australians Agency's total budget for 2022-23 was $4.5 billion.

The agency is responsible for leading the development of Australian Government policy, programs, and service delivery to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians.

'We're going to do what we haven't done yet. We're going to find out where the billions of dollars are being spent,' Price said.

'We are going to say "right who else is accountable for this, we know that governments have, you know, made mistakes in the past, absolutely. On both sides, we've got to do things better".'

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (pictured) has promised to investigate government spending on Indigenous affairs

Senator Price spoke to hundreds of 'No' supporters at the Fair Australia event explaining why she didn't believe the country didn't need an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

'We do not want a future where our children aren't proud to call themselves Australian...that's not the Australia that we've grown up with,' she said.

'These corporations are being funded to push through reconciliation, while the rest of us are just wandering around being reconciled,' she said, referring to companies like the major supermarkets and sporting codes that have thrown their support behind the Voice.

Senator Price went on to list her achievements, most notably Alice Springs Town councillor, and her current role as Shadow Aboriginal Affairs Minister under Peter Dutton.

'We sure as hell didn't need a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament to achieve those things,' she said.

'We've got to fix the structures that already exist instead of muddying the waters and adding more bureaucracy and shoving it into our constitution.'

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Warren Mundine (right) spoke to hundreds of 'No' supporters at the Fair Australia event in Perth

Fellow prominent 'No' campaigner Warren Mundine branded the upcoming vote as the 'most important in Australian history.'

'Do we want a country that's divided by race? Or do we want a country that's all coming together...to be the better self, an Australia that welcomes people from all over the world?' Mr Mundine asked the crowd.

'The Yes campaign focus on the past...but we're talking about now.'

'I encourage everyone to follow Australians, to help on the day, and vote no to division.'

The Voice to Parliament referendum will be held on October 14.

Senator Price previously called Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney to conduct an audit on government spending for First Nations people back in July.

Ms Price said if she were in government and working as Indigenous Affairs minister, she would be conducting a 'forensic audit' into all spending for Indigenous people, to ensure every dollar has been allocated wisely.

She said such a task would weed out where money is being used effectively and give government an option to reallocate money that is not delivering results to grassroots projects that require funding.
A young eshay was charged with supplying the drug that allegedly killed a 21-year-old concertgoer after police swooped to arrest the suspected dealer at Sydney Airport.

The music fan died shortly after attending the Knockout Outdoor rave at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday when he collapsed at a hotel on George St in the city's CBD.

The young man was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital but he could not be revived and he died in the early hours of Sunday morning.

A second man, Jason Lee, 26, also died from a suspected drug overdose after attending the same music festival with 53,000 others at Sydney Showground.

Police immediately began an investigation and on Monday, detectives intercepted Trong Ha Nguyen as he tried to tried to board a plane at the airport.

The 23-year-old Victorian man was allegedly in possession of $13,535 in cash when police searched him after his arrest.

He was taken to nearby Mascot police station and charged with supplying a self-administered prohibited drug causing death, and dealing with property proceeds of crime of less than $100,000.

Trong Ha Nguyen was arrested at Sydney Airport after a music fan died shortly after attending the Knockout Outdoor rave at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday (pictured)

More than 70 people were charged over drug offences at Knockout and Listen Out festival which was taking place simultaneously at Centennial Park in Sydney's east (pictured, drugs and cash found by police on suspects over the weekend)

The first charge of supplying a self-administered prohibited drug causing death was later dropped after NSW Police admitted not obtaining authorisation from the Department of Prosecutions to make the indictment.

During an urgent rehearing on Tuesday afternoon, Nguyen was instead charged with two additional counts of supplying a prohibited drug.

He was also accused of dealing with the proceeds of crime after being found with $13,500 cash.

Police said the original charge of supplying a prohibited drug causing death would be referred to the DPP.

Nguyen was refused bail to reappear on October 17.

Ten others were taken to hospital apparently suffering from drugs and the stifling heat at the all day 'hardstyle' music festival.

Some fans complained over the heavy policing of the concert and the use of drug dogs which was causing some drug users to panic and use all their drugs at once to avoid arrest.

More than 70 people were charged over drug offences at Knockout and Listen Out festival which was taking place simultaneously at Centennial Park in Sydney's east.

Around 85 people out of the 27,500 people who attended Listen Out were allegedly detected with drugs, according to NSW Police.

Knockout Outdoor festival drew in 53,000 people, with 27 charged with drug possession and four with supplying illicit substances.

A second man, Jason Lee, 26, (pictured top middle) also died from a suspected overdose after attending the same music festival

Some 53,000 people attended Knockout Outdoor 'hardstyle' music festival on Saturday

In the wake of the deaths, revellers came forward to report a bad batch of drugs circulating around Sydney.

'[I] had noticed that quality has been more rubbish than usual but also suppliers jackin out s** drugs to make a profit, and then s*** like this happens cuz our government refuses to allow pill testing,' one person wrote.

The incidents happened days after NSW Health warned about high-dose ecstasy tablets, which state health minister Ryan Park feared were 'particularly harmful'.

The deaths come as debate continues to rage over whether pill testing should be introduced at festivals, with pressure on the government to implement facilities likely to increase if the two fatalities turn out to be overdoses.

Pill testing trials at the Canberra's Groovin the Moo festival in 2019 found seven tablets contained lethal substances Nethyl pentylone, which has been linked to multiple overdoses at overseas festivals.

All seven revellers discarded the pills once they found out what they contained.

Last month, radio presenter Ray Hadley called for the government to take action and implement the facilities, warning revellers would die without them.
Top Democrats continue to echo the sentiment of pundits and pollsters across the spectrum who say that President Joe Biden is too old to run for re-election in 2024, with one comparing him to a 'grandpa CEO.'

Biden, 80, is already the oldest president in the nation's history. In recent weeks, polls have shown an overwhelming majority of Americans say he is too old to run again.

That sentiment has been reflected by pundits, in everyone from New York Times conservative columnist Ross Douthat to liberals like the Washington Post's David Ignatius and HBO's Bill Maher.

Philip Levine, the former Democratic mayor of Miami Beach, was the only person to put his name to a story that cited a dozen top Democrats who said Biden could lose to Trump in 2024.

'It is a little bit like your grandfather running the company and you know that he's at a point now where the heirs could suffer value if we don't change management at the top,'

Top Democrats continue to echo the sentiment of pundits and pollsters across the spectrum who say that President Joe Biden is too old to run for re-election in 2024, with one comparing him to a 'grandpa CEO'

Philip Levine, the former Democratic mayor of Miami Beach, was the only person to put his name to a story that cited a dozen top Democrats who said Biden could lose to Trump in 2024

Levine, who lost the Democrat nomination for governor of Florida to eventual runner-up Andrew Gillum in 2018, told the Wall Street Journal he's edging toward supporting centrist group No Labels' notion of a third party candidate.

He added: 'This is very difficult. How do we get grandpa to relinquish the CEO role?'

Other anonymous sources suggested that it would be 'irresponsible' to not be worried about Biden's age, noting that 'the polling is bad. The approval ratings are bad.'

'I want to see Bidenism continue but I think the best way to make sure that happens is to perhaps have a different candidate than Joe Biden,' one DNC member said.

Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz defended the president in a statement.

'In 2020, our campaign focused on real votersnot the cable news green room chatter. What matters is building a strong operation, investing in reaching our coalition, and focusing on November 2024. That strategy worked then, and it will again in 2024.'

Angie Craig, a Minnesota Congresswoman, said previously that she had concerns about Biden's age but she will put her full support behind him.

'Look, I said a year ago that I thought a next generation of Democrats should step forward, but if the president decided to run for re-election that I would support him. That is exactly what I'm doing.'

Levine, who lost the Democrat nomination for governor of Florida to eventual runner-up Andrew Gillum in 2018, told the Wall Street Journal he's edging toward supporting centrist group No Labels' notion of a third party candidate

Angie Craig, a Minnesota Congresswoman, said previously that she had concerns about Biden's age but she will put her full support behind him

David Axelrod, the former Senior Adviser to President Barack Obama, said that it's too late to have cold feet either way.

'We're almost into the election season now. There really, in my view, is not time for the kind of full-blown campaign you want to have to vet the candidates.'

'My view of this is, this is an academic issue,' he added. 'Biden's running and he's going to be the nominee. That is just the reality.'

Maher insisted on his show Friday that President Joe Biden is capable of doing his job despite his old age but should still drop out of the Presidential race.

Maher, 67, who hosts HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher also went on and said that Biden is the 'only democrat who can lose to Trump'.

He branded the former president as an 'insane ball of white hot anger' that is perceived differently than Biden, even with their four-year age difference.

'Someone has to convince President Biden that if he runs again, he's going to turn the country back over to Trump and go [sic] and go down in history as Ruth Bader Biden, the person who doesn't know when to quit and so does great damage to their party and their country,' Maher said as he opened up his show.

As he went on, Maher said: 'To those who say he beat Trump once, he'll do it again. I say things change. They always do. The parade moves on. 2024 is not 2020 in so many key [sic] ways, including, yes, Biden being four years older.

David Axelrod, the former Senior Adviser to President Barack Obama, said that it's too late to have cold feet either way

On Friday's episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher addressed President Biden's age and compared him to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg that 'doesn't know when to quit and so does great damage to their party and their country'

'You can be a national treasure and still be too old for the job. If I'm on a plane and the pilot says, "this is your captain, Buzz Aldrin." I'm getting off.'

Maher went on and said: 'If you ask me, do I think Joe Biden can do the job of president? My answer is an unequivocal yes. He can do the job. Do I love everything? No. But that's every president. But government work is done in small, quiet rooms like the Oval Office.'

He then touched on Biden's 'generally good decisions' like getting the US out of Afghanistan, how he handled Ukraine, kept the economy going, and more.

The TV host then made it clear that he thinks that is all that Biden is capable of, just in one term, not two.

'Because while he can do the job, what he can't do is run for it. Our campaign season is long and it gets icy in New Hampshire,' said Maher.

President Biden's age has been a hot topic since the day he took office back in 2020, and now as he runs for a second term in 2024, the topic has been used as an argument for his ability.

According to Mediaite, despite concerns with age, like Maher has, no Democrat has come up with an alternative option for President Biden.

CNN reported from a recent poll that, '82% of Democrats concerned about his age couldnt name an alternative, and no candidate got more than 3 percent from those who did provide a name.'

In reference to Biden's age, Maher said: 'You can be a national treasure and still be too old for the job. If I'm on a plane and the pilot says, "this is your captain, Buzz Aldrin." I'm getting off'

The New York Times and Washington Post published op-eds in September branding 80-year-old President Joe Biden as too old to run for re-election in 2024

Douthat, a conservative op-ed writer for the liberal Times, penned a piece in September titled '2024's Field of Nightmares,' a reference to the 1989 film Field of Dreams.

He said while his concerns with Biden come down to run-of-the-mill political disagreements during his first term, Democrats are playing with fire in allowing the oldest president in American history to run again.

The two risks of Biden running again, according to Douthat: 'The high stakes of the next election, in which a health crisis or just more slippage might be the thing that puts Trump back in the White House, and the different but also substantial stakes of another four-year term.'

While Douthat argued that similar to Ronald Reagan's second term - which was long-rumored to be served with the president in decline - Biden can 'limp to another victory,' he sees the current political era as telling.

He compared it to liberals praying Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg could live long enough to see a Democrat replace her, only to see her die weeks before the election, with Trump able to nominate another justice to the Supreme Court.

'The Trump era has been one of those periods when providence or fate revenges itself more swiftly than usual on hubris - when the longstanding freedom that American parties and leaders have enjoyed, by virtue of our power and pre-eminence, to skate around our weak spots and mistakes has been substantially curtailed,' he said.

David Ignatius wrote a similar column in the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post with a more direct headline: 'President Biden should not run again in 2024.'

Ignatius largely praises Biden's first years in office, claiming the Democrat has 'governed from the center out' and done a good job with foreign policy in supporting Ukraine.

A whopping two-thirds of the President's own party think he's too old - even though he is running a 2024 reelection campaign

There is a 26 percent margin between those who think President Joe Biden, 80, is too old to serve a second term and those who think 2024 Republican frontrunner and former President Donald Trump, 77, is too old for another shot at the presidency

However, he says not just Biden but Vice President Kamala Harris should avoid running in 2024.

'It's painful to say that, given my admiration for much of what they have accomplished. But if he and Harris campaign together in 2024, I think Biden risks undoing his greatest achievement - which was stopping Trump.'

He cited disastrous poll numbers for Biden in terms of approval rating and the public's opinion of his age.

Although Biden, 80, is only three years older than Donald Trump, 77, there is a 26 percent margin between those who think Biden is too old and those who think the ex-president is too old to serve another term.

A new Wall Street Journal poll taken August 24-30 and released on Monday, shows that only 36 percent of the 1,500 voters surveyed think Biden is mentally fit for office, while 46 percent think Trump is mentally competent for the job.

The latest shows that 75 percent of voters think Biden is too old, compared to just 47 percent who feel the same about Trump.

Age has become a central theme in the 2024 race for president, with candidate Nikki Haley proposing earlier this year that there should be an age limit on those who can run for the White House. She said 75 would be a good cap.
A school has been placed into lockdown after a student was stabbed and a girl taken into custody.

The schoolboy was knifed at Caloundra State High School on the Sunshine Coast, in Queensland, at 9:30am on Tuesday.

He was rushed to Sunshine Coast University Hospital with wounds to his hip, a Queensland Ambulance spokesperson said.

His injuries are non-life threatening and he is now in a stable condition.

The girl has since been arrested and police are now investigating what happened.

A school has been placed into lockdown after a girl stabbed her classmate at Caloundra State High School on the Sunshine Coast, in Queensland, at 10am on Tuesday

The schoolboy has been rushed to hospital and the girl has since been taken into custody (pictured Caloundra State High School)

Another girl from the school is assisting police with their inquiries.

Several police cars were seen going to and from the school.

Officers have said that there is no further threat to public safety now that they have the suspect in custody.

The lockdown lasted about an hour and classes have since resumed.

READ MORE: Girl in hospital after Adelaide school stabbing A 12-year-old-boy has been arrested for allegedly stabbing a female classmate at a Catholic primary school. Advertisement

A student, who could not be named, said that the girl with the knife began scratching at her classroom door before the school went into lockdown.

'She started scratching at the door with the knife  I hid under a desk,' she told the Courier Mail.

Teachers then locked classroom doors before turning off the lights.

The student's mum said that there was no communication from the school during the incident.

An email 'would have been nice', she said.

'Just to let us know not to be worried.

'I'm glad that (my daughter's) okay and I really feel for the person involved.'

Other parents whose children go to the school also criticised its lack of communication.

Some have said they only received a 'vague' email about the stabbing hours after the lockdown ended.

'As many other parents, I am so angry that I hear about this on social media and not from the school,' one wrote online.

'If the school goes into lockdown - you contact parents. They have done it before via SMS, not wait three hours after an incident to send a vague email to parents.'

Queensland's new 'no phones' in schools policy was also targeted, with parents saying it prevented them from being able to make sure their children were ok.

The Department of Education said that counselling is being offered to the school body.

'The Department of Education is aware of an incident at Caloundra State High School this morning,' a spokesperson told 7News.

'The school entered lockdown at 9.30am for approximately an hour and Queensland Police Service and Queensland Ambulance Service attended.

'Ongoing counselling and support are available for all students and staff.

'No further information can be provided as the incident is currently under police investigation.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Caloundra State High School for comment.

More to come
She said white people will never be victims of racism

Yes supporter Jane Caro has sparked backlash after claiming white people 'have never been the victims of racism'.

The TV personality made the comment in response to an op-ed criticising Noel Pearson and a speech he delivered in support of the Voice last Wednesday.

Sky News host Rowan Dean accused Mr Pearson of 'race-baiting' and suggesting 'white Northern European Anglos are different', labelling the speech 'offensive'.

He then called on the Race Discrimination Commissioner to call out the Yes campaigner as he shared his op-ed in a scathing post on social media platform X.

Caro, who is a Walkley award winner and AM, lashed out at the Sky News host with her own tweet on Monday.

'White people have never been the victims of racism in Australia,' Caro wrote.

'Nor are they likely to be in the future, Voice or no Voice. This kind of cynical sophistry is cruel & utterly disingenuous.'

However, social media users slammed Caro's comments, with many claiming Aussies who are considered 'white' have suffered racism.

TV personality and Yes vote supporter Jane Caro (pictured) claimed white people have never been or will never be the victims of racism

Caro claimed 'white people' never have been victims of racism or are they likely to be in the future (pictured)

'Sorry Jane but I am an Italian immigrant and I have been the victim of racism. I am white. My grandparents arrived in the late 60s. They have a few stories to tell about being racially vilified. They are also white,' one wrote.

'My dad a Greek immigrant was called a Wog every single day while working at the Railways throughout the 60's and 70's... last time i checked, Greeks are regarded as white,' another commented.

'My white mate grew up in Redfern and walked to school everyday and everyday he was called a 'captain cook c**t'... he was seven,' a third added.

A fourth chimed: 'My parents were/are called wogs in Australia. I am born here and I too am/have been called a wog.'

'My children born in Aus from parents born in Aus have also been called wogs. Are you telling me wogs is a term of endearment or Im not white.'

Another person added: 'Hey Jane. Are irish white? I dont believe it was all roses when many immigrants turned up here over the years.'

In response to the backlash, Caro defended her comments claiming that 'people of colour' were the 'overwhelming' victims of racism.

'I stand by my tweet. People of colour overwhelmingly the victims of racism in Australia. Indigenous Australians most of all,' Caro wrote.

'All prejudice is bad and stupid, but the stats on Indigenous Australians tell the story.

In response to the backlash, Caro (pictured) defended her comments claiming that 'people of colour' were the 'overwhelming' victims of racism

Caro's comments were in response to Sky News host Rowan Dean's criticism of Yes campaigner Noel Person's speech. Dean labelled the speech 'offensive' and 'divisive' after Pearson asked Aussies 'where do you fit in Australia?'

'When you compare life expectancy, infant mortality, incarceration rates, educational achievement, employment rates etc, it is not white people en masse who are the victims.'

Caro has voiced her support for the referendum in the past after sharing an automated text message she received from Senator Jacinta Price in September.

The message urged recipients to vote No in the upcoming referendum before Caro replied: 'I will be voting Yes and you should be too.'

Mr Pearson had delivered his speech at the National Press Club last week.

He was questioned by a reporter how the Yes campaign's message was being delivered in multicultural communities across the country.

'I say to multicultural communities in the campaign that I am involved in around the country, I say to them, listen, where do you fit into Australia?' Mr Pearson said.

'Are you with the mob from the UK? Are you kind of honorary settlers? Because some of you are the wrong colour.

'Or you don't come from Northern Europe. You come from Africa, you come from Asia, you come from South America  you come from all over the joint. You come from China. I say to them, where do you fit in Australia?'

In his op-ed written for the Spectator Australia, Dean claimed the speech 'disturbed' him and was deliberately 'race-baiting'.

'There was this little bit in particular which is race-baiting, is dividing the nation deliberately, is offensive in the extreme,' Dean wrote.

'Every one of us in Australia strives to make this the most successful, multiracial nation on Earth. How dare you  that was the most disgusting thing I have ever heard.'

The Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum will be held on October 14, with Aussies voting on whether to constitutionally enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory body.

The Voice has caused heated debate between the Yes supporters and their No counterparts, with both campaigning for votes in the lead up to the referendum (Yes23 supporters at a campaign in Brisbane on August 30)

The Voice has caused heated debate between the Yes supporters and their No counterparts, with both campaigning for votes in the lead up to the referendum.

The Yes23 campaign has been accused of exploiting dirty tricks outside early voting centres by using almost identically-coloured signs to the Australian Electoral Commission.

Early voting for the Voice referendum kicked off in the Northern Territory, Tasmania, Victoria and West Australia on Monday ahead of the October 14 poll.

A picture, taken outside a polling booth in Mildura Senior Citizens Club in Victoria, showed an official purple 'voting centre' sign sandwiched between two 'Vote Yes' signs using the same purple colouring and the same white lettering.

Pro-Voice supporters were also heard hurling vile abuse at No voters after a clash broke out at an anti-Voice rally on September 27.

Hundreds of angry Yes voters descended on the Royal International Convention Centre in Brisbane for an event featuring outspoken Indigenous No campaigners Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Warren Mundine.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged Aussies on both sides of the Voice debate to remain respectful.

When asked whether he would still make the same commitment to hold the referendum if he had his time again, knowing now how 'nasty and divisive' the debate would become - Mr Albanese was emphatic.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured far left with Noel Pearson (centre)) urged Yes and No supporters to remain respectful during debate over the Voice referendum

'Yes. Because when are we going to get this done (otherwise). It's been 122 years,' Mr Albanese told 2SM radio on September 20.

'There's provisions in the Constitution to allow New Zealand to be the seventh state of Australia, but there's no acknowledgment of the first peoples of Australia.

'This should not be controversial.'

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has pleaded with the Prime Minister to delay the 'divisive' referendum or to change the question put to voters.

Mr Dutton suggested the question should ask Australians to vote on Indigenous recognition without a constitutionally enshrined Voice.
An armed dirt bike rider jumped on a young mother's car with her children inside and heat-butted her during an illegal street takeover in Philadelphia.

The shocking moment 23 year-old Nikki Bullock's Ford was attacked was captured on a cellphone from the top of a double-decker sightseeing bus.

As dozens of young men passed through the downtown area on motor bikes and quads, one man took it upon himself to clamber on top of the woman's maroon car. He then smashed the rear window with both feet. Bullock works as an Uber Eats driver and had her children with her at the time because it is cheaper than childcare.

In an instant, the young mother got out of the car to challenge the man and in the footage can be seen appearing to question his destructive decision.

The biker, who was wearing a 'You Ain't No Killa' t-shirt appears to want to have no part of the conversation and head butts Bullock using his helmet, before shoving her backwards as she gets in his face.

The scene was reminiscent of a nightmarish moment from the Max Max movies, where marauding bandits terrorize the Australian outback in modified cars and motorcycles.

The biker uses both feet to completely smash through the rear windshield of the car

A Philadelphia dirt bike rider callously smashed the rear windshield of a car driven by a young mom showing complete disregard for her children in the back

Startling incident was captured on cellphone video as numerous young men on motorcycles and ATVs moved through the downtown area. A gun can be seen falling out of the man's waistband

Bullock didn't back down and can be seen shoving the man several times while he also retaliates.

At one stage, having jumped down from the car's trunk, a gun fell out of his waistband onto the ground - he quickly retrieves the weapon in the footage.

It's not clear whether the woman saw that he was armed, but luckily left the altercation without him drawing the weapon, although he was seen brandishing it at her at one point.

Bullock's anger continued to boil towards the rider as she shoves him, causing him to fall over, with the bike almost landing on top of his leg.

The shocking incident occurred outside Philadelphia City Hall at 9pm on Sunday night.

The mother got out to confront him despite him being armed and having a gun aimed at her

Incensed by what has happened, Bullock confronts the biked who proceeds to head butt her

As the man tried to flee, she ended up pushing him over, together with his bike

'The kids were screaming. Like it was insane,' Bullock told CBS Philadelphia. 'The only thing that protected my kids from not having a bunch of glass from shattering on top of them is that my back windshield was tinted.'

Despite being completely unarmed and outnumbered by dozens of bikers that continued to swarm around her, she decided to fight back.

Ultimately, the altercation ended as the man proceeded to speed away around the corner.

Philadelphia Police are now actively searching for the for the man in connection to the incident.

The Department have tweeted distinct markings for members of the public to be look out for - including the biker's gold decal on his helmet and various tattoos that might distinguish him.

'If that person is caught and I get the chance to charge that person, we will be going very, very vigorously,' District Attorney Larry Krasner said.

The footage was shot by George Coloney who was visiting the so-called City of Brotherly Love from Florida.

'I just started filming a video of all the bikers when next thing you know this guy hops off and jumps on this lady's car,' Coloney said to NBC 10.

The mother-of-two continues to berate the biker even as he prepares to speed away

Despite being completely unarmed and outnumbered by dozens of bikers that continue to swarm around her the Bullock decided to fight back

'The kids were screaming. Like it was insane,' Nikki Bullock, 23, told CBS Philadelphia. 'The only thing that protected my kids from not having a bunch of glass from shattering on top of them is that my back windshield was tinted.'

The scene was through Philadelphia was reminiscent of the post-apocalyptic action Mad Max films of the 1980s

'For him to take it that far, it's just out of control to the point where many people could've died in an instant,' he said.

The scene was reminiscent of the 1980s post-apocalyptic action film Mad Max.

The 1980 cult film focuses on Mad Max and his adventures in a harsh, dystopian world with plenty of scenes involving motorcycles.

The bikes are one of the primary means of transportation in the chaotic and lawless world depicted in the films as groups traverse the dangerous wastelands, engage in battles, and carry out various missions.

A new surveillance footage shows brazen brutes rioting through the Apple store in the center of Philadelphia

The thefts swiftly seized iPhones, laptops, tablets, and anything within reach on display standsfinishing their plunder in less than a minute

Shocking footage out of the City of Brotherly Love showed Fine Wine And Good Spirits smashed apart in the latest flash rob mob crime

It is the latest incident in a string of lawlessness to hit the city.

Last week, dozens of masked looters smashed their way into an Apple Store running away with iPhones and tablets as the city dealt with widespread crime.

Philadelphia Police Department surveillance camera footage, showing brazen thugs rioting through the Apple store on Walnut Street in the center of the city.

Masked thieves forcefully infiltrated the store, swiftly seizing iPhones, laptops, tablets, and anything within reach on display stands  finishing their plunder in less than a minute.

Most suspects appeared to be teenagers including one audaciously strolling out, lugging a massive television monitor with no sense of urgency.

At least 52 arrests have been made so far, with burglary, theft, and other charges filed against at least 30 people as of Saturday, but the number of suspects seems to be higher.

The flash mob-style ransacking last Tuesday night targeted dozens of stores including Foot Locker, Lululemon and Apple.

The chaos in Philadelphia is reminiscent of similarly brazen smash-and-grab thefts elsewhere, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where organized groups of thieves, some carrying crowbars and hammers, have systematically targeted high-end stores.
Australians living close to a major city have been told it is too late to leave as a bushfire continues to burn out of control in the area.

Residents were warned Tuesday afternoon it was too dangerous to travel out of the Abernethy area, which is an hour's drive from Newcastle, on the NSW Central Coast.

'A bushfire is burning in the Kearsley area, moving in a southerly direction towards Abernethy,' NSW RFS said in a post on X.

'People in the Abernethy area, it is too late to leave.'

An emergency warning has also been issued on the other side of the state with a notice made for the Coolagolite area, on NSW's south coast.

'A bushfire is burning in an easterly direction towards Cuttagee, Barragga Bay and Bermagui,' NSW RFS said.

'If you are in these areas, you are in danger. Seek shelter as the fire approaches. It is too late to leave.'

Warnings were issued for Stockdale, Iguana Creek and Glenaladale between the Princes Highway and Beverleys Road by Victoria Emergency at 5.59am earlier today.

Residents were warned on Tuesday it is too late to leave the Abernethy area, which is an hour's drive from Newcastle, NSW

Three out-of-control fires are raging in the area, fanned by wild weather, with at least one home destroyed.

Residents of Duffy Road, Briagolong, have been ordered to seek shelter because it is now too late to evacuate after conditions worsened.

READ MORE: El Nino could turn into a 'super' event before summer and bring months of scorching temperatures to Australia Advertisement

Bushfire warnings have also been issued south of the border in NSW, with total fire bans in place across the entire Greater Sydney and Hunter regions, Far South Coast, Northern Slopes, North Western, Upper Central West Plains, Lower Central West Plains and Central Ranges.

'Extreme and high fire danger is forecast across NSW,' a NSW Rural Fire Service alert states.

It comes as dozens of fires rage across Victoria and NSW with hot and windy conditions forecast for much of Australia's south-east.

Authorities said the firefront in the Gippsland region doubled in size overnight.

The emergency-level bushfire at Duffy Road, Briagolong, is fast approaching the Princes Highway, with high winds increasing the speed of the fire.

Residents in Briagolong, Cobbannah, Culloden, Moornapa, and Woolenook have been told it's now too late to leave.

'This fire is threatening homes and lives,' the latest alert states.

'It is too late to leave the area safely, so you must take shelter now.

Authorities in Victoria will be on high alert for the next 24 hours. Pictured is the Gippsland region blanketed in smoke

'You are in danger and need to act immediately to survive. Leaving now would be deadly.'

Residents in Loch Sport and Seacombe have also been issued with similar warnings.

'Firefighters have been unable to stop the fire, and it has now crossed Longford-Loch Sport Road and is moving towards the southeast,' the alert said.

At least one home was destroyed in Briagolong on Monday.

Wild winds from a predicted cold front have made firefighting efforts difficult.

The biggest firefront is 5,000 hectares in difficult terrain north of Maffra in the Briagolong, Culloden, Moornapa and Stockdale regions.

A large mass of Victoria from Marysville in the Yarra Valley through to the NSW border are also on 'watch and act' warnings.
A woman who murdered her three daughters by smothering them sleeps with teddy bears made out of their clothing, she revealed in a handwritten letter to supporters.

Lauren Dickason, 42, was found guilty in August of murdering her two-year-old twin daughters Maya and Karla, and their six-year-old sister Liane, at their home in Timaru, New Zealand on September 16, 2021.

She admitted killing the girls, but had pleaded not guilty to murder, arguing she was mentally disturbed at the time and didn't know what she was doing was wrong.

Prosecutors, though, pointed to Dickason's troubling phone messages and online history in the weeks before the killings, including comments about wanting to kill her children and Google searches for 'most effective overdose in kids'.

The doctor thanked her online support group of around 1,500 for their support during what she describes as 'a difficult time', the Press newspaper reported.

Lauren Dickason is pictured with her daughters, whom she murdered, Liane (left) and twins Maya and Karla, and her husband Graham

Dickason sent her followers a photo of the three teddy bears with her children's names embroidered on their feet (pictured)

Reporter Jake Kenny also revealed Dickason sent her followers a photo of the three teddy bears with her children's names embroidered on their feet, and one of a painting of sunflowers she did.

On the second anniversary of the murders last month, supporters sent a package to Dickason at Hillmorton Hospital in Christchurch, which included South African food.

READ MORE: Mum who fatally smothered three daughters 'killed them because she wanted to take her own life but didn't want to leave them behind' Advertisement

This prompted her to write in the handwritten letter that it was 'to commemorate the girls passing on the 16th of September'.

She said 'I sleep with (the teddy bears) at night, to hold them close and remember all the wonderful cuddles my girls used to give me.'

Dickason and her husband Graham Dickason, who is also a doctor, had moved from South Africa to New Zealand just days before the murders, seeking a more stable lifestyle away from the turmoil in their home country.

Dickason at first tried to kill her children using zip ties and then suffocated them with pillows. She then placed them in their beds under the covers and tried to kill herself.

Her husband, an orthopedic surgeon, returned from a work dinner to find his children dead. He later told police that he knew his wife was struggling with her mental health and with motherhood but had no idea she was capable of killing.

The guilty verdict came after a four-week trial. The jury - of eight women and four men - rejected Dickason's legal defences under New Zealand's insanity and infanticide laws.

Jurors were not unanimous, voting 11-1 for conviction, a split allowed under New Zealand laws.

Dickason was reportedly motionless in the dock as the verdict was read out in the Christchurch High Court, and then cried quietly as she left.

Jurors were also heard crying, as were Dickason's two lawyers.

Her parents issued a statement saying the deaths were the result of their daughter's debilitating mental illness.

'Post-partum depression is a terrible thing, as has been shown by what happened to our family on September 16, 2021,' the family said, adding that their granddaughters were 'taken from this life to another as a result of this crippling disease'.

Lauren Dickason sent a handwritten letter (pictured) to her 1,500 online supporters

Two-year-old twins Maya and Karla, and their six-year-old sister Liane (pictured) were murdered by their mother at their home in Timaru, New Zealand on September 16, 2021

Lauren Dickason sent her followers a photo of a painting of sunflowers (pictured) she did

'This was not our daughter, but a debilitating mental illness which resulted in an awful tragedy,' they wrote.

Dickason faces a sentence of life imprisonment. She will continue to be held in a mental health facility until her sentencing in December.

Her supporters group plans to host a march in support for her in Christchurch in November.

For confidential 24-hour support in Australia call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Yes campaigners are out in full force for next fortnight

Outspoken Yes campaigner Noel Pearson has issued a scathing takedown of radio host Neil Mitchell ahead of the referendum for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Pearson has been promoting the proposal which he helped to formulate, travelling around the nation educating Australians about what a Yes vote would mean for his community.

Speaking to 3AW's Neil Mitchell on Tuesday, Pearson painted a bleak picture of Australia's future should a No vote triumph in the October 14 referendum.

But it was his extraordinary spray at the radio host which left the most lasting impression, revealing an untold insight into his impassioned plea to the nation.

'You know your business, I know my business mate.

'My business is not sitting in a radio cube. My business is working in the stony fields of disadvantage and poverty and misery and alcoholism and hungry children, where people are going to jail.'

Outspoken Yes campaigner Noel Pearson has issued a scathing takedown of radio host Neil Mitchell ahead of the referendum for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament

Pearson said Mitchell came across as 'churlish about [the referendum] right to the bitter end' and said his line of questioning through the interview suggested he was opposed to the Voice.

'Do you have a solution for giving us more?' he asked Mitchell.

But Mitchell argued his questions were simply 'designed to find out what (the Voice) achieves in real terms' - at a time when the No camp is thriving because it has successfully argued that there is a lack of detail about the proposal.

A new Guardian Essential Poll has, for the first time in months, indicated an uptick in Yes votes of about two per cent, but it solely bucks a downward trend which has been evident across all polls for months.

Some 49 per cent of respondents said they intend to vote No - down two points from last fortnight - while 42 per cent say they will vote Yes.

About eight per cent remain undecided.

The Yes vote nationally sits conservatively at about 40 per cent and these polls, including Redbridge and Newspoll, indicate most states are on track to vote No.

The Voice to Parliament needs to secure a double majority - the majority of voters in the majority of states - to be successful on October 14.

Pearson has been promoting the proposal which he helped to formulate, travelling around the nation educating everyday Australians about what a Yes vote would mean for his community

Pearson said a No vote would be crushing to all the people who had worked so hard to extend an olive branch to non-Indigenous Australia

Pearson said a No vote would be crushing to all the people who had worked so hard to extend an olive branch to non-Indigenous Australia.

'I have been working at this for 30 years working on these problems from the ground up, and I'm telling you that there is no plan B.

'No will be a disaster for all of us. We will all lose, including the No campaigners.'

Pearson said Australia is on a 'precipice ' and a No vote would become 'an absolute abyss' for the nation.

'There will be heartbreak. There will be absolute despair.'

Pearson said the reforms, which are '15 years in the making' are the only pathway forward for many First Nations Australians, and that without a Yes vote, many would not be able to see a way to achieve progress.

But he is still certain Australians can deliver a Yes vote come referendum day.

'We've got two weeks,' he said. 'Two weeks is a long time in politics, Neil.'

Speaking to 3AW's Neil Mitchell on Tuesday, Pearson painted a bleak picture of Australia's future should a No vote triumph during the October 14 referendum

Internal Yes23 polling has indicated there is a solid portion of the community that are yet to engage with the campaign at all.

READ MORE: Yes campaigner addresses vicious rumours about his family Advertisement

These are the voters Yes campaigners are trying to target, hopeful that come referendum day most of them will fall into their camp.

Gav Harris, a grandfather from western Sydney who is campaigning 20 hours a week on top of his fulltime job, said it's also the vibe he is getting on the ground.

'People will say they're already voting Yes, or they'll smile, they'll beep their horns from their cars. I'd say there's a lot more support than negative feedback,' he said.

But another common reaction is simply confusion or a lack of interest.

'The undecided vote is still huge,' he said.

'People are still disengaged.'

Pearson also sensationally ruled himself out of contention for the advisory body if a Voice to Parliament is formed.

He said he'd be keen to take on an 'advising' role for the 'whole layer of leadership in the next generation behind me', mentoring and guiding them through the challenges they'll face.

'We've had plans in place for 20 years. We're ready to go. We've been able to implement probably a third of them, regardless of government, but the other two-thirds. We really need the government to work with us in partnership,' he said.

Internal Yes23 polling has indicated there is a solid portion of the community that are yet to engage with the campaign at all

But when pressed as to whether he would stand for an election process if that was an option, Pearson baulked.

'Not myself personally,' he said. 'Absolutely not.'

Pearson said the creation of a Voice to Parliament would put more pressure on Indigenous communities, forcing them to 'take responsibility' if the crisis doesn't improve.

'We have to take responsibility. Then you can blame us. Because if you give us a Voice, then you can blame us.

'But you can't blame us if you don't give us the responsibility to contribute to the solution... The message is going to be you give us responsibility to take charge of our problems, to take responsibility for the outcomes. Then we're going to have to wear whether we're making progress or not.'
US Representative Henry Cuellar was carjacked on Monday night by three armed attackers in crime-ridden Washington DC.

The Texas Democrat was not harmed during the scary assault at his home - but his white Honda CHR with Texas plates was stolen.

Cuellar's chief of staff Jacob Hochberg released a statement: 'As Congressman Cuellar was parking his car this evening, 3 armed assailants approached the Congressman and stole his vehicle.

'Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement.'

The robbery occurred at 9:30pm at New Jersey Avenue and K Street SE in Washington's Navy Yard area, about a mile from the U.S. Capitol.

US Representative Henry Cuellar was carjacked on Monday night by three armed attackers in crime-ridden Washington DC. The Texas Democrat was not harmed during the scary assault at his home - but his white Honda CHR with Texas plates was stolen

The robbery occurred at 9:30pm at New Jersey Avenue and K Street SE in Washington's Navy Yard area, about a mile from the U.S. Capitol

Just last week, Cuellar demanded 'repercussions' for illegal migrants amid a fresh surge of border crossings.

Border crossings in fiscal year 2023, which ends at the end of September, are on track to surpass that of 2022 after figures showed an uptick of 50,000 in apprehensions in the month of August.

'We need to have repercussions at the border. What does that mean? You've got to deport people, and you've got to show images of people being deported,' Cuellar told Fox News Sunday.

'When was the last time we saw people going the other way instead of just seeing people flow in?'

The moderate Democrat represents a region along the border that encompasses San Antonio. Neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump have a plan to solve the problem, according to Cuellar.

The moderate Democrat is pictured with Joe Biden

The three armed assailants stole the congressman's car

Cops at the scene of the carjacking

'I think Trump went too much to the right by doing the separation of families and kids, and then I think President Biden, the administration, is not doing enough. We've got find the right balance,' he told host Bill Hemmer.

'You've got to listen to the community leaders.'

The congressman said the U.S. needed to convince Mexico to step up and secure its own borders to stop migrants before they reach the U.S. border.

'I've been saying this for years,' Cuellar said, 'we as Democrats and Republicans can continue playing defense on the 1-yard line, or we can play defense on their 20-yard line  and that is getting Mexico to do more.'
A 29-year-old navy seaman who died in a horror road crash on Friday has been remembered as a loving father and fiance.

Noah Aritara Tearoiti, known as 'Noogz', was killed when his motorcycle struck a bus in Kensington in Sydney's east about 3pm on September 29.

Despite the best efforts of paramedics at the scene, Mr Tearoiti was taken to hospital where he later died.

His family and friends have paid tribute to 'the most amazing man'.

'Noah was so happy all the time, he had the biggest smile and the best laugh,' his fiancee Tiarna Ivy told 7 News.

Noah Tearoiti was killed in a horror crash on Friday, leaving behind fiancee Tiarna and their baby daughter

'We had big belly laughs every day'.

Ms Ivy gave birth to their baby girl just 10 months ago and the couple were due to get married soon in the Cook Islands, according to 7 News.

Mr Tearoiti's sister Tia took to Facebook to commemorate the life of 'my beautiful and incredible brother'.

'Your girls are safe forever Noogz, I promise,' she said.

'I love you forever.'

Mr Tearoiti was born in Brisbane, living there for the first 18 years of his life before settling in Sydney.

He served more than 10 years in the Royal Australian Navy and was known as a keen footy player, music lover and artist.

His two great loves were his fiancee and their young daughter, according to his friends and family.

'He was the best dad to our daughter,' Ms Ivy told 7.

'He always referred to us as 'my girls'.'

Noah was much loved by friends and family and had served for 10 years in the Royal Australian Navy

A GoFundMe page has been started to raise money for Noah's family

Jacob Clifton, a close friend of Mr Tearoiti, has started a fundraiser in support of Ms Ivy and their daughter.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the GoFundMe page has raised more than $56,000 in support of the family.

'In a short 29 years Noah's impact on the world will never be forgotten, his dedication in service to Australia with 10 years served in the Royal Australian Navy,' Mr Clifton wrote in a touching tribute to his friend.

'He touched the hearts of thousands of people scattered all around Australia.'

An Australian Defence Force spokeswoman told The Daily Telegraph that the death of one of their own was 'felt deeply by the entire defence community'.

'Defence is focused on providing support to the member's family and shipmates,' the representative said.
The family was visiting relatives in Scottsdale and had stopped to refuel in Utah

The plane crashed shortly after taking off from the Canyonlands Regional Airport in Moab, Utah - 200 miles south of Salt Lake City

North Dakota state senator Doug Larsen, 47, was piloting the plane that crashed Sunday, killing Larsen, his wife, and their two young children

North Dakota state senator Doug Larsen was piloting the single-engine plane that crashed Sunday evening and killed him, his wife, and his two sons.

Authorities in Moab, Utah said Larsen, 47, was in the cockpit when the plane crashed just outside of Canyonlands Regional Airport, instantly killing the family of four.

The Grand County Sheriff's Office confirmed the Republican politician's role Monday in the crash that happened right after takeoff from the Canyonlands Regional Airport.

It is believed the four were returning from a visit with family in Scottsdale, Arizona when and were stopping at the Moab, Utah airport to refuel for their flight home.

First responders were sent to the scene just before 8.30pm, according to the local sheriff's office, and found that all four passengers on the plane had died.

The cause of the crash is unknown as officials investigate further.

North Dakota state senator Doug Larsen (pictured) was piloting the single-engine plane that crashed Sunday evening and killed him, his wife, and his two sons

Larsen, 47, was in the cockpit when the plane crashed just outside of Canyonlands Regional Airport, instantly killing the family of four (pictured)

A plane pictured on Doug Larsen's Facebook page. It's unclear if this is the plane that crashed

Public records show Larsen was registered in June to fly a Piper Cherokee PA-28-140, a single-engine plane. It's unclear if this is the plane that crashed.

The news of the deaths first circulated early Monday when Republican state senator David Hogue wrote an email to their colleagues.

'Senator Doug Larsen, his wife Amy, and their two young children died in a plane crash last evening in Utah,' wrote Hogue.

'I'm not sure where the bereavement starts with such a tragedy, but I think it starts with prayers for the grandparents, surviving stepchild of Senator Larsen, and extended family of Doug and Amy,' he wrote in the email.

'Hold your family close today,' the Republican continued.

Larsen had a third stepchild who was not on the plane Sunday.

The Republican was first elected to the North Dakota Senate in 2020.

Prior to that, Larsen served nearly three decades with the North Dakota Army National Guard, according to a statement from Governor Doug Burgum.

His district comprises Mandan, a city that flanks Bismarck across the Mississippi River. He chaired a panel in the State Senate that handled industry and business legislation.

In addition to his political position, Larsen and his wife were majority owners of a local hotel. He was also a lieutenant colonel in the North Dakota National Guard.

Doug and Amy Larsen and their two young children in a social media photo

The Canyonlands Regional Airport, outside of Moab, Utah, where the crash happened

Also killed were the couple's two young children. The family was reportedly returning to North Dakota from a family visit in Arizona

Deputies with the Grand County Sheriff's Office said they received a report that the aircraft went down around 8.30pm on Sunday.

An Air Medical helicopter located the downed plane while crews from the sheriff's office, the Moab Fire Department and EMTs responded to the crash site.

In a brief statement released just after midnight Monday, the Sheriff's Office said: 'Rescue efforts were completed. Four occupants unfortunately did not survive the crash. Further information will be provided as soon as family members have been notified.'

Initially, the office said it dispatched emergency responders after receiving a call for a witness who saw 'a plane going into the ground shortly after taking off from the Canyonlands Airfield north of Moab.'

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the crash of the single-engine Piper was being investigated.

The family was flying out of Canyonlands Regional Airport

State Senator Doug Larsen and his wife Amy were two of the people killed Sunday when their small plane went down in Utah

The plane crashed about 15 miles outside of Moab, Utah - a tourist city of about 5,300 people located near Arches and Canyonlands national parks.

In his statement, Burgum commended Larsen for his years of service and offered his condolences to their family members.

'First Lady Kathryn, Lt. Gov. Miller and I are deeply saddened by the heartbreaking loss of Sen. Doug Larsen, his wife, Amy, and their two young sons,' said Burgum.

'As a legislator, he was a tenacious advocate for individual rights and the freedoms he defended through his military service,' he said.
Former President Donald Trump shared a strange court sketch on social media that showed him at his Manhattan fraud case with a person who looked like Jesus Christ sitting next him.

Trump's lawyers spent his first day in court claiming his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida was actually worth at least $1 billion, rather than the $18 million prosecutors allege he inflated the values of his properties.

The former president and 2024 candidate, 77, scowled and shook his head as prosecutors accused him of 'lying year after year' to exaggerate the value of his property empire by $2.2 billion to obtain favorable bank loans.

However, he shared an image on Truth Social that showed a more angelic side, a court sketch showing the image of God's son sticking by his side.

Dom Lucre, a pro-Trump political commentator with over 700,000 followers on Twitter, captioned the image: 'This is the most accurate court sketch of all time. Because nobody could have made it this far alone.'

Former President Donald Trump shared a strange court sketch on social media that showed him at his Manhattan fraud case with a likeness of Jesus Christ sitting next to Trump

Trump shared the image to his Truth Social platform without any further caption, which Lucre later re-shared on Twitter with a fire emoji.

The former president's first day in court in any of his criminal or civil trials was marked by his shift in attitude toward Judge Arthur Engoron.

Trump did the stunning turnaround after after the judge, in response to testimony by the longtime accountant who did work for the Trump Organization, said the appearance by the witness may have been a 'waste of time.'

'The judge's last statement was very fair,' Trump said, after previously railing against Judge Arthur Engoron as a Democratic 'operative.'

'The way I interpret that ... the statute of limitations is a very real thing in this country and that would kick out 80 per cent of this case would be over,' Trump said. He characterized the statement as a welcome and unexpected development.

'But this was a big, big  I say surprise  but it was a great credit to the court that the judge was willing to do this sort of overruled himself and I greatly respect that,' Trump said.

Trump's lawyers agreed with the judge's statement, and Trump gave a thumbs up.

But the judge himself did not go so far as to say the majority of the case was being tossed.

He appeared to recognize how the appeals court had decided the issue. Trump's team had sued Sept. 14th and accused Engoron of ignoring the appeals court's decision.

Engoron made the statement in court in response to testimony by longtime Mazars accountant Donald Bender. He spoke about his process of accepting valuations provided by his client, while discussing used for Trump Organization returns in 2011.

Trump's lawyers spent his first day in court claiming his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida was actually worth at least $1 billion, rather than the $18 million prosecutors allege he inflated the values of his properties

Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to Trump Tower after attending the first day of his civil fraud trial. He gave 'credit' to Judge Arthur Engoron for making a 'very fair' statement  just hours after saying he should be disbarred

The judge then made an acknowledgement of an appeals court decision  the subject of a procedural court fight  that the law governing the statute of limitations for the fraud that Engoron found occurred applied only back to 2014.

'I trust that you can relate the 2011 documents to something that happened later,' Engoron said told prosecutors, 'Or this has all been a waste of time.'

It was not immediately clear whether the comment constituted a substantial win or merely an inkling of where the judge might be headed.

Trump took the rosier view, saying that 'something that we won on appeal but was not accepted by this court now seems to be accepted by this court.'

He gushed, 'We very much appreciate the decision today or at least taken today on the statute of limitations,' then once again defended his 'very strong company' and property valuations he said were accepted by banks with lawyers even 'better than my attorneys.'

It was a stark turnaround form just two hours earlier, when Trump delivered an angry attack on the state Supreme Court judge overseeing his case  saying Engoron should be disbarred and 'charged criminally' amid adverse rulings.

Trump blasted the judge for an earlier summary judgement ruling in the case that has him facing potential penalties of $250 million, although his team had sought summary judgement in the case.

'This is a judge that should be disbarred. This is a judge that should be out of office,' Trump said.

'This is a judge that some people say could be charged criminally for what he's doing. He's interfering with an election, and it's a disgrace,' Trump fumed.

Trump made the extraordinary statement during a lunch break just steps outside the courtroom, with reporters and cameras staked out inside the New York courthouse.

Trump said Judge Arthur Engoron, could be 'charged criminally' for his handling of the case

Engoron attended Columbia University, got his law degree from New York University, and worked as a litigator and a law clerk

Trump touted a comment by the judge at the end of the day in court, using it to declare a partial victory

He repeated a claim that Justice Department officials were pulling the strings in the Empire State, while once again attacking state AG Letitia James, special counsel Jack Smith, and even a clerk he claimed is in Judge Engoron's 'ear.'

'This guy's getting away with murder. And his clerk should not be allowed to be in his ear with every single question,' Trump said.

'You should take a look at her. She hates Trump even more than he does,' he suggested.

His attacks come despite being warned in unrelated criminal cases about attacks on court personnel.

Smith's team sought a gag order from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan by citing many of his previous attacks on prosecutors, even citing his attacks on the judge herself. She also ruled against a motion by Trump's team that she should recuse herself.

'Take a look at Jack Smith. Take a look at these people. This is called election interference and worse than that, much worse than that,' he said.

In the New York case, with massive fines and licensing of parts of his real estate empire on the line, Trump is balancing courtroom strategy with an electoral one, with his poll performance rising despite a series of criminal indictments.

He called Judge Engoron a 'Democrat club politician' and a 'Democrat operative.' After Enogoron's summary judgement ruling, Trump called him 'deranged.'

Engoron attended Columbia University, got his law degree from New York University, and worked as a litigator and a law clerk. In his rulings he has mentioned taking part in a Vietnam War protest and driving a taxi cab, according to an AP profile.

He was elected unopposed to the state Supreme Court.

Trump blasted the judge while standing just steps from his courtroom

Earlier Trump called AG Letitia James 'racist.' He called her a 'disgrace,' and said in a pre-trial tirade, 'You ought to go after this attorney general'

Trump tore into special counsel Jack Smith, who has sought a partial gag order in a criminal case against him

Trump also tore into New York AG Letitia James, calling her a 'disgrace to our country. Take a look at Jack Smith. Take a look at these people,' he said.

Judge Engoron is barred from hitting back at Trump in the press, although he has decision-making authority in the non-jury trial.

He also erupted over the valuation for Mar-a-Lago that the judge cited in a ruling that Trump inflated assets by $2 billion.

Trump cited articles quoting real estate experts who were shocked by the low valuations. He then said the private club was worth $1.5 billion.

'Anybody that does business in New York State is crazy,' said Trump, who moved his official domicile to Florida.

Trump used the valuations to make his best case with the media. 'I've got a lot of respect for you  not all of you but a lot of you,' he said.

Asked why he decided to come to court in person, he skipped the trial where he was found liable for sexual abuse of E Jean Carroll, Trump said: 'Because I want to watch this witch hunt myself.'

Trump had earlier gone after Engoron on his Truth Social platform as a 'ROGUE, OUT OF CONTROL, TRUMP HATING JUDGE.'

A five-judge appeals court last week denied a motion by Trump's lawyers to postpone the trial. It also lifted another judge's order that had put the trial on hold.

In his ruling, Engoron hit close to home by noting that Trump had misstated the size of his Trump Tower triplex, listing it at 30,000 square feet rather than 11,000.

'A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud,' he wrote.

Trump's team have argued that a June appeals court ruling puts some of Trump's conduct outside a statute of limitations.

The judge decided he could go ahead with the trial.
A man has avoided punishment after he told a judge that he thought it would be 'funny' to let his son ride a baggage carousel and did not realise it was a crime.

The 58-year-old business owner from Brisbane, who could not be named for legal reasons, coaxed his son onto the carousel while waiting for bags at Canberra's airport on July 2.

Officers spotted the 14-year-old hopping onto the carousel on CCTV footage and reprimanded his dad several days later when the family returned to go home.

It was also filmed by the boy's younger sibling, who surrendered his footage to police when his 'shocked' dad was spoke to by police on July 9.

The man was charged with aiding and abetting entry to security restricted areas in an airport, which he pleaded guilty to at ACT Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

A 58-year-old businessman from Brisbane who coaxed his son onto a baggage carousel avoided a $15,000 fine after a judge found that there was no ill-intent behind the joke

Magistrate Jane Campbell dismissed the charge after the father agreed that he did not realise the criminality of the situation.

READ MORE: Airport slammed for creepy security screening A female traveller is slamming Sydney Airport after security confused her blouse with a jacket and demanded she remove it. Advertisement

His lawyer, Satomi Hamon, told the court that her client 'did not try to minimise the conduct, and acknowledged the danger' of the act.

But the prosecution insisted that a message needed to be sent to the public about the seriousness of airport security.

'Security at an airport is of a paramount concern. It's very lucky something didn't occur to the child,' Commonwealth prosecutor Natasha Purvis said, as reported by the ABC.

'It is important there is a strong message sent to the public; a direction about an airport is to be followed and not treated as a joke.'

If found guilty the man faced a $15,000 fine.

Ms Hamon argued that her client had no ill intentions and simply 'didn't appreciate the seriousness of it at the time'.

She told the court that her client was especially concerned about the impact that a conviction would have on his ability to travel.

The stunt was also filmed by the boy's younger brother, who surrendered his footage to police when the family was spoken to by police when they tried to go home on July 9

Magistrate Campbell agreed with Ms Hamon, finding that the man was 'someone of excellent character' and that it would be 'inexpedient to inflict further punishment'.

'It is a matter where it demonstrates a lapse in judgement rather than anything else,' she said.

'I consider that in this case it was clearly intended to be done as a joke.'

Ms Campbell noted that the man had previously engaged with charity work, had no criminal history and had not exhibited any anti-social behaviour.

The charge was dismissed and no conviction was recorded.

'He's learnt a very important lesson, as no doubt has his son,' Ms Campbell said.
A confidential U.S. strategy document suggests that the Biden administration is more concerned about alleged corruption in Ukraine than first acknowledged.

A 'sensitive but unclassified' version of what is believed to be a possibly long-term U.S. plan for Ukraine outlines various measures the U.S. is taking to assist Kyiv in combatting corruption.

The fear is that growing criticism of corruption could ultimately lead Western allies to withdraw their support for Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion.

Zelensky's government has seen its most generous support from the United States, with $75 billion so-far committed - and some lawmakers increasingly local with concerns about how the cash is being spent.

The 22-page document, as seen by Politico, stresses how Kyiv should implement its anti-corruption efforts immediately.

The confidential document emphasizes that 'perceptions of high-level corruption' could also erode confidence in Ukraine's wartime government among both the Ukrainian public and foreign leaders.

The Biden administration is concerned about corruption in Ukraine according to a leaked document discussing U.S. strategy in the war torn country. Pictured, Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are pictured at the White House last month

A view of Humvees given to the Ukrainian Armed Forces in December 2021

Commander of the Joint Forces the Armed Forces of Ukraine, lieutenant general Serhiy Nayev fires a US made MK19 automatic grenade launcher during military training exercise in Kyiv last month

It also gives details of what has been terms the 'Integrated Country Strategy' which provides information about U.S. objectives in Ukraine, including efforts to privatize banks, promote the teaching of English in schools, and encourage the Ukrainian military to adopt NATO protocols.

The document pledges U.S. support for Ukraine with 'continued military and security assistance' but adds, 'A clear, transparent strategy to deoligarch the economy and deliver prosperity for all is central to these reforms.'

'Even as Ukraine fights to liberate its territory, the fight for the future is also important,' the document states.

'President Zelenskyy campaigned on a promise to clean up corruption and remains publicly committed to rebuilding a Ukraine that benefits all of society. Ukraine cannot afford to push reforms to a post-war period. The country must lay the framework to win the future even now.'

It adds, 'Ukraine must move against entrenched, politically influential interests to succeed now and in the post-war recovery. Reforms in the energy sector, a bastion of corruption and oligarchic control, are essential to cementing Ukraine's European integration.'

Whether the U.S. will send a fresh round of military aid to Ukraine remains up in the air.

Congress averted a government shutdown by passing a short-term funding bill over the weekend, but it was passed without any funding for the war effort in Ukraine.

The resolution passed does not include provisions for Kyiv, despite calls from the White House and Senate to incorporate it.

Still, Democrats hope to pass a separate aid measure in the coming days, though it is unclear if such a package would include the $24 billion President Joe Biden had originally sought.

Whether the U.S. will send a fresh round of military aid to Ukraine is up in the air. Pictured, Gunner 'Molfar', 39, a Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle crew member of the 47th Magura Mechanized Brigade

Workers unload a shipment of military aid delivered as part of the United States of America's security assistance to Ukraine, at the Boryspil airport, outside Kyiv, Ukraine in early 2022

A faction of far-right Republican House members says money sent to Ukraine could be better spent dealing with the immigration crisis at the US-Mexico border.

And House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said he will require certain guarantees before introducing a new aid bill.

On Sunday, Biden said he had a deal with Speaker McCarthy to send more money to Kyiv.

His remarks led to Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz accusing the speaker of making a 'secret deal.' McCarthy, however, told reporters there was no deal.

Any perception of reduced American support for Kyiv might also lead European countries to reconsider their roles.

Behind the scenes, there are ongoing candid discussions with Ukrainian officials, according to an anonymous U.S. official familiar with Ukraine policy, reports Politico.

President Joe Biden on Sunday indicated he had a deal with Speaker Kevin McCarthy on funding for the Ukraine

Speaker McCarthy denied he had a deal with Biden on funding for Kyiv

Corruption is at the top of the agenda with U.S. officials weighing the possibility of tying future economic aid to Ukraine on reforms to combat corruption and attract private investment. Such conditions would not apply to military aid, however.

While NATO membership for Ukraine remains some way off, part of the new strategy calls for an aligning of Ukraine's military with NATO standards.

The strategy would see Ukraine developing its military equipment production capabilities and its own domestic defense industry while reducing the influence of oligarchs, particularly in energy and mining sectors.

There would be an expansion in U.S. diplomatic presence beyond the capital Kyiv to other Ukrainian cities.

The U.S. wants to combat corruption at all levels starting with local governments but also throughout other parts of life in the country including the Ukrainian health sector and cyber security. It would also includes efforts to combat disinformation.
Hundreds of military and civilian offenders have been pressed into Russian penal units known as 'Storm-Z' squads and sent to Ukraine's frontlines, according to 13 people with knowledge of the matter, including five fighters in the units.

'Storm fighters, they're just meat,' said one regular soldier from army unit no. 40318 who was deployed near the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine in May and June.

He said he'd given medical treatment to a group of six or seven wounded Storm-Z fighters on the battlefield, disobeying an order from a commander - whose name he didn't know - to leave the men.

He said he didn't know why the commander gave the order, but claimed that it typified how Storm-Z fighters were considered of lesser value than ordinary troops by officers.

The soldier, who requested anonymity because he feared prosecution in Russia for publicly discussing the war, said he had sympathy for the men's plight: 'If the commandants catch anyone with the smell of alcohol on their breath, then they immediately send them to the Storm squads.'

A screenshot from a video shared on June 28 by Russian prisoners' rights campaign group Gulagu.net. It shows fighters from a Storm-Z squad explaining they will no longer fight in Ukraine, in protest at treatment by their commanders

Artyom Shchikin, a 29-year-old from the Mordovia region in central Russia who was recruited to a Storm-Z unit from jail. Relatives shared the image on August 15, 2023 seeking information after he went missing during combat in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region in late June

When contacted by Reuters, an officer at unit no. 40318 declined to comment on Storm-Z and ended the call. The Kremlin referred Reuters questions to the Russian defence ministry, which didn't respond to a request for comment.

Russian state-controlled media has reported that Storm-Z squads exist, that they took part in intense battles and some of their members received medals for bravery, but it has not disclosed how they are formed, or the losses they take.

Reuters is the first news organisation to compile a comprehensive account of how the squads are put together and deployed, by speaking to multiple sources with direct knowledge of what is happening.

Like the soldier from unit no. 40318, the 13 people interviewed - who also include four relatives of Storm-Z members as well as three soldiers in regular units who interacted with the squads - all requested anonymity, citing fear of reprisals. Reuters verified the identities of all the fighters involved using criminal records, social media accounts, or by speaking to their fellow serviceman and their families.

The penal squads, each about 100-150 strong and embedded within regular army units, have typically been sent to the most exposed parts of the front and often sustain heavy losses, according to Reuters interviews with the people, who identified at least five Storm-Z teams fighting to repel a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the east and south.

Three of the five Storm-Z fighters interviewed by Reuters, and the relatives of three other Storm-Z fighters, described nightmarish engagements that saw much of their squads wiped out.

One fighter, with a conviction for theft who was recruited from prison, said all but 15 of the 120 men in his unit embedded with the 237th regiment were killed or wounded in fighting near Bakhmut in June.

The deployment of such squads marks a departure for Russia in Ukraine: while the Wagner mercenary group - now being disbanded after a June mutiny - sent convicts to fight on the frontline, the Storm-Z units come under the direct command of the defence ministry.

'Terrible orders are given, which, in principle, should nor even be executed,' said the fighters from a Storm-Z squad as they explained they will no longer fight in Ukraine

'We were not supplied with food, we were not supplied with water, nor food,' the group said as they explained why they would no longer fight in Ukraine

The squads also combine convicts who volunteer to fight in exchange for the promise of a pardon with regular soldiers being punished for disciplinary breaches, the people interviewed said.

The Storm-Z squads are useful to the Russian defence ministry because they can be deployed as expendable infantry, according to Conflict Intelligence Team, an independent organisation that's tracking the war. 'The Storm fighters are just sent to the most dangerous parts of the front, in defence and in attack,' the group, which was founded in Russia, told Reuters.

While the Russian defence ministry has never acknowledged creating Storm-Z units, the first reports of their existence emerged in April when the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think-tank, cited what it said appeared to be a leaked Russian military report on the formation of the squads.

Reuters wasn't able to determine how many soldiers in total are serving in the units, though the interviews with the people familiar with the matter point to at least several hundred Storm-Z fighters currently being deployed on the frontline.

Wagner had about 25,000 fighters engaged in the conflict, its late leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said at the time of his June mutiny.

President Vladimir Putin made reference to convicts fighting in the regular army on Friday. At a televised meeting with a small group of regular Russian servicemen, he said he was aware that two of their comrades, former prison inmates, had been killed in action. 'They gave their lives for the motherland and have fully absolved themselves of their guilt,' said Putin, adding that the convicts' families would be given help, without elaborating.

There is historical precedent for military offenders being pressed into fighting units; in 1942, when the Red Army was retreating from a Nazi advance, Soviet leader Josef Stalin ordered soldiers who panicked or left their posts into 'punishment battalions' deployed to the most dangerous parts of the front, according to a decree he signed.

Ukraine's government has said it also releases some convicts if they agree to fight in the war.

Police officers and rescuers carry the body of a person killed by a Russian military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine September 6

Russian POWs are seen smoking outside living in a prisoner of war detention camp in the Lviv region, western Ukraine on August 3. Russian POW including conscripts, mercenaries, Wagner militia and Storm-Z Russian prisoners are being held in up to 50 sites around Ukraine

Storm-Z is an unofficial term used by Russian troops, combining a term for assault troops with the letter Z, adopted by the military as a symbol of their invasion of Ukraine.

Artyom Shchikin, a 29-year-old from the Mordovia region in central Russia, was serving a two-year sentence for robbery handed down in December 2021 when defence ministry recruiters came to his jail asking if inmates wanted to go and fight in Ukraine, according to court records and two of his relatives.

He signed up because, even though he was scheduled for release in December this year, he wanted to wipe clean his criminal record plus earn money so his family could renovate their home, his family members said. Three Storm-Z fighters said they were offered wages of about 200,000 roubles ($2,000) per month, though said they had been paid roughly half that amount, on average.

By May this year, Shchikin was assigned to a penal unit within the 291st Guards Motorised Rifle Regiment and deployed to the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine, where Kyiv's forces are trying to break through Russian defences, the relatives added.

An official with the regimental headquarters didn't respond to Reuters questions.

Vladimir Rogov, an official in the Russian-installed administration in Zaporizhzhia who gives regular online updates about the conflict, has posted on Telegram that the 291st regiment was fighting in the region throughout the summer. Rogov didn't respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Shchikin's relatives last heard from him on June 18.

Days later, his unit's positions came under Ukrainian fire, the relatives said, citing conversations with two survivors from Shchikin's squad. Three comrades who had been in a trench with him were killed, another had his hand torn off, while Shchikin himself is missing, the relatives said. His body hasn't been recovered.

Health workers, volunteers and military personnel hold a joint training for war-zones in Aksaysky District in Rostov Oblast, Russia on October 1

Shchikin's relatives said when they asked the defence ministry for answers about his fate, it either didn't respond or didn't give any definitive answers.

'They were from a Storm unit. For them, no one is going to be in a rush,' said one relative.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the relatives' account of events.

While convicts form the core of the penal squads, some regular soldiers have been assigned to them as punishment for breaking discipline, according to two soldiers who said members of their units had been transferred in this way, as well as a Storm-Z fighter called Igor, a convict jailed for attempted murder.

The two soldiers, including the one from unit no. 40318, said officers had sent soldiers to Storm-Z for being drunk on duty, for using drugs, and for refusing to carry out orders.

According to Russian legislation on military discipline, a soldier can only be transferred to a penal unit if convicted by a military court. None of the people who told Reuters of soldiers being sent to Storm-Z said the men had participated in a court hearing. Contacted last week, the soldier from unit no. 40318 said there were no court hearings involved in such transfers, and Igor, the Storm-Z fighter, said he had no knowledge of court hearings having taken place.

The Geneva convention, a set of international rules of war, doesn't cover soldiers being punished by their own side.

One group of about 20 Storm-Z fighters in Zaporizhzhia, who were part of unit number 22179, decided they'd had enough of their treatment, refused an order to go back to the frontline, and recorded a June 28 video complaining about their treatment. Reuters called numbers listed for the unit, but they were out of operation.

'On the frontline, where we've been, we did not get deliveries of ammunition. We did not get water or food. The injured were not taken away: still now the dead are rotting,' said a fighter in the video, whom Reuters was unable to identify.

'We're given dreadful orders that are not even worth carrying out,' he added. 'We refuse to continue carrying out combat missions.'

Empty artillery containers are piled next to a house as FSD (Swiss Foundation for Mine Action) survey team of de-miners collect data in the vicinity of Kamyanka village, Ukraine, September 27

Reuters established the identities of two of the fighters involved in the revolt, and spoke to a relative of each man who corroborated the account in the video, which was published on June 28 by Gulagu.net, a France-based campaign group for Russian prisoners' rights, and reviewed by Reuters.

After the video was published, military police officers beat up the two fighters, and others in their squad, as punishment for their revolt, the two relatives said. Since then, they said the two fighters had told them that conditions had improved but they did not know when the men would be allowed to quit the military.

Russian officials have made no public comment about the incident, and the defence ministry didn't reply to Reuters queries.

The family member of one of the soldiers in the revolt, a man from Siberia who had volunteered to join Storm-Z from prison, said she dreaded news from the front.

'My God, let this end soon,' she said of the war.
The man who shook a baby girl to death and then falsely blamed the infant's mother has finally been jailed almost eight years after horror incident.

Jake Luscombe was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison for killing his ex-girlfriend Brooke Skinner's eight-month-old, Alyviah Hayne, in 2015.

Luscombe wrote a letter of contrition when he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Grafton Local Court in May.

He was charged after a coronial inquest in 2020, which was held because the baby's 2015 autopsy was inconclusive about the cause of death.

He was left in charge of the infant for only 41 minutes while her mother went to purchase cannabis.

Jake Luscombe caused Alyviah Hayne's death in the 41 minutes he was left in charge of the infant due to an 'unlawful and dangerous act'

Luscombe was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison for killing Brooke Skinner's eight month old, Alyviah, in 2015

In that time Luscombe shook the child and caused her death with an 'unlawful and dangerous act', Coffs Harbour District Court judge Jennifer English said, 7News reported.

Ms English said Luscombe will serve at least four years behind bars over the death of the 'vulnerable, precious little soul'.

Luscombe did not tell Ms Skinner what had happened when she returned to the house and instead he pretended her baby was asleep.

His own barrister described the offender as 'an immature caregiver' whose inability to manage his emotions lead to 'impulsive outbursts'.

He was also on parole at the time of Alyviahs death and had a criminal record including assault, weapons and drugs charges.

READ MORE: Parents want answers after baby dies following hospital visit The parents of Queensland toddler, Lola Winchcole, are demanding answers after they found their little girl dead the morning after she was sent home by doctors from hospital. Advertisement

Ms Skinner began to scream after seeing froth coming out of Alyviah's nose and found she had stopped breathing.

When paramedics arrived they determined the baby, who had blue lips and was cold to the touch, was in cardiac arrest.

She was pronounced dead at Grafton Hospital after CPR and defibrillation attempts.

In pleading guilty Luscombe admitted to inflicting a 'traumatic non-accidental head injury by way of the application of rotational acceleration and deceleration force to her head'.

The inquest found Alyviah suffered two haemorrhages and unexplained trauma including a swollen brain. She also had bruises to her forehead and buttocks.

The court heard he had lied in police interviews when asked what happened to Alyviah.

In one interview, he claimed 'that [Ms Skinner] started shaking [Alyviah] and lost control,' court documents said.

He also claimed he was washing the dishes while Alyviah was asleep, and that he was cleaning the fish tank at the time.

He also said he'd given the baby a bottle and returned to her 20 minutes later. No liquids or solids were found in her stomach.

Luscombe has been targeted five times in custody since December 2022 and had to be moved to a different prison.

Brooke Skinner (pictured) left her seven-month-old baby Alyviah Hayne in the care of her former partner Jake Luscombe for just 41 minutes in December of 2015

Baby Alyviah (pictured) was blue and cold to the touch, with mottling on both sides of her body, which commonly occurs the heart struggles to pump blood effectively

He is expected to serve his term in protective custody.

In May a tearful Ms Skinner broke her silence, saying she still regrets leaving her baby in Luscombe's care every day.

'I'm happy that she's finally getting justice, but no one wants to hear it, especially from the killer's mouth.'

She also shared a heartbreaking message with every parent.

'Tell your kids you love them because you may never be able to again.'
Secret footage shows people being told to 'lie, lie, 100% lie' after it was alleged that security guards working public events are qualifying using sham courses where they skip first aid instruction and are helped to cheat exams for an extra 310.

Police are being asked to investigate after the BBC claimed that candidates have been able to pay extra for a mandatory six-day course to be completed in a day and a half.

An undercover reporter with a secret camera was instructed how to fill in timesheets fraudulently and then given the answers for a multiple-choice text to secure their qualification.

Footage of one course showed the instructor telling them 'we want to lie, lie, 100 per cent lie', adding: 'Your honesty is going to cost you' when they accidentally filled in paperwork correctly.'

Another scene shows an apparent instructor asking a man filling out a form 'how many days is the course?' When the respondent says 'three days,' the instructor asks 'how many actual days' - to which the person filling out a form says 'oh, six days'.

In another incident revealed by File on 4, a member of course staff appears to be dictating the answers to a test - and giving people different answers to write down so the test papers are not identical.

An undercover reporter has found that fast track security courses are being offered by companies in return for cash

The BBC report claims that the reporter was shown how to fill in forms fraudulently

The Security Industry Authority (SIA) has said it will also be investigating the companies involved.

A spokesman said: 'We are determined to ensure poor practices are rooted out and support the majority who operate to good standards'.

The undercover reporter was able to apply for an SIA licence, which are only allowed after the completion of a six-day course including first aid training and identity and criminal record checks. There are around 500,000 licensed security guards in the UK, who are identified by blue cards strapped to their arms.

It came after people died at the O2 Brixton Academy in December 2022. Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, and Gaby Hutchinson, 23, died in hospital after the crush.

Presented with the evidence from the File on 4 investigation, Paul Greaney KC, legal counsel to the inquiry into the Manchester Arena suicide bombing in 2017 told the BBC: 'I am extremely concerned about the safety of the public attending events'.

In another scene they claimed that answers to tests were dictated

The inquiry found that if security staff had received proper first aid training it would have made a 'decisive difference'. Afterwards, more training for security staff was suggested.

Mr Greaney said of the training course scam: 'What I've just seen is the complete opposite of that situation'.

But Ms Adriana Cetetean, director of Steps Institution, one of the training courses infiltrated by the BBC, insisted her company did not 'offer six-day courses in a day and a half'.

She also denied timesheets were being forged and that their training was inappropriate.

Zeeshan Ahmad, one of the instructors involved, denied any wrongdoing and said through his work he is committed to 'upholding ethical standards'.

Exams watchdog Ofqual said training companies guilty of malpractice will face sanctions.
A troubled former reality TV star and ex-professional cheerleader has admitted to a string of drug charges amid a meth-fuelled meltdown.

Jordan Finlayson, 32, appeared in Sydney Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to driving while under the influence of drugs.

The glamorous blonde wore a short white shirt dress with black high heels and carried a large black Louis Vuitton bag as she entered the courthouse.

Jordan Finlayson (pictured), 32, appeared in Sydney Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to driving while under the influence of drugs

Finlayson (pictured) was high on meth when she crashed her car into a road barrier just before 4am on February 7, court documents reveal

The former model anxiously twisted her hands, one of which is tattooed with the word 'Queen' topped with a crown, as the court heard she was facing four charges.

Court documents reveal she was high on meth when she crashed her car into a road barrier just before 4am on February 7.

When police arrived, they found the former NRL cheerleader unconscious in the driver's seat of her white Toyota Yaris.

A good Samaritan who is 'unknown and unrelated' to her was helping her as she groaned loudly, according to the agreed facts.

The former cast member of Beauty and the Geek did not respond to police, so they opened the passenger door and caught her attention.

Despite the former reality TV star being praised by a magistrate for her 'really positive steps' towards rehabilitation earlier this year, she admitted to relapsing into meth use in July

She 'began acting erratic (sic)' and leant over to the passenger seat to say 'hey babe' to the vacant space, the court documents show.

Police noted Finlayson appeared confused and became visibly upset and distressed. She had difficulty standing and was transferred to a stretcher.

The former Penthouse model told authorities she had consumed alcohol but couldn't answer any questions because she was so upset.

Finlayson was taken to Ryde Hospital for medical treatment after her drug-fuelled car crash but the police facts reveal she 'absconded from hospital' without providing a urine sample.

A sample of her blood was sent for analysis and returned a positive result for gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and methylamphetamine (ice).

Despite the former reality TV star being praised by a magistrate for her 'really positive steps' towards rehabilitation earlier this year, she admitted to relapsing into meth use in July

READ MORE: Beauty and the Geek star with a 'serious drug problem' is sentenced for stealing credit cards A former reality TV star with a 'serious drug problem' has avoided further jail time despite admitting to stealing credit cards from clients at bucks parties. Beauty and The Geek runner-up Jordan Finlayson, 31, has faced a string of charges over the past six months, including two counts of common assault and an apprehended violence order. Advertisement

In another incident on May 20, an Uber driver attempted to wake Finlayson after she fell asleep in the back of his car on a journey to Maroubra.

The driver eventually called police who found an 'ice' pipe in a small plastic bottle with a clear substance.

Tests later confirmed it to be over 5 grams of Gamma-butyrolactone - often used as a substitute for GHB.

Two months later Finlayson was caught driving in Darlinghurst with ice in her system after being pulled over for a random breath test.

Despite the former reality TV star being praised by a magistrate for her 'really positive steps' towards rehabilitation earlier this year, she admitted to relapsing into meth use in July.

Police argued the recent drug driving offence was proof of 'the accused's inability to cease drug use and seek rehabilitation'.

In the court documents, officers pointed to Finlayson's 'extensive history of drug use and violent domestic violence offences' and said she continuously posed 'a risk to other motorists'.

'Despite the accused being put before the court multiple times for her offences, the accused continues to reoffend with zero remorse and regard for authority,' the police fact sheet said.

On Tuesday, Finlayson also pleaded guilty to driving with illicit drugs in her system and possessing prohibited drugs.

The former model has had a public battle with addiction

Finlayson (pictured) will return to court on 4 November to learn her fate over the three drugs charges

A fourth charge of having goods in her possession which were suspected to be stolen was withdrawn by police.

Magistrate Daniel Covington ordered a sentencing assessment report to determine whether the former Beauty and the Geek star would be eligible for a community-based sentence.

The former model kept a blank face as she exited court with her designer bag clutched tightly in her hand.

She will return to court on 4 November to learn her fate over the three drugs charges.
A bride and groom have begun their new life together severely in debt in Italy after setting off on their honeymoon - without paying their 7,000 restaurant bill.

The couple - a local 40-year-old construction contractor and his 25-year-old German wife - were married at the end of August in Frosinone, southeast of Rome.

After tying the knot next to the venue's swimming pool, they put on a banquet at the restaurant - described as a typical Ciociaria eatery - for their 80 guests.

But when the owner went to collect their bill, he found to his dismay that the couple had not only left town, but had fled the country - with their family in tow.

Police are now involved and are tracking the couple's movements.

The couple - a local 40-year-old construction contractor and his 25-year-old German wife - were married at the end of August in Frosinone, southeast of Rome. After tying the knot next to the venue's swimming pool (pictured), they put on a banquet at the restaurant - described as a typical Ciociaria eatery - for their 80 guests

When owner Enzo Fabrizi (pictured) went to collect on the bill, he found to his dismay that the couple had not only left town, but had fled the country - with their family in tow

The wedding was held on a Sunday in August according to Italian news outlets, and everything had been organised months in advance of the wedding day itself.

The bride and groom, along with the groom's parents, had visited Ristorante La Rotonda seven months before the big day, tasting the different menus on offer.

Opting for the fish, they paid a deposit of 3,300 euros and agreed to pay the final bill - which totalled 8,800 euros including the deposit - after the wedding, with a deadline set for the Wednesday after the wedding.

Initially, everything went according to plan at the venue in the hills near Boville Ernica. The couple happily exchanged vows in front of their friends and family in a civil ceremony, officiated by a priest who came from Germany, the owner said.

The 80 guests enjoyed the fish menu and the drinks, leaving Rotonda's restaurateur no reason to believe he would not be paid for the service offered.

However, Italian media reports that the groom did not pay the day after the wedding - as he had agreed with the owner - and when the official Wednesday deadline came around, the newlyweds were nowhere to be seen.

The owner, Enzo Fabrizi, waited for the groom to show up at the venue until late in the evening, and even tried to call him - but recieved no answer.

He was even able to trace the groom's parents, who had been at the tasting session earlier in the year, but had no response from them either.

After visiting the couple's address and speaking to neighbours, the owner discovered the couple had not been heard from since the day after the wedding.

After visiting the couple's address and speaking to neighbours, Enzo Fabrizi (left with his lawer) discovered the couple had not been heard from since the day after the wedding

Pictured: Ristorante La Rotonda a Boville, in the Italian province of Frosinone

The bride and groom, along with the groom's parents, had visited Ristorante La Rotonda seven months before the big day, tasting the different menus on offer

Mr Fabrizi said the banquet cost the couple around 90 euros per-person, and that the overall bill also included decorations - such as flowers - and other extras

This prompted him to contact the local police, who were able to trace the couple's movements from the wedding.

To his dismay, the owner was told that the couple had driven to Rome and flown to Frankfurt, Germany after the party.

Officials suspect they could have been en route to visit the bride's family.

'It has never happened in many years of business, at most someone was late but it had never happened that the spouses disappeared without having paid the bill for the wedding banquet,' Mr Fabrizi told Corriere Della Sera newspaper.

He told reporters that he had been introduced to the groom by a friend he had known for 20 years, who had often come to eat at the restaurant, and claimed that the 25-year-old was the groom's third wife.

'I trusted because my friend has always kept his word,' he said. 'A serious person.

'He reassured me by saying that the bride's father works in a bank in Germany. In short, it's a wealthy family.'

Mr Fabrizi said the banquet cost the couple around 90 euros per-person, and that the overall bill also included decorations - such as flowers - and other extras, that the owner said alone cost 400 euros.

'Immediately after [the ceremony] the guests, almost all from Ferentino and about ten Germans, sat down at the table and lunch began,' he said. 'They ate, danced and drank to their heart's content. They left at 10pm, but they were almost all drunk.'

The owner said he spoke to the groom, inviting him into his office, to discuss finances. 'We did the calculations and he shook my hand and told me he would come by the next day to pay,' he said.

'The next day, however, he took the plane to Germany.'

Mr Fabrizi told Corriere Della Sera that he is determined the recoup the money he is owed for the lavish banquet.

The bride and groom, along with the groom's parents, had visited Ristorante La Rotonda (pictured) seven months before the big day, tasting the different menus on offer. They paid a deposit, and agreed to pay the rest of the bill in the days after the wedding

'I will not give him peace until he has paid every penny. I've been a restaurateur for 40 years, and I've never had a misadventure like this happen to me,' he said.

'My lawyer will take care of blocking him and I hope that as soon as he sets foot in Italy again, his passport will be withdrawn immediately.

'And to think that he told me that he would also tip the waiters.'

Local reports say police are investigating the whereabouts of the couple, and the groom is now wanted for fraudulent insolvency.
Rishi Sunak today stubbornly refused to confirm that the Manchester leg of the HS2 rail line is being ditched, despite a wave of condemnation.

The Prime Minister desperately blustered as he was challenged during interviews at the Tory conference to admit that the decision has already been taken to scrap the plans over the eye-watering expense.

He said the costs were 'enormous' but insisted he would 'not be rushed' into an announcement - which is now widely expected during his keynote speech tomorrow.

And brushing away anger about bungled communications, Mr Sunak insisted he 'really' thinks that the process is 'going well'.

The party's conference in Manchester has been engulfed by the meltdown over the high-speed line's future.

West Midlands Tory mayor Andy Street delivered a brutal salvo last night as the situation emerged, and even refused to rule out resigning.

'I won't let HS2 go without a fight,' he said.

Touring broadcasters this morning, Mr Sunak said costs had gone 'far beyond' what had been predicted and the sums involved were 'enormous'.

He told Times Radio: 'It's clear that the costs of this programme has escalated far beyond what anyone thought at the beginning.

'I know there's lots of speculation on it, but what I would say is I'll approach this in the same way I approach everything in this job, I will take the time to look at it properly, get across the detail and then decide what's right for the country.

'The sums involved are enormous and it's right that the Prime Minister takes proper care over it.

'It's obviously not my money  it's taxpayers' money and we should make the right decisions on these things.'

In other developments at Tory conference today:

Mr Sunak insisted he is relaxed about Tory demands for immediate tax cuts, spearheaded by ex-PM Liz Truss;

Suella Braverman is due to play up her tough stance on immigration in a speech to activists being seen as a thinly-veiled pitch to be next party leader;

Speculation is mounting that Mr Sunak could announce a rising age limit on buying cigarettes, meaning that the younger generation would be unable to buy them;

Nigel Farage danced the night away with Priti Patel in Manchester as Tories urged him to rejoin the party.

Rishi Sunak desperately blustered as he was challenged during interviews at the Tory conference that the decision has already been taken to scrap the plans

Going nowhere: This engineering track shows how the HS2 route from Birmingham was set to join the existing West Coast line at Handsacre, Staffordshire. Instead northern leg now faces the scrapheap

Mr Sunak rejected the idea that the HS2 row had overshadowed the conference so far. 'I don't think that. Actually we're having a great conference,' he said.

Pressed again, he said: 'The mood here is great.'

Rishi shrugs off Liz Truss tax cut demands Rishi Sunak has brushed off Tory demands for immediate tax cuts, led by his predecessor. The short-lived PM was greeted by lengthy queues when she appeared in Manchester yesterday. Ms Truss has joined calls for the Government to change course in a bid to boost growth, urging Jeremy Hunt to cut corporation tax to at least 19 per cent and to slash Government spending. But Mr Sunak appeared unconcerned about the apparent popularity of his former leadership rival. Asked on Times Radio if it worried him, he said: 'No, not at all. 'Lots of Conservatives here. I think the mood is great. 'People are excited about the things we're doing.' Advertisement

Grilled on whether he thought the HS2 process had 'gone well', Mr Sunak replied: 'I really do.'

As the backlash grew last night, Mr Street told a fringe event: 'If you tell the international investment community you are going to do something, you bloody well have to stick to your word.

'You will be turning your back on an opportunity to level up  a once-in-a-generation opportunity.'

Priti Patel suggested the PM should look at reducing costs rather than scrapping the northern leg.

She said Mr Sunak should have gone 'over the numbers with a slide rule'. 'Because to cancel it is a pretty drastic step forward,' she added.

However, a Tory source said the PM was expected to confirm the scrapping of the Manchester leg in his conference speech in the city tomorrow.

The source said Mr Sunak was 'ready to have the argument' about the issue, adding: 'This is not something we are ashamed of  we are doing the right thing, making sure that public money is well spent and that transport infrastructure in the North actually gets the improvement it deserves rather than throwing good money after bad.'

If the HS2 northern spur is scrapped, a dirt track in the Staffordshire countryside marks the end of the line for the project.

Drone shots show where the construction team have plotted out the route to the point where it would join the existing West Coast mainline at Handsacre before continuing on to Crewe.

Rail industry figures at the conference have privately started calling HS2 the 'Aston to Acton line' because it seems set to only link two small suburbs of London and Birmingham.

The project has been dogged by delays, with costs spiralling from around 30billion to more than 100billion.

West Midlands Tory mayor Andy Street delivered a brutal salvo last night as the situation emerged, and even refused to rule out resigning

Priti Patel suggested the PM should look at reducing costs rather than scrapping the northern leg

However, a Tory source said the PM was expected to confirm the scrapping of the Manchester leg in his conference speech in the city tomorrow. The source said Mr Sunak was 'ready to have the argument' about the issue. Pictured: Workers at the Old Oak Common Station construction site for the HS2 high-speed railway in north west London on September 29 this year

The HS2 project has been dogged by delays, with costs spiralling from around 30billion to more than 100billion. Pictured: A road sign is seen as construction continues of the HS2 high speed rail project, near Amersham, Britain on September 29 this year

The PM could use his speech to announce that tens of billions could instead be ploughed into other transport projects to level up the North. These would focus on East-West rail connectivity rather than North-South, along with road projects.

The minister for rail and HS2, Huw Merriman, appeared to all but confirm its fate yesterday.

Speaking at a conference fringe event, he said HS2 was 'crowding out other opportunities to deliver more across the country'.

Downing Street yesterday insisted 'no final decisions' had been made, while government sources suggested that a significant delay is still on the table. Mr Street acknowledged that the PM has 'inherited a very difficult situation'. He added: 'Indeed he is right to try and get a grip of this situation. But gripping this situation means re-examining it.

'It does not mean giving up, admitting defeat you could say, or cancelling the future.'

He said HS2 was about a lot more than 'just a railway' and that it had become a debate about 'Britain's ability to do the tough stuff successfully'. He has written to Mr Sunak urging him to consider offering a stake in the project to major private firms to reduce the cost to the public purse.

A spokesman for Chancellor Jeremy Hunt set hares running yesterday by refusing to deny plans on HS2 had been approved in the Treasury. Mr Hunt is pictured on Monday as he arrives on stage to speak during the second day of the the Conservative Party Conference

Engineering and construction giants Arup, Mace and Siemens are said to be interested following meetings with Mr Street.

Ministers have refused for two weeks to deny that the rail route is to be curtailed again, after the Birmingham to Leeds leg was canned in 2021.

A spokesman for Chancellor Jeremy Hunt set hares running yesterday by refusing to deny plans on HS2 had been approved in the Treasury, carefully saying: 'It's not the Treasury's announcement... it's for the Prime Minister.'

Earlier in the day, Mr Hunt indicated that he wanted to cut costs, telling LBC: 'I need to have an answer why it costs ten times more to build high speed rail in this country than it does across the Channel in France.'
Did YOU see the blast?

Did YOU see the blast? How did it affect you? Email jack.wright@mailonline.co.uk

A massive explosion at a Severn Trent biogas plant triggered by a bolt of lightning could be heard from 20 miles away, as aerial images show the extent of the damage after firefighters battled a huge fireball overnight.

As storms battered southern England on Monday night, a lightning strike struck a Severn Trent Green Power plant in Yarnton, Oxfordshire, causing the tank to combust.

Severn Trent said the explosion took place at around 7.20pm as it confirmed that no-one was injured in the blast - but told users to stay away from the site on Tuesday. The plant is now 'fully safe', according to the company.

Did YOU see the blast? How did it affect you? Email jack.wright@mailonline.co.uk

Six fire engines, 40 firefighters, police and four ambulances were initially deployed to the scene at the plant, which turns food waste into biogas. Police urged residents to stay indoors and the A40 was closed as the flames lit up the night sky.

The plant is one of several sites owned by Severn Trent which converts waste into biogas, a green source of energy. There are currently around 109 active biogas sites which provide electricity in the UK, according to the National Grid, but the total number of biogas plants is thought to be around 660.

Biogas conversion involves allowing waste to ferment in air-tight containers, where anaerobic respiration takes place and causes the creation of gases. These are then funnelled into a gas storage tank before being used as energy for heating and electricity.

Residents have shared videos of the fire raging after what a number of people have described as an 'explosion'

Emergency services rushed to the scene amid storms seen across the UK on Monday

Aerial footage from a drone shows the full extent of the damage caused to the tanks used to process food waste at the plant.

The plastic green covers over the tanks  about the size of half a football pitch  were shredded in the blaze that was tackled by 40 firemen for more than five hours.

The remnants of the melted plastic covers could clearly be seen draped over the cylindrical tanks.

A nearby building was untouched in the fire while a staff building and cars also escaped any damage.

Two of the biogas tanks known as Anaerobic Digestion units were untouched. Fire crews today continued to dampen down the structures from hydraulic lifts.

The plant, named Cassington AD, processes over 50,000 tonnes of waste each year and generates 2.1 megawatts of electricity, as well as bio-fertiliser, its website states.

But videos show how the night sky was turned an eerie orange after what locals described as a 'loud explosion'.

A Severn Trent Green Power spokesperson said: 'Following the lightning strike at our plant in Cassington last night, the site has been fully contained and made safe.

'We'd like to thank the emergency services for their support and will continue to work with them throughout the day.'

South Central Ambulance Service confirmed it was at the scene, but said they were on standby to assist police and the fire service and were not needed.

Fire crews used an aerial appliance and water tank as they fought the flames.

The wreckage of the fire was still smouldering on Tuesday morning following the overnight fire

Firefighters continued working on the gas storage containers well into Friday

The scale of the damage became clear with three containers almost completely destroyed

Local MP Layla Moran, of the Liberal Democrats, told constituents last night: 'This must be extremely distressing for residents in the surrounding area. I pray no one has been injured. Thanks to our emergency workers for all they're doing.'

Jack Frowde, 34, from Oxford, who works at Oxford University, said he was in his kitchen 'when the whole room lit up with a brilliant white light, then followed by a huge crack which sounded like really heavy thunder'.

He added: 'I looked out of the kitchen window and it was as if the sky was pulsating orange.

'I ran to the back to capture the orange glow as it faded after about 20 seconds.'

Stuart Hosking, in his 50s, from Oxford, an AI business director and former contestant on Big Brother, said: 'We were pretty close. I thought it was the sun setting, until I saw the flickering and smoke.

'The lights flickered in the house then a flash, then a rumble like thunder, but a single bang.'

After the incident unfolded on Monday, Conservative MP Sir Bob Goodwill told MailOnline it should be considered whether similar plants should have lightning conductors to prevent such an explosion happening again.

The chair of the Environment Committee, he said: 'Lightning strikes happen to a lot of installations like this and obviously given what's happened it might be worth considering if we need lightning conductors.

'Given it is the second such strike on a biogas plant it might be worth doing some work to see if we need to put in mitigation, and it would have to be considered how near to the plant a conductor would be, but lightning conductors s are well-established and that would seem a sensible precaution.'

He added: 'If this organic waste was put into landfill it would still release methane which could be released into the atmosphere.

'Using this material in this way is something we definitely should be doing and I hope it doesn't deter us in this way to install more biogas plants.'

Mr Goodwill also warned the public to ensure they know what to do if they are trapped in the open in a thunderstorm.

He said: 'This incident underlines how we all need to take precautions there are heavy storms and lightening and be responsible, generally it is worth knowing exactly what you need to do.'

In daylight the extraordinary scale of the damage caused by the explosion is seen for the first time

Videos show the night sky being turned an eerie orange as the fire raged north west of Oxford

A column of fire lit up the night sky and flames could be seen roaring from miles around

Police urged residents to stay indoors and the A40 was closed as a fireball lit up the night sky (Pictured: Aerial view of the plant)

Conservative MP Sir Bob Goodwill told MailOnline it should be considered whether similar plants should have lightning conductors to prevent such an explosion happening again

Trevor Lawrence, Director of Operations Cranfield University's Cranfield Ordnance Test and Evaluation Centre said: 'This appears to have been the ignition of a large quantity of biogas stored in a container.

'The ignition of this type of substance under confinement causes an explosion that is not as violent an event as a detonation, however it can be very destructive to buildings and structures due the long duration of the pressure pulse created.'

Energy supplier SSE, who operate in the area, told MailOnline there were 533 reported outages in the area, but stressed it was due to poor weather and not the explosion. Residents reported outages in Witney, Burford, Chipping Norton and Milton-under-Wychwood.

A yellow weather warning for thunderstorms and heavy rain was in place for Oxfordshire until 2am on Tuesday.

Thames Valley Police said that its officers attended the scene of a fire at a waste plant near Yarnton, Oxfordshire.

'It is believed that lightning struck gas containers at the site during bad weather this evening, causing a large fire,' they said in a statement.

'No one is believed to have been hurt, but emergency services remain at the scene. As a result of this, A40 has been closed between Wolvercote and Eynsham.

'To ensure public safety, residents are asked to stay home, shut windows and doors and not to attend the scene.'

It is not the first time a biogas plant has been struck by lightning. In October 2018, an agricultural biogas facility was struck in the early hours of the morning, but damage was limited as gas had been isolated the night before.

According to a government report, there were three other incidents of fire at a biogas plant between 2010 and 2018.

One resident shared a clip of the fire raging in the distance as he speculated what might have caused it.

'Saw this strange pulsing sky out of our windows looking north west of Oxford,' Kit Yates wrote on X.

'I'm guessing it's a fire caused by the lightning storm that passed over.'

Mahmet Ciftci also posted on X: 'Just saw something here in Kidlington that looked like an explosion in the distance.

'We heard a rumble like thunder and saw flames in the distance. The horizon went orange for a while.'

Joshua Bull wrote on X: 'Definitely some kind of explosion - sounds like it's out near Yarnton? Must have been huge, I'm in Marston and thought it was a car crashing outside my flat.'

A BP service station in Woodstock with the orange glow caused by the fire illuminating the sky

Corinna Bird was in a Sainsbury's car park when she heard 'what we thought were fireworks, then this huge apocalyptic glow lit up the sky, we could see the flames.'

Speaking to The Times, she added: 'I just wanted to get home quickly and out of the storm, funny thing was it didn't feel like a storm, it wasn't even raining very much.'

It came after locals claimed an 'absolutely massive' clap of thunder erupted in west London yesterday evening as storms battered Britain.

The loud rumble sounded 'movie sound affects', one Chiswick resident said, jokingly adding that they 'expected an alien ship to arrive'. Another claimed the thunderclap 'scared the life out of us' and 'sounded like it hit something'.

The impact of the extreme weather came as the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning as storms are set to batter swathes of the country, including London.

Downpours are expected for the rest of the week, with yellow storm warnings over parts of the UK in place until Friday.

The warning read: 'Thunderstorms with frequent lightning have already affected parts of the warning area, these continuing into the evening in places. An increasing risk of longer-lasting intense downpours too, especially later this evening and further east across the warning area, for example towards south Lincolnshire and East Anglia.

'These storms are likely to be focused in relatively narrow bands, so some places will miss the worst, while a few locations might catch 25-50 mm of rain within 2 or 3 hours, along with frequent lightning and gusty winds.'
Two of Australia's superstar fitness influencers are locked in a legal battle and millions of dollars could hang on the outcome.

The Bikini Body Training Company, launched by South Australian megastar Kayla Itsines, has launched legal action against rising Queensland crossfit trainer Cass Olholm.

Ms Istines is attempting to block Ms Olholm from launching her new fitness business, Train With Cass, which is set to be released on the Apple App store on October 12.

Ms Itsines, represented at South Australian Supreme Court by Nicholas Swan on Tuesday, claims Ms Olholm, who worked as a contractor for Ms Itsines before leaving in February this year, has breached restraint of trade by preparing her new business.

Fitness megastar Kayla Itsines (pictured) is attempting to block Cass Olholm from launching her new fitness business, Train With Cass, in the South Australia Supreme Court

Ms Olholm (pictured) worked as a contractor for Ms Itsines before leaving in February this year

Ms Itsines alleges Ms Olholm breached restraint of trade by preparing her new business within 12 months of leaving Ms Itsines employment. Ms Olholm claims the restraint period expired at six months

READ MORE: Cass Oholm's secret to getting ripped abs While these days it's common knowledge that you can't get a six pack overnight, Cass Olholm has revealed how much effort it takes to sculpt abs like you see on social media. Advertisement

Mr Swan, appearing before Judge Dart, said Ms Olholm's plans to launch the rival brand breached a 12-month restraint agreement between the two influencers, who were close collaborators in the fitness space.

'Clearly, there is on both sides really, an association between the personality and the product,' he said.

'Taking all that into account, they came to an agreement whereby, we say, 12 months was an appropriate restraint provision.'

Mr Swan is pushing for a court injunction to block the launch of Train With Cass until March 1, 2024, marking 12 months from her departure from Ms Itsines' orbit.

Ms Olholm, represented by Thomas McFarlane, argues the restraint period expired after six months.

'This restraint is little more than a restraint on mere competition, there's no allegation of misuse of or even access to confidential information, client lists or data,' he said.

Bikini Body Training Company developed the massively popular Sweat fitness program, which has been downloaded more than 5 million times on Google Play.

Ms Itsines sold Sweat to US company IFit in 2021 for a reported $400million.

Ms Olholm joined Sweat in 2020 and has appeared regularly in Ms Itsines' Facebook videos.

The Train With Cass program, if it goes ahead next week, will be billed at $21.99 a month or $139.99 a year.

The court heard Ms Olholm had spent some $580,000 preparing the new business.

Judge Dart suggested both parties pursue mediation to avoid spending 'very large sums of money' on lawyers.

Ms Itsines' Bikini Body Training Company developed the Sweat fitness program, which has been downloaded more than 5 million times on Google Play. She sold it for a reported $400million

The court heard Ms Olholm had spent some $580,000 preparing her new business

'If this app was launching in about 22 weeks' time, we wouldn't be here,' he said.

'If this was March 1, there would be no one here seeking an injunction.

'I'm just trying to stop the parties spending a lot of money when, from March next year, Ms Olholm can do this anyway.'

He also raised the possibility of a compromise nine-month restraint agreement between the two parties.

Judge Dart adjourned the case to October 10 for both parties to argue their cases in full.
Wardens policing Sadiq Khan's ultra-low emission zone are wearing balaclavas to hide their faces after weeks of clashes with Blade Runners activists who aim to sabotage the scheme.

Vans with automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) have been rolled out by the London mayor, in an attempt to curb the rise in ULEZ-related crimes - after the Met Police revealed 595 cameras were damaged and 200 were stolen over the past six months.

But enforcement officers are now donning balaclavas, sunglasses, caps and dark clothing in a bid to conceal their identities as they face an increase in abuse from angry residents and protestors.

In a video posted to TikTok, a so-called Blade Runner shouts: 'Why do you do this job then? What makes you take a job...you're hated. Take a morally decent job at least.'

Are YOU a ULEZ warden? Email jack.wright@mailonline.co.uk

Anti-ULEZ activists - dubbed Blade Runners - are adopting alternative methods to protest the green scheme such as painting van's camera lenses, slashing tyres, and blocking the enforcement vans to stop them catching drivers.

As the scheme expands to outer London-boroughs, more motorists with older vehicles are being charged 12.50 a day - with critics arguing struggling families are hit the hardest.

Susan Hall, the Conservatives' candidate for next year's mayoral election described the scheme as 'daylight robbery'.

Transport for London said its staff are allowed to wear face coverings if they feel threatened - but they are not actively advised to.

Wardens policing Sadiq Khan's ultra-low emission zone are now wearing balaclavas to hide their faces after weeks of clashes with angry neighbours

Transport for London has said its staff are allowed to wear face coverings if they feel threatened. Enofrcement officers are pictured covering up whilst on the job

Anti-ULEZ activists are ramping up protests as they film ULEZ officials who wear face coverings because they feel threatened

Vans with automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) are also being rolled out by the London mayor

Ms Hall added that if she is successful in the mayoral election, she will stop the scheme 'on day one'.

In the coming weeks Transport for London (TfL) is expected to start issuing rule-breakers with 180 fines, which will reduce to 90 if paid within 14 days.

The rise in heated arguments and confrontations between the enforcement officers and anti-ULEZ activists is being documented in videos posted to TikTok.

In one video a Blade Runner is shown blocking a ULEZ camera van as he asks the driver: 'How much do you get paid for doing this, the most hated job in the country?'

The official, wearing a black covering and tinted sunglasses, responds: 'It's none of your business.'

It is one of many videos where Blade Runners are seen mocking workers who are driving the ULEZ vans.

One of the two officials who are both in balaclavas says he is 'guilty by association', before adding: 'At the end of the day when you're self-employed you have bills to pay.'

The weeks of clashes came to a head when officials were chased from Sunningvale Avenue in Biggin Hill, south-east London, by angry residents last week.

Anti-Ulez activists held a yellow high visibility jacket in front of one of the cameras while locals berated the Ulez workers.

One woman told the workers: 'It's wrong and you know it's wrong.'

One ULEZ official (pictured) who is wearing a balaclava says he is 'guilty by assocciation', before adding: 'At the end of the day when you're self-employed you have bills to pay'

A Blade Runner scales a traffic light and cutting down a camera enforcing ULEZ by using an angle grinder

One ULEZ official is filmed b yan angry resident after he called the police after his enforcement van was blocked

Activists opposed to Mr Khan's flagship policy - which last month expanded to cover the entire city - have attacked hundreds of static cameras

One woman told the workers: 'It's wrong and you know it's wrong.' A man added: 'Why don't you b****r off, you're not wanted around here, or needed'

One local told the Ulez workers: 'You're just taxing the normal man, the working man. Now go away. Don't come back'

One social media post showed a van being towed away on a recovery truck

As the Ulez crew finally departed (pictured), relieved locals clapped and cheered

As well as blocking the ULEZ van's view with a truck, protesters also put a sign saying 'ULEZ scam' in front of the camera

A man added: 'Why don't you b****r off, you're not wanted around here, or needed.

'You're just taxing the normal man, the working man. Now go away. Don't come back.'

The workers did not reply as they packed up their gear and drove away from the village in Bromley.

As they departed, relieved locals clapped and cheered.

In another bizzare incident, activists are seen dressed as a dinosaur and a dog as they try to block one of the mobile 'spy' vans and mock ULEZ officials who are speaking to two officers from the Metropolitan Police.

'You've got us for company and we're very nice, we keep you company, don't we,' one protester says to the two men in charge of the enforcement van.

The woman then turns to the pair of female police officers as they walk away from the scene, and says: 'Peaceful protest is allowed in this country.'

'Yes, yes,' one officer replies before they get in their car and drive off, leaving the activists to continue with their bizarre protest.

Furious locals chased away a Ulez crew - some of whom were driving Sadiq Khan 's mobile 'spy' vans used to enforce the scheme

Later, the person in the inflatable dinosaur suit is seen waddling towards to two men, as another activist holds a sign saying 'ULEZ scam' in front of the van's ANPR camera.

A Met Police spokesperson said: 'The Met continues to treat criminal activity in relation to ULEZ seriously and has deployed considerable resources to our operation.

'Where there are possible lines of enquiry, local investigators will follow up using a range of investigative approaches including CCTV trawls, witness searches and an assessment of forensic opportunities.'

Yesterday, protesters staged a demonstration outside Sadiq Khan's home in Tooting, south west London as the campaign against the scheme and its expansion intensifies.

Furious drivers set up tents and signs outside the property in south London  with one bringing a caravan with the words 'Sack Khan' and 'No To Ulez' on it.

Anti-ULEZ activists dressed as a dinosaur and dog used a tipper truck to block one of Sadiq Khan 's mobile 'spy' vans

A ULEZ official appears glum after police said they would be taking no action against the protesters

Some branded the ULEZ cameras designed to catch drivers out as 'scameras' as they demanded the Labour politician steps down as Mayor.

Mr Khan has defended the zone and set up a scheme enabling residents, small businesses, sole traders and charities scrapping non-compliant cars to claim grants.

A TfL spokesman told The Telegraph: 'Unfortunately, our contractors have been subjected to threats and abuse while carrying out their duties so they are advised to record any issues on mobile phones to deescalate conflict and if necessary, record evidence for police investigations.

'It is due to the unacceptable criminal abuse and intimidating behaviour against them that these contractors have worn face coverings.

'TfL is working with the police to catch those responsible for vandalism and criminal activity relating to Ulez and arrests have been made.'
Tories insisted Nigel Farage would 'easily' win a leadership contest today after he was feted by activists and danced up a storm with Priti Patel at conference.

The former home secretary and the Brexit champion duetted on Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off You, hours after he had given visible and vocal support to Liz Truss's attack on Rishi Sunak's leadership.

Mr Farage is at the gathering in Manchester on a media pass, in his capacity as a commentator for GB News.

It is his first attendance for a decade, 30 years after he quit in protest at the Maastricht Treaty, and he has refused to rule out a return to frontline politics.

The rapturous reception for Mr Farage has been noted by senior Conservatives, who compared his star quality to that of Boris Johnson.

A former Cabinet minister told MailOnline he would 'easily win a Tory leadership election if he made it to the membership'.

But Rishi would never let him on the candidate list,' they added.

He would be a dominant figure and he couldnt toe the line.

He would be like the scorpion crossing the river on the back of the fox - he would sting you because thats what he does.

We should probably adopt the policies but not the man.'

Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant told GB News: 'I think we should get on our hands and knees and beg him [to rejoin], we should award him with a knighthood that he should have had years ago.'

Tim Montgomerie, a former speechwriter for William Hague who is now a columnist, tweeted: 'I into Conference earlier with Nigel Farage. He got quite the reception. I'm convinced party members would choose him as leader if they could.'

The grinning former home secretary and the ex-Brexit Party leader duetted on Frank Sinatra's I Love You Baby, hours after he had given visible and vocal support to Liz Truss 's attack on Rishi Sunak's leadership

It is his first attendance for a decade and it prompted calls from some Tory MPs for him to rejoin the party 30 years after he quit over support for the Maastricht Treaty

Mr Farage and the former Cabinet minister were the life and soul of the party organised by GB News at the Hilton Hotel.

The former Brexit Party leader had been front and centre at a rally led by the ex-prime minister at the Conservative Party conference yesterday.

Ms Truss used the Great British Growth Rally to demand tax cuts, cuts to household bills and a surge in housebuilding to kickstart an economic revival.

Afterwards Mr Farage, who wore a pair of Union Jack socks, said he agreed with her ideas '100 per cent' and that her disastrous mini-Budget last year 'played all the right notes, just in the wrong order', a reference to a 1970s Morecambe and Wise gag.

'I think what they did to her was a huge, huge mistake,' he told the Daily Telegraph. 'It's policy that interests me. I think this woman has shown that she's able to stand up, take the abuse and fight for what she believes in.'

Mr Farage, who was mobbed by fans when he arrived at the Manchester convention centre hosting the Tories, also refused to rule out a return to politics himself.

The former Brexit Party leader was front and centre at a rally led by the ex-prime minister at the Conservative Party conference today, as he made his first appearance at the event in a decade

Mr Farage, who was mobbed by fans when he arrived at the Manchester convention centre hosting the Tories, also refused to rule out a return to politics himself.

He has previously spoken at fringe events, including a 2013 speech to the Eurosceptic Bruges Group.

But he came inside the secure zone reserved for paying party members, activists and business leaders to attend the Liz Truss event alongside Dame Priti and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Mr Farage tweeted: 'A huge buzz at the Great British Growth rally starring Liz Truss. I think she's going to need a bigger room!'

There were cheers in the room when party members were reminded how Liz Truss was elected by them  unlike Rishi Sunak.

Ms Truss, appearing on stage smiling and to loud applause, called on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to cut corporation tax in next month's autumn statement  something he is resisting doing.
A priest under investigation for organising a gay orgy in which a man was hospitalised after overdosing on erectile dysfunction pills is now said to have been looking for sex on Grindr and using rape drugs.

Father Tomasz Zmarzy from the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels in Poland had allegedly thrown a small party with a male prostitute and a pal at his apartment in the city of Dabrowa Gornicza.

But when police and paramedics were refused entry after being called when one of the men collapsed, prosecutors launched an investigation into the priest for failing to help the unconscious man.

Now, leaked recordings suggest that the victim may have been plied with the date rape drug known as GHB.

According to Fakt newspaper which received the recording, a man believed to be the male prostitute is heard talking frantically to the emergency services.

Father Tomasz Zmarzy (pictured) from the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels in Poland had allegedly thrown a small party with a male prostitute and a pal at his apartment in the city of Dabrowa Gornicza

Prosecutors launched an investigation into Father Tomasz Zmarzy (pictured) after the emergency services were refused entry to the party venue where one of the men collapsed

In the call, the paper said he is heard sobbing: 'He was so high... And they told me that he shouldn't be touched! I tell them, check, I lifted his head and he was foaming at the mouth .'

He is then allegedly heard saying: 'There are bars on the doors, I don't know why...they kicked me out, hurry up!

'Yeah, they were taking some DHB or something. I don't know. Some GHB And drops or something... I don't know, send an ambulance here. And the police.'

When police and paramedics were finally allowed into the apartment, they found a naked man lying unconscious on the floor.

He was taken to hospital where he later recovered and discharged himself.

At the time, deputy district prosecutor Czesaw Kurpis said: 'The local prosecutor's office is conducting proceedings regarding failure to provide assistance to a person whose life is at risk.'

It has now emerged that Father Zmarzy who has since been suspended had also been looking for hook ups on the gay dating app Grindr.

According to his former partner who contacted local newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, Zmarzy turned to the dating app after being unsure about becoming a priest.

Father Tomasz Zmarzy (pictured) is under investigation for organising a gay orgy in which a man was hospitalised after overdosing on erectile dysfunction pills

It has now emerged that Father Zmarzy who has since been suspended had been looking for hook ups on the gay dating app Grindr

The former partner said: 'At the end of his studies at the seminary, Tomek, aware of his homosexuality, hesitated about whether to accept priestly ordination at all.

'He [went on] Grindr but he finally decided to become a priest.'

Local outrage in the strongly Catholic town has since erupted with one man attempting to burn down the church and 'the faithful' stopping their children attending service.

The local mayor has now cut off ties with the church which is overseen by the diocese of Sosnowiec.

Posting on social media, mayor Arkadiusz Checinski said: 'As a city, we are famous for tolerance and respect for all faiths and views.

'However, due to recent reports from the diocese negatively influencing opinions about the city, the outrage of the inhabitants and the lack of a clear dissociation from these matters forces me to make the unpleasant decision to suspend the city's cooperation with the Diocese of Sosnowiec until real corrective actions are taken.'

The disgraced priest has also faced a backlash from his colleagues.

A fellow member of the clergy said: 'It's time to stop pretending. Everyone in our community knew that he had a huge problem with sexuality.

'However, nothing was done to help him solve the problem.'

According to his former partner who contacted local newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, Zmarzy turned to Grindr after being unsure about becoming a priest

Father Jozef Augustyn from Krakow said: 'For the priestly community, this is a shameful and humiliating situation.

'It's enough. I feel almost physical pain when I think about how young people, who sincerely struggle for the integrity of their conscience and human and spiritual maturity, read and interpret such scandals.'

Now on holiday in Turkey, besieged Zmarzy says he is being 'persecuted'.

In a letter to the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper he wrote: 'I perceive it as an obvious attack on the Church, including the clergy and the faithful, in order to humiliate its position, tasks and mission.'

Meanwhile, lawyers say he could be facing up to three years in jail.

Referring to the leaked emergency recording, legal expert Marcin Kruszewski said: 'It turns out that they may have bigger problems than they thought.

'Because not only does this conversation somewhat confirm that some of the men did not want to help a male prostitute who passed out, but it could also turn out that they had illegal substances in their possession.

'The mere possession of such illegal substances is punishable by up to three years' imprisonment.

'It is also a crime to provide such substances to another person.'

Prosecutor spokesman Waldemar ubiniewski said: 'Investigators have a record of the telephone call that was received by the emergency number.

'The evidence is still being analysed.'
Investigators have released never before seen photos and videos showing the last moments of rap star Tupac Shakur's life following the first ever arrest made in the murder.

Cops released new details surrounding the arrest of Duane 'Keffe D' Davis, the man charged in connection with the rapper's death in September 1996.

The new video shows Shakur and Death Row Records CEO Marion 'Suge' Knight leading an entourage of dozens to attack rival gang member Orlando 'Baby Lane' Anderson in the lobby of the MGM Grand just hours before the shooting.

The clip goes on to show Shakur and others kicking Anderson as he lies on the ground. Security guards surround the melee but do not intervene. Shakur and Knight then leave the building before the police arrive.

Authorities have long believed that Anderson later regrouped with fellow gang members, including Davis, 60, his uncle, and conspired to find and kill Shakur that night.

Grainy surveillance video from the MGM Grand on the night of Tupac's murder shows the rapper leading an entourage in an attack rival gang member Orlando Anderson

Shakur, along with Death Row Records Marion 'Suge' Knight, leads dozens of members of their group to the ambush

The rapper and other members of the group can be seen stomping and kicking Anderson

It's believed that this beating prompted Anderson and his friends, fellow South Side Crips, to kill Shakur

Shakur seen with Suge Knight on the night of his death

Duane 'Keefe D' Davis was taken into custody on Friday morning by Las Vegas detectives, and has been charged with murder with use of a deadly weapon

Davis was taken into custody in Henderson, Nevada, on Friday, after he was indicted by a grand jury. He is charged with murder with a deadly weapon with a gang enhancement.

Witnesses in the case pointed to Davis as being a member of the South Side Crips and a known drug trafficker. Shakur was affiliated with gangs, including the Bloods and Mob Piru, but was not considered a member.

For years, Davis has spoken openly about his apparent role in the death of the rapper in numerous interviews, including in a memoir about his life on the streets.

The first arrest in the 1996 slaying of Tupac Shakur had its roots in the investigation of the killing of Biggie Smalls.

Shakur was sitting in a BMW that Knight was driving when a Cadillac pulled up next to them and gunfire erupted on that fateful September night.

Shakur was shot multiple times and died a week later at the age of 25. Davis had long been known to investigators as one of four suspects identified early in the investigation. He isn't the accused gunman but was described as the group's ringleader by authorities at a news conference and in court.

On Monday, investigators revealed that several photos, including four photos of Tupac's corpse were shown to grand jury members.

The jury were also shown several interviews that Davis has done over the years where he discusses the murder. The suspect will make his first appearance in court on Wednesday.

Also on Monday, the man who was driving Tupac at the time of the shooting, Death Row Records CEO Marion 'Suge' Knight, told TMZ that he will not co-operate with police and testify in Davis' trial.

During the press conference, investigators showed the last known pic of Shakur, taken minutes before the shooting

In the same interview, Knight said that he doesn't believe the police narrative that Davis or his nephew, Orlando Anderson, are guilty of the killing. Knight is prison serving 28 years in voluntary manslaughter.

During the grand jury hearings, Devonta Lee, who calls himself affiliated with the South Side Crips, said that he had heard that the man who pulled the trigger on Tupac was not Davis or Anderson but Deandre 'Big Dre' Smith.

Lee told the grand jury that Smith was sitting on the side of their car that Tupac was on and therefore he had the clear shot. Smith was somewhere 350 and 400 pounds and Anderson would not have been able to shoot around him, Lee said, reports KTNV.

Davis, now 60, said in his memoir, 'Compton Street Legend,' that he provided the gun used in the drive-by shooting.

Davis said he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and had slipped a gun into the back seat, from where he said the shots were fired.

He implicated Anderson, saying he was one of two people in the backseat.

Anderson died two years later. He denied any involvement in Shakurs death. DeAndre Smith died in 2004 as a result of ill-health.

Shakur and his entourage beat up Anderson at the MGM Grand later that night after watching a Mike Tyson fight

In this image Davis can be seen standing in the middle of a group of five men, with his nephew Orlando Anderson on the far right, who was named as a suspect before he was killed in 1998

The investigation that resulted in Davis' arrest began as an investigation into the murder Shakur's long-time rival Biggie Smalls aka Christopher Wallace in March 1997.

Now retired Los Angeles police detective Greg Kading was assigned to investigate the slaying of Smalls and in 2009 interviewed Davis as a person of interest in the case.

Davis had had been at the party at the Peterson Automotive Museum that Wallace had just left when he was shot.

Kading had helped build a federal drug case against Davis to get leverage to compel him to talk to Los Angeles police, who to date have made no arrests in the Wallace case.

'He confesses to his involvement in the Tupac Shakur case, he gives all the details of how he and his co-conspirators killed Tupac,' Kading recalled in an interview Friday with The Associated Press.

Davis, who had immunity for what he said in his police interview but not what he said outside it, went on to divulge many of the same details in documentaries, on podcasts and in a tell-all 2019 memoir that would give new life to the Las Vegas police probe and help lead to his grand jury indictment.

'He has essentially talked himself right into jail,' Kading said.

Shakur was in a BMW driven by Death Row Records founder Marion 'Suge' Knight in a convoy of about 10 cars

Davis revealed in the Netflix docuseries that they hopped into their Cadillac to find Tupac after the beat down, knowing he was due to perform at 662 Club that night

In Nevada a defendant can be charged with a crime, including murder, if you help someone commit the crime.

The grand jury also voted to add a sentencing enhancement to the murder charge for gang activity that could add up to 20 additional years if he's convicted.

Hundreds of pages of transcripts released Friday provide a view into the first month of grand jury proceedings, which began in late July with testimony from former associates of Davis, friends of Shakur and a slate of retired police officers involved in the case early on.

Their testimony painted a picture for the jurors of a deep, escalating rift between Shakur's music label Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records, which had ties to Davis and represented Wallace.

'It started the whole West Coast/East Coast' rivalry that primarily defined the hip-hop scene during the mid-1990s, one of Davis' former associates testified.

In a statement Friday, Sekyiwa 'Set' Shakur, the rapper's sister, described the arrest as a victory, but in a measured tone.

'This is no doubt a pivotal moment. The silence of the past 27 years surrounding this case has spoken loudly in our community,' she said. 'It's important to me that the world, the country, the justice system, and our people acknowledge the gravity of the passing of this man, my brother, my mother's son, my father's son.'

She gave no praise to the authorities who have worked the case.

'I know there's been many people who did not believe that the murder of Tupac Shakur was important to this police department,'

Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference Friday. 'I'm here to tell you, that was simply not the case. It was not the case back then, and it is not the case today.'

He added, 'every single victim, every life that is lost is important and remains a priority to this police department.
Judges at the Criminal Court of Zagazig ruled she was not fit to plead

A mother who decapitated her five-year-old son with a machete and ate his head has been declared criminally insane by a court in Egypt.

Accused Hanaa Mohamed Hassan, 29, was on trial for her son Youssef's gruesome murder but judges ruled she was not fit to plead.

Instead, in a verdict revealed on September 30, they said she had killed the boy 'in a state of madness' and should be detained at a secure psychiatric unit.

Hassan was caught after Youssef's horrified uncle found some of his body parts in a bucket at the family home in Faqus, northern Egypt, the Criminal Court of Zagazig heard.

Following her arrest, police said she confessed that she had eaten part of her son's head because she 'wanted him to stay with her forever'.

Accused Hanaa Mohamed Hassan (pictured left), 29, was on trial for her son Youssef's gruesome murder, but judges at the Criminal Court of Zagazig ruled she was not fit to plead. Instead, in a verdict revealed on September 30, they said she had killed the boy 'in a state of madness' and should be detained at a secure psychiatric unit. Pictured right: Youssef

She had butchered his body in the bathroom before she stewed his head and other pieces of his flesh in boiling water on the stove and then ate them.

Before the ruling, prosecutors had argued that Hassan had killed her son because she feared she might lose custody of the boy to her ex-husband.

An initial psychiatric report had also found that she was responsible for her actions, which were premeditated as she had obtained a club and a machete and locked all the doors and windows in her home.

She had then struck her son's head three times, killing him, and had then chopped his body into pieces in a bid to destroy the evidence.

But the court ordered a more detailed assessment of her mental state, and a panel of court-appointed psychiatric experts found that Hassan was 'delusional' and had wild notions that relatives were using sorcery against her son.

The report said Hassan suffered from impaired insight and judgment and did not appreciate the seriousness of her actions.

She viewed the slaughter as a simple mistake.

Hassan was ordered to be detained at the Abbasiya Mental and Neurological Health Hospital in Cairo.

The ex-husband, identified only by his initials H.A., told local media: 'When I arrived, the police prevented me from seeing my son because of the horrific scene'

Before the ruling, prosecutors had argued that Hassan (pictured in police custody) had killed her son because she feared she might lose custody of the boy to her ex-husband

After her arrest, Hassan claimed to the police in Faqus that she 'suffers from a mental illness' and had not intended to kill her son.

She and Youssef had been living alone after she separated from her husband, who insists she knew exactly what she was doing.

The ex-husband, identified only by his initials H.A., told local media: 'When I arrived, the police prevented me from seeing my son because of the horrific scene.

'We separated from each other four years ago because she had land from her father and asked me to leave the house and my family and go with her to live on the land.

'But I refused, and the relationship ended entirely by her will, and I tried to reconcile with her after the divorce, but she refused and stuck to her opinion.'

He added: 'My son was the one who kept me connected to her, and I used to see him regularly and bring him clothes and things he needed.

'But recently she was trying to keep him away from me and plant hatred towards me in his heart, so he wouldn't come to me.

'I was trying to communicate with her family to see my son and make sure he was OK.'

According to his lawyer, Samir Mohamed Saleh, the suspect was stone-faced when she told her questioners: 'I wanted to free him and myself.

'I wanted to take revenge against his father and be free. His father keeps coming and trying to take him away all the time.'
A Democrat leader in crime-ridden Chicago has warned of the failures of progressive policies to change the tide on violent attacks in the city, amid soaring rates of murder and robbery.

Raymond Lopez, alderman of the 15th Ward in Chicago, told 'America Reports' on Tuesday that criminals are 'taking note' of lax attitudes towards violent crime, and innocent people are being 'hunted down like prey'

Lopez said crooks are now going so far as to brazenly 'threaten elected officials like myself' as state laws 'do not warrant you being held on bond anymore'.

As the House Judiciary Committee visited Chicago last week to examine crime in the city, Lopez deemed it 'unfortunate' that 'not one single Democrat chose to participate and make their voices heard or to hear from those most impacted.'

'They are often talked about for the progressive agenda, for the extreme liberal agenda that says they care. But their policies, particularly when it comes to police reform and criminal justice reform, in my opinion, are very racist because oftentimes the victims of the most heinous crimes by the repeat offenders are those same Black and Brown residents that the White liberals claim to care about but truly don't,' he said.

Reports of murders, theft, felonies and property crimes in Chicago in 2022 was 33 per cent higher than in 2019, before the pandemic. Incidence of major crime was also 61 per cent higher in March 2023 than it was 12 months prior, and 97 per cent higher than in 2021.

Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) announces he is running for mayor of Chicago in 2023, during a news conference on April 6, 2022. Lopez has slammed inaction on rising crime in the city

Video shared last week showed a man attacked in Chicago in broad daylight as robberies rise

Just last week, shocking video footage emerged of an innocent man being jumped by two opportunistic muggers on a Chicago street in broad daylight.

The video begins with the two attackers wandering through an alley. Eventually, at 2:55pm, the victim, 33, nonchalantly walks by his attackers, eating pizza.

READ MORE: Chicago man charged over murder of cop Ella French is offered plea deal that'll see him jailed for just SEVEN years Advertisement

The man is then ambushed as one attacker throws him against a chain-link fence. Despite being outnumbered and ambushed, the victim fights back, repeatedly telling the assailants to 'Get the f*** off me!'

Eventually, he wrestles one of the attackers to the ground around some nearby garbage cans. At that point, the other attacker says: 'Just let it go!'

The two were able to make off with his backpack and what appeared to be a cellphone.

Chicago Police Department statistics show that robberies are up nearly 100 percent from 2019 in the Bucktown neighborhood and up 53 percent from 2022.

Chicago also reported 21,516 car thefts last year, up from 13,856 the year prior - a 55 per cent increase, according to data from the National Crime Information Center, and significantly higher than the seven per cent hike nationwide.

Brandon Johnson, Mayor of Chicago since April 2023, previously supported the Defund the Police movement and has been widely criticized for a soft-on-crime approach.

He made history when he was elected as the first person to unseat a presiding mayor in the Dem-led city since 1983, pledging to make the city a place where 'all residents can live and work free from the threat of violence'.

Johnson's radical approach to policing involves reallocating funds from enforcement to social services like housing and education, while taxing the rich and local businesses.

His predecessor Lori Lightfoot's time in office was marked by criticism over her handling of crime in the city, which has risen significantly. The city recorded 800 murders in 2021, the highest in 25 years.

Mayor Brandon Johnson delivers remarks at a press conference at City Hall in Chicago on August 2, 2023

Raymind Lopez is currently a member of the Chicago City Council, serving as alderman of the 15th Ward.

He became the first openly gay Mexican-American to be elected in Illinois after his successful bid in 2012.

Lopez announced last April that he would run in the 2023 Chicago mayoral election, which ultimately saw Brandon Johnson unseat incumbent Ms Lightfoot.

Lopez dropped out of the race in November 2022 and filed to run for re-election to city council.

Last month, he spoke out on payments made on emergency contracts agreed to tackle a surge of migrants moving to the city.

Chicago has paid at least $56 million to Favorite Healthcare Staffing to care for the more than 13,000 migrants who have arrived this year, according to an NBC 5 investigation that found nurses were making $135 an hour or more.

A manager was paid $14,000 for just one week of work, and a nurse earned an eye-watering $20,000 for a week in December. Both invoices included overtime.

'To see invoices like that are disgusting. They are outrageous and they are cause for an immediate investigation,' Aldermen Raymond Lopez told NBC.
Suella Braverman will make her pitch to the Tory faithful today amid claims a host of senior ministers are 'on manoeuvres'.

The Home Secretary is expected to double down on her pledge to curb immigration when she gives her keynote speech to the party conference in Manchester later.

In another crowd-pleasing announcement, Ms Braverman is set to vow that sex offenders will no longer be able to change their name of gender to evade monitoring.

The intervention comes after Kemi Badenoch, also touted as a contender should Rishi Sunak's bid to see off Labour fail, used a tub-thumping address yesterday to blast 'woke' views.

She lashed out over trans rights, Remainer defeatism and the pace of reaching green targets.

Meanwhile, Commons Penny Mordaunt has also been busily glad-handing at conference, including speaking at a Next Gen reception last night.

However, she has been careful to stress her loyalty to Mr Sunak. When one activist shouted 'Penny for PM!' she rebuked them, saying 'no, no, no... calm down.'

One former Cabinet minister told MailOnline that the jockeying was not 'tasteful' and 'preeners don't become leaders'.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman is expected to double down on her pledge to curb immigration when she gives her keynote speech to the party conference in Manchester later

Kemi Badenoch (right), also touted as a contender should Rishi Sunak's bid to see off Labour fail, used a tub-thumping address yesterday to blast ' woke ' views. Commons Penny Mordaunt (left) has also been busily glad-handing at conference, including speaking at a Next Gen reception last night - although she was careful to stay loyal

Although Mr Sunak is regarded as safe until the general election, there is a strong sense that - with Labour consistently showing double-digit leads - some in Cabinet are already looking to the future

Ms Braverman, Ms Badenoch and Ms Mordaunt all ran for Tory leader last year - and have secured Cabinet jobs under Mr Sunak.

In her speech, the Business Secretary rejected the 'narrative of hopelessness' for ethnic minorities that suggests 'British society is against you and you're better off asking for reparations'.

She said the Tories were in line with civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King because they believe 'people should be judged by the content of their character, not the colour of their skin'.

Ms Braverman was accused of grandstanding after going to Washington last month to deliver a speech dismissing multiculturalism as 'failed' and demanding reform of the UN and European human rights conventions to help stop the Channel boats.

Ms Badenoch has also lashed out at the ECHR - hated by many Tory activists - saying that leaving the pact should be 'on the table'.

Ms Mordaunt is due to give her keynote speech tomorrow, and is expected to focus her fire on Keir Starmer and the threat of militant unions gaining control if he wins the election.

Although Mr Sunak is regarded as safe until the general election, there is a strong sense that - with Labour consistently showing double-digit leads - some in Cabinet are already looking to the future.

However, the ex-Cabinet minister said: 'There is always some preening at conferences. It is not particularly helpful or tasteful. The people who preen rarely end up becoming leader.

'You only have to look at Portillo or Heseltine.'
Britons ripped off in the Payment Protection Insurance scandal have launched fresh legal action worth up to 18billion aiming to end PPI claims 'once and for all'.

While the first set of PPI claims was based around mis-selling, this new action alleges banks and credit card companies secretly took huge commissions of up to 95 per cent from customers who signed up to the insurance product.

The county court application for a group litigation order was filed on behalf of 2,518 claimants against eight financial institutions including Lloyds Bank, Barclays, HSBC and Santander at Birmingham County Court on Friday.

But around 350,000 people have applied to join the 'no win, no fee' group legal action in total and lawyers estimate up to six million people will be eligible to join.

One who has signed up is retired lorry driver Paul Pharo, from Hampshire. 'I never knew anything about the high commissions they took,' he said. 'It's like highway robbery  they're behaving like modern-day Dick Turpins.'

Retired Folkestone businessman Colin Timms, 80, added: 'I think it's more than scandalous, I think it's absolutely criminal.'

Paul Pharo of Yateley, Hampshire, who has signed up to join the Payment Protection Insurance secret commissions legal action

Colin Timms, 80, has signed up to a group legal action to recover the full commission they were allegedly charged but never told about

Law firm Harcus Parker, who have launched the claim, say that despite lawsuits and compensation schemes dating back to 1993, banks and credit card companies have only ever paid back a fraction of these undisclosed commissions.

These high levels of secret commissions are deemed to be 'unfair' under the Consumer Credit Act, which means banks and credit card firms can be forced to return all of the PPI payments to customers, lawyers say.

Damon Parker, senior partner at Harcus Parker, said: 'Banks and credit card companies have known since at least 2017 that they should pay back these undisclosed commissions.

'Some legal challenges have been brought by individual customers; however they are almost impossible to prosecute at scale. The only way through this quagmire is by allowing customers to join a group litigation claim.

Who can claim? Lawyers say anyone falling into one of the following categories is likely to have a claim for PPI secret commissions: *If you ever had a PPI claim rejected *If you were only paid back the amount of commission you paid over 50 per cent of the premium *If you had PPI but never previously made a claim. Advertisement

'For years banks and credit card companies have found ways to avoid telling customers the whole truth about the commissions they paid themselves. This failure to come clean about the scandal is a stain on the industry and needs to be redressed through settlement or legal means.'

PPI is one of the largest financial scandals in history. For decades, banks are accused of selling insurance products to customers who often didn't need them or couldn't claim on them.

Very few successful insurance claims were ever made on the policies, allowing banks to make billions of pounds in profit with almost no risk, lawyers argue.

After intervention by the Courts, Parliament, the Office of Fair Trading, the Competition Commission, Citizens Advice, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Financial Ombudsman Service, banks accepted that PPI products were mis-sold and that customers should be refunded.

However, Harcus Parker is arguing that any compensation paid to date has been inadequate.

The first set of PPI claims was based around mis-selling but this new action alleges banks and credit card companies secretly took huge commissions of up to 95 per cent from customers who signed up to the insurance product

'Customers who have previously received PPI compensation could well be owed thousands of pounds more,' Mr Parker said.

'And there will be many more customers who had their claims turned down who will be eligible under our claim. And anyone who has never made a claim but did have PPI is also highly likely to be able to make a claim.

'I would urge anyone who thinks they may have a claim to fill out the very simple form on our claims website (www.ppiglo.com) to see if they are eligible.'

A spokesman for UK Finance, the body that represents the banks and building societies, told MailOnline: 'The FCA's deadline for customers to make a complaint to a firm which sold them PPI was in August 2019.

'Firms will review and respond to any claims made in legal proceedings as required.'

Philip Sears

Retired lab technician Philip Sears thought he had a cast iron case to claim for compensation at the height of the PPI mis-selling scandal.

But the 74-year-old from Leicester's claim for a 2,500 refund was turned down by Nationwide Building Society, he says.

Mr Sears already had comprehensive sickness benefits with his employer, Leicester Polytechnic, when he was encouraged to take out PPI on a joint mortgage with his mother on a property in Devon.

Like the vast majority of those who took out PPI, he had no idea of the huge commissions allegedly earned by lenders on the premiums.

'They should have told me they were going to take up to 95 per cent of the premiums for themselves,' said Mr Sears.

'You don't mind 8, 10, or 12 per cent, but to take that much is completely unreasonable, and not to tell me is also unreasonable, as was not paying my PPI claim. They were quite seriously out of order.'

With the rent on his Leicester flat going up 200, and energy bills still high, he said he would be 'very happy to get something back  it would be very useful'.

'Maybe they could pay me some compensation on top of the 2,500 for all the stress and worry too,' he added.

Retired lab technician Philip Sears thought he had a cast iron case to claim for compensation at the height of the PPI mis-selling scandal

Paul Pharo

Retired lorry driver Paul Pharo, from Hampshire, has accused banks of behaving like 'modern-day Dick Turpins' over the ongoing PPI scandal.

The 70-year-old, from Yateley, says he unwittingly had PPI on four separate loans of between 5,000 and 7,000 taken out over several years with Alliance & Leicester and Santander.

When he applied for a PPI refund several years ago he was allegedly refused. He has now signed up to the new group legal action.

'I never knew anything about the high commissions they took,' he said. 'It's like highway robbery  they're behaving like modern-day Dick Turpins.

'Any compensation I could get now would be very welcome - maybe I'd be able to have a holiday.'

Paul Pharo unwittingly had PPI on four separate loans of between 5,000 and 7,000 taken out over several years with Alliance & Leicester and Santander

Colin Timms

A retired Folkestone businessman has slammed 'wicked' banks for charging undeclared commission on PPI cover.

Colin Timms, 80, has signed up to a group legal action to recover the full commission they were allegedly charged but never told about.

Mr Timms, who ran farming, transport and cold storage businesses, has previously claimed compensation for multiple PPI policies on a range of credit cards held over many years.

In many cases, he didn't even know he was being charged PPI on his monthly repayments.

'You thought all you were paying was interest - but no, you were taking on their PPI,' he said. 'They should not have been doing it because I didn't need it. I had assets that would have covered anything I needed to cover.'

Colin Timms has slammed 'wicked' banks for charging undeclared commission on PPI cover.

And now he believes the banks 'need to be taken to task' over the high commissions he was also never told about.

'They got exposed for mis-selling - and now it's just led to another scandal, and this is a wicked scandal,' he said.

'It now seems even the settlement I received may have been wrong, because they were charging an excess of commission and didn't repay all of it. The commission is just not realistic is it?

'I think it's more than scandalous, I think it's absolutely criminal.'
Ben was accused of being a federal agent by the 52-year-old billionaire

Brody is seeking $1 million and a jury trial for Musk for alleged libel

A man falsely accused of being a federal agent posing as a neo-Nazi by Elon Musk has sued the tech billionaire, accusing him of libel by boosting social media posts that falsely identified him.

College student Ben Brody, 22, is seeking $1 million and a jury trial in Texas, where the lawsuit was filed in Monday and where Musk, 52, has a house.

The lawsuit filed by Mark Bankston, the lawyer who last year successfully sued Alex Jones on behalf of the parents of children killed in Sandy Hook, on Ben's behalf claims includes screenshots of Musk engaging with users spreading the posts involving Brody.

Ben was at the center of a social media witch hunt earlier this year after he was accused of being a federal agent who was part of a neo-Nazi group that clashed with a local Proud Boys chapter at a Pride event in Oregon City.

Footage of the brawl, which took place in June, sparked the hunt, after a neo-Nazi who had his mask pulled off bore a passing resemblance to Brody.

Social media users began harassing Ben after finding a short post he had written for his Jewish college fraternity that revealed he wanted to work for the government.

Elon Musk (pictured) has been embroiled in several lawsuits over his tweets in recent years

Ben Brody (pictured) says his life was turned upside down by Musk's comments

Ben Brody is seeking $1 million from the Tesla CEO

Lawyers for Brody claim that Musk's tweets about him, which are still up at time of publication, were libelous

Conspiracy theorists pounced on this and claimed that Ben was a federal agent who was part of a 'false flag operation' orchestrated by the US government to destabilise the Proud Boys.

In one post, Musk described the attack as a 'probable false flag situation', while in another he said in response to a puported picture of Ben: 'always remove their masks.'

The posts, seen by millions of users, by Musk were still on X at time of publication.

Ben's lawsuit claims that Musk's repeated repetition of these claims led to 'severe personal harassment and permanent damage to his reputation.'

The lawsuit states that Ben and his family were 'repeatedly doxxed and suffered an enormous wave of harrassment from belligerent strangers.'

Musk seemingly accused Brody of being a federal agent posing as a neo-Nazi

Elon Musks history of reckless false statements - The Securities and Exchange Commission took Musk to court over a single 2018 court, alleging he had defrauded investors by claiming that he had secured funding to take Tesla shares off the stock market - In October 2022, he falsely claimed that husband of then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Paul Pelosi, was not attacked by a right-wing conspiracy theorist, but was instead attacked by his lover in a drunken fight - Musk falsely accused Haraldur Thorleifsson, a Twitter employee, of doing no work and claiming his disability, muscular dystrophy, as an excuse in 2023 - The Tesla CEO was sued for defamation by Vernon Unsworth, a British diver who criticised Musk's proposed plan to use an improvised submarine to rescue a group of young boys trapped in a cave. Musk called Unsworth 'pedo guy' Advertisement

'Musk's personal endorsement of the false accusation against Ben Brody reverberated across the internet, transforming the accusation from anonymous rumor to gospel truth for many individuals, and causing others to use Musk's endorsement to justify their desire to harass Ben Brody and his family,' Brody's lawsuit read.

'The reality is that too many powerful people with enormous audiences are being reckless with their accusations against private people.

'The damage they cause is not easily repaired by apologies or counter-speech, no matter how persuasive. Repair of reputations, compensation for harm, and effective deterrence can only occur in our courts.'

Musk has been embroiled in several controversies involving his social media use, even attracting the ire of the US' Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused the tech billionaire of defrauding investors in a single 2018 tweet.

In recent months, he has used X, formerly known as Twitter, to antagonize major figures across the world.

On Monday, he mocked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky's pleas for wartime assistance.

Musk posted a meme showing a photoshopped image of the Ukrainian leader and the caption: 'When it's been 5 minutes and you haven't asked for a billion dollars in aid'.

Musk also owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraine's defence effort, but his statements have sometimes angered Kyiv since the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in February last year.

MailOnline has contacted Elon Musk's lawyers for comment.
Britain has run out of defence equipment to donate to Ukraine, a senior military chief has claimed as they urged other countries to step up and provide more support.

The military official said Ukraine now requires 'air defence assets and artillery ammunition' in the next phase of the war - supplies which the UK has now 'run dry on'.

'We've given away all we can afford,' the source told The Daily Telegraph.

It comes after former defence secretary Ben Wallace urged the prime minister to increase military support to Ukraine by more than 2 billion - a rise of 50 per cent.

The veteran Conservative argued that with extra Western weapons, Kyiv could 'end' the battle against Russia and expel the invaders.

Commenting on Wallace's plea for further aid, the source said it should not fall on the UK to be the ones providing the 'billions' in military support required as they warned of depleted stocks.

Ukrainian servicemen of the Spartan Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine prepare a shell for a D-30 howitzer at a position at a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine September 13

Then Defence Secretary Ben Wallace speaks to the media during his visit to the Tapa Military Camp, in Estonia, Thursday, January 19

'Giving billions more doesn't mean giving billions of British kit,' the source told the Telegraph, before stating that the UK needed to encourage 'other nations to give more money and weapons'.

The military chief said the UK was already giving away as much as we can afford.

Writing for The Daily Telegraph on Sunday, Wallace - who stepped down from the defence brief in a mini-reshuffle in August - lamented that the UK was no longer Kyiv's biggest military backer in Europe, having slipped behind Germany.

Wallace's call for additional resources to be sent to Ukraine comes as the debate grows in the West about the level of backing to continue offering the partially occupied nation.

On Monday, aid for Ukraine was omitted from the US's stop-gap budget bill, potentially depleting its powers as it fights the Russian invasion that began last February.

Democrats hope to pass a separate aid measure in the coming days, though it is unclear if such a package would include the $24 billion President Joe Biden had originally sought.

The election of a pro-Russian party in neighbouring Slovakia also provided Kyiv with another blow this week as it also continues to quarrel with Poland over grain supplies.

Ukrainian soldiers undergoing training at Bovington Camp, a British Army military base, pose with a Ukrainian flag, February 22

An Ajax Ares Armoured Fighting Vehicle, on the training range at Bovington Camp, a British Army military base, where Ukrainian military undergo training, February 22

Downing Street was forced to reiterate the British government's commitment to Ukraine following Wallace's plea.

The prime minister's official spokesman said the UK's commitment to Ukraine will not 'waver', as Downing Street played down Western splits.

'Our commitment to Ukraine is steadfast and it's not going to waver. You will continue to see us provide substantial support,' the spokesperson said.

Asked about political wrangling over funding for Kyiv in other countries, the official said: 'Obviously it's for each country to decide what they think is an appropriate level of support for them.

'But collectively, I don't think there has been any backwards step in support for Ukraine. And a substantial period of time into this illegal war I think (Vladimir) Putin is faced with a strong alliance of countries providing growing levels of support for Ukrainian efforts.'

The UK has so far continued to provide military support to Ukriane in the form of both ammunition and military training.

More than 23,500 recruits from Ukraine have received combat training at army bases across the UK since the start of 2022, receiving instruction on skills that include weapons handling and battlefield first aid. Earlier this year, Britain's government committed to training another 20,000 recruits.

The training is part of a broader package of support for Ukraine that includes a pledge of 2.3 billion pounds ($2.8 billion) of anti-tank weapons, rocket systems and other hardware this year.

Ukrainian servicemen of the Spartan Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine stand in a shelter at a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, September 13

Grant Shapps arrives at Downing Street as he is asked to serve as Defence Secretary by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, August 31

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, who took over as defense secretary from Wallace, said he also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in recent days about Britain's Royal Navy helping to defend commercial vessels in the Black Sea. He did not provide details.

He added that U.K. defense companies should consider setting up production in Ukraine.

'Particularly in the west of the country, I think the opportunity now is to bring more things in country, and not just training. We're seeing BAE, for example, move into manufacturing in country,' he said, referring to the leading British defense and aerospace manufacturer.

'I'm keen to see other British companies do their bit as well by doing the same thing.'
Sharon White's decision to step down as chairman of John Lewis follows a disastrous three-year reign that saw the retailer to Middle England lurch from one crisis to another.

Dame Sharon informed the board of the department store and Waitrose owner yesterday that she would not seek a second term  meaning she will leave the role in February 2025.

On top of a recent 234million loss, her time at the top has seen dozens of branches shuttered, staff bonuses axed and  perhaps most worrying for its legions of loyal fans  widespread complaints about the decline of the partnership's famed customer service.

Retail analysts concede that the twin challenges of Covid and the cost of living crisis mean anyone would have struggled to lead John Lewis in recent years.

Yet today they insisted Dame Sharon's leadership was marked by several notable failures  with one arguing she had always been the 'wrong woman for the job'.

Dame Sharon White has suffered a torrid time as chair of the John Lewis partnership

A John Lewis store in Birmingham's Grand Central, which is due to close

Pedestrians walk pass a John Lewis department store on Oxford Street in 1936

Her appointment in 2020 certainly raised eyebrows.

While an impressive career in politics and business had left her with a star-studded CV, industry watches pointed to her lack of any retail experience.

The Cambridge-educated economist joined John Lewis from Ofcom, where she was chief executive from 2015 to 2019.

Before that she had worked at the World Bank and in Downing Street as an adviser to Sir Tony Blair.

READ MORE - How Dame Sharon White amassed a huge net worth from lucrative John Lewis chairwoman role to her British embassy work in DC Advertisement

From 2013 to 2015 she served as the second permanent secretary to the Treasury  the first black woman to do so.

She also served as a non-executive director at Barratt Developments for five years until June.

Dame Sharon took her role at John Lewis just before the start of the Covid pandemic, which compounded the shift away from physical retailing that it had long struggled to adapt to.

A 635million loss six-month loss recorded in September 2020 meant It was a time for difficult decisions, yet her move to axe the staff bonus for the first time since 1953 still rankled with employees.

The bonus was paused again this year after a 78million loss for the year to January 28. Store closures further sapped morale, with John Lewis ending the pandemic with 34 branches  down from 50 before.

Shoppers began to feel the impact of cost-cutting at the High Street giant.

Its 'never knowingly undersold' pledge had become iconic, yet in 2020 there were whispers it was set to be axed  as indeed it was in 2022.

Waitrose dumped its loyalty card benefits and ditched its servings of free coffee and newspapers in 2020, although it eventually brought back the hot drinks offer.

Complaints have also been raised about 'skeleton staff' on shop floors and a 'poor choice' of products on offer.

Customer service was a fundamental quality that often set John Lewis apart from its rivals.

A John Lewis branch in Sheffield (pictured when open) has also fallen victim to the cuts

Another factor is its status as the UK's largest employee owned business  with 80,000 partners sharing the profits from its retailing operations.

Yet earlier this year Dame Sharon mulled plans to sell some of its shares to outside investors  a move critics said would kill off the 'spirit' of the retailer's partnership model.

Public opponents of the plan included West Midlands mayor Andy Street  himself a former boss of John Lewis  who said it would be a 'tragedy'.

Dame Sharon saw off a major employee revolt, but was left looking significantly weakened.

John Lewis has been criticised for 'distracting' itself by exploring other income streams outside retail  such as plans to become a major buy to let landlord.

Plans for two developments in Ealing and Bromley are facing a backlash from local 'Stop the Towers' protesters.

One site in Ealing could see 428 new homes across four tower blocks by a Waitrose supermarket.

Neil Shah, director of research at Edison Group, said such 'bold motions' had 'caused ruffles' despite good intentions from Dame Sharon to 'bring the partnership into the modern day'.

He added: 'John Lewis should seek leadership from an experienced retailer that can build on her foundation.'

Retail analysts have insisted Dame Sharon's leadership was marked by several notable failures  with one arguing she had always been the 'wrong woman for the job'

Dame Sharon's three-year tenure is the shortest in the partnership's 94-year history, with all previous chairmen serving between 13 and 26 years.

Neil Saunders, a retail analyst at GlobalData, argued she had always been the wrong person for the job.

'As smart as Sharon White is, she was the wrong person to chair JLP,' he said. 'She didn't cause all of the issues the company faces, but she's also done much damage.

'Her ill-advised, and now backtracked on, view that outside equity might be brought in, hurt the morale of partners and showed a lack of understanding of what makes JLP special.

'Her lack of retail experience and her civil service background have, quite bluntly, not served the company well. The next chairman of JLP needs to have both the qualities she lacked.'

Jonathan De Mello, founder of JDM Retail, also argued the problems John Lewis faced were 'of their own making' .

'A lack of direction at Waitrose, mooted changes to their unique partnership model, and an aspiration to become a property developer to name a few  and ultimately Dame Sharon is responsible for these,' he told City AM.

'The business very much can turn things around, which  sadly for Dame Sharon  will mean scrapping a number of the ideas she and her team have been trying to enact over the past few years.'

A Knight and Lee department store in Southsea, which was part of the John Lewis Partnership, shut its doors after 85 years

Speaking about her departure from John Lewis yesterday, Dame Sharon said: 'The chairman of the John Lewis Partnership is a special and unique role in UK business.

'The chairman is responsible for the long-term health of the partnership's model, commercial success twinned with a commitment to first rate customer service and action in our communities.

'Having led the partnership through the pandemic and the worst of the cost-of-living crisis, it is important that there is now a smooth and orderly succession process and handover.

'The partnership is making progress in its modernisation and transformation with improving results.

'There is a long road ahead and I am committed to handing on the strongest possible partnership to my successor.'

Last month, John Lewis said its losses had narrowed to 59million for the first six months of the year.

But the business said its ambitions of returning to 'sustainable' profit would take two years longer than planned, due to rising costs.

Britain has lost 83 per cent of department stores since the collapse of BHS in 2016.

In addition to this challenge to its business model, John Lewis is also facing increasing competition from M&S, which has stealthily been gaining ground on its rival.

M&S is now pushing to sell more high street brands on top of its own products as it tries to lure customers away.

John Lewis remains a much-loved British icon, making its future will be an issue of concern for millions.

Whether Dame Sharon's successor has what it takes to repair its battered fortunes remains to be seen.
Family are requesting help from government

The woman who died on board a Qatar Airways flight bound for Sydney at the weekend has been identified as much-loved train station attendant who was returning from a holiday to see her daughter in London.

Mother-of-two Sharon Gordon, 60, believed to be from Campbelltown in Sydney's south-west, was travelling on flight QR908 from Doha when she started gasping midway through the 14-hour journey.

She died a short time later, with cabin crew allegedly waiting 20 minutes before they performed CPR.

The airline previously said she 'could not be revived' but a couple who were sat in front of her claimed 'it didn't feel like they (cabin crew) did enough' when she started having breathing difficulties.

Her dear friend Margaret Stolk said she was 'gutted and totally shocked' at the news of her death.

'A little over 2 weeks ago I hugged my friend and we wished each other a fabulous holiday promising to catch up upon our return to Australia,' Ms Stolk wrote on Facebook.

'At 530am... I received the news she didn't make it.'

Sharon Gordon (pictured), 60, believed to be from Campbelltown in Sydney's south-west, was travelling on Qatar Airways flight QR908 from Doha when she started gasping midway through the 14-hour journey

'I don't have the words to express how overwhelmed I am with sadness. I now sit on the balcony of my hotel reminiscing about our antics switching between tears and laughter.'

'I will miss you Shaz but you will forever be in our hearts. Rest in peace mate.'

Her partner Rob Bray told 7NEWS her loved ones are devastated.

'I love her and will miss her so much,' he said.

'Mother to Cameron and Ashley. She will be so sorely missed by us all.

'Her workmates at Wynyard Station are devastated.'

Passengers Francesca and her husband Enrico, who would only provide their first names for privacy reasons, previously said that after Ms Gordon had died, flight crew 'just left her there' with a blanket covering her.

The couple first alerted airline air stewards after hearing Ms Gordon make a 'weird noise'.

'She looked like she was sleeping, but she was making this really loud noise,' Francesca said.

Ms Gordon was a much-loved customer service station attendant at Wynyard Station in central Sydney (pictured with colleagues)

Staff tried to wake Ms Gordon up and called for other crew members who brought an oxygen mask.

'But then they just left,' Francesca claimed.

The couple say they were told by staff that 'everything was alright'.

'You could see she wasn't breathing,' Francesca said.

Then, Francesca claimed, another 20 minutes passed before a member of the cabin crew returned with another passenger to attempt to move Ms Gordon, who Fracesca described as 'limp', from her seat.

They moved her to another section of the plane, where they allegedly performed CPR and used a defibrillator.

'I think at that point she was gone,' Francesca said.

'Why didn't they do that a half hour earlier?'

Ms Gordon's devastated family have requested help from the federal government after the airline said it did all it could

One passenger has criticised the response of the cabin crew, claiming: 'They just left her there'

An announcement over the public address system then asked if there were any doctors on board.

Another half hour passed before the passengers behind Francesca and her husband were moved and the woman's corpse was moved back to the row of seats and covered with a blanket.

When the plane landed everyone was told to remain seated while emergency crews tended to the dead woman.

Francesca said the airline should have handled the situation better.

'They just left her there,' she said.

Ms Gordon's devastated family have requested help from the federal government after the airline said it did all it could.

Daily Mail Australia has approached Qatar Airways for comment.

'Regrettably, the lady could not be revived, a spokesperson for the airline previously said.

'Our thoughts are with the family at this difficult time.'
HAVE YOU BEEN ON A STAG OR HEN DO IN SEVILLE? Email: gina.kalsi@mailonline.co.uk

HAVE YOU BEEN ON A STAG OR HEN DO IN SEVILLE? Email: gina.kalsi@mailonline.co.uk

Seville's mayor has told boozed-up Brits who travel to the historic city to celebrate their upcoming nuptials to cover up amid a clampdown on rowdy bachelor and hen parties.

Mayor Jose Luis Sanz said the city council is planning to ban groups from wearing underwear in the streets and engaging in 'obscene acts' as he declared Seville has 'no interest whatsoever' in party tourism.

The mayor has taken extra offence to one group, who even enlisted a brass band to maraud through the streets behind them, adding that he looks 'unfavourably' on those who are 'disturbing' local residents.

It comes amid increasing fears from locals that the religious city - famed for its architectural heritage and Seville oranges - is being overrun by youngsters who see it as a thrifty option to party abroad thanks to its good weather and cheap alcohol.

Pictures have been posted online of groups showing off their hen dos and stag parties, with some of them carrying around blow-up dolls and wearing animal costumes.

One video shows a man dressed in a pink cheerleading costume, complete with pom poms, carrying a nude blow-up doll through the airport en route to a stag party in the city.

HAVE YOU BEEN ON A STAG OR HEN DO IN SEVILLE? Email: gina.kalsi@mailonline.co.uk

Boozed-up holidaymakers seem to enjoy the music, as many of them smile and sing along to the tunes played by a drum, trumpet and cymbals

Another shows a group of women on a rooftop celebrating a hen do, with the bride-to-be wearing a veil and the guests sporting black bikinis and pink sashes.

Meanwhile, another shows a group of stags dressed in wild costumes - such as a cow and bull - for a stag party.

READ MORE: Furious British holidaymakers hit back at Lanzarote's president who said she wanted fewer Brits on the island Advertisement

There is no suggestion that any of the people pictured were involved in any of the antics that have upset the mayor.

Mr Sanz has announced that the city council will ban people from wearing underwear in a public place or engaging in 'obscene acts'.

Speaking to The Times, Mr Sanz said: 'Anyone can celebrate their bachelor party in Seville. What we don't view favourably are groups of people dressed as whatever, with brass bands behind them, disturbing the many residents of Seville  especially in areas of the historic centre  who also have the right to enjoy their city.'

The bands that Mr Sanz mentioned were shown in a clip posted online to a British tourist's TikTok, where she wrote: 'This is one of my favourite moments from being in Seville, these guys were GREAT.'

The short video shows the marching band playing on the side of a busy street, as a group of men dressed in animal costumes are filmed jumping up and down and dancing to the music as those passing by stop to listen.

Those watching seemed to enjoy the music, as many of them smiled and laughed along to the tunes played by a drum, trumpet and cymbals. One of the band members even had a radio and sung the lyrics to the crowd.

Last year Malaga introduced fines of 650 (750) for carrying an inflatable doll down the street or walking around in underwear.

By-laws in the Costa del Sol capital already banned the use of megaphones or the consumption of alcohol on the street.

One woman from Newcastle posted an image on Facebook of her friend dressed in a slim-fitted white dress and heels complete with a veil, ready to take on a night in the town.

Other videos posted on TikTok shows one Brit 'twerking' in her hotel room and another saw women wearing face masks of various celebrities and drinking cheap exotic cocktails.

Speaking to TV station Antena 3, one resident commented on the situation and said: 'It's shameful. People come naked. You can see everything.'

Spain is a religious country where the much of the population are of Catholic faith. Seville in particular is home to the Holy Week festival (Semana Santa) which takes place before Easter.

It sees locals carry huge religious statues in the streets in processions that last for up to half a day. Both schools and workplaces close as the city comes together to celebrate.

Seville is now putting the final touches to similar changes Mr Sanz hopes to get cross-party support for before the end of this year.

British visitors planning to go wild in the southern Spanish city this weekend and still carry the crude items often associated with drunken stag and hen celebrations, can look forward to blue skies and incredible top temperatures of 36 degrees Celsius (96.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

And goose bumps won't be a problem for those revellers who lose some or all of their clothes along the way - because even night-time temperatures are not expected to dip below 19 degrees Celsius or 66 degrees Fahrenheit in the city where you can fry an egg on the pavement at the height of summer.

A group of hens seen wearing groom masks on a celebratory weekend in Seville

But predicting the end is nigh as he tries to appease angry locals in Seville's enchanting old town where the problem is the worst, the mayor said as he analysed his first 100 days in charge: 'At the end of this week we will have the draft of the by-law to control stag dos and hen parties.

'We will then have to discuss it with the other political parties who are free to make proposed changes before it goes to public consultation.

'I think we're looking at a month and a half to two months before that by-law comes into effect.

'Anyone can celebrate their stag do or their hen party in Seville. What we don't approve of are those groups of people wearing all sorts and blaring out loud music and annoying all those other people here who have the right to enjoy their city and enjoy their rest in the old part of town where they live.'

Direct flights to Seville are operating this weekend from UK locations like London Gatwick and Edinburgh.

A quick search of social media brings up the likes of Chester-based Funktion Events which specialise in organise hen parties and stag do and offers British revellers the chance to let their hair down in the southern Spanish city with dwarf strippers and bar crawls as well as more restrained activities like outdoor go-karting, Segway tours and kayaking.

The dwarf stripper option is advertised on its website at 435 per group where it is billed as the 'ultimate stag prank'.

A sexy stripper girl offering a 15-minute dance which it says can be performed at a hotel or bar is available at 286 per group.

A write-up under the advert says: 'What better way to make the stag weekend an experience to remember than with the stripper stag do in Seville?

It's an addition that the stag and the rest of the lads will definitely enjoy.

'For 15 minutes you will be able to feast your eyes on your own gorgeous stripper who will perform for you. This performance can be held in your hotel or at a restaurant or bar.'

The 'epic bar crawl' costing from 25 per person promises an English-speaking guide to lead the group around three to four different bars in the centre of Seville before club entry.

One video shows a man dressed in a pink cheerleading costume, complete with pom poms, carrying a nude blow-up doll through the airport en route to a stag party in Seville

One of the plus sides of Seville Funktion Events sells as a city attraction is its 'measly two euros per pint' although it does big up also its flamenco dancing, Gothic architecture and tasty tapas.

A receptionist for the firm said today it was taking last-minute bookings for stag dos for this weekend in Seville until Wednesday and everything on offer on its website was potentially available pending confirmation from its-country representative.

READ MORE: British teacher makes history as he is elected mayor of a small town in Majorca even though he isn't a Spanish citizen Advertisement

Baby bull running, sold on the promise of a Spanish paella lunch and lots of beer to wash it down with, are among the stag do offers in Seville being promoted by other party specialists online.

Ana Garcia, who helps run tapas bar Bodega El Picadero in Seville's old town, is among those who have already slapped their own ban on rowdy hen and stag do groups without waiting for the council to take action.

She said: 'We're not one of the places they flock to but we have had them drop in on the way to other parts of the old quarter where they're more welcome.

'The Spanish make a lot of noise too but the English are renowned for drinking a lot and being a bit more ready to get into a fight.

'A lot of families live in the old town where the problem is focused and there are a lot of schools and businesses.

'It's just not the sort of place where you want to see groups of men and women carrying inflatable dolls and huge penises and shouting out disgusting things.

'I'm glad the council is going to finally do something about it. If we get these sorts of groups coming in we end up asking them to leave because they bother other customers.'

But this is not the first time holiday destinations have turned their backs on British tourists, as Mallorca, Lanzarote and Ibiza have previously said 'adios' to holidaymakers.

In February, tourist chiefs in Lanzarote - one of Spain's Canary Islands that has long been among Britain's favourite package holiday destinations - announced they were fed up with UK tourists and would make a concerted effort to attract more visitors from France, Italy and the Netherlands instead.

The comments came weeks after the director of tourism for Spain's Balearic island of Majorca, Lucia Escribano, declared her industry chiefs 'are not interested in having budget tourists from the UK' - as the island attempts to rebrand itself from a destination for cheap drinks and beach parties by limiting the number of UK tourists.

Elsewhere, 'nuisance' British tourists have been warned to 'stay away' from Amsterdam if they're only going there for 'drugs and alcohol' in a new 'discouragement campaign' being targeted at the tourism sector.

Amsterdams deputy mayor Sofyan Mbarki defended the new message, saying: 'The aim of the discouragement campaign is to keep out visitors that we do not want. If we love the city, we must take action now.'
The two families of an 'illiterate' painter and decorator are locked in a 700,000 court fight over claims he disinherited his three eldest children by mistake because he could not read his will.

Hope Dillon, 65, Jo-Ann Morris, 62, and Leonard Grizzle, 64, say their 'proud' father Kenneth Grizzle always struggled with reading and writing, never read them bedtime stories as children and even dictated Christmas cards.

Mr Grizzle, who lived in Forest Gate, East London, had five children with two women - his wife Ena Grizzle and later his partner of 40 years Theodora Richefond - but left nothing in his will to the three children on the Grizzle side of the family.

But the trio claim their father must have disinherited them by mistake, because he always intended that their Victorian former family home would be theirs.

Instead, the terraced house in the 'Forest Gate Village' area and everything else he had went to former charity worker Ms Richefond, 73, when he died aged 83 in 2019.

(From left) Jo-Ann Morris, Leonard Grizzle and Hope Dillon outside the High Court after the hearing in the legal battle over the will of their father Kenneth Grizzle, who died in 2019

Suing at the High Court, the three now want their father's 'unfair' last will torn up, claiming he could not have understood its terms because he could not have read it.

Who is involved in the legal dispute? Kenneth Grizzle had five children with two women. He died aged 83 in 2019. WIFE Kenneth had three children with his wife Ena Grizzle, whom he married in 1964. The relationship ended in 1974 and she died on an unknown date, which was before Kenneth died. They bought their home on Sebert Road in Forest Gate, East London, in 1967. Their three children, who are all still alive are Hope Dillon, 65, Jo-Ann Morris, 62, and Leonard Grizzle, 64. PARTNER Kenneth also later had two children with Theodora Richefond, 73, his partner of 40 years. Together, they had two children, Lee and Kym Richefond, and also brought up Theodoras son Gary from a previous relationship. Kenneth and Theodora lived at a house they bought on Stanley Road in East Ham, East London, in 1992. THE WILL Kenneth's final will in 2013 handed Gary, Lee and Kym his share of Stanley Road. But it also granted Theodora the right to stay there for the rest of her life. Theodora then got the rest of his estate, which - because Ena died before Kenneth - included the home on Sebert Road. Advertisement

They want his fortune split between all five children under intestacy rules, but Ms Richefond is defending the claim, arguing that - whatever he had previously wanted - by the time he died Mr Grizzle had decided to cut out his first family.

And she insists that, however bad his reading and writing had been as a younger man, by the time he made the will he was literate, reading newspapers and sending texts.

The judge, Master Katherine McQuail, heard Mr Grizzle and his wife Ena were married in 1964 and had three children, buying their home on Sebert Road in Forest Gate in 1967.

However, the relationship ended and he left the family home in 1974, before later meeting Ms Richefond and beginning a 40-year relationship with her.

Together, they had two children, Lee and Kym Richefond, and also brought up Theodora's son Gary from a previous relationship, living at a house they bought on Stanley Road in East Ham in 1992.

Mr Grizzle worked as a painter and decorator and continued to visit the Grizzle side of the family, never divorcing and still owning Sebert Road with his wife.

In 2013, he made his final will, which handed Gary, Lee and Kym his share of Stanley Road, but granted Ms Richefond the right to stay there for the rest of her life.

Ms Richefond was to get the rest of his estate, which - because his separated wife Ena went on to die before him - included the Grizzle children's family home on Sebert Road.

Challenging the will, the Grizzle children say their father had always wanted them to ultimately have the Sebert Road house, which was there to 'look after' them.

They claim he must have believed that was the effect of his will, but was mistaken because he could not read well enough to understand its terms.

Their barrister, Adrian Carr, said there had been no evidence put before the court to prove that Mr Grizzle could read and write, and therefore understand the terms of his will.

Despite 500 pages of documents, not one showed his handwriting, he said.

Kenneth Grizzle had five children with two women - his wife Ena Grizzle and later his partner of 40 years Theodora Richefond (who is pictured outside the High Court)

His children said he had not read to them at bedtime and he had used another family member as his 'secretary' to help him with filling in forms, he said.

They said it meant he could not have read the 2013 will and understood that he might be disinheriting his three eldest children. He had been completely reliant on what his will writer advised him, they added.

Mr Carr said there was a 'family understanding that Stanley Road was for the Richefond side of the family and Sebert Road was for the Grizzle side of the family.'

Giving evidence, Jo-Ann Morris described the situation as 'very, very sad,' because she thought her father's other family would stand by that 'understanding.'

'What I am disappointed about is Stanley Road doing what they're doing when it was always clear in our family that Sebert Road would come to us once mum and dad had passed,' she told the judge.

Her barrister said that the Grizzle children had tried to get their father to make a will handing them Sebert Road, but he had refused, saying it would pass to them when their mother died.

'The deceased was not concerned because he always believed that as Sebert Road was jointly owned it would pass to Ena and when she died it would pass to the Grizzle children,' he said.

The house in Forest Gate, East London, at the centre of court fight over Kenneth Grizzle's will

'He was adamant that Sebert Road belonged to Ena and the Grizzle children.'

When he was reminded that his children with Mrs Richefond could make a claim against Sebert Road if their mother died first, he had become furious at the suggestion they 'would do such a thing.'

Ultimately, their mother did die first, meaning her share of Sebert Road passed to Mr Grizzle under 'survivorship' rules and then to Ms Richefond under his will.

But for Ms Richefond, barrister Julia Beer said much had changed in Mr Grizzle's life between moving out of the Grizzle family home in 1974 and the day he made his will 39 years later.

Although he had struggled with reading and writing, he had been encouraged to take college courses in the 1990s and his literacy was much improved by 2013.

'Any difficulty with reading or writing which may have existed in the 1970s was historic and...there is clear evidence of the deceased being able to read and to write from old text messages from 2009 and 2010,' she said.

'It is clear that this is not a case where the testator can be said to have been illiterate.'

She said the will was 'perfectly rational' and that the illiteracy allegation had been 'born out of disappointment' on the part of the Grizzles.

'They are disappointed because they have not been made beneficiaries of either of their parents' estates,' she said.

'But it is not the job for this court to correct any perceived unfairness or to have an overriding consideration of morality.'

She added: 'After Ena died, he owned 100 per cent of Sebert Road, but he didn't change his will and didn't seek to gift it to the Grizzle children.

'That was his prerogative and his reasons for doing that were his own.'

The trial continues.
Kemi Badenoch has continued her 'war on woke' at the Tory conference this week as the Business and Trade Secretary takes the fight to Labour on identity politics.

The mother-of-three delivered a rousing speech to Conservative members in Manchester, as she cemented her place as a 'darling of the Right' in the party.

She warned that advocates of identity politics are seeking to 're-racialise' society and claimed Labour want to 'bend the knee before this altar of intolerance'.

Ms Badenoch, who is of Nigerian heritage, spoke of how she tells her children that Britain is 'the best country in the world to be black  because it's a country that sees people, not labels'.

The 43-year-old's conference speech will revive thoughts among the Tories' grassroots of Ms Badenoch being a future party leader.

Kemi Badenoch has continued her 'war on woke ' at the Tory conference this week as the Business and Trade Secretary takes the fight to Labour on identity politics

The mother-of-three delivered a rousing speech to Conservative members in Manchester, as she cemented her place as a 'darling of the Right' in the party

The 43-year-old's conference speech will revive thoughts among the Tories ' grassroots of Ms Badenoch being a future party leader

She ran for the Tory leadership last summer and took part in an ITV debate alongside other rival contenders Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss

She ran for the Tory leadership last summer following Boris Johnson's resignation as prime minister and won the backing of Michael Gove.

But she ended up finishing fourth behind Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt.

The surprise nature of Ms Badenoch's strong leadership campaign saw her land a Cabinet job, as international trade secretary, in Ms Truss's government.

She has since combined that role with the business brief in Mr Sunak's administration.

Mr Gove once said of her: 'She has zero tolerance of bull**** and she doesnt want to ingratiate. I have rarely seen someone so on top of her brief.'

Her elevation to the top rank of government marked a long journey from her childhood in the US and Nigeria.

She has previously revealed how - despite being part of a middle class family in the west African country - that still meant 'periods of poverty' and 'having no running water or electricity, sometimes taking your own chair to school'.

In her maiden speech as an MP in 2017, she told the House of Commons there was 'lot that Africa can teach us'.

But she also detailed the experience she had of 'real poverty' while growing up in Nigeria.

'Growing up in Nigeria I saw real povertyI experienced it, including living without electricity and doing my homework by candlelight, because the state electricity board could not provide power,' she said in 2017.

'And fetching water in heavy, rusty buckets from a borehole a mile away, because the nationalised water company could not get water out of the taps.

'Unlike many colleagues born since 1980, I was unlucky enough to live under socialist policies. It is not something I would wish on anyone, and it is just one of the reasons why I am a Conservative.'

Ms Badench, pictured last year on a visit to McDonald's, worked for the restaurant chain while putting herself through college in south London while living with family friends

The married mother-of-three, pictured in the kitchen with one of her two daughters in 2017, grew up between Nigeria, the US and the UK and is known for her 'anti-woke' views

Ms Badenoch pictured with her husband Hamish and Theresa May. Hamish is an investment banker and a former Tory councillor

Ms Badenoch was born in south-west London after her Nigerian parents came to the UK so her mother could receive medical treatment. Pictured, Kemi Badenoch (second from left) with (l-r) her brother, Fola, Kemi, her sister Lola and mother, Feyi

Ms Badenoch won the Saffron Walden constituency for the Tories at the 2017 general election. She is pictured with her baby in a carrier as she is sworn in as an MP in the House of Commons

Ms Badenoch was part of Rishi Sunak's ministerial team at the Treasury when the now-PM was Chancellor

Michael Gove once said of her: 'She has zero tolerance of bull**** and she doesnt want to ingratiate. I have rarely seen someone so on top of her brief.'

A place on the London Assembly became available for Ms Badenoch in 2015, which she retained at a City Hall election a year later

Ms Badenoch was born in Wimbledon, south west London, but moved to Lagos as a very young baby before returning to Britain again at the age of 16.

She worked in McDonald's while putting herself through college in south London while living with family friends.

'I had a roof over my head, but I needed to earn to live,' she told The Times last year.

'Theres a dignity that you just get from working and earning your own money.'

She later studied engineering at Sussex University and has spoken of once being once the only woman on a building site with 300 men.

Ms Badenoch's pre-politics career also included a law degree from the University of London, as well as stints at Coutts bank and the Spectator magazine as head of digital.

She first ran to be an MP at the 2010 general election but came third behind Labour and the Liberal Democrats in the Dulwich and West Norwood constituency.

A place on the London Assembly later became available for Ms Badenoch in 2015, which she retained at a City Hall election a year later.

She then won her seat in the House of Commons when she secured the Saffron Walden constituency at the 2017 general election.

Ms Badenoch is a committed Brexiteer and has been unafraid to take on 'culture war' issues.

'I always lean right instinctively,' she has previously told the ConservativeHome website.

She currently holds the Women and Equalities brief in Cabinet, alongside her business and trade role.

Earlier this year, Ms Badenoch tasked Britain's equalities watchdog with looking at whether legislation should be updated to make clear that 'sex' refers to 'biological sex'.

She is married to Hamish Badenoch, an investment banker, and the couple have two daughters and a son.

Ms Badenoch has revealed she is a keen chess and poker player, an avid reader of Terry Pratchett novels and has a love for sci-fi.
A bombshell BBC documentary has claimed the ex-boss of global fashion brand Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) hosted an illicit sex party at London's famed Claridge's hotel - allegedly using a man with a snakeskin patch nose to recruit young men for it and other events.

Panorama doc The Abercrombie Guys: The Dark Side of Cool spoke to several men who claimed they were recruited by James Jacobson to attend sex parties in order to entertain Mike Jeffries, who transformed A&F into a global fashion powerhouse.

Mr Jacobson, now 70, is alleged to acted as a 'middleman', paying 'recruiters' to find men for sex events - including ones held at Claridge's hotel in London - and reportedly propositioning them for oral sex in twisted 'auditions'. He denies any wrongdoing.

The BBC spoke to eight men who claimed they all had been approached by Mr Jacobson, who they recognised because of the snakeskin patch that he wore across his nose following, he claimed, a botched plastic surgery operation.

Mr Jacobson has said in a statement to the broadcaster that he took offence at the suggestion of 'any coercive, deceptive or forceful behaviour on my part', adding that every encounter he had was 'fully consensual'.

James Jacobson allegedly introduced himself to 'recruits' as a 'middleman' for Abercrombie & Fitch modelling opportunities - a claim he denies

Mr Jacobson - described as 'Jim' by men who spoke to the BBC - is alleged to have propositioned men for oral sex under the guise that it would help them get work

Mike Jeffries, the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, is alleged to have exploited men for sex

Two men who agreed to speak on camera to Panorama detailed their encounters with Mr Jacobson, who they knew as Jim, in Los Angeles - which saw both allegedly coerced into performing sex acts, for which they claimed to have been paid.

The BBC said Mr Jacobson was the 'middleman' in a 'well-oiled machine' organising sex events for Mr Jeffries, in which he would allegedly approach men via 'recruiters' and proposition them.

Men told the broadcaster they were ordered to submit to intimate body hair shaving ahead of the parties, and made to sign non-disclosure agreements that banned them from speaking out, at the risk of being sued.

READ MORE: BBC Panorama allegations: Former Abercrombie & Fitch boss Mike Jeffries is accused of exploiting men for sex in bombshell claims Allegations were made on the BBC that a 'highly organised network' used a middleman to find young men for businessman Mike Jeffries, 79 Advertisement

David Bradberry, then 23, said he was introduced to the alleged middleman by an agent who described him as having a direct link to 'the owners' of A&F in 2010 - but said there was no mention of sex being involved.

At their meeting, he said Mr Jacobson suggested Bruce Weber - then A&F's official photographer - should take his picture.

Mr Bradberry said he had been made to believe 'this is where everybody gets their start' - and was then propositioned by Mr Jacobson to engage in a sex act.

Mr Bradberry added: 'Jim made it clear to me that unless I let him perform oral sex on me, that I would not be meeting with Abercrombie & Fitch or Mike Jeffries.'

'I was paralysed,' he said. 'It was like he was selling fame. And the price was compliance.'

He recalled that Mr Jacobson gave him $500 and told him it was for his time.

Looking back, he said this incident should have been 'a red flag' but he thought Mr Jacobson 'was just a creepy old dude that I wouldn't have to see again'.

Ahead of the event, he said he was given an A&F gift-card to buy an outfit, which he said made it feel 'legitimate' and 'official'.

At the Hamptons, Mr Bradberry said he spoke to Mr Jeffries and his partner Matthew Smith about his aspirations to be an A&F model.

Later, he said, Mr Jeffries held 'poppers' under his nose - a drug which can cause a strong head-rush and disorientation - and later had sex with him.

Former model Barrett Pall also says he was introduced to 'Jim', whom he described as having a 'weird nose contraption', and propositioned.

He told the BBC's Rianna Croxford that he and Mr Jacobson undressed before the 'middleman' allegedly asked him to perform a sex act.

Mr Pall added that he had been 'groomed' to believe that the idea of sexual favours in exchange for work was normalised in Hollywood - when in reality he had allegedly been sexually abused.

Barrett Pall, a former model, described meeting Mr Jacobson - a man with a 'weird nose contraption' - and claims he was propositioned and asked to perform a sex act

David Bradberry was 23 when he says he was introduced to Mr Jacobson as the 'gatekeeper' to Abercrombie & Fitch

At least one illicit sex party was allegedly held at Claridge's hotel in Mayfair, London, sometime between 2009 and 2015

The BBC said six of the eight men who they spoke to that met Mr Jacobson engaged in sexual activity.

The men all say they were then recruited for sex parties across the world. The parties were held in the US, including at Jeffries' plush home in the Hamptons in New York, as well as in London, Paris, Venice, Marrakesh and the Caribbean.

A number of the men say they were exploited or abused sexually during the parties, being coerced into performing acts they did not want to do.

Mr Pall detailed how he was then invited to an event at Jeffries' Hamptons home, where an older model told him 'you don't have to do anything you don't want to do' but suggested that 'the further you go, the better'.

When he arrived at the event, with staff supervising, he felt under pressure to 'perform'.

It was alleged that at least one event was held at Claridge's in Mayfair, sometime between 2009 and 2015.

Mr Bradberry claims that he was told to attend a party in London after Mr Jacobson said he was not 'catalogue fit' following his first illicit event.

MailOnline has contacted the Maybourne Hotel Group, which operates Claridge's, for comment.

Civil lawyers in the US have claimed that the allegation of recruiting the men for parties under the guise of giving them opportunities at Abercrombie & Fitch, only to fly them across the world for sexual exploitation, could amount to sex trafficking under American law.

The BBC said it has corroborated the accounts with emails, flight tickets and travel iteneraries, as well as former members of Mr Jeffries' household staff.

One man, Alex, said he attended an event in Marrakesh where he believes he was drugged and raped - and contracted HIV as a result.

Abercrombie and Fitch opened its first European store in Savile Row, London in 2007 - later closing the shop during the coronavirus pandemic

Abercrombie & Fitch is infamous for its highly sexualised marketing - but was dogged with claims of a toxic and racist work culture

Former A&F boss Mike Jeffries once told Salon magazine that his clothes were targeted at 'cool, good-looking people,' adding: 'Are we exclusionary? Absolutely'

In a statement to the BBC, Mr Jacobson - the so-called 'gatekeeper' and 'middleman' who allegedly propositioned men while recruiting them for parties - denied engaging in non-consensual sexual behaviour.

He said: 'I am compelled to register my offense at the notion that there was ever any coercive, deceptive or forceful behaviour on my part.

'Further, I have no knowledge of any such conduct by others... I have no recollection of making promises of modelling opportunities... nor did I tell anyone they weren't "catalogue fit".

'Any encounter I had was fully consensual. Everyone I came into contact with who attended these events went in with their eyes wide open.'

The BBC says Mike Jeffries did not respond to multiple requests for comment, while Abercrombie & Fitch said it was 'appalled and disgusted' by the allegations.

Mike Jeffries was credited with reversing the ailing fortunes of Abercrombie & Fitch when he took over the company in 1992.

His tenure saw the company engage in highly sexualised and controversial marketing, and Mr Jeffries was often criticised for off-colour remarks in which he said his clothing was only for 'cool kids' and good-looking people.

And in 2006, he told Salon magazine: 'Good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people.

'We don't market to anyone other than that We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends.

'Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.'

Abercrombie & Fitch opened its first European store in Savile Row in London in 2007; it closed in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, but the firm has six other UK stores in London, Edinburgh, Kent and Manchester.

But Mr Jeffries stepped down as the boss in 2014 as the company's share price declined amid allegations of a toxic working culture that later became the subject of Netflix documentary White Hot.

A&F was the subject of a number of lawsuits and employment tribunals by staff who claimed that it favoured white people when recruiting for work.

Riam Deam, who worked for the company in the 2000s, won a tribunal after she was made to work in the backroom of the Savile Row store because she had a false arm.

And the company tried to argue before the US Supreme Court that it was legally entitled to deny a Muslim woman employment because she wore a headscarf - which went against its 'look' policy. It lost the case.

A&F added in its statement to the BBC that new leadership since Mr Jeffries' departure has transformed the company into 'the values-driven organization it is today', adding that it has 'zero tolerance for abuse, harassment or discrimination of any kind'.
A fascinating collection of never-before-seen photos of the Beatles performing in Scotland in their heyday have emerged for sale for 10,000.

The 50 black and white snaps were taken of the Fab Four before and during a show in Dundee on October 20, 1964.

John, Paul, George and Ringo appear in high spirits as they switch instruments in pictures taken before the show.

Drummer Ringo plays the piano with a cigarette in his mouth and Paul steps in on the drums.

Other pictures taken during the concert show the suited band with their trademark mop-top haircuts performing on stage, with John and Paul singing into a shared microphone.

The 50 black and white snaps were taken of the Fab Four before and during a show in Dundee on October 20, 1964

The band, who had just returned from a successful US tour, were still playing relatively small British venues in late 1964.

Their set at the Caird Hall included Twist and Shout, I Wanna Be Your Man and A Hard Days Night, also the name of their chart-topping third album released months earlier.

The photos were taken by the late professional photographer John Young who was granted access to the Beatles changing room.

There is an image of the band on a sofa answering questions for a TV interview, as well as close-up individual snaps.

The bandmates switch instruments, with Paul stepping in on the drums, in pictures taken before the show at Caird Hall

Drummer Ringo plays the piano as a young fan listens

The collection of pictures of the Fab Four in Dundee are on sale for 10,000

The photographers widow is now selling the images, which come with copyright, at Omega Auctions, of Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside.

Auction manager Dan Muscatelli-Hampson said: The photographs were taken by our vendors late husband John T Young, who was one of the few official photographers present when the Beatles played at Dundees Caird Hall in October of 1964.

Its remarkable to see new photographs of The Beatles of such impressive quality and quantity.

As the years go by it is less and less likely that we will find unseen images of the band such as these.

The sale takes place on October 10.
Two Russian snipers accused of gang raping a mother at gunpoint in front of her husband are to face trial in a Ukrainian court.

One is accused of sexually assaulting the woman's four-year-old daughter, and both 'raped girls aged 15 and 17' during Vladimir Putin's invasion.

A formal indictment has been sent by Ukrainian state prosecutors to the court and they will be tried - one in absentia, the other posthumously - for multiple acts of rape and using sexual violence as a war crime against women and underage girls.

It is now clear that one of the two Russian servicemen who later died in the war - Yevgeny Chernoknizhniy, 27 - was given a posthumous Order of Courage, an honour ultimately bestowed in the name of Putin, and hailed as a 'hero' and 'real man' at a ceremony commemorating his life.

The other, Vadim Shakhmatov, 31 at the time of the alleged sex attacks, remains alive in Russia, where he is married and the father of a young daughter.

Two Russian snipers accused of gang raping a mother at gunpoint in front of her husband are to face trial in a Ukrainian court. 27-year-old Yevgeny Chernoknizhniy (left) will be tried posthumously, while 31-year-old Vadim Shakhmatov (right) will be tried in absentia

The pair of accused snipers made a recce of Baryshevskaya village (pictured) to 'determine[those] houses in which young and attractive female faces were living', said a Ukrainian national police report, laying out the accusations

The alleged rapes occurred in the Brovary district of Kyiv region in March 2022, the month after Putin launched his illegal invasion of sovereign state Ukraine

Although reported to have died, Shakhmatov confirmed his identity in a phone call to a number registered to him. He was asked to comment on his indictment in Ukraine for using rape as a war crime, but angrily snapped back at the caller.

'Go **** yourself, here, this is how I comment. Go **** yourself,' he told a reporter before ending the call. He earlier said 'Yes, yes' when asked if he was aware of the Ukrainian indictment against him.

His wife Anastasia Shakhmatova, 28, declined to comment, hanging up calls.

The couple have a young daughter who is seen on pictures with him.

Russia refuses to extradite its citizens and even they did, Moscow would not do so to Ukraine - meaning that although he will be tried, he cannot be forced to attend the court, and will evade punishment if convicted.

But he would be subject to arrest if he travelled to most European countries.

Previously unseen pictures show the two accused Russian snipers, including a ceremony in Orenburg region honouring Chernoknizhniy.

Young children were made to attend the ceremony.

The alleged rapes occurred in the Brovary district of Kyiv region in March 2022, the month after Putin launched his illegal invasion of sovereign state Ukraine.

They are seen as part of a pattern of systematic use of sexual violence by his invading troops that was also included in a UN report last year.

Details of horrific crimes came from residents of Brovary - along with other Kyiv suburbs such as Irpin and Bucha - after Russian forces pulled back from around the capital in April when the initial phase of the assault failed to capture the city.

The UN report also detailed how Russian soldiers conducted summary executions - executions without trial or due process - in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and the Summy regions, with the youngest victim being a 14-year-old boy.

Members of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said they had also documented patterns of torture, ill-treatment and unlawful confinement committed in areas occupied by Russian armed forces.

All crimes listed amount to war crimes.

A screen grab from Vadim Shakhmatov's social media account's post in September 2022, showing him and sniper Yevgeny Chernoknizhniy together (circled), with a caption that translated '15th Brigade is working/in action'

Picture shows 15th Brigade where both snipers served at the time of committing the crimes

The pair of accused snipers made a recce of Baryshevskaya village to 'determine[those] houses in which young and attractive female faces were living', said a Ukrainian national police report, laying out the accusations.

Later the men returned having 'agreed on a joint violation of the laws and customs of war' with their plan to sexually violate girls and women in six families.

'The accused broke into the house of a young couple and, threatening [them] with a weapon, raped the wife one by one,' said a statement on the indictment from the Ukrainian prosecutor-general's office.

Her husband was beaten then forced to kneel and watch as she was raped.

'Later, one of the accused raped their four-year-old daughter,' the statement said.

Earlier evidence in this case says one of the two Russian snipers told the girl he 'will make her a woman' before forcing her to perform oral sex.

'After that, the accused broke into another house, where they also raped a pregnant woman and a minor girl at gunpoint,' said the prosecutor-general's statement.

Later the same day the two Russian servicemen 'broke into the house of another woman and tried to rape her.

'However, after the victim's resistance, they went to a neighbouring house.

'There, the accused isolated the mother and her minor daughter in separate rooms and raped them one by one.

'At the same time, the military shut the family members living in the house in the kitchen so that they could not resist.'

The ages of the two other underage girls allegedly raped by the Russian snipers have been given as 15 and 17.

A total of a dozen people were 'injured' by the 'criminal actions' of the pair, from the 15th Separate Guards Motorised Rifle Brigade.

The brigade received the honourable 'Guards' title from Putin in May 2022.

Separately, soldiers in the brigade captured by Ukraine apologised during a press conference in March 2022. 'I apologize for myself [and] for my squad to every home, to every street, to every citizen of Ukraine, to the elderly, to women, to children for our invasion of these lands,' one of the soldiers, who was identified by Interfax-Ukraine as Sergey Galkin, was quoted as saying.

'I gravely apologize for our treacherous invasion.'

The accused snipers are among 235 cases of conflict-related sexual violence involving 150 females and 85 males.

Yevgeny Chernoknizhniy, 27 - was given a posthumous Order of Courage, an honour ultimately bestowed in the name of Putin

Chernoknizhniy, from Orenburg region, was killed in unexplained circumstances one month after the alleged rapes for which he will stand trial posthumously in Ukraine. Pictured: A plaque in his honour in the village school he attended

The snipers were 'in a state of alcoholic intoxication', according to earlier evidence on the pair's alleged actions.

The victims were given medical and psychological help after their ordeal.

Chernoknizhniy, from Orenburg region, was killed in unexplained circumstances one month after the alleged rapes for which he will stand trial posthumously in Ukraine.

The administration of his region said 'he was only 27 when he died'.

He was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage in September 2022, six months after the sexual violence reported in Brovary district.

He held the rank of Junior Sergeant when he was killed.

He was buried on 27 April 2023 in the village of Chebotaryovo.

A eulogy and plaque in his honour in the village school he attended makes no mention of the sickening allegations of sexual torture involving underage girls amounting to war crimes, instead portraying him as a selfless hero.

'Our compatriot, a native of the village Chebotaryovo, Yevgeny Andreevich Chernoknyzhniy, senior sniper of the rifle platoon of the rifle company, died on 15 April 2022. He was only 27 years old.

'It is impossible to express the pain of loss in words.

'Yevgeny chose the defence of the Fatherland as his life's work and remained faithful to his oath and duty to the end, steadfastly proved himself in the performance of military service duties, valiantly defended the Motherland from neo-Nazis.'

Local dignitaries attended a ceremony to commemorate his life.

Head of the district Viktor Paukov said: 'Yevgeny is a worthy son of his parents, Andrey and Natalya. You raised a real man.

'If it weren't for heroes like Yevgeny, the front line would already be closer to us.

'A commemorative plaque is a small thing we can do to honour his memory, to say thank you for what he did for our country. He is a hero and in our memory he will remain forever. The kingdom of heaven to the defender.'

The praise for the alleged rapist went on saying his name 'will forever be inscribed in the history of the village, district, and all of Russia.

'Having accomplished his feat, he proved that he is a worthy successor to the work of his grandfathers and great-grandfathers who defended the Motherland in the Great Patriotic War [Second World War], and his fathers and brothers who fought in Afghanistan and Chechnya.

Vadim Shakhmatov (right), 31 at the time of the alleged sex attacks, remains alive in Russia , where he is married and the father of a young daughter

'As long as we remember him, he will be with us.'

Ukrainian open source investigators OSINT BDZHOLI - who revealed details of the case - said Russians should know their 'rapist heroes'.

Putin's government, which says it is fighting Western-backed 'neo-Nazis' in Ukraine, has repeatedly denied allegations of atrocities. It has also denied that its military commanders are aware of sexual violence by soldiers.

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of committing genocide against his people after the horrific events in Bucha and other towns surrounding Kyiv were uncovered in April last year.
A 14-year-old school boy wearing a US-flag cap has killed two people and wounded five others during a shooting rampage at a major shopping centre in Bangkok.

The schoolboy - whom police said appeared to be suffering from mental illness - opened fire inside the Siam Paragon building in the centre of the Thai capital on Tuesday afternoon shortly after 4pm local time (10am BST).

Footage showed a long-haired boy wearing a black shirt, glasses and a cap with an American flag motif being taken into custody by police. He was apprehended less than an hour after the killing rampage started.

A visitor from China and a Myanmar national have been identified as the two deceased victims. All but one of those who were shot were women, police said.

A police spokesperson told reporters the situation was now under control, just hours after footage on social media showed hundreds of terrified shoppers fleeing from the scene as multiple gunshots rang out throughout the mall.

The alleged gunman is seen being detained by police after opening fire at a Bangkok mall

Police have arrested a 14-year-old boy (pictured) who went on a shooting rampage inside a luxury Thailand shopping mall, killing at least two people and injuring five others

People leave Siam Paragon shopping centre in Bangkok after at least ten rounds of gunfire are heard

Jinnan Zhao, 34, from Beijing, China, was identified as one of the deceased victims. She had been walking through the shopping centre when the teen opened fire with a Glock 19 handgun.

Paramedics were seen carrying her body to an ambulance. A post-mortem examination will now be carried out.

Earlier, Yutthana Sretthanan, director of Bangkok's Erawan Emergency Medical Center, had said three people were killed and six were injured. There was no explanation of the discrepancy, though Yutthana later supported the police number.

Providing an update on the incident, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said: 'I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family of the deceased following the shooting inside Siam Paragon.'

'I would like to give my moral support to the families of all who died and were injured.'

During the emergency response earlier, injured victims were seen being carried from the mall before a special dispatch team swooped to apprehend the teen gunman.

Hundreds of terrified shoppers could be seen fleeing in panic or hiding in nearby restaurants and shops after reports of more than ten gunshots.

Videos shared on social media earlier showed people, including children, running out of the doors of the Siam Paragon mall as security guards ushered them out.

An injured man is treated by emergency medical staff in the back of an ambulance following a shooting incident inside a shopping centre

An injured shopper is treated as terrified locals fled from a mall amid a suspected shooting in Bangkok

CCTV images of a suspected gunman who has injured at least two people at an upmarket shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand

CCTV images of a suspected gunman who has killed at least two people at an upmarket shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand

Emergency responders are seen outside the Siam Paragon mall as a shooting incident was still ongoing inside

Videos shared on social media showed people, including children, running out of the doors of the Siam Paragon mall as security guards ushered them out

An armed police dispatch pursued the teen shooter and cornered him at the nearby Siam Kempinski Hotel just after 5pm. He surrendered without struggle and was seen in video being led away in a cap emblazoned with a US flag.

Dozens of police vehicles and a number of ambulances could be seen outside one of the shopping centre's main entrances in the wake of the incident.

People were escorted from the mall, while bystanders could be seen walking past along the gridlocked road outside.

One of the videos during the attack showed people taking cover in a darkened room inside a restaurant. The authenticity of the videos could not immediately be verified.

Local broadcaster Channel 3 reported sounds similar to gunfire were heard inside, coming from a bathroom in the mall.

A major nearby transit stop was shut down by officials as the evening rush hour began and intense rain pounded through city.

Following the initial reports of gunshots, first responders could be seen entering the mall as sirens wailed outside.

Witnesses said crowds of people left the building, one of several shopping centers in the area popular with tourists and well-heeled Thais alike.

Thai police officers and rescue workers are seen outside Siam Paragon shopping centre in Bangkok

Police respond to a shooting incident inside the Siam Paragon mall as they apprehend the teen shooter

A police officer collects a gun following shots fired at the luxury Siam Paragon shopping mall, in Bangkok

Tourists evacuate from a shopping mall in Bangkok after a 14-year-old gunman opens fire, killing at least two

An injured shopper is treated as terrified locals fled from a mall amid a suspected shooting in Bangkok

One witness who was inside the mall, a Chinese tourist named Liu Shiying, told AP that she saw people running and saying someone had opened fire. She said an alarm rang out inside the mall and the lights went out.

Thanpawasit Singthongkham, 31, who works at a Japanese restaurant in the mall told AFP: 'At around 4.30 pm, I heard loud gun noises, continuously, about ten times.

'Then the department store announced that there was a shooting. The emergency sign was turned on and everyone ran to get out.'

Police spokesperson Achayon Kraithong said the national police chief had ordered and dispatched officers to control the area to resolve the situation. Television showed long queues of traffic outside the mall in torrential rain.

The shooting comes just days before the one-year anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in recent Thai history, when an ex-police officer armed with a knife and gun attacked a nursery, murdering 24 children and 12 adults.

Thailand has high rates of gun ownership and has a long and violent history of firearm incidents, both small and large.

In 2020, a former army officer went on a rampage in a shopping mall in Korat, murdering 29 people and wounding scores more.

Thai police officers secure Siam Paragon shopping centre in Bangkok following a shooting incident in the mall

An ambulance is seen outside Siam Paragon shopping centre in Bangkok, as emergency services respond to the gunfire

Thai police officers secure Siam Paragon shopping centre in Bangkok amid gunshots from an shooter

Ambulances wait outside an exit of the Siam Paragon Mall in Bangkok while shoppers rush out

An ambulance is seen outside Siam Paragon shopping centre in Bangkok

People wait outside Siam Paragon shopping centre in Bangkok after at least two people are killed after a shooter fires some ten round of gunshots

Onlookers use their mobile phones as they look at Siam Paragon shopping centre in Bangkok as police arrest the suspect inside
Excluding colleagues from WhatsApp group chats can be discrimination, a judge has ruled in a case that saw a plumber awarded 130,000.

Employment Judge Sarah George said bosses need to have a good justification for failing to include staff in chat groups  even if they are absent.

Being left out of messages while workmates are included can be viewed as an 'unfavourable act', she added at an employment tribunal hearing in Watford.

Her ruling came in the case of Mark Brosnan, 60, who was awarded compensation after claiming he was discriminated against while suffering from a bad back.

One of Mr Brosnan's complaints was that he was left out of a work group chat to 'communicate important safety information' because he was off sick with the recurring injury. And a tribunal agreed that being left out was unjustified.

Excluding colleagues from WhatsApp group chats can be discrimination, a judge has ruled

The hearing was told how Mr Brosnan started working in September 2016 for Coalo, a company which is wholly owned by the London Borough of Hounslow and based in Feltham, west London.

He experienced the re-emergence of a lower back injury in February 2020, which he had originally picked up the year before and been forced off work for 15 days, the tribunal heard.

In March 2020, he was called to a formal 'absence meeting'.

After an assessment from an occupational health (OH) worker, it was estimated Mr Brosnan could return to work in two or three weeks  but recommendations for adjustments to accommodate his return were said to have been ignored.

The tribunal heard this failure to listen to him about his desire to return to work in some capacity left him 'extremely depressed'

In April 2021, Mr Brosnan injured four discs in his lower back after carrying out work in a confined space which he 'had not been trained for'.

After suffering severe pain, he was called to another absence meeting in July 2021, but this was delayed after he submitted a grievance.

Mr Brosnan said there was a 'failure to implement' occupational health recommendations including workplace assessments and lumbar support, since his very first injury in June 2019.

He attended a grievance meeting in August 2021, where he was told he had been 'excluded from a WhatsApp group because of sickness absence'.

Mr Brosnan started working in 2016 for Coalo, a company which is wholly owned by the London Borough of Hounslow and based in Feltham, west London (in the above building)

Mr Brosnan eventually resigned in December of that year after receiving no correspondence from bosses about his grievance. The company also failed to pay full sick pay despite the fact his absence should have been categorised as being as a result of an 'industrial injury', the tribunal was told.

He also claimed his GP's recommendations of a conditional phased return to work had been ignored.

Regarding his exclusion from the work group chat, Employment Judge George said: 'It had been created to communicate important information to employees (including in relation to health and safety).

'He says he was told by the manager tasked with investigating his grievance that he was not added because he was absent. This provides positive evidence that the reason for this act was his sickness absence. [Coalo] has failed to demonstrate that excluding him was a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

'Some employers do not contact employees at all during sickness absence for risk of exacerbating their ill health or bothering them with work related matters at a time when they should be recuperating, but that cannot be presumed and in the absence of evidence put forward by [Coalo]. I'm not satisfied that there was any justification for this.'

The ruling was made during a case at Watford Employment Tribunal in Hertfordshire (pictured)

Upholding his claims for disability discrimination, victimisation and unfair dismissal, she added: 'There was an ongoing failure to deal with his grievance which reasonably undermined his faith in his employer's willingness to seek to solve his problems.

'There was then a failure to respond to the information that he was fit to return to work and no attempts were made to have a discussion with him about what roles might be available.

'Whether individually or cumulatively these were breaches of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence entitling Mr Brosnan to resign in response and consider himself dismissed.

'That dismissal was unfair in all the circumstances  [Coalo] has not shown any reason for it.'

As a result he was awarded 134,411 in compensation for the company's 'completely unreasonable' conduct in proceedings where they did 'literally nothing' to aid his ability to return to work.

This included 15,000 in injury to feelings, 7,000 personal injury and over 25,000 in loss of future earnings.
A man who went viral after accidentally being mistaken for an IT expert and being interviewed on BBC News has appeared on the trailer for the new series of Have I Got News for You.

Guy Goma, 54, from Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo, made headlines around the world in 2006 after he went to the BBC for a job interview  and ended up being ushered into a studio to be quizzed live on air by a journalist.

The iconic clip sees Mr Goma asked about a legal battle between Apple computers and the Apple Corps record company after he was mistaken for a technology expert called Guy Kewney.

Now, over 17 years after the original clip, he has appeared on a quirky trailer for Have I Got News for You, which references the original mishap.

The trailer for the new series shows Goma introducing the show, jokingly saying: 'Good evening and welcome to Have I Got News For You. I am Victoria Coren Mitchell?'

Over 17 years after going global, Goma has appeared on a quirky trailer for Have I Got News for You, which references the original mishap. Team captain Ian Hislop then jokes: 'I'm pretty terrified, aren't you?'

The iconic BBC interview in transcript Karen Bowerman: Well, Guy Kewney is editor of the technology website Newswireless. Hello, good morning to you. Guy Goma (visibly shocked): Good morning. Bowerman: Were you surprised by this verdict today? Goma: I am very surprised to see... this verdict to come on me, because I was not expecting that. When I came, they told me something else and I am coming. "You got an interview," that's all. So a big surprise anyway. Bowerman: A big surprise, yeah, yes. Goma: Exactly. Bowerman: With regards to the cost that's involved, do you think now more people will be downloading online? Goma: Actually, if you can go everywhere you're gonna see lot of people downloading through Internet and the website, everything they want. But I think is much better for development and...eh...to improve people what they want, and to get on the easy way, and so faster the things they looking for. Bowerman: This does really seem to be the way the music industry's progressing now, that people want to go onto the website and download music. Goma: Exactly. You can go everywhere on the cyber cafe, and you can take...you can go easy. It is going to be an easy way for everyone to get something through the Internet. Bowerman: Guy Kewney, thanks very much indeed. Advertisement

The video then pans out to show Goma appearing as three of the show's four panelists, alongside Ian Hislop, with the former saying to himself: 'You are smart, and youve got a nice shirt.

He can then be heard saying 'thank you' to himself, before his host double jokes: 'I hope the BBC is going to pay for this one now.

In August, Goma revealed that he received no payment for his awkward interview on BBC News 24, despite it being screened repeatedly over the last 17 years.

In an interview with the podcast series Accidental Celebrities, he insisted that he deserved a slice of the royalties from the video after being unwittingly thrust into the limelight.

When asked if the BBC had reached out to him since what is often described as one of the corporation's biggest blunders, he said: 'I contacted them. They didn't answer me.'

He added that he had received no payment from the broadcaster and it appeared that the BBC had waited for him 'to take them to court'.

Asked if he was going to go to court, he said: 'I am going to go because of the money they made from it.

They didn't give me a single penny.'Podcast hosts Josh Pieters and Archie Manners told him that his lack of payment seemed 'incredibly unfair' due to the clip going viral around the world.

He replied: 'They have been using it for nearly 20 years with no penny to me.

When I see that they are paying people millions here and there, that clip made them richer.'

The original gaffe happened after Mr Goma went for a job interview as a data support cleanser in the BBC's IT department on May 8, 2006.

He was waiting in the main reception at BBC Television Centre in west London while expert Guy Kewney was in another reception area preparing for his live interview.

A producer who was sent to escort Mr Kewney to the BBC News 24 studio was sent to the wrong reception area and asked a receptionist if she had seen him.

She mistakenly pointed to Guy Goma, leading to the producer to ask if he was Guy Kewney.

In August, Goma revealed that he received no payment for his awkward interview on BBC News 24, despite it being screened repeatedly over the last 17 years, and was planning to sue the company

The original gaffe happened after Mr Goma went for a job interview as a data support cleanser in the BBC's IT department on May 8, 2006

Mr Goma confirmed he was as he only heard his first name mentioned, thinking the producer was taking him for his job interview.

He became confused when he was instead led into the studio, offered make-up, and fitted up with a microphone before being put in front of a camera.

Mr Goma realised there had been a misunderstanding when journalist Karen Bowerman began to question him about the court battle between the two Apple companies.

He famously tried to bluff his way through by giving what appeared to be an authoritative answer about how the case could lead to more people downloading music online, a prediction which has proved to be impressively accurate.
More than 25,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year after a surge in arrivals caused by warm weather.

Upwards of 1,000 have made the treacherous voyage in the last three days in 19 dinghies - bringing the total number to 25,382 in 533 boats.

On Saturday 537 people in nine inflatables were intercepted by Border Force.

The following day 28 were picked up in one boat. And 472 were detected in nine boats on Monday.

It comes as photos taken from French rescue vessel 'Abeille Normandie' showed a group of migrants leaving a beach in northern France.

A group of migrants disembarks from an inflatable dinghy at the Le Portel beach after an unsuccessful attempt to cross the English Channel from the coast of northern France

A group of migrants on an inflatable dinghy is seen from the French rescue vessel 'Abeille Normandie'

Yesterday morning, the nautical brigade of Police Nationale in France stopped an unidentified person off the coast of Gravelines near Dunkirk, who was attempting to row across the Calais Strait in an inflatable dinghy.

The rower, wearing a yellow coat and a black hat, was photographed at sea in a small grey inflatable dinghy with a pair of oars.

Two ships could be seen in the background of the picture, which Police Nationale shared on social media site X.com, alongside the caption: 'This morning, the nautical brigade of the Police Nationale of Pas-de-Calais fished out an individual off the coast of Gravelines who was trying to row across the North Sea in a makeshift boat. Our goal: to save lives.'

Suella Braverman is expected to double down on her pledge to curb immigration when she gives her keynote speech to the party conference in Manchester later today.

The Home Office reiterated that the 'unacceptable' number of people making the crossing is 'placing an unprecedented strain on our asylum system', adding that its priority remains to 'stop the boats', with the Small Boats Operational Command working alongside French authorities and other agencies to disrupt people smugglers.

A spokesman added: 'The Government is going even further through our Illegal Migration Act, which will mean that people arriving in the UK illegally are detained and promptly removed to their country of origin or a safe third country.'

Yesterday morning, 'the nautical brigade of the Police Nationale of Pas-de-Calais fished out an individual off the coast of Gravelines who was trying to row across the North Sea in a makeshift boat'

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made stopping the crossings one of key pledges for this year.

He said the numbers being lower at this time in the year than they were at the same point in 2022 'didn't happen by accident' but because 'we're doing a bunch of things'.

'New deal with Albania, tackling crime gangs my view on this is simple. It should be the British people who decide who comes to our country and not criminal gangs,' he told GB News.

'The numbers this year are down by a fifth  first time that's happened, that someone's brought the numbers down. So look, those plans are working.'

But Labour said 32,956 people have made the crossing since Mr Sunak became Prime Minister, continuing a 'dismal record of failure.'

Dozens more migrants arrived in Dover, Kent shortly after 11am yesterday after being intercepted in the Channel by UK officials

Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock compared the figure to Boris Johnson's premiership, saying: 'Rishi Sunak promised the British people that he would stop the small boats.

'Yet, within his first year as Prime Minister Sunak has already overseen more than half the Channel crossings that Boris Johnson oversaw during his entire three-year premiership. That is a dismal record of failure.

'The 1,000 arrivals since the start of Tory conference also demonstrate once again that nothing Rishi Sunak or Suella Braverman have done has made the slightest difference and it remains the case that the number of arrivals on any given day is entirely dictated by weather conditions in the Channel.'
Every student knows they can't just wave a magic wand to guarantee success at college. But it might help on a new course being offered at the University of Exeter.

The Russell Group institution announced it will offer a master's degree in Magic and Occult Science from next September, following 'a recent surge in interest in magic'.

The university pulled its rabbit out of the hat just months after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signalled a crackdown on so-called 'Mickey Mouse' degrees which he said left students on a 'poor-quality course at the taxpayers' expense' without the prospect of a 'decent job at the end'.

But the university said academics with expertise in history, literature, philosophy, archaeology, sociology, psychology, drama, and religion will show the role of magic on the West and the East - and hopefully leave students spellbound.

The postgraduate course, it said, would be offering one of the only degrees of its kind in the UK to combine the study of the history of magic and its role in the West and the East.

The Russell Group institution announced it will offer a master's degree in Magic and Occult Science from next September

The university pulled its rabbit out of the hat just months after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signalled a crackdown on so-called 'Mickey Mouse' degrees

Prof Emily Selove, course leader, said: 'A recent surge in interest in magic and the occult inside and outside of academia lies at the heart of the most urgent questions of our society.

'Decolonisation, the exploration of alternative epistemologies, feminism and anti-racism are at the core of this programme.'

The university said the one-year course could prepare students for careers in teaching, counselling, mentoring, heritage and museum work, work in libraries, tourism, arts organisations or the publishing industry, among other areas of work.

A choice of modules includes dragons in western literature and art, the legend of King Arthur, palaeography, Islamic thought, archaeological theory and practice and the depiction of women in the Middle Ages.

Full time students would need to conjure up 12,000 for the course.

In July the Prime Minister proposed to put an end to 'rip-off' university degrees by capping the numbers of students recruited to 'low value' courses, while boosting skills training and apprenticeships provision.

The University of South Wales offers a science and magic module as part of its history degree, while Imperial College offers a 20-week adult education course in the history of witchcraft, magic and the occult.

The first magic degree to have official recognition was offered by Double Fond, a Parisian theatre specialising in magic. The first students on its state-approved course graduated in 2020.
Charlotte Sena's parents say they are 'thrilled' to have her home after an agonizing, two-day search during which they didn't know if they would ever see her again.

Charlotte, nine, was snatched from Moreau Lake State Park on Saturday night sometime between 6.15pm and 6.30pm.

Last night, she was found in a trailer where Craig Ross Jr, 46, was living. He had left his DNA on a ransom note that he delivered to Charlotte's parents on Monday morning.

Now, he is in custody on first-degree kidnapping charges.

Craig Ross Jr, 46, was arraigned on a first-degree kidnapping charge in the early hours of this morning at Wilton Town Court and is being held without bail

Charlotte Sena was found 'alive and safe' on Monday - two days after she was snatched from Moreau Lake State Park in Gansevoort. She was taken to Albany Medical Center Hospital after being found

In a statement, Charlotte's mother Trisha and father David said: 'We're thrilled. A huge thank you to the FBI, the New York State police, all of the agencies that were mobilized, all of the families, friends, community, neighbors and hundreds of volunteers who supported us and worked tirelessly to bring Charlotte home.'

Two SWAT teams - one state and one federal - swooped on the property in helicopters, with Ross said to have put up a struggle.

No mugshot has been released and there is no indication that Ross knew his victim's family.

Ross Jr. drove up to Sena's parents' home at 4.20am Monday and left a ransom note inside their mailbox which was covered in his DNA and fingerprints.

At 2.30pm Monday, investigators finally found a match in the database and linked the fingerprints to a DWI arrest made in Saratoga County in 1999.

From there, they swooped on Ross Jr's camper van, arrested him, and found the missing girl.

Cops confirmed Ross Jr is not a registered sex offender, but did not reveal a motive. Earlier reports suggested the suspect taken into custody was a 51 year-old local pedophile who was not named, although that was corrected when the alleged abductor's real identity came to light.

Charlotte was found inside the white trailer in the backyard of Craig Ross Jr.'s mother's home in Milton, New York, on Monday evening

On Monday at around 4am, someone dropped a ransom note into the mailbox at Charlotte's parents' house (shown). It contained traces of Ross Jr's DNA

Charlotte (far right) as a younger child with her mother Trisha, father David and sisters

Charlotte was taken to Albany Medical Center Hospital after being found. She is said to be in good physical health.

Investigators are believed to be focused on the theory that Charlotte was pulled into a vehicle against her will or dragged into the woods.

Police said just after 7pm: 'Charlotte has been found safe and in good health.'

New York State Police were previously confident Charlotte was abducted from Moreau Lake State Park. She was last seen wearing a tie-dye Pokemon shirt, dark blue pants, black crocs, gray bike helmet on Saturday evening.

The girl was found about 13 miles south of her family home.

The multi-agency search - which spanned 46 miles and included 400 search personnel and dozens of federal, state, and local bodies on the ground - ended today.

Charlotte was cycling alone on Loop A of Moreau Lake State Park in New York near Saratoga Springs when she vanished at 6.15pm on Saturday.

She had been playing with friends throughout the day but decided to cycle alone, one last time, before the sun went down.

It should have only taken a few minutes for to complete the small loop. At 6.30pm, her parents realized she hadn't returned and grew worried. By 6.47pm, they had found Charlotte's bike on the loop and called 911.

A frantic search was launched for the child, for whom an Amber Alert was issued on Sunday morning after rangers searched the 6,250-acre park and found no sign of her.

Charlotte's relieved family held an impromptu press conference and thanked people for their help

Police found little Charlotte covered up and hidden in a cabinet on Monday

There are 158 camping sites in the park. Loop A sits in the southwest corner of the park and is directly adjacent to US Highway 9 - which runs all the way from Philadelphia to Canada.

New York Gov. Hochul said on Monday night: 'We are overjoyed at the news that Charlotte Sena has been located safely this evening after an intense days-long search.

'Our hearts are with her family as they welcome her home.

'Thank you to the New York State Police, New York Park Police and all who worked so tirelessly to find Charlotte.

'It is because of their efforts that Charlotte will be able to return home safe to her family.'
Hunter Biden, 53, was all smiles when departing a Delaware courthouse on Tuesday after pleading not guilty to lying about his continued crack cocaine use when buying a handgun in 2018.

The appearance and guilty plea comes after what Republicans called a 'sweetheart' plea deal - that would have seen Joe Biden's son avoid jail time - collapsed this summer.

The judge also revealed the president's troubled son has submitted to multiple random drug tests, and has been negative each time.

The case is the first-ever criminal prosecution of a sitting U.S. president's child and looks set to overshadow Biden's run for re-election.

Hunter, who showed up to court with a fresh buzz cut on Tuesday, was charged last month by U.S. Special Counsel David Weiss with three felony counts related to lying on the federal form.

His attorney Abbe Lowell claimed on Tuesday the charges were a result of 'political pressure'

Hunter Biden, 53, grinned as he left a Delaware courthouse on Tuesday after entering a not guilty plea to three felony charges resulting from claims he lied about his drug abuse on a federal form to purchase a firearm

President Joe Biden's 53-year-old recovering addict son arrives to appear in a federal court on gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware

'These charges are the result of political pressure from President Trump and his MAGA allies to force the Justice Department to ignore the law and deviate from its policies in cases like this one,' Lowell said after Hunter left court.

'The only substantive and relevant changes since July, when the US Attorney decided against pursuing these exact charges against Mr. Biden, has been various court rulings undermining the constitutionality of the law at issue here and a coordinated, partisan attack on our system of justice by right-wing Republicans.'

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss to the case amid objections from Republican lawmakers.

The arraignment on Tuesday is taking place in a federal district court in Wilmington, Delaware.

In 2018 Hunter checked on a federal firearm form that he was not addicted to or using any illicit substances at the time of purchasing a Colt Cobra handgun.

His own book, however, provides insight into the drug addiction and the timeline provided shows that the president's adult son was using drugs the same year he bought the firearm.

An agreement to resolve the gun charges and separate tax charges unraveled in July when U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika in Wilmington, Delaware, refused to accept it.

Hunter, 53, stands charged with three felony counts for lying on a federal form to purchase a firearm in 2018

Hunter Biden arrived at LAX on Monday to depart for Wilmington, Delaware, for his court appearance the following day. The case Tuesday is the first-ever criminal prosecution of a sitting president's child

Under that deal, Hunter agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax violations for lighter sentencing and would also see that he avoid punishment on the gun charges  as long as he did not possess a firearm and refrained from using alcohol and illegal drugs for two years.

Hunter's lawyers accuse prosecutors of breaking the agreement, insisting in court filings that they believe it remains in effect and their recovering addict client continues to comply with it.

Republicans have been unrelenting in their attacks against Hunter Biden  claiming that President Biden is at least somewhat involved in some of his son's wrongdoing.

They accuse Hunter, who has worked as a lobbyist, lawyer, investment banker and artist, of wrongdoing relating to business with Ukraine and China. He has become the subject of a myriad of congressional investigations  including the House impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden.

The above form shows Hunter Biden checked 'no' when asked if he is 'an unlawful user of, or addicted to' a controlled substance. But the president's son detailed in his own book that he ha da relapse in 2018  the same year he purchased the firearm

A photo found on Hunter Biden's abandoned hard drive shows a nude image of him holding a handgun pointed down by his side

Images on Monday show Hunter Biden arriving at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday to depart for Wilmington, Delaware for the court appearance the day following.

Abbe Lowell, Hunter's lawyer, said in a September court filing that his client plans to plead not guilty to the firearm charge.

In his 2021 memoir Beautiful Things, Hunter describes he relapsed in his addiction recovery in 2018  the same year that he purchased the firearm. He wrote about being in Los Angeles at the time and using 'my superpower' to 'find crack anytime, anywhere' from dangerous characters.

He claimed that he didn't have regard for his life at the time, and wasn't concerned with whether someone would pull a gun on him or try to rob him.

Some legal experts suggest that firearms charges against the younger Biden could be challenged all the way up to the Supreme Court after it ruled last year to expand Second Amendment gun rights.
Defund the police protesters have marched on Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell's home after he announced a $17million uplift in the local policing budget.

Around 40 people gathered in the city's Seward Park for the demonstration before marching to the mayor's condo nearby.

The protest on Sunday was coordinated by two local campaign groups - Seattle South Asians 4 Black Lives and South Asians Resisting Imperialism.

They demanded 'justice' for Jaahnavi Kandula, the 23-year-old woman a Seattle police officer fatally struck with his car in January while driving 74mph in a 25mph zone with his lights flashing but no sirens on.

The Indian college student's death has sparked several anti-police protests in Washington state, particularly after a video emerged of cop Daniel Auderer saying she had 'limited value'.

'Defund the police' protesters have marched on Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell's home after he announced a $17 million uplift in the local policing budget

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell's 2024 budget proposes to boost Seattle Police Department's funding by $17 million from $374 million to $391 million, sparking fury from protesters

Protesters outside the mayor's house demanded 'justice' for Jaahnavi Kandula (pictured), the 23-year-old woman a Seattle police officer fatally struck with his car in January while driving 74mph in a 25mph zone with his lights flashing but no sirens on

This time, according to local reports, demonstrators also spoke out against Harrell's 2024 budget, which proposes to boost SPD's funding by $17 million up to $391 million.

With crime and response times on the rise in the Emerald City, the money will pay for hiring bonuses to bolster a depleted force.

SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT FUNDING BY YEAR 2016 - $322 million 2017 - $321 million 2018 - $331 million 2019 - $363 million 2020 - $357 million 2021 - $361 million 2022 - $355 million 2023 - $374 million 2024 proposed - $391 million Source: Seattle Police Department Advertisement

A protester told the crowd gathered outside Harrell's $1.4 million apartment on Sunday that police were 'not here to protect us' but rather posed a threat to the public.

'Police were formed from slave-catchers and union busters,' she said. 'They are not here to protect us but to brutalize us.

'Their purpose in a capitalist state is to protect the power and property of the wealthy.'

Harrell's proposed rise in police funding comes on the back of an even bigger increase of $19 million, which he instigated at the start of his tenure in 2022 - from $355 million that year to $374 million in 2023.

But these uplifts were designed to replenish police provisions following previous cuts prompted by the notorious slaying of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Proposals to slash SPD funding by a whopping 50 percent were tabled in the wake of the father-of-five's death.

The radical move gained majority support among members of Seattle's City Council in 2020.

But public support gradually waned and Harrell's predecessor, Jenny Durkan, eventually dismissed the feasibility of such an extreme cut.

Floyd died on May 25, 2020, during an arrest when white office Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against his neck for close to nine minutes. Chauvin has since been jailed for murder.

The horrific incident sparked Black Lives Matter protests calling for police reform and end to systematic racism.

Lawmakers in more than a dozen US cities responded with proposals to reform policing by defunding departments and reallocating financial resources to social needs and programs.

At Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell's house right now pic.twitter.com/kNbGzy7A9B  Wild World News Network (@wildworldnews) October 1, 2023

A protester told the crowd gathered outside Harrell's $1.4 million apartment on Sunday that police were 'not here to protect us' but rather posed a threat to the public

Harrell's proposed rise in police funding comes on the back of an even bigger increase of $19 million, which he instigated at the start of his tenure in 2022 - from $355 million that year to $374 million in 2023

Minneapolis made the controversial move of considering a proposal to disband its department entirely and approved the plan by a unanimous city council vote of 12 to 0 on June 26.

New York City followed on July 1, after its council voted to slash $1billion from the NYPD budget.

The decision came after weeks of protests that left stores looted amid continued protests and statues splattered with paint amid rising crime, including shootings.

In Seattle, the latest calls to defund the police follow the death of Kandula.

The student died after she was struck by a police officer as she crossed a clearly-marked crosswalk on the intersection of Dexter Avenue North and Thomas Street near her college campus on January 23.

Police bodycam footage showed officer Kevin Dave behind the wheel of his police cruiser driving at a speed of 74 miles per hour in a 25 miles per hour zone before he slammed into the recent Northeastern University engineering graduate.

Dave was heard calling into radio dispatch for backup after reports of a struck pedestrian. He was seen performing CPR on the young woman until several other first responders arrived at the scene.

Police ruled the incident an accident, and the officer returned to duty days later.

The intersection's crosswalks are heavily marked by bright yellow reflective indicators, a large neon sign and are surrounded by bike lanes and a wide median.

Kandula, from India, was a recent engineering masters graduate of Northeastern University

Anti-police protesters made speeches in Seattle's Seward Park before marching to the mayor's $1.4 million condo nearby on Sunday to demand 'justice' for Kandula

The officer was heard on the bodycam telling a responding officer, 'Lights were on. I was chirping the sirensshe was in the crosswalk.'

'She saw me, she started running through the crosswalk. Slammed on my breaks. Started staying back where she should before crossing.'

The video showed the officer speeding past red lights and slowing down slightly before the young woman was hit.

Dave was on his way to a priority-one call, classified as the highest importance of calls, as per the police department. The call was regarding a man who had overdosed on drugs but did not need to be taken to the hospital.

The video recording also revealed intermittent sirens coming from the officer's patrol car that were not continuous.

Cops said they were not investigating the wreck as a use of force case and noted they did not believe the officer had intended to hit Kandula.

'At this point in the investigation, we have no reason to believe the officer intended to hit that woman,' a Seattle police spokesperson previously said.

According to the department, Dave has worked as an officer since November 2019.

Protests erupted across the country over the police-related slaying of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd is pictured as former cop Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against the 46-year-old man's neck, leading to his death

Police said the officer was not suspended but was merely told to take off their shift following the crash as a 'release day' to deal with a 'traumatic or upsetting' experience.

It was later revealed that Detective Daniel Auderer - who was not in the car which hit Kandula, but responded at the scene - said that her life had 'limited value.'

He cackled and downplayed her death while on the phone with his colleague, saying: 'Just write a check. $11,000. She was 26, anyway. She had limited value.'

Auderer claims he was just mimicking what a defense lawyer would say to minimize liability for her death, and that his comments were not made out of 'malice.'

Radio host on KTTH-AM Jason Rantz reported that he had obtained a written statement Auderer provided to the city's Office of Police Accountability.

In it, Auderer said that Solan had lamented the death and that his own comments were intended to mimic how the city's attorneys might try to minimize liability for it.

Video footage shows the officer behind the wheel driving at a speed of 74 miles per hour in a 25 miles per hour zone

Protesters are pictured chanting slogans during a protest to defund the NYPD in New York where the City Council voted to slash the department's budget by $1billion on July 1

According to the station, Auderer wrote: 'I intended the comment as a mockery of lawyers.

'I laughed at the ridiculousness of how these incidents are litigated and the ridiculousness of how I watched these incidents play out as two parties bargain over a tragedy.'

The station reported that Auderer acknowledged in the statement that anyone listening to his side of the conversation alone 'would rightfully believe I was being insensitive to the loss of human life.'

The comment was 'not made with malice or a hard heart,' he said, but 'quite the opposite.'

Auderer is currently being investigated by a police watchdog and 'has been administratively re-assigned to a non-operational position' in the meantime, per SPD.
Two children have died and another was hospitalized after they fell into a swimming pool at a daycare that has repeatedly been scrutinized over concerns of poor safeguarding.

Police in San Jose, California, were called to a residential daycare on the 1000 block of Fleetwood Drive, at the south of the city, on Monday morning to help firefighters with a welfare check.

Cops said that several children had fallen into a pool at the daycare, which has been given six citations, including two Type A, reserved for the most serious violations, by social services since the beginning of this year.

Police added that the hospitalized child is now in a non-life threatening condition.

The city's Homicide Unit and Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office are investigating the incident at the daycare, run by two women who have not yet been named.

San Jose cops said that several children were found in the pool

Police cordoned off the area to investigate the incidents

The daycare has already been heavily scrutinized for its alleged safeguarding failures

The daycare was visited eight times over the three years by California's department of social services, with one visit to specifically talk about the pool in the daycare's back yard.

The managers of the daycare were criticized for having 'hazardous materials' stacked in the back yard near the pool.

On top of this, investigators found several gaps in the pool's fence during a 2021 visit.

Other reported threats over the years included a failure to provide a criminal record clearance for an adult who worked in the residential daycare.

The daycare was also not properly staffed, with state investigators finding that there were too many children in the building for the number of staff members working there.

The daycare's managers also failed to conduct a fire/disaster drill within the past months.
Plans for high-speed rail project HS2 have taken another major blow after the Government scrapped the northern leg of the route.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak dropped plans for HS2 to extend from Birmingham to Manchester during his speech at the Conservative Party Conference on Wednesday October 4.

But what exactly is the HS2 route map and why has the northern leg to Manchester been cancelled?

Read on below for all you need to know about the HS2 route and the scrapping of the Manchester section.

Plans for high-speed rail project HS2 have taken another major blow after the Government scrapped the Manchester leg of the route

What is the HS2 route map?

READ MORE: HS2 Manchester leg 'scrapped' moments before Jeremy Hunt makes major Tory party conference speech Advertisement

In 2012, it was announced by the then-Transport Secretary Justine Greening that HS2 would go ahead, comprising of a 'Y-shaped' network that would link a number of routes across London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and the Midlands.

Under current plans, Phase One of HS2 involves the railway being built between London and Birmingham, with the line extended from the West Midlands to Crewe in Phase 2a.

Phase 2b will connect Crewe to Manchester and the West Midlands to the East Midlands.

A planned extension to Leeds was controversially scrapped in November 2021.

Why has the HS2 route to Manchester been scrapped?

The scrapping of the Manchester section of HS2 came down to government concerns over the cost of the project, according to a leaked document seen by The Independent.

It reported that a cost estimate revealed that the government has already spent 2.3billion on stage two of the railway from Birmingham to Manchester, but that ditching the northern section could save up to 34billion.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak addresses delegates at the annual Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, on October 4, 2023

The newspaper said the documents were discussed at a meeting in Downing Street on Tuesday and suggested the whopping 2.3billion cost may not be recoverable even if it is cancelled.

On the future of HS2, Rishi Sunak said he would cancel it and replace it with a new 'Network North'.

The Prime Minister told the Conservative Party conference: 'I say to those who backed the project in the first place, the facts have changed and the right thing to do when the facts change is to have the courage to change direction.

'So I am ending this long-running saga. I am cancelling the rest of the HS2 project and in its place, we will reinvest every single penny, 36billion in hundreds of new transport projects in the north and the midlands, across the country.

'This means 36billion of investment in the project that will make a real difference across our nation.'
A 73-year-old woman was mauled by a bear while walking with her husband and their dog in Montana near Glacier National Park on Sunday, officials have announced.

The woman's husband used bear spray to get the beast off his wife and they were able to make it back to their vehicle and drive to a location where they could call emergency services at around 3pm.

The woman, who has not been identified, was then airlifted to hospital in Kalispell, around 50 miles from the Canadian border. No information on her condition was given by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Officials do not know whether a grizzly or black bear was involved in the mauling - which comes just two days after a grizzly killed a Canadian couple in Banff National Park.

A 73-year-old woman was mauled by a bear near the US Canadian border while on a dog walk in the Flathead National Forest with her husband on Sunday afternoon

Officials aren't yet sure if the bear involved was a grizzly bear or a black bear

The attack happened close to Glacier National Park on the bank of Trail Creek - a popular hiking spot in Flathead National Forrest. The last reported bear incident in this area was in July 2023 when a 5-year-old bear was euthanized

The exact location of the horrifying attack on the couple - who own a property in the area - was on the bank of Trail Creek - which is less than five miles South of the Canadian border.

According to NPS Morning Reports for Glacier National Park - the most recent confirmed bear incident was on July 26, 2023 when a five-year-old grizzly bear was euthanized by the NPS and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The grizzly had reportedly 'obtained food multiple times from humans and was becoming increasingly aggressive'.

Glacier National Park enacted a ban on soft-sided camping - including tents, hammocks and soft-sided campers - because of the increase in recent bear incidents.

This is the most recent ambush in a series of bear incidents in the areas near the Canadian border.

On Friday - a Canadian couple were mauled to death by a grizzly bear around 275 miles north of the most recent attack in Banff National Park.

The 'inseparable' long-term partners were able to send out a GPS alert to Parks Canada at around 8pm on Friday indicating that they had been attacked.

The elderly woman was rescued when her husband deployed bear spray to get the creature away from his wife - they then escaped to their car and called emergency services who flew the bear's victim to a nearby hospital

A recent grizzly attack in Canada's Banff National Park left a couple and their dog mauled to death by the vicious bear. Expert Kim Titchener (pictured) said bear sightings are becoming more common - but fatal attacks are rare

A team specializing in wildlife attacks was immediately sent out but poor weather forced them to abandon taking a helicopter and travel by ground instead.

The Parks Canada crew arrived at 1am the next day to find the couple dead along with their dog.

The grizzly bear was still in the area exhibiting 'aggressive behavior' and the animal was euthanized 'for public safety'.

According to bear expert and friend of the couple Kim Titchener, there are about 60 grizzly bears in Banff National Park and while encounters are increasing as more people head outdoors, fatal attacks are extremely rare.

She said: 'It's really just the reason why we're seeing more attacks, which is more people heading outdoors and unfortunately not being educated on this.'

Titchener - the founder of Bear Safety & More Inc. and RecSafe with Wildlife - shared that only 14 per cent of grizzly bear attacks worldwide lead to fatalities.
The BBC's royal correspondent who was famously described by the King as an 'awful' man is retiring after nearly five decades with the corporation.

Veteran broadcaster Nicholas Witchell, who has covered the Royal Family since 1998, will retire next year. He joined the broadcaster as a graduate news trainee in 1976.

In 2005, the-then Prince of Wales was caught on a microphone making remarks about Mr Witchell.

The journalist had asked a question about the royal's upcoming nuptials to Camilla Parker Bowles during a photoshoot in the Swiss Alps.

Nicholas Witchell, BBC royal correspondent, revealed in 2014 that the King had not apologised for calling him an 'awful' man

While seated next to his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, he said: 'Bloody people. I can't bear that man. I mean, he is so awful, he really is.'

William remained calm and politely said: 'As long as I don't lose the rings. I have one responsibility and I'm bound to do something wrong.'

The family had been on holiday at Klosters ski resort in the Swiss Alps.

Aides suggested that Charles was annoyed about William and Kate  then just the prince's girlfriend  being photographed the previous day.

Paddy Harverson, Charles's press sectary at the time, said: 'We recognise that we cannot stop photographers taking these pictures, but we hope every year that they will respect the privacy of the family and friends and their need to have a private holiday.'

In his memoir Spare, Prince Harry said there 'paps taking pictures all over the place' on the day of the press call.

He claimed both he and William had expressed serious reservations about their father's decision to marry Camilla.

Mr Harverson later said: 'Nicholas was in the firing line when the prince was expressing his general frustration at the paparazzi and it boiled over at the first person to ask a question,' he said.

'It wasn't personal. He does regret saying it. He really didn't mean to take it out on Nicholas.'

Mr Witchell revealed in 2014 that the King had not apologised for calling him an 'awful' man, before saying that he had been doing his job properly.

The reporter said: 'There has never been an apology, and why should there be? He was probably quite right. You know, awful man.'

Mr Witchell and Charles had a less significant run-in at a fundraiser for the environment in Washington DC in 2015.

The reporter asked the King why he 'still cared so much' about environmental issues, to which Charles replied: 'Well, I'll turn it round the other way.

'I think you'd be more surprised if I didn't care about these things.

In 2005, Prince Charles - as he was then - famously insulted the BBC's royal correspondent, Nicholas Witchell

rince Charles with his arms around Prince William and Prince Harry during the Royal Family's ski break in the region at Klosters on March 31, 2005

'But I think particularly in terms of what I've been talking about now, there's an awful lot to worry about.'

Charles then hurried into his car and left.

The BBC said: 'After 47 fantastic years we will be bidding farewell to royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell, who will be retiring next year.

'Nick has reported from across the world and presented key BBC News shows.

'Thank you for your remarkable service!'

Mr Witchell broadcast the confirmed news of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on August 31, 1997 and provided live radio commentary from outside Westminster Abbey at her funeral.

The 70-year-old first joined the BBC after finishing a law degree at Leeds University, later becoming a BBC reporter in Northern Ireland in 1979, which included covering the assassination of Earl Mountbatten and the IRA hunger strikes.

After 47 fantastic years we will be bidding farewell to Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell, who will be retiring next year.



Nick has reported from across the world and presented key BBC News shows.



Thank you for your remarkable service! pic.twitter.com/yq2jzAhhAq  BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) October 3, 2023

He then became a news reporter for television news in 1982 where he covered the Falklands conflict, as well as covering Margaret Thatcher's 1983 general election campaign for the BBC, before returning to Belfast to become the BBC's Ireland correspondent.

He was one of the founding presenters of the Six O'Clock News with Sue Lawley in 1984.

In 1988 the Six O'Clock News studio was invaded by a group of lesbian protesters while Mr Witchell and Ms Lawley were presenting.

The women were campaigning against the Section 28 ruling passed by Mrs Thatcher's government which prohibited the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities.

In 1988 the Six O'Clock News studio was invaded by a group of lesbian protesters while Witchell and Sue Lawley were presenting

As Ms Lawley carried on reading the news, Mr Witchell sat on one of the women and covered her hand with his mouth, leading to headlines the next day.

Ms Lawley went on to call Mr Witchell a 'true hero' for his intervention, adding that he 'handled everything superbly'.

Denying that he had sworn at the protesters, he said: 'I actually said to her, "Please be quiet, you've made your protest." She wouldn't, so I sat on her.'

Mr Witchell went on to become the main presenter of the re-launched Breakfast News programme from 1989 to 1994.

He then returned to frontline reporting for the BBC's Panorama programme, and then as the BBC's royal and diplomatic correspondent from 1998.
A strangling victim whose body was found dumped by a North Carolina freeway 33 years ago has finally been identified thanks to a breakthrough in DNA analysis.

Lisa Coburn Kesler's remains were discovered in September 1990 on the the side of I-40 East in Orange County. At the time her identity was unknown.

DNA was taken from her badly-decomposed body but at the time this data could only confirm someone's identity - it couldn't be used to identify an unknown person.

But in 2020, the State Bureau of Investigation took over the case and recruited a forensic genealogist who was able to use online databases to track down Kesler's family.

Now cops hope that they can catch her killer.

Lisa Coburn Kesler was around 20 years old when she was strangled and left on the side of a highway in Orange County, North Carolina

Her decomposed body was discovered by road crews and she was listed as Jane Doe on the medical examiner's certificate of death

Kesler's body was found near the exit by New Church Hope Rd off Interstate 40 East

She was wearing a pink t-shirt with white bunny graphics and various pieces of jewelry

At the time, DNA could not be used to identify an unknown person, so the case went cold

In the original medical examiner's certificate, Coburn was named as 'Unidentified White Female' and was estimated to be around 20 years old at the time of her death.

She is believed to have been strangled around one week before her body was ftound.

Police followed hundreds of leads that ultimately went nowhere, but as new technology became available over the years, investigators took full advantage.

They created a bust of the victim by applying forensic facial reconstruction techniques to a model of her skull. Later, they created a digital illustration and circulated the image on social media.

However, DNA analysis was still a developing field and the technology couldn't easily be used to crack the case.

'Throughout the decades, some of our finest investigators kept plugging away,' Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said.

When investigators can't close a case, he said, 'it gets under your skin. You set the file aside for a while, but you keep coming back to it.

'Investigators also monitor new techniques and technologies in the field, which is what eventually led to the breakthrough in Ms. Keslers case.'

Investigator Dylan Hendricks took over the case in June 2020, assisted by agents with the State Bureau of Investigation.

He sent a degraded hair fragment to Astrea Forensics, a biotechnology company that helps law enforcement identify human remains.

The lab extracted DNA and produced a profile of the victim.

Forensic genealogist Leslie Kaufman was brought on to try to find the victim's family members using genealogy databases like GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA.

Commercial genealogy sites such as these allow people to trace their family lineage by collecting a DNA sample - often by swabbing the inside of their cheek - and mailing the sample to the company for testing.

The resulting DNA profile is added to a database that is usually kept private - but in some cases, the information may be provided to law enforcement to assist in active investigations.

It was through this means that the Golden State Killer was identified in 2018.

Investigators compared DNA found at a crime scene to online genetic profiles and found a match in a relative of the man who was ultimately convicted.

Such technology wasn't available decades ago and has been a tremendous breakthrough in the field of forensics.

Kaufman - who specializes in cases involving unidentified human remains and homicides - got a hit on paternal cousins and mapped out a family tree. Investigators then began interviewing relatives.

Not soon after, Kesler's name emerged as a relative who disappeared 33 years earlier.

In 2020, the case was reopened as new DNA analysis methods became available

Investigator Dylan Hendricks took over the case and sent a hair fragment to a biotech company specializing in the identification of human remains

Examiners now believe Kesler was strangled a week before her body was found

Forensic genealogist Leslie Kaufman was then brought on to find the victim's family members

Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood says investigators will now be able to try to identify Kesler's killer

It is unclear how the woman, who was originally from Georgia, ended up one state over

'Essentially, there was a Lisa-shaped hole on a branch of the family tree right where the DNA told us Lisa should be, and no one knew where she was,' Hendricks explained.

A maternal relative agreed to provide a DNA sample, providing additional confirmation.

The results were enough for Clyde Gibbs, a Medical Examiner Specialist in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

He updated the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs, to reflect that the DNA method resolved her case.

The Chief Medical Examiner is now able to clarify Kesler's death certificate, filling in her correct name and adding other demographic information.

Investigators can now focus on finding her killer.

'I am very happy we solved the three-plus-decades-old mystery of this young womans identity, and I hope it provides solace to her family members,' Sheriff Blackwood said.

He expressed his gratitude for the investigators, volunteers and professionals who helped with the case.

'I believe we collectively demonstrated the value of dogged determination, which we will now apply to the task of identifying her killer,' Blackwood said.

Still, little information is available on Kesler, who reportedly spent most of her life in Jackson County, Georgia, near the city of Athens.

How she ended up in North Carolina, nearly 320 miles away, is still a mystery.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) strike has cost the economy $4billion in lost wages and losses to manufacturers, dealerships and customers, a new report has found.

An analysis by Michigan economic consulting firm Anderson Economic Group (AEG) found that total losses reached $3.95 billion in the first two weeks of the strike.

Workers lost $325 million in direct wages and Detroit's big three - Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis (Chrysler) - lost $1.12 billion.

Suppliers lost $1.29 billion due to a decrease in demand for automotive parts and components, and auto dealers and customers lost $1.2 billion.

'Suppliers were particularly hard-hit by the UAW's strategy of announcing specific plants to be struck just hours before they were shut down,' said Patrick Anderson, AEG's principal and CEO.

Workers stand on the picket line outside the General Motors Lansing Delta Plant in Michigan. Anderson Economic Group (AEG) estimates the strike has cost the economy nearly $4 billion

UAW members striking at the Stellantis Toledo Assembly Plant in Ohio. The AEG report found that workers lost $325 million in direct wages

Workers take part in the strike at the Ford assembly plant in Chicago. On Monday, General Motors and Ford indefinitely laid off an additional 500 workers due to the strike

'The shutdown of 38 parts distributions centers also crimped dealership service operations and, of course, caused more UAW workers to lose wages.'

Anderson noted that when distribution centers were shut down, the strike's impact spread past the parties involved in negotiations and trickled down the dealers, customers and additional suppliers.

'When the innocent bystanders begin to feel it, it will affect the generally supportive sentiment Americans have been expressing about the UAW's demands thus far in the strike,' he said.

The analysis did not include additional plant closures or strikes announced on or after September 29.

Union members have been on strike at Ford, Stellantis and General Motors plants in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio since September 15.

On Friday, UAW president Shawn Fain announced an additional 7,000 workers will join the picket line, bringing the total number striking to over 25,000.

AEG predicts the third week of strikes will significantly impact Ford, the newest round of strikes will impact production and sales of some of their most profitable models, the Ford Explorer and the Lincoln Aviator.

General Motors and Ford said on Monday they will be indefinitely laying off another 500 workers at four Midwestern plants due to the impacts of the strike.

On Friday, Ford Motor Chief Executive Jim Farley accused the UAW of holding negations hostage to force them to pay workers at a new battery plant.

A Scabby the Ray inflatable is driven by the Stellantis Toledo plant. The AEG report said manufactures lost $1.12 billion

Picketers get creative with their apparel while striking. The report found suppliers lost $1.29 billion and auto dealers and customers lost $1.2 billion

A UAW member is seen wearing a Jason mask while picketing. Automaker leaders have accused the UAW of holding the negotiations hostage

'We believe the UAW is holding up the deal over battery plants that won't come online for another two to three years,' Farley said.

A statement from General Motors CEO Mary Barra on Friday nearly accuses Fain of negotiating in bad faith.

'UAW leadership continues to expand the strike while upping the rhetoric and the theatrics. Its clear that there is no real intent to get to an agreement,' said Barra.

'By their own admission, the UAW leaderships plan from the beginning has been to drag their membership into a long, unnecessary strike to further their own personal and political agendas.'

'It is clear Shawn Fain wants to make history for himself, but it cant be to the detriment of our represented team members and the industry,' she added.

UAW President Shawn Fain (right) posing with a supporter at the Stellantis Toledo plant. On Friday, Fain announced an additional 7,000 workers will join the picket line

President Joe Biden made history last week becoming the first modern president to join striking workers

President Joe Biden joined the picket line for 12 minutes last week, becoming the first president in modern history to join striking workers.

The union and automakers remain far apart on key economic issues. The UAW is asking for a 40 percent pay increase and an end to the two-tier wage system.

Automakers have countered with offers with a pay increase around around 20 percent.
A student demonstration at the University of Southern California devolved into chaos last week when violence erupted between Armenian student protestors and Turkish diplomats.

Students were apparently manhandled by law enforcement who escorted them from the building during a speech being given by the Turkish ambassador to the US.

The ambassador's presence was part of a conference on Turkish foreign policy hosted by the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Students from Annenberg's Master of Public Diplomacy program invited Ambassador Hasan Muray Mercan and the Azerbaijani special counsel to discuss Turkish foreign policy at the school.

The event, which was overseen by the director of the program, Dr. Robert Banks, was guarded by Public Safety and LAPD officers as dozens of Armenian protestors came to publicly object to the event.

Video of the altercation capture a handful of protestors pursuing the diplomats, including the ambassador, screaming at them and throwing bottles at them.

Protestors were forcefully removed from the event after chanting 'shame on Turkey, shame on USC' during a program about Turkish foreign policy

At one point, a member of the diplomatic party is backed up against a wall be students and physically assaulted.

In a different clip, Armenian students stand in the audience during one of the speeches and begin chanting 'shame on Turkey, shame on USC.'

Banks demanded several times that the students leave the event venue, to no avail.

Eventually, campus security officers and police were called to forcibly remove the students.

The protestors were physically escorted from the venue, despite pushing back verbally and physically.

During his talk, Mercan touched on his perspective of the 1915 genocide, which further riled up the protestors.

'I have my own narrative. Armenia has its own narrative. On this issue of so-called genocide, our position has been very clear  Tragedies took place, Armenians and Turks alike [were] killed,' he said.

Regional tensions between Armenia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan have been high for more than a century because of the Armenian Genocide that occurred in 1915.

Hundreds of thousands of Armenian Christians living in present-day Turkey were starved, abused, and slaughtered en masse. The year-long crime against humanity led to the codification of the term 'genocide' in international law.

Currently, more than 100,000 Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan have been forced to flee due to hostility from the Turkey-backed Azerbaijani military forces.

Student protestors at times became physical with representatives of the conference and members of the diplomatic party

The event, overseen by USC's Dr. Robert Banks, was part of programming for the school's masters of public diplomacy

Students gathered to protest an event at which the Turkish ambassador to the US was speaking at USC. Azerbaijan's Turkish-backed military has forced 100,000 Armenians out of their homes since the beginning of the year

Armenian student protestors interrupted a speech begin given by the Turkish ambassador to the UN

Since January, some 100,000 Armenians have been forced out of an area of Azerbaijan that has long caused tension between the two former Soviet nations

There has been tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh area since the 1980s, when the two former Soviet countries fought a war with one another as the USSR collapsed.

Armenians have long lived in Nagorno-Karabakh, though the area is internationally recognized as being part of Azerbaijan.

Armenia has called the current course of events an attempted 'ethnic cleansing' by Azerbaijani forces.

More than 200,000 Armenians reside in the greater Los Angeles area, making it the largest Armenian population outside of Armenia. USC also has a sizable Armenian population among its student body.

The president of the USC Armenian Students Association, Talia Wansikehian said conference and subsequent events have taken a toll on the Armenian student population.

'A lot of students are still frustrated. Were struggling. Were spending all of our time organizing. Youre obviously emotionally distraught. And theres just no tangible support coming from the community thats leaving everyone feeling very alone,' she said.

Sonia Meroian, a board member of ASA, told KTLA that it is 'incredibly shameful that USC Annenberg chooses to host an event like this in this time of mourning.'

Some of LA's most famous Armenians - the Kardashians - have been called up on in recent months to use their considerable platforms to help educate the public about Azerbaijan's military campaign.

In late August, protestors blocked the entrance to the gated Hidden Hills community in Calabasas, where several members of the famous family reside.

Armenian students on campus say they feel they are not being supported by their institution

Signs: The demonstrators carried signs that read 'Kim, Speak up for Artsakh' and 'Kim, Your People Need You'

During the demonstration, protesters waved Armenian flags and held up signs that read 'Kim, Speak up for Artsakh' and 'Kim, Your People Need You.'

Kim - and Kourtney, Khloe, and Rob's - late father, Robert Kardashian, was a third generation Armenian-American.

The three eldest sisters traveled to Armenia in 2015 to mark the 100th anniversary of Armenian genocide and learn about the history of their people.

In September, Kim and Dr. Eric Esrailia wrote a letter to the Biden Administration asking them to cut US Aid to Azerbaijan and help prevent a second Armenian Genocide.

Earlier this year, the government of Armenia called on the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting about the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
A Texas pastor fears he may be out of a job after outsourcing his Sunday service to Artificial Intelligence.

Jay Cooper of Violet Crown City Church in North Austin decided to see if the transformative technology was up to the task of inspiring his congregation through a complete one-hour service.

The Methodist minister asked Chat GPT to come up with prayers, a sermon, and an original song based on the sermon for the church which promises members a safe space to explore lifes big questions.

My assumption was that it would kick out a full hour-long worship service as is traditional in many churches, he said.

It turns out Chat GPT is Methodist and had no intention of sticking around that long and gave us about a 15 minute service.

Pastor Jay Cooper said he 'wanted to incorporate it into our community life in such a way that it would make an impact'.

The congregation was greeted by a slightly unusual notice at the church in North Austin

Good morning slash afternoon slash evening everyone, and welcome, the technology told its slightly baffled listeners.

Were so glad youve chosen to join us in worship today.

But it soon got into its stride, telling them to strive to make the world a better place.

Cooper recorded his service for posterity while other members of the church delivered the words devised by the bot.

Im renaming today Regret Sunday if it turns out to be the day that AI took my job, he told them.

He said the congregation was surprisingly open to the idea of an AI-generated service but handing control to Chat GTP will remain a one-off experiment for the time being unless robots start joining the church.

Although many were impressed by AI's ability to create prayers, a sermon, and an original song based on the sermon, along with being glad we have a much better understanding of AI now, many in our church expressed that the service felt shallow and generic and that it was missing the most important component of worship, which is heart and the human spirit of joy and authenticity, he explained.

What ultimately brought us closer to God as a community was the discussion after the service. We were able to share what was most important to us in worship and how much we treasure the human element in a community of faith, something that was clearly lacking in the AI-generated service.

Church attendee Ernest Chambers told KXAN he was able to worship during the service, but that it all felt rather cold.

Im not sure that AI can actually express the emotions of love and kindness and empathy, he added.

I think that we must practice love and express that. Not only feel it, but we must express it.

Cooper asked different members of his church to read the passages devised by AI

Cooper said he had been interested in the technology since using it to write humorous lyrics to country songs and was intrigued by its spiritual possibilities.

Were not doing this as some gimmicky event or misguided attempt to be provocative, he told his congregation.

This is not like weve said God take the Sunday off weve got a really unqualified substitute teacher'.

Perhaps in some way if we can experience the sacred in something like artificial intelligence then maybe we can see it in that neighbor who has political beliefs we just cannot stand.

The idea to create an AI-generated worship service came from my belief that the church should not only be aware of the most pressing issues of our world, but also to actively engage in them,' he added.

AI is definitely one of those issues, so I wanted to incorporate it into our community life in such a way that it would make an impact.

The church advertises itself as a a safe space to explore lifes big questions

Pastor Cooper says he has no plans to repeat the experiment

The initial reason we offered this, admittedly unorthodox, service was to inform our congregation about AI and to understand its potential and its limitations.

The purpose is to invite us to consider the nature of truth and challenge our assumptions about what God can make sacred and inspired.

It is not the first time AI has been used to enhance the experience of church worshippers.

Last year a group of avatars created by Chat GPT led a congregation of 300 through a 40-minute service at a church in the German town of Fuerth.

You end up with a pretty solid church service, said Jonas Simmerlein, the theologian from the University of Vienna who devised the program.
More than 100 'Johns' seeking to buy sex have been arrested in a human trafficking sting

Ohio state has made more than 100 arrests of 'Johns' seeking to buy sex who have been charged with prostitution in a sting dubbed 'Operation Buyer's Remorse'.

An EMT, nurses, educators, retirees, former law enforcement officers, self-employed individuals and delivery drivers are among those in custody. The youngest arrested is aged 17 and the oldest is 84.

The operation was conducted by AG Yost's Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission (OOCIC), taking place from September 25 to 30 across every corner of the state, including Columbus, Cleveland, Toledo, Akron, Youngstown, Marietta and Portsmouth.

'Operation Buyer's Remorse' comprised of coordinated 'stings' conducted by OOCIC's eight human trafficking, major crimes task forces and nearly 100 local law enforcements that also conducted anti-human trafficking operations.

Searches were also conducted at 11 massage parlors suspected of human trafficking activities as part of ongoing, long-term investigations.

In a video statement, Yost said: 'Our message is simple: Don't buy sex in Ohio!

Authorities were able to seize multiple electronic devices, criminal tools and nearly $75,000 from multiple locations

Cops say 149 'Johns' who were seeking to buy sex have been arrested and charged with engaging in prostitution. Two individuals were arrested for seeking to have sex with minors and six for promoting prostitution.

Others were arrested for illegally possessing narcotics and/or firearms or because there were outstanding warrants against them.

The charges on all of them vary from in severity from a first-degree misdemeanor to a third-degree felony.

In a video statement, Yost said: 'Our message is simple: Don't buy sex in Ohio!

'Nearly 100 law enforcement agencies and service organizations participated in this operation  I am grateful for each and every partner who dedicated their time and resources, as we all play a key role in the fight against human trafficking.

'Law enforcement across Ohio teamed up in a concerted effort to stem the demand that fuels human trafficking.

'The success of this operation is measured not only by the number of arrests but also by the resources offered to survivors of human trafficking and the intelligence gathered that will propel long-term investigations forward.'

Cops say 149 'Johns' who were seeking to buy sex have been arrested and charged with engaging in prostitution. Two individuals were arrested for seeking to have sex with minors and six for promoting prostitution

Others were arrested for illegally possessing narcotics and/or firearms or because there were outstanding warrants against them

The charges on all of them vary from in severity from a first-degree misdemeanor to a third-degree felony

Officials said they believe the issue has been ongoing for a very long time but now they have the technology and resources to solve it.

As a part of the investigation, officials also interviewed 104 survivors of human trafficking. Survivors were provided services from health care and social service organizations too.

Authorities were able to seize multiple electronic devices, criminal tools and nearly $75,000 from multiple locations.

The arrests included at least 27 people from Northeast Ohio as well as at least 20 people from another state or from outside the country.

Noble County Sheriff Jason Mackie said he was very happy with the success of Operation Buyer's Remorse.

'The big thing is, we know people in our area do not support this. The people doing human trafficking think they can come to a rural area and get away with it easier. But we are prepared, we are well trained. And we won't tolerate it.'

Officials said they believe the issue has been ongoing for a very long time but now they have the technology and resources to solve it.
Lisa Wilkinson's daughter was shut down by Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong after she asked her what would happen if the Voice referendum is not successful.

Billi FitzSimons, who is editor of social media news source The Daily Aus, shared a short clip from a recent interview with Senator Wong captioned 'the moment she put me in my place'.

Ms FitzSimons, 25, was asking a follow-up question about the Labor government's plans if - as polling suggests - the October 14 referendum fails.

'The question is about if it's not successful - are you not ready to think about...' Ms FitzSimons asks before she is cut off.

'Well, I'm not ready to talk to you about that, am I?' says Senator Wong.

A stunned Ms FitzSimons nods and says 'noted' before Senator Wong laughs and tells her 'but don't take it personally'.

'I will,' jokes Ms FitzSimons, taking the awkward exchange in her stride.

Billi FitzSimons, 25, who was following in her mother's footsteps by grilling politicians, was asking a follow-up question about the Labor government's plans if - as polling suggests - the October 14 referendum fails when Foreign Affairs minister Penny Wong shut her down

However, it is not the first time she has had to deal with turbulence since landing the role as editor of The Daily Aus before her 25th birthday.

In June last year, the website had Photoshopped the German flag on the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, rather than the Aboriginal flag, which also contains red, yellow and black.

Just a day later Ms FitzSimons posted a job listing looking for a fact checker who has 'meticulous attention to detail'.

The youngster has been listed as one of Australia's 'nepo babies' given she is the offspring of journalistic royalty: her father Peter FitzSimons, a former Wallaby, is an author and journalist too.

Senator Wong told her not to take it personally

The pair were all smiles after the interview

Her mother Lisa got Ms FitzSimons her first job as a writer on Mamamia when she was still at university by calling in a favour with her old protege Mia Freedman.

The star worked for Mamamia throughout university before landing a job as a political writer at the Daily Aus straight after graduating.

She graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts (Media and Communications), Government and International Relations, Digital Cultures in 2019.

But it has not all been handed to Ms FitzSimons: her father revealed earlier this year how she used to toil part-time in Domino's for four years from the age of 14 to earn money while at school.
Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions is seeking pay rises of up to 6.5 per cent

More than 75,000 healthcare workers are due to walk out across the US in the sector's biggest ever strike.

Members from the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions will walk out tomorrow amid the dispute with non-profit healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente over wages and working conditions.

Healthcare workers from across seven states and the District of Columbia will down tools until up to 6am Saturday with hundreds of leaders recently trained on how to hold a picket line.

The union is proceeding with the industrial action after its contract expired on Saturday without an agreement being reached.

It is seeking higher wages, better retirement benefits and improved working conditions.

Healthcare workers like these pictured at one-day informational in San Diego, California, U.S could be among those striking

Executive Director Caroline Lucas heads up the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions who plan to strike until 6am Saturday morning

Among the demands are across the board raises for members of up to 6.5 per cent, which have so far been capped at 4.5 per cent according to the union

The union also wants the non-profit to increase its performance related bonus payment beyond its maximum offer of $750 if members achieve their targets but the non-profit misses its financial goals.

It is also seeking protections against subcontracting and outsourcing, along with 'modest' improvements to the premium subsidy/HRA retiree medical plan members will be transitioning to in 2028.

'Kaiser continues to bargain in bad faith over these issues and, so far, there is no light at the end of the tunnel,' a statement from the organization said.

The union comprises 85,000 healthcare workers across Kaiser Permanente facilities.

The strikes will see members from California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Virginia, and Washington DC as well as the District of Columbia walk out.

The union said: 'This three-day strike will be the initial demonstration of our strength to Kaiser that we will not stand for their unfair labor practices.'

It added that some progress has been made on raising shift differentials, a fair remote work agreement, and investments in training for both current employees to promote to harder to fill jobs'.

Union members are picketing over a dispute around wage increases, working conditions and retirement benefits

Kaiser Permanente, the largest nonprofit health care provider in the U.S., reported profits of more than $3 billion in the first half of 2023, according to The Hill.

In a statement shared with the outlet, Kaiser Permanente said it has continued to 'make progress on key issues.'

Agreements have already been reached on a range of areas including travel for continuing education, temporary worker usage, staff vacancy tracking and dispute resolution.

The nonprofit said it is 'optimistic' the two sides will reach an agreement before the strike is due to start.
The trial of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried begins today, nearly one year after the collapse of his crypto exchange following an alleged fraud totaling $8 billion dollars.

The 31-year-old former billionaire will face a jury in a Manhattan court on accusations that he embezzled from FTX customers in order to prop up his hedge fund Alameda Research, buy luxury properties and donate more than $100 million to U.S. political candidates.

He launched the company in 2019 and it quickly grew into an enterprise worth tens of billions of dollars. Bankman-Fried recruited A-list celebrities from Tom Brady to Larry David to promote the firm and also rubbed shoulders with leading politicians like Bill Clinton.

But the company suffered a catastrophic collapse in November 2022, leaving customers roughly $10 billion out of pocket, prosecutors claim. The saga shocked markets and tattered SBF's once god-like reputation within the crypto industry.

A bombshell trial is expected to feature his ex-girlfriend and former top lieutenant, Caroline Ellison, 29, as the prosecution's star witness.

The 31-year-old former billionaire will face a jury in a Manhattan court on accusations that he embezzled billions from customers of FTX, his failed cryptocurrency platform

A bombshell trial is expected to feature his ex-girlfriend and former top lieutenant, Caroline Ellison, 29, as the prosecution's star witness

QUESTIONS FOR JURY These are some of the questions that Bankman-Fried's lawyers intend to ask prospective jurors during selection :: Do you have a negative opinion about cryptocurrency? :: If a company involved in the cryptocurrency industry or the financial industry fails, do you feel that only the owners of the company must be to blame? :: Do you have any negative opinion about amassing wealth to support causes to improve the world or help others? :: The defendant in this case has ADHD, which might affect things like his physical behavior, body language, or eye contact. Please raise your hand if you have never had any personal or professional experience with ADHD. Do you have any opinion about the fact that the defendant has ADHD? Advertisement

The trial, overseen by Judge Lewis Kaplan, is slated to begin with jury selection at 9.30am on Tuesday.

Bankman-Fried has acknowledged inadequate risk management, but denied stealing funds. His lawyers have signaled in court papers they plan to argue that FTX's treatment of customer funds was proper, and that others at FTX and Alameda bore the bulk of the blame for their failure.

The trial is expected to last up to six weeks. It will feature testimony from three former members of Bankman-Fried's inner circle, including Ellison, who have pleaded guilty to fraud charges themselves and agreed to cooperate with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office.

Bankman-Fried's lawyers have signaled they plan to challenge the credibility of those witnesses - who also include former FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh - by arguing they are motivated to implicate their client to get a lower sentence for themselves, a common strategy in white collar fraud cases.

The case has been likened to the trial of Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, who was jailed for 11 years for defrauding investors in her medical company out of $945 million.

Potential jurors in Bankman-Fried's case are expected to be asked whether they have a negative view of crytpocurrency, and whether they have any experience with ADHD, a condition Bankman-Fried has.

Bankman-Fried, pictured sleeping on a beanbag, had an almost god-like reputation within the crypto industry, but prosecutors allege it was built on lies

The case has been likened to the trial of Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, who was jailed for 11 years for defrauding investors in her medical company out of $945 million

Like Holmes' case, it is likely to include reams of complicated financial evidence. It will also delve into the complex technology behind cryptocurrency and trading, in a similar vein to the inclusion of complicated scientific evidence in Holmes' trial.

Bankman-Fried's is the highest profile case U.S. prosecutors have so far brought against a former cryptocurrency executive.

His indictment last December marked a spectacular fall from grace for Bankman-Fried, who had garnered a reputation as a legitimate operator in an industry whose image was pockmarked by scams and purported get-rich-quick schemes.

Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried built that reputation on lies and bolstered it with endorsements from celebrities and star athletes.

Bankman-Fried has been detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since Aug. 11, after the judge found he had likely engaged in witness tampering - including by sharing Ellison's personal writings with a reporter.

He will be brought to court early on most days to allow him to prepare with his lawyers.
The crackdown on Oxford Street's candy stores appears to be working after the number blighting the road dropped by a third in a year to 21 from a peak of 30.

Westminster City Council officials are trying to rid London's iconic shopping street of the tacky shops, which have replaced household names and blighted the area.

They have been working with Trading Standards on a probe into the 'American-style' shops amid allegations some have evaded 8million worth of business rates.

The council has seized 1million worth of illegal and counterfeit goods from candy stores and souvenir shops on Oxford Street since operations began in late 2021.

The number of sweet shops keeps fluctuating, with the council playing 'whack-a-mole' as new stores continually open up in different locations while others close.

Now, a report by the council's overview and scrutiny committee said it has 'ramped up the pressure on candy stores, souvenir and vape shops' - with some freeholders even inviting Trading Standards to act so they can begin legal action against tenants.

It will be a boost to the West End, which has become blighted by the gaudy shops after established retailers such as Debenhams, House of Fraser and Topshop shut.

A council raid in March on one of the tacky Oxford Street shops selling counterfeit goods

A raid on American candy stores on Oxford Street in October 2022 saw the council seize 215,000 worth of fake Gucci phone cases, vapes and counterfeit rucksacks in a crackdown

The council seized a haul of fake Wonka chocolate bars worth 22,000 which were among counterfeit products totalling 100,000 seized from three Oxford Street stores in June 2022

A worker adjusts the display in an American-style candy shop on Oxford Street in July

The report said London's reputation for attracting global investors in residential and commercial property was under threat from a 'growing minority of these investors' using the area for money laundering, fraud and other economic crime.

It added: 'The reputation of Westminster has been further impacted post-pandemic by the presence of candy stores and souvenir shops taking up  at peak levels  30 units on Oxford Street.

'These firms owe the council millions in unpaid business rates, but as we have tried to pursue them we have come up against patsy directors registered on Companies House, and phoenixing where firms have shut to re-open under a new name in the same property but are able to avoid their business rates liability.

'These two strands - questionable overseas property ownership and candy stores carrying out questionable business practices to avoid their responsibilities - overlap in the cause and potential solutions when considered under a broader heading of "economic crime".

The Oxford Street area has become hit by crime and homelessness in recent years having fallen into disrepair with empty shops, littered streets and dwindling numbers of visitors.

But the report said: 'We have ramped up the pressure on candy stores, souvenir and vape shops, to make clear the status quo is not acceptable.

'Following multiple attempts to engage with each freeholder and long leaseholder, requesting that they do all they can stop letting agents leasing empty properties to candy stores or souvenir shops, we then carried out a transparency release of those who failed to engage positively with the council.

 Slide me  Music retailer HMV is to reopen its flagship Oxford Street store (left, pictured in 2018), which was turned into an American candy outlet (right) after the firm's departure in 2019

 Slide me  BEFORE and AFTER: 'Candylicious London' on Oxford Street (right) was a Schuh shop (left)

 Slide me  BEFORE and AFTER: A Coast store on Oxford Street (left) is now Kingdom of Sweets (right)

 Slide me  BEFORE and AFTER: 'American Sweet Dreams' (right) is on the site of a smaller Holland and Barrett next to an Ann Summers (left)

 Slide me  BEFORE and AFTER: A Boots store (left) used to occupy the space of a candy store (right)

'This exercise triggered a number of conversations with freeholders and long leaseholders on the specific actions that could help to remove candy stores in their particular contractual situations, and those conversations are ongoing.

'Some parties (are) even inviting trading standards action to enable them to begin legal action against their tenants. There has been a fall since this exercise, from 26 candy stores to 21.'

This is not the first time the number of shops has fallen to 21 before, with the council saying it had dropped to that figure last November - only to rebound to 29 as others opened up soon after. Now, the council said it has fallen to 21 again.

In one set of raids on the shops in March, the council worked with Trading Standards and the Metropolitan Police to target two shops and confiscated 7,000 items with a total value of 145,000.

These included 2,381 vape pens which had double the UK limit of nicotine and over 15 times over the legal tank size  which were originally hidden from officers to avoid detection but were recovered from five suitcases displayed on the shop floor.

Other seized goods included 1,723 counterfeit mobile phone cases, 1,602 unsafe charging leads, 372 power banks with no safety labelling or UK company details, 273 unsafe travel adapters and 182 counterfeit EarPods sold at different price points depending on who the customer was.

Adam Hug, leader of Westminster City Council, told MailOnline today: 'The drop in the number of candy stores is proof that consistent action against unscrupulous traders is making life sour for the sweet shop racket.

'We have energetically pursued unscrupulous traders who sell unsafe or fake goods, impounding more than 1million of items in 18 months.

'Enforcement action, schemes to encourage pop-up entrepreneurs and our planned 90million programme to overhaul Oxford Street will, I hope, continue to reduce the numbers of candy stores.

People pass souvenir shops in London's West End in July amid plans to regenerate the area

A Charles figurine is displayed alongside sweets in a souvenir shop on Oxford Street in July

A picture of the late Queen Elizabeth II on a souvenir shop in Leicester Square in July

'The reality is the candy stores form part of a sophisticated operation which is skilled at exploiting UK legal loopholes.

'Westminster City Council is taking determined action against dirty money, so we will keep working with central Government to clamp down on this activity.'

In August, West End stores were forced to lower their shutters and lock customers inside after large groups of mainly young men and teens responded to a call on TikTok to join a 'Oxford Circus JD robbery'.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman called for those involved in scuffles with police trying to keep the peace to be 'hunted down'.

M&S operations director Sacha Berendji said in August that the area had once been 'the jewel in London's shopping crown' but was now little more than 'empty shops, littered streets and fewer visitors'.

In July, Brian Duffy, the chief executive of leading British retailer Watches of Switzerland, branded Oxford Street a 'national embarrassment'.

And in April, Marks & Spencer boss Stuart Machin said London was losing its competitive edge to rival cities. Mr Machin blamed a government move to axe VAT-free shopping and a 'proliferation of tacky candy stores'.

Topshop's flagship store near Oxford Circus station closed in early 2021 after the demise of Sir Philip Green's Arcadia retail empire.

House of Fraser's department store also shut up shop in January 2022 after more than a century at the location.

Some big names are set to move into the area soon - Ikea will open up at the former Topshop site while HMV will reopen its old flagship store on Oxford Street after a four-year absence later this year.

Sweets are displayed in a candy shop on Oxford Street in London's West End in July

Rough sleepers in makeshift beds outside closed shops on Oxford Street in August

One of the boarded-up shopfronts that could be seen along Oxford Street in August

Oxford Street will also be given a facelift from next autumn with plans to inject 100million into pedestrian access, greenery and better lighting.

Work on the project, which is a joint effort between the council and New West End Company, is expected to finish in spring 2026.

The council has also launched a 10million scheme to improve the area by allowing small business owners to open stores rent free and lower business rates by 70 per cent.

The plan, called 'Meanwhile On: Oxford Street' will offer nine units to businesses trying to launch their first store.

The scheme, which is intended to prevent candy shops opening, is also offering the new occupants marketing help, business support and a fit-out of the new stores.
A surviving roommate of the Idaho murders victims, Dylan Mortensen, is reportedly 'isolating herself' after experiencing brutal 'dogpiling' on social media since the quadruple homicide in November.

New details have emerged about the wellbeing of the 21-year-old roommate who was in the house on the night of the brutal massacre and told police she witnessed a man walk past her bedroom after he had killed her friends.

Author and private investigator, J. Reuben Appelman is the only reporter to speak with the father of Mortensen, one of only two survivors from the University murder house.

'In the beginning weeks after those homicides, she was basically dogpiled on on social media,' he said in an interview with Ashleigh Banfield to discuss his new book, While Idaho Slept.

Vile web sleuths had accused Mortensen of being involved with the crimes, while others called her a drug dealer, among other names, he added.

A surviving roommate of the Idaho murders victims, Dylan Mortensen, is reportedly 'isolating herself' after experiencing brutal 'dogpiling' on social media since the quadruple homicide in November

Pictured: Bryan Kohberger, who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, at Latah County District Court on Sept. 13, in Moscow, Idaho. Mortensen saw Khoberger the night of the murders and described him as 'clad in black clothing and a mask' with bushy eyebrows

'This was part of the trauma that she experienced,' he said. 'Dylan herself has retreated from the public eye, very few people see her.'

Mortensen's father expressed heartache over his daughter suffering from brutal cyberbullies after the trauma she experienced from surviving the November massacre.

But Mortensen's father told Appelman that his daughter is in the process of healing, despite being hounded by bullies.

'She is in trauma therapy of sorts, she's getting help from the spiritual community,' he said to Banfield. 'Isolating herself but she is stepping out a little at a time, she is gaming online with peers in group gaming session.'

'She's doing what she can without going into public,' he added.

Mortensen and Bethany Funke, also 19, both survived the November 13 bloodbath but lost three of their roommates  Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, in the vicious attack. Xana's boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 21, was also murdered.

Bryan Kohberger, 28, a PhD student at Washington State University, was charged with the four murders and a charge of burglary. Idaho is a death penalty state.

Author and private investigator, J. Reuben Appelman appeared in an interview with Ashleigh Banfield to discuss his new book, While Idaho Slept

Appelman said a childhood friend of Kohberger said he was mercilessly and relentlessly bullied and listened to screamo music through earbuds to block out the taunting

Initial details from an affidavit released in January said that Mortensen opened her door to find a man 'clad in black clothing and a mask' with bushy eyebrows.

In the affidavit, police described how Mortensen froze in fear early on November 13 after spotting the killer, having opened her bedroom door after hearing noises in the six-bedroom rental home.

The witness is described as standing in a 'frozen shock phase' as the man walked toward the house's back door before she locked herself in her room.

She had opened the door twice before  once after hearing Kaylee say someone was in the house and again after the sound of crying came from Xana's bedroom.

The teen told police she had locked herself in her second-floor bedroom after the encounter with the killer who was wearing a ski mask at the time but didn't dial 911.

Police weren't called to the scene until 11:58am  seven and a half hours after the students died.

Funke is believed to have slept through the attack in her ground floor bedroom.

According to the affidavit, Mortensen said she was awoken at around 4am by what sounded like Goncalves playing with her dog in a third-floor bedroom.

A short time later she heard Goncalves say 'there's someone here', the haunting affidavit reveals. Mortensen looked out of her bedroom door but didn't see anything.

The second time she opened her door she heard a male voice say something like, 'It's ok, I'm going to help you.'

At 4:17am, a neighbor's security camera picked up audio of 'what sounded like voices or a whimper followed by a loud thud. A dog can also be heard barking numerous times.'

Mortensen 'stated she opened her door for the third time after she heard the crying and saw a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person's mouth and nose walking towards her'.

The family of victim Kaylee Goncalves have defended Mortensen's actions.

Attorney Shanon Gray, who is representing the Goncalves family, said Mortensen was likely 'scared to death' when she encountered the man, and insisted that she was 'still a victim in this case.'

Appelman is the only reporter who Mortensen's father agreed to speak to. He said Mortensen's father told him that his daughter is in the process of healing, despite being hounded by the press and online cyberbullies

Police described how Mortensen froze in fear early on November 13 after spotting the killer, having opened her bedroom door after hearing noises in the six-bedroom rental home. She has been accused of being involved with the crimes and cyberbullied online

Mortensen and Bethany Funke, also 19, both survived the November 13 bloodbath but lost three of their roommates  Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20, in the vicious attack. Xana's boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 21, was also murdered

In his interview, Appelman also described meeting with a childhood friend of Kohberger, who said the alleged murder was mercilessly and relentlessly bullied in high school, to the point that he had to listen to screamo music through earbuds to block out the taunting.

The friend reportedly rode the bus with him to school every day.

'This young woman had told me that she wished not to be named but she told me quite a bit about him,' he said to Banfield. 'She said that he was bullied almost constantly as a junior high student, as was she. They were both nerds who didn't fit in she said. They were very close. They sat together on the bus almost every day.'

'Kohberger, she said, listened to music in his earbuds to block out the bullying, to block out the sort of chaos and darkness of the time period that he was living through,' he added.

'She said that the administrators of their schools did nothing about bullying at the time. Kohberger would walk around the halls listening to screamo music and at times hip hop and rap.'

Appelman, who is a 25-year Idaho resident was the first reporter Mortensen's father agreed to speak with.

He lives just a couple miles from the Mortensen residence which he said may have given him an in.

'When I went to speak to her father, you know, I was able to just walk up to his house. Many national news correspondents had tried the same thing,' Appelman told Banfield.

'They hadn't gotten very far. He's a rather large, intimidating man. I don't know if that's part of the reason why, why national correspondents couldn't sort of break that wall and talk to him.'

On why Appelman was the first reporter Mortensen's father agreed to speak with, he said: 'I don't know if I caught him on the right day or what but he hadn't spoken to anybody else. He had turned down the New York Times.'

'I had Idaho plates on my car, maybe that had something to do with it. I've lived here for 25 years, almostI live just a couple of miles from Dylan Mortensen, actually, and a couple of miles in the other direction from her father,' he added.

'I was able to pull up to his house. He answered the door. I told him as an Idaho guy researching this book. And I don't know if I caught him on the right day or what but he hadn't spoken to anybody else.'

'He had a very large dog that was watching me very carefully. And I think Brent Mortensen was watching me very carefully too. He has a lot of reason to distrust reporters.'
She is looking forward to other challenges including a ride in a hot-air balloon

A Chicago centenarian has become the oldest person ever to skydive after jumping out of a plane at 13,500 feet in northern Illinois Sunday.

Dorothy Hoffner, 104, is likely to break the Guinness World Record, once her jump is certified, for the oldest skydiver  a feat currently held by 103-year-old Linnea Ingegard Larsson.

'Age is just a number,' Hoffner told a cheering crowd after touching the ground Sunday at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, about 85 miles southwest of Chicago, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Hoffner took her first skydiving plunge four years ago after she turned 100 years old simply because 'it sounded interesting,' she told her friend Joe Conant, 62, who joined her in both that initial jump and the recent one on Sunday.

'The whole thing was delightful, wonderful, couldn't have been better,' she said after landing.

Dorothy Hoffner has become the oldest person ever to skydive after jumping out of a plane at 13,500ft in northern Illinois Sunday

She took her first skydiving plunge four years ago after she turned a century old simply because 'it sounded interesting'

After seven minutes in the air, she clung to the harness over her narrow shoulders, picked up her legs and plopped softly onto the grassy landing area

Hoffner insisted on taking the lead when the aft door opened for the jump

Hoffner's jump was originally scheduled for early September but was delayed three times due to bad weather.

On Sunday, she left her walker behind just short of the plane - a white Skyvan - and was helped up the steps by two instructions to join the others waiting inside.

'Let's go, let's go, Geronimo!' she said after boarding the plane and seated.

She was the only passenger not wearing ear plugs as the plane rose quickly. With a confident smile, she insisted on taking the lead when the aft door opened for the jump.

She said she had to be pushed out of the aircraft four years ago, but 'wanted to take charge' this time.

Finally, she leaped into the air from 13,500 feet, immersed herself in the sight of curly river streams and patches of land before making a historical landing.

The dive lasted seven minutes. Coming into land, the wind pushed Hoffner's white hair back, she clung to the harness over her narrow shoulders, picked up her legs and plopped softly onto the grassy landing area.

Friends rushed to Hoffner to share their congratulations as someone brought over her red walker.

She left her walker behind just short of the plane - a white Skyvan - and was helped up the steps by two instructions to join the others waiting inside

Once her jump is certified, she is likely to break the Guinness World Record for the oldest skydiver

Hoffner rose quickly and said, 'wonderful, but it was wonderful up there', when a reporter asked her how it felt to be back on the ground.

Skydive Chicago is working to have Guinness World Records certify Hoffner's jump as a record, WLS-TV reported, but she didn't seem too fussed about it.

When asked what it felt like to hold the age-based record, she answered quickly: 'Like I'm old.'

Her mind turned to the future and other challenges. Being set to turn 105 in December, Hoffner said she might take a ride in a hot-air balloon next.

'Ive never been in one of those,' she said.

Born in 1918 after World War I, Hoffner had survived both the Spanish flu and Covid pandemics. She spent her whole life in Chicago.

The 104-year-old appeared relaxed and ready for her huge jump from the plane

Relieved to make it back to the ground, Hoffner said her skydiving record made her feel 'old'

She said she had to be pushed out of the aircraft four years ago, but 'wanted to take charge' this time

Grew up poor and couldn't afford college, she worked as an operator for Illinois Bell, a telephone company later became a part of AT&T.

She has never married or had a child. Describing herself as 'an unclaimed treasure,' Hoffner said she never had to deal with the responsibility of kids.

She told the Chicago Tribune: 'Or the pettiness and the mess of a husband. I never had to take care of anyone but me.'

It gave her life more freedom and chances for beautiful adventure, she said when interviewed by the New York Times.

She enjoyed weekend trips across the country driving in her blue Dodge Coronet; bus rides with friends to beachy town in Mexico; and boat rides on the Danube River in Germany.

She also traveled to England, Panama, Italy twice and France.

Hoffner encouraged everyone to try skydiving because it's 'surprisingly affordable and so peaceful.'

She also advised those who want to try: 'When youre coming down, make sure youve got someone with you. Thats the important thing,'
Kevin McCarthy claimed Rep. Matt Gaetz has 'personal' issues after the Florida Republican moved to oust him, and added that he doesn't need the help of Democrats to stay in the speaker's office as the House prepares to vote on his fate Tuesday afternoon.

'Matt Gaetz had planned to do this from the very beginning,' McCarthy told CNBC's 'Squawk Box.' 'He has personal things in his life that he has challenges with. That's fine.'

McCarthy and some of his allies have claimed Gaetz's animosity toward him is from the Florida Republican's belief that the speaker played a role in an Ethics Committee investigation into allegations about sexual misconduct on Gaetz's part. McCarthy has said repeatedly he doesn't get involved in ethics complaints.

Gaetz on Monday evening presented a 'motion to vacate,' a legislative maneuver that would result in the ousting of the speaker if a majority of the House approves it. The vote could happen around 1:30pm ET on Tuesday afternoon.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Rep. Matt Gaetz has 'personal issues' and noted he expected to survive the challenge to his speakership

But McCarthy thinks he'll survive the challenge.

'I'm an optimist. I put money on myself,' he said.

He indicated Gaetz's move is persona.

What is a 'motion to vacate the chair' The rules of the House allow for any single lawmaker  Democrat or Republican  to make a 'motion to vacate the chair,' essentially an attempt to oust the speaker from that leadership post through a privileged resolution. Gaetz filed it on Monday evening and the House has two legislative days to vote on it. Next steps: McCarthy allies will likely seek to block it by offering a 'motion to table'- or set aside - the resolution. That is where Democrats can help save McCarthy, if they support the a move to table the matter. Democrats don't have to vote yes to help McCarthy. They could simply vote present, or not show up at all, and that would lower the threshold McCarthy needs to block the motion. If McCarthy's allies fail to table the motion, the House would then move to a vote on removing McCarthy. Again, Democrats could save him by voting in his support or just by voting present or being absent. If Gaetz's motion succeeds, the speakership would be vacated and the House would then need to hold a new election. A speaker candidate would need to win a majority of votes from those lawmakers present and voting. In January it took McCarthy 15 rounds of votes to secure the speakership. Advertisement

'He's been blaming me for some for an ethics complaint against him that happened in the last Congress,' McCarthy noted.

'I have nothing to do with he wants me to try to wipe that away. I'm not going to do that. That's illegal. And you know what, if some way I lose my job because I uphold the law because I uphold the continuity of government. So be it.'

The crucial votes will likely come down to Democrats, meaning Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his caucus have to make a tough choice: save McCarthy and stay with the speaker they know or vote for his ouster and see who winds up with the votes from Republicans to be in the speaker's chair.

Jeffries and McCarthy spoke on Monday night.

McCarthy told CNBC the two men have a good relationship but added: 'I'm not asking for any special deal or anything else.'

'Democrats have not asked for anything and I'm not going to provide anything,' he noted.

He did, however, note, the Nancy Pelosi, the longtime speaker of the House, doesn't support the option to use a motion to vacate.

McCarthy pointed out that Pelosi said 'that she would always vote it down, not based upon saving an individual but based upon what's good for government, what's good for the institution as a whole.'

'And that's the question as to be are we now in a situation in our government that we just provided keeping government open, that we're going to play politics with how you become speaker? If that's the case, then I think we've got real problems.'

Jeffries said on Tuesday morning that 'this is a vote on conscious in many ways.' He said the party would come to a collective decision at their meeting that morning.

It's unclear how much support McCarthy would get from Democrats, who have trust issues with him and are frustrated with his longtime support of Donald Trump - even in the aftermath of the January 6th insurrection.

'I am not a cheap date,' said Democratic Representative James McGovern.

'I am one Democrat not in much of a mood to help him out,' said Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin. 'MAGA Republicans have to solve the problems that MAGA Republicans create.'

And some Democrats see McCarthy in a mess of his own making by agreeing to conservative's demand that a single lawmaker can propose a motion to oust the speaker.

'Do we side with a sociopath or an incompetent?' said Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan. 'I dont know?'

But other Democrats worry using such a motion could paralyze the House and set a dangerous precedent against future speakers.

Gaetz's move Monday is the first time a 'motion to vacate' has been used against a speaker.

Rep. Matt Gaetz filed a motion to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker

Democrats, led by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (above), will likely be the ones to decide McCarthy's fate

With Republicans holding a narrow majority of four seats, Gaetz only needs four other Republicans to join him to trigger a new election for speaker.

Democrats, in addition to voting to save McCarthy by supporting a move to table the motion to vacate or they could simply vote present, which would raise the threshhold of GOP votes that Gaetz would need for victory.

Gaetz charges McCarthy with breaking his word to conservatives on spending deals and how he would run the House.

McCarthy's allies say it's a personal vendetta, pointing to the Ethics committee looking into several allegations against Gaetz, including illicit drug use, sexual misconduct and misusing campaign funds.

And some charge Gaetz with trying to garner attention ahead of a plan to run for Florida governor.

Gaetz was easily able to make his move to oust McCarthy because of a deal made back in January when McCarthy was trying to secure enough Republican votes to be speaker. To garner enough support from the conservative wing of the party, McCarthy agreed to their demand to give them the ability to call a quick vote to 'vacate the chair' and remove him from office.

Gaetz, in remarks on the House floor in Monday, charged McCarthy with a 'secret deal' with Democrats to fund Ukraine. Many conservative Republicans want to end U.S. aid to the war-torn country.

McCarthy denied the charge, saying there's no secret plan.

Gaetz, meanwhile, noted of McCarthy: 'If he's able to stay in power, it will be him working for the Democrats, continuing to do their bidding. So this is a revealing exercise, and I think it will show the country who's really in charge.'

'I have enough Republicans where at this point next week, one of two things will happen: Kevin McCarthy wont be the speaker of the House or hell be the speaker of the House working at the pleasure of the Democrats,' Gaetz said.

McCarthy responded to matter on social media, writing on X: 'Bring it on.'

Gaetz soon retorted in a post, 'Just did.'
Photos which the future King Edward VIII is believed to have given to his married lover have emerged for sale after more than 100 years out of the public eye.

The portrait images, which were taken in 1919 when the then Prince of Wales would have been just 25, show the royal posing side-on in an informal shirt.

Experts handling the sale of the images believe they were given to Edward's lover Freda Dudley Ward, who he had a 15-year relationship with.

The couple's intense bond saw the future monarch pen letters telling Freda how he wanted her to 'give me that hiding' and 'chase me into bed with a big big stick.'

The romance came to end after she refused to leave her husband for her royal beau, and he went on to meet American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

His relationship with Simpson led to the 1936 abdication crisis, where Edward gave up the throne so he could marry the American.

The photos are signed on the front with 'E' for Edward and - in a sign of their intimate nature - on the back with 'David', the name that only family and friends used for him.

Photos which the future King Edward VIII is believed to have given to his married lover have emerged for sale after more than 100 years out of the public eye. The portrait images, which were taken in 1919 when the then Prince of Wales would have been just 25, show the royal posing side-on in an informal shirt

Experts handling the sale of the images believe they were given to Edward's lover Freda Dudley Ward, who he had a 15-year relationship with. Above: The pair at the theatre

The images are being sold by the great-grandaughter of Freda's maid, who may have been given them by Freda after her relationship with Edward came to an end.

They are expected to sell for up to 1,500.

Valentina Borghi, auctioneer at Chiswick Auctions, said: 'Because they were signed as David it is easy to believe they were presented to a very close friend.

'I think they were initially presented to Frida and possibly when the affair ended she gave them to her maid.'

She added: 'We believe these might be the only two prints of this particular image that has survived. We couldn't find any other copies.

'They show him in a very informal way, he's just wearing a shirt and no uniform. He was in his early 20s. He looks more like a boy, you can tell he was very young.

'They have not been seen in public before. I can't rule out there might be other prints, but if they are they must be very well hidden.'

Author Rachel Trethewey tells in her 2018 book Before Walls: Edward VIII's Other Women how Edward met Freda by chance during a Zeppelin raid in March 1918, when she took refuge in the doorway of a grand house in Belgrave Square, London.

The photos are signed on the front with 'E' for Edward and - in a sign of their intimate nature - on the back with 'David', the name that only family and friends used for him

The Prince of Wales was at a party inside. When Freda was invited inside, Edward was immediately captivated by her looks.

Frida had been born Winifred Birkin in 1984 and was the eldest child of a Nottingham lace manufacturer.

She married Liberal MP William Dudley Ward on her 19th birthday in 1913 and the pair had two daughters together.

By the time she met Edward, her marriage to Dudley Ward was under strain. When her husband was made vice-chamberlain to the royal household, Freda opted to pursue an affair with the future king.

The couple often met undetected at a farm in Windsor owned by one of her husband's sisters.

When they were apart, Edward would often phone her four or five times a night or write letters addressed to 'My angel' and signed with 'tons and tons of love from your E'.

In one bizarre letter, he wrote: 'You know you ought to be really foul to me sometimes sweetie and curse and be cruel; it would do me worlds of good and bring me to my right senses!!'

In another he said: 'I do need you so so badly to chase me into bed with a big big stick.'

He also told her how he wanted to be 'with you always' and that it would break his heart if she stopped loving him.

He promised 'to just nip off with you at any moment and to any place in the world if you will make up your mind to do so  if you knew how very deeply and truly I loved you to the exclusion of all else in the world'

Edward met Freda by chance in March 1918. The couple had a 15-year relationship. Above: Edward with Freda and his brother the Duke of York, who went on to be King George VI after the abdication crisis in 1936

Freda is seen with her daughters Penelope and Angela in an image that was taken for Tatler magazine in 1918

Freda is seen on her wedding day in 1913. She married Liberal MP William Dudley Ward

But Edward had other affairs at the same time he was seeing Freda, who refused to leave her husband for him.

She was also engaged in an intense affair with banker Michael Herbert at the same time that she was seeing Edward.

In June 1930, she divorced her husband. But, little more than two years later, Michael died aged just 39, leaving Freda devastated.

By then, Edward had met Wallis and so his relationship with Freda later came to an end.

She found out when she tried to call St James's Palace and was told by the operator: 'I have orders not to put you through.'

The sale is taking place on October 10.
Rishi Sunak appeared to open the door for a Tory comeback by Nigel Farage today after he was feted by activists at conference.

The PM insisted the party is a 'broad church' and welcomed anyone who shares 'our values' when quizzed on the Brexit champion rejoining.

But the ex-MEP quickly poured cold water on the idea, condemning the Conservatives for hiking taxes and failing to tackle immigration.

Mr Farage is at the conference for the first time in a decade - albeit on a media pass in his capacity as a GB News commentator - 30 years after he quit in protest at the Maastricht Treaty.

He has been given a rapturous reception by the Tory faithful, and was filmed dancing energetically with Priti Patel to Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off You.

The warmth of members towards Mr Farage has been noted by senior Conservatives, who compared his star quality to that of Boris Johnson.

A former Cabinet minister told MailOnline he would 'easily win a Tory leadership election if he made it to the membership'.

Asked during broadcast interviews today whether Mr Farage would be allowed back into the fold, Mr Sunak said: 'Look, the Tory party is a broad church.

'I welcome lots of people who want to subscribe to our ideals, to our values.'

Pressed whether that extended to Mr Farage, the PM said: 'Look the thing I care about is delivering for the country and the more people as we've seen at this conference - we've had record attendance I think at this conference. Lots of energy, lots of engagement.'

The grinning former home secretary and the ex-Brexit Party leader duetted on Frank Sinatra's I Love You Baby, hours after he had given visible and vocal support to Liz Truss 's attack on Rishi Sunak's leadership

It is his first attendance for a decade and it prompted calls from some Tory MPs for him to rejoin the party 30 years after he quit over support for the Maastricht Treaty

Rishi Sunak (pictured touring conference stands today) appeared to open the door for a comeback by the Brexit champion as he insisted the party is a 'broad church' and welcomed anyone who shared 'our values'.

But asked about Mr Sunak's comments, Mr Farage said: 'Would I want to join a party that's put the tax rate up to the highest in over 70 years, that has allowed net migration to run at over half a million a year, that has not used Brexit to deregulate to help small businesses?

'No, no and no.'

He added: 'I achieved a lot more outside of the Tory party than I ever could have done from within it.'

Despite Mr Sunak's apparent openness to a return for Mr Farage, Tory chairman Greg Hands gave the idea short shrift.

'No, I don't think I would because I think he's repeatedly for the last 30 years or more advocated voting for other political parties,' he said.

'I think he said he doesn't want to see the Conservative Party succeed so I don't think I would.'

A former Cabinet minister told MailOnline that the premier would 'never' let him on the list of approved MP candidates.

'He would be a dominant figure and he couldn't toe the line,' they said.

'He would be like the scorpion crossing the river on the back of the fox - he would sting you because that's what he does.

'We should probably adopt the policies but not the man.'

Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant told GB News: 'I think we should get on our hands and knees and beg him [to rejoin], we should award him with a knighthood that he should have had years ago.'

Tim Montgomerie, a former speechwriter for William Hague who is now a columnist, tweeted: 'I into Conference earlier with Nigel Farage. He got quite the reception. I'm convinced party members would choose him as leader if they could.'

Mr Farage and the former Cabinet minister were the life and soul of the party organised by GB News at the Hilton Hotel.

The former Brexit Party leader had been front and centre at a rally led by the ex-prime minister at the Conservative Party conference yesterday.

Ms Truss used the Great British Growth Rally to demand tax cuts, cuts to household bills and a surge in housebuilding to kickstart an economic revival.

Afterwards Mr Farage, who wore a pair of Union Jack socks, said he agreed with her ideas '100 per cent' and that her disastrous mini-Budget last year 'played all the right notes, just in the wrong order', a reference to a 1970s Morecambe and Wise gag.

'I think what they did to her was a huge, huge mistake,' he told the Daily Telegraph. 'It's policy that interests me. I think this woman has shown that she's able to stand up, take the abuse and fight for what she believes in.'

Mr Farage, who was mobbed by fans when he arrived at the Manchester convention centre hosting the Tories, also refused to rule out a return to politics himself.

The former Brexit Party leader was front and centre at a rally led by the ex-prime minister at the Conservative Party conference today, as he made his first appearance at the event in a decade

Mr Farage, who was mobbed by fans when he arrived at the Manchester convention centre hosting the Tories, also refused to rule out a return to politics himself.

He has previously spoken at fringe events, including a 2013 speech to the Eurosceptic Bruges Group.

But he came inside the secure zone reserved for paying party members, activists and business leaders to attend the Liz Truss event alongside Dame Priti and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Mr Farage tweeted: 'A huge buzz at the Great British Growth rally starring Liz Truss. I think she's going to need a bigger room!'

There were cheers in the room when party members were reminded how Liz Truss was elected by them  unlike Rishi Sunak.

Ms Truss, appearing on stage smiling and to loud applause, called on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to cut corporation tax in next month's autumn statement  something he is resisting doing.

The former City trader who prompted a political earthquake when he took the fight to Brussels and became a 'Bad Boy of Brexit'

Nigel Farage has spent the best part of three decades as a leading figure in British politics.

He put himself at the forefront of the UK's eurosceptic movement after a career as a City trader.

After Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, Mr Farage spoke of how 'my political ambition has been achieved'.

But he wasn't quite done yet and later formed a new group, the Brexit Party, during Westminster's fierce battles over the UK's exit.

Mr Farage also became a close ally of Donald Trump when the businessman became US president.

And he has since forged a new career as a TV presenter on GB News.

1992 - Nigel Farage quit the Conservative Party in protest at John Major signing the Maastricht Treaty.

1993 - He became a founding member of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).

1999 - Mr Farage was elected to the European Parliament as UKIP won their first seats in the Brussels legislature.

2004 - He retained his seat as an MEP at the European Parliament elections in 2004 and went on to lead a eurosceptic political grouping in Brussels.

2006 - Mr Farage became UKIP leader for the first time. He would go on to lead the party in two further spells.

February 2010

- In what has since become one of his most famous speeches in the European Parliament, Mr Farage told then EU president Herman von Rompuy he had 'all the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk'. The UKIP MEP also asked: 'Who are you? I'd never heard of you. Nobody in Europe had ever heard of you.'

May 2010 - As Britons voted in the 2010 general election, Mr Farage was involved in a plane crash after a light aircraft towing a 'Vote Ukip' banner crashed in Northamptonshire. Mr Farage was contesting the Buckingham seat against then Commons Speaker John Bercow.

August 2014 - Mr Farage welcomed Tory MP Douglas Carswell as a defector to UKIP as the party and the Conservative right-wing pressured then PM David Cameron over the UK's membership of the EU.

May 2015 - UKIP secured almost four million votes at the general election but Mr Farage resigned as party leader after failing again to become an MP. But he swifly 'unresigned' just days later.

January 2016 - Mr Farage helped found the Grassroots Out campaign ahead of the EU referendum. It saw him team up with Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore, who became part of a group known as the 'Bad Boys of Brexit'.

April 2016 - Mr Farage was left furious after the Dominic Cummings-led Vote Leave group was chosen over Grassroots Out as the official 'Leave' campaign by the Electoral Commission. This only increased tensions between the two Brexiteer factions.

June 2016 - Mr Farage declared 23 June 2016 as Britain's 'Independence Day' after the country votes to leave the EU.

November 2016 - Alongside Mr Banks and Mr Wigmore, Mr Farage posed with US president-elect Donald Trump outside a gold lift at Trump Tower in New York. It meant he became the first foreign politician to meet the president-elect.

December 2018 - Mr Farage quit UKIP as he accused it of having a 'fixation' with anti-Muslim policies under its leader Gerard Batten.

January 2019 - As Westminster hit a deadlock over Britain's exit from the EU, Mr Farage was named as leader of the new Brexit Party.

May 2019 - The Brexit Party won the European Parliament elections by securing 29 seats. It was a result that hastened Theresa May's exit as PM.

November 2019 - Ahead of a general election, Mr Farage announced the Brexit Party would not field any candidates against the Conservatives in the 317 seats they won at the 2017 general election. This was later claimed to have helped secure Boris Johnson his 80-seat majority.

March 2021 - Mr Farage quit as leader of Reform UK, the renamed Brexit Party, and announced he was stepping back from frontline party politics permanently. He said he had achieved what he wanted in politics following Brexit.

July 2021 - He was hired as a presenter by GB News.
Four men have appeared in court charged in relation to Ireland's largest ever drugs haul, accused of trying to smuggle 140m worth of cocaine on a cargo ship.

Saeid Hassani, a 37-year-old Iranian national; Mykhalio Gavryk, a 30-year-old Ukrainian national; Vitaliy Vlasoi, a 31-year-old Ukrainian national; and Cumali Ozgen, a 48-year-old with an address in the Netherlands, appeared before judge Colm Roberts as armed guards were stationed outside Mallow District Court this morning.

The four have been charged with possession of drugs for the purpose of supplying it within the Irish State. Eight have now been arrested following a dramatic helicopter raid on the MV Matthew by Irish special forces on a cartel in Ireland last Tuesday.

All four men were remanded in custody and are due to appear in court again on October 10 via video link.

A staggering 2,253kg of cocaine was found on the cargo ship after members of the Irish Army Ranger Wing captured the vessel off the coast by abseiling from a helicopter.

Police believe the cocaine, seized from a 'murderous cartel' based in Columbia, was destined for distribution beyond Ireland, potentially into the UK and continental Europe.

Vitaliy Vlasoi and Saeid Hassani (right) arrive at Mallow District Court in Co Cork on October 3

Vitaliy Vlasoi arriving at Mallow District Court in Co Cork where he and three others were charged in relation to Ireland's largest ever drugs haul

Mykhalio Gavryk (detained, centre) was one of four appearing to face charges today at Mallow District Court in relation to the drugs bust

Cumali Ozgen covers his face while arriving at Mallow District Court earlier today. Ozgen made no reply when charged and cautioned

Armed Garda stand guard at the Mallow District Court where four today appeared in connection with an investigation into Ireland's largest ever drugs seizure

At today's court hearing, Detective Garda David Moran said that Gavryk was charged on October 2 and made no reply when cautioned.

Detective Garda Martin Donovan said that Ozgen, who required a Dutch translator, made no reply when he was charged and cautioned.

Det Garda Val Russell told the court that Vlasoi was charged and cautioned on October 2 at 8.43pm.

The court heard that Vlasoi replied: 'I saw straight or direct evidence of the connection between the captain and another vessel, or with somebody else who he contacted.

'It was shown as straight evidence, I didn't see straight evidence against myself.'

Detective Garda Lorraine Brennan said Hassani, for whom proceedings were translated through Farsi, was arrested on October 2 and made no reply to the charge.

The men did not speak except to confirm what type of translators they would need.

Gavryk, Ozgen, Vlasoi and Hassani were arrested after members of the Irish Army Ranger Wing retrieved 2,253kg of cocaine on the MV Matthew cargo ship on September 26.

Cops believe the ship was being used by Narco criminals to smuggle the drugs in to Ireland and on to other European countries.

The major multi-agency operation followed an alert after a separate boat ran aground in St George's Channel, also suspected of being involved in the smuggling racket.

Video footage showed the moment armed forces stormed the cargo ship by helicopter.

Members of the highly trained Army Ranger Wing descended by fast-rope from a helicopter onto the MV Matthew, successfully securing the vessel.

Investigators from the Bureau believe the Panama-owned MV Matthew was the 'mother ship' used by South American gangsters to transport cocaine to Ireland.

Once off the coast in the Atlantic, the vessel would distribute the drugs to smaller boats which would then ship them to other European countries, officials believe.

A fishing trawler that grounded off the coast of Co Wexford days before the seizure was also being monitored as part of the operation, amid suspicions it was en route to rendezvous with the cargo ship.

The head of the Irish Defence Forces said the Army and Gardai had been working together for weeks to bring down the smuggling gang, leading to the MV Matthew being stormed by the Army Ranger Wing and detained.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee said the drugs would have 'no doubt been destined for Irish and European markets' and this 'will represent a blow to the organised-crime gangs involved in drug distribution internationally'.

Armed guards stand outside the Mallow District Court today in County Cork, Ireland

Armed support were on standby as four men were taken to the Mallow District Court today

Military personnel onboard a cargo vessel named MV Matthew whilst it's escorted into Cobh in Cork by the Irish Navy after a 'significant quantity' of suspected drugs were found onboard

The co-ordinated operation, involving the Irish navy, Army Ranger Wing, Revenue and the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, resulted in the 'detention of a Panamanian-registered bulk cargo vessel originating in South America'

Members of the highly trained Army Ranger Wing descended by fast-rope from a helicopter on to the MV Matthew (pictured) in the early hours of Tuesday 26 September, after the vessel became the focus point of a multi-agency operation which began on Sunday

Investigators from the Bureau believe the Panama-owned MV Matthew was the 'mother ship' used by South American gangsters to transport cocaine to Ireland. Pictured: military personnel about the MV Matthew

A cargo vessel named MV Matthew is escorted into Cobh in Cork by the Irish Navy after more than 2000kg was found onboard

The vast cargo ship brought to Cork's Cobh Harbour was last Tuesday night for an inspection.

Crowds of people lined the walls of the harbour as the vessel was transported to a naval base in Haulbowline, County Cork.

Armed members of the Ranger Wing were seen on board alongside ship crew members and other Defence Forces personnel. The agencies said a 'significant quantity' of suspected drugs were found on board the cargo ship.

Officers are understood to be working with Interpol and Europol to establish if any of the crew have links to known organised crime groups.

Three men have already appeared at courts in Wexford and Waterford in relation to the major seizure.
Europe's only active supervolcano, Campi Flegrei, has experienced two major earthquakes and dozens of tremors in the past week, sparking fears that a devastating eruption could be on the horizon.

A quake with a magnitude of 4.0 on the Richter scale rattled the city of Naples and the surrounding regions at 10pm local time (8PM BST) last night, causing damage to several buildings and spewing rubble into the streets.

That came after last week's 4.2 magnitude quake caused widespread transport cancellations and triggered a week of near-constant tremors.

The epicentre of yesterday's quake was located at a depth of nearly two miles between Naples and nearby Pozzuoli.

Located just nine miles (14.5 km) to the west of Naples, Campi Flegrei has become weaker and more prone to rupturing, making an eruption more likely, according to experts.

An area with fallen rubble is cordoned off in via Pisciarelli, the epicentre of an earthquake, on the border between the municipality of Pozzuoli and Agnano, a hamlet of Naples, Italy, 03 October 2023

A 4.0-magnitude earthquake shook Italy 's volcanic region of Campi Flegrei west of Naples yesterday as shocked residents posted videos of cars being pelted by rubble amid the worst of the tremors

A 4.0-magnitude earthquake late on Monday at the Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields) has heightened concern among people living in the volcanic area near Naples about a recent wave of seismic activity

The Campi Flegrei volcano in southern Italy has become weaker and more prone to rupturing, making an eruption more likely, experts say. Pictured is Solfatara, a shallow volcanic crater that makes up part of Campi Flegrei

Around 360,000 people live in the immediate localities around Campi Flegrei and may need to evacuate if experts think it's in immediate danger of an eruption.

Naples meanwhile, just nine miles away is home to some 3 million people.

Scientists from Italy's National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) planned meetings with local officials to draw up evacuation plans this week.

The supervolcano has been restless since the middle of the 20th century, which is of particular worry to scientists.

It has exhibited several two-year periods of unrest in the 1950s, 1970s and 1980s causing small, local earthquakes and ground uplift due to movement of magma beneath the surface.

When the volcano eventually blows it is likely to be comparable in size to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in AD 79.

Campi Flegrei is a collapsed supervolcanic caldera consisting of several craters and volcanic edifices.

A series of small scale earthquakes and tremors have steadily weakened the caldera in recent decades, causing pressure to build up beneath the surface.

The INGV say continued tremors will only cause pressure to increase, cultivating the required conditions for an eventual eruption.

Professor Christopher Kilburn at UCL's Earth Sciences department said that Campi Flegrei is more prone to a 'rupture'  a break or fracture through the rock that makes up the body of the volcano.

'It's a natural result when the volcano is stretched as pressure builds up underground,' Professor Kilburn told MailOnline.

'Once a rupture has occurred, it will be easier for volcanic fluids to escape.'

A rupture could open a crack through the Earth's crust, although the magma still needs to be pushing up at the right location for an eruption to occur.

Campi Flegrei is defined as a supervolcano because it has the potential to produce a magnitude eight eruption, capable of discharging more than 200 cubic miles of material.

It last erupted when Henry VIII was last on the English throne, and this event came following an interval of about 3,000 years.

But the researchers warn that large calderas of this sort frequently pass through several decades of unrest before they erupt.

About 7 to 9 miles (12 to 15 km) across, Campi Flegrei is the largest active caldera in Europe and extends west from the outskirts of Naples to the Tyrrhenian Sea. About a third is partially submerged beneath the Bay of Pozzuoli; the remaining two-thirds are home to more than 360,000 people. The caldera is marked by the yellow dashed line; ground movement has occurred across the central region marked in blue

About 360,000 people live at Campi Flegrei (pictured), according to the London researchers

The closed Solfatara crater in Pozzuoli, Italy, 27 September 2023

Naples is flanked by volcanoes on both sides - Campi Flegrei to the west, and Mount Vesuvius to the east

However, Campi Flegrei's current tensile strength  the maximum stress a material can bear before breaking when it is stretched  is likely to be about a third of what it was in 1984, the researchers said, due to regular tremors.

What's more, for the past decade, the ground below Pozzuoli has been creeping upwards at about four inches per year, as gas increases pressure in the magma, causing the ground surface to bulge and deform.

A recent study used a model of volcano fracturing, developed at UCL, to interpret the patterns of earthquakes and ground uplift, and concluded that parts of the volcano had been stretched nearly to breaking point.

'This is the first time we have applied our model, which is based on the physics of how rocks break, in real-time to any volcano,' said Professor Kilburn.

'Our first use of the model was in 2017 and since then Campi Flegrei has behaved as we predicted, with an increasing number of small earthquakes indicating pressure from below.

'We will now have to adjust our procedures for estimating the chances of new routes being opened for magma or gas to reach the surface.'

Worryingly, an eventual eruption could be preceded by relatively weak signals such as a smaller rate of ground uplift and fewer earthquakes.

This was the case for the eruption of the Rabaul caldera in Papua New Guinea in 1994, which killed only five people, largely due to good disaster planning.

The eruption was preceded by small earthquakes occurring at a tenth of the rate than had occurred during a crisis a decade earlier.

Immediate signs that a volcano is about to erupt include cracks in the ground and dark streams of volcanic gases being emitted, although Campi Flegrei is not at this stage.
A serial eco-lawbreaker who has been arrested more than 16 times at Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain protests has today avoided jail.

Gabriella Ditton sparked fury by using GoFundMe to raise more than 2,000 to pay off her fines for offences of criminal damage and public nuisance.

The 29-year-old sobbed at Hove Crown Court as she pleaded guilty to one count of causing a public nuisance for bringing the M25 to a standstill  before she and her fellow protesters were spared jail.

Ditton brought chaos to the roads at rush hour by walking out onto the motorway at Junction 1 on September 15, 2021.

She and others sat down on the carriageway, bringing traffic to a standstill and causing fury among commuters. Some glued themselves to the road surface while Ditton, acting as a 'roving' protester, filmed the action and the police response to it.

Gabriella Ditton unveiling an Insulate Britain banner with co-defendants Nicholas Onely, Janine Eagling and David Crawford outside Hove Crown Court

Ditton leaving Hove Crown Court after she was spared jail

Gabriella Ditton among climate protesters blocking Lambeth Bridge in November 2021

The court heard that at one stage during the protest a mother with a two-week-old baby in the car pleaded with the protesters to let her through.

A young mother, who was taking her two other children to school, told the Insulate Britain protesters she needed to feed her baby and had no food in the car. The desperate parent told the group she intended to feed the baby when she reached her destination.

Furious motorists supported her and began to shout at the protesters to let her through and she was eventually allowed to pass.

Alex Young, prosecuting, said: 'A mother was travelling with two children to school with a two-week old baby in the car. She had no food for the baby and tried to reason with the defendants but they were immune to her appeals. The group eventually allowed her to pass.

'This was the second day of action taken by the group known as Insulate Britain. The action was designed to bring maximum disruption at rush hour to the travelling public near the Dartford Crossing.'

Mr Young said: 'Each protester prolonged the process of the arrest by requiring four police officers to carry them off.'

Ditton being arrested by police following a protest outside a Barclays

Ditton has been sentenced to carry 150 hours unpaid work and ordered her to pay 700 costs while Crawford and Onely got 120 hours and 800 costs and Eagling received 100 hours and 800 costs

Around three hours after the action first began she lay down in the carriageway and was the last protester to be carried off and arrested by police.

Mr Young said Ditton was a persistent offender with an extensive history of protest both in England and Scotland, causing criminal damage, blocking roads and breaching court orders.

The demonstration on September 15, 2021 was planned to coincide with the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow.

In mitigation Ditton said: 'I don't understand how we can have statues of Gandhi and Mandela and the suffragettes in Parliament Square yet I stand in court today. I can't believe it. I believe history will prove us right but that doesn't help me now.'

Breaking down in tears, she told the Judge Jeremy Gold KC: 'I don't have any plans to do any more actions but I would be lying to you if I told you I'm not going to do any more ever again.'

Judge Gold told her previous convictions meant she was at risk of going to prison should she commit any other offences.

He said: 'You need to think about yourself or whether to continue punishing yourself because you personally don't have the power to make the Government do what you personally want them to do.'

Sentencing Ditton and fellow protesters, Janine Eagling, 62, Nicholas Onely and David Crawford, 70, Judge Gold admitted he had his own concerns over climate change but said it did not justify the commission of criminal offences.

Judge Gold said: 'I entirely accept you were all deeply concerned about climate change and committed to doing what you could to avert the disasters you all feel the are on the way for the human race. However it doesn't justify the inconvenience, financial loss and danger to other people.

'There are lawful ways to promote the aims of Insulate Britain and this is not the way to do it.'

He sentenced Ditton to carry 150 hours unpaid work and ordered her to pay 700 costs while Crawford and Onely got 120 hours and 800 costs and Eagling received 100 hours and 800 costs.
A wannabe superhero has been arrested as a murder suspect by Brazilian police after he was found allegedly trying to kill a man during a break-in while seemingly dressed as Batman.

Rodrigo Rodrigues da Silva is accused of trying to kill a man while breaking into a property in Parnaiba, northeast Brazil, on Monday.

He battered his victim's chest and legs with an iron bar while donning a long flowing coat and a facemask that barely covered the upper half of his face, until he woke up and began fighting back.

The caped crook fled the scene, but was later picked up by Brazilian police, who managed to find a stash of improvised weapons and devices on him, including bladed gauntlets, a utility belt, a knife and several 'batarangs'.

When asked for his name, he reportedly told police he went by 'The Punisher of Parnaiba.'

Rodrigo Rodrigues da Silva (pictured, left) is accused of trying to kill a man while breaking into a property in Parnaiba, northeast Brazil

He was found carrying a knife and several seemingly homemade 'batarangs'

The bizarre arrest comes after police in Peru arrested a drug gang and took thousands of bags of cocaine and marijuana off the streets while dressed as Marvel characters.

Three of the Avengers - Spider-Man, Captain America and Thor - were joined by Catwoman in a blending of the Marvel and DC for the undercover police operation in Peru's capital of Lima.

The operation, dubbed 'Marvel', saw the four disguised police officers walking nonchalantly down a street while pretending to be doing promotion for a Halloween concert in the San Juan de Lurigancho neighbourhood of Lima on Saturday.

But upon arriving at a specific house, Captain America borrowed Thor's hammer to break down a steel door, allowing 10 backup police officers to enter and arrest three men and a woman.

The occupants, taken by surprise, at first thought it was a Halloween joke, police said in a statement on Tuesday.

He battered his victim's chest and legs with an iron bar while donning a long flowing coat and a facemask that barely covered the upper half of his face

When asked for his name, he reportedly told police he went by 'The Punisher of Parnaiba'

But they soon realised that it was no joke when Spider-Man began pinning one man to the floor.

Police seized 3,250 small packages of basic cocaine paste - a crude extract of coca leaf - as well as 287 bags of cocaine and 127 of marijuana.

One kilo of cocaine paste sells for roughly $380 (330) in Peru, while a kilo of cocaine hydrochloride, the purest form, sells for about $1,000 (869).

Locals crowded outside the house as they watched in astonishment at Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor and Catwoman - all now wearing police vests - led the four handcuffed suspects out to a police vehicle.

The tactic of launching raids, particularly to take down drug gangs using operatives in costumes, is a common tactic of Peruvian police to assure the element of surprise which, they police say, has brought some notable successes in recent years.
This is the first picture of a couple who fled their lavish Italian wedding reception dinner and left the owner with an outstanding 7,000 bill.

Moreno Priorietti and Andrae Svenja did a runner after getting married last August at the exclusive seafood restaurant where they enjoyed a banquet with 80 guests.

When the owner went to collect on their bill, he found to his dismay that the couple had not only left town, but had fled the country - with their family in tow.

Now, owner Enzo Fabrizi is determined recoup the unpaid bill, telling MailOnline that if the couple do not send him what they owe, it could put him out of business.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, lawyer Lugi Tozzi - who is representing the owner of Ristorante La Rotonda where the reception was held in August - said: 'A formal complaint has been filed with the local police.

This is the first picture of a couple who fled their lavish Italian wedding reception dinner and left the owner with an outstanding 7,000 bill. Moreno Priorietti (left) and Andrae Svenja (right) did a runner after getting married last August at the exclusive seafood restaurant Ristorante La Rotonda

After tying the knot next to the venue's swimming pool (pictured), the couple put on a banquet at the restaurant - described as a typical Ciociaria eatery - for their 80 guests

After visiting the groom's local home (pictured) and speaking to neighbours, owner Enzo Fabrizi discovered the couple had not been heard from since the day after the wedding

'The matter is now in their hands, and it would be in the best interests of the couple to hand themselves into the authorities or better still pay the outstanding debt.

'My client is prepared to drop the action once the bill is settled and therefore avoid any protracted legal action.'

Mr Fabrizi told MailOnline: 'We had correspondence with them until a few weeks ago and they kept saying they would pay but then no money arrived.

'After a while the requests we sent them to settle the bill were unanswered and then I noticed they had both deleted their profiles from Facebook.

'For a small place like mine 8,000 Euro is a considerable amount of money and I need to have this bill settled as I have suppliers to pay and other overheads.

'If it's not settled soon, it could put me out of business. I'm happy to drop the legal action as soon as I'm paid but I can't get any response from them and have hired a lawyer.

'All I know is that he was a friend of a friend and he worked as a mechanic Iocally and his wife is German but they have lived in Italy for a few years.

'The last I heard is that they had gone to Germany but I have no way of tracing them. Even the mobile doesn't work anymore.'

The bride and groom, along with the groom's parents, had visited Ristorante La Rotonda seven months before the big day, tasting the different menus on offer.

Opting for the fish, they paid a deposit of 3,300 euros and agreed to pay the final bill - which totalled 8,800 euros including the deposit - after the wedding, with a deadline set for the Wednesday after the event.

Initially, everything went according to plan at the venue in the hills near Boville Ernica. The couple happily exchanged vows in front of their friends and family in a civil ceremony, officiated by a priest who came from Germany, Mr Fabrizi told Italy's Corriere Della Sera newspaper.

Venue owner Enzo Fabrizi (pictured) told MailOnline he had been corresponding with the couple about them making the final payment for the wedding, but that no money arrived

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, lawyer Lugi Tozzi (right), who is representing the owner, said that a formal complaint has been filed with the local police over the runaway couple

Pictured: Ristorante La Rotonda a Boville, in the Italian province of Frosinone

The 80 guests enjoyed the fish menu and the drinks, leaving Rotonda's restaurateur no reason to believe he would not be paid for his services.

However, Italian media reports that Priorietti did not pay the day after the wedding - as he had agreed with the owner - and when the official Wednesday deadline came around, the newlyweds were nowhere to be found.

Mr Fabrizi, waited for Priorietti to show up at the venue until late in the evening, and even tried to call him - but received no answer.

He was even able to trace the groom's parents, who had been at the tasting session earlier in the year, but had no response from them either.

After visiting the groom's local address and speaking to neighbours, the owner discovered the couple had not been heard from since the day after the wedding.

This prompted him to contact the local police, who were able to trace the couple's movements from the wedding.

To his dismay, the owner was told that the couple had driven to Rome and flown to Frankfurt, Germany after the party.

Officials suspect they could have been en route to visit the Svenja's family.

'It has never happened in many years of business, at most someone was late but it had never happened that the spouses disappeared without having paid the bill for the wedding banquet,' Mr Fabrizi told Corriere Della Sera newspaper.

The bride and groom, along with the groom's parents, had visited Ristorante La Rotonda seven months before the big day, tasting the different menus on offer

He told reporters that he had been introduced to Priorietti by a friend he had known for 20 years, who had often come to eat at the restaurant, and claimed that 25-year-old Svenja was the groom's third wife.

'I trusted because my friend has always kept his word,' he said. 'A serious person.

'He reassured me by saying that the bride's father works in a bank in Germany. In short, it's a wealthy family.'

Mr Fabrizi said the banquet cost the couple around 90 euros per-head, and that the overall 8,800 euro bill also included decorations - such as flowers - and other extras.

'Immediately after [the ceremony] the guests, almost all from Ferentino and about ten Germans, sat down at the table and lunch began,' he said. 'They ate, danced and drank to their heart's content. They left at 10pm, but they were almost all drunk.'

The owner said he spoke to Priorietti, inviting him into his office, to discuss finances.

'We did the calculations and he shook my hand and told me he would come by the next day to pay,' he said. 'The next day, however, he took the plane to Germany.'

Mr Fabrizi told Corriere Della Sera that he is determined the get the money he is owed for the lavish banquet.

The bride and groom, along with the groom's parents, had visited Ristorante La Rotonda (pictured) seven months before the big day, tasting the different menus on offer. They paid a deposit, and agreed to pay the rest of the bill in the days after the wedding

'I will not give him peace until he has paid every penny. I've been a restaurateur for 40 years, and I've never had a misadventure like this happen to me,' he said.

'My lawyer will take care of blocking him and I hope that as soon as he sets foot in Italy again, his passport will be withdrawn immediately.

'And to think that he told me that he would also tip the waiters.'

Local reports say police are investigating the whereabouts of the couple, and Priorietti is now wanted for fraudulent insolvency.
Abercrombie & Fitch models who used to pose topless outside the shops in order to attract customers in say their jobs were 'demoralising' and shallow' - long before sex party allegations were levelled against the company's former CEO.

Models including Sam Rason - who has just announced his engagement to Love Island star Amy Hart - claim the ultra-exclusive brand's one-time toxic image bled into the work culture in its stores, denting their self-esteem.

The store used to employ ultra-fit models to stand outside stores and pose for photographs in a bid to entice shoppers inside - all part of its hyper-sexualised marketing strategy, which saw bags and posters emblazoned with outrageously sexual imagery.

Some early A&F shirtless models have since become huge household names: Hollywood hunks like Channing Tatum and Fifty Shades of Grey's Jamie Dornan, as well as Penn Badgley, known for Gossip Girl and Netflix thriller series You.

But the practice was consigned to the bin, along with other toxic working practices, in 2015, following the unexpected departure of CEO Mike Jeffries - who is now at the centre of a sex abuse allegation scandal.

Sam Rason - pictured with fiancee and former Love Islander Amy Hart - was once an Abercrombie & Fitch topless model

Abercrombie & Fitch used to court controversy with its hyper-sexualised marketing featuring ultra-fit models on its posters and shopping bags

Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries unapologetically claimed his brand was 'exclusionary' and only for 'good-looking' people

Abercrombie and Fitch's first European store opened in London in 2007 - and topless male models were the order of the day

During Jeffries' tenure - who unapologetically claimed that the A&F brand was 'exclusionary' and only for what he saw as 'good-looking' people - the company was accused of a litany of discriminatory behaviour that targeted people based on their appearance and religious beliefs.

In the years since Jeffries departure - but before the new allegations came to light - former A&F models have detailed how their time with the company dented their confidence as they aspired to be the one chosen to pose outside the store.

Sam Rason was based at the brand's London store and flew around the world to pose at store openings - having landed in the job by accident after walking in to the store following a reality TV audition.

READ MORE: Abercrombie & Fitch boss Mike Jeffries's pad and luxury hotels around the world including Claridge's in London 'were used for sex parties' with young men 'recruited by James Jacobson - a middleman with a snakeskin patch nose' James Jacobson allegedly introduced himself to 'recruits' as a 'middleman' for Abercrombie & Fitch modelling opportunities - a claim he denies Advertisement

The entrepreneur, engaged to Love Island star Amy, says the job made him feel like a 'superhero', with 100 people waiting for a photo with him at times - but it came at a cost to his own mental health.

He told Slate magazine: 'You cant help but measure yourself against the other guys.

'It did play on my mind, and that need to stay in shape has kept with me throughout my life.

'The realization came that I had been standing in the same spot, physically, for, like, multiple years.'

Under Jeffries, Abercrombie & Fitch pursued a hyper-sexualised marketing strategy, adorning its shopping bags and posters with images of conventionally attractive and ultra-fit models.

This included establishing a 'hierarchy' of grading staff based on appearance - the existence of which has been confirmed by multiple former employees.

He told Salon magazine in 2006: 'We hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that.

'In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends.

'A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.'

Harry Tucker, another London-based A&F topless model, said the 'posing' job was 'probably the most boring job I've done, just standing outside with your top off'.

He told Slate: 'Its just a bit demoralizing, isnt it? Id literally rather dig a hole. At least then youre doing something.

'Its very shallow. They used to employee people based on their looks, and anyone who wasnt as good looking went up and stocked shelves in the warehouse.

'I think the world we live in is superficial enough as it is, without that.'

Joris Lechene, who moved to London in 2011 and worked as a 'model' on the shop floor, has recently explained how the hierarchy worked in practice.

In videos posted on TikTok, he said the job involved being a 'walking mannequin' on the shop floor, occasionally helping to tidy up.

However he told his followers that the role of shop maintenance was largely left to staff deemed to be less attractive.

Former Abercrombie & Fitch staff claim that the shops used to grade people based on appearance - giving them roles based on their attractiveness

Changing rooms at the Abercrombie & Fitch shop in Savile Row, which closed in 2020, as seen in 2007. Hyper-sexualised marketing was the norm at the company's peak

Jamie Dornan, now best known for his role in the Fifty Shades of Grey films, once modelled for Abercrombie & Fitch

Channing Tatum, known for his role in the Magic Mike films, got an early start modelling for Abercrombie & Fitch before turning to acting

Samantha Elauf (right, with her mother Madja) took Abercrombie & Fitch to the Supreme Court in the US after it refused to employ her while wearing her headscarf

He said: 'I was hired as what they called a "model", but...that only meant I was a walking mannequin on the shop floor.

'The actual folding and the tidying was done by the "impacts". You'd get hired as an impact if you were considered as not quite good-looking enough looking to be a model but good-looking enough to be seen by the customers.

'Then you had the "visuals". They weren't supposed to spend much time on the shop floor. Most of their job would happen backstage as they would look after our uniforms and anything that was not for sale.

'Then you have the "stock room impacts". By now, you've got the gist of the Abercrombie beauty hierarchy - so you've probably guessed how it was determined that you should work in the stock room.'

READ MORE: Tearful guest at event hosted by ex-Abercrombie & Fitch boss Mike Jeffries tells BBC Panorama he believes he was 'drugged and raped' there before contracting HIV virus One of the men, who called himself Alex to protect his family, told how he believed it was likely he contracted HIV after being drug raped at one of the occasions Advertisement

Abercrombie's practice of grading staff is common knowledge - and landed the company in hot water in 2009 after it consigned a worker with one arm to the stockroom.

Riam Dean, who was 22 at the time, took the company to an employment tribunal after claiming she was being hidden in the stockroom because her prosthetic arm didn't fit with its 'look' policy.

Ms Dean, who was born without her left forearm, was initially told she could wear a cardigan to disguise the join between her upper arm and her prosthetic - but shop bosses later reneged on the decision.

A tribunal awarded her almost 9,000 in compensation in 2009, having ruled that she was wrongfully dismissed.

Elsewhere, A&F has lost cases against other workers who said they had been discriminated against on unlawful grounds.

In 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of Samantha Elauf, a 17-year-old Muslim woman who had applied for a job with A&F only to allegedly be told that her headscarf violated the company's 'look' policy.

The company refused to employ her, Ms Elauf said, because it didn't allow staff to wear 'hats'. The Supreme Court voted 8-1 in her favour.

And a leaked email from management at the fashion brand's store in Milan in 2012 suggested that staff who failed to greet customers correctly would be forced to do push-ups as a punishment.

Jeffries is alleged to have used a middleman with a distinctive snakeskin patch on his nose to recruit young men for sex parties across the world between 2009 and 2015.

A BBC Panorama investigation broadcast on Monday heard from men who claimed they had been coerced into sexual activity with promises of getting A&F modelling contracts.

Abercrombie & Fitch says it is 'appalled and disgusted' by the allegations, and there is no suggestion that the company had previously been aware of the claims levied against its former boss.

Since Jeffries left the company in 2014, the firm also says it has tidied up its employment practices.

It ditched the topless models outside its stores in 2015, and has since loosened the policies it has on in-store staff.

It told the BBC on Monday that it has also ordered an investigation into Jeffries' alleged behaviour during the time he was running the brand.

A statement added that new leadership since Mr Jeffries' departure has transformed the company into 'the values-driven organization it is today', adding that it has 'zero tolerance for abuse, harassment or discrimination of any kind'.
The former CEO of Toys 'R' US has slammed liberal cities for their 'no prosecution stance' on shoplifters, warning that brazen thieves like the recent flash mob looters in Philadelphia should face consequences.

Gerald Storch, 66, criticized Democrat leaders for sending the message that 'crime is okay and we're not going to arrest you', adding that incidences of violent shoplifting across the nation are 'accelerating' at an alarming rate.

Retailers lost almost $80 billion to shoplifters last year, an increase of nearly $13 billion compared with 2021 figures - prompting big brands to close thousands of stores across major cities.

The National Retail Federation said the sector is under an 'unprecedented' threat from crime and violence, with store owners fearing for their livelihoods as well as their safety.

Storch said shoplifting is a particular problem in 'liberal areas where prosecutors have not prosecuted these crimes, or they have lowered penalties or raised the limits on how much you can steal and still have misdemeanor'.

Former Toys 'R' US CEO Gerald Storch (pictured) criticized Democrat leaders for sending the message that 'crime is okay and we're not going to arrest you', adding that incidences of violent shoplifting across the nation are 'accelerating' at an alarming rate

Around 20 people were arrested in Philadelphia after a night of widespread looting

'You're not going to just solve it by just saying crime is okay and we're not going to arrest you,' Storch, who also previously served as Target vice chairman, told Fox News.

'It has to be solved by dealing with the underlying causes, which is a lot more work but that work has to be done or we're going to continue to see an increase in crime... it's terrible, frankly, and it's accelerating.'

His comments come after widespread looting broke out in central Philadelphia over several nights last week.

Around 100 teenagers moved from store to store in the Pennsylvania city grabbing goods and attempting to evade cops, resulting in violent clashes between officers and thieves.

Videos shared on social media show officers attempting to grab thieves, some of whom are wearing Halloween masks, as they ran riot through a Lululemon store. Nearby retailers including Foot Locker and Apple were also targeted.

Speaking about the spate in Philadelphia, Storch said: 'These are definitely cities that have a big problem with crime.

'There has to be a link with the prosecutors taking a no prosecution stance in these cases.'

The National Retail Federation said the sector is under an 'unprecedented' threat from crime and violence, with store owners fearing for their livelihoods as well as their safety.

Retailers lost almost $80 billion to shoplifters last year, an increase of nearly $13 billion compared with 2021 figures

The annual trade survey collected data from 177 brands across the country, accounting for more than $1.6 trillion of annual sales.

It found that shrink, the total losses incurred by retailers, rose by $20 billion in a year to an eye-watering $112.2 billion in 2022.

And with up to 70 per cent of shrink accounted for by theft, it means retailers lost approximately $78.4 billion to shoplifters.

The shocking figure has also jumped by almost a fifth from 2021, when it was around $65.7 billion.

The rise has been attributed to the soaring number of violent thefts. Overall, 88 per cent of retailers said shoplifters became more aggressive in 2022.

'Retail crime, violence and theft continue to impact the retail industry at unprecedented levels,' the report stated.

'The effects of these criminal acts are not isolated to large national brands or large metropolitan cities. Daily media reports show that no business is immune, and these issues touch retailers of all segments, sizes and locations across the United States.'

Violent shoplifting events have spiked by more than a third since 2021, according to respondents who track such incidents.

Just yesterday 20 people were arrested during mass looting in Democratic-led Philadelphia including one woman who livestreamed the stealing.

Bankrupt brands like Bed, Bath & Beyond, Rite Aid pharmacy, and Tuesday Morning are shuttering hundreds of branches, while household names including Gap, Target, and CVS are closing major city stores as part of 'restructuring' projects

Footage showed the raiders brawling with police after storming Footlocker, Apple and Lululemon.

The worrying rise in incidents has led to some retailers taking drastic action. Last week, Target announced it was closing nine stores across major cities amid soaring theft.

Target branches due to close include locations in Democrat areas such as San Francisco, CA, Harlem NY and Portland, OR which have also been the center of shocking shoplifting incidents caught on film in recent months.

The move came months after CEO Brian Cornell revealed shoplifters were costing the company up to $500 million a year.

Meanwhile CVS will close 900 stores by the end of next year. The retailer is axing 10 per cent of its stores as it pivots to online strategy amid the rampant increase in thefts.

According to the NRF, the top five locations worst affected by organized retail crime in 2022 were all Democrat areas.

Los Angeles, CA was the worst affected, followed by San Francisco and Oakland at number two, Houston, TX, New York City and Seattle, WA.

America's retail apocalypse is gathering speed with as many as 3,200 stores set to shut by the end of the year. This includes 896 Bed, Bath & Beyond stores, after the beleaguered brand went bankrupt and retreated to an online-only marketplace

A staggering rise in shoplifting rates, a switch from in-person shopping to the online sphere, and low store inventory are among the chief causes behind the slow death of the shopping mall in 2023

The report added: 'While theft has an undeniable impact on retailer margins and profitability, retailers are highly concerned about the heightened levels of violence and threat of violence associated with theft and crime.'

In addition to shoplifting, the NRF said retailers have also seen an uptick in e-commerce fraud and phone scams to elicit cash or gift cards.

It also said 'sizeable minorities' reported increases in 'delivery fraud; stolen goods being sold on third-party sites; return fraud; and loyalty fraud and abuse'.

The survey also found that 72 per cent of retailers reported an increase in the value of thefts in areas where the felony threshold has increased.
Many Republicans are fuming at their colleague Matt Gaetz for dragging the House through another contentious battle over leadership with a motion to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

A vote on a motion to table - or delay - the motion to vacate will come up at 1:30 Monday afternoon.

McCarthy has the support of around 200 members of his 222-seat majority, and at least six GOP members have committed to voting against him. There's no suggestion that Democrats could step in to help McCarthy - Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has reportedly instructed his caucus to vote to oust the speaker.

The pro-McCarthy faction is groaning about Gaetz's 'personal' attacks on the speaker and claim he is thwarting the House's agenda on passing spending bills.

Many Republicans are fuming at their colleague Matt Gaetz for dragging the House through another contentious battle over leadership with a motion to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy .

Gaetz upon leaving the conference meeting would not say whether he believed his motion would succeed

'The consensus is that Matt Gaetz is an a**hole,' Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, R-N.Y., told reporters upon leaving a meeting in McCarthy's office.

'It has everything to do with Matt Gaetz putting Matt Gaetz above the United States,' Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., told reporters after leaving an all-conference meeting.

'The only word I can describe for [him] is either he's either a fool or a liar.'

'Gaetz is using the American people, as pawns in his narcissistic game of charades, and I think we've had enough,' said Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla.

Gaetz said that he would launch a motion to vacate if McCarthy moved a continuing resolution, CR, or a stopgap spending bill that continues funding at current levels while the House works in individual spending bills and tries to push through deeper cuts.

The House now has another six weeks to push through another eight single-subject spending bills and then negotiate with the Senate before a November 17 deadline.

On Monday, he accused Gaetz of cutting a 'secret side deal' with President Biden on Ukraine funding.

Gaetz upon leaving the conference meeting would not say whether he believed his motion would succeed. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who will vote for the motion to oust McCarthy, said he believed it would 'probably' fail.

'We're just, you know, fiddling while Rome burns,' he told reporters, tearing into the nation's $33 trillion in debt and Congress' passing of a continuing resolution over the weekend.

Burchett said he had a conversation with the speaker last week.

'The last thing he said was, I really want to be speaker and I think that sums up the whole thing,' the congressman said. 'We should be bigger than that. We should accomplish some things. It's not about one person. It's about our country.'

Some Republicans noted that if the House is thrust into chaos without a speaker, the clock would tick down toward a government shutdown - with only six weeks to go before the new deadline to fund the government in fiscal year 2024.

'The motion to vacate put forth yesterday is nothing more than a tantrum aimed at personal and political gain,' said Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio.

'He is a diabolical saboteur who has been single-mindedly focused on destabilizing the Republican majority for nine month,' added Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D.

Leaving a conference meeting, most insisted there would be a rules change after the speaker's drama is over so that one single member cannot force a vote to vacate the speakership.

Under rules agreed to by McCarthy during the frenzied speaker's race, only one House member is needed to bring up a motion to vacate. Gaetz has now said he will continue to force the motion to vacate until McCarthy is ousted.

'This is not a sensible standard,' said Issa. 'We need to make a real change to limit the chaos,' added D'Esposito.
A family friend of kidnapped Charlotte Sena says he believes her abductor had to have been planning it and was 'aware' of her family before they visited the state park where she was snatched.

Charlotte was last night rescued from a cabinet in the backyard trailer where suspect Craig Ross. Jr. had been living. The 46-year-old is now in custody on first-degree kidnapping charges.

The nine-year-old girl was snatched at around 6.15pm on Saturday night from the Moreau Lake State Park where she was camping with her family.

Ross was caught after leaving a fingerprint on the ransom note he delivered to Charlotte's parents' house on Monday morning.

Family friend Patrick Kane says he believes the kidnapping was 'premeditated' and that Ross Jr. was 'aware' of the family

Craig Ross Jr, 46, was arraigned on a first-degree kidnapping charge in the early hours of this morning at Wilton Town Court and is being held without bail. He demanded a ransom from the Sena family but it's unclear how much he asked for

Charlotte (far right) as a younger child with her mother Trisha, father David and sisters

His trailer in his mother's backyard is 13 miles from the Sena family home. His car is, however, listed to a property within 2 miles of the Sena home.

Speaking on FOX on Tuesday morning, Patrick Kane, a family friend, said: 'It's obvious he had some premeditated aspirations.

'I think he may have been aware of them, I don't know what we can share with you.'

He added that Charlotte was doing 'very well' after being reunited with her mother, Trisha, and father David.

All three rushed to a hospital in Albany last night after she was found. The child was described by police as 'unharmed'.

Ross Jr. remains in custody without bail.

Charlotte was found inside the white trailer in the backyard of Craig Ross Jr.'s mother's home in Milton, New York, on Monday evening

On Monday at around 4am, someone dropped a ransom note into the mailbox at Charlotte's parents' house (shown). It contained traces of Ross Jr's DNA

Police had his DNA on file from a 1996 DUI arrest, but it's unclear if he has ever committed any other crimes against children.

Charlotte was hidden inside a cabinet cupboard when police stormed Ross's trailer.

They say he initially resisted arrest, but eventually relented.

He brazenly dropped off a ransom note at her parents' house at 4.20am on Monday morning, though it's unclear how much he was asking for.

He was arraigned this morning and is now being held in county jail. No one else has been arrested in connection with the kidnapping.
Residents who awoke one day to find a 50ft tall broadband mast being installed on their doorsteps fear thousands of pounds have been wiped from the value of their homes.

Locals in Rochdale say the huge metal beam was put up without warning  despite being within inches of one of the properties it has affected.

The mast is one of dozens being erected across the region by telecoms firm IX Wireless, which says the poles will improve internet access speeds.

But locals are livid that they weren't consulted, and feared that their homes  which are valued at around 120,000 each  may now be harder to sell as a result of the 'eyesore' appearing next door.

Locals in Rochdale are furious after the giant mast (left of image) was seemingly put up without warning or consultation

Sheila Scott , 65, resident, measures the distance between the pole and the occupied house

Homeowners on Clarendon Street, in Rochdale, worry their properties may have dropped by as much as 20,000.

The huge metal beam is one of dozens built across Greater Manchester by telecoms company IX Wireless, which it says will give locals access to highspeed internet.

But residents are angry that they weren't consulted about the pole, which has been placed just ten inches (25cm) from one of the properties.

And they even fear that some of the homes, which are valued at around 120,000, may now be unsellable in the future.

Housewife Sheila Scott, 65, said she was stunned when workers put up the massive pole on August 18 close to her three-bed terrace.

The mother-of-three said: 'It just got put up. We never got told about it. They just fitted it, and that was it really.

'We're not going to be able to sell our properties with that on our doorstep.

'We're worried it's chipping off maybe 10,000 or 20,000 from our homes. Who wants to live with one of these on your doorstep?

'It shouldn't have even been put there. You don't see pylons around houses.. They wouldn't put it up in the rich places, they wouldn't stand for it.'

Sheila, whose home lies around 60ft (18m) from the pole, said she was also shocked at how close it was to one of her neighbour's property.

She added: 'We have measured it and it's ten inches.

'It's so close to the house you can't go behind it. They have no right to put these things up.'

Residents are angry that they haven't been consulted about the pole, which has been placed just 10 inches (25cm) from one of the properties

Furious residents fear their homes may have plunged in value after an 'eyesore' 50ft broadband mast was put up

Retired secondhand furniture seller, Alan Chadwick, 76, who lives with his wife Ann, 78, said he was also shocked when the massive pole suddenly appeared.

And though he said he'd become used to staring at it from his window, he too worried that the value of local homes could now fall dramatically.

The great-grandfather-of-three said: 'I didn't know anything, they just came and put it up on August 18.

'There was no news or anything. They just came on a Friday morning and this went up. Nobody told us anything about it. It's an eyesore but you get used to it.

'The lady who lives in the house next to it can't do anything. The house was shaking when they put the post in. They might have done something to the foundation.

'I don't know who would want to buy that house in front of it if they sell. It's just going to have to be knocked down, I think.

He added: 'People say we need the technology. If it was put in the right place, I agree, but that place is just ridiculous.'

The uproar comes after previous residents across Greater Manchester staged protests after poles were put up on their streets.

And last week, plans for 29 of the masts, which can deliver broadband speeds of up to 300Mb, were approved to be built across Oldham.

IX Wireless claims on its website that its masts cost 90 per cent less than traditional 'dig and cover' fibre-optic broadband operations.

And they were hailed by the former Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden as 'a levelling up game changer' in 2020.

Councillor Neil Emmott, leader of Rochdale Borough Council, said he sympathised with residents, adding that it demonstrated how the 'unsightly and intrusive' poles were being placed without any requirement for proper planning permission.

He said: 'This is yet another example of an unsightly and intrusive telecoms development riding roughshod over a local community.

'It is totally out of keeping for the location and I completely sympathise with the residents who have had this giant monstrosity imposed upon them.

'It is outrageous that councils have no proper say on the siting of these masts, which is why I have consistently called on the government to step in and strengthen planning regulations.

'I am all for faster broadband and connectivity but these new masts and poles that are springing up everywhere are just heaping misery on people.

'It's time for the government and the regulator Ofcom to show some teeth, listen to residents and take action to put an end to this mast madness.'

IX Wireless was contacted for comment.
Accused politicians of all shades of being too 'squeamish' about being called racist to tackle immigration

Braverman given a standing ovation after a red meat address to the party faithful at Tory conference

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Suella Braverman warned that global migration is 'a hurricane' that threatens to hit Britain with 'millions' of new arrivals today as she delivered a tubthumping Tory conference speech.

In a red meat address to the party faithful the Home Secretary accused politicians of all shades of being too 'squeamish about being smeared as racist' to act on illegal immigration over the past 30 years.

And she used the example of her own parents - who were of Indian heritage but who arrived in Britain from east Africa - to paint a dire picture of the threat facing the UK.

Referencing a speech by former Conservative PM Harold Macmillan about the break up of the former British Empire, she said: 'The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming.'

In another crowd-pleasing announcement, Ms Braverman - who was greeted by a standing ovation in the hall in Manchester, vowed that sex offenders will no longer be able to change their name or gender to evade monitoring, while foreign offenders will be 'booted out' of Britain at the earliest opportunity.

She vowed to end the expensive use of hotels to house migrants and lashed out at trans rights and 'woke', attacking 'Keir ''take the knee'' Starmer'. She also blasted Labour over its links to Just Stop Oil.

She took on her critics - both in the Conservative Party and across politics, saying she was a hate figure because she tells the 'blunt, unvarnished truth'.

But in comments likely to cause controversy she accused her opponents of being elitist, with 'luxury views', adding: 'They like open borders. The migrants coming in won't be taking their jobs. In fact, they are more likely to have them mowing their lawns or cleaning their homes.

'They love soft sentences. The criminals who benefit from such ostentatious compassion won't be terrorising their streets or grooming their children.'

The blunt speech - which was greeted with a lengthy ovation - was signed off by No10 and will fuel claims that she is already positioning herself to be the next Tory leader if Rishi Sunak leads the party to election defeat next year.

In a red meat address to the party faithful she accused politicians of all shades of being too 'squeamish about being smeared as racist' to act on illegal immigration over the past 30 years.

London Assembly member Andrew Boff he hit out at 'trash' the Home Secretary was saying about 'gender ideology' after being removed.

Kemi Badenoch (right), also touted as a contender should Rishi Sunak's bid to see off Labour fail, used a tub-thumping address yesterday to blast ' woke ' views. Commons Penny Mordaunt (left) has also been busily glad-handing at conference, including speaking at a Next Gen reception last night - although she was careful to stay loyal

But there was controversy as a London Assembly member who tried to become the Tory candidate for city mayor was escorted out of the conference hall during the address after heckling her comments on trans rights. Andrew Boff he hit out at 'trash' the Home Secretary was saying about 'gender ideology' after being removed.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper branded the speech 'devoid of practical policies and divorced from the reality of Tory failure'.

'She had nothing to say about the knife crime killing our children, the epidemic of town centre crime undermining our communities or the collapse in prosecutions under the Tories which means more criminals are getting off. Nor did she mention the 1,000 people who have arrived on small boats since Tory conference started, all because she has totally lost control of border security.

Suella Braverman's speech, key points: She referenced her own parents' arrival in the UK, saying: 'The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming.'

The Home Secretary warned that 'the future could bring millions more migrants to these shores uncontrolled and unmanageable'.

She accused politicians over the last 30 years of being far too squeamish about being smeared as racist to properly bring order to the chaos.'

She attacked the 'luxury beliefs brigade' who accuse the public of being 'morally deficient because they dare to get upset about the impact of illegal migration, net zero, or habitual criminals.

Added: 'The migrants coming in won't be taking their jobs. In fact, they are more likely to have them mowing their lawns or cleaning their homes. They love soft sentences. The criminals who benefit from such ostentatious compassion won't be terrorising their streets or grooming their children.' Advertisement

'Her promise to only ''begin'' closing hotels sometime ''soon'' is a massive watering down of the Prime Minister's pledge to end hotel use last year, all while hotel use is still going up not down, and is now costing the taxpayer an astronomical 8 million a day because they have simply failed to get a grip.

'Suella Braverman and helicopter riding Rishi Sunak may have the luxury of ignoring the blight of town centre crime or the serious problems our country faces but the British people don't.'

Home Office figures have confirmed that more than 25,000 people have been detected crossing the Channel in small boats this year.

The Prime Minister has made tackling the crossings one of the five priorities of his leadership.

Mr Braverman told the audience she was surprised the Human Rights Act was not called the 'Criminal Rights Act'.

Addressing the main stage at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester said: '(The public) know another thing, that the future could bring millions more migrants to these shores, uncontrolled and unmanageable unless the Government they elect next year acts decisively to stop that happening.'

Talking about 'illegal immigration', she said: 'Our country has become enmeshed in a dense net of international rules that were designed for another era. And it is Labour that turbocharged their impact by passing the misnamed Human Rights Act.

'I'm surprised they didn't call it the 'Criminal Rights Act'.'

She said her party stands with the 'many' against the 'privileged woke minority'.

Addressing the main stage at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, she said: 'The British people will get to decide if they want to curb woke with Rishi Sunak or let it run riot with Kier take-the-knee Starmer.'

She said the Conservative Party is a 'kind of trade union' saying: 'We are the trade union of the British people.'

Returning to the theme of human rights later in her speech, the Home Secretary confirmed she would bring forward a new law, aimed at preventing registered sex offenders from 'changing their identities'.

She said: 'Let me tell you something. I don't care if anyone thinks this is interfering with their human rights. It's time to worry less about the rights of sexual predators and more about the rights of victims.'

Ms Braverman said the Tories stand with the 'many' against the 'privileged woke minority'.

'We stand with the many, the law-abiding, hard-working common-sense majority, against the few, the privileged woke minority with their luxury beliefs who wield influence out of proportion to their numbers,' she said.

Warning about how under Labour 'Britain would go properly woke', she said: 'Things are bad enough already, we see it in parts of Whitehall, in museums, in galleries, in the police and even in leading companies in the City, under the banner of diversity, equity and inclusion, official policies have been embedded that distort the whole purpose of these institutions.

'Highly controversial ideas are presented to the workforce and to the public as if they're motherhood and apple pie: gender ideology, white privilege, anti-British history. And the evidence demonstrates that if you don't challenge this poison, things just get worse.'

Looking ahead to the next general election, she said: 'The British people will get to decide if they want to curb woke with Rishi Sunak or let it run riot with Keir take-the-knee Starmer.'

Elsewhere in her speech, Ms Braverman took aim at what she called 'highly controversial ideas' which she said were being 'presented to workforces and the public as if they are motherhood and apple pie'.

She added: 'Gender ideology. White privilege. Anti-British history. The evidence demonstrates that if you don't challenge this poison, things just get worse.'

At this point, Mr Boff, a 'proud member' of the Conservative Party, who was sat near the front of the hall, could be heard to shout out.

He was then hauled out of the conference centre, and told members of the press Ms Braverman's speech was 'making our Conservative Party look transphobic and homophobic'.

'Our party has a proud record of standing up for LGBT+ rights and she is destroying it,' he added.

The speech came after Kemi Badenoch, also touted as a contender should Rishi Sunak's bid to see off Labour fail, used a similarly upbeat address yesterday to blast 'woke' views.

She lashed out over trans rights, Remainer defeatism and the pace of reaching green targets and claimed Britain is the best country in the world to be black in,.

The Business Secretary used a tub-thumping speech to blast Labour for using Brexit to repeatedly talk down Britain.

Mrs Badenoch rejected the 'narrative of hopelessness' for ethnic minorities that suggests 'British society is against you and you're better off asking for reparations'.

She said the Tories were in line with civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King because they believe 'people should be judged by the content of their character, not the colour of their skin'.

Meanwhile, Commons Penny Mordaunt has also been busily glad-handing at conference, including speaking at a Next Gen reception last night.

However, she has been careful to stress her loyalty to Mr Sunak. When one activist shouted 'Penny for PM!' she rebuked them, saying 'no, no, no... calm down.'

One former Cabinet minister told MailOnline that the jockeying was not 'tasteful' and 'preeners don't become leaders'.

Daughter of immigrants who wants to rewrite refugee rules Suella Braverman is the daughter of immigrants who came to Britain in search of a better life and thrived. The mother of two, 43, is of Indian ancestry - her parents, of Goan and Mauritian origins, emigrated to Britain in the 1960s from East Africa before setting up base in Harrow, north-west London. Her mother, a nurse by profession, ensured politics was a part of family life. A Tory councillor for 16 years, she also stood for Parliament in 2001 and 2003. Mrs Braverman herself was an early adopter of Tory values, serving as president of the Cambridge University Conservative Association while studying law. After two failed parliamentary runs, she was elected as MP for Fareham in Hampshire in 2015 and rose through the party ranks quickly. Outside politics, Mrs Braverman has two children with her husband Rael, whom she married at the House of Commons in 2018. She has faced questions over her involvement with the controversial Buddhist Triratna sect. The Triratna order, formerly one of Buddhism's largest sects in the UK, has been the subject of historic sexual abuse allegations. Mrs Braverman is believed to have attended meetings and retreats organised by the group, and was known as a 'mitra' - or friend - within the order. Ms Braverman is most rightwing Home Secretary of the modern era, a polarising figure in politics in general and even with the Conservative Party. She rose to prominence a year ago when she ran to be party leader and was rewarded for a strong showing with one of the great offices of state by Liz Truss. She was forced to resign over leaks of government documents to an ally which were sent to a civil servant by mistake, but was later brought back into the same role by Rishi Sunak as a gesture to the right of the party which had opposed him. Since then she had has repeatedly hit the headlines, mainly for her hardline stance against immigration, but also for rallying against trans rights and 'woke'. To her detractors she is the most extreme conservative in the government. To her supporters she is a plain-talking patriot unwilling to varnish the truth, even if it upsets people. Like Ms Patel, she is of Indian ancestry - her parents, of Goan and Mauritian origins, emigrated to Britain in the 1960s from East Africa before setting up base in Harrow, north-west London. She is now seen as the leading rightwing candidate to replace Mr Sunak if the Tories are beaten by Labour at the next election. The staunch Brexiteer served loyally in Boris Johnson's Cabinet as Attorney General, even winning a change in the law to allow her to take maternity leave and return - something no holder of a Cabinet role had previously done. She was later appointed to replace Priti Patel as home secretary. Her hardline approach to immigration had courted controversy - and complaints from other Tory MPs in recent days. Last week she used a speech to a US thinktank to say the 'misguided dogma of multiculturalism' was posing an 'existential threat' to the West, and refugee rules drawn up after the Second World War needed reform. She also suggested that someone who faced persecuted for being gay should not necessarily qualify for refugee status. Advertisement

'The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming' - Suella Braverman's speech in full

Hello Conference. Good to see you.

Let me start ladies and gentlemen by thanking a few people. First of all my brilliant ministerial team. They're here. Chris Philp, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat, Sarah Dines, Simon Murray, Andrew Sharpe, and also my Parliamentary team, James Sunderland, Shaun Bailey, Kieran Mullan, Scott Mann and Byron Davies. Thank you for your fantastic work.

I'd also like to thank all the Home Office civil servants who work flat out to keep this country safe.

And of course, the Greater Manchester Police and all the officers from around the country who are doing their duty here.

I don't know if you've noticed but as Home Secretary, I do occasionally receive a modicum of criticism.

Sometimes I'm asked if I ever read what my critics say about me.

Well, the answer is: yes, I do.

I'm made of strong stuff, so I'm prepared to wade through the personal abuse, the wild invective, and the willful misrepresentation.

Because I believe that all of us should strive for improvement.

And if we close our ears to anyone who disagrees with uswe are less likely to identify our mistakes.

One of the reasons why the Conservative Party has survived and thrived for so longit is because we are not afraid to admit when we get it wrongand adapt accordingly.

We listen, we learn, and we renew ourselves.

And that's what we are doing this week in Manchester.

We are raising our game.

Because next year, this country will face a clear choice at the general election.

Who do people trust to deliver the change that Britain needs?

There are huge challenges ahead.

The world is being transformed by powerful forces.

'The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming.'

'Nobody can deny that there are far, far more people in poorer countries who would love to move to Britain than could ever be accommodated. Even if we concreted over the countryside, turned our cities into one vast building site, and erected skyscrapers from Eastbourne to Elgin and from Hull to Holyhead, it still wouldn't be enough.'

I think the British people see that.

Perhaps more clearly than some of those in Westminster who live in a bubble of complacency.

I also think most British people have a pretty good sense of how they expect their government to respond to those challenges.

And I'm confident that when push comes to shove the voters will realise that they are much more likely to get the change they really want from Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives..Than from any of the left-wing parties.

And the reason is simpleAnd I'll explain it with an example from my responsibilities as Home Secretary.

Now one of the most powerful forces reshaping our world is unprecedented mass migration.

The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming.

Because today, the option of moving from a poorer country to a richer one is not just a dream for billions of people.

It's an entirely realistic prospect.

Every human, every single person, has the right to aspire to a better life.

As Conservatives, that is one of the cornerstones of our philosophy.

And, indeed, without that dream, I wouldn't be standing before you today.

But Conservatives are also practical and realistic.

Nobody can deny that there are far, far more people in poorer countries who would love to move to Britain than could ever be accommodated

Even if we concreted over the countryside.

Turned our cities into one vast building site

And erected skyscrapers from Eastbourne to Elgin and from Hull to Holyhead

It still wouldn't be enough.

Demand will always outstrip supply.

I know it.

You know it.

And the voters know it.

This country has been generous in taking in refugees from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, and Hong Kong.

The decency of the British people cannot be questioned.

But they also care deeply about overall numbers.

In poll after poll, the British public have been clear: immigration is already too high.

And they know another thing. That the future could bring millions more migrants to these shores

uncontrolled and unmanageable, unless the government they elect next year acts decisively to stop that happening.

We are the only Party that will take effective action.

I can't pretend that politicians have done a great job of managing immigration for the last thirty years.

We were too slow to recognise the scale of the problem.

Too unwilling to accept that our legal framework needed to be updated.

And, let's be honest, far too squeamish about being smeared as racist to properly bring order to the chaos.

But under Rishi Sunak's leadership things are changing.

We are raising our game.

For years, too many overseas students were bringing their dependents here to the UK.

So we've changed the rules to ensure that a student visa is not a route for whole families to come and live and work in the UK.

When I stood before you at Conference last year, we were dealing with a surge of Albanian illegal migrants coming on small boats. Over 12,000 in 2022 alone.

Fast forward a year, and thanks to the returns deal with Albania that we put in place, and changes that we made to our rules, those numbers are now down by 90%.

Indeed, against a backdrop of increasing illegal migration into Europe, small boat crossings to the UK are down by 20% compared to last year.

And Conference we will soon begin closing down asylum hotels.

That is not nearly enough. I accept that. But it is a start.

And it's a hell of a lot more than Labour would do.

I said at Conference last year that we had to change our laws. And we did.

Our Illegal Migration Act which will come into force in the coming months, now means that the only route to asylum in the UK is a legal route.

The Act means that those arriving illegally, will be detained and removed, back to their home country if possible, or to a safe third country like Rwanda.

All of this is ultimately a question of political will.

And be under no illusion, we will do whatever it takes to stop the boats and deter bogus asylum seekers.

We will also ensure that legal migration comes down to reasonable levelsand that it occurs only when there is a clear benefit to the British people.

That's our pledge. That's our plan.

And I believe the public will back it.

Because everybody knows what Labour will do on migration.

Labour will do what Labour always does: Open our borders.

At heart, Labour doesn't believe that we have the right to keep people out.

Sure, they may mouth a bit of occasional rhetoric about controlling our borders...but that's not what the Labour Party has ever done in government.

And it's not just negligence or incompetencealthough you can be guaranteed of plenty of that if Labour wins.

It's actually deliberate.

The biggest reason why Conservative governments have struggled to get illegal migration under control is because Labour governments passed laws that inhibit effective action.

Because the truth is we struggle to remove foreign criminals;

We struggle to get accurate data on the ages of the asylum seekers;

We struggle even to confiscate their phones when they arrive on our beaches.

Our country has become enmeshed in a dense net of international rules that were designed for another era.

And it is Labour that turbocharged their impact by passing the misnamed Human Rights Act.

I am surprised they didn't call it the Criminal Rights Act.

Each time I have gone to Parliament to improve the law on immigration, Labour has tried to block us.

Always aided by their allies in the third sector.

Some of whom openly declare that they oppose national borders merely on principle.

And all of them bleating the same incessant accusation:

Racist. Racist. Racist.

They've always used that smear.

They tried it against Margaret ThatcherIt didn't work.

They tried it against David CameronIt didn't work.

A couple of years ago they even tried it against Winston ChurchillOur greatest ever leaderAnd it didn't even work then.

And I can promise you thisit won't work against Rishi Sunakand it won't work against me.

The truth is every one of us in this room should be proud of their roots, and proud of our Conservative values.

We believe that Britain has the right to secure borders

To decide who gets in to our countryand who does not.

We are the Party to confront the challenge of global migration in the years ahead.

Not a Labour Party that will open the borders and then cry racism to anyone who objects.

Let's be clearThe choice between Conservatives and Labour is the choice between strong borders and no borders.

The next election will also be fought on law and order.

Between a Conservative government that wants the police to focus on criminal justice

And a Labour Party that thinks the police should focus on social justice.

Between a Conservative government that stands up for the police

And a Labour Party that wants to see them take the knee.

Between a Conservative government that wants to help ordinary people go about their lives unimpeded

...And a Labour Party that sympathises with the eco idiots that block roads and stop mums from taking their kids to school

Stop workers from getting to their jobs

And stops ambulances from getting to hospitals.

Because when it comes to Just Stop Oil, Labour's lawyers advise them - and Labour's donors fund them.

That's exactly why Labour resisted the legislation that we passed to crack down on this madness.

Thanks to our new laws, the police can now get these clowns off our streets and get traffic moving in a matter of minutes.

The Prime Minister and I are firmly on the side of the law-abiding majority.

That's why we have backed our police officers with one of the largest ever rises in police pay

It's why we ensured we hit our target of 20,000 additional police officers  so that we now have more officers in England and Wales than ever before.

It's why we've backed the police's use of stop and search as an effective way to get knives off our streets.

It's why we've secured agreement from the police to investigate all burglaries and follow all reasonable lines of inquiry when someone reports a crime.

It's why we've reformed hate crime guidance so that officers aren't wasting hours of valuable police time investigating squabbles on Twitter.

It's why we're making sure that police are not inadvertently helping mobs to enforce non-existent blasphemy laws.

It's why we've prioritised tracking down grooming gang perpetrators and getting justice for their victims after authorities turned a blind eye.

And it's why we've made sure that Prevent  the government programme that stops people from sliding towards terrorism  is focused on the main security threat to the British public, Islamist extremism.

In all of this we have been assisted by some truly excellent Police and Crime Commissioners who share our commitment to common sense and law and order.

There is so much more to doand the public knows that but Labour certainly won't do it.

There's more to do to reform our vagrancy laws, because we cannot let British cities go the way of San Francisco or Seattle.

There's more to do to ensure that Foreign National Offenders aren't clogging up our prisons for less serious crimes. But are booted out of Britain as soon as soon as possible.

There's much more to do to end the scandal of rapists and paedophiles changing their names to evade sanctions and criminal record checks.

And so, we will bring forward legislation to prevent registered sex offenders from changing their identities, and we will work to strengthen background checks so that they can catch undisclosed changes of identity.

Let me tell you something. I don't care if anyone thinks this is interfering with their human rights. It's time to worry less about the rights of sexual predators and more about the rights of victims.

I want to thank the Safeguarding Alliance for their tireless campaigning on this issue.

And let me go on and say this. I have a particular message to those brave police officers who risk their lives to protect the rest of us by carrying firearms into situations where they could be harmed or even killed.

You are the thin blue line. You have our support. We are grateful for the vital work that you do, day in, day out.

That is why I announced a review, to report to me by the end of the year, to ensure that the legal and operational framework in which they operate is robust and commands the confidence of both officers and the public.

And to those who ask whether Labour can be trusted to fight crime. I have a two-word answer: Sadiq Khan.

If there's any justice in this world, Susan Hall is going to wipe the floor with him in May.

They've already started the character assassination against Sue.

The distortions. The insults. The lies.

That's what the Labour Party always does:

It prefers smears to debate.

Personally, I take their abuse as a compliment.

I know they have tried to make me into a hate figure because I tell the truth.

The blunt, unvarnished truth about what is happening in our country.

And I know there are some who think that emphasising the importance of law and order or secure borders, is unedifying.

They look down on those of us who care about such things.

Of course, they are entitled to their beliefs.

But let's be honest.

These are luxury beliefs.

What do I mean by that?

Our politically correct critics have money. They have status. They have loud voices.

They have the luxury of promoting seductive but irresponsible ideas safe in the knowledge that their privilege will insulate them from any collateral damage.

The luxury beliefs brigade sit in their ivory towers telling ordinary people that they are morally deficient because they dare to get upset about the impact of illegal migration, net zero, or habitual criminals.

And you can be sure of one thing.

People with luxury beliefs will flock to Labour at the next election because that's the way to get the kind of society they want.

They like open borders. The migrants coming in won't be taking their jobs. In fact, they are more likely to have them mowing their lawns or cleaning their homes.

They love soft sentences. The criminals who benefit from such ostentatious compassion won't be terrorising their streets or grooming their children.

They are desperate to reverse Brexit. They think patriotism is embarrassing and have no use for a British passport unless it is taking them to their second homes in Tuscany or the Dordogne.

For these people, I have a simple message: You are entitled to your luxury beliefs, but the British people will no longer pay for them.

There's another reason I think that we will win the next election.

We have a secret weapon.

Well, not that secret.

Everyone in this hall knows it.

I think everyone who will be at Labour conference knows it too.

And our friends in the media definitely know it.

Our secret weapon isSir Keir Starmer.

The British people have no enthusiasm for Sir Keir Starmer.

They know that he believes in nothing

They know that he will say anything to anyoneAnd then change his mind at the first sign of trouble.

Keir Starmer lacks the personality to lead this country effectively.

Imagine what would happen if he became Prime Minister.

Luxury beliefs would reign supreme.

Britain would go properly woke.

Things are bad enough already.

We see it in parts of Whitehall, in museums and galleries, in the police, and even in leading companies in the City.

Under the banner of diversity, equity, and inclusion, official policies have been embedded that distort the whole purpose of these institutions.

Highly controversial ideas are presented to workforces and the public as if they are motherhood and apple pie.

Gender ideology.

White privilege.

Anti-British history.

The evidence demonstrates that if you don't challenge this poison, things just get worse.

Whole institutions become captured.

And of course, as always happens when the left gets the upper hand, those who fail to conform are persecuted.

Chased out of their jobs for saying that a man can't be a woman.

Scolded for rejecting that they are beneficiaries of institutional racism.

Disciplined for using the wrong words.

This Conservative government has begun the task of clearing out this pernicious nonsense.

The British people will get to decide if they want to curb woke with Rishi Sunak

Or let it run riot with Keir 'take the knee' Starmer.

Labour is the party of pressure groups, rich zealots, and trade union activists.

But, you know, the Conservative Party is also a kind of trade union.

Because we are the trade union of the British people.

And I think we should adopt as our motto these lines from the poet Shelley

Which I'm shamelessly taking back from Labour:

'Rise like lions after slumber

in unvanquishable number.

Shake your chains to earth like dew: Which in sleep had fallen on you.

You are many, they are few!'

We stand with the many

The law-abiding

Hard working

Common sense majority.

Against the few

the privileged woke minority

with their luxury beliefs

who wield influence out of proportion to their numbers.

Our message to the people is clear.

We ae raising our game.

We are fighting for a Britain that puts you first.

We are on your side.
The sister of Suzanne Morphew, whose remains were found last month after she'd been missing for more than three years, says she has found a quiet relief following the discovery of her sister.

Morphew, 49, disappeared in Colorado while out for a Mother's Day bike ride. Her marriage to Barry Morphew, with whom she shared two daughters, was in the process of breaking down when she vanished.

After Morphew's remains were found on September 22 scattered in a shallow grave in a remote field near Moffat in Saguache County, 50 minutes from her home in Salida, her sister, Melinda Balzer, spoke out.

'My heart continues to feel a quiet relief and peace with the settled knowing that my beautiful sister, Suzanne Morphew was recently found.'

'I am grateful for the closure for which I have prayed since May of 2020,' she continued.

In a statement delivered last week, Balzer thanked the law enforcement teams who positively identified her sister and reflected on the ordeal her family has now been through.

Suzanne Morphew vanished without a trace on May 10, 2020 after setting off from her home on a Mother's Day bike ride. Her bike was found that same day, and now her remains have finally been found, over three years later, in Moffat, Saguache County, while investigators were probing a completely separate case

Morphew's sister, Melinda Balzer, released a statement saying she has found peace following the discovery of her sister's remains, and asking others to keep Edna Quintana - the other missing woman - in their thoughts

'This has been a journey which no family ever thinks they will take yet many do. I have experienced that no one is exempt from evil in this broken world. I choose, however, to focus on the next road of this ever changing journey into finding the truth of what happened to Suzanne on that fateful day of Mother's Day weekend, May 9th, 2020.

'We are now closer than ever to the truth,' she said.

Morphew's remains were found during a police search for missing woman Edna Quintana, 55, who disappeared in early May. Quintana has yet to be found and suffers from known medical complications.

Quintana is part of a fifth-generation family native to Saguache, Colorado. Following her disappearance, her loved ones said she had been hanging out with a bad crowd.

In her most recent statement, Balzer said she is turning her thoughts to Quintana and her loved ones.

'Today I choose to turn my thoughts and heart to the family of Edna Quintana whose search was the catalyst for my miracle; Suzanne being found.

'I am asking the same loving Social Media community who kept Suzanne alive to now turn their heart of care to the family of Edna Quintana [in] their time of need. They now wait in the anguish of uncertainty for the discovery of their beloved Edna.

'Please take a few moments each day and do what you can to keep Edna's story alive,' she wrote.

In a statement delivered last week, Balzer (left) thanked the law enforcement teams who positively identified her sister and reflected on the ordeal her family has now been through

Morphew's remains were found while investigators were searching for 55-year-old Enda Quintana, who has been missing since early May

Quintana is part of a fifth-generation family native to Saguache, Colorado. Following her disappearance, her loved ones said she had been hanging out with a bad crowd

Following Barry Morphew's (left) arrest for Suzanne's murder in 2021, evidence revealed that both spouses had conducted extramarital affairs and were pursuing a path toward separation

Though it is still unclear precisely what happened to her, the discovery of Suzanne Morphew's remains caps off a search that began on May 10, 2020 - the last time she was seen.

Morphew set out for a bike ride from the home she shared with husband and their two daughters.

Her bike was found the day she went missing, discarded in a ravine near her mountain home.

A year after he disappearance, Barry was arrested and charged with her murder - despite there being no body at the time.

Both spouses has conducted extramarital affairs and were in the process of figuring out how to end their marriage. She texted her husband days before her disappearance that she was 'done' with their relationship.

At a preliminary hearing in 2021, law enforcement officials presented to the court Suzanne's text exchanges with her lover - Jeff Libler - in which she told him she had a fine night and was looking at houses for sale.

The day before Mother's Day, Barry had returned to the couple's house to find his wife sunbathing in the yard. She was sending pictures of herself to Libler via LinkedIn, which the couple had been using to communicate behind her husband's back.

The court was then shown a photo of Suzanne that she had sent to her lover Jeff Libler that day, which depicted her laying on her front in a bikini and smiling at her $1.3million home.

Barry would later tell investigators his wife looked 'drunk' in that photo, which officials said was Suzanne's last proof of life.

The following day, Libler wished Suzanne a Happy Mother's Day and said he knew it would be a hard day for her because she missed her own mother. Suzanne never replied.

His last known text to Suzanne was sent on May 11, 2020, in which he offered her well wishes for her cancer treatment. That message also went unanswered.

Suzanne and her husband Barry had two daughters together - Mallory and Macy

Statement from Melinda Moorman Balzer about her younger sister #SuzanneMorphew #ShinebrightforSuzanne pic.twitter.com/ehQyvmOEaR  Lauren Scharf (@LaurenScharfTV) September 28, 2023

Mallory and Macy Morphew flank their father as they walk into court following his arrest for their mother's murder. The charges were ultimately dropped and his daughters maintain their belief in his innocence

Suzanne had survived two battles with Hodgkin's lymphoma, decades apart.

After arguments about the evidence and procedures, the charges against Barry were dropped a year later without prejudice  meaning he could be charged again if new evidence came to light.

No arrests have been made since Morphew's remains were located.

Barry Morphew has since said he is 'relieved' that his wife's remains have been found and believes he will now be cleared of an suspicion of involvement in her death.

At the time of his arrest, Melinda Balzer said that her sister's husband had been 'very dominant in the relationship.'

'He had a great tendency to overpower and intimidate people to get what they wanted.'

'The Friday before Mothers Day, my sister had sent me a text message that morning. It was very lengthy. It was very powerful. It was very revealing. She had been ready to share some things close to her chest. She said she was scared,' said Balzer.

At the time, she begged Barry to 'do the right thing' and 'tell the truth.'

The couple's daughters, Mallory and Macy, both came out in defense of their father following his arrest.
A teenage boy accused of murdering 15-year-old Elianne Andam refused to hand over his ex-girlfriend's possessions after she returned his, a court heard today.

The schoolgirl was stabbed to death after snatching her friend's bag from the 17-year-old in Croydon, south London, the Old Bailey heard.

Elianne had met up with two female friends last Wednesday morning before she was fatally attacked.

It is claimed her attacker wearing a mask and gloves had removed a large knife from his waistband and stabbed Elianne repeatedly.

As he fled the scene, others attempted to administer first aid but Elianne could not be saved.

Elianne Andam was stabbed to death after snatching her friend's bag as the 17-year-old boy walked away with it in Croydon, south London , the Old Bailey heard

Multiple stab wounds were identified in a post-mortem examination.

The defendant was arrested in New Addington at 9.45am the same day.

Today he appeared in the dock at the Central Criminal Court wearing a black sweatshirt, grey joggers and a pair of glasses and spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth.

As prosecutor Alison Morgan KC read a brief summary of the case to the court, Elianne's aunt, Marian, was forced to leave the court after growing too upset at the description of her niece's stabbing.

Ms Morgan told the court: 'The defendant is charged with the murder of Elianne Andam and also possession of a bladed article.

'The facts relating to those alleged offences are that on September 27, in the morning, Elianne and two of her friends had arranged to meet before going to school.

'They would go on to meet with the defendant  a former boyfriend of one of the girls.

'The purpose was to facilitate the exchange of possession between the defendant and [his ex-girlfriend].

'The girls went to the Whitgift Centre car park. [The ex-girlfriend] brought a carrier bag containing [the defendant's] possessions.

'The defendant arrived with a friend, wearing black gloves and a face mask  both of which caused concern to the girls.

It is claimed her attacker wearing a mask and gloves had removed a large knife from his waistband and stabbed Elianne repeatedly. Pictured is the scene of the attack

'In light of the events that followed, it's also clear that, in coming to the meeting, the defendant had armed himself with a large knife.

'[His ex-girlfriend] handed the bag to the defendant. The defendant didn't return her possessions, as was anticipated, and began to walk off.

'Elianne took it upon herself to challenge the defendant, asking for [her friend's] property back.

'Elianne then ran past the defendant, grabbing the Tesco carrier bag.

'Having taken it upon herself to do that, the prosecution allege that in response, the defendant turned in anger upon Elianne.

'He pursued her for a short distance, removing a knife from his waistband then stabbing her repeatedly, inflicting fatal injuries.

'There were a number of witnesses  not least the two girls with Elianne, [the defendant's friend] but also witnesses on the bus who saw what happened.

'My Lord knows that Elianne couldn't be saved, and multiple stab wounds were identified in the post mortem.'

His Honour Judge Mark Lucraft, KC, the Recorder of London, told the young defendant he was remanding him into youth custody until a plea and trial preparation hearing on December 19  which the defendant can attend via video link  and set a provisional trial date for April 29 next year.

He said: 'This afternoon I have set out the timetable for your case, working towards a trial date in April next year.

'I have remanded you into youth detention. The next hearing in this case will be on December 19 of this year.'

Jaysen Seeboruth, representing the young defendant, made no application for bail.

Judge Lucraft said the case would be heard at the Old Bailey most likely before Judge Richard Marks KC.

The defendant was remanded into youth detention accommodation.

Members of Elianne's family sat in the well of the court during the half-hour long hearing.

Previously, they have said in a statement: 'We as a family are struggling to comprehend this painful tragedy that has happened to our beautiful daughter and beloved sister Elianne. Our hearts are broken.

'Elianne was a beautiful person inside and out who loved Jesus. She was intelligent, thoughtful, kind and had a bright future ahead. It is our request that you keep our cherished daughter Elianne and our family in your thoughts and prayers.'

Elianne was the 15th teenage victim of homicide in London so far this year.
Dramatic leaked footage has emerged showing a Russian Sukhoi Su-33 fighter jet sinking into the Mediterranean after falling off Vladimir Putin's 'cursed' aircraft carrier.

Video, shared to several military-focused Telegram channels this week, shows the fighter jet in the water while still attached to the ship it tried landing on by its arresting gear.

Smoke can also be seen pouring out of the exposed parts of the plane in the clip which appears to have been filmed from just below the deck of the giant Admiral Kuznetsov.

A helicopter can be heard overhead, and appears to be moving to pluck the unfortunate pilot from the sea after he ejected.

The sinking is understood to have taken place in December, 2016. At the time, Russia's defence ministry said that a Su-33 fighter jet crashed into the Mediterranean Sea after returning to the Admiral Kuznetsov from a mission in Syria.

At the time, the ministry blamed the sinking on 'the failure of the arrester system's cable'.

The footage shows the Su-33 fighter jet sinking into water in the Mediterranean

A helicopter can be heard overhead, in a seeming attempt to rescue the pilot of the jet

Smoke can also be seen pouring out of the exposed parts of the plane

It added that the pilot who was in the plane at the time successfully ejected and was unharmed.

It was the second loss of a plane from Russia's only aircraft craft carrier in two months. In November that year, a MiG-29 crashed into the sea while attempting to land on the Admiral Kuznetsov.

Both wrecks were reportedly rescued by Russian specialists around a year after they sank

In 2016, the Admiral Kuznetsov was deployed to the eastern Mediterranean as part of Russia's campaign in Syria, launching the first carrier-mounted attacks in Russian naval history.

Its time in Syria was shortlived, and was ordered back to Russia in early 2017, and any sensitive information or systems onboard were likely either removed or destroyed.

The carrier is the flagship of Russia's navy, but has been out of action since 2018, and has been sat in a drydock awaiting a refit and an upgrade.

The Admiral Kuznetsov has been out of action since 2018, after it was docked for repairs and an overhaul

It is not expected to make a return to international waters until 2024 at the earliest, but Russian officials have said that its return could be pushed back if issues arise during overhauling and testing.

The seemingly cursed ship has faced a litany of troubles since it was temporarily taken out of commission.

The Admiral Kuznetsov has suffered a series of disasters since its launch in 1985 and is notorious for chugging black smoke.

Despite this, the Kremlin has used it to try and project military might far from Russia's shores.

In December last year, the 1,000ft vessel suffered substantial damage when it caught fire while moored in the port city of Murmansk, in northwest Russia.

In 2019, the carrier suffered significant damage caused by a fire, which claimed the lives of at least one worker and left ten more injured.

On top of this, in 2018 a giant crane crashed into the ship, severely damaging it, and leading to the death of one worker and the injuries of four more.
The U.S. Coast Guard has discontinued its search but other agencies still looking

Witnesses said saw pool of blood and one woman said her son 'heard screaming'

The unnamed victim was swimming in a remote area that was a six to seven mile hike from the main trail

The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended its 22-hour search for a swimmer who was thought to be attacked by a shark off the coast of a remote California beach.

The Coast Guard received reports that a 52-year-old man was dragged into the water around 10.40am Sunday off the coast of Wildcat Beach in Point Reyes.

The victim, who had been attending a wedding, was described as a very good swimmer. The circumstances surrounding his death are unconfirmed.

'We didn't find the individual so there's no way for us to confirm whether or not it was a shark attack,' U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Hunter Schnabel said.

However, two other swimmers told first responders that they spotted a large pool of blood in the water and other witnesses said the victim was screaming.

A 52-year-old man was reportedly dragged into the water by shark off the coast of Wildcat Beach in Marin County

The victim was part of a group that was said to have attended a wedding and camped out in a remote area afterwards

Two other swimmers claimed to have seen a large pool of blood in the water after the man was pulled under

Samantha Edell was asked to call emergency services by the man's friends. Her own son came running and said he heard 'screaming'

Samantha Edell told The San Francisco Standard that her son said he heard shrieking coming from the water.

'We came out, and a group was gathered around that area where the water is, and they were looking for someone who could call emergency services because there's no cell service there,' she said.

Edell, who had been camping, placed a call using her Zoleo satellite communicator, a device that extends cell phone coverage and makes emergency calls.

She said members of the group told her that their friend had been swimming.

'They said it was a shark attack and I said "How bad is it?" and he said his friend was attacked and didn't come back out of the water,' Edell said.

After hitting the SOS button on her device, she followed the group down to the beach, where another man said he was already in contact with emergency services.

'There was another man on the beach who had an iPhone that had satellite facilities. He was already in contact with emergency services, so I ended my SOS call,' Edell said.

She learned responders were already on their way and was asked to 'go up to the top part of the campground and to wave them down.'

A woman in the group told Edell they had just attended a wedding and had gone backpacking after the event.

'It was a large party,' Edell said. 'People came in from all over, as far as Europe.'

Christine Beekman, the public information officer at Point Reyes National Seashore, said: 'Until we have confirmation, Im hesitant to speculate' when asked about the man's death

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search after 22 hours, it was reported Monday

However, other agencies including the National Park Service continue to look for the victim

The three swimmers were camping with up to 15 others at an area near the beach

Although the Coast Guard suspended its search on Monday, first responders from the National Park Service, the Marin County Sheriff's Office, the Marin County Fire Department and the Stinson Beach Fire Department continue to search for the victim.

The three swimmers were camping with around 15 others at an area near the beach, which was a six to seven mile hike from the main trail.

'In my time here, we haven't heard of anything like this happening,' said Fiona Ulrich, an employee of the nearby Five Brooks Horse Ranch.

'There were many more park rangers than normal, flashing lights, a certain degree of chaos all day long.'

Christine Beekman, the public information officer at Point Reyes National Seashore, said jet skis were originally deployed from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Stenson Beach Fire Department.

There have been 210 shark attacks and incidents off the California coast since 1950, but only 15 were fatal

The search was conducted via air, land and water.

There is a thriving great white shark population at Point Reyes. The animals are most commonly seen in the late summer and fall.

'This is, as all California waters are, shark habitat,' Beekman explained.

About the circumstances surrounding the man's disappearance, she said: 'Until we have confirmation, Im hesitant to speculate. Shark attacks are very, very, very uncommon in the area.'

There have been 210 shark attacks and incidents off the California coast since 1950, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Only 15 of them have been fatal. None of these deadly attacks happened in Marin County.

'To my knowledge, yeah, this could be the first fatal shark attack,' said Marin County Fire Department Senior Captain Ben Ghisletta.

'But we're hopeful that he'll be found.'
President Biden strategized with key allies on a call to coordinate 'ongoing support' for Ukraine after a crack in the coalition and billions worth of additional U.S. support snagged by infighting in Congress.

Joining the call were British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, NATO Secretary General Jens Soltenberg, President Andrzej Duda of Poland, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, along with other leaders.

It came after several developments with the prospect if limiting Ukraine's ability to get the arms it needs as it seeks to regain territory seized by Russia in last year's invasion.

In NATO ally Slovakia, Robert Fico of the country's populist Smer-SD party stormed to victory in parliamentary elections. He has pledged to stop providing military aid, in a country that has provided MiG-29 jets to Ukraine. Slovakia and Ukraine share a border in the country's east.

President Joe Biden spoke with allied leaders about coordinating support for Ukraine, amid signs of difficulty providing continued assistance

His party is considered pro-Kremlin, and Fico campaigned on a slogan of 'not a single round.

Also joining the call were Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen, Itallian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, President Klaus Iohannis of Romania and the French foreign minister.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's leadership role hangs in the balance after moving legislation that avoided a government shutdown but left out additional Ukraine funding.

A handout photo made available by Ukraine's Presidential Office shows President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) rewarding Ukrainian servicemen during to his visit to military positions on the front line between Lyman and Kupiansk, 03 October 2023. Ukraine continues to try to repel Russian forces following their February 2022 invasion

'We dont want to see any lapse  there shouldnt be any lapse' in U.S. military aid to Ukraine, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said. Ukrainian servicemen ride on a T-64 tank during military training exercise in Kyiv region on September 27, 2023. The US has been supplying sophisticated Abrams tanks to Ukraine

A Senate version had $6 billion in emergency support for Ukraine, which is facing a critical period in its effort to try to push back Russia's invasion force.

Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz has filed a motion to 'vacate the chair,' essentially stripping McCarthy of his post, after he relied on Democrats to pass a bill to fund government operations for 45 days. He accused McCarthy of 'making a secret deal on Ukraine.'

McCarthy says he plans to tie Ukraine aid to border reforms, connecting it to an equally fraught issue.

'Let's vote on it,' Biden said Saturday after U.S. government funding was secured. 'Stop playing games. Get this done.'

There have also been tensions with Poland, who has been an enthusiastic ally and arms supporter. Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania reached a deal on grain exports, following Polish complaints that Ukrainian grain was flooding the market and lowering prices for farmers.

McCarthy ultimately jettisoned Ukraine funding from the bill to fund the government, after repeatedly promising it would not get a 'blank check.'

'What is most concerning about yesterday is that McCarthy folded on all his demands except one: no funding for Ukraine, despite majorities in both chambers supporting it,' Sen. Chris Murphy, (D-Conn.). 'Maybe Ukraine can go a few weeks without new funding, but not the rest of the year. A crisis is coming,' he tweeted on the site renamed as X.

The U.S. has already provided about $75 billion in support to Ukraine, but the country continues to rely on military contributions from the U.S. and other allies amid a virtual stalemate on the battlefield.
Tom Daley's husband will still face trial for throwing a drink over BBC presenter Teddy Edwards - despite bungling police losing the recording of her interview.

Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, 49, is charged with assaulting Ms Edwardes, 32, at a gay bar in Soho on 18 August last year.

Mr Black was out with Mr Daley, 28, in the Freedom bar when he allegedly twisted Ms Edwardes's wrist spilling a drink over her.

Ms Edwardes, who presents 'The Big Proud Party Agency' on BBC3, has accepted a caution for assault for punching Mr Black on the head after the drink was spilled.

Mr Black claims Ms Edwardes was shouting at him and being aggressive and he grabbed the drink in self-defence.

Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, 49, is charged with assaulting Terry Edwardes, 32, at gay bar Freedom in Soho on 18 August last year when he allegedly twisted her wrist and spilt her drink

Ms Edwardes, who presents 'The Big Proud Party Agency' on BBC3, has accepted a caution for assault for punching Black on the head after the drink was spilled

It was Mr Black who called police to claim Ms Edwardes had punched him.

Mr Black's lawyer applied for his trial not to go ahead due to abuse of process as police have lost the tapes of Ms Edwardes being interviewed for assault 'in the post'.

A statement from a member of bar staff was also lost.

Police body-worn footage showing Ms Edwardes' account at the scene is also not available as it was not saved by the officer within the required 28 day period.

The officer also did not write her witness statement about the event until a year after it happened.

District judge Louisa Cieciora rejected the application and the trial will go ahead as planned on 8 November.

Mr Black appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court via video link from his Los Angeles home, where it was 2am.

His lawyer told the court that he had sole responsibility for caring for the couple's two children in the home, Robbie, 5, and Phoenix who was born in March.

His lawyer Helena Duong told the court: 'The primary loss of evidence is the loss of the recording of the complainant's suspect interview which took place two or three weeks after the alleged assault.

Mr Black was out with Mr Daley, 28, at the time of the alleged assault. The couple are pictured at British Vogue and Tiffany & Co to celebrate Fashion and Film, Annabel's, in February

'It wasn't simply that it got lost as it was transported through the postal system but that both the copy and the master were erroneously kept together in a case file and had not been properly logged on the system.

'It's not simply that it got lost in the post because had it only been a copy that was lost we would still have access to a master.

'This is compounded by the absence of the recording of the complainant's initial account of what happened to the attending officer.'

Ms Duong suggested that Ms Edwardes may have been shown the CCTV footage by bar staff before her police interview.

'About ten days after the alleged assault messages were received on social media- one message to Mr Black and one to his husband Mr Daley. One contained a clip of CCTV.

'Also received was a message from someone who appears to be a former partner of the complainant who refers to having been shown the CCTV by the complainant.

'The court might have to consider whether she was being truthful when she said the first time she saw the CCTV was in police interview.'

Ms Duong suggested the CCTV footage shows Ms Edwardes' hand on top of Mr Black's which supports his case.

She said that the Crown had initially decided that Mr Daley's witness statement should not be disclosed to the defence but had been ordered to disclose it by the court.

'We are dealing with what is a relatively low level allegation of assault and one where the defence submit there have been failings of very basic duties in what has not been a very complex investigation.

'When one steps back and looks at the imbalance of the prosecutions of Mr Black and Ms Edwardes it can begin to feel a little like a persecution not a prosecution.'

Prosecutor Adrita Ahmed admitted a number of mistakes had been made but said Mr Black could still have a fair trial.

Ruling that the trial should go ahead, Judge Cieciora said: 'I do consider it appropriate to note there have clearly been failures on behalf of the prosecution.

'But the key issue is whether the defendant can have a fair trial.

'I accept the defendant has lost an aspect to his defence but do not consider it is of such significance that without it the defendant is entirely without ammunition to advance his case.'

Mr Black arrives ahead of an assault hearing at The City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in August. He appeared for the latest hearing from his Los Angeles home via video link

Ms Edwardes arrives at a hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court in August. In an Instagram post following the incident the model praised Daley, 29, for trying to defuse the situation

She added that there had been failings by the officer who attended the scene.

The judge said that given the officer's other errors she did have concerns about aspects being left out of her interview summary.

She ordered the Crown to review all body-worn footage and confirm it does not contain any accounts of witnesses that have not been disclosed.

Judge Cieciora also asked if the Crown had reviewed all the evidence to rethink disclosure and Ms Ahmed said they had.

Mr Black denies one charge of assault by beating.
A 16-year-old cheerleader is suing her high school in Long Island, New York, for $6 million, alleging persistent bullying by her classmates with videos of the attacks being circulated online.

Years of being targeted at Smithtown West High School  where her classmates pulled her hair, punched her, and filmed attacks against her which were shared on social media  left the girl wanting to kill herself.

The $6million lawsuit filed at Suffolk County last month details the relentless bullying that the 10th grader has endured at her high school, with shocking allegations of physical hostility, mental abuse and endless microaggression.

Her parents were so desperate that they put their house up for sale and bought her a horse as an emotional support animal last year, but the mare was tragically killed in front of the girl four months later by a veterinarian, the lawsuit claims.

Since then, the girl, identified as A.S., had been mocked over the death of her pet and was dubbed 'horse girl' by the bullies, according to the lawsuit.

The suit alleges the school, the school district, the Board and the school superintendent were aware of what happened but failed to address the issues.

A teenager is suing her Long Island high school for, alleging she was persistently bullied by classmates

The $6million lawsuit details the relentless bullying that the 10th grader has endured, with shocking allegations of physical hostility, mental abuse and endless microaggression

The school declined to comment and Superintendent Mark Secaur(pictured) said the school 'remains steadfast' in efforts to 'maintain a positive, safe and nurturing academic environment' for students

Lawyer Kenneth Mollins, who is representing the cheerleader, says the school did not protect the girl.

'The law requires that schools act in loco parentis, or, ''as parents,'' while kids are in their care and custody,' Mollins told The Daily Beast. And it has become clear that schools cannot protect their students from bullying.'

The school declined to comment and said it 'remains steadfast' in efforts to 'maintain a positive, safe and nurturing academic environment' for students.

'The district does not comment on matters pertaining to litigation, but we take all allegations regarding bullying very seriously and thoroughly investigate such claims,' Smithtown Central School District Superintendent Mark Secaur said in an email.

The bullying started during the 2018-2019 school year, when the girl was in the sixth grade. A classmate identified as A.M. started inflicting misery at recess and lunch.

She and her parents were asked to fill out a DASA - a formal complaint under the Dignity for All Students Act after they notified the school about the incidents.

The school's investigation came back as unfounded, the court documents says, despite videos were forwarded as evidence.

The COVID lockdown temporarily seemed to settle the conflict between A.S. and A.M. who both made the varsity cheer team in the fall of 2021.

After an 'uneventful' school year, the lawsuit alleges, the teen was severely attacked at a house party in the summer of 2022.

A bunch of girls on the cheer team surrounded A.S. when she arrives at a party in Kings Park.

One said: 'I kissed a boy that you like,' the lawsuit alleges.

Another cheerleader grabbed her hair and yanked her to the ground before others joined to punch, kick, and pull out her hair, the suit claims.

A.S. quit the cheer team but the bullies were allowed to stay on it. The parents also filed a police report but nothing resulted from it, the suit alleges.

The teen was granted home tutoring with a doctor's note. until 'the education she was receiving at home was unacceptable' to the school in September 2022. The teen returned to school with promises that she would be kept safe.

The bullying escalated to a more severe level. During the homecoming celebration, her classmates threw food at her and forcibly took her to the bathroom at school, screaming and cursing at her, according to the lawsuit.

The girl's horse was killed in front of her in February this year, although the lawsuit and her lawyer did not reveal details about the killing.

The teen threatened to take her own life and was allowed to finish the year at home. When she was required to return school a final time in May, she was again attacked and filmed, the lawsuit says.

Once again, those claims were unfounded by the school district, the suit states.

Back to 2014, a bus driver at the same school district - Smithtown Central School District, was fired after bullying kids.
A 16-year-old boy has denied trying to murder two students and a staff member at 41,000-a-year private school Blundell's.

The alleged attack happened on June 9 at the school in Tiverton, Devon, with two pupils and a Maths teacher suffering 'multiple serious injuries'.

The suspect, who cannot be named due to his age, appeared before Bristol Crown Court accused of three offences relating to alleged assaults at the school.

He pleaded not guilty to attempting to murder two youths, who also cannot be legally named, and also attempting to murder school worker Henry Roffe-Silvester.

One of the pupils was left in a critical condition and the second was left in a stable condition after the alleged incident, while the housemaster was not detained in hospital after treatment.

A 16-year-old boy has denied trying to murder two students and a staff member at 41,000-a-year private school Blundell's in Tiverton, Devon (pictured)

The youth is now due to go on trial next year in a case which could last up to six weeks.

The boy entered his pleas via video link from custody.

Kerim Fuad KC, defending, made an application for the trial, due to be held in December, to be postponed, which Mrs Justice Cutts agreed to.

A further hearing will take place at Bristol Crown Court on October 13.

The defendant was remanded into custody.
House Democrats were clear on Tuesday they are not voting in any way, shape or form to save Kevin McCarthy's job as speaker as his future looks grim.

'We're not voting in any way that would help save Speaker McCarthy,' Rep. Pramila Jayapal said outside the House Democrats' meeting in the basement of the Capitol. 'Nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy, and why should they?'

McCarthy's future looked bleak as he said he will call a vote on Tuesday afternoon on a motion to oust him from the speakership. He made clear he will not cut a deal with Democrats to stay in power, setting up an unpredictable showdown after Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz's motion on Monday night to remove him from power.

Gaetz presented a 'motion to vacate,' a legislative maneuver that would result in the ousting of the speaker if a majority of the House approves it. The vote could happen around 1:30pm or 2pm ET on Tuesday afternoon.

If four Republicans defect and no Democrat helps McCarthy, he will lose. And up to seven GOP lawmakers have indicated they will go with Gaetz and vote against the speaker.

House Democratic Leader Harkeem Jeffries made it official shortly before the vote began, saying Democrats wouldn't vote to keep McCarthy in the speakership: 'Given their unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner, House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican Motion to Vacate the Chair.'

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will face a vote on his future on Tuesday afternoon

What is a 'motion to vacate the chair' The rules of the House allow for any single lawmaker  Democrat or Republican  to make a 'motion to vacate the chair,' essentially an attempt to oust the speaker from that leadership post through a privileged resolution. Gaetz filed it on Monday evening and the House has two legislative days to vote on it. Next steps: McCarthy allies will likely seek to block it by offering a 'motion to table'- or set aside - the resolution. That is where Democrats can help save McCarthy, if they support the move to table the matter. Democrats don't have to vote yes to help McCarthy. They could simply vote present, or not show up at all, and that would lower the threshold McCarthy needs to block the motion. If McCarthy's allies fail to table the motion, the House would then move to a vote on removing McCarthy. Again, Democrats could save him by voting in his support or just by voting present or being absent. If Gaetz's motion succeeds, the speakership would be vacated and the House would then need to hold a new election. A speaker candidate would need to win a majority of votes from those lawmakers present and voting. In January it took McCarthy 15 rounds of votes to secure the speakership. Advertisement

McCarthy, coming out of a meeting with House Republicans on Tuesday morning, said he was confident he would stay as speaker.

'We'll move through this,' he said. 'If I counted how many times someone wanted to knock me out, I would have been gone a long time ago.'

But McCarthy holds a narrow majority in the House. And Democrats could prove his saving grace - if they wanted to.

For Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his caucus it is a tough choice: save McCarthy and stay with the speaker they know or vote for his ouster and see who winds up with the votes from Republicans to be in the speaker's chair.

Jeffries and McCarthy spoke on Monday night but neither offered details of the conversation.

McCarthy is prepared to face his fate head on. When he calls the 'motion to vacate' to the floor, his allies will seek to block it by offering a 'motion to table' - or set aside - the resolution.

That is where Democrats can help save McCarthy, if they support the move to table the matter.

Democrats don't have to vote yes to help McCarthy. They could simply vote present, or not show up at all, and that would lower the threshold McCarthy needs to block the motion.

They are indicating they will not do this.

If the motion to table fails, McCarthy doesn't have to immediately bring up Gaetz's motion to oust him.

He has 48 hours before he'd be obligated to call a vote on the matter, which could give him time to try and wrangle more lawmakers to his side.

But he likely won't find any support among Democrats, who blasted him as untrustworthy.

'This issue is about Republican dysfunction,' Rep. Mark Takano said. 'We don't have an obligation to elect a Republican Speaker. But we don't have a particular obligation to also save this speaker. So there's not a commitment or a feeling that we need to do anything to save the speaker.'

'We're not here to keep Kevin McCarthy in power. This is their problem. If they have the votes to keep him, then so be it,' Representative Jim McGovern said.

Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger said of McCarthy: 'He has made his bed.'

All of the Democrats said they were united behind their leader, Hakeem Jeffries.

And Jeffries gave no indication of his plan as he left Tuesday morning's meeting.

'House Democrats are going to continue to push people over politics and to fight to make life better for everyday Americans,' he said, adding Republicans should 'break from the extremists, end the chaos, end the dysfunction, end the extremism.'

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is showing no sign he will save Kevin McCarthy

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz moved to remove Kevin McCarthy from speaker's office

Inside a closed-door meeting with Democrats on Tuesday morning, Jeffries pointed out it was their party that gave McCarthy the votes this weekend to pass a continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown.

Then he showed a video clip of McCarthy going on CBS' Face the Nation to talk about how Republicans saved the country from a shutdown mess.

Democrats said it was episodes like that which led to them not trusting McCarthy, along with McCarthy's actions on January 6th, his trip to Mar-a-Lago to make amends with Donald Trump, his attempt to discredit the January 6th committee, and his reneging on debt limit deal.

'For many of us, there is a consensus that this is not somebody that can be trusted. And it is not our job to save him as a speaker,' Rep. Ilhan Omar said.

Jayapal said the distrust goes back to the January 6th insurrection when McCarthy went from railing against Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election results to embracing the former president.

'For a lot of us, we were here. It is still deeply emotional for us,' she said. 'Kevin McCarthy stood on the House floor and said one thing and then talked to Donald Trump and immediately did something else.'

Omar noted McCarthy has reneged on spending deals and also allowed the start of an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden.

'He cannot be trusted really plays a huge role in the fact that we all know that there is no real deal to be made here,' she said.

Even moderate Democrats said they wouldn't help McCarthy.

Rep. Jared Golden, a moderate Democrat who sometimes votes with Republicans, said he would vote to oust McCarthy.

'The GOP has control of the House and it is their responsibility to pick their leaders. That decision has nothing to do with me or with any Democrat,' Golden said in a statement. 'Absent any significantly meaningful benefit for Maine's Second District, I see no reason to vote for him.'

Democrats met for over two hours on Tuesday morning in the basement of the Capitol. Leadership offered all the members one minute to speak and 33 people took up the offer, going to the microphone to discuss the matter.

The meeting went on so long that aides brought in Cava for lunch. Cheers and applause could be heard at several times throughout the morning.

Gaetz's move is the first time a 'motion to vacate' has been used against a speaker.

The Florida Republican charges McCarthy with breaking his word to conservatives on spending deals and how he would run the House.

But McCarthy and his allies say it's a personal vendetta, pointing to the Ethics committee looking into several allegations against Gaetz, including illicit drug use, sexual misconduct and misusing campaign funds.

'Matt Gaetz had planned to do this from the very beginning,' McCarthy told CNBC's 'Squawk Box.' 'He has personal things in his life that he has challenges with. That's fine.'

McCarthy has said repeatedly he doesn't get involved in ethics complaints.

'He's been blaming me for some for an ethics complaint against him that happened in the last Congress,' McCarthy noted.

'I have nothing to do with he wants me to try to wipe that away. I'm not going to do that. That's illegal. And you know what, if some way I lose my job because I uphold the law because I uphold the continuity of government. So be it.'

And some charge Gaetz with trying to garner attention ahead of a plan to run for Florida governor.

Gaetz was easily able to make his move to oust McCarthy because of a deal made back in January when McCarthy was trying to secure enough Republican votes to be speaker. To garner enough support from the conservative wing of the party, McCarthy agreed to their demand to give them the ability to call a quick vote to 'vacate the chair' and remove him from office.

Gaetz, in remarks on the House floor in Monday, charged McCarthy with a 'secret deal' with Democrats to fund Ukraine. Many conservative Republicans want to end U.S. aid to the war-torn country.

McCarthy denied the charge, saying there's no secret plan.

Gaetz, meanwhile, noted of McCarthy: 'If he's able to stay in power, it will be him working for the Democrats, continuing to do their bidding. So this is a revealing exercise, and I think it will show the country who's really in charge.'

'I have enough Republicans where at this point next week, one of two things will happen: Kevin McCarthy wont be the speaker of the House or hell be the speaker of the House working at the pleasure of the Democrats,' Gaetz said.

McCarthy responded to matter on social media, writing on X: 'Bring it on.'

Gaetz soon retorted in a post, 'Just did.'
A gunman with a 'macabre interest' in the Dunblane shooter dismissed plans he wrote to get revenge on 10 former classmates in a 'hitman-style attack' as a 'fantasy', a court heard.

Reed Wischhusen, 32, of Somerset, is accused of firearms offences at Bristol Crown Court. He wrote of shooting dead teachers and throwing bombs at his former school and killing police staff, prosecutors say.

Wischhusen, who is allegedly fascinated with mass shootings and infamous killers, said in an interview this year that his uncovered written plans were a 'fantasy story' to 'amuse myself', the jury heard.

It is alleged that over a 'sustained period', he compiled an 'armoury' of homemade weapons including pistols, sub-machine guns and a shotgun, as well as ammunition, bombs, grenades and poison, to be kept at his 'quiet house'.

Police shot Wischhusen at his home in Wick St Lawrence in November last year while they were searching for weapons.

He has admitted possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, possessing a prohibited firearm and possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate in relation to the handgun incident last year, but denies several other offences.

Reed Wischhusen dismissed plans he wrote to get revenge on 10 former classmates in a 'hitman-style attack' as a 'fantasy', a court heard today. Jurors were shown a picture of Wischhusen, who is not a police officer, wearing a police-style uniform

Reed Wischhusen, 32, of Somerset, is accused of firearms offences at Bristol Crown Court. He wrote of shooting dead teachers and throwing bombs at his former school and killing police staff, prosecutors say. He is pictured at Bristol Crown Court yesterday

Phase one of Wischhusen's alleged revenge plan was to kill 10 people using a converted pistol with a silencer while wearing disguised clothing and a wig, a trial jury at Bristol Crown Court heard today.

Jonathan Rees KC told the court that the defendant had listed ex-classmates, teachers and police staff, who he believed had wronged him in the past, as targets.

Wischhusen, a Lidl warehouse worker, accepted he hated some of the people on the list, despite not seeing them for 13 years, the court heard.

In the 1,700-word document, he allegedly wrote: 'Revenge is on my mind, it's a powerful motivator.'

He planned to spare two police staff so they would feel 'survivor's guilt', citing infamous killer Thomas Hamilton as inspiration for this, the prosecutor said.

Wischhusen would then walk into his old school, Priory School, in Worle, to shoot and kill teachers and throw pipe bombs before evading police, the court was told.

The alleged plan would culminate in an attack on Avon and Somerset Police's headquarters, where he would either plant and detonate pressure cooker bombs before opening fire on staff with sub-machine guns or ambush officers and enter the building to let off explosives, the prosecutor claimed.

After this he planned to kill himself, the court heard.

Wischhusen told police his plans were a 'fantasy story' after an interviewing officer asked him in March if his weapons arsenal and hit list had amounted to something 'more sinister'.

Mr Rees argued today that Wischhusen took 'real, concrete steps' to compile the weapons and that his writings about them were 'no fantasy at all'.

Opening the trial, he said: '(Wischhusen's) quiet house and its outhouse to the rear of it contained a dark secret.

'Over a sustained period of time, Mr Wischhusen, who had a macabre interest in infamous killers such as Thomas Hamilton of Dunblane and Raoul Moat in the UK and the 'cop hater' Ralph McLean in the US, and also in mass shootings and bombings such as the Columbine Shooting and the Oklahoma Bombing, set about attempting unlawfully to build - in his own words - a 'small armoury' of firearms and explosives.'

The prosecutor added the 'infamy' of Hamilton, who in 1996 committed the worst mass shooting in UK history at Dunblane Primary School, and violent gunman Moat, 'seemingly appealed' to the defendant.

Wischhusen admitted in his police interview to having a 'little bit' of an interest in mass shootings but said Hamilton was not someone he looked up to, jurors were told.

Phase one of Wischhusen's alleged revenge plan was to kill 10 people using a converted pistol with a silencer while wearing disguised clothing and a wig, a trial jury at Bristol Crown Court heard today. Pictured: Officers at Wischhusen's Somerset home on November 29 last year

Wischhusen planned to spare two police staff so they would feel 'survivor's guilt', citing infamous killer Thomas Hamilton (pictured) as inspiration for this, the prosecutor said.

Jurors were also told how five officers attended his 'unclean and neglected' address at 11am on November 28 last year after receiving intelligence about him converting blank firearms into lethal weapons.

They initially discovered tools they believed could be used to adapt weapons, as well as modified guns, police body armour, master keys and ammunition, the court heard.

During the search, Wischhusen put on a dark warehouse coat and asked to use his upstairs toilet, it was said.

In police bodycam footage, shown to the jury, the sound of a gun being cocked and shot was heard, before the defendant emerged from the bathroom pointing a loaded modified pistol at two officers.

Wischhusen screamed that he wanted to die after being shot three times and restrained by the officers, Mr Rees said.

The prosecutor added: 'The officers have described how they believed that they were about to die, and how the incident left them in shock and suffering trauma.'

Jurors heard Wischhusen was placed under sedation in a critical, but stabilised condition after being shot.

An X-ray scan of the defendant's head revealed a bullet behind his right ear, which appeared to have been fired by himself from his gun, Mr Rees said.

Wischhusen later said in a police interview he ran at officers with the gun because he hoped they would kill him and did not want to shoot anyone, the court heard.

Among the other items later found in the house were a homemade machine gun, two small black handguns, police uniform, badges and handcuffs and a large hunting knife, the court heard.

Wischhusen denies having an explosive substance with intent to endanger life, having an explosive substance, possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, possessing ammunition with intent to endanger life and possessing a prohibited firearm without a certificate. Pictured: Officers respond to Wischhusen's residence in November 2022

Jurors were told he also had dangerous explosive chemicals and substances, as well as manuals and guides on how to make weapons, ammunition and grenade launchers and a digital document titled 'How To Defend Yourself In Court'.

Wischhusen had an image of himself wearing a police uniform and carrying a gun on his phone.

After his arrest, the defendant alleged he bought the uniform online to 'get back' at Avon and Somerset Police staff who rejected an application by him in 2011 to become a volunteer officer, Mr Rees said.

Wischhusen denies having an explosive substance with intent to endanger life, having an explosive substance, possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, possessing ammunition with intent to endanger life and possessing a prohibited firearm without a certificate.

The trial continues.
Fifty-five Chinese sailors are feared dead after their nuclear submarine apparently got caught in a trap intended to ensnare British sub-surface vessels in the Yellow Sea.

According to a secret UK report the seamen died following a catastrophic failure of the submarine's oxygen systems which poisoned the crew.

The captain of the Chinese PLA Navy submarine '093-417' is understood to be among the deceased, as were 21 other officers.

Officially, China has denied the incident took place. It also appears Beijing refused to request international assistance for its stricken submarine.

Illustrative photo shows the Long, a nuclear submarine, during a naval parade in 2019. 55 reportedly died after a Chinese nuclear submarine got caught in a trap in the Yellow Sea

The UK report into the fatal mission reads: 'Intelligence reports that on 21st of August there was an onboard accident whilst carrying out a mission in the Yellow Sea.

Echoes of Kursk catastrophe More than 100 Russian sailors died following an explosion aboard their nuclear submarine the Kursk in August 2000. The Kremlin initially denied reports about the incident and declined assistance from Britain and Norway until it was too late to save those still alive inside the stricken vessel. The Kursk remains the biggest disaster in the history of submarines with the loss of 118 lives. It was on an exercise in the Barents Sea when one of its torpedoes exploded as the crew were preparing for a test launch. The blast caused more torpedoes to detonate and sent the submarine to the sea bed. Advertisement

'Incident happened at 08.12 local resulting in the death of 55 crew members: 22 officers, 7 officer cadets, 9 petty officers, 17 sailors. Dead include the captain Colonel Xue Yong-Peng.

'Our understanding is death caused by hypoxia due to a system fault on the submarine. The submarine hit a chain and anchor obstacle used by the Chinese Navy to trap US and allied submarines.

'This resulted in systems failures that took six hours to repair and surface the vessel. The onboard oxygen system poisoned the crew after a catastrophic failure.'

As yet there is no independent confirmation of the suspected loss of the Chinese submarine in the public domain.

Beijing has dismissed open source speculation about the incident as 'completely false' while Taiwan has also denied internet reports.

Mail Plus approached the Royal Navy to discuss the details contained in the UK report but official sources declined to comment or offer guidance.

The UK report, which is based on defence intelligence, is held at a high classification.

A British submariner offered this explanation: 'It is plausible that this occurred and I doubt the Chinese would have asked for international support for obvious reasons.

'If they were trapped on the net system and the submarine's batteries were running flat (plausible) then eventually the air purifiers and air treatment systems could have failed.

'Which would have reverted to secondary systems and subsequently and plausibly failed to maintain the air. Which led to asphyxia or poisoning.

'We have kit which absorbs co2 and generates oxygen in such a situation. It is probable that other nations do not have this kind of tech.'

Xi Jinping toasts leaders and guests during an anniversary celebration of the PRC on September 28. China has officially denied the incident with the Type 093 submarine happened

The Chinese Type 093 submarines entered service in the last 15 years. The vessels are 351ft-long and are armed with torpedoes.

The Type 093s are among China's more modern submarines and are known for their lower noise levels.

The sinking is understood to have taken place in waters off China's Shandong Province.
Shocking video has captured the moment a young girl encouraged by her mother steals from a woman's handbag during a mass in Honduras.

Surveillance footage shows the child reaching over the pew in front and taking what appears to be a cellphone at the Our Lady of Guadalupe church in the capital city of Tegucigalpa on Sunday.

The pair then immediately dart off together and head for the exit while their unsuspecting victim remains standing and observing the priest.

It is not clear whether the footage has yet been handed to police but the brazen flouting of the eighth commandment in church has drawn widespread condemnation.

'Stealing in the House of God,' one user wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

A girl and her mother (pictured right and second to the right in the third row) pretend to pay attention to a priest's lecture during a mass at the Our Lady of Guadalupe church in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Sunday moments before they robbed what seemed to be a cellphone from the bag of a woman (pictured in the middle second row)

A surveillance camera captures a young girl reaching into the bag of a woman to steal an item during the middle of a mass Sunday at the Our Lady of Guadalupe church in Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Another person casted blame on the young girl's mother for leading her down the wrong path.

'This can't happen, what's the example for our children,' they wrote.

'The place is the least important thing, here the terrible thing is to use a girl for this purpose and direct her towards crime,' another user on X commented. 'I hope the authorities proceed against those responsible.'

In the footage, the mother and the girl could be seen standing on the bench isle behind their intended target.

The girl was seen passing an item that appeared to be a cellphone moments after she took it out the handbag of a woman who was praying at the Our Lady of Guadalupe church in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Sunday

The child looks to the side as she follows her mother in their escape from the church after stealing from a woman's handbag

The girl held on to her mother and then leaned her hands on the bench while the woman and other churchgoers listened to the priest's lecture.

At one point she took advantage that the woman was holding her hands together in a praying position and reached over the bench and pulled the item out of the bag.

The child then slipped it to her mother before they hurried out of the church.

Honduran newspaper Tiempo reported that authorities have opened an investigation, but not arrests had been made as of Tuesday.

DailyMail.com reach out to Our Lady of Guadalupe for comment.
This is the bizarre moment a man who was shot by the rapper Blueface snapped a selfie with him after addressing the judge ahead of his sentencing.

Kentavious Traylor had been urging Judge Kathleen Delaney to hand down a tough sentence to Jonathan Porter - known by his stage name Blueface - after being shot by the 26-year-old at a strip club in Las Vegas last year.

At the end of his remarks at Clark County District Court, Traylor held up his phone and took a photo which captured his face and the rapper standing behind him.

Prosecutors initially charged Porter with attempted murder but a plea deal lowered the charges to battery and discharging a firearm at or into an occupied structure.

Delaney on Monday sentenced the hip-hop star to a maximum of three years of probation over the shooting at Euphoric Gentlemen's Club near Las Vegas Boulevard and Sunset Road in October 2022.

Kentavious Traylor claimed that he was attacked by associates of the rapper Blueface outside a Las Vegas strip club last year

Before the rapper's sentencing, however, Traylor was seen taking a selfie with him. The photo later made its way onto the internet

Blueface, born Johnathan Jamall Porter, was sentenced to three years' probation after shooting at Traylor's car in October 2022. A bullet grazed Traylor's hand

Traylor snapped a photo with half his face obscured, making sure to get Porter and his attorneys in the shot

Blueface started shooting after Traylor allegedly made a joke and commented about him 'speaking with some females in a cheap vehicle.'

A bullet grazed Traylors left hand.

In the bizarre courtroom footage, Traylor, wearing a purple t-shirt, raises his cellphone to snap a picture, then turns and ambles out of the courtroom while being escorted by an officer.

The photo was later posted online. Half of Traylor's face is obscured - Porter and his attorney Lisa Rasmussen stand directly in the center of the shot with blank expressions on their faces.

'I know people who get more time for stealing bubblegum, honestly. I know people who do more time for stealing TVs than they do for shooting somebody,' Traylor said moments before snapping the selfie.

Rasmussen had mentioned earlier that Traylor was involved in a separate argument the same night the shooting occurred.

She claimed he flashed a firearm at a group of people 'who he felt had aggrieved him in the fight,' causing them to jump back. He then 'sped into a group of people ended up hitting a woman and hitting other cars and then took off.'

According to Rasmussen, only then did Porter begin shooting.

'While I'm not here to minimize it in any way - it's dangerous, there is no doubt - but there is a lot from Mr. Traylor that led up to this,' the attorney said.

Traylor had claimed that men he believed were part of Porters entourage hit him; then, as he tried to get away in his truck, the men started shooting at him.

He began his testimony by railing against the justice system, claiming that he was 'completely disappointed in the process.'

Porter's attorney said Traylor was involved in a separate argument the same night the shooting occurred, where he flashed a gun before driving into a group of people

He said he had 'lost all faith in the justice system' and was 'completely disappointed in the process'

As part of his probation, Porter will have to avoid the Las Vegas Strip and the citys downtown area, unless it is for work-related purposes

Traylor said: 'This crime has done nothing but take a toll on my life since the day happened. I haven't been able to get work - everything has gone down the drain.

'I hate the way my name was ridiculed in the social media before I could even find out about it.'

He then commented: 'I know people - I know, myself included, would have more than that for domestic violence.'

His remarks prompted Judge Kathleen Delaney to assure him that she was not giving Porter any breaks 'because of his status.'

Traylor was then given the opportunity to stay in court for the sentencing, but he chose to leave.

He pulled out his phone, snapped the selfie, then turned to walk out, stone-faced.

Although the shooting occurred last October, Las Vegas police arrested Porter a month later.

Legal documents showed that he was charged with felony attempted murder with a deadly weapon. He faced an additional charge of discharging at/into an occupied structure.

His attorney, Kristina Wildeveld, noted 'a strange moment' during the hearing where Traylor took the infamous selfie and called it 'a first in our our decades of litigation advocacy'

The attempted murder charge was eventually dropped as part of the plea deal, with Porter pleading guilty to the second charge - along with battery - in July.

Rules of Porters probation forbid alcohol or drugs, the possession weapons, or contacting Traylor.

He will have to avoid the Las Vegas Strip and the citys downtown area, unless it is for work-related purposes.

Porters other attorney, Kristina Wildeveld, issued a statement reading, in part: 'We were pleased that the Court followed the negotiations of the parties in this matter Mr. Porter is ultimately just looking forward to getting back to focusing on his music career and moving forward with his life.'

She did note 'a strange moment' during the hearing.

'The complaining witness raised his phone to take a selfie with Mr. Porter from the lectern as he was finishing his victim impact statement,' she said.

'That was a first for us in our decades of litigation advocacy.'

The rapper's attorneys said he could earn a reduction to a gross misdemeanor charge after completing probation.

They also expect supervision to transfer to Los Angeles County, California.

Porters probation sentencing came just months after he was charged with felony robbery after grabbing a fan's cellphone as she allegedly tried to film his ex-girlfriend, Chrisean Rock.

A status hearing in that case is set for October 4.
An 11-year-old autistic boy was sexually assaulted at a Tenerife resort before his family chased the suspect out of the hotel when they saw the vile attack - which happened 'in the blink of an eye', according to reports.

The child, thought to be from Ireland, was playing with other kids at the hotel in the popular resort town of Costa Adeje when he was allegedly targeted.

During the attack, the suspect allegedly put his hands down the boys trousers and grabbed his genitals, The Sun reports.

It was caught on CCTV and happened in full view of the child's family, with a relative reportedly chasing the man away.

The suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is said to have been seen loitering around the hotel for a number of days beforehand.

The child, thought to be from Ireland, was playing with other kids at the hotel in the popular resort town of Costa Adeje when he was allegedly targeted (file image)

Spanish police have now arrested the man, who is said to be currently facing the courts in Tenerife over the incident.

A source told DublinLive: 'The family are shocked and appalled at what has happened. What was a lovely family holiday quickly turned into a holiday from hell.

'They are horrified the attack took place right in front of their eyes. One of the family members chased the man from the hotel.

'The last couple of days of their holiday was spent between the police station and the courthouse.

'They want to warn other families holidaying in Tenerife to keep an eye on their children at all times because this happened in the blink of an eye.'
Suella Braverman, who is now seen as a fronterunner to be the next Tory leader, is the daughter of immigrants who came to Britain in search of a better life and thrived.

The mother of two, 43, is of Indian ancestry. Her parents Uma and Christie Fernandes have Goan and Mauritian links, but emigrated to Britain in the 1960s from East Africa before setting up base in Harrow, north-west London.

Born in 1980, she was named Sue-Ellen by her mother, a fan of the US soap opera Dallas, which was huge at the time. But she was named Suella by primary school teachers who couldn't deal with the hyphen, and it stuck.

Mrs Fernandes, a nurse by profession, ensured politics was a part of family life. A Tory councillor for 16 years, she also stood unsuccessfully for Parliament herself in 2001 and 2003.

But her daughter could now lead the party itself - and perhaps the country - after a hardline speech on immigration and the state of the country that led to a standing ovation at the Conservative Party Conference.

Outside politics, Mrs Braverman has two children with her husband Rael, whom she married at the House of Commons in 2018.

The mother of two, 43, is of Indian ancestry. Her parents Uma and Christie Fernandes have Goan and Mauritian links, but emigrated to Britain in the 1960s from East Africa before setting up base in Harrow, north-west London.

In a red meat address to the party faithful the Home Secretary accused politicians of all shades of being too 'squeamish about being smeared as racist' to act on illegal immigration over the past 30 years.

And she used the example of her own parents - who were of Indian heritage but who arrived in Britain from east Africa - to paint a dire picture of the threat facing the UK.

Referencing a speech by former Conservative PM Harold Macmillan about the break up of the former British Empire, she said: 'The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming.'

In another crowd-pleasing announcement, Ms Braverman - who was greeted by a standing ovation in the hall in Manchester, vowed that sex offenders will no longer be able to change their name or gender to evade monitoring, while foreign offenders will be 'booted out' of Britain at the earliest opportunity.

Born in 1980, she was named Sue-Ellen after the character in Dallas played by Linda Gray. Her mother was a fan of the US soap opera, which was huge at the time. But she was named Suella by primary school teachers who couldn't deal with the hyphen, and it stuck.

She vowed to end the expensive use of hotels to house migrants and lashed out at trans rights and 'woke', attacking 'Keir ''take the knee'' Starmer'. She also blasted Labour over its links to Just Stop Oil.

She took on her critics - both in the Conservative Party and across politics, saying she was a hate figure because she tells the 'blunt, unvarnished truth'.

But in comments likely to cause controversy she accused her opponents of being elitist, with 'luxury views', adding: 'They like open borders. The migrants coming in won't be taking their jobs. In fact, they are more likely to have them mowing their lawns or cleaning their homes.

'They love soft sentences. The criminals who benefit from such ostentatious compassion won't be terrorising their streets or grooming their children.'

Mrs Braverman herself was an early adopter of Tory values, serving as president of the Cambridge University Conservative Association while studying law.

After two failed parliamentary runs, she was elected as MP for Fareham in Hampshire in 2015 and rose through the party ranks quickly.

Outside politics, Mrs Braverman has two children with her husband Rael, whom she married at the House of Commons in 2018.

She has faced questions over her involvement with the controversial Buddhist Triratna sect.

The Triratna order, formerly one of Buddhism's largest sects in the UK, has been the subject of historic sexual abuse allegations.

Mrs Braverman is believed to have attended meetings and retreats organised by the group, and was known as a 'mitra' - or friend - within the order.

Mrs Braverman is most rightwing Home Secretary of the modern era, a polarising figure in politics in general and even with the Conservative Party.

She rose to prominence a year ago when she ran to be party leader and was rewarded for a strong showing with one of the great offices of state by Liz Truss.

She was forced to resign over leaks of government documents to an ally which were sent to a civil servant by mistake, but was later brought back into the same role by Rishi Sunak as a gesture to the right of the party which had opposed him.

Since then she had has repeatedly hit the headlines, mainly for her hardline stance against immigration, but also for rallying against trans rights and 'woke'.

To her detractors she is the most extreme conservative in the government. To her supporters she is a plain-talking patriot unwilling to varnish the truth, even if it upsets people.

She is now seen as the leading rightwing candidate to replace Mr Sunak if the Tories are beaten by Labour at the next election.

The staunch Brexiteer served loyally in Boris Johnson's Cabinet as Attorney General, even winning a change in the law to allow her to take maternity leave and return - something no holder of a Cabinet role had previously done.

She was later appointed to replace Priti Patel as home secretary.

Her hardline approach to immigration had courted controversy - and complaints from other Tory MPs in recent days. Last week she used a speech to a US thinktank to say the 'misguided dogma of multiculturalism' was posing an 'existential threat' to the West, and refugee rules drawn up after the Second World War needed reform.

She also suggested that someone who faced persecuted for being gay should not necessarily qualify for refugee status.
A Brooklyn baby girl has died three months after being returned to the care of her abusive parents, a couple who'd lost custody of her after taking her to the hospital when she was three-weeks-old with broken ankles, a fractured skull and a brain hemorrhage.

Ella Vitalis, one, was pronounced dead on September 20 at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, five days after her parents Lafayette Browne, 29, and Johnson Vitalis, 28, called 911 claiming she'd choked while her father was feeding her.

De Blasio-appointed Judge Erik Pitchal allowed the girl to return to her parents

She had blunt force injuries on her head, bruising and cuts on her forehead and she had swollen eyes.

Doctors also noticed what looked like bite marks, and she appeared to have a broken jaw.

Her mother claimed it was all the result of her drinking 'too much milk'. Details of her death and the horrific abuse she suffered beforehand were today exposed by The New York Times.

Neither of her parents has been charged or arrested, but the NYPD confirmed to DailyMail.com that the child's death is being investigated as a homicide.

The couple had only just regained custody of her, bringing her home on June 15 after De Blasio-appointed Judge Erik Pitchal signed off on them living together again.

They had been separated for a year because in August 2022, doctors took note of Ella's severe injuries when she was just three weeks old. Her parents had brought her and her older brother, Liam, to the hospital after police were called to their apartment on a domestic disturbance call.

She and Liam entered the foster care system but their father was allowed to have visits with them.

The girl was found unresponsive in an apartment in this building in Brooklyn on September 15

In September, a month after the incident that separated them, Johnson left the baby - then only one month old - with a bloodied mouth during a visit that was supposed to be supervised by his mother, Elsa.

It was so severe that a doctor ruled a sharp object must have been used to cause the 'moderate' amount of blood loss.

In June this year, Judge Pitchal agreed to let the child live with her parents again despite the harrowing history of abuse.

Between June and September, when Ella died, the parents failed to bring her to a single check-in appointment.

Ella was on life support for five days before she was pronounced dead.

She suffered a brain bleed from a skull fracture.

Now, there are growing questions over why Judge Pitchal thought the parents were fit to take her home.

Judge Pitchal, a Yale graduate who was appointed to the bench in 2013.

The Brooklyn Family Court where he works did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

The New York City Administration of Child Services, which had requested for the children to stay in foster care, did not respond either.

One of their representatives told the Times deciding where to place a child was not 'an exact science'.

It remains unclear if Liam, the other child, is still being looked after by the couple.

A male relative declined to comment on the case when reached by DailyMail.com on Tuesday.
A six-year-old special needs girl was found walking near a highway in Texas by a homeless man after she was sent home from school in the wrong group.

Serenity Polk, who is deaf, was wrongly sent home on Thursday from Lantrip Elementary School in Houston with kids that walk when she is supposed to be in the car-rider group.

The little girl was discovered an hour later wandering a mile away from her school on the busy I-45 feeder road by a homeless man who was alarmed to see the child child walking around a highway entrance all alone.

Her mom Mercedes Polk, 40, is furious with the school and claims 'nonchalant' teachers did not seem alarmed when they told her Serenity had gone missing.

'The teachers kept giving me excuses that they were looking for her within the school,' she told Fox 26.

Serenity Polk, 6, was found wandering alone around a busy Texas highway by a homeless man who stands by the highway entrance after her school sent her home with the wrong group

Serenity has special needs because she is deaf in both ears and has problems with her vision

Serenity's mother Mercedes Polk, 40, had arrived at Lantrip Elementary early for pick up on the Thursday to discover her little girl was not there

'They were saying she might be at the playground. She might be in the bathroom, but it was over an hour. So I started freaking out even more.'

Staff at the school had placed the deaf child in the wrong line at pick up time, despite the students being organized into specific groups by different colored badges.

The homeless man managed to return the little girl to safety after finding and calling the school based on the uniform Serenity was wearing.

Polk said her daughter was hysterically crying and shivering when they were finally reunited. Serenity told her mother she tried to walk all the way home - a 30 minute drive - after being put in the wrong group.

She told Fox: 'A homeless man that holds the sign right there on Cullen and I-45 found my daughter. He contacted the school. The school went to go get her. She wouldn't get in the car with them.

'So the school contacted the police. She wouldn't get in the car with the police and that's when they called me. All that time I thought my daughter was in the school building.'

Serenity had been put in the wrong group for pick up at the end of the day - she was supposed to be driven home but she was sent with the walking group

Polk had been trying to get the school to let her daughter to ride on the special needs bus since she had started at the Texas elementary school

Polk said: 'I didn't know if she was raped, murdered, kidnapped, hit by a car' and shared that her daughter was crying hysterically when they were finally reunited

Polk told the Houston Chronicle: 'I have been fighting for my daughter to ride the special needs bus since we started school.

'If they would have done what they were supposed to do by accommodating my baby with transportation...I don't think any of this would have happened.'

Dr. Candice Matthews of the New Black Panther Party said: 'It could have been something catastrophic that could have happened to this child on the feeder road of I-45 or the expressway of I-45. This child could have lost her life.'

Polk said: 'I didn't know if she was raped, murdered, kidnapped, hit by a car.'

The school said that the employee responsible for the serious mistake was a substitute teacher.

The incident is being investigated by Child Protective Services.
A Pentagon official has been charged with running a dogfighting ring for more than 20 years that saw animals electrocuted after grim battles held at his home.

Frederick Douglass Moorefield Jr., a deputy chief information officer in the Department of Defense, hosted gamblers at his property in Arnold, Maryland, according to court documents.

He was arrested Thursday along with his friend Mario Damon Flythe, 49.

During a search of Moorefield's home, investigators found five pit-bull type dogs in cages, bloodstained walls and furniture and a set of jumper cables that were allegedly used to electrocute surviving dogs after fights.

Police also found an apparatus used for involuntarily inseminating female dogs, veterinary medicine including an anabolic steroid and Moorefield's iPhone which contained messages consistent with his involvement in dogfighting.

Frederick Douglass Moorefield Jr., a deputy chief information officer in the Department of Defense, hosted gamblers at his property in Arnold, Maryland, according to court documents

During a search of Moorefield's home, authorities found five pit-bull type dogs in cages

According to the affidavit, Moorefield, Flythe and their associates used encrypted messaging applications to discuss training the animals, exchanging grim videos and laying down bets.

Moorefield used the name 'Geehad Kennels' and Flythe used the name 'Razor Sharp Kennels' to identify their respective dogfighting operations.

During the search of Moorefield's home they found a weighted vest with 'Geehad Kennels' on it and a training schedule.

They observed dark stains on the walls of the basement that appeared to be dog blood and large wooden panels with similar stains and dog hair.

During the search they recovered a section of grey carpet with dark stains consistent with blood stains from multiple dog fights.

Authorities seized seven pit-bull type dogs from Flythe's Glen Burnie home. During their search they found dogfighting paraphernalia including weighted collars and a carpet mill.

Court documents state that during the search of Flythe's home he admitted to participating in dogfighting in the past.

Investigators found bloodstained walls and furniture at Moorefield's house of horrors

Authorities found a device consisting of jumper cables attached to an electrical plug with blood and dog hair on them. They said the device is used to kill dogs after they lost a fight

While searching Flythe's home they seized seven pit-bull type dogs. Flythe

The affidavit written by FBI Special Agent Ryan C. Daly indicated they have been investigating a dogfighting ring which called itself 'the DMV Board,' for years.

Nine members in the ring were indicted in Virginia last year and as part of their cooperation showed authorities Telegram app messages between members of the ring.

Investigators also found the dogfighters used an online site to the pedigrees of their fighting dogs.

Entries on the website found dogs claimed to be owned by Moorefields alias 'Geehad Kennels' dating back to 2002.

In November 2018, Anne Arundel County Animal Control responded to a report of two dead dogs in a plastic dog food bag.

Upon investigation, authorities found mail inside the bags addressed to Moorefield and wounds and scarring patterns on the dogs that were consistent with dog fighting.

LCDR Tim Gorman, spokesperson for the Office of the Secretary of Defense said the department is aware of the matter.

'We can confirm that the individual is no longer in the workplace, but we cannot comment further on an individual personnel matter,' said Gorman.
Police have launched a murder investigation after a 22-year-old man was stabbed to death in Brixton.

The victim was killed on Coldharbour Lane in the London district outside a row of shops between Valentia Road and Gresham Road just before 5pm today.

Police and paramedics rushed to the area where they tried to resuscitate the man who tragically died at the scene.

Officers said they received reports of a stabbing at 4.44pm today and were assisted by London Ambulance Service as they helped the man who had been stabbed.

A Met Police spokesperson told MailOnline: 'Work is ongoing to identify and inform his next of kin. At this early stage there has been no arrest.

Police have launched a murder investigation after a 22-year-old man was stabbed to death in Brixton

The man was killed on Coldharbour Lane in the London district outside a row of shops between Valentia Road and Gresham Road just before 5pm today

Police and paramedics rushed to the area where they tried to resuscitate the man who died at the scene

The stabbing happened near a row of shops in Brixton, London earlier today

'A crime scene is in place and officers remain on scene. Anyone who witnessed this incident or has information or footage should call police on 101 or 'X' @MetCC quoting 5530/3OCT.

'To remain 100% anonymous call the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or visit Crimestoppers-uk.org.'

According to MyLondon, an eyewitness said there were multiple emergency service vehicles at the scene while police tape was put up across Coldharbour Lane.
Russian State television has hailed Elon Musk as a 'Muscovite' and suggested he 'really is our agent' after the billionaire posted a meme ridiculing Volodymr Zelensky.

The meme, posted to Musk's X social media site, showed a manipulated image of the Ukrainian leader with a strained face and the caption: 'When it's been 5 minutes and you haven't asked for a billion dollars in aid'.

The photoshopped image, mocking Zelensky's pleas for wartime assistance as the future of US aid to Kyiv hangs in the balance, is likely to escalate Musk's feud with Ukraine.

The action won accolades from Russia however, with state TV presenter Olga Skabeyeva describing the tech mogul as 'Elon the Muscovite' on Russia-1 on Monday.

'Elon Musk is magnificent, he is wonderful and perhaps he really is our agent,' she said while discussing war 'fatigue' in the US following the US congressional bill passed to avoid a shutdown that omitted aid to Ukraine.

Elon Musk escalated his feud with Ukraine with a tweet (pictured) mocking the country's president Volodymyr Zelensky for his pleas for wartime assistance

Russia state TV presenter Olga Skabeyeva (pictured) describing the tech mogul as 'Elon the Muscovite' on Russia-1 on Monday

'Only recently, it was impossible to even imagine anything like this,' she said.

'Unless something changes in the next 45 days, the United States will certainly stop helping' Kyiv, added Skabeyeva, describing Ukraine as 'a walking corpse.'

'Elon Musk is magnificent he is wonderful. Perhaps Elon Musk really is our agent' Skabeyeva told her audience.

Musk, who owns Space X which is providing Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraine's defense effort, has increasingly angered Kyiv with seemingly anti-Ukraine actions and rhetoric.

Ukrainian officials criticised Musk earlier in the war for suggesting that they should consider giving up land for peace, a position that Kyiv has staunchly rejected.

On its official page on X, Ukraine's parliament accused Musk of spreading Russian propaganda, posting its own version of the 'strained face' meme with a picture of Musk and the caption: 'When it's been 5 minutes and you haven't spread Russian propaganda'.

Mariana Betsa, ambassador of Ukraine to Estonia, accused Musk of lacking empathy, pointing to the thousands Ukrainian of civilians killed in Russia's invasion of her home country.

'Elon, dont you have empathy? Ukrainians are killed daily by Russia. We are fighting for our lives, for our families, for our country, for our freedom #StandWithUkraine,' she wrote on X.

Zelensky visited the United States in September and met top officials in Washington in a bid to secure further aid. Pictured: Zelensky and Biden in the Oval Office, September 21

Musk also owns SpaceX , which provides Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraine's defence effort

Kyiv was quick to hit back at the billionaire, posting a derisive reply of its own. On its official page on X, Ukraine's parliament accused Musk of spreading Russian propaganda, posting its own version of the meme with a picture of Musk and the caption: 'When it's been 5 minutes and you haven't spread Russian propaganda'

Roman Sheremeta, a Ukrainian academic, wrote that he one admired the Tesla CEO, 'but he became a mouthpiece of the Russian propaganda and just indecent human being.'

The meme was not the only time Musk commented on Ukraine over the weekend.

On Friday, commenting on the US funding situation, Musk wrote on X: 'Why do so many American politicians from both parties care 100 times more about the Ukraine border than the USA border?'

Zelensky visited the United States in September and met top officials in Washington in a bid to secure further aid as Kyiv pushes forward with its counteroffensive.

However, over the weekend, aid for Ukraine was omitted from a stopgap funding measure passed by the US Congress to avert a US government shutdown.

The US has been the largest single donor to Ukraine since Russia's full invasion last year, giving tens of billions of dollars in military and financial aid.

But the dropping of the $6billion funding from the bill will be of concern to Ukraine and its allies, amid fears cracks are appearing in the West over its support for Kyiv.

Ukraine is already nervously eyeing the possibility of a return to the White House by Republican former president Donald Trump, who has previously praised Putin.

President Joe Biden has attempted to reassure Kyiv it will get the funding it needs.
Hospice Medical Director Sentenced for $150 Million Hospice Fraud Scheme

A hospice medical director was sentenced yesterday to four years and two months in prison for his role in a scheme that involved the submission of over $150 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for hospice and other health care services.

According to court documents, from 2009 to 2018, Jesus Virlar-Cadena, 52, served as the medical director of the Merida Group, a large health care company that operated dozens of locations throughout Texas. Evidence at the trial of co-defendants Rodney Mesquias, Henry McInnis, and Francisco Pena, showed that the Merida Group marketed their hospice programs through a group of companies known as the Merida Group. They enrolled patients with long-term incurable diseases, such as Alzheimers and dementia, as well as patients with limited mental capacity who lived at group homes, nursing homes, and in housing projects. In some instances, Merida Group marketers falsely told patients they had less than six months to live. They also sent chaplains to the patients based on the false pretense they were near death.

In order to bill Medicare for these services, the Merida Group hired Virlar and other medical directors, but made payment of their medical director fees contingent upon an agreement to certify unqualified patients for hospice. In addition to regular medical director payments, Virlar received luxury trips, bottle service at exclusive nightclubs, and other perks in exchange for his certification of unnecessary hospice patients. In exchange for these illegal kickbacks, Virlar himself certified over $18 million in unnecessary hospice services as part of the over $150 million conspiracy.

Mesquias was previously sentenced to 20 years in prison and McInnis was previously sentenced to 15 years in prison. Pena passed away before sentencing.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas, Special Agent in Charge Jason E. Meadows of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), and Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBIs Criminal Investigative Division made the announcement.

HHS-OIG, the FBI, and Texas Health and Human Services Commission investigated the case.

Principal Assistant Chief Jacob Foster and former Trial Attorney Kevin Lowell of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Swartz for the Southern District of Texas prosecuted the case.

This story has been published on: 2023-10-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Waters Calls for New Flag Honoring Black Americans

NEWS PROVIDED BYOct. 3, 2023NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Oct. 3, 2023 / Standard Newswire / -- Matt Waters, GOP nominee for newly created Virginia House District 70, called for the Virginia State Seal and Flag to be modified to include an African American woman.Waters said, "I have always thought our Virginia flag, featuring a female figure personifying the Roman virtue of Virtus was lacking. Unlike Black Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson who could not define what a woman is, our flag can and should do so. And I'm not the first to say so. In fact, acknowledging that the state seal lacked "artistic grace and beauty," and more specifically that the seal looked like a man, back in 1901 the secretary of the commonwealth decided to expose a breast in order to confirm the image on our flag was a woman. That didn't solve the problem, and some would argue it made the situation worse as we're the only flag in the union to have nudity on it. We can fix both problems by adding an African American woman to our flag who looks like a woman at first glance, and who is fully clothed."The addition of an African American woman to our state seal would make Virginia the first state in the union to feature an African American. There are many white Americans, and many Native Americans, but no African Americans."Make no mistake, this flag is not based on Critical Race Theory. It is based on truth. The first Patriot to die for our freedom was a freed-black man Crispus Attucks, at the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. After his death, over 5,000 Black Patriots fought in the Revolutionary War to procure our Independence from Great Britain. Black Americans fought against tyranny, and it's only fitting to recognize their great contributions in the fight for liberty."Adding an image of a Black woman representing Virtue defeating Tyranny--symbolized by the Royal Crown of Great Britain laying, defeated, under Virtue, highlights the contributions Black Americans made to the birth of the Republic."Matt Waters added, "The rendition I have offered is only a starting point. Unlike the immoral take down of statues on Monument Avenue and National Statuary Hall in Washington, as well as the partisan political attacks on VMI and our local Community Colleges, I will seek the input of Virginians before any change is made on our state seal and flag, or any monument or college. I believe the people of Virginia should have an opportunity to weigh in. Let the people decide."Matt Waters is the Republican Nominee for newly created House District 70 in Newport News, VA. Waters is running against Del. Shelly Simonds (D). For more information contact 757-713-2594 or visit MattWaters.com.SOURCE Waters for DelegateCONTACT: 757-713-2594
A severe drought in Brazil's Amazon region has killed at least 120 dolphins since last week.

Environmental experts now fear that many more are likely to die if water temperatures remain high throughout the area.

The latest dolphin deaths were reported Monday when researchers with the Mamiraua Institute, a research group with Brazils Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, discovered two around Tefe Lake.

'We have documented 120 carcasses in the last week,' said Miriam Marmontel, a researcher with the Mamiraua Institute, which focuses on the mid-Solimoes river basin.

A researcher with Brazil's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation inspects one of about 120 dolphins who have died since last week in the Tefe River, located in the state of Amazonas. The Amazon region, the largest freshwater reserve in the world, has been impacted by a severe draught which officials predict could last until January

Birds gather around a dolphin's carcass on the shore of the Tefe Lake in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, which may be dealing with a historic drought

A general view of the Tefe Lake effluent of the Solimoes river that has been affected by the high temperatures and drought in Tefe

Last Thursday, scientists found at least 70 carcasses due to rising temperatures on the Tefe Lake with heat climbing as high as 102 degrees Fahrenheit, about 18 degrees higher the average at this time of the year.

The mercury dropped Friday and Saturday, before soaring to 99 degrees, increasing concert among researchers.

Scientists are not certain that the drought and heat is to blame for the spike in dolphin mortality.

However, they have been looking into discarding other causes, such as a bacterial infection that could have killed the dolphins on a lake formed by the Tefe River before it runs into the Amazon.

The Amazon river dolphins, many of a striking pink color, are a unique freshwater species found only in the rivers of South America and are one of a handful of freshwater dolphin species left in the world. Slow reproductive cycles make their populations especially vulnerable to threats.

Roughly eight of every 10 carcasses are pink dolphins, called 'botos' in Brazil. According to Marmontel, that represents almost 10% of their estimated population in the lake.

Researchers from the Mamiraua Institute for Sustainable Development analyse a dead dolphin recovered from the Tefe Lake,

Researchers from the Mamiraua Institute for Sustainable Development carry a dead dolphin

A dead dolphin, one of at least 120 that have been found dead in the Tefe lake, is recovered by researchers

The International Union for Conservation of Nature has the boto and the gray river dolphin, known as the 'tucuxi,' on its red list of endangered species.

The lake had close to 1,400 river dolphins as of two weeks ago, according to Marmontel.

'Ten percent is a very high percentage of loss, and the possibility that it will increase could threaten the survival of the species in Lake Tefe,' she said.

In an effort to save dolphins and remove them from the lake, Brazil's Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation has dispatched veterinarians and aquatic mammal experts.

Researchers from the Mamiraua Institute for Sustainable Development retrieve a dead dolphin from Tefe Lake

Mamiraua Institute for Sustainable Development estimates that there were 1,200 dolphins about two weeks ago and that at least 120 carcasses have been located in the last seven days

But they still won't be able to transfer to cooler river waters until researchers rule out a bacteriological cause of the deaths.

The severe drought has also affected Tefe's 60,000 residents. The city government has been unable to deliver food to some of its isolated, poor communities because the waterways have dried up.

Amazonas Governor Wilson Lima to declare a state of emergency last Friday because of the drought.

'Many communities are becoming isolated, without access to good quality water, without access to the river, which is their main means of transportation,' said Ayan Fleischmann, the Geospatial coordinator at the Mamiraua Institute.

Brazil's Civil Defense said the drought could affect up to 500,000 people in the Amazon.
A 50-year-old grandmother has been fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver in Los Angeles.

Adriana Sanchez was walking her two dogs around 6am in North Hills when the vehicle hit her and her two dogs.

She was struck in a marked crosswalk and taken to the hospital by medical personal from the Los Angeles Fire Department, where she later died.

Sanchez's daughter Naomi Hidalgo was heartbroken and determined to find the driver responsible.

'I still feel like it was a dream. Like, she was the glue that held this whole family together,' Hidalgo told KTLA.

CCTV footage showed Sanchez walk her dogs Rocky and Charlie early Monday morning, just before she was struck and killed in a North Hills crosswalk

Adriana Sanchez was walking her two dogs around 6am in North Hills when the vehicle hit her and her two dogs

Sanchez's family have a strong feeling that somebody witnessed the incident as they said that intersection is notoriously busy

The cops have no leads on the vehicle description or a driver description and have since announced a $50,000 reward to anyone who has any valuable information.

Hidalgo and her cousin have taken matters into their own hands by been canvasing the area to see if anyone saw or has any relevant footage from the deadly incident.

'I think it's really unfair. You just took a person's life away and you don't care, you didn't even have the courage to pull over, nothing, to even stop at the stop sign.

'I really just hope they catch whoever it is and we're going to work on that. We're going to make sure that we catch them,' said Hidalgo.

The two dogs, Rocky and Charlie were also hit by the driver but managed to run back home after it happened.

Rocky suffered a cut near his eye and had traces of tire marks on his hind leg.

Sanchez's family have a strong feeling that somebody witnessed the incident as they said that intersection is notoriously busy.

'My mom was so loved. She was such a free spirit... She was the greatest grandma in the world. She loved my kids. So it's really heartbreaking to see somebody just rip all that away in a matter of seconds,' Hidalgo told ABC 7.

She also added that her mother loved to hike, dance, and most importantly loved her family.

Sanchez's daughter Naomi Hidalgo was heartbroken and determined to find the driver responsible. 'I still feel like it was a dream. Like, she was the glue that held this whole family together,' Hidalgo told KTLA

Derek Thompson, a resident who has lived there for decades told KTLA that speeding is a common problem in that area

'I know somebody saw something, somebody knows something. Just please come forward, any information - anything you saw, anything helps. We want justice for her. We want this person to be caught,' Hidalgo said.

Derek Thompson, a resident who has lived there for decades told KTLA that speeding is a common problem in that area.

As he said this, another car sped by behind him as he pointed at it and said: 'Look, listen.'

The intersection is known to be full of dog walkers like Sanchez, with a school in the nearby area.

LAPD urge anyone with any information to contact their detectives as soon as possible or leave an anonymous tip.

'Motorists are reminded that if they become involved in a collision, they should pull over and stop as soon as it is safe to do so, notify emergency services, and remain at the scene to identify themselves,' police told KTLA.
Kemi Badenoch tonight admitted that speculation over her Tory leadership ambitions is a 'problem' as she called for the party to focus on defeating Labour.

The Business and Trade Secretary heard pleas from party members to mount a new challenge for the leadership during a fringe event at the Conservative conference.

The 43-year-old ran for the Tory crown last summer following Boris Johnson's resignation as prime minister and won the backing of Michael Gove.

She ended up finishing fourth behind Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt but did not mount a fresh leadership bid when Ms Truss resigned as prime minister last October.

Ms Badenoch revived thoughts of her one day taking charge of the Tories after a rousing conference speech in Manchester yesterday.

But, although she did not rule out a future tilt at the leadership, she demanded the party 'stop messing around' as she spoke at a Spectator event tonight.

Kemi Badenoch tonight heard pleas from party members to mount a new challenge for the leadership during a fringe event at the Conservative conference

The Business and Trade Secretary revived thoughts of her one day taking charge of the Tories after a rousing conference speech in Manchester yesterday

The Cabinet minister warned that Britain will end up with 'zombie' politicians if they cannot openly share their views without it being viewed as a leadership pitch.

Urged by one party member to confirm she would stand for the leadership if Mr Sunak loses the general election, Ms Badenoch quipped: 'That's a very helpful question, thank you!

She added: 'I know the leadership speculation will go on and is interesting, but actually the Prime Minister we have... is an unbeliveably clever, an unbelievably hardworking person who's vision for the country is going to deliver.

'We've got to get behind him. Labour are coming for us, we need to stop messing around and get focused on winning the next election and save as many of my colleagues as possible.'

Mrs Badenoch said the speculation about her ambitions was 'a problem' because 'it makes people think that you are not being a team player and you are doing stuff for yourself when actually the complete opposite is true'.

She acknowledged that Mr Sunak himself faced the same troubles when he was Chancellor.

'He understands it, he totally gets it,' Ms Badenoch added.

She said the media had become 'addicted to the high octane drama' of the Brexit days, with comments 'interpreted in the worst possible way to show a friction that really isn't there'.

'Sometimes we have different opinions, it doesn't mean we're fighting, it doesn't mean we don't like each other - we're just talking out loud about how we think things should be done,' she continued.

'I think we need more space to do that, without making out that everyone has got a leadership ambition.

'If you want your politicians to be honest and not just be automatons or zombies, then you're going to have to give us a break so we can actually say what you want to hear, and get the debate out there and have the argument.'

'We want you Kemi!,' someone shouted from the audience, as Ms Badenoch was asked about her status as a favourite among Tory members.

The self-styled culture wars poster girl with 'zero tolerance of bull****': How Kemi Badenoch's proud Nigerian roots have seen her rise from McDonald's worker to City banker to Cabinet minister who is now waging war on woke

Kemi Badenoch has continued her 'war on woke' at the Tory conference this week as the Business and Trade Secretary takes the fight to Labour on identity politics.

The mother-of-three delivered a rousing speech to Conservative members in Manchester, as she cemented her place as a 'darling of the Right' in the party.

She warned that advocates of identity politics are seeking to 're-racialise' society and claimed Labour want to 'bend the knee before this altar of intolerance'.

Ms Badenoch, who is of Nigerian heritage, spoke of how she tells her children that Britain is 'the best country in the world to be black  because it's a country that sees people, not labels'.

The 43-year-old's conference speech will revive thoughts among the Tories' grassroots of Ms Badenoch being a future party leader.

Kemi Badenoch has continued her 'war on woke ' at the Tory conference this week as the Business and Trade Secretary takes the fight to Labour on identity politics

The mother-of-three delivered a rousing speech to Conservative members in Manchester, as she cemented her place as a 'darling of the Right' in the party

The 43-year-old's conference speech will revive thoughts among the Tories ' grassroots of Ms Badenoch being a future party leader

She ran for the Tory leadership last summer and took part in an ITV debate alongside other rival contenders Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss

She ran for the Tory leadership last summer following Boris Johnson's resignation as prime minister and won the backing of Michael Gove.

But she ended up finishing fourth behind Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt.

The surprise nature of Ms Badenoch's strong leadership campaign saw her land a Cabinet job, as international trade secretary, in Ms Truss's government.

She has since combined that role with the business brief in Mr Sunak's administration.

Mr Gove once said of her: 'She has zero tolerance of bull**** and she doesnt want to ingratiate. I have rarely seen someone so on top of her brief.'

Her elevation to the top rank of government marked a long journey from her childhood in the US and Nigeria.

She has previously revealed how - despite being part of a middle class family in the west African country - that still meant 'periods of poverty' and 'having no running water or electricity, sometimes taking your own chair to school'.

In her maiden speech as an MP in 2017, she told the House of Commons there was 'lot that Africa can teach us'.

But she also detailed the experience she had of 'real poverty' while growing up in Nigeria.

'Growing up in Nigeria I saw real povertyI experienced it, including living without electricity and doing my homework by candlelight, because the state electricity board could not provide power,' she said in 2017.

'And fetching water in heavy, rusty buckets from a borehole a mile away, because the nationalised water company could not get water out of the taps.

'Unlike many colleagues born since 1980, I was unlucky enough to live under socialist policies. It is not something I would wish on anyone, and it is just one of the reasons why I am a Conservative.'

Ms Badench, pictured last year on a visit to McDonald's, worked for the restaurant chain while putting herself through college in south London while living with family friends

The married mother-of-three, pictured in the kitchen with one of her two daughters in 2017, grew up between Nigeria, the US and the UK and is known for her 'anti-woke' views

Ms Badenoch pictured with her husband Hamish and Theresa May. Hamish is an investment banker and a former Tory councillor

Ms Badenoch was born in south-west London after her Nigerian parents came to the UK so her mother could receive medical treatment. Pictured, Kemi Badenoch (second from left) with (l-r) her brother, Fola, Kemi, her sister Lola and mother, Feyi

Ms Badenoch won the Saffron Walden constituency for the Tories at the 2017 general election. She is pictured with her baby in a carrier as she is sworn in as an MP in the House of Commons

Ms Badenoch was part of Rishi Sunak's ministerial team at the Treasury when the now-PM was Chancellor

Michael Gove once said of her: 'She has zero tolerance of bull**** and she doesnt want to ingratiate. I have rarely seen someone so on top of her brief.'

A place on the London Assembly became available for Ms Badenoch in 2015, which she retained at a City Hall election a year later

Ms Badenoch was born in Wimbledon, south west London, but moved to Lagos as a very young baby before returning to Britain again at the age of 16.

She worked in McDonald's while putting herself through college in south London while living with family friends.

'I had a roof over my head, but I needed to earn to live,' she told The Times last year.

'Theres a dignity that you just get from working and earning your own money.'

She later studied engineering at Sussex University and has spoken of once being once the only woman on a building site with 300 men.

Ms Badenoch's pre-politics career also included a law degree from the University of London, as well as stints at Coutts bank and the Spectator magazine as head of digital.

She first ran to be an MP at the 2010 general election but came third behind Labour and the Liberal Democrats in the Dulwich and West Norwood constituency.

A place on the London Assembly later became available for Ms Badenoch in 2015, which she retained at a City Hall election a year later.

She then won her seat in the House of Commons when she secured the Saffron Walden constituency at the 2017 general election.

Ms Badenoch is a committed Brexiteer and has been unafraid to take on 'culture war' issues.

'I always lean right instinctively,' she has previously told the ConservativeHome website.

She currently holds the Women and Equalities brief in Cabinet, alongside her business and trade role.

Earlier this year, Ms Badenoch tasked Britain's equalities watchdog with looking at whether legislation should be updated to make clear that 'sex' refers to 'biological sex'.

She is married to Hamish Badenoch, an investment banker, and the couple have two daughters and a son.

Ms Badenoch has revealed she is a keen chess and poker player, an avid reader of Terry Pratchett novels and has a love for sci-fi.
It's the first time in American history lawmakers have removed a Speaker

Kevin McCarthy has been sensationally ousted as Speaker of the House in a historic vote sparked by a tumultuous civil war in the Republican party.

A motion to vacate the speaker's chair was adopted 216 to 210, with eight Republicans joining Democrats to boot the House leader.

McCarthy, R-Calif., became the first Speaker in the 234-year history of the United States Congress to be kicked out and have his gavel taken away by fellow lawmakers.

McCarthy ally Rep. Patrick McHenry, chair of the Financial Services Committee, has been named as the interim Speaker, but now the GOP will launch a marathon bid to pick a successor while in turmoil.

The House is now in recess while Republicans decide on their next move to elect a leader.

McCarthy is swarmed by reporters after a vote to oust him from the speaker's chair

Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz leaves the House floor after his motion to vacate ousted the speaker

The humiliating end for McCarthy, 58, sent shockwaves across Capitol Hill and secured his title as the shortest-serving Speaker since 1875, following a rollercoaster tenure of nine months.

It came after a rebellion led by his nemesis, Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, and a small group of hardline Republicans who viewed McCarthy as a weak conservative.

McCarthy was seen shaking hands and hugging his supporters on the House floor after the stinging loss. His name could be put up for speaker again in subsequent battles.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina stunned her colleagues by voting to boot McCarthy from leadership.

The free-wheeling congresswoman said her vote was about 'trust.'

'It's not ideological. It's about having a leader in our nation who will tell the truth, who you can trust,' she told DailyMail.com. 'I am looking for a speaker who will tell the truth.'

But in January she tweeted that Gaetz is a 'fraud' for his McCarthy opposition.

Kevin McCarthy has been sensationally ousted as Speaker of the House in a historic vote sparked by a tumultuous civil war in the Republican party

The GOP leader's tenure came crashing down, nine months after he was elected after an unprecedented 15 rounds of votes.

Republicans were left reeling as they tried to stave off a potential government shutdown next month.

McCarthy's supporters called him a 'happy warrior' with 'true American grit'.

But, speaking on the House floor, Gaetz said: Chaos is speaker McCarthy. Chaos is somebody who we cannot trust with their word.

'One thing that the White House, House Democrats, and many of us on the conservative side of the Republican caucus would argue is that the thing we have in common - Kevin McCarthy said something to all of us at one point or another that he didn't really mean and never intended to live up to.

'I don't think voting against Kevin McCarthy is chaos. I think $33 trillion in debt is chaos. I think that facing a $2.2 trillion annual deficit is chaos.

He added: 'Let's get on with it, lets vacate the chair, let's get a better Speaker.'

McCarthy's supporters booed and jeered at Gaetz as he tore into the Speaker ahead of the vote that officially removed him.

Republicans control the chamber by a narrow 221-212 majority, meaning it took only a handful of defections to remove McCarthy.

It came after a rebellion led by his nemesis, Florida congressman Matt Gaetz , and a small group of hardline Republicans who viewed McCarthy as a weak conservative

Steve Scalise was one of the Republicans who came out in support of McCarthy

McCarthy's supporters called him a 'happy warrior' with 'true American grit'

Gaetz and his allies criticized McCarthy for relying on Democratic votes to pass temporary funding that headed off a partial government shutdown last week.

They also said he had not pushed hard enough to cut spending, and was too willing to send money to Ukraine.

The anti-McCarthy Republicans have not coalesced around one alternative they'd like to put up for speaker. Gaetz has noted that the speaker does not even have to be a member of the House.

The Florida Republican said he 'absolutely does not' want the top job - and floated a number of names - including members of McCarthy's own leadership team like Steve Scalise and Tom Emmer. He even suggested he 'might call up' for New York GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told reporters there are 'plenty of people' who good do the job better than McCarthy. Gaetz said Monday night he'd like to see Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who is battling blood cancer, in the role, but seemed open to other options.

Burchett also said he wanted a speaker who didn't want the job so badly.

He said last week he had a conversation with McCarthy, 'the last thing he said was I really wanna be speaker. And I think that sums up the whole thing  its not about one person.'

But McCarthy's allies could continue to put him up for speaker again.

'I think Kevin McCarthy should take a hint after 15 ballots to become speaker after eight months of a failed speakership and after removal in this historic manner,' Gaetz said on that prospect.

Former President Trump seemed to disapprove of the drama playing out in Congress' lower chamber.

'Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves, why arent they fighting the Radical Left Democrats who are destroying our Country?'
An Australian shopper has demanded supermarkets restrict access for older customers to a 'boomer hour' because they take up too much time at the check-out.

The shopper, from the Mornington Peninsula, southeast of Melbourne, sparked debate after getting on Facebook to say older customers should be 'more mindful of time-poor workers and busy parents'.

The poster added that they were taking up too much space in the aisles to stop and socialise, making it inconvenient for other shoppers in a rush.

Consumer behaviour analyst Barry Urquhart branded the idea as 'ageism personified'.

An Australian shopper has demanded supermarkets introduce a 'boomer hour' for older customers after claiming they take up too much time at the check-out (pictured is a shopper at an Aldi in the Gold Coast)

'It won't work because they are a primary driver of the marketplace at the moment,' he told Seven News.

'At a time where the cost of living and the cost of doing business is acute, you can't turn and marginalise any consumer group.

Poll Do you think there should be a designated shopping hour for older customers? Yes, they inconvenience other customers No, everyone should be able to shop whenever they choose Do you think there should be a designated shopping hour for older customers? Yes, they inconvenience other customers 129 votes

No, everyone should be able to shop whenever they choose 984 votes Now share your opinion





'Those Australians who have got the money and are spending it are 50 years of age and older, they are very attractive to retail businesses at large.'

Mr Urquhart explained Australia, with the exception of Sweden, had the highest level of personal debt in the world and at a time when people were therefore looking to curb spending, any customers need to be encouraged.

'This is ageism personified. People are wanting to say ''let's marginalise the older people, lets make them invisible'' and they're saying ''no we're asserting ourselves in tourism, hospitality, flight purchases at large'',' he said.

'Follow the money and the money in Australia at the moment is for people aged 50 years of age and older because they've got less mortgage, more discretionary purchases and are spending it.'

During the peak of the Covid pandemic, Woolworths and Coles introduced priority access for elderly people so they did not miss out on scarce essential items.

Both retailers opened for senior citizens and those with disabilities between 7am and 8am so they could get their shopping done without being shunted aside by aggressive panic buyers.
Moore also stabbed her dog, Zeus, who was killed Friday, according to relative

He was caught on video kicking her door down and swinging a hammer last April

Police are searching for a deranged neighbor wanted for gunning down a woman and a man as they walked their dogs along a New York City street - just weeks after one victim was warned that she was 'going to die.'

NYPD detectives are looking for Lenue Moore, 32, who is accused of ambushing Jacqueline Billini, 57, and Levaugh Harvin, 42, on Friday.

The pair were shot in the head in front of Harvin's two children.

A wanted poster is circulating around the neighborhood of Washington Heights as cops continue to look for the suspect.

Jacqueline Billini, 57, was gunned down by an unhinged next-door neighbor as she was walking her dog with her friend, 42-year-old Levaugh Harvin. Harvin was also killed

Cops have launched an urgent manhunt for Lenue Moore, 32, who is accused of ambushing Billini and Harvin on Friday

Billini was an analyst for the state court system and was close to retirement after working in the role for nearly 30 years

Billini and Harvin were walking past Highbridge Park along Edgecombe Avenue when Moore opened fire at around 6.30pm.

They were pronounced dead at the scene. Billini's beloved pit bull, Zeus, was also fatally shot.

Detectives swiftly linked the double killing to Moore, Billini's next-door neighbor.

He was arrested last April after he kicked in her door and attempted to bash her with a hammer.

In the attack - which was captured on video - Billini's relatives tried to shove the door shut while the neighbor kicked at it and swung a hammer through the gap when it grew large enough.

As Moore threw his full weight against the door, it slammed into Billini's arm so hard that it broke, court documents show.

'He had mental issues, from what the DA said,' her nephew, Luis Billini, told the New York Daily News.

Moore was reportedly enraged by the barking coming from the three dogs in Billini's apartment.

The man suspected of killing Billini, 32-year-old Lenue Moore, was caught on camera attacking her last April

He kicked in the door of her apartment and attempted to bludgeon her and her family members with a hammer

Bellini's daughters described her as someone with 'a heart of gold' who 'touched the lives of everyone she encountered

Billini was an analyst for the state court system in the Bronx, and her nephew said she was close to enjoying her retirement before the tragedy struck

Following the attack, he was arrested - but released on $5,000 bail after he was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court.

He was later indicted on a slew of charges including burglary and assault with a weapon with intent to injure.

A judge authorized orders of protection for Billini and her family, forcing Moore to move out of the apartment complex and in with a friend a few blocks away.

Months later, Billini still felt threatened.

Luis said that during one recent walk with Zeus, someone drove up to Billini and told her 'You're going to die.'

As it was nighttime, she was unable to identify the intimidator.

Janet Santana, a friend of Bellini, said Harvin had been coming with her on walks for the past two or three weeks, acting as a sort of bodyguard.

'He was like family to her,' she said.

After the attack, Moore was ordered to move out, but Billini still feared for her life

Her relatives suspect Moore was angered by the constant barking coming from Billini's apartment, where she lived with her three dogs

Tributes have poured in for the beloved mother, with her heartbroken family saying: 'Her sudden departure has left a void in our family and community that can never be filled'

Billini was an analyst for the state court system in the Bronx. Her nephew says she was close to retirement after nearly three decades.

'It's impossible for someone who served our country for 25 years to be done like this,' Luis said.

'A woman who was about to retire shouldn't have to live that way, just constantly watching over her shoulder. It's ridiculous.'

Friends said Billini was with Harvin on the night of their murders because she was terrified of Moore.

Joseph Cuthbert told ABC 7 that Moore stabbed Zeus - the dog he ultimately shot and killed - last winter.

'When I came, the dog is lying on the floor. I had to wrap the dog in a sheet and lift up the dog,' Cuthbert said.

Months later, Moore attacked Billini with the hammer.

Billini's daughters Nathalie and Iliana wrote a touching memorial on a GoFundMe page seeking donations for burial costs.

They described her as someone with 'a heart of gold' who 'touched the lives of everyone she encountered.

'Jackie was always there for her friends and family, offering unwavering support and love,' they wrote.

'Her sudden departure has left a void in our family and community that can never be filled.'
Smoke from Canadian wildfires has reached as far south as Florida, engulfing Miami and causing smog that resulted in some of the unhealthiest air conditions in the US on Tuesday.

The smoke has spread across much of the Sunshine State, affecting areas from downtown West Palm Beach to downtown Miami, leading to hazy conditions and decreased air quality.

South Florida has been particularly impacted, as air quality has been classified as 'unhealthy.' The fine smoke particles can have detrimental effects on health, penetrating deep into the lungs or entering the bloodstream.

The smoky conditions in South Florida are the result of Canadian wildfire smoke that has spread south through the atmosphere, according to the National Weather Service in Miami.

The hazy skies are expected to persist for at least a few days, likely through Wednesday, according to meteorologists.

Smoke from Canadian wildfires has reached Florida. PICTURED: Hazy skies over Miami

The McDougall Creek wildfire burns in British Columbia, Canada, on August 17, 2023

New York City was engulfed in smoke from Canadian wildfires over the summer. Pictured above, a person wearing a face mask in the haze that covered NYC in June

Nearly the entire state of Florida experienced deteriorating air quality conditions on Tuesday, with some regions falling into the moderate to unhealthy range on the US Air Quality Index, as reported by AirNow.

'Your chances of being affected by particles increase the more strenuous your activity and the longer you are active outdoors,' according to an EPA informational brochure on particle pollution.

The effects of the wildfire smoke can be seen in states along the southeastern US and Gulf coast, but Florida is the only state with areas in the red, indicating unhealthy air quality, according to the AirNow map.

Palm Beach County, western Broward County, Pompano Beach to Oakland Park, and parts of Fort Lauderdale into northern Miami-Dade County have all been affected, with air quality ranging from unhealthy for sensitive groups to outright unhealthy.

Wildfire smoke poses a range of health risks, from eye and respiratory irritation to more severe conditions, including reduced lung function and exacerbation of pre-existing respiratory and heart conditions.

They also harm the environment by settling on land or water, impacting ecosystems and nutrient balances.

To protect against the poor air quality, health officials advise people, especially children, teens, older adults, and those with heart or lung conditions, to minimize outdoor activities and avoid strenuous exercise outside.

Reducing time spent outdoors and opting for walking instead of running can help limit exposure.

Without rainfall to clear the air, smoke can get trapped near the surface leading to fog development, according to weather services.

Additionally, smoke from Canadian wildfires reached New York City once again Monday, bringing hazy conditions and reduced air quality in the region.

Officials had warned residents Sunday to expect hazy conditions come sunrise, citing northern winds set to bring several plumes smoke back into the region.

Mayor Eric Adams sounded the alarm over the weekend after forecasts suggested wildfire smog could reach the city by sunrise Monday, which could cause noticeably hazy skies.

The smog was expected to remain above the surface, forecasters further warned - resulting in a distinct, visible haze similar to one New Yorkers saw in June.

The air quality levels were expected to reach well into the 'moderate' category.

Pictured: wildfire smoke engulfing a forest in the northern zone of Canada's Quebec Province

Along with the New York City region, many more cities were ranked in the orange category, including Albany, GA, Philadelphia, PA, Greater New Castle County, DE, and Yosemite National Park, CA

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoke inhalation can cause a host of health effects, including headaches, sinus issues, trouble breathing, tiredness, and asthma attacks

Coming from the country's air quality index, a measure of 0-50 is commonly accepted as good, while anything above 100 is widely considered unhealthy.

Last week, a pilot abandoned a flight heading to Shetland, Scotland, after detecting a burning smell  which turned out to be smoke from a Canadian wildfire 1,300 miles away.

The Loganair flight for Sumburgh Airport turned back to Aberdeen after the suspicious smell filled the cabin.

Another pilot declared an emergency as they came in to land at the Shetland airport and also reported smelling smoke during the journey on Thursday.

New York City was hit by Canadian wildfire smoke in July as smog stretched as far south as Georgia.

Wildfire smoke shrouded the city for the second time in July as tens of millions of people across the eastern seaboard were exposed to potentially dangerous air.

The New York City region was listed among the top 10 cities with the most polluted air, due to plumes of smoke moving eastwards from record-breaking fires still tearing through Canada.

Some 235 wildfires began burning in Canada in just seven days in July, adding to 1,183 blazes which have destroyed 3,986 square kilometers of the country since April 1 this year.
They say the referendum has tapped into 'historical racism'

Key figures of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament say the referendum campaign has 'tapped into a deep well of historical racism'.

Marcia Langton and Tom Calma, Ian Anderson, Yin Paradies and Ray Lovett made the comments in an article on the referendum for The Lancet, one of the world's most prestigious medical journals.

In their article, they explained how a no vote will have a 'profoundly negative effect' on Indigenous Australians who have worked on reconciliation for nearly two decades.

Marcia Langton (pictured) is among a number of Indigenous academics who say the referendum process has opened up a 'deep well of historical racism'

But they also highlighted the dark problem of the referendum process.

'There are early signs that the referendum process itself is causing Indigenous Australians to experience higher levels of racism,' they said.

'We posit that this is partly because the referendum process taps into a deep well of historical racism that originated on the Australian frontier when Indigenous peoples 'were violently dispossessed from their lands by the British'.'

'Since the referendum was announced, there has been a substantial rise in threats, abuse, vilification, and hate speech against Indigenous peoples, both in person and online,' the academics wrote.

They highlighted an Australian e-Safety Commission report from May that noted more than a 10 per cent increase in the number of complaints made by Indigenous people due to threats, harassment and online abuse.

The group said some Australians have been unreasonably challenging Indigenous people over their views of the referendum.

'The Voice referendum process creates a substantial cultural load for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,' they said.

'Indigenous peoples are being asked, and expected, to engage in conversations around this topic and, often, are then challenged to defend their position.'

Professor Langton along with Tom Calma (pictured), Ian Anderson, Yin Paradies and Ray Lovett penned the article for The Lancet, one of the world's most prestigious medical journals

The group said the referendum had resulted in 'a substantial rise in threats, abuse, vilification, and hate speech against Indigenous peoples, both in person and online' (pictured, Members of the Yolngu people from north-eastern Arnhem Land perform a dance at the Garma Festival)

The academics spoke of the significant impact the referendum would have on the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australis, regardless of the final result.

'Despite divergent positions, campaign groups identify this to be the most consequential referendum in the history of the Federation of Australia,' it reads.

'Whatever the result, it will have a profound effect on the future relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians.'

They say if the referendum results in a 'Yes' vote, Indigenous people will have to collaborate 'very closely' with politicians to ensure that the voice legislation aligns with their aspirations for increased autonomy and control over their lives.

It comes as leading Yes campaigner Noel Pearson said a failed referendum would be 'a disaster for all of us'.

'I have been at this for 30 years working on these problems from the ground up, and I'm telling you that there is no plan B,' he told 3AW radio.

'We will all lose, including the No campaigners. We will lose. If we vote Yes, we'll all win, including the No campaigners. This will be good for them and for the entire country if we vote Yes.'

He also had a tough message for Australians thinking about voting no: 'Really? That people who lived here for 65,000 years are going to be rejected? Their recognition is not going to be implemented in the Constitution after 15 years?'

Early voting for the Voice is already underway, with support for ticking up for the first time in months, but still lags behind the 'no' vote.

Leading Yes campaigner Noel Pearson (pictured right) said a failed referendum would be 'a disaster for all of us', while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured left) said he was confident that the referendum was still 'winnable'

The latest Guardian Essential poll found 43 per cent of its 1125 respondents will vote 'yes', up two per cent from last fortnight.

But 49 per cent intend to vote 'no' and eight per cent are undecided.

Anthony Albanese was confident that the referendum was still 'winnable' and said the undecided voters he had spoken to thought the proposal to establish an Indigenous Voice was 'fair'.

'If Australia votes yes, it will show respect for the First Australians, but it will do something else as well. We'll feel better about ourselves as a nation,' he said on Tuesday.

'In voting yes, we'll give three per cent of the population the opportunity to be heard, on matters that directly affect them, and they'll be able to have a voice and be listened to and we'll get better outcomes.'

The Prime Minister stated that the Voice will provide 'better results' and save the country money.

'My plea to votersis to look at what the question is before the Australian people,' he said.

It says very clearly, in recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first peoples of Australia  that's the recognition bit  and it just says 'there shall be a body, called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. It may make representations  on matters affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders'.

'There is nothing to fear here, everything to gain.'
A woman is fighting for life after a horror crash on a busy freeway.

Emergency services raced to an onramp on the M1 Pacific Motorway at Molendinar on the Gold Coast on Tuesday night following a smash between a ute and sedan.

Queensland Police were told the ute was travelling southbound on the Smith Street onramp to the freeway and had slowed to merge into the traffic when the yellow sedan crashed into the rear of the vehicle at speed.

A female passenger, 32, from Nerang was freed from the wreckage of the sedan was rushed to the Gold Coast University Hospital in a critical condition.

This sedan is a write-off after slamming into the back of a ute on the Gold Coast

The driver of the sedan, a 34-year-old Nerang man, was also taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He remains in a stable condition.

Two others were treated at the scene by paramedics.

Harrowing photos of the crash aftermath show the wreckage of the sedan crumpled under the ute tray.

Part of Pacific Motorway was closed for much of the night as forensic officers examined the scene.

Forensic Crash Unit investigations into the crash continue.

Anyone with information about the crash or lead up is urged to call Policelink or Crime Stoppers.
When Dr Brenda Page left an abusive marriage and set up home on her own, she decorated her new flat herself but, in the process, managed to paint shut the bedroom window.

When her sister asked why she hadn't remedied the situation, Brenda told her that she felt safer knowing she was sleeping in a room with windows that couldn't open.

This tiny detail, which was lost amid the horror to follow, still sends a chill through me.

Imagine a woman being so terrified that she chose to go without fresh air just in case her ex-husband tried to break in and kill her. Because that's really what she was saying.

She was right to be fearful. On July 14, 1978  two years before I was even born  Dr Page, a brilliant geneticist involved in medical research, was murdered by biologist Dr Christopher 'Kit' Harrisson, the violent husband she had summoned up the strength to divorce.

ISLA TRAQUAIR: I thought my heart would beat out of my chest that day, in 2002, as I ran after him

Painting over the windows in her new flat in Aberdeen did not save her. The police investigating found 16 marks on a window frame where it had been forced open, probably with a crowbar. She was just 32 when she was found on her bed, in a pool of blood, bludgeoned to death, her hands and wrists a mass of defence injuries.

What a loss, not only to the family who loved her, but to the scientific community and wider society. What breakthroughs might she have made if she had lived?

I was in court earlier this year, in my native Aberdeen, to hear how Harrisson made her life hell before he killed her for daring to leave him.

He was the only suspect in the case. Why had it taken an extraordinary 45 years for him to be brought to justice? A senior police officer once told me that the fact the perpetrator was a scientist was a factor  he knew how to get rid of evidence. Did he recognise me in court? He did a double take, so I think so. As a young TV reporter, aged just 22, I had confronted Harrisson myself, asking him: 'Did you kill your wife?'

I thought my heart would beat out of my chest that day, in 2002, as I ran after him. I am only 5ft 3in and I struggled to keep up as we zig-zagged through bushes, across a car park, along a canal path. He had a full foot in height advantage and I witnessed his strength as he batted away the sound mic I was carrying. I thought he was going to hit me.

Dr Harrisson had actually been arrested on the day Brenda's body was discovered, but released without charge. I was the next person to confront him, 25 years on, as part of a Grampian TV documentary series of 'cold' cases. It was a chance commission, but intriguing at the time given that I'd grown up in Aberdeen, where there were always whispers about what had happened to 'that woman'.

It's shameful that it took another 20 years for Harrisson, by then 82 years old, to face justice, because, while there were advances in DNA technology, this was not a major factor. The evidence against him was there years before.

When the jury returned, in March this year, and the foreman uttered the word 'guilty', a tsunami of emotion swept through the benches and the public gallery. I was not immune. For the first time ever as a professional journalist and documentary maker, I broke down and cried on the job.

This one was personal, but not just because this cold-blooded killer had once fled from me. While the young me was driven by the idea of getting justice for Brenda, I really had no idea what it felt like to be in her shoes.

On July 14, 1978 Dr Page, a brilliant geneticist involved in medical research, was murdered by biologist Dr Christopher 'Kit' Harrisson, the violent husband she had summoned up the strength to divorce

By the time I was 43, listening to the evidence in court, I knew exactly what it was to fear for your life, to regard your home as a prison, and to be the victim of a stalker  because I was such a victim.

My stalker, a neighbour who made my life a living hell, was found guilty in 2022, by which time he had reduced me to a shell of the confident, jet-setting crime reporter I had been. His actions affected every aspect of my life  my career, my finances, my mental and physical health.

I suffered from PTSD, crippling anxiety, panic attacks and insomnia. It became a daily struggle even to do my food shopping.

In a surreal dovetailing of the personal and the professional, I once spent a day in the witness box, giving evidence against my stalker, then travelled to Scotland to hear pre-trial evidence in Brenda's murder case.

What astonished me was how vividly Brenda's voice emerged during that three-week trial, albeit posthumously, via the mountain of evidence she left documenting her torment at the hands of the man who killed her.

Yes, my blood boiled on her behalf. Since my stalker's conviction, I have campaigned for more recognition about the fact that dangerously obsessive behaviour can, if left unchecked, lead to a woman becoming, well, a Dr Brenda Page.

Yet when Brenda's murder was first investigated, no one even used the word stalking, never mind associated words like coercive control.

Knowing how significant this case would be, I asked for permission to record the full trial for broadcast making history in the process.

I knew it would illustrate just how far we have come in the way, as a society, we treat women like Brenda, but I think it also illustrates how far we still have to go.

I didn't know if the court authorities would agree, but they did, presumably accepting my argument that the podcast format, which allows a much more in-depth treatment than traditional broadcasting, could convey a powerful message about how it is never too late for justice.

The only stipulation was that the trial judge had to agree, too, and listen to the entire podcast prior to broadcast. He has since done this.

I make no apology for the fact that the podcast  all 33 episodes of it, most running to an hour in length  is a difficult listen, not just because of the upsetting forensic detail. It also features interviews with Brenda's family, friends and colleagues and police officers who investigated the case at the time.

Would justice have been served sooner had Brenda's life been better understood at the time? Who knows, but I feel a personal responsibility to set the record straight.

Brenda was born in February 1946 and grew up in East Anglia. She was an academically gifted child who went on to gain a first-class degree in zoology, then a PhD in genetics.

She met Harrisson in Glasgow where she was studying, and they married in 1972. She moved to Aberdeen the following year to take up a post running the university's genetics department. He had a research post at Edinburgh University, but soon joined her in Aberdeen.

It was no great secret that this was an abusive marriage, although those were the days where people didn't intervene. When Brenda's sister Rita gave evidence  aged 88, she was allowed to do so via video-link  it was heartbreaking.

She recalled how Brenda, the sister she had adored, would 'walk on eggshells' around her husband.

Once, she queried why her sister had changed her hair parting, only to see a vivid red mark on her forehead  the result, Brenda said, of Kit throwing a book at her. Brenda confided that Kit would pull her hair. He was a controlling and obsessive husband, often turning up at her workplace for no reason. If she travelled for a conference, which she did frequently, it was likely that he would turn up, too. Multiple witnesses spoke of him throwing a cup of tea over her.

She was hospitalised more than once during the marriage, and evidence to her divorce solicitor documented abusive incidents every couple of months, along with threats to kill her.

Harrisson was the only suspect in the case. Why had it taken an extraordinary 45 years for him to be brought to justice?

A letter to her sister, with the instructions to open in the event of her death, turned out to be a will. Another, to her solicitor, read thus: 'If I depart this Earth rather suddenly, do please make sure that I get a good PM (post mortem) and that my sister and her boys get any benefit.'

She told friends not only that she expected to die, but singled out her ex as the likely perpetrator, warning that if she died and it looked like suicide, not to be fooled.

I still get emotional about that now. This was a woman who knew that the next step was her ex killing her.

It is now recognised that the most dangerous time for a woman in an abusive relationship is the period after she leaves. This is exactly how it was for Brenda. The marriage was effectively over in the summer of 1976, when she left the family home. She and Kit divorced at the end of that year on the grounds of his cruelty.

Over the course of the next year, friends and family became increasingly worried because she told them she was convinced Kit was following her. We would call it 'stalking' now.

She suspected he was visiting her flat when she wasn't there (he was spotted by a neighbour going in, although it was never proved he had a key). She would alter her routes while driving. Two months after her divorce she provided enough evidence for the granting of an interim interdict, the then equivalent of a restraining order.

She visited her sister Rita in Ipswich shortly before she died. Brenda had been to a conference and Rita says she was buzzing because her career was going so well, but was not looking forward to returning to Aberdeen, because of her ex-husband's unwanted presence.

Much of the reporting of Brenda's death, though, featured lurid details about an aspect of her life that turned out to have nothing to do with her death. When her marriage ended, Brenda took a part-time job.

Academics, particularly female academics, were not highly paid in the 1970s and she needed to fund her new flat and support herself: Brenda joined an escort agency.

During her husband's trial, it was established that she was not, as had been previously reported, a prostitute. She received payment for attending dinners with the rich oil men who would jet into Aberdeen for business in those days  'oilies' she called them.

But this was not a sordid secret sideline. In fact, Brenda was completely open about it with her university colleagues, sharing with them how exhilarating she found it meeting new, interesting people, seeing it as akin to a dating agency. One colleague even testified that she too had considered signing up to the same agency, because of Brenda's positive appraisal.

And yet this aspect of her life clearly muddied the waters after her death.

Police, understandably, investigated whether she could have been killed by a 'client'. For years after, Press reports contained references to her 'double life', which devastated her family.

The truth is that if her part-time job was a factor in her murder, it was only so because her ex was enraged at her new-found freedom.

On the night she died, Brenda had dined at the nearby Treetops Hotel with two gentlemen and returned to her flat in Aberdeen's Allan Street at around 2.30am.

When she did not turn up for work the next day, the alarm was raised. An elderly neighbour found her body on her bloodied bed. The small bedroom window had been prised open.

Had her ex broken in, and waited for her return (a crucial piece of evidence was a paint fleck from his car, found near the window)? Or was the forcing of the window a ploy to make it look like a break-in?

Whatever, a murder inquiry was launched and later that night, on July 14, 1978, Harrisson was arrested and interviewed.

It was the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (the equivalent of the CPS), that decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute, but there was never another suspect.

All roads always did point back to Harrisson. The court heard that it was likely he disposed of vital evidence, in particular a green duffel bag containing clothes, at Edinburgh University. His work there would have given him knowledge of when rubbish was incinerated.

Frustratingly for the police involved  some of whom died before seeing the case brought to a successful conclusion  there was DNA evidence that could have, and arguably should have, snared him earlier.

Just after the 2002 documentary I was involved with, new analysis of blood samples from the sheets did find traces of Dr Harrisson's sperm but still this was not considered strong enough evidence for prosecution.

Further DNA tests two decades on offered more evidence, but it was only after a new prosecutor looked at the case again that it was deemed there was sufficient grounds to proceed to trial. This was not a situation where new technology made the difference  there was no 'silver bullet'.

Yet Harrisson never admitted his guilt, arguing that traces of semen could have been historic. A jury was convinced, however, and Harrisson was sentenced to life, with a minimum term of 20 years before he can be considered for parole.

The octogenarian who was taken down to the cells was stooped and frail, a very different man to the one I had confronted.

But my tears were for Brenda and her family, in particular her mother who died never seeing justice served.

He will almost certainly die in prison. I hope he suffers.

I also hope that listeners to my podcast will learn about the amazing woman whose life he took. We all failed Dr Brenda Page.

It is never too late to acknowledge that, or to learn lessons from the past.

AS TOLD TO JENNY JOHNSTON
A social worker quit her job because council bosses failed to help her cope with the menopause, a tribunal heard yesterday.

Maria Rooney, 52, said she started to have memory and concentration problems, dry eyes, mood swings, tiredness, anxiety, hot flushes and dizziness but was told 'no specific support' was available.

The mother of two has launched legal action against Leicester City Council for constructive dismissal, claiming it failed to make adjustments to allow her to continue to work. In what could be a landmark case for women, she is also accusing bosses of bullying.

A judge at a preliminary hearing last year ruled for the first time that Ms Rooney's menopausal symptoms, along with stress and anxiety, meant she was disabled.

Her lawyers say she was discriminated against, harassed and victimised on the grounds of disability.

Social worker Maria Rooney (pictured yesterday) quit her job because council bosses failed to help her cope with the menopause, a tribunal heard yesterday

Rooney, 52, said she started to have memory and concentration problems, dry eyes, mood swings, tiredness, anxiety, hot flushes and dizziness but was told 'no specific support' was available. Pictured: Leicester Employment Tribunal

Her case is being back by the Equality and Human Rights Commission which said every employer should take note. Ms Rooney worked three days a week as a social worker for 12 years, dealing with high-risk children in care with significant emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Before that she was a drug outreach worker for seven years and said she had received excellent references from all her previous employers.

In a witness statement, Ms Rooney said she started suffering with perimenopause toward the end of 2016 and a few months later went to her GP citing sleep deprivation, anxiety, low moods and fatigue. The employment tribunal at Leicester heard she took extended sickness leave both in 2017 and 2018 due to menopause and work stress.

She then received a formal warning over her absences and quit her post in October 2018.

'I had no other alternative but to resign from my social work job after 12 years due to the persistent and consistent management bullying, harassment and victimisation and discrimination,' she said. 'I feared I would ... have a mental breakdown due to the wholesale failure to support.'

She said the council was 'well aware that I was suffering with menopause symptoms and work-related stress and anxiety' but no help was offered.

Following a meeting her manager agreed to let her work from home on occasion and for her to take breaks for fresh air.

In April 2018 she appealed against her formal warning at a meeting 'in the presence of five men'. 'I believe this was a deliberate act to undermine and intimidate me,' she said.

Ms Rooney (pictured yesterday) has launched legal action against Leicester City Council for constructive dismissal, claiming it failed to make adjustments to allow her to continue to work. In what could be a landmark case for women, she is also accusing bosses of bullying

Ms Rooney said two days after she resigned, she received an email and letter from her line manager telling her 'it was his intention to invoke disciplinary procedure'.

She claimed her manager then instructed a colleague to undertake 'surveillance of my Facebook account' including screenshotting posts.

Ms Rooney said he then 'harassed and intimated her' during her two-month notice period when she was signed of sick 'with stress and with anxiety and depression and menopause'.

The tribunal, expected to last two weeks, continues.
When is a transport minister not responsible for transport? When theyre in the SNP Government.

This, at least, appears to be the answer following a bizarre exchange in the Scottish parliament this week.

Fiona Hyslop, the aforementioned Minister for Transport, was being grilled by MSPs about the whereabouts of the two ferries currently being procured by the Scottish Government at the Fergusons shipyard in Port Glasgow.

After five years and nearly 400million of public money, MSPs not unreasonably wanted to know what had happened to them. Nothing to do with me guv, was her answer. Im not the Minister for Ferguson Marine, she replied. Im the Transport Minister, she clarified helpfully.

In the bizarre world of the SNP, the Transport Minister Fiona Hyslop is not responsible for any sort of oversight on two new over-budget and delayed ferries being built on the Clyde

Undaunted, the MSPs pressed to see if she could at least offer a guarantee that the most recent delays would be the final ones. Perhaps they were under the impression that, given ferries are a form of transport, and that they had the Minister for Transport in front of them, they might make some progress. Thats a matter for other ministers, Ms Hyslop sniffed.

Its not entirely reassuring, is it? Yet Ms Hyslop was being perfectly correct. In this SNP Government, the transport minister isnt responsible for all matters pertaining to transport. Apparently the procurement of the ferries falls into the portfolio of Economy Secretary Neil Gray. She was simply pointing that out.

It sheds light on a byzantine and bloated system of government that needs to be clipped. For, as Ms Hyslop helpfully demonstrated, it turns out that when everyone is in charge, no one is. The government is simply way too big.

Back in the day, when Alex Salmond took over the reins in 2007, it made do with six Cabinet ministers. This administration was, by common consent (and whatever your politics), the most focused and capable administration of the post-devolution era.

It is not an unconnected fact that todays ill-focused and less-than-capable successor to that 2007 administration is also far bigger in size. The Cabinet table has been extended to fit ten ministers, plus law officers. A further 18 junior ministers are now deemed necessary.

The situation is a function of the SNPs political choices. Thanks to Nicola Sturgeons decision to form a coalition with the Scottish Greens, jobs must be found for two of them: Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater. Thanks to the SNPs political attachment to the cause of independence, more careers must be feathered: such as Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson and Minister for Independence Jamie Hepburn.

Meanwhile, like a bad case of Japanese knotweed, other jobs have appeared from the undergrowth. In addition to an Education Secretary and a Minister for Higher Education is a Minister for Children, Young People, and Keeping the Promise. This is darkly ironic because, as even Ms Sturgeon has conceded, the Promise  a pledge to improve support for children in care  is, as yet, not being met.

Confused? The SNP seems to be: Economy Secretary Neil Gray is responsible for the delivery of the Ferguson Marine ferries, but was absent from parliament to provide key updates on their progress

All of these ministers, I am sure, could make an excellent case for why they are needed. There is always a good reason why every policy area is a priority that must be tackled.

However, leaving aside the cost of all the salaries, there are several reasons why the bloated size of the Scottish Government is a bad idea.

To begin with, as suggested by Ms Hyslops response, it creates confusion. We are always being told of the need for joined-up government. Simple logic dictates that if you create more moving parts, the task of joining them all up is rendered more difficult.

Secondly, theres the capacity issue. There is only so much that any government can do well. Focus on too much  as this government is prone to do  and you end up doing everything badly. Like delivering a couple of ferries.

Following on from that, theres the knock-on effect of all that churn. All 28 ministers will today be in their offices doubtless wanting press releases and announcements to show how useful they are.

All will have diaries to fill. All will be demanding to have their faces on the front of another report, setting out a new, bold, fresh agenda to replace the new, bold, fresh agenda laid out by their predecessor six months earlier.

Time that could therefore go on working out how to get things done (like delivering a couple of ferries) is instead spent on working out how to get 28 ministers on the TV.

Then theres the effect this has on the health of our democracy. Compared to other jurisdictions, Holyroods payroll vote is way bigger than most. With 28 jobs on offer, the current crop of 64 SNP MSPs have a better than one-in-three chance of landing a ministerial salary. What chance is there of a strong Scottish parliament standing up to the government and scrutinising legislation when todays Nationalist members are either already in government or know that a nice job will be along in just a minute?

Indeed, given the sudden rebelliousness of the SNP backbenches, its hard not to conclude that the increase in government jobs is likely to

do with party management. It helps to maintain discipline when youve got plenty of sinecures to go around.

It needs to change. As recommended at Westminster several years ago, the number of ministers in any parliament should be capped at 15 per cent of the total number of parliamentarians.

That would mean fewer than 20 Scottish ministers, still four times more than the number who managed Scotland in pre-devolution times. Im sure they could cope. Indeed, it would be an improvement.

A slimmer, more focused government is needed in Scotland to help drive the country forward. And perhaps, with fewer jobs going about, we might once again be a country where the transport minister takes responsibility for transport. Just a thought.
The father of 'gravely ill' Indi Gregory has said he will do 'whatever it takes' amid a High Court battle over the seven-month-old's life.

Indi was born with a mitochondrial disease - a genetic condition that saps energy from the body's cells - and was put on full life support last month.

Lawyers for Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have since asked a High Court judge to rule that it is not in her best interests for critical care to continue, including ventilation.

Emma Sutton KC, for the trust, told the court on Tuesday: 'The situation remains that she is unstable and gravely ill.

'From the clinical position, Indi is sadly deteriorating. The clear evidence of those caring for her is that Indi is in pain.'

But Indi's parents, Dean Gregory and Claire Staniforth, want her treatment to continue, saying she is responsive to them and has deteriorated due to an infection.

The father of 'gravely ill' Indi Gregory has said he will do 'whatever it takes' amid a High Court battle over the seven-month-old's life

Indi was born with a mitochondrial disease - a genetic condition that saps energy from the body's cells - and was put on full life support last month

Indi's parents, Dean Gregory (right) and Claire Staniforth (left), want her treatment to continue, saying she is responsive to them and has deteriorated due to an infection

In a statement following the preliminary hearing in London, Mr Gregory said Indi is 'clearly comforted' when cuddled by her parents.

He said: 'I and we as a family are prepared to do whatever it takes to fight for the life of our beautiful daughter, Indi.

'Indi has been in hospital all her young life, and she has had ups and downs, but during the good times she has been on a normal ward, able to breathe by herself and babble happily.'

Mr Gregory continued: 'Our daughter responds to us, and on her good days she is babbling, making noises, moving all her limbs.

'She can definitely experience happiness. She cries like a normal baby. We know she is disabled, but you don't just let disabled people die. We just want to give her a chance.'

Lawyers for Mr Gregory made bids on Tuesday for new experts to look at Indi's case, including a cardiologist.

The court heard that as well as the 'devastating' mitochondrial disease, the seven-month-old also has a heart defect and progressive brain damage.

Mr Gregory said: 'I and we as a family are prepared to do whatever it takes to fight for the life of our beautiful daughter, Indi'

Emma Sutton KC, for the trust, told the court on Tuesday: 'The situation remains that she is unstable and gravely ill'

The court heard that as well as the 'devastating' mitochondrial disease, the seven-month-old also has a heart defect and progressive brain damage

A further hearing in Indi's case is expected to be heard on Monday, with Mr Gregory expected to give evidence

However, Mr Justice Peel refused most of the requests, allowing one expert provided they can be found and report by Friday afternoon.

He said: 'All of this must be exceptionally painful for the parents,' adding the pair 'dearly want to achieve the very best for their daughter'.

The judge continued: 'They wish to do everything they can for her. However, there may be hard decisions for them to make in light of the medical condition.

'The entirety of the medical evidence is unanimous. There is, in reality, no medical evidence on the contrary provided by the parents.

'This is an example of parents who, understandably, hope someone somewhere will alight upon an alternative to the present clinical trajectory.'

Mr Justice Peel continued: 'On the evidence before me, Indi is suffering. The court needs to get to the bottom of it.'

A further hearing in Indi's case is expected to be heard on Monday, with Mr Gregory expected to give evidence.
Scotland's over-budget and overdue ferries will not be able to carry as many passengers as promised, the Minister for Transport has admitted.

The vessels, being built at Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire, were each supposed to be able to take at least a thousand passengers onboard.

At least two other potential shipbuilders bidding for the contract were rejected because of the Scottish Governments capacity demands.

But Ferguson Marine has now revealed the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa, which are already five years late, will each have a maximum capacity of 852 passengers.

Islanders have been told that the two long-awaited ferries being built for them  the Glen Sannox and the Glen Rosa - will now not be able to meet the original capacity of 1,000 passengers

The shipyard has come under fire for failing to get approval for the designs from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency at an earlier stage.

Ferguson Marine chief executive David Tydeman told MSPs last week that it meant they were forced to make some significant changes to the designs if the boats were to get safety certificates.

Transport Minister Fiona Hyslop has admitted that the two massively overbudget and delayed ferries being built at Ferguson Marine will have to drop capacity by 15 per cent

Ferguson Marine Chief Executive David Tydeman had already warned MSPs last week that the shipyard would be forced to make some significant changes to the designs if the boats were to stand a chance of getting safety certificates

At Holyrood yesterday, Transport Minister Fiona Hyslop confirmed compromises have had to be made to meet safety standards, when she was grilled about why the two unfinished boats will have 15 per cent less capacity than agreed.

Despite being one of the most expensive options, SNP ministers awarded a 97million contract in 2015 to Ferguson Marine.

In a grovelling update last week, Mr Tydeman confirmed they had significantly understated the increase in the vessels costs, with a risk the total price for the two ferries could now hit 400million more than four times the original estimate.

Raising the ferry fiasco at Holyrood yesterday, Tory MSP Edward Mountain said: It is difficult to see why [ferry fleet owners] CMAL should have to accept the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa when they no longer meet the original basic design criteria.

There were bids rejected because they did not offer the capacity, yet there are now to be 15 per cent fewer passengers.

Islanders havent accepted that there are going to be less passengers and the reason we are in this position is because Ferguson Marine only spoke to the Coastguard Agency in June of this year to check whether the boats met the specifications set out.

As a result, we now have late ferries, which are under capacity, over budget and not what the islanders were promised.

Ms Hyslop said: CMAL will only accept delivery of the vessels after they receive the required sign off from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

The reduced passenger capacity noted in the update yard is expected to be formally accepted through appropriate contract amendments.
Predictable voices will hate it. But even they must admit that Sou'wester Sue was, as they say in twister corridor in Kansas, one heck of a blow.

What a wig-lifter of a speech. If Michael Fabricant was there, his topknot must have been blown all the way to Bolton.

Suella Braverman described an immigration 'hurricane' but she herself was a tornado making a determined path towards polite conventions, ripping elite etiquette from its moorings. The Establishment will be appalled. Tory activists (bar one) loved it.

The Manchester conference centre, a venue with all the charm of an aircraft carrier's loading deck, was packed.

The representatives had just, with pleasure, heard a civilised speech from the youthful Lord Chancellor, Alex Chalk. Tall, tidy, a blush of peach to his cheeks, Mr Chalk insisted we could solve the small-boats problem 'within our over-arching legal obligations'.

Suella Braverman (pictured Tuesday) described an immigration 'hurricane' but she herself was a tornado making a determined path towards polite conventions, ripping elite etiquette from its moorings

Mrs Braverman (pictured Tuesday) bared her pearlies at the crowd, as if demonstrating them to an equine dentist. Like most storms, it began quietly. She dryly observed that 'I do occasionally receive a modicum of criticism' and confirmed that she read what her critics wrote'

The hall overlooked that support for the European Convention on Human Rights and simply thought 'what a lovely son-in-law he'd make'. At which point the barograph dropped, curtains billowed and the lights went off  but only so that we could watch a brief video about the next speaker.

We were shown Suella nodding in a green suit, Suella looking grave in a red suit, Suella surrounded by Union Jacks and Suella meeting some police chiefs who were very much sitting to attention.

Then the Home Secretary herself was in our midst, loping towards the lectern in dove-grey power suit and nude shoes, hair cascading over her shoulders.

Cheers. Hard clapping. A few people stood. A gent three rows in front of me was going nuts and she hadn't yet said a word. Mrs Braverman bared her pearlies at the crowd, as if demonstrating them to an equine dentist.

Like most storms, it began quietly. She dryly observed that 'I do occasionally receive a modicum of criticism' and confirmed that she read what her critics wrote.

'I'm made of strong stuff,' she explained. 'We listen, we learn, we renew ourselves.'

As she said that, she pushed her two hands upwards in the air and wriggled her long fingers. Could have been a doctor slipping on the latex gloves before asking a patient to drop his bags. I may not have been the only bloke to gulp audibly.

The world was being transformed by 'powerful forces' and the voters could see this even if Westminster could not. Unprecedented mass migration was reshaping the world.

'The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming.' Wind of change: Harold Macmillan's term presaged the end of Empire in the 1960s. Politically, 'hurricane' took us to a different part of the Beaufort scale. Those critics she mentioned will almost self-combust. They will denounce her as the next Enoch. Mrs Braverman was unapologetic.

She said we'd never be able to accommodate everyone who wanted to come here, even if we concreted over every field from Hull to Holyhead. Now came another triple: 'I know it. You know it. And the voters know it.'

At this she leaned forward on the lectern and stared hard at the audience. No one dared even squeak. We were all terrified.

Bending forwards with her left knee and ripping arcs in the air with scarlet-varnished fingernails, she was using every actorly artifice. Never mind the content, this was the first properly spellbinding, dramatically assured speech seen at a conference for years.

Previous ministers had kept their contributions short and anaemic.

This was like watching Heseltine or Kinnock in olden days, a senior politician seizing opportunity.

A home secretary actually saying what she felt and thought? Aesthetes will be aghast. But isn't it slightly what politicians are for? Isn't it the whole point of party conferences? Mrs Braverman was aware of what was heading her way. Labour and 'their allies in the third sector, some of whom openly declare that they oppose national borders on principle, bleat the same incessant accusation: Racist, racist, racist'.

They tried it with Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron but it had not worked then and it was not going to work against Rishi Sunak and against her.

A lone audience member started shouting dissent. According to a colleague he wailed 'No, no, no' before being led away by caring, syringe-toting attendants. He was last heard of heading for Kigali.

Back on stage, Britain's most carnivorous Buddhist was serving up more red meat. There hasn't been this much raw flesh seen since mammoth hunting was banned by one of the wetter Neolithic era governments.

Mrs Braverman (pictured Tuesday) was aware of what was heading her way. Labour and 'their allies in the third sector, some of whom openly declare that they oppose national borders on principle, bleat the same incessant accusation: Racist, racist, racist'

Suella sank her formidable gnashers into wokery, the Human Rights Act, Just Stop Oil and more.

As each new foe was gnawed, you could almost hear that neeeeeeeawww of pine logs being fed into a sawmill. Sadiq Khan was a two-word insult. Sir Keir Starmer ('our secret weapon') was a mimsy knee-bender. The Tories, meanwhile, were 'the trade union of the British people'.

Hello, is that the police? I'd like to report a pickpocket. That line was blatant pilfering of Tony Blair's remark about Labour being the political wing of the British people. By now Suella was waging class war, attacking 'luxury belief' Lefties with second homes in Tuscany. Baby, she was smokin'.

She even cried that she didn't care if paedos 'complained that this is interfering with their human rights' when she forbade them from changing their names after conviction. I half wondered if that might over-egg the cake mix but no, the crowd yelped with approbation.

And then the tornado passed. The curtains ceased flapping. Mrs Braverman closed almost with a whisper, quoting Shelley's 'rise like lions after slumber in unvanquishable number. Shake your chains like dew'.

Poetry after the tempest.
It's the first time in American history lawmakers have removed a Speaker

Eight Republicans voted on Tuesday to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a process initiated by MAGA GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.).

In a sensational turn of events, McCarthy was voted out of his House leadership post in a continuation of the Republican civil war in the lower chamber of Congress.

Opposition to his continued service as House Speaker came as he negotiated with Democrats to pass a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown over the weekend.

But some far-right members of the Party claim that he is appeasing the left and is not a 'real' Republican.

Along with Gaetz, the seven other Republicans who voted to boot McCarthy from his speakership are Reps. Andy Biggs and Eli Crame (Ariz.), Ken Buck (Colo.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Bob Good (Va.), Nancy Mace (S.C.), and Matt Rosendale (Mon.).

Eight House Republicans along with all Democrats on Tuesday decided in a 216-210 vote to vacate the House Speakership and boost Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his leadership post

McCarthy, flanked by reporters and staff at the Capitol on Tuesday, is the first speaker ever vacated from his post in House history



Matt Gaetz - The Florida Republican and McCarthy nemesis who led the rebellion

Gaetz pushed for McCarthy to be pushed out over a litany of accusations, including claims he sided with Joe Biden and the Democrats over Ukraine funding and made too many concessions in passing a bill to avoid a shutdown.

He has quickly become one of the most reviled members of Congress and his critics, including McCarthy, claim his crusade is a personal vendetta based on the ethics investigation into him.

Since 2021, he has been under an ethics investigation over allegations of sexual misconduct, drug use, sharing inappropriate videos on the House floor, using campaign funds for personal use, and improperly accepting gifts.

He was under investigation by the Department of Justice over claims he had sex and trafficked an underage girl, but prosecutors decided not to bring charges against him.

Gaetz was also at the center of the drama when McCarthy took 15 rounds to be elected Speaker in January. He kept voting against McCarthy in remarkable scenes that almost ended up in a fight on the House floor.

Nancy Mace - South Carolina Republican who stunned her colleagues with her vote to oust

Mace was the most surprising member of the eight. She was the lone moderate who voted to sink McCarthy, despite calling Gaetz a fraud in January.

She told reporters after the vote that she opposed McCarthy because he failed to bring up promised votes on abortion access and birth control.

If you make a promise, you should keep it and if you promise women youre gonna help them then you damn well better do it, she said.

She sent out a fundraising email on Tuesday night off the back of the vote.

Andy Biggs - Another thorn in McCarthys side

Arizona Republican Biggs was another Republican who has been critical of McCarthy and voted against him as Speaker in January.

He was also one of the 89 Republicans who rejected the bill tho avert the government shutdown.

Biggs stood on the House floor alongside Gaetz on Tuesday and tore into McCarthys leadership.

I think it's time to make a change, he said.

Speaker McCarthy has failed to demonstrate himself as an effective leader who will change the status quo, Biggs said in a tweet Tuesday. He has gone against many of the promises he made in January and can no longer be trusted at the helm

Ken Buck - Colorado Republican who backed McCarthy in January, but flipped

Buck was another member of the McCarthy rebels who said that the Speaker had gone back on promises he made in January.

He has been critical of some GOP priorities in Congress, including the impeachment inquiry into Joe Bidens links to Hunters overseas business deals.

I supported Kevin McCarthy in January because I thought he was the person best positioned to keep our promises to our constituents Buck wrote on Tuesday.

Its clear that we need a principled Speaker who can keep his word not just to members of Congress but to the American people

Tim Burchett - Claims McCarthys condescending comments about his faith sealed his fate

The Tennessee Republican said he prayed over the vote to oust McCarthy. What sealed his decision to oust him was McCarthys reaction, he says.

He just said something that was very condescending to me  and it doesnt really matter at this point  but at that point, I thought to myself that that pretty much sealed it right there, Burchett told reporters after the vote.

He backed McCarthy for all 15 rounds of the Speaker vote in January, but said hed had enough on Tuesday after he got a phone call from the Republican leader.

Eli Crane - The freshman Arizona Republican who never backed McCarthy

Crane, a Gaetz ally, never voted for McCarthy as Speaker in January. He said lets roll when Gaetz announced the motion to vacate on Monday night.

He accused McCarthy of siding with Democrats when drawing up the continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded.

Crane also said the new budget fuels the witch hunt against Donald Trump.

Bob Good - Criticized McCarthy for his focus on becoming Speaker

Good said Tuesday that back in January he persuaded colleagues to switch their votes to present so that McCarthy could become speaker.

But recently he has been harshly critical of the deal to avoid a default. He also railed against the CR over the weekend.

He questioned why Republicans werent willing to accept a short shutdown to help force much needed changes, and claimed McCarthy was too focused on his career.

We need a speaker who will fight for something, anything, besides just staying or becoming speaker, Good said on the House floor Tuesday.

Matt Rosendale - Slammed McCarthy for siding with Democrats

Montana Republican Rosendale was heavily critical of the CR package that averted the government shutdown.

He claimed McCarthy violated our trust with the deal that required more Democrats than Republicans to get it approved.

In the aftermath, he said McCarthys ousting was unfortunate, but insisted it had to be done.

Rep. Gaetz led the rebellion for McCarthy's ouster. He and a small group of hardline Republicans view McCarthy as a weak conservative

The eight joined forces with the entire Democratic conference to vote 216-210 in favor of declaring the office of House Speaker vacant.

This move effectively removed McCarthy from power and plunged the chamber into turmoil as it now embarks on the challenging task of selecting his replacement.

McCarthy, 58, is the first Speaker in the 234-year history of the United States Congress to be kicked out and have his gavel taken away by fellow lawmakers.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), chair of the Financial Services Committee and a close ally of McCarthy, will now serve as the speaker 'pro tem,' meaning he will serve as speaker until the House can decide on someone else.

Burchett told reporters there are 'plenty of people' who do the job better than McCarthy  and said he wanted a speaker who didn't crave the job so badly.

He said last week he had a conversation with McCarthy, 'the last thing he said was 'I really wanna be speaker.' And I think that sums up the whole thing  it's not about one person.'

Gaetz said Monday night he'd like to see Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who is battling blood cancer, in the role, but seemed open to other options.

The House is currently in recess, which will likely be used by Republicans to think on who they will elect as their next leader.

The humiliating end for McCarthy sent shockwaves across Capitol Hill and secured his title as the shortest-serving Speaker since 1875, following a rollercoaster tenure of nine months.

Florida's Matt Gaetz led the rebellion along with a small group of hardline Republicans who viewed McCarthy as a weak conservative.

McCarthy was seen shaking hands and hugging his supporters on the House floor after the stinging loss. His name could be put up for speaker again in subsequent battles.

The GOP leader's tenure came crashing down, nine months after he was elected after an unprecedented 15 rounds of votes.

Republicans were left reeling as they tried to stave off a potential government shutdown next month.

McCarthy's supporters called him a 'happy warrior' with 'true American grit'.

But, speaking on the House floor, Gaetz said: 'Chaos is speaker McCarthy. Chaos is somebody who we cannot trust with their word.

'One thing that the White House, House Democrats, and many of us on the conservative side of the Republican caucus would argue is that the thing we have in common - Kevin McCarthy said something to all of us at one point or another that he didn't really mean and never intended to live up to.

'I don't think voting against Kevin McCarthy is chaos. I think $33 trillion in debt is chaos. I think that facing a $2.2 trillion annual deficit is chaos.'

He added: 'Let's get on with it, lets vacate the chair, let's get a better Speaker.'

McCarthy's supporters booed and jeered at Gaetz as he tore into the Speaker ahead of the vote that officially removed him.

Republicans control the chamber by a narrow 221-212 majority, meaning it took only a handful of defections to remove McCarthy.

Steve Scalise was one of the Republicans who came out in support of McCarthy. Notably, Gaetz has mentioned Scalise would make a good replacement

McCarthy's supporters called him a 'happy warrior' with 'true American grit'

Gaetz and his allies criticized McCarthy for relying on Democratic votes to pass temporary funding that headed off a partial government shutdown last week.

They also said he had not pushed hard enough to cut spending, and was too willing to send money to Ukraine.

The anti-McCarthy Republicans have not coalesced around one alternative they'd like to put up for speaker. Gaetz has noted that the speaker does not even have to be a member of the House.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told reporters there are 'plenty of people' who good do the job better than McCarthy. Gaetz said Monday night he'd like to see Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who is battling blood cancer, in the role, but seemed open to other options.

Burchett also said he wanted a speaker who didn't want the job so badly.

He said last week he had a conversation with McCarthy, 'the last thing he said was 'I really wanna be speaker.' And I think that sums up the whole thing  it's not about one person.'

But McCarthy's allies could continue to put him up for speaker again.
Kevin McCarthy has become the shortest serving Speaker for nearly 150 years after he was sensationally ousted amid a bitter civil war in the Republican Party.

A motion to vacate the speaker's chair was adopted 216 to 210 on Tuesday, with eight Republicans joining Democrats to boot the House leader.

If McCarthy is seeking consolation, he can compare his 269-day tenure to the 258-day one of Michael C. Kerr in 1875.

He was the first Democrat to serve as Speaker after the Civil War and died in office.

The record for shortest time as Speaker is held by Theodore Pomeroy - who was the Speaker for just a day, on March 3, 1869.

Unlike McCarthy, however, Pomeroy agreed to the short tenure - having already announced his plans to retire from office on March 4.

He was therefore approved without dissent to take over from Rep. Schuyler Colfax (R-Ind.) who was required to step down in order to become Ulysses S. Grant's vice president.

If McCarthy is seeking consolation he can compare his 269-day tenure to Theodore Pomeroy - who was the Speaker for just a day, on March 3, 1869

If McCarthy goes down today he will have had the shortest Speakership since Michael C. Kerr (December 1875-August 1876). He died of tuberculosis. pic.twitter.com/NEAQIOAgR0  Tim Miller (@Timodc) October 3, 2023

McCarthy is swarmed by reporters after a vote to oust him from the speaker's chair

Prior to McCarthy, the last motion to vacate the Speaker was on March 19, 1910, when Speaker Joseph G. Cannon (R-Ill.) faced a revolt that was ultimately unsuccessful but paved the way for a Democratic takeover.

Pomeroy, a Republican, was first elected to the House in 1861 and would go on to serve as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department and of the Committee on Banking and Currency.

He was by all accounts a likeable member of the House.

After taking office he gave a speech in which he thanked colleagues 'for the kind personal consideration which is involved in my unanimous election to this most honorable position.'

Pomeroy was referred to as the youngest-looking member on the floor by one Washington correspondent who described him as 'small in stature, with keen black eyes, a peculiarly expressive countenance and somewhere near as smart as chain lightning, at least when he deals with lower law Democracy.'

The representative for the 25th Congressional district was 'one of the most energetic and effective debaters in the House.'

After leaving Congress, Pomeroy became the first vice president and general counsel of a company that would eventually become American Express.

He briefly returned to politics as mayor of his hometown of Auburn, New York, serving from 1875 to 1876, and then as a member of the New York State Senate in 1878 and 1879.

He eventually retired in 1879 and continued living in Auburn until his death in 1905.

Pomeroy had five children by his wife Elizabeth Leitch Watson.

Kevin McCarthy has been sensationally ousted as Speaker of the House in a historic vote sparked by a tumultuous civil war in the Republican party.

Harriet Tubman, the famed abolitionist, was a close friend of the family who helped care for the Pomeroy children.

She attended his funeral and it was reported that only her flowers and letter were placed on his casket and buried with him.

Pomeroy's descendants include his grandchild Janet Pomeroy Avery (18911969), who married John Foster Dulles (18881959), the U.S. Secretary of State during the Eisenhower Administration.

His great-grandson is Avery Dulles (1918 - 2008), who converted to Catholicism and would become America's first cardinal.
A single dad living in a block of units has been left shocked after receiving a fine because other residents said his two young sons were too noisy.

Marley Evans was slugged with the $250 fine for breaching strata by-laws because of the noise at the property in Dee Why on Sydney's northern beaches.

A letter to Mr Evans, who lives with his mother Sacha to save money, claimed other residents were disturbed by the children's continuous yelling and screaming, crying and door banging.

Mr Evans said he frequently took his sons to a nearby park and beach, partly to give their neighbours some peace.

He said his eldest son Jackson, four, has developmental challenges and does not understand the meaning of being 'quiet'. He is yet to speak, and is more prone to outbursts.

Marley Evans was fined $250 by the strata in Dee Why, Sydney, because his children were too noisy (pictured, the unit)

His other son, Finn, is just two years old.

'They don't know what's going on just yet so they don't know what they're doing if they're being too loud,' he told A Current Affair

Mr Evans said he received no warning from strata before he was issued with the fine, and none of his neighbours had spoken to him about the noise.

'I was pretty upset. I would have preferred them to knock on the door, give us a warning and say, "Hey, can you try and keep it down?" but there was none of that. It was just a straight-up fine.'

However it's not the first time the family had been the subject of noise complaints from the neighbours, after he and Sacha were issued with an order to keep their dog quiet just last month.

Now he claims they feel like they're 'walking on eggshells'.

As the owner of the unit, Sacha was told she would face a 10 per cent interest fee every year the fine went unpaid.

Shocked by the strata's actions, she tried to get the fine revoked but was told it would cost $210 an hour to discuss the matter.

Mr Evans (pictured with one of his sons) said he frequently takes his children to the local park and beach to give neighbours peace

'Children cry, this is to be expected and it's not 100 per cent within our control. You can't force a two-year-old to stop crying,' she said.

'I don't want strata and body corporates to think they can continue doing this and I don't want other people to be bullied or victimised in the way I feel we have been.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the strata for comment.
Plenty of Tory MPs were left outraged after Liz Truss, the 49-day PM, upstaged ministers with a carefully choreographed call for tax cuts at conference earlier in the week.

But Truss has been doing worse than simply stealing headlines.

Over the summer, she launched her so-called 'Growth Commission', with the backing of international economists, in an attempt to restore some credibility to her battered reputation.

The talk in the conference bars is that 64 Tory MPs have now joined the group  including some serving ministers and four former Cabinet ministers such as Dame Priti Patel.

That number is key, since the Tories, after a spate of by-election defeats and MP suspensions, have a working majority of just 60.

Former PM Liz Truss launched her so-called 'Growth Commission', with the backing of international economists, in an attempt to restore some credibility to her battered reputation

Rishi Sunak could be defeated if the Tory MP rebels carry out their threat by abstaining in a Budget vote, triggering an automatic general election

Those MPs who are backing Truss's Commission say they will resist any tax rises in the Government's next Budget.

Should they all carry out their threat by abstaining in a Budget vote, Sunak could be defeated, triggering an automatic general election and threatening to bring the Government crashing down.

Asked if that was their objective, Ranil Jayawardena, who was Truss's environment secretary, insisted it wasn't.

Yet if the Cabinet continues to rule out tax cuts, the numbers on the Commission will surely grow.

Truss is becoming a sharp thorn in Sunak's side.

There was neither sight nor sound of former home secretary Priti Patel in the conference hall for the stonking speech of her successor Suella Braverman. The feud between the two formidable women shows no signs of abating.

Reinstate knighted Burns

Poetic justice for former trade minister Conor Burns who was knighted yesterday.

A year after being suspended from the Conservative Party over untrue allegations of improper behaviour at last year's conference, Burns was ennobled at Windsor Castle by Princess Anne.

No formal complaint was ever made, and the Tories lifted the suspension, which was imposed by Liz Truss, three months later.

Now will Rishi Sunak do the right thing and give Sir Conor, pictured, back his ministerial job as well?

Conor Burns was recently knighted a year after being suspended from the Conservative Party over untrue allegations of improper behaviour at last year's conference

Joke of the day

Claire Coutinho, the new Energy Secretary, said: 'It's no wonder Labour seems so relaxed about taxing meat. Sir Keir Starmer doesn't eat it and Ed Miliband is clearly scarred by his encounter with a bacon sandwich.'

Quote of the day

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove says of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer: 'He is the jellyfish of British politics... he's transparent, spineless and swept along by the tide.'

Outrage at anti-Thatcher rhymes

Most women Tory MPs would be thrilled to be tipped as the next Margaret Thatcher.

But not Miriam Cates, 41, a rising star on the backbenches who has won plaudits for her forthright arguments in the trans debate.

The staunch Christian is MP for the South Yorkshire seat of Penistone and Stocksbridge, which was caught up in the 1980s miners' strike when Mrs T was in Downing Street.

At a fringe meeting yesterday, Cates told astonished party members about growing up near the area: 'We learnt rhymes about Thatcher and how we wanted her to die in the playground at school.'

Unsurprisingly, the revelation went down like a lead balloon.

MP for Penistone and Stockbridge Miriam Cates, 41, is rising star among backbenches and has been tipped as the next Margaret Thatcher

But she told a fringe meeting she had learnt rhymes about Mrs T (pictured in 1979) in the school playground and 'how we wanted her to die'

In his round of broadcasts yesterday, the Prime Minister was astonished to be interviewed on BBC One's Breakfast show by Jon Kay and Sally Nugent  two presenters ensconced in the Beeb's Salford studio  a mere 15-minute drive from the conference centre.

The BBC has at least 50 correspondents accredited for the event. 'They clearly didn't have enough staff to interview the PM face to face,' muttered one ministerial source sarcastically.

Essential advice for all would-be MPs from Baroness Bottomley, who was health and culture secretary in John Major's government: 'Have good health, thick skin, a sense of humour and an umbrella.' You certainly needed a brolly in Manchester this week.
'The office of Speaker of the House of the United House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant.'

Bang went the gavel.

And America marked a historic new low in the nation's seemingly daily ritual of humiliation.

Late Tuesday afternoon, in a shambolic, fumbling own goal, eight House Republicans joined every single Democrat in voting to oust Congressman Kevin McCarthy as Speaker.

This would be shocking were it not just another example of the utter incompetence of America's political class  from top to bottom.

In the White House, our doddering 80-year-old president is the rightful focus of an impeachment inquiry.

His bi-weekly old man gaffes and senior moments compromise the nation he incompetently leads, while his influence-peddling son sashays from child support hearings to State Diners to courtrooms without a hint of shame.

And speaking of courts, when he's not on the campaign trail, the leading GOP presidential candidate is sitting in the dock, under 91 state and federal indictments, pursued by an overzealous, politically biased U.S justice system.

Though, Trump certainly doesn't do himself any favors, as he rants and raves and suggests the death penalty for his perceived enemies, like a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

This past weekend the government nearly shut down  and no one cares except the federal workers and soldiers in uniform who nearly went unpaid.

The southern border is so dangerously wide open  even Democratic mayors are begging our Democratic president to do something  anything  to slow a mass migration crisis.

Late Tuesday afternoon, in a shambolic, fumbling own goal, eight House Republicans joined every single Democrat in voting to oust Congressman Kevin McCarthy as Speaker.

In an epic act of self-love, egomaniac Matt Gaetz, who posts Game of Thrones meme selfies on social media, drove the government into a ditch, so he could get his smiling face on TV.

And all the while, America's octogenarian leadership putters around the halls of power, falling down, freezing up, and tragically dying of old age just hours after casting votes.

We are through the looking glass.

But just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, an ethically challenged, former friend of an admitted sex trafficker, sad excuse for a Congressman leads a kamikaze mission to oust the most popular Republican in Congress from leadership.

And why?

In an epic act of self-love, egomaniac Matt Gaetz, who posts Game of Thrones meme selfies on social media, drove the government into a ditch, so he could get his smiling face on TV.

Don't believe it?

Well, then ask yourself  what does the Florida man do next?

Gaetz claims to be acting out of sincere concern and accuses McCarthy of failing to fix the House's broken legislative process.

On that point, he's at least over the right target. Congress is dysfunctional and our government should not fund the Leviathan of unaccountable federal agencies without necessary oversight.

But what's Gaetz's solution? To plunge the entire country into even greater chaos?

Now the House has no Speaker.

The business of running the country grinds to a halt until we reenact the Byzantine drama of January's election of a new leader and round after round of vacuous speeches.

Then, it only took 15 ballots to elect McCarthy. All he had to do was give fringe Republicans the power to fire him at the drop of a hat. And  big surprise  they did it!

Now, who in their right mind would want this job?

And let's be clear that Democrats, especially Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have their own special blame to accept for this startlingly sad state of affairs.

Jeffries claimed he wanted Republicans to end their civil war for the good of the country, but if so, why not instruct Democrats to join with the 90 percent of Republicans who voted to save McCarthy's skin?

This would be shocking were it not just another example of the utter incompetence of America's political class  from top to bottom. In the White House , our doddering 80-year-old president is the rightful focus of an impeachment inquiry.

His bi-weekly old man gaffes and senior moments compromise the nation he incompetently leads, while his influence-peddling son sashays from child support hearings to State Diners to courtrooms without a hint of shame.

You'll be shocked to hear that it's the American people who will bear the brunt of this as their concerns go unaddressed while Washington dandies preen before cameras.

What an olive branch it could have been. What a step towards progress, an inching towards a government that functions as it should.

If even Democrats couldn't stomach a vote in support of a Republican, they could have at least voted present and lowered the threshold of votes that McCarthy needed to hang on.

Instead, Democrats proactively sped his downfall.

And, again, for what? I think we know, as Democrats rushed to CNN and MSNBC to rub Republicans' noses in it. So much for their concern over democracy and our cherished institutions.

You'll be shocked to hear that it's the American people who will bear the brunt of this as their concerns go unaddressed while Washington dandies preen before cameras.

Isn't it always the way?

Over and over again the American people say they don't want Biden vs. Trump, but it doesn't matter.

We say we want a secure border and men out of women's sports, and we get poorly written episodes of the West Wing and House of Cards.

Nobody in Washington seems to care what we want. It's all a game of musical chairs, and no matter what pompous windbag winds up with a seat, we lose.

This is the part of the column where I am supposed to insist that America is better than all this, but are we right now?
Patients could be given the right to know if their doctor is transgender under government plans to crack down on wokery in the NHS.

The move would allow men and women to demand intimate check-ups and care by a medic of the same sex.

The Mail revealed earlier this year patients currently have no right to know if they are being treated by a transgender person  and face the prospect of being found guilty of discrimination if they refuse their care.

But Steve Barclay will launch a consultation later this year to will examine changing the NHS Constitution to guarantee patients' rights to same-sex care. It would also ban transgender women from being treated on women's wards to protect their privacy, dignity and safety, he said.

The Health Secretary yesterday told the Conservative Party conference he ordered officials to scrap an NHS training manual that told staff to declare their pronouns to patients.

Steve Barclay (pictured) will launch a consultation later this year to will examine changing the NHS Constitution to guarantee patients' rights to same-sex care

And he revealed that 'sex-specific language' has been fully restored to NHS advice pages on cervical and ovarian cancer and the menopause.

It follows concerns women's health was being put at risk by confusing public information.

The axed training manual, issued by Health Education England, said doctors, nurses and other staff should start conversations with patients by declaring their own pronouns.

Staff were advised to say if they used he/him, she/her, they/them or an alternative in order to create a 'safe space for trans, non-binary, intersex and gender non-conforming people'.

But Mr Barclay said he had intervened as part of efforts to restore 'simple common sense' to the NHS. He said: 'I know as Conservatives, we know what a woman is and I know the vast majority of hard-working NHS staff and patients do too.

Patients could be given the right to know if their doctor is transgender under government plans to crack down on wokery in the NHS (stock image)

'That is why I... stopped the NHS from ordering staff to declare pronouns to each new patient.

'And that is why today, I am going further; by announcing that we will change the NHS constitution... to make sure we respect the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients, recognise the importance of different biological needs and protect the rights of women.'

Suella Braverman backed the plans, telling broadcasters on a visit to Bolton: 'The Health Secretary is absolutely right to clarify and make it clear that biological men should not have treatments in the same wards and in the same safe spaces as biological women.'

But a spokesman for Stonewall said: 'This is a cynical attempt by the Secretary of State to "look busy"  all it will achieve is to restrict access to healthcare for trans women.'
A left wing activist who was stabbed to death in New York City while waiting at a bus stop with his girlfriend, had just spent the evening prior with his partner at a wedding.

Ryan Carson, 32, was stabbed in the chest multiple times, and the blade pierced his heart, during the unprovoked attack at 4am near Lafayette Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard in Brooklyn.

Dressed in a suit, Carson was returning home from a wedding - and his girlfriend Claudia posted an image of them smiling together at the nuptials hours before the tragedy.

Ryan was with his girlfriend when the suspect - wearing a dark colored sweatshirt with his hood up - asked 'What the f**k are you looking at?' before violently stabbing him in the chest.

Ryan Carson was returning home from a wedding - and his girlfriend Claudia posted an image of them smiling together just hours before the tragedy. They are wearing the same outfits seen in the security footage

Ryan Carson, 32, was stabbed in the chest at around 4am at a bus stop, about a mile away at Lafayette Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard in Brooklyn. He was returning home after attending a wedding

In security footage, the assailant can be seen kicking over scooters before turning on the couple.

The attacker can be heard saying 'I'll kill you!' on camera while Carson pleads with him and holds up his hand.

His girlfriend can be heard in the security footage shouting: 'Please, please, please!'

Carson falls over the bench he had been sitting on before the attacker knocks him to the ground and knifes him multiple times.

He then spits on the girlfriend, kicks Carson's body and storms away.

A woman who has not yet been identified then appears, shouting at the assailant: 'Don't hurt him!'

It is believed that this second woman may know the suspect, repeating the name Brian or Bryan.

She approaches Carson, and says 'I'm so sorry' while warning his girlfriend, 'Go watch him,' while pointing at the alleged attacker. She then announces that she's calling 911.

According to sources, the suspect threw the weapon in the trash, but then went back to retrieve it.

Authorities recovered the victim's glasses and two of his girlfriend's books from the scene.

Carson's girlfriend held him in her arms before he was taken to Kings County Hospital Center, where he later died.

The day after, she posted a screenshot of a note she found in his phone that read: 'When you get right down to it, all I want is to love Claudia more than she's ever been loved, which is frankly all she's ever deserved.'

She added the caption: 'I found this note in Ryan's phone. He did, he did, he did.'

The man is seen lying on the ground after being stabbed

The attacker can be heard saying 'I'll kill you!' on camera while Carson pleads with him and holds up his hand

Carson worked as a senior solid waste campaign manager at the New York Public Interest Research Group - and was remembered as someone who tried to make the world a better place.

In a statement, NYPIRG called Carson 'a beloved staffer, colleague and friend, and a creative, talented, relentless and upbeat advocate for students and the environment.'

Carson's friend and roommate Tom Krantz, 31, told the Post it was remarkable 'how much [Carson] actually did for the entire city and for his friends.

'He's really like the epicenter of an entire community that he created, that he brought together.

Carson's girlfriend held him in her arms before he was taken to Kings County Hospital Center, where he later died

No arrests have been made

'I don't think anyone is exaggerating when they say he would give the shirt off his back. He was the guy that bent over backward time and time again to be there with his friends.'

State Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, a friend of Carson's, said: 'You know it's hard when the person you go to to talk about grief is the one who died. It's been really difficult to comprehend.'

New York City Council Member Chi Osse also said: 'I'm horrified to learn of the brutal murder of advocate Ryan Carson in Brooklyn today. This tireless defender of his neighbors was stolen from us. Committed to ending this senseless violence, my heart is with his family.'

No arrests have been made.
The corporation tax rate went up from 19 per cent to 25 per cent earlier this year

Jeremy Hunt said he would choose cutting taxes for businesses before any other area as a report found British firms will pay more tax this year than at any time since the 1940s.

Analysis by tax expert Dan Neidle has revealed that companies are paying a greater proportion of their profits to the exchequer than in the 1970s  after the corporation tax rate went up from 19 per cent to 25 per cent earlier this year.

It comes as Mr Hunt faces mounting calls from MPs gathered at the Conservative Party conference to cut taxes in a bid to boost growth.

But the Chancellor told a fringe event that while lowering business taxes was his 'first priority', the Government was 'not in a position to have that discussion'.

Mr Neidle, founder of think-tank Tax Policy Associates, looked at the impact of hiking corporation tax from 19 per cent to 25 per cent.

Jeremy Hunt said he would choose cutting taxes for businesses before any other area

Rishi Sunak attends as Jeremy Hunt MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer makes a speech during the second day of the the Conservative Party Conference

Ministers routinely point out that the rate is still low compared with past years  down from more than 30 per cent in the 1990s and 52 per cent in past decades.

'This is easily the highest effective rate of tax UK companies have paid since the 1970s  it's not even close,' Mr Neidle said.

The rate would be even higher for larger businesses  as smaller firms pay a lower headline rate and qualify for more tax breaks.

He added: 'I'd be reasonably confident the ETR [effective tax rate] is now the highest since the WW2 excess profit tax was abolished in 1946'.

Mr Neidle said raising corporate tax was a bad idea but it was 'the least of several bad ideas'.
Support for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum has ticked up for the first time in months, but still lags behind the No vote.

The latest Guardian Essential poll found 43 per cent of its 1,125 respondents will vote Yes, up two per cent from last fortnight.

But 49 per cent intend to vote No and eight per cent are undecided, making the final days of the campaign vital for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other major Yes backers.

Against this backdrop, a concerted effort is being made to engage Australia's multicultural communities in the referendum.

However, some have reported little to no engagement from either side of the campaign.

The Essential poll found 49 per cent intend to vote No and eight per cent are undecided, making the final days of the campaign vital for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left), Noel Pearson (right) and other major Yes backers

The Sydney Alliance, which is made up of more than 40 civil society organisations, is translating referendum material into migrant languages in the city's west, explaining how to vote.

The alliance is also highlighting the sense of disempowerment among indigenous peoples to explain why constitutional recognition and an advisory Voice are needed, Chantelle Ogilvie-Ellis told AAP.

READ MORE: Yes campaigner Noel Pearson argue being Indigenous ISN'T a race Advertisement

'There's not a lot of acknowledgement of the history of Indigenous people in Australia, so a lot of our conversations are filling in that background,' Ms Ogilvie-Ellis said.

Common themes of support and not feeling heard made migrants receptive to the message, she said.

The Yes23 campaign captain in the outer Melbourne electorate of Lalor said the multicultural community in Victoria's capital was equally receptive.

The main question from migrant and refugee communities is why such a measure hasn't already been implemented and First Nations recognised, Emma Moxom said.

'They understand what Indigenous people have been through and they've been through things quite similar,' she said.

'Our multicultural community is very open-minded to this message.'

But some second-generation European migrants in inner-city Sydney suburbs, who did not want to be quoted, told AAP they had received almost no engagement from either side outside a letterbox drop.

A number remain sceptical about what the Voice could achieve when countless other programs designed to improve the lot of indigenous people have failed.

Prominent Indigenous No campaigners Warren Mundine and Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price have called the Voice divisive as it split Australia down racial lines.

'It doesn't matter whether we were here 60,000 years ago, or six months ago, you are Australian ... and the problem with this divisive referendum is the fact that it seeks to create different levels of citizenship,' Senator Price said.

It was this messaging that Desis for Yes - a South Asian-Australian run campaign - was seeking to counter.

Support for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum has ticked up for the first time in months, but still lags behind the No vote. Yes campaigners are pictured

Underlying questions from the South Asian community mainly related to whether the Voice would make binding decisions or give some special treatment, co-founder Nish Rajo said.

'It's really easy to spread messages like, "If you vote this through people will take your land away or you're giving special rights to a particular group of people",' he said.

'This is an advisory body, it's not a decision-making body, that is why we are working so hard to spread the right information.'

Australians will head to the ballot box on October 14 but early voting has already begun.
Rep. Matt Gaetz said he'd spoken to Donald Trump several times in the runup to Tuesday's historic vote that ousted Kevin McCarthy as speaker and that the former president approved of his actions.

'I have spoken to President Trump over the last several days,' Gaetz told reporters on the steps of the Capitol after the vote. 'I would say that my conversations with the former president leave me with great confidence that I'm doing the right thing.'

McCarthy became the first speaker in American history to be outed from his job in Tuesday's vote that saw eight members of his own party sink him. Now Republicans will have to deal with the fallout. That not only includes electing a new speaker but dealing with the bloodbath that remains of their party.

'I would say that my conversations with the former president leave me with great confidence that I'm doing the right thing,' Rep. Matt Gaetz said of his conversations with Donald Trump

The shockwaves from the vote left Democrats quietly shaking their heads as they left the House chamber. Lawmakers packed the House floor for the vote and, instead of standing in groups to chat like is typical during a vote, each sat in their seat in silence, waiting for their name to be called so they could record their vote.

McCarthy sat in silence after the vote was done. When the gavel came down on his speakership, he stood to shake hands. His supporters surrounded him. One group of Republican lawmakers was seen in the corner of the floor praying. Republican Rep. Ann Wagner appeared to be crying.

Trump and Gaetz are close but McCarthy also has heavily courted the former president and his MAGA base. Trump seemed to disapprove of the drama playing out in Congress' lower chamber.

'Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves, why aren't they fighting the Radical Left Democrats who are destroying our Country?' he wrote on Truth Social ahead of the vote.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is close to both Trump and McCarthy, called the vote 'frightening.

'It's actually pretty frightening considering our country has so many problems and we really need to be a functioning House,' she said.

Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, was defiant about his decision to start the process to kick McCarthy out of the speaker's office - a move that left several members of his party furious with him.

Standing on the marble steps of the Capitol, the sun setting behind him, Gaetz refused to back down, hitting back at criticism he has paralyzed the House and hamstrung his party.

'If they want to expel me, let me know when they have the votes,' Gaetz said of talk Republicans may kick him out of the House GOP Conference.

He slammed McCarthy as a 'creature of the swamp.'

'Kevin McCarthy is a feature of the swamp. He has risen to power by collecting special interest money and redistributing that money in exchange for favors. We are breaking the fever now. And we should elect a speaker who's better than Kevin McCarthy,' Gaetz said.

He described the Republican Party as in the 'stages of grief.'

'There was a stage of denial and I've certainly experienced a good amount of their anger. And now we appear to be headed toward bargaining,' he said.

Kevin McCarthy after the vote that ousted him as speaker

Former President Donald Trump and Rep. Matt Gaetz are close - the two are seen above at a November 2019 campaign rally in Florida

McCarthy ally Rep. Patrick McHenry was named speaker pro temp in the aftermath of McCarthy's ouster. House Republicans are meeting Tuesday night to go over their next steps, which includes a speaker election.

McCarthy has 'implied' to lawmakers he will run again, Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw said ahead of the vote.

But Gaetz blasted that idea.

'I think Kevin McCarthy should take a hint after 15 ballots to become speaker after eight months of a failed speakership and after removal in this historic manner. I think we should move on and find somebody else. What's paralyzed the House of Representatives has been the failure of Speaker McCarthy,' he said.

He said he 'absolutely' didn't want the speaker job for himself.

He floated a number of names - including members of McCarthy's own leadership team like Steve Scalise and Tom Emmer. He also suggested Reps. Mike Johnson, Kevin Hern and Jodey Arrington. He even suggested he 'might call up' former New York GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin.

It's unclear who has enough support among Republicans to be their next leader.

'No one has the support in the conference like Kevin McCarthy does,' Greene told reporters.

Gaetz and McCarthy have been locked in an epic power struggle all year, since it took McCarthy 15 rounds of votes in January to secure the speakership.

That voting also led to his downfall. When McCarthy was trying to secure enough Republican votes to be speaker, to garner enough support from the conservative wing of the party, McCarthy agreed to their demand to give them the ability to call a quick vote to 'vacate the chair' and remove him from office.

Gaetz used that on Monday to present a 'motion to vacate the chair' - the first step in the process to remove McCarthy.

Gaetz charges McCarthy with breaking his word to conservatives on spending deals and how he would run the House.

McCarthy's allies say it's a personal vendetta, pointing to the House Ethics committee looking into several allegations against Gaetz, including illicit drug use, sexual misconduct and misusing campaign funds.

House Democrats, meanwhile, voted one by one to oust McCarthy from the job.

McCarthy had called House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday night but failed to get any support from his counterpart across the aisle.

Democrats met Tuesday morning and were clear they neither supported nor trusted McCarthy.

They cited McCarthy's actions on January 6th, his trip to Mar-a-Lago to make amends with Donald Trump, his attempt to discredit the January 6th committee, and his reneging on debt limit deal and a budget deal as their reasons.

'We're not voting in any way that would help save Speaker McCarthy,' Rep. Pramila Jayapal said ahead of the vote. 'Nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy, and why should they?'

McCarthy ally Patrick McHenry was named speaker pro temp

As for the next steps, now both parties will hold meetings to decide their nominees for speaker.

The election could be messy and Congress has just over 40 days to avert a government shutdown. Republicans, the party in the House majority, have no leader to negotiate with President Joe Biden or Senate Democrats.

The humiliating end for McCarthy, 58, sent shockwaves across Capitol Hill and secured his title as the shortest-serving Speaker since 1875, following a rollercoaster tenure of nine months.

It came after a rebellion led by Gaetz and a small group of hardline Republicans who viewed McCarthy as a weak conservative.

The vote had moments of surprises including when Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina stunned her colleagues by voting to boot McCarthy from leadership.

The free-wheeling congresswoman said her vote was about 'trust.'

'It's not ideological. It's about having a leader in our nation who will tell the truth, who you can trust,' she told DailyMail.com. 'I am looking for a speaker who will tell the truth.'

The GOP leader's tenure came crashing down, nine months after he was elected after an unprecedented 15 rounds of votes.

It came after a rebellion led by his nemesis, Florida congressman Matt Gaetz , and a small group of hardline Republicans who viewed McCarthy as a weak conservative

Steve Scalise was one of the Republicans who came out in support of McCarthy

McCarthy's supporters called him a 'happy warrior' with 'true American grit'

McCarthy's supporters called him a 'happy warrior' with 'true American grit'.

But, speaking on the House floor, Gaetz said: 'Chaos is speaker McCarthy. Chaos is somebody who we cannot trust with their word.

'One thing that the White House, House Democrats, and many of us on the conservative side of the Republican caucus would argue is that the thing we have in common - Kevin McCarthy said something to all of us at one point or another that he didn't really mean and never intended to live up to.

'I don't think voting against Kevin McCarthy is chaos. I think $33 trillion in debt is chaos. I think that facing a $2.2 trillion annual deficit is chaos.'

He added: 'Let's get on with it, lets vacate the chair, let's get a better Speaker.'

McCarthy's supporters booed and jeered at Gaetz as he tore into the Speaker ahead of the vote that officially removed him.

Republicans control the chamber by a narrow 221-212 majority, meaning it took only a handful of defections to remove McCarthy.

Gaetz and his allies criticized McCarthy for relying on Democratic votes to pass temporary funding that headed off a partial government shutdown last week.

They also said he had not pushed hard enough to cut spending, and was too willing to send money to Ukraine.
Kevin McCarthy is well known on Capitol Hill for being attracted like a magnet to TV cameras.

But on Tuesday night, as the eyes of the world were trained on him, he walked into his office without saying a word.

Surrounded by his closest aides he gave only a wry smile as the scale of the calamity that had just befallen him sank in.

The defiance he'd shown for days in the face of a rebellion from conservatives in his party quickly faded as he became the first Speaker in history to be voted out by his colleagues.

Less than three hours later, he announced he would not run for Speaker again in a move that stunned his allies.

The last time Congress tried to evict its Speaker was in 1910, and it failed.

Kevin McCarthy is well known on Capitol Hill for being attracted like a magnet to TV cameras. But on Tuesday night, as the eyes of the world were trained on him, he walked into his office without saying a word

As the first of the eight Republicans backed the motion to vacate the chair, his strain and the dire situation he was in started to show.

'The office of Speaker of the House of the United House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant,' declared Rep. Steve Womack as he presided over the extraordinary and unprecedented moment.

When the gavel came down, and McCarthy's fate was sealed, colleagues came up and started to hug him.

A group of his colleagues prayed on the floor and one Republican, Rep. Ann Wagner could allegedly be seen in tears after the 216-210 vote to remove him as Speaker.

It threw the Republican party even deeper into chaos and marked a low point in the GOP turmoil sparked by infighting.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, who led the rebellion against McCarthy, was booed as he accused the Speaker of siding with Democrats and breaking his promises in the package to avert a government shutdown.

They also said he had not pushed hard enough to cut spending, and was too willing to send money to Ukraine.

He blasted the top Republican for being 'owned by lobbyists and special interests'.

'I take no lecture on asking patriotic Americans to weigh in and contribute to this fight from those who would grovel and bend knee for the lobbyists and special interests who own our leadership'.

Surrounded by his closest aides he gave only a wry smile as the scale of the calamity that had just befallen him sank in

It was a scene reminiscent of nine months earlier, where McCarthy and Gaetz squared off in the lower chamber during the 15th brutal rounds of votes to elect him as Speaker.

'It's to the benefit of this country that we have a better Speaker of the House than Kevin McCarthy,' Gaetz added as he left Capitol Hill following the vote.

'Kevin McCarthy is a feature of the Swamp,' he said to stick the knife into his nemesis.

It was unclear on Tuesday night who would succeed McCarthy as Speaker, with House Republicans in disarray.

McCarthy's allies have insisted they want him to run again, and have refused to give Gaetz a 'scalp'.

But their hopes were dash when McCarthy told colleagues in a conference meeting that he was ruling himself out.

The drama unfolded after the Florida Republican introduced his motion to kick McCarthy out on Monday night.

On Tuesday morning, Democrats emerged from talks saying they wouldn't help the Speaker escape, and would all vote to remove him.

For McCarthy, it went rapidly downhill from there.

The humiliating end for McCarthy sent shockwaves across Capitol Hill and secured his title as the shortest-serving Speaker since 1875, following a rollercoaster tenure of nine months.

Patrick McHenry, a staunch McCarthy ally, was named as interim Speaker. He was one of the Republicans who rose to voice their support the Republican leader

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina stunned her colleagues by voting to boot McCarthy from leadership. The free-wheeling congresswoman said her vote was about 'trust'

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina stunned her colleagues by voting to boot McCarthy from leadership.

The free-wheeling congresswoman said her vote was about 'trust.'

'It's not ideological. It's about having a leader in our nation who will tell the truth, who you can trust,' she told DailyMail.com. 'I am looking for a speaker who will tell the truth.'

But in January she tweeted that Gaetz is a 'fraud' for his McCarthy opposition.

Former President Trump, who spent the day in a New York court, seemed to disapprove of the drama playing out in Congress' lower chamber.

'Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves, why arent they fighting the Radical Left Democrats who are destroying our Country?'

In 2010, McCarthy wrote a book with former Speaker Paul Ryan and ex-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders.

For McCarthy, his tenure as leader ended in utterly shambolic scenes.
EXCLUSIVE

The mother of a woman beaten to death by a brutal killer claims that he is working the justice system to obtain early release.

Daily Mail Australia revealed last week that Henry Hammond has been repeatedly released on supervised day leave, four years after he bashed Melbourne woman Courtney Herron, 25, to death in May 2019.

He had been spared jail after forensic doctors agreed he was mentally unfit to be found guilty of murder and instead was placed inside Thomas Embling Hospital for the criminally insane.

Hammond is now enjoying meals in his victim's favourite restaurant on escorted trips in what is the first step toward releasing him altogether.

Courtney's mother, Maxie Antoniou, accused Hammond of manipulating authorities to become a free man - and revealed for the first time that her daughter had known her killer before he was released.

It can be revealed Courtney Herron (left) knew Henry Hammond before he killed her

Henry Hammond bashed Courtney so savagely in May 2019 that the mortician could not put her broken body back together

Maxie Antoniou at the site where her daughter Courtney Herron was beaten to death

Ms Antoniou, who has worked in welfare for more than a decade, said Hammond knew exactly how to play Victoria's mental health system.

'I don't believe he's schizophrenic. I think they are wrong in saying he is schizophrenic. I think he suffers from a schizoaffective disorder. He's been in the mental health system since he arrived in Victoria,' she said.

'There is no way they could get it that wrong. I know from people that have dealt with him that as soon as he's been incarcerated his first thing is to be quite aggressive and then as soon as he's placed on hold he is very compliant.'

Ms Antoniou said Hammond knows all too well the sooner he takes his medication, the sooner he tastes freedom.

'He will comply, he will look like an altar boy, he will take whatever medication comes his way,' she said. 'This is the way he operates and he will be out.'

Ms Antoniou claimed Hammond's mental illness was caused by his rampant abuse of narcotics, which ought not have earned him a mental impairment defence in the first place.

'He's been taking ice for so long and other drugs that he's got holes in his brain. Those holes will not close up,' she said.

Henry Hammond appears cuffed and slumped over as he visits a Japanese restaurant in Fairfield, Melbourne's inner north-east

Maxie Antoniou at a vigil for Courtney in May 2019

'If he was a drunk driver and they put a lock on his car and he went out and drove and he took somebody else's car that would be murder because he knew, and Henry Hammond knew.

'He's been told like all mental health patients that have been in the system that if you don't take your medication and you go back using drugs, even just a little bit, you will regress a lot faster and do more damage.

'Courtney was taking him back to where she was staying because she felt sorry for him,' she said.

Courtney was known to bring home a variety of strangers she felt needed a helping hand.

Ms Antoniou further revealed Courtney had not been a random victim.

'Courtney had met Henry Hammond previously. It never came out in court,' she said.

Courtney met Hammond at a music festival through a friend.

'She was camping with Hammond and another person and she introduced Courtney to him. I asked her to tell the police, but she refused to speak about it because she had mental health issues herself, but it had massive ramifications because this story that she'd never met him is not true,' Ms Antoniou said.

'It's why she went with him. She had met him once and Courtney was just so open and kind and generous and that's how they ended up together ... and no-one asked the daughter. They asked her mother.'

Courtney Herron was killed by Henry Hammond, who was found not guilty on grounds of mental impairment and sent to Thomas Embling Hospital for what 'could' be the next 25 years

Ms Antoniou said Hammond initially tried to deny any involvement in Courtney's killing when approached by homicide squad detectives at a Salvation Army shelter.

'If he was at the Salvation Army would they not have seen him in a full blown psychosis just hours after he murdered Courtney? He didn't appear to be a danger,' she said.

Hammond had been found with Courtney's wallet, phone and cigarettes after dumping her handbag.

He only changed his tune after being informed forensic evidence had linked him to the crime.

'The first thing he did was ask police to call his parents,' Ms Antoniou said.

Ms Antoniou said she continued to harbour animosity toward Hammond's parents, who had assured a County Court judge they would look after him in the months before he killed Courtney.

Judge John Carmody had released Hammond into the care of Corrections Victoria in the hope he could be managed and obtain drug and mental health treatment.

Hammond's millionaire father had made a whirlwind trip from Sydney to Melbourne to pledge his support for his wayward son and promised he would find him a temporary home.

Two-and-a-half hours later, his dad boarded a plane back to Sydney.

'They basically got in a cab and left,' Ms Antoniou said.

Henry Hammond appears to have retained his dishevelled appearance while housed in Thomas Embling Hospital

Multiple sources confirmed Hammond has been enjoying freedom, with grainy photographs showing him dining in at restaurants along Station Street in Fairfield - near Thomas Embling Hospital in Melbourne's inner north-east.

The images appear to show Hammond dining at Matsuya Japanese restaurant.

Hammond can be seen sporting platted ponytails and apparently slumped over.

Minders are seated across the table and Hammond's hands are clasped together as if restrained.

A well-placed source told Daily Mail Australia that Hammond is also fond of eating at nearby Narai Thai.

It was a restaurant frequented by Hammond's victim and her friends before he brutally took her life.

In March 2020, Supreme Court of Victoria Justice Phillip Priest told Hammond he would be moved from Port Phillip Prison to Thomas Embling Hospital for what 'could' be the next 25 years.

Justice Priest further told the community Hammond would not be reviewed for early release for at least 24 months.

Hammond appears slumped over inside the Japanese restaurant

Matsuya Japanese (left) and Narai Thai (right) in Fairfield

Hammond's escorted jaunts along Courtney's old stomping ground has not gone unnoticed by her friends.

A source claimed some of Courtney's friends had been traumatised by seeing Hammond out in public.

Hammond's current demeanour inside the restaurants is in contrast to the havoc he caused in the past.

He had been banned from entering the not-for-profit restaurant Lentil As Anything after a violent outburst, and Mr Herron said other eateries along High Street, Northcote had also barred him.

'He smashed up the windows of Lentil As Anything in Northcote and they had to lock the restaurant to keep him out.

'So that area is very familiar with him and he terrorised that area for a good year and police began to stop responding to calls about his activities,' he said.

Hammond was brutally bashed by another patient inside Thomas Embling just before Christmas 2021.

Courtney Herron's battered body is taken away from Royal Park in Melbourne on May 25, 2019

A well-placed source said the savage beating left Hammond in hospital, which in turn saw him transferred to Thomas Embling's 'transition unit' on return.

The unit facilitates patients' day releases and prepares them for imminent release.

It is understood Hammond impressed staff within the unit, which has led to the hospital softening its stance on releasing him temporarily back into the community with a view to setting him free altogether.

Just months before he killed Ms Herron, he had been released from prison on a community service order after a judge ruled his 10-month sentence for assaulting another woman in August, 2018 was 'manifestly excessive'.

Then came the frenzied attack on Ms Herron, in which he smashed her head in an assault that lasted close to an hour.

Hammond told doctors he had believed he was the Norse God Odin and that he feared Ms Herron was possessed and would kill him.

Ms Herron's body was found in between logs by three dog walkers in Royal Park in Parkville in May, 2019.
Black widow killer Biannca Edmunds will spend at least 20 years behind bars for convincing her lovestruck husband to murder her ex-partner.

Edmunds, 37, was sentenced by Justice Lex Lasry in the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne on Tuesday to a head sentence of 26 years.

The remorseless killer had three murder trials before a jury was finally convinced she had ordered her husband Glen Cassidy, 51, to kill her former partner Michael Caposiena.

Biannca Edmunds directed her husband Glen Cassidy (both pictured) to kill Michael Caposiena

Biannca Edmunds leaves the Supreme Court of Victoria during her first Supreme Court of Victoria trial in Melbourne

Michael Caposiena died after he was shot in the head in March 2016. Glen Cassidy then tried to shoot his girlfriend, but had only taken one bullet to the hit

Justice Lasry condemned Edmunds for her premeditated plot to murder the father of her son.

'These factors add up to a degree of entitlement that is at the extreme end of any scale,' he said.

'These deaths were an avoidable tragedy. The issues confronting you were so easily resolved without resorting to violence.'

Justice Lasry found Edmunds was the driving force behind the plot to murder Mr Caposiena and accepted she had tormented Cassidy into bending to her will.

The court heard Cassidy had told a good mate Edmunds had routinely abused him for not 'sorting' her ex-partner out.

I used to tie Glen up in bed so he couldn't move and I would get on top of him and ride him while I held the gun.

'Cassidy told him that there were custody issues between you and Caposiena and that you kept pushing him to go down and see Caposiena in relation to money and custody,' Justice Lasry said.

'He recalled Cassidy telling him that you did not want a custody case and you were putting Cassidy under pressure to sort it out... you said "if you were a real man you'd take care of it. You'd deal with it and you'd sort it out. If you had any balls, you know, you're spineless, you're a coward, you're p**sweak".'

The court heard Edmunds was brought undone by the evidence of two prisoners, whose identities had been protected throughout her multiple trials.

Convicted fraudster Marina Loprese claimed Edmunds had confided all the dirty details about how she manipulated Cassidy through sex to become an assassin.

Caged with her inside the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, Edmunds spilled her guts.

'She used to f**k him to turn him on with the gun and she used to lick the gun and he used to get really excited,' Loprese told the jury.

Biannca Edmunds awaits to be interviewed by police for the first time in 2016

HOW BLACK WIDOW TURNED HUSBAND INTO A KILLER Biannca Edmunds told two inmates she had Glen Cassidy wrapped around her finger through kinky sex. 'Glen started to get off on me telling him to kill Michael,' she told him. 'He liked me to tie him up and be on top, and I knew he would do what I wanted. I used to say to him, "You want to kill him, don't you? You'll do this for me. Say yes and I'll let you come"' When Cassidy wasn't persuaded by kinky sex, Edmunds would attack his ego. 'You're the f**king man here. You're the head of this family, not him. Now, now, it has to be now. If you don't man up and go to his house and shoot him dead, then you're a pussy and you don't love me and I will leave you'? Advertisement

Loprese said Edmunds admitted to using her body as a tool to manipulate her husband into doing her evil bidding.

'She would just use (it) all the time. Her body. All the time with Glen and he would do anything she wanted,' she told the court.

'He didn't want to do it at first but she eventually got him to do it and he said he would kill him... So she used her - sex. She used her body with Glen a lot to always encourage him to, to kill him.'

The prisoner claimed Edmunds told Cassidy during sex that his murderous actions would make her feel as though she had done it herself.

'Once he does it, it'll feel like she had actually pulled the trigger or she, she killed him. It'll feel like she killed him,' Loprese said.

The court heard Edmunds would refuse to allow Cassidy to orgasm unless he agreed to murder Mr Caposiena.

'She used to use sex and she wouldn't let him um, orgasm and stuff like that, come, whatever, until he would say he'd do it and it was, it was a game for him until it became serious and he did say that he would kill, he would kill him for her,' Loprese told the jury.

The court heard Edmunds told the inmate she wanted Mr Caposiena dead so she could cash in on his superannuation and Cassidy behind bars so she could be free of him too.

'The plan was that he was to go to jail and that she would get all his - ah, as his wife, she would get all his um, you know, his home or whatever, and his assets,' Loprese said.

The sawn-off rifle Glen Cassidy used to murder Michael Caposiena. Biannca Edmunds' DNA was allegedly found on the gun. She would use it as a sex toy

Glen Cassidy's blood was splattered all over the porch after he tried to batter a woman to death. He bled out and died shortly after.

In handing down his sentence, Justice Lasry said he largely believed what the prisoners had told the jury.

Edmunds had branded Cassidy an 'idiot' for getting himself killed during his botched assassination.

'Glen wasn't supposed to die,' Edmunds told Loprese. 'The idiot got himself killed.'

It was Mr Caposiena's decision to ignore Edmunds' sexual manipulation of him that ultimately led to his grim fate.

'She said she couldn't control him anymore. She used to be able to control him and he would do everything she wanted, but she couldn't do that anymore... she couldn't control him anymore with sex,' Loprese told the jury.

Former solicitor Josephine Gonzalez, who is serving nine and a half years with a non- parole period of seven years for fraud, had shared a cell with Edmunds while she was awaiting trial.

Like Loprese, Gonzalez claimed Edmunds told her she could wrap Cassidy around her finger through 'sexual favours'.

'They would both get turned on with certain things,' she said.

Gonzalez claimed those things mostly revolved around murdering Mr Caposiena.

Biannca Edmunds during her 2016 record of interview

A text message sent from Glen Cassidy's phone on the day he murdered Biannca Edmunds' ex-lover. Justice Lasry concluded it had been written by Edmunds

'I used to tie Glen up in bed so he couldn't move and I would get on top of him and ride him while I held the gun,' Edmunds told Gonzalez.

'And I would say to him, "Tell me how much you want to kill him. Will you do it? I won't let you come until you say yes".'

Gonzalez claimed Edmunds used the murder weapon to motivate Cassidy during depraved sex sessions.

'Glen used to like to rough me up during sex, and he liked to hold his gun and f**k me,' Edmunds told the prisoner.

'I loved seeing him hold his gun, it turned me on.'

The court heard Cassidy had kept a series of recorded phone conversations between himself and Edmunds.

'Can we have sex tomorrow night, Cassidy asked her on March 3, 2016.

'I don't know. That depends on if we're celebrating or not,' Edmunds responded.

Police had alleged Edmunds convinced Cassidy to carry out the hit on Mr Caposiena through a mix of kinky sex and manipulation.

Mr Caposiena had managed to stab Cassidy in the moments before he was shot through the head

A hat stating 'Fear The Reaper' was found near where Cassidy's bloody body was located

Mr Caposiena - the estranged father of her toddler son - had made the deadly mistake of expressing a desire to have greater access with their child.

Cassidy bled to death after shooting Mr Caposiena dead in the botched assassination at his West Meadows home, north of Melbourne, on March 12 that year.

Cassidy used a solitary bullet to kill Mr Caposiena before firing his empty sawn-off rifle at his victim's girlfriend, Silvana Silva, who lived to tell the tale.

The former fitness instructor had tried to bash Ms Silva to death on the front porch before he bled out from knife wounds inflicted upon him by Mr Caposiena before he shot him dead.

A text message sent by Cassidy exonerating Edmunds from the crime was dismissed by Justice Lasry.

The well-written text had been sent in the hours before Cassidy carried out the murder.

The jury heard Cassidy had been practically illiterate and struggled to string a sentence together.

'The message, I am satisfied, was created by you in circumstances where Cassidy was effectively incapable of composing it as the evidence demonstrates,' Justice Lasry said.

'The message was designed to remove you from any criminal liability for what was about to occur by creating the false impression that Cassidy was on a mission of his own.'

Edmunds has already spent 625 days behind bars.
They're two of the most popular apps on both the App Store and Google Play Store.

But Instagram and Facebook users in Europe could soon have to shell out as much as 13/month (11.28/month) to access ad-free versions of the apps.

Meta, the parent company of the apps, is exploring a new paid plan for users in the European Union, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The change will force millions of users to decide whether they want to face personalised adverts, or fork out the fee for an ad-free offering.

According to Meta, there are currently 258 million monthly Facebook users in the EU, while 257 million users take to Instagram every month.

They're two of the most popular apps on both the App Store and Google Play Store. But Instagram and Facebook users in Europe could soon have to shell out as much as 13/month to access ad-free versions of the apps

Under the plan, Meta will charge roughly 10 (8.68) a month on a desktop for a Facebook or Instagram account, the report said, citing people familiar with the proposal.

There will be an extra charge of 6 (5.21) for each additional linked account.

Meanwhile, on mobile devices, the price for a single account jumps to roughly 13 (11.28).

This is because Meta will have to factor in commissions charged by Apple's and Google's app stores, WSJ said.

The news comes as the social media giant was fined 390 million (338 million) earlier this year by Ireland's Data Privacy Commissioner.

It was told it cannot use the so-called 'contract' legal basis to send users ads based on their online activity.

On mobile devices, the price for a single account jumps to roughly 13 (11.28) because Meta will have to factor in commissions charged by Apple's and Google's app stores, WSJ said

READ MORE: Facebook has subtly changed its logo - so, can you tell the difference? Can you tell the difference? The most noticeable change is a deeper blue for the background - but there are other alterations Advertisement

Meta subsequently said it intended to ask users in the EU for their consent before allowing businesses to target advertising in order to address a number of evolving regulatory requirements in the region.

Meta has now told European regulators it hopes to roll out the ad-free plan, which it calls 'subscription no ads' (SNA), in the coming months for users in Europe, the report said.

A Meta spokesman told the Journal that the company believes in 'free services which are supported by personalized ads' but is exploring 'options to ensure we comply with evolving regulatory requirements.'

Meta, Ireland's Data Protection Commission and the European Commission did not respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.

The New York Times first reported that Meta was considering paid versions of Facebook and Instagram with no ads for users residing in the EU, without giving details about how much they would cost.

Unsurprisingly, the news has not gone down well among users.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), one user wrote: 'Zuckerberg is greedy.

'Facebook already has very high profits from its dubious schemes.'

Another added: 'Bye bye instagram,' while one questioned: 'Who would even pay for this?'
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a new mysterious class of object while peering into the Orion Nebula around 1,344 light years away.

Jupiter-mass binary objects, or 'JUMBOs', are a bizarre new category of worlds that seem to defy classification, and have even left scientists scratching their heads.

They're called JUMBOs because they're similar in mass to Jupiter, but can't be planets because they don't orbit a parent star  and they're too small to be stars.

JUMBOs contain steam and methane in their atmospheres and infernal surface temperatures of roughly 1,830F (1,000C), but experts don't think they're home to alien life.

The JUMBOs were identified in new images revealed by the European Space Agency (ESA) that show Orion Nebula in unprecedented detail.

This spectacular wide-angle view image brought to us by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) shows the Orion Nebula, around 1,344 light years from Earth. It reveals the presence of JUMBOs - Jupiter-sized objects that are neither planets nor stars

The James Webb telescope observed about 40 Jupiter-mass binary objects (JUMBO) pairs in total. This image picks out five of them

What are JUMBOs? Jupiter-mass binary objects, or 'JUMBOs', are a new class of objects detected in the Orion Nebula. JUMBOs are too small to be stars and can't be planets as we know them because they don't orbit a parent star. Some of them have been found in pairs - hence the binary classification in their name. Advertisement

According to the agency, data from ground-based telescopes hinted at the existence of JUMBOs before they were formally identified by James Webb.

'We were looking for these very small objects and we find them,' Professor Mark McCaughrean at the ESA told the Guardian.

'We find them down as small as one Jupiter mass, even half a Jupiter mass, floating freely, not attached to a star.

'Physics says you can't even make objects that small. We wanted to see, can we break physics? And I think we have, which is good.'

JUMBOs include the word 'binary' in their name because some of them come in pairs, like binary solar systems that have two stars.

The James Webb telescope observed about 40 JUMBO pairs in total.

While JUMBOs are too small to be stars, that doesn't mean they're planets.

For one, they're 'free-floating', so are not orbiting a parent star.

They're hot and gassy, have steam and methane atmospheres and are about one million years old, making them 'babies' in astronomical terms.

 Slide me  On the left, image from Webbs NIRCam short-wavelength channel shows the nebula, its stars, and other objects in high definition in the near infrared. On the right, image from Webb's NIRCam long-wavelength channel reveals the gas, dust and molecules in infrared, but at lower spatial resolution. The cavity is mostly filled with ionised gas, seen here in purple, while the surroundings have a mix of dust and molecular gas seen in reds, browns, and greens

This short-wavelength infrared image of the Orion Nebula shows a young star and its protoplanetary disk being sculpted by the intense ultraviolet radiation and winds from the massive Trapezium stars that lie at the centre of the region

READ MORE James Webb snaps shots of dying Ring Nebula Image offers a glimpse of what our sun might look like when it dies Advertisement

Because they're gassy giants akin to Jupiter instead of rocky like Earth or Mars, JUMBOs are unlikely to be home to reservoirs of liquid water and so are not thought to host alien life.

Still, JUMBOs are perplexing researchers at ESA and NASA because current planetary formation theories essentially don't account for their existence.

It should not be possible to form Jupiter-sized objects like this through the process that gives rise to stars inside a nebula.

A nebula is an enormous cloud of dust and gas occupying the space between stars and acting as a nursery for new stars.

Nebulae are formed when a star larger than our sun starts to die and gives off a solar-wind of gas.

The Orion Nebula, around 1,344 light years from Earth and also known as Messier 42, is situated in the Milky Way, south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion.

Like most nebula, the Orion Nebula is diffuse, meaning it does not have well-defined boundaries.

It is also one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky.

ESA has published other new images from the Orion Nebula captured by James Webb, including bright 'fingers' of gas racing away from an explosion that occurred roughly 500 to 1,000 years ago

Another image shows a young star and its protoplanetary disk being sculpted by the intense ultraviolet radiation and winds.

Short-wavelength infrared image of the Orion Nebula shows bright 'fingers' of gas racing away from an explosion that occurred roughly 500 to 1000 years ago in the heart of a dense molecular cloud behind the nebula, perhaps as two young massive stars collided

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST, depicted here in space) is the largest, most powerful space telescope ever built

ESA claims the nebula is a 'treasure trove' for astronomers studying the formation and early evolution of stars.

It has a rich diversity of phenomena and objects, including free-floating planetary mass objects like JUMBOs and protostars (young stars that are still gathering mass from its parent molecular cloud).

It also contains 'brown dwarfs'  astronomical objects that are not quite stars or planets, often described as 'failed stars'.

Brown dwarfs are more massive than planets but unlike stars they don't have sufficient mass to sustain nuclear fusion in their cores.

The new images are included in ESAs ESASky application, a free user-friendly online interface to visualise and download astronomical data.

The findings are published as a preprint on Professor McCaughrean's website, and are yet to be peer reviewed.
While dating apps were once seen as taboo, they're now one of the most popular ways for couples to connect.

Whether it's Tinder, Bumble, or even Singles With Food Allergies, figures show that a third of marriages now begin online.

But a new study suggests that if you want a happy marriage, swiping right isn't the best way to go.

Researchers from Arizona State University in the US say that couples who meet on dating apps are unhappier in their marriages than people who meet in the real world.

'The results support an online dating effect, particularly by showing that people who meet in online dating report different levels of satisfaction and stability than those who meet offline,' the researchers said.

Whether it's Tinder, Bumble, or even Singles With Food Allergies, figures show that a third of marriages begin online. But a new study suggests that if you want a happy marriage, swiping right isn't the best way to go (stock image)

Researchers from Arizona State University say that couples who meet on dating apps are unhappier in their marriages than people who meet in the real world

The first ever incarnation of a dating app can be traced back to 1995 when Match.com was first launched.

Since then, thousands of dating apps have taken over the online space, with an estimated 21.9 per cent of people in the US now using them.

In their new study, the team set out to understand whether or not meeting online affects marital satisfaction.

The researchers enlisted 923 married participants, who were surveyed about their marriage satisfaction and stability.

Around half (49.3 per cent) of the participants had met their partner online, through dating apps including Grindr, Tinder, or Bumble.

The other 50.7 per cent had met offline, including through work, in college, or in a bar or club.

To assess their marriage satisfaction, the participants were asked to answer questions including 'how well does your spouse meet your needs?', and 'in general, how satisfied are you with your marriage?'

Meanwhile, questions to assess their marriage stability including 'have you or your spouse ever seriously suggested the idea of divorce?'

The results revealed that couples who met online tended to be younger, had more dating experience, and were more likely to be in a same-sex or interracial marriage than those who had met offline.

Participants who had met online reported lower marriage satisfaction and stability.

While the reason for the findings remains unclear, the researchers suggest that it may be down to the stigma associated with meeting online.

Liesel Sharabi, lead author of the study, said: 'Our research reveals it's the stigma surrounding their relationship that puts online couples under stress  they tend to face higher levels of societal marginalisation, either because they are more likely to be an interracial or a same-sex couple, or because they feel judged for meeting their spouse online.'

Thankfully, the researchers say that an awareness of this stigma can help to improve your chance of a happy marriage.

'Being aware of these obstacles may allow online couples to have a longer, stable and happy future together,' Ms Sharabi added.
From lemurs to apes, spiders, fish and a variety of birds, gay behaviour is the norm for most animals, research has found.

Scientists studied homosexual acts in more than 1,500 species and concluded that same-sex displays evolved repeatedly to increase social bonding and reduce conflict.

They found that gay behaviour is equally common in female and male animals but that homosexual acts among the latter were more likely in species with adulticide.

This is where adult males often kill a rival  suggesting that same-sex displays may be an adaptation to mitigate against the risks of such violent conflict, the researchers said.

Experts led by Spain's Estacion Experimental de Zonas Aridas reviewed the scientific literature related to gay behaviour in animals and created a database of their findings.

Study: Gay behaviour is the norm for most animals  from lemurs to apes, spiders, fish and a variety of birds, research has found

Scientists studied homosexual acts in more than 1,500 species and came to the conclusion that same-sex displays evolved repeatedly to increase social bonding and reduce conflict

EXAMPLES OF SOME OF THE ANIMALS WHO EXHIBIT GAY BEHAVIOUR Invertebrates such as insects, spiders, echinoderms and nematodes

such as insects, spiders, echinoderms and nematodes Vertebrates including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals

including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals Non-human primates such as lemurs and apes Advertisement

This included examples of homosexual acts in invertebrates  such as insects and nematodes  vertebrates, including amphibians and reptiles, and non-human primates.

The researchers then set about tracing the evolution of this behaviour, which scientists call the 'Darwinian paradox'.

That is  why do animals practice same-sex sexual activity when it has no obvious evolutionary benefit and could lead to extinction if all members of species practice it?

Their analysis showed that same-sex displays were more likely to evolve in social species, which led them to conclude that such behaviour helps establish and maintain positive social relationships.

They added that this could in turn increase bonds and alliances between members of the same group.

'Since it does not contribute directly to reproduction, same-sex sexual behaviour is considered an evolutionary conundrum,' the authors wrote in their paper.

Experts led by Spain's Estacion Experimental de Zonas Aridas reviewed the scientific literature related to gay behaviour in animals and created a database of their findings. They found that gay behaviour is equally common in both female and male animals (pictured)

The researchers then set about tracing the evolution of this behaviour, which scientists call the 'Darwinian paradox'. That is - why do animals practice same-sex sexual activity when it has no obvious evolutionary benefit and could lead to extinction if all members of species practice it?

'Our analysis... suggests that it may play an adaptive role in maintaining social relationships and mitigating conflict.'

The scientists said same-sex sex behaviour in animals has also been linked to mistaken identity, the limited availability of individuals of the opposite sex and the consequences of sexual frustration when individuals are refused by members of the other sex.

Examples of some of the species that have been observed carrying out homosexual acts are bonobos, chimpanzees, bighorn sheep, lions, wolves, and several species of wild goat, the authors said.

However, they were quick to caution that the findings should not be used to explain the evolution of sexual orientation in humans.

This is because the study focused on short-term courtship or mating interactions, the researchers said, rather than a more permanent sexual preference.

The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.
NASA is set to create an Airbnb that is out of this world.

The American Space Agency awarded a construction technology company $60 million to build a home on the moon by 2040 that would be for not just astronauts but also average civilians.

The plan is to launch a giant 3D printer to the moon and use lunar concrete made of rocks, mineral fragments and dust to layer the structure on the surface.

NASA is also working with universities and private companies to construct doors, tiles and furniture for the moon home.

The agenda includes setting up an establishment on Mars for space-fairing heroes who will one day live on the Red Planet.

The plans are in the very early stages, with only renders from 2022 available to paint a picture of what the home could look like - the idea could change over the next decade

The plans are in the very early stages, with only renders from 2022 available to paint a picture of what the home could look like - the idea could change over the next decade.

And NASA is not sharing how much it would charge civilians for their getaway stay in the moon house.

Austin-based ICON, awarded the NASA contract in 2022, uses its 3D-printing expertise on Earth, constructing luxury homes layer by layer using its system, The Vulcan.

The technology lays out a mixture of cement, sand and water as filament.

The filament is effectively an ink that comes out of the printer like thick ribbons stacked on each other.

All home components - for instance, the walls and roof - are printed separately and then slotted together afterward.

The idea is to send a 3D printer to the moon, which will layer the structure using lunar concrete

The technology lays out a mixture of cement, sand and water as filament. The filament is effectively an ink that comes out of the printer like thick ribbons stacked on top of each other

ICON shared that the infrastructure must better protect thermal, radiation and micrometeorite

The printer can build properties in as little as 48 hours.

ICON has been 3D printing homes since 2018 and has constructed over 100 across north Austin.

Homes built this way have become increasingly popular because they are quick to erect, with developers saying they could solve America's housing crisis.

And NASA seems 3D-printed homes could be the next stage in its moon mission.

Raymond Clinton, 71, deputy director of the science and technology office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, told The New York Times that he does not see average Americans living on the lunar surface in his lifetime, but is hopefully for future generations.

'I wish I would be around to see it,' he told The New York Times.

NASA is also working with universities and private companies to construct doors, tiles and furniture for the moon home.

A neighborhood of $1 million 3-D printed homes by ICON has gone up for sale in the middle of the West Texas desert

'When we talk about a sustainable human presence, to me, that means that you have a lunar settlement and you have people living and working on the moon continuously.

READ MORE: Could this be the first human outpost on the MOON? AI SpaceFactory's outpost would feature Romanesque arches topped with over 8ft of lunar soil and three separate units that share a communal courtyard. Advertisement

'What that could be is only up to the imagination of entrepreneurs.'

ICON shared that the infrastructure must better protect thermal, radiation and micrometeorite.

NASA will first have to set up landing pads for the rockets to carry the 3D printer to the lunar surface.

These pads will be away from the habitats to mitigate the dust kicked up during landing and takeoff.

Jason Ballard, ICON co-founder and CEO, said: 'To change the space exploration paradigm from there and back again to there to stay, were going to need robust, resilient, and broadly capable systems that can use the local resources of the Moon and other planetary bodies.'

ICON plans to test its printer in NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center next February to see how it handles the vacuum conditions and radiation levels of space.

But it will all come down to when NASA sets up the landing pads on the moon.

NASA is set to launch the second phase of its Artemis mission in 2024, which will send astronauts around the moon.

Then, in either 2025 or 2026, the space agency will land humans back on the moon in the Artemis 3 mission.
One of the earliest and most lifelike examples of a human sculpture  depicting a man holding his phallus with both hands  has been uncovered by archaeologists in Turkey.

The unusual 7.5ft (2.3m)-tall statue was discovered at a prehistoric site known as Karahan Tepe, which is around 22 miles (35km) from a Mesolithic temple built 6,000 years before Stonehenge.

It is similar in style to the 10,300-year-old Urfa Man sculpture that was also found in southeast Turkey during construction work in 1993.

That had been considered the 'oldest naturalistic life-sized sculpture of a human'.

But because Karahan Tepe dates back to around 9,400 BC, it is believed the new discovery eclipses Urfa Man as the oldest human statue of its kind ever found on Earth.

Discovery: One of the earliest and most lifelike examples of a human sculpture  depicting a man holding his phallus with both hands  has been uncovered by archaeologists in Turkey

The 7.5ft (2.3m)-tall statue was discovered at a prehistoric site known as Karahan Tepe, which is around 22 miles (35km) from a Mesolithic temple built 6,000 years before Stonehenge

ANCIENT PHALLUSES: A QUICK HISTORY The human statue at Karahan Tepe likely dates back to around 9,400 BC  however, phallographic imagery has a history that dates back to much earlier. The earliest known depiction of a phallus can be found amid the prehistoric rock art of the Cosquer Cave in Marseille, France. The cave paintings are believed to have been made between 27,000 and 19,000 years ago. The oldest three-dimensional phallus, meanwhile, was carved into the wall of Germany's Hohle Fels cave some 28,000 years ago. It is 7.8 inches long. Phalluses typically symbolises fertility or potency. Advertisement

The sculpture was found fixed to the ground on a bench at Karahan Tepe, which is considered one of the most important settlements of the Neolithic period.

It has a realistic facial expression, a strong, wide 'v-neck' motif and ribs clearly carved into it.

The statue, which is up to 11,400 years old, also has arms coming down its sides that are depicted holding its phallus.

It differs to the Urfa Man because its eyes have been carved  as opposed to being black obsidian  while the Karahan Tepe Man is not balding but instead has a beard and hair and is much taller than its counterpart.

Nearby excavations also uncovered a bird statue with a beak, eyes, and wings, which archaeologists in Turkey suggest depicts a vulture.

It is not the first time animal sculptures have been found at the site.

Statues of snakes, insects, birds, a rabbit and a gazelle have also previously been uncovered at Karahan Tepe, which is close to the Unesco World Heritage site Gobekli Tepe in Turkey's southeastern Sanlurfa province.

Billed as being home to the oldest known Mesolithic temple, Gobekli Tepe dates back to 9,600 BC and is affectionately known as the 'zero-point of history'.

Rare example: Because Karahan Tepe dates back to around 9,400 BC, it is believed the new discovery eclipses Urfa Man as the oldest human statue of its kind ever found on Earth

Another sculpture: Nearby excavations also uncovered a bird statue with a beak, eyes, and wings, which archaeologists in Turkey suggest depicts a vulture

Find: Archaeologists said a life-size wild boar statue made of limestone had been found in the nearby ancient site Gobekli Tepe, billed as being home to the oldest known Mesolithic temple

It is also the site of another new find, according to the country's Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Archaeologists said a life-size wild boar statue made of limestone had been found in the 'D structure' of Gobekli Tepe.

They say it is the first painted sculpture found from this period and features red, white and black pigment residues on its surface.

Excavations at Gobekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe began in 2019 but the sites have been known to archaeologists for around 30 years.

They are now the subject of a new book called 'Gobekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe: The World's First Megaliths' by author Hugh Newman.

He will be speaking about the ancient sites and launching the book at the Origins Conference in Wiltshire on November 4.

While excavations at Gobekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe began in 2019, the sites have been known to archaeologists for around 30 years
Netflix is planning to increase prices for its ad-free service to make up for the revenue lost during the Hollywood actor strike, a report claims.

The streaming giant will issue the price hike a 'few months' after the strike ends, which could happen this month.

The Standard ad-free plan costs $15.49 monthly, while the Premium is $19.99.

The union of more than 15,000 television and movie actors began the strike in July to demand more pay and residual payments from streaming services.

And Netflix has felt the brunt of delaying the release of popular shows like 'Stranger Things,' now set to be released in 2025.

Netflix is planning to increase prices for its ad-free service to make up for the revenue lost during the Hollywood actor strike, a report claims

Other streaming services have also had to issue delays - HBO postponed 'The Last of Us,' and Hulu had to push back 'A Handmaid's Tale.'

DailyMail.com has contacted Netflix.

The Wall Street Journal reports the increase will likely start in the US and Canada first.

Findlay-Wilson, who is the managing director of Energy PR warned this month that Netflix could suffer major damage to its reputation due to the ongoing Hollywood strikes - because it has been positioned as the ultimate 'villain' in the narrative.

The Screen Actors GuildAmerican Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which represents approximately 160,000 actors, has been on strike since failing to reach an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) over concerns about residuals and the use of AI.

They followed the Writers Guild of America (WGA), which has been on strike since May 2.

And Netflix has felt the brunt of delaying the release of popular shows like 'Stranger Things,' now set to be released in 2025

Netflix has had to postpone at least 43 shows and movies due to the strike.

And it seems the streaming platform's customers will have to pay for their losses.

Netflix users have already felt the company's 'betrayal' when it banned password sharing in May.

Customers paying for standard or premium plans - which cost $15.50 to $20 per month - can share their login credentials with someone for an additional $8 per month, a $2 discount from the company's standard stand-alone basic plan.

Without providing details on how it authenticates subscriber identities or accounts, Netflix assured that everyone living in the same household will still be able to stream TV series and movies 'wherever they are - at home, on the go, on holiday.'

The long-anticipated move has been looming over the US since it was revealed by Netflix in 2021 to end lost revenues - Citi Bank estimated the company lost $6 billion annually from password sharing.

While Netflix did not share its revenue lost, it revealed in January that 'widespread account sharing' has exceeded over 100 million viewers.

Those passwords were funneled through Netflix's 232.5 million worldwide paying subscribers, who generated the bulk of the companys $32 billion in revenue last year.

But a year of lackluster subscriber growth included its most significant customer losses in more than a decade.

Netflix said 2022 had been a 'tough year' due to its first subscriber loss in more than a decade - its customer base fell by 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter.
Travel as we know it could be on the brink of extinction by 2040.

Destinations such as Majorca and Greece could become too hot to handle, with travellers 'chasing the shade' and choosing holidays based on cooler and safer destinations that are not ravaged by climate change.

Rising temperatures will also mean that destinations such as Lapland will struggle to maintain their snowy allure, and ski seasons will become shorter than ever.

Low-lying destinations such as the Maldives and Jakarta will be nearly fully submerged by 2050 due to rising sea levels, something that also threatens destinations such as Venice and Amsterdam.

Thats all according to a new report commissioned by travel company Intrepid Travel, in partnership with foresight agency The Future Laboratory, that predicts what the world of travel could look like by 2040 if action is not taken now.

Travel as we know it could be on the brink of extinction by 2040, a new report finds, with destinations such as Greece potentially becoming too hot to handle. Above is Assos, a fishing village on the Greek isle of Kefalonia

The Sustainable Future for Travel report finds that low-lying destinations such as the Maldives (above) will be nearly fully submerged by 2050 due to rising sea levels

So how do we ensure a more sustainable future in travel? The report - called the Sustainable Future for Travel report - also predicts seven future trends that could help travellers do just that

NUMBER ONE - REGULATION ON TOURISM LEAKAGE

Intrepid says that by 2040, governments will be required to implement regulations on travel businesses to ensure that the majority of money spent by tourists in a destination stays in the local economy.

'This will mean that the benefits of tourism will be more evenly distributed,' it says, adding: This will pave the way for a more equitable and mutually beneficial relationship between travellers and the communities they visit, elevating the quality of life of the locals.

NUMBER TWO  HAVING REAL-TIME CARBON FOOTPRINT TRACKING

The report predicts that carbon tracking will become commonplace, with travellers logging daily emissions and tracking travel metrics in real time, as illustrated in the above rendering

Carbon tracking will become more prominent, and even more individualised, thanks to AI, Intrepid predicts.

It suggests that travellers will log daily emissions and track travel metrics in real time to reduce their footprint to meet individual carbon goals.

Intrepid notes: 'By 2040, it will be unusual to see members of Generation Alpha [those born after 2010] without a carbon footprint tracker on their smartphones. Every Uber ride, plane journey and trip to the supermarket will be logged in their devices, noting their carbon footprint in real time.'

In line with this, the travel firm adds that it recently introduced carbon labelling on 500 of its itineraries, giving consumers a nutrition label style indicator of exact amounts of emissions that their trip would involve.

NUMBER THREE - CARBON PASSPORTS

The report predicts that a 'personal carbon emissions limit will become the new normal as policy and peoples values drive an era of great change'.

Intrepid says: 'Personal carbon allowances could help curb carbon emissions and lower travels overall footprint. These allowances will manifest as passports that force people to ration their carbon in line with the global carbon budget, which is 750 billion tonnes until 2050.'

The travel firm adds that 'by 2040, we can expect to see limitations imposed on the amount of travel that is permitted each year'.

NUMBER FOUR - ACCOMMODATION THAT LEAVES NO TRACE

It's predicted that there will be a new wave of pop-up accommodation, as visualised in this AI rendering

Intrepid anticipates there will be a new generation of pop-up accommodations around the world that combine sustainability and local craftsmanship.

The travel firm reveals that '2040 will usher in fresh nomadic hospitality concepts and fleeting, flexible accommodations' that leave no trace on the natural landscape.

Intrepid says that transient travel experiences such as the 700,000 Heures hotel  a nomadic hotel that moves around the world - already bring this concept to life.

NUMBER FIVE - GROUND TRANSPORT WILL BE TRAVELLERS FIRST CHOICE

Luxury, spaceship-style sleeper pods providing comfort on hyper-fast train journeys will help reduce our reliance on air travel,' says Intrepid Travel. Above is a rendering of one such pod

Train travel will be integral to a regenerative approach to travel, says Intrepid.

It predicts that by 2040, travellers will have the option to choose between high-speed innovations and slower modes of train travel, depending on their preferences, footprint and time constraints.

The travel firm says: Luxury, spaceship-style sleeper pods providing comfort on hyper-fast train journeys will help reduce our reliance on air travel.

Intrepid adds that its working to eliminate unnecessary flights from its own itineraries.

NUMBER SIX - VIRTUAL VACATIONS

'If there is a lack of action to tackle the climate crisis, by 2040 many of the worlds favourite destinations will be forced to go virtual,' says Intrepid.

The travel firm notes that holidaymakers turned to armchair travel during the Covid pandemic, with tourist boards sharing 360-degree videos of destinations and tour companies, airlines and hotels pivoting to virtual offerings. 'Without action on climate change, holiday destinations will become less tourist friendly and these types of virtual activities will enter the mainstream,' says Intrepid.

It adds that Tuvalu, a small Pacific nation in Oceania, has become the first country to create a digital version of itself, prompted by rising sea levels.

NUMBER SEVEN - HOLIDAYS WILL BE PEOPLE-LED, NOT PRODUCT-LED

Intrepid predicts that by 2040, travel will be more focused on 'the deep human connections you form'. Above is one of the company's tours in Australia

In the coming years, people will book holidays and travel experiences based on the social experience, rather than the hotel or destination, the report suggests.

Intrepid explains that this style of travel, known as people-led travel', is 'about the people you meet in destination and the deep human connections you form.

Travel used to be all about the features, like the fancy hotel or the exotic destination, but increasingly it is about people, says Darrell Wade, co-founder and chairman of Intrepid Travel, adding: That could be family, a bunch of strangers that you get to know really well or the people in the destination itself. The future of travel must revolve around social connection.

The clock is ticking for our planet and the future of the travel and tourism industry Darrell Wade, co-founder and chairman of Intrepid Travel

Commenting on the wider report, Wade said: 'The direct, catastrophic impact of climate change has for too long been viewed as something distant in the future. But this is no longer an impending event, it's happening now. Tourism must evolve and become regenerative, as the current model is unsustainable.

'We must recognise that the future needs to be different from business as usual and that the climate crisis is not a competitive advantage. The clock is ticking for our planet and the future of the travel and tourism industry. There is limited time left and immediate collective action and innovation is needed to decarbonise travel together and truly achieve the immense potential for sustainable development within our industry.'

The Future Laboratorys Martin Raymond said: 'A new era is dawning for the travel and tourism industry. Transient and transformative travel experiences will revolutionise the notion of leaving no trace. We will see that hotels will be at the forefront of this extraordinary change. In the next decade, we will see more now-you-see-it-now-you-don't travel experiences popping up across the world.'
Amanda Holden's 'brutal' confession about why she ended her relationship with ex-husband Les Dennis has resurfaced.

In 1993 Amanda  who was 22 at the time  fell in love with the Family Fortunes host, then 40, when they were both starring in a production of The Sound Of Music.

They married two years later but things came to a crashing close when it was revealed that Amanda had an affair with her Shakespeare co-star Neil Morrissey in 2000  something she later insisted was 'just about sex'.

In resurfaced quotes from Amanda, now 52, at the time of the split, she said she was 'very broody' and could see herself having multiple children in the next couple of years.

The presenter explained: 'I terribly want children but I didn't want to have them with Les.

Honest: Amanda Holden's 'brutal' confession about why she ended her relationship with ex-husband Les Dennis has resurfaced

Couple: Rewind 30 years, in 1993 Amanda - who was 22 at the time - met and fell in love with the Family Fortunes host, then 40, when they were both starring in a production of The Sound Of Music

'That's a horribly brutal thing to say, but when you do, you know you have to move on.'

She went on to admit it was her who finally suggested getting a divorce to Dennis and later spoke out about her affair in the spotlight. She said: 'I found the fall from grace incredibly hard to deal with. I can't bear not to be liked.

'Then I had an affair and overnight turned into this awful person. There are no hard feelings with Les. I wish him the best, but we've both moved on. I don't believe women have affairs for no reason. Women don't seek sex  we seek love and affirmation.'

Dennis became the first star to be booted off Strictly Come Dancing on Sunday night.

The TV personality, 69  who left the show with his pro partner Nancy Xu  recently made a surprising confession about his former love after their difficult past.

Speaking to The Sunday Times recently he said he was over what happened and was happy for her in her new life.

He said: 'Amanda was in the papers recently, saying some nice things about me. That was very kind of her. Maybe with time she has been able to look back and see things differently.

'We're not in touch but I am happy that she's happy. I can watch Britain's Got Talent without getting angry. To be honest, it's like watching a different person, someone I've never met. All the hurt that has happened has been healed.'

The presenter, 52, explained: 'I terribly want children but I didn't want to have them with Les'

Sexy stuff: Five years later though, things came to a crashing close when it was revealed that Amanda had an affair with her Happy Birthday Shakespeare co-star Neil Morrissey  something she later insisted was 'just about sex' (Neil and Amanda seen in 2003)

Dennis  who is now married to his third wife Claire Nicholson  even considered the prospect of Amanda playing herself in the movie of his life.

Speaking on the White Wine Question Time podcast, Dennis opened up about the idea of a hypothetical biopic saying: 'I suppose Amanda would have to be there.

'It's a chapter in my life that was huge, and I have no idea who to cast in that role.'

Speaking about the split afterwards, Ms Holden said: 'I brought it on myself, I appreciate that, but nothing will ever be as bad again. It was a very dark time. It got to the point where I felt I could hardly breathe'.

She later said: 'In some ways, I've always admired him for the way he doesn't try to hide his real emotions. He's honest about how he feels...

'My trouble is that I'm a people pleaser. I might feel down in the dumps but I'll always put on a bright face for the rest of the world... And I'm ruled by my heart, not my head. I always have been and it gets me into trouble. I'm not an enigma. I've wished all my life that I could be mysterious.

'But I ain't. I don't know what it is about me but people have always picked up on the slightest comment or some insignificant thing I've done, and suddenly I'm all over the papers again.'

In 2014 Morrissey finally said sorry to game show host Dennis for the affair he had with his then-wife Ms Holden. The star, who has previously said he had not apologised to Dennis, made the admission on Piers Morgan's Life Stories.

Dancing: The TV personality, 69, - who left Strictly Come Dancing with his pro partner Nancy Xu (pictured) - recently made a surprising confession about his former love after their difficult past

His love: Les has been married to Claire Nicholson since 2009 after meeting in 2005. They have a daughter Grace, 15, and son Thomas, 12 (The couple in 2019)

He said: 'I feel sorry for how the situation was dealt with and I feel sorry for how emotional Les seemed to become. It was very difficult for him and for that I'm sorry.'

His comment came after he was asked by Morgan if he had ever apologised to Dennis, to which he replied: 'No, I didn't. I'm not positive over what there is apologise about. I don't know what the whole situation was, to be perfectly fair to everybody.'

Earlier this year, Dennis appeared to take a swipe at his ex-wife after she posted a slew of saucy snaps from Paris to her Instagram.

Ms Holden shared an array of snaps of herself out for an evening in the French capital.

Dennis then cheekily posted a picture from his less than luxurious dressing room - as he tours the country with musical 42nd Street writing: 'Not in Paris. In Leicester'.

Prior to his marriage to Ms Holden he was married to Lynn Webster, with whom he shares son Phillip, from 1974 to 1990.

Happy couple: Amanda wed her music producer Chris Hughes husband in 2008 (pictured together in 2014)

Ms Holden meanwhile has been married to Chris Hughes since 2009 and they share two daughters. In July, Dennis recalled the surprising first time he laid eyes on Hughes.

In a strange twist of fate he was managed by Hughes's dad Mike at the beginning of career and first met the record producer when he was a small child.

Speaking on White Wine Question Time with Kate Thornton he said: 'I tell this story in my book that when Mike became my manager in 1973 and Lynne and I were about to get married  my first wife, Lynne  we were excited that Mike had become my manager'.

'She said, "let's drive past his house" because he lived on Queens Drive in Liverpool. We passed, and the curtains were open, and I went, "look, there he is", and we saw Mike Hughes picking up a little child and swinging the child around'.
Married At First Sight groom Jackson Lonie was left red-faced over the weekend after launching a scathing tirade against a Gold Coast pizza restaurant for getting his order 'wrong'.

The reality star, 31, posted a video to Instagram telling fans he used a meal deal to order two large pizzas from Artie's Woodfire Pizza in Mermaid Waters, and was furious when they delivered two small ones instead.

Lonie told fans, 'Don't go here. They're no good and will rip you off,' and explained how upset he was after being delivered smaller pizzas.

However, Artie's Woodfire Pizza was having none of it, and quickly posted a video refuting Jackson's claims and explained he had in fact got his order wrong.

'He ordered two nine-inch pizzas and claimed we should give him two twelve inch pizzas like in the deals he saw,' they shot back.

Married At First Sight groom Jackson Lonie was left red-faced over the weekend after launching a scathing tirade against a Gold Coast pizza restaurant for getting his order 'wrong'

'The deals he saw are only available on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night from 5pm and we stated that in the description.

'Yet he didn't read and placed an order on September 30th, a Saturday, when our deal is not applied. And now, he started posting on his social media to boycott our small business because we "lied", when he did not read,' they added.

Jackson later posted a video admitting he read the deal incorrectly, but claimed there was a problem with their link.

The reality star, 31, posted a video to Instagram telling fans he used a meal deal to order two large pizzas from Artie's Woodfire Pizza in Mermaid Waters, Queensland and was furious when they delivered two small ones instead

Lonie's awkward blunder caught the attention of one of his MAFS co-stars, who was quick to roast him on Instagram.

'This has to be the most embarrassing thing I have ever seen,' wrote MAFS bride Domenica Calarco.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to both Lonie and Artie's Woodfire Pizza for comment.

Jackson was paired with Olivia Frazer, 29, on Married At First Sight in 2022, and despite sparks initially flying between them things quickly turned sour and they called it quits.

However, Artie's Woodfire Pizza was having none of it, and quickly posted a video refuting Jackson's claims and explained he had in fact got his order wrong

In August, Olivia revealed she and her ex-boyfriend would still be a couple if it weren't for the extreme popularity of Married At First Sight.

The OnlyFans star found love with the former plumber in last year's season of the Channel Nine matchmaking show, but split just months after the series aired.

The former teaching student has confessed in an Instagram Q&A that she and Jackson would still be dating if it weren't for the show.

'I really think if the show never aired or if it aired accurately we'd probably still be together. It put too much pressure on our relationship, as strong as it was,' she told her followers when someone asked why they split.

'He ordered two nine-inch pizzas and claimed we should give him two twelve inch pizzas like in the deals he saw,' they shot back
Joshua Jackson has been left 'heartbroken' over his split from wife Jodie Turner-Smith, who filed for divorce on Monday after nearly four years.

Sources exclusively revealed to DailyMail.com that the Dawson's Creek alum, 45, 'isn't thrilled' about the termination of his marriage - while insisting that there was no foul play involved and that their union had simply 'run its course'.

The couple - who share three-year-old daughter Juno Rose Diana - noted their date of separation as September 13, according to TMZ. However it wasn't until this week that Jodie, 37, filed for divorce this week, citing 'irreconcilable differences'.

'Joshua is heartbroken over the impending divorce, he always thought that he would be married and grow old with his family, and everything would be happily ever after,' the insider said.

Joshua Jackson has been left 'heartbroken' over his split from wife Jodie Turner-Smith, a source tells DailyMail.com

The pair looked loved-up at NYFW on September 12 - one day before their separation date as listed in the divorce filing, according to TMZ

'He had the dream scenario in his mind, and Jodie was his person and the person he thought he would be with forever.'

The source added that Joshua's primary concern is his young child as the Canadian actor now looks ahead to a life of co-parenting.

'He never wanted this for their daughter,' the insider continued. 'They both are great parents and will continue to be, he just hates that they won't be together as a couple for their daughter anymore. They will always be connected through her.'

The insider claimed that Joshua would love nothing more than to reunite with his estranged wife, adding: 'He would have loved nothing more than to still be with Jodie and in a perfect world would probably even take her back if she were to stop the divorce, but now that they have got to this place, he is going to have to accept it.'

The source also insisted that there had been no bad behavior on either side, saying that the relationship had simply reached a natural end.

'Nothing horrible happened between the two like infidelity, the relationship just went its course, and it is just a sad time,' the said.

'Joshua isn't thrilled about it, but as we all know, life doesn't always work out the way you'd like it to work out.'

The pair had looked loved-up on September 12 as they attended their final public event together at New York Fashion Week - just one day before they officially separated.

Celebrity divorce lawyer Laura Wasser is representing Jodie, with the actress asking for joint custody of their daughter.

She does not want spousal support for either her or Joshua, with the pair not having a prenup in place.

In September 2022 the pair sparked split rumors after they unfollowed each other on social media - after previously sharing multiple loved-up posts.

They then refollowed each other with Joshua brushing off split speculation as he gushed about his wife in a chat with E! News.

'She is undeniably one of the most beautiful women on the planet,' he said. 'And she always smashes it when shes on the red carpet. That is truly a wonder to behold.

'But I will tell you, that there is nothing like waking up in the morning, opening my eyes and seeing her face in the morning.'

The pair stepped out in Santa Monica in August - but Jodie wasn't wearing her wedding ring

Jodie and Joshua tied the knot in 2019, after meeting through mutual friends in 2018 and initially insisting that their romance was just 'casual'.

The actress had even previously revealed their romance started as a one-night stand that just didn't end.

In 2021 Jodie made an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers and joked about how despite getting off to a quick start, their relationship was still going strong.

'When I first met my husband, we had a one-night stand,' she told the host. 'We're in a two, three-year one-night stand now.'

She went on to tell Seth the story of how they met at a party and both felt an instant connection.

'First of all, I saw him before he saw me and when I saw him, I was like, "I want that,"' she said. 'And then when he saw me, I just pretended like I didn't see him.'

While she seemed unimpressed with Joshua's opening line, she explained how he came over and did his 'cute and charming thing'.

'All night he followed me around the party,' The Last Ship actress added. 'He felt the energy. He felt it.'

The pair began dating in October 2018 and tied the knot in December 2019 after the actress proposed during a New Year's Eve holiday in Nicaragua, with Joshua 'instinctively' saying yes.

Jodie was a banker before meeting Pharrell Williams who convinced her to become a model and move to Los Angeles. She made her acting debut in 2013 when she played a siren in the HBO series True Blood.

The British star rose to prominence after starring in the 2019 film, Queen & Slim.

Joshua has been acting since 1991 and starred as Pacey Witter in the hit teen show, Dawson's Creek, from 1998 to 2003.
Mikayla Crisp is just days away from giving birth to her third child.

And on Sunday, the heavily pregnant AFL WAG was still basking in the glory of her Collingwood star Jack Crisp's grand final win against the Brisbane Lions over the weekend.

The 28-year-old shared several photos from the momentous game, including a sweet family snap with Jack and their daughters Lilah and Sloane as they held the premiership cup.

'What an amazing and surreal few days it has been!!' Mikayla captioned her post.

'@jackcrisp I am so proud of you. you did it!! And Happy Birthday my love xx hope it feels like the best one yet.'

Mikayla Crisp is just days away from giving birth to her third child. Pictured with husband Jack Crisp and their daughters Lilah and Sloane at the 2023 AFL Grand Final

Speaking to the Herald Sun on Sunday, Mikayla said the couple were likely to welcome their third child this week.

The WAG said she wasn't able to handle watching the second and third quarters of the grand final match at the MCG.

'It was so hot and I sat with my feet up on a table inside with the TV on,' she told the publication.

On Sunday, the heavily pregnant AFL WAG was still basking in the glory of her Collingwood star Jack Crisp's grand final win against the Brisbane Lions over the weekend

'What an amazing and surreal few days it has been!!' Mikayla captioned her post

'The obstetrician said stress could bring it on [giving birth], I said to Jack we cant cuddle or touch. I was trying to keep it together all week. I feel ready now.'

Mikayla and Jack surprised fans with their baby news back in May.

'Been keeping a precious little secret for almost 19 weeks, now it's time to share our joy with you all,' they captioned a post on Instagram.

Speaking to the Herald Sun on Sunday, Mikayla and Jack are likely to welcome their third child this week

The WAG said she wasn't able to handle watching the second and third quarters of the grand final match at the MCG

A second photo showed the loved-up pair holding their adorable daughters.

The mother revealed in May that she discovered she was expecting 'quite early' due to a 'mother's instinct and intuition'.

'It was probably about five weeks, I just knew, and that was February...' she told the Herald Sun.

'It was just nice to have the first bit to ourselves. I hope we surprise some people; it's been a fun little secret to keep. Sometimes I forget; we've been so busy as a family.'

The couple married in 2016 and have chosen to keep their baby's gender a secret.

Mikayla and Jack surprised fans with their baby news back in May
Showpo founder Jane Lu is one of Australia's biggest business success stories.

And on Sunday, the Shark Tank Australia star, 37, shared a rare insight into her family life as she celebrated her fourth wedding anniversary with husband James Waldie.

Jane took to Instagram to share several heartwarming photos of the pair cuddling up together.

One image showed the couple enjoying dinner together while clinking their wine glasses at a restaurant.

Another showed the pair nestled into each other as they enjoyed a boat ride on the sun-soaked Sydney Harbour.

Showpo's multi-millionaire owner Jane Lu, 37, gave a rare insight into her family life on Sunday, as she celebrated her fourth anniversary with husband James Waldie. Both pictured

James, ever the doting husband, was seen planting a kiss on Jane as they sat in their backyard enjoyed savoury breads, cheese and champagne.

'Such a perfect long weekend celebrating our wedding anniversary,' Jane wrote.

'What a crazy ride we've been on, couldn't think of a better co-captain @thelazycfo,' she added, referring to James.

The couple married in 2019, with a ceremony and reception at the Sergeants Mess in Sydney's well-heeled Mosman, on the lower north shore.

One image showed the couple enjoying dinner together while clinking their wine glasses at a restaurant

Another photo showed the pair nestled into each other as they enjoyed a boat ride on the sun-soaked Sydney Harbour

The pair spent their honeymoon at Qualia Resort in Hamilton Island.

They share two children: son Lachie, three, and 11-month-old daughter Rosie.

Jane is a huge success story in the entrepreneurial space in Australia, being the CEO of Showpo.

In 2010, a friend suggested they start a business selling clothes from a pop-up stall.

'Such a perfect long weekend celebrating our wedding anniversary,' Jane wrote in the caption

She quit her job, maxed out her credit card buying stock, and shoved it into the garage of her parents' Balmain home.

The clothing website is believed to have turned over $85 million in 2019, alone.

Jane spent six months pretending to work at her accounting firm while she spruiked the latest trends from stalls in Bondi bars and the Arthouse Hotel in the CBD.

'I still don't know if they were just turning a blind eye or if they really didn't know,' she told Daily Mail Australia in 2021.

The couple enjoyed champagne and caviar on toast while celebrating their special day together

The pair share two children: son Lachie, three, and 11-month-old daughter Rosie

'I had a lot of guilt after everything they'd done for me. I'd given up a good corporate job to sell stuff online, which was just totally alien to them.'

In November 2010, the duo opened a permanent store in Broadway under the brand name 'Showpony', which eventually morphed into 'Showpo' after dropping the 'ny' to avoid trademark disputes in the US.

The Broadway outlet was followed by a kiosk in the middle of the CBD Westfield shopping centre, which proved to be a 'big money maker'.

These days, Showpo has a fan base of more than 1.8 million followers on Instagram, 1.3 million on Facebook and 95,700 on TikTok.
Longtime couple Nina Dobrev and Shaun White enjoyed an outing in New York City on Monday.

The cute pair  Nina, 34, and Shaun, 37  was spotted riding an electric scooter together as they soaked up the warm weather.

Nina  who spent time in LA with her beau earlier this year  was dressed in a thigh-grazing floral mini dress topped with a thin, brown, short-sleeved shrug.

She showed off her toned legs in the frock, finishing the look with nude-toned flip flops.

Meanwhile, the retired professional snowboarder wore khakis and a light-colored, button-up, short-sleeved shirt as he navigated the two-wheeler.

Out and about: Longtime couple Nina Dobrev and Shaun White enjoyed an outing in New York City on Monday

On the go: The cute pair  Nina, 34, and Shaun, 37  was spotted riding an electric scooter together as they soaked up the unseasonably warm northeast weather

Dobrev carried her belongings in a bright yellow YSL leather purse that she draped over her shoulder.

Her lustrous brunette hair was worn loose, styled in face-framing bangs and sultry waves that flowed over her chest.

Both parties kept the sun out of their eyes with stylish pairs of respective sunglasses.

Shaun teamed his laidback look with a pair of stark white Vans slip-on sneakers.

His short auburn hair was neatly cut into a trendy faded style, with a longer length on top.

When they weren't on the scooter, Nina affectionately wrapped her hand around Shaun's arm.

The small and efficient vehicle was decked out with a black JBL speaker for them to listen to music during the ride.

Back in August the lovebirds enjoyed a scenic trip along the coast of California.

His look: The retired professional snowboarder wore khakis and a light-colored, button-up, short-sleeved shirt as he navigated the two-wheeler

Girly look: Nina was dressed in a thigh-grazing floral mini dress topped with a thin, brown, short-sleeved shrug

Accessory: Dobrev carried her belongings in a bright yellow YSL leather purse that she draped over her shoulder

A few months ago Shaun described his girlfriend as 'incredible' during an interview for his Max docuseries Shaun White: The Last Run.

'Shes just been so supportive and having her in my corner for this chapter in my life where Im retired and looking for whats next...' he gushed to Extra.

'And even making this documentary, I was like: "Can you help me? This isnt my world. I dont know the film industry. I dont know what to ask for, what to do."'

Shaun, who ended his snowboarding career after last year's Beijing Olympics, explained: 'This was actually a three-part series, and it wasnt fitting in all the episodes.'

Nina stepped in and 'was like: "You need to call this person, you need to talk to that, you need to ask for this."'

Shaun praised his girlfriend, sharing that she has 'been so helpful in so many ways in my life. Im feeling very blessed and thankful to have her in my corner.'

His and hers: Both parties kept the sun out of their eyes with stylish pairs of respective sunglasses

Sweet: When they weren't on the scooter, Nina affectionately wrapped her hand around Shaun's arm

Shaun also addressed engagement rumors during the conversation with the outlet.

'Were just taking our time and seeing what life has to offer right now,' he said. 'But yeah, we kind of laugh when we see these headlines pop up.'

The couple began their romance in 2020 and reportedly went into isolation together during the coronavirus lockdowns.

Nina's dating history includes her The Vampire Diaries co-star Ian Somerhalder, who has since married Twilight actress Nikki Reed.
In recent years she's decided to ditch the dye and embrace her natural hair colour.

And Dame Helen Mirren, 78, proved that grey can still be glamorous as she walked the Paris Fashion Week catwalk with a wildly back-combed style.

The actress wore a shimmering silver gown as she took part in the show for French beauty brand L'Oreal  for which she is an ambassador  on Sunday.

She was joined by American actress Andie MacDowell, 65, who has also decided to go grey, wearing a similarly bouffant style.

Dame Helen, who branded Sir Michael Parkinson a 'sexist old fart' after appearing on his chat show in 1975, has now said the late presenter may have been 'right' about her.

Dame Helen Mirren , 78, proved that grey can still be glamorous as she walked the Paris Fashion Week catwalk with a wildly back-combed style

Dame Helen, who branded Sir Michael Parkinson (pictured in 1980) a 'sexist old fart' after appearing on his chat show in 1975, has now said the late presenter may have been 'right' about her

The cringe-worthy interview, in which Sir Michael introduced his guest as the 'sex queen' of the Royal Shakespeare Company, has gone down in history as one of the most awkward of all time. Pictured: Helen Mirren on the set of 'the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover'

The cringe-worthy interview, in which Sir Michael introduced his guest as the 'sex queen' of the Royal Shakespeare Company, has gone down in history as one of the most awkward of all time.

'Do you find, in fact, that this, what could be best described as your equipment, in fact hinders you perhaps in that pursuit? Well, your physical attributes. Your figure,' he said on the broadcast.

She asked: 'Serious actresses can't have big bosoms, is that what you mean?', to which he responded: 'I think that they might detract from the performance, if you know what I mean.'

Dame Helen has now told the Radio Times: 'I didn't feel sorry for Parky, but then in a way I did because in lots of ways he was right.

'My physicality did get in the way of me being taken seriously as a classical actress.'

She added: 'Also, I was listening to Elton John's autobiography and I didn't realise that when Elton John was outed in a bad way by The Sun, Parky invited Elton on to his show so that they could talk about it properly.

The actress wore a shimmering silver gown as she took part in the show for French beauty brand L'Oreal  for which she is an ambassador  on Sunday

Dame Helen was joined on the catwalk by American actress Andie MacDowell, 65, (pictured on Sunday) who has also decided to go grey, wearing a similarly bouffant style

Dame Helen (pictured in 1992) has now told the Radio Times: 'I didn't feel sorry for Parky, but then in a way I did because in lots of ways he was right. My physicality did get in the way of me being taken seriously as a classical actress'

'He held out a hand and helped Elton John at a very important moment. So I don't want to diss Parky.'

Sir Michael, who died at the age of 88 last month, always refused to apologise for the interview, which was branded sexist by many viewers.

During an episode of Piers Morgan's Life Stories in 2019, he did admit that it was 'embarrassing' and 'over-the-top' but ultimately 'of its time.'

Dame Helen said that times change 'fast' and 'we can only kick down the patriarchy one brick at a time.'
Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke play parents who learn of a global catastrophe while on vacation in the new trailer for Netflix's Leave the World Behind.

Roberts, 55, who was spotted in Milan for the Gucci fashion show last month, plays Amanda Sanford, who is vacationing with her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) and their kids Archie (Charlie Evans) and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie).

They get a knock on their door from a mysterious stranger named G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali), who informs them of a global catastrophe.

The trailer opens with Clay opening the door to their vacation house in Long Island, finding G.H. dressed in a tuxedo and his wife Ruth (Myha'la Herrold) in an evening gown.

'I'm so sorry to bother you,' he tells Clay, and when Amanda gets to the door, G.H. says, 'You must be Amanda,' which surprises them both.

Parents: Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke play parents who learn of a global catastrophe while on vacation in the new trailer for Netflix 's Leave the World Behind

Knock: They get a knock on their door from a mysterious stranger named G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali), who informs them of a global catastrophe

Drinks are made as the couple are let inside, as Amanda asks, 'Why did you come here?'

'In my line of work, you have to understand the patterns that govern the world. That can help you see the future,' G.H. says, while we see him turning on a satellite phone... and the satellite miles above the Earth responding to it.

'And I knew something was coming,' G.H. continues, while we see a shot of Danny (Kevin Bacon) loading bottled water into his truck, as Amanda gives him a look from her car.

'I don't understand. What do you mean?' Amanda asks, while Ruth cryptically points to the television as a news alert comes on about, 'ongoing cyberattacks across the country.'

'The truth is much scarier,' G.H. says, and when Amanda asks, 'What is the truth?' their window cracks.

There is another shot of Clay driving his car, when he sees something that utterly terrifies him as he turns the car around as we see a red mist falling from the sky.

The trailer offers a first look at Archie who says, 'We're gonna be OK, right?' while Amanda tries to comfort Rose.

Another shot indicates they're not going to be OK, with Amanda driving at a high rate of speed, clearly terrified.

Pattern: 'In my line of work, you have to understand the patterns that govern the world. That can help you see the future,' G.H. says, while we see him turning on a satellite phone... and the satellite miles above the Earth responding to it

Danny: 'And I knew something was coming,' G.H. continues, while we see a shot of Danny (Kevin Bacon) loading bottled water into his truck, as Amanda gives him a look from her car

Cyber: 'I don't understand. What do you mean?' Amanda asks, while Ruth cryptically points to the television as a news alert comes on about, 'ongoing cyberattacks across the country'

Mist: There is another shot of Clay driving his car, when he sees something that utterly terrifies him as he turns the car around as we see a red mist falling from the sky

Ruth asks G.H., 'Aren't you the one who always said, if you're not paranoid by now, it's too late?'

Another shot shows Danny saying, 'Haven't you been picking up on what's going on out there? We've all been deserted.'

An aerial shot shows a slew of abandoned cars on a freeway while G.H. braces for a flood.

'There is no going back to normal,' G.H. says, as the trailer comes to an end.

The film - written for the screen and directed by Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot) based on Rumaan Alam's bestselling book - will have a limited theatrical release starting on November 22 before it debuts on Netflix December 1.
Sofia Coppola considered raffling off a pickleball game with her handsome leading man Jacob Elordi in order to boost the budget of their upcoming indie film Priscilla after some of the financing fell through.

'We built a pickleball court on our shooting stage and everyone started to play at lunch, and we had a big tournament at the end,' the 52-year-old filmmaker explained in the October edition of WSJ. Magazine - hitting stands this Saturday.

'[Jacob] can play pickleball. Our budget was always strained, low budget, and I was like, "I wonder if I could raffle off a pickleball game with Jacob to raise money to get one more day of shooting."'

Sofia didn't end up doing an auction, but she said the Australian 26-year-old 'was a good sport. He indulged me, even though he's not an enthusiast. I think he associates it with, like, Malibu moms.'

Jacob - best known as Nate Jacobs in HBO's Euphoria - took on the heavy task of playing Elvis Presley one year after the Oscar-nominated portrayal from Austin Butler (who happens to be dating his ex Kaia Gerber).

Tall drink of water: Sofia Coppola considered raffling off a pickleball game with her handsome leading man Jacob Elordi in order to boost the budget of their upcoming indie film Priscilla after some of the financing fell through (pictured September 4)

The 52-year-old filmmaker explained in the October edition of WSJ. Magazine: 'We built a pickleball court on our shooting stage and everyone started to play at lunch, and we had a big tournament at the end. [Jacob] can play pickleball'

And while Baz Luhrmann had an $85M budget for his Elvis biopic, Coppola had to make her critically-acclaimed adaptation of Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir Elvis and Me in six weeks with 'less than $20M' and none of the music rights.

Priscilla scored a seven-minute standing ovation at its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 9, and Cailee Spaeny won the Volpi Cup for her performance as the only woman to wed and have The King's child.

Controversially, Priscilla Beaulieu was only 14 when Elvis, then a 24-year-old US Army private, first began wooing her while stationed at the 3rd Armored Division in Germany in 1959.

Elsewhere in the same interview, the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola revealed the best piece of advice she ever received was from Oscar winner Anjelica Huston, who told her at age 14 that she 'would grow into my nose.'

'My 13-year-old daughter [Cosima] thinks her nose is too big,' Sofia revealed.

'And I was like, "Oh, my God, I remember; you're going to grow into your nose." That helped me get through my awkward phase.'

Back in March, Coppola's 'rebellious' 16-year-old daughter Romy went viral on TikTok for complaining about being grounded for using her father's credit card to charter a helicopter from New York to Maryland so she could have dinner with a friend.

Cosima and Romy are the Oscar-winning screenwriter's two children with second husband - Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars - whom she wed 12 years ago after collaborating on the soundtrack to her first film, The Virgin Suicides, in 1998.

Sofia continued: 'Our budget was always strained, low budget, and I was like, "I wonder if I could raffle off a pickleball game with Jacob to raise money to get one more day of shooting." We didn't, but he was a good sport. He indulged me, even though he's not an enthusiast. I think he associates it with, like, Malibu moms'

On-set selfie: Jacob - best known as Nate Jacobs in HBO's Euphoria - took on the heavy task of playing Elvis Presley one year after the Oscar-nominated portrayal from Austin Butler (who happens to be dating his ex Kaia Gerber)

Action! And while Baz Luhrmann had an $85M budget for his Elvis biopic, Coppola had to make her critically-acclaimed adaptation of Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir Elvis and Me in six weeks with 'less than $20M' and none of the music rights (pictured November 17)

'First day of shooting!' Priscilla scored a seven-minute standing ovation at its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 9, and Cailee Spaeny (L) won the Volpi Cup for her performance as the only woman to wed and have The King's child

Elsewhere in the same interview, the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola (2-L) revealed the best piece of advice she ever received was from Oscar winner Anjelica Huston (R, pictured September 19), who told her at age 14 that she 'would grow into my nose'

Sofia (pictured September 9) revealed: 'My 13-year-old daughter [Cosima] thinks her nose is too big. And I was like, "Oh, my God, I remember; you're going to grow into your nose." That helped me get through my awkward phase'

'Rebellious': Back in March, Coppola's 16-year-old daughter Romy went viral on TikTok for complaining about being grounded for using her father's credit card to charter a helicopter from New York to Maryland so she could have dinner with a friend
He recently went on a boys trip around Europe.

Butt Married At First Sight's Duncan James enjoyed a relaxing beach day with his girlfriend Evelyn Ellis in Sydney on Monday after returning back home.

The reality star, 36, shared a loved-up photo to Instagram as he lay on the sand with Evelyn.

The couple wrapped their arms around each other as they smiled for the camera and soaked up the sun.

'Back to regular programming - salty days in the sun with my plus one  and the fur babies,' he captioned the post.

Married At First Sight's Duncan James hit a Sydney beach with his girlfriend Evelyn Ellis as they returned to their 'regular programming' after his European holiday on Monday

It comes after Duncan recently revealed Sylvia Jefferies 'slid into his DMs' after his appearance on Married At First Sight, despite being married to Peter Stefanovic.

He exposed the Today Extra host on The Kyle and Jackie O Show in August during an interview alongside girlfriend Evelyn.

However, he quickly confessed the television presenter's bold move wasn't what it appeared, as she reached out to the hunk to set him up with one of her friends.

'Back to regular programming - salty days in the sun with my plus one  and the fur babies,' he captioned the post

Duncan and Evelyn spilled the secret to hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson as they played a 'Cost of Love' game.

When the radio shock jocks asked MAFS' 'hottest bride', who was the most famous person to slide into Duncan's DMs, she immediately guessed Sylvia's name.

Duncan confirmed Evelyn's guess was correct, explaining: 'Sylvia Jefferies tried to set me up with a friend of hers once.

'So, she slid into my DMs to make that happen. Thanks, Sylvia.'
Jodie Turner-Smith threw her fans for a loop on Monday when she posted stunning photos from Gucci's Milan Fashion Week show despite her filing that day for divorce from her husband Joshua Jackson.

The 37-year-old actress and model didn't look at all upset by the news in the pictures as she showed off her stunning abs under a chic sport coat.

Even more surprising was the fact that Jodie had her wedding ring on in the photos.

Although the pictures were snapped on September 22, several days before her October 2 divorce filing, they were notable taken well after September 13, the date that she cited in her filing as the start of her separation from Jackson, 45.

Several of Jodie's fans commented with their stunned reactions to her divorce news, though she quickly limited comments on the post.

Odd tone: Jodie Turner-Smith, 37, shocked her fans on Monday when she posted sizzling photos from last month at Milan Fashion Week, despite her divorce filing that day from Joshua Jackson

The end: Jodie filed for divorce from the 45-year-old Fringe star, citing irreconcilable differences, according to TMZ. They first got together in 2018; seen in March 2022 in LA

'OH @GUCCI!!!! what a chic and sexy start, @sabatods  im proud to have witnessed it, especially with my gorgeous mother @hildaturnersmith by my side. scroll to see me proposition @ameliadimzfor a #chickenshopdate,' Jodie wrote in her caption, completely ignoring her divorce filing.

It's unclear if the post from Milan Fashion Week last month was previously scheduled to go live, or if Jodie put it together on Monday despite the news.

The photos showed the After Yang star dressed in a striking gray bandeau-style top with a dagger-shaped cutout highlighting her cleavage.

The revealing top left her ripped abs on full display, and she only partially covered up with a chic gray double-breasted sport coat that was draped over her shoulders.

Jodie stayed on the monochrome theme with baggy gray high-waisted jeans, which she enlivened with a black Gucci belt.

The pants' shredded hems nearly covered up her pointy black pumps, and she added some spice to her look with a diamond-encrusted Cuban links chain around her neck and chunky black sunglasses. She also had on several thick bracelets, and she wore her short hair dyed a tasteful golden shade.

She included photos of herself posing with others, including the Kering CEO Francois-Henri Pinault and Ozark star Julia Garner.

Another picture showed Jodie looking glamorous while sitting in the front row next to her mother.

Stunner: The photos showed the After Yang star dressed in a striking gray bandeau-style top with a dagger-shaped cutout highlighting her cleavage

Fit figure: The revealing top left her ripped abs on full display, and she only partially covered up with a chic gray double-breasted sport coat that was draped over her shoulders; seen with Kering CEO Francois-Henri Pinault

Star power: She also posed with Ozark star Julia Garner

Family support: Another picture showed Jodie looking glamorous while sitting in the front row next to her mother

Taking her time: Surprisingly, Jodie appeared to still have her wedding ring on, despite the photos being taken after her separation allegedly began

In the photos, Jodie didn't make any effort to hide a ring on her left ring finger.

'Yes queen control the narrative,' wrote one approving fan of Jodie's display.

But other fans seemed surprisingly heartbroken by the actress' divorce filing, as if they were friends with her.

'Not you dropping pics like you didn't just file for divorce,' added another fan in the comments, along with a crying emoji.

'Please don't split up with Josh,' begged another parasocial fan.

One person seemed to rib her, writing, 'Everything is fine? you post photos on the day of your divorce [clown emoji].'

One fan practically screamed in all caps: 'IS IT TRUE JODIE PLS TELL ME IT ISNT TRUE U R GETTING A DIVORCE.'

Others commented as if they were personally offended by her divorce filing.

Go for it: 'Yes queen control the narrative,' wrote one approving fan of Jodie's display

Over the top: But other fans seemed surprisingly heartbroken by the actress' divorce filing, as if they were friends with her

Getting personal: 'Please don't split up with Josh,' begged another parasocial fan

Clown behavior: One person seemed to rib her, writing, 'Everything is fine? you post photos on the day of your divorce [clown emoji]'

Turn it down: One fan practically screamed in all caps: 'IS IT TRUE JODIE PLS TELL ME IT ISNT TRUE U R GETTING A DIVORCE'

Too close: Others commented as if they were personally offended by her divorce filing. 'Y'all sure fooled us into thinking you were one happy couple,' complained one user

Picking sides: Some also seemed to think the blame for the divorce lay solely with Jodie, despite few facts having so far come out about her relationship

Taking it easy: But a more measured commenter added, 'I really like you and Josh together. Hopefully you both do whats best......prayers to ya'

'Y'all sure fooled us into thinking you were one happy couple,' complained one user.

Some also seemed to think the blame for the divorce lay solely with Jodie, despite few facts having so far come out about her relationship.

'Why is Joshua being abandoned? first Diane now Jodie,' one fan wrote, referencing his breakup years earlier from the actress Diane Kruger.

But a more measured commenter added, 'I really like you and Josh together. Hopefully you both do whats best......prayers to ya.'

The confusion about the seeming swiftness of Jodie's divorce filing may have been attributable to the way she put on a loving display with her estranged husband Joshua just a single day before her alleged date of separation.

The former lovebirds looked affectionate and even held hands in photos snapped on September 12, while they were celebrating New York Fashion Week.

In her filing from Monday, Jodie cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for divorcing, according to TMZ, though no other details describing the split were provided.

The Queen & Slim star is represented in her divorce proceedings by Laura Wasser, one of the preeminent divorce attorneys to the stars. Wasser, who has represented a bevy of other celebrity clients, is believed to be the inspiration for Laura Dern's divorce attorney character in Noah Baumbach's acclaimed film Marriage Story, which earned her an Academy Award.

Leaving on her terms: Jodie is asking for joint custody of her three-year-old daughter Juno with Joshua, and she requests that neither party pay spousal support; seen in May 2022 in NYC

Although Wasser is famous for her iron-clad prenuptial agreements, Jodie and Joshua reportedly did not have one in place before her divorce filing.

The actress has requested that neither party be required to pay spousal support, as they both presumably make significant amounts of money.

The couple share their three-year-old daughter Juno, and Jodie is request joint custody of her with her ex.

The couple first dealt with breakup rumors back in September 22, when they both appeared to have unfollowed each other on Instagram, though their subsequent public appearances temporarily put any concerns about a split to bed.
Naomi Campbell was on hand to cast an appraising eye over next season's trends on Monday evening as she made her latest appearance at Paris Fashion Week.

But everyone else was looking at the catwalk veteran, who appeared to go braless as she returned to her lavish hotel in the French capital.

Naomi, 53, a regular fixture at the biannual fashion extravaganza, exposed her cleavage between the lapels of a smart black blazer with distinctive red patterned embellishments.

A pair of matching dress trousers continued the look, while black heels rounded off her latest ensemble.

The supermodel almost suffered a wardrobe malfunction as she climbed from the rear of her car, with her side-boob completely exposed to waiting onlookers.

Here she comes: Naomi Campbell was on hand to cast an appraising eye over next season's trends on Monday evening as she made her latest appearance at Paris Fashion Week

Racy: The model, a regular fixture at the biannual fashion extravaganza, exposed her cleavage between the lapels of a smart black blazer with distinctive red patterned embellishments

Finishing touches: Accessorising tastefully, Naomi opted for statement earrings and a diamond necklace, while sunglasses shielded her eyes from the glare of flashing cameras

Accessorising tastefully, Naomi opted for statement earrings and a dazzling diamond necklace, while heavily tinted sunglasses shielded her eyes from the glare of flashing cameras.

On Saturday, Naomi lit up the runway with a sizzling look at the Alexander McQueen show during Paris Fashion Week.

The supermodel made sure all eyes were on her as showed off her age-defying looks in a knockout piece from the collection.

The star-studded front row - which included the likes of Cate Blanchett, Letitia Wright and Elle Fanning  were hooked as Naomi made her way across the catwalk.

The mother-of-two looked incredible in a strapless metallic top that featured a plunging neckline.

A string skirt made up the lower half of the ensemble, flashing her toned pins, while she gave herself a few extra inches in a pair of pointed silver heels.

Her makeup was flawless, highlighting her high cheekbones and impeccable jawline, whilst her raven hair hung loose behind her back.

Naomi's latest public appearance comes as a clip of the supermodel appearing on the Graham Norton show in 2014 has picked up traction again and gone viral.

Hard to miss: Naomi left little to the imagination after opting to go braless on Monday evening

Steady on: The supermodel almost suffered a wardrobe malfunction as she climbed from the rear of her car, with her side-boob completely exposed to waiting onlookers

We've got your back: A minder was on had to ensure she didn't fall while clinbing out of her car

Naomi owned her true self and personality during an interview from series 14 on the famous BBC show.

Whilst sat on the red couch alongside Ant and Dec, Jamie Dornan and Aaron Paul, she told host Graham that if he was intimidated by her, than that was all on him and nothing to do with her or her reputation of being a diva.

Graham said: When I meet you youre very friendly and nice, but at the same time, there is a kind of intimidating thing

Quick to hit back, Naomi pointed out: But thats on you. Thats not on me.

Witty Graham joked: Well its coming from you, though, leaving the audience in fits of laughter.

Naomi stood her ground and said: Thats coming from you. You feel. Im just a girl from South London..

To which Graham quipped back: Maybe thats it.

Goodnight: Naomi followed her minder's lead as they made their way into her hotel on Monday
Hollywood's newest bachelor Hugh Jackman is already searching for his Mrs Right following his split from wife Deborra-Lee Furness, a report has claimed.

The Australian actor, 54, who is a single man for the first time in 27 years, is allegedly hoping to find a new love interest sooner rather than later, and there is no shortage of women willing to fall into his arms.

'Finding love again is one of his biggest priorities,' an 'insider' is said to have told New Idea magazine.

'Everyone expects Hugh will remarry fairly quickly. He's such a soft-hearted person and is likely to fall for the first girl who catches his eye.'

'There's a freeway of ladies lined up around the block to date him,' another 'source' added.

Hollywood's newest bachelor Hugh Jackman, 54, is already searching for his Mrs Right following his split from wife Deborra-Lee Furness, a new report has claimed

There are plenty of single women in Hollywood for Hugh to choose from, including the likes of Kylie Minogue, Jennifer Anniston, Sophia Vergara, Christine Baumgartner and Sophia Bush.

Hugh and Deborra-Lee, 67, shocked their fans last month when they announced they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage.

'We have been blessed to share almost three decades together in a wonderful, loving marriage. Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth,' the couple said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.

The Australian actor, 54, who is a single man for the first time in 27 years, is allegedly hoping to find a new love interest sooner rather than later, and there is no shortage of women willing to fall into his arms

'Our family has been and always will be our highest priority. We undertake this next chapter with gratitude, love, and kindness. We greatly appreciate your understanding in respecting our privacy as our family navigates this transition.'

They signed the statement as 'Deb and Hugh Jackman,' adding: 'This is the sole statement either of us will make.'

The Australian couple share two children together; Oscar, 23, and Ava, 18.

'Finding love again is one of his biggest priorities,' an insider told New Idea magazine

Last April, the pair celebrated their anniversary and Jackman had posted a gushing tribute to his wife on Instagram.

'I love you Deb. Today is our 27th wedding anniversary. 27 years! I love you so much,' the Wolverine star wrote in his caption.

'Together we have created a beautiful family. And life. Your laughter, your spirit, generosity, humour, cheekiness, courage, and loyalty is an incredible gift to me. I love you with all my heart,' he shared in the heartfelt post.

Hugh and Deborra-Lee recently shocked their fans when they announced they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage

While he is undoubtedly more well known than his wife, Deborra-Lee had already shot 20 movies by the time she and Jackman met while costarring as a prison psychologist and a brain-damaged convict in ABC TV's 10-episode series Correlli in 1995.

Deborra-Lee most recently played Jill Bailey alongside Eric Bana in Robert Connolly's sequel Force of Nature: The Dry 2, which was released in Australian and New Zealand theaters on August 24.

In February, Hugh told Smooth Radio: 'I think honesty and intimacy and making time [are the secret to a long and happy marriage]. You can't just assume that things will just tick along okay. You have to make time.'

The couple had been married for 27 years before their split
Teen Mom 2 star Jenelle Evans and her spouse David Eason are being investigated by Child Protective Services in North Carolina after her teen son Jace went missing for the third time in six weeks.

'Jace is not at home and is currently in the custody of CPS, who are investigating,' a source told The U.S. Sun on Monday after the 14-year-old fled from the family home Thursday, with Evans, 31, confirming he was safe on Saturday.

Jace is currently in CPS custody and has not been sent home to Evans and Eason, 35, a source told the outlet. A pair of law enforcement sources confirmed to the outlet that a CPS probe of the couple was ongoing.

A rep for Evans told the outlet that Jace was 'okay' and 'going through the care process' after the series of incidents in which he went missing, the most recent when he slipped out of a window on Thursday night.

'It is standard protocol to evaluate the child's mental health and this is part of his healing process,' Evans' rep told the outlet. 'He was not harmed, and he did not harm himself.

The latest: Teen Mom 2 star Jenelle Evans, 31, and her spouse David Eason, 35, are being investigated by Child Protective Services in North Carolina after her teen son Jace, 14, went missing for the third time in six weeks

Troubles: A source told The U.S. Sun on Monday that 'Jace is not at home and is currently in the custody of CPS, who are investigating,' after the 14-year-old fled from the family home Thursday. Eason and Evans were pictured in NYC in 2019

'Jenelle and her family are asking for privacy and prayers during this time.'

The rep said they were not aware of a CPS probe against the couple, the outlet reported.

Evans on Saturday took to social media with a short update clip in which she confirmed her son's safety, while making clear she did not want to discuss the situation over the platform.

'Jace has been located - he's safe - but that's not the point of the video,' Evans said. 'I just kind of want to keep my content away from the drama right now; also, I want to say, I want to get back to making normal content.

'If I don't answer certain issues, please don't badger me for it, thank you.'

TMZ reported police were called to Evans' home at around 8 p,m. Thursday, when the reality star told officers Jace had left the home - which is surrounded by woods - and didn't have a cell phone with him.

Police sources told the publication that Jace had been added to a nationwide database for missing persons.

Jace was subsequently relocated Friday, police sources told The U.S. Sun.

Update: Evans on Saturday took to social media with a short update clip in which she confirmed her son's safety, while making clear she did not want to discuss the situation over the platform

Details: She said in the clip, 'Jace has been located - he's safe - but that's not the point of the video'

In a police report obtained Monday by The Ashley's Reality Roundup, police said Jenelle's mother Barbara Evans said that Jace had 'ran away and was hiding' and had called her from an unknown number Thursday and told her 'about being assaulted by David Eason.'

On Monday, Evans took to Twitter to deny that Eason's behavior was a reason behind Jace's going missing; and said that her mother Barbara had given authorities misleading information in regards to why Jace had run away.

'This isnt about David whether you want to blame him or not,' she said. 'My mom says a lot of untrue things lately to everyone about me but wanted me to have custody? Imagine what you dont hear from my side.'

Evans said she had no idea why her 'own mother is acting the way she is,' as she feels Barbara is 'now shes using police to falsely report just trying to make us look bad as a family.'

Evans said that 'there are multiple people involved in this situation and they know the truth, and so does God.'

She tweeted that Barbara hadn't made any attempts at visiting any of her children since July. (Evans shares Jace with ex Andrew Lewis and is also mother to son Kaiser, nine, with ex Nathan Griffith; and daughter Ensley, six, with Eason.)

'Im so confused at this moment and wish I had one parent that was stable enough to talk to,' Evans said, adding the hashtag, #ToxicParents.

In response to a Twitter user who said they believed the words of Jace and Barbara over her or Eason, Evans said, 'Well my husband is still a free man, so. I def dont need your approval.'

Clapback: Evans took to Twitter Monday to deny that Eason's behavior was a reason behind Jace's going missing; and said that her mother Barbara Evans had given authorities misleading information in regards to why Jace had run away

In August, Evans appeared on TikTok to share clues about why Jace ran away for the second time in two weeks, before he was found safe by police days before.

The media personality said her son's actions were 'being pinned against' her, and added that she's been on the receiving end of 'a lot of hate' and 'a lot of comments.'

The MTV vet kept her statements ambiguous but referenced finding inappropriate content on the teenager's Snapchat account, and called the platform a 'bad' app.

'I will say one thing: Monitor your kids phones,' she suggested to her audience. 'Because, you know, I monitor my kids phone, and sometimes they get in trouble. Sometimes they get it taken away for consequences to their actions, right?'

'But sometimes they dont take that too lightly, and sometimes kids get really mad about their phones if you take them away,' Evans added.

Evans compared the relationship some teens have with their phones to 'addiction.'

She was vague as she also mentioned that 'there was a big reason why' her mother Barbara Evans gave her full custody of Jace in March.

'My son has been having a hard time for the past two, three years,' she noted before adding, 'None of this has gone public because were trying to keep his privacy  me and my mom.'

Dancing around details of the teen's mental health, she made it clear: '[Jace] is fine, hes healthy and hes safe.'

Jace had left the family's home in North Carolina and his mother eventually contacted the authorities when she couldn't find him.

Third time: TMZ reported police were called to Evans' home at around 8 p.m. Thursday, when the reality star told officers Jace had left the home and didn't have a cell phone with him

Family drama: Jenelle regained full custody of Jace earlier this year after she gave custody of him to her mother Barbara Evans shortly after she gave birth to him

Jenelle's rep August Keen told TMZ, noting that Jace 'just wants more freedom as he gets older, and is just a typical teen being a teen.'

Evans previously denied that Snapchat was a factor in authorities finding Jace after he was first reported missing August 15.

On August 16, The Sun reported that the Brunswick County Sheriff's Department in North Carolina received a tip from a 911 caller about Jace's whereabouts, noting that their child had been following him on the app.

Jenelle regained full custody of Jace earlier this year after she gave custody of him to her mother Barbara Evans shortly after she gave birth to him.

Jenelle told the outlet that her son ran off after his phone was taken from him following troubles at school.

'As a boy mom, kids can act up and rebel as I'm sure the majority of us all once did as kids too,' she told TMZ in a statement. 'Jace ... got in trouble at school, we decided to take his phone away and that's when he decided to run off.'

Jenelle called Jace 'a good kid' and said the situation was not 'anything that most families don't deal with while raising children,' adding, 'This is a teenage boy being a teenager mad that we decided to take his phone away.'
MasterChef Australia fan favourite Poh Ling Yeow sent her followers into a tailspin over a recent post on her Instagram page.

The 49-year-old shared a picture of a room in her Adelaide home, which featured an impressive stack of books against the wall - but no bookcase.

Also starring in the colourful snap was Poh's dog Tim, who could be seen peeking over a desk chair.

'Oh my the books. I dont feel so bad about my collection now,' one fan commented below the post.

MasterChef star Poh Ling Yeow shared this picture of a room in her Adelaide home. The room featured an impressive stack of books against the wall, but fans noted the lack of a bookcase

Poh who rose to fame as the runner-up on the first season of MasterChef Australia in 2009 made a guest appearance on the ratings hit this year

'Oh my the books. I dont feel so bad about my collection now,' a fan shared on Poh's message board

'Books maketh the home (in this case a beautiful home),' added another.

Noticing Poh's dog, one fan observed: 'Cute. That scene would make for a beautiful painting.'

Another said simply, 'What a happy scene.'

Poh was recently touted as a possible replacement for Jock Zonfrillo on MasterChef Australia.

Jock died tragically in April age 46.

The speculation comes after Poh made a surprise return to the show this season as a guest in the Mystery Box challenge.

Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Zonfrillo replaced former judges Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan in 2019 following their shock axing.

Despite possessing much smaller public profiles than their predecessors, the newcomers became a hit with viewers and the show continued to dominate the ratings.

Noticing Poh's dog, one fan observed: 'Cute. That scene would make for a beautiful painting'

Poh was recently touted as a possible replacement for Jock Zonfrillo on MasterChef Australia

Last month Channel 10 insiders confirmed to Woman's Day that celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, 48, will be ready to film the new season of the hit cooking show in November.

According to the report, the British born foodie has not yet agreed to replace Jock permanently.

They said the $2million contract with the best-selling cook book author includes a trip home to the U.K. for Christmas as well as an accommodation allowance for his family when they visit in January.

Jamie first appeared as a guest judge on MasterChef Australia during season four in 2012.
Patrick, 30, once let the nanny make his bed, which was not allowed, and Arnold tossed the mattress off the balcony and down into the swimming pool

Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed that he was a 'probably strict' father on Monday during a guest appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC.

The 76-year-old actor while promoting his new self-help book Be Useful: Seven Tools For Life was asked by Jimmy, 55, if he was a strict father when his children were little.

'Well, it depends what your definition is. For I think the way I grew up, I was lenient. But I think for American standards probably strict,' said Arnold, who has children Katherine, 33, Christina, 31, Patrick, 30, and Christopher, 26, with ex-wife Maria Shriver, 67.

Jimmy asked Arnold for an example of what would be considered strict in his household.

'I think the thing that my kids bring up most often is that my son, for instance, did not make his bed. He had his nanny make the bed, which was not allowed,' Arnold said.

Strict father: Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed that he was a 'probably strict' father on Monday during a guest appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC

'I said the kids have to make their own bed. They have to scrub their own showers. They have to clean their own toilet, and they have to wash their own clothes,' he continued as the studio audience in Los Angles applauded.

'So, I came in one time and the bed was made so immaculately that I looked at it and said, ''Patrick, did you do that?'' And he said, ''No, I didn't.'' So I grabbed the mattress, opened up the doors, grabbed the mattress and threw it out the balcony and down into the swimming pool,' Arnold said.

He added that Patrick had to drag the mattress and pillows back up.

Arnold, who also has son Joseph Baena, 26, from his affair with housekeeper Mildred Baena, additionally shared with Jimmy the time that he burned Katherine's shoes in the fireplace after she failed to put them away multiple times.

'Those are the kind of things I do with the kids,' Arnold said.

Jimmy's talk show on ABC returned on Monday for the first time since the Hollywood writers strike was resolved.

The 148-day strike was the subject of an opening skit that showed Jimmy confiding to a therapist that the strike was going on for so long that he wondered if he'd be back.

'You'll be back,' said Arnold who was shown to be the therapist.

Bed story: 'I think the thing that my kids bring up most often is that my son, for instance, did not make his bed. He had his nanny make the bed, which was not allowed,' Arnold said referencing his son Patrick, shown together in November 2017 in Berlin, Germany

Shoes burned: Arnold is shown with daughters Katherine and Christina in October 2017 in Los Angeles and shared on Monday how he once burned Katherine's shoes in the fireplace because she kept misplacing them

Strike over: Jimmy's talk show on ABC returned on Monday for the first time since the Hollywood writers strike was resolved

Opening skit: The 148-day strike was the subject of an opening skit that showed Jimmy confiding to a therapist that the strike was going on for so long that he wondered if he'd be back, but the therapist turned out to be Arnold who said, 'You'll be back'

Self-help book: Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life will be released on October 10 by Penguin Press

'You always say that,' Jimmy said.

'You always will be back,' Arnold said as he repeated a version of his famous line from 1984 sci-fil film The Terminator.

'But when?,' Jimmy asked.

'Now! The show is starting. Get to the chopper!,' Arnold said echoing his famous line from the 1987 sci-fi action film Predator.

'There's a chopper?,' Jimmy said.

'There always is a chopper,' Arnold said.

Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life will be released on October 10 by Penguin Press.
Chris Hemsworth spent some quality time with his daughter India by taking her on an adventure-filled trip to Iceland.

And on Monday, the Thor actor, 40, and his 11-year-old daughter were spotted jetting into Brisbane following their trip, while his wife Elsa continues her holiday in Japan with their twin sons.

The Hollywood megastar dressed casually in a white T-shirt and comfortable black pants as he pushed a trolley filled with luggage through the airport.

Chris completed his look with sneakers and kept a low profile with a black cap and sunglasses.

He held his daughter's hand as they left the airport and walked to an awaiting car.

Chris Hemsworth jetted into Brisbane with his daughter India after Icelandic adventure on Monday

Chris has been keeping fans up to date with his trip on social media, recently sharing a photo of himself with India on a quad bike.

The Hollywood megastar offered a thumbs-up as they drove on a gravel track while looking at low, snow-capped mountains.

'Day three in Iceland, started a biker gang with my daughter. Currently we're only two members and that's how we'll keep it for now,' he wrote.

Elsewhere, Chris was seen riding ponies with his daughter along a track as well as trekking on the country's glaciers.

The Hollywood megastar dressed casually in a white T-shirt and comfortable black pants as he pushed a trolley filled with luggage through the airport

Chris completed his look with sneakers and kept a low profile with a black cap and sunglasses

He wrapped his arm around his daughter as they left the airport and walked to an awaiting car

Just days ago, Chris showed daughter India watching one of his movies on a first-class Emirates flight to Iceland.

Meanwhile, his wife Elsa opted for a city break with her taking the twins for an action-packed break in Tokyo with the trio seen enjoying the sights and sounds.

The trio were seen at Asakusa Temple as well as Shibuya crossing, which has an estimated 3000 people cross at any one time.

'Holidays in Tokyo,' the star captioned the post.
As The Block moves into 'kids bedroom week', there was plenty of fallout from the previous week's dust-ups on Tuesday night's episode.

After tying for the win during bathroom week, arch-enemies Kristy and Brett and Eliza and Liberty were invited out to Scott Cams house Camelot in Gisborne for a celebratory dinner.

But the dinner was less festive than Scott intended and more tense as the two teams avoiding talking about their previous conflicts.

Kristy and Brett had previously accused Liberty and Eliza of using their connections with people on site to get 'special favours.'

After finishing dinner, the host decided to go to bed and let the teams work things out without 'dad around.'

After tying for the win during bathroom week, arch-enemies Kristy and Brett (pictured) and Eliza and Liberty were invited out to Scott Cams house Camelot in Gisborne for a celebratory dinner

But the dinner was less festive than Scott intended and more tense as the two teams avoiding talking about their previous conflicts. Kristy and Brett had previously accused Liberty and Eliza (pictured) of using their connections with people on site to get 'special favours'

Kristy, Brett, Liberty, and Eliza then changed into matching striped pyjamas and sat by the fireplace, with Kristy the first to speak.

'I guess it's the elephant in the room that we should probably talk about the drama that has been this week,' she said.

'First and foremost, we don't have a problem with you...I think a lot of the areas have been greyed through jokes and sarcasm that has obviously offended you guys... so a lot of it was with tongue-in-cheek, but we do apologise that it has offended you.'

After finishing dinner, the host decided to go to bed and let the teams work things out without 'dad around'

'We work our ringers off,' said Liberty, before Eliza added that, 'there couldn't be something more offensive' than to suggest they don't work hard.

Kristy claimed that seeing Eliza get 'fired up' in response to the accusations last week made her think they could have actually been best friends.

However, Eliza was disturbed the revelation, telling producers, 'My God, how awful that she's seen the worst side of me, because I didn't love that, and she resonated with it? It's kind of grim.'

Kristy, Brett, Liberty, and Eliza then changed into matching striped pyjamas and sat by the fireplace, with Kristy the first to speak. 'I guess it's the elephant in the room that we should probably talk about the drama that has been this week,' she said

'We work our ringers off,' said Liberty, before Eliza added that 'there couldn't be something more offensive' than to suggest they don't work hard

Kristy then decided to throw Leah under the bus, letting Eliza and Liberty know that Leah was a willing participant in the so-called 'mean girls' behaviour last week

Kristy then decided to throw Leah under the bus, letting Eliza and Liberty know that Leah was a willing participant in the so-called 'mean girls' behaviour last week.

The next day the 'blockheads' get the call for a challenge to build a backyard and BBQ area at Ronald McDonald House in North Melbourne, opposite the Royal Childrens Hospital.

There are two teams, Leah and Ash, Eliza and Liberty and Kristy and Brett. The other team is Kyle and Leslie and Steph and Gian, but they are joined by last years fan favourites Dylan and Jenny to even up the teams.

They get to work on what is an important 3 day challenge to benefit sick children and their families, with $15,000 up for grabs for the winners.

It comes after the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has been inundated with complaints about the current season of The Block.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has been inundated with complaints about the current season of The Block. Pictured: cast for the 2023 season

In just one week, ACMA registered a total of 28 complaints.

A spokesperson from ACMA told The Australian: 'The majority of the inquiries related to allegations of bullying, harassment and promotion of anti-social behaviour between contestants.'

This comes in the wake of many articles and discussions regarding the heightened drama between contestants during this season.

In just one week, ACMA registered a total of 28 complaints. A spokesperson from ACMA told The Australian : 'The majority of the inquiries related to allegations of bullying, harassment and promotion of anti-social behaviour between contestants.' Pictured: hosts of The Block Shelley Craft and Scott Cam

Producers look eager to intensify this drama, especially considering that the homes featured in this season were smaller compared to those in the 2022 season.

With the exception of occasional competition from Seven's MKR, this strategy has translated into higher ratings for Nine.

Michael Healy, Nine's Director of Television, has been unapologetic about the approach, saying that this season's ratings speak for themselves.

This comes in the wake of many articles and discussions regarding the heightened drama between contestants during this season

'The Block is an unrivalled powerhouse on Australian television. The fact that more than 40% of the country has tuned into this series is a phenomenal achievement.

We never take the loyalty of our viewers for granted and look forward to delivering a cracking crescendo to the current season, before an unprecedented 20th series in 2024.'

When similar criticisms were directed at Married at First Sight, the network responded by stating that they would have intervened if there had been a credible risk of domestic violence occurring on the show.

Producers look eager to intensify this drama, especially considering that the homes featured in this season were smaller compared to those in the 2022 season

'We understand meeting and marrying someone at first sight and living with them for eight weeks can be a potentially daunting experience and we would not persist with a scenario where someone does not feel safe,' MAFS producers said after they received the complaints.

ACMA has since cleared Nine of the MAFS complaints.

Meanwhile, one of The Block's judges Darren Palmer recently responded to his Instagram followers about some of the behaviour on the show.

'It's fortunate we don't hear about or see anything that happens during the week. Keeps judging fair and subjective. I do not condone bullying,' he said.

It is understood that competitors on the show have access to welfare and mental health expertise.

Nine will have a 60-day window to address and respond to the complaints.
Arnold Schwarzenegger used his Conan sword to open the first box of copies of his new book Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life.

'I got the first box of my books, so I brought the whole team to inspect them,' the Terminator star, 76, said in the caption for the clip. 'I know my rules can help you, no matter what you want to do in life, because theyve helped me every step of the way.'

The Austria-born star  who attended Oktoberfest proceedings last week in Munich, Germany  was clad in a black T-shirt and pants as he stood in the backyard of his Southern California home alongside his pet donkey Lulu and pony Whiskey.

He hoisted up his sword from the 1982 film Conan The Barbarian to perforate tape on the cardboard box containing the books.

'Fantastic, Be Useful, it's out, the first package full of books, Be Useful,' Schwarzenegger said as he was surrounded by his pets.

The latest: Arnold Schwarzenegger, 76, used his Conan sword to open the first box of copies of his new book Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life on Monday

The FUBAR actor said: 'Look at this, Lulu, isn't it exciting? Whiskey, look at this!'

Schwarzenegger said the book is up for pre-order now, adding, 'I'm sure it will help you.'

The Total Recall star added, 'Even I need a cookie for that one,' before taking a bite of a cookie.

Schwarzenegger was pictured heading to Jimmy Kimmel's Los Angeles studio Monday as he was interviewed and took part in a bit on the late night program.

He was pictured entering the studio wearing a light beige jacket over a light blue button-up shirt with dark blue jeans and brown boots, with sunglasses.

Monday's episode marked the return of Kimmel and other late night hosts amid the conclusion of the WGA strike.

In a sketch parodying Schwarzenegger's classic film lines, Kimmel was pictured venting while on a couch to a person offscreen about his confidence wavering after the five-month writers' strike.

'The thing is, the strike has gone on so long, I don't know if I'll be back,' Kimmel said, to which the camera panned out to show Schwarzenegger sitting in an adjacent chair.

He hoisted up his sword from the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian to perforate tape on the cardboard box containing the books

Schwarzenegger said as he was surrounded by his pets, 'Fantastic, Be Useful, it's out, the first package full of books, Be Useful'

Schwarzenegger fed his pet donkey and pony treats on the day of the big unveiling

Schwarzenegger said the book is up for pre-order now, adding, 'I'm sure it will help you'

A description of the book cited Schwarzenegger's 'stratospheric success' in bodybuilding, Hollywood and politics, saying that 'this did not happen by accident' but rather 'happened as part of a process'

The Total Recall star added, 'Even I need a cookie for that one,' before taking a bite of a cookie

Schwarzenegger put a twist on his famed line from The Terminator, saying, 'Youll be back,' to which Kimmel said, 'You always say that.'

Schwarzenegger continued, 'Youll always be back,' to which Kimmel said, 'When?'

Schwarzenegger replied, 'Now! The show starts!' adding his line from Predator, 'Get to the chopper!'

According to a description of the book from Amazon, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life details 'the seven rules to follow to realize your true purpose in life - distilled by Arnold Schwarzenegger from his own journey of ceaseless reinvention and extraordinary achievement, and available for absolutely anyone.'

Speaking with People about the book on Sunday, Schwarzenegger was asked about key advice he's received from costars throughout the years.

He said he learned considerably about the craft of acting working alongside Oscar winners Sally Field and Jeff Bridges in the 1976 film Stay Hungry.

Schwarzenegger said that it 'was absolute heaven to me to watch them perform, how smooth they were and how much I had to grow' as an actor.

He said the key was 'to be natural' and 'not to act,' adding, 'Its what made Sally Field start falling into tears and crying and throwing fits. It was really her.'

Schwarzenegger was pictured heading to Jimmy Kimmel's Los Angeles studio Monday

He was pictured wearing a light beige jacket over a light blue button-up shirt with dark blue jeans and brown boots

The veteran action star is on the promotional trail for his book Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life

Schwarzenegger took part in a bit on the late night program to commemorate the end of the writers' strike

Schwarzenegger said that he idolized another Oscar winner in Clint Eastwood 'because he was kind of Mr. Cool.

'His approach of not being noisy, that he was able to listen, I always loved that,' he said. 'Because I always thought that theres something to be said about listening.'

The book description cited Schwarzenegger's 'stratospheric success' in the fields of bodybuilding, Hollywood and politics, saying that 'this did not happen by accident' but rather 'happened as part of a process.

'As the result of clear vision, big thinking, hard work, direct communication, resilient problem-solving, open-minded curiosity, and a commitment to giving back. All of it guided by the one lesson Arnolds father hammered into him above all: be useful.

'As Arnold conquered every realm he entered, he kept his fathers adage close to his heart.'

Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life is set to be released October 10.
Just days after his new book Just Because hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, Matthew McConaughey opened up about how the book came to him in a dream.

The 53-year-old Uvalde, Texas native was the first guest back on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the first episode in five months due to the writers strike.

He also revealing that he'll never get tired of saying, 'All right' from his first movie - the 1993 classic Dazed and Confused.

While his first book Greenlights was a huge hit - reaching 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list recent - McConaughey revealed he never planned on writing a children's book... until a dream he had one night.

'I never really thought about it look, this came to me in a a little ditty of a dream one night, and I woke at 2:30 with this little, hook, you know. "Just because they threw the dart don't mean that it's stuck dun-dun-dun. Just because I got skills, don't mean there is no luck,' McConaughey explained.

Dream: Just days after his new book Just Because hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, Matthew McConaughey opened up about how the book came to him in a dream

Never: He also revealing that he'll never get tired of saying, 'All right' from his first movie - the 1993 classic Dazed and Confused

Hit: While his first book Greenlights was a huge hit - reaching 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list recent - McConaughey revealed he never planned on writing a children's book... until a dream he had one night

'And I woke, and it was a good dream, and as you do in good dreams when you don't want them to end, you try to keep the rhythm of the thought, right? So I get up and I write all this stuff down. I write about 200 couplets, 30 of which made it into this version, 'cause this is a younger person version,' he explained.

'And I looked at and I found those 30 I was like, "Hey this is some stuff that my children are going through. This is some stuff that I hear my kids' friends talk about they're going through. This is some stuff that I hear parents that are friends of mine saying, my kids are going through this." So, that's what's in the book,' he explained.

Host Jimmy Fallon asked McConaughey what his kids - Levi, 15, Vida, 13, and Livingston, 10 - thought of the book.

'The kids dig it, I've got -- my daughter's very visual, she loves the illustrations, which Renee Kurilla did, who's in the audience today,' he added.

'My eldest and I have talked about similar scenarios that he's going through now in his teenage years. My youngest is still sort of holding out to tell me if he likes it or not, but that's just kind of his character,' the actor said with a smile.

Earlier in the interview, McConaughey asked Fallon if, 'we did all right' with his book Greenlights, prompting Fallon to ask if he can even say that anymore, since his first ever movie character - David Wooderson from Dazed and Confused - said it many times in the iconic movie.

McConaughey responded, 'People ask me all the time, "Do you get tired of that?" I said, "No, it's the first three words I ever said on film 32 years ago and it precedes me. I thought I might just have a one night hobby, it turned into a career. Please say it!'

Last month, McConaughey was in New York City to promote Just Because, when his wife Camila Alves gave the actor and writer quite the surprise.

Dream: 'And I woke, and it was a good dream, and as you do in good dreams when you don't want them to end, you try to keep the rhythm of the thought, right? So I get up and I write all this stuff down. I write about 200 couplets, 30 of which made it into this version, 'cause this is a younger person version,' he explained

30: 'And I looked at and I found those 30 I was like, "Hey this is some stuff that my children are going through. This is some stuff that I hear my kids' friends talk about they're going through. This is some stuff that I hear parents that are friends of mine saying, my kids are going through this." So, that's what's in the book,' he explained

Illustrations: 'The kids dig it, I've got -- my daughter's very visual, she loves the illustrations, which Renee Kurilla did, who's in the audience today,' he added

All right: Earlier in the interview, McConaughey asked Fallon if, 'we did all right' with his book Greenlights, prompting Fallon to ask if he can even say that anymore, since his first ever movie character - David Wooderson from Dazed and Confused - said it many times in the iconic movie

First lines: McConaughey responded, 'People ask me all the time, "Do you get tired of that?" I said, "No, it's the first three words I ever said on film 32 years ago and it precedes me. I thought I might just have a one night hobby, it turned into a career. Please say it!'

'So I didn't even know I was in the Empire State Building I'm doing the press tour for the book, I'm pointing to shoot. Tell me where to go, my head's down, tell me who to talk to and I walk in this building and I think I'm going to go into another interview,' he said.

'There's my wife with a whole bunch of cameramen and camerawomen and my journalist, she says "Read this. And I'm like, "What's going on?"' he added.

'And I read it and it says, "I wrote 'Greenlights' three years ago. Little did I know that we'd be coming up on 100 weeks on the bestseller list. In congratulations of that, the Empire State Building is lighting itself green tonight,"' McConaughey explained, as they showed the photo of th Empire State Building lit up green.

He added, 'That's one of those things that's like, on your bucket list, but you don't even know to put it on your bucket list.
Monday's episode of Days of Our Lives finally revealed who would be replacing Jen Lilley as her character Theresa Donovan: Emily O'Brien... who already stars on the soap opera as Gwen Rizczech.

Lilley, 39, had played Theresa Donovan since 2013, though she hadn't appeared on the soap since 2018 before her return for an arc of new episodes in September.

Her return was bittersweet when she revealed in August that she was ultimately going to be replaced by another actress... which was revealed on Monday to be Emily O'Brien.

As word of the re-casting confirmation spread throughout the soap world, Lilley took to her Instagram story on Monday to show her support for O'Brien, calling her a 'rockstar.'

While she does support the star who replaces her, she admitted in an August interview with Soaps.com that the re-casting, 'wasn't handled the right way' and everyone was 'kind of lied to' in the process.

Replacing: Monday's episode of Days of Our Lives finally revealed who would be replacing Jen Lilley as her character Theresa Donovan: Emily O'Brien... who already stars on the soap opera as Gwen Rizczech

Replaced: Her return was bittersweet when she revealed in August that she was ultimately going to be replaced by another actress... which was revealed on Monday to be Emily O'Brien (above)

Rockstar: As word of the re-casting confirmation spread throughout the soap world, Lilley took to her Instagram story on Monday to show her support for O'Brien, calling her a 'rockstar'

Lilley's return as Theresa Donovan was first reported in mid-August, with the character coming back to Salem for the memorial service for Victor Kiriakis' funeral.

Lilley revealed that she actually reached out to executive producer Albert Alarr and pitched her character's return, though things didn't quite go as planned.

What was supposed to be a quick return for the memorial (Victor's portrayer John Aniston passed away in November 2022 at 89) turned into a much longer arc.

She said she would come back for three weeks - due to her family commitments and her obligation to Great American Family - but that turned into a 12-week commitment.

Much to everyone's surprise, that arc came to an abrupt end when Lilley revealed in late August that she was going to be replaced with another actress for the actual funeral.

She said that she went to producer Albert Alarr - who was fired in early August over workplace complaints - since she had not yet filmed the things she was expecting.

Lilley said she told him, 'Listen, you told me Theresas going to do X, Y and Z, and I havent gotten the scripts. I only have one more for Monday, and I have two weeks left [on set].'

She said Alarr told her, 'Oh no, Theresa is still going to do all of that  Were going to do it with a different Theresa.'

Return: Lilley's return as Theresa Donovan was first reported in mid-August, with the character coming back to Salem for the memorial service for Victor Kiriakis' funeral

Reached out: Lilley revealed that she actually reached out to executive producer Albert Alarr and pitched her character's return, though things didn't quite go as planned

Different: She said Alarr told her, 'Oh no, Theresa is still going to do all of that  Were going to do it with a different Theresa'

Wig: The blonde Lilley also said that, when she learned the brunette O'Brien was replacing her, she was told, 'Oh yeah, were just gonna put her in a wig'

The blonde Lilley also said that, when she learned the brunette O'Brien was replacing her, she was told, 'Oh yeah, were just gonna put her in a wig.'

Lilley insisted she has, 'no hard feelings' towards O'Brien, adding, 'That poor girl has had to have conversations with me [on set, knowing she was going to replace me]. How horrible she must have felt!'

However, she said the whole ordeal was a 'horrible situation' and she thought the network was 'bluffing' about recasting her.

'Top to bottom, it was just not handled the right way. Everybody was mad because everybody was kind of lied to,' she said.
Anya Taylor-Joy's wedding to musician Malcolm McRae was nothing short of a lavish affair, with some of Hollywood's biggest names descending on Venice for the occasion.

Guests including Julia Garner and Miles Teller took to social media to document the occasion, which began the previous night with a gothic masquerade ball.

Anya, 27, married in front of just over 150 guests including Cara Delevingne and Julia Garner at the ceremony while sporting an ethereal beige gown.

In a slew of Instagram snaps, Ms Garner and other guests, including Dominican actress Aimee Carrero, posed in their gorgeous wedding outfits alongside the famous Venetian waters.

Joined by her husband Mark Foster, Inventing Anna star Ms Garner slipped into a plunging black gown with a colourful fringed beaded skirt for the daytime ceremony, after donning a black and gold dress with a cream fur stole for the masquerade party the night before.

Inside Anya Taylor-Joy's star-studded Venetian wedding: Guests including Julia Garner (pictured) and Miles Teller enjoyed a Gothic masquerade ball hours before the lavish occasion

Gorgeous: Anya married musician Malcolm McRae in front of just over 150 guests including Cara Delevingne and Julia Garner at the ceremony while sporting a beige gown

Amazing: Teller's wife Keleigh Sperry (centre) shared a slew of Instagram snaps from the glitzy wedding, including the group's stunning dresses as they arrived at the Palazzo Pisani-Moretta

Donning a dramatic black mask to complete her look, Ms Garner posed for a slew of selfies with Teller's wife Keleigh Sperry as they boarded a water taxi to head to the party.

Channelling The Mask Of Zorro, Teller donned a dramatic black cape and mask combo with his matching suit while posing for a cheeky snap with his spouse.

Ms Sperry stunned in a jaw-dropping mint green fringed dress for Ms Taylor-Joy's grand ceremony, before changing into a sheer lace gown for the reception.

Ms Taylor-Joy's unconventional dress featured a princess shape in a beige shade with embroidery and embellishments - including images of birds and flowers across the bodice, while she wore a bright white veil.

It was revealed before the big day that the couple were spotted looking at wedding venues in Venice earlier this year, including the Palazzo Pisani Moretta, a 15th-century palace, and Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista di Venezia, a 14th-century church, before the big day arrived over the weekend.

The couple - who have been dating since May 2021 - instructed firm The Wedding Boutique Italy to organise their nuptials.

The luxury event planners host weddings across Italy, also including the Amalfi Coast, Tuscany, Sicily and Lake Como, set in idyllic destinations including romantic castles and rustic farmhouses. The wedding firm budgets for celebrations costing over 250,000 and not only plan the nuptials but also design the entire experience.

Amazing: For Anya's big day, Ms Garner slipped into a plunging black gown with a colourful fringed beaded skirt

Beautiful: With sunny Venice as a backdrop, Ms Garner and Ms Sperry posed for stunning snaps in their wedding looks

Here they are! Ms Sperry certainly wowed in a dramatic pale green fringed gown with beaded detailing after arriving for the wedding on a water taxi

Picture perfect! She and husband Miles Teller posed up a storm after joining some of Ms Taylor-Joy's closest celebrity pals for her big day

What a look: The previous evening, guests opted for a more gothic-inspired look as they attended a pre-wedding masquerade ball

Cute: Ms Sperry opted for a racy black lace gown as she cosied up to her husband Teller on their way to the party

Glammed up! Ms Garner donned a black and gold dress with a cream fur stole for the masquerade party, teamed with a pearl choker necklace

Loved-up: Channelling The Mask Of Zorro, Teller donned a dramatic black cape and mask combo with his matching suit while posing for a cheeky snap with his spouse

Suited and booted: Teller cut a sharp figure in his matching black suit and cape look

Edgy: Dominican actress Aimee Carrero (pictured second right) donned a similarly sexy black lace gown with a matching statement lip

Cute: The Young and Hungry star was joined by her husband, actor Tim Rock, who she married in 2016

Amazing! Ms Garner donned a dramatic black mask with her party look as she and Ms Sperry headed to the bash via water taxi

Sensational: The stars in attendance wowed with their glamorous looks as they headed to the masquerade party

Stunners: Stars were seen arriving at the gorgeous Italian venue for Ms Taylor-Joy's big day

Grand: Anya tied the knot in a lavish Venetian ceremony at the Palazzo Pisani Moretta, a 15th-century palace with rooms decorated in the Baroque tradition

Ms Taylor-Joy has rarely spoken about her relationship with Mr McRae, 29, since they began dating, having been first spotted together in New York.

All you need to know about Anya Taylor-Joy and Malcolm McRae's wedding venue The 15th-century Palazzo Pisani Moretta is a palace based on the Grand Canal in the Venice subdivision of of San Polo, nestled between Palazzo Tiepolo and Palazzo Barbarigo della Terrazza. With interior rooms decorated in the Baroque tradition by revered artists such as Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Jacopo Guarana, Gaspare Diziani and Giuseppe Angeli, the sprawling venue was once the residence of the House of Pisani, a Venetian patrician family, originally from Pisa. The exterior features ogival arches flanked by two single windows, while the ground floor has two central pointed arched doorways that open on to the canal. Since 1994 it has hosted Il Ballo del Doge - an annual masquerade ball. Advertisement

They have managed to maintain a healthy relationship despite living on opposite sides of the Atlantic, with Ms Taylor-Joy largely based in London, while Mr McRae, who also acts as well as being in a band, lives in the US.

Their busy work schedules make it difficult, as Ms Taylor-Joy spends weeks on end in filming locations while Mr McRae regularly tours for his music.

Speaking about their relationship to British Vogue in March 2022, Ms Taylor-Joy said: 'I said to my partner the other day that he was my hobby.

'I see reading as something that I have to do. He loved it because he's the same.

'I've finally found someone who will happily sit in silence with me reading. We're basically 80 years old and seven at the same time and it works really well.'

Speaking about the distance, she added: 'Yes, it is [hard], but it's also kind of great because when you're together you're really valuing the time that you have.

'Everyday mundane activities are so full of joy. I love going to the petrol station with him and filling up.'

Ms Taylor-Joy was born in Miami, Florida and moved to Buenos Aires as a toddler before relocating to London at the age of six 'for political reasons' with her parents, banker father Dennis - a Scot born in South America - and Spanish-English mother Jennifer who is originally from Zambia.

Her role as orphaned chess prodigy Beth Harmon in the Netflix series The Queens Gambit elevated her to one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood, having bagged a Golden Globe for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie.

She received another Golden Globe nomination for her role in black comedy movie The Menu, starring alongside Nicholas Hoult and Ralph Fiennes, and is playing the lead in blockbuster action movie Furiosa, the prequel to 2015s Mad Max: Fury Road.
Neelam Gill flashed her toned midriff in a glitzy co-ord as she attended the Rabanne H&M collection show during Paris Fashion Week on Monday.

The British model, 28, looked glamorous in the sparkly cropped two-piece as she arrived at the star-studded fashion show at Silencio.

Neelam, who has posed for the likes of Burberry, Abercrombie & Fitch and Vogue, showcased her slender physique in the sequin ensemble.

The outfit sported circular embellishments which hung from the skirt and she added height to her frame with a pair of silver high heels.

The runway model flaunted her toned tummy and shoulders in the crop top and added a metallic sequined shoulder bag to accessorise.

Wow: Neelam Gill, 28, flashed her toned midriff in a glitzy co-ord as she attended the Rabanne H&M collection show during Paris Fashion Week on Monday

Gorgeous: The British model looked glamorous in the sparkly cropped two-piece as she arrived at the star-studded fashion show at Silencio

Also in attendance at the show was Irina Shayk, Elle Fanning, Ashley Graham, Iris Law and DJ Peggy Gou.

Neelam has recently been linked to actor Leonardo DiCaprio after they spent time together on his yacht in the summer.

But in July, the model squashed romance rumours, telling Instagram followers: 'Just to clear up any rumours... I am not Leonardo DiCaprio's new flame.

'In fact I am in a committed relationship with his good friend, and have been for many months now.

'The only reason we have been pictured in the same vicinity is because I have been there with my partner. I hope this clears up all false stories.'

A source told MailOnline Neelam is dating Leo's best friend and confirmed: 'They are not together and have never been'.

In 2019, Neelam revealed the shocking racism she was exposed to as a child growing up in Coventry. She recalled how being called a 'p***' on her way to school was an every day occurrence and made her hate the colour of her skin.

The activist, who was one of the first British Asian women to become the face of a major campaign when she was chosen as the face of Burberry in 2014, also called for the fashion industry to stop using ethnic minority models as 'token' faces.

Glamorous: Neelam, who has posed for the likes of Burberry, Abercrombie & Fitch and Vogue, showcased her slender physique in the sequin ensemble

Glitzy: The outfit sported circular embellishments which hung from the skirt and she added height to her frame with a pair of silver high heels

Pals: Neelam looked gorgeous as she posed for a picture with German model Caro Daur, 28, at the fashion show

In a candid interview with Stylist, Neelam said: 'I remember being a kid and walking to school and someone shouting 'Paki' out the window. That was just so normal.'

She added: 'I'd get comments like, 'does your Dad own the corner shop?' or 'Is he a taxi driver?' It makes me feel really angry. I could never imagine doing that to someone. It's not something I'd stand for now and now I'm very outspoken about it.

'When I was younger I was very insecure and I didnt think I was pretty because I thought being fair was what made you beautiful. I would always hate the colour of my skin.'

Admitting there has been a change in the representation of ethnic minorities in the fashion industry, Neelam argued that more needed to be done.

The model revealed how many brands appeared to use minority models 'just to cover their backs', and even spoke about how her model pals had been missed out on jobs because the designers 'already had a black girl in the show'.

Neelam rose to prominence after making her debut for none other than Fashion Week favourite Burberry after being scouted at the tender age of 14, and has credited them for making her a household name.
James Buckley has joked he will take his sons to a brothel on a family trip to Japan he has been planning for years.

The Inbetweeners star, 36, is father to Harrison, 11, and Jude, nine, with his wife Clair Meek, 35, who he married in 2012.

The actor and his partner chatted about their future travel plans on their podcast In Sickness and In Health.

James said: 'Me and the boys have always said about this Buckley boys trip that we're going to go to Japan because we love video games and tech and stuff like that.

'We're going to go to Tokyo and that's been something we've always said we've wanted to do.'

Candid: James Buckley has joked he will take his sons to a brothel on a family trip to Japan he has been planning for years

Couple: The Inbetweeners star, 36, is father to Harrison, 11, and Jude, nine, with his wife Clair Meek, 35, who he married in 2012 (pictured with Clair in May 2022)

Clair, who apparently has no interest in going, insisted she'd be happy to stay at home with the couple's Rottweiler.

She said: 'That's fine, I'll stay with Paisley. When is this?'

James said: 'They'll need to be...'

'15, 16?' Clair suggested.

James repied: 'Yeah, I reckon that would be a good age for the brothels.'

Clair laughed in shock and said: 'F*****g hell, you're an idiot. I've lost my train of thought now.'

Laughing, James said: 'Hey, it's a father-son tradition.'

Elsewhere during the podcast, the pair recalled one of James' worst chat up lines to Clair in the early days of their courtship.

Career: James (centre right) is best known for playing Jay Cartwright on the E4 sitcom The Inbetweeners

James said: 'We were in a car and a lorry drove past and I was feeling a lull in the conversation and I went, "a lot of money in logistics."'

Clair replied: 'I was like "huh?" I didn't see the lorry.'

James said: 'I was thinking, "I don't want the conversation to die." I carried on. I used to know people who owned lorry firms when I was fitting kitchens and things. I knew people who owned logistics firms and they were all wealthy.'

He added: 'It must have worked because you're still here.'

'Yeah,' Clair said. 'The first thing you said to me when we were chatting was you were "chirpsing" me and I'd never heard that before. It's not a Scottish word as far as I know. Is it just old-fashioned?'

'It might be,' James said: 'It was slang for a good six months in the history of human beings. I was joking though, I was being funny. Remember I used to be funny?'

James is best known for playing Jay Cartwright on the E4 sitcom The Inbetweeners.

He recently appeared in the play 2:22 A Ghost Story and has also appeared in films including The Pyramid and The Comedian's Guide to Survival.
Brandi Glanville claimed being so stressed from the 'threat of a bad edit' of Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip is 'partly' why she collapsed and was rushed to hospital.

On Sunday, the 50-year-old Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum revealed that one of her sons had to call for emergency assistance after she fell down.

'I collapsed at home this am and my SON had to call 911 for help!' she told her 809,600 followers on X - formerly known as Twitter.

The reality star - who shares her kids Mason Edward, 20, and Jake Austin, 16, with ex-husband Eddie Cibrian - added: 'You guys have no idea the amount of stress I'm dealing with.'

Brandi later suggested that her drama with Caroline Manzo on the spin-off show has left her fearing how the show will edit it together.

Health scare: Brandi Glanville claimed being so stressed from the 'threat of a bad edit' of Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip is 'partly' why she collapsed and was rushed to hospital; seen earlier this year

Stressed out: Brandi later suggested that her drama with Caroline Manzo on the spin-off show has left her fearing how the show will edit it together and may have contributed to her medical emergency (pictured on The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip Ex-Wives Club last year)

She then showed the medical team looking after her and quipped that she can't escape Bravo as she had a Dr. Cohen, like Real Housewives boss Andy Cohen, and nurse Ciara, seemingly reminding her of Summer House star Ciara Miller.

She captioned a picture of the notice board: 'No escaping @BravoTV even in the ER!! Look at my Dr. and nurses name. being held hostage by the threat of a bad edit is partly the problem. (sic)'

It was reported that Brandi allegedly inappropriately touched The Real Housewives of New Jersey star during their trip to Marrakech, Morocco for the program.

Addressing the allegations, she said: 'I like resolution. I would just like to talk to her and figure this out.

'But I don't think that's happening, and that's unfortunate. I'm kind of stuck waiting until the show comes out.'

The former model claims she has lost work due to the 'gossip.'

'When there's gossip about you out there it's devastating. No one wants to work with you. All of my jobs cancelled. It's been really difficult,' she continued.

Brandi also stated she and Caroline were 'very intoxicated' at the time.

'I collapsed at home this am and my SON had to call 911 for help!' she told her 809,600 followers on X - formerly known as Twitter

Funny: She then showed the medical team looking after her and quipped that she can't escape Bravo as she had a Dr. Cohen, like Real Housewives boss Andy Cohen, and nurse Ciara, seemingly reminding her of Summer House star Ciara Miller

'Everyone at my hospital is super sweet, super hard-working and they're getting ready to go on strike! They REALLY deserve more!!! I do REALLY want to leave though,' she posted on Monday morning

'I can speak on anything I want to speak on  it was at the end of an 18-hour work day at our belly dancing party and I'd like to see footage on it beforehand as both myself and Caroline were very intoxicated,' she claimed on X.

Over the years, Glanville has earned the reputation as a villain on the Housewives franchise for her past vulgar insults and being a pot-stirrer.

In the past, she famously accused Kyle Richards' older sister, Kim, of using crystal meth in the bathroom and Denise Richards of having an affair with her while married to husband Aaron Phypers.

Both Kim and Richards vehemently denied the claims Glanville made about them.
Sofia Vergara snapped a photo of herself while relaxing inside a luxurious, marble bathtub at her lavish hotel in Paris which she shared to Instagram on Monday.

The Modern Family alum, 51 - who put on a jaw-dropping display at the Clooney Foundation for Justice event in NYC - showed off her natural beauty while taking the image through the reflection of a mirror in the spacious bathroom.

The actress rested her arm on the edge of the tub, while her hand rested on the side of her head. She was seen flashing a small smile on her makeup-free face in the picture.

Her dark locks were parted in the middle and swept back into a simple up do, preventing any loose strands from falling onto her face.

In the caption of the post, Vergara penned to her 31.4 million fans and followers, '2am jetlag planning how to get this bathtub to LA #paris.'

Relaxation mode: Sofia Vergara, 51, snapped a photo of herself while relaxing inside a luxurious, marble bathtub inside her lavish hotel in Paris which she shared to Instagram on Monday

Spacious: The second image showed a better view of the large bathtub that had a head pillow on one side as well as a towel rolled up at the bottom

The second image showed a better view of the large bathtub that had a head pillow on one side as well as a towel rolled up at the bottom.

Sofia has begun to keep her fans updated with her trip to Paris, and also uploaded photos on Monday of herself enjoying a tasty dinner at Costes with close pal and fashion designer, Valentina Micchetti.

The America's Got Talent host was seen wearing a figure-hugging black dress that was held up with straps that wrapped around her shoulders.

The two friends took a few memorable snaps as they caught up and Vergara captioned the carousel of images with, 'Paris nights you are the best @valemicchetti.'

Before their fun outing came to an end, the star and designer also stopped to take a quick selfie together.

Earlier in the evening, the beauty was seen stepping outside as she headed to the restaurant with her pal also tagging along.

Sofia could be seen sporting the same, fitted black dress that clung to her stunning frame and contained a hem that stopped a few inches above her ankles.

She slipped into a pair of black, open-toed heels that were secured with thin straps that wrapped around her ankles.

Yummy dinner: Sofia has begun to keep her fans updated with her trip to Paris, and also uploaded photos on Monday of herself enjoying a tasty dinner at Costes with close pal and fashion designer, Valentina Micchetti

Dressed to impress: The America's Got Talent host was seen wearing a figure-hugging black dress that was held up with straps that wrapped around her shoulders

Selfie time! Before their fun outing came to an end, the star and designer also stopped to take a quick selfie together

Stunning: Earlier in the evening, the beauty was seen stepping outside as she headed to the restaurant with her pal also tagging along

Making a statement: She slipped into a pair of black, open-toed heels that were secured with thin straps that wrapped around her ankles

The beauty draped a black coat with a gold, lock embellishment in place of a button over her shoulders in case she grew chilly later in the night.

She accessorized her look by wearing a gold-chained necklace with a sparkling, circular pendant as well as flashy, gold-hooped earrings. The star also wore a sparkling silver bracelet on her right wrist.

Her long locks were parted in the middle, and effortlessly flowed down straight past her shoulders.

Vergara carried a black purse with a gold-chained strap that appeared to match her coat as she made a statement amid Paris Fashion Week, which comes to end on Tuesday, October 3.

Sofia - who split from husband Joe Manganiello in July - has been filtering through a busy schedule and recently attended the star-studded Clooney Foundation for Justice event at the New York Public Library earlier last week.

She turned heads in a bedazzled, black strapless top as well as matching trousers that were flared towards the bottom.

As she struck a pose, the actress held a matching blazer in her hand which brushed the floor. Her fellow AGT co-star, Heidi Klum, was also seen at the event and the pair paused for a few snaps at the event together.

With the 18th season of America's Got Talent coming to an end last month, Vergara has been preparing for the release of her upcoming drama series titled, Griselda.

Chic: The beauty draped a black coat with a gold, lock embellishment over her shoulders in case she grew chilly later in the night

Flashy details: She accessorized her look with a gold-chained necklace with a sparkling, circular pendant as well as flashy, gold-hooped earrings

Sleek: Her long locks were parted in the middle, and effortlessly flowed down straight past her shoulders

On her way: The Modern Family alum was seen flashing a big smile as she stepped inside the backseat of a vehicle to head to her next destination

Fun outing: Vergara carried a black purse with a gold-chained strap that appeared to match her coat as she made a fashion statement amid Paris Fashion Week

Head-turning: Sofia has been filtering through a busy schedule and recently attended the star-studded Clooney Foundation for Justice event at the New York Public Library earlier last week

Moving forward: Both she and her ex, Joe Manganiello, have been moving forward since announcing their divorce in July

The Netflix miniseries recently dropped a trailer for fans and the show is slated to release early next year in January 2024.

The premise follows, 'The life of Griselda Blanco, a devoted mother who created one of the most profitable cartels in history,' according to an official IMDB synopsis.

While Sofia tackled the leading role of Griselda, other stars that were cast in the upcoming project include Martin Rodriguez and also Rosa Ochoa.

Both she and her ex, Joe Manganiello, have been moving forward since announcing their divorce in July. Last month in September, it was confirmed that the Magic Mike actor was dating actress Caitlin O'Connor.
Sofia Vergara cut a glamorous figure on Monday as she stepped out in Paris in a figure-hugging black dress.

The actress, 51, looked sensational in the midi number, that boasted a low neckline to show off her ample cleavage.

She added an extra few inches of height to her frame with a pair of black peep-toe high heels.

Sofia toted a black and gold handbag, while keeping the cold at bay by draping a tailored black coat over her shoulders.

The Modern Family star completed her sultry look with delicate silver and diamond jewellery and bright red smoky eyeshadow.

Incredible: Sofia Vergara cut a glamorous figure on Monday as she stepped out in Paris in a figure-hugging black dress

Sizzling: The actress, 51, looked sensational in the midi number, that boasted a low neckline to show off her ample cleavage

Statuesque: She added an extra few inches of height to her frame with a pair of black peep-toe high heels

She later took to her Instagram to share a slew of snaps from her evening at dinner with her pal Valentina Micchetti.

The two friends took a few memorable snaps as they caught up and Sofia captioned the carousel of images: 'Paris nights you are the best @valemicchetti.'

Sofia then shared a sizzling selfie that she took while posing in her marble bath in her hotel room.

The America's Got Talent judge appeared completely nude in the shot as she lounged in the tub.

Her long brunette tresses were swept back and she went makeup-free, allowing her natural beauty to shine through.

Captioning the steamy snap, she joked: '2am jetlag planning how to get this bathtub to LA #paris.'



Despite her ongoing divorce from estranged husband Joe Manganiello  who is 'ready to move on and fall in love with someone,' else according to a source who spoke exclusively to the DailyMail.com - Sofia has refused to wallow, living her best single girl life on both coasts.

The True Blood star filed for divorce from the Colombian born beauty in July, citing 'irreconcilable differences.'

Chic: Sofia toted a black and gold handbag, while keeping the cold at bay by draping a tailored black coat over her shoulders

Flawless: The Modern Family star completed her sultry look with delicate silver and diamond jewellery and bright red smoky eyeshadow

Sleek: Her long locks were parted in the middle, and effortlessly flowed down straight past her shoulders

On her way: The star was seen flashing a big smile as she stepped inside the backseat of a vehicle to head to her next destination

Although fans were shocked by news of the split, the two A-listers reportedly parted ways due to their disagreements over having children.

While Joe and Sofia never had kids together over the course of their seven-year marriage, the Magic Mike: Last Dance star allegedly wanted to have children, while Sofia was content being a mother of one to Manolo Gonzalez Vergara, 31, the sole son she shares with her first ex-husband Joe Gonzalez.

However, sources close to the couple told the DailyMail.com that the issue of children was just the tip of the iceberg.

One insider said that while Joe is more of a, 'go with the flow,' type of man, his estranged wife let her looks allegedly go to her head.

'She has been told her entire life she is super-hot and beautiful. It really has got to her head. She also has a temper and gets upset over stupid things very easily whereas Joe tries to let things bounce off of him,' one source disclosed.

Ironically, the differences that initially attracted the pair to each other are what ultimately drove them apart.

'Bit by bit, they stopped wanting to be together and stopped hanging out because something so little would often trigger an attitude that would bug them,' the source added.

Stunning: She later took to her Instagram to share a slew of snaps from her evening at dinner with her pal Valentina Micchetti

Pals: The two friends took a few memorable snaps as they caught up and Sofia captioned the carousel of images: 'Paris nights you are the best @valemicchetti'

Steamy: Sofia then shared a sizzling selfie that she took while lounging in her marble bath in her hotel room, nude and makeup-free

Relaxed: Captioning the steamy snap, she joked: '2am jetlag planning how to get this bathtub to LA #paris'

Although Joe has already stepped out with a new girlfriend, actress Caitlin O'Connor, Sofia has been staying busy judging contestants on America's Got Talent.

She's also been spotted looking happier than ever in Beverly Hills following early acclaim for her latest Netflix role.

The typically sultry television star is nearly unrecognizable in the teaser trailer for Griselda, a Netflix limited series slated to release in January 2024.

The premise follows: 'The life of Griselda Blanco, a devoted mother who created one of the most profitable cartels in history,' according to an official IMDB synopsis.
Charlotte Dawson has hit back at a mum-shaming troll who claimed she had put her newborn 'on a shelf' during a baby photoshoot.

The mother-of-two, 30, who welcomed her son Jude in July and shares son Noah, two, took to Instagram on Monday to post the sweet photos but had to quickly defended herself following a 'daft' comment from a fan.

The photos gave the illusion that Jude was propped on top of a shelf beside photo frames, but he was actually lying on the floor.

However a fan, who thought Jude was left to balance on a shelf alone, commented: 'Please take Jude off the shelf- my anxiety is through the roof.'

Charlotte, who is engaged to the father of her sons Matt Sarsfield, hit back and wrote: 'It was on the floor so you really think Id leave my baby on a shelf [laughing faces]'.

Angry: Charlotte Dawson, 30, has hit back at a mum-shaming troll who claimed she had put her newborn 'on a shelf' during a baby photoshoot

Troll: The mother-of-two, who welcomed her son Jude in July, took to Instagram on Monday to post the sweet photos but had to quickly herself following a 'daft' comment from a fan

In embarrassment the troll replied back to Charlotte and apologised for the 'joke' comment, writing: 'I'm sorry, it was meant as a joke, hence the laughing face. It's quite obvious you wouldn't put a baby on a shelf.'

Fans were quick to support Charlotte in her comments and slam the troll, with one commenting: 'Some folk need to think before they type.'

Others wrote: 'Trick of the camera  he isnt really on a shelf'.

'Have a day off'.

'lol are you actually serious'.

'They sleep better on shelfs Tbh [laughing faces].'

It's not the first time Charlotte has been a victim of mum-shaming as she was previously left devastated when she was contacted by child services after someone accused her of mistreating her son Noah.

In August, Charlotte admitted that she felt 'so down' since a troll called social services on her for a second time.

Slammed: The photos gave the illusion that Jude was propped on top of a shelf beside photo frames, but he was actually lying on the floor

Awkward: In embarrassment the troll later apologised for the 'joke' comment, writing: 'I'm sorry, it was meant as a joke, hence the laughing face. It's quite obvious you wouldn't put a baby on a shelf

Style: The TV personality, who also shares son Noah two with her fiance Matt Sarsfield, was previously left devastated when she was contacted by child services after someone accused her of mistreating Noah (pictured)

Moving forward: However, despite the ordeal, Charlotte plastered on a smile and posed for stunning snaps with her family as she vowed to not 'let these weirdo freaks win'

However, despite the ordeal, Charlotte plastered on a smile and posed for stunning snaps with her family as she vowed to not 'let these weirdo freaks win'.

Alongside images of herself with Jude, older son Noah and her other loved ones, Charlotte told how she was 'made of stronger stuff' and suggested that 'karma' would come to those who wronged her.

he penned: 'Hiii my darlings, sorry Ive been a bit quiet I just needed a breather & to spend some quality time with my boyos.

'Ive had so many messages checking up on me thank you so much for being the best insta fambo, love you all.

'Ive been so down but Im not letting these weirdo freaks win. Im bloody better than this & made of stronger stuff, they will get karma for whats going on Im sure. cant wait to find out who you are, anyway enough about that negativeness.'

Concentrating on the positive aspects of her life, she went on: 'I took our beautiful Jude out in the balmoral @silvercrossuk pram, so special as it was Noahs & my mum and dad used to take me out in this pram when I was a baby round fairhaven lake.

'Now here I am with our second boyo, precious. Not letting anyone pop our baby bubble.'
Tayla Damir welcomed her first child with her AFL star husband Nathan Broad in August.

And the couple are expanding into a new home for their family, with the AFL WAG announcing that they have begun work on a new Perth home.

The former Love Island Australia star shared the news in an Instagram Stories Post on Tuesday.

'Sharing the process of our Perth build. Excited is an understatement,' she captioned an image of an interior.

'Baby steps. Sharing our search for our architect and builder,' she added alongside further photos.

Tayla Damir welcomed her first child with her AFL star husband Nathan Broad in August. Both pictured

The 26-year-old announced the arrival of her daughter earlier this year.

'Samara Margot Broad,' she wrote in her caption, revealing the little girl's sweet name.

Back in February, Tayla opened up about her pregnancy experience, sharing the things she learned during her first trimester.

She compiled a lengthy list of 'things no one warns you about during pregnancy' and shared it to her Instagram.

The couple are expanding into a new home for their family, with the AFL WAG announcing that they'd begun work on a new Perth home

'Sharing the process of our Perth build. Excited is an understatement,' she captioned an image of an interior

First on her list was 'the stress you feel as a pregnant woman'.

'The stress of not knowing if your child is ok all the time,' she wrote, adding: 'The long waits between ultrasounds to check if they are still alive.'

The AFL glamour couple, who were married last year, shared the good news of their impending parenthood to social media on Friday, February 3.

The couple tied the knot in the Gold Coast hinterland surrounded by family, friends and fellow influencers, all of whom were banned from using their phones as Tayla walked down the aisle.
Hollywood power couple Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson shocked fans on Monday when it was revealed they are set to divorce after four years of marriage.

British actress Jodie - who shares three-year-old daughter Juno Rose Diana with Canadian star Josh - cited 'irreconcilable differences' when she made the filing, with their date of separation listed as September 13.

The move came as a shock to fans, as the couple had looked loved-up just one day before Jodie made the bombshell filing, with the pair holding hands at the COS Autumn/Winter 2023 event on September 12.

Jodie, 37, and Joshua, 45, have yet to comment publicly on their separation but the actress stated in court filings that she does not want spousal support for either party and the pair do not have a prenup in place.

So what does this mean for the couple's finances going forward?

It's over: Power couple Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson shocked fans on Monday when it was revealed they are set to divorce after four years of marriage (pictured 2022)

Canadian actor Joshua is said to have a net worth of $8 million, reports celebritynetworth.com.

He became a household name when he starred as Pacey Witter in the hit teen show, Dawson's Creek, from 1998 to 2003.

The Critics' Choice Award nominee went on to land starring roles in Fox's sci-fi series Fringe and Showtime's drama, The Affair.

Most recently, Joshua took on the leading role in Paramount+ series Fatal Attraction, based on the 1987 film of the same name.

The father-of-one previously revealed that being paid so much in his younger years gave him imposter syndrome.

Reflecting on being cast in Dawson's Creek at the age of 19, he confessed: 'I would make more money doing four episodes of Dawson's Creek than most of my friends' parents made in a year..

'That was the center of my imposter syndrome: You're trying to set me up to be a role model to kids, and I definitely am not, and you're paying me all this money that I don't deserve.'

Joshua and Jodie reside in the Hollywood star's former childhood home in Topanga, California, after he bought the property in 2001.

The actor was born in Vancouver but raised in Los Angeles until he was eight years old, at which point his parents divorced and he returned to the Canadian city with his mother and sister.

Speaking about his decision to buy his childhood home, he told Mr Porter: ' My father unfortunately was not a good father or a husband and exited the scene, but that house in Topanga was where everything felt simple, so it was a very healing thing for me to do.'

Joshua previously owned a home in West Hollywood with ex-girlfriend Diane Kruger which he sold in 2017 for $5.76 million a year after they split.

Iconic: Canadian actor Joshua is said to have a net worth of $8 million. He became a household name when he starred as Pacey Witter in Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003

Racy: Most recently, Joshua took on the leading role in Paramount+ series Fatal Attraction, based on the 1987 film of the same name (pictured with co-star Lizzie Caplan)

No place like home: Joshua and Jodie reside in Joshua's former childhood home in Topanga, California, after he bought the property in 2001

Joshua's estranged wife is said to have a smaller but still respectable net worth of $3 million, Idol Net Worth reports.

While Joshua hit the spotlight in his teenage years, Jodie's rise to fame came later, with the actress first studying finance at the University of Pittsburgh before going on to work at a bank.

In 2009 at the age of 22 she decided to move to Hollywood after a chance meeting with musician Pharrell Williams who convinced her to become a model.

While living in Los Angeles, Jodie also pursued an acting career, landing her first TV role in 2013 as a siren in True Blood.

She went on to make a number of small TV and music video appearances, including in the video for Zayn Malik's 2016 hit, Pillowtalk.

However it wasn't until her starring role in 2019's Queen & Slim that she began to attract buzz.

The talented actress starred alongside Daniel Kaluuya in the critically acclaimed drama about a young couple who go on the run after killing a police officer in self defence.

In 2021 she starred in Channel 5's controversial version of Anne Boleyn, in which she played the titular character.

While her casting was met with backlash due to her race, critics praised her acting skills in the three-part drama series.

Jodie will next be seen in The Acolyte, an upcoming television series within the Star Wars franchise. Her role has not yet been announced.

While it appears neither Joshua nor Jodie will be seeking spousal support, their living and child custody arrangements have yet to be announced.

Jodie has asked for joint custody of their three-year-old daughter in the divorce and is being represented by celebrity divorce lawyer Laura Wasser.

Laura has handled a number of high-profile, high-net-worth dissolutions, including those for Angelina Jolie, Heidi Klum, Kim Kardashian, Johnny Depp and Kevin Costner.

As Joshua and Jodie did not sign a prenuptial agreement, they will now have to come to an agreement surrounding their divorce settlement.

A pre-nuptial agreement is essentially a contract drawn up by a couple before they get married. Typically it will list all of the assets each person owns, including any debts, and specifies how these will be divided up in the event of a divorce.

The extent to which a pre-nup is enforced can depend on the state the couple reside in. While all 50 states officially recognize the agreement, many disagree on the specifics.

Rachael Burns, who founded True Worth Financial Planning, told DailyMail.com that she believes all engaged couples should sign a prenup regardless of wealth or status.

She revealed: 'Pre-nuptial agreements get this reputation for being for really wealthy people. And they are seen as this very unromantic thing. But I think it's actually very romantic. It's a way of avoiding so much potential conflict.'

It's a hit: Jodie's rise to fame came later in life and it wasn't until her starring role in 2019's Queen & Slim starring alongside Daniel Kaluuya that she began to attract buzz

Backlash: In 2021 she starred in Channel 5's controversial version of Anne Boleyn, in which she played the titular character and while her casting was panned her performance was praised

Jodie and Joshua first sparked split rumours in September 2022 after they unfollowed each other on social media.

They then refollowed each other with Joshua brushing off split speculation as he gushed about his wife in a chat with E! News.

He said: 'She is undeniably one of the most beautiful women on the planet. And she always smashes it when shes on the red carpet. That is truly a wonder to behold.

'But I will tell you, that there is nothing like waking up in the morning, opening my eyes and seeing her face in the morning.'

Jodie and Joshua married in 2019 after meeting through mutual friends in 2018 and initially insisting that their romance was just 'casual'.

She has previously revealed their romance started as a one-night stand.

Prior to his relationship with Jodie, Joshua was in a decade-long romance with Diane Kruger, 47, which ended in 2016. Diane is now dating Norman Reedus.

Throwback: British actress Jodie shares three-year-old daughter Juno Rose Diana with Canadian star Josh and is seeking joint custody (Jodie pictured during pregnancy)
Rebecca Adlington took to Instagram on Monday where she shared a sweet snap.

The pregnant star's son Albie, two, and daughter Summer, eight, kissed her baby bump while sitting on a daybed together in the adorable photograph.

Olympic swimmer Rebecca, 34 - who announced last month that she is expecting her third child - looked besotted with her babies as they doted on her.

The mother-of-two showcased her pregnancy figure in a pretty green floral midi dress, which she teamed with a denim jacket.

Rebecca shares son Albie with husband Andy Parsons as well as daughter Summer from her previous marriage to swimmer Harry Needs.

Gorgeous: Rebecca Adlington, 34, took to Instagram on Monday where she shared a sweet snap of son Albie, two, and daughter Summer, eight, kissing her baby bump

Happy: The Olympic swimmer looked besotted with her babies as they doted on her while sitting on a daybed together in the adorable photograph

Last month, Rebecca revealed she is expecting another child with husband Andy Parsons, a year after the couple suffered a devastating miscarriage.

Rebecca captioned her social media post: ' Our own bit of magic Baby number 3 on the way'.

It comes after Rebecca said she feels 'responsible' for the tragic miscarriage she suffered last year and revealed how the heartbreak made her reluctant to try again for a third child.

Rebecca went in to hospital for her 12-week-scan and later had to go down for the emergency surgery after discovering she had miscarried the child.

After being sent home following the surgery, Rebecca had to be readmitted to treat sepsis, a kidney infection and a fever.

In an interview with The Mirror, Rebecca said: 'Because I'd had two children without any problems, a miscarriage never crossed my mind. I realise this might sound naive, but I expected some signs.

'I felt really responsible for the miscarriage, even though it wasn't my fault. I remember speaking to the doctors and they said there was nothing I could have done to prevent what happened.'

'But you've got all this pressure to protect something  this delicate being, this precious, special, incredible baby  for nine months, and it just seemed crazy because I've done it twice before and been absolutely fine.'

Announcement: Last month, Rebecca revealed she is expecting another child with husband Andy Parsons, a year after the couple suffered a devastating miscarriage.

Heartbreak: It comes after Rebecca said she feels 'responsible' for the tragic miscarriage she suffered last year

Horrible: Rebecca went in to hospital for her 12-week-scan and later had to go down for the emergency surgery after discovering she had miscarried the child

Andy and Rebecca tied the knot back in August with a Cheshire ceremony, five months after welcoming their son.

The pair met on dating app Bumble in 2018, with the swimmer gushing after their wedding 'It worked out perfectly for us. We couldn't be happier'.

The couple started dating two years after the swimmer split from her ex husband Harry, and she previously admitted she was nervous about dating again.

The couple quickly fell in love and facilities manager Andy moved from Liverpool to live with Becky in Manchester in 2019.

Rebecca, who won two gold medals at the 2008 Olympics and two bronze medals at London 2012, was previously married to Summer's father Harry - with the pair splitting in 2016.

As a result of Rebecca's two gold medal win at the 2008 Summer Olympics, she became Britain's first Olympic swimming champion since 1988. In 2013, aged 23, she retired from all competitive swimming.
Paris Hilton cut a stylish figure as she joined Penelope Cruz, Emilia Clarke and Riley Keough at the Chanel show held at the Grand Palais Ephemere during Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday.

The socialite, 42, looked glamorous in a pink and black feathered co-ord as she led the stars at the celebrity-filled runway show.

As PFW begins to wind down, Paris ensured all eyes were on her one last time as she arrived in her show-stopping outfit.

She stunned in a Chanel embroidered long-sleeve top and added two gold Chanel belts to her ensemble.

The model teamed her designer look with a mini black hand-bag and acessorised with chunky gold necklaces.

Glamorous: Paris Hilton, 42, cut a stylish figure in a black and pink co-ord as she arrived at the Chanel show during Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday

Stunning: Meanwhile, Penelope Cruz, 49, looked chic in a vintage white suit as she arrived at the star-studded fashion show

Elegant: Emilia Clarke, 36, looked nothing short of sensational in a gorgeous blue and black tweed dress as she beamed at the event

Meanwhile, Penelope Cruz, 49, looked chic in a vintage white suit as she arrived at the show.

The actress oozed elegance in the mini skirt and blazer which detailed sparkly embellishments on the garment.

She flashed her toned legs and accentuated her height with a pair of open-toe high heels and teamed her look with a white Chanel handbag.

As she arrived into the fashion show, Penelope made sure to protect her brunette tresses with an umbrella while shielding her eyes with black sunglasses.

Emilia Clarke, 36, looked nothing short of sensational in a gorgeous blue and black tweed dress as she beamed at the event.

The actress styled her chic ensemble with a pair of black and white dainty heels and opted for a minimal palette of make-up for the last runway show of PFW.

Elsewhere saw Riley Keough, 34, arrive in a stylish white caped dress and wore a pair of high-length boots.

The American actress put on a modish display in the tweed ensemble and complemented her look with a square black Chanel handbag.

The girls: Riley Keough, Charlotte Casiraghi, Penelope Cruz and Camila Morrone (left to right) took front row seats at the show

Beaming: Penelope Cruz and Camila Morrone appeared to be in great spirits as they sat next to each other at the show giggling

Glam: As PFW begins to wind down, Paris ensured all eyes were on her one last time as she arrived in her show-stopping outfit

Gorgeous: The socialite stunned in a Chanel embroidered long-sleeve top and added two gold Chanel belts to her ensemble

Star of the show: Paris appeared in great spirts as she arrived at the star-studded ceremony and blew a kiss to her fans

Chic: The model teamed her designer look with a mini black hand-bag and acessorised with chunky gold necklaces

Stylish sisters: Paris and her sibling Nicky Hilton looked glam

Trio: Usher, Paris and Nicky sat front row at the star-studded fashion show

Sophisticated: The actress oozed elegance in the mini skirt and blazer which detailed sparkly embellishments on the garment

Wow: She flashed her toned legs and accentuated her height with a pair of open-toe high heels and teamed her look with a white Chanel handbag

Elegant: As she arrived into the fashion show, Penelope made sure to protect her brunette tresses with an umbrella while shielded her eyes with black sunglasses

Pals: Penelope and Riley cosied up for a sweet picture together before taking their seat at the runway show

Gorgeous: The American actress put on a modish display in the tweed ensemble and complemented her look with a square black Chanel handbag

Icon: The actress styled her chic ensemble with a pair of black and white dainty heels and opted for a minimal palette of make-up for the last runway show of PFW

Trendy: Emilia ensured all eyes were on her as she posed up a storm for photographers at the runway show

Sweet: Emilia looked in great spirits as she waved to fans ahead of the show

Here they come! The latest catwalk show sat the return of the iconic handkerchief top, as well as a stunning pink tweed suit which was constructed out of Chanel's famous boucle fabric

Host: The celebrities arrived at the Grand Palais Ephemere (pictured) where the Chanel fashion show was being held on Tuesday

Star: Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio 's lovers past and present, Gigi Hadid (pictured) and Vittoria Ceretti, 25, stormed the runway at the iconic Chanel show

Stunner: And finally, Camila looked incredible as she arrrived wearing a black strappy dress before taking her place in the Front Row alongside actress Brie Larson

Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio's lovers past and present stormed the runway at the iconic Chanel show.

Gigi Hadid, 28, Vittoria Ceretti, 25, looked incredible at the fashion event while modelling Chanel's latest looks as part of the Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024 collection, while Camila Morrone, 26, didn't walk the runway, but instead took to the FROW.

The mother-of-one was first linked to Leo, 48, almost a year ago but it's understood the romance has run its course.

His current love, Italian model Vittoria, teamed a CC logo vest top with a red and black striped vinyl skirt which has a thigh-split going up one side.

And finally, Camila looked incredible as she arrived wearing a black strappy dress before taking her place in the Front Row.
Gal Gadot cut a stylish figure as she headed out and about in Venice on Tuesday.

The actress, 38, looked chic as she slipped into a flirty maroon skater dress with floral lace detailing while boarding a water taxi on one of the Italian city's famous canals.

The Wonder Woman star scraped her brunette locks back in a slick back bun and accessorised with a pair of large Gucci sunglasses.

Gal completed the look with simple flat black bucked sandals and appeared focused as she walked with her Airpods in.

Stepping on board a boat for the morning, Gal grabbed her friend's hand for assistance as she lowered herself onto the vessel.

Stunning: Gal Gadot, 38, looked chic as she slipped into a flirty maroon skater dress with floral lace detailing while boarding a water taxi in Venice on Tuesday

In August Gal detailed the injuries which she sustained while making her latest movie, Heart Of Stone.

She revealed she has four slipped discs in her neck and back after filming fight scenes for the Netflix spy action thriller.

Gal - who is a mother to three daughters, Alma, 12, Maya, six, and Daniella, two, with husband Jaron Varsano, 48 - also admitted she gets 'weird looks' because she is now covered in bruises.

The movie star has long performed many of her own stunts in films, and enthused about doing the one-on-one combat sequences.

Gal explained how she feels 'really in control,' when filming what she branded 'enjoyable' fight scenes.

She told The Sun: 'I had plenty of bruises. I remember one Sunday I was walking with the girls in the park in London and someone looked at me weird.

'I was wearing a summer dress, oblivious to the fact my legs and back were completely bruised. I was with my daughters and people were looking at me like something was off.

'But it's inevitable I have a number of injuries from those physical roles. I have two neck herniations and two back herniations. It's part of the job, unfortunately.

All aboard: The Wonder Woman star scraped her brunette locks back in a slick back bun and accessorised with a pair of large Gucci sunglasses

'There are parts to making movies that I don't like. Fighting and doing the hand-on-hand combat, I really enjoy.'

Gal expanded, likening fighting to dancing as she explained that she is able to express herself using her body, adding how the fight scenes are 'the one thing we do where I feel really in control.'

After being crowned Miss Israel in 2004, Gal completed two years of mandatory military service in the country before studying to be a lawyer, while modelling on the side.

In 2009 her fighting skills were first seen on screen when she played action girl Gisele Yashar in Fast & Furious.

She reprised the role in 2011 instalment Fast Five and again in 2013 for Fast & Furious 6, performing many of her own stunts.
X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has signed a special revenue sharing deal with Paris Hilton.

The first-of-its-kind deal is centred around live shopping and other exclusive content, including a custom hashtag for a famous Hilton word.

An agreement has been struck between X and Paris' media company, 11:11, with the social media platform describing the two-year financial arrangement as 'attractive' for both parties.

It comes as Linda Yaccarino, who joined the platform as chief executive in June, attempts to revive the platform's fortunes.

In a statement, Paris, who has 16.6mn followers on X, said: 'Together, we're going to be exploring new ways to connect with all of you across video, live video, live shopping, and even Spaces. And we're just getting started. Loves it.'

Deal: X, the company formerly known as Twitter , has signed a special revenue sharing deal with Paris Hilton

Agreement: An agreement has been struck between X and Paris' media company, 11:11, with the social media platform describing the two-year financial arrangement as 'attractive' for both parties

Paris appeared to be most excited about her new hashtag for a word she's been trying to popularize since at least 2019: 'sliving.'

A combination of the words 'slaying' and 'living,' sliving is supposed to be Paris' new 'that's hot,' her catchphrase that was inescapable in the early 2000s

The company has said the American socialite will work with X to create four original video programmes per year including for its nascent live shopping space.

After the news broke, Linda wrote: 'The queen of pop culture, music, business, and TV is #Sliving on X. @ParisHilton welcome to the @X family, we're excited to launch an official partnership with you and your next-gen media company 11:11.

'Together we're going to create a launchpad for new initiatives in video and live video, live commerce, Spaces, and so much more. Let's do this!!'

The desired partnerships are part of her strategy to boost audiences, sell more advertising, and facilitate sponsorship and brand deals between advertisers and creators.

Revenues were down by 60 per cent in the US Musk said last month, although he did not specify a timeframe.

Paris, who is an heiress to the Hilton family fortune, is reported to have an estimated net worth of $300million (248m).

She has made her own cash in a number of ways since launching to global fame in 2003's The Simple Life.

It comes after Elon Musk officially rebranded Twitter and ditched its bird for the name and logo X in June - in the latest controversial shake up of the social media company under his ownership.

Exciting: The first-of-its-kind deal is centred around live shopping and other exclusive content, including a custom hashtag for a famous Hilton word

After the news broke, Linda wrote: 'The queen of pop culture, music, business, and TV is #Sliving on X. @ParisHilton welcome to the @X family, we're excited to launch an official partnership with you and your next-gen media company 11:11.'

Partnership: It comes as Linda Yaccarino (left), who joined the platform as chief executive in June, attempts to revive the platform's fortunes (pictured with Paris)

Tweeting a picture of the company's new logo - a white X on a black background - late Sunday night, Twitter's new chief executive Linda said: 'X is here! Let's do this.'

The company's new logo was then seen projected on its downtown San Francisco headquarters. By Monday morning, the platform's users could see its new look and name.

X will be 'powered by AI' and will 'connect us in ways we're just beginning to imagine,' Yaccarino tweeted. The new changes are a step closer to Musk's previously stated idea for an 'everything app' that would combine social media, instant messaging, banking, and other ventures.

Musk has since changed his profile picture to the company's new logo, which he described as 'minimalist art deco,' and his Twitter bio to 'X.com,' which now redirects to twitter.com.
Cate Blanchett made a stylish appearances at the Louis Vuitton Womenswear Spring/Summer show as part of Paris Fashion Week on Monday.

The Australian actress, 54, looked sensational as she posed for photographers on arrival dressed in an edgy jumpsuit from the brand's pre-fall collection.

The outfit featured a sleeveless design with coloured patterns.

Cate added inches to her statuesque frame with a pair of towering black boots as she posed for pictures at the star-studded event.

The Lord of the Rings star teamed up her look with a pair of Louis Vuitton cat eye sunglasses worth $1380.

Cate Blanchett made a stylish appearances at the Louis Vuitton Womenswear Spring/Summer show as part of Paris Fashion Week on Monday

The Australian actress, 54, looked sensational as she posed for photographers on arrival dressed in an edgy zip up jumpsuit from the brand's pre-fall collection

The star paired the look with a radiant makeup palette and and opted to wear her blonde tresses in chic beach wave.

Cate shares sons Dashiell, 21, Roman, 19, and Ignatius, 15, as well as adopted daughter Edith, eight, with Andrew Upton, 57 - with whom she tied the knot in 1997.

The award-winning actress made her film debut in 1997 in the project titled Paradise Road, but rose to prominence after being cast with the leading role in the historical drama, Elizabeth (1998).

The outfit featured a sleeveless design with coloured patterns

Cate added inches to her statuesque frame with a pair of towering black boots as she posed for pictures at the star-studded event

Throughout the course of her successful career thus far, Blanchett has been nominated for a total of eight Oscars and won two - Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator and Best Actress for Blue Jasmine.

While talking to Page Six last year in April, Cate admitted that despite her fame, her children are 'disinterested' in their mother's stardom.

'They have no idea, no idea,' she informed the outlet. 'I told them, "Oh I'm going to New York for 36 hours.

'I'll be back on Wednesday" One of them is getting an award at school, and they went, "Oh, OK, have a good time."'

The star expressed that her four kids are 'disinterested' in her fame, but 'in the best possible, healthiest way.'
Dina Broadhurst is no stranger to racy selfies.

And on Tuesday, the 'nude artist' was at it again, sharing a series of images to Instagram in which she enjoyed the Sydney sunshine.

The socialite worked her angles in a white bikini, showing off her figure after enjoying a swim.

She also posed in skimpy blue swimwear as she took a photo in the mirror while wearing designer sunglasses.

Further images showed a close up of her Prada outfit pulled down to her crotch, as well as the beauty flaunting her bust through a wet T-shirt.

Dina Broadhurst (pictured) is no stranger to racy selfies. And on Tuesday, the 'nude artist' was at it again, sharing a series of images to Instagram in which she enjoyed the Sydney sunshine

'Long weekend heat,' she wrote in the caption alongside the photos.

Dina's provocative display comes after she suffered somewhat of an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction on Instagram.

In a gallery shared to social media platform, Dina suffered a 'nip slip' as she posed braless in a plunging turquoise mini-dress.

She was sure to make the most of the wardrobe malfunction however, flaunting her most provocative angles.

The socialite worked her angles in a white bikini, showing off her figure after enjoying a swim

'Long weekend heat,' she wrote in the caption alongside the photos

The beauty was flaunting her bust through a wet T-shirt

Further images showed a close up of her Prada outfit pulled down to her crotch

'Blue Mood. Film back,' she captioned the post.

The sighting comes after Dina was seen canoodling with property investor Tony Benjamin at Bondi Beach.

Meanwhile, Dina recently split from her longtime partner Max Shepherd.

Max, 31, moved into Michael Clarke's bachelor pad in Vaucluse, and he nursed his heartbreak with a trip overseas.
Lucy Benjamin was spotted without her wedding ring for the first time, on September 14.

The EastEnders star, 53, looked sombre while out in Essex, just two weeks after her split from husband Richard Taggart was reported, following 17 years of marriage.

The actress wedding band was notably absent from her ring finger as she picked up groceries from a supermarket, wearing a low-key look.

Lucy - who is best known for playing Lisa Fowler in EastEnders - stepped out in a white wide-leg trousers and a black tee, which she teamed with Crocs and a Chanel cross-body bag.

The soap actress and her partner, who share two children, reportedly split at the end of August, with insiders citing that their relationship had ultimately 'run its course'.

Downcast: Lucy Benjamin, 53, looked sombre as she was spotted without her wedding ring for the first time, on September 14. two weeks after her split from Richard Taggart was reported

Casual: The EastEnders star picked up groceries from a supermarket, wearing a low-key look

Single: Lucy's wedding band was notably absent from her ring finger

The couple share two daughters Bessie, 16, and Rosie, 12, and are apparently making their children their number one priority in the break-up.

A source told The Sun: 'Lucy and Richard tried to make it work but ultimately decided it was best they split up.

'It's been rough for them both in recent months but hopefully they can now start looking forward to the future. Their children will always be their number one priority.'

MailOnline reached out to representatives for comment at the time.

Lucy and Richard met on a flight to Dubai and they sparked a conversation when he introduced himself to her, after recognising her from television.

Detailing their first meeting, Lucy previously said: 'He was sat next to me and while I was reading a book, he tapped me on the shoulder and said, "This must be strange for you because I know a lot about you and you don't know anything about me, but my name's Richard and I'm going to Dubai".

'Fortunately, I found it very funny and we didn't stop chatting. We were engaged within six weeks  and married within nine months.'

Lucy was seven weeks pregnant with their first child when they tied the knot, saying: 'I was a bit pushy but you've got to get on with it.'

Over: The star and her partner, who share two children, reportedly split at the end of August, with insiders citing that their marriage had ultimately 'run its course' (Pictured in 2009)

Lucy's ex-boyfriend's include her former co-star Steve McFadden, whose character she shot during her soap exit in 2003 after playing the character for four years.

During a break from EastEnders, Lucy appeared in the 2009 series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, but was the first to be voted out.

She has also had roles in Casualty, Holby City and New Tricks.
Binky Felstead proudly showed off her toned postpartum body in a pink bikini on Tuesday just six months after she gave birth to her son Wilder.

The former Made In Chelsea star, 33, took to Instagram to showcase her toned physique in the strapless two-piece while she soaked up some sun.

The mother-of-three shares Wilder and son Wolfie, two, with her husband Max Darnton, and a daughter India, five, with her ex Josh Patterson.

Binky, who has been enjoying a childfree holiday at The Cabin Barnes Retreat in Chelsea, looked incredible in the bikini snap.

She flashed her washboard abs and cut a stylish figure in the skimpy bikini and trendy sunglasses as she posed on a sun lounger.

Incredible: Binky Felstead, 33, proudly showed off her toned postpartum body in a pink bikini on Tuesday

Insane: Binky gave birth just six-months-ago to her son Wilder (pictured pregnant with Wilder in February)

The TV personality took part in journaling, mediation exercises, gym workouts, aqua aerobics and cooking classes during her luxury wellness escape.

Binky also flashed her washboard abs in a grey crop top and black shorts in a make-up free selfie.

She often shares her exercise routines with her 1.4M followers and continued to do so throughout her pregnancy.

Her calming retreat comes after she shared a slew of snaps from their intimate family Christening for her son's Wilder and Wolfie.

Binky gave birth to her third child on April 17 in the plush 5,900-a-night Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, central London.

In May she detailed her feelings of 'mum guilt' over her older two children as she battled sleepless nights with her newborn son Wilder just after he was born.

The star posted a teary-eyed selfie as she told her Instagram followers she was 'exhausted', felt like she was about to get sick and 'still bleeding' from the recent birth.

She also opened up on her parenting struggles as she revealed Wilder was up 'every hour of the night' in a candid post.

Peaceful: Binky also flashed her washboard abs in a grey crop top and black shorts in a make-up free selfie

Retreat: The TV personality took part in journaling, mediation exercises, gym workouts, aqua aerobics and cooking classes during her luxury wellness escape

Escape: Binky (left) has been enjoying a childfree holiday at The Cabin Barnes Retreat in Chelsea, taking part in a range of activities

Learning: Binky took part in a healthy cookery class during her time at the relaxing retreat

Adorable: Binky recently shared sweet snaps from her son's Wilder and Wolfie, two, Christening with husband Max Darnton (pictured) and daughter India, five, who she shares with ex Josh Patterson

Binky also said she had been 'over compensating' to make sure Wolfie and India are having the same amount of attention as normal, but it has now left her exhausted.

She wrote: 'Week 3 is the hardest someone said to me today on my walk... not that I can remember the other two week 3s.

'I'm exhausted, feeling like I'm getting sick and still bleeding. Wilder was up every hour or so last night and today refusing to be put down for long.

'He's hungry ALL the time and I'm starting to feel guilty I'm not being my best self for the other two.

'I'm defiantly over compensating by trying to do everything still with them and making sure they can't tell the difference, but I feel like today it's starting to bite me in the a**e!

'I'm going to listen to my body and try to remember to be kind to myself. He's only been in the world for two days over two weeks!'
Paris Hilton and her sister Nicky Rothschild-Hilton looked incredibly chic as they attended the Miu Miu show during Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday.

The pair both preppy figures as they exited their hotel together after attending the Chanel show earlier in the day.

Looking sophisticated, Paris donned a black fitted short sleeved dress which was adorned with a Miu Miu gold buckled black belt.

The model, 42, carried her essentials in a black leather matching Miu Miu bag and elevated her height with a pair of shiny black platform heels.

She held her blonde locks back with a simple black headband and completed the look with a pair of wide eyed sunglasses.

Sophisticated: Paris Hilton, 42, (left) and her sister Nicky Rothschild-Hilton, 39, (right) cut preppy figures as they headed to the Miu Miu show at Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday

Twinning: The sisters showed off their uncanny resemblance as they both flashed their slender pins in their short pleated mini skirts

Pleats, please! The ladies' looks appeared inspired by 1995 movie Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone

Meanwhile her sister Nicky, 39, put on a leggy display in a short pleated grey skirt and white ribbed cardigan.

The American socialite buttoned up the garment which she wore over a simple pale blue shirt.

She completed the look with pair of dainty deep red heels and matched Paris' bag choice but in the tan brown colour instead.

Nicky styled her hair in an up-do as she tucked her fringe pieces behind her ear.

As PFW begins to wind down, the stars were out in full force for the Miu Miu show as Sydney Sweeney, Adriana Lima and Emma Corrin also attended the event.

Meanwhile Gigi Hadid stormed the runway as she went topless underneath an oversized black sparkly jacket.

Earlier today the duo showed off their uncanny resemblance as they attended the Chanel show held at the Grand Palais Ephemere.

The lookalike pair were all glammed up for the show as they cut a stylish figure for the event and each showcased their slender pins.

Sophisticated: Paris donned a black fitted short sleeved dress which was adorned with a Miu Miu gold buckled black belt

Fashion: The model, 42, carried her essentials in a black leather matching Miu Miu bag and elevated her height with a pair of shiny black platform heels

Stunning: She held her blonde locks back with a simple black headband and completed the look with a pair of wide eyed sunglasses

Gorgeous: The pair looked incredibly chic as they exited the hotel together on the way to the show

Preppy: Nicky buttoned up the garment which she wore over a simple pale blue shirt

Gorgeous: Earlier in the day, Paris and her lookalike sister Nicky wowed as they both put on a leggy display at the Chanel show

Lookalike: Paris, 42, is three years older than her sister, 39, and the pair looked to be in great spirits as they sat front row at the fashion show

Leggy display: Nicky wore a white sparkly co-ord set which featured a matching blazer and mini skirt which she paired with a matching Chanel clutch bag

Paris looked glamorous in a pink and black feathered co-ord which she paired with a Chanel embroidered long-sleeve top.

The socialite completed the look with two gold Chanel belts, a mini black hand-bag and chunky gold necklaces.

Meanwhile Nicky wore a white sparkly co-ord set which featured a matching blazer and mini skirt.

The model turned heads in the eye-catching number as she wowed in the blazer which was adorned with feather detailing and silver buttons.

She completed the look with a matching white Chanel clutch bag and white strappy heels.

The blonde bombshells opted for different looks for their gorgeous locks.

Incredible: Gigi Hadid, 28, stormed the runway as she went topless underneath an oversized black sparkly jacket

Beaming: Adriana Lima looked in good spirits as she grinned from ear to ear in a light grey suit
Gigi Hadid donned one of her quirkiest looks yet as she hit the runway for the Miu Miu show on the final day of Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday.

The model, 28, went braless in an open black sequinned blazer and a matching skirt while showcasing the designer's Spring/Summer 2024 collection, after walking in the Chanel show hours earlier.

Gigi's eye-catching ensemble included flat strapped sandals, dishevelled hair and androgynous glasses as she made her way down the runway.

Her daring look showed off plenty of sideboob, and flashed a glimpse of her toned abs as she strutted down the runway.

The Miu Miu show saw a slew of big names in attendance, including Sydney Sweeney, Adriana Lima and Paris Hilton.

That's unusual! Gigi Hadid donned one of her quirkiest looks yet as she hit the runway for the Miu Miu show on the final day of Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday

Glam: The model went braless in an open black sequinned blazer and a matching skirt while showcasing the designer's Spring/Summer 2024 collection

Sexy: Gigi's eye-catching ensemble included flat strapped sandals, dishevelled hair and androgynous glasses as she made her way down the runway

It came after Gigi faced a run-in with Leonardo DiCaprio's current girlfriend Vittoria Ceretti, after being first linked to the actor, almost a year ago.

Elsewhere, Sydney showed off her jaw-dropping figure while posing for snaps at the Miu Miu show.

The actress, 26, flashed her white pants underneath black shorts, teamed with a matching tweed cropped blazer.

Paris Hilton and her sister Nicky Rothschild showed off their uncanny resemblance as they attended the runway show.

The lookalike pair were all glammed up for the show as they cut a stylish figure for the event and each showcased their slender pins.

Paris, 42, is three years older than her sister, 39, and the pair looked to be in great spirits as they sat front row at the fashion show.

The star put on a very leggy display in a black mini dress with a gold belt which cinched in her waist.

She boosted her height in black patent platform heels, while her golden locks were held back with a headband.

Sizzling: Her daring look showed off plenty of sideboob, and flashed a glimpse of her toned abs as she strutted down the runway

Here she is! Ahead of her latest show, Gigi cut a stylish figure as she made her arrival

Chic: The model flashed a hint of her toned abs in a white crop top and a flowing skirt, teamed with an oversized grey denim zipped jacket

Low-key: She completed her look with a Yankees baseball cap as she prepared to bring Paris Fashion Week to a close

Stunning: Another model also took to the Miu Miu runway in the same bold outfit, bringing an end to the autumn Fashion Week calendar

Fashion Week: Sydney Sweeney showed off her jaw-dropping figure as she joined Adriana Lima at the Miu Miu show

Racy: The actress, 26, flashed her white pants underneath black shorts, teamed with a matching tweed cropped blazer

Stunning: Sydney elevated her height in a pair of platform heels, while accessorising with stylish sunglasses and a small handbag

Lookalike: Paris Hilton and her sister Nicky Rothschild showed off their uncanny resemblance as they attended the runway show

Incredible: Paris, 42, put on a very leggy display in a black mini dress with a gold belt which cinched in her waist

Unreal: Thylane Blondeau showed off her toned pins in a tweed mini skirt and an oversized beige jacket

Elsewhere, Adriana Lima looked the epitome of chic in a plunging beige blazer and matching trousers, teamed with blue strappy heels.

Nicky looked typically stylish in a grey tweed skirt, teamed with a cream knitted jumper and a blue shirt.

Paris Fashion Week kicked off on Monday and runs to October 3, with 107 brands presenting, of which 67 are giving runway shows.

One of the first big names was Pierre Cardin, which has returned to the official Paris lineup this year for the first time in a quarter-century.

Its show was full of retro space-age outfits that harked back to its glory days, but the relatives of Cardin, who died in 2020, are currently tearing each other apart in court over the inheritance.

'My uncle gave me the mission to perpetuate the house and its style,' Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin, who is currently overseeing the label, said backstage.

'If the brand is sold, it will be the end of the house. I am confident the court decisions will ensure continuity,' he added.

Among the other highlights so far was the latest collection from Dior on Tuesday, which saw the walls of the show plastered with mock sexist slogans from old adverts, such as 'Save your marriage - iron properly'.
She joined fashion's biggest names hitting the catwalk for the Mugler show.

But Paris Hilton's big runway moment was mercilessly mocked by fans as they poked fun at her 'chicken' walk at Paris Fashion Week.

The heiress took centre stage in footage posted by British Vogue on Instagram on Tuesday, after donning a daring black mini dress for the show.

Paris' look was teamed with a pair of unusually-curved heels, which may have been the cause for her walk.

But this didn't stop fans from poking fun, with one joking that it was akin to 'wearing their heels once a year.'

Brutal: Paris Hilton has been mocked by fans for her 'chicken' runway walk during the Mugler show at Paris Fashion Week on Monday

Posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, one wrote: 'Idk I'm kinda obsessed w how bizarre this walk is.'

Another added: 'That's how I walk when I wear my heels once a year,' while a third posted: 'I'm confused is this good or bad?'

Commenting under British Vogue's post, one shared: 'I walk like that when I'm drunk but trying to prove I'm not,' while another added: 'She can't walk but great toned legs.'

One user also shared: 'I'm sorry, but why is she walking like RoboCop? I love the outfit,' with another asking: 'What the heck is that chicken walk all about?'

However, one fan was quick to defend Paris, writing: 'She's doing her walk. She's been doing it since the 90s and she's never going to try to walk like a catwalk model because she is Paris Hilton.'

Despite her walk, Paris' sister Nicky, 39, was on the FROW to support her and stuck to the black theme in a quirky blazer and thigh-split skirt.

On Tuesday, the duo showed off their uncanny resemblance as they attended the Chanel show held at the Grand Palais Ephemere.

The lookalike pair were all glammed up for the show as they cut a stylish figure for the event and each showcased their slender pins.

Brutal: Her look was teamed with a pair of unusually-curved heels, which may have been the cause for her walk

Savage: Many fans were quick to poke fun at Paris' walk on X, formerly known as Twitter, with one comparing it to their own annual attempt at wearing heels

Brutal: Others poked fun at the star after British Vogue shared footage on Instagram, though one fan insisted it was 'the walk she's been doing since the 90s'

Wow! The heiress took centre stage in footage posted by British Vogue on Instagram on Tuesday, after donning a daring black mini dress for the show

Paris looked glamorous in a pink and black feathered co-ord which she paired with a Chanel embroidered long-sleeve top.

The socialite completed the look with two gold Chanel belts, a mini black hand-bag and chunky gold necklaces.

Meanwhile Nicky wore a white sparkly co-ord set which featured a matching blazer and mini skirt.

The model turned heads in the eye-catching number as she wowed in the blazer which was adorned with feather detailing and silver buttons.
The doctor of Ms Jacky Oh! will not be at the center of a criminal investigation after it was revealed that the reality star died as a result of complications from cosmetic surgery aged 32 on May 31, 2023.

Many wondered if the physician would be charged as the Wild n Out star (born Jacklyn Smith) previously said she was in Miami for a 'mommy makeover' with Dr. Zachary 'Dr. Zach' Okhah in a since-deleted social media post weeks before her death.

However the physician who operated on her won't be charged for any crimes despite the star dying from complications from a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) according to a TMZ report on Tuesday.

Sources from the Miami Police Department told the publication that the medical examiner had ruled the mother of three's death accidental and that homicide detectives will not launch a criminal investigation.

Two weeks after her death, the surgeon took to Instagram in June to break his silence.

Tragic: The doctor of Ms Jacky Oh! will not be at the center of a criminal investigation after it was revealed that the reality star died as a result of complications from cosmetic surgery aged 32 on May 31, 2023

Many wondered if the physician would be charged as the Wild n Out star (born Jacklyn Smith) previously said she was in Miami for a 'mommy makeover' with Dr. Zachary 'Dr. Zach' Okhah (pictured) in a since-deleted social media post weeks before her death

Dr. Zach - who has sued former patients for claiming he botched their surgeries - posted a statement to his account but made no mention of the 33-year-old talent or the incident.

The message to his nearly 97,000 followers began, 'To all my past, current and prospective patients, PH-1 Miami remains devoted to the highest quality medical care.

'All aesthetic procedures are performed in a hygienically safe environment to universally recognized medical standards,' it continued.

He went on to say, 'I am relentlessly committed to advancing techniques in the realm of plastic surgery.'

Okhah's statement finished, 'Most importantly, my staff and I ensure that each patient is vetted, prepped and treated according to their individual patient history prior to any surgery.

'Our mission is to help our patients achieve the best possible results in the safest and most medically appropriate way possible.'

Just last week it was revealed that the Wild n Out personality passed away in Miami, Florida after getting a Brazilian butt lift (BBL) - with the star complaining her head was 'burning' shortly before her shock death, according to an autopsy report obtained by TMZ.

Mom-of-three Jacky flew to Miami in May to have liposuction - with the fat transferred to her backside in the BBL procedure,

Tragic loss: However the physician who operated on her won't be charged on any crimes despite the star dying from complications from a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) according to a TMZ report on Tuesday (pictured September 2022)

Defending his business: The surgeon Dr. Zach took to Instagram two weeks after her death to break his silence

Statement: The message to his nearly 97,000 followers began, 'To all my past, current and prospective patients, PH-1 Miami remains devoted to the highest quality medical care'

Tragic: Jacky and DC Young Fly, who had been together since 2015, were the proud parents to daughters Nova, six, and Nala, three, and son Prince, 11 months

The surgery was completed in May 30 with the star prescribed Cliprofloxacin (an antibiotic), painkiller Oxycodone and anti-nausea drug Ondansetron.

The star began to get a headache shortly afterwards and saw her surgeon for a post-operative appointment.

She got a message to help with her pain and was advised to take ibuprofen and to stop taking the Ondansetron.

On the evening of May 31, Jacky began to feel her head was 'burning' and developed difficulty speaking.

Her aunt, who she was with, called 911, but Jacky became unresponsive before they arrived. She was pronounced dead at the hospital at 11pm.

The autopsy report states Jacky had 'swelling in her brain and extensive bleeding of the skin around her torso.'

Jacky and DC Young Fly had been together since 2015 and were parents to daughters Nova, six, and Nala, three, and son Prince, 11 months.

A BET Media Group spokesperson confirmed her tragic passing in a post on the Wild N' Out's Facebook page.

Shock death: The Wild 'n Out personality (born Jacklyn Smith) passed away in Miami, Florida after getting a Brazilian butt lift (BBL) - with the star complaining her head was 'burning' shortly before her shock death - seen with DC in 2021

Tragedy: On the evening of May 31, Jacky began to feel her head was 'burning' and developed difficulty speaking. Her aunt, who she was with, called 911, but Jacky became unresponsive before they arrived. She was pronounced dead at the hospital at 11pm (pictured 2019)

DC Young Fly had been in Atlanta filming new Wild 'N Out episodes when he was told of the tragic news.

Along with appearing in 81 episodes of Wild 'N Out from 2015-2020, DC has also been seen in films such as House Party (2023) , Armed (2018) and Almost Christmas (2016).

He touts more than 12.2 million Instagram fans and followers.


Eva Longoria enjoyed a beach day in Marbella, Spain, on Tuesday.

The Desperate Housewives star, 48, exhibited her impressively toned physique in a strapless pink bikini.

Eva flaunted her washboard midriff in the pretty two-piece swimwear set, while relaxing in the Spanish sunshine.

The actress oozed confidence as she displayed her gym-honed frame in the bikini, which boasted a cross-over sweetheart neckline and tie-side bottoms.

The make-up free star tied her raven tresses up into a top-knot and shielded her eyes with a glamorous pair of oversized shades.

Wow! Eva Longoria, 48, exhibited her impressively toned physique in a strapless pink bikini while enjoying a beach day in Marbella, Spain, on Tuesday

Incredible: The Desperate Housewives star flaunted her washboard midriff

Fantastic: Eva oozed confidence as she displayed her gym-honed frame in the pretty two-piece swimwear set, while relaxing in the Spanish sunshine

Her Spanish holiday comes just days after Eva rocked a shimmery chrome gown while welcoming celebrities to her annual gala with The Global Gift Foundation.

This year's glittering fete, the 11th one that Eva has thrown with the nonprofit, took place at the height of Paris Fashion Week at the 8th arrondissement's iconic Four Seasons Hotel George V.

The Global Gift Foundation is a nonprofit that, according to its website, aims to 'raise funds to eradicate poverty and hunger ensuring our most vulnerable dont have to struggle to put food on the table; access to health care, lifesaving treatments and therapies; provide shelter, clothing and to protect the right to education.'

Their website further notes: 'We believe in the fight against social injustice and that investing in womens empowerment will ultimately create positive benefits for all.'

Meanwhile, Eva is fresh off the release of her directorial debut Flamin' Hot, based on the memoirs of Frito-Lay executive Richard Montanez, who has long touted himself as the inventor of Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

Frito-Lay has repudiated his claim that he created the snack, and a Los Angeles Times expose in 2021 found that a lower-level employee called Lynne Greenfield played a more pivotal role in the birth of Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

By the time the bombshell report ran, Eva's movie was already in the pipeline, and the actress-turned-filmmaker has staunchly defended her project ever since.

Flamin' Hot bowed on Hulu and Disney+ this June and received a tepid critical reaction, to the tune of a 69% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 58 Metascore on Metacritic.

Loving life: Eva wore a stylish oversized visor on her head while enjoying a glass of wine

Phenomenal: The actress oozed confidence as she displayed her gym-honed frame in the bikini, which boasted a cross-over sweetheart neckline and tie-side bottoms

Beauty: The make-up free star shielded her eyes with a glamorous pair of oversized shades

Incredible: The natural beauty didn't mind getting her hair wet as she cooled off in the sea

Luxe life: With ice to keep her wine cool, Eva treated herself to a massage on the beach

Bliss: The actress lay back in the water and floated
A whirlwind new trailer has dropped for Priscilla, the new movie from Sofia Coppola about the tempestuous marriage between Elvis and Priscilla Presley.

Based on Priscilla's memoirs, the movie stars Euphoria heartthrob Jacob Elordi as The King and Mare Of Easttown actress Cailee Spaeny as his wife.

Elvis met Priscilla at a party in Germany while he was stationed there by the U.S. Army - he was 24 years old and she was only 14.

Their marriage was rocked by infidelities and further scarred by his drug problem, before ultimately falling apart in 1972 a half-decade before his death.

The new trailer promises to lift the curtain back on the dark side of their romance, with Priscilla bleakly intoning: 'He's not like you imagine.'

Wedding day: A whirlwind new trailer has dropped for Priscilla, the new movie from Sofia Coppola about the tempestuous marriage between Elvis and Priscilla Presley

Rising stars: Based on Priscilla's memoirs, the movie stars Euphoria heartthrob Jacob Elordi as The King and Mare Of Easttown actress Cailee Spaeny as his wife

Details: Priscilla has maintained that she and Elvis did not have sex until they were married in Las Vegas in 1967, three weeks before her 22nd birthday

Taking aim: Their marriage was rocked by infidelities and further scarred by his drug problem, before ultimately falling apart in 1972 a half-decade before his death

In real life, while they were dating, he carried on a concurrent affair with his Viva Las Vegas co-star Ann-Margret - and when Priscilla found out abut it, she 'picked up a flower vase and threw it across a room,' per her memoirs.

Priscilla has maintained that she and Elvis did not have sex until they were married in Las Vegas in 1967, three weeks before her 22nd birthday.

Nine months after the wedding, she gave birth to their daughter Lisa Marie Presley, who famously went on to marry and divorce Michael Jackson.

Elvis and Priscilla's marriage was a troubled one - she once told Hello! that 'I never wanted to leave town or even visit my parents as I didnt want to give him that chance, thinking that someone would come and take my place.'

Priscilla, who herself had an affair with a karate teacher during the marriage, eventually separated from Elvis in 1972 and finalized the divorce in 1973.

After years of notorious drug abuse, Elvis was found passed out on a bathroom floor in Memphis and declared dead of cardiac arrest in 1977.

Priscilla became a successful businesswoman as custodian of her ex-husband's legacy, opening up his lavish estate Graceland for fans to visit.

The trailer for Sofia Coppola's new movie opens on Priscilla as a young girl, when she first caught the eye of the already world-famous rock star.

History: Elvis met Priscilla at a party in Germany while he was stationed there by the U.S. Army - he was 24 years old and she was only 14

The last detail: In real life, while they were dating, he carried on a concurrent affair with his Viva Las Vegas co-star Ann-Margret, an indiscretion glancingly alluded to in the trailer

Baby mine: Nine months after the wedding, she gave birth to their daughter Lisa Marie Presley, who famously went on to marry and divorce Michael Jackson

Looking back: The trailer for Sofia Coppola's new movie opens on Priscilla as a young girl, when she first caught the eye of the already world-famous rock star

Date night: On an early date with Elvis, he asks her: 'What are the kids listening to these days?' and she coquettishly replies: 'Bobby Darin, Fabian and you'

Schoolgirl: Their kiss in a car is immediately followed by footage of Priscilla in class at school, underlining the point of how young she was when Elvis snaffled her up

'She's much more mature than her age': 'Well, sir, I happen to be very fond of your daughter,' Elvis assures Priscilla's father during their courtship

Wow: Priscilla takes pains to integrate herself into her beau's adult world, going shooting with him, gambling with him in Las Vegas and stealing a kiss with him by the pool

Image: Elvis meanwhile takes it upon himself to transform her, molding her into the iconic Priscilla Presley persona the world came to know

On an early date with Elvis, he asks her: 'What are the kids listening to these days?' and she coquettishly replies: 'Bobby Darin, Fabian and you.'

Their kiss in a car is immediately followed by footage of Priscilla in class at school, underlining the point of how young she was when Elvis snaffled her up.

'Well, sir, I happen to be very fond of your daughter,' Elvis assures Priscilla's father during their courtship. 'She's much more mature than her age.'

Priscilla takes pains to integrate herself into her beau's adult world, going shooting with him, gambling with him in Las Vegas and stealing a kiss with him by the pool.

Elvis meanwhile takes it upon himself to transform her, molding her into the iconic Priscilla Presley persona the world came to know.

He instructs her to acquire 'black hair' and 'more eye makeup,' and to amplify the effect Priscilla takes the further measure of applying fake eyelashes.

When she has completed her metamorphosis into the unmistakable Priscilla Presley image, she tells Elvis quietly: 'I don't know if I like it.'

The anger bubbling underneath Elvis' charm then asserts itself as he advances on her, demanding: 'What do you mean, you don't know if you like it?'

Metamorphosis: He instructs her to acquire 'black hair' and 'more eye makeup,' and to amplify the effect Priscilla takes the further measure of applying fake eyelashes

Candor: When she has completed her metamorphosis into the world-famous Priscilla Presley image, she tells Elvis quietly: 'I don't know if I like it'

Headed for disaster: At that point the trailer shifts gears, plunging into the depths of their marital woes as their relationship careens toward its inevitable implosion

Word on the street: Priscilla, now with the baby in tow, tells her husband: 'You know, there's a lot of rumors about you'

Self-medicating?: Cut to a blizzard of clips showing the marriage's collapse into pills, a chair-throwing row and even a brief sighting of Priscilla's karate class

'Are you gonna be here or not?': At one point, Elvis confronts her about his demons, saying: 'I need a woman who understands that things like this might happen'

Moving on: Ultimately, Priscilla finds herself unable to cope any longer with the trials of marriage to Elvis, saying softly: 'I want a life of my own'

Incoming: The new film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last month and will bow in theaters in the United States on November 3

At that point the trailer shifts gears, plunging into the depths of their marital woes as their relationship careens toward its inevitable implosion.

After the trailer makes a glancing reference to the Ann-Margret affair, Priscilla, now with the baby in tow, tells her husband: 'You know, there's a lot of rumors about you.'

During a heated argument, she tearfully yells: 'Is there something you're hiding?' and he fires back: 'I don't have a goddamn thing to hide!'

At one point, Elvis confronts her about his demons, saying: 'I need a woman who understands that things like this might happen. Are you gonna be here or not?'

Cut to a blizzard of clips showing the marriage's collapse into pills, a chair-throwing row and even a brief sighting of Priscilla's karate class.

Ultimately, Priscilla finds herself unable to cope any longer with the trials of marriage to Elvis, saying softly: 'I want a life of my own.'

The new movie premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last month and will bow in theaters in the United States on November 3.
Brad Pitt and his girlfriend Ines de Ramon's relationship is 'stronger than ever'.

However, even though the pair will soon mark their first dating anniversary, the 59-year-old actor has not yet introduced the jewelry designer, 30, to his children.

The couple were first romantically linked a year ago in November and since then, they have grown very close and 'spend almost all their free time together', a source revealed to Us Weekly on Monday.

Furthermore, the insider claimed de Ramon  who was spotted showing off her sentiment for the Fight Club star and wearing a 'B' necklace just months earlier  has notably 'become very close' with Pitt's 'inner circle of friends'.

Despite it all, Pitt 'isn't in a rush' to introduce his girlfriend to his six kids  all of whom he shares with his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie, 48.

Getting serious: Brad Pitt and his girlfriend Ines de Ramon's relationship is 'stronger than ever'. However, even though the pair will soon mark their first dating anniversary, the 59-year-old actor has not yet introduced the jewelry designer, 30, to his children.

The former couple  who split in 2016  are parents to Maddox, 22, Pax, 19, Zahara, 18, Shiloh, 17, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 15.

Pitt remains very protective of their many children.

While 'things between them are going great', the insider claimed Pitt isn't ready yet to fully bring de Ramon into his family.

'It's not that he doesn't love Ines, it's just that he wants to ensure this relationship Is going the distance before he takes the major step,' the source added.

The insider also noted that he had not introduced any of the women he previously dated over the years to his kids.

Pitt 'isn't in a rush to push things unless it unfolds organically', the source continued.

The Babylon star was first romantically linked to de Ramon in November 2022 after they were spotted enjoying a Bono concert together in Los Angeles together, as seen in exclusive photos obtained by DailyMail.com.

The pair were seen getting cozy during the show as Pitt also introduced his new squeeze to his married best friends, Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber.

The mother of his children: Pitt 'isn't in a rush' to introduce his girlfriend to his six kids  all of whom he shares with his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie , 48; seen in 2012

His ex-wife and kids: The former couple  who split in 2016  are parents to Maddox, 22, Pax (not seen), 19, Zahara, 18, Shiloh, 17, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 15; seen in 2021

Bitter divorce and legal battles: Pitt's girlfriend was supportive of him as he embarked on a bitter legal battle with Jolie over their French winery, Chateau Miraval. The drama began in February 2022 after he accused the Girl, Interrupted alumna of illegally selling her shares to the winery. Their legal feud is still ongoing

Bonded over divorce: The Oscar winner and the brunette beauty had reportedly bonded over their respective public divorces. de Ramon had split from Paul Wesley, 41, after three years of marriage in September 2022 and filed for divorce five months after their estrangement

The following month, Us Weekly reported that Pitt and de Ramon were 'officially dating' and 'having a great time in the early stages' of their romance.

The Oscar winner and the brunette beauty had reportedly bonded over their respective public divorces.

de Ramon had split from The Vampire Diaries star, 41, after three years of marriage in September 2022 and filed for divorce five months after their estrangement.

'Brad has been really supportive of Ines while she's going through her divorce, because he understands how it can be,' a source told Us Weekly in February.

She was supportive of Pitt as he embarked on a bitter legal battle with Jolie over their French winery, Chateau Miraval.

The drama began in February 2022 after he accused the Girl, Interrupted alumna of illegally selling her shares to the winery. Their legal feud is still ongoing.

'It's widely known that Brad is dealing with a lot of legal drama but Ines' feelings for him haven't wavered whatsoever,' an insider confirmed to Us Weekly in July.

'If anything, it's only made their connection stronger in a lot of ways because they're very open and honest when it comes to communication about their lives, whether it be the good or bad times'.
Loreen looked every inch the superstar as she covered Vogue Scandinavia's October/November issue.

The Eurovision icon flaunted her incredible figure in a skimpy, glittery bralet and matching skirt as she posed on the pebbled coast of Gotland - an island in Sweden.

Chatting candidly to the publication she revealed how spirituality guides her life and was even responsible for her historic victories at the annual singing contest.

Representing Sweden, she has won the Eurovision Song Contest twice  in 2012 and 2023  with the songs Euphoria and Tattoo. She made history as the first woman to win the competition twice.

And Loreen has now told how she brought two healers along to the competition to sit in the audience to 'enhance' the positive vibes and cleanse the auditorium of anything negative.

Incredible: Loreen looked every inch the superstar as she covered Vogue Scandinavia's October/November issue

Work it: The Eurovision icon flaunted her incredible figure in a skimpy, glittery bralet and matching skirt as she posed on the pebbled coast of Gotland - an island in Sweden

She shared how she and her healers would meditate simultaneously, in separate rooms, before every performance of her winning song Tattoo.

Loreen told Vogue: 'It was one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had in my entire life because of the collective connection.'

For the cover shot she looked incredible in the busty bralet which featured tie detailing around her midriff and a built featuring pretty pearls and beads.

She also sported a dramatic pearl manicure and wore her dark tresses in beachy waves while opting for a natural makeup look.

Another shot saw her posing on the rocky beach in a brown suede dress as her long tresses blew in the wind behind her.

For a different striking image she was submerged in the sea in a floaty black dress as she fixed the camera with a sultry stare.

In May Loreen won Eurovision 2023 with a staggering 583 points, followed closely by Finland.

Ukraine meanwhile scored an impressive 243 points after rocketing up the leaderboard thanks to the public vote.

Opening up: Chatting candidly to the publication she revealed how spirituality guides her life and was even responsible for her historic victories at the annual singing contest

Important: And Loreen has now told how she brought two healers along to the competition to sit in the audience to 'enhance' the positive vibes and cleanse the auditorium of anything negative

Amazing: Representing Sweden, she has won the Eurovision Song Contest twice  in 2012 and 2023  with the songs Euphoria and Tattoo

Liverpool hosted the competition on behalf of war-torn Ukraine, which won the contest last year, and fans around the UK proudly showed their support for both countries.

Eurovision fans went wild for hosts Graham Norton, Hannah Waddingham, Alesha Dixon and Ukrainian rock star Julia Sanina.

Following the individual country jury votes, Sweden were on top with 277 points, and they topped the leaderboard again when the public vote came through.

At the time Eurovision fans accused the song contest of rigging the result to allow Sweden to win.

Viewers claim that organisers orchestrated Loreen's victory so that Sweden would host next year coinciding with the 50th anniversary of ABBA's win.

Each of the 26 acts fought to get their hands on the coveted glass microphone trophy, but it was Sweden who stormed to victory, with their act Loreen making history as the first woman to win the competition twice.

But not all were in agreement that Sweden deserved first place and speculated that the competition had been fixed.

One person said: 'Look I'm not saying it's rigged but... Sweden winning the year before the anniversary of ABBA's win seems entirely too convenient to me'.

A second tweeted: 'No way they rigged the entire thing so Sweden can host it on the 50 year anniv of ABBA's win bro. I'm SALTY'.

A third echoed: 'this whole ABBA anniversary and Sweden winning seems a bit too coincidental to me idk'.

A fourth agreed, writing: 'I'm not a conspiracy theorist but the idea that this was rigged so Sweden can host on the fiftieth anniversary of the Abba win makes lots of sense right now.'

While a fifth added: 'I'm loving the instant conspiracy theory that #EUROVISION2023 was rigged so that next year could be in Sweden for the 50th Anniversary of ABBA & Waterloo.'

And a sixth penned: 'they wanted sweden to win so ABBA perform their 50th eurovision anniversary in sweden next year'.

Performance: In May Loreen won Eurovision 2023 with a staggering 583 points, followed closely by Finland

Change: Liverpool hosted the competition on behalf of war-torn Ukraine, which won the contest last year, and fans around the UK proudly showed their support for both countries

Swedish group ABBA entered into the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo and Bjorn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid were catapulted into stardom after winning.

2024 marks exactly 50 years since their decisive victory, with many expecting the group to perform at next year's contest.

Sweden was hit by more fix accusations after fans also spotted that Loreen's microphone had been left on.

One fan said: 'Did they already give Loreen the head mic for her performance? Or is this just for the interview, do they normally double-mic people?'
Joshua Jackson looked somber as he stepped out with his toddler daughter on Monday - as it emerged his wife Jodie Turner-Smith had filed for divorce.

British actress Jodie, 37 - who shares three-year-old Juno Rose Diana with Canadian star Josh, 45, - cited 'irreconcilable differences' when she made the filing, with their date of separation listed as September 13.

The Dawson's Creek star - who DailyMail.com exclusively revealed had been left 'heartbroken' by the split, was seen without his wedding ring as he cradled the couple's only child before heading to a car - marking the first time he had been seen amid the separation.

The actor wore a patterned blue shirt, white trousers and sneakers as he chatted with his daughter and took a quick phone call.

He was seen doting on Juno - who wore a ballerina outfit - as he carried both her and a car seat before heading off.

Tough time: Joshua Jackson looked somber as he stepped out with his toddler daughter on Monday - as it emerged his wife Jodie Turner-Smith had filed for divorce

It's over: Power couple Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson shocked fans on Monday when it was revealed they are set to divorce after four years of marriage (pictured 2022)

Gone: The Dawson's Creek star - who DailyMail.com exclusively revealed had been left 'heartbroken' by the split, was seen without his wedding ring

This comes after sources exclusively revealed to DailyMail.com that the Dawson's Creek alum 'isn't thrilled' about the termination of his marriage - while insisting that there was no foul play involved and that their union had simply 'run its course'.

The couple noted their date of separation as September 13, according to TMZ. However it wasn't until this week that Jodie filed for divorce, citing 'irreconcilable differences'.

'Joshua is heartbroken over the impending divorce, he always thought that he would be married and grow old with his family, and everything would be happily ever after,' the insider said.

'He had the dream scenario in his mind, and Jodie was his person and the person he thought he would be with forever.'

The source added that Joshua's primary concern is his young child as the Canadian actor now looks ahead to a life of co-parenting.

'He never wanted this for their daughter,' the insider continued. 'They both are great parents and will continue to be, he just hates that they won't be together as a couple for their daughter anymore. They will always be connected through her.'

The insider claimed that Joshua would love nothing more than to reunite with his estranged wife, adding: 'He would have loved nothing more than to still be with Jodie and in a perfect world would probably even take her back if she were to stop the divorce, but now that they have got to this place, he is going to have to accept it.'

The source also insisted that there had been no bad behavior on either side, saying that the relationship had simply reached a natural end.

Juno: The actor wore a patterned blue shirt, white trousers and sneakers as he chatted with his daughter

Public sighting: The star was seen for the first time since his wife's divorce filing emerged

Doting dad: The star carried a child's car seat as he headed out

Sighting: The actor was spending quality time with the former couple's daughter

Stepping out: The Dawson's Creek alum carried the car seat down the road

'Nothing horrible happened between the two like infidelity, the relationship just went its course, and it is just a sad time,' the said.

'Joshua isn't thrilled about it, but as we all know, life doesn't always work out the way you'd like it to work out.'

The pair had looked loved-up on September 12 as they attended their final public event together at New York Fashion Week - just one day before they officially separated.

Celebrity divorce lawyer Laura Wasser is representing Jodie, with the actress asking for joint custody of their daughter.

She does not want spousal support for either her or Joshua, with the pair not having a prenup in place.

In September 2022 the pair sparked split rumors after they unfollowed each other on social media - after previously sharing multiple loved-up posts.

They then refollowed each other with Joshua brushing off split speculation as he gushed about his wife in a chat with E! News.

'She is undeniably one of the most beautiful women on the planet,' he said. 'And she always smashes it when shes on the red carpet. That is truly a wonder to behold.

Sighting: The star looked pensive as he stepped out amid his divorce drama

Outing: The actor cut a casual figure as he took a phone call

Call: The actor took a phone call as he stepped out with his daughter

Off he goes: The actor loaded a car seat into his vehicle before heading off

Dad duties: The star loaded clothes and a water bottle into his car

'But I will tell you, that there is nothing like waking up in the morning, opening my eyes and seeing her face in the morning.'

Jodie and Joshua tied the knot in 2019, after meeting through mutual friends in 2018 and initially insisting that their romance was just 'casual'.

The actress had even previously revealed their romance started as a one-night stand that just didn't end.

In 2021 Jodie made an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers and joked about how despite getting off to a quick start, their relationship was still going strong.

'When I first met my husband, we had a one-night stand,' she told the host. 'We're in a two, three-year one-night stand now.'

She went on to tell Seth the story of how they met at a party and both felt an instant connection.

'First of all, I saw him before he saw me and when I saw him, I was like, "I want that,"' she said. 'And then when he saw me, I just pretended like I didn't see him.'

While she seemed unimpressed with Joshua's opening line, she explained how he came over and did his 'cute and charming thing'.

'All night he followed me around the party,' The Last Ship actress added. 'He felt the energy. He felt it.'

The pair began dating in October 2018 and tied the knot in December 2019 after the actress proposed during a New Year's Eve holiday in Nicaragua, with Joshua 'instinctively' saying yes.

The pair looked loved-up at NYFW on September 12 - one day before their separation date as listed in the divorce filing, according to TMZ

Case of the ex: Prior to his relationship with Jodie, Joshua was in a decade-long romance with Diane Kruger, 47, which ended in 2016 (pictured in 2015)

Jodie was a banker before meeting Pharrell Williams who convinced her to become a model and move to Los Angeles. She made her acting debut in 2013 when she played a siren in the HBO series True Blood.

The British star rose to prominence after starring in the 2019 film, Queen & Slim.

Joshua has been acting since 1991 and starred as Pacey Witter in the hit teen show, Dawson's Creek, from 1998 to 2003.
The View's Whoopi Goldberg clashed with her co-hosts yet again during Tuesday's show - when she sparked uproar on the panel by admitting that she thinks it's acceptable to 'yell at your kids from time to time'.

The 67-year-old actor urged Sara Haines not to feel guilty for 'screaming' at her children and argued that sometimes you need to get 'a little bit louder' when disciplining your offspring.

However, the Sister Act star was left stunned when the show's executive producer Brian Teta took her advice on board and shouted at her live on air mid-discussion and ordered her to take a break.

As Whoopi consoled mother-of-three Sara about parenting tactics, Brian's loud voice interrupted her and she quickly turned around to try and figure out where the noise was coming from.

'Go to a commercial! Do it now!' Brian yelled from behind the camera, and once Whoopi realized it was him, she relaxed and said sarcastically: 'I'm sorry, did you say something?'

The View's Whoopi Goldberg clashed with her co-hosts during Tuesday's show

Whoopi told Sara Haines (right) not to feel guilty for screaming at her three young children

Sunny Hostin spoke up and claimed it's 'damaging' to yell and scream at children

The Hot Topic began when Whoopi mentioned a new study published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect which claimed that shouting at, denigrating or verbally threatening children can be as damaging to their development as sexual or physical abuse.

Whoopi insisted that it was a 'common move for parents to raise their voice when their kids act up', and referring to the study, she argued that verbal discipline shouldn't be grouped in with physical and sexual abuse.

'I'm sorry, you have to yell at your kids from time to time... you do,' she told the panel, which consisted of Sara, Sunny Hostin, Joy Behar, and Alyssa Farah Griffin.

'Sometimes they just don't get it so you have to get a little bit louder. Now that's not to say you're saying, "you dumb, ugly punk!" That's not what we're doing,' Whoopi added.

She then passed the conversation over to Joy, 80, and revealed: 'I know Joy, you really think it's horrible when parents hit their children?'

'Yeah, I don't believe in that. Don't hit the kid,' Joy replied, and claimed: 'You can say the nicest thing and yell and you can see the meanest thing and say it whispering, so it's not the volume that counts, it's what you're saying.

'But I believe that children are very vulnerable. To put sexual abuse in that category is a horrible idea. An innocent child... you are taking their childhood from them and they will suffer for the rest of their lives, it's not the same as yelling, sorry.'

Mother-of-two Sunny then piped up and said: 'I think as parents, we do the best we can but we tend to model the behavior we experience as children.

Host Joy Behar revealed that she doesn't agree with parents hitting their children

Whoopi argued that sometimes you need to get 'a little bit louder' when disciplining kids

The View's executive producer Brian Teta left Whoopi stunned when he shouted at her live on air

'My parents never hit me and never yelled at me,' she continued as Sara butted in and admitted: 'Oh, my mom was a screamer!'

Sunny then added: 'My husband's mother was a yeller, and he's a yeller. I've had to teach him not to do that,' as Sara interrupted her again and offered: 'You can come to our house because I also scream and I feel very guilty when it happens...'

Joy then jokingly begged Sara to show them how she does it as Sunny was heard saying off camera: 'I think it's damaging.'

Ignoring Sunny's comment, Sara said: 'No, but when you're screaming at them, you recognize you're not modeling what you'd like because you're teaching a child to regulate their emotions while not regulating your own.'

Defending Sara, Whoopi said loudly: 'Nah ah! You're teaching the child, "don't touch the oven because I said so!"'

Sara replied: 'Yeah when there's danger involved, but sometimes I'm yelling about menial things and I feel so guilty,' as Whoopi reassured her: 'Don't feel guilty!'

Alyssa, 34, then attempted to say something and claimed: 'Under discipline is a thing...' but she was interrupted by Brian shouting at Whoopi to go to a commercial break.

Viewers tuning in at home thought it was hilarious and took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their thoughts.

Sara couldn't stop laughing when Brian yelled at Whoopi to go to a commercial break

TV host Sara pictured with her three young children: Sandra, Caleb and Alec

How long has Bryan been waiting to yell at Whoopi? Chile Whoopi was like #TheView (sic),' one person posted.

'Lo Brian yelling! #TheView,' another said, while a third fan simply commented: 'Haha.. Whoopi #TheView.'

Someone else suggested: 'Damn, what can parents do? Yall want perfection from parents #TheView I def dont believe Sunny dont yell at her kids. Lol.'
Patrick Stewart made quite a scene behind the scenes of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' during its first season in 1987.

The legendary British actor, 83, revealed why he clashed with his cast mates and 'stormed off' the set of the beloved sci-fi series in his new autobiography, Making It So: A Memoir.

The drama erupted after Stewart, who played the lead of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, felt costars such as Jonathan Frakes, Denise Crosby and Brent Spiner weren't taking their job seriously enough, according to excerpts of the tome obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.

As Stewart explained, his previous work on the stages of London theater didn't allow room for 'goofing off,' thus any initial antics on Star Trek would upset him.

'I could be a severe b******,' he wrote. 'My experiences at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre had been intense and serious.

Causing a stir: Patrick Stewart made quite a scene behind the scenes of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' during its first season in 1987

Storming off: The British actor, 83, revealed why he clashed with his castmates and 'stormed off' the set of the beloved sci-fi series in his new autobiography, Making It So: A Memoir

'On the set, I grew angry with the conduct of my peers, and thats when I called that meeting in which I lectured the cast for goofing off and responded to Denise Crosbys, Weve got to have some fun sometimes, Patrick comment by saying, We are not here, Denise, to have fun.'

'In retrospect, everyone, me included, finds this story hilarious,' he continued.

'But in the moment, when the cast erupted in hysterics at my pompous declaration, I didnt handle it well.

'I didnt enjoy being laughed at. I stormed off the set and into my trailer, slamming the door.'

Stewart said Frakes and Spiner followed him to his trailer to gently let the thespian know he might have been 'misjudging the situation.'

Drama school: The drama erupted after Stewart felt costars such as Jonathan Frakes, Denise Crosby and Brent Spiner weren't taking their job seriously enough

Why so serious: As Stewart explained, his previous work on the stages of London theater didn't allow room for 'goofing off,' thus any off-screen antics on Star Trek would upset him

He and Jonathan acknowledged that yes, there was too much goofing around and that it needed to be dialed back.

'But they also made it clear how off-putting it was  and not a case study in good leadership  for me to try to resolve the matter by lecturing and scolding the cast.

'I had failed to read the room, imposing RSC behavior on people accustomed to the ways of episodic television  which was, after all, what we were shooting.'

Stewart played Picard, captain of the USS Enterprise, for all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which originally aired from 1987 to 1994.

At the time, Stewart shared the screen with young Hollywood actor Wil Wheaton, whose 'adolescent self-assurance' caused Stewart to be 'put off,' much like the cast's goofing off, according to excerpts from the memoir.

Setting it straight: 'On the set, I grew angry with the conduct of my peers, and thats when I called that meeting in which I lectured the cast for goofing off.'

Ego trip: Stewart shared the screen with actor Wil Wheaton (left), whose 'adolescent self-assurance' caused Stewart to be 'put off,' according to excerpts from the memoir

'I felt that the teen-on-the-Enterprise concept was a little gimmicky, but I was also put off by Wils adolescent self-assurance,' he admitted.

'To me, he initially came off as cocky. But as I examined my feelings, I realized that they were not really about Wil or some notion that he should know his place as a juvenile actor  they reflected my own vulnerability.

'In those first weeks, I wished I had Wils confidence.'

Of course, Stewart had a bit of time to sit with his feelings and take a new approach to filming the role, as almost three decades later, he starred in Paramount +'s Star Trek: Picard, which ran from 2020 to 2023.
Reese Witherspoon's daughter, Ava Phillippe, opened up about her mental health on Saturday.

The 24-year-old social media personality took to Instagram to host a Q&A, during which she spoke about her mental health and detailed her 'intense' struggle with anxiety.

Ava, who is the daughter of the Legally Blonde actress, 47, and Cruel Intentions star Ryan Phillippe, 49, revealed she has had anxiety for 'as long as I can remember' and shared some tips for coping with her one million followers.

'I've dealt with anxiety for as long as I can remember, and it was especially intense for me as a kid and teenager,' she said.

When a fan asked how she personally deals with it, she shared some tips but also noted that 'there is no one solution that works for everyone'.

Opening up: Reese Witherspoon 's daughter, Ava Phillippe, opened up about her mental health on Saturday

For her first tip, she said: 'Don't invalidate your feelings.

'You have every right to feel however you do, even if it seems weird to others,' she continued. 'And being hard on yourself won't help you feel better or find a solution.'

She said when she finds herself struggling with anxiety, she will take deep breaths and focus on her surroundings.

It also helps to engage with her five senses and remind herself that the stressful moments are temporary.

'Note 1-3 things you can smell, touch, hear etc... in the moment and remember: this feeling will pass, even if you have to ride it out for awhile,' she added.

During the Q&A, Ava also confessed that she picks at her skin when she is anxious but she has been working on breaking that bad habit.

'It's just so tempting for some reason, but I think I've been better about not doing that as I've gotten older,' she said.

Ava also opened up to her followers about her college experience and studying social welfare at UC Berkeley.

Answering questions: The 24-year-old social media personality took to Instagram to host a Q&A, during which she spoke about her mental health and detailed her 'intense' struggle with anxiety

Candid chat: Ava, who is the daughter of the Legally Blonde actress, 47, and Cruel Intentions star Ryan Phillippe, 49, revealed she has had anxiety for 'as long as I can remember' and shared some tips for coping with her one million followers

Advising: When a fan asked how she personally deals with it, she shared some tips but also noted that 'there is no one solution that works for everyone'

'Loved this major and got to take so many fascinating classes on various social/political movements, systemic inequities, psychology & the practice of social work,' she explained.

'Even though I didn't end up becoming a social worker, I still think what I learned in this major informs a lot of how I move through the world and my perspective on some major issues,' she said.

Ava graduated from college last year and has been pursuing a career in modeling.

Over the years, she has landed campaigns with brands like Pat McGrath, Beyonce's Ivy Park and her mother's line, Draper James.

She is the oldest out of her mother's three kids. Reese is also the mother of two sons from separate relationships  Deacon Phillippe, 19, and Tennessee James Toth, 11.
Bethenny Frankel has some harsh words for one new generation star of The Real Housewives of New York City.

On Sunday's episode of Watch What Happens Live, Jessel Taank, 43, called Bethenny the 'most overrated' housewife and the Skinny Girl mogul - who has called the environment at Bravo 'toxic' - clapped back.

'If you have someone who's on the New York 'Housewives' now in a post-successful era, they're gonna wanna squeeze that sponge for any of amount of liquid they can squeeze it for,' she said on her ReWives podcast Tuesday.

'And you can never blame them. You cannot blame the talent because they need the relevance, the fame  it's why they went on the show,' Frankel added.

'I think Bethenny Frankel is going off the rails,' the fashion publicist told Andy Cohen on September 27.

Shade: Bethenny Frankel has slammed RHONY star Jessel Taank for calling her 'overrated'

Frankel also claimed that the question that led Taank to calling her the 'most overrated' was planted by the show's host.

'The way it works on Watch What Happens Live is in the dressing room, Andy comes in and talks about what he wants to talk about,' she said.

But a spokesperson for Bravo denied that any pre-interviews take place and told Page Six that Cohen merely greets his guests before the show.

'WWHL does not conduct pre-interviews. Naturally, Andy stops by the green rooms to greet his guests before the show, but he does not discuss specific questions or topics in advance, unless the guest initiates a topic that is personally sensitive to them.

'And certainly Andy nor any WWHL producer is feeding answers to questions,' they said.

Frankel has been critical of Cohen and Bravo of late, saying that the network promotes a 'toxic environment

She recently vowed to fully expose the 'systemic rot' behind the scenes of the hit programs.

And that stance hasn't earned her any friends at the network as they doubled down on their support of Jessel after Frankel's statement.

She continued to rant about RHONY on her podcast, saying the show 'doesn't do well' anymore and only gets a 'couple hundred thousand' viewers each week.

However the X/Twitter account @RatingsBravo, reported that the September 27 episode of RHONY attracted over half a million viewers.

'[The show] really needs the press,' Frankel continued. 'A woman on that show who's not relevant yet  well, who's new, so by definition you're not that relevant, and you're on a show that has arced and is on the back end.'

New generation housewife: 'If you have someone who's on the New York 'Housewives' now in a post-successful era, they're gonna wanna squeeze that sponge for any of amount of liquid they can squeeze it for,' Bethenny said of Taank (pictured) on her ReWives podcast Tuesday

New Yorker: 'And you can never blame them. You cannot blame the talent because they need the relevance, the fame  it's why they went on the show,' she added

But someone on the production team for the reality TV program said that isn't true

However, a production source tells us that they believe the opposite is true, and Taank has actually 'become a breakout.'

'Jessel, in particular, has recently been on the cover of Vogue India, done interviews with Variety and CNN, has been a guest on Access Hollywood and Crooked Media's Keep It! podcast, among several others.

'She also just wrapped Page Six's very own Virtual Reali-Tea' podcast,' they pointed out.
She never puts a foot wrong when it comes to fashion.

And Gigi Hadid looked effortlessly chic as she headed to the Miu Miu afterparty during Paris Fashion Week at Costes restaurant on Tuesday night.

The model, 28, put on a leggy display in a black lace mini dress which she teamed with a leather jacket from WORN Vintage.

She completed her look with dark shades, simple pearl earrings from Mejuri and pointy black heels.

Gigi toted a boxy leather bag and opted for flawless natural makeup while sweeping her blonde tresses into an up do.

Stunning: Gigi Hadid looked effortlessly chic as she headed to the Miu Miu afterparty during Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday night

Chic: The model, 28, put on a leggy display in a black lace mini dress which she teamed with a leather jacket as she headed to Costes restaurant after the bash

Earlier in the day she donned one of her quirkiest looks yet as she hit the runway for the Miu Miu show on the final day of fashion week.

The beauty went braless in an open black sequinned blazer and a matching skirt while showcasing the designer's Spring/Summer 2024 collection, after walking in the Chanel show hours earlier.

Gigi's eye-catching ensemble included flat strapped sandals, dishevelled hair and androgynous glasses as she made her way down the runway.

Her daring look showed off plenty of side boob, and flashed a glimpse of her toned abs as she strutted down the runway.

The Miu Miu show saw a slew of big names in attendance, including Sydney Sweeney, Adriana Lima and Paris Hilton.

It came after Gigi faced a run-in with Leonardo DiCaprio's current girlfriend Vittoria Ceretti, after being first linked to the actor, almost a year ago.

Elsewhere, Sydney showed off her jaw-dropping figure while posing for snaps at the Miu Miu show.

The actress, 26, flashed her white pants underneath black shorts, teamed with a matching tweed cropped blazer.

Ensemble: She completed her look with dark shades, simple pearl earrings and pointy black heels

Models: Adriana Lima was also seen arriving for the Miu Miu afterparty as fashion week comes to a close

Smart: She wore a sleek light grey suit and nude top as she made her way inside the venue in Paris

Leggy: Paris Hilton also arrived for the afterparty wearing a short black dress and platform heels

Girly night out: She was joined by her stylish sister Nicky who wore a very similar black dress and belt

All smiles: They gave a friendly wave as they strutted their stuff into the venue

Pins: Neelam Gill arriving at the Miu Miu after party in Paris

Style: Neelam wore sheer red tights and a bright leather jacket for the star-studded party in Paris

Flawless: She wore a natural covering of makeup to accentuate her pretty features

Peace: She later left the bash as fans took snaps of her

Home time: She has had a busy few days in Paris

End of the night: She left and flashed a peace sign for snaps

Pose: She looked great in the black dress

Stuns: She wowed in sultry snaps

Together: Rami Malek and Emma Corrin step out after the Miu Miu after-party at the Laurent restaurant in Paris

Posing up a storm: She worked her best angles

Chilled: She lounged on the sofa

Star-studded: Lucille Hancock, Sydney Sweeney, Emma Corrin and Rami Malek

Sisters: Paris and Nicky posed together

Dapper: Rami wore a dark grey suit

Chic: Emma wore a short grey dress

Look: She wore long grey sock and chunky black shoes with the dress

Paris Hilton and her sister Nicky Rothschild showed off their uncanny resemblance as they attended the runway show.

The lookalike pair were all glammed up for the show as they cut a stylish figure for the event and each showcased their slender pins.

Paris, 42, is three years older than her sister, 39, and the pair looked to be in great spirits as they sat front row at the fashion show.

The star put on a very leggy display in a black mini dress with a gold belt which cinched in her waist.

She boosted her height in black patent platform heels, while her golden locks were held back with a headband.

Elsewhere, Adriana Lima looked the epitome of chic in a plunging beige blazer and matching trousers, teamed with blue strappy heels.

Nicky looked typically stylish in a grey tweed skirt, teamed with a cream knitted jumper and a blue shirt.

Paris Fashion Week kicked off on Monday and runs to October 3, with 107 brands presenting, of which 67 are giving runway shows.

One of the first big names was Pierre Cardin, which has returned to the official Paris lineup this year for the first time in a quarter-century.

Legs: Her enviable pins were on display

Looking good: Adriana toted a silver Miu Miu bag

Quirky: Camille Rowe attends the Miu Miu Dinner Party at Laurent

Thigh-skimming dress: Amelia Gray arriving at Miu Miu after party in Paris

Looking good: She wore nude ballet pumps with her short black dress

Outfit: Ever Anderson arriving at Miu Miu after party in Paris

Beaming: She wore a short grey knitted dress

Bright: Troye Sivan wore a blue jumper and smart trousers

Style: Manon Bresch attends the Miu Miu Dinner Party at Laurent

Flawless: Sydney wore a black sequin dress

Looking good: Mia Goth attends the Miu Miu Dinner Party at Laurent

Its show was full of retro space-age outfits that harked back to its glory days, but the relatives of Cardin, who died in 2020, are currently tearing each other apart in court over the inheritance.

'My uncle gave me the mission to perpetuate the house and its style,' Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin, who is currently overseeing the label, said backstage.

'If the brand is sold, it will be the end of the house. I am confident the court decisions will ensure continuity,' he added.

Among the other highlights so far was the latest collection from Dior on Tuesday, which saw the walls of the show plastered with mock sexist slogans from old adverts, such as 'Save your marriage - iron properly'.
Madonna dropped a slew of sexy shots ahead of her highly-anticipated Celebration tour.

The Queen Of Pop, 65, rocked sizzling lace looks, rehearsed on stage, and shared adoring comments from fans in her latest Instagram post on Tuesday.

Madonna displayed her incredibly youthful complexion as she served fierce looks for the camera in a slew of selfies.

She worked braided pigtails, a plunging top that displayed a hint of cleavage, a bold face of makeup that highlighted her piercing blue-green eyes.

In one edgy close-up, her tongue was visible as she parted her lipstick-enhanced pout.

Getting into the Groove! Madonna unloaded a slew of sexy shots ahead of her highly-anticipated Celebration tour

In another, she rested a gloved hand on the back of her luxurious ringlets. 'Now Loading. #madonnacelebrationtour,' she captioned the post.

Madonna also gave fans a glimpse of her rehearsal process with shots of her posing on stage.

She wore edgy, alien-like sunglasses, a hoodie, and billowing black trousers. As she sat on stage with one hand extended, she appeared to be flipping the bird.

The post also included numerous gushing messages from fans looking forward to seeing their idol back on stage.

'I just know this tour will be the most special mind blowing one out of all of them and that is insane cause they're all iconic,' one commented.

'OMG. Yes. Having seen every tour since 1990 I am more than ready for this. Time to make people stand up and pay attention to the original groundbreaker. There is no other. @madonna (red heart emoji),' another posted.

'Queen Mother Madonna, we are ready to worship at your altar,' another wrote.

Madonna is preparing to go on her first tour in three years following a health scare this summer that put her in the hospital.

Curl power! She displayed her youthful complexion in a series of fierce selfies

Selfie star: The Queen Of Pop put her incredibly stunning complexion on show

Behind-the-scenes: The post also captured some of her rehearsal process

Sending a message: Madonna appeared to be flipping the bird as she sat on stage

Tongue tied! The Material Girl songstress parted her lipstick-accentuated pout for the camera

Earlier last month, People claimed that the mother of six was very excited to hit the road to perform her new songs.

'She returned to rehearsals last Monday. She's so happy to be back onstage and is feeling strong,' a source shared.

'She's working closely with her longtime collaborators, Jamie King and Stuart Price, to put the final touches on the show,' says the source, adding that the run of shows is the icon's 'most ambitious tour ever.'

In August Madonna looked happier than ever during her birthday party in Lisbon.

She wore a floral print dress and a daring silver frock as she sang with daughter Lourdes.

The fans love her! She shared comments from adoring fans ready to watch her perform

Ask and you shall receive! She shared a snap of her asking fans what songs they wanted to hear

Her family is made up of Lourdes Leon, 26, Rocco Ritchie, 23, David Banda, 18, Mercy James, 17, and 11-year-old twins Stella and Estere.

'It's great to be Alive ... and Amazing to Be able to put on my dancing shoes and Celebrate my Birthday!' she wrote on Instagram. 'I'm So Grateful. Thank you Lisbon and to all who made it possible!' said Madge.

The source told People of her celebrations: 'She enjoyed her birthday in Lisbon with all her kids and close friends. Now she's back in work mode and focused on the tour.'

'This is where she thrives. She loves being back in a creative environment.'

Madonna will kick off her tour in London, followed by stops in Copenhagen, Barcelona, Paris, Milan and more.

Madonna first announced the Celebration Tour in January.

'I am excited to explore as many songs as possible in hopes to give my fans the show they have been waiting for,' she said in a press release at the time.
Disney Channel alum Christy Carlson Romano has revealed her mother nudged her to get a boob job when she was a teenager.

Christy was, at that point, struggling with her body image after feeling 'flat-chested' next to Hilary Duff in the 2002 TV movie Cadet Kelly when she was aged 17.

Her mother Sharon saw some 'footage or some s***' and said: 'Christy, you know, if you want to get breast implants, I just wanna let you know thats an option.'

Recounting the story on her podcast Vulnerable, Christy noted: 'I love my mom, like, she's from a whole different generation and she was stage mom-ing that moment.'

Cadet Kelly aired less than two weeks before Christy's 18th birthday - and once she was of age, she did indeed undergo the procedure.

Looking back: Disney Channel alum Christy Carlson Romano has revealed her mother nudged her to get a boob job when she was a teenager; pictured last year

Throwback to 2002: Christy (left) was, at that point, struggling with her body image after feeling 'flat-chested' next to Hilary Duff in the TV movie Cadet Kelly

'Stage mom-ing it': Her mother Sharon said: 'Christy, you know, if you want to get breast implants, I just wanna let you know thats an option'; pictured 2017

The Disney Channel movie was a fish-out-of-water comedy starring Hilary as Kelly Collins, an art school student who winds up in military school.

As she struggles to adjust to her new regimented lifestyle, she clashes with her stern superior - Christy's character Cadet Captain Jennifer Stone.

Matters are complicated by the fact that both Jennifer and Kelly have a crush on the same boy - Cadet Major Brad Rigby, played by Shawn Ashmore.

On the new episode of her podcast, Christy enjoyed a reunion with her Cadet Kelly co-star Andrea Lewis, and in the course of their chat the boob job came up.

Christy recalled having a 'tight, very like rigid uniform on for Jennifer Stone. And I remember seeing  and a lot of times it comes up in like memes and stuff  where Im like standing face-to-face with her and Im completely like flat-chested.'

She pointed out: 'And so at the time, obviously, I was like coming of age - and I was coming of age in Hollywood, more importantly.'

Sharon and Christy 'looked like, you know, the footage or some s***, I dont even remember what it was. And she was like: "Christy, you know, if you wanna get breast implants, I just wanna let you know thats an option."'

Christy first rose to child stardom on the Disney Channel sitcom Even Stevens, the show that also made a celebrity out of Shia LaBeouf.

After: Cadet Kelly aired less than two weeks before Christy's 18th birthday - and once she was of age, she did indeed undergo the procedure; she is pictured aged 20 in 2004

The way they were: Christy first rose to child stardom on the Disney Channel sitcom Even Stevens, the show that also made a celebrity out of Shia LaBeouf

After the series ended in 2003, Christy spent years of her early adulthood battling personal problems including depression and alcoholism.

'Then I began to flirt with other methods of self-destruction,' she wrote in a Teen Vogue essay years later. 'I tried to scratch my skin with my fingernail because I was too scared to use a knife. I chickened out and honestly felt like I had failed some important race to win the trophy for "most tragic, beautiful girl."'

Her experiences ultimately resulted in her learning the lesson that 'being famous should come second to creating a life that you personally feel fulfilled with.'

Christy ultimately went to Barnard College to obtain a degree in film studies - and while there, she met a man called Brendan Rooney who is now her husband.

They tied the knot on New Year's Eve 2013 in Canada and have now welcomed two daughters, Isabella, six and Sophia, four.
EastEnders' Freddie Slater mirrored on of his mum's Little Mo Slater's iconic storylines during Tuesday's episode.

A violent showdown with his former tutor Theo Hawthorne the soap drew parallels to one of the 90s most harrowing moments.

During the episode, Freddie (Bobby Brazier) was left shaken after an encounter with his biological dad Graham Foster (Alex McSweeney) and soon spiralled, going on to get into an altercation in The Vic before things escalated further.

Freddie struggled to shake the fear that he could end up like his evil father, but it appears that he could in-fact be more like his mum Little Mo (Kacey Ainsworth).

A showdown between father and son began when Freddie demanded that Graham admitted he raped Little Mo.

Scenes: EastEnders' Freddie Slater mirrored on of his mum's Little Mo Slater's iconic storylines during Tuesday's episode

Throwback: A violent showdown with his former tutor Theo Hawthorne the soap drew parallels to one of the 90s most harrowing moments

Freddie was left shaken after receiving a friend request from 'Graham Foster' and straight away blocked him but after talking to Gina, decided to confront him instead.

Worried Anna went with him but as the pair argued. He ordered Freddie to leave, threatening to call the police.

Freddie was reeling after his confrontation with Graham and couldn't believe that his dad was so cold and remorseless.

Anna tried to reassure Freddie that he is nothing like his evil father, but Freddie can't shake the fear that he shares his DNA with a monster.

As the difficult day went from bad to worse, Freddie tried and failed to put things right, having a row with Stacey and a drunk altercation with a couple at the club.

Arriving home, Freddie finds that Theo has broken in and is attempting to rape Stacey, having pinned her to the floor.

As a fight breaks out Theo hits Freddie after he drags him off Stacey, with the stalker claiming Stacey had 'led him on.'

Triggered by his use of the phrase Freddie is see reaching for an iron and violently attacking Theo until he appears lifeless on the floor.

Upset: During the episode, Freddie (Bobby Brazier) was left shaken after an encounter with his biological dad Graham Foster (Alex McSweeney) and soon spiralled

Scary: Arriving home, Freddie finds that Theo has broken in and is attempting to rape Stacey, having pinned her to the floor. Freddie is see reaching for an iron and violently attacking Theo

Mirror: The horrifying scenes echoed his mum Little Mo's New Years 2001 storyline where viewers her strike her husband Trevor Morgan with an iron

The horrifying scenes echoed his mum Little Mo's New Years 2001 storyline where viewers her strike her husband Trevor Morgan with an iron.

Little Mo and Trevor's violent marriage took centre stage for some of EastEnders most harrowing domestic abuse storylines throughout the 90s.

Fans of the show will no doubt recall the catalogue of abuse Little Mo suffered at the hands of her evil husband.

Trevor raped her when she treated herself to a hat for Lynne Hobbs' (Elaine Lordan) wedding.

In one disturbing episode, Little Mo was forced to eat her Christmas dinner on the floor.

But one of their most iconic scenes saw the battered wife hit back at her husband as she bashed him over the head with an iron, which got her sent to jail.

The wife-beater went up in flames when his plan to threaten his lover about rethinking the divorce with a petrol can went wrong.

Viewers watched on as he could not be rescued from the inferno in his final hour during dramatic scenes in a 2002 episode of EastEnders.

EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
This is the moment businessman Touker Suleyman launched a furious rant at an easyJet worker after passengers faced being stranded in Turkey until the next flight in four days time.

The Dragons Den star, 70, was trying to travel back to London after spending some time in Izmir, Turkey, for a pet fair.

Suleyman got into the heated conversation with the staff member on behalf of fellow passengers in the airport yesterday.

In a clip posted on Instagram by another passenger, he can be heard saying: 'Make that decision, be a man. You either be a man or you can be a coward, what are you?'

The millionaire then said: 'Let's get them on the phone. What's their number?' Although it is unclear who Suleyman was referring to.

He then explained in the caption: 'For those of you wondering what happened above. I had been to a pet fair in Izmir, unfortunately very few planes fly direct, EasyJet is one of them.

Dragons Den star Touker Suleyman, 70, launched a furious rant against easyJet on Monday

Suleyman was seen having a heated conversation with an easyJet worker in a video he shared on Instagram, which was filmed by another passenger

'On my return, which was scheduled to be at 9pm, we were informed it would be late, supposed to arrive in Gatwick at 11pm.

'We were then informed that a crew member was not well, and that 20 passengers had to be left behind. After an hour of people getting frustrated, I stepped in.'

Suleyman claimed that easyJet offered 400 euros for their troubles but the businessman was not impressed.

He continued: 'Easy Jet was offering 400 euros as compensation, bearing in mind the next flight was 4 days' time, I went across to the easyJet employee, he looked very official, and I said that 400 euros was insufficient [for] people to be left behind, and perhaps he should increase the offer to 1,000 euros where passengers were willing to accept.

'I said if you have no authority, then call London, which he did and compensation was increased to 500 euros, by now families were on there [sic] feet approaching over 2 hours, and I demanded that all families with children should board, people who had special difficulties and more.

'EasyJet finally allowed them to board. Unfortunately easyJet informed passengers unless people volunteered to stay behind they would choose [a] compulsory 20 passengers and they would get 250 euros.

Suleyman continued: 'EasyJet are not trained or equipment to deal with these things, definitely not compassionate!

'I did my best to stand up for the passengers. The flight finally arrived around 3am in morning. EasyJet board should contact every passenger on flight from Izmir to London, and do the right thing and compensate every passenger 1000 euros for this saga. #toukertime'

He ended the rant by saying: 'Any easyJet officials got the guts to contact me, I am welcome to get into a dialogue with them. Perhaps the CEO?'

The successful businessman was trying to travel back to London after spending some time in Izmir, Turkey for a pet fair

In 2015, Touker was asked to join the investors' panel on Dragons' Den and he has been a fixture on the show ever since

An easyJet spokesperson said: 'easyJet can confirm that 18 passengers on flight EZY6594 from Izmir to London Gatwick on 30 September volunteered to travel on a later flight due to a cabin crew member feeling unfit to operate following a disruptive passenger on the previous flight.

'As a result, the flight capacity had to be reduced meaning some passengers were not able to travel.

'We asked for passengers to volunteer to transfer to a later flight free of charge and volunteers were provided with hotel accommodation as well as provided with compensation in line with regulations.

'Customers will also be quickly reimbursed for any expenses by filling out a simple form on our website.'

'The safety and welfare of our passengers and crew is always easyJets highest priority.'

Suleyman is best known for being a multi-millionaire businessman and successful fashion investor.

In 2015, he was asked to join the investors' panel on Dragons' Den and he has been a fixture on the show ever since.

The 2015 Sunday Times Rich List estimated that he has a fortune in excess of 200million. Suleyman has two children but is not married.
Ever Anderson looked just like her famous mother when she attended the Miu Miu runaway show amid Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday.

The daughter of Hollywood icons Milla Jovovich, 47, and Paul W.S. Anderson, 58, looked gorgeous in a long-sleeve garment from Miu Miu.

The Peter Pan actress, 15, donned a pair of grey ankle socks and nude ballet flats, adding an edgy touch with double black straps.

Ever repped the brand proudly as she also added a white Miu Miu bag to carry the essentials, and flaunted a flawless blue manicure.

The star - who is known for playing young Natasha Romanoff in Marvel's Black Widow, wore her wavy locks loose down.

Stunning: Ever Anderson looked just like her famous mother Milla Jovovoich when she attended the Miu Miu runaway show at Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday

Stylish: The daughter of Hollywood icons Milla and Paul W.S. Anderson was pictured posing for pictures ahead of the fashion show

Beautiful ladies: Milla and Ever pictured together in May 2022

She looked in high spirits while beaming and posing for photographs outside the fashion event.

Ever is following in her mom's footsteps as a model and actress.

She's modeled for Miu Miu campaigns and is a brand ambassador for the fashion house.

Monster Hunter sensation Milla, 47, shares Ever and her other daughters Dashiel Edan, eight, and Osian Lark Elliot, three, with her husband and renowned director Paul, 58.

Milla and Anderson met when he was her director on Resident Evil in 2002.

Their first child was born five years later on November 3, 2007. The Return to the Blue Lagoon star had a difficult delivery during Ever's birth.

'I was in labor for 72 hours. I was up for 48 hours, for two nights. I started Halloween night. By the time I went into the hospital, it was the night of November 2. I finally went into the hospital and had the epidural,' she told People in 2008.

Ever also played Wendy Darling in the 2023 Disney film Peter Pan & Wendy. When she was cast, her proud mom took to Instagram to share the news.

Stylish: The Peter Pan actress donned a pair of grey ankle socks and nude ballet flats, adding an edgy touch with double black straps

Gorgeous: The star - who is known for playing young Natasha Romanoff in Marvel's Black Widow - displayed her stunning fresh-faced looks and wore her wavy locks loose down

Radiant: She looked in high spirits outside of the fashion event

She wrote: 'We're so proud of our baby! Ever has been wanting to act since she was 5 and she's put the time, focus and energy into making her dream come true! Congratulations Ever!!'

Ever made her acting debut in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter in 2016 - which was directed by her father Paul -and she played the younger version of main character Alice, played by her mother.

Since then, she has portrayed a young Natasha Romanoff in Black Widow starring Scarlett Johansson.

Ever opened up about her role as Wendy in the new Disney+ adaptation, which also stars Jude Law as Captain Hook.

'Honestly, it was one of the best experiences of my life. It was an eight-month shoot and I loved every minute of it,' she said, adding: 'I was just so excited to play one of my childhood heroes.'

Ever also mentioned that her mother, Milla, 'has been my hero growing up because there was nothing she couldnt do or be in my eyes.'

Ever made another glamorous appearance earlier last month, as she hit the red carpet of Venice Film Festival in Italy, where she joined Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney for a Miu Miu event.
Sydney Sweeney showed off her jaw-dropping figure as she joined Emma Corrin at the Miu Miu show during Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday.

The actress, 26, flashed her white pants underneath black shorts, teamed with a matching tweed cropped blazer.

Sydney elevated her height in a pair of platform heels, while accessorising with stylish sunglasses and a small handbag.

The Euphoria star's long blonde locks were styled in loose waves as she posed for snaps while strutting into the lavish event.

Elsewhere, Adriana Lima looked the epitome of chic in a plunging beige blazer and matching trousers, teamed with blue strappy heels.

Fashion Week: Sydney Sweeney showed off her jaw-dropping figure as she joined Emma Corrin at the Miu Miu show during Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday

Racy: The actress, 26, flashed her white pants underneath black shorts, teamed with a matching tweed cropped blazer

Emma donned a floral white patterned shirt, teamed with a black blazer and brown trousers.

Paris Hilton and her sister Nicky Rothschild showed off their uncanny resemblance as they attended the runway show.

The pair both cut a smart figure as they exited their hotel together after attending the Chanel show earlier in the day.

Looking sophisticated, Paris donned a black fitted short sleeved dress which was adorned with a Mui Mui gold buckled black belt.

The model, 42, carried her essentials in a black leather matching Mui Mui bag and elevated her height with a pair of shiny black platform heels.

She held her blonde locks back with a simple black headband and completed the look with a pair of wide eyed sunglasses.

Meanwhile her sister Nicky, 39, put on a leggy display in a short pleated grey skirt and white ribbed cardigan.

The American socialite buttoned up the garment which she wore over a simple pale blue shirt.

She completed the look with pair of dainty deep red heels and matched Paris' bag choice but in the tan brown colour instead.

Nicky styled her hair in an up-do as she tucked her fringe pieces behind her ear.

Gigi Hadid donned one of her quirkiest looks yet as she hit the runway for the Miu Miu show on the final day of PFW.

Stunning: Sydney elevated her height in a pair of platform heels, while accessorising with stylish sunglasses and a small handbag

Quirky: Emma donned a floral white patterned shirt, teamed with a black blazer and brown trousers

Stylish: They accessorised with a dainty gold chain and a white handbag

Glam: Adriana Lima looked the epitome of chic in a plunging beige blazer and matching trousers

Details: The model teamed the suit with blue strappy heels

Business chic: Adriana topped her look off with a quilted white handbag

Beauty: She opted for a dewy glam makeup look and her brunette locks were scraped back in a bun

Lookalike: Paris Hilton and her sister Nicky Rothschild showed off their uncanny resemblance as they attended the runway show

Incredible: Paris, 42, put on a very leggy display in a black mini dress with a gold belt which cinched in her waist

Pretty: She boosted her height in black patent platform heels, while her golden locks were held back with a headband

Chic: Nicky looked typically stylish in a grey tweed skirt, teamed with a cream knitted jumper and a blue shirt

Matching: The lookalike pair were all glammed up for the show as they cut a stylish figure for the event and each showcased their slender pins

Gorgeous: The pair looked incredibly chic as they exited the hotel together on the way to the show

Unreal: Thylane Blondeau showed off her toned pins in a tweed mini skirt and an oversized beige jacket

Fashion forward: Katherine Langford wore a cropped denim jacket with a matching mini skirt from the brand

Autumn ready: The actress layered a pair of opaque stockings underneath

The model, 28, went braless in an open black sequinned blazer and a matching skirt for her second catwalk of the day, following the Chanel show hours earlier.

Her daring look showed off plenty of sideboob, and flashed a glimpse of her toned abs as she strutted down the runway.

Gigi's eye-catching ensemble included flat strapped sandals, dishevelled hair and androgynous glasses as she made her way down the runway.

Ever Anderson cut a stylish look in a grey mini dress as she attended the Miu Miu runaway show.

The daughter of Hollywood icons Milla Jovovich and Paul W.S. Anderson, 15, looked gorgeous in the long-sleeve garment from Miu Miu.

The Peter Pan actress donned a pair of grey ankle socks and nude ballet flats, adding an edgy touch with double black straps.

Ever repped the brand proudly as she also added a white Miu Miu bag to carry the essentials, and flaunted a flawless blue manicure.

The star - who is known for playing young Natasha Romanoff in Marvel's Black Widow - displayed her stunning fresh-faced looks and wore her wavy locks loose down.

Ready and waiting: Adriana took her seat on the front row

Smiles: She was joined by Nicky and Paris who kept their sunglasses on indoors

Fun: The sisters were joined by Derek Blasberg

Stunning: Thylane Blondeau looked sensational in a slick of dark red lipstick

Bold: Gigi Hadid donned one of her quirkiest looks yet as she hit the runway for the Miu Miu show on the final day of PFW

Sexy: Gigi's eye-catching ensemble included flat strapped sandals, dishevelled hair and androgynous glasses as she made her way down the runway

Stunning: Another model also took to the Miu Miu runway in the same bold outfit, bringing an end to the autumn Fashion Week calendar

Show: Katherine took a seat beside Ever at the event

Quirky: Camille Razat caught the eye in a sheer cardigan and orange stockings

Classy: Francesca Michelin looked chic in a dog tooth blazer

Sultry: Alisha Boe opted for a semi-sheer beaded gown

Style: Emma Corrin also opted for a blazer

Here she is! Ahead of her latest show, Gigi cut a stylish figure as she made her arrival

Chic: The model flashed a hint of her toned abs in a white crop top and a flowing skirt, teamed with an oversized grey denim zipped jacket

Low-key: She completed her look with a Yankees baseball cap as she prepared to bring Paris Fashion Week to a close

Wao! The daughter of Hollywood icons Milla Jovovich and Paul W.S. Anderson, 15, looked gorgeous in the long-sleeve garment from Miu Miu

Stylish: The Peter Pan actress donned a pair of grey ankle socks and nude ballet flats, adding an edgy touch with double black straps

Gorgeous: The star - who is known for playing young Natasha Romanoff in Marvel's Black Widow - displayed her stunning fresh-faced looks and wore her wavy locks loose down

Radiant: She looked in high spirits while beaming and striking a slew of poses for the camera outside of the fashion event

Revealing: Sabina Jakubowicz put on a very leggy display in beige hot pants, teamed with a plunging semi-sheer bodysuit

Prepared: Leonie Hanne was prepared for the wet weather as she strut down the street with an umbrella over her head

Paris Fashion Week kicked off on Monday and runs to October 3, with 107 brands presenting, of which 67 are giving runway shows.

One of the first big names was Pierre Cardin, which has returned to the official Paris lineup this year for the first time in a quarter-century.

Its show was full of retro space-age outfits that harked back to its glory days, but the relatives of Cardin, who died in 2020, are currently tearing each other apart in court over the inheritance.

'My uncle gave me the mission to perpetuate the house and its style,' Rodrigo Basilicati-Cardin, who is currently overseeing the label, said backstage.

'If the brand is sold, it will be the end of the house. I am confident the court decisions will ensure continuity,' he added.

Among the other highlights so far was the latest collection from Dior on Tuesday, which saw the walls of the show plastered with mock sexist slogans from old adverts, such as 'Save your marriage - iron properly'.

Funky: Anna Dello Russo showed off her quirky style in white and purple pants, teamed with a matching cardigan and sheer tights

Chic: Tamara Kalinic looks incredible in a plunging beige midi dress with a floral pattern

Shimmering: Anne Curtis flashed her toned physique in a dazzling green crop top

Glamorous: Her bouncy brunette locks were styled to one side and she opted for a bronzed makeup palette

Looking good: Victoria Cabello donned an eye-atching yellow jacket, teamed with brown trousers and a white top

Gorgeous: Josephine Japy looked typically stylish as she bundled up in an oversized nude coat and a grey jumper

Beauty: Mia Goth rocked the bleached eyebrow look as she posed for sizzling snaps

Sisters: Ami and Aya Suzuki donned matching bold looks and a pink bob

Amazing: Alix Earle showed off her toned figure in a beige mini skirt, teamed with a matching jacket and white T-shirt

Cosy: Zaya Wade wrapped up in a beige fur coat and leather knee-high boots

Bold: Emma Chamberlain stood out in a tweed blazer and blue shirt, teamed with loafers

The collection by Maria Grazia Chiuri, who recently dressed Queen Camilla for her state dinner at Versailles, was a largely monochrome affair with comfortable, breezy items alongside straight masculine jackets, pleated skirts and plenty of knitwear.

Coming later this week are final shows for two big-name designers.

Gabriela Hearst is leaving Chloe after fewer than three years.

Her focus on sustainable fashion was critically acclaimed but did not bring a major boost to sales.

It will also be the last show for Sarah Burton, who took over at Alexander McQueen following the founder's suicide in 2010.
Student loan borrowers were facing long wait times and website glitches as millions raced to resume repayments this week after a three-year hiatus.

Graduates looking to speak with the companies servicing their loans, including Nelnet, EdFinancial and Mohela, to organize repayment terms or work out what was due reported being unable to speak with agents or log in to online portals.

The resumption of student loan repayments on October 1 marked the end of an interest-free pause designed to relieve stress on roughly 28 million borrowers caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In June, the Supreme Court rejected a proposal by President Biden to wipe away the $400 billion in student loan debt.

In June, the Supreme Court rejected a proposal by President Biden to wipe away the $400 billion in student loan debt. Biden is pictured with Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona

A notice on the website of loan servicing platform Nelnet warned that it was experiencing 'unprecedented call volume' on Tuesday morning - days after payments resumed

'It's a complete mess,' Blake Morgan, a borrower in Kansas City, Missouri, who has $172,000 in federal student loans, told Bloomberg. 'It's just so hard to get ahold of a person right now.'

He said he spent hours on the phone to the servicer of his loan provider Nelnet to report a reduction to his income that would impact the size of his repayment.

A Twitter user by the name of Brian O'Connor shared a screenshot showing he had been on the phone to Nelnet for more than three hours.

'Took 3.5 hours. They essentially were no help, as my issues remain,' he wrote.

Nelnet as well as other loan providers - including EdFinancial Services and Mohela - were displaying notices on their website on Tuesday morning advising that they were experiencing 'unprecedented' call volume and 'longer than normal wait times'.

Most suggested instead logging in to their online portals to manage loans repayment options.

But Miranda Bovit, a 28-year-old attorney in Philadelphia, with $81,000 in federal student loan debt which is also managed by Nelnet, told Bloomberg that system doesn't work either.

'When you log in, the website will just freeze,' she told the outlet. 'It's frustrating when things are bouncing around.'

EdFinancial Services reported on its website that borrowers would have to wait longer than normal to speak with somebody

Another loan servicer, Mohela, similarly directed borrowers to its online portal and the student aid government website

The Biden administration introduced the SAVE plan in August, an income-driven repayment plan with lenient terms.

Kate Nordstrom, 31, a consultant for a software company, applied for the SAVE plan and told MarketWatch the government's website said she would owe about $191 each month but her loan servicer informed her she would have to pay about $750.

'I'm at the whim of whatever unfortunate individual has to process my stuff,' she said.

Last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Democratic colleagues wrote to four federal loan servicers, Nelnet, Mohela, EdFinancial and Maximus Federal Services, questioning how prepared they were for repayments after initial complaints of long hold times and website crashes.

'This is deeply troubling: borrowers who cannot get ahold of their student loan servicer ahead of repayment may not know their payment amount, and they cannot learn the various payment plans to determine the best one for their specific circumstances or determine their eligibility for various forms of loan relief,' they wrote.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has said it looking into complaints filed against the various loan providers since the onset of repayments this month.

DailyMail.com wrote to Nelnet and EdFinancial regarding the claims borrowers were unable to contact them but not not receive a response. It was unable to reach Mohela.
Netflix plans to raise the price of its ad-free service once the actors' strike in Hollywood ends, according to what the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported this Tuesday, which sent the streaming company's shares up more than 3%. .

Thus, the platform would be studying increasing rates in several markets worldwide, although it will probably be implemented initially in the United States and Canada, according to sources familiar with the matter consulted by WSJ.

Negotiations between the actors union SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the studios, are ongoing and their next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday.

The writers' union reached a tentative agreement with AMPTP last week after five months of failed negotiations. Among them, an 18% increase in the minimum initial compensation that a writer must receive when working on original productions whose budgets are $30 million or higher. To which is added a 26% increase in the payment of residuals, as well as bonuses based on the audience generated.

However, it is not yet known how much the prices of Netflix services would increase, nor when these increases would come into effect, according to Europa Press.

Netflix declined to comment on the report.

The multinational, which has not commented on this information, lowered the rates of its subscription plans in some countries last February, while announcing that it planned to end password sharing, something it carried out in more than 100 countries in the month of May.

Netflix has been experimenting with new methods of generating money since before the conflict with Hollywood actors and screenwriters. This year, the platform implemented the payment of an extra for people who want to use an account and do not live with its owner. A measure that came into effect in Spain last February, and that in May was moved to other markets such as Mexico and Argentina.

In July, meanwhile, the company chose to eliminate its cheapest ad-free plan in the United States and the United Kingdom. Thus, it generated greater separation between its cheaper, ad-supported option, which launched at the end of 2022, and its more expensive but ad-free subscriptions.
The Biden Administration has engaged with the Indian government on a number of occasions urging them to cooperate with Canada in its investigations into the death of a Khalistani separatist, a US State Department official has said.

Bilateral ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations of "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June.

India has rejected the allegations as "absurd" and "motivated" and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa's expulsion of an Indian official over the case.

The issue of the killing of Nijjar in Canada was raised by Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar here last week.

"As he made clear then, I'll reiterate now, we remain in close coordination with our Canadian colleagues on this question," State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller told reporters on Monday at his daily news conference in response to a question raised by a Pakistani journalist.

"We have engaged with the Indian government on a number of occasions to urge them to cooperate with Canada's investigation. The secretary had an opportunity to do that in his meeting with the foreign minister on Friday," he said.

When asked if India has agreed to cooperate with Canada, Miller said this is for New Delhi to respond to.

"I will let the Indian government speak for themselves and I will speak for the United States government, and we urge that cooperation," he said.

Jaishankar told journalists here last week that the governments of India and Canada will have to talk to each other and see how they resolve their differences over the issue and underlined that the larger issue of "permissiveness" must be flagged and addressed.

"The issue is as follows, which is that the Canadians have made some allegations. We have pointed out to them that this is not the government of India's policy, but if they are prepared to share with us specifics and anything relevant, we are also open to looking at it. So in that sense, that's where the matter stands," Jaishankar said.
Solar-Powered 'Lifeline' Brings Ray of Hope to 'Discouraged' Ukrainians



CHURCHES PROVIDE SOLAR-POWERED 'LIFELINE' IN UKRAINE: Illinois-based mission Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org) has supplied 40 solar-powered "survival systems" that local churches in Ukraine use to provide phone-charging stations and emergency lighting as drones relentlessly target the nation's power grid.

Local churches use portable 'solar survival system' to power-up phones, share Gospel in streets and bomb shelters



NEWS PROVIDED BY

Slavic Gospel Association (SGA)

Oct. 3, 2023



LOVES PARK, Ill., Oct. 3, 2023 /Standard Newswire/ -- Churches in Ukraine are using portable solar-powered "survival systems" to bring relief and hope to those without electricity as drones relentlessly target the nation's power grid.



Illinois-based Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org)  an evangelical mission that has been supporting local churches in the region for decades  has supplied 40 solar-powered sets that churches use to provide phone-charging stations and emergency lighting during blackouts.



"The predictions for the winter are not encouraging," said Viktor Baglai, pastor of a local evangelical church in the capital, Kyiv. "The whole of Ukraine may be cut off from electricity. Our church will be a place where people will be able to charge their phones and flashlights."



Smartphones are a lifeline amid the conflict, providing an essential way to contact family and friends as well as a crucial online link to the outside world. But when the power goes out and there's no way to recharge, that lifeline fizzles out.



Charging Stations Become Points of Hope

At the church-run charging stations  some of them located at bomb shelters  local pastors are holding Bible studies and sharing the Gospel with many who've never set foot inside a church before.



Pastor Baglai and others are even taking the portable solar sets to isolated villages, charging people's phones in the streets, and preaching the Bible's message of hope through solar-powered sound systems.



"This provides encouragement at a time when many Ukrainians are weary and discouraged," explained Eric Mock, SGA's senior vice president of ministry operations, a frequent visitor to the war zone.



'Terrified of Being Buried Alive'

"When you hear the buzzing of drones overhead and explosions every night, you either get used to it or you become traumatized," he said. "I've met many people who go outside in the middle of the night because they're terrified of being buried alive in the rubble if there's a drone strike on their apartment building."



Drones are targeting electrical power stations, leaving Ukrainians vulnerable to blackouts and bitter cold as winter nears, Mock added.



"The solar-powered systems, and the message of the Gospel that goes out with them, are absolutely critical," he said. "What the Ukrainian people need the most right now is hope."



Bringing Practical Aid, Spiritual Hope

Many young moms, including those who've lost their husbands in the war, are wondering how they and their children will survive. "They're saying, 'How are we going to get through another winter? Is anyone going to help us?' The emotional and psychological toll is exhausting," Mock said. "This is not just a humanitarian effort. Local churches are providing physical aid and spiritual hope."



Since the war began, SGA has partnered with local evangelical churches to supply some 18 million meals, more than 350 power generators, hundreds of portable cooking stoves, and thousands of warm blankets as part of its Operation Winter Warmth campaign.



It's estimated millions have heard the Gospel as local pastors and church workers continue to deliver aid and food packages, and churches provide shelter for those forced to flee their homes.



Founded in 1934, Slavic Gospel Association (SGA, www.sga.org) helps "forgotten" orphans, widows and families in Ukraine, Russia, the former Soviet countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel  caring for their physical needs and sharing the life-transforming Gospel. SGA supports an extensive grassroots network of local evangelical missionary pastors and churches in cities and rural villages across this vast region.



SOURCE Slavic Gospel Association (SGA)



CONTACT: Nicole Ponder, 321-586-2332, nponder@inchristcommunications.com


More than 300 forest and peatland fires on Indonesias Sumatra island caused hazy skies across the region on Monday, prompting government officials to ask people to work from home. The military, police and local government were working together to extinguish the fires, which were burning in 316 places across South Sumatra province, but their work was complicated by the extreme dry weather, said Iriansyah, the head of the South Sumatra Disaster Management Agency.

The smoky haze drifted from the fires toward Palembang, the capital of South Palembang province, causing unhealthy air conditions for the areas 1.7 million people. There is a high potential for people to suffer from respiratory tract infections, coughing, shortness of breath and eye irritation, said Iriansyah, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. The government in South Sumatra last week called on schools to delay their opening time, as the haze tends to decrease during the day. But on Monday, the schools asked students to attend classes online, as the air quality had worsened and was categorised as dangerous. We are worried as the haze is getting worse in Palembang...Many children are sick and we can only pray that this disaster will pass quickly, Umi Kalsum, a private sector worker and mother, told The Associated Press on Monday.

Forest and peat fires are an annual problem in Indonesia that strains relations with neighboring countries. Smoke from the fires has blanketed parts of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and southern Thailand. Some parts of Malaysia said they experienced smoke from the Indonesian fires since last week. Malaysias Environment Department chief Wan Abdul Latiff Wan Jaffar last week said the return of smog in some parts of the country was due to hundreds of forest fires in Indonesia. Overall, air quality in the country has deteriorated, he said in a statement. Forest fires that occur in the southern part of Sumatra and the central and southern parts of Kalimantan, Indonesia have caused haze to cross borders. But Siti Nurbaya Bakar, Indonesias Environment and Forestry Minister, said in a statement on Monday there has been no transboundary haze from Indonesia to Malaysia. Satellite data from Indonesias Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency shows that the haze in Indonesia was in several areas in Sumatra and Borneo islands. Wind direction in Indonesia is generally from southeast to northwest-northeast.

We continue to follow developments and there is no transboundary haze to Malaysia, she said.

She added that authorities are working on the ground and in the air to put out the fires in South Sumatra, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan provinces, including some areas in Java.

Indonesias National Disaster Management Agency in September said that there are six provinces in Indonesia where forest and peatland fires are most common, including South Sumatra province, where a big peatland fire burned for days in August. (AP)
Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ESRT  Get Free Report) has earned an average recommendation of Hold from the five analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has issued a hold recommendation and three 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 $8.85.

ESRT has been the topic of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Empire State Realty Trust from $8.00 to $10.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, August 17th. TheStreet raised shares of Empire State Realty Trust from a d+ rating to a c rating in a report on Thursday, July 27th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Empire State Realty Trust in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a sell rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Empire State Realty Trust from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a report on Wednesday, August 30th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Empire State Realty Trust from $7.25 to $9.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, August 8th.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Empire State Realty Trust

Empire State Realty Trust Trading Down 2.1 %

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ESRT. Raymond James & Associates increased its position in Empire State Realty Trust by 25.0% during the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 276,068 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $2,711,000 after purchasing an additional 55,271 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in Empire State Realty Trust during the first quarter worth approximately $141,000. Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in Empire State Realty Trust by 7.6% during the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 27,846 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $276,000 after purchasing an additional 1,955 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its position in Empire State Realty Trust by 36.4% during the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 67,238 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $660,000 after purchasing an additional 17,932 shares during the last quarter. Finally, APG Asset Management N.V. acquired a new position in Empire State Realty Trust during the first quarter worth approximately $1,515,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.44% of the companys stock.

Shares of ESRT opened at $7.87 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 9.46, a quick ratio of 9.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31. The firms 50-day moving average is $8.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $7.25. Empire State Realty Trust has a twelve month low of $5.39 and a twelve month high of $9.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.14, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.26.

Empire State Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 29th. Investors of record on Friday, September 15th were paid a dividend of $0.035 per share. This represents a $0.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 14th. Empire State Realty Trusts payout ratio is 48.28%.

About Empire State Realty Trust

(Get Free Report

Empire State Realty Trust, Inc (NYSE: ESRT) is a REIT that owns and manages office, retail and multifamily assets in Manhattan and the greater New York metropolitan area. ESRT owns the iconic Empire State Building the World's Most Famous Building and the newly reimagined Empire State Building Observatory that was named #1 attraction in the US for the second year in a row, in Tripadvisor's 2023 Travelers' Choice Awards: Best of the Best.

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M&F Bancorp (OTCMKTS:MFBP  Get Free Report) and M&T Bank (NYSE:MTB  Get Free Report) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for M&F Bancorp and M&T Bank, as reported by MarketBeat.

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Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score M&F Bancorp 0 0 0 0 N/A M&T Bank 0 8 7 0 2.47

M&T Bank has a consensus price target of $154.69, suggesting a potential upside of 26.69%. Given M&T Banks higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe M&T Bank is more favorable than M&F Bancorp.

Profitability

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets M&F Bancorp N/A N/A N/A M&T Bank 26.30% 13.26% 1.54%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

This table compares M&F Bancorp and M&T Banks net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

82.9% of M&T Bank shares are held by institutional investors. 2.9% of M&F Bancorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of M&T Bank shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares M&F Bancorp and M&T Banks top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio M&F Bancorp N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A M&T Bank $8.60 billion 2.36 $1.99 billion $16.88 7.23

M&T Bank has higher revenue and earnings than M&F Bancorp.

Dividends

M&F Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. M&T Bank pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. M&T Bank pays out 30.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. M&T Bank has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. M&T Bank is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk and Volatility

M&F Bancorp has a beta of 0.12, suggesting that its share price is 88% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, M&T Bank has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

M&T Bank beats M&F Bancorp on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About M&F Bancorp

(Get Free Report)

M&F Bancorp, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for the Mechanics and Farmers Bank that provides consumer and commercial banking products and services in North Carolina. It offers deposit products, including demand deposits; checking, savings, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company also provides loans for commercial and residential real estate, and construction; and consumer loans, as well as ATM services. The company was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

About M&T Bank

(Get Free Report)

M&T Bank Corporation operates as a bank holding company for Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company and Wilmington Trust, National Association that offer retail and commercial banking products and services in the United States. The company's Business Banking segment offers deposit, lending, cash management, and other financial services to small businesses and professionals. Its Commercial Banking segment provides deposit products, commercial lending and leasing, letters of credit, and cash management services for middle-market and large commercial customers. The company's Commercial Real Estate segment originates, sells, and services commercial real estate loans; and offers deposit, and credit services. Its Discretionary Portfolio segment provides deposits, securities, residential real estate loans, and other assets; and short and long term borrowed funds, as well as foreign exchange services. The company's Residential Mortgage Banking segment offers residential real estate loans for consumers and sells those loans in the secondary market; and purchases servicing rights to loans, and sub-services residential real estate loans for others. Its Retail Banking segment offers demand, savings, and time accounts; consumer installment loans, automobile and recreational finance loans, home equity loans and lines of credit, and credit cards; mutual funds and annuities; and other services. The company also provides trust and wealth management; fiduciary and custodial; insurance agency; institutional brokerage and securities; and investment management and advisory services; financial management, and planning, leasing, and financing services. It offers its services through banking offices, business banking centers, telephone and internet banking, and automated teller machines. M&T Bank Corporation was founded in 1856 and is headquartered in Buffalo, New York.

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Stora Enso Oyj (OTCMKTS:SEOAY  Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of Hold by the seven analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $20.00.

SEOAY has been the topic of several research reports. DNB Markets cut shares of Stora Enso Oyj from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, June 15th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Stora Enso Oyj from a neutral rating to an underperform rating in a research report on Friday, September 22nd.

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Stora Enso Oyj Stock Down 3.6 %

Shares of SEOAY opened at $12.20 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.62 billion, a PE ratio of 10.81 and a beta of 1.07. Stora Enso Oyj has a 1 year low of $11.06 and a 1 year high of $15.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.56. The companys 50-day simple moving average is $12.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.51.

Stora Enso Oyj (OTCMKTS:SEOAY  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 21st. The basic materials company reported ($0.29) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.48). The business had revenue of $2.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. Stora Enso Oyj had a return on equity of 4.73% and a net margin of 8.10%. Analysts forecast that Stora Enso Oyj will post 0.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Stora Enso Oyj

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Stora Enso Oyj provides renewable solutions for the packaging, biomaterials, wooden constructions, and paper industries in Finland and internationally. It operates through Packaging Materials, Packaging Solutions, Biomaterials, Wood Products, Forest, Paper, and Other segments. The company's Packaging Materials segment offers virgin and recycled fiber replace fossil-based materials with low-carbon, renewable and recyclable packaging materials for food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and transport packaging.

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Atticus Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Duolingo, Inc. (NYSE:DUOL  Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 282 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $40,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Duolingo by 3.3% during the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,014 shares of the companys stock valued at $430,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Duolingo by 0.4% during the first quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 45,158 shares of the companys stock valued at $6,439,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Duolingo by 48.8% during the first quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 595 shares of the companys stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Duolingo by 78.1% during the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 570 shares of the companys stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in Duolingo by 4.9% during the first quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 5,438 shares of the companys stock valued at $775,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.93% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on DUOL shares. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Duolingo from $136.00 to $149.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 9th. Raymond James initiated coverage on shares of Duolingo in a research report on Monday, August 28th. They set a market perform rating on the stock. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Duolingo in a research report on Thursday, September 28th. They set a buy rating and a $195.00 price objective on the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Duolingo from $167.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 9th. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Duolingo in a research report on Tuesday, June 20th. They set a market perform rating on the stock. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four 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 $150.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Duolingo

In other Duolingo news, major shareholder Durable Capital Partners Lp sold 42,247 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.14, for a total transaction of $6,131,729.58. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 4,114,491 shares in the company, valued at $597,177,223.74. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Duolingo news, major shareholder Durable Capital Partners Lp sold 42,247 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.14, for a total transaction of $6,131,729.58. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 4,114,491 shares in the company, valued at $597,177,223.74. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Natalie Glance sold 2,475 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $132.44, for a total transaction of $327,789.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 152,164 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,152,600.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 184,823 shares of company stock worth $28,324,390 over the last quarter. Insiders own 19.85% of the companys stock.

Duolingo Stock Performance

Shares of DUOL opened at $165.95 on Tuesday. The companys fifty day moving average is $147.23 and its 200 day moving average is $144.59. Duolingo, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $64.73 and a fifty-two week high of $174.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 3.62 and a current ratio of 3.62.

Duolingo (NYSE:DUOL  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 8th. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by $0.25. Duolingo had a negative net margin of 7.06% and a negative return on equity of 5.58%. The company had revenue of $126.84 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $123.13 million. On average, analysts forecast that Duolingo, Inc. will post -0.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Duolingo Company Profile

(Free Report)

Duolingo, Inc operates as a mobile learning platform in the United States, China, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company offers courses in 40 different languages, including Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, and Chinese through its Duolingo app. It also provides a digital language proficiency assessment exam.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding DUOL? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Duolingo, Inc. (NYSE:DUOL  Free Report).

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Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Crane (NYSE:CR  Free Report) by 351.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 290,362 shares of the conglomerates stock after purchasing an additional 226,017 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC owned 0.51% of Crane worth $18,349,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CR. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Crane by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,462,324 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $733,474,000 after buying an additional 158,787 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Crane by 1.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,472,630 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $391,534,000 after purchasing an additional 56,773 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Crane by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,071,875 shares of the conglomerates stock valued at $462,158,000 after buying an additional 46,506 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL increased its position in shares of Crane by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 1,491,577 shares of the conglomerates stock valued at $161,508,000 after buying an additional 12,017 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Crane by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,382,235 shares of the conglomerates stock valued at $149,668,000 after buying an additional 51,792 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.91% of the companys stock.

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Crane Stock Down 2.4 %

NYSE:CR opened at $86.74 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.18. The company has a market cap of $4.92 billion, a PE ratio of 11.49, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.49. Crane has a 52-week low of $67.28 and a 52-week high of $95.21. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $88.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $85.57.

Crane Dividend Announcement

Crane ( NYSE:CR Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 25th. The conglomerate reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $509.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $524.65 million. Crane had a return on equity of 24.45% and a net margin of 13.10%. Cranes quarterly revenue was down 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.90 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Crane will post 7.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 31st were paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 30th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.83%. Cranes dividend payout ratio is 9.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on CR. StockNews.com began coverage on Crane in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Crane in a report on Wednesday, September 27th. They issued a buy rating and a $118.00 price target for the company. DA Davidson increased their price target on Crane from $92.00 to $107.00 in a report on Thursday, July 27th. TD Securities restated a hold rating on shares of Crane in a report on Thursday, September 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Crane from $87.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $107.40.

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Crane Profile

(Free Report)

Crane Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells engineered industrial products in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. The company has three segments: Aerospace & Electronics, Process Flow Technologies, and Engineered Materials. The Aerospace & Electronics segment supplies critical components and systems, including original equipment and aftermarket parts, primarily for the commercial aerospace, and the military aerospace, defense, and space markets.

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Allworth Financial LP increased its position in shares of Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON  Free Report) by 47.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,168 shares of the industrial products companys stock after buying an additional 1,018 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LPs holdings in Sonoco Products were worth $187,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AE Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Sonoco Products by 13.6% during the first quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 240,724 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $14,684,000 after purchasing an additional 28,863 shares in the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board boosted its position in Sonoco Products by 15.7% during the first quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 17,700 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $1,080,000 after purchasing an additional 2,400 shares in the last quarter. Foundry Partners LLC bought a new stake in Sonoco Products during the second quarter valued at about $3,123,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Sonoco Products by 6.5% in the first quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 14,578 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $871,000 after acquiring an additional 895 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in Sonoco Products in the first quarter worth about $303,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.20% of the companys stock.

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Sonoco Products Trading Down 1.0 %

Sonoco Products stock opened at $53.80 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. Sonoco Products has a 52 week low of $53.04 and a 52 week high of $64.89. The company has a market capitalization of $5.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.69. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $56.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.39.

Sonoco Products Announces Dividend

Sonoco Products ( NYSE:SON Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.50 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.83 billion. Sonoco Products had a net margin of 6.89% and a return on equity of 26.15%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.76 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Sonoco Products will post 5.2 EPS for the current year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 10th were given a dividend of $0.51 per share. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 9th. Sonoco Productss dividend payout ratio is currently 41.80%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SON has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Argus downgraded Sonoco Products from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, August 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Sonoco Products from $61.00 to $55.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 2nd. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Sonoco Products in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Bank of America lowered their price target on Sonoco Products from $80.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on Sonoco Products from $70.00 to $68.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $62.17.

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About Sonoco Products

(Free Report)

Sonoco Products Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells various engineered and sustainable packaging products in North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company operates through two segments: Consumer Packaging and Industrial Paper Packaging.

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Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. reduced its position in Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL  Free Report) by 17.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,770 shares of the technology companys stock after selling 1,200 shares during the quarter. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.s holdings in Dell Technologies were worth $312,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Macquarie Group Ltd. lifted its position in Dell Technologies by 29.8% in the first quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 107,237 shares of the technology companys stock worth $4,312,000 after purchasing an additional 24,646 shares during the period. MRP Capital Investments LLC lifted its position in Dell Technologies by 22.9% in the first quarter. MRP Capital Investments LLC now owns 18,525 shares of the technology companys stock worth $745,000 after purchasing an additional 3,450 shares during the period. Fortem Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Dell Technologies by 187.6% in the first quarter. Fortem Financial Group LLC now owns 33,628 shares of the technology companys stock worth $1,352,000 after purchasing an additional 21,934 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lifted its position in Dell Technologies by 4.3% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 526,732 shares of the technology companys stock worth $21,180,000 after purchasing an additional 21,480 shares during the period. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Dell Technologies by 10.6% during the first quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 93,758 shares of the technology companys stock valued at $3,770,000 after acquiring an additional 9,022 shares during the period. 38.10% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Daiwa Capital Markets raised Dell Technologies from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $50.00 to $80.00 in a report on Monday, September 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on Dell Technologies from $60.00 to $70.00 in a report on Friday, September 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Dell Technologies from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, September 1st. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Dell Technologies from $60.00 to $70.00 in a report on Friday, September 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Dell Technologies from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, September 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $67.25.

Dell Technologies Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of DELL stock opened at $67.70 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $61.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $51.82. The firm has a market cap of $48.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.14, a PEG ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 0.95. Dell Technologies Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.90 and a 12 month high of $72.82.

Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 31st. The technology company reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.56. The company had revenue of $22.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.78 billion. Dell Technologies had a negative return on equity of 149.91% and a net margin of 2.03%. Sell-side analysts predict that Dell Technologies Inc. will post 5.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Dell Technologies Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 24th will be given a dividend of $0.37 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 23rd. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.19%. Dell Technologiess payout ratio is currently 57.14%.

Insider Transactions at Dell Technologies

In other news, General Counsel Richard J. Rothberg sold 30,009 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.00, for a total transaction of $2,040,612.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 99,899 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,793,132. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CMO Allison Dew sold 329,038 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.24, for a total value of $18,176,059.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 98,354 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,433,074.96. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Richard J. Rothberg sold 30,009 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.00, for a total value of $2,040,612.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 99,899 shares of the companys stock, valued at $6,793,132. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 3,995,850 shares of company stock worth $221,526,369. 48.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Dell Technologies

(Free Report)

Dell Technologies Inc designs, develops, manufactures, markets, sells, and supports various comprehensive and integrated solutions, products, and services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) and Client Solutions Group (CSG).

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Several analysts have recently updated their ratings and price targets for Compagnie Financiere Richemont (OTCMKTS: CFRUY):

10/2/2023  Compagnie Financiere Richemont was downgraded by analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating.

9/26/2023  Compagnie Financiere Richemont was downgraded by analysts at Morgan Stanley from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating.

9/25/2023  Compagnie Financiere Richemont was downgraded by analysts at Bank of America Co. from a buy rating to a neutral rating.

9/20/2023  Compagnie Financiere Richemont is now covered by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc.. They set a buy rating on the stock.

9/14/2023  Compagnie Financiere Richemont is now covered by analysts at CLSA. They set a buy rating on the stock.

Compagnie Financiere Richemont Trading Down 0.7 %

Compagnie Financiere Richemont stock opened at $12.03 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $13.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.47. Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA has a 12 month low of $9.27 and a 12 month high of $17.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.47 and a quick ratio of 1.89.

Compagnie Financiere Richemont Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 13th. Investors of record on Friday, September 22nd will be issued a $0.1826 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 21st. This is a positive change from Compagnie Financiere Richemonts previous dividend of $0.12.

Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA engages in the luxury goods business in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, and rest of Europe. The company operates through Jewellery Maisons, Specialist Watchmakers, and Other segments. It designs, manufactures, and distributes jewelry products, precision timepieces, watches, writing instruments, clothing, and leather goods and accessories.

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DAVENPORT & Co LLC decreased its stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS  Free Report) by 8.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 37,208 shares of the companys stock after selling 3,407 shares during the quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLCs holdings in Novartis were worth $3,755,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. DT Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Novartis during the first quarter valued at about $26,000. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Novartis in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Financial Management Professionals Inc. boosted its holdings in Novartis by 750.0% in the second quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 289 shares of the companys stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. ZRC Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Novartis in the first quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Syverson Strege & Co acquired a new stake in Novartis in the first quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Institutional investors own 7.00% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded Novartis from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, September 25th. HSBC assumed coverage on shares of Novartis in a report on Friday, July 14th. They set a buy rating for the company. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a strong-buy rating for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $78.40.

Novartis Stock Performance

NYSE NVS opened at $101.53 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $101.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $99.62. The firm has a market cap of $215.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.28, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Novartis AG has a 1 year low of $74.24 and a 1 year high of $105.61.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 19th. The company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.15. Novartis had a net margin of 14.76% and a return on equity of 25.12%. The firm had revenue of $13.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.32 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.56 EPS. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Novartis AG will post 6.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Novartis Company Profile

(Free Report)

Novartis AG researches, develops, manufactures, and markets healthcare products in Switzerland and internationally. The company operates through two segments: Innovative Medicines and Sandoz. The Innovative Medicines segment offers prescription medicines for patients and physicians. It also provides cardiovascular, ophthalmology, neuroscience, immunology, hematology, and solid tumor products.

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Kovack Advisors Inc. decreased its position in General Electric (NYSE:GE  Free Report) by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,801 shares of the conglomerates stock after selling 607 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc.s holdings in General Electric were worth $967,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of General Electric by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,795,835 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $6,098,882,000 after purchasing an additional 3,463,502 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of General Electric by 17.3% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,490,012 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $4,639,533,000 after purchasing an additional 7,157,356 shares during the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of General Electric during the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,496,379,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of General Electric by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,272,027 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $1,837,514,000 after purchasing an additional 319,196 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of General Electric by 122,242.2% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,438,063 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $878,644,000 after purchasing an additional 13,427,079 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.83% of the companys stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer lowered shares of General Electric from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note on Monday, July 31st. Argus lifted their price objective on shares of General Electric from $112.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 26th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of General Electric from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, July 17th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of General Electric from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 27th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of General Electric from $126.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $122.71.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 112,614 shares of General Electric stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.20, for a total value of $12,973,132.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 57,923 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,672,729.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.67% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

General Electric Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:GE opened at $108.79 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $113.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.90. General Electric has a one year low of $48.27 and a one year high of $117.96. The company has a market cap of $118.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.91, a PEG ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 1.27.

General Electric (NYSE:GE  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 25th. The conglomerate reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.22. General Electric had a net margin of 13.32% and a return on equity of 9.30%. The company had revenue of $15.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.76 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.78 EPS. The firms revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that General Electric will post 2.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Electric Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 25th. General Electrics dividend payout ratio is currently 3.80%.

General Electric Profile

(Free Report)

General Electric Company operates as a high-tech industrial company in Europe, China, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa. It offers gas and steam turbines, full balance of plant, upgrade, and service solutions, as well as data-leveraging software for power generation, industrial, government, and other customers.

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Kovack Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in GXO Logistics, Inc. (NYSE:GXO  Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 21,469 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,349,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northcape Capital Pty Ltd increased its holdings in GXO Logistics by 12.5% during the second quarter. Northcape Capital Pty Ltd now owns 36,318 shares of the companys stock worth $2,281,000 after buying an additional 4,047 shares during the last quarter. Kirr Marbach & Co. LLC IN increased its holdings in GXO Logistics by 0.9% during the second quarter. Kirr Marbach & Co. LLC IN now owns 97,910 shares of the companys stock worth $6,151,000 after buying an additional 905 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its holdings in GXO Logistics by 23.3% during the second quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 20,560 shares of the companys stock worth $1,292,000 after buying an additional 3,883 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its holdings in GXO Logistics by 10.2% during the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 34,700 shares of the companys stock worth $2,180,000 after buying an additional 3,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC acquired a new position in GXO Logistics during the second quarter worth $216,000. 90.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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GXO Logistics Trading Down 2.5 %

GXO opened at $57.18 on Tuesday. GXO Logistics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.10 and a twelve month high of $67.57. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.72.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GXO Logistics ( NYSE:GXO Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 2nd. The company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.09. GXO Logistics had a net margin of 2.10% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The business had revenue of $2.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.68 earnings per share. GXO Logisticss revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that GXO Logistics, Inc. will post 2.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Several research firms have commented on GXO. Oppenheimer reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $76.00 price objective on shares of GXO Logistics in a report on Monday, August 7th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of GXO Logistics from $64.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, August 4th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of GXO Logistics from $66.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, August 31st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of GXO Logistics from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, September 15th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $81.00 price objective on shares of GXO Logistics in a report on Friday, August 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $68.94.

View Our Latest Report on GXO Logistics

GXO Logistics Profile

(Free Report)

GXO Logistics, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides logistics services worldwide. The company provides warehousing and distribution, order fulfilment, e-commerce, reverse logistics, and other supply chain services. As of December 31, 2022, it operated in approximately 979 facilities. The company serves various customers in the e-commerce, omnichannel retail, technology and consumer electronics, food and beverage, industrial and manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, and others.

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Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of Moelis & Company (NYSE:MC  Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 34,900 shares of the asset managers stock, valued at approximately $1,582,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Moelis & Company by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 27,743 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $1,066,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares in the last quarter. Credit Suisse AG increased its stake in Moelis & Company by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Credit Suisse AG now owns 54,023 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $2,077,000 after purchasing an additional 584 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in Moelis & Company by 168.0% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 17,391 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $669,000 after buying an additional 10,903 shares during the last quarter. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc grew its holdings in Moelis & Company by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Richard P Slaughter Associates Inc now owns 31,297 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $1,419,000 after buying an additional 467 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Juncture Wealth Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Moelis & Company by 49.2% during the 1st quarter. Juncture Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 9,400 shares of the asset managers stock valued at $361,000 after buying an additional 3,100 shares during the last quarter. 91.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Moelis & Company Price Performance

MC opened at $44.06 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 83.13 and a beta of 1.47. The business has a 50-day moving average of $46.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $43.10. Moelis & Company has a 12 month low of $33.36 and a 12 month high of $52.50.

Moelis & Company Announces Dividend

Moelis & Company ( NYSE:MC Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The asset manager reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.02) by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $179.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $187.72 million. Moelis & Company had a net margin of 4.62% and a return on equity of 12.45%. The firms quarterly revenue was down 25.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.57 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Moelis & Company will post 0.31 earnings per share for the current year.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 7th were issued a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 4th. Moelis & Companys dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 452.84%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moelis & Company

In other Moelis & Company news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 1,417 shares of Moelis & Company stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.09, for a total value of $68,143.53. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,157 shares in the company, valued at approximately $344,180.13. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Kenneth Shropshire sold 1,417 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.09, for a total transaction of $68,143.53. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 7,157 shares in the company, valued at approximately $344,180.13. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Elizabeth Crain sold 5,588 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.06, for a total value of $268,559.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,593 shares of company stock worth $605,486 in the last 90 days. 6.96% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on Moelis & Company in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and two have given a hold rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moelis & Company has a consensus rating of Reduce and an average price target of $35.60.

Read Our Latest Research Report on Moelis & Company

Moelis & Company Profile

(Free Report)

Moelis & Company operates as an investment banking advisory firm. It offers advisory services in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restructurings, capital markets transactions, and other corporate finance matters. The company offers its services to public multinational corporations, middle market private companies, financial sponsors, entrepreneurs, governments, and sovereign wealth funds.

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Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lessened its stake in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 5.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,443 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 263 shares during the quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc.s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $190,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. increased its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 385.6% during the second quarter. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. now owns 14,520 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $620,000 after acquiring an additional 11,530 shares during the last quarter. PDS Planning Inc increased its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 7.0% during the second quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 8,700 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $371,000 after acquiring an additional 567 shares during the last quarter. Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 0.6% during the second quarter. Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC now owns 153,868 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $6,567,000 after acquiring an additional 902 shares during the last quarter. Sendero Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 9.2% during the second quarter. Sendero Wealth Management LLC now owns 37,435 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $1,598,000 after acquiring an additional 3,158 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Benedetti & Gucer Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the second quarter valued at approximately $200,000. Institutional investors own 72.47% of the companys stock.

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Wells Fargo & Company Stock Down 3.0 %

WFC opened at $39.62 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $144.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.90, a P/E/G ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.12. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $42.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. Wells Fargo & Company has a 12 month low of $35.25 and a 12 month high of $48.84.

Wells Fargo & Company Increases Dividend

Wells Fargo & Company ( NYSE:WFC Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.16 by $0.09. Wells Fargo & Company had a return on equity of 11.15% and a net margin of 16.18%. The firm had revenue of $20.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.11 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.74 earnings per share. The companys quarterly revenue was up 20.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 4.84 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This is an increase from Wells Fargo & Companys previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 3rd. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.53%. Wells Fargo & Companys dividend payout ratio is 35.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Odeon Capital Group downgraded Wells Fargo & Company from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $43.75 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, July 17th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $54.00 to $51.00 in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Wolfe Research downgraded Wells Fargo & Company from an outperform rating to a peer perform rating in a research report on Friday, July 7th. Atlantic Securities raised their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $50.00 to $52.50 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 1st. Finally, Raymond James raised their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 3rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Wells Fargo & Company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $48.02.

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About Wells Fargo & Company

(Free Report)

Wells Fargo & Company, a diversified financial services company, provides banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management.

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PDS Planning Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM  Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 1,812 shares of the business services providers stock, valued at approximately $314,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Waste Management by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,083 shares of the business services providers stock worth $503,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Syntegra Private Wealth Group LLC increased its position in Waste Management by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. Syntegra Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 2,218 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $362,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Steward Financial Group LLC increased its position in Waste Management by 31.3% during the 1st quarter. Steward Financial Group LLC now owns 260 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its position in Waste Management by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 11,113 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $1,927,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Hampshire Trust increased its position in Waste Management by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. New Hampshire Trust now owns 2,099 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $364,000 after buying an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.34% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WM. StockNews.com began coverage on Waste Management in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a buy rating for the company. HSBC initiated coverage on Waste Management in a research report on Friday, September 15th. They set a buy rating and a $192.00 price objective for the company. Raymond James cut their target price on Waste Management from $185.00 to $179.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Waste Management from $167.00 to $166.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on Waste Management from $204.00 to $202.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $180.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Waste Management

In other Waste Management news, Director John C. Pope sold 198 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.40, for a total transaction of $33,343.20. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 56,147 shares of the companys stock, valued at $9,455,154.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director John C. Pope sold 198 shares of Waste Management stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.40, for a total value of $33,343.20. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 56,147 shares of the companys stock, valued at $9,455,154.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce E. Chinn sold 172 shares of Waste Management stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $159.44, for a total value of $27,423.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 822 shares in the company, valued at $131,059.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.27% of the companys stock.

Waste Management Price Performance

NYSE WM opened at $151.21 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $61.25 billion, a PE ratio of 27.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.14, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.82. The businesss fifty day moving average is $159.08 and its 200 day moving average is $162.84. Waste Management, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $148.31 and a fifty-two week high of $173.71.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The business services provider reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.54 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $5.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $5.23 billion. Waste Management had a net margin of 11.42% and a return on equity of 33.81%. Waste Managements revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Waste Management, Inc. will post 5.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Waste Management Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 8th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 7th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. Waste Managements dividend payout ratio is presently 50.36%.

Waste Management Profile

(Free Report)

Waste Management, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of environmental solutions to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers in the United States and Canada. It offers collection services, including picking up and transporting waste and recyclable materials from where it was generated to a transfer station, material recovery facility (MRF), or disposal site; and owns and operates transfer stations, as well as owns, develops, and operates landfill facilities that produce landfill gas used as renewable natural gas for generating electricity.

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Shares of Rio Tinto Group (NYSE:RIO  Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of Moderate Buy from the twelve brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $72.00.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on RIO shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Rio Tinto Group from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Monday, June 5th. Liberum Capital upgraded Rio Tinto Group from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, July 6th. Citigroup upgraded Rio Tinto Group from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report on Thursday, June 8th. StockNews.com upgraded Rio Tinto Group from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Thursday, September 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Rio Tinto Group from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 13th.

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View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Rio Tinto Group

Institutional Trading of Rio Tinto Group

Rio Tinto Group Stock Down 1.5 %

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allworth Financial LP increased its position in shares of Rio Tinto Group by 66.8% in the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 397 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Cowa LLC purchased a new position in Rio Tinto Group in the first quarter valued at $26,000. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC acquired a new stake in Rio Tinto Group in the first quarter valued at $27,000. CNB Bank purchased a new stake in Rio Tinto Group during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Rio Tinto Group by 297.2% during the 1st quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 433 shares of the mining companys stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 324 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 10.03% of the companys stock.

Shares of RIO opened at $62.69 on Tuesday. The companys 50-day moving average price is $63.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $64.21. Rio Tinto Group has a 12-month low of $52.25 and a 12-month high of $80.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.99.

Rio Tinto Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 11th were paid a $1.77 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 6%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 10th. This is a boost from Rio Tinto Groups previous semi-annual dividend of $1.10.

About Rio Tinto Group

(Get Free Report

Rio Tinto Group engages in exploring, mining, and processing mineral resources worldwide. The company operates through Iron Ore, Aluminium, Copper, and Minerals Segments. It offers aluminum, copper, iron ore, diamonds, gold, borates, titanium dioxide, salt, silver, molybdenum, and lithium. The company also owns and operates open pit and underground mines, refineries, smelters, and concentrator facilities, as well as power stations, research, and service facilities.

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Suzano (NYSE:SUZ  Get Free Report) is one of 17 publicly-traded companies in the Paper mills industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Suzano to related businesses based on the strength of its profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Suzano and its peers net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

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Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Suzano 47.44% 64.65% 17.21% Suzano Competitors 7.59% 18.89% 6.66%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Suzano and its peers revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gross Revenue Net Income Price/Earnings Ratio Suzano $9.65 billion $4.53 billion 3.12 Suzano Competitors $5.57 billion $686.61 million 29.23

Dividends

Suzano has higher revenue and earnings than its peers. Suzano is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Suzano pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Suzano pays out 9.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, Paper mills companies pay a dividend yield of 3.7% and pay out 57.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Suzano has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Volatility & Risk

Suzano has a beta of 1.11, meaning that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Suzanos peers have a beta of 1.31, meaning that their average stock price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

2.6% of Suzano shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.7% of shares of all Paper mills companies are owned by institutional investors. 5.5% of shares of all Paper mills companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Suzano and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Suzano 0 0 1 0 3.00 Suzano Competitors 112 714 472 48 2.34

As a group, Paper mills companies have a potential upside of 28.71%. Given Suzanos peers higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Suzano has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Summary

Suzano beats its peers on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Suzano

(Get Free Report)

Suzano S.A. produces and sells eucalyptus pulp and paper products in Brazil and internationally. It operates through Pulp and Paper segments. The company offers coated and uncoated printing and writing papers, paperboards, tissue papers, and market and fluff pulps; and lignin. It also engages in the research, development, and production of biofuel; operation of port terminals; power generation and distribution business; commercialization of equipment and parts; industrialization, commercialization, and exporting of pulp and standing wood; road freight transport; biotechnology research and development; and commercialization of paper and computer materials. In addition, the company is involved in the business office, production packaging, and financial fundraising activities; research, development, production, commercialization, and distribution of wood-based textile fibers, yarns, and filaments produced from cellulose and microfibrillated cellulose; and research and development of wood raw materials for the textile industry. Suzano S.A. was formerly known as Suzano Papel e Celulose S.A. and changed its name to Suzano S.A. in April 2019. The company was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Salvador, Brazil.

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In a post in Hindi on X, Priyanka Gandhi said she received the "sad news" of death of 24 patients (PTI)

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday hit out at the government over 24 deaths in as many hours in a government hospital in Mahrashtra's Nanded and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his "silence" on the incident. Senior party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra demanded strict action against those responsible and compensation for the affected families.

Twenty-four deaths, including that of 12 infants, have been reported in the last 24 hours in a government hospital in Nanded, a top Maharashtra health official said on earlier in the day.

A three-member expert committee has been set up to probe the incident, the official said.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh asked Modi to break his "silence" on the incident.

In a post in Hindi on X, Priyanka Gandhi said she received the "sad news" of death of 24 patients, including 12 infants, due to the shortage of medicines from Maharashtra. "May God grant peace to the departed souls. My deepest condolences to the bereaved families," she said.

"Strict action should be taken against those responsible and compensation should be given to the affected families," she added.

In a post on X, the Congress said this is a very serious issue and demanded strict action against those responsible.

"Our condolences to the families of the deceased. May God give them the strength to bear this sorrow," it said.

According to reports, one of the reasons behind the death of patients is the lack of essential medicines, the party said.

"This is a very serious issue. Strict action should be taken against those who were negligent in this matter," it said.

The government needs to work on the ground rather than focusing on publicity, the Congress said.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred till October 9 hearing on a plea by TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu (Twitter)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has adjourned the hearing on Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidus plea to quash the FIR in the AP Skill Development scam case, to October 9. The court directed the state government to submit all the documents it filed before the AP High Court so far.

A division bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M. Trivedi heard the matter on Tuesday when arguments from both the parties mainly focused on applicability of Section 17-A of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 to the case.

The court asked about the applicability of Sections 17-A of PC Act. It noted that the offence was committed prior to the amendment carried out to the Act, by inserting 17-A, and the FIR mentioned not only the offences under such an Act but also those that fell under IPC.

Naidus counsel Harish Salve argued that the AP High Court wrongly interpreted Section 17-A of the PC Act. He maintained that it was related to the acts done by a public servant in discharge of official functions and that this Section was introduced by an amendment in 2018.

The court observed that Section 17-A could not be applied to the offences committed before July 2018.

However, Harish Salve argued that it was a matter of procedure and the investigation agency must obtain prior sanction. The date of offence was irrelevant. The date of inquiry must to be taken into consideration, he said.

Salve submitted that it was the "protection" that was brought in by amending the Act. So that the protection must be provided, he said.

He asked whether the ongoing inquiry could be carried out without the Governors approval as per Section 17-A. Then, the court said, as per his version, the date when the investigation began was relevant.

Counsel said that it was done to prevent the abuse of process of law. He quoted those who introduced the amendment to the PC Act.

Another counsel for Naidu, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, referred to the judgement of K.M. Joseph in Yashwant Sinha and Ors versus CBI, which held that Section 17-A of PC Act, mandated prior approval for inquiry. He argued that the apex court had previously held that Section 17-A was applicable with respect to offences committed prior to the 2018 amendment to the PC Act.

Another of Naidus counsel Siddarth Luthra submitted that in the Yashwant Sinha case pertaining to the Rafale deal, the date of the alleged commission of offence was between 2015 and 2016, which was prior to the amended PC Act.

The court observed that it was not intending to go into the merits of the mater at this stage and it was only considering the position of the law.

Siddarth Luthra argued that his client was being roped in in FIR after FIR and this was a clear case of regime revenge.

AP governments counsel Mukul Rohatgi argued that the question of invoking section 17-A of PC Act did not arise in this case. The 17-A came in July, 2018 while the FIR was booked in 2021 and the inquiry started prior to the insertion of the 17-A in the Act.

Then the court asked whether there were any documents to show that the inquiry started before 2018. Counsel agreed to produce them before the court.

Siddarth Luthra said, "The man is in custody. That is the difficulty and the CID is seeking police custody. After 15 days, police custody cant be claimed." He sought an early date for the next hearing.

The court ordered the registry to list the matter for Monday and asked the state to file the entire compilation of documents that the government had submitted before the AP High Court.

Notably, the AP High Court had dismissed Naidus plea for quashing the FIR in the skill development scam that took place between 2014 and 2019. Naidu was named as Accused 37 in the FIR booked in 2021. As Naidu was arrested by the AP-CID on September 9, 2023, he is in judicial custody till October 5.
IT minister K.T. Rama Rao and MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi at the foundation stone laying ceremony for an IT park at Malakpet on Monday. (Image: DC)

Hyderabad: In a move that will usher in an IT revolution in the citys southern part, IT minister K.T. Rama Rao on Monday laid the foundation for a new IT tower, iTek Nucleus, at Malakpet. The 30-storey building will come up in 11 acres and will have a built-up area of about 1.5 million sq.ft. It will create employment opportunities to about 50,000 people and the project will be ready in 36 months, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Rama Rao said that the state government is focused on spreading IT culture across Hyderabad. It has already brought a growth in dispersion policy and has taken IT to the eastern side in Uppal and beyond and to the north near Kompally, he said.

With a Metro Rail station in the vicinity, efforts will be made to connect it with the IT tower to ensure hassle-free travel, Rama Rao said, adding that youth from areas adjoining Malakpet need not travel all the way to Hitec City for work. The state government will make efforts to get technology giants to set up their operations in the Malakpet IT tower, he said.

"Malakpet has till now been known for its TV tower. iTek Nucleus will be a new iconic structure in the region," he said.

Rao stated that the investor-friendly policies of the government gave a boost to the IT sector and attracted global IT companies to set up their offices here, accelerating the sectors overall growth in the state. In the last two years, Hyderabad surpassed Bengaluru in the number of technology jobs created. Telangana accounted for 44 per cent of all technology jobs created in India this year, an improvement from last years 33 per cent, he said. Telangana tops the country in per capita income at Rs 3.17 lakh, Rao said.

As part of the efforts to strengthen infrastructure and the transport system, the government is preparing a detailed plan to develop 415 km of metro line, he said.
American Express (NYSE:AXP) had its price objective trimmed by The Goldman Sachs Group from $191.00 to $190.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, FlyOnTheWall reports.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on AXP. 22nd Century Group reiterated a reiterates rating on shares of American Express in a research note on Friday, June 30th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on American Express from $205.00 to $203.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 24th. 58.com reiterated a reiterates rating on shares of American Express in a research note on Friday, June 30th. 51job restated a reiterates rating on shares of American Express in a report on Friday, June 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of American Express from $149.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research report on Friday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, American Express has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $174.06.

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American Express Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE AXP opened at $149.44 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $160.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $162.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $110.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.20, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.19. American Express has a 52-week low of $130.65 and a 52-week high of $182.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a current ratio of 1.59.

American Express (NYSE:AXP  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 21st. The payment services company reported $2.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $15.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.41 billion. American Express had a return on equity of 29.26% and a net margin of 12.99%. The businesss revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.57 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that American Express will post 11.13 earnings per share for the current year.

American Express Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 6th will be given a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 5th. American Expresss dividend payout ratio is presently 24.42%.

Institutional Trading of American Express

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Tyler Stone Wealth Management acquired a new stake in American Express during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Sheets Smith Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of American Express during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $448,000. Chelsea Counsel Co. acquired a new position in shares of American Express in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in American Express during the second quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Steward Financial Group LLC grew its position in American Express by 104.9% during the first quarter. Steward Financial Group LLC now owns 211 shares of the payment services companys stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 108 shares during the period. 83.08% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

American Express Company Profile

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American Express Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides charge and credit payment card products, and travel-related services worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Global Consumer Services Group, Global Commercial Services, and Global Merchant and Network Services. Its products and services include payment and financing products; network services; accounts payable expense management products and services; and travel and lifestyle services.

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BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Horizonte Minerals (OTCMKTS:HZMMF  Free Report) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, FlyOnTheWall reports.

Horizonte Minerals Price Performance

HZMMF opened at $0.63 on Monday. Horizonte Minerals has a 12-month low of $0.60 and a 12-month high of $2.16. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $1.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1.77.

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About Horizonte Minerals

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Further Reading

Horizonte Minerals Plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration and development of mineral projects in Brazil. The company primarily explores for nickel deposits, as well as cobalt deposits. It holds 100% interest in the Araguaia ferronickel; and the Vermelho Nickel-Cobalt project in the eastern part of the Carajas mining district.

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of JSC National Atomic Company Kazatomprom (OTCMKTS:NATKY  Free Report) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a research note released on Monday, FlyOnTheWall reports.

JSC National Atomic Company Kazatomprom Price Performance

NATKY opened at $42.50 on Monday.

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JSC National Atomic Company Kazatomprom Company Profile

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JSC National Atomic Company Kazatomprom engages in the exploration, production, processing, marketing, and sale of uranium and uranium products in the Republic of Kazakhstan, China, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, France, and internationally. It also processes rare metals; manufactures and sells beryllium, tantalum, and niobium products; provides communication and security services; and produces semiconductor materials.

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New Mexico Educational Retirement Board raised its position in Equitrans Midstream Co. (NYSE:ETRN  Free Report) by 12.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 88,400 shares of the companys stock after buying an additional 10,000 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Boards holdings in Equitrans Midstream were worth $845,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ETRN. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Equitrans Midstream during the first quarter worth about $33,000. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in shares of Equitrans Midstream by 50.6% during the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 6,682 shares of the companys stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 2,244 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new stake in shares of Equitrans Midstream during the first quarter worth about $52,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV purchased a new stake in shares of Equitrans Midstream during the first quarter worth about $61,000. Finally, Avalon Investment & Advisory purchased a new stake in shares of Equitrans Midstream during the first quarter worth about $64,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.68% of the companys stock.

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Equitrans Midstream Stock Performance

NYSE:ETRN opened at $9.19 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.87, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.59, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.90. The companys 50-day moving average is $9.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $7.93. Equitrans Midstream Co. has a 1-year low of $4.60 and a 1-year high of $10.48.

Equitrans Midstream Dividend Announcement

Equitrans Midstream ( NYSE:ETRN Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.09. The company had revenue of $318.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $311.21 million. Equitrans Midstream had a negative net margin of 18.60% and a positive return on equity of 20.49%. Equitrans Midstreams revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.11 EPS. Analysts forecast that Equitrans Midstream Co. will post 0.46 EPS for the current year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 4th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 3rd. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.53%. Equitrans Midstreams dividend payout ratio is currently -82.19%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ETRN has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Equitrans Midstream from $9.50 to $11.00 in a research note on Friday, June 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and set a $13.00 target price on shares of Equitrans Midstream in a research note on Tuesday, August 8th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an overweight rating and set a $14.00 price objective on shares of Equitrans Midstream in a research note on Tuesday, July 18th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Equitrans Midstream from $5.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 8th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Equitrans Midstream from $6.50 to $9.25 in a research note on Tuesday, June 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $9.69.

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Equitrans Midstream Profile

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Equitrans Midstream Corporation owns, operates, acquires, and develops midstream assets in the Appalachian Basin. It operates through three segments: Gathering, Transmission, and Water. The company operates dry gas gathering systems of high-pressure gathering lines; FERC-regulated interstate pipelines and storage systems; and water pipelines and other facilities that deliver fresh water from local municipal water authorities, the Monongahela River, the Ohio River, local reservoirs, and several regional waterways.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ETRN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Equitrans Midstream Co. (NYSE:ETRN  Free Report).

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New Mexico Educational Retirement Board grew its holdings in shares of Molina Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:MOH  Free Report) by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,800 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Boards holdings in Molina Healthcare were worth $843,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MOH. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Molina Healthcare by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 1,651 shares of the companys stock valued at $551,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in shares of Molina Healthcare by 496.1% during the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 11,534 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,848,000 after purchasing an additional 9,599 shares during the last quarter. Prudential PLC purchased a new stake in shares of Molina Healthcare during the 1st quarter valued at $422,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in shares of Molina Healthcare by 10.1% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 1,296 shares of the companys stock valued at $432,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackay Shields LLC bought a new position in shares of Molina Healthcare during the 1st quarter worth $2,814,000. 98.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Molina Healthcare Stock Performance

Shares of MOH opened at $332.51 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $19.39 billion, a PE ratio of 21.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $318.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $298.29. Molina Healthcare, Inc. has a 12-month low of $256.19 and a 12-month high of $374.00.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Molina Healthcare ( NYSE:MOH Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The company reported $5.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $5.05 by $0.60. The firm had revenue of $8.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.32 billion. Molina Healthcare had a return on equity of 35.87% and a net margin of 2.81%. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $4.55 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Molina Healthcare, Inc. will post 20.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an overweight rating and set a $359.00 price target on shares of Molina Healthcare in a research note on Thursday, September 14th. Truist Financial cut their price target on Molina Healthcare from $380.00 to $365.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 20th. UBS Group assumed coverage on Molina Healthcare in a research note on Tuesday, June 20th. They set a neutral rating and a $310.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley reiterated an overweight rating and set a $365.00 price target on shares of Molina Healthcare in a research note on Friday, July 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Molina Healthcare from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Molina Healthcare has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $351.31.

Read Our Latest Analysis on MOH

Insider Activity at Molina Healthcare

In related news, CAO Maurice Hebert sold 692 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $328.15, for a total transaction of $227,079.80. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,528 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,798,463.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Jeff D. Barlow sold 12,500 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.77, for a total transaction of $3,784,625.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64,973 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $19,671,875.21. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Maurice Hebert sold 692 shares of Molina Healthcare stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $328.15, for a total value of $227,079.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,528 shares in the company, valued at $2,798,463.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 17,938 shares of company stock valued at $5,474,336. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the companys stock.

Molina Healthcare Profile

(Free Report)

Molina Healthcare, Inc provides managed healthcare services to low-income families and individuals under the Medicaid and Medicare programs and through the state insurance marketplaces. It operates in four segments, Medicaid, Medicare, Marketplace, and Other. The company served in across 19 states. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Long Beach, California.

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DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has insisted he will not bow to pressure, threats or blackmail in response to a letter which said that his partys return to Stormont could lead to mass loyalist street protests.

Sir Jeffrey said anyone who thinks that they can exert influence on policy or intimidate our party by making such threats is sadly mistaken.

It follows a letter sent by loyalist activist Jamie Bryson to unionist leaders on behalf of Unionist Voice Policy Studies (UVPS).

In the letter, Mr Bryson argues against the DUP returning to Stormont following the implementation of key elements of the Windsor Framework.

The DUP has been blocking powersharing for more than a year in protest at the internal UK trade barriers created by Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol.

The party says the framework deal struck by the EU and the UK to reform the protocol does not sufficiently address its concerns and has made clear it will not accept a return to devolution until the Government provides further assurances, by way of legislation, over Northern Irelands place in the UK internal market.

Talks between the DUP and the Government have been ongoing over the summer.

One of the main parts of the framework  the green/red lane system for the movement of goods  became operational at Northern Ireland ports on Sunday.

In his letter, Mr Bryson stated: The unionist base, according to all polls, stands firmly behind unionisms principled stand  (Northern Ireland) protocol or power sharing, never both.

A surrendering on these issues by returning to Stormont would  in our analysis  ignite significant instability, and without any doubt precipitate a return to mass street protests.

It would, in our view, also be the case that a significant swathe of grassroots unionism/loyalism would actively electorally campaign against any unionist who had opted for the role to collaborator and implementer in the subjugation and suspension of the union.

In his strongly worded response, seen by the PA news agency, Sir Jeffrey said his party is the main voice of unionism in our sovereign Parliament.

He added: We believe in devolution and are working to ensure that the local institutions are restored on the basis that they are able to command the support of unionists as well as nationalists on a sustainable long-term basis.

With the unanimous support of our party officers the Democratic Unionist Party has spelt out its position in relation to the unacceptable nature of the Northern Ireland Protocol and we have taken resolute political action to bring the EU back to the negotiating table. Many said that was unachievable.

The Windsor Framework represents progress in relation to certain aspects of trade within the United Kingdom and its internal market, but there is more work to do.

We remain engaged in discussions with His Majestys Government about the further wide-ranging changes required to restore Northern Irelands place within the United Kingdom.

The DUP leader added: In the end, having already listened to what others have to say, the Democratic Unionist Party will carefully consider any final Government response to the issues we have articulated and will take its own counsel and decisions based upon what we believe to be in the best interests of Northern Ireland, and its people, whether they agree with us or not or vote for us.

We will not bow to pressure, threats or blackmail, regardless of what source it comes from.

Anyone who thinks that they can exert influence on policy or intimidate our party by making such threats is sadly mistaken and misunderstands who we are or where we have come from.

The Democratic Unionist Partys overriding objective is to make Northern Ireland work, to be prosperous and to thrive as a valued part of the United Kingdom.

In addition to our opposition to the protocol, building prosperity and stability are key to securing the union in a Northern Ireland that is changing and where unionism must broaden its appeal if the union is to be protected for the longer term.

Legislation alone will not protect the union if we lose the battle for the hearts and minds of the people of Northern Ireland.

Under the principle of consent, it is their votes that will ultimately determine our future as part of the United Kingdom.

Mr Bryson said UVPS welcomed the DUP leaders response, none of which was objectionable to the group.

The DUP commitments are clear and unequivocal. They have been stated in Parliament, on platforms and on the pages of Unionist Voice in detailed contributions by the DUP leader, he said in a statement.

Its welcome and absolutely correct the DUP take their own decisions without external impediment (as they have done throughout this campaign) based upon the huge mandate they have been given in presenting arguments some were making before they became fashionable.

Its worth remembering that before taking their strong stand on the Protocol, supported by a large majority of unionist voters, the DUP found themselves at 13% in the polls.

No one in unionism wants to see the largest unionist party to slump in such a way again and, therefore, we will continue to engage and work positively (as the DUP work with many across our community) with Sir Jeffrey and his team in ensuring the fundamental unalterable commitments they have made are delivered.
Leading research and support charity, Breast Cancer Now, is launching a new service in Derry for people with incurable secondary breast cancer.

The new Living with Secondary Breast Cancer group launches in October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month and will bring together people with the disease to talk, listen and learn with others who understand the challenges that secondary breast cancer brings in a relaxed and supportive environment.

The free monthly group begins on Monday, October 9 at 11.00am at the Macmillan Health & Wellbeing Campus in Altnagelvin Hospital. This is the second of the charitys secondary breast cancer groups to launch in Northern Ireland, following a Belfast group set up in 2018.

Breast Cancer Nows monthly Living with Secondary Breast Cancer sessions are facilitated by an experienced counsellor and every few months there is the chance to hear from an expert speaker on topics such as treatment side effects, fatigue and clinical trials.

Brenda McAninley, services development coordinator for Northern Ireland at Breast Cancer Now, said: "We are thrilled to be rolling out such an invaluable support service in Derry-Londonderry to help us be there for more people living with secondary breast cancer across Northern Ireland.

"Secondary breast cancer is full of uncertainties and people tell us that they often feel overlooked or forgotten once receiving the devastating diagnosis. Our Living with Secondary Breast Cancer group offers a warm, friendly space to share whats on your mind with people who understand, to help people feel less alone, as well as provide vital support and crucial information.

"If anyone has any questions at all or would like to register to join the group please do get in touch with us at breastcancernow.org/lwsbc-derrylondonderry or call 0345 077 1893.

Mary Toner, from Derry is living with secondary breast cancer, and said: "My diagnosis of secondary breast cancer in April 2020 was just as lockdown had begun and I felt extremely isolated in coming to terms with my diagnosis.

"Breast Cancer Now were a lifeline with their online support which resulted in me joining the in-person group in Belfast, which I have attended almost every month for the last two years.

"I am thrilled that the charity is expanding their support to the North West and Ill now be able to attend the sessions closer to where I live.

I find Breast Cancer Nows secondary breast cancer group offers me the opportunity of new friendships with people who understand exactly what youre going through.

"Furthermore, the guest speakers allow the chance to explore a wide range of health related topics selected specifically by the group members.

"I will look forward to attending Breast Cancer Nows Living with Secondary Breast Cancer group in October and I encourage anyone with secondary breast cancer to consider joining  for me its a tonic each month."

Ann McBrien, from Belfast and living with secondary breast cancer, said: "I am delighted that Breast Cancer Now has established a second support group for people living with secondary breast cancer in Northern Ireland. This will provide much needed support for people in the North West.

"I was extremely fortunate that the charitys Belfast group had launched just six months prior to my diagnosis in 2019. It was there for me from day one, and continues to provide support to me and many others.

"The group was invaluable in those early days when I wanted to talk to others in a similar position. Also, because the group is facilitated by a trained therapist it is an extremely safe and inclusive space.

"The thing that helped most in those early days, and still to this day, is the quarterly educational sessions. Sessions like Ask The Oncologist or Pharmacist, and discussing clinical trials and the benefits of exercise provide information and empower you to understand your cancer treatments, manage the side effects, and live the best you can."

Register online at breastcancernow.org/lwsbc-derrylondonderry or call Breast Cancer Now on 0345 077 1893.
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The Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) GP Practice Social Work Teams are all aboard for the first Chat-Tea Train event in conjunction with Derry City and Strabane District Councils positive ageing month campaign, and the International Day for Older People.

This free event aims to encourage conversations and provide opportunities for older people (60+ years) to hop on board the train to chat, connect, and engage with others over a cuppa.

Shona McEleney, GP Social Work Assistant, Glendermott Medical Practice, Waterside Health Centre said: We are very excited to welcome members of the local community who are over 60 years old to the first Chat-Tea Train event on Monday 02 October 2023 starting from Waterside Train Station, Derry and travelling to Coleraine.

Derry City and Strabane Council Mayor Patricia Logue chatted with passengers and everyone enjoyed the wonderful performances before the train set off at the train station by Lilliput Theatre Company with their incredible singing and dancing which focused on reminiscence before boarding the 10.43am train to Coleraine.

Once the train set off passengers were entertained by popular local Ukulele Band U3A who performed a combination of 22 feel-good songs throughout the train trip.

There was plenty of singing and clapping along to popular tunes with a few passengers taking the opportunity to dance! U3A also performed on the return journey to the delight of passengers and we wish to express our thanks to them for entertaining us all. A very enjoyable day out by everyone.

Shona added: People were able to stop for tea/coffee or lunch on arrival at the train station, have some free time in Coleraine town centre, and then met back at the train station in the afternoon in time for the return journey at 13:43pm and arrived back in Derry for around 14:22pm. Those who wished to spend more time in Coleraine were free to get on a later train at their own convenience."

Shona continued: This was a hugely successful event and we hope it will benefit so many in the local community to help reduce social isolation and loneliness and provide an opportunity for people to reminisce about their early childhood memories of travelling by train. 

Liliput Theatre Company perform at Waterside Train Station

We are grateful to Derry City and Strabane Council Mayor and Translink for supporting this event. Thank you so much for your kindness it is very much appreciated.

Mark Montgomery, Area Route Manager at Translink: "This is a great initiative to encourage more people to utilise their local bus and rail services and build confidence.

"Public transport is so much more than taking people from A to B. It helps people better connect, whether it's getting people to appointments, social groups, or to visit friends and family. So many of our passengers also use it as an opportunity to chat with other passengers and staff, whom they get to know and look forward to seeing regularly, which is why Chat-Tea Carriages is such a great opportunity to bring people together and help them make their own connections going forward.
Farmers face the twice the level of 'likely depression' than the general population and high levels of stress associated with farm work, according to recent research.

Irish research using a validated survey has indicated that farmers have poorer wellbeing than the general population and have approximately twice the level of likely depression (6% vs 3%) than the general population.

Mental health can be impacted by conditions prevailing in farming such as weather, climate change, prices, or financial concerns.

Teagascs National Farm Survey (NFS) study indicates that in 2018, 57% of farmers reported experiencing stress resulting from their farm work. This webinar will provide participants with the opportunity to reflect on how they manage their physical and mental health in addition to providing practical tips along the way.

Teagasc will mark World Mental Health Day on Tuesday, 10 October by hosting a Webinar entitled: Maintaining your Mental Health in Farming 10.00 -11.00am; farm safety issues associated with mental health will also be considered.

The Webinar will be chaired by Ms Finola Colgan, Development Officer, Mental Health Ireland. Speaking in advance of the webinar, Ms Colgan stated: Virtually everyone faces a mental health challenge at some point in their lives, so it is vital that we have the resources to deal with such a challenge.

Webinar Speakers include: Dr Denis OHora, Lecturer in the School of Psychology, University of Galway will address the psychological challenges to mental health and safety to farmers, who are mainly autonomous workers with high job demands.

Farmer and Mental Health Advocate, George Graham, will outline his journey with mental health and approaches to maintaining mental health and safety particularly tailored for farmers.

Dr Diana van Doorn, Post-Doctoral Fellow at Teagasc will explore the links between occupational stress, wellbeing and cardiovascular health, measured as part of the Farmers Have Hearts  Cardiovascular Health Programme.

Dr John McNamara and Francis Bligh, Teagasc Health and Safety Specialists will outline advisory supports available to aid farmers to maintain positive mental health through farm management.

A Q and A Session, chaired by Ms Finola Colgan, Mental Health Ireland, will follow the presentations.

The Webinar is a public event and is free of charge. Those interested in Mental Health among farmers are most welcome to register.

To register for this webinar click on this link: https://www.teagasc.ie/news-- events/national-events/events/ maintaining-mental-health-and- safety-in-challenging-time.php
The Queen of Jordan has said a Belfast community group is helping refugees to thrive and find themselves again as she visited the organisation.

She also said the group was helping to restore refugees dignity and that nobody chooses to become a refugee.

Queen Rania was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and has been a vocal advocate for refugee and womens rights.

The Queen visited the Conway Education Centre (CEC), a community-based education facility situated between the Falls Road and the Shankill Road in west Belfast, and met members of the refugee community who have made their home in Belfast.

It was so encouraging to see a woman in her 60s or 70s saying how she feels like she has been reborn here, Queen Rania said.

In most countries refugees are just trying to survive, whereas here you see them really thriving and finding themselves again.

And so the example that you have here is something that we can really look at.

The people of Northern Ireland and the community centres are looking at the refugees, the human behind the refugee, theyre looking at the person, not just the political tool that sometimes leaders use for fear-mongering or for getting more votes in elections.

In 2015, the CEC introduced a number of programmes to serve Belfasts growing refugee population, including English language classes and a homework club for primary and secondary school students.

Based on the feedback of refugees participating in courses, Conway recently launched a capacity-building programme to help adult refugees build on their existing skills and enhance their independence.

The children and adults who gathered at the centre on Tuesday told Queen Rania about how these programmes helped them to establish themselves in Northern Ireland.

The Queen also spoke to several of the older women in Arabic.

She said the CEC enabled them to build relationships as well as receive support.

This is really giving value to the human and understanding that nobody chooses to become a refugee, she said.

I think in all this debate and all these passions that are elicited from talking about refugees, people really forget that its not a choice.

Nobody wants to be uprooted from their country and its not just the home that they lose, its the people and places that theyre familiar with that defined their lives and its so difficult to be uprooted from all of that.

So having a welcoming environment like the Conway Education Centre, that provides education which is really an entry point for young people, its not only a basic right, but it helps them restore their dignity, gives them a chance of life and just gives them hope.

Queen Rania also said there was an opportunity for the exchange of ideas between Jordan and Northern Ireland in dealing with the global refugee crisis.

I think other countries like Jordan can have these kinds of partnerships and cooperation so that we can exchange experiences because, as you know, in Jordan, one in eight people in my country is a refugee. Weve taken in over a million Syrian refugees, she said.

So I think we have a lot in common but again, I just want to pay tribute truly to the people of Northern Ireland for their generosity and hospitality, and the example that they set for everyone in the world, so thank you.

The One Young World Summit has brought thousands of young leaders from over 190 countries to meet in Belfast to discuss global issues such as hunger and climate change.

The summit has been recognised by the City of Belfast and the UK Government as being part of the official celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

Queen Rania gave the keynote address at the opening ceremony.

Mona Arnous is a refugee and volunteer at the CEC who originates from Syria and learned to speak English aided by teachers from the centre.

Ms Arnous, who is hoping to go on to study nursing at Queens University Belfast, said it was an honour to meet Queen Rania.

I never thought I would maybe one day meet the Queen herself. It was a shock for me when I received the invitation from Conway. I think shes such a wonderful person. Shes very sweet, she said.

When she came in I was just fine. Its just like talking to a normal person. She made me feel really nice and calm. She was such a chill person.

Pauline Kersten, centre manager at the CEC, said the visit was amazing.

The Queen had an opportunity to get introduced to all of them and to have a chat, she said.

Because they have so many stories, to talk to the refugees about how their life in Belfast is, the services that they received from Conway and how that has helped them in settling in Belfast and making a life for themselves.

Ms Kersten also said that she hopes the Queens visit will highlight the need for a refugee integration strategy in Northern Ireland.

I think the visit of the Queen helps to highlight the issue that refugees are not only people that need charity, but that they also have a lot to offer.

But I think as long as there is no official refugee integration strategy, we dont have any policy on accommodation of refugees.

So that means that many refugees and asylum seekers are housed in areas of multiple deprivation where its already difficult to survive.

So if you add big groups of newcomers to that you create more community tension. You dont provide opportunities for integration, you create community tension.

So I think thats something for the powers-to-be to look at so that theres a better policy or that there is a policy  because at the moment theres not  that theres a policy of settling refugees and asylum seekers in all the different areas of Northern Ireland and not only in the poorest and most deprived areas.

The One Young World Summit will continue in Belfast until Thursday.
A mural symbolising that young people will inherit the Earth has been unveiled in Belfast as part of a global leadership summit.

To celebrate the One Young World Summit 2023, Tourism Northern Ireland has collaborated with a local artist on the work that was displayed in Belfast City Centre on Wednesday.

Belfast-born artist Kev Largey created the piece inspired by Northern Irelands Embrace a Giant Spirit brand combined with the themes of the global Summit.

The dynamic street art was unveiled at the ICC Belfast to more than 2,200 international delegates and young leaders from over 190 countries.

Mr Largey said the mural shows that the Earths future is in the hands of the next generation.

I was incredibly excited to collaborate with Tourism Northern Ireland on this work, he said.

It is not an exaggeration to suggest the future of the world lies in the hands of the next generation, like the 2,000 young leaders who are gathering in Belfast this week.

I wanted my artwork to symbolise this  these young people will literally inherit the Earth.

Mr Largey said the artwork encapsulates the plenary themes being explored by young leaders during the summit, including peace & reconciliation, the global food crisis, education, climate emergency and mental health.

He added: Education is represented by the book thats in the kids back pocket. Peace and reconciliation, obviously, is represented by the dove and the olive branch.

The food crisis, which is also represented by the apple. The embrace a giant spirit from the tourist board is an embrace by young people from our planet.

He said: We have to do the best we can as adult humans,including our politicians that sort of leave something decent for them to work with, whenever were all dying out.

Mr Largey said mural culture was a massive part of Belfasts cultural legacy.

There was a massive mural culture always here from year dot, not always positive, but mostly political stuff, he said.

And then, as years sort of progressed, graffiti and street art became more sort of prevalent. post the Good Friday Agreement, then the mural culture continued, and it became not just about us and them or green and orange.

It sort of became a bit more colourful and something that sort of makes the city a lot more inviting.

Tourism NI director of marketing Naomi Waite said the mural exhibited the spirit of Northern Ireland as thousands explore the region this week

Thousands of young people from all over the planet have been in Northern Ireland this week and it has been a wonderful opportunity for us to highlight what a world class destination we are, she said.

In working with Kev to deliver this fantastic piece of street-art, we sought to reinforce exactly what Northern Ireland  Embrace a Giant Spirit means.

This celebrates not only the arrival of One Young World 2023 in Belfast but also draws from the best of our local art and innovation, highlighting our giant spirit in a bold and evocative way.

These young people may well be our future leaders and we know they will leave Northern Ireland having had four of the most incredible days of their lives.

I thank Kev for being part of something that the delegates can enjoy and celebrates the hosting of this important Summit in Northern Ireland.
HIGHLIGHTS For the first time, Apple used Google as its default search engine on Safari in 2002.

Apple appears to be enhancing the capabilities of its search engine.

Apples senior vice president of services, said that there wasnt anybody who could overtake Apple in searching the internet.

Google has been everyones go-to search engine. Even those who use Apple products usually use Google as Apple has made it their default search engine for all Apple devices, owing to their deal. But what if I told you that Apple could be working on its own in-house search engine? Reports suggest that the California-based tech giant could be working on making its web search capabilities better in order to negotiate better with Google.

Also read: Apple search engine to take on Googles but it may take some time: Report

Googles search engine opened on an iPhone

Lets first understand the search engine deal between Google and Apple. For the first time, Apple used Google as its default search engine on Safari in 2002. The deal has continued since, with many revisions obviously. Thanks to this deal, Apple annually makes around $8 billion.

Now, according to a report by Bloombergs Mark Gurnman, Apple is indeed improving its search engines skills. They hope to use this improved in-house search engine to negotiate their deal with Google. On top of that, they are even working on the next generation of their search engine for the Apple apps. This project is being led by Google executive and machine learning and AI head at Apple John Giannandrea, and is code-named Pegasus. With Pegasus, they are planning to offer better results. Currently, it is available on limited Apple apps and will later be up on the Apple Store too.

Apple search engines render

If the company removes Google as its default server then it could earn big, and the revenue could match up to the levels of Apple Watch.

Also read: Google trolled Apple over SMS feature yet again: Heres why

Last week during the Google Antitrust Case, Eddy Cue, Apples senior vice president of services, said that there wasnt anybody who could overtake Apple in searching the internet. He said, There wasnt a viable alternative to Google at that time. And going with any other was never something that we ever truly considered. Technically, he said Apple was the best.

Now lets see where this development heads.
Auto and GenAI will be growth drivers for semiconductor market growth in 2024, according to DIGITIMES Research

Even though major players including Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron have already cut production significantly, the prices of DRAM and NAND Flash memory products took a nose dive in the first half of 2023. The global foundry industry's combined revenues in 2023 are also expected to shrink more than 10% on year after growth of nearly 30% in 2022, according to DIGITIMES Research. What is the chance for a market recovery in Q4? And how about 2024?

There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. According to WSTS statistics, the global semiconductor market's sales value in 2Q23 reached $124.5 billion, marking a growth of 4.2% compared to the previous quarter (Q1 2023) but a decline of 17.3% compared to 2Q22. Will the rebound continue?

DIGITIMES Research Center Consultant and Director Tony Huang replied to DIGITIMES Asia's questions to share insights on the semiconductor market outlook for the coming year.

Q1. The performance of the semiconductor industry in 2023 seems to have fallen short of expectations. What were the main reasons behind that?

Shipment of main applications of semiconductors, including smartphones and PCs (desktops and notebooks), continued to decline in 2023, triggering significant oversupply in DRAM and Nand Flash products and subsequent price tumbles. The end demand for many electronic devices remained weak. Those factors combined to contribute to increased inventory at the downstream customers' end and the customers' efforts of destocking are expected to result in a 10% decline in revenues in the global semiconductor market from a year ago. The hit to the memory product market is especially severe, with sales declining around 40% year over year.

Q2: How do you see the semiconductor market demand for 2024?

Smartphones, PCs, and servers are the three major applications for semiconductors. We think smartphone shipment in 2024 is likely to resume positive growth, and PC shipment will see single-digit growth. In 2023, semiconductors for servers have exceeded that for PCs in revenue and became the third-largest application market (behind smartphones and automotive) for semiconductors. We estimate that global server shipment in 2024 is likely to enjoy single-digit growth as well, which is conducive to semiconductor market recovery. DIGITIMES Research projects that smartphones, PCs, and servers demand for semiconductors are likely to account for 40% of total global demand in 2024.

Q3: What are the products to contribute to the other 60% of the market demand in 2024?

The main visible growth momentum comes from the automotive market. Due to the popularity of electrical vehicles and the development of the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) and smart cockpit, automotive application is taking up a higher percentage of the semiconductor markets. Companies such as NXP and Qualcomm also have collaborated with TSMC, UMC, and GlobalFoundries to develop advanced automotive chips. We anticipate automotive application processors (AP) to see robust growth in the next three years.

Semiconductors used for industrial applications did not see sales decline in 2023, but neither did their growth meet prior expectations. The reason was a weaker-than-anticipated Internet of Things (IoT) market demand. However, we see the potential of a more than 10% rebound in demand for industrial semiconductors in 2024, because the demand for EV charging poles, renewable energy infrastructure, security monitoring systems, and factory automation are rapidly rising. STMicroelectronics, NXP, TI, and analog devices have noticed the tremendous potential of microcontroller units (MCUs) in edge computing. MCUs integrated with AI capabilities are expected to enjoy rapid growth in the next few years.

Q4: Any notable driver of growth in the next 5 years for the semiconductor industry?

The development of generative AI will boost the growth of capital expenditure related to data centers. We anticipate semiconductors used for cloud AI to be the main driver for investment in 2024. Currently, GPUs are the chips used for cloud AI, and some of the cloud service providers are starting to customize their own chips for the purpose of lowering costs and optimizing energy consumption efficiency. For example, Broadcom has been working with Google to develop TPU chips, while most of the customized chips designed by cloud service companies have been manufactured by the foundry of TSMC. Therefore it is fair to say, that GPU and the aforementioned customized chips for cloud services will be the main drivers for sales growth for TSMC in the next five years.

Q5: How about memory? How has it been doing in 2023 and what do you see for its future outlook?

Among the various semiconductor categories, the proportion of memory in the overall market sales fluctuates the most volatile. Memory once accounted for a high proportion of more than 30%, but the proportion will drop to 17% in 2023. As the major memory manufacturers have significantly reduced the capital expenditures and capacity utilization of DRAM and NAND Flash, it is expected that the supply of DRAM and NAND Flash will change from a surplus to a shortage in 2024, which will significantly increase the sales amount and share in the overall semiconductor market (the proportion is expected to increase to more than 20%), but the growth in sales amount is still mainly determined by the growth rate of shipment of smartphones and PCs.

The bright spots of the memory market in the future are the increase in demand for server memory, both for general servers and AI servers, where the demand for DDR or High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) will increase significantly; and in the automotive market, where ADAS and smart cockpit will drive demand for DRAM, NAND Flash, optoelectronic semiconductors for sensing, application processors to outperform other semiconductors.

About the analyst:

Tony Huang is DIGITIMES Research Center consultant and director. He has an MSc degree in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University (NTHU). He specializes in the semiconductor industry and the flat panel display industry.

Event announcement

In 2024, the semiconductor sector faces pivotal shifts as demand for silicon wafers varies and global equipment spending adapts. At the forefront of these changes are innovations in High-Performance Computing (HPC) and AI server supply chains. DIGITIMES Asia will spotlight these transformations at the "2024 Next-Gen Intelligence Symposium" on November 3rd, 2023. The event, featuring insights from DIGITIMES' senior analysts Tony Huang and Jim Hsiao along with AI server experts from Supermicro, aims to offer a deep understanding of the evolving tech landscape and Asia's supply chain dynamics.

Register and join us in person at the symposium on November 3rd, 2023, to be part of a pioneering discussion on the AI supply chain and its outlook: https://www.digitimes.com.tw/seminar/DIGITIMESASIA_20231103/

Tony Huang. Credit: DIGITIMES
China urges semiconductor companies, carmakers to build automotive semiconductor supply chain

In a recent international conference in Shenzhen, the Chinese government said semiconductor companies and carmakers should strengthen collaboration on making automotive semiconductors domestically. Car companies also plan to invest jointly in the segment to raise self-sufficiency in semiconductors.

According to Nikkei and some Chinese media reports, the 2023 Automotive Semiconductor Ecosystem Summit and Global Automotive Electronics Expo were held on September 2th6 and 27th. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), local government officials in Shenzhen, carmakers, tier-1 suppliers and automotive-grade chip manufacturers all joined the event.

Yang Xudong, deputy director of the electronic information department at MIIT, said China's semiconductor industry should grow its production capacity and form strategies to facilitate cooperation with automakers.

He said China has expanded its car chip portfolio. The government will guide companies to enhance technology development and capacity, building capabilities for testing and producing automotive-grade products.

The meeting focused on improving China's ability to manufacture automotive semiconductors locally. GAC Aion said further collaboration between semiconductor makers and parts suppliers is required to increase the number of China-made semiconductors.

The number of semiconductors used in an EV is twice that in an internal combustion engine vehicle. Self-driving technology needs even more semiconductors, between 1,300 and 1,500.

An alliance regarding automotive electronics investment was established during the event. Members include many investment arms of Dongfeng Motor, SAIC, Geely, Xiaomi, Nio and other automotive industry players. Semiconductor R&D and manufacturing require significant funds. The companies' joint investment will help diversify risks.

As the tension between the semiconductor industries of China and the US continues, the conference in Shenzhen concentrates on the development of China's automotive industry. However, US-based Qualcomm also participated in the event, promoting its car chip solutions. The company emphasized its ability to realize 5nm architecture and experiences of supporting 100 Chinese car models, aiming to expand its business in China.

China is trying to set up a comprehensive automotive semiconductor supply chain by enhancing local R&D and manufacturing efforts and gradually banning the use of chips made in Europe, the US and Japan.

Statistics from China-based semiconductor research firms showed that the country saw the automotive semiconductor market reach CNY158.3 billion (US$21.7 billion) in 2022. About 7% represented the China-made semiconductors.
US reportedly warns China on chipmaking tool export curb update

As the anniversary of the US's export ban against China approaches, the White House is reportedly expected to impose stricter curbs on advanced technologies in early October, which the US had warned China.

Reuters quoted an unnamed US government official saying that the Biden administration planned to update the export curbs against China unveiled on October 7, 2022, expanding the restrictions on more chipmaking tools in early October this year, adding that the US officials had talked about it with their Chinese counterparts in recent weeks. Meanwhile, US may also target advanced packaging against China.

As the APEC summit scheduled for November in San Francisco looms, the US has hoped for a possible meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. However, the Chinese government has not officially confirmed Xi's attendance at the APEC summit.

According to Reuters, the US warned about the forthcoming update of export bans to China in advance, aiming to prevent deterioration in bilateral relations ahead of the potential summit.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that US senators are going to visit China and meet with Xi, and sources told Bloomberg that they may raise the issue of China's ban on Micron's products used in critical information infrastructures.

US Senator Mike Crapo told Bloomberg that the visit to China is to engage with them. The trip follows similar moves by US senior officials to visit China, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

After the US ban on semiconductor equipment exported to China in October, Japan and the Netherlands joined the ranks of imposing curbs against China, leading to a surge in imports of chipmaking tools in the past months by China. It remains to be seen whether the rumored update on export bans on chipmaking tools may further impact US-based providers, such as Applied Materials, Lam Research, and KLA. Meanwhile, Korean media reported that China-based semiconductor companies had localized sourcing of about 40% of chipmaking tools.
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Four men have appeared in court charged in relation to Irelands largest ever drugs haul, bringing the total number of people charged in relation to the major seizure to seven.

Cocaine worth an estimated 160 million euro (139 million) was found on a bulk cargo ship off the Irish coast last week in an operation involving the Irish army and Gardai.

Armed Gardai were stationed outside Mallow District Court ahead of the accused mens appearance on Tuesday.

The four men were charged with possession of drugs, namely cocaine, on September 24 for the purpose of supplying it within the Irish State.

Cumali Ozgen, a 48-year-old with an address in the Netherlands; Saeid Hassani, a 37-year-old Iranian national; Mykhalio Gavryk, a 30-year-old Ukrainian national; and Vitaliy Vlasoi, a 31-year-old Ukrainian national, appeared before judge Colm Roberts on Tuesday morning.

Detective Garda David Moran said that Gavryk was charged on October 2 and made no reply when cautioned.

Detective Garda Martin Donovan said that Ozgen, who required a Dutch translator, made no reply when he was charged and cautioned.

Det Garda Val Russell told the court that Vlasoi, was charged and cautioned on October 2 at 8.43pm.

The court heard that Vlasoi replied: I saw straight or direct evidence of the connection between the captain and another vessel, or with somebody else who he contacted. It was shown as straight evidence, I didnt see straight evidence against myself.

Detective Garda Lorraine Brennan said Hassani, for whom proceedings were translated through Farsi, was arrested on October 2 and made no reply to the charge.

The men did not speak except to confirm what type of translators they would need.

All four men were remanded in custody and are due to appear in court again on October 10 via video link.

Solicitors for both Vlasoi and Hassani noted to the judge that they would be making a request to board the ship in order to understand the geographics of the vessel before any major structural changes are made.

The judge noted the intention and said it would be a matter for a later date.

A total of 2,253kg of cocaine was found on the MV Matthew cargo ship after members of the Irish Army Ranger Wing captured the vessel off the coast by abseiling from a helicopter.

Police believe the cocaine, seized after the dramatic military operation at sea, was destined for distribution beyond Ireland, potentially into the UK and continental Europe.

A fishing trawler that grounded off the coast of Co Wexford days before the seizure was also being monitored as part of the operation, amid suspicions it was en route to rendezvous with the cargo ship.

Three men have already appeared at courts in Wexford and Waterford in relation to the major seizure.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has denied that the criminal justice system in Ireland is collapsing as barristers go on strike over fees.

It follows The Bar of Irelands recommendation of a one-day withdrawal of service for criminal law barristers.

It comes on the same day as rank and file gardai officers began a protest over roster issues by refusing to undertake voluntary overtime.

Mr Varadkar told the Dail that the issue of criminal legal aid fees was being examined by ministers as part of the budgetary process.

Criminal barristers say their fees remain below 2002 levels in nominal terms, following a range of cuts applied during the financial crisis.

They say the 2008 government also unilaterally broke the link between fees paid to barristers with increases applied under public sector pay agreements in 2008.

Barristers say they have suffered a pay cut in real terms of more than 40% over the past 20 years while every other group of workers in the criminal justice system has seen pay restoration implemented.

They say this is despite a range of additional reforms and changed practices being delivered by barristers.

The action, which is in pursuit of determining the fees payable to barristers by the Director of Public Prosecutions under the legal aid scheme, comes one week ahead of the Budget next Tuesday.

More than 100 barristers gathered outside the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin on Tuesday morning as part of the action.

Speaking to reporters, chair of the Council of The Bar of Ireland Sara Phelan said there is pent-up frustration among members.

She added: What brought us to this point is the failure of successive governments to actually reverse pay cuts that were applied during the austerity era, when the reversal of those pay cuts was actually recommended by the Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2018.

Were expecting the minister and I suppose the various ministers and indeed the Government to take notice of the fact that we are here.

There is a show of support for this action, barristers are very frustrated, and hopefully there will be progress in the budgetary process.

Ms Phelan warned a pipeline of young criminal practitioners will leave the system if the issue is not resolved.

She said: Our stats show that about two thirds of criminal practitioners leave the criminal bar after six years and if we dont have that pipeline coming through, we wont have an experienced skillset amongst criminal practitioners, both to prosecute serious crime and, therefore, victims of crime wont have their rights vindicated in a timely manner.

Secondly, we wont have experienced defence practitioners to defend those accused of serious crime who obviously stand innocent until proven otherwise.

Chair of the Criminal State Bar Committee Sean Guerin said the DPP was unable to find senior counsel for serious cases on two occasions this year.

He said: The unavailability of counsel with those skills and that experience is a threat to the integrity of the criminal justice system.

Mr Guerin stressed the dispute was for barristers both defending and prosecuting crime.

He said: At every level, engagement with the criminal justice system as a citizen requires a sufficient cohort of skilled and experienced practitioners to be available to act for people.

Ms Phelan said she was hopeful there will be a change for barristers in the budgetary process but said members would have to decide on the next step if that does not happen.

Asked about the impact on court proceedings, she said Tuesday, which is the first full day of the new legal year, was chosen to avoid disruption for the most number of people.

Speaking during leaders questions in the Dail, Labour TD Aodhan ORiordain told Taoiseach Leo Varadkar the criminal justice system had effectively collapsed under his watch.

He said: Fine Gael has held the Department of Justice in an unbroken manner for 12 years, but today the criminal courts are not sitting because criminal barristers have withdrawn their labour.

Fine Gael has nobody else to blame. Why are you collectively bystanders as the criminal justice system falls almost in its entirety today in Ireland?

What have you done since July 12 to today to try to resolve that dispute?

Mr Varadkar responded: On behalf of the government we recognise the important and essential role played by barristers in undertaking criminal legal aid work.

(Justice) Minister (Helen) McEntee is currently engaged in discussions with the Minister for Public Expenditure on the issue of criminal legal aid fees as part of the budgetary process.

He added: I dont think the criminal justice system is collapsing, this is a one-day withdrawal of labour.

Barristers are protesting and theyve every right to protest.

I can understand the case they are making.
Sean McGirr has been announced as the new creative director of iconic fashion house Alexander McQueen.

The Irish designer takes over from Sarah Burton, who held the position for 13 years and staged her final catwalk show last week in Paris.

Dublin-born McGirr was previously head of ready-to-wear at JW Anderson, the eponymous brand of Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson.

A graduate of Londons prestigious Central Saint Martins fashion school, he began his career as an assistant at Burberry and Vogue Hommes Japan before joining the creative team at Uniqlo.

Before joining JW Anderson, McGirr was womenswear designer at Belgian fashion brand Dries Van Noten.

We are delighted to welcome Sean McGirr as creative director, Gianfilippo Testa, CEO of Alexander McQueen, said in a statement.

With his experience, personality, and creative energy, he will bring a powerful creative language to Alexander McQueen while building on its unique heritage.

Francois-Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO of Kering, added: Alexander McQueen is a house we are passionate about, and we are confident that Sean McGirr will be able to pursue its journey with a new creative impetus. We look forward to opening this new chapter in the history of this unique brand.

The British luxury fashion house was founded in 1992 by Lee Alexander McQueen.

Burton was appointed to the role of creative director in 2010 following the death of McQueen, having previously worked alongside the ground-breaking designer for 14 years.
The proposed new Garda operating model, which would see Louth joined with the Cavan-Monaghan district was raised in Leinster House again last week by Dundalk TD Ruairi O Murchu who had a Topical Issue selected on the matter.

With Justice Minister Helen McEntee in Brussels on government business, it fell to Minister of State Martin Heydon to tell the Sinn Fein TD that the operating model was entirely up to Garda management and not politicians.

Deputy O Murchu said the proposed amalgamation of three counties policing "throws up significant issues". He told Minister Heydon how the Dundalk, Ardee and Drogheda Joint Policing Committees had discussed the new operational model, alongside opposition to the new roster, and had decided to request from Commissioner Drew Harris and from Minister McEntee that the plan be stalled, reviewed and overturned.

Deputy O Murchu and his party colleague, Deputy Imelda Munster, had written to Commissioner Harris and had received the following response to their pleas:

"Following a recent comprehensive review conducted by An Garda Siochana into the composition of Divisions with three counties under the Operating Model structure the Garda Senior Leadership Team has made the decision that Louth and Cavan/Monaghan will be amalgamated into one Division.

"The operating model is already implemented in seven divisions: Limerick, Kerry, Cork city, Galway, DMR South Central, Mayo-Roscommon-Longford and Clare-Tipperary."

He said there were plans to amalgamate Donegal and Sligo-Leitrim but that was reviewed and overturned and, therefore, it is on that basis that it makes sense to reconsider, asking the Minister to engage with the Commissioner and his team to review it.

Deputy O Murchu said: "I do not have to tell anybody about the particular issues An Garda Siochana faces and the very important work it does.

"In my home town of Dundalk, three gardai were injured, one of them more seriously than the others, and I wish them well. They were rammed by a stolen car close to Pearse Park. That is the reality of what they must deal with and the work they must do when they leave their homes in the morning.

"There were significant issues in Drogheda. No deputy is unaware of the feud there and the significant operation it took through Operation STRATUS to deal with some of those criminal gangs. That is not to say all those issues have been dealt with.

"As much as some streamlining is being offered in the new model, it does not make sense to me that Louth with its towns of Dundalk and Drogheda with their significant crime rates would be put in with Cavan and Monaghan and that there would be a single superintendent with responsibility for intelligence-led operations and serious crime, including murder investigations, across that area."

In response, Minister Heydon acknowledged that people have concerns, but said: "This structure is about trusting the Commissioner and the senior management team in An Garda Siochana to make those correct decisions, deploy the resources in the best possible way using the new operating model, which I know the Commission feels very strongly is much more appropriate to the level of policing that is needed in Ireland in this modern era, and face those challenges down."
The loved ones of a Louth woman who died in a crash in Australia are seeking help to repatriate her body to Ireland.

Carol Early from Drogheda died in a two-vehicle traffic crash on the afternoon of September 30 in Priestdale, Queensland.

According to Queensland Police Service, a sedan collided with a utility vehicle on the roundabout at Priestdale Road and both vehicles then hit a power pole before bursting into flames.

Ms Early, who was a passenger in the utility, died at the scene.

The two male drivers were taken to the Princess Alexandra Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Investigations are continuing in Queensland.

A fundraiser has been launched on behalf of Carol's husband, Tony Buckley, to raise money to return Carol's remains to Ireland.

A statement on the Go Fund Me fundraising page states: "We are fund raising for Tony Buckley, husband to his beloved wife Carol. Tony and Carol had gone about making themselves a new life in Australia when they were involved in a fatal car crash at Priestdale in Brisbane on Saturday the 30th of september.

"Their car was struck by another vehicle at speed, pinning it against a power pole. Tony is now faced with the costs of the funeral and returning Carol to her native soil of Ireland. Please help us help Tony take Carols remains home."

The campaign has raised over $30,000 so far.

To donate, please click here.
Cheques for blind welfare allowance being sent to an elderly woman in Cork were still being cashed every month, up to 19 months after she died.

This situation was described yesterday at Cork District Court, although the matter was discovered by the Health Service Executive more than five years ago.

The facts of the matter are that Margaret Quilligan died in May 2016 at the age of 72, but the welfare payments were still being paid out and cashed until March 2018.

Sergeant Gearoid Davis said the cheques were lodged to a number of accounts. At Cork District Court, one woman who had two of the cheques lodged to her own account in that period pleaded guilty to theft by deception in respect of those two cheques.

Judge Olann Kelleher imposed a sentence of eight months, suspended, on Teresa Quilligan of 5 Mount St Josephs Close, Cork, in respect of those two counts. Ms Quilligan is a daughter of the deceased.

Judge Kelleher said:

It was a terrible breach of trust, taking advantage of the fact that her mother was deceased  it is appalling.

Imposing the sentence, the judge said he was taking into consideration the limited number of the defendants previous convictions.

Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said the 507 taken was being repaid in court now.

She was a carer for her mother, who was substantially challenged in relation to her eyesight, he said. Two of the cheques were encashed by my client [towards paying her mothers funeral expenses].

She did the wrong thing, maybe for a reasonable motive. She is a 54-year-old lady with very limited circumstances.

Outlining the background to the case, Sergeant Gearoid Davis said the late Mrs Quilligan was in receipt of blind welfare allowance since November 2014.

A payment of 253.50 was paid by cheque each month and posted to her address, he told the court.

The HSE discovered in March 2018 that Mrs Quilligan had died in May 2016. The monthly payments had continued during the period May 2016 to March 2018, as the department had not been notified of the death.

The overall loss to the HSE was 5,194.70.

Detective Garda Anne Flynn investigated the matter and obtained financial records relating to 19 cheques which had been issued and lodged to bank accounts during the period in question.

Some cheques issued were lodged to a bank account of Teresa Quilligan, daughter of the deceased.

Teresa Quilligan was obviously aware that her mother had passed away, but continued to benefit from these cheques. She stated that she used the money for funeral expenses.

Two of the cheques were lodged to her account, which amounted to 507. She accepted she knew that by lodging the cheques that she was committing an offence.

While reference was made to the lodgement of cheques to other accounts, only Quilligan has appeared in court in relation to the case so far.
Tanaiste Micheal Martin sat down with University College Cork lecturer and former chairman of the Fiscal Advisory Council Seamus Coffey in the latest episode of his new podcast.

In the latest episode of the Fianna Fail leaders podcast In Conversation, Seamus Coffey, a lecturer in the Department of Economics at UCC, discussed a range of issues affecting ordinary people daily.

With Budget 2024 approaching, the discussion centred around issues including the high cost of living, the performance of the economy, and what should be prioritised next month to ensure the delivery of a progressive budget focused on delivering improvements for households, especially those with low- and middle-earners.

Mr Coffey offered his own assessment of the current Irish economy, touching on issues such as employment, inward migration and a growing population, and also discussed the threats and challenges that lie ahead, including current housing difficulties.

More episodes of In Conversation will be available later this year.
A TOTAL of 10 inmates in Cork Prison have been left with no option but to sleep on mattresses on the floor of their cells as the facility struggles to cope with overcrowding.

An Irish Prison Service spokesperson confirmed the figure was as of September 29, 2023.

The Echo understands that each of the 10 prisoners was confined to cells with two other inmates, both of whom had beds.

Irish Penal Reform Trust executive director Saoirse Brady described the measures as inhumane. Repeatedly, Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has been sounding the alarm on overcrowding across the prison estate, she told The Echo.

In February of this year, we saw the combined capacity of prisons hit 100% and even though prisons are already full, this has continued to increase over the last number of months to reach 102% capacity.

As these numbers continue to rise, news of 10 people sleeping on mattresses in Cork prison paints a stark picture of the extent of the issue.

She warned of the long-term implications this may have for society: No one should have to live in the conditions were hearing about.

Ms Brady said the situation will only worsen as winter approaches.

Overcrowding is not inevitable, she said. We saw welcome reductions in the use of imprisonment in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic response, but as we can see from more recent data, this has not been sustained, and we are back to business-as-usual as numbers accelerate.

As we enter cold and flu season, with covid cases on the increase again, IPRT is even more concerned about the impact chronic overcrowding will have on peoples physical as well as their mental health.

She expressed concern that policies are not mirroring the current reality.

The Government has committed to considering enshrining the principle of prison as a last resort in legislation, she said.

It has also committed to focusing on providing alternatives to prison, such as community-based sanctions, where appropriate.

The policy position is there, but we can see by the growth in numbers of people in prison that the policy is far from the reality on the ground.

We have another opportunity in front of us to resource solutions to the undignified conditions were hearing about.

In order to reduce overcrowding, were calling on the Government to invest in alternative solutions, including the allocation of an additional 5m to the Probation Service to support greater use of community service orders and probation supervision.

The organisation is calling for action from the Government.

While the Irish Prison Service has an obligation to accept all people sent to it by the courts, imprisonment should only ever be used as a sanction of last resort, she said.

Unfortunately, there continues to be an over-reliance on short custodial sentences for people convicted of less serious offences, despite its damaging social and economic impact on individuals, families, and communities.

IPRT also calls on the minister for justice to make immediate efforts to adequately resource the proposed progressive actions the Government outlined in August 2022, to ultimately reduce the number of people sent to prison, and support a move away from responses to offending that cause unnecessary further harm to people and their families.

Irish Prison Service

Meanwhile, the Irish Prison Service addressed the situation in a statement issued to The Echo.

The Prison Service have been working closely with the Department of Justice to ensure a safe working environment for staff and the safety and security of prisoners, said a spokesperson.

The Prison Service are taking a number of short- and medium-term steps to address the issue of increasing prison numbers.

Government has provided significant capital funding to enhance existing prison infrastructure.

The spokesperson listed the steps being taken to tackle overcrowding.

The recent commissioning of a new male and female prison accommodation in Limerick Prison will provide an additional 90 male spaces and 22 additional female cell spaces.

This new male and female accommodation is now fully open and operational.

The programme for government 2020 contains a broad range of policies and proposals that represent a coherent approach to enhancing and sustaining a more just and safe society, with a specific commitment to review policy options for prison and penal reform.

In respect of delivering on this commitment, the Government approved the Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform 2022-2024.

This review seeks to find the balance between ensuring that people who commit serious crimes receive a punishment and a period of incarceration proportionate to that crime, while at the same time acknowledging that sometimes community-based sanctions are more appropriate.

In addition to delivering the recommendations of the Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform, the need to ensure the continued availability of modern prison facilities with adequate capacity will continue to be central to the work of the Irish Prison Service and will be core to the development of the new Irish Prison Service Capital Plan.

The spokesperson reiterated the Irish prison systems commitment to tackling overcrowding.

The former Minister for Justice Simon Harris announced last April that he had brought a memo to Government outlining capacity issues in prisons  both in terms of the scale of the problem faced and how we might progress medium- and longer-term solutions for it.

Working with officials in the Department of Justice and the Prison Service, the minister has identified four short-term capital projects at the existing Castlerea, Cloverhill, the Midlands, and Mountjoy prisons that could deliver over 400 prison spaces over the next five years.

That would provide accommodation for a minimum of 620 additional prisoners.

The Department of Justice is engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on this.
Gardai and fire services attended the scene of a fire at a property in Cork overnight.

It has been reported that the fire occurred at the unoccupied Castle Lohort Demesne in the Cecilstown area.

Gardai and local fire services attended the scene at approximately 1am and the fire was brought under control after some time.

Gardai confirmed to The Echo that there were no persons inside the property at the time.

Gardai also said that a technical examination of the scene will take place in due course and enquiries are ongoing at this time.
Qabil Ashirov

It won't be wrong if some claim that the biased stance of the West paved the road for the bloody Garabagh War that lasted over 30 years and cost the lives of thousands. It is crystal clear that Armenia, devoid of any resources, could not dare to start any military aggression against Azerbaijan in the 1990s. The West pampered and spoiled Armenia to such an extent that Yerevan was sure that all its atrocities and crimes would be unpunished. Western NGOs, politicians, and especially media outlets had done their best to force Azerbaijanis to accept then-realities. To justify their heinous claims, they used to exemplify the German-French relations and say that the two countries had fought in WWII, but today they had a good relationship. They did not hesitate to travel to the invaded territories, prepare the programs, and participate in the events. However, they prepared to turn a blind eye to the massacres committed by Armenians such as Khojaly, Meshali, and so on.

Even, nobody remembered the four UN resolutions that demanded immediate withdrawal from the Armenian side. However, the 44-day War in 2020 and the anti-terror activities in 2023, totally changed everything. By force, Azerbaijan pushed Armenia to fulfill the before-said resolutions. Following these two events, the rhetoric of Western mass media, NGOs, and politicians changed instantly. They promptly remembered ethnic cleansing. As if taking instructions from one center, all Western media outlets commenced speaking about the so-called ethnic cleansing conducted by "Azerbaijan against Armenians in Garabagh".

Some Western politicians ardently speak and note that they will not allow any 'ethnic cleansing' (that actually does not exist). They have gone the extra mile to require imposing sanctions on Azerbaijan. However, for some reason, they did not denounce ethnic cleansing conducted by Armenia in the 1990s. They did not hurry to impose sanctions upon Armenia when Yerevan expelled over one million people of different origins from their hometowns and leveled down cities, towns, and villages. It is obvious that the Western media, jointly with other international organizations, have been trying simultaneously to demonize Azerbaijanis and create an image of innocent civilian peaceful Armenians. As if the victims are not one million Azerbaijanis who were forced to leave all his/her savings, property, and hometowns, but Armenians who illegally tried to appropriate all belonging to the Azerbaijani IDPs and refugees. As if we, Azerbaijanis, are all bloodthirsty who crave for a war, but Armenians are poor peace-loving civilians who try their best to evade a war.

For this purpose, i.e. creating an innocent and civilian Armenian image, the Western media resort to all kind of impudence. Take the Economist, for example. The article "What We Have We (Mostly) Hold" in 1996, starts with the sentence "Nowhere have the Armenians been as energetic and tough as in Nagorno-Karabagh".

The article praises the Armenian invasion and speaks wholeheartedly about economic development in 'Azeri-free' lands. However, the same Economist shamelessly calls the anti-terror activities conducted by Azerbaijan in 2023 genocide and ethnic cleansing. It reminds me of the motto some people are more equal.

It should be mentioned that the Economist is not the only Western media that manipulates realities. For example, German DW has taken an interview with an "innocent, peace-loving" Armenian old woman. In the interview, the woman says in Russian:

No, I will never return there because the Azerbaijanis will not give [Karabakh to us]... artsakh will not be given to us, if we don't fight again if the Armenians dont rebel, take it.

However, DW translates it as:

In Deutsche: Nein, ich glaube Azerbaijan nicht. Ich glaube das nicht, wie sie sagen wir tun es nicht. Ich weie es noch nicht. Das ist einfach nicht wahr, which translated into English as No, I dont believe Azerbaijan, I dont believe what they say, that they wont do anything. I don't know that yet. It's simply not true."
Ryanair has just announced a flash sale, lasting less than 24 hours, for anyone who fancies an impulsive winter break.

Last month, Ryanair announced this year's winter schedule for Cork Airport, which will have 23 destinations, including new routes to Barcelona, Fuerteventura, Paris, Seville and Treviso  all of which feature in todays sale.

The sale, which ends at midnight tonight, covers travel from today to the end of November, perfect for anyone who wants to chase the last of the sun or who wants to start the festive season in early by visiting some Christmas markets.

Travel enthusiasts can enjoy a 20% price reduction on flights from Cork to 16 destinations, a mixture of major UK and European cities.

The cheapest flights, to East Midlands and London Luton, start at 9.99, while travel to London Stansted starts at 12.99.

For under 15, you could fly to Paris Beauvais, Birmingham, Gdansk, Liverpool, Manchester or Poznan, while flights to Edinburgh are discounted starting at 15.07, and those to London Gatwick start at 16.67.

For anyone who fancies some sun, Venice Treviso (from 17.07), Barcelona (from 24.99), Rome Fiumicino (from 24.99), Seville (from 27.99) and Fuerteventura (from 29.27) are also included in the sale.

Anyone considering a break can use the code OC20OFFP, and is urged to act fast, as all sale prices are subject to availability.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) is seeking an urgent meeting with hospital groups amid concerns over the number of admitted patients waiting for beds in Irish hospitals today.

592 admitted patients are being treated on trolleys and chairs this morning, a figure which the organisation said represented a high-risk event.

In Cork, 87 admitted patients are waiting on beds- 72 at Cork University Hospital, 11 at the Mercy University Hospital, and four at Bantry General Hospital.

We are seeing trolley figures today that we would usually see at the height of winter,  said INMO General Secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha.

The fact that 592 patients have been admitted to hospital today, October 3rd, without a bed is a high-risk event.

Ms Ni Sheaghdha said that members are concerned about the spread of infections such as Strep A, Norovirus and Covid-19 and she said that is clear that the spread of viruses is going to have a detrimental impact on patient flow throughout hospitals over the coming weeks.

While University Hospital Limerick has seen over one hundred patients a day on trolleys since September 19th, there is a significant amount of people on trolleys in each corner of the country, with high numbers attending in Cork University Hospital, St. Jamess Hospital, Sligo University Hospital, Letterkenny University Hospital, University Hospital Kerry and Naas General Hospital."

She said the INMO are urgently looking to meet each individual hospital group to hear how they plan to deal with the overcrowding crisis that "is materialising in the vast majority of Irish hospitals and how they will protect our members and the patients in their care."

She added: Each hospital group should be engaging with their local communities and be upfront about the level of overcrowding and unsafe staffing in each hospital. Those who need care in our hospitals deserve to know what they can expect upon arrival at any ED.
International investigations into a 70-year-old man with an American accent who was arrested in Cork have now established that he had passports in the names of two babies who died within three months of birth in 1952 and 1953.

We are at a loss as to who this person is. He has offered us no assistance whatsoever, Detective Garda Padraic Hanley of the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation said today.

A new passport-related charge was brought against the man and there was an objection to bail being granted to him.

Judge Olann Kelleher remanded him in custody until October 10.

He was prosecuted under the name of Philip Frank Morris.

We have made numerous investigations as to this persons identity. We are satisfied he is not Philip Morris or Geoffrey Warbrook (the two names on passports allegedly seized from the accused). Both of those people died within three months of birth. We have interviewed siblings of both of those people and established that they died in 1952 and 1953.

There are two passports, one of which has been renewed. Numerous international enquiries regarding fingerprints and photos have been made. I have gone down every avenue we could go down, the detective said at Cork District Court.

Enquiries have gone through Interpol which would have links with most police forces in the world. There has also been contact with various financial institutions and the US State Department.

Frank Buttimer, defence solicitor, asked about the progress from these enquiries and the detective described them as inconclusive.

Det. Garda Hanley said enquiries also went to the US State Department because it appeared that the accused has an American accent.

Judge Olann Kelleher remanded him in custody until October 10.

The new charge brought today against the unidentified defendant states that on September 11 this year at the passport office on South Mall, Cork, he provided information or documents which were false or misleading, in connection with a passport application.

There are two similar charges against the man whose real identity is unknown. One refers to an unknown date between September 12 and 25 2012 at the Passport Office on South Mall, Cork and the application for the issue of a passport. The particulars of the charge state that he provided information for the issue of a passport which were false or misleading.

The second charge is similar but refers to a different date, June 7 2022.

Det. Garda Hanley said the defendant was arrested at the passport office on the South Mall in Cork on September 14. The detective said that when questioned he said he was living in Ireland and needed the passport to leave the country but refused to assist the officers in any way.

Det. Garda Hanley said of the accused, He held an Irish passport for 30 years but only recently obtained a PPS number.
LOCAL representatives have given a cautiously positive welcome to the news that 60-year-old council flats are to be demolished and rebuilt to modern specifications.

Some 164 council tenants living in flats on Noonans Rd, St Finbarrs Rd, Fort St and Dean St  129 adults and 35 children  were told last week by the city council that it favours the demolition of their homes and the redevelopment of the sites.

Tenants were told by letter on Thursday the redevelopment would require, on a phased basis, the temporary relocation of all residents, and that they would then be given the option to return to the redeveloped homes or, if they wished, remain living in their temporary residences.

Tenants in flats on Noonans Rd and neighbouring areas had complained of being abandoned, ignored, and forgotten for years in crumbling, dangerous homes 10 years past their planned 50-year lifespan and prone to leaks, damp, black mould, and rodent infestation.

Sinn Fein TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould said the news was very welcome and had brought relief, but he said tenants should not have had to fight so hard for basic human rights.

We now need clarity on whether the recommendations of this report will be accepted in other similar flats around the city. We know that areas like Bakers Rd, Cattlemarket Avenue and Clashduv Rd are experiencing similar issues.

Mr Gould said he had written to the councils director of housing to seek publication of the final report and clarity on whether these recommendations apply to all properties with similar issues. He said Sinn Fein councillor Mick Nugent would try to raise the matter at the upcoming housing strategic policy committee.

Mould and water damage from leaks in the bathroom in a flat at Noonan's Road, Cork. Picture Denis Minihane.

His party colleague, TD Donnchadh O Laoghaire, said tenants had been badly let down and were living in appalling conditions. They deserve much better from their landlord, that is Cork City Council. I want to commend the community for the campaign that they have mounted and the community activists and supporters, such as William OBrien.

Mr O Laoghaire said there was a clear need for a full regeneration and not just a redevelopment of the area, with full supports and amenities put in place.

We also need to see commitments from national Government. It is no good for Cork City Council to be in a position where they are after developing a proposal and there is no money for it coming from national Government, he said.

Independent councillor Mick Finn cautiously welcomed news that the flats were at last on the agenda for action.

Since being elected to council in 2009, renovation or replacement of these flat complexes has been one of my main asks and though its taken a long, long time to get to this point, I think it could be the start of a new beginning for the residents, even if its going to take several years to get activated and completed, he said.

Mr Finn said the regeneration project would have a great potential for a historic area. There is also potential to provide specialist housing for older people, for the disabled, [and] affordable and costs rental options as well as open spaces and community buildings.

What a transformative effect such an outcome would have on the area and for the residents and families living there, as well as the knock-on effects for local schools, clubs, and businesses, he said.
UCC president Professor John OHalloran has written to the universitys almost 250,000 graduates, students, and staff seeking their support as the third-level institution, along with seven others, appeals for a major increase in financial support for what he described as the grossly underfunded Irish higher education sector.

In his letter to the UCC community around the world, Prof OHalloran said that he and the heads of the seven other members of the Irish Universities Association had written to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and four Government ministers to highlight the case of the sector.

The other ministers included in the letter were Higher Education Minister Simon Harris; Finance Minister Michael McGrath; Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe.

Prof OHallorans letter pointed out that the Government knew the sector was underfunded and had identified a 307m shortfall in annual funding to higher education.

The Government committed to addressing that shortfall in May 2022 when they published Funding the Future, said Prof OHalloran.

They pledged to address the cost of education to students. Progress is painfully slow.

In last years budget, only 40m additional core funding was provided.

Minister Harris declared in May 2022 that the question of higher education funding is settled, and whilst the extent of the funding shortfall may have been settled, the actions to address that shortfall are not.

That action must include addressing both the cost of education for students and the deficit in core funding.

The letter from the UCC president comes just before Budget 2024 which will be published on October 10.

Another budget cannot be presented without delivering on the pledge to improve core funding, Professor OHalloran wrote in his email to the UCC alumni, present students, and staff.

If you have an opportunity to highlight the case for funding and to push for Government action, please help us.
I AM one of those people who gets all gooey at a cute baby. My daughter has inherited this trait and makes a squeeee noise when she spots an adorable one in a shop or across a restaurant.

We visited a good friend over the summer who was the proud new owner of a three-month-old, and my daughter and this baby spent many adorable hours admiring each other.

If my daughter spots a baby being breastfed, she gets particularly squishy because she allegedly has fond memories of being breastfed and gets nostalgic over her past youth. Nostalgia is quite a feat when you are just six.

This is National Breastfeeding Week, an opportunity to celebrate the beautiful human function that is breastfeeding.

Ireland still vies for the unlofty lowest breastfeeding rates in the world position, but there are some positives to acknowledge this week.

The number of babies being breastfed is growing a percentage point each year; the number of lactation consultants in maternity hospitals or public health nursing to support those who want to breastfeed has doubled in the last three years; and hats off to the government, who introduced legislation that extended breastfeeding breaks from six months to two years in all workplaces this year.

This reflects the fact that the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends breastfeeding to two years or beyond, and demonstrates to employers and employees that breastfeeding is important and valued in Ireland.

Since July, if you are working and breastfeeding, you are entitled to take one hour off work (with pay) each day as a breastfeeding break for up to two years after birth.

Depending on the work environment and employers policies, this break can be taken as one 60-minute break, two 30-minute breaks or three 20-minute breaks.

Or you can opt to have your working hours reduced (without loss of pay) to facilitate breastfeeding where suitable facilities are not available.

It is a wonderful way to help breastfeeding mothers returning to work after maternity leave.

According to the International Labour Organisation: Breastfeeding is not an obstacle to productivity. Research shows that women are more likely to stay in their job in the longer term, if they can breastfeed at work - which is a good way of retaining skilled workers.

Health

When governments support breastfeeding, they are making a prudent investment in the health of future populations.

I dont like expounding on the health benefits of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is the baseline. It is the biologically normal way to feed babies.

Babies who are breastfed receive all the immunological, nutritional, and emotional components that Nature deems necessary for them.

Sadly, because breastfeeding culture has been eroded and undermined for decades by commercial milk formula companies intent on supplanting breastmilk with their profitable products, the baseline of what is normal has shifted.

Not breastfeeding increases the risk of a range of health conditions. For fear of upsetting families who cant or choose not to breastfeed, it is hard to say that formula-fed babies have higher risks of SIDS, infections or obesity, or that women who dont breastfeed have higher risks of some cancers, but its true.

Apart from maternal and infant health, breastfeeding also supports planetary health. It is the ultimate food and medicine rolled into one. It is produced as needed - no waste. It is a bespoke product tailored for each individual consumer, and is packaging free.

No cows producing methane, no massive energy requirement to dry milk to a powder, no transport carbon footprint or electricity needed to safely prepare it....

Breastfeeding is also the safest food for babies in an emergency. Not just humanitarian disaster emergencies, but more mundane disruptions to water supplies or electricity which can be stressful for families not breastfeeding.

Support

Skilled, timely breastfeeding support is associated with successful breastfeeding and is crucial for mothers and families who want to breastfeed; 63% of mothers in Ireland start breastfeeding after they give birth. They should be supported to continue for as long as they want.

Yet research from the breastfeeding advocacy group Bainne Beatha shows that the biggest drop off in exclusive breastfeeding happened in the first week of the childs life, a time when mothers and babies are still in the care of the health services.

The report, produced in conjunction with TU Dublin, found that mothers were regularly offered formula as a solution to breastfeeding problems when what they actually wanted was help with breastfeeding.

Once babies are getting to grips with life on the outside, its important families have impartial, unbiased support to turn to.

The HSEs website mychild.ie has breastfeeding support and practical advice from lactation consultants, including a live chat option available seven days a week.

Voluntary breastfeeding support organisations Cuidiu, La Leche League and Friends of Breastfeeding are only too happy to support a mum who might hit a bump in their breastfeeding journey or just want to talk to others in the same boat.

Formula industry-funded support lines should be avoided. Baby clubs and care lines are marketing tactics to attract potential customers to the companies brands if breastfeeding stops. They are not a source of impartial, caring advice.

Out of interest, I signed up to one over a year ago with a fictional due date and I was appalled to see emails from the formula companys support line arrive in my inbox on a weekly basis after my non-existent baby was born.

The emails could seed doubt in tired and anxious parents. Is baby getting enough milk? Dealing with Colic: Newborn feeding problems.

I received emails about food intolerances and cows milk allergy, which affects a tiny percentage of the population and about which the British Medical Journal said: Allergy to cows milk protein may be acting as a Trojan horse for the $50bn global formula industry to forge relationships with healthcare professionals.

The tentacles of the infant formula industry run deep in Ireland and influence many aspects of social, economic, and political life.

Along with an underfunded maternity system it is no surprise that women find it difficult to breastfeed in Ireland.

So, this National Breastfeeding Week, if you get an opportunity to support breastfeeding, take it!
James Cox

The seizure of almost 160 million worth of cocaine off the Cork coast "could have gone horribly wrong" due to Defence Forces underfunding, according to an independent TD.

Members of the highly-trained Army Ranger Wing descended by fast-rope from a helicopter on to the MV Matthew vessel, which became the focus point of a multi-agency operation on Sunday.

The Irish Navy boat LE William Butler Yeats was also involved in the operation.

TD Cathal Berry, a former deputy commander of the Army Ranger Wing, told BreakingNews.ie: "It could have gone horribly wrong with the lack of backup. Conducting that mission with one helicopter was operating on the edge, beyond the frontier of normal operations."

Mr Berry pointed out that the helicopter was initially in Athlone on a medical operation. "When the helicopter was taken from Athlone, you'd wonder how many medical calls were unanswered? That's a vital service."

"One helicopter for two taskings... a medical tasking in Athlone, and the counter-narcotics tasking in Cork. That is further evidence of how poorly resourced the Defences Forces have been, even in the last two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, it has been continuing to go into free-fall."

He said a mechanical fault, even as small as a warning light on the helicopter, would have forced the Defence Forces to abort the operation.

"In either of those circumstances, the soldiers would have been completely stranded. There should be two helicopters available at an absolute minimum."

Mr Berry pointed to a UK Special Boat Service (SBS) seizure, similar to the one off Cork, which took place a number of years ago and included four helicopters.

In May, four Russian navy and commercial vessels sailed off the Irish coast prompting concern among Defence Forces officials. The group of ships included the Admiral Grigorovich, which is armed with cruise missiles and has been used in attacks on Ukraine since Russia's invasion.

Military personnel onboard a cargo vessel named MV Matthew whilst it's escorted into Cobh in Cork by the Irish Navy.

Mr Berry said Irish waters are "the soft underbelly of Europe". On the MV Matthew incident, he added: "The ship chose Irish waters for a reason."

He said this "highlights the recruitment and retention crisis in the Defence Forces".

"Fifteen years ago the Navy could put eight vessels to sea concurrently. In 2023, when we're the richest we've ever been, we could deploy two at a push and one last week. It sums up how bad things are.

"It's the first crystal clear situation where the retention and recruitment crisis in the Defence Forces has impacted on national operations. Who knows what happens in 12 months' time? We may not even have such meagre resources for an operation then with how bad things are.

"Twelve months ago we could probably have had three helicopters in the air and four ships on the water. The Army could provide one helicopter, the Navy could provide one ship. What does that say about the current state of the Defence Forces?

"The cyberattack caught attention for a week, same with the Russian warships. This is strike three. Another example of how much our Defence Forces are needed but under-resourced. It needs to at least come into the arithmetic for next week's Budget.

"There is a tangible need for territorial defence."

The Commission on the Defence Forces was published on February 9th, 2022, and Mr Berry called on the Government to move faster in implementing its recommendations.

The Defence Forces are not resourced to protect the country.

"The Commission on the Defence Forces recommended a 12-ship navy with double crewing of vessels, up to about 2,000 strength.

"This idea of 'one ship is grand' is wrong... 15 years ago we could put eight ships on the water and the Commission on the Defence Forces is the Government's own report, the evidence is there.

"The Defence Forces are not resourced to protect the country.

"The war in Ukraine is 12 nautical miles off our coast, that's the limit of our territorial waters and how close Russian warships can push up against our territorial integrity without any resistance whatsoever. For an island nation, the Irish Navy is imperative, but unfortunately it is in free-fall.

"They're only publishing the Commission on the Defence Forces implementation plan in the next week. I suspect a lot of the timelines will be heading into 2025. That's a different government, so if that's the case, it suggests they aren't serious about it at all... just kicking the can down the road."
Vivienne Clarke

Former President Mary McAleese, who is also a Doctor of Canon Law, has welcomed comments from Pope Francis about blessings for same sex couples, but has pointed out that his stance is a complete contradiction of what he said previously.

Speaking on RTE radios Morning Ireland, she said: it's a complete contradiction of what the Pope himself said through a document that was issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in 2021.

At that time, they were trying to stop blessings of gay couples, gay married couples, you might remember that the German Synod had decided that this was something that they planned to do.

"And the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the Pope's full approval, slammed that door firmly shut, said it was not possible.

So what you had then was really a remarkable reaction from priests and bishops and laity in the Synod sort of taking place, a synodal journey that's taken place for the last two years, there has been virtual unanimity among the faithful, including priests and bishops, many bishops, that this was simply not acceptable.

"And then we had the remarkable thing that happened in Belgium last year when Bishop Bonney issued a new liturgy precisely for gay couples, gay married couples who wanted a blessing in the Catholic Church.

"So this is Francis losing the old tin ear and listening to the voice, the very strong voice that has come from right around the world and will certainly be heard. Well, it will be heard inside the Vatican, it will not be heard outside because you know there's going to be a closed session and secret session, but it will be heard undoubtedly."

Prof McAleese acknowledged that this was not a change to the Catholic definition of marriage. What it is, and in fairness to the priests and bishops who have already been offering these blessings, they are not saying that these are an extension of Catholic marriage.

"They are saying these are simply what they are - a blessing of an existing loving relationship and that they don't in any way impact on the church's teaching.

This was a very strong point made by the Belgians who developed the liturgy. They said, look, this doesn't offend Catholic teaching at all. There's no ceremony.

"There's no big church ceremony. There's nothing that equates to Catholic marriage. All that this is, is a recognition that people who have a loving relationship and who believe in a God are entitled to ask for a blessing.

You might remember back in 2021, the document from the congregation, The Doctrine of the Faith, actually went as far as saying that Catholic married gay couples were not capable, their words, not mine, were not capable of receiving or expressing God's grace.

"Well, that provoked an absolute outrage among priests and certain bishops and the faithful, including even bishops here in Ireland.

"And I have to say that part of the change in attitude from Pope Francis has been greatly helped, I think, by the work that was done here in Ireland, in the Irish version of the Irish part of the Synod by Ursula Halligans LGBTI focus group, and they're the group that put a report together and thank you to the Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran, who asked them to do it. And their document really went viral. Just went viral.

When asked if she thought that Pope Francis would now lead by example and bless same sex couples, Prof McAeese said that was what would be expected. I mean, that's what we would expect, is it not? From the man who is, after all, the leader who led us once in the wrong direction and now has the courage to lead in another direction?

"I'd like to think so. But in any event, whether he does or whether he doesn't, and in some sense it doesn't really matter because, frankly, these blessings are happening every day of the week.

The forthcoming Synod had started out as the Popes Synod, he had tried to shape the agenda away from issues that were contentious or difficult, she said.

But in fact, what has happened is that all over the world, on five continents, remarkably with great consensus right around the world, people have said, no, this is our first opportunity to put on the table the things that we've been discussing, the things that we are worried about, women and the church, the exclusion of women, the exclusion of LGBTQ people, the problem with vocations and the compulsory celibacy, the access to the sacraments, particularly communion of people who are divorced and remarried.

"All of these things are now on the Synod agenda in Rome.

People, not the Pope, can take credit for what is on the agenda for the Synod, she added.
High Court reporters

Issues in an appeal brought by an alleged member of a dissident republican paramilitary group against his extradition to the UK could be referred to the European Court of Human Rights.

Sean Walsh (56) is wanted in Northern Ireland to face charges of IRA membership stemming from a police surveillance operation on a meeting of senior paramilitaries in Omagh, Co Tyrone, in July 2020. He denies the claims.

The possibility of a reference to the European court arose during the one-day hearing of Mr Walshs Supreme Court appeal against the High Courts decision to permit his extradition.

During the Tuesday hearing before seven judges, Chief Justice Donal ODonnell questioned the parties about the consequences that would flow if the court found Mr Walsh should not be extradited.

Mr Justice ODonnell asked what would happen if Irelands Supreme Court found Mr Walshs fundamental rights would be breached by the surrender only for the European court to subsequently decide there was no breach.

Mr Walshs senior counsel Ronan Munro, instructed by Mulholland Law solicitors, said there is a duty on the State executing a warrant to scrutinise a possible breach of an accuseds rights under the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights.

John D Fitzgerald SC, for the Minister for Justice, said his initial thought was that no issue of European Union law is engaged in the appeal.

Mr Justice ODonnell asked the lawyers on each side to file submissions on the possibility of questions that should be referred to Europe if the court decides this is required.

Mr Walsh, who is currently detained in a prison in this State, claims the extradition would breach his rights as 2021 UK legislation precluding people convicted of terrorism offences from release under licence halfway through their sentence was found to be incompatible with Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) yet remains in force.

The UK Supreme Court, however, held that the sentencing provision Mr Walsh challenges is compatible with Article 7.

Reduction

On Tuesday, the Irish Supreme Court heard Mr Walsh would only be entitled to a maximum of a 33 per cent reduction to his custodial sentence, rather than the previous 50 per cent, under the UKs Counter Terrorism and Sentencing Act of 2021.

This more limited reduction would be subject to later approval by the parole commissioners at the two-thirds point of the sentence, creating more uncertainty that did not occur under the previous regime, the court heard.

Mr Munro, appearing with barrister Mark Lynam, said the scope of the penalty his client faces if convicted has been redefined by this legislation.

He told the court it has jurisdiction to refuse to surrender his client on the basis of a breach of his fundamental rights. The Irish court is in as good a position as the UK court to determine the issues raised, he submitted.

Mr Fitzgerald, with Anthony Hanrahan BL, said any potential sentence imposed is still a contingent matter. He submitted that the Supreme Court should not prevent the UK from trying Mr Walsh on very serious issues.

Mr Walsh, of Ballinlough, Douglas, Co Cork, faces four charges including that he was a member of the IRA, that he was involved in directing IRA activities and that he was involved in an alleged conspiracy to direct a terrorist organisation.
Katie Wright, PA Fashion and Beauty Editor

Sean McGirr has been announced as the new creative director of iconic fashion house Alexander McQueen.

The Irish designer takes over from Sarah Burton, who held the position for 13 years and staged her final catwalk show last week in Paris.

Dublin-born McGirr was previously head of ready-to-wear at JW Anderson, the eponymous brand of Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson.

A graduate of Londons prestigious Central Saint Martins fashion school, he began his career as an assistant at Burberry and Vogue Hommes Japan before joining the creative team at Uniqlo.

Before joining JW Anderson, McGirr was womenswear designer at Belgian fashion brand Dries Van Noten.

We are delighted to welcome Sean McGirr as creative director, Gianfilippo Testa, chief executive of Alexander McQueen, said in a statement.

With his experience, personality, and creative energy, he will bring a powerful creative language to Alexander McQueen while building on its unique heritage.

Francois-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive of Kering, added: Alexander McQueen is a house we are passionate about, and we are confident that Sean McGirr will be able to pursue its journey with a new creative impetus. We look forward to opening this new chapter in the history of this unique brand.

The British luxury fashion house was founded in 1992 by Lee Alexander McQueen.

Burton was appointed to the role of creative director in 2010 following the death of McQueen, having previously worked alongside the ground-breaking designer for 14 years.
Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.

Sea lions resting on a buoy and swimming in the Pacific Ocean in a marine area recommended for exclusion from the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary near Morro Bay, California, on Sept. 21, 2023. Mario Tama / Getty Images

The Chumash people, a Tribe of Native Americans, have lived along the California coast for thousands of years. Until the arrival of Europeans in 1769, their population thrived in 150 towns and villages that encompassed 7,500 square miles, from Malibu to Paso Robles and inland to the border of the San Joaquin Valley.

After the establishment of Spanish missions, the Tribes population of at least 25,000 was decimated. Today, the Tribe is thriving economically and has been seeking to establish a federal marine sanctuary where the areas marine life, ecosystems and the Chumash peoples ancestral lands could be preserved.

The Biden administration has proposed the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, which is the first national marine sanctuary nomination to be led by Indigenous peoples and, if designated, would be the countrys 16th national marine sanctuary, according to a press release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The marine sanctuary would encompass an offshore area of 5,617 square miles in the counties of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo as part of the America the Beautiful Initiative, which supports the countrys goal of the conservation and restoration of 30 percent of the lands and waters in the U.S. by 2030.

The problem is, the area proposed by the Biden administration has left out the part of the coast the Tribe has been campaigning to be protected for more than 50 years because they want to use it for the development of offshore wind, The Guardian reported.

We felt so betrayed, said Violet Sage Walker, the chairwoman of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, as reported by The Guardian. We really thought we were going to get the marine sanctuary we had campaigned for, we thought we were going to get protection for the entire central Californian coastline.

The proposed NOAA sanctuary would begin just to the south of Morro Bay and stretch to Gaviota, whereas the Tribes proposed sanctuary would stretch from Morro Bay all the way up to Cambria. NOAA told The Guardian that a marine sanctuary would not be compatible with what is slated to be the largest offshore wind development project in the U.S.

One of the main reasons the Tribe wanted to establish a sanctuary was to protect the waters off the shore of their Tribal lands from offshore wind. They have until October 25 to influence the decision of NOAA on the size and management of the sanctuary.

Morro Bay is home to an array of marine species, including one of the last remaining endangered sea otter populations in the country.

The proposed sanctuary is rich in marine life and includes kelp forests, rocky shores, sandy beaches, a globally-significant ecological transition zone and important offshore features that have been important to Chumash and other Indigenous communities for more than 10,000 years, said John Armor, director of NOAAs Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, in the press release. The sanctuary would also enhance conservation of numerous rare and endangered species that depend on this area, including snowy plovers, black abalone, southern sea otters, blue whales and leatherback sea turtles.

If the area from Cambria to Morro Bay is not included in the marine sanctuary, that also leaves it open to exploitation for deep sea mining and oil drilling.

Indigenous people are the traditional caretakers of these waters and these lands, said Arlo Hemphill, who is the leader of the Greenpeace campaigns concerning deep sea mining and the marine sanctuary, as The Guardian reported. [I]ts important to return these waters to the stewardship of Indigenous people.

The wind farm being proposed in the unprotected area would consist of 380 floating wind turbines on about 250,000 acres, able to provide power to 1.6 million homes. According to NOAA, the underground cables that would need to be installed have the potential to disrupt marine habitats, cause increased noise pollution, affect the migratory patterns of marine species, including whales, alter species survival rates, affect fish life cycles and release contaminants into the ocean.

The Chumash people are not against offshore wind, but want it to make sure it is done responsibly and want to take part in the decision-making process.

People dont realize the damage that offshore wind could cause to the marine ecosystem. Theres been so few studies done on how this will impact whales, dolphins, sea otters  we just dont know enough, Walker said.
Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.

The Pacific Ocean teems with phytoplankton along the West Coast of the U.S., as captured by the MODIS instrument on NASAs Aqua satellite in 2018. NASA

After analyzing 20 years of ocean-color data from satellites, researchers in the UK and the U.S. have found that globally, 56% of oceans are becoming greener. The researchers believe this could be a climate change-driven shift.

Researchers used data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) from NASAs Aqua satellite, and reviewed images from 2002 to 2022. They analyzed the images for colors across the light spectrum.

Over the past 20 years, they found a clear, significant trend of greening, with about 56% of the oceans, especially near and south of the equator, becoming greener.

While the researchers suspect this change in color is happening because of climate change, they noted in the study, which was published this summer in the journal Nature, that they did not attribute the greener color to high sea surface temperatures. Instead, they said it could be connected to other factors, including mixed-layer depth or upper-ocean stratification.

This greening could result for instance from an increase in detrital particles, which would increase backscattering at all wavelengths and absorption at shorter wavelengths, the study authors wrote. However, it could also result from other possible ecosystem shifts, such as a simultaneous increase in zooplankton and coloured dissolved material.

Similar research has focused primarily on chlorophyll and phytoplankton, which can vary from year to year, Stephanie Dutkiewicz, study co-author and a marine scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Eos. Climate models have typically found that climate change-driven shifts would need at least 30 years of data to prove. That has made it more difficult to track changes in ocean color and link any shifts to climate change.

Using the MODIS allowed the study authors to find that oceans are turning greener using data from a shorter timeframe, and they predicted climate change as a factor because the data followed climate models with high carbon emissions. They also used a control climate model without increasing greenhouse gas emissions to confirm their prediction.

The color change could be due to changing light environments that impact phytoplankton, the authors reported. Phytoplankton are an essential part of the food web in marine ecosystems, so shifts in their populations can also greatly impact other organisms. Phytoplankton also consume carbon dioxide and transfer it to different parts of the ocean as they die or are eaten, and even small changes in their populations could impact global surface temperatures, NASA reported.

The authors are encouraging other researchers to investigate changes in surface-ocean ecology and what could be causing these shifts. The science could help influence governments to create policies for ocean conservation.

Our findings therefore might be of relevance for ocean conservation and governance. For instance, knowledge of where the surface-ocean microbial ecosystem is changing might be useful for identifying regions of the open ocean in which to establish marine protected areas under the United Nations high seas treaty on the biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, the authors concluded.




Australian-Indonesian partnership bolsters smallholders against lumpy skin disease

An impactful collaboration between Australia's livestock export industry and Indonesia's cattle sector is making significant strides in equipping Indonesian smallholders with the tools to safeguard their livelihoods from the threat of lumpy skin disease (LSD), Beef Central reported.

Australia's LiveCorp is funding the project, led by the Indonesian Society for Animal Science (ISPI), to elevate the vaccination rates of local cattle. This endeavour encompasses the dissemination of vital biosecurity information, the facilitation of vaccination events, and the organization of essential training workshops.

Wayne Collier, chief executive officer of LiveCorp, recently embarked on a visit to Indonesia, where he journeyed to the regency of Bandung to engage with officials and smallholders actively engaged in this crucial project.

"Indonesia and its cattle industry faced the challenge of LSD and foot and mouth disease (FMD) detections early last year," said Collier. "Many smallholder farmers in Indonesia possess just two or three cattle, which represent a significant portion of their savings. The repercussions of a disease outbreak among their cattle are profound."

The overarching objective of this initiative is to fortify the resilience of smallholders in shielding their cattle and, by extension, their families and communities through vaccination, biosecurity practices, and exemplary animal care.

This initiative is underpinned by a longstanding partnership between the two industries, including key stakeholders such as LiveCorp, the Australian Livestock Exporters' Council (ALEC), ISPI, and the Indonesian Beef Cattle Industry Association (GAPUSPINDO).

Pak Didiek Purwanto, head of ISPI, emphasised the significance of this project in curbing the spread of LSD. He observed that larger feedlots generally possess the resources to bolster their biosecurity measures. Conversely, the same cannot always be said for smallholder farmers in their proximity.

Pak Didiek said that while the Indonesian government has supplied vaccines, some smallholders are hesitant to administer them due to concerns about potential side-effects from other cattle vaccines, hearsay, and various other factors.

He said that their approach involves conducting workshops and providing comprehensive information to ensure that each village has individuals who possess the knowledge and expertise to administer vaccines, recognise and treat the disease in case of infection, and pass on this critical knowledge to others.

Funded by a generous AUD 1.2 million (~US$758,000; AUD 1 = US$0.63) grant from the Australian Government, this project is slated to continue its vital work until December, serving as a beacon of hope and support for Indonesian smallholders in the battle against lumpy skin disease.

- Beef Central




Cargill's Provimi Premix factory opens in Dong Nai, Vietnam

Cargill has opened a US$28 million premix plant in the southern province of Dong Nai, Vietnam.

Located at the Giang Dien industrial park in Trang Bom district, the Provimi Premix factory spans 30,000 square metres and is capable of annually producing 40,000 tonnes of premixes - mixtures of vitamins, minerals, trace elements and other feed additives that are incorporated in the compound feed.

With an automation rate exceeding 95%, the facility, currently the most advanced of its kind in Asia, was built to expand and completely replace the old Provimi factory in Bien Hoa City.

At the inauguration ceremony on September 25, Acting Chairman of the Dong Nai People's Committee Vo Tan Duc acknowledged Cargill's efforts and determination in implementing the project and its corporate social responsibility particularly in food security, nutrition, sustainable development and charity.

Scott Ainslie, general manager of Cargill's Animal Nutrition in South Asia and Southeast Asia, underscored that Vietnam has always been a key market for the corporation globally. The expansion of production investment in Dong Nai aligns with Cargill's long-term strategic vision for Vietnam in line with the projected growth of the country's agriculture sector.

Ainslie commended both the local business climate with abundant and high-quality labour force and the Vietnamese government's efforts in attracting and retaining foreign investors.

Melissa Bishop, Deputy Chief of Mission for the US Mission in Vietnam, noted that the countries' agricultural trade reached US$9.8 billion last year, with Vietnam currently being the ninth largest importer of US farm produce and the United States being the largest importer of Vietnamese agricultural products.

Cargill has so far invested over US$160 million in Vietnam to build 11 animal nutrition production plants, one grain and oilseed supply warehouse, and two technology application centres for shrimp and fish. It now employs nearly 1,500 people in the market.



- VNA




Standard Chartered and CNRS collaborate for sustainable aquaculture in Bangladesh

Standard Chartered Bangladesh (StanChart) has partnered with the Centre for Natural Resource Studies (CNRS) to promote sustainable, equitable, and climate-resilient aquaculture practices in Bangladesh, Daily Observer reported.

StanChart's chief executive officer, Naser Ezaz Bijoy, and CNRS's executive director, M Mokhlesur Rahman, recently signed the agreement, signifying their commitment to the joint initiative.

Under this collaborative effort, the two organisations aim to enhance the availability and accessibility of high-quality fish spawn, specifically Generation 3 (G3) Rohu, for 2,000 aquaculture farmers residing along the southern coast of Bangladesh.

Rohu, the most abundantly cultured carp species in Bangladesh, includes the genetically improved high-yield strain known as G3 Rohu, which holds significant economic and cultural importance.

The project has three primary objectives, to establish a robust spawn distribution network to facilitate efficient distribution of G3 Rohu fingerlings to aquaculture farmers, to orovide training opportunities for aquaculture farmers to enhance their capacity for G3 Rohu production, and to strengthen linkages throughout the aquaculture value chain by connecting producers with market information, support services, and retailers.

Additionally, the initiative will collaborate with research institutions and other organizations to ensure the widespread availability of genetically improved fish strains and climate-smart technologies.

As part of the project, 30 tonnes of G3 Rohu fingerlings will be distributed to selected beneficiaries, enabling 2,000 farmers to produce approximately 600 tonnes of harvestable G3 Rohu annually in two south-western divisions.

This initiative aligns with StanChart's commitment to improving nutrition and food security, fostering job and value creation, and providing end-to-end value chain support to local stakeholders.

Naser Ezaz Bijoy said it is important to support the sustainability, resilience, and equity of aquaculture systems in the face of climate risks in Bangladesh. The genetically improved G3 Rohu strain is expected to benefit both farmers and consumers, contributing to food and nutrition security.

M Mokhlesur Rahman expressed gratitude to Standard Chartered Bangladesh for investing in technologies that support aquaculture farmers, particularly those vulnerable to climate-induced threats. This collaboration aims to address malnutrition, reduce child stunting, and enhance economic returns while contributing to the nation's food and nutritional security.

- Daily Observer




No more signs of Nipah disease in Malaysia's livestock

Livestock in Malaysia are free from the Nipah disease, said the country's Veterinary Services Department (DVS) on September 26.

In a statement, the department said this was based on the surveillance of 399 commercial pig samples until August, which yielded negative test results.

The Nipah disease is caused by infection of the Nipah virus, which can spread through direct contact with infected animals, air contaminated by respiratory droplets, secretions from the nose and mouth, or tissues from infected animals.

According to the DVS, the Nipah disease was first detected in Malaysia in 1998, involving pig farms in Perak, which then spread to Negri Sembilan. It caused significant losses to pig farmers and the national economy, which also claimed the lives of 105 people.

The DVS added that massive eradication efforts involving various departments and agencies were carried out at that time, and by early 2001, Malaysia was declared free from Nipah disease by the World Organisation for Animal Health.

DVS said Malaysia continues to maintain its Nipah-free status through regular surveillance programmes.

According to the department, Nipah disease is listed as a Notifiable Disease under Section 31(1) of the Animals Act 1953. It said that surveillance will continue to be carried out to ensure that the pig farming industry in Malaysia remains free from any disease threats and always takes precautionary measures to prevent zoonotic diseases, which can be transmitted to humans, from entering the country.



 Bernama
A spokesman for Chinas Foreign Ministry on Monday called for concerted efforts by all parties to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

Asked to comment on reports in media in the Republic of Korea that the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) is vegas spins free spinsplanning a nuclear test, Hong Lei said peace and stability on the peninsula is in the interests of all parties. All sides should abide by the agreements reached in the joint statement signed on Sept. 19, 2005.

Xinhua

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Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves to supporters at his horse racing gambling termsLikud party's headquarters in Jerusalem on Wednesday. [Photo/Agencies]

JERUSALEM  Israel's former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was poised to return to power, saying on Wednesday that his right-wing camp was on the cusp of a resounding election win.

With around 84 percent of the vote counted, according to the Central Elections Committee, Netanyahu could be set for a dramatic comeback. Prime Minister Yair Lapid's short-lived ruling coalition hailed largely from the center-left appeared to collapse.

Final results are expected on Friday. The hundreds of thousands of remaining ballots  mostly from those who voted away from their regular place of residency, in nursing homes and elsewhere  have to be cross-checked for accuracy, a more time-consuming effort. They could lend a boost to Netanyahu's opponents, reducing the size of his majority.

"We have won a huge vote of confidence from the people of Israel," a smiling Netanyahu told cheering supporters at his Likud party election headquarters.

"We are on the brink of a very big victory."

Netanyahu, with his voice hoarse from weeks of campaigning across the country, vowed to form a "stable, national government".

The record 12-year consecutive reign of Israel's longest-serving prime minister ended in June 2021 when centrist Lapid managed to stitch together an unlikely coalition government of liberals, rightists and Arab parties.

But the fragile alliance unraveled a year into its rule.

Lapid has stopped short of conceding the election and said he would wait until the final count.

"The people want a different way. They want security," Netanyahu said.

"They want power, not weakness they want diplomatic wisdom, but with firmness."

Israel's fifth election in less than four years was dominated by the outsized personality of Netanyahu, whose legal battles have fed the stalemate blocking Israel's political system since 2019 and deepened the split between his supporters and opponents.

The campaign was shaken up by West Bank settler Itamar Ben-Gvir and his Religious Zionism list, now set to be the third-largest party in parliament after surging in from the political margins.

In an apparent attempt to allay fears abroad, Netanyahu, who in 2020 forged formal diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, said a government under his leadership would act responsibly, avoid "unnecessary adventures "and "expand the circle of peace".

Nonetheless, his possible comeback reinforced Palestinian skepticism that a political solution to the conflict was likely.

Xinhua
An amendment to the Constitution of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was approved at the Seventh Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee,cryptocurrency founded in india which closed here on Sunday.

Vice President Xi Jinping, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, elaborated on the draft of the amendment at the meeting, according to a communique released after the plenum.

The communique did not release the details of the amendment.

The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee worked out the amendment to the Party Constitution at a meeting in October, saying the Party Constitution should be updated to reflect the Partys latest theoretical achievements in localizing Marxism and practical experience.

The October meeting stressed the importance of making an amendment to the CPC Constitution that conforms to the needs of the CPCs theoretical innovation, practice and development, as well as promotes the CPCs work and strengthens its construction.

In addition to the amendment to the CPC Constitution, the plenum also approved a report to be submitted to the upcoming 18th CPC National Congress by the 17th CPC Central Committee.

Both documents will be submitted to the 18th Party Congress, slated to open on Nov. 8.

The latest amendment to the Party Constitution was made at the 17th CPC Congress in October 2007, when the scientific outlook on development was added into the Constitution.

Previously, the theory on building socialism with Chinese characteristics was enshrined in the Party Constitution at the 14th CPC Congress in 1992; Deng Xiaoping Theory was added into the Party Constitution as the guiding theory for the CPC to stand next to Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought at the 15th CPC Congress in 1997; The important thoughts of Three Represents were written into the Party Constitution at the 16th CPC Congress in November 2002.

Xinhua

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A powerful earthquake hit a mountainous region in southwestern China on Sunday, killing at least four and over 100 were injured.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which estimated the magnitude at 5.5, the quake occurred at the border of Sichuan and Yunnan shortly before 4:00 am (0800 GMT).

The magnitude of the earthquake was estimated at 5.7 by the Chinese authorities. The earthquake was followed by a 3.3 magnitude aftershock, said the Chinese seismological services.

The earthquake caused the destruction of homes and cut off communications in several areas near Ninglang County, Yunnan.

Three people were killed in Ninglang County and a fourth person in the neighboring county of Yanyuan in Sichuan. The quake also injured 104, 20 of which were in serious condition, said local authorities.

The authorities in Yunnan Province have sent relief materials to Ninglang County, including 1,100 tents and 3,000 blankets.

An official from the historic town of Lijiang, capital Ninglang County,said it was too early to assess the casualties and the extent of damage.

The area affected by the earthquake is populated by inhabitants of the Yi ethnic minority. Beijing estimates that the number of members of this minority is about 7.8 million, living in four provinces, mainly in Yunnan and Sichuan.

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Theamokcasino news network of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is calling for public feedback on a new online database providing resume information and news on party and government officials.

Launched on Oct. 29, gbzl.people.com.cn so far holds information about more than 1,600 incumbent officials in units including universities, large state-owned enterprises, mass organizations, as well as offices under the State Council.

All of the information is gathered from public news and material published on related websites, the CPC news network said.

The database is still being built upon and netizens can submit their feedback via email.

Xinhua

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Economic issues are likely to be high on the agenda of the upcoming 21st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and related summits,wizards money line nets picks 2021 ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said Saturday.

Speaking at a press briefing on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Pitsuwan said that the gathering is important not only for ASEAN, but also for East Asia and global community as a whole.

The Phnom Penh summit will witness the emergence of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

Through the initiative, ASEANs five existing free trade agreements with six countries (China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand) in the region would be brought under one umbrella agreement,  Pitsuwan said.

Apart from economic integration, issues such as maritime security, energy, climate change, education, human resource development will also be discussed.

A forum held annually by leaders of initial 16 countries in the East Asian region, East Asia Summit expanded its membership last year to include the United States and Russia.

Newly re-elected U.S. President Barack Obama will arrive in Cambodia on Monday to hold talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen and attend a summit meeting with ASEAN leaders and the 7th East Asia Summit.

Being an open and free forum, any issues could be brought forward at the summit, said ASEAN secretary-general.

He also expressed hope that related talks could be conducted in a constructive, supportive, encouraging and hopeful way.

Well focus on positive advance into the future about cooperation and coordination, mutual confidence-building and carrying forward the spirit of cooperation, Pitsuwan said.

The 21st ASEAN Summit and related Summits will be held on Nov. 18-20 at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, gathering heads of state and government from 10 ASEAN nations and eight ASEAN dialogue partners.

The heads of the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization will also take part in the meeting series.

Xinhua

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Famous performance artist Chen Qiang passed away in Beijing Anzhen Hospital on the evening of June 26, he was 94.

Chen Qiang was born in 1918, formerly known as Chen Qingsan (). In his early childhood his family was very poor, he fled with his parents to Taiyuan. He joined the Taiyuan Youth Theater in 1936 when he studied in middle school. In 1942 he joined the Communist Party of China.

In decades of his film career, Chen Qiang has starred in the classic films The Red Detachment of Women and The White-Haired Girl. He also participated in the shooting of several comedies. His son Chen Peisi, is also a well-known comedian and film actor.

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Senior Chinese and Ukrainian security officials agreed on Friday in Kiev, to enhance cooperation in law enforcement and the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking, illegal immigration and transnational organized crime.

Both countries gave this commitment during talks between Meng Jianzhu, State Councilor and Chinese Minister of Public Safety, Raisa Bogatyrova, Secretary for Security and Defence of Ukraine, Anatoly Mogilev, Ukrainian Minister of Interior and Mykola Lytvyn, head of border Guards.

According to the leaders of China and Ukraine, the statement made by the Heads of State of both countries on the establishment and development of strategic partnership between the two countries have greatly boosted bilateral cooperation.

According to Meng, Ukraine is a good friend and important partner of China, and the development of relations with Kiev is one of the most important elements of Chinas foreign policy. For him, the establishment of strategic partnership requires strengthening the law enforcement.

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South Africa has vowed to negotiate for the balancing of funding for adaptation and mitigation and push for developed countries to honor the climate change financing pledge at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties,odds for tonight's ufc fight or COP 27, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Barbara Creecy, South Africa's minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment, said developed countries have been responsible for greenhouse emissions for more than 200 years, while African countries that are most affected by climate change have contributed less than 4 percent to accumulated greenhouse emissions.

"We have had recent estimates that African countries require over $440 billion for the next 10 years for mitigation and adaptation. We think it is important in the short term that developed nations need to honor the commitments that they have made to climate financing," Creecy told China Daily.

"We know the commitment made in Paris has still not been honored for raising $100 billion per annum. We think that to establish trust between developing and developed countries it would be very important that pledges are honored."

African countries have limited resources and are developing with most of them "heavily indebted", she said, and they should not borrow money to address the effects of climate change that would increase their indebtedness. There should be a fund for developing countries to claim money when they experience disasters as a result of climate change, Creecy said.

"We want to make sure there are new financial goals after 2025 and we want that to be met. It should not be a thumb-sucked figure that is not new finance. It must be predictable and available.

"We want to make sure that developed countries responsible for historic greenhouse gas emissions are not reneging on the climate financing commitment they made at COP 26. We want to make sure that they are not trying to push responsibility for climate commitments to developing countries. We hope to get the best deal for our people, country and humanity."

Creecy said there should be a balance on the financing for adaptation and mitigation. Developing countries have to honor climate commitments so vulnerable communities and sectors of the economy are not left behind, she said, and conflict of climate justice within the Global North and South should be understood, mainstreamed and integrated into the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and financed.

Hope expressed

Crispian Olver, executive director of South Africa's Presidential Climate Commission, said it is looking forward to COP 27. He welcomed the government's negotiating position at COP 27, which he said is aligned with the expectations of many South African stakeholders.

"We want the global goal on adaptation to be implemented. There is a target there, 50 percent resilience by 2030 and 90 percent by 2050. We are pleased that the South African government is pushing this adaptation finance facility, which will be embedded into the global architecture. The most important one for us is to push the notion of a just transition.

"Developed countries in the North that are primarily responsible for the climate crisis need to step forward and deliver on the commitment of $100 billion per annum for climate finance, and they have not been forthcoming. In fact, needs are much higher than that."

Olver said the research will be presented on climate investment needs at COP 27, and what South Africa has been doing on climate change will be highlighted.

The writer is a freelance writer for China Daily.
Thenft games free to play 1992 Consensus remains a key political foundation for negotiations and mutual trust between the mainland and Taiwan, a Chinese mainland spokesman said on Wednesday.

Yang Yi, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, reiterated the mainlands policy towards Taiwan during a press conference.He added that the 1992 Consensus was also key for the peaceful development of ties between the mainland and Taiwan.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Consensus.

Our stance remains clear and consistent. The mainland and Taiwan belong to one China and their relations are not a country to country one, he said.

Meanwhile, Yang said the mainland is willing to hear and consider rational and constructive opinions and suggestions on cross-Strait ties raised by the people of Taiwan.

In November 1992, the mainlands Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and Taiwans Straits Exchange Foundation reached a common understanding that each of the two organizations should express verbally that both sides of the Taiwan Straits adhere to the One-China Principle.

The ARATS and the SEF are non-government organizations that have been entrusted to handle cross-Strait affairs by mainland and Taiwan authorities respectively.

Based on the common ground of the 1992 Consensus and opposing Taiwan independence, the mainland and Taiwan over the past four years have maintained peaceful development of the relations, according to Yang.

Xinhua

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Top of the countrys fortune list, Liang Wengen may soon join the governing body of the Peoples Republic.

In autumn 2012, the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party may welcome a billionaire in its Central Committee, for the first time in the nation of workers and peasants. Aged 57, Liang Wengen, the richest man in the country, would join the group of two hundred members which combines the most senior Chinese leaders.

As co-founder of Sany, a company based in Hunan Province and specializes in the manufacture of heavy machinery construction, Liang Wengen amassed a fortune of $9.3 billion.

According to the latest list published earlier this month by Forbes magazine, in 2011, China has 146 billionaires, 20 more than last year. Hurun magazine, based in Shanghai, for its part listed 271, 82 more than in 2010. However, they both agree to assign the first place to Liang Wengen. And both acknowledge that their figures are lower than reality. The actual number of Chinese billionaires has more than 600, says Rupert Hoogewerf, director of Hurun magazine.

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The Taiwan governments East China Sea peace initiative would help resolve disputes over the Diaoyutai Archipelago and contribute to fostering peace, security and stability in the region, according to Martin Callanan, European parliamentarian and chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, Oct. 31 in Taipei City.

We see the initiative as a useful way of getting Taiwan, Japan and [mainland] China to sit down and sort out problems over the islands without bloodshed, Callanan said. Avoiding confrontation and pursuing peaceful negotiations is in the best interests of all.

The lawmaker, who wraps up a five-day fact-finding trip to Taiwan Nov. 1, said the principle of dialogue, nonaggression and common development should be the basis for finding a long-lasting solution to the dispute over the Diaoyutais. It is crucial that all parties refrain from any provocations and engage in meaningful dialogue, he added.

We commend Taiwans commitment to peace and security throughout East Asia, which has raised the prospect of a permanent reduction in tension throughout the area.

Callanan explained that the ECR elected to get behind the initiative because it is the best way of tackling a problem that left unaddressed, could destabilize the region and hamstring economic development.

In the case of [mainland] China, the leadership transition has resulted in a degree of instability that is potentially very dangerous, he said. We want to see a peaceful resolution of this issue that satisfies all parties.

The ECR vote of confidence was welcomed by the ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which reaffirmed national sovereignty over the Diaoyutais and pledged to continue working with the EU to promote peace in the region and throughout the world.

All parties should embrace the initiative and join in forging a path of coexistence and mutual prosperity, the MOFA said.

Proposed Aug. 5 by ROC President Ma Ying-jeou, the five-point initiative urges all parties to refrain from antagonistic actions; not abandon dialogue; observe international law; resolve disputes through peaceful means; and form a mechanism for exploring and developing resources on a cooperative basis.

Callanan said ECR backing of the initiative continues the groups tradition of supporting ROC government efforts to improve cross-strait relations and expand participation in relevant international bodies such as the International Civil Aviation Organization, U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and World Health Organization.

This position was underscored Sept. 12 when the European Parliament passed a wide-ranging resolution commending the ROC government on a variety of policy initiatives. These include maintaining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and improving cross-strait relations, especially economic links.

The parliament also pledged to take concrete steps to further enhance Taiwan-EU trade ties, facilitate the negotiation of a bilateral economic cooperation agreement, and encourage closer cooperation in culture, education, environmental protection and R&D.

Callanan said as one of the resolutions main backers, the ECR has made it a priority over the next year to ensure parliament affords Taiwan the same benefits as other countries. There is very wide support for Taiwan and the resolution but this cannot be left unattended.

We will be at the forefront in pushing this agenda and opening dialogue with commissioners, state representatives and other groups within parliament. It is imperative that we present Taiwan with the opportunities that allow both sides to gain from the relationship.

John Scott Marchant

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Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei on Tuesday said China welcomes a possible freeze by the European Union of the carbon emission tax on airlines. Themr mega casino bonus ew betting EU Commission this week proposed to freeze the carbon emission tax on non-EU flights for a year, while flights within the union will still be taxed for their carbon emissions.

Under the European Emissions Trading Scheme, or ETS, all airlines flying in EU airspace have to pay a tax on 15 percent of their total carbon emissions in 2012, a move that has triggered fierce opposition from global airlines.

Hong said China urges the international community to rather tackle climate change through multilateral mechanisms such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. EU climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said she agreed to put the tax on hold, and is calling for other ways to tackle airline emissions.

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A record 21 Asian Americans are vying for seats in the U.S. Congress on Election Day. The numbers reflect the fact that Asian Americans are the fastest growing demographic group in the country.

California Congresswoman Judy Chu chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and wants increase Asian American involvement in the U.S. political process.

Chu became the first Chinese American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2009. Her late grandfather immigrated to the United States from Chinas Guangdong Province in 1904. Her mother was from the same area, and she said their experiences give her an understanding of more recent immigrants today.

There are so many immigrants who have language barriers, or who simply are not informed what resources there are for them to succeed, Chu said. She spoke about her grandfather, who ran a Chinese restaurant, in a televised speech to the Democratic National Convention in September.

Chu currently represents East Los Angeles and El Monte, a city in Los Angeles County that has a significant Latino and Asian population. This year, however, Chu is competing for a new congressional seat, one created by a California commission charged with ensuring fair representation.

Chu is urging voters to support the reelection of U.S. President Barack Obama. And she says Asian Americans will have a big say in whether he wins.

Asian Americans are the swing vote in about three battleground states, Virginia, Nevada and Florida, Chu said. They constitute a sizeable group and if they all go for a particular candidate, they could save the election.

Chu believes Mr. Obamas record on issues important to Asian Americans, such as education and small business, merit his reelection.

For so many Asian Americans, education is the key to upward mobility, Chu said. Small business is extremely important for many immigrants who may not have another way of making a living.

Another potential member of the California congressional delegation is Irvine Mayor Sukhee Kang.

Kang emigrated to the U.S. from South Korea in 1977. He became involved in politics following the Los Angeles riots of 1992, which were sparked by the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers accused of beating an African American crime suspect. Many shops belonging to Koreans and other Asians were looted in the subsequent violence.

As I was watching TV that night, I saw all the businesses burning down to the ground, he said. I felt there was injustice and I felt the need to get involved.

Kang became active in Korean-American organizations, was elected to Irvines City Council, and then won election as mayor in 2008. As a result of the election of 2008, I became the first Korean-American mayor in a major U.S. city.

Kang said he has succeeded in office despite being a Democrat in the traditionally Republican Orange County, just south of Los Angeles. He is attempting to unseat incumbent Congressman John Campbell, a Republican.

There are a lot of partisan politics being played, however, Im always on the side of the people, whatever that needs to be taken care of was my priority rather than partisan politics, he said. Luckily, a lot of people respected that and during the last four years, during the economic downturn, the city has been able to balance the budget every year.

Kang says Asian Americans dont fall into one political camp  some are Democrats, some are Republicans, and some Independents. Asian Americans are very quiet at times and it took a long time to learn what it means to be in politics, he said. It does make a tremendous difference when you are at the table.

Meanwhile, South Korea is viewing Kangs congressional campaign with great interest. If elected, he would become the only Korean-American member of Congress. People say that Sukhee Kang is a rock star in Korea, I think they look at me as one of their own even though I immigrated to the U.S. 35 years ago, he said. Im getting a lot of encouragement.

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China is questioning the value of Washingtons plan to strengthen military cooperation with Australia and update its defense treaty with the Philippines. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin called for discussions about the boosting of American troop deployment in East Asia, questioning just how cooperation would benefit the international community.

U.S. President Barack Obama has announced an enhanced security agreement with Australia providing for up to 2,500 military personnel to be stationed in the country in the coming years. In the Philippines, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a declaration reaffirming a longstanding mutual defense treaty between the countries.

In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin expressed reservations about the measures.



China wary of containment

He questioned how the United States will justify the expense of its East Asia military expansion in the face of what he described as the sluggish global financial situation. He also questioned the benefits of such cooperation, saying any outside interference would affect the peace, stability and development that both Washington and Beijing say they want.

On his arrival in Australia Wednesday, President Obama said U.S. troop deployments would help maintain what he described as the security architecture in Asia, assist with quick responses to humanitarian disasters, and respond to threats to the regions crucial sea shipping lanes.

In Beijing, the strengthening of Washingtons military alliances is likely to be seen as an attempt at containment. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu refused to answer directly when asked if Beijing objected to the troop deployment in Australia.

Instead, he said China has never engaged in any kind of foreign military alliance like those formed by the United States. And he said China has its own opinion on how to maintain stability in the region.



Simmering South China Sea dispute

Liu said Beijing is sticking to what he described as the path of peaceful development in order to realize the common aspiration of the international community.

During the past 18 months, China has been seen by many of its neighbors as becoming more outspoken in claiming territorial rights in the mineral-rich South China Sea. The dispute is likely to be discussed at this weeks East Asia Summit, which the U.S. president is attending for the first time.

China opposes any discussion of the issue, saying it prefers to settle disputes one-on-one with the countries involved. That approach, though, is causing increasing friction.

Obama and other U.S. officials repeatedly have said America welcomes a China that is strong and prosperous, and that his government has no intention of containing Beijing.

Liu said Wednesday that China hopes Washington will keep its word.

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Theodds of tiger winning the masters current situation around the Huangyan Islands has remained stable and China hopes there are no more conflicts concerning the issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Monday.

Hongs remarks came at a routine press conference after reports quoted Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III as saying that he could not allow China to claim effective control over the Huangyan Islands, as doing so could encourage China to continue to move into the resource-rich Liyue Tan, also known as the Reed Bank.

The Huangyan Islands are an indisputable part of Chinese territory, Hong said, noting that the issues concerning the islands last year were caused by Philippine military vessels harassing Chinese fishermen and fishing boats.

Hong also stressed that China has a clear stance on the Liyue Tan, which is a part of the Nansha archipelago in the South China Sea.

China has undisputed sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and neighboring sea, Hong reiterated, calling on the two sides to resolve the disputes via bilateral negotiation and consultation, which, according to Hong, all parties have unanimously agreed upon.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said Tuesday that the Philippine government has taken the South China Sea disputes to an Arbitral Tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

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Chinas leading shoemaker,chia marketcap betting tips 4 you Aokang Group Co., Ltd, has won a lawsuit against European Union (EU) anti-dumping measures on Chinese leather shoes, according to the company.

On Sunday, Aokang received the judgement of the European Court of Justice by which the Court set aside a General Court of the EU ruling in April 2010 which dismissed Aokangs action against the EU.

The Court also ordered the Council of the European Union to pay the costs incurred by Aokang Group from the lawsuits.

The EU imposed two-year 16.5-percent anti-dumping duties on imports of Chinese leather shoes in October 2006 and later decided to extend the policy until March 31 in 2011.

Five Chinese shoe companies including Aokang lodged a lawsuit against the EU measures to the General Court of the EU after the duties were imposed.

After the Chinese companies lost in the first instance in April 2010, Aokang decided to appeal to the European Court of Justice against the verdict.

The EU removed the anti-dumping duties on April 1, 2011, while Aokang continued with the lawsuit despite the removal.

Experts said Aokangs legal victory could bring the company more than 5 million yuan (801,600 US dollars) in compensation for the legal costs, and importers and exporters in trade relations with Aokang will get back the anti-dumping duties levied by the EU during the past six years.

Experts also believe that the winning of the case will create a legal basis for the Chinese shoemakers when facing international trade disputes in the future.

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Thepurchase bitcoins instantly Chinese mainland and Taiwan will face political topics sooner or later, Cai Mingzhao, spokesman for the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said Wednesday.

As for the political topics between the two sides, they are objective existence and we will face them sooner or later, Cai said at a press conference on the preparation for the Party congress.

We hope that both sides work together to create conditions and accumulate consensus to jointly tackle difficult political problems in future, he said.

The spokesman spoke highly of development of cross-Strait ties in recent years.

Since the 17th CPC National Congress in 2007, especially May 2008, cross-Strait ties have witnessed historic transformation and cast off long-term tension and turbulence, he said.

During the period, a series of breakthroughs and major achievements were made, and a new situation of peaceful development emerged in cross-Strait ties, he added.

The past few years were the most peaceful, harmonious and fruitful years in the development of cross-Strait ties. Economic, cultural and social exchanges have developed into an unprecedented level, Cai said.

Practice has proved the CPC Central Committees guidelines on Taiwan-related work are correct and effective, and the policy consistency will be maintained, Cai said.

On the basis of the 1992 Consensus, the CPC will push forward cross-Strait negotiations with the focus on economic cooperation at the moment. Special efforts are needed to push forward following negotiations of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, so as to make achievements at an early date.

Cai proposed both sides negotiate and make arrangements on cultural, educational, scientific and technological, and environmental exchanges and cooperation.

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China will continue to play a constructive role in peace talks between the Myanmar government and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO),odds for the euros marketcap holo a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Representatives of the Myanmar government and the KIO held talks in Chinas border town of Ruili on Monday.

Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing that the meeting marked the first time for both sides to engage in direct contact since the conflict escalated in June 2011.

Luo Zhaohui, head of the Asian Affairs Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, met with representatives from both sides before Mondays talks and attended the talks as a witness.

China would like to congratulate the two parties on the achievements that have been made on significant issues including cease-fire and peace talks, and hopes they will fulfill their commitments and maintain contact, Hua said.

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Hu Jintao said here Thursday China must continue to carry out the reform of the political structure.

The reform of the political structure is an important part of Chinas overall reform. We must continue to make both active and prudent efforts to carry out the reform of the political structure, and make peoples democracy more extensive, fuller in scope and sounder in practice, Hu said.

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Moscow must be held to account for Russian cybercriminals accused of hacking Australias largest health insurer and dumping customers personal medical records on the dark web, Australian officials said Friday.

Australian Federal Police took the unusual step of attributing blame for the unsolved cybercrime that resulted in the personal data of 9.7 million current and former Medibank customers being stolen.

A group of "loosely affiliated cybercriminals" operating like a business in Russia were likely responsible for the Medibank attack as well as other significant security breaches around the world, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said.

"We believe we know which individuals are responsible, but I will not be naming them," Kershaw told reporters. "What I will say is that well be holding talks with Russian law enforcement about these individuals."

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is a Medibank customer who had personal data stolen, said he had authorized police to reveal where the attack had come from.

SEATTLE POLICE STUDENT OFFICER CHARGED WITH CYBERSTALKING WOMAN

"We know where theyre coming from, we know who is responsible, and we say that they should be held to account," Albanese said.

"The nation where these attacks are coming from should also be held accountable for the disgusting attacks, and the release of information including very private and personal information," Albanese added.

An official from the Russian Embassy in Australia could not be immediately contacted for comment.

The extortionists have been linked to high-profile Russian cybercrime gang REvil, short for Ransomware Evil and also known as Sodinokibi.

The Russian Federal Security Service said in January REvil "ceased to exist" after several arrests were made at the insistence of the United States.

An old REvil dark web site had started redirecting traffic to a new site that hosts the stolen Medibank data.

Fergus Hanson, director of Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tanks cyber policy center, said he was not surprised that the crime gang was based in Russia.

2 PEOPLE ACCUSED OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS FRAUD FOR ROBOCALLS PLEAD GUILTY

A Medibank employees stolen username and password, which allowed the hackers to enter the companys database, had been sold on a Russian dark web forum, Hanson said.

Hanson doubted that culprits operating in Russia would be brought to justice.

But Australia could use its offensive cyber capabilities against the gang in Russia and prosecute their affiliates, who police suspect are operating in other countries.

"Theres potential to conduct operations against the group to disrupt their operations, but in terms of seeing them go to prison or appear before a court, I think thats pretty unlikely," Hanson told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

People walk past a Medibank branch in Sydney on Nov. 11, 2022. Extortionists have dumped personal medical records on the dark web for a third day as they pressure Australia's largest health insurer to pay a ransom. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Cybercriminals dumped personal medical records on the dark web for a third day on Friday, this time focusing on alcohol-related illnesses, as they pressure Medibank to pay a ransom.

The criminals began dumping customer records Wednesday, including those involving treatments for HIV and drug addiction, which they described as a "naughty" list, after Medibank ruled out paying a ransom for the return of the hacked data.

The focus shifted to terminated pregnancies in Thursdays dump and on Friday to conditions related to harmful levels of alcohol consumption, in a file the thieves labeled "boozy." Medical treatment records of more than 700 customers had been published through Friday in what has been described as Australias most invasive cybercrime.

Other personal details of many more customers have also been made public that could leave them vulnerable to identity theft or fraud, including phone numbers and email addresses.

Confirming the third dump, Medibank CEO David Koczkar said his company was contacting exposed customers and offering support. He expected the daily dumps would continue.

"The relentless nature of this tactic being used by the criminal is designed to cause distress and harm," Koczkar said.

UK TIGHTENS SECURITY OVER HACKING FEARS FROM RUSSIA, CHINA

"These are real people behind this data and the misuse of their data is deplorable and may discourage them from seeking medical care," he added.

The gang, which is becoming increasingly better known as BlogXX within cybersecurity circles, blamed Medibank's failure to pay a $9.7 million ransom demand.

"But we warned you. we always keep our word, if we wouldn't receive a ransom - we should post this data, because nobody will believe us in the future," they posted on Friday.

Kershaw said Australian government policy did not condone paying ransoms to cybercriminals.

"Any ransom payment, small or large, fuels the cybercrime business model, putting other Australians at risk," Kershaw said.

Australian authorities are hoping the data remains confined to the dark web and is not spread to a wider audience by social media or reported in detail by the news media.

Albanese urged against anyone accessing the data.

"We need to provide a disincentive for this sort of criminal, disgusting behavior that is reprehensible," Albanese said.

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"Its causing a great deal of distress in the community. The government acknowledges this and were doing all we can to limit the impact of this and to provide that support to people who are going through this distressing time," Albanese added.
Hans van Baalen,online casino no registration vice chairman of the European Parliament-Taiwan Friendship Group, voiced support Nov. 2 for the East China Sea peace initiative, according to the ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Van Baalen said in a meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou at the Presidential Office in Taipei City that efforts to peacefully resolve disputes in the East China Sea through recourse to international law ought to bring Taiwan a Nobel Peace Prize in the future.

He hopes mainland China and Japan can see that international law is the only way to settle this issue, the MOFA reported.

Proposed by Ma Aug. 5, the initiative calls on all parties to refrain from antagonistic actions; maintain dialogue; observe international law; resolve disputes through peaceful means; and establish a mechanism for the joint development of resources.

The parliamentarian also expressed strong backing for an economic cooperation agreement between the European Union and Taiwan, as well as one between Taiwan and the U.S.

With regard to cross-strait relations, van Baalen said an internal consensus within Taiwan is crucial. He believes the foundation Ma has built for cross-strait ties will be a key reference for all future administrations in Taiwan, according to the ministry.

Van Baalen has represented the Netherlands in the European Parliament since July 2009. Also president of Liberal International, a federation of liberal political parties worldwide, he led a parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan Nov. 1-2.

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Taiwan government conveyed its congratulations to U.S. President Barack Obama on his silver sands poker south africare-election as soon as the results were known, according to Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi Nov. 7.

President Ma Ying-jeou extended congratulations on behalf of the people and government of the ROC, Fan Chiang said.

The president noted how over the last four years under Obamas leadership, the robust and friendly relations between Taipei and Washington have reached a 30-year high, he added.

Separately, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out that Taiwan-U.S. mutual trust, exchanges of all types, dialogue and cooperation have reached new levels under the current administration.

Taiwan was admitted to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program in November, for example, a development that is bound to enhance economic, tourism, culture and academic exchanges, further strengthening bilateral ties, the ministry said.

The ROC government is confident that the Obama administration, on the basis of the Taiwan Relations Act and six assurances, will continue to work with the ROC to maintain stability in the Taiwan Strait and peace in the Asia-Pacific region, which are crucial to the interests of both nations, the MOFA said.

Our government is committed to further close cooperation with the U.S. under President Obama, to strengthen ties and promote peace, freedom, human rights and democracy worldwide, the ministry said.

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The number of individual mainland Chinese tourists applying to visit Taiwan has increased 60 percent since the ROC goverment policy was implemented one year ago, according to the National Immigration Agency June 28.

In the last six months of 2011, the NIA said, a total of 38,616 mainland visitors applied to visit Taiwan, or an average of 284 visitors per day. In the first six months of 2012, by contrast, 64,918 visitors applied to visit, an average of 451 per day.

The rise in the number of applications indicates that the governments policy of online application procedures for these visitors has paid dividends, said NIA Director-General Hsieh Li-kung.

Simplifying the application process for solo visits to Taiwan is a top policy of the NIA, Hsieh added. It currently takes us only 48 hours to process the relevant paperwork.

In addition to relaxing restrictions, simplifying application procedures, and speeding up the review and issuing of the documents, he said, the ROC government has actively communicated with mainland Chinas tourism and immigration-related agencies.

Through bilateral communication, as well as giving continued consideration to the principles of open and safety management mechanisms, we hope people from both sides can experience each others culture via various exchanges.

Taiwan launched the independent mainland Chinese visitor program on June 28 of last year, according to which a maximum 500 mainland Chinese per day were allowed to enter Taiwan for two-week visits. This privilege, however, was at first granted only to residents of Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen.

In February 2012, Taipei agreed to expand the program to include residents from eight additional mainland Chinese citiesChengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Jinan, Nanjing, Shenzhen and Tianjin.

By Grace Kuo

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A damaged vehicle lies next to a crater formed at the site of an explosion in Przewodow,planet 7 reviews betfair solutions a village in eastern Poland near the border with Ukraine, in this photograph on Nov 16, 2022. [Photo/Agencies]

MOSCOW - Russian experts have confirmed from pictures of the wreckage that the projectile falling in Poland was a Ukrainian missile, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

The rocket was an anti-aircraft guided missile of the S-300 air defense system of the Ukrainian air forces, the ministry said in a statement.

Accusations by various sources about Russian missiles hitting the Polish village of Przewodow near the Polish-Ukrainian border were "a deliberate provocation with the aim of escalating the situation," it stressed.

The Polish government confirmed on Tuesday night that two Polish citizens had been killed in explosions in the Polish city of Hrubieszow near the Poland-Ukraine border, amid media reports over missiles falling there in the afternoon.

The cause of the explosions remains unclear. TVP and TVN, among several mainstream Polish media outlets, said early Wednesday that the blasts were reportedly caused by Russian rockets, but Poland's President Andrzej Duda said later that there was no indication that the blast was an intentional attack on Poland.

Addressing a press conference in Warsaw following a meeting of his country's National Security Bureau on Wednesday, Duda said: "We have no proof at this stage that it was a missile launched by Russia. There are many indications that it was an air defense missile that unfortunately fell on Polish territory."

Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), said in Brussels on Wednesday that the explosion was likely not an attack from Russia but was caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile.

Citing the findings of a preliminary analysis of the debris found at the site of the explosion, Stoltenberg said after a NATO emergency meeting in the Belgian capital on this issue that: "We have no indication that this was the result of a deliberate attack. And we have no indication that Russia is preparing offensive military actions against NATO."

An investigation by NATO into the incident is still ongoing, Stoltenberg and Duda both said.
Theguts casino review Peoples Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC), on Thursday will carry an editorial that hails the opening of the 18th CPC National Congress and calls for achieving new victory in building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The five-yearly event will open at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing and last seven days till Nov. 14.

With high expectations from the people, the CPC gathering bears a historic mission to carry forward traditions and pave a new way for the future, and it will open a new chapter in the development of the CPC and the country, reads the editorial entitled Winning new victory for socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The 18th CPC National Congress is an important meeting that comes at a critical stage of Chinas construction of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and at a crucial time of deepening the countrys reform and opening up and accelerating the transformation of economic development pattern, says the editorial.

The congress will hold high great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, take the Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents as guiding principles, thoroughly implement the Scientific Outlook on Development, according to the editorial.

The editorial notes the congress will carry on ideological emancipation, press forward reform and opening up, override difficulties, unswervingly advance along the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics and work to build China into a prosperous society.

A successful congress will have an important and profound impact for the Party to unify people of all ethnic groups across the country, facilitate socialist modernization and create new prospects for socialism with Chinese characteristics, it says.

Since the 16th CPC National Congress, the Party has traversed a tortuous course and made extraordinary achievements in economic and social development, the editorial says.

The exciting achievements made by the CPC over the past decade have demonstrated the superiority and vitality of socialism with Chinese characteristics and laid a solid foundation for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, it says.

The editorial attributes the achievements over the past decade mainly to theoretical innovations based on practice  the Scientific Outlook on Development that provides forceful guidance to building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and accelerating the socialist modernization drive.

The editorial says the Scientific Outlook on Development represents the latest fruits of Chinas socialist theory and serves as the forceful ideological instrument guiding the work of the Party and the country, and blazes a new trail for socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The ups and downs China has experienced since 1840, along with reform and opening up over the past 30 years, have manifested that socialism with Chinese characteristics is a great banner to lead all development and progress in modern China and the only way of rejuvenating the Chinese nation, according to the editorial.

More than 2,200 delegates to the Party congress must bear their political and historical tasks to practice democracy and freely express their views for the good of the country and the people, it says.

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The government will carry out a campaign to prevent wage defaults for migrant workers from rural areas, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said Thursday.

The ministry will enhance its efforts to solve disputes involving overdue wages for migrant workers and use information technology to make labor arbitration more efficient, ministry spokesman Yin Chengji said at a press conference.

Labor arbitration centers investigated 479,000 labor disputes involving 660,000 workers in the first nine months, up 11.9 percent and 19.4 percent year on year, respectively, according to data from the ministry.

Among these cases, 457,000 have been settled, the ministrys figures showed.

During the same period, labor departments inspected 1.5 million employers to find and redress labor problems involving 85 million employees.

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Taiwan and the Chinese mainland have held a joint seminar on Sun Yat-sen and his ultrapower casinowife Madame Soong Ching Ling in Taipei.

The seminar, held at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall on Sunday in Taipei, was organized by the mainland-based China Soong Ching Ling Foundation and the Taiwan-based Sun Yat-sen Cultural Foundation.

Six scholars from the mainland and nine from Taiwan submitted a total of 11 research papers on Sun and Soong. Extensive discussions on subjects relating to the couple were held.

Qi Mingqiu, vice chairman of the Soong Ching Ling foundation, said that the seminar marked a historic moment as it was the first time for the mainland and Taiwan to jointly hold such an event.

The former residence of Soong in downtown Beijing was repurposed as a public memorial site and museum after she passed away in 1981. It holds many historical items.

Qi invited scholars from Taiwan to visit the residence as part of efforts to deepen cross-Strait exchange on academic research on Sun and Soong.

Hsu Shui-te, chief of the Sun Yat-sen foundation, said that both Taiwan and the mainland had witnessed economic prosperity, in line with Suns ideals.

He called on the two sides to join hands in creating a better future for the Chinese nation.

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Foreign political leaders and parties continued to send congratulatory messages to China on the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC),playmgm app download betking apk which opened here Thursday.

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, also leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE), said in his message that while leading the Chinese people to build a prosperous, rich and strong country, the CPC is also making continuous progress in lifting the countrys global status.

He said he is satisfied with the current relations between the two nations and is ready to further conduct mutually beneficial cooperation with China in all areas.

Roosevelt Skerrit, prime minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica and leader of the Dominica Labor Party, lauded the closer ties between the two countries as well as the increasingly frequent contacts between their political parties and governments.

We believe that Chinas relationship with the Caribbean was considerably enhanced and there is a better understanding of your people and their culture as a result of many exchanges we have had at party and governmental levels, he said in the message.

Juan Ponce Enrile, president of the Philippine Senate and head of the Forces of the Filipino Masses, said he believes the incoming new CPC leadership would bring more prosperity and well-being to the Chinese people.

He said it is the sincere hope of Manila to further enhance the diplomatic ties between the two nations, maintain bilateral dialogue and strengthen cooperation and understanding between the two peoples.

Feliciano R. Belmonte Jr., speaker of the Philippine House of the Representatives and head of the Liberal Party, said delegates to the CPC national congress will make important decisions on the future development of the CPC and China.

He said the Philippine House of the Representatives is committed to developing the ties between the two countries and supports the efforts of the CPC and the Chinese government in deepening cooperation and understanding between the two peoples.

Afghan Vice President Mohammad Karim Khalili, also head of the Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan, hailed the impressive success achieved by the Chinese people under the outstanding leadership of the CPC.

He said he is confident that China will have a more splendid future under the incoming new CPC leadership.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, leader of the United National Party of Sri Lanka, said since the 18th CPC congress is of great importance in Chinas socialist modernization drive, his party looks forward to a successful conclusion of the congress and the election of a new CPC Central Committee and a new CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Mahbubul Alam Hanif, joint secretary general of the Bangladesh Awami League, said the CPC is the driving force behind all the glorious achievements in China.

Bangladesh and China share many similar historical and cultural backgrounds, and we hope in the near future Bangladesh will become Chinas best economic partner, he said.

Hajj Mohammad Mohaqiq, leader of the Peoples Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan, wished the CPC congress a success, saying his party believes that under the leadership of a new CPC Central Committee, the Chinese people will make new achievements in national construction and international affairs.

His party is as always dedicated to developing friendly relations between the two parties and two countries, and wishes the friendship between the two countries live forever, Mohaqiq added.

Debabrata Biswas, general secretary of All India Forward Bloc, said China now has been lauded across the world for achieving a sustainable development and the maximum targets of the Millennium Development Goals.

The achievement is certainly due to the scientific implementation of Chinese Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, he said, adding that the outcome of the 18th CPC congress will certainly strengthen the governing capacity of the party to address challenges in economic development facing the Chinese people.

Liberal Party of the Philippines (LPP) President Mar Roxas and LPP Executive Vice President Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya said in a message that the CPC congress is convening at a time of surging prosperity and reform in China.

The LPP believes Chinas development and prosperity will provide impetus for prosperity in the region and the world, the message said, adding relations between the LPP and the CPC will be conducive to boosting the common interests of both peoples.

Secretary General of the Democratic Party of Timor-Leste Mariano Assanami Sabino said the 18th CPC congress is a big event in Chinas political life, adding that pooling the wisdom of the whole party, the congress is set to make successful political decisions.

The people of Timor-Leste appreciates the brotherly support given by the CPC and the Chinese government and expects to continue to learn from the CPC, Sabino said.

Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq, president of Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, said in a congratulatory message that the world has witnessed Chinas phenomenal social and economic development under the leadership of the CPC.

I believe this congress will mark a new significant development of the party in the struggle for social progress, prosperity and harmony, he said.

Kasymguly Babayev, first secretary of the political committee of the Turkmen Democratic Party, said in his message he wishes the CPC national congress a full success.

Promoted by the two countries leaders, Turkmenistan and China have achieved positive results in boosting political, economic and cultural cooperation, strengthening peoples communication and consolidating mutual trust and friendship, he said, adding the Turkmen Democratic Party sets a high value on its good ties with the CPC.

Dalia Itzik, chairwoman of the Kadima Faction of the Knesset of Israel, said the 18th CPC National Congress is held at a time when the politics and economy of the Middle East and the world enters a crucial developing period, and it has a great impact on China and the world at large.

The next generation of the CPC leadership elected by the congress will surely keep advancing and bring more benefits to the well-being of the Chinese people.

Vijay Jolly, convener of Overseas Affairs of the Indian Peoples Party, said in a message: We had noted with appreciation the opening up of your economy, deepening reforms, promoting scientific development, and strengthening social harmony and all-round development in China.

It is appreciable that the CPC has been steering the people of China on a path of prosperity in the economic, political, social and cultural spheres, he said, adding today China enjoys global prestige and a high status in world affairs.

He said he believes the strategic policies formulated by the 18th CPC National Congress will promote strong friendly ties with democratic India.

Karan Singh, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Indian National Congress, said in a message as the worlds two most populous countries and neighbors, the good-neighborly and friendly relations between India and China can make great contribution to world peace and stability.

We hope the relationship between India and China can advance with the times, and all of the problems between the two countries can be solved in a peaceful and friendly way, he said.

Chairman of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party Algirdas Butkevicius said he does hope and wish that the 18th CPC National Congress will uphold the policy of reform and opening-up and set out specific goals, missions and guidelines for future development.

The Lithuanian Social Democratic Party looks forward to working together with the CPC for creating closer cooperation between Lithuania and China, and promoting friendship and solidarity of the people in the two countries, he added.

Beyom Malo Adrien, secretary general of the Patriotic Salvation Movement of Chad, said his party would actively strengthen communication with the CPC, learn from the CPCs experience, and believed the 18th National Congress of the CPC would become a new beginning of promoting relations between the two countries to better serve the interests of the two peoples.

Leader of Cape Verdes Movement for Democracy Party Carlos Veiga said in his congratulatory message that he believed the new generation of the CPCs central leadership would guide China to march forward on its current extraordinary path.

He expressed hope that the friendly and cooperative ties between the two parties and two countries will achieve greater progress.

Colombias Radical Change Party said in its congratulatory message that China has been developing its socialism with Chinese characteristics steadily under the leadership of the CPC and expressed hope the 18th national congress would complete all its agenda to outline Chinas development in the 21st century.

Cesar Gaviria, chief of the Colombian Liberal Party, said he hoped the 18th National Congress of the CPC would further strengthen unity of the Chinese people and promote Chinas role in international affairs as a harmonious, prosperous and free nation.

Robert Pickersgill, chairman of the Peoples National Party of Jamaica, said his party attaches great importance to developing relations with China, and expressed hope the friendly partnership between the two parties would deepen in the future.

President of Uruguays Broad Front Party Monica Xavier said in his congratulatory message that his party has been closely watching the results of the 18th National Congress of the CPC and is ready to promote the friendly relations already existing between the two parties.

Mexicos National Action Party also sent its congratulatory message, saying it believed the congress would guide China toward prosperity and closer relations between the two countries.

Xinhua

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Four people were killed when a hopper wall collapsed in a mining company in east Chinas Anhui province Sunday morning, local authorities said.

The hopper wall collapsed at 8:05 a.m. Sunday at Xudong Mining Co., Ltd. in Huoshan county, killing four people and injuring some others, said the county publicity officials.

The injured are receiving treatment in hospital, but the exact number of the injured is still unavailable.

Police are investigating the incident, officials said.

Xinhua

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Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu on Monday met Swiss President Ueli Maurer,bet 12 apk 5 lion gold megaways Vice President and Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter and Economy Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann.

During their talks, Hui stressed both sides should respect each others way of development, take each others concerns into consideration, and realize win-win cooperation and mutual development.

Hui said China and Switzerland had made fruitful achievements in finance, culture and education, science and technology, tourism, and personnel training. He added the nations have been keeping good communication and coordination in international affairs.

China attaches great importance to develop China-Switzerland relations and is willing to complete the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with Switzerland as soon as possible, Hui said.

Hui also said both sides should explore potential in agricultural cooperation. China welcomed Swiss agricultural companies to actively participate in Chinas modern agriculture.

The Swiss expressed their willingness to expand cooperation and exchanges with China. Top Swiss officials said Switzerland was willing to make efforts to push for reaching an agreement in FTA talks with China as soon as possible, and would continue to strengthen coordination with China.

They also stressed Switzerlands adherence to the one-China policy.

During his five-day visit to Switzerland, which started on Feb. 16, Hui visited local agricultural companies and family farms.

Xinhua

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In this golden autumn, a joint drill among multiple arms of the Army and the Air Force troops of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) was carried out on the plateau with an elevation of more than 4,500 meters in west China. It is the first joint actual-troop drill of the PLA air and ground troops under information-based conditions in the frigid area with a high altitude.

At the very beginning of the drill, the new-type warplanes of the PLA Air Force conducted accurate strikes at the main targets of the enemy with various new weapon systems. Shortly after seizing the commanding point, the long-range guns launched full-scale shooting at the command post and the artillery position of the enemy. Thereupon, under the cover of the army aviation troops and ground anti-aircraft missiles, the armored vehicle group and infantry combat vehicles branched out into various columns and made a sudden and violent attack on the mountain passes occupied by the enemy. The special operation detachment outflanked the enemy and raided the enemys command post.

At a mountain pass 5000-odd meters above the sea level, the armored vehicle group and the infantry combat vehicles broke through the interdiction barrage of the enemy in succession, advancing into the depth of the mountains. At another mountain pass with an elevation of 5,000-plus meters hundreds of kilometers away, the aviation troops of the PLA Air Force screened the ground troops to seize the commanding point.

Conducting military operations on plateau with an elevation of more than 4500 meters is an extreme challenge to both human health and weaponry performance. To ensure the success of the air-ground joint drill, the chemical defense support group, engineering support group, logistics support group, equipment support group and field first-aid support group took relevant actions in succession.

Liu Xingan, Guo Fengkuan and Liu Yinghua

Photo by Liu Yinghua

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A first squad of 558 Chinese troops assigned for the United Nations-mandated peacekeeping mission in Liberia departed on Tuesday aboard a chartered plane.

Thefree download governor of poker 3 second and final squad will set off for the west African country 10 days later.

Comprising 275 engineers, 240 members of the infantry and 43 medical staff, all from the Beijing Military Area Command, the troops will assume an eight-month-long mission in Liberia, replacing a previous Chinese peacekeeping team.

Their duties will include constructing roads, bridges and bunkers, repairing houses and airports, maintaining water and electricity supply facilities, transportation, as well as medical treatment and epidemic prevention.

This is the 14th Chinese peacekeeping detachment to Liberia. China started dispatching peacekeepers to the country in December 2003 under UN Security Council Resolution 1509.

Xinhua

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To attract more youths of military age to sign up to join the army, the Peoples Armed Forces Department of the Daye City in central Chinas Hubei Province issued a preferential policy on the conscription work in this winter, increasing the allowance for families of conscripts, an increase from 1,500 Yuan to 4,600 Yuan of the annual allowance for the families of conscripts in rural areas. The peoples government of Daye City will offer 20 specific civil service posts each year for the retired soldiers with college education backgrounds based on their examination grades.

On the morning of October 25, the Conscription Office of the Beijing Municipality organized more than 100 students from 10 colleges and universities in Beijing to pay a visit to a regiment of the PLA Beijing Garrison. These conscript candidates learnt and experienced the military service life personally through such activities as visiting the barracks and equipent, watching the military training demonstrations and having person-to-person exchanges with the officers and men.

Yue Changlu, a junior student of Beijing Union University, said, This visit to the army barracks gave me an opportunity to personally experience the colorful life of soldiers. Ive made up my mind to join the army!

To attract highly qualified and well educated youths into the army, the Peoples Armed Forces Department of the Mengzi County, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, initiated the activity of national defence mobilization into university campuses after the beginning of the conscription work in this winter. It invited excellent servicemen from the military units stationed in Mengzi to give speeches in universities in Mengzi. Up to now, there have been over 200 graduating students who have signed up to join the army.

To create the thick atmosphere of join the army and serve the country enthusiastically, the PLA Jiamusi Military Sub-command in Heilongjiang Province established multi-dimensional publicity networks by making full use of signboards in streets, short message of mobile phones, electronic signs of taxis and social networking platforms in communities in the city to widely publicize the Military Service Law, the Regulations on Conscription Work and other conscription policies.

Ou Yang

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A view of the Phnom Penh in Cambodia. [Photo/VCG]

Li to visit Cambodia for meetings with Southeast,wink slots promo code 30 free spins East Asian nations' leaders

Premier Li Keqiang reiterated on Monday China's firm support for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' solidarity and centrality, saying that China and ASEAN countries' respective circles of friends can engage in constructive interaction and develop in parallel.

"Our ASEAN friends can rest assured that there will be no pressure from China for you to take sides, only encouragement for common progress in solidarity," Li wrote in a signed article published on Monday by leading media outlets in Cambodia, one day ahead of his six-day visit to the country.

Li will pay an official visit to Cambodia and participate in a meeting between China and member states of ASEAN and a meeting of China, Japan, South Korea and ASEAN countries, as well as the 17th East Asia Summit.

This will be the premier's first overseas trip since the outbreak of COVID-19 and his first face-to-face meeting with East Asian leaders in two years. It will also be the 10th consecutive time that Li has attended the series of leaders' meetings on East Asian cooperation.

Li said that East Asian cooperation over the past 10 years has maintained a general upward trend, despite the fluid international landscape.

For example, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the world's largest free trade pact in terms of economic aggregate and population, has injected strong impetus into regional economic integration, economic globalization and free trade after it came into force at the beginning of the year.

"China and other countries in the region have made the best of our geopolitical proximity, economic complementarity, cultural affinity and our potentials to promote results-oriented cooperation," he wrote.

To keep the momentum of development going, Li said it is imperative that regional countries build on their historical experiences, seize current opportunities and open up new prospects for the future.

He called on China, Cambodia and countries in East Asia to stay committed to multilateralism and economic globalization in the face of the volatile international landscape and the treacherous global economic situation.

"Today's world, albeit rife with challenges, is brimming with hope," he wrote.

During his official visit to Cambodia, the premier will meet with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and have talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Noting that the millennium-old friendship between the two countries has withstood the test of time, Li said this great friendship has transcended time and has remained as strong as ever, as a result of efforts and commitment of generations of leaders from both sides.

In the past few years, the China-Cambodia Free Trade Agreement was signed and entered into force. Bilateral trade exceeded $10 billion last year, two years earlier than expected.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sent a congratulatory message to the 12th session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation conference upon its opening on Wednesday in Cairo,effective roulette strategies Egypt.

On the occasion of the opening of the 12th session of the Islamic Summit Conference, I wish to extend, on behalf of the government of the Peoples Republic of China and in my own name, warm congratulations to the session, Wen said in the message.

Both the Chinese people and people of the Islamic countries love peace and long for development. China values its friendly relations with the Islamic countries and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the premier said.

We are ready to work with the Islamic countries and the OIC, in a spirit of equality, mutual trust, inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutually beneficial cooperation, to deepen win-win cooperation, pursue common development and build a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity, he added.

I wish the session a full success, Wen said.

The two-day Islamic summit starts Wednesday in Cairo with the attendance of 27 heads of states and 29 representatives of OIC members, including Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

Xinhua

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Theladbrokes games bonus Presidium of the CPC National Congress has held its second meeting in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The meeting was presided by Hu Jintao, the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

The meeting approved a list of candidates to be members and alternate members of the central committee and to be members of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Xi Jinping, Secretary-General of the Congress, briefed the presidium on the list of nominees. The meeting also approved draft resolutions on Hu Jintaos report on behalf of the 17th CPC Central Committee, the work report of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and an amendment of the party constitution.

The draft resolutions and lists will be passed on to all the delegations for further discussion. The meeting approved the congress election procedures. A list of ballot scrutineers was also accepted by the presidium, and will be ratified by the congress before the final vote begins.

Xinhua

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Free China, a historic ship that sailed across the Pacific from Taiwan to San Francisco 57 years ago, went on display at the National Museum of Marine Science and Technology in Keelung July 11.

The original voyage was a reflection of humanitys yearning for freedom, ROC Culture Minister Lung Ying-tai said at the unveiling ceremony.

It was a miraculous international event for the Cold War era (1945-1991), she said, noting that the implementation of martial law at the time meant that no one could leave the country without government approval.

Following three years of negotiations with the ships previous owner, Free China was shipped back from Oakland, Calif., according to the Ministry of Culture. Over two months of repair work were needed before it could be put on view.

The vessel left Keelung Port April 4, 1955, manned by five young Taiwan sailors and Calvin E. Mehlert, former U.S. vice consul to Taiwan. The crew intended to participate in an international sailing competition after reaching the U.S., but because of a typhoon en route, they arrived too late, after 114 days. Free China, believed to have been built in 1890 in mainland Chinas Fujian province, was the first traditional junk to make the trans-Pacific trip, the MOC noted.

Crew member Paul Chow, now in his 80s, said that as a sailor he did not want to sail only from Keelung in northern Taiwan to Kaohsiung in the south, but to be a free mariner and explore the world. The ceremony was also attended by the two other surviving sailors, Mehlert and Hu Loo-chi.

The dilapidated wooden boat will soon see its exterior restored to the best condition possible, according to National Taiwan Ocean University professor Laurence Lwo Lwun-syin. This is a historical treasure that needs to be preserved and I am proud to be part of the restoration efforts, he said.

Taiwan Today

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday that the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) is the hundred betting oddsregrettable, and Japan strongly protests against it, local media reported.

Abe made the remark at the lower house and said the test violated relevant UN resolutions.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Foreign Ministry has lodged protest against the DPRK, Japans Kyodo News Agency said.

Abe said his government is mulling imposing unilateral sanctions on the DPRK over the nuclear test.

On Tuesday, the DPRK announced that it successfully conducted a nuclear test in the northeast part of the country, drawing condemnations from South Korea and the United Nations.

Xinhua

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More than 7000 employees of a factory producing shoes for Adidas, Nike and New Balance went on strike against layoffs and wage cuts. Dozens of workers were injured when police tried to dismantle a roadblock set up by the strikers on the main street of the town near Dongguan ().

Employees of the plant Yucheng () near Huangjiang () in southern China, went on strike after the dismissal of 18 of their officers, interpreted by workers as a sign of upcoming relocation. One of the executives who has been fired told the press that his dismissal was part of a proposed relocation of production in Jiangxi province to reduce costs that are higher in Dongguan, the manufacturing hub of China.

The strike is the latest in a series of incidents and social movements that erupted in Guangdong, a region known as the great workshop of the world that attract tens of millions of migrant workers. The elimination of bonuses and overtime are also the source of the anger of the factory workers of Yucheng. Our basic monthly salary is only 1100 yuan and we really need to work overtime, said a worker to the Yangcheng Evening News. The newspaper said the actions of local authorities to maintain an overtime, were not answered by management of the plant that is owned by an investment group in Taiwan.

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A new report from Human Rights Watch titled, Youll be Fired If You Refuse: Labor Abuses in Zambias Chinese State-owned Copper Mines is urging Zambias new president to live up to his campaign pledges. After his election, Michael Sata promised to ensure that workers in Chinese-owned copper mines are adequately protected. Meanwhile, China defends its practices.

We found that across the four Chinese-owned copper mines in Zambia, there were persistent labor abuses, particularly in regards to health and safety, long hours of work and anti-union activities, said Matt Wells, with Human Rights Watch in Lusaka, summarizing the more than 100-page report.

The report says safety and labor conditions at Chinese-owned mines in Zambia are worse than at other foreign-owned mines. It also accuses Chinese mine managers of violating Zambian laws by forcing employees to work more than legally allowed.

President Sata recently told Chinese businessmen in Zambia that it is his governments responsibility to make clear what their obligations are. At the same time, he thanked China for its investment.

Wells says workers in Zambias so-called copper belt were a large part of Satas power base. The researcher acknowledges what he describes as the Zambian leaders softening of language, but adds that the next two months are a crucial time to see if President Sata will work for improved conditions for Zambian workers.

The companies are all starting negotiations right now, through the end of the year, to set the terms for 2012, noted Wells. And I think how strongly the government is behind the workers will come through, through these negotiations at the end of the year.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the report is inconsistent with the facts.

Hong says China expects enterprises to abide by local laws and regulations. He added that China has formulated laws and regulations to ensure that the lawful rights and interests of local employees are protected, although he gave no details.

He says Chinese-African cooperation is based on mutual benefit and equality. He said Chinese companies have promoted employment in Africa and have contributed to economic and social development there.

The Chinese spokesman also said Beijing appreciates Zambias expressions of desire for continued cooperation.

Human Rights Watch says Chinas investment in copper mining accounts for 75 percent of Zambias exports. Wells says the Non-Ferrous Metals Mining Corporation, the state-owned company that oversees Chinas copper mining operations, has promised to investigate the groups findings.

Stephanie Ho

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HAIKOU  Kay Feske,welcome casino bet 9ja shop login a German architect, never imagined that one day he would be known as the "sausage guy" in South China's island province of Hainan.

Feske's story dates back to 2003 when he met his then future wife Yang Aiwei, who was then studying landscape design in Germany and working as an intern in the same architecture company as Feske.

They gradually fell in love but had to face being apart the following year as Yang moved to Hainan for a project. A few months later, Feske decided to take a few weeks off to visit her.

It was originally planned to be a short trip. Upon his arrival, however, Feske found that the island province was similar to his hometown Rostock featuring agriculture and tourism, and he promptly fell in love with its unique charm.

The couple decided to settle down in Hainan. They got married in 2005 and opened their own architectural design firm the next year.

As architects with numerous projects across the island, Feske and Yang spent a great deal of time in hotels, where they discovered that most of the sausage products mainly come from big cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

"As a German, I am familiar with sausages as they are part of our daily food," said Feske. "Why do they have to come from the far north?" he thought to himself.

The couple also sensed potential in Hainan's agriculture market. Consequently, after running the architecture firm for 10 years, they forayed into their second venture of meat processing and started from scratch.

They established their company in Ding'an county in 2015 with a 500-square-meter factory. They imported all the machines from Germany and also hired a professional butcher from the country.

Their sausages, featuring a combination of German culinary techniques and local Chinese ingredients, were an instant success, gaining particular popularity in Hainan's hotels and restaurants. As a result, Feske earned the nickname the "sausage guy".

Over the years, Feske's sausage business has flourished with his product market expanding from the island to other cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou.

In order to meet the larger market demand, they began to build a new factory in 2019 with the help of the local government and it is slated to start production in December this year. The daily output is expected to increase from 1.5 metric tons to nearly 10 tons after the new factory is put into operation.

Having lived in Hainan for 18 years, Feske said he has seen "unbelievable changes" all around the island. "I have seen a lot of development and the people have always been very nice to me. It's like my home."

Since 2020, Hainan has been building a free trade port. Feske believes it will help his business immensely in the future, particularly in the import-export sector.

The German architect-turned-entrepreneur said he is very confident in Hainan's future and that it has great potential.

"I really hope the free trade port can attract more international companies to set up branches or their headquarters here and bring more expats to Hainan," he added.

With the new factory, Feske aspires to make his sausage brand more well-known not only in Hainan but throughout China. He is even considering selling the sausages to other countries, especially in Southeast Asia.
Tourists go sailing in boats at the Summer Palace to enjoy springtime in Beijing. [PHOTO BY JIANG DONG/CHINA DAILY]

Rural homestays benefit as people stay closer to home for Qingming Festival

Local tours are the most popular option for the upcoming Qingming Festival holiday on April 3-5,all in poker lotto winning numbers olg as travelers have shortened the radius of their travel to reduce risk amid the pandemic, business insiders said.

Data from online travel agency Qunar show that, suburb tour reservations for this year's holiday increased by 30 percent year-on-year.

From the presale of train tickets, as of March 28, the proportion of intraprovincial passengers accounted for 75 percent of the national total, an increase of more than 20 percent compared with the same period last year.

"Since the outbreak of the pandemic, leisure travel to suburbs and rural areas are in demand among tourists," a manager of Qunar was quoted as saying by Beijing Daily.

"The increasing demand energizes accommodation in rural areas, with some having outperformed hotels in downtown areas."

Moreover, during this year's Qingming Festival, some upscale hotels and homestays in rural areas have cut their prices by about 30 percent, attracting many tourists to choose countryside travel, the manager said.

According to the tourism platform, some hotel reservations in rural areas doubled year-on-year, with the price half of that from the Spring Festival in February. Cities including Dali, Chengdu, Lijiang,Chongqing, Beijing, Guangzhou and Sanya are among the favorite destinations.

"We had to cancel our travel plans to stay in Beijing due to the outbreak across the country. I plan to take my family on a two-night trip in the suburbs and travel around," a visitor surnamed Zhao told Beijing Business Today.

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LHASA  Though it has been seven years since Changchub Lhamo retired,big time game crypto the former ranger often returns to the vast grassland to visit her "ungulate friends."

The 67-year-old member of the Tibetan ethnic group used to work at the Riwoche National Nature Reserve in Riwoche county in the city of Chamdo, Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region. Covering 1,206 square kilometers, the reserve was set up to protect red deer, a species under second-class national protection.

The bond between Changchub Lhamo and the red deer dates back over 50 years, after she saved three fawns in the wild when she was 15 years old.

"I found them while farming in the field. I waited all day without seeing their parents, so I decided to take them home to protect them from predators or starving to death," she recalled.

Even though her family was not well-off at the time, she spared some barley for the fawns and fed them yak milk. At night, she cuddled them while they slept to keep them warm.

The three fawns grew healthily under her meticulous care, and one of them was even named for her. Two years later, Changchub Lhamo released them into the wild. "I was reluctant to part with them, but I knew that nature was their home," she said.

During the first winter after their release, Changchub Lhamo was surprised to find the three red deer returning, followed by several others.

Later, the local government allocated pasture for the deer to graze during winter and hired Changchub Lhamo as a ranger. The Riwoche Red Deer Nature Reserve was established in 1993, and upgraded to national facility status in 2005.

Duan Shichang, from the county's forestry and grassland administration, said the local government spends more than 200,000 yuan ($28,000) on fodder every year to help red deer survive the winter, while monitoring stations, patrol trails and veterinary stations have also been built. Thanks to the protective measures, the red deer population in the reserve has risen from more than 1,000 in the 1990s to about 3,000.

Changchub Lhamo's two sons are now among the nine rangers who work at the reserve. The rangers observe the deer, carry out regular patrols and rescue injured animals.

"I will continue to follow in mom's footsteps and make a contribution to wildlife protection," said Changchub Lhamo's son, Rinchen Tsephel, who has been working at the reserve for six years.

Xinhua
Thegoldwin slot 888casino online following is the biographical sketch of Xi Jinping:

Xi Jinping, born in June 1953, is a male ethnic Han from Fuping, Shaanxi Province. He entered the workforce in January 1969 and joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in January 1974. He graduated from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Tsinghua University with a major in Marxist theory and ideological and political education, has an in-service postgraduate education and holds the degree of Doctor of Laws.

He is currently general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission, vice president of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), vice chairman of the PRC Central Military Commission, and president of the Central Party School.

1969-1975 Educated youth and Party Branch secretary, Liangjiahe Brigade, Wenanyi Commune, Yanchuan County, Shaanxi Province

1975-1979 Student of basic organic synthesis, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University

1979-1982 Secretary, General Office, State Council and Central Military Commission (AD)

1982-1983 Deputy secretary, CPC Zhengding County Committee, Hebei Province

1983-1985 Secretary, CPC Zhengding County Committee, Hebei Province; concurrently first commissar and Party Committee first secretary, Zhengding County Military Affairs Department

1985-1988 Member, Standing Committee, CPC Xiamen Municipal Committee, Fujian Province; and vice mayor, Xiamen

1988-1990 Secretary, CPC Ningde Prefectural Committee, Fujian Province; and concurrently first secretary, Party Committee, Ningde Military Sub-region

1990-1993 Secretary, CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee, Fujian Province; chairman, Standing Committee, Fuzhou Municipal Peoples Congress; and concurrently first secretary, Party Committee, Fuzhou Military Sub-region

1993-1995 Member, Standing Committee, CPC Fujian Provincial Committee; secretary, CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee; chairman, Standing Committee, Fuzhou Municipal Peoples Congress; first secretary, Party Committee, Fuzhou Military Sub-region

1995-1996 Deputy secretary, CPC Fujian Provincial Committee; secretary, CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee; chairman, Standing Committee, Fuzhou Municipal Peoples Congress; first secretary, Party Committee, Fuzhou Military Sub-region

1996-1999 Deputy secretary, CPC Fujian Provincial Committee; first commissar, Fujian Provincial Antiaircraft Artillery Reserve Division

1999-2000 Deputy secretary, CPC Fujian Provincial Committee; acting governor, Fujian Province; deputy director, National Defense Mobilization Committee, Nanjing Military Area Command; director, Fujian Provincial National Defense Mobilization Committee; first commissar, Fujian Provincial Antiaircraft Artillery Reserve Division

2000-2002 Deputy secretary, CPC Fujian Provincial Committee; governor, Fujian Province; deputy director, National Defense Mobilization Committee, Nanjing Military Area Command; director, Fujian Provincial National Defense Mobilization Committee; first commissar, Fujian Provincial Antiaircraft Artillery Reserve Division (1998-2002: studied Marxist theory and ideological and political education in the In-service Postgraduate Class at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Tsinghua University, and awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws)

2002-2002 Deputy secretary, CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee; acting governor, Zhejiang Province; deputy director, National Defense Mobilization Committee, Nanjing Military Area Command; director, Zhejiang Provincial National Defense Mobilization Committee

2002-2003 Secretary, CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee; acting governor, Zhejiang Province; first secretary, Party Committee, Zhejiang Provincial Military Region; deputy director, National Defense Mobilization Committee, Nanjing Military Area Command; director, Zhejiang Provincial National Defense Mobilization Committee

2003-2007 Secretary, CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee; chairman, Standing Committee, Zhejiang Provincial Peoples Congress; first secretary, Party Committee, Zhejiang Provincial Military Region

2007-2007 Secretary, CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee; first secretary, Party Committee, Shanghai Garrison Command

2007-2008 Member, Standing Committee, Political Bureau; and member, Secretariat; of the CPC Central Committee; president, Central Party School

2008-2010 Member, Standing Committee, Political Bureau; and member, Secretariat; of the CPC Central Committee; vice president, PRC; president, Central Party School

2010-2012 Member, Standing Committee, Political Bureau; and member, Secretariat; of the CPC Central Committee; vice president, PRC; vice chairman, CPC and PRC Central Military Commission; president, Central Party School

2012- General secretary, CPC Central Committee; chairman, CPC Central Military Commission; vice president, PRC; vice chairman, PRC Central Military Commission; president, Central Party School

Alternate member, Fifteenth CPC Central Committee; member, Sixteenth through Eighteenth CPC Central Committees; member, Political Bureau and its Standing Committee, and Secretariat, Seventeenth CPC Central Committee; member, Political Bureau and its Standing Committee, and general secretary, Eighteenth CPC Central Committee; elected as vice president of the PRC at the First Session of the Eleventh National Peoples Congress (NPC); appointed as a vice chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Seventeenth CPC Central Committee; appointed as a vice chairman of the PRC Central Military Commission at the Seventeenth Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh NPC; appointed as chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission at the First Plenary Session of the Eighteenth CPC Central Committee.

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At 10:00 on October 2, the 10th escort taskforce of the Navy of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) set sail from a naval port in Zhanjiang, south Chinas Guangdong Province, for the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somali coast to replace the 9th Chinese naval escort taskforce for escort missions.

Ding Yiping, deputy commander of the PLA Navy, came to the port to see the taskforce off on behalf of Wu Shengli, member of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and commander of the PLA Navy, and Liu Xiaojiang, political commissar of the PLA Navy. Jiang Weilie, commander of the South China Sea Fleet of the PLA Navy, Huang Jiaxiang, political commissar of the South China Sea Fleet of the PLA Navy, leaders of the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, some officers and men, and some relatives of the officers and men of the taskforce also attended the seeing-off ceremony.

Ding Yiping said that since the first escort mission of the first naval escort taskforce, Chinas naval escort taskforces have performed escort missions for 4,252 Chinese and foreign ships, rescued 42 Chinese and foreign ships from pirate attacks or pursuits. He pointed out that the setting off of the 10th Chinese naval escort taskforce further shows Chinas confidence and determination in fulfilling international obligations and safeguarding the security of maritime strategic channels.

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What Is the Hierarchy of GAAP?best betting sites welcome bonus

The hierarchy of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) refers to a four-level framework that classifies the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) guidance on accounting practices and standards by their level of authority. Top-level guidance typically addresses broad accounting issues while those at a lower level deal with more technical issues.

Key Takeaways

The GAAP hierarchy is a four-tiered framework for selecting the principles that accountants should use in preparing financial statements of nongovernmental entities.

Because multiple organizations regulate separate parts of the accounting world, there was a need to identify the most relevant standards for various accounting topics.

The hierarchy of GAAP identifies which standards and best practices are the most authoritative for a particular instance or problem.

If no information on the topic is given at the higher levels, the accountant should look to the next level down for relevant pronouncements.

Understanding the Hierarchy of GAAP

With multiple regulatory bodies overseeing various parts of the accounting profession, there was a need to pinpoint the most relevant and authoritative guidance on accounting topics. Additionally, each regulatory body releases accounting guidance in multiple formats that have varying levels of authority. The hierarchy of GAAP is designed to improve consistency and comparability within financial reporting. It is a framework for selecting the principles that accountants should use in preparing financial statements of nongovernmental entities in conformity with U.S. GAAP.

Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)

The FASB, formed in 1973, is an independent nonprofit organization that is responsible for establishing accounting and financial reporting standards for public and private companies and nonprofit organizations in the United States. This allows for more standardized reporting, enabling investors and other financial statement users to better compare the financial statements of multiple companies within a common sector or industry.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

The SEC, created in 1934, is an independent federal government agency responsible for protecting investors, maintaining fair and orderly functioning of the securities markets, and facilitating capital formation. The SEC sets forth reporting standards and regulations for public companies.

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)

The AICPA, founded in 1887, is the non-profit professional organization that represents certified public accountants (CPAs) in the United States. Among other tasks, the AICPA develops standards for external audits of private companies.

Requirements for the Hierarchy of GAAP

There are four levels of the GAAP hierarchy. The top of the hierarchy is the most authoritative guidance. An accountant researching a given topic should consult first with the highest level for relevant advice. If no information on the topic is given at the higher levels, the accountant should look to the next level for relevant pronouncements.

At the top of the GAAP hierarchy are statements and interpretations by the FASB, rules and interpretive releases by the SEC (for all SEC registrants), and accounting research bulletins and opinions issued by the AICPA. The second level consists of FASB Technical Bulletins and, if cleared by the FASB, the AICPA Industry Audit and Accounting Guides and Statements of Position. On the third level are AICPA Accounting Standards Executive Committee Practice Bulletins, consensus positions of the FASB Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF), and topics discussed in Appendix D of EITF Abstracts. On the lowest level are FASB implementation guides, AICPA Accounting Interpretations, and AICPA Industry Audit and Accounting Guides and Statements of Position not cleared by the FASB. Also included on the lowest level are accounting practices that are widely recognized and commonly used, either in general or within a given industry.

The FASB's Statement of Accounting Standards No. 162 provides a detailed explanation of the hierarchy.
[Photo/IC]

SHANGHAI  "It would really be a pity if these centuries-old tea trees had been cut down,online casino bonus spins" recalled Yuan Tian, who wore a traditional Lao dress as she prepared tea in the food and agricultural products section of the fifth China International Import Expo on Sunday.

Eight years ago, several Chinese businessmen traveling the Bolaven Plateau of Laos found to their surprise that aging tea trees were being cut down by local villagers to make way for coffee planting.

They offered to purchase the treasures.

The 36 Manor company established a factory there, taking tea leaves collected from the wild tea trees to the global market. Its business there then expanded to the growing of tea trees.

"The natural conditions in Laos are very suitable for cultivating tea trees. The brew produced by our tea trees is mellow and fragrant. A pot of our tea can survive 15 brews and still be strong," said Yuan, head of the exhibit booth and general manager of the 36 Manor.

The Laos-produced tea has quickly become popular with Chinese consumers.

"At last year's CIIE, many Chinese buyers came to our booth and the sales were good, and this year we have customers who are committed to our brand," she said.

With the launch of the China-Laos Railway, transportation costs have dropped significantly for the tea company, which has sold three to five tons of tea to China per year since 2019, she said.

As she spoke, a trading group from Yunnan Honghe county walked into the Lao ancient tree tea booth.

Chen Yonghong, who headed the group, said, "We came here specially to find the Lao booth to discuss how to make better use of the China-Laos Railway to promote cross-border trade and expand economic development cooperation."

Yuan said that due to the Belt and Road Initiative, Laos has received a lot of investment from China, which has created a large number of local jobs. Coupled with the construction and improvement of infrastructure, Laos' economic potential is gradually unfolding.

The 36 Manor company also bears in mind the motto that "teaching one to fish is better than giving him fish." Yuan said, "We not only hired local staff, but also taught the villagers how to grow tea, as a way to get out of poverty."

"In the early stages of the tea plantation, we invited tea tree experts from Jiangxi province to guide local staff and tea farmers in the conservation of tea plantations," she said.

Now, the 36 Manor has been granted an official certificate of origin in Laos. A special product of the company, made from the buds of trees more than 1,000 years old, has been selected as one of the national gifts used in Laos' diplomatic activities, becoming a "business card" representing Laos' high-quality agricultural products.
Taiwans National Academy for Educational Research signed a memorandum of understanding July 17 with Singapores National Institute of Education on bilateral academic exchanges and research cooperation.

The memorandum was inked by Wu Ching-shan, president of the NAER, and Lee Sing Kong, director of the NIE.

Since its establishment last year, the NAER has signed similar cooperative agreements with several educational research institutions around the globe. The NIE is Singapores top academic research organization, the academy said.

Wu noted that Singapores performance in science, mathematics and language has been quite outstanding. The NAER hopes to gain a better understanding of the city-states educational methods, including teaching techniques and student assessment, to provide an inspiration for educational development in Taiwan, he said.

For his part, Lee said enhancing students abilities to face rapid international developments in the 21st century is one of Singapores core education strategies. This includes providing students with science, math and language skills, and nurturing their honesty and integrity, as well as their proficiency in teamwork and communication.

The NAER said that following the inking of the memorandum, the two institutes could collaborate in holding seminars and publishing articles in academic journals, thereby boosting the dissemination abroad of research results obtained in Taiwan and raising the countrys international profile in educational research.

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For a scholar focusing on Australia's public diplomacy,golden nugget wv sportsbook working as a recreational manager in China may never be part of his career path. But Bradley McConachie does have lots to say now about his special experience at a resort in the picturesque tropical coastal city of Sanya in South China's Hainan province.

The 33-year-old Australian is actually a student in international relations completing his PhD through Griffith University. He came to Beijing for a cooperative research at Peking University less than two years ago. Such an academic life was just added color with a chance offered by the cultural exchanges project, "I'm in China".

Bradley was lucky to win the most "likes" for his photo story about his life in China and became one of 20 winners to visit locations after a global recruitment by the project this summer. All the winners' experiences were filmed to produce a reality show, My Chinese Working Day, which will be broadcast by mid-September.

"What I liked most about the experience was it was something completely different that you would never be able to do as a regular tourist," Bradley said in an exclusive interview with chinadaily.com.cn.

Bradley was chosen to work as a recreational manager for a Chinese wedding.

The film crew took them to many "amazing sites" and the staff at the resort taught them a lot about how to "incorporate modern Chinese traits while still keeping traditional customs", Bradley said.

"I would have to say two things stick out as the most memorable: the helicopter ride and talking with the staff at the hotel about how they organize weddings here in China," he said.

That was Bradley's first time to be in a helicopter, and he was too absorbed with the "stunning" view of the beautiful coastline.

"I think it is so important to show other Australians the different landscapes China has to offer. I think so many Australians, when they think about China, imagine the historical sites of Beijing and the exciting things to see in Shanghai but have no idea about other beautiful places, like Sanya or the many other places people have been taken to in this TV series," Bradley said.

As to the Chinese wedding, the ceremony was quite familiar to Bradley, which he said was "very much like any wedding he had been to back in Australia". But it was still "interesting to see how Chinese couples balance the desires of a modern wedding while keeping Chinese traditions", after decorating the wedding suite.

"It was nice to experience these little touches and understand what makes a wedding day so special for a Chinese couple. I was happy to be a part of that experience!" Bradley said.

"I'm in China" is a project sponsored by China Intercontinental Communication Centre and other institutions under the guidance of China's State Council Information Office. It invites foreign natives worldwide to experience unique jobs and participate in activities that one can find nowhere else except in China.

Shooting My Chinese Working Dayis part of the project. An online contest to select who gets to be the front-line cultural ambassadors, kicked off on July 31. More than 10,000 photos and articles were submitted from around the globe by over 6,00 applicants, which has earned tremendous web views, likes and shares.

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Visiting Honorary Chairman of the Kuomintang Lien Chan spoke highly of the mainlands manned space program while taking a tour to a Beijing-based space center Wednesday.

During the visit,mgm grand online crypto moon watch Lien and his wife, Lien Fangyu, met with the Shenzhou-9 astronauts Jing Haipeng, Liu Wang and Liu Yang, asking about their experiences inside the space craft.

The three astronauts were sent into space on June 16 last year aboard Shenzhou-9. They successfully operated the spacecraft to conduct both automatic and manual space dockings with the target orbiter Tiangong-1.

Lien hailed the manned space program a truly great cause. His wife especially praised Liu Yang, Chinas first female astronaut, calling her a role model for women.

During the visit, Lien also praised the sites advanced technologies and astronaut training facilities.

Lien and his delegation will fly back to Taiwan on Wednesday evening, according to initial plans.

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Chinas commerce regulators have shut down 168 illegal e-commerce websites in 2012,losing pet grief patrolling a bustling online shopping environment, attendees of a conference on e-commerce regulations on Tuesday were told.

Authorities have inspected 290,000 e-commerce websites and 28,000 offline stores this year, it was revealed at the conference, which gathered heads of industry and commerce administrations from around the country in Hangzhou, provincial capital of Zhejiang.

So far, 167 illegal cases have been busted and 7.14 million items of illegal online shopping information have been deleted in 2012.

Law violations concerning e-commerce have declined rapidly, as some 1,400 illegal websites were shut down and 34 million pieces of illegal shopping information were deleted in 2011.

The Administration of Industry and Commerce in Zhejiang, also home to Chinas largest e-commerce platform provider, Alibaba Group, inspected offline stores that also run online selling accounts, and shut down a string of illegal e-commerce websites including wjgw.com.

The Shanghai Administration of Industry and Commerce launched a campaign this year to regulate group buying, a popular online shopping form based on individuals coming together to collect discounts for buying in bulk, and corrected misconduct in the business.

The Chongqing Administration of Industry and Commerce tagged e-labels on online retailers for identification purposes. Authorities in Zhejiang and the southwestern city of Chengdu also set up similar mechanisms to track retailers credit records.

E-commerce has become popular in China in recent years with mounting online sales. This years Singles Day on Nov. 11 saw the latest shopping spree, with major online retailers including Tmall.com, Suning.com and Dangdang.com raking in billions of yuan.

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Ancient Mars may have had an environment capable of harboring an underground world teeming with microscopic organisms, French scientists reported Monday.

But if they existed, these simple life forms would have altered the atmosphere so profoundly that they triggered a Martian Ice Age and snuffed themselves out, the researchers concluded.

The findings provide a bleak view of the ways of the cosmos. Life  even simple life like microbes  "might actually commonly cause its own demise," said the study's lead author, Boris Sauterey, now a post-doctoral researcher at Sorbonne University.

NATIVE HAWAIIANS GAIN MORE AUTHORITY OVER MAUNA KEAS CONTROVERSIAL TELESCOPES

The results "are a bit gloomy, but I think they are also very stimulating.," he said in an email. "They challenge us to rethink the way a biosphere and its planet interact."

In a study in the journal Nature Astronomy, Sauterey and his team said they used climate and terrain models to evaluate the habitability of the Martian crust some 4 billion years ago when the red planet was thought to be flush with water and much more hospitable than today.

United Arab Emirates probe shows the planet Mars on Feb. 10, 2021. (Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center/UAE Space Agency, via AP)

They surmised that hydrogen-gobbling, methane-producing microbes might have flourished just beneath the surface back then, with several inches (a few tens of centimeters) of dirt, more than enough to protect them against harsh incoming radiation. Anywhere free of ice on Mars could have been swarming with these organisms, according to Sauterey, just as they did on early Earth.

Early Mars presumably moist, warm climate, however, would have been jeopardized by so much hydrogen sucked out of the thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere, Sauterey said. As temperatures plunged by nearly minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius), any organisms at or near the surface likely would have buried deeper in an attempt to survive.

NASA MARS ROVER DISCOVERS WEIRD STRING-LIKE OBJECT THAT GOES VIRAL

By contrast, microbes on Earth may have helped maintain temperate conditions, given the nitrogen-dominated atmosphere, the researchers said.

The SETI Institutes Kaveh Pahlevan said future models of Mars climate need to consider the French research.

Pahlevan led a separate recent study suggesting Mars was born wet with warm oceans lasting millions of years. The atmosphere would have been dense and mostly hydrogen back then, serving as a heat-trapping greenhouse gas that eventually was transported to higher altitudes and lost to space, his team concluded.

The French study investigated the climate effects of possible microbes when Mars' atmosphere was dominated by carbon dioxide and so is not applicable to the earlier times, Pahlevan said.

NASA RELEASES JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGE OF PHANTOM GALAXY

"What their study makes clear, however, is that if (this) life were present on Mars" during this earlier period, "they would have had a major influence on the prevailing climate," he added in an email.

The best places to look for traces of this past life? The French researchers suggest the unexplored Hellas Planita, or plain, and Jezero Crater on the northwestern edge of Isidis Planita, where NASAs Perseverance rover currently is collecting rocks for return to Earth in a decade.

Next on Sautereys to-do list: looking into the possibility that microbial life could still exist deep within Mars.

"Could Mars still be inhabited today by micro-organisms descending from this primitive biosphere?" he said. "If so, where?"
China and the United States will hold the fifth China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) in July in the U.S.,real poker real money Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Saturday.

During the visit of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the two sides reached consensus on mechanisms of the China-U.S. High-level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange and the S&ED, Qin told in a press release.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong will continue to serve as president for the China-U.S. High-level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange, he said.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang and State Councilor Yang Jiechi will be responsible for the economic dialogue and strategic dialogue respectively as special representatives of the Chinese President, he added.

Qin said the two sides also agreed to hold the fourth China-U.S. High-level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange at an appropriate time after the S&ED.

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Theraging bull promo codes 2022 China Council for The Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Hunan Sub-council inaugurated the provinces first legal consulting and complaint center for international business affairs in Changsha on December 4, 2012. Dong Songgen, deputy president of CCPIT,attended the nameplate-unveiling ceremony.

This center will serve as a bridge between government and enterprises by providing legal consultation and handling complaints arising from international trade disputes.

The organization will also be responsible for submitting legislative proposals to the government on behalf of the business community and pressing international trade entities to fulfill contracts. In addition, the institution will offer international business law legal training services to enterprises and aims to promote exchange and cooperation with overseas business legal institutions.

Mr. Dong expressed his hope that the center will fulfil the CCPITs commitment to sharing the governments troubles and assisting enterprises through their difficulties. He urged the institution to join the government in practically removing the obstacles hindering the success of enterprise dealings.

He also encouraged the organization to become a pace-setter in legal services for overseas business affairs by making full use of its own advantages and the strength of the CCPIT network in a bid to provide quality services for those Hunan-based enterprises with interest in expanding into overseas markets.

Guo Yan

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A student receives a shot of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine at a high school in Surabaya, Indonesia on September 15, 2022. Photo: AFP

Cooperation in the field of vaccine between China and Indonesia continue to expand and deepen to jointly fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, with multiple Chinese biological pharmaceutical enterprises and Indonesian companies signing agreements of cooperation during the 2022 G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia.During the summit, Indonesian biological pharmaceutical company PT Etana Biotechnologies Indonesia (Etana) signed agreements with three Chinese companies including CanSino Biologics Inc, Walvax Biotechnology Co, and Abogen Biosciences.The Global Times learned that the content of the cooperation including the agreements on the inhaled tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, Meningitis vaccine and the facilities for the construction of virus carrier platform reached by Etana and CanSino Biologics (CanSinoBIO), the agreement on the vaccine development of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines and human papillomavirus vaccines between Etana and Walvax, and the agreement on the research and development of mRNA therapies including COVID-19 vaccines, Dengue vaccine and products related to tumors between Etana and Abogen.According to Nathan Tirtana, founder and CEO of Etana, the company hope to take advantage of this opportunity to help the Indonesian Ministry of Health achieve its goals and ensure the fair distribution of vaccines, medicines and medical devices among different countries, especially the developing countries.The Global Times learned from CanSinoBIO that the two companies will promote joint development and commercialization of innovative vaccine products based on their respective advantages and help Indonesia build a regional vaccine production center.After the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, cooperation in the field of health between China and Indonesia has increased. Particularly, the cooperation in vaccine has always been at the forefront of the world.China was the first country to cooperate with Indonesia in the research and development of vaccines and specific medicines for COVID-19. China has also supported Indonesia in establishing a regional vaccine production center and is one of the largest suppliers of COVID-19 vaccines to Indonesia. Meanwhile, Indonesia was also one of the first countries to provide material assistance to China after the COVID-19 outbreak.So far, COVID-19 vaccines of multiple Chinese companies including Sinovac Biotech, China National Biotec Group (CNBG), CanSinoBIO and BioKangtai have been approved for use in Indonesia.Sinovac has supplied more than 280 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Indonesia including over 130 million doses exported as semi-finished products, the Global Times learned from the company.BioKangtai started production of the adenovirus vector vaccine for COVID-19 in February of 2021, and the vaccine was approved for emergency use in Indonesia on October 31, 2021. The company signed a purchase agreement on the vaccine with an Indonesian partner in November 2021. Over 30 million doses of the company's adenovirus vector vaccine were exported to Indonesia in 2021.In March this year, CanSinoBIO's adenovirus type-5 vector-based COVID-19 vaccine (Ad5-nCoV) was approved by BPOM Indonesia as booster shots following inactivated vaccine, while CNBG's inactivated vaccine, which had previously been approved as emergency use in Indonesia, was also approved there in March as a heterologous booster.Apart from the cooperation in the combat against COVID-19 between the two countries, Chinese and Indonesian experts and scientists of TB and respiratory infectious diseases also discussed and shared their latest research results on the elimination of TB with innovative vaccine technologies during a forum in Bali on Wednesday.The technology used in CanSinoBio's adenovirus vector vaccine can also be used in the TB vaccine, the company said at the forum.Imran Pambudi, National TB Program Manager and Deputy Director of Tuberculosis Prevention and Control at the Ministry of Health of Indonesia, thinks highly of the contribution made by CanSinoBio in the research and development of inhaled TB vaccine and the achievements made by the cooperation between China and Indonesia in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.Global Times
China has launched relief operation in northeastern province of Liaoning and northern province of Hebei where millions of people were affected by floods caused by Typhoon Damrey.

The National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Civil Affairs sent two teams to the flood-hit regions to direct relief work, according to a ministry statement on Sunday.

Nearly 1.46 million people of 43 counties and urban districts in 10 cities of Liaoning were affected by heavy rains and floods, which left one dead and five missing, according to the statement.

More than 10,000 houses collapsed and about 17,000 houses were damaged, forcing 138,000 people to evacuate. Nearly 70,000 hectares of crops were also damaged, with direct economic losses reaching 2.36 billion yuan (370.4 million U.S. dollars).

In Hebei, about 2.33 million people were affected by the disaster, including one dead, one missing and 151,000 people who were relocated. About 9,400 houses were destructed in the flooding.

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Thecaesars casino daily bonus armed forces of China are completely opposed to the Japanese governments move to purchase the Diaoyu Island and two of its adjacent islands, Chinese Defense Ministry Spokesman Geng Yansheng said Tuesday.

Geng issued a statement on the Japanese governments implementation of so-called nationalization of the Diaoyu Islands.

Despite strong opposition from the Chinese side, the Japanese government blatantly announced on Sept. 10 to purchase the Diaoyu Island and its affiliated Nan Xiaodao and Bei Xiaodao. This act is a severe infringment of Chinese territorial sovereignty, Geng said.

Geng said the Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands are Chinas inherent territory. China has sufficient historical and jurisprudential evidence surrounding this.

Geng said the Japanese governments action and the so-called island purchase was totally illegal and invalid.

In the statement, Geng said since the start of the year, the Japanese government has endorsed right wing forces to clamor for the island purchase and even move in to purchasing the islands by itself. He said this severely harmed the general situation of the development in China-Japan relations.

Geng said in recent years, Japan has expanded armament under various excuses, frequently incurred tension in regional situations and repeatedly stirred up troubles on the issue of the Diaoyu islands. Such moves are worthy of high vigilance by its Asian neighbors and the international community.

The Chinese government and armed forces stand firm and are unshakeable in its determination and will safeguard sovereignty over the nations territories, Geng said.

We are watching closely the evolution of the situation and reserve the right to take reciprocal measures, Geng said.

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Thebest online casino canada priest Jose Huang Bingzhang was ordained bishop of Shantou (Guangdong) yesterday at a ceremony headed by prelate Fang Xinyao, President of the National Patriotic Association, known as Patriotic Church controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

Eight bishops in communion with Rome were required to attend The illegitimate ordination, said Vatican, stressing that the bishops placed their hands on the new bishop, who was automatically excommunicated, as established by the Code of Canon Law.

We are in pain and worry what happened today in China. The Pope have expressed recently after similar cases. It is an act that is contrary to the Catholic Church, said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi.

The new episcopal ordination occurs after the last case on June 29, when Lei Shiying was ordained bishop without the popes permission to Leshan (China), and November 20 last year when the bishop of Chengde was ordained (also without papal approval).

After Lei Shiying, the Vatican said the Pope was deeply saddened, the Pope urged the Chinese Catholics to unity and expressed the solidarity.

The Rev. Lei Shiyin, ordained without the pontifical mandate and therefore unlawfully, is deprived of authority to govern the diocesan Catholic community and the Vatican does not recognize him as bishop of Leshan (Sichuan Province). They keep the penalties provided in Article 1382 of the Code of Canon Law, the Vatican said in a statement.

In China there are between 8 and 12 million Catholics, according to the Vatican, divided between those belonging to the church controlled by the government and the underground loyal to the Vatican.

The Vatican and China have no diplomatic relations since 1951, Beijing demands that the Holy See break with Taiwan and not interfere in Chinas internal affairs.

One of the issues facing the Vatican with Beijing is the appointment of bishops, as the Vatican claims that bishops can only be appointed by the Pope, while the Patriotic Church orders without papal approval.

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A friend afar brings a distant land near. This coin mixer week one spreads nflancient Chinese interpretation of friendship has come to life through a growing group of American families who considered a mysterious suburban area in China as their roots and home.

The mysterious place is called Kuliang, the Fujian dialect name of the Guling scenic area that even most Chinese were unfamiliar with. For over a hundred years, however, the American families which once lived there harmoniously with friendly Chinese in the 1900s still call it home.

Due to cultural differences and decades of shattered memories, Kuliang remained unrecognized until one of the American families, the Gardners, rediscovered it as Guling with the help of the then Fuzhou government official Xi Jinping.

The Kuliang story inspired other American families to find their ancestors' Chinese roots and moved the hearts of many Chinese people across the ocean. When Peter MacInnis, who was born in Guling, and his wife Elyn MacInnis started their research on Kuliang, they got support from not only the American former Kuliang families but also the Chinese communities.

Peter MacInnis was the baby inside the basket in Guling decades ago.

Peter MacInnis was the baby inside the basket in Guling decades ago.

In the seven years of research, Elyn MacInnis formed the Kuliang Friends group as the Kuliang circle broadened. Americans and Chinese collaborated with modern technologies, tracing back many incredible stories in China.

Over a hundred years ago, many American families developed a deep friendship with the Chinese in "Kuliang." Some of their ancestors fought side by side with the Chinese in Flying Tigers and some even lost their lives in defending China against the Japanese invasion in World War II.

After a hundred years, the friendship passes on to several generations, becoming a mutually beneficial cooperation. When the Chinese helped the Americans find roots in Guling, these family memories helped China recover some precious history in a time of wars and chaos.

Elyn believed these people-to-people exchanges are the Kuliang spirit of peace, friendship, and love. Regardless of the cultural difference, the touching stories of "Kuliang" never fade away and continue to bridge people from the two countries together.

Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Qin Gang met with the American families and thanked the Kuliang Friends group for doing a tremendous amount of work for Guling, promoting understanding and friendship between the Chinese and American people. "Kuliang" stories demonstrated people-to-people exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation, especially in times when the U.S.-China relationship is facing many difficulties and challenges.

For more, check out our exclusive content on CGTN Now and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The China Report.
A Scene from Rossum's Universal Robots,transfer oddschecker will shiba directed by Yang Ting. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Four decades have passed since audiences saw a close-up style of theater production, Chen Nan reports.

In August 1982, Chinese play Absolute Signal premiered in a small rehearsal room of the Beijing People's Art Theatre. The stage set was simple, with just a few boxes and steel frames, and the room was packed with audience members who were captivated by a pioneering artistic style they had not seen before.

The play centers on five characters: a train driver and his young trainee, a robber and two passengers  an unemployed young man and a young female beekeeper. They meet on the train where unexpected events unfold.

Directed by Lin Zhaohua, Absolute Signal marked a breakthrough for the established theater which is considered the flagship of Chinese drama. The play is widely considered to be the mainland's first small-theater production.

"It was a humid summer. We went on lots of train journeys, especially at night. It was quiet inside and outside the carriage, making the rumbling of the engine particularly clear. We talked, smoked cigarettes and drank tea together. We had great moments that were full of creative thinking," recalled Lin, 86, in an earlier interview on his experience of making the play along with his team.

After Absolute Signal, the Beijing People's Art Theatre staged numerous productions, launching its own small theater in 1995 near Capital Theater, its home. The play has influenced Chinese directors, scriptwriters and performers who have been pushing boundaries and experimenting with ideas by creating their own small-theater productions  original ones and those adapted from Western classics.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Chinese mainland's small-theater sector. A number of events, such as photo exhibitions, workshops and forums, are being held to celebrate it.

A theater festival, Story in Beijing, which is dedicated to small-theater productions, also celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Twenty Chinese small-theater plays will be staged with 40 shows in Beijing in November and December.

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The Fertile Crescent known historically for nourishing early human civilizations with lush growing environments as they learned advancements in farming in ancient times, is now drying up.

Desertification has swept through enormous swaths of the Middle East, particularly Iraq and Syria.

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Rising temperatures, reduced rainfall, salinity and dust storms have harmed the once fertile terrain and people.

Livelihoods and survival in the arid environment are nearly impossible to sustain. Close to 40 percent of Iraq is threatened, President Abdul Latif Rashid told the #COP27 summit in Egypt last week.

Syria and other Middle East countries could see some communities grow increasingly at odds with each other over scarce water resources.

In 2021 Syria entered its worst drought in more than 20 years.

For more, check out our exclusive content on CGTN Nowand subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The China Report.
Chinas aircraft carrier has returned to Dalian Harbor after 9 days of sea trial. It arrived on Tuesday.

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Thailand: A gunman killed at least two people in a deadly mall shooting at the Siam Paragon shopping mall in Bangkok Tuesday, according to police sources. Thai police arrested a 14-year-old suspected gunman.
The leaders of China and Japan have met for the first time since the recent escalation of a dispute between their two nations about a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda had an informal 15-minute conversation on Sunday on the sidelines of a regional summit in the Russian city of Vladivostok.

Chinese state media quote Hu as saying that Tokyo must recognize what he called the severity of the dispute over the Japanese-controlled islets and avoid making wrong decisions. The islets are known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China and claimed by both nations.

Prime Minister Nodas government angered China in July when it announced plans to buy some of the islands from a private Japanese family and place them under state control. Hu told Noda that Beijing opposes any such move as illegal and invalid.

Japanese media say Noda called for both nations to resolve the dispute by developing their relations in a comprehensive, mutually beneficial and strategic way as they mark the 40th anniversary of formal diplomatic ties.

Tensions flared up last month when Japanese and Chinese nationalists sailed to the islands and swam ashore to assert their countries claims, prompting the two governments to accuse each other of provocation.

The waters surrounding the archipelago contain rich fishing grounds and potential oil reserves.

The Japanese leader also expressed sympathies to Hu regarding the deadly earthquake that hit southern Chinas Yunnan province on Friday.

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01:36

Thelas vegas hilton at resorts world review first Chinese immigrants arrived in Peru more than 170 years ago.

The long history between China and Peru is being celebrated in the 21stcentury as the Chinese community attracts more people with the help of tasty food.

For more, check out our exclusive content on CGTN Now and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The China Report.
Tuesday Christine Lagarde appointed Zhu Min to a newly created deputy managing director post. A sign of recognition of the growing importance of China in the global economy.

Zhu Min was special adviser to Dominique Strauss-Kahns predecessor Christine Lagarde. His caliente casino sportsbookpromotion is a sign of the willingness expressed by the new boss of the IMF to give more power to emerging countries.

This is the first time a representative of China access to one of the main posts of the Funds management.

As the Deputy Director General, he will play a decisive role in our work, in collaboration with other members of my team and myself, to meet the challenges facing our member countries and to ensure that the IMF has a better understanding of Asia and emerging markets more generally, said Christine Lagarde in a statement.

Zhu Min, who will take office on July 26, will share the title of deputy director with the Japanese Naoyuki Shinohara and Anglo-American-Egyptian Nemat Shafik.

Former French Finance Minister has also chosen the American David Lipton, an economic adviser to the White House, to be the number two of IMF. He will succeed John Lipsky, the current first deputy managing director.

In her first press conference as director general of the IMF, Christine Lagarde promised to give developing countries a greater role within the institution.

With the appointment of Zhu Min, who was deputy governor of the Peoples Bank of China, Asia now has two representatives in the governance of the institution.

During her campaign, Christine Lagarde had gone to Beijing. She was chosen with the support of China and other emerging countries like India, Brazil and Russia.

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President Xi Jinping underlined the need to build a global partnership for economic recovery at the G20 Summit in Bali. He also held a series of bilateral meetings with foreign leaders on the sidelines of the summit. What did local media and insiders say?bet365 app apk real poker websites Join China Daily to learn more.






The Voice of China on Friday fetched a record sponsorship fee for its forthcoming second season after resounding success this summer fanned a gold rush around the variety show.

The program, a Chinese version of the Dutch series The Voice of Holland, raised 1 billion yuan (160 million U.S. dollars) in advertisement bidding for its second season, which is scheduled to be broadcast next year.

The JDB Group, a Hong Kong-based herbal tea maker, won the exclusive naming rights for the second season with a bid of 200 million yuan, or over 13 million yuan per episode, smashing previous records for variety shows broadcast by local Chinese TV stations.

After meticulous assessment, we believe the price is worth the value, said Wang Yuegui, who represented JDB in Fridays auction.

The company obtained the exclusive naming rights for the first season of The Voice with 60 million yuan, and the surge in price was expected due to the shows immense popularity.

Since being introduced by Zhejiang TV in east Chinas Zhejiang Province in July, The Voice has been applauded for focusing on grassroots talents and the judges warm and inspiring remarks have attracted many fans  a sharp contrast to the pungent sarcasm rife in Chinese talent shows.

The shows popularity has drawn record advertising revenue. Its final episode, staged on Sept. 30, attracted ad spending of 500,000 yuan per second.

Xinhua

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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning Photo:fmprc.gov.cn

Spreading disinformation and using it to suppress Chinese firms has become a common practice of the US,Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, said on Wednesday, in response to remarks from the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who alleged that TikTok posed national security concerns.Mao's response came after Reuters and other media outlets reported on Tuesday that FBI Director Chris Wray said the US operations of Chinese-owned TikTok raised national security concerns, alleging that "the Chinese government could harness the video-sharing application to influence users or control their devices."Mao noted that China firmly opposes those comments, and urges the US to take a more responsible and practical approach and abide by fair, open and non-discriminatory international rules.In 2020, former US President Donald Trump issued an executive order to ban TikTok operations in the country, citing "national security concerns." Later, the company took legal action against the order.After Joe Biden took office, he revoked the Trump directive in 2021, asking the Treasury Department to examine "security concerns" associated with the app.TikTok is just one of a number of Chinese companies to be targeted by the US government. On November 8, the White House announced a continuation of the so-called "national emergency" policy, which prohibits US investors from investing in Chinese companies that have "military ties".The US executive order was intended to "deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the US constituted by the threat from securities investments that finance certain companies of China," the statement read.Experts noted that the US has reneged on the basic spirit of free market, which is a sign of regression. They urged the country to stop repeating mistakes that will harm the legal rights and interests of Chinese businesses and those of global investors.
Lamin Janneh,grandwest casino open an international student from Gambia, is pursuing a postgraduate degree in neurosurgery at China Medical University. It has been three years since he arrived in Shenyang, Liaoning province.

"After I finish my studies, I will go back to my home country to become the second neurosurgeon and earn a lot of money. This is my dream," Janneh said.

With the help of his supervisor, Professor Wu Anhua, Janneh found a way to overcome cross-cultural challenges and discovered why so many CMU teachers have joined medical aid teams for Gambia and other countries in the recent decades.

"Medical aid is a very important support for countries along the Belt and Road Initiative. It is also an important means and method to get closer to the local people. In fact, we found that there was a lot of medical work to do when we came here," said Sun Jiaxing, leader of the fifth China (Liaoning) medical aid team. Sun is now working in Gambia.

Janneh made up mind to join the China medical aid team and seek help from Chen Lei, dean of CMU's international college, who told him it was a lofty ideal, and in the future Janneh would definitely become a member of the medical aid team. But not now.

As a team member, Janneh should connect the needs of the Gambian people with the resources provided by China's medical aid team and serve the health of the Gambian people and the global community, Chen told him.

With the support of the university, Janneh started an online program with classmates from home and abroad to serve as a bridge between the China medical aid team and local patients.

"I will not only bring advanced medical technology back home but also will contribute to the global community of health for all," Janneh said.
China on Tuesday called on the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) to act prudently in regard to the countrys proposed satellite launch.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing that China has exchanged ideas with the DPRK over the satellite launch several times.

As a sovereign state,montastraea the DPRK is entitled to the peaceful use of outer space. But in view of the situation on the Korea Peninsular and restrictions of relevant UN Security Council resolutions, China hopes the DPRK can proceed from the overall situation of peace and stability on the peninsula and act prudently, Hong said.

Meanwhile, China has maintained contact with other parties to the six-party talks, which also includes the Republic of Korea, the United States, Russia and Japan, said Hong.

We hope the parties concerned can take a long-term perspective, deal with this calmly, and avoid taking actions that may further escalate the situation, the spokesman said.

China will continue to communicate with all relevant parties and make efforts toward the appropriate resolution of the current situation and regional peace and stability, he added.

The DPRK said Saturday that it is planning to launch another satellite in December after a failed attempt in April.

The second version of the Kwangmyongsong-3 will be launched from the Sohae Space Center in Cholsan County, North Phyongan Province, by the Unha-3 carrier rocket between Dec. 10 and Dec. 22, the official KCNA news agency reported.

The DPRK launched the Kwangmyongsong-3 on April 13 to mark the 100th birthday of late DPRK founder Kim Il Sung. The long-range rocket crashed into the sea after traveling a short distance.

Xinhua

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Taiwan government will continue fine-tuning Taiwans business environment in an effort to attract more Japanese investment, according to Council for Economic Planning and Development Deputy Minister Wu Ming-ji.

Taiwan-Japan economic relations remain at the forefront of CEPD policymaking, Wu said. The bilateral investment protection arrangement has brought trade activity to new heights, with new direct Japanese investments in Taiwan reaching a record high of 441 last year.

The deputy ministers remarks came in response to the latest white paper presented Nov. 2 by Taipei City-based Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

In the document, the chamber called on the government to fast-track implementation of the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) and negotiate more trade pacts with Taiwans major trading partners.

Other policy recommendations include improving the local business environment, negotiating a taxation agreement with Tokyo, maintaining dialogue with Japans public sector, and promoting Taiwan-Japan business collaboration.

The chamber also commended the government for its raft of policies aimed at spurring Taiwans economy after the ECFA took effect in September 2010, and urged Taipei and Beijing to expand the tariff concession list to cover more sectors.

Wu welcomed the chambers suggestions and said government efforts in improving Taiwans business climate have received several strong votes of confidence from global think tanks such as the World Bank and Business Environment Risk Intelligence.

We urge the chamber to build on already strong Taiwan-Japan ties and do more to promote bilateral trade and conclude special agreements as opportunities arise.

Meg Chang

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A new record for Chinese manned submarine has been set to over 5000 meters deep on the July 26,real money online casino no deposit bonus usa 2011. This successful test was conducted in the northeast Pacific Ocean. It allows China to catch up in the competition of seabed exploration.

5057 meters under the sea, the second test for Jiaolong () was so good. It was broadcast live on Chinese state television, a bit like the space epic.

At 24:09 local time, the threshold of 5000 meters is reached: Explosion of joy in the command center and the mother ship on the surface: it is the Xiangyanghong 9 that carrying 96 experts who participated in the adventure. The Special crew from CCTV explains that it is minus ten degrees in the cabin of the submarine. Fortunately, all three on board Aquanauts wear two pairs of socks and brought blankets with them, said the reporter.

In 2003, China became the third nation capable of sending a man into orbit. Now, it has joined the club of great depth, with the other four countries including the United States, Russia, Japan and France.

Origin from the 863 plan, the submersible device should be able to reach the 7000 meters by 2012, said its designers.

The Jiaolong made 17 dives between May 31 and July 13, 2010. It was particularly noted by planting a Chinese flag at the bottom of the South China Sea, a gesture seen as a provocation by some neighboring states, concerned about Beijings deep ambitions on the raw materials. I believe that it will not take long before China can make its initial mining on the seabed, said Jian Zhimin, director of the State Laboratory of Marine Geology in Tongji University.

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President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Dear Mr. President,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my most sincere congratulations to you and all your people on the occasion of October 3 - German Unity Day.

We attach great importance to the development of relations of friendship and cooperation between Azerbaijan and Germany. It is gratifying that our countries enjoy the active and fruitful cooperation in the political, economic and humanitarian areas.

Azerbaijan is determined to strengthen relations with Germany and continue mutually beneficial cooperation. I am sure that both our intergovernmental relations and our mutually beneficial interaction within the European Union will continue to develop and strengthen.

On this remarkable day, I extend my best regards to you, and wish the friendly people of Germany everlasting peace and prosperity.

Sincerely,

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 30 September 2023




Along with the letter , the Executive Branch has submitted the respective draft legislative resolution, which states that the Head of State plans to go to the cities of Stuttgart and Berlin, in the Federal Republic of Germany; Vatican City, in the State of the same name; and Rome, in the Republic of Italy.





It also indicates that the President will participate as a guest of honor at the event called "Latin America Day," organized by the German business association Lateinamerika Verein e.V. (LAV, for its acronym in German).









The draft legislative resolution states that the Peruvian dignitary will remain in charge of the Presidential Office using digital technologies, which adopt digital security mechanisms and ensure the security of the means to be used, within the framework of current regulations.









President's itinerary





The official letter sent to Parliament indicates that the dignitary's visits and activities will take place on October 12, 13, and 14.





On the first day, President Boluarte will participate as a guest of honor at the "Latin America Day" event and will lead a presentation during the official dinner of this event organized by LAV.





The participation of the Head of State constitutes an opportunity to present Peru's economic perspectives to the business community, as well as promote investment and boost bilateral trade with Germany, in order to continue showcasing Peru as a reliable economic partner.





That same day, she will meet with the mayor of the city of Stuttgart, Frank Nopper.





Meanwhile, on October 13, Peru's top official will travel to Berlin, where she will be received by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, with whom she will hold a meeting aimed at strengthening bilateral relations, as well as revitalizing the visits of high-ranking German authorities to Peru.





Audience at the Holy See





The Executive Branch's letter states that, on October 14, President Boluarte will travel to the city of Rome, before going to the Holy See, where she will be received by Pope Francis at a private audience.





"This official visit is intended to promote, strengthen, and develop the relations between Peru and the Holy See, which have historically remained solid and positive, supported by the religiosity of the Peruvian people, based on mutual respect, autonomy, freedom of worship, and are legally based on the Agreement between Peru and the Holy See of 1980," the document states.









In addition, the Head of State will meet with the Secretary of State of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, with whom she will address bilateral issues such as the recognition of the support of the Catholic Church in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic; the exchange of points of view on the main issues on the international agenda; among others.





Meeting at FAO





Finally, in Rome, the Peruvian President will hold a meeting with the re-elected Director-General of the FAO, Qu Dongyu, which will be relevant for the country as it will allow discussing the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation signed in December 2021 between FAO and the Peruvian State.





The official letter also indicates that the event will contribute to promoting a cooperation agenda with said organization in a sensitive matter for the country, and will explore the impact on agriculture in the coming months due to the El Nino Phenomenon.





Furthermore, the meeting will be a prelude to the World Food Forum titled "The transformation of agri-food systems accelerates climate action," scheduled for October 16 in Rome.





(END) MRCA/CVC/RMB

The Executive Branch has submitted an official request to Parliament so that the President of the Republic Dina Boluarte can be authorized to leave the national territory from October 11 to 15, 2023, to travel to Germany, the Holy See and Italy, where she will take part in a series of activities.Publicado: 3/10/2023
Ilze Kitshoff/Tristar Pictures

Lashana Lynch stars as Izogie in 'The Woman King.'

Editors Note: Nsenga K. Burton, PhD (@Ntellectual) is a professor, film producer, journalist and cultural critic. She is co-director of the Film and Media Management Concentration at Emory University, founder of The Burton Wire (a news blog covering news of the African Diaspora) and a recipient of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. The views expressed here are her own. Read more opinion on CNN.

CNN 

Note: This op-ed contains mild spoilers for The Woman King.

Imagine my excitement  as a Black woman named for a controversial African queen  to see a Hollywood film about a fearless unit of women warriors committed to protecting the West African kingdom of Dahomey for over 200 years.

Courtesy of Nsenga K. Burton

Nsenga K. Burton

Inspired by true events, The Woman King was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and produced by Academy award-winning actress Viola Davis (who also stars) and veteran actress/producer Maria Bello. And the highly anticipated film earned $19 million last weekend during its debut at the domestic box-office, so clearly I was not alone in my enthusiasm.

The film tells the tale of the Agojie, the most powerful all-woman army in world history, their unparalleled commitment to their country, to each other and to their King Ghezo, played exceptionally by John Boyega.

But there are calls to boycott the film because, to its critics (even those not calling for a boycott), it underplays the role played by the Dahomey Kingdom in the Atlantic slave trade. In their eyes, this fictional film, inspired by true events, doesnt tease out enough information about a horrific history  the kidnapping and sale of Africans by the Dahomey and Oyo kingdoms  that is, in the films narrative arc, a subplot, while the main storyline centers on a group of badass African women, living, loving and laboring together to ensure their people remain free.

The period of Dahomeys most intense involvement in the slave trade included the trafficking of West Africans in the late 17th and early 18th century, primarily by taking prisoners who were then enslaved abroad by European traders. The real King Ghezo ultimately agreed to end Dahomeys participation in the slave trade in 1852, under pressure from the British government (which had abolished slavery in 1833).

Ilze Kitshoff/Tristar Pictures

Nanisca (Viola Davis) in TriStar Pictures' THE WOMAN KING.

How 'The Woman King' created a warm and epic Dahomey Kingdom for the big screen

The Atlantic slave trade is hardly overlooked in the movie, however. At the beginning of the film, Davis character Nanisca admonishes the King for allowing his people  and other Africans  to be involved in the business. She spends the entire film talking about how it is wrong to sell your own people and offers alternatives to the barbaric practice. The climax of the film involves the Agojie freeing Africans who were about to be transported to the New World.

Isnt it interesting that some of those calling most loudly for the boycott are Black men? Where were similar calls about films like 12 Years a Slave, Django Unchained or The Good Lord Bird  films about the slave trade given copious creative license in their portrayal of characters, storylines and the institution of slavery itself?

There is inherent value in a film about a dynamic group of Black women warriors many had not heard of, from a West African kingdom most could not find on a map, who challenge the notion of male supremacy. The films controversies only amplify the need for more people to see it, and to talk about it.

Silver Screen Collection/Moviepix/Getty Images

Vivien Leigh (1913-1967), British actress, has her corset tightened by Hattie McDaniel (18921952), US actress, in a publicity still issued for the film, 'Gone with the Wind', 1939. The drama, directed by Victor Fleming (1889-1949), starred Leigh as 'Scarlett O'Hara', and McDaniel as 'Mammy'. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)

Why we can't turn away from 'Gone with the Wind'

Meanwhile, critics calling for a more realistic representation of the slave trade might direct their energies elsewhere: They might focus on the fact, for instance that school systems across the United States are taking steps to erase its reality and legacy from curricula. Or that many Americans dismiss it as being no big deal when discussions about slavery turn to reparations. Or that the slave trade has historically been misrepresented in television and film for over 100 years  see film classics like The Birth of a Nation (1915) or Gone With the Wind (1939) or TV classics Uncle Toms Cabin (1987) and Roots (1977).

I suspect that much of the criticism and most of the efforts to suppress this film are really about the portrayal of powerful Black women warriors fighting and winning battles in a Hollywood that is still overwhelmingly White and male. Not just in the movie, but in the very fact of its creation, and the audience it has already garnered, Black women are winning  and the trolls oppose the film are losing.

As much as it is about anything else, The Woman King is about the precarious journey Black women take  and the obstacles they face  in pursuit of freedom and self-determination in a world where misogyny and misogynoir reign supreme.

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The Woman King is an outstanding film in the tradition of classics like Spartacus (1960), Braveheart (1995) and The Gladiator (2000). The difference is that Black women are at the center of the action, both on-screen and behind the camera. Its a difference that makes the film only more worthwhile to see.

Hollywood has spent much of its existence repudiating the talents of Black women. The effort by some to erase their work in The Woman King is lamentable. But it shouldnt work  and it wont. Anyone who finds the films depiction of the slave trade problematic should watch it anyway  and then join a lively debate about what worked, what didnt and how it could be more accurately portrayed.

There is intellectual and cultural value, even  or perhaps especially  in the conflict and contradictions.
A Chinese migrant worker has been sentenced to three years in jail for killing his paralyzed mother at her request, according to a court ruling issued on Wednesday.

Deng Mingjian, 41, was sentenced to three years in jail with a reprieve period of four years for intentional homicide, the Panyu District Peoples Court ruling said.

Deng purchased two bottles of pesticide on May 16, 2011 at the request of his mother, Li Shulan, 73, who suffered from hemiplegia for 20 years, the ruling said.

She died the same day just minutes after drinking the pesticide, the ruling said.

Deng was described as a filial son and was said to have taken care of his mother for decades. Several of his neighbors and relatives asked the court to give him a lenient sentence for this reason. The court considered Dengs guilty plea and the appeals of the public in making its ruling.

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By 2016,phone bill casino pointsbet review Chinese government will invest 138.4 billion yuan in Tibet to build a series of infrastructure projects, said the official Xinhua news agency. This investment includes 226 construction projects totaling 330.5 billion yuan.

These projects include the construction of buildings for public services in the region, transport infrastructure such as railways, roads, airports and power plants. The announcement came during the visit of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in Tibet, who came to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the peaceful liberation of the region.

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A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman on Monday denied Japanese media reports stating that a former senior diplomat is chz news crypto betfred uk bettingplanning to visit Japan.

Japanese press reported that Tang Jiaxuan, a former state councilor, plans to visit Japan as chairman of the Chinese side of the China-Japan Friendship Committee for the 21st Century in late March to attend a committee meeting.

The reports are untrue, spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily press briefing, adding that the schedule for the committees fourth meeting has not been settled and that both sides have maintained communication.

Xinhua

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Theslots online win real money following is the biographical sketch of Liu Yunshan:

Liu Yunshan, born in July 1947, is a male ethnic Han from Xinzhou, Shanxi Province. He entered the workforce in September 1966 and joined the CPC in April 1971. He received a university education at the Central Party School.

He is currently a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member of its Secretariat and head of its Publicity Department.

1964-1968 Student, Jining Teachers College, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

1968-1969 Teacher, Bashi School, Tumd Left Banner; and worker, Sobugai Commune, Tumd Right Banner; of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

1969-1975 Administrative secretary, Publicity Department, CPC Tumd Right Banner Committee, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

1975-1982 Reporter and deputy chief, Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Section; and member, Leading Party Members Group; of the Inner Mongolia Bureau of Xinhua News Agency (March  August 1981: student, Central Party School)

1982-1984 Deputy secretary of the CYL Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Committee and of its Leading Party Members Group

1984-1986 Deputy head, Publicity Department, CPC Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Committee

1986-1987 Member, Standing Committee; and head, Publicity Department; of the CPC Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Committee

1987-1991 Member, Standing Committee; and secretary-general; of the CPC Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Committee; secretary, Working Committee of Organs Directly under the CPC Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Committee

1991-1992 Member, Standing Committee, CPC Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Committee; secretary, CPC Chifeng Municipal Committee

1992-1993 Deputy secretary, CPC Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Committee; and concurrently secretary, CPC Chifeng Municipal Committee (1989-1992: student of Party and government administration, Correspondence School, Central Party School)

1993-1997 Deputy head, Publicity Department, CPC Central Committee

1997-2002 Deputy head, Publicity Department, CPC Central Committee (October 1997: ministerial level); head, General Office, Central Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress

2002-2012 Member, Political Bureau; member, Secretariat; and head, Publicity Department; of the CPC Central Committee

2012- Member, Standing Committee, Political Bureau; member, Secretariat; and head, Publicity Department; of the CPC Central Committee

Alternate member, Twelfth and Fourteenth CPC Central Committees; member, Fifteenth through Eighteenth CPC Central Committees; member, Political Bureau and Secretariat, Sixteenth through Eighteenth CPC Central Committees; member, Standing Committee, Political Bureau, Eighteenth CPC Central Committee.

Xinhua

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This casinos that give birthday money near meweek, Chinese authorities pledged to reform, improve and develop its legal system and ensure better rights protection to its citizens.

However, critics say that the very nature of Chinas authoritarian system continues to be an obstacle in the countrys development of an effective rule of law.

The government report on judicial reform, released weeks before Beijings major political reshuffle, says China has been striving to improve its judicial system, expand judicial democracy, and promote openness and impartiality.

It promises the measures provide a solid judicial guarantee for Chinas economic development, social harmony and national stability.

Li Zhuang, a well-known Beijing lawyer praised the document on his microblog.

If the judiciary authorities take the lead in implementing it seriously in the whole country, then it will be a great fortune for the people, he wrote.

Li famously spent 18 months in prison, charged with coercing false testimony after attempting to represent a mafia boss in Chongqing. At the time, many commentators pointed at his case as an example of how courts fail to protect the rights of lawyers.

Wang Cailiang, a lawyer from the All China Lawyers Association, says that though the papers general emphasis on social fairness and justice is a good change of approach in China, attention must be paid to how laws will be implemented.

We cant just look at what they say, Wang said. We need to look at what they will do and how they will do it.

Wang, who specializes in representing villagers whose land is being sized by developers without proper compensation, says that the white paper fails to address the core issue of judiciary independence.

For the courts and the procurator and the judicial authorities to stand up independently, they need to break away from their relation of dependency with the government, he said. Otherwise, any talk of a just and fair judiciary is fruitless.

Wang says that in his line of work, citizens rights and interests are often trampled upon because of the governmental interference with the courts work.

Land grabs have become one of the most bitter sources of discontent among Chinese people. Local governments, whose budgets have become deeply reliant on land sales, have a strong incentive to profit from land transactions and often steer courts away from properly compensating villagers.

The government, which should be the referee, becomes a player and takes away the interests of the people, he added.

Chinas new leadership, which will be appointed next month during the Communist Partys 18th congress and is expected to rule the country for the next 10 years, will inherit the challenge of legal reform.

Regardless of whether its the leaders of the 18th party congress, or the Chinese public, everyone hopes for a just and fair society, Wang said. Nobody wants this society to collapse and fall apart.

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A 46-year-old female teacher surnamed Liu died inexplicably after hosting an online course for her students in Xinzheng city,betfire appendicitis Central China's Henan province, on Oct 26. Video clips posted online by her daughter show Liu being abused by strangers who hacked into her online class, something her daughter believes led to her death.

The local police are probing the case. Their investigation will conclude if online violence caused Liu's death. It will also throw more light on a new phenomenon in which people hack into online classrooms to abuse teachers and students. This has become increasingly common and those who do it even boast of their "experience" in WeChat groups. Liu is not the only victim, many other teachers and students have been subjected to the same.

This kind of behavior is no harmless joke, but a crime considering that the legal rights of students and teachers get violated. Those who hijacked Liu's online class certainly deserve punishment if it is confirmed that their action caused her death.

The latest document introduced by the Cyberspace Administration of China requires websites to establish mechanisms to check online violence. One way is through a button allowing a teacher to stop anyone other than him or her from chatting in the classroom, or even kicking out illegal participants from online classrooms.

However, solving just one case is not enough. Behind all these violations is a cybercrime chain of hackers who hack into online classrooms and obtain passwords which they sell for a price. Only by cutting that illegal chain can this illegal activity be contained.

Let classrooms, offline or online, belong to teachers and students alone.
Lagos, Nigeria CNN 

Video Ad Feedback CNN anchor shares her personal, complicated history with the British monarchy 03:43 - Source: CNN

The death of Queen Elizabeth II has prompted an outpouring of reflection and reaction online. But not all was grief  some young Africans instead are sharing images and stories of their own elders, who endured a brutal period of British colonial history during the Queens long reign.

I cannot mourn, one wrote on Twitter, posting an image of what she said was her grandmothers movement pass  a colonial document which prevented free travel for Kenyans under British rule in the east African country.

Another wrote that her grandmother used to narrate to us how they were beaten & how their husbands were taken away from them & left to look after their kids, during colonial times. May we never forget them. They are our heroes, she added.

Their refusal to mourn highlights the complexity of the legacy of the Queen, who despite widespread popularity was also seen as a symbol of oppression in parts of the world where the British Empire once extended.

Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Queen Elizabeth II inspects men of the newly-renamed Queen's Own Nigeria Regiment, Royal West African Frontier Force, at Kaduna Airport, Nigeria, during her Commonwealth Tour, on February 2, 1956.

Kenya, which had been under British rule since 1895, was named an official colony in 1920 and remained that way until it won independence in 1963. Among the worst atrocities under British rule occurred during the Mau Mau uprising, which started in 1952  the year Queen Elizabeth took the throne.

The colonial administration at the time carried out extreme acts of torture, including castration and sexual assault, in detainment camps where as many as 150,000 Kenyans were held. Elderly Kenyans who sued for compensation in 2011 were ultimately awarded 19.9 million by a British court, to be split between more than 5,000 claimants.

The UK Foreign Secretary at the time, William Hague, said: The British Government recognises that Kenyans were subject to torture and other forms of ill treatment at the hands of the colonial administration. The British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place, and that they marred Kenyas progress towards independence.

Africas memory of the Queen cannot be separated from that colonial past, professor of communication Farooq Kperogi at Kennesaw State University told CNN.

The Queens legacy started in colonialism and is still wrapped in it. It used to be said that the sun did not set over the British empire. No amount of compassion or sympathy that her death has generated can wipe that away, he told CNN.

Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Tragic period

Queen Elizabeth II on her way to the Kumasi Durbah with Kwame Nkrumah, President of Ghana, during her tour of Ghana, November 1961.

While many African leaders have mourned her passing  including Nigerias President Muhammadu Buhari, who described her reign as unique and wonderful  other prominent voices in regional politics have not.

In South Africa, one opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), was unequivocal. We do not mourn the death of Elizabeth, because to us her death is a reminder of a very tragic period in this country and Africas history, the EFF said in a statement.

Our interaction with Britain has been one of pain,  death and dispossession, and of the dehumanisation of the African people, it added.

Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip wave to a crowd of schoolchildren at a rally held at a racecourse in Ibadan, Nigeria, February 15, 1956.

Others recalled Britains role in the Nigerian civil war, where arms were secretly supplied to the government for use against Biafrans who wanted to form a breakaway republic. Between 1 million and 3 million people died in that war. British musician John Lennon returned his MBE, an honorary title, to the Queen in protest over Britains role in the war.

Still, many on the continent remember the Queen as a stabilizing force who brought about positive change during her reign.

Ayodele Modupe Obayelu from Nigeria told CNN: Her reign saw the end of the British Empire and the African countries  became a Republic. She doesnt really deserve any award or standing ovation for it, but it was a step in the right direction.

From Dele Momodu

Nigerian magazine publisher Dele Momodu met Queen Elizabeth on a 2003 state visit to Abuja, Nigeria.

And Ovation magazine publisher Dele Momodu was full of praise, recounting meeting her in 2003 in Abuja while covering her visit to Nigeria. He added that he had fled Nigeria for the UK in 1995, during the dictator Sani Abachas regime.

I told her I was a refugee and now the publisher of a magazine. She told me congratulations, and moved on to the other people on the line. I salute her. She worked to the very end and was never tired of working for her country. She did her best for her country and that is a lesson in leadership, he told CNN.

Momodu believes that the Queen did try to atone for the brutality of the British Empire. She came to Nigeria during our independence and some of the artifacts were returned under her reign. That is why the Commonwealth continues to thrive. I feel very sad that the world has lost a great human being.

Adekunbi Rowland, also from Nigeria, said: The Queens passing represents the end of an era. As a woman, Im intrigued by her story. This young woman had an unprecedented accession to the throne, and with much grace and dignity did everything in her power to protect the country and Commonwealth she loved no matter what it took.

Commonwealth Queen

The Queen once declared, I think I have seen more of Africa than almost anybody.

She made her first official overseas visit to South Africa in 1947, as a princess and would go on to visit more than 120 countries during her reign, many of them on the continent.

PA Images/Getty Images

Elizabeth, then a princess, and Prince Philip step from their plane in Nairobi, Kenya, on the first stage of their Commonwealth tour in 1952.

It was while visiting Kenya in 1952 that she learned that she had become Queen. Her father George passed away while she was there with Prince Phillip and she immediately ascended the throne.

As colonialism later crumbled and gave way to independence and self-rule in what had been British overseas territories, the former colonies became part of a Commonwealth group of nations with the Queen at its head and she worked tirelessly to keep the group together over the years.

She forged strong bonds with African leaders, including Nelson Mandela, whom she visited twice in South Africa, and Kwame Nkrumah, with whom she was famously pictured dancing during her visit to Ghana in 1961.

Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Queen Elizabeth II dances with President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, during her visit to Accra, Ghana, in 1961.

However, there is now a growing clamor for independence and accountability over Britains past crimes such as slavery. In November 2021, Barbados removed the Queen as its head of state, 55 years after it declared independence from Britain, and other Caribbean countries, such as Jamaica, have indicated they intend to do the same.

Prince William and his wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, visited Jamaica in March but they faced protests and calls for reparations during the trip. There were also calls for a formal apology for the royal familys links to slavery.

During her 70 years on the throne, your grandmother has done nothing to redress and atone for the suffering of our ancestors that took place during her reign and/or during the entire period of British trafficking of Africans, enslavement, indentureship and colonization, wrote members of a protest group, the Advocates Network Jamaica.

In June, Prince Charles became the first UK royal to visit Rwanda, where he was representing the Queen at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Following his mothers death, he now heads the Commonwealth, and will embark on a new relationship with its members, about a third of which are in Africa.

Some are asking whether he will be as effective in building the organization as his mother, and above all, how relevant it still is, given its roots in Empire.
Thehigh stakes slot machine videos ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs ran ads in four major U.S. newspapers Oct. 10, highlighting national sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Archipelago and urging resolution of regional disputes in accordance with the East China Sea peace initiative.

As a founding member of the U.N., the ROC believes it has the responsibility to resolve Diaoyutais disputes in a peaceful manner under the principles of the U.N. Charter, a MOFA official said. We are committed to this approach as the archipelago unquestionably belongs to Taiwan.

Published in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, the advertisements follow Japans Sept. 11 decision to purchase and nationalize three islets in the Diaoyutais, and remarks by Japan Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on the archipelago Sept. 26 at the U.N. General Assembly.

The ads outline Taipeis rock-solid position over the Diaoyutais, which are historically, geographically, legally and practically an inherent part of ROC territory.

The official said it is truly regrettable that Noda refuses to acknowledge the existence of Diaoyutais disputes while rejecting Taiwans offer to let the International Court of Justice review the matter.

To add insult to injury, the official said, Noda stated that any attempt to realize a countrys claim by force or threat is inconsistent with the spirit of the U.N. Charter. This stands in stark contrast to Japans decision to seize the Diaoyutais during the first Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895.

Under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) was forced to cede the Diaoyutais and other territories to Japan. But these were all returned to the ROC after WWII based on the Cairo and Postdam declarations, the Instrument of Surrender of Japan, the San Francisco Treaty, and the Treaty of Peace between the ROC and Japan.

Japans claim of sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands is invalid ab initio [from the onset] under international law since the islands were never terra nullius [land without owner], the official said.

Given recent events, the official said, the best way forward for Japan is to embrace the ROC governments East China Sea peace initiative and join in forging a path of coexistence and mutual prosperity.

The five-point plan urges all parties to refrain from antagonistic actions; not abandon dialogue; observe international law; resolve disputes through peaceful means; and form a mechanism for exploring and developing resources on a cooperative basis.

This can be achieved by having Taipei, Tokyo and Beijing conduct bilateral discussion before progressing to trilateral negotiations, the official said.

The Diaoyutais are an uninhabited archipelago located roughly 170 kilometers northeast of Taiwan proper. The island group is historically attached to the ROC and includes Diaoyutai Island and the islets of Huangwei and Chiwei.

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Taiwans exports fell by 2.4 percent in October over the previous month to 26.53 billion U.S. dollars,online slots that pay real cash as demand from the United States and Europe slumped, the islands finance authorities said in a report on Thursday.

Compared with the same period last year, Taiwans exports fell by 1.9 percent in October.

In the first ten months of the year, Taiwans exports stood at 250.13 billion U.S. dollars, marking a year-on-year drop of 3.7 percent.

Meanwhile, imports reached 23.27 billion U.S. dollars in October, rising by 0.8 percent over the previous month, or a 1.8-percent decrease over the same period last year.

In the first ten months of the year, imports stood at 227.26 billion U.S. dollars, marking a year-on-year decline of 4.7 percent.

The report said that although Taiwans exports to the Chinese mainland and other Asian economies rose in October over the same period last year, demand from the United States and Europe declined substantially.

The islands exports to the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong reached 10.53 billion U.S. dollars in October, a 0.3-percent increase over the same period last year.

Its exports to the six southeast Asian economies, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Brunei, also rose by 7.0 percent to 4.85 billion U.S. dollars.

But demand from the United States and Europe fell by 9.5 percent and 11.0 percent, respectively, offsetting gains from the islands other trade partners.

The report said that weak demand from major Western economies was mainly to blame for Taiwans lackluster export performance in October.

However, the report said Taiwans exports are expected to grow slightly in the last quarter of the year, as the global economy has shown signs of stabilization.

Xinhua

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17:53 | Lima, Oct. 3.

"Insecurity is negative for the entire society because it affects the country's morale and entrepreneurship, that is, the capacity to develop a business venture," the government official said as he left the Congress headquarters.

"In addition, it (insecurity) generates cost overruns, which reduce profit margins and prevent some businesses from being profitable. That's why we are taking action," he stated.

The Cabinet member underlined that an additional budget has been allocated to the Ministry of Interior , noting there are regions that are under a state of emergency.
Chinese authorities closed Tibet to foreign visitors,Fruit Super Nova 40 announced travel agencies on Wednesday, June 6, ten days after the self-immolation of two Tibetans in Lhasa.

This happened just after the Saga Dawa festival begun, which celebrates the birth of Buddha in the Tibetan calendar. Traditionally there will be an influx of tourists to the Himalayan region.

China closes Tibet occasionally. The region has been under close supervision since the outbreak of anti-Chinese violence in March 2008. After the riots, foreign tourists were banned from traveling to Tibet for over a year. When foreigners are allowed to get there, they need a special permit and have to travel in group.

Since March 2011, thirty-seven Tibetans sacrificed themselves by immolation or tried to do so in Tibetan areas of neighboring Chinese provinces. On May 27, for the first time, two Tibetans set themselves on fire in Lhasa.

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China on Tuesday urged Japan to take concrete actions so as to make progress with the negotiations over the Diaoyu Islands.

Spokesman Hong Lei with the Foreign Ministry made the remarks at a regular news briefing when asked to comment on reports of a planned joint military drill near the Okinawa between Japan and the United States. Reports said the drill may include a mission of simulating retaking an island.

Hong expressed the hope that Japan will demonstrate sincerity and take concrete actions to correct its wrong deeds, and extend great efforts to make progress with negotiations over the Diaoyu Islands between the two countries.

He said that keeping the Asia-Pacific region peaceful, stable and prosperous is in line with all parties common interests.

Hong said that purposely highlighting military security agenda and intensifying an already tense situation are not conducive to promoting mutual trust in security and run against the trend of peace, development and cooperation of the times.

We will pay close attention to related moves, and we reserve the right to further react, Hong said.

Xinhua

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Muslims across China on Sunday celebrated Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a season of fasting and spiritual reflection.

In northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, tens of thousands of Muslims of various ethnic minorities, including Uygur, Hui, and Kazakh, could hear imams preaching in the capital of Urumqi as the first rays of sunlight appeared.

The Sunday morning prayer service on Eid al-Fitr, the fast-breaking festival, is one of the most important prayer ceremonies Muslims attend each year.

Ramadan is the most auspicious month of the year, and Eid al-Fitr is like New Years for us Muslims, said Ma Yucheng.

He came to Khan Tengri Mosque in Urumqi at 6:30 a.m. in order to secure a good seat for the prayer ceremony.

After the communal prayer, the 34-year-old man, like most of his fellow Muslims, visited a local cemetery to honor his deceased relatives. Muslims sweep and clean the tombs of their deceased relatives and leave food offerings before returning home for family gatherings.

Ma said his family has spent the past week preparing for Eid al-Fitr, amassing all sorts of delicacies, including fried sweets, nuts, fresh fruits, bread and freshly butchered sheep. His family will enjoy a feast to mark the first meal eaten during daylight in a month.

On Sunday, Urumqis public transport group added several temporary lines for the convenience of Muslims traveling to mosques and cemeteries.

The local government declared Eid al-Fitr a three-day public holiday to give Muslim residents enough time to attend religious services and visit relatives.

For Li Xuejun, imam at the Hebayan Mosque in Urumqi, the three-day holiday will be exceptionally busy, as he hopes to visit elderly, disabled and sick Muslims in his community, bringing them gifts and reciting the Quran for them.

My priority now is to make sure all Muslims in the community enjoy a proper festival, said Li.

The mosque in the old Silk Road city of Kashgar, the largest of its kind in China, saw nearly 5,000 Muslims attend the morning prayer service.

Xinjiang has a population of more than 21 million, and more than half of them are Muslims from 10 ethnic groups, such as Uygur, Kirgiz, Kazak and Uzbek. The region is home to a total of 24,000 mosques.

During Ramadan, the ninth month of the year on the Muslim calendar, Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex from sunrise to sunset, in an effort to show their devotion to their faith. Children, the elderly and the sick do not have to fast.

Ramadan started on July 20 this year. Mosques, including the White Mosque, have received a higher number of visitors than usual, half of the visitors were part of a floating population that travels during Ramadan.

These mosques organized Muslims to take turns keeping watch at the door to ensure that visitors could come and go safely.

When Muslims occupied roads and disrupted traffic while attending prayer services, Imam Abdushukur at the White Mosque helped resume traffic order by saying, The prayers of those who pray on road will be rendered invalid.

Ramadan passed peacefully and harmoniously, with residents of different ethnic backgrounds praying and sharing in Suhoor, pre-fasting meals eaten before dawn, said Liu Zhenqiang, director of the regional ethnic affairs committee.

Meanwhile, in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and other Muslim-populated regions, Muslims donned festive outfits and crowded into local mosques.

The regional government of Ningxia, one of the countrys major Muslim-populated regions, extended the public holiday from Saturday to Tuesday this year, giving Muslims four days to enjoy the festival.

Ningxia is home to about 10 percent of the countrys 20 million Muslims, half of whom are from the Hui ethnic group.

Due to different religious sects, northwest Chinas Qinghai Province started the festival on Saturday, while other Muslim-populated regions, including Xinjiang and Ningxia, celebrated the festival on Sunday.

The Islamic Association of China held a tea party on Sunday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to celebrate the end of Ramadan. The activity was also an event to show respect for the elderly.

Vice Premier Hui Liangyu attended the tea party.

Xinhua

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Senior leader Li Changchun has urged the Inner Mongolia autonomous region to transform its growth pattern, foster innovation and enhance cultural construction so as to make leapfrog development.

From Aug. 18 to 22, Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, toured several cities in Inner Mongolia, including Ordos and Hohhot, where he visited enterprises, schools and rural areas.

While visiting the Yili Industrial Group Co. and Mengniu Dairy Group, Chinas two biggest dairy producers, Li urged the two companies to set up quality guarantee systems and step up monitoring at all stages to provide safe products for the public.

Quality is the lifeline of an enterprise, he stressed.

At the Zhong Xing Special Vehicle Manufacturing Co. and a new materials industrial park located in Hohhot, Li encouraged workers to enhance innovation and make breakthroughs in core technology to gain an advantageous position in the industrial chain.

During the five-day tour , Li also inspected desertification control efforts in the region and toured cultural relics.

He asked Inner Mongolia to make better use of its rich cultural resources to spread its culture nationwide and to the world.

Xinhua

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A Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs-organized Nicaraguan canal investment seminar kicked off Nov. 8 in Taipei City,betting online in ny 1xbet a buoying the Latin American nations hopes of attracting Taiwan private sector support for the US$30 billion project.

Taiwan firms are encouraged to evaluate the possibilities of participating in the waterways construction and tapping the great business opportunities on offer, a MOFA official said. This will further bolster already close Taiwan-Nicaragua economic ties.

Attended by Nicaragua Foreign Minister Samuel Santos Lopez and other high-ranking officials from both nations, the event is co-organized by the ROC Ministry of Economic Affairs and the government-backed Central America Trade Office and Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association.

Approved by the Nicaraguan government in July, the canal will link the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. It is expected to have an annual cargo capacity of 416 million metric tons, or 3.9 percent of the global total upon opening in 2019. This should increase to 573 million metric tons, or 4.5 percent of the global total, by 2025, according to the MOFA.

The official said factors making the project an ideal investment include Nicaraguas membership of the Dominican Republic-Central America-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and EU-Central America Association Agreement. The country also has FTAs with Mexico and Panama.

ROC-Nicaragua trade has increased significantly on the back of an FTA that came into force in 2008. Taiwan is the Central American countrys 10th largest trading partner, with two-way trade reaching US$88 million last year.

Rachel Chan

Taiwan Today

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Gas leak at Nord Stream 2 as seen from the Danish F-16 interceptor on Bornholm,the best poker site bingo gambling Denmark, Sept 27, 2022. [Photo/Agencies]

Almost a month later, the now-corroborated sabotage of Russia's Nord Stream pipelines is back in the spotlight. The Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Saturday: "According to the obtained data, UK Navy representatives took part in planning, organizing and carrying out the terrorist act in the Baltic Sea on Sept 26, 2022 to blow up the Nord Stream-1 and Nord Stream-2 gas pipelines." The UK was quick to deny it, so the mystery still lingers.

In late September, underwater explosions caused leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines channeling natural gas from Russia to European countries, crippling their functions and prompting a gas price hike and a scramble for alternative sources of fuel. At that time, even when there wasn't an iota of circumstantial evidence to associate the sabotage with Russia, some Western officials and media were quick to start pointing fingers groundlessly, going so far as to fabricate "sources" to make their accusations sound plausible, despite Russia's vehement and public denials. For some Western officials and media, demonizing Russia was politically justified against the backdrop of the conflict in Ukraine. It was convenient for them to reject rationality and objectivity and indulge in conspiracy theories, betting the truth could be forever buried beneath the waters of the Baltic Sea.

They were savvy enough to know that the Nord Stream pipelines were one of the most powerful means of leverage Russia could use to elicit concessions from some Western countries, and damaging it would take that leverage out of Russia's hand. Not to mention, Russian state company Gazprom is the majority shareholder in Nord Stream 1 and sole owner of Nord Stream 2.

So who was behind the sabotage, and why? The answer lies in a thorough and apolitical investigation. But with escalating tensions between the West and Russia, it has been almost impossible to carry out a non-politicized investigation. Some countries in the vicinity of the explosions and leaks like Denmark, a formal NATO member, and Sweden, currently a NATO membership applicant, have finished their preliminary underwater investigations without making their findings public. Sweden claimed on Oct 14 the information was too sensitive to share with other EU members. This has only deepened international concerns the investigation might be at the mercy of political pressure from the US and its NATO allies, given the fact Russia has been denied access for the on-site probe. Had the findings confirmed their suspicion of Russia's involvement, they would have been quick to make the information public to the international community so as to hold Russia accountable.

Since Sweden's investigation the Western media have collectively been silent on the matter making it look like everything about the sabotage has been swept under the rug, while US natural gas exporters have been raking it in by selling to European countries at much higher prices. From a strategic point of view, European countries' dependence on the US has been further entrenched. It is widely known since the start of the conflict in Ukraine the US and UK have been trying to prevent European countries from making concessions to Russia in exchange for continuous energy supply through these pipelines.

The trickier part is the US warned several European allies over the summer, Germany in particular, the Nord Stream pipelines could face threats and even be attacked, without clarifying who might be responsible for any attacks on the pipelines or when they might occur. Back in February, when addressing a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, US President Joe Biden said: "If Russia invadesthen there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it. I promise you, we'll be able to do that." Does this look like a prophecy self-fulfilled?

Wang Junrong is an assistant researcher at the Institute of Strategic Studies, Shanghai Jiaotong University. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

If you have a specific expertise, or would like to share your thought about our stories, then send us your writings at [email protected], and [email protected].
CNN 

Video Ad Feedback $4.6 billion plant will make green ammonia 'the fuel of the future' 02:36 - Source: CNN

In Nelson Mandela Bay, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, thousands of hectares of land could one day become the worlds largest green ammonia plant.

Ammonia, which is made up of nitrogen and hydrogen, is commonly used as a fertilizer. In the early 1910s scientists devised a way to synthesize it, but before then, the main agricultural fertilizer was guano, bat or bird excrement, which had to be obtained from tropical islands and was in short supply.

Production of ammonia at an industrial scale allowed agriculture to boom, and according to a study from the University of Manitoba, without it, we wouldnt be able to produce roughly half of the worlds food today.
[Photo/IC]

YAOUNDE,bwin sport watch price Cameroon  Before 6 am, Berline Fangan had already taken her seat at a makeshift traditional Chinese medicine clinic just outside the Bangou sub-divisional hospital in the West Region of Cameroon.

The mother of two was nervous and in pain as she explained that her untreated 10-year-old joint problem was wearing her down. She, like many of the other patients who visited the clinic, had been treated by conventional doctors over the years, but found the prescribed drugs ineffective.

" (The drugs) relieved me a bit but five minutes later the pain came back," the 53-year-old woman says. She and hundreds of Cameroonian residents of Bangou and Bamendjou, Upper Plateau division, were waiting for a team of Chinese specialist medics who arrived in the region last week for a two-day free consultation and treatment campaign.

Bangou and Bamendjou, with a population of more than 100,000, are surrounded by many rural communities widely dispersed through wild terrain, and have only two hospitals.

Villagers are often troubled by health problems like gastritis, typhoid, malaria, cataracts and rheumatism. But most of them cannot afford medical services.

People came from far and wide in the impoverished region to receive free medical treatment.

"My brother informed me of the health campaign. I left Douala (Cameroon's commercial hub, more than 200 kilometers away from Bangou) at midnight and arrived here at 6:30 in the morning," says a retired history teacher and father of five who says he has been suffering from cramps since 2016.

Martine Kouamo stood looking dejected at her 10-year-old son Christian Djomo, who had been suffering from testicular pain. His twin sister had neck strain, and one part of her body was exhibiting weakness.

The exact causes of the ailments were unknown.

"I tried to use conventional medicine (on Christian) for three years, but in vain. I think Chinese doctors will help because they work well," Kouamo says.

As the sun rose over Bangou and Bamendjou, a good number of patients began taking turns to register, consult and then received treatment from doctors in various departments, who were here as members of the 22nd Chinese medical team to Cameroon.

Fangan was among the first patients to be consulted.

She was carefully administered an acupuncture therapy, an ancient Chinese method of treatment in which fine needles are inserted through the skin at specific points to treat various physical conditions.

"As I speak to you the pain is gone," Fangan says after the treatment. "I feel better. In the morning, I couldn't swing my neck like this but now I can swing behind, left and right without problem."

Her boy, Christian, was administered medicine, and hoped it would help him recover.

For the first time since 2016, Justin Kouamou, 71, felt relieved. Before this, he had visited doctors several times for an unnamed sickness, but the results were not satisfactory.

"The Chinese doctors inserted needles in my skin and it magically alleviated my pain. I am still amazed by the wonders of that treatment," Kouamou says.

More than 1,600 patients were consulted and treated during the campaign, which ran from Oct 29 to 30, says Paul Sikapin, mayor of Bangou.

"I asked firmly that such a campaign should be organized next year," Sikapin says.

Fabrice Dubila, a medical doctor in Bangou sub-divisional hospital, says Cameroonian and Chinese doctors worked shoulder to shoulder in treating patients and offering much-needed medical services during the campaign.

"This is a great opportunity to learn from our colleagues overseas. So far we have collaborated on the diagnosis of some patients and I have also learned some other diagnostic techniques I can use to diagnose some particular diseases, notably lipoma and other pathologies. I think it is a very good opportunity to have witnessed acupuncture here in Bangou," Dubila says.

Theodore Datouo, deputy speaker of Cameroon's National Assembly and also a member of parliament for the Upper Plateau constituency, says the campaign was a mark of friendly relations between Cameroon and China.

"China has always assisted Cameroon in the health sector and this time it is the turn of the West Region to benefit," says Datouo, the main organizer of the campaign.

"This campaign is for the health and well-being of the population, and when the population is healthy, economic development will follow. We thank China for this cooperation and the Chinese medical team in Cameroon," he adds.

Guo Jun, head of the Chinese medical team in Cameroon says China has dispatched 22 medical teams and 736 medical professionals to Cameroon since 1975 to diagnose diseases, relieve patients' pains and improve local health conditions and medical expertise.

"Today's free clinic is just an example. In the future, we will further deepen cooperation and contribute to promoting medical assistance projects and improving China-Cameroon friendship," Guo says.

Besides the free acupuncture clinic, the Chinese medical team, along with the Beijing Urban Construction Group, donated drugs and protective materials to local hospitals.
Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Friday that it hopes Singaporean authorities will properly handle the lawsuit concerning Chinese bus drivers and safeguard their rights.

An official from MOC told Xinhua that the ministry has asked the Chinese Embassy in Singapore to negotiate with Singaporean authorities on the lawsuit to meet Chinese drivers reasonable demands.

Thecasino games free online poker play unnamed official said the dispute stemmed from Singaporean employers discriminatory wages against Chinese and Malaysian bus drivers.

The official said MOC attaches great importance to the interests of Chinese people working overseas.

The ministry has asked domestic enterprises engaging in labor service exports to secure the interests of Chinese workers and help them protect their legal rights when involved in disputes.

A total of 171 Chinese bus drivers took medical leave on Nov. 26 in protest against inequitable pay rises by local public transport operator SMRT, and 88 of them stayed away from work the following day.

Five drivers were arrested and charged, while 29 others had their work permits revoked and deported to China.

Out of the arrested, Bao Fengshan was sentenced to six weeks in jail on Monday, and the remaining four charged with instigating an illegal strike were released on bail on Thursday.

Singaporean authorities said on Thursday that they would take into account the need to raise wages for bus drivers.

Xinhua

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The main task of Taiwan Representative to Japan Shen Ssu-tsun following his return to Tokyo Oct. 4 is to push for the restart of bilateral fishery talks, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Shen-yeaw Ko said Oct. 8.

Shen was recalled to Taipei Sept. 12 for consultations over recent friction between the two sides related to Japans plan to nationalize the Diaoyutai Archipelago.

The ROC representative office is currently in negotiations with the Japanese side on relaunching the talks, Ko said, adding that when related details are discussed the ministry will coordinate with the Council of Agricultures Fisheries Agency.

Ko made the remarks while answering questions before the Legislative Yuans Foreign and National Defense Committee.

Huang Ming-lang, a senior MOFA official, said fishing operations in waters where the two sides have overlapping claims will be the crux of the talks, although negotiations will not be limited in scope.

Huang noted that Japan has proposed restarting fishery talks on three occasions within the past month. Following previous reservations, Japan has expressed willingness to discuss fishing operations in overlapping waters, including delineating areas where Taiwan fishing vessels can operate, he said.

He reiterated that the Taiwan government will not join hands with mainland China over the issue of the Diaoyutais, noting that Taiwan has sovereignty over the archipelago and will protect the rights of Taiwan fishermen during talks with Japan.

Separately, MOFA spokesman Steve C.C. Hsia said the Japanese side hopes to discuss fish stock conservation issues, including setting seasonal and species catch limits to ensure sustainability, topics that the ROC is also interested in discussing.

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YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, ARMENPRESS. The number of forcibly displaced persons whove crossed into Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh reached 100,617 as of 12:00, October 3, the prime ministers spokesperson Nazeli Baghdasaryan said at a press briefing.

Over 50% of the forcibly displaced persons have accepted the state accommodation assistance option and are accommodated in various provinces across the country.

The Armenian government offers accommodation to all arriving forcibly displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh. Some of the forcibly displaced persons chose to stay with their relatives or friends in Armenia.

The mass exodus of Armenians from NK began after the September 19-20 Azerbaijani attack which ended after Nagorno-Karabakh authorities agreed to Azerbaijans terms in a Russian-brokered ceasefire deal.
Eighteen people in total were killed in the city of Kashgar,free promo online casino Xinjiang (northwest), in two attacks and the intervention of the police.

The violence came less than two weeks after the disturbances on July 18, which killed 20 people in the city of Hotan, also located in Xinjiang autonomous region.

A first attack with knives waged by two Uighurs Saturday, killing six people. One of the attackers was killed, according to the government of the autonomous region.

Sunday afternoon, in a second attack with knives, six people were killed in Kashgar, two at a restaurant and four others on the streets of this city in far west Xinjiang, near the border with Kyrgyzstan.

Police shot dead four suspects Sunday afternoon in Kashgar, and a fifth died in hospital from his injuries after he was arrested with three other alleged attackers.

Xinjiang, home to a Uighur minority and other ethnic groups, has been under the threat of terrorism, says the Xinhua news agency.

Four suspects were shot () and four others were arrested, while another four police search after an eruption of violence 4:30 p.m. (0830 GMT), said the official agency, who after initially spoke of an explosion, spoke of the rioters.

According to the government website tianshannet.com, two strangers seized a van stopped at a stoplight on a busy street of a night market. They killed the driver and the vehicle headed into the crowd which stood on the sidewalk.

The two men then got out of the truck and began stabbing passers-by, killing six people and injured 28, before the crowd stand up and kill one of the attackers.

A spokesman for the autonomous region, Hou Hanmin (), said the two attackers were Uighurs, and the survivor had been arrested.

More than eight million Uighurs live in Xinjiang, and many denounced for decades the cultural and religious repression, as well as the mass immigration of Han, the ethnic majority in China.

The major efforts made by Beijing in recent years to develop the economically resource-rich but still largely undeveloped region, , while many Uighurs say the efforts have primarily benefited Hans.

The capital of Xinjiang, Urumqi, had been shaken in July 2009 riots between Uighurs and Hans, causing at least 200 deaths and some 1,700 injured, according to official sources.

After the deadliest ethnic riots in China in decades, a relentless crackdown on the Uighurs had been shot with dozens of executions, disappearances and arrests of many, further exacerbating the resentment of the minority against the power of the Chinese Government.

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Thekronos unleashed shiba coin in inr clothing and textile industry is still facing a grim export situation, as the sector saw only slight growth in the first three quarters, an industry expert said Thursday.

Data from the China Textile Industry Association showed that the sectors total export volume grew by 1.04 percent to 192.69 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of the year.

Gao Yong, the associations vice president, said at a national textile conference held on Thursday that Chinas shares in major overseas markets have dropped in spite of overall export growth.

We need to more rationally analyze the indigenous problems confronting the industry, Gao said.

The textile and clothing industry should update its technology to enhance product quality and foster influential brands in response to the impact of external factors, including rising labor cost and material prices and dampened overseas demand, the association said in a report.

The association will intensify training and technological upgrades for clothing and textile producers in an effort to improve product quality, Gao said.

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A much expected downpour bypassed Beijing Wednesday but battered the neighboring city of Tianjin, flooding many downtown streets and vehicles.

As of 11 a.m. Thursday, the maximum precipitation had exceeded 300 millimeters, Tianjins meteorological center said in a press release.

It said the city proper received an average rainfall of 147 mm, while the outer Xiqing district, one of the worst-battered areas, received 309.8 mm.

The local fire prevention bureau sent 190 fire engines and 1,140 rescuers to help rescue flood stranded vehicles and pedestrians.

The rain had largely stopped by midday, but the center issued another orange alarm at 11:10 a.m., warning residents of a further rainstorm.

The downpour has paralyzed traffic in downtown Tianjin, drowning many roads. Dozens of vehicles were stranded on Baidi road in Nankai district after their engines died in the flood.

Many pedestrians complained they had to trek in knee-deep water. In some sections of Xianyang Street, flood water was waist deep.

On the badly flooded Friendship Road in Hexi district, five workers kept watch next to sewage wells whose manholes had been removed for faster drainage.

The rain disrupted air traffic at Tianjins airport, where 20 flights were canceled and 34 delayed.8 The first flight, an incoming flight from Shanghai, landed in Tianjin after the rain subsided at 11:32 a.m., and the first departing flight took off at 12:08 p.m., according to the airports official website.

Railway transportation, however, was largely unaffected, including the express rail link to Beijing, the citys railway authorities confirmed.

Vegetable prices were up at the citys major wholesale markets Thursday. Each kilo is at least 0.4 yuan  about 30 percent  more expensive than yesterday, said Cui Hongqing, a wholesaler at Hongqi Market.

Cui predicted further price hikes Friday as the rain devastated crops and increased transportation costs.

Chinas capital Beijing was on guard against heavy rain Wednesday, fearing a repeat of Saturdays mayhem.

Saturdays downpour, which the local weather bureau described as the heaviest in 61 years, killed at least 37 people  some were drowned in private cars.

Many office workers were allowed to go home early Wednesday for safety considerations, and city authorities bombarded mobile phone subscribers with text message warnings of an imminent downpour.

The much expected rain, however, did not fall in Beijing.

The capital was still overcast Thursday, as the central weather bureau has forecast rain in seven northern China provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, over the coming three days.

Xinhua

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YAN XUE/FOR CHINA DAILY

Thepointsbet sportsbook nj GDI has charted the course for continuous improvement of China-Cambodia relations

Peace and development are the themes of the times. The Global Development Initiative is a global public good that China has provided to speed up the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, improve the well-being of people in all countries, and build a community of common development.

As of September 2022, the Global Development Initiative had been welcomed by more than 100 countries, along with many international organizations, including the UN; at the same time, more than 60 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative.

Among them, Cambodia is a firm supporter of the initiative. Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn believes that the China-proposed initiative has been warmly welcomed by the international community, developing countries in particular.

Relying on the Global Development Initiative, China and Cambodia have been deepening the building of a community with a shared future. China-Cambodia relations have withstood the test of the times thanks to the millennium-long friendly exchanges between their two peoples.

In April 2019, the two countries took the lead in signing an action plan for building a community with a shared future, setting goals and taking measures for their cooperation in almost all areas, including politics, security, the economy, people-to-people, cultural exchanges, and multilateralism.

The Global Development Initiative came at a time when Cambodia was seeing multiple rounds of the COVID-19 outbreaks and falling into a sharp economic recession. As Cambodia is not a COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer, whether it can raise enough vaccines from the international community is directly related to its people's livelihoods and its economic recovery. Overcoming its own shortage, by March 2022 China had provided Cambodian citizens with more than 42 million vaccine doses, helping the kingdom's vaccination rate exceed 95 percent.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said it was a correct, clear and timely decision that the country chose China as its "strategic pillar "for vaccine supply, and it enabled Cambodia to obtain sufficient vaccines. The World Health Organization also hailed Cambodia's vaccine rollout as a successful regional and even global model.

The anti-pandemic cooperation between China and Cambodia demonstrates the Global Development Initiative's principles of "prioritizing development", "people-centered development" and "leave no one behind", and also profoundly interprets the connotation of a China-Cambodia community with a shared future.

China and Cambodia have enhanced their economic cooperation within the Global Development Initiative framework. Since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed, the two countries have efficiently docked their development strategies in practical cooperation in energy, transportation and more sectors.

The Sesan II hydropower station and other major projects built by China in Cambodia have alleviated the latter's long-term energy shortage. China's assistance projects, including the 4,000 kilometers of highways and eight cross-river bridges in Cambodia, have further improved logistics and transportation in the kingdom.

In October 2020, the two sides signed a free trade agreement, which was the first agreement of this kind that Cambodia has ever signed. According to the document, the proportion of tariff items of zero tariff products in goods trade between the two sides has exceeded 90 percent.

The China-Cambodia free trade agreement is the crystallization of their long-term economic and trade cooperation, creating favorable conditions for more Cambodian goods to be exported to China. On such a basis, the Global Development Initiative has mapped out a blueprint for the development of the world economy in the post-pandemic era. The two countries are facing opportunities to upgrade their economic cooperation. In 2021, despite the pandemic-ravaged economy, the bilateral trade volume rose to $11 billion, a year-on-year growth of 37.28 percent, meeting the target of $10 billion in trade in 2023 set by the heads of the two states in advance.

One after another, Cambodia has got the nod to export mangoes, longan and Basa fish to China, following the exports of rice and bananas. In November, the China-invested Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway, the kingdom's first-ever highway, was completed and opened to traffic. This project will not only greatly shorten the commute time from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville Port, but also drive the development of the provinces along the route, such as Kandal, Kampong Speu and Koh Kong, and boost the country's rapid economic recovery.

As the two states are promoting their bilateral economic cooperation, various institutions are optimistic about Cambodia's post-pandemic economic performance. The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank respectively forecast that its economic growth rate will be 4.5 percent and 5.3 percent in 2022 and 5.8 percent and 6.5 percent next year.

China and Cambodia have been expanding their people-to-people and cultural exchanges under the framework of the Global Development Initiative. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has affected people-to-people contact, ties and cultural exchanges between China and Cambodia have never stagnated. Instead, the two countries even become more comradely. The Chinese government has been assisting Cambodia to protect and restore its Angkor temple complex. After the Chausay Tevada temple project was completed in 2018, the restoration of the Ta Keo Temple with Chinese aid will be handed over soon. Archaeological research on the palace ruins and the Bengmealea Temple is progressing.

The China-Cambodia Friendship Preah Kossamak Hospital, built with aid from China, has been put into use. In the hospital, Chinese experts are aiding Cambodian medical workers to fight against COVID-19 with traditional Chinese medicine, launching the first intergovernmental TCM clinic in a Cambodian public hospital.

Since the Global Development Initiative was put forward, people around the world have become more closely connected, and the China-Cambodia people-to-people and cultural exchanges usher in an opportunity for expansion.

On the one hand, the Chinese language and Chinese culture are widely spread in Cambodia. According to a survey on the perception of Cambodia's "Generation Z" youth about China jointly carried out by universities from both sides in 2022, Cambodian youth are generally very familiar with the Chinese culture and believe that learning the Chinese language can help improve their competitiveness in the job market.

On the other hand, the non-governmental exchange network has developed from a single mode relying on industry to a composite mode featuring cross-industry and cross-field cooperation. The Cultural Exchange Network of Cambodia and China was established in December 2021 to build a platform for collaboration between universities, think tanks, enterprises and the media of the two countries.

The Global Development Initiative has pointed out the direction for the continuous improvement of China-Cambodia relations, and such improvement of bilateral ties has built an "experimental plot" for the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. In 2022, the China-Cambodia FTA and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership have come into force at the same time, providing broader space for China-Cambodia ties.

Chea Munyrith is the president of the Cambodian Chinese Evolution Researcher Association. Gu Jiayun is the director of the Center for Cambodian Studies at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. The authors contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at [email protected]
Standing before the Golden Gate Bridge,slots gold a San Francisco landmark, Xi Jinping, in a photo released Sunday by Xinhua, looks like sunny young man on his maiden visit to the United States.

The young county chief, with his hair being ruffled by sea wind, was not in the U.S. for tourism, but in hopes of bringing advanced managerial expertise back to Zhengding, a mainly farming county 280 kilometers southwest of Beijing.

Xis visit came six years after China embraced the policy of reform and opening up to the outside world.

Xi, now general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, plunged into market-oriented reforms as soon as he began his political career, with keen determination.

He prevailed over all dissenting views, not without difficulty, by tapping into the market potential made possible by one of Chinas earliest TV series productions, which was based on the classic novel The Dream of Red Mansions, sometimes known as The Story of the Stone overseas.

Xi championed building a real-life residential compound reminiscent of ancient China to serve as the set for the TV production, even though it required a large investment. The cultural industry, a vibrant sector now, was all but Greek to Chinese officials at the time. However, Xi was confident that such a compound could be used for other productions and would become a popular tourist attraction due to love of the Chinese for the original novel.

Xi was proved right. His Zhengding tourism model helped bring in a whopping 10 million yuan of tourist revenue within a year after the compounds completion, and now it is a heavily visited tourist site like the Golden Gate Bridge.

Xi is a man of action and believes that the devil is in the details.

One can trace his governing philosophy through a picture taken in August 1993, which shows Xi talking with a middle-aged woman in a classroom-like meeting hall.

The blackboard in the background features the slogan, Avoid empty talk and get more things done.

Now Xi has elevated this concept to the state level. He warned that empty talk leads a country astray, while hard work sees nations prosper, during his Nov. 29 visit to an exhibition in Beijing on Chinas challenging road to national renewal since 1840.

Xis pragmatic work style defined his political approach before he rose to the top leadership.

Xi worked in places with a wide spectrum of social and economic circumstances: not only an underdeveloped inland county like Ningde, but also Xiamen, a vibrant coastal city and a special economic zone in Fujian Province, and Chinas most dazzling megacity of Shanghai.

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One of the two female astronauts, Liu Yang () and Wang Yaping (), from the Wuhan Flight Unit, will join Shenzhou-9 manned spacecraft docking mission with Tiangong-1 spacecraft in mid-June. They are selected as members of the first batch of female astronauts in China because of their excellent flight skills and psychological quality. Both of them are graduated from Changchun Air Force and Flight Training School of the Air Force, they are The seventh batch of female pilots in the Air Force.

Air Force lieutenant Liu Yang was born in 1978 in Henan, lieutenant Wang Yaping was born in April 1978 in Yantai, Shandong.

Two groups of astronauts have arrived at Jiuquan, the final list will be unveiled two or three days before the launch.

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Chief of Chinas banking regulator said Sunday that the government does not have prejudiced regulations on private investors seeking participation in the banking sector.

We have a uniform standard,Loot or Boot threshold and benchmark for all kinds of capital to enter the banking sector, said Shang Fulin, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), on the sidelines of 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

There is no legal barrier for private capital to enter the banking sector, said Shang, adding that the CBRC issued in May a guideline that encourages and guides private capital investment in the sector.

The guideline is well-received and in the process of implementation, the chairman said.

In real practice, Shang said, private capital is doing well in entering the banking sector through various means, including participating the initial public offering of commercial banks and buying their shares.

Private investment accounts for 50 percent of equities in Chinas small and medium-sized commercial banks, and as high as 90 percent in small and medium-sized financial institutions in rural areas, said Shang.

Xinhua

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What Is Magna Cum Laude?game slot king

Magna cum laude is an academic honorific used by educational institutions to signify that an academic degree was earned with notable distinction. The meaning of magna cum laude: It is a Latin phrase that translates into English as "with great praise" and is one of three commonly used academic degree honors, with the others being summa cum laude, meaning with highest distinction, and cum laude, or "with distinction."

There is no set standard to qualify for these honors, with each school free to set its own criteria. In the United States, magna cum laude is usually achieved by obtaining a certain grade point average (GPA) or by being in the top x% of a graduating class.

Key Takeaways

Magna cum laude is an academic honorific awarded to students who have achieved academic excellence.

There is no set standard to qualify for this honor, with each school free to set its own criteria.

Many colleges award magna cum laude honors in addition to summa cum laude honors, which are above magna cum laude, and cum laude honors, which are just below.

The practice of awarding Latin honors began at Harvard in the mid-19th century and has spread to colleges and universities around the world.

Some colleges, including Stanford University, do not offer Latin honors at all and instead use the word "distinction" to honor students who have achieved academic excellence.

What Does Magna Cum Laude Mean?

Magna cum laude means "with great praise" and is awarded to students who have achieved academic excellence. It is more prestigious than cum laude honors but less prestigious than summa cum laude.

The criteria by which each of these distinctions is achieved depends on the specific requirements of each institution. The awarding of Latin honorsthe titles are referred to as Latin honors because they retain their original Latin formsis common in colleges and universities in the United States, although not all bestow them. Many high schools also grant Latin honors.

Magna Cum Laude

1:30

Latin honors are most commonly awarded in conjunction with a bachelor's degree. Students who graduate with honors may wear stoles of a distinct color or some other designation during commencement ceremonies, and their honors may be cited when their names are read. Latin honors are generally included in a student's official transcript.

Magna Cum Laude Requirements

Magna cum laude is generally handed out to a student who earned high grades or some other mark of academic achievement, but not the highest possible. The criteria for receiving this honor varies and may include the student's GPA, class rank, number of hours completed, and recommendations from an academic department.

Some colleges base their GPA requirements for Latin honors on a percentage of the graduating class, meaning they change every year.

What GPA Earns a Magna Cum Laude: Real World Examples

The academic thresholds for honors differ among academic institutions and even among programs at the same institution. Texas A&M graduates, for instance, must complete 60 credit hours while earning a GPA of 3.70 to 3.899 to earn their degree magna cum laude.

At some universities, the GPA requirements for Latin honors change every academic year because they are based on a percentage of the student's class. For example, for a student to graduate magna cum laude in engineering from the University of California Los Angeles, they must finish between the top 5% and 10% of their class after completing 90 credits. For the 20212022 academic year, they needed a GPA of at least 3.871, while the cutoff for 2022-2023 is 3.898.

By contrast, at Harvard University, where Latin honors originated in the mid-19th century, undergraduates completing degrees with an overall GPA in the top 20% of all graduates will receive either summa cum laude or magna cum laude distinction, with the summa honorific reserved for students with the highest GPAs.

Brown University, on the other hand, does not use a student's GPA in its calculation. Students are eligible for just one Latin honor, magna cum laude, upon graduation. A student achieves the honor by earning a high percentage of "A" grades and "S" for distinction marks for courses. No more than 20% of a graduating class can earn magna cum laude honors.

Non-GPA Factors

Colleges may consider other non-GPA factors in their decisions to grant magna cum laude status. An institution might require that students complete an honors thesis to be eligible. Others seek letters of recommendation from faculty members, attesting to students' exceptional academic performance. Others stipulate that students must complete a certain number of advanced courses.

Schools with no magna cum laude

Some colleges, including Stanford University, do not offer Latin honors at all. Stanford bestows a single "with distinction" title on the 15% of students with the highest GPA in each graduating class.

Some schools have substituted other titles, such as "with distinction," in place of or in addition to the traditional Latin terms.

The Value of a Magna Cum Laude Degree

The relative value of a magna cum laude degree or one with another Latin honor is difficult to judge in the context of a job application. It may mean a great deal to some employers and nothing to others. Nonetheless, as new college graduates compete for jobs, having a Latin honor on their diploma or resume certainly doesn't hurt.

It may be of greater benefit when students compete for slots in graduate school. The top law schools, for instance, expect students to have achieved certain GPAs as undergraduates, the type of high marks that are often accompanied by Latin honors.

What Grades Do You Need for Magna Cum Laude?

The academic thresholds for magna cum laude status differ among academic institutions. For example, at the University of Pennsylvania, a GPA of 3.6 is required to graduate magna cum laude, while Ohio State Universitys College of Arts and Sciences sets the bar at 3.7. Requirements are also subject to change and may differ among programs at the same institution.

GPA isn't necessarily the only factor taken into consideration, either. Colleges can look at other things, too, such as the number of hours completed and recommendations from an academic department. Some may ignore GPA and simply award Latin honors to the highest-ranked students in a class.

Is Magna Cum Laude the Highest?

No. In schools where Latin honors are used, the highest distinction is usually summa cum laude, followed by magna cum laude, and then cum laude.

Which Is HigherSumma or Magna?

Summa cum laude is the highest honor available and is more prestigious than magna cum laude. For example, at New York University, summa cum laude is awarded to the top 5% of graduates, while the next 10% are given magna cum laude status.



The Bottom Line

Getting a degree is always a great achievement, although the job market can be so saturated with new graduates seeking employment that sometimes acquiring a certificate that you passed your courses is not enough.

Graduates often need something extra to stand out and Latin honors such as magna cum laude can help tick that box and potentially be the difference between getting called in for a job interview or not.
The Year of the French language in China () was inaugurated September 13, 2011 at Beijing Language and Culture University, attended by Mr Alain Juppe, French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Ms. Liu Yandong, Chinese State Councilor and Mrs. Fu Ying, Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.

According to Mr. Juppe, the event is a moving testimony to the commitment of many Chinese to French, a language of love and poetry, but also a language used in the science and business. I hope that this event continues to develop the presence of French in China and strengthen exchanges between our two countries, he said.

Cultural exchanges are important means to promote diplomatic relations between China and France, said Liu at the opening ceremony. Many events will be held in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu, to highlight the diversity of French culture and attract more Chinese and to learn French.

More than 100,000 people are learning French in high schools and universities in China. More than 3,000 Chinese are studying in France. Dong Qiang, professor of Beijing University, is not satisfied with these figures: Basically, there are not many Chinese who are learning French, or French who are learning Chinese. This kind of event is absolutely necessary and I hope it will mark a great start to mobilize more people to become interested in languages of both countries. 

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China hopes Myanmar will maintain stability,bridesmaids online pokies a Foreign Ministry spokesman said here on Friday.

Spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily press briefing China and Myanmar are friendly neighbors as he answered a question on the renewed sectarian riots occurred in six townships in Myanmars western Rakhine state.

The starting point of China-Myanmar oil and natural gas pipelines project is located in the Rakhine state.

At least 112 people have been killed and 72 others injured in the riots over the past five days, according to local official sources Friday.

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YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is taking all steps to ensure its security in various ways, MP Sargis Khandanyan told reporters after parliament ratified the Rome Statute.

He said the move is in the national interests of Armenia and has nothing to do with its relations with Russia.

The ratification of the Rome Statute is purely in the interests of Armenia. The Republic of Armenia takes all steps to ensure its security in various ways, including in terms of legal security, and the Rome Statute is one of its components, Khandanyan, the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs said.

He said that the ratification of the Rome Statute and its consequences shouldnt be exaggerated.

The government has been continuously working and continuous to work with Russian colleagues, and the ratification of the Rome Statute has nothing to do with the Armenian-Russian relations, he added.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying conveyed the message of Chinese leaders when she called on Philippine President Benigno Aquino III at the Malacanang,bonus bingo no deposit codes 2021 or Presidential Palace, on Friday.

China places great importance on the development of good- neighborly friendship and cooperation with the Philippines and values traditional friendship between the two peoples, Fu said.

The two sides should properly handle relevant issues and work toward healthy and stable development of bilateral relations, for the benefit of the two peoples, she added.

Fu noted the positive outcome reached at the 18th Foreign Ministry Consultations and expressed the Chinese sides commitment to strengthen communication with the Philippine side to implement the consensus reached between leaders of the two countries to increase exchanges and cooperation, with a view to bringing bilateral relations back to the normal track.

Philippine President welcomed Fu Yings visit and conveyed his greetings to Chinese leaders.

He recognized the positive outcome of the Foreign Ministry Consultations and noted that both the Philippines and China are developing countries. As such both are duty-bound to develop their economies and improve peoples living standards, which requires a stable internal and external environment.

Aquino expressed the hope that both sides would increase exchanges, promote mutual understanding and trust, and advance Sino-Philippine development with a forward-looking spirit.

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Gansu Provincial Department of Education has suspended Japanese intellectual Yoshikazu Katos visit to Gansu agricultural university for the reason of his questioning the facts of the Nanjing Massacre, and claiming that the Diaoyu Islands are Japanese territory.

The honor and self-esteem of nation can not be tarnished, this is the bottom line of the Chinese people, said the Department of Education on its Weibo page.

Yoshikazu Kato () was invited by the microblogging Association (a student group) of Gansu Agricultural University. There were more than 200 people boycotting his visit on Chinese social networks. After the involvement of University administration, the invitation has been cancelled.

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CNN 

Video Ad Feedback Hear from UN human rights official on the Xinjiang report before the release 14:43 - Source: CNN

Just minutes before the end of her term on Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rightsdropped a damning report on Chinas treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

The report, which includes interviews with dozens of ethnic minority members, said the Chinese governments actions in the northwestern region of Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity.

These claims arent new.Five years ago, the US State Department accused China of holding up to 2 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in detention camps, and last year went as far as calling it genocide.

Abduaziz Madyarov/AFP/Getty Images

Gulnur Kosdaulet (2L), 48, protests her husband's detention in China outside the Chinese consulate in Kazakhstan's largest city Almaty on March 9, 2021. - Gulnur Kosdaulet and a group of mostly female demonstrators stage daily consulate pickets to demand safe passage home for their relatives, who are missing, jailed or trapped in China's crackdown on minorities in the farwestern Xinjiang region.

China may have committed 'crimes against humanity' in Xinjiang, UN report finds

But this report is noteworthy because, while the UN said reports of mass internment were credible back in 2018, little concrete action has been taken by the international body to address the issue.

China has repeatedly and vehemently denied accusations of human rights abuses in the region, and decried the UN report on Wednesday as based on the disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces.

Heres what you need to know.

What is the report?

The 45-page report was the final offering from Michelle Bachelet, the head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), whose term ended at midnight Geneva time.

Bachelet promised to deliver the report after her controversial visit to China earlier this year, where she became the first UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to travel to the country to speak with senior government officials.

But some human rights groups accused Bachelet of being soft on Beijing, saying the conditions China imposed on the visit did not allow a full and independent assessment of the rights environment.

The report was also delayed multiple times, with some worried it would never be published amid pressure from an irate China.

Whats in the report?

The report contains harrowing firsthand allegations of human rights abuses based on interviews with 40 people of Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz ethnicities, 26 of whom had either been detained or worked in facilities in Xinjiang.

Tom Booth/CNN

The former Chinese police detective claims he followed orders to torture Uyghur people in Xinjiang.

'Some are just psychopaths': Chinese detective in exile reveals extent of torture against Uyghurs

Someinterviewees said they had been beaten with batons while strapped to a chair, interrogated while water was poured in their faces, placed in prolonged solitary containment, constantly surveilled, deprived of sleep and food, forbidden from speaking their own language or practicing their religion, and forced to sing patriotic songs.

Some spoke of sexual violence including rape, sexual humiliation and forced nudity. Many said they were forcibly given injections and pills, without information about what the medical treatments were.

Alongside the interviews, the report also cites information from public documents, research materials, and the Chinese governments own policy papers.

Are there other allegations about Xinjiang?

The report also criticized the Chinese governments wider crackdown on ethnic minorities.

New rules had been introduced prohibiting activities such as wearing hijabs and abnormal beards, giving children Muslim names, and closing restaurants during Ramadan, the report said.

Other rules threatened the populations linguistic diversity and heritage, with authorities banning the use of the Uyghur language in educational texts and slogans, as well as in public activities, it added.

Ng Han Guan/AP

Residents watch a convoy of security personnel armed with batons and shields patrolling through Kashgar, Xinjiang, on November 5, 2017.

The report also lists alleged violations of reproductive rights in Xinjiang, where it says ethnic minority birth rates have dropped sharply in comparison with the rest of China.

Several interviewees spoke of the threat of forced birth control, including forced sterilization.

The report also describes Chinas allegedly invasive surveillance network, withpolice databases containing hundreds of thousands of files with biometric data such as facial and eyeball scans,that it says indicatewidespread surveillance of the ethnic language population.

What does the UN recommend?

The OHCHR makes several recommendations to the Chinese government in the report, including the release of arbitrarily detained individuals and clarification of the whereabouts of missing individuals.

It also urges the government to curb its surveillance so it doesnt violate fundamental rights and freedoms, and to provide reparations for victims.

The OHCHR also calls for urgent attention by United Nations intergovernmental bodies and human rights system, as well as the international community more broadly.

What has China said?

China responded to the report with its own 131-page document, saying the UNs investigation distorts Chinas laws and policies.

All ethnic groups, including the Uygur, are equal members of the Chinese nation, Chinas response said. Xinjiang has taken actions to fight terrorism and extremism in accordance with the law, effectively curbing the frequent occurrences of terrorist activities.

At present, Xinjiang enjoys social stability, economic development, cultural prosperity and religious harmony. People of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are living a happy life in peace and contentment, the document said.

Video Ad Feedback Chinese whistleblower exposed torture of Uyghur prisoners in 2021 CNN interview 08:01 - Source: CNN

At a news conference on Thursday, a spokesperson for Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the reports findings lies fabricated by the US and the West.

Once again, it proves that the OHCHR has been reduced to the role of a hitman and an accomplice of the US and the West in their efforts to control the developing countries, said the spokesperson.

Chinas mission to the UN in Geneva also expressed strong dissatisfaction, with senior diplomat Liu Yuyin, accusing the High Commissioner of having smeared and slandered China, interfered in Chinas internal affairs, seriously violated the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

The Chinese government maintains that its so-called vocational education centers have been closed since 2019.

The UN report said that its not in a position to confirm this, citing a lack of official information or open access to enter the region.

Does this report matter?

The UN report has no legal underpinning, and is unlikely to prompt any significant change or concession from Beijing, which has repeatedly ignored decisions by international bodies in the past.

However, activists and overseas Uyghurs have welcomed the report as a symbolic step and a new level of recognition by the UN of the human rights violations alleged in Xinjiang. Some hope the report can act as an international wake-up call.

But what comes next isnt clear; even if a majority of countries within the UN Human Rights Council were to vote to establish a formal probe, theres no mechanism to compel China to comply.
After massive protests against a chemical factory in the northeastern port city Dalian, the authorities have ordered the immediate closure of the plant. The closure was prompted after the protesters had refused to end their protest, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The area around the chemical plant had been evacuated on Monday after a storm waves caused a dike to protect the factory were damaged. Residents of the city had to be evacuated because of an impending environmental catastrophe. Although the dam could be repaired, but concerns remained, the risk to human and the environment still exist as long as the factory continues using combustible chemicals for polyester production.

We want to survive

According to Xinhua, around 12,000 protesters gathered outside the municipal administration, which was backed by hundreds of policemen. It had come to clashes between the protesters and the police when the officers tried to seal off a main road. Hundreds of people came later on in other parts of the city, shouting slogans and waving banners. According to unconfirmed messages on Twitter, a number of armed police vehicles moved into the city.

Pictures on short message service Weibo.com showed protesters with a banner reading We want to survive, we want a good environment, we want our Dalian back.

Concerns about risks to health and the environment had repeatedly resulted to some violent protests against industrial projects in China in recent years. In a much noted case in 2007, a billion-worth project construction for a petrochemical plant in the southeastern port city of Xiamen was stopped after there had been numerous demonstrations of the inhabitants.

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Thebetmgm poker app download Museum of Wu.

An exclusive interview with Chen Zenglu, Curator of the Museum of Wu

Situated on the bank of the Grand Canal in Suzhous Wuzhong District, the Museum of Wu, also known as the Wuzhong Museum, was built just two years ago. This local museum is positioned as a "high-level and distinctive regional cultural complex" to create a "leading platform for the exhibition, research and learning of Wu culture."

For "The Look of Civilization: An Exhibition of Ancient Cultural Relics in Eurasia," the museum gathered more than 190 representative cultural relics from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and various countries in Eurasia. These ancient cultural relics from foreign countries show the characteristics of the formation and development of civilizations in the Mediterranean region and western and central Asia. Visitors may experience the characteristics of Asian and European cultures from different angles, as well as their integration.

Why would a local museum that focuses on Wu culture display foreign cultural relics? What are a local museums responsibilities in promoting cultural development and prosperity? In an exclusive interview with China News Services "East-West Quest," Chen Zenglu, curator of the Museum of Wu, explained from the perspectives of cultural communication and international exchange

Excerpts from the interview:

CNS: Museum construction in China has gained rapid development, and a large number of local museums have sprung up. For example, 102 open museums (memorial halls, exhibition halls, and art galleries with ancient paintings and books) had been built in Suzhou, which is called the "City of Museums," by the end of 2020. Some people think this is too hasty.Do you agree? What do you think are the responsibilities and mission of a local museum in promoting cultural development and prosperity?

Chen: There are 158 museums and 96 art galleries in Shanghai, with an average of one museum for every 100,000 people, far higher than the national average. However, Shanghai still lags behind many overseas cities. For example, Seoul, with a much smaller population than Shanghai, has more than 600 museums.

Quality is more important than quantity. It is meaningless to simply pursue quantity without quality. But how can we talk about quality if we dont even have quantity? Therefore, the explosion of museums in China is not hasty construction. Instead, China does not have enough museums to meet the growing cultural needs of the public.

We find another issue: museums in China, no matter what size, tend to be homogeneous. The core of avoiding homogenization is to have their own characteristics. In particular, local museums should find their own position and create their own characteristics to become a window for the external communication of local culture and provide a space for local people to be exposed to culture.

In addition, we hope to add more international elements to promote internationalization of the city. For example, the Suzhou Museums newlybuilt West Hall is positioned as the cultural exhibition and experience center of "people of Suzhou see the world," with the slogan of "building South China and seeing the world." Suzhou is known as the "City of Museums." A city needs several cultural institutions to launch international exchange projects, which will connect the city more closely with the international community. Considering the needs of the city, local museums have the responsibility, mission and duty to carry out more international projects.

CNS: Museum of Wu is also known as the Wuzhong Museum, both of which reflect the museums strong regional characteristics. Why not focus on the local Wu culture of Suzhou instead of holding such an exhibition of Chinese and foreign cultural relics? This exhibition is titled "The Look of Civilization." What do you think the look of civilization should be?

Chen: SouthChina culture or Wu culture is a core of the Wuzhong Museum, which is our characteristic. Therefore, our exhibitions, whether "Archaeological Exploration of Wuzhong" or "Elegant Ode to Wuzhong," tell the stories of Wu land and Wu culture. SouthChina culture has always been the root, soul and core of our entire exhibition system.

However, when we build the exhibition system, we should expand outward, not just stick to the core land. Wu culture is not a "no" culture. To really understand culture, we must know everything. Only when we have a thorough understanding of other cultures can we have a deeper understanding of our own culture and know the similarities and differences between different cultures.

From this point of view, Chinas regional culture is the second circle of our outward expansion. The third circle is Eurasia.

The reason I talk about Eurasia is that China is an open civilization, not a closed country. Looking back on history, we can objectively say that the more open and inclusive China was, the stronger it became. We hope to see China clearly through Eurasia so that everyone can know the diversity and splendor of Chinese civilization, from which they can have a deeper understanding of the whole process of Chinese civilization from its birth and development to glory.

In this exhibition, we show several statues from Levant in the 20th century B.C. These statues come from different regions, but all contain elements of bulls, showing some similarities. There are also Gandhara Buddha statues from India. Through Alexander the Greats crusade, some Hellenistic elements were brought to India, making these Gandhara Buddha statues look like Greek sculpture.

Through these exhibits, it may be seen that a civilization does not exist alone. Civilizations in different regions and at different times attract, learn from and communicate with one another. This kind of harmony in diversity among civilizations is linked, which is the look of civilization.

CNS: Western museums started early and have been accumulated for hundreds of years. The collections in these museums cover a wide range of civilizations from all over the world. As a rising local museum in China, how should it present foreign civilizations to visitors in China? What is worth learning from the development of Western local museums?

Chen: Compared with Western museums, Chinese museums still lack worldwide collections. Of course, some Western museums have a dark side to their collections. However, there are also many collections obtained through legal channels, which Chinese museums can use for reference.

As far as I know, some museums and collectors in China have taken action. For example, there is a collection of Gandhara Buddha statues and grassland gold wares. Cultural relics from Southeast Asia are gradually receiving attention.

When I was working at Shanghai Museum, I invited experts from museums all over the world to give lectures and write monographsevery year. To make a worldwide collection, we should also gain the power of knowledge from all over the world. To develop museums, we should also make experts and resources from museums around the world available to us.Working with overseas museums to hold exhibitions and borrow collections for exhibitions is a good method of cooperation and exchange. For example, in this exhibition, we borrowed exhibits from the Hirayama Ikuo Silk Road Museum in Japan.

We have to admit that Chinese museums cant compete with foreign museums in terms of collections. However, with the rapid development of information technology, the items of museums are becoming less important. Many museums are now turning to digital means to display exhibits from other parts of the world. We dont want to own cultural relics, but we want to use them.

With a population of more than 1 billion, China has a huge demand for culture. Now Chinas museum industry is unknown. Our relationship with foreign museums is not a competitive one, but a win-win one. China is rising peacefully, and so are Chinese museums.

The slogan of British Museum, "A World Museum for the World," is also the direction of Chinese museums.
A senior Chinese diplomat to the UN on Wednesday urged the international community to respect the sovereignty and political independence of Afghanistan when the country holds a planned presidential election in 2014.

Wang Min,5 free bet skybet spin palace in a Chinas deputy permanent representative to the UN, made the call while addressing an open meeting of the Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan.

Wang said that the presidential election in 2014 is a key element in the Afghan political process. China welcomes the time framework of the election defined by the Afghan government.

The United Nations has rich electoral expertise and experiences. China welcomes the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) providing electoral assistance to Afghanistan as required by the government, said Wang.

The realization of lasting peace and security in Afghanistan is still faced with challenges. China welcomes the efforts made by Afghanistan in strengthening the capacity of its security forces and gradually shouldering the responsibility of maintaining national security and stability, the Chinese envoy noted.

Under current circumstances, the transfer of security responsibilities should be conducted in a gradual and orderly way in order to safeguard the general stability of the situation in Afghanistan, Wang said.

China also supports the implementation of the Kabul Communique to promote the national reconciliation process led by the Afghan government, he added.

Only by realizing prosperity and development of Afghanistan can the foundation be laid for the lasting peace and security in the war-torn country, Wang said.

China supports the efforts made by the Afghan government in growing economy, increasing jobs and improving peoples life, he said. We hope that the international community can honor their aid assistance to Afghanistan, respect the development priority identified by the Afghan government independently. The key now is to help alleviate the food shortage in some parts of Afghanistan.

Xinhua

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China rejected criticism from U.S. in the review of its trade policy in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and took the opportunity to suggest that many of Washingtons accusations were not only groundless, but also hypocritical.



The U.S. ambassador to the WTO, Michael Punke, expressed a wide range of criticism during the Trade Policy Review. In response, China rejected much of his criticism, including complaints about subsidies, lack of transparency and actions to enforce intellectual property rights.



The Assistant Minister of Commerce of China, Yu Jianhua (), said he regretted that during the review process of the WTO, some members have argued that Beijing was exercising state capitalism.



The term can not be found in WTO documents. It has nothing to do with the review or the WTO. We firmly believe that the review should not be used for political purposes, he said.

The demand of U.S. for more transparency was ignored. China said the transparency commitments cited by Washington were outside the jurisdiction of the WTO.

In response to a U.S. complaint about Chinese farmers had an unfair advantage over importers, because they have to pay value added taxes if they sell directly to consumers, China said other countries did the same.

The representative also noted that the policies only allow small-scale exemptions for farmers who sell their own products such as one kilo of potatoes in an outdoor market, and the VAT would be impossible to apply.

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Themansion casino sites State Council, Chinas Cabinet, announced Monday the appointment of a series of new government officials.

Huang Xiaowei and Yu Chunsheng were appointed Vice Ministers of Supervision, Dai Junliang was appointed Vice Minister of Civil Affairs, and Cai Qihua was appointed Vice Minister of Water Resources.

Dong Wei was appointed Vice Minister of Culture, Nie Chenxi was appointed Deputy Director of State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

The State Council also appointed Yang Keqin Vice President of National School of Administration and Wang Zuji Vice Chairman of China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

Hu Baolin was appointed Deputy Director of the State Council Three Gorges Project Construction Committee Office.

Liu Yaming was appointed Director of Changjiang Water Resources Commission, replacing Cai Qihua.

The State Council appointed Mu Zhanying, Zhao Xiaoping, Liu Shunda and Li Bing Chairpersons of the Supervisory Board for Key Large State-owned Enterprises.

Wang Wenzhang was removed form the post of Vice Minister of Culture, and Zhang Haitao was removed his post of Deputy Director of State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

Lei Jiafu was removed from the post of Deputy Director of the State Council Three Gorges Project Construction Committee Office. Wang Shoujun was removed from the post of Chairman of the Supervisory Board for Key Large State-owned Enterprises.

Xinhua

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At least 30 people were killed and more than 600,000 people have been evacuated since Friday because of heavy rains that affected the provinces of Shaanxi (north), Sichuan (southwest) and Henan (center).

The level of rivers continued to rise in Sichuan, while the never-ending rain falling. In this province, the authorities ordered the evacuation of over 600,000 inhabitants of the municipalities of Dazhou and Guangan while the level of some tributaries of the Yangtze swelled dangerously.

The level of the Jialing River has already exceeded seven meters above the crisis level and should reach a record since it began to be recorded in 1847, according to Xinhua, which has reported 13 dead and 10 missing since Friday in Sichuan. More than 2,000 houses collapsed in Sichuan and some 10,000 were damaged.

In the neighboring province of Shaanxi, at least 17 people were killed and 15 were still missing Monday after a landslide that swallowed a brick workshops and a ceramics factory on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Xian. More than 15,000 people have been evacuated since September 10 in Henan province, where floods have affected 14 municipalities and killed six people since then.

The torrential rainfall comes each summer in China. In 2010, the rain caused the death or disappearance of more than 4,300 people. Last year in August, a landslide in Gansu province (northwest) killed 1,500 people.

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More than 30 military delegations from over 20 countries are attending the ninth China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition,st croix casino danbury promotions which opened Tuesday in south Chinas city of Zhuhai, according to a press release from the Ministry of Defense.

Over 40 military attaches to China also were invited by the ministry to attend the exhibitions opening ceremony, the release said.

The ministry held a reception Tuesday evening to welcome the military delegations and attaches.

Aerobatic teams from Russia and Pakistan have been invited to perform during the six-day event, the release said.

Xinhua

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YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Affairs Ministerof France Catherine Colonna, accompanied by Armenian Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan, visited the citizens injured in the fuel explosion in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Public TV reports.

The Foreign AffairsMinister transferred the French humanitarian aid to the National Burn Center.Mrs. Colonna stated that they intend to transfer 4 patients to France to continue the treatment there.

"My visit expresses France's friendship, and not only thefriendship, but also the support and the solidarity, as well as the diplomatic solidarity. France reacted to the tragedyquickly. We will continue to be by your side," said the French Foreign Affairs Minister.

Catherine Colonna noted that seeing the deterioration of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, the complete blockade, which is a violation of the international law, they have already decided to increase the support intended for Armenia. According to her, it has already been increased to 12.5 million euros for purpose of assisting the forcibly displaced.
Chinas Ministry of Commerce (MOC) will implement anti-dumping measures on some imported Toluene Diisocyanate (TDI) from Nov. 21,beth pix 365 according to an announcement from the ministry on Tuesday.

The measures target TDI, a widely used organic compound in the chemical industry, imported from the European Union (EU). The measures are temporary, said the MOC, without providing the exact period of validity.

A brief statement on the MOCs website said investigations concerning the dumping margin and possible damage to similar products and industries in China started on March 23.

The domestic industry has been substantially harmed by the EUs dumping of TDI, said the MOC statement, adding that the measures were based on anti-dumping regulations.

Xinhua

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Theyako casino 22 free spins Chinese governments special envoy Zhang Zhijun will visit the Republic of Korea (ROK) from Jan. 9 to 11, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said here on Friday.

Zhang, also a vice foreign minister, will exchange views with ROK officials on bilateral ties and issues of common concern, Hua said at a regular news briefing.

Xinhua

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A man was arrested in Luoyang, the center of the country, suspected of killing two nightclub hostesses and have kidnapped four other women as sex slaves in a dungeon built under a building, police said Friday.

Ex-firefighter married with one son, Li Hao had held these women for years in this dungeon of 20 square meters. The dungeon is four feet below the cellar of the building in the city of Luoyang. Li spent two weeks a month with his prisoners.

Li had told his wife he had a job as night watchman. He was arrested after the escape of one of his prisoners who denounced him to the police. Li was arrested and brought to justice, confirmed a police official in Luoyang, adding that the investigation into this matter has been initiated.

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China released a five-year plan on Friday to upgrade its food safety regulations in the countrys latest efforts to address food safety concerns.

The government will improve national food safety standards by revamping outdated standards, reviewing and abolishing any contradicting or overlapping standards and working out new regulations, according to a plan posted on the website of the Ministry of Health.

China has more than 2,000 national food regulations and more than 2,900 industry-based regulations.

Many of the regulations are overlapping or contradict each other, since multiple government agencies were given the responsibility of compiling their own standards years ago.

According to the plan, 14 government departments, including the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture, will coordinate to finish revamping the existing standards by 2015.

China is still suffering from the absence of several major food safety regulations, the plan said.

The government will prioritize safety standards for dairy products, infant food, meat, alcohol, vegetable oil, seasoning, health products and food additives so as to specify limits for dangerous ingredients in these foods, according to the plan.

Moreover, the government will make special efforts to set standards for testing various contaminants, food additives, microorganisms, pesticide and animal drug residue in food production by 2015, according to the plan.

Food safety became a nationwide concern in China after a spate of food safety incidents, such as food contamination and the illegal use of prohibited ingredients and additives in food production.

The most recent scandal involved an unusual amount of mercury found in baby formula produced by Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., one of Chinas biggest dairy companies.

Yili started to recall the defective products on Wednesday.

Xinhua

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Chinese authorities have shut down about 97,000 blog and microblog accounts over the past seven months which are allegedly involved in dissemination of pornographic and lewd content, the State Internet Information Office (SIIO) said Friday.

In the campaign to curb lewd content from spreading via the Internet and cellphones, authorities banned 164 pornographic publications, the office said.

A total of 287 Internet companies were investigated and punished in the campaign, it said, adding that public security authorities have cracked 2,446 cases of pornography, and 41 rings involved in pornography via the Internet were busted.

The office said the campaign was widely supported by society and the public, with the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center receiving 460,000 tip-offs from the public alone.

Xinhua

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China will work with all parties of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) to ensure that the two regions can have more fruitful cooperation,daily lotto results today Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Friday.

ASEM is an important platform for countries in the two regions to boost understanding, common ground and cooperation, Hong said at a regular news briefing.

The ninth ASEM, planned for Nov. 5-6 in Vientiane, Laos, will focus on how to enhance cooperation in various areas between Asia and Europe, facilitate economic recovery and tackle common challenges, Hong said.

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Thepay by phone slots casino Beijing Haidian District People's Court has sentenced a man surnamed Wang to jail for molesting young girls. According to the verdict delivered on Tuesday, Wang used to molest girl students during one-to-one classes he held while employed as an extracurricular teacher at a school.

Sometime in March the parents of a 10-year-old girl called the police to say that Wang had touched her private parts. Wang was arrested and now the court has found him guilty. Apart from imprisonment, the court has also imposed a lifetime ban on Wang from working in the education sector.

Wang is reportedly the first person to be sentenced after the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Education jointly released a document on Nov 11 providing guidance on implementing the ban on molesters from entering the teaching profession. The provision came into effect on Nov 15, the day Wang was sentenced.

It is a common practice to ban those with a molestation record from entering the teaching profession, and the domestic Juvenile Protection Law has long been prohibiting those with a sexual offense record from taking up teaching jobs. A teacher who commits a sexual offense ruins the reputation of the profession as a whole, and an occupational ban is the most effective way to deal with that.

Besides, barring someone with a molestation record from entering the teaching profession is also the most effective way of keeping them away from children.

However, implementing the ban has been a problem because the sentenced criminal could apply for a teaching position in a city far away from the city where he/she was found guilty. The document has taken care of this by requiring the courts to send their verdicts to the education departments and the organization where the criminal served, so that his re-employment in the sector becomes impossible.
Shang Xia currently has only one store in Shanghai, it plans to open two more before September 2012 in Beijing and Paris.

The Hermes China, Shang Xia, has the ambition to bear the establishment of the East to West. One year after the launch of the pioneering Chinese luxury brand, the bet is on track to succeed.

Clearly, customers have approved the project, and brand identity is affirmed and accurate, says Patrick Thomas, the head of Hermes. The brand, which currently has a shop in Shanghai, has to simultaneously open two more before September 2012 in Beijing and in Paris.

The founder and president of Shang Xia, Jiang Qiong Er, is pleased that her customers are 60% Chinese and 40% foreign.

Style, elitist, a bit esoteric, the brand has already evolved. Our mind is to become sleek, contemporary also classical, to find the beauty from the furniture of the Ming Dynasty, porcelain of Song and textiles of Han, continues Qiong Er. It is estimated that in one year, the brand has matured a lot, with a style and materials that become clearer, a team structure which will allow to deploy.

For now only excellence is important to us and we want to take the time, says still Patrick Thomas, The turnover would be around 2 million euros, and also would be higher than expected.

The manager of Hermes said that the French group does not practice acquisitions, anf this is the same logic of its organic growth in China. And we like to repeat that Shang Xia is not a brand of second line of Hermes for the Chinese market. Qiong Er has a total creative autonomy and the two brands are completely separate. They share only two things: the philosophy of handicraft quality and style that made the success of Hermes, and shareholders. The French group is the very majority shareholder of the new brand, to 90%.

On the side of Chinese market, in Shang Xia, it is convinced that the horizon is wide. The new Director General of Shang Xia, Philippe Lamy, was fascinated by the evolution of the luxury market in China. Elsewhere, he said, we saw different generations of buyers, with more sophisticated tastes. Here, everything goes so fast that they piled up. The transition to international with the store opening of Paris, will be the time to check the universality of its values and style claimed by Shang Xia.

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Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has finally released the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper here Sunday,bandar55 slots free movies2watch placing China at the center of Australia s Asian century.

The long-delayed White Paper lays out an ambitious plan to guarantee Australia can take a hold of the opportunities offered by the Asian century by becoming a more Asia-literate and Asia- capable nation.

The prime minister said that the scale and pace of Asias rise is staggering, and there are significant opportunities and challenges for all Australians.

In this century, the region in which we live will become home to most of the worlds middle class and will be the worlds largest producer of goods and services, and the largest consumer of them.However, Gillard encouraged Australians to determine their own future and not rely on the fortunes that have made resource-rich Australia an economic success story.

It is not enough to rely on luckour future will be determined by the choices we make and how we engage with the region we live in. We must build on our strengths and take active steps to shape our future.The White Paper, led by economist Dr Ken Henry and Australias leading academic, corporate and social experts, sets out a number of targets for over the next 13 years to 2025 to ensure Australia can fulfill its ambitions and compete effectively within Asia.Dr Henry has made Australias need to engage as a part of Asia paramount.

He said, Australia needs to continue along the path of integrating economically. I mean that we need to help reduce barriers, to allow goods, services, workers and ideas to move throughout the region. We need to foster the development of regional supply chains and free-flowing labor and capital. That means better harmonized regulatory processes.J.W. Neville Fellow and former Austrade Chief Economist Tim Harcourt told Xinhua that Australia is entering its fourth wave of engagement with Asia and the Chinese engine remains at the heart of Australias economic evolution.

In terms of trading partners, just as China superseded Japan which had previously taken over from the UK so further realignment of the global economic order will again alter Australias trading patterns. The emergence of several ASEAN states, in addition to the new Asian giants China and India will take us through this new phase of engagement, he said.

As Australias leading trading partner and the first customer when it comes to marketing Australias massive natural resources, China and China literacy is a key platform of the White Paper.

The Australia China Business Council (ACBC), Australias leading organization committed to China engagement, described the paper as a wake-up call to both Australian political and business sectors that (Australia) need to lift our game if the Asian Century is to amount to anything more than rhetoric.Frank Tudor, ACBC chairman, quoted Chinese ambassador Chen Yuming that the Chinese feel that there is a major gap in Australias understanding of China.

A spokesman for Tudor added that cultural IQ matters.Educating Australia on Asia is perhaps the key focus of the White Paper.

Ms Gillard said that by 2025, Australias school system needs to achieve key targets the system should be in the top five in the world, and 10 of our universities in the worlds top 100.Globally we will be ranked in the top 5 countries for ease of doing business and our innovation system will be in the worlds top 10, she said.

Studies of Asia will be a core part of the Australian school curriculum.

All Australian students will have continuous access to a priority Asian languageChinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Indonesian or Japanese.

China at Heart of Australias Asian Century White Paperadded by chinatimesonline on

View all posts by chinatimesonline 
Thecrypto wallet watch mit blackjack sixth plenary session of the 14th Central Committee of the Chinese Peasants and Workers Democratic Party, one of Chinas eight non-communist parties, opened in Beijing on Sunday.

Sang Guowei, chairman of the partys central committee, briefly reviewed the partys achievements over the last five years.

He said the party has always strived to play a role in the countrys multi-party cooperation mechanism under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Sang, who is also vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress (NPC), said members of the party should cherish ethnic unity and social stability and safeguard political relations among Chinas parties.

He urged the members to greet the upcoming 18th CPC National Congress, scheduled for Nov. 8, with new achievements.

Minister of Health Chen Zhu was co-opted as additional vice chair to the partys central committee at the session.

Sang said the party should spare no efforts to prepare for its 15th national congress, which is scheduled for December.

Xinhua

Chinese non-communist party holds plenary sessionadded by chinatimesonline on

View all posts by chinatimesonline 
Zadro Constructions went into voluntary administration in September. Picture: Instagram

Another Aussie builder has fallen victim to the construction crisis seizing the country.

Zadro Constructions had to lay off all seven of its staff as it went into voluntary administration last month.

Grant Thornton Australia was appointed as administrator for the western Sydney-based outfit on September 15.

The companys website was no longer operational on Monday, and the LinkedIn profile of an individual listed as a director of the company appeared to have been deleted.

Zadro Constructions went into voluntary administration in September. Picture: Instagram

Zadro Constructions is unlikely to resume trading in future, a spokesman for Grant Thornton Australia told 7News.

The news of Zadros demise was met with anger online, with several commenters claiming the collapsed company owed them money for services provided.

NCA NewsWire is not suggesting Zadro Constructions or its directors behaved improperly.

Zadro had recently worked on 14 school infrastructure projects in west and north Sydney along with several church redevelopments, according to the companys Instagram page.

The future of Zadros unfinished projects is up in the air.

The administrators held discussions with key customers regarding options to restructure the companys affairs and complete projects underway, a Grant Thornton spokesman told 7News.

While discussions regarding the future of the projects are continuing, it appears unlikely that the business will recommence trading and all staff (seven) have been formally terminated.

NCA NewsWire contacted Grant Thornton for comment on how much money was owed by Zadro to tradies and suppliers.

The Zadro Constructions news is the latest hit for the embattled industry. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

Zadros downfall is the latest in an increasingly long list of construction industry failures.

At least 660 construction companies have gone bust in the first three months of the 2023-2024 financial year, according to data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The grim statistic means the construction industry is on pace to beat its own unwanted record of 2,213 companies which went under in the previous financial year.

Several factors have been blamed for the crisis, including supply chain challenges and a blowout in costs for fixed price contracts.
VIDEO: Windfarm will affect the whole South says objectors

Objectors to the proposed taxpayer-funded windfarm at Earystane, say that the negative impact will be felt right across the south of the Island and not just 'in their backyards'.

The Manx Utilities Authority today announced that their chosen site to deliver 20 mega watts of wind powered electricity is Scard and Earystane above Colby.

The site chosen also comes with a huge expansion to a quarry which will be accessed from the Ronague Road.

Kirrie Jenkins is a local resident and says that people do not realise that this isn't just a local issue to the rural area where the turbines are to be built, but the construction phase will affect residents across the south and major infrastructure will have to be built and adjusted, just to get the construction traffic and materials to the site.

WATCH: Kirrie Jenkins talks to Charlie Morrey

Videos

Kirrie Jenkins Kirrie Jenkins talks to Charlie Morrey
Apple has acknowledged its new iPhone 15 and 15 Pro can get uncomfortably hot. The company said background activity, an iOS 17 bug and third-party apps were the cause, with some apps, like Instagram, already updated not to make the newest iPhones sweat.

Everyone loves to have opinions on why the newest iPhones arent working like they should, with some people blaming the new titanium body. Apple told MacRumors that the design actually provides better heat dissipation than previous stainless steel models. Similarly, the company says the issue isnt connected to its new A1 Pro chop, nor high-power chargers and the new USB-C connector.

My iPhone 15 Pro ran pretty hot the first few days, pulling down all my apps, games and music library, but its evened out more recently. Others are still waiting on a fix.

 Mat Smith

As seen on Naomi Campbell, it has a mini-projector and camera.

Reuters

Humane is a startup founded by ex-Apple executives. Its working on a device called the Ai Pin, which uses projectors, cameras and AI tech as a sort of wearable AI assistant. The company unveiled the Ai Pin at a Paris fashion show (Humane x Coperni), attached to Naomi Campbell, who is the first person outside of the company to wear the device in public. The company describes the device as a screenless, standalone device and software platform built from the ground up for AI. Other information is less clear, like how the device connects to the internet, as it doesnt pair with a smartphone. Well learn more when its fully unveiled on November 9.

Continue reading.

Hanks called out the ad for using an AI likeness of him.

An ad reportedly used a deepfake of Tom Hanks to promote dental plans without the actors permission. Hanks shared a warning on Instagram on Sunday about the AI-generated video, which he wrote he had nothing to do with. Hanks has been outspoken about the challenges AI poses for the industry, and the use of actors digital likenesses is one of the major points of concern voiced by striking SAG-AFTRA workers. The use of AI to capitalize on celebrities legacies has already become an ethical issue. Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain sparked widespread debate after it was revealed the documentary contained AI-generated voiceovers of Bourdain.

Continue reading.

From the creators of Mr. Robot.

Netflix

Leave the World Behind is a dual-release Netflix film that hits theaters on November 22 and the streaming service on December 8. It stars Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali and Kevin Bacon, which is a whole lot of star power. The movie continues Netflixs recent dual-release strategy as seen with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Marriage Story, The Irishman and other high-profile features. It also ensures these movies are eligible for award season.

Continue reading.



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Sticking around: The chains biggest site will have space for 220 diners (SticksnSushi)

The restaurant group SticksnSushi will open its biggest UK restaurant to date next week with the launch of a 220 cover site in Kingston.

After opening its first London site in nearby Wimbledon 11 years ago, the Japanese concept has grown to nine in the capital, with its latest and tenth the first to broach the outer suburbs.

The restaurant will offer Surrey residents and visitors to the royal borough an opportunity to experience SticksnSushi, said an announcement.

The menu at the brands latest restaurant will be unchanged, with the likes of scallop ceviche, sushi plates, and grilled yakitori skewers incoming. It is a group known for affordable snacks and accessible sushi, with dishes such as crab croquettes at 10.60 and two pieces of nigiri starting at 2.70.

The team said its ebi bites  tempura shrimp with chilli, miso, lime and coriander  will also feature, as well as the groups drinks list of cocktails, sake, and Japanese teas.

As for the space, the site will be set over two floors, including a large terrace, capturing that signature balance between Japanese minimalism and Scandinavian elegance, according to press material.

SticksnSushi is likely to continue to expand in the UK, with sites in Oxford and Cambridge recent additions. It was founded in Copenhagen, Denmark  where there are 12 restaurants  in 1994, and now also has three outposts in Berlin.

The new London restaurant will open seven days a week at Unit G16, The Bentall Centre, Wood Street, KT1 1TP. Bookings open on October 11. Sticksnsushi.com
ABP Group has appointed Yash Mehta as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the education division of Ananda Publishers. Operating from Delhi, Yash will assume responsibility for overseeing all educational entities within the ABP Group.

Prior to joining the ABP Group, he served as the Executive Director at Oxford University Press (OUP), where he held the position for five years. Before that, Yash served as the country lead at Macmillan Education India, where he spearheaded Macmillan's education business in India and neighbouring markets such as Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Middle East, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Yash's career exemplifies extensive experience and leadership in the education industry.

On the appointment of Yash Mehta, Dhruba Mukherjee, Director of Ananda Publishers, expressed, We were looking for an individual with a rich and diverse industry experience, having a vision for the future and a passion to win. Yash brings on the table all this and more. He leads from the front and under his leadership we expect our education businesses to grow in scale, size and impact.

Yash Mehta stated, I am greatly looking forward to this important next chapter. This is a critical time for the publishing industry, where the needs are changing at an unprecedented pace. The release of the NEP 2020 and the NCF 2023 coupled with emerging technologies and changing demands in education present new challenges and opportunities that require us to adapt and evolve. Keeping up with the increasingly dynamic needs of education will require decisiveness in planning and implementing strategic initiatives. This platform will provide me an opportunity to realize my potential in delivering educational solutions for an enduring positive impact on society. I will work towards the growth and success of the group and the satisfaction of all the stakeholders.

Read more news about People Movement, Internet Advertising, Marketing, Digital Media, PR and Corporate Communication
Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Dont Let Your Words Disappear or Die 

Trees have been on my mind as fall enters the scene. I saw changes in them mid-summer this year. The wind where I live has been more active and stronger than I can remember in the 30-plus years Ive lived in Colorado. Im surprised with the howling we sometimes hear from the inside of my home as I see the trees swayoften breaking branches.

A few articles crossed my reading this past weekdont you wonder how things all of a sudden land in your lap that trigger your blogs?anyway, trees, the Ken Burns film on the National Parks, and Easter Island came into my thoughts.

An old article by Jared Diamonds Easters End in Discover magazine revealed the transformation of a vibrant, lush Easter Island into a no-mans land. With a focus on trees, islanders chopped down one by one until they were all gone.

When they were gone, the palms didnt come back.

And yet, you have to wonderdidnt anyone speak up? Didnt anyone say, Whoathings are not looking so good around here with the greenery disappearing? Didnt anyone make a connection that trees just might be a good thing?

And then another one, What Happened On Easter Island  A New (Even Scarier) Scenario by Robert Krulwich that I found in NPR News that was more about behaviors and the direct impact on our environments. In it, Im taken with the dummy down that seems to routinely happen in so many things that I observe; and it alarms me. In fact, scares me. You can read his article HERE.

Those of you who have been to my home know that I LOVE trees  its always one of the first things I plantstarting with a few focal ones to set the stage and then literally babies that I get for under $50 to do all the fill-ins over as time goes by. I mean, with a little nurturing, twigs get very strong. Not just one or twolots of them. I look for color variations and patterns  my goal is to create harmony in my front, back, and side yardsno matter the size. Trees and flowers have always brought me joyI cant imagine not having them in my life and world. And enclose me from street and neighborhood noise, giving privacy on my deck for my preferred type of outdoor living.

This means that I wont be silent when I see the destruction of things I feel are critical for my well-being and for those of others. The changing seasons always leave me in awe; the glories of water flowing fuel my writing and my creativity. I want to protect the environment.

Oh, Im not what they call a tree hugger  but I want to slow down the chopping. And yes, I do get it that nature sometimes does natural burns and that some forests do need trimmingbut not destroying. When I was working in Alaska for three weeks several years ago, the vastness of it was amazingthe glaciers left me awe-struck and the experience of the midnight sun and the size of the summer crops was breathtaking  I came away withleave this place alone. Not knowing when I first went there that many parts were considered a rainforest, the last thing I wanted to see was the man taking it away.

So  where am I going here? We authors  we writers  have the power of our words. Are you using them for just not your stories? Are your eyes open to your surroundings? Are you connecting what you see and what you experience with the strength of your fingertips and convictions? Is there a cause you deeply care about that your gift might help it articulate bettereven when your name isnt visible? Think about it 

I dont want to see the last tree die. And, I dont want my words to die. How about you?

Dr. Judith Briles is a book publishing expert and coach. Often, she must roll up her writing sleeves and become a Book Doctor, juicing up storylines and author words. She empowers authors and works directly with authors who want to be seriously successful and has been writing about and conducting workshops on publishing since the 80s. Judith is the author of 44 books including Author YOU: Creating and Building Your Author and Book Platforms, Snappy Sassy Salty: Success for Authors and Writers, and How to Create a Million Dollar Speech. Her personal memoir When God Says NO-Revealing the YES When Adversity and Loss Are Present is a #1 bestseller on Amazon and her historical fiction debut Secret Journey. Collectively, her books have earned over 45 book awards. Judith speaks throughout the year at publishing conferences.

Throughout the year, she holds Judith Briles Book Unplugged in-person and online experiences: Publishing, Speaking, Marketing, and Social Media. All are two-day intensives limited to a small group of authors who want to be seriously successful. Join Judith live for the AuthorU-Your Guide to Book Publishing podcast on the Toginet Radio Network HERE.

Follow @AuthorUYOUBooks and @MyBookShepherd on Twitter and do a Like at AuthorYOU, and join the Facebook group Book Publishing with The Book Shepherd. If you want to create a book that has no regrets, contact her.

2023 Judith Briles  The Book Shepherd All Rights Reserved.
(The Center Square)  U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy worked with Democrats to fund the government with just hours to spare Saturday, but that move may cost him his role as speaker.

Now, Congress has bought itself about 45 more days to once again fund the government or face a shutdown, but possibly replacing a House speaker in that time would dramatically complicate that effort.

U.S> Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who has been McCarthy's most outspoken critic, said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that he will file a motion to vacate McCarthy this week. Gaetz and some other Republicans have been adamant about no longer passing short-term spending resolutions and returning to the traditional method of passing a budget via 12 separate appropriations bills.

"I think we need to rip off the Band-Aid," Gaetz said. "I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy."

However, Gaetz said before the motion on Monday that he wanted answers from McCarthy concerning an alleged "secret side deal on Ukraine" the Speaker made with President Joe Biden.

"I rise to raise a question," Gaetz said from the House floor Monday. "What was the secret side deal on Ukraine? House Democrats and President Biden have said that as Speaker McCarthy was asking Republicans to vote for a Continuing Resolution to take up the plus-up Ukraine money, that the Speaker of the House was actually cutting a side deal to bring Ukraine legislation to this floor with President Biden and House Democrats."

Gaetz went on to suggest those answers could help rally support for his anti-McCarthy effort.

"There may be other votes coming today or later this week that could be implicated by the answers to these questions," Gaetz continued. "Members of the Republican party might vote differently on a motion to vacate and if they heard what the Speaker had to share with us about his secret side deal with Joe Biden on Ukraine. I'll be listening. Stay tuned."

McCarthy was narrowly elected as Speaker after more than a dozen votes as several conservative House Republicans held out, demanding concessions from leadership. One of those concessions was that a single disgruntled member could file a motion to remove McCarthy as Speaker.

McCarthy has managed to avoid that motion so far, but the near shutdown of the government drew even more scrutiny of the Speaker and at least one Republican threatening to file the motion to remove McCarthy.

On Friday, McCarthy put forward a Continuing Resolution that cut spending, bolstered the border and kept the government open for another 30 days. A cadre of more than 20 Republicans voted against the measure, effectively killing it since no Democrats would support the spending cuts and border policies. The failure of that attempt raised concerns that the government would in fact partially shut down at midnight Sunday morning.

But McCarthy called lawmakers back to work Saturday and passed a bipartisan "clean" 45-day extension, meaning current spending levels were extended with some funding for disaster relief. The Senate quickly approved the measure and Biden signed it just before midnight.

Notably, that measure omitted more funding for Ukraine in its war against the Russian invasion, a war that Republicans have become increasingly less willing to fund.

After Gaetz's ongoing opposition to McCarthy, some Republicans have discussed trying to oust him from his position. Gaetz is currently being probed by the ethics committee, and the findings of that inquiry could theoretically drum up the 2/3 support needed to oust a sitting lawmaker. The probe reportedly centers around allegations of public corruption, sexual misconduct and drug use.

Gaetz fired back in a fundraising post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday afternoon.

"They want to expel me from Congress for holding [Speaker McCarthy] to his own word," Gaetz said. "They want me gone so they can spend your money and destroy our country without a battle. Help me fight back. Every little bit counts. Join my team. Fight with me."
Since the COVID-19 pandemic struck three years ago, most people have experienced the effects of product shortages at one time or another. When that product is blood, however, lives hang in the balance, and the American Red Cross, which supplies more than 40% of the blood used by hospitals in the U.S., is currently facing a national blood shortage.

The current shortage is not attributed to COVID, but rather to the cyclical nature of giving patterns, when summer activities, holidays or treacherous winter weather can produce dips in donations. Fewer donors than needed gave this summer, drawing down the national blood supply and reducing distributions of some of the most needed blood types to hospitals.

Right now, hospital demand for blood products is outpacing the number of donations coming in. In late summer, the Red Crosss national blood supply dropped by about 25% on the heels of one of the busiest travel seasons in recent years and the beginning of back-to-school activities. This, coupled with an active disaster season, created a perfect storm and is challenging the organizations ability to collect a sufficient amount of blood products to meet the needs of hospitals across the country. When Hurricane Idalia slammed into the Southeast  leading to widespread power outages, travel hazards and flooding  the storm also strained the blood supply with scores of blood drive cancellations and reduced blood and platelet donations in affected areas. Idalia and other weather-related events, including the intense flooding in Vermont, further compounded a shortfall of about 30,000 donations in August.

Another ongoing challenge to collecting enough blood to meet demand is a changed work culture influenced by the pandemic. As people settle back into fall school and work routines, many employees continue to work from home or in a hybrid capacity, reducing the number of opportunities to give blood at business-sponsored blood drives. In fact, before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 800,000 blood donations were made at blood drives hosted by businesses. Last year, the Red Cross saw only about 500,000 blood donations at these locations  a nearly 40% drop from pre-pandemic levels.

A strong national blood supply is critical to being able to provide routine and timely care for patients. Cancer and sickle cell patients rely on blood donations for lifesaving treatment. Mass casualty events, like the bus crash on the New York State Thruway just outside of Auburn two years ago, can result in a huge demand for blood products to treat trauma patients. Unlike other commodities, most blood products have a short shelf life and cannot be stockpiled, so the demand is ongoing and can outpace supply/donations at times. The Red Cross is asking donors not to wait to give. People across the country depend on the generosity of blood donors.

Donors of all blood types are urgently needed, and there is an emergency need for platelet donors and type O blood donors. Type O negative blood is especially important, as it can be transfused to patients of all blood types, which can be lifesaving when trauma doctors have no time to determine blood type for a patient with life-threatening injuries. Making an appointment is easy and can be done in three ways:

 Download the Red Cross Blood Donor App

 Call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767)

As a thank you, those who come to give Oct. 1 through Oct. 20 will receive a $15 Amazon gift card by email. Details are available at redcrossblood.org/together.

On behalf of the Red Cross and, more importantly, the patients whose lives you will impact, thank you!

Upcoming blood drives in the Cayuga County area  7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, at Skaneateles Fire Department, 77 W. Genesee St., Skaneateles  7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18, at Nucor Steel, 33 York St., Auburn  11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, at Auburn United Methodist Church, 99 South St., Auburn  1 to 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20, at First Baptist Church of Memphis, 1960 W. Genesee Turnpike, Elbridge  1 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25, at Union Springs Academy, Spring Street, Union Springs
Washington lawmakers' last-minute dodge to avoid a government shutdown over the weekend will keep the lights on for another few weeks -- but the deal leaves significant questions unanswered, including whether the United States will continue sending aid to Ukraine and whether House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will keep his job.

Here are a few points to help decipher the drama unfolding on Capitol Hill.

- Budget unresolved -

The continuing resolution passed by Congress on Saturday night gives the federal government some breathing room, but negotiators have only 45 days to agree on a full spending plan for 2024.

If a budget for the next fiscal year doesn't pass both chambers by midnight on November 17, last week's arbitrations will have been for naught, and the United States will enter a shutdown anyway.

The main sticking points remain the same now as it was before the weekend agreement: a few far-right representatives in the House, which is narrowly controlled by Republicans, want to enact a bare-bones spending plan that the Senate, controlled by Democrats, would almost certainly refuse to pass.

- Ukraine aid unclear -

Among the issues still up in the air is military aid for Ukraine as the country fights the Russian invasion that began last year.

The text adopted this weekend does not include provisions for Kyiv, despite calls from the White House and Senate to incorporate it.

Still, Democrats hope to pass a separate aid measure in the coming days, though it is unclear if such a package would include the $24 billion President Joe Biden had originally sought.

The faction of far-right Republican House members says money sent to Ukraine could be better spent dealing with the immigration crisis at the US-Mexico border.

And House Speaker McCarthy has said he will require certain guarantees before introducing a new aid bill.

- McCarthy in peril -

But McCarthy is facing dissent even from his own Republican camp, with Trump-loyalist Matt Gaetz accusing the speaker of devising a "secret deal" with Biden to green-light Ukraine aid.

In retaliation for the supposed betrayal, Gaetz has launched a bid to oust McCarthy -- whose far-right support was already shaky even before the latest spending fight -- from his post.

Gaetz introduced a motion to vacate the speakership late Monday, vowing that if McCarthy continues in his role, it will not be "as a consequence of Republican votes."

The 58-year-old McCarthy was narrowly elected to the speakership in January, after ultra-conservative so-called "Freedom Caucus" lawmakers withheld their support for 14 rounds of voting.

To finally win them over on the 15th try, McCarthy had to offer a number of concessions, including that any representative would have the right to introduce a vote to remove him from power.

Such a vote, which would require a majority of the House's total membership to succeed, could now take place within days after Gaetz's motion.

But it could leave McCarthy reliant on Democratic votes to remain speaker -- though their support is not guaranteed, as the party weighs whether to rescue their traditional opponent from an even greater mutual adversary, or to let him flounder.

cjc/caw/st/des
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Portage County Randolph Fair Sale results

Aug. 23 and Aug. 26

Sale total: $939,392.91

Total lots: 592

Dairy Cheese Auction Total: $96,025

* denotes a record bid

STEERS

Lots: 46

Grand champion: Harrison Blay

Bid: $37.50/lb*

Weight:1,440

Buyers: Synergy Consulting Group, Harner Plumbing, Tom and Jean Lee, Farmers Savings and Moore Well Services/AAA Plastics & Pallets

Reserve champion: Emily Scott

Bid: $7/lb.

Weight: 1,445

Buyer: James Wilson

CARCASS STEERS

Lots: 2

Grand champion: Reese Diehl

Bid: $10/lb.

Weight: 894

Buyer: Polen Meats

Reserve champion: Taylor Wadsworth

Bid: $9/lb.

Weight: 838

Buyer: Moore Well Services/AAA Plastics & Pallets

HOGS

Lots: 206

Grand champion: Kamryn Lynn

Bid: $97.50/lb.*

Weight: 272

Buyer: Blake Daniels with Pest Control Technologies and Next Level Framing & Finishing LLC

Reserve champion: Logan Lynn

Bid: $45/lb.

Weight: 260

Buyer: Sarchione Chevrolet  Garrettsville

CARCASS HOGS

Grand champion: Lucas Ryan

Bid: $25/lb.

Weight: 244

Buyer: Polen Meats

Reserve champion: Alana Brabson

Bid: $15/lb.

Weight: 256

Buyer: Moore Well Services/AAA Plastics & Pallets

LAMBS

Lots: 50

Grand champion: Savannah White

Bid: $45/lb.

Weight: 145

Buyers: Duma Meats

Reserve champion: Kamryn Lynn

Bid: $47.25/lb.

Weight: 133

Buyers: Blake Daniels with Pest Control Technologies and Next Level Framing & Finishing LLC

CARCASS LAMBS

Lots: 2

Grand champion: Adam AJ Heppe

Bid: $15/lb.

Weight:103

Buyers: Polen Meats and Dozer Enterprise

Reserve champion: Kylie Vickers

Bid: $15/lb

Weight: 101

Buyer: Medical Imaging Parts, LLC

BOER GOATS

Lots: 31

Grand champion: Kamryn Lynn

Bid: $2,500/head

Weight: 91

Buyer: Wittensoldner Realty

Reserve champion: Alana Brabson

Bid: $1,100/head

Weight: 78

Buyer: Wittensoldner Realty

RABBITS

Number of Pens of Three: 14

Grand champion: Odessa Hottensmith

Bid: $1,600

Buyer: Sunrise Springs Water Co. Rootstown

Reserve champion: Lillian Brunswick

Bid: $1,300

Buyers: Papa Ray, Grandma Beck, Papa Gary and Grandma Holly

CHICKENS

Number of Pens of Three: 107

Grand champion: Emily Bollenbacher

Bid: $2,400

Buyer: Tri-County Service

Reserve champion: Paul Dussel

Bid: $2,250

Buyers: Portage County Commissioner Sabrina Christian Bennett and Delux Mold & Machine, Inc.

GEESE

Lots: 16

Grand champion: Jessica Mix

Bid: $2,400

Buyer: Tri-County Service

Reserve champion: Jennifer Mix

Bid: $1,700

Buyer: Kiko Auctioneers & Realtors

TURKEYS

Lots: 84

Grand champion: Grace Wheeler

Bid: $1,900

Buyer: Tri County Service

Reserve champion: Olivia Boyle

Bid: $1,200

Buyer: Valerie Evans Coontz/Berkshire Hathaway

DUCKS

Lots: 34

Grand champion: Katrina Richards

Bid: $7,000*

Buyer: Debbie Svette

Reserve champion: Jessica Mix

Bid: $1,400

Buyer: Tri County Service

Portage County Dairy Cheese Auction

Project Champion Basket

Bid: $7,500

Buyer: Ryan and Anna Ailes

Reserve Project Basket

Bid: $4,000

Buyer: Big Truck MD

Total All Baskets plus additional donations to Portage County Dairy 4-H Kids: $73,025

Benefit Basket

Bid: $7,000

Buyer: Congress Lake Farms LLC

Total Benefit Basket plus additional donations: $23,000

Auctioneers and Ringmen: Kiko Auctioneers  Jack and John Kiko and team

Fair Queen and King: Lauren Evans and Logan Campbell

Portage County Randolph Fair 1 of 24
ERIE, Pa.  One was just a hole in the ground in the woods, covered over with leaves. Another was found under a school gymnasium. A farmer hit one while digging pilings for a new barn.

Theyre next to creeks and lakes, scattered through farm fields and in peoples front yards.

We have many many wells in Ohio we have little to no record for, said Jason Simmerman, program manager for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Orphan Well Program. We really do have orphan wells all over Ohio except the southwest corner.

Despite the seeming ubiquity of orphan wells, or old abandoned oil and gas wells with no responsible owner, throughout the region, getting them plugged to keep people and the environment safe is an immense challenge, even with an influx of federal dollars to speed up efforts.

Representatives from the ODNR and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, as well as plugging and environmental contractors, talked about the realities of plugging orphan wells during a panel at the Shale Insight Conference, hosted Sept. 26-28 in Erie, Pennsylvania, by the Marcellus Shale Coalition.

Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia each received $25 million from the federal government last year to go on an orphan well-plugging blitz, and millions more are coming down the pike. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is pumping more than $4 billion into plugging efforts in states most impacted by legacy oil and gas wells.

Challenges

Each state has thousands of orphan wells on the list to be plugged, but there are many more out there that the state knows nothing about, due to the oil and gas industry being mostly unregulated for nearly a century.

Even locating the wells the states do know about is challenging, said Brad Maddox, vice president of Next LVL Energy, a plugging company owned by Diversified Energy that was contracted by West Virginia to plug 100 wells this year using federal money.

GPS locations werent accurate from state data. Some were underground, he said. During the process of trying to find these wells, we found ones that werent on the list at all.

Its not the states fault when this happens. Theyre passing on the information they have, which isnt always the best.

Can you get to it, do you have to build a road, do you have to cross a stream, is it on a cliff, is it leaking, is it tied into house gas, he said, listing off other considerations they make once they get on the ground to assess the situation.

Once wells are located, getting permits in a timely manner is another challenge. Simmerman said they have to get the same permits anyone else does, which can be through local, county, state or even federal agencies, depending on the situation.

This process is slow, even for state agencies with millions of dollars at their disposal, and it can be slowed down even more by bad information or discoveries made on the ground.

Dave Wallner, project manager at Civil & Environmental Consultants, talked about a case where initial permits were approved for a project to plug 10 wells that were clustered together. They ran into a hang-up when some of the coordinates for these wells, located in Venango County, Pennsylvania, were 25-30 feet off the mark.

Thats kind of a big deal when youre trying to limit your footprint going from one well to the next, Wallner said.

In another case, the contractors had gotten permission from the landowner to use their driveway to access a well, only to find out that the driveway wasnt properly permitted. Then they had a sight distance issue at the entrance to the access road and had to get permission to clear trees. The landowners approved it but the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation had to give its stamp of approval as well.

Whats next

Pennsylvania has plugged 90 wells, as of Sept. 19, with about 130 more to go, said Don Hegburg, program manager in the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protections oil and gas program.

Ohio plugged 212 wells so far this year, with another 168 under contract to be completed, Simmerman said. West Virginia plans to plug about 200 wells. Next LVL Energy has plugged nearly 100 already, according to Maddox.

Simmerman said they doubled the rig count in Ohio this past year to 24. Even with more rigs, its tough to get things done without the right people to do the work. Hegburg said contractors in Pennsylvania have similar issues.

Our pluggers just lack the workforce in many cases, Simmerman said.

Though the influx of federal dollars has been a blessing, Hegburg said hes concerned about where money will come from after infrastructure money runs dry.

This isnt going to last forever, he said.

States have programs to fund orphan well-plugging efforts, through severance taxes or permitting fees on new drilling activity, but its not enough to tackle the full scale of the problem. Ohio has about 19,000 documented orphan wells, but there are estimated to be up to 36,000 across the state. West Virginia has more than 6,000 documented orphan wells. Pennsylvania could have as many as 500,000 orphan wells.

(Editor Rachel Wagoner can be reached at 724-201-1544 or rachel@farmanddairy.com.)
NFU President Minette Batters has slammed Jacob Rees-Mogg as 'morally bankrupt' after he called for 'hormone-injected beef from Australia' to be sent to the UK.

The controversial comments were made at the ongoing Conservative Party conference, which is taking place in Manchester.

The NFU had urged the party that it was 'more important than ever' for them to back British food and farming.

But in comments likely to enrage the British beef sector, Mr Rees-Mogg called for imports of cheaper food.

I want hormone-injected beef from Australia," the prominent Brexiteer said.

Ive eaten beef in Australia, it was absolutely delicious, theres nothing wrong with it and they should be allowed to export it here because we want lower costs.

Minette Batters, the NFU's president, hit back on social media by slamming the comments as 'unbelievable'.

Unbelievable from @Jacob_Rees_Mogg - an absolute desire to annihilate British Ag - totally & utterly morally bankrupt. One things for certain the Aussies would have deported him if he were representing them. https://t.co/WFG2L5DvbR  minette batters (@Minette_Batters) October 2, 2023

Other prominent farming social media accounts also displayed their disbelief.

JRM doing his bit for Britain at Conservative Party Conference. https://t.co/9M2oiWNhG2  Joe Stanley ???? (@JoeWStanley) October 2, 2023

Well I wont be buying it, this is a shameful betrayal of the Welsh farming industry.@1GarethWynJones  Ethan Jones ?????????????? (@Ethan4Indy) October 2, 2023

It comes after the UK and Australia free trade deal came into force in the summer after it was finalised in late 2021.

The NFU had warned that the 'one-sided' trade deal had 'extremely little' in it for British farmers, with Australian farmers achieving 'all they have asked for'.
Canadian cattle organisations have launched a campaign seeking to delay the UK's acceptance into the CPTPP amid a disagreement in food standards.

The Canadian Cattle Association, Canadian Meat Council, and National Cattle Feeders Association's 'Say No to A Bad Deal' campaign urges a 'fair deal' between the UK and Canada.

According to the industry groups, Canadian meat, which can be produced with the use of growth hormones, is 'severely disadvantaged' in the interim agreement with the UK.

Technical, non-tariff trade barriers have resulted in Canada being unable to access the UK market, while the UK has 'enjoyed unfettered access' into the Canadian market.

The main obstacle is the UKs full acceptance of Canadas food safety system, according to the groups, which they say is "widely recognised as a leading set of standards in the world."

The UK currently has a ban on the use of growth hormones due to public health concerns.

Earlier this year, the UK signed an agreement to join the Comprehensive Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a trade pact which includes Canada and several countries in Asia and the Pacific.

The Canadian meat groups said in a statement: "The CPTPP has been an excellent agreement thus far with the initial participants implementing a high standard for trade liberalisation and science-based rules.

"The Canadian beef and pork industry believes that an agreement with the UK that leaves a significant barrier in place and politicises food safety decisions, and in doing so does not meet the standard of the CPTPP.

"Therefore, the UKs bid to become a member should be delayed until they can do better to meet the progressive trade principles of the CPTPP.

"Failure to address these unfair barriers set a terrible precedent for trade policy and will hurt Canadian farmers, ranchers, processors, and rural communities across Canada."

Responding to the UK's accession into the CPTPP, NFU President Minette Batters said that it was 'an absolute red line' for food produced to lower standards to be imported into the UK.

Compared to the deals struck with Australia and New Zealand, she said the government had negotiated 'a far more considered and balanced outcome'.

"The use of hormones in beef and pork production and chemical washes for carcases  should not be allowed on our market," she said earlier this year.

"I will continue to press government to ensure its domestic policies are aimed at improving the competitiveness of British farming and strengthening our domestic food security."
Farming Minister Mark Spencer has thrown his weight behind a campaign encouraging farmers and farm workers to test a new online skills and careers service.

Hundreds have already signed up for the Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture's (TIAH), which offers tailored advice and tools to support career development.

The service, which is currently in development, aims to offer opportunities for people at every stage of their agri career, helping review skills, plot training journeys, and record achievements along the way.

And feedback from farmers participating in the development is allowing the service to be fine-tuned prior to its formal launch next January.

Mark Spencer, who is Defra's farming minister, is encouraging more people in the industry to sign up to the service to help test it.

He said: The institute has recently launched a test version of its online support platform and I encourage each of you to actively engage with it and share your views.

"Your feedback will play a big role in its future development, making sure it is aligned with the evolving needs of the farming and growing community."

Among the features on offer, the online service can help users improve and demonstrate their professional skills and knowledge.

They can assess their current skills, identify knowledge gaps, receive tailored training recommendations and record their learning and development, all in their own online hub.

TIAHs chief executive, Stephen Jacob said it was vital that online service meets the needs of everyone working in farming and growing.

"Wed love as many people as possible to get involved in helping us test it before our full launch next January.

"Its a great opportunity to get free access to skills and careers support while also helping us fine-tune the service."

Liz Haines, a tenant dairy farmer in Staffordshire who joined the test site, thinks it is a useful resource for the farming industry.

She said: I've been impressed by the breadth of resources available on the TIAH online service, and it's very handy to have them all gathered together in one place.

"The opportunity to dip into training and other learning materials at our own pace will be invaluable for our staff. Id urge others to try it out as it offers a range of very helpful resources.
The prime minister has been urged to show support to a tenant couple by rejecting a plan to install a solar farm and battery energy storage system on land they have farmed for 30 years.

The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) has urged Rishi Sunak to intervene and lend his support to Rob and Emma Sturdy, who could see the new installation take up 44ha out of the 53ha they farm.

The development was submitted by the landowner of the Fitzwilliam Trust Corporation, to be sited on farmland at Old Malton, North Yorkshire.

TFA chief executive, George Dunn said it would be a 'travesty' if the application was allowed to succeed, as it would 'threaten' their business.

The body has written to the North Yorkshire Strategic Planning Committee urging them to acknowledge the 'widespread concerns' regarding the development.

Mr Dunn said: "Acceptance of this application would go against current public policy on food security, maintaining best and most versatile agricultural land, improving landscape and biodiversity, and protecting the resilience of the tenanted sector of agriculture.

The Sturdys, who are TFA members, have farmed at Eden Farm for over 30 years, with their tenancy regulated under the terms of the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986.

This gives them lifetime security and the right to pass on their tenancy to two further generations.

One succession of tenancy has already occurred and a further opportunity for succession remains available.

Mr Dunn said that should the Fitzwilliam Trust Corporation prove successful in its attempt to gain planning consent for change of use under this application, the Sturdys would face an "incontestable notice" to quit of the land subject to their tenancy.

He added: Long standing industry approved guidance exists for how landlords should consult with tenants in circumstances where the landlord desires to seek consent for change of use. This has not been followed in this case.

"That failure represents a breach of what would be considered good practice in its conduct of negotiations with the tenant.

It is clear, as landlords, the Fitzwilliam Trust Corporation has not taken sufficient concern to ensure that the personal circumstances, hardship and difficulties of the Sturdys have been addressed.

"This failure is not just one of process, but it is a material consideration that must be addressed by the local authority, said Mr Dunn.

The North Yorkshire Strategic Planning Committee will consider the application at its meeting on the 10 October.

The planning officer has recommended approval.
An Oswego County man is facing criminal charges for allegedly raping and sexually abusing a teenager in Auburn over six years ago, police said.

Auburn Police Department Deputy Chief Tim Spingler told The Citizen on Tuesday that Joseph J. St. Andrews, 41, was picked up Friday on an arrest warrant from 2018 stemming from the alleged rape and sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl in the city in June 2017.

The deputy chief said St. Andrews has been in North Carolina and other locations in the years since, and now resides at of 77 Route 48, Lot 48, in the village of Phoenix. He was arrested by Auburn police at Oswego County Correctional Facility, where he was in custody on unrelated offenses.

St. Andrews was charged by Auburn police with the class D felonies of second-degree rape and second-degree criminal sexual act, and the class A misdemeanors of second-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. He was arraigned in Auburn City Court, which issued the warrant, and then remanded back to the Oswego jail.
Adam DeVine and his wife Chloe Bridges are expecting their first child together.

Adam DeVine and his wife Chloe Bridges are expecting their first child together

The Righteous Gemstones actor, 39, shared the news with fans on Monday (02.10.23) they were expecting by posting a photo on his Instagram of him cradling his fat stomach while standing back-to-back with his partner as she displayed her growing baby bump.

He captioned the snap: Look were pregnant! Well, Im just fat now but Chloe is all preggo with a human baby!

Obviously, very exciting stuff! This will mostly be a baby page now, as I will be dedicating my life to my child in hopes he doesnt use my decades of recorded dirty jokes against me.

Adam didnt explicitly announce the sex of their little one, but seemed to hint

they know they are having a boy by referring to the upcoming arrival as he.

The actor also posted a photo on his Instagram of him standing behind his wife caressing her stomach.

Chloe took to her social media to post two images of her being hugged by Adam, which she captioned: We have news!! Cant wait to get this lil family started.

Adam and Chloe met on the set of The Final Girls film in 2014 and started dating a year later.

The actor announced their engagement on Instagram in October 2019 by posting a photo of himself steering a boat while Chloe flashed a diamond ring, and captioned it: She said yes! Well actually she said ahh Adam and then kissed me but Im pretty sure that means YES!

I love Chloe more than anything and Im so excited to spend the rest of my life with her amazing self.

You are my best friend and Im thrilled you want to get old and wrinkly with me! Youll be less wrinkly. Im gonna look like a Saint Bernard.

I proposed this past weekend and wanted to keep it private for a few days but we are now ready to tell the world! Love you @chloebridges! Have fun planning the wedding. Ill be there for the cake tasting.

Adam and Chloe married in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in October 2021, with the actor describing their big day as a blast on social media  adding: I love Chloe so dang much and Im so happy to call her my Wife. Def cried a lot during the ceremony.
Brandi Glanville has claimed being so stressed from the "threat of a bad edit" of 'Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip' is "partly" why she collapsed and was rushed to hospital.

Brandi Glanville collapsed at home and claims it's 'partly' due to the 'threat of a bad edit'

The 50-year-old reality revealed on Sunday (01.10.23) that one of her sons had to call 911 after she collapsed.

She wrote on X - formerly Twitter - that: I collapsed at home this am and my SON had to call 911 for help!

The former 'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' star - who has Mason Edward, 20, and Jake Austin, 16, with ex-husband Eddie Cibrian - added: You guys have no idea the amount of stress Im dealing with.

Brandi later suggested that her drama with Caroline Manzo on the spin-off show has left her fearing how the show will edit it together.

She then showed the medical team looking after her and quipped that she can't escape Bravo as she had a Dr. Cohen like 'Real Housewives' boss Andy Cohen and nurse Ciara, seemingly reminding her of 'Summer House' star Ciara Miller.

She captioned a picture of the notice board: "No escaping @BravoTV even in the ER !! Look at my Dr. and nurses name. being held hostage by the threat of a bad edit is partly the problem. (sic)

It was reported that Brandi allegedly inappropriately touched 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey' star during their trip to Marrakech, Morocco for the programme.

Addressing the allegations, she said: "I like resolution. I would just like to talk to her and figure this out.

"But I don't think that's happening, and that's unfortunate. I'm kind of stuck waiting until the show comes out."

The former model claims she has lost work due to the "gossip".

She continued: "When there's gossip about you out there it's devastating. No one wants to work with you. All of my jobs cancelled. It's been really difficult."

Brandi says she and Caroline were "very intoxicated" at the time.

She posted to X: "I can speak on anything I want to speak on  it was at the end of an 18-hour work day at our belly dancing party and I'd like to see footage on it beforehand as both myself and Caroline were very intoxicated."
Joseph Gatt has appeared in court charged with having sexually explicit chats online with a minor.

Joseph Gatt has appeared in court charged with having sexually explicit chats online with a minor

The 51-year-old Games of Thrones actor  famed for playing Thenn Warg on the smash HBO show  arrived at a Los Angeles courtroom on Monday (02.10.23) with his long-time actress and writer girlfriend Mercy Malick, also 51.

Gatt is free on a $5,000 bail after he was arrested in April 2022 on an outstanding felony warrant for contact with a minor for a sexual offense in LA.

Enrique Monguia, the LA Superior Court judge presiding over the case, said during Gatts Monday court appearance the case would continue on 4 December after prosecutor Michael Fern said additional discovery was needed for it to progress.

Gatts appearance came 18 months after he was arrested in LA and his home searched by police from the Juvenile Divisions Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

He was charged with 'contact with a minor for sexual offense' and faces a second charge of felony possession of an assault weapon.

He pleaded not guilty to both charges and under the terms of his $5,000 bail was barred from having unsupervised time with minors, as well as possessing pornography and the use of social media unless it was for work.

Gatt  who suffers a condition called alopecia universalis which caused him to lose all his hair at the age of 14  strongly denied the charges on Twitter, now known as X.

He said on the platform: I obviously want to address the absolutely horrifying and completely untrue allegations recently levelled against me.

They are 100 per cent categorically wrong and reckless. I have confirmed errors and misleading information in today's press release. I am fully cooperating with police and Los Angeles Police Department to get to the bottom of this.

I look forward to clearing my good name. Thank you to all my friends and supporters who know that this is untrue and understand for legal reasons I cannot comment further on social media.

Mercy has taken to social to brand the allegations against her partner beyond insane.

She added: So much love to everyone who has already reached out in support of Joe and myself.

Those who know us obviously know that the allegations levelled against him are insane.
Jacky Oh's death has been ruled as accidental.

Jacky Oh died during plastic surgery

The TV star - whose real name was Jacklyn Smith - was known for appearing on the MTV sketchy comedy show 'Wild n Out' alongside Nick Cannon but passed away at the age of just 32 earlier this year as a result of complications caused by cosmetic surgery but it has now been reported that her doctor will not face a criminal investigation over her death.

The Miami Police Department told TMZ: "The medical examiner ruled Jacky's death accidental, and homicide detectives will not launch a criminal investigation."

Initially, a cause of death had not been given but a representative for the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office confirmed to People on Friday (29.09.23) that she died during a cosmetic procedure.

A BET Media Group spokesperson said: "We are deeply saddened by the passing of Jacklyn Smith, known to the world as Jacky Oh, a talented Wild 'N Out family member whose impact will be forever treasured and missed."

The statement went on to recall that Jacky - who is survived by her three children to Nova, six, Nala, two and 11-month-old Prince and their father, her longtime boyfriend, D.C. Young Fly - was a "tremendous mother" and the media group as well as its stars sent their condolences to the family.

It continued: "More importantly, she was a tremendous mother to three beautiful children. The BET Media Group extends our sincere condolences to the Smith family, DC Young Fly, B Simone, Nick Cannon, and all friends who loved and cared for Jacky Oh during this difficult time."

In her final Instagram post - which has since been deleted - showed she had been in the Californian city for a "mommy makeover" and teased her millions of followers that a YouTube video documenting the experience would be on the way.

In the caption of her last post, she wrote alongside a picture of herself posing with plastic surgeon Dr Zachary Okhah: "Getting ready for my mommy makeover with Dr Zach!! Stay tuned to my YouTube for the full reveal!"
Princess Beatrice will be "grateful" she can support her children if they are "lucky" enough to be dyslexic.

Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi are both dyslexic

The 35-year-old royal and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi both have dyslexia and though they don't yet know if daughter Sienna, two, or the 39-year-old architect's older son, seven-year-old Christopher, aka Wolfie - who he has with Dara Huang - also have the learning disorder, they are thankful they will be able to give them the best support and guidance possible.

Speaking on the 'Lessons in Dyslexic Thinking' podcast, Beatrice told host Kate Griggs: "As two dyslexics, we will be figuring out as parents whether or not our children have dyslexia and how best to support them.

"But I think the most important thing that I can do, hopefully, if they are lucky enough to be dyslexic as well, then I feel really grateful that we can help them with resources.

"Being a part of this community, I think has given me a bit more of an understanding and I'd really like that for all parents.

"So actually bringing the parents into the conversation, I think is really exciting because when a parent does happen to have the news that their child is dyslexic, right now, I don't think they're getting the right support.

"Were still very early days in what were achieving together, and its really exciting to see how we can do the work to help the parent be the best version of themselves."

Beatrice feels "lucky" to have dyslexia because the condition "pushes" her to do what she can to raise awareness and help others overcome the "challenges" it can bring.

She said: Talking about this subject is my favourite thing, because as a dyslexic who's navigating the kind of mad world we live in, I am so grateful and lucky to have a dyslexic thinking mindset, because it definitely pushes me a little bit further to try and solve some of these challenges and try and help as much as I can."

The princess - who is the daughter of King Charles' brother Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York - previously admitted she viewed her condition as a "gift".

Speaking to Britain's HELLO! magazine when she was pregnant, she told Britain's HELLO! magazine online: "My husband's also dyslexic so we'll see whether we're having this conversation in a couple of months' time with a new baby in the house, but I really see it as a gift. And I think life is a little bit about the moments that make you; it's the challenges that make you."
Cambodias National Council on Minimum Wage (NCMW) recently arrived at a consensus on $202 as the new monthly minimum wage for garment, travel goods and bag industries. Prime Minister Hun Manet later added an additional $2, which made the final figure $204 for next year.

The minimum wage now is $200 per month.

Cambodia's National Council on Minimum Wage recently decided that the new monthly minimum wage for garment, travel goods and bag industries is $202. Prime Minister Hun Manet added an additional $2, making the figure $204 for 2024. The wage now is $200 per month. The decision was taken at an NCMW meeting chaired by labour and vocational training minister Heng Sour.

The decision was arrived at during an NCMW meeting chaired by labour and vocational training (MLVT) minister Heng Sour and attended by nearly 100 representatives of employers associations, labour unions and the MLVT ministry.

Sour said Manet will chair a forum of the government and the private sector in November this year to address the challenges and hardships that the minimum-wage industry is facing to maintain its competitiveness and reduce costs in maintaining production bases in the country, according to domestic media reports.

Manet has assigned the ministry to call for additional arrangements that will enable factories to take more care of the well-being of their workers at workplaces, Sour said.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
Shehnaaz Gill is currently busy promoting Thank You For Coming which releases this week. The young actress has slowly and steadily made her presence felt in the industry and enjoys a massive fandom.



She got some time off promoting her upcoming film in Toronto and went to the famous Niagara Falls with her family. She captioned it with, This vlog is recorded during my recent trip to Toronto. After three days of promotion at TIFF, I finally got the time to explore the beautiful city of Toronto and also visited Niagara Falls. This was my moms first time in Canada i and Im so grateful that I could take her along and show her this beautiful country.


Soha Ali Khan Siddharth Break-Up: The glamorous allies of Bollywood are filled with several unfulfilled love stories. Celebrities falling in and out of love with their co-stars is nothing new.

One such unknown love story is that of actress Soha Ali Khan and her Rang De Basanti co-star Siddharth. The Pataudi princess is turning 45 tomorrow, October 4, and on this special occasion, let's see a throwback story of her breakup with the South actor.

Soha Ali Khan & Siddharth broke up due to a commitment issue

Although Soha Ali Khan and South Indian film star Siddharth never openly talked about their relationship, the couple were rumoured to be dating each other.

Let us tell you that both have worked in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's 2006 film Rang De Basanti, and it is said that their romance began on the sets of the film.

Kareena Kapoor to Soha Ali Khan, Meet Celeb Moms' Go To Yoga Teacher Who Helps Them Be In Shape Post Pregnancy

Owing to Siddharth's divorce and Soha's lineage, both actors kept their romance low-key. But their togetherness didn't last for long. However, not many details are available about their relationship and breakup. Speaking to HT in an old interview, Soha once said that she was in touch with Sidharth as a friend and denied dating him.

"We have been friends since Range De Basanti days. I have stayed in touch with Alice Patten and Kunal Kapoor. I am even working with Sharman Joshi and so I have been in touch with Siddharth. We work for films in different cities. Now, that he is in Bombay we catch up occasionally, that doesn't mean I am dating him," she told the outlet.

As per reports, Pataudi never met Siddharth; however, his cool and charming personality had impressed Saif Ali Khan, Mansoor Ali Khan, and Sharmila Tagore.

Further, another report by India Today stated that Siddharth did not want to be in a fully committed relationship, which caused arguments between him and Soha. The actress felt that Siddharth didn't prioritise her, and it was she who ended up compromising and mending things with him.

Well, Soha is happily married to Kunal Khemu, and they have a cute daughter together, while Siddharth is rumoured to be dating actress Aditi Rao Hydari.

Saif Ki Xerox Copy: Netizens DROOL Over Ibrahim Ali Khan's HOT BOD As He Flaunts Toned Abs In Rain Post Match
It was the break in the case  and confirmation that 9-year-old Charlotte Sena had been kidnapped.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who spoke at a news conference announcing Charlotte's rescue, said that a ransom note was left at 4:20 a.m. Monday in a mailbox at the family's home. Police were in the area of the home, but weren't able to identify the vehicle.

New York State Police began examining the note for evidence. At 2:30 p.m., there was a new development. A fingerprint found on the note matched one from a DWI case in 1999 in Saratoga Springs, according to Hochul.

The fingerprint belonged to the suspect, Craig Nelson Ross, Jr. Authorities determined Ross was living in a camper behind his mother's home in Milton, a town in Saratoga County.

The state police brought in a special operations response team to conduct a "dynamic entry" into the camper. Ross initially resisted, but was taken into custody. Charlotte was found in a cabinet.

"She knew she was being rescued," Hochul said. "She knew that she was in safe hands."

Charlotte's parents were notified of her rescue and the girl was taken to a local hospital for evaluation.

Ross has been charged with first-degree kidnapping. State police said it's an ongoing investigation.

Charlotte Sena went missing Saturday evening while camping with her family at Moreau Lake State Park in Saratoga County. She was last seen riding her bike in the campground. The bike was located, but there were no signs of the 9-year-old girl.

The search began and an AMBER alert was issued. Multiple law enforcement agencies, along with other state and local responders, assisted with the effort. The FBI sent personnel to aid with the search.

"When you hit that 48-hour moment, you realize it's going to be tough," said Hochul, who met with Charlotte's family over the weekend. "You start thinking the worst."

And then came the ransom note.

Authorities declined to say what was in the letter. They believe it was Ross, the suspect in Charlotte's abduction, who delivered the note to the family's home.

What was shared about the letter is that the suspect left "a critical piece of evidence behind," Hochul said. By Monday evening, it was announced that Charlotte was rescued.

"This is a very good day," Hochul said. "It's been a long two days, but tonight, our prayers have been answered."
One of the perks of being in show business is that you get opportunities to travel across the world and see diverse places. Some people do it out of hobby, while some make it their passion. Sahil Salathia falls in the latter category and currently, the actor is out exploring the desert city of Dubai and having the most adventurous time of his life.

This isn't the first time that Sahil visited Dubai, but the viewpoint this time is different for the actor than from all his previous visits. The actor is in awe of the beauty and advancement of the city and feels there is a lot to learn from its progress.

Talking about his experience, Sahil says, "I always felt that a country is as rich as its culture and history but Dubai has proven me wrong. Sometimes it's not about the past but the future as well and Dubai is definitely the future. I have been there a few times before, but this time with a fresher perspective

Raving about the city, he adds, "It's incredible how much they have developed the city on a desert. Mumbai, as a city, can learn so much from them, as well as so many other cities in the world, as to how to have the best infrastructure possible with all the limitations that God has put on you and still be incredible."

While exploring Dubai, Sahil is also satiating the adventure-hungry enthusiast in him. On his last trip to Dubai, the actor had attempted skydiving and this time he chose another adventure sport. He shares, "I went jet skiing right across Burj Al Arab and it was one of the most fun adventures I have done in my life." The actor knows how to make the best of his time anywhere, and his travel diaries are sure to leave you feeling the urge to pack your bags and jet off on a vacation.
Vaani Kapoor is an avid fan of larger-than-life, blockbuster musicals onstage. The actor, amidst her work commitments in the USA, traveled to New York for some downtime. While in the city, known for its Broadway performances, she treated herself to three of the longest-standing musicals: Aladdin, Six, and MJ. Watching these critically acclaimed and popular musicals on the New York Broadway stage has been on her mind for some time.

Starting with Aladdin, which is based on Disney's animated feature film, this musical is captivating from start to finish. The visually stunning production is enjoyably pantomime-inspired, where the characters break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience. A day after that, she watched Six: a pop concert spectacle featuring the six ex-wives of Henry the Eight. And her final viewing was the very popular, Tony award-winning - MJ. The show is peppered with poignant moments and classic songs from the legendary musical icon Michael Jackson's prolific lifetime.

Vaani said "I've always loved watching musicals. Recently, during my trip to New York, I got a chance to see some popular musicals back to back. A live play or musical is so alluring with each moment so well enhanced on stage that it can never be duplicated. I've always felt lighter, happier & creatively inspired by it.

She adds "The energy and immersion of being in a Broadway theater with a live audience is unbeatable. Going back to Broadway shows is like going back for a little more magic making every moment truly immersive and unparalleled."

On the work front, Vaani Kapoor will be seen headlining two diversely different projects - Maddock Films, Sarvagunn Sampanna, and Yash Raj Films OTT show, a gritty crime thriller, Mandala Murders, which will again showcase her formidable acting chops.
Bava Chelladurai's Ideology Works Big: Bava Chelladurai narrated a wonderful story to the house mates in the seventh season of Bigg Boss 7 and his ideologies attracted everyone in the Bigg Boss house.

Bava Rules Bigg Boss With His Interesting Ideologies

Bigg Boss 7 started heating up from day one. Accordingly, Bava Chelladurai, Nixon, Raveena, Vinusha, Ananya and Aishu, who failed to impress the captain Vijay Varma, were moved to the Small Boss house.

They should not come out of that house. Bigg Boss housemates nominated the Small Boss contestants and similarly the Small Boss housemates nominated the Bigg Boss contestants. Among them, six people namely Bava Chelladurai, Pradeep Antony, Yugendran, Ananya, Aishu and Jovika have joined the eviction list.

It is important to note that Pradeep Antony nominated Bava Chelladurai and Bava also nominated Pradeep Antony. The task of shopping was given to the housemates. The housemates can shop as much as they want and they have to pay for it by winning three tasks this week. Accordingly, the people at home had shopped up to a total of 54,000 rupees. Then the people in the Small Boss house cooked.

Don't Appreciate Women For Cooking

While cooking, Bava said Akshaya, "Don't appreciate women for cooking. Don't say that they are doing this particular dish in a great way. There is a politics behind this to keep them satisfied only with cooking and not to explore the outside world. So always appreciate men for cooking and not women." Conestants and fans who heard this statement from Bava got impressed and that's were his game in the Bigg Boss show started exactly.

After finishing all the cooking, Bava Chelladurai made everyone sit outside the house and started telling a story. Speaking then, he said, "When Kamal introduced me, he asked me to narrate the story while he was in the Bigg Boss house. I am now narrating a story called Ottam written by Aadhavan.

There is a middle class mother in Delhi. She has a son. One day the son forgets his lunch box at home and goes to the school van. After noticing that, the mother would run without worrying about anyone, give the box to his son and walk back to home. Then everyone would see that mother. She will not at all worry about it.

Bava Chelladurai's Story Nights

Immediately she would remember about her consistency in winning the first place in running races during her school and college days. She will be happy thinking about it. The next day the son will forget the luch box again and leave the house. The mother who noticed it will be excited that she can run again and give it today as well. But the son will come home soon and say that he has forgotten the luch box. That mother loses all enthusiasm. Immediately she will hug his son and tell him 'Forget the box every day. I will come and give you in the van.' That story was important to me.

This does not mean that you should not marry and have children. We are all related to art. But the violence of family love makes the ladies to do the household works for their entire life. So husbands and children should stand behind women." He concluded.

Pradeep Antony, Cool Suresh and few other contestants got emotional and when Bava Chelladurai finished telling the story. On the other hand, netizens started saying that if Bava stays in the house, fans can hear such great stories.
Pithamagan Producer VA Durai Passes Away: VA Durai who produced films such as produced films including Pithamagan, Looti, Gajendra passed away due to ill health at the age of 59.

Executive Producer Of Rajinikanth's Baba

VA Durai also worked as an executive producer in Rajinikanth's 'Baba'. Actor Rajinikanth had paid him 51 lakh rupees as salary for the film. After that he became a full time producer and produced various films in Tamil. VA Durai is suffering from diabetes. Separated from his wife and daughter, he is currently living alone in a house in Virugambakkam.

He was treated at the hospital with the help of director SP Muthuraman and returned home. However, the wounds on his leg are still not healed. In addition, he is suffering from lack of money for daily medical expenses. He also became very slim due to diabetes. He recently released a video about this.

VA Durai's Leg Amputated

He has also requested for Rajinikanth to help him as he is living in poverty without money even to buy medicine. Following this, actor Suriya has helped by giving 2 lakh rupees. Similarly, actor Karunas has helped by donating 50,000 rupees.

Actor Rajinikanth, who came to know about VA Durai, had sent people from his side to meet Durai, who was living in poverty, to inquire about help. VA Durai told them what help he needed. Actor Rajinikanth has promised to help him. Similarly, actor Raghava Lawrence has also said that he will accept some of the hospital expenses.

Subsequently, actors Suriya and Vikram also helped for his medical expenses. His leg was amputated after he developed diabetes and he died at 9 o'clock last night while receiving treatment at home. He is 59 years old. He has two wives namely Vijayalakshmi and Lakshmi, first wife has two daughters and second wife has a daughter. His death has left the film industry in mourning.
Keith Sequeira and Rochelle Rao Welcome Baby Girl: Bigg Boss celebrity couple Keith Sequeira and Rochelle Rao are on cloud nine as they embark on the journey of parenthood for the first time by welcoming a baby girl into their lives.

The couple who announced their pregnancy on August 2 are now the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl. For the uninitiated, Keith and Rochelle first met inside the BB house when they participated in the ninth season of the reality show.

After dating for a few years, both tied the knot in 2018 and are now filled with joy as they have grown from two to three with the arrival of their precious little one.

Keith Sequeira and Rochelle Rao are blessed with a girl

On Tuesday, October 3, both stars took to their Instagram handles and shared the happy news in a joint post. Their post consists of verses from the Bible.

Ex-Bigg Boss Couple Rochelle Rao & Keith Sequeira Announce Pregnancy; Share Adorable Baby Bump PICS

Sharing that their daughter was born on October 1, Keith and Rochelle wrote, "Praising God for the greatest blessing He could ever grant us, our little girl, Baby Sequeira born on the first of October 2023. Thank you guys for all your undying love and support through this amazing journey we love you  And thanks @vasavi.todi for this cutest edit!"

Soon, fans and celebs flooded the comment section with congratulatory messages and sent blessings to the little one. Vahbiz Dorabjee wrote, "Congratulations and celebrations," Priya Malik said, "Omg, congratulations you guys!!" Sugandha Mishra said, "Congratulations."

A fan wrote, "@rochellerao oh my god congratulations to you both @keithsequeira I know you'll be amazing dad and Rochelle will be the very sweet mom Diwali se pehle hi aapke ghar Lakshmi aagai love you kiddo from now I will be your fan too. Please take care guys very happy for you both many congratulations ."

Keith Sequeira and Rochelle Rao got married after a few years of courtship. They first met on the reality show Bigg Boss 9. Both tied the knot in 2018 in an intimate affair in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu.

Rochelle Rao is known for hosting India's Laughter Champion and acting in The Kapil Sharma Show, while Keith Sequeira is a popular model and VJ.

Rochelle Rao Flaunts Bare Baby Bump In Barbie-Ken-Inspired Maternity Photoshoot; Dreamy Video Goes Viral


EQS Newswire / 03/10/2023 / 02:00 CET/CEST

Accelerating Deeptech SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 3 October 2023 - X-PITCH is delighted to introduce 2023 TOP100 startups. Chosen from a pool of over 3,000 startups around the world, this year's selection showcases a diverse and vibrant ecosystem of entrepreneurial talent. X-PITCH 2023 is driven by a shared commitment to accelerate deeptech innovation across four vital domains: Healthcare, Advanced Manufacturing, Sustainability, and Digital Economy.







The statistics speak to the global reach and diversity of the competition. Among the semi-finalists, 88% originate from Asia, while the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Africa collectively make up the remaining 12%. These startups are at various stages of development, with 53% in Seed/Pre-A, 40% in Pre-Seed, and 7% in Series A/B. The categories they represent reflect the pressing needs of today's world, with 39% focusing on digital economy, 29% on sustainability, 20% on healthcare, and 12% on advanced manufacturing. For a closer look, find the TOP100 shortlist at www.xpitch.io .



X-PITCH 2023's overarching theme revolves around "Accelerating Deeptech." The primary objective is to foster innovation that not only advances technology but also contributes to the betterment of society. With a commitment to "Tech for Good," the competition aims to harness the power of deeptech in addressing critical global challenges.



X-PITCH is renowned as the X Games for Startups, thanks to its unique and challenging pitch contests. This iconic startup event offers founders the opportunity to win investments, accolades, and invaluable exposure. The competition has a history of hosting pitches in unconventional locations, including skyscraper elevators, self-driving cars, and even MRT. This year's semi-finals take place on the Singapore River, where startups will pitch aboard the city's iconic bumboats.



The journey culminates with the selection of the TOP10 startups from the semi-finals, who will advance to the finals at the National Gallery Singapore. The Grand Finale, scheduled for November 9th, will see the presentation of ten awards. The Deeptech Summit, a focal point of the event, will feature thought leaders exploring deeptech's transformative potential in different industries.



Since 2021, X-PITCH has expanded its global footprint, reaching over 50 countries, engaging 8,000+ startups, and involving more than 100,000 participants. The competition has been instrumental in securing a total of US$2 million in investment prizes and over $38 million in funding for the winners. Beyond the competition, X-PITCH's global partners will provide a range of value-added activities to benefit the TOP100 startups. These activities include market access seminars, pitch training, workshops, investor matching, and more.



Hosted by XCEL NEXT and e27, X-PITCH 2023 is made possible through the support of Enterprise Singapore and A*StartCentral and is co-organized by top organizations from ten Asian economies, including Block71 Singapore, BSSC, Cool Japan Fund, DOST-PCIEERD, HKSTP, HUB.ID, KOVA, MDEC, TA, TINVA, TusStar, and VITTBI. The event is proudly sponsored by AIOX Apex Angel Fund, Foxconn Technology, Media OutReach Newswire, Quanding EMC, and Yulon Motor.



"I am excited to extend an invitation to deeptech investors and stakeholders. X-PITCH 2023 aspires to be a platform for deeptech innovation, bringing together outstanding startups from across the globe in the shared pursuit of groundbreaking solutions. We cordially invite you to join us for the Finals & Summit in Singapore on November 9th, where these visionary founders will take center stage, contributing to a future where technology serves the greater good," said K. Yu, Organizing Committee Chair of X-PITCH 2023. To secure your spot, please register at: https://bit.ly/45dqVNx

Hashtag: xpitch deeptech startupcompetition

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. About X-PITCH X-PITCH is an iconic startup event in Asia, and probably the most challenging pitch contest in the world. Known as the "X Games for Startups", founders go through a series of pitch challenges to win investments, awards, and exposure. Official website: www.xpitch.io



News Source: Media OutReach

03/10/2023 Dissemination of a Financial Press Release, transmitted by EQS News.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



Media archive at www.todayir.com


Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 2, 2023) - Steppe Gold Ltd. (TSX: STGO) (OTCQX: STPGF) (FSE: 2J9) ("Steppe") announces that on September 27, 2023, Aranjin Resources Ltd. ("Aranjin"), with a head office address of Suite 202, 2438 Marine Drive, West Vancouver, British Columbia, V7V 1L1,converted the $1,814,400 principal amount of the outstanding convertible debenture held by Steppe to common shares of Aranjin ("Common Shares") at a price of $0.055 per Common Share, resulting in the issuance of 32,989,090 Common Shares to Steppe (the "Debenture Conversion"). Further, Steppe announces that it has entered into an agreement with Aranjin whereby Aranjin converted accrued interest of $543,574 on the outstanding debentures at a price of $0.055 per Common Share, resulting in the issuance of an additional 9,883,163 Common Shares to Steppe (the "Interest Conversion" and, together with the Debenture Conversion, the "Conversions").

Immediately before the completion of the Conversions, Steppe did not own or control any Common Shares. Immediately after the completion of the Conversions, Steppe owned 42,872,253 Common Shares, representing 11.06% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares.

The purpose of the Debenture Conversion was to enable Steppe to, among other things, convert the amount of all convertible debentures held by Steppe into Common Shares. The purpose of the Interest Conversion was to enable Steppe to, among other things, settle the accrued interest on all convertible debentures held by Steppe by converting such interest amount into Common Shares. Steppe has no current intention to increase its beneficial ownership of, or control or direction over, securities of Aranjin. Potential purchases or disposition of securities of Aranjin will be reviewed on a continuing basis by Steppe, and holdings may be increased or decreased in the future.

This press release is being issued pursuant to the requirements of National Instrument 62-103 - The Early Warning System and Related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues and National Instrument 62-104 - Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids of the Canadian Securities Administrators. For further information and to obtain a copy of the early warning report that will be filed under applicable Canadian securities laws in connection with the transactions hereunder, please see Steppe's profile on the SEDAR+ website www.sedarplus.ca or please contact:

Jeremy South, Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer

Steppe Gold Ltd.

Shangri-La office, Suite 1201, Olympic street

19A, Sukhbaatar District 1,

Ulaanbaatar 14241, Mongolia

Tel: +976 7732 1914

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/182736
TAIPEI, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Infortrend Technology, Inc. (TWSE: 2495), the industry-leading enterprise storage manufacturer, today announced the signing of a contract confirming a strategic distribution partnership with Supertron VAD Venture, one of the fastest-growing VADs in the Indian, Asian, and Middle East markets. This partnership will cover the entire South Asia Region, offering organizations cutting-edge enterprise storage solutions, featuring unmatched performance and high availability.

Supertron VAD is known for its extensive range of innovative and technologically advanced products from globally recognized brands, along with its innovative solution-centric strategic approach. Infortrend and Supertron are collaborating to provide organizations in the South Asia region with Infortrend's flagship solutions: enterprise unified storage EonStor GS and EonStor DS SAN storage. The partnership aims to ensure the highest level of client satisfaction and reliable after-sales services, as well as share both companies' expertise on surveillance, backup, database, and cloud applications.

"We are excited about our new strategic VAD partnership agreement with Infortrend, one of the most renowned brands in the enterprise storage market. We believe this marks the beginning of a fruitful, long-term partnership to provide Infortrend's solutions to both our existing and new partners across the South Asia region. Continuous cooperation will propel both companies into a business ecosystem of mutual growth and benefits," said Debraj Dam, Chief of Supertron Value-Added Distribution Venture.

"We are thrilled to join forces with Supertron VAD to enhance the accessibility of our innovative storage offerings for enterprises in South Asia. Their expertise in distribution and shared values of customer satisfaction make them an ideal partner as we continue to push the boundaries of storage technological advancements," said James Chang, Sales Manager of Pan Asia Division at Infortrend Technology.

Learn more about EonStor GS and EonStor DS

About Infortrend

Infortrend (TWSE: 2495) has been developing and manufacturing storage solutions since 1993. With a strong emphasis on in-house design, testing, and manufacturing, Infortrend storage delivers performance and scalability with the latest standards, user friendly data services, personal after-sales support, and unrivaled value. For more information, please visit www.infortrend.com

Infortrend and EonStor are trademarks or registered trademarks of Infortrend Technology, Inc.; other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/infortrend-announces-a-strategic-value-added-distribution-partnership-for-the-south-asia-region-enterprise-storage-market-with-supertron-vad-301945303.html
Self-driving technology company Wayve has published a technical report today detailing its cutting-edge generative world model for autonomy, GAIA-1.

GAIA-1 is the first generative world model designed specifically for autonomous driving, developed from Wayve's vast corpus of real-world driving data.

GAIA-1 is a true world model that can generate realistic future driving scenarios using video, text, and action inputs and offers fine-grained control over ego-vehicle behaviour and scene features.

Wayve, the leading developer of AI-powered self-driving technology, has published a technical report today detailing their generative world model, GAIA-1 (Generative AI for Autonomy), previewed in June 2023. This research model was developed to enhance and accelerate the training of Wayve's end-to-end AI software for autonomous driving.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003373396/en/

Driving scenes generated by Wayve GAIA-1 (Photo: Business Wire)

Generative world models hold significant promise to advance deep learning for robotics applications such as self-driving cars. World modelling can help AI models learn general representations of how the world works and how to predict what might happen next. Like how people use mental models to make sense of the world and guide their actions, embodied AI systems could benefit from world models like GAIA-1. These models could help autonomous vehicles better understand their surroundings, allowing them to efficiently anticipate and plan their driving actions.

GAIA-1 is the first generative world model designed specifically for self-driving systems. It was introduced earlier this year and builds on Wayve's research in future prediction, dreaming about driving, predicting in a bird's eye view and learning a world model. The 9-billion parameter model was trained on approximately 4,700 hours from Wayve's corpus of UK driving data. It leverages video, text and action inputs to generate realistic driving scenarios while offering fine-grained control over ego-vehicle behaviour and scene features. GAIA-1 provides Wayve with a versatile and powerful tool to advance the training and validation of safer and more intelligent autonomous systems.

The uniqueness of GAIA-1 lies in its ability to merge the predictive capabilities of world models with the scalability and realism of state-of-the-art generative AI techniques. By bridging these two worlds, GAIA-1 combines the advantages of both approaches, creating simulated driving videos that closely mirror real-world conditions not only in visual realism but in their accurate representation of the behavioural patterns of the ego-vehicle and other dynamic elements within the scene. GAIA-1 has shown impressive accuracy in its ability to comprehend important concepts for driving, like distinguishing between cars, trucks, buses, pedestrians, cyclists, road layouts and traffic behaviours-setting it apart from other video generation models.

Wayve is currently testing its self-driving technology daily on UK roads and is undertaking Europe's largest last-mile autonomous grocery delivery trial with the UK's second-largest online supermarket, Asda. The company recently unveiled another first-of-its-kind AI model, LINGO-1, that uses natural language to comment on driving scenes and explain its decision-making. Developments like LINGO-1 and GAIA-1 pave the way to significant advances in the field of autonomy, which can help self-driving cars better understand and predict their surroundings. This could represent a significant leap forward in making their safe deployment a reality.

Alex Kendall, Co-founder and CEO of Wayve, said: "I'm impressed by GAIA-1's ability to offer precise control over dynamic driving and scene features, including the way other agents in the scene react to the vehicle that's driving. This future prediction capability makes GAIA-1 truly representative of real-world driving. The diverse array of driving videos we can generate with this model makes it ideal for research, training and validation of autonomous driving systems."

"But the significance of GAIA-1 extends beyond its generative capabilities. GAIA-1's incorporation of world models represents a crucial step towards achieving autonomous systems that can understand, predict, and adapt to the complexities of the real world. This holds immense promise for improving the safety and robustness of autonomous vehicles and their ability to handle diverse and dynamic environments."

Yann LeCun, VP and Chief AI Scientist at Meta and Wayve Investor, said: "I've been advocating the idea of world models and planning for many years, and Wayve's GAIA-1 model is an impressive demonstration of how well this works in the context of autonomous driving."

For more information on GAIA-1, please check out Wayve's blog.

About Wayve

Wayve is on a mission to reimagine autonomous mobility through embodied intelligence. Founded in 2017, Wayve is made up of a global team of experts in machine learning and robotics from top organisations around the world. We were the first to deploy autonomous vehicles on public roads with end-to-end deep learning, pioneering the AI software, lean hardware, and fleet learning platform for AV2.0: a next-generation autonomous driving system that can quickly and safely adapt to new driving domains anywhere in the world.

Wayve has raised over $258M and is backed by Eclipse Ventures, D1 Capital Partners, Baillie Gifford, Moore Strategic Ventures, Balderton Capital, Virgin, and Ocado Group. The team is based in London and California, with a fleet of vehicles testing in cities across the UK. Wayve aims to be the first to deploy autonomy in 100 cities. To learn more, visit www.wayve.ai.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003373396/en/

Contacts:

media@wayve.ai
A series of experiments were conducted on euNetworks' 224km Rockabill subsea network in July, pushing the boundaries of quantum communication and paving the way for the future security of private data

Researchers from The University of York in collaboration with the Quantum Communications Hub and euNetworks Fiber UK Limited ("euNetworks") have for the first time successfully demonstrated that quantum communication is possible over the long geographical distance that separates England from Ireland. The team, led by Professor Marco Lucamarini from the University of York, ran a series of experiments using bandwidth infrastructure provider euNetworks' subsea cable, named Rockabill. This network is one of the newest commercial optical fibre systems in operation and connects Ireland to England in the United Kingdom, running 224 kilometres between Portrane and Southport cable landing stations. Until now, no quantum link has ever been established between the two countries, nor on a span stretching this length on a subsea fibre optic cable.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003629118/en/

Paula Cogan, CEO of euNetworks (Photo: Business Wire)

Quantum communication operates on the principle that particles of light can transmit data along optical cables in a highly fragile state. But the particles collapse if interfered with by someone trying to manipulate or steal private data, such as bank information, in transit.

"Many large companies and organisations are interested in quantum communications to secure their data, but it has limitations, particularly the distance it can travel," said Professor Marco Lucamarini. "The longer the distance, the more likely it is that the photon the particles of light that we use as carriers of quantum information are lost, absorbed or scattered in the channel, which reduces the chances of the information reaching its target. This presents a problem when organisations need to send private digital information to other cities or other countries, where the additional challenge could also be an ocean between the communications' start and end point."

To overcome this limitation, a pilot project was devised. Rockabill a new and unique ultra-low loss fibre optic subsea cable with low latency and remarkably low average attenuation presented an ideal environment. The 224km cable connects landing stations in Southport and Portrane without amplification or a repeating system.

The series of experiments conducted on-site resulted in the successful transportation of single and entangled photons, as well as in the successful measurement of the optical phase exploited in twin-field and continuous-variable Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), over a longer continuous distance than had ever been established before in undersea optical fibres, devoid of 'trusted nodes' between the two endpoints of the communication channel. The success of the experiments was largely due to highly sensitive detectors deployed at the Southport endpoint of the cable to reduce environmental noise levels.

The research further develops the use of QKD, the next frontier of data encryption technology. This technology has the potential to deliver advanced levels of network security. It has a strong use case in industries and organisations looking for highly secure data encryption methods, protection and transfer. It is already being applied and tested in worldwide government, pharmaceutical and life science organisations and in the financial services sector.

Professor Lucamarini said, "This is a truly exciting step forward in realising the full potential of quantum communications and for the future of securing private data in an environment that is shaping the so-called 'quantum internet'. This project also advances the real-world integration of quantum communication technology into existing global telecommunications and network infrastructure taking it out of the lab into a 'real-world' scenario."

"euNetworks is proud to support a critical project that pushes the boundaries of quantum technology and has implications for the future of network security," said Paula Cogan, Chief Executive Officer of euNetworks. "The successful integration of quantum technology over commercial-grade optical fibre infrastructure at this distance is an exciting step forward. Rockabill, and euNetworks' Super Highway network it is part of, provide the ideal platform for new and progressive technologies that will enhance and innovate future network infrastructure."

More experiments will need to be carried out using the same cable line to pave the way for integrating the services offered by quantum technologies into standard communications for industries sending private data between the UK and Ireland and for further advances in the quantum internet.

The project, funded by the EPSRC Quantum Communications Hub, will be presented at the NATO Symposium on Quantum Technology for Defence and Security in Amsterdam on 3 October.

About euNetworks

euNetworks is a critical bandwidth infrastructure company, owning and operating 17 fibre based metropolitan networks connected with a high capacity intercity backbone covering 53 cities in 17 countries across Europe. The company leads the market in data centre connectivity, directly connecting over 515 today. euNetworks is also a leading cloud connectivity provider and offers a targeted portfolio of metropolitan and long haul services including Dark Fibre, Wavelengths, and Ethernet. Wholesale, finance, content, media, mobile, data centre and enterprise customers benefit from euNetworks' unique inventory of fibre and duct based assets that are tailored to fulfil their high bandwidth needs. For further information visit eunetworks.com.

About The University of York

A member of the prestigious Russell Group, we are a dynamic, research-intensive university. We work collaboratively in partnership with institutions across the world to develop life-saving discoveries and new technologies that tackle some of the most pressing global challenges. Our 30+ academic departments undertake ground breaking research that underpins our inspiring teaching and challenges students to dream big, think critically and change the world. For further information, visit https://www.york.ac.uk/

About EPSRC Quantum Communications Hub

The EPSRC Quantum Communications Hub is a technology research and development collaboration of UK Universities, industrial partners and public sector stakeholders brought together to accelerate the commercialisation of secure quantum communications technologies and services at all distance scales. The project is funded via the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as part of the National Quantum Technologies Programme. For further information, visit https://www.quantumcommshub.net/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003629118/en/

Contacts:

euNetworks contact:

Hannah Britt Chief Marketing Officer euNetworks

5 Churchill Place London E14 5HU

hannah.britt@eunetworks.com email +44 7717 896 446 mobile

The University of York contact:

Samantha Martin Deputy Head of Media Relations The University of York

Communications Marketing, Heslington York YO10 5DD

s.martin@york.ac.uk email +44 7384 238 979 mobile
Abbas Ganbay

Head of the Press Service Department of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Aykhan Hajizada responded to the statements of the Finnish Ambassador to Azerbaijan with residence in Ankara, who is also the Ambassador to other countries of the South Caucasus Kirsti Narinen, Azernews reports.

The relevant publication was posted on the Azerbaijani diplomat's page on social network X (formerly Twitter).
DENVERA pair of lawsuits challenging age verification requirements for pornography sites in the U.S. states of Louisiana and Utah continue to advance through federal district and appellate courts.

The two lawsuits were brought by adult industry trade organization the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) in a bid to block the age verification laws implemented by the two Republican-dominated states.

The lawsuit challenging Utah Senate Bill (SB) 287 was killed by a federal district judge on technical grounds but was appealed to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. According to court filings, the Free Speech Coalition has filed appendices for the appeal, meaning that filings for parties involved in the case are expected in the coming days.

Sean Reyes, the attorney general for Utah, and Jess Anderson, the public safety commissioner, were named as defendants in the case brought by the FSC and companies in the adult space.

Due to how Senate Bill 287 is structured, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah dismissed the lawsuit.

SB 287 is a bounty law, meaning that it bars the state from enforcing the law and leaving that responsibility to the states courts to issue private enforcement actions.

In Louisiana, the FSC and a similar class of plaintiffs sued to block House Bill (HB) 142. This law was the first of its kind in the country when it entered into force on January 1, 2023.

Pornhubs parent firm, named MindGeek at the time (now called Aylo), deployed an age check strategy utilizing LA Wallet.

LA Wallet is Lousianas digital ID platform developed by software company Envoc.

Reporting on the costs of each check for users indicates that traffic to Pornhub from Louisiana-based IP addresses fell by over 80 percent, and searches for VPNs and proxies soared so that users dont have to enter their government ID to access adult content.

Volume, costs and the effectiveness of Envocs software are at issue in the Louisiana lawsuit that is before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The plaintiffs most recently filed a supplement to support their motion for a preliminary injunction blocking the requirement.

The defendants named in the lawsuit include Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and others, like Division of Administration head Jay Dardenne. Dardenne oversees the agency that is tasked with implementing the LA Wallet program and is additionally responsible for contracting Envoc as the states sole developer of the digital wallet software. The judge in this case issued an order on the defendants requesting supplemental information on the costs and adoption of LA Wallet as a solution for age verification.

In a declaration, Envocs president and CEO Calvin Fabre said that a cost assessment formulated by FSCs executive director Alison Boden is inaccurate. For corporate entities seeking to use our anonymous age-verification service, the price sheet attached to Alison Bodens supplemental declaration ... does not reflect LA Wallets current prices, says Fabre in the filed declaration. Currently, the anonymous age verification program is $1,500 for [the] initial set up and then $0.10 per check thereafter. The declaration also featured responses to certain concerns from the plaintiffs, including whether Envocs age-checking software is agnostic to the type of content that it is being used to block.

The claim both is nonresponsive and strains credulitynonresponsive because the court merely requested a list of companies that use LA Wallet, not companies 'associated with a particular age-verification request,'" writes counsel representing the FSC in their supplemental response to the defendants motion to dismiss due to a lack of jurisdiction.

All of this is hard to believe because LA Wallet (1) requires a contract (and, indeed, a signed NDA) to provide age verification services for a requesting entity, and (2) would not function safely and properly without a means of identifying the entity requesting a verification.

Dominic Ford, creator of JustFor.Fans (a suing party in the lawsuit) additionally submitted a supplemental declaration.

I have entered into several contracts for age verification services used in connection with the JustFor.Fans platform," Ford writes in his declaration. "Those contracts have confidentiality provisions which prohibit me from discussing the terms of the contracts, including pricing models and disclaimers as to the risk of hacking or accidental disclosure of identifying information, without a court order and advanced notice to the companies of the pending disclosure.

AVN reported on costs related to age verification software. We were unable to obtain information from software providers without signing non-disclosure agreements.
LONDON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- BritNed, the pioneering High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) interconnector linking the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, has officially ushered in a new era of energy trading with the launch of Empire, the world's first fully-integrated interconnector platform.

With the support of Supercharge, BritNed has replaced three legacy systems with a meticulously designed modern interface. Empire is poised to deliver unparalleled levels of performance and productivity within the interconnector sector, and will enable easier and new trading possibilities for BritNed's participants.

As a result of the partnership, BritNed will soon launch the world's first Buy Now Auction, offering both Day Ahead and Intraday capacity after the allocation period has closed, providing more flexibility for its customers.

Over the first 10 days of its operation Empire has allocated 892GW of Day Ahead and Intraday capacity with a total Allocation Revenue of 4.4M and 369MW of Long Term capacity for over 1.8M. The total Flow that was instructed by Empire was 184GWh which is equivalent to powering approximately 8,000 households every single hour.

The challenge

BritNed operates the 1 gigawatt HVDC interconnector between Great Britain and the Netherlands, which provides an essential connection between the electricity grids of the two countries. The high-voltage cable allows over 70 participating organisations to trade power between the two markets. To fully utilise the capacity of the interconnector and ensure safe operations, sophisticated orchestration is necessary for capacity allocation, transfer fulfilment, and financial settlements.

BritNed had previously been using multiple platforms to run Long Term, Day Ahead and Intraday auctions, manage nominations, and control energy flow.

BritNed's ambition was to move to a single platform to ensure that it could deliver an unprecedented level of performance and productivity in the interconnector industry. Its team is dedicated to innovation and aimed to develop a solution that prioritises the needs of its clients and employees, specifically tailored to their sophisticated operations and workflows.





The solution

An analysis led to the conclusion that the previous setup of multiple systems that somewhat restricted BritNed's innovation to roll out new and flexible allocation products should be replaced by one integrated platform. This integrated platform promises to unlock significant productivity gains for both BritNed's operators and clients alike, minimise curtailment losses, minimise process breakdown risks and remove technical bottlenecks that hinder the development of innovative offers.

To achieve this, BritNed sought a partner that could bring innovative ideas and facilitate a different angle of approach. Supercharge was asked to design and develop this uniquely powerful platform in close cooperation with BritNed's experts.



The decision to select Supercharge as the digital product development partner was based on the vendor's expertise in creating energy software that combines cutting-edge and robust technology with a human-centred design, resulting in tools that maximise efficiency in the field of critical infrastructure. BritNed and Supercharge have spent the 18 months working together to design and implement a solution that is geared towards efficiency and reliability down to its every detail. Through the cooperation the teams managed to bring together BritNed's years of experience in energy system operation and process design, with Supercharge's innovative new ideas to existing approaches to create a robust, user friendly and flexible future proof platform.

The resulting platform Empire features state-of-the-art API interfaces and a user experience focused on productivity. It offers an exceptionally efficient and seamless work environment for over 70 companies utilising the interconnector to participate in capacity auctions and manage nominations.



Additionally, the platform enables BritNed to maximise financial performance by optimising internal operations and enabling commercial innovation in a landscape that is rapidly changing in the wake of the sustainable energy revolution.

The results

Empire offers a single-window solution for BritNed's clients, including energy generators and traders, as well as the BritNed operators, allowing them to manage both long and short-term auctions and nominations from one place. The platform is seamlessly integrated with BritNed's Control Point System and various Third Parties in the European Energy Industry, enabling highly automated operations. Each component of the platform has been meticulously designed to meet the specific needs of energy sector participants, resulting in streamlined workflows and reliable performance. This solution benefits both BritNed and its customers, creating a win-win situation.

Empire has been designed by UX experts after carefully understanding the needs and ideal workflows of the various users. By replacing fractured and cumbersome multi-platform workflows with efficient integrated journeys, the platform significantly reduces the workload of traders and operators. This frees up capacity and allows human experts to focus on critical decisions and have access to relevant data when needed on a single easy-to use platform.

By consolidating all information into one integrated platform, it becomes possible to create dashboards that provide a comprehensive overview of relevant auctions, allocations, and nominations to all participants, encompassing all timescales within a Delivery Day. This enables faster and more accurate decision-making, observing and setting the position for each participant in a more comprehensive way, and ultimately leading to improved business outcomes.

The new platform offers well-documented APIs that enable seamless integration for companies participating in auctions through its own internal systems. These modern interfaces reduce IT operational costs for customers and establish reliable, real-time data connections, enabling the customers to extract more data than previously. This departure from outdated and isolated legacy solutions, which previously hindered or even prevented modern integration practices, has received highly positive feedback from BritNed's partners who are now beginning to utilise the new APIs.

Empire launches following rigorous customer testing throughout July & August and the successful deployment of the 24/7 helpdesk.

As a result of optimised and automated workflows in case of unplanned outage/asset failure of BritNed's undersea cable, BritNed's operators are now able to react and fully take control of all operational aspects of such unforeseen consequences in a matter of minutes. This quick action can result in BritNed's position being closer to its operational flow, which in turn causes a smaller imbalance and issues in the wider European Energy Market. It also helps to significantly decrease potential financial losses through curtailment compensation and Backup Power Purchase agreements for all involved parties.

Commenting on the project, Nils Teipel, Commercial Operations Manager at BritNed said: "Working with Supercharge was an exceptional experience. We swiftly established common goals building a platform which stands out from what's currently in the market, fostering a collaborative environment focused on innovation and quality. Supercharge's rapid knowledge acquisition, clear vision, and user-centric approach ensured the seamless delivery of the Empire platform not only on time but also at a great quality level, which in the end led to a very smooth and uneventful go live despite the huge complexity of such a transition. We are convinced that the Empire platform will step up our business to a new level and help us to deliver a wider range of products and enhance customer support."

Commenting on the project, Daniel Homoki-Farkas, Managing Director at Supercharge said: "It was an absolute pleasure to work in such close collaboration with BritNed in building Empire, the Next-Generation Trading and Nomination Platform over the last one and a half years. The partnership has really benefited both BritNed and Supercharge, as Supercharge gained a deep understanding of the role of Interconnectors and their day to day operations in the wider European Energy market, whilst BritNed was able to leverage Supercharge's design and technical excellence on this journey. I am very proud of what we have achieved together; it is a great testament to how long term and meaningful partnerships can be forged. We are very excited to keep building our Energy Practice within Supercharge and bring similar collaboration opportunities to other players globally."

Looking ahead

BritNed's commercial team is passionate about developing new products to better serve the shifting needs of its clients who operate in a rapidly changing energy market. In the past, rigid IT solutions were often the roadblocks in the way of changing the established allocation product offering. With a modern, scalable platform BritNed's team can bring ground-breaking new products to the market faster and easier.

Now, if BritNed is able to return to service from a planned or unplanned outage, BritNed has the option to utilise its spare capacity and offer it to its customers - whilst currently other interconnectors are not able to do such. Further future product considerations entail new customised Long Term Auction products such as 'Winter Period Auction', shorter lead time Intraday Allocations and utilising the cables dynamic overload capacity mechanisms to offer additional capacity to the Intraday Auctions.

About BritNed

BritNed owns and operates the 1GW HVDC electricity interconnector between Great Britain and the Netherlands. BritNed delivers world class asset reliability, vital to the energy needs of Great Britain and the Netherlands, and does so with it with a key focus on safety.

We are proud to be an international team from around the world, which has a passion to do our best for our customers. We possess a wide range of technical and commercial expertise with some of the most knowledgeable experts in the industry.

About Supercharge

Supercharge is one of the fastest-growing tech companies in Europe, according to Financial Times (FT1000) and Deloitte (Fast50). Our in-house team of over 200 digital experts across our European and North American offices are passionately united in the pursuit of discovering and building better futures.

We fuse behaviour science, visionary design and unique technical competence to unlock growth, efficiency and resiliency for your business. We believe that innovation is a team effort: our strategists, designers, developers and engineers work shoulder to shoulder to enable what yesterday was still impossible.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/britned-revolutionises-energy-trading-with-launch-of-empire-the-next-generation-trading-and-nomination-platform-301944890.html
The 12th annual Stoptober campaign has begun with public health organisations across the country seeking to help smokers quit

However, a poll conducted by Sermo has found that there is widespread misunderstanding among clinicians as to how best to support smokers

60% of British doctors on average incorrectly believe nicotine causes both lung cancer and 65% believe it causes atherosclerosis.

While on average 89% of doctors at least moderately agree that helping patients quit smoking is a priority, a lack of training and nicotine knowledge adversely impacts how they give smoking patients quitting and harm reduction advice.

1 in 2 UK doctors says they are not appropriately trained to help patients quit smoking.

LONDON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly 6 in 10 doctors in the UK mistakenly attribute negative health consequences of smoking to nicotine, directly jeopardising efforts made in helping smokers quit, a survey funded by a Foundation for a Smoke-Free World grant has found.

The misconception about the dangers of nicotine among British doctors leaves 60% believing it directly causes lung cancer. A similar number (59%) mistakenly believe nicotine causes head, neck, and gastric cancers and 56% say it causes bladder cancer.

Sermo, an independent platform and leader in actionable healthcare professional insights, surveyed more than 15,000 doctors online in 11 countries (China, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States).

At a global level, the proportion of doctors who mistakenly attribute negative health consequences of smoking to nicotine rises to a staggering 8 in 10.

While in Britain, 89% of doctors at least moderately agree helping patients quit smoking is a priority, it's troubling that on average 6 in 10 doctors incorrectly believe nicotine causes a range of illnesses from cancer to COPD.

This raises serious concerns about the ability of UK doctors to equip patients who smoke with the most accurate and effective advice on how to quit, backed up by the survey finding that half of doctors in the UK admit they are not appropriately trained to help patients quit smoking.

Smoking remains the single biggest cause of preventable illness and death in England. Latest figures estimate smoking costs the NHS 2.4 billion a year.

In 2022, the UK Government commissioned an independent report looking at how to ensure the country is smokefree by 2030. Among the recommendations was a call for clinicians to improve their knowledge levels and offer improved advice, and to encourage the use of vaping. The new poll highlights there is still a lot of work to do to match the government's ambitions.

"Patients place trust in doctors to give them sound health care and treatment options that can help prevent illness and disease," said Dr. Muhammad Ahmed, Director of Health and Science Research, Foundation for a Smoke-Free World. "It is therefore imperative that doctors get the proper training to learn the facts about nicotine.

"To achieve a smoke-free England, and as we recover from a global pandemic, providing doctors with concise, up to date, and evidence-based information on tobacco harm reduction and smoking cessation tools, delivered by peers who understand ground realities, should be a top priority.

"As Stoptober gets underway, with smokers across the UK attempting to quit, there is no better time for us to raise the alarm. Millions of lives in the UK depend on it."

Although the misperceptions are alarming, on average 83% of British physicians surveyed are at least moderately interested in training focused on smoking cessation and tobacco harm reduction. Nearly 7 in 10 (69%) British doctors said learning about the effectiveness of different smoking reduction and cessation products and methods would be of greatest interest when undertaking training.

The Doctors' Survey findings for the UK can be accessed on the Foundation's website at www.smokefreeworld.org/doctorssurvey/united-kingdom/.

The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World invites researchers to submit proposals to further analyse the Doctors' Survey findings and propose programs that would help improve doctors' fluency about smoking cessation and tobacco harm reduction. Researchers interested in submitting a proposal should contact support@smokefreeworld.org.

About Stoptober

Stoptober is the annual campaign under the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities' umbrella brand, 'Better Health Let's Do This' that encourages smokers across the country to join in and give quitting a go for the month of October. Research shows people are five times more likely to quit for good if they can make it to at least 28 days smoke free.

About the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World is an independent, U.S. nonprofit 501(c)(3) grantmaking organization with the purpose of improving global health by ending smoking in this generation. The Foundation supports its mission through three broad categories of work: Health and Science Research; Agricultural Diversification; and Industry Transformation. Funded by annual gifts from PMI Global Services Inc. ("PMI"), the Foundation is independent from PMI and operates in a manner that ensures its independence from any commercial entity. For more information about the Foundation, please visit www.smokefreeworld.org.

Media Inquiries

For further information, please contact:

Alex Walker at Actum LLC - awalker@actumllc.com/+44 (0) 7702 561 742, or

Miran Hassan at Actum LLC - mhassan@actumllc.com/ +44 (0) 7931 004 003.

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/stoptober-nearly-6-in-10-british-doctors-mistakenly-believe-nicotine-causes-lung-cancer-endangering-efforts-to-help-more-than-six-million-brits-quit-301945158.html
Platformatic, the modern backend development platform, is pleased to announce that Spendesk, a fintech unicorn pioneering spend management solutions, has adopted its platform to enhance backend development efficiency. This collaboration underscores Spendesk's commitment to delivering innovative financial services to its customers.

Streamlining Backend Development

In today's dynamic business environment, the continuous optimization of backend development processes is imperative for companies like Spendesk. This ensures they can meet evolving client needs, innovate rapidly, and maintain the security and reliability of their software.

Spendesk's engineering team identified Platformatic as the right solution to assist with simplifying their backend development process and reducing deployment risk while maintaining a focus on security and best practices.

Marco Bassi, Engineering Manager Platform Group at Spendesk, elaborates, "The collaboration with Platformatic and the use of their tools were pivotal for our team behind Spendesk's Public API, who undertook the challenge of delivering it within a span of less than 6 months."

Platformatic Client: An Innovative Solution for Spendesk

Platformatic Client, a client generator that produces fully typed clients with no dependencies, seamlessly integrates into the development process, ensuring the integrity of the application while simplifying complex development tasks.

Roberto Bianchi, Senior Software Engineer at Spendesk, continues, "We've adopted Platformatic to help us grow and operate Spendesk's backend. Notably, Platformatic Client has simplified our development process supporting the Alpha launch of our Public API, helping us to ship quickly and iteratively as we continue to expand our features and customer base and accelerate our time-to-market."

Luca Maraschi, CEO of Platformatic, remarked: "Platformatic was created to help companies like Spendesk deliver top-notch software with innovative features while maintaining a resilient software architecture. Seeing this vision become a reality through our adoption by Spendesk is immensely exciting for us."

An End to Breaking Changes Repetition: Platformatic Unveils Enterprise Features

Earlier this month, Platformatic announced the availability of two groundbreaking new enterprise features to empower development teams to streamline their development processes, reduce deployment risks, and accelerate application development.

Breaking Change Detector is Platformatic's new tool providing clarity on how changes impact the public API level and teams involved. By mapping dependencies and interactions using OpenTelemetry, it assesses potential risks associated with code deployments.

Platformatic's second enterprise feature, Stackables, offers pre-configured templates that eliminate time-consuming foundational infrastructure work, allowing development teams to focus on creating innovative features.

About Platformatic: Platformatic is a leading backend development solutions provider, dedicated to simplifying and accelerating the creation of APIs for modern digital experiences. Founded by Matteo Collina, a core Node.js maintainer and creator of Fastify, along with Luca Maraschi, Platformatic is trusted by enterprises worldwide including Wilma Technologies and Valor Software to optimize backend development processes. The company received $3.5 million in funding in a raise it announced earlier this year by Decibel, Panache Ventures, and notable angels from the open-source and developer communities.

About Spendesk: Spendesk is on a mission to simplify expense management for businesses and employees, freeing them from complex administrative processes. With over 200,000 users, its expense management solution enhances team collaboration, boosts productivity, and provides 100% control to finance teams. Its 7-in-1 platform offers a complete suite of features, including physical and virtual corporate cards, invoice payments, expense reimbursements, budgeting, approval workflows, reporting, and pre-accounting, all integrated into a user-friendly and scalable solution. With a team of over 600 employees, Spendesk is headquartered in Paris and has offices throughout Europe. www.spendesk.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230929251750/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Alexandra Manos, Platformatic

alexandra@platformatic.dev

+44 7709788217
Automata's technology reduces drug development and testing timelines, costs and error rates fundraise underlines strong investor industry endorsement of its potential.

Enables expansion of commercialisation strategy for efficiency-driving and capacity solving lab automation technology to the life sciences sector

Automata Technologies, a leading automation company powering life sciences labs, has raised $40m to accelerate its rapid growth and industry presence across the US, UK and EMEA.

Scientific organisations are increasingly focussed on the speed and flexibility of their experimentation and data collection. This is happening at the same time as they struggle to find laboratory real estate as well as finding and retaining skilled lab staff. This convergence is leading to organisations rethinking their tooling, data infrastructure and ability to experiment at scale.

Automata's LINQ automation platform is designed to make automation easily adoptable by science labs across research institutions, hospital groups and pharmaceutical and biotech companies and CROs, whether they are running high throughput workflows or experimenting with a high rate of workflow changeover requiring dynamic protocol development.

Dimension led the round with participation from A.P. Moller Holding, parent company of the A.P. Moller Group and owners of, amongst other businesses, laboratory testing group Unilabs. They have invested alongside returning investors, Octopus Ventures, Hummingbird, Isomer Capital, Possible Ventures and Aldea Ventures.

The proceeds will be used to fund Automata's geographic and team expansion plans, focusing the business on the fast-growing opportunities in the global life sciences sector and developing its brand recognition and presence in the industry.

This latest funding round builds on the success of the $50m Series B round raised in January 2022 which enabled the team to deliver on its initial commercialisation and expansion plans, in particular its deployment footprint in Europe and the UK and rapid growth in the US. Since the last funding round in January 2022, Automata has seen 150% revenue growth. It has also seen a 12-times increase in live system hours in customer-deployed systems.

Current customers include NHS Trusts such as The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, academic institutions including The Francis Crick Institute, testing labs such as HSL, CDMOs and CROs, pharma and biotech companies, such as Astra Zeneca and bit.bio.

Mostafa Elsayed, Founder and CEO of Automata, commented:

"The last two years have been hugely exciting at Automata as we've seen LINQ increase the scale of customer workflows as well as meaningfully increasing their ability to generate high quality data accelerating their pace of discovery and experimentation.

"Achieving a fundraise with exciting and experienced investors in a pretty challenging funding environment is a real endorsement of the potential and capabilities of our lab automation platform and the work the team has achieved.

"The raise enables us to continue to focus on our existing and upcoming deployments as well as continuing to develop products that transform how scientists interact with their labs. Most importantly, it will help us to accelerate the impact our users are already having on people's lives around the world."

Nan Li, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Dimension, added:

"The modern lab is a data factory, requiring precise coordination across a suite of lab instruments juggling multiple protocol runs. As a result, the industry needs a lab automation system that is built with an emphasis on speed, reliability, reconfigurability, reproducibility, and scale. Automata's modular software and hardware LINQ system delivers just that and we're thrilled to partner with them to build a category-defining business in this space."

Chetan Mehta, Head of Growth Equity of A.P. Moller Holding, added:

""We are delighted to partner with Automata, an emerging leader in modernizing and automating the global life science industry. Automata's solutions help increase throughput, lower cost, and accelerate innovation allowing its customers to focus on pushing further into cutting edge medical and life science research."

About Automata Technologies

Automata is a leading robotics and automation company, powering the laboratories of the future. Its automating technology enables new and improved processes, empowers scientists with transformed ways of working and delivers faster translation of results from 'bench to bedside'.

Automata's Lab Automation Platform meets labs where they are on their automation journey, and is the trusted partner to improving efficiencies and freeing scientists to work on new and innovative discoveries. It is trusted by customers including NHS Trusts and are supporting advancements across core testing labs, academic institutions, CDMOs, pharma and biotech companies.

Automata's LINQ automation platform is a vertically integrated platform which includes:

Software that empowers scientists to design, schedule and run their workflows. Proprietary hardware that acts as the core of a lab's robotics ecosystem enabling modular configurations, higher throughputs and parallel workflows. Data availability at every stage of an experiment or workflow. OEM agnostic approach to third party instrumentation allowing frictionless integration with a variety of labs and equipment

Automata is based in London, UK with operations also in Boston, US. Learn more about Automata's solutions at www.automata.tech.

About Dimension

Dimension is a multi-stage investment firm dedicated to the interface of technology and the life sciences. The firm launched in 2023 with a $350M fund and partners with visionary founders to build enduring, category-defining businesses across software, infrastructure, therapeutics, diagnostics, and clinical development. Dimension invests in companies around the globe and has offices in New York and San Francisco. Learn more at www.dimensioncap.com.

About A.P. Moller Group

The A.P. Moller Group is a diversified group of industry-leading companies. A.P. Moller Holding is the parent company of the Group, investing in and building businesses with a positive impact on society 'nyttig virksomhed'. See more at www.apmoller.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003922690/en/

Contacts:

Automata Technologies

Mostafa Elsayed, Chief Executive Officer

+44 (0)20 3991 2253



Instinctif Partners (Media enquiries)

Rozi Morris, Melanie Toyne Sewell

+44 (0)20 7457 2020

automata@instinctif.com
The Therapeutics Accelerator (the 'Accelerator') will identify, fund and advance innovative projects from academic partners in the U.K. and U.S. with the goal to deliver 40 new potentially life-changing therapies for rare diseases into clinical trials over the next ten years, targeting multiple approvals in key markets.

The Accelerator will operate a unique non-profit/for-profit model with the intention to commit up to 200 million ($250 million).

The Accelerator will receive support from a new partnership between University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, University of Oxford and investment company Oxford Science Enterprises.

Former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron to lead the international efforts of the Accelerator as Chair of the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre Advisory Board.

OXFORD, United Kingdom and CLEVELAND, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Oxford and Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio announced the launch of the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre Therapeutics Accelerator with an official signing event at the University of Oxford. The event was hosted by the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre (OHC), a partnership established in 2019 between the University of Oxford and Harrington Discovery Institute. Attendance at the signing included leaders from OHC, the University of Oxford, the Harrington family, University Hospitals, and Oxford Science Enterprises.

The OHC unites world-leading research across the U.K. and U.S. with expertise in therapeutics development by combining University of Oxford's scientific leadership and resources (250+ principal investigator scientists working on over 350 rare diseases) with Harrington Discovery Institute's track record of advancing breakthrough medicines into clinical development (177 medicines funded, 36 companies launched, 19 medicines into the clinic, and 13 licenses to pharma companies since its founding in 2012).

The Accelerator is a first-in-kind, transatlantic initiative to identify, fund and advance breakthrough academic discoveries to deliver new treatments for the 400 million people worldwide who suffer from rare diseases. Its goal is to deliver 40 new potentially life-changing therapies for rare diseases into clinical trials over the next ten years and target multiple approvals from regulators in key markets including the U.S., the U.K. and Europe.

David Cameron, the former U.K. Prime Minister, who was present at the launch event, will lead the international efforts of the Accelerator under his role as Chair of the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre Advisory Board.

David Cameron said:

"I know from my own experience of having a son born with an incredibly rare and incurable disease, how little we really know about rare diseases. Although individually they may only affect small numbers of patients like my son, Ivan, collectively they represent a major global health crisis that affects millions of patients and their families in life-changing ways.

As Prime Minister and since, I have been fortunate to follow the enormous scientific breakthroughs that have taken place over the last decade, such as the use of genomics, which opened my eyes to how much we could know about rare diseases. That's why I set up Genomics England and personally championed the 100,000 Genomes Project - now expanded to sequence 5 million adults across the UK - and that is why today I am so pleased to back this unique Rare Disease Therapeutics Accelerator, designed to make a transformational, global impact on the treatment of these devastating and often neglected diseases.

I have long said that beating these diseases is within our grasp. This Accelerator will deliver new, real and tangible therapies for patients and, by doing so, offer huge benefits for patients, their families and wider society. I am delighted to play my part in making it a reality."

The OHC prioritizes rare genetic diseases affecting children or adults where there is urgent need and opportunity for greatest impact and that fall into the areas of rare neurological diseases, cancers and developmental diseases. Projects will be sourced from academic labs across the U.K. and U.S.

The Accelerator will operate a unique non-profit/for-profit model with the intention to commit up to 200 million into new projects. Project funding will be paired with research, drug development, commercial strategy and business development expertise from pharma-experienced industry leaders with a track record of bringing new drugs to market.

The Accelerator will receive support from a new co-funding and co-investment agreement between University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, University of Oxford and investment company Oxford Science Enterprises, and aims to ensure that capital is deployed efficiently to advance a sustainable pipeline of new therapies either through academia or via the creation of venture-backed spinout companies.

The first investment by the Accelerator was made in September 2023 in conjunction with the creation of AlveoGene, a new U.K. company launched to develop innovative inhaled gene therapies and transform outcomes in patients with rare respiratory diseases.

The partners are also collaborating to create a dedicated Rare Disease Impact Fund to enable investments in mission-aligned projects and accelerate the development of rare disease therapeutics.

Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford and member of the OHC Steering Committee, said:

"It requires true innovation, collaboration, vision and commitment to make meaningful progress in changing the global rare disease landscape for patients, their families and society. Since the creation of the OHC in 2019 we have made good progress along this path - and the hope is that by building on this foundation with this exciting new initiative, we can really create momentum to drive the translation of cutting-edge science into life-changing therapies targeting some of the most debilitating diseases."

Jonathan Stamler, MD, President and Founder of Harrington Discovery Institute, said:

"Harrington has been supporting the advancement of treatments for rare and other diseases for more than a decade, committing significant funds and resources to this global challenge with considerable success. Our commitment is to major unmet needs in society to better the world. This new Accelerator and extended collaboration with Oxford and Oxford Science Enterprises represents a major step forward towards finding the best medicines that improve outcomes for the millions of individuals and families affected by rare diseases."

Matthew Wood, Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the OHC, said:

"OHC was set up with a bold vision and ambitious goals to make an impact on the treatment of rare diseases. This new Accelerator initiative takes this a step further with its unique collaboration and for-profit and not-for-profit model. It is only by combining resources and adopting innovative approaches that we can truly accelerate the development of new drugs for patients in need. Already we have seen many exciting opportunities and look forward to engaging with scientists at the forefront of rare disease research."

Georg Hollander, Head of Department of Paediatrics at the University of Oxford, said:

"This is a great moment for Paediatrics at Oxford as it expands its commitment to childhood diseases across the U.K. and the U.S. There is so much great research being done on these diseases and only through exciting multi-organizational collaborations like the OHC and the Accelerator can we make the progress we need to bring hope to patients and their families around the world."

Ed Bussey, CEO at Oxford Science Enterprises, said:

"As a company focused on translating scientific breakthroughs into commercially successful businesses, we are thrilled to partner with OHC on the introduction of a Rare Disease Therapeutics Accelerator. Through this initiative we hope to uncover the most promising opportunities, creating and building innovative new companies with the goal of improving patient outcomes for people impacted by rare diseases globally."

Ronald G. Harrington, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist, said:

"Our family is thrilled to see the extraordinary progress that Harrington Discovery Institute has made since we launched in 2012. It is humbling and gratifying that our efforts are recognized and supported by so many participants in the industry from disease foundations to prestigious universities and innovative biopharmaceutical companies. The launch of this new rare disease initiative and extension of our relationship with Oxford is a further example of our ambition to make a meaningful positive impact on global health challenges affecting millions of people around the world."

Cliff A. Megerian, MD, FACS, CEO, University Hospitals, said:

"Every day, through the work we do at University Hospitals, we are inspired by the courage and determination of patients with rare diseases and their families. This gives us a real sense of urgency and motivation to make a difference in the lives of these families and we are fully committed to supporting this new Accelerator and the efforts of our transatlantic team and partners in their mission."

Daniel I. Simon, MD, President, Academic & External Affairs and Chief Scientific Officer, University Hospitals, said:

"Our health system is focused on translating discoveries to address unmet clinical needs. Leveraging the unique Harrington model in the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre will catalyze the development of new medicines for hundreds of thousands of patients across the globe."

For academics and researchers to find out more about the Therapeutics Accelerator at the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre and how to apply, please go to OxfordHarrington.org.

Notes to Editors:

About Rare Diseases

More than 400 million people worldwide are living with a rare disease, and approximately 50 percent are children. There are about 7,000 known rare diseases, with new diseases being discovered every day. A rare disease affects one in 10 Americans, or 10 percent of the US population. Similarly, Europe has approximately 30 million people who suffer from a rare disease. The majority of all rare diseases are genetic in origin, which means they are present throughout a person's life. Only five percent of rare diseases have a treatment approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and similar estimates have been made for treatments approved by the European Medicine Agency (EMA). Therefore, someone with a rare disease today faces a lifelong, often life-threatening, condition with little hope for a cure, or even an effective treatment option.

About Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre

The Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre (OHC) is a partnership between the University of Oxford, U.K. and Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals, Cleveland, OH, USA. OHC combines world-leading strengths in research and therapeutics development from across these organizations, to set the science and innovation agenda, driving cutting-edge rare disease breakthroughs to address the unmet need in rare disease across the globe to deliver major clinical impact for patients. For more information, visit: OxfordHarrington.org | Twitter

About the University of Oxford Medical Sciences Division

Oxford University's Medical Sciences Division is one of the largest biomedical research centres in Europe, with over 2,500 people involved in research and more than 2,800 students. The University is rated the best in the world for medicine and life sciences, and it is home to the UK's top-ranked medical school. It has one of the largest clinical trial portfolios in the UK and great expertise in taking discoveries from the lab into the clinic. Partnerships with the local NHS Trusts enable patients to benefit from close links between medical research and healthcare delivery.

About Oxford Science Enterprises

Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE) is an independent, billion-pound investment company, created in 2015 to found, fund and build transformational businesses via its unique partnership with the University of Oxford, the world's #1 research university. This partnership enables OSE to work with the brightest academic minds tackling the world's toughest challenges and guarantees unrivalled access to their scientific research. In collaboration with its global network of entrepreneurs and advisers, OSE goes well beyond funding to shape and nurture these complex ideas into successful businesses. Actively focused on a core portfolio of around 40 companies spanning three high-growth, high-impact sectors - Life Sciences, Health Tech, and Deep Tech - the company adopts a flexible, long-term investment approach, recognising the path from ground-breaking research to global markets takes time and resilience. To date, OSE has invested 0.6 billion in over 80 ambitious companies built on Oxford science. For more information, visit: oxfordscienceenterprises.com | Twitter | LinkedIn

About Harrington Discovery Institute

The Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, OH - part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development - is a translational accelerator that advances promising discoveries from academic labs into the clinic for the benefit of patients and society. The institute was created in 2012 with a $50 million founding gift from the Harrington family and is a prime example of the commitment they share with University Hospitals to a Vision for a 'Better World'. For more information, visit: HarringtonDiscovery.org | LinkedIn | Twitter

About University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio

Founded in 1866, University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of 21 hospitals (including five joint ventures), more than 50 health centers and outpatient facilities, and over 200 physician offices in 16 counties throughout northern Ohio. The system's flagship quaternary care, academic medical center, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Oxford University, the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and National Taiwan University College of Medicine. The main campus also includes the UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. UH is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research programs in the nation, with more than 3,000 active clinical trials and research studies underway. UH Cleveland Medical Center is perennially among the highest performers in national ranking surveys, including "America's Best Hospitals" from U.S. News & World Report. UH is also home to 19 Clinical Care Delivery and Research Institutes. UH is one of the largest employers in Northeast Ohio with more than 30,000 employees. Follow UH on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. For more information, visit UHhospitals.org.

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Marula Mining Plc - Expansion at Blesberg with New Prospecting Right Acquisition

PR Newswire

LONDON, United Kingdom, October 03

Marula Mining PLC

("Marula'' or the "Company")

3 October 2023

Expansion at Blesberg with New Prospecting Right Acquisition

Marula Mining (AQSE: MARU) ("Marula" or the "Company') an African focused mining investment company, is pleased to announce that the Company and its wholly-owned South African subsidiary, Marula Lithium Mining South Africa Pty Limited ("MLMSA"), have entered into a binding heads of agreement with South African mining and exploration companies, Opencast Resources Pty Ltd ("ORL") and Future Gems Pty Ltd ("FGL"), to secure a 70% interest in FGL from ORL, the holder of the Korridor 21 Prospecting Right ("Korridor" or the "Project") in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, a region known for high-grade pegmatite deposits. The acquisition will be satisfied by way of an initial consideration of 125,000 in Marula shares along with a cash payment of up to US$50,000 with subsequent share-based payments subject to completion of key technical milestones.

Korridor is located approx. 30km immediately to the west of the Company's Blesberg Lithium and Tantalum Mine ("Blesberg"). Korridor is located on Prospecting Right NC30/5/1/1/2/13112PR, which is valid for a period of 5 years through to 2028 and extends over 912.65km2. It is in a region considered highly prospective for lithium mineralisation.

As part of the Company's ongoing exploration and mining works program at Blesberg, and as announced on 20 September 2023, the multi-spectral satellite imaging analyses currently being completed over Blesberg will also be extended over Korridor. The airborne geophysical survey by SkyTEM Africa Pty Limited is scheduled to commence next week at Blesberg, is also proposed to cover part of the Korridor area too.

Highlights:

Marula and MMLSA have entered into a binding Heads of Agreement with ORL and FGL and secured a 70% interest in the Korridor Lithium Prospecting License

The Korridor license area of 912.65km2 is over 80 times the 10.52km2 size of Blesberg and materially increases the Company's land holdings in a region with proven high-grade lithium bearing pegmatite deposits

Korridor is located approx. 30km due west of Blesberg and is easily accessed from both main road infrastructure in the region and from the Blesberg mine site itself

The Company's geologists have advised that they believe the pegmatites in the Korridor area, are predominantly hosted by the Vioolsdrif Granitoid Suite and are lenticular dyke and vein-like bodies, with zoned mineralisation containing lithium, tantalum, niobium, feldspars, beryl and bismuth similar to that found at Blesberg

The area has not been subject to any systematic or modern exploration work and the Company will now commence broad exploration activities over the Prospecting Right with geophysics and multi-spectral satellite imaging work and additional field work that will focus on areas with exposed and shallow lithium mineralisation

The multi-spectral satellite imaging work currently being undertaken at Blesberg by Pytheas AG, will also be completed over Korridor and is aimed at identifying prospective lithium mineralised areas

In addition, the airborne geophysics program that will commence at Blesberg in October 2023, is also proposed to be completed across parts of Korridor

Acquisition of the 70% interest in FGL is to be completed through a series of share based payments that are linked to satisfaction of key technical and performance milestones at the Project

The Company has agreed to issue the ORL shareholders with an initial tranche of 1,000,000 new ordinary shares at a price of 12.5 pence per new ordinary share and reimburse to them up to US$50,000 of project related costs

Four further tranches of shares, are to be made to the ORL shareholders upon achievement of key technical milestones and a decision by the Company to move forward with additional work at each stage

The technical milestones and issue of shares include (i) 1,500,000 new ordinary shares to be issued on completion of the initial exploration program, (ii) 1,500,000 new ordinary shares to be issued on completion of a resource definition drilling program and the release of a JORC Compliant Resource statement, (iii) 2,000,000 new ordinary shares to be issued on a decision to commence mine development and (iv) a final 2,000,000 new ordinary shares to be issued on completion of lithium product sales that generate minimum revenue of US$2,500,000

Under the terms of the Agreement, Marula will fund all exploration activities at the Project through to completion of a feasibility study and a decision to commence mine development

The Company's executive management believe that there is the potential to develop multiple satellite open pit mining operations at Korridor, with the mined material loaded and hauled to expanded processing facilities at Blesberg

Formal documentation has commenced with ORL and FGL and its shareholders and this is expected to be completed in due course

Admission

Application has been made for the 1,000,000 Initial Consideration Shares to be admitted to trading on the Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market on or around 6 October 2023 ("Admission").

Total Voting Rights

Following Admission, the Company's issued share capital will comprise 150,692,908 ordinary shares of 0.01p each, with each share carrying the right to one vote, therefore the total number of voting rights in the Company will be 150,692,908. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in the Company, or a change to their interest in the Company, under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

Jason Brewer, Marula Mining PLC CEO said:

"I am really pleased that we have been able to sign this agreement with ORL and FGL and its shareholders and significantly increase our land holdings in the Northern Cape, a region with proven high-grade lithium mineralisation.

"We have invested heavily in the mining and processing operations at Blesberg in 2023 and strategically it is important for us to consolidate our position in the region. We believe there is the opportunity for the central processing operations at Blesberg to treat material mined from multiple satellite open pit operations across the broader Blesberg license area and the Korridor license area in the future.

"Work will commence immediately at Korridor, with the ongoing multi-spectral satellite imaging work at Blesberg to be extended to cover Korridor, and the airborne geophysics survey which starts in October 2023 on Blesberg, is proposed to also cover part of the Korridor area too.

"This acquisition demonstrates our commitment to the region and in growing our battery metals business in South Africa around the Blesberg Lithium and Tantalum Mine. I look forward to updating shareholders on our progress and further developments at Korridor."

About the Korridor 21 Prospecting Right

Korridor is located approx. 30km immediately west of Blesberg and approx. 48km from the town of Steinkopf towards Port Nolloth.

FGL is the 100% holder of Prospecting Right NC30/5/1/1/2/13112PR, which is valid for a period of 5 years through to 2028 and extends over 912.65km2 over portions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 of the Korridor 21 in the Namaqualand District of the Northern Cape.

FGL and ORL previously entered into a Memorandum of Understanding under which ORL secured a 70% interest in FGL and which sets out the proposed exploration and development of mining and processing at Korridor.

The Korridor Prospecting Right is situated in a border zone between two tectonic domains, the Richtersveld Sub- provinces and Bushmanland Terrane, of the Namaqua Sector of the Namaqua-Natal Province. The Company's geological team believe that the pegmatites in the Korridor area, are predominantly hosted by the Vioolsdrif Granitoid Suite. The Vioolsdrif Granitoid Suite consists of granodiorites and alkali feldspar leucogranites.

The pegmatites in the Korridor area are considered to be lenticular dyke and vein-like bodies, and display zoned mineralisation with the pegmatite containing lithium, tantalum, niobium, feldspars, beryl and bismuth. The mineralisation is associated with 6-zones with the spodumene identified in one of three intermediate zones and the tantalite mineralisation identified in two of the three intermediate zones.

The Directors of Marula are responsible for the contents of this announcement. This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of UK Market Abuse Regulation.

About Marula Mining

Marula Mining (AQSE: MARU) is an African focused battery metals investment and exploration company and has interests in several high value mine projects in Africa; the Blesberg Lithium and Tantalum Mine in South Africa, the Kinusi Copper Mine, the Nyorinyori Graphite Project, the NyoriGreen Graphite Project and the Bagamoyo Graphite Project all in Tanzania and the Nkombwa Hill Project in Zambia. As we advance operations at these battery metals focused projects, Marula will continue to build and expand its interests in other high-quality projects in Africa.

Marula's strategy is to identify and invest in advanced and high-value mining projects throughout East, Central and Southern Africa that the Directors believe would deliver returns for its shareholders. The Board and management team aims to establish Marula as a socially and environmentally responsible, sustainable, and profitable producer of critical metals and commodities that are of increasingly strategic importance to modern technologies and the global economy.

Marula's shares are traded on the AQUIS Stock Exchange (AQSE), Marula is exploring opportunities to admit its shares to trading on the London Stock Exchange plc's Standard List or AIM Market, Kenya's Nairobi Securities Exchange and South Africa's Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

For enquiries contact:

Marula Mining PLC Jason Brewer, Chief Executive Officer Faith Kinyanjui Mumbi Investor Relations Email: jason@marulamining.com Email: info@marulamining.com AQSE Corporate Adviser Cairn Financial Advisers LLP, Liam Murray / Ludovico Lazzaretti +44 (0)20 7213 0880 Broker Peterhouse Capital Limited,

Charles Goodfellow / Duncan Vasey +44 (0)20 7469 0930 Financial PR and IR BlytheRay Tim Blythe / Megan Ray / Said Izagaren +44 (0)20 7138 3204

Caution

Certain statements in this announcement, are, or may be deemed to be, forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are identi?ed by their use of terms and phrases such as 'believe', 'could', "should" 'envisage', 'estimate', 'intend', 'may', 'plan', 'potentially', "expect", 'will' or the negative of those, variations or comparable expressions, including references to assumptions. These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on the Directors' current expectations and assumptions regarding the Company's future growth, results of operations, performance, future capital and other expenditures (including the amount, nature and sources of funding thereof), competitive advantages, business prospects and opportunities. Such forward looking statements re?ect the Directors' current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to the Directors.
Sixth edition of the Summit, organised by the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi, will take place at Manarat Al Saadiyat from 29 to 31 October 2023



Will bring together leaders from fields of art, heritage, media, museums, music, public policy and technology from over 90 countries to explore our changing relation to time

Organised with leading global partners including UNESCO, Economist Impact, Design Museum, Google, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, and the Recording Academy





Fiammetta Rocco, Dr. Rafal Niemojewski, Maya Allison, Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, Manal Ataya. Culture Summit 2022. Courtesy DCT Abu Dhabi

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) has announced the sixth edition of its leading global forum, Culture Summit Abu Dhabi, which will return to Manarat Al Saadiyat in the UAE capital from 29 to 31 October 2023.

Held under the theme 'A Matter of Time', this edition will gather an exceptional collection of thought leaders from the various fields of culture such as art, heritage, media, music, museums, public policy and technology from over 90 countries, to explore our changing relation to time and how culture can change the world's interpretation of time.

Experts, creative thinkers, artists, change makers, policy makers and leaders from the culture and creative industries will look into how this change is impacting the way culture is produced, received and consumed, and also the role that culture - which so often holds together past, present, future - could play to help us navigate this moment of inflection in the way we relate to the notion of time. The summit sessions will shift away from 'mechanical time' characteristic of our contemporary era to a 'new cultural time' realigned with the rhythm of human awareness and nature.

This year's programme features a multi-track agenda consisting of a series of keynotes, plenary sessions, panel discussions, artist talks, case study workshops, creative conversations, policy sessions, cultural performances, and a visual art exhibition.

First held in 2017, Culture Summit Abu Dhabi is an annual global convening that harnesses the expertise of policy makers, researchers, artists, and culture professionals to examine urgent contemporary issues facing cultural industries, with the ambition to identify ways in which culture can transform societies and communities worldwide and turn these into actions and solutions. An extraordinary forum of knowledge exchange, debate, and policy development, Culture Summit is organised by DCT Abu Dhabi in collaboration with global partner organisations, which this year include UNESCO, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, Economist Impact, the Design Museum, Google, and the Recording Academy among others.

His Excellency Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of DCT Abu Dhabi, said: "The sixth edition of the Culture Summit Abu Dhabi will explore the role of culture in changing the world's tempo by offering a closer look at our relation to time. As we navigate a modern, complex world, we must ask ourselves how does our relation to time impact the way we produce and consume culture now, and in the future.

We look forward to welcoming academics, policymakers and innovators from around the globe to Abu Dhabi to address this concept to drive change in the creative industries and wider cultural landscape. Culture Summit Abu Dhabi continues to be a cornerstone of a diverse cultural programme which is curated to inspire creativity and knowledge development; helping to diversify and build a knowledge-based economy."

Each day, the Summit programme will follow a specific sub-theme to unpack how our relation to time is evolving, examine the challenges this evolution represents for the culture and creative sectors, and provide focused, functional solutions.

Day 1 - Time to Remember (The passage of time) looks at how we make sense of the course of time in an era where everyone's attention span is altered while simultaneously, everything is recorded to be remembered forever. In that context, what is the role of culture in creating collective memories, and can we reconcile the past, present, and future to develop new productive common grounds? What alternatives to the linear concept of time can we bring to re-think a more sustainable relation to time?

Day 2 - Time to Act (Seizing the moment) sheds light on the spread of 'fast culture' gradually eroding critical thinking and our capacity to deal with complexity, creating significant disruptions to how culture is produced, received and consumed. In this context, Day 2 will invite speakers and attendees to explore the capability of culture and creative fields to help us slow down and navigate uncertainty and complexity with greater ease and agency.

Day 3 - Time to Share (A never-ending time) - While the future seems increasingly uncertain amidst the volatility and complexity of our time, collectively addressing shared long-term challenges, such as the climate emergency and its related crises, seems critical. How can time be a space for bringing people together and reconciling humans and nature? Day 3 will focus on highlighting what culture can offer in the wake of new long-time horizons by introducing the notion of 'deep time', and the rising call to become good ancestors. This last sub-theme will also invite reflection on the global challenge of climate change and the need to bridge the gap between generations.

Ernesto Ottone R., Assistant Director-General for Culture of UNESCO, says: "2023 is a landmark year for the culture sector. At a mid-point in the implementation of the SDGs, artists and culture professionals can bring new solutions to fill existing gaps. The time is now to act for the integration of culture as a stand-alone goal in the post 2030 international development agenda."

Kenneth Cukier, Deputy Executive Editor, The Economist, says: "As AI forges ahead, culture is vital - an expression of our human values and shared destiny. Economist Impact is honoured to be a part of the annual Culture Summit Abu Dhabi, celebrating the power of narrative to shape our individual and collective identities for progress and purpose."

Tim Marlow OBE, Chief Executive and Director, the Design Museum, says: "Culture Summit Abu Dhabi has established itself over a relatively short time as a critical forum for bringing together cultural communities from across the world. This year feels timely in every respect and the Design Museum is relishing the prospect of staging conversations between architects, designers, dancers, choreographers, artists, philosophers, futurists, writers, and curators to explore where we are and where we might be heading."

Anthony Nakache, Managing Director, Google MENA, says: "We're pleased to continue our partnership with DCT Abu Dhabi at their Culture Summit to discuss how our digital products can support culture, global, and local travel. We have long supported the UAE's rich culture and heritage through products like Google Maps, Google Arts and Culture, and YouTube, and are committed to keep doing so."

Richard Armstrong, Director Emeritus, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, says: "The Guggenheim has developed a close relationship with DCT Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi audiences over the past 15 years. The Culture Summit attracts today's most creative thinkers and makers in conversations that demonstrate our shared and hopeful future."

Harvey Mason Jr., CEO, the Recording Academy, and Panos A. Panay, President, the Recording Academy, say: "We're thrilled to partner with Culture Summit Abu Dhabi for what's sure to be an extraordinary exchange of knowledge and ideas. Music and creative expression continue to shape human behaviour and emotion, and we look forward to collaborating with global leaders as we explore ways in which culture can change the world's tempo."

Additional Culture Summit Abu Dhabi partners include Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy, Arab World Institute, Berklee Abu Dhabi, Club de Madrid, Cultural Foundation, IFACCA, Image Nation Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, NYUAD and World Cities Culture Forum, and Zayed National Museum, among others.

In previous editions of Culture Summit Abu Dhabi, the event has been marked by thought-provoking highlights and speakers including such influential figures as Madeleine Albright, Darren Walker, HE Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, Ruangrupa, Frank Gehry, and Trevor Noah, who have all contributed to enriching dialogues and inspiring cultural conversations. As the result of Culture Summit 2022, DCT Abu Dhabi and UNESCO co-published the "Culture in Times of COVID-19: Resilience, Recovery and Revival" report, giving a global overview of the impact of the pandemic on the culture sector since March 2020, and outlining directions for its revival.

Those looking to attend Culture Summit Abu Dhabi 2023 can express their interest on the website here. The event is by invitation only; spaces are limited.

Culture Summit Abu Dhabi Press Kit, including imagery, is available here: https://rb.gy/1nbem

Culture Summit Abu Dhabi website is here: https://www.culturesummitabudhabi.com

PRESS ENQUIRIES:

Anastasia Lander, Pelham Communications

anastasia@pelhamcommunications.com

About the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi

The Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) drives the sustainable growth of Abu Dhabi's culture, creative and tourism sectors, fuels economic progress and helps achieve Abu Dhabi's wider global ambitions. By working in partnership with the organisations that define the emirate's position as a leading international destination, DCT Abu Dhabi strives to unite the ecosystem around a shared vision of the emirate's potential, coordinate effort and investment, deliver innovative solutions, and use the best tools, policies and systems to support the culture, creative and tourism industries.

DCT Abu Dhabi's vision is defined by the emirate's people, heritage and landscape. We work to enhance Abu Dhabi's status as a place of authenticity, innovation, and unparalleled experiences, represented by its living traditions of hospitality, pioneering initiatives and creative thought.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9a1f6241-e640-4150-9456-f5f383820a63




LONDON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Global lifestyle brand MINISO celebrated the official opening of its first UK "Blind Box" store on Shaftesbury Avenue, London, on Friday, 29th September. This captivating shopping destination aims to bring the thrilling blind box trend to life in a completely immersive manner, aiming to delight Londoners, tourists, and toy enthusiasts alike. Offering over 50 different blind boxes filled with mystery toys and collectibles, the new store promises to ignite a blind box frenzy, infusing MINISO's signature atmosphere of joy into the heart of central London.

The new 40m2 store is MINISO's first in central London and will bring MINISO's co-branded blind box collections with some of the world's best-known IP owners altogether under one roof. Shoppers will discover blind boxes from the Sanrio, Disney Pixar, Tokidoki, We Bare Bears, Minions, Winnie the Pooh, and more collections. The store also sells a curated edit of MINISO's popular original products, including plush toys and accessories.

During the Grand Opening, curious Londoners were welcomed by a lively party atmosphere, animated by the rhythmic beats of a live drummer. Families and children happily joined in the celebration, capturing joyful moments with MINISO's beloved mascot, PenPen. Customers also had the opportunity to claim a goody bag worth over 25 with any purchase, making it a memorable celebration for the store's inaugural day.

Blind boxes, a favourite on TikTok which sees mystery collectible characters packed in identical packages, have taken the world of swappable toys and collectibles by storm. Perfect for swapping with family or friends, they often include a "secret" rare character, further adding to the thrill of collecting.

London is the fashion hub of both Europe and the world. It is our honour to open MINISO's first 'Blind Box' store here," said Saad Usman, Chief Operating Officer of MINISO UK. "Blind boxes are perfect products that seamlessly blend pop culture and trendy content. We are confident that these items will create a devoted fan base, and individuals of all ages will discover something truly special in our 'Blind Box' store. Blind boxes have become an integral part of our global strategy, and this new store represents MINISO's latest milestone as we continue our UK expansion."

The opening of MINISO's first dedicated "Blind Box" store in UK marks the latest development in the brand's continuing worldwide expansion strategy, as it aims to become a global lifestyle super-brand. In total, the brand has nearly 5,800 stores around the world, of which more than 20 are located in the UK, including London, Belfast, Cambridge, Cardiff, Manchester,and more.

About MINISO

MINISO Group is a global lifestyle brand offering a variety of design-led lifestyle products. The company serves consumers primarily through its large network of MINISO stores, and promotes a relaxing, treasure-hunting and engaging shopping experience full of delightful surprises that appeals to all demographics. Aesthetically pleasing design, quality and affordability are at the core of every product in MINISO's wide product portfolio, and the company continually and frequently rolls out products with these qualities. Since the opening of its first store in China in 2013, the company has built its flagship brand "MINISO" as a globally recognized retail brand and established a massive store network worldwide.

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Bank's consistent pursuit of the best stands out in the industry

LONDON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Bank of East Asia, Limited ('BEA') has taken home three Hong Kong awards at the prestigious 2023 Global Brand Awards. It won Best Personal Banking Brand, Best New Digital Banking Product (BEA GOAL), and Best Banking Product (Virtual Card) on the back of its commitment to customer service and innovation, evidenced by its exceptional banking experiences, cutting-edge digital solutions, and pioneering virtual card offerings. This remarkable achievement solidifies the bank's leadership in the industry, setting new standards for customer-centric services and ground-breaking innovations.

Mr. Jay Reddy, Director of Global Brands Magazine, commented, "BEA's remarkable achievement, underlining its commitment to innovation and customer service excellence, deserves special recognition. In an industry where many banks hesitate to embrace change, BEA stands out for its unwavering pursuit of excellence, which clearly reflects in its well-deserved win of three prestigious awards. I extend my best wishes to the bank for its future endeavors and hope it continues to lead the way in the banking industry."

Mr Raymond Ng, BEA's Deputy Head of Personal Banking Division, said, "The Awards recognise the team's tremendous effort in putting the customer experience at the forefront. Our digital all-in-one BEA GOAL account was a manifestation of the Group's strategic development to nurture a new generation of tech-savvy customers. It provides access to customised wealth management solutions and diversified retail banking services anytime, anywhere, at their fingertips. We are committed to building positive long-term relationships and developing innovative products and services to meet evolving needs of our customers."

About The Bank of East Asia, Limited

Incorporated in Hong Kong in 1918, The Bank of East Asia, Limited ('BEA') is a leading Hong-Kong-based financial services group listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, with total consolidated assets of HK$872.1 billion (US$111.3 billion) as of 30th June, 2023.

BEA provides a comprehensive range of corporate banking, personal banking, wealth management and investment services to customers through an extensive network of about 130 outlets covering Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland, Macau, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. For more information, please visit: http://www.hkbea.com/

About Global Brands Magazine (England)

Global Brands Magazine (GBM) is a UK-based magazine at the forefront of news, views and opinions on 'best in class' brands that are shaping the future of their industry.

About the Global Brand Awards

The Global Brand Awards honour brands for their excellence in performance, and rewards companies for the quality of their services. The Awards highlight the accomplishments of organisations that have performed remarkably well in their respective industries. We are excited to announce the highly anticipated awards ceremony which will take place at The Athenee Hotel located in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand, in May 2024.

To nominate for the Global Brand Awards 2023, click on this link:

https://www.globalbrandsmagazine.com/nomination-form/

Checkout our Social Media Shoutouts here:

Facebook: https://bit.ly/3rzKzFI

Linkedin: https://bit.ly/3Q1FVK3

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- Sharing Research in Multiple Sclerosis and Related Neurological Conditions

The European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) will host MSMilan Patient Community Day on Saturday 14 October 2023, 15:00-17:00 CEST, at the Allianz MiCo Centre in Milan, Italy. The event presents a unique opportunity for persons with MS and related neurological conditions, including NMOSD and MOGAD, to learn about the latest advancements affecting their ongoing care and treatment options, and to ask and receive answers from top neurological experts about the latest research.

"With over 2.8 million individuals around the world impacted by MS today, ECTRIMS wants to make sure it can share the latest research unveiled at our meetings with those most affected by it," says Mar Tintore, ECTRIMS President. "We hope this event empowers those living with this and other related conditions to be better informed about decision making affecting their treatment and care options".

"This important initiative is entirely dedicated to patients and their families," adds Massimo Filippi, MSMilan2023 Local Organising Chair. "We invite them to actively participate to make the most of this special opportunity to learn from a wide range of MS experts."

The event is being held in collaboration with the American Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) and supported by the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association (AISM).

MSMilan Patient Community Day will be highly interactive. As part of the ECTRIMS4me campaign designed to give people living with MS a greater voice, participants are invited to submit questions, which will be answered during the event.

Participation is free of charge, but pre-registration is required at this link (https://ectrims.eu/msmilan2023-msmilan-patient-community-day/on the ECTRIMS MSMilan 2023 website.

The event will be live streamed in English on ECTRIMS website (https://ectrims.eu/msmilan2023-msmilan-patient-community-day/), with translation offered in Italian, German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

About ECTRIMS

ECTRIMS is an independent non-profit organisation dedicated to the understanding and treatment of MS. It hosts the world's largest research meeting dedicated to advancements in research, treatment and care in MS and related neurological conditions. This year's annual congress a joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS meeting, will bring together over 9,000 MS researchers, clinicians, and specialists. The event is scheduled to take place from 11 to 13 October 2023 at the Allianz MiCo Milano Convention Centre in Milan, Italy.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003649457/en/

Contacts:

For information, please contact ectrims.communications@congrex.com.
LOS ANGELESVibratex, the company behind the Magic Wand brand, on Tuesday announced that the brand-new Magic Wand Micro, a 4.5-inch, 3-ounce version of the massage wand, will begin shipping at the end of October.

The smallest ever Magic Wand has generated interest from retailers and distributors alike following its surprise reveal at Julys ANME show in Burbank. Retailers were equally excited to see that the Micros small packaging features a hang tab, making it the first Magic Wand that can hang on slat wall pegs, the company said.

The first-ever pocket sized Magic Wand features three speeds and four vibration patterns. Its USB-C rechargeable battery will allow up to three hours of run time on a full charge. Like its larger siblings, the Micro boasts a silicone head and flexible neck that combine to deliver that familiar Magic Wand rumble instead of the buzz one might expect from a vibe of its size. Additionally, the Micro is designed to accept the included wrist strap or lanyard.

With production and logistics on track, Pre-ordering at press time was still open, the company indicated.

We simply cant wait for you to share the Micro with your customers, Vibratex CEO Ken Herskovitz said. Early reactions from press and reviewers have been overwhelmingly positive, and were sure consumers will love it, too.

Like the other wands in the Magic Wand range, the Magic Wand Micro carries an FDA medical device registration, ETL listing, and the brands user-friendly one-year warranty.

Interested retailers should contact their distributor or [email protected] for additional information.
The power transistor market is driven by factors such as increase in dependence on electrical equipment and machinery, and increase in emphasis on power saving

PORTLAND, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Power Transistors Market by Type, and Application: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2023-2032". According to the report, the global power transistors market was valued at $13,660.0 million in 2022, and is projected to reach $23,286.6 million by 2032, registering a CAGR of 5.5% from 2023 to 2032.

Download Research Report Sample & TOC:

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101 - Tables

76 - Charts

233 - Pages

A power transistor is composed of semiconductor materials. It has three terminals i.e. emitter, base, and collector. It effectively manages and controls high-power electrical circuits in various applications and end-user industries.

Prime Determinants of Growth:

The power transistor market analysis is expected to expand significantly during the forecast period, owing to increased dependence on electrical equipment and machinery and increase in emphasis on power saving. In addition, during the forecast period, the power transistor market is anticipated to benefit from increase in transition toward electric vehicles (EVs). On the contrary, the complex fabrication process associated with power transistors restrains the power transistor market growth during the forecast period.

Report Coverage & Details:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2022-2032 Base Year 2022 Market Size in 2022 $13.7 billion Market Size in 2032 $23.3 billion CAGR 5.5 % No. of Pages in Report 233 Segments covered Type, Application, and Region. Drivers Increased dependence on electrical equipment and machinery Increase in emphasis on power saving Opportunities Complex fabrication process Restraints Increase in transition towards electric vehicles (EVs)

Covid-19 Scenario:

The positive pandemic impact for power transistors was witnessed in the increased demand for power electronics components in medical devices and healthcare infrastructure.

Power transistors played a crucial role in critical applications, contributing to improved medical equipment and patient care as the healthcare sector rapidly adapted to new challenges.

The metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period.

Based on type, the metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for nearly half of the global power transistors industry revenue, and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period, as it is known for its small size & flexibility, and it is widely used in cameras, for industrial end users and in consumer electronics sector. Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor segment held the major CAGR of 6.9% in 2032.

The automotive segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period.

Based on application, the automotive segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for nearly one-third of the global power transistor market revenue and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period. In addition, the automotive segment is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 6.1% from 2023 to 2032 due to increase in use of smart devices which are compact in nature and provides enough space to add new smart devices in the vehicle.

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 more than two-fifths of the global power transistor market revenue. This region is expected to witness the fastest CAGR of 6.2% from 2023 to 2032, owing to the increase in infrastructure of charging points, electric vehicles and industrial systems.

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Leading Market Players:

Fuji Electric Co., Ltd.

Infineon Technologies AG

Microchip Technology

NXP Semiconductors

Renesas Electronics

ROHM Semiconductor

STMicroelectronics

Toshiba Corporation

Vishay Intertechnology

Wolfspeed, Inc.

The report provides a detailed analysis of these key players of the global power transistor market. These players have adopted different strategies such as product development, and product launch to increase their market share and maintain dominant shares in different regions. The report is valuable in highlighting business performance, operating segments, product portfolio, and strategic moves of market players to showcase the competitive scenario.

Key Benefits for Stakeholders:

This report provides a quantitative analysis of the market segments, current trends, estimations, and dynamics of the power transistors market analysis from 2022 to 2032 to identify the prevailing power transistors market opportunity.

The market research is offered along with information related to key drivers, restraints, and opportunities for power transistors industry.

Porter's five forces analysis highlights the potency of buyers and suppliers to enable stakeholders make profit-oriented business decisions and strengthen their supplier-buyer network for power transistors industry.

In-depth analysis of the power transistors market segmentation assists to determine the prevailing market opportunities.

Major countries in each region are mapped according to their revenue contribution to the global market.

Market player positioning facilitates benchmarking and provides a clear understanding of the present position of the market players.

The report includes the analysis of the regional as well as global power transistors market trends, key players, market segments, application areas, and market growth strategies.

Power Transistors Market Key Segments:

By Type

Bipolar Junction Transistor

Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor

Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor

By Application

Automotive

Consumer Electronics

Industrial

IT and Telecommunication

By Region

North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico)

(U.S., Canada, Mexico) Europe (UK, Germany, France, Rest of Europe)

(UK, Germany, France, Rest of Europe) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, India, South Korea, Rest of Asia-Pacific)

(China, Japan, India, South Korea, Rest of Asia-Pacific) LAMEA (Latin America, Middle East, Rest of LAMEA)

Procure Complete Report (233 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, and Figures) @ https://bit.ly/46fyUe3

Trending Reports in Semiconductor and Electronics Industry (Book Now with 10% Discount + COVID-19 Scenario):

High Electron Mobility Transistor Market is projected to reach $9.3 Billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 4.2% from 2022 to 2031.

Compound Semiconductor Market is projected to reach $347 Billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 11.6% from 2022 to 2031.

Tunnel Field Effect Transistor Market is projected to reach $2.5 Billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 11.2% from 2022 to 2031.

Organic Thin Film Transistor Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2023-2032.

Single Atom Transistor 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 Wilmington, Delaware. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports Insights" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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David Correa

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Over 5,000 feet of REPELWRAP film was produced using Dunmore's commercial manufacturing line.

Film production time took minutes on Dunmore equipment compared to approximately 24 hours to produce the original lab prototype.

Film produced met expected repelling properties.

Oakville, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - FendX Technologies Inc. (CSE: FNDX) (OTCQB: FDXTF) (FSE: E8D) (the "Company" or "FendX"), a nanotechnology company developing surface protection coatings to reduce the spread of pathogens, is pleased to announce that the Company has successfully completed a pilot manufacturing run on Dunmore International Corp.'s ("Dunmore") commercial manufacturing line and completed its intermediate scale-up objective to demonstrate the REPELWRAP film formulation can be scaled-up and is suitable for automated manufacturing.

"Successful automation of the film production process is a huge testament to our ability to advance our nanotechnology in collaboration with Dunmore and McMaster University," states Dr. Carolyn Myers, CEO of FendX. "Scaling-up the postage stamp-size lab prototype film that originally took approximately 24 hours to produce in McMaster's lab to successfully producing sheets of nano-coated film within minutes from the pilot run conducted at Dunmore is a considerable undertaking that we are very pleased to have achieved."

The pilot run on Dunmore's manufacturing line involved the continuous processing of a roll of plastic (approximately 5,800 feet in length) that was conveyed along a roller-based line. The output resulted in production of sheets of film covered with the Company's nanotechnology confirming the REPELWRAP film formulation was successfully coated onto the plastic and is suitable for automated manufacturing. Samples of the film were tested by McMaster and were confirmed to have repelling properties similar to the McMaster lab prototype film. With this achievement, the Company has demonstrated successful scale-up of the original lab prototype, the size of a postage stamp, to creating sheets of REPELWRAP film on Dunmore's commercial manufacturing line. These positive findings allow the Company to advance to further refinement of the films and conduct further testing, including real world conditions testing. Automation of the manufacturing process is a key step in leading to the production of a commercial product.

"We are pleased to have automated the manufacturing process for the adapted formula of REPELWRAP film in pilot runs on our commercial manufacturing line," said Nik Taritas, Vice President of Business Development at Dunmore. "These successful pilot manufacturing runs confirm we can produce intermediate size films and we look forward to working with FendX on further refinement using our production processes."

The Company entered into a development stage agreement with Dunmore, a Steel Partners Holdings L.P. (NYSE: SPLP) operating company to assess scale-up of REPELWRAP film, as previously announced on April 12, 2023. On June 22, 2023, the Company announced they had successfully completed the first phase of the work to adapt McMaster University's lab prototype formula to Dunmore's manufacturing process. The second phase of the work was to conduct automated pilot runs on Dunmore's commercial manufacturing equipment.

About REPELWRAP film

REPELWRAP film is the Company's first product under development and is a protective surface coating film that leverages the Company's award-winning nanotechnology. REPELWRAP film has demonstrated unique repelling properties that prevent the adhesion of pathogens, bacteria, and viruses, reducing their transmission on surfaces prone to contamination. The Company believes REPELWRAP film will have applications in healthcare settings and other industries.

About Dunmore International Corp.

Dunmore is a global manufacturer of engineered coated and laminated films and foils with manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Germany. Dunmore offers film conversion services such as coating, metallizing, and laminating along with contract film manufacturing and custom film product development. Dunmore services a diverse group of industries including aircraft, spacecraft, photovoltaic, graphic arts & labels, packaging, and insulation. Dunmore is a subsidiary of Steel Partners and is ISO 9001:2015 and OSHA VPP Star certified.

About FendX Technologies Inc.

FendX is a Canada-based nanotechnology company focused on developing products to make people's lives safer by reducing the spread of pathogens. The Company is developing both film and spray products to protect surfaces from contamination. The lead product under development, REPELWRAP film, is a protective surface coating film that, due to its repelling properties, prevents the adhesion of pathogens and reduces their transmission on surfaces prone to contamination. The spray nanotechnology is a bifunctional spray coating being developed to reduce contamination on surfaces by repelling and killing pathogens. The Company is conducting research and development activities using its nanotechnology in collaboration with industry-leading partners, including McMaster University. The Company has an exclusive worldwide license to its technology and IP portfolio from McMaster, which encompass both film and spray coating nanotechnology formulations.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Carolyn Myers"

Carolyn Myers

Chief Executive Officer and Director

Contacts:

Dr. Carolyn Myers, CEO and Director

1-800-344-9868

Alyssa Barry, Investor Relations

1-833-947-5227

investor@fendxtech.com

For more information, please visit https://fendxtech.com/ and the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor the Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, including with respect to: the plans of the Company; statements regarding conducting further refinement of the films and conducting further testing, including real world conditions testing; statements regarding the Company's scale-up and commercialization initiatives; statements regarding automation of the manufacturing process being a key step leading to the production of a commercial product; the Company's belief that REPELWRAP will have applications in healthcare settings and other industries; and products under development and any pathogen reduction benefits related thereto. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective," "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and involve several risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and that actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

Important factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include: product candidates only being in formulation/reformulation stages; limited operating history; research and development activities; dependence on collaborative partners, licensors and others; effect of general economic and political conditions; and other risk factors set forth in the Company's public filings which are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Accordingly, the reader is urged to refer to the Company's such filings for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors should change.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/182681
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - Chesapeake Gold Corp. (TSXV: CKG) (OTCQX: CHPGF) ("Chesapeake" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a significant gold discovery at its Lucy Project ("Lucy") located in central Sinaloa, Mexico. In total, 14 holes were completed in the 2023 campaign, with approximately 1,710 metres drilled. Lucy is one of several regional exploration properties within Chesapeake's Mexican portfolio.

Alan Pangbourne, CEO, commented, "While Chesapeake's primary focus has been advancing the metallurgical work and the oxidative leach technology at Metates, we have continued systematic exploration on our highly prospective regional projects. We are very excited about the first phase of drill results at Lucy. The drill results suggest a mineralized skarn that outcrops at surface, and the system has been traced over a strike length of at least 500 metres. Follow-up exploration is planned to better evaluate the scope and scale of this new discovery."





Lucy Plan Map of Trenches and 2023 Drill Hole Locations



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/752/182692_f16021e7444d6a0d_002full.jpg

Assay Highlights from the 2023 Lucy Drilling Campaign:

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Width (m) Au (g/t) LU23-06 0 24 24 6.11 LU23-08 3 45 42 0.88 LU23-09 0 30 30 2.57 Including 0 24 24 3.12 LU23-10 0 21 21 1.95 Including 0 9 9 3.30 LU23-13 3 27 24 3.95 Including 12 24 12 5.44





Lucy Long Section A to A' - Trenches 1, 3, 7, 8 & 10, and drill holes LU23-06, LU23-08, LU23-09, LU23-10, LU23-11, LU23-12 & LU23-13

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/752/182692_f16021e7444d6a0d_003full.jpg

Lucy Project Overview

The Lucy project comprises 483 hectares and is located within 5 kilometres from a paved highway. Lucy was staked by Chesapeake in 2017, and the initial exploration found zinc-bearing skarns to the Northwest (See press release dated June 21, 2018). Follow-up mapping, trenching and channel sampling in 2021 and 2022 identified the presence of a gold-bearing skarn system in the Southeast.

In June 2023, a 1,710 metre 14-hole HQ core drill program was initiated to test this gold-bearing skarn system. Holes LU23-05 to LU23-14 were collared over the gold zone defined by trenching and channel sampling. The eight holes discovered a northeast trending zone of skarn at least 500 metres in strike length with significant gold mineralization. The gold zone remains open along strike in both directions and at depth. The mineralization consists of a possible retrograde quartz-calcite, iron oxides and sulphides veinlets stockwork hosted within garnet skarn and hornfels.

Chesapeake plans to undertake further detailed mapping, rock sampling and trenching as well as mineralogical and petrographic studies prior to the next phase of drilling., Further exploration and analysis are required to better understand the scope and scale of the Lucy gold-bearing skarn system and the controls on the mineralization. At this early stage of exploration with uncertain geological orientation and limited drilling coverage, the drill intercepts should not be considered representative of the true thickness of the gold mineralization.

Drill holes LU23-01 to LU23-04 were follow-up reconnaissance holes on the zinc-bearing skarns in the Northwest. The four holes were drill testing the extension of the known zinc mineralization to the East (directly North of the gold discovery). No significant gold values were intercepted, but the zinc-bearing skarn has now been traced for approximately 1.5 kilometres along strike.

Additional geological cross-sections, selected core photos and the complete assay data table are available at https://chesapeakegold.com/wp-content/uploads/2023.10.03-Lucy-Project-Discovery-NR11-2023-Appendix-vF.pdf.

Sample Preparation, Analysis and QA/QC Program

All the assays reported by Chesapeake in this news release are from HQ drill cores which were logged and sampled in a secure storage facility. HQ core was cut using disc rock saws, and a representative one-half sample was selected for assay. Core samples were sent to the ALS Global facility in Zacatecas City, Mexico, for preparation of assay pulps which were subsequently sent to ALS labs in Vancouver, Canada, for analysis.

All core samples, generally at 3-metre sample intervals, were prepared using a method whereby the entire sample was crushed to 90% passing -2mm, a split subsample of 1000 g was pulverized to better than 85% passing 75 microns and then a 250 g pulp was taken.

Samples were analyzed for gold using 50 g fire assay fusion with an ICP finish (Method Au-ICP22). Silver and other elements were analyzed by 4 acid digestion with an ICP finish (Method ME-ICP61). Gold (>5 ppm) and silver (>100 ppm) over limits were analyzed by fire assay and gravimetric finish.

Certified standards and blanks from CDN Resource Laboratories were inserted into the sample stream as part of the sampling protocol for the QA/QC program.

Qualified Persons

Alberto Galicia, P.Geo, Vice President Exploration and Gary Parkison, CPG, Vice President Development, are Qualified Persons as defined by NI43-101 and have reviewed and approved the technical information in this release.

About Chesapeake

Chesapeake Gold Corp. is focused on the discovery, acquisition, and development of major gold-silver deposits in North and South America. Chesapeake's flagship asset is the Metates Project ("Metates") located in Durango State, Mexico. Metates hosts one of the largest undeveloped gold-silver deposits in the Americas1 with over 16.77 million ounces of gold at 0.57 grams per tonne (g/t) and 423.2 million ounces of silver at 14.3 g/t within 921.2 million tonnes in the Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource category and a further 2.13 million ounces of gold at 0.47 g/t and 59.0 million ounces of silver at 13.2 g/t within 139.5 million tonnes in the Inferred Mineral Resource category. See the technical report titled "Metates Sulphide Heap Leach Project Phase I" dated January 13, 2023, and news release dated February 23, 2023.

Chesapeake also has an organic pipeline of satellite exploration properties strategically located near Metates. In addition, the Company owns 68% of Gunpoint Exploration Ltd., which owns the Talapoosa gold-silver project in Nevada.

For Further Information:

For more information on Chesapeake and its Metates Project, please visit our website at www.chesapeakegold.com or contact Alan Pangbourne or Jean-Paul Tsotsos at invest@chesapeakegold.com or +1 778 731 1362.

Alternatively, join us at our webinar on Thursday, October 5th, at 8:00 AM PST (11:00 AM EST) using the link below.

https://events.6ix.com/preview/chesapeake-provides-update-on-new-high-grade-gold-discovery-at-lucy

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements with respect to the Company's strategic plans, timing and expectations for the Company's exploration and drilling programs at the Company's Lucy project, estimates of mineralization from drilling, geological information projected from sampling results and the potential quantities and grades of the target zones.

Such forward looking statements or information are based on a number of assumptions, which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things: the conditions in general economic and financial markets; the price of gold and silver; the availability and costs of mining equipment and skilled labour; accuracy of assay results; geological interpretations from drilling results, timing and amount of capital expenditures related to drilling programs; performance of available laboratory and other related services; future operating costs; and the historical basis for current estimates of potential quantities and grades of target zones.

The actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward looking statements as a result of risk factors, including the timing and content of work programs; results of exploration activities and development of mineral properties; the interpretation and uncertainties of drilling and testing results and other geological data; receipt, maintenance and security of permits and mineral property titles; environmental and other regulatory risks; project costs overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses; availability of funds; failure to delineate potential quantities and grades of the target zones based on historical data, and general market and industry conditions.

Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. The assumptions used in the preparation of such statements, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statements were made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements included in this news release if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as otherwise required by applicable law.

1 Mexico's biggest undeveloped gold deposits. Bnamericas. Published Tuesday, November 24, 2020.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/182692
Through this program, Africa's leading payments technology company aims to cultivate a robust and highly skilled talent pipeline while accelerating product delivery across emerging markets

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Flutterwave, Africa's leading payments technology company, today announced its plan to launch an inaugural Engineering Mobility Program in India with the support of Capgemini, a global leader in business and technology transformation services. Flutterwave's Nigeria and UK-based engineering team will work with Capgemini's extensive technology talent in Bangalore to share industry best practices and nurture the next-generation workforce. This collaboration will see Capgemini draw upon its deep domain expertise to enhance Flutterwave's product delivery via a new cloud service provider.

In addition, Capgemini will play a pivotal role in Flutterwave's technology strategy by defining a clear target-state and a detailed roadmap for seamless implementation. Capgemini will help lay the foundation for Flutterwave's agile transformation journey and the adoption of cloud-native solutions, enabling a vision to facilitate payments in emerging markets.

Today's announcement reaffirms Flutterwave's commitment to empower its engineers to build innovative payment solutions.

Expressing his excitement, Gurbhej Dhillion, Flutterwave's Chief Technology Officer, said, "This engineering mobility program is the first of its kind in Flutterwave, and I'm happy to see it happen. It goes beyond collaboration with a global tech leader like Capgemini; it's about diversity, inclusivity, and the mobility of ideas to fuel continuous innovation. We cannot wait to see the incredible solutions this program will birth. I'm looking forward to seeing how our engineers will take their learnings back home and share their experiences with their teams as they continue building payment solutions for the emerging economies of Africa and beyond."

Reiterating the company's commitment to empowering its people, Flutterwave's Chief People Officer, Mansi Babyloni, commented, "As an ever-growing company that is becoming increasingly diverse, this program is a testament to our responsiveness to our talent's needs, dedication to making improvements, and commitment to investing in our people. It also reflects our value for nurturing talent and contributing to the development of the tech ecosystem in Africa."

"Like every other person in our senior leadership," Mansi continued, "I have first-hand experience of how cross-border work experiences and programs like this could contribute significantly to shaping one's career, and I'm happy that we are providing our engineers with this life-changing opportunity. As a company, we are excited that a tech giant like Capgemini is on board and will be with us every step of the way to make this program successful."

"For more than 50 years, Capgemini has harnessed the power and value of technology to deliver great business value, operational excellence, and innovation for clients worldwide. We are very happy to work hand in hand with Flutterwave for this talent development program, accompanying them on their journey towards innovation in the new ultra-competitive payments landscape," said Sujit Kini, Global Account Executive, Financial Services at Capgemini.

Reacting to the news, Bode Abifarin, Chief Operating Officer at Flutterwave, said, "Since we started in 2016, Flutterwave has been on an incredible journey of growth, innovation, and outstanding performances, which includes the fivefold increase in usage of our remittance product, Send App by Flutterwave, and offline solution, Flutterwave POS, respectively, in just one year. Behind this success is our world-class engineering infrastructure and an amazing team that has been growing and adapting to rapid changes in the company's needs and customers' demands."

"Now, as we continue expanding our operations, penetrating new markets, entering important partnerships, scaling our Engineering Team also becomes crucial. Our Engineering Mobility Program is a fundamental part of this effort, and we are convinced that working with Capgemini will make this a reality," Bode added.

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LONDON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Tonsillitis Disease is a highly prevalent inflammatory condition affecting the throat of an individual. According to reliable sources, this infection impacts nearly 77% of women and 22.9% of males globally. Tonsil infection symptoms may vary from person to person, but sore throat, difficulty swallowing, and mild fever remains constant for every patient.

Tonsillitis is an inflammatory condition that affects the tonsils, two small masses of tissue located at the back of the throat, one on each side. It is worth noting that tonsils are an integral part of the body's immune system. There is different tonsillitis definition coined by various healthcare organizations like the WHO and NIH. But the core meanings remain the same.

With growing disease burden, the players operating in this vertical are trying their best to improve the overall tonsillitis management landscape. They are investing in R&D activities with an aim to introduce cutting edge diagnostic technologies and advanced treatment techniques. By leveraging DLI's healthcare consulting services, they are being equipped with complete knowledge on the regulatory guidelines and price reimbursement trends which in turn is enabling them to formulate ideal market access and drug development strategies. DLI has further been assisting them with clinical trial feasibility analysis, commercial strategy analysis, along with treatment gaps identification, among others.

Price and Market Access

Tonsillitis Disease Overview- Causes and Symptoms:

There are various underlying tonsillitis causes leading to its onset in individuals. Some of the primary triggering factors are:

Viral Infections:

It is one of the most common causes of this disease. Viruses including rhinovirus (common cold), adenovirus, influenza virus, and Epstein-Barr virus (which causes infectious mononucleosis) may be help responsible for this.

Bacterial Infections:

Bacterial tonsillitis, also known as strep throat, is mainly caused by a bacteria known as streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcus).

Contact With Infected Person:

This disease may spread through close contact with an infected person. Tonsillitis contagious in nature as it can easily spread through respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes or by sharing utensils or personal items.

Apart from that, weakened immune system, allergies, and exposure to environmental toxins may also lead to the occurrence of this ailment. It is worth noting that tonsillitis in children is a matter of serious concern. A significant portion of this population is known to suffer from this uncomfortable condition. Children often experience recurrent tonsillitis that takes a complete toll on their health.

It is crucial to identify the signs of tonsillitis at an early stage so as to avoid severe complications. The common tonsil infection symptoms are sore throat, yellow or white spot in back of throat, swollen tonsils no fever, high fever in some cases, bad breath, ear pain, voice change, cough, and swollen lymph nodes, among others. Although the symptoms of severe and mild tonsillitis may vary.

Learn More About the FDA NDA & BLA Approval (NME) Drugs for Tonsillitis Disease @

https://www.diseaselandscape.com/requestsample/postid/83

Delving into the diagnostic and treatment landscape:

The detection of this ailments involves a combination of physical, biological, and pathological tests. Here is a glimpse of the process-

Physical Examination:

Here, the doctor visually examines the throat, tonsils, and the surrounding area to determine swelling, redness, or yellow and white patches, the predominant inflammation signs.

Throat Swab:

In this technique, a sterile swab is gently rubbed against the back of the throat and tonsils to collect a sample of throat secretions. The sample is then sent to a laboratory for a throat culture or a rapid strep test to identify the presence of tonsillitis causing bacteria.

Blood Tests:

Blood tests can help assess the overall health of the patient and detect signs of infection.

Imaging Tests:

CT scan or ultrasound may be prescribed to get a clear visual of the throat and nearby areas.

Post-diagnosis, the patients are directed to undergo immediate treatment. Because late treatment may lead to severe complications, increasing the risk of hospitalization.

The treatment plan solely depends on the type of tonsillitis, patient's overall condition, and age. But some of the common treatment therapeutics are FDA approved drugs like over-the-counter pain relievers like acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), throat lozengas, antibiotics, and tonsillectomy in severe cases. Home remedies for tonsillitis including isolation, hydration, gargling with salt water, herbal tea, oral hygiene maintenance, and steam inhalation also work wonders in managing these infections.

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Competitive Landscape:

The Tonsillitis Disease industry is characterized by the presence of numerous players. Some of the primary players include:

Agilent Technologies

Apollo Diagnostics

Becton, Dickinson, & Co

BioMerieux

Cepheid

Cigna Healthcare

Cipla Limited

Reddy's Laboratory

Fluidigm

Fortis Healthcare

GENES 2 ME

Meridian Bioscience, Inc.

Metropolis Healthcare Ltd.

Mount Sinai Healthcare

Qiagen

Quidel Corporation

Roche Diagnostics

Siemens Healthineers

Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd

Takara

Others

Role of DLI in Tonsillitis Disease Management:

The industry participants have been seeking assistance from DLI to strengthen their footprint in this vertical. Players associated with research and drug development are approaching this health consultant to procure its product launch Services and post launch services. It is further empowering them with complete known on the pricing and reimbursement scenario of this landscape including retail drug price. Through DLI's deep dive knowledge about these diseases, the concerned players are being able to formulate product portfolio extension strategies that will help them ensure the profitability of their launched products in the long run.

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Final Words:

Tonsillitis is a prevalent medical condition characterized by the inflammation and infection of the tonsils, which are small masses of tissue located at the back of the throat. It can cause symptoms like a sore throat, difficulty swallowing, fever, and swollen tonsils, often leading to discomfort and illness. DLI is at the forefront in redefining the tonsillitis research and management realm. It has been offering invaluable support in epidemiology studies, drug development initiatives, and clinical trial management to the industry participants. Its multidisciplinary expertise and commitment to advancing healthcare solutions are instrumental in addressing the challenges posed by tonsillitis and improving the quality of care for individuals affected by this condition. DLI has joined hands with pharma companies, medical researchers, and other healthcare organizations to introduce new treatments, helping bring promising therapies to patients more rapidly.

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About Disease Landscape:

Disease Landscape, a pioneering company specializing in Disease Intelligence, Pricing, and Market Access. Utilizing the power of data analytics, Disease Landscape Insights is dedicated to healthcare sector with invaluable, finely crafted insights and recommendations regarding global pricing and market access strategies. As a specialized firm, we are committed to delivering unparalleled insights into pricing and market access, custom-tailored to the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Our data-driven solutions and cutting-edge technology position us as your trustworthy partner, offering swift, adaptable, and evidence-based alternatives to traditional market access and pricing research methods.?

Our core competencies encompass Market Research Services, Consulting Services, Global Pricing and Market Access, Epidemiology Studies, as well as Product Portfolio and Pipeline Services. Our expertise lies in furnishing comprehensive data intelligence throughout every phase of drug and device research.?

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Highlights:

80.4% average gold recovery from seven composites representative of the High Grade Panel

Gold recoveries range from 74.6 - 88.1% for these samples

Gravity testwork suggests greater than 31% of the gold may be gravity recoverable

Confirms the the Company's interpretation that recoveries from high-grade gold mineralization can utilize simpler, lower cost, conventional milling processes

Metallurgical process is based on a conventional 75 micron grind size and Carbon-in-Leach (CIL) flowsheet

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - Heliostar Metals Ltd. (TSXV: HSTR) (OTCQX: HSTXF) (FSE: RGG1) ("Heliostar" or the "Company") is pleased to present positive preliminary metallurgical test results as part of the Rescoping Study of the Ana Paula project in Mexico ("Ana Paula" or the "Ana Paula Project").

Heliostar CEO, Charles Funk, commented, "These metallurgical results represent a significant step-change in our understanding of the Ana Paula Project. An 80.4% recovery using conventional grind sizes and recovery techniques indicates the High Grade Panel has the potential to be processed through a simple mill flowsheet. The analysis was completed on composite samples collected from a range of locations, host lithologies, and grade ranges throughout the High Grade Panel. Broadly speaking, high-grade gold mineralization has more coarse-grained gold and is easier to recover than the surrounding low-grade halo of mineralization. The High Grade Panel does not display refractory characteristics. These results will lead to additional optimization work and inform the cutoff grades for gold mineralization in next month's planned resource update."

Summary of Metallurgy Results

Heliostar submitted eight composite samples, prepared from drill holes completed in the 2023 Ana Paula drill campaign to Blue Coast Research Ltd. Seven samples were collected from the High Grade Panel and one from the footwall to the panel. Composites were generally selected from continuous intervals of similar grade and lithologies from spatially diverse areas of the deposit. Composites were then split into two workflows: the first focused on gold recoveries at various grind sizes using kinetic and carbon in leach (CIL) bottle roll testing, while the second tested the potential for gold recovery using gravity techniques.

Gold recovery averaged 80.4% for seven of the eight samples using a primary grind size of approximately 80% passing 75 microns and CIL extraction (the eighth sample was from the High Grade Panel footwall). Gold recoveries ranged from 74.6% to 88.1% for the seven samples. Gold recovery results were similar without carbon and at 45- and 20-micron primary grind sizes.

Gold recovery to gravity concentrates averaged 47% for the same seven of eight samples. During these tests, 2 kilograms (kg) of sample was ground to a primary grind size of approximately 80% passing 75m and then passed through a laboratory scale Knelson concentrator. The Knelson concentrate was subsequently upgraded on a superpanner until the pan tip represented 0.02% to 0.05% of the original feed mass. Gold recovery to the superpanner tip ranged between 31% and 69%. This suggests the potential for gravity recovery from these samples, however future work, including Extended Gravity Recoverable Gold tests, are underway to refine the potential for gold recovery using gravity techniques.

One composite was an outlier and returned a 28% gold recovery at a 75-micron grind size using CIL extraction. This sample represents an area in the footwall to the High Grade Panel that has a lower overall grade than the other samples at 2.48 grams per tonne (g/t) gold. The cause of this lower recovery is unclear but is being further investigated with a gold deportment study, automated mineralogy, and additional assaying.

The composites samples were designed to test and provide guidance on potential recoveries from the most financially impactful ounces from the High Grade Panel. Results indicate the recoveries can be sufficiently high using conventional processing techniques. This supports continued evaluation of Ana Paula as a high-grade underground mine using conventional processing flowsheets.

Composite CIL Bottle Roll (75m) Gravity Recovery Comment Au Recovery (%) Calculated Head

Gold (g/t) Direct Head

Gold (g/t) Gold Recovery (%) Mass Pull (%) AuBOT23-01 79.4 8.19 6.51 51 0.03 Centre of

High Grade Panel AuBOT23-02 78.3 8.21 8.54 35 0.05 East within

High Grade Panel AuBOT23-03 27.7 2.55 2.48 16 0.03 Footwall to

High Grade Panel AuBOT23-04 75.4 13.92 13.69 31 0.02 Centre-West of

High Grade Panel AuBOT23-05 88.1 9.82 11.29 69 0.02 Granodiorite

Rocktype AuBOT23-06 74.6 13.84 13.53 53 0.03 Limestone/Hornfels/Skarn Rocktype AuBOT23-07 86.8 17.00 14.78 51 0.02 Down-plunge within

High Grade Panel AuBOT23-08 80.4 21.26 18.25 40 0.02 Up-plunge within

High Grade Panel

Table 1: Composite identification and gold recovery by process

Metallurgy Sampling Details

As part of the Ana Paula Rescoping study, Heliostar commenced test work focusing on the metallurgical characteristics of the High Grade Panel. Historical test work was designed using an open pit mining scenario, where most of the ore tonnes (approximately 70%) were hosted in the Intrusive Suite (granodiorite lithology) domain with an average life of mine grade of 2.38 g/t gold for proven and probable reserves1. As such, this historic test work focused on optimizing for these parameters by quantifying recoveries from these grade ranges and then optimizing potential recoveries by evaluating atmospheric oxidation. Historic test results for the High Grade Breccia Lithologic Domain (hosting much of the High Grade Panel) ranged from 62 to 68% gold recoveries for whole rock leaching. However, no further work was done to optimize recoveries using conventional milling technology or quantify recoveries within the high grade domains of the unit.

Heliostar is rescoping the Ana Paula project as a high grade underground mine using a conventional comminution, gravity, floatation, and CIL processing circuit. The Company is using previous test work as a foundation for future work while recognizing opportunities to optimize for mining scenarios and grade changes. Composite samples were created from PQ sized core drill holes that were completed early in the 2023 drill program. Coarse rejects from the selected intervals were combined to bring the total weight of each sample to approximately 25-30 kilograms.





Figure 1: Plan map of metallurgical composite source locations



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Composites range from 25.2 to 62.0 metres in length and represent continuous intervals of similar grade and lithology that are spatially distributed across the mineralized zone where feasible. In two cases, continuous interval of the same lithology were not available and smaller intervals were collected from around the High Grade Panel (Figure 1). All samples were selected from within or proximal to the High Grade Panel. Six samples represent the Polymictic Breccia, while two other samples represent Sediments/ Hornfels and Granodiorite/Intrusive.

Direct head grades of the eight composites range from 2.48 to 18.25 g/t gold and average 11.13 g/t gold. Though this grade is high, particularly in comparison to the previous metallurgical work, it should be noted that five of the eight samples represent continuous intervals of mineralization across the centre of the High Grade Panel. These were selected in such a way that that could represent gold mineralization over significant volumes for the deposit, and were not built from isolated samples based on grade.

Heliostar is focused on improving the understanding of the gold recoveries under various extraction scenarios. The results presented in this release will refine future metallurgical work to define the most effective, low cost, technically simple approach to maximise gold recoveries for an underground mining operation. This work will include combining the gravity recovery and CIL processes which has the potential to further improve overall recoveries.

Statement of Qualified Person

Andrew Kelly, P.Eng., of Blue Coast Research Ltd., a Qualified Person, as such term is defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), has reviewed and approved the results of the metallurgical test program.

Art Ibrado, PhD, PE, of Fort Lowell Consulting, a Qualified Person, as such term is defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the results of the metallurgical test program.

Samuel D. Anderson, CPG., Vice President of Projects, of Heliostar Metals Limited, a Qualified Person, as such term is defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release and has approved the disclosure herein.

About Heliostar Metals Ltd.

Heliostar is a junior mining company with a portfolio of high-grade gold projects in Mexico and Alaska.

The Company is focused on developing the 100% owned Ana Paula Project in Guerrero, Mexico. In addition, Heliostar is working with the Mexican federal and local government to permit the San Antonio Gold Project in Baja Sur, Mexico. The Company continues to explore the Unga Gold Project in Alaska, United States of America.

The Ana Paula Project deposit contains proven and probable mineral reserves of 1,081,000 ounces of gold (630,000 proven and 451,000 probable ounces) at 2.38 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold and 2,547,000 ounces of silver (1,322,000 proven and 1,226,000 probable ounces) at 5.61 g/t silver. Ana Paula hosts measured and indicated resources of 1,468,800 ounces of gold (703,800 measured and 765,000 indicated ounces) at 2.16 g/t gold and 3,600,000 ounces of silver (1,637,000 measured and 1,963,000 indicated ounces) at 5.3 g/t silver. The asset is permitted for open-pit mining and contains significant existing infrastructure including a portal and a 412-metre-long decline.

References

An updated prefeasibility study titled "Ana Paula Project NI 43-101 Technical Report Preliminary Feasibility Study Update" was filed on SEDAR on April 6, 2023, with an effective date of February 28, 2023, prepared for the Company by Daniel H. Neff, PE, Art S. Ibrado, PhD, PE, Richard K. Zimmerman, RG, SME-RM, Craig Gibson, PhD, CPG, Andrew Kelly, P.Eng., Gordon Zurowski, P.Eng., Paul Daigle, P.Geo., Gilberto Dominguez, PE and James A. Cremeens, PE, PG.

For additional information please contact:

Charles Funk

Chief Executive Officer

Heliostar Metals Limited

Email: charles.funk@heliostarmetals.com

Rob Grey

Investor Relations Manager

Heliostar Metals Limited

Email: rob.grey@heliostarmetals.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release includes certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "target", "plan", "forecast", "may", "would", "could", "schedule" and similar words or expressions, identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information relate to, among other things: the exploration, development, and production at the Company's properties; permitting at the San Antonio project; the release of exploration results; and future resource and reserve estimates.

Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information relating to any future mineral production, liquidity, enhanced value and capital markets profile of the Company, future growth potential for the Company and its business, and future exploration plans are based on management's reasonable assumptions, estimates, expectations, analyses and opinions, which are based on management's experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances, but which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the price of metals; no escalation in the severity of public health crises or ongoing military conflicts; costs of exploration and development; the estimated costs of development of exploration projects; and the Company's ability to operate in a safe and effective manner and its ability to obtain financing on reasonable terms.

These statements reflect the Company's respective current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of other assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political, and social uncertainties, and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information and the Company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: precious metals price volatility; risks associated with the conduct of the Company's mining activities in foreign jurisdictions; regulatory, consent or permitting delays; risks relating to reliance on the Company's management team and outside contractors; risks regarding exploration and mining activities; the Company's inability to obtain insurance to cover all risks, on a commercially reasonable basis or at all; currency fluctuations; risks regarding the failure to generate sufficient cash flow from operations; risks relating to project financing and equity issuances; risks and unknowns inherent in all mining projects, including the inaccuracy of reserves and resources, metallurgical recoveries and capital and operating costs of such projects; contests over title to properties, particularly title to undeveloped properties; laws and regulations governing the environment, health and safety; the ability of the communities in which the Company operates to manage and cope with the implications of public health crises; the economic and financial implications of public health crises, ongoing military conflicts and general economic factors to the Company; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities; employee relations, labour unrest or unavailability; the Company's interactions with surrounding communities; the Company's ability to successfully integrate acquired assets; the speculative nature of exploration and development, including the risks of diminishing quantities or grades of reserves; stock market volatility; conflicts of interest among certain directors and officers; lack of liquidity for shareholders of the Company; litigation risk; and the factors identified under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's public disclosure documents. Readers are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Although the Company has attempted to identify key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or forward-looking information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements or information, other than as required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/182695
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Frost & Sullivan Institute is thrilled to present the highly anticipated 2023 Enlightened Growth Leadership Awards, an esteemed recognition that celebrates visionary companies shaping a sustainable future through innovation. These organizations have skillfully harmonized business acumen with a moral responsibility, paving a path where prosperity seamlessly coexists with social and environmental accountability.

"At Frost & Sullivan Institute, we firmly believe in the power of collaboration and innovation to address the pressing global challenges we face today. Through their relentless pursuit of excellence, these organizations have not only demonstrated their commitment to sustainability but have also set new benchmarks for the industry. By actively seeking out innovative ways to minimize their environmental impact while maximizing their positive social contributions, they have propelled the world in the right direction, inspiring others to follow suit.," remarked Aroop Zutshi, Director of the Frost & Sullivan Institute.

Utilizing our proprietary, eight-step measurement-based methodology, supported by comprehensive research, in-depth analyses, and benchmarking, Frost & Sullivan Institute rigorously evaluated nominees to shortlist the winners. Our global think tank scrutinized diverse perspectives on how companies can enhance the global economy and improve the future of our planet. The selection process focused on critical performance indicators such as growth excellence, 'innovating to zero' on global priorities, customer value chain, and technological advancements. This ensures that the winners truly epitomize excellence in enlightened growth leadership.

The Frost & Sullivan Institute takes immense pleasure in congratulating all the winners of the 2023 Enlightened Growth Leadership Awards for their outstanding contributions to their respective industries and society at large. In recognition of their remarkable achievements, these exceptional companies will be celebrated and honored at our prestigious awards banquet in the vibrant city of Prague on 15thNovember 2023.

Recipients:

Adevinta

Aibel

Ambea

ams-OSRAM AG

AO World PLC

Aurubis AG

AUTO1 Group

AVEVA Group Limited

BKW

Cellnex

Constantia Flexibles

Daikin

Dermapharm Holding SE

DiaSorin S.p.A

Dolomiti Energia Holding SpA

EEVIA HEALTH OY

Einhell Germany AG

Elia Group

Embracer Group AB

EnBW Energie Baden-Wurttemberg AG

Eurofins Scientific

FARFETCH UK Limited

FinCo Fuel Group B.V.

Fluidra S.A

Genmab A/S

Granges

Grupa Azoty

Grupa Azoty

Harbour Energy

Hera Spa

HomeServe Limited

ICON plc

Ignitis Group

Infineon Technologies AG

Instalco AB

About Frost & Sullivan Institute

The Frost & Sullivan Institute (FSI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to utilizing business practices to address global priorities. The genesis of the institute goes back to the vision of either creating or becoming part of a solution that addresses threats to humanity. The Institute has identified strategic imperatives for transformation and believes that we can truly accelerate innovation to zero. To learn more about FSI, visit www.frostandsullivaninstitute.org

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.

Media Contact:

Bivechana Gautam

Email: Bivechana.gautam@frost.com

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LONDON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Skin Cancer is one the most prevalent form of cancer worldwide. It poses a significant health threat that demands our attention. As per reliable sources, it ranks 15th among cancers in women and 13th among cancers in men. Continuous R&D activities are being conducted with an aim achieve breakthroughs in the skin cancer treatment realm.



Skin cancer is a collective term given to a group of malignancies that are triggered by the abnormal growth of skin cells. This cancer manifests in the form of basal carcinoma, cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, squamous cell carcinoma (scc skin cancer), melanoma, merkel cell carcinoma, and others. These different cancer types vary in terms of their aggressiveness and characteristics. Early detection and prompt treatment are crucial for managing skin cancer and stalling its spread to other parts of the body. The skin cancer disease landscape comprises of a number of cutting and diagnostic and treatment options.

Skin Cancer- A looming threat:

The alarming rise in the occurrence of this oncological disorder is a matter of global health concern. World Cancer Research Fund International through an epidemiology study has revealed that nearly 150,000 cases of skin cancer were reported in 2020. This increased disease burden has accelerated therapy and drug development activities across the globe. It is worth noting that in order to formulate effective treatment strategies, it is crucial to understand the underlying causes triggering this devastating ailment.

Price and Market Access

The primary factor leading to the occurrence of skin cancer is excessive exposure to the harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun or other artificial sources. Apart from that, usage of tanning beds, extremely fair skin, having a large number of moles, genetic defects, and weak immune system may also contribute to the onset of this condition.

Skin cancer is generally characterized by symptoms such as pearly or waxy bumps, bleeding or scabbing sore, firm red nodule, irregularly shaped mole or spot with asymmetrical borders, itching, bleeding, or oozing of a mole, and swollen lymph nodes, among others.

DiseaseLandscape insights has been offering comprehensive healthcare consulting services to the industry participants. It has been equipping them with overall disease overview, drug insights, demographics, and other existing treatment options. These valuable data are being used by healthcare professionals to improve disease management by tailoring treatments to patient needs and staying updated on the latest therapeutic advancements. DLI has also been offering pharma consulting services to the biotech and pharma companies guiding them in their R&D endeavours. It has been helping the to facilitate smooth and fast paced clinical trial feasibility analysis and overall clinical trial assessment. Additionally, these insights influence pricing and reimbursement strategies, as well as market access plans, ensuring that new treatments are accessible to those who need them while fostering sustainable healthcare solutions.

Learn More About the FDA NDA & BLA Approval (NME) Drugs for Skin Cancer @https://www.diseaselandscape.com/requestsample/postid/85

Navigating through the diagnostic and treatment landscape:

Skin cancer diagnosis can be quite complexed due to the similarity of its symptoms with other non-cancerous dermatological illness. Some people tend to ignore the early signs which in turn reduces the recovery rate to a large extent. The determination of this disease involves a series of tests and examinations. This includes the visual assessment of any suspicious moles, lesions, or changes in the skin's appearance. Alongside, a dermatoscope may be used for a more detailed examination. If skin cancer is suspected, a biopsy is typically performed, where a small sample of the suspicious tissue is removed and examined under a microscope to confirm the presence of cancerous cells. Additionally, imaging tests like ultrasound, CT scans, or MRI may be deployed to check if the cancer has spread beyond the skin. Early and accurate diagnosis is critical for effective treatment and improved outcomes in skin cancer patients.

Treatment for this ailment solely relies on type of skin cancer, its stage, and other individual factors. Squamous cell carcinoma treatment involves mohs micrographic surgery, lymph node dissection, topical medicines, and surgical excisions, among others. Apart from that, chemotherapy, cryotherapy, FDA-EMA approved drugs, radiation therapy, and mohs surgery are also some treatment solutions prescribed to the patients.

DLI has been assisting concerned medical research organizations and pharma companies in treatment gaps identification which in turn allows them to formulate advanced treatment options. It also offers them with regulatory consulting, thus enabling them to adhere to the stringent guidelines. By leveraging DLI's new product launch services, drug launch strategies, and post launch services, industry participants are being able to strengthen their position in this industry.

Discover More About Pricing and Reimbursement, Epidemiology Study, and Healthcare @https://www.diseaselandscape.com/downloadsample/postid/85

Competitive landscape:

The prominent players characterizing the competitive terrain of this industry vertical are:

Fougera Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Genentech

LEO Pharma

3M Company

MacroGenics, Inc.

Merck

Novartis

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Sarabhai Piramal Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Cardinal Health Inc.

Innovia Medical

Integra LifeSciences

Jai Surgicals Ltd.

KAI Group

Paramount Surgimed Limited

World Precision Instruments

Others

These aforementioned plays are constantly involved in a dynamic race to develop more effective skin cancer treatments, diagnostic tools, and prevention strategies. They are striving to lead the way in innovating advanced therapies in this field. The listed companies are operating in a climate that supports continuous improvements aimed at enhancing the lives of the patients in the long run. They are extremely focused on curating the right pricing reimbursement strategy that can ensure the profitability of their products in the long run. They are conducting comprehensive commercial strategy analysis along with product pipeline analysis which in turn will help them with their product portfolio extension.

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Final Words:

Skin cancer is a dreadful disease impacting a large portion of the global population. It has escalated a demand for comprehensive management solutions to address its growing pervasiveness. DLI's extensive disease overview, drug insights, epidemiology study, and market access tactics are paving the way for a transformative approach to tackle this health threat. By collaborating with industry participants, it is ushering in a new era of precision medicine, ensuring that patients receive the most effective therapies tailored to their specific needs. Its commitment to providing valuable insights not only aids in better disease management but also supports the development of innovative therapies and the improvement of market access strategies, ultimately enhancing the quality of care for those affected by skin cancer.

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About Disease Landscape:?

Disease Landscape, a pioneering company specializing in Disease Intelligence, Pricing, and Market Access. Utilizing the power of data analytics, Disease Landscape Insights is dedicated to healthcare sector with invaluable, finely crafted insights and recommendations regarding global pricing and market access strategies. As a specialized firm, we are committed to delivering unparalleled insights into pricing and market access, custom-tailored to the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Our data-driven solutions and cutting-edge technology position us as your trustworthy partner, offering swift, adaptable, and evidence-based alternatives to traditional market access and pricing research methods.?

Our core competencies encompass Market Research Services, Consulting Services, Global Pricing and Market Access, Epidemiology Studies, as well as Product Portfolio and Pipeline Services. Our expertise lies in furnishing comprehensive data intelligence throughout every phase of drug and device research.?

Contact Us:?

Disease Landscape Insights LLP?

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Solitaire Business Hub, Viman Nagar?

Pune, Maharashtra, 411014?

Email: ajay@diseaselandscape.com? -

Email: vishal@diseaselandscape.com

Sales:?+44-2038074155?

Asia Office:?+917447409162

Blog: https://www.diseaselandscape.com/blogs?

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Invesco Select Trust Plc - Result of AGM

PR Newswire

LONDON, United Kingdom, October 03

Invesco Select Trust plc

LEI: 549300JZQ39WJPD7U596

Result of AGM

Result of the Annual General Meeting of Invesco Select Trust plc held on 2 October 2023.

All of the Annual General Meeting resolutions were decided by poll and were passed. The poll results were as follows.

Resolutions applicable to all share classes, with voting rights based on the net asset values of the respective share classes at close of business on 29 September 2023.

Ordinary Resolutions:

Resolution Ordinary resolutions: Votes For

(including votes at

the discretion of

the Chairman) % Votes Against % Votes Withheld 1. 40,129,904 99.9% 36,190 0.1% 19,151 2. 39,348,630 98.7% 513,264 1.3% 323,351 3. 39,425,956 99.0% 420,222 1.1% 339,067 4. 39,113,091 97.9% 861,092 2.2% 211,062 5. 39,128,916 97.9% 835,658 2.1% 220,671 6. 39,079,257 97.8% 885,316 2.2% 220,671 7. 39,118,382 97.9% 821,314 2.1% 245,548 8. 39,117,553 97.9% 847,020 2.1% 220,671 9. 39,721,206 98.9% 437,328 1.1% 26,710 10. 39,740,243 99.0% 399,758 1.0% 45,243 13. 39,589,906 98.9% 437,337 1.1% 72,440

Special Resolutions:

Resolution Special resolutions: Votes For

(including votes at

the discretion of

the Chairman) % Votes Against % Votes Withheld 14. 39,247,191 98.0% 788,360 2.0% 64,131 15. 39,168,861 97.8% 864,916 2.2% 65,906 16. 39,641,217 99.0% 407,328 1.0% 51,137

Total Voting Rights applicable to the above resolutions were 200,492,149.

Resolution 11, an Ordinary Resolution, was applicable only to the UK Equity Share class, with voting rights being one vote per share:

Resolution Ordinary resolution: Votes For

(including votes at

the discretion of

the Chairman) % Votes Against % Votes Withheld 11 15,189,533 99.6% 65,776 0.4% 46,573

Total Voting Rights applicable for this resolution were 68,010,452.

Resolution 12, an Ordinary Resolution, was applicable only to the Global Equity Income Share class, with voting rights being one vote per share:

Resolution Ordinary resolution Votes For

(including votes at

the discretion of

the Chairman) % Votes Against % Votes Withheld 12 4,374,955 99.9% 6,516 0.1% 2,207

Total Voting Rights applicable for this resolution were 25,177,374.

The full text of the resolutions passed is as follows:

Ordinary Resolutions applicable to all share classes:

The following Ordinary Resolutions were passed at the Annual General Meeting held on 2 October 2023:

1. To receive the Annual Financial Report for the year ended 31 May 2023.

2. To approve the Directors' Remuneration Policy.

3. To approve the Annual Statement and Report on Remuneration.

4. To re-elect Craig Cleland as a Director of the Company.

5. To re-elect Davina Curling as a Director of the Company.

6. To re-elect Mark Dampier as a Director of the Company.

7. To re-elect Victoria Muir as a Director of the Company.

8. To re-elect Tim Woodhead as a Director of the Company.

9. To re-appoint Grant Thornton UK LLP as Auditor to the Company

10. To authorise the Audit Committee to determine the Auditor's remuneration.

Ordinary Resolution applicable only to the UK Equity Share Class:

11. To approve the UK Equity Share Class Portfolio dividend payment policy as set out on page 46 of the 2023 annual financial report.

Ordinary Resolution applicable only to the Global Equity Income Share Class:

12. To approve the Global Equity Income Share Class Portfolio dividend payment policy as set out on page 46 of the 2023 annual financial report.

13. That: the Directors be and they are hereby generally and unconditionally authorised, for the purpose of section 551 of the Companies Act 2006 as amended from time to time prior to the date of passing this resolution ('2006 Act') to exercise all the powers of the Company to allot relevant securities (as defined in sections 551(3) and (6) of the 2006 Act) up to an aggregate nominal amount equal to 457,684 of UK Equity Shares, 168,297 of Global Equity Income Shares, 28,117 of Balanced Risk Allocation Shares and 8,360 of Managed Liquidity Shares, provided that this authority shall expire at the conclusion of the next AGM of the Company or the date falling 15 months after the passing of this resolution, whichever is the earlier, but so that such authority shall allow the Company to make offers or agreements before the expiry of this authority which would or might require relevant securities to be allotted after such expiry and the Directors may allot relevant securities in pursuance of such offers or agreements as if the power conferred hereby had not expired.

Special Resolutions:

The following Special Resolutions were passed at the Annual General Meeting held on

2 October 2023:

14. That: the Directors be and they are hereby empowered, in accordance with sections 570 and 573 of the Companies Act 2006 as amended from time to time prior to the date of the passing of this resolution ('2006 Act') to allot Shares in each class (UK Equity, Global Equity Income, Balanced Risk Allocation and Managed Liquidity) for cash, either pursuant to the authority given by resolution 13 or (if such allotment constitutes the sale of relevant Shares which, immediately before the sale, were held by the Company as treasury shares) otherwise, as if section 561 of the 2006 Act did not apply to any such allotment, provided that this power shall be limited:

(a) to the allotment of Shares in connection with a rights issue in favour of all holders of a class of Share where the Shares attributable respectively to the interests of all holders of Shares of such class are either proportionate (as nearly as may be) to the respective numbers of relevant Shares held by them or are otherwise allotted in accordance with the rights attaching to such Shares (subject in either case to such exclusions or other arrangements as the Directors may deem necessary or expedient in relation to fractional entitlements or legal or practical problems under the laws of, or the requirements of, any regulatory body or any stock exchange in any territory or otherwise);

(b) to the allotment (otherwise than pursuant to a rights issue) of equity securities up to an aggregate nominal amount of 68,652 of UK Equity Shares, 25,244 of Global Equity Income Shares, 4,217 of Balanced Risk Allocation Shares and 1,254 of Managed Liquidity Shares; and

(c) to the allotment of equity securities at a price of not less than the net asset value per Share as close as practicable to the allotment or sale

and this power shall expire at the conclusion of the next AGM of the Company or the date 15 months after the passing of this resolution, whichever is the earlier, but so that this power shall allow the Company to make offers or agreements before the expiry of this power which would or might require equity securities to be allotted after such expiry as if the power conferred by this resolution had not expired; and so that words and expressions defined in or for the purposes of Part 17 of the 2006 Act shall bear the same meanings in this resolution.

15. That: the Company be generally and subject as hereinafter appears unconditionally authorised in accordance with section 701 of the Companies Act 2006 as amended from time to time prior to the date of passing this resolution ('2006 Act') to make market purchases (within the meaning of section 693(4) of the 2006 Act) of its issued Shares in each Share class (UK Equity, Global Equity Income, Balanced Risk Allocation and Managed Liquidity).

PROVIDED ALWAYS THAT:

(i) the maximum number of Shares hereby authorised to be purchased shall be 14.99% of each class of the Company's share capital as at the date of the AGM;

(ii) the minimum price which may be paid for a Share shall be 1p;

(iii) the maximum price which may be paid for a Share in each Share class must not be more than the higher of:

(a) 5% above the average of the mid-market values of the Shares for the five business days before the purchase is made; and

(b) the higher of the price of the last independent trade in the Shares and the highest then current independent bid for the Shares on the London Stock Exchange;

(iv) any purchase of Shares will be made in the market for cash at prices below the prevailing net asset value per Share (as determined by the Directors);

(v) the authority hereby conferred shall expire at the conclusion of the next AGM of the Company or, if earlier, on the expiry of 15 months from the passing of this resolution unless the authority is renewed at any other general meeting prior to such time; and

(vi) the Company may make a contract to purchase Shares under the authority hereby conferred prior to the expiry of such authority which will be executed wholly or partly after the expiration of such authority and may make a purchase of Shares pursuant to any such contract.

16. That: the period of notice required for general meetings of the Company (other than Annual General Meetings) shall be not less than 14 days.

Invesco Asset Management Limited

Corporate Company Secretary

3 October 2023
Purchase follows Epsilon's recent $1.1B investment in India

Epsilon Group, India's premier battery materials manufacturer, today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Johnson Matthey's lithium-ion phosphate (LFP) cathode active material technology centre in Moosburg, Germany. Financial details of the acquisition remain undisclosed.

The state-of-the-art facility boasts best-in-class technical capabilities and a workforce with expertise in LFP chemistry, comprehensive product and process development capabilities, and a versatile customer qualification plant designed to verify new materials for large-scale production.

The acquisition allows Epsilon to go to market with a proven high performance cathode active material produced at scale.

"At Epsilon, we envision a world galvanized by sustainable energy alternatives," said Vikram Handa, managing director of Epsilon Group. "Our advancement in anode research and manufacturing was a first step, and this acquisition underscores our commitment to serving our global clientele with sustainable and reliable material."

Strategic Advantages

The Moosburg research and development (R&D) center's strategic location offers Epsilon a unique advantage to tap into the European battery material's talent pool and to cater to its global clientele. By leveraging the existing infrastructure and capabilities of the Moosburg facility, Epsilon aims to significantly reduce the technology development and scale-up timeframe. This acquisition serves as a catalyst for Epsilon's ambitious plans to eventually cater to 100 GwH of demands. In alignment with its vision, Epsilon has previously announced a $1.1 billion investment in the establishment of a 100,000-ton cathode battery materials manufacturing facility in Bellari, Karnataka, India, with subsequent expansions in Europe. Epsilon also has plans for a $650 million manufacturing facility in the U.S.

The global electric vehicle market, valued at $380 billion in 2022, is projected to soar to $1.5 trillion by 2030, according to Fortune Business Insights. Cathode materials are pivotal to this growth trajectory. Benchmark's report further underscores the urgency, indicating a need for $40 billion in cathode materials production investments to bridge the gap between the current supply and anticipated demand by 2030.

About Epsilon Group

Epsilon Group is at the forefront of battery material solutions, producing high-caliber, innovative, and environmentally conscious lithium-ion battery (LiB) materials. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Mumbai, Epsilon's mission resonates with supporting the global battery industry's transition to clean and green energy. With a significant presence spanning Europe, North America, and South-East Asia, Epsilon continues to set industry benchmarks. www.epsilonam.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003334232/en/

Contacts:

John Tews

The Millerschin Group

jtews@millerschingroup.com

248-320-3814
ISACA, the leading global professional association helping individuals and organisations in their pursuit of digital trust, today launches new research looking at the state of cybersecurity. The research finds that of the cybersecurity professionals who said they were experiencing an increase or decrease in cybersecurity attacks as compared to a year ago, over half (52%) say they are experiencing more cyberattacks.

Though businesses recognise the increased threat, less than one in ten (8%) of the organisations who complete cyber risk assessments do these monthly while two in five (40%) conduct them annually. The failure to regularly assess cyber risk leaves organisations vulnerable to attacks and increases the risk of breaches going undetected for prolonged periods.

A lack of human resource is contributing to businesses not measuring and testing their cyber defences regularly enough. Almost two thirds (62%) of respondents report that their cybersecurity team is understaffed. Of those organisations with unfilled roles in cybersecurity, 39% are looking to fill entry level positions that do not require experience, university degree, or credentials. Typically, 44% of organisations state that they require a university degree to fill entry level cybersecurity positions when they have them.

Chris Dimitriadis, Global Chief Strategy Officer at ISACA, said: "Our findings show that businesses are still struggling to find the right people with the right skills to manage cybersecurity. With cyberattacks on the rise, if we do not solve these challenges and address the gaps, businesses, ecosystems of supply chains and public sector bodies could be at threat from a lack of vital protection, detection, response and recovery. Businesses do not exist in isolation from their customers or the other organisations within their network, and a cyberattack on one part of the ecosystem can have consequences for everyone else. This is why holistic training is needed towards creating a safer world

There are some simple steps businesses can take to tackle the cyber skills gap and improve their cyber resilience. Of those who are already making headway, half (50%) of the organisations surveyed are upskilling non-security staff, 46% are increasing the use of contractors or external consultants, and a quarter (27%) are adopting reskilling programmes.

Cybersecurity professionals believe that hands-on experience in a cybersecurity role (97%), credentials held (88%), and completion of hands-on cybersecurity training courses (83%) are very or somewhat important when determining if a cybersecurity candidate is qualified.

Chris Cooper, member of ISACA's Emerging Trends Working Group, said: "If businesses are to maintain their cyber resilience in an ever-evolving threat climate, we must encourage and nurture talent in the cybersecurity industry. Employers are looking for people who already have hands-on experience, but we will only enable people to build that experience by creating more entry-level roles and investing in the right training and development for everyone in the industry, from the ground up."

Jon Brandt, ISACA Director, Professionals Practices and Innovation and Martin Van Horenbeeck, Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer at Adobe will discuss these findings further in a webinar taking place on 3 October at 17:00 BST. To register, visit https://store.isaca.org/s/community-event?id=a334w000005hEsVAAU.

A complimentary copy of the State of Cybersecurity 2023 survey report can be accessed at www.isaca.org/state-of-cybersecurity-2023, along with related resources. Additional cybersecurity resources can be found at www.isaca.org/resources/cybersecurity.

Notes to Editors

All figures are based on fieldwork conducted by ISACA between May 13 and June 1 2023, amongst a total of 556 respondents in Europe.

ABOUT ISACA

ISACA (www.isaca.org) is a global community advancing individuals and organizations in their pursuit of digital trust. For more than 50 years, ISACA has equipped individuals and enterprises with the knowledge, credentials, education, training and community to progress their careers, transform their organizations, and build a more trusted and ethical digital world. ISACA is a global professional association and learning organization that leverages the expertise of its 170,000 members who work in digital trust fields such as information security, governance, assurance, risk, privacy and quality. It has a presence in 188 countries, including 225 chapters worldwide. ISACA's member base in Europe exceeds 30,000, and the organization has further strengthened its presence in the region by establishing a regional office in Dublin, Ireland, in 2022. Through its foundation One In Tech, ISACA supports IT education and career pathways for underresourced and underrepresented populations.

Twitter: www.twitter.com/ISACANews

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/isaca

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ISACAGlobal

Instagram: www.instagram.com/isacanews

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003697748/en/

Contacts:

Firstlight group

+44 7526 565 507, isacateam@firstlightgroup.io

ISACA

Esther Almendros, +34 692 669 772, ealmendros@isaca.org
TAMPA BAY, FL / ACCESSWIRE / October 4, 2023 / In a groundbreaking move set to redefine European agriculture, Next Generation Agriculture (NGAG Inc), a wholly owned subsidiary of AP&I (OTC PINK:AWSL), has acquired a substantial 25% equity share in Nature Soak Ltd. This visionary partnership signifies a significant leap towards transforming the agricultural landscape in the UK and Europe.

Key Partnership Objectives:

Expanding Product Accessibility: This strategic collaboration ensures that Next Generation Agriculture's revolutionary products, branded as Nature Soak, will now reach a wider community of farmers and growers throughout Europe. Nature Soak Ltd. has been granted an exclusive European distribution mandate for NGAG's unique ultra-absorbent bio stimulant, ASCOGEL, now rebranded as Nature Soak for the European market.

Continuous Innovation through Data: A robust data collection system will be established to gather user feedback and monitor product performance. This data-driven approach will pave the way for enhancing and evolving Next Generation Agriculture's innovative agricultural solutions.

Revolutionary Impact on Farming:

Nature Soak's ASCOGEL, now Nature Soak, has the remarkable ability to retain 400 times its weight in water, even in arid conditions. This groundbreaking technology reduces crop reliance on water and fertilizers, cutting down irrigation needs by over 40%. Derived entirely from plants, it offers vital nutrients, water retention, and organic solutions, all while significantly boosting crop growth and yield. This eco-friendly product stands as a beacon of sustainable agriculture, lowering costs for growers and increasing overall income.

Nature Soak UK is a pioneering force in environmentally conscious agricultural technology, committed to providing sustainable solutions that benefit both farmers and the environment. Appointed recently as the exclusive distributor for the UK and Europe of NGAG proprietary agricultural products. www.naturesoak.co.uk

Empowering Farmers, Transforming Agriculture:

By uniting forces, AP&I and Nature Soak UK are tackling the most pressing challenges in modern European agriculture. This partnership not only provides farmers with unparalleled access to cutting-edge technology but also encourages active participation in the evolution of these groundbreaking products.

Martin Driscoll, President of Next Generation Agriculture and Director / Member of the Board of AP&I expressed his enthusiasm:

"We are thrilled to partner with Nature Soak Ltd in our shared mission to advance agricultural innovation. This collaboration not only widens the reach of groundbreaking agricultural technology but also underscores our commitment to ensuring affordable food security for the UK and Europe, backed by continuous improvement through data-driven insights."

Richard Lipscombe, CEO of Nature Soak Ltd, added:

"This collaboration represents a significant milestone in the agricultural industry. Together with Next Generation Agriculture, we will empower farmers with sustainable solutions and utilize their feedback to drive further innovation in our products."

For more information about Next Generation Agriculture, please visit NGAG's Website.

About AP&I's Next Generation Agriculture Division (NGAG):

Next Generation Agriculture stands at the forefront of agricultural innovation, dedicated to transforming the future of farming through cutting-edge technology and sustainable practices. As a wholly owned subsidiary of AP&I - NGAG is committed to revolutionizing agriculture worldwide. Learn more at Atlantic Power & Infrastructure.

Empowering farmers with forward-looking solutions, our Next Generation Agriculture division offers a range of benefits. From eco-friendly fire retardants to Ascogel. https://apaicorp.com/NGAG.htm

About AP&I's Scrap Tire Construction Products Division (STCP):

For over two decades Atlantic Power & Infrasrucure Corp's, wholly owned subsidiary - K.B. Industries Inc., has pioneered the revolutionary Flexi-Pave technology, which is part of the STCP Division, this advanced material, characterized by its high porosity and durability, is a game-changer in stormwater management, water treatment, shoreline protection, and ship docks. https://apaicorp.com/kbi.htm

Flexi-Pave's extraordinary qualities include long-term and short-term permeability, remarkable flexibility, crack resistance (even in challenging freeze-thaw conditions), enhanced resistance against trip hazards, and exceptional slip resistance.

About AP&I's Water Purification Next Generation (WPNG):

The Global Challenge: Algae and Red Tide Infestation - a Serious Health Hazard

Algae infestation in water bodies worldwide poses a rapidly growing and critical health risk worldwide. AP&I is at the forefront of combating this crisis with an ingenious solution.

Through proprietary Algae Vessels (AVs), these vessels are strategically placed within hazardous water bodies to target and eliminate harmful Algae Blooms that plague rivers, ponds, and lakes, as well as Red Tide Algae blooms in saltwater bodies. The AVs adeptly absorb the harmful Algae and Red Tide, processing them onboard before safely returning benign Algae to the water body. This transformed Algae then contributes as a natural and non-hazardous food source for aquatic life.

Innovative Benefits and Sustainable Practices

While battling this environmental menace, the AVs operate with a zero-carbon footprint, harnessing wind and solar power for their operation.

This commitment aligns with AP&I's overarching corporate goal of benefiting the environment.

https://apaicorp.com/atlantic-power-infrastructure-corp-revolutionizes-water-cleaning-technologies-with-groundbreaking-algae-and-red-tide-removal-solution.html

With its pioneering proprietary technology, AP&I is not only safeguarding aquatic ecosystems but also promoting healthier water bodies. The subsidiary's efforts are set to alleviate what has rapidly become a critical health hazard worldwide. Until now, environmental authorities have been grappling with a solution to this swiftly escalating crisis. Through innovation and dedication, AP&I's subsidiary is rewriting the narrative and leading the charge toward a safer and more sustainable future.

As AP&I continues its innovative journey, we remain steadfast in our commitment to "proven sustainable pioneering solutions" that create lasting positive impact across the planet.

For media inquiries, please contact:

enquiries@apaicorp.com

Visit: www.AtlanticPIC.com

Tel. +1 (727) 723-3300

Disclaimer: Shareholders and investors are strongly cautioned against placing undue reliance on information set forth within this website and these communications in making any investment decisions concerning our securities. The matters set forth in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. These risks are detailed from time to time in the Company's periodic reports filed with OTCMarkets.com including the company's Annual Report, Quarterly Reports, and other periodic filings. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. The Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Nothing within this site is meant to be a solicitation to buy.

Kevin Bagnall

CEO / Chairman

Atlantic Power & Infrastructure Corp

Office (727) 723-3300

SOURCE: Atlantic Power and Infrastructure Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789422/atlantic-power-infrastructure-corps-api-next-generation-agriculture-revolutionizes-european-agriculture-with-strategic-nature-soak-partnership
STUTTGART, GERMANY / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / ConMet, a leading global provider of transformative technologies for commercial trucks and trailers, is excited to announce the establishment of its European headquarters. This strategic move demonstrates ConMet's commitment to serving the unique needs of the European market and providing innovative solutions to commercial vehicle original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

ConMet Europe

ConMet Europe

ConMet Europe is located in Stuttgart, Germany. The local team consists of seasoned professionals with a wealth of industry experience in diverse global markets, ensuring the company's ability to deliver exceptional service and solutions to European customers.

"As we accelerate our expansion into Europe, it is crucial that we establish a regional headquarters in the EU," said Mike Harman, Managing Director. "This decision allows us to provide cutting-edge solutions that meet specific requirements of our European customers, improve overall service, and strengthen our presence in the area."

ConMet Europe aims to address the industry's evolving challenges by providing lightweight solutions without compromising vehicle performance. As vehicle advancements like alternative powertrains and larger cabs continue to gain traction, OEMs strive to offset the additional weight. ConMet Europe offers aluminum wheel end solutions for trucks and trailers, aluminum chassis components and housing products, and weight-optimized iron components. These products cater to a range of vehicle applications, enabling customers to achieve weight savings of up to 100 kilograms on wheel ends and 200 kilograms on chassis components. Such advancements result in optimized fuel efficiency and increased revenue-bearing load capacity.

Key members of the ConMet Europe team include:

Mike Harman, Managing Director: Harman's successful career spans various roles, showcasing his vast experience and expertise, including his involvement in ConMet's expansion into Southeast Asia. Harman will oversee ConMet Europe's operations, enhancing the company's global footprint.

Antonio Erroi, Business Operations: Erroi brings nearly two decades of experience from SKF, where he played an integral role in sales and operations within SKF's automotive and commercial truck segments. His expertise will be invaluable in driving ConMet Europe's business operations and expansion.

Dirk Steffens, Business Development: With over 20 years of business and product strategy experience in the commercial vehicle industry, Steffens' insights will directly benefit ConMet Europe's customers, driving their growth and strengthening their market position.

John Hodge, Product Development: With over 30 years at ConMet, Hodge has led teams of engineers responsible for tooling and product design. With his recent relocation to Germany, Hodge's extensive knowledge and experience will play a crucial role in driving ConMet Europe's product development initiatives, particularly in the field of wheel end solutions.

Megan Vincent, Marketing: With two decades of marketing experience in the commercial vehicle industry, including 17 years spent with the leading global manufacturer, Phillips Industries, Vincent possesses the expertise and insight necessary to strengthen ConMet's brand in the European market.

To learn more about ConMet Europe and its portfolio of innovative solutions, please visit europe.conmet.com.

About ConMet

ConMet, a division of Amsted Industries, is a leading global supplier of wheel hubs, aluminum castings, and structural plastics to original equipment manufacturers and aftermarket channels in the commercial vehicle industry. Founded in 1964, ConMet innovation has been critical in designing, engineering, and manufacturing revolutionary technologies for trucks and trailers. Today, ConMet products are standard equipment on most heavy-duty vehicles in North America and have a growing footprint worldwide.

ConMet is committed to creating products and services that align with critical customer needs. The development of more efficient products, processes, and technology that transform the way customers run and maintain their vehicles is central to ConMet's vision.

Contact Information

Megan Vincent

Marketing Manager

marketing@conmet.com

360-258-3076

SOURCE: ConMet

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789419/conmet-establishes-european-headquarters-further-advancing-global-strategic-growth
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Sierra Madre Gold and Silver Ltd (TSXV:SM)(OTCQX:SMDRF) ("Sierra Madre" or the "Company"), a precious metals development company, is pleased to announce that its common shares are now eligible for electronic clearing and settlement through the Depository Trust Company ("DTC") in the United States. DTC eligibility is expected to create a seamless process of trading and enhance liquidity of the Company's common shares in the United States over time. Sierra Madre's shares started trading on the OTCQX Best Market this summer.

Alexander Langer, President & CEO of Sierra Madre stated, "DTC eligibility compliments our recent listing qualification on the OTCQX Best Market, announced on July 28, 2023. Obtaining DTC Eligibility represents the company's commitment to increasing visibility and accessibility for shareholders in the United States."

Sierra Madre Gold & Silver (TSXV:SM), (OTCQX: SMDRF) is a precious metals development and exploration company, focused on evaluating the potential of restarting the La Guitarra Mine in the Temascaltepec mining district, Mexico, and the exploration and development of its Tepic and La Tigra properties in Nayarit, Mexico. The La Guitarra Mine is a permitted, past-producing underground mine which includes a 500 t/d processing facility that operated until mid-2018.

The +2,600 ha Tepic Project hosts low-sulphidation epithermal gold and silver mineralization with an existing historic resource. La Tigra, located 148 km north of Tepic, has been mined historically, Sierra Madre's maiden 2022 drill program at the site intercepted shallow mineralization.

Sierra Madre's management has played key roles for managing exploration and development of more than 22Moz gold and 600Moz silver in combined reserves and resources. Sierra Madre's team of professionals has collectively raised over $1B for mining companies.

On behalf of the board of directors of Sierra Madre Gold and Silver Ltd.,

"Alexander Langer"

Alexander Langer

President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Contact:

investor@sierramadregoldandsilver.com

Cautionary Note

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. The forward-looking statements herein are made as of the date of this press release only, and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budgets", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "projects", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information in this press release includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the completion of the Transaction on the terms set out in the definitive agreement (or at all) and the ability of the Company to obtain requisite corporate and regulatory approvals for the Transaction, including but not limited to the approval of the Exchange, Mexican antitrust approval and other governmental approvals as currently anticipated.

In making the forward-looking statements included in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including that the Company will be able to receive all required regulatory approvals by the timelines currently anticipated (or at all); and that the Company will be able to complete the Transaction on the terms of the definitive agreement. Forward-looking statements and information are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the ability of the Company to control or predict, that may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied thereby, and are developed based on assumptions about such risks, uncertainties and other factors set out herein, including, but not limited to, the risk that the Company is not able to complete Transaction on the terms set out in the definitive agreement (or at all) and the risk that the Company is unable to obtain requisite corporate and regulatory approvals, including but not limited to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Mexican antitrust approval and governmental approval as currently anticipated.

Such forward-looking information represents management's best judgment based on information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.

SOURCE: Sierra Madre Gold and Silver Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789316/sierra-madre-announces-dtc-eligibility
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / McFarlane Lake Mining Limited (NEO:MLM)(OTCQB:MLMLF) ("McFarlane Lake" or "McFarlane" or "the Company"), a Canadian gold exploration and development company, today announced that it has commissioned a full geological compilation of all available historical and current information on its High Lake property to generate a digital dataset to help generate and prioritize exploration targets through the use of artificial intelligence.

The data compilation work is being carried out by Orix Geoscience and includes the High Lake property and the surrounding area. The scope will involve an analysis of historical drill logs, geological maps, geophysical survey data, surface geochemistry samples, and data from the Company's recent drilling campaigns. The Company is also reviewing proposals to deploy artificial intelligence to analyze the resulting comprehensive dataset to focus and prioritize future drilling targets.

"At High Lake's Purdex Zone, we have identified a high-grade gold resource with significant potential for expansion. By compiling the historical exploration results with our recent drilling and geophysical results into one comprehensive dataset, we will be able to optimize our future exploration efforts," said Roger Emdin, Chief Operating Officer of McFarlane Lake. "With recent breakthroughs of applying AI to mineral exploration, we expect that we will be able to further advance this attractive property by identifying additional mineralization targets."

In July 2023, McFarlane Lake filed an NI 43-101 compliant technical report that identified 96,200 Inferred ounces and 45,800 Indicated ounces of gold at a grade of 10.43 grams per tonne of gold and 9.38 grams per tonne of gold, respectively, in the Purdex Zone on the High Lake property.

Table 1: Current Purdex Zone Mineral Resource at 2.6 g/t Au cut-off

Classification Tonnes

(k) Au

(g/t) Au

(k Oz) Indicated 152 9.38 45.8 Inferred 287 10.43 96.2

Qualified Person

The technical contents of this news release have been reviewed and approved by Robert Kusins, Vice President of Geology of McFarlane. Mr. Kusins is a qualified person, as defined by NI 43-101. However, Mr. Kusins is not independent of the Company by virtue of his position.

About McFarlane Lake Mining

McFarlane Lake is a mineral exploration company focused on the exploration and development of the High Lake mineral property located immediately east of the Ontario-Manitoba border and the West Hawk Lake mineral property located immediately west of the Ontario-Manitoba border. In addition, McFarlane holds the McMillan and Mongowin mineral property located 70 km west of Sudbury and owns the Michaud/Munro mineral property 115 km east of Timmins. McFarlane is a "reporting issuer" under applicable securities legislation in the provinces of Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta.

To learn more, visit https://mcfarlanelakemining.com/

additional information on McFarlane Lake can be found by reviewing its profile on SEDAR at www.sedarplus.ca.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information:

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of McFarlane Lake to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements are described under the caption "Risks Factors" in the Company's Filing Statement dated as of January 14, 2022 which is available for view on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and McFarlane Lake disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

McFarlane Lake's' operations could be significantly adversely affected by the effects of a widespread global outbreak of a contagious disease, including the recent outbreak of illness caused by COVID-19. It is not possible to accurately predict the impact COVID-19 will have on operations and the ability of others to meet their obligations, including uncertainties relating to the ultimate geographic spread of the virus, the severity of the disease, the duration of the outbreak, and the length of travel and quarantine restrictions imposed by governments of affected countries. In addition, a significant outbreak of contagious diseases in the human population could result in a widespread health crisis that could adversely affect the economies and financial markets of many countries, resulting in an economic downturn that could further affect operations and the ability to finance its operations.

Further Information

For further information regarding McFarlane Lake, please contact:

Mark Trevisiol,

Chief Executive Officer, President and Director

McFarlane Lake Mining Limited

mtrevisiol@mcfarlanelakemining.com

1 705-665-5087

Craig MacPhail

NATIONAL Capital Markets

cmacphail@national.ca

1 416-525-5709

SOURCE: McFarlane Lake Mining Limited

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789326/artificial-intelligence-review-planned-for-mcfarlanes-gold-resource-property-at-high-lake
Family-Owned Business Grows from One Delivery Station Wagon to 45-Truck Fleet as Largest Metal Supplier to California and Arizona

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Third generation family-owned Industrial Metal Supply Co. (IMS) is proud to celebrate 75 years in business. What started as a single storefront in Burbank, California in 1948 has grown to become one of the largest metal distributors in California and Arizona by serving customers in industries ranging from manufacturing and aerospace to technology, telecommunications, medical devices, fabricators, artists, engineers and contractors with same-day access to an extensive array of metals and accessories at seven locations.

Industrial Metal Supply Ribbon Cutting

"We're proud and humbled to see how far IMS has come in 75 years, and don't take this longevity, or our valued team members dedication for granted," said IMS CEO Neil Sherman. "IMS customers expect the highest quality materials, unmatched customer service and convenience from our team, and we're proud to exceed their expectations at each of our locations while recognizing this milestone wouldn't be possible without their long-term loyalty."

Founders Norman and Sally Sherman started IMS using their 1940s Pontiac station wagon to pick up and deliver metal to nearby businesses during the day, and to transport their growing family at night. Norman's knack for finding deals and Sally's head for marketing combined to create an ambitious business plan catering to the glitzy demands of Hollywood and aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Aircraft. The nearby movie studios needed metal, and IMS was their behind-the-scenes supplier, meeting every demand of production. From movie sets to silver screens, their metal became part of the magic of movies.

The business expanded quickly under the guidance of their son, Neil, whose desire for growth led to the opening of a second IMS branch in 1989, in nearby Irvine, California. By the late '80s and early '90s new IMS branches sprouted up in San Diego, Phoenix and Riverside. In 2012, Tucson joined the family. IMS currently uses a fleet of 45 trucks to transport thousands of pounds of metal from seven locations in two states.

More recently, a focused investment in technology, equipment and innovation has allowed IMS to expand to new cities, while continuing to provide exceptional customer service and wide product availability to its customers. San Jose opened in 2022 marking IMS's first presence in Northern California. In early 2023, responding to Arizona's technology and manufacturing boom, the Phoenix branch more than doubled in size, moving into a new 160,000 square foot warehouse including a 15,000-square-foot retail store. Still family owned, IMS prides itself on a welcoming business culture, revolutionary operations and providing expedited order fulfillment and easy to shop storefronts stocked with metals for businesses and hobbyists alike.

"We pay close attention to the changing needs of our diverse customers and their business climates to ensure we're helping make their jobs easier through our partnerships," added Sherman. "This continued focus on innovation as needs and industries evolve is a big part of our long-term success."

The tremendous variety of IMS products available to customers includes steel, aluminum, stainless steel, copper, brass, tool steel, lead and bearing bronze. Other items include expanded, perforated and welded wire sheet, casters, welding accessories, ornamental iron, patinas, structural aluminum pipe fittings and hobbyist miniature shapes. IMS stores also stock thousands of metal accessories in a clean, organized indoor space, making it easy for novice metal buyers to navigate.

Sherman concluded, "In addition to providing the highest level of product and customer service, our team is steadfast in our commitment to the community. We seek out and support local charities, high school and college robotics clubs, F1 and Baja college racing and engineering teams."

Learn more https://www.industrialmetalsupply.com or call (602) 454-1500.

Contact Information

Heather Austin

PR for IMS

heather@theferrarogroup.com

602-738-9252

SOURCE: Industrial Metal Supply

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789353/industrial-metal-supply-celebrates-75-years-of-making-metal-easy
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / ARway.ai ("ARway" or the "Company") (CSE:ARWY)(OTCQB:ARWYF)(FSE:E65) is an AI powered Augmented Reality Experience platform with a disruptive no-code, no beacon spatial computing solution enabled by visual marker tracking with centimeter precision announces new strategic international partnerships, which will propel ARway's reach further into the indoor navigation industry and towards profitability. These partners represent a significant growth opportunity for the Company.

AI Africa, a digital agency and marketing company, specializing in retail and event organization has partnered with ARway to provide indoor navigation services to its clients. Their large portfolio of clients is varied. It includes a prominent social media company with a staggering monthly engagement of 5 million followers; the leading events company in South Africa, orchestrating a remarkable 70 events per year with the collaboration poised to elevate AI Africa's presence in the events industry, offering unparalleled opportunities for innovation and growth; a prominent local tourism department and a distinguished property management company that owns and manages 17 malls and shopping centers.

Vraxa, one of the top international production houses specialized in 360 videos and AR/VR/XR solutions using the latest technology has partnered with ARway. They are an agency with a multitude of clients in retail, media, hospitals and more?, representing a variety of use cases for ARway's technology.



Brink Interactive is an agency that is distinguished by seasoned practitioners across branding, customer experience, marketing technology, strategy, and account services. Similar to VRAXA, they have a number of clients in various industries, representing a variety of use cases for ARway's technology. Brink Interactive has clients in retail, automotive, telecom, real estate and more. ?

These partners represent significant potential for ARway business, and follow the recent newly signed contract with Suleyman Demirel Universitesi situated in Isparta, Turkey. The university currently has approx 70,000 students enrolled, making it the second-largest academic institution in Turkey. This new contract has two phases with phase one starting at around $10,000 and phase two worth six figures annually. This contract comes shortly after the recent announcements that ARway.ai has signed a multi-year contract with Localiza, the largest car rental network in South America, to deliver a differentiated customer experience through newly established rental hubs at all major airports in Latin America, including AR navigation from baggage pickup to the transport depot, which includes car rentals, bus stops, Uber, etc., and a phased rollout with one of the largest shopping malls in California.

Recent News

ARway.ai Completes First Build of the ARway Platform on Apple's Vision Pro Hardware & Announces Platform + SDK Updates

ARway.ai Selected to Participate at Apple Vision Pro Developer Labs

ARway.ai Announces Major Win As it Lands a Contract With Second Largest Academic Institution In Turkey

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To learn more about ARway, please follow on Social Media: Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and visit our website: www.arway.ai

About ARway.ai

ARway.ai (CSE: ARWY) (OTCQB: ARWYF) (FSE: E65) is a spatial computing platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI) providing an array of augmented reality (AR) experiences for indoor spaces. ARway's breakthrough no-code no-beacon IPNN allows for the easy creation of navigation, tours, information sharing, notifications, advertising and gamification. ARway works seamlessly as a cross platform solution on iOS/ Android. ARway's technology is optimized for both mobile devices and AR glasses: Apple's Vision Pro, Magic Leap and Microsoft's HoloLens. ARway has unlimited use cases for augmenting physical spaces, making it a valuable tool for creators, brands and companies in various industries. The complete ARway platform includes: the Web Creator Studio, the ARwayKit Software Development Kit (SDK) and a mobile app for iOs and Android.

Nextech 3D.ai

On October 26, 2022, ARway.ai. was spun-out from its parent Company, Nextech3D.ai (OTCQX: NEXCF) (CSE: NTAR) (FSE: EP2). Nextech retained a control ownership in ARway.ai. with 13 million shares, or a 50% stake. Nextech3D.ai is a Metaverse Company and leading provider of augmented reality ("AR") experience technologies and 3D model services. Nextech's AI-powered 3D modeling platform, "ARitize3D" has contracts with; AMZN, KSS, CB2, Genuine Parts & many others. To learn more about Nextech3D.ai, visit www.nextechar.com

For further information, please contact:

Investor Relations Contact

Julia Viola

investor.relations@arway.ai

ARway.ai

Evan Gappelberg

CEO and Director

866-ARITIZE (274-8493)

Forward-looking Statements

The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Certain information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, "will be" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements regarding the completion of the transaction are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. ARway.ai will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE: ARway Corporation

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789371/arwayai-announces-new-partnership-deals
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - Meryllion Resources Corporation (CSE: MYR) ("Meryllion" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to its press release of July 20, 2023, it has entered into an amended arm's-length Option and Earn-In Agreement (the "Agreement") with Tasmania Strategic Green Metals Pty Ltd. ("TSGM") and Westbury Resources Pty Ltd. ("Westbury"), a private Australian company, to acquire from Westbury an interest in an additional 250 square kilometre granted rare earth exploration lease located in northeast Tasmania, Australia. This additional acquisition, together with the previously announced TSGM acquisition (collectively, the "Project"), brings Meryllion's total ground position to approximately 852 square kilometres (500 square miles). The major shareholder of Westbury is also the major shareholder of TSGM. The new Westbury acquisition will add substantial value to the TSGM ground.

Surface sampling on the Westbury ground has already resulted in samples grading up to 4,000 ppm TREO. The Westbury ground sits immediately along strike and adjacent to ABx Group Limited (ASX: ABX). On 27 September 2023 ABx announced "Record High Grades from latest REE drill program." Hole RM 336 intersected 17,333 ppm TREO (from 3m to 4m) and 12,894 ppm TREO (from 4m to 5m). This drill hole lies immediately along strike to the Westbury ground (see Figure 1: Location Map).

Meryllion CEO, Richard Revelins commented, "The opportunity to acquire the Westbury leases significantly enhances our land position in northeast Tasmania. The exploration lease has been granted and we know the project area has confirmed presence of Super Magnet metals (Neodymium) and Cerium rare earths. Surface sampling has shown high grade Neodymium and Turbidium with immediate walk-up exploration targets. We are looking forward to commencing exploration activities under the guidance of our highly experienced geological team."

Under the terms of the Agreement, Meryllion will now have until December 17, 2023 to complete due diligence on the Project. In the event where the Company wishes to pursue its right to acquire an interest in and to the Project under the terms of the Agreement, it will pay TSGM an option exercise fee of AUD$125,000 (CAD$109,038).

Thereafter, Meryllion will have the right, but not the obligation, to earn a 50% interest in and to the Project by (i) spending a minimum of AUD$300,000 (CAD$261,690) in project expenditures forming part of an agreed initial exploration program within 120 days of the date on which Meryllion exercises the option; (ii) committing to spending an additional AUD$200,000 (CAD$174,460) in project expenditures within the subsequent 90 days (the "Earn-In Date"); (iii) paying to TSGM the sum of AUD$100,000 (CAD$87,230) which amount shall be refunded by TGSM to certain seed investors of TGSM; and (iv) subject to usual regulatory approvals, allotting to said seed investors an aggregate of AUD$100,000 (CAD$87,230) worth of common shares in the capital stock of the Company.

Upon having earned its 50% interest in the Project, Meryllion will have the right, but not the obligation, to acquire additional interests in the Project, by way of 10% increments over time up to a maximum 80%, through the funding of additional expenditures at a rate of AUD$600,000 (CAD$522,000) in project expenditures and aggregate payments to TSGM/Westbury of AUD$200,000 (CAD$174,460) in cash and AUD$160,000 (CAD$139,568) in common shares of Meryllion. The Company will have a 30-month period as of the Earn-In Date, during which it may earn up to its maximum interest.

All common shares issuable pursuant to this Agreement shall be (a) issued at a deemed issue price equal to the 10-day volume weighted average price of the shares on the date of each respective share issuance or such other period as may be required by the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") and (b) subject to a restricted hold period equal to four months and one day from the date of issuance.

Upon having earned its 80% interest in the Project and a production decision being made in respect thereto, Meryllion will have the option to buy the remaining 20% of the Project at a price based upon an independent evaluation which would be made at that time.

The transaction has the potential to result in the creation of a new Control Person or a Change of Control (as such terms are defined in the policies of the CSE) of the Company. In such case, the transaction would be subject to the approval of the Company's shareholders. The Company intends to satisfy any shareholder approval requirement by written resolution signed by shareholders of more than 50% of the Company's voting shares, as provided by Section 4.6(1)(b) of CSE Policy 4.

About the Tasmanian Rare Earths Projects

The Project is hosted in highly sought rare earth-rich ionic adsorption clay hosted deposits comprising Jurassic Dolerites and Basalts and provide significant upside potential for economic rare earth magnet metals.

Globally, most rare-earths are sourced from hard-rock mines. These typically require large, costly processing plants and a significant lead time to reach production. A less common source of rare earths is ionic adsorption clay (IAC) deposits. Historically, these have only been mined in southern China. A major advantage of IAC deposits is that the rare earths can be extracted from the clay via a simple leaching process. Secondly, they often exist at shallow depth. These advantages enable a project to be developed rapidly and at lower cost. Furthermore, IAC deposits are relatively richer in the rare earths needed for permanent magnets, and they typically contain low concentrations of radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium.

Meryllion CEO Richard Revelins commented: "Prices of the super-magnet rare-earth elements are rising strongly due to a significant shortage of supply and buying by the major consumers and governments. China currently controls over 80% of global REE supply but is not expanding production at the same rate that demand for the critical REEs is rising. Accordingly, this is a highly prospective acquisition opportunity in an area where prices are responding favorably to international demand."





Figure 1: Location Map

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/5495/182664_meryllionmap.jpg

For further information, please contact:

Mr. Richard Revelins

Director and Chief Executive Officer

Meryllion Resources Corporation

+1-310-405-4475

rrevelins@peregrinecorporate.com

Investor Relations

Jorge@jeminicapital.com

+1-647-725-3888 ext. 704

Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included in this document are made as of the date of this document and the Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation. Although Management believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such.

Neither CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/182664
Highlights:

Mowilex is working with Habitat for Humanity Indonesia, the National Carpentry Council, and the Vocational Training Centre to support a Tukang (craftsman) certification.

The three-year program will provide job skills and economic opportunities for 210 participants.

Mowilex is investing funds, donating paint and providing volunteers for the program.

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- PT Mowilex Indonesia (Mowilex), a leading producer of premium paints and wood coatings, is partnering with Habitat for Humanity Indonesia, the National Carpentry Council, and the Vocational Training Centre on a three-year program to certify highly qualified Tukang (craftsmen).

Habitat for Humanity funding supports the program that will train 210 low-income participants from Indonesia's Tangerang Regency, including painters, applicators and other beginner construction worker. Mowilex is donating funds, paint and volunteer hours, while the Vocational Training Centre is leading classroom sessions. The National Carpentry Council will oversee on-the-job training experiences and award an applicators' certification to students who successfully complete the 10-day training.

The investment will bring much-needed professionals to the industry. The Ministry of Public Works and Housing (PUPR) says fewer than one million of Indonesia's 8.3 million building tradespeople are certified. Certification makes workers more competitive in a global marketplace. It also opens job opportunities that help low-income workers achieve financial independence.

"Habitat for Humanity is a global leader that helps families attain the stability and independence they need to build better lives, and Mowilex is honored to be selected as their partner in this project. Together with the National Carpentry Council and the Vocational Training Centre, we are educating young people for gainful employment. As this program improves overall paint application quality, it also lifts people out of poverty and benefits entire communities," says Niko Safavi, CEO of PT Mowilex Indonesia.

"We know that in Indonesia, the number of certified construction workers is still small. The implementation of this certified training program is an effective step. In addition to supporting the government to produce skilled construction workers to build better houses, this training is expected to increase the workers' income in the future. We appreciate Mowilex's support in launching this training program," said Susanto Samsudin, National Director of Habitat for Humanity Indonesia.

The first nine days of training explore theory and practice. On day 10, participants take a related certification exam. The certification equips builders and applicators with the knowledge to construct sturdy commercial and residential structures meeting the standards of building material manufacturers.

Learn more about Mowilex's ESG programs and products at Mowilex.com.

About PT Mowilex Indonesia

PT Mowilex Indonesia (Mowilex), a subsidiary of Asia Coatings Enterprises, Pte. Ltd., is a leading producer of premium paints and coatings. Since launching the first Indonesian-made, water-based paints in 1970, the company has expanded its commitment to environmental ethics, equality, community and innovation. PT Mowilex is Indonesia's only certified carbon neutral manufacturer, producing zero and low VOC paints in modern colours, and the company regularly wins awards for its corporate social responsibility and sustainability efforts.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2237469/ONI6740.jpg

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/mowilex-partners-with-habitat-for-humanity-to-train-the-next-generation-of-paint-applicators-in-indonesia-301945649.html
LYON, France, and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Amolyt Pharma, a global company specialized in developing therapeutic peptides for rare endocrine and related diseases, today announced that it will present two posters at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) 2023 Annual Meeting, which is being held October 13-16, 2023 in Vancouver, BC, Canada.



Details of the presentations are as follows:

Title: Skeletal effects of hypoparathyroidism (HypoPT); data from the Canadian National Hypoparathyroidism Registry (CNHR)

Format: Late Breaking Poster (Poster Session II)

Date: Sunday, October 15, 2023

Session Time: 1:30 - 3:00 p.m. PT (4:30 - 6:00 p.m. ET)

Author/Presenter: Salma Hussein, M.D. (Clinical Fellow of Metabolic Bone Disease, McMaster University)

Title: Eneboparatide, A Novel Investigational PTH1R Agonist, Maintains Calcium Homeostasis Without Deleterious Effects on Bone

Format: Late Breaking Poster (Poster Session II)

Date: Sunday, October 15, 2023

Session Time: 1:30 - 3:00 p.m. PT (4:30 - 6:00 p.m. ET)

Author/Presenter: Mark Sumeray, M.D. (Chief Medical Officer, Amolyt Pharma)

About Hypoparathyroidism

Hypoparathyroidism is a rare condition defined by a deficiency of parathyroid hormone (PTH) that results in decreased calcium and elevated phosphorus levels in the blood. Approximately 80% of the estimated 80,000 people in the U.S. and 110,000 in the European Union with hypoparathyroidism are women. Despite available treatments, patients experience persistent, life-altering symptoms and often develop complications and comorbidities that diminish quality of life and create segments of the patient population with specific clinical needs. Clinical manifestations of hypoparathyroidism impact many tissues and organ systems, in particular, the kidneys and bone.

More than half of all patients are post-menopausal women who are at an increased risk for developing osteoporosis. In a 515 hypoparathyroidism patient chart review, 17% were diagnosed with osteopenia or osteoporosis, and in the eneboparatide Phase 2a trial, 43% of patients had osteopenia. Approximately 26% of patients with hypoparathyroidism have chronic kidney disease or failure, highlighting the importance of reducing urinary calcium excretion as a key treatment goal.

About Eneboparatide

Eneboparatide is an investigational therapeutic peptide designed to target a specific conformation of the parathyroid hormone (PTH) receptor to produce sustained and stable levels of calcium in the blood and thereby manage the symptoms of hypoparathyroidism, and to limit urine calcium excretion by restoring calcium reabsorption by the kidney, with the goal of consequently preventing progressive decline in kidney function and the development of chronic kidney disease. In addition to its unique receptor profile, eneboparatide is also designed to have a short half-life to potentially preserve bone integrity, an important potential benefit, since the majority of patients are peri- and postmenopausal women with an increased risk of developing osteoporosis.

About Amolyt Pharma

Amolyt Pharma, a clinical stage biotechnology company, is building on its team's established expertise to deliver life-changing treatments to patients suffering from rare endocrine and related diseases. Its development portfolio includes eneboparatideand LinkedIn.

Media Inquiries:

Jordyn Temperato

LifeSci Communications

jtemperato@lifescicomms.com

Investors Inquiries:

Ashley Robinson

LifeSci Advisors, LLC

arr@lifesciadvisors.com

+1.617.430.7577
Leading European provider of professionally monitored security systems for residential and small business customers turns to Aria to centralize billing and product catalog management

Aria Systems, the leader in empowering enterprises to accelerate subscription and usage-based revenue growth, today announced that Verisure has selected Aria Billing Cloud to consolidate billing and subscription management operations across all markets where the company operates. Verisure is the leading European provider of professionally monitored security systems with 24/7 response services, protecting residential and small business customers in 17 countries in Europe and Latin America.

With 5 million customer accounts, the company selected Aria following a competitive review to consolidate and rationalize all billing activity into a single system. To date, the company has been following different billing processes across markets, each generating unique reports and datasets. Aria will allow Verisure to ultimately manage all billing data in one centralized location while also giving the company access to a powerful enterprise product catalog.

"In addition to reducing the number of technology systems, Aria will allow us to have consistent processes for all Verisure regions while enabling individual markets to continue to offer localized and tailored services," said Cristina Rivas, Group CTO, Verisure. "After a thorough review, we concluded that Aria was the only platform that could handle our level of billing complexity at scale. The strength of their enterprise product catalog will also help us solve two transformation projects at once."

Following initial signup and equipment fees, Verisure customers contract with the company for ongoing security monitoring via monthly subscription arrangements. Aria Billing Cloud will unify the subscription model on a global basis, integrating tax and regulatory considerations. The agility of the Aria platform will also allow for the potential introduction of new consumption-based services in the future. Finally, Verisure local markets can leverage Aria's product catalog to diverge from corporate product specification as needed to flexibly localize deals and offers.

"Verisure's selection of Aria affirms our ability to handle large volumes of customers located across multiple markets where a mix of physical products and services are being offered," said Tom Dibble, President CEO, Aria Systems. "With so many customer accounts in multiple countries, Verisure presents a level of billing complexity that only Aria can handle. We're excited to welcome Verisure, a leader in the security industry, to the Aria family and look forward to working with the team to standardize billing for all customers."

About Aria Systems:

Aria enables enterprises to automate complex usage and subscription billing in an agile market environment. Aria Billing Cloud is top-rated by leading research firms, and innovative enterprises including Adobe, Comcast, Experian, Subaru, and Telstra depend on Aria to accelerate ideation, become customer centric, and grow recurring revenues. For more information, visit: www.ariasystems.com.

About Verisure:

Verisure is the leading European provider of professionally monitored security systems with 24/7 response services. We protect more than 5 million families and small businesses across 17 countries in Europe and Latin America. Our mission is to provide our customers peace of mind by protecting what matters most to them.

With over 35 years of insight, experience, and innovation, Verisure is known for category-creating marketing, sales excellence, innovative products and services, and customer-centricity.

Thanks to a strong focus on high quality, our customers are amongst the most satisfied and loyal in our industry. We have some of the strongest growth and retention rates globally in consumer-facing services which demonstrates our exceptional service levels and strong value proposition to our customers.

For more information: www.verisure.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003505998/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Greg Kalish gkalish@ariasystems.com +1 516-665-3292
EnterpriseAlumni, global market leader in alumni management software led by Chief Executive Emma Sinclair MBE, today joins 17,000 female-owned businesses who are globally certified as a Women's Business Enterprise (WBE) by WEConnect International.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003569153/en/

EnterpriseAlumni Certified Women's Business Enterprise (WBE) by WEConnect International (Graphic: Business Wire)

Large companies, including many of EnterpriseAlumni's customers, are committed to fair and equal opportunities in business. WeConnect help bring this ecosystem together to ensure female led businesses have a seat at the procurement table and help large corporations and organizations achieve the highest possible percentages of diverse spend.

It also instills confidence that sellers meet buyers' standards for women-owned businesses. In the US and Australia in particular, parts of the public and private sector have clear targets around awarding contracts to Women's Business Enterprises. This internationally recognized certificate makes it easier for procurement teams to readily identify eligible candidates during RFP and bid processes.

EnterpriseAlumni is not just a women-led and woman-controlled business. It also has a firm commitment to diversity in terms of ownership and is the only Enterprise Software company in the world to have raised investment at scale, with gender balanced shareholders1

Emma Sinclair MBE, Chief Executive of EnterpriseAlumni, said "Having founded an enterprise software business, supplier diversity is an issue close to my heart and one I believe should be at the top of the corporate agenda.

To secure innovation based economic growth and a broader distribution of opportunities and revenue, large companies need and want to purchase and benefit from innovation to improve and enhance their businesses and vendors desperately want to sell to this market. EnterpriseAlumni is glad to contribute to this ecosystem and looks forward to more conversations with Global Supplier Diversity teams.

I couldn't agree more with US based Elizabeth Vasquez, CEO and Founder of WeConnect, when she said: "Nothing gets done quickly working by ourselves. We need each other to accomplish big goals." 2

Notes to Editor: Headquartered in London and New York, with offices globally, EnterpriseAlumni is the leading provider of alumni management software. Their software powers the alumni networks of the world's leading companies to help them activate, engage and maintain a connection with former employees. This helps companies to rapidly accelerate sales and marketing, support brand and drive rehires and referrals, and former employees to benefit from opportunity, community and offers from the network and their prior employer. Organizations ranging from medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises have selected EnterpriseAlumni to drive community, commercial connectivity and competitive advantage by engaging with this important pool of people.

WeConnect International is a global non-profit that brings motivated, large corporate, multilateral and government buyers together with women-owned or controlled business suppliers around the world. Supplier diversity and inclusion is an emerging strategic business process aimed at providing companies owned by historically underutilized diverse groups an equal opportunity to supply major corporations, governments and multilateral organizations so that they can grow their businesses. Indeed major corporations are now often incentivized and required to source from such businesses.

1 https://www.ft.com/content/543a5aa4-3c37-11e9-9988-28303f70fcff

2 https://womenties.blog/2023/05/03/wednesday-wisdom-be-a-change-agent/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003569153/en/

Contacts:

Charlie Palmer, Head of Marketing

Email: charlie.palmer@enterprisealumni.com

Tel: +447855531662
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Today, KEEP Labs, the pioneering company in innovative storage solutions, is thrilled to announce the greatly anticipated launch of its groundbreaking product, KEEP, the world's first smart storage device for medication and all life's remedies.





KEEP

KEEP, Slate Black, $299, www.discoverkeep.com





Since its inception in 2020, KEEP has been at the forefront of blending cutting-edge technology with stylish design, working to revolutionize the way we store, manage and monitor medication in the home. The nationwide launch marks a significant milestone in making this innovative solution accessible to households across North America.

Rooted in its commitment to safety and innovation, WIFI and Bluetooth connected KEEP offers a modern solution for secure, discreet, and intelligent storage at home. Designed with a blend of style and functionality, KEEP ensures medications and other essentials are stored away from curious hands while appearing as a sleek piece of home decor. The KEEP companion app allows for secure biometric opening, real-time alerts for tampering or unauthorized movement, customizable LED display, medication management and passive adherence tracking.

"For the past three years we have worked hard to get this lifesaving product to market. It was not easy, but through talking to customers we were able to understand what both homes and healthcare needed and were able to build just that", says Philip Wilkins, Co-Founder, KEEP Labs. "After selling out a 15,000 unit pre-order campaign we knew we had to keep going. Today is a very proud day for all of us at KEEP and brings us closer to our mission to create a safer and more responsible home and world for our children."

KEEP addresses a growing need in today's homes, where multiple generations often live together, and guests frequently visit. The company provides secure storage for medications, cannabis, vitamins, and other sensitive items. Traditional storage methods either lack security or are inconvenient, leading to potential misuse, theft, or accidental ingestion, especially by children or curious teenagers. Additionally, there's a desire for storage solutions that blend seamlessly with modern home decor, rather than standing out or looking clinical.

Beyond the physical product, KEEP Health elevates the mission by offering a comprehensive medication adherence and analytics platform. This platform, a harmonious integration of cutting-edge hardware and software, is tailored to serve life sciences companies, patient support programs, and pharmacy networks.

KEEP Health tackles the medication non-adherence challenge in healthcare, which leads to suboptimal treatment outcomes, increased hospitalizations, and higher healthcare costs. Life sciences companies, patient support programs, and pharmacy networks often lack real-time insights into patient medication habits at home. Without timely data, it's challenging to intervene effectively, offer tailored support, or understand the effectiveness of different patient support strategies. KEEP is the first product to capture real-time data on medication usage passively in patient homes, which empowers proactive intervention and tailored support.

The launch of KEEP brings a new era of safety and convenience to households across North America. KEEP comes in two minimalistic colorways; chalk white and slate black, $299 at www.discoverkeep.com.

About KEEP Labs

KEEP Labs is a Canadian tech company founded by two dads who were looking for a smart way to store prescription medication at home. Originally focused on harm reduction, KEEP Lab's introductory product, KEEP, is a TIME Best Invention of 2020 and CES 2020 Innovation Honoree. KEEP Health is the first medication adherence and analytics platform for global life sciences companies, patient support programs and pharmacy networks that integrates both hardware and software for all dosage forms, providing deeper insight into the patient journey at home.



Contact Information

Eden Wilkins

Head of Communications

press@keeplabs.com





SOURCE: KEEP Labs

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789090/keep-announces-nationwide-launch-transforming-home-safety-and-medication-management
DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Sendero, a management consulting firm with expertise delivering strategic planning, digital transformation, and organizational effectiveness solutions, is pleased to announce the promotion of Liya Getachew to Principal.

Sendero Principal Liya Getachew

Liya brings expertise in project management, systems integration, change management, and process improvement across multiple industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and utilities, to Sendero's Senior Leadership Team.

"Through multiple large-scale system implementations, Liya has become invaluable to the digital transformation of many Sendero clients. She approaches each project with tenacity, but that tenacity is always balanced with an incredible emotional intelligence," said Sendero CEO and Founder Bret Farrar. "This combination makes her an extraordinary consultant and is one of many reasons she will be a tremendous asset to our Senior Leadership Team."

Since joining Sendero, Liya has successfully executed a variety of projects, including establishing new business functions, overseeing merger and acquisition activities, managing system integrations, and sourcing vendors. In each of her client engagements, she prioritizes tangible action plans and effective management to identify and implement measurable solutions.

Liya holds a master of business administration from the University of Dallas and a bachelor of business administration in management from the University of Texas at Arlington. In addition, she holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.

About Sendero:

Sendero is a full-service management consulting firm focused on one thing: empowering rapid, significant, and measurable results. Sendero's experts provide guidance in strategic planning, digital transformation, and organizational effectiveness across a variety of industries to enable large and mid-sized companies to implement fundamental transformation. Since its founding in 2004, Sendero has routinely been recognized as a best place to work by employees, Great Places to Work, Top Workplaces, and the Dallas Morning News. With offices in Austin, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, and Phoenix, Sendero is focused on making an impact for their clients and community.

Contact Information:

Lauren Lyngstad

Marketing Senior Manager

press@senderoconsulting.com

(972) 388-5806

SOURCE: Sendero Consulting

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789358/sendero-announces-new-principal-appointment-liya-getachew
VACAVILLE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Athena Gold Corporation (OTCQB:AHNR)(CSE:ATHA) ("Athena" or the "Company") is pleased to announce assay results from a recent reconnaissance and sampling program (the "Program") at its 100% owned Excelsior Springs Project ("Project") located approximately 45 miles southwest of Goldfield, Nevada.

On January 31, 2023, Athena announced the staking of 51 new Federal claims on BLM lands thereby expanding the Project to 195 claims. These claims added numerous high-grade gold and silver prospects that also contain significant base metals.

One of the Company's emerging targets is the historic Lida Bell mine located about 3,200 meters (2 miles) southeast of the Western Slope Zone (WSZ) on the eastern flank of Palmetto Mountain. Figure 1 shows the location of the Lida Bell mine and illustrates Athena's land holdings. According to old newspaper accounts and reports, minor amounts of very high-grade gold were extracted from the Lida Bell and associated workings in the late 1800s.

In August 2023, Athena's consulting geologists examined the Lida Bell area, identified several outcrops and collected five samples for analysis. One of these samples returned 51.4 grams gold per tonne (1.7 oz/ton) and another contained 509 grams silver per tonne (16.2 oz/ton). Table 1 shows all the analyses, including not only remarkable gold and silver contents, but also base metals and other pathfinder elements associated with or proximal to large IRG systems.

Table I

Future work would include systematic sampling over the area and detailed geologic mapping to identify surface structures and altered outcrops with a goal of developing drill targets.

Figure 1

In addition to showing the location of the Lida Bell prospect, the map includes the following

Land Position: Athena's land holdings comprise two patents and 195 unpatented mining claims that cover approximately 4,000 acres or 1,619 ha on BLM lands.

Exploration Targets: The following new targets are planned for drilling and further exploration, in addition to the WSZ:

A relatively shallow IP anomaly that is approximately 1,700 m WSW of the WSZ.

DH GE14 has 80 feet of 1.1 g Au/t only 30 feet deep and is 300 m east of WSZ. Note that this hole is in the immediate vicinity of the South Ridge Thrust Fault (SRTF).

DH GE26 has 665 feet of anomalous gold with nine pathfinder elements indicative of IRG deposits and is 1,300 m ENE of the WSZ. The SRTF may also have a bearing on the mineral in GE26.

The Lida Bell prospect is 3,200 m ESE of the WSZ.

Figure 2. Map of Lida Bell Area with locations of surface structures and samples collected.

Sample Descriptions

LB1001: Quartzite, light gray to tan, weak iron oxide in a 12-inch-wide vein that contained euhedral galena (lead sulfide) and traces of copper carbonates, iron oxide in boxwork form and milky white crystalline quartz. Sample taken from outcrop.

LB1002: Fault breccia and gouge in quartzite, moderate iron oxide, banded to euhedral galena that likely contained silver and traces of copper oxides. Sample taken from veined outcrop below trenches and within a possible short adit or large prospect pit.

LB 1003 - LB 1005 Collected from prospect pit dumps.

Figure 3 - LB 1001 Sample location

John Power, President, and CEO of Athena, commented:

"The Lida Bell zone is a meaningful extension of known high grade gold mineralization at our flagship Project. There has been virtually no exploration in this area for over 50 years and further mapping, sampling and analysis of this area is planned."

"We remain committed to future exploration of the Western Slope and GE-14 drill targets, but this developing target potentially demonstrates a much larger mineral system over a widespread area and area than previously theorized. Although the surface samples were limited in quantity, it could be further evidence of the Excelsior system pumping mineralization to the surface via fractures" added Power.

Quality Assurance and Quality Control

Gold and silver were determined by American Assay by fire assay with an atomic absorption finish on a 30-gram split. Forty-eight additional elements were determined using a four-acid digestion and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) atomic emission spectroscopy assay. Assays above certain limits of ICP detection were re-assayed using a method that accurately reports high grade assays. Athena Gold is reliant on American Assay Labs in Reno, NV for their QA/QC protocols of these assays.

Qualified Person

John Hiner, SME Registered Member and Washington State Licensed Geologist is a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101 and has reviewed the scientific and technical information that forms the basis of this press release and has approved the disclosure herein. Mr. Hiner is not independent of the Company.

About Athena Gold Corporation

Athena is engaged in the business of exploring its Project and the acquisition of addition mineral properties of merit.

For further information about Athena Gold Corporation and our Excelsior Springs Gold project, please visit www.athenagoldcorp.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

John Power

Chief Executive Officer and President

Contact:

Phone: John Power

1 (707)-291-6198

Email: info@athenagoldcorp.com

Jason Libenson

President and CCO

Castlewood Capital Corporation

1 (647)-534-9884

Email: jason@castlewoodcapital.ca

Cautionary Statement to U.S. Investors

This press release references NI 43-101, which differs from the requirements of U.S. securities laws. NI 43-101 is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators that establishes standards for all public disclosure an issuer makes of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") permits mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits that a company can legally extract or produce. Pursuant to SEC Industry Guide 7 under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, a "final" or "bankable" feasibility study is required to report reserves. Currently Athena has not delineated "reserves" on any of its properties. Athena cannot be certain that any deposits at its properties will ever be confirmed or converted into SEC Industry Guide 7 or any successor rule or regulation compliant "reserves". Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all the historic Buster Mine or Western Slope gold zones will ever be confirmed or converted into reserves or that it can be economically or legally extracted.

The SEC has adopted amendments to its disclosure rules to modernize the mineral property disclosure requirements for issuers whose securities are registered with the SEC under the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These amendments became effective February 25, 2019, with compliance required for the first fiscal year beginning on or after January 1, 2021, and historical property disclosure requirements for mining registrants that were included in SEC Industry Guide 7, which was rescinded from and after such date and replaced with disclosure requirements known as S-K 1300.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding future exploration plans and the completion of a phase 2 drill program at the Project, future results from exploration, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: "believes", "will", "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "plans", "may", "should", "potential", "scheduled", or variations of such words and phrases and similar expressions, which, by their nature, refer to future events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. In making the forward-looking statements in this press release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, that there will be investor interest in future financings, market fundamentals will result in sustained precious metals demand and prices, the receipt of any necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in connection with the future exploration and development of the Company's projects in a timely manner, QAQC procedures at the Project were followed, the availability of financing on suitable terms for the exploration and development of the Company's projects and the Company's ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws.

The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, operating and technical difficulties in connection with mineral exploration and development activities, actual results of exploration activities, the estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the inability of the Company to obtain the necessary financing required to conduct its business and affairs, as currently contemplated, the timing and amount of estimated future production, the costs of production, capital expenditures, the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, requirements for additional capital, future prices of precious metals, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, lack of investor interest in future financings, accidents, labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, permits or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, risks relating to epidemics or pandemics such as COVID-19, including the impact of COVID-19 on the Company's business, financial condition and results of operations, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, title disputes, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents, approvals or authorizations, including of the Canadian Securities Exchange, the timing and possible outcome of any pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, and other factors and risks that are discussed in the Company's periodic filings with the SEC and disclosed in the final long form prospectus of the Company dated August 31, 2021.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this press release or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise.

SOURCE: Athena Gold Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789302/athena-gold-receives-high-grade-gold-and-silver-assays-from-the-lida-bell-zone-at-its-excelsior-springs-project-in-nevada
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Georgia-Pacific

By John Mulcahy VP - Stewardship at Georgia-Pacific LLC

Imogene Pass - Ouray, CO

Now that my kids have left for college, I've had a chance to reflect on our summer, which included visits to five national parks (White Sands, Grand Canyon, Zion, Arches, and Canyonlands) and a return to southwest Colorado's San Juan Mountains. As I hiked through the hot desert of New Mexico, camped at a chilly 11,000' on Imogene Pass, or looked down at whitewater rafters braving the rushing Colorado River hundreds of feet below my perch on the north rim, I was struck by the unique gifts our natural environment provides.

While being a nice respite from the office, it at the same time reinforced the importance of Georgia-Pacific LLC's commitment to stewardship. I work as a part of a team that helps my company source raw materials more responsibly, use resources more efficiently, and reduce waste. We also work to understand the needs of our customers, employees, and communities and look for opportunities to create mutual benefit. Georgia-Pacific relies on the natural environment for the timber, water, and other resources we use to create products that meet societal needs. GP has been helping people improve their lives through mutual benefit for almost a century. As a forest products company, we rely on healthy and abundant forests, and clean and plentiful water. Forests protect air and water quality, serve as habitat for wildlife, provide recreational, spiritual, and cultural uses, deliver carbon benefits, and offer natural resources to make products people want and need. My family certainly enjoyed those recreational and spiritual benefits during our time together out west. At Georgia-Pacific, we work to use these resources efficiently, source responsibly, protect endangered areas, and support wildlife conservation and biodiversity.

I'd like to highlight three areas where Georgia-Pacific is investing in conservation outcomes across the country:

Our endangered forest program . We use scientific methodologies - developed in conjunction with experts in ecology and geographic information system mapping from the University of Georgia and NatureServe - that considers and ranks ecological values associated with forestlands in our procurement basins. Some of these ecological values include rare and endangered species, high biodiversity, intact forest landscapes, and resilient and connected landscapes. In addition, each of these areas is verified through on-the-ground visits and / or satellite imagery.

. We use scientific methodologies - developed in conjunction with experts in ecology and geographic information system mapping from the University of Georgia and - that considers and ranks ecological values associated with forestlands in our procurement basins. Some of these ecological values include rare and endangered species, high biodiversity, intact forest landscapes, and resilient and connected landscapes. In addition, each of these areas is verified through on-the-ground visits and / or satellite imagery. Our participation in the Wildlife Habitat Council 's Wildlife at Work program . We currently have WHC sites at a dozen GP manufacturing locations. These projects span from pollinator plots to blue bird boxes to longleaf pine restoration and on-going monitoring of gopher tortoise populations.

. We currently have WHC sites at a dozen GP manufacturing locations. These projects span from pollinator plots to blue bird boxes to longleaf pine restoration and on-going monitoring of gopher tortoise populations. The partnership between of our Quilted Northern Ultra Soft & Strong brand and the Arbor Day Foundation to restore ecosystems by planting two trees for every one used to manufacture the product. Much of these plantings are targeted at wildfire and hurricane recovery across the United States. The Quilted Northern brand is committed to aid in restoring forests and rehabilitating the habitats of endangered and threatened species in the process. As of 2023, we are responsible for the planting of over 7 million trees across 46 projects sites.

GP's Conservation Projects

For us at GP, Stewardship encompasses the responsible management of our actions and the resources entrusted to our care in a manner that respects the rights of others. By "rights," we mean everyone's right to their own life, property, and equal treatment under the law. This is the basis of our Stewardship Framework, through which we help people improve their lives by providing products and services they value more highly than their alternatives. We experiment and innovate to responsibly create more value while consuming fewer resources. These resources include the natural environment which we rely upon for our raw materials, the processes we manage to transform them into goods and services, and the relationships we have with our employees and communities. That's why we prioritize responsible resource management, where we work to ensure that our resources are managed to create value for GP and our constituencies. You can learn more about our commitment to stewardship in the Koch Industries Stewardship Framework.

Progress with Purpose

Our stewardship report, Progress with Purpose, provides an annual update on how we're doing.

The outdoors has been an important part of my life and my relationship with my family and friends. This summer's trip has energized me while connecting me to the importance of our Framework and the progress Georgia-Pacific continues to make in being a good steward of the environment including driving conservation activities that leave more resources available to satisfy other needs in society.

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View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Georgia-Pacific on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Georgia-Pacific

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/georgia-pacific

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Georgia-Pacific

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789579/georgia-pacifics-john-mulcahy-reflecting-on-stewardship
Grants will support organizations, initiatives committed to uplifting Hispanic students, businesses and events in Florida

ST. PETERSBURG, FL / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / As the country celebrates and recognizes the contributions, culture and history of Hispanic Americans during National Hispanic Heritage Month, the Duke Energy Foundation is committing $251,000 to support local efforts across Florida.

"Duke Energy serves an increasingly diverse community," said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president. "Not only is it important for us to meet the needs of all of our customers, but it is equally important to support the organizations and efforts that are dedicated to embracing diverse cultures, removing barriers and providing boundless opportunities for our customers and communities."

The funding will go toward providing personalized business consulting services to Hispanic entrepreneurs and businesses, Hispanic Heritage Month event support, as well as scholarships for Hispanic students in Central Florida, among other local initiatives to uplift communities in Duke Energy Florida's service territory.

Prospera, an economic development, nonprofit organization specialized in providing bilingual assistance to Hispanic entrepreneurs, received $100,000 to support its Hispanic Business Initiative Fund, which helps Hispanic individuals and families in Florida's Central and West Coast regions access economic opportunities and upward mobility through personalized guidance and continuous in-culture, inclusive support.

"We value Duke Energy's continuous support of our mission and this year's increased funding will impact our program even more positively, allowing us to assist more Hispanics who own or wish to start a business in Florida," said Augusto Sanabria, Prospera president and CEO. "Our program empowers underserved individuals and families to help them overcome additional barriers to success, increasing their chances of upward mobility, financial independence, and achieving prosperity, while generating numerous benefits for our community at large."

Grants were awarded to the following organizations:

Prospera's Hispanic Business Initiative Fund - $100,000

Hispanic Heritage Scholarship Fund of Metro Orlando - $75,000

Hispanic Heritage Network of Orange County (HHNOC) - $25,000

Local organizations supporting the Hispanic Community in collaboration with Duke Energy Florida's government and community relations managers - $50,000

Ceccarelli Rosenberg Foundation in collaboration with Duke Energy Florida's Latinos Energizing Diversity employee resource group - $1,000

In addition to the recent contributions, the company has an employee resource group, Latinos Energizing Diversity (LED), dedicated to providing educational opportunities about the Latino culture, assisting in the recruitment, retention, engagement and development of Latino employees and helping the company maintain and increase relationships between the company and a growing Latino community.

Throughout the year, the Florida LED chapter actively participates in numerous local events to support initiatives focused on embracing Latino culture and positively impacting communities.

Duke Energy Florida

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 10,500 megawatts of energy capacity, supplying electricity to 1.9 million residential, commercial and industrial customers across a 13,000-square-mile service area in Florida.

Duke Energy Foundation

The Duke Energy Foundation provides more than $30 million annually in philanthropic support to meet the needs of communities where Duke Energy customers live and work. The foundation is funded by Duke Energy shareholders.

Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America's largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 50,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 27,600 people.

Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy transition to achieve its goals of net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050. The company has interim carbon emission targets of at least 50% reduction from electric generation by 2030, 50% for Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 upstream and downstream emissions by 2035, and 80% from electric generation by 2040. In addition, the company is investing in major electric grid enhancements and energy storage, and exploring zero-emission power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.

Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2023 "World's Most Admired Companies" list and Forbes' "World's Best Employers" list. More information is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy's illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Media contact: Audrey Stasko

Media line: 800.559.3853

Twitter: @DE_AudreyS

View original content here.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Duke Energy on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Duke Energy

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/duke-energy

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Duke Energy

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789582/duke-energy-foundation-celebrates-hispanic-heritage-month-recognizes-contributions-of-hispanic-community-with-more-than-250000-in-grants
Flashpoint Venture Capital, international tech investment manager with over $400 million AUM focused on US tech companies originating out of Israel and Europe, continues to expand its footprint in the United States. Flashpoint is growing its local portfolio, thus solidifying its commitment to innovation and driving economic growth. The European investment firm, with offices across Europe and Israel, recently opened a new office in New York to support its increased US investment activity.

According to CBInsights, Dealroom, and Flashpoint estimates, over 60% of all unicorns are US or Western Europe-based, while 20% of these unicorns have expat founders from Central and Eastern Europe and Israel. The cornerstone of Flashpoint's investment strategy is to provide capital to European and Israeli founders with ambitions to go global.

22 out of 47 active companies in Flashpoint's portfolio have significant operations in the US. Notable companies within Flashpoint's US portfolio include Guesty, Booksy, Chili Piper, Accel Club, K2View, Preply, Mesh, IntelliBoard, TraceAir, QMENTA, testRigor, Tomi.ai, Makini, Allset, nGrow, Cattle Care, Hints, Qonversion, Evidently.ai, Intone, and intento.

To date, they have raised over US$430 million in total, primarily from US investors.

These investments encompass a variety of industries, including enterprise software, consumer, fintech and healthcare IT, covering all stages from late-seed to pre-IPO. Many of our investments have graduated from Y-Combinator, while growth stage companies have already raised capital from leading institutional investors including General Atlantic, Tiger Global, APAX Digital, Alpha Wave Global, Index Ventures, Sixth Street, Vostok New Ventures, Mubadala.

The US market is important for Flashpoint in terms of fundraising and exits. Half of our 15 exits have been to US investors. The largest exit in the US was the sale of chess.com to PokerStars founders and General Atlantic. Moreover, up to 60% of Flashpoint's investor base1 is from North America.

Flashpoint's office in New York will help nurture existing investments, as well as facilitate rapid expansion deeper into the US market. As the European and US markets become more intertwined, more and more Israeli and European founders seek to relocate and scale their business with feet on US ground. Flashpoint's mission is to provide support and scaling of resources in their endeavors to build global software category leaders.

Tony Fedorov, Flashpoint Partner, Head of the US office, said: "As Flashpoint continues to ambitiously grow and invest in the US, we are excited to build strong relationships with innovative companies and entrepreneurs. Our mission is to support, empower, and partner with these startups who want to turn their ideas into reality, and we are thrilled to be a part of their journey."

Flashpoint Venture Capital's commitment to excellence and investment in groundbreaking companies is well-aligned with its global strategy to identify and back disruptive technologies, fostering economic growth and innovation in emerging markets. The firm's extensive network, experienced team, and strategic approach to investing make it a trusted partner for visionary entrepreneurs.

About Flashpoint Venture Capital

Flashpoint is an international tech investment manager with over $400 million AUM focused on US and Western European tech companies originating out of Europe and Israel. Flashpoint manages six venture funds across 3 products: Venture Capital, Venture Debt, and Direct Secondary. The firm is headquartered in London and has offices in New York, Tel-Aviv, Budapest, Warsaw, Riga and Nicosia.

Investors in Flashpoint's funds include Szechenyi Funds, a Hungarian fund manager, and more than 130 major family offices and HNWIs. The funds have made investments in 64 companies including names such as Guesty, Chili Piper, and Office RnD. Flashpoint has completed 15 exits, including the sale of its stakes in Shazam (to Apple), Chess.com (to PokerStars founders and General Atlantic), Marketman (to PSG), and Gurushots (to Zedge), Comeet (to Boathouse Capital) etc.

Our mission at Flashpoint is to bring together capital, knowledge, people and best practices and help socially responsible development. Monetary returns are of course important, but non-tangible aspects of our work are equally important for our team. We have invested a third of our capital in themes that change the world for the better, this includes investments into e-learning, telemedicine, online job platforms.

________________________ 1 monetary terms, most recent funds

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003350902/en/

Contacts:

Maria Eliseeva

maria.e@flashpointvc.com
HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Camber Energy, Inc. (NYSE American:CEI) ("Camber" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Simson-Maxwell Ltd. ("Simson-Maxwell"), a majority-owned subsidiary of Viking Energy Group, Inc., a company wholly-owned by Camber, entered into a Manufacturer's Representative Agreement ("MRA") with Planeteq Limited ("Planeteq") pursuant to which Planeteq was appointed as the exclusive distributor of Viking Ozone Technology, LLC's ("Viking Ozone") proprietary ozone waste treatment systems in the United Kingdom.

Planeteq, a U.K.-based company that designs sustainable technology products to help businesses reduce waste and drive energy efficiency, is an approved vendor within the National Health Service Trust (NHS), which manages approximately 1,000 hospitals in the United Kingdom.

Paul Newman, Planeteq's Chief Technical Officer, stated "After spending several months evaluating Viking Ozone's technology, dealing with their technical team and having multiple communications with representatives of certain hospitals within the NHS network, we can confidently say we are not aware of any comparable waste treatment system on the market. We genuinely believe Viking's technology is an innovative solution for the current waste treatment challenges at hospitals within the NHS as well as the private sector, and that it will assist the NHS achieve its Net Zero goal. We are excited to be the exclusive distributor in the U.K. of this revolutionary product."

Daryl Kruper, Chairman of Simson-Maxwell, stated "We are extremely pleased to be working with the talented team at Planeteq, and are confident they will provide terrific service, including after-sales support, to end users of our system."

About Viking Ozone Technology

Viking Ozone offers a cleaner, safer and more sustainable alternative for waste treatment, and its system is a more environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternative to incineration, chemical treatment, autoclave and heat treatments for regulated medical waste and bio-hazardous waste. Viking Ozone's system reduces the amount of energy required to process waste, which conserves resources, lowers operating costs and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in a cleaner, safer environment. The modular design and low profile allow for multiple configurations and savings for civil work at the site.

To learn more about Viking Ozone please visit https://vkin-ozone.com/.

About Planeteq

Planeteq Limited, based in the United Kingdom, creates digital and sustainable technology products to respond to the economic, environmental and social challenges facing the world today. The company helps businesses join the global movement to reduce waste and drive energy efficiency, and Planeteq's mission is to influence the way businesses, local authorities and governments view sustainability by demonstrating that being part of the circular economy is not only profitable, but necessary, as the world heads 'Towards Net Zero'.

About Camber Energy,Inc.

Camber Energy, Inc. is a growth-oriented diversified energy company. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Viking Energy Group, Inc. ("Viking"), Camber provides custom energy & power solutions to commercial and industrial clients in North America and owns interests in oil and natural gas assets in the United States. Also through Viking, Camber holds an exclusive license in Canada to a patented carbon-capture system, and has a majority interest in: (i) an entity with intellectual property rights to a fully developed, patented, ready-for-market proprietary Medical & Bio-Hazard Waste Treatment system using Ozone Technology; and (ii) entities with the intellectual property rights to fully developed, patent pending, ready-for-market proprietary Electric Transmission and Distribution Open Conductor Detection Systems. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.camber.energy.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Any statements that are not historical facts contained in this press release are "forward-looking statements", which statements may be identified by words such as "expects," "plans," "projects," "will," "may," "anticipates," "believes," "should," "intends," "estimates," and other words of similar meaning. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, involve known and unknown risks, a reliance on third parties for information, transactions that may be cancelled, and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in our industry, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results include risks and uncertainties related to the fluctuation of global economic conditions or economic conditions with respect to the oil and gas industry, the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance of management, actions of government regulators, vendors, and suppliers, our cash flows and ability to obtain financing, competition, general economic conditions and other factors that are detailed in Camber's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We intend that all forward-looking statements be subject to the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Camber cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is not complete, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made, and Camber does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that it may make, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to Camber or any person acting its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements referenced above.

Contact Information

Investors and Media:

Tel. 281.404.4387

SOURCE: Camber Energy, Inc.

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Enable Me named U.S. distributor for VELA Mammography Chair;

Clinically designed chair benefits patients, clinicians, radiologists

Danish healthcare manufacturing company VELA Chairs has acquired longtime Tampa private company Enable Me LLC and named it the exclusive North American distributor for its VELA Mammography Chair, which provides safety, security, and wellbeing for mammography patients.

"Seated mammography is growing in popularity for its many benefits to the patient, including reducing the stress of standing during the procedure and the incidence of unsteadiness and even falls," said Mike Laky, founder and CEO of Enable Me. "The electric height-adjustable chair, with a push bar and lockable wheels, is also crafted to provide the most optimal working conditions for the mammographer while contributing to higher image quality."

ABOUT ENABLE ME

Enable Me, headquartered in Tampa for 25 years, provides high-quality assistive and rehabilitation devices across the United States to families and caregivers who understand the value of its stable, secure, user friendly mobile seating products that enhance the users' quality of life and independence. Clients also include the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, rehabilitation centers, hospitals, university hospitals, Johns Hopkins, UCLA, Apple, and Harvard, among a host of other clients.

ABOUT VELA

VELA is a Danish family business established in 1935 by Vermund Larsen. For almost 90 years, VELA has been dedicated to creating comfortable, ergonomic chairs focused on design, function, and high quality and is committed to providing sustainable and exceptional products for each customer.

ABOUT VELA MEDICAL

VELA Medical specializes in developing chairs and stools tailored to the specific needs of healthcare departments, patients and medical personnel alike. All chairs comply with the strict requirements of the healthcare sector, and therefore VELA Medical products can be found in hospitals, specialist doctors, general practitioners, health clinics and laboratories.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003699183/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Michelle Griffith, APR

813-597-8189

michelle@clearviewcom.com
For most of us, our pets are beloved family members who make the day a little brighter. And with the crazy and challenging times were living in currently we need them now more than ever. Read moreAnimal Welfare: Emergency pet preparation: Safeguarding your furry family members
SINGAPORE, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Travel-tech innovator utu continues to revolutionise tax-free shopping with the launch of the enhanced utu Membership Program. Since its operation in 2016, utu has transformed how travellers worldwide experience VAT refunds and now operates in more than 50 countries.

utu unlocks a world of possibilities by enabling travellers to boost their VAT refunds by up to 40% using the utu Tax Free Card. utu has partnered with 13 prestigious airlines and world-renowned global hotel groups, offering customers the freedom to convert their VAT refunds into rewards with their preferred partners in the form of air miles.

But the highlight of the new utu Membership Program lies in its restructured membership tiers. The previously named Elite, Voyager, Explorer, and Traveler membership tiers have been renamed to Platinum, Gold, Silver and Classic. The Classic Tier offers a 25% increase on tax refunds, awarded in the form of air miles. Silver boasts an additional 30%, Gold offers 35%, and Platinum delivers an impressive 40% increase. Becoming a Premium Member is effortless, with two straightforward paths to elevate one's status: accumulate VAT refunds or opt for a subscription-based plan: Silver at $60, Gold at $120, and Platinum at $180. The subscription is valid for two years.

utu has also introduced a 'Status Match' initiative, offering their customers a chance to have their membership status matched with their airline partners, bypassing qualification or subscription fees. Subscribers need to accept invitations sent by the participating airline partners to automatically match their airline loyalty programs' membership to utu's membership tiers.

Mr Sanjay Chinchwade, Chief Commercial Officer of utu Miles and Partnerships, commented, "utu represents a world of possibilities for travellers, where obtaining higher VAT refunds is not just a digitised process but a re-engineered value chain designed entirely for their benefit."

utu is also gearing up for upcoming new partnerships with several international airlines. On 4th October, utu will also host a grand launch event with airline partner Royal Orchid Plus (Thai Airways), inviting members to explore the future of tax-free shopping.

utu continues to lead the transformation of tax-free shopping into an experience that delivers on the promise of innovation, transparency, and enhanced value for travellers. Join utu on this remarkable journey as it revolutionises the tax-free shopping sector.

To learn more, visit https://www.utu.global/. Download the utu app at https://ututaxfree.utu.global/kHtF/utuapp to begin your utu journey.

About utu

utu (pronounced "you-too") is transforming tax-free shopping worldwide by empowering travellers with the freedom to obtain a higher VAT refund by going beyond digitising refunds to re-engineer the tax-free shopping value chain to benefit travellers. The utu management team has deep domain knowledge in tax-free shopping developed over 25 years of refunding VAT and GST worldwide. By bringing the worlds of refunds and rewards together, utu unlocks new value in rewards from retailers, airlines, hotels, and others. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Singapore, utu's products can be used in over 50 countries.

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/utu-unveils-new-and-improved-utu-miles-membership-program-redefining-tax-free-shopping-with-up-to-40-vat-refund-boost-301945742.html
ZUG, Switzerland, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Solway Investment Group (SIG), a Swiss mining and metals group, is pleased to announce that the US Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has granted a license to its Guatemalan subsidiaries Compania Guatemalteca de Niquel (GCN) and Compania Procesadora de Niquel de Izabal (ProNiCo).

After a comprehensive review, OFAC has given SIG the green light to relaunch the activities of its subsidiaries in Guatemala. The license, granted on September 29, 2023, paves the way for CGN and ProNiCo to restart operations that are vital to the nearly 6,000 people who rely on them for their livelihood.

Solway also looks forward to implementing new world-class policies and procedures to continue to ensure a fully compliant and ethical business operation and to be recognized as a global corporate citizen with integrity and a commitment to sustainability. The former FBI Director Louis Freeh and his team in collaboration with the Swiss and European advisers will be leading SIG in this ambitious task.

Dan Bronstein, SIG Chairman of the Board said: "Our deepest gratitude is extended to everyone who stood by us during this period. This includes our diligent teams in Guatemala and Ukraine as well as our accomplished legal team led by advisors from the US law firms: Seiden Law LLP; Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP; Berliner Corcoran & Rowe LLP, Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan LLP. We would also like to express our appreciation to the Swiss government for their unwavering support. We extend our profound thanks to the US government, especially OFAC and the US State Department, whose professionalism was pivotal in steering this matter towards a positive outcome. We appreciate their recognition of our arguments and now look forward to resuming an essential project for both Guatemala and the nickel supply chain as a whole. We sincerely hope that the Guatemalan authorities will offer their utmost support to expedite the resumption of production in all areas within their jurisdiction. Solway and its counsel are eager to collaborate closely with OFAC to expedite the resolution of this matter, moving forward with the goal of delisting."

In case of further questions or interview requests, please contact Solway Investment Group's press office at: +41-41-740-04-00 or media@solway.ch.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/solway-investment-group-guatemalan-subsidiaries-granted-license-to-resume-operations-301945609.html
Twilio Flex Powers Digital Helpdesks, Providing Personalized Aid and Enhanced Communication for Refugees and Migrants in Hungary and The Netherlands

Twilio Inc. (NYSE: TWLO), the customer engagement platform that drives real-time, personalized experiences for today's leading brands, and The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world's largest humanitarian network, today announced that the IFRC has selected Twilio Flex, the cloud-based digital engagement solution, to power its digital helpdesk in Hungary and the Netherlands. This strategic integration supports the IFRC in meeting the growing global demand for its assistance, including the need to scale additional support for the Ukrainian conflict, which influenced the adoption of the Twilio Flex-powered helpdesk in neighboring Hungary. This collaboration reinforces the importance of delivering humanitarian aid at scale with technology, as the IFRC is set to further extend its humanitarian reach with Twilio Flex in 15 additional countries. This new model utilizes digital communications to deliver more timely and individualized assistance, catering to specific needs a displaced person may have from the moment of displacement through to resettlement.

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has displaced over eight million individuals, creating a pressing demand for efficient and responsive humanitarian services. Since the start of the conflict in February 2022, Twilio's social impact customers have been able to reach 5 million affected individuals and send more than 55 million messages to support those in need. The Data Digital initiative of the Netherlands Red Cross, called the 510, was tasked with developing digital helpdesks capable of managing the surging demand for support related to this conflict. The 510 reports that since its October 2022 launch, the Hungarian Red Cross' helpdesk has dealt with thousands of cases supporting people displaced from Ukraine with cash and voucher assistance, a form of humanitarian aid that delivers financial support directly to those affected. With cash and vouchers in hand, individuals may determine their own path to recovery. Leveraging Twilio Flex's customizable front-end ticketing system and toll-free number, the helpdesk streamlines the provision of aid in three different languages and across relevant local channels such as Viber. This approach has enabled the small helpdesk staff to significantly increase the number of questions they're able to resolve successfully.

While the Hungarian Red Cross operated helpdesk primarily focuses on facilitating cash and voucher assistance for those fleeing Ukraine, the Netherlands Red Cross' helpdesk, called Redline, provides a comprehensive suite of services to undocumented migrants living in the Netherlands, including crucial information about local hospitals and shelters. Launched five months ago, Redline serves as a bridge for undocumented individuals hesitant to engage with government entities, offering anonymous assistance via a WhatsApp helpdesk powered by Twilio Flex, and providing a secure platform for those in need via accessible channels.

The digital helpdesks are the latest collaboration between the IFRC and Twilio. The IFRC has already successfully deployed Twilio's messaging system to dispatch updates to those seeking help via SMS. Looking forward, the IFRC plans to continue leveraging the power of Twilio Flex to offer personalized aid. Its innovative partnership with Twilio not only enhances its ability to support the record number of displaced people globally, but it also promotes the effective use of humanitarian funding, which has been constrained over the last two years.

"With humanitarian needs growing faster than ever and yet the amount of aid having flatlined, we sought a technology partner who could enable us to get more value from every dollar that is donated. Twilio's robust platform enables us to design custom solutions for varying use cases, ultimately providing support to individuals from the moment of displacement through to their resettlement," said Juriaan Lahr, Director of Digital Transformation at the IFRC. "Twilio Flex's customizable approach allows us to deliver personalized aid that caters to varying individual needs, from delivering direct cash and voucher assistance to providing crucial information anonymously across multiple communication channels."

Humanitarian aid organizations understand that reaching people through their mobile devices is one of the most efficient and effective ways to help displaced people access support. "Twilio.org's mission is to help social impact organizations expand their reach and scale their efforts, and the IFRC is on the leading edge of digitizing humanitarian aid. They are using technology to accelerate the crucial support the IFRC and its 191 National Societies provide on the ground," says Erin Reilly, Chief Social Impact Officer at Twilio. "Together, we aim not just to provide basic necessities, but to support individuals to make informed decisions about their needs, highlighting a future of humanitarian aid that's digital, scalable, and person-centered."

To learn more about how to use Flex to expand your organizations reach, visit: https://www.twilio.com/flex.

About IFRC

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organization, providing assistance to millions of people affected by natural hazards, conflicts, and health emergencies. With a presence in nearly every country, IFRC works tirelessly to alleviate suffering, restore dignity, and empower communities to build resilience.

510 is an initiative of The Netherlands Red Cross using data and digital technology to support aid workers and decision makers with helping people affected before, during, and after a disaster or crisis. The 510 division works to support the 191 National Societies. www.510.global

About Twilio.org

Effective communication and engagement play a critical role in helping social impact organizations meet the increased demand for their services. Twilio started Twilio.org to be the engine behind social impact organizations, helping them use Twilio technology, people, and funding to supercharge their reach. Twilio.org partners with thousands of nonprofits, social enterprises, international NGOs, and local governments to deliver critical services and support to over half a billion people around the world.

About Twilio

Today's leading companies trust Twilio's Customer Engagement Platform (CEP) to build direct, personalized relationships with their customers everywhere in the world. Twilio enables companies to use communications and data to add intelligence and security to every step of the customer journey, from sales to marketing to growth, customer service and many more engagement use cases in a flexible, programmatic way. Across 180 countries, millions of developers and hundreds of thousands of businesses use Twilio to create magical experiences for their customers. For more information about Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), visit: www.twilio.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003291135/en/

Contacts:

Press Contact

press@twilio.com
Apiture recognized by Juniper Research for third consecutive year

WILMINGTON, NC / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Apiture, a leading provider of digital banking solutions, has been named a Gold Winner for Embedded Finance Innovation by Juniper Research in its 2023 Future Digital Awards.

Apiture earned the designation for helping banks and credit unions tap into the power of embedded banking. Through relationships with non-financial partners, this strategy empowers financial institutions to deliver banking services outside of traditional channels, providing their customers with added convenience and an improved digital experience.

The Future Digital Awards recognize organizations that have made remarkable contributions to their industry and are poised to have a significant impact in the future. This is the third consecutive year that Apiture has been recognized by Juniper Research, a testament to the Apiture platform's ability to meet the evolving digital banking needs of U.S. banks and credit unions.

"Being recognized again this year by Juniper Research is truly an honor, one that reinforces the commitment of the entire Apiture team to shape the future of digital banking," said Chris Babcock, CEO of Apiture. "Apiture is dedicated to providing financial institutions of all sizes with new opportunities like embedded banking that help them grow in an increasingly competitive industry."

This award win follows several notable partnerships and product developments Apiture has announced this year, including the introduction of family banking through a partnership with Greenlight and the launch of Business Insights through an integration with Monit.

About Apiture:

Apiture delivers award-winning digital banking solutions to banks and credit unions throughout the U.S. Our flexible, highly configurable solutions meet a wide range of financial institutions' needs, from leveling the playing field with larger institutions to supporting growth through innovative data intelligence and embedded banking strategies. With our API-first approach, our clients can maximize the capabilities of their platform while preserving a seamless user experience. Our exclusive focus on digital banking, and a team with hundreds of years of collective experience working at U.S. financial institutions, means we're dedicated to meeting the unique needs of our clients while providing a level of support that's unmatched in the industry. Apiture is headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, with offices in Austin, Texas. To learn more, visit www.apiture.com.

Media Contact:

Derrius Rodgers

Caliber Corporate Advisers

derrius@calibercorporate.com

SOURCE: Apiture

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789305/apiture-named-gold-winner-for-embedded-finance-innovation-in-juniper-research-future-digital-awards
As digital transformation investments skyrocket, companies risk wasting millions annually due to failed strategy implementation; New research commissioned by Planview finds

Planview, a global leader in Portfolio and Value Stream Management, today announced the findings of a global study, "Bridging the gap: turning strategy into reality," conducted by Economist Impact, the research arm of The Economist,and commissioned by Planview. The study uncovers common disconnects in strategy implementation leading to failures in critical digital initiatives. The findings show a stark reality: if businesses do not accelerate efforts to close the gap between strategy and action, the consequences are significant: wasted work, sunk costs, failed digital transformations, and the threat of becoming obsolete.

"With economic uncertainties, market disruptions, the rapid advancement of technologies like AI, and the growing digitalization imperative impacting every industry, the pace of change and complexity of decision-making is growing exponentially. Organizations across the globe are experiencing the realities of 'adapt, evolve, or die.' Yet only 15% of executives are confident in their company's ability to adapt to change," said Razat Gaurav, CEO at Planview. "Companies must be able to prioritize their initiatives in a capital and capacity-constrained environment, quickly analyze and adapt their project and product initiatives, making critical decisions that drive important outcomes. The key is connecting company strategy and how work is executed across the business."

Alarmed by the inefficiency and waste in digitalization, Economist Impact undertook a global survey of 600 executives across seven countries and six industries. Among the findings revealed in the report, only 14% of executives expressed confidence in their company's decision-making governance. Other key findings include:

84% of executives need to improve data-driven decision-making.

1/3 report challenges related to process, metrics, and data as critical hindrances in evaluating the progress of initiatives tied to business strategy.

Most respondents think their organization needs to improve accountability in strategy implementation (86%) and goal setting and performance-monitoring systems (84%).

Critically, only 20% of executives are confident in the resources allocated for implementation.

The Economist Impact research outlines an interconnected and interdependent framework for driving change to address these disconnects. Serving as a blueprint for bridging the strategy-implementation gap, the report is focused on five recommendations -alignment, accountability, resourcing, agility, and culture.

"When there is total clarity at the top around strategy, it becomes possible to ensure that it cascades effectively throughout the organization, up, down, and sideways," said Rhonda Hiatt, corporate strategy consultant. "And that allows executives to ensure that everyone is marching in the same direction."

Get the report to read the recommendations in full. Download here

Citations

1 Planview 2023 Project to Product State of the Industry Report

2 AI has taken the board room by storm. Here's what you must know.

3 Bridging the gap: turning strategy into reality. The survey, developed by Economist Impact and commissioned by Planview, was fielded across seven countries (Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, United States and the United Kingdom) and six industries (business professional services, financial services, healthcare life sciences, IT/technology, manufacturing, retail FMCG). Most surveyed companies have annual revenues above US $1 billion.

Research Methodology

These findings derive from desk research and a global survey conducted by Economist Impact in April and May 2023 of 600 executives across seven countries (Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, United States and the United Kingdom) and six industries (business professional services, financial services, healthcare life sciences, IT/technology, manufacturing, retail FMCG). Findings were supplemented by insights derived from a series of expert interviews. To learn more about the research methodology and detailed results, go here.

More about Economist Impact: it combines the rigor of a think-tank with the creativity of a media brand to engage an influential global audience. Economist Impact partners with corporations, foundations, NGOs and governments across big themes including sustainability, health, and the changing shape of globalization to catalyze change and enable progress.

About Planview

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work, from ideas to impact. Planview helps organizations accelerate the achievement of what matters most, supporting our customers from need to speed, from passion to progress, and from overhead to optimization. Our connected platform of solutions underpins the business and digital transformations of more than 4,500 customers globally, including 59 of the Fortune 100. Planview empowers enterprises to improve time-to-market and predictability, increase efficiency to unlock capacity, and ensure their most strategic initiatives deliver the desired business outcomes. Learn more about our portfolio at planview.com, and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003283808/en/

Contacts:

Media Relations for Planview

Natalie Reina

Director of Corp. Comms

956-878-9176

natalie.reina@planview.com
Syntax to Acquire Beyond Technologies, Creating a Global Team of 2,800+

Expands Syntax's Industry-Focused Capabilities, SAP Expertise and Professional Services Talent

MONTREAL, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Syntax Systems , a leading global technology solutions and services provider for cloud application implementation and management, today announced its plans to acquire Montreal-based Beyond?Technologies , and its subsidiaries. Beyond is a professional services firm specialized in SAP solution integration and business performance optimization, with operations in Canada, the United States, France, Morocco and South Africa. The combination of Syntax and Beyond is expected to create a team of more than 2,800 experts serving more than 900 mid-market and large enterprise clients globally, with 26 operations across the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

"Beyond Technologies has a stellar reputation for professional services excellence and SAP ecosystem mastery," said Christian Primeau, Global CEO of Syntax. "Beyond Technologies is home to an entrepreneurial culture that attracts the best-and-brightest technology experts who are passionate about what they do and driven to deliver outstanding outcomes for clients. A guiding principle for all Syntax acquisitions is prioritizing culture fit. We're enthusiastic about the people-first, customer-centric mentality shared by Syntax and Beyond and excited to bring the talent and energy of these teams together to better serve our clients," said Primeau.

Industry specialization in the mid-market is a particular focus for both Syntax and Beyond Technologies. Both companies offer complementary industry-focused solutions for manufacturing, as well as natural resources that further capabilities in this space. The joint portfolio of industry-specialized offerings will also include construction, retail, consumer industries, life sciences and the public sector.

"Syntax has been delivering comprehensive technology solutions and services for a remarkable 50 years. The portfolio of enterprise applications, cloud platforms, technology practices and industry specialization are the ideal complement to Beyond's expertise in SAP solution integration and business transformation," said Luc Dubois, Partner and CEO of Beyond Technologies. "We're excited to join the Syntax family of talented people, and we're very optimistic about how this enhances the outcomes we'll achieve for clients and allows us to continue to deliver value, with increased scale."

As the technology landscape for mid-market and large businesses becomes increasingly complex, more organizations require multi-cloud, multi-ERP, and enterprise application expertise. In addition to SAP, the combined Syntax and Beyond Technologies solution portfolio will include a diversified portfolio of cloud and unique, industry-specific intellectual property.

"Novacap is proud to support Syntax's acquisition of Beyond Technologies, highlighting our belief in their leadership within the application management and cloud services sector. Syntax's success in expanding its portfolio underscores the potential for value creation. As committed partners, we're dedicated to advancing Syntax's growth on the global technology stage," said Pascal Tremblay, President and CEO, Managing Partner at Novacap.

"There's a sense of hometown pride with this announcement," said Primeau. "It's a great story about the strength of two Quebec-based technology companies joining forces on the global stage with the backing of a leading Canadian private equity firm, all based in the province."

"This step is a clear reflection of our belief in the strengths and capabilities that both companies bring to the table," said Ted Mocarski, Chairman of the Syntax Board of Directors. "This strategic move enables us to broaden our global reach while consistently delivering top-tier solutions and services to our clients worldwide."

The acquisition, which is expected to be completed later this quarter, is subject to the customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Until the transaction is completed, Syntax and Beyond Technologies will continue to operate separately. Terms of the transaction will not be disclosed.

National Bank Financial Inc. served as the exclusive financial advisor to Beyond Technologies on the transaction.

About Syntax

Syntax provides comprehensive technology solutions and trusted professional, advisory, and application management services to power businesses' mission-critical applications in the cloud. With 50 years of experience and 800+ customers around the world, Syntax has deep expertise in implementing and managing multi-ERP deployments in secure private, public, hybrid, or multi-cloud environments. Syntax partners with SAP, Oracle, JD?Edwards, AWS, Microsoft, and other global technology leaders to ensure customers' applications are seamless, secure, and at the forefront of enterprise technology innovation. Learn more about Syntax at? www.syntax.com or follow Syntax on LinkedIn.

About Beyond Technologies

Founded in 2005, Beyond Technologies has grown from 100 to over 400 professionals in the past five years, and today supports more than 150 organizations across its seven offices in Canada, the United States, France, Morocco and South Africa. Beyond Technologies specializes in providing organizations with SAP expertise, tools and solutions to digitally transform their businesses. Beyond Technologies is recognized as one of the top 20 Best Workplaces in Canada and one of Canada's Best Managed companies, and its service offering spans across the entire transformation cycle, from cross-industry functional and technical business consulting to customer experience, project management, business intelligence, as well as continuous business improvement and performance. For more information, please visit https://www.beyondtechnologies.com

About Novacap

Founded in 1981, Novacap is a leading North American private equity firm with over C$8B of AUM that has invested in more than 100 platform companies and completed more than 150 add-on acquisitions. Applying its sector-focused approach since 2007 in Industries, TMT, Financial Services, and Digital Infrastructure, Novacap's deep domain expertise can accelerate company growth and create long-term value. With experienced, dedicated investment and operations teams as well as substantial capital, Novacap has the resources and knowledge needed to help build world-class businesses. Novacap has offices in Montreal, Toronto, and New York.

For more information, please visit www.novacap.ca.

Contact:

Walker Sands for Syntax

syntax@walkersands.com

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A single photo converts all analog tire sidewall information into digital data

Anyline, a global leader in mobile data capture and data insights, today introduced a new Tire Sidewall Scanner that captures all the information on a tire sidewall with one single photo. This product will revolutionize online tire retail, which has lagged behind other e-commerce sectors due in part to the lack of knowledge that customers have about their tires. Additionally, it will help businesses quickly identify and track tires for inventory management and warehousing.

With Anyline Tire Sidewall Scanner, users simply open the camera on their smartphone to take a photo of the sidewall of any passenger tire. Anyline instantly captures analog tire information DOT/TIN, tire size, tire make and model and converts it into digital data. By harnessing Anyline's more than 10 years of experience in computer vision and machine learning, the Tire Sidewall Scanner removes the possibility of human error and is five times faster than recording the information manually. Every image is sent and processed using Anyline Cloud API, giving organizations the flexibility to capture data via app, website, chatbot or messaging service.

"Our Tire Sidewall Scanner is a perfect fit for e-commerce, where 72% of drivers do not know much about their tires, resulting in 29% or more being hesitant to buy tires online," says Lukas Kinigadner, CEO and co-founder, Anyline. "Every tire e-commerce platform needs tire size or vehicle information to provide accurate product recommendations, but the average person often doesn't know where to find this information, which can contribute to 20%+ return rates for tire retailers. Everyone, however, knows how to take a photo of a tire with their phone and taking a picture of a tire is much easier and more accurate than finding the tire size and typing it into a text box."

Anyline Tire Sidewall Scanner is also ideal for tire inventory management and tire hotels as it helps to optimize workflows by easily digitizing analog tire information. The software can be easily integrated into handheld devices or fixed mounted camera systems.

Anyline has already successfully launched a number of mobile data capture solutions for capturing tire and vehicle data which are used by industry leaders like Europcar, Discount Tire, Cox Automotive and TireHub. For more information go to https://anyline.com/industries/automotive.

About Anyline

Founded in Vienna in 2013, Anyline has established itself as a global leader in mobile data capture and data insights. Using the latest, most innovative artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches, Anyline gives businesses the power to read, measure and interpret visual information with any mobile device.

Anyline is used by frontline workers at leading automotive and tire manufacturers and retailers to quickly and accurately scan tire sidewall, tread depth and vehicle data, including tire DOT codes, vehicle identification numbers (VINs), license plates and barcodes, using any standard mobile device or camera-enabled automotive diagnostic devices.

Anyline helps businesses to move away from costly, tedious manual processes and instead, make them easy, fast and convenient for everyone, from the end user to the front-line worker. Anyline's mobile data capture technology is CCPA/GDPR compliant, ensuring that all data collected is processed and stored securely. Anyline is trusted by household brands such as PepsiCo, Discount Tire and IBM, as well as national governments and the United Nations.

For more information, visit www.anyline.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003295144/en/

Contacts:

Jon Stotts

Sr. PR and Communications Manager, Anyline

Jonathan.stotts@anyline.com

Katherine Bingham

Ketner Group

Katherine.bingham@ketnergroup.com
Thurgood Marshall College Fund and Medtronic partner to launch the Research & Development Engagement program

WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) is proud to partner with Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT), a global leader in healthcare technology, to launch the Research & Development Engagement program, which provides grants to support innovation, ideas, and solutions in STEM, medical technology, and business research at select Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Medtronic is the sole funder of the grants, which are the latest results of a strategic partnership with TMCF to advance diversity in STEM education and career development.

"It's always great to be able to support Medtronic as it continues to raise the bar of excellence for faculty at the member schools we support," TMCF President & CEO Dr. Harry Williams said. "The Research & Development Engagement Program is a game-changer. We are glad that Medtronic has been an intentional partner about equipping our faculty with access to opportunities to enhance their skill set, which in turn impacts our students and increases the opportunities they have to enjoy STEM careers in corporate America."

"Supporting HBCUs through the R&D Engagement Program expands access to opportunities and skill-building to students from diverse backgrounds," said Cynthia Reese, Medtronic Director of External Partnerships and Community. "Medtronic is proud to partner with TMCF on this impactful program, as part of its commitment to achieving zero barriers to equity."

Medtronic plc and TMCF have partnered since 2020 to develop an annual internship program across the U.S., as well as a scholarship program sponsored by the Medtronic Foundation.

For the R&D Engagement Program specifically, TMCF and Medtronic plc partnered to award five grants of $40,000 each to faculty members at TMCF member schools, with a focus in the following areas:

Innovative academic support that will meet the specific academic needs of STEM, medical technology, and/or business students.

Enhanced academic-related innovation on campus and/or the community to support adequate resources to enable the completion of groundbreaking research and development in STEM, medical technology, and/or business.

Other creative ideas for capacity building within Medtronic-aligned fields.

The recipients of this year's grants are:

Dr. Stephen Knisley (North Carolina A&T, Professor of Bioengineering)

Program/Research: NIH Houston Shadowing Program.

Dr. Laquanda Leaven Johnson (North Carolina A&T, Associate Professor in Supply Chain Management)

Program/Research: Collegiate Underrepresented Business and Engineering Drone Training Intensive Program.

Dr. Ali Salmon (North Carolina A&T, Associate Professor, School of Nursing)

Program/Research: Smart and Connected Health Teaching and Research Lab.

Dr. Francis Tuluri (Jackson State, Professor, Software Engineering)

Program/Research: Academic Development of Autonomous Robotics Education to Broaden Participation in STEM Disciplines.

Dr. Zhibin Yu (Florida A&M, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering)

Program/Research: Enabling AI-Assisted Early Diagnosis of Cardiovascular Diseases with Stretchable Optical Sensors.

ABOUT THURGOOD MARSHALL COLLEGE FUND

Established in 1987, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) is the nation's largest organization exclusively representing the Black College Community. TMCF member schools include publicly supported Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs) and Historically Black Community Colleges. Publicly supported HBCUs enroll over 80% of all students attending HBCUs. Through scholarships, capacity building and research initiatives, innovative programs, and strategic partnerships, TMCF is a vital resource in the K-12 and higher education spaces. The organization is also a source for top employers seeking top talent for competitive internships and good jobs.

ABOUT MEDTRONIC

Bold thinking. Bolder actions. We are Medtronic. Medtronic plc, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is the leading global healthcare technology company that boldly attacks the most challenging health problems facing humanity by searching out and finding solutions. Our Mission - to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life - unites a global team of 95,000+ passionate people across more than 150 countries. Our technologies and therapies treat 70 health conditions and include cardiac devices, surgical robotics, insulin pumps, surgical tools, patient monitoring systems, and more. Powered by our diverse knowledge, insatiable curiosity, and desire to help all those who need it, we deliver innovative technologies that transform the lives of two people every second, every hour, every day. Expect more from us as we empower insight-driven care, experiences that put people first, and better outcomes for our world. In everything we do, we are engineering the extraordinary. For more information on Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), visit http://www.Medtronic.com and follow @Medtronic on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Any forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties such as those described in Medtronic's periodic reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ materially from anticipated results.

Students from the 2023 TMCF immersion program visit the Medtronic Operational Headquarters campus

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Medtronic on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Medtronic

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/medtronic

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Medtronic

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789600/tmcf-and-medtronic-partner-to-launch-academic-rd-grants-at-hbcus
Veryon, a leading provider of information services and software solutions for the aviation industry, recently announced its acquisition of Rusada, a prominent player in the aviation maintenance management software industry since 1987. This strategic move solidifies Veryon's commitment to innovation while strengthening its position as a trusted aviation management software market leader.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003575421/en/

Norman Happ, chief executive officer for Veryon (Photo: Business Wire)

"We are thrilled to welcome Rusada to the Veryon family," said Norman Happ, chief executive officer for Veryon. "Rusada's track record of innovation and service in aviation maintenance management software is an ideal complement to our existing portfolio of industry-leading solutions. The combined power of our teams, the expanded range of products and our robust customer base will enable Veryon to serve aviation operators of all sizes around the world."

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Rusada has a presence across the globe with employees in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, India, Singapore and Australia. Rusada's software is used by nearly 100 customers that operate over 2,000 aircraft collectively.

"This acquisition allows us to become part of the leading aviation platform and diversify and expand our market presence across the industry," said Julian Stourton, chief executive officer for Rusada. "In aligning ourselves strategically with the resources, technology and superior customer experience that Veryon offers, we are confident that together is a way for our team to continue to be a part of serving as a leading-edge provider of aviation software."

With the completion of this acquisition, Veryon gains access to Rusada's extensive expertise, advanced technology and global customer base from every corner of the industry, including commercial, charter, business, military and government operations. Envision, the company's key solution, is a single hub for managing airworthiness, maintenance, and flight operations. The product's wide range of functionality paired with user-friendly interfaces provides users with accurate and insightful data.

These combined companies will provide aircraft operators with unparalleled features, including asset management, maintenance planning, supply chain optimization, compliance monitoring and data analytics.

Veryon and Rusada customers can continue to expect uninterrupted 24/7/365 support and ongoing product enhancements. The acquisition will allow both companies the ability to offer a wider selection of solutions while maintaining the trusted reputation and brand attributes of both providers.

Since 1973, Veryon has expanded by adding new partners, content and technology through the acquisition of CaseBank and Flightdocs, and today offers aviation operators technology to better access publications, fix maintenance issues faster and operate more efficiently without compromising compliance. The Veryon brand is trusted by over 7,500 customers across 165 countries, serving over 70,000 users and over 25 percent of the world's largest airlines.

For more information about Veryon and Rusada, visit their respective websites at veryon.com and rusada.com.

About Veryon

Veryon is the leading provider of aviation software and information services, supporting more than 75,000 aircraft maintenance professionals and 7,500 customers worldwide. We help everyone from business aviation teams and MROs to airlines and OEMs get their aircraft more uptime. Challenges like unscheduled repairs, part availability, and excessive paperwork lead to too many aircraft spending too much time on the ground. And that leads to needless delays, endless back and forth, and lots of wasted dollars. The key to more uptime is having a better technology platform to manage everything from maintenance and operations to manuals and diagnostics.

That's why thousands of aircraft operators, 25% of the worldwide commercial fleet, and over 100 OEMs all rely on Veryon. And it's why customers have been able to achieve an average 23% reduction in downtime cost. Veryon. Let's get you more uptime. Learn more at veryon.com.

About Rusada

Rusada is a leading provider of aviation software with over 35 years of experience in the industry. Its ENVISION solution manages over 2,000 fixed and rotary wing aircraft for 150 operators, maintainers, and manufacturers in 50+ countries. With its headquarters in Switzerland and offices in the USA, Canada, UK, UAE, India, Singapore, and Australia, Rusada provides global support for a global industry. Specializing in the management of airworthiness, maintenance, and flight operations, ENVISION is developed solely for aviation. Its modern, web-based platform features a suite of integrated modules, enhanced by a series of native mobile apps. ENVISION's easy-to-use interface provides users with clear, actionable information, enabling processes to be carried out quickly and efficiently, all without the need for paper or spreadsheets.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003575421/en/

Contacts:

Kim Welch

Senior Manager, Corporate Marketing

Veryon

kwelch@veryon.com
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - Hertz Lithium Inc. (CSE: HZ) (FSE: QE2) (the "Company" or "Hertz") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a share exchange agreement (the "Definitive Agreement") among the Company, Canuck Lithium Corp. ("Canuck"), and the shareholders of Canuck (the "Canuck Shareholders"), pursuant to which the Company will acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding common shares in the capital of Canuck (the "Proposed Transaction").

About Canuck

Canuck owns 100% of the ACDC Project, located in the emerging world class hard rock lithium district in James Bay, Quebec, Canada. There are approximately 135 historical references to pegmatite outcrops that have never been evaluated or sampled for their lithium potential on the Property according to the Quebec Government's SIGEOM Database (Figure 4).

Canuck is a Quebec-based mineral exploration company primarily engaged in the acquisition an exploration of mineral properties. Canuck's flagship lithium exploration project is known as the AC/DC Project encompassing 516 contiguous mineral claims spanning 265 square kilometers, located contiguous to Rio Tinto's optioned Kaanaayaa Lithium Project (Figure 1) as well as 26 km southeast of the Corvette Lithium Project owned by Patriot Battery Metals with an inferred mineral resource of 109.2 Mt at 1.4% Li2O and 60 km west of Winsome Resources' Adina Lithium property (Figure 2). The rapidly growing James Bay lithium district also hosts Nemaska's Whabouchi Project, with a Mineral Resource of 36.6 Mt at 1.3% Li2O, and a proposed mine life of 33 years. Additionally, Alkem's James Bay Lithium Project has a Mineral Resource of 40.3 Mt at 1.4% Li2O and is proposed to produce an average of 321 Kt of spodumene concentrate per year over a 19-year mine life.

The Northern and Central part of the AC/DC Project is located within the Rouget Formation, a volcanic belt that comprises amphibolites derived from mafic to intermediate lava, metamorphosed felsic volcanics, and iron formation rocks.

The Southern part of the AC/DC Project is on the Corvette Formation, containing a sequence of volcano-sedimentary rocks, that is separated from the Laguiche Complex of the Opinaca sub-province and the Marbot Formation of the La Grande sub-province occurring in the Quentin Shear Zone.

The amphibolite (metavolcanic) units from the Guyer Group, which hosts several lithium projects including Cancet and CV5 has similar lithological characteristics to that of Rouget Formation, which underlies the northern portion of the AC/DC Project and the Corvette Formation, which covers portions of the southwest corner of the AC/DC Project. Canuck considers that given the similarities in geological settings and proximity to known lithium-bearing pegmatites in the region, the AC/DC Project may have a high potential of hosting spodumene-bearing pegmatites.

Work Completed on AC/DC Project in 2023:

Canuck recently completed remote sensing satellite studies using hyperspectral, and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data over the AC/DC Project. Through machine learning and deep sensor algorithms are applied to the 10m resolution hyperspectral and ground penetrating satellite data sets. This propriety mathematical algorithms are designed to detect lithium-bearing pegmatites, using a hyperspectral signatures (finger printing) method and has highlighted twelve (12) new high priority lithium targets on the AC/DC Project which are subjected to ground truth verification.

Ranked targets (Figure 5) are based on hyperspectral signatures, lithium mineralogy target areas, linear to sub-linear dyke-like feature count, proximity to Vieux Comptoir Intrusive rocks, and proximity to Greenstone host lithologies to provide an overall factored score and ranking. Additional follow-up targeting and ground truth fieldwork studies to include qualitative assessment of individual target areas identified as dyke-like structures for further demarcating extent of individual targets and develop field exploration activities.

Based on the results of the remote sensing data analysis and deep sensor radar algorithms identified twelve (12) anomalous target areas and numerous smaller secondary sets of targets.

Strike length of several major targets areas ranges from 1 to 15 km in length and 100 to 1,000 m in width and are generally oriented in a northeasterly-trending direction.

Each of the major anomalous targets contain numerous dyke-like structures also correlated from high resolution orthophotography images. Individual dyke-like linear to sub-linear structures range in length between 20 - 500 m or greater, often occur in clusters within anomalous zones and appears to be oriented in north easterly direction, similar to known pegmatite structures in the area.

The individual dyke-like structures identified on radar data sets are often coincident with typical hyperspectral signature falling within the wavelength range of lithium bearing minerals possibly indicating spodumene, lepidolite and other minerals. Further, targets delineated by the radar and hyperspectral algorithms appear to be associated with topographical highs also expressed within the digital elevation model established over the AC/DC Project.

The predominance of the dyke-like structures at target areas 2, 5, 9, 11, and 12 are located in close proximity to the prospective greenstone belt host rock and Vieux Comptoir Granitic Suite along the narrow greenstone belt trend located on the AC/DC Project (Figure 6).

Hertz Lithium Exploration Plans: Engaged Dahrouge Geological Consulting Ltd.

Following the completion of the Proposed Transaction, the Company intends to engage Dahrouge Geological Consulting Ltd. to follow up on refining priority targets through ground truth investigations along with an aerial Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) Survey (the "Survey") and high-resolution ortho imagery for an enhanced understanding of the AC/DC Project's lithology and further confirmation of the priority targets prior to undertaking ground exploration programs. The Survey is designed to produce a sub-metric scale topographic model of the ground surface and high-resolution imagery with less than 20 cm pixel resolution. Pegmatite structures occur as elongated bodies, often relatively more resistant to erosion than their surrounding wall-rock and can form subtle elongated ridge like features. These discrete topographic highs and other geological features of interest can be identified through analysis of the high-resolution remote sensing datasets even in areas of thick vegetation.

Phase 2 will focus on fieldwork on areas in the southwest, central, and northern portions of the AC/DC Project underlain by the greenstone belts of the Rouget and Corvette formations. Based on occurrence of the amphibolite units derived from metavolcanic rocks covering these target areas and as a regional phenomenon the lithium-bearing pegmatite dykes in the area of James Bay that are typically found in or at contact zones with metavolcanic or metasediment units.

As confirmed by the remote sensing investigations, as described above, the northern portion of the AC/DC Project underlain by the Rouget Formation provided the most likely occurrence of prospective pegmatite outcrops. However, these proprietary satellite algorithm results are to be verified through ground truth investigations. The surface exploration program would include outcrop mapping, focusing on pegmatite identification, description, prospecting, and rock sampling, as well as detailed channel sampling of any lithium pegmatites identified.

Figure 1: AC/DC Lithium Project and adjacent project optioned to Rio Tinto.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9656/182743_6aeb3e424489db4d_002full.jpg

Figure 2: Regional map showing the location of the AC/DC Lithium Project in the James Bay Area, Quebec.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9656/182743_6aeb3e424489db4d_003full.jpg

Figure 3: Regional map showing the location of the AC/DC Lithium Project in Quebec.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9656/182743_6aeb3e424489db4d_004full.jpg

Figure 4: Mineralized Zones and Pegmatite (I1G) Observations.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9656/182743_6aeb3e424489db4d_005full.jpg

Figure 5: Spectral Response indicating possible pegmatite mineralogy over defined target areas and individually identified dyke-like structures at the AC/DC Project in James Bay, Quebec.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9656/182743_6aeb3e424489db4d_006full.jpg

Figure 6: James Bay Regional Geology over defined target areas and individually identified dyke-like structures at the AC/DC and La Fleur Properties, James Bay, Quebec.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/9656/182743_6aeb3e424489db4d_007full.jpg

 Patriot Battery Metals' website: https://patriotbatterymetals.com/portfolio/corvette/

 Nemaska Lithium NI 43-101 Technical Report: Report on the Estimate to Complete for the Whabouchi Lithium Mine and Shawinigan Electrochemical Plant, May 31, 2019

 Galaxy Lithium Preliminary Economic Assessment, NI 43-101 Technical Report: James Bay Lithium Project Ontario, Canada, March 15, 2021

Transaction Details

Pursuant to the terms of the Definitive Agreement, as consideration for the acquisition of 100% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Canuck the Company will issue an aggregate of 23,150,001 common shares in the capital of the Company (the "Consideration Shares") pro rata to the Canuck Shareholders. All securities issued in the Proposed Transaction will be issued under prospectus exemptions pursuant to National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions of the Canadian Securities Administrators and may be subject to an applicable statutory hold period along with any escrow restrictions imposed under applicable securities laws.

The Proposed Transaction remains subject to certain closing conditions including, without limitation, (a) the receipt by the Company of all necessary consents and approvals, (b) the completion of customary due diligence, (c) each party's representations and warranties in the Definitive Agreement being true and correct in all respects as of the Closing Date, and (d) each party completing its covenants and obligations as contained in the Definitive Agreement. There can be no guarantee that the Proposed Transaction will be completed as contemplated or at all.

Kal Malhi, CEO, states, "With this acquisition of a 100% interest in the district scale ACDC project in the center of a world class hard rock lithium district known as James Bay in Quebec, Canada, Hertz now holds three prospective lithium projects in North and South America. These projects include: the Lucky Mica Project in Arizona, the Patriota Lithium Project in Brazil, and the ACDC Lithium Project. With the addition of our very exciting patent-pending lithium extraction technology being developed in partnership with Penn State University, we believe this truly makes Hertz a diversified investment opportunity within the lithium supply chain."

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Francois Gagnon, P. Geo., Senior Exploration Geologist for Dahrouge Geological Consulting Ltd., and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 - Standard of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Hertz Lithium Inc.

The Company is a British Columbia based mineral exploration company primarily engaged in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties. The Company's lithium exploration projects include, the Lucky Mica Project, is located along the Arizona Pegmatite Belt in the Maricopa County of Arizona, USA and the Patriota Lithium Project, located along the Eastern Brazilian Pegmatite Province, in Brazil. The Company is also working with Penn State University's College of Earth and Mineral Science department to develop a novel patent-pending hard rock lithium extraction technology.

For further information, please contact Mr. Kal Malhi or view the Company's filings at sedarplus.ca.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Kal Malhi

Chief Executive Officer and Director

Phone: 604-805-4602

Email: kal@bullruncapital.ca

The CSE has in no way passed upon the merits of the Proposed Transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

The securities of the Company referred to in this press release have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws. Accordingly, the securities of the Company may not be offered or sold within the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy any securities of the Company in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Cautionary Statement Regarding "Forward-Looking" Information

All information contained in this news release with respect to the Company and Canuck was supplied by the parties, respectively, for inclusion herein, and the Company and its respective directors and officers have relied on Canuck for any information concerning Canuck.

Completion of the Proposed Transaction is subject to a number of conditions precedent. The Proposed Transaction cannot close until all such conditions are satisfied. There can be no assurance that the Proposed Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this new release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements in this news release includes statements related to the Proposed Transaction and related matters. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION OR DISSEMINATION DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/182743
At least four states that have made most children eligible for taxpayer-funded scholarships to private schools are seeing more families using the programs than planned. Its especially an issue in states like Arizona and Iowa, where at least some families whose children were already in private school can now take advantage of public funding. Advocates for school choice pitch vouchers as a way to give students in low-performing schools a way out  and, increasingly, to give parents control over what their children are taught. The programs funded through vouchers, tax credits or scholarships, which have been around since the 1990s and are now available in the majority of states. Read moreParents like private school vouchers so much that demand is exceeding budgets in some states
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / IBM

IBM Impact

IBM has a longstanding commitment to helping build a diverse and inclusive workforce. Last month, IBM announced a commitment to train two million learners in AI by the end of 2026, with a focus on underrepresented communities. And, through IBM SkillsBuild's collaboration with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, we are providing free education and career readiness resources to Hispanics nationwide. Through this collaboration, Hispanic learners are also earning IBM-branded digital credentials that are recognized by the market to create direct pathways to tech jobs.

We are inspired by stories from learners like Oscar Ramirez, an immigrant from Mexico who has studied AI and many more courses through IBM SkillsBuild on his path to a career in technology.

Oscar arrived in California from Mexico when he was five. "We left because of rising crime and the lack of educational resources," he shared. For years Oscar had no official status in the US, but eventually had the opportunity to apply for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which allowed him to work and pursue college.

Growing up in Silicon Valley, it was almost inevitable that Oscar would be drawn to the world of technology. His family couldn't afford a computer, so they frequented the local library to learn and experiment with computers, ultimately leading him to choose computer science as his major in college. To afford education, Oscar had to work full-time while also attending college full-time since he couldn't access student loans due to his immigration status. It was a demanding path, filled with major life changes, but his determination paid off when he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics and Computational Mathematics from San Jose State University in June 2023.

During his last semester of college, Oscar was introduced to IBM SkillsBuild through the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (via the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers). He started taking courses and earning credentials, to better stand out for a great role in a great company.

"I've taken many IBM SkillsBuild courses and credentials, including AI fundamentals, Cybersecurity, Web Development, Data Analysis, Project Management, and more. What I liked most about the program is that it centralizes a lot of important information and allows you to learn in-depth about the things that most interest you. I like that I can do this as fast or as slow as I want and, in the end, you can have an official way to show people what you've been spending your time doing. I enjoyed going through the learning modules which allow me to distinguish myself as a great candidate for any employer."

As a generalist with a wide range of interests, IBM SkillsBuild's career assessment tool helped him identify areas where he could excel and allowed him to dig deeper into learning paths that matched his interests and skills.

For peers considering embarking on the IBM SkillsBuild journey, Oscar offers some advice: "If there's anything that you'd be interested in doing that IBM SkillsBuild can offer, take the first step, and start with the courses. It'll paint a clearer picture of what you need to do to get where you want to be."

Oscar's story is a testament to the power of determination, hard work, and the opportunities that programs like IBM SkillsBuild can provide. Oscar has transformed his life from being an immigrant with limited resources to someone who's actively shaping their future in the tech industry.

"We are at an inflection point in the development of technology. AI has the potential to revolutionize many aspects of our lives, and it is important that we ensure that Latinos have the opportunity to participate and become a part of the next generation in technology. That way can ensure that this technology is being used and developed in a way that benefits all people."

To learn more about IBM SkillsBuild and AI skills, visit ibmskillsbuild.org

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from IBM on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: IBM

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/ibm

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: IBM

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789617/ibm-celebrates-hispanic-heritage-month-empowering-learners-like-oscar-ramirez-for-a-future-in-tech-through-ibm-skillsbuild
The global the diving tourism market is driven by availability of rich and pristine underwater habitats, coral reefs, shipwrecks, and aquatic organisms.

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Diving Tourism Market by Type (Deep Diving, Drift Diving, Wreck Diving, and Free Diving), Gender (Male and Female), and End User (Solo, Family, Friends, Couples, and Corporate Groups), Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2023-2032". According to the report, the diving tourism market size was valued at $3.9 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $16.9 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 15.9% from 2023 to 2032.

Download Sample Copy of Report: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/159570

Diving tourism includes scuba diving and undersea exploration. It allows travelers to explore the fascinating world under the sea. The majority of dive tourism happens in less developed countries of the tropics.

Prime determinants of growth

The diving tourism market is driven by factors such as growing interest in adventure tourism and mobile applications, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence evolving together amidst proliferating tourism industry. However, increase in terrorism and crime rate, political uncertainty, and increase in accidents and deaths of divers restrict market growth. Moreover, the growth of sustainable tourism practices offers new opportunities in the coming years.

Report coverage & details:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2023-2032 Base Year 2022 Market Size in 2022 $3,884.4 million Market Size in 2032 $16,914.3 million CAGR 15.9 % No. of Pages in Report 252 Segments covered Type, Gender, End User, and Region Drivers Growing interest in adventure tourism Mobile applications, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence evolving together amidst proliferating tourism industry High penetration of Internet and social media sites Opportunities Sustainable Tourism Practices Heavy investment for better infrastructure Restraints Increase in terrorism and crime rate, political uncertainty, and natural calamities Increase in accidents and deaths of divers

Procure Complete Report (252 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, and Figures): https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/checkout-final/2c871c929c6a3b02b6eb254a58101e21

The deep diving segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period

Based on type, the deep diving segment dominated the market in 2022 accounting for more than two-fifths of the market share and is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period, owing to the increasing participation in adventure activities along with the experiences of photography and videography has increased the popularity of deep diving. The wreck diving segment is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 16.5% from 2023 to 2032.

The male segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period

Based on gender, the male segment dominated the market in 2022 accounting for more than two-thirds of the market share and is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period, owing to the affordability of diving certification classes and specialized training programs has made scuba accessible for males, regardless of whether they are novice or experienced divers. The female segment is projected to manifest the highest CAGR of 16.3% from 2023 to 2032.

The solo segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period

On the basis of the end user, the solo segment dominated the market in 2022 accounting for more than half of the market share and is expected to maintain its dominance during the forecast period. Rise in awareness of the necessity of environmentally conscious and sustainable vacation experiences in recent years has motivated individuals to discover the enthralling undersea world with a renewed concern for marine conservation. The couple segment held the major CAGR of 18.1% in 2032.

North America to maintain its dominance by 2032

Based on region, North America held the highest market share in terms of revenue in 2022, accounting for nearly two-fifths of the global diving tourism market revenue and is likely to dominate the market during the forecast period. Tourism has emerged as an essential part of the modern hospitality industry and economy in the North America region. The North America diving tourism market is driven by rise in the trend of authenticity among travelers in the region. The Asia-Pacific region held the major CAGR of 17.1% in 2032.

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Leading Market Players: -

Ultimate Dive Travel

Dive-The-World.com

PADI

ZuBlu Ltd.

Fly & Sea Dive Adventures

Entrada Travel Group

Scuba Travel

Bluewater Travel

The Natural Travel Collection Ltd.

Caradonna Dive Adventures.

The report provides a detailed analysis of these key players in the diving tourism market. These players have adopted different strategies such as acquisition, partnerships, and new product launches to increase their market share and maintain dominant shares in the market. The report is valuable in highlighting business performance, operating segments, product portfolio, and strategic moves of market players to showcase the competitive scenario.

Country Reports We Have in this Industry:

U.S. Diving Tourism Market Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022-2032

Canada Diving Tourism Market Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022-2032

Mexico Diving Tourism Market Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022-2032

Europe Diving Tourism Market Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022-2032

UK Diving Tourism Market Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022-2032

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Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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Cerro de Oro Funding Package Update

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - Minera Alamos Inc. (TSXV: MAI) ("Minera" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of an independent estimate of the Mineral Resources currently outlined at the Santana gold project (the "Project") in Sonora, Mexico. The Resource Estimate was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") by Scott Zelligan P.Geo, an independent QP as defined in NI 43-101. A Technical Report with the details of the Resource Estimate will be filed on SEDARplus under the Company's profile within 45 days of the date of this news release.

"This maiden resource covers just the development zones in the immediate area of the current Santana mine operations and is a major step in highlighting the robust resource data and metallurgical input that provided the Company with comfort in developing our first low capital mine. The next open pit in the development plans for the Project, the Nicho main zone, is largely drilled off in sufficient detail for the estimation of measured and indicated resources with a grade and strip (waste: mineralization) ratio that we expect to provide meaningful low-cost production gold ounces for the next 5-6 years as the rest of the property is explored and better understood," stated Darren Koningen, CEO. "Notable nearby targets such as Benjamin which are outside of our current operations area have shown some excellent potential but will require more preliminary exploration and additional drilling to properly understand mineralization controls, grade distribution and tonnage. Ultimately, this current resource statement is just the first, conservative iteration of the geological potential across the broader Santana property with a goal of the current starter mine being a source of organic funding to prove up the greater potential of the area."

The Resource Estimate for the Santana gold project - contains 198,000 ounces of Measured and Indicated gold resources (9.61 Mt at 0.65 g/t) and an additional 103,000 oz of Inferred gold resources (5.51 Mt at 0.58 g/t). Table 1 shows the Mineral Resource estimate by zone for the Santana Project.

Table 1 - Santana Gold Project Estimate of Mineral Resources

Deposit Category Tonnes (t) Gold Grade (g/t) Contained Ounces (koz) Nicho Measured 6,390,000 0.65 133,000 Indicated 2,810,000 0.64 57,000 Total M&I 9,200,000 0.65 190,000 Inferred 1,530,000 0.66 33,000 Nicho Norte & Divisadero Measured 150,000 0.66 3,000 Indicated 260,000 0.62 5,000 Total M&I 410,000 0.63 8,000 Inferred 2,470,000 0.55 44,000 Benjamin Inferred 1,510,000 0.54 26,000 Total Measured 6,540,000 0.65 136,000 Indicated 3,070,000 0.64 62,000 Total M&I 9,610,000 0.65 198,000 Inferred 5,510,000 0.58 103,000

Notes to Table 1:

The independent QP for the mineral resource estimates, as defined by NI 43-101, is Scott Zelligan, P.Geo. The effective date of the 2023 mineral resource estimate is May 31, 2023.

A gold price of $1,700/oz was used in calculating the Mineral Resources.

The estimate is reported for a potential open pit/heap leach scenario.

The limits of the Resource-constraining pit shell assumed a mining cut-off based on a total operating cost (mining, milling, and general and administrative [G&A]) of $12.00/t stacked, a metallurgical recovery of 75%, and a constant open pit slope angle of 40. This constraining pit shell contained a total volume of 49 Mt (mineralized + unmineralized) implying a strip ratio of approximately 2.25.

The gold cut-off grade applied to mineralized material is 0.15 g/t Au

These Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves as they do not have demonstrated economic viability.

The Mineral Resource estimate follows CIM Definition Standards.

Results are presented in-situ. Ounce (troy) = metric tonnes x grade / 31.1035. Calculations used - metric units (metres, tonnes, g/t). Rounding followed the recommendations as per NI 43-101.

The number of tonnes has been rounded to the nearest ten thousand.

The QPs of the Report are not aware of any known environmental, permitting, legal, title-related, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues that could materially affect the Mineral Resource estimate.

Extensive modelling and statistical work was performed to analyze the effect of the oxide zone on gold grade and rock specific gravity. Due to the fractured nature of the host rock, the oxide-sulphide transition zone of the deposits are irregular and difficult to model using conventional wireframing techniques. It was decided for the current Resource Estimate to model without a transition boundary and allow the measured variations to populate the blocks accordingly. Metallurgical testwork (see section below) is ongoing and results from limited sulphide samples tested to date indicate the potential for heap leaching of this material although final required parameters like crush sizes are not yet fully understood. It has been recommended that the Company continue to evaluate the overall database of exploration information with a goal of incorporating geo-metallurgical information into future resource estimates.

Table 2 - Constraining Pit Parameters for Resource Estimation

Parameter Unit Value Gold Price $/oz 1,700 Refining Cost $/oz 15.00 Process Cost $/t stacked 4.00 Metallurgical Recovery % 75 General & Administrative $/t stacked 0.50 Mining Cost $/t 2.30 Gold Cut-Off Grade g/t Au 0.15 Pit Slope Angle degrees 40

Notes to Table 2:

The parameters listed in Table 2 define a basis for reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction for the Project Mineral Resource estimate and are in-line with current actual operating costs for the project. The processing scenario assumes heap leaching of mineralized material sourced from open pit mining operations. The Mineral Resource has been constrained to mineralized material that occurs within a pit shell derived utilizing the parameters listed in Table 2. All other material within the defined pit shell was characterized as non-mineralized material.





Image 1 - Mineralized Volumes Nicho Cross Section



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Image 2 - Visual Validation Angled Cross Section Nicho Gold Deposit



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Geology and Background

Mineralization in the Santana Project area is of the intrusive-related gold (Au-Ag-Cu-W) type and is associated with calc-alkaline-oxidized intrusive centres (i.e. San Nicolas Batholith). Gold is hosted by hydrothermal breccias and their causative inter-mineral dykes and stocks and can form important mining districts with clusters of deposits. The intense alteration associated with the mineralization is linked to the emplacement of hydrothermal breccias which are in general sub-vertical pipe-like structures and typically a few hundred meters in diameter.

Locally, mineralization at the Santana Project occurs within breccias that have a jigsaw-type texture. These breccias typically comprise angular elongated fragments that have a preferential sub-vertical orientation. Review of core and outcrop indicates that these fragments did not undergo large displacements or rotations, which left open spaces between them that were subsequently infilled by gold-bearing hydrothermal minerals. The breccias are principally clast-supported and monomictic, and the presence of gold mineralization is directly related to the areas dominated by the breccia intervals.

In the case of Santana, there appears to be a cluster of potential gold-bearing deposits that conform to the description above within an area surrounding the main Nicho complex that is the subject of the current gold resource estimate. Further work is planned to properly understand the nature and size of these important targets and to delineate additional mineralization that could allow for prolonged or expanded project operations beyond what has been identified to date.

Metallurgy

The majority of the Nicho gold mineralization that serves as the basis of the current resource estimate is located within an andesitic breccia zone above the deeper quartz-feldspar porphyry intrusive. Mineralization is generally well disseminated throughout the overall host rock volume with small scale enrichment in the fractures between the breccia matrix fragments.

Overall copper content in the mineralization is generally low and leaching results from ongoing operations at the Project indicate that its presence is manageable using free cyanide level-control in the leach solutions, with little impact on overall gold recoveries. The Nicho Norte mineralized material which was the primary source of past test leaching (2017-2019) and recent operations at the Project responds positively to gold cyanidation. Residual gold levels following these heap leaching activities typically approach levels of approximately 0.1 g/t Au. At mined head grades of 0.6 g/t Au to 0.7 g/t Au this equates to gold overall recoveries in the range of 80%. Leach kinetics are rapid for particle sizes up to approximately 1" (30-45 days or less). Although a reduction in kinetics appears at sizes greater than 1", ultimate gold recoveries at the end of the extended leach period were similar to those experienced with the finer-sized material.

Although more data is available for material from the Nicho Norte satellite deposit, comparative studies looking at test samples from the Nicho main deposit appear to exhibit similar results and additional work is ongoing. Recently tested samples of weathered material from upper zones in the deposit exhibited recoveries in line with the Nicho Norte material described above. Leach tests completed on samples of "worst case" fresh sulphide material from deeper in the Nicho deposit exhibited acceptable gold recoveries approaching 70% at crush sizes of <1/2" (coarsest size used for initial screening tests). Additional testwork is underway to more fully understand the overall gold recovery versus particle size relationships throughout the deposit due to variations in sulphide levels and weathering.

Recommendations

The report recommends that additional diamond drill holes, on approximately 25 m centres be drilled at the Benjamin Zone to further understand the distribution of gold mineralization within the zone and to look at opportunities to expand the size of the currently delineated mineralized area. The Company is currently planning to add approximately 10-12 more drill holes to those already drilled this year at Benjamin as a priority.

Additional recommendations include:

Further review of the additional mineralized breccia targets which have been identified by the Company in the areas surrounding the Nicho complex (Goldridge, Zata, Bufita and East zones) area in order to prioritize the next phases of follow-up resource definition drilling.

A continuation of effective surface sampling activities with a focus on new areas that show similar mineralization characteristics as the Nicho and Nicho Norte zones.

Geophysical studies targeting blind targets that have similar signatures as those observed over the known Nicho and Nicho Norte gold-bearing breccia zones.

Additional metallurgical studies (particularly crushing optimization studies) aimed at improving the overall understanding of variations in parameters such as leachability, recoveries and reagent consumptions for newly delineated zones of mineralization.

Cerro De Oro Project Financing Update

The Company is also pleased to report that final documentation based on the term sheet for the Cerro de Oro project financing package announced on May 31, 2023, is expected to close shortly, following the completion of final project technical due diligence. Proceeds from the financing package will be used to permit and construct the Cerro de Oro heap leach gold mine. Delays from the original expected closing date of mid-July were largely a function of expanded requirements for the drafting of documentation suitable for both the Mexican and Canadian corporate jurisdictions. The broad business and financial terms outlined in the May 31, 2023 release remain unchanged.

Qualified Person Statements

The Technical Report on the Mineral Resource Estimate for the Cerro de Oro Project was prepared by Scott Zelligan P.Geo., Larry Segerstrom, M.Sc. (Geology), C.P.G. and Peimeng Ling, P.Eng., all Qualified Persons ("QPs") as defined under Canadian National Instrument 43-101. The QPs have reviewed and approved the content of this news release. All of the QPs are "independent" of the Company pursuant to National Instrument 43-101. The Technical Report will be posted on SEDARplus within the next 45 days.

The listed Qualified Persons have reviewed the data contained in this new release and verified that such data is accurately disclosed.

Scott Zelligan, P.Geo. Zelligan Consulting Inc. Larry Segerstrom, M.Sc. (Geology), C.P.G Segerstrom Consulting LLC Peimeng Ling, P.Eng. Peimeng Ling & Associates Ltd.

Mr. Darren Koningen, P.Eng. Minera Alamo's CEO, is the Qualified Person responsible for the content of this press release under National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Koningen has supervised the preparation of, and has approved the scientific and technical disclosures in this news release.

For Further Information Please Contact:

Minera Alamos Inc.

Doug Ramshaw, President

Tel: 604-600-4423

Email: dramshaw@mineraalamos.com

Website: www.mineraalamos.com



Victoria Vargas de Szarzynski, VP Investor Relations

Tel: 289-242-3599

Email: vvargas@mineraalamos.com

About Minera Alamos Inc.

Minera Alamos is a gold production and development Company undergoing the operational start-up of its first gold mine that produced its first gold in October 2021. The Company has a portfolio of high-quality Mexican assets, including the 100%-owned Santana open-pit, heap-leach mine in Sonora that is currently going through its operational ramp up. The 100%-owned Cerro de Oro oxide gold project in northern Zacatecas has considerable past drilling and metallurgical work completed and the proposed mining project is currently being guided through the permitting process by the Company's permitting consultants. The La Fortuna open pit gold project in Durango (100%-owned) has a positive, robust preliminary economic assessment (PEA) completed, and the main Federal permits are in place. Minera Alamos is built around its operating team that together brought three open pit heap leach gold mines into successful production in Mexico over the last 13 years.

The Company's strategy is to develop very low capex assets while expanding the projects' resources and continuing to pursue complementary strategic acquisitions.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking information and Minera Alamos cautions readers that forward-looking information is based on certain assumptions and risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations of Minera Alamos included in this news release. This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements", which often, but not always, can be identified by the use of words such as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", or "plan". These statements are based on information currently available to Minera Alamos and Minera Alamos provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements with respect to Minera Alamos' future plans with respect to the projects, objectives or goals, to the effect that Minera Alamos or management expects a stated condition or result to occur and the expected timing for release of a resource and reserve estimate on the projects. Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions that, by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results relating to, among other things, results of exploration, the economics of processing methods, project development, reclamation and capital costs of Minera Alamos' mineral properties, the ability to complete a preliminary economic assessment which supports the technical and economic viability of mineral production could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements for many reasons. Minera Alamos' financial condition and prospects could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements for many reasons such as: an inability to finance and/or complete an updated resource and reserve estimate and a preliminary economic assessment which supports the technical and economic viability of mineral production; changes in general economic conditions and conditions in the financial markets; changes in demand and prices for minerals; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; technological and operational difficulties encountered in connection with Minera Alamos' activities; and other matters discussed in this news release and in filings made with securities regulators. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of Minera Alamos' forward-looking statements. These and other factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on Minera Alamos' forward-looking statements. Minera Alamos does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by Minera Alamos or on its behalf, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

The Company does not have a feasibility study of mineral reserves, demonstrating economic and technical viability for the Santana project, and, as a result, there may be an increased uncertainty of achieving any particular level of recovery of minerals or the cost of such recovery, including increased risks associated with developing a commercially mineable deposit. Historically, such projects have a much higher risk of economic and technical failure.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/182767
Smile makes the list for 2023 based on three-year revenue growth of 942%

TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Smile Digital Health (Smile), a leading Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) health data fabric and exchange solutions provider, is pleased to announce it placed No. 41 on the 2023 Report on Business ranking of Canada's Top Growing Companies.









Canada's Top Growing Companies ranks Canadian companies based on three-year revenue growth. Smile earned its spot with a three-year growth of 942%.

"Smile has evolved considerably in the last few years, be it our products and solutions, our impact on the industry, or our revenue. Being one of Canada's top-growing companies for the second year in a row helps to further emphasize this, especially coming from a source as reputable as The Globe and Mail. With our aim to drive change in the healthcare industry, growth is a necessity for the success of our mission. We are proud to be recognized for these achievements and are delighted to share the space with a host of other future-focused Canadian companies," said Duncan Weatherston, Chief Executive Officer, Smile Digital Health.

Canada's Top Growing Companies is an editorial ranking that was launched in 2019. It aims to bring the accomplishments of innovative businesses in Canada to the forefront. In order to qualify for this voluntary program, companies had to complete an in-depth application process and fulfill requirements. In total, 425 companies earned a spot on this year's ranking.

The full list of 2023 winners, along with editorial coverage, is published in the October issue of Report on Business magazine. The list is out now and online here.

"Canada's Top Growing Companies acknowledges the drive and ingenuity displayed by Canadian business," says Dawn Calleja, Editor of Report on Business magazine. "This year's ranking serves as an inspiration for future business owners."

"This year's Report on Business magazine's list of Top Growing Companies shows how innovative ideas always rise to the top, perhaps even more so in times of uncertainty," says Andrew Saunders, CEO of The Globe and Mail. "The Globe and Mail congratulates this year's winners for meeting and surpassing those economic challenges."

About The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is Canada's foremost news media company, leading the national discussion and causing policy change through brave and independent journalism since 1844. With our award-winning coverage of business, politics and national affairs, The Globe and Mail newspaper reaches 6.3 million readers every week in our print or digital formats, and Report on Business magazine reaches 2.8 million readers in print and digital every issue. Our investment in innovative data science means that as the world continues to change, so does The Globe. The Globe and Mail is owned by Woodbridge, the investment arm of the Thomson family.

About Smile Digital Health

Smile Digital Health is a health information technology company focused on delivering better global health through open standards. Our enterprise-grade, open framework data fabric and integration platform fuels healthcare's digital transformation and accelerates value creation across all patient journeys at scale. Powered by our HL7 FHIR standard-based clinical data repository (SmileInside), our platform enables collaboration and allows organizations to ingest, transform, store, enrich, analyze, aggregate and meaningfully share the health information to power digital transformation. We prepare healthcare providers, payers, researchers and life sciences organizations for a connected future beyond legacy systems, adding new value through the intelligent use of information, and ultimately delivering better patient outcomes. For more information, visit SmileDigitalHealth.com.

Contact Information

Victoria Valladolid

Director of Marketing, Smile Digital Health

pr@smiledigitalhealth.com

(877) 537-3343 x 728

SOURCE: Smile Digital Health

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LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / In an era marked by rapid technological advancements and dynamic market landscapes, fostering entrepreneurship among the youth remains critical. Fishbowl Youth Entrepreneurs ("Fishbowl") has stepped into this need with an incredible platform that empowers young minds to dive into the world of innovation and business.





Fishbowl: Mentorships and resources for youth to start and grow their own businesses

Fishbowl was founded by CEO Inbal Bitan, an entrepreneur and passionate believer in the transformative power of business ownership. After watching her two young children develop crucial skills as they grew their small art box business, she realized that the ability of anyone to innovate or succeed is not determined by their age but by their vision, knowledge, and abilities.

"I saw in my kids the same incredible drive that adult entrepreneurs have. It was just a matter of giving them the opportunities to cultivate it," Bitan remembers. "In creating Fishbowl, I envisioned more young innovators having everything they need to make their dreams come true, including access to the friendships, community, and resources that can increase their self-confidence and grow their businesses."

At Fishbowl, staff, mentors, and educators are all committed to empowering youth, fostering their social and emotional growth, and providing a nurturing environment where young entrepreneurs can thrive and discover their full potential. Through online seminars and in-person meetups, students learn about everything needed to launch a successful business, including how to craft a mission statement and vision, establish an online presence, master sales tactics, hone public speaking skills, shape their online image, market a product, manage vendors, and more. Crucially, there are no tests or grading - instead, the focus is on personal growth, self-expression, and fun.



Fishbowl Youth Entrepreneurs is dedicated to fostering a comfortable and enjoyable atmosphere for students, encouraging them to think creatively and become entrepreneurs.

At Fishbowl, Bitan and her team are now registering the next generation of budding entrepreneurs for their fall 2023 and winter 2024 classes. The semester-long programs, open to kids and teens across California's Ventura and Los Angeles counties, are a unique chance to learn invaluable life and business skills from industry professionals and experienced entrepreneurs. In addition to cultivating practical knowledge and increasing their confidence, each attendee will receive a free gift and the exciting opportunity to sell their products at local events.

This year at Fishbowl, participants will progress through a five-step entrepreneurial program that includes:

Identity : Each student will think about their passions and interests, cultivating a deeper appreciation for what makes them unique.

: Each student will think about their passions and interests, cultivating a deeper appreciation for what makes them unique. Brainstorming : They will then generate a list of business ideas and be encouraged to think creatively and outside of the box.

: They will then generate a list of business ideas and be encouraged to think creatively and outside of the box. Research : Students will validate the potential of their ideas by talking to potential customers, analyzing the market, and considering their resources and skills.

: Students will validate the potential of their ideas by talking to potential customers, analyzing the market, and considering their resources and skills. Plan : They will detail their target market, create a marketing plan, and outline their financial projections.

: They will detail their target market, create a marketing plan, and outline their financial projections. Execution : Last, they will launch and grow their businesses, successfully navigating challenges and receiving ongoing support and mentorship.

"We are thrilled to open registration for this year's Fishbowl young entrepreneur program," says Bitan. "Last summer, we had so much fun helping children to channel their energy and creativity into projects that bring them joy. We can't wait to meet our new students and be wowed by their entrepreneurial vision and energy."

Parents who would like to register for the 2023/2024 young entrepreneurs sessions or learn more about Fishbowl's commitment to positivity, learning, and individuality can visit www.fishbowlyouth.com .

Summer showcase of FishBowl Youth Entrepreneurs



About Fishbowl Youth Entrepreneurs

Fishbowl Youth Entrepreneurs is comprised of dedicated professionals who believe in the transformative power of entrepreneurship and its ability to instill valuable skills and qualities in the next generation. Fishbowl not only teaches attendees about business but also provides a supportive community where young minds can thrive, gain confidence, and discover their potential. It is a beacon of empowerment for youth and is committed to positively impacting the lives of budding entrepreneurs around the United States.

For more information about Fishbowl Youth Entrepreneurs, please see its website or contact:

Inbal Bitan, CEO of Fishbowl Youth Entrepreneurs

info@fishbowlyouth.com

www.fishbowlyouth.com

www.Instagram.com/fishbowlyouth

SOURCE: Summer showcase of FishBowl Youth Entrepreneurs

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BOSTON, Oct. 03, 2023, the leading Asia Pacific centred biotech CRO with global execution capabilities, announced today the appointment of Dr. Judith Ng-Cashin as Chief Medical Officer (CMO).



Learn more about Dr. Judith Ng-Cashin here

Dr. Ng-Cashin, who brings 20 years of international pharmaceutical, biotech, and CRO experience including CMO roles, will be based in the US and lead Novotech's global Medical Services team.

According to Novotech CEO, Dr. John Moller, the appointment of such a high calibre medical executive as Dr. Ng-Cashin is a significant advancement for Novotech and its biotech clients.

"Dr. Ng-Cashin will be driving our multi-regional later-phase strategy as well as ensuring high quality delivery of medical services to our clients and patients. The role will also support our established global operations and dedicated local teams designed to progress early to late phase biotech clinical development," said Dr. Moller

Dr. Moller also stated "Dr. Ng-Cashin has held CMO roles at several biotech firms, as well as senior executive roles at GSK, Syneos and IQVIA. She is a development and commercialisation advisor for Duke University New Ventures and has led teams across full product lifecycles, including preclinical, clinical, regulatory, medical affairs, safety, and quality, as well as across therapy area and company-wide portfolio development and management."

Dr. Ng-Cashin areas of medical expertise include infectious diseases, hematology, oncology, rare diseases, and dermatology. Most recently, she served as CEO and President of JNC Consulting, advising biopharma and academics on clinical/regulatory strategy.

Dr. Ng-Cashin's senior leadership roles have included Eagle Pharmaceuticals as Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D, AOBiome Therapeutics as CMO, and Syneos Health as Chief Scientific Officer. At GSK, she served as VP Medical Excellence and Quality and VP and Global Head of the Infectious Diseases Medicines Development Center. She also oversaw the transition of Stiefel into GSK's pharmaceutical R&D as VP for Dermatology.

Dr. Ng-Cashin recently completed her second term on the Board of Directors at DIA and currently sits on the Scientific Advisory Board for Revibe Technologies.

Novotech has more than 3,000 employees operating across 25 geographies with 34 office locations, including the US, Greater China, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe.

The CRO offers biotechs a unique and unparalleled suite of early to late-phase services across the US and Europe, with a foundation in Asia Pacific where the company has built a reputation for delivering high-quality expedited clinical trials.

Recognized for its industry-leading contributions, Novotech has received numerous prestigious awards, including the CRO Leadership Award 2023 and the Best Cell & Gene Therapy CRO 2022 and 2023 awards. Additionally, the company was honored with the Asia-Pacific Contract Research Organization Company of the Year Award in 2022 and 2023. Its commitment to collaboration is evident in the 50 Leading Site Partnership agreements it has signed over the past three years.

About NovotechNovotech-CRO.com

Founded in 1997, Novotech is internationally recognized as the leading Asia Pacific centred Contract Research Organization (CRO) with global execution capabilities. The Company has established itself as a clinical CRO with labs, phase I facilities, drug development consulting services and regulatory expertise. It has experience in over 5,000 clinical projects, including Phase I to Phase IV clinical trials and bioequivalence studies. Novotech employs over 3,000 staff globally across 34 office locations. Novotech is positioned to serve as a partner and ally to small and medium-sized biotech, biopharma and pharma sponsors seeking to conduct clinical trials in Asia Pacific, the US and Europe.

For more information visit Novotech CRO
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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Zimtu Capital Corp. (TSXV:ZC)(FSE:ZCT1) (the "Company" or "Zimtu") announces that it has entered into an agreement with Todd River Resources (ASX:TRT) ("Todd River") to sell thirty-seven (37) mineral claims located approximately 250 kms northeast of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (NWT) collectively known as the Munn Lake properties (the "Halo-Yuri Lithium Project"). Zimtu will receive a cash payment of $80,000 in addition to 32,240,000 shares of Todd River Resources for the transaction. Zimtu will retain a 1% net smelter returns royalty (NSR) on all metals and minerals and a 1% gross overriding royalty (GOR) on Lithium and/or Diamond production from 33 of the 37 mineral claims, which constitute the Halo Property.

Halo-Yuri Lithium Project

The Halo-Yuri Lithium Project covers approximately 450 square kilometers and comprises 37 contiguous claims. It is located approximately 250 kms northeast of Yellowknife on the Gahcho Kue annual winter road which provides access for exploration programs and is within a few hundred meters of the 'OIG' spodumene occurrence. Historically, exploration on the project has focused on diamonds with little or no previous work on lithium bearing pegmatites albeit there is documented spodumene (Li bearing mineral) bearing pegmatites with numerous unexplored targets (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - Halo-Yuri Lithium Project showing mapped spodumene occurrences and the distribution of pegmatites.

Approximately 40 kilometers to the northeast of the Halo-Yuri Lithium Project is the Alymer Lake pegmatite field that contains both the Big Bird Lithium Pegmatite (1,280m in strike with 34m @ 1.24% Li2O in drilling) and the Curlew Lithium Pegmatite (400m strike length and 14.8m @ 1.72% Li2O in drilling). No assurances can be given that a similar or any mineral resource estimate will be determined at the Halo-Yuri Lithium Project.

Historical work across the project by Southern Era noted that most outcrop occurrences on the property consisted of various types of granitoids, metasediments and pegmatites with large NW-SE trending pegmatites of the MacKenzie Dyke Swarm crosscutting the property.

Spodumene is mapped at the 'OIG' pegmatites in the northwest of the project, and at the 'Sweet' pegmatite which is located a few hundred meters to the east of the project. The OIG pegmatites are described in a 1991 Master's thesis by Paul Tomascak submitted to the University of Manitoba which states "The four dikes of this series all contain spodumene and little K-feldspar, although OIG-4 is largely aplitic and the spodumene is not as coarse as it is in all other dikes of the series. Despite the presence of extensive spodumene, dikes are poorly zoned. Dikes are elongated, in general striking north south. Contact relations are incomplete, but most dikes appear concordant with metasediment schistosity. Lengths of dikes range from 6 to 18 m. Texturally and mineralogically these dikes appear to belong to Cerny's (1982) albite-spodumene type, bearing similarities to the King's Mountain pegmatites of North Carolina, U.S.A. (Kesler, 1976)."

Furthermore, Tomascak goes on to say "OIG-1, 2, 3: These dikes are spodumene-rich and poorly zoned. They consist of a random assemblage of 0.5-4.0 cm spodumene + quartz + plagioclase (usually cleavelandite) muscovite K-feldspar (some megacrysts up to 5 cm). Randomly distributed pods of blocky spodumene + K-feldspar cleavelandite also are present in these dikes. Aside from spodumene they remarkably lack other rare-element minerals.

OIG-4: This dike is much smaller than the others and appears extensively metasomatized. It contains a near-homogeneous and relatively fine-grained assemblage of cleavelandite + spodumene +muscovite+ quartz."

High resolution satellite-based targeting and mapping will be utilized to filter out high priority areas prior to undertaking detailed field work. A field program is proposed to start in fall of 2023.

Private Placement Update

The Company announces that it does not intend to proceed at this time with the third tranche of its non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") as previously announced in its News Releases of March 14, 2023, May 2, 2023, May 16, 2023, June 16, 2023 and July 17, 2023, for the issuance of up to 18,750,000 units (each, a "Unit") at a price of $0.08 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $1,500,000.

On May 2, 2023, the Company closed the first tranche of the Offering pursuant to which it sold an aggregate of 13,759,042 Units for gross proceeds of $1,100,723.36. On July 17, 2023, the Company closed a second tranche of the Offering pursuant to which it sold an aggregate of 2,312,500 Units for gross proceeds of $185,000. Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company (each, a "Share") and one non-transferable share purchase warrant (each, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant is exercisable into one additional Share (a "Warrant Share") at a price of $0.10 per Warrant Share for a period of three years from the closing date.

National Instrument 43-101 Disclosure

Nicholas Rodway, P.Geo, (License #46541) (Permit to Practice# 100359) is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Rodway has reviewed and approved the technical content in this release.

About Todd River Resources

Todd River Resources (ASX:TRT) is an Australian-based resources company that is focused on critical minerals that are essential for the future. The Company is in the process of acquiring several lithium focused projects in Canada and continues to own a base metal resource at its Mt. Hardy Project in the Northern Territory as well as several exciting Ni-Cu-PGE and base metal projects in Western Australia.

With a strong management team and strong financial position, Todd River is well placed to pursue additional critical mineral opportunities across Canada and Australia.

About Zimtu Capital

Zimtu Capital Corp. is a public investment issuer that aspires to achieve long-term capital appreciation for its shareholders. Zimtu Capital companies may operate in the fields of mineral exploration, mining, technology, life sciences or investment. The Company trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "ZC" and Frankfurt under symbol "ZCT1". For more information visit: www.zimtu.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

ZIMTU CAPITAL CORP.

"Sean Charland"

Sean Charland

President & Director

Tel: 604.681.1568

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Zimtu Capital Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789691/zimtu-capital-announces-property-transaction
The new vitola was unveiled by Caribbean Cigars Corporation N.V., exclusive distributor of Habanos, S.A. for Curacao, the Caribbean and Central America, to more than 150 delighted guests during the Caribbean Habanos Days.

Vegueros CentroGordos (54 ring gauge x 100mm length) will be on sale exclusively in all Habanos stores around the world.

LA HABANA, Cuba, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Habanos, S.A., along with its exclusive distributor for Curacao, the Caribbean and Central America, Caribbean Cigars Corporation N.V., presented a new vitola of the renowned Vegueros brand, CentroGordos, in the city of Willemstad. In a memorable weekend full of activities, the third edition of the Caribbean Habanos Day was held at the Kontiki Hotel. More than 150 lucky attendees, including area dealers, retailers, and aficionados from around 10 countries in Central America and the Caribbean, were able to enjoy this new vitola in a world premiere. In addition to tasting the Vegueros CentroGordos and Bolivar Gold Medal vitolas paired with exclusive rums, they were able to enjoy competitions, exclusive presentations, the humidor auction, and all this with the best Cuban music.

During the first day, attendees were able to participate in different conferences, exquisite pairings of Vegueros with the best rums of the Caribbean and enjoy a spectacular walk along the coasts of Curacao. To conclude, a cocktail reception and welcome, with the best gastronomic offerings, provided the perfect ambiance for a memorable evening. The activities continued the following day, when guests were able to take part in the Longest Ash Contest, in which participant Don Bakhuis from Curacao was the winner, and also enjoyed a special smoking and pairing with the Bolivar Gold Medal vitola and Varadero 15-year rum. The event closed on a golden note with a party under the title La Gran Noche accompanied by a delicious dinner and music from the island, during which attendees witnessed the humidor auction, where the auction of the Humidor Vegueros with 216 Habanos raised US $20,000 that will be donated to the Cuban Public Health system.

Vegueros CentroGordos is a product that can be found in all Habanos stores around the world. This new thick ring gauge vitola will make aficionados be amazed by this special Habanos that comes to renew and enrich the Vegueros brand with an innovative format. It will be presented in a metal can of 16 Habanos that have been made "Totally Handmade with Long Filler" after a careful selection of the wrapper, filler, and binder leaves from the Vuelta Abajo* plantations, where the world's best tobacco is produced, in Pinar del Rio* region, Cuba*.

This new vitola joins the portfolio of the Vegueros brand, which was born to pay tribute to all Cuban farmers who, from generation to generation, have grown tobacco in Pinar del Rio*, with a new trendy format that will be highly appreciated by today's smokers. The CentroGordos vitola, with a 54-ring gauge x 100 mm in length, comes to the market with a fresh image and a new format that will make it accessible to a wider spectrum of smokers.

Habanos lovers who like medium-strength cigars will be able to find the new Vegueros CentroGordos vitola after its launch at the different official points of sale in the more than 140 countries where Habanos, S.A., distributes its products.

Vegueros CentroGordos

Market name : CentroGordos

Factory name: Centro Gordo

Measures : 54 ring gauge x 100 mm length

To download video and images of the product in high resolution click here.

(P.A.O.) * Protected Appellations of Origin

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2237745/Habanos_S_A.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/habanos-sa-presented-in-curacao-the-new-vitola-vegueros-centrogordos-at-the-caribbean-habanos-days-301946067.html
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

PR Newswire

LONDON, United Kingdom, October 03

For immediate release

3 October 2023

FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC

(the "Company")

MARKET PURCHASE OF COMPANY'S OWN SHARES

The Company announces that it has today purchased 100,000 of its own shares ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 834 pence per Ordinary Share. Such shares will be held in treasury by the Company.

The transaction was made pursuant to the authority granted at the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 17 January 2023.

Following this transaction, the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury is 20,671,869; the total number of Ordinary Shares that the Company has in issue, less the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury following such purchase, and therefore, the total number of voting rights in the Company is 204,319,434.

The figure of 204,319,434 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for calculations of interests in the Company's voting rights in accordance with the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

For and on behalf of

Frostrow Capital LLP

Company Secretary

For further information, please contact:

Victoria Hale

Frostrow Capital LLP

Tel: 020 3 170 8732
ROYAN, FRANCE / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / VoltAero marked another important step toward the full-scale production of its Cassio electric-hybrid aircraft family with today's groundbreaking for a final assembly line at Rochefort Airport in the Charente-Maritime department of France's Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.

The industrial site for VoltAero's Cassio family aircraft at Rochefort Airport has been designed with a focus on sustainability.

This 2,400-square-meter facility will serve as the build-up site and delivery center for VoltAero's all-new product line of Cassio general aviation/regional aircraft. It positions VoltAero at a strategic location in southwest France with a dynamic economy and an established presence of industry - including the aviation sector.

The master plan incorporates the potential for VoltAero's future growth of up to 7,400 square meters at Rochefort Airport, as well as enabling suppliers and service providers to develop their own presence as they support the Cassio production.

Aligned with VoltAero's strategy of introducing Cassio as a highly eco-efficient multi-role aircraft, the company's Rochefort Airport industrial facility has been conceived with a focus on sustainability. In addition to meeting or exceeding the requirements of France's RT 2005 regulations for energy-efficient buildings, the project management team went further with features that include a mixed concrete/wood structural design and the use of wooden floors where appropriate, along with rainwater harvesting and photovoltaic panels for electrical power.

Construction is now underway, with the facility's completion targeted for August 2024. It will incorporate the final assembly line, a workshop, logistics area and the design/engineering offices. At full rate, VoltAero anticipates producing approximately 150 Cassio family aircraft per year.

"With today's groundbreaking milestone for our final assembly facility, VoltAero is once again delivering on its promise of bringing a clean-sheet design airplane to market for safe, quiet, efficient and eco-friendly flight using electric-hybrid propulsion," said Jean Botti, VoltAero's CEO and Chief Technology Officer.

Alain Rousset, President of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, added: "The production of Cassio aircraft at Rochefort Airport ensures that our region will be at the forefront of the aeronautics sector's decarbonization. Nouvelle-Aquitaine was one of the first partners for Jean Botti and his teams as they began developing their hybrid-electric aircraft concept, and we look forward to seeing Cassio airplanes as they are delivered from the final assembly line."

Project management for the construction of VoltAero's final assembly facility at Rochefort Airport is the responsibility of a regional association of airports called the Syndicat Mixte des Aeroports de La Rochelle - Ile de Re et Rochefort - Charente-Maritime. The prime contractor role has been assigned to the Rochefort-based SD Architectes agency.

"VoltAero represents the type of highly innovative companies that we are looking to support at Rochefort Airport in developing the aviation industry's future," stated Gerard Pons, President of the Syndicat Mixte des Aeroports de La Rochelle - Ile de Re et Rochefort - Charente-Maritime.

Advantages of the industrial site for VoltAero include its direct access to Rochefort Airport's existing 2,280-meter-long X 45-meter-wide runway, as well as the availability of the region's road, rail and sea transportation links.

The VoltAero Cassio aircraft family will be a highly capable and reliable product line for regional commercial operators, air taxi/charter companies, and private owners, as well as in utility-category service for cargo, postal delivery and medical evacuation (Medevac) applications.

By integrating VoltAero's patented electric-hybrid propulsion system into the company's purpose-designed airframe, Cassio will deliver an order of magnitude higher performance as compared to the current competition, and provide significantly lower operational costs.

Contact Information

Marina Evans

VoltAero

marina.evans@voltaero.fr

+33 (0)1 45 78 89 92

SOURCE: VoltAero

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789695/the-construction-of-voltaeros-final-assembly-facility-for-its-cassio-electric-hybrid-aircraft-is-initiated-at-rochefort-airport-in-france
(Baonghean.vn) - On the afternoon of October 2, Mr. Le Hong Vinh - Member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, Permanent Deputy Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, led a delegation from Nghe An province to visit the Vietnamese Embassy in the Republic of Austria.

An overall view of the meeting. Photo: Pham Van Toan

The working delegation included leaders from the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Management Board of the Southeast Economic Zone, the Department of Industry and Trade, the Department of Planning and Investment, the Office of the Provincial People's Committee, and representatives from some enterprises in Nghe An province.

The delegates were welcomed by Mr. Nguyen Trung Kien - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the Republic of Austria.

During the meeting, Mr. Le Hong Vinh informed the Ambassador about the socio-economic achievements of Nghe An province in the past period as well as the cooperation between Nghe An and the Republic of Austria.

Accordingly, despite facing unfavorable impacts from rapid and complex global political, security, and economic developments, the province has made great efforts to achieve comprehensive results in various fields. The scale of the economy currently ranks 10th nationwide. The economic growth in 2022 reached 9.08%, ranking 22nd in the country. In the first half of 2023, the province's economic growth reached 5.79%.

The total budget revenue in 2022 reached VND 21,805 billion (equivalent to nearly USD 919 million); in the first 6 months of 2023, it is estimated to reach VND 8,489.4 billion (equivalent to nearly USD 358 million).

Mr. Le Hong Vinh presents a gift to Ambassador Nguyen Trung Kien. Photo: Pham Van Toan

In 2022, Nghe Ans FDI attraction reached nearly USD 1 billion, ranking in the top 10 nationwide. In the first half of 2023, FDI attraction in Nghe An province continues to be a bright spot, currently ranking 8th out of 63 localities in Vietnam.

Nghe An always values the development cooperation with partners from Europe, including the Republic of Austria. However, up to now, there has been no Austrian enterprise investing in Nghe An.

Regarding exports, in 2022, the total export turnover from Nghe An to Austria reached USD 130,827. The main items were machinery, equipment, tools, and other spare parts. In the first 8 months of 2023, the total export turnover from Nghe An to Austria is estimated to reach USD 642,613, with main items including various types of steel (USD 634,363) and super fine white limestone powder (USD 8,200).

In terms of imports, the total import turnover in 2022 reached USD 3,083 million, with main items being machinery, equipment, tools, and other spare parts (USD 3 million), and chemicals (USD 50,000). In the first 8 months of 2023, the total import turnover is estimated to reach USD 580,000, with machinery, equipment, tools, and other spare parts accounting for USD 575,000, and electronic equipment and components accounting for USD 94,700.

The delegation takes a photo at the statue of President Ho Chi Minh within the premises of the Vietnamese Embassy in the Republic of Austria. Photo: Pham Van Toan

The Deputy Chairman of the Nghe Ans Provincial People's Committee expressed his hope that in the coming time, the Vietnamese Embassy in the Republic of Austria will continue to support and promote investment cooperation between Nghe An province and the Republic of Austria in areas such as supporting industries for automobile production, medical equipment, and pharmaceuticals; cooperation in trade, science and technology, education and culture.

Speaking at the meeting, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the Republic of Austria Nguyen Trung Kien acknowledged the achievements in the economic and social development of Nghe An province and emphasized that the Vietnam-Austria relations are currently in a good development phase. Austria considers Vietnam an important partner in implementing its foreign policies in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in terms of trade and investment. Austria desires to further strengthen and enhance bilateral relations in economics, education, and culture. The Vietnamese Embassy in the Republic of Austria commits to supporting Nghe An province in connecting with Austrian investors, especially in areas where Nghe An has advantages, as well as in trade, services, science and technology, education and culture.
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"Cameron Ashley continues to invest in our commitment to Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region by delivering the top brands in the industry to our customers along with best-in-class service," said Regional Vice President John Gambone. "Our three Louisiana distribution centers will be stocking the full line of Roseburg LVL and I-Joist products, with a focus on value-added services such as plan takeoffs, floor & truss estimates, beam sizing, custom cut lengths, and we will have engineering stamps available. We will be lightning fast with our service offering and provide convenient pickup options for the entire Louisiana market."

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.
Redde Northgate Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

PR Newswire

LONDON, United Kingdom, October 03

NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF SUCH JURISDICTION

3 October 2023

REDDE NORTHGATE PLC

("Redde Northgate" or the "Group" or the "Company")

Transaction in Own Shares

Redde Northgate plc (LSE:REDD) announces that on 3 October 2023 it purchased the following number of its own shares to be held in treasury:

Class of shares : Ordinary shares of 50p ("shares") Number of shares purchased : 75,000 Weighted average purchase price paid : 322.3333 pence per share Highest purchase price paid : 323 pence per share Lowest purchase price paid : 322 pence per share

Following the above transaction, the Company's issued share capital consists of 246,091,423 ordinary shares of 50p each, of which 15,207,571 ordinary shares are held in treasury, and 1,000,000 preference shares of 50p each which do not carry any rights to vote. Therefore the total number of voting rights in the Company is 230,883,852 which may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the Market Abuse Regulation) as incorporated into UK domestic law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, the schedule below contains detailed information about the purchases made by Numis Securities Limited on behalf of the Company as part of the Company's buyback programme.

Schedule of Purchase - Individual Transactions (as at 3 October 2023)

Number of shares

purchased Transaction price

(GB pence per share) Time of transaction Transaction reference number Venue 25000 323.00 15:02:08 00067219812TRLO0 LSE 40000 322.00 16:11:19 00067223484TRLO0 LSE 10000 322.00 16:24:23 00067224230TRLO0 LSE

Notes

This announcement is made in accordance with the requirements of Listing Rule 12.4.6.

For further information contact:

Buchanan

David Rydell/Jamie Hooper/Hannah Ratcliff +44 (0) 207 466 5000

Notes to Editors:

Redde Northgate is the leading integrated mobility solutions platform providing services across the vehicle lifecycle. The Company offers integrated mobility solutions to businesses, fleet operators, insurers, OEMs and other customers across seven key areas: vehicle rental, vehicle data, accident management, vehicle repairs, fleet management, service and maintenance, vehicle ancillary services and vehicle sales.

The Company's core purpose is to keep its customers mobile, whether through meeting their regular mobility needs or by servicing and supporting them when unforeseen events occur. With its considerable scale and reach, Redde Northgate's mission is to offer a market-leading customer proposition and drive enhanced returns for shareholders by creating value through sustainable compounding growth. The Group aims to achieve this through the delivery of its strategic framework of Focus, Drive and Broaden.

Redde Northgate services its customers through a network and diversified fleet of over 120,000 owned and leased vehicles, supporting over 600,000 managed vehicles, with more than 170 workshop, body shop and rental locations across the UK, Ireland and Spain and a specialist team of over 6,000 automotive services professionals.

Further information please visit the Company's website:
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Read the full MetLife 2022 Sustainability Report

Our Approach

As one of the world's leading financial services companies, MetLife plays an important role in communities. All MetLife regions, lines of business and colleagues contribute to community engagement and outreach, including through volunteerism and pro bono work. Throughout the company, executives and senior leaders engage in and encourage community work via organizational volunteer goals. MetLife Foundation helps connect MetLife colleagues with nonprofits and opportunities to make a difference.

Priorities

MetLife's 2030 DEI Commitments include pledges of 800,000 employee volunteer hours with a focus on supporting historically marginalized individuals and their families, and $150 million from MetLife Foundation to support underserved and underrepresented communities. To advance these commitments, MetLife Foundation launched a multi-pronged strategy to drive inclusive economic mobility by addressing the needs of such communities around the world. MetLife Foundation grants align with the UN SDGs and across three strategic giving portfolios:

ECONOMIC INCLUSION Invests in efforts that support upskilling and reskilling of young people and adults to be competitive in a digital and new economy and earn family-sustaining wages.

FINANCIAL HEALTH Supports efforts focused on building financial resiliency through the enablement of budget management, savings, access to credit and public/ private benefits.

RESILIENT COMMUNITIES Invests in efforts that open up access to physical and mental well-being resources and help build a more resilient planet.



FINANCIAL HEALTH

Inclusive Fintech 50 (IF50) is a global competition that identifies early-stage fintechs driving financial inclusion and resilience. Since 2019, the IF50 competition has attracted 1,343 eligible applicants, who are addressing limitations in financial services delivery for low-income and underserved customers. These emerging fintechs operate in over 237 countries, reach over 338 million customers, and have raised over $3.4 billion.

Village Capital1 -ADAPT: Social Innovation for a More Resilient Future ADAPT identifies startups that help communities and individuals respond to global challenges impacted by climate change, healthcare, wellness and economic mobility and that provide solutions that fundamentally shape and strengthen social resilience.

Women's World Banking (WWB) brings gender intentionality to expand financial and economic inclusion in India through training and support for 5,000 women agents who will provide access to financial services to an estimated 2 million rural lowincome women. It also opens access to affordable credit to nano- and micro-entrepreneur women.

Aspen Institute Financial Security Program's Benefits21 convenes experts from the public and private sectors to close benefit gaps and to reimagine benefits in the U.S. for the 21st-century workforce. The impact of the initiative produces tools and insights, convenes policymakers and financial security leaders, and promotes policy innovation toward modern benefits for all workers.

Economic Inclusion

Generation: You Employed MetLife Foundation is partnering with global employment nonprofit Generation to improve inclusion in entry-level tech sector roles through original research that will deepen our understanding of barriers to entry in tech hiring and provide practical steps that employers, policymakers and others can take to increase equity in the tech hiring process.

NPower is a national nonprofit working to create pathways to economic prosperity by launching educational training and support programs leading to digital careers for military veterans and young adults from underserved communities. The organization provides tech skills training to 2,100+ young people and military veterans annually, and 81% of program graduates are placed in high-quality jobs or continue their education.

RESILIENT COMMUNITIES

ASHOKA Through promoting public awareness and institutional change, Ashoka aims to create a new narrative on aging populations focused on "new longevity"-a concept of becoming a lifelong contributor by leading healthy and purposeful lives as we age.

Vision To Learn delivers mobile vision clinics to screen 800,000 K-12 students and will provide glasses to over 170,000 students over the next two school years. Glasses are custom made and fit for the students within about three weeks of the exam and warrantied for one year.

1. An accelerator program supported by MetLife Foundation to identify early-stage innovative solutions for financial health.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from MetLife, Inc. on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: MetLife, Inc.

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/metlife-inc

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: MetLife, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789733/metlife-2022-sustainability-report-metlife-foundation
New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - ArcStone Securities and Investments Corp. ("ArcStone") congratulates Harbour Solutions Importation Inc. ("Harbour") on the official launch of its Reg D Financing. With an aim to raise up to US$5 million this round, Harbour is pioneering a go-public strategy targeted for late Q1 2024, offering early investors a liquidity event. This move strategically places Harbour at the pinnacle of an industry that capitalizes on a super-plant with millennia of usage, now being incorporated into mainstream brands to develop innovative food, beverage, wellness, and botanical products. It comes at a time when there is a seismic shift towards plant-based alternatives. Harbour's exclusive collaboration with Peruvian State-owned partner Enaco Empresa Nacional De La Coca, ensures a reliable and safe supply of product promoting a capital-efficient business plan. Coupled with Harbour's North American operational base and leadership expertise spanning various sectors, the stage is set for Harbour to emerge as the world's preeminent coca company.

Michael Astone, CEO of ArcStone remarked "Harbour's trajectory resonates with my past collaborations with top-tier CPG brands, especially during our ventures into CBD, like when Molson Coors invested in Hexo in 2018. I see a more favorable opportunity for large CPG companies to create downstream products using formulations from Harbour's supply of coca extracts, such as energy stimulant, appetite suppressant, inflammation, and pain relief products. The markets are large, and consumers are demanding alternative ingredients to some of the chemicals currently in use."

David Craig, CEO of Harbour added, "Our strategy is a blend of precise insight and relentless dedication. Our partners have been instrumental in our journey, and our blueprint is methodically designed for growth. I am most impressed by our ongoing conversations with some of the world's largest companies this early in our journey validating just how disruptive the coca plant can be."

ArcStone is acting advisor to Harbour. Key figures such as Darren Marble from the Issuance platform, and Peter Simeon, Senior Partner at Gowlings WLG, backed by the dedicated ArcStone team, have been important contributors to Harbour's success to-date. Their collective wisdom, experience and strategic guidance set the stage for Harbour's rapid evolution.

ArcStone is focused on crowdfunding, following the announced acquisition of Arcview Capital, LLC. Reg D is an industry game-changer, enabling businesses to access growth capital and growth investors to navigate premium investment avenues. With its expertise and infrastructure, ArcStone is primed to maximize Reg D's potential for private companies looking to raise capital with this tool and has a network of partners to maximize the success of these projects for private companies raising capital.

The crowdfunding space has experienced remarkable growth recently. In particular, the Reg D market, providing private entities with a structured path to capital without the complexities of traditional public offerings. This approach offers businesses a broad spectrum of accredited investors, enhanced liquidity, and an accelerated path to accessing capital. Recognizing this potential, ArcStone reinforces its commitment to its crowdfunding division. Companies like BrewDog, Elio Motors, NightFood Holdings, tZERO, and Boxabl have capitalized on Reg A+ and Reg D crowdfunding platforms to raise significant capital, highlighting the potential of this platform.

For further details or engagements contact:

Michael L. Astone, CPA, CA - Chief Executive Officer Email: michael@arcstoneglobalsecurities.com

Jack J. Bensimon, LL.M. - Managing Director Email: jack@arcstoneglobalsecurities.com

About:

ArcStone Securities and Investments Corp. is a leading Delaware-based financial advisory services holding company; ArcStone is sector agnostic. Serving a broad array of issuers, ArcStone's blue-chip team has garnered its experience with top financial institutions across Canada and the US, offering sage counsel. ArcStone's services span crowdfunding, M&A advisories, and debt structuring catering to entities valued at up to US$1B. Dive deeper: www.arcstoneglobalsecurities.com.

About:

Harbour Solutions Importation Inc. stands out in the Coca Consumer Packaged Goods, and Nutraceutical sectors. With a revolutionary vision, Harbour leverages exclusive partnerships, innovative strategies, and a seasoned leadership team. Harbour's multifaceted approach positions it as an industry game-changer, poised to redefine the future. Learn more at https://www.harboursolution.com/home

Press Inquiries:

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NEWINGTON, NH / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Sponge-Jet, Inc., the global leader in dry, low dust, reusable abrasive blasting is pleased to announce Edwin Zaharias as the newly appointed President and CEO. Ed will succeed Michael Merritt and assume his duties and responsibilities immediately.

Ed Zaharias with Feed Units

Mr. Zaharias brings nearly 20 years of experience in the surface preparation industry to this position, having spent the last 15 years working as a Senior Sales Manager for Sponge-Jet. In that position, he oversaw the expansion of Sponge-Jet in the Midwest and the growth of new markets in the United States - including the development and integration of robotics and automation to the abrasive blasting process.

Under Mr. Zaharias' leadership, the company aims to accelerate its growth, expand its product and service offerings, and continue to exceed customer expectations.

New President and CEO Ed Zaharias said, "It's an honor to lead an organization so committed to worker safety, while remaining on the cutting edge of blasting technology and productivity. Not only does Sponge-Jet offer a best-in-class product, but the people behind Sponge-Jet are some of the finest in the industry."

Ted Valoria, VP of North American Sales said, "Ed has been instrumental in pioneering sponge blast methodology in the field to maximize application success and sales growth. His managerial experience and his passion to grow will further our company's endeavor to produce the most innovative products in our industry."

Mr. Zaharias' commitment to continuous innovation aligns with the core values of Sponge-Jet, making him an admirable fit for the organization. Under his guidance, we are confident in Sponge-Jet's ability to support the development of innovative, cost-effective, and low-dust surface preparation solutions while maintaining focus on worker safety and environmental protection.

About Sponge-Jet:

Headquartered in Newington, New Hampshire, USA, Sponge-Jet, Inc. is the world's leading manufacturer of dry, low dust, recyclable abrasive blasting media and related high-production equipment. The Sponge-Jet process is recognized and used in over fourteen different industries with particular usage in the oil and gas, shipbuilding, petrochemical, historic preservation, power and nuclear industries, as well as in many other industries for surface preparation and maintenance activities.

The company remains dedicated, as it has been for nearly three decades to developing and marketing innovative, cost-effective, low-dust solutions to the surface preparation, worker safety and environmental protection needs of a very wide range of commercial/industrial customers.

Contact Information:

Ben Lawlor

Marketing Manager

blawlor@spongejet.com

SOURCE: Sponge-Jet, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/789755/sponge-jet-announces-new-president-and-ceo
Agbonkhianmeghe E. ("Bator") Orobator, S.J., the new dean of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (JST-SCU), will be among the 364 voting members at the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops meeting this month in Rome.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003589463/en/

The dean of Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, A.E. Orobator, S.J., giving a homily at Santa Clara University's Mission Church. Photo by Jim Gensheimer. (Photo: Business Wire)

The gathering-known as the Synod on Synodality-brings together bishops, archbishops, cardinals, priests, religious, and over 100 lay women, men, and young people invited by Pope Francis, to consider in dialogue and shared discernment how the Holy Spirit is leading the Church to meet contemporary challenges and needs. The members will meet this month and in October 2024, after which they will provide suggestions to Pope Francis for a possible papal publication on synod findings.

"From the outset, Pope Francis has expressed his wish for the synod to be an experience of hospitality, one that would allow people who feel alienated from the church or banished to the peripheries of the church's pastoral care to rediscover a place where they can call home and feel they truly belong," said Orobator. The Synod "is a common space of listening, dialogue, and discernment. The most important protagonist in this space is the Holy Spirit, just as the most important disposition is a prayerful and respectful attentiveness to what the Spirit is saying to the church as a community of discernment."

About Dean Orobator

Fr. Orobator became dean of JST-SCU in August, after having served as president of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar. As JCAM President, he was an active participant in the African continental phase of the synodal process, and leads the African Synodality Initiative. He is known internationally for his scholarship and talks on ecclesiology-the study of the Church-as well as theological ethics, human rights, and human dignity, especially the fuller participation of women in the life of the Church.

Media wishing to interview Fr. Orobator or other experts from Santa Clara and JST should contact Deborah Lohse (dlohse@scu.edu (408-768-6898/cell) of Santa Clara University or Preston Carmack (pcarmack@scu.edu or 541-908-1696/cell) of the Jesuit School of Theology.

About the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University

The Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, located in Berkeley, California, is a preeminent international center for the culturally contextualized study of theology. Its mission is to inspire and prepare men and women to become leaders in the Church, academy, and society, serving others through a faith that does justice. Rooted in the Catholic and Ignatian tradition, JST-SCU educates and trains Jesuits, religious, ordained, and lay students from across the United States and from 40 other countries for lives dedicated to ministry and scholarship.

About Santa Clara University

Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit, Catholic University in the epicenter of Silicon Valley, infusing ethics and social consciousness into a rigorous cross-disciplinary education for its nearly 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003589463/en/

Contacts:

Deborah Lohse SCU dlohse@scu.edut 408-554-5121

Preston Carmack JST-SCU pcarmack@scu.edu 510-549-5041
Daash Intelligence, a Miami, FL-based provider of a predictive intelligence platform for retail markets, raised USD2.75M in Seed funding.

The round was led by Silicon Road Ventures and New Stack Ventures, with participation from Red Bike Capital, Willow Growth Partners and OpenSky Ventures.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to improve the accuracy of its predictive intelligence platform and scale their go-to-market efforts across multiple CPG categories.

Led by CEO Philip Smolin, Daash Intelligence has developed proprietary technology that empowers brands with insights around their market dynamics. Brands using it can identify which competitors are gaining or losing market share, understand the underlying factors driving these trends, inform their new product development, fine-tune marketing strategies, and optimize their channel sales efforts.

FinSMEs

03/10/2023
NexGami, a Vancouver, Canada-based company working in the field of gamefi, raised $2M in Seed funding at a $20m valuation.

The round saw participation from Polygon Ventures, Fundamental Labs, and Ledger Capital, alongside others.

The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts.

Led by Brice Bian, Founder and CEO, NexGami is a web3 startup with a commitment to the eSports industry. By integrating blockchain technology and decentralized finance elements, the company aims to provide gamers with new opportunities and experiences.

NexGamis platform is commitment to delivering integration solutions and enhancing the gaming experience for users within the Polygon network.

FinSMEs

03/10/2023
Unitary, a London, UK-based AI-powered visual moderation company, raised $15M in Series A funding.

The round was led by Creandum with participation from Paladin Capital Group and Plural.

The company intends to use the funds to bolster its research and development programs, scale its team, and forge deep partnerships with platforms and brand safety organisations.

Co-founded by Sasha Haco and James Thewlis, Unitary has developed a solution to help platforms navigate nuance by analysing combinations of visual, aural, and textual content. The system classifies the internets information for users, platforms and brands to enable safe, transparent, and positive online experiences by interpreting content in context. By simultaneously analysing multiple signals, its machine learning technology is capable of understanding the content of videos and images, as well as the context in which they appear. This capability will be crucial as platforms adapt to new regulations like the UKs Online Safety Bill, and the EUs Digital Services Act, which will require more proactive moderation and action against illegal content, including child sexual abuse material. The company works with some brands to help them extract meaning from media.

FinSMEs

03/10/2023
Someone, please inform Harvey Specter as Genious Boy Mike Ross has made an error. Patrick J. Adams recently dropped a string of BTS photos from the set of the hit series Suits on his official social media handle.

The post also included some rare throwback pictures of his former co-star Meghan Markle (Rachel Zane). One of the pictures showed Meghan Markle lying down on a couch. The post also included pictures of his other co-stars such as Daniel Costabile, Vanessa Ray and Trevor Lipinski.

Patrick J. Adams apologises

However, Patrick J. Adams later removed all these stills from his social media. Not only that, he even went on to explain the reason behind his decision. The actor penned a note on his Instagram stories that went, The last couple of days I foolishly and thoughtlessly let a trip down Suits memory lane distract me from the very real and ongoing fight everyone in @sagaftra continues to wage in its effort to win our membership realistic 21st Century compensation and protections. It was an embarrassing oversight for which Im incredibly sorry. So grateful to those who gently and swiftly course-corrected me here and I look forward to continuing the fight in the days and weeks ahead. #sagaftrastrong.

For those who do not know, the Hollywood actors union SAG-AFTRA went on strike over an ongoing labor dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on 14 July. Hence, the SAG-AFTRA actors are not allowed to promote their projects in any form, including the ones made in the past. Patrick J. Adams post can also be construed as a violation of the strike rules.

Meghan Markle left Suits in 2017, allegedly due to her relationship with Prince Harry.

Suits premiered in 2011 on USA and ran for nine seasons till 2019. Later on, the show streamed on Netflix. It has managed to break all the streaming records with an overwhelming performance on the OTT platform. The series revolves around a brilliant college dropout, Mike Ross, who ends up working with one of the Best New York law firms under a brilliant lawyer, Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht).

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Sharmila Tagore, one of the finest actresses of Hindi cinema, was recently in a conversation with Twinkle Khanna for Tweak India, where she spoke about her wedding with Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, how there were threats due to her decision to marry a Muslim man, and how the ceremony eventually happened.

She revealed, In my family, all of them were married to Bengalis. And in Tigers family, they were all married to people from their own community. So, Tiger and I were the only people and we just announced to our respective families that we were getting married. Then we both were working, so we didnt really know what the background angst were.

The actress added, My family had organised the wedding at Fort William because they were very worried about what might happen since there were a lot of threats. But, Fort Williams refused at the last minute because some of the baraats that were coming had some Army connection. In the end, they found some Ambassador friends big house.

Earlier this year, while speaking to India Today, Sharmila Tagore spoke about how actors did films in their careers for money, to pay rent, or even help a colleague.

When asked about the film and her character, the actress said, I am seeing it for the third time and I was still crying profusely, although I am in it. Of course working with Manoj, Suraj actually he makes me cry. I kind of vibe with this young lot. They make it so difficult for themselves. They can easily take their fathers money and get on, but they have to punish themselves. This is an assured debut film by Rahul and so well written.

She said, Well, we as professionals, sometimes we sign a film for money, just to pay the rent. Sometimes we help a colleague or somebody who thinks if Im in the project, the project will do well. So Ive made films for many reasons.

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Tahir Raj Bhasin and Anjumm Shharma are coming together for Milan Luthrias period show called Sultan of Delhi on Disney Plus Hotstar that streams on the platform from October 13. Its a show thats set against the background of gangsters, style, glamour, and perhaps subterfuge. Its based in the era of the 60s, and has all the classic one liners that one associates with the filmmakers world. For starters, its based on a book of the same name.

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, both Bhasin and Shharma spoke about their experiences of working with Milan Luthria, his brand of cinema, and their prep for the show.

Edited excerpts from the interview

How did you both prepare for your respective roles?

Tahir: I started by reading the book and got a lot of detailed information from it, I also got a basic understanding of the psyche of the character. The next thing was very closely working on the look of the character with Milan Luthria and that was a fascinating experience as he goes into so much detail. Anything that he does is always heavy on style. What was interesting during the prep was to map the journey that my character Arjun Bhatia goes through and how he changes from being a boy to a man. Very rarely you get to play a protagonist that has shades of romance, heartbreak, intense friendship, dreams, and destiny.

Anjumm: I didnt start by reading the book, my journey started a little differently. I read a couple of pages of the book but then had a detailed conversation with the director, and he asked me not to see the book as a reference. An actor is completely dependent on the script as that will eventually be the framework, so that material was enough. Everything about the show was very clear in his mind that served as the initial platform for me to essay my character.

Tahir, the characters of Milan Luthrias world are neither black nor white, they cannot be boxed into one category, and they are also known for their dialogues. How was it like stepping into his world?

It just fitted like a glove. I felt completely at home because thats the kind of cinema I have grown up watching. Arjun Bhatia as a character is someone that the viewers are going to sympathize with at different points. In Milan Luthrias world, just like life, nobody is good or bad, its a clash of processes that happens. You feel sympathy for both of them.

Force 2 was about revenge, Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhen dealt with obsession, Chhichhore and 83 highlighted hope. Is Sultan of Delhi a mix of all?

The motivations of the characters are a mix of all the shades that I have portrayed in my career, and thats what makes it more challenging. Action is something I havent done before, so to be able to stay in a certain shape for 8-10 months during the shoot, to train in weapons, to have a camaraderie with co-stars was all part of the challenge.

Also, what is your take on the OTT as a platform and the creative freedom it gives to actors and filmmakers.

Tahir: Its a tremendous platform in terms of the work it gives to the technical team. Be it cinema or OTT, the crew is the same, be it set designers or spot boys, its generating income in the industry. Its also incredible storytelling. There are stories that can be told in 2 hours and then there are stories that deserve a longer format, and Sultan of Delhi is one such story.

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Ahead of the upcoming General Election in 2024, the Bihar government issued its caste census results on Monday, noting that no analysis of it has yet been done.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hailed the survey team, while Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav referred to the event as a historic moment.

The surveys findings have also inspired the opposition parties in major states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh to call for similar initiatives in their states.

Here is everything we know about the report and the states who are demanding it.

Bihars caste survey report

According to the Bihar Jaati Adharit Ganana (Bihar caste-based survey), which only provided information on the states caste distribution, the Other Backward Class (OBC) population in the state makes up 27.1286 per cent of the total, while the Extremely Backward Class (EBC) makes up 36.0148 per cent, according to India Today.

In Bihar, there are 19.6518 per cent of Scheduled Caste people, compared to 1.6824 per cent of Scheduled Tribe people and 15.52 per cent of General Caste people.

The survey also showed that Muslims make up 17.7088 per cent of the population, while Hindus make up 81.9986 per cent.

The entire population of the state is said to be 13 crore, according to the survey report. The Yadava caste makes up 14.26 per cent of the Other Backward Class category, followed by the Kushwaha and Kurmi castes at 4.27 and 2.87 per cent, respectively.

The caste survey included caste among its 17 socioeconomic categories. A total of 2.64 lakh enumerators recorded the information of 29 million registered households during the three-phased activity, which was finished in August of this year. Different individual codes were given to the 214 castes reported in the census.

Taking to X (previously Twitter), CM Kumar congratulated the survey team and wrote, Today on the auspicious occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, the data of the caste based census conducted in Bihar has been published. Many congratulations to the entire team engaged in the work of caste based enumeration. The proposal for the caste based survey was passed unanimously in the State legislature. All nine political parties of the State assembly will now be called for a meeting to apprise them about the caste based survey report.

While Deputy CM Yadav said, Bihar once again became witness of a historic moment with the compilation of caste based survey data and its release thereafter in such a short time. Bihar has now drawn a long line and set an example before the country. What has happened in Bihar today, shall have its voice heard tomorrow across the whole country. And tomorrow is not far ahead. Bihar once again has shown light to the country.

Rekindled calls for caste survey

The results of the Bihar caste survey have re-ignited calls for a national caste census.

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav, took aim at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh and wrote on X, Bihars caste census report is published: This is the mathematical basis for social justice. The caste census will not put 85 per cent (others) against 15 per cent (upper caste Hindus), but will open pathways for cooperation (between them)The BJP government should stop politicking and get a nationwide caste census done.

     :          85-15                      ,                 Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) October 2, 2023

In Madhya Pradesh, state Congress chief Kamal Nath promised that if they won the next assembly elections, his party would conduct a caste survey. When we come to power, we will conduct a caste census in the state to ensure the development of the deprived people, he said, according to Hindustan Times.

According to the report, Congress leader and CM of Rajasthan, a state headed for elections, Ashok Gehlot has also backed a caste survey and stated that he favours giving OBCs more representation in the workforce and in educational institutions, in line with their numbers.

As per news agency PTI, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Jitendra Awhad has also hailed the caste survey and demanded that a similar exercise be carried out in all states of the country, including Maharashtra, alleging that the rights of the OBCs were being snatched away.

The member of the Maharashtra legislative assembly representing the Mumbra-Kalwa constituency in Thane district made this demand in a video message posted on social media platform X on Monday night.

Bihar has taken a brave step forward. It took a decision to conduct a caste-based census. And what truth came out of it (caste-based census)? It revealed that the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) comprise 61 per cent of the population. The Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs together form 85 per cent of its population, he said, adding, And the truth that came out in Bihar is the truth of the entire India. And therefore we demandwe have always demanded that at least bring out the exact caste-wise population figures. Today, everything is being snatched away from the OBCs.

India Today reported that the leader of the Opposition, Vijay Wadettiwar, on Monday also urged the Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti administration to share a time-bound plan for carrying out a thorough caste-wise census, drawing inspiration from the Bihar census. He stressed the significance of a caste-based census, especially in addressing the ongoing reservation issues faced by different communities in the state. This effort, he insisted, is essential to successfully addressing these problems.

Recently, there have been several calls for Maharashtra to conduct a caste-based census, similar to the method used in Bihar. According to state Deputy CM Devendra Fadanvis, they are keenly monitoring the Bihar censuss progress and plan to examine its strategy before moving forward with their own.

PM Modi hits out at Bihar government

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the opposition, notably the grand old party Congress, of playing with the feelings of the poor and dividing people in the name of caste. He was speaking at a rally in the crucial state of Madhya Pradesh, which is preparing for elections.

Even then they used to play with the feelings of the poor and they are doing it even now. Even then they used to divide the country on the basis of caste and even now they are doing the same, he said, according to The Times of India.

This comes at a time when the Congress has clearly said that it will make the national caste census a campaign topic in the next assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

According to Jagran, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi vowed to conduct a caste census if his party is elected to power on Monday while speaking to a crowd in Chhattisgarh. He emphasised that such an initiative is necessary for the involvement of marginalised groups, including OBCs, Dalits, tribals, and women.

He also questioned why the prime minister was afraid of such an undertaking and questioned why the BJP-led government had not made public the details of the caste census that was previously carried out while the Congress was in power.

The growing support for the survey

According to Hindustan Times, the Samajwadi Party wanted a caste survey in early 2022 after losing another state election to the BJP. The Congress itself had addressed the issue in its Udaipur declaration from May 2022.

The Indian National Congress resolves to begin a decisive struggle for the demand to make the caste census data public and get the backward classes their rights, part of that resolution said, as per the report.

However, the survey was only possible at the beginning of this year after Nitish Kumar jumped ship and began forming an anti-BJP agenda. HT states the Congress also mentioned the caste census matter again in its Raipur resolution in February.

The report cited the resolution as stating, The BJP has consistently refused to conduct the caste census which would be crucial to revising the benchmark for socio-economic and educational backwardness. Indian National Congress commits to conduct a Socio-Economic Caste Census along with the decennial census.

Notably, pushing for a nationwide caste census has two benefits, according to leaders of the INDIA alliance: 1. It gives the opposition party a fresh angle to argue from, and 2. It may be a method to divide the OBC support, a significant portion of which had consolidated behind the BJP in prior elections.

I think everyone in INDIA alliance is on board with our demand, the report quoted INDIAs coordination committee member and senior Janata Dal United (JDU) national president Lallan Singh as saying.

He added, Rahul Gandhi has been raising it since Karnataka election. Whenever we raised it and took it to the central government, they have opposed it. Its obvious why they are doing so its because if this happens nationally, their communal agenda will fail.

With inputs from agencies
Hundreds of Amazonian River dolphins are in danger, raising concerns about global warming and the hazards it poses to species in sensitive locations.

The carcasses of 120 river dolphins have been found floating in a tributary of the Amazon River over the past week in circumstances that experts suspect were caused by severe drought and heat.

Low river levels during a severe drought have heated water in stretches to temperatures that are intolerable for the dolphins, researchers believe. Thousands of fish have died recently on Amazon rivers due to a lack of oxygen in the water.

The Amazon River dolphins, many of a striking pink colour, are a unique freshwater species found only in the rivers of South America and are one of a handful of freshwater dolphin species left in the world. Slow reproductive cycles make their populations especially vulnerable to threats.

Amid the stench of decomposing dolphins, biologists and other experts in white personal protective clothing and masks continued on Monday to recover the dead mammals from a lake and conduct autopsies on the carcasses to determine the cause of death.

The scientists do not know with certainty that drought and heat are to blame for the spike in dolphin mortality. They are working to rule out other causes, such as a bacterial infection that could have killed the dolphins on a lake formed by the River Tefe before it runs into the Amazon.

Climate change and El Nino at play

According to Ayan Fleischmann, a geoscience researcher at the Mamiraua Institute, many potential causes are being studied, including sickness and sewage contamination. However, he stated that water depth and temperature were certainly a main component of the mass fatality.

He told The Guardian: Last night at 6 pm, we measured more than 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in Lake Tefe. This is quite hot.

At least 70 of the carcasses surfaced on Thursday when the temperature of Lake Tefes water reached 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit), more than 10 degrees higher than the average for this time of the year.

The water temperature declined for a few days but rose again on Sunday to 37 C (99 F), worried experts said.

Over the last two weeks, the Amazon, the worlds largest river, has dropped by 30 cm every day. The average depth in Manaus at this time of year is 4.4 metres (14 feet) lower than it was during the rainy season. It has already dried up by 7.4 metres this year, as per a report in The Guardian.

Environmental activists have blamed the unusual conditions on climate change, which makes droughts and heat waves more likely and severe. Global warmings role in the current Amazon drought is unclear, with other factors such as El Nino at play.

Survival of the species is in danger

We have documented 120 carcasses in the last week, said Miriam Marmontel, a researcher at the Mamiraua environmental institute that focuses on the mid-Solimoes river basin.

Roughly eight of every 10 carcasses are pink dolphins, called botos in Brazil, which could represent 10 per cent of their estimated population in Lake Tefe, she said.

The boto and the grey river dolphin called the tucuxi are on the International Union for Conservation of Natures red list of threatened species

Ten per cent is a very high percentage of loss, and the possibility that it will increase could threaten the survival of the species in Lake Tefe, Marmontel said.

Brazils Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation has rushed veterinarians and aquatic mammal experts to rescue dolphins that are still alive in the lake. They cannot be moved to cooler river waters until researchers rule out a bacteriological cause of the deaths.

Impact on the population living in the area

Daniel Tregidgo, a British researcher living in the area, warned of societal ramifications because practically all food and fuel supplies are delivered by boat from Manaus, which is 550km (341 miles) distant, down the river Solimes. That river is now impassable, raising prices and causing food insecurity.

The drought has also had an impact on fishing, which is a source of income for many riverbank towns. According to Brazilian authorities, the drought might affect 500,000 people by the end of the year. Many residents and indigenous are already battling to obtain basic necessities like food and water.

Authorities anticipate even more severe droughts in the coming weeks, which could result in more dolphin deaths, reports CNN.

Residents of this little village in the state of Amazonas described the scene as nightmarish. The past month in Tefe has seemed like a science-fiction climate-change scenario, said Tregidgo. Regular sightings of pink river dolphins are one of the great privileges of living in the heart of the Amazon. Pretty much every time I go to the market to have breakfast I see them come to the surface and it reminds me why I live here.

To know that one has died is sad, but to see piles of carcasses, knowing that this drought has killed over 100, is a tragedy, he told The Guardian.

With inputs from Reuters
Police in Pakistan have busted an organ trafficking ring that removed kidneys from hundreds of patients, according to several media reports.

The scheme was run by a doctor  who had already been repeatedly arrested for malpractice  who used a mechanic as an assistant during the surgeries.

But what happened exactly? And how did police bust the ring?

Lets take a closer look:

What happened?

The alleged mastermind of the scheme is doctor Fawad Mukhtar.

Mukhtar is accused of conducting at least 328 illegal kidney transplants  at private homes and at times without his victims knowledge  and selling them to wealthy persons for up to Rs 28 lakh.

As per BBC, Mukhtar had been arrested for malpractice five times previously.

However, Mukthar was released on bail in those cases.

As per CNN, the case came to light after a complaint from an unnamed individual.

This individual told the police he underwent an operation after being persuaded by one of the alleged gang members.

Afterwards, when he saw another doctor, he was told one of his kidneys is missing.

The arrested eight-man gang was said to be operating across the eastern Punjab province, Lahore as well as in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Mohsin Naqvi, the chief minister of Punjab province, was quoted by CNN as saying, They were able to do this in Kashmir because there is no law regarding kidney transplant, so it was easier for them to carry out the operations there.

According to a police probe, the vulnerable patients were lured from hospitals.

At least three people died during the operations.

As per CNN, a mechanic whose identity has not been verified assisted Mukhtar during the surgeries.

Mukhtar employed the mechanic as a surgical assistant and anaesthetist.

The facts and figures that have come to us make the heart tremble, Naqvi said at a press conference on Sunday night.

There are a lot more transplants and illegal surgeries than this. These are the ones that we have confirmed.

Pakistan and illegal rgan trade

Pakistan outlawed the commercial trade of human organs in 2010, imposing a decade-long jail term and steep fines in hopes of curbing sales to overseas clients by exploitative middlemen.

As per CNN, the law mandated a punishment of up to 10 years in prison and Rs 2.8 lakh fine for those found guilty of harvesting and trafficking organs.

Prior to that, hundreds of rich foreigners would come to Pakistan every year and buy kidneys from live, impoverished donors.

Kidney failure is increasingly common in rich countries, often because of obesity or hypertension, but a growing shortage of transplant organs has fuelled a black market that exploits needy donors and risks undermining voluntary donation schemes.

However, in recent years, a struggling economy in Pakistan and lax enforcement of the law has seen organ trafficking making a comeback.

In January, Punjab police busted another organ trafficking ring when a missing 14-year-old boy was found in an underground lab after having his kidney removed.

That ring was responsible for luring young, vulnerable victims with promises of lucrative jobs and large payouts before removing their organs  mainly kidneys to sell for up to Rs 3 lakh.

It was only after we followed the evidence and leads that we discovered that there was an organ trafficking operation behind the boys disappearance, Rehan Anjum, a spokesman for Punjab police, told AFP on in January.

Six people were arrested in that case.

The boy told us that when he woke up there was an Arab man on the stretcher next to him, so we think that most of the clients were foreigners, Anjum said.

The gangs victims were taken to a medical testing lab used for clandestine organ transplant surgeries in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad.

Facilities for such clandestine surgeries in Pakistan often lack proper medical equipment and standards, and patients are known to die from complications as result.

Im just grateful that the police found him alive, otherwise they had left him for dead, the boys father told AFP in Lahore, from where the boy went missing.

Police said the doctors and surgeons involved in the operation had not been tracked down.

With inputs from agencies
Karnataka is making every effort to close the loophole for illegal transportation practices.

To do this, the transport department reportedly declared a ban on carpooling in Bengaluru on Saturday.

This sparked massive outrage among residents of Bengaluru, who constantly suffer due to overwhelming traffic in Silicon Valley.

The reports were, however, rejected on Monday by Karnataka transport minister Ramalinga Reddy, who labelled them as false news.

Heres what exactly happened.

Also read: Bengaluru Bandh: Why city will see over 7 lakh vehicles remain off the road today

The so-called ban

Carpooling is prohibited in Bengaluru, and offenders risk fines of up to Rs 10,000, according to media reports.

Through carpooling, multiple people can travel together in one vehicle, saving others from having to go by themselves. It was seen as an effective move to lower the number of vehicles on Bengalurus roads. Of all the main cities in the nation, the IT city has the highest level of traffic.

Several reports suggest the department made the decision after receiving numerous complaints from the cabs association. Officials from the department were quoted by India Today as saying that unregistered cars cannot be utilised as taxis.

According to a Times of India report citing officials, people who engage in carpooling via mobile applications run the risk of facing penalties ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 as well as repercussions that might include the suspension of the vehicles registration certificate (RC) for six months.

Carpooling apps are violating rules by aggregating private cars that cannot be used for commercial purposes. We have been receiving complaints from unions of taxi drivers. RTOs have been directed to act against these illegal operations, said the official.

Also read: Bengaluru bandh over Cauvery water-sharing: Why Karnataka, Tamil Nadu are fighting again

The complaints from transport associations

The restriction on carpooling was one of the demands made by the private transport associations in Bengaluru during their strike on 11 September. This came after carpooling initiatives were being promoted by the traffic police in Bengaluru to ease traffic in the area.

A video had taken over the internet showing cab drivers union members harassing Quick Ride riders at Nagawaras Manyata Tech Park in Bengaluru and decrying carpooling as illegal.

According to Clause 15 of the Motor Vehicle Aggregators Guidelines 2020 issued by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, In furtherance of the Central and state governments objectives to reduce traffic congestion and automobile pollution, and to effectively utilize assets, non-transport vehicle pooling may be provided by aggregators unless prohibited by the state government. The rationale for such prohibition shall be specified in writing and made accessible on the transport portal of the state government.

Carpooling services in white-board cars are illegal, according to K Radhakrishna Holla, president of the Karnataka State Travel Owners Association, who spoke to Moneycontrol. He said a public service vehicle badge and the renewal of fitness certificates every two years are two requirements for yellow-board cars.

In addition to this, there are high insurance costs, permit fees, and reduced resale value for yellow-board vehicles. If the government allows white-board vehicles for commercial purposes, taxi drivers should also be permitted to use them.

Also read: Traffic Woes: How Bengalurus vehicular congestion has led to a loss of nearly Rs 20,000 crore

The social media outrage

People have expressed concerns about rising traffic congestion on social media in talks regarding Bengalurus ban on carpool services.

Former Bengaluru city police commissioner Bhaskar Rao wrote about the problem on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday.

He said, Who are these unwise mandarins advising the Government to ban carpooling and making it illegal. Universally, Carpooling is acknowledged as promoting fuel saving, friendliness, prevention of pollution etc. The Transport Department has enough offences to take action. People are universally smarter than the Government.. May wisdom prevail.

Who are these unwise mandarins advising Government to ban carpooling and making it illegal. Universally, Carpooling is acknowledged as promoting fuel saving, friendliness, prevention of pollution etc. Transport Department have enough offences to take action. People are pic.twitter.com/J5V4LJvm6M  Bhaskar Rao (@Nimmabhaskar22) October 2, 2023

On 2 October, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah received an open letter from BJP leader and Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya demanding the state government permit carpooling to relieve traffic in Bengaluru, according to Hindustan Times.

Surya wrote, Ride-sharing and carpooling are seen as immediate and suitable remedies to ease the mobility crisis, especially for IT employees traveling to the same IT Park or area and returning home to the same locality after work. Ride-hailing apps like BlaBla Car, Quickride, Zoom, Rideshare, and others have been offering carpooling services where 3-4 persons share rides to the same workplace, area, or IT park.

He emphasised the need for an update to the Motor Vehicles Act, describing the current one as outdated and prohibiting the use of light vehicles for commercial commutes.

While it is the Government of Karnatakas contention that private vehicles cannot be used for commercial purposes, it must also be remembered that the law needs to be amended as per the changing times. As far as carriage of persons in private or contract vehicles is concerned, the Karnataka Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, are outdated and are insufficient to meet the needs of the present day, he added.

According to Moneycontrol, Tanveer Pasha, head of the Ola Uber Drivers and Owners Association, opposed Suryas letter and claimed that private users who participate in carpooling are impacting the livelihoods of drivers who are experiencing a decline in earnings following COVID-19.

Also read: Why is everyone talking about Bengalurus traffic jam? What went wrong?

The government clarification

Transport minister Raamlinga Reddy refuted claims that the government had imposed a ban on Monday.

Speaking to Moneycontrol, Reddy said, We havent banned carpooling in Bengaluru. For the past few days, there has been a buzz on social media claiming it has been banned. No official order or notification was issued. Im meeting carpooling aggregators on 3 October.

How can we ban them when they are neither legal nor have applied for permission? he asked, highlighting the fact that none of the carpooling apps had received government approval.

The government believes that carpooling is an effective way to reduce congestion. For instance, friends, neighbours, or colleagues can carpool, but they are not allowed to do so through an app for commercial purposes. If they intend to use it for profit, they should apply for a licence and operate with yellow-board vehicles. he added.

Taking to the microblogging site, Reddy also said, Carpooling is not banned, it is false news. First, let them take permission. When they have not taken the permission where is the question of banning? Everyone should follow the rules and regulations. It is illegal to use non-commercial private vehicles with white number plates for carpooling purposes. Commercial Vehicles with yellow number plates, can be used for carpooling by following appropriate guidelines.

Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy tweets, Carpooling is not banned, it is false news. First, let them take permission. When they have not taken the permission where is the question of banning? Everyone should follow the rules and regulations. It is illegal to use pic.twitter.com/Sq8On8EYYt  ANI (@ANI) October 2, 2023

The founder and CEO of the car-pooling service Quick Ride, KNM Rao, told Moneycontrol that they havent received any notice from the transportation ministry and that they will meet with the minister on 3 October.

According to a senior transport department official, misleading information has been spreading for a few days.

He said, White-board vehicles are only for private use according to the Motor Vehicle rules. In fact, food or e-commerce delivery workers are not supposed to use white-board two-wheeler for commercial purposes as per rules. Many aggregators are operating bike-taxi services with white-board two-wheelers, which is also illegal. People are allowed to carpool with friends, colleagues, or others by creating a WhatsApp group, and there is no illegality in that.

With inputs from agencies
Yevgeny Prigozhins son Pavel is seemingly poised to take over the Wagner Group, according to several media reports.

Prigozhin, who led a brief armed rebellion against the Russian military earlier this year, died in a plane crash north of Moscow in August which killed all 10 people on board.

But what do we know about Pavel?

Lets take a closer look:

Pavel is 25 years old.

As per The Independent, as per a photograph purportedly of Prigozhins will, Pavel is seemingly set to inherit most of his fathers fortune including the Wagner Group, properties, and $120 million.

The will was initially shared on Telegram and came to light on social media.

As per The Times, the will dated 2 March lists Pavel as Prigozhins beneficiary.

All my property as well as property that may be acquired by me in the future I bequeath to Pavel Evgenyevich Prigozhin, the document states, according to the newspaper.

As per The Independent, Prigozhin left Pavel a home in St Petersburg, nine joint stock companies, shares in Concord as well as his catering business.

Prigozhin was famously known as Putins chef.

The newspaper quoted corporate filings as saying that Pavel controls a business called Lakhta Plaza.

This firm was sanctioned by the US in March 2022.

It also has the same auditor and telephone number of other Russian businesses thought to be fronts for the Wagner Group.

Pavel, his mother Lyubov and elder sister Polina, already play various roles in Prigozhins business enterprises, as per Financial Times.

These organisations prosper from Pavels favoured status within Russias elite.

This will only adds to Pavels already considerable fortune.

As per The Independent, Pavel already owns several businesses and luxury real estate complexes in St Petersburg.

Pavel has been sanctioned by numerous nations including Canada, the US and the UK.

What happens to Wagner Group?

As per the Institute of Study for War, Pavel is thought to be in negotiations with Rosgvardia  the Russian national guard  with regard to the mercenary group possibly rejoining the war with Ukraine.

A Wagner-affiliated source told the US think-tank that Wagner mercenaries would not need to sign contracts with Russias defence ministry under the terms of a possible agreement.

The group would also keep its name, symbols, ideology, commanders, management, and existing standard operating principles.

An insider source claimed Pavel is not acting of his own accord, but is under the way of Mikhail Vatanin  the head of Wagners Security Service.

The ISW also mentioned that some Wagner personnel are interested in rallying around a Prigozhin-linked alternative to the Kremlin- and MoD-aligned Troshev.

A Russian military blogger in September claimed Rosgvardia chief Viktor Zolotov met Pavel and Wagner commander Anton Yelizarov to discuss the preservation of the group.

A different source told ISW that the Rosgvardia chief is considering letting Wagner forces join as a separate unit  however there is as yet no clarity on how this would work.

Pavel and his grandmother Violetta on Sunday laid flowers at Prigozhins St Petersburg grave, as per The Independent.

Russian authorities in August confirmed Prigozhins death via genetic testing.

The crashs timing raised suspicions of a possible Kremlin-orchestrated hit, while Prigozhins chameleon-like background allowed for speculation that he wasnt on the plane or had somehow escaped death.

Two months ago, Prigozhin, 62, mounted a daylong mutiny against Russias military, leading his mercenaries from Ukraine toward Moscow. Russian president Vladimir Putin decried the act as treason and vowed punishment for those involved.

Instead, the Kremlin quickly cut a deal with Prigozhin to end the armed revolt, saying he would be allowed to walk free without facing any charges and to resettle in Belarus. Questions remained about whether the former ally of Russias leader would face a comeuppance for the brief uprising that posed the biggest challenge to Putins authority of his 23-year rule.

A preliminary US intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane to go down. As suspicions grew that the Russian president was the architect of an assassination, the Kremlin rejected them as a complete lie.

One of the Western officials who described the initial assessment said it determined that Prigozhin was very likely targeted and that an explosion would be in line with Putins long history of trying to silence his critics.

Prigozhins second-in-command, Dmitry Utkin, as well as Wagner logistics mastermind Valery Chekalov, also were killed in the crash. Utkin was long believed to have founded Wagner and baptized the group with his nom de guerre.

The fate of Wagner, which until recently played a prominent role in Russias military campaign in Ukraine and was involved in a number of African and Middle Eastern countries, remains uncertain.

With inputs from agencies
Its an indescribable tragedy  24 patients, including 12 infants, died in 24 hours between 30 September and 1 October at the government-run Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical in Maharashtras Nanded.

A day later, more deaths have been recorded from the medical facility, taking the toll to 31, including four more children.

The incident, has prompted the Eknath Shinde-led government to call for a probe, while the Opposition has trained their guns on him and his administration, terming it as murder.

But what went wrong? Was it a case of negligence that led to the deaths of the 24 patients? We break it down for you and get you the answers.

Hospital speaks

The deaths of the now-revised toll of 31 patients that include 16 infants and children  is notably higher than the average daily deaths, approximately 10.

Among the 12 adults who died there were four cases of heart disease, one case of poisoning, one case of gastric disease, two cases of kidney disease, one case of obstetric complications and three cases of accidents. Among the child patients, four were in a terminal stage and were referred from private hospitals.

The hospital located in the Maharashtra district of Nanded has pegged the deaths to a number of reasons.

After the incident came to light, acting dean Dr Shyamrao Wakode from the hospital said: Around 12 children died in the last 24 hours 12 adults also died due to various ailments. We were facing some difficulties due to transfers of staff; we were also supposed to buy medicines from the Haffkine Institute, which did not get done. However, we did procure the medicines locally and gave it to the patients.

He added that many of the 12 adult patients were in a precarious condition when they were admitted. They were from the remote areas of the district and came here in a serious condition.

He further explained that the hospital is a tertiary-level institute and the only place in 70-80 km that can provide medical aid. Patients come to us from far-off places. On some days, the number of patients increase and it creates a problem for the budget.

Santosh Pandagale, a member of the governing council of the medical college and hospital, told Hindustan Times that the centre was facing problems of shortage of medicine and lack of equipment. This hospital has a capacity of 500 beds but has 1,200 patients, he was quoted as saying, adding, Many machines like the CT scanner are not working because there are no funds for annual maintenance contracts. Several nurses and doctors have been transferred from here but those posts are still vacant. There is a shortage of medicines too. We have raised these issues with the authorities but to no avail.

However, when confronted with the issue of the shortage of medicines, the hospital said in a statement: Essential medicines are available in the hospital. The hospital has Rs 12 crore in funds. For this financial year, Rs 4 crore has been approved. Other patients are being treated as necessary.

The Maharashtra government, led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, has ordered for a thorough probe in the deaths of the 24, calling the fatalities unfortunate.

Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif on Monday night informed the public that an inquiry committee will be appointed for detailed inquiry in the Nanded incident. He added that he would visit the hospital today (3 October) and senior officials have already been instructed to conduct a thorough inquiry.

This is murder

However, the Opposition has trained its guns on the government, calling the incident a murder and a case of negligence.

Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena (UBT) lambasting the state administration said, This is shameful, please dont call them deaths, this is murder due to absolute negligence on the part of the unconstitutional state government. They are so busy planning influencer events or foreign trips that they have forgotten their basic job is to serve the state.

This is shameful, please dont call them deaths, this is murder due to absolute negligence on the part of the unconstitutional state government. They are so busy planning influencer events or foreign trips that they have forgotten their basic job is to serve the state. pic.twitter.com/zScvcjw0D4  Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) October 2, 2023

Congress Ashok Chavan, also a former chief minister of the state, also highlighted the poor condition of the hospital. Incidentally, the hospital is named after his father and former CM, late Shankarrao Chavan.

He stated that immediate action needed to be taken to save the lives of 70 patients who are critical there. The hospital is grappling with insufficient medical resources and staff shortages. Numerous nurses have been transferred without adequate replacements, and several vital machines are non-operational, he was quoted as saying.

 .                  .    . ,       ,        pic.twitter.com/8xet5PAyIH  Ashok Chavan (@AshokChavanINC) October 2, 2023

According to an Indian Express report, Chavan also said that the contractor hired to maintain the CT-scanning machine and other equipment had stopped the services because payment as per the agreement had not been made.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule also questioned the administration over the deaths. This triple engine sarkar is responsible for the death of all 24 innocent lives... I strongly condemn this.

Taking to social media platform X, she wrote: Allegations suggest that due to a shortage of medicines in the hospital, patients did not receive timely treatment. Does this imply that the value of lives in Maharashtra has depreciated? This scenario reflects a case of negligence and delay, demanding stringent action.

NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar also chimed in, asserting that such an incident highlights the failure of government systems. On X, he said, The unfortunate incident of death of 24 people including 12 newborns in 24 hours in a government hospital in Nanded is literally shocking.

Just two months ago, there was an unfortunate incident where 18 people died in a single night in Kalwa Hospital of Thane Municipal Corporation. However, due to not taking this incident seriously, such a very serious incident was repeated in the government hospital in Nanded. This shows the failure of government systems.

Recalling the Kalwa incident

The Nanded incident is not a stray one. In August, a similar tragedy unfolded at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa, Thane wherein a total of 18 patients lost their lives in 24 hours. Of the 18, 10 were women.

The patients were all suffering from an array of ailments, including complications from kidney stones, chronic paralysis, ulcers, pneumonia, kerosene poisoning, and septicemia.

At that time too, the Opposition had questioned the hospitals functioning and equipment provided to the institute.

Maharashtras health minister Tanaji Sawant at the time had ordered for a probe and said that the administration would take stringent action against the culprits. He had further added that for the government, the life of every citizen was important, irrespective of the region and city they belonged to.

With inputs from agencies
The Delhi Police raids today (3 October) at over 30 places linked to the news portal NewsClick and its employees have created a political controversy, with the INDIA bloc slamming the Centre over the move. The police conducted searches at more than 35 locations, including houses of journalists associated with NewsClick.

As per multiple reports, a case was filed by the Delhi Police against the news portal under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA on 17 August after a New York Times investigation alleged that NewsClick was among organisations that received funds from American millionaire Neville Roy Singham to push Chinese propaganda.

The Delhi Police have reportedly sealed the office of NewsClick.

Who was raided? What have the police recovered? Lets take a closer look.

Journalists, activists and more

The houses of present and former NewsClick journalists, contributors and employees seem to have been raided so far.

The Delhi Police reportedly conducted searches at the residences of NewsClick Editor Prabir Purkayastha, video journalist Abhisar Sharma, political commentator and senior journalist Aunindyo Chakravarty, journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Bhasha Singh, and Urmilesh.

Purkayastha, the founder and editor-in-chief of NewsClick, is also a founding member of the Delhi Science Forum, a non-profit organisation.

As per BBC, journalist Bhasha Singh has reported extensively on manual scavenging and farmers suicides in northern India.

Journalist Abhisar Sharma has previously worked for BBC Hindi and NDTV. He took to X earlier in the day and wrote, Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and Phone.

Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and Phone  Abhisar Sharma (@abhisar_sharma) October 3, 2023

Known for his political satires, Sanjay Rajoura is a stand-up comedian and a member of the trio Aisi Taisi Democracy.

Historian Sohail Hashmi has been organising talks and heritage walks on Delhis history for more than a decade. Speaking to The Quint, Hashmis daughter, Sarah, said that six officials barged into their Delhi residence at 6 am and carried out a search for over 1.5 hours.

Initially, they barged into our house without showing us the search warrant. They only said that they want to investigate all those linked to the NewsClick investigation. Upon asking them again, we were handed over the warrant which my father (Sohail Hashmi) read. He was questioned by the officials and was asked what he does, and who he is associated with. They have seized his laptop, phone, hard disk and pen drives, she was quoted as saying.

VIDEO | Some journalists associated with news portal NewsClick brought at Delhi Police Special Cell office at Lodhi Road. Officials in the know said police have recovered the dump data from laptops and mobile phones of the journalists of the news portal, which is accused of pic.twitter.com/TAinQ2E9gi  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 3, 2023

Several journalists, including Chakravarty, Urmilesh, Thakurta, Sharma, Purkayastha, and Satyam Tiwari, were taken to Delhi Polices special cell headquarters for questioning, as per The Wire report.

A Delhi Police source told NDTV that NewsClick founder Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty, the HR head of the news portal, have been arrested.

A raid was also carried out at Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechurys residence. As per NDTV, the son of the politicians staff member who works for NewsClick was questioned and his phone and laptop were seized.

In Mumbai, the police raided the house of activist Teesta Setalvad, who according to The Wire, is the director of think tank Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, which has contributed articles to NewsClick.

Inside Delhi Polices raids

The Delhi police seized electronic devices like mobile phones and laptops during the raids. They have also taken data dumps from the hard disks of the NewsClick employees who were raided.

According to PTI, police sources said the action was taken based on a case registered under UAPA and other sections of IPC, including Section 153A (promoting enmity between two groups), 120B (criminal conspiracy).

According to an NDTV report, the Delhi Polices Special Cell had about 25 questions, including on farmers protests against the Centres now-repealed three farm laws and Shaheeh Bagh protests in Delhi against the citizenship law, for those targeted in the raids.

The journalists were also questioned about their travel to northeastern states and their stories from the region, the report added.

A NewsClick journalist told The Quint that she was questioned about her work on the farmers protest, Delhi riots, and the COVID-19 pandemic, along with her intention while covering these stories. They also asked me if I got paid extra to cover the issues.

ALSO READ: What is the China funding row, linked to the NewsClick raids?

How the raids came to be

According to Delhi Police sources, a meeting of senior officers of the Special Cell was held at 2 am on the intervening night of 2-3 October during which a list of all people whose homes would be raided was prepared, reported NDTV. They were divided into 3 (A, B, C) categories on the basis of the action that would be taken against them.

Over 500 police personnel were part of the raids at more than 100 locations spanning Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Mumbai, NDTV reported.

Reactions to the raids

Press organisations have expressed concerns over the raids against NewsClick.

The Editors Guild of India said in a statement, EGI is deeply concerned about the raids at the residences of senior journalists on the morning of 3 October, and the subsequent detention of many of those journalists. Urges the state to follow due process, and not to make draconian criminal laws as tools for press intimidation.

Using the hashtag #DefendMediaFreedom, The Press Club of India said in its remarks, The Press Club Of India is deeply concerned about the multiple raids conducted on the houses of journalists and writers associated with NewsClick. We are monitoring the developments and will be releasing a detailed statement.

The INDIA bloc has slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government over the fresh attack on the media.

INDIA bloc releases statement criticising the raids on #NewsClick. Says that the BJP government has deliberately persecuted and suppressed the media by deploying investigative agencies to suppress news platforms. pic.twitter.com/ehe0ktIoCu  Fatima Khan (@khanthefatima) October 3, 2023



In the last nine years, the BJP government has deliberately persecuted and suppressed the media by deploying investigative agencies to suppress the British Broadcasting Corporation, Newslaundry, Dainik Bhaskar, Bharat Samachar, The Kashmir Walla, The Wire etc., and most recently the journalists of NewsClick, The Quint cited the INDIA groupings statement as saying.

The Opposition bloc alleged that the Central governments coercive actions are invariably directed against only those media organisations and journalists that speak truth to power.

Congress leader Pawan Khera called the NewsClick raids a fresh distraction from the explosive results of the Bihar caste survey.

Hitting out at the Centre, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said the Centre is scared of journalists.

Meanwhile, Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur said that investigation agencies were only doing their job. The probe agencies are independent and they are doing their jobs by following rules. I dont need to justify the raids. If someone has done something wrong, the probe agencies do their job. Its nowhere written that probe agencies cant take action if money has come to you from wrong sources or something objectionable has been done, he reportedly told reporters in Odishas Bhubaneswar.

With inputs from agencies
Tuesday morning came as a rude shock to several journalists and news portal NewsClick as the Delhi Police raided the residences of a few scribes as well as the premises of the office.

Abhisar Sharma, linked to NewsClick, confirming the Delhi Polices raids said on X, Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone. Another NewsClick journalist, Bhasha Singh, confirmed the same, writing on the social media platform  Finally last tweet from this phone. Delhi police seizure my phone.

According to The Wire, raids have also been carried out at residences of Newsclick editor Prabir Purkayastha, writer Githa Hariharan, journalist Aunindyo Chakravarty, activist and historian Sohail Hashmi, and satirist and stand-up comic Sanjay Rajaura.

A friend of Sanjay Rajaura was quoted as telling the Scroll that authorities arrived at the satirists home around 6.30 am. They barged in like goons and confiscated Sanjays phone, laptop and some CDs, he said. They did not provide us with any warrant or FIR copy. They only said that they want to investigate all those linked to the Newsclick investigation.

A PTI news report stated that some journalists linked to the portal, including Urmilesh and Abhishar Sharma, have also been brought to the Lodhi Road Special Cell office, but no one has been arrested so far.

The Delhi Polices special cell action against the journalists and the website is in connection with a case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), filed on 17 August. The case was registered under sections of UAPA, 153A of IPC (promoting enmity between two groups), and 120B of IPC (criminal conspiracy).

This case, according to reports, has its roots in an August report by the New York Times, which alleged that NewsClick had received funds from China to create an anti-India atmosphere.

The raids have evoked strong reactions from the Press Club of India, saying it was deeply concerned about the multiple raids conducted on the houses of journalists and writers associated with #Newsclick.

As the raids make headlines  one of the officials said that a detailed briefing would take place later  we give you a clear picture of what exactly is the NewsClick case and what had the New York Times reported.

The NewsClickChina row

On 5 August, the New York Times had published a report  A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a US Tech Mogul  in which it revealed that tech mogul Neville Roy Singham, who finances NewsClick, helped push Chinese propaganda worldwide.

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 Times tracked hundreds of millions of dollars to groups linked to Mr Singham that mix progressive advocacy with Chinese government talking points, the New York Times had reported.

The report mentioned NewsClick in a single paragraph, saying: In New Delhi, corporate filings show, Mr. Singhams network financed a news site, NewsClick, that sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points.

It cited a particular video which commemorated 70 years of Chinas Maoist revolution, remarking that Chinas revolutionary history continues to inspire the working classes and peoples struggles across the world against capitalist exploitation and imperialist aggression.

The report found that Singham, who founded ThoughtWorks  a global technology consultancy, in the late 1980s and made a fortune working with some of the biggest corporations in the world  was based in China. Last month, Mr Singham joined a Communist Party workshop about promoting the party internationally, NYT reported.

The NYT in its report has said that the link between him and the Chinese propaganda is blurry but also elaborated on how he was closely related to the propaganda apparatus. For instance, the report states that Singham shared office space with Chinese media company called Maku Group, which says its goal is to tell Chinas story well, a term commonly used for foreign propaganda. The report adds, It can be hard to tell where Maku begins and Mr. Singhams groups end.

As per the NYT report, he also furthered Chinese interests through a network of nonprofit organisations registered in the US.

Singham has denied that he works at the direction of the Chinese or the Chinese Communist Party.

Also read: Why action against media platform suspected of links with enemy nation isnt assault on press freedom

Following the report, Union ministers Anurag Thakur and Rajeev Chandrasekhar had held a press conference on NYTs report to claim China, the Indian National Congress and NewsClick are part of an umbilical cord.

At the time, NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha, had denied the allegations about the organisation functioning as a mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China and termed them as false.

ED findings

Its pertinent to state that prior to the NYT report, NewsClick was already facing the heat from the Enforcement Directorate (ED). In 2021, the central agency began an investigation based on allegations of money laundering.

In February 2021, the ED had searched NewsClick premises, claiming its probe showed that foreign remittances, allegedly totalling over Rs 76.84 crore, had been received by the portal between 2018 and 2021.

The ED raids then had, according to a report in The Swarajya, also showed regular exchange of emails in connection with the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Furthermore, the agency said that the payments to NewsClick were linked to specific jobs like sprucing up Chinas role in Africa, where it has attracted charges of high-handedness and predatory capitalism, and defending the Communist regimes crackdown on Jack Ma, the promoter of online commerce giant Alibaba.

NewsClicks editor Prabir Purakayastha had then hit out at the crackdown against the news portal. These investigations by various agencies, and these selective allegations, are attempts to stifle the independent journalism of media organisations  including NewsClick. The Constitution of India under Article 19(1)(a) guarantees the right to freedom of speech and expression, a right central to our work, he had said, as per an NDTV report.

Also read: Newsclick and beyond: Unveiling Chinas information warfare tactics in India

The Congress link

When the ED had carried out raids against the portal, the Congress had stood by the organisation and questioned the governments action, raising the issue of press freedom.

However, following the NYT report, Union Minister Thakur had said, 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 had said.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had mounted an attack in Lok Sabha, saying: NewsClick is anti-national It is a tukde tukde gang that wants to break India NewsClick is headed by Purakaystha and he is also the owner Where did all the money come from, how he gave it to Naxalites, Maoists Sharma, Rohini Singh and Swati Chaturvedi just to create an anti-India atmosphere the Chinese have been giving money.

Rajeev Chandrashekhar said some countries were fanning misinformation in India with the help of some parties and news websites. 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, the judiciary is compromised, EVMs are compromised. This is exactly the narrative that these platforms put out, he said.

With inputs from agencies
The decision is made, it's too late to change, you've past the point of no return.

Background:

In 50 BC, his term was over as governor of the province of Cisalpine Gaul, and

the Senate in Rome ordered Caesar to disband his army and return to the capital

to the south.

He was expressly forbidden from bringing his army across the Rubicon river. But

Caesar did exactly that because he believed he would be slaughtered on his

return to Rome. He made the statement that became our proverb of the day after

fording the river with his legions, which amounted to rebellion, a declaration

of war on the Roman Senate.

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'Dice' is the plural of 'die' which refers to the small cube bearing 1 to 6 dots

on its sides. 'dice' also refers to a game of chance using (at least two) dice.
Republican presidential aspirant Vivek Ramaswamy is reportedly seeking a nanny for his kids. The 38-year-old American billionaire, who has seen his popularity surge in the last few weeks, is ready to shell out an annual salary of $100,000 (Rs 83 lakh approximately) to hire a nanny, according to a report in Business Insider.

Ramaswamy, who is now the second-preferred Republican candidate after Donald Trump, has remained in the news cycle since the first GOP presidential debate in Wisconsin.

Searching for nanny

According to Business Insider, the job listing on EstateJobs.com  a website that caters to wealthy people looking for butlers, chauffeurs, private chefs and other household staff  mentioned that the nanny will be required to work for 84 to 96 hours of work a week.

Describing the familys lifestyle as one of curiosity, adventure, and constant motion, the job ad read: This is an exceptional opportunity to join a high-profile family, contributing to the growth and development of their children while participating in unique family adventures.

The nanny will be a part of a team of other household staff to give a seamless daily routine for the children, who were described as gifted.

The chosen candidate will have a rotational schedule, one week working and one week off.

The nanny would also be expected to travel almost every week. Weekly family travels, often via private flights, are a regular occurrence, News18 cited the job listing as saying.

As per Insider, while the client name was missing from the job ad, several details signal it pertains to the Ramaswamys.

Vivek and his wife Apoorva, who is a professor and physician at Ohio State University, have two sons.

The ad also said that the nanny would have to prepare vegetarian meals for the children  Ramaswamy is vegetarian. Also, the ages of the children mentioned in the job ad match the ages of the GOP leaders sons.

According to Insider, the job ad vanished from EstateJobs.com after the news outlet apprised the Ramaswamy campaign it would publish the story.

Ramaswamy on soaring childcare costs

The whopping salary being offered by Ramaswamy, who is known to make headlines for his controversial takes, comes in sharp contrast with his plans for Americans to deal with high childcare costs, reported Insider.

He said in May that he wants people to pay for childcare by taking the amount from their future potential Social Security benefits.

According to the Republican, Americans should be able to access Social Security earlier on in life when you actually need it to be able to provide for your children instead of waiting till retirement to use these benefits.

ALSO READ: Vivek Ramaswamy wants to gut H-1B visa programme: What is it? Why does it matter to Indians?

How is Ramaswamy so rich?

Ramaswamys net worth was more than $1 billion in August, according to a Forbes report.

His fortune comes from the pharmaceutical research firm Roivant Sciences which he founded in 2014. The company, which went public in 2021, saw its stock rise nearly 40 per cent this year, the report added.

Born to Indian immigrants, Ramaswamy has earned over $260 million from Roivant alone in the form of salary, bonuses and capital gains since founding the company, reported Forbes. In 2021, he stepped down as Roivants CEO to focus on his political career.

The Harvard and Yale alumnus started his anti-woke asset management firm, Strive the same year. The company was recently valued at $300 million, with Ramaswamys stakes worth well above $100 million, noted Forbes.

Ramaswamy worked for hedge fund QVT till 2014 which he had joined after his graduation.

With inputs from agencies
A number of Jupiter-sized objects floating in space have been discovered.

These entities, which are said to float freely in space and remain unconnected to any stars, have been named Jupiter Mass Binary Objects  or JuMBOs.

The discovery was made by the European Space Agency (ESA) using the powerful James Webb telescope.

But what are JuMBOs exactly? What do we know about them?

Lets take a closer look:

What are they?

These objects were found in the famed Orion Nebula, as per Business Standard.

The Orion Nebula, which is around 1,500 light-years away, is the closest large star-forming region to Earth.

According to BBC, around 40 pairs of these entities were discovered by the ESA.

The entities, around the size of Jupiter (the largest planet in our solar system), have not been labelled planets themselves as they do not orbit around a star.

Scientists say the objects form in pairs and not individually.

As per The New York Times, these objects are spaced apart around 200 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

They orbit each other on routes that take over 20,000 years to complete.

As per The Guardian, these objects are thought to be around a million years old  less than a blink of an eye on the cosmic calendar

They are said to have surface temperatures of around roughly 1,000 degrees Celsius.

However, unlike planets, which can maintain their temperatures by drawing energy from their host stars, these entities cool and then freeze, as per Business Standard.

They are also made up mainly of gas and are thus unlikely to support life.

The findings, which have been published as a pre-print, are yet to be peer-reviewed.

According to BBC, there are a couple of theories about how these entities came to be.

Either they formed in Orion Nebulas regions that did not have enough material to make stars or that they formed around stars and then were ejected into interstellar space.

Professor Mark McCaughrean, senior science advisor to the ESA and who led the research team, told the BBC the latter theory is currently in favour with scientists.

What do experts say?

The discovery has left many scientists scratching their heads.

Gas physics suggests you shouldnt be able to make objects with the mass of Jupiter on their own, and we know single planets can get kicked out from star systems. But how do you kick out pairs of these things together? Right now, we dont have an answer. Its one for the theoreticians, McCaughrean added.

Dr Heidi Hammel, who did not participate in the research, told the BBC her responses to the findings went from Whaaat?!? to Are you sure? to Thats just so weird! to How could binaries be ejected together?'

As Samuel Pearson, an ESA scientist who worked on the research, told The New York Times, Theres something wrong with either our understanding of planet formation, star formation  or both.

They shouldnt exist, Pearson added.

Its like kicking a cup of tea across a room and having all the tea land in the teacup, Pearson said. And then doing that 42 times.

Hammel told the BBC no current scientific model has predicted the existence of these entities.

But maybe all star formation regions host these double-Jupiters (and maybe even double-Neptunes and double Earths!), and we just havent had a telescope powerful enough to see them before, she told BBC.

Others, meanwhile, can scarcely hold back their excitement about the discovery.

Professor Matthew Bate, the head of astrophysics at the University of Exeter, told The Guardian, I dont know how to explain the large numbers of objects theyve seen. It seems were missing something in all of the theories weve got so far. It seems that theres a mechanism thats forming these [objects] that we havent thought of yet.

Its pretty rare that this kind of discovery is made, Bate added. In the last decade, a lot of us thought we understood star formation pretty well. So this is really a very, very surprising result and were going to learn a lot from it.

Their existence implies we may be missing something about how these very low mass objects form, Bate told The New York Times.

Professor Anthony Whitworth, an astrophysicist at Cardiff University, told The Guardian this was an amazing result.

He hypothesised that these entities could have been moulded within a disc and then been kicked out as a pair. This would require interactions with other stars in the dense Orion star field. All possible, in principle. Lots to ponder!

Webb  the largest and most powerful astronomical observatory ever launched into space  has been churning out cosmic beauty shots for the past year and a half.

The first pictures from the $10 billion infrared telescope were unveiled last July, six months after its liftoff from French Guiana.

Its considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, orbiting Earth for 33 years. A joint NASA-European Space Agency effort, Webb scans the universe from a more distant perch, 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away.

With inputs from agencies
India is making big strides in providing vaccines to the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, India-made jabs offered support to hundreds of nations. Leading from the front was the Pune-based Serum Insitute of India, the worlds largest vaccine manufacturer. It supplied the worlds least expensive and WHO-accredited vaccines to as many as 170 countries. Now it joining the big fight against malaria.

On Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended the use of the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India (SII). Only the second malaria vaccine to be developed, its low cost and massive production will help curb the mosquito-borne disease considered to be fatal, killing mostly children.

What is the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine?

The WHO recommended the vaccine after it met the required safety, quality and effectiveness standards. It is developed by the Jenner Institute at Oxford University and Serum Institute of India with support from the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), the Wellcome Trust, and the European Investment Bank.

The health agency is now reviewing the vaccine for prequalification, which is the WHO stamp of approval, and will enable GAVI (a global vaccine alliance) and UNICEF to buy the vaccine from manufacturers, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a media briefing in Geneva on Monday.

In an official statement, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla, said, For far too long, malaria has threatened the lives of billions of people across the globe, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable amongst us. This is why the WHO recommendation and approval of the R21/Matrix-M vaccine marks a huge milestone on our journey to combat this life-threatening disease, showing what exactly can be achieved when the public and private sector, scientists and researchers, all work together towards a shared goal.

When will the vaccine be available?

R21will become available by mid-2024. The doses would cost between $2 (Rs 166) and $4 (Rs 333). There are four doses needed per person. The price of this is about half of the first malaria vaccine, RTS,S.

The new vaccine will be sold under the brand Mosquirix. It has been approved for use in Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Nigeria.

Dr Tedros said, I used to dream of the day we would have a safe and effective vaccine against malaria, now we have two.

Also read: Why malaria is the next biggest cause of child mortality among other causes

How are the two vaccines different?

The first vaccine was backed by WHO in 2021 to prevent malaria among children. RTS,S is developed by British pharmaceutical giant GSK.

According to the WHO, the effectiveness of both vaccines is very similar and there is no evidence to prove that one is better than the other.

The big difference is the ability to manufacture the R21 vaccine. The Serum Institute of India has already established production capacity for 100 million doses per annum, which will be doubled over the next two years, the company said in a statement.

There are 18 million doses of RTS,S so far, reports the BBC.

The two vaccines use similar technologies and target the same stage of the malaria parasites lifecycle. However, the SII vaccine is easier to produce as it requires a smaller dose and uses a simpler adjuvant, a chemical given in the vaccine that jolts the immune system into action, the BBC report says.

Both vaccines have similar efficacy rates of around 75 per cent when administered under the same conditions.

Why is the second malaria vaccine a big deal?

A second malaria vaccine was the need of the hour. Demand for the RTS,S vaccine far exceeds supply, so this second vaccine is a vital additional tool to protect more children faster and to bring us closer to our vision of a malaria-free future, the WHO chief said.

Prof Sir Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute in Oxford where R21 was developed, is quoted by the BBC as saying, The vaccine is easily deployable, cost-effective and affordable, ready for distribution in areas where it is needed most, with the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives a year.

Half of the worlds population lives in a malaria high-risk area and a majority of cases and deaths are reported from the African continent.

Dr Matshidiso, the WHO regional director for Africa, said the vaccine developed by SII and Oxford held great potential for the continent and helped close the huge demand-and-supply gap. Delivered to scale and rolled out widely, the two vaccines can help bolster malaria prevention and control efforts and save hundreds of thousands of young lives in Africa from this deadly disease, Moeti told news agency AFP.

Also read: Explained: How scientists engineered mosquitoes that cannot spread malaria

How many lives are affected by malaria every year?

In 2021, the world reported 247 million cases of malaria. The disease claimed 619,000 lives, most of them children under the age of five.

More than 95 per cent of malaria cases are found in Africa.

With inputs from agencies
Airlines often consider a drunk pilot flying a criminal offence. But a fresh proposed legislation in India could also take action against pilots who use perfume.

Civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has proposed a draft that may bar pilots and crew from using perfumes during the breathalyser test.

The (DGCA has come up with the draft since perfumes generally have a high alcohol content and can affect the breathalyser test.

No crew member shall consume any medicine/formulation or use any substance such as mouthwash/tooth gel/perfume or any product containing alcohol which may result in a positive breathalyser test. Any crew member who is undergoing such medication shall consult the company doctor before undertaking a flying assignment, the draft, accessed by news agency ANI, read.

This is only a draft CAR (Civil Aviation Requirements) put in the public domain for stakeholder comments, the DGCA chief said.

Perfumes impact on breathalyser results

According to Terri Daniel, a criminal defence lawyer in McKinney, perfume can affect breathalyser results.

If youve used a product that contains alcohol, the breathalyser might detect the alcohol concentration and report a false positive, Daniels website says.

Products that contain alcohol include toothpaste, aftershave, hand sanitiser, bleach, mouthwash, perfume and cologne. Even spraying bug repellent on yourself can produce a false positive, it adds, as reported by USA Today.

The proposed ban seeks to reduce the risk of false positive breathalyser results while also ensuring the highest level of aviation safety. By prohibiting the use of alcohol-containing goods, the DGCA hopes to avoid any compromise to the sobriety requirements required of pilots and crew members.

The DGCAs official air security standards were ratified in August 2015. The planned addition is open for public feedback until 5 October.

Indias strict alcohol rules

India has extremely tight alcohol regulations for airline crew. According to the Civil Aviation Requirements rules, all flight crew and cabin crew members flying scheduled/charter/non-scheduled flights originating in India would be subjected to a pre-flight breathalyser test at the first departure airport during a flight duty period.

Even a trace of alcohol is deemed a positive result and can result in a three-month licence suspension. Furthermore, the guidelines say that all operators must ensure that the breathalyser test is recorded on camera and that the recordings are kept for six months.

The DGCA also requires a 12-hour period between operating an aircraft and consuming an alcoholic beverage.

Pilots who fail the alcohol test for the first time are prevented from flying for three months, second-time offenders are barred for three years, and a pilots licence is permanently revoked if the test is failed a third time.

According to the DGCA, some common products may cause a false-positive result. As a result, the rule modification may narrow a legal loophole exploited by crew members to avoid licence suspension.

Intoxication issue in aviation

Pilot drunkenness has occasionally been a problem in the aviation industry around the world. Forty-one Indian pilots and 116 cabin crew members had their licences temporarily suspended after testing positive for alcohol last year, according to an aviation website that tracks test results.

In 2018, Katsutoshi Jitsukawa, a Japan Airlines pilot, was sentenced to 10 months in prison after a breath test done shortly after takeoff revealed that his blood alcohol level was nine times the legal limit.

In the United States, a Delta pilot named Gabriel Lyle Schroeder was pulled off a fully boarded jet before to takeoff after being suspected of being drunk, reports CNN.

With inputs from PTI
Seven more patients, including four children, have lost their lives in a government hospital in Maharashtras Nanded after 24 people died yesterday in 24 hours.

The total death count has now risen to 31 in the past 48 hours in the Shankarrao Chavan Government Hospital. Among those who died, 16 were infants or children.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra cabinet will discuss the Nanded Hospital deaths in a meeting today. The cabinet may decide on forming an inquiry committee over the incident.

Minister of Medical Education of Maharashtra, Hasan Mushrif said, We will carry out a thorough investigation. I have briefed Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis regarding the same. I will visit the hospital and a committee of doctors will be formed.

#WATCH | Mumbai | On the death of 24 patients in Dr Shankarrao Chavan Medical College and Hospital in Nanded, Minister of Medical Education of Maharashtra, Hasan Mushrif says We will carry out a thorough investigation. I have briefed Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM pic.twitter.com/SXLUaWNuoN  ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2023

The Dean of the hospital, Shyamrao Wakode, has denied claims that the hospital was negligent in the treatment of the deceased patients. He said that the patients were suffering from different ailments such as diabetes, liver failure, and kidney failure.

He emphasized that there was no shortage of medicines or doctors, and the patients were given proper care, but their bodies did not respond to the treatment.

There was no shortage of medicines or doctors. Proper care was provided to the patients, but their bodies did not respond to the treatment, which caused deaths, Wakode said.

#WATCH | Maharashtra | Dr Shyamrao Wakode, Dean of Govt Medical College Nanded says, In the last 24 hours, 24 people lost their lives. Around 12 children (1-2 days old) died in the last 24 hours. These children were suffering from different ailments. Among the adults, there were pic.twitter.com/FG6ZH3EYD9  ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2023

He added, Around 12 children died in the last 24 hours12 adults also died due to various ailments (snake bites, arsenic and phosphorus poisoning etc). Due to transfers of various staff, there was some difficulty for usWe were supposed to buy medicines from the Haffkine Institute but that also didnt happen.Also, patients come from far off to this hospital and there were many patients whose sanctioned budget also got disturbed.
More than 800 people were arrested on Tuesday in the second phase of a state-wide crackdown against child marriages in Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

During the first round of the drive earlier this year, thousands were held across the state.

In a massive crackdown against child marriage, Assam Police has arrested over 800 accused persons in a special operation, which began in the early hours of dawn, Sarma said on X.

He said the number of arrests in cases related to the social menace is likely to rise as the operation is still underway.

On September 11, Sarma told the Assam Assembly that a total of 3,907 people were arrested in cases related to child marriages in the last five years, of whom 3,319 are facing charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO).

In the first round of the state-wide crackdown conducted in February, the police arrested hundreds of people, including family members and clerics who were involved in officiating the unauthorised weddings.
The Delhi Police Special Cell is quizzing founder and editor-in-chief of NewsClick Prabir Purkayastha on Tuesday in their office after earlier conducting raids at his premises under UAPA and other sections.

Since the early hours of Tuesday, the Delhi Police has been conducting raids at different premises linked to NewsClick under UAPA and other sections in connection with allegations that the organisation received funding from China.

NewsClick: Who all are being raided?

Raids were being carried out at multiple locations in Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad, during which police seized several pieces of electronic evidence including laptops and mobile phones.

Apart from Purkayastha, the house of journalists Abhisar Sharma, Aunindyo Chakraborty and Sohail Hashmi, Bhasha Singh, Urmilesh and satirist Sanjay Rajoura were among those being raided.

Around 6:30 am on Tuesday, the Delhi Police officials carried out raids at houses of journalists, promoters, contributors, CEO of NewsClick.

Their mobile phones, laptops, or any other digital devices were seized and at the NewsClick office premises, each and every digital device are being scrutinised by the Delhi Police officers.

House of CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury was also searched by the Delhi Police as the son of one of his companions who lives with him and works for NewsClick.

The Delhi Police Special Cell has booked the news organisation under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a case against NewsClick alleging that it received foreign funding in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). and had sought an investigation into its funding.

With inputs from agencies
Delhi Police special cell conducted searches in the residence of several journalists linked to the media outlet NewsClick Tuesday in connection with allegations that the organisation received funding from China.

Large-scale raids are being carried out in Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad. During the raids, the police seized several pieces of electronic evidence including laptops and mobile phones.

Delhi Police Special Cell Assistant Commissioner of Police Lalit Mohan Negi reached the NewsClick office in the national capital.

Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a case against NewsClick alleging that it received foreign funding in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). and had sought an investigation into its funding.

The Special Cell has charged NewsClick under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 153A of IPC (promoting enmity between two groups), 120B of IPC (Criminal conspiracy).

Sources told News18 that the journalists whose houses have been raided include Aunindo, Abhisar, Sohail Hashmi, Bhasha Singh, and Prabir Purkayastha Urmilesh.

Apart from this journalist Abhisar Sharma wrote on X, Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and Phone.

Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and Phone  Abhisar Sharma (@abhisar_sharma) October 3, 2023

NYT investigates NewsClick

In August, 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.

The nexus of Congress, China, NewsClick and CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat came to the fore via a chain of emails. The email exchanges between Neville Roy Singham, an American millionaire, with editor of Prabir Purkayastha, various journalists and CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat had surfaced online.

The emails focused on Defending Chinas position on COVID, supporting farmers protests in India, collaborating with Indian communists, promoting Chinese propaganda and defending border clashes with India.
The head of the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, stated on Tuesday that the IAF continually monitors Chinese activity near the border and takes action to counter any aggressive actions.

In his remarks at the yearly press conference for Air Force Day, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari said that while the Indian Air Force always matches technology with requirement, it deploys its resources tactically when the enemy has a numerical advantage.

We are constantly monitoring the situation across borders through intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). We make note of the build-up of resources and capabilities across the borders, he said.

He added that the IAFs operations plans are dynamic and constantly adapt to the environment.

Our operational plans are dynamic and keep changing based on the situation that we perceive that is developing across any front. In places, where we cannot really counter the numbers or the might of the adversary, we will counter it through better tactics and better trainingWe keep revising our ISR plans as per inputs, he said.

The IAF Chief claimed that the enemy has a huge number of radars and surface-to-air guided weapon systems spread out all along the Line of Actual Control. The Indian Air Force is handling this challenge by deploying additional radars and using better tactics.

The IAF chief stated that as a long-term solution, the Indian Air Force is also considering the installation of powerful radars that would enable it to see as deep as the enemy can see inside our area.

Chaudhari responded that there is technology transfer going on between China and Pakistan when asked about cooperation between the Chinese and Pakistani Air Force in terms of providing military gear.

Pakistan is manufacturing JF-17 fighter aircraft and also inducting J-10 aircraftWherever we can counter technology with technology, we will do it. Where we cannot, we will do it with better training and tactics, he said.

The IAF Chief noted that the need to have a strong and credible military has become imperative due to the regions unstable and uncertain geopolitical environment.

The Indo-Pacific Region is the new economic and strategic centre of gravity of the world and offers us both challenges and opportunities. Indian Air Force, with its inherent capability to see the farthest, reach the fastest and hit the hardest will be critical in mitigating these challenges and will remain a fulcrum in projecting Indias might in the region, he said.

(With agency inputs)
The Indian government has asked Canada to repatriate dozens of diplomats from the country by October 10.

Ottawa has been told by New Delhi to withdraw roughly 40 diplomats within a week, the Financial Times said in a report quoting sources.

Meanwhile, the Canadian foreign ministry and the Indian government have refused to comment on the matter. However, New Delhi had previously said that it wanted the Canadian government to maintain parity in the number and grade of diplomats both countries post to the other.

Relations between India and Canada have hit rock bottom after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that Indian agents had links with the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

India also blocked visa services for Canadians last month. In a message to Indian stock exchanges on Thursday, BLS International, which manages visa applications for Indian citizens in Canada, stated that visa services have been suspended until further notice.

Canada updated its travel advisory for its citizens in India asking them to stay vigilant and exercise caution.

In the context of recent developments in Canada and in India, there are calls for protests and some negative sentiment towards Canada on social media. Please remain vigilant and exercise caution, the Canadian government said in an updated advisory.
An adult female grizzly bear was killed south of Ronan two weeks ago when a vehicle struck the animal on a stretch of U.S. Highway 93 notorious for grizzly deaths.

Dan Luedtke lives along Highway 93 where the collision occurred, about 2 miles south of Ronan. He said Tuesday that his son was driving by Luedtke's house and called to tell him that someone had just struck and killed a bear that ran into the highway. He said it happened around 9:40 p.m. Sept. 19.

"Some lady was going down the road right in front of my house here, and the bear ran out in the road," he said. "Totaled her car, all the airbags went off, it was pretty rough on her."

Luedtke said a bear biologist who responded to the incident told him that the grizzly was a 536-pound sow, or adult female.

Luedtke is frequently in contact with the biologist, he said, because grizzlies have killed several of his and his wife's miniature donkeys. The couple moved their livestock somewhere else for this summer and worked with Defenders of Wildlife to install electric fencing at their property. This year alone, he said, cameras at their property recorded 15 different grizzlies within yards of the house.

"They did a good job on the recovery," he said, referring to grizzlies' growing population and range under federal protection in the Lower 48. "They need to take credit for it."

Luedtke and the stretch of Highway 93 where he lives are no stranger to vehicles striking and killing grizzlies. He recalled a 2018 incident in which a vehicle struck and killed a sow and two of her three cubs. That was about a quarter-mile north of last month's collision, he said. In 2015, a vehicle struck and killed an earlier cub from the same sow in almost the same spot.

In 2020, a vehicle struck and killed a 25-year-old sow known as The Matriarch.

Highway 93 from Evaro, just north of Missoula, to St. Ignatius is traversed with an extensive network of dozens of underpasses and one large overpass wildlife crossing.

But farther north where Luedtke lives, the stretch of the highway that runs near the pothole lakes of Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge lacks such crossings. In addition to wildlife collisions, the area of the highway is also known for its high rate of other vehicle crashes, many of them serious or fatal.

The state of Montana and the federal government have been working for decades to improve wildlife crossings and overall safety on the highway. While such changes have been implemented between Evaro and St. Ignatius, the unusually narrow right-of-way and wet soil around Ninepipe pose challenges for highway upgrades between St. Ignatius and Ronan.

Planned improvements to the so-called "Ninepipe Corridor" from mile-marker 40 to 44.5, or Gunlock Road on the south to Brooke Lane on the north, include a mixture of highway bridges, wildlife overpasses and culverts  if the state can secure funding for the work.

Just south of that, another stretch of Highway 93 received $30.5 million in federal funding for highway upgrades.

That stretch goes from Dublin Gulch Road on the south to Gunlock Road on the north. The segment crosses Post Creek and, heading north, goes uphill toward Ninepipe Reservoir. Its often referred to as the "Post Creek Hill segment" of the highway. The south end of the segment, at Dublin Gulch, is about 4.5 miles north of St. Ignatius. The north end, at Gunlock, is about 7 miles south of Ronan.

The federal Department of Transportation announced in July that the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes would receive the funding as part of a larger pot of $130.5 million disbursed from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for seven total projects nationally. The grants are part of the Federal Highway Administrations Nationally Significant Federal Lands and Tribal Transportation Projects Program.
The Indian Air Force is in the process of finalising a Rs 1.15 lakh crore deal to procure an additional batch of 97 Tejas Mark-1A aircraft besides upgrading 84 Sukhoi-30MKI jets at a cost of Rs 60,000 crore, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari said on Tuesday.

In February 2021, the defence ministry sealed a Rs 48,000-crore deal with state-run aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd for the procurement of 83 Tejas MK-1A jets for the IAF.

With the additional 97 Tejas Mark-1A jets, the total number of indigenously-developed aircraft being procured by the IAF would go up to 180.

Addressing a press conference ahead of the Air Force Day on October 8, the Chief of Air Staff also said that 84 Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets will be upgraded at a cost of a little over Rs 60,000 crore.

The defence ministry is also looking at signing a contract with the HAL next year to procure a total of 156 light combat helicopters (LCH) out of which 66 will be for the IAF.

The IAF now operates 10 light combat helicopters.

We had signed the contract for 83 LCA-Mark 1As. What we are looking at is now to supplement that contract with 97 additional aircraft. So it will bring the total to about 180 LCA-Mark-1As. The contract value will be a little over 1.15 lakh crores, Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said.

Asked about the timeline for delivery of the LCA Mark-1As as HAL can produce only 15 of them annually, he indicated that the aerospace major may increase the pace of production in partnership with the private sector.

The contract will be signed with the HAL for an additional 97 LCA Mark-1As. The HAL may decide to increase the number of production lines in partnership with the Indian private industry That is yet to be decided, he said.

The Chief of Air Staff said the number of LCA-Mark-1A jets being procured is not linked to future procurement of Tejas Mark-2 Light Combat Aircraft.

The highly anticipated Tejas Mark2 aircraft is expected to be ready for the first flight by 2025.

When it comes to the numbers (of Tejas Mark-1As), these are not in the view of any Mark 2s or any other future production. These are independent. These are to cater for the drawdown in the MiG-21 fleet, Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said.

Tejas is a single-engine multi-role fighter aircraft capable of operating in high-threat air environments.

It has been designed to undertake the air defence, maritime reconnaissance and strike roles.

Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said the IAF is also finalising procurement of Akash weapon systems, medium-range surface-to-air missile (MRSAM), Pralay missile system among others.

We are planning to sign these contracts sometime in the coming year, he said.

The IAF Chief said except for the tanker aircraft and multi-role fighter aircraft (MRFA) project, most of the cases of acquisition are going to be indigenous only.

He also underlined the importance of the space domain.

Space operations will find many similarities to air operations as compared to operations in any other domain. Freedom to operate in space without interference from the adversary is of vital national importance, he said.

A strong, self-reliant, and credible aerospace force would definitely be an essential step towards achieving first of the Five Prans (Panch Pranas) of Amritkaal that is to become a developed country, the IAF Chief added.
NewsClick founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha was arrested by the Delhi police on Tuesday under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Along with Purkayastha, Amit Chakravarty, the HR head of the news portal, has also been arrested.

A statement by the Delhi Police, as reported by ANI, said, Regarding the search, seizure and detentions carried out today in connection with a UAPA case registered with Special Cell, so far, two accused, Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty have been arrested. A total of 37 male suspects have been questioned at premises, 9 female suspects have been questioned at their respective places of stay and digital devices, documents etc. have been seized/collected for examination.

The Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick, Prabir Purkayastha and writers Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Urmilesh were brought to the special cell offices in the national capital on Tuesday as part of the investigation as Delhi Police launched a crackdown against NewsClick and its journalists earlier this morning in connection with an FIR registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The Delhi Polices Special Cell on Tuesday afternoon sealed the office of the online news portal in the national capital.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Anurag Thakur, while speaking to reporters in Bhubaneswar said that if action has been taken, then there must have been evidence or complaint.

Flagging concerns over the incident, the Editors Guild of India, in a statement, said it was deeply concerned about the raids at the residences of senior journalists early this morning.

Earlier, on August 10, a report in the New York Times had alleged that NewsClick was part of a global network that receives funding from American billionaire Neville Roy Singham.

Singham is known as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes and is at the centre of a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda.

Singham is also said to have close ties with the Chinese governments media machine.

With inputs from ANI
The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred till October 9 hearing on a plea by TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu challenging an Andhra Pradesh High Court order dismissing his petition to quash an FIR against him in the Skill Development Corporation scam case.

A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi asked senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Andhra Pradesh government, to place on record all materials which were produced before the high court in connection with the case.

Rohatgi said Naidus petition for quashing the FIR should be rejected as the question of section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act does not arise as the provision came in July 2018, while the inquiry into the case was started in 2017 by the CBI.

Senior advocates Harish Salve, Abhisehk Singhvi and Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Naidu, said all the allegations in the FIR pertains to the decisions, instructions or recommendations made by Naidu while being the chief minister of the state.

This is nothing but a political case and the rigours of section 17A would apply in the matter, Salve said.

Luthra said, They are roping him in FIR after FIR and it is a clear case of regime change.

The bench said it will take the matter up next Monday.

Naidu, 73, was arrested on September 9 for allegedly misappropriating funds from the Skill Development Corporation when he was the chief minister in 2015, causing a purported loss of Rs 371 crore to the state exchequer. His judicial remand has been extended by the trial court till October 5.

The CID, in its remand report, alleged that Naidu indulged in a criminal conspiracy with the intention of fraudulent misappropriation or otherwise conversion of government funds for his own use, disposal of property which was under the control of a public servant, besides engaging in cheating, forging documents and destroying evidence.

Naidu, the Telugu Desam Party chief, had moved the top court on September 23, challenging the Andhra Pradesh High Court order dismissing his petition for quashing the FIR against him in connection with the alleged scam.
India has given a deadline to Canada to repatriate around 40 diplomats by 10 October and said that it would revoke their diplomatic immunity if they remained after the given date.

The Indian government is yet to issue a statement on the latest development.

Canadian diplomats in India

A report by Financial Times mentioned a person saying Canada had 62 diplomats in India and New Delhi has asked Ottawa to reduce that by 41 people.

The MEA has also warned Canada to either have an equal number of diplomats or shut down consulates, a report by Times Now quoted sources as saying.

The move at a time when India and Canadas diplomatic relationship is witnessing its lowest point after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, last month, made an allegation of an Indian link in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June in Surrey, British Columbia. The charge was strongly rejected by New Delhi.

India asks Canada for parity in number of diplomats

India had earlier asked Canada for a parity in the number and grade of diplomats each nation posts to the other.

In September, New Delhi alleged interference in Indias internal affairs on the part of Canadian diplomats posted in the country and said it had already intimated to the authorities in Ottawa that it wanted a reduction in the number of Canadian diplomats in India.

Their numbers here are very much higher than Indias diplomatic presenceWe have seen Canadian diplomatic interference in our internal affairs. This is being taken into account and parity is being sought in rank and diplomatic strength. We think Canadian numbers will go down.

Discussions are going on, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Arindam Bagchi had said.

Canada yet to provide evidence on its claims

India has outrightly rejected the claims made by Trudeau, calling them absurd and motivated.

The Indian government has said Canada has yet to provide any public evidence to support the claim about the killing of Nijjar.

Days after Trudeaus remark, India, on 21 September, suspended visa services for Canadian citizens citing security threats faced by the Indian High Commission and consulates in Canada.

After the decision, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar told reporters, Majboori thihumare diplomats, consulates ke khilaf hinsa ka prachar ho raha hai, kaise visa, office jane ka kam karenge, yeh law and order, Vienna convention ka issue hai (We were desperate. They [Canada] were perpetrating hate at our diplomats, consulates, how would people go to the visa office and get their work done? Law and order is an issue of the Vienna Convention)

Jaishankar said the visa services had to be suspended because Indian diplomats and officials were unable to continue with their work as there were threats of constant violence against them.

Under the Vienna Convention, it is the responsibility of every country to provide security to its embassy and those working in the embassy. Dont make it bilateral. This environment is not in IndiaSocial media postings, protests and threats are happening in Canada. They (the Canadian government) should take action there. Jaishankar added.
Following the raids conducted in the residence of NewsClick journalists by the Delhi Police Special Cell, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has said that strict action must be taken against the agency for using Chinas money to defame India.

If an agency runs the agenda of China using their money, it should not be allowed. Investigations were already going on against them. They are using Chinas money to promote China and defame India. Strict actions will be taken against all of them who are taking money from foreign countries and working against India, BJP leader RP Singh said.

#WATCH | Delhi: On Delhi Police conducting raids at different premises linked to NewsClick, BJP leader RP Singh says If an agency runs the agenda of China using their money, it should not be allowed. Investigations were already going on against them. They are using Chinas money pic.twitter.com/RfbHnJKN7r  ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2023

Delhi Police Special Cell conducted searches in the residence of several journalists linked to the media outlet NewsClick Tuesday in connection with allegations that the organisation received funding from China.

Large-scale raids are being carried out in Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad. During the raids, the police seized several pieces of electronic evidence including laptops and mobile phones.

NewsClick Founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayasth is currently being quizzed by the police.

Union Minister Anurag Thakur said, I dont need to justify If anyone has committed anything wrong, search agencies are free to carry out investigations against them under set guidelines.

#WATCH | Bhubaneswar, Odisha: On Delhi Police conducting raids at different premises linked to NewsClick, Union Minister Anurag Thakur says, I dont need to justify If anyone has committed anything wrong, search agencies are free to carry out investigations against them under pic.twitter.com/ncE7vk3zsm  ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2023

The Special Cell has charged NewsClick under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 153A of IPC (promoting enmity between two groups), 120B of IPC (Criminal conspiracy).

Meanwhile, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said that the police conducted raids at his residence too in connection with the NewsClick investigation.

#WATCH | Delhi: On Delhi Police conducting raids at different premises linked to NewsClick, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury says, Police came to my residence because one of my companions who lives with me there, his son works for NewsClick. Police came to question him. pic.twitter.com/ULoF9G7W7O  ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2023
In his congratulatory message to Maldives President-elect Mohamed Muizzu, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated on social media that India remains committed to strengthening the time-tested bilateral relationship and enhancing our overall cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region. The simple message said it all: Indias willingness to continue to work with the president that the Maldivian people have elected for themselves as before, and at the same time, stressing New Delhis continued adherence to the prime ministers Neighbourhood First policy without reference to political changes in the archipelago-nation and also underlining the existing concerns on larger IOR security, where given its sizes, India had a responsibility to the region as a whole.

Modis was possibly the first congratulatory message of the kind for the Maldivian President-elect from any head of government. Both Pakistan and China followed, with their envoys in the capital Male, too, putting out a congratulatory message on the social media platform X. And with this one message, New Delhi has clearly indicated its intention, of walking up to the halfway mark. India has extended a hand of friendship and cooperation, and as always, how the new leadership acts/reacts will decide the course of bilateral cooperation and regional collaborations, as always.

By taking upon himself the task of congratulating the Maldivian President-elect, Prime Minister Modi too has indicated his unreserved eagerness to work with the Muizzu when he takes over as president on the customary 11 November, the nations Republic Day. As may be recalled, the Indian prime minister was the only global leader to be invited and to be present at the inauguration of outgoing President Ibrahim Mohamed Ibu Solih five years back.

Stresses and strains

There is still no gain-saying that all is well for India in a new administration under Muizzu. There were multiple stresses and strains for India, but from the Opposition PPM-PNC combine that Muizzu belongs to, centred on jailed party leader and predecessor president Abdulla Yameens India Out campaign, which often took the shape of India Military Out campaign. The combine was seen as being either unsure of itself or sending out confusing signals on what it wanted out of India  whether to exit Maldives (under a future government of theirs) or only to withdraw Indian military personnel, which they claim existed without evidence but which the two governments have been consistently denying.

The combined governments submission was that the Indian personnel were not carrying weapons to call them military personnel. Though they came from the ranks of the Indian Navy and Coast Guard, they were only pilots and technical personnel for the three helicopters and a Dornier fixed-wing aircraft that New Delhi had gifted the southern neighbour for maritime surveillance and also humanitarian operations  to airlift emergency patients to capital Male for urgently-required medical treatment, unavailable in their islands/atolls.

Through quick intervention and double-quick ejection on the completion of past missions, like Operation Cactus to neutralise a coup bid involving mercenaries in 1988, and post-tsunami rescue, relief and restoration operations in 2004-05, followed less than a decade later by Operation Neer (December 2014), the Tamil word neer meaning water, by supplying tonnes of drinking and potable water by IAF transporters and navy vessels. That was after the lone desalination plant for the capital Male, housing 40-per cent of the nations 400,000-plus population, resided, was gutted in a fire accident.

Incidentally, it was possibly the first time that a nations military was involved in a unique humanitarian operation of this kind, going beyond multiple supplies that could include clean water for their own fighting troops. As coincidence would have it, the respective governments were headed by President Yameen and Prime Minister Modi. Not once through these three operations through two-plus decades, involving Indian military personnel did India wait for the host-government to bid them a gracious bye to leave. Instead, Indian military personnel left with all their men and material, once the specific requirement for their presence and operations had been met.

Through these operations, India had also convinced sceptics in the host country  be it Maldives or Sri Lanka, which was also similarly devastated by the Boxer Day Asian tsunami in 2004, that it was not coveting a military base in the respective countries and could move men and material at the shortest notice (as happened on all three occasions in the case of Maldives), if and when required. This fact stands out especially in Maldives, the PPM-PNC Opposition of the Yameen-Muizzu duo and more so a section of the social media keeps harping on the nations independence and sovereignty with particular reference to the presence of foreign military personnel. Though the Yameen camp had repeatedly mentioned India by name in this context, throughout the two-phase campaign for the two-stage presidential poll, Muizzu himself did not name any country by name.

Perceptions and possibilities

The reasons need to be known and understood, particularly outside Maldives, starting with the strategic community in India  who also feed the local media with their less-than-learned comments to the local media and perceptions on whats wrong with the Yameen camps perceptions and possibilities vis a vis India  in the past and also in the future. For instance, there is the Uthuru Thila Falhu (UTF) island harbour for the Maldivian coast guard, funded and constructed by India. This has been one of the issues haunting bilateral relations apart from the so-called presence of Indian military personnel. Independent of the India factor(s), there is the more recent Maldives-Mauritius IMBL (international maritime boundary line) issue, to settle only a part of which President Solih had written a letter to Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jagaunath late last year.

Like with the UTF issue, the Solih government did claim that it had not compromised Maldivian interests in the Mauritius case too. However, owing to poor to non-existent communication, which is a basic requirement in any democracy, neither did Solihs MDP (Maldivian Democratic Party) administration convince the political Opposition, nor the more sympathetic sections of the Male elite. By the time Team Solih seemingly understood the gaffe, the damage had been done  as the results would show. Between the two phases of the poll, the government confirmed as genuine a social media leak of the text of Solihs letter to Jagannauth. Ahead of the second-phase polling Solih announced the extension of his reckless (?) civilian housing schemes (to woo the voters) to UTF island, with a promised reclamation of 250 hectares for the purpose. The implication was that the harbour island would be thrown open to civilians (hence the media, too) to see for themselves if there was any Indian military presence, more so on a permanent basis and more than maybe required at the construction and training stages.

If and if only the Solih administration had been less secretive and more transparent about the UTF project, much of the domestic misgivings would have rendered the Opposition charges  and the latter too would have seen reassured, if that is what they actually sought. During the course of the campaign, Team Muizzu, including the challenger, had promised to publish all agreements with foreign governments  but with a rider on those that concerns national security. Hence, it is for the Muizzu government and also the Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF) to decide what in the UTF agreement, if at all, concerned national security. India does not really come into the future. But if their reading and understanding of the documents concerned would help clear the cloud that is hanging in the Team Yameens perception of India, it should be cleared in the normal course.

The same applies to the India-funded 6.74-km Thilamale sea bridge, the single largest project in the country, connecting Male with two neighbourhood islands, to help promote industrialisation and also de-congest the capital city, which is the most crowded capital in South Asia. A PhD-holder in structural engineering from Leeds University, UK, Muizzu was talking about fast-tracking the multiple development agreements, without clarifying if it would be done internally and/or with the overseas builder or if there could well be a change of the contracting party. Under President Yameen, it may be recalled, the government commissioned a Chinese firm to complete the unfinished part of the Male International Airport expansion works, after throwing out the Indian infra major, GMR Group. In doing so, the Yameen government readily paid huge compensation and damages to GMR, as ordered by a Singapore-based arbitration court

India First and India Out

Not many people, both inside and outside Maldives seem to know it, and those who may have known in the past, seem to have erased it from memory. The much-used India First policy, often attributed to the Solih government or the previous MDP government of estranged former party boss and incumbent Parliament Speaker, Mohammed Nasheed (2008-12). But the fact is that India First was a Yameen coinage when in power. Likewise, the UTF project and also the Indian gift of a Dornier aircraft, over and above the helicopters committed during the Nasheed presidency, too were Yameen initiatives.

Now with Yameens leadership back in the driving seat, the government combine as also President Muizzu after stepping in to office, may still want to review, not necessarily the multiple Indian agreements, but their own positions, after they have had access to related documents for a transparent and unbiased review. It still is on Indias platter, starting with the media and the strategic community, not to upset the apple-cart, if it could happen. From the Indian government side, New Delhi may have to revisit some of its pro-democracy posturing and public statements in the aftermath of the Yameen presidency imposing Emergency in February 2018, after the Supreme Court had unilaterally freed the jailed-and-self-exiled MDP president Nasheed and a few other political prisoners.

Yameens India Out campaign was a product of estrangement with India, especially after his electoral defeat in 2018, which threw up common Opposition candidate Solih as President, after electoral laws barred Nasheed from contesting. In its current review of the post-Solih bilateral relations, New Delhi needs to remember how coming literally from back, Muizzu could muster a high 46 per cent vote-share in the first-round against the incumbents 39 per cent, just after four weeks of poll campaign against the latters five long years. The final victory figure, 53.9-46.1 per cent, also reiterated the forgotten  or, unnoticed fact  that Yameen, even while losing the presidency as the incumbent in 2018, had actually polled a respectably substantial 42-per cent vote-share, all of it on his own steam.

China factor

The last but not necessarily the least of bilateral issues that will require to be addressed with a new president in place pertains to extra-regional power, China. Non-Maldivian media reports and commentaries on Muizzus candidacy and victory have consistently been referring to him as pro-China. The fact is that Muizzu by himself has not expressed any view on any foreign country through his three years as Male City Mayor, or as the Opposition candidate in the presidential polls now. He has not even remotely referred to China any which way, even granting that his periodic mention of foreign agreements, national independence, etc., might have referred to India, if only by default, if at all. Whatever attributes that are made to him are in relation to the un-erased perceptions and memories about the Yameen leadership and government. Maybe, there is a need to wait and watch, not only about how the Muizzu government relates to India, but also how differently Yameen too may do so  if at all.

There is no denying that China (too) was openly welcomed in Yameens Maldives, especially after he visited China twice in two years, and President Xi Jinping became the first Chinese leader to came down to the archipelago in between. The multiple projects, starting with the prestigious and people-centric Sinamale Bridge, connecting capital Male and the airport island of Hulhule, and a few housing and social sector development projects also involved China, which has been around in this sector since the commencement of post-tsunami reconstruction, under Presidents Gayoom, Nasheed and Waheed.

Yameen was also fast-tracked an FTA with China, where too his government could have been as transparent as his combine wanted successor Solih administration to be with all foreign agreements. The Solih government did not have the MDP-controlled Parliament to consider and/or pass the China FTA, but then until the last fortnight of the first-round poll, it did sign or launch at least two China-funded projects. The problem was thus not about China or India or any other nation funding development projects.

An aspiration-driven small-island nation cannot do without. The question is how to make sure that how extra-regional powers are not introduced in ways that it seeks to test regional stability and security  or perceptions of the Indian kind vis-a-vis China have been. It is this one issue that needs to be addressed  and addressed together. The question is which of the two countries, whether India or Maldives has to take the initiative under a Muizzu government, Yameen leadership  and how.

It is not like who blinks first. Rewinding to circa 2013, when Yameen became the president, may help figure out where to begin and begin both should. After all, India has been the single-largest provider of all essentials, from food to medicines, and every daily needs, for the average Maldivians  which a Maldivian government can afford to overlook only at the risk of becoming unpopular nearer home, what with periodic elections, to Parliament next April and all local councils across the country, between now and the next presidential polls five years from now, in 2028.

The writer is a Chennai-based policy analyst and political commentator. 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 Maldives has elected a new president  Mohamed Muizzu. He defeated the sitting president Ibrahim Solih. Thats bad news for India because Muizzu was a pro-China candidate and now, he is a pro-China president-elect.

The election

The election results were announced this weekend. It was the second round between Solih and Muizzu. In the first round on 9 September, neither candidate crossed 50 per cent but this time, Muizzu did. He got 54 per cent of the votes and the incumbent Solih got 46 per cent.

As the result came in, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Muizzu, one of the first leaders to do so. He said: India remains committed to strengthening the time-tested India-Maldives bilateral relationship and enhancing our overall cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.

Why Maldives matters

Its an archipelago in the Indian Ocean (meaning its a chain of islands) and the Indian Ocean is the nerve centre of global trade. Around 80% of oil is shipped via this ocean and the Maldives is like a toll gate on this route.

Historically, its been part of Indias sphere of influence but now, China wants in. Beijing has been trying to reduce Indian influence in the Indian Ocean. They already have key assets in Sri Lanka and the Maldives could be next.

The big question is

India and President Solih together kept China at bay, but will the new president do the same? Heres why the question. Muizzu belongs to the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM). His mentor is former president Abdullah Yameen. Yameen was supposed to run for president but, he was disqualified  convicted and jailed for corruption. Thats how Muizzu got the job.

Now, the PPM isnt just pro-China, its also anti-India. The same party came up with the India out campaign and seeks to end Indian influence in the Maldives. President Solih was the opposite. He openly declared that his policy was India first.

So, you had two very different positions  one was India first and the other was India out  and the latter won.

Mohamed Muizzu has been a minister in the past. During that stint, he signed multiple deals with China. One was worth 200 million dollars to connect the capital to the main airport. He also met Chinese communist party officials last year. He said his partys comeback would strengthen relations between China and the Maldives.

Whats the answer?

Does that mean he will abandon India? New Delhi has given three billion dollars to the Maldives. Thats loans plus aid. There are schools being built, bridges, stadiums, hospitals, and all kinds of projects. So, divorcing India isnt an option, the footprint is simply too big.

But heres what Muizzu and company can do  make Chinas footprint bigger. Beijing wants a free trade agreement with the Maldives. Solih had refused to play ball. His successor may not. Same with Chinese investments. Solih preferred Indian companies and military equipment. Chances are, his successor wont.

What happens next?

So, there is no point denying the reality. This is a strategic setback for India. But is it also the end of the road? Its too early to say. What happens next depends on a number of factors. For instance, is Mohamed Muizzu his own man or will he be controlled by Abdullah Yameen?

The early signs are not good. After winning the election, Muizzu spoke to Ibrahim Solih. He got Yameen released from jail. He is now under house arrest. This is a big worry for New Delhi because for Yameen, taking on India isnt just about policy, it somehow seems personal.

Another factor is Indias attitude. Do we pull back from the Maldives or do we keep engaging irrespective of Muizzus attitude? PM Modis message on Sunday was a positive sign. There was no hesitation or delay  he was one of the first to congratulate Muizzu. The key is to build on that. No, there wont be the same enthusiasm and yes, the new president will be closer to China but not engaging could make things worse. It would give Beijing a free pass.

What should India do?

So, India needs to dig deep. It needs to pull out cards that China cannot, like historical relations, cultural exchange, the people-to-people relations. All of this could give India a fighting chance. Also, this election is a lesson for Indian policy-makers  dont take neighbours for granted. You cant bank on just one political party. You need multipartisan support. If not, this is the risk.

These are very important relationships for India. As the government says  its neighbourhood first but for that, you need broad support  from ordinary people, from the opposition and of course, the ruling party.

Clearly, India does not have that in the Maldives. The new president Muizzu takes charge only in November but his actions until then should give us an idea about Indias future  whether its back a few steps, or back to square one.
In a recent development that has ignited fresh tensions in an ongoing conflict, Turkish warplanes conducted airstrikes in northern Iraq, targeting Kurdish militants.

Around 20 sites were bombed, including caves, shelters and depots. Ankara hasnt confirmed the number of kills, but their statement says, many militants were neutralised.

The Bombing

The Turkish airstrikes in Iraq were viewed as retaliation for a suicide attack carried out by Kurdish militants a day earlier. Their target was Turkiyes interior ministry, which a very secure building in Ankara.

Two attackers arrived at the scene in a stolen vehicle at approximately 9:30 AM local time. The first attacker tried to breach the building and was immediately shot dead. The second had a bomb strapped onto him. He opened fire at the security officials before setting it off.

The whole thing was captured on camera. Two security officials were injured, but no deaths from the bombing. The only victim was the owner of the vehicle. The attackers killed him before stealing it.

The Timing

The timing of these events is crucial, as Turkeys parliament was set to reconvene on Sunday, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan scheduled to address lawmakers. However, the focus of the address shifted to the bombing, suggesting that it may have been a deliberate part of the attackers plan.

The History

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has claimed responsibility for the bombing. It was founded in the late 1970s. Its mission is to create a separate country called Kurdistan.

The Kurds are an ethnic group in West Asia, like Arabs and Persians, but unlike them  the Kurds dont have a country. They are spread across multiple countries, including Syria, Iraq, Turkiye and Iran.

In the late 70s, Kurds in Turkiye began to agitate demanding a separate country, which Ankara rejected.

By the 1980s their methods changed, and the PKK became more radical and violent. Northern Iraq served as a safe haven for the PKK, controlled by Iraqs own Kurdistan Workers Party. From there, the PKK launched various attacks, including suicide bombings, ambushes, and kidnappings, resulting in a protracted and deadly conflict that has claimed the lives of approximately 40,000 individuals.

The Present

Turkiye considers the PKK as a terrorist organisation, and so does the US and the European Union. While the PKKs influence has diminished over the years, Erdogan described Sundays attack as the final flutters of terrorism.

We will continue our struggle with determination until the last terrorist is eliminated domestically and abroad. We will not allow the terrorist organisation to direct politics and prevent our countrys blessed march. The attack this morning where two villains were neutralised as a result of the timely intervention of our security units is the final flutters of terrorism, he said.

Final flutter or not, Turkiye has responded with force like they have before. Ankara has carried out such operations in the past as well. Sometimes against Kurds in Syria, sometimes in Iraq. There was an operation in August as well. Turkish drones hit Kurdish targets in northern Iraq. Around 7 militants were killed.

Now, there is a key difference to note here. Technically, the Kurds in Syria and Iraq are linked to each other, but in Syria, the West supports them. The group is called YPG, the peoples defence units. And why does the West support them? Because the YPG is fighting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Its a bit complicated, but the bottomline is this: Erdogan considers all Kurds to be his enemies, the West considers only some of them. So, Sundays attack is ammunition for Erdogan. How? We can think of three ways.

Number one: To crack down on Kurdish political parties. Its already happening. Around 20 people have been arrested in Turkiye  one is a Kurdish provincial spokesman, the other is a local party chief. They have been accused of funding the PKK.

Number two: To justify his planned operation in Syria. Erdogan has talked about creating a security corridor. It would be 30 kilometres wide. It would also keep the Kurdish militants at bay  at least thats the assumption. But to do that, he needs to launch an operation inside Syria. He needs to drive Kurdish militants away from the border. The West has rejected his plan, but on Sunday, after the attack, he repeated it. Erdogan promised to push ahead with the corridor.

Number three: As more leverage against NATO. Erdogan is holding up Swedens entry into the alliance. Their disagreement is over Kurds. Many of them have been granted asylum in Sweden. Erdogan says  extradite them. And Sundays attack supports his position, more than Swedens. After all, the capital was targeted.

The last time Ankara was attacked was in 2016. There were five attacks in a single year. So this latest bombing comes after a period of 8 years. Hence the quick response.

There is no doubt that Kurdish terrorism has bled Turkiye. It has killed innocent civilians and Turkish security personnel. Erdogan may have inflated the threat, but the point is  its a real one. It could lead to a widespread crackdown on Kurdish people  both inside Turkiye, and outside.
The ethnic violence in the volatile north-Indian state of Manipur, that has so far claimed 152 lives, displacement of 50,000 and has led to the arrest of nearly 15,000 people, has been one of the most misinterpreted and little-understood tragedies in recent times.

The narrative in the western and liberal media that tends to interpret India through the orientalist lens of either Christian evangelism or Hindu majoritarianism holds the BJP, the party in power at the Centre and the state, responsible for the explosion of violence between the Meitei and the Kuki groups.

The Meiteis are predominantly Hindus who form a narrow majority and occupy the plains of Imphal valley that is geographically smaller but more developed while the Kuki tribes, that share ethnicity with the Chin, Hmar and Zo (or Zomi) people, are mostly Christians based on the states hill districts that are geographically larger and predominantly agricultural.

To explain the orgy of intermittent violence between the two communities since May 3, media has predictably focused on the majority-minority and Hindu-Christian divides, spiced up by the European Parliaments so-called resolution in July that interpreted the violence as an attack on Manipurs Christian community. It completely misdiagnoses the problem.

As Indias Supreme Court has observed, the violence has claimed victims on both sides of the ethno-religious divide, and both Meitei and Kuki women have been subjected to gruesome sexual violence.

Clashes among these ethnic groups have occurred in the past, notably in 2015. What began on 3 May, however, is unprecedented in scale and intensity. It was seemingly triggered by a high court order that recommended the inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list, which, if adopted by the state, would allow the ethnic Meiteis to buy land in the protected hill districts populated by the Kukis and other tribes.

Though the Meiteis are native to Manipur, they cannot buy land in the tribal-majority hill districts, whereas the hill-based tribal groups may buy land in the valley. This has been a long-standing grouse of the Meitei, who want a restoration of their tribal status.

The ST status issue is doubtless a major fault line that adds to the complexity of the socio-economic divide of the valley and hill districts of Manipur but, contrary to popular discourse, the crisis isnt one-dimensional, nor are the painful developments occurring in medias res.

The horrific bloodletting that has rendered the federal and state administrations virtually defunct for months, forced people to flee their burning homes and take refuge in jungles and relief camps across the border, and has created two de facto administrative zones along the valley and hill regions in the beleaguered state, owes as much to illegal migration, guerilla insurgency movements, drug cartels, narco-terror networks and other transnational crimes across borders as to the multifaceted crises unfolding in a dysfunctional Myanmar, the military-ruled, conflict-torn, heavily sanctioned nation that shares a 1,700km-long frontier with four Indian states, including a 400km unfenced, porous border with Manipur.

The scale of the violence that turned Manipur almost into a war zone, with gangs armed with sophisticated weaponry burning down houses, massacring civilians, ravaging villages and townships and creating militarized buffer zones where even the Indian armed forces found it difficult to tread, cannot be explained by the narrative of anger over a court ruling, though the issue may have acted as a tipping point.

What, therefore, lies at the heart of this violence? To get a better perspective, we need to closely examine two disconnected acts by the Indian state that took place at different times and garnered little attention.

The first of these events happened in October last year when government agencies, led by the Centres campaign against drugs, destroyed approximately 40,000 kg of narcotics in the northeastern region. This pointed to a stark reality that has gone severely under-reported in India: Manipurs traditional role as a transit point for the transnational drug corridor spanning Myanmar, Thailand and Laos  the infamous Golden Triangle was changing, and the northeastern state was becoming more integral to the regional drug economy led by an explosion of poppy cultivation in its hill districts.

An exploration of the drug angle is vital to our understanding of the nature of violence that exploded in Manipur and shattered its body politic. According to data from the states anti-drugs unit Narcotics and Affairs of Border (NAB), in the five-year period between 2017 and 2023, poppy cultivation erupted in Manipur across 15,400 acres of land in the hill districts, among which 13,122 acres were in Kuki-Chin-dominated areas, 2,340 acres in Naga-dominated areas and 35 acres were others.

Indias campaign against drugs was being led by Amit Shah, the Union home minister, who in a meeting with chief ministers, bureaucrats and top cops of all northeastern states on Drug Trafficking and National Security, held in Guwahati, Assam, on October 8, 2022, said the federal government was trying to synergize the efforts of northeastern states and all anti-narcotics agencies to go beyond catching the drug abusers and distributors and nab the masterminds who send drugs from outside the border to India, which naturally meant that the spread of drug network within the country will have to be demolished by preventing network and cross-border smuggling.

Calling drug consumption in northeast India a serious problem, the minister said the region shares international borders with four countries and is close to Myanmar which is the second largest producer of opium in the world after Afghanistan.

Part of the Centres efforts were directed towards constituting one Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) as a single nodal point, detention of top 100 drug traffickers and several measures to eradicate illegal farming in hilly and difficult areas using drones and latest technology.

I have gone into some detail in covering the conference outcome since it triggered a chain of events that ultimately led to the denouement on 3 May.

On December 2022, two months after the holding of that conference, Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh, who leads a BJP government in the state, issued an ultimatum to the Kuki rebel outfits involved in illegal poppy cultivation.

In December 2021, the Netherlands-based Transnational Institute released a report named Causes and Consequences of the Opium Decline in Myanmar where it identified Manipur as a place where poppy cultivation has significantly increased over the last 15 years, primarily as a means of subsistence and that Manipur seems to be more integrated within the regional drug economy and connected to other actors, notably from Myanmar. The report also carried interviews of opium cultivators of farmers who underlined that opium cultivation had improved their economic situation, yielding annual earnings typically ranging between $5,400-$9,400.

Now lets look at what the Biren Singh government did in December last year. The state government suspended two police officers for letting escape two village chiefs from Kangpopki district, who were involved in poppy cultivation, and an angry chief minister issued a last warning to Kuki militant outfits that are encouraging illegal poppy cultivation in the remote parts of the state and collecting unauthorised tax from cultivators, and threatened to declare war against poppy cultivators without any compromise, according to a Times of India report.

Data from Manipurs NAB showed the state government has destroyed 18,664 acres of poppy plantations from 2017 to 2023, and the most severely affected regions of this drive were the Kuki tribe-dominated districts of Kangpokpi, where 4,397 acres of opium plantations were razed, followed by Churachandpur at 2,700 acres. According to an NDTV report, one of the big operations was carried out in December 2022, five months before the ethnic unrest broke out, that coincided with the harvest season, ending all hopes of making any money from half-a-year worth of farming.

We know from NAB data that the explosion of opium cultivation occurred mostly in the Kuki-Chin populated region of Manipur  showing a 30 per cent increase from 2,001 acres in 2017-18 to 2,600 acres in 2021-22. It is also known that poor farmers belonging to the Kuki-Chin community depended on poppy farming for subsistence and that Manipur opium yields fetch good money in the international market.

What has added volatility and complexity to this issue is the involvement of Golden Triangle drug cartels and cross-border insurgent groups from Myanmar who have found in Manipur abundant land, corrupt administration and desperately poor farming community to expand their narco-terror network. This, as the Dutch report pointed out, made Manipur more integral to the regional drug economy.

The Diplomat magazine quoted Bhagat Oinam, a professor of philosophy at New Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University, a Meitei by ethnicity, as saying, What has happened over the past few years is an explosion in poppy cultivation in Manipurs Kuki-dominated districts backed by drug cartels and insurgent groups with a cross-border network, resulting in huge loss of forest cover. They use the drug money to buy weapons.

The 3 May violence, therefore, wasnt just a vociferous explosion of anger against a court ruling, but a cynical attempt by the drug mafias and narco terror networks  angered and disadvantaged by the state governments War on Drugs  to spark a civil war in Manipur, destabilize the government and force a rollback of the policy. In the court ruling on giving the Meitei community ST status, these actors found the perfect opportunity to spark ethnic violence.

Since the unrest in Manipur, the drug operators and trade seem to be moving towards the neighbouring Mizoram, another state in Indias northeast affected by the Myanmar juntas crackdown on the Kuki-chin community.

This takes us to the second point  the destabilizing factor of armed insurgents from Myanmar, many of whom have kinship ties with transnational ethnic communities straddling India and regularly slip into the northeastern states taking advantage of the free-movement regime (FMR).

In July, Indias foreign minister S Jaishankar met his counterpart from Myanmars military-led government, U Than Swe, on the sidelines of the Mekong-Ganga Summit in Bangkok. During the scarce bilateral, Jaishankar underlined the importance of ensuring peace and stability in our border areas, and made it clear that Indias border areas have been seriously disturbed recently and any actions that aggravate the situation should be avoided.

Jaishankars meeting with Than Swe followed Indias defence secretarys two-day official visit to Myanmar, during which the two sides discussed issues related to maintenance of tranquillity in the border areas, illegal trans-border movements and transnational crimes such as drug trafficking and smuggling.

The 1,643 km long India-Myanmar border runs across the four northeastern states of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, and is governed by FMR, an arrangement between the two countries allowing transnational ethnic tribes and communities to travel up to 16 km inside the other country without a visa.

The northeastern states of India, populated by a diverse group of Sino-Tibetan communities, are closer to the south-eastern countries bordering India geographically, culturally, and even in terms of connectivity. These states are tied to the Indian mainland only through the narrow Siliguri Corridor.

Instability in Myanmar, therefore, has a direct bearing on Indias national security. The ongoing pitched battle in Myanmar  between the military junta that seized power through a coup detat in 2021 by unseating the democratically elected National League for Democracy government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, and pro-democracy forces  has completely upended regional diplomacy, turned the Southeast Asian nation into a restive state beset with ethnic rivalry, violent crackdown and civil war, and has brought a simmering crisis bang on Indias doorstep affecting the sensitive northeastern states.

American policy failures have worsened the crisis in Myanmar in two more ways, as I wrote recently for Firstpost.

One, wave after wave of debilitating sanctions (the US has imposed 20 rounds targeting key figures of the military junta, defence ministry, business entities, state-owned enterprises and brokers while the European Union and the UK have imposed six separate rounds) have triggered a meltdown in Myanmars economy. Investors have been spooked away, unemployment rates have shot up while the currency has suffered a collapse leading to a refugee crisis.

Two, Americas stated decision through the BURMA Act to back the armed insurgents operating within Myanmar that are seeking to overthrow the Tatmadaw, involves substantial injection of funds and non-lethal assistance for ethnic armed organizations. This has caused the regime to step up its brutalities in Myanmars Chin state and the northwestern Sagaing regions, both bordering India and offering the stiffest armed resistance to the military regime.

In January 2022, reports emerged of the junta torching village after village in Chin state in western Myanmar bordering India. Guardian quoted human rights groups to report that as many as 80,000 people were forced to flee their homes, almost 900 were arrested between February 2022 and December 2021, while 182 people were killed during the same period.

A year later in April 2022, the junta launched a massive airstrike on the resistance movement outside Pazigyi village in Sagaing region, killing more than 100 people, including children, using deadly enhanced blast munitions, also known as vacuum bomb. A crowd had gathered in the village for the opening of a local office of the countrys resistance movement, according to reports.

The Chin Human Rights Organisation in Myanmar reported a total of 14 airstrikes by the Tatmadaw on rebels since the 2021 coup. In a report filed in January this year, VOA quoted the organisation as saying that at least 200 Chin refugees crossed the border last week following airstrikes by the Myanmar military on a key rebel camp on the India-Myanmar border Within the first half of this month, the Myanmar junta carried out four airstrikes in Chin state.

To escape the crackdown, Kuki-Chin refugees have sought shelter in India by thousands. According to figures from UNHCR, the refugee agency of the United Nations, the Myanmar civil war has displaced 1,827,000 people since February 2021, among which over 53000, mostly from the conflict-ridden Chin state and Sagaing region, have entered Indias Mizoram and Manipur states till May 2023.

The massive influx of refugees, including armed militants, has affected the states delicate ecological and demographic balance and added to the volatility in Manipur where anger has started rising over illegal infiltration and its possible effect on employment and land rights.

Notably in March, two months before the breaking of violence, the Democratic Students Alliance of Manipur (DESAM), an umbrella group of Meitei student organisations, held demonstrations outside the chief ministers home demanding National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state and the setting up of a Population Commission to stop the ongoing influx.

According to a report in The Print, the students body issued a statement, claiming that outsiders coming from the other side of Indian boundaries, especially Myanmar, are taking full advantage of possessing similar facial composition, skin colour, and language as they create and expand their own villages, encroaching land which is owned by the state on the hills of Manipur, and large numbers of illegal immigrants who have entered Manipur recently through the porous border have settled in new villages have come up in the hill areas with encroachment of forest land.

How credible is this claim?

A report in The Hindu, citing satellite imagery data from government sources, reported that in 1969, there were 587 villages in the Imphal valley, which is dominated by the non-tribal Meiteis. That dropped to 544 villages in 2021. On the other hand, in the hill districts  which are inhabited mostly by 34 Scheduled Tribes including the Kukis and the Nagas  there were 1,370 settlements and villages in 1969. By 2021, however, this had shot up to 2,244 villages.

In the month of July, the Manipur government requested Indian paramilitary forces to repatriate 718 refugees from Myanmar who had illegally entered the state and had settled in the Kuki-dominated Chandel district due to the clashes in the Sagaing region of Myanmar. An internal report of the state government had identified over 2,000 illegal immigrants from across the border in four hill districts, in addition to 5,500 illegal immigrants who were caught in the border town of Moreh in September 2020 among which 4,300 were pushed back.

Under fire from the Opposition, Union home minister Shah told the Parliament that the government has fenced 10 kilometres, is fencing seven more kilometres of the border and from January 2023, have used biometrics to detect and update voter lists and Aadhaars negative lists to dispel a feeling of fear that had crept into our Meitei brothers.

A day before the violence erupted in Manipur, on May 2, CM Singh at a press conference in Imphal said illegal immigration from Myanmar to Manipur is such that we have so far detained 410 people from that country who have been staying in the state without proper documents. There is an additional 2,400 of them seeking shelter in detention homes along the border areaswho have fled Myanmar, adding, We have reasons to believe that there must be many more Myanmarese residing illegally in Manipur

If drug cartel is one end of the spectrum, the other end is the massive infiltration by the persecuted Kuki-Chin people who have been settled illegally into uninhabited forested hillsides that are protected by provisions of the Indian Forest Act. The governments eviction drive to remove newly settled encroachers from the reserved forests in March proved another flashpoint.

The missing link in the puzzle between drug mafia, poppy cultivation, cross-border infiltration, insurgency groups and smuggling network is the access to lethal, illegal weapons and firearms that have found uninterrupted supply into the hands of both warring groups. While the Meiteis have frequently raided state police armories, the Kuki militants have benefitted from cross-border links with various insurgent groups battling the Myanmar army.

According to a paper published by Anuradha Oinam of the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), Myanmars ethnic groups, such as the Kuki-Chin or Zomi migrated and settled along the IMB bordering Assam, Manipur and Mizoram. Many insurgent groups such as the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) and small groups of Kukis, Zomies have built camps in Sagaing Division, Kachin state and Chin state. They took shelter there, obtained arms, trained cadres, and, most importantly, engaged in illegal activities such as smuggling drugs and selling weapons to raise funds. This is possible because of the porous borders and frequent misuse of FMR. Therefore, managing and administering the border areas effectively is pertinent for reducing drug trafficking and illegal cross-border movement on unfenced borders.

The deadly violence has reportedly been fuelled by automatic weaponry such as (German-made) Heckler & Koch MP5 rifles, or folded AK 47s brazenly paraded by Kuki militants who have benefitted from the drug money to buy lethal firearms.

In a ground report, Jaideep Mazumder of Swarajya quotes Indian intelligence sources to write that the Arakan Army in Myanmar possesses Barrett M22 ASRs and have used those weapons with devastating effect against the military junta. The Arakan Army is a close ally of the Chin National Army (CNA) and Chinland Defence Force in Myanmar. The CNA is believed to have sent many of its well-trained cadres into Manipur to help the Kukis in the state in their fight against the Meiteis.

Evidently, the Manipur crisis is the result of a complex conflation of issues that cannot be explained by lazy analysis such as Hindu majoritarianism, or anti-Christian violence. As the state limps back to an uneasy calm, it will continue to pose a Herculean challenge to the writ of Indian state.

This piece first appeared in The India Journal magazine. 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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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday, slammed the Congress-led Chhattisgarh and said the party has degraded the condition of the state.

Addressing a public meeting in poll-bound Chhattisgarhs Jagdalpur, PM Modi said: Congress has made Loktantra as loottantra and prajatantra as Parivartantra.

Everyone is fed up with this (CM Bhupesh Bhagel-led Congress) government in Chhattisgarh. Corruption and crime are at their peak in the state. Sometimes it seems like Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh are competing with each other over the crime rates, the Prime Minister said.

Chhattisgarh is among the leading states in terms of killings. It seems like Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan are competing with each other over more murders, loots and crime against women, says PM Modi in Jagdalpur, he said.

PM Modi went on to say that in Chhattisgarh, development is seen either on posters or in the lockers of the leaders of the Congress government. Chhattisgarh is demanding change, he added.

Congress neglecting Bastar for years

Intensifying his attack on the Congress, PM Modi in Bastar said the party neglected the region of Chhattisgarh for decades.

Congress has neglected Bastar for years. They never thought about the peoples interests. BJP has done several development works here You all know that as compared to Congress, the BJP gives five times more budget for the tribal people here, PM said.

He said Congress gave a Jhutha prachar aur ghotalebaaz sarkar in Chhattisgarh.

Corruption rampant all across Chhattisgarh

Intensifying his attack, PM Modi said: Congress has a track record of looting natural resources of the state.

The entire country is watching the condition of Chhattisgarh that the Congress has done in the last five years. Corruption is rampant all across the state, he said.

Wont allow Congress to become owner of steel plant

The Prime Minister said Congress government in Chhattisgarh wants to capture the steel plant and earn a lot of money doing do.

Congressmen want to make the steel plant a medium to fill the coffers of their children and relatives, but Modi will not allow this to happen because the owners of the steel plant are the people of Bastar, PM said, adding, I will not allow any Congressman to become the owner of this plant.

More steel industries to be set up in Bastar

The steel industries developed here will provide jobs to more than 55,000 people. More steel industries are to be set up here, giving jobs to more than one lakh people. In the upcoming years, youngsters from across the nation will come to Bastar for employment, PM Modi said.

Chhattishgarh is known for steel manufacturing. We are focusing more on infrastructure development, the PM said.

The Prime Minister further said, The vision of developed India will be fulfilled when every corner of the country will be developed Physical, digital and social infrastructure are crucial parameters for a developed nation.

He further said after the electrification of the railway network in Chhattisgarh, Vande Bharat train is also being operated. In the upcoming years, all the stations of the state will be developed and transformed by the Central government, he said.
An exhibition has been organized as part of the 74th International Astronautical Congress., Azernews reports.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva and their son Heydar Aliyev attended the opening of the exhibition.

Following the ribbon cutting ceremony symbolizing the opening of the exhibition, the attendees familiarized themselves with the stands of participating companies.

The pavilion of the exhibition, installed on an area of 8,000 square meters, features the stands of 150 companies representing 36 countries.

The head of state and the First Lady viewed the stands of the Turkish Space Agency, the Saudi Space Agency, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Indian Space Research Organization, the Israel Aerospace Industries, the Italian Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Chinese Society of Astronautics and other companies.

The Baku Congress has already surpassed the congresses held in Australia, Germany, U.S., UAE and France in terms of number of sponsorship packages bought by 22 companies in space industry. The Congress has over 30 sponsors.

4 main sponsorship packages, including Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze ones, were bought by the US companies such as Space X, Axiom Space, Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, BlackSky Vast, Northrop Grumman, the Chinese Society of Astronautics, the Turkish Space Agency, the Plan S technology company, the Saudi Space Agency, Israel Aerospace Industries, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, the Indian Space Research Organization, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, ispace, JGC Holdings Corporation, Astroscale companies, Aiurbus Office in Germany, Intersputnik International Organization of Space Communications, Portugal's Neuraspace company, Bulgaria's EnduraSat company, Austria's Asgardia Space company, the Italian Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the UK Space Agency, Amazon's Project Kuiper, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Voyager Space company.

Founded in 1951, the International Astronautical Federation is the worlds leading space advocacy body with more than 460 members in 110 countries, including all leading space agencies, companies, research institutions, universities, societies, associations, institutes and museums worldwide.

As organizer of the annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC)  worlds premier global space event  and other thematic events, the IAF actively encourages the development of astronautics for peaceful purposes and supports the dissemination of scientific and technical information related to space. Azerbaijan has been a member of the International Astronautical Federation since 2003.




BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)  A North Dakota lawmaker who had flown to Arizona to be part of his sisters sendoff before she deployed overseas gave the woman a hug and told her to stay safe.

Hours later, state Sen. Doug Larsen, his wife, and their two young sons were killed on their way home when the single-engine Piper Cherokee he was flying crashed in Utah on Sunday after a refueling stop.

Peggy Steimel said it was the first time Larsen, of Mandan, and his family had flown the plane to visit her in Scottsdale, Arizona. She said her brother made the trip so he could be part of her sendoff before she deployed for about a year overseas with the Arizona National Guard.

Larsen had been a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in the North Dakota National Guard, and Steimel tearfully recalled their final conversation and the advice her older brother gave her.

He gave me a hug and we said we loved each other  and said, Stay safe.

Larsen, his wife, Amy, and the two boys died later Sunday when his plane crashed shortly after takeoff from a refueling stop at Canyonlands Airfield near the desert recreation town of Moab, Utah. The senator was piloting the plane, according to the Grand County Sheriffs Office.

Steimel identified the sons as 11-year-old Christian and 8-year-old Everett.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, with a preliminary report expected in two weeks.

Federal Aviation Administration records show that Larsens Piper PA-28-140, popularly known as a Cherokee, was built in 1966. Its airworthiness certificate was renewed in June through 2030, indicating it had passed a safety inspection. The Piper Cherokee family is one of the most widely produced planes in general aviation. Larsen bought it to gain flying experience toward getting his commercial license, close friend Joe Faller said.

Faller, who served with Larsen in the Guard, was best man at Doug and Amys wedding and a godparent to Christian. He said Larsen flew him from Minnesota to Bismarck, North Dakota, in his plane last month.

For the three hours that we were on the plane, thats all he talked about, Faller said. He told me all the things about the plane: exactly how this works, where we were at. He had a passion for that.

The weather at the time of the crash was mild, with scattered light showers, wide visibility and gentle winds in the area around the airport, according to the National Weather Service. Aerial video posted by KSL-TV of Salt Lake City, Utah, showed the plane went down in a desert area devoid of vegetation, and sustained extensive damage to the nose area and right wing. It came to rest upright.

He was so careful. When I flew with him, he would check everything before hed take off. He was very, very serious about that, said Danielle Hilzendeger, another one of Larsens sisters.

Steimel said that during the extended family's weekend together, they did a family photo shoot, ate pizza from a local restaurant, swam in the pool in her backyard, listened to music by Jimmy Buffet, and played baseball together.

Steimel also said her mom joked that they should prepare a last meal of Steimels favorite foods before she deployed. So they had a Midwestern-style family dinner with ham, hash brown casserole, broccoli salad and pumpkin pie.

When I tell you that we had the best weekend together as a family, it truly was  we had so much fun together. We thought we were preparing to say goodbye to me  not Doug, Amy and the boys, Steimel said in a follow-up message.

Larsen flew Black Hawk helicopters as part of his 29 years of service with the North Dakota Army National Guard, according to Republican state Sens. Jim Roers, a longtime licensed pilot, and Mike Wobbema, a retired military aviator.

A Guard spokesman said Larsen had logged about 1,776 total military flight hours.

Roers said he and Larsen connected over their mutual love of aviation, and earlier this year talked about Larsen becoming a commercial pilot. He said Larsen absolutely embraced the idea, and that he then introduced Larsen to a veteran United Airlines pilot and trainer.

Roers said Larsen had recently earned his commercial pilots license, and had received at least one job offer from commuter airlines, with a goal of flying for a major airline. An FAA record shows a pilot with the same name and similar flight experience as Larsen had obtained a commercial pilot certificate on Sept. 15.

In the North Dakota statehouse, Rep. Paul Thomas and Sen. Cole Conley offered tributes to Larsen on Tuesday after about 20 lawmakers had gathered for a routine meeting. The room observed a moment of silence.

Thomas and Conley both entered the Legislature in 2020 with Larsen, a fellow Republican, and recounted their early days at the Capitol with him.

Thomas commended Larsens North Dakota National Guard career and his service to others.

Sen. Larsen was what we all here aspired to be as servants to our members and our district as well as our friends and family, Thomas said.

Conley said Larsen loved to host events, inviting colleagues to his home in Mandan, and cooking tacos, chili and other meals for Senate caucus meetings. Larsen also once offered to find Conley a car when his broke down.

Larsen represented a district encompassing Mandan, which neighbors Bismarck to the west across the Missouri River. He chaired a Senate panel that handled industry- and business-related legislation.

Larsen mobilized with the military twice, according to the governors office. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, Bronze Service Star and Army Aviator Badge, among other honors.

He and Amy Larsen owned businesses that included a hotel and a home-building company.

District Republicans will appoint a successor to fill out the remainder of Larsen's term, through November 2024. Party Chair Sandi Sanford said an appointment will probably come after funeral services, out of respect. Larsen's Senate seat is on the ballot next year.

___

Ahmed reported from Minneapolis. Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
Tearing into the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and its leader and Telangana Chief Minister KCR, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that the BRS chief had wanted to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) soon after the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections.

The Prime Minister was addressing a rally in Telangana when he made the revelation.

When the BJP won 48 seats in the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election, KCR needed support. Before this election, he used to welcome me at the airport, but later suddenly he stopped doing so. After the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections, KCR came to meet me in Delhi and said that he wanted to join NDA. He also asked me to extend support to him. I told him (KCR) that due to his deeds Modi cannot be associated with him, PM Modi told the gathering.

I refused him entry into NDA I refused. I said, we will not cheat people of Telangana, the Prime Minister declared in his trademark fashion to the crowd.

The BRS chief (formerly known as the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti or TRS) has been known to be a very vocal critic of not only the Prime Minister but also of the ruling NDA. He had earlier even tried to form a Third Front comprising of like-minded political parties to take on the BJP at the Centre, but despite meeting and holding talks with opposition leaders, KCRs attempts to set up an alternative to the BJP did not see the light of day.

Telangana is among the states headed for assembly elections later this year and one where the BJP is trying hard to make inroads into KCRs home turf

The Prime Minister  whose party won a solitary seat in the 2018 Telangana election and does not boast of a government in South India  said his refusal angered and changed KCR, whom he also accused of corruption and nepotism in a scathing attack in Nizamabad, about 180 km from state capital Hyderabad.

Earlier in the day, PM Modi laid the foundation stone for multiple development projects worth more than Rs 8000 crores in important sectors like power, rail and health in Nizamabad, Telangana.

The projects include the dedication of 800 MW unit of phase 1 of Telangana Super Thermal Power Project of NTPC, rail projects including the new Railway Line connecting Manoharabad and Siddipet; and the electrification project between Dharmabad-Manoharabad and Mahabubnagar-Kurnool. He also laid the foundation stone of 20 Critical Care Blocks (CCBs) across the state under Pradhan Mantri  Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission.

The PM also flagged off the Siddipet-Secunderabad-Siddipet train service.
Tesla is facing a lawsuit over alleged discrimination, including displays of racist material and retaliation against employees who complained, at its California factories. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed the lawsuit in Northern Californias district court, claiming that Tesla violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act by retaliating against African-American employees at its Fremont factories who reported concerns about racist graffiti and mistreatment.

The lawsuit alleges that since 2015, African-American employees were exposed to racial slurs, epithets, and symbols, both in displays and verbal discrimination from non-African-American coworkers, including those in positions of authority over the employees involved in the suit. The graffiti was reportedly found on various surfaces, including desks, elevators, and production equipment. The graffiti involved several racial slurs, slogans from the Klu Klux Klan, and Hakenkreuz, the cross-like symbol which has often been referred to as the Nazi Swasitka.

In addition to the graffiti, the lawsuit states that the use of racial slurs, including the N-word, was common among non-African-American coworkers and supervisors. Workers have reported being referred to as derogatory terms and even mocked with monkey noises.

The lawsuit also alleges that when employees reported harassment and graffiti, they faced retaliation in the form of schedule changes, unfavourable duties, reassignments, unjustified write-ups, and termination. In some cases, African-American employees were fired shortly after reporting harassment, which the suit claims was in violation of Teslas policy not to retaliate.

The suit further alleges that supervisors and human resources officials at Tesla often failed to take appropriate action or refused to intervene when they witnessed or were informed about the discriminatory behaviour.

The EEOC invited Tesla to engage in informal mediation procedures to address the discriminatory practices, but the company did not agree to terms that the commission found acceptable.

This is not the first time Tesla has faced lawsuits related to racial discrimination, particularly at its Fremont factories. Despite these legal challenges, Teslas stock value has continued to rise, raising questions about how some supporters of the company view the allegations of racism at the locations where Tesla vehicles are manufactured.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella came out swinging as he took the witness stand in a Washington, D.C. courtroom, where Google is currently embroiled in one of its most formidable antitrust trials in recent years. In this legal battle between the US Justice Department and Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, Nadella delivered a compelling and impactful testimony.

Nadella answered questions about the formidable grip that Google maintains on the search engine industry and delved into the consequences of Googles multi-billion-dollar deal with Apple, specifically how this arrangement detrimentally affected Microsofts efforts to advance its Edge and Bing platforms.

Just eight months ago, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was enthusiastically touting his partnership with OpenAI, proclaiming that he could make Google dance. However, in a Washington, DC courtroom today, Nadella appeared noticeably less assured, conveying a sense of vulnerability and despondency.

The most noteworthy revelation from Nadellas testimony is the underwhelming impact of Microsofts substantial $13 billion investment in its partnership with OpenAI, which has transformed the dynamics of Bing.

This collaboration was expected to revolutionize the landscape of internet search. However, despite Bings enriched capabilities, including ChatGPT, it remains a marginal player in the search engine domain, while Google maintains its unassailable dominance.

By seeking regulatory intervention, Microsoft acknowledges the limitations of AI as a universal solution, offering a timely caution to the numerous startups, venture capital firms, and established companies heavily investing in AI transformations. Nadella acknowledges AIs potential to disrupt the market but also expresses concerns that it might further consolidate Googles supremacy.

Nadella underscores a fundamental aspect of search engines, which relies on websites permitting access for content indexing, a crucial element for user navigation. He characterizes search engines as the organising layer of the internet in this context.

However, as large language model-powered systems proliferate, content providers and platforms become wary of how their data is employed to train AI systems.

Nadella envisions a scenario in which publishers might strike exclusive agreements, granting only Google access to their data, thereby stifling competition. This raises critical questions about data availability and accessibility in the future.

Nadella also mentioned that some publishers with existing agreements with Google are approaching Bing to replicate similar arrangements. These developments underscore the intricate challenges in the ever-evolving landscape of search engines and AI.
The European Commission is taking steps to assess the risks associated with four critical technologies, which include semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and biotechnologies.

These assessments are being conducted in response to concerns about these technologies being weaponized by countries that do not share the European Unions values. The EU plans to complete risk assessments in collaboration with member states by the end of the year and will then take measures to mitigate these risks in the following year.

The measures to address these risks may include export controls and forming partnerships with like-minded allies.

This move aligns with the EUs economic security strategy announced in June and is reminiscent of similar actions taken by countries such as the United States and Australia, reflecting concerns about Chinas growing influence in these critical technology sectors.

The European Union has been working to reduce its dependence on other countries, particularly China, for essential products in response to supply chain disruptions triggered by events like the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine, which resulted in an energy crisis in the EU.

These measures aim to strengthen the EUs economic security and reduce vulnerabilities in key technology sectors.

The assessment of critical technologies includes quantum computing, advanced semiconductors, and artificial intelligence. These evaluations aim to ensure that these technologies do not enhance the military capabilities of countries that raise concerns within the EU.

The EU has expressed concerns in the past about its lack of a structured approach to assess which technology exports might be detrimental to the bloc. While China is not explicitly mentioned, the focus of these measures is evident.

The commission is also working on a proposal to restrict overseas funding by European companies, which could affect outbound investment. Additionally, the EU is preparing legislation to reduce its reliance on China for critical raw materials, particularly for products like electric cars.

In response, China has taken steps to limit access to essential materials like gallium and germanium, crucial for semiconductor production.

The EU has also initiated an investigation into Chinese electric car subsidies, raising concerns of a potential trade dispute with Beijing if it decides to impose tariffs on Chinese electric cars due to unfair practices in the EU market. These developments reflect ongoing tensions and competition in the global technology and trade landscape.
Apple possesses the necessary resources to introduce its own search engine as a potential substitute for Google. Furthermore, Microsoft even had discussions with Apple regarding a potential collaboration in bringing this idea to fruition, reveals a report by Mark Gurman, the notable analyst who covers all things Apple.

Gruman reports that for years, Apple has been developing its own search engine as a potential replacement for Google on its devices.

Is Apple planning on replacing Google in searches?

The rationale behind this consideration is that search functionality is one of the most frequently used tools on smartphones, tablets, and computers. Apples longstanding approach has been to control the core technologies that underlie its products.

Additionally, the financial stakes are substantial, as Apple currently receives a share of Googles search ad revenue, amounting to approximately $8 billion annually in recent years. The prospect of Apple deploying its own search engine successfully could potentially generate revenue on par with the Apple Watch, assuming it can monetize advertising and search slots at a rate similar to Google.

Although it remains a challenging undertaking, even if Apple cannot directly compete with Google, the company could still enhance its revenue by internalizing search.

Apple is well aware of these opportunities, which is why it has been experimenting with search technology for quite some time. These efforts yield benefits beyond just launching a Google alternative. They enable Apple to enhance its non-web search capabilities and serve as a valuable bargaining chip in negotiations with Google regarding pricing.

While Google reigns supreme in the search domain, it remains dependent on Apple and its vast user base. As long as their agreement is intact, Apple has an incentive to direct its customers towards Google. Increasing the promotion of Google search translates into higher revenue for Apple.

However, Apples internal search technology, once perfected, could potentially offer customers a more integrated and private solution compared to Google. The public has already seen glimpses of this with Apples search engines for services like the App Store, Maps, Apple TV, and News.

Pegasus  Apples internal search engine

John Giannandrea, a former Google executive overseeing machine learning and AI at Apple, leads a massive team dedicated to Apple Search. Over the past few years, his group developed a next-generation search engine for Apples apps, codenamed Pegasus. While this technology has been integrated into some Apple apps, it is slated for wider adoption, including within the App Store.

The most compelling evidence of Apples search endeavours lies in Spotlight, a tool that assists users in finding content across their devices. A few iOS and macOS versions ago, Apple began incorporating web search results into Spotlight, directing users to sites that can answer their queries. Siri also utilizes this technology for web results.

Giannandreas team is actively working to further integrate Apples search features into the iOS and macOS experience, possibly enhancing it with their new generative AI tools.

Several years ago, Apple introduced a web crawler named Applebot, which, like Googles and Microsofts crawlers, indexes websites for future search results. It serves to locate sites that can be presented to users through Siri and Spotlight.

Apple also maintains its advertising technology team, which could be instrumental if its search ambitions expand. This team manages search ad functions in the App Store, serves ads in Apple News, the stocks and weather apps, and negotiates advertising deals for streaming sports. It possesses the necessary skills and personnel to lay the foundation for a web search advertising group.

Apples AI-based browser?

AI offers Apple a potential entry point into the search arena. The companys machine learning team has been actively seeking new talent to work on search technologies, and Apple has made acquisitions that could pave the way for a search engine. In 2019, Apple acquired Laserlike, an AI-based search engine founded by former Google employees, which continues to operate within Apple.

Its worth noting that Apple had an opportunity to acquire Bing but chose not to pursue it, as revealed in recent reports. Eddy Cue, Apples Senior Vice President of Services, declined the offer, citing that Apple views Googles search as the best. However, this stance may be more about shielding Google from potential antitrust actions.

In the grand scheme, Google may remain the preferred choice until Apple believes it can offer a superior solution. Apple already designs its own chips, operates an App Store, sells music online, offers video and gaming services, and has an in-house maps app that competes with Google.

The only missing piece of the puzzle is a full-fledged Apple search engine, and while its launch may not be imminent, it could be closer to reality than one might think.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the witness stand in the ongoing legal battle between the US Justice Department and Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet. Nadella went in all guns blazing and took several hard-hitting shots at Google at a courtroom in Washington DC, where Google is facing one of its toughest antitrust trials in years.

During his compelling testimony, Nadella addressed inquiries regarding the challenges presented by Googles stronghold in the search engine sector. He also discussed the multi-billion-dollar agreement Google struck with Apple for iPhones and how this arrangement negatively impacted Microsofts endeavours to promote its Edge and Bing platforms.

Performative Testimony

Make no mistake though, Nadella was playing to the crowd of jurors and regulators.

Just eight months ago, Nadella proudly touted Microsofts partnership with OpenAI, suggesting he had the capability to make Google dance to his tune. However, during his testimony, Nadella appeared far less confident, sounding almost helpless in his attempt to break free from Googles influence. He made it a point to convey that no matter what he does, he can barely switch his laptop on without escaping Google.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Nadella testified in the antitrust trial concerning Googles search monopoly, highlighting how deeply ingrained Google is in peoples daily routines, comparing it to brushing ones teeth each morning.

In his testimony, Nadella even cleverly alluded to Google founder Larry Pages toothbrush test, which reflects the idea that Google creates products people use twice a day. It was an impressive performance by Nadella, who left no stone unturned in trying to gain an edge over his arch-rival.

Microsoft sees its OpenAI bet failing

However, the most significant revelation from this testimony is that Microsofts substantial investment of $13 billion in its partnership with OpenAI, which was regarded as an AI secret weapon, has yielded minimal gains in market share.

AI was expected to revolutionize internet search, but despite Microsofts Bing search engine possessing ChatGPT superpowers, it remains a minor player. Google continues to be the dominant force, unyielding to anyone but its own caretakers.

In his testimony, Nadella also acknowledged that despite initial excitement, he no longer believes that the emergence of ChatGPT will be sufficient to alter Googles dominance in the search sector. He expressed concern that Google might exploit its search dominance to exert undue pressure on content providers crucial for training generative AI models, particularly in light of Microsofts recent majority stake acquisition in the AI chatbot ChatGPT. Nadella shared his apprehensions, stating, I worry a lot, despite my enthusiasm, that this vicious cycle can become even more detrimental.

Waiting for a paradigm shift

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that his company has continued to invest in Bing while awaiting a potential paradigm shift or some form of government intervention to reconfigure the industry.

In response to a question regarding Googles argument that its dominance is a result of quality rather than illegal activities, Nadella indicated that Microsoft has endeavoured to demonstrate that Bings engineers could potentially narrow the quality gap if they had access to the volume of queries originating from Apple smartphones.
As the legal landscape begins to grapple with the darker aspects of generative artificial intelligence, a South Korean judge has made history by delivering a sentence related to AI-generated child abuse images for the first time in the country.

According to CNN reports, an unnamed man in his 40s has been sentenced to over two years in prison after being found in possession of approximately 360 exploitative AI-generated images of children earlier this year. These disturbing images, which were thankfully left undescribed, were reportedly also distributed.

Prosecutors successfully argued in the Busan-region court that, in light of AI advancements, South Koreas definition of sexually exploitative material should be expanded to encompass imagery or descriptions of virtual humans engaging in sexual acts.

Although this ruling marks South Koreas first encounter with AI-generated explicit imagery, which was previously often referred to as deepfakes, the country has not been immune to controversies surrounding this rapidly evolving technology.

According to South Koreas Yonhap news agency, at the start of 2021, hundreds of thousands of people signed an anonymously written petition urging the South Korean government to enforce stricter penalties for websites posting deepfake pornography featuring celebrities, including some who were underage.

The South China Morning Post noted that the petition emerged online after certain spycam photos of a member of a K-pop girl group, manipulated and shared online, had gained notoriety.

The petition expressed concerns about the distribution of videos featuring victimized female celebrities on various social network services, along with the harassment and insulting comments they endured. Deepfakes were unequivocally characterized as a sexual crime.

Within a day, the petition amassed over 330,000 signatures, underscoring the level of seriousness with which some individuals in the country regarded the issue of deepfakes.

While more than two and a half years have passed since the petitions emergence, South Korea seems poised to take technological threats seriously. The rest of the world, including the United States, may soon follow suit in addressing these complex challenges.
Two days after a bombing in Ankara that the terrorist organisation claimed responsibility for, Turkish police detained roughly 145 people nationwide overnight on suspicion of having ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), according to reports in state media on Tuesday.

In Ankara on Sunday, two assailants killed each other and two police officers when a device they were carrying exploded nearby government facilities. The militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a banned organisation, claimed responsibility.

Immediately after the PKK claimed responsibility, Turkey launched airstrikes against militant targets in northern Iraq and detained suspects in Istanbul over the course of one night.

Sanliurfa province in southeast Turkey served as the focal point of the most recent police operations.

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on the X social media platform on Tuesday that 466 operations had been conducted against the PKKs intelligence units throughout the nation. He stated that 55 people have been taken into custody across 16 provinces.

(With agency inputs)
Nepal Earthquake: Yet another earthquake has been reported from Nepal which was already reeling after being hit by severe earthquakes earlier on Tuesday.

Earthquake of Magnitude: 4.3, Occurred on 03-10-2023, 17:04:13 IST, Lat: 29.42 & Long: 81.18, Depth: 10 Km, Location: 94km E of Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand, the National Center for Seismology said in a stamen on social media.

Earlier on Tuesday, several earthquakes struck Nepal. These included a 4.6 and 6.2 magnitude quake that occurred within 25 minutes of one another, a third that was 3.8 magnitude 15 minutes later, and a fourth that was 3.1 magnitude 13 minutes later, at 3.19 PM ISTwere followed by powerful tremors felt in Delhi.

At 2.25 PM, the first earthquake occurred. The National Centre for Seismology reports that around 3.27 PM IST, there was a 5.2 magnitude earthquake in Arunachal Pradesh and a 3.3 magnitude disturbance in Uttarakhand.

The strongest earthquakes epicentre was 284 kilometres north of Lucknow and 206 kilometres southeast of Joshimath in Uttarakhand.

Earthquake of Magnitude: 6.2, Occurred on 03-10-2023, 14:51:04 IST, Lat: 29.39 & Long: 81.23, Depth: 5 Km ,Location: Nepal, the NCS said in a statement.

Delhi and neighbouring areas of the national capital region witnessed the effects of the earthquake. After the second earthquake, many in Delhi-NCR reported feeling significant tremors and left office buildings. Social media was inundated with videos of people fleeing out of buildings.

We hope you all are safe. Please come out of your buildings to a safe spot, but do not panic. DO NOT USE ELEVATORS! For any emergency help, dial 112, Delhi Police said in a statement.

In 30 districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Lucknow, Hapur, and Amroha, tremors were detected. Five of the districts that border Nepal experienced tremors.

Several locations in Uttarakhand also felt tremors. According to a media reports, tremors were also reported in other northern Indian cities like Chandigarh and Jaipur.

Following a 5.2 magnitude earthquake in Meghalaya on Monday, tremors were detected in Assam and other north-east states. It struck around 6:15 PM. The North Garo Hills, three km from Resubelpara, the districts administrative centre.

Nepal is very susceptible to earthquakes because it is located in one of the tectonically active regions of the planet (Seismic Zone IV and V). A 7.8-magnitude earthquake that occurred in April 2015 left over 21,000 people injured and over 8,000 dead.
Armenian lawmakers approved a key step towards joining the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday, a move that is expected to escalate tensions with the ex-Soviet countrys historic ally Moscow.

Russia had warned Armenia against voting to ratify the founding treaty of the ICC after the international court in March issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine and the illegal deportation of children to Russia.

ICC members are expected to make the arrest if the Russian leader steps foot on their territory.

The vote illustrated a growing chasm between Moscow and Yerevan, which has grown angry with the Kremlin over its perceived inaction over Armenias long-standing confrontation with Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani forces last month swept through the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh  where Russian peacekeepers are deployed  and secured the surrender of Armenian separatist forces that had controlled the mountainous region for decades.

A broadcast online from the Armenian parliamentary session showed 60 deputies voting in favour of the proposal, with 22  mainly opposition lawmakers  voting against joining the ICC.

The Kremlin had said a decision in Armenia to join The Hague-based court would be viewed in Moscow as extremely hostile.

Tensions have also been rising between Yerevan and Moscow over the role of Russian peacekeepers in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, which announced its dissolution last week following the lightning military operation by Baku.

External security risks

Armenians Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan last week sought to assuage Kremlin fears, saying the initiative was not directed against Russia.

It comes from the interests of the countrys external security, and taking such a decision is our sovereign right, he said.

On Tuesday, Armenias representative on international legal matters, told parliament that the decision was focused on the countrys security concerns.

We are creating additional guarantees for Armenia in the face of the threat to the countrys territorial integrity from arch-foe Azerbaijan, said Eghishe Kirakosyan.

It was an apparent reference to May 2021, when Azerbaijani forces occupied a small pocket of land inside Armenia, near the countries shared border.

The arch foes have been locked in a decades-long rivalry and fought two wars over Karabakh, in the 1990s and 2020.

Kirakosyan said that Yerevan had proposed signing a bilateral agreement with Moscow to alleviate Russias concerns over the ratification of the Rome Statute.

Armenia signed the Rome Statute in 1999, but did not ratify it, citing contradictions with the countrys constitution.

The constitutional court said in March those obstacles were removed after Armenias adoption of a new constitution in 2015.

One-day offensive

After the offensive in September, most of the Armenian population fled the self-proclaimed republic of Karabakh, whose authorities announced that it would be dissolved by 1 January 2024.

After the fall of the Russian Empire, the mountainous region, populated mainly by Armenians who regard it as part of their ancestral land, has been part of Azerbaijan.

It unilaterally proclaimed its independence with the support of Armenia when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Karabakh separatists resisted Baku with the support of Yerevan for three decades, notably during the first Karabakh war from 1988 to 1994 and the second in 2020.

That six-week war ended in a deal brokered by Russia that saw the 2,000-strong peacekeeping contingent deployed.

The international community never recognised the self-proclaimed republic.
Armenian lawmakers are scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to join the International Criminal Court, a parliament spokeswoman told AFP, a move that would anger the ex-Soviet Caucasus countrys historic ally, Moscow.

The Kremlin has said that a decision in Armenia to join The Hague-based court, which has issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin, would be extremely hostile.

The vote in parliament to ratify the courts founding treaty  known as the Rome Statute, is scheduled for Wednesday  spokeswoman Tsovinar Khachatryan told AFP.

Lawmakers began hearings on joining the ICC Tuesday, with Armenias representative on international legal matters, telling parliament that the decision was focused on the countrys security concerns.

We are creating additional guarantees for Armenia in the face of the threat to the countrys territorial integrity from arch-foe Azerbaijan, Eghishe Kirakosyan, told lawmakers.

Opposition parties, which control 36 seats in Armenias 107-seat legislature protested the move and their MPs walked out from the plenary session.

Russia has repeatedly warned Armenia against ratifying the Rome Statute. ICC members are expected to move on Putins arrest if the Russian leader steps foot in their territory.

In March, the ICC announced an arrest warrant for Putin on the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.

Armenians Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan however last week sought to assuage Kremlin fears.

The decision is not directed against the Russian Federation. It comes from the interests of the countrys external security, and taking such a decision is our sovereign right, he said.

Tensions have been rising between Yerevan and Moscow over the role of Russian peacekeepers in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, which announced its dissolution last week following a lightning military operation by Baku.
According to state media on Tuesday, Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that nations trying to normalise relations with Israel are betting on a losing horse.

The definite position of the Islamic Republic is that countries that make the gamble of normalisation with Israel will lose. They are betting on a losing horse, Khamenei said.

Israels foreign minister suggested last month that a framework agreement for establishing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia may be in place by the start of next year after the three parties showed signs of progress in the difficult discussions.

An Israeli-Saudi normalisation would formally unite two important U.S. allies against Iran, significantly reshaping the Middle East. This would be a foreign policy coup for President Joe Biden as he runs for reelection in late 2024.

(With agency inputs)
Amid escalating diplomatic tensions between Canada and India, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that Canada is not looking to escalate the situation with India.

Will continue to engage responsibly and constructively with New Delhi. We want to be on the ground in India to help the Canadian families there, he added, as reported by Reuters.

Trudeaus statement comes hours after a report by The Financial Times indicated that India has given a deadline to Canada to repatriate around 40 diplomats by 10 October and said that it would revoke their diplomatic immunity if they remained after the given date.

Neither India nor Canada reacted to the report that came 12 days after New Delhi asked Ottawa to downsize its diplomatic presence in India.

Canada has 62 diplomats in India and New Delhi said that the number should be reduced by 41, the report said.

The ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following Trudeaus allegations of a potential involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.

India rejected the allegations as absurd and motivated and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawas expulsion of an Indian official over the case.

Nijjar was shot dead by two masked gunmen on June 18 in British Columbia. India had designated him a terrorist in 2020.

With inputs from agencies
The Michigan Supreme Court decided on Tuesday that the parents of a juvenile school shooter who murdered four classmates and injured six more in 2021 at his high school in the Detroit region will be tried for involuntary manslaughter.

The appeal of the parents of Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the Oxford High School shooting, was denied by the court in Lansing, Michigan. James and Jennifer Crumbley are defending themselves against four counts of involuntary manslaughter apiece.

Some view the case as a litmus test to determine whether parents can be held accountable for their childrens claimed crimes because it appears to be the first time parents of a teenage school shooter have been charged for involvement in their offsprings alleged crimes.

Attorneys Mariell Lehman and Shannon Smith for the Crumbleys were not immediately available for comment.

The parents, according to the prosecution, should be held accountable for their egregious negligence in neglecting to safeguard the firearm. The Crumbleys have been charged with purchasing their son a gun despite knowing he was unstable and too young to possess one. The murders from two years ago were committed with a 9mm semi-automatic weapon.

The allegations had been challenged by the parents.

In a terse, one-sentence ruling, the state Supreme Court in Lansing, Michigan, ruled that the judgment of the Court of Appeals is considered, and it is DENIED, because we are not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this Court.

The Crumbleys have already lost cases before an Oakland County Circuit Court and a trio of judges on the Michigan Court of Appeals.

The Crumbleys counsel have argued that prosecutors cannot show that a jury might determine that their son perpetrating a shooting in November 2021 was a reasonably foreseeable result of the Crumbleys alleged gross neglect, according to the Detroit News. They claimed that the gunshot was not reasonably foreseeable and that the victims injuries were only caused by their sons illegal activity.

The Crumbleys are each charged in connection with the deaths of Madisyn Baldwin, 17, Tate Myre, 16, Hana St. Juliana, 14, and Justin Shilling, 17, all of whom were students at Oxford High.

Ethan Crumbley has admitted guilt to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of terrorism resulting in death.

(With agency inputs)
A court in Egypt pronounced a mother criminally insane after she killed her five-year-old kid with a machete and ate his head.

Accused Hanaa Mohamed Hassan, 29, was on trial for her son Youssefs heinous murder, but judges at Zagazigs Criminal Court found she was unfit to plead.

The court instead gave verdict announced on September 30, in which they declared she killed the boy in a condition of lunacy and should be held in a secure psychiatric hospital.

The court heard that Hassan was apprehended after Youssefs horrified uncle discovered some of his body parts in a bucket at the family home in Faqous, northern Egypt.

Police stated she confessed to eating part of her sons head after her arrest because she wanted him to stay with her forever.

She slaughtered his body in the bathroom before cooking and eating his head and other bits of flesh in boiling water on the stove.

Prosecutors had contended before the ruling that Hasan killed her kid because she was afraid she would lose custody of him to her ex-husband.

A first psychiatric examination concluded that she was responsible for her premeditated conduct, as she had obtained a club and a machete and had closed all the doors and windows in her home.

She then beat her son three times in the head, killing him, and then hacked Youssefs body into pieces in an attempt to obliterate the evidence.

However, the court requested a more extensive evaluation of her mental condition, and a panel of court-appointed psychiatric specialists determined that Hasan was delusional and had strange ideas that relatives were employing magic against her kid.

According to the assessment, Hassan had poor insight and judgment and did not recognize the gravity of her conduct.

She saw the heinous massacre as a minor oversight. Hassan was incarcerated at Cairos Abbasia Mental and Neurological Health Hospital.

Following her arrest, Hassan told Faqous police that she suffers from a mental disease and did not mean to harm her kid.

She and Youssef had been living apart since she divorced her husband, who believed she knew well what she was doing.

Her husband told local media that he was prohibited from seeing his son after the murder because of the awful condition of his body.

He revealed that they were separated because Hassan wanted him and his parents to live with her on a land she had inherited from her father to which he refused.

He, however, claimed to have tried to reconcile with her after the divorce, but she refused and stood firm in her beliefs.

My son was the one who kept me linked to her, and I used to see him on a regular basis and bring him clothes and stuff he needed, he added.

But she was recently attempting to keep him away from me and instill enmity in his heart so he wouldnt come to me.

I was attempting to contact her family in order to see my son and make sure he was okay.

According to his lawyer, Samir Mohamed Saleh, the suspect was stone-faced as she told her interrogators, I wanted to free him and myself.

I wanted to get revenge on his father and be free. His father keeps showing up and attempting to take him away.
An Australian court has recently released one of its first convicted terrorists on parole. The NSW State Parole Authority has authorized Faheem Lodhis release, and he is now back in the community.

Earlier in 2020, his lawyer told a court that he had admitted his guilt and been able to face the pathway that led him to offending and the erroneous path he took.

Following the release order, Lodhi is apparently working as an architect and draftsman.

According to reports, the 53-year-old was released without any court-ordered notice requiring him to be supervised by police.

A control order was also not imposed on Lodhi, which means he is free to travel abroad, among other benefits provided by the ruling.

This includes the capacity to contact specific individuals as well as the possession and use of specific goods. Lodhi is one of just a few people who have been granted parole after being convicted of terrorism-related offenses.

In a statement, a representative of the federal Attorney-Generals Department said, As a matter of longstanding practice, the Attorney-Generals Department does not release the specifics of individual federal offenders, including detail concerning judgments taken in respect to federal parole cases.

The authoritys judgment comes with terms that Lodhi must follow, but it is an important decision that might pave the door for other offenders to have their sentences reviewed.

Lodhi was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2006 after being found guilty of plotting to destroy the national electricity grid and three army bases in Sydney.

His punishment included a non-parole period of 15 years.

He was detained in 2004 when ASIO (Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation) spies discovered his plans to order materials and instructions that may be used to construct explosives.

ASIO agents raided Lodhis home in Lakemba, Sydneys west, in October 2003, seizing many more documents.

Aerial photographs of various army installations in Sydney, including the Holsworthy and Victoria army posts, as well as HMAS Penguin in Mosman on Sydneys lower north shore, were included.

Officers also found a terror manual, which was a 15-page pad full of handwritten notes in Lodhis native language of Urdu and had instructions on how to construct a variety of bombs.

During his trial in the NSW Supreme Court, Lodhi denied having sought or had custody of any of these things.

Lodhi, who moved to Australia from Pakistan in 1998, had his parole application denied twice by former Attorney-General Christian Porter in 2019 and 2020.

While serving part of his sentence at the Wellington Correctional Centre near Dubbo, 400 kilometers west of Sydney, he was reclassified as a low-risk prisoner.

Lodhi spent the first several years of his sentence in the Goulburn Supermax Prison.
Pakistan on Tuesday ordered all illegal immigrants, including 1.73 million Afghan nationals, to leave the country or face expulsion after revealing that 14 of 24 suicide bombings in the country this year were carried out by Afghan nationals.

It was not immediately clear how Pakistani authorities could ensure the illegal immigrants leave, or how they could find them to expel them.

Islamabads announcement marks a new low in its relations with Kabul that deteriorated after border clashes between the South Asian neighbours last month.

We have given them a November 1 deadline, said Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti, adding that all illegal immigrants should leave voluntarily or face forcible expulsion after that date.

Bugti said some 1.73 million Afghan nationals in Pakistan had no legal documents to stay, adding a total of 4.4 million Afghan refugees lived in Pakistan.

There are no two opinions that we are attacked from within Afghanistan and Afghan nationals are involved in attacks on us, he said. We have evidence.

Islamabad has received the largest influx of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Kabul in 1979.

Bugti was speaking in Islamabad after civil and military leaders met the prime minister and army chief to discuss law and order after a recent spate of militant attacks.

The violence has seen an unusual uptick since local Taliban militants known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of hardline Sunni Islamist militants, revoked a ceasefire with the government late last year.

The TTP wants to overthrow the Pakistani government to replace it with its strict rule under Islamic law.

Two suicide bombings targeted religious gatherings in Pakistan last week, killing at least 57 people. The TTP denied involvement. Bugti said that one of the suicide bombers had been identified as an Afghan national.

Islamist State also operates in the Afghan border regions and has been involved in attacks in Pakistan.

The Pakistani military has conducted several offensives against Islamist militants, mainly in the rugged mountainous region along the Afghan border, which it says forced them to flee to Afghanistan.

Islamabad alleges that the militants use Afghan soil to train fighters and plan attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul denies, saying Pakistani security is a domestic issue.

There was no immediate response from Kabul to Bugtis comments.
The FBI and NSA, among other US security organizations, have issued a warning about malicious cyber players linked to China.

According to a news release released by the agencies, a joint cybersecurity alert (CSA) detailing the actions of China-linked cyber criminals known as BlackTech has been issued.

The press release stated, BlackTech has demonstrated capabilities in modifying router firmware without detection and exploiting routers domain-trust relationships for pivoting from international subsidiaries to headquarters in Japan and the U.S.  the primary targets.

According to the agencies, BlackTech is also known by other names such as Palmerworm and Temp.Overboard, Circuit Panda, and Radio Panda.

These hackers have targeted the government, industrial, technological, media, electronics, and telecommunications sectors, as well as companies supporting the US and Japanese militaries.

To disguise their operations, BlackTech operators deploy specialized malware, dual-use tools, and living off-the-land strategies such as disabling logging on routers.

BlackTech has been operating since 2010, according to the agencies. BlackTech hackers have historically targeted a diverse spectrum of public and private organizations in the United States and East Asia.

BlackTech cyber criminals target victims operating systems with tailored malware payloads and remote access tools (RATs). The attackers employed a variety of bespoke malware families designed to target Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD operating systems.

BlackTech has also targeted and exploited several router manufacturers and versions. While BlackTech actors undertake operations, the numerous approaches against routers allow them to conceal configuration changes, obscure commands, and prevent logging.

The authorities emphasized the importance of multinational firms reviewing all subsidiary connections, verifying access, and considering implementing Zero Trust models to limit the extent of a potential BlackTech compromise.
President Joe Bidens son Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges that he lied about his drug use while buying a handgun, in the first-ever criminal prosecution of a sitting US presidents child.

Hunter Biden, 53, was charged last month with three counts related to lying on a federal form to acquire a Colt Cobra handgun in 2018 and for being an illegal drug user in possession of the gun.

Biden wore a dark suit and tie during his appearance at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, which lasted 25 minutes. Yes your honor, Biden said in response to U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke asking if he understood the charges and the not guilty plea entered by his attorney, Abbe Lowell.

He arrived at the courthouse in a motorcade of six black sedans.

Six men wearing earpieces who appeared to be Secret Service agents sat near Hunter Biden during the court proceedings and escorted him out of the courtroom through a side door.

Burke set conditions for Hunter Bidens release pending trial, including clearing travel with a probation officer, abstaining from illegal drugs and alcohol and seeking employment. Burke said Hunter Biden submitted to tests for illegal drug use multiple times recently and had tested negative.

Tuesdays hearing sets the stage for a historic first: The criminal trial of the adult child of a sitting president who is campaigning for reelection.

Bidens likely 2024 Republican rival, Donald Trump, faces four upcoming criminal trials of his own, two of which are tied to his attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden, which he continues to falsely claim is the result of fraud.

The presidents son also attended a hearing in July in Wilmington related to the charges.

In that hearing, an agreement to resolve the gun charges and separate tax charges unraveled when a U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika in Wilmington refused to accept it.

Under that deal, Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax violations and would avoid punishment on the gun charges if for two years he did not possess a firearm and refrained from using illegal drugs and alcohol.

Lowell, Hunter Bidens attorney, said on Tuesday he would file a motion to dismiss the case because he believed the July agreement remains in effect and because he believed the statute was unconstitutional.

Burke said he would have to file by Nov. 3.

Some legal experts have said that any firearms-related charges against Hunter Biden could be vulnerable to a constitutional challenge, after the U.S. Supreme Court last year in a landmark ruling expanded gun rights under the U.S. Constitutions Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms.

The younger Biden for years has been the focus of unrelenting attacks by Republicans, led by former President Trump.

Republicans have accused Hunter Biden, who has worked as a lobbyist, lawyer, investment banker and artist, of wrongdoing relating to Ukraine and China and have made him a focus of a congressional impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden.

The presidents son, who has publicly discussed his substance abuse, never held a position in the White House or on his fathers campaign. The president has said he has not discussed foreign business dealings with his son and has said his Justice Department would have independence in any investigation of a member of his family.
US President Joe Bidens son Hunter is to appear in federal court in Delaware on Tuesday and is expected to plead not guilty to charges of illegally possessing a handgun.

Hunter Biden, 53, is facing three felony charges stemming from his 2018 purchase of a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver.

Biden is charged with two counts of making false statements for claiming on forms required for the gun purchase that he was not using drugs illegally at the time.

He faces a third charge, based on the same statements, that he illegally possessed the gun  which he had for only 11 days in October 2018  before it was gotten rid of.

Bidens lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has informed the court that the presidents son plans to plead not guilty at Tuesdays 10:00 am (1400 GMT) arraignment at a federal courthouse in Wilmington, the hometown of the Bidens.

Lowell had also asked Judge Christopher Burke to allow Biden, who lives in California, to appear by video instead of in person but the request was denied.

The defendant should not receive any special treatment in this matter, Burke wrote in his ruling.

In July, a deal with federal prosecutor David Weiss  which would have erased the gun charges while Biden pleaded guilty to two tax charges and avoided prison  fell apart.

That led to Weiss filing the three felony gun possession charges against Biden.

If convicted, Biden could in theory face 25 years in prison, though in practice such offenses, if not accompanied by other charges, are seldom punished by any jail time.

Possible tax charges

Weiss, who was elevated to special counsel for the Biden probe after the plea deal fell through, in the meantime has signalled that he is still investigating Biden on possible tax charges.

Hunter Bidens business dealings in Ukraine and China while his father was vice president under Barack Obama have been a constant target of Republicans.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, bowing to pressure from the partys hard right, authorized the launch last month of an impeachment investigation into the president.

The younger Biden has not been charged with any crimes related to his foreign business dealings, however, and no credible evidence has emerged so far that his father was involved in anything illegal.

Hunter Biden is a Yale-trained lawyer and lobbyist-turned-artist, but his life has been marred by alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction. His legal woes threaten to cast a shadow over his fathers campaign for reelection next year.

The 80-year-old president has stood firmly by his only surviving son throughout his personal and legal struggles, saying in an interview earlier this year that Hunter has done nothing wrong.

I trust him. I have faith in him, Joe Biden said.
Produced water spilled as a result of a pipeline malfunction near Arnegard in northwestern North Dakota's McKenzie County on Monday, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality.

State officials on Tuesday were informed of the leak from a pipeline operated by Caliber Midstream. The leak caused the spill of 100 barrels or 4,200 gallons of produced water, which is saltwater that can contain oil and drilling chemicals.

The spill impacted waters in a Cherry Creek tributary and rangeland, officials said. Cattle that were present near the spill were immediately removed from the area by their owner, according to the report on file with the state.

The chemicals have been isolated and measures were taken to prevent further contamination, the state report said.

DEQ is working with Caliber on cleanup. The agency will monitor the investigation as well as remediation efforts.
An Indian-origin couple from London who escaped extradition to India four years ago on charges of the murder of their adopted 11-year-old son and his brother-in-law in Gujarat are back in a UK court this month facing other criminal charges.

Arti Dhir, 58, and husband Kaval Raijada, 35, have now been charged by the UKs National Crime Agency (NCA) with one count of exporting cocaine to Australia and 12 counts of money laundering. Their trial is scheduled to begin at the Southwark Crown Court in London on October 30.

Arti Dhir and Kavaljitsinh Raijada have both been charged with one count of exporting cocaine to Australia and 12 counts of money laundering, said an NCA spokesperson.

We wont be providing commentary or comment while the case is ongoing, but the trial is due to commence on 30 October at the Southwark Crown Court, the spokesperson said.

Indias extradition request for the duo had been turned down by Westminster Magistrates Court in London in July 2019 on human rights grounds under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Judge Emma Arbuthnot discharged Dhir and Raijada noting that if extradited, they will be subject to an irreducible sentence in India.

However, the judge did find that there is a circumstantial prima facie case that Ms Dhir and Mr Raijada acting together and with others committed the offences. However, the rigorous life sentences they would face in India, if found guilty of the multiple murders, resulted in the two accused being freed.

The Indian government had provided an assurance that the death penalty would not apply in their case and also some additional assurances, which came in later than the timeframe stipulated by the court.

In February 2020, Indias appeal in the High Court in London was also dismissed. Lord Justice James Dingemans and Justice Robin Spencer ruled that delays on the part of the Indian government to provide the requisite assurances related to human rights concerns were at the heart of the appeal dismissal.

We accept that there will be financial consequences of discharging Ms Dhir and Mr Raijada and requiring the government to start extradition proceedings againThose financial consequences were brought about by the governments failure to obtain directions in relation to the assurance or to provide the assurance at an earlier stage, their judgment reads.

According to details of the case that emerged in court, the murder allegations against the duo relate to their adopted son Gopal Sejani and his brother-in-law Harsukhbhai Kardani in February 2017 in India.

An investigation by Gujarat police claimed that the accused had hatched a plot to adopt Gopal and then insure him for around Rs 1.3 crores before staging his kidnapping and murder in India to split the life insurance payout.

The High Court in London had reiterated the Magistrates Court finding that the couple could face prosecution within the UK itself, as the acts alleged to have been carried out by Dhir and Raijada were carried out in this jurisdiction.
Human rights organisations urged Indonesia on Tuesday to look into alleged arms shipments by state-owned firms to Myanmar, where Indonesia has been working to foster peace ever since a military coup in 2021 sparked all-out war.

According to Feri Amsari, a legal advisor to the activists, groups have complained to Indonesias national human rights commission over the sale of equipment to Myanmar by three state-owned armaments manufacturers since the coup.

Since the military toppled a government headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi more than two years ago, Myanmar has been plagued by violence.

The Chin Human Rights Organisation and Myanmar Accountability Project, two organisations from Myanmar, and Marzuki Darusman, a former Indonesian attorney general and human rights campaigner, are part of the group that created the lawsuit.

In their complaint, they claim that a Myanmar company called True North, which they claim is owned by the son of a minister in the military government, supplied equipment to Myanmar on behalf of Indonesian state shipbuilder PT PAL, state arms manufacturer PT Pindad, and aerospace company PT Dirgantara Indonesia.

A request for comment was not immediately answered by PT Pindad or PT PAL. The director of PT Pindad previously informed the media that the company has not exported goods to Myanmar since 2016.

According to PT Dirgantara Indonesia, it has never entered into a contract with Myanmar or any associated parties.

The three Indonesian armament manufacturers were listed by True North as strategic partners in a corporate profile that was undated and obtained by Reuters. True North did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

According to the activists, Myanmar had purchased from the corporations a number of items, including pistols, assault rifles, and combat vehicles.

Indonesia has been attempting, with little sign of success, to engage with both the military and the opposition in Myanmar in the intention of encouraging negotiations as head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Following the coup, Indonesia supported a U.N. General Assembly resolution that urged all UN member states to prevent the flow of arms to Myanmar.

The foreign ministry of Indonesia, according to a spokeswoman, is looking into the allegation. Requests for comment from a spokeswoman for the defence ministry went unanswered.

Darusman claimed that because state-owned businesses are under to governmental supervision and oversight, the rights commission, also known as Komnas HAM, was required to conduct an investigation.

The military of Myanmar has imported weapons and related supplies worth at least $1 billion since the coup, primarily from Russia, China, Singapore, Thailand, and India, according to a May report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar.

(With agency inputs)
Though experts caution that it is challenging to predict a winner in the large discipline, research into light, novel materials, and cosmic exploration are seen as potential competitors for Tuesdays Nobel Physics Prize.

The prize, which will be presented at 11:45 a.m. (09:45 GMT) in Stockholm, is the second Nobel Prize of the year after mRNA researchers Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman received the Medicine Prize on Monday for their ground-breaking research that led to messenger RNA (mRNA) Covid-19 vaccines.

Before the Physics Prize was announced, Lars Brostrom, the scientific editor at Swedish Radio, told AFP that while it was as usual hard to know who would win, French-Swedish atomic physicist Anne LHuillier was a possible winner.

She could be honoured for her work into really short laser pulses that allow you to follow the super-fast movement of electrons inside molecules, Brostrom said.

LHuillier was one of the recipients of last years prestigious Wolf Prize, whose laureates occasionally go on to win the Nobel.

Only four women have won the Nobel Physics Prize since the award was first handed out in 1901: Marie Curie (1903), Maria Goeppert Mayer (1963), Donna Strickland (2018) and Andrea Ghez (2020).

Another woman believed to be in the running this year, according to Brostrom, is Denmarks Olga Botner, whose work focuses on exploring the universe with cosmic neutrinos  technology used in the IceCube Observatory in Antarctica.

Another quantum prize?

Magazine Physics World noted that three of the last six Physics Prizes have honoured research in astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology, making it unlikely that work associated with the James Webb Space Telescope would receive the nod this year.

But it would likely be in the committees sights in the future, it said.

Last year, Alain Aspect of France, John Clauser of the United States and Austrias Anton Zeilinger won the Nobel for their work into quantum entanglement, a concept once dismissed by Albert Einstein as spooky action.

Physics World admitted it might seem foolish to predict another prize in the field of quantum mechanics, but the field still had many deserving scientists, it said.

Quantum computing has grown in leaps and bounds over the past few decades, it said, citing Spains Ignacio Cirac, the UKs David Deutsch, Peter Shor of the US and Austrias Peter Zoller as potential candidates.

Other notables in the field of quantum mechanics are Israeli Yakir Aharonov and Briton Michael Berry, who have both made discoveries which now bear their names.

David Pendlebury, head of analytics group Clarivate that keeps an eye on potential Nobel science laureates, told AFP the prize may come back to something more practical this year.

He pointed to the work of Stuart P. Parkin of Britain, a pioneer in the field of spintronic materials, which has been critical in the increased data density and storage capabilities of computer disk drives.

Light

Clarivate also put US physicist Sharon Glotzer among its top picks, for introducing strategies to control the assembly process to engineer new materials.

Italian-American Federico Capasso was also mentioned for research into photonics  the science of lightwaves  and contributing to the invention and development of the quantum cascade laser.

Previous years have also seen work into light tipped for the prize, with many pointing to Britains John B. Pendry, who has become famous for his invisibility cloak, where he uses materials to bend light to make objects invisible.

Research into photovoltaics  the conversion of light into electricity  and work into the conductive properties of twisted graphene have also sparked buzz among commentators.

The Physics Prize will be followed by the Chemistry Prize on Wednesday, with the highly watched Literature and Peace Prizes to be announced on Thursday and Friday respectively.

The Economics Prize  created in 1968 and the only Nobel not included in the 1895 will of Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel founding the awards  closes out the 2023 Nobel season on Monday.
In an attack that has put Timbuktu back on the front lines of a jihadist conflict, Islamist militants in Mali have cut off river and air links and cut off the citys road access since August.

Shortly after, the bombing started. On 21 September, witnesses reported that missiles fell close to a school where survivors of a passenger boat attack that claimed more than 100 lives were taking cover after hitting a hospital and killing two children.

Our worry is the shelling, businessman Sory Toure said in Timbuktu, which was occupied by jihadists a decade ago. It creates a real psychosis and leaves a lasting impression. I have this fear within me.

Al Qaeda-affiliated insurgents launched an offensive in central Mali since the UN started winding down its peacekeeping mission there in July. Meanwhile, fighting between the army and Tuareg rebels from the north has resumed, and insurgents with ties to the Islamic State have continued their attacks in the east.

The military coups in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger have already caused instability in the Sahel region of West Africa. Mali is being controlled by a junta that has rejected the help of French and UN forces.

Experts contrast Malis current predicament with that of a similar Tuareg uprising in 2012, when jihadists took control of Timbuktu and advanced on the nations capital Bamako.

This conflict is escalating fast, said Ulf Laessing, the Bamako-based head of the Sahel programme at the Konrad Adenauer foundation. There is a risk of civil war.

Back in 2012, French forces and the UN intervened to halt the advance in Mali. But there will be no such intervention now.

Malis military rulers, who consolidated power over two coups in 2020 and 2021, severed ties with former colonial power France and kicked out its troops. In June, it ordered the 13,000-strong force deployed by the United Nations to leave.

Russias Wagner Group, which has sent 1,000 mercenaries to support the junta, has failed to fill the gap and is accused of attacks against civilians.

More than 650 people have died in conflict in Mali in the two months after the UN began pulling out, a more than 40 per cent rise over the previous two months, US-based group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project said.

Malis authorities did not respond to specific requests for comment for this article. The army said in a statement on Monday that September had been a turbulent month but it would continue to fight its enemies to protect the nation and its people.

Too few troops

In 2013, French forces beat back Islamists. But they regrouped and waged a new campaign that has killed thousands and displaced millions in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, a band of countries on the edge of the Sahara. Insurgents also have a foothold in West African coastal states, including Benin, Togo and Ivory Coast.

Insecurity has spawned coups whose leaders have jilted regional and Western states. France said last week it would pull out troops from Niger. Domestic armies are struggling alone.

In Mali, fighting began in August between the army and an ethnic Tuareg group called the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) around a base vacated by the UN Since then, CMA has attacked other Malian army bases, some hundreds of miles apart.

The group laid down arms in 2015 under a UN-brokered deal but says the army has encroached on its territory and says these are times of war. The army calls CMA fighters terrorists.

Al Qaeda-affiliated Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) raided other military camps, attacked an airport, fired on passenger boats and launched its blockade of Timbuktu.

The problem is Mali has too few troops and too little mobility, said Michael Shurkin, director of global programs at 14 North Strategies consultancy. JNIM and CMA have freedom of movement over the entire area.

There is no evidence the groups coordinate, security experts said. But they have other ties. JNIMs leader Iyad Ag-Ghali is a former Tuareg rebel.

They have each others phone numbers. That doesnt mean they are in lock step, but they can communicate, Shurkin said.

Bad to worse

Timbuktu, a centuries-old centre of Islamic learning, is now under siege. Food and other supplies are blocked, driving up prices for essentials. Traders in the city say sugar is up 25 per cent, while charcoal for cooking, potatoes and onions are up 30 per cent.

Residents wary of falling rockets avoid markets and a nightly curfew empties the streets.

Things are going from bad to worse, said market trader Mohamed Massaya. Our business has stopped working. We are making do with our old stocks.

Hundreds of survivors were brought to the city after a JNIM attack on 7 September on the Timbuktu, a boat carrying soldiers and residents from Gao. Ferry services stopped after that.

Salaha Maiga, a member of Malis National Transitional Council, the juntas equivalent of a national assembly, told Reuters that 111 people were killed in the attack. Authorities originally said 64 died.

Survivors are struggling in the aftermath.

We cannot describe the horror, said Aicha Sababou, who was on the boat. Seeing dozens of people die and burying them together is scary. We are happy to rejoin our families even if there are still wounds we need to heal.
On Tuesday, the Constitutional Court of Moldova gave the go-ahead for members of a pro-Russian party that had been outlawed to participate in local elections as independent candidates or party members.

The opposition Shor party is still subject to the courts June ban.

After taking into account a complaint from party members, the court announced its most recent ruling. The party is led by exiled businessman Ilan Shor, who is accused by the West and the Moldovan government of attempting to disrupt the nation.

Serghei Turcan, a senior court member, who announced the decision, argued that the amendment that barred Shor party members from voting had no objective criteria and was too general and did not respect the right to be elected.

On November 5, there will be local elections, including those for city mayors. A new party called Chance has been registered by Shors allies, while an existing party called Revival is thought to be linked to Shor.

Senior Shor party official Marina Tauber plans to run as an independent for mayor of Balti, Moldovas second-largest city.

Israel-based Shor was sanctioned by the US and EU for his role in a $1 billion bank scam and money laundering and was given a 15-year prison sentence in absentia in April.

After months of events organised by the party, at which protesters sought the resignation of President Maia Sandu and her pro-Western government, the Constitutional Court declared his party unlawful in June.

Sandu has charged Shor with aiming to sabotage Moldovas EU membership aspirations and destabilising the former Soviet nation. In addition, she has claimed that Russia is attempting to topple her.

Shor has refuted claims that the demonstrations were part of a Russian threat or an effort to disrupt Moldova, which borders Romania and Ukraine and is an EU member.

Russia, which has roughly 1,500 soldiers stationed in Transdniestria, the part of Moldova that broke away, has denied planning to topple Sandu.

(With agency inputs)
China has rejected proposals for expanding the scope of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) due to concerns over political instability and deteriorating security conditions in Pakistan.

China was reluctant to endorse several proposals put forth by Pakistan, spanning various sectors including energy, water management, climate change, and tourism in regions such as Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), and coastal areas, The Express Tribune reported. The report also suggested disparities between the initial draft shared with Beijing by Pakistan and the final minutes signed by both sides, with the latter version reflecting Chinas stance.

Islamabad made the proposals in the 11th meeting of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) primary decision-making body. Although the meeting took place in in October 20222, its minutes were officially signed only in July, this year.

China also turned down the request to construct a 500-kilovolt transmission line connecting the Gwadar port to the national electricity grid in Karachi. Instead, Beijing insisted Pakistan withdraw its objections to a planned 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Gwadar, advocating for the projects original location with domestic coal utilization.

Pakistans Ministry of Planning and Development in Pakistan sought to downplay the situation after the local media started reporting on Chinas reluctance to expand the once much-touted project. The ministry claimed that both countries remained committed to expanding the CPEC into new areas, including water resources management, climate change, and tourism.

Pakistan has been grappling with political turmoil since the removal of former Prime Minister Imran Khans government in April 2022, resulting in multiple instances of civil unrest.

Besides the political instability, the country has also been reeling through an economic crisis, which has made the common man struggle even to put food on the table.
Quetta (Pakistan): Even as China tries to exploit Balochistans natural resources through the CPEC, Baloch freedom fighters have carried out major attacks on Chinese officials in Pakistans most impoverished province.

Baloch civil rights groups have also conducted regular demonstrations against Chinese activities in Balochistan. These include a major sit-down protest near the entrance of the Gwadar port, which crippled operations at the CPEC showpiece for several days.

The ongoing protests in Balochistan due to the loss of livelihood in the region and a repeated crackdown on the protesters has left the Chinese leadership worried, raising deep concerns about the security of Chinas investments in this restive and rebellious province of Pakistan.

According to a report by Pakistani media outlet Islam Khabar, the people of Balochistan have realised that Chinas investment is primarily about its own economic and geopolitical objectives since it has commercial and military interests in the Pakistani port of Gwadar.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) connects Pakistans Gwadar port in the Balochistan province with Chinas Xinjiang province as the centrepiece of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China, which is budgeted at 60 billion US dollars.

A significant CPEC project that gives the Communist nation, China access to the Arabian Sea, through the vital Gwadar Port in Balochistan province.

According to a report by news agency ANI, Chinas frustration is growing over time as only three CPEC projects in Gwadar have been completed, whereas one-dozen projects costing nearly two billion US dollars remain unfinished including water supply and electricity provision in Pakistan.

In an apparent attempt to pacify the protesters, the provincial government has declared the status of labour for local fishermen to secure their labour rights and to bring them to the ambit of labour laws and the International Labour Organisation conventions.

The local administration and fisheries department in Gwadar said they have been patrolling the sea day and night, the report stated, adding that local residents in Gwadar, including Haq Do Tehreek members, are not convinced by the efforts of the local administration to resolve the situation.

On December 29, the Balochistan government imposed an emergency law banning gathering five or more people, the Dawn reported, adding that the police rounded up 100 protesters four days after tensions erupted in the district after months of peaceful protests for fundamental rights.

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Pakistan former prime minister Imran Khans wife Bushra Bibi has approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to seek enhanced security for her husband in Adiala jail, fearing that he could be poisoned.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan has been detained in prison since he was found guilty in the Toshakhana case on August 5, for failing to properly disclose gifts he received while in government.

Bushra Bibi filed a petition on Monday with the IHC, represented by her lawyer Latif Khosa. She raised her concerns about her husbands safety in prison.

She specifically expressed concerns that there might be attempts to harm Imran Khan through food tampering, reported The Express Tribune.

She further emphasized that her husband is not getting the entitled facilities as mentioned in the prison manual.

Noting past instances where other prisoners were provided certain privileges like home-cooked meals, she said that her husband has been denied such privileges.

She further argued that this treatment is inhumane and constitutes a breach of Articles 9 and 14 of the Constitution.

Bushra in her petition, urged the IHC to intervene and ensure the enforcement of court orders regarding the provision of proper facilities to her husband in Adiala Jail.

She further requested the court to instruct the responsible medical officer to ensure the supply of healthy food to the former prime minister.

Furthermore, she asked the court to direct the relevant authorities to grant the privilege of exercising and taking walks to Khan.

However, along with three years in prison, Additional Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar imposed a five-year disqualification, effectively ending his chances of participating in the upcoming general elections.

Imran Khan has been transferred to Adiala Jail on Tuesday, despite his recent requests to not shift him from the Attock District Jail.

Earlier, according to sources, during the hearing in the jail, Imran presented his statement before Judge Zulqarnain, stating that he did not want to be transferred to the Adiala Jail as he had now adjusted to the Attock Jail. He further said that he would ask his lawyers to withdraw the transfer application.

According to the Jail Manual, Khan was supposed to be provided with facilities like a TV, newspapers, servants, a mattress, a chair and a table in the jail.
Wearing a I Love Pandas t-shirt and clutching a panda-covered diary, Kelsey Lambert bubbled with excitement as she glimpsed the real thing. She and her mother, Alison, had made a special trip from San Antonio, Texas, just to watch the National Zoos furry rock stars casually munching bamboo and rolling around on the grass.

It felt completely amazing, Kelsey, age 10, said Friday. My mom has always promised she would take me one day. So we had to do it now that theyre going away.

Mei Xiang, Tian Tian, and their youngster Xiao Qi Ji, three giant pandas from the National Zoo, are scheduled to leave for China in early December, but there have been no apparent indications that the 50-year exchange deal forged by former President Richard Nixon would be maintained.

In spite of numerous requests for information on the status of the negotiations, National Zoo authorities have stayed mum regarding the likelihood of renewing or extending the arrangement. The zoo, on the other hand, has taken a highly negative public tone, presenting the remaining months as the end of an era. Panda Palooza: A Giant Farewell, a week-long celebration, just ended at the zoo.

The potential end of the National Zoos panda era comes amid what veteran China-watchers say is a larger trend. With diplomatic tensions running high between Beijing and a number of Western governments, China appears to be gradually pulling back its pandas from multiple Western zoos as their agreements expire.

Dennis Wilder, a senior fellow at Georgetown Universitys Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues, called the trend punitive panda diplomacy, noting that two other American zoos have lost their pandas in recent years, while zoos in Scotland and Australia are facing similar departures with no signs of their loan agreements being renewed.

Beijing currently lends out 65 pandas to 19 countries through cooperative research programs with a stated mission to better protect the vulnerable species. The pandas return to China when they reach old age and any cubs born are sent to China around age 3 or 4.

The San Diego zoo returned its pandas in 2019 and the last bear at the Memphis, Tennessee zoo went home earlier this year. The departure of the National Zoos bears would mean that the only giant pandas left in America are at the Atlanta Zoo  and that loan agreement expires late next year.

Wilder said the Chinese possibly could be trying to send a signal.

He cited a litany of Chinese-American flashpoints: sanctions imposed by the US government on prominent Chinese citizens and officials; restrictions on the import of Chinese semiconductors; accusations that Chinese-made fentanyl is flooding American cities; suspicion over Chinese ownership of the social media platform TikTok; and the uproar early this year over the Chinese balloons floating over America.

Beijing, Wilder said, is convinced that NATO and the United States are lining up against China.

The panda-related tension has even spilled into the hallways of the US Senate. Last week, Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman complained about China buying up American farmland and added, I mean, theyre taking back our pandas. You know, we should take back all their farmland.

That animosity has been at least partially shared by the public in China, where anti-American sentiments are on the rise. Those sentiments developed into a perfect panda storm earlier this year when Le Le, a male panda on loan to the zoo in Memphis, died suddenly in February at the age of 24. Pandas generally live 15 to 20 years in the wild, while those in human care often live to be around 30.

Le Les unexpected death prompted an explosion on Chinese social media platforms like Weibo, with widespread allegations that the Memphis zoo had mistreated the bear and its female companion, Ya Ya. The campaign gained intensity when photos circulated on the Internet of Ya Ya looking dirty and gaunt (by panda standards) with patchy fur.

An online petition on Change.org demanded Ya Ya be returned immediately, alleging malnourishment and deprivation of proper medical care. Slogans such as the pandas life matters surfaced in Chinas social media along with emotional memes pleading with authorities to rescue the bear. One particular meme depicts a miserable-looking Ya Ya gazing at a plane flying overhead with the caption: Mama, I have worked away from home for 20 years. Have I earned enough for a plane ticket to return home?

The heat grew so intense that the Memphis Zoo released a statement responding to what it called misinformation about its pandas and stating that Ya Ya has a chronic skin and fur condition that makes her hair look thin and patchy, and Le Le died of natural causes.

Even an official Chinese scientific delegation that visited Memphis and announced that Le Le was not mistreated and died of a heart condition failed to quell the outrage. Ya Ya was returned to China on schedule in April when the loan agreement expired and received a celebritys welcome at Shanghais airport.

The Chinese government, which gifted the first pair of pandas  Hsing Hsing and Ling Ling  to the US, now leases the pandas out for a typical 10-year renewable term. The annual fee ranges from $1 million to $2 million per pair, plus mandatory costs to build and maintain facilities to house the animals. Any cub born to the pandas belongs to the Chinese government, but can be leased for an additional fee until it reaches mating age.

Over the 50 years of American panda loan agreements, the arrangement has hit more than one rough patch. In 2010, Daniel Ashe, then head of the federal Fish and Wildlife Service, traveled to China to help resolve a technical bureaucratic issue that was threatening the renewal of the National Zoos agreement. The problem was quickly resolved and the agreement extended.

But the situation now is completely different, said Ashe, now CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. What were seeing now is tensions between our governments at a much higher level, and they need to be addressed and resolved at that level.

Observers are holding out hope that exactly this sort of 11th-hour high-level intervention will come through. Wilder pointed to the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November as a potential forum for President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping to make headlines by breaking the deadlock. And Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng has sounded semi-optimistic in his public statements.

I will do my utmost to do that, and here, in Aspen, there also will be (pandas), Xie said during the Aspen Security Forum in July in Aspen, Colorado.

But for now, panda-philes of all ages are making pilgrimages to Washington for a last glimpse at the bears. At the zoo last Friday, amid the chatter of children, was an adult couple with a baby on the way  each wearing matching panda-ears headbands. Colleen Blue and John Nungesser came from outside Philadelphia to see the pandas; this was Blues third time.

Ive been obsessed with them since I was little. I used to just bury people in panda facts, she said.

Nungesser nodded, adding, On our first date, she went on and on about pandas.

Blue said she broke into tears and had a temper tantrum when she found out that Washingtons pandas would be leaving. The couple is already making plans, after their baby is born, to take the infant to see the pandas in Atlanta next summer before they leave.

And Alison Lambert, Kelseys mom, said she remains optimistic that both sides will work out an agreement simply because its mutually beneficial. And if they dont, Kelsey is already developing Plan B.

We could always fly to China, she said. That works, too.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Rishi Sunak have extended greetings ahead of the inauguration of an Akshardham Temple in Robbinsville city of New Jersey, said to be the largest Hindu temple outside India in the modern era.

It is an occasion of profound spiritual significance for the vast legion of devotees worldwide, Modi wrote in a letter to BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham in Robbinsville.

Sending his best wishes to everyone at BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha and all those involved in this initiative, Modi said the inaugural celebrations of Akshardham Mahamandir showcase Indian architectural excellence and its glorious ancient culture and ethos.

It will also help in establishing a connection between the members of the Indian diaspora, particularly the youth, to connect with and take pride in Maa Bharati, he said. We were amazed and awed by the beauty of this temple and its universal message of peace, harmony, and becoming a better human being, the British prime minister said in his message ahead of the temples inauguration on October 8.

This is not only a place of worship, but a landmark that also portrays Indias values, culture, and contributions to the world, he said.

Prime Minister Modi further said that India and the United States share an abiding relationship and both nations have nurtured and broadened these ties into a robust, multifaceted relationship, fostering extensive interactions among their people.

Observing that Indias enduring and illustrious spiritual heritage holds timeless and universal relevance, he said, that spirituality constitutes an integral element of our sociocultural heritage and principles.

Our philosophy and traditions emphasise that the ultimate goal of an individuals life revolves around Seva or selfless service, he wrote.

Noting that temples have been the hub of service and socio-cultural activities for centuries, he said they are not only centers of devotion but also serve as platforms for giving expression to art, architectural excellence, literature, and knowledge. Such profound cultural principles have been guiding humanity for generations.

Bhagwan Swaminarayan presented eternal ideals of our culture and wove it into powerful lessons that could be accessed by every section of society. He emphasised the importance of purity of thought and conduct through spirituality and social reform, Modi said.

From September 30, the highly anticipated dedication celebrations of the BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham in Robbinsville in the presence of Mahant Swami Maharaj are underway, the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha said.

This marks a significant milestone after 12 years of dedication by over 12,500 volunteers across North America. The stone Mahamandir, set to become the centrepiece of the Akshardham campus, is a marvel of craftsmanship and devotion, blending intricate artistry with spiritual significance, it said.

Globally, BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardhams are landmarks of Hindu art, architecture, and culture. They serve as spiritual and community hubs, open to people of all faiths and backgrounds.

Akshardham in New Jersey marks the third such cultural complex globally. The first Akshardham was created in Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat, India, in 1992, followed by Akshardham in New Delhi in 2005.
WASHINGTON  Vietnam veteran Bob Kastner couldnt sleep on Saturday night.

He spent the majority of the night tossing and turning, and so did his wife. The pair had a trip planned the next morning that included a 90-minute drive to the Bismarck Airport.

I was trying to sleep since 8 p.m., said Kastner, who served in the Army for two years. Neither one of us could sleep. We left Garrison about 2 a.m., and I got (to the airport) about 3:30 a.m.

Kastners restlessness wasnt just run-of-the-mill pre-trip jitters. The flight he was waiting for was much more meaningful: He was one of the 112 veterans on the Western North Dakota Honor Flights latest pilgrimage to Washington. The nonprofit organization is part of a broader network of Honor Flight chapters that share the goal of honoring the service of military veterans through an all-expenses-paid trip to the nations capital, where attendees tour war memorials. This months trip included stops at Arlington National Cemetery, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Capitol.

The flight that returned Monday evening was the groups third venture. Its inaugural voyage took place in April 2022, and the organization has since served hundreds of veterans in western North Dakota, many of whom got their first chance to see the monuments to the wars they fought in.

Kastner before Sunday had never been to Washington, much less seen the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The closest thing hed experienced was the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall, which hed seen four times. As he waited to board, he was experiencing a combination of apprehension and excitement.

It brings back a lot of memories, just seeing the traveling wall, Kastner said. I don't know what it's going to be like seeing the real one.

'Really deep for me'

The same sentiments rang true for many veterans on the flight, all of whom were in search of something different as they boarded the plane. For some, the flight was an opportunity to honor the friends and family members they lost in combat; for others, the trip provided a chance to heal some of the trauma they experienced. But among all, a common thread emerged: excitement and appreciation.

That was perhaps most present in a cohort of four veterans who were bestowed with a unique honor Sunday afternoon. Representing the entire honor flight, these men had the opportunity to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. The men were selected through a nomination process driven by those who compiled the veterans' biographies.

Immediately after the changing of the guard, the veterans got the chance to place a wreath adorned with flowers, ribbons and Western North Dakota Honor Flights name in front of the tomb.

One of those men was George Masters, of Minot, a 20-year veteran of the Air Force who spent the majority of his service at Minot Air Force Base. Masters didnt apply to go on an honor flight himself -- somebody submitted an application on his behalf, and he found out about it only when he received a letter informing him he had been selected to go on the trip. The flight itself was a surprise, and his selection for the wreath-laying ceremony was an even bigger one.

As the flight began its descent into the Baltimore-Washington International Airport late Sunday morning, Masters reflected on the ceremony he would be participating in later that day, at times pausing as if it was challenging to put his emotions into words.

All these people that are here certainly have served their time and deserve the honors that are being bestowed upon them, Masters said. But this one here, this will be really deep for me.

Masters also was able to share the experience with family members. Some veterans bring along someone either for support or companionship, but the stars aligned in a different way for Masters on Sunday. His sister-in-law and niece both live in Pennsylvania, around a three-hour drive from the cemetery, and despite just two days notice they knew they had to make the trip.

It's not something that everyone's going to get to see a member of their family get to do, said Allison Masters, the elder Masters niece. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Moments of grief

Just as moments of celebration abounded throughout the trip, so did moments of grief.

That was perhaps most present at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which commemorates the war in which a large portion of the attendees served. The monument, made of slabs of black granite in a shape that appears to be hewn out of the earth, is etched with the names of those who died or were missing in action.

Emotions were heightened as veterans walked the monument to a war from which many returning U.S. soldiers were met with hostility as the conflict dwindled in popularity in the eyes of many Americans.

As Michael Massine Jr. walked the wall Sunday, he was in search of a name he knew all too well: that of his cousin Richard, who died in action. Massine touched the wall gently with reverence, fingertips grazing over his cousins name, before kneeling down to rub graphite on a sheet of paper to capture the etching, a common practice at the memorial.

Massine, of Minot, was accompanied by his son, who also served in the military, and together the two took a pair of rubbings of Richards name.

Im not as brave as I thought I was, Massine said as tears welled up and he began to talk about Richard, recalling the years they spent growing up together on a farm before Richards family moved to Washington.

Seeing Richard's name memorialized among so many others, Massine said, helped heal some of the pain that came with the loss of his cousin.

A lot of people gave up their lives and theres a lot of memorials and it's just, it's just phenomenal, Massine said. I wouldn't give this up for a million dollars.

'It was special'

Just as the veterans walk away from the flight with a new understanding of their service, so do the volunteers who make the flight possible, many of whom have military ties. Twenty-nine volunteers accompanied the delegation to Washington, providing support of all kinds -- and gaining a new appreciation.

One volunteer was Nancy Emmel, of Bismarck, whose family has an extensive history of military service. Emmel said recent deployments have seen support on both ends -- resources targeted at active and outgoing service members and also a network for family members left behind. But that wasn't true for all veterans.

To Emmel, its a clear injustice that not all military members and families got that support, and its driven her to give back. Its a chance for her to share a little bit with soldiers that missed out.

Emmel said shes walked away with a greater sense of community -- one that can only come from the camaraderie of military families. As she walked the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Sunday, she paused at the name of a fallen friend, reflecting on their relationship. Unbeknownst to her until that moment, that mans best friend was also on the flight and had paused to grieve as well.

I didn't even know him standing in the crowd, Emmel said. (The list of attending veterans) is a bunch of names -- 120 soldiers, I don't know them all. But for that moment, you're standing there grieving the same person. It was special.

Just hours before the flight departed Sunday, the trip's agenda was up in the air: Some stops on the tour could have been impacted by a federal government shutdown, including the Capitol tour, according to Western North Dakota Honor Flight Board President Dennis Burdolski.

But federal budget issues were temporarily resolved late Saturday, paving the way for the trip to proceed as planned. The flight's third iteration, Burdolski said, ended up being the smoothest yet -- and the best-received.

"We knew that there was going to be turmoil with the budget," Burdolski said. "All of that kind of smoothed out, and our problems in comparison are very, very low compared to what could have happened."

A delayed celebration

When Duane Ziegler returned from Vietnam in 1972, he didn't have a welcome party. The Army veteran said many people didn't know when he was returning from his time overseas, and he walked off the plane alone.

That wasn't the case on Monday. The roar of patriotic tunes overtook the Bismarck Airport as veterans journeyed down the jetway, before the packed crowd that had gathered for a welcome home celebration issued an overwhelming cacophony of support. Family members, local leaders and military personnel formed a singular pathway to ensure no veteran would miss the celebration.

Ziegler wasn't sure what to expect as he disembarked the flight. But as he descended the escalator into a packed crowd, shaking hands with friends and strangers, he said he was experiencing a celebration more than 50 years in the making.

"I expected a few people, but I did not expect the fanfare and the band, which for me is very touching, very emotional," Ziegler said. "I tell you what, you've got tears in your eyes. There's something in your body, and it only comes out when your emotions get carried away, and this was one of those times."
Poland and the Czech Republic said Tuesday they were introducing checks on their borders with Slovakia in a bid to curb growing illegal migration.

Starting midnight, we are reintroducing border controls at the border with Slovakia, Polands Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski told reporters.

Working in coordination with neighbours, the Czech Republic will follow suit, said the interior ministry.

In both countries, the checks are expected to last ten days at first.

The number of illegal migrants into the EU is beginning to grow again. We are not taking this lightly, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on X, formerly Twitter.

Slovakia has recently seen an uptick in migrants coming largely from Serbia via Hungary.

In the first eight months of this year, the country detected approximately 24,500 migrants who had entered illegally.

That was up from nearly 10,900 for all of last year and only hundreds per year before that, according to Slovak police.

Its chief, Stefan Hamran, said the vast majority identified themselves as Syrians, who cannot be detained or deported under international rules, and that they continued on to Western Europe.

Robert Fico, whose Smer-SD party won the Slovak election on Saturday, vowed to introduce immediate checks on the Hungarian border if he becomes prime minister, as expected.

We will need to use force to resolve the problem with migrants, he said.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia form the so-called Visegrad-four (V4) group of ex-communist Central European EU and NATO members.

When the migrant wave hit Europe in 2015, the V4 stood up against migrant redistribution quotas proposed by the EU, earning scorn across the bloc.

Germany said last week it would step up policing of its borders with Poland and the Czech Republic in a bid to get a grip on rising levels of illegal migration.

German Interior Ministry Nancy Faeser recently raised the possibility of fixed controls on Polish and Czech borders, a measure already in place along the boundary between Germany and Austria.

All of the said countries are members of the European Union and of Europes Schengen open-borders zone.

The reintroduction of border checks in the Schengen Area is permitted only in exceptional circumstances and must be notified with Brussels before it can be implemented.

Warsaw said it had already notified the European Commission, the EUs executive arm, about the decision.
Six pro-Iranian fighters were killed in a probable Israeli air strike on Syria, according to a war monitor, in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor close to the Iraqi border.

Separately, the Syrian defense ministry reported that two troops were hurt late on Monday when Israel attacked army positions elsewhere in the province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday evening that six pro-Iranian fighters were killed in a probable Israeli strike.

The British-based watchdog claimed that Israeli airstrikes hit three sites belonging to Iran-backed groups close to the border city of Albu Kamal.

There are numerous Revolutionary Guards of Iran-affiliated militias in Syria, especially close to the Iraqi border.

During more than a decade of conflict in Syria, neighbouring Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, targeting Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.

Separately, the Syrian defence ministry said that shortly before midnight (2100 GMT) on Monday, an Israeli air strike had wounded two soldiers near the city of Deir Ezzor.

The Israeli enemy carried out air strikes on some of our armed forces positions near the city of Deir Ezzor, leaving two soldiers wounded, a ministry statement said.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes it carries out on targets in Syria, but it has said repeatedly that it will not allow its arch foe Iran to expand its presence.

Last month, Israeli air strikes killed two soldiers on Syrias Mediterranean coast, state media said.

In March, US strikes on Iran-linked groups in eastern Syria killed 19 people, including both Iran-backed fighters and Syrian soldiers, the Observatory said.

The war in Syria has killed more than half a million people since it broke out in 2011, following the bloody repression of pro-democracy protests.

It quickly escalated into a broader conflict that pulled in jihadists and foreign powers.
The editor of a state television channel suggested that Moscow should set off a thermonuclear weapon in Siberia as a warning to the West. The Kremlin responded on Tuesday by denying that Russia has abandoned its embargo on nuclear testing.

The leader of the largest nuclear power in the world, President Vladimir Putin, has repeatedly warned the West that any attack on Russia may result in a nuclear reaction.

In 1990, the Soviet Union conducted its final nuclear test. According to the United Nations, China and France carried out their final nuclear tests in 1996, while the United States carried out its final nuclear test in 1992.

When questioned about comments made by Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of state-funded channel RT, the Kremlin stated that it had not abandoned the moratorium.

At present, we have not left the regime of abandoning nuclear tests, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

I dont think such discussions are possible now from an official point of view, Peskov said, adding that Simonyans words did not always reflect Moscows official position.

The West will not relent until Russia conveyed a nuclear message, according to Simonyan, who claimed that the Ukraine conflict was heading towards a nuclear ultimatum.

A nuclear ultimatum is becoming more and more imminent and more and more impossible to avoid, Simonyan said. They will not backpedal unless it is painful for them.

She joked that if there was an explosion, all electronic equipment would be rendered useless, making it simpler for her to explain to her kids why they werent permitted to have things like iPads.

Late last year, Russian official television used unusually strong language regarding nuclear issues, but the first half of this year saw a decrease in that attitude.

After testing a 20-kiloton nuclear bomb in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in July 1945, the United States launched two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 to mark the end of World War Two.

Four years later, in August 1949, the Soviet Union stunned the West by exploding its first nuclear bomb.

According to the United Nations, more than 2,000 nuclear tests were conducted in the five decades between 1945 and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty in 1996, with 1,032 of those tests being conducted by the United States and 715 by the Soviet Union.

Putin revoked Russias adherence to the New START pact, the countrys final significant arms control agreement with the United States, in February.

He also issued a warning that Russia would resume nuclear testing if the United States did.

The New York Times reported on Monday that satellite images and aviation data suggested Russia may be getting ready to launch, or may have already tested, an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile.

I do not know where the NYT journalists got this, the Kremlins Peskov said.

Apparently, it is necessary to study satellite images in more detail.

(With agency inputs)
Russia has no plans for additional mobilisation of men to fight in Ukraine as more than 335,000 have signed up so far this year to fight in the armed forces or voluntary units, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday.

Russia has been bolstering its armed forces and ramping up weapons production in the expectation of a long war in Ukraine, where front lines have barely shifted for a year.

There are no plans for an additional mobilisation, Shoigu was shown telling top generals on state television. The armed forces have the necessary number of military personnel to conduct the special military operation.

Shoigu, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, hailed the patriotism of those who had signed up.

Since the start of the year, more than 335,000 people have entered military service under contract and in volunteer formations, Shoigu said. In September alone, more than 50,000 citizens signed contracts.

Those figures indicate that Russia has made significant progress both in signing recruits and in absorbing many fighters from the Wagner mercenary force into voluntary formations.

Putin ordered a partial mobilisation of 300,000 reservists in September last year, prompting hundreds of thousands of young men to flee Russia to avoid being sent to fight.

Putin has repeatedly said there is no need to repeat the mobilisation, which some Russian officials say was a mistake as it prompted so many to leave.

Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 unleashed a war that has devastated swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine, killed or injured hundreds of thousands of men and triggered the biggest rupture in Russias ties with the West for six decades.

Putin says he is fighting a Western alliance waging a proxy war to diminish Russia politically and militarily, while Western leaders say their economic sanctions and their military backing for Ukraine are a direct response to Moscows aggression.
Slovakia on Monday accused Moscow of interfering in its election at the weekend that was won by a populist pledging to end military help for Ukraine.

Robert Fico was tapped Monday to form a new government after his party finished first on a platform that raised concern about cracks in Kyivs Western support.

Slovakia alleged meddling following pre-election remarks by Moscows foreign intelligence service director claiming Slovakias pro-Ukraine centrist party were US proxies.

That party, Progressive Slovakia, finished second with 18 percent of the vote to Ficos Smer-SDs 23 percent in the polls.

We consider such deliberately disseminated misinformation to be inadmissible interference by the Russian Federation in the electoral process in the Slovak Republic, Slovakias foreign ministry said in a statement.

The foreign ministry on Monday summoned a Russian embassy official and called on Moscow to stop disinformation activities aimed at Slovakia.

Moscow rejected the accusations of meddling, saying we do not interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries and we do not engage in regime change.

During the election campaign, the 59-year-old Fico vowed that NATO member Slovakia would not send a single round of ammunition to Ukraine and called for better ties with Russia.

The US does not take sides

In reaction to Slovakias claims about Russian interference, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington is in close contact with our Slovak counterparts about them.

The United States does not take sides in foreign elections, Miller added, saying the US will continue to work together with the government chosen by the Slovak people.

Earlier in the day Slovakias liberal president Zuzana Caputova tasked Fico with forming a new government, stressing the need to respect the result of democratic elections.

I understand that the election results are associated with various concerns for many people, Caputova said.

Ficos party won 42 seats in the 150-member parliament  and must now find coalition partners to form a majority government.

Hlas-SD, which emerged in 2020 as a breakaway party from Smer, is one potential partner with 27 seats.

Under Slovakias constitution, there is no deadline for forming a new government.

But the president is required to call the first session of parliament within 30 days of the official election results being published.

Too early to say

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Fico said Slovakia and the people in Slovakia have bigger problems than (dealing with) Ukraine.

He added that Ukraine is a huge tragedy for all and called for peace talks as further killing will not help anyone.

Ukraines Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Monday that Kyiv respects the choice of the Slovak people.

He said it was too early to say how the election result will affect Slovakias position, adding that Kyiv can draw the first conclusions after a coalition is formed in Slovakia.

Fico previously called for good relations with every country in the world, including the Russian Federation.

But on Monday, the Kremlin rejected a characterisation of the Smer-SD party as pro-Russian.

We are facing a situation in which any politician who is inclined to think about the sovereignty of his country and defends the interests of his country, is considered pro-Russian. This is absurd, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Analysts have said a Fico government could radically change Slovakias foreign policy to resemble that of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Orban himself congratulated Fico on X, formerly Twitter, on his undisputable victory at the Slovak parliamentary elections.

Always good to work together with a patriot. Looking forward to it! Orban wrote on Sunday.
Thailands prime minister launched Tuesday a committee to look at amending the military-drafted constitution, but ruled out any changes to contentious sections related to the monarchy.

Premier Srettha Thavisins new government came into office in August after months of political wrangling, having promised constitutional reform in the run-up to Mays general election.

The current charter was drafted in 2017 following a 2014 military coup, and heavily weights power towards unelected officials and the armed forces.

Sretthas Pheu Thai party had pledged to hold a referendum on changing the constitution, telling voters it had been used to extend the rule of the then-junta.

On Tuesday, Srettha appointed a 35-member committee to conduct a feasibility study on holding a referendum to amend the constitution.

We have a timeframe of three to four months, or at least before the new year, for a conclusion on the referendum, Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said.

The committee will contain representatives from the government and opposition, as well as academics, political activists and legal experts, he told a press conference.

Phumtham said the process could take more than three years, but that it would be open to public discussion.

He said the cabinet will approve and submit the committees recommendations to the Election Commission before a referendum.

But the new charter will not change anything related to the monarchy.

We will not touch Chapter I and Chapter II including the Royal prerogatives in other articles, Phumtham said.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close family are protected by some of the worlds toughest lese-majeste laws, with offences punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Youth-led street protests in 2020 made unprecedented calls for changes to the kings power and privileges.

The committee is expected to hold its first meeting next week.
On Tuesday, Thai police announced that they had received reports of gunfire, injuries, and a man carrying a weapon at an upscale mall in the heart of Bangkok.

Police claimed to be in charge of the situation. At least one person was injured, according to an emergency response team.

Unverified social media footage showed customers, including children, rushing out of the Siam Paragon malls entrance as security personnel escorted them out.

Sounds resembling gunfire were heard inside, originating from a toilet in the mall, according to local TV Channel 3.

The incidents specifics are still being gathered, the prime minister Srettha Thavisin informed reporters.

The national police commander had given the order and sent out officers to control the area, according to police spokesperson Achayon Kraithong. Long traffic lines outside the mall were visible on television, along with pouring rain.

In Thailand, gun violence is widespread. Last year, an ex-police officer went on a shooting and stabbing spree that left 22 children dead in a nursery, and in 2020, a soldier went on a shooting and stabbing spree that left at least 29 people dead and 57 injured in four different places in and around the northeastern Thai city of Nakhon Ratchasima.

On Tuesday, Thai police announced that they had received reports of gunfire, injuries, and a guy carrying a weapon at an upscale mall in the heart of Bangkok.

(With agency inputs)
Two pentagon officials including Deputy Chief of Defense and were charged for allegedly running a dogfighting ring in Anne Arundel County in the United States.

Among the two, Frederick Douglass Moorefield, a Deputy Chief Information Officer for Command, Control, and Communications, for Office of the Secretary of Defense from Arnold, and Mario Damon Flythe, from Glen Burnie have been charged with promoting and advancing animal fighting operations.

According to the affidavit presented in sourt, Moorefield and Flythe used an encrypted messaging service to contact with people all around the country about dogfighting.

The two along with their colleagues used the encrypted messaging app to discuss how to train dogs for unlawful dogfighting, trade dogfighting movies, and schedule and coordinate dogfights.

Moorefield and Flythe used the names Geehad Kennels and Razor Sharp Kennels to designate their respective dogfighting organizations.

According to the Department of Justice, Moorefield and Flythe also discussed dogfighting betting, dogs that died as a result of dogfighting, and media accounts about dogfighters apprehended by law enforcement.

Following the lead, Law enforcement authorities executed search warrants at Moorefield and Flythes Maryland homes on September 6.

There, the federal government recovered and seized 12 dogs. Law officials also found veterinary drugs, training plans, a carpet that seemed to be splattered with blood, and a weighted dog vest with the patch Geehad Kennels.

In addition, according to records, law enforcement investigators seized a device consisting of an electrical plug and jumper wires, which the affidavit claims are similar with devices used to execute canines that lose dogfights.

They were ordered to be released pending trial while being monitored by US Pretrial Services.
The government of the UK has recently proposed a ban on the treatment of transgender women in female hospital wards England.

In his conference speech, Steve Barclay, the health minister of the UK is expected to outline efforts to counter what he calls wokery in the NHS, which he claims has resulted in womens rights being more marginalized.

As per reports, Barclay told reporters We need a common-sense approach to sex and equality issues in the NHS. That is why I am announcing ideas to clarify patients rights.

He also stated that sex-specific language has been restored on health advice pages addressing cervical and ovarian cancer, as well as menopause.

It is vital that womens voices are heard in the NHS and the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients are protected, he stated.

According to a source close to the health minister, he is tired of this agenda and the damage its causing, language like chestfeeding, talking about pregnant people rather than women.

It irritates the vast majority of people, and he is determined to do something about it, they continued.

He is concerned that womens voices should be heard on healthcare and that too often wokery and ideological dogma is getting in the way of this.

In April, Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch said the government could prohibit trans women from entering female-only spaces and asked parliaments human rights watchdog for advice on changing official language from sex to biological sex, describing it as a technical and contested area of law.

Barclay is also expected to promise an expansion of NHS training and financing for new health-care technology in his address.

He will also announce new medical schools in Worcester, Chester, and Uxbridge, as well as an increase in the number of places available for medical students across the country.

The opposition, Labour party, however, claims that the three new institutions mentioned already exist, and that due to the limited number of government-funded slots, they solely train international students.

Barclays address will take place against the backdrop of the latest round of junior doctor and consultant strikes in England.

It comes after a two-day walkout at the end of September and coincides with Rishi Sunaks first Conservative Party conference as leader and prime minister.
One of Ukraines top generals claimed on Tuesday that his countrys forces were making progress in the south, one of the two theatres of their counteroffensive to drive out Russian occupiers, but he provided few other details.

General Oleksander Tarnavskyi used the military term for the southern frontthe Tavria sectorin a Telegram post to describe an advance by the defending forces.

The commander of the southern group of forces, Tarnavskyi, reported that troops had completed 1,198 missions on the previous day with 261 men lost for the Russian forces and an additional 10 taken prisoner.

In its evening report, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stated, without going into any detail, that offensive operations were taking place in the east and south.

The focus of the journey south to the Sea of Azov was the southeast Zaporizhzhia region, where reports of Russian airstrikes were made. According to the report, Ukrainian forces also resisted Russian assaults in regions of the Donetsk region that Kiev had already reclaimed as well as in and around the long-disputed town of Maryinka to the west.

Over the past week, military analysts have reported that Ukrainian forces have consolidated their positions near the settlement of Verbove as they advance south.

The drive in the east has focused on recovering land around the devastated town of Bakhmut, seized by Russian forces in May after months of heavy fighting.

The Institute for the Study of War, in an assessment issued on Monday, said Ukrainian forces had made marginal gains in the area straddling Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

(With agency inputs)
Once youve slipped your hand into the jar and snuck away with a chocolate chip cookie, you realize it was a pretty easy pilfer.

Which means youre likely to do it again. And the next time, maybe you grab two cookies. Then maybe three, then four. Pretty soon you conclude that since no one has complained or objected or slapped your hand, it must be perfectly acceptable to grab a cookie whenever you want.

North Dakotas Legislature learned last week that the cookies dont last forever. The state Supreme Court slapped the collective legislative hand, and it turned out to be a pretty powerful punch. Now legislators are going to have to return to the kitchen to mix up a whole new batch of cookie dough.

Its been decades since legislators first learned that their job could be made easier by holding the budget bill for the Office of Management and Budget to the end of each session, then tossing into it a whole bunch of unrelated policies and funding for unrelated projects. For 50 years or so this has been referred to as the Christmas tree bill, due to all the little gifts that were thrown into it.

Even then they knew of the one subject rule, which holds that a bill can embrace only one subject, not a whole bunch of ornaments for the Christmas tree. But each time a new Christmas tree bill passed without any hands being slapped, it became easier to do the same thing again the next session.

Over time, legislators sometimes would hide in the OMB bill proposals that had actually been killed earlier in the session. Theyd also slip in funding that key legislators wanted for pet projects back home.

Done properly, those things would be introduced in separate bills that would get hearings and votes on their merits.

Done improperly they would be slipped into the OMB bill. Many legislators didnt even know about them, much less citizens who might want to weigh in.

This went on, session after session, until this year, when a provision slipped into the Christmas tree bill called for adding more legislators to the board of the Public Employees Retirement System. That rankled the feathers of current PERS board member so much that they sued the state.

In that case, the Supreme Court last week determined the 2023 Christmas tree bill to be invalid because it violated the one-subject rule contained in Section 13 of Article 9 of the states constitution.

There are good reasons for the one-subject rule. Most notable is that it keeps legislators from hiding pet projects in totally unrelated bills where legislators and citizens dont get a chance to weigh in on them.

This year, for example, a lot of PERS policy, totally unrelated to the OMB budget, was included in the Christmas tree bill.

Also tucked into it, among many other things, was $8.25 million for a behavioral health center in Dickinson, home of House Majority Leader Mike Lefor; $200,000 for funding a senior center in Wells County, home of longtime Senate Assistant Majority Leader Jerry Klein; $500,000 for workforce grants at a tribal college in the Turtle Mountain area; and $500,000 for conducting a performance audit of the state auditors office, which has been a thorn in the side of many legislators.

The 2021 Legislature, flush with federal coronavirus money, was even more active in plugging funding for local projects into the OMB bill.

These may be good and worthwhile projects, but no one knew about them until it was too late to do anything about it. Maybe Burke County wanted a senior center, too. Maybe other regions could use a behavioral health center.

It has been reported that there are 68 different sections of the 2023 OMB bill that have nothing to do with OMB.

Because of the Supreme Courts ruling, the legislature will be called back into session to deal with all those matters, including the OBM budget, that were invalidated because legislators violated the one-subject clause.

That could be an expensive proposition. Theoretically, if they want to keep all 68 proposals contained in the bill, theyll have to write 68 different bills, all of which would get a separate hearing and a vote in each house of the Legislature.

After all, it should have been done that way in the first place.

Meanwhile, with the Legislature back in session, who knows how many bills the culture warriors and others might introduce on top of the proposals in the Christmas tree bill?

Its legislators own fault. Theyve known all along that they shouldnt be doing Christmas tree bills, but it seemed an easy and efficient way to get things done.

Shortcuts often do make things easier.

Rarely do they make things better.
The United Nations Security Council on Monday approved a Kenyan-led mission aiming to bring stability to Haiti, a year after leaders in the violence-ravaged Caribbean nation first pleaded for help.

The Western Hemispheres poorest nation has been in freefall, with armed gangs taking over parts of the country and unleashing brutal violence, and the economy and public health system also in tatters.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have been calling since late 2022 for international support to back the fledgling police force, but much of the global community had been jaded by the failure of earlier interventions in Haiti.

Mondays resolution passed with 13 votes in favor, with China and Russia abstaining. It was hailed by Haitian foreign minister Jean Victor Geneus as bringing a glimmer of hope for people who have been suffering the consequences of a difficult political, socio-economic, security and humanitarian situation for too long.

A breakthrough in plans for the force came in July, when Kenya volunteered to lead the force and send 1,000 personnel.

The resolution calls for the deployment of a multinational security support mission  not officially a UN force  with a lead country coordinating with the Haitian government.

The mission is initially approved for one year, with a review after nine months.

The force aims to provide operational support to the Haitian National Police, including building its capacity through the planning and conduct of joint security support operations, the resolution says.

The mission will also aim to create conditions to hold elections, which have not taken place in Haiti since 2016.

Guterres in a recent report said that the security situation in Haiti has only grown worse, with the gang members both more numerous and better armed than the police.

Nearly 2,800 homicides were recorded in Haiti between October 2022 and June 2023, with 80 minors among the dead, the UN report said.

Addressing concerns of China

The United States has been advocating a multinational force. On Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his department would continue working with Congress to provide $100 million in foreign assistance, and that the Pentagon is prepared to provide up to $100 million in enabling support.

But President Joe Biden has made clear he will not put American troops in harms way.

On Monday, the White House voiced its gratitude to Kenya for taking on leadership of the force, and to nations such as Jamaica, the Bahamas and Antigua for adding manpower.

It is now crucial that we focus on making progress in mobilizing the international support necessary to deploy this mission, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

For the resolution to pass, China had to choose not to apply its veto. Haiti is one of a dwindling number of nations that recognizes Taiwan, which Beijing claims and has been seeking to isolate on the international stage.

China, in the run-up to the Security Council meeting, voiced doubts and pointed a finger at the United States, highlighting the role of weapons from Florida in aggravating the violence.

Under pressure from Beijing, the resolution expands an embargo on light weapons and ammunition.

Beijings UN envoy Zhang Jun made it clear that China was still skeptical, stating Monday that without a legitimate, effective and accountable government in place, any external support can hardly have any lasting effects.

The resolution does not specify the size of the mission, although discussions have revolved around a force of about 2,000 personnel.

The resolution also calls for the support mission to adopt appropriate wastewater management.

A UN peacekeeping force in Haiti that lasted from 2004 to 2017 introduced cholera to the country, setting off an epidemic that killed more than 10,000 people.

The experience fueled even greater pessimism in Haiti on interventions and contributed to resistance against another force under the UN flag.
According to the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a bipartisan delegation from the US Senate will go to China, Japan, and South Korea in October.

Republican Mike Crapo, whose office previously stated that the trip is scheduled for next week and that the senators intend to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, will co-lead the group of six senators.

Schumer urged senators to introduce fresh legislation earlier this year in an effort to allay worries about the second-largest economy in the world. Schumer has repeatedly urged the US to confront China more forcefully. Following a series of visits by Biden administration officials, notably Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce, in August, the trip was made.

According to Schumers office, the trips objective is to boost American economic and national security interests in the area and will include discussions with officials from each countrys government and business community as well as representatives from American firms doing business there.

Schumer will focus on the need for reciprocity in China for U.S. businesses that will level the playing field for American workers, as well as on maintaining U.S. leadership in advanced technologies for national security, his office said.

Republicans Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, as well as Democrats Maggie Hassan and Jon Ossoff, are among the other senators travelling. On Monday, the Chinese Embassy declined to comment on the itinerary.

In August, Raimondo had claimed that American businesses had complained that China had become uninvestable, citing fines, raids, and other steps that had made doing business there risky.

For U.S. business in many cases, patience is running thin, and its time for action, she said, adding that companies face exorbitant fines without any explanation, revisions to the counterespionage law, which are unclear and sending shock waves through the U.S. community; raids on businesses  a whole new level of challenge and we need that to be addressed.

(With agency inputs)
As deadlines for establishing a permanent residence on the south pole of the moon approach, China, which hopes to become a major space power by 2030, has made a crucial lunar mission open to international collaboration.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced on Monday at the 74th International Astronautical Congress in Baku, Azerbaijan, that China encourages nations and international organizations to participate in its unmanned Change-8 mission and work together on mission-level projects.

According to information posted on the CNSA website, mission-level initiatives would allow China and its international partners to launch and control their spacecraft, engage in spacecraft-to-spacecraft interactions, and collaboratively explore the moons surface.

International partners are also welcome to piggyback on the Change-8 mission and independently deploy their own modules once the Chinese spacecraft lands, CNSA said.

Interested parties must submit a letter of intent to CNSA by Dec. 31. Final selection of proposals will come in September 2024.

The Change-8 mission will follow the Change-7 in 2026, which also aims to search for lunar resources on the moons south pole. The two missions will lay the foundations for the construction of the Beijing-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) in the 2030s.

China, which deployed an uncrewed probe to the moon on the Change-5 mission in 2020, plans to send an uncrewed Change-6 probe to the far side of the moon in the first half of 2024 to retrieve soil samples.

China aims to land astronauts on the moon by 2030.

Chinas timeline to build an outpost on the south pole coincides with NASAs more ambitious and advanced Artemis program, which aims to put US astronauts back on the lunar surface in December 2025, barring delays.

On the 2025 Artemis 3 mission, two US astronauts will land on the lunar south pole, a region previously unvisited by any human. The last time a human set foot on the moon was in 1972 under the US Apollo program.

The crewed Artemis 4 and 5 missions are planned for 2027 and 2029, respectively.

NASA is banned by US law from collaborating with China, directly or indirectly.

As of September, 29 countries  including India, which landed a probe near the moons south pole in August  have signed the Artemis Accords, a pact crafted by NASA and the US State Department aimed at establishing norms of behaviour in space and on the lunar surface.

China and Russia are not signatories of the agreement.

China, for its own lunar station program, has secured participation from only Russia and Venezuela so far.
Kais Saied, the president of Tunisia, rejected the financial assistance announced by the European Union in September on Monday, claiming that it is insufficient and violates a three-month-old agreement.

Saieds action could jeopardize the strategic partnership from July, which included efforts to fight people traffickers and tighten borders, and which came at a time when there was a substantial spike in the number of boats leaving North Africa for Europe.

As part of the agreement to combat illegal immigration from Africa to Europe, the European Commission said last month that it will provide Tunisia with help totaling 127 million euros ($133 million).

Tunisia rejects what the EU announced, not because of the small amount  but because the proposal conflicts with the memorandum of understanding signed in July, Saied said.

The July deal included a pledge of 1 billion euros in aid to Tunisia to help its battered economy, rescue state finances and deal with the migration crisis.

The smaller amount announced by Europe 10 days ago, however, has frustrated Tunisian authorities struggling to improve public finances and raised fears among credit rating agencies that the government could default on foreign debts in coming months.

The dispute between the two parties has coincided with the arrival of record numbers of migrants from Tunisia and North Africa to Italys island of Lampedusa.

Tunisia last week postponed a visit by a delegation from the European Commission to discuss the details of the migration agreement.

Last month it also denied the entry of five members of the European Parliaments foreign affairs committee for meetings over the political situation in Tunisia, saying it would not allow interference in its affairs.

Some European countries, including Germany, oppose the immigration deal, saying it does not address human rights issues and the political situation after Saied seized power, shut down the Tunisian parliament and began ruling by decree in what the opposition says was a coup.
A resolution allowing the deployment of a multinational force to Haiti under the command of Kenya has been approved by the UN Security Council. This force will aid in the fight against violent gangs that have become extremely powerful and are outnumbering police.

In October 2022, Haiti first asked for such an intervention, but neither the US nor the UN were willing to take the helm, and US attempts to convince Canada to do so were failed.

Kenya then stepped up with an offer to command a multinational army in July. The UN Security Council passed the resolution to authorize the deployment on Monday afternoon with 13 votes in favor and two abstentions from China and the Russian Federation.

Some things to know:

Who requested the armed force and why?

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry first requested the immediate deployment of an armed force in October 2022. At that time, a powerful gang alliance known as G9 and Family led by a former police officer had seized control of a key fuel terminal in the capital of Port-au-Prince, paralyzing the country and cutting off access to water, fuel and basic goods.

The gang eventually allowed fuel trucks to enter the area, but since then, gangs have only grown more powerful. From Jan. 1 to Aug. 15, more than 2,400 people in Haiti have been reported killed, more than 950 kidnapped and more than 900 injured, according to UN statistics.

More than 200,000 others have lost their homes as rival gangs warring over territory pillage communities. Haitis National Police have launched several operations targeting gangs, but the police agency is under resourced, with only 10,000 active officers for a country of more than 11 million people.

Why is the UN Security Council involved?

UN Security Council approval of a deployment of a foreign armed force to Haiti helps gives the intervention weight under international law. The council has 15 members, and a majority of nine votes is needed for a decision.

Only five members, the US, U.K., China, France and Russia, are allowed to veto proposals. Just one veto means a decision or resolution would not be approved. Countries also can abstain instead of casting a veto.

What does the resolution say?

The seven-page resolution drafted by the US government and obtained by The Associated Press ahead of the vote authorizes a one-year deployment of a multinational armed force to help Haiti fight gangs. It welcomes Kenyas offer to lead the force, which would be funded by voluntary contributions, with the US already having pledged $100 million.

The resolution calls for the force to be reviewed after nine months, and for leaders of the mission to inform the council of the missions goals, rules of engagement, financial needs and other issues before a full deployment.

The resolution calls for the force to work with Haitis National Police to counter gangs and improve security conditions as well as secure key infrastructure such as ports, the airport and critical intersections. The force also would be allowed to adopt urgent temporary measures on an exceptional basis to prevent deaths and help secure the country.

What do Haitians think of the proposal?

Haitians are skeptical about a foreign armed force given a sexual abuse scandal and deadly cholera outbreak that followed the 2004 deployment of a UN stabilizing mission that lasted 13 years.

However, Haitians also acknowledge there are few other options that could help quell violence inflicted by gangs estimated to control up to 80% of Port-au-Prince.

Critics of the plan note that police in Kenya have been accused of killings and torture, and some wonder how an English-speaking force would interact with a population that speaks mostly Haitian Creole.

When was a foreign force last sent to Haiti?

There have been at least three major foreign military interventions in Haiti since the early 1900s led by the US and the UN

The last time a force was deployed to Haiti was in June 2004, when the UN approved a stabilization mission after former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown in a rebellion initially organized by a street gang. The upheaval prompted the US, France, Canada and Chile to send troops that were soon replaced by the UN mission that ended in 2017.

The UN mission was marred by allegations that more than 100 UN peacekeepers had engaged in sexual misconduct, including sexual abuse of minors. Also, sewage runoff from a UN peacekeeper camp was blamed for a cholera epidemic in which nearly 10,000 people died.
Taking aim at former allies for shying away from elections, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has reiterated its demand for timely elections.

A member of multi-party Alliance Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDA), Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Sunday referred to the economic crisis and harsh winters in the north-west of the country to suggest deferring the elections expected January next year.

One [PML-N] says that fresh delimitation is crucial for the next elections and the other [JUI-F] questions the possibility of polls in January and February due to harsh winter. The people of Pakistan now should know and identify all those who are running away from elections, said PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday.

Let me be very clear, we wont sit by idly. We will keep raising our voice for timely elections, the PPP chief added.

The National Assembly of Pakistan was dissolved on 9 August and the country has been under a caretaker government since. New elections are expected to take place by January next year latest.

The second tier of PPP leadership also backed Bilawal.

Some say winter not conducive, others say fix the economy first & then polls. This is running away from polls. Hold free & fair polls, without engineering, to resolve problems. Genuine democrats must be ready to face defeat if that is what people decide, PPP leader and spokesman Farhatullah Babar wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Theres no evidence but vibes say no elections. Denying people free choice is inviting disaster. So-called popularity surveys non-sense, like Zias referendum flaunted as [sic] his popularity. Hold free, fair elections. Dont play with fire. Federation [is] at [the] brink, dont push it into [a] pit.

Bilawal also hit out at the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), calling the ban imposed on development schemes in Sindh discriminatory in nature. He said that the party would approach the commission to remove the ban.

If the commission persists with the ban, he warned to go to the court or even take to the streets as a last resort.

You should talk to the caretaker Sindh CM and chief election commissioner [to demand removal of the ban] and let me know about your feedback, he said.

If this doesnt work, then the option of courts is open. Even if this legal option doesnt work, we know the politics of the streets. We know how to get our rights.

A PPP leader told Dawn that the commission in August stopped the execution of already-announced development schemes and announcement of new ones.

However, the ECP has repeatedly said that there is no ban on development projects.

Even the funding and execution of schemes in flood-hit areas of rural Sindh were banned, he said.

However, that particular ban was lifted only after the PPP raised objections as it could have badly affected the rehabilitation of the flood-affected people. Otherwise, the ban is there. Currently, only those projects are ongoing which are funded by international donor agencies. The projects approved in the budget 2023-24 are at a standstill, the leader claimed.
A study by Common Sense found that kids 13-17 years old picked up their phone, on average, 100 times a day. Nearly all participants checked their phone at least once during the school day. TikTok was used, on average, for almost two hours per day. Link to a Scripps News article about the study here.

"This report makes it abundantly clear that teens are struggling to manage their phone use, which is taking a serious toll on their ability to focus and overall mental health," said James P. Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media. Limiting cell phone time appears easier said than done. More than 66% of those who participated in the study said they "sometimes" or "often" find it difficult to stop using their devices.

To combat this addiction, and to help students focus not only on academics, but their surroundings and fellow classmates, many schools are implementing cellphone bans. This year in Salem, Massachusetts, students are now required to put their cellphones in a locked pouch during the day. Link to the WBUR.com article here.

At the end of a recent school day at Salem High, students walked with their heads up and eyes forward as the sound of conversation echoed through the cinderblock hallways. It's a far cry from what was the usual school day scenario especially after the pandemic: Junior Rocco Ryan said he'd typically travel the halls looking down at his cellphone, sometimes bumping into his peers. "Last year, when you were in the hallway, everyone was on their phone looking down," he said.

Ryan was initially against the cellphone ban, but now he approves of it. "The fact that you have no choice to go on your phone, you have to pay attention in class. It's going to lead to more success for me, so I don't mind it at all now."

These unhealthy cellphone habits may have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Guidance counselor Brad Maloon [at Collins Middle School in Massachusetts] said students weren't socializing with each other as much in the halls after students returned from the COVID-19 pandemic-related school building closures. He described phones as "a social crutch" for kids. "There was a definite dependence when the students got back," Maloon said. "We were saying we need to get them back on learning full time and not thinking about what text message or Snapchat notification is going to go off in your pocket." But after the middle school students started locking their phones in these pouches, the change in student behaviors was dramatic.

Tom Bennett, who describes himself on Twxttxr as a professor of school behavior, claims that school cellphone bans have worked well in the UK.

Here to report that *every* single school I've seen that banned smartphones (and I've seen 100s) reports:

1. How glad they are they did it

2. How relatively easy it was, and

3. How much the *students* appreciated it.



I cannot recommend a phone ban highly enough. An easy win https://t.co/EAK6gQkS0G  Tom Bennett OBE (@tombennett71) September 24, 2023

What does it say about me, or my country, that the first downside I think of when contemplating a school cellphone ban is that kids need their phones in case of a school active shooter?
We just have one day for the launch of Pixel 8 series smartphones, now the Pixel 8 Pro has surfaced in Geekbench 6 listing, revealing the details and performance of the Google Tensor G3 SoC.

This reveals a new 1+4+4 setup, compared to 2+2+4 in the Tensor G2. It has 1 x Cortex-X3 prime core clocked at 2.91GHz, 4x Cortex-A715 performance cores clocked at 2.37GHz and 4 x Cortex-A510 power efficient cores clocked at 1.7GHz.

The clock speed revealed in the benchmarks is less than the one that was rumoured earlier. It is said to include Mali-G715 (Immortalis) 10-Core GPU that supports hardware-based ray tracing.

This reveals single-core score of 1760 and multi-core score of 4442, a huge improvement compared to the Tensor G2 in the Pixel 7 Pro. The chip is said to use 3rd Gen 4nm Samsung process tech compared to 5nm process in the G2.

Even the specs on the phone from apps point to the same Tensor G3 specs, thanks to M. Brandon Lee. Both these reveal 12GB of RAM and 128GB as the base variant, but there should also be a 256GB model for the global market and a 512GB model for the US market.

The Google Pixel 8 should also use the same chip, but it is said to come with 8GB of RAM. We should know the official Tensor G3 specs when the phones go official tomorrow, October 4th.

Source 1, 2 | Image Via
Google has introduced a new type of Chromebook called Chromebook Plus, which offers improved performance and AI capabilities. Last month, Google also revealed plans to extend Chromebook support for 10 years.

Built-in Google Apps and Powerful AI

The Chromebook Plus comes with built-in Google apps and robust AI features. It includes tools like Google Photos Magic Eraser and Adobe Photoshop on the web to enhance productivity.

Google describes it as a laptop that optimizes hardware performance through software apps and tools. Google worked closely with partners like Acer, ASUS, HP, and Lenovo to ensure a guaranteed level of performance.

Google Meet Features and Improved App Performance

Google is extending premium features from Google Meet to Chromebook Plus. This improves call clarity, lighting, cancels background noise, and blurs backgrounds in various video conferencing apps.

With its enhanced power, Chromebook Plus runs Google apps and creative tools like Adobe Photoshop and LumaFusion smoothly.

Chromebook Plus enables users to work on graphics-intensive projects in tools like Adobe Photoshop on the web and Adobe Express Premium, powered by Adobes creative generative AI models.

Magic Eraser and File Sync Feature

Google has integrated Magic Erasers AI-powered editing into the built-in Google Photos app on Chromebook Plus. It helps remove distractions from photos and provides intelligent scene suggestions. The app also offers enhanced editing features like HDR effects and portrait blur.

Chromebook Plus introduces a File Sync feature that keeps Google Drive files accessible, even offline, thanks to the ample storage.

Upcoming Features in 2024

Google plans to continuously add new features to Chromebook Plus, including AI capabilities integrated into ChromeOS.

This will make drafting and refining shorter-form content easier and even allow for image generation and personalized wallpapers.

Chromebook Plus will soon support generative AI backgrounds for video calls across various apps.

Quick specifications: Google Chromebook Plus

Display: FHD IPS display

CPU: Intel Core i3 12th Gen or above, or AMD Ryzen 3 7000 series or above

RAM: 8GB or more

Storage: 128GB or more

Battery: Up to 10h battery life

Web camera: 1080p+ with Temporal Noise Reduction

Apps: Google Play Store, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides; Microsoft 365; Photoshop and Adobe Express, LumaFusion

AI Tools: Magic Eraser, Noise, and blur backgrounds

Security: Built-In Titan C2 chip

Pricing and Availability

Starting from October 8, 2023, you can purchase the new Chromebook Plus laptops from major U.S. retailers, with prices starting at USD 399 (Rs. 33,190 approx.). Availability in Canada and Europe begins on October 9, 2023.

Additionally, some existing Chromebooks will receive OS updates to include the enhanced features of Chromebook Plus in the coming weeks.

Commenting on the launch, John Maletis, Vice President, ChromeOS Product, Engineering and UX, said:
In an interview with the Unbox Therapy, Pete Lau, OnePlus founder revealed a lot of details about the OnePlus foldable phone  OnePlus Open. He said that the company holds over 600 patents for the hinge design in a foldable, and for the OnePlus foldable phone, it has 35 patents related to the hinge.

He said that compared to the hinge on the OPPO Find N2, the hinge on the OnePlus foldable has 31 components less, making it lighter, and it is 37% smaller than the Find N2. With the improved material, the strength has also improved.

The OnePlus foldable phone still has an alert slider on the left, and there is a side-mounted fingerprint scanner embedded into the power button, below the volume rockers on the right.

The speakers are on the bottom and the top. The USB Type-C Port and the SIM slot are on the bottom, and the secondary microphone is on the top. You can also see the antenna bands on the metal frame.

The CEO said that the company is working with Google for optimizing the apps for the foldable phone.

He confirmed that the OnePlus folding phone is jointly developed by the OPPO team and the OnePlus team, since they want to create a synergy and bring the best of the two teams together because both teams have accumulated strong experience.

OPPO teams experience in the foldable design and in the camera technologies, and OnePlus fast and smooth experience, the burdenless design, and the peak performance of the hardware combines to create the OnePlus folding phone.

He added that the company will have a different strategy for different regions so that more users will be able to have their hands on this device. As rumoured earlier, it looks like the company is not planning to release the OPPO Find N3 widely, and release OnePlus Open in more markets, including India.

A few days back, Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma was spotted using the OnePlus Open last week ahead of the launch, revealing the camera design which we had seen in renders earlier.

Based on earlier rumours, the OnePlus Open will launch on October 19th, and we should get the official details in a few days. OPPO should also introduce the Find N3 in China sometime later this month.

Source
Acer has introduced two new Chromebook laptops: the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 and Acer Chromebook Plus 514. These laptops are part of Googles Chromebook Plus initiative, aiming to provide improved Chromebook performance through better hardware.

Acer Chromebook Plus 515

Features a 15.6 FHD (1920 x 1080 resolution) IPS display with touch or non-touch options and anti-glare support. Powered by 13th Gen and 12th Gen Intel Core processors (up to Core i7) and offers up to 10 hours of usage on a fast-charging battery.

They support File Sync for offline access to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Both models are U.S. MIL-STD 810H compliant, ensuring durability. They feature an OceanGlass touchpad and an optional backlit keyboard.

In line with Acers Earthion mission, the Chromebook Plus 515 and 514 models incorporate eco-friendly features such as recycled materials, sustainable packaging, and an energy-efficient design that meets Energy Star certification.

Quick specifications: Acer Chromebook Plus 515

Display: 15.6 FHD display, (1920 x 1080 resolution), anti-glare coating, optional touchscreen display.

MIL-STD-810H7 military-grade durability

Processor: 13th Gen and 12th Gen Intel Core processors (up to a Core i7 model)

AI-powered Google and Adobe features

DTS Audio

Fast-charging battery with 10 hours of battery life

Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1

I/O Ports: Built-in HDMI port, a USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A port, and dual USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C ports.

Webcam: 1080p with Temporal Noise Reduction (TNR)

Storage and memory: Up 8 GB to 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM; up to 512 GB SSD.

Energy-efficient design, and EPEAT registration

Acer Chromebook Plus 514

Comes with a 14 WUXGA display with anti-glare coating, 16:10 aspect ratio, and a resolution of 1920 x 1200, with touch or non-touch screen options. Powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 7520 C-Series processor, offering up to 12-hour battery life with fast-charging capability.

Both models provide 8 GB to 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and offer responsive SSD storage options, with up to 256 GB for the 14-inch version and up to 512 GB for the 15-inch model. They support Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1 and come with various ports, including dual USB Type-C and HDMI.

Both laptops feature 1080p webcams with Temporal Noise Reduction (TNR) and Blue Glass lens, along with AI-powered tools for improved clarity, lighting, noise cancellation, and background blur. They also have a physical webcam shutter for privacy, one-click mute for the microphone, and dual upward-firing speakers with DTS Audio.

The Acer Chromebook Plus laptops, suitable for productivity and creativity tasks, come with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Express for photo editing and graphics creation. The laptops have built-in editing features like Magic Eraser and video editing tools.

Quick specifications: Acer Chromebook Plus 514

Display: 14 FHD display, 16:10 WUXGA (1920 x 1200) display, anti-glare coating, optional touchscreen display.

MIL-STD-810H7 military-grade durability

Processor: up to an AMD Ryzen 7520 C-Series processor; AMD RDNA 2 graphics

AI-powered Google and Adobe features

AI-powered Google and Adobe features DTS Audio

Fast-charging battery with 12 hours of battery life

Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1

I/O Ports: Built-in HDMI port, a USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A port, and dual USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C ports.

Webcam: 1080p with Temporal Noise Reduction (TNR)

Storage and memory: Up 8 GB to 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM; up to 256 GB SSD.

Energy-efficient design, and EPEAT registration

Pricing and availability

Acer Chromebook Plus 515 (CB515-2H/T)

North America: Available in October, starting at USD 399.99 (Rs. 33,276 approx.).

EMEA: Available in October, starting at EUR 499 (Rs. 41,595 approx.).

Acer Chromebook Plus 514 (CB514-3H/T)

North America: Available in October, starting at USD 399.99 (Rs. 33,276 approx.).

EMEA: Available in October, starting at EUR 479 (Rs. 39,931 approx.).

Speaking at the launch, James Lin, General Manager, Notebooks, Acer Inc., said:
X Corp, formerly Twitter, is now facing a federal lawsuit in Florida filed by X Social Media, a legal-marketing firm. X Social Media alleges that X Corps new name infringes on its trademark, which includes the letter X, potentially causing consumer confusion.

This lawsuit appears to be the first in a series of potential trademark disputes with Elon Musks company over the letter X, a common element in tech branding.

Hundreds of federal trademarks, including those held by companies like Microsoft and Meta Platforms, incorporate the letter X. Last month, X Corp applied for its own U.S. trademarks covering the letter.

X Social Media, headquartered in Windermere, Florida, focuses on mass-tort litigation advertising. Founded in 2015 by Jacob and Roseanna Malherbe, the agency aimed to connect Florida panhandle residents with attorneys following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

According to the lawsuit, the agency has been using the name X Social Media since 2016 and owns a federal trademark for it. It also claimed to have invested over USD 400 million in Facebook advertising to reach potential clients.

X Social Media tried resolving the trademark issue amicably, sending a cease-and-desist letter to X Corp in August 2023. X Corp. didnt comply, continuing to use the contested mark. The lawsuit states that:

X Social Media attempted to resolve the infringing use of its trademark prior to filing this action in federal court by sending X Corp. a cease and desist letter in August 2023. X Corp. declined to cease use of the mark and continued to disregard the rights of X Social Media.

The lawsuit asserts that Twitters rebranding has already led to customer confusion and revenue loss for X Social Media. It seeks a court order to stop Musks company from using the X name and requests unspecified monetary damages.

Source | Via
Meet a cute and curious beaver named Maple. She lives at 2nd Hand Ranch and Rescue, a home-based wildlife rehabilitation center and animal sanctuary run by founder Nancy Johnson and many volunteers. On their Facebook page, the sanctuary posts all kinds of sweet and funny creatures, but Maple caught my eye, and I found this video of her pilfering Ritz crackers from the cupboard adorably hilarious. I love how her human tries to stop the curious critter but Maple persists until she gets her treat. And those little grabby paws and little squeaks and grunts are just too cute.

And if you want literally the perfect animal-crunching ASMR, here's Maple munching on celeryturn up the volume, it's terrific!

Here's how the 2nd Hand Ranch website describes Maple:

This sweet gal joined us as an itty bitty baby, the size of a guinea pig. . . . She was found abandoned by an heavy equipment operator who saw her sitting on the ground. She was most likely left by her mom as she has had and still has health issues. But with good vet care and medications we are so happy she is still with us. We actually didn't think she would survive. And survive she has  she thrives at 2nd Hand Ranch. We will continue to watch her development and care for her one day at a time. Until then she brings us great joy (and a lot of work and funding) and gives us the opportunity to educate so many on her antics, her habits and her instincts!

2nd Hand Ranch and Rescue explains on their website that "all wildlife is given lots of TLC, and raised with the goal to release back into the wild where it is most happy." They further explain their mission:

We are also a Licensed Illinois Department of Agriculture companion animal rescue. We are foster baseddogs stay in foster homes until we can find a permanent home. Our niche are the hard luck cases, the older dogs that have found their way to 'death row' in animal controls and in open door (kill) shelters, dogs with medical conditions that need much TLC to mend . . . Over the years we have grown from a few cages in the guest room to a beautiful wildlife rescue with our many out-buildings and enclosures. We now are a 501(c)(3) Charity and we have created a sanctuary for abused and senior animals of all kinds as well as a few rescued farm animal babies that are our ambassadors of compassion, teaching folks that all animals are a somebody not just a something.

You can also virtually "adopt" an animalin addition to Maple, you can also sponsor Trinidad the Turkey, Albert the Ox, and Otto the Fox, among many others. And for more cute animal videos from their rescue, follow their Facebook.
College student Ben Brody was accused online of being a federal agent pretending to be a neo-Nazi and organizing a false flag brawl.

In fact, he had nothing to do with the brawl, and was only dragged into that muck because he was misidentified as one of the combatants whose mask was torn off, and because he had once written on a website that he was interested in working for the government one day. Link to the article in Vice here.

Earlier this year, college student Ben Brody, 22, had his life turned upside down when he was accused of being a part of a Pacific Northwest neo-Nazi group. The claims occurred after a neo-Nazi had his mask pulled off when his group had a small brawl with local Proud Boys in Oregon City on June 24. The unmasked neo-Nazi bore a passing resemblance to Brody, who once wrote on a website for his Jewish fraternity that he wanted to work for the government.

That was enough for trolls, morons, and "the worst internet sleuths you could imagine" to make allegations on Twitter/X that Brody was a federal agent stirring up trouble by pretending to be a neo-Nazi.

It was also enough for noted Galaxy Brain Elon Musk to jump in with his two cents.

It wasn't too long after the false allegations about Brody began swirling on Twitter that Musk, the website's owner, replied with things like "very odd," and "always remove their masks" under several tweets falsely accusing Brody and sharing his personal information and photos. These responses, according to the lawsuit, drew much larger audiences to the defamatory tweets because of Musk's large following.

But that wasn't enough. Musk went on to comment favorably about a far-right website's accusations against Brody.

On June 27, after several days of amplifying other people's posts, the lawsuit states Musk personally committed defamation against Brody when responding to a news article by Zero Hedgea far-right news outlet that was banned from using Google Ads in 2020 for its racist content and was integral in aiding the spreading of the Sandy Hook conspiracywith the headline "Patriot Front 'White Supremacist' Unmasked As a Suspected Fed."

"Looks like one is a college student (who wants to join the govt) and another is maybe an Antifa member, but nonetheless a probable false flag situation," Musk wrote. The lawsuit states this is a clear nod toward Brody. The tweet has been viewed over 1.2 million times since it was posted and while the Zero Hedge post and article were deleted, Musk's remains up.

You can imagine the psychological and very real effects of being a young man starting out in the world and having the richest man in the world, with the world's biggest megaphone, make this kind of accusation against you to millions of people.

Musk has a terrible track record when he draws attention to and approves of ridiculous false conspiracy theories that turn out to be false, always erring in favor of a right-wing narrative, of course.
Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of collapsed crypto exchange FTX and involved in various associated rackets, is in court today at the outset of his criminal trial on seven criminal charges including wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering. Bankman-Fried's political donations, his association with the so-called "effective altruism" movement and his inability to stop talking about it all in post-arrest interviews made a public spectacle of his downfall.

A superseding indictment alleges that Bankman-Fried misused billions of dollars worth of customer money for personal purchases, including buying more than $200 million of upscale real estate properties in the Bahamas, as well as to cover bad bets made at his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research. The government says customer cash was shuttled to Alameda via two channels: Users depositing cash directly into accounts held by Alameda and through a secret backdoor that was baked into FTX's code. Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, who contend that more than $8 billion of customers' money has gone missing, also allege that Bankman-Fried defrauded FTX investors by covering up the scheme. The government has separately accused SBF of using customer funds to make more than $100 million in campaign contributions for the 2022 midterm elections.

SBF represents the rare double nominative determinate: he is a bankman and he is now fried.

Navelgazing here, but he also showed just how broke things are in the punditry: they were completely taken in by him and all that hyperactive hogwash about elite altrusim, and he was pretty fond of them, too. Some seem to be hoping for acquittal so that they can have been right all along. He's going to testify in his own defense, though, so they shouldn't get too hopeful.
In October, horror movie fans can choose from an abundance of cinematic treats with the return of cult favorites and classic horrors to local movie theaters.

Not only do you get to see them on the big screen, sometimes they come with extras, including live musical accompaniment. This month, there are two such special performances along with the 30th anniversary return of a family favorite. Heres a look.

Composer Claudio Simonetti has written and recorded some of the most famous and influential horror film soundtracks, including Dawn of the Dead and Suspiria. Another is his work for Demons, a 1985 Italian horror film that involves students at a mysterious movie screening, an isolated theater, a bizarre mask and zombies. His score for Demons has been called a nightmarish synth score by Dread Central. The film has great pedigree. It was produced by horror master Dario Argento and directed by Lamberto Bava, son of Mario Bava.

Simonetti and his band Goblin will be here to perform the score live with the movie at 8 p.m. Oct. 6 in the Rapids Theatre (1711 Main St., Niagara Falls). Following the movie, Goblin will perform a set that includes the bands greatest hits. Tickets start at $39.50, with a VIP option available (afterdarkpresents.com).

Silent horror, live music

A live music and film pairing not to be missed is Nosferatu and Cabinet of Dr. Caligari at 7 p.m. Oct. 12 in the North Park Theatre (1428 Hertel Ave.). It is not an overstatement to call these two German silent films masterpieces, since both have continued to inspire filmmakers for more than 100 years since their initial releases. As a bonus to seeing them on the big screen, the North Park is bringing the Invincible Czars back to Buffalo for the sixth time. The bands original music to Nosferatu melds the silent and modern eras of filmmaking together with a chilling, exhilarating score.

Other highlights

The Birds

The Alfred Hitchcock classic is shown with an intro by film historian Leonard Maltin at 1 and 7 p.m. Oct. 22 and 7 p.m. Oct. 23 at the Regal Quaker Crossing, Transit Center and Walden Galleria.

Hocus Pocus

This family film is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year by having a full theatrical run at multiple Buffalo theaters starting Friday. You can also treat yourself by seeing it at the Historic Palace Theatre (2 East Ave., Lockport) where it will be shown at 7:15 p.m. Oct. 27; tickets for the Lockport screening are only $5 with kids under age 5 are admitted free.

The big annual Rocky Horror party returns to the Riviera Theatre (67 Webster St., North Tonawanda). It starts at 10 p.m. Oct. 27 with a performance by the Eye Candy Vixens and The Ladies of Illusion. At midnight, watch Rocky Horror on the big screen with a shadowcast by the Francis Bacon Experiment. Tix are $20 to $35.

The Evil Dead

Feel free to come in costume to this special Halloween screening in the Thursday Night Terrors film series. The 1981 cult classic stars Bruce Campbell as Ash, our hero with the chainsaw hand. There will be spooky music from DJ Billie Page and Deadend Toyz will be on hand with cool horror merch. The early screening has sold out, but tickets are available for 9:45 p.m. Oct. 19 in the Dipson Amherst Theatre (3500 Main St.).

The Lost Boys

This 1987 teen vampire film has a sense of humor, and a sense of dread, thanks to Kiefer Sutherland as the head vampire in a sleepy California seaside town. The Screening Room Cinema & Arts Cafe at the Boulevard Mall is hosting multiple showings with twists like a mimosa matinee at 1 p.m. Oct. 15 ($8 admission, $3 mimosas). A regular screening is 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17 ($8) and the movie followed by trivia is 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20 ($10).

Horrorfest at the Screening Room

The Lost Boys is part of the Screening Rooms annual Halloween Horrorfest. Here are other films in the series, in alphabetical order:

Halloween. The John Carpenter original. 9:30 p.m. Oct. 28, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 31; $8.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch. A 4-K restoration of the third film in the original Halloween franchise, but the one without Michael Myers. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 23 and 4 p.m. Oct. 28; $8.

House on Haunted Hill. Vincent Price invites guests to stay the night in a haunted house in this William Castle classic. 7 p.m. Oct. 25; $7/$6.

Night of the Living Dead and Carnival of Souls. Double feature of two influential 1960s low-budget horror films. 7 p.m. Oct. 30; $8.

Nosferatu. The 1922 silent film with musical score. 9 p.m. Oct. 25; $7/$6.

Phantom of the Paradise. Paul Williams wrote and stars in this musical horror film directed by Brian DePalma. 8 p.m. Saturday with live shadowcast performance ($15), 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10 film alone ($7/$6).

Suspiria. The original 1977 Dario Argento horror film is shown in a 4K restoration. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 6; $8.

Young Frankenstein. This Mel Brooks homage to Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein is comedy gold. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 and 24, 1 and 7 p.m. Oct. 28, 5 p.m. Oct. 31; $7.
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Vatican City



Vatican City, the world's smallest independent state, is an enclave within Rome. It has profound religious and cultural significance as the heart of the Roman Catholic Church. The city-state encompasses iconic landmarks such as St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums with its priceless art and historical treasures.



Despite its diminutive size, Vatican City operates as a sovereign entity with a government led by the Pope, who serves as both the spiritual leader of the Church and head of state.



This unique co-existence within Rome adds to the city's appeal, drawing millions of pilgrims and tourists each year to its sacred and artistic treasures. Vatican City, the world's smallest independent state, is an enclave within Rome. It has profound religious and cultural significance as the heart of the Roman Catholic Church. The city-state encompasses iconic landmarks such as St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums with its priceless art and historical treasures.Despite its diminutive size, Vatican City operates as a sovereign entity with a government led by the Pope, who serves as both the spiritual leader of the Church and head of state.This unique co-existence within Rome adds to the city's appeal, drawing millions of pilgrims and tourists each year to its sacred and artistic treasures.

2. San Marino



San Marino, one of the world's oldest republics, is a landlocked microstate within Italy, located approximately 15 kilometres (9 miles) from the city of Rimini on the northeastern Italian peninsula. Despite its small size, it operates as a sovereign state with its government. San Marino's unique position within Italy has allowed it to maintain its autonomy while coexisting peacefully.



The microstate is renowned for its medieval architecture, including the Three Towers, and attracts tourists and history aficionados for its rich heritage and scenic landscapes.

3. Monaco



Monaco is a tiny, independent city-state on the French Riviera, located about 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of Nice. Monaco's location along the Mediterranean coast makes it an attractive and affluent enclave within France. It's famous for its luxurious casinos, yacht-filled harbour, and the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix.



Despite its proximity to France, Monaco maintains sovereignty with its government and ruling family, the Grimaldis. It's known for its opulence and as a tax haven, attracting the wealthy and tourists alike.

4. Ljubljana



Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, is a picturesque European city situated on the Ljubljanica River. Known for its charming Old Town, colourful architecture, and pedestrian-friendly streets, Ljubljana offers a delightful blend of history and modernity.



The city is adorned with landmarks such as Ljubljana Castle and the iconic Triple Bridge. Its vibrant cultural scene, green spaces, and a strong emphasis on sustainability make it an inviting destination for tourists and a comfortable home for its diverse population. Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, is a picturesque European city situated on the Ljubljanica River. Known for its charming Old Town, colourful architecture, and pedestrian-friendly streets, Ljubljana offers a delightful blend of history and modernity.The city is adorned with landmarks such as Ljubljana Castle and the iconic Triple Bridge. Its vibrant cultural scene, green spaces, and a strong emphasis on sustainability make it an inviting destination for tourists and a comfortable home for its diverse population.

5. Zagreb



Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, is a dynamic European city known for its rich history and contemporary flair. The historic Upper Town features medieval architecture and landmarks like St. Mark's Church, while the Lower Town offers modern amenities, cultural institutions, and bustling streets. Zagreb's vibrant arts and music scenes, outdoor markets, and cafe culture contribute to its lively atmosphere.



The city's blend of tradition and modernity makes it a fascinating destination for visitors and a vibrant urban centre for residents.

6. Sarajevo



Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a city with a storied past and a vibrant present. Nestled within a valley, it's known for its rich multicultural history, reflected in its diverse architecture, from Ottoman-era mosques to Austro-Hungarian buildings.



The city famously hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics. Today, Sarajevo is a dynamic urban centre, with a thriving arts scene, bustling markets, and welcoming cafes.

7. Podgorica



Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, is a city where history and modernity meet. Situated at the confluence of the Ribnica and Moraca rivers, it showcases a blend of architectural styles, from Ottoman relics to contemporary structures. The Millennium Bridge is a prominent modern landmark.



As Montenegro's administrative and economic hub, Podgorica offers a bustling urban atmosphere with cultural institutions, parks, and cafes. It's a gateway to the country's natural beauty, including nearby Lake Skadar and the Adriatic coast. Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, is a city where history and modernity meet. Situated at the confluence of the Ribnica and Moraca rivers, it showcases a blend of architectural styles, from Ottoman relics to contemporary structures. The Millennium Bridge is a prominent modern landmark.As Montenegro's administrative and economic hub, Podgorica offers a bustling urban atmosphere with cultural institutions, parks, and cafes. It's a gateway to the country's natural beauty, including nearby Lake Skadar and the Adriatic coast.

8. Tunis



Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, is a historic and vibrant Mediterranean city. It boasts a rich cultural heritage, with a mix of ancient ruins, such as the Carthage archaeological sites, and bustling markets like the Medina. Tunis is renowned for its distinct architecture, including ornate Islamic buildings and colonial-era structures.



The city offers a taste of North African culture, with traditional souks, street food, and a lively atmosphere. It's a gateway to Tunisia's coastal attractions and desert landscapes, making it a diverse and captivating destination.

9. Tirana



Tirana, the capital of Albania, is a city of contrasts and transformation. Once a grey and isolated communist city, it has evolved into a lively and colourful urban center. Its streets are lined with vibrant buildings, cafes, and a burgeoning arts scene. Tirana's main attractions include Skanderbeg Square, Et'hem Bey Mosque, and the Blloku district, known for its nightlife.



The city offers a glimpse into Albania's history and resilience while embracing modernity and multiculturalism, making it an increasingly popular destination.

10. Vaduz



Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, is a charming and picturesque city nestled in the Alpine region of Central Europe. It's known for its stunning natural surroundings, including the Rhine River and nearby mountains. Perched on a hill, Vaduz Castle is an iconic landmark overlooking the city.



Despite its small size, Vaduz is the political and economic centre of Liechtenstein. Visitors can explore its quaint streets, museums, and enjoy the scenic beauty that characterises this tranquil Alpine capital. Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, is a charming and picturesque city nestled in the Alpine region of Central Europe. It's known for its stunning natural surroundings, including the Rhine River and nearby mountains. Perched on a hill, Vaduz Castle is an iconic landmark overlooking the city.Despite its small size, Vaduz is the political and economic centre of Liechtenstein. Visitors can explore its quaint streets, museums, and enjoy the scenic beauty that characterises this tranquil Alpine capital.

Source: Author wellenbrecher This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
Sursa foto: Ilona Andrei / G4Media

Fostul premier PSD Mihai Tudose spune ca AUR nu este un pericol pentru nimeni pentru ca nu are nicio sansa sa ajunga la guvernare
Rena Murshud

The participation of the Mexican delegation in events dedicated to World Habitat Day will help strengthen cooperation with Azerbaijan in the field of urban planning, Azernews reports.

Mexican Ambassador to Azerbaijan Maria Victoria Romero Caballero said this at a press conference.

As part of the trip to Azerbaijan, the Mexican delegation visited Zangilan, where Mr. President spoke at the opening of the forum, who spoke about the process of restoring the liberated territories. I believe that the participation of the Mexican delegation in such an event will help us strengthen our cooperation in the field of urban development, the ambassador said, noting that it is a great pleasure for the Mexican Embassy to host representatives of the state of Queretaro in Azerbaijan.

She added that Azerbaijan is passing the baton of hosting this event to Mexico.

It should be noted that representatives of government agencies of the Mexican state of Queretaro arrived in Baku to participate in the forum Urban Planning Week 2023, held in cooperation with the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT) and the State Committee for Urban Planning and Architecture of Azerbaijan.
An Oct. 21 rock concert in Clarence will raise money to help victims of leukemia, lymphoma and mental illness.

The Kensingtons rock band and the Jelly Jar blues band will perform at the Rock The Cure concert at 7 p.m. at The Stage, 8166 Main St.

The event is sponsored by the Against The Storm Foundation, which raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and Mental Health Advocates of Western New York.

Rock The Cure concerts have raised more than $80,000 over the past seven years. Matt Connors, vice president of development at Sinatra and Co. Real Estate, and his wife, television personality Lauren Hall, will co-host this years event.

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased on the foundation's website againstthestorm.org. and on eventbrite.com.
When he made the two most important proposals of his life, Brian Hayden was living in Kenmore, at 111 Wabash Ave.

One was a marriage proposal, the other a book proposal.

He got married in May. And now the book is out: 111 Places in Buffalo That You Must Not Miss.

It so happens that 11 is a lucky number in Cologne, Germany, where the publisher of this series of travel books is based.

But you cant write about only 11 places in a book, Hayden says, so they stuck another 1 on there.

The 111 places in and around Buffalo and Niagara Falls are not the usual suspects. (No Anchor Bar, for instance.) This isnt that sort of book.

It doesnt purport to be the top places to visit, Hayden says. Its meant to focus on hidden gems, off-the-beaten-path locales, and lesser-known stories of the more well-known places.

 Old Fort Niagara, but with the story of Betsy Doyle, a laundress and nurse who carried hot cannonballs during a battle in the War of 1812 as the Americans traded fire with the British across the way at Fort George.

 F. Scott Fitzgeralds onetime home at 29 Irving Place, in Allentown. His biographer Andrew Turnbull once described it as a lovely spot for a poet to grow up in. You cant go inside, but you can see it from the street. (And be borne back ceaselessly into the past.)

 Doris Records, where a young James Johnson, later known as Rick James, promised store owner Mack Luchey that he was going to make it big one day. Buffalos oldest record store, at 286 E. Ferry St., is run today by Derrick Luchey, son of the late owner.

Each place in the paperback book gets a one-page write-up  four or five paragraphs  with a full-color photo on the facing page. So you can dip in and out as you please, as with a plateful of tasty appetizers.

The photos are by Jesse Pitzler, who shot the photos for 111 Places in Austin That You Must Not Miss when he was living in Texas. Then he moved to Western New York.

Pitzler offers the sharp eye of a newcomer, and Hayden the loving eye of a lifer. He was born in Buffalo and grew up on Tacoma Avenue, and he has been immersed in local lore from an early age.

This book is the culmination of a lifelong interest in my hometown, he says. It combines my interests in writing and journalism and history and travel and tourism.

The places in 111 Places are placed in alphabetical order. There is no hierarchy here.

There will always be the question of, Why this one? And, Why didnt you put this in?  Hayden says. But this book is meant to lead you to new places. People who live here will recognize some of the places in the book, but some will be unfamiliar to them. Theres something here for everyone, whether youve lived here all your life or are visiting for the first time.

Twenty years ago, as a sophomore at St. Josephs Collegiate Institute, Hayden was a correspondent for a youth section in The Buffalo News called NeXt. His first piece for editor extraordinaire Jean Westmoore was an opinion piece by 15-year-old me, Hayden says, and it implores other teenagers to believe in the city.

He graduated from St. Joes in 2006 and majored in journalism at Syracuse University. He worked as a reporter for a couple of years at the Daily Courier Observer, in Massena, and then was social-media manager at Clarkson University, in Potsdam.

But always he longed for home. Hayden came back in 2014 to be communications manager for Visit Buffalo Niagara. He often offered help to visiting travel writers. In 2020, during the pandemic, he got a call from one of those writers, Jennifer Bain, a former travel editor for the Toronto Star. She had just written 111 Places in Calgary That You Must Not Miss and suggested that Hayden propose a 111 Places book about Buffalo to the publisher, a company called Emons Verlag, which has produced nearly 500 such titles around the world.

Today Hayden is director of communications and community engagement for the Buffalo History Museum, where you can find his book in the gift shop. The commentary he wrote as a teenager hangs on his office wall. Part of it is a plea for waterfront development: Buffalo has been traumatized by past planning blunders, and thus may now be afraid to throw the dice to try something new for fear of another miscue.

In dice, lucky numbers are 7 and 11. In Cologne, carnival season commences on the 11th day of the 11th month at 11:11 a.m.

As for 111 Wabash Ave., Hayden doesnt live there anymore. But he did when he proposed the book  and when he proposed to Melissa Blosser.

Given that serendipity, I would call 11 my lucky number, too, he says. Theres no reason 11 cant be lucky for Cologne, and for Buffalo.
Country

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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
Andrei Nikolaevich Troshev

Hero of the Russian Federation Andrei Nikolaevich Troshev was born on April 5, 1962 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Troshev is a Soviet and Russian military man, retired colonel, former law enforcement officer, veteran of Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria. Known as one of the leaders of the private military company Wagner and a potential successor to its head Yevgeny Prigozhin. He gained particular fame after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September 2023, at which the future of volunteers was discussed.

As with other Russian military personnel, Andrei Troshev's biography is largely shrouded in mystery. Some information can be found on the website of the League of Local Conflict Veterans , of which he was a co-founder and leader. Even the circumstances of Troshevs birth are controversial: Russian media call his year of birth 1962, but EU authorities consider him older, claiming that he was born in 1953. But everyone calls Troshevs birthplace Leningrad.

Former Minister of Defense of the DPR Igor Strelkov, in a conversation with the Telegram channel  Radiotochka NSN , spoke about his personal acquaintance with Sedy, and about his human qualities. I know him personally[...]. A career colonel of the internal troops, with quite a lot of combat experience. Not stupid, efficient, without any special talents, but also without any special pretensions. This is the opinion I have about him. Knows how to listen carefully and does not ask stupid questions. Good performer. As far as I know, he was the chief of staff of all Wagner units in Lugansk. I saw him 5-6 times in 2016. And we talked by phone when there was a question about the possibility of my joining the Wagner PMC. I never had any complaints against him, including on the issues on which we communicated. I cant say anything more - I didnt serve with him, I dont know his military talents.

Troshev graduated from the Leningrad Higher Artillery Command Order of Lenin Red Banner School named after Red October (now the St. Petersburg Higher Artillery Command School), the Military Artillery Academy named after M.I. Kalinin (now the Mikhailovsk Military Artillery Academy), the Russian Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation (now the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation).

He served in command positions in various artillery units. He commanded a self-propelled artillery battery in Afghanistan in the mid-eighties. He took part in hostilities in Afghanistan as part of a limited contingent of Soviet troops.

After the collapse of the USSR, he served in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Then he transferred to the internal affairs bodies. He was an employee of the units of the special police detachment (OMON) and the special rapid reaction detachment (SOBR) of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the North Caucasus Federal District. Commanded the St. Petersburg SOBR.

Participated in the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus.

In 2012, Troshev became a military pensioner - he retired with the rank of police colonel ( Troshev served in senior positions in SOBR and OMON of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the North-Western Federal District). According to other sources, this happened two years later, in 2014 . However, Troshev did not leave the profession.

In 2015-2016, he took part in a military operation in Syria against the international terrorist organization "Islamic State"* (banned in the Russian Federation). He was Executive Director (Chief of Staff) of the Wagner Group, which operates in Syria and trains and directs Syrian forces. The Wagner Group supported the Assad regime and fought alongside regime-affiliated militias and the Syrian army. Andrey Troshev was directly involved in the military operations of the Wagner Group in Syria. He was particularly involved in the area of Deir ez-Zor. As such, he provided a crucial contribution to Bashar al-Assads war effort and therefore supported and benefited from the Syrian regime.

Troshev managed the rear service of Wagner and was sometimes referred to as the companys executive director. Former fighters said he was the one who gave the order to storm the oil field near Syrias Hasham on Feb. 7, 2018. The American army was on the other side, so the Wagnerians lost several hundred fighters in one battle.

Troshev is prone to binge drinking, so he prefers to sit deep in the rear and make statements on behalf of the PMC about the progress of its operations. Troshev was taken to a hospital in St. Petersburg in June 2017 in an inadequate condition with 5 million rubles ($80,000) in his pocket. Troshev also carried maps and an order for the purchase of two dozen tents. The patient can't be talked to due to his inadequate condition. Journalists say the ambulance picked up the man at 13 Verbnaya Str. late on June 5. He was taken to the reception room but, apparently, was not able to introduce himself, the newspaper notes. He had documents in the name of Andrei Troshev, 5 million rubles and $5,000 in cash, geographic maps of Syria, settlement sheets for weapons and an electronic ticket for a plane to Krasnodar. No explanations could be received from him.

Since February 2022, he participated in the special military operation to protect the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, leading a volunteer detachments. At the PMC he received the call sign Sedoy. Troshev was one of the closest associates of Dmitry Utkin, known as Wagner, whom journalists called the commander of Russian mercenaries in Syria. He was also seen on joint trips with representatives of the security service of billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin and, probably, also worked for the structures of Prigozhin's Concord Group.

On 24 June 2023, Prigozhin announced the start of a march of justice - thousands of Wagnerites went from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow. Troshev did not support the armed rebellion and agreed to a contract with the defense department. During the events of June 23-24, Troshev voluntarily decided to refuse participation and transferred the PMCs internal information to the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. A former member of the Wagner commanders council, Anton Elizarov, claimed that Troshev moved to another private military company, Redut.

Prigozhin regarded Troshevs actions as betrayal. Together with PMC commander Dmitry Utkin (call sign Wagner), they initiated a number of publications in Telegram channels with the aim of discrediting their former accomplice.

In the summer of 2023, the media reported that Andrei Troshev was considered as a successor to the founder of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin. A number of media outlets, citing sources in the military department, predict that Troshev, with the call sign Sedoy, will oversee communications between volunteer structures and the Ministry of Defense.Troshev currently worked at the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. You yourself fought in such a unit for more than a year, you know what it is, how its done. You know about issues that need to be resolved in advance so that combat work can proceed in the best, most successful manner. By the way, in this regard, I would like to talk to you about issues of a social nature. You maintain relations with your comrades with whom you fought together, and continue to carry out these tasks, Putin added in a conversation with Troshev on 28 September 2023.

In 2016, by presidential decree, Andrei Troshev was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation with a special distinction - the Gold Star medal. He was awarded two Orders of the Red Star, two Orders of Courage and a medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree.





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Britain's largest warship - HMS Prince of Wales - makes Virginia temporary homeport during East Coast deployment

US Navy

29 September 2023

From USS George H. W. Bush/Carrier Strike Group 10 Public Affairs

NORFOLK, Va. -- The United Kingdom's largest aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales (R09), will make Naval Station Norfolk its temporary homeport this fall beginning Sept. 30 as it pushes the boundaries of Naval Aviation with F-35 Lightning advancement and drone launches off the East Coast over the next few months.

HMS Prince of Wales left for deployment in early September with a goal to further develop how the Royal Navy utilizes Carrier Strike Groups. After a visit to Mayport, Florida, the warship will be pushing the limits of their carrier, operating drones, strike fighters, tilt-rotors and helicopters from both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps.

Over the next few months the warship will specifically be pushing the boundaries of carrier landings for the U.K.'s fifth-generation jets, the F-35 Lightning stealth fighter.

Allowing the jets to land on the carrier faster and while carrying heavier loads (i.e. more fuel and weapons) will allow HMS Prince of Wales to launch more strike missions, faster.

The carrier will also practice launching and landing the F-35 in heavy sea states to demonstrate their ability to operate in harsh environments.

These sea states are why the HMS Prince of Wales is operating off the East Coast, to capitalize on the heavy seas that come with hurricane season in the United States.

Part of HMS Prince of Wales' deployment will include multiple port calls to Naval Station Norfolk this fall, where they will be hosted by Carrier Strike Group-10 and the Nimitiz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77).

Sailors aboard HMS Prince of Wales will be able to tour Naval Station Norfolk and visit surrounding areas in the coming months.

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Secretary of Defense Visits Camp Lemonnier

By Sgt. Jalen Miller October 2, 2023

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III paid a special visit to service members deployed to Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, during his first trip to Africa Sept. 24-25, 2023.

The Secretary addressed a small formation composed of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines from various units reflecting the joint mission operating out of Camp Lemonnier.

"This command and this installation is the epitome of jointness. The work you do here with our Djiboutian partners and our other allies here is important," Austin said. "I also know that because you're here you're away from home missing family, missing birthdays and anniversaries. So when you talk to your family tell them Lloyd Austin said 'thank you' not just for your service as the military members, but for their service as well."

Before departing, Austin personally recognized several enlisted members for their superior performance while deployed. Among them was U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Craishod Norris, a Foreign Liaison Officer assigned to CJTF-HOA.

"It was an honor to meet Secretary Austin and the feeling of having someone at such an esteemed position in our chain of command take the time to congratulate service members like myself is indescribable." said Norris. "I'm thankful to be recognized during such a special occasion, but our mission here at Camp Lemonnier is a team effort."

Secretary Austin's stop in Djibouti exemplifies the strategic importance of the U.S.-Djibouti partnership and is home to Camp Lemonnier, a critical military installation that serves as a linchpin in counterterrorism efforts and regional stability.

During his visit, Austin met with the President of Djibouti Ismail Omar Guelleh and the Minister of Defense Hassan Omar Mohamed Bourhan to discuss the security partnership between the two nations and shared priorities in the region. He also met with Somali President Hassan Mohamud and discussed the shared effort to counter al-Shabaab in the region.

From here Austin will continue his travels through the African continent later this week by traveling to Kenya and Angola to showcase the department's appreciation for our African partners.

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Security crisis in Haiti: UN Security Council authorises international police mission

Swiss Government

Bern, 02.10.2023 - At its meeting today, the UN Security Council authorised the deployment of police forces by third countries to Haiti. The security situation in Haiti is precarious due to high levels of gang-related crime. With this measure, the Security Council seeks to help maintain public safety and protect the population. At its meeting on 6 September, the Federal Council had adopted guidelines for negotiations within the Security Council concerning this resolution.

Haiti is facing a worsening security crisis caused by rampant gang violence. Between January and June 2023 alone, gang members committed over 2,000 homicides. Sexual violence and kidnappings have taken on epidemic proportions. The Haitian national police do not have sufficient resources to contain the escalating violence. Moreover, the humanitarian situation is alarming: according to the FAO, around five million people, almost half of Haiti's population, are facing food insecurity. The threat of famine is looming. Severe flooding caused by torrential rains and an earthquake in June exacerbated the situation.

With its decision of 2 October 2023, the UN Security Council responded to a request from the Haitian government. The UN secretary-general recently issued a report calling on the Security Council to adopt various measures to improve security in Haiti. A key recommendation includes the establishment of a multinational police support mission, which Kenya has agreed to lead. During the negotiations on the resolution, Switzerland advocated in particular for respect for international law and human rights to be guaranteed and for measures to be taken to prevent sexual abuse, and for a monitoring mechanism to be set up in the mission.

On 6 September 2023, the Federal Council gave its preliminary approval for the authorisation of a security support mission for Haiti. It had issued guidelines for the negotiations in New York. In exceptional cases and under certain conditions, the mission should also be able to use force to fulfil its mandate of supporting the local police in restoring public order and security. Based on the modalities agreed between the Federal Council and the foreign policy committees of the National Council and the Council of States to involve Parliament during Switzerland's term on the Security Council, the chairs of the foreign affairs committees were consulted on this matter in accordance with Art. 152 para. 4 of the Parliament Act.

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Shorty was lapping up attention at Evans Banks headquarters.

Employees gushed over the 3-year-old American Staffordshire terrier mix roaming the lobby of the sleek office building. Shorty was visiting from the Buffalo Animal Shelter for a few hours, courtesy of Anna Kate Beigel, digital marketing manager at Evans and a volunteer at the shelter.

Three years after Covid-19 sent workers home, employers walk a fine line bringing them back While many companies are sticking with hybrid schedules, they say they want to recapture some of the in-person interaction that can't be duplicated on Zoom calls.

People come down when they want to and need a little break, Beigel said. Theres a lot of smiles. Everyone plans on it. They have it on their calendars to come down.

But there was more to Shortys visit than simply introducing him to Evans workers. He was part of a broader effort to make those workers feel better about coming into the office.

As many employers encourage  or require, depending on their policy  workers to return to the office more frequently, they are thinking creatively about how to make the workplace more appealing. They are also offering perks to keep employees on board in a region with a 3.4% unemployment rate.

That might mean free on-site haircuts or complimentary meals from food trucks, like one local HVAC and plumbing business offers. Or a private concert for employees featuring a country music star, as one area auto dealer group hosted.

Gone to the dogs

At Evans Amherst offices, Wednesdays are a collaboration day. People are here a couple of days a week, but everybody tries to aim for Wednesday so that we can do more meetings in person, said Kathleen Rizzo Young, Evans community relations director.

Beigel had the idea to bring rescue dogs to visit the headquarters, and the bank signed off on it. She brings one about every month, when more employees are on-site. A message on the companys intranet lets employees know a dog is dropping by.

It a win-win for us, because everyone gets to see a dog, and its a win-win for the dog to get a field trip out of the shelter, Beigel said. And if a dogs visit spurs someone to adopt, thats a bonus.

Beigel selects dogs to visit that dont mind being around a lot of people. And she tries to give preference to dogs who might need a little more help finding a permanent home.

Employees welcome the visits.

We all put our dog voices on, our pet voices on, and were basically all over them, said Laura Mietus, an administrative assistant. Its huge.

Crystal Kruszona likened the dog visits to free therapy.

If youre having a tough day, you just come downstairs and love a dog, said Kruszona, a commercial loan quality specialist.

One week, Beigel brought in an orange goat, which caused a sensation. (Orange happens to be the color of Evans logo.)

In addition to the dog visits, Evans serves employees in other ways at the office. There are on-site counselors to meet with employees about personal challenges, such as elder care resources and supporting family members through illness or addiction. There are bonding opportunities through team lunches and potluck dinners.

Beigel was preparing to take Shorty on a walk through the offices, to brighten the day for employees who didnt get down to the lobby.

People always ask me, Whats the next dog coming in?  she said.

Sound of music

West Herr Automotive Group is one of the largest dealer groups in the country, and tends to do things on a big scale. Last year, the dealer group treated employees and family members to a private concert featuring country music star Blake Shelton at the Darien Lake Amphitheater.

You guys have the greatest boss in the world, is all I can say, man, Shelton told the crowd of 14,000. Pop star Gwen Stefani  who is married to Shelton  joined him for a couple of songs.

West Herr is preparing to host another concert next August.

The dealer group recently held an employee appreciation picnic at the Hamburg fairgrounds, a scaled-down version of the Erie County Fair with rides, food, games and the like. About 8,000 people attended the event.

And the dealer group this month held a racing competition at the Lancaster Motorplex for its service, parts and collision teams, to get those employees together outside of work. Each of West Herrs stores was given a used vehicle and up to $750 to refurbish it, and the stores chose their own pit crews and drivers. At the track, the cars raced against the predicted finishing time they painted on the window. There were giveaways and trophy presentations, including for fastest and slowest speed.

West Herr provides employees with a variety of other perks and services to help attract and retain employees.

The dealer group this year established an employee emergency fund  personally funded by the executive leadership team  to help employees in times of unexpected need. The fund provides stipends to employees to cover emergency situations, such as vehicle repairs, urgent home repairs and unexpected medical costs.

West Herr also has a pay it forward program to promote generosity. Each year, 100 employees are chosen to participate. They are each given $500 in an envelope, with the goal of paying it forward in the community. Some of the examples include paying for someones gasoline, coffee or whatever else someone might need. In one case, an employee used pay-it-forward funds to replace the money stolen from a tip jar at a pizzeria.

A cut above

Earlier this year, T-Mark Plumbing, Heating & Cooling and Electric moved into its new headquarters in Kenmore, after renovating a former NAPA Genuine Parts store. As part of its push to recruit talent, T-Mark has a paid tech training program that takes six to 18 months, depending on the new hires experience.

But there are also perks.

There is a hair-cutting studio on the second floor of the building. A stylist comes in once a week, providing haircuts to employees that the company pays for. The stylists services are booked up each week, said Julie Gruen, director of marketing.

Over the summer, T-Mark had food trucks on site on Friday afternoons, serving complimentary meals to employees.

Each month, we chose a different style of cuisine to satisfy everyones palate, Gruen said.

And then there are the sports tickets. T-Mark has four season tickets for Sabres games, 14 for Bills games and four for Bisons games. They regularly make them available to employees.

We know that our jobs are busy, and we try to provide small things like this that allow techs to enjoy their family time when work is over, said Ryan Miller, T-Marks president.
The Republic of Maldives: Statement by the Spokesperson on the Presidential elections

European External Action Service (EEAS)

02.10.2023

Strategic Communications

The Republic of Maldives conducted two rounds of Presidential elections on 9 and 30 September. The EU congratulates President-Elect Mohamed Muizzu on his win in the elections. These elections were competitive, well handled and took place in a peaceful environment.

Following an invitation from the Government of the Maldives, the EU deployed an Election Observation Mission (EOM), led by MEP Nacho Sanchez Amor, to undertake an independent, impartial and technical assessment of all aspects of the electoral process. The preliminary statements of the EU EOM highlight that fundamental freedoms were generally respected and voters were able to cast their ballots in an orderly fashion. At the same time, equity on the playing field needs to be improved, and campaign finance framework be better regulated and enforced in order to strengthen trust in the electoral processes. Robust measures are needed to promote women's participation in national politics. The Mission will publish a comprehensive final report including recommendations to improve future electoral processes.

The Republic of Maldives is an important and valued partner of the EU, and our cooperation, rooted in shared values and common interests, has significantly strengthened over the recent years. We look forward to working closely together with the next President to further enhance the EU-Maldives partnership as well as regional cooperation. We trust that the Republic of Maldives continues its efforts to consolidate democratic reforms and their implementation. The EU remains committed to supporting the Maldives in this endeavour.

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Norway to provide support to civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh

Government of Norway

Press release | Date: 02/10/2023

'Norway will provide NOK 20 million in humanitarian assistance to the civilian population in Nagorno-Karabakh. The support will be used to assist both those who have fled and those who remain in the region,' said Minister of Foreign Affairs Anniken Huitfeldt.

Thousands of civilians have fled from Nagorno-Karabakh. The armed attacks launched by Azerbaijan have resulted in a humanitarian crisis and the people are in urgent need of protection and life-saving assistance. The situation is also critical for those who remain in Nagorno-Karabakh.

'In recent months, we have watched with great concern as the humanitarian situation has deteriorated. The humanitarian needs are now enormous and many people have been displaced. The support we are providing to our partners will enable them to continue their efforts to alleviate suffering and preserve the dignity of the civilian population in a time of crisis,' said Ms Huitfeldt.

Norway is contributing NOK 15 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for food, health care, water, electricity and heat. The Red Cross also provides transport for injured people in need of treatment and dignified management and transport of the deceased. Norway will also provide funding to Save the Children's efforts to protect children and ensure that vulnerable children have access to basic services. The HALO Trust, which works with mine clearance, will also receive support to provide basic services and transport out of the region.

'The International Red Cross Committee, Save the Children and the HALO Trust are partners we know well. They have already gained the trust of the local population and are able to reach those who are most in need of assistance,' said Ms Huitfeldt.

Over the past year, the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh has grown increasingly difficult due to Azerbaijan's blockade of the road linking Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. By August, the region was contending with a critical shortage of food, fuel and health services.

Azerbaijan's armed attack on 19 September lasted approximately 24 hours and caused extensive damage to homes, roads and civilian infrastructure. Family members have been separated from one another. On 26 September, the situation was exacerbated by an explosion at a fuel depot that killed 68 people and injured some 300 more. Many people are still missing.

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Iran urges establishing security in Afghanistan

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Oct 2, 2023

Tehran, IRNA -- Iranian Deputy Ambassador to Kabul Hassan Mortazavi in a meeting with Taliban's Deputy Minister of Interior Mohammad Nabi Omari has urged establishing security and fighting terrorism in Afghanistan.

During the meeting with Omari in Kabul on Monday, Mortazavi said that Tehran wants Afghan refugees in Iran to return to their homeland and calls on Taliban officials to adopt policies to encourage its citizens to return to their country to benefit from reverse migration and enjoy its manpower.

In a statement published on the website of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Kabul, Mortazavi underlined that Tehran's ultimate goal is to help establish security in Afghanistan, fight terrorism, prevent internal strife, and to help Kabul move towards economic progress.

Referring to the number of illegal border crossings from Afghanistan to Iran, he called for increased surveillance by Taliban officials of common borders and human trafficking.

Omari, for his part, emphasized having close relations with its neighbors, especially the Islamic Republic of Iran, to provide security and fight terrorism.

The US and some regional and trans-regional countries are unhappy with the constructive ties between Iran and Afghanistan and want to create tension in the region, he said, noting that the US and its allies are using various tools, including media and cyberspace to create tension between Tehran and Kabul.

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Normalization with Israel by any country amounts to abandoning Palestine, bolsters enemy: Hezbollah leader

Iran Press TV

Monday, 02 October 2023 10:20 PM

The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement has urged Muslims across the world to strongly condemn any step taken by any country toward normalization of relations with Israel.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah made the remarks in a Monday televised speech on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

"Any country that moves toward normalization of its relations [with Israel] must be condemned, because this step amounts to abandoning Palestine and bolstering the [Zionist] enemy, which must not be tolerated," the Hezbollah leader said.

Nasrallah was making an apparent reference to the latest efforts by the United States to persuade Saudi Arabia to normalize its relations with the Israeli regime.

Elsewhere in his speech, Nasrallah urged the "Muslim Ummah" to fulfill its responsibility toward the Palestinian people and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

"The Muslim Ummah must shoulder responsibility for what is happening to the brave people of Palestine and the al-Aqsa Mosque, and Zionists must hear the voice of the Muslim world with regard to the first qibla of Muslims."

Arab and Muslim countries have criticized Riyadh for keeping the door open to a renewed push by the United States to work out a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, saying it would be a betrayal of the Palestinian cause and encourage the Israeli regime to intensify its aggression.

Palestinian resistance movements believe that Israel has already been emboldened by the potential success of efforts to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia, saying attempts in recent weeks by extremist settlers to make regular presence in the al-Aqsa Mosque show the regime wants to pile up pressure on Palestinians.

Reports suggest that Washington will reward Saudi Arabia for normalizing ties with Israel with a major security pact as well as support for the kingdom's plans to develop a peaceful nuclear program.

This comes as calls for the regular presence of Jewish extremists in the Aqsa Mosque have increased in recent days concurrent with holidays that mark a Jewish festival.

Israeli police allows settlers' incursions into the al-Aqsa Mosque complex despite repeated condemnations by Palestinians and international community. The provocative incidents have been on the rise since the far-right cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office last December.

Such incursions come despite the fact that non-Muslim worship at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound is prohibited according to an agreement between the occupying Israeli regime and the Jordanian government following the regime's seizure of East al-Quds in 1967.

Elsewhere in his speech, Nasrallah touched on the West's media war against Muslim nations, which he said was aimed at undermining those nations and achieving goals that have not been realized through wars.

"Enemies use the media war, which is also known as the soft war, to weaken nations and ... achieve those goals, which they have failed to realize through military wars," Nasrallah said.

He also pointed to economic problems facing Syria and displacement of a large number of its people due to a Western-sponsored terrorist war against Damascus, emphasizing that the United States is the primary culprit behind Syria's refugee crisis.

"The main party responsible for the influx of refugees into Lebanon is that who kindled the war in Syria, that is, the US government," the Hezbollah leader said.

"Following the implementation of the Caesar Act, the United States is also responsible for the economic crisis in Syria. Those who believe that Syrian refugees are a threat to Lebanon must tell Washington that Lebanon would be saved through the abrogation of the Caesar Act," Nasrallah said.

Syria has been a target of US sanctions since 1979. Following the start of the foreign-sponsored terrorist war in the country in 2011, the US and its Western allies imposed several rounds of sanctions on the Arab country. The sanctions intensified with the passing of the Caesar Act in 2019, which targeted any individual and business that participated either directly or indirectly in Syria's reconstruction efforts.

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UN to vote on sending foreign troops to Haiti

Iran Press TV

Monday, 02 October 2023 2:21 PM

The United Nations Security Council will vote on a US-drafted resolution that would authorize a one-year deployment of an outside force to Haiti to help restore security in the Caribbean nation.

The council members will decide on Monday whether to endorse sending an international force to help Haiti's police restore security so the Caribbean nation.

According to the resolution, the force, which would be non-UN funded by voluntary contributions, would be allowed to provide operational support to Haiti's National Police.

It said the force would help build capacity of local police "through the planning and conduct of joint security support operations as it works to counter gangs and improve security conditions in Haiti."

The force would also help secure "critical infrastructure sites and transit locations such as the airport, ports, and key intersections."

Passage by the Security Council would authorize the force to "adopt urgent temporary measures on an exceptional basis" to prevent the loss of life and help police maintain public safety, it said.

A spokesperson for Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he wasn't aware of the resolution or the upcoming vote.

Speaking before the UN General Assembly in mid-September, Henry again called on the international community to provide "urgent" aid to his nation

The United States has expressed willingness to provide logistical support but no boots on the ground.

It said last month that several other countries were prepared to contribute to a multinational security force.

Those countries include Jamaica, the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda.

Kenya also announced in late July that it was ready to take on the lead-nation role and deploy a 1,000-strong force to the country.

Haiti has been plagued by widespread gang violence for almost two years. A recent UN report from the secretary-general's office said on Wednesday that violence by the gangs who control much of the capital Port-au-Prince and some areas beyond, had become more intense and more brutal.

It said gangs using rape as a weapon; snipers on rooftops terrorizing local residents; and even people being burned alive.

According to the report, nearly 2,800 murders had been tallied between October 2022 and June 2023, including 80 killings of minors.

The violence has impeded access to healthcare facilities, forced the closure of schools and clinics, and worsened already dire food insecurity in the county.

Earlier this year, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that more than 115,600 Haitian children were expected to suffer from "severe acute malnutrition," in 2023.

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US: Cambodia aid doesn't mean election legitimacy

A prominent Cambodian-American was transferred from a remote prison to one in the city a day after aid was resumed.

By Alex Willemyns for RFA 2023.10.02 -- The resumption of US$18 million in U.S. aid to Cambodia just two months after it was suspended in protest against the legitimacy of the country's July 23 election does not mean the United States now recognizes the vote as fair, according to a spokesperson for the State Department.

A spokesman for the ruling Cambodian People's Party told The Khmer Times on Wednesday that the sudden unfreezing of the aid meant that the American government "has recognised the national election."

But that the reversal, which was revealed by Cambodia's government after new Prime Minister Hun Manet met with Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland on Sept. 22, was not tied to election legitimacy, a State Department spokesperson told Radio Free Asia speaking on condition of anonymity under rules set by the State Department.

"Of course we still have concerns about the elections, which we've conveyed clearly," the spokesperson said in an email.

"We decided to make this gesture for two reasons: first, because these programs benefit the Cambodian people; second, to encourage the new government to live up to its stated intentions to be more open and democratic and to work more closely with us on shared priorities," they said.

'Free and fair'

Last month, Manet met with Nuland on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, where he falsely told world leaders that the July 23 vote - the second in a row in which the country's main opposition party was prevented from participating - was "free and fair" and "credible and just."

The CPP won 120 of 125 available seats at the election, after which former Prime Minister Hun Sen subsequently handed formal power over to Hun Manet, his son, after 38 years in power himself.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the day after the election that the aid cut was because "the elections themselves were neither free nor fair" and that it would last beyond just this year.

"It's a serious amount of money both this year, and in coming fiscal years," Miller said at his regular press briefing on July 24.

But some in the State Department now seemingly hold out hope the 45-year-old West Point graduate could usher in improved ties after more than a decade of tensions over Hun Sen's usurpation of the country's fledgling democracy and the rise of China as an ally.

Business as usual

Cambodia's government, meanwhile, has shown little interest in change, and has appeared at pains to show it's business as usual.

Hun Sen penned a letter to Chinese Premier Li Qiang in late July saying that ties between the two countries would not change under his son, and Hun Manet made his overseas trip as prime minister to Beijing last month prior to the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Among the few positive steps in ties was the transfer of Cambodian-American lawyer Theary Seng - a prominent member of the country's opposition jailed on treason charges - from a remote prison on the northern border with Thailand to one in Phnom Penh.

The decision, revealed last week, was made on Sept. 23, the day after Hun Manet and Nuland's meeting, according to Cambodian officials.

Sophal Ear, author of Aid Dependence in Cambodia and an associate professor of global political economy at Arizona State University, said there were still open questions about the unfreezing of the aid just two months after it had been frozen due to a stage-managed election.

"It's disappointing to see the U.S. not explain transparently why the $18 million was released," Ear told RFA. "Releasing it is up to the U.S., but this strategic ambiguity is sometimes not helpful."

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Warm Fridges And Rotten Meat: Blackouts In Tajikistan Disrupt Lives, Damage Businesses

By Farangis Najibullah, RFE/RL's Tajik Service October 02, 2023

Malohatkhon Saidmurodova recently bought 3 kilograms of beef on her way home from work at a rural hospital in Tajikistan's northern Sughd Province.

"I put a good-size portion of it in the fridge for the Sunday dinner and stored the rest in the freezer," Saidmurodova said. "When I came home from work the next day, I found out the electricity had been out all day and the meat had gone bad."

The 275 somonis ($25) Saidmurodova paid for the meat -- a rare luxury for many Tajiks -- at her local butcher shop is roughly one-third of the hospital cleaner's September salary, which includes extra pay for working several overnight shifts.

"That meat was supposed to last my family all of October," she said on September 29. "The blackout came with no warning [from the authorities]. Had I known this, I'd have fried the meat so it wouldn't go bad. It's a big deal for us. It means we don't eat meat until I get my next paycheck."

There have been reports of sporadic blackouts in recent days in different parts of Tajikistan, including the Sughd and southern Khatlon provinces, as well as several districts in the suburbs of the capital, Dushanbe.

Amid people's angry complaints, state electricity company Barqi Tojik said in a statement on September 28 that maintenance work had caused the blackouts in some areas. But the authorities did not say how long the alleged repair work was going to last or exactly what areas it would affect and when.

The upstream Central Asian country is home to some of the world's largest hydropower plants, including the partially operational Roghun plant. Tajikistan is ranked eighth in the world in hydropower potential with an estimated 527 terawatt-hours, according to the International Energy Agency. But currently only 4 percent of that potential is exploited.

People in poverty-stricken Tajikistan are used to crippling electricity rationing during the winter, when most of the country has electricity for about 10 hours a day. Officials often blame the rationing on decreased water levels in dam reservoirs.

Many Tajiks complain these much earlier power cuts -- which come with no warning and with no known end in sight -- seriously disrupt their lives and cripple their businesses.

Saidnazar Aliev owns a liquid gas station along the Dushanbe-Shohambari highway that runs west of the capital.

He says he had to use a fuel-powered generator to keep his business running when the electricity went off on September 26. The generator uses up to 15 liters of fuel in 24 hours, according to Aliev, adding to the costs of the small business. Aliev doesn't know how to plan ahead, as the authorities don't say when the blackout will end.

"Yesterday there was no electricity between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.," Aliev said on September 27. "The power was cut off again at around 10 a.m. today. It hasn't been restored yet."

In the nearby village of Tirgaron, the head of the local neighborhood committee, Hojikholboi Ibrohimov, said that the blackouts were negatively "affecting everybody, making life difficult for the young and old alike."

"What else do we have in this country? Take away electricity too and we will be left like our limbs are cut off," he said.

In Vorukh, a rural settlement in the northern district of Isfara, several villagers claim that local officials use electricity as leverage to put pressure on residents ahead of the autumn military call-up. Most Tajiks try to avoid the conscript service, notorious for its hazing.

"[In early September], officials demanded that conscript-age men and their parents sign statements that they will report to the district enlistment office on October 1," said a Vorukh resident who gave only his first name, Mudarris.

"Some parents refused to sign such statements and electricity was cut off in their neighborhoods as a result," he added.

"I am all for our young men serving in the national army. It's their duty. But why punish us with a blackout," an elderly resident named Amriboi said. "I don't have a conscript-age son. They cut off electricity in our neighborhood. Everything in my fridge has gone bad."

But Zubaidullo Shomadov, a spokesman for the Isfara district government, told RFE/RL that the villagers' claim was "baseless." The young men of Vorukh "have voluntarily been signing up for military service," he said.

Tajikistan expected the electricity shortages to end once and for all after the giant Roghun hydropower plant became partially operational and started producing electricity in 2018.

Once fully completed, the Roghun plant is expected to double Tajikistan's electricity-production capacity to 3,600 megawatts, the equivalent of three nuclear power plants. Tajikistan has several other hydropower plants, including Norak and Sangtuda.

Written and reported by Farangis Najibullah in Prague with additional reporting by Iskandari Firuz, Mumin Ahmadi, and Amir Isoev of RFE/RL's Tajik Service

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/tajikistan-blackouts-economic- damage/32619963.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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Wider Europe Briefing: All You Need To Know As All Eyes Turn To Spain

By Rikard Jozwiak October 02, 2023

Brief #1: The Lowdown On The European Political Community Summit

What You Need To Know: Eyes turn to southern Spain this week and the city of Granada as it hosts two big meetings in the space of two days. The first day, October 5, is dedicated to the European Political Community (EPC) -- a gathering of European leaders that first met in Prague in the fall of 2022 after French President Emmanuel Macron pushed for a looser political forum to discuss the continent's future after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

While critics might dismiss the EPC as a talking shop of little value, diplomats I've spoken to are surprisingly complimentary. They say that leaders appreciate the less-rigid format with more informality (for example, in the order of speakers). The whole idea is rather to spend as much time as possible in smaller groups or bilateral discussions with fewer people peering over their shoulders.

So the EPC seems very much here to stay following two apparently successful summits, in the Czech Republic last October and then in Moldova in June. The idea is very much to have two gatherings each year, with hosting duties rotating between EU member states and nonmember states.

The United Kingdom looks set to take the baton from Spain with an EPC summit in the first half of 2024. So far, participation is impressive. In Granada, heads of state or government are expected from all 27 EU member states and 20 European nonmembers, including almost all of Europe's microstates. In fact, the only noticeable absentees on any level are Belarus, Russia, and the Vatican.

Deep Background: The choreography for this meeting is the same as before: a 30-minute plenary followed by roundtables at which leaders are divided into four groups -- each on a different topic -- lasting about two hours. The topics for this year are "digital," "skills," "energy and environment," and "multilateralism." Don't expect anything too concrete here.

It will be interesting to see whether one idea in particular concerning the future of European integration as four distinct tiers is aired in one way or another.

As thoroughly spelled out in a discussion paper by 12 Franco-German think tankers last month, those four tiers comprise an "inner circle" of EU member states that are part of the eurozone and the Schengen area; the rest of the EU; a third tier of "associate members" among Western European states like Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, which have comprehensive free-trade deals with the EU but no desire to join the bloc; and then a final tier, dubbed simply "the EPC."

The Franco-German paper notes that "the recently established EPC's institutional underpinning could be upgraded to provide more structured cooperation. The EPC would have to evolve from its current loose form into an arrangement with stronger institutional ties that could enable the [European] Commission to play a greater coordinating role and the EU budget to mobilize some funding."

The paper later makes clear that this type of political division of the continent is entirely different from the EU accession process that most EU hopefuls in the Western Balkans plus Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine are in. ut don't rule out Macron once again feeling the need to underscore to concerned EU candidate countries that the EPC is no substitute for membership and that it was French and German experts -- not government officials -- who authored the paper.

Drilling Down

Before the leaders head to the impressive Alhambra palace and fortress complex for a family photo and an official dinner with spouses, they will spend a large chunk of the afternoon in bilateral meetings -- the part of the EPC summit that normally creates some news.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy won't be there, with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in his place, reducing some of the expected limelight on Granada.

There are also question marks over Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attendance. There had been talk of some sort of "positive agenda" between him and his Greek and Cypriot counterparts getting launched after months trading barbs, but with nothing materializing at the UN General Assembly in New York in September, few are expecting anything from Granada in that respect.

The EPC has previously also been an unofficial venue for Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to inquire about when Turkey's and Hungary's respective parliaments will ratify Sweden's NATO accession treaty. Erdogan recently remarked that Ankara can give a green light in October if the United States gives the go-ahead for F-16 jet sales to Turkey.

Matters appear murkier with Hungary at the moment, as Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said Budapest is in "no rush" to sign off on Swedish NATO entry and other Hungarian officials have suggested it might not be placed on the Hungarian parliamentary agenda at all this fall. Hungary's foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, also recently criticized Stockholm for spreading "false information" about his country after a clip resurfaced that first aired four years ago on Swedish state TV and described developments in Hungary as having taken an undemocratic turn.

The one big meeting that was set to happen is a get-together between European Council President Charles Michel, Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Their respective national-security advisers met in Brussels last week to prepare the meeting, which comes just two weeks after Azerbaijan's military carried out an offensive that overwhelmed breakaway ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, asserting control of territory that has been under ethnic Armenian control for decades. Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians fled the region for Armenia.

EU officials hope the meeting achieves progress on humanitarian issues, border delimitation, and potentially even a broader peace treaty. Another big question is what Yerevan will do regarding its future relations with the European Union. Applying for EU membership would be premature, according to people in Brussels I've spoken to on condition of anonymity, as Yerevan likely would first need to leave the Russia-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military grouping.

But some EU diplomats think Armenia's leadership might, as a first step, ask to upgrade the political relationship with the EU via an association agreement. Armenia was set to sign such a deal back in 2013 but backed down following pressure from Moscow and instead signed a watered-down arrangement called Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) four years later.

Former Soviet republics like Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine -- who now have perspectives for one day joining the EU -- all enjoy association agreements with Brussels that, apart from a free-trade deal, also include closer political cooperation with the bloc in multiple policy fields and paved the way for visa-free travel to the EU.

Brief #2: An EU Leaders' Meeting To Be Dominated By Migration And 'Absorption Capacity'

What You Need To Know: The second day in Granada, October 6, will be devoted solely to the European Union with the bloc's 27 heads of state and government gathering to discuss several issues.

Since it's an informal meeting as opposed to one of the regular summits that take place in Brussels, expect more strategic talk on the bloc's future and on the urgent issue of the day rather than any specific decisions.

Migration looks like the most pressing of those issues, especially after a spike this year in the number of people reaching Italy, mainly from Tunisia, and a growing spat between Germany and some of its eastern neighbors, most notably Poland.

Deep Background: You can be certain that Italy's right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will make migration one of the hottest topics in Granada. She was elected last year on a pledge to prevent as many new arrivals as possible from across the Mediterranean. But the number of migrants to have so far landed in her country has topped 127,000 -- more than double that of the same period last year.

EU member states reached a tentative agreement in June on revamping the bloc's migration policy, but in order to enter final negotiations with the other EU co-legislator, the European Parliament, all aspects of the new migration pact must be agreed among the 27 members.

The missing piece of the puzzle is "crisis regulation" -- which details measures that would alleviate pressure on EU border countries, notably in the southern parts of the bloc, when they face sudden increases in asylum seekers - along with when those measures could be triggered.

What is especially bothering northern EU countries is a crisis exemption that would allow southern members like Italy to pause strict migrant border checks during such "crisis times," effectively allowing countries behind the front lines to handle asylum claims.

But that's not the only migration issue. Germany last week announced temporary checks on its borders with Czechia and Poland in a bid to prevent an influx of asylum seekers that already looks much larger this year than in 2022.

The Polish government has reacted angrily to suggestions from Berlin that the rise is connected to recent accusations that workers at Polish consulates, notably in Africa and Asia, have handed out EU visas in exchange from money.

Expect tense exchanges in Granada between Scholz and his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki. There are just days left before crucial German state elections in Bavaria and Hesse on October 8 in which the opposition could fare well and Polish parliamentary elections seven days later that opinion polls suggest are on a knife-edge.

Drilling Down

Away from the migration spats, the discussion will focus on "absorption capacity," a slightly abstract term that essentially translates into how the EU needs to change in order to accept new members in the future. And while Council President Charles Michel has expressed rather confident hopes that both the European Union and candidate countries might be ready for enlargement by 2030, the tone is slightly more sober among EU member states that view preparations and eventual internal changes necessary to enlarge the club as huge.

Spain, which currently holds the rotating EU Council Presidency and is hosting the summit, has prepared concept notes, seen by RFE/RL, on the topic. While spelling out that enlargement has numerous advantages for the bloc, they acknowledge that there are issues that still need to be resolved: "Beyond the benefits that enlargement will bring to the EU, notably in terms of reinforcing the EU's political weight and influence, as well as the significant importance of enlargement for prosperity, security and stability on the continent, enlargement will also entail important challenges for the EU."

Aside from the potential for increased geopolitical influence, they point out that enlargement also exposes the bloc "directly to new foreign and security issues" and spells out that "the EU's new post-enlargement neighborhood is likely to require considerable attention and political capital, all the more if the existing frozen conflicts remain unsolved by the time of enlargement." This is a blunt message not only to Ukraine, but also to Georgia and Moldova.

Or consider the EU's environment and climate framework, one of the bloc's signature policies: One of the documents spells out that enlargement will "increase the total number of greenhouse gas emissions within the EU, requiring more efforts to reduce emissions across the EU," something that will need "substantial investments."

So expect most of the qualms to be about money. And here, the future EU budget is an obvious area of concern. In the current EU budget, just nine of the 27 EU countries are net contributors, and all of them belong to the "older" and "Western" camp of member states. With potential EU enlargement in the Balkans and further eastward, more of the current net recipients in Central and Eastern Europe might have to chip in considerably -- and be prepared to pay in more than they receive.

Two of the big budget chapters are currently Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and cohesion policy, the latter of which is constructed to reduce economic disparities between richer and poorer regions in the bloc. On the CAP, it is enough to look at recent tensions between Ukraine and some of its western EU neighbors like Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland when it comes to the influx of Ukrainian grain. The EU trio, wary of a political backlash from its farmers, is still not allowing several Ukrainian agriproducts into its markets.

Imagine, then, what would happen if Ukraine were actually part of the EU's internal market and its farmers got considerable financial support from Brussels. The Spanish concept papers simply note, rather matter-of-factly: "the size of the agricultural sector of some candidate countries, notably Ukraine, will bring the EU agricultural market to a new dimension."

With cohesion policy, it's a similar story. The document notes that the per capita gross national income (GNI) measured in the per capita purchasing power (PPS) of the current EU candidate countries is around 50-70 percent of that of the poorest EU member states today. That would mean that most EU money would flow to the newest members.

But the quandaries don't stop there. The EU population would go from today's 450 million to well over 500 million, which one of the concept notes describes as "increasing market opportunities for economic operators, bringing in new consumers and reducing barriers to labour mobility and investments." But the notes also caution that this "free movement of persons is likely to raise challenges that will need to be addressed in advance." Considering how twitchy many EU countries are about any type of migration, including internal EU labor migration, this could be a huge societal hot-button issue that shapes many future elections inside the club.

Looking Ahead

Today (October 2) will see EU's foreign ministers going to Kyiv together in a show of solidarity with that war-torn country. Expect the ministers to talk about the prospects of opening accession talks with Ukraine later this year, the potential for a new sanctions package against Russia later this fall, the need to agree on more military assistance coming from the bloc, and perhaps also more specific security guarantees that the EU or individual member states can offer in the near future.

The European Parliament will descend on Strasbourg this week for a four-day plenary session. Perhaps the most interesting day will be October 3, as the chamber will discuss the situations in Nagorno-Karabakh and Moldova. On the former, one can expect quite a show of solidarity with Armenia and perhaps even calls for Yerevan to apply for EU membership. On Moldova, the parliament will also pass a nonbinding resolution in which it will call on a swift opening of EU accession talks with Chisinau.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/wider-europe-briefing-eu-meetings-granada- migration-enlargement-jozwiak/32617273.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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U.S. Welcomes Serbia's Announced Withdrawal Of Troops From Kosovo Border

By RFE/RL's Balkan Service October 02, 2023

The United States has welcomed an announcement by the commander of the Serbian Army that some troops have been withdrawn from the border with Kosovo, but Washington is still concerned about tensions in northern Kosovo, a State Department spokesman said.

"We will be looking for further confirmation. But if true, that would be a welcome step," spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on October 2 after Serbian Army chief of staff General Milan Mojsilovic told reporters in Belgrade that the number of troops along the border had been cut from 8,350 to 4,500.

Miller said the United States had not verified the withdrawal and that Washington continues to be "concerned about the cycle of rising tensions and sporadic violence in northern Kosovo."

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on September 29 called on Serbia to pull back what it said was a large military deployment at the border, calling it a "very destabilizing development."

NATO last week ordered more troops to the area and demanded that Belgrade and Pristina resume an EU-facilitated dialogue as soon as possible as "the only way to achieve lasting peace," alliance spokesman Dylan White said.

NATO still has 4,500 troops in Kosovo, and Britain said last week it would send additional forces to the mission, known as KFOR.

Germany is also closely monitoring the tensions between Serbia and Kosovo and will "react if necessary," Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on October 2, calling for a de-escalation of the situation.

He did not rule out increasing the contribution of German soldiers to KFOR, but said there were no plans to do so at the moment.

The Serbian military buildup came on the heels of an attack in northern Kosovo that left four people dead. Pristina blamed Serbia for providing financial and logistical support to the group of armed Serbs that clashed with Kosovar police. Belgrade denied the accusation.

Three attackers and one police officer were killed in the gunbattle on September 24 near the northern village of Banjska after the Serbs attacked a police patrol and then barricaded themselves in a Serbian Orthodox monastery.

Mojsilovic on October 2 denied Kosovo's accusation that Serbia planned to annex northern Kosovo with the attack in Banjska.

"The Serbian Army is a serious, strong organization that does not tolerate lies," he said. "I deny all allegations made by Pristina."

EU spokesman Peter Stano said on October 2 that the Kosovar police had a mandate to investigate the attack, and Brussels expects Serbia's "full and unconditional" cooperation.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti released images taken by a drone that he claimed showed Serbian paramilitaries in training ahead of the attack at Serbian Army bases. The images were taken around four days before the attack, he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"The attacks enjoyed the full support and planning of the Serbian state," Kurti said.

Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla told the Koha Ditore newspaper that the images had been taken by the Serbian paramilitaries themselves and had been seized along with weapons by the Kosovar police.

The skirmish prompted international concern over the stability of Kosovo, a former province of Serbia with a predominantly ethnic Albanian population that declared independence in 2008.

Tens of thousands of ethnic Serbs who live in northern Kosovo do not recognize Pristina's institutions, and they have often clashed with Kosovar police and international peacekeepers.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kosovo-serbia-us-border- withdrawal/32620006.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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Hungary Offers To Step In For Germany On Bosnian Serbs' Infrastructure Projects, Dodik Says

By RFE/RL's Balkan Service October 02, 2023

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said on October 2 after meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest that Hungary may take over infrastructure projects that Germany suspended in the Bosnia-Herzegovina's Serb-dominted entity over Dodik's secessionist policies.

Germany in August announced a decision to suspend four infrastructure projects in Republika Srpska worth a total of 105 million euros ($110 million).

Dodik said Orban "expressed his willingness to substitute projects that Germany canceled."

But he said Germany still considered the contracts active, while Republika Srpska waits for Berlin to resolve so that the entity can "can realize these projects with the Hungarians and Prime Minister Orban in the best possible way and for mutual benefit."

Among the projects is the construction of a wind farm in Berkovici, a municipality in the far southeast of Bosnia. Additionally, Germany has suspended its work on the renovation of a hydroelectric power plant near Trebinje in the far south and a wastewater-treatment initiative in Gradiska in the north.

Republika Srpska previously sought financial assistance from the Export-Import Bank of Hungary, borrowing a total of 110 million euros at the end of the previous year. Hungary is also providing an aid program for farmers in Republika Srpska valued at 100 million euros.

Orban, a crucial ally for Dodik, has blocked European Union sanctions against the pro-Russian president of the Serbian member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, which also includes a Bosniak Muslim and an ethnic Croat.

Bosnia is still governed under the terms of a 1995 peace treaty known as the Dayton accords that divided the country into a Bosniak and Croat federation and a Serb-majority entity.

Dodik was designated for sanctions by the United States and Britain last year after saying that Republika Srpska would pull out of the Western Balkan country's joint military, top judiciary body, and tax administration.

Dodik also currently faces an indictment over a push to ignore decisions by international envoy Christian Schmidt and the Constitutional Court.

His meeting with Orban in Budapest was their third official meeting in the past year. They previously met in the Hungarian capital in August and in October 2022 and in Banja Luka in June.

Dodik also made a controversial trip to Moscow last year for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. After his meeting with Orban, he said he would meet again with Putin "soon."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/bosnia-serbs-dodik-orban-support/32619866.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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Ten people were gunned down at a Buffalo supermarket May 14 in a horrifying mass shooting that officials were quick to label as "pure evil" and racially motivated.

The shooting stunned a community basking in a warm May afternoon, with shoppers filling the Tops in a predominantly Black neighborhood at 1275 Jefferson Ave.

Of the 13 people shot, 11 were Black and two were white, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said. All 10 of the victims who were killed were Black, said Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn Jr. The suspect is white. The killings are being investigated as a racist hate crime.

The accused gunman, Payton S. Gendron, pleaded guilty to 15 charges in State Supreme Court in Buffalo on Nov. 28, 2022. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Feb. 15, 2023.
Azerbaijan's Aliyev Hopes Meeting Will Give Impetus To Peace Process For Nagono-Karabakh

By RFE/RL's Armenian Service, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service October 02, 2023

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hopes that a meeting later this week in Granada, Spain, will give impetus to the development of a peace agenda for Nagorno-Karabakh amid claims of continued violence in the breakaway region.

Aliyev expressed hope for the meeting on October 2 while receiving the spiritual head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, at his residence.

Aliyev is scheduled to meet Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on October 5 in Granada. The leaders of France, Germany, and the European Council are also expected to attend.

Aliyev again emphasized that Azerbaijan took the initiative for a peace treaty after Baku regained full control over Nagorno-Karabakh last month, and that historical opportunities have arisen in the region to advance the peace agenda.

The Azerbaijani president "touched on the efforts made by Azerbaijan to establish peace" in his conversation with Welby, the Azerbaijani news agency APA reported.

Aliyev's administration also issued a statement saying Armenian residents living in Karabakh "will be granted freedom of religion and the protection of their cultural and religious monuments will be ensured," according to the Azerbaijani news agency Trend.

"Regardless of ethnic, religious, or linguistic affiliation, equal rights and freedoms of everyone are guaranteed, including the safety of everyone," the statement said.

The moves came as the Armenian Defense Ministry said one of its soldiers was killed when Azerbaijani forces opened fire in a border region.

Azerbaijani forces shelled a vehicle belonging to Armenian forces carrying provisions for personnel, a statement said, adding that two other soldiers were wounded.

Azerbaijan rejected an earlier statement from the Armenian ministry about the incident, calling it false.

The Russian Defense Ministry said separately that a joint Russian-Azerbaijani patrol came under sniper fire in Nagorno-Karabakh. There were no casualties, a ministry statement said.

In Stepanakert (Xankendi), the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, a fourth session of the closely watched "reintegration" talks was held between Azerbaijani officials and ethnic Armenian leaders of the breakaway region.

The Azerbaijani presidential administration announced a reintegraton plan that had been presented at three previous meetings last month.

The talks come two weeks after Azerbaijan routed Nagorno-Karabakh's ethnic Armenian forces in a 24-hour military campaign. Separatist authorities then agreed to dissolve their government by the end of this year, a bitter pill for Armenians who have made control of Nagorno-Karabakh a national priority.

Azerbaijani Interior Ministry spokesman Elshad Haciyev told AP on October 2 that the country's police had established control over the entire region and moved to "protect the rights and ensure security of the Armenian population in accordance with Azerbaijan's law."

Haciyev's statements came as the last bus carrying ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh left the region, completing an exodus of more than 100,000 people.

The bus carried 15 passengers with serious illnesses and mobility problems, said Gegham Stepanian, Nagorno-Karabakh's human rights ombudsman. He called for information about any other residents who want to leave but had trouble doing so.

Although Baku pledged to respect the rights of ethnic Armenians after the military campaign, most of them fled the region fearing reprisals or the loss of the freedom to speak their language and practice their religion and customs.

The Armenian government said on October 2 that 100,514 of the region's estimated 120,000 residents had crossed into Armenia.

Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan said some people had died during the slow journey over a single mountain road into Armenia that took as long as 40 hours.

With reporting by AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/azerbaijan-karabakh-armenians- talks/32619738.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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UN Security Council Authorizes Multinational Security Support Mission to Haiti

US Department of State

Press Statement

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

October 2, 2023

Today, the United Nations Security Council adopted the resolution co-penned by the United States and Ecuador to authorize a Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to Haiti. This pivotal mission, which will launch in partnership with Haiti, responds to Haiti's request for international support to address insecurity and create the necessary security conditions for long-term stability and growth. The resolution authorizes the MSS mission to provide operational, static, and training support to the Haitian National Police.

As previously stated, we intend to work with Congress to provide $100 million in foreign assistance, and the Department of Defense is prepared to provide up to $100 million in enabling support. We continue to look to the international community to also provide funding, equipment, training, and personnel to support a truly multinational effort.

While this action represents important progress, the United States renews its urgent call to political actors, including Prime Minister Henry and members of the opposition, to broaden consensus and restore democratic order in Haiti.

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Secretary Blinken's Meeting with President-Elect Arevalo of Guatemala

US Department of State

Readout

Office of the Spokesperson

October 2, 2023

The below is attributable to Spokesperson Matthew Miller:

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Guatemalan President-elect Bernardo Arevalo virtually today. The Secretary expressed support for Guatemala's peaceful political transition to President-elect Arevalo. He also expressed solidarity with the Guatemalan people as they face continued efforts to impede a democratic transfer of power.

The Secretary conveyed that he looks forward to working with the President-elect on issues of shared interest - including continued implementation of the Root Causes Strategy to address irregular migration - and that the United States will continue to use all available tools against those who act to undermine democracy and the rule of law in Guatemala. The Secretary and President-elect Arevalo affirmed their mutual interest in a prosperous, stable, and democratic Western Hemisphere.



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Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General

Department of Public Information . News and Media Division . New York

2 October 2023

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

** Press Briefings

Good afternoon. Monday, Monday, Happy Monday.

I just want to remind you, as you already know, but for those of you maybe following online, [at 1 p.m.] there will a briefing by the President of the Security Council for the month of October, and that is the Permanent Representative of Brazil, Ambassador Sergio Franca Danese. He will brief you on the programme of work.

My understanding is that Monica [Grayley] will not be briefing this week for the President of the General Assembly.

Tomorrow, we will have a guest, and that is the Country Director from South Sudan of the World Food Programme (WFP), Mary-Ellen McGroarty.

She will join us virtually from Juba to brief you on the humanitarian situation there. You may remember that Mary-Ellen used to be posted in Afghanistan and briefed you on that, as well.

Then at 1:30 p.m., we expect a briefing by Reem Alsalem, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences. She will brief you following the presentation of her report to the Third Committee of the General Assembly.

** Armenia-Azerbaijan

I have quite a lengthy update on the humanitarian situation and our activities in Armenia and Azerbaijan. We will also send it to you in writing, because it is too much for Michelle, apparently, to take in. [Yes, exactly!]

A UN team, as we had mentioned to you, a UN team, led by Vladanka Andreeva, the Resident Coordinator for the United Nations in Azerbaijan, visited the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan yesterday. It was a day trip, but they got to see quite a bit. The mission aimed to assess the situation on the ground and identify the humanitarian needs of both the people remaining and those who are on the move.

The team included Ramesh Rajasingham, who, as you know, is the Director of the Coordination Division of the [Office] for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). It also included representatives of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund), the UNHCR (United Nations Refugee Agency) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The mission visited the city of Khankendi, where the team met with people and community representatives, and was able to see first-hand, for themselves, the situation regarding health and education.

In parts of the city visited by the team, they saw no damage to civilian public infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and housing, or cultural and religious infrastructure. However, no shops seemed to be open. The mission also saw that the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan was preparing for the resumption of health services and some basic utilities in the city.

The team also heard from representatives of communities that between 50 and 1,000 ethnic Armenians remain currently in Karabakh.

Our colleagues were struck by the sudden manner in which the local population fled their homes and the suffering that the experience must have caused them. They did not come across any reports  either from the local population or from others  of violence against civilians following the latest ceasefire.

No destruction of agricultural infrastructure or dead animals were seen by the members of the UN team.

The team stresses the need to rebuild trust and confidence, adding this will require time and effort from all sides.

They also drove down the Lachin road up to the border crossing with Azerbaijan  a journey which has been taken by more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians in the last few days  and the team did not come across any civilian vehicles.

While driving through Aghdam, which is part of the territories regained in 2020, members of the UN team did observe destruction, as well as the reconstruction efforts that are being made by the Government of Azerbaijan.

The UN team plans to continue to regularly visit the region.

Meanwhile, we are also responding, of course, to the needs of new arrivals at reception centres in Armenia.

Over the weekend, trucks with supplies from the UN Refugee Agency have arrived in Armenia.

Our colleagues are telling us that the cargo contains warm blankets, mattresses, folding beds, hygiene items and other assistance for the refugees that have been taken in by host communities. An additional 15 trucks from UNHCR is expected in the coming days, bringing more items like blankets, beds and kitchen sets for about 7,000 refugees in total.

For its part, the World Food Programme (WFP) has provided more than 5,000 meals in registration centre areas in the past few days, as well as lunch boxes for about 600 refugees in Kapan and Parakar registration centres.

In response to a Government request, the World Food Programme distributed 4,000 family food parcels to the Syunik authorities to address the food requirements of the impacted people. An additional 3,500 parcels to assist 14,000 people are being procured to support the next phase of the response, in coordination with the Government.

Also today, the UN Children's Fund said they have delivered the first batch of life-saving medical supplies to Armenia's National Centre for the Provision of Medicines and Medical Supplies. This includes crucial items like bandages, syringes and various medications, including antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), for its part, is delivering essential hygiene items to refugee women and girls in a number of regions in Armenia.

In partnership with the Ministry of Health, UNFPA has distributed enough reproductive health kits to meet the needs of 150,000 people in the regions of Syunik, Tavush and Gegharkunik.

The agency has also trained 35 local partners on how to respond to gender-based violence and it plans to set up safe spaces for survivors to access medical and mental health services.

As I mentioned, this will be shared with you very briefly.

** Libya

Turning to Libya. Abdoulaye Bathily, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya and head of our political mission there, said today that he is concerned about the emergence of unilateral and competing initiatives from various Libyan actors and institutions, regarding the reconstruction of Derna and other flood-affected areas.

He said that these unilateral efforts are counterproductive, deepen existing divisions in the country, impede reconstruction efforts and are at odds with the outpouring of solidarity, support and national unity shown by Libyan people from all over the country in response to the current crisis.

The UN Mission in Libya, UNSMIL, calls on all relevant Libyan national and local authorities and Libya's international partners to facilitate agreement on a unified and coordinated Libyan national mechanism to direct the recovery and reconstruction efforts.

Mr. Bathily urges leaders in Libya to rise above divisions and come together to agree on a unified response for the reconstruction, for the good of all people in Libya.

** Yemen

Turning to Yemen: The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, was in Qatar, and he finished up his visit today. There he discussed with officials the importance of further consolidating regional and international support to UN mediation efforts in Yemen, as well as the progress to support the parties to commit and implement a nationwide ceasefire.

In Qatar, Mr. Grundberg also participated in the launch of a think tank entitled "the Global Institute for Strategic Research". He deliberated with experts over viable entry points for collective action to address peacebuilding and reconstruction challenges in Yemen.

** Burkina Faso

Turning to Burkina Faso, where our friends at UNICEF highlight the fact that with the new school year starting, more than 6,000 schools remain closed because of violence and insecurity in parts of the country. That is one in four schools in Burkina Faso now closed  and it impacts about 1 million children.

In addition to this, at least 230 schools also currently serve as temporary shelters for more than 52,000 displaced people.

Despite the difficulties, UNICEF says that more than 3.8 million girls and boys are going to school today, including in regions impacted by conflict. Our colleagues are working with the Ministry of Education and have helped over 760,000 children through formal education, accelerated schooling strategies, vocational training and education by radio.

As a reminder, about 5.5 million men, women and children need humanitarian assistance in Burkina Faso, and within that 5.5 million, there are 3.2 million children.

UNICEF's requirements for the country, which is over $226 million, is only 13 per cent funded. And the overall humanitarian assistance request for Burkina Faso is only 32 per cent funded [according to OCHA].

** Guatemala

I have been asked about the situation in Guatemala and I can tell you that the Secretary-General is alarmed by the recent actions of the Public Prosecutor's office in Guatemala that threaten confidence in the democratic process. He calls on all actors to uphold the rule of law and the democratically expressed will, ensuring that the freely elected authorities take office on 14 January 2024.

** International Days

Today is the International Day of Non-Violence, which is also the birthday of? [response from the crowd: "Gandhi."] Yes, very good. It is the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi and this is why it is the International Day of Non-Violence.

In his message, the Secretary-General says that on this Day, we commemorate the values that Gandhi championed: mutual respect and understanding, justice and the power of peaceful action.

Today is also World Habitat Day. On this Day, the Secretary-General calls on everyone to pledge to build inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable human settlements for everyone, everywhere.

** Senior Personnel Appointment

Lastly, a senior personnel appointment: Our colleagues in the Development Coordination Office (DCO) tell us a new Resident Coordinator for the United Nations system in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) has now been confirmed.

The Secretary-General has appointed Bakhodir Burkhanov of Uzbekistan as the new Resident Coordinator. And his appointment has now been confirmed by the host Government.

Mr. Burkhanov has over 25 years of experience in the UN system, most recently at the Development Coordination Office. He will support the Government and all people in Lao PDR to turn the commitments made at the recent SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Summit into action on the ground to leave no one behind.

His full biography is available on the DCO website.

** Questions and Answers

Spokesman : Khalas! Benno?

Question : Thank you, Steph. The Nobel Prize for medicine goes to two scientists who developed mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 or paved the way for this. Is there any comment?

Spokesman : Well, we congratulate the two recipients, not only for receiving the prize but for the very important research they've done that has benefitted all mankind.

Ibtisam Azem?

Question : Okay. Thank you. On the statement you read about Libya; is the UN involved in any of the rebuilding efforts? And usually, when you deliver aid there, with which of the two Governments do you...?

Spokesman : Well, I mean, we have... the immediate humanitarian aid was delivered. We worked with the local authorities on the ground. Obviously, given where Derna is, it demanded a level of coordination between all Libyan... various Libyan centres of authority, should I say? But what is clear, and I think the concern that Mr. Bathily is seeing is that as we move towards reconstruction and clean-up efforts, we're seeing competing efforts, which is a waste of time, a waste of money, and the waste of an opportunity that out of this disaster can come unity on the Libyan political scale. We will be involved in whatever way we can, but these efforts need to be clear and coordinated.

Yes, sir?

Question : Serhii Barbu, Ukrainian TV Channel 5. Iran is ready to transfer ballistic missiles to Russia. This information is confirmed by the American Institute for the Study of War. Is the UN going to prevent this? Do you understand the risks for Ukraine, especially in winter for civilian population?

Thank you.

Spokesman : Well, I think the... we've always expressed our concern about the increasing level of weapons in the Ukrainian theatre and especially the use of these weapons. And it is also important that international law be respected in that regard.

Amelie?

Question : Thanks, Steph. A follow-up on Karabakh, on Friday, you explained that the mission was... task was to assess the humanitarian need. So obviously, what they saw in a one-day trip was no sign of major casualties or infrastructure damage or anything. But what does that mean in terms of next step, in terms of humanitarian aid?

Spokesman : Well, I mean, first of all, this is the first of what we hope will be a number of visits. We will also obviously work with the Government of Azerbaijan. In terms of humanitarian assistance, currently, our efforts are focused on the Armenian side of the border. And as you know, Armenia has welcomed about 100,000 refugees, so that's where the immediate humanitarian needs are. But we will continue to monitor and travel back to Karabakh and assist in whatever way we can.

Michelle?

Question : Sorry, just a follow-up to that, and sorry if you said that in your statement. But... so they were just there for the day, and they've left, and any idea when they hope to go back?

Spokesman : No. I mean, they... we will be working with the Government of Azerbaijan to see when we can go back.

Question : And reading into what you told us, is their assessment that there was no... I'm trying to sort of... so they didn't see any damage, they didn't see... what should we read into that? [cross talk]

Spokesman : Yeah, I mean, they reported what they saw. Right? And this was an initial visit. So, they didn't... it was... there was no extrapolation, or they talked to people, they... what they saw was, as I said, from where they were that there was no destruction of major civilian infrastructure, of religious infrastructure, of health and schools. And I think they were struck about how quickly people had moved out.

Joe and then Yvonne.

Question : Were there any restrictions placed on the team in terms of where they could visit?

Spokesman : Not that I'm aware.

Yvonne?

Question : Thanks. My question is on Haiti, the resolution coming before the Security Council this afternoon: Is the Secretary-General concerned at all that this multinational force is going in to effectively prop up an unelected government and whether that could end up, you know, coming back to haunt the United Nations?

Spokesman : Well, I mean, the Secretary-General's motivation is to the people of Haiti and to help ensure the security and safety of everyday people in Haiti, which is currently not happening when you have gangs controlling large parts of the capital, people reporting to us that they're unable to leave the capital with gang violence spreading to other parts  Gonaives, Cap-Haitien. It's about a total breakdown of law and order. And we saw in the beginning, I mean months ago, gangs had taken over the port and the fuel depot. So, it's about getting the people of Haiti a chance to rebuild, to live, in a sense, in a society where people can go out of their house, where parents can send their children to school without fear of kidnapping. There is a political process, and the Haitian leaders will have to come together to respond to their needs of their own population.

Question : Just a follow-up, how, do you know which other countries have committed to join the multinational force aside from Kenya?

Spokesman : No. I do not.

Stefano?

Question : Yes. It's a follow-up. Does the Secretary-General think that the fact that this multinational force will not be a UN force, is that is a concern? I mean, the UN is going to give the authorization, but it's not going to be an official UN operation.

Spokesman : This was the Secretary-General's idea from the start. Right? I mean, is to send a non-UN multinational force under a Security Council mandate.

Question : But does this... My question here is, is it a concern that this could create situation that, you know, that maybe when is a UN force, he can control more or handle it. What...? I'll just give you an example. What if we have again a situation where there are abuse by this force to the population or some situation like this? Who is in charge for checking on this force? [cross talk]

Spokesman : Well, let me... If the Secretary-General is concerned about anything, it is that it has taken a long time to get this together. I mean, you remember he proposed this months and months ago. There's an international process. We fully understand it's not easy. We're also asking Member States to send in their own citizens into a very difficult and challenging environment with real life and death risk. So, we understand this could take a long time. There are political and logistical implications. Whoever winds up going, right, whoever... whichever Member States wind up sending police officers or others there, they will have to live up to the highest standards, human rights standards, and behaviour. And those Member States will remain responsible for the actions of their citizens that they sent under... within this force under a Security Council mandate.

Margaret Besheer?

Question : Thank you. Just one more on that. Does the Secretary... has the Security Council indicated to the Secretary-General how long they think it would take to get this force deployed, once it's approved? Because it seems to be there's foregoing conclusion that it's going to be approved. So, how long it's on the ground...? [cross talk]

Spokesman : I think we... you know, we'll, again, this will not be managed by us, but obviously, it will likely take a little bit time. I mean, just based on our own experience from putting together peacekeeping forces that it may take a little bit of time. But I think that's a question you need to ask the Kenyans and others of how long they think it will take them to start deploying people initially.

Question : Just to clarify on the same, can we say that for the Secretary-General...

Spokesman : As a matter of rule, you can say whatever you want... [cross talk] I believe in your freedom to ask and say whatever you want, Stefano.

Question : I'm trying to interpret what you just said before. Can we say that for the Secretary-General, "it's better than nothing" means, it is important that the force goes there to take... [cross talk]

Spokesman : This is what... it's not that it's better than nothing. This was what the Secretary-General proposed, right, this is one of the...

Question : I understand but what I'm trying to say, is the Secretary...?

Spokesman : I mean we're not going to pooh-pooh what the Security Council did when...

Question : No, no, no, the point is if he could have it his way, if he could have got faster, would I prefer... Would he had preferred a UN force that...?

Spokesman : If he had preferred a UN force, he would have said so.

Okay. I... we could... [response from the crowd]

Okay.

Did... is Michelle doing a better job than me at explaining? Yeah. Apparently. Apparently not. Okay.

Well, in that I can't help you.

Well, as I used to tell my children, you get what you get, and you don't get upset.

Okay. On that note, we will leave you with the presidency soon enough.

Hasta la vista.

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Russo-Ukraine War - 02 October 2023 - Day 586

Su M Tu W Th F Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While GlobalSecurity.org takes utmost care to accurately report this news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.

On 24 February 2022, Ukraine was suddenly and deliberately attacked by land, naval and air forces of Russia, igniting the largest European war since the Great Patriotic War. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" (SVO - spetsialnaya voennaya operatsiya) in Ukraine in response to the appeal of the leaders of the "Donbass republics" for help. That attack is a blatant violation of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. Putin stressed that Moscow's goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country. The military buildup in preceeding months makes it obvious that the unprovoked and dastardly Russian attack was deliberately planned long in advance. During the intervening time, the Russian government had deliberately sought to deceive the world by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

"To initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." [Judgment of the International Military Tribunal]

The UK Ministry of Defence reported that in recent weeks, the Naval Aviation component of Russia's Black Sea Fleet has assumed a particularly important role in the Fleet's operations as it struggles to deal with concurrent threats on the southern flank of the Ukraine war.

Naval Aviation is emphasising maritime air patrol operations, highly likely with a primary mission of the early identification of uncrewed surface vessels. A key Russian asset in these operations is the Be-12 MAIL amphibious aircraft, designed in the 1950s, flying out of bases in occupied Crimea.

Su-24 FENCER and FLANKER variant combat jets conduct maritime strike operations, including at least one recent air strike on the strategically located Snake Island. With more Fleet activities likely relocating to Novorossiysk in the face of threats to Sevastopol, Russia is attempting to use naval air power to project force over the north-western Black Sea.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that during the day of October 1, there were 22x combat engagements. Moreover, the Russian Federation launched yet another attack on Ukraine using 7x Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs from the southeast. The Ukrainian air defense forces and means intercepted 4x Russian Shaheds. Russian forces launched a total of 5x missile and 39x air strikes, 20x MLRS attacks at the positions of Ukrainian troops and various settlements. Unfortunately, the Russian attacks have killed and wounded civilians. Private residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure were destroyed or damaged.

The operational situation in east and south of Ukraine remains difficult.

Volyn and Polissya axes: no significant changes. No signs of formation of an offensive group. Certain units of the armed forces of belarus continue their missions in the areas bordering Ukraine.

Sivershchyna and Slobozhanshchyna axes: Russia maintains its military presence in the areas of Russia bordering Ukraine. Russia continues to shell Ukrainian settlements from the territory of russia and increases the density of minefields along the state border of Ukraine. The Russian invaders launched an air strike in the vicinity of settlement of Stepok (Sumy oblast). Russian forces fired artillery and mortars at more than 25x settlements, including Karpovychi, Hrem'yachka (Chernihiv oblast), Holyshivs'ke, Tur'ya, Mykhailivske, Pokrovka, Popivka, and Ponomarenky (Sumy oblast), and Krasne Pershe (Kharkiv oblast).

Kup'yans'k axis: the Russian adversary launched air strikes near Ivanivka and Cherneshchyna (Kharkiv oblast). Russian forces fired artillery and mortars at more than 10x settlements, including Dvorichna, Syn'kivka, Kup'yans'k, Ivanivka, Kyslivka, and Berestove (Kharkiv oblast).

Lyman axis: the Ukrainian defense forces repelled Russian attacks in the vicinity of Makiivka (Luhansk oblast). The Russian adversary launched air strikes in the vicinities of settlements of Zarichne, Spirne, and Lyman (Donetsk oblast). Makiivka, Nevs'ke, Bilohorivka (Luhansk oblast), Novosadove, Tors'ke, Verkhn'okam'yans'ke, Spirne, and Rozdolivka (Donetsk oblast) were shelled with artillery and mortars.

Bakhmut axis: Russian forces made unsuccessful attempts to regain the lost ground in the vicinity of Andriivka (Donetsk oblast). Russian forces launched air strikes near Klishchiivka and Oleksandro-Shultyne (Donetsk oblast). More than 20x settlements came under artillery and mortar fire, including Min'kivka, Hryhorivka, Kostyantynivka, Bila Hora, Dyliivka, and Toretsk (Donetsk oblast).

Avdiivka axis: the Russian adversary made unsuccessful attempts to regain the lost position in the the area east of Stepove (Donetsk oblast). Russian forces fired artillery and mortars at more than 10x settlements, including Stepove, Tonen'ke, Avdiivka, Sjeverne, Pervomais'ke, and Nevel's'ke (Donetsk oblast).

Mar'inka axis: during the day of October 1, Ukrainian defense forces successfully repelled 6x attacks in the vicinity of Mar'inka (Donetsk oblast). Also, the Ukrainian defenders repelled Russian attacks in the vicinity of Novomykhailivka (Donetsk oblast). The adversary launched air strikes near the settlements Mar'inka, Novomykhailivka, and Paraskoviivka (Donetsk oblast). About 10x settlements, including Oleksandropil', Krasnohorivka, Mar'inka, Pobjeda, Novomykhailivka, and Bohoyavlenka (Donetsk oblast), were under fire of the Russian occupiers.

Shakhtars'ke axis: the Ukrainian defenders repelled Russian attacks near Staromaiors'ke and Rivnopil' (Donetsk oblast). The Russian forces occupiers launched air strikes in the vicinities of settlements of Urozhaine, Staromaiors'ke, and Novodarivka (Donetsk oblast). More than 10x settlements including Vuhledar, Prechystivka, Urozhaine, Staromaiors'ke, Rivnopil', and Novopil' (Donetsk oblast), came under artillery and mortar fire.

Zaporizhzhia axis: the Ukrainian defenders successfully repelled Russian attacks in the area west of Verbove (Zaporizhzhia oblast). The Russian occupants launched an air strike near Mala Tokmachka (Zaporizhzhia oblast). More than 25x settlements, including Levadne, Malynivka, Hulyaipole, Mala Tokmachka, Orikhiv, and P'yatykhatky (Zaporizhzhia oblast), came under Russian artillery and mortar fire.

Kherson axis: Russian forces launched an air strike in the vicinity of Mykolaivka (Kherson oblast). Russian forces fired artillery and mortars at more than 15x settlements, including Respublikanets', Vesele, Tyahynka, Antonivka, Veletens'ke (Kherson oblast), and the city of Kherson.

At the same time, the Ukrainian defense forces continue their offensive operation on Melitopol' axis and offensive (assault) operations on Bakhmut axis, inflicting losses in manpower and equipment on the occupation forces, exhausting Russian forces all along the front line.

During the day of October 1, Ukrainian Air Force launched 11x air strikes on the concentrations of troops, weapons, and military equipment and 1x air strike on the anti-aircraft missile system of the Russian adversary.

During the day of October 1, the Ukrainian missile troops hit 2x concentrations of troops, weapons, and military equipment, 1x command post, and 2x artillery systems of the Russian adversary.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that in Donetsk direction, the Yug Group of Forces, supported by aviation and artillery, repelled three attacks by assault groups of AFU 110th mechanised, 59th mechanised infantry, 5th assault brigades close to Krasnogorovka, Nevelskoye, Andreevka (Donetsk People's Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 180 Ukrainian servicemen killed and wounded, two armoured fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, as well as two Gvozdika self-propelled artillery systems.

In Krasny Liman direction, the Tsentr Group of Forces' units, aviation, artillery, and heavy flamethrower systems repelled two attacks of assault groups of the AFU 67th Mechanised Brigade and the 5th National Guard Brigade close to Chervonaya Dibrova and Belogorovka (Lugansk People's Republic).

The enemy losses have amounted to over 60 Ukrainian servicemen killed and wounded and two pickup trucks.

In the course of the counter-battery warfare, one Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system and one D-20 howitzer, and one D-30 howitzer were hit.

In Kupyansk direction, the Zapad Group of Forces' units, supported by artillery, aviation, and heavy flamethrower systems inflicted fire damage manpower and hardware of AFU 44th, 66th mechanised, 25th airborne brigades, as well as the 107th Territorial Defence Brigade near Borovaya (Kharkov region), Novoye (Donetsk People's Republic), Novoselkovskoye and Makeevka (Lugansk People's Republic).

The enemy losses were more than 65 Ukrainian servicemen, two motor vehicles, one Paladin howitzer, and one U.S.-made M777 artillery system.

In Zaporozhye direction, the Russian Group of Forces' units, supported by Ground-Attack Aviation and helicopters hit manpower and hardware of AFU 47th, 65th, 117th, 118th mechanised brigades near Rabotino, Malaya Tokmachka, Novodanilovka, Verbovoye (Zaporozhye region).

Up to 35 Ukrainian servicemen, two armoured fighting vehicles, including Bradley IFV, and three motor vehicles were eliminated.

In the course of the counter-battery warfare, one Gvozdika self-popelled artillery system, one M-46 gun, one D-30 howitzer, as well as one AN/TPQ-48 counterbattery warfare radar were eliminated.

In South Donetsk direction, the Vostok Group of Forces repelled one attack of the AFU 128th Territorial Defence Brigade's assault groups close to Priyutnoye (Zaporozhye region).

Ground-Attack Aviation and artillery launched attacks at manpower and hardware of AFU 72nd mechanised and 79 air assault brigades close to Konstantinovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

Up to 30 Ukrainian servicemen, two pickup trucks, one U.S.-made M777 artillery system, as well as one D-20 howitzer were eliminated.

In Kherson direction during the day, up to 30 Ukrainian servicemen and two motor vehicles were destroyed as a result of fire defeat.

Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Group of Forces have engaged AFU manpower and hardware in 107 areas during the day.

In addition, one Anklav anti-UAV electronic warfare station was destroyed close to Preobrazhenka (Zaporozhye region).

A communication centre of the 66th Mechanised Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has been destroyed close to Petrovskoye (Lugansk People's Republic) .

Fuel depots and hangars of aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force have been destroyed at the Dolgintsevo airfield (Dnepropetrovsk region).

?? Air defence forces, electronic warfare systems, and small-arms fire shot down two HIMARS MLRS missiles and two operational-tactical missiles.

??Moreover, 45 unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down near Ploshchanka (Lugansk People's Republic), Peski, Betmanovo (Donetsk People's Republic), Verbovoye, Chervonogorka, Pshenichnoye (Zaporozhye region), and Tokarevka (Kharkov region).

?? In total, 483 airplanes and 250 helicopters, 7,359 unmanned aerial vehicles, 439 air defence missile systems, 12,266 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,159 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 6,623 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 13,700 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.

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Russo-Ukraine War - 03 October 2023 - Day 587

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 new polling by Russia's state-owned Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM) suggests that the authorities are successfully using the 'foreign agent' designation as a tool to manipulate public opinion behind the state's anti-West, pro-war narratives.

On 26 September 2023, VTsIOM reported the results of a poll of Russians' attitudes towards people and organisations registered as 'foreign agents'. VTsIOM claimed 61% of those surveyed said that they considered 'foreign agents' to be 'traitors' who 'disseminate lies' about Russia.

Russia has broadened the foreign agent legislation since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The measures significantly narrow the information space within Russia, making it increasingly difficult to articulate any viewpoint, including dissenting about the war, which deviates from the official line.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that during the day of October 3, there were 26x combat engagements. Also, the Russian Federation launched yet another strike at Ukraine using 1x Iskander-K cruise missile and 31x Iranian Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs from the southern, southeastern and northern directions. Air defense forces shot down 1x Iskander-K cruise missile and 29x Russian Shaheds. The Russian forces launched a total of 3x missile and 80x air strikes, 28x MLRS attacks at the positions of Ukrainian troops and various settlements. Unfortunately, the Russian terrorist attacks have killed and wounded civilians. Private residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure were destroyed or damaged.

The operational situation in eastern and southern Ukraine remains difficult.

Volyn and Polissya axes: no significant changes. No signs of formation of an offensive group. Certain units of the armed forces of Belarus continue their missions in the areas bordering Ukraine.

Sivershchyna and Slobozhanshchyna axes: Russia maintains its military presence in the areas of russia bordering Ukraine. Russia continues to shell Ukrainian settlements from the territory of Russia and increases the density of minefields along the state border of Ukraine. Russian forces fired artillery and mortars at more than 25x settlements, including Karpovychi, Bleshnya, Yeline (Chernihiv oblast), Khotin', Yastrubyne, Volodymyrivka, Novodmytrivka (Sumy oblast), Udy, Kozacha Lopan', Ivashky, Hatyshche (Kharkiv oblast).

Kup'yans'k axis: Russian forces launched air strikes in the vicinities of Petropavlivka, Sen'kove, Syn'kivka (Kharkiv oblast). More than 10x settlements, including Dvorichna, Syn'kivka, Kucherivka, Petropavlivka, Berestove (Kharkiv oblast) came under artillery and mortar fire.

Lyman axis: the Ukrainian defenders repelled about 10x Russian attack near Makiivka (Luhansk oblast). The settlements of Novoselivs'ke (Luhansk oblast), Nove, Kolodyazi, Yampolivka, Stavky, Vesele, Spirne (Donetsk oblast) suffered Russian air strikes. The Russian invaders fired artillery and mortars at more than 10x settlements, including Makiivka, Nevs'ke, Bilohorivka (Luhansk oblast), Novosadove, Tors'ke, Verkhn'okam'yans'ke, Spirne, Rozdolivka (Donetsk oblast).

Bakhmut axis: the Russian adversary made unsuccessful attempts to regain the lost ground in the vicinity of Andriivka (Donetsk oblast). Russian forces launched air strikes near Bohdanivka, Klishchiivka, Andriivka, Kostyantynivka, Oleksandro-Shul'tyne, Katerynivka (Donetsk oblast). About 15x settlements came under artillery and mortar fire, including Bila Hora, Ivanivske, Klishchiivka, New York (Donetsk oblast).

Avdiivka axis: the Ukrainian defenders successfully repelled all Russian attacks near Pervomais'ke (Donetsk oblast). The invaders fired artillery and mortars at more than 10x settlements, including Stepove, Avdiivka, Karlivka, Novokalynove, Pervomais'ke (Donetsk oblast).

Mar'inka axis: during the day of October 3, the Ukrainian Defense Forces successfully repelled 10x Russian attacks in the vicinities of Mar'inka and 1x Russian attack in the vicinities of Krasnohorivka (Donetsk oblast). The adversary launched air strikes near Novomykhailivka and Mar'inka (Donetsk oblast). About 10x settlements, including Heorhiivka, Mar'inka, Pobjeda, Katerynivka (Donetsk oblast) were under artillery and mortar fire of the Russian occupiers.

Shakhtars'ke axis: the Russian occupiers launched air strikes in the vicinities of Vodyane, Urozhaine, Shakhtars'ke (Donetsk oblast). The settlements of Vuhledar, Novoukrainka, Urozhaine, Staromaiors'ke (Donetsk oblast) came under artillery and mortar fire.

Zaporizhzhia axis: Russian forces launched air strikes near the settlements of Novodarivka, Robotyne, Staromaiors'ke (Zaporizhzhia oblast). More than 25x settlements, including Levadne, Hulyaipole, Mala Tokmachka, Lobkove, Robotyne, P'yatykhatky, Orikhiv (Zaporizhzhia oblast), came under Russian artillery and mortar fire.

Kherson axis: the Russian adversary launched air strikes in the vicinities of Antonivka and Ol'hivka (Kherson oblast). Russian forces fired artillery and mortars at more than 10x settlements, including Antonivka, Chornobaivka, Zmiivka (Kherson oblast), the city of Kherson and Dmytrivka (Mykolaiv oblast).

At the same time, the Ukrainian Defense Forces continue their offensive operation on Melitopol' axis and offensive (assault) operations on Bakhmut axis, inflicting losses in manpower and equipment on the occupation forces, exhausting the Russian forces all along the front line.

During the day of October 3, Ukrainian Air Force launched 13x air strikes on the concentrations of troops, weapons and military equipment, and 4x air strikes on anti-aircraft missile systems of the Russian adversary.

The Ukrainian missile troops hit 3x concentrations of troops, weapons and military equipment and 20x artillery systems of the Russian invaders.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that in Donetsk direction, the Yug Group of Forces in close cooperation with aviation and artillery has successfully repelled three enemy attacks close to Kleshcheyevka and Krasnogorovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

The enemy's losses have amounted to up to 285 Ukrainian troops, and seven motor vehicles during the day.

In counterbattery warfare, the Russian troops hit: one Grad MLRS vehicle and one French-made Caesar howitzer.

In Krasny Liman direction, the Tsentr Group of Forces in coordination with helicopters and artillery repelled three attacks launched by the 67th Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the 5th National Guard Brigade of Ukraine close to Torskoye and Grigorovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

Up to 65 Ukrainian servicemen, two armoured combat vehicles, and two pick-up trucks were neutralised.

One Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer, one D-20 and one D-30 howitzers have been obliterated during the day as part of the counter-battery warfare operation.

?? In South Donetsk direction, the Vostok Group of Forces repelled an attack launched by AFU assault group of the 128th Territorial Defence Brigade close to Priyutnoye (Zaporozhye region).

Moreover, ground-attack aircraft inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware of the 58th Motorised Infantry, 72nd Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine close to Urozhainoye and Novomikhailovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

The enemy losses amounted to over 120 Ukrainian troops killed and wounded, two armoured fighting vehicles, six motor vehicles, and one D-20 gun.

In Kupyansk direction, aircraft, artillery, and heavy flamethrowers of the Zapad Group of Forces inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware of the 25th Airborne, 14th, 92nd, and 115th mechanised brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine close to Sinkovka, Zagoruikovka, Berestovoye (Kharkov region), and Novolyubovka (Lugansk People's Republic).

The enemy's losses amounted to up to 60 Ukrainian troops, two tanks, and one Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system.

In Zaporozhye direction, the Russian Group of Forces supported by helicopters and ground-attack aircraft struck manpower and hardware of the 65th and 118th mechanised brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine close to Malaya Tokmachka, Novodanilovka, and north of Rabotino (Zaporozhye region).

The enemy suffered losses of up to 90 Ukrainian troops, two armoured personnel carriers, and three motor vehicles.

Moreover, one Msta-B howitzer, one D-20 gun, and one U.S.-made M119 towed howitzer have been obliterated as part of counter-battery warfare.

In Kherson direction, the enemy suffered losses of up to 45 Ukrainian troops killed and wounded, three motor vehicles, one Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer, and one D-30 gun.



Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery, and unmanned aerial vehicles of the Russian Groups of Forces have inflicted fire damage on enemy manpower and hardware in 122 areas in the past 24 hours.



In addition, one self-propelled launcher of the Ukrainian Buk-M1 surface-to-air missile system was hit on the position close to Burlatskoye (Donetsk People's Republic).



Armament repair and recovery facilities of the Kharkov Armoured Plant were hit by the Russian Armed Forces.



Workshops of an enterprise producing solid rocket fuel and explosives were obliterated near Pavlograd.



Moreover, an ammunition depot of the AFU 41st Mechanised Brigade was destroyed close to Kupyansk (Kharkov region).



Russian air defence forces have intercepted two HIMARS MLRS projectiles during the day.



In addition, 58 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were intercepted in the areas of Ploshchanka, Makeyevka (Lugansk People's Republic), Krasnaya Gora, Shevchenko, Pobeda, Oktyabrskoye (Donetsk People's Republic), Verbovoye, Mirnoye, Novoye (Zaporozhye region), Peschanovka and Golaya Pristan (Kherson region).



In total, 483 airplanes and 250 helicopters, 7,417 unmanned aerial vehicles, 440 air defence missile systems, 12,275 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,160 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 6,634 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 13,721 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.

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Remarks by Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes Elizabeth Rosenberg at the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists Assembly Conference

U.S. Department of the Treasury

October 2, 2023

As prepared for delivery

Intro

Good morning and thank you Kieran, and thank you to ACAMS for having me here virtually to speak to you today. I'm honored by the invitation, and I wish I could have joined you all in person.

My name is Elizabeth Rosenberg, and I am the Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. My office, the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, or TFFC, is part of Treasury's larger Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, which includes FinCEN, OFAC, an intelligence office, and an asset forfeiture office. TFFC develops and coordinates AML/CFT and sanctions policy across the Department, and the broader U.S. Government.

I've been the Assistant Secretary since December 2021, shortly before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The first few months of that invasion, and of the international sanctions and financial controls imposed in response, underscored the importance of closing some of the longstanding challenges that we collectively face in keeping the U.S. AML-CFT regime current and strong. It also caused me to rethink what effectiveness means in the financial compliance space.

All of you working in AML/CFT compliance support our national security mission when you detect and unravel ongoing illicit activity. I'm very grateful for the work you all in compliance do daily. Today I want to talk about the road ahead to mitigating gaps in our existing AML/CFT regime. Then, I'll turn to Russiaaa core priority for U.S. AML and sanctions policy. What I want to impart to you today is that these issues are deeply linked. We cannot effectively wage the sanctions campaigns of todayaagainst large and interlinked international economiesaif we cannot effectively close the AML gaps in our own financial system.

The Gaps

Historically, the U.S. has had one of the most effective AML/CFT regimes in the world. But we are far from perfect, and we will always strive to harden our system against those who seek to misuse our institutions, gatekeepers, and payments platforms. In particular, in our mutual evaluation in 2016, the FATF determined that the U.S. has major regulatory gaps related to beneficial ownership, real estate, investment advisors, and non-financial gatekeepers like lawyers and trusts. Many of the issues the FATF identified align with the findings of my office's Money Laundering Risk Assessment, the last version of which was published in February 2022.

Addressing these deficiencies is a core technical priority. Specifically, TFI has been working hard to close the legal and regulatory gaps that illicit actors exploit to anonymously access the U.S. financial system, to obfuscate and launder illicit proceeds through real estate and institutions that lack clear AML/CFT obligations.

On beneficial ownership risks, we continue to prioritize the implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act (the CTA), which requires certain U.S. and foreign companies to disclose to FinCEN information about persons who own or control a company. It also requires FinCEN to build a non-public, central registry of this information and authorizes FinCEN to disclose this information to authorized government authorities and financial institutions, subject to effective safeguards and controls.

Beginning on January 1, 2024, many companies in the United States will have to begin reporting information about their beneficial owners, i.e., the individuals who ultimately own or control the company, and their company applicants.

We recognize that the Beneficial Ownership Information reporting requirementsaand FinCEN itselfawill be new to many businesses across the country, so we are conducting outreach to various stakeholders, including the small business community, and developing guidance materials to inform companies of their reporting obligations. As part of this effort, FinCEN published on its website an initial set of guidance materials, including frequently asked questions and videos. FinCEN also recently published a Small Entity Compliance Guide to describe the requirements in more detail and in a simple, easy-to-read manner. This should help lessen the burden on small businesses and help make this nation-wide registry a success.

In parallel, FinCEN is working to finalize the Access Rule to establish who may request and receive Beneficial Ownership Information, how recipients may use it, and how they must secure it. In December, FinCEN issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for the Access Rule. Because we're in an ongoing rulemaking process, I won't be able to discuss the substance of this rule today, but I look forward to discussing it in the future.

With respect to real estate, Treasury has already promulgated comprehensive AML/CFT regulations for residential mortgage lenders and originators, as well as government-sponsored housing entities, covering 76% of the $43.4 trillion residential real estate market.

The remaining portion of the U.S. real estate market not subject to comprehensive AML/CFT regulation includes non-financed residential real estate transactions and certain commercial real estate transactions. We assess this segment makes up approximately $20 trillion. We are working to close this gap and considering rules to enhance transparency in the real estate sector.

Starting in 2016, FinCEN issued a Geographic Targeting Order, which was renewed multiple times, to impose reporting requirements for certain non-financed residential transactions and to better understand associated risks. In December 2021, FinCEN also published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on potential systemic solutions to address the illicit finance risks in the real estate sector, and is working diligently to issue a proposed rule this year for consideration and public comment.

The BSA requires banks and many parts of the financial sector to guard against illicit finance risks. However, corrupt actors continue to exploit vulnerabilities with a number of professions and sectors outside the scope of the BSA to launder their illicit proceeds. These include investment advisers, as well as lawyers, accountants, and other professionals. We are conducting risk assessments on each of these sectors and considering possible policy options.

In conjunction with these rulemakings and risk assessments, we are also prioritizing our upcoming mutual evaluation by the FATF, which is scheduled for finalization by 2026. It will reflect the state of our current AML/CFT system and its compliance with the FATF standards, as well as its overall systemic effectiveness.

Ultimately, as I noted previously, the U.S. has work to do on its own AML/CFT regimeawe're aware of this, openly acknowledge it, and believe we can accomplish that work.

Effectiveness and Why It Is Important

Now I'd like to take a step back and talk about the theory, and practice, of effectiveness because the real success of AML/CFT regimes is about more than identifying and plugging gaps. Our collective actions to detect, deter, and disrupt illicit finance depend upon having in place dynamic, practical, effective AML/CFT and targeted financial sanctions regimes. Effectiveness means that jurisdictions have legal, supervisory, and enforcement regimes that identify and prevent illicit finance from flowing through the financial systems; that financial institutions have programs in place that are well-designed to identify, report, and prevent illicit finance; and that resources are aligned both in governments and in financial institutions to address the highest risks. Effectiveness also means we specifically seek for, and find, financial crimes, not just build compliance systems.

What I'm describing requires both financial institutions and governments to put in place a truly risk-based approach. This is easier said than done.It is an area of tension for many countries, including the United States, where many financial institutions often say our regime is geared towards technical compliance, rather than being risk-based and outcomes-focused. Also, that risk-based approach invites the uncomfortable necessity of breaking us out of our traditional way of doing things to evolve more innovative and novel approaches.

In some ways, the regulation is the easy part (though I promise you it doesn't feel easy from within government). The next and much harder step is to get to a place where supervisors more fully recognize that financial institutions should have flexibility to utilize their resources appropriately to go after illicit financial risks. And to a place where financial institutions pro-actively put forward creative strategies to find and mitigate illicit activity.

One thing this all means is that governments need to actively encourage financial institutions to become "outcomes focused," and to embrace approaches that are in line with threats posed and technology available to counter them in the 21st century.

Even as TFI pursues its regulatory and sanctions agendas, I want you to know that we are engaging, with supervisors and with the private sector, on the long-term project of defining effectiveness, and incentivizing it.

Russia and Sanctions Evasion

I want to turn, now, to address the other dominant priority facing TFI and our nation's national security broadly. Since Russia's brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in 2022, an estimated 500,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died or been injured in the battlefield, 6.3 million Ukrainians have fled their country. The entire world, and especially the global south, has been subjected to higher and more volatile food prices, and households worldwide are suffering higher energy costs.

As President Biden said last month at the United Nations, the reason the United States and our G7 partners have taken a firm stand against Russia's action is that if we do not stand up to aggression today and deter other would-be aggressors, no country can feel that its sovereignty and territory are secure.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the U.S., with our G7 partners, has taken unprecedented action to curb Russia's ability to wage war. The U.S. has sanctioned over 2,500 Russia-related targets and over 80 percent of Russia's banking sector by assets. We have also worked with our international partners through the Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs (REPO) Task Force to block or freeze tens of billions of dollars' worth of sanctioned Russians' assets. And we have implemented a novel price cap on Russian oil and petroleum products, to deprive the Kremlin of the key source of revenue it uses to fund its war.

We know that these measures are working. President Putin himself and his Ministers have observed that our sanctions are having a significant impact on the Russian economy. Our targeting of Russia's financial sector and revenue generators are forcing tough choices as the government tries to spend its way out of crisis and burns through its fiscal buffers. We continue to see unsustainable redirection of state spending to Russia's security sector, at the cost of its civilian economy and future economic production or growth. This is due in large part to our coalition's campaign of sustained financial pressure.

At the same time, Russia and its proxies have adapted and continue to gain access to the international financial system to finance the Russian war machine and procure certain key parts and equipment. In the United States, the Departments of Justice, Commerce, and Treasury have publicly highlighted common methods by which Russian actors are able to evade sanctions. Methods that we have identified include the use of third-party intermediaries or transshipment points to circumvent restrictions, the disguised involvement of designated nationals, and other efforts designed to hide the types of dual use goods being shipped to an end point in Russia.

Treasury and our partners have, for months, focused on specific HS codes, or the Harmonized System codes, that identify controlled items traded across jurisdictions that are of key importance to Russia's war effort. The Department of Commerce has published a list of 45 of these priority codes on its website to assist institutions in identifying the potential shipment of dual use goods.

One point I want to emphasize about our Russia campaign is that we are not going to let up. On the contrary, there are many measures available to us to continue both combatting Russian attempts at circumvention and increasing the pressure generally. None of these steps are easyaand as always, we will take them deliberately, seeking to minimize any collateral harm that might occur to our own economic interests, those of our allies, and impacts on the global south. But no one should think that we are anywhere near the end of our energy or creativity on this problem set.

But more generally, and related to how I began today, what I want to leave you with is that is that the two areas of highest priority for my officeasanctions to advance the foreign policy goals of the U.S., and the strengthening of the U.S.'s own AML/CFT regimeaare deeply linked. While governments certainly play a role in enforcing sanctions evasion activity, financial institutions are essential to ensuring that they have their intended effect. Some of you will have noticed the enforcement action OFAC took against a Latvian bank this summer when a Latvian bank, dealing in dollars, processed transactions violating U.S. sanctions on Crimea. The Department of Justice also recently filed a criminal complaint against a Russian national for, among other charges, money laundering offenses through U.S. financial institutions. An effective, up-to-date AML regime will help institutions identify the money laundering that aids Russian efforts and exposes Kremlin-aligned funds, such as the $1 billion Treasury blocked in a Delaware-based trust last year.

Indeed, as our efforts focus on depriving Russia and its military industrial complex, effective AML/CFT and sanctions policy programs at financial institutions are central to the success of those efforts. It is vital that financial institutions put into place policies and systems to monitor, screen, and analyze trade and customs data to understand the underlying controlled goods their clients trade and correspondents facilitate. Failure to do so, and the continued siloing of AML/CFT and sanctions departments at some financial institutions, can lead to financial institutions unwittingly, or inadvertently, processing payments for controlled goods and involving designated entities.

Adopting a proactive approach with regards to this issue will ultimately allow financial institutions to identify Russian sanctions evasion and procurement activities involving sensitive goods that are of interest to the Russian military complex.

It is my hope that you all will keep in mind the issues I highlighted today as you continue today's discussion on anti-money laundering and other illicit finance issues.

It is our joint responsibility to actively ensure that the American and international financial systems are protected from abuse and exploitation.

To close, I would like to thank you for the invitation to speak today, for your efforts to make our financial systems safer, and for your dedication to this important work.

###

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On National Day, Xi calls for unity and protesters march overseas

State media showcase military claims on Taiwan as demonstrators in London tear up the Chinese flag.

By Siyan Cheung, Cheryl Tung, Amelia Loi and Jojo Man for RFA Cantonese, Gu Ting for RFA Mandarin. 2023.10.02 -- China marked National Day over the weekend with goose-stepping soldiers, calls for national unity and an army-produced anime film depicting 'unification' with the democratic island of Taiwan - as protesters against Communist Party rule took to the streets of cities around the world.

"Our future is bright, but the road ahead will not be smooth," President Xi Jinping told hundreds of guests at a dinner reception in the Great Hall of the People ahead of Sunday's anniversary.

"Unity is strength, and confidence is worth more than gold," he said, in comments that were carried on the front page of the People's Daily newspaper on Oct. 1, marking the 74th anniversary of Mao Zedong's proclaiming of the People's Republic from the rostrum of Tiananmen.

Meanwhile, in a cutesy anime film, the Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army hinted at the army's readiness to invade Taiwan. The movie depicted mythological characters yearning to reinhabit a famous landscape painting located in Taiwan.

"'Dreams Come True on the Fuchun River' ... incorporates elements such as aircraft carrier formations and J-20 fighter jets, highlighting the tremendous progress and ever-changing capabilities of the Chinese People's Liberation Army," the nationalistic Global Times tabloid reported about the film.

"It also demonstrates the PLA's firm determination to safeguard national sovereignty and security," the paper said.

London protests

In London, hundreds of people took to the streets over the weekend with banners supporting Uyghurs, Mongolians, Tibetans and Hong Kongers, with some shouting "Hong Kong is not China!" They marched from Trafalgar Square to the Chinese Embassy, where some protesters tore up a Chinese national flag, letting it get run over by passing traffic.

The U.S.-based Campaign for Uyghurs called on people around the world to peacefully protest in front of Chinese embassies and consulates, demanding an end to the atrocities committed against the Uyghur people, to mark China's National Day.

"China's National Day is not a day of celebration for the Uyghur people," the group's executive director Rushan Abbas said in a statement. "It is a painful reminder of the 74 years of suffering we have endured due to China's occupation of East Turkistan."

"By protesting peacefully in front of Chinese embassies and consulates around the world, we can collectively raise our voices and demand an immediate end to the genocidal policies and abuses against the Uyghur population."

Meanwhile, police in Hong Kong surrounded and detained a man holding a bunch of white mourning flowers outside the Sogo department store in Causeway Bay on Sunday, wearing the black colors of the 2019 protest movement and a banned slogan from the protests that read: "Go Hong Kong!"

The man was taken away and the area cordoned off by police, according to the City of Chaos Facebook page, which posted a video clip of the incident, while the authorities deployed around 7,000 police officers across the city, with the anti-terrorism squad and armored cars patrolling the busy pedestrian areas around Causeway Bay.

A Hong Kong protester in London who gave only the nickname Mavis for fear of reprisals said many people in Britain aren't aware of the differences between her home city and China, which has rolled back the city's promised freedoms in response to waves of popular pro-democracy movements, blaming interference by "hostile foreign forces."

'We have responsibilities'

A Hong Konger surnamed Ng said he goes to every Hong Kong protest, because he feels he has a responsibility.

"There are Hong Kong people wherever you go, and certain things need to be done," Ng said. "As regular citizens, we have responsibilities."

"If you care about a place, you will naturally want to do something to help it, and we still identify as Hong Kongers," he said. "Even here in the U.K., we will always feel like we will one day go back there."

A protester who gave only the initial J said he hails from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, but feels he has more in common with Hong Kongers than with Chinese Communist Party propaganda.

"After I got to the U.K., I decided to connect with some of my brothers from Hong Kong, because we have a common enemy in the Chinese Communist Party," J said. "They don't just deprive Hong Kongers of their freedoms, they harm the rest of the country, too."

Tokyo march

Similar protests were seen over the weekend in several British cities, while dozens of Uyghurs, Tibetans, Mongolians and Hong Kongers rallied outside the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo after marching through the downtown hub of Shibuya.

"We are strongly dissatisfied with the oppression of the Chinese Communist Party of the Chinese people and of all ethnic groups," a speaker said at the start of the march. "We want to make our voices heard today!"

"Give Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Hong Kong their freedom back!" chanted the protesters, who numbered nearly 100.

When the marchers arrived at the Chinese Embassy, Japanese police prevented more than five demonstrators from gathering outside at any time, sending them in to make their protests in groups by turn.

Sawut Muhammad, director of the Japan Uyghur Association, said Oct. 1 is a day of "national mourning" for Uyghurs, because their home country of East Turkestan was subsumed by the People's Republic of China on that day.

"Some people have raised the issue of Uyghur forced labor," he said. "Such products are also exported to Japan, and some products from Xinjiang can also be seen on sale in Japan."

"So at this time, we would like to strongly appeal to democratic countries, including Japan, to pay attention to the Uyghur issue, and even more attention to the issue of Uyghur forced labor," he said.

A protester from the southern province of Guangzhou who gave only the surname Chen said he had emigrated to Japan in recent years due to ever-widening authoritarian rule in China.

"China is becoming more and more authoritarian," he said. "If you say something online that the government doesn't want to hear, your account will be blocked and some netizens will report you."

'We have to stand up'

On the democratic island of Taiwan, Hong Kongers braved heavy rain to warn people of Beijing's attempts at influence and infiltration.

"Freedom and democracy collapsed in Hong Kong due to the infiltration of the Chinese Communist Party," Taiwan-based activist Fu Tong told Radio Free Asia. "We don't want other democratic countries to wind up like Hong Kong, so we have to stand up and tell everyone about our experience."

"Democratic freedoms are easily harmed, and need protecting," he said.

A Hong Konger who emigrated to Taiwan who gave only the initial A for fear of reprisals said Oct. 1 used to be a happy occasion for him, but since the 2019 protests and ensuing crackdown, he is reminded of how the city has changed.

"A lot of Hong Kongers turned out, despite the heavy rain," A said. "Some didn't show their faces, but stood at the back, keeping a low profile."

Some protesters flew banners emblazoned with a slogan now banned back home, "Free Hong Kong, Revolution Now!" while others brought along the yellow umbrellas symbolizing the pro-democracy movement.

Sky Fung, secretary-general of the Taiwan-based exile group Hong Kong Outlanders, said many more people were silent sympathizers.

"There were actually a lot of people all along the streets who silently took photos, [or who] showed their support," Fung said. "It means we are still holding onto our beliefs, and we won't give up until the day we achieve our goals."

One participant who gave only the pseudonym Lam said she had flown in specially from Hong Kong.

"I was standing nearby to show support, because you can't do something like this in Hong Kong any more," she said. "Only if you come here."

The rally ended with the singing of the banned protest anthem, "Glory to Hong Kong."

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Copyright 1998-2023, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content October not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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China's spy-handlers tried to 'turn' outspoken Hong Kong radio host

Edmund Wan, known as 'Giggs,' says Chinese state security police wanted him to set up a pro-China YouTube channel.

By Ching Fung for RFA Cantonese and Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin 2023.10.02 -- A former Hong Kong radio host jailed in an ongoing crackdown on public dissent was approached by Chinese state security police, who wanted him to return to broadcasting after his release, this time with a mandate to promote the Chinese Communist Party's agenda, he told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview.

Edmund Wan, known by his show host nickname "Giggs," said he was encouraged by the state security police officer to set up a YouTube channel "to tell good stories about China" after his release from a 32-month jail term for "sedition" and "money-laundering."

As a State Department report warned last week that Beijing is waging an "information war" to spread its propaganda online - Wan's account sheds light on the tactics that are used by Chinese authorities to recruit individuals on the ground.

"My interpretation is that Chinese state security were trying to co-opt me - to bring me onto their side," Wan, who moved to Canada following his release, told RFA Cantonese.

If he had accepted, Wan said he would likely have been expected to show Hong Kong as transitioning "from chaos to order," in the wake of the 2019 protest movement, and to sing the praises of a draconian security law banning public criticism of the authorities as a necessary step to restore stability in the city.

Pushing the party line on Hong Kong

And he wouldn't have been alone. YouTube and Facebook have a wide selection of people willing to create pro-Beijing content in return for the rewards they reap from those platforms.

"They don't pass up any opportunity," Wan said. "If you are willing to turn, they will probably welcome you."

"They can significantly reduce their costs by picking up ready-made weapons from the free world," said Wan, who was jailed in September 2022 after pleading guilty to one charge of "seditious intent" over comments he made during online radio shows he hosted from August to October 2020, and three charges of "money-laundering" linked to his crowd-funding transactions.

The Taiwan-based pro-democracy think tank Doublethink Lab said in a recent report titled "Whitewashing Hong Kong" that most pro-Beijing propaganda targeting Hong Kong revolves around a handful of set phrases and narratives, including blaming "traitors and saboteurs" for any opposition to the government, using "law and order" to justify the crackdown on free speech and attacking alleged foreign interference and "Western hegemony" that the government says is behind popular support for democracy.

In an analysis of more than 5,700 pro-China posts on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, the report concluded that there are large numbers of active accounts that cooperate with state media, including those run by online influencers and celebrities, to keep churning out the party line on Hong Kong.

Most of the tweets were posted during office hours in Beijing, the report said.

'Vigilance is really needed'

Taiwanese national security researcher Shih Chien-yu said China is now pulling out all the stops to counter a wave of increasingly negative coverage in the Western media, and that its efforts are gaining international traction, particularly among people of Chinese descent overseas.

"Not all Chinese overseas can understand what's being reported in English," Shih said. "It's likely to be somewhat effective, because social media emphasizes interaction."

"In the long term, [such tactics] could make people forget about the re-education camps, the forced labor, about the people being persecuted, and about the 2019 protest movement in Hong Kong," he said. "So vigilance is really needed."

Exiled former pro-democracy lawmaker Ted Hui said he once had a microphone snatched from his hand at a Hong Kong demonstration in Australia by a person of Chinese descent who hailed from Malaysia.

"I believe that such people have mostly been brainwashed by the Chinese Communist Party's online tools, and so they hate those who fight for freedom and democracy in Hong Kong," Hui said in a recent interview.

"The United Front [outreach and influence operation] has been successful in isolating local Hong Kong movements and communities."

Current affairs commentator Sang Pu said Beijing has allocated "substantial" resources to infiltrating overseas social media platforms, often starting out with groups formed to discuss innocent-looking topics like food, music and fashion, but which then start drip-feeding Beijing's propaganda message to unwary participants.

"This is a growing problem I have observed," he said, suggesting that people avoid Chinese platforms like Tik Tok, WeChat and Weibo, and seek out news penned by exiled Hong Kongers instead.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

Copyright 1998-2023, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content October not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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Seoul Says N. Korea Will Never Be Officially Recognized as Nuclear-Weapon State

Sputnik News

20231002

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - North Korea will never be officially recognized as a nuclear-weapon state, with international sanctions expanding against Pyongyang if it continues to pursue nuclear arms, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

Earlier in the week, North Korean state-run news agency KCNA reported, citing Choe Ryong Hae, the chairman of the Standing Committee of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, that North Korea develops nuclear weapons to guarantee the country's rights to existence and development, deter war and protect peace and stability in the region.

"The international community clearly bans North Korea's nuclear and missile development and provocations ... Regardless of North Korea's actions and claims, its possession of nuclear weapons will never be recognized, and the sanctions of the international community will further deepen," the South Korean ministry was quoted by news agency Yonhap as saying in a statement.

Since North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006, the UN Security Council has passed a number of resolutions imposing sanctions against Pyongyang over the development of its nuclear program. The restrictive measures include an embargo on arms supplies to the country, bans or limits on North Korea's exports of coal, oil, rare earth materials, as well as sanctions on the financial sector.

A Sputnik

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A recently adopted policing strategy in Buffalo has helped make a significant dent in levels of gun violence, according to a new analysis of Buffalo Police Department data.

Two SUNY Buffalo State researchers credit the departments data-driven focus on micro hot spots  having officers patrol on foot and interact with community members in areas of recent shootings and shots fired incidents  with at least being part of the reason for a reduction in shootings.

Gun violence starts to drop as Buffalo police target 'micro hot spots' The police aren't there to ticket drivers and arrest people, although they can if they see a crime in progress or a traffic violation. But that's not the point.

Since the department informally implemented the plan in July 2021, and then formally enacted it in March of last year, gun homicides have dropped about 51%, and non-gang shootings dropped about 23%, according to an analysis by Scott W. Phillips and Dae-Young Kim of Buffalo States criminal justice department.

It is reasonable to assert that the (micro hot spot) program in Buffalo strongly contributed to a decrease in gun violence after its implementation, the authors wrote.

There was a drop in gang-related shootings, but the programs effects are not statistically significant, researchers found.

Gunning for the guns: Police cracking down in Buffalo to reduce shootings They are going after the "trigger pullers and the gun traffickers," Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said.

The decrease in gun-involved homicides can be seen in the drop in overall homicides in Buffalo this year, compared to the last three years. Through Saturday, there were 34 total homicides so far this year in the city, according to the department.

Through the end of September the last three years, that figure had already eclipsed 50: 57 in the first nine months of last year; 55 for that period in 2021 and 51 in 2020.

Buffalo police officials say the hot spot initiative is not aimed at making arrests or ticketing drivers, but at acting as a physical deterrent. The program breaks the city into a grid, tracks shootings and incidents of gunfire without reported injury and directs officers to 500-foot-by-500-foot squares with the greatest amount of activity. Officers go to the hot spots throughout the day, and are expected to spend between 10 and 15 minutes at each location.

Buffalo is among other cities around the country also seeing a drop in homicides.

An analysis of crime data from 37 U.S. cities from the first six months of this year by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, found the rates for 10 types of crime were either lower or had changed little compared to the same period in 2022. Levels of violent crimes in those cities remained higher than in 2019, though homicides in the 30 cities that provided homicide data dipped about 9% the first half of this year, compared to the same period last year.

Policing based on hot spots is not without its critics, who say the strategy leads to disproportionate tickets and arrests in poor communities of color.

The drop in gun violence in the city began before Buffalo police implemented the program, the researchers wrote, making it difficult to determine what might have occurred in the absence of the program.

Researchers looked at data from January 2018 to May of this year, comparing the time before and after July 2021, taking into consideration the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Of the 34 homicides through Saturday, 24 were shootings, eight were stabbings, one was due to strangulation and another was a fatal beating, Police Commissioner Joseph A. Gramaglia said.

Its very difficult to prevent these stabbing homicides, domestic-related homicides, things of that nature, Gramaglia said, but we can certainly impact our shootings, and weve been doing that successfully this year.

So far this year, Buffalo police have cleared 23 homicides, which includes killings that happened this year and prior years, and the department expects several more cases to be cleared in the very near future, he said. That gives the department at 68% clearance rate for homicides this year.

The department has made it a point to engage with the community, and detectives are receiving more cooperation from the public, the commissioner said.

There has also been some restructuring within the detective division, which has helped get more cases across the goal line, he said. The drop in shootings and homicides also has allowed detectives to spend more time on existing cases.

In terms of the hot spot program, researchers said they could not determine, based on the available data, whether any specific types of actions employed by the officers at the hot spots had more influence on the outcome.
CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF OF INDIAN ARMY TO STRENGTHEN DEFENCE COOPERATION WITH VISIT TO TANZANIA

India - Press Information Bureau

Ministry of Defence

Posted On: 02 OCT 2023 1:21PM by PIB Delhi

General Manoj Pande, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) of the Indian Army embarks on an official visit to Tanzania from 2nd to 5th October 2023, reinforcing the long-standing defence ties between the two countries.

The COAS is scheduled to visit Dar es Salaam, the Tanzanian capital, the historical city of Zanzibar, and Arusha. He will engage in discussions and meetings with a host of dignitaries and senior officers from Tanzania. During his visit, the COAS is likely to call on the Hon'ble President of the Union Republic of Tanzania Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan.

High on the agenda are the planned meetings with Hon'ble Defence Minister Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax and the Chief of Defence Force General Jacob John Mkunda. The COAS will also be visiting Zanzibar and call on Hon'ble President of Zanzibar His Excellency Dr. Hussein Ali Mwinyi. In addition, interaction with the Commander of the 101st Infantry Brigade General Saidi Hamisi Saidi is also scheduled.

General Manoj Pande will also be addressing the National Defence College and interacting with Major General Wilbert Augustine Ibuge Commandant and the faculty. Additionally, a meeting with Brigadier General Stephen Justice Mnkande, Commandant of the Command and Staff College, Duluti is also planned during the visit.

The visit also coincides with the 2nd India Tanzania Mini DEFEXPO being conducted at Dar-es-Salaam which will showcase the growing prowess of the Indigenous defence industry complex of India.

The bilateral defence relationship between India and Tanzania has been robust and thriving. The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation in October 2003 laid a strong foundation. This cooperation was further underscored by the second meeting of the India-Tanzania Joint Defence Cooperation Committee held in Arusha, Tanzania on 28th and 29th June this year.

Both the Indian and Tanzanian Army offer vacancies for each other in professional military courses. This has helped the personnel from both countries build strong bonds, exchange ideas and share best practices. The Tanzanian Army has been consistently participating in the UN Peacekeeping training in India over the last five years. Similarly, a Training Team of the Indian Army has been deployed at Command and Staff College, Duluti since year 2017.

Tanzanian military delegations have been regularly visiting India symbolising the deep military cooperation between both countries. In the recent past, Tanzanian delegations made a notable presence at Aero India 23, Indo Africa Army Chiefs Conclave-23 and AFINDEX-23. Senior military leaders from Tanzania also visited India during Def Expo 22 and recently concluded the 13th IPACC, 47th IPAMS and 9th SELF 23.

This visit of the COAS further consolidates the high-level bilateral defence engagements and close defence ties shared between India and Tanzania. The visit promises to not just celebrate the existing collaborations but also pave the way for a stronger future partnership.

*****

SC,RSS, GKA



(Release ID: 1963166)

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Top Iranian commanders stress 'unity' within armed forces

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Oct 2, 2023

Tehran, IRNA -- Senior commanders from the Iranian Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) have underscored the importance of unity between the two pillars of Iran's armed forces as "a source of hope" for the Supreme Leader and the entire nation.

The meeting, called "The Glory of Unity", was held in Tehran to mark the end of the Sacred Defense Week, which is celebrated annually in honor of martyrs and war veterans of the Iraqi-imposed war on the Islamic Republic in 1980-88.

Speaking at the event, Major General Hossein Salami, chief commander of the IRGC, described the Sacred Defense as the glorious inception of the Iranian nation's resistance against the "coalition" of the global arrogance.

"Through the struggle, sacrifice, and selflessness of the children of this land during the eight years of Sacred Defense, an eternal epic was marked in the history of Islam," he stated.

Salami considered the solidarity, camaraderie, and brotherhood between the Army and the IRGC as a source of hope for Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and the Iranian nation, and a source of disappointment for the enemies.

He said this unity and brotherhood within the Iranian Armed Forces is the result of the sacrifices of those who valiantly defended the country during the Sacred Defense.

Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, the chief commander of Iran's Army, also addressed the gathering, emphasizing that the unity between the Army and the IRGC is at its peak under the command of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution.

Iraq, under former dictator Saddam Hussein, launched a war against Iran a little more than one and a half years after the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which toppled the US-backed Pahlavi regime.

Iraq was fully supported, both militarily and logistically, by the United States and its allies.

4353**2050

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Iran says adheres to diplomatic process to revive JCPOA

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Oct 2, 2023

Tehran, IRNA -- Iran has repeatedly stated that it adheres to the process of negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, says Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani.

Speaking at a presser on Monday, Kanaani said Tehran regards the negotiation process as a suitable path to revive the deal, also called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was unilaterally ditched by the United States in 2018.

"We have stated many times that we adhere to the process of negotiations for a responsible return of all parties to the JCPOA," he said.

He further noted that Tehran has been engaged in indirect talks with Washington and that some friendly countries have also offered their initiatives to bring the parties' views closer to each other.

"The agreement in our mind is the JCPOA of 2015, under which Iran fulfilled its commitments, but unfortunately, Europe and the United States turned their backs and the United States unilaterally withdrew from it," said Kanaani.

He also referred to Oman's initiative to bring the parities' views closer to one another and return all parties to their commitments, saying Iran welcomes the good-faith efforts of friendly countries in this regard.

"If the other side has the will to responsibly return to the JCPOA, Iran is also ready to help in this direction, and we adhere to the diplomatic process for an agreement," the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

He hastened to add, "At the same time, we do not tie our diplomatic efforts to the JCPOA and an agreement (to revive it), but we will also follow the path of neutralization of sanctions."

Visit of Armenian security official to Iran

Elsewhere in his remarks, the spokesman referred to the recent visit of the secretary of the National Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan to Iran and said such a visit took place in line with the continuation of talks and contacts between the two neighboring countries to review the bilateral relations and the developments in the Caucasus region.

Kanaani noted that such a visit was an opportunity for the Islamic Republic to express its viewpoints about the solution for solving the conflicts in the Caucasus region through regional potentials.

As the spokesman underlined, the Islamic Republic attaches importance to the conditions of Caucasus and of course the entire region, and the visit of the Armenian official to Iran took place to discuss those conditions.

He went on to say that Tehran welcomes the removal of conflicts between Baku and Yerevan, stressing that Iran is against any change in the international and geopolitical borders.

On the latest remarks made by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian about the Zangezur corridor, he said the Islamic Republic is after the development of the transportation networks which will secure the benefits of all regional countries; meanwhile, the country is against changes in the international borders.

About the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Kanaani said Iran supports full return of this occupied region to Azerbaijan.

Iran is ready to carry out whatever it can to solve the issue of Caucasus, he added.

Asked about Iran's plan for taking humanitarian measures towards Armenians who have forcibly moved from the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the spokesman answered that the details about such a plan will be released by the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

An official from the Republic of Azerbaijan is set to visit Iran, Kanaani said, adding that the exact date of the visit will be announced in due course.

He also said that in addition to the planned visit, bilateral discussions are currently underway on a range of issues, noting that key among these is the resumption of operations at the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran and the developments in the Caucasus region.

Iran-Iraq security agreement

As to a security agreement between Iran and Iraq, Kanaani noted that in accordance with the security agreement the Iraqi authorities and the local government in the Kurdistan region of Iraq are expected to meet Iran's concerns regarding the presence of terrorist groups in the northern region via disarming and relocating them to arranged positions within six months.

The deadline came to an end on September 19, he argued, adding that on the basis of Iran's assessment, certain provisions of the agreement have been implemented while others still should be carried out.

The spokesman also said that an Iranian delegation visited Iraq to conduct a field investigation into the implementation of the security agreement and that the Iraqi authorities cooperated with the Iranian representatives very properly.

A precise assessment of the issue will be shared with the Iraqi side following the presentation of the field investigation report by the Iranian supervisory committee, he added.

In the discussions between the Iranian and the Iraqi sides, both Baghdad authorities and the officials in the Kurdistan region of Iraq emphasized that they are obligated to implement the security agreement, Kanaani said.

The Iraqis stated that a great number of the headquarters of terrorist groups have been evacuated and the terrorists have been disarmed and moved into the depths of Iraqi territory; moreover, some of their hideouts have been completely demolished, while the rest of headquarters are set to be destroyed, he added.

According to the spokesman, in anticipation of the implementation of the security agreement, Iran and Iraq continue communication and cooperation, and the Islamic Republic has time and again underscored it knows no boundary in securing the country's borders.

Relations with Arab countries

In his remarks, the spokesman elaborated on why the foreign ministerial meeting between the Persian Gulf littoral states was not held in New York on the sidelines of the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 18 to 26, the spokesman said although Iran had welcomed such a meeting and there was a public welcome, it was not held due to some political conflicts between two or more littoral countries in the Persian Gulf region.

About the situation of relations between Iran and Jordan, Kanaani said the foreign ministers of the two countries did meet in New York and agree to take steps towards upgrading the level of diplomatic ties.

About the resumption of relations between Iran and Djibouti and Maldives, the spokesman said positive steps have been taken towards the Islamic Republic and the two mentioned states after release of joint statement on the issue.

Kanaani, elsewhere, talked of the latest situation of relations between Iran and Sudan, saying that the country is willing to resume relations with Sudan and there is a positive viewpoint from Khartoum on the issue.

Iran's relations with Sudan is promising, the spokesman further noted.

Release of nationals jailed abroad

Asked about the continuation of the exchange of prisoners with the United States, Kanaani said there is no plan for the exchange of prisoners between the two countries now, but the issue of pursuing the release of Iranian prisoners in different countries, including the US, is high on the agenda of the Iranian administration.

"We follow this issue in the form of our consular support for Iranian nationals," he said, adding that releasing Iranian nationals who have been imprisoned on trumped-up political charges in Western countries is among Iran's priorities.

The issue was raised by Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian with the officials of European countries on the sidelines of the latest summit of the United Nations General Assembly, he remarked.

On media speculations about Iran's accession to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Kanaani said he was not awarewhether Iran had such a plan, but added that the country has certain mechanisms for financial transparency.

Illegal US presence in Syria

Elsewhere during the presser, the spokesman clarified Iran's position on the presence of American forces in Syria, saying the US government cannot be in the Arab country without the permission of the Syrian government.

"This is regarded as a violation of the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of Syria," he pointed out.

He further condemned US actions in Syria, which he said suggested that Washington pursues the disintegration of the war-torn country. "They must end their illegal presence in Syria," he added.

US-Iran policy

On the annual report of the United States regarding weapons of mass destruction and allegations against Iran, Kanaani said that such accusations are totally unfounded and that Iran is a loyal member state of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which signed the Additional Protocol agreement in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and it is implementing it. According to the spokesman, Iran has time and again announced that nuclear weapons are not included in its military doctrine; so, it considers the usage of such weapons of mass destruction unacceptable.

We categorically reject the annual report of the US and consider it as invalid, he noted, arguing that the secretariat of the IAEA is the only authorized organization responsible for reviewing the membership of member states; so, the United States does not have the authority to evaluate the compliance of other nations.

In contradiction with the groundless anti-Iran allegations leveled by the United States, it is the US administration that deserves condemnation for setting up illegal laboratories around the globe and it should be held accountable to the international community, the spokesman said, adding that the United States resorts to blame game in a bid to accuse Iran fallaciously.

As to direct talks with the United States, Kanaani stated that we deny holding any direct negotiations with the Americans.

He also said that Iran will not cede its rights to return the Achaemenid tablets from the United States to the Islamic country.

The spokesman also mentioned that the Iranian administration returned a part of the collection of the Achaemenid tablets at the end of President Ebrahim Raisi's visit to New York and that the tablets were part of a collection that was at the University of Chicago.

He went on to say that fortunately, the exemption permission for the shipment of the Iranian properties has been obtained so far and that 17,000 other tablets are still in possession of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago; so, negotiations are underway for their return. Iran would not stop efforts in this respect, and it pursues proper agendas to complete the process.

Quran desecration in Sweden

Regarding the recurring desecration of the Holy Quran in Sweden, Kanaani said Amirabdollahian raised the issue, including the expectations of the Muslim world from the Swedish government, in a recent meeting with his Swedish counterpart in New York.

The foreign minister also noted that the Swedish government is responsible for preventing insults to the Quran and the values of two billion Muslims, he added.

Visa cancellation with Saudi Arabia

Asked about visa cancellation plans with Saudi Arabia, the spokesman said the Foreign Ministry is examining plans for cancellation of visas with some countries, including Saudi Arabia.

"There are several plans and ideas, and meetings have been held with relevant organizations," he said.

Positive developments in Iran-Egypt ties

Kanani further pointed to the Iran-Egypt relationship, saying that as a result of the positive developments in the region, we have also witnessed positive developments concerning the relations between Iran and Egypt, including the talks between the two countries and a meeting between their foreign ministers in New York on the sidelines of the 78th UN General Assembly.

He expressed hope that complementary steps would pave the ground for establishing a new atmosphere between Tehran and Cairo.

The spokesman also referred to allegations about connections between some US officials and Iran's Foreign Ministry concerning the JCPOA, arguing that we are not keen on commenting on internal affairs of the US and the competition underway among American parties because it can pave the way for some people to play with Iran card; thus, we leave the issue to the US parties.

4354**1483**4208**7129

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Iran Army's drone power can respond to any threats from enemies: Top commander

Iran Press TV

Monday, 02 October 2023 3:25 PM

A senior Iranian Army commander says the country's drone power has advanced to a level that can counter any threats posed by the enemies.

Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, the deputy chief of the Iranian Army for Coordination, made the remarks on Monday ahead of a large-scale joint exercise involving drones from Iranian Army's four units of Ground Force, Navy, Air Force and Air Defense Force across large parts of central and southern Iran.

Sayyari, who is also the commander of the joint drone exercise, said the drill would be conducted in more than half of Iran's geography and in the northern part of the Indian Ocean, stressing that part of the drone power of the Army's four units will be evaluated in the large-scale war game.

"We use reconnaissance, combat, kamikaze drones and drones that can carry missiles, bombs and electronic warfare equipment [in the joint drill]. Our goal is to evaluate the precision of our drones, the skills of our pilots and the power of our shots," the Iranian commander said.

Stressing that one of the main goals of the exercise is to improve the country's drone capability to deal with potential threats, Sayyari said testing of all domestically-manufactured drones, evaluation of ammunition, the magnitude of fire and explosion as well as exchange of experience are among the other goals of the drill.

The deputy chief of the Iranian Army for Coordination said the type of battles has changed in recent years and drones have a very high place in modern battles.

Underlining that production of drones has made sharp progress over the past years, he said Iran, by using the expertise of its youth in knowledge-based companies and the Army, has put the production of all kinds of drones on the agenda and managed to achieve valuable results.

"Our drone power is very high and we can count on it and it will bring us success in any operation," Sayyari said, adding, "The drone power of the country's Army and Armed Forces is among the top drone powers in the region. The combat power of our country's Armed Forces has reached a position that can respond to any threats on land, sea and air by using the drone power."

Last month, the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces said demand for the purchase of Iran's homegrown sophisticated drones is much greater than the country's production, stressing that Iran has turned into a "big drone power" that is outperforming major world powers.

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, and that Iran's defense capabilities will be never open for negotiations.

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Iran says supports expansion of regional transportation routes

Iran Press TV

Monday, 02 October 2023 11:35 AM

Iran has expressed its support for the expansion of transportation routes in the region, but reiterated the Islamic Republic's opposition to any geopolitical changes.

"We support the expansion of transit routes and transportation networks in a way that serves the interests of all regional countries, but at the same time we emphasize that we oppose any change to international borders," Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani said Monday.

His remarks came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that Iran was warming up to a joint Turkish-Azerbaijani plans to set up a transport corridor connecting Turkey to Azerbaijan via Armenia.

The so-called Zangezur corridor aims to connect the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, bordering Turkey, to mainland Azerbaijan through the southern Armenian province of Syunik. Armenia opposes the plans on the grounds that it would violate its sovereignty.

"If Armenia does not pave the way for the corridor, where will it pass through? It will pass through Iran," Erdogan said. "Iran currently considers this positively. So, it would be possible to pass from Iran to Azerbaijan," the Turkish leader claimed.

Iran has in the past opposed the plan on the grounds that it would cut off the transport routes connecting its territories to Armenia. Without elaborating on the nature of the positive signals allegedly coming out of the country, Erdogan said, "It is pleasing to see positive signals from Iran on this issue."

On Monday, Kan'ani expressed Tehran's support for resolving the disputes in the Caucasus region through political means.

"We believe differences in the Caucasus can be resolved via political dialogue and regional capacities," he said.

The spokesman stressed that Tehran is against any extra-regional intervention and foreign presence in the Caucasus.

He noted that Iran supports regional dialogue within the framework of the 3+3 format cooperation mechanism, expressing Tehran's readiness to help find a solution to the conflict.

The 3+3 format cooperation mechanism features the three South Caucasus countries of Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan plus Russia, Turkey, and Iran.

Kan'ani further said that the visit of Armen Grigoryan, the secretary of the National Security Council of Armenia, to Tehran on Sunday aimed to discuss bilateral ties and the latest developments in Caucasus.

Azerbaijan official to arrive in Iran

Kan'ani said an Azerbaijani official will travel to Iran, adding that the exact date of the trip will be announced later.

He noted that the visit will discuss the regional developments as well as the re-opening of Azerbaijan's embassy in Iran.

"We hope to see the resumption of operations of the embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Tehran soon."

Azerbaijan's relations with Iran were strained in January following an attack on the Eurasian country's embassy in Tehran.

Azerbaijan closed its diplomatic mission following the incident and evacuated staff over what it called a "terrorist act," with President Ilham Aliyev blaming it on the "Iranian establishment."

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Iraqi president raps 'violations' after Turkish airstrikes in Kurdistan region

Iran Press TV

Monday, 02 October 2023 10:40 AM

Turkey has carried out an "air operation" in northern Iraq following a blast in the Turkish capital, with Iraqi President Abdul-Latif Rashid saying Baghdad rejects repeated airstrikes or the presence of Turkish bases in its Kurdistan region.

Turkey said on Sunday it carried out airstrikes in northern Iraq that destroyed 20 targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after the militant group said it orchestrated the first bomb attack in Ankara in years.

Turkey regards the PKK as a terrorist group and regularly carries out airstrikes in northern Iraq. Turkey has also sent commandos and set up military bases on Iraqi territory to support its offensives.

"These violations are rejected by the Iraqi people, the (Kurdistan) region and all of Iraq's inhabitants," Rashid said in an interview with Saudi broadcaster al-Hadath, aired on Monday.

Such strikes sometimes killed civilians, including people visiting the region who "become victims of Turkish bombing", he added.

Rashid said Baghdad hoped to come to an agreement with Ankara to resolve the issue in a manner similar to a security agreement Baghdad has inked with Tehran to deal with anti-Iran separatist groups in the Kurdistan region.

Turkey's airstrikes in northern Iraq took place just hours after a bombing attack on the Turkish interior ministry in Ankara.

They targeted caves, depots and bunkers used as hideouts by the PKK in the Hakurk, Metina, Qandil and Gara regions, Turkish officials said.

Iraq's foreign ministry condemned the "terrorist explosion" in Ankara that happened shortly before parliament was due to reconvene after a summer break.

The PKK has carried out numerous operations against the Turkish government, calling for a Kurdish state within Turkey where it is blamed for the deaths of over 40,000 people.

The group back-pedaled on its secessionist demands in the 1990s, calling instead on Ankara to give the people in Kurdish-dominated regions of Turkey more autonomy.

The conflict between the two sides flared up again after a two-year-old ceasefire ended in July 2015.

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Turkiye Calls Anti-PKK Air Operations in North Iraq Successful

Sputnik News

20231002

ANKARA (Sputnik) - The Turkish presidential office has called the air operations carried out by the country's armed forces in northern Iraq against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), banned in Turkiye, successful, the head of the Turkish presidential Communications Directorate, Fahrettin Altun, said.

"The successful overnight air operations carried out by our heroic army against a separatist terrorist organization in northern Iraq have become an important indicator that we will continue to prevent terrorism not only inside our country, but also outside it. Thanks to these operations, the terrorist organization received another strong blow," Altun said on X (previously known as Twitter) on Sunday.

On Sunday, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said that two terrorists had carried out an explosion near a ministry building in Ankara. Two police officers were wounded. Turkish newspaper media reported later, citing the interior ministry, that one of the attackers had been identified as a PKK member. Later on Sunday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said that the country's military conducted air strikes against the PKK in northern Iraq and destroyed 20 targets.

More Active and Touher Operations Against Kurdistan Workers' Party

Military operations of the Turkish armed forces in northern Iraq and Syria against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is banned in the country, will take on a more active and tough character after the attempted terrorist attack in Ankara, a source in the Turkish presidential administration told Sputnik.

On Sunday, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said that two terrorists had carried out an explosion near the ministry building in the Turkish capital, with one terrorist detonating himself and the other neutralized. Two police officers were wounded. Turkish media reported later that the PKK claimed responsibility for the attack. Later on Sunday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said that the country's military conducted air strikes against objects of the PKK in northern Iraq.

"Yesterday, speaking in the country's parliament, Mr. President [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] warned that our fight will continue until the last terrorist and these pathetic attempts [of terrorist attacks] are their last breaths. The military operations of our heroic soldiers will become more active and tough. Turkiye will not become a hostage to terrorists," the source said.

The armed conflict between the PKK and Turkiye began in 1984 and renewed in 2015. The organization, which seeks the creation of an independent Kurdish state, including on the Turkish territory, has established bases in Iraqi and Syrian territories close to the Turkish border, where the Turkish armed forces have been targeting them in land and air strikes.

A Sputnik

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Myanmar junta seeks to wipe out headquarters of Kachin rebel group

Fierce fighting has been moving from northern Sagaing region to adjacent Kachin state.

By RFA Burmese 2023.10.02 -- The Myanmar junta is going all out with its air and ground forces to wipe out the headquarters of ethnic Kachin rebels in northern Kachin state, eliminating a lifeline of support for anti-regime militias in neighboring Sagaing region, political and military analysts said.

A fierce battle broke out between military troops and Kachin Independence Army forces on Monday near the Lai Lum Awng Jar base camp in Kachin's Momauk township, said Col. Naw Bu, the group's information officer. Between 50 and 100 junta soldiers have been trapped by KIA forces inside the camp for more than two months, he said.

The junta launched three air strikes while some of its troops who tried to rescue them were intercepted by the KIA along the route.

Fierce fighting between junta troops and joint KIA and local People's Defense Forces - ordinary citizens who have taken up arms against the junta - in the upper townships of adjacent Sagaing region earlier this year began moving in July towards the KIA's headquarters in Laiza, a remote mountainous town in Kachin state that lies on the border with China, area residents and KIA members said.

Since then, the junta's 1,000-strong force has been attacking Nam Sam Yang village in Waingmaw township near Laiza, while the KIA and some soldiers from the Arakan Army, another ethnic armed group, have jointly defended it, they said.

There also has been three months of intense and continuous fighting along the Myitkyina-Bhamo road as the junta tried to gain control of the major cities of Hpakant, Bhamo and Myitkyina in Kachin state, Naw Bu said.

"The junta even launched air strikes," he said. "That's how intense the military situation is."

"They have reinforced their troops to try to control Hpakant, Myitkyina and Bhamo cities," he added. "That's why their troops have reduced strength in Sagaing region, and fighting there has decreased as well."

Hotbed of resistance

Up to now, areas of northern Sagaing bordering Kachin have been a hotbed of armed resistance since the military seized power from the democratically elected government in a February 2021 coup.

Nine military junta warships loaded with weapons and food supplies, which sailed up from Mandalay along the Ayeyarwady River, arrived in Bhamo on Aug. 19 to reinforce the military base along the Myitkyina-Bhamo road near Laiza, according to local and KIA sources who declined to be named for safety reasons.

When the junta columns could not move forward after intercepting KIA forces burned their vehicles and destroyed their supplies, the junta launched air strikes, they said.

More than 1,000 residents displaced by the fighting have taken refuge in monasteries and Christian churches in Momauk and Bhamo, said a Bhamo local.

Over 80 battles have occurred in the vicinity of Bhamo, Hpakant, Tanai, Shwegu, Momauk, Waingmaw and at the KIA's Laiza headquarters between July 23 to Sept. 11, during which junta forces conducted more than 20 air strikes, Naw Bu said.

During these battles, 51 junta soldiers were killed and 106 were injured, he said, though he did not disclose the number of KIA casualties.

Win Ye Tun, the junta's social affairs minister and Kachin state spokesman, said he did not know details about the fighting.

Junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun could not be reached for comment.

'Cut it from the roots'

Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the pro-military Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, said the military is targeting KIA headquarters in Laiza because it wants to eliminate the supply source for armed opposition in the region.

"As long as you cannot control the sources of supply for your enemies, you won't be able to control what is happening on the front," he said. "This means that if you only cut the branches without cutting the root sources, it will not be enough to kill a tree. To cut down a tree, you need to cut it from the roots."

"Because Laiza is a major source of supplies for the resistance groups, the military's major aim is to wipe it out so that at least its supply lines of personnel and weapons can be eradicated," he said.

The military junta is trying to wipe out Laiza, so it can control the upper part of Sagaing region, said a political and military analyst on condition of anonymity so he could speak freely.

"Since the junta has suffered the loss of many territories especially in Sagaing region, it is attacking Laiza in Kachin state to strategically control and cut the source of supplies for the revolutionary forces becoming stronger in Sagaing region."

Junta troops have been attacking the Laiza headquarters with a much larger force than before, while the KIA is strongly resisting them to prevent the regime from achieving its goal, he added.

With junta soldiers stepping up fighting in Kachin state, the number of attacks in the upper Sagaing region, such as Indaw, Tigyaing, Katha and Banmauk townships, has decreased, local defense forces said.

The junta's Light Infantry Battalions 416, 309, 301 and 416 used to be stationed in Indaw township and would raid villages, but now only the 77th battalion is there, said the information officer of Indaw Revolution, a defense team in Sagaing region, as troops appear to be headed to Hpakant for reinforcement.

More than 80 battles have been fought in Indaw township, and more than 20 civilians have been killed by junta soldiers since the 2021 coup, said the information officer, who declined to identify himself by name for safety reasons.

Similarly, KIA-PDF joint forces have fought more than 100 battles with junta troops in Katha township, resulting in the deaths of over 80 civilians and the burning of more than 900 houses, according to an official of the Katha township People's Defense Force.

RFA could not independently confirm the death toll figures.

More than 24,000 civilians have fled to safety due to the fighting in Kachin state since the coup, according to a statement issued on Monday by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Translated by Myo Min Aung for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

Copyright 1998-2023, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content October not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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Complaint targets 'illegal' Indonesian arms sales to Burma

Marzuki Darusman, a former attorney general and ex-head of a UN fact-finding mission, is among the plaintiffs.

Tria Dianti and Arie Firdaus for BenarNews 2023.10.02 -- Three Indonesian state-owned weapons manufacturers broke the law by selling arms to Myanmar's military, a former Indonesia attorney general and activists alleged in a complaint filed Monday with the National Commission on Human Rights.

The plaintiffs, chief among them Marzuki Darusman - the ex-attorney general who had also chaired a United Nations fact-finding mission on Myanmar - are accusing the firms PT Pindad, PT PAL and PT Dirgantara Indonesia of having sold weapons and hardware to the Burmese military over the last decade, including possibly after the February 2021 coup.

The "illegal sales" consisted of assault rifles, handguns, ammunition, combat vehicles and other equipment, the complaint said, according to report by BenarNews, an online news service affiliated with Radio Free Asia.

"The fact that defense equipment has been actively promoted after the genocidal campaign against the Rohingya and the 2021 coup is cause for serious concern and casts doubt on the Indonesian government's willingness to comply with its obligations under international human rights law and humanitarian law," Marzuki said in a statement.

Marzuki and the other plaintiffs came out with the allegations while the government of Indonesia still holds the rotating chair of ASEAN for 2023. The administration of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has been vocal in criticizing the Burmese junta for its role in the post-coup violence but the Southeast Asian bloc has been widely criticized in turn for failing to stop the bloodshed in Myanmar.

While chairing the U.N. fact-finding mission on Myanmar, in August 2019 Marzuki and his team called for an arms sales embargo against Naypyidaw. More than a dozen foreign companies, including state-owned companies in China, had been supplying weapons and other equipment used by the Myanmar military against ethnic minorities, the team reported that month.

Company linked to junta

Joining Marzuki in the complaint lodged with the Indonesian human rights commission, Komnas HAM, on Monday were Salai Za Uk Ling, leader of the Chin Human Rights Organization, and the Myanmar Accountability Project, an international human rights group.

They cited open-source evidence and media reports indicating the Indonesian companies have transferred weapons and ammunition through True North Co. Ltd., a Myanmar-based company owned by the son of a junta-appointed minister.

The role of True North as a private company negotiating deals between Myanmar's military and Indonesia's state-owned arms companies raises suspicions of possible corruption that should be investigated by Indonesian authorities, the group said.

The company's owner, Htoo Htoo Shein Oo, is the son of the Myanmar junta's planning and finance minister, Win Shein, who is subject to sanctions by the United States, Canada, and European Union, according to the complaint.

The complaint urges the commission to conduct an assessment, research and investigation into the alleged involvement of the Indonesian companies and to refer the case to the country's human rights court if there is sufficient evidence of serious human rights violations.

A member of Komnas HAM, Anis Hidayah, said the commission had received the complaint and was studying it.

Meanwhile, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, spokesman for the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said it was looking into the matter "because it involves verifications with many parties."

Pindad, which manufactures assault rifles, pistols, sniper rifles and automatic weapons, denied selling weapons to Myanmar after the coup.

"We do not sell weapons to Myanmar. If we ever did, it was in 2016 as an export transaction," Dianing Puji Rahayu, the company's corporate secretary, told BenarNews.

"It happened that in 2016 and 2017 there was an AARM (ASEAN Armies Rifle Meet) competition, so it had nothing to do with the situation in Myanmar," she said. "Moreover, we do not support the post-coup and genocide situation that is reported to be happening there."

Dianing apparently was referring to the military's violence against anti-junta protesters since the 2021 coup and a bloody crackdown on minority Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State that forced about 740,000 of them to flee to Bangladesh beginning in August 2017.

Bandung-based Dirgantara Indonesia (Indonesia Aerospace) is an aircraft maker while PAL, based in Surabaya, is a shipbuilder. A Dirgantara official referred questions to the country's defense industry holding company Defend ID.

In Myanmar, Kyaw Zaw, spokesman for the opposition National Unity Government President's Office, said calls to prevent the arms sales were in line with the five-point consensus adopted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in April 2021, shortly after the junta seized power. Myanmar is an ASEAN member.

"Indonesia has been working hard to restore democracy and stop violence in Myanmar. The Indonesian government is engaging with all stakeholders, including the NUG. I would like to appeal to the Indonesian government to investigate the information that Indonesian companies are selling weapons to the Myanmar military and prevent it," Kyaw Zaw told Radio Free Asia (RFA), a news service affiliated with BenarNews.

He noted that Singapore had recently acted against Singaporean companies that sold weapons to the Myanmar military.

A military spokesman did not immediately respond to RFA calls requesting comment.

Violence

Myanmar has been plunged into chaos and violence since the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. She and other civilian leaders were detained after the coup.

Since then, the junta has faced widespread resistance from pro-democracy protesters, civil disobedience movements, ethnic armed groups and a shadow government formed by ousted lawmakers.

The junta has responded with brutal crackdowns, killing more than 4,100 people and arresting more than 25,000 others, according to Thai-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

The United Nations has warned that Myanmar is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, with millions of people in need of aid and protection.

As this year's ASEAN chair, Indonesia has been trying to mediate a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Myanmar.

At the time of the alleged sales, Indonesia was a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council and supported a U.N. General Assembly resolution that called on all countries to stop supplying weapons.

Chris Gunness, director of Myanmar Accountability Project, called an investigation by Indonesia's human rights commission "imperative."

"Our investigation has turned up damning evidence that suggests shocking double-standards," he said in a statement.

Pizaro Gozali Idrus in Jakarta and RFA Burmese contributed to this report.

BenarNews is an online news outlet affiliated with Radio Free Asia.

Copyright 1998-2023, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content October not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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Airstrikes and shelling killed 44 civilians in Myanmar in September

Another 142 people were injured by aerial attacks and heavy artillery, RFA data show.

By RFA Burmese 2023.10.02 -- Casualties continue to mount in Myanmar as junta forces make increasing use of airstrikes and heavy artillery bombardments on civilian targets.

Figures compiled exclusively by Radio Free Asia show that 44 civilians were killed and 142 injured in such attacks in September alone.

On Sept. 28, four members of the same family died when a shell landed on their house in Sagaing region's Kale township.

"The shell dropped landed straight on their house and they died on the spot," a local resident who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals told RFA Burmese.

Locals said villages are often targeted after junta troops suffer casualties in fighting with People's Defense Forces in Sagaing.

A battle between the two sides broke out in Pale township in Sagaing region on Sept. 29. The junta then fired on the Htan Ta Pin neighborhood, killing a 64-year-old woman and destroying houses, locals said.

"The junta opened fire at least 10 times and five to six shells dropped on Htan Ta Pin, with the others falling on an adjoining neighborhood," said a local who also declined to be named.

The attacks are indiscriminate; last Wednesday 18 students were injured in Sagaing region's Wuntho township when a shell exploded next to a school.

RFA's figures show Sagaing was the hardest-hit region or state last month with 20 deaths and 38 injuries as a result of aerial and land bombardment.

Bago region was the second hardest hit with four civilian deaths and 26 injuries. The region has seen fierce fighting between junta troops and the military wing of the Karen National Union, a powerful ethnic group.

For the year through September, 816 civilians were killed in shelling and aerial attacks, with 1,628 people injured, RFA figures show.

Junta forces rely on airstrikes and shelling in areas where ground troops have made little progress, according to political analyst Than Soe Naing.

"The air raids cause massive casualties nationwide," he said.

"The junta has stepped up its terrorist acts by carrying out these indiscriminate attacks."

RFA called junta spokesperson Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun seeking comment on the rising civilian casualties, but no one answered.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn and Elaine Chan.

Copyright 1998-2023, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content October not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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A jail deputy and a correctional health director with the Erie County Sheriffs Office were arrested in separate incidents and appeared in City Court before Judge Andrew C. LoTempio Monday morning, the Sheriffs Office and District Attorneys Office announced Monday.

The jail deputy was suspended and put on unpaid administrative leave, and the health director resigned from her position in July 2022.

The suspended jail deputy, Niko J. Carter, 33, of Cheektowaga, was charged with felony counts of first-degree promoting prison contraband and fourth-degree conspiracy, and a misdemeanor count of official misconduct.

Prosecutors say that while working as a jail deputy in the Erie County Holding Center in Buffalo, Carter was accused of knowingly and unlawfully bringing dangerous contraband into the Erie County Holding Center, and allegedly conspired to sell the contraband to inmates, the DAs Office said in a statement.

Sheriff John C. Garcia, who on Monday joined District Attorney John J. Flynn for a news conference in the DAs Office, expressed his disappointment over the allegations against Carter, adding that he has been on the staff of the Sheriffs Office for eight months.

Im not going to let this individual, Niko Carter, tarnish the reputation of the Sheriffs Office, said Garcia.

I take no pleasure in this, but this is the easiest part of our job, arresting criminals. The two criminals that we arrested happen to be employees of the Erie County Sheriffs Office. He took an oath of office to support and follow the laws of this land and this state and he violated that oath, Garcia added.

Simultaneously, the sheriff lauded the work of investigators in his office who, he said, made quick work of the investigation. Garcia would not reveal what the contraband was, noting that the investigation is ongoing.

Hes on administrative leave without pay. He will be going from wearing the proud black and gold of the Erie County Sheriffs Office to what I hope is wearing orange, Garcia said.

Carter was released on his own recognizance because the charges are non-qualifying for bail, the DAs Office said. He is scheduled to return to court at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 2.

In the other case, Christa M. Cutrona, 46, of West Seneca, was arraigned on a felony count of first-degree falsifying business records and a misdemeanor count of official misconduct.

She is accused of knowingly falsifying her personal time cards and fraudulently collecting $1,300 in pay between Dec. 30, 2021, and Feb. 7, 2022. An internal audit uncovered the reported crime.
Meeting with Head of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania Sergei Menyailo

Vladimir Putin held a working meeting with Head of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania Sergei Menyailo to discuss the socio-economic progress of the region.

October 2, 2023

13:20

The Kremlin, Moscow

Sergei Menyailo reported to the President that in the past seven months, the industrial production index reached 110 percent as compared to last year. The copper factory has been restored and now produces pure copper for the defence and industrial sector and the electronics sector. A plant has been rebuilt to produce all types of fodder with a capacity of 250,000 tonnes per year. Two plants engaged in stonemasonry and the production of aerated concrete are operating in the region. The BTK company opened a sewing workshop with 600 jobs; another facility for 1,000 jobs will be built soon. A project is being implemented to build an artificial slate plant.

The volume of dispatched industrial products increased by over 40 percent as compared to the same period last year; agricultural production grew by 2.5 percent. Housing construction has increased by 50 percent. The consolidated budget increased by 12.3 percent. The total volume of funding the implementation of all planned measures this year has been 36 billion rubles due to the republic's participation in all state programmes, including the implementation of national projects.

Sergei Menyailo also briefed the President on the implementation programme for the socioeconomic development of Beslan, the Prigorodny and Mozdok districts. Vladimir Putin asked whether the landslide danger in the Mozdok district is being included in the plans. Sergei Menyailo said that this issue has been aggravated recently in several settlements and required the relocation of its residents. A two-year relocation programme has been developed but the region needs help.

Sergei Menyailo spoke about the implementation of the presidential instructions to develop tourism. The Government has allocated grants worth over 600 million rubles for the construction of glamping sites for 2023-2024. Other investment projects are being realised such as the Mamison year-round mountain resort. At the moment, building foundations are being built as well as three parking lots and a garage for snowcats, and utility lines have been laid. Ski tracks are being built, as well as upper and lower stations. Plans call for concluding the first stage of construction by the 2024-2025 winter. The Alania Park project is also being realised with a cable way installed and a 1,700-metre track built. Alania Park will be both a ski resort and a theme park.

As for investment, Sergei Menyailo said that today there are more than 30 billion in extra-budgetary investment. Last year it was 24 billion. In particular, the Alania greenhouse, valued at 18 billion, is being launched. The first phase will be completed by the end of this year. The area of the first phase is 60 hectares. In addition, the head of the republic reported apple orchards had been increased by 850 hectares. For the first time last year, 250 hectares of vineyards were planted, meaning winemaking is being revived in the region.

Sergei Menyailo also reported that, in line with the President's instructions, an economic development model for the republic was developed and approved by the Government. There are five breakthrough projects and 11 subprojects in this model. Today, 18 billion rubles have already been invested, 800 jobs have been created, or about 2,500 jobs, including projects that were not included in this model.

Support for the special military operation was also discussed. The 58th Army, which is based in the capital of the republic, Vladikavkaz, is taking part in the operation. According to Sergei Menyailo, public associations and the authorities, including local ones, stepped in to help. Social passports have been created for the mobilised, volunteers and active military personnel who have been seriously injured. Each family is assigned a social worker. A branch of the Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation is working. As part of the assistance for the new regions, a humanitarian centre has been deployed in Zaporozhye; more than 1,000 tonnes of all types of humanitarian aid and more than 1,400 tonnes of water have already been sent there. As needs arise, the issues are resolved online.

The President asked Mr Menyailo to remain focused on this, because it is essential for the country and the people on the frontline. Mr Menyailo said that he and representatives of his administration visit the sponsored Chernigov District in the Zaporozhye Region. A permanent representative of the republic is stationed there, medical teams are there, and more than 7,000 textbooks have been supplied to schools. Three schools were repaired and one kindergarten prepared for winter. Now, at the request of the head of the district administration, the roof of an ancient temple is being repaired. Water distribution has been restored in Chernigovka, and additional water trucks sent, because the area is large and water distribution is still difficult. A mobile medical station has also been sent, in which needed examinations can be carried out.

Vladimir Putin drew the head of the republic's attention to children's preschools. Sergei Menyailo said that the republic had developed a programme for the overhaul of preschools and asked for support, noting that the republic was concentrating on small kindergartens in villages that need to be maintained.

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Concerning Russia's unlawful actions against Latvian nationals

Republic of Latvia - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

02.10.2023

The information at the disposal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia indicates that the Russian Federation (RF) may have taken actions within the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) to target present and former Latvian officials who have participated in taking decisions aimed at condemning the RF's aggression against Ukraine and reducing the influence of the RF on EU Member States.

End of last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided assistance to a Latvian national whose detention the RF authorities had demanded during his visit to one of the CIS countries. According to the information available to the Foreign Ministry, this demand was not issued in accordance with generally accepted international practice and was politically motivated. Thanks to prompt action by the Latvian Foreign Service and the constructive cooperation of the particular CIS state, the Latvian national successfully returned to Latvia without further delay.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is carrying out an in-depth analysis of the particular case, but it can already be assumed that such measures on the part of the RF may be directed at not only Latvian officials, but also other undesirable present and former officials of EU Member States. It cannot be excluded that such requests are issued to not only CIS countries, but also other countries that Russia has good cooperation with.

The Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also discuss this case within the framework of the EU and other international organisations in order to prevent further illegal, politically motivated actions by the RF authorities against EU nationals.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reminds Latvian nationals to choose their travel destinations carefully, taking into account the historical ties of the countries and their cooperation with Russia, as well as the position of the said countries regarding Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

To those travelling outside Latvia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommends registering with the Consular Register via the latvija.lv portal, reading the travel warning for the specific country on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and making sure the traveller has contact information of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the diplomatic mission of Latvia, if there is one in the relevant foreign country. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to note that its abilities to provide emergency consular assistance in countries where Latvia has no diplomatic mission may be limited.

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Wagner chief's son to 'take over command' of paramilitary group

Iran Press TV

Monday, 02 October 2023 5:51 PM

The son of former Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is set to take over command of the paramilitary group, documents on social media suggest.

The Institute of Study of War (ISW) in Washington said on Monday that Pavel Prigozhin, 25, is taking "command" and will lead Wagner in Ukraine.

Citing a well-known Telegram channel associated with the Wagner Group, the report said Pavel has entered negotiations with the Russian National Guard known as Rosgvardia to allow the group to rejoin combat operations in Ukraine.

The report comes days after Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to appoint a commander to head the group in Ukraine. The president has publicly extended his support to Andrey Troshev, a former Wagner commander now serving in the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The former Wagner chief died in a plane crash northwest of Moscow in August.

He staged a short-lived mutiny against Moscow in June. After the aborted mutiny, Putin said Wagner would be dismantled in Russia and that its fighters could sign contracts with the defense ministry, leave for Belarus or go home.

When Russia launched its "special military operation" in Ukraine in February, 2022, the paramilitary group was pivotal.

The main combat elements of the group are now split across several countries, including Belarus, the Central African Republic, Libya, and Mali.

The ISW said in its assessment, "The status of the Wagner Group remains unclear amid reported negotiations about the Wagner Group's future cooperation with the Russian government."

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Russians Unofficially Honor Wagner Mercenary Leader Prigozhin On 40th Day After His Death

By RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities, RFE/RL's Echo of the Caucasus October 02, 2023

Russians have commemorated the founder and leader of Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin on the 40th day since his death, a Russian Orthodox tradition to honor those who have passed away.

People brought flowers on October 1 to makeshift memorials in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Abakan, Sochi, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, and at least nine other cities across Russia. Similar commemorations were held in the Belarusian city of Homel and the city of Sevastopol in Ukraine's Russian-annexed Crimea.

A member of the Wagner group told RFE/RL that about 150 vehicles cruised through the city of Novosibirsk in Siberia in a procession to commemorate Prigozhin, whose mercenary group gained notoriety for cruel and brutal methods of fighting along Russian armed forces invading Ukraine.

Dozens of vehicles were used in similar events in at least two other Russian cities.

In Prigozhin's hometown of St. Petersburg, his mother and son laid flowers at his grave and an Orthodox religious memorial and prayer services were held.

Prigozhin, 62, and several of his associates died in an unexplained plane crash in late August. He was buried on August 29 in a discreet ceremony.

Russian officials said at the time that investigators were considering the possibility that the plane was downed on purpose.

Two months before his death, on June 23-24, Prigozhin sent thousands of his fighters in a short-lived rebellion against the military command fighting in Ukraine, imposing one of the biggest challenges to President Vladimir Putin in his more than two decades in power.

The insurrection came on the heels of months of intense public infighting with Russia's military leadership over the war strategy in Ukraine and ammunition supplies, as Wagner's fighters played a major role in heavy fighting for the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine's east.

In mid-September, the British government added Wagner group to its list of terrorist organizations, saying it remains a threat to global security even after Prigozhin's death.

Earlier in January, Washington designated Wagner a transnational criminal organization.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-wagner-prigozhin- death-memorial-/32619359.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's video address to the participants in the Russia - Latin America International Parliamentary Conference, Moscow, October 2, 2023

2 October 2023 14:09

1926-02-10-2023



Ladies and gentlemen,

Colleagues, friends!

I am happy to welcome the participants in the Russia - Latin America International Parliamentary Conference.

Our country and the Latin American states traditionally have friendly relations, which were established during Latin American countries' struggle for independence. Russia has always been sympathetic to the desire of the peoples of South and Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean to gain true freedom and genuine sovereignty and take their destiny into their own hands.

The traditions of friendship and trust established in those days remain relevant today. Despite the difficult geopolitical situation, our interaction is steadily developing: regular political and inter-parliamentary dialogue is underway, and cooperation between ministries and departments continues. Trade, economic and cultural exchanges never stop, and scientific and educational ties are strengthening. Russia has provided and continues to provide assistance in resolving the most pressing problems faced by the region, from combating the coronavirus epidemic to ensuring food security and eliminating the consequences of natural disasters.

We are united by a strong commitment to the democratisation of interstate relations and building it based on the generally recognised principles of international law primarily the UN Charter. We are consistent supporters of showing respect for the cultural and civilisational diversity of the peoples of the world and their right to determine the paths and models of political and socioeconomic development.

The make-up of the participants and the agenda of your meeting are clear confirmation of the major changes that are taking place in world politics. We are not only witnessing the formation of a more equitable multipolar architecture of international relations, but are also directly participating in this process. An integral part of this is the increased role of the Latin American and Caribbean states and associations in world affairs. Their voice is becoming louder, and their words are carrying more weight.

Russia welcomes this trend and is working to consolidate it. We stand for worthy representation of the countries of the region in key international associations, including the UN, the G20 and BRICS.

I am pleased to note that one of the leading countries in South America, Argentina, was invited by the BRICS leaders to become a full member of this new kind of multilateral association, at the Johannesburg summit in August.

Colleagues!

I have no doubt that your conference will help strengthen Russian-Latin American friendship for the benefit of our countries and peoples. I wish you productive discussions and all the best.

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Large landing ship Peresvet train launching an assault on Kamchatka

02.10.2023

The large landing ship (LLS) Peresvet of the Pacific Fleet held a training session on seaborne assault in Malaya Lagernaya Bay, Kamchatka.

At the preparatory stage of the event, the Marines, together with the personnel of the LLS, practised the basic elements of loading personnel, equipment and weapons of the Marines.

The large landing ship Peresvet approached an unequipped coast and ensured the landing of Marines, who practised capturing the enemy's firing positions.

The exercise was carried out in accordance with the Fleet's combat training plan.

Press Service of the Eastern Military District

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Calling EU Politicians Defending Their States' Interests Pro-Russian 'Absurd' - Kremlin

Sputnik News

20231002

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Many European politicians who defend the sovereignty and interests of their country are called pro-Russian, which is absurd, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, commenting on the recent parliamentary elections in Slovakia.

The party of Slovak Prime Minister-elect Robert Fico a who is called pro-Russian a Direction - Social Democracy, more commonly known as Smer, won the parliamentary elections that took place on Saturday. Fico, who served as prime minister of Slovakia from 2006-2010 and from 2012-2018, has stated multiple times that he stands against military support for Ukraine.

"Many politicians, a number of politicians in Europe, are called pro-Russian. And in fact, we are now faced with a situation where any politician on the European continent who is inclined to think about the sovereignty of their country, who protects the interests of their country, they immediately try to call them a pro-Russian politician. But this is absurd," Peskov told reporters.

Hungarian PM Viktor Orban believes the European Union spent Budapest-designated funds on Ukraine, while Poland, alongside Slovakia and Hungary, has introduced a ban on Ukrainian grain flooding the EU's market and harming domestic agricultural producers.

A Sputnik

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No Turkey-Syria normalization unless Ankara withdraws forces from Arab country: Deputy FM

Iran Press TV

Monday, 02 October 2023 6:47 PM

Syria's deputy foreign minister has ruled out the possibility of any normalization deal with Turkey unless Ankara's occupation forces leave the Arab country.

Bassam Sabbagh said in an interview with the Arabic service of Russia's Sputnik news agency on Monday that Turkey must order its military forces to retreat from Syria, otherwise it will eliminate any efforts aimed at resuming Ankara-Damascus relations.

"Turkey must withdraw its military forces," Sabbagh said. "On any other aspects, yes, of course, we will be open to discuss with them, but not to do so and insist on staying - this is an illegal occupation and will therefore hinder all efforts aimed at that (normalization deal)."

Sabbagh, who is also Syria's permanent representative to the United Nations, stressed, "There is no kind of contact and relationship with Turkey" at the present time.

In a press release on Friday, Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler underscored Ankara's readiness to resume talks to normalize relations with Damascus while reiterating his country's position of refusing to withdraw its troops from northern Syria.

Labeling Syria's proposal as "illogical," Guler claimed, "We are always ready to sit down and engage in a dialogue but the demands of the Syrian side are not something that can be accepted immediately."

The Turkish defense minister added, "They want Turkey to leave Syrian territory, but why should Turkey leave?"

Turkey severed its relations with Syria in March 2012, a year after the Arab country found itself in the grip of deadly violence waged by foreign-backed militants, but now, after over a decade, the two neighboring countries are taking steps toward reconciliation.

In the meantime, Turkey deployed forces in Syria in October 2019 in violation of the Arab country's territorial integrity.

Ankara-backed militants were deployed to northeastern Syria after Turkish military forces launched a long-threatened cross-border invasion in a declared attempt to push militants of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) away from border areas.

Ankara views the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984.

The Kurdish-led administration in northeastern Syria says the Turkish offensive has killed hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children, since it started. Turkey has also played a major role in supporting terrorists in Syria ever since major foreign-backed insurgency overtook the country more than ten years ago.

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Syria-Turkiye Normalization Not Possible Until Ankara Pulls Forces - Vice Foreign Minister

Sputnik News

20231002

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) Lenka White - Turkiye has to withdraw its military forces from the Syrian Arab Republic or else it will decimate any efforts towards any kind of relations, Syrian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Bassam Sabbagh told Sputnik.

"Turkiye has to withdraw its military forces. Any other aspects, yes, of course, we will be open to discuss with them, but not to do so and to insist on staying - that's illegal occupation and then this will block all the efforts toward any kind of contacts and relations with Turkiye," Sabbagh said.

On Western Hegemony Weariness and Multipolar Leadership

The United Nations Security Council is not mirroring the geopolitical composition of today's world - the developing countries need to also have a representation within it, the Syrian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Bassam Sabbagh told Sputnik.

"The issue of the reform of the Security Council was also mentioned widely in the speeches of the leaders and I think this is very important because the realities of today's international relations are not reflected correctly in the Security Council," Sabbagh said. "We need to see this expansion of the Security Council so in a way, which is reflecting today's reality, and too, for the developing countries to have an important role in that."

The speeches from developing countries during the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly have demonstrated that the majority of them are getting tired of the Western hegemony, Bassam Sabbagh added.

"This year of the General Assembly was very important because we noticed from the speeches of the leaders, that most of the developing countries are tired from the Western hegemony," Sabbagh said in an interview. "The developing countries now are looking for a multipolar leadership. This polarization by the Americans is not accepted anymore."

A Sputnik

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Prosecutors launch probe into accusations involving submarine program

ROC Central News Agency

10/02/2023 09:06 PM

Taipei, Oct. 2 (CNA) An investigation has been launched into allegations of interference and information leaks involving Taiwan's indigenous submarine program, the Supreme Prosecutors Office said Monday.

The case is currently being handled by the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office and the Taipei District Prosecutors Office, the highest prosecution authority said in a short statement.

Huang Shu-kuang (), convener of the Indigenous Defense Submarine program, was recently quoted by local media as accusing an unnamed lawmaker of "continually sabotaging" the construction of the submarine prototype and making it difficult for the government to purchase key parts from foreign suppliers.

Huang reportedly added that local arms dealers also leaked information about the submarine to a Chinese embassy after failing to win the bid.

In a more explicit accusation, Kuo Hsi (), a former arms dealer and advisor to the Navy and a prospective candidate in the upcoming legislative election in Kaohsiung, identified the individual allegedly behind the sabotage and information leaks as Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Ma Wen-chun (), who is also a member of the Foreign and National Defense Committee.

Huang's accusations has attracted significant attention given the national security and defense implications, the Supreme Prosecutors Office said.

Ma later filed charges against Kuo for aggravated defamation, with the latter responding by filing the same charges on Monday, while also seeking NT$3 million (US$92,956) in damages.

Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang () said prosecutors are looking into the submarine case which he added would be handled in accordance with the law, regardless of party affiliation or status.

(By Hsieh Hsing-en, Wang Yang-yu and Ko Lin)

Enditem/AW



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A Buffalo teenager who brought an illegal "ghost gun" to school has pleaded guilty before Youth Part Judge Brenda Freedman to second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, according to the Erie County District Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors said a security guard found a disassembled handgun in the 17-year-old boy's backpack as he walked through a weapon detection system at Academy School 131 on St. Lawrence Avenue in North Buffalo. The boy fled, the school was locked down briefly and police were called.

"While I am thankful that no one was injured during this incident, this teenager is accused of committing one of the most concerning and serious offenses," said District Attorney John J. Flynn.

The teen also pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted assault for attacking another individual June 21 while being held in the Erie County Youth Services Center. The victim was taken to Erie County Medical Center for treatment of facial injuries. The teen continues to be held without bail pending sentencing Nov. 13 in both cases.

- Harold McNeil
State department officials to speak at U.S.-Taiwan defense industry meet

ROC Central News Agency

10/02/2023 01:35 PM

Washington, Oct. 1 (CNA) Mira K. Resnick, a U.S. Department of State official, is scheduled to make an address during an annual conference on defense industry cooperation between the United States and Taiwan, the event's organizers said Sunday.

This marks the second consecutive year that the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs is sending representatives to speak at the annual US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference taking place in Virginia from Oct. 1-3 (Eastern Time), according to the US-Taiwan Business Council.

Aside from Resnick, who is the deputy assistant secretary of state for regional security in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Jedidiah P. Royal, the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, will also speak at the 22nd edition of the defense industry conference, the organizers said.

According to Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the council, this year's conference will be the largest ever, featuring more than 200 participants from the Taiwanese and American governments, along with defense industry representatives, to discuss the future of bilateral defense cooperation.

In accordance with long-standing practice, Taiwan's government is sending a vice defense minister to give keynote address during the annual meet. This year the delegation is to be led by Hsu Yen-pu (), vice minister of defense in charge of armaments.

Laura Rosenberger, chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), and Hammond-Chambers will provide introductory comments before Hsu's address, according to the agenda.

The AIT's Taipei director serves as the top U.S. envoy to Taiwan while its chair serves more of a ceremonial role.

Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party and main opposition Kuomintang also traditionally send party representatives to the meeting. And for the first time, Taiwan's third largest party, the Taiwan People's Party that was founded by former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je () in 2019, is also sending a delegation to the conference.

Hammond-Chambers said he is more than happy to see all three main political parties of Taiwan are participating the conference, showing they are attaching great importance to the annual meet.

Other big names set to attend the conference include former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver, who is now the chair of The Project 2049 Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

Two retired senior American generals -- former U.S. Marine Lieutenant General Steven R. Rudder, and former Admiral in the U.S. Navy and former Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Scott Swift -- will also be in attendance.

Panelists will highlight how industry in the U.S. and Taiwan can cooperate to provide solutions, with the discussion focused on how to help boost Taiwan's defense by improving flexibility and enhancing resilience, according to the press release.

Since its 2002 debut, the annual conference has aimed to facilitate engagement between the American defense industry and the U.S. and Taiwan governments on security matters, according to organizers.

(By Chiang Chin-yeh and Joseph Yeh)

Enditem /ASG

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NDC head questioned about chip start-up's alleged technology transfer to China

ROC Central News Agency

10/02/2023 05:47 PM

Taipei, Oct. 2 (CNA) Minister of National Development Kung Ming-hsin () was questioned in the Legislative Yuan on Monday about a National Development Fund-supported silicon photonics chip start-up reportedly being in touch with Chinese officials to transfer its core technology.

Kung was questioned by several ruling Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers in the Economics Committee session about a local report last week, which alleged to have received tips from the board members and employees of Taiwan Nano & Micro-Photonics Co., Ltd. that the chairman was in contact with Chinese officials.

It was said that the company, a start-up company established in 2019 and receiving an angel investment of NT$17.63 million from the National Development Fund, was generously offered about NT$23 billion to set up a foundry in China to mass produce the company's state-of-the-art innovation.

The company's setup was based on National Taiwan University (NTU) electrical engineering and computer science professor Lin Ching-fuh () and his team's work and patent on photodetector for measuring infrared radiation, according to the report. Lin currently serves as the company's CTO.

According to the NTU College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science's announcement in 2021, the photodetector technology-based silicon photonics chip is able to detect "far and mid infrared, near-infrared, and visible light."

It added that the company was the world's first sensing integrated optical circuit (IOC) design company to have its chips mass produced using silicon wafer CMOS process.

The company held a press conference last October touting it was ready to mass produce the company's "multifunctional, far- and mid-infrared silicon photonics chip."

"Although far- and mid-infrared (MIR) technology has existed for many years, only compound semiconductor materials were able to exhibit the characteristics of emitting and detecting long-wavelength infrared light in the past and the costs were high," the company stated then, saying that the silicon photonics technology could reduce power consumption and costs while maintaining reliability.

Local media outlet Mirror Media reported that Lin said in the press conference the technology could be expected to be used in military industry, aerospace, EV and medicine, and therefore had the potential to become Taiwan's next major technological stronghold.

The tips received by Mirror Media accused company chairman Chang Kun-yu () of trying to transfer the technology to China, who promised to invest billions. The report cited as evidence several screenshots of Chang's message to the board members and copies of Chinese official reports on the plan to make investment in the company.

The National Development Council, a day after the report had been published last Tuesday, issued a press statement stressing that in the same report the company had already denied that the patent had been transferred or that it had any plans to set up factories in China or any other countries.

The council said it has currently 4.93 percent of the company's shares and has no one sitting on its board.

"To our understanding, [the technology] of the company is still at the R&D stage," the council's press release said.

Kung repeated the stance on Monday when asked by the lawmakers who called it a "national security issue," adding that the company also denied the report when the council contacted them about the report.

The minister said the council holds no investigation power but will submit a report on the matter to the legislative committee within a month.

According to the Mirror Media report, the whistleblowers had already reported the alleged offense to the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice.

(By Alison Hsiao)

Enditem/ASG

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Erdogan: Turkey 'no longer expects anything from EU'

Iran Press TV

Monday, 02 October 2023 11:34 AM

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized Brussels for not honoring its long-time membership promise to Turkey, saying he "no longer expects anything from the European Union".

Erdogan lambasted the EU for the many obstacles it had placed in front of Ankara during past decades to prevent the country from officially joining the European bloc.

"As Turkey, we have no expectations from the European Union, at whose door we have been kept waiting for 60 years. If they reverse their injustices, especially the visa imposition, which they use as a veiled sanction against us, they will correct their own mistakes. If they don't, they completely lose the right to expect anything from us, politically, socially, economically and militarily," he said.

"We have kept all the promises we have made to the EU, but they have kept almost none of theirs," Erdogan said, referring to a 2016 promise by the EU under a migrant deal to lift the need for Turkish citizens visiting EU countries to get visas.

Erdogan said EU leaders have changed over the years; however, there has been no change in the old "biased attitude of the EU towards Turkey, which is unfair."

The Turkish leader said the behavior of the Europeans has been contrary to the internationally-accepted "principle of pacta sunt servanda" which requires all nations to honor their treaties and agreements.

For several decades Ankara and Brussels have been engaged in accession talks; however, progress in the talks has been essentially frozen due to political roadblocks by certain EU members.

Ankara sees the reasons hindering its EU accession as obstacles unrelated to its suitability for membership.

Erdogan told parliamentarians on Sunday that he would not "tolerate any new demands or conditions on the accession process."

The Turkish leader's EU remarks came after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled against Ankara on Thursday for allegedly convicting a teacher for downloading an encrypted messaging app used by coupsters in an abortive putsch against the government in 2016.

Erdogan said the "decision of the ECHR was the straw that broke the camel's back."

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UK awards a4.6bn nuclear sub contract to own firm after France snubbed

Iran Press TV

Monday, 02 October 2023 8:11 AM

UK's largest arms manufacturer, BAE Systems, has been awarded a a4.6 billion contract to build a new generation of submarines, which caused a diplomatic storm with France.

As part of the Aukus military pact, Australia, the UK, and the US in March announced plans to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines after canceling a contract originally promised to France.

BAE Systems Chief Executive Charles Woodburn said the contract "reinforces the Government's support to our UK submarine enterprise and allows us to mature the design, and invest in critical skills and infrastructure to support our long-term national security".

BAE said the funding will pay for development work to 2028, with manufacturing of the first SSN-Aukus submarine expected to start towards the end of this decade and delivery will be in the late 2030s.

Till that time, the US and the UK will have continued rotating presence of their nuclear submarines in the region.

The SSN-Aukus will be the biggest, most powerful and advanced submarine of its kind ever operated by the Royal Navy and will eventually replace the Astute class of subs, according to BAE.

Other major UK military contractors such as Rolls Royce are also getting a piece of the action after the UK shifted its focus to the Indo-Pacific region, both in terms of its security posture and trade relations as part of the West's grandstanding vis-a-vis China.

The Ukraine war against Russia has been another source of income for UK's arms manufacturers reaping profits from the conflict by signing deals to ramp up weapons and equipment supplies to Kiev.

This includes providing the former Soviet country with artillery guns, drones, missiles, and other items such as battle tanks.

In the meantime, both the UK and Australia plan to use the SSN-Aukus submarines, which will be based on a British design.

Speaking at a Conservative Party conference in Manchester, UK Defense Minister Grant Schapps on Sunday confirmed the finalization of the contract with BAE.

"This multi-billion-pound investment in the Aukus submarine program will help deliver the long term hunter-killer submarine capabilities the UK needs to maintain our strategic advantage and secure our leading place in a contested global order," Shapps said.

The Aukus security alliance - which was first announced in September 15, 2021, saying it would shore up stability in the Indo-Pacific- has repeatedly drawn criticism from around the world.

China has criticized the Aukus pact, denouncing the US-led western military objectives as "Cold War mentality."

The announcement of the Aukus alliance was preceded by a rift between France and Australia, which had previously promised to purchase a56 billion worth of nuclear submarines from Paris.

However, Canberra cancelled the contract without notice a prompting Paris to recall its ambassador after what French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called a, "stab in the back".

Canberra later agreed to pay a555 million in damages to France's arms manufacturer Naval Group for contract renegation, settling the international dispute.

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War in Ukraine - Military support for Ukraine

Germany - Federal Government

Germany provides support for Ukraine by supplying equipment and weapons, these come from supplies of the Federal Arms Forces and from deliveries from industry financed from the Federal Government's funds for security capacity building. An overview.

Monday, 2 October 2023

This list provides an overview of military assistance provided by the Federal Republic of Germany to Ukraine. It includes deliveries from the Federal Armed Forces, from industry and assistance measures together with partners, which have, inter alia, been financed from Federal Government funds for security capacity building.

Funding for the security capacity building initiative amounts to 5.4 billion Euros for 2023 (after 2 billion Euros for 2022) and additional authorisations to enter commitments in the following years amounting to 10.5 billion Euros. These funds are to be used primarily for military assistance to Ukraine. At the same time, they will be used for re-filling Federal Armed Forces stocks for items delivered to Ukraine as well as for Germany's contributions to the European Peace Facility (EPF), from which costs incurred from providing military assistance to Ukraine can be re-imbursed to EU member states.

Delivered military support to Ukraine:

(Changes compared to the previous update in bold)

Armoured fighting vehicles

radio set equipment LEOPARD

42 tracked all-terrain vehicles Bandvagn 206 (BV206)* (before: 28)

tracked all-terrain vehicles Bandvagn 206 (BV206)* (before: 28) 60 infantry fighting vehicles MARDER with ammunition (from Bundeswehr and industry stocks*)

20 main battle tanks LEOPARD 1 A5*

138 MG3 for LEOPARD 2, MARDER and DACHS

ammunition for LEOPARD 1*

18 LEOPARD 2 A 6 main battle tanks with ammunition (German share in joint project with further LEOPARD 2 operators)

50 MRAP vehicles DINGO

54 M113 armoured personnel carriers each with 2 MG* (systems of Denmark, upgrades financed by Germany)

Spare parts for LEOPARD 2 and MARDER

Air defence

86,122 rounds ammunitions for self-propelled anti-aircraft guns GEPARD (from Bundeswehr and industry stocks*)

3 air surveillance radar TRML-4D*

PATRIOT missiles

2 IRIS-T SLS launchers*

2 PATRIOT launchers

46 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns

2 air defence system IRIS-T SLM*

IRIS-T SLM missiles*

air defence system PATRIOT with spare parts

4,000 rounds practice ammunitions for self-propelled anti-aircraft guns

500 Man Portable Air Defense Systems STINGER

2,700 Man Portable Air Defense Systems STRELA

Artillery

18,510 rounds 155mm ammunition

17,000 rounds 155mm smoke ammunition

2 wheeled self-propelled howitzer Zuzana 2* (project jointly financed with Denmark and Norway)

155mm precision guided ammunition* (SMArt, VULCANO)

5 multiple rocket launchers MARS II with ammunition (German share in joint project with USA and Great Britain)

ammunition for multiple rocket launchers MARS II

14 self-propelled howitzers Panzerhaubitze 2000 with spare parts (German share in joint project with the Netherlands)

20 rocket launchers 70mm on pick-up trucks with rockets*

counter battery radar system COBRA*

10 laser target designators and portable fire control modules for VULCANO artillery ammunition*

Military Engineering Capabilities

12 bridge-laying tanks BEAVER* (before: 11)

bridge-laying tanks BEAVER* (before: 11) 10 mine clearing tanks WISENT 1* (before: 8)

mine clearing tanks WISENT 1* (before: 8) material for explosive ordnance disposal (from Bundeswehr and industry stocks*)

11 mine ploughs for T-72*

18 heavy and medium bridge systems and 12 trailers

5 bridges for bridge-laying tank BEAVER

15 armoured recovery vehicles Bergepanzer 2*

2 armoured recovery vehicles Bergepanzer 3

5armoured engineer vehicles DACHS*

3 mobile, remote controlled and protected mine clearing systems*

12 mobile and protected mine clearing systems Ahlmann*

Protective and Special Equipment

116 SatCom terminals* (before: 17)

SatCom terminals* (before: 17) 207 border protection vehicles* (before: 186)

border protection vehicles* (before: 186) 60,600 safety glasses (from Bundeswehr and industry stocks*) (before: 40,600)

safety glasses (from Bundeswehr and industry stocks*) (before: 40,600) 239 Crypto Phones*

1 antenna hub station

1 Satcom surveillance system*

80 reconnaissance drones RQ-35 HEIDRUN*

49 mobile antenna mast systems*

113 drone detection systems*

104 reconnaissance drones VECTOR*

28 ground surveillance radars GO12*

1,288 binoculars

5 mobile reconnaissance systems SurveilSPIRE*

10 radio jammers*

57 anti-drone sensors and jammers*

40 frequency range extensions for anti-drone devices*

1 communications electronic scanner/jammer systems*

32 reconnaissance drones*

40 laser target designators*

10 unmanned surface vessels*

10 anti-drone guns*

28,000 combat helmets

1 radio frequency system

3,000 field telephones with 5.000 cable reels and carrying straps

353 night vision goggles*

12 electronic anti-drone devices*

165 field glasses*

38 laser range finders*

6 mobile decontamination vehicles HEP 70 including decontamination material

10 HMMWV (8x ground radar capability, 2x jamming/anti drone capability)*

1 high frequency unit with equipment*

Logistics

62 truck tractor trains 8x8 HX81 and 57 semi-trailers* (before: 51/45)

297 vehicles (trucks, minibuses, all-terrain vehicles)

40 load-handling trucks 8x8

200 trucks Zetros*

34 load-handling trucks 15t*

6 load-handling trucks 8x6 with 21 roll of containers*

14 tracked and remote controlled infantry vehicles THeMIS*

179 Pick-ups*

12 tank transporter tractor M1070 Oshkosh*

30 protected vehicles*

Combat Readiness and Survivability

3 spare part packages for VECTOR drones (before: 2)

spare part packages for VECTOR drones (before: 2) 167,415 rounds ammunition 40mm* (before: 134.592)

rounds ammunition 40mm* (before: 134.592) 1,202 Infusion kits

Spare parts WISENT

47 ambulances*

45.7 million rounds of ammunition for fire arms

field hospital*

100 machine guns MG5*

300,000 first aid kits*

8 dental sterilizers

11,000 group module rations

103,000 tourniquets

500 pistols SFP9*

2 hangar tents*

8 lift trucks*

295 generators

10 winter camouflage nets

168 mobile heating systems*

36,400 wool blankets

14,000 sleeping bags

Mi-24 spare parts*

spare parts for heavy machine gun M2

200 tents

116,000 winter jackets

80,000 winter trousers

240,000 winter hats

405,000 pre-packaged military Meals Ready

67 fridges for medical material*

3,000 anti-tank weapons Panzerfaust 3 with 900 firing devices

14,900 anti-tank mines (9,300* from industry stocks)

50 Bunkerfaust with 15 firing devices

100 machine gun MG3 with 500 spare barrels and breechblocks

100,000 hand grenades

5,300 explosive charges

100,000 m detonating cord and 100.000 detonators

350,000 detonators

100 auto-injector devices

15 palettes military clothing

1,200 hospital beds

18 palettes medical material, 60 surgical lights

protective clothing, surgical masks

1 field hospital (project jointly financed with Estonia)*

medical material (inter alia back packs, compression bandages)

Diesel and gasoline*

10 tons AdBlue*

500 medical gauzes*

MiG-29 spare parts*

7,944 man-portable anti-tank weapons RGW 90 Matador*

Military support to Ukraine in planning/in execution

(due to security concerns, the Federal Government abstains from providing details on transportation modalities and dates until after handover)

Armoured fighting vehicles

40 infantry fighting vehicles MARDER*

22 tracked all-terrain vehicles Bandvagn 206 (BV206)*

66 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC)*

90 LEOPARD 1 A5 main battle tanks* (project jointly financed with Denmark)

ammunition for LEOPARD 1*

ammunition for MARDER*

Air defence

6 air defence system IRIS-T SLM*

IRIS-T SLM missiles*

22 launchers IRIS-T SLS*

IRIS-T SLS missiles (from Bundeswehr and industry stocks*)

5 air surveillance radars TRML-4D*

12 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns GEPARD*

289,920 rounds of GEPARD ammunition

Artillery

22,500 projectiles 155mm*

18 wheeled self-propelled howitzers RCH 155*

14 wheeled self-propelled howitzer Zuzana 2* (project jointly financed with Denmark and Norway)

Military Engineering Capabilities

material for explosive ordnance disposal*

6 armoured recovery vehicles Bergepanzer 2*

7 mobile, remote controlled and protected mine clearing systems*

14 bridge-laying tanks BEAVER*

2 mobile and protected mine clearing systems Ahlmann*

32 mine clearing tanks WISENT 1*

2 heavy and medium bridge systems*

Protective and Special Equipment

80 drone detection systems*

40,000 safety glasses*

10 mobile reconnaissance systems SurveilSPIRE*

20 reconnaissance drones RQ-35 HEIDRUN*

321 reconnaissance drones VECTOR*

121 reconnaissance drones*

10 unmanned surface vessels*

30 ground surveillance radars GO12*

2,000 portable light systems*

293 border protection vehicles*

vehicle decontamination system

11 communications electronic scanner/jammer systems*

Logistics

50 trucks Zetros*

11 tank transporter tractor M1070 Oshkosh*

30 tank trucks (water/fuel)*

1 load-handling trucks 8x6 with 7 roll of containers*

28 heavy duty trailer trucks 8x8 HX81 and 33 semi-trailers*

2 tractors and 4 trailers*

10 protected vehicles*

Combat Readiness and Survivability

9,7 million rounds of ammunition for fire arms

18,000 man-portable anti-tank weapons*

2 dental sterilizers

264,501 rounds ammunition 40mm for grenade launchers*

continuing deliveries of medical material*

100 grenade launchers GMG*

200,000 first aid kits*

17 mobile heating systems*

1 spare parts kit for Inst Hub SVK

* Deliveries from industry stocks financed by German funds for security capacity building. Some of the deliveries require upgrades or productions is ongoing; also training measures take place.

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Denmark opens new embassy office in Mykolaiv

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

2.10.2023

Denmark has taken patronage for the reconstruction of Mykolaiv and has launched next step of Denmark's support for Ukraine. Today at the informal EU Foreign Ministers meeting, the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Lars LAkke Rasmussen announces the opening of a new Danish embassy office in the city of Mykolaiv.

"We must do what it takes to support Ukraine. Early reconstruction is needed now and cannot wait for the war to end. We are opening an embassy office in Mykolaiv to strengthen our presence on the ground and our dialogue with local authorities. The embassy office is a clear example of our close partnership with the city and region of Mykolaiv", says the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The tasks of the embassy office will include close dialogue with regional and local authorities. Ukrainian needs for reconstruction will be matched with competences and know-how of Danish civil society organisations and businesses within areas like water, energy and waste management.

Background

Before Russia's illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Mykolaiv was the home for approx. 500.000 citizens. Russia's continued attacks have forced citizens to flee. It is estimated that 230.000 citizens remain in Mykolaiv.

The venue of Denmark's new embassy office has been found and a Danish diplomat leading the office has been appointed. The embassy will soon launch vacancies for local staff. When the embassy is fully operational, the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs will officially open the office.

The embassy office in Mykolaiv works under the instruction of the Royal Danish Embassy in Kyiv. Together, the embassy office and the Royal Danish Embassy in Kyiv constitute Denmark's diplomatic presence in Ukraine.

For further information, please contact press adviser Carl-Emil SAe carlem@um.dk and (+45) 2163 8986

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Ukraine: Press remarks by High Representative Josep Borrell after the EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Kyiv

European External Action Service (EEAS)

02.10.2023

EEAS Press Team

Check against delivery!

Good afternoon, and sorry for being so late.

I know that you have been waiting for quite a long time, but the debate has been long, and I have to say very interesting and useful.

But I have to start by thanking our Ukrainian hosts - in particular you, dear Dmytro [Kuleba, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine], and certainly President [of Ukraine, Volodymyr] Zelenskyy for your very good hospitality.

Today, we had an Informal meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Kyiv. This is for sure a historical date for several reasons.

It is the first time ever that the Council met outside the European Union.

It is the first time that we met in a candidate country.

And, unfortunately, it was also the first time that the Foreign Ministers of the European Union met in a country at war.

Of course, we would have preferred very much to meet under different circumstances, but these circumstances are the way they are, and we have to support Ukraine in facing this challenge.

By coming to Kyiv, the European Union's Foreign Ministers sent a strong message of solidarity and support to Ukraine in the face of this unjust and illegitimate war.

I, personally - before today's meeting - visited Odesa and Kyiv, to meet with the Ukrainian people, to know and discuss their daily lives and see with my own eyes the brutal, inhumane nature of Putin's aggression against this country.

Targeting churches, cultural heritage, ports that are exporting food for hungry people around the world - this says a lot about the true face of the so-called "special military operation" that Putin is waging against the people of Ukraine, who are resisting with incredible bravery.

Russia is weaponising hunger and energy. Russia is doing so, extending its crimes across the globe, targeting the most vulnerable people in Africa and in Asia, depriving them of their food. This is the consequence of this naval blockage.

This is not only our claim. It is also the perception of many, as we have seen at the heart of the United Nations General Assembly two weeks ago.

Unhappily, Russia seems determined to continue with its illegal actions, violating the international rules-based order and putting global diplomacy to the test.

This means that we have to work more together.

And we have started doing that - well, not started because we have been doing that for months - but today's discussion has provided us with a better idea of the security dimension of this situation. This has been a central discussion today, with President Zelenskyy, and Minister Kuleba.

We have been talking about the security commitments that we want to provide to Ukraine, showing our determination to stand by Ukraine in the long term, to deter acts of aggression and resist the destabilisation efforts by Russia.

You can imagine there are many different aspects under our sustained engagement. Let me start with the military side.

I proposed a new bilateral multi-annual envelope under the European Peace Facility (EPF), of up to a5 billion for the next year, [and] more will come. I hope that we can reach an agreement before the end of the year when the Member States have to agree on the review of the Multiannual Financial Framework.

We continue training Ukranian soldiers. The target today is to train 40,000 [soldiers] in the upcoming months, and this includes specialised training for fighter jets' pilots.

We are also working on strengthening the cooperation between the European and the Ukrainian defence industries. You had an important meeting here in Kyiv a few days ago.

And we will continue working on increasing resilience, cyber defence and defence against hybrid threats such as disinformation and developing a common strategic communication.

It is very important to increase our support on demining. This is a key condition for Ukraine's economic recovery and reconstruction.

We are also discussing about further promoting comprehensive reform of the law enforcement sector, accountability, and resilience, mainly via the strengthening of the existing EU Advisory Mission (EUAM Ukraine) that I had the opportunity to visit in Odesa.

And, for sure, the strongest security commitment that we can give to Ukraine, is the European Union membership. This is the strongest security commitment for Ukraine. Now Ukraine is a candidate country, and it is going further on this path.

We talked about war, military efforts, resilience, cyber-attacks, but we also talked about peace. We have to engage both on looking for peace and on the reforms needed for the accession process.

By the end of the year, the European Council will receive the report of the [European] Commission on the Enlargement package that will be presented together by myself and Commissioner [for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Oliver] VArhelyi.

Another important issue is the continuous work on accountability, including the crime of aggression and inhumane actions such as the deportation of children. Russia has to pay for its aggression and for all its crimes.

We will now take forward the work on these points, in close consultation with Ukraine. And, as I said before, together with the accession process there is the Peace Formula. We took note that President Zelenskyy's Peace Formula is the only peace initiative discussed in the international community. Others were mentioned but they have disappeared. The only one that remains, the only one that attracts the attention and the work of the international community is President Zelenskyy's Peace Formula. It is - we can say - the only game in town. It is "the" formula. We will continue working as the European Union to make it more global and the basis for the future peace.

And I am going to hand to you Dmytro, but before that, let me underline that this joint meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers with Ukraine in Kyiv should be understood as a clear commitment of the European Union to Ukraine and its continued support in all dimensions. Its military support, its support for peace - for a just peace, for accountability and working for the [EU] membership path.

It is also sending a strong signal to Russia: we are not intimidated by your missiles or drones. Just after I left Odesa a new rain of drones fell in the Oblast of Odesa - just some minutes after I left the city.

We are not intimidated by your drones or missiles. Our resolve to support the fight for freedom and independence of Ukraine is firm and will continue. Yes, we will continue standing for Ukraine.

Thank you.

Q&A

Q. It looks like Russia prepares for a long war. The West seems more and more divided. Symbolism is one thing, but could you specify what you are doing to guarantee Ukraine long [term] support.

The European Union remains united in its support to Ukraine. We remain united. I do not see any Member States faulting on their engagement to support Ukraine with the tools that we have. And what are we doing? I think that I have already explained. You want me to repeat again what I have been telling you. What will we do? We will do more of the same. More - putting on the table financial requests to the Member States that have to decide. On the civilian side - the economic support - which is as much as important as the military one because the economy of Ukraine cannot fall down, otherwise, there will not be any possibility of supporting the war effort. You know that there is a proposal for a50 billion. Then, on the military side, to revamp the European Peace Facility, with a dedicated European specific fund to continue supporting Ukraine. As I said, there is a figure for the next four years, and a commitment for the next year of [up to] a5 billion more. This is what we have to do. I understand there is no big news, but to do the same more and quicker, to provide quicker and in greater quantity our support is what Ukraine needs. That is what we continue doing.

Q. [In Ukrainian]

I do not know where this idea comes from. Who has talked about partial membership, half membership, 25% membership? Membership is membership, full stop.

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-247061



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Ukraine: Press remarks by High Representative Josep Borrell ahead of EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Kyiv

European External Action Service (EEAS)

02.10.2023

Kyiv

EEAS Press Team

Check against delivery!

Thank you, Dmytro [Kuleba, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine]. Thank you for hosting us and thank you for inviting me yesterday to participate in the events to honour the Ukrainian combatants.

Today, the Ministers [for Foreign Affairs] of the European Union travel to Kyiv to hold this meeting.

These kinds of meetings are called "informal" because, first, they are out of the premises of the European Union, and secondly, because they are considered a high-level political debate that does not have the aim of reaching concrete conclusions and decisions, but it is the kind of brainstorming that we need to do - among us, and together with you - in order to look at the situation of the war against Ukraine, how the European Union is supporting Ukraine, and how we will continue doing that.

We will study the Peace Plan Formula, [President's] Zelenskyy's Peace Formula, in order to gather more support around the world and prepare the next [Peace] Summit.

All my colleagues came here, dear Dmytro, with the will to show, to express and prove their commitment and the commitment of the European Union to continue supporting you in the war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine.

Q&A

Q. How concerned are you about the apparent movements of the US Congressional support for Ukraine? Does this mean that Europeans need to do more? Should Ukraine hold presidential elections in 2024?

I am sure too. As you said it is about the stability and predictability of the war, because this war is having deep consequences for the whole world. But for us Europeans, it is an existential threat. Maybe it is not being seen like that by everybody around the world, but for us European - allow me to repeat it - it is an existential threat. That is why we have to continue supporting you and discussing with our American allies and friends for them too [to] continue supporting you. I am sure that this decision will be reconsidered, and all together we will be on your side.

About the elections in Ukraine, it is not my business. I am in charge of the foreign affairs and relations of the European Union, not the internal politics of any Member State, [and] much less of Ukraine.

Link to the video (starting at 1:30): https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-247019





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Pevkur meets UkraineAs Minister of Defence Umerov and Chairman of Security Council Danilov in Kyiv

Republic of Estonia - Ministry of Defence

2. October 2023

Minister of Defence of Estonia Hanno Pevkur met today in Kyiv with Minister of Defence of Ukraine Rustem Umerov, and Chairman of the Security Council Oleksi Danilov. The ministers discussed Estonia's aid to Ukraine, situation on the front and opportunities for bilateral cooperation, including the development of the defence industry.

According to Pevkur, the supporters of Ukraine need to maintain their resolve and continue on the chosen course. "We need to get the defence industry up and running at a wartime scale, let Ukraine progress at its own pace on the field, and at the same time maintain unity and aid. Ukraine needs our support and help to win this war," said Pevkur.

At the meeting, the Minister of Defence of Ukraine gave an overview of the latest developments on the battlefield and the assistance of Western countries. Pevkur gave the new minister an overview of Estonia's military aid so far. Estonia has provided Ukraine with Javelin anti-tank missile system missiles, howitzers, artillery ammunition, anti-tank mines, anti-tank grenade launchers, mortars, vehicles, communication equipment, field hospitals, medical supplies, personal protective gear (helmets, etc.) and food rations. In cooperation with Allies, Estonia has donated Ukraine three field hospitals, two of them in cooperation with Germany and one in cooperation with the Netherlands and Norway. The fourth hospital was prepared for shipment in cooperation with Iceland and Germany last week, and Pevkur handed over the symbolic key of this hospital to Umerov today.

"However, in general, Ukraine's success on the battlefield largely depends on international cooperation. Here, it is important that the initiative of one million rounds launched by Estonia is fulfilled and that the defence industry of the Allied countries is able to support Ukraine as well as provide the Allies with the weapons and equipment they need," added Pevkur, who said that Estonia plans to continue supporting Ukraine with the training of troops as well.

At the meeting of the Ukrainian contact group in Ramstein last month, Estonia together with Luxembourg and Ukraine launched an IT coalition, which will support the Ukrainian forces in the cyber field to help increase Ukraine's combat capability. Estonia is one of the coalition's leading countries, and at the meeting, Minister of Defence Pevkur gave an overview of the initiative's current developments.

In addition to the Minister of Defence, Pevkur also met Oleksii Danilov, the Chairman of the Security Council of Ukraine, with whom they discussed the strategic opportunities and future perspective of the war in Ukraine, and visited Irpin and Butcha. Pevkur also placed flowers on the wall of dead soldiers, commemorating among others Estonians Ivo Jurak and Tanel Kriggul, who died in Ukraine.

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Pevkur discussed Ukraine and regional security with Polish Minister of Defence

Republic of Estonia - Ministry of Defence

2. October 2023

Saturday Minister of Defence of Estonia Hanno Pevkur participated in the celebration of the anniversary of Polish regional defence in RzeszAw, Poland and met with Polish Minister of Defence Mariusz BAaszczak. The ministers discussed issues related to support for Ukraine and the security of the Baltic Sea region.

"Poland is one of our most important Allies on NATO's eastern flank and understands the seriousness of the current security situation as well as the need to do significantly more to ensure the security of the region. Poland has also been a remarkable supporter of Ukraine and I am convinced that Poland will continue to support Ukraine militarily in Russia's brutal war of aggression, because it affects the security of the entire region," Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur said. According to Pevkur it is important that the Allies continue the current course of support for Ukraine as well as arms and ammunition production would take place at a scale and pace suitable for wartime. "Three components are important here. First, we need to send a clear message to Russia about Western unity and support for Ukraine; secondly, we need to increase defence expenditure; and thirdly, we need to show that our words a have meaning and sign contracts with the defence industry," Pevkur added.

At the meeting, Minister of Defence Pevkur thanked Poland for the NATO Air Policing fighters arriving at the Amari Air Base in December and for contributing to the NATO Battle Group in Latvia. Polish fighter jets have regularly participated in NATO's Air Policing mission, and Polish troops have also taken part in EstoniaAs large scale exercises. In addition, issues related to NATO's regional defence plans were discussed at the meeting. The defence ministers emphasized the need to take additional steps regarding the readiness of the forces.

"Poland is one of the leaders in defence readiness in the region, especially if we look at how Poland has developed its armed forces in the last decade. The volume of Polish defence procurement is also impressive," Pevkur said.

Estonia has close defence cooperation with Poland. In 2021, Estonia was one of the first to send its troops to Poland to support countering a hybrid attack from Belarus. Last year, Estonia decided to purchase Piorun short-range air defence systems from Poland for 103 million Euros.

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Foreign Minister Valtonen in Kyiv

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland

Press releases, 2.10.2023

Finland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen will attend an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 2 October.

The EU foreign ministers met Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba to discuss the EU's support to Ukraine, the EU-Ukraine relations and Ukraine's convergence with the EU.

"Finland will stand with Ukraine as long as it takes. With this visit to Kyiv, we are sending an important message of the EU's unwavering long-term support to Ukraine," says Minister Valtonen.

Other items on the meeting agenda are the Ukrainian Peace Formula and related global advocacy efforts.

"Despite the ongoing war, we are working towards a just and lasting peace. We are seeking broad international support for the Ukrainian Peace Formula," says Minister Valtonen.

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The Minister for Foreign Affairs visits the new mobile field hospital for Ukraine

Government of Iceland

October 02, 2023

The Foreign Minister went on a two-day official working visit to Estonia last week. During the visit, she met with Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna and Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur. Furthermore, the Minister visited the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre, where Iceland is one of the member nations, in the capital Tallinn. She then inspected the new mobile field hospital that will soon be donated to Ukraine, the hospital is financed by Iceland and developed and produced in Estonia.

Bilateral cooperation, support for Ukraine, security developments and the growing Nordic-Baltic cooperation were among key topics during the meeting of ThArdAs KolbrAn ReykfjArd GylfadAttir, Minister for Foreign Affairs, with the Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

"Estonia is one of our closest partners. Here, Iceland enjoys great goodwill as elsewhere in the Baltic countries because of Iceland's support during their struggle for independence in the early nineties. This is a society that fought for its independence and has subsequently flourished. This was not done without effort, education, ambition, and competitiveness and it has resulted in a thriving innovation sector that creates great value and interesting jobs. Estonia's professional and dedicated efforts in international forums, including NATO and the United Nations, attract attention, not least because of their unwavering support for Ukraine's defence," says AzArdAs KolbrAn. "In my conversation here there is a strong emphasis on the importance of fundamental values in international affairs, respect for international law, human rights and the rule of law," she adds.

During the Foreign Minister's meeting with Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur, the conflict in Ukraine, Russia's military presence, NATO defence capabilities and the preparations of the mobile field hospital for Ukraine were among the topics discussed. The Ministers also visited Tartu where the field hospital is being prepared.

"The hospital will help save lives and alleviate the suffering of those who put their lives and health on the line to defend Ukraine from Russian invaders. We are grateful to be able in this way to support Ukraine's legitimate defence struggle, but of course, it comes with sadness to think of the injustices suffered by the Ukrainian nation at the hands of Russia. We have worked on this project in excellent collaboration with Estonia and Germany, who provide vehicles to move the hospital from place to place, which is a very big contribution, for which we are grateful," says AzArdAs KolbrAn. In the coming weeks, training will commence for the Ukrainian team, who will be running the hospital.

Finally, the Minister for Foreign Affairs also visited an exhibition by the Icelandic artist Hrafnhildur ArnardAttir's, Shoplifter, and had lunch with Urmas Klass, the mayor of Tartu.



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Secretary of State expresses support for Ukraine's integration with the EU and calls for continued reforms

Republic of Latvia - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

02.10.2023

On 2 October 2023, the Secretary of State of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andris PelAs attended the informal meeting of the European Union (EU) Foreign Ministers in Kyiv, Ukraine. It was the first joint meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Ukraine since the Russian Federation's full-scale military aggression against Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The joint meeting in Kyiv confirms the EU's unity and unwavering support for Ukraine.

The Foreign Ministers addressed the current situation in Ukraine, the EU's plans for further support to Ukraine, as well as cooperation with global partners on promoting a rules-based international order and assistance to Ukraine. Andris PelAs reaffirmed Latvia's commitment to further provision of the necessary support to Ukraine in the long term, including by providing military equipment, engaging in the reconstruction work and helping prepare for the new winter season. The State Secretary also expressed support for Ukraine's Eurointegration process, including the opening of EU accession negotiations with Ukraine already before the end of 2023. Andris PelAs also underlined the importance of reforms and welcomed the progress made so far in implementing reforms under the war conditions.

The EU Foreign Ministers were addressed by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who thanked the EU Member States for their current support, highlighting in particular the importance of armament and the training of Ukrainian soldiers. President Zelenskyy called for a continued and intensified sanction pressure on Russia, including active measures to prevent the circumvention of sanctions. It is vital that work continues on the development of peace initiatives.

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Lithuania's Foreign Minister Landsbergis: "I hope that the EU Foreign Ministers' meeting in Kyiv will dispel doubts and send a clear message that Europe is with Ukraine until its victory and that this will be confirmed by real action"

Republic of Lithuania - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

2023.10.02

"I hope today's meeting will dispel doubts about the seriousness of our support for Ukraine, send a crystal clear message that Europe is with Ukraine until its victory, and confirm this with real action. I believe that we can say that we are very seriously committed to the enlargement of the European Union and permanent military assistance to Kyiv," the head of Lithuania's diplomacy said at the EU-Ukraine Foreign Ministers' meeting.

Today, Lithuania's Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis is attending the first-ever informal meeting of the European Union's Foreign Ministers in Ukraine.

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EU Foreign Ministers gathering in Kyiv for the first time

Republic of Lithuania - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

2023.10.02

Today, on 2 October, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis will attend the first-ever informal meeting of the European Union's Foreign Ministers in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.

EU Foreign Ministers will meet with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, the Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and other officials.

The meeting will focus on security commitments, support for Kyjiv, and the peace formula outlined by President Zelensky.

In Kyiv, the Foreign Ministers of the Nordic-Baltic states also plan to meet separately with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Kuleba.

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NATO Secretary General addresses first International Defence Industry Forum in Kyiv: there is no defence without industry

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

29 Sep. 2023

Addressing the first meeting of the International Defence Industry Forum in Kyiv on Friday (29 September 2023), NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg paid tribute to the Ukrainian people and armed forces, whose courage and heroism have inspired the world as they continue to push back on Russia's brutal war of aggression.

"But courage alone does not stop drones, heroism alone cannot intercept missiles. Ukraine needs capabilities, high quality, high quantity, and quickly," Mr Stoltenberg said, adding that "there is no defence without industry."

Since Russia's full-scale invasion last year, many Allies have significantly depleted their stocks in order to support Ukraine. NATO is working through its Defence Production Action Plan to aggregate demand and increase interoperability. The NATO Support and Procurement Agency is overseeing a number of major initiatives, including framework contracts for a2.4 billion worth of key ammunition, including a1 billion of firm orders to cover capabilities such as 155 millimetre artillery, anti-tank guided missiles, and main battle tank ammunition.

The Secretary General praised the resourcefulness of the Ukrainian defence industry, saying: "from drones to de-mining, Ukraine has innovated at lightning speed". He added that "the stronger Ukraine is on the battlefield, the stronger their position will be at any negotiating table. So while it may sound like a paradox, weapons for Ukraine are the way to peace".

Major defence companies from across the Alliance attended the Forum, with participants from over 20 countries. NATO was represented by Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment Wendy Gilmour.

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Amid Concerns About Weakening Support For Ukraine, Zelenskiy Says Victory Depends On Cooperation With EU

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service October 02, 2023

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told European Union foreign ministers on October 2 that Ukraine's victory in the war with invading Russian forces depended "directly" on Kyiv's cooperation with the EU as concerns grow about a possible weakening of support in the bloc after the election victory of a populist Slovak party that opposes military aid for Kyiv.

"I am sure that Ukraine and the entire free world are capable of winning this confrontation. But our victory directly depends on our cooperation with you: the more strong and principled steps we take with you, the sooner this war will end," Zelenskiy said after meeting with EU foreign ministers gathered in Kyiv on October 2 in a show of solidarity with Ukraine.

Zelenskiy also told the gathering that sanctions pressure on Russia was "obviously not enough," calling for more cooperation to end any "schemes of circumvention of sanctions by Russia" and an end to supplies to Russia that enable it to increase military production.

"This is a clear interest not only of Ukraine, but also of everyone in the world who wants a faster end to this war," Zelenskiy said.

He also called for expanding sanctions against Iran, including on its ability to import equipment and chemicals used to make drones that it then supplies to Russia.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell hailed the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv as "historic" and a reiterated that the place of Ukraine was in the 27-member bloc.

"You can be sure of our determination to be by Ukraine's side as long as it takes," Borrell told Zelenskiy after the meeting.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the gathering took place within the bloc's "future borders" and urged Ukraine's allies to stand firm amid what he said was "huge resources" invested by the Kremlin to stir disunity.

"Putin's greatest expectation is precisely that the West and the world will tire of standing on the side of Ukraine in this war," he said.

In Washington, where Congress managed to avert a government shutdown over the weekend only by removing aid to Ukraine from a stopgap spending deal, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre also rejected claims about war fatigue in Western countries.

"If Putin thinks he can outlast us he's wrong," Jean-Pierre said.

Kuleba, referring to the election victory in neighboring Slovakia of pro-Russian Robert Fico, who vowed to immediately curb military aid to Ukraine if he became prime minister again, said Kyiv respected the result.

"We respect the choice of the Slovak people," Kuleba said. "But it is too early to say how the election result will affect Slovakia's position," he added, pointing that Kyiv can "draw the first conclusions" after a coalition is formed -- a complicated process that might take a long time.

Although Ukraine was granted EU candidate status in June 2022, months after the start of Russia's unprovoked invasion, the negotiation process is expected to take years before Kyiv can join the bloc, and there is opposition to its membership from countries such as Hungary.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has maintained close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has been against supplying weapons to Kyiv or admitting it into the 27-member bloc.

Neither Hungary's nor Poland's foreign ministers were present in Kyiv. Poland's relations with Ukraine, usually warm, are currently strained due a spat about Ukrainian grain exports.

The two EU member states sent lower-level delegations to Kyiv.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, on the other hand, told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting that, as the cold season settles in, the EU needed to come up with a strategic plan to shield Kyiv from the consequences of an expected repeat of Russia's campaign of strikes on Ukraine's energy grid that caused misery and suffering last winter.

"Ukraine needs a winter protection plan of air defense, generators, and a strengthening of the energy supply. We saw last winter the brutal way in which the Russian president wages this war, with targeted attacks on critical infrastructure such as power plants," she told reporters in Kyiv.

The meeting in Kyiv came just hours after Russia overnight launched fresh artillery strikes on Kherson, killing at least two people and wounding several others, including children, and damaging an Orthodox cathedral in the southern Ukrainian city.

One of the dead was a policeman killed in shelling on the morning of October 2, and children were among those wounded in overnight attacks on the regional capital, Kherson, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.

Russian shelling also damaged the Holy Spirit Cathedral and the administration of the Kherson Diocese, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reported on October 2.

"The projectiles hit the basement of the diocesan administration, as well as the cathedral, as a result of which the central entrance, facade, sacristy, and utility rooms were damaged and the panes in the windows were broken," the Kherson Diocese said in a message.

The liberated part of Kherson region, including the city of Kherson, has been shelled on a near-daily basis for months by Russian troops stationed on the left bank of the Dnieper River.

On October 1, Russian shelling of several settlements in Kherson killed a man in his 40s in Tyahynka, a town about 30 kilometers northeast of Kherson city.

Russia overnight also launched seven Iranian-made drones at the southern region of Dnipropetrovsk, military spokeswoman Natalyia Humenyuk told Ukrainian television, adding that four of them were downed by Ukraine's air defense.

On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces continued their offensive actions in the Bakhmut area of the eastern Donetsk region and in the direction of the southern city of Melitopol, where 38 close-quarters battles were fought over the past 24 hours, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said in its daily report on October 2.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

Source:

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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US State Department Suspends Long-Term Contracting for Ukraine

Sputnik News

20231002

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States has suspended Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) and Foreign Military Financing (FMF) contracting programs for Ukraine, US State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said on Monday.

"While we have some remaining drawdown authority that we can draw on to continue to provide security assistance to Ukraine in the short-term... USAI funding has been suspended, FMF funding has been suspended," Miller stated during a press briefing. "Those are the contracting programs that allow us to contract for Ukraine in the long-term," the spokesman added.

The State Department calls on Congress to replenish both short-term and long-term security assistance funding for Ukraine, Miller said.

At the same time, a US official confirmed to Sputnik on Monday that $5.4 billion remains in available funding for Ukraine amid Russia's special military operation.

The $5.4 billion available allows the United States to send weapons and equipment from its own stockpiles to Ukraine under the presidential drawdown authority.

Moreover, according to the US official, only $1.6 billion remains in funding from the $25.9 billion approved by Congress to replenish US military stocks depleted by Ukraine security assistance packages.

The US official said there are too many variables to speculate how long the remaining Ukraine funds will last.

Media reported earlier, citing Pentagon officials, that the remaining funding for Ukraine should last about six months.

On Saturday, Congress passed a short-term spending bill that did not include additional assistance for Ukraine. However, the shot-term spending bill gives lawmakers until November 17 to consider full-term spending legislation for next year, including more funding for Ukraine.

President Joe Biden recently asked Congress to approve some $24 billion in additional aid for Ukraine in his $40 billion supplemental request.

A Sputnik

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Russian Forces Destroy Ukrainian Aircraft Fuel and Munition Depots

Sputnik News

20231002

Moscow's Ministry of Defense reported on the progress of the special military operation aimed at protecting the people of Donbass.

The Russian Armed Forces have destroyed fuel depots for Ukrainian aircraft and aviation munition on an airfield in Krivoi Rog in the Dnepropetrovsk region.

"At the Dolgintsevo airfield in the Dnepropetrovsk region, fuel depots and aviation munitions of the Ukrainian Air Force were destroyed," the ministry said in a statement.

In Zaporozhye, Russian troops eradicated a communication-jamming station. In total, Russian Armed Forces carried out strikes on enemy manpower and equipment in 107 regions, using missiles, drones and artillery systems.

Ukraine sustained especially heavy losses in Donetsk, losing up 180 soldiers killed and injured over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Over the given period, the Russian Armed Forces have repulsed three attacks by Ukrainian troops in the Donetsk area, two attacks in the Krasny Liman region and another in the South Donetsk area, the ministry said.

"During the day of hostilities, enemy losses in this direction amounted to up to 180 Ukrainian military personnel killed and wounded, two armored combat vehicles, three cars, as well as two Gvozdika self-propelled artillery units," the ministry said in a statement.

A Sputnik

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Borrell Says Total Amount of EU Assistance to Ukraine Reaches $89.8Bln

Sputnik News

20231002

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Sunday that the European Union had allocated 85 billion euros ($89.8 billion) in support to Ukraine, of which over 25 billion euros had been provided in the form of military assistance.

"Our military support to Ukraine has reached the figure of 25 billion euros. And altogether - military, civilian, humanitarian [aid] - have reached the figure of 85 billion euros, which is... the highest amount in the world," Borrell said at a press conference in Kiev.

On Saturday, Borrell arrived on an unannounced visit to Odessa, and on Sunday, he arrived in Kiev, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and new Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.

On that same day, US President Joe Biden signed a short-term funding bill to avoid a government shutdown in the US, but that bill does not include new funds for Kiev. An unnamed top Pentagon official reportedly said that the US Department of Defense had "exhausted nearly all available security assistance funding for Ukraine".

In addition, US Democrats and Republicans are now battling each-other on whether or not to continue to fund Ukraine. Thus far, the US has spent a massive $75 billion on assistance to Ukraine.

Moscow has condemned foreign military supplies to Ukraine. In April 2022, Russia sent a diplomatic note to all NATO countries on the issue of arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russia.

A Sputnik

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News / Local

by Moyo Roy

Bulawayo, October 2, 2023 - In a remarkable display of leadership and community engagement, Mayor David Coltart has taken the initiative to lead the charge in revitalizing the streets of Bulawayo through the launch of the "Big Spring Clean Up" campaign. The ambitious project aims to restore the city to its former glory by cleaning up its Central Business District and suburban areas.The City of Bulawayo made the official announcement on their Facebook page, declaring Mayor David Coltart as the driving force behind the initiative. The campaign, set to run until Saturday, October 6, 2023, is designed to engage the public, residents, and stakeholders in a collective effort to enhance the city's appearance and environment.The primary focus of the "Big Spring Clean Up" is centered on the Central Business District, which is often the heart of any city and plays a vital role in creating a positive first impression for visitors and residents alike. Additionally, suburban areas are also part of the campaign's scope, encouraging members of the public to take responsibility for their surroundings and contribute to the overall improvement of the city.The kickoff event was attended by Mayor David Coltart, who has long been a prominent figure in Bulawayo's political and community landscape. He was joined by Councillor S Sithole from Ward 1, demonstrating a united front in the city's mission to restore its pristine charm.In the Facebook post shared by The City of Bulawayo, Mayor David Coltart expressed his dedication to the cause, stating, "We must take pride in our city and work together to restore Bulawayo to its former glory. The 'Big Spring Clean Up' is an opportunity for all of us to make a difference and show that we care about our city."Furthermore, the campaign extends an invitation to residents in various wards across Bulawayo to join the clean-up efforts in their respective areas, underlining the belief that it is a collective responsibility to maintain the city's beauty and cleanliness.The "Big Spring Clean Up" initiative has gained momentum on social media, with the hashtag #MyCityMyPride becoming a rallying cry for residents and supporters alike. It serves as a reminder that the transformation of Bulawayo requires the active involvement and commitment of its citizens.As the campaign continues to unfold, the city anticipates witnessing not only a physical transformation but also a renewed sense of community pride and responsibility. With Mayor David Coltart's leadership and the active participation of residents, Bulawayo is well on its way to recapturing its former glory and becoming a shining example of community-driven progress.
It is only here in Ukraine that international law can prevail, and it will - address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

President of Ukraine

2 October 2023 - 22:29

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

Today is a European and EU day in Ukraine.

It's a very symbolic day: you can feel what it will look like, what it will sound like, what issues will be resolved and how they will be resolved when Ukraine fully joins the European Union.

Today, the EU Foreign Affairs Council held an offsite meeting in Kyiv.

All the foreign ministers of the member states, representatives of the European Commission and High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell were present. It was a very productive and substantive meeting. Truly in the interests of the whole of Europe.

This is the first time that this Council has met outside the European Union in such an offsite format. But it is formally outside. We all know that it is only a matter of time before Ukraine becomes a member of the EU. So the meeting has actually taken place in the EU already. Objectively, our country is a leader in protecting the very foundations on which European unity rests. The unity of modern Europe, which values human freedom and equality of nations, values international law.

Today we talked, in particular, about Ukraine's full accession to the EU.

Our key integration goal is to hammer out a decision this year to start membership negotiations. And today I heard once again at the meetings and negotiations that this is absolutely possible. Ukraine will definitely fulfill its part of the work - the seven recommendations of the European Commission.

And it is very important that on the part of the European Union, all its member states, there is a similar readiness for a political decision on Ukraine, on beginning negotiations.

Today I had the opportunity to talk to all the top EU diplomats at the bilateral level, at the level of the entire community. We had a good discussion on many issues.

The key, of course, is our defense in this war, which is Russia's aggression not only against Ukraine as a state, but also against Ukraine as a symbol of how free and democratic Europe can be.

I thank our partners for their support - military, economic and sanctions-related. Today we paid special attention to the issue of sanctions. To Russia's attempts to circumvent sanctions. I believe that every attempt by Russia to break the sanctions regimes and international law requires a strong response from the world.

Any criminals - and especially criminals like those in Moscow - understand only the language of force and the inevitability of punishment.

I had good bilateral meetings with Mr. Borrell and with the Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy, Mr. Tajani. Our defense, our cooperation. We discussed a lot of issues.

I am grateful to Mr. Borrell for his sincere and kind faith in Ukraine and for his unwavering support.

I would also like to thank the whole of Italy, personally Mrs. Giorgia Meloni, and the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs for especially sensitive assistance, in particular in the reconstruction of Odesa: an agreement was signed with Italy to restore Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral in Odesa, which was destroyed by a Russian missile. Regardless of how much Russia destroys history and culture, Europe is capable of restoring everything. And this is the strength of Europe, our Europe - free and solidary.

I would like to thank Denmark for its decision to open a branch of its Embassy in Mykolaiv. This is an exemplary case of patronage over the reconstruction of the region and an absolutely effective way to implement our agreements with Prime Minister Frederiksen. Thank you!

In general, today we had quite a substantive discussion on the operation of our ports and security in the Black Sea. On grain exports and food stability in the world.

We also discussed bolstering air defense. I am grateful to our partners for their understanding.

I also met with the Minister of Defense of Estonia. I am grateful for the support already provided. And it is a tangible support. 16 defense packages from Estonia. Today we discussed our further cooperation.

Plus two phone calls.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. We talked about political cooperation. About Solidarity Lanes in Europe and the Ukrainian grain exports, about support for our farmers. It is very important that everyone in Europe adheres to European norms and does not violate the agreements. This is a clear principle of Ukraine, and it is important that the same principle underlies the decisions of all European policy actors.

I also spoke with President of the Government of Spain Pedro SAnchez. I thanked him for the principled defense and political support. Ukraine hopes for an effective Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU. We also discussed the international events that we are preparing for together with Spain.

Another important result today is that our Peace Formula is gaining more and more support. Thank you for that, too.

And some more words of gratitude. Our warriors.

The 58th separate motorized infantry brigade named after Hetman Vyhovskyi, our glorious "Seventy-ninth" of the Air Assault Forces and the 128th separate brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces - thank you, warriors, for your extremely steadfast and effective defense in the areas of Urozhaine, Maryinka, and Staromaiorske. You are Ukraine's true strength. Well done!

Glory to everyone who fights for our country and people! Thank you to everyone who helps!

All the support for Ukraine, every step to help us will surely be repaid with global security to those who support us. When Russian aggression is defeated on our soil, the very idea of aggression will be crushed. It is only now that international law can prevail - only here, only in Ukraine.

And it will prevail. We will be victorious!

Glory to Ukraine!

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President of Ukraine received the Minister of Defense of Estonia

President of Ukraine

2 October 2023 - 20:42

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a meeting with Minister of Defense of the Republic of Estonia Hanno Pevkur, who is on a visit to Ukraine.

The Head of State thanked Estonia for its leadership in providing comprehensive, efficient and timely assistance to Ukraine to counter Russian ongoing full-scale aggression.

"I am grateful to your government, society, and everyone who stands by Ukrainians in the face of Russia's full-scale war. This is extremely important. We will never forget this. You helped us a lot, and we appreciate it. It was especially important in the first days of the Russian invasion," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

The President informed his interlocutor about the situation on the battlefield and priority needs of the Ukrainian defense forces. The parties discussed the possibilities of additional mechanisms of defense assistance to Ukraine from Estonia.

The leading role of the Republic of Estonia in launching the IT coalition for Ukraine during the recent Ramstein meeting was also noted.

The parties exchanged views on further cooperation between the two countries on the path of Ukraine's European and Euro-Atlantic integration.



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Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a phone call with the President of the Government of Spain

President of Ukraine

2 October 2023 - 19:42

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a phone call with President of the Government of Spain Pedro SAnchez.

The Head of State thanked the Spanish people and government for their principled political and military support of Ukraine.

The parties discussed further defense cooperation between the two countries.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy also expressed hope that Spain's Presidency of the Council of the European Union would be effective in opening negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU.

The parties discussed upcoming international events and topical security issues on the common European agenda.

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Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine had a phone call with Jake Sullivan

President of Ukraine

2 October 2023 - 19:20

As part of the ongoing dialogue with allies, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak had a phone call with National Security Advisor to the President of the United States Jake Sullivan.

Andriy Yermak informed his interlocutor about the frontline developments, as well as the recent Russian air attacks using Iranian drones on Ukrainian infrastructure facilities.

The parties discussed the urgent defense needs of the Ukrainian defense forces.

Andriy Yermak and Jake Sullivan summarized the results of the recent successful visit of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the United States. In particular, they discussed joint arms production as part of ongoing U.S. efforts to help Ukraine strengthen its military over the long term.

Separately, the Head of the President's Office spoke about the results of the first International Defense Industries Forum held last week in Kyiv.

Andriy Yermak expressed gratitude to U.S. President Joseph Biden, the U.S. Congress for the continued support of Ukraine, and to all the people of America who support Ukrainians and our defenders in confronting Russia's unjust aggression and authoritarianism.

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President met with Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy

President of Ukraine

2 October 2023 - 18:38

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy Antonio Tajani, who is in Kyiv to participate in a meeting of the EU-Ukraine Foreign Ministers.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Italy for its solidarity and comprehensive support of Ukraine in countering full-scale Russian aggression.

"I would like to thank your country, the government, the Prime Minister for their political support of our country in all matters. I also want to express my gratitude to the Italian society," he said.

The President expressed hope that the topic of Ukraine would be among the key priorities of Italy's G7 Presidency in 2024.

The Head of State informed on the situation on the battlefield and the priority needs of the Ukrainian defense forces. Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Italy's accession to the coalition for demining Ukraine and the IT coalition. The parties emphasized the importance of further increasing defense support for our country, in particular, bolstering air defense to protect Ukrainian civilians and grain infrastructure.

The parties discussed the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula and the planned Global Peace Summit.

"The participation of the Global South in the implementation of the Formula remains important for Ukraine. I am confident that Italy can play an important role in engaging them," Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized.

Special attention was paid to the issues of further support of our country by the Italian Republic on its way to the EU and NATO, as well as to the topic of security guarantees following the G7 Joint Declaration of Support for Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Italy's readiness to take Odesa under its patronage, in particular, to finance the reconstruction of Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral and other historical monuments of the city damaged by Russian missile attacks.

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Head of State discussed Ukrainian grain exports and support for Ukraine with the President of the European Commission

President of Ukraine

2 October 2023 - 17:46

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a phone call with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

The Head of State expressed gratitude for holding the offsite meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers in Kyiv.

"This is an important signal of unity between the EU and Ukraine," he emphasized.

The interlocutors coordinated positions on the eve of upcoming international events.

In addition, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ursula von der Leyen discussed alternative export corridors for Ukrainian agricultural products.

The parties agreed to maintain constructive dialogue on lifting unilateral restrictions on the export of Ukrainian agricultural products by EU member states and to seek ways to support Ukrainian farmers.

The President commended the initiative of the European Commission to prepare a financial instrument to help our country - the Ukraine Facility worth EUR 50 billion for a four-year period and noted the necessity of its further endorsement by all EU member states.

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President had a meeting with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

President of Ukraine

2 October 2023 - 17:31

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a meeting with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell, who is on a visit to Ukraine to participate in a meeting of the EU-Ukraine Foreign Ministers.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy commended the holding of the first-ever offsite meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers in Kyiv.

"We are sincerely grateful to the EU and its member states for this confirmation of unity in support of Ukraine," the Head of State noted.

The President emphasized the importance of speeding up the provision of international military assistance to our country. In this context, he stressed the need to allocate a new, eighth tranche of EUR 500 million under the European Peace Facility (EPF) to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as to create a special Fund for assistance to Ukraine in the amount of EUR 20 billion under the EPF to sustainably meet our country's defense needs for 2024-2027.

He also stressed the need for all EU member states to approve the European Commission's initiative to launch the Ukraine Facility, which provides for the allocation of EUR 50 billion to our country over the next four years.

The parties discussed the need to adopt the 12th package of EU sanctions against Russia as soon as possible and its key priorities.

The Head of State emphasized that Ukraine counts on the positive assessment of the European Commission within the Enlargement Package and the decision of the European Council to launch negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU by the end of this year.

The President of Ukraine expressed gratitude for the active participation of the European Union in the implementation of all points of the Ukrainian Peace Formula.

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Our common victory explicitly depends on our cooperation - speech by the President of Ukraine at the EU-Ukraine Foreign Ministers' meeting

President of Ukraine

2 October 2023 - 15:54

Mr. Borrell!

Ladies and gentlemen!

Distinguished guests!

I am pleased to welcome you to Ukraine and to note the fact that the work of the EU institutions and European representatives in Ukraine and with Ukraine has become quite commonplace.

It is through such work in various formats and at various levels that we ensure the restoration of the integrity of our common European home - the integrity of Europe, which is impossible without Ukraine.

We consider today's meeting - the offsite session of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Ukraine - not only as a significant manifestation of solidarity with Ukraine, but also as a new step towards strengthening our Europe, adding to Europe's leadership and initiative.

It is very important for all of us to be able to take such steps in every area - steps forward, without halting. Adding to Europe's activity, adding to Europe's leadership.

We need to constantly take new steps - defense and diplomatic, political and integration, economic and sanctions-related - that will consolidate our common ground. The more activity, leadership and initiatives we show, the fewer chances Russia will have to adapt to our joint pressure.

Of its own accord, Russia has become an anti-European force that terrorizes and tries to undermine all the foundations of a stable and peaceful life in Europe. Most of the crises that our continent is experiencing have been provoked or fueled by Russia in one way or another. This has to stop. Hence, Russia must lose. Hence, we have to put pressure. Constant pressure. We must constantly bring the time of security for Europe closer.

Ladies and gentlemen!

We have already achieved significant results. And Ukraine is grateful to all of you for this vital assistance.

We continue our offensive at the front. And step by step we are liberating our territory. It is extremely important not to stop and to destroy the positions of the Russian military and their logistics so that the occupier cannot adapt.

We are protecting our people and economy from Russian terrorist attacks. In September alone, Russia used 246 missiles of various types, 746 combat drones (including 538 Iranian Shaheds), and 1159 guided bombs against Ukraine. The overwhelming majority of these strikes were aimed at civilian targets. Everything is equally a target for Russia - ordinary houses, central squares, schools, grain elevators, grain warehouses, ports, our power plants... Ukraine is grateful for every air defense system provided by our partners! We have managed to save tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of infrastructure facilities.

And the support that ensures all of this must be continued. This is the first point I would like to emphasize today: activity in providing support. This is literally an activity in protecting lives.

Ukraine is grateful for the initiative to set up a separate defense segment worth 20 billion euros within the European Peace Facility to sustainably meet our defense needs. It is important to implement it in practice swiftly. We also look forward to the unblocking and disbursement of the 8th tranche of assistance in the amount of 500 million euros within the European Peace Facility.

The implementation of the European strategy for the supply of artillery shells needs to be accelerated. This includes both joint procurement and increasing the production capacity of the European defense industry. We all need to understand that this is not only of security importance, as Russia is convinced not only by force, but also of economic one. The stronger the industrial potential of Europe, the better it is for Europeans.

A few days ago we held the first Defense Industries Forum in Ukraine. More than 250 defense companies from over 30 countries were represented at the Forum. In particular, there were many European companies. This is a clear confirmation that the existing defense potential of both our country and all European countries can be significantly expanded. And this is just one of the multiple areas where Ukraine is already significantly enhancing the joint European potential.

The training of the military - in particular, of our troops in the framework of the European Union Military Assistance Mission - also needs to be expanded. An obvious priority is to expand the range of training - to involve servicemen of our National Guard, State Border Guard Service, National Police, and Security Service of Ukraine in relevant training. Now, defending ourselves against aggression, we are gaining much-needed defense experience in modern warfare. The more successful our warriors are in defense, the more defense experience Ukraine will be able to share with you, with our partners.

And a few other defense components.

I am grateful to those European Union states that have joined our aircraft coalition. Now we are preparing our pilots and infrastructure in Ukraine to use the F16s. And this will definitely help our defense against Russian terror. We count on the integration of modules for training Ukrainian F16 pilots and engineers into the EUMAM Ukraine.

It is also very important to maximize the reinforcement of Ukraine's sky shield in the run-up to winter. The air defense systems our country received, such as Patriot, IRIS-T, NASAMS and others, are already playing a positive role and saving lives. We need more of these systems - in particular, a few Patriots for the protection of our southern regions can fundamentally change the situation and to a large extent make Russian terror meaningless.

The second point is the Peace Formula. We must actively continue our diplomatic work to involve as many world leaders and states as possible in the implementation of our Formula. Objectively, it is in the interests of the world majority that the Peace Formula be fully implemented. And I am grateful to all those who have joined the effort and help us broaden participation, including the countries of the Global South.

We have already had important meetings in Denmark - Copenhagen, and in Jeddah. We are preparing the third meeting now. And step by step we are bringing the Global Peace Summit closer.

Ukraine counts on your countries' further engagement in the working groups established in accordance with the provisions of the Peace Formula and in efforts to involve African, Latin American and Asian countries in the work with the Formula. The whole world should be equally interested in the full force of international law.

The third thing that is important to emphasize today is security guarantees.

Obviously, ensuring geopolitical stability is a key prerequisite for lasting peace. NATO ensures such stability in Europe.

We all agree that Ukraine will be a member of the Alliance. And the experience of the past decades shows how important this is. And how dangerous it is when there is a certain gray area in Europe without geopolitical stability. It is these gray areas that tempt the aggressor.

We understand all the difficulties on the way to the Alliance. That is why we are currently working on security guarantees until Ukraine becomes a member of NATO. The architecture of such guarantees can help us with geopolitical stability. All of us - I emphasize, all of us, not just Ukraine.

We are grateful to the G7 and all the states that are already working with us on relevant security commitments. Already 20 EU member states have joined the Declaration on guarantees, and it will be a powerful step when the other 7 states of the EU accede. Each such step towards accession is a clear signal to Russia that there is no alternative to peace and stability.

We expect to sign the first bilateral agreements on guarantees with our partners by the end of the year.

The fourth point is sanctions.

Sanctions pressure on Russia is obviously not enough, dear partners. This is evident, first of all, in the growing number of drone strikes and air strikes by Russian terrorists. More joint work is needed to counter any form and scheme of Russia's circumvention of sanctions. Any supply to Russia that allows it to increase its military production must stop. This is in the clear interest not only of Ukraine, but also of everyone in the world who wants this war to end as soon as possible. And I thank those of you who are already helping us in a powerful way to counter sanctions circumvention.

Drafting a new EU sanctions package needs to be intensified as well. Any sanctions pauses prolong Russian aggression, and the pause after the 11th sanctions package has dragged on too long already.

Obviously, sanctions are needed against the Russian nuclear industry - both for what Russia is doing at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and as a security measure against the use of dubious Russian nuclear technologies. Dubious from both a security and political point of view.

It is also necessary to continue sanctions pressure on other sectors of the terrorist state's economy.

It is also important to expand sanctions against Iran in sensitive industries, including the import of equipment and chemicals. Every Iranian combat drone that hits European cities in Ukraine is a reason for sanctions pressure.

And the fifth point is integration and recovery.

Despite the full-scale war, we continue the institutional development of our country. Ukraine is constantly getting stronger. We have already demonstrated a historically important example of resilience when, after Russia's attack on February 24 last year, our institutions withstood and continued functioning for the sake of the state and people. This proves the strength of Europe, the European state, and the European way of life. And we are adding to our strength.

Ukraine will implement the seven recommendations of the European Commission that we have received. Ukraine will be ready to start negotiations on membership, and such negotiations should begin this year. We need an appropriate political decision from Europe.

This integration step forward will show that Europe will never become weaker.

We also clearly prove that Europe is capable of overcoming everything Russia is doing to destroy Europe. The process of rebuilding Ukraine after hostilities, the process of protecting Ukraine from ruins means protecting more than just our country. It is the defense of the idea of a united Europe capable of overcoming any challenge through joint efforts and real solidarity. And I am grateful to all of you who are already helping us restore our lives. We appreciate the efforts of every country, every leader, every European company.

The launch of a financial instrument for Ukraine - the Ukraine Facility - with a total funding of 50 billion euros for the 2024-2027 period is a very important step. We hope that this instrument will be approved by the EU institutions in the near future.

We must not forget that there is a very important component to the topic of recovery, and this component is justice. The aggressor must pay for the aggression - for the damage caused by it. That is why the frozen Russian assets must be used to finance the reconstruction. We look forward to accelerating the relevant work in the European Union.

We are already actively working with partners to punish Russia for its aggression and terror. We support the work of the International Criminal Court to the fullest extent possible. But it is essential that Europe takes fair steps in relation to the assets of the terrorist state and its associates.

Dear participants!

Ladies and gentlemen!

I am confident that Ukraine and the entire free world can prevail in this confrontation.

But our victory explicitly depends on our cooperation - the more powerful and principled steps we take together, the sooner this war will end. End fairly. With the restoration of our territorial integrity and a reliable guarantee of peace for the whole of Europe.

Thank you for being here today. This is a sign of your common support for Ukraine!

Glory to Ukraine!

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the EU-Ukraine Foreign Ministers' meeting in Kyiv

President of Ukraine

2 October 2023 - 15:15

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the EU-Ukraine Foreign Ministers' meeting in Kyiv.

In his speech, the Head of State noted that today's offsite meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers is not only a significant manifestation of solidarity with Ukraine, but also a new step towards strengthening Europe, adding to its leadership and initiative.

"It is very important for all of us to be able to take such steps in every area - steps forward, without halting. Adding to Europe's activity, adding to Europe's leadership. We need to constantly take new steps - defense and diplomatic, political and integration, economic and sanctions-related - that will consolidate our common ground. The more activity, leadership and initiatives we show, the fewer chances Russia will have to adapt to our joint pressure," Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted.

Among the important steps to be taken, the President of Ukraine mentioned: first, active defense support for Ukraine and protection of life (supplying weapons, shells, expanding the range of training for Ukrainian troops and increasing joint production capacities of the defense industry); second, involving as many world leaders and states as possible in the implementation of the Peace Formula; third, accession of seven more European countries to the security guarantees for Ukraine on its way to NATO; fourth, intensification of drafting a new EU sanctions package against Russia and expansion of sanctions against Iran; fifth, the beginning of negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the EU this year, approval by the EU institutions of a financial instrument for Ukraine - the Ukraine Facility, as well as acceleration of work in the EU to direct frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine's recovery from the damage caused by the war.

"I am confident that Ukraine and the entire free world can prevail in this confrontation. But our victory explicitly depends on our cooperation - the more powerful and principled steps we take together, the sooner this war will end. End fairly. With the restoration of our territorial integrity and a reliable guarantee of peace for the whole of Europe," the President concluded.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell noted that the EU continues to admire the heroic struggle of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people for their freedom and against Russian aggression.

"You can rest assured of our determination to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes," said Josep Borrell.

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EU Proposes Over $5 Billion in Aid for Ukraine in 2024

By VOA News October 02, 2023

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday said the bloc remains steadfast in its support for Ukraine, announcing a proposed spending package of up to $5.25 billion for Kyiv in 2024.

Borrell made the comments during a press briefing alongside Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv where EU foreign ministers convened their first ever off-site meeting in a display of support for Ukraine.

Though Monday's meeting in Kyiv was touted by Borrell as a historic first, it comes at an awkward time for the pro-Ukraine Western alliance. A pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia, an EU and NATO member, and the U.S. Congress omitted funding for Ukraine from its temporary spending bill. The Ukrainian military counter-offensive has been slower than Western leaders had hoped before autumn mud clogs the treads of their donated tanks.

"Our victory explicitly depends on our cooperation a the more powerful and principled steps we take together, the sooner this war will end," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the EU Foreign ministers during the meeting.

Zelenskyy noted that Ukraine continues to protect its people and its economy from continuous Russian attacks, that its counteroffensive aimed at liberating its occupied territories is progressing steadily and reminded the EU leadership that Ukraine needs more money, more weapons and more military training to achieve its goals. He also asked them to intensify sanctions against Russia.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for efforts to prepare Ukraine for the coming winter, including through air defense and guaranteed energy supplies, after Russia bombed Ukraine's energy infrastructure last year.

"Last winter, we saw the brutal way in which the Russian president is waging this war," said Baerbock. "We must prevent this together with everything we have, as far as possible."

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said holding the meeting in Ukraine's capital was a show of "resolute and lasting support for Ukraine."

"It is also a message to Russia that it should not count on our weariness. We will be there for a long time to come," Colonna told reporters.

Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot said Russia must be held accountable for its aggression in Ukraine and that it is important to pressure Russia with sanctions.

"We have to do whatever it takes, as long as it takes, for the freedom of the people of Ukraine," she said.

Russian shelling

Meanwhile, at least two people were killed and 10 were injured, including children, by Russian shelling of Ukraine's southern region of Kherson. Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces pounded residential areas, shops, medical facilities and other infrastructure overnight.

In the eastern city of Kharkiv, which is located near the Russian border, officials announced plans to build a school entirely underground in response to frequent Russian bomb and missile attacks.

Students have used online courses and met in Kharkiv's metro stations to avoid the dangers.

Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram that the new underground school "will enable thousands of Kharkiv children to continue their safe face-to-face education even during missile threats."

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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News / Local

by Staff reporter

A MAN allegedly followed his neighbour and stabbed him in the left side of the chest during a dispute at a 21st birthday party in Nkulumane.The incident occurred on 30 September after 2am.In a statement, Bulawayo police spokeperson Inspector Abednico Ncube said Sydney Dube, the victim, later collapsed and died."Police are seeking information that may lead to the arrest of Butho Sitsha a male adult of Nkulumane, Bulawayo who murdered his neighbor Sydney Dube a male aged 27 of Nkulumane Bulawayo."On 30 September 2023 at around 1500 hours, the now deceased attended a neighbour's 21st birthday party. At around 2200 hours, the deceased, the accused person and the accused person's elder brother Ntando Sitsha a male adult aged 43 and two other friends left the party and sat outside the yard and continued drinking beer."A misunderstanding arose after the accused person alleged that the deceased had no respect for his brother. The accused person wanted to assault the now deceased but they restrained him. At around 0200 hours, the now deceased went to his place of residence and the accused person followed him."He stabbed him on the left side of the chest and ran away. The now deceased ran into his house shouting that he had been stabbed by the accused person. Upon entering the house, Sydney Dube sat on top of the kitchen table and called his mother Agnes Dube a female adult aged 67 telling her that he had been stabbed. He then fell onto the floor and collapsed. An ambulance was called and the crew pronounced him dead upon arrival," said Insp Ncube.Insp Ncube warned members of the public against acting independently outside the scope of the law."Members of the public are urged not to take law into their own hands as they end up resorting to violence leading to unnecessary loss of lives," said Insp Ncube.
Ukraine Expresses Hope for Continued US Aid

By VOA News October 02, 2023

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Monday he believes the United States "will be able to find the necessary solutions" to continue military support for Ukraine

Speaking to reporters alongside European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Kuleba said Ukraine has had in-depth discussions with both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

He described a decision by U.S. lawmakers to strip financial support for Ukraine from a stopgap budget bill passed Saturday to halt a federal government shutdown as an "incident" rather than a systemic change in support.

"We don't feel that the U.S. support has been shattered, because the United States understands that what is at stake in Ukraine is much bigger than just Ukraine, it's about the stability and predictability of the world," Kuleba said.

Borrell, who is leading a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Kyiv on Monday, said he also believed a resolution will be found to continue U.S. aid for Ukraine.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said holding the meeting in Ukraine's capital was a show of "resolute and lasting support for Ukraine."

"It is also a message to Russia that it should not count on our weariness. We will be there for a long time to come," Colonna told reporters.

Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot said Russia must be held accountable for its aggression in Ukraine and that it is important to pressure Russia with sanctions.

"We have to do whatever it takes, as long as it takes, for the freedom of the people of Ukraine," she said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that Russia believes fatigue with the war in Ukraine will grow in Western countries, but that it expects the United States to continue its involvement.

The U.S. legislation to keep the federal government running until Nov. 17 dropped additional aid to Ukraine, a White House priority opposed by a growing number of Republican lawmakers.

In a speech Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said nothing would weaken his country's fight against Russia.

U.S. President Joe Biden pressed Sunday for congressional Republicans to back a bill to provide more aid to Ukraine, saying he was "sick and tired" of the political brinkmanship that nearly led to a government shutdown.

"We cannot under any circumstances allow America's support for Ukraine to be interrupted. I fully expect the speaker to keep his commitment to secure the passage and support needed to help Ukraine as they defend themselves against aggression and brutality," he told reporters at the White House.

Many lawmakers, however, acknowledge that winning approval for Ukraine assistance in Congress is growing more difficult as the war between Russia and Ukraine grinds on.

Voting in the House this past week pointed to potential trouble ahead. Nearly half of House Republicans voted to strip $300 million from a defense spending bill to train Ukrainian soldiers and purchase weapons. The money later was approved separately, but opponents of Ukraine support celebrated their growing numbers.

Ukraine funding dissent

Earlier Sunday, in Slovakia, the winner of parliamentary elections held over the weekend was poised to begin coalition talks to form a government opposing the EU's military aid for Ukraine.

Robert Fico's party slogan "Not a single round" for neighboring Ukraine resonated in Slovakia, a nation of 5.5 million.

"We are not changing that we are prepared to help Ukraine in a humanitarian way," said the pro-Russia Fico, whom analysts consider to be inspired by Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an opponent of the EU's commitment in arming Ukraine.

Fico said Slovakia, a NATO member, has bigger problems than the Ukraine issue, including energy prices and living costs, but added his SMER-SSD party would do everything possible to start peace talks.

Some information for this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.

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Mexican president slams US military aid for Ukraine as 'irrational, damaging'

Iran Press TV

Tuesday, 03 October 2023 2:09 AM

Mexico's president has denounced the United States' multibillion-dollar military aid for Ukraine as irrational, saying Washington must allocate those resources to help ease the migrant crisis facing Latin American countries.

"...how much have they destined for the Ukraine war? 30 to 50 billion dollars for the war. Which is the most irrational thing you can have. And damaging," Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said during his daily press conference on Monday.

He then pointed to a recent measure by US Congress, which decided to freeze further aid for Ukraine's war against Russia after passing a stopgap funding bill to temporarily avert a US government shutdown.

"I was just looking at how now they're not authorizing aid for the war in Ukraine.... So, they do have to modify their strategy and learn respect," he added.

The Mexican head of state has, on several occasions, called on Washington to devote more funds to help economic development in Central America and the Caribbean, and also assist those countries in their efforts to curb the flow of migrants towards the United States.

Since the beginning of the Ukraine war last November, Lopez Obrador has sought to keep Mexico neutral, while supporting peace talks to end the conflict and criticizing Western military aid for Kiev.

Russia has said time and again that the generous military aid extended to Ukraine by the US and its Western allies only serves to prolong the war and add to the suffering of Ukrainian people.

Moscow has also asserted that by helping out Ukraine against Russia, the West is waging a "proxy war" against Russian forces.

Speaking last month, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said through their support for Ukraine, Western countries were directly fighting against Moscow.

"You can call it anything you want, but they are fighting with us, they are straight-up fighting with us," Lavrov said, adding, "We call it a hybrid war, but that doesn't change things," the top diplomat said.

He emphasized that Western countries are "de facto fighting against us, using the hands and bodies of Ukrainians."

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Chicago, Oct. 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Optical Satellite Communication Market Size is projected to grow from USD 282 Million in 2023 to USD 1134 Million by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 32.1 % from 2023 to 2028. The Optical Satellite Communication Industry can be linked to the rising deployment of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites and satellite constellations designed for communication purposes.

Optical Satellite Communication Industry Companies: Top Key Market Players The Optical Satellite Communication Market Size is dominated by a few globally established players such as Ball Corporation (US), Mynaric AG (Switzerland), Bridge Comm Systems (US), SpaceMicro (US), Tesat Spacecom GMBH (Germany). among others, are the key manufacturers that secured Optical satellite communication contracts in the last few years. The primary focus was given to the contracts and new product development due to the changing requirements of commercial, homeland security, and defense & space users across the world.

Optical satellite communication Market Size Dynamics

Driver: Space Exploration and Scientific Research

Optical satellite communication has the potential to revolutionize space exploration and scientific research by facilitating high-bandwidth data transmission between space probes, rovers, and Earth-based research centers. This technology can enhance the efficiency and speed of data transfer in space missions.

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Combat Drone Market Dynamics

Driver: Growing adoption of combat drones due to their high precision and accuracy capabilities.

Combat drones possess cutting-edge technology that enables superior precision and accuracy in pinpointing and engaging enemy positions and objectives. Equipped with advanced targeting systems and guided munitions, these drones execute precise strikes with utmost efficiency, thereby minimizing collateral damage and optimizing mission success rates.

Restraints: Government regulations and policies restrict the deployment of optical satellite communication systems in certain regions

Government regulations and policies vary from country to country but commonly include spectrum allocation, power limits, encryption requirements, and export controls. Governments allocate specific portions of the electromagnetic spectrum for OSC systems to avoid interference with other radio transmissions. Power limits are set to mitigate potential interference issues caused by high-power transmission in OSC systems. To protect sensitive data transmission, governments often mandate encryption for OSC systems. Additionally, due to potential military applications, export controls are imposed to regulate the international trade of OSC technology.

Opportunities: Towering adoption of cloud-based services by different industries

Various industries are now using cloud-based services to provide improved services to their customers. Moreover, cloud-based services using advanced SATCOM equipment are being used extensively by first responders, emergency services agencies, law enforcement agencies, and military forces, among others.

Challenges: Atmosphere Interference.

Earth's atmosphere poses another significant challenge for optical communications. Clouds and mist can disrupt the laser signals, affecting the reliability of the communication link. To overcome this hurdle, the deployment of multiple ground stations equipped with telescopes capable of receiving infrared waves is being explored.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Optical Satellite Communication Market Size, share, value, Trends, Growth Drivers"

176  Tables

43  Figures

224  Pages

Optical Satellite Communication Companies - Ball Corporation (US) and Mynaric AG (Switzerland) are the Key Players

Ball Corporation (US)

Ball Corporation, a global leader established in 1880, excels in metal packaging and aerospace technologies. Operating in the beverage packaging and aerospace sectors, Ball offers innovative, sustainable aluminum containers for beverages and cutting-edge satellite systems. Committed to sustainability, the company focuses on reducing its carbon footprint and fostering circular economies with a widespread global presence, and Ball serves beverage brands, governments, and technology firms.

Mynaric AG (Switzerland)

Mynaric AG is a company that develops and manufactures laser communication terminals for space applications. Their products offer high-bandwidth, secure, and reliable communications between satellites, aircraft, and ground stations. Laser communication technology is a newer technology that offers several advantages over traditional radio frequency communications, such as higher bandwidth, enhanced security, and longer operational ranges. Mynaric's products have been well-received by major companies like Northrop Grumman, Capella Space, and Telesat. As the demand for high-bandwidth satellite communications grows rapidly, Mynaric is well-positioned to meet these needs with its laser communication technology.

Related Reports:

[301 Pages Report] The Airborne SATCOM Market size is projected to grow from USD 5.4 billion in 2022 to USD 7.3 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 6.5% from 2022 to 2027. The market is driven by factors such as increased use of ultra-compact SATCOM terminals for UAVs and need to enhance passenger experience.
Washington, D.C., Oct. 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Board of Directors of the Diesel Technology Forum (DTF) is pleased to announce that effective October 2, 2023, the DTF has evolved into the Engine Technology Forum, Inc. (ETF).

Building off of two-plus decades of success around the transformation of diesel technology, the scope, mission, and vision of the organization have expanded.

This change recognizes the new opportunities and challenges for diesel as well as other internal combustion engines, and fuels in powering key sectors of the global economy while contributing to reduced greenhouse gases and other emissions.



Internal combustion engines (ICE) like diesel, gasoline, and natural gas are the fundamental power behind our economy and mobility. Continued innovations in efficiency, lower emissions, new engine designs, and new fuels offer tremendous promise for the future of ICE technology and helping meet our societal goals, says ETF Executive Director Allen Schaeffer.

The new Engine Technology Forum is a place for fact-based discussions as well as debate about all options for meeting our energy, environmental, and economic goals. ETF will work with all stakeholders including government, industry, environmental, and community groups seeking solutions to reduce greenhouse gas and other emissions. ETFs work encompasses freight transport, agriculture, construction, mining, as well as other industrial and commercial applications.

There are many pathways to a reduced carbon future, and we should embrace all of them. Some technologies like internal combustion engines and cleaner fuels are more certain and available today, while others may hold greater promise for the future. Members of the new ETF are leaders in both advanced internal combustion engines and zero emissions technologies that provide the best solutions for their customers, says Schaeffer.

ETFs members represent all aspects of internal combustion engine industry including engine, vehicle, and equipment manufacturers, emissions control and other component suppliers, as well as petroleum, renewable fuel producers, specialty chemical companies along with their allied organizations.

Through education, outreach, research, and collaboration, ETF, a 501c(6) organization will raise awareness that internal combustion engines, vehicles, equipment, and technology using renewable and other fuels, are valued options that can contribute to decarbonizing key sectors of the economy. The Forum will share news about the innovations in internal combustion engines, vehicles, technology and fuels through its various educational outreach campaigns, events, and its new website.

Engine Technology Forum members include; AGCO, Caterpillar, Chevrons Renewable Energy Group, Clean Fuels Alliance America, Cummins, FPT Powertrain Technologies, General Motors, Innospec, Isuzu, John Deere, Johnson Matthey, Kubota Engine America, mtu-a Rolls-Royce solution, Neste, Stanadyne, Stellantis, Tenneco, Umicore, Volvo, Western States Petroleum Association, and Yanmar.

###

About the Engine Technology Forum

Founded on the principles of fact-based education, science, outreach and collaboration, the Engine Technology Forum is dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of the benefits of advanced internal combustion engines and the fuels that they use and how these contribute to a sustainable future. Please join us. We also invite you to connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Sign up for our digital newsletter, too.
NEW YORK, Oct. 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C., a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm, is investigating potential claims against Xponential Fitness, Inc. (NYSE: XPOF), Bowlero Corp. (NYSE: BOWL), and Advance Auto Parts, Inc. (NYSE: AAP). Our investigations concern whether these companies have violated the federal securities laws and/or engaged in other unlawful business practices. Additional information about each case can be found at the link provided.



Xponential Fitness, Inc. (NYSE: XPOF)

Xponential purports to be the largest global franchisor of boutique fitness brands and went public on July 21, 2021 at $12.00 per share. On April 6, 2022, an entity affiliated with Xponential's Chairman of the Board sold 5.175M shares at $20.00 per share in a secondary offering. On February 8, 2023, Xponential's founder and CEO, Anthony Geisler, and the Chairman's entity sold 5.75 million shares at $24.50 per share in another secondary equity offering.

Before the market opened on June 27, 2023, Fuzzy Panda Research published a report Xponential Fitness (XPOF) - "Abusive Franchisor That Is A House of Cards". The report alleges Geisler, "has a long history of misleading investors and business partners.We discovered XPOF is hiding the fact that many of their brands and franchisees are struggling."

On this news, Xponential's stock price has fallen intraday $7.62 per share to $17.51, a drop of 30.3% on very heavy volume.

For more information on the Xponential investigation go to: https://bespc.com/cases/XPOF

Bowlero Corp. (NYSE: BOWL)

The investigation focuses on whether the Company issued false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose information pertinent to investors. Bowlero announced its Q3 2023 financial results on May 17, 2023. The Company disclosed as part of its results that it had failed to maintain appropriate controls over financial reporting related to, among other things, acquisitions and fixed assets. The Company also noted, Additionally, we did not design and maintain effective controls over system access controls to establish segregation of duties for those with roles and responsibilities for the general ledger.

On this news, shares of Bowlero fell more than 15% in intraday trading on May 18, 2023.

For more information on the Bowlero investigation go to: https://bespc.com/cases/BOWL

Advance Auto Parts, Inc. (NYSE: AAP)

On May 31, 2023, Advance Auto Parts revealed disappointing results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2023, including a net sales decrease of more than 1.6% compared to the prior year and an operating margin rate of 2.6%, well below expectations due to higher than planned investments to narrow competitive price gaps in the professional sales channel as well as unfavorable product mix. Advance Auto Parts also disclosed that it was slashing its full year 2023 guidance, which it had provided just three months earlier, given that it now expect[s] the competitive dynamics . . . faced in the first quarter to continue. Advance Auto Parts further revealed that it was cutting its quarterly dividend by 84% to provide enhanced financial flexibility.

Om this news, the price of Advance Auto Parts stock declined approximately 35%.

For more information on the Advance Auto Parts investigation go to: https://bespc.com/cases/AAP

About Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.:

Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. is a nationally recognized law firm with offices in New York, California, and South Carolina. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in commercial, securities, derivative, and other complex litigation in state and federal courts across the country. For more information about the firm, please visit www.bespc.com . Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

Contact Information:

Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.

Brandon Walker, Esq.

Marion Passmore, Esq.

(212) 355-4648

investigations@bespc.com

www.bespc.com
NEWARK, Del, Oct. 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global coconut oil market valuation is US$ 6,049.4 million in 2023 and is expected to reach US$ 11,684.5 million by 2033. The global market is likely to register a CAGR of 7% through 2033.



Stay Ahead in the Coconut Oil Boom Explore the Latest Trends Sample Report Available: Request to Download a Sample Report

Several trends are contributing to a key role in the global market. A few of these are as follows:

Organic and Non-GMO Products: The increasing demand for organic and non-GMO products is increasing the demand for coconut oil. Consumers are increasing the adoption of clean-label, organic, and natural products.

Sustainability and Ethical Sourcing: Manufacturers are concerned about the environment and are producing sustainable coconut oil production processes. They are offering clean packaging solutions with ethical sourcing practices to maintain a healthy environment.

Virgin and Extra Virgin Coconut Oil: The demand for virgin and extra virgin coconut oil is rising due to its natural flavor, high-quality, and purity foam. Its less processed and more natural nutrients are popularly growing among customers.

Popularity of Plant-based Products: Fitness freak consumers are rapidly surging the adoption of coconut oil to maintain healthy fats and minerals and enhance their digestion.

Flavored Coconut Oil: Key companies are promoting their brands by adding natural ingredients with coconut oil, such as garlic-infusion coconut oil. Due to its uniqueness and biological properties, consumers are attracted to enhance their experiences.

Packaging Innovation: Manufacturers are offering advanced packaging solutions to reduce environmental impacts. They are promoting their brands with innovative packaging styles to reduce carbon footprints.

Local Sourcing: Consumers are more focused on paying attention to products that are made from local sourcing. It leads to enhancing and supporting local economies.

eCommerce: The rapidly growing e-commerce offering varieties of coconut oil is attracting consumers to buy these products with suitable discounts.

Premium Products: The adoption of high-quality and premium products by consumers due to their original taste, fragrance, and purity are driving the global market size.

"Quality of products is the quality of life. Sustainable practices adopted by consumers promote sales of high-quality products. The rising awareness about organic and natural coconut oil is contributing to the growth of the coconut oil market", opines Ronak Shah, Associate Vice President at Future Market Insights, Inc.

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Key Takeaways coconut oil market:

The global coconut oil market is registering a CAGR of 7% from 2023 to 2033.





The United States holds a maximum share of 10% by dominating the global market.





Japan accounts for a share of 2.9% of the global market in 2023.





Germany significantly drives the global market with its vintage home decor, with a share of 3.8%.





With a share of 9.5%, China is rapidly advancing in the global market.





Key Players Adding Values in the Global Coconut Oil Market:

The essential players highly consolidate the global market. They are innovating advanced and innovative products to build their business portfolio in the global market. These players are adopting strategic innovations, agreements, collaborations, and mergers to uplift the global market size.

Companies are launching new products in exhibitions to promote their brand value and reach more audiences to boost their sales. The key players are focusing on consumers' requirements and offering them a solution. The adoption of these tactics will help in achieving their goals.

Key Segments in the Coconut Oil Market:

By Nature:

Organic Coconut Oil

Conventional Coconut Oil

By Product Type:

Virgin or Extra Virgin

Refined

Partially Hydrogenated





By End-use sector:

Food and Beverages

Cosmetics and Personal Care

Pharmaceutical

Household/ Retail

Others





By Distribution Channel:

Business to Business

Business to Consumer Hypermarkets/ Supermarkets Traditional Grocery Store Convenience Stores Specialty Stores Online Retail







By Region:

North America

Latin America

Europe

East Asia

South Asia

Oceania

Middle East and Africa





Author by:



Nandini Roy Choudhury (Client Partner for Food & Beverages at Future Market Insights, Inc.) has 7+ years of management consulting experience. She advises industry leaders and explores off-the-eye opportunities and challenges. She puts processes and operating models in place to support their business objectives.

She has exceptional analytical skills and often brings thought leadership to the table.

Nandini has vast functional expertise in key niches, including but not limited to food ingredients, nutrition & health solutions, animal nutrition, and marine nutrients. She is also well-versed in the pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, retail, and chemical sectors, where she advises market participants to develop methodologies and strategies that deliver results.

Her core expertise lies in corporate growth strategy, sales and marketing effectiveness, acquisitions and post-merger integration and cost reduction. Nandini has an MBA in Finance from MIT School of Business. She also holds a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering from Nagpur University, India.

Nandini has authored several publications, and quoted in journals including Beverage Industry, Bloomberg, and Wine Industry Advisor.

Explore FMIs related ongoing Coverage on the Food and Beverage Market Domain:

Coconut Sugar Market: is projected to increase from US$ 3,635.3 million in 2023 to US$ 4,936.2 million by 2033. Sales of the coconut sugar market are expected to increase at 3.6% CAGR over the forecast period between 2023 and 2033.



Coconut Flour Market: is estimated to be valued at USD 2,100 Million in the year 2022 and is estimated to grow at an unprecedented rate to achieve a value of USD 6,699 Million by the year 2032 with a CAGR of 12.3% during the assessment period 2022 to 2032.

Coconut Milk Market: is estimated to hold a market value of USD 1152.71 Million in the year 2022, and owing to the versatile adoption of coconut milk and demand for coconut milk it is expected to have a robust growth rate registering a CAGR of 7% and reaching a healthy coconut milk market size of USD 2131.6 Million by the year 2032.

Coconut Derived Surfactants Market: is likely to be evaluated at US$ 1,886.9 million in 2023. The market is expected to reach US$ 2,606.8 million in 2033 and exhibit immense growth at a CAGR of 3.3% in the forecast period.

Desiccated Coconut Market: is estimated to be valued at US$ 8.2 Bn in 2022 and is projected to reach US$ 13.7 Bn by 2032. The global market is set to grow at a CAGR of 5.3% from 2022 to 2032.

About Future Market Insights (FMI)

Future Market Insights, Inc. (ESOMAR certified, recipient of the Stevie Award, and a member of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce) offers profound insights into the driving factors that are boosting demand in the market. FMI stands as the leading global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, consulting, and events for the Packaging, Food and Beverage, Consumer Technology, Healthcare, Industrial, and Chemicals markets. With a vast team of over 5000 analysts worldwide, FMI provides global, regional, and local expertise on diverse domains and industry trends across more than 110 countries.




Wilmington, Delaware, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Meat Processing Automation Robots Market is estimated at a market value of US$ 224 million in 2023 and is predicted to rise at a substantial CAGR of 12% during the forecast period of 2023 and 2030 according to RationalStat analysis.

Market Definition, Market Scope, and Report Overview

Meat processing automation robots are robotic systems that are specifically built for meat processing operations. To handle activities such as cutting, deboning, portioning, packaging, and palletizing meat products, these robots are outfitted with diverse technologies such as computer vision, machine learning, and advanced grippers.

Robots may be readily sanitized and maintained to fulfill high hygiene standards, reducing the risk of contamination and assuring food safety. Meat processing robots can be trained to handle a variety of cuts and varieties of meat, allowing meat processors to offer a broader selection of goods to customers.

According to a deep-dive market assessment by RationalStat, the global Meat Processing Automation Robots market has been analyzed on the basis of market segments, including type and geography/regions (including North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific) . The report also offers global and regional market sizing for the historical period of 2019-2022 and the forecast period of 2023-2030.

. The report also offers global and regional market sizing for the historical period of 2019-2022 and the forecast period of 2023-2030. Market intelligence for the global Meat Processing Automation Robots market covers market sizes on the basis of market value (US$/EUR Million) and volume (Units) by various products/services/equipment, demand assessment across the key regions, customer sentiments, price points, cost structures, margin analysis across the value chain, financial assessments, historical and forecast data, key developments across the industry, import-export data, trade overview, components market by leading companies, etc.

In addition, the long-term sector and products/services 10-year outlook and its implications on the global Meat Processing Automation Robots market. It also includes the industry's current state  Production Levels, Capacity Utilization, Tech quotient, etc. Key information will be manufacturing capacity by country, installed base, import volumes, market size, key players, market size, dynamics, market data, insights, etc.

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Global Meat Processing Automation Robots Market: Segmental and Market Share Analysis

On the basis of type, 6-axis segment dominate the global meat processing automation robots market. In many advanced meat processing facilities, 6-axis robots are often preferred due to their versatility and ability to handle a wide range of tasks.





Report Synopsis

Report Metrics Details Base Year 2023 Forecast Period 2023-2030 Base Year Market Size US$ 224 million Market Size Forecast US$ 495.2 million Growth Rate 12% Key Market Drivers Increasing infrastructure development

Rising population and urbanization

Technological advancements Companies Profiled Marel

Scott Automation & Robotics

JBT Corporation

Yaskawa America, Inc

KUKA AG

Fanuc Corporation

Staubli International AG

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Competition Analysis and Market Structure

Prominent companies and leading players adopt various strategies in order to reinforce their market share and gain a competitive edge over other competitors in the market. Mergers & acquisitions, partnerships and collaborations, and product launches are some of the strategies followed by industry players. Some of the key developments in the global meat processing automation robots market include,

In March 2022, Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network announced the two recipients the US$5 million Beef and Pork Primary Processing Automation and Robotics Program.

Some of the prominent players and suppliers operating and contributing significantly to the global meat processing automation robots market growth include Marel, Scott Automation & Robotics, JBT Corporation, Yaskawa America, Inc, KUKA AG, Fanuc Corporation, and Staubli International AG, among others.

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RationalStat has segmented the global meat processing automation robots market based on type and region

Global Meat Processing Automation Robots Market Value (US$ Million), Volume (Units), and Market Share (2019-2030) Analysis by Type 4-axis 5-axis 6-axis Others

Global Meat Processing Automation Robots Market Value (US$ Million), Volume (Units), and Market Share (2019-2030) Analysis by Region North America Meat Processing Automation Robots Market US Canada Latin America Meat Processing Automation Robots Market Brazil Mexico Rest of Latin America Western Europe Meat Processing Automation Robots Market Germany UK France Spain Italy Benelux Nordic Rest of Western Europe Eastern Europe Meat Processing Automation Robots Market Russia Poland Hungary Other CIS Countries Rest of Eastern Europe Asia Pacific Meat Processing Automation Robots Market China Japan India South Korea Australia ASEAN Indonesia Thailand Philippines Vietnam Malaysia Rest of ASEAN Rest of Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa Meat Processing Automation Robots Market GCC Saudi Arabia (KSA) United Arab Emirates (UAE) Rest of the GCC South Africa Nigeria Turkey Rest of the Middle East & Africa



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Key Questions Answered in the Meat Processing Automation Robots Report:

What will be the market value of the global Meat Processing Automation Robots market by 2030?

What is the market size of the global Meat Processing Automation Robots market?

What are the market drivers of the global Meat Processing Automation Robots market?

What are the key trends in the global Meat Processing Automation Robots market?

Which is the leading region in the global Meat Processing Automation Robots market?

What are the major companies operating in the global Meat Processing Automation Robots market?

What are the market shares by key segments in the global Meat Processing Automation Robots market?

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Research Methodology

RationalStat has developed a state-of-the-art research methodology to crunch numbers and provide the best possible real-time insights to clients. We combine a varied range of industry experience, data analytics, and experts viewpoint to create a research methodology for market sizing and forecasting.

RationalStat combines a mix of secondary sources as well as primary research to assess the market size and develop a forecast. Key steps involved in accurately deriving the market numbers are:

Defining the problem by understanding the type of market and data required by the client.

Data gathering and collection through relevant paid databases, publicly available sources, company reports, annual reports, surveys, and interviews.

Formulating a hypothesis to create market numbers, forecasts, influencing factors, and their relevance.

Evaluating and analyzing the data by referring to data sources utilized and leveraged.

Validating, interpreting, and finalizing the data by combining the details gathered from primary and secondary sources with the help of experienced analysts.

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About RationalStat LLC

RationalStat is an end-to-end global market intelligence and consulting company that provides comprehensive market research reports, customized strategy, and consulting studies. The company has sales offices in India, Mexico, and the US to support global and diversified businesses. The company has over 80 consultants and industry experts, developing more than 850 market research and industry reports for its report store annually.

RationalStat has strategic partnerships with leading data analytics and consumer research companies to cater to the clients needs. Additional services offered by the company include consumer research, country reports, risk reports, valuations and advisory, financial research, due diligence, procurement and supply chain research, data analytics, and analytical dashboards.

Contact

RationalStat LLC

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Dublin, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Hospital Asset Management Systems Market Report and Forecast 2023-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



Global hospital asset management systems market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 30.3% between 2023 and 2028. Aided by the escalating need for efficient hospital operations and the intensifying demand for technological integrations in healthcare institutions, the market is expected to grow significantly by 2028.

Hospital asset management systems play a pivotal role in healthcare institutions by efficiently monitoring, managing, and tracking a wide range of assets, including crucial medical equipment and non-medical resources. These systems employ cutting-edge technologies like RFID, RTLS, and barcoding to enhance operational efficiency, improve patient care, and prevent asset misplacement or theft.

The global hospital asset management systems market is experiencing robust growth due to the pressing need for streamlined hospital operations. Rising patient admissions have led to increased demand for seamless processes, reduced equipment downtime, and rapid asset location and retrieval. By effectively managing assets, hospitals can ensure prompt patient care, resulting in better patient outcomes and overall operational efficiency.

Technological advancements integrated into healthcare systems have further contributed to the surging popularity of asset management systems. These sophisticated solutions offer real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance alerts, and comprehensive analytics, providing a holistic view of asset utilization and supporting informed decision-making.

In addition to operational advantages, these systems deliver financial benefits, driving demand in the hospital asset management systems market. Hospitals can significantly reduce costs associated with asset theft, misplacement, and unplanned maintenance through efficient asset management. Moreover, by optimizing asset use, these systems enhance return on investment, making a strong case for their adoption.

The versatility of hospital asset management systems extends across various hospital departments, further promoting market growth. In the pharmaceutical sector, these systems aid in monitoring drug interactions, ensuring accurate medication dispensation, and tracking drug inventory.

Surgical departments benefit from precise tracking of surgical instruments to prevent misplacements. On the administrative front, these systems help monitor staff performance, attendance, and movement, ensuring efficient staff allocation and overall operational improvement.

This report explores key market players' developments, including market shares, plant turnarounds, capacities, investments, mergers, and acquisitions in the global hospital asset management systems market.

Key Attributes:

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 172 Forecast Period 2023 - 2028 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2023 $42.68 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2028 $160.3 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 30.3% Regions Covered Global

Competitive Landscape

Accruent, LLC

AiRISTA Flow, Inc.

GE Healthcare

SmartPoint Technologies Pvt Ltd

Impinj, Inc.

Others

Market Segmentation

Market Breakup by Product Type

Radio-frequency Identification (RFID)

Real-time Location Systems (RTLS)

Ultrasound and Infrared Tags

Market Breakup by Application

Supply Chain Management

Staff Management

Patient Management

Instrument Management

Market Breakup by End Use

Hospitals

Laboratories

Others

Market Breakup by Region

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East and Africa

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/kykcp7

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Attachment
ST. JOHNS, Newfoundland and Labrador, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kraken Robotics Inc. (Kraken or the Company) (TSX-V: PNG, OTCQB: KRKNF) is pleased to announce its recent participation at Exercise REPMUS 23 in Portugal. The Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping with Maritime Unmanned System (REPMUS) is focused on capability development and interoperability, and the 2023 Exercise involved 15 NATO partners, as well as Sweden and Ireland. Krakens field support team was onsite throughout the exercise, working closely with three NATO navy teams (the US, UK, and Netherlands) utilizing three generations of HIIs REMUS unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), all of which were retrofitted with Krakens Man-Portable Synthetic Aperture Sonar (MP-SAS). The UUVs included MK18 Mod 1, REMUS 100 NGR, and REMUS 300 underwater vehicles, showing the versatility of MP-SAS and its capability to be used across multiple platforms.



Krakens MP-SAS provided ultra-high resolution real time 3 cm x 3 cm imagery, with swaths of over 200 meters (>100 meters range per side), providing operators with a significantly increased area coverage rate when compared to legacy sidescan sonars (SSS) with typical ranges of <30 meters per side. Kraken also took part in a historic multi-national collaborative underwater vehicle mission, where the US Navy MK 18 Mod 2 conducted a Search-Classify-Map (SCM) mission including embedded Automated Target Recognition (ATR) identifying contacts of interest, and using SeeBytes Neptune automatically re-tasking the Royal Navy REMUS 100 and the Netherlands Navy REMUS 100 with Kraken SAS to perform Reacquire and Identification (RI) missions.

About REPMUS

The exercise is co-organised by the NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE), the University of Portos Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technology (LSTS), and NATOs Maritime Unmanned Systems Initiative (MUSI). Fifteen NATO nations participated in the exercise, along with partners Ireland and Sweden. REPMUS 23 and DYNAMIC MESSENGER 23 have developed significant partnerships between the private sector and academia, and provide guidance for technology advancements, operational concepts, doctrine, and future work programmes. Both exercises were held around the Troia Peninsula, in Portugal. Exercise Dynamic Messenger 23 took place from 18 to 29 September 2023 and Exercise REPMUS 23 took place from 11 to 22 September 2023.

About Kraken SAS

Krakens Miniature Synthetic Aperture Sonar (MINSAS) is an off the shelf, configurable SAS that replaces high end sidescan systems at an affordable price, while delivering higher resolution, range, and area coverage rates (ACR). The increased range, resolution, and therefore higher useable ACR of SAS over traditional Side Scan Sonar systems significantly expand the capabilities of naval, scientific, and commercial applications. Krakens is capable of 2 cm x 2 cm Ultra High-Definition SAS imaging at long ranges. Kraken SAS is uniquely positioned within the industry to bring this capability to the increasingly popular man-portable (small-sized) vehicle class.

Krakens SAS is modular and has been integrated and deployed on over 20 different underwater vehicle platforms from shallow (<10 m) water to full ocean depth (6000 m). A modular and versatile sensor for seabed intelligence, Krakens SAS is field-proven by being one of only two companies in the world that has delivered and integrated SAS into man portable vehicles (small-sized), towed systems, and deep-water vehicles. This ability to cross several platforms enables military customers to streamline their Post Mission Analysis by having the same sonar resolution and ATR performance across their entire fleet of vehicles and mission requirements.

In addition to navy customers who have integrated Kraken SAS as a modular update to existing fielded systems, several Unmanned Underwater Vehicle companies this year have made public announcements of their UUVs showing SAS from Kraken. These include Americas HII (REMUS 620 UUV), Israels Elta Systems a division of Israeli Aerospace Industries (Blue Whale UUV), and South Koreas Hanwha (SAS AUV).





https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1501c507-bf25-4f3e-a55d-05b662d6c6f9

Figure 1: Kraken MP-SAS on Royal Netherlands Navy REMUS 100 heading out to REPMUS Naval Mine Warfare operating areas off Sesimbra, Portugal.





https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c759c4ee-54d3-490e-aba6-ad05b7921538

Figure 2: Royal Netherlands MCM team loading R100 with Kraken MP-SAS.





https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/be0f8b6d-26f3-44ce-8a9f-10c5759fe113

Figure 3: Royal Netherlands Navy REMUS 100 with Kraken MP-SAS heading out on a Search-Classify-Map (SCM) mission at REPMUS 23.





https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7d538323-6a16-40f5-b400-649666cd6b20

Figure 4: KRAKEN MP-SAS integrated to REMUS 300.





https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f2d6190a-6333-439b-88cf-b35450bf6637

Figure 5: First KRAKEN MP-SAS integrated to a REMUS 300 on mission at REPMUS 23.





https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d6574087-3a69-4ef4-87a9-fbe32785e088

Figure 6: SAS Data from REPMUS 23 Exercise taken from Royal Netherlands Navy REMUS 100 with Kraken MP-SAS.





https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2ec2695e-72a4-49ad-843d-7971f687ecaf

Figure 7. Historic Multi-National Collaborative AUV Mission at REPMUS 23 featuring US Navy, Royal Netherlands Navy, and Royal Navy HII Remus AUVs using SeeBytes Neptune Collaborative Autonomy software. Kraken MP-SAS integrated to Royal Netherlands Navy REMUS 100 (at left) for use in Reacquire Identification (RI) mission. Photo courtesy of SeeByte Ltd.

ABOUT KRAKEN ROBOTICS INC.

Kraken Robotics Inc. (TSX.V:PNG) (OTCQB: KRKNF) is a marine technology company providing complex subsea sensors, batteries, and robotic systems. Our high-resolution 3D acoustic imaging solutions and services enable clients to overcome the challenges in our oceans - safely, efficiently, and sustainably. Kraken Robotics is headquartered in Canada and has offices in North and South America and Europe. Kraken is ranked as a Top 100 marine technology company by Marine Technology Reporter.

LINKS:

www.krakenrobotics.com

SOCIAL MEDIA:

LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/krakenrobotics

Twitter www.twitter.com/krakenrobotics

Facebook www.facebook.com/krakenroboticsinc

YouTube www.youtube.com/channel/UCEMyaMQnneTeIr71HYgrT2A

Instagram www.instagram.com/krakenrobotics

Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements. When used in this news release, the words may, would, could, will, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, seek, propose, estimate, expect, and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements with respect to, among other things, business objectives, expected growth, results of operations, performance, business projects and opportunities and financial results. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the Companys current views with respect to future events based on certain material factors and assumptions and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, changes in market, competition, governmental or regulatory developments, general economic conditions and other factors set out in the Companys public disclosure documents. Many factors could cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements to vary from those described in this news release, including without limitation those listed above. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in this news release and such forward-looking statements included in, or incorporated by reference in this news release, should not be unduly relied upon. Such statements speak only as of the date of this news release. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Services Provide (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release, and the OTCQB has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

For further information:

Stephen Griffin, Group Marketing Manager

Stephen.Griffin@krakenrobotics.com

Joe MacKay, Chief Financial Officer

(416) 303-0605

jmackay@krakenrobotics.com

Greg Reid, President & CEO

(416) 818-9822

greid@krakenrobotics.com

Sean Peasgood, Investor Relations

(647) 955-1274

sean@sophiccapital.com
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

TORONTO, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HEALWELL AI Inc. ("HEALWELL" or the "Company") (TSX: AIDX) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Eight Capital, on behalf of a syndicate of underwriters, in connection with a "bought deal" private placement financing of 13,333,400 Class A subordinate voting shares of the Company (the "Shares") at a price of $0.60 per Share, for aggregate gross proceeds of $8,000,040 (the "Offering").

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering general corporate and working capital purposes.

The closing of the Offering is expected to occur on or about October 13, 2023 (the Closing Date), and is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals, including the conditional approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The Shares to be issued under the Offering will be offered to purchasers pursuant to: (i) the listed issuer financing exemption under Part 5A of National Instrument 45-106  Prospectus Exemptions (NI 45-106) in an amount up to 8,333,000 Shares (the LIFE Shares) and (ii) other applicable exemptions from the prospectus requirements under NI 45-106 in an amount up to 5,000,400 Shares (the Hold Shares) in all the provinces of Canada, except Quebec. The LIFE Shares will not be subject to resale restrictions pursuant to applicable Canadian securities laws. The Hold Shares will be subject to the statutory hold period of four months and one day from the date of issuance in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws. Purchasers under the Offering will receive a fixed ratio of LIFE Shares to Hold Shares, being approximately 5:3.

There is an offering document relating to the Offering of the LIFE Shares that can be accessed under the Companys profile at www.sedarplus.ca and on the Companys website at www.healwell.ai. Prospective investors should read the offering document before making an investment decision.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. No securities may be offered or sold to, or for the account or benefit of persons in the United States or to any U.S. persons or in any other jurisdiction in which such offer or sale would be unlawful absent registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act), and any applicable state securities laws or an exemption therefrom or qualification under the securities laws of such other jurisdiction or an exemption therefrom. United States and U.S. persons shall have the meaning given to them in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act.

About HEALWELL AI Inc.

HEALWELL AI is a healthcare technology company focused on AI and data science for preventative care. Our mission is to improve healthcare and save lives through early identification and detection of disease. As a physician led organization with a proven management team of experienced executives, HEALWELL AI is executing a strategy centered around developing and acquiring technology and clinical sciences capabilities that complement the companys roadmap. HEALWELL is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol AIDX. For more information, visit www.HEALWELL.ai .

Contact Information

Alexander Dobranowski

Chief Executive Officer

416-440-4040 x.201

ir@healwell.ai

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this press release constitute forward-looking information and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws and are based on assumptions, expectations, estimates and projections as of the date of this press release. Forward-looking statements in this press release include statements with respect to, among others, the Companys business strategy, plans and other expectations, beliefs, goals, objectives, and information and statements about possible future events, including the intended use of proceeds and expected Closing Date of the Offering, and the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange and any other regulatory approvals with respect to the Offering. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by words or phrases such as "expects", "is expected", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "assumes", "intends", "strategies", "targets", "goals", mission, "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. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon managements perceptions of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as a number of specific factors and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the date of such statements, are outside of the Companys control and are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies which could result in the forward-looking statements ultimately being entirely or partially incorrect or untrue. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on various assumptions and factors, including, but not limited to, the following: the assumption that the Toronto Stock Exchange will approve the Offering, assumptions with respect to the closing of the Offering; and that the risk factors noted below, collectively, do not have a material impact on the Companys business, operations, revenues and/or results. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct, and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved.

Known and unknown risk factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, could cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from the results, performance, achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include but are not limited to those factors which are discussed under the section entitled Risk Factors in the Companys most recent annual information form which is available under the Companys SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca. The risk factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors that could affect the Company and the reader is cautioned to consider these and other factors, uncertainties and potential events carefully and not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about managements expectations and plans relating to the future. 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, or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable law. All of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements.
Abbas Ganbay

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov received the British Ambassador to Azerbaijan Fergus Auld and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Azernews reports, citing a post on X by the British Ambassador.

The British Ambassador noted that the sides changed opinions on important issues. He also added that the meeting discussed ongoing humanitarian aid and the protection of the rights of all residents of Garabagh.
News / National

by Staff reporter

The memorial service of Zimbabwean-based Indian mining mogul Harpal Randhawa and his son Amer who died with four colleagues on Friday in a plane crash on their way from Harare to Murowa Diamonds in Zvishavane, 450km southwest of the capital Harare, has been postponed indefinitely.This is meant to allow formal processes to be completed before the memorial and burial.A new date will be advised.Harpal had vast gold, diamonds and coal mining interests in Zimbabwe.Randhawa and his son died in a small RioZim plane which was on its way from Harare to Murowa Diamonds (now RZM Murowa).This was not the first time a RioZim/Murowa small plane was involved in an accident.In February, a Piper 31 Navajo aircraft owned by RZM Murowa was force landed in a farm field about 16 kilometres away from Beatrice south of Harare.Randhawa, the founder of the US$4 billion private equity firm GEM Holdings, had big stakes in RioZim and Murowa. RioZim is listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.
MONTREAL, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imperial Mining Group Ltd. ("Imperial") (TSX VENTURE: IPG; OTCQB: IMPNF) is pleased to announce that it is sponsoring a 3-year research project at McGill University to better understand the unique genesis of the scandium/Rare Earths deposit formation at Imperials Crater Lake Project in northeastern Quebec for which a 43-101-compliant Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) was issued in July 2022. An updated resource estimate was issued on September 14, 2023. Imperial will benefit from this research by better understanding how to target high scandium concentrations within its deposit with high predictability and increase the profitability of its mining operations.



McGills research aims to develop a genetic model for Scandium and other Rare Earth Elements featured at the Crater Lake Project. The research will be directed by Dr. Anthony Williams-Jones, Professor and Logan Chair from the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences. Professor Williams-Jones has received international acclaim for his work on the genesis of mineral deposits, particularly that of the critical metals, including scandium. The result of the work will also help a Ph.D candidate earn his degree.

The work to be conducted over the next three years is an extension of research initiated in 2020.

Dr. Anthony Williams-Jones, the Program Director said: I am very pleased to have been given the opportunity to continue this research. I consider the Crater Lake project to be the most exciting hard-rock scandium project in the world and one that could lead to a mine with the potential to supply much of the global demand for scandium for the foreseeable future.

President and CEO of Imperial, Pierre Neatby, Due to Professor Anthony Williams-Jones familiarity with the Crater Lake deposit, we anticipate utilizing this research to help plan the building of the Crater Lake Mine. This will reduce our Capex and Opex by targeting even richer scandium zones which will increase metallurgical recoveries and improve our knowledge of scandium deposit formation for future expansion efforts. We look forward to the future of these findings with great anticipation."

Since beginning exploration of the Crater Lake site in 2017, Imperial determined that ferrosyenite is generally enriched in scandium relative to the other rock units in the Crater Lake Intrusion. Previous work using grab samples showed that scandium is hosted by a particular clinopyroxene-rich variety of ferrosyenite, which reaches scandium concentrations ranging from several hundred ppm to several thousand ppm. The Northern Lobe of the TG Zone holds Indicated Resources of 11.8 million tonnes grading 275.9 g/t Sc2O3 and Inferred Resources of 15.9 million tonnes grading 268.4 g/t Sc2O3 as per the press release issued September14, 2023 of the updated NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate for the TG Scandium-Rare Earth Zone completed by InnovExplo Inc. of Val dOr, Quebec. (The effective date of the mineral resource estimate is August 3, 2023). The challenge for Imperial and for McGill is to find an efficient way to determine where higher grade zones are likely to occur on the property to improve on the already robust economic results of the PEA issued in July 2022.

The technical content in this press release was reviewed and certified by Pierre Guay, P. Geo. (OGQ no. 1635), Imperial's Technical Advisor, Exploration, a Geologist and Qualified Person as defined by NI43-101.







ABOUT IMPERIAL MINING GROUP LTD.

Imperial is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company focused on the advancement of its technology metals projects in Quebec. Imperial is publicly listed on the TSX Venture Exchange as IPG and on the OTCQB Exchange as IMPNF and is led by an experienced team of mineral development professionals.

For further information please contact:

Imperial Mining Group Ltd.

Pierre Neatby

President and Chief Executive Officer

Phone: +1 (514) 360-0571

Email: info@imperialmgp.com

Website: www.imperialmgp.com Twitter: @imperial_mining Facebook: Imperial Mining Group

This press release may contain forward-looking statements relating to the Companys operations or to its business environment. Such statements are based on the Companys operations, estimates, forecasts, and projections, but are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict or control. Several factors could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those expressed. These factors include those set forth in the corporate filings. Although any such forward-looking statements are based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot guarantee that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. In addition, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, for any reason. We also do not commit in any way to guarantee that we will continue reporting on items or issues that arise. Investors are cautioned that this press release contains quoted historical exploration results. These are derived from filed assessment reports and compiled from governmental databases. The Company and a QP have not independently verified and make no representations as to the accuracy of historical exploration results: these results should not be relied upon. Selected highlight results may not be indicative of average grades.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b4cbd7f8-d1e0-4b6c-b043-3c193f703a6a
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cannabix Technologies Inc. (CSE: BLO) (OTC PINK: BLOZF) (the Company or Cannabix) developer of marijuana and alcohol breath testing devices is pleased to report that its Mass Spectrometer Breath Sampler (MSBS) technology along with the Breath Collection Unit (BCU) have been used to quantify delta-9 THC levels from smoking and edibles in humans. This emerging capability is a significant milestone and a major leap forward in the arena of drug testing. Virtually all levels of law enforcement, government, and industry have an interest in quantifying THC levels in breath in an efficient and reliable manner which will enable the ability to correlate breath concentrations with established blood levels.



Cannabix has been focused on developing the MSBS as a simple effective way to test for recent use of marijuana and to confirm presence of delta-9 THC in breath using gold-standard mass spectrometry (MS). Over recent months, the Company has developed the capability to quantify delta-9 THC in breath samples using Cannabixs proprietary technology.

Highlights and Updates

The ability to efficiently and reliably quantify THC in breath has been a long-standing goal of researchers and industry and holds potentially wide raging benefits to society.

Cannabix scientists have quantified delta-9 THC in human breath samples using proprietary hardware and methods.

Cannabix scientists are using deuterated delta-9 THC (THC-D 3 ) as an internal standard to generate a calibration curve for THC quantification in breath samples (ng/cartridge). Currently, a limit of detection and limit of quantification have been achieved with human subjects in the low picogram range. This allows detection of THC from smoking and edibles up to 4+ hours after consumption.

) as an internal standard to generate a calibration curve for THC quantification in breath samples (ng/cartridge). Currently, a limit of detection and limit of quantification have been achieved with human subjects in the low picogram range. This allows detection of THC from smoking and edibles up to 4+ hours after consumption. Experiments at Cannabixs lab have been conducted using the BCU for sample collection and MSBS front-end hardware interfaced with a Thermo TSQ Quantum Ultra triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer for sample analyzation.

In late August, it was reported that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recommended to the Drug Enforcement Administration that marijuana be reclassified as a lower-risk, Schedule III controlled substance, from its current Schedule I status. If the reclassification is accepted, it can be reasonably expected that even more cannabis-based pharmaceutical and recreational products will be available to the public which further increases the need for THC testing technology for public safety purposes. (1) (2)



Importance of Quantification  how much is too much?

Efficient and reliable quantifying of delta-9 THC levels in breath has been a long-standing goal of researchers and industry alike, to build consensus for standardization, public safety, and the legal system. This is particularly important in regions where cannabis is legalized for both medical and recreational use where clear guidelines are urgently needed. The quantification of delta-9 THC in breath presents an opportunity to help establish a legal limit for THC in breath, a limit which has not yet been achieved. Cannabixs hardware (MSBS & BCU) coupled to gold standard MS is now advancing this capability.

Quantification method using Cannabix Hardware

Over recent months, Cannabix scientists have been focussing on sample quantification results using THC-D 3 internal standard after subjects have smoked or consumed marijuana edibles.

Concentrations per sample cartridge are calculated using pre-determined calibration curve which are generated from cartridges with known amounts of THC-D 3 using the MS Breath Sampler front-end hardware. The curve was generated based on the ratio between the Area Under the Curve (AUC) of the main fragments (193m/z for THC and 196m/z for THC-D 3 ). The Level of Detection (LOD) and Quantification (LOQ) were calculated in accordance with the ICH guidelines (3).

MSBS Technology and BCU

The Companys handheld Breath Collection Unit (BCU, Figure 1) and mass spectrometer coupled laboratory MS Breath Sampler (Figure 2) are being used together to provide a new method for drug detection that complements gold-standard mass spectrometry with measurements taking under 2 minutes to acquire. This equipment significantly simplifies laboratory analysis methods, reduces sample turnaround times (thus minimizing operating costs), while maintaining sensitive, precise results.

MSBS compared to legacy LCMS methods

The MSBS is a novel method for efficient collection of analytes of low volatility from human breath utilizing liquid secondary adsorption (LSA) technique. The novel LSA concept has successfully demonstrated efficient capturing and releasing of THC using the breath aerosol as a carrier of solid and viscous liquid particle analytes as well as a secondary adsorbent to prevent sample loss from surface contact deposition.

Legacy conventional quantifying methods rely on the use of complex time consuming liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS) research based methods which require multiple time consuming preparation steps (e.g., solvent extraction and preconcentration) that are plagued with sample loss. This type of analysis is complex and can take hours to perform. Using the Cannabix equipment the results of a breath sample can be processed within 2 minutes without any sample preparation, preconcentration, or derivatization steps resulting in an efficient and simple workflow.



The Company also reports that BCU hardware pilot in Warren County, PA has now been re-directed to another unrelated pilot site. The Company was informed that due to the small size of the county, and limited number of testing opportunities at roadside, the hardware would be of better use at a different site.

Stock Option Grant

The Company is granting a total of 2,675,000 incentive stock options to directors and consultants of the Company. 2,100,000 options will be exercisable at $0.35 per share for five years. 575,000 stock options will be exercisable at $0.45 per share for 2 years, and subject to vesting provisions.

Readers should note, although the Company has achieved proof of concept prototype for its BCU and MS Breath Sampler (technology), the testing method and technology are still in the preapproval stage and accordingly the Company is not currently making any express or implied claims that the technology will proceed to commercial use. Furthermore, the method and technology used to quantify delta-9 THC in breath samples are in the preliminary testing phase and will require additional validation.

(1) https://www.dentons.com/en/insights/alerts/2023/august/30/hhs-recommends-reclassifying-cannabis-to-a-schedule-iii-drug (2) https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/08/30/hhs-recommends-marijuana-reclassified/ (3) International Conference on Harmonisation. Q2 (R1): Validation of analytical procedures: text and methodology. International Conference on Harmonization, Geneva, 2005, p. 113.



About Cannabix Technologies Inc.

Cannabix Technologies Inc. is a developer of marijuana and alcohol breathalyzer technologies for law enforcement, workplaces and laboratories. Cannabix is working to develop delta-9 THC and alcohol screening devices. Delta-9 THC is the psychoactive component of marijuana that causes impairment. Breath testing for delta-9 THC would allow employers and law enforcement to identify recent marijuana use. Cannabix is the developer of contactless breath alcohol detection devices for employers and a host of other settings.

We seek Safe Harbor.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Rav Mlait

CEO

Cannabix Technologies Inc.

For further information, contact the Company at info@cannabixtechnologies.com

The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements



This press release contains forward-looking information that involves various risks and uncertainties regarding future events. Such forward-looking information can include without limitation statements based on current expectations involving a number of risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance of the Company, such as final development of a commercial or prototype product(s), successful trial or pilot of company technologies, no assurance that commercial sales of any kind actually materialize; no assurance the Company will have sufficient funds to complete product development. There are numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and the Companys plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information, including: (i) adverse market conditions; (ii) risks regarding protection of proprietary technology; (iii) the ability of the Company to complete financings; (iv) the ability of the Company to develop and market its future product; and (v) risks regarding government regulation, managing and maintaining growth, the effect of adverse publicity, litigation, competition and other factors which may be identified from time to time in the Company's public announcements and filings. There is no assurance that its development of breathalyzer technologies will provide any benefit to the Company, and no assurance that any proposed new products will be built, will be successful in beta testing or clinical trials. The is no assurance that the Company will enter into any partnerships to advance any of its corporate initiatives or technologies. There is no assurance that any patent pending or provisional patents technologies licensed by the Company or owned by the Company will receive patent status by regulatory authorities. The Company is not currently selling commercial breathalyzers. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d04be1ae-c350-4e25-9da2-0efe888e9f40
Pune, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The SNS Insider report indicates that The Acetone Market reached a valuation of USD 5.47 billion in 2022, with a projected increase to USD 10.09 billion by 2030, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.95% during the forecast period spanning from 2023 to 2030.

Market Overview

Acetone is a colorless, highly flammable organic compound with the chemical formula C3H6O. It is one of the simplest and most widely used ketones, known for its distinct odor and a wide range of applications in various industries. Acetone is a key ingredient in most nail polish removers. Its effectiveness in breaking down and dissolving nail polish makes it a popular choice for quick and efficient nail care. In the medical field, acetone can be employed as an antiseptic for skin preparation before surgery. Additionally, it is used in the development of certain pharmaceutical drugs.

Download Free Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.snsinsider.com/sample-request/3703

Market Analysis

The acetone market is influenced by various growth drivers, reflecting its importance in several industries. The chemical industry is a primary consumer of acetone, using it as a solvent in the production of numerous chemicals and plastics. As the global chemical industry continues to grow, the demand for acetone is expected to rise in tandem. Acetone is used as a solvent in various construction materials, including adhesives, coatings, and sealants. As the construction industry expands globally, particularly in emerging markets, the demand for acetone in construction-related applications is set to increase. Acetone plays a vital role in pharmaceutical manufacturing, used as a solvent in drug formulation. As the pharmaceutical industry continues to innovate and expand, the demand for acetone for pharmaceutical applications is expected to grow.

Acetone Market Overview & Scope:

Report Attributes Details Market Size in 2022 USD 5.47 billion Market Size by 2030 USD 10.09 billion CAGR CAGR of 7.95% over 2023-2030 Key Segments By Grade (Technical Grade and Specialty Grade)



By Application (Solvents, Bisphenol A (BPA), Methyl Methacrylate (MMA), and Others)



By End-Use (Agricultural Chemicals, Cosmetics & Personal Care, Automotive, Paints & Coatings, Plastics, Pharmaceuticals, Rubber Processing, Printing Ink, Polymer & Resin Processing, Adhesive, and Others) Key Market Players INEOS Phenol GmbH, SABIC, The Dow Chemical Company, Domo Chemicals GmbH, Formosa Chemical and Fiber Corporation, Kumho P&B Chemicals, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Honeywell Research Chemicals, Spectrum Chemical Mfg. Corp., Altivia Chemicals and other players 20% free customization scope (equivalent to 50 analyst working hours) If you need specific information as per your business requirement, which is not currently within the scope of the report, we will provide it to you as a part of customization. Pricing & Purchase Options Avail customized purchase options to meet your exact research needs. Explore purchase options.

Key Takeaway from Acetone Market Study

The market is experiencing a significant boost, with the Methyl Methacrylate (MMA) segment emerging as a dominant force behind this expansion. MMA, a key ingredient in the production of plastics, paints, adhesives, and coatings, heavily relies on acetone in its manufacturing process. As demand for MMA-based products continues to soar, so does the need for acetone, creating a symbiotic relationship between the two industries.

The agricultural chemicals segment is another significant driver shaping the market's landscape. Acetone serves as an essential solvent in the formulation of various pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. As the global population swells, the agricultural sector faces immense pressure to maximize crop yields while minimizing environmental impacts.

Recent Developments

In a strategic move to expand its presence in the Asian chemical market, Ineos has announced its acquisition of Mitsui's phenol plants located in Singapore. The acquisition includes two state-of-the-art phenol plants that boast cutting-edge technology and a robust infrastructure. These plants are strategically located in Singapore, a key hub for chemical manufacturing and distribution in Asia.

ALTIVIA, a leading chemical company, has announced its acquisition of Dow's Acetone Derivatives Business, marking a significant development in the chemical industry. With this acquisition, ALTIVIA is poised to strengthen its position as a key player in these markets and better serve its customers' evolving needs.

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Market Dynamics Analysis

The dynamics of the acetone market are influenced by a complex interplay of drivers, restraints, challenges, and threats. One of the key drivers propelling the market is its extensive use as a solvent in various industries, including pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and plastics, owing to its excellent solvency properties. Additionally, the growing demand for acetone in the production of high-demand products such as bisphenol-A and methyl methacrylate further fuels market growth. The increasing adoption of renewable and sustainable acetone production methods is another positive driver, aligning with environmental sustainability goals. However, several restraints and challenges hinder the market's growth. Fluctuating crude oil prices can significantly impact the cost of acetone production since it is primarily derived from petrochemical feedstocks, leading to price volatility. Regulatory constraints and environmental concerns regarding the emissions and waste generated during acetone production pose challenges, pushing manufacturers to invest in cleaner production technologies.

Key Regional Developments

North America, particularly the United States, is a significant consumer of acetone due to its robust chemical and manufacturing industries. The demand for acetone is driven by applications in the production of chemicals, plastics, and solvents. Moreover, the shale gas boom in the United States has ensured a steady supply of raw materials like propylene, which is a key feedstock for acetone production. Countries like Germany, France, and the United Kingdom have well-established chemical and automotive sectors, which are major consumers of acetone for applications in paints, coatings, and adhesives. The Asia-Pacific region, especially China, is a dominant player in the global acetone market. China's rapid industrialization and growth in manufacturing sectors contribute significantly to acetone consumption. The country also exports acetone to other Asian countries and beyond.

Impact of Recession

The impact of an ongoing recession on the acetone market is multifaceted and depends on the severity and duration of the economic downturn. While reduced demand and price volatility are likely outcomes, other factors such as supply chain disruptions, shifts in product mix, and government policies can also significantly influence the market. Companies operating in this sector should closely monitor economic trends and adapt their strategies to navigate the challenges posed by recessions.

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Table of Content

1. Introduction

1.1 Market Definition

1.2 Scope

1.3 Research Assumptions

2. Research Methodology

3. Market Dynamics

3.1 Drivers

3.2 Restraints

3.3 Opportunities

3.4 Challenges

4. Impact Analysis

4.1 Impact of Russia-Ukraine war

4.2 Impact of Ongoing Recession

4.2.1 Introduction

4.2.2 Impact on major economies

4.2.2.1 US

4.2.2.2 Canada

4.2.2.3 Germany

4.2.2.4 France

4.2.2.5 United Kingdom

4.2.2.6 China

4.2.2.7 Japan

4.2.2.8 South Korea

4.2.2.9 Rest of the World

5. Value Chain Analysis

6. Porters 5 forces model

7. PEST Analysis

8. Acetone Market Segmentation, By Grade

8.1 Technical Grade

8.2 Specialty Grade

9. Acetone Market Segmentation, By Application

9.1 Solvents

9.2 Bisphenol A (BPA)

9.3 Methyl Methacrylate (MMA)

9.4 Others

10. Acetone Market Segmentation, By End-use

10.1 Agricultural Chemicals

10.2 Cosmetics & Personal Care

10.3 Automotive

10.4 Paints & Coatings

10.5 Plastics

10.6 Pharmaceuticals

10.7 Rubber Processing

10.8 Printing Ink

10.9 Polymer & Resin Processing

10.10 Adhesive

10.11 Others

11. Regional Analysis

11.1 Introduction

11.2 North America

11.2.1 USA

11.2.2 Canada

11.2.3 Mexico

11.3 Europe

11.3.1 Germany

11.3.2 UK

11.3.3 France

11.3.4 Italy

11.3.5 Spain

11.3.6 The Netherlands

11.3.7 Rest of Europe

11.4 Asia-Pacific

11.4.1 Japan

11.4.2 South Korea

11.4.3 China

11.4.4 India

11.4.5 Australia

11.4.6 Rest of Asia-Pacific

11.5 The Middle East & Africa

11.5.1 Israel

11.5.2 UAE

11.5.3 South Africa

11.5.4 Rest

11.6 Latin America

11.6.1 Brazil

11.6.2 Argentina

11.6.3 Rest of Latin America

12. Company Profiles

12.1 INEOS Phenol GmbH

12.1.1 Company Overview

12.1.2 Financial

12.1.3 Products/ Services Offered

12.1.4 SWOT Analysis

12.1.5 The SNS View

11.2 SABIC

12.3 The Dow Chemical Company

12.4 Domo Chemicals GmbH

12.5 Formosa Chemical and Fiber Corporation

12.6 Kumho P&B Chemicals

12.7 Royal Dutch Shell PLC

12.8 Honeywell Research Chemicals

12.9 Spectrum Chemical Mfg. Corp.

12.10 Altivia Chemicals

13. Competitive Landscape

13.1 Competitive Bench marking

13.2 Market Share Analysis

13.3 Recent Developments

13.3.1 Industry News

13.3.2 Company News

13.3.3 Mergers & Acquisitions

14. Use Case and Best Practices

15. Conclusion

Browse Adjacent Markets: Chemicals & Materials Industry Research or Food & Beverage Industry Report Reports & Consulting

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At SNS Insider, we believe that businesses should have access to the best market intelligence and insights, regardless of their size or industry. That's why we offer a range of solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of each client, from startups to big corporations. With a passion for our work and an unwavering commitment to delivering value, we are dedicated to helping our clients achieve their full potential.
100% (9/9) overall response rate and 67% (6/9) complete response rate (MRD 10 -5 ) observed in heavily pre-treated patients with daratumumab relapsed/refractory AL Amyloidosis as of the September 20, 2023 data cutoff

) observed in heavily pre-treated patients with daratumumab relapsed/refractory AL Amyloidosis as of the September 20, 2023 data cutoff 100% (4/4) overall response rate and 75% (3/4) complete response rate observed in t(11;14) relapsed/refractory AL Amyloidosis

Best responder duration of response was 19.2 months with response ongoing; median follow-up of 7.3 months (range: 2.5  16.5 months) as of the data cutoff date of September 20, 2023

Nexcella plans to submit a BLA for FDA approval in AL Amyloidosis once 40 patients are treated with NXC-201

The expected primary endpoint for NXC-201 in relapsed/refractory AL Amyloidosis is overall response rate

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nexcella, Inc. (Nexcella, Company, We or Us), today announced presentation of additional AL Amyloidosis clinical data from its Phase 1b/2a NEXICART-1 (NCT04720313) study of novel, autologous, BCMA-targeted chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy, NXC-201, at an oral presentation at the 20th International Myeloma Society Annual (IMS) Meeting being held in Athens, Greece on September 27-30 2023. One new patient and additional follow-up data from an additional 8 patients (9 total) are included in this update. All patients were DARZALEX (daratumumab) combination therapy relapsed/refractory and experienced a median of 6 earlier treatments that failed to stop worsening of disease (lines of therapy) prior to receiving NXC-201.

There are no approved drugs for relapsed/refractory AL Amyloidosis, said Polina Stepensky, M.D., Director of the Hadassah Medical Organizations Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Immunotherapy for Adults and Children, and principal study investigator. NXC-201s 100% response rate in relapsed/refractory AL amyloidosis patients, including t(11;14) and cardiac involved, indicates a potential broad mechanism of action. Additionally, as a one-time treatment, NXC-201 would present an attractive alternative to multi-drug combination, long-term daily or weekly regimens for relapsed/refractory AL amyloidosis patients.

Currently, AL Amyloidosis treatment involves repeat dosing and weekly distant travel to academic medical centers, said Ilya Rachman, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Chairman of Nexcella. One-time treatment with NXC-201 could fill the void for relapsed/refractory AL Amyloidosis, where there are no therapies approved today, while restoring quality of life.

Gabriel Morris, President of Nexcella, added, NXC-201s uniquely favorable CAR-T tolerability profile and an apparent ability to clear disease-causing amyloid chains from the body within ~30 days could make it particularly suitable for treatment in a potential outpatient setting.







Nexcella Announces Complete Response in 9th Relapsed/Refractory AL Amyloidosis Patient in NXC-201 Clinical Trial at IMS 20th Annual Meeting

Data were presented from 9 relapsed/refractory AL amyloidosis patients (including one new patient) in the ongoing Phase 1b/2a NEXICART-1 study of NXC-201 (formerly HBI0101). Patients were infused with CAR+T cells at doses of 150 x 106 (n=1), 450 x 106 (n=2), and 800 x 106 (n=6).

Of the 9 patients, 7/9 patients had cardiac involvement and 4/9 patients were t(11;14) relapsed/refractory. Median follow-up was 7.3 months (range: 2.5  16.5 months) as of the September 20, 2023 data cutoff. Data highlights:

9 relapsed/refractory AL amyloidosis patients (median 6 lines of prior therapy):

Overall response rate of 100% (9/9)

Complete response rate of 67% (6/9) (MRD 10 -5 )

) Organ response rate of 56% (5/9)

Best responder had a duration of response of 19.2 months as of the data cutoff of September 20, 2023, with response ongoing

There were no immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS) events or grade 4 cytokine release syndrome (CRS) events reported

44% (4/9) had MAYO-stage IIIa/IIIb disease

For the 7 relapsed/refractory AL Amyloidosis patients with cardiac involvement:

Overall response rate of 100% (7/7)

Complete response rate of 57% (4/7) (MRD 10 -5 )

) Organ response rate of 57% (4/7)

4 patients with t(11;14) relapsed/refractory AL Amyloidosis:

Overall response rate of 100% (4/4)

Complete response rate of 75% (3/4) (MRD 10 -5 )

) Organ response rate of 50% (2/4)

The 20th IMS AL Amyloidosis presentation can be accessed on the Nexcella corporate website at this link: https://nexcella.com/publications/

Oral Presentation :

Event 20th International Myeloma Society Annual Meeting, Athens, Greece Title Feasibility of a novel academic anti-BCMA chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CART) (HBI0101) for the treatment of relapsed and refractory AL amyloidosis Presentation

Date/Time (EEST) September 27, 2023 9:00am  14:30pm;

September 28, 2023 10:00  13:30pm;

September 29, 2023 9:30  14:15pm

About NEXICART-1

NEXICART-1 (NCT04720313) is an ongoing Phase 1b/2a, open-label study evaluating the safety and efficacy of NXC-201 (formerly HBI0101), in adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma and AL amyloidosis.

The primary objective of the Phase 1b portion of the study was to characterize the safety and confirm the recommended Phase 2 dose (RP2D) and Phase 2 dose of NXC-201. The Phase 2 portion of the study will evaluate the efficacy and safety of NXC-201 with endpoints of overall survival, progression-free survival and response rates, according to International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) Uniform Response Criteria.

The Phase 1b portion of the ongoing Phase 1b/2a clinical trial has been successful in determining the recommended Phase 2 dose (RP2D) of 800 million CAR+T cells. The expected primary endpoint for the Phase 2 portion of the ongoing Phase 1b/2a clinical trial of NXC-201 in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma is overall response rate and duration of response. Nexcella plans to submit data to the FDA in multiple myeloma once 100 patients are treated with NXC-201. The expected primary endpoint for NXC-201 in relapsed/refractory AL Amyloidosis is overall response rate. Nexcella plans to submit data to the FDA in AL amyloidosis once 30-40 patients are treated with NXC-201.

About NXC-201

NXC-201 (formerly HBI0101) is a BCMA-targeted investigational chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy that is being studied in a comprehensive clinical development program for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma and AL amyloidosis.

About AL Amyloidosis

AL amyloidosis is a rare systemic disorder caused by an abnormality of plasma cells in the bone marrow. Misfolded amyloid proteins produced by plasma cells buildup in and around tissues, nerves and organs, gradually affecting their function. This can cause progressive and widespread organ damage, and high mortality rates.

AL amyloidosis affects roughly 30,000  40,000 patients in total throughout the U.S. and Europe, and it is estimated that there are approximately 3,000  4,000 new cases of AL amyloidosis annually in the U.S. The annual global incidence of AL Amyloidosis is ~15,000 patients.

The Amyloidosis market was $3.6 billion in 2017, expected to reach $6 billion in 2025, according to Grand View Research.

About Nexcella, Inc.

Nexcella, Inc. is a Los Angeles, California based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel cell therapies for oncology and other indications. Our lead candidate, next generation BCMA-targeted CAR-T NXC-201 for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma and relapsed/refractory AL amyloidosis, has produced 95% and 100% response rates in each indication, respectively, as of July 17, 2023, across 72 patients. NXC-201 has been awarded Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) by the FDA in both multiple myeloma and AL Amyloidosis. We believe NXC-201 has potential to be the worlds first outpatient CAR-T. Our N-GENIUS platform allows us to discover, develop, and manufacture cutting-edge cell therapies for patients in need. To learn more about Nexcella, Inc. visit us at www.nexcella.com

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect our current view about future events. When used in this press release, the words anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, future, intend, plan, or the negative of these terms and similar expressions, as they relate to us or our management, identify forward-looking statements. Such statements, include, but are not limited to, statements contained in this press release relating to our business strategy, our future operating results, continuing development of our product candidates, including development timelines, timing of FDA submissions and expected endpoints, long-term visions and strategies, evaluations and judgements and beliefs regarding potential efficacy and safety of our product candidates, future clinical development of our product candidates, including any implication that results or observations in initial data or earlier clinical trials will be representative of results or observations in later data or clinical trials, the expected timing of such results and the potential market size and benefits for our product candidates. Forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding our business, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Our actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. They are neither statements of historical fact nor guarantees of assurance of future performance. We caution you, therefore, against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, without limitation, our ability to raise capital to fund continuing operations; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; the impact of any infringement actions or other litigation brought against us; competition from other providers and products; our ability to develop and commercialize products and services; changes in government regulation; our ability to complete capital raising transactions; that our product candidates may not realize the anticipated responses discussed in this release or that their development may suffer delays that materially and adversely affects future commercial viability; that the market for our product candidates may not grow at the rates anticipated or at all; and other factors relating to our industry, our operations and results of operations. Actual results may differ significantly from those anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended or planned, including: the uncertainties related to market conditions and other factors described more fully in the section entitled Risk Factors in Immix Biopharmas Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, and other periodic reports subsequently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and we specifically disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.

Contacts

Mike Moyer

LifeSci Advisors

mmoyer@lifesciadvisors.com

Company Contact

irteam@nexcella.com

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AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Milestones , the all-in-one home management solution specifically designed for consumers to buy, move, own, sell, manage and access mortgage services for their home seamlessly in one centralized portal, has announced that industry veteran Tony Meola joined the companys board of directors. The appointment is anticipated to significantly enhance the company's competitive edge within the mortgage industry with Meolas exceptional vision and ability to identify emerging trends.

Milestones leading home management solution is set to be an industry game-changer in client retention, empowering consumers with online and secure homeowner portals to manage their property assets with the support of the real estate professionals that helped them acquire the home.

Homeownership is typically a decade-long journey that naturally intersects the real estate and mortgage markets, explained Meola. It is crucial that real estate professionals provide their clients a lifetime value proposition and become more relational through every stage of homeownership. Milestones provides that opportunity by creating home management solutions that engage consumers and deliver valuable resources throughout the entire life cycle of obtaining and owning a home. As a result, Milestones has a unique opportunity to help the industry lift brand loyalty and create real value for consumers while increasing the margins of providers.

Over the course of 30 years in the mortgage sector, Meola served on numerous industry advisory boards, including Black Knight Financial Services, Five Star Institute, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and the Mortgage Bankers Board of Governors, where he demonstrated core strength in business strategy transformation, operations, and organizational growth.

Real estate, mortgage, and title are the three pillars of any real estate transaction, said Dustin Gray, CEO of Milestones. Our objective has always been to unify the experience  for consumers and professionals alike. Tony brings a unique perspective having already executed this vision at scale during his tenure at major financial institutions. We are grateful not only for his big picture thinking, but also his entrepreneurial mindset and experience scaling that will help take Milestones to the next level.

About Milestones

Milestones is a homeownership solution that delivers personalized client portals (hubs) specifically designed to engage consumers at every stage of the decade-long homeownership journey  from buying, selling, moving, and managing a home. Milestones hubs give consumers access to a wide array of home service providers, insights into home value, and much more, positioning real estate professionals to stay connected, educate, and add value to create forever clients. Learn more at Milestones.ai.

Media Contact:

Monika Sollee for Milestones

monika@wavgroup.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b5d6f00f-e230-421b-8a6e-6349f7c777b2




ONTARIO, Calif., Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Heritage Grocers Group (HGG), a leading specialty ethnic food retailer, is pleased to announce the promotions of Eric Stover to President of Heritage Grocers Group and Prabash Coswatte to Chief Operating Officer for Heritage Grocers Group, reporting to HGG CEO Doug Sanders.



The promotions of Eric and Prabash further aligns and unifies the organizational structure of Heritage Grocers Group, Mr. Sanders said. They are exceptional leaders whose extensive experience and expertise will be instrumental in executing our growth strategy, as well as deepening the HGG connection to communities and serving the local customer.

Mr. Stover recently held the position of Chief Executive Officer for Cardenas Markets. In his new role as President of HGG, he will have direct oversight of category management, supply chain, pricing, schematics, marketing, loyalty program efforts, e-commerce, and B2B/wholesale business for all Heritage Grocers Group banners. Mr. Stover is an alumnus of the University of Texas at Arlington where he studied Business Administration and Psychology. He also serves on the board of directors for the Western Association of Food Chains (WAFC), the Cardenas Markets Foundation, and sits on the Food Industry Round Table for Olive Crest.

Prior to joining the Cardenas Markets business in 2020 as Chief Merchandising Officer, Mr. Stover held leadership roles in merchandising and operations for several food retailers including Wild Oats, Henrys Farmers Market, and Sprouts Farmers Market. He also held senior roles with wholesale and distribution companies United Natural Foods (UNFI) and KeHE Distributors.

Mr. Coswatte recently served as Chief Administrative Officer for HGG. In this new position as Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Coswatte will oversee store operations, information technology, continuous improvement, data integrity, loss prevention, internal audits, construction, and facilities maintenance. He attended West Virginia University and holds an MBA from the University of Phoenix. He also serves on the board of directors for the Cardenas Markets Foundation.

Mr. Coswatte joined the Cardenas Markets banner as Chief Information Officer in 2019. Prior to joining Cardenas Markets, he served as Chief Information Officer for Vallarta Supermarkets, Vice President - Enterprise Program Management for 99 Cents Only Stores, Senior Project Manager for Cambridge Associates LLC, and Senior Consultant for Deloitte Consulting.

ABOUT HERITAGE GROCERS GROUP:

Heritage Grocers Group (HGG) is a leading specialty, ethnic food retailer that offers an extensive assortment of both traditional and specialty grocery items to the communities it serves. With a unique customer experience focused on freshness, authenticity and affordability, the HGG family of destination groceries incorporate freshly made ethnic foods, differentiated floor formats presenting distinct specialty categories and localized assortments that engage with each community. Headquartered in Ontario, California, Heritage Grocers Group operates in six states: California, Texas, Nevada, Arizona, Kansas, and Illinois, with a total of 57 stores under the Cardenas Markets banner, 28 stores under the El Rancho Supermercado banner, 21 stores under the Tonys Fresh Market banner, and 7 stores under the Los Altos Ranch Market banner.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f7720e18-feed-481a-92ce-2c209065189d

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/656ec8db-f8b1-4c7d-a3dd-50064b9f270f
Beverly Hills, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a recent episode of the popular Growing Our Future podcast, host Aaron Alejandro sits down with professional photographer Russell Graves, who shares some of his favorite experiences and insights about his career path, in an episode titled, Failing and Falling Forward. Alejando expresses his excitement, because he has watched Graves become the international superstar photographer he is today.



The show begins by Alejando asking his favorite question, which he starts every podcast with  Russell, what are you most grateful for today? Russell expresses his gratitude for his health, family and being an American. Alejandro loves when people share their green time on social media and says Graves is one of his favorites, because he captures nature so well.

Russell fell in love with photography as a high school student. He would take pictures of anything that interested him in and around where he grew up in rural Texas, by capturing the rural lifestyle and nature that surrounded him. He was 20 when his first picture appeared on the cover of a magazine. And while he loved photography, he went to college for science teaching.

At 29, Graves started making more money as a photographer than as an Ag teacher, so he pursued a career as a professional photographer. He says he is blessed for all everything he has had the opportunity to do, both as a teacher and a photographer. I just wanted to be successful, because I knew that if I could be successful, those kids could, too. Graves expresses his joy of learning from and competing in contests with his students.

Russell is a successful photographer, writer and teacher, who grew up in rural Texas with a

strong work ethic and supportive family. He started his photography career in his late teens, and

after earning a degree in agriculture education, he became a highly respected agriscience

teacher and photographer in Texas.

He left teaching in 2009 to focus on photography full-time and has since led photographic workshops and created content for magazines, advertising campaigns, television projects and books. Alejandro and Graves discuss successes and failures, how the Texas FFA helped him when he was younger, what learned along his career path, and how he has enjoyed every moment. Its okay to fall down, you just got to get back up and try to walk again, he says to his students. Theres lessons in every failure you make.

Alejandro commends Russell for his incredible work in bringing the beauty of the great outdoors to people's screens, and encouraging others to spend more time outside. Graves has been recognized as one of the top photographers in Texas, and is known for his ability to connect people and places through his stories. He is also a successful businessman and has helped develop rural areas in Texas. Despite his many accomplishments, he values his relationships with family and friends above all else.

Listen to the full podcast interview by Aaron Alejandro with Russell Graves on your favorite podcast channel.



In this podcast, the host and guest cover:

What is most important when first trying something new, such as photography?

How can the Texas FFA help in setting big career goals for high school students?

What has Graves learned most about taking chances when it comes to trying something new?

For Graves, what are his favorite parts of teaching and photography?

What are three tips Graves would tell a high school student or Ag teacher today?

About the Podcast Host and Guest

The Texas FFA Foundations purpose is to strengthen agricultural education and the Texas FFA program, so each student can develop their potential for personal growth, career success and

leadership in a global marketplace.

Learn more about the Texas FFA Foundation at mytexasffa.org.

Learn more about Russell Graves at russellgraves.com/index.

Media Communications

Mission Matters Podcast Agency distributes the Growing Our Future Podcast

Inquiries: adamtorres@missionmatters.com

Media contact and published by KISS PR az@kisspr.com



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Pune, India, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Medical courier is the supply of samples and equipment related to healthcare and medical requirements can sometimes be urgent and critical. A medical courier allows the movement from one place to another, often from the collection point of a sample, urine, blood, etc., to the healthcare facility centres where the tests are performed. Usually, such samples are time-sensitive and require a prompt transfer between doctors, clinics and hospitals, and biochemistry labs. Medical courier services can be offered across borders with medical test samples, delivery reagents, kits, and more products to research, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies. The report covers detailed insights with respect to the services offered by the market players operating in the sector.

Medical Courier Market in terms of revenue was estimated to be worth $7.30 billion in 2022 and is poised to reach $10.96 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 5.2% during 20222030 according to a new report published by The Insight Partners.

The growth of the medical courier market is driven by increasing incidence of road accidents and growing number of surgeries and rising prevalence of chronic diseases.





Download Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00014429





Adoption of Hub and Spoke Model Worldwide act as a Trend for Global Medical Courier Market Growth:

A hub-and-spoke model is a centralized warehousing and shipment system similar to a bicycle wheel's structure. The center of the wheel is the hub or a distribution center, and each spoke represents a delivery direction. The hub-and-spoke model weighs more on the positive side of the spectrum and is a cost-effective and efficient approach. The model encourages consolidation of all the inventory in one place (hub), from where it is delivered timely to different areas (spokes). The hub-and-spoke distribution model allows for planning and optimizing delivery routes around the hub linking to various destinations. The product is packed, shipped to one place, and delivered to multiple locations within the preferred time. It improves the workforce and substantially reduces the delivery time compared to the other model.

In addition, with the help of selected logistics partners, merchants can control inventory from a single center, obtain products from the cost effective suppliers, and distribute goods to customers from local warehouses. Shippers can take advantage of more inexpensive rates by aggregating their inventory at a centralized point. This less-than-truckload shipment can then be combined to fill in a single truckload, which then can be dispersed throughout the network. Small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can negotiate for better rates often associated with full truckload shipments using this model.

Furthermore, according to the governments impact assessment published in the Pharmacy Journal, hub-and-spoke models are already used in countries including Germany, Finland, Belgium, and Denmark. The government estimates that any changes could save England NHS US$ 34 million (27.3 million) over 10 years. It would free up the time spent on dispensing the products in spoke pharmacies and allow pharmacists to provide more clinical services.

Implementing hub and spoke dispensing requires robust quality control measures to ensure patient safety. Regulatory bodies, such as the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), are involved in setting standards and guidelines to ensure the proper implementation of this model.

The hub-and-spoke model simplifies the shipment process and improves workforce productivity. It allows delivery partners to plan their regular delivery routes around a single hub, finish deliveries in that particular region, and then move on to another hub for any extra deliveries or on-demand. It improves the productivity of on-ground executives, allows them to meet service levels effectively, optimizes route planning and faster deliveries, and brings down logistical costs as taking the most efficient route speeds up last-mile deliveries and dramatically saves fuel costs. The hub-and-spoke system also limits the number of distribution centers within a city, leading to reduced cost of inventory management as well.





Global Medical Courier Market: Competitive Landscape and Key Developments

ERS Transition Ltd, Send Direct Ltd, Med Logistics Grp, Citysprint Ltd, United Parcel Services, FedEx Corp, MNX Global Logistics, Reliant Couriers & Haulage Ltd, ZIPLINE International Inc, and Deutsche Post AG are among the leading companies operating in the medical courier market. These players focus on expanding and diversifying their market presence and acquiring a novel customer base, tapping prevailing business opportunities in the medical courier market. Market players focus on strategic initiatives such as product launch, merger and acquisition, and expansion to the market. Below are a few instances:

In June 2022, Zipline started delivery of medical supplies in Nigerias Kaduna State, marking integration with the local health systems and authorization from the regulatory authorities. Zipline and the Kaduna State government are expected to deliver medical supplies to many of the health facilities to help create a more responsive, agile, and accessible health system, which depends on final regulatory approval.

In October 2022, Zipline began delivery of prescriptions and medical products directly to select Intermountain Healthcare patients yards in the Salt Lake Valley area. Ziplines Utah delivery system will expand steadily over five years and will eventually be competent of delivering directly to about 1 million people. With this new partnership, the companies are making healthcare more accessible, convenient, and better for the environment.

In July 2022, MultiCare Health System and Zipline partnered to launch the first commercial drone deliveries in the US. Ziplines electric, autonomous aircraft will deliver a range of medical products throughout MultiCares network of facilities, including hospitals, laboratories, and doctors offices.





Order a Copy of this Report at https://www.theinsightpartners.com/buy/TIPRE00014429





Global Medical Courier Market: Segmental Overview

Based on product type, the medical courier market is segmented into lab specimens, medical supplies and equipment, blood and organs, medical notes, and others. The medical supplies and equipment segment held the largest share of the market in 2022. The lab specimens segment is anticipated to register the highest CAGR in the market during 20222030. The medical courier market, by destination, is segmented into domestic and international. The domestic segment held a larger market share in 2022 and the international segment is anticipated to register a higher CAGR during 20222030. Increasing e-commerce companies have resulted in the rising number of logistics companies. Companies such as DHL Group; United Parcel Services of America, Inc.; FedEx Corporation; Hermes; Royal Mail; Yodel; DTDC; UPS; Agility; and UK Mail offer international services for medical couriers and non-medical couriers. Various other companies provide courier services through freight services, which has increased international courier services globally for medical products. The medical courier market, by service, is bifurcated into standard services and rush and on-demand services. The standard services segment held a larger market share in 2022 and the rush and on-demand services segment is anticipated to register a higher CAGR during 20222030. Standard services for medical products are similar to traditional standard courier services that deliver products in a predefined time. Standards services are generally non-emergency services; therefore, they are more cost-effective, responsive, and flexible than other courier services, including same-day delivery, rush-hour deliveries, and others. Under standard services, deliveries are prioritized based on the parcels and products' weight, size, and durability. Companies offering standard services ensure deliveries within two to three days from the processed date, making them cost-effective. Also, traditional services can be personalized according to the customers' requirements based on extra or fewer delivery miles. It also offers traceability of the parcel to the customers to monitor the real-time movement of their parcel and ensure safe and on-time delivery. The growth of the market is due to a boom in the purchase of medicines and medical products. The medical courier market, by end user, is segmented into hospitals and clinics, diagnostic labs, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, blood and tissue banks, in-home support, and others. The hospitals and clinics segment held the largest share of the market in 2022 and the in-home support segment is anticipated to register the highest CAGR in the market during 20222030.





Go through further research published by The Insight Partners:

Medical Recruitment Market - Global Analysis and Forecast to 2030

Emergency Medical Software Market - Global Analysis and Forecast to 2030





About Us:

The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We specialize in industries such as Semiconductor and Electronics, Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Biotechnology, Healthcare IT, Manufacturing and Construction, Medical Device, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Chemicals and Materials.

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Melville, NY, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Whether youre looking for office-quality printing from the comfort of home or seeking a daily-use printer that is ideal for home and school-oriented needs, Canon has you covered. To offer customers the right combination of performance and value for ultimate peace of mind, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, is pleased to announce two new business inkjet printers, the MAXIFY GX2020 and MAXIFY GX1020 printers, featuring high-volume Canon ink technology, and two new consumer inkjet PIXMA printers, the PIXMA TR7820 and PIXMA TS7720 printers, for daily household tasks.

According to the Keypoint Intelligence 2023 study Future of Work: Understanding the New Era of Hybrid Working, hybrid employees on average spend 2.6 days per week working from home. The MAXIFY GX2020 and GX1020 printers are designed for remote and hybrid workers, as well as entrepreneurs and side hustlers seeking a new or upgraded printer at their fingertips to help support increased needs for office-type work. Combining value and performance, these new MAXIFY printers help support users who need to print in large volumes, as the GX2020 and GX1020 utilize the Canon MegaTank continuous ink supply system (CISS), which can help reduce ink costs by using high-volume ink bottles, while also allowing for heightened productivity by reducing the need to frequently replace ink cartridges. The new printers are placed at the entry level of the Canon MAXIFY GX printer series lineup, which is the Canon business inkjet printer lineup featuring models supporting MegaTank technology that is designed for office-type use, offering a great value to first time business inkjet users.

The GX1020 can print, copy, and scan, and the GX2020 can print, copy, scan, and fax, and features an ADF up to 35 pages (letter-size). Both MAXIFY printers also include:

A 4-color pigment ink system, giving you crisp color and black & white documents, being smudge resistant even when highlighting.

Paper capacity of up to 250 sheets for plain paper, letter size.

Easy-to-fill nozzle.

Fast print speeds of up to 15 images per minute in black 1 , 10 in color 1 , and first page printed in as little as nine seconds 2 .

, 10 in color , and first page printed in as little as nine seconds . Stable and reliable Wi-Fi 3 connectivity.

connectivity. Improved user interface, when compared to previous models, with a 2.7-inch LCD touchscreen.

A three-year or 60,000-page, whichever occurs first, limited warranty 4 .

. EPEAT Gold and Energy Star5 certifications.

Ideal for both individuals and families who have the occasional need to print, copy, and scan, the PIXMA TR7820 and PIXMA TS7720 printers can be used to print daily tasks such as homework assignments, recipes, photos, as well as to scan documents for work and school. For those looking for a streamlined user experience, the PIXMA TR7820 printer includes an automatic document feeder (ADF), allowing users to feed up to 35 pages at once (letter-size). Additional features of the new PIXMA printers include:

A compact footprint, able to fit in most spaces in the home or office.

Eligibility for the PIXMA Print Plan 6 .

. Fast print speeds of up to 15 images per minute in black 1 , 10 in color 1 , and the first page printed in as little as nine seconds 2 .

, 10 in color , and the first page printed in as little as nine seconds . Stable and reliable Wi-Fi 3 connectivity.

connectivity. Improved user interface, when compared to previous models, with a 2.7-inch LCD touchscreen.

Two-way paper path for different types of media such as photos or labels.

A one-year limited warranty 4 .

. EPEAT Silver and Energy Star5 certifications.

Pricing and Availability

The MAXIFY GX2020 and MAXIFY GX1020 printers are available this month for $379.007 and $329.007, respectively, through the Canon Online Store and select retailers. The PIXMA TR7820 and PIXMA TS7720 printers are available this month through the Canon Online Store and select retailers for $179.007 and $149.007, respectively.

For more information and the full list of product specifications, visit http://usa.canon.com.

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Canon U.S.A., Inc. is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions to the United States and to Latin America and the Caribbean markets. With approximately $30.3 billion in global revenue, its parent company, Canon Inc., as of 2022 has ranked in the top-five overall in U.S. patents granted for 37 consecutive years and was one of Fortune Magazines Worlds Most Admired Companies in 2022. Canon U.S.A. is dedicated to its Kyosei philosophy of social and environmental responsibility. To learn more about Canon, visit us at www.usa.canon.com and follow us on Twitter @CanonUSA.

# # #

 Based on weekly patent counts issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office.

1Document print speeds are the averages of ESAT in Office Category Test for the default simplex mode, ISO/IEC 24734. Print speed may vary depending on system configuration, interface, software, document complexity, print mode, page coverage, type of paper used etc. Copy speeds are the average of sFCOT and sESAT, ISO/IEC 29183. Copy speed may vary depending on document complexity, copy mode, page coverage, type of paper used etc. and does not take into account warming up time. See www.usa.canon.com/ipm for additional details.

2Print and/or copy speed is based on internal testing. Print and/or copy speed may vary depending on the number of copies selected, as well as the settings for size, type, and orientation of paper, and whether two-sided is selected. In addition, first-print speeds may vary based on warm-up time and other restrictions.

3Wireless printing requires a working network with wireless 802.11b/g/n capability, operating at 2.4GHz. Wireless performance may vary based on terrain and distance between the printer and wireless network client.

4Warranty is effective for three (3) years from date of original purchase or the printing of 60,000 pages, whichever comes first. Warranty program is subject to certain conditions and restrictions.

5For current EPEAT rating (Gold/Silver/Bronze), please visit epeat.net. As an ENERGY STAR Partner, Canon U.S.A., Inc. has certified this printer as meeting the ENERGY STAR energy efficiency criteria through an EPA-recognized certification body.

6See website for details.

7Prices are subject to change without notice. Actual prices are set by individual dealers and may vary.

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Dublin, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Rare Hemophilia Factors Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Type (Factor I, Factor II, Factor VII), By Treatment (Factor Concentrates, Fresh Frozen Plasma, Cryoprecipitate), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2023 - 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global rare hemophilia factors market is poised for substantial growth, targeting a USD 499.5 million market size by 2030, accompanied by a noteworthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.9% from 2023 to 2030.

The surge in the market is primarily attributed to the increased availability of tailored factor concentrates securing regulatory approvals, notably from the U.S. FDA.

Additionally, the rising adoption of prophylaxis treatment among patients is expected to be a significant growth driver in the coming years. Prophylactic treatment is recommended for individuals with severe rare hemophilia factor disorders to prevent bleeding episodes and enhance their quality of life. Notably, the COVID-19 pandemic had a notable impact on the market's trajectory.

Pandemic Spurs Emphasis on Safety:

The pandemic underscored the importance of patient safety and infection control measures, resulting in heightened awareness and stringent safety measures during clotting factor therapy administration. Healthcare providers and patients alike prioritized hygienic practices, including proper disinfection, hand hygiene, and personal protective equipment usage during treatment.

This intensified focus on patient safety measures is expected to have enduring benefits for rare hemophilia factor administration. Despite pandemic-induced challenges, the demand for specific clotting factor therapies for rare hemophilia remained robust, underscoring the essential role these therapies play in effectively managing and treating the condition.

Government Initiatives and Mandates Fuel Growth:

Favorable government initiatives and mandates aimed at increasing diagnosis and treatment rates are propelling market growth. The Orphan Drug Act (ODA) enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1983 is a noteworthy example, resulting in the designation of over 3,600 drugs as orphan drugs and the approval of 554 drugs by the U.S. FDA from 1983 to 2015.

Market Players Pursue Innovation:

Key market players are actively pursuing innovation through product launches and collaborations, seeking a competitive edge in this dynamic landscape. A notable instance is the FDA's approval of Kymriah, an innovative gene therapy for the treatment of genetic blood-clotting Hemophilia B disorder, announced in November 2022. Kymriah caters to B-cell precursor hemophilia patients below 25 years of age.

Segment Insights:

In 2022, the factor VII segment commanded the largest revenue share at 32.5%. It is also projected to exhibit the fastest CAGR of 7.6% from 2023 to 2030, driven by the increasing prevalence of factor VII deficiency.

Among treatments, the fresh frozen plasma segment secured the largest revenue share in 2022, owing to its ease of consumption and growing consumer preferences.

In 2022, North America emerged as the industry leader, capturing a 39.8% share, thanks to its well-established pharmaceutical and medical industry. Conversely, Asia Pacific is anticipated to experience the fastest CAGR of 8.2% during the forecast period, driven by the rising child population in countries like China and India.

Key Attributes:

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 120 Forecast Period 2022 - 2030 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2022 $294.7 Million Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2030 $499.5 Million Compound Annual Growth Rate 6.9% Regions Covered Global

Company Profiles

Novo Nordisk

Biogen

Bayer Healthcare

Pfizer, Inc.

Shire

Baxalta (Baxter Healthcare)

CSL Behring

Bio Products Laboratory Ltd.

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Methodology and Scope

1.1. Market Segmentation & Scope

1.2. Research Methodology

1.3. Information Procurement

1.4. Information or Data Analysis

1.5. Market Formulation & Validation

1.6. Model Details



Chapter 2. Executive Summary

2.1. Market Outlook

2.2. Segment Outlook

2.3. Competitive Insights



Chapter 3. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market Variables, Trends & Scope

3.1. Market Lineage Outlook

3.1.1. Parent market outlook

3.1.2. Related/ancillary market outlook

3.2. Penetration & Growth Prospect Mapping

3.3. Market Dynamics

3.3.1. Market driver analysis

3.3.2. Market restraint analysis

3.4. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market Analysis Tools

3.4.1. Industry Analysis - Porter's

3.4.2. PESTEL Analysis



Chapter 4. Rare Hemophilia Factors: Type Estimates & Trend Analysis

4.1. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market: Key Takeaways

4.2. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market: Movement & Market Share Analysis, 2022 & 2030

4.3. Factor I

4.4. Factor II

4.5. Factor V

4.6. Factor VII

4.7. Factor X

4.8. Factor XI

4.9. Factor XIII



Chapter 5. Rare Hemophilia Factors: Treatment Estimates & Trend Analysis

5.1. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market: Key Takeaways

5.2. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market: Movement & Market Share Analysis, 2022 & 2030

5.3. Factor Concentrates

5.4. Fresh Frozen Plasma

5.5. Cryoprecipitate



Chapter 6. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market: Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis

6.1. Regional Outlook

6.2. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market by Region: Key Marketplace Takeaway



Chapter 7. Competitive Landscape

7.1. Recent Developments & Impact Analysis, By Key Market Participants

7.2. Market Participant Categorization

7.2.1. Company overview

7.2.2. Financial performance

7.2.3. Product benchmarking

7.2.4. Strategic initiatives

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/sjhmu5

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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News / National

by Staff reporter

ZIMBABWE National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) Director General Mr Taguma Mahonde who is in remand prison on fraud and corruption allegations has been suspended from duty.The agency has since appointed Director Production Statistics Mrs Matiwonesa Phiri as the acting Director General.Mr Mahonde appeared in court last week and was denied bail for defrauding the statistics agency.In a statement on Sunday, the Zimstat board chairman Dr Naomi Wekwete said Mr Mahonde was suspended on Friday pending trial."The Zimstat Board would like to inform stakeholders of the suspension of Mr Taguma Mahonde from the position of Director-General at Zimstat with effect from 29 September 2023.In the interim, the Board has appointed Mrs Matiwonesa Phiri, Director Production Statistics, as the Acting Director-General pending finalisation of criminal proceedings initiated against Mr Mahonde in the Magistrate court," said Dr Wekwete.It is the State's case that on June 24, 2019 Mahonde entered into a contract of employment with Zimstat for the position of director-general.The contract included among other things, an educational allowance for himself and his children.The court heard that on September 3, 2021 the Board of Directors held a meeting where the accused was in attendance and among the issues discussed a review of the educational allowance for the Director General.It was resolved that the education allowance for the Director General be reviewed upwards to US$800 per child per term for a maximum of three children, thus translating to US$2 400.It is alleged that on 3 September 2021, Mahonde claimed US$2 400 for school fees.On the same day, Zimstat, acting upon the misrepresentation effected a payment voucher of $206 532 being school fees equivalent US$2 400 converted at the interbank rate of $6 05510 per US$1 paid into the bank account of Mahonde.On January 24, 2022, Mahonde generated a memo in which he misrepresented that the school fees for his three children was US$2 400 and on 25 January 2022, Zimstat made eight payments to the tune $270 775,00 being school fees equivalent to US$2 400 for term 1 at interbank rate.On May 22, 2022, Mahonde generated a memo in which he misrepresented that the school fees for his children was US$2 400.On September 6, 2022 he generated another memo in which he further misrepresented that the school fees for his children was US$2 400.Zimstat made a payment voucher to the tune $1 392 448.00 being school fees equivalent to US$2 400 for Term 3.On January 23, this year, Mahonde generated another memo in which he misrepresented that the school fees for his children was US$2 400 and on January 24, Zimstat made a payment voucher to the tune $1 756 808 being school fees equivalent to US$2 400 for Term 1.Investigations established that from September 2021 to January 2023, Mahonde had two school going children attending Kirkman Primary School and Livingstone Learning Centre and Nursery School.Investigations established that all the payments that were done by Zimstat towards Mahonde's education allowances were done into his personal account 9140005140306 using his vendor number E101467.The claims were not supported with school invoices.The case was unearthed during an internal audit conducted by Claudius Matiza in his capacity as the head of internal audit and on 20 April 2023.In a bid to obstruct the investigations, Mahonde allegedly hatched a plan to suspend Matiza from Zimstat.It is alleged that in a bid to further frustrate the completion of the case being investigated by ZACC, Mahonde tabled a proposal to the Zimstat board for a review of his educational allowances.Investigations established that there was also an attempt to backdate the educational allowances in order to sanitise the offence.Investigations further established that after investigations had already started on the 6th of March 2023, Mahonde, in a bid to cover up for the offence, paid a total of $756 047.33 on 21 and 22 March 2023 as refund for claiming US$4 000 for a non-existent child.As a result of the misrepresentation by Mahonde, Zimstat suffered an actual prejudice of US$4 000 and US$826 was recovered.
Dublin, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Peptone Market Report and Forecast 2023-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Global peptone market is forecasted to reach a value of $210 million by 2028 from $166.12 million in 2023, growing at a CAGR of 4.8%

The market's substantial growth is driven by its increasing significance in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological sectors, particularly in the realm of microbial culture media.

Peptone, a water-soluble protein partially derived from natural sources like animal tissues, casein, and soy, holds a pivotal role due to its nutrient-rich composition. It is a valuable ingredient in the formulation of microbial growth media, offering consistency and nutrient density essential for biotechnological applications, including bacterial fermentation processes and cell culture.

The analysis of the peptone market underscores its capability to provide vital nutrients such as nitrogen and vitamins, positioning it as a crucial component in microbial culture media. As biotechnological research gains momentum and the pharmaceutical industry expands, there is a burgeoning demand for top-quality microbial culture media, consequently driving the need for peptone.

The biopharmaceutical sector has experienced substantial growth, especially in the context of targeted therapies. Given peptone's significant role in fermentation processes vital for biopharmaceutical production, the sector's rise directly fuels the demand for peptone in the market.

Increased investments in research and development within the biotechnology field have led to a heightened demand for reliable and high-quality culture media components like peptone. Various entities, including universities, research institutions, and private enterprises, are actively seeking top-tier peptones to support their research endeavors.

In pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, peptone plays a vital role in vaccine production, enzyme production, and therapeutic protein production, contributing positively to the peptone market's growth. Its nutrient-rich profile is indispensable for facilitating optimal microbial growth, a critical aspect of these processes.

Peptone is also gaining traction in the food and beverage industry, primarily due to its potential in fermentative production and probiotic cultures. The increasing demand for fermented foods and probiotics further amplifies this trend. Additionally, the cosmetic industry is exploring peptone for its potential benefits in skincare formulations, particularly its protein-rich composition, which could prove advantageous for skin health.

The peptone market's future prospects appear promising, with potential expansions into emerging application areas and industries. Continuous research and development, coupled with innovations in production processes, are expected to solidify peptone's position not only in microbial culture media but also in broader domains.

The report delves into various aspects of the market, including market shares, plant operations, production capacities, investments, mergers and acquisitions, and other significant developments among the leading companies operating in the global peptone market.

Key Attributes:

Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 178 Forecast Period 2023 - 2028 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2023 $166.12 Million Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2028 $210 Million Compound Annual Growth Rate 4.8% Regions Covered Global

Some of the major players explored in the report are as follows:

Kerry, Inc.

Solabia Group

Global BioIngredients Inc.

Titan Biotech Limited

Biotecnica

SUBONEYO Chemicals Pharmaceuticals P Limited

Market Segmentation



Market Breakup by Source

Plant

Animal

Microbial

Others

Market Breakup by Application

Pharmaceuticals

Food

Cosmetics

Research

Others

Market Breakup by Region

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East and Africa

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/cvmftv

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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Washington, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rachel Saltzman, an experienced environmental attorney who served as a top legal advisor for global automotive manufacturer Volkswagen Group of America (VWGoA) and as an enforcement attorney for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has joined Hunton Andrews Kurth LLPs nationally recognized environmental practice as a partner in Washington, D.C.

Rachel brings to the firm an extensive and impressive background advising on a range of complex matters, including development of environmental, social and governance (ESG) programs, environmental enforcement defense, site cleanup and waste management and product compliance issues, said Deidre Duncan, leader of Hunton Andrews Kurths environmental practice. We are thrilled to welcome her to the firm.

At VWGoA, Saltzman held the position of Senior Director of Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability. In that capacity, Saltzman led a cross-disciplinary team that was responsible for spearheading a new approach to sustainability management, while also overseeing the companys ongoing environmental and occupational safety compliance efforts.

Under her leadership, Saltzmans department launched a Sustainability Steering Committee composed of senior company leaders and led an intensive cross-functional effort to develop a comprehensive set of environmental, social and governance (ESG) key performance indicators (KPIs) and create a prioritization framework for future sustainability initiatives at VWGoA.

Saltzman collaborated with VWGoAs legal department to confront emerging regulatory requirements and litigation trends as part of sustainability materiality assessment and worked to ensure that data collection and reporting structures were designed to facilitate both regulatory reporting and claim substantiation.

Prior to her appointment as senior director, Saltzman served for three years as the departments Assistant General Counsel and was responsible for the full range of environmental, climate change, sustainability and related issues associated with VWGoAs manufacturing facilities, warehouses, ports and related infrastructure, products, the companys transition to electric vehicles, and the related global supply chain, among other issues.

Before joining VWGoA, Saltzman practiced at two AmLaw 100 firms and, from 2013 to 2016, served as Assistant Regional Counsel at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco. At the EPA, she negotiated several settlements involving the Clean Air Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act as well as advising on various cleanup cases.

Notably, Saltzman served as EPAs lead negotiator on a consent decree concerning cleanup of over one hundred abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation, leading to a settlement valued at over $600 million. She also supervised the U.S. Navys remediation of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and negotiated environmental protection measures related to the Navys transfer of property to the City of San Francisco.

Saltzman earned her undergraduate and law degrees from Yale University and is licensed to practice in California and the District of Columbia.

With her frontline experience in government enforcement, in private practice and serving as a trusted legal advisor to a Global 500 company, Rachel is a welcome addition to the firm. Her valuable insights, sophisticated approach and dedication to excellence are an ideal fit for the team, said Eric Murdock, head of Hunton Andrews Kurths administrative law group. We are excited to welcome Rachel to the firm and to our D.C. office.

Hunton Andrews Kurths global environmental practice of over 50 attorneys have assisted with development and financing of new energy sources and retirement of traditional energy sources, participated in the policy development process, helped clients navigate regulatory changes affecting the industry, and counseled clients on strategic opportunities to diversify their energy portfolios and achieve a greener economy. The practice and many of its lawyers are ranked Band 1 nationally by Chambers USA and Chambers Global, as well as by many other well-respected ranking publications.

With lawyers in the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP serves clients across a broad range of complex transactional, litigation and regulatory matters. For more information, please contact Jeremy Heallen at +1 713 220 3713.

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NEW YORK, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Party City Holdco (Party City or the Company) (OTCMKTS: PRTYQ). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.



The investigation concerns whether Party City and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On January 17, 2023, Party City abruptly filed for bankruptcy, with the Companys bankruptcy filings citing its ongoing liquidity shortfall, its need for additional loans beyond the credit lines available to it, and its inability to locate lenders willing to provide additional loansissues previously undisclosed to investors.

On this news, Party Citys stock price fell $0.253 per share, or 67.72%, over the following two trading sessions, closing at $0.121 per share on January 19, 2023.

Then, on June 9, 2023, Party City revealed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Ernst & Young LPP had resigned as its auditor due to a disagreement over the Companys decision not to include a going concern warning in its quarterly report for the third quarter of 2022, which would have alerted investors that there was substantial doubt about the Companys ability to continue as a going concern for the next twelve months.

On this news, Party Citys stock price fell $0.01 per share, or 21.52%, over the following three trading sessions, to close at $0.036 per share on June 14, 2023.

Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com .
Grand Cayman Cayman Islands , Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At the Caribbean Conference, Grand Cayman's Kylie, the "Rae of Sunshine," showcased her acclaimed "Service with a Smile" hospitality customer journey framework.



The "Happy to Serve You!" The Caribbean Happiness Conference, held at the Marriott Beach Resort Curacao on September 11, 2023, was illuminated by the radiant presence of Kylie Rae Fitzgibbons, the renowned Director of Happiness from the Cayman Islands. The Royal Ballroom was filled with eager professionals from Aruba, Bonaire, Netherlands, Barbados, Grand Cayman, and all across Curacao, including esteemed members of parliament.

A common proverb says, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I like to say, the ultimate experience journey can be designed. It begins and ends with a smile. Kylie Rae Fitzgibbons

The day began with a soul-soothing sound bath healing ceremony, led by Ina Martina, setting the stage for a series of enlightening discussions on the synergy of happiness and service.

Photo caption: Nicole Maduro, Ron Johnson, Carla Balentina-Martina, Jandino Asporaat, Kylie Rae Fitzgibbons, Dr. Rayla Pikeri, Judith Oleana-Ubaghs, Muryad de Bruin, Ina Martina (left to right)



Guided by the expert MC, Nicole Maduro, a renowned Journalist and Communication Specialist, the event flowed seamlessly.

Jandino Asporaat, the keynote speaker from the Netherlands, combined humor and wisdom, emphasizing the essence of starting one's journey and the power of gratitude.

Muryad de Bruin of the Curacao Tourist Board presented the innovative approach of tracking island experience scores for both tourists and locals.

Ron Johnson from Barbados showcased the intrinsic link between employee happiness and customer satisfaction through his engaging red balloon activity and book signing sessions.

Kylie Rae Fitzgibbons, the Cayman Islands star of the event, equipped attendees with a structured approach to consistently deliver "Service with a Smile." Participants left with a comprehensive map framework, focusing on the five pivotal touchpoints of an overall experience journey.

Judith Oleana-Ubaghs passionately discussed the transformative role of a Chief Happiness Officer within organizations, while Dr. Rayla Pikeri introduced the audience to the exciting intersection of Artificial Intelligence, happiness, and service.

The event's unparalleled success was a testament to the vision of Carla Balentina-Martina and the unwavering support of her team, vendors, and sponsors.

Anticipate more enlightening sessions from the Caribbean Happiness Conference in the near future.

For media inquiries or more information, please contact the press release publicist, Qamar Zaman

T: 345-327-7206 CaymanStory.com

About Kylie Rae Fitzgibbons (KROS)

Kylie Rae Fitzgibbons is a renowned service consultant with over 16 years of experience in the luxury market of the Hospitality and Tourism industry. Her illustrious career includes a decade with The Ritz-Carlton and over four years with the Kimpton Seafire Resort & Spa pre-opening team. She is the visionary behind the "Service with a Smile Program," dedicated to infusing happiness into company cultures, reigniting passion for service, enhancing guest engagement, and boosting financial performance. Kylie Rae is a passionate advocate for wellness in the workplace and has become a respected figure in luxury hospitality consulting.

Follow Kylie Rae Sunshine on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kylieraeofsunshine/



About About Cayman Story

About CaymanStory.com

Located in the picturesque Grand Cayman, Cayman Story is a dedicated storytelling company with a unique mission. We specialize in offering customized solutions to assist your Cayman Islands-based business in its journey of inception, growth, and transformation into a captivating Cayman Story.

Publicist: Arnie Joy T 345-327-7206 CaymanStory.com



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Long Beach, CA, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Long Beach, CA  Today, Long Beach City College (LBCC) announced that it will join a cohort of four community colleges across the country selected to partner with Ascend at the Aspen Institutes Postsecondary Leadership Circle Activation Fund. Ascends new capacity-building fund provides financial support and expert technical assistance to selected community college campuses to accelerate institutional investment into expanding effective, equitable, and culturally-informed student parent supports.

This collaboration with Ascend at the Aspen Institute will allow LBCC to expand our support for our student parents through their educational journey, said LBCC Board of Trustees President Herlinda Chico. Together with our partnering institutions, we are forging a path toward enhanced opportunities for our students and their families, reflecting our dedication to fostering a more inclusive and thriving community.

Nationally, one in five college students  close to 4 million  is a parent. Almost half of all U.S. student parents attend community college, and 70 percent of these parents are mothers  making institutions like LBCC uniquely positioned to increase student parent outcomes, especially for single mothers.

As someone who understands the challenges of being a single parent while pursuing higher education, I deeply appreciate the significance of initiatives that support those student parents facing similar obstacles, said LBCC Superintendent-President Dr. Mike Munoz. Approximately one-quarter of our student body is responsible for dependents, and within that group, a quarter are single parents. The funding from Ascend at the Aspen Institute's Postsecondary Leadership Circle Activation Fund is a crucial step in ensuring that we can provide the necessary resources, guidance, and support to our student parents.

Investing in student parent, and single mother, postsecondary success immediately benefits families, communities, and the economy. Student parents, especially single mothers, are especially likely to benefit from the earning gains experienced by college graduates: parents who complete college degrees double their lifetime income. That is why Ascend, with support from ECMC Foundation, created the Postsecondary Leadership Circle Activation Fund.

LBCC will receive $75,000 to execute activities to support the program and will also receive regular expert technical assistance from Ascend which will provide opportunities to learn from a community of practitioners that will support their work.

Building pathways for every family to flourish across generations is central to Ascends mission, and we know that when student parents and single mothers succeed, their families and communities succeed as well, said David Croom, associate director of Ascends Postsecondary Success for Student Parents (PSP) initiative. Community colleges are key to increasing student persistence and attainment, and we are proud to partner with LBCC, a member of Ascends Postsecondary Leadership Circle and a leading institution innovating its practices to ensure that student parents are primed for success.

Since 2018, Ascends Postsecondary Success for Parents (PSP) initiative has been a key driver in building a student parent movement  an expansive, nationally-coordinated effort to advance the development of innovative solutions that provide greater postsecondary access, affordability, and success for parents. Ascend focuses on the more than four million student parents enrolled in postsecondary pathways  a group that should inform and strengthen higher educations equity agenda. The Postsecondary Leadership Circle Activation Fund is central to this effort.

Learn more about the Postsecondary Leadership Circle Activation Fund from Ascend at the Aspen Institute.

###

About Long Beach City College

Long Beach City College consists of two campuses with an enrollment of more than 25,000 students each semester. The education programs primary purpose is to prepare students for transfer to baccalaureate-granting institutions, entry into work or career development, and to support businesses in economic development. Long Beach City College serves the cities of Long Beach, Lakewood, Signal Hill and Avalon. Long Beach City College promotes equitable student learning and achievement, academic excellence, and workforce development by delivering high quality educational programs and support services to our diverse communities. Visit www.LBCC.edu for more information on Long Beach City College.

About Ascend at the Aspen Institute

Ascend at the Aspen Institute is a catalyst and convener for diverse leaders working across systems and sectors to build intergenerational family prosperity and well-being by intentionally focusing on children and the adults in their lives together. We believe in the power of co-creation. We are a community of leaders  well-connected, well-prepared, and well-positioned  building political will that transforms hearts, minds, policies, and practices.

The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the most important challenges facing the United States and the world. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Institute has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, and an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.
TORONTO, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Western Metallica Resources Corp. (TSXV: WMS) (Western Metallica or the Company) is pleased to provide an update on current activities and near-term operational plans as it relates to the Companys Peruvian acquisitions. The Company has now retained a Peruvian-based team to oversee day-to-day operations and exploration work at its recently acquired Turmalina and Cana Brava Projects, two highly prospective copper-molybdenum porphyry properties located in Northern Peru.



Gregory Duras, Western Metallicas CEO and Director, commented, We are very excited to have secured the services of highly regarded professionals with the right combination of expertise and experience in the Peruvian mineral exploration industry. Although we only recently finalized the acquisition of the Turmalina and Cana Brava Projects, we are keen to commence our field work as soon as possible and update the market on our upcoming activities. As Western Metallica repositions itself as a copper-focused mineral exploration firm operating within mining-friendly and highly-prospective under-explored jurisdictions, management expects its various stakeholders to benefit from the accretive value generated from advancing its Peruvian programs and as it achieves operational milestones.

Western Metallica plans to commence its exploration field activities at Cana Brava during the second half of October, which will include mapping supported by Short Wave Infra-Red (SWIR) spectrometry analyses. These activities will be aimed at outlining the extent of the porphyry-related alteration, the potential lateral and vertical zonation, defining potential controlling structures and favourable host lithologies, as well as systematic rock sampling aimed at defining anomalies and vectors to the mineralized centres. Based on initial interpretation of collected data, Western Metallica believes there is potential at Cana Brava for a cluster of medium-sized porphyry copper-molybdenum systems of above average grade. The encouraging initial data coupled with the Companys expertise in exploration and development, and strong cash position with ~$3 million in capital to advance operations into 2024, puts it in a prime position to unlock the untapped potential of this newly-acquired copper project.

Background

Western Metallica recently announced the acquisition of 100% of the issued and outstanding shares in Consolidated Copper Corp., which holds an option to acquire 100% of the mineral claims, rights and interests in two Cu-Mo projects located in Northern Peru: Cana Brava and Turmalina (refer to press release dated August 10th, 2023). These prospective polymetallic projects lie within a copper-porphyry region that has seen notable exploration and production success, on the Miocene Cu-Mo porphyry belt which extends from Northern Peru into Ecuador, and hosts world class deposits such as La Granja (First Quantum), Canariaco (Alta Copper), and Rio Blanco (Zijin Mining Group). Both projects are well located in proximity ports and major paved roads, and each project is comprised of large mineral concessions conducive to future project scalability.

Figure 1 - Location of the three Cana Brava porphyry clusters, major interpreted alteration zones and property coverage.

Cana Brava is a highly prospective 4,900-hectare copper-molybdenum project (including newly staked extensions) located in the La Libertad Department of northern coastal Peru, only 35 kilometers inland from the Peruvian coast and at an elevation of 1,500 metres in the western Cordillera of the Peruvian Andes, neighboring large emerging copper discoveries such as Hudbays Llaguen Cu-Mo Project. Cana Brava hosts three known partially eroded porphyry centres; Cana Brava 1, a well-defined 800-metre by 600-metre sized porphyry centre located on the Northwestern sector of the project, preliminarily mapped by Compania Minera Anaconda in the 1990s, in addition to Cana Brava 2 and Luz Maria located on the Northeastern and Southern sector of the project area, respectively. The Cana Brava 1 porphyry has also been the object of a reconnaissance sampling program conducted by Agregados Minerales Industriales SAC in 2015, consisting of 27 assayed samples that averaged 0.1% Cu, with grades up to 0.8% Cu; mapping which indicates the potential existence of a well-developed supergene enrichment profile. Recent processing of remote sensing data revealed the presence of wider advanced-argillic, phyllic and propyllitic alteration zones which have yet to be mapped. The Company intends to conduct a drone-based airborne magnetic survey over an area of ~5,000 hectares, along 100-metre spaced lines, which, coupled with the existing surface mapping data, will support field program targeting.

Although the Company is now strategically refocused on advancing its Peruvian exploration plans given compelling data and regional implications for future discoveries, Western Metallicas technical team has finalized the acquisition of gravimetric and magnetic data over its wholly-owned Nueva Celti copper project, located in Andalucia, Spain (refer to press release dated July 11th, 2023). The program delineated the possible extension of the known mineralized body to the north, beyond the regional normal-slip Penaflor faulting system, as well as indicated the presence of a new magnetic anomaly located immediately northeast from the know Nueva Celti deposit. Both anomalies merit further investigation with the execution of certain induced polarization (IP) pole-dipole lines aimed at investigating the possible source of these anomalies beneath a 150-200 metre depth Miocene marlstone cover.

Peruvian Operations

The Company is pleased to report that it has successfully built the core of its Peruvian team, filling the exploration, office, and operations management positions, along with engaging a consulting firm experienced within the region of both projects. The exploration manager, Ramon Medina, is a proficient senior geologist with over 25 years of experience evaluating, exploring, and developing greenfield and brownfield precious and base metals projects in Latin and North America, who previously held the position of Exploration Manager for Hochschild Mining in Peru. The office manager, Daniela Principe, an International Business graduate with a diploma in Logistics and Operations, and 10 years of experience in the mining sector, including the position of management assistant for several mineral exploration companies in Peru. The operations manager, Julio Calderon, holds over 20 years of experience in the Peruvian mining industry as field, administration, and logistic supervisor for various publicly-listed firms, including vast experience managing field programs and managing community relations in rural parts of Peru. Western Metallica also engaged a social consultancy firm, experienced in both Piura and La Libertad Departments, that recently concluded an onsite stakeholder map and will provide the Company with updated information on surface rights as it relates to both projects. The initial step of establishing relationships with local communities and designing a social engagement plan is critical prior to launching field work in Peru.

Qualified Persons

The technical and scientific information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. Giovanni Funaioli, Eur.Geol., Vice President Exploration of Western Metallica, who is a Qualified Person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Giovanni Funaioli is an employee of the Company and is not considered independent under NI 43-101.

The technical information relating to the Cana Brava and Turmalina Projects is historical in nature and has not been independently verified by the Company.

About Western Metallica Resources Corp.

Western Metallica is an Ontario registered company with its head office in Toronto, Ontario, trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under symbol WMS. Western Metallica is in the business of mineral resource exploration and development, its principal being its 100% owned Nueva Celti Copper Property in the Ossa Morena belt in Andalusia, Spain, and three other Spanish gold projects in the Navelgas Gold Belt in Asturias, Spain (Penedela, Valledor and Sierra Alta). Western Metallica also holds options to acquire a 100% interest in two copper projects in Peru; Cana Brava, in La Libertad Province, and Turmalina, in Piura Province.

Further information of the Company can be found at: www.westernmetallica.com

For more information please contact:

Western Metallica Resources Corp.

Gregory Duras

Chief Executive Officer

Email: gduras@westernmetallica.com

Investor Relations

Email: info@westernmetallica.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

The TSXV has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

This press release contains statements that constitute forward-statements. Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements, or developments to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Although the Company believes, in light of the experience of its officers and directors, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. When used in this press release, the words estimate, project, belief, anticipate, intend, expect, plan, predict, may or should and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. The forward-looking statements and information in this press release include information relating to the planned drill program and the development of the Companys projects and other mining projects and prospects thereof, the impact of the management additions on the Company ; and the potential and economic viability of the Cana Brava and Turmalina Projects. Such statements and information reflect the current view of the Company. Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. Readers should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that managements beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/87a76699-99fb-477f-9ed1-81a98e8eeb97
RALEIGH, N.C., Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BERNINA-certified dealer, BERNINA World of Sewing, will be hosting a day of celebration with their Carousel of BERNINA Creativity event featuring Mr. Hanspeter Ueltschi, the fourth-generation owner of BERNINA. The event will take place on Tuesday, October 24th, 2023 from 11 AM to 4 PM ET.



The Carousel of BERNINA Creativity Event promises an immersive experience, taking attendees from one station to another to construct a take-home zipper bag using the latest BERNINA technology. Attendees can explore the capabilities of the new BERNINA 790 PRO, L 890, and the Q Series Sit-Down models.





In addition to a hands-on experience, the event offers the opportunity to meet the very person behind BERNINA, Mr. Hanspeter Ueltschi. During his visit from Switzerland, Mr. Ueltschi will be available for signing BERNINA machines and manuals for a commemorative keepsake, as well as leading a lecture taking place at 2 PM.

I am fiercely excited to host this event and have Mr. Ueltschi present, shared owner, Sona Thorburn, I am proud to represent the BERNINA brand and look forward to our customers experiencing a brand that is so committed to quality.

During event hours, attendees can enjoy exciting prizes, exclusive in-store discounts on BERNINA products, and connection with fellow sewists and BERNINA enthusiasts.

Space for the event is limited and a reservation is required. To secure a spot, visit berninaworldofsewing.com or call (919) 782-2945. Fee is $25 for a kit and includes refreshments, door prize participation, and more. Those who purchase will receive a $25 store voucher to use at BERNINA World of Sewings Raleigh location.





Event Details:

Date: Tuesday, October 24th, 2023

Time: 11 AM to 4 PM ET

Location: BERNINA World of Sewing at 6013 Glenwood Ave in Raleigh, NC

Reservation Fee: $25 (Includes a $25 store voucher and bag making kit)

For more information on the event and BERNINA World of Sewing, visit berninaworldofsewing.com.

ABOUT BERNINA

BERNINA is the world's premier manufacturer of quality state-of-the-art sewing, quilting and embroidery machines, overlockers and embroidery software. Since being founded over 130 years ago, BERNINA has maintained a strong commitment to serving the creative community. This dedication threads through the Swiss precision found in every machine, the training and education available through our over 400 fully trained independent BERNINA Dealers and the endless tutorials and content shared on the BERNINA WeAllSew blog and social media channels. BERNINA products are designed for beginning to advanced sewists and priced to meet a variety of budgets, with new products being introduced every year.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5f4bd669-3442-47b8-bcb7-fea10012d60f

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b11d87ba-eb22-4f2c-85c1-b204f31fd64e
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Konica Minolta Business Solutions (Canada) Ltd. (Konica Minolta), a leader in industrial and commercial printing and packaging solutions, is pleased to announce that Resource Integrated Ltd. Canadas leading retail merchandising and visual solutions provider, has proudly added the Konica Minolta AccurioPress C12000 to its arsenal of cutting-edge technology. This strategic enhancement represents Resource Integrateds dedication to delivering exceptional quality and innovation to its diverse clientele.



Konica Minoltas AccurioPress C12000 is defined by its standout attributes that ensure a commitment to top-notch print quality and productivity. Known for its impressive colour accuracy, unmatched ability to handle various media types, and smooth automation, the press guarantees clients do not need to compromise on the quality of their final prints.

The Konica Minolta AccurioPress C12000 greatly advances Resource Integrateds digital printing capabilities, elevating short-run printing to unprecedented heights. We are elated to continue offering new and innovative opportunities to our customers, says Tony Rubino, President at Resource Integrated.

High-quality products are an integral part of Resources Integrateds commitment to delivering best-in-class outputs for their clients, said Dino Pagliarello, Senior Vice President, Portfolio Management and Planning, Konica Minolta. We are delighted they have continued to invest in Konica Minolta technology to grow their business by acquiring the AccurioPress C12000, a flagship model that enables superior print quality and productivity, offering brilliant colour, amazing media flexibility and the highest degree of automation.

Resource Integrateds adoption of the Konica Minolta AccurioPress C12000 not only amplifies its technological prowess but aligns with its commitment to sustainable practices. The printer contributes to eco-friendly initiatives by aiding in offsetting unavoidable CO2 emissions generated during production printing, showcasing Resource Integrateds unwavering dedication to responsible operations.

By incorporating this advanced technology, Resource Integrated reaffirms its role as a trusted partner for companies seeking superior printing solutions.

For more information about Resource Integrated and its cutting-edge solutions, please visit https://ri007.ca/.

To learn more about the Konica Minolta AccurioPress C12000 click here.

About Resource integrated

Resource Integrated, established in 2004, is a premier comprehensive partner specializing in tailored retail merchandising and visual solutions. Their unwavering commitment to pushing boundaries has consistently delivered remarkable outcomes for their clients. With a wide array of services, adept project management, and meticulous focus on particulars, they have fostered valuable collaborations with some of Canadas most esteemed retail brands.

About Konica Minolta Canada

Konica Minoltas journey started 150 years ago, with a vision to see and do things differently. We innovate for the good of society and the world. The same purpose that kept us moving then, keeps us moving now. Konica Minolta Business Solutions (Canada) Ltd. is reshaping and revolutionizing the workplace to achieve true connectivity through the Intelligent Connected Workplace portfolio. Its business technology offerings include IT Services, intelligent information management, video security solutions and managed print services, as well as office technology and industrial and commercial print solutions. Through its ongoing work, the company is fortunate to be continuously recognized for its products and services. This includes, but is not limited to being included on CRNs MSP 500 list numerous times; named a finalist in the IT Software Category by The World Technology Awards; recognized as the #1 Brand for Customer Loyalty in the MFP Office Copier Market by Brand Keys and presented with Keypoint Intelligences BLI 2021 A3 Line of The Year and BLI 2021-2023 Most Colour Consistent A3 Brand Awards for its bizhub i-Series.

Sustainability also continues to be a key driver for the company. As such, Konica Minolta Inc. has spent six years on the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World list. For more information, please visit Konica Minolta online and follow its accounts on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter (@KonicaMinoltaCA), and Instagram!

Contact Information Konica Minolta Canada

Konica Minolta Media Relations  Canada

+1 437.388.1140

info@bt.konicaminolta.ca

Contact Information Resource integrated

Tony Rubino

Managing Director

T: 905.771.3773 x222

C: 416.729.7070

trubino@007.ca

ri007.ca

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/213bc710-a215-4081-bceb-8cb30308e06e
OTTAWA, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new era of understanding opportunities to advance Canadian agriculture is dawning as Farm Management Canada in partnership with CentricEngine release new research that sheds light on the crucial roles played by farm women in influencing farm success in Canada. This comprehensive research, titled "Expanding Opportunities for Canadian Agriculture by Understanding the Experience of Farm Women," underscores the indispensable contributions of women and offers a compelling narrative that highlights opportunities to foster a transformative shift in the industry by supporting the unique needs of farm women.



Much has been said about the experience of women in farming, but little has been measured, says lead researcher Maurice Allin, President of CentricEngine. This is the first national study to establish a framework for identifying the activities undertaken by farm women and understand their motivations, aspirations and challenges to create a foundation of facts where none existed before.

Results reveal women are making extraordinary contributions to farming in Canada with a high degree of involvement in virtually every aspect of the operation. Furthermore, there is a tremendous diversity of experiences among farm women.

We were surprised to learn that rather than demographic or farmographic differences, it is the interactions and relationships with others that most influence the experience of farm women, says research partner Bob Wilbur, Principal at RW Strategic Perspectives. Viewing the experience of farm women through a human-centred lens provides a clearer understanding of their situations and creates opportunities for more effective actions  we can now confirm a one-size-fits-all approach will not work.

The research shows farm women continue to face significant challenges and barriers that need to be addressed. The level and satisfaction with communication about the farm proved to be a critical dimension in determining the nature of the experience of farm women. Other critical dimensions include women feeling valued and supported with their skillsets utilized.

The Report offers over 30 recommendations presented under six (6) distinct groupings:

Support gender equity and equality initiatives in policy development, programming and governance Create and enhance programming, development opportunities, and resources that specifically address the needs of farm women Dedicate efforts beyond women in agriculture to focus exclusively on supporting farm women Promote communication and interpersonal skills along with business management practices as essential components of farming Expand existing research to more effectively capture data related to farm women (ex. Census) Conduct additional research on the experience and contributions of farm women, factors that influence farm success, and a comparative study of farm men using the same human-centered lens

To celebrate the release of this research, Farm Management Canada will be hosting a panel discussion at its 2023 Agricultural Excellence Conference taking place November 21-23 in Guelph, Ontario. The session will feature presentations by the lead researchers and invited guests from the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and la Federation des Agricultrices du Quebec to explore how the findings of this research can inform policies, programs, and initiatives aimed at empowering farm women.

"We are excited to unveil this transformative research, which provides a roadmap for empowering Canadas farm women," says Heather Watson, Executive Director of Farm Management Canada. "By recognizing and supporting the unique needs of farm women, we can unlock tremendous potential for advancing Canadas agricultural sector from the grassroots, paving the way for future generations of farmers in Canada."

This research was made possible through the generous contributions of the project Steering Committee including representatives from the Maritime Agriculture Womens Network, la Federation des Agricultrices du Quebec, the Ag Womens Network (Ontario), Ag Women Manitoba, Manitoba Women in Agriculture & Food, Women in Agriculture (Saskatchewan), Alberta Ag Women and BC Women in Ag.

The research was funded by the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association, FCC, RBC, WS and the Government of Canada under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership led by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

The Report is accompanied by an Environmental Scan that helped inform the national study.

To read the Environmental Scan and Full Research Report, visit https://fmc-gac.com/programs-services/research-analysis/#farmwomen.

About Farm Management Canada

Farm Management Canada is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the awareness, appreciation, and adoption of proven business practices to establish a foundation for farm management success by providing and connecting producers with the business management resources and tools to assess performance and make sound business decisions.

About CentricEngine

CentricEngine is a research and brand development consultancy that assists marketers and policy makers to craft more effective strategies by using human-centred thinking to understand farmer decision making and the relationship between farmers, farms and farming.

For more information, contact:

Heather Watson, Executive Director

Farm Management Canada

Heather.Watson@FMC-GAC.com

Maurice Allin

President

CentricEngine

Maurice.Allin@centricengine.com

Bob Wilbur

Principal

Robert Wilbur Strategic Perspectives

Bob@wilbur-sp.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8d529831-7234-4bd5-8ff7-3ecef792c232
WASHINGTON, DC, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Throughout the month of September, AmeriCorps CEO Michael D. Smith attended key events in Washington, DC, and New York, celebrating AmeriCorps' success and meeting with leaders to address the countrys most pressing needs.

On Monday, Sept. 11, Smith participated in a local September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance event in Washington, DC. Smith served alongside the US Trade Representative, Ambassador Katherine Tai, packing meals. This was part of a joint effort with 9/11 Day Organization, which took place in 18 cities nationwide. Collectively, the effort provided 6.5 million meal packs for people in need.

Our lives have been shaped by how we, as a country, came together to respond in the wake of 9/11, said Michael D. Smith, CEO, AmeriCorps. Through a spirit of unity and an enduring commitment to our most cherished values, 9/11 Day of Service provides Americans an opportunity to reflect, remember and act, knowing were unstoppable when we stand together.

On Monday, Sept. 18, Smith traveled to New York to participate in a roundtable event with the Clinton Global Initiative. The event focused on the mental health crisis currently affecting youth nationwide. The session brought thought leaders together to address mental health challenges, especially in minority and rural communities.

Later that evening, Smith visited Yankee Stadium. The Yankees, an AmeriCorps partner that honored Street Lab earlier this year, hosted Smith to celebrate AmeriCorps 30th anniversary.

On Saturday, Sept. 23, Smith attended the Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Conference and met with the African American Mayors Association.

We had a great discussion on workforce development partnerships with the African American Mayors Association, county officials and labor and philanthropic leaders from across the nation  from Long Beach to Little Rock, Smith said following the event.

Follow AmeriCorps CEO Michael D. Smith on X, formerly known as Twitter, and stay up-to-date with agency updates on Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedIn for additional highlights from Smiths trips.

Attachment
News / National

by Simbarashe Sithole

In a bizarre incident a 39-year-old Apostolic congregant has been arrested after he indecently assaulted a 12 year old boy at a church shrine in Guruve.Albi Karambakuwa of Magwenya village is currently assisting police with investigations.Mashonaland Central police spokesperson Inspector Milton Mundembe confirmed the incident."I can confirm that Karambakuwa is assisting police with investigations following a case of indecent assault which occurred over the weekend." Mundembe said.Allegations are that Kambarakuwa was among the Nyenyedzi yechinonwe congregants in Guruve who were having a three day prayer session.He joined the 12 year old victim who was sleeping in the blankets with his brother around 2 am on Sunday.While in the blankets he unlawfully had anal sex with the minor.Due to pain the minor shouted for help and church elders managed to effect citizen arrest on the suspect.The church elders surrendered the suspect to Guruve police while the boy was referred to Guruve hospital for a medical examination.The police warned church leaders to tighten their security to avoid such incidents.
NEW YORK, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Planet Fitness, Inc. (Planet Fitness or the Company) (NYSE: PLNT). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.



The investigation concerns whether Planet Fitness and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On September 15, 2023, Planet Fitness announced that its board of directors had fired the Companys Chief Executive Officer Chris Rondeau. Planet Fitness did not give a reason for Rondeaus termination.

On this news, Planet Fitnesss stock price fell $11.30 per share, or 18.9%, over the following two trading sessions, to close at $48.50 per share on September 18, 2023.

Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered billions of dollars in damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com.

Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

rswilloughby@pomlaw.com

888-476-6529 ext. 7980
Drillhole SM23-201: 21.6 g/t Au over 5.1 m in the Ramp Portal Zone (Fig. 2)



Drillhole SM23-308: 38.5 g/t Au over 7.4 m Down-plunge of Stock West (Fig. 1)

Drillhole SM23-281: 98.8 g/t Au over 0.9 m in Footwall Timiskaming Sediments (Fig. 3)

TORONTO, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) is pleased to report new assay results from the Stock Property, part of the Fox Complex near Timmins, Ontario.

Geological investigations have identified two principal plunge directions (or vectors) controlling mineralization at Stock (see Figure 1) with both appearing to originate at the Ramp Portal Zone. Results from 21 diamond drillholes (see Table 1) are reported for three key target areas at our Stock West Project: Ramp Portal Zone, Shallow Plunge and Steep Plunge as shown on Figure 1. In addition, there are two intriguing results which suggest other directions for the Stock resource to grow.

Figure 1: Longitudinal section looking North, extending from Stock West to East of the historical Stock Mine headframe, referencing key target areas: Ramp Portal Zone (Figure 2), Shallow Plunge and Steep Plunge





Ramp Portal Zone

Drilling continues to encounter good grades and widths at shallow depths, in proximity to the surface entrance portal of the ramp that will be driven to access the Stock West deposit. Development of the ramp is planned to start in December of this year.

The significance of this mineralization is the prospect of very early mining and cash flow, making the development of the Stock ramp partially self-funding. Some of the notable gold assay results from this zone include drillholes:

SM23-180:



SM23-193:



SM23-201:



SM23-204:



SM23-CPS-09: 6.2 g/t Au over 22.7 m



9.5 g/t Au over 11.3 m



21.6 g/t Au over 5.1 m



12.0 g/t Au over 12.4 m



12.5 g/t Au over 10.9 m (capped 5.0 g/t Au over 22.7 m)



(capped 7.4 g/t Au over 11.3 m)



(capped 16.6 g/t Au over 5.1 m)



(capped 9.1 g/t Au over 12.4 m)



(capped 4.2 g/t Au over 10.9 m)

All these assay results occurred very close to the surface, between depths of 23 to 73 meters down hole (see Figure 2). The wide intercept seen in SM23-180 may represent multiple mineable mineralized zones since the more typical true widths for the ramp portal zone are generally 10-15 meters.

Figure 2: Longitudinal section looking North - Ramp Portal Zone





Shallow Plunge Zone

Drilling has encountered good-grade mineralization that continues to the Southwest beyond the current Stock West resource, as illustrated by assay results from drillholes S23-308: 38.5 g/t Au over 7.4 m (3.6 g/t Au over 7.4 m capped) and S23-309: 4.0 g/t Au over 14.7 m. Other examples for this area include S23-291: 3.8 g/t Au over 9.6 m and S23-295: 4.1 g/t Au over 8.2 m (see Figure 1). These results together with the good grades found near the Ramp Portal Zone suggest there is potential to not only expand the Stock West resource base but also shorten the payback period and extend the mine life that was outlined in the January 2022 Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Fox Complex (see press release dated January 26th, 2022).

Steep Plunge Zone

This zone represents the longer-term potential for the Stock West Project (see Figure 1) due to its depth. Drillhole S23-306 returned 2.6 g/t Au over 24.3 m, 60 meters down-dip of previously released drillhole S21-202, which graded 4.3 g/t Au over 20.3 m (see press release dated December 21st, 2021). The observed widths continue to impress and suggest that the mineralization continues deeper.

Another good result was seen in drillhole SM23-191 (see Figure 1), higher up in the same zone returned 8.7 g/t Au over 11.2 m. This intercept lies within a planned early mining horizon, which is down-dip of the historical Stock Mine and reinforces our confidence in this mineralized zone.

Intriguing Results

Figure 3: Cross section (looking East-northeast) showing results which could suggest further directions for growing the Stock resource.





The first intriguing assay (see Figure 3) is located deep into the footwall of the Stock West resource within a Timiskaming-aged sedimentary wedge and returned 98.8 g/t Au over 0.9 m in drillhole S23-281. Because the orientation of the sedimentary wedge is well defined by more than 100 holes drilled since 2019 that were only selectively sampled based on visual cues, a staged resampling project is now warranted for these particular sediments. This result is significant because it now demonstrates the potential for narrow, high-grade gold values within a unit that was generally not considered to carry significant mineralization at the Stock property. Timiskaming-aged sediment is known to carry gold mineralization elsewhere in the Timmins camp, such as at Newmonts Pamour mine.

The second result (see Figure 3) is also located in the footwall of Stock West with drillhole S23-293 returning 3.0 g/t Au over 5.3 m approximately 250 meters down-dip and down-plunge from Stock West. This result is also important since it demonstrates that the mineralized system at Stock West is present well outside of the current resource model and continues deeper.

An updated mineral resource estimate for the Stock deposit is expected to be complete in Q4 of this year.

Table 1  Latest Drill Results for Stock

Drillhole From

(m) To

(m) True Width

(m) Grade

(g/t Au) Comment Ramp Portal Zone SM23-180 45.0 69.8 22.7 6.2 Incl. 4.2 g/t Au/ 10.8 m & Incl. 16.0 g/t Au/ 3.8 m SM23-184 23.1 34.0 9.0 3.6 SM23-193 30.4 45.9 11.3 9.5 Incl. 12.5 g/t Au/ 8.3 m And 57.1 82.3 18.0 5.0 Incl. 16.2 g/t Au/ 4.1 m SM23-201 23.1 30.0 5.1 21.6 Incl. 45.4 g/t Au/ 1.5 m SM23-204 34.1 53.2 12.4 12.0 Incl. 36.9 g/t Au/ 2.0 m & Incl. 26.7 g/t Au/ 2.0 m And 60.0 62.4 1.7 8.4 SM23-CPS-09 60.5 73.0 10.9 12.5 Incl. 43.8 g/t Au/ 0.9 m Shallow Plunge Zone S23-291 636.8 649.9 9.6 3.8 S23-295 632.0 643.0 8.2 4.1 S23-298 563.1 577.4 9.5 3.1 S23-308 622.0 632.0 7.4 38.5 Incl. 407.0 g/t Au/ 0.7 m And 654.0 664.1 7.5 3.2 S23-311 647.7 656.0 6.1 4.0 SM23-169 322.0 331.0 6.4 3.1 S23-309 567.0 586.8 14.7 4.0 S23-310 583.0 593.0 8.3 5.6 Steep Plunge Zone S23-297 723.0 732.0 7.3 3.6 S23-306 804.9 833.2 24.3 2.6 SM22-108 572.6 590.4 14.5 3.3 SM23-175 125.8 132.6 5.8 3.1 SM23-191 540.6 553.9 11.2 8.7 Incl. 16.2 g/t Au/ 3.4 m Intriguing Results S23-281 508.6 509.6 0.9 98.8 S23-293 798.0 805.7 5.3 3.0

All results are estimated true widths. All grades presented are uncapped unless otherwise noted. The capping value used is 30 g/t Au.

Technical Information

Technical information pertaining to the Fox Complex exploration contained in this news release has been prepared under the supervision of Sean Farrell, P.Geo., Chief Exploration Geologist, who is a Qualified Person as defined by Canadian Securities Administrators National Instrument 43-101 "Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects."

Exploration drill core samples at the Stock Complex were typically submitted as 1/2 core or whole core. Analyses reported herein were either performed by the fire assay method by the accredited laboratory: Pangea Laboratorio in Sinaloa, Mexico which is owned and operated by an indirect subsidiary of the Company (NMX-EC-17025-IMNC-2018, ISO /IEC 17025:2017) or by the photon assay method by the laboratory: MSA Labs in Timmins, Ontario, Canada (following: ISO 9001 & ISO 10725; pending review in one year for formal accreditation). The drill holes SM23-180, SM23-184, SM23-193 & SM23-201, were submitted to the internal Black Fox assay lab and analyzed by the fire assay method.

For a list of drilling results at Stock since May 8, 2023, including hole location and alignment, click here:

https://www.mcewenmining.com/files/doc_news/archive/2023/2023_10Stock/StockProgramDrillIntercepts.xlsx

CAUTION CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements and information, including "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements and information expressed, as at the date of this news release, McEwen Mining Inc.'s (the "Company") estimates, forecasts, projections, expectations or beliefs as to future events and results. Forward-looking statements and information are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties, risks and contingencies, and there can be no assurance that such statements and information will prove to be accurate. Therefore, actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements and information. Risks and uncertainties that could cause results or future events to differ materially from current expectations expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and information include, but are not limited to, effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, fluctuations in the market price of precious metals, mining industry risks, political, economic, social and security risks associated with foreign operations, the ability of the corporation to receive or receive in a timely manner permits or other approvals required in connection with operations, risks associated with the construction of mining operations and commencement of production and the projected costs thereof, risks related to litigation, the state of the capital markets, environmental risks and hazards, uncertainty as to calculation of mineral resources and reserves, and other risks. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information included herein, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to reissue or update forward-looking statements or information as a result of new information or events after the date hereof except as may be required by law. See McEwen Mining's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, under the caption "Risk Factors", for additional information on risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to the forward-looking statements and information regarding the Company. All forward-looking statements and information made in this news release are qualified by this cautionary statement.

The NYSE and TSX have not reviewed and do not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the contents of this news release, which has been prepared by management of McEwen Mining Inc.

ABOUT MCEWEN MINING

McEwen Mining is a gold and silver producer with operations in Nevada, Canada, Mexico and Argentina. In addition, it owns approximately 52% of McEwen Copper which owns the large, advanced stage Los Azules copper project in Argentina. Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner, has a personal investment in the company of US$220 million. His annual salary is US$1.

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WEB SITE SOCIAL MEDIA www.mcewenmining.com McEwen Mining

Facebook: facebook.com/mcewenmining LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/mcewen-mining-inc- CONTACT INFORMATION Twitter: twitter.com/mcewenmining 150 King Street West Instagram: instagram.com/mcewenmining Suite 2800, PO Box 24 Toronto, ON, Canada McEwen Copper

Facebook: facebook.com/ mcewencopper M5H 1J9 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/mcewencopper Twitter: twitter.com/mcewencopper Relationship with Investors: Instagram: instagram.com/mcewencopper (866)-441-0690 - Toll free line (647)-258-0395 Rob McEwen

Facebook: facebook.com/mcewenrob Mihaela Iancu ext. 320 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/robert-mcewen-646ab24 info@mcewenmining.com Twitter: twitter.com/robmcewenmux

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MONACO, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Costamare Inc. (the Company) (NYSE: CMRE), an international owner and provider of containerships and dry bulk vessels for charter, announced the election of one Class I director at the Companys virtual annual meeting of stockholders held today.



The elected Class I director is Konstantinos Zacharatos who was elected to hold office for a term ending at the annual meeting of stockholders in 2026 and until his successor has been duly elected and qualified.

Stockholders also ratified the appointment of Ernst & Young (Hellas) Certified Auditors Accountants S.A. as the Companys independent auditors for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2023.

About Costamare Inc.

Costamare Inc. is one of the world's leading owners and providers of containerships and dry bulk vessels for charter. The Company has 49 years of history in the international shipping industry and a fleet of 70 containerships, with a total capacity of approximately 520,000 TEU and 44 dry bulk vessels with a total capacity of approximately 2,687,000 DWT (including two secondhand vessels that we have agreed to acquire). The Company also has a dry bulk operating platform which charters in/out dry bulk vessels, enters into contracts of affreightment, forward freight agreements and may also utilize hedging solutions. The Company participates in a leasing business that provides financing to third party owners. The Companys common stock, Series B Preferred Stock, Series C Preferred Stock, Series D Preferred Stock and Series E Preferred Stock trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols CMRE, CMRE PR B, CMRE PR C, CMRE PR D and CMRE PR E, respectively.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as believe, intend, anticipate, estimate, project, forecast, plan, potential, may, should, could and expect and similar expressions. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Companys belief regarding future results, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Companys control. It is possible that actual results may differ, possibly materially, from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. For a discussion of some of the risks and important factors that could affect future results, see the discussion in the Companys Annual Report on Form 20-F (File No. 001-34934) under the caption Risk Factors.

Company Contacts:

Gregory Zikos - Chief Financial Officer

Konstantinos Tsakalidis - Business Development

Costamare Inc., Monaco

Tel: (+377) 93 25 09 40

Email: ir@costamare.com




TORONTO, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Euro Sun Mining Inc., (TSX: ESM) (Euro Sun or the Company) announces that it has agreed to settle the outstanding portion of the convertible security funding agreement (the CFSA) with Lind Global Fund II, LP (Lind) in full.



The outstanding amounts under the CFSA will be settled from proceeds received through the recent net smelter return (NSR) royalty arrangement recently negotiated (see press release dated August 28, 2023). This achievement honours the commitment made by the Company to Lind and, sets another milestone on the evolution of the Rovina Valley Project (the Project) to deliver critical European minerals and Romanian economic development.

Euro Sun once again takes this opportunity to formally thank Lind for their valued support as the Project continues on a positive trajectory.

NSR Agreement

The Company also announces that it has amended and restated NSR agreement to provide for a 1% (from 0.5%) net smelter return royalty on all copper produced at the Project upon the exercise of the Companys NSR sale right, in exchange for an increased initial payment of C$2.625 million.

About Euro Sun Mining Inc.

Euro Sun is a Toronto Stock Exchange listed mining company focused on the exploration and development of its 100%-owned Rovina Valley gold and copper project located in west-central Romania, which hosts the second largest gold deposit in Europe.

Further information:

For further information about Euro Sun Mining, or the contents of this press release, please contact Investor Relations at info@eurosunmining.com

Caution regarding forward-looking information:

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding the repayment of the Lind convertible security funding agreement; Europes energy transition and demand for energy metals; environmental impact of the Project; and development of the Project. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including risks inherent in the mining industry and risks described in the public disclosure of the Company which is available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Companys website at www.eurosunmining.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

The TSX does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

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TORONTO, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Virtus Diversified Real Estate Investment Trust (VREIT) has announced the successful acquisition of Heritage House, a premier senior living community located at 2113 Gordon Street in Guelph, Ontario. The acquisition, valued at $5.05 million, geographically diversifies the retirement residence segment of the portfolio, and represents our commitment to enhancing the well-being and quality of life for seniors living in the province.

Heritage House

Heritage House is situated on a picturesque 1.72-acre site. This well-maintained facility has a rich history, dating back to 1975 when it was initially built as a student residence. It was converted into a Retirement Home in 1980.

Virtus Diversified REIT focuses on the acquisition of opportunistic, cash-flowing real estate. This site is well positioned for growth with a current occupancy of 73.25%; says Virtus President and CEO, Aurelio Baglione. We plan to make immediate improvements and have retained Oxford Living to actively manage this site. We have a goal of increasing the NOI within the next 12 months, by prioritizing occupancy growth. With 51 suites and 80 beds, Heritage House offers a range of accommodations, including studios and one-bedroom suites, supporting independent and supportive living.

Commitment to Quality

Virtus Diversified REIT is dedicated to preserving the legacy of Heritage House while enhancing its services and amenities to meet the evolving needs of its residents. We recognize the importance of maintaining the excellent condition of the facility and will continue to prioritize the comfort, safety, and well-being of all residents.

As part of our commitment, we anticipate modernization of the plumbing services within the next 3-5 years, ensuring the long-term sustainability and efficiency of the facility.

A Bright Future

The addition of Heritage House aligns seamlessly with Virtus Diversified REIT's mission to acquire quality properties in strong secondary markets across Canada and the United States. We acquired this site with a low occupancy rate and the numbers still allow us to provide an annualized distribution to our shareholders of $0.75 per unit annually with a current subscription price at $9.98. We expect our NAV to grow as we increase value for our shareholders. says Josh Will, Executive Vice President, Capital Markets, VREIT. As a component of the REIT, the property is expected to provide real estate sector diversification, cashflow, and unit value appreciation. This will be accomplished by boosting revenue for shareholders and optimizing costs and revenues.

For more information about Virtus Diversified REIT and its investment opportunities, please visit www.vreit.ca.

About Virtus Diversified REIT

Virtus Diversified REIT is focused on acquiring quality properties in strong secondary and tertiary markets across Canada and the United States. The companys goal is to build a strong and stable commercial, industrial, retail, and multi-unit residential portfolio, enhancing overall portfolio incomes by diversifying the tenant base and geographic diversity. The long-term goal is to maximize the unit value with ongoing management through future acquisitions, repositioning, and competitive financing.

Some of Virtus Diversified REITs anchor tenants include companies such as TD Bank, Crown Corporation, BJs Wholesale Club, The Brick, No Frills, and Dollarama.

Contact Information

Josh Will

info@vreit.ca

www.vreit.ca
BANGOR, MAINE, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Husson University has received a $500,000 grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation to support its School of Technology and Innovation (SoTI). Delivering a variety of technology-focused academic programs, SoTI will use the funds to support student scholarships, prepare students for professional careers in support of Maines workforce, hire additional faculty and bolster prospective student outreach efforts in Maine and across New England.

The grant is part of an ongoing partnership between Husson University and the Harold Alfond Foundation to support SoTIs technology programs, with an emphasis being placed on the schools extended reality (XR) program. An initial $2.2 million Alfond grant was awarded to Husson University in 2022 to support SoTIs unique academic programs in existing and emerging fields of technology.

We are extremely excited about the Alfond Foundations continued commitment to Husson University and specifically the School of Technology and Innovation, Michael Knupp, Ph.D(c), SoTI director and Husson assistant professor, said. The new grant plays an integral role in our continued advancement of technology offerings and capabilities within SoTI.

SoTI, housed in the Husson University College of Businesss new Harold Alfond Hall, currently hosts degree programs in computer information systems, extended reality (XR), software development and business analytics. Its also home to the iEX center, which gives students and faculty the opportunity to experiment with various augmented and virtual reality technologies and develop real-world applications for educational and business needs.

Through previous support we have been able to bring on new staff, acquire equipment, and strengthen our marketing and outreach, Knupp continued. "As such, over the last two years we have nearly doubled our student enrollment in STEM degrees while at the same time enriching the student experience. The new grant allows us to bring on essential staff within our extended reality program and the iEX Center. Husson remains committed to professional education and experiential learning, especially within the STEM disciplines. A key factor of our success model is having partners like the Alfond Foundation.

Husson is an agile institution that consistently examines how it can best meet ever-changing workplace demands, Greg Powell, Chairman of the Board for the Harold Alfond Foundation, said. They were early adopters of XR technologies, recognizing a growing workforce demand for XR skills. They are an excellent example of a Maine institution focused on growing STEM competency through experiential education.

In addition to the schools on-campus academic programs, SoTI is also partnering with external organizations to bring further training and learning opportunities to students. For example, SoTI recently announced a partnership with Pixotope, a leading software platform for end-to-end real-time virtual production solutions, via the Pixotope Education Program. Husson is the first educational institution in the United States to join this global program with the mission to increase student access to virtual production training, technology and industry professionals.

Founded in 1950, the Harold Alfond Foundation furthers the philanthropic legacy of Harold Alfond, the founder of Dexter Shoe Company and a longtime supporter of Maine communities in which he and his family worked and resided. He ensured that his philanthropy would live on by committing nearly all of his wealth to the Foundation, which continues to support charitable causes in the State of Maine. Consistent with Harold Alfonds own giving pattern and philanthropic principles, the Foundation favors education, healthcare, youth development, and other selected charitable causes. For more information, visit the Harold Alfond Foundation website.

For 125 years, Husson University has shown its adaptability and strength in delivering educational programs that prepare future leaders to handle the challenges of tomorrow through innovative undergraduate and graduate degrees. With a commitment to delivering affordable classroom, online and experiential learning opportunities, Husson University has come to represent a superior value in higher education. The hallmarks of a Husson education include advanced knowledge delivered through quality educational programs. According to an analysis of tuition and fees by U.S. News & World Report, Husson University is one of the most affordable private colleges in New England. For more information about educational opportunities that can lead to personal and professional success, visit Husson.edu.
PITTSBURGH, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coherent Corp. (NYSE: COHR), a leader in optical communications components and subsystems, today announced that its 200G four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) distributed-feedback laser and Mach-Zehnder modulator (DFB-MZ), combined monolithically in a photonic integrated circuit (PIC), has won the 2023 ECOC Exhibition Industry Award for Most Innovative Product in the category of Innovative Photonics Component.



This PIC enables 200G per lane in both retimed and linear pluggable 800G and 1.6T transceivers. The 200G PAM4 DFB-MZ was first demonstrated at OFC 2023 in March. Coherent is again showing a live demonstration of the 200G PAM4 DFB-MZ at ECOC 2023, this week in Glasgow, Scotland, Stand #406. This live demonstration showcases the DFB-MZ that transmits a 200G PAM4 signal over a 6 km fiber.

We are very proud to receive this award for the DFB-MZ, which to our knowledge we were the first to demonstrate in March 2023, said Dr. Sanjai Parthasarathi, Chief Marketing Officer. We have combined into one PIC the functional elements and integration experience of several of our most advanced devices, which are each breakthrough innovations on their own. This PIC incorporates our knowledge from electroabsorption-modulated lasers, IQ modulators for coherent applications, and tunable lasers with Mach-Zehnder modulators. It will enable higher-performance, longer-reach PAM4 optical links.

The DFB-MZ features a channel-specific chirp control that provides excellent dispersion management. The DFB-MZ supports wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), including local area network (LWDM) and coarse (CWDM) wavelength plans. A cooled DFB-MZ supports LWDM for reach up to 10 km. An uncooled DFB-MZ supports CWDM for shorter reaches.

About Coherent

Coherent empowers market innovators to define the future through breakthrough technologies, from materials to systems. We deliver innovations that resonate with our customers in diversified applications for the industrial, communications, electronics, and instrumentation markets. Headquartered in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, Coherent has research and development, manufacturing, sales, service, and distribution facilities worldwide. For more information, please visit us at coherent.com.

Contact

Mark Lourie

Vice President, Corporate Communications

corporate.communications@coherent.com
SYDNEY, Australia, Oct. 04, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With SXSW Sydney around the corner, INVNT , the global live brand storytelling agency has been announced as the host and curator of the festivals Discovery Stage. Centered around innovation and future-forward thinking conversation, the stage will consist of speakers, panels and networking opportunities where exceptional visions are shared and ideas for the future are born.

The partnership with INVNT and SXSW Sydney affirms INVNTs position in the market as tech and innovation leaders, as they continue to deliver best-in-class experiences at the intersection of live, digital, and content, having collaborated with clients such as Xero, Circles.Life, Lamborghini, Sydney WorldPride, American Express, Netflix, and more to deliver innovative brand storytelling. Sitting in collaboration with the companys APAC operations is INVNT.ATOM , the digital innovation division of [INVNT GROUP] , who will provide its Web3 and tech-backed expertise to support brands to chart a course, navigate, activate & create new opportunities at the digital frontier of the spatial web.

Adopting our mantra of 'Challenge Everything', were setting ourselves the challenge to deliver a stage ignited by ground-breaking innovation that will shape the way we live our lives. At the core of INVNT sits storytelling - we thrive on sharing stories that are disruptive and inspire the future of creativity. INVNT is thrilled to be partnering with SXSW Sydney to bring on stage the stories of innovators, pioneers, and creators within the ever-changing landscape, says Laura Roberts, Managing Director of [INVNT GROUP] APAC.

Were looking forward to working with INVNT to deliver an exclusive line-up that will give audiences a glimpse of possible futures, steered by all things transformative in technology and innovation. Well be exploring diverse ways of thinking and creating. Were so thrilled to spark some inspiration and see what future-changing ideas are discovered on this stage, says Fenella Kerneborne, Head of Conference Programming, and Caroline Pegram, Head of Tech & Innovation at SXSW Sydney.

The Discovery Stage will be held at the Tech and Innovation Expo of the International Convention Center (ICC) Sydney, from October 18-21, with the wider SXSW Sydney event running from October 15  22. Full event programming details will be announced in the coming weeks. Venue will be subject to capacity. Available at sxswsydney.com .

About INVNT

Founded in 2008 by Scott Cullather and Kristina McCoobery, INVNT uses the craft of live brand storytelling to create and produce live experiences that excite and unite physical and virtual audiences, globally. The company's challenge everything positioning statement helps world class brands share their stories with audiences that matter. Part of [INVNT GROUP], THE GLOBAL BRANDSTORY PROJECT, INVNT's offices are strategically located in New York, Sydney, London, Singapore, San Francisco, Dubai, Stockholm, Detroit, and Washington D.C.. For more information visit www.invnt.com .

About INVNT.ATOM

INVNT.ATOM, part of [INVNT GROUP] THE GLOBAL BRANDSTORY PROJECT, is an innovation and brand experience agency devoted to helping global brands chart a course, navigate, activate, and create new opportunities at the digital frontier of Web3. Headquartered in Singapore, the collective of strategists, marketers, creators, programmers, matchmakers, and thought leaders, turn strategies into stories and stories into experiences that engage communities on the global stage. For more information about INVNT.ATOM, visit: www.invntatom.com .

About [INVNT GROUP]

[INVNT GROUP] was established as an evolution of the founding global live brand storytelling agency INVNT. Led by President and CEO, Scott Cullather, [INVNT GROUP], THE GLOBAL BRANDSTORY PROJECT represents a portfolio of disciplines designed to help forward-thinking organizations innovate and impact audiences everywhere. The GROUP consists of modern brand strategy firm, Folk Hero; creative-led culture consultancy, Meaning; production studio & creative agency, HEVE; events for colleges and universities, INVNT Higher Ed; digital innovation division, INVNT.ATOM; creative multimedia experience studio, Hypnogram; and the original live brand storytelling agency, INVNT. For more information visit www.invntgroup.com .

About SXSW Sydney

Futurist conference and festival, South by Southwest (SXSW) Sydney, will see the Asia-Pacifics pre-eminent creative industries come together in the heart of Sydney Harbour. The event is a week-long program stacked with more than 1,000 ground-breaking events and networking sessions across pillars of Tech and Innovation, Games, Music, Screen and Culture.

Informed by a multicultural landscape and an enduring preservation of past, present and future Indigenous cultural heritage, Sydney offers a rich and exciting arts and culture scene with beautiful galleries, acclaimed theatres and burgeoning performance spaces. https://sxswsydney.com/

Media Kit

Media Contact:

For INVNT & INVNT.ATOM Inquiries:

Paola Cracknell

+61 452 452 051

pcracknell@invnt.com

For SXSW Sydney Inquiries:

sxsw@organic-publicity.com

Alyce Christiansen | +61 456 111 449

Apply for media accreditation now HERE.

Access Media EPK HERE.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/abeac1f4-83c3-4b87-8dda-058894047062
Vancouver, October 2, 2023 - Atco Mining Inc. (the "Company" or "Atco") (CSE:ATCM) (OTC:ATMGF) (Frankfurt:QP9) is pleased to announce that it has retained HomeTree Digital, Inc. ("HomeTree"), a New-York based digital marketing agency, for a two-month digital marketing campaign. HomeTree will set up and manage the marketing campaign, create ads and distribute them through Google Ads as well as various social media platforms. In addition, HomeTree will be responsible for optimizing keyword options, co-ordinate on-line advertiser and marketers to on-line marketing targets, create landing pages for ad campaigns, and generally bringing attention to the business of the Company for a one-time payment of $20,000 (U.S.) to HomeTree. The Company will not issue any securities to HomeTree as compensation for its services. The marketing activity shall occur on the Investors Edge website and on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter) and Google. As of today, to the Company's knowledge, HomeTree (including its directors and officers) does not own any securities of the Company and has an arm's-length relationship with the Company.

"I am extremely excited to be working with HomeTree," says Etienne Moshevich, CEO of Atco. "Atco is in an incredible position, and we just need to get our story out there. With billions of dollars ear-marked to be invested in building infrastructure projects in Southwestern Newfoundland, Atco is in a great position to take advantage of the opportunity and become a premier player in the hydrogen storage business. Our team and I felt it is important to make sure our Company is on everyone's radar screen and given HomeTree's experience and track record in the digital marketing space, we are looking forward to getting started on our campaign and expose our story to a much broader audience."

About Atco Mining (CSE: ATCM):

Atco is a junior exploration mining company focused on exploring for green energy metals throughout Canada. Atco is exploring for salt and hydrogen storage opportunities in Western Newfoundland. Investors are encouraged to visit the company's website here: www.atcomining.com

For further information contact:

Atco Mining Inc.

Email: info@atcomining.com

Telephone: (604) 681-0084

www.atcomining.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not in any way approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Certain information in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law.

Copyright (c) 2023 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
News / National

by Staff reporter

"SADC LEADERS PUSH FOR EXTRAORDINARY SUMMIT," SAYS NEWSHAWKS REPORT WITH NO EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THE CLAIM



IN ITS LATEST ISSUE published yesterday, one of Zimbabwe's leading online news platform, @NewsHawksLive, reports that "SOUTHERN African Development Community leaders are https://t.co/t1hSlHHPx5  Prof Jonathan Moyo (@ProfJNMoyo) October 2, 2023

Following the Southern African Development Community's (Sadc) Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit's ministerial meeting, chaired by Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema online no minutes of the scaled-down Summit have been released to the public, as is per the usual norm.The meeting was not attended by Namibian President Dr Hage G. Geingob and Tanzania's Samia Suluhu. Tanzania was represented by Vice-President Phillip Mpango and Namibia by Deputy President Nangolo Mbumba. DRC Defence minister Jean-Pierre Bemba also attended. Sadc executive secretary Elias Magosi and secretariat staff, including Elvado Santos and Barbara Lopi, who is head of communication and public relations, also participated in the meeting.A communique released after the meeting revealed that the Sadc EOM had presented its final report to Hichilema who was preparing to hand it over to President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.The unusual stance of not releasing the minutes has caught the eye of Professor Jonathan Moyo who said, "It is a matter of the public record that to this day, no minutes of the scaled-down Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit - which was not attended by Namibian President Dr Hage G. Geingob and Tanzania's Samia Suluhu - have been released to the public, as is per the usual norm."The fact that, to this day, there are no minutes of that "Extraordinary Summit of the Organ Troika" held on 27 September 2023 is as curious as it is revealing."Curious because it is unusual, and revealing because it shows that there was no substantive Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit on 27 September 2023 to write home about. This is a story that has not been reported by the media. Instead, a falsehood has been peddled to the effect that there is a push for an Extraordinary Summit of the full Sadc based on Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit that never was."
E3 Lithium Ltd. (TSXV: ETL) (FSE: OW3) (OTCQX: EEMMF), "E3 Lithium" or "the Company," Alberta's leading lithium developer and extraction technology innovator, today announced the new and returning members of its Advisory Committee.

"We are delighted to announce the appointments of Suzanne Patrick and Justin Jimmy, along with the return of The Honourable Brad Wall, to E3 Lithium's Advisory Committee," said Chris Doornbos, President and CEO of E3 Lithium. "Supplementing our strong Board of Directors, the Advisory Committee's extensive experience and specialized expertise will help realize our vision to be a global leader in responsibly sourced lithium."

E3 Lithium is pleased to announce the appointments of the following individuals to the Company's Advisory Committee:

Suzanne Patrick

A retired Navy Commander and former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, Ms. Patrick served in the United States Navy Reserve for 21 years, rising to the rank of Commander. From 2001-2005, she served as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Industrial Policy. In addition, Ms. Patrick has served as an aerospace analyst with Sanford Bernstein and held senior management positions with Creditanstalt Bank. Ms. Patrick also established the New Poland Eagle fund at Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder.

Justin Jimmy

Mr. Jimmy is an aviator and a Chief Financial Officer with Indigenous Government, as well as an entrepreneur in the retail space and consulting ventures. Mr. Jimmy is an Indigenous professional with his ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors and is moving towards his CPA designation. Mr. Jimmy is passionate about Indigenous economic reconciliation and working towards building bridges with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Mr. Jimmy's roles spanned operations management, directorship, controllership, capacity building and technical accounting with First Nation governments and businesses, not-for-profits and industry.

Hon. Brad Wall

Mr. Wall previously served as the Premier of Saskatchewan where he demonstrated a consistent ability to bring political and business leaders together as he implemented creative ways to bolster the Province's economic well-being. Mr. Wall is a Special Advisor in the Osler Calgary office and offers his strategic insight and guidance, and an extensive understanding of the interconnection between business, politics, and trade on a global scale. Mr. Wall is a returning member to E3 Lithium's Advisory Committee.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chris Doornbos, President & CEO

E3 Lithium Ltd.

About E3 Lithium

E3 Lithium is a development company with a total of 16.0 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) Measured and Indicated and 0.9 million tonnes LCE Inferred mineral resources1 in Alberta. As outlined in E3's Preliminary Economic Assessment, the Clearwater Lithium Project has an NPV8% of USD 1.1 Billion with a 32% IRR pre-tax and USD 820 Million with a 27% IRR after-tax1. E3 Lithium's goal is to produce high purity, battery grade lithium products to power the growing electrical revolution. With a significant lithium resource and innovative technology solutions, E3 Lithium has the potential to deliver lithium to market from one of the best jurisdictions in the world.

1: The Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Clearwater Lithium Project NI 43-101 technical report is amended Sept 17, 2021. The mineral resource NI 43-101 Technical Report for the North Rocky Property, effective October 27, 2017, identified 0.9Mt LCE (inferred). The mineral resource NI 43-101 Technical Report for the Bashaw District Project, effective March 21, 2023, identified 16.0Mt LCE (measured & indicated). All reports are available on the E3 Lithium's website (e3lithium.ca/technical-reports) and SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca).

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements as well as management's objectives, strategies, beliefs and intentions. Forward looking statements are frequently identified by such words as "may", "will", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend" and similar words referring to future events and results. Forward-looking statements are based on the current opinions and expectations of management. All forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, fluctuating commodity prices, the effectiveness and feasibility of emerging lithium extraction technologies which have not yet been tested or proven on a commercial scale or on the Company's brine, competitive risks and the availability of financing, as described in more detail in our recent securities filings available at www.sedarplus.ca. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and we caution against placing undue reliance thereon. We assume no obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements except as required by applicable law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003706561/en/

./ContentItem/Format

Supplementing our strong Board of Directors, the Advisory Committee's extensive experience and specialized expertise will help realize our vision to be a global leader in responsibly sourced lithium.

Contact

E3 Lithium - Investor and Media Relations

Greg Foofat

Manager, Investor Relations

investor@e3lithium.ca

587-324-2775
Vancouver - 3 October 2023 - Newlox Gold Ventures Corp. ("Newlox" or the "Company") (CSE:LUX) (Frankfurt/Stuttgart:NGO) (OTC:NWLXF) is pleased to announce its Full-Year Audited Financial Statements, filed on 29 September 2023 and available now on www.sedarplus.ca, report growing revenue over the past fiscal year and a significant increase in the Company's assets.

In the 12 months leading up to 31 March 2023, Newlox Gold's fiscal year-end, the Company reports revenue of $3,472,106 compared to $2,081,516 during the previous fiscal year. As a result of increased revenue, the Company reported a comprehensive loss of $738,417 during its fiscal year compared to a comprehensive loss of $2,243,274 during the previous fiscal year. The revenue growth results from increased gold sales from its socially and environmentally positive precious metals project in Costa Rica.

During the fiscal year, Newlox Gold extended its record of unbroken quarterly increases in gold sales logged during the previous fiscal year by delivering a consistent improvement in metal sold in each quarter of fiscal 2023. During the twelve months ended 31 March 2023, the Company sold a total of 46,562.13 grams of gold (1,497 troy ounces), representing substantial growth over the year.

The Company also reported an increase in property plant and equipment over the year as it has made significant investments in its Costa Rican operations, including the construction of its second processing facility. Property plant and equipment value increased from $2,717,037 in fiscal 2022 to $6,286,134 in fiscal 2023.

The revenue growth achieved by Newlox Gold showcases a consistent and robust upward trajectory over a two-year period. The Company's improving performance confirms a positive trend, commitment to continuous improvement, and adaptability to market environments. The Company is targeting a significant increase in the pace of revenue growth in fiscal 2024 as performance at Plant 1 continues to improve and the new Boston Project (Plant 2) comes online. Management also intends to continue to invest capital in property plant and equipment to support Newlox Gold's growth plan, including the anticipated expansion to Newlox Gold's third processing plant in a prolific gold mining region in Colombia.

Forward-Looking Information

The information in this news release includes certain information and statements about management's view of future events, expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, the completion of the work programs currently underway and the results of these programs. These statements are based upon assumptions that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Because of these risks and uncertainties and as a result of a variety of factors, the actual results, achievements, or performance may vary materially from those anticipated and indicated by these forward-looking statements. The material risk factors that could cause actual results to differ include the risk that work undertaken by the Company may have unintended effects, the risk of delays in completing work, and the risk that the Company may not be able to raise sufficient funds and Force Majeure. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, it can give no assurances that the expectations of any forward-looking information will prove to be correct. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward-looking statements or otherwise. Neither Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release).

Technical Disclaimer

The Company advises it is not basing any decision to produce on a feasibility study of reserves demonstrating the economic and technical viability of the project and also advises there is increased uncertainty and specific economic and technical risks of failure associated with any production decision. Grab sample results included in any press release are not necessarily indicative of the mineralization in general for the deposit. James Turner, P.Geo., a "Qualified Person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101, has prepared, supervised the preparation of, and approved the contents of this News Release.

On Behalf of the Board, Newlox Gold Ventures Corp.

Contact Newlox Gold

Newlox Gold Ventures Corp.

Website: www.newloxgold.com

Email: info@newloxgold.com

Phone: + 1 604 256 0493

Join our Mailing List

Copyright (c) 2023 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
Australia - 4 October 2023 - Jervois Global Ltd. ("Jervois" or the "Company") (ASX:JRV) (TSX-V:JRV) (OTC:JRVMF) advises that its Q3 2023 Quarterly Results and Investor Call will be held on Thursday 26 October at 0900 Australian Eastern Daylight Time ("AEDT").

Registration for the investor call can be undertaken at the link below:

https://s1.c-conf.com/diamondpass/10034064-cs30fu.html

After registering participants will receive email confirmation with access details.

A recording and transcript will be made available shortly after conclusion of the webinar.

On behalf of Jervois Global Ltd.,

Alwyn Davey, Company Secretary

For further information, please contact:

Investors and analysts: Alicia Brown Group Manager - External Affairs Jervois Global alicia.brown@jervoisglobal.com Media: Nathan Ryan NWR Communications nathan.ryan@nwrcommunications.com.au Mob: +61 420 582 887

Copyright (c) 2023 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
MONTREAL, Oct. 3, 2023 /CNW/ - (Sydney, October 4, 2023) - Champion Iron Ltd. (TSX: CIA) (ASX: CIA) (OTCQX: CIAFF) ("Champion" or the "Company") announces the filing on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca, the ASX at www.asx.com.au and the Company's website at www.championiron.com, of its technical report with respect to the mineral resource and reserve estimates and the life-of-mine ("LoM") plan for the Bloom Lake Mining Complex ("Bloom Lake") prepared pursuant to National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and Chapter 5 of the ASX Listing Rules entitled "Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves for the Bloom Lake Mine, Fermont, Quebec, Canada", prepared by BBA Inc., SRK Consulting (U.S.), Inc., Soutex and Quebec Iron Ore Inc. and dated September 28, 2023 (the "2023 Technical Report").

The mineral resource and reserve estimates for Bloom Lake contained in the 2023 Technical Report were previously reported by the Company on August 22, 2023 (Montreal time) / August 23, 2023 (Sydney time) (the "Release"). The Company is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in the Release and confirms that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimates in the Release and in the 2023 Technical Report continue to apply and have not materially changed.

As noted in the Release, the optimized mine plan confirms the 18-year LoM, based on the mineral reserves. It also provides an opportunity to extend operations beyond the LoM plan, with a 40% increase to the measured and indicated resources and a 360% increase to inferred resources. Other highlights detailed in the 2023 Technical Report include an average iron metallurgical recovery of 82.0%, a plant feed grade of 28.6% Fe and average yearly production of 15.2 million wet metric tonnes of 66.2% Fe high purity iron ore concentrate.

About Champion Iron Limited

Champion, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Quebec Iron Ore Inc., owns and operates the Bloom Lake Mining Complex, located on the south end of the Labrador Trough, approximately 13 km north of Fermont, Quebec. Bloom Lake is an open-pit operation with two concentrators that primarily source energy from renewable hydroelectric power. The two concentrators have a combined nameplate capacity of 15 Mtpa and produce a low contaminant high-grade 66.2% Fe iron ore concentrate with a proven ability to produce a 67.5% Fe direct reduction quality iron ore concentrate. In January 2023, the Company announced the positive findings of a study evaluating the upgrade of half of the Bloom Lake mine capacity to a direct reduction quality pellet feed iron ore and approved an initial budget to advance the project. Bloom Lake's high-grade and low contaminant iron ore products have attracted a premium to the Platts IODEX 62% Fe iron ore benchmark. The Company ships iron ore concentrate from Bloom Lake by rail, to a ship loading port in Sept-Iles, Quebec, and has sold its iron ore concentrate to customers globally, including in China, Japan, the Middle East, Europe, South Korea, India and Canada. In addition to Bloom Lake, Champion owns a portfolio of exploration and development projects in the Labrador Trough, including the Kamistiatusset Project, located a few kilometres south-east of Bloom Lake, and the Consolidated Fire Lake North iron ore project, located approximately 40 km south of Bloom Lake.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes certain information and statements that may constitute "forward-looking information" under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "continues", "forecasts", "projects", "predicts", "intends", "anticipates", "aims", "targets" or "believes", or variations of, or the negatives of, such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Inherent in forward-looking statements are risks, uncertainties and other factors beyond the Company's ability to predict or control.

Specific Forward-Looking Statements

All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release that address future events, developments or performance that Champion expects to occur are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, Management's expectations regarding: (i) Bloom Lake's life of mine, recovery rates, production, economic and other benefits; (ii) the project to upgrade the Bloom Lake iron ore concentrate to a higher grade with lower contaminants and to convert approximately half of Bloom Lake's increased nameplate capacity of 15 Mtpa to commercially produce a DR quality pellet feed iron ore; (iii) production and recovery rate targets and the Company's performance; and (iv) the Company's growth and opportunities generally.

Deemed Forward-Looking Statements

Statements relating to "reserves" or "resources" are deemed to be forward-looking statements as they involve the implied assessment, based on certain estimates and assumptions, that the reserves and resources described exist in the quantities predicted or estimated and that the reserves can be profitably mined in the future. Actual reserves and resources may be greater or less than the estimates provided herein.

Risks

Although Champion believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, most of which are beyond the control of the Company, which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements include, without limitation: (i) the results of feasibility studies; (ii) changes in the assumptions used to prepare feasibility studies; (iii) project delays; (iv) timing and uncertainty of industry shift to green steel and EAF; (v) continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions; (vi) general economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; (vii) future prices of iron ore; (viii) future transportation costs; (ix) failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; * delays in obtaining governmental approvals, necessary permitting or in the completion of development or construction activities; and (xi) the effects of catastrophes and public health crises, including the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy, the iron ore market and Champion's operations, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" of the Company's 2023 Annual Report, Annual Information Form and MD&A for the financial year ended March 31, 2023, which are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca, the ASX at www.asx.com.au and the Company's website at www.championiron.com. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Additional Updates

All of Champion's forward-looking information contained in this press release is given as of the date hereof or such other date or dates specified in forward-looking statements and is based upon the opinions and estimates of Champion's Management and information available to Management as at the date hereof. Champion disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any of the forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. If the Company does update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that it will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. Champion cautions that the foregoing list of risks and uncertainties is not exhaustive. Readers should carefully consider the above factors as well as the uncertainties they represent and the risks they entail.

Qualified Person

Mr. Vincent Blanchet, P. Eng., Engineer at QIO, the operator of Bloom Lake, is a QP as defined by NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved, or has prepared, as applicable, the disclosure of the scientific and technical information contained in this press release. Mr. Blanchet's review and approval does not include statements as to the Company's knowledge or awareness of new information or data or any material changes to the material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the 2023 Technical Report. Mr. Blanchet is a member of the Ordre des ingenieurs du Quebec.

For additional information on Champion Iron Ltd., please visit our website at: www.championiron.com.

This press release has been authorized for release to the market by the CEO of Champion Iron Ltd., David Cataford.

SOURCE Champion Iron Ltd.
Mexico GP seeks to stop racist comments

Organisers of the Mexican GP are calling for calm ahead of Sergio Perez's home race later this month.

Sergio Perez, Mexican GP 2022

 Red Bull

There have been incidents involving verbal abuse and booing in recent years, while the Mexican GP even complained about the way Dr Helmut Marko recently criticised Red Bull's Perez for his 'South American' lack of focus.

The race is now launching a campaign called 'Racepect', aiming to eliminate acts of intolerance such as verbal attacks, racist comments and confrontations in the stands .

We invite the attendees of the Mexico GP to be an example for fans around the world, said public relations director Rodrigo Sanchez.
News / National

by Staff reporter

George Guvamatanga, the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, has chosen to downplay the impact of tuck shops on formal retailers. Instead, he has suggested that many businesses are being managed by individuals who lack the necessary knowledge to adapt to economic changes. Guvamatanga made these comments at the ongoing Zimbabwe Economic Development Conference (ZEDCON) in Victoria Falls, where questions were raised about the government's strategy in response to the growing informal sector.He addressed the issue of tuck shops versus formal retail, highlighting a recent complaint from a retailer about the influx of tuck shops. Guvamatanga questioned the rationale behind such complaints, pointing out that tuck shops often pay significantly higher rents per square meter and purchase goods in cash since they lack access to credit. He also noted that they do not have the advantages of cheaper foreign currency and must source it from the parallel market.Guvamatanga expressed his astonishment at larger retailers claiming they cannot compete with tuck shops, suggesting that such managers should be replaced as they are ineffective. He contrasted this situation with South Africa's Spaza market, which is valued at nearly US$10 billion, where major players like Shoprite and Pick 'n Pay do not complain about being driven out of business by informal traders.Guvamatanga argued that the challenge lies in dealing with management that is accustomed to only one approach, primarily adjusting prices in response to exchange rate fluctuations. He mentioned that many Finance Directors and Managing Directors lack knowledge of concepts like stop loss and are focused on daily exchange rate adjustments.However, these remarks are at odds with the concerns raised by retail groups like the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR), which have expressed worries about the impact of the informal sector. The CZR has argued that its members are burdened with multiple licenses and higher salary costs compared to informal traders who evade such expenses.Critics have also pointed out that Guvamatanga's comments overlook the fact that many informal traders sell smuggled and cheaper imports, while the formal sector adheres to strict manufacturing regulations. Some argue that comparing Zimbabwe to South Africa is not valid due to the differing economic conditions.In summary, Guvamatanga's remarks at ZEDCON have sparked controversy and debate, as they downplay the challenges faced by the formal retail sector in Zimbabwe in the face of competition from the informal sector.
Red Bull, Honda, at arm's length until 2026

Red Bull and Honda have both confirmed that their working relationship at present is quite awkward.

Red Rull team, Japanese GP 2023

 Red Bull

Currently, their chassis-engine combination is utterly dominating Formula 1 - but it has a clear end-date.

Red Bull is already working on its own engine in collaboration with Ford for the new rules in 2026, with Honda to then revert to full works status in Formula 1 in alliance with Aston Martin.

Honda's 'works' F1 project with Red Bull ended after the 2021 title win, but the team struck a deal to still be able to use Honda power units.

Far fewer Honda staff, however, are at the circuits these days.

Fortunately, we didn't have any serious stability problems with the last version of our engine, said project manager Tetsushi Kakuda.

Red Bull will build two more Honda-powered cars in 2024 and 2025 - amid the slightly odd working relationship.

Red Bull doesn't tell us anything about their engine, and we don't say anything to them about our development, said Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe.

So there is a kind of information war going on at the moment, the Japanese admitted to De Telegraaf newspaper.

At Red Bull, they do have some knowledge about our current engine but, ultimately, we are responsible for the development and the whole process. Most of the knowledge is with us.

Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko confirms: "We're not even allowed to change the maps or any settings.
Ricciardo admits aiming for Red Bull return

Daniel Ricciardo is not hiding that he is eyeing the cockpit alongside Max Verstappen.

Daniel Ricciardo, Hungarian GP 2023

 Red Bull

The Australian, currently recovering from a broken hand, dropped out of Formula 1 altogether at the end of last year after two years of struggling at McLaren.

I didn't fall out with anyone in the team, Ricciardo told the official Goodwood site, but it's all performance-based and, let's say, the business side of it didn't work out.

The 33-year-old admits he was fired but actually returned to Australia and didn't care anymore .

I guess, in a way, I thank them for making that decision because we were in a bit of a hole, and I'm not sure we could have got out of it, said Ricciardo.

Christian Horner, the team boss at Red Bull Racing, is believed to be a main powerbroker behind Ricciardo's return to the energy drink company's F1 family.

He had picked up a lot of bad habits, Horner said. It took some of his old engineering team to unpick some of those and very quickly, and in a virtual world, get him back on a par with what we were used to.

Ricciardo, 33, broke his hand just after returning to the junior outfit Alpha Tauri, but he will be with the team full-time in 2024.

Speculation, however, is swirling around the struggling Sergio Perez at Red Bull Racing - despite the Mexican's 2024 contract.

When asked about Horner, Ricciardo said: "In terms of what I felt coming back into the family, his investment in me, his interest, the open arms, I feel he's been a really big supporter. He really wanted me to get back to a level he knows I'm capable of.

A lot of people probably lost a little bit of faith in me over the last couple of years, but I felt like the things he was doing to make me comfortable, setting me up with (former race engineer) Simon (Rennie), he still believes I can do it, and he just wants to see it.

And now, his mission is to resume his old place alongside Max Verstappen.

"I told Christian 'Look, now that I'm back in the family, I feel so much happier and like myself that I don't want to leave'.
Williams vacancy for Lawson, not Schumacher?

Liam Lawson is on the way into Formula 1, whilst Mick Schumacher is on the way out.

Alex Albon, Japanese GP 2023

 Williams

That's the verdict of former F1 driver turned pundit Christian Danner, amid reports Haas refugee and current Mercedes reserve Schumacher looks likely to accept an offer to race in sportscars next year.

In the two years that he drove in Formula 1, Mick left this impression on the team bosses - 'Well, we don't actually need him', Danner told sport.de.

He says that is in total contrast to the perception Liam Lawson has left bosses with after just a handful of stand-in drives for the injured Daniel Ricciardo.

Liam drives a pretty bad car too but what did he do? He came out absolutely sparkling clean, faster than the regular driver, scoring points and showing in his first few grands prix 'Hey guys, I can do it!'

Danner said Schumacher failed to make the same kind of impression over two full racing seasons.

Of course that now has long-term consequences, he said. There is no team boss who would have much confidence in him now.

That includes the boss of the team with the only vacancy on the 2024 grid - Williams' James Vowles.

At present, he is backing the struggling rookie Logan Sargeant - but only for now.

When we signed Logan we were prepared to invest in his career and nothing has changed, Vowles said. "Only if we came to the conclusion that there is no more progress would we look for an alternative.

We're a long way from that point.

However, Danner thinks that if Vowles does ultimately look for that alternative, it would be Lawson rather than Schumacher.
Ethiopian Airlines, The Taste of Afrika sign MoU

Business Desk Report Business News Oct - 03 - 2023 , 05:45

ETHIOPIAN Airlines and The Taste of Afrika have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to make the latter the official international airline carrier for the Cultural Oneness Festival slated for the north of the country in December.

The agreement comes at a time when preparations towards the celebrations of December to Remember, a major month-long event that attracts tourists from all over the world to boost the countrys tourism potential, are feverishly underway.

The Cultural Oneness Festival will be the first major event under the December to Remember calendar with special focus on the north as part of a grand plan by the Minister of Tourism, Dr Mohammed Ibrahim Awal, to spread the much acclaimed December festival across the country.

With about 700,000 thronging to Ghana last year, the ministry expects tourists arrivals to reach over a million this December.

Provisions of MoU

Under the provisions of the MoU, Ethiopian Airlines and The Taste of Afrika have agreed to make the airline the official airline carrier of Cultural Oneness Festival to be held at Tamale from December 6 to December 9, 2023, where over 2,000 visitors are expected.

With this, Ethiopian Airlines will provide 10 per cent discount on both business and economy class fares for all participants departing from any Ethiopian online point to Accra, Ghana.

The airline will also be announced at the event as an official carrier for the event.

Chief Executive Officer of The Taste of Afrika, Tengol K. Kplemani, in a release, described the MoU as timely and one that would help attract more tourists into the country.

He said the festival was meant among many other things to showcase the rich culture and investment opportunities of the northern side of the country to the investors including from the diaspora.
Fairtrade launches CIRCLE Project

Kwame Larweh Business News Oct - 02 - 2023 , 18:07

Global trading movement, Fairtrade has launched the second phase of its protection system to safeguard children in cocoa growing areas of the country.

The Children In Rural Communities are Learning and Empowered (CIRCLE) project will focus on building the resilience of children to protect, report and advocate for their rights while empowering cooperatives to implement a child labour monitoring and remediation system.

Fairtrade will ensure that CIRCLE supports the promotion of safe schools and community environments for children to thrive, Mr Anthony Kwakugah, Senior Project Officer for Fairtrade Africa stated at the launch which took place last Friday at the AH Hotel in Accra.

He revealed that this second phase of Fairtrades initiative to curb child labour on cocoa farms will seek to have less children experience child protection valuations such as violence, abuse, exploitation, child labour and neglect.

Our long term objective of CIRCLE, will strengthen child protection systems in the Asunafo North, Suhum and Ayensuano communities to adequately prevent, respond to and manage child rights and protection issues including child labour, he noted.

He added that some key outcomes of CIRCLE will see a harmonized child protection system in place to monitor and remediate instances of child labour, children in cocoa growing areas are resilient, can protect themselves and advocate for their rights.

CIRCLE will also bring about a safe environment to promote school enrolment, retention and completion, he noted.

Mr Kwakugah said the project will be undertaken at all district levels where child protection platforms will be created to coordinate child protection interventions by the districts.

We will also engage with the MDAs on their inclusion and implementation of child protection interventions while supporting the celebration of international day for the prevention of child abuse and child labour,he added.

Launching the project, Mr Edward Akapire, Fairtrade West Africa Regional Head, noted that fairtrade veers off the conventional method of trade which is premised on profit to focus on people and earth the reason child labour is paramount for the movement.

Child labour requires a collaborative effort, a collective effort of individual farmers, parents and the community to prevent it, he stated.

An official of the child labour department of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Mrs Esther Ofori Agyemang called for more collaborations between Fairtrade and her outfit to nip child labour in the bud.

She advocated for a timely communication between the Ministry and Fairtrade to ensure the Ministry is always abreast of the activities of Fairtrade in order to provide the needed assistance to the NGO.

Fairtrade

Fairtrade is a global movement which addressees the injustices of conventional trade by supporting smallholder farmers and workers to secure better terms of trade.

Fairtrade Africa, a member of the wider International Fairtrade movement represents Fairtrade certified producers in Africa and the Middle East.
Judiciary needs financial autonomy

Daily Graphic Editorials Oct - 03 - 2023 , 07:08

No Constitution can be satisfactory unless it contains safeguards that protect the judges against influence, pressure and inducement.

The 1992 Constitution of Ghana should not be an exception.

In fact, for the rule of law to thrive, the independence of the Judiciary must be guaranteed.

Therefore Article 127 (1) of the Constitution categorically insulates all activities of the Judiciary, including its financial administration, from external control to protect its independence due to the sensitivity of its functions.

The issue came to the fore last week at the 2023 annual general meeting (AGM) of the Association of Magistrates and Judges Ghana where the Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, said although the 1992 Constitution protected the independence of the judiciary, the service had no control over its financial administration.

How can we be an independent arm of government if we do not have control over our finances?

Is the constitutionally guaranteed institutional independence of the judiciary only a mirage?

Can the institutional independence of the judiciary be asserted when we need clearance to engage staff, clearance to access money generated from court services, and clearance to procure any asset to do our work? she queried.

She referenced the recent GBA conference in Cape Coast where President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo mentioned an increase in the financial support for anti-graft institutions to tackle corruption, but said such monumental increment had unfortunately not been extended to the Judiciary.

To add insult to injury, Justice Torkornoo noted that while funding for certain institutions had been increased in hundreds of percentages, the percentage increase for the judiciary was noted to be a little over three per cent.

The level of financial support for our work ought to increase exponentially not only in quantum, but also in scope.

It is well-known that the extent and ambit of the independence of the judiciary whether in its operation as a service to the citizens or as to the control of all affairs incidental to its fundamental duty of determination of rights and obligations is a matter of concern for policymakers and action groups across the common law heritage, and Ghana is no exception.

Unfortunately, the term administration of justice lends itself to several nuances that cannot be ignored.

Whether it is to administer the word and spirit of justice, the court service or the entire value chain related to the delivery of justice in any form, it differs from usage and jurisdiction.

However, the notion of independence weaves through the entire concept of justice.

The very existence of judicial independence cannot be separated from adequate and proper judicial administration, because the latter requires that both policymaking and policy administration are controlled by the judiciary.

For this purpose, the Commonwealth Handbook 2017, known as The Latimer House Principles,  states: An independent, impartial, honest and competent judiciary is integral to upholding the rule of law, engendering public confidence and dispensing justice.

The function of the judiciary is to interpret and apply national constitutions and legislation, consistent with international human rights conventions and international law, to the extent permitted by the domestic law of each Commonwealth country.

The Daily Graphic believes that judicial independence stands guaranteed under the constitution; the financial and administrative aspects of the judiciary in reality is controlled by the Executive.

The temptation here is that the institutions that control the purse and the administrative aspects of the judiciary in reality continue to be controlled by the Executive.

These institutions that control the financial administration of the judiciary can also directly or indirectly control the extent and efficiency in the execution of the role.

It is a case of who pays the piper calling the tune.

The necessary judicial independence can be undermined if its finances are determined and dictated by the Executive and the Legislature over whom the courts should exercise judicial control.

We support the Chief Justices commitment to ensure that the financial independence of the Judiciary is achieved as part of her overall vision to build a modernised Judiciary to better serve the people of the country.
#OccupyBoGprotest: What Rex Omar said

Edith Mensah Showbiz News Oct - 03 - 2023 , 16:36

Veteran Highlife musician Rex Omar has added his voice to the sea of protestors at the ongoing #OccupyBoGprotest in Accra calling for the resignation of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, urging Ghanaians not to support the re-election of the ruling New Patriotic Party in the 2024 elections.

According to him, his call for the Finance Minister's resignation comes at a time when there are growing concerns over economic challenges and fiscal policies in Ghana.

The Abiba himtaker who had been posting fliers of todays demonstration on his social media pages, confirmed his commitment to the cause when he joined thousands of protestors earlier today to demand accountability and transparency within the financial sector.

Ken Ofori-Atta must resign, in all these let us not use our thumbs to vote for Akufo-Addo in the 2024 elections. The demonstration wont end today, its just the beginning. All those gathered here when you go home tell your friends and relatives that today is the beginning of a thousand miles. I thank you all for leaving your homes to join us, it means you love Ghana, he stated.

The revered musician noted that that the demonstration was not a one-time event but the beginning of sustained efforts to cause the needed change that citizens are demanding.

Apart from Rex Omar, Kumawood actor/comedian, Nana Yeboah was also spotted in the crowd.

The ongoing protest, organised by the Minority caucus in parliament, was joined by a coalition of civil society groups and activists, and citizens to express their constitutional rights against what they claimed to be bad governance and daunting economic hardships.

Demonstrators have gathered to demand transparency, accountability, and reforms within the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the financial sector particularly the Bank of Ghana over reports revealing a loss of over GH60 billion cedis in the year 2022.

The protestors have also accused the bank of printing GH22.04 billion in 2022 without seeking parliamentary approval.

Additionally, the bank is accused of writing off GH32 billion in government debt which has significantly contributed to the ongoing economic challenges within the country.
Tupac Shakur: Who was the rapper?

BBC Showbiz News Oct - 03 - 2023 , 12:42

It's been nearly three decades since rapper Tupac Shakur was killed.

He died on 13 September 1996 at the age of 25, after being shot four times in Las Vegas.

From holograms to hoaxes, the hip-hop legend has been spoken about for years by fans of his music - but also those fascinated by the mystery of what happened to the rapper.

Who was he?

Tupac Shakur was born in East Harlem, New York City. He released his debut album 2Pacalypse Now in 1991.

Tupac, whose stage name was stylised as 2Pac, went on to enjoy chart success with multiple hits including California Love, All Eyez on Me, Changes and I Ain't Mad at Cha.

It's been noted that his music often touched on themes around social issues such as inequality.

And his contribution to the music world continued even after his death.

In 2004, the posthumous single Ghetto Gospel, which features a sample from Elton John's Indian Sunset, reached number one in the UK singles chart.

Tupac has sold more than 75 million records worldwide - and in 2017 was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Earlier this year, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - making him one of only 12 rap artists to be given one.

'Is Tupac really dead?'

That's the question many have asked for decades.

Over the last 27 years, there have been countless rumours about what really happened to Tupac.

Some of those include claims he faked his own death and was secretly hiding in another country.

And some fans say Tupac gave away clues in his songs. On Life Goes On, he raps about his own funeral.

I Ain't Mad at Cha on the album All Eyez On Me was released two days after his death. In the video he's seen being shot after leaving a fight with a friend - an event some claimed was close to what really happened.

For years people have claimed to have sighted him in various different locations. And in 2012, even Kim Kardashian thought she had spotted him.

There have also been films and documentaries examining not only his impact on music, but also what happened on the night he was killed.

What if...?

The theories - and mystery - around his death remain one of the reasons his name still generates such a buzz.

But for many, the early death of Tupac leads to the question of what could have been in his career.

He is once reported to have said: "I have a very short window to live, I've got to create a body of work."

His music and personality means Tupac is widely considered to be one of the most influential and successful rappers of all-time, who heavily influenced hip-hop, particularly the West Coast rap scene.

Rapper 50 Cent said "every rapper who grew up in the '90s owes something to Tupac".

"He definitely developed his own style, he didn't sound like anyone who came before him."

Kendrick Lamar said his own career had been "inspired" by the work of Tupac.

"He's the most important hip-hop icon we've ever had in the 50 years of hip-hop," according to hip-hop historian Kevin Powell.

In 2017, Suge Knight - the man who was with Tupac the night he died - claimed in a documentary that the rapper might still be alive.

"When 'Pac died, if he really did..." Knight says while being interviewed from prison.

Related article: Man arrested in connection with Tupac Shakur murder in 1996 - reports
Why President Akufo Addos daughters position at the Creative Arts Agency is said to be illegal

Joy Entertainment Entertainment Oct - 02 - 2023 , 18:39

Speaking on Joy FM's Showbiz A-Z, he said that Gyankroma is working in the office without the official knowledge of the stakeholders of the industry.

She is the illegal Executive Secretary of the Creative Arts Agency. And I am surprised we are still sitting on this matter and the President is still watching, the Ministry is still watching," he told the host.

According to him, her appointment needed to have been made public if indeed it was duly conducted.

If she has received her appointment letter we have to know. The President appoints a Chief Executive Officer of the Volta River Authority and it is not done in darkness. We all know. Officially, you need to tell us. Then [if she's been given her appointment letter] it means that government does not respect us," he explained.

The Creative Arts Agency is a body that provides institutional framework for the development and management of the creative arts industry and for related matters.

The Executive Secretary of the Agency is appointed by the President of the Republic of Ghana. This official is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Agency and is answerable to Board in the performance of functions stipulated in the Creative Industry Act (1048).

The act also prescribes the formation of a Board as the governing body of the institution.

Article 195 of the Constitution which gave the President the power to appoint an Executive Secretary and a Board for the National Film Authority gives him the same power to do same for the Creative Arts Agency,' Kojo further noted.

In the meantime, stakeholders of the creative industry are awaiting the formation of a Board and the ratification of the Legislative Instrument to the act to make the activities of the Agency more functional.

More articles: Industry 'no agye agu' - Akosua Adjepong on state of Ghana music

If people decide to concentrate on my body more than the music, theres nothing I can do about it -S3fa
The Mirror partners GAEC, Euracare in breast screening exercise

Gloria Apprey and Abigail Asubonteng Life Oct - 03 - 2023 , 11:05

As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), in collaboration with Euracare Advanced Diagnostics and Heart Centre, partnered The Mirror to organise a two-day breast and health screening event.

The first session, which began on Monday, October 2, 2023 was simultaneously held in Accra at the headquarters of the Graphic Communication Group Limited (GCGL) and the Graphic Clinic.

Participants included both male and female GCGL staff, as well as specialists and residents from neighbouring communities, including Adabraka.

The screening included blood pressure, blood sugar, height and weight measurement and Body Mass Index (BMI). Participants received counselling on the significance of early detection in the management of breast cancer.

A radiologist at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Senyo Tasiame, who was also a consultant at the Graphic Clinic venue, touched on the importance of breast self-examination and the need to seek professional advice.

He explained that while symptoms such as bloody discharge from nipples, changes in breast colour, or breast pain may not necessarily indicate breast cancer, consulting a doctor for a comprehensive diagnosis was essential.

Some representatives from GAEC and EURACARE

The Principal Nursing Officer from GAEC, Cecilia Agyekum, conducted the breast examination and explained that the screening aimed at educating people about breast care.

She stressed the importance of recognising signs of breast cancer or unusual changes and advised that a medical professional should be consulted if such changes were noticed.

Nana Yaa Ankrah, one of the participants, shared her experience, stating, "The doctors were very friendly, and I had the opportunity to ask questions about my breasts and learn more about the disease. Mo ay3 adi3, to wit, good job done.
FILE PHOTO: View of the Cobre Panama mine, of Canadian First Quantum Minerals, in Donoso, Panama, December 6, 2022. REUTERS/Aris Martinez

By Elida Moreno and Valentine Hilaire

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) -Panama's government authorized on Tuesday the withdrawal of a proposed contract to regulate operations of Canadian miner First Quantum's local unit, Minera Panama, from Congress to make changes requested by lawmakers.

President Laurentino Cortizo's administration and the Canadian miner had agreed on the text of the contract to operate the key Cobre Panama copper mine in March, but it was awaiting the assembly's approval.

"We hope to work together with the company Minera Panama to agree on the phrasing needed to resolve the points indicated by the congress' trade committee," the presidency said in a post on social media X.

Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered near Panama's governmental offices in recent weeks to protest the contract, demanding more environmental protections and fewer expansion permits.

The draft contract would guarantee an annual income of $375 million for the Central American country, about ten times more than what it was previously getting, according to government data.

Cobre Panama, a large open-pit copper mine in the Panama jungle, accounted for nearly half of First Quantum's earnings last year, as well as some 4% of Panama's gross domestic product.

First Quantum and Minera Panama did not immediately reply to requests for comment on the withdrawal.

(Reporting by Elida Moreno and Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Kylie Madry and Marguerita Choy)
Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources trains prosecutors

Emmanuel Modey Oct - 03 - 2023 , 06:29

Municipal and district assemblies in the five northern regions of Ghana have not gazetted their byelaws and are also without court facilities in the localities to prosecute environmental sanitation offenders.

As a result, environmental health prosecutors were using the national laws to prosecute offenders, which made it difficult because many of them had not been trained on the rudiment of the law to make cases relevant before the law courts for judges and magistrates to deliver Judgment on the offenders.

These were made known at a two-day capacity training workshop on environmental health prosecution by the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources aimed to improve knowledge and confidence of the prosecutors to enforce laws and ensure that standards were followed.

Mr Kweku Quansah, Environmental Health and Sanitation Director, in a keynote statement, said one of the challenges the Ministry had found wrong in the legal space was the lack of byelaws in most of the assemblies and the inadequate capacity building on the part of prosecutors.

"Byelaws in most district assemblies have not been gazetted and environmental health prosecutors have to rely on national laws, which are too general for them to secure successful judgment," he said.

He appealed to district assemblies to ensure that they promulgated their byelaws to make prosecution of environmental sanitation cases easier while they also collaborate effectively with the courts to understand thr role of the sector properly.

On the issue of political interference, Mr Quansah disagreed with that perception, saying, "The real challenge that the sector faces is the lack of capacity building of prosecutors to know the right thing to do, knowing the environmental laws and enforcing them appropriately is surely the way forward."

Mr Quansah encouraged administrators, politicians and the media to support the enforcement of environmental laws in the communities to ensure a clean and healthy environment.

Madam Charlotte Akwaah-Adjei Marfo, the Programme Manager, Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), who gave an overview of the project, said it was sanitation and water project for Ghana with World Bank grant of US$150 million to support the government's efforts to increase access to improved sanitation and improved water supply in the Greater Accra and Kumasi with emphasis on low-income communities and to strengthen management of environmental sanitation.

She said the project had four components: provision of environmental sanitation and water supply services to priority low-income areas; improvement and expansion of the water distribution network; planning, improvement, and expansion of environmental sanitation services; institutional strengthening of municipal, metropolitan and national institutions.

Madam Adjei Marfo said the sanitation and water gaps were still huge to accomplish to meet the SDGs and the National Development Indicators.

She said the project was working to increase access to household toilets, provide safe water in the communities to benefit women and children and as well improve public health.

The Programme Manager said the sector had realised the lack of capacity at the districts and communities for prosecutors to go through the entire circle of the environmental health chain hence the training for them to enhance their knowledge.

Madam Naatu Freda, the Upper West Regional Director of Environmental and Sanitation Department, appealed to the Ministry to organise more training workshops to prosecutors and staff to enforce environmental sanitation laws in the communities.

She said efforts at ensuring environmental cleanliness and hygiene to meet the SDGs targets would be a mirage if the assemblies failed to gazette their byelaws for the sector to enforce them in the communities.

The Gomdah and Associates, a law firm, took the Prosecutors through "the jurisdiction of the courts of Ghana, code of ethics for the environmental health prosecutors, summary trial of cases in district courts, drafting of summons and charge sheets, witness and adduction of evidence and closing address and judgement."

2nd Phase

The workshop for environmental officers drawn from the Upper West and East regions marked the take-off of the second phase of the project scheduled to end in 2024.

Some of the topics discussed at the workshop were the jurisdiction of the courts, code of ethics for the environmental health prosecutors, summary trial of cases, drafting of summons and charge sheets among others.

Background

In 2015, the World Bank provided funds for the GAMA project to be piloted in Greater Accra (GAMA) and later extended to the Greater Kumasi area (GKMA) in the Ashanti regions.

This is the entire budget of the GAMA Project -Additional Financing, a fraction of which is meant for institutional and sector capacity building, which includes training of Environmental Health Prosecutors.

Other components of the project is for the provision of 42,000 low-income household toilets, 150 modern institutional toilets for schools and heathcare facilities, redevelopment of the Kumasi Asafo Sewerage System, Expansion of piped water connections to 10,000 low-income households all in Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Areas. The entire 125 million can, therefore, never be used only for prosecutors training.

The most recent Capacity Building activity under the project took place last week in Tamale and Wa for Environmental Health Prosecutors from Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East, and Upper West Regions.
#OccupyBoGProtest: Demonstrators wont be allowed near BoG  Police

Emelia Ennin Abbey Oct - 03 - 2023 , 10:50

The Ghana Police Service has stated that no participant in the scheduled demonstration against the Bank of Ghana (BoG) will be allowed anywhere near the premises of the regulator of the banking industry.

The demonstration organised by the Minority in Parliament dubbed #OccupyBOG is slated for today.

The march is against some inconsistencies in the national economy recorded in the current administration of the BoG.

Describing the BoG as a security zone, the police said they were prepared to ensure security, law and order for the planned demonstration and insisted the route did not include BoG.

The name of the protest does not determine the route of the protest.

We have agreed on the routes and those are the routes that will be used, said the Public Affairs Director of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Grace Ansah-Akrofi, during a media briefing on the preparedness of the police for the demonstration.

She reminded the demonstrators to adhere to the routes, with the demonstration commencing at the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange through Adabraka, Ridge Roundabout, National Theatre Traffic Light, High Court Complex Traffic Light, and the Atta Mills Highway.

The protesters were further urged to conduct themselves in a peaceful manner before, during and after the demonstration as the police provided the required security in line with the Public Order Act 1994 (ACT 491).

The organisers of the demonstration had indicated that about 5,000 people would take part in the demonstration.

We have adequate number of police officers for the demonstration, the Director of Police Public Affairs said after she commended the organisers for cooperating with the police through the process.

Road blocks

Mrs Ansah-Akrofi said as part of security measures, traffic arrangements had been put in place, including a temporary blocking of the road from the Independence Square in front of the National Lotteries towards the Old Parliament Traffic Light during the course of the demonstration.

The blocked roads will be diverted through the Starlet Traffic Light through the Ministries Traffic Light to the front of the Office of the Department of Urban Roads (DUR), through the National Lotteries.

Users of that route will then link the AMA Office Road to the road in front of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to take a detour back to the John Evans Atta Mills Highway at the Old Parliament Traffic Light intersection.

In line with arrangements, Mrs Ansah-Akrofi said personnel of the Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) would be deployed at the various intersections to assist the motoring public.

Engagements

Ahead of the demonstration, there has been series of engagements between the Ghana Police Service and organisers of the protest.

The initial protest was slated for September 5, 2023 and was to commence from the Parliament House through the Osu Cemetery traffic light, High Court Complex, Ministry of Finance, Kinbu, Makola  Rawlings Park, Opera Square to the Bank of Ghana Head Office.
Galamsey fight - 21 Jailed 340 years

Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson Oct - 03 - 2023 , 11:00

Twenty-one Ghanaians have been sentenced to a total of 340 years imprisonment by the Tarkwa Circuit Court for illegal mining (galamsey) in five different sites in the Western Region.

Apart from the jail terms, the court, presided over by Hathia Ama Manu, also imposed a fine of GH120,000 on each of the 21 convicts, totalling GH2.52 million.

The convicts were sentenced separately in five different cases with various prison terms of between 15 years and 20 years for engaging in illegal mining, contrary to Section 99 of the Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2019 (Act 995).

They had pleaded not guilty to engaging in illegal mining, but the court found them guilty after it held that the prosecution, spearheaded by the Attorney-Generals (A-Gs) Office in Sekondi, proved its case beyond reasonable doubt to establish their guilt.

The court further sentenced each of the convicts to five years for conspiracy to engage in illegal mining.

All the sentences will run concurrently, meaning while the convicts serve their jail terms for illegal mining, they will also serve the terms for conspiracy to engage in illegal mining.

Mining in River Ankobra

Ten of the convicts were found guilty of mining in River Ankobra.

In the first case related to mining in River Ankobra, John Domotey and five others were arrested by a task force.

They were handed over to the police, together with their equipment, which included a detector machine, shovels and pickaxes, and were prosecuted on charges of illegal mining and conspiracy to engage in illegal mining.

The Tarkwa Circuit Court found them guilty and sentenced each of them to 15 years imprisonment in hard labour and a fine of 10,000 penalty units each (GH120,000).

With regard to the second case, on September 8, 2021, the assembly man for Himan Electoral Area, Alex Baako, and some youth of the community arrested five persons engaging in galamsey on the River Ankobra with a mining dredge machine.

The five  Sampson Mefe, Eric Beyetua, Nkubi Francis, Timothy Kumordja, and Larbi Evans  were found guilty and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment each in hard labour, as well as a fine of GH120,000 each.

High tension

One of the cases involved three illegal miners who were caught mining under a high-tension cable in Esuoso, Tarkwa.

While one of the illegal miners, George Fynn, was arrested and prosecuted, two of his accomplices, Effah and Christian, absconded and are still at large.

The court found Fynn guilty of illegal mining and sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment in hard labour and a fine of GH120,000.

Forest reserve

Four of the convicts  Gordon Naa, Bismark Joribon, Abdulai Asongmene and Nicholas Dunuanua  also engaged in illegal mining at the Ndumfri forest reserve, near Simpa, in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality.

They were arrested by some officials of Forestry Commission led by the Range Manager, Kojo Amoo, on February 21, 2021.

It was the case of the prosecution that after the arrest of the illegal miners, it was discovered that their activities had destroyed one-and-a-half acres of the forest reserve.

The four illegal miners were each slapped with a 15-year jail term and a fine of GH120,000 each.

However, a juvenile accomplice was referred to the Juvenile Court for trial.

In another case, five illegal miners, Richard Kumasi and four others, were also arrested and charged with illegal mining and conspiracy to commit illegal mining.

Each was convicted and slapped with a 20-year jail term with hard labour and a fine of GH120,000 each.

727 on trial

In January this year, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, revealed to the Daily Graphic that a total of 727 individuals were currently standing trial across the country over their alleged involvement in illegal mining.

On the average, a typical galamsey case involves the arrest and prosecution of at least six or seven individuals.

Most of the cases are prosecuted in the region in which the arrests were affected, the A-G said.

As part of efforts to combat the illegal mining menace, Parliament in 2019 imposed stiffer punishment on those engaged in the devastating activity which had destroyed many water bodies and forest reserves in the country.

Parliament therefore amended the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) and came out with Act 995.

Under Section 99 of Act 995, a Ghanaian who engages in illegal mining or commands, instigates or employs others to engage in illegal mining commits an offence and is liable, upon summary conviction, to a fine of not less than 10,000 penalty units (GH120,000) and not more than 15,000 penalty units (GH180,000) and to a term of imprisonment of not less than 15 years and not more than 25 years.

For a foreigner who engages in illegal mining, Act 995 stipulates a fine of not less than 100,000 penalty units (GH1.2m) and not more than 300,000 penalty units (GH3.6m) and a term of imprisonment of not less 20 years and not more than 25 years, or to both the fine and the term of imprisonment.

Mr Dame said the passage of Act 995 in 2019 was a clear demonstration by the government that it was serious about the fight against galamsey.

The new punishment regime is in contrast to the situation under Act 703 passed in 2006, which prescribed a penalty of a minimum of three thousand penalty units or imprisonment of not more than five years for the offence of trading in minerals and mining without a licence, the A-G said.
#OccupyBoGprotest underway in Accra

Getrude Ankah Nyavi Oct - 03 - 2023 , 10:28

Hundreds of protesters on Tuesday morning gathered at the Obra Spot at Kwame Nkrumah circle in Accra for the #OccupyBoGprotest being organised by the Minority side in Parliament.

The street protest is being organised by the NDC caucus in parliament, pressure group Arise Ghana, Justice for Ghana and other groups to demand the resignation of the Governor of Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison and his deputies.

The protesters have accused the leadership of the BoG allegedly supervising the loss of monies at the central bank.

The protesters are clad in red and black attire.

Speaking to Graphic Online, a former staff of the Bank of Ghana who worked at the banking supervision department, Komevor K.D. Tettegah, said he joined the protest to show his displeasure on how BoG, which he described as the heart of the financial system of the country, has been managed by the governor and his team.

He expressed shock at how the bank made a loss of such an amount, "The Bank of Ghana for the first time in the history of Ghana had made a big loss of over 60 billion cedis which is difficult to understand. I have worked in the Bank of Ghana for about eight years, and I have a few knowledge on what happens in the Bank of Ghana. So within a very short time, for a citizen of Ghana honoured by the citizens of this country voting into high office of president and his team to mismanage such an institution is mind blowing", he stated.

For her part, a government worker, Joyce Armah said "There is conflict of interest in the way our president is ruling with his cousin," she said.

"When they go for loans, 9% of the money goes to his own private bank business, which is very wrong. We just want them to step down. It is not a matter of fight or just wanting to be on the street ranting for nothing. He should just step down so that peace will come and let someone else come and do it."

The protesters are marching from the Obra Spot through Adabraka, Ridge roundabout, the National Theatre traffic light, the high court complex traffic light, and the Atta Mills Street.

They will make a U-turn at the National Lottery traffic light and end the protest at the Independence Square.

Some Members of Parliament seen at the grounds are Madina MP, Francis-Xavier Sosu, North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and Lawra MP Bede Ziedeng. Former MP, Inusah Fuseni has also been seen at the grounds.

Justice for Ghana

The Convener of Justice for Ghana, Dramani Selorm Dzramado on his part said President Akufo-Addos administration has failed to salvage Ghana from the current economic distress, thus, he must leave office.

He said Ghanaians could no longer withstand the depreciating state of country, hence the only way out was for the president to step down.

Related: No 'demo' will be allowed anywhere near BoG premises - Police to Minority

more to follow...
Katanga Alumni donates to Accra Psychiatric Hospital

Diana Mensah Oct - 03 - 2023 , 06:49

The Katanga Alumni Association has donated assorted food items to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital to support the upkeep of patients and ease pressure on the facility.

Membership of the association is made up of students who were resident in the University Hall also known as Katanga, during their tertiary education at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

The food items included four sacks of rice, a sack of maize, bags of water, 10 crates of eggs, 100 tubers of yam, two gallons each of palm oil and vegetable oil.

Others included a box of tomatoes, a sack each of ginger, soya beans and beans, four American tins of agushie, two mini sacks of onions, a sack of maize, a bucket of margarine, a sack each of salt and pepper.

After the presentation ceremony, the management of the hospital led the members of the association present, on a tour of the wards.

Significant

Presenting the items, the President of the Global Katanga Alumni Association, Nana Otu Turkson, said the donation was their way of supporting the vulnerable in society.

Mr Turkson said the gesture was also in line with the associations tradition to assist the psychiatric hospital on an annual basis, and thus, acknowledged the effort of all members of the group who assisted in various ways to make the donation possible.

This engagement started around 2007 by those before us and we have at least been consistent and made sure that every year, we come to support.

Mental illness is actually a matter of a sliding scale.

We all experience it at some point or the other and therefore we take this as a very serious social responsibility to give back to our brothers and sisters who find themselves in such unfortunate situations because we never know when we might need the services, he said.

Seek Mental Health Assistance

A Nurse and Public Relation Officer of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Francisca Ntow, who received the items on behalf of the hospital, thanked the group for their gesture.

She used the opportunity to advise men to seek mental health assistance when faced with an emotional problem.

That, she explained, was because most men often struggled to open up about their emotions because of societal expectations of them; hence, leading to depression.

Men would actually shield everything to get to the point where they can't take it anymore and then they are admitted.

So currently, we see a lot of men on admission than we see women at the hospital, she said.

Consequently, she urged the public to pay attention to their health, saying, include mental health checks in your regular general medical check-ups so issues are picked up early.

Walk to any facility or psychiatric hospital to see and tell the doctor or the nurses that you think you need to be assessed mentally. It's not wrong, she said.
Manle Dada, African Unity schools renovation begins today

Timothy Ngnenbe Oct - 03 - 2023 , 06:00

Renovation works are set to begin today on the infrastructure of the Manle Dada and African Unity Basic schools in the La Dade-Kotopon Municipality in the Greater Accra Region.

The schools, located behind the La General Hospital premises, were destroyed by a rainstorm in May and the early part of last month.

Two private entities, Puma Energy and Goldkey Properties Ltd, have agreed to fund the renovation of the two schools.

The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of La Dade-Kotopon (LaDMA), Rev. Solomon Kotey Nikoi, said the renovation works would begin today.

This came to light when the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, visited the schools to assess the extent of damage and the way forward.

The renovation, estimated to cost GH1 million, is expected to be completed within three months.

In the interim, the assembly, in collaboration with the Municipal Education Directorate, has made arrangements to move the affected students to a nearby school to ensure that academic work is not interrupted.

Recall

The Daily Graphic reported in its Thursday, November 28 edition that the fate of over 400 pupils in the Manle Dada and African Unity Basic schools hung in the balance after the roofs of their classrooms were ripped off.

The story indicated that the fate of the children hung in the balance, given that basic schools were scheduled to reopen today.

Following that report, Mr Quartey visited the two schools to assess the situation for action to be taken to repair the roofs.

Commendation

The minister commended the LaDMA MCE and his team for taking steps to fix the school blocks.

He urged the assembly and the education directorate to do all within their means to ensure that the work was completed on time.

Mr Quartey also commended the two companies that had come in to renovate the two schools.

Education is a right for every child in Ghana and the children in this area cannot be left out.

I know that LaDMA has done a lot of investment in education. So,

I know that you will work with these private entities to fix these classrooms as a matter of necessity, he said.

Assurance

Rev. Nikoi assured the minister that based on his engagement with Puma Energy and Goldkey Properties, he was optimistic that the work would be delivered on schedule.

"As an assembly, we have procurement processes to go through, but we are pushing hard to ensure that by Tuesday next week, the renovation work will begin.

It is going to cost us close to GH1 million, and we call on private entities to come and support us," he said.

The LaDMA MCE added that the assembly was undertaking similar renovation works in other schools across the municipality as part of the commitment to promote education.

For her part, Ms Kotomah said arrangements had been made to keep the Primary School pupils from both schools in the section of the Manle Dada School that had not been affected by the rainstorm while the Junior High School (JHS) students were sent to a nearby school for the next three months.

"The South La JHS was under construction, so we put the pupils at Tenashie.

But, we have completed the work at South La, so we will bring them back to their school and move the affected pupils from the Manle Dada and African Unity Basic schools to Tenashie JHS.

"We believe that with this temporary arrangements, the students will not lose out in terms of academic work," she added.

She said the same approach had been used in the past for schools which suffered a similar fate but academic work had been effective.

"I want to assure all parents, concerned citizens of La and Ghana that these children will go to school when school reopens next week Tuesday.

I am working hard with the LaDMA MCE and we will ensure that no child stays out of school because their classrooms have been ripped off," she stressed.

Background

A nine-unit classroom block and adjoining offices at the African Unity School had their roofs completely ripped off in May, this year and are yet to be renovated.

In the case of Manle Dada Basic School, three out of the nine-unit classroom block were destroyed by a rainstorm on September 22.

When the Daily Graphic visited the two schools, which share the same compound, on Monday, September 25, it was observed that the entire African Unity School block was in total ruins.

The story at the Manle Dada Basic School was not any different from that of African Unity School as the roofs of three of the nine-unit classroom block had also been ripped off.
#OccupyBoGprotest: Minority declines to submit petition to BoG Head of Security in Governor's absence

Kweku Zurek Oct - 03 - 2023 , 15:53

The Minority Caucus in Parliament declined to present their petition to the Director of Security at the Bank of Ghana (BoG) during the #OccupyBoGprotest today. The leaders of the demonstration refused to do so, citing the absence of the Governor, Dr. Ernest Addison, or any of his deputies.

The Head of Security at the central bank, Wing Commander Kwame Asare Boateng attempted to accept the Minority's petition on behalf of Dr. Addison. However, Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson objected and characterized the bank's decision as "disrespectful".

Upon the protest leaders' arrival, they were met by Wing Commander Kwame Asare Boateng and several members of the bank's leadership. They were informed that Governor Addison was engaged in a meeting with a delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and, as a result, was unavailable to receive the petition.

In response, the Minority Leader expressed his dissatisfaction with this development, labelling it as disrespectful. He pledged to return at a later time when the governor could personally receive the petition.

It is very disrespectful not to receive the petition himself. Not even the deputy is here, and we never said we were going to present our petition to security, and we would not give you the petition, Mr. Forson said

Now that he has decided to disrespect us, we will not present our petition, and so we will go and come back again. Until we see him, this is just the beginning, he added.

The Minority has called for the resignation of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison and his deputies, over alleged mismanagement of the nations central bank.

Their call came after the Annual Report and Financial Statement of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), revealed that the BoG had recorded a loss of GH60.8 billion, which is equivalent to $6 billion and recorded a negative equity of over GH55.1 billion.
#OccupyBoGProtest: Tense stand-off between police and protestors

Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson & Diana Mensah Oct - 03 - 2023 , 14:40

There is a tense stand-off between the police and the #OccupyBoGprotestors at the traffic light in front of the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park on the Atta Mills Highway.

The Police have cordoned off the road to the Bank of Ghana Headquarters from the traffic light, with a barrier in front of the traffic light, riot police and tear gas canisters.

When the protesters initially reached the traffic light, some of them tried to break through the barricade but they were prevented by their leaders, who insisted that they did not want any clashes with the Police.

They however started shouting and calling on the police to allow them through.

One of the leaders of the protests, Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, the Director of Legal of the NDC, told Graphic Online that the protestors had comported themselves peacefully and therefore there was no need for the police to stop them from going to the Bank of Ghana Headquarters to present their petition.

He said the protestors were law abiding citizens and would not do anything to breach the peace.
President inaugurates St Michael's Specialist Hospital

Chris Nunoo Oct - 03 - 2023 , 06:56

A private hospital, St Michael's Specialist Hospital (SMSH) at Abeka Lapaz in Accra, has been inaugurated to augment quality healthcare delivery in the country.

The 90-bed facility aims to provide first-class, personalised and timely health care in a comfortable and luxurious environment.

It also aims to be the preferred health service provider in the country and in West Africa by providing excellent and patient-centred care while exuding true comfort.

The hospital aims to set a new precedent for healthcare delivery in the country, providing services in general and specialist medical care, such as cardiac care, day surgery, hemodialysis, General Outpatient Consultations, CT-scanning, X-ray and general ultrasound services and laboratory services.

Inaugurating the facility, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said the holistic development of health infrastructure by the government is to make the country an attractive medical destination with excellent medical facilities to serve the country and beyond.

Vision

He said his vision was to leverage the favourable status of the country as the most peaceful in West Africa, a beacon of democracy and a land of opportunities, to help make the country a centre of excellence for medical care in the sub-region by 2030.

This, we will achieve by investing more in the development of our healthcare infrastructure, mapping our regional health facilities to specialisation as well as upgrading selected facilities in our region and teaching hospitals into world-class standards, he stated.

President Akufo-Addo further stressed the commitment of his government to improve access to essential and quality health services through the provision of the necessary healthcare infrastructure, equipment and logistics, including the deployment of the appropriate technology as part of the drive to attain universal health coverage.

Good health is fundamental to all we do and hope to do and that was the reason access to quality health care was a right enshrined in the constitution of the country.

He said the government had since 2017 showed its commitment to the realisation of this vision through the restoration of the nurses training allowances and the recruitment of the highest number of healthcare workers in the history of the fourth republic with 58, 041 health workers employed to supplement the existing health sector workforce at the height of COVID-19.

The Ghana Ambulance Service, the President stated, had also been equipped with 307 ambulances, one for each constituency and also improved the NHIS to make access easier while drones had also been introduced to deliver emergency medical supplies to remote areas of our country.

Commendation

President Akufo-Addo commended the Board Chairman of the hospital, Michael Banahene, on his brilliant initiative, saying his life story should encourage other Ghanaians not to give up or throw their hands up in despair, but rather, work hard to realise their dreams to contribute to the growth and development of the country.

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor, who graced the occasion, also described Mr Banahene, his grandnephew, as a special and courageous personality who had fulfilled his dream.

The former President was also happy that the creative youth of the country continued to inspire themselves and future generations.

The Medical Director of the St Michael's Specialist Hospital, Dr Lawrence Sereboe, said all the investment made by SMSH would position it to match and in some aspects, even exceed what could be found outside the country.

He further stressed the importance of effective maintenance of all the equipment and gave an assurance that the team would ensure that a serious maintenance culture was in place.
Stakeholders call for documentation of landing sites - To protect livelihoods of fisherfolk

Shirley Asiedu-Addo Oct - 03 - 2023 , 09:48

Stakeholders in the fisheries industry have called for urgent measures to protect and secure landing sites for fisherfolks from encroachment.

They indicated that the competing interests for landing sites put the livelihoods of those in the fishery sector at risk if nothing was done to secure these sites.

At a stakeholders workshop on mapping and documentation of the landing sites in Cape Coast last Friday, participants called for effective stakeholder collaboration to achieve this goal urgently.

The participants included officials from the Lands Commission, Fisheries Commission, Coastal Development Authority, Environmental Protection Agency, traditional authorities, media personnel, fishermen and fishmongers.

The workshop was organized as part of the Sustainable Oceans Project (SOP), a three-year project funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), that seeks to build grassroots capacity for a sustainable ocean economy in Ghana, through inclusive, strong and effective capacity building, planning and management of coastal ecosystems.

The project, among others, also seeks to improve land tenure governance for sustainable seafood systems, by pushing for a strong national policy that would help protect the over 292 landing beaches and the livelihood of over 140,000 fishermen across the four coastal regions.

Projects goal

The project also aims to promote a resilient and sustainable ocean economy in Ghana, which will be achieved through inclusive, strong and effective capacity, planning and management of coastal ecosystems.

The implementing partners the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Hen Mpoano (HM), Friends of the Nation (FoN) and Central and Western Fishmongers Improvement Association (CEWEFIA), within three years (2022- 2025), would work to reduce the decline in fish stocks, improve income of fishing communities and address the effects of climate change on fisheries in Ghana.

The Chief Fisherman for Gomoa Fetteh, Nana Obrenu Dabum, said many fishing communities were losing their landing sites to competing interests, especially the hospitality players.

He said there was a need for concerted efforts to secure the sites and the livelihoods of the fishermen.

For his part, the Chief Fisherman for Anomabo Etsiwa ,Nana Kwamena Sanka, described the project as a laudable one.

The Queen mother of Anomabo, Nana Mbroba Dabo, lauded the initiative, saying securing the landing sites meant securing the livelihoods of the thousands whose livelihoods depended on the sea.

Project

A Coordinator of the Project, Justice Camillus Mensah, said the project would build on earlier projects to ensure the landing sites were mapped,

secured and documented. He said the project sought to secure 10 landing sites across the country for fisherfolks.

He urged all stakeholders to play their part effectively to ensure the success of the project.

Presenting an overview of the project, a Programme Officer at the EJF,Osei Akoto Nyantakyi, said the key objectives of the SOP were to, among others, reduce fishery declines, build sustainability and secure fisherfolk access to sustainable fisheries resources, through governance reforms.

This is intended to address overcapacity and illegal fishing and enhance participatory co-management.

Improve incomes

He said it was also to improve the income resilience of fishing communities to climate and human induced threats, through enhanced opportunities for value addition alongfisheries supply chains and enterprise development.

He further indicated that the project would also strengthen climate change adaptation and mitigation capacities in coastal areas, through improved spatial and land use planning and community led management of wetland and mangrove ecosystems.

In the next three years, he said the SOP would engage small-scale fishers, clam collectors, processors and traders in the value chain across all four coastal regions of Ghana and train about 5,000 artisanal fisherfolks in fisheries management issues across four coastal regions and engage over 600 processors in value addition, hygienic handling and access to credit.

Again, Mr Nyantakyi indicated that it would ensure that womens voices were influential in decision-making, by training and building the capacity of about 1,500 women in fisheries and empowering them to address unsustainable practices at the landing beaches.
Napoli vs Real Madrid live stream: How to watch Champions League game on TV in UK today

Napoli and Real Madrid clash in a heavyweight Champions League contest in Italy tonight.

Both of these sides will be jostling for control of Group C after making winning starts on matchday one.

Napoli needed a late own goal to beat Braga 2-1 away in Portugal, while Madrid got a last-gasp winner from new superstar Jude Bellingham to see off the stubborn challenge of Union Berlin.

The hosts have been under fire over recent weeks for inexplicably appearing to mock star striker Victor Osimhen on TikTok, though the saga hasnt affected his form with goals in back-to-back Serie A thumpings of Udinese and Lecce.

Madrid, meanwhile, currently top LaLiga after an unbeaten start with seven wins from eight games, winning 3-0 at Girona on Saturday despite Nachos late dismissal.

How to watch Napoli vs Real Madrid

TV channel: Tonights game will be broadcast live on TNT Sports 3 in the UK, with coverage beginning at 7.45pm BST ahead of an 8pm kick-off.

Live stream: Subscribers can also watch the action unfold live online via the TNT Sports website and app.
Collaborate to fight breast cancer  UG Vice-Chancellor

Jemima Okang Addae Health Oct - 03 - 2023 , 09:13

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo,has called for a collaborative approach to address the multifaceted challenges of breast cancer.

She said it was imperative to stand together, shoulder to shoulder, to bridge the gaps in awareness, access to health care and support for those affected by the disease.

Beyond the numbers of breast cancer, we must recognise the countless individuals and families who are affected by this disease.

It is a life-changing experience, she stated at the launch of the Breast Cancer Awareness Month of The Trust Hospitals and Clinics, dubbed the Trust Hospital Pink October Awareness Campaign in Accra yesterday.

She noted that the theme, "Managing together to close the care gap, underscored the fact that no single entity could tackle the complex issue of breast cancer alone.

Prof.Amfo said it was crucial to understand the emotional, physical and financial toll that breast cancer takes on individuals as it was not just a health issue but a societal one that affected the fabric of our communities.

By acknowledging this impact, we can better appreciate the urgency of our collective efforts to address breast cancer, she added.

Role

Prof.Amfo said universities played a critical role in driving awareness and research in health.

The universitys researchers at Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) have dedicated themselves to advancing knowledge about the disease, exploring new treatment options and enhancing early detection methods.

Education is a powerful tool and it empowers individuals to take charge of their health.

By educating ourselves and others, we break down barriers of fear and ignorance and equip individuals with the tools they need to make informed decisions about their health, she stated.

The Chief Executive Officer of Trust Hospital, Dr Juliana Ameh, said the significance of the event was to provide care, advocate and conduct research on the health and well-being of women who have the highest rate of breast cancer diagnosis.

The importance of women who constitute more than half of the adult population to socioeconomic development means that businesses, enterprises, policymakers and nonprofits must work together to build a formidable coalition against this threat to womens lives and livelihood, she explained.

Dr Ameh noted that the hospital had launched a multidisciplinary specialist service The Trust Cancer Care Service that comprises of various oncology services and the cancer care academy where clinical conversations and training are provided to diverse healthcare practitioners.

Activities A team member at the Trust Hospital Wellness Clinic, Dr Nancy Rose Sabaa, said series of activities would take place to celebrate the breast cancer awareness month.

This, she said, included breast screening in all Trust Hospitals and neighboring communities, breast cancer awareness walk, summit for survivors to share their experience and stakeholders day to brainstorm ways everyone can contribute to managing breast cancer.
Ahead of #Occupy BoG Protest today: TUC,CHRAJ call on Police to be professional

Daily Graphic Politics Oct - 03 - 2023 , 08:41

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) have urged the Ghana Police Service to manage demonstrators professionally and in line with the Constitution.

While CHRAJ cautioned the police against using the Public Order Act,1994 (Act 471) as a pretext to stifle citizens freedom of assembly and right to protest as enshrined in the Constitution, the TUC urged the two parties (protestors and police) to exercise their rights without violating the provisions contained in the act.

The admonition from the TUC and CHRAJ relates to recent demonstrations in Accra where demonstrators were allegedly brutalized by the police.

There is also a growing perception that demonstrations are being stifled using the Public Order Act.

Todays demonstration by the Minority in Parliament dubbed #Occupy BoG Protest is to back their demand for the immediate resignation of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison and his two deputies.

The route for the demonstration is the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle as the converging point through - Adabraka- Ridge Roundabout  National Theatre Traffic LightHigh Court Complex Traffic Light - Atta Mills Highway - U-Turn to the Independence Square.

Police

The police,in a statement issued ahead of todays protest said it would provide security for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and some Civil Society Organisations to embark on their demonstration against the BoG.

TUC/CHRAJ

A statement signed by the Secretary General of the TUC,Dr Yaw Baah, was particularly focused on todays demonstration against the leadership of the BOG by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The TUC urged the demonstrators and the organizers to be mindful of their responsibility to ensure that individuals not taking part in the demonstration were not denied the right to go about their normal lives.

Demonstrators should, therefore, refrain from doing anything that will deny other people their rights to go about their normal duties.

We trust that with this understanding, we can exercise our rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly without jeopardizing the peace in our country, the statement stressed.

A statement issued by CHRAJ in connection with protest, explained that even though the provision mandated the police to act as they saw fit in the interest of defense, public order, public safety, public health, the running of essential services or to prevent violation of the rights and freedoms of other persons, it did not permit them to restrict demonstrators on the eve of the protest from exercising their constitutional right.

It, therefore, stated that if there were to be restrictions in such a case, they had to be guided by the objective of facilitating the right to protest

as opposed to placing unnecessary and disproportionate limitations on it.

Restrictions must not be discriminatory, impair the essence of the right, or be aimed at discouraging participation in peaceful assemblies, or undermining the purpose of the right, it added.

It also said any restriction imposed on this right must be necessary and proportionate in the context of a society based on democracy, rule of law, political pluralism and human rights as opposed to merely being reasonable and expedient.
Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference to promote democracy - Speaker of Barbados

Daniel Kenu Politics Oct - 03 - 2023 , 08:56

The Speaker of the House of Assembly of Barbados, Arthur Holder, said the 66th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference was crucial for it will help re-examine the principles underpinning democracy among the commonwealths.

"It is a conference that will enhance democracy and promote collaboration among Commonwealth nations because no country is an island," he told journalists after a closed-door Executive Committee meeting in Accra.

The Speaker of Barbados is convinced that the conference will help design modalities and deliberate policies to push for more women into the various parliaments and bridge the male female gap.

In Barbados, for instance, he said women form one-third of the 30-membership House which falls short of the 60-40 requirement.

As a result, the House has deliberately promoted a lot of women "backbenchers" with ministerial appointments and encouraged others outside the House with the right support to get in.

"We are working hard to promote gender equality and assist in getting more of them into the Assembly," Mr Holder said.

Commendation

On the conference itself, the Speaker of the Barbados House of Assembly praised Ghana's Speaker, Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, "for his exceptional role in organizing the conference."

"He must be given a special mention and praise in making sure that every member is available.

"The conference is the best since I started attending the CPA (Commonwealth Parliamentary

Association) events.

I want to personally congratulate him for making the conference possible and practical for all delegates.

"I'm really impressed by the hospitality shown by the host branch in Ghana," he said.

The conference which began at the Accra International Conference Centre in Accra from September 30 to October 6,2023 is on the theme: The Commonwealth Charter 10 years on: Values and principles for Parliaments to uphold.
Current state of NPP not a guarantee to retain power - Afriyie Akoto

GraphicOnline Politics Oct - 03 - 2023 , 06:22

Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, a flagbearer hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has expressed concerns about the party's current state, emphasizing that its polarization could jeopardize its chances of retaining power in the 2024 general elections if internal issues are not addressed.

Speaking to journalists at his Kumasi residence on Monday, October 2, 2023, Dr. Akoto highlighted the importance of party unity and addressing the challenges faced by its base, particularly in relation to poverty alleviation and grassroots engagement.

He pointed out that after the NPP's victory in the 2016 general elections, there were high hopes among party members for an improved quality of life, which he believes has not been realized. Dr. Akoto emphasized that addressing the concerns of the party's base is crucial to winning back their confidence and ensuring a strong showing in the upcoming elections.

Dr. Akoto, who has offered himself as a presidential candidate, stressed the need for smart thinking and strategies to unite the party and prioritize the concerns of its activists and members.

He also appealed to the party's delegates to consider his track record and leadership qualities when deciding on the party's presidential candidate, emphasizing his dedication to supporting farmers and transforming the agricultural sector.

In light of his commitment to addressing the party's internal challenges and fostering unity, Dr. Akoto announced the suspension of his tour to the Ashanti Region to mourn the passing of former President John Agyekum Kufuor's wife, Theresa Kufuor. He is among the candidates vying for the NPP's presidential ticket, with the party's delegates set to vote on November 4, 2023.

Dr. Akoto's concerns reflect broader discussions within the NPP about the party's internal dynamics and its readiness for the 2024 elections.
EC to register people in queue today - Exercise ends with massive turnout

Daily Graphic Politics Oct - 03 - 2023 , 08:25

The Electoral Commission (EC) has offered to register eligible voters who were in queue at the close of the limited voter registration exercise yesterday but could not be captured onto the list.

Long queues and crowded centers characterized the closing day activities as the Electoral Commission yesterday brought to an end the 21-day limited voter registration exercise across the country.

The massive turnout was in sharp contrast to the early days of the exercise where the numbers were not as huge.

In a statement after the close of the exercise yesterday, the EC said, "arrangements have been made to ensure that eligible citizens who are in the queue on or before 5:00 p.m. today,are registered tomorrow, Tuesday, October 3,2023.

This arrangement will be extended only to eligible applicants in the queue at 5:00 p.m. as of yesterday, October 2, 2023, the Commission said adding it would not extend the exercise beyond the October 2 date.

The public is informed that the commission will not extend the voters registration exercise, it said.

Ga Central

At the Ga Central Municipal Assembly in the Anyaa Sowutuom Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, the Daily Graphic observed that the centre had eight EC officers working to serve over 150 prospective registrants, reports Diana Mensah.

Party officials manned the gates, ushering members to the Centre, leaving non-aligned prospective registrants frustrated.

A registrant, who gave his name as Nicolas Addy, said he reported to the centre at 8 a.m. but was yet to be captured onto the list as of 2:38 p.m.

Another, who gave her name as Abigail Nuloo, said,I came here at 10 a.m. And I am still here at almost 3 p.m..

At the Social Welfare Centre, the exercise was said to have started at 8 a.m. With about 11 EC officers in charge of the exercise.

An observer said the massive turnout for the registration was indicative of how Ghanaians procrastinated.

I am even surprised why we have to wait till the last minute before we show seriousness.

This doesnt only frustrate EC members but the registrants as well, he added.

As of 11:10 a.m., he said the commission had been able to register about 64 registrants for the day.

Registrants at the centre did not seem excited about the whole registration process.

A prospective registrant, Simon Frimpong,20,said he reported at the center around 11 a.m. Following the interventions of his family members.

Another registrant, Nancy Hagan,18,expressed the hope that she would be able to get her voters ID before the close of the exercise.

Another registrant, David Sydney, also expressed his dissatisfaction about the whole registration, saying people moving in and out of the queue is making this whole registration stressful.

Bawku case Meanwhile, the exercise, which was halted in the Bawku Municipality of the Upper East Region, could not resume as the 21-day nationwide exercise came to an end yesterday, reports Gilbert Mawuli Agbey.

The exercise in the Bawku Municipality was halted on Thursday, September 14,2023, three days after it had started= following a disagreement over

the creation of a new center in the Bawku township aside from the municipal office of the EC.

The decision to create a new center was to give people the opportunity to register as residents could not move to the municipal EC office to do so due

to the unending conflict in Bawku, which had led to general insecurity in the area.

At the time of filing this report yesterday around 3 p.m., there was no sign of the exercise resuming in the municipality.
#OccupyBoG: Bank of Ghana sent a "watchman" to receive our petition - Sam George

GraphicOnline Politics Oct - 03 - 2023 , 17:10

Ningo-Prampram Member of Parliament (MP), Sam George, has slammed the Bank of Ghana for sending its Head of Security to meet the leadership of the #OccupyBog protestors.

The MP in an interview criticized the BoG and its Governor for disrespecting the protestors by sending the BoG's Director of Safety and Security, Wing Commander Kwame Asare Boateng to meet the protestors and receive their petition.

The Minority Group, led by Cassiel Ato Forson, chose not to present their petition to BoG's Head of Security, Wing Commander Kwame Asare Boateng (Esq), who Mr. George described as a watchman.

In an interview on TV3, Sam George expressed his dismay, characterizing Dr. Addison's nonattendance as a sign of disrespect.

"Parliament invites the Bank of Ghana at least twice a year and he has appeared only three times in seven years so it's not strange. It is the height of disrespect that we will come here and he will send the watchman, the watchman at the Bank of Ghana to come and receive the petition," he said.

"Okay, the watchman should come to Parliament as well, when next he needs anything from Parliament he should send the watchman as well but we will be back. We will give the Police some days to rest but we will be back".

Read also: Profile of BoG director of security, Wing Commander (Rtd) Kwame Asare-Boateng (Esq), the man Sam George described as "Watchman"
#OccupyBoGprotest: Police and organisers agree on new route

Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson & Diana Mensah Politics Oct - 03 - 2023 , 11:48

The Minority in Parliament and the Ghana Police Service (GPS) have agreed on a revised route for the #OccupyBoGprotest

The Director of Public Affairs of the Police Service , ACP Grace Ansah-Akrofi made this known in a press briefing held in Accra Tuesday morning (October 3, 2023), reports Graphic Online's Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson & Diana Mensah who were at the briefing.

After a series of engagements between the Ghana Police Service and organisers of the protest. We agreed to a revised route to be used for the demonstration, she said.

The revised route, she said would commence from the Obra Spot through to Adabraka to Ridge roundabout then to National Theatre traffic light through to the high court complex traffic light to Atta Mills highway then finally to the independence square.

Mrs Ansah-Akrofi said the police were on grounds not to cause confusion but to ensure citizens are protected adding that the police were prepared to ensure security, law and order for the planned street protest.

As a key stakeholder in this assignment, the Police is here to ensure the safety, we want to assure Ghanaians that there is no confusion at all but the police is working together with the organisers of the protest on the field to ensure a successful exercise, she added.

We are here till the demonstration is over and so if you have any concerns, questions feel free to approach any of us. I hope this demonstration would end well and Ghana will be the winner, she said.
#OccupyBoGProtests: BoG Governor showed us "disrespect," we will come back - Ato Forson

Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson & Diana Mensah Politics Oct - 03 - 2023 , 17:17

Leaders of the #OccupyBoGProtest have refused to present their petition to the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

The leaders who were allowed to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) premises by the police wanted to present the petition personally to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison but he was absent and was represented by the Head of Security of the BoG, Wing Commander (Rtd), Kwame Asare-Boateng (Esq).

The Director said the Governor was not around because he had gone for an IMF meeting outside the country.

That, did not go down well with the leaders, who insisted that the protest will continue until Dr Addison avail himself to take the petition, describing the absence of the BoG Governor as total disrespect

The leaders included the Minority Leader in Parliament, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, Sammy Gyamfi and Sam George.

"We will come back again" - Ato Forson

The Minority Leader, Dr Ato Forson said since the Governor did not personally show up to collect the petition, they will have to "come back again".

He said, "if the Governor thinks the IMF is important than the Parliament of Ghana", and therefore refused to show up to collect the petition, they will have to come back another time.
Profile of BoG director of security, Wing Commander (Rtd) Kwame Asare-Boateng (Esq), the man Sam George described as "Watchman"

Graphic Online Politics Oct - 03 - 2023 , 19:58

Profile of Bank of Ghana's (BoG) Head of Security, Wing Commander (Retired) Kwame Asare-Boateng (Esq), whom Ningo Prampram Member of Parliament, Sam George described as a "Watchman" during #OccupyBoGProtest on Tuesday.

Ningo-Prampram Member of Parliament (MP), Sam George, on Tuesday afternoon (Oct 3, 2023) slammed the Bank of Ghana for sending its Head of Security to meet the leadership of the #OccupyBog protestors.

The MP in an interview criticized the BoG and its Governor for disrespecting the protestors by sending the BoG's Director of Safety and Security, Wing Commander Kwame Asare Boateng to meet the protestors and receive their petition.

The Minority Group, led by Cassiel Ato Forson, chose not to present their petition to BoG's Head of Security, Wing Commander Kwame Asare Boateng, who Mr. George described as a watchman.

Who is Wing Commander (Rtd) Kwame Asare-Boateng (Esq)

Wing Commander Kwame Asare-Boateng Rtd (Esq) joined the Bank of Ghana in 2019 as a Director and in charge of its Security Department.

He has since transformed the Security Department into an effective professional Unit.

Prior to this, he served for 26 years in the Ghana Air Force and rose through the ranks terminating as a Wing Commander and Deputy Director of the Legal Directorate at the Air Force Headquarters.

He served in various capacities while in the military notably as Intelligence Operator, Administrator and Legal Officer.

He has undertaken various operational assignments including serving with United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) as Force Conduct and Discipline Officer and as Force Intelligent Officer as UN Observer in Liberia.

Kwame Asare-Boateng was called to the Ghana Bar in 2007 having successfully completed the professional law programme.

He holds a Master of Arts Degree in International Relations and a Bachelor of Arts Degree both from the University of Ghana.

He is a recipient of several awards and UN Medals in recognition of his professionalism and dedicated service to the nation and the United Nations.

Ningo-Prampram Member of Parliament (MP), Sam George, has slammed the Bank of Ghana for sending its Head of Security to meet the leadership of the #OccupyBog protestors.

The MP in an interview criticized the BoG and its Governor for disrespecting the protestors by sending the BoG's Director of Safety and Security, Wing Commander Kwame Asare Boateng to meet the protestors and receive their petition.

The Minority Group, led by Cassiel Ato Forson, chose not to present their petition to BoG's Head of Security, Wing Commander Kwame Asare Boateng, who Mr. George described as a watchman.

In an interview on TV3, Sam George expressed his dismay, characterizing Dr. Addison's nonattendance as a sign of disrespect.

"Parliament invites the Bank of Ghana at least twice a year and he has appeared only three times in seven years so it's not strange. It is the height of disrespect that we will come here and he will send the watchman, the watchman at the Bank of Ghana to come and receive the petition," he said.

"Okay, the watchman should come to Parliament as well, when next he needs anything from Parliament he should send the watchman as well but we will be back. We will give the Police some days to rest but we will be back".
Nicholas Witchell

The BBC's royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell is to retire after nearly five decades with the corporation.

Witchell, who joined the broadcaster as a trainee in 1976, has covered the Royal Family for the last 25 years.

He reported on the deaths of Queen Elizabeth II and Diana, Princess of Wales, as well as multiple royal weddings, births and funerals.

The BBC confirmed Witchell, 70, will depart next year. "It's time I shoved off to focus on other things," he said.

"It has been a huge privilege for nearly half a century to work for simply the best news broadcaster in the world alongside some of the very finest producers, camera operators, editors and others," Witchell wrote in an announcement sent to BBC staff.

"I hope Britain realises what it has in the BBC and cherishes it."

The BBC's director of news content, Richard Burgess, said Witchell's "consummate reporting" on the death of the Queen last year "defined much of the BBC's coverage, combining insight with expertise and sensitive commentary".

While he was thanked by his BBC colleagues this week for his "remarkable service", Witchell once famously proved to be less popular with one top royal.

In 2005, at a photoshoot in the Swiss Alps, the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, was heard on mic making disparaging remarks about the journalist, after he had asked a question about his upcoming marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles.

"Bloody people," said the royal. "I can't bear that man. I mean, he is so awful, he really is."

Six O'Clock News presenters Sue Lawley and Nicholas Witchell, pictured in 1984

A few years after having joined the BBC fresh from Leeds University, in 1979, Witchell joined its Northern Ireland newsroom, reporting on the hunger strikes, the murder of Earl Mountbatten and the killing of 19 British soldiers on the same day at Warrenpoint.

He later moved to London, covering the Falklands war, as well as UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's successful 1983 general election campaign.

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He then returned to Belfast the same year to become the BBC's Ireland correspondent.

Alongside Sue Lawley, Witchell became one of the founding presenters of the Six O'Clock News in 1984, before going on to front another new current affairs show, BBC Breakfast News, with the late Jill Dando.

He returned to frontline reporting for Panorama, and then as the BBC's diplomatic correspondent from 1994.

During a trip to south east Asia in 1997, Witchell became one of the first journalists to learn of the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in Paris in 1997.

He also provided live radio commentary from outside Westminster Abbey at her funeral.

Witchell took on the role of royal correspondent the following year.

Over a period of quarter of a century, he reported on the deaths of the Queen, the Queen Mother and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh; as well as the weddings of Prince William and Prince Harry, and the births of royal babies including Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

The BBC has not yet announced who will replace Witchell when he leaves early next year.

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Behind the Stories: Nick Witchell on the death of The Queen

The BBC's Senior Royal Correspondent on what covering The Queen's death was like for him.
Apple acknowledged that the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max suffer from overheating issues and pointed the finger at a bug in iOS 17. A fix is in the works, but a new issue has surfaced  wireless charging might be damaging the NFC module. There are only a few isolated incidents reported for now, but it has happened often enough that it can't be ignored.

Several folks in the MacRumors forums as well as posters on X have reported issues with setting up Apple Pay  when replacing the phones at an Apple Store, the employees suggested that the NFC module had died.



Apple Pay issues (possibly a dead NFC module) after using wireless charging in a BMW

Eventually, the people found a possible cause  the issues started after using the wireless charging pads in their BMWs. And the phone didnt just quietly suffer damage, in some cases it went into data recovery mode. And it wasnt a case of a defective unit, the replacement phones also had their NFC modules die. According to the users, they had no such issues with previous iPhone models.

So far the reports are coming mostly from iPhone 15 Pro owners who drive a BMW, though one user with a 2023 Toyota Supra chimed in to say that Apple Pay on their 15 Pro gave up the ghost.

Our sister site, ArenaEV, just did a review of the BMW i7 xDrive60 and the Android phone used during the tests survived. It got warm during charging, but that was the end of it. Heat cant be the issue, though, the iPhone 15 Pro Max ran quite hot when we benchmarked it and nothing came of it.

If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max and drive a BMW, avoid using the cars wireless charging, at least until Apple and BMW figure out what is going wrong. For now it seems that the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus dont have the same issue, but you may want to play it safe, anyway.

Source | Via
Just as promised earlier this year, HMD Global is now manufacturing 5G smartphones in Europe  more specifically in Hungary and the first phone from the assembly line is a Limited Edition Nokia XR21. HMD commissioned an initial batch of only 50 devices with a mere 30 going on open sale. Each phone will be engraved with its own unique number in the series and comes in the Frosted Platinum color with its own limited edition box.

Nokia XR21 was announced back in May and brings a rugged design with MIL-STD-810H military-grade and IP69K certification - the highest IP protection against water and dust.



Nokia XR 21 Limited Edition in Frosted Platinum

The phone features a 6.49-inch IPS LCD screen with FHD+ resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate and Gorilla Glass Victus protection. XR 21 is equipped with a Snapdragon 695 chipset and features a 64MP main cam and an 8MP ultrawide module. The device packs a 4,800 mAh battery and 33W charging and ships with Android 12 out of the box.

Pricing for the Limited Edition Nokia XR 21 is set at 699/599 in Germany, France, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Finland and the UK. HMD will also bring the regular Nokia XR 21 in Black for 649/549 later on.

Source
Convicted rapists and molesters of children under 12 years old would be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison if Sen. Chris Barnetts new bill becomes law.

Currently, the minimum sentence is 15 years when the victim is under 12 years old.

People who harm our children deserve the strictest penalties, Barnett said in a statement on Tuesday. The recidivism rate for sick pedophiles is alarming, and the longer we can keep these predators locked up and away from the kids, the better.

Barnetts Bill 183-37, or Jessicas Law, is similar to legislation that currently exists in 46 states, adopting stricter penalties and sentencing recommendations for those convicted of first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Jessicas Law is named after Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year-old girl who was abducted, raped and murdered in Florida in 2005 by a twice-convicted sex offender.

If enacted into law, the proposal increases the minimum sentencing from 15 years to 25 years when the victim is under 12 years old. The maximum sentence is life in prison.

Jessicas Law also allows judges to impose lifetime parole and restricts those serving time from engaging in work release or educational programs outside of prison.

The bill also seeks to require tighter restrictions on sexual offenders, like wearing electronic tracking devices.

I pray for the swift passage of this bill, so Guam can join the vast majority of states and territories that have strict penalties for those who would hurt our most vulnerable, Barnett said.

Bill 183-37 has 11 cosponsors: Sens. Jesse Lujan, Christopher Duenas, Joanne Brown, Telo Taitague, Dwayne San Nicolas, Joe San Agustin, Sabina Perez, Amanda Shelton, Roy Quinata, Thomas Fisher and William Parkinson.
Blue Ocean Law, in partnership with the Center for Constitutional Rights and ACLU-Puerto Rico, has submitted a shadow report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee detailing the ways in which the United States continues to deny self determination to the peoples of its unincorporated territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.

Shadow reports are those submitted by non-governmental parties to ensure that the Committee is fully apprised of a given countrys human rights record.

In a Tuesday news release, Blue Ocean Law said submission of this Shadow Report marks the first time that the U.S. conduct in its territories has ever been put before the Human Rights Committee for review.

The Shadow Report details the way in which U.S. law and policy has actively prevented colonized peoples from taking steps to define their political future, the harms of second class citizenship that comes with unincorporated territorial status, and the human rights violations caused by U.S. militarization of its territories, the release said.

This includes the denial of permanent sovereignty over natural resources and violations of the rights to life, health, and food.

While the Shadow Report focuses on the experiences of peoples in Guam and Puerto Rico, many of the same harms are felt by the peoples of the U.S. other unincorporated territories.

The report ends with recommendations that the Human Rights Committee may make, in order to bring the U.S. conduct in compliance with its human rights obligations.

Fundamentally, this means taking concrete steps toward decolonization and self-determination.

Our hope is that the Human Rights Committee will use the shadow report to affirm the rule of law and confirm that colonizing powers like the United States have an absolute duty to effectuate the right to self-determination and provide a remedy for the harms of colonization, said Attorney Julian Aguon, founder of Blue Ocean Law. Finally, we are asking the Committee to remind the United States that its militarization of Guam amounts to a violation of international law.

The Shadow Report will inform the Human Rights Committees review of the US implementation of its human rights obligations, scheduled to take place in Geneva in October.
A Simon Sanchez High School aide recently charged in connection with an alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl whom he paid $20, has been detailed to the Guam Department of Educations central office at Tiyan, GDOE said on Monday.

Lorenzo Mundo Calvo, 59, has been officially detailed at GDOEs central office and away from Simon Sanchez High as of Oct. 2, according to GDOE spokesperson Michelle Franquez.

GDOE is also conducting an internal investigation on Calvo regarding the allegations against him.

Documents filed in the Superior Court of Guam alleged acts of criminal sexual conduct and harassment involving Calvo.

Court documents indicated that a victim reported on Sept. 25 a sexual assault by Calvo in August.

The report stated that one night, the victim helped Calvo by stepping on his back as a form of massage. Calvo then told the victim to lay down next to him with both of them on their sides. Calvo then asked for a hug and placed his arm over her body and his leg over the lower part of her legs. The victim recalled that the defendants legs were heavy and that she felt trapped.

Calvo then placed his face between her breasts and left his face there for a couple of seconds. While there, he had moved his face side to side, and the victim recalled Calvos face being pressed into her and feeling very uncomfortable, according to court documents.

Calvo then gave her $20. The victim reported its as if he was paying her to keep quiet about what had just happened.

The report also indicated that Calvo had hugged her on a previous occasion and had also kissed her on the lips, which made her feel uncomfortable.

Calvo now faces a charge of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and another charge of harassment, both as misdemeanors.
A food drive helps kick off the Guam Power Authoritys Oct. 1 to 7 observance of Public Power Week, an annual national observance coordinated by the American Public Power Association, of which GPA is a member.

APPA serves as the voice of nonprofit, community-owned utilities that power communities nationwide.

Each year, during the first week of October, GPA joins more than 2,000 U.S. community-powered, not-for-profit electric utilities that collectively provide electricity to 49 million people across 49 states and five U.S. territories in celebrating Public Power Week, GPA said in a news release Monday.

To continue its Public Power Week tradition, GPA launched community-focused initiatives to support nonprofit organizations. GPA employees are collecting nonperishable food items to fill the shelves of the islands food pantry and will be assisting with upcoming Special Olympics events.

GPA is also working with the islands schools to promote energy conservation and energy sustainability to the next generation of islanders through hands-on, classroom learning.

GPA General Manager John Benavente, P.E., said nationwide Public Power Week activities center on educating communities and next-generation customers about the benefits of public power and the role it plays in improving the quality of life in communities.

For the past 55 years, GPA has been the main provider for the islands power source, and we continue to grow and develop alongside our islands needs, Benavente said. Public Power Week is the ideal time to thank five generations of GPA customers and employees who have supported us throughout the last 55 years. Our mission remains: to provide the most sustainable, reliable, and cost-effective energy future for the people of Guam.

GPA launches food drive

Now through Oct. 13, GPA employees are collecting canned and non-perishable food items at its customer service lobbies to benefit the Guam Catholic Social Service.

GPA employees will also assist Special Olympics Guam by providing much-needed donations and volunteering their time during weekends to assist with Special Olympics sporting events.

Tricee Limtiaco, assistant general manager of administration, said employees look to Public Power Week as a time to further serve members of the community, who are also GPA customers, family members, and neighbors.

This year, we are collecting food items to fill the shelves at Catholic Social Service so they can continue to do their good work of feeding individuals and families in need, she said. We invite our customers to join us in this effort to nourish our community.

Catholic Social Service has requested the following canned and nonperishable food items:

Canned meats  SPAM, luncheon meat, corned beef, etc.

Canned seafood  tuna, salmon, mackerel, etc.

Soups or stews  Campbells, Progresso, ready-to-eat soups, and dried ramen packages such as Ichiban or Cup Noodles

Canned fruits  fruit cocktail, peaches, pears, etc.

Canned vegetables  corn and green beans, but no lentils or beans, please

Bags of rice  5 lb. bags

The food drive will last through Oct. 13th, and GPA invites the community to join them in making this drive a success. All food items must be in their original packaging and not expired. Donations can be placed in the GPA collection boxes at any of GPAs service locations:

Customer Service Center  Gloria B. Nelson Public Service Building in Fadian

Hagatna Satellite Office  Julale Shopping Center

GPWA Upper Tumon Office  578 North Marine Corps Drive, Tamuning

GPA recognizes skilled public power workforce

Benavente extended GPAs appreciation to its employees, Performance Management Contractors, Power Purchase Agreement Partners, and Mutual Aid Utility Partners (Snohomish PUD), CNMI Commonwealth Utilities Corp., and Pohnpei PUD for their ongoing partnership and working alongside GPA crews to reenergize Guam after the devastation caused by Super Typhoon Mawar in May.

We recognize our hardworking employees and partners who have helped to build Guams public power in the past 55 years, and we support up-and-coming leaders who will help us realize our vision for Guams energy future, Benavente added.
KTXS

More than a dozen Sinclair television stations ran a sponsored gold investment segment featuring far-right podcaster Stew Peters, an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who has called for the execution of journalists and politicians.

According to Media Matters for America, 16 Sinclair-affiliated stations ran the two-minute segment between May and September, with it most recently airing this past Thursday on KATVs Good Morning Arkansas.

It now appears, though, that Sinclair has pulled the segment from its rotation. We were not aware of the association and are reviewing our internal policies on sponsored content. The segment in question is no longer on our air, a Sinclair Broadcasting Group spokesperson told Media Matters.

The segment, which was sponsored by gold investor Goldco, featured Peters and D.C.-based Sinclair meteorologist Brian van de Graff and kicked off with van de Graff boasting about Peters credentials. Hes a former bounty hunter and host of The Stew Peters Show, van de Graff said. Stew is also the producer of the film Died Suddenly, which was viewed by over 30 million people worldwide.

Died Suddenly is a debunked anti-vaccine film that peddles the conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 vaccines are causing deadly blood clots in young healthy individuals, causing them to drop dead. The film proposes this is all part of a plot by global elites to depopulate the planet in order to establish a new totalitarian regime. (A previous film by Peters falsely claimed that the coronavirus vaccine is actually a synthetic snake venom.)

After credulously promoting Peters anti-vax movie, van de Graff then treats Peters as a financial expert, asking him his thoughts on the recent bank bailouts and frail financial system. Peters then tells viewers that the only answer is to invest in precious metals, physical gold, and physical silver, adding that they should turn to Goldco. (Notably, Peters previously cited Goldco for making our Died Suddenly film possible.)

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Since launching his podcast in 2020, Peters has drawn notoriety for his extreme and unhinged views, along with his unabashed racism, homophobia, and antisemitism. Speaking at white nationalist Nick Fuentes conference in 2022, for instance, Peters said that Americas enemy is Satan himself, who is flooding our schools with blood libel against white people and allowing an Islamic insurgency in Minneapolis.

Hes also regularly advocated for the execution of journalists, politicians, LGBTQ advocates, and anyone who has promoted the COVID-19 vaccines. Just recently, he aired a segment calling for Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce to be executed because of Kelces endorsement of Pfizers shot. The journos, anchors and hosts that participated should be indicted, tried and fried, he posted on Telegram in March, fuming about reporters whod promoted the vaccine.

Sinclair, the second-largest television operator in the United States, has long faced scrutiny for the conservative slant of its programming and news reporting. The broadcaster came under fire during the Trump administration for mandating its local stations to air must-run propaganda segments by Boris Epshteyn, a former Trump adviser who was hired by Sinclair as a political commentator. (The company eventually dropped Epshteyn in late 2019.)

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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CHamoru Land Trust Commission member Earl Garrido on Tuesday questioned whether letting the Guam Racing Federation reoccupy the now-vacated raceway property in Yigo is totally off the table.

The racing federation late last month asked Land Trust for an interim, two-year lease to keep the Guam International Raceway Park from falling into total disrepair.

But a letter from assistant attorney general Kristina Finney stated giving the federation a new lease outright was a no-go, and recommended the board put the propertys lease out to bid.

Garrido on Tuesday questioned the determination that a short-term lease, and asked whether Finney had reviewed the newest proposal from the federation.

The racing federation in February was evicted from the 250-acre raceway, a parcel of Land Trust land, over issues involving payment of rent, royalties, and an alleged illegal mining operation. But with a changeover in board members and an ongoing audit, new federation leadership says that they are committed to transparency.

I dont see where you have the authority again to go around or outside of what is provided for in the law about how you can lease out the property for commercial use, Finney told Garrido this week. We can continue to look at it  but just right off the top, theres not really any provision that lets you guys just lease out your property or license, your property or even on like on a short term basis.

While the racing federation by law got the right of first refusal on an up to 50-year lease for the raceway property back in 2018, federation leadership failed to finalize the lease within 180 days as required, Pacific Daily News files show.

Commercial usage of the raceway was supposed to go out for a competitive bid, but the federation, which had already occupied the property for over a decade at the time, continued to use the raceway on month-to-month lease extensions until they were evicted this year.

Acting Land Trust Administrator Joey Cruz told commissioners Tuesday that they plan to have a draft determination of need for the raceway propertys commercial use finalized within a few weeks.

But Garrido said he did not believe the full 50-year lease was needed.

Isnt the CLTC mandated that they can approve a lease or license up to 20 years? he asked Finney. The legislature gave us permission to go ahead and lease it out for 50 years, but maybe we dont need 50 years. And then we stay within our mandate, and we dont need to go to the legislature for them to tell us what to do and how to do it like they did initially with the raceway, he said.

Land Trust is allowed to designate its land for commercial use, for periods of up to 20 years. However, Public Law 33-95 generally requires that commercial leases must be bid on competitively, even if Land Trust gets unsolicited proposals for the development and commercialization of CLTC land.

Finney told Garrido that she did not have the relevant law in front of her during the meeting, and would do another review to see if there was any way a short-term lease could be ironed out.

She did, however, state that she believed the specific law governing the raceway land, Public Law 38-142, mandated that the property go out to bid.

The racing federation wants to renegotiate a 50-year lease on the raceway property while their short-term lease is in place.
Guam radiation survivors recently joined advocates from all over the nation on the steps of Congress to push for the federal government to compensate those who became sick from nuclear weapons testing and development.

Locals who have come down with cancer and other illnesses associated with nuclear fallout are closer than theyve ever been to getting compensation under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA.

The Senate earlier this year passed a version of the national defense budget that would make survivors on Guam and other states eligible for RECA, after having claims denied for decades.

President Joe Biden has also backed RECAs expansion, the Associated Press reports, leaving the House as the last hurdle to be cleared as members of Congress iron out the 2024 spending details.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who has been championing the expansion of RECA, called a rally in front of Congress to once again drive home the push for coverage to those who have been denied.

RECA provides payouts of up to $75,000 for radiation survivors, but Hawleys amendment would raise the cap to $150,000. Those who have a covered illness and were on Guam between 1946 and 1962 would be eligible.

Pacific Association of Radiation Survivors President Robert Celestial, who was in D.C. to lobby for inclusion for Guam in RECA, joined in, along with Guam Del. James Moylan.

The island of Guam was devastated for 1946 1962 and kept secret (until) 1994 through the Human Radiation Experiments Advisory Committee to President Clinton, Celestial told the gathered crowd.

While in the Army, Celestial said he had helped clean up fallout from 67 nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands back in 1977, and he had only been recognized by the government with an Atomic Veteran Service Certificate this year.

I really, truly believe that the house can pass this bill. They can and they should, he said. All the speeches I heard today, its compelling. Its compelling because people are dying and my people are dying.

He called Hawley the miracle man for having suddenly pushed forward a measure that he and other frontline advocates have been pushing for for 22 years.

Moylan, who is also a co-lead on separate, standalone legislation to include Guam in RECA, said getting survivors from the island is a priority for him.

Moylan, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said inclusion of RECA expansion in the national defense budget is welcome news to Guam, where many of my constituents deal with this adverse effect to the exposure of toxic radiation, an issue that is compounded by the need to fly off island, either to Hawaii or the Philippines to get the care that they so desperately need.

I look forward to working with the members appointed to the (National Defense Authorization Act) conference committee to pass this legislation and help ease the pains of those who have been exposed to toxic levels of radiation, Moylan said. We are very, very close to the finish line.
The Korean Association of Guam has donated eight different outdoor workout machines that residents can use during hours when the public park near the Tamuning mayors office is open.

The bolted down workout machines at Tatuha Park are estimated to cost $34,000 for purchase and installation.

Tamuning Vice Mayor Albert Toves said the equipment, officially turned over to the mayors office on Tuesday, are now public property and can be enjoyed by residents from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., while the park is open.

The variety of equipment allows local residents to target different muscle groups, including machines to stretch their upper and lower body, lift their bodyweight, or even relax their spine.

This is the final stage of a memorandum of agreement between Korean Association of Guam and Tamuning Mayor Louise Rivera for the donation.

Hong Soon Im, 31st chairman of the Korean Association of Guam, said the donation is an act of goodwill, to provide a better environment of fitness and freedom to the local community.

This is good for local residents health and happiness for a long life. Nothing is more important than that, Im said during the turnover ceremony. This is a great opportunity for residents all around Guam to come and hang out.

Im said he hopes this is a trailblazing effort for their next batch of leadership.

We are trying to do something for the local residents because they help provide benefits and favors to stay here on Guam, added Im. Businesses and other partners helped us provide scholarships and this equipment in honor of our 50th anniversary.

Im also said he wants to see how the public treats and uses the equipment in Tamuning before deciding to install similar sets in other parts of the island.

Im thinking about Dededo or Hagatna, but well wait and see the publics reaction, Im said. If they like it, then well work for additional donations to continue the process.

Rivera thanked the Korean Association of Guam for choosing to install the new equipment in Tamuning.

Were just blessed and grateful that they have decided to give back to the community here, said Rivera. This is for the entire island of Guam to enjoy. Were happy to allow people to use this for their well-being and fitness. It takes a whole island community to keep each other safe and healthy.

The Tamuning mayor added that this is the first time shes seen a donation of multiple fitness equipment for public use on Guam.

Ive never seen something like this, so I wish we can have it available everywhere, Rivera added. Some of these are only seen in gyms or private homes. Theres a lot of different exercise equipment that the people can avail of.

Toves said this can help bring people of all ages to exercise together.

This will bring families and young kids down here to get in shape. Maybe, this can help be an answer to the obesity problem on our island. This is a start, shared Toves.

Jason Davis, owner of Tribe Guam Fitness, came to check out the new equipment as a resident of Tamuning.

We do outdoor workouts, and since we started in Tamuning, this is great for the community, Davis said. This is a good spot to start with bodyweight exercises and cardio.

Davis said the donation sets are a starting point for future investments in outdoor equipment.

I think this is awesome because for years, I was thinking that Tamuning needs an outdoor exercise area. Im really excited to see what comes next for the island, he added.

Shipping delays and heavy weather moved the official turnover from September to Oct. 3.
UMS Heavy Equipment Rental & SK Logistics Inc. owner Sivalingam Siva Subramaniam leads the donation of 16 new air conditioning units to Oceanview Middle School. Also in photo are representatives from the school and Hagat Mayor Kevin Susuico.
The University of Guam is building stronger ties with the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Marianas with the aim to provide a pathway for UOG students to land internships and possibly employment with NAVFAC, according to a news release from UOG.

Eugene T. Mesa, NAVFAC Marianas chief engineer; Maria Garcia, NAVFAC Marianas Construction director; Jaylyn Valdez, NAVFAC Marianas HR specialist; and Kendra O. Finklea, NAVFAC Marianas HR director, recently met with UOG leadership on campus.

In that visit, they indicated that NAVFAC seeks to hire engineers, administrators, supervisors in various departments, archaeologists, communication specialists, construction managers, project managers, and IT professionals.

The University of Guam collaborates with industry stakeholders to cultivate a skilled workforce in Guam and across Micronesia, said UOG President Dr. Anita Borja Enriquez. Our goal is to establish additional opportunities for our students to engage in internships that will lead to job placements with NAVFAC and its private and federal partners.

NAVFAC Marianas supports Naval Base Guam, Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, and other Department of Defense activities in Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

It provides more than 400 jobs to civilians and military in Guam and the CNMI.

NAVFAC wants to collaborate with the University of Guam on talent acquisition, said Dr. Sharleen Santos-Bamba, interim senior vice president and provost for the University. UOG students and alumni have had a good impression on NAVFAC, she said.

She added, They expressed their desire to hire UOG graduates. The UOG graduates that they have on payroll and current students in their internship programs have proven to be well-educated, excellent contributors to their organization, and wonderful representatives of our institution.

She said UOG and NAVFAC have agreed to continue conversations and share information about the types of careers that NAVFAC has to offer, the positions that they will be announcing, and input on how to prepare our students for a variety of professions.

Dr. Nestor Guades, assistant professor for civil/structural engineering; Dean Lee Yudin; and Dr. Pamela Peralta, director for contracts and grants, also joined the university president in welcoming the visitors from NAVFAC.

We discussed the internship programs of NAVFAC for UOG School of Engineering students, said Guades.

UOG and its School of Engineering are seeking ABET accreditation that will boost the integrity of the program and its alumnis chances of getting solid engineering jobs.

NAVFAC Marianas acting HR Director Bharti Hemlani participated in a panel during the UOG presidents recent listening session with community stakeholders.

The listening session and others like it will help the university sharpen its Tulos Mona Strategic Plan. Tulos Mona is the universitys island-centric, collective effort to propel UOG forward under Enriquez.
September, recognized nationally as National Preparedness Month, has come to end, but does that mean our overall preparedness ends? Certainly not.

Hazards and threats come and go, both natural and manmade. Typhoon Mawar dealt us a hard blow in May, but despite the high potential for a very busy year, regional tropical cyclone activity has been anything but busy.

October is our climatological peak for tropical cyclone activity and we could still have another hit or a near miss, by a typhoon this year. On a larger scale, the wet phase of the ongoing El Nino will soon give way to the dry phase.

Guams rainfall totals for the year have been consistently above average, with a surplus reaching nearly 4 feet above normal just a couple months ago.

At this point, if we ceased to receive any additional rainfall for the remainder of the year, we would still end the year around a foot above normal (but likely with significant drought concerns if three months of no rain).

The point is, we should all be prepared at any time for disasters. Hazardous weather and seasonal variability come with some degree of lead-time for warning, but other disasters come without warning, such as earthquakes and manmade disasters.

This years NPM theme was Take Control in 1, 2, 3 and focused on preparing older adults for disasters, specifically older adults from communities that are disproportionately impacted by the all-hazard events that threaten the nation.

Older adults are more vulnerable during severe weather events due to a combination of physical, social, economic and health-related factors. Those who are also low income, have disabilities, are isolated or live in rural areas can face barriers in preparing for disasters. They may face difficulties evacuating and/or may struggle with the physical and emotional toll of rebuilding after a disaster.

FEMAs 3-Step Disaster Preparedness Guide for Older Adults can apply to everyone:

Step 1: Assess your needs: Know your risk. Then, understand your needs during emergencies.

Step 2: Make a plan: Develop a comprehensive emergency plan and emergency preparedness kit tailored to your unique needs.

Step 3: Engage your support network: Build a strong support network and include them in your emergency planning.

Visit Ready.gov for more information on disaster preparedness and the 3-Step Guide for Older Adults. Also, visit the Guam Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense at www.ghs.guam.gov for the latest news on preparedness, hazards, upcoming events; and quick links to programs, training, exercises, tips and resources for preparedness at work and at home.

Our Homeland Security partners just wrapped up a busy month of outreach activities, which ended with its Grand Finale event at the Agana Shopping Center last weekend. However, the efforts do not end on Sept. 30.

Tomorrow morning at 4:20 a.m. (ChST), FEMA, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission, will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System. The EAS is used by alerting authorities to send warnings via broadcast, cable, satellite and wireline communication pathways. Guam and the CNMI will receive the EAS message via television and radio. Neither the All Hazards Alert Warning System local sirens, nor the NOAA Weather Radio, will be a part of this nationwide test.

Later this month, Guam will participate in the annual international ShakeOut earthquake drill. That will take place on Oct. 19 at 10:19 a.m. Visit www.shakeout.org/guam to learn more about this annual drill and how to sign up your organization to join the 54,000 participants already registered on Guam, and more than 49 million registered worldwide!

Finally, visit us, your local National Weather Service office. Learn about our mission in the region and our day-to-day operations. Schedule a visit via the School Visit? Apply Here tab on www.weather.gov/guam. As always, stay up to date with all the latest weather conditions and forecasts across the region via our web page.
Lee Webber is the former publisher of the Pacific Daily News, Honolulu Advertiser, president of Gannett Pacific and Asia area manager for USA Today international.
Susan Hall made her comments at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

Susan Hall made her comments at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

The Tory candidate for London mayor has been accused of dog whistle politics after she claimed some Jewish voters are frightened of Sadiq Khan.

Susan Hall made her remarks at a Conservative Friends of Israel fringe event at the Tory Party conference in Manchester.

According to the New Statesman, she said: I live in North London and I know the wealth and joy of the [Jewish] community. But I tell you something else, I know how frightened some of the community is because of the divisive attitudes of Sadiq Khan.

One of the most important things we can do when I become mayor of London is make it safer for everybody, particularly for our Jewish community, so I will ask for as much help as I can in London because we need to defeat him, particularly for our Jewish community.

Hall was condemned by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which said Khan had treated our community with friendship and respect.

Throughout his tenure as Mayor,@SadiqKhan has treated our community with friendship & respect.



We hope to co-host the key Mayoral candidates at a 2024 Jewish hustings, where it will be clear that while London Jews may have varying political views, there is no fear present at all https://t.co/m7kWH0D4vb  Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) October 2, 2023

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said Halls comments were divisive and disgusting.

He said: Sadiq Khan has repeatedly stood by Londons Jewish communities in the fight against anti-semitism.

Susan Halls dog whistle politics have no place in London. Will decent Conservatives ever call this out?

Related...




Haiti - FLASH : The Security Council approves the intervention of a multinational force in Haiti





Monday October 2nd, 2023, the UN Security Council voted for resolution 2699 (13 votes in favor and 2 abstentions, China and Russia) which authorizes the sending to Haiti of a multinational force led by Kenya that the Prime Minister a.i. Ariel Henry and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres have been calling for almost a year. A Mission which aims to end the violence in Haiti and pave the way for the holding of elections.



This resolution also generalizes the embargo on small arms and ammunition to Haiti, which until now only applied to gang leaders targeted by the sanctions regime put in place in October 2022, and which formally did not concern that the former police officer Jimmy Cherizier, alias "Barbecue" Leader of the gang coalition "G9 family and allies" https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37919-haiti-un-barbecue-at-the-top-of-a-blacklist-vote-of-the-resolution-pending.html



The mission is also responsible for providing support to the Haitian National Police to ensure the security of critical infrastructure and transit locations such as the airport, ports, schools, hospitals and main intersection points. .



This resolution passed under chapter 7 means that the mission will be able, "to prevent loss of life", to use force in a "temporary and proportionate manner and on an exceptional basis..."



The resolution does not specify the composition of the mission, noting that the deployment schedule and the number of personnel will be developed by future participants with the Haitian government. According to a statement from Dominican President Louis Abinader, according to the information he has, the deployment of the first elements of this mission will begin at the beginning of November



This "multinational security support mission", non-UN, is created for "an initial period of 12 months", with a re-evaluation after 9 months.



Vasily Nebencia, Russia's Ambassador to the UN who abstained with China but did not veto it, explained that for now he had no objection in principle "against the mission".



However, in his speech he declared "[...] it must be understood that sending armed forces to another country, even at the request of that country, is an extreme measure which must be carefully analyzed" he indicated having requested more details on the operations, the modalities of employment of the forces under Chapter 7 and the withdrawal strategy, but that he had not obtained a response.



For his part, Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun reiterated that China has always remained cautious about authorizing the use of force in sovereign nations "[...] China deeply regrets the tragic situation in Haiti. We appreciate Kenya's willingness to help and improve the situation in Haiti. We have worked in consultations with other Council members to facilitate the deployment of the force at the multinational level. They focused on the use of Chapter 7, the use of force, faithful to the principle of sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs [...]"



Additionally, he repeatedly emphasized that "abuses" have occurred with the implementation of Chapter 7, which authorizes the use of force, but that due to the situation in Haiti and calls from others country, China has a "constructive position" regarding this resolution.



To be continued333



Also read about the possible international force led by Kenya :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40638-haiti-diplomacy-in-egypt-the-dominican-republic-and-kenya-discuss-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40627-haiti-flash-multinational-intervention-on-the-security-council-agenda-what-we-know-about-the-resolution.html

ttps://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40614-haiti-un-volker-turk-launches-an-appeal-for-a-multinational-mission-in-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40604-haiti-flash-12-countries-have-confirmed-their-participation-in-an-intervention-mission-in-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40598-haiti-security-kenyan-police-take-french-lessons.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40593-haiti-crisis-spain-reiterates-its-participation-in-a-multinational-intervention-mission-in-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40588-haiti-flash-the-united-states-and-kenya-sign-a-defense-agreement-before-possible-deployment-in-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40568-haiti-un-kenya-asks-world-not-to-leave-haiti-behind.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40566-haiti-un-high-level-meeting-on-the-establishment-of-a-multinational-intervention-mission.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40549-haiti-politic-haiti-and-kenya-establish-diplomatic-relations.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40361-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40333-haiti-pnh-pm-back-on-the-working-day-with-the-kenyan-delegation.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40315-haiti-flash-first-meetings-with-the-kenyan-delegation.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40269-haiti-flash-confirmation-of-american-commitment-in-support-of-the-intervention-in-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40201-haiti-crisis-why-kenya-have-the-support-of-the-usa-canada-and-france.html

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



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Security Council : Statement by American Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield





Following the favorable vote of the UN Security Council authorizing the intervention in Haiti of a multinational force supporting the Haitian National Police (PNH) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40642-haiti-flash-the-security-council-approves-the-intervention-of-a-multinational-force-in-haiti.html US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield to the UN declared :



"Today, the United Nations Security Council adopted an historic resolution (co-penned by the United States and Ecuador) to authorize a Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission for Haiti. The Haitian government and civil society, the UN, and other international partners have long called for this mission, which will provide critical international assistance for the Haitian National Police to address gang violence and pave the way toward long-term stability in Haiti.



The mission speaks to the UNs ability to galvanize collective action, but todays vote is only the first step  now, the work of getting the mission off the ground begins. The United States thanks Kenya for positively considering leading the mission and welcomes the pledges by Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Jamaica, and others for mission personnel.



The United States will continue to support the Haitian people in their time of need and is committed to surging assistance to the mission. We call on the international community to join us. We must act with urgency as the people of Haiti cannot and should not wait for the peace and stability they deserve."



See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-40643-icihaiti-intervention-in-haiti-reaction-of-pm-ai-henry.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40642-haiti-flash-the-security-council-approves-the-intervention-of-a-multinational-force-in-haiti.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Security Council : Statement by Maria Isabel Salvador, Head of BINUH





Following the favorable vote of the UN Security Council authorizing the intervention in Haiti of a non-UN multinational force, supporting the Haitian National Police (PNH) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40642-haiti-flash-the-security-council-approves-the-intervention-of-a-multinational-force-in-haiti.html Maria Isabel Salvador Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) declared :



"The Security Council just voted to approve the deployment of a Multinational Security Support mission in Haiti. This is a positive and decisive step to bring peace and stability to the country.



This decision comes after a request by the Haitian government and echoed by the Secretary-General, realizing that the country will not emerge from the current security situation without strong international support for the Haitian National Police.



It is important to emphasize that, unlike recent international missions deployed in Haiti, the MSS mission is not a UN mission.



Nevertheless, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) will fully support it, within the limits of its mandate, the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy and in full respect of the decisions of the Haitian State.



While awaiting the deployment of this Mission, for which dates remain to be set by the authorities of Haiti and the lead-country, BINUH will continue to engage closely with Haitian authorities  in particular in support to the police, the corrections and justice system, and the electoral process.



I continue to strongly encourage all political actors to demonstrate responsibility and a good faith in a spirit of compromise to find a way out of the current stalemate. Haiti is facing an emergency on multiple fronts: security humanitarian and socio-economic. Haitian political actors must rise to the occasion to address the challenges facing the country and its population."



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40644-haiti-security-council-statement-by-american-ambassador-linda-thomas-greenfield.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-40643-icihaiti-intervention-in-haiti-reaction-of-pm-ai-henry.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-40642-haiti-flash-the-security-council-approves-the-intervention-of-a-multinational-force-in-haiti.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















By William Schwartz | Published on 2023/10/02

It's been ten days since "Song of the Bandits" came out on Netflix, and it's safe to say the drama hasn't had much long-term impact. Official Netflix figures gave it 14.9 million views over its first three days. This was less than the 19.7 million views "A Time Called You" had in its third week. The data since then hasn't had much better- according to FlixPatrol, "Song of the Bandits" is currently only the number one drama in South Korea, and only charts in the top ten in seven other markets, most significantly as the number four serial drama in Nigeria.

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Why the shortfall? Well, for the same reason I'm cramming six whole episodes into a single review. "Song of the Bandits" is quite long, but has surprisingly little story to really justify the runtime. There's only really one major plot point- the mad dash by various factions to grab the railroad money. Every individual episode of "Song of the Bandits" is just a very drawn-out version of a single major scene and plot twist.

"Song of the Bandits" extends this narrative with character-based subplots, most notably with Eon-nyeon (played by Lee Ho-jung), the assassin who was supposed to kill Kim Nam-gil's character Yoon in the first episode but decided not to bother with it. Despite Lee Ho-jung's performance being quite good, oftentimes even better than Kim Nam-gil's, she struggles for relevance in the story. Extended flashbacks don't do much to help her character, who works best in the narrative as an unaligned wild card with ambiguous motivation.

But Hee-shin (played by Seohyun) is even more superfluous. I was a bit surprised to realize that by the end of the seventh episode, we still know almost nothing about her, and it takes a surprisingly long time for the script to even have Yoon and Hee-shin acknowledge their preexisting relationship. The backstory just isn't terribly interesting, except to the extent it affects how the main characters interpret the ongoing conflict.

All of this is to say that "Song of the Bandits" would work a lot better as a tightly edited movie, which is a criticism that can be made of a lot of Netflix projects and not just the Korean ones. To be fair, if you like Western style action with a lot of emphasis on antique guns, "Song of the Bandits" is still a fun enough time, which is why I've stuck around with it for this long. The drama's just a tough sell for a more mainstream audience is the issue with it.

Written by William Schwartz

___________

"Song of the Bandits" is directed by Hwang Joon-hyeok, Park Hyeon-seok, written by Han Jeong-hoon, and features Kim Nam-gil, Seohyun, Yoo Jae-myung, Lee Hyun-wook-I, Lee Ho-jung, Kim Do-yoon-I. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2023/09/22, Fri on Netflix.
Korean Drama | 2012

 Drama  Family  Romance

Directed by Kim Hyoung-seok ()

Written by Park Ji-eun ()

TV Channel/Platform: KBS (KBS)

Airing dates: 2012/02/25~2012/09/09

58 episodes - Sat, Sun 19:55

Previously known as "Unexpected You" on HanCinema

Synopsis

Now he has a family! Now she has in-laws! Grandmother-in-law, mother-in-law.. Thats not it. Three sisters-in-law! The whole package just rolls into her life!! Growing up, Hong Yunhui had suffered enough from family conflicts between her mother and her paternal grandmother! She doesnt want to get married so that she wouldnt have any in-laws to cause trouble. However, she meets the perfect match  A Korean-American adoptee currently working at a general hospital in Seoul! Hes smart and his family lives in New York. Isnt he the perfect bridegroom? It seemed like Yunhui could go on with happy honey moon life forever. However, fate isnt usually that kind. Her husband finds his biological family! Which means Yunhui now has in-laws. What is worse and unbelievable is that her in-laws are the next-door neighbors who pick fights with Yunhui all the time. Yunhuis life with in-laws starts like this. Every day is like a war. Living with enemies as one family.. Would it ever be possible?



[Program Aim]



A dramatic reversal in this drama occurs when, for the husband, his forgotten family and for the wife, her in-laws, comprising her husband's grandmother, parents-in-law and three sisters-in-law, appeared suddenly before them.

Hong Yun-hi, the wife and the protagonist in this drama, is a woman who had grown up in a family in tussles everyday due to conflicts between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

Before her wedding, she didn't want to marry as she did not want to have another family, the husband's family. At last she encountered a perfectly promising man who was adopted into a family of a Korean businessman in the U.S., graduated from Johns Hopkins University medical school and is now working at a general hospital in Seoul.

He is well-mannered, gentle and sweet and has a sense of humor. All her friends envied her for the smart man, saying that she had good fortune in her later days.

Furthermore, the husband's house is far off in New York and the parents-in-law, who brought five adopted sons in addition to the husband, are known to be on the journey in a remote area and hardly communicated with the family.

In such a condition, the couple could have a dreamlike honeymoon.

By a strange twist of a fate, however, an incident broke out. The husband's family has been found! Unbelievably, the husband's house is just in front of the wife's house. The next-door neighbors have always been in quarrels with her on problems involving waste disposal, parking and stairs cleaning.

It was quite exciting news to appear in the newspaper. (Actually several reporters came to the wife to have interviews, but the wife denied.)

The wife didn't always see eye to eye with the people, who are the husband's family and now her own family, on too many issues.

The husband's grandmother is fastidious, robust and suspicious, the mother-in-law meddlesome and the sister-in-laws have foul tempers.

She doesn't want to live like her mother, but she now may have to go through a more hard life than her mother. She regretted she did not stop her husband from moving to this village shortly after their wedding.

However, looking at the sleeping husband, who has been living for more than 30 years without knowing even the faces of his biological parents, she feels compassion for him and changes her mind.

But the life with the husband's parents and in-laws is wearisome.

This program features raucous and cheerful stories about an unordinary and peculiar family-making of a couple.

Source
Sustainability Forum Middle East (SFME) has announced Bank ABC as a Lead Partner for its upcoming second edition set for January 9, 2024 in Bahrain.

This years Forum, promoting regional decarbonation, will focus on Achieving Net Zero  Pathways to Accelerating Implementation.

As a Lead Partner, the bank will contribute to setting the Forums annual calendar of decarbonisation-focused events as well as the agenda for the second edition, where more than 500 decision makers from across sectors and regional and international sustainability experts are once again expected.

Ian McCallum, Chief Sustainability Officer at Bank ABC, will also join the Forums Advisory Committee alongside other senior sustainability leaders from the region.

Strategic priority

ABC Group CEO, Sael Al Waary, said: Sustainability is a strategic priority for Bank ABC as it ensures that we remain fit for purpose and can adapt to a rapidly changing world. Embedding sustainability across our business and operations is not only a source of value creation for our stakeholders but also empowers our clients, employees and communities to drive the transition towards an inclusive and sustainable economy. The partnership with Sustainability Forum Middle East provides Bank ABC with a strong platform to lead the conversation around this critical issue beyond our group.

Zahraa Taher, Managing Director of FinMark Communications, the Forums founder and organiser, said: With a strong commitment to ESG and funding the transition to net zero, the banks vision for a low-carbon future is well aligned with that of the Forum and our efforts to drive climate action on the part of the private sector. We look forward to working together to mobilise businesses to engage and collaborate and to showcasing Bank ABCs insights, strategies, and experiences to help peers and companies progress their own decarbonisation journeys.-- TradeArabia News Service
The United Nations Security Council approved Monday a one-year deployment of a multinational armed force to Haiti to be led by Kenya, nearly a year after the crisis-ridden country appealed to the international community for help to put down the violent gangs that have taken over larger parts of the country.

The vote on Res. 2699 came four days shy of one year since the Haitian government first requested an international military intervention on Oct. 6, 2022. Thirteen of the nations on the 15-member council voted for it, while two countries, China and the Russian Federation, abstained. The ambassadors from both countries said that they understand the scale and the urgency of the security problems facing the country, but believe the resolution falls short of a comprehensive approach to dealing with the multiple crises in Haiti.

Supporters of the resolution said they were responding to a clarion call for help from 12 million people who for too long have been held hostage to armed gangs that kidnap, rape and kill.

More than just a simple vote, this is in fact an expression of solidarity with a population in distress, Haitis Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus said, thanking the council and the government of Kenya for offering to take the lead. Its a glimmer of hope.

The Security Council, he added, has given hope to the millions of defenseless women, men and children who need the restoration of liberty, peace and security, and who have for a long time been calling out to the international community for help.

The vote was a significant victory for the Biden administration, which after failing to get Canada to take a leadership role succeeded in securing the approval of the security council. It is also a win for U.N. Secretary General-Secretary General Antonio Guterres who, recognizing past issues with peacekeeping operations in Haiti, proposed deploying a force under a Security Council mandate  but not led by the U.N itself  and visited the Caribbean in July to lobby reluctant leaders for their support.

Story continues

The mission speaks to the U.N.s ability to galvanize collective action, but todays vote is only the first step. Now, the work of getting the mission off the ground begins, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said in a statement. We must act with urgency, as the people of Haiti cannot and should not wait for the peace and stability they deserve.

Thomas-Greenfield thanked Kenya for stepping forward and welcomed the pledges by the ountries, including several Caribbean nations, that have committed to send personnel to Haiti as part of the mission.

The Multinational Security Support Mission will not technically be a U.N. mission, meaning member countries are not obligated to contribute toward its cost. According to the resolution, the force would be funded by voluntarily contributions from countries, and authorization would initially be for a year, with a review after nine months.

Senior U.S. administration officials say the U.S. is committed to the missions success and will work with other countries to identify sufficient equipment, personnel and resources. They have declined to say publicly how much the mission is expected to cost, other than the U.S. plans to provide an initial $200 million in funding. Half that will come from the Defense Department.

Many of us have stepped up to do as much as we can bilaterally, a senior administration official said Monday ahead of the vote. But Haiti needs a more ambitious, holistic and concerted effort from partners all over the world and for new partners to step forward to help in this critical moment in Haitis history.

The U.N. resolution was authored by the U.S. and Ecuador with input from Kenya, which in late July said it would consider deploying 1,000 of its police officers to Haiti for the operation.

This is the first time since the U.N. deployed a stabilization mission to Haiti in 2004 that the Security Council has approved a foreign intervention in the Caribbean country, which has seen an escalation in armed gang violence and kidnappings since the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Then a strong earthquake hit shortly after.

Both events, U.S. officials said, erased decades of progress in rebuilding stability and governance in Haiti.

The U.S. pushed for the resolution behind the scene for months, with President Joe Biden calling for its swift passage in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly in September. U.S. officials were concerned that China and Russia would veto it up until the moment of the vote. Late Friday, after a draft of the resolution circulated among members of the Security Council, China asked for stronger language, requiring member countries to do more to halt the illicit trafficking of arms into Haiti. A deal was finally reached with Washington over the weekend.

Still, both nations withheld their approval, raising concerns about allowing the use of force in a mission not led by the U.N. in a country lacking an accountable government.

It must be understood that sending the armed forces in another state to any country, even upon its request, is an extreme measure that must be thoroughly thought through, Russias U.N representative, Vassily Nebenzia, said.

Added Chinas representative, Zhang Jun: Without a legitimate, effective and accountable government in place, any external support can hardly have any lasting effects.

The approval of the mission is not only a significant milestone, U.S. officials said, it builds on the work of the councils decision last October to set up a sanctions program to punish Haitians helping fuel the widespread gang violence and destabilizing the country.

The Security Council has two more meetings scheduled on Haiti: One on the Oct. 19th to adopt additional sanctions, and another on Oct. 23 for a regular briefing and consultations on the work of the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti. Guterres is seeking additional support for the office so that it can assist the mission by helping Haiti address some of the root causes of its instability: a dysfunctional judiciary, overcrowded prisons, corruption and a weak police force.

Mondays vote is only the first step, the U.S. official said, recognizing that much work remains including hashing out rules of engagement, how forces will communicate and how they will work with the Haitian police.

The mission, which is now expected to include military troops as well as police, will involve securing key government installations in Haiti such as the seaport and airport, but also support to Haitis ill-equipped and underfunded police force on operations to counter gangs and improve security conditions in the volatile country.

The United Nations Security Council.

The security mission would also work to help build the capacity of Haitis police, which according to Guterres is dealing with a staggering loss of officers. In the first half of this year, nearly 800 cops left the force, which continues to struggle to maintain security gains after taking back neighborhoods from gang control. The U.N. political office in Haiti has said while the force has a payroll of less than 15,000 officers, there are only 3,300 cops actually on duty at any time throughout the country of 12 million people.

Mondays vote came after weeks of consultations and heavy behind-the-scenes lobbying by the U.S., which has grown increasingly worried about a mass exodus of Haitians and a complete takeover of the country by gangs, which now control at least 80% of the capital.

There were questions about the nature of the mission and its duration in Haiti, which hasnt had national elections since 2016, when Moise came to power, and today finds itself in a constitutional crisis with no parliament or elected leaders.

The exit strategy goes through elections, Brian Nichols, assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, said ahead of the vote as the U.S. appealed to countries to pledge support for the mission.

Other countries also raised concerns about the lack of a political agreement to move toward elections in Haiti. The U.N. resolution stresses that addressing the root causes of instability in Haiti requires political solutions, and emphasizes the urgent need to encourage wider participation and forge the broadest possible consensus in the political process to schedule elections once the gangs are dealt with.

During the discussions after the vote, a number of countries called on Haitian authorities to work harder at reaching a political consensus leading to elections, recognizing that while stabilizing the security mission will bring some relief, it will not resolve all of the issues facing Haiti.

It must be clear, in any event, that it is up to Haitians to forge their own path. Without a Haitian political solution based on free, fair, transparent elections, no security assistance, no humanitarian aid or development aid will guarantee lasting success, Brazils U.N. ambassador, Sergio Franca Danese, said.

Ahead of the security councils vote, the U.S. State Department stressed that the multinational mission is not a substitute for the political dialogue needed to move toward elections.

Residents flee their homes to escape clashes between armed gangs in the Carrefour-Feuilles district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023.

This additional security support for Haiti goes hand in hand with the work that Prime Minister [Ariel] Henry is leading to forge a national consensus on a political path forward, Victoria Nuland, acting deputy secretary of state, said in a press conference on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly last month.

The U.S. has repeatedly said that Henry, a neurosurgeon who was handpicked by Moise ahead of his death to be his seventh prime minister and lead Haiti to long overdue elections, would not run for office  and neither would any members of his cabinet.

U.S. officials said that while several countries have expressed support for fielding the mission, many said strong U.N. Security Council backing was necessary first.The Miami Herald has identified at least a dozen countries that have pledged to support the mission with personnel, equipment or funding. They include Italy, Spain, Mongolia, Senegal, Belize, Suriname, Guatemala and Peru. The Caribbean nations of Jamaica, The Bahamas, and Antigua and Barbuda had previously announced their intent to take part in the mission.

Though no particular countries came forward with specific pledges during Mondays discussions, both Japan and Brazil expressed support for the mission.

READ MORE: Here are the countries offering to help Kenya take on deadly gangs in Haiti

During discussions in New York last month, Blinken appealed to the international community to pledge support and said the administration is working on securing $100 million from Congress to help finance the mission. U.S. officials say they plan to intensify their efforts after the vote to get more contributions from other countries.

There are still many unanswered questions about the international intervention, including the ability of the U.S. to get countries to finance the mission with voluntary contributions when they have so far struggled to raise $28 million for a Haitian police fund, and the missions ability to succeed against ruthless gangs.

Critics have raised questions about Kenyas ability to take on gangs and the forces effectiveness given the countrys poor human-rights record in the past. The resolution says that all personnel deployed for the mission must be vetted and any allegations of human-rights abused must be quickly investigated.

Member states participating in the security mission will also be asked to adopt appropriate wastewater management and other environmental controls to guard against the introduction and spread of water-borne diseases like cholera, which was introduced during the last U.N. intervention by Nepalese peacekeepers.

People are right to be skeptical because other emissions have failed before, Kenyas foreign minister, Alfred Mutua told the BBC in an interview before the vote. But those are U.N. peacekeeping missions. This is a different mission.
The spectacle, while mesmerizing, was delayed by persistent headwinds and rainfall which inhibited their journey for a longer period than usual.

On the 2nd of October 2023 , an enchanting avian spectacle unfolded in the skies of Eastern Finland as over half a million Barnacle Geese (Valkoposkihanhia) initiated their principal migration, heralding the approach of the harsh Nordic winter.

Eventually, with the moderation of weather conditions, the geese, originating both from Arctic breeding areas and local habitats in North Karelia, embarked on their remarkable journey southwards.

The scene near the Raakkyla Church on the specified date was especially vivid, captured elegantly by photographer Jari Kontiokorpi. Onlookers witnessed gargantuan flocks seamlessly glide across the firmament, merging with local and even thousands of Bean Geese (sepelhanhia) along their path.

Notably, over 200,000 geese were documented in specific daily counts at Raakkylas Oravilahti and Savonlinnas Puruvesi, with the majority identified as Barnacle Geese. Additionally, substantial numbers were observed at Kitees Kyyronniemi, Kontiolahti, and Tohmajarvis Nikunvaara, wherein approximately 174,000 and 53,000 migrating geese were recorded, respectively.

Before the main migratory event, local congregations of geese had reached their peak not only in central and northern parts of North Karelia but also in various regions of Finland. For instance, approximately 30,000 geese were recorded at Liperis Siikakoski on September 30th, 2023, according to BirdLife Finland's Tiira bird information service.

Moreover, geese adorned with GPS transmitters provided fascinating data on their migratory patterns. On the morning of 3rd October 2023, six geese, five of which were in the area stretching from Liperi to Nurmes in North Karelia, and one in Joroinen in North Savo, were tracked within Finland. In contrast, nine were located in Russia, with some potentially having already migrated into Finnish territories. Remarkably, the fastest among them has already reached its wintering area in Germany.

The migration movement is meticulously monitored by North Karelias ELY-Centre and BirdLife Finland, employing not only the Tiira bird information service and weather migration forecasts by the Finnish Meteorological Institute but also location services for GPS-tagged geese from the University of Turku and the Natural Resources Institute Finland.

Jarmo Koistinen, a researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, provided insights into the weather conditions impacting the migration. The change in the major weather pattern last weekend ended the warm southwest flow in Finland, shifting low-pressure tracks from the Arctic Ocean southwards. Once the long-lasting headwind ceased, the geese migration truly sprung to life. With more northerly, cool air streams or low-wind, clear days forecasted for the upcoming week and weekend, it seems the primary time for goose migration is upon us.

It is estimated that over half of the over one million-strong Barnacle Geese population is already on the move. Whether this number traverses Finland entirely, or local populations remain will be clarified through observations throughout the week.

This majestic movement of the Barnacle Geese, a phenomenon indicating not only the cyclicality of nature but also the intrinsic interconnectedness of climatic patterns, and animal behavior, reiterates the richness and vulnerability of our global ecosystems.

Finlands skies will now bear witness to fewer of these winged voyagers until spring breathes warmth back into the northern hemisphere, beckoning their return.

Further readings and related links:

HT
Finnish Customs has reported a significant drop in the illegal importation of snus (oral smokeless tobacco) during the period from January to September this year. Approximately 700 kilograms of snus were confiscated during this timeframe, compared to the 3,500 kilograms seized during the same period last year. This drastic change in seizure statistics occurred in the spring, coinciding with the lifting of the ban on importing nicotine pouches.

The Customs seizures of snus have notably decreased over the past year. While the surveillance measures remain as comprehensive as before, instances of smuggling have decreased.

"Last year, we uncovered several major cases of snus smuggling, which, of course, are reflected in the overall statistics. Looking at the figures for January to September this year, the change compared to the previous year is significant. The snus confiscations made by Customs have decreased considerably this year," stated Hannu Sinkkonen, Director of Surveillance.

"In terms of timing, it can be said that the reduction in snus seizures occurred simultaneously with the liberalization of nicotine pouch sales," added Sinkkonen.

The ban on importing nicotine pouches was lifted in April 2023.

Contrary to popular belief, significant smuggling activities do not primarily occur in regions like Tornio and other areas near the Swedish border. Residents in proximity to the Swedish border rarely engage in snus smuggling since they can legally acquire a certain quantity for personal use. Instead, smuggling cases often involve the distribution of snus to other parts of Finland.

"From Tornio's perspective, it appears that only professional operators remain involved in snus smuggling. On the other hand, occasional entrepreneurs have declined," reported Tuomo Kunnari, Head of the Tornio Investigation Unit.

Most cases related to the illegal importation of snus are investigated south of the Vaasa-Jyvaskyla-Kuopio axis. The most common smuggling route for snus still runs through the land border between Sweden and Finland, reaching users in various parts of the country. In addition to the western border, another significant smuggling route involves maritime traffic, transporting snus to Southern Finland. Some snus even makes its way to Finland via Central Europe. Smuggling activities also exploit commercial freight routes.

The decrease in snus seizures suggests a potential shift in consumer behavior following the availability of nicotine pouches in the market. However, authorities remain vigilant, ensuring that all tobacco products, including snus, are regulated and monitored effectively to prevent illegal activities and protect public health.

HT
Chitkara University's Global Online MBA: Your Passport to Exploring the World

Chandigarh [India] Published : October 2, 2023



In an age where the world is rapidly evolving, marked by the convergence of creativity and technology, Chitkara University has emerged as a hub for innovative thinkers and aspiring visionaries. As the marketing landscape undergoes transformative changes propelled by social media, online content, and e-commerce, the demand for adept leaders who can seamlessly integrate marketing strategy with the ever-evolving digital realm has never been greater. Chitkara University acknowledges the need to equip its students with the insights necessary to navigate the scientific, ethical, and societal challenges posed by these innovations.



Chitkara Universitys UGC entitled 2-yearOnline MBA programin International Business with Global Immersion Tracks is a rewarding educational experience that combines the flexibility of online learning with hands-on international exposure. Consistently ranked among the top Universities in India, the academic rigour along with regular interaction with professionals from the industry ensures that the scholars are guided to harness their potential with intensive curriculum and visionary faculty. It equips the students to master industry-relevant skills to respond to customer expectations, develop strategies to place their companies at the forefront of their sectors and propel their career in the digital marketing domain.



The online streamlined MBA curriculum at Chitkara University, which has been endorsed by CXOs of top Digital Brands, gives the freedom of flexibility to earn a world-class UGC entitled MBA which is designed to fit into ones business schedule and aligns well with ones career aspirations. The curriculum is based on the framework of strategic competitiveness, which teaches the concepts of creativity, entrepreneurship, innovation, sustainability, leadership and decision making.



This program caters to a diverse audience, including working professionals, aspiring entrepreneurs, career switchers, and recent graduates allowing students to specialise in Marketing, Finance, Business Analytics, or HR, all while building a robust foundation in global business concepts. Moreover, Chitkara University maintains close links and associations with leading blue-chip companies to deliver the academic program and ensures that the courses are relevant, practical and deliver the skills in demand.



This MBA programs unique feature is the 1-week Global Immersion Track offered each semester in Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and Kuala Lampur, providing students with an opportunity to apply the theoretical knowledge in practical international business settings. This dual approach of online learning and global experiences will equip graduates with a competitive edge in the dynamic global business arena. As a part of this Global Immersion Track, one will reside on campus in a university setting for five days, receive instructions from globally renowned professors and thus, enrich the learning experience.



This program marks a departure from traditional education, offering a distinctive educational journey. With direct mentorship from industry experts, students undergo a significant transformation, emerging as effective leaders. They cultivate a cross-border network of relationships that serves as a lifelong resource, providing access to opportunities, mentorship, and a wealth of global possibilities.



Throughout its illustrious journey of providing an exceptional educational experience designed to help students explore their potential, Chitkara University has achieved numerous milestones including the prestigious ranking of A+ by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), which places it among the 5 per cent of higher education institutions (HEIs) in India to be granted such a coveted grade. It is also the first university in India to have been awarded the coveted Platinum rating by QS I-GAUGE, a comprehensive and independent rating system for Indias universities and colleges.



Through the establishment Chitkara University Research and Innovation Network (CURIN), Chitkara University has been at the forefront of groundbreaking research and innovation. Various projects have been launched that encourage diverse learning by fostering creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship through pedagogy and vision. The Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development (CEED) is engaged with more than 155 start-ups and students are encouraged to dive in the world of research and accelerate entrepreneurial talent. The idea is to encourage innovation, by providing tools and an office space where the students can brainstorm and work on novel ideas.



Chitkara University, situated near Chandigarh, has emerged as the most vibrant and high-ranking University in North India. It is ranked among the top 5 per cent of higher education institutions in India. The University is awarded NAAC A+ accreditation and has also been ranked by NIRF (National Institute Ranking Framework).



The University offers courses in Engineering and Technology, Business Management, Planning; Architecture, Art & Design, Mass Communication, Sales and Marketing, Hospitality Management, Pharmacy, Health Sciences, Law, Psychology, and Education. Students studying at Chitkara get the best start-up support, world-class research excellence, and many internationally renowned opportunities.



For more information, please visit:www.chitkara.edu.in.



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Julian Assange , a name that has become synonymous with a decade-long struggle for freedom of information, endures another day within the bleak walls of Belmarsh Prison, notoriously dubbed the UKs Guantanamo Bay due to its stringent, high-security measures and, arguably, inhumane conditions. A beacon of truth to some and a peril to state secrets for others, Assange continues to navigate the precarious waters between journalistic freedom and alleged crimes against national security.

On a somber Saturday, he received a visit from Yanis Varoufakis, DiEM25 co-founder, alongside Roger Waters and his wife Stella, that has brought his plight back into the limelight.

Yanis Varoufakis, no stranger to controversy himself with his anti-austerity stance and bold economic ideologies, has been an ardent supporter of Assange. The visit, lasting approximately two hours, provided a transient window into Assanges current state, both physical and psychological. According to Varoufakis, Assange conveys a starkly deteriorating condition, holding onto the remnants of his self, preparing to rebuild "Julian" once his days behind bars come to an end.

Unwavering Spirit Amidst Unyielding Walls

Belmarsh Prison, known for its strict, arguably torturous conditions, has been Assanges unwilling residence since April 2019, wherein, he has experienced solitary confinement for 23 out of 24 hours on numerous days, sharply drawing the ire of human rights organizations worldwide. The United Nations has not only condemned the conditions of his detainment but has also asserted that they amount to torture, thereby urging his release since 2020.

Despite never having been formally convicted, nor properly prosecuted, Assanges treatment and continued detention in such harsh conditions stand out as a flagrant human rights violation in the eyes of numerous international onlookers. But why does he find himself in such dire straits? It all boils down to his audacious act of publishing material that showcased the harrowing realities of the US militarys actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Assange: The Thorn in the Side of Governments

Julian Assange, through his brainchild WikiLeaks, provided a platform that leaked classified government documents, exposing various global misdeeds and particularly, showcasing alleged war crimes perpetrated by the United States military. His relentless pursuit of transparency, revealing uncomfortable truths, earned him both acclaim and vehement opposition, subsequently becoming the fulcrum on which debates about freedom of information and national security are balanced.

Suffering for the Sake of Truth

Assanges persisting predicament brings forth poignant questions regarding the lengths to which governments will go to preserve their secrets and the moral imperative that falls upon whistleblowers and journalists to reveal truths. The toll on Assange, both mentally and physically, is ostensibly part of a broader strategy by the US and British authorities to obliterate him in all respects, signaling a dire warning to other potential whistleblowers.

An Undying Flame of Advocacy

Despite the squalid circumstances, Assanges influence permeates far beyond the confinements of his cell. His plight continues to inspire discussions about journalistic ethics, freedom of information, and governmental transparency. Visits like those from Varoufakis not only shed light on Assanges condition but also serve to reignite the debates surrounding the power dynamics between governments and the media. These moments, however fleeting, keep the embers of advocacy alight, maintaining a spotlight on the deeper-seated issues that Assange's situation embodies.

As Julian Assange battles against the abyss of despair in Belmarsh, his situation persistently serves as a stark reminder of the potentially perilous path trodden by those who dare to reveal the veiled misdeeds of the powerful. His existence, teetering on the edge of erasure, yet clinging stubbornly to a future where he may once again be Julian, underpins the enduring conflict between the safeguarding of sensitive information and the imperative to uphold moral and ethical transparency.

In a world where information is power, Assanges ordeal will continue to spark debates, evoke questions, and inspire movements, keeping the intricate dance between journalism and governance precariously alive in the global conscience.

HT
New Delhi, 3rd October, 2023  The Russian Education Fair in India, a landmark event held from September 29th to 30th, witnessed a grand inauguration by Mr. Pavel Anatolyevich Shevtsov, the Deputy Head of the Russian Federal Agency for Humanitarian Cooperation Rossotrudnichestvo. His esteemed presence marked the commencement of an event designed to strengthen educational bonds between India and Russia.

The fair commenced with a significant announcement by Mr. Oleg Osipov, the Director of Russian House in New Delhi. He unveiled an exceptional opportunity  100% scholarship seats across various disciplines in government universities of Russia for the academic session 2024-25. This groundbreaking initiative opens doors wide for Indian students to pursue high-quality education in Russia, reinforcing the commitment to academic excellence.

In addressing the Indian media, Deputy Head Mr. Pavel Anatolyevich Shevtsov expressed his profound delight at the overwhelming response from Indian students. He emphasized Russias status as a safe destination for education, and at present there are around 30000 Indian students studying in Russia. His warm welcome extended to Indian students resonated with the audience, encouraging them to explore the abundant educational opportunities in Russia.

The conference bore witness to enthusiastic participation from distinguished representatives of renowned Russian Government medical universities.

As an integral part of the fair, a round table conference was organized jointly by Rus Education and Russian House in New Delhi to enhance educational ties between India and Russia. The conference was inaugurated by the Deputy Governor of the St. Petersburg region, alongside a high-level delegation from the tourism and education sectors. This distinguished presence from Russia underscored the significance of the event in fostering collaboration.

The conference bore witness to enthusiastic participation from distinguished representatives of renowned Russian Government medical universities, including Orenburg State Medical University, Tula State University, St. Petersburg University, Southern Federal University, Russian University of Economics named after G.V. Plekhanov, St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Sevastopol State University, Mari State University, Perm State Medical University, and Pskov State University.

Equally enthusiastic were the leading medical colleges and institutes from the Indian diaspora, including Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Northcap University, Gurugram, Jawaharlal Nehru University, SGT University, Sharda University, Al Falah University Dhoud, Jamia Islamia University, and IIT Delhi. Their participation signaled a shared commitment to strengthening educational bonds.

In a remarkable turn, Indian and Russian universities expressed keen interest in fostering collaboration and facilitating faculty and student exchange programs. This mutual aspiration holds the promise of enriching the academic landscape of both nations, further solidifying their educational partnership.

The Russian Education Fair in India, New Delhi, stands as a testament to the enduring educational collaboration between India and Russia, offering Indian students an exceptional avenue for pursuing their educational dreams. The high-level conference and collaborative aspirations unveiled during the fair signal a brighter future of shared knowledge and growth.

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.

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Elon Musk was ordered by a U.S. judge to face most of a lawsuit claiming he defrauded former Twitter shareholders last year by waiting too long to disclose that he had invested in the social media company, which he later bought and renamed X. Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X,(REUTERS)

In a decision made public on Monday, U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter said shareholders in the proposed class action could try to prove that Musk intended to defraud them by waiting 11 days past a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission deadline to reveal he had bought 5% of Twitter's shares.

The judge in Manhattan also dismissed an insider trading claim against Musk, the world's richest person.

Lawyers for Musk did not immediately respond on Tuesday to requests for comment.

Shareholders led by an Oklahoma firefighters pension fund said Musk saved more than $200 million by adding to his Twitter stake, and quietly talking with its executives about his plans, before finally disclosing a 9.2% stake in April 2022.

The shareholders also said they sold Twitter shares at artificially low prices because Musk hid what he was doing.

Musk's lawyers argued that their client was "one of the busiest people on the planet," and that any disclosure failure was "inadvertent."

Carter said he could not infer that Musk was "too busy" to comply with SEC rules if he could find time to buy Twitter shares, meet with company executives, and post online about Twitter.

He also found evidence that Musk understood the 5% disclosure rule, including that he had testified about it under oath, and had properly disclosed stakes in his electric car maker Tesla and the former SolarCity at least 20 times.

Katie Sinderson, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, declined to comment.

Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October.

Under the SEC rule, investors have 10 days to disclose when they have acquired 5% of a company.

Twitter shares rose 27% on April 4, 2022, to $49.97 from $39.31, after Musk revealed his 9.2% stake. Musk's takeover valued Twitter at $54.20 per share.

The case is Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System v. Musk et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-03026.

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Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Sunday shared a post on social media site X on comedian Trevor Noah's cancelled show in Karnataka capital Bengaluru, taking a dig at the city's crumbling infrastructure. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw: Businesswoman, founder and chairperson of Biocon Limited.

Mazumdar-Shaw cited a video of the comedian talking about Bengaluru in a recent event and said the city has provided him with enough content to talk about in his future shows. She also tagged the Joint Commissioner of Police for Traffic, Bengaluru, BBMP Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar, saying that we have nothing left to hope for if this does not wake up the administration.

ALSO READ | Trevor Noah jokes about his cancelled Bengaluru show: The room wasnt designed for human beings'

Bangalores shambolic state has provided enough content for Trevor Noahs future shows. If this does not wake up the administration then we have nothing left to hope for @Jointcptraffic @BBMPCOMM @CMofKarnataka @DKShivakumar, she posted.

The billionaire-entrepreneur has been verbose about Bengaluru's infrastructure and mobility issues several times in the past, having been part of a number of online discussions on road repair issues, potholes and waterlogging in the city. She had suggested American Road Patch, a patented technology, to repair Bengaluru's roads, and questioned officials including those from BBMP and BDA on why they are not punished for permitting encroachments that lead to severe waterlogging every monsoon season.

ALSO READ | Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Mohandas Pai react to Bengaluru students' traffic nightmare

ALSO READ | No one seems to care: Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Bengaluru's Hosur road

Trevor Noah cancelled his Bengaluru shows. Here's why

Trevor Noah, known for having hosted The Daily Show, was scheduled to perform in Bengaluru on September 27 and 28. However, owing to issues related to sound and venue, he cancelled them last minute, apologising to fans in a social media post. He promised to also refund the patrons for tickets.

"Dear Bengalaru India, I was so looking forward to performing in your amazing city but due to technical issues weve been forced to cancel both shows. We tried everything but because the audience cant hear the comedians on stage theres literally no way to do a show. Well make sure all ticket holders receive a full refund and again Im so sorry for both the inconvenience and disappointment this has never happened to us before," he posted.

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Amid disgruntlement within the JD(S) over joining hands with the BJP in Karnataka, senior leader H D Kumaraswamy said that the party meeting held on Sunday has unanimously given its approval to the leadership's decision on the alliance. The former chief minister today held a meeting with party legislators, former legislators, former ministers, district presidents and leaders at his Bidadi farm house near here, amid fissures becoming apparent in the past few days. Bengaluru: JDS leader and former CM HD Kumaraswamy. (PTI)

"Today, everyone has openly and unanimously given their approval to the decision on alliance (with the BJP). I want to make it clear to the people of the state that the alliance is being done in the state, and not for the sake of any power or position," Kumaraswamy said after the meeting. Speaking to reporters here, he said, "Let any one criticise our party in any way they want, ultimately time will decide on the response for it. I have decided not to react to any of those criticisms hereon, as there is no need for it."

READ | Many JD(S) leaders to be inducted into Congress in mega convention: Karnataka Min Zameer Ahmed Khan

According to party sources, JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda too spoke to many party leaders, even personally, regarding the need for the alliance. Stating that one of the intentions behind the alliance is to protect the interest of the state, Kumaraswamy said that he wants the alliance to win all 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, whereby a permanent solution can be found to problems with several irrigation projects and long standing issues concerning Karnataka.

Responding to a question on the Congress trying to lure the JD(S)'s disgruntled leaders following its alliance with the BJP, he said all leaders and legislators are united with the party and there is no question of anyone going out. "They (Congress) are now knocking the door of some former legislators...let them, I'm not bothered. My aim is to organise and strengthen the party, and to protect the interest of the state," he added.

Earlier, speaking at the meeting, Kumaraswamy also appealed to the Muslim community not to heed to the "false propaganda" of the Congress against his party, following its alliance with the BJP. "Our party's commitment is to protect the interests of the 6.5 crore people of this state. I don't want to appease a community just for the sake of votes. Muslims should understand our commitment for their cause," he said.

READ | JD(S) holds meeting amid rumblings over BJP tie-up

The JD(S) leadership on September 22 had announced its decision to ally with the BJP following a meeting between Kumaraswamy and Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national President J P Nadda in New Delhi. However, both parties are yet to decide on the seat sharing arrangement for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Several senior Muslim leaders of the JD(S), including former minister N M Nabi, have decided to resign in protest against the party's decision to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

JD(S) state President C M Ibrahim too has expressed his dissatisfaction over alliance with the BJP, stating that he was not consulted, and that he would decide in the days to come on his future course of action. Ibrahim, a former union minister, who has not been attending party meetings for the last few days, did not take part in today's meeting too. He had joined the JD(S) last year, after quitting the Congress and from the MLC post.

When questioned about Ibrahim, Kumaraswamy merely said, "Let's talk about it later....." H D Deve Gowda last week defending the decision of allying with the the BJP, stating that it was aimed at saving the party, while assuring that he and his political outfit would stick to its secular credentials and never let minorities down. Congress has been attacking the JD(S), questioning its secular credentials following its alliance with the BJP.

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The Haryana government has decided to provide monthly financial assistance of 2,750 to patients afflicted by 55 rare diseases, including muscular dystrophy. They will also be included in Chirayu Yojana by providing relaxation in the family income limit. The Haryana government has decided to provide monthly financial assistance of  2,750 to patients afflicted by 55 rare diseases, including muscular dystrophy. (Shutterstock)

This was stated by director general, health services, Dr Sonia Trikha Khullar in a meeting held with the officials of Muscular Dystrophy Victims Family Association on Tuesday.

Dr Khullar said that the registration of patients suffering from rare diseases is being done by the health department while the monthly financial assistance will be provided by the SEWA department. Also, patients who are of Haryana domicile and have been diagnosed with a rare disease by any designated Center of Excellence will be included in the Chirayu Scheme. Under the scheme, they will get treatment facility up to 5 lakh annually in government and private hospitals. The family income limit under the scheme will not be applicable on such patients.

Dr Khullar said that as per the instructions of the chief minister (CM), the first financial assistance of 2,750 will be distributed to the beneficiaries before October 10. She said that for registration of patients suffering from rare diseases, a portal has been started on the website of the health department. According to an estimate, there are about 700 to 1,000 such patients in Haryana who are suffering from one of the 55 rare diseases.

She said that under the National Policy for Rare Diseases 2021 of the Central Government, about 55 types of diseases have been notified as rare diseases, which also includes muscular dystrophy. When symptoms of several neurological problems are present together in the body, such a physical condition is called muscular dystrophy, a genetic disease, in which the muscles of the child gradually become weak after birth. In such a situation, the skeletal muscles that control physical activities become weak and get damaged. In some cases, this disease can be identified at the time of birth, while sometimes it happens that such symptoms appear in the child after entering adolescence.

The Director General Health said that under the National Policy for Rare Diseases, 2021, 11 medical colleges across the country have been designated as Centers of Excellence for the treatment of rare diseases, which also includes PGIMER Chandigarh and AIIMS Delhi. She said that the Union ministry of health provided an amount of 50 lakh per patient to the Center of Excellence for the treatment of patients suffering from these diseases.

She said that an awareness campaign will be run by the health department to create awareness about very rare diseases among the general public so that the patients suffering from these diseases do not have to face problems in getting treatment due to lack of information.

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Mining tycoon Harpal Randhawa and his son were among the six individuals killed when their private plane crashed near a diamond mine in southwestern Zimbabwe after experiencing a technical fault, according to media reports. Mining tycoon Harpal Randhawa (Sourced)

Harpal Randhawa, the owner of RioZim, a diversified mining company producing gold and coal as well as refining nickel and copper, along with his son and four others was killed when the plane crashed in the Zvamahande area of Mashava, iHarare, a news and media website in Zimbabwe, reported.

Names of the deceased are yet to be released by police but journalist and filmmaker Hopewell Chinono, who was a friend of Randhawa, confirmed his death.

The Cessna 206 aircraft, owned by RioZim, was en route from Harare to the Murowa diamond mine when the tragic incident occurred on Friday.

The single-engined aircraft crashed near the Murowa Diamonds mine, which is partly owned by RioZim.

The plane experienced a technical fault, possibly resulting in a mid-air explosion, before plummeting into Peter Farm in the Zvamahande region. All passengers and crew onboard lost their lives in this accident, the report said.

The Herald, a state-owned daily newspaper, quoted police as saying four of the victims were foreigners and the other two Zimbabweans.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police reports a plane crash which occurred on September 29 between 7.30 am and 8 am, where six people are confirmed dead, police said.

The Murowa Diamond Company (RioZim)-owned white and red Zcam aircraft had left Harare for the mine at 6 am and crashed about 6km from Mashava. RioZim confirmed the crash and said it was working with relevant authorities to gather more information.

I am deeply saddened by the passing of Harpal Randhawa, the owner of RioZim who died on Monday in a plane crash in Zvishavane. Five other people, including his son, who was also a pilot but a passenger on this flight, also died in the crash, wrote Chinono on X.

My thoughts are with his wife, family, friends and the RioZim community. The RioZim company secretary said a full statement will be issued.

I am not in a position to address the media right now. We will however be issuing a statement soon, he said.

Randhawa was the founder of the USD 4 billion private equity firm GEM Holdings.

Meanwhile, the local community and law enforcement agencies are working together to manage the aftermath of the plane crash.

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Days after Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit asked for details of the debt taken by the Aam Aadmi Party government, chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday informed him that his government has added 47,107.6 crore to the state debt in the past one-and-a-half years, pointing out that 57% of it has gone into meeting the interest liability on outstanding debt of the state. The exchange of letters on the politically sensitive issue of debt is the latest standoff between Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit and chief minister Bhagwant Mann, who have had frequent run-ins over the past year on a number of issues. (HT file photo)

In a three-page reply to the governor, Mann said the net addition to the states debt has been 47,107.6 crore from April 1, 2022, to August 31, 2023, which includes not only market loans but also loans from NABARD, externally aided project loans allowed by the Government of India and long-term loan under special assistance for creation of capital assets. Of this, 32,447.11 crore were added to the state debt during the 2022-23 fiscal and 14,660.5 crore between April 1 and August 31 this year. He said that 27,016 crore went into interest repayment on the debt that the government inherited.

Seeking accountability

In a letter to Mann on September 21, Purohit sought details of the utilisation of the debt of 50,000 crore raised by the AAP government during its tenure. the debt of Punjab rose by about 50,000 crore during your regime. Details of utilisation of this huge amount may be furnished to me so that I will be able to convince the Prime Minister that money has been properly utilised, the governor had written in response to the CMs letter requesting him to take up the issue of pending Rural Development Fund (RDF) of 5,637 crore with the President and the PM.

The governors missive triggered an onslaught against the AAP government by the opposition, particularly the Congress, which accused it of lack of transparency and accountability in the utilisation of money raised through loans. With an outstanding debt of 2.82 lakh crore at the end of the financial year 2021-22, which increased to 3.12 lakh crore at the end of 2022-23, as per revised estimates, Punjab is already among the most indebted states in the country. The states debt-GSDP ratio stands at 47.6%. The outstanding debt is projected to touch 3.47 lakh crore on March 31, 2024.

At a public meeting in Patiala on Monday, Mann had announced that he would send his reply to the governor on Tuesday.

CM blames predecessors

In his letter, Mann, while blaming his predecessors, wrote that lingering issues left behind by previous governments were dealt on priority and his government used both debt and its own revenue resources to fund organisations/schemes ignored by them, utilised the new debt to create capital assets and undertake development activities in the state.

The CM said he was committed to honouring the rightful liabilities and servicing the debt in a timely manner while striving to mobilise resources to fund development. Our government is working 24x7 to mobilise additional resources, he said, sharing details of revenue receipts. He said these additional receipts have helped in making value-accretive investments while initiating payment of arrears and unpaid dues including but not limited to the implementation of sixth pay commission, UGC scales, power subsidy arrears to PSPCL, payment of arrears of aata-dal scheme, arrears of sugarcane farmers, etc.

Mann said he hoped this information put into perspective the challenges faced by the state government due to legacy debt burden. I believe that you would be in a position to convince the Prime Minister that not only the debt has been properly utilised but all-out efforts are being made to consolidate the states finances, he said, urging Purohit to seek the release of the pending RDF and according a moratorium on debt repayment of the state for at least five years. This, he said, would give fiscal elbow room to his government to accelerate the growth of revenue and the pace of development.

The exchange of letters on the politically sensitive issue of debt is the latest standoff between Purohit and Mann, who have had frequent run-ins over the past year on a number of issues.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be staying at the main ashram of the Advaita Ashram in the Lohaghat area of Uttarakhands Champawat district where Swami Vivekananda had stayed in 1901, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The Advaita Ashram in Uttarakhands Champawat district is located at a height of 6,400 feet and is surrounded by lush green forests.

PM Modi will spend a night here on October 12 during his two-day visit to the state on October 11-12.

Advaita Ashram, commonly known as Mayawati Ashram, was founded in 1899 under the inspiration of Swami Vivekananda for the practice and preaching of Advaita Vedanta. Situated around 25 km from the Champawat district headquarters, the ashram is located at a height of 6,400 feet and is surrounded by lush green forests. Swami Vivekananda visited here in 1901 and stayed here for a fortnight (January 3-January 18, 1901).

According to officials, PM Modi will go to Pithoragarh district for two days from October 11. According to his tentative programme, he will reach Narayan Ashram near the China border on the first day in Pithoragarh district. He will stay overnight in the Ashram and the next day he will visit the Jolingkong area in Pithoragarh to have darshan (glimpse) of Mount Kailash. After Kailash darshan, he will address a public meeting in Pithoragarh town. After Pithoragarh, he will visit Mayawati Ashram in Champawat district and stay there for the night on October 12.

District magistrate Navneet Pande has visited Ashram twice with various departmental officers for the preparations for PM Modis visit.

Swami Shuddhidananda from Mayawati Ashram said, Modi will stay in our main ashram during his visit. He is the first VVIP or VIP we will host in our main ashram building, where Swami Vivekananda stayed in 1901. He is the first PM to visit our ashram therefore he has been given this honour by the ashram management.

Every arrangement and protocol will be maintained by the administration. Only night stay facility for PM Modi will be facilitated by the ashram. VIPs and people visit Mayawati ashram and ashram management provides them stay facilities in rooms constructed some metres away on the way to the ashram, but no one is provided a stay facility in the main ashram building, where swami Vivekananda stayed, the swami added.

Local Congress MLA Khushal Singh Adhikari while expressing happiness regarding Modis visit, said, It is our good luck that PM Modi is visiting our area. We will give him a warm welcome because he is the PM of the country. If Modi comes here, he will surely give us gifts regarding the development of our area.

Deep Pathak, former district president BJP, Champawat said, We are eager to welcome a political stalwart like PM Modi. Modi is the leader of the nation, and it is our fortune he is visiting here. We hope for some major announcements regarding developments in our area.

According to the website of Advaita Ashram (advaitaashrama.org), Swami Vivekananda Swamiji had always been attracted by the Himalayas. During his tour of the Swiss Alps, the idea to set up an ashrama in similar conditions in India took shape. After he returned from the West in 1897, in Almora, he inspired Captain Sevier and Mrs. Sevier along with Swami Swarupananda, his disciple, to commence looking for a place to house an ashrama dedicated to Advaita. They found it in Mayavati, surrounded by mountains on three sides, one side opening to a breathtaking view of the snow-capped Himalayan range.

Advaita Ashram is a branch of the Ramakrishna Math founded on March 19, 1899 at the behest of Swami Vivekananda. Belur Math, established earlier, approved of its objects and principles and recognised Advaita Ashram as its branch. Swamiji paid the Ashrama a visit in January 1901 and stayed for a fortnight. The Ashram had a press of its own and the first editions of Swami Vivekanandas work were published from Mayavati Ashram, the website says.

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Vice President Kamala Harris will not visit UW-Madison this week as originally planned, as she will instead travel to her home state of California for funeral services for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died last week.

Harris had planned to visit UW-Madison Wednesday as part of a monthlong college tour highlighting the Biden administrations policies, including reproductive rights, climate action and voting rights. She will instead travel to San Francisco, where Feinstein will lie in state at the city hall Wednesday ahead of private funeral services Thursday.

The Madison visit is expected to be rescheduled, a White House official said.

Feinstein, 90, died Sept. 28. At the time of her death, Feinstein was the oldest member of the Senate, serving for more than 30 years as the longest-tenured female senator in history.

Feinstein became the first female mayor of San Francisco in 1978 after the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, the citys first openly gay supervisor. Feinstein served as mayor until 1988.

Harris and Feinstein together represented California in the Senate between January 2017 and Harris inauguration as vice president in January 2021. In a statement released by the White House, Harris said Feinstein was one of the greatest public servants the state of California and the nation has known.

Harris stop was set to be the fourth visit to Wisconsin from the Bidens or Harris in recent months.

First Lady Jill Biden visited Exact Sciences and the Verona Area School District in late August to promote cancer screenings and public education before a state fundraiser. President Joe Biden made a DeForest-area manufacturing facility his first stop in February, and both Biden and Harris made stops in the state to tout the economy and infrastructure investments in August.
The Delhi Polices special cell was on Tuesday raiding the homes of at least six journalists in connection with the probe into the alleged foreign funding of news portal NewsClick. As per NewsClicks website, it is an independent media organisation. (X)

A police officer confirmed the raids were being carried out but declined to comment on whether the action was in continuation of an ongoing Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe or the special cell has filed a fresh case.

The raids were on people associated with NewsClick, but we have not arrested anyone. We are carrying out searches and questioning some persons, said the officer. He added over six raids were being carried out. A detailed briefing for the press is likely later in the day, the officer added.

Abhisar Sharma, one of the journalists, wrote on social media platform X: Delhi Police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone

The ED in August attached a flat linked to NewsClick editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayashtas in New Delhis Saket in connection with its money laundering probe against the news portal. The federal agency also raided Purkayasthas premises in September 2021.

The property was attached in the week 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.

NewsClick issued a statement saying the allegations made against it by certain political actors and sections of the media are unfounded and without basis in fact or law.

The ED is probing fraudulent foreign funds infusion of over 86 crore into the company that runs the portal. According to the ED, the company claimed receiving export remittance of 76.84 crore, 1.61 crore, 26.98 lakh, and 2.03 lakh from Justice and Education Fund Inc USA, The Tricontinental Ltd Inc USA, GSPAN LLC USA and Centro Popular De Midas, Brazil, from March 2018 until the 2021 raids. Officials said the agency has not found any evidence of exporting services to these entities.

The ED was also looking at the foreign direct investment (FDI) transfer of 9.59 crore 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). Officials said the company shut shop soon after this transfer of funds.

The ED suspects the funds routed through Justice and Education Fund Inc USA belonged to Singham. The agency has alleged Singham is a close confidant of Purkayastha and a Chinese emphasizer.

The ED has recorded the statement of a shareholder of NewsClicks owner company. The shareholder claimed Singham was the ultimate owner of funds received from the Justice and Education Fund, USA, and GSPAN LLC, USA.

The agency claimed 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 alleged Singham was influencing the content of news on the portal, and hence this was a case of paid news. The agency found funds were siphoned off for maintenance and renovation works of a flat in Saket allegedly linked to Purkayastha.

The ED also attached Purkayasthas fixed deposits worth 41 lakh earlier. It said the company paid 17.08 lakh as salary to jailed activist Gautam Navlakha apart from other remittances made to some journalists.

As per NewsClicks 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.

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Water levels in several rivers of south Bengal began rising after the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) started releasing excess water through its dams, officials said on Tuesday. DVC said 90,000 cusecs of water was released through Maithan and Panchet dams till 11:28am on Tuesday. (PTI file photo)

This development comes a day after the state government had sounded flood alert in seven districts amid heavy rainfall prediction in West Bengal and Jharkhand.

The district administrations were asked to set up control rooms and stack relief materials after the DVC started releasing excess water via dams.

Also Read:Floods in Assam worsen; red alert for Sikkim, north Bengal

Sounding a flood warning on its website, DVC said 90,000 cusecs of water was released through Maithan and Panchet dams till 11:28am on Tuesday.

On Monday, DVC released more than 1,20,000 cusecs. It controlled the flow on Tuesday since there was less rainfall in Jharkhand, an irrigation department official said on condition of anonymity.

In south Bengal, water level in most rivers in East and West Burdwan, Birbhum, West Midnapore, Bankura, Hooghly and Howrah districts have risen. Chief secretary HK Dwivedi held a meeting with the district magistrates and asked them to prepare for floods, the officer added.

Districts in south Bengal will receive heavy rainfall till October 5, officials at the Regional Meteorological Centre in Kolkata said.

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AGRA Three youths sustained injuries in a shooting incident at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) after a fight between two rival groups on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday, said officials. The three injured persons were undergoing treatment at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and stated to be stable, said police. (Pic for representation)

A case was registered at Aligarhs Civil Lines police station against 15 named accused under sections 147, 148, 149 and 307 of the IPC. The three injured persons were undergoing treatment at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and stated to be stable, said police.

A clash took place between two groups at BM Hall. Subsequently, a group of armed youths barged into SS Hall (North) where a gunfight ensued and three youths were shot and wounded.

In-charge of the Civil Lines police station Vijay Singh confirmed the firing incident on the AMU campus. The police attributed the incident to a fight for dominance on the university campus. Investigation was on and required action would be taken in due course of time, he said.

In the FIR, Mohd Babar, a resident of Aligarh, stated that he along with his friends Sadiq Ali, Firoz and Abdullah were in conversation at SS Hall of AMU on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday when the named accused, including Akram Tippa and 14 others, attacked them.

The accused had old enmity with us and were in possession of arms including pistol and tamanchaa (country-made pistol). They opened fire on us injuring Sadiq Ali, Firoz and Abdullah, alleged Babar.

Amongst the three injured, Sadiq Ali was a former student of AMU and had completed the BUMS (Bachelor of Unani Medical Sciences) course while the others were locals of Aligarh.

A case was registered under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with arms), 149 (unlawful assembly) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC after the group at BM Hall of AMU reached SS Hall (North) at midnight, stated Singh.

However, the AMU administration distanced itself from the firing incident stating that none amongst those injured and none named in the FIR, barring one, were students of AMU.

None amongst the injured are students of AMU and none amongst those named in the FIR barring one are students of AMU. The situation is peaceful on the university campus, stated Prof Mohd Wasim Ali, proctor of AMU.

It is a matter of concern that the incident took place in the hall (hostel) of AMU and stern measures are being taken to ensure such incidents are not repeated, said the proctor.

Prior to this incident, unrest was already brewing among the students on Monday due to a venomous snakebite sustained by an class 11 student at AMU. The students condition was serious, necessitating an urgent transfer to a medical facility in Delhi for specialised treatment.

Students staged a protest against the incident, seeking resignation of the provost of Allama Iqbal Hall on the AMU campus.

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In a first-of-its-kind move, the Congress is gearing up to win back Dalits and most backward classes (MBCs) and thereby make a dent in the support base of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh through Dalit Gaurav Samvad that the Congress proposes to start on October 9the death anniversary of BSP founder Kanshi Ram. The BSP founder had a strong connect not only with Dalits but also with the extremely backward among the OBCs. (For Representation)

In the past, the Congress always tried to claim the legacy of Dalit icon and the Constitution shaper Dr BR Ambedkar while wooing the backward classes. The partys dialogue with Dalits is proposed to end on November 26the Constitution Day.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Ajay Rai confirmed that the party proposes to launch a dialogue with the Dalits on the death anniversary of the BSP ideologue. He said this was the partys attempt to bring the Dalits into party fold.

The Congresss decision to launch the Dalit Gaurav Samvad programme on Kanshi Rams death anniversary assumes significance as the BSP founder had a strong connect not only with Dalits but also with the extremely backward among the other backward classes.

In an apparent bid to woo the deprived sections, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had coined a new slogan Jitni abadi utna haq ((greater population, greater rights)) while campaigning for his party in the recently concluded Karnataka assembly elections.

Incidentally, the BSP founder used nearly similar slogan Jiski jitni sankhya bhari, utni uski hissedari (the greater the number, the greater the share) to woo the backwards, Dalits and the minorities etc.

At the proposed Dalit Gaurav Samvad programmes, we will connect with 1 lakh influential Dalits (250 in every assembly constituency), across Uttar Pradesh. A state level Dalit leadership meeting, night chaupals in Dalit areas in every assembly constituency (total 4,000) besides discussions on Dalit agenda in every Lok Sabha constituency have also been proposed, said UPCC organisation secretary Anil Yadav.

Divisional level Dalit Gaurav Yatras will also be organised and press conferences will be held in all district headquarters during the period, Yadav further said. He added that an announcement about the meeting will be made at a meeting with the state partys scheduled caste and scheduled tribe department soon.

The UPCC has been holding the conventions of the backward classes in various divisions and districts in the past few months. It also proposes to hold a larger state convention in Lucknow soon. Rahul Gandhi, while campaigning in Karnataka, had also questioned the Centre for poor representation of Dalits, tribals and OBCs on top government posts.

Only 7% of the secretaries in the Government of India are Dalit, tribal or OBC. Is the population of these classes just 7% in India? If we have to give participation to everyone in the country, we will have to find out how much population belongs to which caste. Why is the PM not making the caste census data public, asked Rahul Gandhi in a post on X (formerly twitter) in Hindi on April 24 earlier this year.

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Land and property disputes have been the major reasons for killings in Uttar Pradesh for the past many years. As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, as many as 3,021 murders were committed in the state between 2017 and 2021 over disputes on these two issues. Experts too say land disputes have been major motive for killings in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh. (For Representation)

The brutal killings of five members of a Brahmin family on Monday after a mob attacked their home to avenge the killing of a 50-year-old man of Yadav caste following an argument over a disputed piece of land at Fatehpur village in Deoria district is no exception.

The killings incited arson and violence amidst simmering tensions between the Brahmin and Yadav communities with several vehicles set on fire prompting authorities to rush police and provincial armed constabulary personnel to prevent further clashes.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath too had recognised this major flaw in the existing caste and land ownership in the state. He had called for disposing of land disputes in the state saying it was the main reason for majority of the crimes.

Timely disposal of land-related disputes could end the several crimes that occur in the state. Delay in solving these disputes leads to major confrontation and then it turns into a criminal affair, the CM had said while distributing laptops to lekhpals in Lucknow on July 17 earlier this year.

Experts too say land disputes have been major motive for killings in rural areas of the state like U.P. as well as Bihar. While scanning the figures of NCRB, the HT found that as many as 227 people killed over land and property disputes in 2021, 642 in 2020, 516 in 2019, 1,323 in 2018 and 313 in 2017 for same reasons.

Former U.P. DGP and sitting BJP Rajya Sabha MP Brij Lal said, Although the land dispute has been one of the major reasons for murders and conflicts, it seems to be the negligence of local authorities of revenue and police departments in resolving the existing dispute between Brahmin and Yadav families that led to the killings in a Deoria village. He further said the state government should take stern action against those responsible for not resolving the land dispute between the two families in Deoria village.

While explaining the caste and land ownership data of the state, Giri Institute of Development Studies, a national research institute of the ICSSR, ministry of education, GOI and government of UP, assistant professor Prashant Trivedi said upper castes like Kshatriyas and Brahmins have only 7 and 9 percent share in population respectively but their caste share in land ownership is 19 and 18 percent respectively.

He said the backward castes, lower backward castes and Dalits population share in the state is 15, 27 and 21 percent respectively and their land ownerships shares are 20, 18 and 9 percent which is much less as compared to their population and ownership percentage.

This mismatch of population and land ownership percentage often leads to conflicts mainly in rural areas, he added. Besides, the land disputes also involve prestige and supremacy of families rather than just being an economical reason, leading to murders especially in rural Uttar Pradesh he further said. Former IPS officer Umesh Kumar Singh said land disputes had been the reason for major incidents of crime historically.

On Deoria incident, he said it was basically the failure of local administration in resolving the long pending dispute between the two families. It also points towards existing corruption among lower rung officials of revenue and police departments, he added. He said the state government should act over it and take stern action against the officials responsible for not resolving the issue.

Grim reminder: Killings of 11 tribals in Sonbhadra village over land dispute

Repeated requests of the tribals of Umbha village in Sonbhadra district of eastern Uttar Pradesh fell on deaf ears for 64 years until 11 of them were killed in a dispute over possession of the same land on July 17, 2019. Tribal families had been farming this land since the pre-independence period.

They started raising objections in 1955, when 212 bighas of farmland in Umbha village was transferred to an agricultural society, said officials of the state polices SIT who are privy to the investigation into the alleged fraud in land revenue records.

The state government had ordered the investigation after the July 17 killings. The tribals demanded the authorities to look into the records of Aadhar Varsh Khataunithe first land revenue record prepared in 1951 after independence. The 1951 land record clearly says the land belonged to the gram sabha and it was in possession of tribal families who were farming it since the pre-independence (period). The irregularities began after the formation of Adarsh Krishi Sahkari Samiti, a farming society, in 1955 with 12 members.

The society itself was formed wrongfully as most of its members were neither locals nor engaged in farming. Moreover, the land transfer to the society was done by a tehsildar who was not authorised to do so. The tribals kept contesting their cases at different levels and continued to farm the land but the society land was later transferred to individuals by the then subdivisional magistrate (SDM) of Sonbhadra in 1989.

Then also, the tribal families had raised an objection to transfer of land (ownership) in private persons names and appealed to consider the facts mentioned in the 1951 land records. The same land was sold to local village pradhan Yagya Dutt in 2017 when it could not be freed from the possession of tribal families.

The tribal families again raised an objection but their application was rejected every time. They approached the then district magistrate but their claim was rejected for the last time on July 6, 2019 and the decision was conveyed to the tribal families by post on July 13, 2019. Only four days later, 11 tribal people were killed, allegedly in indiscriminate firing by Yagya Dutt and his aides in the dispute over possession of the same farming land.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rohit Kumar Singh Rohit K Singh is a Principal Correspondent. He writes on crime, police and social issues ...view detail
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Tuesday demanded the BJP governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh too should carry out a caste-based survey, similar to one done by Bihars Nitish Kumar government. Maya demands caste survey in both U.P, India, says Bihar survey a logical step (file)

Maya praised Nitish for taking a logical step in ensuring the constitutional rights of other backward classes (OBCs).

With this Mayawati joined the wider opposition in demanding caste survey, an issue which has united nearly all opposition, including some OBC parties which are BJPs allies in U.P.

These OBC parties were founded by leaders who were mentored by BSP founder late Kanshiram and Maya and them being on same page on caste census indicates that the issue has united not just most backwards but most dalits too.

Now, the UP government should correct its intent and policy and order a caste-based survey without further delay. Though the right solution to this would only happen when the Centre would order a nationwide caste count and ensure what is rightfully due to these marginalised castes, Maya said in her post on X (formerly twitter).

She said the BSP was happy at the way countrys politics was moving in favour of the Bahujan Samaj and took potshots at casteist and communal parties with anti-OBC and anti-Mandal stance.

Such parties seem to be worried about their future, Maya said in her post. Though she didnt mention any party, her jibe appeared to be directed at the BJP, perhaps the only mainstream political party, undecided, if not outrightly against it, on the issue of caste-based survey.

Mayawatis backing of the caste-based survey came a day after three OBC parties, whose founders were mentored by BSP founder late Kanshiram unanimously backed caste-survey in Uttar Pradesh.

Apna Dal (S) founder late Sonelal Patel was among BSPs founding members, SBSPs Om Prakash Rajbhar joined the Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti, founded by Kanshiram in 1981 and Nishad partys Sanjay Nishad started with Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation, run by Kanshiram.

The coming together of these parties in U.P. indicates that the caste-based survey issue is uniting the opposition on the subject, which could well become a political hot potato for the BJP. Bihars caste-based survey findings reflect that extremely backward classes or EBCs and OBCs make up for 63% of the total population in a state that sends 40 MPs to the Lok Sabha.

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The death toll in the government college and hospital in Maharashtras Nanded has gone up to 31 from 24 as seven more patients died during Monday night, officials said. The Nanded district information office, in a post on X, appealed to people not to panic and assured that the entire team of doctors is ready. (File Photo)

The earlier 24 deaths, including that of 12 infants, were reported in a span of 24 hours from September 30 to October 1, prompting the state government to set up a committee to probe the matter, as officials of the medical health facility complained of inadequate resources and shortage of staff.

The seven new deaths on Monday night comprise four newborn babies. With this the total number of infant deaths has reached 16.

Confirming the deaths, the Nanded district information office, in a post on X, said, Facts related to the deaths of patients at Shankarao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital patients. Total deaths 24, during the period from 30th September to 1st October. During October 1 to 2, total deaths were 7.

Please dont panic. The entire team of doctors is ready, it added.

Dr. S. R. Wakode, acting dean of Dr. Shankar Rao Chavan Medical College and Hospital, refused to comment but said medical education minister Hasan Mushrif will brief the media at 4pm. Mushrif will visit the hospital and hold a meeting with hospital and government officials before speaking to the media.

As of now, over 60 patients are in serious condition due to various reasons leading to the fear of increase in death toll, people familiar with the matter said.

Former chief minister and MLA from Nanded Ashok Chavan has demanded that the government should fix the responsibility.

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Mumbai: The death toll at Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital, in Nanded, shot up to 35 on Tuesday from Mondays tally of 24. It comprises 16 infants and 19 adults. Of the infants who died were twin boys, who were born underweight on Sunday and died on Monday. Chief minister Eknath Shinde has promised that the government will probe the Nanded incident and not spare the culprits. (Purushottam Joshi)

Read here: This is murder: Opposition slams Eknath government as 12 infants die at Maharashtra's Nanded hospital

Medical education minister Hasan Mushrif visited the hospital on Tuesday and after meetings with the doctors and administrative staff, accepted that shortage of doctors caused the deaths. He said, to manage the shortfall the government is planning to appoint doctors on contract, until the vacancies are filled by regular recruitment process.

Meanwhile, in another incident, 14 deaths were reported in the Government Medical College and Hospital at Sambhaji Nagar, which includes two infants. The hospital superintendent, Dr Vijay Kalyankar, however said the deaths were not the result of a shortage of manpower or medicines.

Union minister of state for health Bharti Pawar has sought a report on the deaths of both hospitals. This is an unfortunate incident. We have spoken to the concerned authorities and sought an explanation. The situation at the Nanded hospital is grave. Further action will be taken after we receive a detailed report, she said.

Chief minister Eknath Shinde has promised that the government will probe the Nanded incident and not spare the culprits.

Mushrif was accompanied by guardian minister Girish Mahajan to Nanded. Others who attended the meeting were former CM and MLA Ashok Chavan and MP Pratap Chikhalikar. After the meeting, Mushrif said he will raise the situation of medical colleges and hospitals in the state, other than Nanded, at the next cabinet meeting.

At a press conference, he pointed to the corrective measures his department is going to make to control and improve the situation. This is a situation of emergency. Apart from hiring doctors on contract, we are also trying to depute doctors from other hospitals and seeking help from private doctors, said Mushrif. He added that the government has issued orders to start recruiting nurses and sanitation workers right away. I have told the district collector to expedite the process to fill the class four posts and to try the option of outsourcing, he Mushrif.

Read here: Death toll in Nanded hospital rises to 31 as 7 more patients die on Monday night

MP gets dean to clean loo

Hingoli MP Hemant Patil from the Shinde camp of Shiv Sena visited the Nanded hospital and stirred the pot by expressing anger over the unhygienic conditions in the hospital and forcing the hospitals acting dean, Dr S R Wakode, to clean the toilet. The incident created unrest among the doctors. Maharashtra State Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) has condemned it, with the bodys president Dr Abhijit Helge, saying, The acting dean is not responsible for the vacant posts of various categories but it is the governments responsibility fill those posts.

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A three-member team of medical experts which visited three government hospitals of Varanasi to assess the situation in view of the increasing number of fever patients in the district has directed that kits for Elisa test like scrub typhus, leptospirosis, chikungunya etc be made available at SSPG Divisional Hospital, Kabir Chaura and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay District Hospital, Pandeypur. The expert medical team addressing the media in Varanasi on Tuesday. (HT Photo)

The team  including Dr KN Tiwari, director (communicable diseases), Dr Vikasendu Aggarwal, state surveillance officer and Dr Pankaj Guma, physician, Lokbandhu Rajbandhu Hospital, Lucknow  visited Varanasi on October 2 and 3, and gave its instructions to chief medical officer (CMO) Varanasi, Dr Sandip Chaudhary.

Dr Chaudhary said that the team visited Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Hospital till late night on October 2 and Lal Bahadur Shastri Joint Hospital, Ramnagar and Shri Shiv Prasad Gupta Divisional Hospital, Kabirchaura on October 3 to get information about the condition of the patients admitted there. They also reviewed the available testing and treatment facilities thoroughly.

Later, Dr KN Tiwari and Dr Vikasendu Aggarwal briefed the media.

Dr Tiwari said that instructions have been given to the chief medical officer to provide two additional staff nurses each from the urban health centres to the three district hospitals until the number of fever patients decreases.

Team observations & recommendations

 Air conditioning has been arranged in the emergency and many IPD wards in the three hospitals visited.

 Due to various innovations, availability of facilities and improvement in the quality of treatment, the number of patients admitted in hospitals of various levels has increased.

Recommendation of the state level team -

 On assessing the condition of the patients admitted in all the hospitals, it was found that many patients were completely healthy and able to walk, they did not even have fever. These patients were admitted to the hospital only due to fear of platelet deficiency. Chief medical superintendents in all hospitals were instructed that such patients can be discharged after proper counseling and consultation.

It was also directed that promotional material be displayed at various places in hospitals to provide information about dengue and other viral diseases to the patients so that they do not get unnecessarily scared.

 It was also directed that all hospitals ensure that protocols for admission and discharge of patients for dengue and other viral diseases are followed in OPD, IPD and emergency blocks.

Box

Innovations

Many types of innovations are also being made for the treatment of patients in all the hospitals, such as availability of ECG facility, availability of 24-hour pathology testing facility, patients can be referred to all levels of hospitals through Lab Mitra application - rural and urban community health centers. Providing pathology test reports from district and divisional level hospitals through SMS, etc.

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LUCKNOW A cinematic tribute to Indias relentless battle against the Covid-19 pandemic has arrived with The Vaccine War, the latest film directed by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri. What makes this bioscience film particularly special is its deep-rooted connection to Lucknow, as it draws inspiration from the book Going Viral - Making of Covaxin: The Inside Story, authored by Lucknows own Dr Balram Bhargava, the former Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The Vaccine War premiered in the last week of September. The Vaccine War (Movie poster)

Dr Bhargava, an alumnus of La Martiniere College, expressed his admiration for the film, stating, The film beautifully highlights the hard work of the Indian scientists who worked tirelessly to produce a mass-level vaccine to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. He reminisced about his own school days at La Martiniere College, where he studied between 1967 and 1973.

The filmmakers approached us to seek consent for this project, and I must say they have done an excellent job, added Dr Bhargava, who led Indias response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The movie effectively portrays the dedication of the scientists who developed our indigenous vaccine.

Dr Bhargava also emphasised the importance of watching the film, stating, Everyone must watch the movie to witness how Indian scientists toiled during the crisis to create an indigenous vaccine, which is now being exported to over 100 countries. Presently serving as the chief at the Cardiothoracic Centre, AIIMS, New Delhi, he highlighted Indias remarkable self-reliance across various fields during the pandemic.

Our scientists and doctors outstanding research work made us self-sufficient in vaccine development, solidifying Indias position as a leading pharmaceutical market in the world, noted Dr Bhargava, who has also served as the former secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

In recognition of his contributions, Dr Bhargava was honoured in the Memorial Hall of the College with the Padma Shri for Medicine in 2014. The movie features references to his schooling at La Martiniere College and his involvement in other educational institutions such as Colvin Taluqdars College (1974-79) and KGMC (1979-90).

The Vaccine War echoes the sentiment that we can fight this war with science and emphasises that this is not a bio war; this is an info war. The film, based on the book Going Viral by Prof. Balram Bhargava, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), is an inspiring ode to shift the spotlight from naysayers to celebrating the efforts of unsung heroes, frontline workers, and relentless scientists who worked tirelessly for months to create Indias indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin.

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State Rep. Katrina Shankland, who has spent the past decade in the Assembly, said Tuesday shes running for Wisconsins 3rd Congressional District seat, further setting the stage for a Democratic primary in the states battleground western district.

Shankland, D-Stevens Point, is the fourth Democratic candidate running for the opportunity to challenge first-term Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who won the seat in 2022. Both state and national Democrats view Wisconsins 3rd Congressional District as an opportunity to regain control the the U.S. House in 2024.

From increasing access to affordable health care in rural areas, to creating jobs, to creating a community paramedic program, to helping farmers improve water quality  I have worked hard and been effective at finding middle ground with both parties to improve the lives of the people of Wisconsin, Shankland said in a statement.

Extremists like Derrick Van Orden are ignoring the needs of working people because they are too focused on causing dysfunction.

Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, narrowly defeated Brad Pfaff, a Democrat from Onalaska, in 2022, flipping the district to Republican control after it had been held for 26 years by Democrat Ron Kind, who retired last year.

Other Democratic candidates already in the race are former La Crosse County Board Chair Tara Johnson; former small business owner Rebecca Cooke, who ran for the seat in 2022 but lost in that years primary; and Harvard Law School student Aaron Nytes. The 3rd Congressional District includes parts of central, southwestern and western Wisconsin.

Pfaff announced in August he plans to run for another term in the states 32nd Senate District rather than seek a rematch with Van Orden, a former Navy SEAL and ally of former President Donald Trump who was outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection before he was elected to Congress.

Shankland, 36, was born in Wausau and was elected to the state Assembly in 2012. She served as assistant minority leader in 2015.

In addition to Van Ordens seat, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee plans to target Wisconsins 1st Congressional District, currently held by Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, in 2024. State Democrats view both districts as potential pickups next year.
The central selection board of constables (CSBC) on Tuesday decided to cancel the Bihar constable recruitment examination, which was held on October 1. Bihar Constable Recruitment Exam Cancelled Amidst Irregularities and Imposter Arrests(Mourya/ Hindustan Times)

Talking about the cancellation on October 2, Board president A K Singhal said that he had received a lot of complaints regarding irregularities in the examination . "After a thorough examination, it was prima facie found that a conspiracy was hatched by a gang. Due to this the examination's sanctity was lost which led to cancellation of the October 1 examination. Further the examinations scheduled on October 7 and October 15 has also been postponed until further notice," he added.

At least 100 impostors and members of solver gangs were arrested on Sunday from various districts in Bihar.

The cancellation of the examination has come as a major blow to lakhs of candidates who had worked hard for the examination.

The decision follows the arrest of several individuals, commonly referred to as "Munna Bhais," from various districts of Bihar. These arrests were made in connection with the recovery of answer keys. In numerous districts, candidates were apprehended for attempting to use electronic devices and cheating materials to copy answers. Furthermore, in Patna, some candidates were caught red-handed with handwritten answer sheets.

The board has decided to cancel the written examination for both the shifts.

Meanwhile, the economic offence unit (EoU) had already initiated a probe into leakage of question papers of the Bihar police constable recruitment examination. So far, 61 FIRs have been lodged in various districts in Bihar. Several aspirants have been suspected to be involved in use of unfair means.

The examinations were conducted in two shifts, in which lakhs of aspirants had appeared. The recruitment notification was released for a total of 21,391 constable posts in the state.

This is not the first examination in Bihar, which has been cancelled due to such incidents. In 2022, the question paper of the Bihar public service commission was leaked. The government had cancelled the examination.

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A new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the University of Melbourne and the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), to continue the long-standing collaboration and partnership between the two organisations. According to a press release, a delegation from the University led by the Provost Professor Nicola Phillips travelled to India to sign the new MoU in Delhi.

According to a press release, a delegation from the University led by the Provost Professor Nicola Phillips travelled to India to sign the new MoU in Delhi. The MoU was signed on September 28 with guests including University of Melbourne Provost Professor Phillips, President of the Public Health Foundation of India Professor Sanjay Zodpey and CEO of the Australia India Institute The Honourable Lisa Singh.

Professor Phillips said the new agreement demonstrates a commitment to the important relationship between the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University and the Nossal Institute, and the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), the press release stated.

The first MoU was signed in 2009, with a further Student Exchange Agreement developed and signed in 2017, and both were renewed on the day.

According to the media release, one recent partnership has been the inaugural Indo-Pacific Global Health Competition. The competition on September 18 was hosted by the University of Melbourne and three teams entered remotely from PHFI. Professor Phillips presented the prizes in Melbourne and met the PHFI teams in person during the signing of the MoU.

Key achievements from the partnership as per the press release include:

Creation of the VirtuCare (Virtual Healthcare Network) project, supported by the University of Melbourne, Australia India Institute, the Emmanuel Hospital Association, University of Adelaide and other organisations to develop inclusive models for delivering virtual healthcare

Ongoing work in tobacco control and plain packaging in India, which informed the strict packaging laws in India

Deployment of the Rapid Assessment of Disability tool developed by the Nossal Institute and adapted for partners in India and subsequent research on the impact of Organisations of People with Disability

Delivery of a leadership program funded by an Australian government grant to jointly develop leadership training for the public health sector in South Asia.

Joint delivery of the Excellence in Non-Communicable disease Research (ENCORE) program which held a number of student and joint faculty training activities in India and Australia. The program cultivated and advanced research collaborations and exchanges between the University of Melbourne and some of Indias top public health and medical research institutes.

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Anime enthusiasts, mark your calendars! The highly anticipated third season of 'The Rising of the Shield Hero' is set to premiere on October 6, 2023, at 9 PM JST. Following a successful second season, fans have been eagerly awaiting the return of this beloved isekai series. The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3 premieres on October 6, 2023, promising an unforgettable adventure for anime fans.(Kinema Citrus)

The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3 release time

The anime is scheduled to be released simultaneously across different time zones, ensuring a global viewing experience. Here are the premiere times for various regions:

PST: 4 AM, Friday, October 6

CST: 6 AM, Friday, October 6

EST: 7 AM, Friday, October 6

What is The Rising of the Shield Hero about?

Based on Aneko Yusagi's light novel series, 'The Rising of the Shield Hero' has garnered a massive following since its inception. This fantasy adventure, which follows the journey of Naofumi Iwatani, a college student summoned to another world as a legendary hero, has captivated audiences worldwide.

How many episodes will The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3 will have?

The new season, slated to consist of 12 thrilling episodes, promises an action-packed storyline. Fans can expect to witness Naofumi Iwatani and his party embarking on a new adventure, immediately picking up after the events of the previous season. The story will delve into the "Fallen Heroes" and the "Rebuilding" arcs, introducing exciting new characters and challenges.

What to expect from The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3?

In the upcoming season, Naofumi faces the daunting task of locating the other three vassal heroes: Itsuki Kawasumi (Bow Hero), Ren Amaki (Sword Hero), and Motoyasu Kitamura (Spear Hero). Additionally, Naofumi aims to rebuild his land in Melromarc and free all the slaves in the country. As part of this mission, he ventures to the country of mercenaries, Zeltoble, in search of demihuman survivors from Raphtalia's hometown, Lurolona Village.

Behind the scenes of The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3

The production of Season 3 remains in the capable hands of animation studio Kinema Citrus, known for its stunning visuals and compelling storytelling. Director Hitoshi Haga, returning from the first season, is set to guide the series in its latest instalment. Fans can anticipate the same level of excellence from the creative team, ensuring a seamless continuation of the saga.

Opening and Ending themes of The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3

Musical enthusiasts can look forward to the captivating opening theme, "Sin," performed by MADKID, and the mesmerizing ending theme, "Suki ni Natte wa Ikenai Riyu," sung by Chiai Fujikawa. These themes are bound to enhance the emotional depth and intensity of the series, enhancing the overall viewing experience.

How to watch The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3 outside Japan?

Viewers outside Japan may need to keep an eye on streaming platforms like Crunchyroll for any potential delays in the release of the English-subtitled version. Despite past controversies, 'The Rising of the Shield Hero' has managed to carve a niche in the hearts of anime lovers, praised for its intricate narrative, fantastic world-building, and endearing characters.

So, gear up for an exhilarating ride as 'The Rising of the Shield Hero' Season 3 premieres on October 6, 2023, promising an unforgettable adventure filled with magic, courage, and camaraderie.

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Aishwarya Rai had a great time at Paris Fashion Week and this picture of her with daughter Aaradhya Bachchan and Kendall Jenner is proof. The actor walked down the ramp and met with many international celebs including Jenner. An unseen picture of her and Aaradhya with Kendall is now being circulated by fans online. Also read: Aishwarya Rai winks, blows kisses as she walks the ramp at Paris event Aishwarya Rai, Aaradhya Bachchan and Kendall Jenner from Paris Fashion Week.

Aishwarya, Aaradhya with Kendall Jenner

The selfie features Kendall Jenner in a shimmery silver outfit and smiling big for the camera. She posed net to Aaradhya and held her while Aishwarya captured the moment. While Aishwarya looked stunning in a shimmery gown, Aaradhya opted for a black dress.

Sharing the photo, a post shared by a fan club read, Aaradhya has a new fan. Reacting to the photo, many showered with heart emojis. Someone also wrote on X, This is so sweet. Aishwarya, Kendall and Aaradhya.

Aishwarya at Paris Fashion Week

However, this is not the only moment of Aishwarya and Aaradhya Bachchan with the supermodel that has gone viral on social media. Previously, a video showed Aishwarya grooving with Kendall on stage during the show. Both Aishwarya and Kendall Jenner are L'Oreal ambassadors.

In fact, not only Aishwarya but also Navya Naveli Nanda walked the ramp at the fashion week. Navya is the daughter of Shweta Bachchan who is the sister of Aishwarya's husband, actor Abhishek Bachchan.

Navya made a splash in a modest, off-shoulder red dress. She paired it with silver heels and kept her look simple. As she walked the ramp, she kept smiling. Even she was seen waving at her mother and grandmother. Both Shweta and Jaya Bachchan were present at the show. Sharing a glimpse of Navya's international ramp debut, Shweta Bachchan wrote, Little miss LOreal. However, Navya and Aishwarya were not seen sharing the stage at any moment during the show.

At the event, Aishwarya posed on stage with Eva Longoria, Camila Cabello, Elle Fanning and others, apart from Kendall. Even Katherine Langford was also seen adjusting Aishwarya's outfit as she walked on the stage.

Aishwarya walked the ramp in a brown to golden shimmery gown with a cape. She paired it with a matching hair colour. She smiled, winked and blew kisses at the audience during her ramp walk. She was accompanied by Viola Davis.

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Boney Kapoor has said that he married Sridevi in Shirdi in 1996, and announced his second marriage only months later in January when Sridevi's pregnancy was clearly visible. He was talking to YouTuber Rohan Dua in an interview when he recalled the time Sridevi was pregnant with their daughter Janhvi Kapoor. He also refuted rumours that Janhvi was born before his marriage to Sridevi. (Also read: Janhvi Kapoor recalls finding her morphed pics on 'almost pornographic pages') Boney Kapoor and Sridevi's daughter Janhvi was born 1997.

Sridevi's religious practices

The filmmaker was talking about his religious beliefs, and he explained that he does not shy away from his religious identity, nor does anyone from his family. Boney told the YouTuber, "Whether it was Sri (Sridevi), whether it was Sunita (brother Anil Kapoor's wife), whether it was me or Anil or my daughter Janhvi. (We are religious). She goes to Tirupathi every three months. My wife Sridevi used to walk to Tirupathi on every birthday of hers. Whenever I was in trouble, she walked from Juhu to Siddhi Vinayak barefoot."

Why people believe Janhvi was born out of wedlock

The interviewer then asked him about getting married in a temple as well. My second marriage, my marriage with Sri (took place in Shirdi). We got married on June 2. We exchanged vows, we spent a night there and it was only in January when her pregnancy was seen that we had no choice, but to marry publicly. It took place in Shirdi, on June 2. (But), in public, we were married only in January (1997). That is why some scribes still write she (Janhvi) was born before marriage, something like that, the filmmaker said.

Sridevi's Chennai house

He also talked about Sridevi's Chennai house which remains close to his heart. The filmmaker said that the house was not used enough, and he had to renovate the entire house because of the dampness that seeped into the closed rooms. They had separate rooms for their family members, including Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Kapoor, and their parents. He added that he changed the space (with renovation), but he still feels Sridevi's presence when he visits the house.

Boney and Sridevi's marriage

After their wedding in 1996, Boney and Sridevi had two daughters - Janhvi and Khushi. Boney already had two children from his first wife Sunita - Arjun Kapoor and Anshula Kapoor.

It was in February 2018 that Sridevi died a sudden death due to accidental drowning in the bathtub of a Dubai hotel where she went to attend a family wedding.

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Christmas arrives early

Film trade analyst Taran Adarsh took to Twitter to share the update on Merry Christmas. He wrote, Katrina Kaif - Vijay Sethupathi: Merry Christmas to arrive one week early... 8 Dec 2023 is the new release date of #MerryChristmas, which teams #KatrinaKaif and #VijaySethupathi for the first time. #MerryChristmas - directed by #SriramRaghavan - is shot in two languages [#Hindi and #Tamil] with different supporting actors. Produced by #RameshTaurani, #JayaTaurani, #SanjayRoutray and #KewalGarg. #TipsFilms #MatchboxPictures.

Yodha release shifted again

Karan Johar also posted about Yodha on Instagram. He is the producer of the movie. We are all set to land in cinemas on 8th December, 2023, he wrote with a simple poster for the film, showing just the title and release date. The film also stars Rashi Khanna and Disha Patani. It is directed by Shashank Khaitan.

Interestingly, the films will now release sandwiched between three event movies. Ranbir Kapoor's Animal arrives on December 1, Shah Rukh Khan's Dunki and Prabhas' Salaar arrive on December 22.

Earlier, both the film were arriving on December 15 and Karan had also commented on the clash. He wrote on Threads, Clashing on a date without the courtesy of a phone call is hopefully not the way forward for the studios and producers . If we dont stand united in these tough and challenging theatrical days then calling us a fraternity is futile." However, this time, as soon as Merry Christmas' new release date was announced, Karan changed the date for Yodha as well.

Yodha has long been delayed. The first look poster for the movie was shared in November 21. Karan had captioned it, After conquering the peaks, I am proud to present Sidharth Malhotra back with power in the first of the action franchise by Dharma Productions - Yodha. Directed by the dynamic duo - Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha. Landing in cinemas near you on 11th November, 2022.

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Anya Taylor-Joy and Malcolm McRae got married for the second time in Italy. As per a Page Six report, The Menu actor had a star-studded wedding in Venice, Italy. Pictures of the actor's stunning taupe dress went viral on X. (Also read: Leave the World Behind teaser: Julia Roberts prepares for the apocalypse in nail-biting Netflix thriller. Watch) Anya Taylor-Joy chose a unique wedding dress for the ceremony.

Anya gets married in Italy

As per a report by Page Six, Anya and Malcolm got married at the historic Palazzo Pisani Moretta, a 15th-century palace, on the Grand Canal. Anya Taylor-Joy started dating Malcolm McRae in 2021. The pair tied the knot in an intimate courthouse wedding in July 2022. The actor had the private wedding in the US as she was still in the process of filming Furiosa, the prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, for which she had to fly to Australia.

The star-studded wedding included a number of celebrities in the guest list, which were her The Menu co-star Nicholas Hoult, supermodel Cara Delevigne, actor Julia Garner, and Miles Teller. Earlier on the day, The Queen's Gambit actor was spotted enjoying a cup of coffee on her balcony.

Anya's wedding dress

Pictures of her unconventional wedding dress also emerged online at the same balcony in a beige ballgown with colorful embroidered birds and flowers across the bodice which flowed into a full skirt. She chose a white veil to complete her look.

Malcolm first met the actor at the premiere of The Queen's Gambit in March 2021. The 29 year-old musician even wrote a song for the actor, as mentioned in his Instagram post from that time. "I wrote this song for Anya two days after meeting her. Its called Really Want to See You Again" he mentioned in the caption of his post.

Later in her British Vogue interview, the actor opened up about her relationship for the first time and said, "I said to my partner the other day that he was my hobby. Ive finally found someone who will happily sit in silence with me reading. Were basically 80 years old and 7 at the same time, and it works really well.

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BTS member Jungkook has set the internet ablaze with the announcement of his upcoming solo album, 'Golden,' slated to drop on November 3. The 11-track masterpiece will include his Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper, "Seven," featuring Latto, and a highly anticipated collaboration with Jack Harlow, titled "3D." Fans worldwide are in for a treat, with pre-orders starting tonight at 10 p.m. ET. Fans go crazy as BTS's Jungkook announces upcoming solo album 'Golden' with 11 tracks, including collaborations, set to release on November 3.(Photo by Twitter/viraltakes)

Jungkook, often referred to as the 'Golden Maknae' within BTS, has meticulously curated 'Golden' to capture the essence of his journey as a solo artist. The album promises to showcase his unique timbre, captivating listeners with every note. The excitement among fans is palpable, with social media exploding with enthusiasm.

On social media platform X, fans expressed their delight at the prospect of nine brand-new tracks from the K-pop sensation. User @homeisjungkook tweeted, "+9 NEW TRACKS FROM JUNGKOOK," showcasing the widespread anticipation. Another fan, @ShayBTSForever, marveled at Jungkook's achievements, writing, "Mini album he said, mini album! Who else is doing it like Jungkook?!?! The world is not ready for".

Excitement rippled through the fandom with tweets like @onyxkoo's, "9 new tracks from jk? 9? NINE?" The sheer disbelief was evident in their words. Similarly, @Goldenaotc exclaimed, "No mini album baby we gonna have 9 NEW Tracks," reflecting the fans' astonishment and joy.

Amidst the anticipation, Jungkook's dedication and relentless work ethic were acknowledged. Fan @jungkookiegkl highlighted his unwavering commitment, saying, "When his hyungs were busy with their singles and album he said that he was doing nothing then he disappeared for a month for seven and another month for 3D and then a NEW ALBUM with 9 new tracks! you don't play with JK he's working really hard when he wants to, it's all about balance."

Jungkook's solo journey comes at a significant time for BTS, as the group is on a temporary pause to allow its members to fulfill South Korea's mandatory military service. This album announcement marks a milestone for Jungkook, who continues to shine brightly in the absence of his bandmates. He recently performed his debut solo single 'Seven' at the 2023 Global Citizen Festival in New York, setting the stage for the musical extravaganza that awaits fans with 'Golden.'

In a recent interaction with fans on Stationhead, Jungkook addressed the challenges of fame, expressing gratitude even for the critics. "Im aware that there are plenty of people who dont like me, but I dont really care too much about them I thank them for their time, he said, highlighting his focus on those who support his musical endeavours.

As fans eagerly await the release of 'Golden,' Jungkook's dedication and talent continue to captivate the world, making him a global icon in the realm of music. Pre-orders for the album are expected to soar, as enthusiasts gear up to experience Jungkook's golden moments as a solo artist.

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The first trailer of Tiger Nageswara Rao is here! On Tuesday, the production banner of the film unveiled the action-packed trailer of the pan-India film that stars Ravi Teja in the lead. Also starring Nupur Sanon, Gayatri Bhardwaj, Jisshu Sengupta and Anupam Kher, the Vamsee directorial releases on October 20. (Also read: Tiger Nageswara Rao teaser: Ravi Teja roars in his first pan-India film, Anupam Kher plays IB officer. Watch) Ravi Teja in a still from Tiger Nageswara Rao.

About the trailer

The official trailer of Tiger Nageswara Rao begins with a tense scene of an auctioning at the Guntur Railway Station. The set changes to an anonymous caller warning the police that the Cirkar Express running from Kakinada to Madras will be looted in-between. As he powers through beating a number of goons, Tiger exclaims that it is better to give a warning before wrecking havoc.

Kriti Sanon's sister Nupur Sanon also makes a brief appearance as his possible love interest in the film. As the hunt for Tiger becomes priority, special police forces are also called in, which are lead by a special officer played by Bengali actor Jisshu Sengupta. Anupam Kher also appears as an Intelligence Bureau officer and Murali Sharma stars as the Deputy Superintendent of Police. The trailer ends with a number of action and dramatic scenes combined together.

Fan reactions

Excited fans reacted to the trailer and added to the comments. One said, "Sure shot blockbuster.." Another wrote, "This looks phenomenal. Ravi Teja did a great job and hope this movie will reach to every part of India." A comment read, "Ravi Teja is gonna give us an awesome cinematic experience. All the best wishes for the movie's success (red heart emoticon)" "Just trailer itself gave massive goosebumps. Waiting for mass maharaaj Ravi Teja!"

Directed by Vamsee, Tiger Nageswara Rao is based on true rumours, set against the evocative backdrop of the 1970s. Tiger Nageswara Rao is produced by Abhishek Agarwal under the banner of Abhishek Agarwal Arts. It will release in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi in cinemas on the occasion of Dussehra on October 20.

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Actor Lee Je Hoon was recently rushed to the hospital after complaints of abdominal pain. His agency Company On issued a statement regarding his health update and revealed that he underwent an emergency surgery as he was diagnosed with ischemic colitis. While his surgery was successful, he will remain hospitalised for recovery under the doctor's observation. Also read: Must-watch upcoming K-dramas in October Lee Je Hoon is best know for Taxi Driver season 1 and 2.

Lee Je Hoon hospitalised

His agency said, as per Soompi, "Lee Je Hoon went to the hospital on the night of [October] 1 due to severe abdominal pain, and he was diagnosed with ischemic colitis. He received emergency surgery early on [October] 2.

Thankfully the surgery was successful, and he is currently recovering at the hospital. We will have to watch the progress of his recovery, but he will probably have to hospitalized for about a week, it also added.

Lee Je Hoon skips Busan International Film Festival

Meanwhile, Lee Je Hoon has put his activities on hold to focus on his health. As a result, he will be no longer attending the 28th Busan International Film Festival. He was scheduled to host the opening ceremony with actor Park Eun Bin on October 4. It seems like the Extraordinary Attorney Woo actor will now be hosting the event solo as no new host has been officially announced to replace Lee Je Hoon.

His agency apologised for the inconvenience on the actor's behalf and said, "We feel very apologetic to the Busan International Film Festival and the Buil Film Awards. The festival will be held from October 4 to 13 at the Busan Cinema Center in Busan, South Korea. Several notable personalities from the Korean industry and worldwide are going to be a part of the event. Parasite's Song Kang Ho will be welcoming filmmakers on day 1.

Not only Busan International Film Festival, but Lee Joon Hoon had many other work commitments lined up. Among them is the 2023 Buil Film Awards. He was slated to attend the event on October 5. But, now he will be skipping it as well.

Meanwhile, Lee Je Hoon will be next seen in the upcoming K-drama Chief Investigator 1963. It's going to be the prequel to the iconic Korean series, Chief Inspector. Lee Je Hoon will be seen as the younger version of the titular chief inspector Park Young Han, originally played by Choi Bool Am.

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Republicans who control the state Senates elections committee voted Tuesday against confirming Democratic Gov. Tony Evers appointment of Joseph Czarnezki to the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission  sending the matter to the GOP-controlled Senate, where Republicans could vote to fire him.

If Republicans vote to fire Czarnezki, it would  at least temporarily  create a 3-2 Republican majority on the commission, though Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who appointed Czarnezki earlier this year, has pledged to work quickly to name a new Democratic member to the agency to bring it back to its standard 3-3 partisan split.

The Senate committee on shared revenue, elections and consumer protection voted 3-2, along party lines, against Czarnezkis appointment, with Republicans on the committee taking aim at Czarnezki for being one of three Democratic members of the agency who abstained from voting on the reappointment of the commissions nonpartisan administrator Meagan Wolfe earlier this year in an effort to prevent the Senate from firing her.

I cannot support that person when there is such clear dereliction of duty already done, committee chair Sen. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, said before Tuesdays vote.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission in June split on a vote to reappoint Wolfe in a bid by Democratic commissioners to block her nomination from reaching the Senate. The three Republican members of the bipartisan commission voted to nominate her, and the three Democratic members, including Czarnezki, abstained. Czarnezkis appointment is the only one currently before the committee.

Senate Republicans have argued that the deadlocked vote actually constituted a majority since the three commissioners who cast votes voted in favor of appointing her. Others, including Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, have said an appointment can only be sent to the Senate by a vote from at least four members of the commission.

The Senate last month voted 22-11, along party lines, last month to reject what Republicans contend was the nomination of Wolfe in an effort to remove her from the position she has held since 2018. Kaul immediately filed a lawsuit, arguing there had been no nomination and the move by Senate Republicans blatantly ignored Wisconsin law. Wolfe has pledged to continue in her role pending a court decision on the matter.

Speaking with reporters after Tuesdays vote, Czarnezki said its his understanding that the commission will vote again on Wolfes appointment.

I think the commission will eventually take a vote on the administrator, but again thats just my opinion, Czarnezki said. I havent discussed it with any other commissioners, but thats just how I feel about it.

The six-member commission consists of three Democratic and three Republican appointees and is tasked with providing the states more than 1,800 local clerks with guidance and resources for administering elections. Four commissioners  two Republicans and two Democrats  are selected by their respective legislative leaders. Czarnezkis seat is one of two that must be filled by a former municipal or county clerk. The former clerk seats are appointed by the governor from a list provided by the states political parties and confirmed by the Senate.

Next steps

Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, said hes not worried that a vote by the Senate to fire Czarnezki would result in a temporary 3-2 Republican majority on the commission.

The governor can appoint faster than the Senate can fire, and there is going to be a Democratic former clerk in this position that the governor appoints off of a list provided by the Democratic Party, Spreitzer said.

I certainly hope the full Senate will confirm (Czarnezki). I think he makes a great commissioner. But if they choose not to confirm him, there will be another Democratic former clerk in this position.

Evers described efforts by legislative Republicans to reject his appointees as really kind of stupid politics in a post on social media Tuesday.

Lets be very clear: there will be no daylight between a floor vote by Senate Republicans to reject the governors appointments and naming appointments to replace them, Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback added in a subsequent social media post.

Wolfe has been the subject of scrutiny from legislative Republicans since the commission made changes to certain procedures in the 2020 general election in response to the COVID-19 pandemic  changes that have spurred some conservatives to falsely accuse her of malfeasance.

Much of the GOPs criticism over the states 2020 election has been fueled by former President Donald Trump, who continues to make baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 vote. A recount, court decisions and multiple reviews have affirmed that President Joe Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin by almost 21,000 votes.

Czarnezkis resume

Czarnezki, a former Milwaukee County Clerk, was appointed to the commission earlier this year by Gov. Tony Evers to fill the agencys Democratic seat formerly held by Julie Glancey. The term is set to expire in 2026.

Czarnezki earned a bachelors degree in economics and political science, as well as a masters in political science with an emphasis in public administration, from UW-Milwaukee, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He was elected to the state Assembly in 1980 and reelected in 1982. He was later elected to the state Senate in 1983 and reelected twice in 1984 and 1988. Czarnezki was elected Milwaukee County clerk in 2008 and 2012 and served on the Milwaukee County Board from 2020 to 2022.

Last month, Republicans on the Senates sporting heritage committee voted against confirming four of Evers appointees  Sharon Adams, Dylan Jennings, Sandra Dee Naas and Jim VandenBrook  to the Department of Natural Resources policy board. The committee voted unanimously to recommend confirming Evers appointee Paul Buhr.

The committees votes come as the board prepares to implement a new wolf management plan in Wisconsin, which does not include a hard population cap, despite demands from hunters and farmers for a specific numerical limit.

Gubernatorial appointees can serve in their respective roles without a formal confirmation from the state Senate. However, a vote by the chamber to reject confirmation amounts to firing that nominee.

What drives voters? The years with the biggest spikes in voter registration Voter registration over the years Voter registration varies by state Why people vote
Good news for Rajasthan's gig workers as the state has established a dedicated welfare board for their benefit. The recently passed legislation by the Rajasthan State Assembly intends to establish a welfare board and a registry of all gig workers, aggregators, and primary employers in the state who work with gig workers. However, the outcomes will be determined by how well the board functions. While gig work does not resemble the employment relationship of the factory owner and the worker, it exhibits all the hallmarks of institutionalised power differences and subordination that make labour laws important in the first place. (PTI)

A gig worker registered with the Act's Welfare Board will have access to general and specific social security schemes, the opportunity to be heard for any grievances, and the opportunity to participate in all decisions made for their welfare through representation on the Board. The gig worker will be assigned an ID number that will be valid across all platforms for the duration of the work. A platform-based Gig Workers Welfare Cess will be collected on each transaction to fund social security schemes for gig workers. It cannot be less than 1%. of the transaction value and cannot be greater than 2%. However, the kinds of social security schemes and benefits to be given to gig workers will be determined by the board. Studies show that previous welfare boards constituted for other classes of workers have shown dismal performance. So, it remains to be seen whether or not another welfare board will repeat the episode.

Another issue is how benefits are distributed among gig workers. The nature of the gig economy is its flexibility to change the terms and conditions of work. By registering with various aggregators, such as Uber and Ola, full-time gig workers rely on these platforms as their sole source of income. A second category of gig workers consists of those who rely on these platforms to supplement their income. They put in a few days or hours of labour. Consequently, the nature of the work performed by gig workers differs, and it is unclear how these differences will be reflected in the registry.

The registration of a gig worker is valid for life. Some questions arise in this context.

Consider the scenario where a Swiggy gig worker decides to discontinue their engagement after a brief period, say a month. Would they still be eligible for any benefits that the Act stipulates?

Do specific benchmarks, such as a minimum threshold for the value of transactions or a minimum duration of work, dictate the eligibility for social security benefits? These are some concerns that necessitate careful consideration and have to be addressed by the Board within its guidelines.

The definition of aggregators includes the travel and hospitality services that are listed in the schedule to the Act, professional services, health care, content and media services, ride-sharing services, logistics, online marketplaces, and food delivery apps. The aggregators are supposed to register with the Welfare Board and share their database of all platform-based gig workers onboarded or registered with them. They have to update the registry based on the increase or decrease in gig workers registered under them. Any aggregator who fails to undertake the responsibilities under the Act shall be liable to a fine of 5 lakh for the first conviction and up to 50 lakh for subsequent convictions.

The Act establishes a Central Transaction Information and Management System to track every transaction generated on platforms. Every payment, including its breakdown of commission charged, payment made to platform-based gig workers, Goods and Services Tax (GST) deducted, and welfare cess deducted, will be recorded on the Central Transaction Information and Management System (CTIMS) for each transaction related to platform-based gig workers.

The process of submitting returns to the Board regarding the collected cess amount, along with the continuous sharing and updating of gig worker details, comes with associated costs. Additionally, the integration of all the platform-based data into a central management system will be gruelling due to potential variations in algorithms and technologies employed by different platforms. Further, there is a cess that has to be collected automatically in each transaction as a gig worker welfare cess. In general, the cost of the aggregators will go up, which will inevitably reflect in the final amount payable by the consumer. The emergence of similar welfare boards in various states further complicates the scenario. With each state introducing its own set of cess regulations, the resultant multiplicity of compliance requirements only serves to intensify the intricacy of the system. Thus, the challenges encompass not only the financial aspects tied to reporting and integrating data but also the potential complications arising from the proliferation of state-specific welfare boards and their associated levies.

Another uncertain aspect pertains to the willingness of the aggregators to share their data with the central system. Keeping in mind the central database system proposed in the law, the breakdown of each transaction required might make the aggregators sceptical about the intention of the law. Rather than asking for a total transaction value involved, the database looks out for commissions charged in each transaction.

As long as these questions remain unresolved, the well-intentioned law might result in unintended consequences owing to poor policy design. In light of this, it's crucial for other states, notably Kerala, which is currently formulating its own policy for gig workers, to meticulously contemplate the intricacies of the process before reaching a definitive conclusion.

This article is authored by Anu Maria Francis, research associate, Centre for Public Policy Research.

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PANAJI: Two people were arrested after they allegedly attempted to deliberately run over a traffic head constable when he asked them to pull them over at Calangute in north Goa, police said, adding that the incident took place on September 30. They allegedly attempted to deliberately run over a traffic head constable when he asked them to pull them over at Calangute in north Goa, police said

According to the police, one of the accused Sudeep Kumar M, 26, a resident of Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh deliberately reversed the car he was driving, and knocked over head constable Vidyanand Amonkar causing him serious injuries.

We received information that a red colour car carrying some contraband would be arriving under the Calangute Police station limits. When a police team attempted to stop the red colour car, co-accused Vasant Madiwal, a resident of Karwar Karnataka, who was seated in the passenger seat alighted from the seat and made a run for it. He was apprehended by head constable Amonkar, a police officer said.

Seeing his companion scuffling with the cop, Sudeep drove his car in reverse over the two of them. While Madiwal who was also knocked over wasnt dragged by the vehicle or seriously injured. He was apprehended from the spot and arrested for taking active part in the commission of the offence.

The accused has been arrested under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 279 (rash and negligent driving), 337 (endangering lives), 332 (attacking a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code, a police officer said.

CCTV footage of the incident shows the head constable Amonkar grabbing hold of the accused, Madiwal, in connection with another violation and attempting to restrain him when the accused reverses the red colour Tata Tiago running over Amonkar.

The driver Sudeep, who fled from the spot, was later apprehended while attempting to flee the state at the Goa-Karnataka border at Anmod.
Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, Derek O'Brien and other lawmakers were detained by the Delhi Police after they staged a dharna inside Krishi Bhawan after being denied a meeting with Union minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti. The TMC leaders have been taken to Utsav Sadan in Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar.



Over two dozen TMC supporters detained, including Abhishek Banerjee and Derek OBrien, said a senior police officer, asking not to be named.



A video shared by news agency PTI showed Delhi Police personnel forcibly removing the TMC lawmakers from the Krishi Bhawan premises. TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and other MPs at the Krishi Bhawan before they were detained by the Delhi Police. (AITC/X)

We were scheduled to meet Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti at 6pm today, we waited for 90 minutes, after which we were informed that she will not be able to meet us. Sadhvi Niranjan met Suvendu Adhikari today at 4 pm but we were made to wait here. If she doesn't want to meet us, then it's okay, but we will not go anywhere from here, we will remain sitting here, the TMC MP said in a video shared by his party on social media platform X.

The Trinamool Congress has been protesting in the national capital, accusing the Centre of withholding 15,000 crore in dues to the state under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and PM Awas Yojana. The saffron party has rejected the charge and accused the TMC of doing a "drama" in Delhi to divert attention from the scams in West Bengal.



ALSO READ: Abhishek Banerjee attacked during mega MGNREGA protest; TMC alleges conspiracy

Banerjee along with TMC lawmakers, state ministers and supporters including MGNREGA workers staged a protest at the Jantar Mantar, day after they held a two-hour dharna at the Rajghat on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary before being evicted by the police.

Meanwhile, West Bengal leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari met Union minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, sharing the pictures of their meeting on his X handle.

The Union Ministry of Rural Development has taken due cognizance how the corrupt Panchayat Pradhans belonging to the Trinamul Congress have been involved in siphoning thousands of crores in WB, during the implementation of works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA). The role of the State Govt officials are also under the scanner, he posted.

Hon'ble Minister has assured me that the corrupt would be taken to the task and the Ministry won't let the State Govt go off the hook till every rupee spent under the Central scheme is a accounted for and those who have looted the money meant for poor villagers won't be spared, Adhikari said.

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Hyderabad Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to the supporters during a public meeting, in Mahbubnagar on October. (ANI)

The absence of quite a few senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders at the official event and public rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Mahabubnagar on Sunday has become a talking point within the party, people familiar with the matter said.

Some of the seniors who gave a miss to the Prime Ministers meeting include BJP MP from Adilabad Soyam Bapu Rao, former MPs Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, G Vivek Venkatswamy and M Vijayashanti, former MLAs Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, G Vijayarama Rao and Enugu Ravinder Reddy.

Union minister and state BJP president G Kishan Reddy and BJP national general secretary Bandi Sanjay were spotted at Modis events. Others who were present, included, BJP parliamentary board member G Laxman, BJP national vice president DK Aruna.

A senior Telangana BJP functionary, requesting anonymity, said that the absence of other senior leaders at the Prime Ministers meeting has definitely sent a wrong signal to the party. There is a talk in the party that Bapu Rao might switch over to the Congress soon. We tried to contact him today, but he was not accessible to the party; neither were his followers, he said.

Though former MP G Vivek was present at the airport to receive the Prime Minister, he was not to be seen at the public meeting. The BJP functionary also said, We were told Vijayashanti (former MP) is suffering from viral fever and hence, she could not make it to the Modis meeting. There is no official word from her.

Former MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy has been keeping away from the party activities for quite some time. He told reporters in Hyderabad a couple of days ago that he would take a call soon on whether or not to quit the BJP.

Since September 24, these disgruntled senior BJP leaders had met at least thrice to discuss the state of affairs in the party. They felt that the party is not able to create confidence among the cadres that the party would come to power, as there is a growing feeling among the people that the BJP had a tacit understanding with the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi.

In fact, there is a bit of disappointment among the cadres that the Prime Ministers speech at the Mahabubnagar rally was not as hard-hitting as they expected. They were hoping that Modi would go all out against KCR and make a strong appeal to the people to pull the BRS down. But he was very brief in his criticism against the KCR government, the party leader quoted above said.

The BJP state leadership is hoping that some of the leaders who skipped Modis meeting would turn up at least at the public rally of the Prime Minister at Nizamabad today. It they dont attend the meeting, then it will be a clear signal to the party cadres that they wouldnt be staying in the party for long, he added.

Meanwhile, Kishan Reddy flew down to New Delhi following a call from the party national leadership on Monday afternoon. He held an emergency meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah to discuss the issues pertaining to the state of affairs in the Telangana BJP.

Speaking to reporters later, Kishan Reddy said Shah would be visiting Telangana on October 10. Before that, BJP national president J P Nadda would be in Hyderabad to address the state executive committee meeting the party to give direction to the party for the upcoming assembly elections, he said.

He announced that the first list of candidates of the party for the assembly elections would be announced in the second week of October. We are confident that the Nizamabad rally of the Prime Minister would generate a lot of confidence in the party, the BJP state president 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
The caste-based census in Bihar is the first step towards ensuring the constitutional rights of other backward classes (OBCs), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said on Tuesday, demanding a similar exercise in Uttar Pradesh. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati.

"The findings of the caste census conducted by the Bihar government is in the news today and intense discussions are going on over it. Some parties are definitely uncomfortable with this, but for BSP, this is the first step in the long struggle for ensuring the constitutional rights of OBCs," she wrote on X.

Demanding that the UP government commence the caste-based census immediately, she said the "right solution", however, would be that the BJP-led Central government conducts the exercise at the national level.

"Although the UP government should now improve its intentions and policies as per the public sentiments and expectations and start the caste census/survey immediately, the right solution will be found only when the central government conducts the caste census at the national level and gives them (OBCs) their due rights," she added.

Mayawati said her party was happy that India's politics was taking a new turn in favour of the neglected 'Bahujan Samaj'. She said the new development has rendered what she called "extreme anti-caste and anti-Mandal" sections, worried for their future.

Also read: Bihar caste census survey: 112 EBC castes under reserved category. See full list

The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar, on Monday, revealed the findings of the caste-based population survey months before the 2024 Parliamentary elections, drawing sharp reactions from the country's politicians.

Also read: Opposition dividing society on caste lines, says PM Modi as Bihar reveals caste census findings

According to the data, Bihar's total population stood at a little over 13.07 crore, out of which the Extremely Backward Classes (36 per cent) were the largest social segment followed by the Other Backward Classes (27.13 per cent).

Dalits, also known as the Scheduled Castes, accounted for 19.65 per cent of the total population in the state.

The Opposition block, INDIA, has welcomed the survey. RJD president Lalu Prasad, in a statement on Monday, declared that the Bihar survey has set the tone for a nationwide caste census". He vowed that the nationwide exercise would be undertaken after the INDIA block forms a government at the Centre after the 2024 general elections.

Also read: Mayawati urges SC to take note of political misuse of countrys name, ban it

The Congress has also welcomed the move and demanded that the Centre conduct a similar exercise.

"Out of 90 secretaries of the central government, only 3 are OBC, who handle only 5 per cent of India's budget. Therefore, it is important to know the caste statistics of India...," Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.

On the day the survey was made public, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of attempting to divide society on caste lines.

"They (Congress) used to divide society on the basis of caste, even today they are doing the same thing," PM Modi said speaking at a public meeting in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior.

The Nitish Kumar government ordered the caste-based consensus last year after the BJP government at the Centre refused to conduct the exercise.

A caste-based headcount was last undertaken in 1931.

Mayawati's regional rival, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has also demanded a similar exercise at the national level.

Bihar caste-based census published: This is the mathematical basis of social justice. The caste census will not open a new path of 85-15 conflict but of cooperation and those who are not domineering but are supporters of everyone's rights, they support and welcome it. Those who really want to get the rights, get the caste census done. The BJP government should leave politics and conduct a nationwide caste census," he said on Monday.

With inputs from PTI, ANI

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The coalition of Opposition parties, the Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), on Tuesday condenmed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government over fresh attack on media citing the recent raid conducted by Delhi Police in several places of journalists and employees associated with news portal NewsClick over alleged Chinese link. A senior police officer at the office of NewsClick at Sainik Farm during raids by Delhi Police's Special Cell on its premises,(PTI)

Homes of at least six journalists among 30 locations were raided by the special cell of the central Police. The search operation was conducted in a case fied under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, after the allegations that the news portal received funds for pro-China propaganda.

The INDIA bloc alleged that the BJP government's coercive actions are directed only against those who speak truth to power andrai not against those who spread hatred and divisiveness.

It further alleged, in a statement, that the government has attempted to convert the media into a mouthpiece for its partisan and ideological interests by facilitating the takeover of media organisations by crony capitalists.

"Both the government and its ideologically aligned organisations have resorted to reprisals against individual journalists who spoke truth to power. Furthermore, the BJP government has also spearheaded regressive policies like the Information Technology Rules 2021 that constrict the media from reporting objectively. In doing so, the BJP is not only hiding its sins of omissions and commission from the people of India. It is also compromising Indias global standing as a mature democracy," the INDIA coalition said in the statement.

The Opposition parties recalled how the BJP government deliberately persecuted and suppressed the media in last nine years by deploying investigative agencies. It named few news outlets including British Broadcasting Corporation, Newslaundry, Dainik Bhaskar, Bharat Samachar, the Kashmir Walla, the Wire along with NewsClick.

"We steadfastly stand with the media and for the constitutionally protected freedoms of speech and expression," it added.

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Hyderabad A 34-year-old police constable, who was attacked by a drunk man during Ganesh idol immersion ceremony in the early hours of October 1 in Eluru district of Andhra Prades , succumbed to his injuries on Monday morning, the police said. According to the SI, the incident happened at around 2am on October 1, when Narendra was on his duty during the Ganesh idol immersion ceremony

The deceased, identified as Gandham Narendra, posted at Agiripalli police station, breathed his last at Apollo Hospitals in Hyderabad. The body is being shifted to the government hospital at Nuzvid for post-mortem, Agiripalli sub-inspector (SI) Namburu Chanti Babu said.

According to the SI, the incident happened at around 2am on October 1, when Narendra was on his duty during the Ganesh idol immersion ceremony, which was passing through Gowda Bazar area. He objected to the loud noise being made by the people in the procession using drums and said it was disturbing people at the night.

He asked them to conclude the programme soon as it was already 2 am. One of the organisers of the procession, identified as Ullasa Rama Krishna (25) got into an argument with Narendra. In a fit of rage, he attacked the constable and beat him on his head with a stick, Chanti Babu said.

Narendra, who collapsed instantly with severe bleeding injuries, was immediately rushed to the government hospital at Vijayawada. As his condition turned critical, he was shifted to an Apollo Hospital in Hyderabad on October 1 evening. He succumbed to the injuries while undergoing treatment on Monday morning, the SI said.

Soon after the assault, the other police personnel immediately took Rama Krishna into custody. He was found to be in a drunk condition. We have booked a murder case under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code against the accused, a police officer said.

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Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday failed to secure any immediate reprieve from the Supreme Court in connection with his arrest by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) in the alleged 371 crore skill development scam. A demonstration against Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader N Chandrababu Naidus arrest in New Delhi. (PTI)

A bench of justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi refused to entertain Naidus plea to restrain the trial court from examining CIDs application for his custodial interrogation. CIDs application for Naidus police custody is slated to come up before the trial court on Wednesday. Naidu has been in judicial custody since September 9.

Adjourning Naidus plea for quashing the case to October 9, the bench refrained from admitting the TDP chiefs petition for the time being. It asked the Andhra Pradesh government to first adduce all the documents that were presented before the high court during the previous round of proceedings.

The issue of the production of documents arose after the state government claimed that the inquiry into the alleged scam was initiated much before 2018 when the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act was amended to mandate prior sanction for prosecuting a public servant for acts done in the discharge of official duties.

While Naidus legal team, comprising senior advocates Harish Salve, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, and Sidharth Luthra, argued that the entire investigation and arrest of their client was illegal since no sanction under Section 17-A of the PC Act was obtained, the state government replied that the inquiry in the case had begun in 2017 and therefore, Section 17-A was not applicable.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Andhra Pradesh government, contended that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was seized of the matter even before the present government came to power in May 2019 and that a subsequent registration of an FIR in December 2021 will not make it mandatory for the police to take prior approval before arresting Naidu.

To this, the bench asked Rohatgi to adduce all the records before it on October 9 when the matter will be heard next.

As the proceedings drew to a close, Luthra complained that the CID was pressing for Naidus custodial interrogation before the trial court and the remand application be put on hold until the bench hears the matter next. But the bench replied: This, we are not considering today...We are not saying anything about that. Let all the documents that were before the high court be filed here.

The investigation against Naidu centres around a scheme that allegedly diverted government funds intended for a skill development project into various shell companies through fraudulent invoices, which did not correspond with the delivery of services. He was arrested and later remanded in judicial custody in the matter on September 10.

Terming his arrest an instance of regime revenge and political vendetta, Naidu on September 23 moved an appeal against the Andhra Pradesh high court order, refusing to nix the first information report (FIR) in the case against him.

In its order on September 22, the high court said that no case for interference with the proceedings was made out when the probe in the case was at the fulcrum of attaining finality. It added that since the former chief ministers alleged actions were unconnected with his official duties or functions, the requirement of prior approval or sanction under Section 17-A of the PC Act was inapplicable.

Naidu, in his appeal before the top court, said that he was suddenly named in the FIR registered over 21 months ago. The petitioner was arrested in an illegal manner and deprived of his liberty motivated only by political reasons and even though there is no material against him, the petitioner is being made to suffer through an illegally motivated investigation, in clear violation of his fundamental right to fair investigation, said the plea.

It contended that Naidu has been illegally put into custody in the FIR as an orchestrated campaign of regime revenge and to derail the largest opposition in the state, the TDP because assembly elections were around the corner and he had started conducting rallies and having mass public contact programmes.

The Andhra Pradesh CID is acting at the behest of the ruling party in order to hurt the petitioners partys chances in the state election due early next year in a clear example of regime revenge. The CID is threatening the officers and others to implicate the Petitioner, his family, and the Party, read the petition, filed through advocate Guntur Pramod Kumar.

The petition emphasised that mandatory approval under Section 17-A of the PC Act was necessary before the initiation of the inquiry and the registration of the FIR against him since all the alleged acts in the case were relatable to the decisions taken by him in the discharge of his official duties.

The present scenario of regime revenge and political vendetta is exactly what Section 17-A seeks to restrict by protecting innocent persons, claimed Naidu, adding the initiation of investigation without such approval vitiates the entire proceedings since inception and the same is a jurisdictional error

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The fifth annual auction of mementos presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off on Monday, with a painting of the Banaras Ghat set at the highest quoted price of 64,80,000, according to the auction website PM Mementos. An exhibition of gifts and mementos presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at National Gallery of Modern Art, in New Delhi. (PTI)

Several mementos, including 900 paintings, intricate sculptures, indigenous handicrafts, and enchanting folk and tribal artifacts, ranging from 100 to over 64 lakh, are set to be auctioned this year. While 150 of these are on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, the remaining are available on the website.

The bids will continue till October 31 and the proceeds will go to the governments Namami Gange initiative  an integrated conservation and rejuvenation programme initiated in June 2014 to ensure effective abatement of pollution and conservation of the Ganga river.

Also Read: Varanasi receives Best Smart City in the North Zone award

In a post on X on Monday, Modi said, ...Presented to me during various programmes and events across India, they (the mementos) are a testament to the rich culture, tradition and artistic heritage of India...

According to the auction website, the highest valued item at 9.30pm on Monday was Painting of Banaras Ghat valued at 64,80,000. The painting, by renowned artist Paresh Maity, has been described by the government as a tribute to the timeless charm of the city, where ancient traditions blend harmoniously with modern aspirations.

The second highest valued item was a T-shirt Autographed by Men and Women Team for the Deaflympics 2022 at a base price of over 5,40,000.

Last year, a badminton racquet signed by Thomas Cup winner K. Srikanth received the highest bid of 51 lakh.
Leader of opposition in the Bihar assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha on Tuesday extended full support to the caste-based census, however, he pointed out a quibble. It needs improvement. After attending the all-party meeting in the assembly, Sinha recounted that he asked Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar about the mechanism used to conduct the survey when several people are living outside the state. The CM was looking at the officials, he claimed. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with BJP Leader of opposition Vijay Kumar Sinha(ANI)

We are in full support of this (census) which will ensure the upliftment of the poor. However, there are several flaws in the census and it needs improvement, Sinha told reporters.

The Bihar government on Monday released a set of data from its caste-based census that put the proportion of backward and extremely backward classes (EBCs) population in the state at 27% and 36%, respectively. Releasing the data, acting chief secretary of the state Vivek Kumar Singh said the detailed analysis of the data would be conducted later.

Sinha had earlier hit out at the Bihar government saying the cast-based census was conducted to create tension in the state, added that there is nothing new in the report. This is for creating tension in Bihar. They don't have the mentality for the future, social harmony or development, he said earlier.

After releasing the data, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar announced that the report of the caste survey will be presented to leaders of nine political parties in the state assembly at 3.30pm on Tuesday.

In another significant move, the Nitish Kumar cabinet approved 10% reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS) in the judicial services, and the state-run law colleges and universities. The move is seen as Nitish government's effort to blunt criticism by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that the opposition parties such as the Congress and Nitish Kumars Janata Dal-United were trying to divide Hindus along caste lines.
Data is a valued commodity in todays world that requires security at different levels to prevent attacks and exploitation from unauthorized personnel. The concept of data security and protection may be abstract for common people, but they still want to rest assured that the place where their sensitive data resides is secure. To provide this security, companies need to place the data in a location safe from any intrusion.

In this article, lets explore where and how data resides, the type of security it requires and ways to prevent and mitigate potential threats.

DSPM and CSPM: A Brief Refresher

DSPM and CSPM stand for data security and cloud security posture management, and play an important role in locating the data, enforcing and complying with various policies and preventing data attacks. There are two main points to remember while talking about DSPM vs CSPM.

Firstly, DSPM deals with the overall organizational datas assessment and protection, implementing security controls and end to end data protection, whereas CSPM emphasizes on the data located particularly on the cloud infrastructure, regardless of whether the cloud is public, private, or hybrid. Two, this effectively makes CSPM a subset of DSPM.

CSPM and DSPM in Practice: Reading Between the Lines

Organizations typically implement DSPM in conjunction with CSPM as an effective security strategy. Now that we understand the basic meaning of these terminologies, lets try to capture more context about the same.

How DSPM Works

Since DSPM is a superset of CSPM, organizations can define policies to protect sensitive data, including the monitoring and compliance for certain data types. This is independent of the infrastructure. For instance, if a company has incorporated PII policy, they are obliged to encrypt all the personally identifiable information of their users. That technically means, all the PII data should be encrypted in the database. This makes sure that even during the times of data migration or data cloning, the policies are attached, and the encryption or any type of adherence stays intact.

DSPM abstracts away the need to know in-depth details of configuring an encryption or control access, one only needs to be sure of the type of the data theyre dealing with and how it should be secured.

As discussed above, the first step in preventing gaps in data protection is defining policies. The policies are defined based on the data stored, regardless of the underlying infrastructure. These policies are then converted into technical configuration that indicates to the user where the data security policy is not conforming, assesses issues according to their priority for resolution, and aids in resolving those issues by providing clear, detailed technical fixes.

How CSPM Works

On the other hand, CSPM extensively focuses on the cloud infrastructure, meaning CSPM is coupled with the cloud provider and relies on the metadata provided by the same to identify and report misconfigurations. To proactively identify and fix misconfigurations, CSPM systems rely on guidelines from standards like the Center for Internet Security (CIS), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI (News - Alert) DSS), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

It helps in protecting cloud infrastructure including containers, VMs, databases and lambda functions. Unlike DSPM, the policies defined in cloud security are not copied when the infrastructure is changed - the reason being the identification of misconfiguration on the cloud is determined by the providers metadata.

In addition to alerting misconfigurations and regulatory compliance, cloud infrastructure is continuously monitored with CSPM solutions. Real-time monitoring makes sure that any discovered misconfigurations trigger instant alarms and provide quick alternatives for correction.

Improving the Overall Security With Posture Management

To improve the overall security posture, organizations should take a holistic approach by incorporating industry best practices. The following guidelines will help you firm up security and eliminate vulnerabilities from your overall security posture:

Perform End to End Risk Assessment

To discover potential vulnerabilities and dangers to both data and cloud infrastructure, organizations can start by completing a thorough risk assessment. An evaluation of data transportation, storage, access restrictions, and the cloud environment itself should all be part of this assessment.

Encrypt Sensitive Data

A simple yet effective no-brainer step is to use encryption techniques to secure sensitive data both at rest and in transit. This helps protect data even if unauthorized access takes place. Encryption should be used for data stored in the cloud, data in transit between cloud and on-premises systems, and data accessible by users.

Establish Reliable Access Controls

Create strong access controls to guarantee that only people with the proper authorization can access sensitive data and cloud resources. This involves employing secure authentication methods, implementing in place role-based access restrictions, and routinely evaluating and updating user privileges.

Establish Effective Backup and Recovery

Implement an effective data backup and recovery strategy to make sure that data can be restored in the event of data loss or system failure. Backups should be safely kept and regularly checked for accessibility and integrity.

Conduct Regular Audits and Assessments

Regular audits and assessments should be carried out to gauge the efficacy of the data and cloud security methods. Conducting compliance audits, vulnerability analyses, and penetration tests are a few of the methods that may be used to find any gaps or flaws that need to be fixed.

Teach Employees Best Practices for Data and Cloud Security

Lastly, as a rule of thumb it is a good idea to teach employees about best practices for data and cloud security, such as the value of secure data management, the use of strong passwords, and avoiding phishing scams. Employees can understand their role in preserving data and cloud security with regular training sessions.

Conclusion

CSPM and DSPM solutions, despite their differences, are both essential parts of a thorough cloud security strategy. CSPM and DSPM should be seen as complementary technologies that operate together to give a holistic approach to cloud security for today's cloud-centric enterprise.

Although CSPM is crucial for cloud security, combining CSPM and DSPM offers a higher level of defense against threats. To ensure that their cloud environments and data are secure and compliant, organizations ought to consider implementing both CSPM and DSPM solutions. By doing this, businesses increase real-time visibility into their data and cloud security postures, lower their risk of security events, and maximize their use of cloud security resources.
Ninety-two years after they were last enumerated, the Bihar government on Monday announced the results of a caste census carried out by the state government over four months earlier this year, and in the process cemented the political battle-lines around caste, ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the 2025 assembly elections in Bihar. Experts in Bihar defined publishing of the data as a seminal moment in the state, and perhaps national polity, that will help consolidate caste groups, raise aspirations of thus far ignored castes, encourage caste-based reservation demands, and reignite Mandal politics. JD(U) supporters celebrate after the Bihar government released the caste survey report, in Patna on Monday. (ANI)

Thus far, between 1931-- the last time castes were counted-- and 2011, the decadal census only counted religion and numbers of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe populations. The findings of the caste survey, given the nod by the Bihar cabinet in February 2023, showed that Backward Classes(BC) constitute 27.12% of the population in Bihar, Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) 36.01%, scheduled castes(SC) 19.65%, scheduled tribe(ST) 1.68% and general 15.52%.

NK Chowdhary, former head of the economics department at Patna University said that while the government had posited that the caste survey would allow for targeted welfare measures, the real intention was to reinforce the centrality of caste to Bihars politics. The political perception is that the BJP is dominated by upper castes. It is clear that these figures will now be used to pursue Mandal politics, and if that takes hold, it is advantage Grand Alliance in Bihar, Chowdhary said referring to the Janata Dal United, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress, and Left alliance currently in power in the state..

DM Diwakar, former director of the AN Sinha Institute for Social Studies said that marginal castes that have been told their counts for the first time in close to a century would now make their voices heard. It is certain that these castes will demand representation and their political aspiration will now increase, and therefore, backward politics will increase, Diwakar said,

He said that both the RJD and the JD(U), partners in Bihars ruling grand alliance have a catchment areas among the Muslims, Yadavs(the largest caste grouping in Bihar), BC and EBC voters, and that numerically, this was a formidable combination.

In 2024, as things stand, the Grand Alliance will fight the elections against the NDA; in 2019, the NDA, that had both the BJP and the JDU fighting under its umbrella swept Bihar, winning 39 of 40 seats.

Gyanendra Yadav, associate professor of sociology at the College of Commerce said that the caste based survey would help consolidate the support of various marginalized groups. The EBC numbers are going to play a decisive role, a constituency well nourished by Nitish Kumar since 2005, said Gyanendra Yadav, associate professor of Sociology, College of Commerce.

In 1990, Prime Minister VP Singh, faced with a resurgent BJP that looked to use Kamandal-- a water pot carried by saints, but because it rhymes with Mandal, a term used by political scientists to describe the BJPs Hindutva appeal-- made public the Mandal commission report, helmed by former Bihar Chief Minister BP Mandal, and announced a 27% reservation in jobs and educational institutions for other backward classes such as the Yadavs, Kurmis and Koeris. With a dominant BJP at the centre, experts said that it was clear the Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav would now use caste to counter the BJPs potent mix of Hindutva and social welfare. If nurtured politically, this could be a game changer from the INDIA alliance to counter the BJP, said Chowdhary.

Chowdhary however said that there was one factor that the opposition would still have to overcome. They have to remember this is not 1990, that the BJP has an OBC Prime Minister, and the BJP too has been looking to play backward politics, Chowdhary said.

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Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will on Tuesday chair an all-party meeting to discuss the results of the caste survey his government announced on Monday following the completion of an exercise that can potentially upend heartland politics and propel caste into the core of the discourse ahead of the 2024 national polls. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. (ANI)

The meeting was convened amid speculation that Bihars ruling alliance may propose an increase in the quota for backward castes in jobs and educational institutions proportionate to their population as per findings in the survey.

The landmark survey enumerated in a physical government headcount all castes for the first time since Independence and showed backward communities comprise nearly two-thirds of Bihars population. Indias decennial census only counts the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).

The survey showed that extremely backward communities (ECB) comprising 112 castes constituted 36.01% of the population, and backward castes (30 communities) made up another 27.12%. Together, other backward classes (OBC), the umbrella group consisting of backward castes and EBCs in the state, is 63.13%. SC form 19.65% and ST 1.68%.

EBCs get 18% reservation, while backward classes 12%, SC 16%, ST 1%, women from backward sections 3% in jobs and educational institutions.

Hours after the results were released, Kumar on Monday said he had called the meeting, where officials would give a presentation on the processes involved in the collection of the data.  There will be discussions on the aspects of the caste survey report. We will seek the opinion of the parties and take necessary steps.

Representatives of all nine parties, including the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), represented in the state assembly were expected to attend the meeting.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a constituent of the states ruling alliance, has demanded a higher quota for backward classes. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav reiterated the demand on Monday after the release of the survey report. In a post in X, Yadav said that the data would help in tailoring schemes for the weaker, oppressed sections and give representation to all sections as per their population.

RJD spokesman Chittaranjan Gagans said not only the numerical strength of the caste groups but also their educational, economic, and social status are likely to be discussed at the meeting. This is the first time such an exercise was done and it would help in making new schemes and government interventions for those who are at the bottom of the social ladder both economically and socially.

The opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) has pushed for a nationwide caste census to counter the BJPs mobilisation of less-dominant backward and Dalit groups into a broader Hindu umbrella. The BJP has included marginalised caste leaders into its ranks, countering an earlier perception that the party was primarily focused on its traditional vote base, upper castes.

State BJP chief Samrat Choudhary, who maintained they have always supported the caste survey, said they will study the report. BJP Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi echoed Choudhary and added the decision to carry caste survey was taken when his party was part of the ruling alliance in Bihar before Kumar formed the government with the help of RJD, Congress, and the Left parties.

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Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has said that today is a "black day for Indian democracy" after he and other party leaders including Derek O'Brien and Mahua Moitra were released by the police on the intervention night of Tuesday and Wednesday, nearly three hours after being detained during a sit-in at Krishi Bhawan in Delhi. TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee after being released from detention. (X/ @abhishekaitc)

Read here: Video: Mahua Moitra dragged out as police remove TMC leaders from protest site; Woh ek MP hain

Speaking to the media after his release from the brief detention, Banerjee said, You (BJP) are snatching away the rights of the people of West Bengal because you lost in the state. BJP has lost all elections in West Bengal, that is why they have stopped the money of the people.

The TMC leader has called for a campaign 'Raj Bhavan Abhiyan' in Kolkata on Thursday against the atrocity. "Will carry out a campaign 'Raj Bhavan Abhiyan' against manhandling done by Police, on October 5 at 3 pm with 1 lakh people at Raj Bhavan. Will also meet the Governor and hand over the 50 lakh letters to him," Banerjee said.

While accusing the Delhi Police of manhandling the MPs and MLAs including women, Banerjee said that the incident will stand as an example of 'New India' as public representatives were "dragged and manhandled" by Delhi Police and journalists questioning the government were booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

"The way Delhi Police officials behaved today... MPs were pulled by their hair and dragged out. An MP is elected by lakhs of people. BJP's Zamindar in Raj Bhavan is nominated. Dragging and manhandling them... Mahua Moitra, Dola Sen, the way they were grabbed by their hands and legs and dragged into police vans, people will reply to it," he said.

Further challenging the ruling BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Banerjee said, "In the next six months people will teach you a lesson. People of the country will exercise their power and today's event will remain a black day. Even the British did not behave so badly as the Delhi Police did today."

"Journalists are being booked under different sections, public representatives are being manhandled, corrupt people are being inducted and their sins are being washed away and the rapists of Bilkis Bano are being honoured," he further said.

The Delhi Police had detained around 30 leaders of the TMC on Tuesday during their protest demanding the release of MGNREGA funds. The TMC delegation, led by Abhishek Banerjee, along with party lawmakers, has been stationed in the national capital since Monday. They held a two-hour dharna at the Rajghat on Gandhi Jayanti before being evicted by the police.

On Tuesday, they staged a protest at Jantar Mantar and later took out a march to the Rural Development Ministry at the Krishi Bhawan, where they had an appointment with Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti.

Read here: Abhishek Banerjee, Derek O'Brien among TMC MPs detained by Delhi Police following dharna at Krishi Bhawan

However, TMC leaders claimed that the minister refused to meet them after a wait of one-and-a-half hours saying she would not meet more than five representatives. The TMC leaders, who had brought bundles of letters addressed to the prime minister and the rural development minister, refused to leave till Jyoti met them.

"She met BJP leaders and made us wait. At 8.30 pm, she left through the back door," he said, adding that the Centre should provide "papers" related to the scam they have alleged.

The protest continued till 9pm, after which they were detained by the police and evicted from the ministry premises. The TMC leaders were taken to Utsav Sadan in Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar. Over two dozen TMC supporters detained, including Abhishek Banerjee and Derek OBrien, said a senior police officer.

(With inputs from agencies)
For decades, Madhepura in Bihar has been known for two interconnected identities. The first is that it is the home district of BP Mandal, the former Chief Minister of Bihar, and the head of the Mandal Commission report that brought caste to the forefront of Indian politics more than three decades ago. The memorial of late B P Mandal at Muroh in Madhepur. (HH, Madhepur)

The second is that it has always been a Yadav stronghold, with its representatives to the Lok Sabha ranging from Lalu Prasad Yadav and Sharad Yadav to most recently, Dinesh Chandra Yadav of the JD(U). On Monday, caste was at the centre of political conversation in Madhepura again, with the Yadav community saying that this would lead to a renewed assertion of their identity, even as villages with EBC populations said that they hoped the results would mean material change, and upper caste villages across Bihar expressed a sense of worry.

In Madhepura, 55-year-old farmer Kishor Yadav said that the caste survey would help counter Rajput politics more effectively. Yadavs constitute 14.26% of the population, against Rajputs that are just 3.45%. As far as Madhepura is concerned, from BP Mandal to Lalu Yadav, this has been a Yadav stronghold, and by itself, the caste survey will have no effect on the politics here.

Akhilesh Yadav, state general secretary of the Janata Dal(United) said that the caste survey meant that government policies could now be framed in a targeted manner. The government can focus on marginalized castes on the basis of their economic condition, Yadav said.

Nityanand Yadav, the former headman of Sahugarh village in Madhepura said, We can now understand our own people and can mount pressure on the government for their upliftment.

East of Purnea, in the extremely backward castes (EBC) village of Sahkol, there was some hope that their numbers, 36.01% of Bihars population, would mean greater attention from the government. 45-year-old Chandra Shekhar Vidyarthi said, We hope that the report will not only be used as a political tool but we get something better from it.

Next to him, Rajkumar Mandal, a migrant labourer who returned from Punjab two days ago was less enthused about the possibility of change. We are what we are, and will continue to be. No report will change that, he said.

In the upper caste village of Akrohi in Bhabua in south-west Bihar however, there was some consternation. The village has 750 Brahmins, and Lalit Kishor Upadhyaya said that they were against the caste census because it created tension and disputes in society. But if your young generation continues to follow our legacy of education and morality, then even our low numbers will mean very little, Upadhyaya said.

In Aurangabad, colloquially called the Chittorgarh of Bihar because of the heavy Rajput population, Hemant Kumar Singh said that he did not trust the data, but said that the Rajput community would not be affected. Rajputs have never survived on their numerical superiority but on our strength and ability. People from all castes have faith in us and nobody can be in power in Aurangabad, or Bihar, by ignoring us.

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Backward communities comprise nearly two-thirds of Bihars population, the results of a landmark caste survey in the state announced on Monday, marking the completion of an exercise that has the potential to upend heartland politics and propel caste into the core of the electoral discourse in the 2024 polls. HT Image

This is the first time that all castes have been successfully enumerated in a physical government headcount since Independence. Indias decennial census only counts the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The preliminary results of the exercise  which was rushed after the Patna high court suspended the survey for three months this summer  threw up significant, though not surprising, results.

It showed that extremely backward communities  which comprises 112 castes  constituted 36.01% of the population, and backward castes  formed by 30 communities  made up another 27.12%. Together, other backward classes (OBC)  the umbrella group consists of backward castes and EBCs in the state  is 63.13%, confirming estimates by exercises such as the National Family Health Surveys. Scheduled Castes form 19.65% and Scheduled Tribes 1.68%.

Upper castes constitute 15.52% of the population, in line with what leaders such as Kanshi Ram predicted decades ago. Among backwards, Yadavs were found to be the biggest caste group, forming 14.26% of the population, while Kushwaha and Kurmi are 4.27% and 2.87%.

The data collected during the exercise, conducted in two phases, would help the state government plan developmental strategy in future, said acting chief secretary-cum-development commissioner Vivek Kumar Singh as he read out the survey results from a sheaf of paper.

Muslim caste groups were also included in the list of 215 names notified by the government ahead of the exercise.

The data on other socioeconomic parameters collected  17 criteria ranging from employment, education and marital status to land holding and property ownership were part of the surveys questionnaire  was not released. This data could be crucial in understanding how castes are benefitting from reservation, and how intra-caste bloc divisions are evolving.

We have taken the financial condition of every family... Tomorrow in all party meetings we will keep everything in front of everyone... The government will take all the necessary steps after taking everyones suggestions in the meeting..., chief minister Nitish Kumar said on X.

The historic but controversial exercise could trigger the beginning of a political churn that many experts call the second Mandal moment, a reference to the implementation of reservation for OBCs in 1990 that coalesced OBCs into a potent electoral bloc and sparked the rise of a clutch of regional parties which changed the face of heartland politics.

The 26-party Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) has pushed for a nationwide caste census, hoping that just as the first Mandal movement countered the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and helped regional parties craft alliances to hold on to power for nearly two decades, a second similar churn could pose a challenge to the dominant Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This sentiment was reflected in the response of the so-called Mandal parties to the survey.

When our government is formed at the Centre in 2024, we will conduct a caste census in the entire country and oust the Dalit, Muslim, backward and extremely backward-hating BJP from power, said Rashtriya Janata Dal patriarch Lalu Prasad on X.

But the ground realities have shifted since the 1990s, with the dominance of the BJP built on its successful strategy to mobilise less-dominant backward and Dalit groups into a broader Hindu umbrella. The BJP has also consciously injected marginalised caste leaders into its ranks, effectively countering an earlier perception that the party was primarily focused on its traditional vote base, upper castes.

The party reacted to the survey cautiously. The BJP state unit president Samrat Choudhary called the report half-baked and said that the government should complete the socio-economic aspect of the survey and release its findings as well for a true picture.

The exercise  which saw 320,000 enumerators fan out across the state to register the data of 130.7 million people across 17 parameters  will have political ramifications for Bihar, one of Indias most populous states that sends 40 members to the Lok Sabha. The Janata Dal (United) and the RJD are looking to mobilise marginalised castes  especially EBCs, considered a group loyal to Nitish Kumar  ahead of the 2024 general elections.

It could also act as a springboard for demands to expand reservations, especially for OBCs.

The findings of the caste survey can very well become a basis for the Bihar government to grant fresh reservation benefits, subject to the legal challenge that it may eventually face before a constitutional court if the quota breaches the 50% ceiling fixed by the Supreme Court in the 1992 Indra Sawhney (famously known as Mandal Commission) case.

Tamil Nadu, presently, has a law providing for 69% reservation for identified classes. Although a challenge to this law remains pending before the top court, it has been saved so far on the ground that the law received a presidential assent in 1993 and was also put in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, which ensured a limited scope of judicial review.

The November 2022 judgment by the Supreme Court, ratifying the 10% EWS quota, had also weighed in on the 50% ceiling on reservation.

The majority verdict at that time held that the 50% ceiling on reservation is not inviolable or inflexible, marking a paradigm shift from the thumb rule that has governed reservations in India, preventing states from enforcing quotas that take the proportion above 50%, as laid down by a nine-judge bench in the 1992 judgment. The 3-2 view noted that the 50% ceiling applied only to the provisions of the Constitution that existed at that time and cannot extend to the 2019 amendment to any subsequent law.

Counting caste has always been a contentious ask in India. British-era censuses counted caste in minute detail but the last one to enumerate all castes was conducted in 1931. Independent India abolished the practice and subsequent censuses only counted scheduled castes and tribes. Though unofficial estimates exist, especially of the numerical strength of backward groups, there is no official count.

In 2011, the central government announced that alongside the regular census, a socioeconomic and caste census will also be conducted. But the caste data was never made public and the government later told Parliament that methodological infirmities held up an accurate analysis.

The first rumblings of the survey began in 2021, when Nitish Kumar was still in alliance with the BJP, and snowballed once he moved to join hands with the RJD and Congress.

The first round of the survey was conducted between January 7 and 21, when officials listed the households in their respective districts and numbered them. In the second phase, enumerators documented the socio-economic indicators as well as the caste status of roughly 130 million people.

But three weeks after the exercise began on April 15, it ran into legal troubles after a raft of petitioners approached the Patna high court, arguing the survey was too similar to a census that only the Union government can undertake. They also said that details sought violated the right to privacy.

On May 4, the high court temporarily suspended the survey but on August 1, ruled in favour of the government, saying the census falls solely within the prerogative of the Union government but state governments are not prohibited from collecting data for welfare schemes and affirmative action.The petitioners approached the Supreme Court, which in the last week of August refused to suspend the exercise.

Congress leader Kishore Kumar Jha attributed the fall in upper caste count to their relocation to other states for employment, better lifestyle and peaceful living. Bihar witnessed a lot of violence due to caste tensions and lawlessness in the past. Besides, a lot of people migrated for better educational facilities for their children. And more importantly, the legitimacy of the data collected in the survey is also a big factor, Jha said.

Political strategist Prashant Kishore said that the data alone would not solve Bihars problem. The fact known to everybody is that Bihar is a state with 13 crore population and ranked at the bottom of the development ladder for decades. The legal sanctity of the data is not there, as there is world of difference between a survey and a census. Anybody can get a survey done, and what has come out is no different from what is already known, he said.

Former director of AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies DM Diwakar said that the data on caste census would generate a cry from across the country to raise the reservation bar in jobs from 50% to a higher level. The survey report has come out as authentic source for castes constitution of the society, as the government was so far relying on 2011 data for want of the national census. It is expected to bring such castes among the EBCs like Kumhar, Barhai (carpenter), Kanu, Hajam, etc, who were marginaised in the BC politics after acknowledging their strengths, said Diwakar.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Subhash Pathak Subhash Pathak is special correspondent of Hindustan Times with over 15 years of experience in journalism, covering issues related to governance, legislature, police, Maoism, urban and road infrastructure of Bihar and Jharkhand. ...view detail
The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 will benefit real estate companies that own land in what was to be declared deemed forest in Haryanas Aravallis, documents show. A part of the biodiversity rich sacred grove, Mangar Bani, one of the last remaining patches of primary forest in this entire region, is owned by a private company. The Haryana government in June 2016 issued a notification stating that Mangar Bani was a no-construction zone. (Sanjeev Verma/HT archive)

For example, in Mangar village spread over 4262 acres (of which 3810 acres is hill area), a large part of land that should have been identified as forest as per dictionary meaning is in fact owned by three private companies, Ireo Private Limited, M3M India Private Limited, and Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust , and a web of their subsidiaries . A part of the biodiversity rich sacred grove, Mangar Bani, one of the last remaining patches of primary forest in this entire region, is also owned by one of these companies, papers show.

HT has seen latest jamabandi records of 2018-19 available on Haryana governments website and other documents that show nearly 1,000 acres of Mangars forest-like area, also denoted as gair mumkin pahar (uncultivable land)is owned by these three companies. To be sure, other private companies also own smaller patches of land here.

Also Read: Nagaland assembly passes resolution on Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act 2023

Ireo, M3M and Patanjali did not respond to detailed questionnaires. A person who answered the phone at one of Ireos offices said management was unavailable to speak.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a representative of Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust said a senior executive of the firm, handling land-related issues,died on September 24, explaining that this meant the company would not be able to respond. He added: The amendment to the forest conservation act is a development oriented and not destruction oriented.

When contacted over phone a director at M3M declined to comment as it is a legal matter.

Also Read: Wildlife boards key panel to take call on how to conserve grasslands

The amendment removes the protection forest land such as this derived from a 1996 Supreme Court judgment that dealt with forests identified as per dictionary meaning of the word or deemed forests. The Supreme Courts December 12, 1996 verdict in TN Godavarman Thirumulpad vs. Union of India & Others case directed that forests will not only include forest as understood in the dictionary sense, but also any area recorded as forest in government records irrespective of the ownership.

The Supreme Court in its Godavarman order directed state governments and UTs to identify forests as per dictionary meaning of the word and treat them as forests for purpose of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 irrespective of ownership and condition. Over 25 years after the top court order, Haryana did not identify any deemed forests. Even Mangar Bani sacred grove, a dense forest with rich biodiversity, was awaiting a deemed forest tag. Haryana presently has a forest area of only 3.63% of the total geographical area of the state.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior official from the Haryana forest department said detailed guidelines on implementation of the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 have not been issued by the Union environment ministry. We will take a call based on the guidelines (once they are issued), the official added.

Total area of gair mumkin pahar in Mangar is around 3810 acres out of which 1132 acres is notified under Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) special section 4, and hence has to be treated as forest as per Supreme Court orders. Another few hundred acres falls in the Aravalli Plantation zone, which is also recorded as forest. The rest of the Aravalli area  around 2,500-odd acres -- should have been declared as deemed forests as per Supreme Courts 1996 Godavarman judgment but now the FC Act amendment seems to have removed that category, said Chetan Agarwal, Gurugram based forest analyst.

HTs analysis of land records in Mangar shows the ownership of what would have been called forest land by Ireo Private Limited, M3M India Private Limited and Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust and several other private companies.

One of the subsidiaries of Ireo, Massive Infracon Private Limited, owned around 400 acres in Mangar as per communications between the company and Director General, Town and Country Planning, Haryana dated June 5, 2012, as seen by HT.

If these are private lands they do not come under our jurisdiction and hence we have nothing to say, said an official from Haryana forest minister, Ch Kanwar Pals office.

A 2019 environmental clearance form of Kenwood Mercantile for a Proposed Tourism & Recreation Project on Land measuring 388 acres at Faridabad-Gurugram Road said the project coordinator is a Satya Singh from M3M India indicating that Kenwood Mercantile which owns large land parcels in Mangar is a subsidiary of M3M. The EC application was not taken forward.

Interestingly, the Haryana government in June, 2016 issued a notification stating that Mangar Bani was a no-construction zone. The 677.12 acres of Mangar Bani and its buffer area of 1,266.91 acres were free from encroachment, the government had said then. It however did not notify the sacred grove as a forest.

Based on analysis of Jamabandi documents and company papers we find that these three companies and their subsidiaries or related companies own or control around 1000 acres in Mangar, said Agarwal who has tracked and analysed the web of companies and land documents.

The Aravalli land in Mangar were common lands that belonged to the village community and were recorded as shamlat deh (common land in revenue records) since pre-independence. Subsequently it was transferred to the panchayat under the Punjab Village Common Lands Act 1961 and recorded as panchayat deh (panchayat land in revenue records) in 1963-64 jamabandi.

Around 1973-74, by mutation no 155, around 3809.63 acres of land here was mutated from panchayat deh to shamlat deh and thereafter transferred to the village proprietors (thereby transferring ownership from the panchayat to joint ownership of the village proprietors). The mutation was sanctioned on the basis of an order of a sub-judge in Ballabhgarh dated March 14, 1973 according to Agarwal.

Some villagers from Mangar moved the local court to get a judgement in their favour to privatise the common land. That was the beginning of how land started to be sold to private developers in Mangar. Thereafter, several other villages near Mangar also moved court to get an order to fraudulently privatise Aravalli common lands. This was followed by sale in undivided shares of the common land to outsiders,he added. However, an undivided share was just owned in common with all the other new owners. To obtain plots, the common land needed to be partitioned. Around 1985-86, the consolidation proceedings were misused to partition the erstwhile panchayat/shamlat hill area of Mangar, according to Agarwal..

On August 4, the Forest Conservation Amendment Act 2023 was notified.

One of the contentious provisions of the new law is that it exempts unrecorded deemed forests from the modified law on forest conservation.

The FC Amendment Act states that it will recognise land that has been declared or notified as a forest in accordance with the provisions of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 or under any other law. It will also recognise land that is not recognised as forest under any law but has been recorded in Government records as forest, as on or after the October 25, 1980. The provisions of this clause shall not apply to land, which has been changed from forest use to use for non-forest purpose on or before December 12, 1996. And hence, it doesnt recognise land which meets the definition of forest but remains unrecorded as forest.

In an interview to HT on August 11, 2023,Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav explained why forests with dictionary meaning are exempted from the purview of the Act.

The applicability of the Forest (Conservation) Act in various types of land has been dynamic -- that is, initially provisions of the Act were being applied to the notified forest land only. Subsequently, after an SC judgement of December 1996, the Act was made applicable to revenue forest land or in lands which were recorded as forest in government records and to areas which look like forest in their dictionary meaning. Many such lands were already put to non-forestry use such as habitations, institutions, roads, etc. with the required approval of the competent authority. This situation resulted in different interpretations of the provisions of the Act with respect to their applicability especially in recorded forest lands, private forest lands, plantations, etc, he said . The government record for the purpose of the FC Act has been defined in the bill clarifying that all forests, including unclassed forests, recorded in the record of government, forest department local bodies, or authority will also attract the provisions of the Act, he added.

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India on Tuesday banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and All Tripura Tiger Force (AATF) along with its factions, wings and front organisations under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The ministry of home affairs stated that the NLFT and AAFT having aim to establish an independent nation by secession of Tripura from India through armed struggle.

In a notification, the ministry of home affairs stated that the NLFT and AAFT having aim to establish an independent nation by secession of Tripura from India through armed struggle in alliance with other armed secessionist organisations of Tripura and to incite indigenous people of Tripura for such secession, have been engaging in violent and subversive activities, thereby undermining the authority of the government.



The Centre said that both the outfits have been spreading terror and violence among the people for achieving their objectives while maintaining close nexus with other unlawful associations of North East with the aim of mobilising their support.



The government notification also accused both the outfits of engaging in violent and unlawful activities which are prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India. Both the NLFT and AAFT are accused of killing civilians and personnel belonging to the police and security forces.



They have been accused of extorting funds from the public including businessmen and traders in Tripura, and establishing and maintaining camps in neighbouring countries for the purpose of safe sanctuary, training, procurement of arms and ammunitions, etc, the government notification stated.



The Central Government is also of the opinion that the aforesaid activities of the NLFT and the ATTF are detrimental to the sovereignty and integrity of India and that they are unlawful associations, the notification stated, warning if there is no immediate curb and control of these outfits, they will mobilise their cadres for escalating the secessionist, subversive and violent activities and other acts.



Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967), (hereinafter referred to as the said Act) the Central Government hereby declares the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) along with all its factions, wings and front organisations and the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) along with all its factions, wings and front organisations as unlawful associations, the government said.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR HT News Desk Follow the latest breaking news and developments from India and around the world with Hindustan Times' newsdesk. From politics and policies to the economy and the environment, from local issues to national events and global affairs, we've got you covered. ...view detail
NEW DELHI: Seiminlun Gangte, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency from Manipur on September 30 and brought to Delhi, will continue to remain in the custody of the agency for eight more days, a Delhi court said on Tuesday. Seiminlun Gangte has been remanded in NIA custody for eight more days on a request by the agency (ANI/X)

Additional sessions judge (ASJ) Sachin Gupta remanded Gangte in NIA custody till October 11 on a request by the agency which sought his custody for 10 more days, saying he was caught for his alleged involvement in the SUV blast case that took place in the Kwakta area of Manipurs Bishnupur district on June 21 during the ethnic clashes.

Gangte, who was apprehended by a joint team of NIA and Manipur Police on Saturday, was brought to Delhi and produced before duty magistrate Komal Garg on Sunday who remanded him in NIA custody for two days.

At the time of his arrest on September 30, NIA said in a statement that Myanmar and Bangladesh-based militant groups had entered into a conspiracy with a section of militant leaders in India to indulge in incidents of violence to drive a wedge between different ethnic groups and to wage war against the Government of India.

The statement said that the leadership of the terror outfits had been providing funds to procure arms, ammunition and other types of hardware sourced from across the border and other terrorist outfits active in the northeastern states to fuel Manipurs ethnic strife.

Gangte was arrested days after NIA took into custody another alleged militant, Moirangthem Anand Singh, who was arrested by NIA on September 24 and brought to Delhi as well.

Singh was first arrested by the Manipur Police on September 16 along with four others for allegedly wearing camouflaged uniforms and possessing an INSAS rifle, an SLR, two .303 rifles and multiple magazines. He is a former cadre of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur.

Clashes in Manipur first broke out on May 3 in Churachandpur town after tribal groups called for protests against a proposed tweak to the states reservation matrix, granting scheduled tribe (ST) status to the Meitei community.

Violence quickly engulfed the state where ethnic fault lines run deep, displacing tens of thousands of people who fled burning homes and neighbourhoods into jungles, often across state borders.

The clashes have virtually partitioned the state between the dominant Meitei community that lives in the plains and constitutes 53% of the states population, and the tribal Kuki group, which lives in the hill districts and makes up 16% of the state. At least 175 people have died and another 50,000 displaced.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hit out at the Congress over Rahul Gandhi's Jitni Abadi, Utna Haq (greater population, greater right) remark on the Bihar caste census findings.



Addressing a rally in Jagdalpur in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, the prime minister said,"Since yesterday, Congress leaders are saying 'jitni aabadi utna haq'... I was wondering what the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be thinking. He used to say that the minority has the first right to the country's resources... But now Congress is saying that the population of the community will decide who will have the first right to the country's resources".



So now do they (Congress) want to decrease the rights of the minority? Do they want to remove the minorities?... So, should the Hindus, who have the largest population, come forward and take all their rights?... I am repeating Congress party is no longer being run by Congress people. Senior leaders of Congress are sitting with their mouths shut, neither are they asked, nor do they dare to speak after seeing all this. Now Congress has been outsourced, he added.



ALSO READ: Oppn dividing society on caste lines, says PM amid Bihar's caste census report Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses during an event organised for laying of foundation stone of various developmental projects, at Jagdalpur in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh.(PTI)

Hailing the Bihar caste census on Monday, Gandhi had posted on social media platform X, The caste census of Bihar has revealed that OBC SC ST are 84% there. Out of 90 secretaries of the Central Government, only 3 are OBC, who handle only 5% of India's budget! Therefore, it is important to know the caste statistics of India. The greater the population, the greater the rights  this is our pledge. Congress is a ruling ally of Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar.





ALSO READ: Bihar caste survey: A new strand to Indias identity politics



The Bihar government's caste census findings revealed that the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Extreme Backward Classes (EBC) together comprise 63 per cent of the state's population. The survey also stated that Yadavs, the OBC group to which Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav belongs, were the largest in terms of the population, accounting for 14.27 per cent of the total population.

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Kochi: BJP leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Gopi on Monday undertook an 18-km padayatra (foot march) along with hundreds of party workers in Thrissur district of Kerala to protest against alleged corruption and money laundering at the CPM-controlled Karuvannur Service Co-operative Bank. The actor-turned-politician paid floral tributes to the five people who died by suicide after losing their savings in the cooperative bank fraud (File photo)

The actor-turned-politician paid floral tributes to the five people who died by suicide after losing their savings in the cooperative bank fraud. He met the families of the victims before beginning the padayatra around 2pm Monday from the Karuvannur bank in Irinjalakuda. The protest march was inaugurated by BJP state president K Surendran.

This agitation is not aimed at destroying cooperative societies or questioning their existence. These cooperative banks and institutions must function as long as they can return the blood money of poor people. We will not allow them to be shut down. This yatra is aimed at strengthening the foundations of the cooperative structure, said Gopi at the inauguration of the protest.

Gopi, who served as the Rajya Sabha MP between 2016 and 2022, insisted that the agitation was not political in nature and that it was being conducted from a humane perspective to protect the cooperative sector in the state and savings of lakhs of poor people.

However, the agitation comes just weeks after BJP state chief K Surendran said in a Facebook post that Gopi would be repeated as the partys nominee from Thrissur in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Though he had emerged third in the Thrissur constituency in the 2019 elections behind the UDF and LDF, Gopis popularity saw the BJPs vote-share rise to 2.93 lakh votes from 1.02 lakh votes in 2014.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been probing charges of money laundering at the Karuvannur bank where benami loans were sanctioned allegedly to non-members of the CPM-controlled bank often by mortgaging the properties of poor members without their knowledge. The money to the tune of 150 crore has been swindled out of the bank, ED has said.

The central agency has made several arrests in the case including the accused Sathish Kumar, Kiran PP and CPM local councillor PR Aravindakshan. It has also questioned CPM MLA and former minister AC Moideen and MK Kannan, CPM leader and state vice-president of Kerala Bank.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vishnu Varma Vishnu Varma is Assistant Editor and reports from Kerala for the Hindustan Times. He has 10 years of experience writing for print and digital platforms and has worked at The New York Times, NDTV and The Indian Express in the past. He specialises in longform reportage at the intersections of politics, crime, social commentary and environment. ...view detail
EducationQuest Foundation has awarded 23 Nebraskans nearly $145,000 in Reaching Your Potential Scholarship funds.

Charlee Salinas of Columbus, a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is among the scholarship fund recipients.

EducationQuests Reaching Your Potential Scholarship Program provides renewable scholarships to low-income Nebraska students who face obstacles to college. Applicants are referred by community agencies, colleges, and select high schools across the state. Recipients who attend a two-year college receive $3,000 annually; those who attend a four-year college receive $6,300 annually.

Since the program began in 2000, EducationQuest has awarded more than $8.5 million in scholarships to 657 Nebraskans. Of these, 80% are either enrolled in college or have graduated.

We are humbled and inspired by the challenges our Reaching Your Potential Scholars face. We are excited to welcome them into the program and work with them as they earn their college degree, Vice President of Grants and Scholarships Eric Drumheller said.
A special cell of the Delhi Police on Tuesday morning held searches at the office of the online portal NewsClick and journalists associated with it. NewsClick editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha being taken by the Delhi Police from his office in Saket.(Raj K Raj)

The searches were held across at least 35 locations in New Delhi and Mumbai. Among those raided were NewsClick editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha, journalists Abhisar Sharma, Urmilesh and others.

Some of the journalists have been taken to the special cells office in Delhi, and the police have clarified that no one has been arrested yet. The police also recovered dump data from laptops and mobile phones of some of the journalists, according to PTI.

While union minister for information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur has defended the police action against NewsClick and journalists associated with it, several Opposition leaders and press bodies have condemned the move.

Why the police has taken action against NewsClick?

The action has been taken on the basis of a case registered on August 17 under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Section 153A (promoting enmity between two groups), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, according to ANI.

The exact details of the case are, however, not known as there has been no formal word from the Delhi Police yet.

The portal was already being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate on money laundering charges. In 2021, the Delhi high court, however, had barred the federal agency from taking any coercive action against NewsClick and its editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha.

In August, NewsClick was again at the centre of a row after a New York Times report claimed that the portal was part of a global network that received funding from American billionaire Neville Roy Singham, who allegedly worked closely with the Chinese government media machine.

The news report had cited some emails purportedly sent by Singham to NewsClick in which he wanted a series of articles to highlight China's steps to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. It had also cited a video published by NewsClick titled Chinas history continues to inspire the working classes.

The news report had rocked the Monsoon Session of the Parliament as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had attacked the Opposition over the issue.

In 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, Thakur had written on X.

NewsClick, however, had denied the claim, saying the allegations by certain political actors and sections of the media are unfounded and without basis in fact or law.

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On May 3, All Tribal Students Union Manipur took out what it called a solidarity march in Churachandpur against a high court order asking the state government to consider the Scheduled Tribe status for the dominant Meitei community. The march sparked ethnic violence that continues to roil the state five months later and has left 178 dead and over 50000 displaced. A solidarity meeting in Imphal on Monday. (ANI)

Eight petitioners moved the court seeking the status to save Meitei ancestral land, traditions, culture, and heritage. They argued the Meiteis enjoyed the status before September 1949 when the princely state of Manipur merged with India. They sought the restoration of this status.

The high court order opened old fault lines between mostly Hindu Meiteis and predominately Christian Kuki and Nagas tribal communities residing in the states hill districts.

The tribal communities opposed the status to the Meiteis, who account for around 53% of Manipurs population and live mostly in Imphal Valley, saying it would deprive them of government jobs and admissions to educational institutions. Meiteis have the Other Backward Class status. They have had an upper hand politically as the Imphal Valley region they dominate sends 40 of the 60 lawmakers to the state assembly even as the region accounts for around 10% of the states total land area. The tribal-dominated hill districts account for nearly 90% of Manipurs landmass but have fewer seats in the assembly.

People living in the plains are not allowed to buy land in the hills districts where an elected Hill Areas Committee enjoys administrative autonomy. Shrinking land and other resources in the Imphal Valley as well as protections given to hill areas and restrictions on non-tribals from buying land there led to a demand for ST status for the Meiteis.

Tensions were also brewing over the state governments survey of the Churachandpur-Khoupum protected forest region covering 490 square km. Locals alleged the survey was conducted without their consent with the intent of evicting them.

Armoury loot

Security officials say it would have been easier to contain violence if the mobs, belonging to both Kuki and Meitei groups, did not have access to a large cache of arms and ammunition. In the first few weeks of the violence, mobs stole weapons from police stations, gun shops, and armouries of the India Reserve Battalion.

Security forces have found evidence of militants using the same weapons in their attacks. Most weapons were stolen in the first few days of violence and between May 28 and May 31.

Officials aware of the matter said that nearly 4500 weapons and around 650000 pieces of ammunition were robbed. The state government told the Supreme Court it would submit a report on the loot of weapons and ammunition in a sealed cover because making it public would cause panic. Security forces have recovered only about 1,500 arms and 15000 pieces of ammunition.

Buffer zones

The fault lines have only grown deeper since May 3. Meiteis, who lived in hill districts, have fled to the valley areas. Kukis, who lived in the valley, have found refuge in the hills.

Kuki groups have accused Manipur Police of bias and urged the Union government to retain Assam Rifles to restore peace in the state. Assam Rifles reports to the Union government and Manipur Police to chief minister Biren Singh, a Meitei.

Assam Rifles in August sent a legal notice to a Manipuri leader for his alleged remarks accusing the force of siding with Kuki militants during the clashes with Meiteis. The Manipur Police filed a first information report accusing the Assam Rifles of stopping them from pursuing Kuki militants across a buffer zone.

Assam Rifles has maintained its troops were only following the buffer zone guidelines in place to restore normalcy. It filed a sedition case against the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), a collective of Meitei groups, for allegedly discouraging the return of weapons stolen from police armouries.

The central forces are posted in the buffer zones or areas adjoining the foothills to ensure that armed people from both the Kukis and Meitei sides do not cross them to launch attacks.

Central forces have been directed against allowing even state police to cross the buffer zones without taking them along. The directive was issued against the backdrop of allegations of bias against the state police.

A Meitei couple was killed on July 6 after they ended up in a Kuki-controlled village after eloping. Armed Kuki militants passing by the village spotted the couple, abducted them in a vehicle, and took them to an unknown destination before executing them.

According to photographs that emerged in September after the state reinstated mobile internet, the couple seemed to have been murdered as the five-month-long civil war-like situation continued to roil Manipur.

The police cited an agreement with the central government and said the places of abduction and areas of operation of the alleged accused were not accessible to the State Investigating Agency due to the heavy presence of the armed Kuki militants.

The killing of the couple triggered fresh protests and forced police to resort to firing tear gas shells. At least 25 students sustained injuries. The state government announced the closure of all schools.

Earlier a video surfaced online on July 19 showing three women being stripped naked and paraded in Manipur. It provoked outrage and disrupted the monsoon session of Parliament.

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Three individuals sustained injuries in a shooting incident at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh on Monday. The incident involved an ex-student from the Bachelors of Unani Medicine Science (BUMS) and two local students, with 11 other unidentified individuals reportedly involved. The injured individuals were hospitalised, receiving treatment, and are in stable condition. An injured person brought in for treatment after firing incident on Monday.(HT Photo)

The ex-student, Sadiq Hasan, and two other students, Firoz and Abdullah, were moved from BM Hall to Sir Syed (North) Hall, where they were injured during the shooting incident that occurred on the night between Monday and Tuesday.

In charge of the Civil Lines police station Vijay Singh confirmed the firing incident on the AMU campus. The police attributed the incident to a fight for dominance on the university campus.

In response to the incident, the police are presently in the process of filing an application that will lead to the registration of a formal case. Subsequent appropriate action will be taken, police further said. Following the shooting, the proctorial board at AMU has been activated to address the situation and maintain order.

Prior to this incident, unrest was already brewing among the students on the same Monday due to a venomous snakebite sustained by an eleventh-grade student at AMU. The student's condition was serious, necessitating an urgent transfer to a medical facility in Delhi for specialised treatment.

The Aligarh Police tweeted on X, Information was received that some people were hit by shrapnel; on being informed, the injured were found to be completely out of danger. They were attacked maliciously by someone, against whom a case was registered, and legal action was taken. There is complete peace on the spot.

As of now, the Public Relations Office of AMU has not issued a response to this incident. A case has been registered at the Civil Lines police station of Aligarh under sections 147, 148, and 307 of the Indian Penal Code against 14 named individuals and others who remain unidentified, primarily described as outsiders.

(With inputs from Hemendra Chaturvedi)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lingamgunta Nirmitha Rao Trainee Content Producer at Hindustan Times Digital Stream. India's regional languages attract me. ...view detail
For five whole months, as Manipur waits on an elusive peace, in a village in the tribal Churachandpur, a mother still waits for justice, a police investigation, or even her slain sons body. 63 kilometres, and an intractable ethnic chasm away, in the capital Imphal, a wife waits for any information on her missing husband and his friend, not even counted among the dead, because their bodies have never been found. Ethnic violence began in Manipur May 3, killing over 178 people in a span of five months. (AFP)

Read here: Delhi court extends NIA custody of Manipur violence suspect Seiminlun Gangte

On May 3, violence began coursing through Manipur immediately after a tribal solidarity march that was protesting a Manipur High Court order that had asked the state government to consider bringing the Meiteis, the ethnic majority in the state, into the scheduled tribe fold. The state was yet to act on the court order, but the fire spread quickly, spreading all across the state. In the five months since, 178 people are dead, official numbers say, and more than 50,000 have been displaced from their homes.

In that time, homes have been burnt, businesses lost, studies affected, places of worship burnt to a cinder, the state has lived without internet for months. And there are still families that have no semblance of closure, or justice.

21-year-old college student Hanglalmuan Vaiphei, from Thinhkangphai village in Kuki-dominated Churachandpur district for instance, found himself in police custody on April 30, arrested for a Facebook post allegedly targeting the Meiteis and Chief Minister N Biren Singh. Four days later, on May 3, he was being taken by the police from a court in Imphal to the Sajiwa Jail in Imphal East, when a large armed mob comprising 800 men and women surrounded the vehicle, looted weapons from the police, and beat him to death.

Five months on, his mother Thiamneihat told HT that she still had been told nothing about the progress in her sons case. Nobody has contacted us to record out statement, and the police has given us no relief, she said.

Some days after his death, the family had been told that Hanglalmuans body was lying in the mortuary of the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) in Imphal. But so deep is the ethnic fracture, and so dangerous the 63km journey, that is where the body still lies.

In Imphal, Kavita Singh does not even know whether Atom Samarendra Singh, her husband who worked with the state government, is dead or alive. Singh and his friend Yumkhaibam Kirankumar Singh, both Meitei men aged 47 years old, had gone out in Samarendras car on May 6, and were last seen near Sangaithel Park, near the Kuki dominated Kangpokpi district. Five months later, there is still no trace of the two men or the car, a Renault Kwid.

We had asked the state government to hand over the case of my missing husband and his friend to CBI, but we have no update on whether that has happened. Police have not reached our home, or updated us on any progress in investigations. There has been no relief from the government, and my husbands salary has also not been paid to us, she said.

In many ways, the plight of these two families frame the tragedy of Manipur, where tribal districts are now off limits for the Meiteis, and the Imphal valley are no-go areas for the tribal Kukis. Over the past five months, everything has been divided as the state struggles to return to normalcy, with periods of relative calm, almost always perforated by a breakout of violence. Everything; from civil society, police, administration, and politicians, are now divided by ethnicity.

Security personnel on the ground believe that the situation may have been easier to contain if one of the motifs of the violence had not been a widespread looting of arms and ammunition from government armouries. State government officials said that nearly 4,500 weapons and around 650,000 rounds of ammunition have gone missing. The Manipur police and security forces have thus far managed to recover 1,500 arms and around 15,000 pieces of ammunition, police officials said.

Read here: Fault lines grow deeper as ethnic violence continues to roil Manipur

A senior officer said that investigations into the myriad incidents of violence have been thrown off gear because of the widescale internal migration; Meiteis residing in Kuki-dominated areas have fled to Imphal Valley while Kukis staying there escaped to the hills. Even now, because of the blockades and the volatile situation, the police have no access to the hills and vice versa. This has affected everything, he said.

There is still a long way to peace, with tensions still running high. But in Churachandpur, and Imphal, and everywhere else, Manipur is still a state in mourning.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Utpal Parashar Utpal is a Senior Assistant Editor based in Guwahati. He covers seven states of North-East India and heads the editorial team for the region. He was previously based in Kathmandu, Dehradun and Delhi with Hindustan Times. ...view detail

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Prawesh Lama Prawesh Lama covers crime, policing, and issues of security in Delhi. Raised in Darjeeling, educated in Mumbai, he also looks at special features on social welfare in the National Capital. ...view detail
Five members of a family were shot dead on Monday after a mob attacked their home to avenge the killing of a 50-year-old man following an argument over a disputed piece of land at Fatehpur village in Uttar Pradeshs Deoria district. The relatives of the victims in Deoria on Monday. (PTI)

Police said Satya Prakash Dubey and his accomplices first allegedly attacked Prem Chand Yadav, 50, with bricks and sharp-edged weapons that resulted in his death. As the news of Yadavs death spread, over two dozen residents of Yadav Tola attacked Dubeys house and killed his 52-year-old wife, and their three children aged between 18 and 10.

The massacre of the six people triggered tensions between the Brahmin and Yadav communities with several vehicles set on fire in the arson that followed, prompting authorities to rush police and provincial armed constabulary personnel to prevent further clashes.

Two years ago, Sadhu Dubey sold his land to Prem Chand Yadav of Abhaipur Yadav Tola, and settled in Gujarat. However, Satya Prakash Dubey claimed that his younger brother was not mentally sound enough to sell the land while Yadav was eager to take possession.

At 7am on Monday, Yadav reached the land in bid to take possession, sparking a heated exchange with Dubey. which was opposed by Satya Prakash Dubey and his family. The dispute turned violent and Dubey slit Yadavs throat.

In retaliation, the Yadavs attacked Dubeys house and opened fire resulting in the death of five members of his family, said cops.

The Dubeys, officials said, were residents of Lehra Tola of Fatehpur village.

Apart from 54-year-old Dubey and 52-year-old Yadav, the deceased included Dubeys wife Kiran 52, two daughters Saloni, 18, and Nandani,10, and one son Gandhi, 15. Dubeys eight-year-old son, Anmol, was in a critical condition and referred to the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the incident and conveyed his condolences to the grieving families. He directed authorities to ensure appropriate medical treatment for the injured.

According to reports, both families had registered complaints with local police and revenue officials to resolve the land dispute.

Additional superintendent of police (SP) Rajesh Kumar said police carried out raids on various hideouts of the culprits, but no complaint was registered by any group yet. Priority of the police was to restore peace in the village, he added.

SP (Deoria) Sankalp Sharma said four people had been detained and PAC jawans have been deployed in the area.

Special DG (law and order) Prashant Kumar confirmed that 14 people had been detained and their interrogation was underway.

The CM was monitoring the investigation from his camp office in Gorakhpur, he added.

I am camping in the village and investigation is going on. Fourteen people have been detained for questioning, said Sanjay Prasad, principal secretary (home). Senior officials of the state government also rushed to the village after the incident.
The US claimed that the Joe Biden administration has engaged with the Indian government on a number of occasions urging them to cooperate with Canada in its investigations into the death of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Hardeep Singh Nijjar, wanted in India for targeted killings in Punjab, poses on a motorcycle in front of the Sikhs For Justice float in Surrey.(Courtesy: Sikhs For Justice)

State department spokesperson Mathew Miller told reporters at his daily news briefing that the issue was raised by secretary of state Antony Blinken during his meeting with external affairs minister S Jaishankar in Washington DC last week.

As he made clear then, I will reiterate now, we remain in close coordination with our Canadian colleagues on this question, Miller.

Miller added, "We have engaged with the Indian government on a number of occasions to urge them to cooperate with Canadas investigation. The secretary had an opportunity to do that in his meeting with the foreign minister on Friday.

When asked if India has agreed to cooperate with Canada, Miller said this is for New Delhi to respond to. I will let the Indian government speak for themselves and I will speak for the United States government, and we urge that cooperation, the state department spokesperson said.

The diplomatic relationship between New Delhi and Ottawa saw its lowest point after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently alleged that the Indian government could be behind the killing of Nijjar.

Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India, was shot dead outside at a parking lot outside a Gurdwara in Canada's Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18.

Trudeau, during a debate in the Canadian Parliament, alleged Canada's national security officials had reasons to believe that "agents of the Indian government" carried out the killing of Nijjar, who also served as the president of Surrey's Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.

However, India has outrightly rejected the claims, calling it "absurd" and motivated.

The Indian government has said Canada was yet to provide any public evidence to support the claim about the killing of Nijjar.

Jaishankar recently said the ongoing problem with Canada has been there for some years because of the permissiveness of the government regarding terrorism, extremism and violence in the country.

Jaishankar said that the current situation cant be termed a deadlock, adding that the Indian government is open to looking at any specific and relevant thing shared by the Canadian side in connection with the issue.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari on Tuesday said that the Indian Air Force was pushing ahead with its plan to procure an additional 97 Light Combat Aircraft Tejas Mark 1A. The procurement will add to the existing contract for 83 of these advanced fighter planes, bringing the total number of LCA Mark 1A aircraft in its fleet to 180. Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari addresses a press conference ahead of the 91st Air Force Day celebrations on Oct. 8, in New Delhi.(PTI)

The IAF's decision to acquire additional LCA Mark 1A aircraft is part of its ongoing modernization efforts aimed at enhancing its operational capabilities and maintaining a decisive edge in the evolving regional scenario. The Air Chief Marshal said the IAF is set to retire its ageing MiG-21 fighter aircraft by 2025 and will be gradually replaced by the more modern and capable LCA Tejas.

"In another month or so, one MiG-21 squadron will be retired, with the last one following suit after that," Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari told a press conference ahead of the Air Force Day.

The Chief of Air Staff said that the IAF is constantly monitoring the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), especially in eastern Ladakh.

"We are constantly monitoring the situation across borders through intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). Our operational plans are dynamic and change as per developing situations. In places where we cannot counter adversaries in terms of numbers, we will counter it through better tactics. We keep revising our ISR plans as per inputs through numbers," Chaudhari said.

He also emphasized the critical role of the Indian Air Force in addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by the evolving geopolitical landscape in the Indo-Pacific Region.

Owing to the volatile and uncertain geopolitical landscape in our region, the need to have a strong and credible military has become imperative, Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said.

He continued, "The Indo-Pacific Region is the new economic and strategic centre of gravity of the world and offers us both challenges and opportunities. Indian Air Force, with its inherent capability to see the farthest, reach the fastest, and hit the hardest, will be critical in mitigating these challenges and will remain a fulcrum in projecting India's might in the region."

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR HT News Desk Follow the latest breaking news and developments from India and around the world with Hindustan Times' newsdesk. From politics and policies to the economy and the environment, from local issues to national events and global affairs, we've got you covered. ...view detail
Mago (Arunachal Pradesh): HT Image

The Centre has for the first time sanctioned Border Intelligence Posts (BIPs) along the Line of Actual Control to keep an eye on Chinas activities, including military and weapons buildup, as well as regular transgression and incursion attempts to change the status quo, people familiar with the development said on Monday.

The BIPs will have intelligence officials deployed to gather and develop inputs from the LAC in collaboration with the troops of the Indian Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), agencies such as National Technical Research Organisation, Intelligence Bureau and Research and Analysis Wing regarding any unusual activity of Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA).

Each BIP, which will be created along with the border outposts (BOPs) of ITBP, would have 4-5 intelligence officers with specific duties. They will submit reports to the government regarding any unusual activity, an official said, declining to be named.

Currently, there are over 180 BOPs of ITBP at the LAC from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh. The government had earlier this year sanctioned 47 additional border outposts and 12 staging camps of the border guarding force, also known as Himveers, along the LAC, for which 9,400 personnel (seven battalions) have been approved.

The official cited above didnt disclose the exact number of BIPs and budget approved for it by the Centre, but said all sensitive BOPs will have these specially trained intelligence officers with access to latest surveillance tools.

The development comes in the wake of China flexing its muscle at the LAC, provoking India through regular attempted intrusions and its push to build up military infrastructure such as airfields and missile sites.

The two nations have been in a face-off at several points at the LAC since June 2020 clash in Galwan Valley in Ladakh. On December 9 last year, PLA troops also intruded into Yangste in Arunachal Pradesh, which led to a clash that resulted in injuries to soldiers on both sides.

Since the India-China border is not fully demarcated, and both sides have different perceptions of the LAC, PLA troops often transgress into disputed areas.

Following Galwan and Yangste, Indian government has not only ramped up its infrastructure at the LAC, but has introduced schemes for the development of border villages.

The difference could be seen in Mago, the first village on the border with China in Chuna sector in western Arunachal Pradesh, visited by HT on Monday. Till 2020, Mago had no road connectivity and winter supplies for the army and ITBP were dropped via helicopters, but a blacktop road has since been built right till the border, allowing armed forces to move vehicles, artillery and troops.

The border villages are being developed by providing them roads, mobile connectivity and round the clock electricity through hydropower projects being built by Arunachal Pradesh government. This work is expected to accelerate under the Vibrant Village Programme (VVP), announced by Union home minister Amit Shah in April.

Speaking at a cultural function at Mago, organised to boost troop morale, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu said that out of 665 villages in first phase of VVP, 453 are in Arunachal Pradesh. The army and ITBP have a major role to play in developing these border villages. We are building roads till the end, we have built advance landing grounds and efforts are on to increase tourism, he said. For troops, facilities are being reoriented, like temporary sheds are being replaced with permanent structures. The army and ITBP camps will get electricity from hydropower projects.

Army officers deployed in Tawang and Chuna in Arunachal Pradesh, who didnt want to be named, said currently the situation is peaceful in the region after last years Yangste clash, and they have regular commander level meetings with their PLA counterparts.

Meanwhile, the army and ITBP are in the process of stocking supplies ahead of winter, when the entire region will be covered by snow and temperatures could drop up to minus 20 degrees.

The country is safe when the borders are safe. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modis leadership, now not a single border village is left where vehicles cannot reach. These border villages were neglected earlier, Union minister for earth sciences Kiren Rijiju said on Monday, speaking at the same function. I assure you that in next six months, all border villages will also have 4G connectivity.

Rijiju also said a concept paper on implementing VVP has been sent to the home ministry and work has begun.

Army, ITBP and state government are doing great work to secure our borders, said Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda, who visited Mago to encourage soldiers. They are standing firm against any threat.
India has asked Canada to withdraw several dozen diplomats from its missions in the country, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday amid the diplomatic row over Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus allegation linking Indian agents to the killing of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Canada has a larger diplomatic presence in India because of the needs of the consular sections at its missions. (AP file photo)

The move follows an announcement by the external affairs ministry last month that the Canadian government had been informed about the need for parity in strength and rank equivalence in mutual diplomatic presence. This was expected to lead to a reduction in Canadas diplomatic presence, external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said.

Also Read:Nijjar killing: Has India agreed to cooperate with Canada? US official responds

Since the announcement by the ministry, an exercise had been underway to determine the number of diplomats Canada would be asked to withdraw, one of the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.

That exercise has been completed and the number has been conveyed to the Canadian side, he said, without giving details.

A second person added, We had already spoken about the need for parity in mutual diplomatic presence. The number of Canadian diplomats in India is much higher.

The people didnt provide specific details about the number of diplomats Canada will have to withdraw.

A report by Financial Times said Canada had 62 diplomats in India and India has asked for this figure to be reduce by 41 people. The Canadian diplomats must be repatriated by October 10, the report said.

One person said India had threatened to revoke the diplomatic immunity of diplomats who remain after that date, the report added.

Canada has a larger diplomatic presence in India because of the needs of the consular sections at its missions, which handle the high volume of visa applications from the country, the people cited above said.

The development marks a further escalation of the diplomatic spat over the killing of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen was shot dead in the parking lot of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in the town of Surrey in British Columbia on June 18.

Hours after Trudeaus claim on September 18 of a potential link between Indian government agents and the killing of Nijjar in June, India dismissed the accusation as absurd and motivated.

The two countries also carried out tit-for-tat expulsions of senior diplomats and India subsequently suspended all visa services for Canadian nationals and asked Canada to downsize its diplomatic presence in the country.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar has said that India is yet to receive any information through official channels from Canada that backed up Trudeaus allegation.

He also said India will consider any information that is provided by Canada, while making it clear that it is not the Indian governments policy to engage in acts such as the killing of Nijjar.

Nijjar was earlier designated a terrorist by the Indian government for his involvement in pro-Khalistan activities, and the external affairs ministry has described Canada as a safe haven for extremists and terrorists.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Bagchi told a media briefing on September 19 that Canada should act on very specific evidence shared by India about criminal activities by terrorists and extremists based on Canadian soil.

He also pointed to Pakistans involvement in funding and supporting such elements in Canada.

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India has asked Canada to withdraw several dozen diplomats from its missions in the country, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday amid the diplomatic row over Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus allegation linking Indian agents to the killing of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau(AFP)

Read here: Hardeep Nijjar killing: Trudeau says Canada not keen to escalate tensions with India

The move follows an announcement by the external affairs ministry last month that the Canadian government had been informed about the need for parity in strength and rank equivalence in mutual diplomatic presence. This was expected to lead to a reduction in Canadas diplomatic presence, external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said.

Since the announcement by the ministry, an exercise was carried out to determine the number of diplomats Canada would be asked to withdraw, one of the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. That exercise has been completed and the number has been conveyed to the Canadian side, he said, without giving details.

A second person added, We had already spoken about the need for parity in mutual diplomatic presence. The number of Canadian diplomats in India is much higher.

The people didnt provide specific details about the number of diplomats Canada will have to withdraw. A report by Financial Times said Canada has 62 diplomats in India and India has asked for this figure to be reduced by 41 people. The Canadian diplomats must be repatriated by October 10, the report said.

One person said India had threatened to revoke the diplomatic immunity of diplomats who remain after that date, Financial Times reported.

Canada has a larger diplomatic presence in India because of the needs of the consular sections at its missions, which handle the high volume of visa applications from the country, the people cited above said. The people did not rule out the possibility of Canadian visa services being affected by the withdrawal of a large number of diplomats.

Trudeau refused to confirm reports about India asking Canada to downsize its diplomatic presence while talking with reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday but said his government doesnt want to escalate the situation. Asked if his government will retaliate by telling India to remove diplomats from Canada, he said it is important for us to have diplomats on the ground working with the Indian government there to support Canadians and Canadian families.

Obviously, were going through an extremely challenging time with India right now, Trudeau said. Were taking this extremely seriously, but were going to continue to engage responsibly and constructively with the government of India.

He added, Were not looking to escalate, as Ive said. Were going to be doing the work that matters in continuing to have constructive relations with India through this extremely difficult time.

The development marks a further escalation of the diplomatic spat over the killing of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen who was shot dead in the parking lot of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in the town of Surrey in British Columbia on June 18. Hours after Trudeaus claim on September 18 of a potential link between Indian government agents and the killing of Nijjar, India dismissed the accusation as absurd and motivated.

The two countries carried out tit-for-tat expulsions of senior diplomats. India subsequently suspended all visa services for Canadian nationals and asked Canada to downsize its diplomatic presence in the country.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar has said India is yet to receive any information through official channels from Canada that back up Trudeaus allegation. He also said New Delhi will consider any information provided by Canada, while making it clear that it is not the Indian governments policy to engage in acts such as the killing of Nijjar.

Nijjar was earlier designated a terrorist by the Indian government for his involvement in pro-Khalistan activities, and the external affairs ministry has described Canada as a safe haven for extremists and terrorists.

Read here: India asks Canada to recall several dozen diplomats

External affairs ministry spokesperson Bagchi told a media briefing on September 19 that Canada should act on very specific evidence shared by India about criminal activities by terrorists and extremists based on Canadian soil. He also pointed to Pakistans involvement in funding and supporting such elements in Canada.

Canadas allies in the West, including the US and the UK, have sought to strike a balance between backing Ottawa on the issue and maintaining strong ties with India, which they see as a counterweight to China.

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A variety of food, drinks and auction items await those who attend Taste of Columbus each year. The fundraiser event, put on by the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce and a wide swath of Nebraska-based vendors, aims to broaden palates and support a good cause in Columbus, according to Event Chair Rory Bowen.

Its a big deal because it generates dollars for a nonprofit, for the Platte Valley Literacy Association (PVLA). Its always good when you can come out and support a specific nonprofit and help them with Taste of Columbus, come out for some good food and drinks, Bowen said.

Taste of Columbus will be held at the Ramada on Oct. 8 from 4:30-8:30 p.m. There will be a raffle for a Members Mark gas griddle for those in attendance as well. Tickets are $40 per seat or $400 for a table of eight and are only available in advance until Oct. 6.

There are 10 food and 16 beverage vendors slated for the event, Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce staff said. Silent auction and super silent auction items are already up online for bids before the event. Items vary in size and category, from foods from Sweet Harvest Popcorn and Daniels Produce to family outings at Axe in the Box and S.T.A.R. Escape Rooms and more.

Melanie Knoepfle, another one of the organizers, said there is even a special royal auction item: a cooking demo from Chef Michael Hogan of Omaha.

Hes going to come and show people and talk about how to prepare the food, talk through serving it to us chef-style, explain why he did what he did and why he picked the ingredients he did, Knoepfle said.

Knoepfle and her husband Mike Slizoski have been on the chamber board and involved in the community quite a bit over the years, so when the time for names for this years chairs came up, they were volunteered by a friend.

We have participated in all the meetings, well help facilitate transportation for the big prizes, my husband is moving the snowblower, the big couches from Slumberland, Knoepfle said. The night of the event, we will be there to greet everyone, answer questions, help with logistic, simply help everyone have fun at the event.

Bowen and his wife Serina have helped facilitate the event like Knoepfle but more focused on selling tickets and tables. He said that the night will be a lot of fun with good food but that there is a purpose behind all of it: to help the PVLA.

Its fun every year. This year we have an expanded menu, its nice to see more food varieties, if youre a foodie, its fun to do. On the bourbon, alcohol side, we expanded that too with more distilleries. Its neat to taste the craft liquors and beers, sample and see whats out there, Bowen said. Good food, good drinks, supporting a good cause, donate and have a good time. What can go wrong with that?

The PVLA, per their website, aims to address the problems with adult literacy in the Platte County area, from reading discrepancies, GED classes and help with citizenship to English as a second language. The funds raised at the event go to support their mission, Bowen said.

Additional information on the event can be found at tasteofoclumbusne.com.
The Indian government has told Canada to withdraw dozens of diplomats from the country, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. Ottawa has been told by New Delhi that it must repatriate roughly 40 diplomats by October 10, the report said, citing people familiar with the demand. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walks past India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi(AP)

The Indian government is yet to issue a statement on the latest development.

Canada has 62 diplomats in India and India had said the total should be reduced by 41, the newspaper said.

The diplomatic relationship between New Delhi and Ottawa saw its lowest point after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently alleged that the Indian government could be behind the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India, was shot dead outside at a parking lot outside a Gurdwara in Canada's Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18.

Trudeau, during a debate in the Canadian Parliament, alleged Canada's national security officials had reasons to believe that "agents of the Indian government" carried out the killing of Nijjar, who also served as the president of Surrey's Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.

However, India has outrightly rejected the claims, calling it "absurd" and motivated.

The Indian government has said Canada was yet to provide any public evidence to support the claim about the killing of Nijjar.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar recently said the ongoing problem with Canada has been there for some years because of the permissiveness of the government regarding terrorism, extremism and violence in the country.

Jaishankar said that the current situation cant be termed a deadlock, adding that the Indian government is open to looking at any specific and relevant thing shared by the Canadian side in connection with the issue.

On Monday, the US said the Joe Biden administration has engaged with the Indian government on a number of occasions urging them to cooperate with Canada in its investigations into the death of Singh Nijjar.

The issue was raised by secretary of state Antony Blinken during his meeting with Jaishankar last week.

As he made clear then, Ill reiterate now, we remain in close coordination with our Canadian colleagues on this question, state department spokesperson Mathew Miller told reporters at his daily news briefing.

We have engaged with the Indian government on a number of occasions to urge them to cooperate with Canadas investigation. The secretary had an opportunity to do that in his meeting with the foreign minister on Friday, he said.

When asked if India has agreed to cooperate with Canada, Miller said this is for New Delhi to respond to.

I will let the Indian government speak for themselves and I will speak for the United States government, and we urge that cooperation, he said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Aniruddha Dhar Have 11 years' experience in print and digital media. Write on politics, defence and world affairs, and have a keen eye for human-interest stories. ...view detail
New Delhi Indias negotiations with the UK for a trade deal could hit a roadblock as Indian industries are unwilling to offer import duty concessions to British manufacturers without London allowing easier mobility for Indian professionals, people with direct knowledge of the talks said on Monday. The 13th round of FTA negotiations between India and the UK is currently underway, with 19 out of 26 chapters having been resolved in the past 12 rounds. (FILE)

If business mobility  or easier temporary movement of Indian professionals to the UK for business purposes  is taken out of the free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations, there wont be any significant gain for India as most Indian goods (more than 60% of total merchandise) already have duty-free access to the UK market, and most of the other items attract a low tariff of 5%, the people said, requesting anonymity.

According to an information note of the UKs Department for International Trade, the simple average tariff on goods imported into Britain from India is 4.2%, compared to 14.6% simple average tariff on the UKs exports to India. The majority of product lines (66%) on Indian exports to the UK face no tariffs. In comparison, only 3% of product lines on UK exports to India can enter tariff free, it said. Besides, India has a very high import duty on automobiles (100%) and whisky (150%).

While India is willing to reduce duties on automobiles and liquor imported from the UK  a main demand of London  it should be a calibrated reduction and only if Britain agrees to reciprocate in terms of business mobility, one of the people said on condition of anonymity.

According to a second person, the 13th round of FTA negotiations between India and the UK is currently underway, with 19 out of 26 chapters having been resolved in the past 12 rounds.

Both sides have taken a hard line on business mobility. New Delhi wants the UK to grant temporary visas to make it easier for Indian businesspersons to work in Britain, but London insists this matter falls within the remit of the home ministry, and hence is not part of trade negotiations, the second person said.

India has made migration and mobility, especially for professionals and students, a key part of negotiations for new trade deals. It is understood that Britain offered India terms for mobility that are similar to those in the Australia-UK FTA, which came into effect in May 2023.

The FTA with Australia facilitated Australian professionals working in the UK through improved recognition of qualifications, licencing and registration processes. There was also a waiving of labour market testing for businesses wanting to employ an Australian in the UK as well as reduction of red tape.

Indian and British negotiators refused to discuss details of live negotiations. We are negotiating a best deal which works for both countries and is mutually beneficial and balanced, an Indian government official said.

A British High Commission spokesperson said: A modern, forward-looking FTA can put us firmly on the path to our shared ambition of doubling India-UK trade by 2030. A trade deal could help Indian exporters gain access to the UK market, including Indias 48 million small and medium enterprises. The UK seeks a deal that slashes tariffs and red tape, giving Indian consumers and businesses easier access to the UK goods they already enjoy.

After the two sides missed a deadline to finalise the FTA by Diwali last year, they have been reluctant to set a timeframe for concluding the negotiations. At a meeting on September 9, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Rishi Sunak expressed hope that the remaining issues would be addressed at the earliest so that a balanced and forward-looking FTA can be concluded soon.

Industry experts said while the easier 19 chapters of the trade deal have been settled, vital issues are pending and need political will from both sides to be resolved.

The UK is a country with a strong manufacturing base and it is natural for them to skew the trade talks towards products. However, for India, the services sector drives the economy, especially in terms of external trade. Hence, if India is to extract value from the FTA, it has to bring the services sector to the forefront of the dialogue. Services is driven by people and people need easy mobility to execute effectively, said Vinod Giri, director general of the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC).

The Disposal Company CEO Bhagyashree Bhansali said: Without a doubt, business mobility should be an integral part of the proposed FTA with the UK, and its imperative for the agreement to be truly beneficial for India.

We must insist on streamlined visa processes, short-term business access and a level playing field. Anything less would not be in Indias best interest, she added. The businesswoman operates Indias plastic neutrality platform, which is also a Commonwealth-sourced foreign direct investment (FDI) project in West Midlands, England, led by the West Midlands Growth Company.

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Intense counter-terror operations involving heavy exchange of fire between terrorists and security forces were on in the Kalakote area of Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, said officials. Official sources divulged that security forces suspect the presence of two to three heavily armed terrorists in the jungle area.(Representational / File photo / PTI)

Jammu-based Defence spokesperson Lt Col Suneel Bartwal said, "Technology is being used to monitor the terrorists. Presently, intense operations are under progress."

"Following successful operations in the same area on September 13, due to continual flow of intelligence, area domination and constant pressure on the terrorists, a specific intelligence about the movement of some suspected individuals was received on October 1 by the police. A joint operation by the Indian Army and police was launched in general area Kalakote."

"Presently, use of technology is being resorted, to monitor the terrorists. Intense operations are under progress," he added.

Official sources divulged that security forces suspect the presence of two to three heavily armed terrorists in the jungle area, where the operation has been launched.

An encounter broke out on Monday evening between terrorists and security forces during a search operation in the forest area of Kalakote.

The Army along with police had cordoned off the Broh and Soom forest belt in the Kalakote area early on Monday following information about suspicious movement.

The search operation turned into an encounter late in the evening when the terrorists hiding in the area opened fire on the forces in an attempt to break the cordon, the officials said.

Recent counter-terror operations

On September 12 and 13, security forces gunned down two terrorists in Narla area of the Rajouri district.

A day before, on September 12 , a terrorist was gunned down while a soldier besides an army dog 'Kent' laid their lives in the line of duty and four security personnel, three soldiers and a special police officer, were injured during the encounter.

On September 11, Northern Army commander Lt General Dwivedi informed at the North Tech Symposium that nearly 200 terrorists were waiting across the LoC in Pakistan.

They are waiting to infiltrate but our alert troops are deployed at the borders and we are trying to eliminate them there itself, he had said.

In the past nine months, 47 terrorists have been killed in the region. At least 37 among them were foreign terrorists and nine were locals.

Since January this year, two border districts of Rajouri and Poonch have witnessed a spike in terrorism.

The twin border districts, south of Pir Panjal, witnessed three major terror attacks on January 1 at Dhangri, April 20 at Tota Gali in Poonch and May 5 in the Kandi forests of Rajouri.

In the three attacks, the terrorists killed 10 soldiers and seven members of the Hindu community.
In 2020, as the world frantically tried  amid lockdowns, disinformation and fear  to build a vaccine to battle and control the pandemic, messenger RNA (mRNA) technology fine-tuned by biochemical scientists Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman paved the way for the first weapon against Covid-19. Drew Weissman and Katalin Kariko (AFP)

On Monday, Kariko and Weissman were awarded the Nobel Medicine Prize for they, as the jury said, contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times.

The first mRNA vaccines were approved for use against the illness in December, 2020, less than 10 months after the pandemic was declared. Together with other Covid vaccines, the mRNA doses have saved millions of lives and prevented severe disease in many more, the jury said.

Kariko, 68, and Weissman, 64, longstanding colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania in the US, have already won a slew of awards for their research.

mRNA as a potential for therapeutic use was first mooted in 1990s but it hardly translated into practical use. What Kariko and Weissman did, put simply, is cracked the last piece of the puzzle to make the platform usable. They swapped out a basic building block of mRNA called uridine for a related molecule called pseudouridine, allowing strands of mRNA to get their message to cells without triggering an immune attack.

They released their findings in a groundbreaking paper in 2005. But the true nature of their discovery would be visible only during the pandemic, when the platform led to not just some of the most potent vaccines, but also the ones that could be produced the quickest, even though they were so expensive that they remain out of reach for the Global South even today.

But what will now rightly deserve the attention of history is the journey Kariko, a Hungarian immigrant to the US, and Weissman took to reach where they are  having met, famously, over the institutes photocopy machine.

Kariko struggled to get financial support for her research, moving from lab to lab to try to keep her work alive until her encounter with Weissman.

Kati [Kariko] was working on mRNA. We met, we started talking, and started working on mRNA vaccines. What I noticed early on was RNA was highly inflammatory, and thats bad when you are trying to make a drug, vaccine, or a therapeutic. So we spent a bunch of years studying that inflammatory activity, and finally figured out how to get rid of it, and that was by modifying one of the RNA code, Weissman said in an interview that HT published on August 24, 2021.

We published that (paper reporting the success) in 2005, and thats the technology that Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech use in their vaccines. Kati moved to BioNTech, where she developed the LNP technology (liquid nano particles  the way mRNA is delivered), which is also a crucial part of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, he added at the time.

In media reports published since late 2020, when mRNA vaccines first burst into global limelight, colleagues described Kariko and Weissman as evangelists of the platform, even though many refused to believe it.

Their paper was at first met with a round of rejections. We first sent to a Nature journal, and within 24 hours, they rejected it as an incremental contribution. I started learning English only at university, so I had to look up the meaning of the word incremental, she told the American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in 2021.

In 2013, long after that seminal 2005 paper, Kariko decided to leave the university after not being given tenure. A Glamour magazine piece profiling her in November 2021 recounted her last morning at the lab where she and Weissman made the fateful discovery: That morning at the lab, Karikos old boss had come to see her off. She did not tell him what a terrible mistake he was making in letting her leave. She didnt gloat about her future at BioNTech, a pharmaceuticals firm that millions now associate with lifesaving vaccines but was then a relative upstart in the field. Instead the woman who had bounced from department to department, with no tenure prospects and never earning over $60,000 a year, said with total confidence: In the future, this lab will be a museum. Dont touch it..

On Monday, she had the final word.

We are not working for any kind of reward, said Kariko, in remarks alongside Weissman at UPenns Philadelphia campus, a few hours after she was awoken by the call from the Swedish award-giving body. The importance was to have a product which is helpful.

Weissman, a professor in vaccine research also at UPenn, said it was a lifetime dream to win and recalled working intensely with Kariko for more than 20 years, including middle-of-the-night emails as they both suffered disturbed sleep.

We couldnt get people to notice RNA as something interesting, Weissman said on Monday. Pretty much everybody gave up on it.

Kariko is only the 13th woman to win the Medicine Prize.

Speaking to Swedish Radio (SR) on Monday, she said her late mother always had faith in her, listening to the Nobel prize announcements year after year hoping to hear her daughters name called out.

Unfortunately, five years ago she passed at the age of 89. She might be listening from above, Kariko said.

Thomas Perlmann, the secretary general of the Nobel Assembly, called Kariko an extraordinary and unusual scientist who resisted any temptation to do something easier.

Weissman told AFP he heard the news from Kariko, who received the call from the jury first.

We were wondering if somebody was pulling a prank on us, he said. This is the ultimate  this is the prize I thought of when I was five years old when I started to get interested in how things worked.
Son of a marginal farmer from the Nai (barber) community, Karpoori Thakur came a long way to serve as Bihars chief minister twice in the 1970s. He would come to be known as Jannayak or peoples hero thanks to his work, especially for the deprived sections of society. Thakur, who was imprisoned during the Quit India Movement against the British colonialists, never lost any election after winning his first time in 1952 due to his popularity on the back of his simple living and championing of social justice. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar paying tribute to Karpoori Thakur in February 2023. (Wikipedia)

Thakur, whose community constituted just 1.6% of the population in the 1970s, was the first to mobilise the backward castes when there was limited political space for them in state politics. He paved the way for 26% reservation for them in the government services in Bihar in November 1978. A socialist, he was the first to feel the need to separately classify the most deprived among the backward classes for their upliftment.

Thakur was the first to push for the empowerment of the backward classes, which ultimately set the tone for the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations for reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the 1990s.

The implementation coalesced OBCs into a potent electoral bloc and sparked the rise of regional parties, including Bihars ruling Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, which changed the face of heartland politics.

Both RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav and chief minister Nitish Kumar of JD(U) have cashed in on the Karpoori legacy to ensure that the reins did not slip out of the hands of backward classes since the 1990s.

They have sought to consolidate their position with the release of the results of the caste survey on Monday following the completion of an exercise that can potentially upend heartland politics and propel caste into the core of the discourse ahead of the 2024 national polls.

The exercise was expected to trigger another political churn that many called the second Mandal moment. The opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, which includes RJD and JD(U), has pushed for a nationwide caste census to counter the Bharatiya Janata Partys mobilisation of less-dominant backward and Dalit groups into a broader Hindu umbrella. The BJP has included marginalised caste leaders into its ranks, countering an earlier perception that the party was primarily focused on its traditional vote base, upper castes.

Bihars ruling alliance was expected to propose an increase in the quota for backward castes in jobs and educational institutions proportionate to their population as per findings in the survey. The landmark survey enumerated in a physical government headcount all castes for the first time since Independence and showed backward communities comprise nearly two-thirds of Bihars population. Indias decennial census only counts the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).

The survey showed that extremely backward communities (ECB) comprising 112 castes constituted 36.01% of the population, and backward castes (30 communities) made up another 27.12%. Together, other OBC, the umbrella group consisting of backward castes and EBCs in the state, is 63.13%. SC form 19.65% and ST 1.68%.

Kumar used the formula of Thakur, who was also Bihars first non-Congress chief minister, to classify backward classes into two categories to establish himself as the leader of EBCs to counter friend-turned-foe-turned-ally Lalu Prasad Yadav. He used the same idea to create Mahadalits to counter former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswans influence.

Mungeri Lal Commission, which submitted its report when Thakur was the chief minister in 1977, recommended that backward classes be reclassified as extremely backward classes (including weaker sections of Muslims) and backward classes. The report was implemented in 1978.

Sri Krishna Sinha, Bihars first chief minister, also created two categories of backward castes for scholarships.

Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, who served as Thakurs principal secretary, said he had an immense in the rise of backward politics. He added Thakur tried his bit for their welfare beyond politics in realistic terms whenever he got an opportunity to be in power. However, if people get carried away that reservation alone can lead to political victories, they may be in for a jolt, as the history suggests. Thakur did a lot for the backward classes and even those among them who he felt left out and did not get the reservation and benefits of welfare schemes. The dominant backward castes benefited immensely. He put the extremely backward classes in a separate category so that the benefits could reach them in the right measure.

Sinha added Thakur soon lost power. The same thing happened with late former Prime Minister VP Singh, who lost soon after the implementation of the Mandal Commission report.

Sinha said the caste survey suggests there are only 15% of people in the general category. I think the time has come to rethink... reserve 15% seats for the general category and leave all the rest for others. After all, with so many castes emerging, it will be difficult to fulfil the aspirations of all. Reservation should not viewed as a sure-shot formula to win elections. After all, with government jobs shrinking, it cannot deliver what people expect. It will require increasing the job opportunities in the government sector.

Former AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies director DM Diwakar said upper castes mostly dominated the state politics prior to Thakur. He added Thakur was courageous and used tact to achieve what was viewed as improbable those days to emerge as a unanimous choice of the backward castes following the Mungeri Lal Commission report, which was a prelude to the Mandal Commission.

The Mungeri Lal Commission report identified 127 castes. ...the government in 1978 implemented the quota for backward classes in the government jobs. However, soon after his government fell. To make sure that the educationally backward did not suffer and pursued higher education, he removed English as a compulsory subject at the matriculation level as the education minister long before that. ...Karpoori was a man who worked for the backward classes, especially those who were at the bottom of the pyramid even among the backward.

He added Thakur was a committed socialist and played a decisive role in Bihar politics for over four decades. The politics of Bihar since 1990 is also an offshoot of Karpoori legacy.

He said the impact of the caste survey would be discernible in the months to come as it has provided the actual numerical strength of caste groups, which could create a new set of leaders and challenges for the current leadership. A lot more of the data is yet to come. What has come is something that everyone knew. Even during the time of Karpoori, it was known that the backward castes constituted over 60% of the population.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had requested him to admit his party into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in December 2020, and added that there was no question of allowing the BRS into the NDA and the coalition had rejected the proposal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi being felicitated during an event organised for laying of foundation stone of various developmental projects in Nizamabad in Telangana on Tuesday. (PTI)

Addressing a public rally at Giriraj College grounds in Nizamabad town, the Prime Minister said he would disclose a secret.

In the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections in December 2020, the BJP had won 48 out of 150 seats, and no party got the absolute majority to capture the corporation. Soon after the polls, KCR came to Delhi to seek our support, he said.

He felicitated me with bouquets and shawls. He showed me so much love towards me, which was against his character. He told me the country was making rapid progress under my leadership. Then he said, his party, too, wanted to be part of the NDA and, sir, please take us into the NDA. I was surprised and asked him the reason. He said he wanted the support of the BJP in the GHMC.

Modi said he rejected Raos request and said the BJP would never join hands with the BRS and had no hesitation to sit in the opposition. I told him we are ready to face any kind of harassment from the state government, but we wont cheat the people of Telangana. We shall take our journey forward with those 48 seats. There is no question of allowing the BRS into the NDA and we rejected his proposal, he said.

The Prime Minister recalled that a few days later, Rao came to Delhi again and told him he had done enough for the state of Telangana and that he wanted to hand over the responsibility of the state to his son KT Rama Rao.

He told me that he would send his son to me once and sought my blessings for him. I told him clearly that it is a democracy and he is not a king or emperor to hand over the reins to his successor; and that it is for the people of Telangana to decide whom to elect and whom to reject, the Prime Minister said.

That was the last time Rao met him, Modi said. Before the GHMC elections, whenever I came to Hyderabad, KCR used to come to the airport with a lot of paraphernalia and profusely garland me. After his meeting with me in Delhi, he stopped seeing eye to eye with me. He was scared of even seeing my shadow and has been avoiding me. Just now, when I took part in the official programmes, too, he ran away from me, because he knows I wont tolerate a corrupt person sitting beside me, the Prime Minister said.

Stating that hundreds of people had sacrificed their lives for the formation of Telangana state, the Prime Minister said it was unfortunate that only one family got the benefit out of the new state and it was looting the people. Only KCR, his son, daughter and nephew had become rich, he alleged.

Corruption had reached a new high during the Rao regime and his family was swindling even central funds. There are no employment opportunities for the youth and all the other sections have suffered during the BRS rule. The people of Telangana should not give another opportunity to this dynastic rule, he asserted.

Modi also cautioned the people of Telangana to be wary of the Congress party, which, he said, had secret understanding with the Congress. Even in Karnataka, they had behind-the-screen agreements, he said.

The Prime Minister said Sardar Patel had liberated Hyderabad from the Nizam and another leader from Gujarat has now come for prosperity of the state. Today another son of Gujarat came for your prosperity, development and welfare, he said.

Stating that the BJP was committed to the development of Telangana, the Prime Minister pointed to various initiatives taken by the Centre, such as expansion of railway lines, setting up of a 4,000 MW NTPC power plant and building of hospitals.

He requested women in the state to extend their support to the BJP in the coming assembly elections, saying that the BJP has given 33% reservation to women in legislative bodies.

BRS working president and Telangana industries minister K T Rama Rao rejected Modis comments and called it blatant lies.

Are we bitten by mad dogs to join the NDA? In fact, many parties like Shiv Sena, Janata Dal (United), Telugu Desam Party, Shiromani Akali Dal and AIADMK have quit the NDA. Who else is there with you, except the Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department? KTR asked, reacting to the Prime Ministers allegations.

Earlier in the day, Modi launched developmental projects and laid foundation stones for new projects worth 8,000 crore, such as the first 800 MW unit of phase-I of the Telangana Super Thermal Power Project of NTPC, a new railway line connecting Manoharabad and Siddipet and the electrification project between Dharmabad-Manoharabad and Mahabubnagar-Kurnool.

He flagged off the Siddipet-Secunderabad-Siddipet train service, benefiting local commuters in the region. Telangana has talent everywhere and the state made a vaccine for Covid-19 and gave it to the world, he said.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao wanted to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao

When BJP won 48 seats in the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election, KCR needed support. Before this election, he used to welcome me at the airport, but later suddenly he stopped doing so, the prime minister said while addresssing a rally in poll-bound Telangana's Nizamabad.



After the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections, KCR came to meet me in Delhi and said that he wanted to join NDA. He also asked me to extend support to him. I told him (KCR) that due to his deeds Modi cannot be associated with him, Modi added.



In the 2020 Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections, the BRS (earlier TRS) had won 56 seats. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen had won 43 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party recorded wins in 48 seats.



Continuing his attack on KCR, Modi said,"The BJP government at the Centre had given money to the BRS-led government here for the development of Telangana but unfortunately, BRS indulged in looting the money sent for the welfare of the state".

During the rally, Modi also trained guns at the INDIA bloc, accusing it of stalling the women's quota bill which is now a law, for several years.

My sisters from Telangana have been part of a big revolution, created history. A few days ago the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was passed in Parliament. Congress and its INDI alliance - this 'ghamandiya' alliance- had stalled this bill for the last 30 years. Due to the collective power of women, this alliance has to support the passing of this bill, he said.



Telangana is currently ruled by K Chandrashekar Rao-led BRS government since the state's formation in 2014. It goes to polls at the end of this year along with Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.

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The Supreme Courts decision to scrutinise a two-decade old legal challenge to the continuance of reservation of seats for candidates from the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures has coincidentally come at a time when the Narendra Modi government has brought a constitutional amendment to reserve one-third of seats for women in the two Houses of lawmaking. Article 330 of the Constitution provides for reservation of seats for those from SCs/STs in the House of the People while Article 332 lays down a similar provision in legislative assemblies (AP)

On September 20, a Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, framed two issues for final determination. The first pertained to the validity of the 104th Amendment Act of 2019 that extended the reservation for another 10 years (till January 25, 2030); the second, the exercise of the power by Parliament to amend Article 334 to continue such reservation.

Also Read: Bihar caste survey report: Experts see a Mandal replay

Article 330 of the Constitution provides for reservation of seats for those from SCs/STs in the House of the People while Article 332 lays down a similar provision in legislative assemblies. Article 334 says reservation of seats for the two communities will cease after expiry of the period prescribed under this provision. Initially, it put a cap of 10 years for the cessation of the reservation, which was periodically increased. The latest such extension came through a constitutional amendment in 2019.

The Union government, on the day, told the court that the reservation for SCs/STs in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures must continue, conveying its resolve to defend the validity of the 2019 amendment and Parliaments power to grant such extensions.

Even as the Constitution bench has fixed November 24 to commence the final adjudication of the matter, the deep-rooted history of reservation of seats for SC/STs , construed as a significant tool of affirmative action against historical and social injustices to the identified classes, coupled with the legislative and judicial chronicle, present an intriguing insight into the issue.

Pre-Independence and the Constituent assembly debates:

The proposal to give separate representation to SCs originated before Indias Independence when the then Prime Minister of England addressed a letter to Mahatma Gandhi on September 8, 1933. This letter stated: Under the Government scheme the depressed classes will remain part of the Hindu community and will vote with the Hindu electorate on an equal footing but for the first 20 years, while still remaining electorally part of the Hindu community, they will receive through a limited number of special constituencies the means of safeguarding their rights and interests that, we are convinced, is necessary under present conditions. Gandhi protested the proposal and gave his ultimatum of fast unto death.

A report of the advisory committee on minorities, in its first report in January 1947, recommended certain political safeguards for minorities by way of reservation of seats in legislatures on the basis of population. Accepting the recommendation, a draft article in the Constitution reserved seats for Muslims and SCs/STs in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures across India. For Indian Christians, seats were reserved only in the Bombay and Madras constituencies. The draft articles placed a 10-year time limit on these reservations.

In May 1949, the advisory committee, which had previously favoured reservation of seats for minorities apart from SCs/STs, passed a new resolution recommending abolition of the system of reservation for minorities. The committee, headed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, noted that communal electorates and weightage are definitely retrograde from the point of view of the general interests of the country.

Later that month, BR Ambedkar, the drafting committee chairman, proposed to amend the draft articles to remove reservations for Muslims and Indian Christians. During the debates, majority of members of the Constituent assembly, including Jawaharlal Nehru, L S Bhatkar, Rohini Kumar Chaudhuri and Tajamul Husain, supported the resolution. I think that doing away with this reservation business is not only a good thing in itselfgood for all concerned, and more especially for the minoritiesbut psychologically too it is a very good move for the nation and for the world, Nehru said on May 25, 1949.

At the end of the debate, the assembly adopted the draft articles (292 and 294) along with the drafting committee chairmans amendment. Draft Article 295A (now Article 334), providing that reservations for SCs/STs in Union and state legislatures would be valid for a period of 10 years after the Constitution comes into effect was also adopted on August 25, 1949.

At the time, Ambedkar said that he preferred a longer time frame, though he suggested that the assembly stick to 10 years . He argued that if the SC/ST community had not been uplifted in 10 years, then the community would invent novel ways to ensure that their reservation benefits continued. It was also decided that Parliament should not be given the power to change the time limit and that such a change could be done only through a constitutional amendment.

Constitutional amendments and reserved seats:

By the Constitution (Eighth Amendment) Act of 1959, the provision was amended for the first time. The amendment substituted the words ten years with twenty years in Article 334.

Subsequently, 23rd Amendment Act in 1969, 45th Amendment Act in 1979, 62nd Amendment Act in 1989, 79th Amendment Act in 1999 and the 95th Amendment Act in 2009 kept extending the period by another 10 years .

The latest of the constitutional amendments was the 104th Amendment Act in 2019. The reservation was otherwise supposed to expire on January 26, 2020. Article 334 also provided for the reservation for the Anglo-Indian community, but this quota was abolished by the same constitutional amendment.

Of 543 seats for elected representatives in the Lok Sabha, 84 seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes and 47 for Scheduled Tribes. At the state level, there is a reservation of 614 MLAs belonging to SCs and 554 MLAs belonging to STs out of a total of 4,120 seats.

The number has been fixed in accordance with the 2011 Census, which showed the proportion of SCs in the population at 16.7% and STs at 8.6%. ST communities are predominant in states such as Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and the North- East.

OnSeptember 20, the Supreme Court set about to hear a challenge to the validity of the 104th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2019, framing two issues . The first issue will deal with whether the 104th Amendment Act, 2019 was unconstitutional while the second will relate to the exercise of the legislative power by Parliament to extend reservation of seats for SCs and STs in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. Whether the exercise of the constituent power of amendment to extend the period prescribed for reservation under Article 334 is constitutionally valid, stated the second issue to be determined by the Constitution bench.

In its order, the bench also clarified that the adjudication of the two issues being framed will not impinge on the legitimacy of amendments prior to 2014 that extended the reservation for SC/STs.

Some of the questions raised in the clutch of petitions challenging the reservation claim that the impugned amendments deprive Indian citizens of their democratic rights, which include the right to freely cast votes in elections and to choose who to vote for and to stand for elections. Further, the petitions argue that the concept of such reservation violates the right to equality under Article 14, which entails equal opportunity for all citizens, including the right to equal representation in government. Repeated extensions of limited reservations appear to undercut equal representation for all, they added. The petitions further contend that the amendment was against the basic features of the Constitution, which included democracy. A basic feature is an essential characteristic of the Constitution that cannot be amended or changed.

Supreme Courts views so far:

While the validity of the constitutional amendment on extending the reservation of seats for SCs/STs have come under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court for the first time, there have been some precedents highlighting the rationale of such a quota for the two communities.

In Babaji Kondaji Garad Etc Vs The Nasik Merchants Co-Operative Bank Ltd (1983), the issue before the top court was about reservation of seats for SCs/STs in the committees under the cooperative law. The Supreme Court cited Article 330 and 332, affirming their rationale.

The felt necessities of the time and the historical perspective of class domination led to the constitutional guarantee of reservation so that India can truly be a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic. A republic is made up of men and institutions. That is why democratic institutions have to be set up by providing for election and to make the democratic institutions truly representative, reservation of seats for those who on account, of their backwardness, exploitation and unjust treatment both social and economic cannot obtain representation because of the class domination. This is the genesis of reservation, said the court.

In Soosai Etc Vs Union of India and others (1985), validity of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 came to be examined. In the judgment, the apex court referred to Article 330 and 332, noting: The framers of the Constitution have taken great care to ensure that sufficient provision is made for ameliorating the conditions of certain backward classes found in India who suffer from social and economic disabilities.

The Supreme Court judgment in the Indra Sawhney case (popularly known as Mandal Commission case) in 1992 differentiated between the principle of adequate representation, as envisaged under Articles 15 and 16, and principle of proportionate representation, which it said, is acceptable only under Articles 330 and 332 of the Constitution and that too for a limited period. These articles speak of reservation of seats in the Lok Sabha and the state legislatures in favour of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes proportionate to their population, but they are only temporary and special provisions, it noted.

The judgment in Sobha Hymavathi Devi Vs Setti Gangadhara Swamy & Ors in 2005 defined quota benefits under Articles 330 and 332 as constitutional reservations intending to benefit the really underprivileged. This, along with a line of other Supreme Court judgments, have declared that the said reservation would benefit only those who belong to SC/ST communities and not those who claim to acquire the status by marriage.

In Chattar Singh and others Vs State of Rajasthan (1996), the Supreme Court distinguished between the concept of reservation for SCs/STs and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), holding the two classes cannot be clubbed. Testing the challenge to validity of Article 15 and 16 that provide for quota benefits for t SCs and STs in education and public employments, the court held that though OBCs are socially and educationally not forward, they do not suffer the same social handicaps inflicted upon SCs and STs.

The founding fathers of the Constitution, having been alive to the dissimilarities of the socio-economic and educational conditions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and other segments of the society have given them separate treatment in the Constitution. The Constitution has not expressly provided such benefits to the OBCs except by way of specific orders and public notifications by the appropriate Government, it said.

The constitutional provisions granting the right of representation to SCs/STs are located within a more complex matrix of political identities even as it seeks to ameliorate the institutionalised inequalities and have gradually become a political imperative as well. The Supreme Courts decision to examine these rights is bound to spark an extensive and interesting debate, encompassing arguments on the Constitution, law and socio-economic aspects, which in turn will impact the formulation of democratic institutions in India.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday accused the Congress of trying to divide society through its call of apportioning resources proportional to the demographic weight of communities, and asked if it was advocating for curtailing the rights of minorities, marking his first response to Bihars landmark caste survey that has the potential to upend heartland politics and trigger a churn in key caste groups. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public rally in Nizamabad on Tuesday. (ANI Photo)

Read here: KCR wanted to join NDA but we rejected, says PM Modi; KTRs rebuttal follows

Modis sharp comments came a day after Bihar released the results of its caste survey that revealed that backward communities comprised nearly two-thirds of the states population and general categories formed around 15.5%. The exercise  the first to successfully enumerate caste groups in independent India  was hailed by Opposition parties, and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, Jitni aabadi utna haq (Population weight will determine rights).

On Tuesday, Modi hit back.

Speaking at a rally in poll-bound Chhattisgarhs Jagdalpur town, the PM lashed out at the Congress. Since yesterday, the Congress has started speaking a new tune. Congress leaders say the population of people will decide rights and resources. For me, poor people are the biggest population of the country and they have the first right over resources. Welfare of the poor is my aim, Modi said.

The Congress wants to destroy India by dividing the Hindus at any cost; it wants to divide the poor also. For me, the poor are the biggest caste in the country. If the poor are looked after well, the country will automatically be well, he said.

Modi then referred to a 2006 comment by former PM Manmohan Singh  made at a National Development Council meeting on the fiscal priorities of the government and minority empowerment  to allege that the Congress was against minorities.

I was wondering what former PM Manmohan Singh ji would be thinking. He used to say that minorities have the first right to a countrys resources and that too, Muslims. But now, the Congress is saying that the population of the community will decide who will have the first right. So now does it want to curb the rights of the minority? the PM said.

He then asked a question to the audience. If they want to divide rights on the basis of population, then who will have the first right (over resources)? Whose population is more? Should Hindus, who have the biggest population in the country, come forward and claim the rights? he asked. Is the Congress trying to divide the society by giving such slogans?

Modis aggressive remarks mark the strongest response by the Bharatiya Janata Party to the Bihar caste survey and sketches the contours of the possible strategy of the ruling party to an attempt by the Opposition to fragment its rainbow Hindu coalition, especially among marginalised communities.

The controversial caste survey, Opposition politicians hope, can precipitate a second Mandal moment, a reference to the implementation of reservation for OBCs in 1990 that coalesced other backward classes (OBCs) into a potent electoral bloc and sparked the rise of a clutch of regional parties that changed the face of heartland politics.

The 26-party Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) has pushed for a nationwide caste census, hoping that just as the first Mandal movement countered the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and helped regional parties craft alliances to hold on to power for nearly two decades, a second similar churn could pose a challenge to the dominant BJP.

Bihars caste survey results on Tuesday were the first steps on this road. The data showed that extremely backward communities  which comprises 112 castes  constituted 36.01% of the population, and backward castes  formed by 30 communities  made up another 27.12%. Together, OBC  the umbrella group consists of backward castes and EBCs in the state  is 63.13%, confirming estimates by exercises such as the National Family Health Surveys. Scheduled Castes form 19.65% and Scheduled Tribes 1.68%.

The so-called upper castes constitute 15.52% of the population, in line with what leaders such as Kanshi Ram predicted decades ago. Among backwards, Yadavs were found to be the biggest caste group, forming 14.26% of the population, while Kushwaha and Kurmi were 4.27% and 2.87%, respectively.

The data on other socioeconomic parameters collected  17 criteria ranging from employment, education and marital status to land holding and property ownership were part of the surveys questionnaire  was not released. This data could be crucial in understanding how castes are benefitting from reservation, and how intra-caste bloc divisions are evolving.

The BJPs stance on the Bihar caste exercise has been cautious, but Modis remarks mark the first time that the party has clearly articulated its position. The party believes that its dominance is built on a successful strategy to mobilise less-dominant backward and Dalit groups into a broader Hindu umbrella. The party has also consciously injected marginalised caste leaders into its ranks, effectively countering an earlier perception that it was primarily focused on its traditional vote base, the upper castes.

In his speech in Chhattisgarh, where the BJP is looking to replace the Congress, the PM also said that the Congress was not run by leaders but in collusion with anti-national forces that have a secret pact with another country. He also accused the states ruling party of converting loktantra (democracy) to lootantra (corruption) and prjatantra (democracy) to parivartantra (dynasty).

Read here: In PM Modi vs Rahul Gandhi over caste census, recall of Manmohan's 2006 'Muslim minority' remark

I am repeating, the Congress party is no longer being run by Congress people. Senior leaders of Congress are sitting with their mouths shut, neither are they asked, nor do they dare to speak after seeing all this. Now Congress has been outsourced, the PM said.

The Congress has only given poverty to the country and divided society on caste lines in a bid to secure its vote bank. The party has been indulging in the same act today, too, he said.

Modi blamed the Congress government for corruption and crime. Sometimes it seems that there is a competition between Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh as to where the maximum number of crimes takes place. Development in Chhattisgarh is only visible either in posts and banners or in the coffers of Congress leaders, he said.

Chhattisgarh is among five states  alongside Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Mizoram  that will go to the polls by the end of the year.

Manmohan Singhs statement which Modi ji has quoted in his speech is factually incorrect... The statement is on record and he should not mislead, said RP Singh , senior leader and Congress spokesperson.

Todays speech of the PM could be seen in two aspects . Firstly, a large vote base of BJP is from upper caste and they want reservation to be abandoned sooner than later. This faultline may divide the vote base on upper caste and OBC lines. Secondly, the caste Census and the stand of INDIA alliance parties on the same has the potential to crack the unity in the hindu fold which is key of BJPs electoral success. Modi ji has sensed this and tried to counter it before it began actually hurting him in 2024, said Sudiep Srivastava, a political commentator based in Chhattisgarh.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ritesh Mishra State Correspondent for Chhattisgarh. Reports Maoism, Politics, Mining and important developments from the state. Covered all sorts of extremism in Central India. Reported from Madhya Pradesh for eight years. ...view detail
Mumbai: Twenty-four patients, including 12 infants, died at a government hospital in Maharashtras Nanded district in a span of 24 hours, prompting the state government to set up a committee to probe the matter, as officials of the medical health facility complained of inadequate resources and shortage of staff. The deaths were reported at Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College hospital between September 30 and October 1. (HT Photo)

The deaths also triggered a political row as the Congress targetted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and questioned his silence on the matter.

The incident comes six weeks after 18 people died in a span of 24 hours at a government hospital in Thane.

As per an official statement issued by Nanded district collectorate, the deaths were reported at Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College hospital between September 30 and October 1.

In 24 hours, 24 deaths have been reported at Nanded government Hospital and Medical College (GMCH). Out of these 24 patients, 12 were infants who were referred here by some local private hospitals, Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, director, medical education and research, Maharashtra, was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

The hospitals acting dean, Dr S R Wakode, said the condition of 12 patients were serious when they were brought to the facility. They belonged to remote areas of the district and arrived here in a serious condition after falling victim to snakebite and other such cases, he said.

The 12 infants who died were born in the last 24 to 48 hours, and some of them were underweight, he added.

State medical education minister Hasan Mushrif said a panel has been formed to probe the deaths.

I have asked the commissioner of medical education to leave immediately for Nanded. I am also going there tomorrow. Only after we reach there and review the incident will the cause of the deaths be clear, he told reporters.

Santosh Pandagale, a member of the governing council of the medical college and hospital, said the facility faces various problems like lack of staff, equipment issues and shortage of medicine.

This hospital has a capacity of 500 beds but has 1,200 patients, he said. Many machines like the CT scanner are not working because there are no funds for the annual maintenance contracts. Several nurses and doctors have been transferred from here but those posts are still vacant. There is a shortage of medicines too. We have raised these issues with the authorities several times in the past but to no avail, he added.

The Congress hit out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre over the deaths.

The BJP government spends thousands of crores of rupees on its publicity, but there is no money for medicines for children? In the eyes of the BJP, the lives of the poor have no value, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh asked Modi to break his silence on the incident.

Former chief minister and Congress MLA Ashok Chavan visited the hospital to review the situation.

This is extremely unfortunate. Government medical colleges are in a serious crisis. Inadequate staff and shortage of medicines are responsible for the deaths, he said.

Some patients have been referred to private hospitals (from the government hospital), he added, indicating that the number of deaths may rise.
The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) has signed two development loan agreements with the governments of The Bahamas and the Republic of Mauritius worth a total of $140 million to support infrastructure development.

In the presence of SFD Board of Directors Chairman, Ahmed Al-Khateeb, the SFD Chief Executive Officer, signed the agreements in Riyadh. Additionally, the CEO also signed a letter of intent with the government of the Republic of San Marino to explore potential infrastructural development cooperation in the economic, cultural and transportation sectors.

The agreements and letter of intent were signed on the sidelines of the World Tourism Day 2023, hosted by Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, from September 27 to 28, under the theme Tourism and Green Investments.

Family Islands Airports Renaissance Project

The first development loan agreement, worth $70 million, was signed with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments & Aviation of The Bahamas, Isaac Chester, to fund the Family Islands Airports Renaissance Project, which aims to develop and raise the capabilities of airports in the Exuma Islands and increase the number of visitors to the airports from 237,000 to 285,000 visitors annually.

The second development loan agreement, worth $70 million, was signed with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism of the Republic of Mauritius, Louis Steven Obeegadoo, to fund the Construction of Riviere des Anguilles Dam Project. The project will protect the natural environment from floodings, and provide a reliable source of water for drinking, irrigation, and industrial use, helping to reduce water scarcity in the southern part of the island.

The dam will benefit the economy by creating direct and indirect jobs, both during its construction phase and after it becomes operational. The water supply provided by the dam will also support diverse sectors of the economy, including, agriculture and industry.

Infrastructure development potential

The letter of intent was signed with the Minister of Tourism of the Republic of San Marino, Federico Pedini Amati will enable the government and SFD to explore potential infrastructure development cooperation in the economic, cultural and transportation sectors. The letter of intent signifies the beginning of a new development relationship between SFD and San Marino.

These latest development agreements were signed as part of the SFD's commitment to support sustainable development in developing countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) around the world.

They will also contribute towards the realisation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 6, Clean water and sanitation, SDG 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth, and SDG 9, Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.

In line with its mission to promote global sustainable development, SFD has funded more than 700 development projects worth $18.7 billion in over 90 countries around world. SFD is currently expanding its work in the Caribbean region and has recently financed several projects supporting infrastructure, energy, and other key sectors.-- TradeArabia News Service
Hunters may begin donating deer to the Hunters Helping the Hungry program at eight processor locations around the state.

Melchers Locker in Lindsay and The Butchery in Ulysses are among the participating meat processors.

Hunters should call to check availability before hunting or delivering a harvest for processing. This includes non-HHH processors.

Hunters pay no processing costs for deer accepted by processors for this donation-driven program.

The HHH program is funded solely by tax-deductible contributions. Once processed, the ground venison is distributed by charitable organizations to Nebraskans in need. Since the programs inception, more than 900,000 meals have been provided.

Processors accept only whole deer in good condition to ensure a good yield of pure ground venison. Hunters should first talk with processors but may keep antlers, head and cape and donate the rest of the deer.

Learn more about the program or how to support it at OutdoorNebraska.gov, search Hunters Helping the Hungry.
NEW DELHI: External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi is set to take over as Indias new permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) and other international organisations in Geneva, people familiar with the matter said. External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi (File Photo)(HT_PRINT)

Read here: India asks Canada to withdraw dozens of diplomats amid Nijjar killing row

Among the diplomats being considered to replace Bagchi as the foreign ministrys spokesperson are Nagaraj Naidu Kakanur, joint secretary (G20), and K Nandini Singla, high commissioner to Mauritius, the people said on condition of anonymity.

Bagchi, from the 1995 batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), took over as spokesperson in March 2021 and has had an eventful stint that spanned the countrys response to the Covid-19 pandemic and Indias standoff with China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

He had been due to take up an ambassadorial posting following his promotion to the rank of additional secretary some time ago but was asked to stay on till the holding of the G20 Summit.

Kakanur was a key part of the team led by Indias G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant that was involved in negotiations to finalise the consensus leaders declaration at the G20 Summit last month. He is considered to have the edge in the process to appoint the next spokesperson, the people said.

An officer of the 1998 batch of the IFS, Kakanur is a fluent Mandarin speaker and has done four stints in China. Besides two stints in the embassy in Beijing during 2000-03 and 2009-12, he served at the consulate in Hong Kong during 2003-06, and as consul general in the consulate at Guangzhou during 2013-15.

At the headquarters, Kakanur served as the joint secretary of the economic diplomacy division during 2015-17 and as joint secretary of the Europe West division during 2017-18.

K Nandini Singla, from the 1997 batch of the IFS, has served as the ambassador to Portugal during 2016-20, and as joint secretary (Europe West) during 2015-16. She also did a stint at the permanent mission to the UN in Geneva during 2009-11 and served at the high commission in Bangladesh during 2005-08. If she is appointed the spokesperson, she will be the first woman diplomat to hold the post after Nirupama Rao, who held the position during 2001-02 and went on to become foreigns secretary.

Read here: Hardeep Nijjar killing: Trudeau says Canada not keen to escalate tensions with India

In Geneva, Bagchi will replace Indra Mani Pandey, who is expected to return to the headquarters in New Delhi, the people said. Bagchi earlier served at Indias permanent mission to the UN in New York, looking after economic and development issues, and as director in the Prime Ministers Office, handling relations with the UN, the Americas and Russia.

Bagchi has also served as ambassador to Croatia and deputy high commissioner to Sri Lanka.

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NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Forces MiG-21 fighter jets will take part in the IAF Day flypast for the last time this year, officials familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The flypast will be held over Sangam at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh on October 8. The MiG-21s, part of three squadrons of the Indian Air Force, will be retired by 2025 (ANI File)

The flypast will feature 120 aircraft, including the IAFs newest C-295, the officials said. The other aircraft taking part include Rafales, Sukhoi-30s, Mirage-2000s, MiG-29s and Jaguars.

The IAF operates more than 50 MiG-21 Bison aircraft, the latest and the last variant of the MiG-21. The aircraft, part of three different squadrons, will be retired by 2025.

The IAF inducted its first C-295 transport aircraft at the Hindan air base on September 25. The aircraft arrived at the Vadodara air base in Gujarat on September 20, a week after Airbus Defence and Space handed over the plane to IAF at Seville in Spain.

The IAF held its annual parade in Chandigarh last year. This is in line with the three services now organising their flagship ceremonial events outside the national capital. The parade was traditionally held in Hindan.
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday went on a hunger strike in Rajahmundry central jail to protest his arrest in the skill development scam, a statement from the party said. Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders sit on a day-long fast in Delhi on Monday. (ANI)

TDP leaders, supporters and his family observed fasting during the day as well in solidarity with the imprisoned leader on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Naidu began his fast at 10 am and ended it at 5 pm. Wearing a black badge, he sat on the fasting and registered a silent protest, after paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi, his party said.

Outside the jail, Naidus wife Bhuvaneswari sat on a day-long fast at Quarry Centre in Rajahmundry. Hundreds of TDP workers joined her in the protest.

Tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on his birth anniversary today. Mahatma Gandhis life had a message for us all: that any battle, no matter how difficult, can be won if we uphold the principles of truth and justice. His enduring legacy, especially the Satyagraha, continues to inspire us to embrace the power of truth in all our endeavors, Bhuvaneshwari said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

In New Delhi, Naidus son Nara Lokesh, along with party MPs, observed a fast at the residence of Rajya Sabha member Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar. Speaking to reporters after ending the fast in the evening, Lokesh expressed confidence that justice would prevail, saving party leaders from false charges.

Even great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela went to jail for the theories that they trusted, while Chandrababu Naidu was sent to jail for launching the skill development project to provide employment to the jobless, he said.

Describing Naidus arrest as political vendetta, Lokesh said TDP will fight back. We will certainly continue our struggle and we will bring before the public the evidence that we are not at all involved in any of these cases, he said.

TDP Andhra Pradesh unit president K Atchannaidu, along with other leaders, observed a hunger strike at party headquarters in Mangalagiri in Guntur district.

Family members of TDP MLA and actor N Balakrishna also went on a daylong hunger strike at NTR Trust Bhavan in Hyderabad. Balakrishnas wife Vasundhara and others were on fast to show solidarity with Naidu. Several other TDP leaders took up the fast at NTR Ghat in Hyderabad.

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The Maharashtra government will convene a cabinet meeting to discuss the deaths of at least 31 patients, including 16 infants, at a government hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded district, said officials on Tuesday. The government has also formed an inquiry committee to probe the incident, said the officials. Nanded govt hospital(HT File Photo)

The death toll at Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College Hospital has jumped to 31 from Monday's tally of 24.

Maharashtra cabinet is to discuss the Nanded Hospital deaths in a meeting today. Cabinet may decide on forming an inquiry committee over the incident," an official told news agency ANI.

Twenty-four deaths, including that of 12 infants, were reported between September 30 and October 1 in a government hospital in Nanded due to inadequate facilities and a shortage of staff and medicines, according to officials.

Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, director, medical education and research, Maharashtra told news agency PTI, In 24 hours, 24 deaths have been reported at Nanded government Hospital and Medical College (GMCH). Out of these 24 patients, 12 were infants who were referred here by some local private hospitals.

Shyamrao Wakode, dean of the college, rejected allegations of negligence against the hospital and told news agency ANI that deceased patients were suffering from different ailments such as diabetes, liver failure, and kidney failure.

The deaths triggered a massive political row as the opposition slammed the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and questioned his silence on the matter. Opposition leaders, including Sharad Pawar, Rahul Gandhi, Supriya Sule and Priyanka Chaturvedi, promptly hit out at the Eknath Shinde government over the reported deaths.

Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party wrote on social media X, formally Twitter, The unfortunate incident of death of 24 people including 12 newborns in 24 hours in a government hospital in Nanded is literally shocking.

Leader of the Opposition, Mallikarjun Kharge raised questions on the state government's health infrastructure and demanded a thorough investigation.

The top Congress leader said, It is said that these patients died due to lack of medicines and treatment. A similar incident took place in a government hospital in Thane in August 2023 in which 18 patients lost their lives.

"We demand a thorough investigation so that the culprits of this negligence are given strict punishment by the judiciary," he added.

Former chief minister and local Congress MLA Ashok Chavan visited the Nanded government hospital to review the situation. He said, This is extremely unfortunate. Government medical colleges are in a serious crisis. Inadequate staff and shortage of medicines are responsible for the condition of this hospital."

Chavan added that when he discussed these issues with the dean, he was told that besides the 24 deaths in the last 24 hours, around 70 patients were in a serious condition. Some of them have been referred to private hospitals, he said, indicating that the death toll could rise.

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Hours before the Delhi Police conducted raids on the premises of online portal NewsClick and several journalists associated with the organisation, the first meeting by the officials of the special cell was held on Monday mid-night. The meeting was attended by more than 200 police personnel at 2am at the special cell office in Lodhi Colony, news agency ANI reported citing sources. Delhi Police brings senior journalist Pranjoy Guha Thakurata to the Lodhi Road Special Cell office in New Delhi on Tuesday, (PTI)

Apart from senior officials, the mobile handsets of junior officials were kept at the station, to hide any leaked information, the report claimed. The Delhi Police special cell carried out raids at more than 30 locations, the report said, adding that suspects were marked in the A, B, and C categories.

The raids were conducted on a case registered on August 17 under UAPA and other sections of IPC, which include UAPA, 153A of IPC (promoting enmity between two groups), and 120 B of IPC (criminal conspiracy).

Meanwhile, in Mumbai, teams of the Delhi Police special cell and Mumbai Police carried out searches at the residence of activist Teesta Setalvad, the report added.

On Tuesday morning, the cops also reached Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury's residence to question his staffer Sri Narayan's son Sunmit Kumar. The raid team seized the mobile, laptop, and hard drive of Sunmit Kumar, who works at NewsClick, the report claimed.

Some journalists, including Urmilesh and Abhishar Sharma, were taken to the Lodhi Road special cell office but no one has been arrested so far in the searches concentrated in the Delhi-NCR region, officials told news agency PTI. Founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha was taken to the NewsClick south Delhi office.

Addressing a gathering in Bhubaneswar, Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur said probe agencies in the country are independent and work in accordance with law.

... If someone has done something wrong, probe agencies work on it... Nowhere is it written that if you have got money through illegal manner or done something objectionable, then probe agencies cannot investigate that, Thakur said.

The Congress and the Samajwadi Party as well as the Press Club of India also reacted to the searches and criticised the government for the action.

The Enforcement Directorate had earlier conducted raids at the firm's premises to probe its sources of funding. The special cell is now continuing the searches on the basis of inputs provided by the central agency, officials said.

Officials in the know said police recovered dump data from laptops and mobile phones of some NewsClick journalists.

A team took Abhisar Sharma with it after questioning him at his home in Noida Extension. The team seized gadgets like mobile phones and a laptop of the journalist landing at his home in the morning.

Delhi Police sources said the raids, which started early Tuesday morning, are based on a case registered in August under UAPA and other sections of IPC, including Section 153A (promoting enmity between two groups), 120B (criminal conspiracy).

Before he was detained, Abhisar Sharma wrote on X, "Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone."

Another journalist, Bhasha Singh, wrote on X, "Finally last tweet from this phone. Delhi police seizure (sic) my phone."

Among those raided were historian Sohail Hashmi it is learnt.

(With inputs from ANI, PTI)

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Nitin Gadkari, the Union minister of road, transport and highways, on Monday, took a test drive on a Skoda's hydrogen bus in Prague. In a video shared by the office of Nitish Gadkari on X, formerly known as Twitter, the minister can be seen riding the bus along with other officials. Nitin Gadkari takes test drive on hydrogen bus in Prague

According to the minister, hydrogen buses hold significant promise in reducing carbon emissions and addressing environmental concerns, contributing to a cleaner and greener future".

Sharing pictures of the test drive, the office of Gadkari said, Union Minister Shri @nitin_gadkari Ji took a test drive in a Hydrogen Bus by Skoda in Prague, Czech Republic today, showcasing India's commitment to exploring sustainable and eco-friendly mobility solutions.

Gadkari arrived in Prague on Sunday where he received a traditional Maharashtrian welcome at the Prague airport. The minister also participated in the ministerial session on Road Safety at the 27th World Road Congress in Prague.

Centre's push for green energy

The Centre has been increasingly emphasising greener fuel solutions over the years.

In January this year, Gadkari approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM) which aims to make India a global hub for such technologies' production, utilization, and export. The mission will slowly lead to the decarbonization of industrial, transport, and energy sectors, and also help in the reduction of dependence on imported fossil fuels, among others.

Speaking at an event in February, Gadkari said, India will certainly shift to electric vehicles in the coming yearsWe import 16 crore worth of fossil fuel every year, but pretty soon, our farmers will produce green fuel and hydrogen. Lithium-ion batteries will lead the shift from the current range of petrol and diesel-driven cars.

India's green hydrogen fuel cell bus

Last month, union minister Hardeep Singh Puri flagged off the country's first green hydrogen fuel cell bus in Delhi. According to the minister, the future of India's transport will be on green hydrogen.

India has one of the largest synchronous grids in the world, capable of handling intermittent renewable energy and we have achieved One Nation-One Grid-One Frequency," he said.

(With inputs from agencies)
More than 1000 people have been arrested in the second phase of a state-wide crackdown against child marriages in Assam. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, the number of arrested people now stands at 1,039. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma(ANI)

During the first round of the drive earlier this year, thousands were held across the state.

"In a massive crackdown against child marriage, Assam Police has arrested over 800 accused persons in a special operation, which began in the early hours of dawn," Sarma said on X.

He said the number of arrests in cases related to the social menace is likely to rise as the operation is still underway.

On September 11, Sarma had told the Assam Assembly that a total of 3,907 people were arrested in cases related to child marriages in the last five years, of whom 3,319 are facing charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO).
China has reportedly rejected proposals for fresh Belt and Road projects in Pakistan, citing concerns related to political instability and worsening security conditions in Islamabad. Chinese officials declined Pakistan's suggestions to expand the scope of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor during the 11th meeting of the primary decision-making body for the CPEC, reported Nikkei Asia citing people familiar with a high-level meeting which took place in October the previous year but had its minutes signed in July. China declined Pakistan's proposal for a 500kv transmission line from Hub to Gwadar.(Bloomberg)

Beijing also turned down Islamabad's request to construct a 500-kilovolt transmission line connecting the Gwadar port to the national electricity grid from Karachi, according to the report. In contrast, China insisted that Pakistan drop its objections to a 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Gwadar, advocating for its location to remain as planned, with domestic coal use.

The Express Tribune reported last week that China did not agree to several proposals put forth by Pakistan in areas such as energy, water management, climate change, and tourism in regions like Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), and coastal areas. The report also suggested disparities between the draft shared with Beijing by Pakistan and the final minutes signed by both sides, with the latter version reflecting China's stance.

In light of local media reports highlighting China's reluctance to deepen its presence in Pakistan, the Ministry of Planning and Development in Pakistan sought to downplay the situation, affirming that both nations are committed to expanding the CPEC into new areas such as water resources management, climate change, and tourism.

Pakistan has been grappling with political turmoil since the ousting of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's government in April 2022, leading to multiple episodes of civil unrest. Furthermore, security concerns have persisted, with militants targeting Chinese interests, including a thwarted ambush of engineers in August. Recent suicide bombings in Pakistan have only exacerbated the security situation.

As many as 65 people died in the two suicide attacks in Pakistan's restive Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. A total of 60 people were killed and more than 60 others were injured in a grisly suicide blast on Friday in Balochistan that targeted a procession to celebrate Prophet Muhammad's birthday near the Madina Masjid at a place called Mastung, an official said.

In the second bomb attack that took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwas Hangu, targeting a police stations mosque, five people were killed, and 12 others were injured as the mosques roof collapsed in the explosions impact, it said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR HT News Desk Follow the latest breaking news and developments from India and around the world with Hindustan Times' newsdesk. From politics and policies to the economy and the environment, from local issues to national events and global affairs, we've got you covered. ...view detail
Chennai: The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaving the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has left the other regional parties in the coalition in Tamil Nadu with a tough choice and those outside with a new opportunity. AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami chairs a meeting of the chief club secretaries, district club secretaries, club parliamentarians and assembly members, in Chennai on Monday (AIADMK X)

The split leading to a three cornered contest in the state for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is clear but which way will parties within and outside the NDA and those with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam swing?

After the AIADMK and BJP came together to fight the 2019 parliamentary elections, the DMK-led formidable coalition of the Secular Progressive Front including the Congress, Left parties and the Dalits backed Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) have swept every election in Tamil Nadu.

They are now part of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or INDIA to face the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. With the AIADMK breaking ties with the BJP blaming its state unit on September 25, parties here are preparing for a seismic shift in Tamil Nadus politics not seen in the past five years.

Ousted AIADMK leaders O Panneerselvam (OPS) and TTV Dhinakaran have said that the BJP has been in touch with them. The BJP wanted Dhinakaran even ahead of the 2021 elections given the backing he enjoys among the Mukkulathor community in southern Tamil Nadu.

Dhinakaran has made it clear that his five year-old party Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) isnt averse to an alliance with the national party. According to an AMMK party leader they have three options- go with the BJP, join the Congress if the DMK deserts them and lastly, fight it alone. It will also depend on the Prime Ministerial candidate, he added.

BJPs Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai left for Delhi on Sunday night to meet his leaders for the first time after AIADMKs exit. Without the BJP, the AIADMK will lose its two-leaves symbol and the party will shatter, Dhinakaran said on Monday.

Politically orphaned OPS who joined hands with Dhinakaran has been ready to work for the NDA banner and recently said that the BJP has been speaking to him for the past three months. Being in the NDA has been an option for us for a while though the BJP hasnt decisively committed anything to us, said a senior leader in the OPS camp. They have been saying there will be a good decision soon. Cadre too wants us to be in the NDA but we are unsure if they will accept to contest in the lotus symbol.

While the largest party in the NDA coalition, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has decided to wait since they believe that the split has made them appealing equally to the DMK, AIADMK and the BJP, the Puratchi Bharatham Party with one legislator has decided to stick with Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS).

This small party is the only one to so far endorse the AIADMKs decision to contest the 2024 parliamentary polls with a new alliance. The Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) is likely to veer towards the BJP while Puthiya Needhi Katchi and a caste-party Puthiya Tamizhagam (PT) are yet to make a decision. Actor-turned politician Vijayakanths DMDK had quit the NDA ahead of the 2021 elections upset over the few seats they were given.

DMK allies such as the VCK whom Palaniswami has already begun to court since last week believe that the BJP is attempting a rapprochement with the AIADMK. Both parties have gone silent after the announcement. We have to watch if these are pressure tactics for seat sharing or if they have genuinely broken it off, said a senior leader in the DMK alliance.

The AIADMKs assessment is that being with the BJP has cost them their traditional votebank of women, minorities and Dalits. We have to regain ground here. We would have completely lost them had we been with the BJP for one more election, a senior AIADMK leader said, requesting anonymity.

But, if the AIADMK were to face the 2024 elections alone as they have been saying and not coming together with the BJP even in a post-poll scenario, a senior leader in the DMK coalition said that the VCK and the Left parties would no longer view the AIADMK tinted by communal politics and they would have more options for the 2026 assembly election.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers at the Danteshwari Temple in Bastar, Jagdalpur after arriving in poll-bound Chhattisgarh on Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers at the Danteshwari Temple in Bastar, Chhatisgarh(Twitter/@ANI)

Dedicated to Goddess Danteshwari, the temple is one of the 52 Shakti Peethas, shrines of Shakti, the divine feminine, spread across India.

During his visit to Bastar, the Prime Minister will visit the tribal heartland to inaugurate the National Mineral Development Corporation's (NDMC) integrated steel plant in Nagarnar, an official statement said.

In addition, the PM will lay the foundation stone of several developmental projects in the state worth over 26,000 crore, as per the official statement.

NMDC Steel Ltds Steel Plant at Nagarnar will provide employment opportunities to thousands of people, in the plant as well as in ancillary and downstream industries. It will put Bastar on the steel map of the world and provide a boost to the socioeconomic development of the region.

Moreover, the PM will also dedicate a new rail line between Antagarh and Taroki and a rail line doubling project between Jagdalpur and Dantewara.

He will lay the foundation stone of the Boridand -Surajpur rail line doubling project and redevelopment of Jagdalpur Station under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.

Prime Minister will also flag off the Taroki  Raipur DEMU Train Service. These rail projects will improve connectivity in the tribal regions of the state. The improved rail infrastructure and the new train service will benefit the local people and help in the economic development of the region.

Prime Minister will also dedicate a road upgradation project from Kunkuri to Chhattisgarh - Jharkhand Border section of National Highway-43. The new road will improve road connectivity, benefiting the people of the region.

PM's visit to Chattisgarh comes as state assembly polls are scheduled to be held later this year and all political parties are throwing their maximum efforts to woo voters.

Earlier after the 2018 assembly polls, the Congress witnessed a landslide victory winning 68 seats out of 90 of those against the then ruling-BJP, which acquired 15 seats.
A judge ordered a former U.S. Senate candidate who is now the head of the Lancaster County Republican Party to cease communications with his wife and to stay away from their once-shared home after she accused him of abuse and stalking in civil court filings last month.

A week after Matthew Innis was again elected chairman of the Lancaster County GOP on Sept. 18, Judge Kevin McManaman signed an emergency domestic abuse protection order against the 56-year-old, barring Innis from contacting his wife, visiting her house or interacting with their household pets, according to court filings.

Innis, who is reprising his role as county party chairman after serving in the post from 2011 to 2015, is also barred from possessing or purchasing a firearm under the order, which McManaman signed Sept. 25.

The order  which was issued on an emergency basis and can either be kept in place for a year, modified or vacated altogether after a show-cause hearing next week  came in response to a petition from Innis' wife, who filed for divorce in January and sought an exclusion order as part of the couple's divorce proceedings.

In March, McManaman issued an order barring Innis and his wife from "disturbing the peace and quiet" of each other and allowing Innis to return to the couple's home  which he had already vacated  only occasionally and only after texting his wife for consent to enter the home ahead of time, according to the filings.

But in court documents filed in July, his wife accused Innis of violating the exclusion order 11 times  prompting McManaman to schedule a contempt of court hearing in their divorce case.

And in her petition for a protection order filed last month, Innis' wife accused him of "severe post separation abuse" in the form of repeated, unannounced visits to her Lancaster County home, where, she alleged, Innis has berated her and threatened to take her vehicle.

She also accused Innis of sexually violating her multiple times across their 30-year marriage that, she alleged, came with "physical, mental, emotional and financial abuse" throughout.

Innis' attorney, Terrance A. Poppe, did not respond to a request for comment Monday. The Lancaster County GOP did not respond to an email seeking comment, either.

In a Facebook post Monday night, Innis accused Democratic politicians of "using the media to take advantage of a personal situation for political gamesmanship."

"Further, the Lincoln Journal Star/Lee Enterprises, is complicit in blindly collaborating for clicks instead of producing actual investigative reporting," he said.

Innis suggested in the post that Democratic politicians had pointed the Journal Star to the district court records filed against him, which isn't true. The Journal Star routinely checks Lancaster County court records.

Innis did not address the allegations of stalking or abuse in his Facebook post.

In a written affidavit, Innis' wife said she had discovered the 2020 U.S. Senate candidate in her house, unbeknownst to her and without her prior consent, three times this year.

In one instance, on Sept. 22, Innis' wife said he showed up to her house and noted that she had gotten home late the night before, according to the affidavit. She said in the filing that she had already removed at least one camera from the property over fear he was using it to keep tabs on her.

"I got home late last night so that's either more cameras or a tracking device in my car," she wrote, adding: "He was and is still stalking me."

She called deputies to her house Sept. 22, according to Lancaster County Sheriff's Office records, and sought the protection order against Innis the same day.

"I thought this time (deputies) could help me but they came and could do nothing," Innis' wife wrote in the petition. "I am always in fear and hypervigilant. I refuse to reconcile. I have no protection with the exclusion order."

"He did make threats regarding how he plans to punish me because of the contempt of court hearing," she continued. "I have every reason to believe that he will kill me."

Deputies have responded to her home five times since mid-June, according to Sheriff's Office records.

Innis' wife said in her petition that she had, for a time, stopped calling 911 because Innis told her that deputies reported to him that they knew she was lying in her reports. Deputies later told Innis' wife they hadn't told Innis that, according to her affidavit.

Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said Monday that Innis wasn't cited or arrested for any of the alleged disturbances and noted that deputies don't arrest parties accused of violating exclusion orders.

It is a crime to violate protection orders. Innis' wife has called deputies once since McManaman issued the protection order against him, but the 56-year-old wasn't cited in that instance, which came a day after the judge signed the order.

A day later, on Sept. 26, Innis' attorney filed a request for a hearing on the protection order. Both Innis and his wife are due in court for the hearing Oct. 13.

Top Journal Star photos for September 2023
Jaipur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot has accepted defeat in the upcoming assembly elections by asking him not to halt the welfare schemes introduced by the state government. Narendra Modi (PTI)

Modi assured that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not discontinue but only improve the public schemes if the party is voted to power in the state, even as Gehlot claimed that the people are aware that the initiatives are safe under the Congress government.

Last week, Gehlot had demanded that Modi give a guarantee that the Congress governments schemes will not be scrapped if the BJP comes to power in the state. I would like to request Prime Minister Modi ji that whenever you come next time, these days you are giving guarantee, so you give a guarantee that the schemes that we have started will not be stopped if (BJP) government is formed, he said on September 27.

Taking on the chief minister over his remarks, Modi said: Gehlot knows that the countdown of the Congress government has started. He, in a way, has congratulated the BJP by publicly requesting that welfare schemes should not be stopped. I assure you that the BJP will not stop any scheme of public interest but will try to improve it. This is Modis guarantee.

The Prime Minister was addressing a rally in Chittorgarh after inaugurating and laying the foundation stone for several infrastructure, education and tourism projects worth 7,000 when he attacked the Gehlot government. He also offered prayers at Sanwaliya temple.

Elections for the 200-member assembly are due to be held this year.

Modi continued: After five years of looting the public, the Congress knows its time is over and it has accepted its defeat in Rajasthan.

Both Gehlot and his party were quick to slam the Prime Minister for his remarks. Once bitten and twice shy. The people of Rajasthan realise that the popular schemes for their interests and rights are safe only under our Congress government. Congress means trust, the chief minister wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Congress leader Pawan Khera said the Prime Minister has accepted that the Rajasthan government has done good work. Our chief minister threw a trap and the prime minister fell for it by saying that the Gehlot governments schemes will be continued. When our schemes are good, who will vote for you (BJP), he told a press conference in Jaipur.

Besides speaking about Gehlots remarks, the Prime Minister raked up the brutal murder of a Hindu tailor by two people in June last year, and asked whether the people of the state had voted for the Congress for this.

The people came on the pretext of getting clothes stitched, slit the throat of the tailor without any fear and made a video and made it viral. The Congress gets worried about votes in that too, he said.

The tailor  Kanhaiya Lal  was hacked to death for allegedly supporting former BJP leader Nupur Sharmas remarks on Prophet Mohammed. The two accused captured the killing on their phones and issued a threat to Modi as they proudly posed with the knives used in the murder in a hate crime that shocked the country. They were arrested hours after the crime that day.

Modi alleged that Gehlot was busy trying to save his chair while half the Congress was trying to dislodge him, in an apparent reference to an alleged power tussle between the chief minister and his former deputy, Sachin Pilot, since 2018.

The Congress came to power in the state by lying to people but could not run the government. Chief minister Gehlot was busy saving his chair while half of his own party was busy removing him for more than four years, he said.

He assured that the BJP will bring prosperity, employment and development to the state, besides ensuring the safety of women, if it is voted to power. Rajasthan has given a call. Will save Rajasthan, will bring BJP government, he said.

He also said that the paper leak mafia in Rajasthan will be held accountable and given the harshest punishment. Action will definitely be taken against those who have committed corruption here and looted the money of the poor. This is also Modis guarantee, he said.

The Prime Minister gave a clear indication that no leader will be projected as the chief ministerial candidate for the elections. The only face of the BJP in Rajasthan is the symbol of lotus. Our hope and candidate is the lotus, he said.

The Congress hit back at Modi over the corruption remark.

Senior BJP legislator Kailash Meghwal has levelled corruption charges against a cabinet minister in the Modi government. The BJP should answer that first, Congress spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi said.

(With inputs from agencies)
Possession of e-cigarettes and similar devices in any form, quantity or manner is in violation of the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarette Act (PECA) 2019, the Union Health Ministry said in a clarification. The health ministry will strengthen the enforcement of the ban on cigarettes and similar devices(HT File Photo)

The clarification was sent to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MCA) last month, official sources said, adding it will strengthen the enforcement of the ban.

The ministry said that though there is no explicit mention of prohibition of individual use of e-cigarette in PECA, the law has been enacted to prohibit the production, manufacture, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertisement of e- cigarettes.

"Therefore, possession of e-cigarette within the country in any quantity is not possible without contravening the provisions of PECA, 2019, said Dr Pulkesh Kumar, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Health.

Also Read: Health Ministry notice to 15 websites for selling e-cigarettes; social media sites under scanner

The ban includes a prohibition on all forms of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, Heat Not Burn Products, e-Hookah and similar devices.

The law was enacted in the interest of public health and to protect the people from harm, the health ministry said.

Despite heavy penalties and imprisonment, e-cigarettes are reported to be widely available across a range of sources including tobacco vendors, general stores, and online providers.

The health ministry has also launched an online portal to facilitate reporting of violations under PECA. This portal will allow the ministry to take necessary action on violations.

Anyone can report these violations at "http://www.violation-reporting.in".

The government has also expressed concern regarding the alarming rise in its use amongst youth.

In May, the ministry issued a public notice for effective implementation of the Act. Later in July, the ministry sent notices to 15 websites selling e-cigarettes, asking them to stop advertisement and sale of such products.

The ministry, earlier in February, had written to all states and UTs to ensure effective compliance of the government's ban on e-cigarettes.

In a letter addressed to chief secretaries of all states and Union territories, it had flagged the sale of e-cigarettes at stationary stores near educational institutions.
BHUBANESWAR/NEW DELHI: Investigating agencies in the country are independent and are free to act against those violating the law, union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur said on Tuesday after the Delhi Police carried out raids at the premises of several journalists in Delhi in connection with its probe into the web portal, NewsClick. Union minister Anurag Thakur speaks during a review meeting of officials on Sept 22 (File Photo) (PTI//@ianuragthakur)

I dont need to justify it, Thakur told reporters at a news conference in Bhubaneswar.

If someone has committed any wrong, investigating agencies do act on them. Nowhere it is written that if you have wrongfully acquired wealth and committed offence, the investigating agencies would not take action, Thakur told reporters at a press meet when asked if he justified government action with regards to raids on journalists.

Investigating agencies are independent. They act according to law, he added.

Thakurs defence of the raids by the Delhi Polices special cell at locations linked to the news portal and its journalists comes amid sharp criticism of the police action by opposition parties.

Congress MP Pramod Tiwari condemned the raids, saying his party stands in support of free journalism. I feel that dictatorship has come... This is a message from the BJP to all the journalists, Tiwari said.

Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera suggested that the raids were an attempt to distract attention from the Bihar caste survey and the demand for a nationwide census.

The early morning raids on contributing journalists at Newsclick comes as fresh distraction from the explosive findings of caste census in Bihar and the growing demand for caste census across the country. When he faces questions from out of syllabus, he resorts to the only counter he has in his predictable syllabus - DISTRACTION, he said on X, formerly Twitter.

There has been no formal word from the Delhi Police on the case against the news portal or Tuesdays raids.

News agency ANI said the raids, which started early Tuesday morning, are based on a case registered on August 17 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and other sections of the Indian Penal Code, including Section 153A (promoting enmity between two groups), 120B (criminal conspiracy).

Already, the portal is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on money laundering charges. According to the FIR, the petitioner company, PPK Newsclick Studio Private Limited, received foreign direct investment (FDI) to the tune of 9.59 crore from Worldwide Media Holdings LLC USA during 2018-19.

It alleged that the investment was made by greatly overvaluing the shares of the petitioner company to avoid the 26 per cent FDI cap in a digital news website.

In 2021, the Delhi high court barred the federal agency from taking any coercive action against NewsClick and its editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha. EDs request to the high court to vacate its order hasnt been decided yet.

The news portal was again at the centre of a row in August after a New York Times report claimed that NewsClick 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. NewsClick rebutted the claim, saying the allegations by certain political actors and sections of the media are unfounded and without basis in fact or law.

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Several opposition parties hit out at the government after Delhi Police's special cell on Tuesday morning conducted raids on the premises of online portal NewsClick and its journalists. Information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur, however, said he does not need to justify the raids, adding that agencies are free to carry out probes if anyone has committed anything wrong. A senior police officer arrives at the office of NewsClick at Sainik Farm during raids by Delhi Police's Special Cell on its premises in New Delhi on Tuesday.(PTI)

"I don't need to justify... If anyone has committed anything wrong, search agencies are free to carry out investigations against them under set guidelines... Thakur told reporters.

Citing an investigation by The New York Times, Thakur recently claimed that the NewsClick's money trail revealed an anti-India agenda.

On Tuesday, officials said the special cell has registered a new case and started an investigation.

Delhi Police is conducting raids at different premises linked to NewsClick under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other sections, sources told news agency ANI.

The Enforcement Directorate had earlier conducted raids at the firm's premises probing its sources of funding. The special cell is now raiding the media firm on the basis of inputs provided by the central agency. Officials in the know told news agency PTI that police have recovered the dump data from laptops and mobile phones of some journalists of NewsClick.

Some journalists have been brought to the Lodhi Road Special Cell office, but no one has been arrested so far, they said.

Reacting to the development, The Press Club of India on X said it is deeply concerned about raids on the houses of journalists and writers associated with NewsClick.

"The Press Club of India is deeply concerned about the multiple raids conducted on the houses of journalists and writers associated with #Newsclick. We are monitoring the developments and will be releasing a detailed statement.

"The PCI stands in solidarity with the journalists and demands the government to come out with details," it said.

RJD MP Manoj Jha described the raid as the most unfortunate thing. "Why are you calling them the Delhi Police? They are under Union home minister Amit Shah and nothing takes place without his consent... Those who deny to join their (BJP) 'Bhajan Mandali', they do like this against them... What are they trying to show from all these... This incident will be written in the history and this step of the government will cost them," Jha told news agency ANI.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera alleged that the early morning raids on contributing journalists at Newsclick comes as a fresh distraction from the explosive findings of caste census in Bihar and the growing demand for caste census across the country.

When he faces questions from out of syllabus, he resorts to the only counter he has in his predictable syllabus - DISTRACTION, Khera added.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra wrote on social media X, Senior journalists raided and taken for questioning. Their phones and laptops seized . New India takes the press seriously.

Meanwhile, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury claimed that police came to his residence because one of my companions who lives with me there, his son works for NewsClick.

"Police came to question him. They took his laptop and phone. What are they investigating, nobody knows. If this is an attempt to try and muzzle the media, the country must know the reason behind this," he told ANI.

Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti alleged that during the raids telephone devices were forcibly snatched only for a fishing expedition.

"GOI claims India is the mother of democracy and about press freedom abroad yet in the same breath uses state agencies to crackdown on the remaining handful of independent media outlets. Even telephone devices have been forcibly snatched only for a fishing expedition. The repeated illegal pattern of arrest first & creating fake charges later is extremely perturbing," Mufti posted on X.

Earlier, Abhisar Sharma, a senior journalist, wrote on X, "Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone."

Another journalist, Bhasha Singh, wrote on X, "Finally last tweet from this phone. Delhi police seizure (sic) my phone."

In August, the Delhi high court sought the stand of NewsClick Founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha on a plea by the city police seeking vacation of an earlier order granting him interim protection from arrest in an unlawful foreign funding case.

The website recently hit the headlines for allegedly receiving money from US millionaire Neville Roy Singham for pro-China propaganda in India.

(With inputs from agencies)

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As the election fever has gripped Rajasthan, Independent MLA Om Prakash Hudla on Monday sat at a cobbler shop in Dausa and polished people's shoes. In a video posted by the news agency ANI, Hudla can be seen wearing a garland and polishing an elderly man's shoes before helping him put them on. Several people can be seen surrounding the MLA, while one man was seen throwing rose petals at Hudla. Rajasthan independent MLA Om Prakash Hudla polishing people's shoes

In 2018 too, Hudla caught the media attention by doing a similar act. He had won the election from the Dausa constituency.

Hudla told journalists that he took the initiative to polish the shoes of voters and workers to make them realise that MLAs are their employees, not vice versa.

I have done this before, I'm doing it today, and will continue to do so, he said.

Meanwhile, Hudla also reportedly raised a Tricolour outside a hospital on Monday to mark Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary.

Rajasthan is set to witness assembly elections later this year.

PM Modi in Rajasthan

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh ahead of the upcoming assembly election. Modi came down heavily on the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in the state and accused it of destroying the state in the past five years.

Every corrupt person, goon, rioter, tyrant, and every leader of Congress has considered himself the government of Rajasthan. The Congress left no stone unturned in looting the state, he said.

Taking a dig at the Rajasthan Congress infighting between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot, Modi said, The Congress successfully formed a government by deceiving the people of Rajasthan. However, they failed to run the government. Ashok Gehlot had been saving his chief ministerial chair, whereas half of the Congress leaders were actively trying to unseat him.

(With inputs from ANI)
A day after Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said that Sanatana Dharma is the only religion, Udit Raj of the Congress alleged that they have been trying to fool people, claiming that Sanatana is nothing. Congress leader Udit Raj(Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

Sanatana is nothing. If there is Sanatana, there is casteThey have been fooling us and trying to get our votes on the name of Sanatana. Now, they won't be able any longer, Raj told news agency ANI.

If everyone is Sanatani, why do only some castes get reservations and preferences in jobs? Why is there inequality among people? Sanatana and caste are one thing, the senior Congress added.

On Monday, Adityanath, speaking at the 'Shrimad Bhagwat Katha Gyan Yagya' concluding session held at the Gorakhnath temple, said, Sanatan Dharma is the religion of humanity, and any attack on it will put entire humanity in danger.

The UP chief minister added that the rest of the religions are all sects or methods of worship.

This comes amid the ongoing controversy over the Sanatana Dharma following Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin's remarks last month comparing it with diseases like dengue and malaria. A few things cannot be opposed, that should be abolished only. We can't oppose dengue, mosquitoes, malaria, or corona. We have to eradicate this, that's how we have to eradicate Sanatana. Rather opposing Sanatana it should be eradicated," he had said.

Meanwhile, on September 20, Stalin stoked the controversy afresh as he said President Droupadi Murmu was not invited to the inauguration of new Parliament building but some 'Hindi actors' were because Murmu is from a tribal community and a widow. This is what we call Sanatan Dharma, he said.

(With inputs from agencies)
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine the Delhi high courts order that required an accused to keep sharing his movement details with the investigating officer every 8 hours as a condition for bail. The Supreme Court of India (HT File Photo)

We want to know if this condition allowing the investigating officer (IO) to track the Google pin of the person on bail can satisfy as a bail condition, a bench of justices AS Oka and Pankaj Mithal said.

The court was dealing with an appeal filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the high court order of February 8, 2023, that granted bail to Raman Bhuraria, an accused in the 3,200 crore money laundering case involving Shakti Bhog Foods Limited (SBFL).

Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana appearing for Bhuraria said, as per the high courts (bail) order, I need to drop my Google pin location every 8 hours.

When ED sought to defend this bail condition, the bench said it would take up this aspect and asked the federal agency to file its response. The court will next take up the case on December 12.

The bench told ED to indicate the practical effect of imposing this condition on a persons right to privacy, declared a fundamental right by the Supreme Court in its 9-judge bench ruling of 2017 in Justice KS Puttaswamy v Union of India.

Once a person is set at liberty with the grant of bail, will such a condition not infringe the right to privacy of the individual? You must tell us what the practical effect will be on a persons privacy by having this condition, the bench told ED.

Incidentally, another bench of the Supreme Court in July this year had imposed a similar bail condition on two accused, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira. In its July 28 order, a bench of justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia said: During this period, that is the period during which they remain on bail, both the appellants shall keep the location status of their mobile phones active, 24 hours a day and their phones shall be paired with that of the Investigating Officer of the NIA to enable him, at any given time, to identify the appellants exact location.

According to the condition contained in the bail granted by the high court to Raman Bhuraria, The applicant shall drop a Google pin location from his mobile phone to the IO concerned which shall be kept operational throughout his bail.

In defence of this condition, ED cited US court decisions where such conditions have been imposed considering the larger interest of securing justice in serious crimes. Advocate Zoheb Hossain appearing for ED told the Court that the right to privacy judgment delivered by the top court cited these decisions.

Hossain said that as in the earlier days, a person on bail was required to report to the nearest police station every week or fortnight. Similarly, he added, the same is sought to be achieved by the HC order using technology as an aid to keep track of the accuseds movements.

Bhuraria was an internal auditor of SBFL for the financial year 2008-09 to 2013-14 and a statutory auditor of the company for 2006-07. He was arrested in August 2021 by ED during its probe against the company and its promoter Kewal Krishan Kumar for defaulting on loans taken from a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) to the tune of 3269.42 crore.

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NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force will boost its capabilities with locally made military hardware including mountain radars for the disputed frontier with China to look deep inside the neighbours territory, long-range surface-to-air missile systems, new fighter jets, upgraded combat planes, light combat helicopters, tactical ballistic missiles, trainer aircraft and close-in weapon systems, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari said on Tuesday. IAF chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari (HT Photo/Arvind Yadav)

The induction of this indigenous equipment into IAF during the coming years is expected to cost up to 3 lakh crore, with this year alone accounting for a spending of 41,180 crore, Chaudhari said at his annual media briefing ahead of the IAF Day on October 8.

The purchases lined up include 97 more light combat aircraft (LCA) Mk-1A worth 67,000 crore and 156 Prachand light combat helicopters for 45,000 crore, apart from a project to upgrade 84 Sukhoi-30 fighter jets at a cost of 60,000 crore, he said.

Also Read: India moves to secure key flashpoint at LAC

He said that the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China was the same as last year and the IAF would remain deployed along the disputed frontier till complete disengagement took place. The two countries have been locked in a military standoff since May 2020 and a full resolution of the border crisis through ongoing negotiations still appears elusive.

We are constantly monitoring the situation across the borders through persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). We make note of the build-up of resources and capabilities. Our operational plans are dynamic and keep changing based on the situation that we perceive is developing across any front, Chaudhari said in response to a question about the Chinese build-up along the LAC.

Chaudhari also drew attention to Chinas vast air defence network across the border. The sheer number of radars and surface-to-air guided weapons is quite large, he said.

In places where we cannot really counter the numbers or the might of the adversary, we will deal with the challenges through better tactics and better training. Our focus will remain to be dynamic and not to have a fixed mindset on deployment of assets in particular areas. We have flexible war plans which we keep revising based on the ISR inputs that we get.

China has deployed radars all along the northern border and the IAF is aware how deep the neighbour can see inside Indian territory, he said.

Our counter is through our own mountain radar project. Also, we have low-level lightweight radars that we continuously keep deploying and redeploying based on what we see developing across the borders. In the long run, we are looking at deploying mountain radars at these strategic locations to be able to see equally deep into the adversarys territory.

The need to have a strong and credible military has become imperative owing to the volatile and uncertain geopolitical landscape in the region, he said.

The Indo-Pacific region is the new economic and strategic centre of gravity of the world and offers us both challenges and opportunities. The IAF, with its inherent capability to see the farthest, reach the fastest and hit the hardest, will be critical in mitigating these challenges and will remain a fulcrum in projecting Indias might in the region.

He said the contract for 97 more Mk-1A jets was likely to be concluded soon. This order will follow a 48,000-crore contract awarded by the government to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited two years ago for 83 such fighter jets. The IAF chief said the delivery of S-400 air defence was hit by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. While three of the five systems ordered from Russia have been inducted, the remaining two are expected only next year.

Responding to a question on a midair collision involving a Sukhoi-30 and a Mirage 2000 in Madhya Pradesh on January 28, the IAF chief said human error led to the accident and standard operating procedures stood revised. A pilot was killed in the accident.

Modern warfare is constantly undergoing a transformation due to rapid advancements in technology, he said. The IAF being a technology-intensive force needs to keep pace with these advancements and assimilate new technology to remain relevant. Our focus is on hidden force multipliers in the form of AI-based decision tools, electronic warfare equipment, robust networks and harnessing space and cyber capabilities.

He said the IAF was committed to Atmanirbhar Bharat and was contributing extensively towards enhancing indigenisation in defence production. Fast-paced development and operationalisation of indigenous aerospace projects, persistent surveillance capability, shortening of sensor to shooter time, long-range precision strikes, and development of multi-domain capability are the focus areas for the IAF, he added.
Twenty-four cases have been registered and 60 people arrested so far in connection with the violence that broke out during a religious procession in the district headquarters town of Shivamogga, police said on Tuesday. The Karnataka Police has registered twenty-four cases.(PTI File Photo)

The situation in the Ragi Gudda locality in Shivamogga city, where prohibitory orders were clamped after tension prevailed there, following incidents of stone pelting on Sunday, is now peaceful and under control, police said.

"Regarding the Ragi Gudda incident, we have booked 24 FIRs and we have detained 60 people and have arrested them. The situation in the Ragi Gudda area is now peaceful and there are no repercussions of it in the Shivamogga city," Shivamogga Superintendent of Police G K Mithun Kumar told reporters in Shivamogga.

Home Minister G Parameshwara said in Bengaluru: "Everything is under control, there is nothing to worry about....investigation is on...ADGP Law and Order was sent there, he had camped there and is now back....once the investigation is complete they will give a report to me".

Minister for School Education Madhu Bangarappa, who is also Minister in-charge of Shivamogga district today visited a few houses in Ragi Gudda area that were stoned during Sunday's incident.

Bangarappa said swords that are seen in some of the visuals, allegedly being carried during the procession "are not original and were made out of plastic or cardboard....in my tradition we hold trishula, similarly here, don't link it to violence. In case they were used for violence, police will take action."

Mithun Kumar said the businesses and other activities are going on normally in Shivamogga city. "Even after the incident, the Eid-Milad procession was held peacefully in the city till 11:30 PM that day. Ragi Gudda area on the outskirts of the Shivamogga city only saw this incident, I was also personally present there, and we (the police) took steps and brought the situation under control within half-an-hour. The culprits have been arrested," he added.

Noting that there are certain restrictions only in Ragi Gudda area and it will be withdrawn after assessing the situation, the SP said there is no need for any worry, and the culprits will be given strict punishment.

During the spot visit he came across that stones were pelted on the houses of people belonging to all communities, he said. "The culprits are criminals irrespective of their community, as stone pelting is wrong....there is no need for the innocents to worry. Cases have been registered against those, against whom there is photo and video evidence."

Responding to a question about reports about involvement of "outsiders" and that an Omni van was used by the miscreants, Mithun Kumar said the vehicle has been traced and investigation is on and we have questioned those who used it.

"Let's not speculate on this and jump into any conclusion and create panic among the people, investigation is on and all angles will be looked at," he said.

According to police, an angry mob is said to have hurled stones at a few houses and vehicles and injured several people, including the police, allegedly following rumours that there was a stone pelting on the Eid Milad procession on Sunday evening.

Police officials said they had to resort to lathi-charge to disperse the mob.

Earlier on Sunday before the stone pelting incident, there were protests in the Ragi Gudda area over a cutout that was put up as part of the procession, as the police had covered a portion of it, due to "bit controversial (content)", which upset people of a community, police said. Mithun Kumar and other police officers had reached the spot and held talks with the people to bring the situation under control.

Bangarappa said all those involved in the incident will be dealt with in accordance with law, and appealed to people to maintain peace. "Police have been given full freedom, they are investigating and will bring the truth out," he said, declining to respond to allegations, speculations, and reports about involvement of outsiders.

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The tribal-dominated Churachandpur district came to a standstill on Monday, a day after several Kuki organisations called for an indefinite shutdown to protest against the arrest of five people from the area by central agencies in separate cases, people aware of the matter said. Security personnel stand guard during a protest rally by school students against the killing of two Meitei youths by suspected Kuki Zo militants, at Moirangkhom in Imphal West district on Wednesday. (PTI)

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested four people  Paominlun Haokip, S Malsawn Haokip, Lhingneichong Baitekuki and Tinneilhing Henthang  in connection with the murder of two Meitei students on Sunday. The accused, all from the Kuki-Zo community, were produced before a special court in Guwahati which said prima facie enough material exists to send them to CBI custody for five days, officials aware of the matter said. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday arrested a man identified as Seiminlun Gangte in a case of a transnational conspiracy by Myanmar and Bangladesh-based terror outfits to exploit the ethnic strife in the northeastern state.

Also Read: Manipur schools to remain closed till October 5

The Kuki outfits called the arrests abduction and demanded the immediate release of the accused.

If the CBI can work with such swiftness, why has it not arrested anyone in more heinous cases like the rape and murder of two tribal girls in Imphal, the burning of a seven-year-old boy along with his mother and aunt, the torture and beheading of a tribal youth and so many other acts of atrocities against tribals, Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), a Churachandpur-based Kuki group said.

Also Read: Four held in Manipur over the killing of 2 Meitei students

ITLF also claimed that Gangte, was a private teacher based in Kwakta, a border area between Churachandpur and Bishnupur district, and has no criminal record.

CBI officials in Guwahati aware of the matter stated that the case against the accused is based on evidence. They also denied allegations that no women officers were present during the arrest of the four accused, two of whom are women.

On Monday, vehicles stayed off the road in Churachandpur as Kuki groups sealed entry and exit points with neighbouring Meitei-dominated districts, people aware of the matter said.

The Committee on Tribal Unity (COTU), a Kuki organisation based in Kangpokpi, another tribal-dominated district, announced that it will impose emergency shutdown of NH37, which connects Manipur capital Imphal to Silchar in Assam, seeking immediate release of those arrested by NIA, CBI and safe release of Satthang Kipgen, a resident of the district, allegedly abducted on September 30.

If there is failure on the part of the union home ministry to heed the voices of fair intervention and there is a lapse of 48 hours, then COTU will impose indefinite shutdown in entire Kangpokpi district, it said in a release.

Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh on Sunday said the government was committed to ensuring maximum punishment for the guilty, including capital punishment, for the killing of the two students.

On September 25, photos of 20-year-old Phijam Hemanjit Singh and a 17-year-old girl, both missing since July 6, surfaced on social media. One of the photos showed them sitting on the ground in what appeared to be a forest with two armed men in the background, and another showed them apparently lying dead on the ground. HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the photos. Manipur Police said the two Imphal residents may have got trapped in an area dominated by the Kuki community while fleeing, after which they were allegedly abducted and murdered. Hours after the photos went viral, violent protests broke out in the state.

Clashes in Manipur first broke out on May 3 in Churachandpur town after tribal groups called for protests against a proposed tweak to the states reservation matrix, granting scheduled tribe (ST) status to the Meitei community. At least 178 people have died and 50,000 displaced in the violence.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Utpal Parashar Utpal is a Senior Assistant Editor based in Guwahati. He covers seven states of North-East India and heads the editorial team for the region. He was previously based in Kathmandu, Dehradun and Delhi with Hindustan Times. ...view detail
Bank of Portugals Chief Pushes For Global Crypto Regulation  Heres What You Need to Know

Source: Zerbor/Adobe

The governor of Banco de Portugal, Mario Centeno has called for international cooperation towards a global framework for crypto regulation.

According to him, national efforts alone cannot protect investors due to the nature of digital assets as it can lead to regulatory arbitrage creating loopholes for bad actors to capitalize.

Speaking at the 2023 Banco de Portugal Financial Stability Conference on Oct. 2, Centeno praised the Markets in Crypto Asset (MiCA) regulations and criticized certain crypto products following recent market crashes leading to billions in losses.

On MiCA he praised the robust regulatory framework and how countries are pushing for domestic compliance based on the provisions of the law.

Being an advocate for collective efforts, he called for the principle of same risk same regulation based on the fact that the market is fairly new.

Todays financial landscape is evolving at an increasingly rapid pace, driven by continuous innovation, greater reliance on digital platforms, and the emergence of mixed-activity groups. It would be short-sighted to believe that regulating and supervising these global risks and international players at the national level will suffice.

He added that regulators would need to strike a balance between effective regulations and limiting innovation in the market.

Globally, calls have been made by other regulators on the need to have a global framework where authorities can collaborate to harmonize legislation.

This year, the Indian Prime Minister urged the G20 leaders to adopt a framework in line with recommendations from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB).

 G20 Leaders Decide on Swift Implementation of Crypto Asset Reporting Framework



G20 leaders have called to swiftly implement the Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) while endorsing the synthesis paper proposed by IMF and FSB.#CryptoNews #G20https://t.co/22tUeuHJh7  Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) September 11, 2023

Some crypto products are unsustainable

Aside from calling for global regulations, the banks chief noted that though crypto assets offer certain utilities like lower prices and cross-border reach, the wider market poses concerns.

He added that digital assets gained traction during the COVID-19 pandemic as most assets hit their all-time highs but have so far proved unsustainable based on declining prices and project implosions in the last few years.

Notable examples are the implosions of the Terra network and the infamous FTX crash that wiped billions off the market leading to global bottleneck regulations.

Crypto-assets and Decentralised Finance, or DeFi, exemplify this risk. While proponents of crypto and DeFi talk about the democratization of finance, it is not clear whether it will materialize, especially given the highly technical nature of this space.

Finally, his speech mentioned that while it is unclear if digital assets are here to stay, European regulators have not been silent creating the perfect synergy between traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi).
The Delhi Police on Tuesday arrived at the official residence of CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury as part of the ongoing action against entities and journalists linked to NewsClick, the online news portal recently named by the New York Times for allegedly receiving Chinese funding. Yechury said that the raid was not targeted at the CPI-M, saying the police were looking for the son of a party office staff who works at NewsClick as a graphics artist. Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury. (File Photo / Santosh Kumar / Hindustan Times)

"Police came to my residence because one of my companions who lives with me there, his son, works for NewsClick. The police came to question him. They took his laptop and phone. What are they investigating? Nobody knows. If this is an attempt to try and muzzle the media, the country must know the reason behind this," Yechury said.

Delhi Police's Special Cell conducted raids at 30 premises connected with NewsClick as well as its journalists' houses.

Some journalists, including NewsClick editor Prabir Purkayastha, and writers Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Urmilesh, were brought to the Lodhi Road Special Cell office, but no one has been arrested so far, police said.

A team of Delhi Police's Special Cell also seized journalist Abhishar Sharma's gadgets from his home in Noida Extension and brought him to the special cell office for questioning in the case. The raids are based on a case registered on August 17 under stringent UAPA, 153A of IPC (promoting enmity between two groups), and 120B of IPC (criminal conspiracy).

The Press Club of India on X said it is deeply concerned about raids on the houses of journalists and writers associated with NewsClick.

"The Press Club of India is deeply concerned about the multiple raids conducted on the houses of journalists and writers associated with #Newsclick. We are monitoring the developments and will be releasing a detailed statement.

"The PCI stands in solidarity with the journalists and demands the government to come out with details," it said.

The website recently hit the headlines for allegedly receiving money from US millionaire Neville Roy Singham for pro-China propaganda in India.

Condemnation from Opposition parties

Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said the early morning raids comes as a "fresh distraction from the explosive findings of caste census in Bihar and the growing demand for caste census across the country".

"When he faces questions from out of syllabus, he resorts to the only counter he has in his predictable syllabus - DISTRACTION," Khera said on X.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also slammed the government over the raids.

"Despite an army of sycophants, some journalists still dare to speak the truth.But the Prime Minister has a special problem with those who speak the truth and those who ask questions," she alleged.

"So they will be raided, intimidated  but Saheb forgets that not everyone's spine is missing as is the case with sycophants," Shrinate said in a post in Hindi on X.

Peoples Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti described the raids as a "fishing" expedition.

"GOI claims India is the mother of democracy & about press freedom abroad yet in the same breath uses state agencies to the crackdown on the remaining handful of independent media outlets.

"Even telephone devices have been forcibly snatched only for a fishing expedition. The repeated illegal pattern of arrest first & creating fake charges later is extremely perturbing (sic)," Mufti wrote in a post on X.

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Opposition leaders, including Sharad Pawar and Rahul Gandhi, have hit out at the Eknath Shinde government over 24 deaths in as many hours at a government hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded with Priyanka Chaturvedi describing the incident as a murder due to absolute negligence. Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Twenty-four deaths, including that of 12 infants, have been reported in the last 24 hours from Shankarao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital in Nanded, news agency PTI reported. A three-member expert committee has been set up to probe the incident, an official told PTI.

Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party said the incident highlights the failure of government systems and called for a serious response to ensure the safety of patients in the future.

The unfortunate incident of death of 24 people including 12 newborns in 24 hours in a government hospital in Nanded is literally shocking," Pawar wrote on social media X, formally Twitter.

The incident was reported at Shankarao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital in Nanded due to the alleged scarcity of medicines.

Recalling a similar incident in which 18 people died in Kalwa Hospital of Thane Municipal Corporation, Pawar said, "Just two months ago, there was an unfortunate incident where 18 people died in a single night in Kalwa Hospital of Thane Municipal Corporation. However, due to not taking this incident seriously, such a very serious incident was repeated in the government hospital in Nanded. This shows the failure of government systems.

The NCP also urged the Shinde government to take immediate and concrete steps to prevent such incidents from recurring, emphasizing the need to save the lives of innocent patients.

At least considering the seriousness of these unfortunate incidents, the state government needs to ensure that concrete steps are taken so that these incidents are not repeated and the lives of innocent patients are saved, Pawar said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in a post on X, said the news of the death is extremely saddening and expressed his deepest condolences to all the bereaved families.

"The BJP government spends thousands of crores of rupees on its publicity, but there is no money for medicines for children? In the eyes of the BJP, the lives of the poor have no value," he alleged.

The party general secretary Jairam Ramesh asked Modi to break his "silence" on the incident. In a post in Hindi on X, Priyanka Gandhi said she received the "sad news" of the death of 24 patients, including 12 infants, due to a shortage of medicines from Maharashtra.

"May God grant peace to the departed souls. My deepest condolences to the bereaved families," she said.

"Strict action should be taken against those responsible and compensation should be given to the affected families," she added.

In a post on X, the Congress said this is a very serious issue. "Our condolences to the families of the deceased. May God give them the strength to bear this sorrow," it said.

Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena (UBT) said, This is shameful, please dont call them deaths, this is murder due to absolute negligence on the part of the unconstitutional state government. They are so busy planning influencer events or foreign trips that they have forgotten their basic job is to serve the state.

Speaking on the issue, Congress leader and former chief minister Ashok Chavan said the Shinde government must make arrangements for medical staff as well as funds for the Nanded GMCH on priority.

Chavan said the hospital has 500 beds but some 1,200 patients are admitted at present.

The hospital has received 12 crore funding in this year's District Planning Development Committee (DPDC), while the state government has also sanctioned 4 crore additional funds, the statement from the collectorate said.

The dean has also said posts continue to remain vacant after the transfer of some nurses, while there is also a shortage of medical officers, the Congress leader claimed.

What did Nanded hospital say?

Dean Dr SR Wakode of Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital told reporters the 12 infants comprise six males and six females, adding that most were in the 0-3 day age group and had "very low weight".

"There are 142 admissions in the paediatric department, of which 42 are still critical. Oxygen as well as ventilator facilities are there. The patients are from neighbouring districts, including Hingoli, Parbhani and Washim. Some are from villages in neighbouring Telangana," he said.

As per the official statement issued by Nanded district collectorate, between September 30 and October 1, 24 deaths have been reported.

"Among the 12 adults who lost their lives, five were male and seven female. Four adults had heart-related ailments, one was suffering from an unknown poisoning, one had a liver issue, two were kidney patients, and one case was of complications during pregnancy. There were three accident cases," it said.

Among the deceased infants, four were brought to the hospital at the last stage, the collectorate statement said.

In the last two days, the hospital has received more patients from the rural parts as well as from distant places who are in serious condition, the statement said.

(With inputs from PTI)

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Fraudsters in Himachal Pradesh minted a series of a cryptocoins to cheat thousands of investors of more than 200 crore over a period of five years, beginning in 2018 -- the year the crypto reached fever pitch. Cryptocoins(HT File Photo)

The persons alleged to be part of a gang lured people promising them high returns in a short span of time by investing in KRO and DGT coins.

The initial investors then were baited to reel in other people in a ponzi-style scheme.

The matter was raised in the Vidhan Sabha by Independent MLA Hoshyar Singh who pegged the amount of money swindled from people in Kangra and Hamirpur alone to be upwards of 200 crore.

In the wake of Singh's assembly speech, a special investigation team was formed to probe into the matter.

The exact amount defrauded is yet to be ascertained, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Northern Range, Abhishek Dhullar, who is heading the SIT, told PTI on Monday.

Five people have been arrested in the connection with the frauds, however, their kingpin is still at large, police said.

The frauds used a combination of misinformation, deception, and threats to maintain control over their scheme and continued to extract money from unsuspecting investors by manipulating the prices of their coins, he said.

The first coin they launched was 'Korvio Coin' or KRO coins.

They charged the buyers an initial activation fee and promised them substantial returns. In their five-year-run, the frauds used three to four cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrency is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a blockchain-based computer network that is not dependent on any central authority, such as the government or bank to uphold or maintain it.

Once their accounts were activated, the investors were encouraged to rope in more members into the scheme, police said.

The criminals used a Ponzi scheme pattern -- a type of investment scam in which returns are paid to earlier investors from the capital contributed by new investors rather than from any legitimate profits.

Investors were encouraged to keep recruiting new members, a practice which created a cycle where money from new investments was used to pay returns to earlier investors. These initial investors got huge returns and became brand ambassadors of the scheme.

The scammers built fake websites to list their coins and manipulated their prices.

They later launched a new coin called 'DGT Coin.' After enough people had purchased these coins at a higher rate, its price was deliberately brought down causing a massive rugpull.

The accused introduced new coins and investment plans under different company names, such as 'Hypenext' and 'Aglobal.' Each time a new coin was introduced, it was marketed as a yet another investment opportunity, police said.

According to police, they have received 50 complaints about such frauds this year alone.

During their investigation, police found that the modus operandi across these frauds was similar and names involved common, SP Cyber Crime Rohit Malpani said.

Since then, five people have been arrested and chargesheeted in connection with these frauds and eight FIRs filed, police said.

"We are close to nabbing the kingpins of cryptocurrency scams in Himachal Pradesh and have mapped their assets and are conducting financial investigation," Director General of Police Sanjay Kundu told PTI.

"My advice to people is not to fall prey to the cryptocurrency fraudsters," he said.

Cryptocurrency market has seen several rug-pulls in the past few years, including the famous 2021 Squid coin scam in which the coinmakers reportedly made off with $23 million.
On October 3, 2021, the death of eight people during a protest against three now-repealed farm laws in Uttar Pradeshs Lakhimpur Kheri district ignited a nationwide firestorm. With assembly elections to Indias most-populous province just months away, the deaths of four farmers and a local journalist (three other people were killed by the mob) after a car owned by Union minister of state for home Ajay Kumar Mishra Teni mowed them down had sparked a political war and outrage, prompting the Supreme Court to monitor the investigation. Ashish Mishra, main accused in the 2021 Lakhimpur violence case. (File Photo)

The ministers son, Ashish Mishra, was named as a key accused in the main case related to the incident  theres a second case connected to the three other people who were killed  and spentover a year in jail.

Two years on, however, the national focus has melted away and the high-profile trial in the case is trundling along in the premises of the local court. Only four out of the 171 prosecution witnesses in the case have recorded their statements before additional district judge Sunil Kumar Varma, who began hearing the case on January 12.

The defence has submitted a list of about 30 witnesses.

Jagjit Singh, the father of one of the farmers, Gurvinder Singh, killed in 2021, was the first witness from the prosecutions side to appear before the court that day. Since then,three other witnesses have deposed before the court, while the testimony of fifth witness is going on.

Ashish Mishra and 13 others are facing charges of murder, rioting, and criminal conspiracy under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapons), 149 (unlawful assembly), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 427 (mischief causing damage), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), apart from section 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act.

The case is being listed for hearing once in every 8-10 days, said advocate Suresh Singh, who is representing the farmers in court.

The trial began on January 12 this year, as a large number of discharge applications came up before the court from both prosecution and defence, he said. It is likely to take four to five years to complete the trial in the case.

Trial is going on at its pace. Witnesses are appearing before the court to record their statements. We are confident of winning the case, said advocate Ashish Tripathi, district government counsel, Lakhimpur Kheri.

Several public servants posted in Lakhimpur Kheri in 2021 are among the witnesses in the case. The district magistrate, subdivisional magistrate, additional district magistrate, superintendent of police, additional superintendent of police and sub-inspector are all in the list of witnesses, said advocate Suresh Singh, appearing on behalf of farmers.

During the course of the trial, summons are issued to witnesses to appear on a particular date, but there is no guarantee that the witness will appear. In such a scenario, notice is issued again and a new date is fixed.

After the violence, two FIRs were lodged one on the death of the four farmers and the journalist, and the other where two people in the car and the driver were killed by the mob. In the first  where Ashish Mishra is the main accused  all 14 accused are out on bail.

In the second case, where four farmers are accused, 10 witnesses have appeared before the court. The trial in the second case began in January 2023.

Experts hinted that the trial was likely to take years. In cases like the Lakhimpur Kheri incident where large number of witnesses have to record their statements in court it takes several years for the trial to complete, said advocate GS Chauhan, Lucknow high court.

But for the kin of the victims still awaiting justice, it has been an anxious wait. The developments have only exacerbated concern that the trial will drag on. Justice delayed is justice denied. We want the trial to be expedited. If it goes on at this pace, it will take several years to conclude, he said.

For Singh, who deposed before the local court for three days this January, every day is a grating reminder of the loss his family suffered. Yet, he is determined to fight it out. No one knows when the trial will get over and when the judgment will be delivered. But we will not give up even if the case drags on for years , he said. I wont rest till the guilty are punished.

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Bihars decision to conduct a caste survey and announce its results on Monday put the focus on three of the Bharatiya Janata Partys key allies in eastern Uttar Pradesh that have demanded a caste count in Indias most-populous state, just months before the 2024 general elections. Enumerator staff during the survey, in Patna on August 2. (HT)

These allies -- the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) the Nishad Party and the Apna Dal (Sonelal) -- hold two seats in the Lok Sabha and 24 in the Uttar Pradesh assembly. They are considered important because they control crucial backward caste groups -- Rajbhars back the SBSP, boatmen and fishermen support the Nishad Party and Kurmis vote for the Apna Dal (Sonelal) -- that are key to winning at least 20 to 25 seats on offer in eastern UP.

Apna Dal has always advocated for a caste-based census and we continue to demand it. I have raised the issue in Parliament as well, said Apna Dal (S) leader and Union minister Anupriya Patel, a Lok Sabha MP from Mirzapur.

Also Read: Bihar caste survey report: Experts see a Mandal replay

SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar said they too back the demand for a caste-based survey.

We continue to seek a caste survey. But while Bihars move is a welcome one, one must ask as to whether those castes, which have emerged as most backward and whose numbers are high too in their survey, have actually benefitted over the years in state, which for the last three decades has mostly been ruled either by Lalu Prasads RJD or Nitish Kumars JD (U), said SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar.

The BJP sought to counter the Bihars caste census move by highlighting the developmental work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. All castes, be it backwards, Dalits or others, are development-oriented for they know they will benefit when development happens. Now, in Uttar Pradesh everyone is getting their rights and respect, said BJPs UP other backward classes (OBC) wing chief and backward welfare minister Narendra Kashyap.

My departments budget that used to be around 500 crore earlier has gone up under Yogi Adityanathjis government manifold and currently is pegged at 2,300 crore...That is why the issue of caste census isnt getting much attention as OBCs have benefitted under our government like never before, Kashyap said.

The BJPs allies also brought up the report by the Rohini Commission, set up to examine the sub-categorisation of OBCs. We demand that the Rohini Commission report be implemented forthwith so that it can be known why strong backward castes dont want lesser among the backward castes to benefit, said SBSP spokesperson Piyush Mishra.

Political experts felt that the BJP could rely on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, its most charismatic leader.

See PM Modi has already started speaking about his backward status. In his election rallies across Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, he has been talking of his pichda (OBC) status and slamming the Congress for being anti-backward. This line could soon become the party line, said political expert Rajesh Patel.

During the monsoon session of the Uttar Pradesh assembly, chief minister Yogi Adityanath had, in response to demands for a caste census from the Opposition , categorically stated that the state government didnt have any such plans for a similar exercise.

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Data collected in Bihars landmark caste survey will help the state government work for the upliftment of all sections, chief minister Nitish Kumar told an all-party meeting on Tuesday, even as members of the states ruling coalition pushed for higher reservations to socially and economically backward communities and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) flagged flaws with the exercise. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Vijay Kumar Sinha and other leaders during all parties meeting on Bihar Caste Census at the CM Secretariat on Tuesday. (PTI)

Read here: Day after, Nitish Kumar cabinet nod for 10% EWS quota in judicial appointments

The meeting -- attended by nine parties -- came a day after the results of the survey that enumerated 130 million people showed that backward communities comprise nearly two-thirds of Bihars population. Opposition parties hope to use the survey results to reverse the BJPs inroads among marginalised castes.

A government statement said Kumar told the meeting that the survey was carried in a proper manner with the educational and economic data of households. We will take the opinion of all parties to work in the interest of the states population based on the caste survey report. Our objective is to uplift the deprived sections and we will do it with consensus of all, he said, according to the statement.

The idea is to bring the most deprived sections into the mainstream. We suggested that caste data having socioeconomic profile of various castes is a tool to uplift the deprived sections through reservations and also tailoring schemes which could uplift economic condition of poorer sections, said Sarvajeet Kumar, agriculture minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader, who attended the meeting.

He said that increasing reservation for giving representation to people as per their numerical strength can be looked at as a plausible policy decision to uplift those classes who were deprived both economically and socially. The data has given information about which classes of people have land or no land or are educationally or economically weaker. Policy decisions need to be taken and reservation could be one, he said.

Left parties broached the idea of increasing the reservation for those belonging to backward and economically poorer sections. There should be reservations based on the numerical strength of populations of various caste groups, said Mehboob Alam of the Communist Party of India - Marxist Leninist (Liberation).

Finance minister Vijay Choudhary said the all-party meeting was called to apprise the parties about the governments fulfillment of its commitment to carry the caste survey. He said the government would first invite suggestions from parties on various aspects of the caste survey and then act on it.

Bihar currently has 50% reservation for backward, extremely backward, scheduled caste and tribe, and women from backward classes in jobs and seats in educational institutions.

The BJP was not satisfied. There were several lapses in the survey report and it was done in haste, Vijay Kumar Sinha, Leader of the Opposition in the assembly, told reporters after the meeting held at the chief ministers secretariat. He raised the matter in the meeting, saying he had not been covered under the household caste survey as no enumerator came to his house.

Read here: Do they have any idea?: Nitish Kumar raps BJP for slamming caste-based census

Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) supremo and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi expressed concern over the decline in the population of Manjhis, his caste group and one of the scheduled castes. There could be some anomaly in the survey as the real population of Manjhis was much higher than what was reflected in the report, accounting for only 3.08%, he said.

Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed Khan said he suggested addressing economic disparity though various state interventions based on the report.

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Priyanka Chopra's sartorial choices have always delighted fashion enthusiasts and her fans. Moreover, the actor's edgy and stylish concert wardrobe to support her husband, Nick Jonas, during the Jonas Brothers' shows has become the talk of the town. Amid this, she served a gorgeous Fall look during an outing in New York City and should inspire your new collection. Scroll through to find out the price of her ensemble. Priyanka Chopra wore a stylish sweater and matching midi skirt during an outing in New York. (Instagram )

Priyanka Chopra's steal-worthy Fall look

Priyanka Chopra stepped out in New York City for a dinner date with Anjula Acharia and Sarita Choudhury. The paparazzi clicked Priyanka and her friends outside an eatery joint in the Big Apple. The pictures and videos show her in a bright cyan blue-coloured sweater and skirt set. The outfit is from the shelves of the clothing label Lapointe. The star's stylish sweater for the occasion stole the show. It is a perfect sartorial pick to inspire your Fall wardrobe - it is comfy, trendy, and a statement piece.

What is the price of Priyanka Chopra's sweater?

The Lapointe cardigan is called the Organic Cashmere Crossover Sweater. It is available on the brand's official website. Adding the statement Fall piece to your wardrobe will cost you 91,570 (USD 1,100).

The price of the sweater Priyanka Chopra wore for an outing in NYC. (shoplapointe.com)

Coming to the design elements, Priyanka's sweater features a turtle neckline, full-length billowy sleeves, cinched cuffs, a ribbed design all over, an asymmetric high-low hem, a cropped front displaying midriff, and a relaxed fitting. The star styled the cardigan with a matching cyan blue midi skirt featuring a mid-rise waist, a side thigh-high slit, a bodycon silhouette, and ribbed details.

Priyanka wore the pastel-coloured ensemble with striking accessories, including dark tan-coloured high-heeled boots from Loeffler Randall, a silver Serpenti shoulder bag from Bulgari, and Bulgari jewels like a sleek bracelet, dangling earrings, and statement rings. Lastly, she chose mauve lip shade, mascara on the lashes, darkened brows, blushed cheeks, beaming highlighter, and a messy hair bun to add a finishing touch to her night-out look.

What do you think of Priyanka's outfit?

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Around 60 million ducks are to be vaccinated in France over the next year as the country embarks on a campaign to combat bird flu and put an end to mass culls which cost the poultry industry millions every year. In Europe's only mass vaccination campaign against avian influenza, the two-jab course is obligatory for ducklings, from as young as 10 days, on farms raising more than 250 birds. (Also read: Bird flu might infect humans more easily, UN agencies warns: What it means) A mass duck vaccination campaign is underway in France (Alain Pitton/NurPhoto/picture alliance )

The first shots were administered on a farm in the Landes region of southwestern France on Monday morning, observed by French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau, whose department is financing 85% of the 96m ($102m) total cost of the campaign.

"This vaccination plan... is a world first: its goal is to protect all farmed birds and should put an end to the preventive slaughter of animals, which no one wants to live with anymore," duck and fois gras production group CIFOG said in a statement.

Jocelyn Marguerie, poultry chief at the SNGTV farm vets' association, agreed, saying: "Vaccination should mean we only face individual cases, avoiding the tidal waves sweeping through farms."

Bird flu: how big is the threat?

Although there are currently no disease hotspots in France, the country has endured regular bird flu outbreaks since 2020 after suffering a particularly bad wave between 2015 and 2017.

Discovery of a case generally results in a cull for the entire farm population and those of others nearby, bringing obvious disruption to production and taking a significant financial toll.

There are also fears that the virus could mutate and become transmissible to humans, prompting further pandemics.

"I've been caught up in four culls since 2016," said Thierry Dezes, who raises ducks in the Landes region and plans to jab some 5,000 ducklings. "I hope we'll get back to being unscathed. [The vaccination] has to work!"

Trade backlash

France's first 80 million doses will come from German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, meaning the government will have to invite tenders for more supply.

But not everyone is in favor, with another famer in Landes telling French news agency AFP  anonymously to protect her business  that she had had clients "calling to tell me they don't want meat from vaccinated ducks."

And internationally, the French poultry industry could be facing a trade backlash.

With vaccinated birds not always showing signs of prior infection, the United States triggered restrictions on imports of French poultry beginning October 1, citing a risk of introducing the virus into the country.

A senior official at Japan's Agriculture Ministry also told AFP that Tokyo would suspend imports of French poultry products after the vaccination campaign had started.

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The past year has seen India adroitly negotiating a diplomatic minefield by participating, on the one hand, in forums such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the BRICS alliance  both with overtly anti-western orientation  while, at the same time, upholding its deep commitment to the United States (US)-led Malabar/Quad grouping. Further endorsement of Indias diplomatic heft came with its successful presidency of the G20 summit, clearly manifest in the crafting and adoption of a consensual declaration. PREMIUM Today, it is China that is integrating Asia with Europe through its terrestrial network of high-speed railways, energy pipelines and fibre optic cables.(Hector Retamal / AFP)

In the military domain, India has just co-hosted with the US, the 13th biennial Indo-Pacific Army Chiefs Conference (IPACC), on September 26 and 27. This was yet another significant event, which underscored Indias regional and global leadership bid and its commitment to promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. With participation from 30 countries, IPACC provides a forum for the senior leadership of Indo-Pacific armies to discuss issues of mutual interest and to develop cooperative approaches.

It was not very long ago that the Japanese-conceived and US-promoted Indo-Pacific concept found grudging acceptance in the international geopolitical and diplomatic lexicon, eventually replacing the term Asia Pacific and conflating (as intended) the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Having come into common usage, the Indo-Pacific has, however, retained in public perception a maritime or ocean-related connotation. This perception arises from the regions history, geography, and economics, which bear the imprint of the oceans that have for millennia facilitated trade, transportation, and cultural intercourse, as well as foreign invasions.

In recent years, the perception of the Indo-Pacific as a maritime construct has been reinforced by the growing competition between powers including the US, China, India, and Japan, vying for influence. Since regional navies too have done their best to reinforce this perception, it was only appropriate that an army conclave should see an attempt at correcting this maritime bias. Unusually for the Indian political milieu, it fell to defence minister Rajnath Singh to undertake this endeavour.

The Indo-Pacific region, remarked the minister, in his inaugural address, has emerged as a pivotal construct, in recent years, transforming from a primarily maritime concept into a comprehensive strategic framework. Highlighting the web of complex security challenges that faced the Indo-Pacific, the minister invoked the full involvement of regional States with all their organisations including their armies.

The Indian Army chief, General Manoj Pande, too, drew attention to challenges other than those related to the maritime domain arising from security and humanitarian crises occurring on land. Without mentioning specific locations, he made a pointed reference to territorial disputes over land masses, and to artificially created islands which housed military bases. The co-host US Army General Randy George, while emphasising the decisive role of land power, highlighted the importance of cooperation amongst land forces as a critical component of the collective response that IPACC was expected to provide. Although mention of China was studiously avoided, the unseen presence of the expansionist/revisionist dragon would have loomed large over the conference, and with good reason.

Way back in 1904, English geographer Halford Mackinder had put forth the proposition that the 400-year era of sea power was over and the future of global power lay not in grand fleets dominating the global sea lanes, but in control of the vast land mass of Eurasia, which he called the World Island. Eurasia was then dominated by Imperial Russia, to be replaced by the erstwhile Soviet Union. Today, it is China that is integrating Asia with Europe through its terrestrial network of high-speed railways, energy pipelines and fibre optic cables.

Beijings grand strategy, which seeks a dominant economic, political, and military presence spanning the Indo-Pacific, is encapsulated in Xi Jinpings prized Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in which the Belt refers to Chinese ambitions on land, and the Road to its seaward component, the Maritime Silk Road. Implementation of BRI has led to a colossal investment in infrastructure and developmental projects across the Indo-Pacific, with implications for terrestrial connectivity, trade, and security.

Thus, while maritime security remains a major concern, the terrestrial implications of the Indo-Pacific construct are becoming increasingly important as the region faces new challenges, such as territorial disputes, non-traditional security threats and the climate crisis. The current advocacy of land power by Indo-Pacific armies is an echo of 20th century British strategist Julian Corbetts caution that, it is almost impossible that a war can be decided by naval action alone great issues between nations have always been decided by what your army can do against your enemys territory... or else by what the fleet enables your army to do. That having been said, in the context of Indias security, there is a need to remain sharply focused on its unique geophysical location, with its attendant challenges and rewards.

In the Himalayas, where the Indian Army has been locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with the Peoples Liberation Army since 2020, the equation is tilted in Chinas favour, given the latters superior infrastructure, lines of communications and indigenous military-industrial base. Should it come to a showdown, the best that Indias land and air forces can hope to achieve is a precarious stalemate.

At sea, on the other hand, Indias favourable maritime geography and Chinas heavy dependence for energy and trade on the Indian Ocean sea lanes, constitute a huge vulnerability for the latter. It is against this background that maritime strategist Rear Admiral Raja Menon, in a recent article, recommends, somewhat bellicosely, holding out the threat of, turning the Malacca Straits into a killing ground for the Chinese.

Thus, while endeavours to enhance cooperation and interoperability amongst the Indo-Pacific armies are to be welcomed, it must be acknowledged that boots on the ground will be deployed only for humanitarian and benign purposes, never for intra-regional conflicts. As for the Indian Army, it must recognise the versatility of maritime forces, and view accretions to our naval strength  whether nuclear attack submarines or aircraft carriers  not through a zero-sum prism, but as force-multipliers for its own endeavours on land.

Arun Prakash is a former Indian Navy chief. The views expressed are personal
Google is all set to surprise tech enthusiasts with its highly anticipated "Made by Google 2023" event, slated for October 4, commencing at 7:30pm. The event promises an exciting array of product revelations, with a special focus on the forthcoming Pixel 8 devices. Here's a comprehensive preview of what may be on the unveiling agenda: Made by Google 2023: A special focus on the forthcoming Pixel 8 devices(Google)

Google Pixel 8 Series:

- Rumors suggest two models: Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.

- Pixel 8 may feature a 6.17-inch FHD display.

- Pixel 8 Pro might sport a 6.7-inch QHD+ display with 120Hz refresh rate.

- Powered by Google's Tensor G3 chipset with a unique 9-core CPU and advanced AI capabilities.

- Pixel 8 Pro may have a triple-rear camera setup; Pixel 8 could have a dual-rear camera setup.

- Both models feature distinctive visor-shaped camera modules.

- Expected price increase, starting at $699 for Pixel 8 and $899 for Pixel 8 Pro.

ALSO READ: Google's Earthquake Alert failed to detect north India tremors today. Why?

Pixel Watch 2:

- Upcoming smartwatch with a 1.2-inch OLED display.

- Equipped with 2GB of RAM and a spacious 16GB of internal storage.

- Health-focused features include a stress management system and a multi-path heart rate sensor.

- Offers functions like Pace Training, various workout modes, and Emergency Sharing.

Pixel Buds Pro:

- No new earbuds are expected.

- Speculation about new colour options, including Porcelain and Sky Blue variants.

ALSO READ: Google launches Chromebook Plus laptops. Check price, availability and features

Where to watch the event live?

For those eager to catch the event live, mark your calendars for October 4 at 7:30pm.

While the event unfolds in the heart of New York City, you can join in remotely via the live stream, available on the Made by Google YouTube channel or Google's official website.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR HT News Desk Follow the latest breaking news and developments from India and around the world with Hindustan Times' newsdesk. From politics and policies to the economy and the environment, from local issues to national events and global affairs, we've got you covered. ...view detail
Short Seller Jim Chanos Criticizes Michael Lewis Defense of FTX, Compares It to Enron

Source: Adobe / Yurii Kibalnik

Famous billionaire short-seller Jim Chanos blasted Big Short author Michael Lewis on Sunday for his charitable defense of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF).

In an episode of CBSs 60 Minutes this weekend, Lewis discussed his new book Going Infinite, in which he told his story on SBF based on over one hundred meetings with the disgraced crypto leader.

Among other things, Lewis claimed that FTX isnt a Ponzi Scheme, and that itd still be making tons of money if there hadnt been a panic-driven run on customer deposits last November.

This was literally Enrons defense, wrote Chanos to X (Twitter) in response. If it wasnt for those meddling short-sellers and journalists causing a run-on-the-bank, we wouldve been fine.

Chanos is the founder of Kynikos Associates, an investment manager that exclusively focuses on short-selling. He is best known for correctly shorting Enron  a $63.4 billion energy company that went bankrupt in December 2001 after hiding its disastrous financials using dubious accounting methods.

This is nonsense, as both FTX and Enron were both massively insolvent, not illiquid, added Chanos.



John Ray III, the man leading FTX during its restructuring, was also responsible for recovering creditor funds at Enron following its collapse.

Yet when testifying before Congress in December, even Ray asserted that FTXs failure of corporate controls and sheer absence of trustworthy financial information was unprecedented in his career.

Lewis faced criticism from numerous other commentators for seemingly misunderstanding Bankman-Frieds crime. Michael Lewis has lost the plot, tweeted YouTuber and independent journalist Coffeezilla on Monday. This 60-minutes interview is unhinged.

SBFs Donations

The author also revealed that SBF was prepared to pay former President Donald Trump $5 billion to not run in the next Presidential election. They were still having these conversations when FTX blew up, Lewis claimed.

Regrettably, Sam got caught red-handed, with the $5b he altruistically stole from his dumbass trusting customers, before he could buy off Trump. Fortunately, not before giving several hundred mil to Dems tho, thank Satan. Modern day Robin Hood, if you ask me. #effectivealtruism https://t.co/ehQDw28fBL  Jesse Powell (@jespow) October 2, 2023



Bankman-Fried was well known for giving generous donations to politicians and was previously charged by the Justice Department for campaign finance violations. That charge has since been dropped by prosecutors in the interest of keeping treaty obligations to the Bahamas from which the executive was extradited.

SBFs trial began on Tuesday, where he stands accused of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in connection to his exchanges downfall, He will stand trial again in March 2024 for another five charges including securities fraud, commodities fraud, and money laundering.

All charges could collectively land Bankman-Fried 110 years in prison.
Hate doing laundry? Get a top rated fully automatic washing machine to do the job for you. A popular and sought after choice by many, most modern homemakers prefer to invest in a fully automatic washing machine to make their life easy. The best part is that you just don't have to do anything. From filling water, draining it to drying water, everything is done automatically. Not only does it help save your time and effort, but also help even a beginner do it seamlessly well. Top rated fully automatic washing machine can make laundry experience a breeze. (Pexels)

From the point of view of water and energy consumption, these machines make for a good investment. They typically come with features like load sensors that adjust the water level and wash time according to the laundry load. So, literally no more manual intervention in any which way.



You can choose from a range of wash programs and drum movements that feature in fully automatic washing machines. For thorough and gentle cleansing of your clothes, opt for these machines and simplify your life. Another thing you will notice is that fully automatic washing machines occupy less space, thanks to their compact design. This is particularly useful if you want to place the washing machine in your living or kitchen area. These machines also take less time to complete a wash cycle.



The bottom line is fully automatic washing machines offer convenience, efficiency, customization and advanced features that make the user experience simply more enriching and fruitful. Looking to introduce one to your household? Our hand-picked 10 options have made their way to October 2023 buying guide. Take a look at their features in detail and choose the one that best meets your needs.



LG 8 Kg 5 Star Inverter AI Direct-Drive Fully Automatic Front Load Washing Machine (FHV1408Z2M)

Experience the future of laundry with the LG 8 Kg Fully Automatic Front Load Washing Machine. This cutting-edge appliance combines advanced technology with user-friendly features, making laundry day a breeze. This LG washing machine boasts a 5-star energy rating, ensuring efficient performance while being eco-friendly. The Inverter Direct Drive technology minimizes noise and vibration, ensuring a peaceful home environment. The 6 Motion Direct Drive technology ensures thorough cleaning by using different drum movements for various fabric types. One of the standout features of this machine is the Steam for Hygiene option, which eliminates allergens and bacteria, making it perfect for households with allergies or young children.

Specifications of LG FHV1408Z2M

Capacity: 8 Kg

Energy Rating: 5 Star

Inverter Direct Drive Technology

6 Motion DD for Superior Cleaning

Steam for Hygiene

In-Built Heater

AI Control & Touch Panel

Colour: Middle Black

B0BBMX3NNF

Samsung 8 Kg 5 Star Eco Bubble Fully-Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine (WW80T504DAN1TL)

Introducing the Samsung 8 Kg Fully-Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine with Eco Bubble Technology. This innovative appliance combines cutting-edge technology with convenient features to make laundry a breeze. With a 5-star energy rating, this washing machine is energy-efficient and eco-friendly. The Digital Inverter technology ensures quiet and durable operation. The machine's In-Built Heater allows you to choose from various temperature settings, making it easy to remove stubborn stains. The Eco Bubble technology creates powerful bubbles that penetrate your clothes quickly, resulting in a more thorough and gentle clean. The AI Control and Wi-Fi capability allow you to control your washing machine from your smartphone, making laundry more convenient than ever.

Specifications of Samsung WW80T504DAN1TL

Capacity: 8 Kg

Energy Rating: 5 Star

Eco Bubble Technology

Digital Inverter for Quiet Operation

In-Built Heater

AI Control & Wi-Fi

Colour: Inox

B09QM4LN4S

Also read: LG 10 kg washing machine: Price and performance of 10 options in October 2023



Whirlpool 7.5 kg 5 Star BloomWash Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine (360 Bloomwash PRO INV H)

Discover the convenience of the Whirlpool 7.5 kg Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine. This top-loading washer is designed to simplify your laundry routine while delivering exceptional cleaning results. With a 5-star energy rating, this washing machine is both energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. The 360 Bloomwash PRO technology ensures thorough cleaning, even in hard water conditions. The In-Built Heater allows you to choose from different temperature settings, making it easy to tackle tough stains. The Auto Imbalance System ensures that your laundry load is distributed evenly for consistent performance. The 3D Wash Technology ensures deep and gentle cleaning.

Specifications of Whirlpool 360 Bloomwash PRO INV H:

Capacity: 7.5 kg

Energy Rating: 5 Star

360 Bloomwash PRO Technology

In-Built Heater

Auto Imbalance System

3D Wash Technology

Colour: Graphite

B0824138J4

IFB 7 Kg 5 Star Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine (TL-RGS Aqua)

Simplify your laundry routine with the IFB 7 Kg Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine. This top-loading washer is designed to provide efficient cleaning while being user-friendly. With a 5-star energy rating, this washing machine is energy-efficient and eco-friendly. The TL-RGS Aqua model features an Auto Imbalance System, ensuring that your laundry load is distributed evenly for consistent performance. The 3D Wash Technology ensures deep and thorough cleaning. The stylish grey finish adds a modern touch to your laundry area. Whether you have a large family or a small one, this 7 kg capacity washing machine is perfect for all your laundry needs.

Specifications of IFB TL-RGS Aqua

Capacity: 7 Kg

Energy Rating: 5 Star

Auto Imbalance System

3D Wash Technology

Colour: Grey

B08HNYCJHX

LG 6.5 Kg 5 Star Smart Inverter Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine (T65SPSF2Z)

Experience the future of laundry with the LG 6.5 Kg Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine. This top-loading washer combines advanced technology with user-friendly features to make laundry a breeze. With a 5-star energy rating, this washing machine ensures efficient performance while being environmentally friendly. The Smart Inverter technology minimizes noise and vibration, creating a peaceful home environment. The TurboDrum technology ensures thorough cleaning by using a pulsator and drum combination. The Middle Free Silver finish adds a touch of elegance to your laundry area. With a 6.5 kg capacity, it's suitable for families of all sizes. The machine's sleek design and TurboDrum technology make it a valuable addition to any home.

Specifications of LG T65SPSF2Z:

Capacity: 6.5 Kg

Energy Rating: 5 Star

Smart Inverter Technology

TurboDrum for Superior Cleaning

Colour: Middle Free Silver

B081J56RF8

Also read: 10 best IFB front load washing machine: September 2023 guide



Hisense 7.0 Kg Fully-Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine (WFVB7012MS)

Upgrade your laundry routine with the Hisense 7.0 Kg Fully-Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine. This front-loading washer is designed to provide efficient cleaning while being user-friendly. The WFVB7012MS model features a Silver finish that adds a touch of modernity to your laundry area. The Steam Wash and Built-in Heater ensure that your clothes come out clean and hygienic. The washing machine is equipped with a variety of wash programs to suit your specific needs. With a 7.0 kg capacity, it's suitable for families of all sizes. The Wobble technology ensures gentle yet effective cleaning. Say goodbye to laundry hassles and hello to cleaner, fresher clothes with the Hisense 7.0 Kg Fully-Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine.

Specifications of Hisense WFVB7012MS:

Capacity: 7.0 Kg

Silver Finish

Steam Wash

Built-in Heater

B09DT1TM9Q

Panasonic 6 Kg 5 Star Fully-Automatic Top Load Washing Machine (NA-F60LF1HRB)

Introducing the Panasonic 6 Kg Fully-Automatic Top Load Washing Machine. This top-loading washer combines efficient cleaning with user-friendly features to simplify your laundry routine. With a 5-star energy rating, this washing machine is energy-efficient and eco-friendly. The Durable Metal Body ensures the longevity of the appliance. The 8 Wash Programs provide versatility, allowing you to choose the right setting for each load. The Aquabeat wash technology ensures thorough cleaning, even for heavily soiled clothes. The One-touch Smart Wash feature simplifies the washing process. The 2022 model comes with the latest advancements in laundry technology.

Specifications of Panasonic NA-F60LF1HRB

Capacity: 6 Kg

Energy Rating: 5 Star

Durable Metal Body

8 Wash Programs

Aquabeat Wash Technology

One-touch Smart Wash

2022 Model

Colour: Grey

B08B9756FB

Amazon Basics 7 Kg Fully Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine

Upgrade your laundry routine with the Amazon Basics 7 Kg Fully Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine. This front-loading washer is designed to provide efficient cleaning while being user-friendly. The white finish adds a clean and modern touch to your laundry area. The Steam Wash and Built-in Heater ensure that your clothes come out clean and hygienic. The washing machine is equipped with various wash programs to suit your specific needs. With a 7.0 kg capacity, it's suitable for families of all sizes. The Amazon Basics washing machine offers the perfect balance of performance and convenience. Say goodbye to laundry hassles and hello to cleaner, fresher clothes with the Amazon Basics Fully Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine.

Specifications of Amazon Basics Fully Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine

Capacity: 7.0 Kg

White Finish

Steam Wash

Built-in Heater

B07V3SH3LK

Whirlpool 5 StarWhitemagic Premier 7kg GenX Fully Automatic Top Load Washing Machine

Experience the convenience of the Whirlpool 5 Star fully automatic top load washing machine. This top-loading washer is designed to provide efficient cleaning while being user-friendly. With a 5-star energy rating, this washing machine is energy-efficient and eco-friendly. The Hard Water Wash feature ensures effective cleaning even in areas with hard water. The machine's Grey finish adds a modern touch to your laundry area. With a 7.0 kg capacity, it's suitable for families of all sizes. The Whirlpool GenX washing machine offers advanced features to simplify your laundry routine. Enjoy cleaner, fresher clothes with ease.

Specifications of Whirlpool 5 Star Whitemagic Premier:

Capacity: 7.0 Kg

Energy Rating: 5 Star

Hard Water Wash

Colour: Grey

B08XQRJ3CK

Samsung 7.0 Kg Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine (WA70A4022FS/TL)

Upgrade your laundry routine with the Samsung 7.0 Kg Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine. This top-loading washer combines efficient cleaning with user-friendly features to simplify your laundry routine. The Imperial Silver finish adds a touch of modernity to your laundry area. The Wobble technology ensures gentle yet effective cleaning. With a 7.0 kg capacity, it's suitable for families of all sizes. The Samsung top-loading washing machine offers advanced features to make laundry a breeze. Say goodbye to laundry hassles and hello to cleaner, fresher clothes with the Samsung 7.0 Kg Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine.

Specifications of Samsung WA70A4022FS/TL

Capacity: 7.0 Kg

Imperial Silver Finish

Wobble Technology

B08HZ6V543

Three best features of each product

Product Name Feature 1 Feature 2 Feature 3 LG 8 Kg 5 Star Inverter AI Direct-Drive Touch Panel Fully Automatic Front Load Washing Machine (FHV1408Z2M) Steam for Hygiene In-Built Heater 6 Motion DD Samsung 8 Kg 5 Star Eco Bubble Technology, AI Control & Wi-Fi, Fully-Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine (WW80T504DAN1TL) Eco Bubble Technology AI Control & Wi-Fi In-Built Heater Whirlpool 7.5 kg 5 Star BloomWash Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine (360 Bloomwash PRO INV H) BloomWash Technology 5 Star Energy Rating In-Built Heater IFB 7 Kg 5 Star Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine (TL-RGS Aqua) Auto Imbalance System 3D Wash Technology 5 Star Energy Rating LG 6.5 Kg 5 Star Smart Inverter Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine (T65SPSF2Z) Smart Inverter Technology TurboDrum for Superior Cleaning Middle Free Silver Finish Hisense 7.0 Kg Fully-Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine (WFVB7012MS) Steam Wash Built-in Heater Front Loading Design Panasonic 6 Kg 5 Star Fully-Automatic Top Load Washing Machine (NA-F60LF1HRB) Durable Metal Body 8 Wash Programs Aquabeat Wash Technology Amazon Basics 7 Kg Fully Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine Front Loading Design Steam Wash Built-in Heater Whirlpool 5 StarWhitemagic Premier 7kg GenX Fully Automatic Top Load Washing Machine Hard Water Wash 5 Star Energy Rating Top Loading Design Samsung 7.0 Kg Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine (WA70A4022FS/TL) Wobble Technology 7.0 Kg Capacity Imperial Silver Finish

Pros and cons of each product



Product Name Pros Cons LG 8 Kg 5 Star Inverter AI Direct-Drive Touch Panel Fully Automatic Front Load Washing Machine (FHV1408Z2M) Steam for Hygiene, In-Built Heater, 6 Motion DD Middle Black color might show stains, Relatively expensive Samsung 8 Kg 5 Star Eco Bubble Technology, AI Control & Wi-Fi, Fully-Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine (WW80T504DAN1TL) Eco Bubble Technology, AI Control & Wi-Fi, In-Built Heater Higher price point, Requires Wi-Fi for full functionality Whirlpool 7.5 kg 5 Star BloomWash Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine (360 Bloomwash PRO INV H) 5 Star Energy Rating, BloomWash Technology, In-Built Heater Top-loading design may not be preferred by all, May not fit in smaller laundry spaces IFB 7 Kg 5 Star Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine (TL-RGS Aqua) Auto Imbalance System, 3D Wash Technology, 5 Star Energy Rating Grey color may not suit all aesthetics, Top-loading design LG 6.5 Kg 5 Star Smart Inverter Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine (T65SPSF2Z) Smart Inverter Technology, TurboDrum for Superior Cleaning, Middle Free Silver Finish Smaller capacity, Top-loading design Hisense 7.0 Kg Fully-Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine (WFVB7012MS) Steam Wash, Built-in Heater, Front Loading Design Silver color may not match all decor, Front loaders may require more space Panasonic 6 Kg 5 Star Fully-Automatic Top Load Washing Machine (NA-F60LF1HRB) Durable Metal Body, 8 Wash Programs, Aquabeat Wash Technology Smaller capacity, Top-loading design Amazon Basics 7 Kg Fully Automatic Front Loading Washing Machine Front Loading Design, Steam Wash, Built-in Heater Limited brand recognition, Relatively fewer wash programs Whirlpool 5 StarWhitemagic Premier 7kg GenX Fully Automatic Top Load Washing Machine Hard Water Wash, 5 Star Energy Rating, Top Loading Design May not be suitable for areas with hard water, Limited color options Samsung 7.0 Kg Fully-Automatic Top Loading Washing Machine (WA70A4022FS/TL) Wobble Technology, 7.0 Kg Capacity, Imperial Silver Finish Top-loading design, May not have the latest technology features

Best value for money

The Panasonic 6 Kg 5 Star Fully-Automatic Top Load Washing Machine (NA-F60LF1HRB) offers excellent value for money with its durable metal body, 8 wash programs, and aquabeat wash technology. It combines affordability with a range of useful features, making it a practical choice for those looking to get the most out of their budget.

Best overall product

The LG 8 Kg 5 Star Inverter AI Direct-Drive Touch Panel Fully Automatic Front Load Washing Machine (FHV1408Z2M) stands out as the best overall product in this category. With features like steam for hygiene, in-built heater, and 6 Motion DD, it offers comprehensive functionality and performance, making it a top choice for those seeking the best washing experience.

How to find the top rated fully automatic washing machine in India?

To find the best washing machine, consider your specific needs and preferences. Look for features like energy efficiency, wash technology, and capacity. Assess the pros and cons of each product to determine which one aligns best with your requirements. Additionally, read user reviews and product specifications to make an informed decision.







At Hindustan Times, we help you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and products. Hindustan Times has an affiliate partnership, so we may get a part of the revenue when you make a purchase. We shall not be liable for any claim under applicable laws, including but not limited to the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, with respect to the products. The products listed in this article are in no particular order of priority.

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An athlete from China broke the world record for the fastest 100 metres slackline walk. Shi Hailin accomplished this feat by walking on a slackline suspended 100 metres above the ground between two hills in only 1 minute 14.198 seconds. With this, he surpassed the previous record of 1 minute 59.73 seconds held by Lucas Milliard of France in 2016. Shi Hailin walking on a slacklin suspended 100 metres above the ground between two hills. (Instagram/@guinnessworldrecords)

The world record took place 1,600 m above sea level at the Guanyindang camp in Mount Wugong, Pingxiang. Though Hailin walked more than 222 m in total, he was timed specifically within a marked 100 m area, reported Guinness World Records (GWR).

Fastest 100 m slackline walk: 1 min 14.198 secs by Shi Hailin, reads the caption of the video shared on Instagram by Guinness World Records.

The video shows Hailin walking carefully on the slackline while drones record his feat in foggy weather. A red coloured cloth is attached on both ends to mark the 100-m mark. The video also shows Hailin celebrating after successfully walking 100 metres on the slackline.

Watch the video of the world record here:

The video was shared a day ago on X. It has since accumulated over 7.1 lakh views, and the numbers are still increasing. Many even took to the comments section of the video to share their thoughts.

Heres how people reacted to the video:

Now this is a record worth breaking, posted an Instagram user.

Another added, Bros balance is impeccable (flawless).

Its crazy how athletes are able to run the entire length of that in mere seconds, expressed a third.

A fourth commented, This is insane.

Wow, commented a fifth.

A sixth shared, Wow. This is amazing. Pure talent.

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A woman took to X to share how she received an unusual gift from her father on her birthday. She wrote her dad gifted her a bottle filled with dirty water. Eventually, the woman also revealed his reason for giving such a gift to her. The image shows a bottle filled with dirty water. (X/@patriciamou_)

X user Patricia Mou wrote, For my birthday this year, my dad gifted me a dirty bottle of water. Not kidding. She then added that this is not the first time she has received such a gift from her dad.

In the past, hes gifted me: a first aid kit, pepper spray, an encyclopedia, a key chain, dedicated a book he wrote to me, etc. good ol dad gifts. He told me this year's gift was extra special as no money could possibly buy it: a valuable life lesson, she added.

What is the meaning behind the gift?

In the next few lines, Mou explained more about what the dirty bottle of water represents. A shaken dirty bottle of water symbolizes life when youre flustered. Everything appears dirty. But when the mind settles, dirt only represents less than 10% of the bottle. Its important to maintain perspective, she explained.

How did she respond?

Later that weekend I took the bottle to the ocean and poured it back in - sharing a lesson with him in the process: You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the ocean in a drop. In effect, I one-upped his cliche. The point of this post is that I am very obviously the child of this man, she wittily added. She concluded the post with images of her gift.

Take a look at this tweet about the birthday gift:

The post was shared on October 2. Since then, the post has gone viral. Till now, it has gathered more than 1.2 million views, and the numbers are only increasing. The post has also collected close to 5,900 likes. People took to the comments section to share varied reactions.

What did X users say about this tweet?

This is so sweet, and happy birthday, posted an X user. Saving this lesson, and really relishing it. Thank you for sharing, added another. This is adorable, commented a third. Wonderful parenting, expressed a fourth.

Also Read: Mom asks daughter in Dubai to gift her 10 kg tomatoes

"Simple yet profound life lesson. You have definitely one-upped your dad. The second life lesson he wanted to teach, once lost, it is lost forever. Good luck getting the water back, shared a fifth. Sounds like he didnt have time to write you another book and came up with something clever. Joking, your dad seems awesome, wrote a sixth.

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Paris is known for its iconic landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysees, and the Louvre Museum, and many more. However, in recent news, the city of love has garnered attention for a different, less desirable reason: bed bugs. French president Emmanuel Macron urged to handle bed bug crisis in Paris. (AP)

After several people from Paris took to social media to share pictures and videos of the bloodsucking insects crawling all over high-speed trains and buses. Additionally, they were also spotted in movie theaters, and at Charles de Gaulle Airport, reported USA Today.

Soon after this situation started to go out of hand, Transport Minister Clement Beaune announced that he would be meeting with representatives of public transportation companies to inform them about countermeasures of dealing with bed bugs. He also shared how can the government do more for the protection of travelers, as per France 24.

They also reported that the Paris city hall has urged President Emmanuel Macron to help with the infestation by creating a dedicated task force. (Also Read: Emmanuel Macron holds talks with King Charles III in Paris during latter's state visit)

French transport providers say they are nevertheless vigilant about bed bugs despite the fact that there haven't been spottings of these insects recently.

RATP, the operator behind the metro in Paris, told CNN "Each sighting is taken into account and is subject to a treatment. These last few days, there have been no proven cases of bedbugs recorded in our equipment.

ANSES, the National Social Security Administration, says that the upsurge in bed-bug infestations in recent years has been due in particular to the rise in travel and the increasing resistance of bed bugs to insecticides.

"While all households can be affected by bed bugs, we have nevertheless managed to identify a number of factors that favour infestations: these include travelling and living in shared accommodation, for example," says Karine Fiore, Deputy Director of ANSES's social sciences, economics, and society department.

ANSES also urged that since bed bug treatment can be costly, victims of infestation should be provided with financial support, especially those from low-income households.

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A 9-year-old girl who was kidnapped while riding her bike in New York state was found safe after police used fingerprints on a ransom note to track down the suspect. Charlotte Sena, 9, who vanished during a camping trip in upstate New York. Authorities say that Sena has been found safe Monday, following a two day search. (Family photo via AP/NYPD)(AP/NYPD)

Charlotte Sena went missing on Saturday in a wooded area of Moreau Lake State Park, a popular camping site about 45 miles north of Albany. Hundreds of people joined the search for the bright and adventurous girl who loves to be outside.

On Monday, a ransom note was left at the family home, where police were watching. The note had the suspects fingerprints, matching a database record from a drink-driving incident in 1999.

Police identified the suspect as Craig Nelson Ross Jr., 47, and located him at his mothers property. He was arrested after resisting and the girl was found in a cabinet.

She knew she was being rescued. She knew that she was in safe hands, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at a news conference on Monday night.

What happened was extraordinary, she said.

ALSO READ| 9-Year-Old Charlotte Sena missing for 2 days, New York State Police release alarming updates

The governor named the suspect and said he was still being questioned. Police said the investigation was still active.

Charlottes family were on a camping trip when she disappeared. It was every parents worst nightmare, Gov Hochul said, adding that she had received anxious phone calls from around the country during the hunt.

The girl is safe and in good health, officers said, but had been taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure.

Charlotte may have suffered immense trauma, said Callahan Walsh from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, speaking to the BBCs US partner CBS.

During the hunt, police said 400 search and rescue personnel from law enforcement agencies such as the FBI were involved, along with volunteer fire departments and private groups.

They issued an amber alert for a missing child and asked for the publics help finding her.

Police used fingerprints on ransom note to find kidnapped girl(NYSP)

The search operation covered nearly 50 miles, police said. The park was closed off as state troopers set up road checkpoints and reportedly searched some cars.

The FBI has also been assisting with the case, Gov Hochul said.

Who is Craig Ross Jr., Charlotte Senas alleged abductor?

Craig Ross Jr. is the 46-year-old man who was arrested in connection with the abduction of Charlotte Sena, a New York girl who went missing on Saturday while riding her bike in a state park. He was identified by his fingerprints, which were found on a ransom note that was left at the girls family home on Monday. The fingerprints matched a database record from a drunk-driving incident in 1999.

Mugshot of Craig Ross(NYPD)

Ross was located at his mothers property and arrested after resisting. The girl was found in a cabinet and rescued. She was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure.

The Times Union had claimed in their report that the suspect was a registered sex offender.

New York Gov. quoted to CNN, I have to caution that this is still very much a live investigation. And as more information that can be confirmed is available, well get it out there.

It was extraordinary to see how they traced it down to an individuals home. The home was surrounded by law enforcement and helicopters, and they were able to bring her to safety. And not long after, she was in the arms of her parents at a hospital.

Although the governor did not provide details regarding Ross's previous convictions, public records, as reported by Heavy, indicate that Craig Ross was arrested in 2016 on charges of second-degree aggravated harassment. Subsequently, in 2017, Craig Ross faced arrest and misdemeanor charges of criminal obstruction of breathing.

ALSO READ| Missing Charlotte Sena found after a 2-day search operation in New York, ransom note helped nab abductor

The cops are investigating to find any possible link of the suspect to Charlottes family.

Police said in a press release on October 2, They searched several homes where the suspect was known to live. At about 6:32 p.m. on October 2, 2023, State Police found Charlotte Sena safe and sound. The suspect was arrested.
The tallest statue of the principal architect of India's Constitution, B R Ambedkar, outside India is set to be unveiled in Maryland on October 14, the organisers have said. The 19-foot statue, named Statue of Equality, is part of the Ambedkar International Centre (AIC)

The 19-foot statue, named Statue of Equality, is part of the Ambedkar International Centre (AIC) being built on 13-acre land in Accokeek city of Maryland, approximately 35 kms south of Washington.

This is the largest statue of Babasaheb outside India and has been installed as a part of the Ambedkar Memorial being constructed at this centre, said the AIC.

Born on April 14, 1891, Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar  popular among his followers as Babasaheb  was the chairman of the Constituent Assemblys most crucial Drafting Committee that earned him the moniker Architect of the Indian Constitution.

Post-Independence, he was also the Minister of Law and Justice in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehrus first Cabinet. Ambedkar played a key role in social movements that fought for the rights of Dalits and untouchables.

Ambedkar died on December 6, 1956, months after he embraced Buddhism on October 14 that year, the date coinciding with the unveiling of the statue in Maryland. October 14 is celebrated as Dhamma Chakra Parivartan Din by Ambedkarites.

The statue has been made by renowned artist and sculptor Ram Sutar, who also built the statue of Sardar Patel, called as Statue of Unity, and installed on an island in Narmada, metres downstream of the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat.

Large number of representatives of the Ambedkarite movement and his followers are expected to attend the event from across the USA and other parts of the world, it said.

According to the AIC, this memorial will serve to spread Babasahebs messages and teachings and showcase a symbol of equality and human rights.

Representatives from various countries are expected to attend the statues unveiling ceremony on October 14.
Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella testified on Monday as a witness for the US Justice Department in a landmark antitrust trial against Google's parent company, Alphabet. The Justice Department alleges Google, which has some 90% of the search market, has abused the dominance of its ubiquitous search engine to throttle competition and innovation at the expense of consumers. The government has argued that Google illegally paid $10 billion annually to smartphone makers like Apple and wireless carriers like AT&T and others to be the default in search on their devices in order to stay on top. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella arrives at federal court on October 2, 2023 in Washington, DC.(Getty Images via AFP)

Here's what Satya Nadella told the packed Washington, D.C., courtroom:

Nadella said it could never compete against the search engine behemoth, largely due to its arrangements with Apple.

"You can call it popular, but to me it's dominant," Nadella told a Google lawyer during tense cross examination.

He said that unfair tactics used by Google led to its dominance as a search engine, thwarting his company's rival program, Bing.

We are one of the alternatives but were not the default, Nadella said.

Nadella revealed that Microsoft Corp. was willing to hide its search engines Bing brand on Apple Inc. devices in order to secure an agreement with the iPhone maker. Getting that default spot from Apple would be game-changing, Nadella said.

Whomever they choose, they king-make.

The Microsoft chief executive complained Google was locking up content with expensive and exclusive deals with publishers when tech giants were competing for vast troves of content needed to train artificial intelligence.

"When I am meeting with publishers now, they say Google's going to write this check and it's exclusive and you have to match it," he said.

Nadella said he was now worried that Google would be able to use its dominance in search to strongarm content providers that are key to training generative AI models.

"I worry a lot in spite of my enthusiasm that this vicious cycle can become even more vicious," Nadella said.

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At least 21 people, including two children and foreign tourists, were killed Tuesday and several others wounded when a bus running on methane plunged off a bridge in Venice and caught fire. It's believed the vehicle landed on a railway track and is currently on fire. (Euronews)

"A tragedy has struck our community this evening," mayor Luigi Brugnaro wrote on Facebook, describing the site of the crash as "an apocalyptic scene".

"The provisional toll is at least 21 fatalities and over 20 people hospitalised," said Luca Zaia, the governor of the Venice region, deploring a "tragedy of enormous proportions".

"Efforts are on to extract and identify the bodies," he said. "The victims and the wounded include people of several nationalities, not just Italians."

A city hall official said the dead included Ukrainian tourists while Italian news agency ANSA said the fatalities included German and French citizens.

Three Ukrainians, a Croatian, German and French national were among the injured, a city official told AFP.

The bus was returning from Venice's historic centre to a camping site when the accident occurred around 7:30 pm (1730 GMT).

Firefighters said the bus caught fire after careering off a bridge straddling a railway line and linking the Mestre and Marghera districts of the northern Italian city.

An AFP photographer saw fire crews busy working at the charred remains of the vehicle that was overturned on its roof.

Firefighters were waiting for the vehicle's battery to cool before moving it to search for additional victims.

- Condolences -

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her "profound condolences".

"I am in contact with mayor Luigi Brugnaro and (Transport) Minister Matteo Salvini in order to follow the news of this tragedy," she said in a statement.

Salvini said the cause of the accident could be the driver suddenly taking sick or becoming unwell.

According to the Corriere della Sera newspaper, the bus swerved off the bridge, smashing through the barrier, and fell near railway tracks about 30 metres (100 feet) below.

The newspaper said it caught fire after hitting some power lines.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the "aggravating factor" was methane, and that the fire spread rapidly.

"I fear that the death toll will rise," he added.

Francesso Moraglia, the Patriarch of Venice, was at the site where he blessed the dead -- covered with white shrouds on which bouquets of red flowers had been placed.

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen offered their condolences.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said she was "deeply saddened by the terrible bus tragedy... In this night of grief, my thoughts are with the victims, their families and friends".

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the German foreign affairs department told AFP its embassy in Rome was working with Italian authorities to verify whether German nationals were among the victims.

In July 2018, a bus carrying a group of some 50 holidaymakers back to Naples fell off a viaduct near the city killing 40 people in all.

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Former US President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama are celebrating their 31st wedding anniversary today. The couple, whove been married since 1992, took to their social media accounts on Tuesday to share sweet words in an admirable display of love. In his post, Barack shared the snap of him and his wife posing together while standing in front of a field, along with a sweet caption. Ex-US President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama(X/ @BarackObama)

Happy anniversary, sweetheart! @MichelleObama , you're brilliant, kind, funny, and beautifuland I'm lucky to call you mine, former US president wrote on X.

Meanwhile, Michelle also shared a snap of her and Barack smiling together with city skyline was captured in the background. She also shared a message in the caption about how special their relationship is.

31 years, and a lifetime to go. I love going through life with you by my side, @BarackObama. Happy anniversary, honey! she wrote.

The two have never shied away from sharing their love for each other online. The couple, who tied the knot in 1992, went on to welcome two daughters, Malia, 25, and Sasha, 22. Throughout their three-decade-long relationship, Obamas have spoken candidly about the challenges they faced during their relationship.

While talking about her book, The Light We Carry, in November 2022, Michelle said their marriage has never been perfect, as one of them is always needing more or giving more.

Over the years, a lot of young people have asked me about marriage. And my response usually goes something like this: You have to prepare yourself for long stretches of discord and discomfort, she said.

She had also described her husband Barack as her home.

Michelle said as an adult, she had lived in a number of places but had only had one real home. "My home is my family. My home is Barack," she said.
In order to boost the tourism sector, Bhutan has planned to reduce the 'expensive' airfares to lower the price for visitors travelling to the country, Bhutan Live reported. The Buddha Dordenma statue overlooks the town of Thimphu, Bhutan. (Reuters)

According to country's Finance Minister, this step would result in uptick of travellers to the country and increase the number of visitors that visit the nation, as the "expensive" airfare frequently discourages travellers from travelling to Bhutan.

Moreover, the government has put in place a number of incentives, such as lowering the Sustainable Development Fee (SDF) from USD200 to USD100 per person, each night.

Other plans, include permitting low-cost hotels to accommodate tourists and creating other long-stay incentive programmes. The government is currently taking action to encourage travellers by considering price reductions.

The government is planning with Drukair Corporation and Bhutan Airlines to reduce the airfare for the tourists. This is part of the governments incentive, considering the tourists complain about the expensive airfare, Bhutan Live quoted Finance Minister Namgay Tshering as saying.

However, other lawmakers believe that the SDF policy's frequent modifications are not the ideal strategy for advancing the tourist sector.

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A fourth-grade classroom had a big dream to bring a Little Free Library to a community walking trail.

It all began when the students were just weeks away from turning the page on the 2022-23 school year, said Magdelini Drivas, a teacher at Mount Holly Springs Elementary School.

We read an article about preserving ocean life and how to do better for that ecosystem, Drivas said of her former students, who are now fifth-graders. Slowly, the idea of bettering our community came up again.

Some months had passed since the students read an article titled Little Libraries ... Big Dreams about the volunteer-led global effort to put up book exchange boxes as a way to build community, inspire readers and expand access to reading material.

When a student suggested that the class revisit the topic of Little Free Libraries, Drivas saw the interest as a teaching moment and got her students into teams to brainstorm how Mount Holly Springs could benefit from having a book exchange box in the community.

We kept their original notes, Drivas said, while paging through the paperwork.

The reasons they shared included an opportunity for everyone to learn, no cost to access books, how the box could bring people together and how they as students could be engaged in developing rules and guidelines.

It could have easily ended there, but the students had something else in mind. They saw it as a chance to live out a dream and bring a Little Free Library to the public walking trail that runs near their school. The students obtained permission from the borough council to install an exchange box along the trail.

Nothing worthwhile is ever easy and every plan has its pitfalls. By the time the students were ready to raise funds, there was only about a month of school left.

We had bins in our office and students in the entire school could bring in spare change, Drivas said. After a week and a half, we had a whooping $63 when we needed about $300. I took this project to my family and friends, and I kept the students updated on donations.

The students learned a valuable lesson that even people they dont know want to do good things for them, she said. They learned a really great lesson on gratitude. Then, it was how are we going to build this thing.

The students worked together to draft an email to Sean Allewelt, the carpentry teacher at Carlisle High School. They wanted him to ask his students to build the Little Library using the parts in the kit.

God bless them, they got that thing built in an hour, Drivas said. They were amazing, so fantastic.

School Principal Molli Davis was among the administrators who honored the students during a recent Carlisle Area School Board meeting.

They decided to do something for the community, she said. They researched. They figured out how to purchase the kit. They presented at a borough council meeting.

Truly, it was a student-led effort, Drivas said. I was there just to make sure we pressed to send the email and pressed to Add to Cart the [exchange box] kit. The students did all the heavy lifting on this.

As a reward for their efforts, her students saw the first set of books go into the Little Free Library.

Ive checked on it a few times and it is thriving, Drivas said. It was overflowing with books the last time I was there. Im just so proud of these students.

Jaykob Keel, 11, of Gardners, helped to attach the book exchange box to the top of the post.

I felt good caring for the community, Jaykob said. There are a lot of kids in Mount Holly that want books and like to walk on the trail by our school. This will help them get books when they are right there.

Classmate Faith Rhinehart, 10, of Gardners raised $20 to put toward the Little Free Library kit. I was making bracelets and I was drawing, she said. It was a really good idea that we came up with. It made me feel good. Its important because some people may not have enough money to buy books so they can learn.

Other students who participated in this project were Isabel Cisnero, Madelyn Kaden, Myleah McLaughlin, Kamiyah Hunte, Teddy Milburn, Zackery Chase, Harper VanMetre, Cayden Reibssane and Camden Hawbaker.
New Delhi The global oil and gas industry needs to align with net-zero emissions by 2050, and ensure there are zero emissions of methane and routine flaring is eliminated by 2030, Sultan Al Jaber, president-designate of the United Nations climate summit (COP 28) to be held later this year, urged on Monday. The president of the upcoming COP28 climate change Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber speaks during the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition at ADNEC Exhibition Center on Monday. Jaber said that the fossil fuel industry would play an essential role in addressing the climate crisis. (AFP)

Al Jaber, who is also CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, welcomed action by over 20 oil and gas companies to take steps to fight climate crisis.

Economies currently run on the equivalent of 250 million barrels of oil, gas, and coal every single day, which we need to either replace or decarbonise, he said at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference. The monumental task will require a system wide transformation of entire economies, a complete paradigm shift and not business as usual.

Al Jabers call came a day after convening meetings of both demand and supply side businesses in Abu Dhabi.

The United Arab Emirates will host the annual climate summit that begins on November 30 in Dubai.

We must re-imagine the relationship between producers and the heaviest consuming countries and sectors, Al Jaber said. Industries can and must act. But they cant act alone. Governments should be proactive in setting the right demand signals and dealing with critical issues like permitting.

Discussing the immediate steps he expects the oil and gas industry to take, Al Jaber said: Eliminating methane leaks and flaring is the fastest way to make the biggest impact on operational emissions in the short term.

One of the issues likely to blow up at the summit is the silence on fossil fuel phase out or phase down. The Delhi Declaration of G20 addressed the concerns of petroleum states, of which the UAE is one, even as it expressed ambition to meet Paris climate pact goals by committing to global net-zero emissions by mid-century, HT reported on September 11.

Operationalising the loss and damage fund and setting out an energy pathway to keep the Paris Agreement goal of containing global temperature rise within 1.5C are among the key parameters to determine the success of the upcoming summit, HT reported on Monday. The outcomes of the conference are particularly important because the combination of climate crisis and El Nino is leading to record global land and sea surface temperatures.

We have spent a lot of time with partners, listening to them to understand where we can find success at COP28. In terms of negotiated outcomes, we need to deliver on the Global Stocktake, the Global Goal on Adaptation and operationalisation of the Loss and Damage fund. Those are mandated outcomes as well as the just transition work that we have to deliver, Majid Al Suwaidi, COP28 director-general from the UAE, said during a briefing last week.

COP28 president-designate Dr Sultan Al Jabers efforts to involve everyone and advocate for leadership in setting ambitious decarbonisation targets are noteworthy. However, the looming billion-dollar question remains  can we place our trust in those companies that have, for decades, concealed the truth and fostered disinformation to delay essential climate action?

The stark reality is that Big Oil, fully aware of their significant contribution to the climate crisis, persistently expands fossil fuel extraction while scaling back their already scant investments in renewable energy. Their track record is undeniably dreadful. It is imperative that governments exhibit courage to enact stringent regulations and levy new taxes to ensure compliance, rather than wasting precious time in unproductive consultations and persuasions. The revenue generated from such endeavors must be allocated to facilitate a just energy transition and address loss and damage in developing nations, Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International, said.

COP28 is short for the 28th conference of parties, where parties denote the countries that are signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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New Delhi: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that Ottawa does not want to escalate tensions with India amid reports that India has asked several Canadian diplomats to leave the country. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (REUTERS)

Speaking to the media in Ottawa on Tuesday morning, Trudeau said, Were not looking to escalate.

Asked specifically whether his government will retaliate over the action from New Delhi, the Canadian PM said, were going to be doing the work that matters in continuing to have constructive relations with India through this extremely difficult time.

He added, Obviously were going through an extremely challenging time. Thats why its so important for us to have diplomats on the ground working with the Indian government there to support Canadians and Canadian families.

Canada has its largest diplomatic establishment in India and New Delhi had earlier been clear it wanted the numbers pared.

On September 21, Global Affairs Canada, the countrys foreign ministry, had said it was pulling some diplomats from its missions in India due to threats received on various social media platforms.

As a result, and out of an abundance of caution, we have decided to temporarily adjust staff presence in India. All of our locations are staffed by diplomats and locally-engaged staff to ensure business and operational continuity, a spokesperson had said at the time.

Canada had also sought additional security around its missions in the country, which include the High Commission in New Delhi, as well as consulates in Mumbai, Chandigarh, and Bangalore.

That came three days after Trudeau made a statement in the House of Commons about credible allegations of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of Khalistani figure Hardeep Nijjar. He was gunned down in the parking lot of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara that he headed in the town of Surrey in the province of British Columbia on June 18.

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Hollywood expert Mark Boardman sheds light on the evolving dynamics within the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's relationship, highlighting the contrasting desires of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry regarding their future plans. Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, attend the sitting volleyball finals at the 2023 Invictus Games, an international multi-sport event for injured soldiers, in Duesseldorf, Germany September 15, 2023. (REUTERS)

Since stepping away from royal life in 2020, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have embarked on a path less traveled. While they have forged new connections and pursued groundbreaking projects, it seems there may be a divergence in their aspirations.

Boardman points out that Prince Harry's social circle has undergone significant changes over the past decade. "He appears to have distanced himself from his college friends and lacks a permanent UK residence," says Boardman. "During his visits to London, he typically resides in hotels and avoids public appearances. Undoubtedly, Prince Harry longs for his old friendships."

On the other hand, Meghan Markle is reportedly frustrated with Harry's desire to revisit his past life. "Meghan loves Harry, but she wants to bring out the better side in him," Boardman continued. "They are trying to work together on projects, and people are eager to witness a transformed Harry, rather than a return to his previous partying lifestyle."

Boardman believes that Prince Harry's strong ties to his childhood friends may be the driving force behind his desire to return to the UK. However, convincing Meghan to endorse a "boys' weekend" in London with old Eton buddies might prove challenging.

"London is where all of Harry's real friends are," notes Boardman. "Everyone they know in Hollywood, they aren't his friends. Ultimately, Meghan wants Harry to be by her side, supporting her and looking after the children. Anything going backward is going to take away from that."

While Prince Harry may yearn for a London base, Boardman suggests that such a move is unlikely, as it would disrupt the couple's current life and commitments in the United States.
Hundreds of Guatemalans blocked key roads on Monday to demand the resignation of top prosecutors whom they accuse of trying to block the newly elected president from taking office. Protestors demand the resignation of Attorney General Consuelo Porras and prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche outside the Attorney General's Office in Guatemala City, Monday.(AP)

Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche on Friday and Saturday sent security forces to seize boxes of voting records from this year's presidential election, won by outsider Bernardo Arevalo, 64, in a massive upset.

Observers say Arevalo's vow to clamp down on graft has alarmed a corrupt elite.

Arevalo is only due to take office in January, and the international community has raised the alarm over efforts to challenge the election outcome.

Protesters on Monday blocked key highways such as the Inter-American Highway and routes leading to the borders of Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras, according to road authorities.

"Guatemala demands the respect of its democracy," read a sign held up by protesters.

Others demanded the resignation of Curruchiche, Attorney General Consuelo Porras, and Judge Fredy Orellana -- who have backed several raids against electoral authorities.

All three officials have been described as "corrupt" and "undemocratic" by the US justice department.

Arevalo has asked the Supreme Court to remove them from their roles, accusing them of plotting a "coup d'etat" to prevent him from taking office.

The president-elect wrote on social media Monday that he had held a video call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who expressed "his country's concern about the situation in Guatemala."

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Sunday that the raid was "the latest in a long list of very worrying actions ... which -- taken together -- appear designed to undermine the integrity of the electoral process."

The seized records, according to magistrate Gabriel Aguilera, came from the June first-round election that launched Social Democrat Arevalo en route to a stunning runoff victory in August.

His performance in that vote prompted a flurry of legal actions against his Semilla party, led by Curruchiche, who alleged irregularities in its formation in 2017.

Arevalo will replace right-wing President Alejandro Giammattei who has been accused by rights groups of overseeing a crackdown on anti-graft prosecutors and journalists, many of whom have been detained or forced to flee into exile.

The Central American nation is dogged by poverty, violence, and graft, sending thousands abroad every year in search of a better life, many to the United States.

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Pakistan former prime minister Imran Khans wife Bushra Bibi approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to seek more security for her husband in Adiala jail as she feared that he could be poisoned. Imran Khan has been detained in prison since he was found guilty in the Toshakhana case on August 5. The case relates to his alleged failure to properly disclose gifts he received while in government. Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan(Reuters)

Raising concern for her husband's safety in prison, Bushra Bibi filed a petition on Monday with the IHC. She expressed concerns that there might be attempts to harm Imran Khan through food tampering, emphasising that her husband is not getting the entitled facilities as mentioned in the prison manual.

In her petition, Bushra Bibi noted previous instances where other prisoners were provided certain privileges like home-cooked meals but her husband has been denied such privileges, she claimed.

According to the jail manual, Imran Khan was supposed to be provided with facilities like a TV, newspapers, servants, a mattress, a chair and a table in the jail.

This treatment is inhumane and constitutes a breach of Articles 9 and 14 of the Constitution, she said, urging the IHC to intervene and ensure the enforcement of court orders regarding the provision of proper facilities to her husband in the jail.

Requesting to instruct the responsible medical officer to ensure the supply of healthy food to the former prime minister, she also asked the court to direct the relevant authorities to grant the privilege of exercising and taking walks to Imran Khan.

Imran Khan was transferred to Adiala Jail despite his recent requests to not shift him from the Attock District Jail

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President Joe Biden has received his first positive poll rating since May in a new survey by Rasmussen Reports, which showed that 49 percent of Americans approve of his job performance while 48 percent disapprove. TOPSHOT - US President Joe Biden looks on during a meeting with his Cabinet in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 2, 2023. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)(AFP)

This is the first time that more Americans have given Biden a thumbs up than a thumbs down in a poll included by FiveThirtyEight, which lists polls it deems reputable.

The President's last positive approval rating was reported in a May YouGov survey, although it stands as an exception, as the majority of surveys indicate a negative approval rating for Biden.

Biden, seeking re-election in November 2024, has encountered hurdles in recent polls. In an NBC survey conducted last month, his disapproval rating reached 56 percent, marking the highest since assuming the presidency in January 2021, while his approval rating stood at 41 percent.

Republican opponents have criticized the 80-year-old's age and ability to govern, particularly in light of a series of missteps in September.

Despite giving Biden a net positive rating, the Rasmussen poll, of 1,500 likely U.S. voters conducted between September 25 and October 1, found that the president had a big gap among voters who said they felt strongly. Only 28 percent of respondents said they strongly approve of his performance compared to 41 percent who strongly disapprove.

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The Rasmussen poll is the first one by FiveThirtyEight to give Biden a positive approval since a YouGov survey of 1,500 American adults conducted between May 6-9. This gave the president an approval rating of 48 percent, versus 46 percent disapproval.

Nonetheless, FiveThirtyEight's data compilation reveals that the Rasmussen survey is notably atypical. The aggregation website reports an overall net disapproval rating of 54.9 percent for Biden, in contrast to a 39.8 percent approval rating as of October 2.

In a recent poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News between September 15 and 20, former President Donald Trump, who holds a substantial lead in GOP primary polls, secured a 10-point advantage in a hypothetical matchup against Biden. The results showed Trump with 52 percent of the vote compared to Biden's 42 percent.

Nevertheless, the newspaper emphasized that this outcome was an exception, as it did not align with the findings of other surveys, which showed the two contenders in a much tighter race.

The Rasmussen poll was conducted against the backdrop of an impending government shutdown. Ultimately, Congress reached a bipartisan short-term agreement on Saturday, ensuring government funding for a period of 45 days. The measures passage gives Congress time to continue developing a long-term solution. Biden issued a statement shortly after Congress signed off on the bill, calling it good news.

The poll also comes as House Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry into the president. The initial hearing took place on Thursday, September 28. Republicans are conducting an inquiry into whether the president engaged in a quid pro quo arrangement, trading political favors for financial transactions involving his son, Hunter Biden, during his tenure as vice president under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017. As of now, no concrete connection has been established between payments made to Hunter and his father's policy decisions, and the president vehemently denies any misconduct.

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On September 28, the GOPs witness, legal scholar and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, said he did not believe the evidence currently meets the standard of a high crime and misdemeanor needed for an article of impeachment.

I have previously stated that, while I believe that an impeachment inquiry is warranted, I do not believe that the evidence currently meets the standard of a high crime and misdemeanor needed for an article of impeachment, Turley wrote in his written statement, which he read verbatim during the hearing.
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty Tuesday to an illegal gun possession charge, marking the latest chapter in his troubled life just as his father President Joe Biden accelerates his campaign for reelection next year. US President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, walks outside on the day of his appearance in a federal court on gun charges in Wilmington, Delaware.(Reuters)

Hunter Biden, 53, arrived in federal court in his family hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, without speaking to waiting reporters.

He entered a not guilty plea to three felony charges stemming from his purchase of a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver in 2018 when, by his own admission, he was heavily addicted to drugs and barely in control of his life.

Hunter Biden is charged with two counts of making false statements for claiming on forms required for the gun purchase that he was not using drugs illegally at the time.

He faces a third charge, based on the same statements, that he illegally possessed the gun -- which he had for only 11 days in October 2018 -- before he got rid of it.

Hunter Biden's multiple legal troubles and controversies -- which extend to facing ferocious accusations from Republican politicians that he engaged in corrupt business practices in China and Ukraine -- are a constant drag on his father's political standing as he seeks a second term in 2024.

Republicans have opened an impeachment inquiry in Congress on what they claim is a Biden family criminal conspiracy but have provided no evidence that the president did anything wrong.

In response to the constant drip-drip of scandal, Joe Biden has repeatedly said he stands by his son and loves him for his attempts to recover from drug addiction.

Hunter Biden's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, had asked Judge Christopher Burke to allow Biden, who lives in California, to appear by video instead of in person but the request was denied.

"The defendant should not receive any special treatment in this matter," Burke wrote in his ruling.

If convicted, Hunter Biden could in theory face 25 years in prison, though in practice such offenses, if not accompanied by other charges, are seldom punished by any jail time.

In July, a plea bargain between Hunter Biden and federal prosecutor David Weiss -- which would have erased the gun charges while Biden pleaded guilty to two tax charges and avoided prison -- fell apart.

Possible tax charges

Hunter Biden has not been charged with any crimes related to his foreign business dealings, despite the Republican allegations.

However, Weiss, who was elevated to special counsel for the Hunter Biden probe after the plea deal fell through, says he is still investigating the junior Biden on possible tax charges in addition to the gun possession issue.

Hunter Biden is a Yale-trained lawyer and lobbyist-turned-artist, but his life has been marred by alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction.
Canada is not looking to escalate situation with India and will continue to engage responsibly and constructively with New Delhi, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau was quoted by Reuters as saying on Tuesday.



Trudeau's remark comes amid diplomatic row with New Delhi which kickstarted after Ottawa expelled an Indian diplomat over Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar's killing in June. Trudeau had claimed credible allegations of a potential link between Indian government agents and Nijjar's killing in Surrey on June 18.



The Canadian prime minister's remark comes on the day India asked Canada to withdraw several dozen diplomats from its missions in the country. Last month, the external affairs ministry had announced that the Canadian government was informed about the need for parity in strength and rank equivalence in mutual diplomatic presence.



On Sunday, external affairs minister S Jaishankar while interacting with journalists in the US had referred to Canada, saying it is necessary to call out things like violence, threats and intimidation against Indian diplomats and missions and wondered if this had happened to any other country would the world have taken it with equanimity. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, center, walks past India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi(AP file)

...Our point is that there is today a climate of violence, an atmosphere of intimidation...Just think about it. We have had smoke bombs thrown at the mission. We have had our consulatesviolence in front of them. Individuals have been targeted and intimidated. There are posters put up about people,", he said.

When asked about Trudeau's allegations, the external affairs minister replied,The Canadians have made some allegations. We have pointed out to them that this is not the government of India's policy and if they are prepared to share with us specifics and anything relevant, we are also open to looking at it. So in that sense, that's where the matter stands".



But what we do not want to see is an incident treated in isolation because then that somewhere does not convey the right picture, Jaishankar added.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR HT News Desk Follow the latest breaking news and developments from India and around the world with Hindustan Times' newsdesk. From politics and policies to the economy and the environment, from local issues to national events and global affairs, we've got you covered. ...view detail
Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the job Tuesday in an extraordinary showdown  a first in U.S. history, forced by a contingent of hard-right conservatives and throwing the House and its Republican leadership into chaos. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.(AP)

Its nearing the end of the political line for McCarthy, who has said repeatedly that he never gives up, but now has almost no options remaining. Neither the right-flank Republicans who engineered his ouster nor the Democrats who piled on seem open to negotiating.

McCarthy told lawmakers Tuesday evening he would not run again for speaker, putting the gavel up for grabs. Next steps are highly uncertain as there is no obvious successor to lead the House Republican majority.

McCarthys chief rival, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, orchestrated the rare vote on the obscure motion to vacate, and pushed ahead swiftly into a dramatic afternoon roll call.

While McCarthy enjoyed support from most Republicans in his slim majority, eight Republican detractors  many of the same hard-right holdouts who tried to stop him from becoming speaker in January  essentially forced him out.

Stillness fell as the presiding officer gaveled the vote closed, 216-210, saying the office of the speaker is hereby declared vacant.

Moments later, a top McCarthy ally, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., took the gavel and, according to House rules, was named speaker pro tempore, to serve in the office until a new speaker is chosen.

The House then briskly recessed as lawmakers prepared to meet privately and discuss the path forward.

It was a stunning moment for McCarthy, a punishment fueled by growing grievances but sparked by his weekend decision to work with Democrats to keep the federal government open rather than risk a shutdown.

But in many ways, McCarthy's ouster was set in motion when, in deal-making with hard-right holdouts at the start of the year, he agreed to a series of demands  including a rules change that allowed any single lawmaker to file the motion to vacate.

As the House fell silent, Gaetz, a top ally of Donald Trump, rose to offer his motion.

Leaders tried to turn it back, but the vote was 218-208, with 11 Republicans against tabling the motion, a sign of trouble to come.

The House then opened a floor debate, unseen in modern times, and Republicans argued publicly among themselves for more than an hour.

It's a sad day, Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said as debate got underway, urging his colleagues not to plunge the House Republican majority "into chaos."

But Gaetz shot back during the debate, "Chaos is Speaker McCarthy."

As the fiery debate dragged on, many of the complaints against the speaker revolved around his truthfulness and his ability to keep the promises he has made.

Almost alone, Gaetz led his side of the floor debate, criticizing the debt deal McCarthy made with President Joe Biden and the vote to prevent a government shutdown, which conservatives opposed as they demanded steeper spending cuts.

But a long line of McCarthy supporters stood up for him, including Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus, who said, I think he has kept his word. Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., waved his cellphone, saying it was disgusting that hard-right colleagues were fundraising off the move in text messages seeking donations.

McCarthy, of California, insisted he would not cut a deal with Democrats to remain in power  not that he could have relied on their help even if he had asked.

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a letter to colleagues that he wants to work with Republicans, but he was unwilling to provide the votes needed to save McCarthy.

It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War, Jeffries said, announcing the Democratic leadership would vote for the motion to oust the speaker.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden hopes the House will quickly elect a Speaker. Once that happens, she said, "he looks forward to working together with them."

At the Capitol, both Republicans and Democrats met privately ahead of the historic afternoon vote.

Behind closed doors, McCarthy told fellow Republicans: Lets get on with it.

McCarthy invoked Republican Speaker Joseph Cannon, who more than 100 years ago confronted his critics head-on by calling their bluff and setting the vote himself on his ouster. Cannon survived that takedown attempt, which was the first time the House had actually voted to consider removing its speaker. A more recent threat, in 2015, didn't make it to a vote.

Gaetz was in attendance, but he did not address the room.

Across the way in the Capitol, Democrats lined up for a long discussion and unified around one common point: McCarthy cannot be trusted, several lawmakers in the room said.

I think its safe to say theres not a lot of good will in that room for Kevin McCarthy, said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.

At the end of the day, the country needs a speaker that can be relied upon, said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. "We dont trust him. Their members dont trust him. And you need a certain degree of trust to be the speaker.

Removing the speaker launches the House Republicans into chaos. Typically, top leaders would be next in line for the job, but Majority Leader Steve Scalise is battling cancer and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, like any potential candidate, may have trouble securing the vote.

It took McCarthy himself 15 rounds in January over multiple days of voting before he secured the support from his colleagues to gain the gavel, and it's uncertain now if he will try again  or call it quits.

Trump, the former president who is the Republican front-runner in the 2024 race to challenge Biden, complained about the chaos. Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves," he asked on social media.

Asked about McCarthy's ouster as he exited court in New York, where he is on trial for business fraud, Trump did not respond.

One key McCarthy ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who is also close with Trump, took to social media urging support for our speaker.

Republicans left the chamber in a daze, totally uncertain about next steps. I honestly dont know, said Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz. This is a total disaster.

Many had lined up to hug McCarthy, some to shake his hand.

Democrats, who have bristled at McCarthy's leadership  cajoling them one minute, walking away from deals the next  said they were just holding back, waiting for Republicans to figure out how to run the House.

Rep, Don Bacon, R-Neb., the leader of a centrist group, said the only option was to leave the eight hardliners behind and try to work across the aisle. Were going to stay with Kevin, he said. He told us earlier hell never quit.

But as House Republicans prepared for another private meeting late at the Capitol, it was not at all clear if McCarthy would be the one able or willing to try to lead them next.

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Pakistan ordered all illegal immigrants to leave the country or face expulsion after revealing that 14 of 24 suicide bombings in the country this year were carried out by Afghans. Pakistan interior minister Sarfraz Bugti said all illegal immigrants should leave Pakistan by November 1 or face forcible expulsion. She said some 1.73 million Afghan nationals in Pakistan had no legal documents to stay. A dark street in a commercial area in Lahore, Pakistan.(Bloomberg)

Sarfraz Bugti was speaking in Islamabad after civil and military leaders met the prime minister and army chief to discuss law and order.

Two suicide bombings targeted religious gatherings in Pakistan last week, killing at least 57 people.

There was no immediate response from Kabul to Bugti's comments. The Afghan Taliban have denied accusations that Afghan territory is used for militant activity and said Pakistan's security is a domestic issue.

Militant attacks have surged in Pakistan since 2022 when a ceasefire broke down between the government and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella body of hardline Sunni Islamist groups.

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Cumberland County commissioners passed a resolution Thursday requesting that a state agency retain its ownership of the historic Peace Church in Hampden Township.

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission announced plans three years ago to sell the building at 200 St. Johns Church Road, said Don Paul Shearer, president of the West Shore Historical Society.

After years of back-and-forth, we recently attended a meeting with the proposed purchaser of the church, Shearer told the county commissioners Thursday. He referred to the interested buyer as a church congregation that has no building of its own. Shearer did not identify the congregation by name.

The congregation wants to provide additional parking, which has always been a problem with the Peace Church site, Shearer said. This would create some storm water management issues for Hampden Township.

Their plan is to use the building as a church since they have no permanent location, he said. Their goal is to acquire it. A lot of questions were asked about their ability to extend long-term financial support for Peace Church. They didnt have a lot of answers.

Built in 1798, Peace Church played a pivotal role during the 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania by the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, Shearer said. In March 1972, the building was designated a national historic landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, he said.

Parking issues limit the use of Peace Church to anything other than an historic landmark, according to the resolution signed by the county commissioners.

Its not just some little church by the wayside, Shearer said.

History

One objective of the Rebel campaign was to seize Harrisburg. Confederate forces under Brig. Gen. Albert Jenkins captured Mechanicsburg and moved east to reconnoiter Union defenses on the West Shore protecting the approaches to the state capital.

Peace Church was used as a Confederate artillery position on June 28 and June 29, local historian James Schmick said in February 2020, when word first surfaced of the state commissions decision to sell Peace Church.

Schmick said Peace Church was also the launch point of a reconnaissance force that carried Jenkins and three army engineers to nearby Slate Hill, where they surveyed the lay of the land and the earthworks of Fort Couch and Fort Washington.

What they saw convinced the Rebel high command that Harrisburg could be taken, but Jenkins was ordered to Gettysburg before the Confederate army could launch an attack, Schmick said. An article published in a Hampden Township newsletter provides additional details: Jenkins pulled out of Peace Church on June 30 leaving two cavalry units behind. They ended up in a firefight with Union forces at Sporting Hill  the northernmost skirmish of the Civil War.

During the commissioners meeting Thursday, Shearer said Peace Church is in the same condition as it was during those two days in June 1863. By lobbying the historical commission to retain ownership, the hope is that the agency would help to keep the building intact as an historic landmark.

Protections and development

County Commissioner Vince DiFilippo asked whether Peace Church is protected from alterations and development due to its status as a property on the National Register. Fellow Commissioner Jean Foschi wanted to know whether federal money would be available to help the state agency maintain Peace Church.

Commissioner Chairman Gary Eichelberger said, aside from the building, the pipe organ inside Peace Church should receive separate protections as a national historic resource. In the back, there are inscriptions of people who have either played that organ or hand pumped it, Eichelberger said. Its a very impressive thing to see. My hope is they do something to protect the pipe organ if they cant protect the building. Its an asset in and of itself.

In February 2020, The Sentinel reported that the historic commission wanted to transfer ownership of the Peace Church to a local government or nonprofit organization. The goal was to keep the property in the public domain as a museum or historic site. If the state sells the church to someone else, the property could be conveyed with historic preservation covenants included in the deed, commission spokesman Howard Pollman said at the time.

In late January 2020, then-board president John V. Thomas briefed the Hampden Board of Commissioners about a meeting he had with Historical and Museum representatives. Thomas was the vice president of the Friends of Peace Church, the volunteer organization that manages the day-to-day operations at the building.

At the time, Thomas said the state agency decided to move Peace Church off its property rolls because it was determined the building has no statewide historical significance. Back then, the Historical and Museum representatives outlined three options for alternate ownership of the building.

One, the property could be leased to a government entity such as Hampden Township or Cumberland County. Two, the property could be transferred to a nonprofit group. Three, the church could be sold on the open market as part of a surplus and disposition process administered through the state Department of General Services.

Selling Peace Church to an outside buyer would require legislation introduced in the state government committee of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Pollman said.

Covenants could be put on the deed to require the buyer to maintain the building as a museum or historic site or to develop it into adaptive reuse such as office space or a restaurant, Pollman said. However, any restrictive covenants could decrease the value of Peace Church on the market, making it harder to sell.

Unlike an open sale, a transfer of ownership to a government entity or nonprofit would not require legislation and could be processed internally by the historical commission, Pollman said. The obstacle with either option is to find a party interested in taking ownership of Peace Church.

Peace Church consists of two buildings on 1.1 acres and a collection of less than 30 artifacts including the pipe organ, a lectern, a baptismal font and a cast iron stove. Though the commission has no personnel on site, a part-time staff helps with facility rentals of Peace Church that draws about 360 of its 800 annual visitors.

Over the last several years, PHMC has been continuing to pursue alternative ownership/stewardship arrangements for properties that may benefit from more local or regional management, a commission briefing document reads. Peace Church is among the properties identified as a candidate for a new ownership arrangement.
Matt Gaetz, a Republican congressman from Florida and a vocal critic of Kevin McCarthy, has filed a motion to remove the Speaker of the House of Representatives. U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) speaks with reporters after filing a motion to vacate an attempt to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as he departs the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. October 2, 2023. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst(REUTERS)

The move comes after McCarthy struck a deal with Democrats to prevent a government shutdown.

Gaetz announced his resolution to declare the Speakers office vacant late on Monday, triggering a vote within two days, or by Wednesday evening, to decide McCarthys fate. It is only the third time in US history that such a motion has been filed against a Speaker.

The relationship between the two men has been tense for months, and Gaetz has accused McCarthy of being too soft on Democrats. McCarthy, a congressman from California, was elected Speaker in January after a record 15 rounds of voting, with Gaetz abstaining from the final ballot.

WASHINGTON, DC - DC. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said he would file a motion to vacate and attempt to oust McCarthy from the speakership following an agreement over the weekend to avert a partial shutdown of the federal government. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)(Getty Images via AFP)

But Gaetz ramped up his pressure on McCarthy over the weekend, after McCarthy reached a bipartisan agreement to keep the government funded at current levels until mid-November. The deal was accepted by House Democrats, even though it did not include extra aid for Ukraine.

The compromise angered many Republicans, who voted against it. On Friday, 21 Republican rebels, including Gaetz, rejected a previous proposal from McCarthy that included steep budget cuts, a key demand of Democrats.

On Saturday, 90 Republicans, including Gaetz, opposed the final deal that McCarthy negotiated with Democrats.

Gaetz said McCarthy deserved to be punished for working with Democrats. But he may not have enough support from his own party to oust McCarthy. Some of the rebels who voted against the funding deal, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, a hardline Republican congresswoman from Georgia, have said they do not want to remove McCarthy.

McCarthy and his allies have said they are confident he will survive the challenge. Shortly after Gaetzs motion, McCarthy tweeted: Bring it on.

But McCarthy faces a tight vote, as Republicans have only a slim majority in the House. He will need some Democrats to vote for him if he wants to keep his post.

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The Democratic leadership has not said how it will instruct its members to vote. But some Democrats have said they will not help McCarthy.

Pramila Jayapal, a Democratic congresswoman from Washington state and the influential head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has said her group would not save McCarthy.

But other Democrats have said they will vote against Gaetzs motion. Steve Cohen, a Democratic congressman from Tennessee, told Axios that McCarthy did the right thingand Ill definitely vote not to vacate. I expect a good number of Democrats will as well.
Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said that the notion that users have choice in the search market is bogus, as he took the stand Monday in the Google antitrust trial. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks, Feb. 7, 2023, in Redmond, Wash.(AP)

You get up in the morning, you brush your teeth and you search on Google, Nadella said.

The Department of Justice has accused Alphabet Inc.s search division of unlawfully maintaining a monopoly by paying $10 billion a year to rivals, smartphone manufacturers and wireless carriers to make its search engine the default option on mobile devices and web browsers. Google has denied the allegations.

To help prove its case, the DOJ hopes to use testimony from Nadella and other executives from Microsoft to show how even a company of its size and resources couldnt unlock Googles hold on the search market.

Last week, Microsoft business development executive Jonathan Tinter testified that the Redmond, Washington-based software giant failed to secure a deal to put its Bing search app on Apples products, even though it was willing to offer far better terms than Google and lose multiple billions of dollars on the agreement. In the end, Apple signed a fresh deal with Google.

Tinter also told the court that Microsofts Surface Duo smartphone was required to use Google search in order to license the Android mobile operating system and was limited from using Bing on its own devices. Nadella was personally involved in discussing some of these issues with his Google counterpart, Sundar Pichai, and will probably be asked about those conversations.

Nadella was instrumental in the development of Bing, created by Microsoft in an ultimately doomed attempt to catch up with Google and capture a chunk of the online advertising market.

I see search or internet search as the largest software category out there. We are a very very low share player, he testified. But we continue to persist in it because we think of it as a software category we can contribute to. Nadella added: Its a hard game to make any breakthroughs, but no one can accuse us of not being persistent.

While Bing has gained share on desktop computers, where it was integrated with Microsofts Internet Explorer and later Edge browser, it has lagged on mobile devices where people overwhelming use Google. Three or so years ago, Microsoft even discussed selling Bing to Apple, a transaction that would have replaced Google as the default option on the iPhone makers devices, Bloomberg reported. But a deal never came to fruition.
Three days after a 9-year-old girl who vanished during a family camping trip in upstate New York has been found on Monday. Police say the girl is safe and in good health after they captured a suspect who had allegedly abducted her. Missing schoolgirl Charlotte Sena has been found and her alleged abductor arrested(X(Formerly Twitter)/@901Lulu)

Gov. Kathy Hochul informed the local media that investigators were able to identify the suspect after searching several residences on the basis of fingerprints from a ransom note. Charlotte was found at about 6:30 p.m. on Monday according to state police.

We are overjoyed at the news that Charlotte Sena has been located safely this evening after an intense days-long search, Hochul said in a prepared statement. Our hearts are with her family as they welcome her home.

Without revealing details about the suspect authorities have stated that it's an active investigation. A news conference will be held on Tuesday to provide further details.

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How did Charlotte Sena disappear

Charlotte Sena disappeared while riding her bike early Saturday evening at Moreau Lake State Park, a heavily wooded park some 35 miles (60 kilometers) north of Albany. She went on a bike ride around the camp along with her friends and mysteriously disappeared after she lost touch with them. Almost 15 minutes after she didn't return from the bike ride, her parents called the police. The girls mother called 911 after her bicycle was found at around 6:45 p.m. Saturday.

Also Read:

Charlotte Sena rescue operation

With 400 people participating the rescue marked the end of an intense search. The team included forest rangers, police officers and firefighters. There were reports that even FBI joined in the investigations. The search had expanded over 46 linear miles (74 linear kilometers).

Officials issued an Amber Alert on Sunday morning after an exhaustive search because it was quite possible that an abduction had taken place, state police Lt. Colonel Richard Mazzone said. The alert described her as a white girl with blonde hair and green eyes who is about 4 feet 6 inches tall (1.37 meters).

The girls family pleaded with the public for help in finding Charlotte,We just want her returned safely like any parent would, the family said in a statement earlier Monday. No tip is too small, please call if you know anything at all.

The park remained closed because of the search, and officials asked members of the public who showed up hoping to help to stay away and leave the search to professionals. Federal authorities also issued a temporary flight restriction over the park for the safety of law enforcement air operations.

(With Agency inputs)

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A college student from New York City has been sentenced to one-year imprisonment by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for allegedly assaulting and insulting a female airport security guard during a flight layover at Dubai airport. 21-year-old NYC Student Elizabeth Polanco De Los Santos faces UAE prison sentence amid airport incident controversy (licdapolancodelorbe/Instagram)(licapolancodelorbe/Instagram)

Elizabeth Polanco De Los Santos, a 21-year-old student of Lehman College in the Bronx, was sentenced on Monday after spending almost three months stuck in Dubai due to a travel ban imposed on her. Elizabeth was supposed to take a transit flight from Dubai airport after a 10-hour layover on her way from Istanbul to New York. But allegedly her time at the airport turned into a nightmare when she allegedly faced degrading and invasive searches by airport staff.

Radha Stirling, Human Rights activist who is helping Elizabeth expressed concern over her situation, talking to Insider she said, Elizabeth only intended to transit through Dubai for six hours, but shes been there for months on end and has lost $50,000 in expenses and lawyer costs.

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Elizabeth's misery began on July 14, when she and a friend were returning home to New York from a vacation in Istanbul. Originally, their travel plans included a period of rest in Paris, but they decided to change their flight to connect through Dubai to have the opportunity to explore the renowned city during a ten-hour layover.

Trouble started at the airport security checkpoint when Dubai airport personnel requested that Elizabeth remove a waist compressor that she was required to wear post-surgery. She was taken to a private area, where female staff members removed the compressor.

However, Elizabeth's mother claimed that they handled it roughly and caused pain to her daughter's still-healing surgical scars. Furthermore she adds, they mocked her, and when she requested assistance to put the complicated garment back on, they declined.

Elizabeth said, I was feeling uncomfortable and afraid. I felt really violated." The compressor had "many pins, and you need to stretch the edges and clip small skinny pins together close to the body." She continued to ask for help, and when staff continued to ignore her, Elizabeth the claims she gently nudged one staff member's arm to guide her out of the way and called out to her friend for assistance.

ALSO READ: Three dead, 16 hurt after two buses collide in NYCs Queens

Following this incident, Elizabeth was detained in a room for several hours as the security guard she touched filed a complaint against her. She was not allowed to leave until she signed a document written in Arabic.

Upon her return to the airport later to catch her flight to New York, she was informed of the travel ban against her and was compelled to remain in the country until the charges against her were addressed in court.

After weeks of staying in hotels, a judge allowed her to pay 10,000 AED (approximately $2,700 USD) and depart the country. Nevertheless, Dubai prosecutors appealed this ruling, and now she has been ultimately sentenced to one year in prison.

The U.S. State Department mentioned in a statement to Newsweek on Sunday that they are "aware of the detention of a U.S. citizen in Dubai." Advocacy groups, legal representatives, and concerned citizens are rallying support for her cause, urging the US State Department to revise travel warnings regarding the risk of false allegations and extortion scams in Dubai.
Amid tensions related to Pakistan general elections, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) claimed that it is the "only" political party in the country that wanted timely elections, Dawn reported. Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari(AFP)

Addressing a press conference in Karachi, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said, "PPP is the countrys only party that wants elections to take place."

He further said how "so-called" political leaders were giving excuses to delay polls.

"You must have seen that sometimes a so-called leader comes on screen and says, delimitation has to happen and until then (elections can be delayed). Okay lets accept delimitation (needs to be done) but that process has been completed, so now there should be no issue in giving the date (for polls), Bilawal said.

Also Read: Ahead of Pakistan polls, Election Commission publishes lists of preliminary delimitation of constituencies

He also criticised Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman's concerns over not holding elections in February due to intense winter.

If not delimitation, then sometimes someone begins talking about the weather that it is very cold in February and January so how will we contest elections, while others talk about the law and order situation, Bilawal added.

Earlier on Sunday, the JUI-F chief said that it was not possible to hold general elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan in January, reported Dawn.

In January, weather would be harsh in Chitral, Khuzdar, and other parts of KP and Balochistan, he said.

Moreover, earlier this month, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced that general elections would be conducted in January 2024, however, they did not provide a date.

However, the ECP issued a report last week on the preliminary delimitation of constituencies in the wake of the 2023 digital census, according to Dawn.

Bilawal further emphasized that the public should realize who was running away from being held accountable in polls and who was ready to present themselves to answer the voters.

The PPP will continue its politics and would not rest before securing the notification for an election date, he asserted.

Reaffirming that the PPP has begun the preparations for upcoming polls, Bilawal said that the PPP was ready to present its ideology and manifesto before the public as a part of its preparations, reported Dawn.

Earlier, noting Bilawal's remarks, PPP's Yousuf Raza Gilani said, "I have read Fazlur Rehmans statement  apart from him, no one has raised any objections to elections in January."

Moreover, the former Prime Minister also said that any party who has reservations about delimitations should raise their concerns with the ECP, according to Dawn.
Philadelphia journalist Josh Kruger was shot dead on Monday morning in his Point Breeze home and was found collapsed in the street after seeking help. 39-year-old journalist, was shot seven times in the chest and abdomen at around 1:29 am. Police state, he was standing near the bottom of the stairs inside his home on Watkins Street when the attacker entered his residence. He immediately fled after firing the shots. Josh Kruger, lef, journalist and advocate, shot and killed at his home early Monday, Oct. 2, 2023 police said. (Jessica Griffin/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)(AP)

Seriously wounded, Kruger exited the house seeking neighbors' help and collapsed in the street, police said. He was taken to Penn Presbyterian Hospital, where he died. Kruger was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later. Police believe the door to his Point Breeze home was unlocked or the shooter knew how to get in. No arrests have been made and no weapons have been recovered, police said.

Who was Josh Kruger?

Kruger who was a strong voice for LGBTQ rights, homelessness, HIV and addiction wrote for publications like The Philadelphia Citizen and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He even handled social media for the mayor and communications for the Office of Homeless Services from about 2016 to 2021. He left city government to focus on writing projects for news outlets and progressive causes.

In his LinkedIN profile he describes himself as a "destroyer of stigma and bureaucratic silos" and a "believer in the common good. He also used social media as a platform to share his own experience surviving addiction and continuing to work with the people dealing with addiction in Philadelphia.

Earlier in 2014 and 2015, Kruger won the Society of Professional Journalists award for newspaper commentary in Pennsylvania, according to CNN.

Philadelphia Mayor & US Senator mourn Kruger's death

Expressing grief, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney in a statement said, "We are shocked and saddened by Joshs death."

Josh cared deeply about our city and its residents, which was evident both in his public service and in his writing, the Mayor added.

His intelligence, creativity, passion, and wit shone brightly in everything that he did  and his light was dimmed much too soon. We were exceedingly fortunate to call him a colleague and our prayers are with everyone who knew and loved him," the Mayor said.

Senator John Fetterman shared a post on social media 'X', calling Krugers death a devastating loss.

District Attorney Larry Krasner also praised Kruger's contributions to the city, As an openly queer writer who wrote about his own journey surviving substance use disorder and homelessness, ... Josh Kruger lifted up the most vulnerable and stigmatized people in our communities  particularly unhoused people living with addiction, Krasner said. Josh deserved to write the ending of his personal story.

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Pope Francis has suggested there could be ways to bless same-sex unions, responding to five conservative cardinals who challenged him to affirm church teaching on homosexuality ahead of a big meeting where LGBTQ Catholics are on the agenda. Pope Francis attends the ecumenical prayer vigil in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican on September 30.(REUTERS)

The Vatican on Monday published a letter Francis wrote to the cardinals on July 11 after receiving a list of five questions, or dubia, from them a day earlier. In it, Francis suggests that such blessings could be studied if they didn't confuse the blessing with sacramental marriage.

New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ Catholics, said the letter significantly advances" efforts to make LGBTQ Catholics welcomed in the church and one big straw towards breaking the camel's back in their marginalisation.

The Vatican holds that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and woman. As a result, it has long opposed gay marriage. But even Francis has voiced support for civil laws extending legal benefits to same-sex spouses, and Catholic priests in parts of Europe have been blessing same-sex unions without Vatican censure.

Francis' response to the cardinals, however, marks a reversal from the Vatican's current official position. In an explanatory note in 2021, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said flat-out that the church couldn't bless gay unions because God cannot bless sin.

In his new letter, Francis reiterated that matrimony is a union between a man and a woman. But responding to the cardinals' question about homosexual unions and blessings, he said pastoral charity requires patience and understanding and that regardless, priests cannot become judges who only deny, reject and exclude.

For this reason, pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of benediction, requested by one or more persons, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage, he wrote.

Because when a benediction is requested, it is expressing a request for help from God, a plea to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us to live better.

He noted that there are situations that are objectively not morally acceptable. But he said the same pastoral charity requires that people be treated as sinners who might not be fully at fault for their situations.

Francis added that there is no need for dioceses or bishops conferences to turn such pastoral charity into fixed norms or protocols, saying the issue could be dealt with on a case-by-case basis because the life of the church runs on channels beyond norms.

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, welcomed the pope's openness.

"The allowance for pastoral ministers to bless same-gender couples imply that the church does indeed recognise that holy love can exist between same-gender couples, and the love of these couples mirrors the love of God," he said in a statement.

Those recognitions, while not completely what LGBTQ Catholics would want, are an enormous advance towards fuller and more comprehensive equality.

The five cardinals, all of them conservative prelates from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, had challenged Francis to affirm church teaching on gays, women's ordination, the authority of the pope, and other issues in their letter.

They published the material two days before the start of a major three-week synod, or meeting, at the Vatican at which LGBTQ Catholics and their place in the church are on the agenda.

The signatories were some of Francis' most vocal critics, all of them retired and of the more doctrinaire generation of cardinals appointed by St. John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI.

They were Cardinals Walter Brandmueller of Germany, a former Vatican historian; Raymond Burke of the United States, whom Francis axed as head of the Vatican supreme court; Juan Sandoval of Mexico, the retired archbishop of Guadalajara; Robert Sarah of Guinea, the retired head of the Vatican's liturgy office; and Joseph Zen, the retired archbishop of Hong Kong.

Brandmueller and Burke were among four signatories of a previous round of dubia to Francis in 2016 following his controversial opening to letting divorced and civilly remarried couples receive Communion.

Then, the cardinals were concerned that Francis' position violated church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. Francis never responded to their questions, and two of their co-signatories subsequently died.

Francis did respond this time around. The cardinals didn't publish his reply, but they apparently found it so unsatisfactory that they reformulated their five questions, submitted them to him again, and asked him to simply respond with a yes or no.

When he didn't, the cardinals decided to make the texts public and issue a notification warning to the faithful.

The Vatican's doctrine office published his reply to them a few hours later, though it did so without his introduction in which he urged the cardinals to not be afraid of the synod.
US President Joe Biden spoke with the leaders of allied countries, the European Union and the NATO military alliance on Tuesday about continuing coordinated support for Ukraine, the White House said. Russia-Ukraine War: US President Joe Biden(Reuters)

The call included the leaders of Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Romania, Britain and France, as well as the heads of NATO, the European Commission and the European Council, the White House said in a statement.

The White House said it would release a readout of the call.

Biden convened the call amid concerns that support for Kyiv's war effort against Russia was fading, especially in the United States where Congress excluded aid to Ukraine from an emergency bill to prevent a partial government shutdown.

Its omission from the U.S. spending bill sent pro-Kyiv officials in Washington scrambling to find the best way to secure approval for further assistance on top of the $113 billion in security, economic and humanitarian aid the U.S. has provided since Russia invaded in February 2022.
Russia is punishing drunk and unruly soldiers by sending them to the frontlines in Ukraine in Storm-Z human shield squads, a report claimed. The units fight in the most dangerous areas and are sent over the trenches on suicide missions, news agency Reuters reported. The squads are made up of former convicts seeking a pardon. Soldiers said that members of their units had been ordered to join for being drunk on duty, using drugs and disobeying orders. Russia-Ukraine War: Fighters from a Storm-Z squad explaining they will no longer fight in Ukraine, in protest at treatment by their commanders. (Reuters)

If the commandants catch anyone with the smell of alcohol on their breath, then they immediately send them to the Storm squads, one soldier told Reuters. According to Russian military legislation, a soldier can only be transferred to a penal unit if convicted by a military court but a Storm-Z fighter said that he had no knowledge of court hearings taking place.

One soldier deployed near the eastern city of Bakhmut said that Storm fighters were seen as meat" and that he had disobeyed an order from his commander to abandon a group of six or seven wounded Storm-Z fighters on the battlefield without giving them medical treatment.

The squads have about 100 to 150 men and are embedded within regular army units. At least five such groups have been tasked in the south and east of Ukraine, the report claimed. The Conflict Intelligence Team, a Russian investigative outlet, said that the squads were useful as they could be deployed as expendable infantry.

One soldier said that 15 of his units 120 men were killed or wounded in fighting near Bakhmut in June. A group of 20 fighters in Zaporizhzhia refused to return to the battlefield in June, claiming that they were badly supplied and neglected.

On the front line, where weve been, we did not get deliveries of ammunition, a member of the squad said in a video published online, adding, We did not get water or food. The injured were not taken away: still now the dead are rotting.

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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
Kyiv's attempts to penetrate Russian defences on frontlines in the east and south of the country have "failed", Moscow said on Tuesday, four months into a closely-watched Ukrainian counteroffensive. Russia-Ukraine War: Servicemen of Ukraine's 3rd Separate Assault Brigade prepare to conduct a reconnaissance mission, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near Bakhmut.(Reuters)

Kyiv launched the long-awaited counteroffensive in June but has acknowledged slow progress as its forces crash into sophisticated and kilometres-deep Russian defensive positions.

"The enemy's attempts to break through our defences in the areas of Verbovoye and Rabotino on the Zaporizhzhia front have failed," Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told senior Russian military officials.

He was using Russian place names to refer to two villages along the frontline in the south where Ukrainian forces claim to have broken through the toughest points of Russian defences and recaptured several villages.

Shoigu also said the Russian army had "repelled all attacks in the Soledar-Bakhmout direction" on the eastern front in the war-battered Donetsk region.

The Kremlin claimed to have annexed both the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions last year -- alongside two other territories in Ukraine -- despite ongoing fighting.

"Our troops have significantly weakened the enemy's combat potential and inflicted serious damage," Shoigu said, praising Russian soldiers for fighting "boldly and decisively" and demonstrating "true heroism".

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and they swept quickly through large swathes of the south and east of the country but were beaten back from the north.

Shoigu also reiterated that Moscow did not plan to conduct a new military mobilisation after Russia's shock plan to call up men sparked a major exodus from the country last year.

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A Plainfield man will spend two to four years in prison after he was convicted of 111 counts of child pornography, according to the Cumberland County District Attorney's Office.

Common Pleas Judge Jessica Brewbaker sentenced Frank Svitak, 66, Tuesday after the January discovery of child pornography at his residence.

The DA's office said the investigation began after authorities received a cybertip that child pornography was being downloaded.

The Cumberland County Criminal Investigation Division, Pennsylvania State Police Computer Crimes and Homeland Security executed a search warrant at Svitak's residence on Jan. 11.

Computer forensics found approximately 111 videos and images of child pornography on devices, the DA's office said.

Svitak, who is a retired fire chief from the Goshen Fire Department in New Jersey, will also be required to register with Megan's Law.

The case was investigated by Cumberland County Criminal Investigation Division Detective Gordon Goodrow and prosecuted by Chief Deputy District Attorney Julia Skinner.
Four people were wounded in a shooting at a major Bangkok shopping mall on Tuesday, the Thai prime minister said. The shooter has been arrested he informed. Thailand police reached the mall in central Bangkok after receiving reports of shots being fired inside. Thailand Shooting: Police were taking control of the situation, they said.

Videos shared widely on social media showed people, including children, running out of the doors of the Siam Paragon mall as security guards ushered them out. Hindustan Times could not independently verify the veracity of the videos.

Local broadcaster Channel 3 reported sounds similar to gunfire were heard inside, coming from a bathroom in the mall. Thailand prime minister Srettha Thavisin said that he was waiting details of the incident.

The shooting comes just days before the one-year anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in recent Thai history, when an ex-police officer armed with a knife and gun attacked a nursery murdering 24 children and 12 adults.

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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
During a training session at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska, a military vehicle overturned killing two and injuring 12 soldiers. Reports state that there were 17 soldiers on board during the incident, which has been classified as a "single military vehicle accident." Tragedy Strikes Fort Wainwright: Fatal Military Vehicle Accident Shakes Alaska's Training Ground.(AP)

The unfortunate incident took place in the Yukon Training area near Salcha, approximately 30 miles southeast of Fairbanks.

Upon receiving an update on the situation, various response units, including the Alaska State Troopers, the North Pole Fire Department, and Eielson Air Force Base, arrived at the scene immediately.

Some of the injured individuals received medical attention on-site instantly, while others were transported to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital via both ground and air ambulances.

ALSO READ: US soldier Travis King arrives in Texas after release from North Korea: Report

One of the soldiers passed away on his way to the hospital, while the other soldier passed away at the spot. The identities of the victims remain confidential at the moment, and the extent of their injuries and their current conditions remain uncertain as well.

"We're all grieving and kind of doing what we can to support the families." John Pennell, an US Army spokesperson stated.

Unfortunately, this is not the first tragic incident involving the US Army in Alaska this year. In April, two helicopters collided while making their way through to Fort Wainwright following a training mission, resulting in the loss of three soldiers' lives.

ALSO READ: North Korea to expel US soldier Travis King who crossed into country in July

The U.S. Army announced on Saturday that Chief Warrant Officer 3 Christopher Robert Eramo and hailing from Oneonta, New York; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kyle D. McKenna and from Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Warrant Officer 1 Stewart Duane Wayment and from North Logan, Utah, lost their lives in the tragic accident.
A proposed visa fee hike announced by the British government will become effective this week. With this, a visit visa for under six months will cost GBP 15 more and student visas will be GBP 127 more expensive for travellers from around the world. The UK Home Office said that the changes mean that the cost for a visit visa for less than six months will rise to GBP 115 and the fee for applying for a student visa from outside the UK will rise to GBP 490. A woman with an umbrella and the Elizabeth Tower also known as Big Ben are reflected in a puddle in London.(AP)

"It is right and fair to increase visa application fees so we can fund vital public services and allow wider funding to contribute to public sector pay," a UK Home Office spokesperson said.

Income from fees charged plays a vital role in the Home Offices ability to run a sustainable immigration and nationality system. Careful consideration is given when setting fees to help reduce the funding contribution from British taxpayers, whilst continuing to provide a service that remains attractive to those wishing to work in the UK and support broader prosperity for all, the Home Office said.

This comes after UK prime minister Rishi Sunak said that the fees and health surcharge paid towards the UKs state-funded National Health Service (NHS) by visa applicants are set to rise significantly to meet the countrys public sector wage increase.

We are going to increase the charges that we have for migrants who are coming to this country when they apply for visas and indeed something called the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), which is the levy that they pay to access the NHS, he said, adding, All of those fees are going to go up and that will raise over GBP 1 billion, so across the board visa application fees are going to go up significantly and similarly for the IHS."

UKs Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) said, Increasing visa fees for people making their home in the UK is unfair, divisive and dangerous, especially during a cost-of-living crisis that is making life tougher for all of us. High visa costs are already leaving families without cash for essentials, living month to month just to save for a visa."

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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
Speaker Kevin McCarthys ability to remain in leadership is now seriously at risk after the House voted Tuesday to move ahead with an effort by hard-right Republican critics to oust him. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (Getty Images via AFP)

The narrow vote forced by McCarthys chief rival, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, brought together a handful of conservative Republican critics of the speaker and many Democrats who say he is not worthy of leadership.

By refusing to table the motion, or set it aside, the House now opens an extraordinary floor debate ahead of the next round of voting. A final outcome could be delayed.

McCarthy insists he will not cut a deal with Democrats to remain in power.

The House quickly opened debate on whether to oust McCarthy as speaker after the Tuesday vote, his job at risk from a conservative rebellion.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy is confronting his hard-right critics head-on Tuesday as he faces a historic challenge to oust him from leadership, insisting he will not cut a deal with Democrats to remain in power and setting the stage for an extraordinary and unpredictable showdown on the House floor.

The Republican McCarthy's fate is deeply uncertain as he faces what's known as a motion to vacate from Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a strident critic allied with Donald Trump. It would take the support of only a handful of Republicans from his slim majority to remove McCarthy as speaker if Democrats vote in favor alongside the conservative rebels.

Behind closed doors early Tuesday, McCarthy told fellow Republicans: Lets get on with it.

If I counted how many times someone wanted to knock me out, I would have been gone a long time ago, McCarthy said at the Capitol after a private morning meeting.

Its a stunning moment for the embattled McCarthy that serves as the most severe challenge yet, a potential punishment sparked by his weekend decision to work with Democrats to keep the federal government open rather than risk a shutdown. So far, several hard-right Republicans said they are ready to oppose McCarthy, many of them who fought in January during his prolonged battle to gain the gavel.

At the Capitol, both Republicans and Democrats met privately behind closed doors ahead of what would be a historic afternoon vote.

McCarthy insisted he had not reached across the aisle to the Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries for help with votes to stay in the job, nor had they demanded anything in return. Democrats "haven't asked for anything, McCarthy said on CNBC before the meeting. Im not going to provide anything.

During the hour-long meeting in the Capitol basement, McCarthy invoked the last Republican speaker, Joseph Cannon, who more than 100 years ago confronted his critics head on by calling their bluff and setting the vote himself on his ouster. Cannon survived that take-down attempt which, until now, was the first time the House had actually voted to consider removing its speaker.

McCarthy received three standing ovations during the private meeting  one when he came to the microphone to speak, again during his remarks and lastly when he was done, according a Republican at the meeting and granted anonymity to discuss it.

At one point, there was a show of hands in support of McCarthy and it was overwhelming, said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a member of the House Freedom Caucus.

Gaetz was in attendance, but did not address the room.

On the other side of the Capitol, Democrats lined up for a long discussion and unified around one common point: McCarthy cannot be trusted, several lawmakers in the room said. I think its safe to say theres not a lot of good will in that room for Kevin McCarthy, said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass. Still, the Democrats are holding their strategy close, leaving to Jeffries and his team to decide the move ahead as floor voting is set to begin.

Jeffries said afterward that Democrats are willing to work with Republicans but he urged those on the other side of the aisle to  End the chaos, end the dysfunction, end the extremism.

But privately, Jeffries told the caucus that Democrats should vote to oust McCarthy as he has proven to be untrustworthy, according to a Democratic aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting. Jeffries also told the Democrats to vote against any procedure motion to delay the effort to oust McCarthy on Tuesday, the aide said.

At the end of the day, the country needs a speaker that can be relied upon, said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Ca. "We dont trust him. Their members dont trust him. And you need a certain degree of trust to be the speaker.

Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., said McCarthy got himself in this mess. Its up to McCarthy to get himself out.

We are always the adults in the room, said Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger. McCarthy said he doesnt need our help, she said. He has made his bed.

The vote ahead will likely involve a motion to table the Gaetz proposal, which means that lawmakers would be voting to set it aside for now.

McCarthy appeared confident he would win this round, but acknowledged it may not be the last word. Gaetz has indicated he is not done fighting the speaker, and could try again as many times as he likes.

One key McCarthy ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has taken to social media urging support for our speaker and an end to the chaos that has roiled the Republican majority.

The snap vote this week comes as Republicans are trying to make progress on a key demand from Gaetz and others, which is to move ahead with the 12 annual spending bills and prevent another stopgap measure like the one Congress approved last weekend hours before the government shutdown deadline.

Republicans are upset that McCarthy relied on Democratic votes Saturday to approve the temporary measure to keep the government running until Nov. 17. Some would have preferred a government shutdown as they fight for deeper spending cuts.

But Democrats are also upset at McCarthy for walking away from the debt deal that he made with President Joe Biden earlier this year that already set federal spending levels as he emboldens his right-flank to push for steep spending reductions.

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A man is scheduled to die by lethal injection over 25 years after he killed women he met in north Florida bars during a dayslong spate of crimes. Michael Zack III is set to die at 6 pm Tuesday for the murder of Ravonne Smith, a bar employee he befriended and later beat and stabbed with an oyster knife in June 1996. He was also convicted and separately sentenced to life in prison for murdering Laura Rosillo, whom he met at a bar in a nearby county. A photo provided by the Florida Department of Corrections shows Michael Duane Zack III.(AP)

Zack's nine-day crime run began in Tallahassee, where he was a regular at a bar. When Zack's girlfriend called and said he was being evicted, the bartender offered to loan him her pickup truck. Zack left with it and never returned, according to court records.

Zack drove to a Niceville bar in the Florida Panhandle, where he befriended a construction company owner. The man learned Zack was living in the pickup truck and offered to let him stay at his home. Zack later stole two guns and $42. He pawned the guns, according to court records.

At yet another bar, he met Rosillo and invited her to the beach to do drugs. He then beat her, dragged her partially clothed into the dunes, strangled her and kicked sand over her face, according to court records. The next day he went to a Pensacola bar, where he met Smith. The two went to the beach to smoke marijuana and later she took him to the home she shared with her boyfriend.

At the home, Zack smashed her over the head with a bottle, slammed her head into the floor, raped her and stabbed her four times in the center of the chest with the oyster knife. He then stole her television, VCR and purse and tried to pawn the electronics. The pawn shop suspected the items were stolen and Zack fled and hid in an empty house for two days before being arrested, according to court records.

Zack, now 54, admitted killing Smith. He became enraged and beat her when she made a comment about his mother's murder, which his sister committed, Zack said. He said he thought Smith was going to another room to get a gun when he stabbed her in self-defense.

Zack's lawyers sought to stop the execution, arguing he is a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome and posttraumatic stress disorder. The US Supreme Court denied Zack's appeal for a stay of execution Monday afternoon without comment.

Zack's execution would be the eighth under Gov. Ron DeSantis dating back to 2019 and the sixth this year after no executions in 2020 through 2022. DeSantis has made tougher, more far-reaching death penalty laws an issue in his presidential campaign.

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US presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy is reportedly looking for a nanny to take care of his kids. The Indian-origin Republican is married to Apoorva T Ramaswamy. The couple have two sons. As per the job listing on a recruitment staffing website, Vivek Ramaswamy is offering a salary of $100,000 or more (80 lakh). Vivek Ramaswamy is seen.(Reuters)

"Curiosity, adventure, and constant motion define the family's lifestyle. This is an exceptional opportunity to join a high-profile family, contributing to the growth and development of their children while participating in unique family adventures, the job advertisement on EstateJobs.com read.

The job will require a candidate to work 84 to 96 hours a week, followed by a week off. The right candidate will need to coordinate with "a dedicated team including a Chef, Nannies, a Housekeeper, and Private Security" to provide a seamless daily routine for the children and will also be responsible to "curate" the boys' play areas, toys, and clothing to foster a stimulating and organised environment, as per the advertisement.

The client's name is not listed in the advertisement but reports claimed that multiple details point strongly to Vivek Ramaswamy's family. Earlier, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for his campaign, said that the family is not okay with the idea of live-in nannies.

Read more: Justin Trudeau says Canada not looking to escalate situation with India

Vivek Ramaswamy is a frontrunner along with former US president Donald Trump to face Joe Biden in 2024 polls. Last month, the Indian-American entrepreneur reiterated a 2015 proposal by Donald Trump of ending the birthright citizenship in the US.

Children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States should not be granted citizenship because their parents broke of law to be in the country, he said.

As the father of two sons, it is hard for me to look them in the eye and say, You have to follow the law, when our own government fails to follow its own laws," he added/

Terming the H-1B Visa as indentured servitude, he called it to replace the "lottery system" for an actual meritocratic admission, adding, The lottery system needs to be replaced by actual meritocratic admission. Its a form of indentured servitude that only accrues to the benefit of the company that sponsored an H-1B immigrant. Ill gut it."

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Mohamed Muizzu, the president-elect of the Maldives, has said he will stick to his campaign promise to remove Indian military personnel stationed in the archipelago state, promising he would initiate the process, AP reported.



The people have told us that they don't want foreign military here, he said. Maldives' President-elect of the Maldives' Mohamed Muizzu of the People's National Congress (PNC) party delivers a speech during a gathering with supporters following the country's presidential election, in Male on October 2, 2023. (AFP)

He said that foreign soldiers would not be permitted to stay in the Maldives against the people's wishes and vowed to initiate these efforts immediately upon taking office, the news website SunOnline International reported.

ALSO READ: Pro-China leader Mohamed Muizzu wins Maldives presidential polls

Muizzu, seen as pro-Chinese, won the presidential election in the archipelago state, defeating incumbent President Ibrahim Solih in a second-round runoff. The election was also seen as a determining factor in deciding which country would exert greater influence over the strategically vital archipelago state in the Indian Ocean. Muiz's campaign focused mainly on what he alleged was a threat to the Maldives' sovereignty posed by the Indian military stationed on an island.

Outgoing President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, elected in 2018, faced allegations from Muizzu that he had allowed unchecked Indian presence in the Maldives.

Solih, however, insisted that the Indian military's presence in the Maldives was solely for the purpose of constructing a dockyard under an agreement between the two governments.

Both India and China congratulated Muizzu on his victory.

China's foreign ministry said the country "respects the choice of the Maldivian people and congratulates President-elect Mohamed Muizzu".

"China is willing to work with the Maldives to consolidate the traditional friendship, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation and push for continuous new progress," the ministry said in a statement to AFP.

ALSO READ- China congratulates Mohamed Muizzu: Pro-Beijing winner of Maldives election

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated Muizzu.

India remains committed to strengthening the time-tested India-Maldives bilateral relationship and enhancing our overall cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region, he wrote on X.

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The U.S. stopgap bill temporarily halted the alarming government shutdown. However, it comes at a price since the legislation excludes military aid for Ukraine.

Although this is the case, many congressional supporters of Ukraine claim they will not give up on the military assistance needed by the European country.

But, can U.S. President Joe Biden change this worsening situation? Here are the major details.

US Stopgap Bill Excludes Ukraine Aid

The feared federal government shutdown was halted after U.S. President Joe Biden signed the temporary funding bill on Saturday, Sept. 30.

Thanks to this, federal agencies can still continue their operation, allowing governmental employees to receive salaries without any issue.

But, the new stopgap bill excluded the needed financial assistance for Ukraine, as reported by Time Magazine. Analysts said that this shows that winning approval for Ukraine financial aid in Congress is becoming more difficult.

Experts also noticed that the Republican resistance to the Ukrainian aid has been gaining momentum in the Congress halls. Recently, almost half of House Republicans voted to remove the $300 million from defense legislation.

This proposed budget was supposed to help train Ukrainian soldiers and allow the Ukrainian military to have an additional budget so they could purchase needed warfare weapons.

Although this aid request was later approved in a separate bill, many Republicans celebrated since more and more are now opposing Ukraine's support.

On Saturday, Sept. 30, additional Ukraine aid was omitted by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from the latest stopgap bill, which enables the federal government to keep running until Nov. 17.

This decision prevented the Senate Package, which was supposed to funnel $6 billion to Ukraine.

Read Also: US Government Shutdown: Millions of Federal Workers Could Have Their Pays Halted-Here's Why Americans Should Be Concerned

Joe Biden Urges for Ukraine Aid Approval

The Guardian reported that Joe Biden is now calling out Republicans to approve Ukraine military aid. On Sunday, Oct. 1, he said that the financial aid of the U.S. government for Ukraine should not be interrupted.

"We cannot under any circumstances allow America's support for Ukraine to be interrupted," said the American leader.

He expects McCarthy to secure the passage and support needed to assist the European country in its fight against the ongoing Russian invasion.

After it was confirmed that the Ukraine military aid is no longer included in the stopgap bill, many Ukranian residents shared their concerns.

One of these is Tetiana Ostapchuck, a logistician. She said that they needed the support from other countries. The resident added that they can't "do it alone."

Related Article: Biden Signs Bill To Avert Government Shutdown, Blames House GOP for 'Manufactured Crisis'

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(Photo : John Moore/Getty Images)

EAGLE PASS, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 30: As seen from an aerial view a U.S. Border Patrol agent supervises as immigrants walk into the United States after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico on September 30, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas. The agent had cut coils of razor wire to let them pass through for processing. Immigration and border security have become major issues in ongoing negotiations to fund the U.S. government. A recent surge in immigrant crossings has overwhelmed border authorities. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

According to preliminary government data obtained by CBS News, U.S. immigration agents processed more than 200,000 illegal border crossers in September, the highest level recorded since 2023, as the Biden administration struggles to contain the mass migration gripping the region.

Border Patrol agents apprehended approximately 210,000 migrants who illegally entered the United States between official ports of entry along the Mexican border in September, up from 181,000 in August, according to internal statistics from the Department of Homeland Security.

Unlawful Migrant Crossing Hit Highest Ever Recorded

The number of migrants apprehended in September is the greatest since December 2022, when the Border Patrol apprehended 222,000, the second-highest monthly total on record. In May 2022, Border Patrol agents apprehended a record-breaking 224,000 migrants.

According to unpublished DHS data, migrant apprehensions along the U.S. southern frontier surpassed 2 million for only the second time in US history. The information pertained to the fiscal year 2023, which concluded this past weekend. The 2,2 million migrants apprehended in fiscal year 2022 represents the highest annual total ever.

In addition to those apprehended after illegally entering the United States, tens of thousands of additional migrants were assessed at ports of entry by border officials last month. The Biden administration has permitted approximately 1,500 asylum-seekers to enter the country daily at these official border crossings if they obtain an appointment through a smartphone app.

Not all those apprehended are permitted to remain in the United States. Some adult migrants are given the option to return to Mexico voluntarily or are placed in an expedited deportation process if they do not claim asylum or fail initial humanitarian evaluations.

The majority of migrants, however, have been released from US border detention in recent months and ordered to appear in immigration court. While those migrants face deportation if they lose their asylum cases, the process can take years to complete due to a 2 million (and increasing) backlog of unresolved cases.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said it anticipates "fluctuations" in migration patterns, citing "misinformation used by smugglers to exploit vulnerable individuals."

DHS added that the administration is working to "strengthen consequences" for those who enter the country illegally, noting that the US has returned or deported over 250,000 migrants since early May.

The significant increase in illegal border crossings over the past few weeks exemplifies the Biden administration's ongoing struggle to reduce the unprecedented levels of illegal immigration to the United States in recent years. It has also compromised President Biden's border strategy, which was lauded by administration officials when illicit border crossings reached a two-year low in June.

Some migrant groups, such as Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans, have drastically reduced their illegal border crossings as a result of this strategy, which consists of expanding legal migration opportunities while implementing stricter asylum rules for some illegal border crossers. Other Central Americans, Venezuelans, and migrants from other continents, such as Africa and Asia, have not, however, experienced a similar, lasting effect.

In fact, the increase in illegal border crossings last month was fueled in part by the arrival of Venezuelan migrants, who are traveling to the US in record numbers to escape the economic and political crisis in Venezuela or to leave other South American nations still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Midway through September, more than a quarter, or 2,000, of all daily Border Patrol apprehensions were Venezuelan migrants, according to agency statistics reviewed by CBS News. In August, the Border Patrol processed 713 Venezuelans per day on average.

Seven million Venezuelans have escaped their homeland in recent years, as part of what is now the largest displacement crisis in the world, according to the United Nations.

While the majority initially settled in Colombia and other South American countries, an increasing number of Venezuelans are heading north, risking a week-long journey across multiple countries and Panama's roadless Darien Gap in order to reach the United States.

According to the Panamanian government, more than 400,000 migrants, primarily from Venezuela, have traversed the Darien jungle this year, an unprecedented number that has nearly doubled the previous record set in 2022.

Read Also: Biden Admin Offers Legal Status, Work Permits to Nearly Half-a-Million Venezuelan Migrants by Further Expanding TPS

US Migrant Crisis

Recent influxes of illegal border crossers have highlighted the Biden administration's struggle to rein in the unprecedented unauthorized migration of the past few years. It also undermined Biden's border strategy, which was lauded by officials when the number of illegal border crossings reached a two-year low in June.

The strategy, which consists of extending legal migration opportunities while imposing stricter asylum rules for some entering illegally has seen a sharp decline of unauthorized entries among some groups such as Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans.According to the government of Panama, more than 400,000 people have traversed the treacherous Darien jungle, double the previous record set in 2022.

Images from the porous frontier depict hordes of migrants traversing treacherous terrain and wading through the Rio Grande. Families can be seen clinging to one another, with some struggling to transport drenched luggage across the water.

Eagle Pass and Brownsville and other border communities have felt the full weight of the situation. Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez of the US Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley Sector, which encompasses 277 miles of border along the Rio Grande and 316 miles along the Gulf of Mexico, published images depicting the crisis on Friday.

Not so for other Central Americans fleeing economic and political turmoil, such as Venezuelans and migrants from other continents, including Africa and Asia. According to the United Nations, seven million people have fled the country in what is being called the "largest displacement crisis in the world."

In the hopes of reaching the United States, many migrants are enduring a multi-week journey across multiple countries and Panama's unpaved Darien Gap.It follows the release of disturbing video footage showing migrants sneaking through unguarded barbed wire at Eagle Pass.

The border city has been the epicenter of the crisis, with the mayor declaring a state of emergency on September 20. In the most recent video, migrants could be seen sneaking through the border town's brambles one by one in an attempt to cross the boundary without being processed.

Dozens, including at least three children, appeared to sneak through barbed wire at a time when neither border patrol nor officers were present. According to the Washington Office of Latin America, border crossings increased to approximately 8,000 per day during the week ending September 22, in a town of only 28,000 people in Texas.

Related Article: Texas Migrant Surge: El Paso Opens New Shelter Amid Influx of Asylum Seekers

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He was last seen wearing a black shirt, yellow jacket and black shorts and is believed to be operating a silver Kia Soul with Pennsylvania registration LFK-8474, police said.
The foreign ministers of the nations belonging to the European Union, with the exception of Hungary and Poland, have sent a clear message of "unwavering" support and commitment to Ukraine in its war against Russia as they convened in its capital Kyiv Monday (October 2).

Officials familiar with the matter told Euronews that the unprecedented and unannounced meeting would review the bloc's support for Ukraine and discuss the peace formula proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, among other matters.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the meeting was the first time EU foreign ministers convened outside EU territory, sending a signal that the bloc's support for the country remained steadfast.

"We are convening a historic meeting of EU Foreign Ministers here in Ukraine, candidate country and future member of the EU," he said on X, formerly Twitter. "We are here to express our solidarity and support to the Ukrainian people."

The meeting was held in Kyiv after the SMER-SSD party, headed by pro-Russia politician Robert Fico, returned to power after winning the most seats in Slovakia's general election last week with 23.3% of the vote. The election result could potentially increase tensions within the bloc as Hungary maintained warm relations with Russia.

Read Also: Should Ukraine Be Concerned About the Tightening Russia-China Trade?

We are convening a historic meeting of EU Foreign Ministers here in Ukraine, candidate country and future member of the EU.



We are here to express our solidarity and support to the Ukrainian people.https://t.co/zcv6agCcIy  Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) October 2, 2023

Uncle Sam Backing Out?

The US, the UK, and the EU have been providing Ukraine with military and financial aid ever since the beginning of the war in February 2022, which was crucial as it enabled the country to withstand both the Kremlin's attack and a weakened economy.

However, there is now uncertainty regarding continued support to Ukraine, particularly with the US.

Washington has just averted an immediate government shutdown, and a growing number of lawmakers are questioning the White House's planned endgame for the war in Ukraine. Nevertheless, US President Joe Biden has reassured allies Sunday (October 1) of continued US financial support for the war effort.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters that Ukraine held discussions with representatives of both the Republican and Democratic parties to ensure more help would arrive.

"The decision was taken as it was, but we are now working with both sides of the Congress to make sure that it does not repeat again under any circumstances," he added.

With this uncertainty in place, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lkke Rasmussen said the EU must be ready to provide further help not only to support Ukraine but also "to send a strong trans-Atlantic signal" that the bloc was taking the situation on their own lands seriously.

Related Article: Slovakia Election: Pro-Russian Politician Wins Vote, Return to Power

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Schmidt Agricola is a significant agricultural firm based in Bahia, Brazil, which is one of the country's new frontier agricultural zones suitable for large-scale, high-tech farming. It has lately added cocoa to its crop mix.

Chocolate-making ingredient production is rising outside of the major growing region in West Africa, as farmers in Brazil, Ecuador, and Colombia see potential profit in the crop, according to Reuters.

Rising Prices of Cocoa

Prices have risen to their highest level in over 50 years, which may help to alleviate the present supply shortage in the global cocoa market. It also threatens the livelihoods of small farmers in Africa since newly planted orchards, such as those in South America, are more productive, lowering overall production costs.

As global environmental concerns grow, the fact that cocoa is a natural species of the Amazon basin makes planting it in South America a form of reforestation, but native forests in Africa are being demolished to make way for cocoa orchards.

Brazil, the world's largest exporter of soy, maize, coffee, and sugar, has seen cocoa plantations extend across degraded pastureland in the Amazon region, as well as vast farms in the highly developed grain belt.

The country was formerly second only to Ivory Coast in cocoa output, but a deadly fungus known as Witches' Broom devastated production in the 1980s. Crops are recovering nearly four decades later.

Read also: Burkina Faso Junta: Military Leaders Claim Security and Intelligence Services Foiled Coup Attempt

Cocoa Production Outside Africa

Brazil's government expects output to increase from roughly 200,000 tons to 300,000 metric tons by 2025 and 400,000 tons by 2030, transforming the country from a net importer to a regular exporter of the commodity.

According to forecasts from the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) and Ecuador's exporting group Anecacao, annual production in Ecuador will increase to between 400,000 and 430,000 tons in 2022-2023 (October-September) from 287,000 tons five years ago.

Ecuador has surpassed Ghana, which produces over 750,000 tons, to become the world's third-largest grower. Ivory Coast is the leading producer, at 2.2 million tons.

Anecacao, which had a record attendance of over 70 customers from Asia, the United States, and Europe at a trade and exhibition convention in Guayaquil last July, predicts production might reach 800,000 tons by 2030.

The Amazonian state of Para in Brazil is experiencing a renaissance in cocoa production. Because recent EU legislation bans commodities imports from areas that have been deforested for crop planting, those new orchards in the Amazon region would have an advantage in the European market.

On the other hand, organizations such as the United Nations' International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) work to protect the market share of small farmers, especially African cocoa producers.

Alvaro Lario, the head of IFAD, stated that smallholders must enhance productivity, distribution, and marketing. The agency organizes agricultural training to boost yield per hectare.

Related article: EU Deforestation Law Faces Scrutiny from Coffee, Candy Makers

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University of Pennsylvania medical researchers Dr. Katalin Kariko and Dr. Drew Weissman were announced as the recipients of the Nobel Medicine Prize Monday (October 2) for their work involving the creation and development of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines against COVID-19, which could potentially be pivotal in the development of future shots.

The Stockholm-based panel behind the Nobel Prize has cited the researchers for contributing to an "unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times."

'Groundbreaking' Discovery

Kariko and Weissman were credited for their "groundbreaking findings" which fundamentally changed the world's understanding of how mRNA interacts with the human immune system.

Traditionally, making vaccines required growing viruses or pieces of viruses in giant vats of cells or in chicken eggs and then purifying them before the next steps in brewing shots.

The duo's approach to using mRNA was the first of its kind, as they made vaccines using a snippet of genetic code that carries instructions for making proteins. By taking this approach, future researchers could be able to identify the right virus protein and use the award-winning research to allow the human body to become a mini-vaccine factory.

Kariko and Weissman also figured out a tiny modification to the building blocks of RNA that made lab-grown mRNA stealthy enough to prevent an inflammatory reaction when injected into the body.

Read Also: FDA Advisers Skeptical of Experimental ALS Treatment as Patient Advocates Push for Approval

'Game Changer'

Meanwhile, medical experts say the breakthrough in developing vaccines was a step forward in preventing future pandemics from spreading.

University of East Anglia professor of medicine Dr. Paul Hunter told the Associated Press that the mRNA vaccines were a "game changer" in helping to shut down the COVID-19 pandemic and saving millions of lives.

"If it hadn't been for the mRNA technology, COVID would have been much worse," he said. "Vaccines generally were the turning point in slowing down COVID and the mRNA vaccines were just so much better than all the others."

On the other hand, Dr. Bharat Pankhania, an infectious diseases expert at Exeter University, said that a major advantage of mRNA technology was that vaccines could be made in extremely large quantities since their main components are made in laboratories.

He explained that the technology used in the COVID vaccines could be used to refine previously-developed ones.

"It's possible that we could vaccinate people against abnormal cancer proteins and have the immune system attack it after being given a targeted mRNA shot," he added. "It's a much more targeted technology than has been previously available and could revolutionize how we handle not only outbreaks but non-communicable diseases."

Winner's Reaction

Kariko, also a professor at Szeged University in Hungary, is the 13th woman to win the Nobel Prize in medicine, and the 62nd overall since the Nobel Prize was awarded to women. Her academic partnership with Weissman at the University of Pennsylvania began in the 1990s by chance while photocopying research papers, according to Penn Today, the university's news website.

She said her husband was the first to receive the news through an early morning phone call.

"I couldn't believe it," she said. "I was very much surprised. But I am very happy."

The Nobel Prize also has a cash award of SEK 11 million ($1 million) at the behest of the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates are invited to come to Sweden to receive their awards in person at ceremonies held every December 10th, Nobel's death anniversary.

The Nobel Medicine Prize was the first of six categories that were announced this week. The physics, chemistry, literature, peace, and economics prizes will be announced in the coming days.

Related Article: Swiss Glaciers Lose 10% of Volume in Two Catastrophic Years Equaling 30 Years of Loss

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A 40-year-old Michigan man named Robert Wayne Lee, known in his community as the self-styled vigilante pedophile hunter "Boopac Shakur," was shot and killed over the weekend after confronting two teenagers.

According to a statement from the Oakland County sheriff's office, the altercation happened late Friday night (September 29) involving Lee and two teenagers, aged 17 and 18, at a restaurant in Pontiac. He allegedly accused the older teenager of being a pedophile and punched him. The teen who was hit pulled out a knife, while the younger one shot Lee with a pistol seven times, police further alleged.

The man was taken to hospital but later died of his injuries, while the suspects fled the scene but were arrested Saturday afternoon (September 30).

Police have not released the names of the teenagers.

Read Also: Man Allegedly Connected to Shooting Murder of Tupac Shakur Arrested

Lee Mistakenly Alleged Arrested Teens as Predators, Police Say

Police further alleged that the teenager Lee accused of being a sexual predator, while arrested for the murder, was "mistakenly identified" as such.

"While we certainly understand his desire to hold child predators accountable, many times well-intentioned individuals who engage in this don't know the standard of evidence required for convictions and often underestimate the potential for violence confronting a suspected predator," Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.

Despite some unfounded allegations, a police department spokesperson told CNN that at least one of Lee's endeavors led to a former police officer facing charges.

Lee was known for publishing videos of his exploits to over 11,000 Facebook followers and over 45,000 on Instagram. Some of the videos appear to show him engaging in violent confrontations with alleged perpetrators.

Related Article: Ex-Cardinal McCarrick Unfit to Stand Trial, Judge Says

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A federal appeals court temporarily halted a grant program for Black women-owned businesses, exemplifying the intensifying conflict over corporate diversity rules. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled 2-1.

The Fearless Fund is temporarily barred from administering the Strivers Grant Contest, which awards $20,000 to firms that are at least 51 percent owned by Black women, among other restrictions.

The Atlanta-based Fearless Fund said in a statement Sunday that it would comply with the ruling but remained optimistic about ultimately winning the lawsuit, according to NBC News. The complaint was initiated by the American Alliance for Equal Rights, a group led by conservative activist Edward Blum, who claims that the fund violates a part of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that bars racial discrimination in contracts.

The decree, released on Saturday, overturned a judgment issued by U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash that refused the American Alliance's motion to suspend the program. The majority of the three-judge panel wrote that the Fearless Fund's program is "racially exclusionary" and that Blum's group is likely to prevail.

Perversion of Congressional Intent?

In his dissent, Judge Charles R. Wilson stated it was a "perversion of Congressional intent" to use the 1866 legislation against the Fearless Fund's program, considering that the Reconstruction-era law was intended to protect Black people from economic marginalization. Wilson believes the lawsuit will fail.

The lawsuit has become a test case as the struggle over racial concerns transfers to the workplace in the aftermath of the U.S. The Supreme Court's June decision to eliminate affirmative action in college admissions.

The Fearless Fund has hired notable civil rights attorneys, including Ben Crump, to fight the lawsuit. The lawyers claim that the grants are not contracts, but rather donations protected by the First Amendment.

The appeal panel disagreed, noting in its majority ruling that the First Amendment "does not give the defendants the right to exclude persons from a contractual regime based on their race."

Read also: Lizzo Ended Payment Dispute With 14 Dancers Months Before Lawsuit Scandal: Report

Three Lawsuits Filed Since August

Blum's Texas-based group has filed three lawsuits since August, challenging grant and fellowship programs developed by the venture capital fund and two law firms to provide Black, Hispanic, and other underrepresented minority groups more job options, as reported by Reuters.

A different nonprofit created by Blum, who is white, was behind the litigation that resulted in the June judgment, which was backed by the Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority, finding illegal Harvard University and the University of North Carolina's race-conscious student admissions criteria.

According to the Fearless Fund, Black women-owned enterprises in 2022 will get fewer than 1 percent of the $288 billion invested by venture capital firms.

The fund, which includes JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and MasterCard as investors, intends to rectify this gap. Since its inception in 2019, it has funded almost $27 million in 40 firms managed by minority women. It also offers grants, and Blum's lawsuit targeted its Fearless Strivers Grant Contest, which pays $20,000 in grants and other resources to Black women who operate small companies.

Related article: California Hospital to Close After Black Mother's Death; Lawsuit Accuses Racist Practices

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(Photo: by Brendan McDermid-Pool/Getty Images) NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 02: Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears in the courtroom with his lawyers for the start of his civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court on October 02, 2023 in New York City.

The United States Supreme Court declined to hear a longshot appeal to former President Donald Trump's right to appear on New Hampshire ballots in the 2024 election on Monday.

Several weeks ago, John Anthony Castro filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, claiming that the former president should be disqualified under a reading of a section of the U.S. The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Mr. Castro, a Texas lawyer running for president, alleged President Trump participated in an insurgency against the federal government as a result of the Capitol breach on January 6, 2021.

At the same time, he said that because he is a Republican candidate, having President Trump's name on the ballot hurts his ability to raise funds. Mr. Castro has raised exactly zero dollars and appears to have given his own campaign $20 million, according to Federal Election Commission records.

His plea to the Supreme Court comes as a number of left-wing activist groups have attempted to prevent the former president from appearing on state ballots, using arguments similar to Mr. Castro's, according to The Epoch Times.

More Blocks For Trump

The left-wing group Free Speech for People, for example, wrote to the secretaries of state in Florida, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wisconsin, urging them not to include President Trump on their ballots.

Six Colorado voters also filed a lawsuit earlier this month to prevent him from appearing under their interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which was drafted in the aftermath of the Civil War. In the mid-nineteenth century, there was a civil war.

However, even Democratic secretaries of state appear to be reluctant to oppose President Trump on those grounds. Some legal scholars have also claimed that the 14th Amendment's insurrection provision was aimed at persons who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

According to a recent Newsweek interview, Mr. Castro has filed cases in Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. He also plans to file court filings in Massachusetts and other states.

President Trump has not responded publicly to Mr. Castro's remarks. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung asked Newsweek about Mr. Castro a few weeks ago.

Mr. Cheung has been skeptical of lawsuits and efforts to keep him off the ballot based on 14th Amendment interpretations.

Read also: Ultra Right CEO Toasts Success: 'Record-Breaking' Sales Soar as Limited-Edition Trump Mugshot Beer Can Makes Waves!

Election Interference?

In September, the former president stated on Truth Social that the 14th Amendment accusations are essentially "election interference" and "just another 'trick' being used by the Radical Left Communists, Marxists, and Fascists to steal another election."

Meanwhile, retired Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz claimed in an opinion piece during the summer that President Trump cannot be disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. It's because "the amendment provides no mechanism for determining whether a candidate falls within this disqualification, though it says that" Congress can vote to "remove such disability" with a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate.

Mr. Castro's lawsuit was heard by the justices on Oct. 2, the opening day of their new nine-month term. However, because similar litigation is ongoing in lower courts, this may not be the last time the Supreme Court is asked to consider the former president's 14th Amendment concerns.

Related article: New York Judge Rules Donald Trump, Sons Liable for Fraud in $250-Million Lawsuit

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 13: Tom Hanks attends the "Asteroid City" New York Premiere at Alice Tully Hall on June 13, 2023 in New York City.

Fans are not being advised to have their teeth cleaned by Tom Hanks. The Oscar-winning actor informed his fans about an online dental plan advertisement by posting a computer-generated image of himself on Instagram on Saturday, as reported by NBC News.

Hanks has previously discussed the rise of artificial intelligence and deepfake technology in the creative industries, saying on an episode of "The Adam Buxton Podcast" that it's now possible for him to continue acting after his death.

Concerns that unregulated AI could undermine the work of creatives were one of the main grounds of contention during the US writers' strike, which concluded last week. An agreement between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television that places limitations on the use of artificial intelligence in movies and television has been accepted.

Zelda Williams, a daughter of Robin Williams, recently posted on Instagram to express her disapproval of the "disturbing" use of AI to recreate the voice of other actors who are unable to give their consent, saying that these recreations are "at best a poor facsimile of greater people, but at worst a horrifying Frankenstein's monster," according to IGN.

Read also: Meta Unveils New Celebrity AI Chatbot Characters; Which Stars are Included?

AI: A Hot Topic of Discussion

During the simultaneous strikes in Hollywood this year, AI has been a hot topic of discussion in union circles representing writers and actors. Both groups have called for protections against AI technology using actors' likenesses without their permission or payment, in addition to other rules and regulations surrounding the practice.

Sag-Aftra, the union for Hollywood actors, is still on strike, thus most productions are unable to continue. A few months after the writers' strike, the actors' strike started, with wages and worries about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create unapproved likenesses of performers at the center of the conflict. There is hope that the authors' agreement will contribute to the end of the Hollywood actors' strike.

Tom Hanks will portray younger versions of his character in the Robert Zemeckis-directed movie 'Here', which is scheduled for release early the following year and features a Metaphysic tool. According to the AI firm, it is possible to add "high-resolution photorealistic faceswaps and de-aging effects on top of actors' performances live and in real time without the need for additional compositing or VFX work."

More and more people are expressing their opinions on AI as Hollywood continues to struggle with its rise. Tim Burton has criticized AI-generated art, a WandaVision background actor has expressed concern over "digital replicas," and James Cameron has warned of the potential dangers AI may bring in the future.

Related article: Writers Strike Ends as Hollywood Companies Agree to Pay Bonuses for Successful Programs

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Elon Musk posted something very surprising on his X platform. This is a meme mocking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the military aid of the U.S. for Ukraine failed.

Now, here's what netizens think about the action of Elon Musk to make fun of the oppressed European country.

Elon Musk Mocks Zelenskyy After Failed Ukraine Aid of US

On Sunday, Oct. 2, Elon Musk posted a meme called the "strained face meme." But, his version was edited with the face of Zelenskyy.

The caption reads "When it's been five minutes and you haven't asked for a billion dollars in aid." He posted this meme after Senate House Speaker Kevin McCarthy omitted additional Ukraine aid from the stopgap bill.

Since the meme was posted after the failure of the U.S. military aid for Ukraine and it was edited with the face of Volodymyr, this clearly shows that the billionaire is mocking the Ukrainian president.

Elon Musk's viral X post was able to garner over 50 million views, 614,000 likes, 67,000 retweets, and 42,000 comments.

In the comment section, many netizens shared their disappointment with the actions of Elon Musk towards Ukraine. One of them said that he has gone into overdrive just to promote the idea of removing military aid to Ukraine.

"Sad because he was a former hero in Ukraine. Now he's become a cyberbully, normalizing it on this platform," said the X user.

He further stated that it would not be a surprise for the tech executive to suddenly decide to attack Ukrainian war vet amputees.

Another X user sarcastically said that the decision of Elon Musk to mock Ukraine is a great way to "decrease Tesla sales in European Union."

Read Also: Biden Signs Bill To Avert Government Shutdown, Blames House GOP for 'Manufactured Crisis'

Ukrainian Officials Criticize Elon Musk

According to NDTV's latest report, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as his top Ukrainian lieutenants, criticized Elon Musk for mocking the European country because of failed military aid.

"The case when ...(Elon Musk) tried to conquer space, but something went wrong and in 5 minutes he was up to his eyeballs in shit," said Ukriane's parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk.

Aside from Stefanchuck, Ukraine's Presidential Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said that the silent X post of Musk really played into the hands of Russian propaganda.

The edited meme of Musk is not his first action to criticize Ukraine for asking for financial assistance from the U.S. Previously, the billionaire suggested that Ukrainian officials give up their land for peace.

If you want to learn more about the latest controversial meme of Elon Musk for Ukraine, you can click this link.

Related Article: Elon Musk Visits Texas-Mexico Border to Show 'Unfiltered' View of Migrant Crisis-'What You See Is What I See' Says Billionaire

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Five conservative cardinals from all over the world have published five questions Catholic observers call "dubia" in an open letter to Catholic congregations Monday (October 2).

The letter - signed by German Cardinal Walter Brandmueller, former Vatican chief justice Cardinal Raymond Burke, Mexican Cardinal Juan Sandoval, former Vatican liturgy czar Cardinal Robert Sarah (Guinea), and embattled Hong Kong prelate Cardinal Joseph Zen - challenged Pope Francis to affirm Catholic teaching on homosexuality and female ordination ahead of this month's major synod at the Vatican as they expressed concern such topics would be tackled for debate.

The cardinals stated they were duty-bound to inform the faithful in order for them not to be "subject to confusion, error, and discouragement."

The signatories were some of Francis's most vocal critics in the College of Cardinals, all of them retired and of the more doctrinaire generation of cardinals appointed by either Pope John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI.

Of the five signatories, Cardinals Brandmueller and Burke were among the four signatories of a previous dubia surrounding the pope's 2016 post-synodal apostolic exhortation "Amoris Laetitia," which allowed divorced and civilly married or remarried couples to receive Holy Communion. The 2016 dubia also centered on the four cardinals' concern that Francis's position violated church teaching on the indissolubility of marriage.

Francis never responded to the 2016 dubia, while two of the cardinals who signed it - Cardinals Carlo Caffarra and Joachim Meisner - have since died.

Problems with the Synod Topics

According to the Associated Press, the letter and dubia were first published by veteran Vatican reporter Sandro Magister and the blog site Messa in Latino, two days before the start of the three-week synod.

Over 450 bishops, clergymen, and laypeople would take part in the gathering behind closed doors to discuss the future of the Catholic Church following a two-year canvassing of rank-and-file Catholics across the globe.

The synod's agenda items call for concrete steps to promote women to decision-making roles in the church, including as deacons, and allegedly for a more democratic church governance. The meeting would also aim to address the call for a "radical inclusion" of LGBT+ Catholics and other marginalized individuals, and for new accountability measures to keep bishops and priests in check and to prevent further abuses.

The synod and its proposals for greater lay involvement have thrilled progressives and disturbed conservatives, including the five cardinals, who warned any changes could lead to schism.

Last month, Burke provided a message of support to the Q&A book "The Synodal Process is a Pandora's Box" by Latin American Catholic thinkers Jose Antonio Ureta and Julio Loredo de Izcue, which highlighted the synodal process rehabilitating old heresies once condemned by the church and imposing a harmful radical progressive agenda as a result.

The book particularly made a scathing criticism against the German Synodal Way for what the book described as a radical interpretation of synodality, which the authors further alleged found its way into the Vatican synod's agenda.

Read Also: Polish Priest Investigated After Police Discover 'Gay Orgy' in His Apartment

A Plea to the Pope

The cardinals raised their questions to Francis and asked him to affirm Catholic doctrine before the synod undermined the church's traditional teaching. They particularly asked Francis to affirm that the church could not bless same-sex couples, and that any sexual act outside sacramental marriage between a man and a woman is a grave sin.

Official church teaching said that homosexuals must be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered."

They also asked him if the synod itself could replace the pope and bishops as the church's supreme authority, which is an issue of concern to some in the hierarchy who felt threatened by the synod's call for empowering the laity.

The cardinals further asked the pope to affirm or deny if the church in the future could one day ordain women, as church doctrine holds that only men can be ordained priests.

The letter and questions mark the latest high-ranking challenge to Francis's pontificate and his reform agenda.

Other critics of Francis's pontificate have also chimed in to the publication of the new dubia against the pope.

US Catholic writer and composer Dr. Peter Kwasniewski made a wager about the matter.

"If Pope Francis answers, clarity ensues," he wrote on Facebook. "If he refuses to answer, more clarity ensues, especially for posterity, for historians who ask 'Did anyone resist the soft schism into progressive non-Catholicism?'"

Francis's Response Inadequate, Dubia Cardinals Say

Magister wrote that while Francis has apparently responded to the new dubia in its initial form last July, the cardinals have not published it as they allegedly found it unsatisfactory. They reformulated their questions into yes-or-no ones and resubmitted them to Rome by August, asking him to reply with a yes or no answer.

The pope did not respond as of this writing, prompting the cardinals to make the texts public and issue a "notification" warning to the congregations.

"We, members of the Sacred College of Cardinals, in accord with the duty of all the faithful 'to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church'...have manifested our deepest concern to the Roman Pontiff," they wrote. "Given the gravity of the matter of the dubia, especially in view of the imminent session of the Synod of Bishops, we judge it our duty to inform you, the faithful, so that you may not be subject to confusion, error, and discouragement but rather may pray for the universal Church and, in particular, the Roman Pontiff, that the Gospel may be taught ever more clearly and followed ever more faithfully."

Related Article: Cardinal Burke, Traditional Catholics Warn Upcoming Vatican Synod is a 'Pandora's Box,' 'Trojan Horse' in New Q&A Book

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(Photo : Evan Vucci-Pool/Getty Images)

The United States government is seemingly more concerned about corruption in Ukraine than what it has publicly admitted, as suggested by a leaked strategy document.

The United States is allegedly more concerned about corruption in Ukraine than what officials have publicly admitted, as suggested by a leaked US strategy document.

The document considered a sensitive but unclassified version of the long-term US plan, lays out multiple steps Washington is taking to assist Kyiv in rooting out misconduct and otherwise reforming an array of Ukrainian sectors.

Corruption in Kyiv

The document stresses that corruption could cause Western allies to completely abandon their support for Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion, noting that Kyiv cannot put off the anti-graft effort.

The confidential version of the document warns that perceptions of high-level corruption could undermine the Ukrainian public's and foreign leaders' confidence in the wartime government.

The statements are stronger than the analysis in the little-noticed public version of the 22-page document. This is the one that the State Department appears to have posted on its website with fanfare roughly a month ago, as per Politico.

The confidential version of the leaked document, "Integrated Country Strategy," is roughly three times as long and contains many more details about the US government's objective in Ukraine. These include privatizing its banks to help more schools teach English and to encourage Kyiv's military to adopt NATO protocols.

The silent release of the strategy and the fact that the toughest language was left in the confidential version of the document underscores the messaging challenge that the Biden administration is currently facing.

United States President Joe Biden's team wants to press Ukraine to cut graft, but being too open about the issue could encourage opponents of US aid to Ukraine. Many of these are Republican lawmakers trying to block further assistance to the war-torn country.

According to Yahoo News, one unnamed US official confirmed that the White House was also discussing with Kyiv the possibility of conditioning future economic assistance on reforms that could be taken against corruption.

Read Also: British Finance Minister Urges To Raise Minimum Wage to Nearly $13.50 Per Hour

Additional Aid for Ukraine

However, the official noted that such conditions were not being considered for defense aid needed to assist Ukraine in repelling Russia's continued aggression. The leaked document also calls for de-oligarchization of Ukraine's energy and mining sectors, privatization of banks, and extension of the US diplomatic presence.

The situation comes as foreign ministers from the European Union held a "historic" meeting in Kyiv to offer their support to Ukraine. It came days after US House Republicans blocked additional financial aid for the war-torn country.

Additionally, Ukraine's foreign minister said that Kyiv was working with Washington after Congress did not include new aid in a last-minute deal to avoid a potential government shutdown. Biden pledged that American support for Kyiv would continue as Moscow continued its invasion.

Concerns also mounted after Slovakia elected a pro-Russian figure following its election in what could become a challenge to NATO and EU unity in Ukraine. Furthermore, Russia has launched heavy shelling attacks at Kherson recently, resulting in the death of at least one person and the injury of eight others in the southern Ukrainian region, according to CNN.

Related Article: EU Foreign Ministers Meet in Kyiv to Discuss Next Steps in Ukraine's War vs. Russia

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HARRISBURG  An effort to move Pennsylvanias presidential primary next year bred new disagreements in the Legislature on Tuesday, as members of a House committee rejected a bill favored by the Senate.

Instead, the committee approved a bill to move the current primary date up three weeks, from April 23 to April 2. The committee also rejected a bipartisan Senate bill that seeks to move the date even earlier, to March 19.

Most lawmakers are motivated to move the primary from April 23  where it is set by state law  to avoid a conflict with the Jewish holiday of Passover and to make it earlier in the primary calendar, thereby giving voters more of a say in deciding presidential nominees.

I think at its core, people recognize that Pennsylvania is frankly the center of the political universe, said the bills primary sponsor, Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia. If you want to win a national election in the United States of America, you have to win the state of Pennsylvania.

House Democrats supported the bill to move the date to April 2. The bill passed narrowly, 13-12, and goes to the full House for a floor vote.

However, the votes by the committee on Tuesday raised questions about whether an agreement on a new date is possible any time soon.

House Republicans opposed both the Senate and House bills.

April 2 would be two days after Easter next year. Lawmakers aired concerns about polling equipment being in place in churches around the Holy Week, and whether poll workers would be away for the holiday.

Republicans emphasized the impact it would have to schools calendars, the work it would put on counties to abbreviate their own and potential changes to voters habits as reasons to not move the primary at all, at this point.

Voters observing Passover could vote by absentee ballot, said Rep. Brad Roae, R-Crawford.

Well, with all the different religions that we all have  Christianity, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist  theres so many different religions, he said. Probably almost every day is a holiday for somebody.

The move could also open the state to scrutiny, said Rep. Lou Schmitt, R-Blair.

This election, whether we change the primary date or not, will not be perfect, he said. However, by changing the primary date, we hand a stick to these people who thrive on chaos in elections to beat our poll workers and our directors of elections over the head.

Democrats dismissed that concern.

I think we have very, very good folks around the commonwealth, not only at the Department of State, but in our counties, who I have a lot of faith in their ability, said Rep. Ben Waxman, D-Philadelphia. You know, if they can handle 2020, they can handle this.

State law sets the primary date on the fourth Tuesday in April, relatively late in the presidential primary calendar. It hasnt hosted a competitive presidential primary since 2008, when Hillary Clinton pulled off a win to stay alive against Barack Obama, the leader in delegates and eventual winner of that years Democratic nomination.

The House committees proposed date would put Pennsylvania alongside Delaware, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, as well as New York where Gov. Kathy Hochul recently signed a bill that sets that states presidential primary for April 2.

The March 19 date would send Pennsylvanians to the polls on the same day as Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Arizona.

Both dates still come after primaries in other big delegate states, including California, Texas, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts and Tennessee.
The United Nations Security Council approved the deployment of Kenya-led forces to Haiti to address the rising gang violence situation in the latter country.

The approval came on Monday for a yearlong multinational security mission for Haiti, which would be led by Kenta and aims to crack down on rampant gang violence. The situation has unraveled life for many people in the Caribbean nation.

Security Mission for Haiti

The 15-member Council voted to authorize a mission that would work to guard critical infrastructure, including airports, ports, schools, hospitals, and key traffic intersections. The mission would also carry out "targeted operations" along with the Haitian National Police.

So far, Kenya has pledged at least 1,000 security personnel, and several other countries are expected to offer other resources for the mission. Officials reported that nearly 3,000 people have already been killed in Haiti from October last year until June this year.

The death toll comes as gangs took over large areas of the country, particularly Port-au-Prince, the nation's capital. Many neighborhoods have cleared out as people were forced to flee widespread murders, kidnappings, and extortion, as per the New York Times.

Groups of gangs aligned with political parties have strengthened their grip on the country since the assassination of President Joevenel Moise in 2021. No municipal, legislative, or parliamentary elections have been held in the nation for several years, creating a power struggle.

One goal of the UN-approved security mission is to create safe conditions that would allow the people of Haiti to hold elections without fear for their well-being. The Council voted 13 in favor of the resolution, with two nations abstaining from a vote, China and Russia.

Former Haitian Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus called the resolution a "glimmer of hope" for those suffering too long because of gangs. He added that it was more than a simple vote, arguing that it was an expression of solidarity with a distressed population.

Read Also: EU Foreign Ministers Meet in Kyiv to Discuss Next Steps in Ukraine's War vs. Russia

Addressing Gang Violence

The resolution also comes after repeated calls for military assistance by Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the United States government have also strongly urged the international community to provide support for such a mission, according to CNN.

The newly approved multinational security support force will have a 12-month mandate in Haiti and the timing of its arrival is not yet set. Additionally, more countries were invited to participate as it calls for a global stop to arms sales in Haiti, except for approved security purposes.

Jean-Junior Joseph, an adviser to Henry, said that the Haitian government welcomed the vote of the UN Security Council. He added that they eagerly awaited with impatience the mission to combat general insecurity in the region.

Despite the approval of the mission, various details are yet to be released, including rules of engagement and exit strategy. While the mission is set for a one-year duration, officials can review it and choose to extend it after nine months, said the Washington Post.

Related Article: Readout of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's Call with National Security Advisor Sydney Mufamadi of South Africa

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A "ring of fire" solar eclipse will be visible in the skies over North, Central, and South America on Oct. 14, which is a rare opportunity that scientists will be looking out for.

The singular spectacle is considered a dazzling celestial event that will allow millions of people to witness it. Peg Luce, the acting director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA headquarters, said that it would give the "awe and the wonder of seeing a beautiful ring of fire eclipse."

Ring of Fire Solar Eclipse

The nickname of the solar eclipse, ring of fire, comes from the appearance of annular solar eclipses, which are similar to total solar eclipses, except that the moon is at the farthest point in its orbit from our planet, which means that it cannot completely block the sun.

This type of eclipse would instead allow the sun's fiery light to surround the moon's shadow in order to create the so-called ring of fire. The yearly solar eclipse is expected to start in the United States at around 9:13 a.m. PT and will pass from the Oregon coast to Texas' Gulf Coast, as per CNN.

The event would be visible in Oregon, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Texas and the lunar shadow will also be visible to people in parts of California, Idaho, Colorado, and Arizona. Scientists said that the eclipse will end in the US at around 12:03 p.m. CT.

After the celestial event leaves the United States, the eclipse will cross Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Panama, and Colombia before ending off South America's Atlantic coast at Natal, Brazil.

If the weather permits, a crescent-shaped partial solar eclipse, which is where only a part of the sun is covered by the moon, will become visible on Oct. 14, in all 49 continental U.S. states. People can use NASA's interactive eclipse map to check when the eclipse will pass over their area so that they can prepare for a viewing.

Read Also: Super Full Harvest Moon: Here's How and Where You Can Watch the Last Supermoon of 2023

Watching the Celestial Event

Those who are looking to view the celestial event are encouraged to look for a clear, unobstructed view of the sun, as it is the ideal situation. However, even under overcast conditions, the annular eclipse will have a noticeable effect and cast an unusual dimness during the daytime, according to Gizmodo.

Additionally, observers may see the day to be less bright than normal even if clouds obscure a direct view. But for the people who may otherwise not be able to see the eclipse in person, NASA is planning to run a live broadcast of the celestial event.

While the moon will be passing in front of the sun, it is still not safe to directly look into our solar system's star. Even just a sliver of the sun peeking out from behind the moon is strong enough to potentially permanently scorch a person's retinas.

NASA recommended wearing specialized eye protection when viewing the ring of fire solar eclipse. Experts warned that looking at the sun through binoculars, a camera lens, or a telescope without using a special-purpose solar filter can instantly cause severe eye injury, said CBS News.

Related Article: Scientists Studying Antimatter Have Made a Key Discovery That it is Also Affected by Gravity

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In an apparent reversal of previous statements, Pope Francis has suggested for the first time that individuals in same-sex unions could be blessed by Catholic clerics on a "case-by-case" basis.

In response to a letter from five conservative cardinals with formal questions - called a "dubia" (Latin for "doubt") - which is an official request for a yes or no answer from a sitting pontiff regarding his leadership of the Church, the Pope made the suggestion in a letter to his harshest critics within the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis Suggests Blessings Same-Sex Unions

On July 10, Walter Brandmuller, Raymond Leo Burke, Juan Sandoval Iniguez, Robert Sarah, and Joseph Zen Ze-kiun sent the letter to Pope Francis for the first time. It centered on an imminent October meeting of bishops, asking what effect it could have on Church doctrine, and included queries about the Pope's intention to bless same-sex unions and whether he intends to open the door to women priests through ordination.

Unsatisfied with the Pope's initial response, according to a blog post by American Cardinal Raymond Burke, the five cardinals reworded and resent the "dubia" letter on August 21, citing "the gravity of the matter."

Per CNN, the Vatican then issued a letter in Spanish dated September 25 and signed by the Vatican's new head of doctrine, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez. Pope Francis' responses to the dubia are included in the rejoinder, which is signed "Francis."

The pontiff reiterated that the church only recognizes marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but opened the door for blessings of individuals in same-sex unions, as evidenced by the letter.

Read Also: Iraq: Fire at Wedding Hall Kills 100, Injures 150

Pope Francis Responds to Cardinal Critics

According to the Vatican, marriage is an unbreakable union between a man and a woman. As a consequence, it has opposed homosexual marriage for decades. However, Pope Francis has expressed support for civil laws extending legal benefits to same-sex spouses, and Catholic clerics in certain regions of Europe have blessed same-sex unions without Vatican reprimand.

Pope Francis' response to the cardinals contradicts the Vatican's current official position. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith explained in 2021 that the church could not bless homosexual unions because "God cannot bless sin."

He reiterated in his new letter that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. In response to the cardinals' query regarding homosexual unions and blessings, however, he stated that "pastoral charity" required tolerance and understanding, and that priests could not become "judges who only deny, reject, and exclude."

According to The Guardian, he stated that there are situations that are objectively "not morally acceptable," but "pastoral charity" requires that people be regarded as sinners who may not be wholly responsible for their circumstances.

Pope Francis added that there was no need for dioceses or bishops' conferences to transform such pastoral charity into fixed norms or protocols, explaining that the matter could be handled on a case-by-case basis "because the life of the church flows through channels beyond norms."

Related Article: 5 Cardinals Publish 'Dubia' vs. Pope Francis Ahead of October Synod

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(Photo : ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (L) introduces Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his staff at a bilateral meeting during the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC, April 1, 2016. / AFP / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds

In an escalation of the crisis that began when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that New Delhi may have been involved in the murder of a Canadian Sikh, India has demanded that Canada withdraw diplomats from the country.

New Delhi has instructed Ottawa to repatriate roughly 40 diplomats by October 10, according to individuals familiar with the demand. According to one source, India has threatened to revoke the diplomatic immunity of diplomats who remain in the country after that date.

India Tells Canada to Withdraw 41 Diplomats

The foreign ministries of Canada and India both declined to comment. New Delhi has previously stated its desire for "parity" in the number and rank of diplomats posted by each nation to the other.

Per Financial Times, Canada has several dozen more diplomats at its high commission in New Delhi than India does at its embassy in Ottawa due to the large consular section required to serve the relatives of the approximately 1.3 million Canadians who claim Indian ancestry.

According to one source, Canada had 62 diplomats in India, but New Delhi instructed them to reduce that number to 41.

The day after Trudeau's stunning statement, September 18, New Delhi had already announced a visa ban for Canadians.

The latest move threatens to significantly escalate the crisis that erupted when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that the Canadian government was investigating "credible allegations" that Indian agents were responsible for the June murder of Canadian Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in a Vancouver suburb.

It will also complicate matters for Trudeau, who is under domestic pressure to act while also attempting to secure the support of western allies keen to cultivate relations with New Delhi as a buffer against China.

Peter Boehm, chair of the Canadian Senate committee on foreign affairs and international trade, stated, "Declaring more Canadian diplomats personae non gratae would not help the situation and would make it harder to reduce the emotions associated with this disagreement."

Ottawa was frustrated that weeks of covert diplomacy with India had failed to secure India's cooperation with the police investigation into the assassination of Nijjar.

The diplomacy included two visits to India by Canadian national security adviser Jody Thomas to discuss the issue prior to the September G20 summit in New Delhi. According to individuals familiar with the meetings, India did not acknowledge involvement in the murder but did not deny the claim. The Indian government stated that the allegations were false.

The assassination was also the subject of Trudeau's G20 meeting with India's prime minister Narendra Modi, during which the Indian side categorically rejected a request for cooperation. According to those familiar with the matter, India had even urged Canada to suspend the investigation in earlier meetings.

Read Also: Canada PM Justin Trudeau Denies Claims He Went to G20 Summit in Plane Full of Cocaine

Khalistani Separatist's Death

Last week in Washington, India's foreign minister S Jaishankar stated that the alleged assassination was "not consistent with our policy" and accused Canada of tolerating Sikh separatists advocating for an independent Indian state.

According to Canadian media, Ottawa has intercepted communications involving Indian diplomats that indicate official involvement in the murder of Nijjar last June. India has denied having seen any such proof. Ottawa is limited in what it can share with the Indian government, in part to safeguard the sources and methods used to collect intelligence, but also to avoid jeopardizing the murder investigation, said the individuals with knowledge of the situation.

Thomas and other officials who visited India, including the chief of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, David Vigneault, were only able to present the evidence orally to their Indian counterparts due to the constraints.

The standoff with India is a problem for Prime Minister Trudeau, whose popularity is waning in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, while his Liberal party prepares for upcoming elections before October 2025. Critics have accused Trudeau of pandering to Canada's substantial Sikh population and acting precipitously.

It was "not a great time" for the crisis, according to a source familiar with his thinking. However, Trudeau felt impelled to make a statement in parliament due to the gravity of the allegations and a forthcoming article in The Globe and Mail, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Foreign policy expert at the University of Ottawa, Roland Paris, stated that the nature of the allegations left Trudeau with few options.

Canada is home to about 770,000 Sikhs, the highest population outside the northern Indian state of Punjab, and the Indian government has for decades expressed its displeasure with some community members' outspoken support for Khalistan, as per Aljazeera.

There are 15 Sikh members in the Canadian House of Commons, which is more than 4 percent of the seats, despite the fact that Sikhs make up less than 2 percent of the population.

During the 1980s and 1990s, India crushed an insurrection for a "Sikh homeland" of Khalistan that killed tens of thousands. Today, it has almost no support in Punjab. India accused Nijjar of "hateful speeches" and "seditionary and insurrectionary imputations" and designated him as "involved in terrorism" in 2020.

Related Article: US, Indian Officials Meet for State Talks Amid Dispute with Canada Over Sikh Killing

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Accor and the German multi-brand hotel operator The Chocolate on the Pillow Group are expanding the Mercure portfolio in Switzerland. For the two partners, this is already the seventh joint project, with two more in the planning stages. With the opening and takeover of operations of the Mercure Zurich City scheduled for November 1, 2023, The Chocolate on the Pillow Group is also expanding into Switzerland for the first time. Located centrally in the "Vulcano," built in 2018 and an architectural highlight and urban landmark in the emerging Altstetten district, the hotel will undergo extensive modernization measures as part of the rebranding.

With the successful rebranding as Mercure Zurich City, the hotel operations will be transferred to the Chocolate on the Pillow Group and Accor as the brand provider on November 1, 2023. Both groups are renowned and internationally successful hospitality companies, which was the decisive criterion in the selection process.

Just in time for its 50th anniversary, the Mercure Hotels & Resorts brand can add another hotel in a top destination to its existing portfolio: The Mercure Zurich City features a restaurant with a bar and outdoor terrace, as well as a wellness area with a spa and fitness room. Over the next 18 months, all 319 guest rooms and public areas will be modernized according to the Mercure brand guidelines. The redesign of a meeting and event space with various conference rooms and the optimization of the F&B area are also planned. Located at Vulkanstrasse 108b in Zurich, the hotel is conveniently located and is in the immediate vicinity of the Swiss Life Arena and numerous well-known companies. With a direct connection from Altstetten station, you can reach the city center in 10 minutes and explore the old town or the promenade on Lake Zurich.
Fulton County, Georgia Jail Officer Indicted for Strangling Inmate

A former Fulton County, Georgia, Sheriffs Office detention officer was indicted on federal charges of depriving a pretrial detainee of her civil rights under color of law.

The indictment charges former Detention Officer Monique Clark, 32, with one count of deprivation of rights under color of law for willfully using unreasonable force against a pretrial detainee, who is identified in the indictment as C.B. Specifically, the indictment alleges that Clark, without legal justification, strangled C.B. while C.B. was handcuffed, resulting in bodily injury to C.B.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. A federal judge will determine any sentence based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan for the Northern District of Georgia and Special Agent in Charge Keri Farley of the FBI Atlanta Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI Atlanta Field Office investigated this case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Gray for the Northern District of Georgia and Trial Attorney Alec Ward of the Civil Rights Divisions Criminal Section are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This story has been published on: 2023-10-02. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) has announced the establishment of Al Balad Development Company (BDC), which will become the main developer of Jeddahs historic Al Balad district.

This is in line with the efforts led by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz to revitalise Historic Jeddah to transform the Red Sea port city into an economic hub, a global cultural, heritage and tourism destination, said a statement.

The company will focus on improving the districts infrastructure, overseeing the restoration of historic buildings in Al Balad, and developing service facilities as well as recreational, residential, commercial, hotel and office spaces.

The overall project development area will comprise approximately 2.5 million sq m, with a total built-up area of 3.7 million sq m. This includes 9,300 residential units, 1,800 hotel units and around 1.3 million sq m of commercial and office space.

The company will collaborate with the private sector and specialists to develop the areas infrastructure according to the best standards of urban planning for historic areas, taking into account environmental sustainability and preserving the unique heritage of Historic Jeddah: a Unesco World Heritage site.

The aim is to transform it into a leading tourism destination that attracts visitors from around the world, thus contributing to economic development, with the company also working to offer attractive investment opportunities and quality commercial options for the people of Jeddah, it said.

BDC aims to provide a rich experience to explore the cultural and historic dimensions of the district, by providing an integrated environment that attracts residential, work, cultural and recreation development, contributing to quality of life and improving the visitor experience. Al Balad is recognised for being an iconic Red Sea port, in addition to featuring a unique urban character and distinctive coral limestone architecture. In 2021, HRH Crown Prince launched the Revitalize Historic Jeddah initiative, as part of Historic Jeddah Development Project.

The establishment of BDC aligns with PIFs strategy to diversify the Saudi Arabias economy through developing and enabling strategic sectors, including real estate and tourism, contributing to achieving the aims of Vision 2030, the statement said. -TradeArabia News Service
Marriott International, Inc., today announced it has signed an agreement with Relentless Developments and Salboy Ltd to bring W Hotels to Manchester within the city's new St Michael's development. Slated to open Q1 2027, W Manchester, with 162 rooms, will be the brand's third property in the UK, with sister property, W Edinburgh set to open Q4 2023, bringing bold design, distinctive dining and always-on programming.

Conveniently located in central Manchester, W Manchester will be in walking distance to the city's iconic Town Hall and Central Library. Forming part of the wider St Michael's mixed-use development encompassing 180,000sq ft, W Manchester will be surrounded by sustainable work, residential and retail space. The development's central square with its retail and cafe culture will a create new public use area as the backdrop for guests of the hotel.

Situated in a prime central location linking the historic quarter with the Spinningfields business district and the city's retail areas, the hotel is anticipated to feature 162 rooms and suites. Design plans for the property include signature spaces such as the Living Room, WET deck, W Lounge, AWAY Spa and FIT fitness centre. The property is also expected to offer two restaurants and retail space.

The announcement of W Manchester reaffirms the growth of W Hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with new openings planned across the region including Naples, Prague and Ras Al Khainmah. W Manchester will mark the brand's third property in the UK, following W London and W Edinburgh.

Hotel website
Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans is pleased to announce the appointment of Nate Ferguson as the property's new director of marketing. For more than a decade, Ferguson has played integral roles at Four Seasons hotels and resorts across the country, working with award-winning teams in Baltimore, St. Louis, Jackson Hole, Vail, and at One Dalton Street, Boston. His wealth of experience within the Four Seasons brand is invaluable to his new role as director of marketing at Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans, where he will drive revenue for Louisiana's only AAA Five Diamond hotel as they continue to take luxury in the Crescent City to a whole new level.

Ferguson joined the Four Seasons organization in 2012, working as an event sales manager in St. Louis and in Jackson Hole before becoming director of events at Four Seasons Resort Vail, where he led the team to record breaking results and achieved recognition as both catering hotel of the year and marketing hotel of the year. He was then promoted to director of sales for Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street, Boston. Most recently, Ferguson served as the director of marketing at Four Seasons Baltimore before joining the team inNew Orleans.

Ferguson's passion for travel has taken him to all 50 states and 41 of the 63 National Parks, providing him with an experienced and thoughtful perspective on hospitality. Throughout his tenure with Four Seasons, Ferguson has also lent his expertise to other Four Seasons hotels, including Sydney, Costa Rica, and Santa Barbara. Even with his extensive travels, Ferguson feels a profound, unique connection to the city of New Orleans for its distinctive character. He is eager to bring his enthusiasm for the vibrant destination to his new role..

In his free time, Ferguson enjoys cooking, embarking on outdoor adventures, and cheering for his favorite teams, the Ohio State Buckeyes, Baltimore Orioles, and now the New Orleans Saints.
Marriott International in the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) announced strategic changes to its leadership team effective October 1, 2023. Louise Bang, who until now served as Regional Vice President of Sales and Distribution for the region, will become Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, taking over from Diana Plazas-Trowbridge, who advanced her career within the company to the role of Senior Vice President and Global Brand Leader, and will now oversee Marriott International's Select Service brands globally.

In her new position, Louise will be responsible for driving growth and revenue for the region and will lead consumer-facing strategies, including the disciplines of sales, marketing, public relations, brand management, and the loyalty program, Marriott Bonvoy. In addition, she will play a key role in ensuring that the region's strategies are aligned with the company's global objectives, driving hotel performance, and extending the competitive advantage of Marriott's portfolio of brands across the region. Louise will continue Marriott's successful projects in the region, including positioning City Express by Marriott, expanding the All-Inclusive by Marriott Bonvoy offering, and generating new growth opportunities, such as the recent partnership with Rappi to be launched later this year.

Born in Denmark and raised in Spain, Louise began a long career with Marriott International in 1996, expanding her experience and skills in the European, U.S. and Canadian regions, holding leadership positions in Marriott's Global Sales Organization, as well as the company's luxury segments, focused on The Ritz-Carlton brand. In 2020, Louise was appointed Regional Vice President of Sales and Distribution for CALA and as of October 1st of this year, Louise takes the reins of consumer initiatives in the Caribbean and Latin America region as Chief Sales and Marketing Officer.
Four Seasons Resort Seychelles at Desroches Island welcomes Budi Widodo to its team as Resort Manager. Arriving on Thursday, September 21, 2023, after an evening as an honoured guest at Four Seasons Resort Seychelles, Budi brings a passion for service and a reputation for excellence. At the height of a career that has taken him on a global tour of luxury hospitality, Budi is ready for an exhilarating new challenge at the castaway paradise of Desroches.

Beginning his career as a bartender and wine bar assistant while still a teenager, Budi immersed himself in hospitality through cruise ship roles before finding his home in the world of luxury hotels. In 2001, Budi was appointed as assistant restaurant manager for the Park Lane Hotel in Jakarta, where he was quickly promoted to head bar manager. In 2005, he joined The Ritz-Carlton Jakarta as a restaurant manager and progressed through the ranks as banquet director and restaurant director.

After a year as food and beverage manager for Hotel Mulia, Budi became part of the Four Seasons family as Food and Beverage Director at Four Seasons Hotel Jakarta. The following seven years saw Budi hold this prestigious position at both Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Huraa and the former Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai before, in 2017, he was rewarded for his unfailing excellence with an appointment as Hotel Manager in Shanghai. In October 2020, Budi returned to Ritz-Carlton as hotel manager for their property in Sanya, China, before rejoining Four Seasons for his current appointment in September 2023.

Budi is a dedicated family man, happily married to Denik, and proud father to twelve-year-old Bima. Alongside the joy of caring for his family, Budi takes great pride in nurturing new talent in his resort teams.

In his downtime, Budi's interests are as diverse as they are exciting. From exploring new restaurants to savouring wine and grooving to music at festivals, or cheering F1 drivers around the world's race circuits, he's a true epicurean. Budi's perfect day starts with a cup of green tea or coffee and ends with a good book. On his days off, you'll find him jogging, whipping up delicious dishes, or casting a line for some relaxing fishing. With his zest for life and wide-ranging interests, Budi brings a welcome and refreshing perspective to the remarkable team at Four Seasons Resort Seychelles.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Bryan Mitchell joins Groups360 as chief information security officer. Prior to joining the Company, Mitchell worked in similar roles at Autozone, Inc. and FedEx. He will lead the information security program for Groups360, focusing on security systems standardization, regulatory compliance, and data security governance.

Kristi White joins Groups360 as vice president, reporting, data, and analytics. Previously, White was chief product officer at Knowland, a leading hospitality industry data provider. In her new role, she will direct the Companys expanded data and analytics products and services for customers.

Heather Harris also joins the Company at senior director, brand marketing and will work with hotel brands to better grow their group business among event organizers worldwide. Harris comes to Groups360 from REI Nation and Hilton Hotels.

As we continue to refine our technology and scale our operations across the globe, the skills that Bryan, Kristi and Heather bring will ensure we can remain nimble and effective in driving strategies to benefit our both our hotel brand and event organizer customers. Kemp Gallineau, president and CEO of Groups360

As the leading hotel marketplace for booking groups, GroupSync allows event planners to search, source, and book groups more efficiently at over 200,000 properties worldwide. This cloud-based platform provides buyers greater access to hotel group inventory and rates for faster, smoother group booking. It also delivers access to 1.7 million guest rooms and 66,000 venues for instant booking.

About Groups360

Groups360 was created with a singular goal  to reinvent meeting planning by injecting innovation, transparency, and simplicity into the decades-old problem of booking groups. The Companys integrated technology solution, GroupSync, enables suppliers to distribute inventory, engage with planners, and optimize group revenue. GroupSync also equips planners to search and shop hotels worldwide and to book rooms and space directly, online or through a simplified RFP process. GroupSync is the first distribution channel to offer online booking for group hotel roomsandmeeting space at scale.

Groups360 has offices in Nashville, London and Singapore. Learn more at groups360.com.

Hal Hassall

Vice President of Marketing
PITTSBURGH  Overlooking Lake Rosseau since 1870, the iconic Victorian landmark Windermere House needed to modernize its accounting and back-office functions in keeping with its status as Muskokas premiere hotel and resort. Management company BHospitality tapped Aptechs PVNG enterprise accounting solution to keep the propertys accounting and financial systems on the same page internally and companywide as BHospitality prepares for further growth.

Shortly after acquiring ownership of this iconic resort earlier this year, we discovered that several of our systems, including our back-office accounting system, would not suffice for our business growth plans. The flexibility, future development, and scalability of the existing solution did not align with our anticipated expansion. Roger Oei, BHospitality Vice President, Finance

Previously, the property used a locally developed, PMS-integrated back-office system that is no longer being consistently updated. Oei said software that doesnt get developed on a continuous basis becomes a dinosaur very quickly. He needed software he can rely on, that continues to be developed and supported.

Developers come and go, said Oei, but software support is key, and Aptech has been impeccable in that regard.

Windermere House chose PVNG as its preferred accounting solution due to the great success the product delivered at its sister property, the Cambridge Hotel & Conference Centre, in Cambridge, Ontario, said Oei. This 138-room property has been using the system  which handles accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, statistics, financials, and bank reconciliation, all with user-friendly browser navigation  since 2015.

Adding PVNG as our dedicated back-office solution will enhance our ability to financially manage and strategically plan our financial growth and success at Windermere House, said Oei. We expect that our favorable experiences at the Cambridge Hotel & Conference Centre will be repeated at the resort. Further, by expanding our hotel footprint in partnership with PVNG, it will allow our financial team to share resources and knowledge across our hotel properties.

Oei and his staff members find PVNG very intuitive, easy to use, and scalable. As we standardize accounting and finance across our hotel properties, it allows me from a financial perspective to use my people resources at different properties without their having to learn new software, he said.

Windermere House will use the systems general ledger, financial reporting, cash book, and payables functions. The propertys previous back-office system had reporting limitations and relied heavily on paper documents.

PVNG has the ability to attach images and backup documents, so information retrieval is easier, Oei said.

One of Oeis favorite PVNG capabilities is its ability to drill down from their monthly reports to identify business reasons behind a particular result. When budgeting, the software enables users to access any journal entry, including backup documentation and invoices, as needed. From a payroll perspective as well, it allows us to drill down to entries to the payroll register, he said.

These self-service capabilities will allow hotel staff members and BHospitalitys corporate financial team to perform financial analysis largely without back-and-forth communication regarding specific reports.

Windermere House (www.windermerehouse.com) offers not only spectacular vistas, but also lasting memories. Accommodations include 58 rooms and suites, along with the private, four-bedroom Windermere Cottage, which was undergoing renovation at press time.

The PVNG implementation will occur during a planned six-week shutdown in mid-October, after the Canadian Thanksgiving celebration, with reopening scheduled for the third week of November. Traditionally a May-through-September seasonal operation, Windermere House also will use Aptechs accounting solution to serve guests year-round. We already have a number of group conferences, corporate events, and holiday parties booked as we head to the holiday season, Oei said.

Going forward, BHospitality plans to migrate a Florida property to PVNG as well. With all 3 of its hotels initially on different back-office systems, side-by-side comparative analysis proved very cumbersome. PVNG will allow such comparisons easily, quickly, and efficiently.

As we continue the traditions at Windermere House in delivering exceptional service and unforgettable generational shared experiences with all our guests, Oei said, we are elated to have Aptech as one of our key partners in building our continued success at BHospitality.

Sam Costa, Aptech Director of Client Success, added, We take great pride in being able to provide PVNGs enterprisewide functionality to another BHospitality property. We are confident that as the companys footprint expands, Windermere House and their other properties will benefit from the companywide visibility and strategic decision-making capabilities that our solution provides.

For more information on PVNG by Aptech, visit http://www.aptech-inc.com.

About Aptech Computer Systems Inc.

Aptech Computer Systems, Inc., based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the only provider of a fully integrated enterprise accounting, business intelligence, and planning ecosystem to the hospitality industry. All clients are companies like yours, which own or manage hotels. Its solutions help customers at both the corporate and property levels understand their financial and operational data for faster goal achievement. The company is renowned for introducing business intelligence into the hotel industry and offers a solid resource of hospitality professionals. Aptech is an IBM Software Value Plus partner and Premier Solution Provider, as well as a Prophix Premier Business Partner. Incorporated in 1970, Aptechs state-of-the-art back office, true business intelligence and enterprise planning solutions are 100% hotel specific. Solutions include PVNG, Execuvue and Targetvue. Clients comprise over 3,500 properties  including large chains, multiple-property management companies and single-site hotels. Execuvue is registered to Aptech Computer Systems Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective holders. For more information, please visit www.aptech-inc.com.

Barbara Worcester

+1 440 930 5770
Washington  American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) President & CEO Chip Rogers released the following statement today in support of the Modern Worker Empowerment Act, which was introduced in the House by Reps. Elise Stefanik (NY-21), Kevin Kiley (CA-03), and Michelle Steel (CA-45).

As America continues to deal with one of the worst labor shortages in decades, hoteliers need flexibility to quickly hire contractors to meet a variety of expanding and contracting needs. However, the Department of Labors proposed regulatory changes, coupled with recent decisions by the National Labor Relations Board, will make it increasingly difficult for companies to hire individuals to work as independent contractors. This robs companies of an important resource to meet client demands and individuals of their choice to work independently. The Modern Worker Empowerment Act is an important solution that takes fundamental economic principles into account without stifling economic opportunity. Independent contractors play a vital role in keeping the American economy moving. They choose the flexibility to work for themselves and set their own hours and deserve the right to make the choice that works for them as they achieve their American Dream. AHLA President & CEO Chip Rogers

About the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA)

The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) is the sole national association representing all segments of the U.S. lodging industry. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., AHLA focuses on strategic advocacy, communications support and workforce development programs to move the industry forward. Learn more at www.ahla.com.
World Spa Awards  the global initiative to celebrate and reward excellence in the spa and wellness sector  has announced the highly-anticipated winners of its 2023 programme.

Notable winners include Switzerlands Burgenstock Alpine Spa, which claimed the coveted title for Worlds Best Hotel Spa, whilst the iconic Palazzo Fiuggi, Italy was voted Worlds Best Wellness Retreat.

Mandarin Oriental collected Worlds Best Hotel Spa Brand for the second year running. Aromatherapy Associates also continued its reign by retaining Worlds Best Aromatherapy Brand. French luxury brand LOccitane made its World Spa Awards debut in 2023 by winning Worlds Best Spa Brand.

The announcement follows a year-long search for the worlds top spa and wellness brands. Votes were cast by industry professionals, the media and the general public.

In the newcomer categories, Awaken Spa at Dubais new landmark resort, Atlantis The Royal, took Worlds Best New Resort Spa. Clinique La Prairie Longevity Hub at Qatars The St. Regis Marsa Arabia Island, The Pearl, was named Worlds Best New Hotel Spa. Lanserhof Sylt, Germany  situated on a secluded island in the Wadden Sea  clinched titles for Worlds Best New Wellness Retreat and Worlds Best Spa Design.

The Spa at Las Ventanas al Paraiso, A Rosewood Resort, Mexico won Worlds Best Spa Signature Treatment for its Holistic Twilight Ceremony.

Destination winners include Dubai, with its dazzling array of both traditional and leading-edge treatments, named Worlds Best Spa Destination and Bali heralded Worlds Best Wellness Destination.

Regional destination winners include Morocco for Africas Best Spa Destination, Mexico for Latin Americas Best Spa Destination and Australia for Oceanias Best Spa Destination.

The spa and wellness industry is experiencing sustained growth, evident in the calibre of nominees in our 2023 programme. We have seen a notable increase in first-time World Spa Awards recipients, whilst previous winners also continue to push the boundaries of excellence by retaining their titles. All winners have shown dedication to delivering exceptional spa and wellness experiences and we are excited to share these achievements with the world. Rebecca Cohen, Managing Director, World Spa Awards

For a full list of winners visit here.

World Spa Awards is the sister event of World Travel Awards, currently celebrating its 30th anniversary.

For more information about World Spa Awards, visit worldspaawards.com.

About World Spa Awards

World Spa Awards serves to celebrate and reward excellence in spa and wellness tourism through our annual awards programme. It aims to inspire exceptional standards and connect spa consumers with the best in spa and wellness tourism.

For further details visit worldspaawards.com. Download the World Spa Awards media pack at: worldspaawards.com/mediadownloads.

World Spa Awards Public Relations

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7925 0000

Email: [email protected]

Web: worldspaawards.com

Social: Facebook // Twitter // Instagram

About World Travel Awards

WTA was established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the tourism industry.

Today, the WTA brand is recognised globally as the ultimate hallmark of quality, with winners setting the benchmark to which all others aspire.

Each year, WTA covers the globe with a series of regional gala ceremonies staged to recognise and celebrate individual and collective success within each key geographical region.

WTA gala ceremonies are widely regarded as the best networking opportunities in the travel industry, attended by government and industry leaders, luminaries and international print and broadcast media.

For more information about WTA visit worldtravelawards.com.
Accor, a pioneer in inclusive initiatives for Global hospitality, announced in September a revolutionary milestone in the Brazilian hotel industry: the adoption of a plus size trousseau as a pilot project at Pullman Sao Paulo Ibirapuera, which includes towels and robes of bigger sizes to meet the needs of all size of bodies. The initiative is part of the project "Hospitality has no size", ensuring a comfortable stay for people of all sizes and shapes.

In a world where the inclusion must be more than just a concept, we are thrilled to be the pioneers to adopt an initiative that fights the fatphobia and celebrates the diversity in its most authentic form. At Accor, we believe that the aim of the true hospitality is to create a space in which every person is able to feel welcome and valued. ANTONIETTA VARLESE, Communications and Sustainability SVP Accor Americas, Premium, Midscale & Economy

Accor is also planning to incorporate inclusion resources in the designs of its future hotels, including sturdier furniture and wide, beds with reinforced structures and wider bathroom boxes.

These are not only aesthetic changes, but a statement about our dedication to offering inclusive hospitality that meets the needs of people of all sizes, ages and needs. LARA TEIXEIRA, SVP of Design & Technical Services, Accor Americas

The pilot project initially has been implemented at Pullman Sao Paulo Ibirapuera, Brazil, and will serve as a guidance for other hotels of the network. The action, in a partnership with Sylvia Barreto, tourism journalist and creator of the portal Viajar e Simples (Travelling is Easy).

We are honored to be the starting point of an initiative that will redesign the meaning of an excellent stay for all our guests, without exceptions. JARVES ROCKENBACH, General Manager, Pullman SP Ibirapuera

This Accors project is more than a step ahead in the hospitality sector; it is a gigantic leap forward for the inclusion. Now, people of all sizes can explore the world with comfort and receive the respect that they deserve. I am honored to have contributed to such a transforming change. SYLVIA BARRETO, Creator of the portal Viajar e Simples (Travelling is Easy)

Furthermore, Accor is investing in specialized training for its teams, ensuring that respect and inclusion are intrinsic to every interaction with guests. This is an important step, but it is just the beginning. We remain firm in our commitment to setting the standard for hospitality that truly has no limits , concludes Antonietta Varlese.

About Accor, a world-leading hospitality group

Accor is a world leading hospitality group offering experiences across more than 110 countries in 5,500 properties, 10,000 food & beverage venues, wellness facilities or flexible workspaces. The Group has one of the industry's most diverse hospitality ecosystems, encompassing more than 40 hotel brands from luxury to economy, as well as Lifestyle with Ennismore. Accor is committed to taking positive action in terms of business ethics & integrity, responsible tourism, sustainable development, community outreach, and diversity & inclusion. Founded in 1967, Accor SA is headquartered in France and publicly listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ISIN code: FR0000120404) and on the OTC Market (Ticker: ACCYY) in the United States. For more information visit group.accor.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok.
Industry-leading Valor Hospitality Partners has been named lead operators of a new, multi-use development in Karachi, Pakistan by AAA. The Octa Karachi development consists of 314 commercial, retail and community spaces and will be Valors second property in Pakistan. This brings the global brands portfolio to more than 6,000 keyswith more than 900 in the Middle East.

Valor Hospitality will oversee the 5-star, international property complete with 114 rooms and suites, an airy lobby, more than 32,000 square feet of banqueting spaceincluding a ballroom and meeting roomsan Executive Club, cigar room, infinity pool, holistic spa and cinema.

This is a monumental step for Valor as we continue to expand our global portfolio and, with it, our dedication to providing exceptional experiences and guest services around the world. Weve learned a lot during our past year in Pakistan and look forward to implementing those practices and embracing the culture in this new endeavor. Euan McGlashan, global co-founder and CEO of Valor Hospitality

The hotel rooms and residences will be located in the AAA Octa 2 Tower and offer stunning views of Bahria town. Additionally, the property will offer a convenient connectivity to the M9 motorway and dining options will include an all-day restaurant, a cozy bar and 24-hour private dining.

Since announcing our first property last year in Lahore, Pakistan, we are so pleased to grow our presence in Pakistan further, in the beautiful coastal city of Karachi this time. We are very fortunate to be trusted by the visionary and forward-thinking owners and partners of AAA Associates to manage their investment. We are confident the development will offer a great lifestyle choice to investors and guests visiting Karachi for business or pleasure. Julien Bergue, co-founder and managing partner of Valor Hospitality Middle East



About AAA Associates

AAA is a conglomerate with a diverse portfolio that includes real estate, finance, builders and media. Established in 2015, AAA Associates has provided an investment platform to hundreds of customers. We currently have offices and operate in UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UK, France, Germany, Norway, Canada, USA and Australia.

About Valor Hospitality Partners

Valor Hospitality Partners is a leading global full-service hotel management company, headquartered in Atlanta, GA, USA. With over 90+ hospitality projects in its portfolio across The Americas, UK + Europe, Africa and Middle East, Valor is now rapidly expanding further within the Middle East, CIS, and Indian Ocean regions. Collaborating closely with owners and international hotel franchise partners, Valor creates value through shared operating platforms within key markets, innovative value creation and support with additional services such as, site selection, brand selection, financing solutions, conceptual design, technical services and more. For more information, visit valorhospitality.com and connect with Valor on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Guestroom at the Rumah Luwih Bali Hotel

IHG Hotels & Resorts is partnering with MMS Land to debut the first Vignette Collection hotel in Indonesia.

Rumah Luwih Bali with its 74 rooms and suites will join the IHG system later this year, before fully converting to a Vignette Collection property in 2024 following an extensive refurbishment. Blending heritage and hospitality, the beachfront luxury colonial-style resort will be refreshed to offer an authentic, experiential, and considerate stay, as part of the growing Vignette Collection of one-of-a-kind properties.

Rumah Luwih Bali joins Vignette Collections family of distinctive, elegant, and intriguing luxury and lifestyle hotels. Each Vignette Collection property is unique yet connected by a shared vision to make positive change for people, place, and planet. Created for the next generation of luxury & lifestyle traveler, each property is distinguished in its character and design, always with the discerning eye of the thoughtful venturer in mind.

Chris Anklin, Senior Director, Development, South East Asia and Korea, IHG Hotels & Resorts said: IHG Hotels & Resorts is expanding quickly across Indonesia with 24 open hotels and 15 hotels in the pipeline. As we grow across wonderful destinations in Indonesia, Bali continues to be an important market and tourism hub for international and domestic travellers.

We already have a strong luxury and lifestyle footprint in Bali with fantastic award-winning hotels across Six Senses, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts and Hotel Indigo. We are introducing more brands, and together with MMS Land, we will debut the Vignette Collection brand along Balis East Coast. This hotel will offer a one-of-a-kind stay for travellers as it expands our portfolio of brands on the Island of the Gods.

Mr. Andre Chandra Biantoro, CEO, MMS Land said: We look forward to introducing the first Vignette Collection property to open in Indonesia, and in Bali. Rumah Luwih is a heritage hotel acquired by MMS Land in April 2023, and now brings its distinct character and identity to Vignette Collection. We are confident that our partnership with IHG Hotels & Resorts, with their luxury & lifestyle expertise and global enterprise system, will elevate and enhance the hotel stay experience, bringing new travellers to the resort, and grow our business.

Nestled amidst lush greenery with views of Mount Agung and the ocean, Rumah Luwih Bali is a classically colonial style Indonesian mansion. 74 guest rooms and suites sit upon black sand beaches with sweeping views of rice paddies. An accessibly hidden hideaway, Rumah Luwih Bali is located within an undiscovered corner of Bali within an hours drive of the I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport. Facilities include an all-day dining restaurant, swimming pool, meeting rooms, fitness center and spa.

Shorelines brimming with Balis beautiful marine life make Rumah Luwih Bali a destination for world class diving and snorkeling. The serenity of sunrise walks upon the sands, home cooking style dining, cultural history and eco-tourism activities including white water rafting, waterfalls and surfing are also all within reach. Close to the slopes of Mount Agung, the area holds history of the Kings of Karangasem and temples such as Tirta Gangga, Besakih and the Water Palace.

Rumah Luwih Bali joins the global Vignette Collection portfolio in 2024, alongside Convent Square Lisbon and Casa da Companhia in Porto, Portugal, Yours Truly DC in the U.S., Hotel X Brisbane Fortitude Valley in Australia, Sindhorn Midtown Hotel Bangkok in Thailand and Th8 Palm Dubai Beach Resort with 18 hotels in the pipeline, and looks to reach 100 hotels by 2031*.

*Numbers as of 30 June 2023.
Windermere House

Muskoka, Ontarios 'Lady of the Lake' streamlines back-office accounting and finance internally and with sister property via PVNG by Aptech

Overlooking Lake Rosseau since 1870, the iconic Victorian landmark Windermere House needed to modernize its accounting and back-office functions in keeping with its status as Muskokas premiere hotel and resort. Management company BHospitality tapped Aptechs PVNG enterprise accounting solution to keep the propertys accounting and financial systems on the same page internally and companywide as BHospitality prepares for further growth.

Shortly after acquiring ownership of this iconic resort earlier this year, we discovered that several of our systems, including our back-office accounting system, would not suffice for our business growth plans, said Roger Oei, BHospitality Vice President, Finance. The flexibility, future development, and scalability of the existing solution did not align with our anticipated expansion.

Previously, the property used a locally developed, PMS-integrated back-office system that is no longer being consistently updated. Oei said software that doesnt get developed on a continuous basis becomes a dinosaur very quickly. He needed software he can rely on, that continues to be developed and supported.

Developers come and go, said Oei, but software support is key, and Aptech has been impeccable in that regard.

Windermere House chose PVNG as its preferred accounting solution due to the great success the product delivered at its sister property, the Cambridge Hotel & Conference Centre, in Cambridge, Ontario, said Oei. This 138-room property has been using the system  which handles accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, statistics, financials, and bank reconciliation, all with user-friendly browser navigation  since 2015.

Adding PVNG as our dedicated back-office solution will enhance our ability to financially manage and strategically plan our financial growth and success at Windermere House, said Oei. We expect that our favorable experiences at the Cambridge Hotel & Conference Centre will be repeated at the resort. Further, by expanding our hotel footprint in partnership with PVNG, it will allow our financial team to share resources and knowledge across our hotel properties.

Oei and his staff members find PVNG very intuitive, easy to use, and scalable. As we standardize accounting and finance across our hotel properties, it allows me from a financial perspective to use my people resources at different properties without their having to learn new software, he said.

Windermere House will use the systems general ledger, financial reporting, cash book, and payables functions. The propertys previous back-office system had reporting limitations and relied heavily on paper documents.

PVNG has the ability to attach images and backup documents, so information retrieval is easier, Oei said.

One of Oeis favorite PVNG capabilities is its ability to drill down from their monthly reports to identify business reasons behind a particular result. When budgeting, the software enables users to access any journal entry, including backup documentation and invoices, as needed. From a payroll perspective as well, it allows us to drill down to entries to the payroll register, he said.

These self-service capabilities will allow hotel staff members and BHospitalitys corporate financial team to perform financial analysis largely without back-and-forth communication regarding specific reports.

Windermere House (www.windermerehouse.com) offers not only spectacular vistas, but also lasting memories. Accommodations include 58 rooms and suites, along with the private, four-bedroom Windermere Cottage, which was undergoing renovation at press time.

The PVNG implementation will occur during a planned six-week shutdown in mid-October, after the Canadian Thanksgiving celebration, with reopening scheduled for the third week of November. Traditionally a May-through-September seasonal operation, Windermere House also will use Aptechs accounting solution to serve guests year-round. We already have a number of group conferences, corporate events, and holiday parties booked as we head to the holiday season, Oei said.

Going forward, BHospitality plans to migrate a Florida property to PVNG as well. With all 3 of its hotels initially on different back-office systems, side-by-side comparative analysis proved very cumbersome. PVNG will allow such comparisons easily, quickly, and efficiently.

As we continue the traditions at Windermere House in delivering exceptional service and unforgettable generational shared experiences with all our guests, Oei said, we are elated to have Aptech as one of our key partners in building our continued success at BHospitality.

Sam Costa, Aptech Director of Client Success, added, We take great pride in being able to provide PVNGs enterprisewide functionality to another BHospitality property. We are confident that as the companys footprint expands, Windermere House and their other properties will benefit from the companywide visibility and strategic decision-making capabilities that our solution provides.

For more information on PVNG by Aptech, visit http://www.aptech-inc.com.



About Aptech Computer Systems Inc.

Aptech Computer Systems, Inc., based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the only provider of a fully integrated enterprise accounting, business intelligence, and planning ecosystem to the hospitality industry. All clients are companies like yours, which own or manage hotels. Its solutions help customers at both the corporate and property levels understand their financial and operational data for faster goal achievement. The company is renowned for introducing business intelligence into the hotel industry and offers a solid resource of hospitality professionals. Aptech is an IBM Software Value Plus partner and Premier Solution Provider, as well as a Prophix Premier Business Partner. Incorporated in 1970, Aptechs state-of-the-art back office, true business intelligence and enterprise planning solutions are 100% hotel specific. Solutions include PVNG, Execuvue and Targetvue. Clients comprise over 3,500 properties  including large chains, multiple-property management companies and single-site hotels. Execuvue is registered to Aptech Computer Systems Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective holders. For more information, please visit www.aptech-inc.com.
Mondello Palace Hotel in Sicily to Reopen Under Movenpick Brand

Accor expands its portfolio in Italy with the signing of a new franchising contract with Mondello Palace Hotel Srl, to reopen the Mondello Palace Hotel under the Movenpick brand.

Mondello Palace Hotel is a historic building, a landmark for the coastal district of Mondello, and it is located opposite the Old Bathing Establishment known as 'Charleston'.

The hotel is currently closed for a complete renovation of the interior and exterior spaces, by Luigi Smecca Architects studio in Palermo.

Scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2024, the property will feature 80 rooms - including 14 suites  an extensive conference area, a restaurant, bar, spa, 2 paddle courts and outdoor swimming pools that will provide guests with unforgettable experiences in perfect harmony with the exclusive style of the Movenpick brand.

"We are really proud of this franchise agreement with Mondello Palace Hotel srl to bring the Movenpick brand to the magnificent Mondello. Sicily is a key destination for national and international tourism and is therefore a development area in which we are very interested. We are confident that the resort vocation of the Movenpick brand, together with its holistic approach to sustainability and deep commitment to the environment and local communities will contribute to the international resonance of a historic hotel with a view to repositioning the Mondello destination," said Ettore Cavallino, Senior Director Development Italy, Greece and Malta

"We are thrilled to have started this initiative, which will be a great challenge for us both in terms of redeveloping the property and in the future with the management. The hotel will have countless facilities, including a spa and paddle courts, and our goal is to create an oasis within walking distance of the centre of Palermo. We are confident that with the cooperation of our technicians and the Movenpick brand, we will create a comfortable, exclusive and modern environment where our guests will be able to enjoy the local culture to the full", said a representative of Mondello Palace Hotel srl, the future manager of the hotel.

"We have been working with the Accor group for years and we could not be prouder of the relationship of mutual trust that has been established over time. This partnership has created an atmosphere of harmony that can be felt every day in our hotel both among our staff and our customers, many of whom are now loyal guests. We are thrilled that our family is expanding and certain that the Movenpick brand will breathe new life into the historic 'Palace' in Mondello", said a representative of the Mercure Palermo Centro.

With the signing of the Movenpick Mondello Palace, the Accor Group consolidates its presence in the region of Sicily, particularly in Palermo, bringing the number of hotels - with different brands - in the Sicilian capital to four.
Merete Hotel Management is pleased to announce the appointment of Tim Smith as the new Vice President of Operations and Jill Brewster as the new Regional Director of Sales. In these pivotal roles, Mr. Smith and Mrs. Brewster will support the continued growth and success of Merete's portfolio.

Tim brings to Merete' over 25 years' experience in hotel operations leadership. Throughout his career, Tim has cultivated an understanding of all facets of the industry, from economy brands to luxury full-service and vacation destination resorts. As a member of Meretes Executive Team, Tim will play a critical role as Merete expands their management portfolio and continues a long tradition of award-winning hotel operations. Liz Dahlager, Executive Vice President of Merete, expressed her enthusiasm stating, "Tim is passionate about developing people and growing our businesses. I look forward to Tims positive impact on our organization.

Jill is also an industry veteran with a wealth of experience in hotel sales and marketing with a diverse range of brands including lifestyle, select service, and full service. Jill will be responsible for sales and marketing efforts at seven Merete managed hotels in Oregon and Washington and will be based in Portland Oregon. Marissa Ruf, Corporate Director of Sales, says, As a high performer, Jill embraces our culture of passion and excellence for all things hospitality. We are delighted to have her join our sales leadership team.





About Merete Hotel Management







Merete Hotel Management has been established for over 25 years and is an award-winning full-service hotel management company based in Springfield, Oregon, with hotels located throughout the Pacific Northwest. Merete operates hotels under licensing agreements with Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, IHG Hotels and Resorts, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, and Choice Hotels International. For additional information about Merete Hotel Management services, please contact us at info@meretehotels.com.




AR's Editor Joe Shea Talks About Elections On Iranian TV Bear Stearns Saved By Fed As Lehman Bros. Falters; Major Bank

Failure Looms Over Wall Street, Sends Markets Into 200-Pt. Dive Lie Upon Lie Five Years Into the Iraq War

The Administration Still Churns Out Lies by Randolph Holhut A Small Tragedy Even at 90, As Friends Turn Cool

She Knows the Show Must Go On by Joyce Marcel I'll Take Me Imagine John Wayne or Arnold

In Heels, Silk and a Girdle by Elizabeth Andrews Sen. Nelson Calls For New Fla. Primary; Gov Crist Backs 'Do-Over' Who'll Win? Ask Spock Spock.com Engine Predicts Winners

By Site Searches; It Can be Wrong by Jay Bhatti Chatting Up The Cat God Gave Me Dominion Over Him

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AFTER 5 YEARS, WE'RE STILL LIED TO ABOUT IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Next week is the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And it is likely that sometime in the next couple of weeks, the 4,000th American soldier will die in Iraq. [MORE] Momentum

OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - It's 1931, and a 14-year-old girl is standing alone on a stage. She's small and lively with dark curly hair, widespread hazel eyes, slender wrists and an open, eager face filled with the wonder of performing. Her name is Rose, and one day she will be my mother. But now she is performing an Eugene O'Neill monologue called "Before Breakfast" for a ladies' club in a wealthy suburb of Long Island. [MORE] One Woman's World

COMFORTABLE WITH MYSELF by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I'm not sure but I think I may be socially incorrect. [MORE] On Native Ground

ENOUGH FOR A WAR, NOT FOR A PEOPLE by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Last week, the National Governors Assn. met in Washington, D.C. One of the tasks the NGA had on its agenda was to ask President Bush to increase federal spending on roads, bridges and other public works projects as a way to stimulate the economy. He rejected their pleas out of hand, claiming that infrastructure projects wouldn't offer any short-term economic boost. [MORE] Brasch Words

BEWARE THE SELF-REVERENTIAL PRESS by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Shortly before the primary votes this past week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter called Sen. Barack Obama's surge to the Democratic nomination "inevitable." It also called for Hillary Clinton to "start her campaign for Senate majority leader." [MORE] Constance

A CONVERSATION WITH MY CAT Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- Normally, when the cat starts his evening rant of meowing continuously until he makes his point, I just take it as long as I can, pick him up, and put him in the garage for the night. He doesn't want to go, but the meowing stops and I don't care if he likes it or not. [MORE] Momentum

OUT OF STRUGGLE, ART by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Here we are again at the crossroads of art and social change, having the opportunity to watch good and great films about the lives of women in support of the Women's Crisis Center. [MORE] Campaign 2008

HOW TO PREDICT SUPER TUESDAY II WINNERS? ONLINE SEARCH by Jay Bhatti NEW YORK, March 4, 2008, 7:00PM ET -- With the outcomes of the Texas, Vermont, Ohio and Rhode Island primaries to be decided tonight, how possible is it that online searching can predict who will win tonight's primaries? [MORE] One Woman's World

DON'T VOTE; IT ENCOURAGES THEM by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Call me angry and disgusted but don't call me un-American because I won't be voting come November. [MORE] On Native Ground

BUSH AND THE KEYBOARD COMMANDOS by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- As the days tick down toward the eventual departure of President George W. Bush from the White House, it's a hopeful sign that most Americans are no longer moved by his Administration's constant exploitation of terrorism for political gain. [MORE] Momentum

WHICH AMERICA DO YOU LIVE IN? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- It's a little confusing. [MORE] Make My Dat

THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] On Native Ground

FIDEL RETIRES: NOW THE COLD WAR IS REALLY OVER by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Maybe now, we can finally say the Cold War is over. [MORE] Make My Dat

THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] One Woman's World

POLITICS IS NO PARTY by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Are you having a hard time focusing your eyes? Do you have faint red spots all over your body? Is there a ringing in your ears and do you see wavy lines when you look at your television set? Do your hands shake when you try to hold a cup of coffee? And have you recently been forgetting what day of the week it is - or what year? [MORE] Make My Day

FOR BETTER OR WORSE ... A LOT WORSE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- "Marriage: It's Only Going to Get Worse." [MORE] Constance

YOU CALL THESE RIGHTS? by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- When you express an opinion you hope to persuade others to your point of view. It doesn't always happen but still, opinion writers try. [MORE] Momentum

THE BRIDGE WOMAN by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - Out there in America - yes, still - is a generation of women who were born in the 1940s, raised in the 1950s, and who came to radical consciousness in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I am one of them. Hillary Clinton is one of them. [MORE] On Native Ground

OBAMA AND MY GENERATION by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- I originally planned on voting for Dennis Kucinich in the Vermont Primary on March 4. [MORE] The Willies:

WARNING: THIS MEDICATION MAY MURDER YOUR FRIENDS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla. -- You've heard the warnings, haven't you? Stop Prozac and you may take a shotgun, an Uzi or an AK-47 and mow down your family and friends, or even a whole classroom full of your fellow students. You didn't? Well, that warning is not on the bottle, but like countless mass-murder incidents before it, Friday's shootings at Northern Illinois University, as well as the Virginia Tech shootings that killed 32 last year, was probably precipitated by the effect of stopping medications that suppress anger and other powerful emotions but do not relieve the underlying cause. Isn't it time we started warning people - or stopped prescribing these medicines? [MORE] One Woman's World

DON'T KNOCK ON MY DOOR by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I wish I could feel delight in my poet's mansion being like Grand Central Station all the time, but I can't. And I wish my place was such a place that someone would one day write: "Her door was always open and she always made you feel all fuzzy and warm in her presence. She could make a cup of coffee seem like a banquet." [MORE] Reporting: Panama

PANAMA'S VIOLENT LABOR UNREST INTENSIFIES Mark Scheinbaum PANAMA CITY, Panama, Feb, 15, 2008 -- After just one day of relative calm, wildcat construction strikes by some members of Panama's largest union flared up again Friday morning, four days after a police sniper shot one worker. More than 140 demonstrators have been injured and at least 500 arrested, authorities say. [MORE] Brasch Words

TO STIMULATE ECONOMY, BUY A CHINESE-MADE U.S. FLAG by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Walking down Main Street, pushing a grocery cart loaded with clothes, toys, and appliances was Marshbaum. Fastened to the right front corner of the cart was an American flag tied onto a three-foot ruler. [MORE] Make My Day

THE TOOTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TOOTH by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- To commemorate the death of noted shark exploder Roy Scheider, and the "Jaws" movies that resulted in Erik never setting foot in the ocean again, we are reprinting this column from 2003. Shark Experts 0, Sharks 1 [MORE] Momentum

THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - As I write this, it's raining ice. Maybe a half a foot of snow and ice has already landed up here in the woods of Dummerston. Our cars are encased in it, and the door to the house is blocked. The satellite dish that brings in our Internet service quit about 20 minutes ago - frozen solid. [MORE] The Willies

AMERICA TO HILLARY: GET OUT! by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 13, 2008 -- Sen. Hillary Clinton has adopted the Rudy Giuliani strategy, and it's working - for Sen. Barack Obama. It turns out to be the strategy all Democrats are seeking - an exit strategy. But it's not for Iraq. It's for her exit from the race for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. [MORE] Constance

CONFESSIONS OF A DISAPPOINTED VOTER by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- A week ago at just about this time, I completed an article and was about to submit it as scheduled to The American Reporter. I was feeling rather elated, ready to show up on Super Tuesday morning, firmly touch the X next to Rudy Giuliani's name and get on with my day. He was my choice; he would get my vote. [MORE] Reporting: Florida

SIERRA CLUB SET TO SUSPEND FLA. CHAPTER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 10, 2008 -- The national Sierra Club is set to suspend its Florida chapter after years of divisive infighting, the president of the national club told Florida members in a letter delivered to some this weekend. It is the first time in its 116-year history that such a step has been considered by the club, according to news reports. [MORE] One Woman's World

PLANT A NEW WORLD THIS SPRING by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- For a little while, the men will just have to toss and turn in their fear-free-women beds. For a small space of time Hillary Clinton will just have to trudge on toward the White House without my faint applause in the background. [MORE] On Native Ground

VERMONT AND THE 5 STAGES OF CONSERVATIVE GRIEF by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- First, Vermont tried to convince the nation to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. [MORE] Make My Day

REBEL WITHOUT A TONGUE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Kids' brains work in amazing ways. At times, they can grasp complex concepts and make impressive discoveries. Other times, you have to wonder how we ever survived as a species. [MORE] The Willies

FOR DEMOCRATS, NOW IT'S ABOUT RACE, INCOME AND GENDER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Feb. 6, 2008 -- It's not a good time to be a Democrat. As the Super Tuesday results demonstrated, the presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has divided the partly along clear racial, income and gender lines - the very distinctions the party has sought to erase in principle but has emphasized in its pursuit of diversity. [MORE] Momentum

SUPER TUESDAY BLUES by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Super Tuesday has come and gone and I still can't get excited about the upcoming presidential elections. [MORE] The Willies

ON THE BRINK OF HISTORY, YOUR PUSH IS NEEDED by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 5. 2008 -- I'm expecting a sea change tonight. I believe that for the first time in this nation's history we will once and forever banish racism as the deciding factor in the destiny of African-Americans, and indeed adopt diversity as our path to the future. [MORE] Campaign 2008

AT 88, EVERY VOTE REALLY COUNTS by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 5, 2008 -- Pearl Turner will caucus for Mitt Romney tonight in Denver. [MORE] One Woman's World

STAND BY YOUR WOMAN by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- The black vote. The gay vote. The fundamentalist vote. The Hispanic vote. [MORE] An AR Special

SUSPECTS IN BENAZIR ASSASSINATION HAVE TIES TO MUSHARRAF by Ahmar Mustikhan WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When Gordon Brown this past Monday feted coup-leader-turned-President Pervez Musharraf at 10 Downing Street, Britain's new prime minister probably didn't ask the Pakistani dictator a question that is now on many minds: Did you order the murder of Benazir Bhutto? [MORE] Momentum

TO THE VERMONT DELEGATION: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR US LATELY? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt.  Back when President George W. Bush and Dick Vice President Dick Cheney were building up to their loathsome war in Iraq, very few people were brave enough to call the bullies' bluff. [MORE] On Native Ground

IF BUSH HAS HIS WAY, WE'LL NEVER LEAVE IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. - In his final State of the Union address on Jan. 28, President Bush cautioned against accelerating U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, saying that it would endanger the process that has been made over the past year. [MORE] Campaign 2008

CLASH OF COMMENTS AND PROTESTORS AT CLINTON, OBAMA RALLIES IN DENVER by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 1, 2008 -- At least four presidential campaigns of both partiers rolled into in Denver this week ahead of the Feb. 5 "Super Tuesday" primaries in 22 states, but it was the Democratic presidential contenders who drew the big crowds and duked it out Wednesday. If sheer numbers are any indication, Sen. Barack Obama - preceded by a buoyant and beautiful Caroline Kennedy - won the round handily. He is the overwhelming favorite to win the Colorado primary next Tuesday. [MORE] The Willies

WHY THE FLORIDA PRIMARY STINKS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Jan. 30, 2008 -- I was with my wife and daughter driving the back way from Miami home to Bradenton when we stopped at a McDonald's in Clewiston, the only big town along the vast shore of Lake Okeechobee, the state's precious freshwater reservoir. The McDonald's had three televisions at a central seating area, each tuned to a different network, and our table was in front of CNN as the very first election results started to pour in around 7:30PM. With them, almost as counterpoint, suddenly came such an overwhelming odor of cow plop that my wife started to throw up as we all ran to the parking lot. [MORE] Passings: Suharto

DEATH OF A KEMUSU THUG by Andreas Harsono JAKARTA - A few minutes after hearing that former president Suharto had died in his hospital bed, Marco, a militia leader in downtown Jakarta, raced to Suhartos house, wearing his jungle camouflage and began guarding the Suhartos residence on Cendana Street. [MORE] Constance

I REMEMBER YOU by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga.. -- It seems to be more often lately that the sentiment is spoken but it's always been out there: "You never get over the death of your child." This is true. But the heartfelt expressions come from some who cannot fathom the notion of losing a child; their own child is who is in their mind, not another mother's child. [MORE]
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After a 40-year run, Albanys beloved Hungarian restaurant, Novaks, is closing its doors. The spot put Albany on the map as the only Hungarian restaurant in Oregon.

A Place to Sleep - episode 2: Albany, part II Last week we introduced Dusty Bryant, who police evicted from Albany's designated resting site for homeless individuals. This week, we check in to see what's happening with Dusty.

But the eatery's owners arent sad about it closing. In fact, they're excited for whats to come next in the building.

Novaks Hungarian Restaurant first opened in 1984, and it has always been a family affair. Matilda and Joseph, affectionately referred to as Mama and Papa, emigrated from Hungary after fleeing Communist rule.

After a difficult time finding jobs in between Oregon and California, his daughter Karen Novak suggested they try to start the Hungarian restaurant they had always talked about.

Getting a business loan was a challenge. Everywhere they went they were denied, she said.

But after receiving a real estate loan, the family was able to start their business, converting favorite family dishes to large restaurant-sized portions. The three family members launched the restaurant, but various other family members helped throughout the years, including city Councilor Matilda Novak.

We will be remembered for Hungarian food prepared and served with love, Karen Novak said.

Karen Novak isnt sad about closing up shop.

It feels like Im going out the way I chose, she said.

She didnt think about selling the building until a friend, and the owner of Sweet Red Bistro, approached her about buying it, she said. That was last spring.

Karen Novak liked cooking everything, all the recipes passed down from her mother, Auntie and grandma, she said. Chicken Paprikash, cabbage rolls, the process of trimming meat and preparing sautes. But for 14 hours a day year after year, it has taken a toll on her.

Her mother, Matilda Novak, had to get her elbow, shoulder and knee replaced, and now she can feel a strain in her own body, she said.

But she really loves cooking, and she doesnt plan on stopping, she said.

To that end, Karen Novak plans on working in Sweet Reds kitchen, she said. The transition will be less punishing to her body because she will be an employee instead of running a business, she said.

Shes excited for Sweet Red to have a larger space to accommodate their patrons, and shes ready to stop working 14 hours a day in the kitchen.

Inside Novaks Hungarian Restaurant, the walls that were once filled with various Hungarian memorabilia are now empty. Family friends came by for an early dinner and took what they wanted off the walls, she said.

Its a little odd to see the walls empty, she said. Shes spent a lot of her life in the restaurant.

It felt like home, she said.

Just when they were able to open their doors again after the fire, the pandemic began, and the restaurant had to serve from out of a window instead of offering sit-down service, she said. After that, staffing has never been the same.

For many loyal patrons of the restaurant, the closure came as a shock when Karen and Matilda Novak announced the restaurant's closure Sunday, Oct. 1.

Albany will never be the same without Novaks! Thank you for all the yummy meals! Amy Lynn Sears wrote on Facebook.

More than 200 posted messages expressed sadness and gratitude. Some commenters said they traveled from different parts of Oregon just to have a meal at the restaurant. Others shared memories.

Novaks was my first date with my wife of 28 wonderful years," wrote Daniel Christensen. You will be missed.

Karen Novak knows the news was a surprise for many. But if she were to announce the closure before they closed their doors, theres no way she would have been able to keep up with the rush, she said.

Shes leaving with gratitude, she said.

I just want to say thank you to the customers. There is no way we could have stayed in business.  Theres a lot of love in the community, she said.

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North Adams Historical Commission To Rededicate Tablet Memorializing Former Mayor

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The Historical Commission plans to reinstall the thought-to-be-lost tablet honoring former mayor Mayor William Kirk Greer.

"Monuments are unveiled with great fanfare, and then they just fade into the background. People walk past them every day, and they don't even notice them," Chairman Paul Marino told the commission Thursday, Sept. 28.

Marino, referring to one of his historical essays , told the commission of one such monument honoring William Kirk Greer, who was mayor from 1923 to 1924.

He said Greer was also in charge of the Hoosac Mills, located where the Eclipse Mill sits now. The mills were then owned by a firm in New Bedford, and Greer was the equivalent of the Chief Operating Officer.

Greer died in 1947 after managing the mills for 47 years.

"When he died in 1945, it was actually rather sudden. The entire company came together. By the entire company, I mean not only the owners in Boston but the labor force in North Adams," he said. "They erected a bronze tablet to his memory in the warping room of the mill, and that's the last that I'd heard of it."

Marino assumed that the tablet was lost when that portion of the mill was torn down.

"That plaque had been forgotten about," he said. "It had become invisible, and it went out with the other wreckage."

But last year Greer's great-grandson contacted Marino and said that the family was given this tablet when its original location was torn down

"So, they still have it, and they want to give it back to the city," he said.

Marino said he would like to reinstall the tablet sometime this year, most likely on city hall. He said he will meet with the mayor and figure out the best place to affix it. He said they plan to reinstall the tablet on Oct. 9.

Continuing with memorialization, Committee member Joanne Hurlbut said the city plans to honor Historical Commissioner Justyna Carlson. Carlson, a local historian and community advocate, died earlier this year.

Hurlbut said she is still working out the details with the city, but she hopes to have some sort of ceremony with a plaque dedication in March, Women's History Month.

"We still need a location, but everyone is pretty much thinking March. We will do something formal," she said. "If I hear anything else I will let you know."

The commission voted to skip out on applying for a Historical House Survey grant to update the city's log of historical homes, at least for the 2024 grant cycle.

With swiftly approaching deadlines and much groundwork to cover, the commission felt they would be more prepared in a year.

"I'm thinking we should forget 2024 and plan for applying in 2025 because that would give us time," Marino said. "To look over the houses, see which ones we want to update, see which ones we want to add, and touch base with the rest of the city offices to find out where we could get support."

Hurlbut said the commission would have to submit a pre-application by Nov. 15. but before that, they would need to have an idea of the houses they want to include as well as buy-in from the city as the grant is a 50/50 matching grant.

Hurlbut added that the city has applied for this grant before and she asked Marino to dig through some materials left by Carlson who spearheaded past applications. She also felt it would be beneficial to reach out to Mass Historic to see exactly what they would need to include in an application.

Marino said the city's listings very much need to be updated as many entries are wrong or include unnecessary information.

"Some of the things that need to be updated are descriptions because a lot of the people who volunteered for that had no idea what they were doing," he said. "They look at a second empire house and call it a mansard house because it has a mansard roof. Well, there's no such thing as a mansard house."

In other business, the commission approved the demolition of a barn located at 396 East Main Street.

Marino said the structure is in the process of collapsing; he said the structure is potentially dangerous.

"We are going to make some people very happy there," Marino said.
What should you ask a financial advisor?

Managing your finances and investing for your future are important tasks  and they can be challenging. But you don't have to go it alone. Many people benefit from working with a financial advisor, someone who knows their needs and goals and makes appropriate recommendations. If you're considering getting some help, you'll want to ensure a particular financial advisor is right for you, so it's a good idea to ask questions.

Here are some to consider:

Have you worked with people like me? All of us are unique individuals. Yet, you do share certain characteristics with others  age, income, family situation and so on. And you might feel comfortable knowing that a financial advisor has worked with people like you and can readily understand and appreciate your needs and specific goals: college for your children, a certain type of retirement lifestyle, the kind of legacy you'd like to leave and others. The more information you can provide about yourself upfront, the better your chances of finding a good match.

Do you have a particular investment philosophy? Some financial advisors follow a particular investment style, while others might focus on specific investments or categories. There's nothing inherently wrong with these types of approaches, but you might be better served by working with someone who takes a broader view  one that emphasizes helping clients meet their goals over any particular philosophy or strategy.

How will you communicate with me? Open and frequent communication are key to a successful relationship with a financial advisor. So, you'll want to know what you can expect. Will you have annual or semi-annual reviews of your accounts? In between these reviews, can you contact your advisor at any time with questions you may have? How will an advisor notify you to recommend investment moves? Is the financial advisor the individual you'll communicate with, or are other people involved?

How do you define success for your clients? Some investors track their portfolios' performance against that of a specific market index, such as the S&P 500. But these types of benchmarks can be misleading. For one thing, investors should strive for a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and other investments, whereas the S&P 500 only tracks the largest U.S. stocks. So, when you talk to potential financial advisors about how they define success for their clients, you may want to look for responses that go beyond numbers and encompass statements such as these: "I'm successful if my clients trust me to do the right things for them. And, most important, I'm successful when I know I've helped my clients reach all their goals."

How are you compensated? Financial advisors are compensated in different ways  some work on commissions, some charge fees, and some combine fees and commissions. There isn't necessarily any best method, from a client's point of view, but you should clearly understand how a potential advisor is compensated before you begin a professional relationship.

These aren't the only questions you might ask a potential financial advisor, but they should give you a good start. When you're trusting someone to help you with your important financial goals, you want to be completely comfortable with that individual  so ask whatever is on your mind.
The former site of Grandmother's Tavern on Union Street is being eyed for a cannabis dispensary.

North Adams Planners Put Off Decisions on Dispensary, 'Glamp' Site



Ben Crespi explains a request to modify his special permit for a glamping resort on Notch Road. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The Planning Board on Monday put off deciding on two special permit applications that proponents say will add jobs and contribute to the city's tax base.

Barbara Canale-Schmidt appeared before the board to seek relief from a state-mandated setback requirement in order to open a marijuana dispensary at 31 Union St., the former site of Grandmother's Tavern.

Benjamin Crespi was back before the board seeking a modification to his special permit in order to operate his planned Notch Road "glamping" site year-round.

In each case, the planners decided they needed more information before voting to proceed and told the applicants they will take up their requests at the board's next meeting.

Canale-Schmidt, doing business as Topaz Enterprise LLC, told the board that a pot shop in the currently vacant Union Street property would, "have the potential to generate good tax revenue for the city, bringing jobs and vitality."

To make that happen, Canale-Schmidt needs relief from a few different local zoning rules and, most significantly, one state rule.

State law requires that retail establishments be located no nearer than 500 feet to a public or private school. The 31 Union St. property is 225 feet from Colegrove Park Elementary School.

One member of the seven-person board Monday night expressed hesitancy about exercising the board's authority to make an exception to that requirement.

"I think it's an adequate building," Kyle Hanlon said. "I can't in good conscience let it go near the school.

"I just can't see past the part that, as a grandfather, it would be irresponsible of me to allow a cannabis facility that close to a school."

Chair Brian Miksic disagreed.

"My daughter, sitting right there, goes to that school," Miksic said, pointing to his daughter seated in the gallery of the City Council Chambers. "I have no issue with the location for several issues: One, I don't think it matters, personally. You can't walk into one of these establishments if you're a child. The security is way tighter than any package store.

"[The school] is also 50 feet up. There's literally a cliff to the school on the hill, and the [proposed] establishment is down here. Any way you want to talk, it's about 1,500 feet away.  The specific location, for me, I have absolutely no issue with it."

An anonymous emailer claiming to be a "concerned North Adams parent" contacted local media prior to Monday's hearing expressing alarm about the proposal and claiming that the application process was being rushed. But no one spoke from the floor of the hearing during its public comment period to object to the location of the proposed business.

One person did tell the board that the city should hit the pause button on approving any new cannabis businesses.

Dan Berger, who said repeatedly that he supports the marijuana industry and has no problem with Canale-Schmidt or Topaz, told the board that the city needs to wait on giving licenses until it creates a policy to address equity issues in licensing.

"In 2016, part of the ballot question was to help affect people disproportionately affected by the war on drugs," Berger said. "Now we're trying to live up to the Question 4 language."

The commonwealth's Cannabis Control Commission last year clarified the need for municipalities to have equity policies in place by July 2023, Berger said.

"Before the city issues any [host community agreements] or special permits, I'd ask the Planning Board to wait until the equity policies are in place."

Strictly speaking, the issue before the Planning Board on Monday was whether to grant Canale-Schmidt a provisional special permit. Topaz is in the process of getting a license from the CCC, and the city only has two dispensary permits: one currently used by the operational Clear Sky Cannabis Dispensary on State Road and one that was issued to, but not yet used by, Sparkboro Wellness. Another potential cannabis operation, Spencer House, also was before the board on Monday for a modification to its special permit.

Miksic noted that the Planning Board can and has granted provisional permits based on approval from other city bodies. The City Council approves host community agreements.

Hanlon, who expressed his hesitancy to approve a cannabis dispensary so close to a school, said that he would rather Canale-Schmidt withdraw her application than see it fail in a negative vote, which would have prevented reapplication for two years. He suggested that the shop's design could be altered to move its storefront to the rear of the Union Street property, out of view from passing Colegrove pupils.

Ultimately, he withdrew a motion to deny the application after Jesse Lee Poirer suggested an alternative.

"It seems like there are three good reasons to delay," Poirer said. "There's the municipal equity policy, the permits aren't available and then, addressing the concerns of the public in regards to [the process].

"My understanding is we notified all property abutters within 300 feet. There is a desire by some that parents of school-aged children get notified. I get notified by the school of things all the time."

After the meeting, Miksic said he did not believe the North Adams Public Schools, which are not strictly an abutter with a property across Union Street (Route 2) received a written notice of the hearing.

"All three of those [reasons] call for a little more time," Poirer said. "Kyle [Hanlon], you said that given a little more time, you could conceive of changing your opinion with some further discussion."

Hanlon then withdrew his motion to deny the special permit application, and the board quickly voted 6-0-1 to revisit the matter in a month. Lisa Blackmer, citing her employment in the North Berkshire School Union with headquarters at 26 Union St., abstained from the vote.

The other lengthy discussion before the board on Monday involved the planned glamping resort on Notch Road.

Proprietor Ben Crespi told the planners that expanding his special permit from six months to 12 months will make the resort more economically viable and allow him to create more than 30 full-time jobs.

"I want to be a good neighbor," Crespi told the board. "The best way to be a good neighbor is to have a professional staff. If I have to hire and fire staff every six months, I'm not able to attract the best people."

Crespi also is asking the board to modify his special permit to designate the resort a 24-hour operation, which he characterized as a technicality in the current permit.

"It's more about trying to be transparent with the community," Crespi said. "I'm going to have security 24 hours a day, maintenance 24 hours a day. But there will be no change in quiet hours, no change in events, anything like that. I think [24-hour operation] was implied in the original permit, but it was a technicality I saw."

Later, Crespi's attorney echoed the point.

"Any resort which has people sleeping over is going to be 24 hours," James Martin told the board. "This is not a change. It was implied."



Barbara Canale-Schmidt, above, addresses the Planning Board on plans for a cannabis dispensary on Union Street; below, Heather Anello of Spencer House LLC, which holds one of the two city permits, says she'll be back with location plans. After Miksic cautioned the room that the board's focus was on the two specific changes to the permit and that it did not intend to "relitigate" the original special permit, an attorney for a Notch Road resident told the board that Crespi, "should be filing a whole new special permit application because of this change."

Elisabeth Goodman told the planners that changing the glamp site to a year-round, 24-hour operation was a major change.

"[Crespi] has not said why needs to have a 24-hour resort operation," Goodman said. "It concerns me he's going to use that to get around careful regulation of outdoor noise. Will people be coming and going at 2 a.m.?"

Goodman and Notch Road resident Dan Dobb expressed concerns about snow removal and safety issues related to tourists using the winding road during the winter months.

Hanlon moved that the board postpone a decision on Crespi's application.

"The applicant has a lawyer, the neighbor has a lawyer, I think we need to take time and get [the application] reviewed by the solicitor of the City of North Adams," Hanlon said, alluding to a prior lawsuit involving permitting of the glamping site. "I anticipate some conflict on this issue. I think the city would be wise to postpone it for a month."

The board voted 7-0 to hold off on the question.

In other business on Monday:

 Heather Anello of Heather Anello of Spencer House informed the planners that her business will be back before the board to seek a change of venue to operate at the Veterans of Foreign Wars site instead of the American Legion, as originally proposed.

 The owners of the Porches Inn sought four modifications to a previously approved site plan at the hotel property. The board voted 7-0 to approve changes to a planned walkway, the elimination of a bedroom, a change of location for HVAC equipment and a move to run electric service underground.

 As requested by the City Council, the board voted 6-1 to modify setbacks in the city's Central Business District Zone. Planner Rye Howard voted nay, citing previous objections to the change.

 Miksic was re-elected chair and Poirer as vice chair.
A Linn County Court judge has ruled in favor of several Millersburg landowners who were in court nearly two months ago trying to stop the city from taking a slice of their backyards for a road without compensation.

The motion at the time was for what's called "summary judgment," in which a judge will stop a proceeding before it gets to trial, favoring one side over the other.

Based on comments made during the Aug. 11 hearing, it appeared Judge Michael Wynhausen was leaning toward letting the city move forward with its plans to take possession of a 30-foot easement along the six homeowners' properties. The city had argued the legal descriptions of the lots included a dedication of right of way the city could claim in the future.

But on Monday, Oct. 2, Wynhausen said he was denying the city summary judgment because the language of the subdivisions plat was open to more than one interpretation.

He added that the landowners had been paying property taxes on their lots since purchasing the properties, and he found only the plats dedication of the 30-foot strip as an access and utility easement unequivocal.

While a right of way is typically owned by a city, an easement simply allows access.

The citys attorneys had written to the landowners on May 18, 2022, requesting that they deed the 30-foot easement behind their properties to the city for a right of way that would accommodate a new development proposed to the south.

According to the citys attorneys, the subdivisions plat, which was recorded on or about Oct. 16, 2013  before any of the homeowners bought their properties  includes a declaration of a 30-foot-wide access and utility easement along the six lots which "shall be dedicated as public right of way upon the request of the city of Millersburg."

The citys attorneys argued that the plat served as due notice to the landowners of the citys reserved rights to dedicate the easement as a right of way at some point in the future.

But lawyers for the landowners, which include among them a City Council member, argued that the language was not only ambiguous but that the landowners should not have paid taxes on their properties all along if the strip belonged to the city.

Bob Tyler, lawyer for most of the landowners minus Ray and Bettye Hunt, reiterated this at the beginning of the hearing Monday, conveying a message to Wynhausen.

My client will like you to be told that theyve been paying taxes on the property for all this time, and they think that they own it, Tyler said in court.

Wynhausen said with unclear language of the plat, the city is basically seizing the property in its attempt to dedicate the easement as a right of way.

Citing a 2016 appellate court ruling, Wynhausen said that to reclaim land will be a violation of good faith to the public and to those who have acquired private property with the expectation of enjoying the use contemplated by the dedication.

He added that the city can go about acquiring the property for the purpose of right of way dedication in other ways, including purchasing the property from its owners.

He did decide the city may access the property "for easement and utilities," but not for building a road.

The fact that the homeowners have been paying property taxes on the easement was persuasive for Wynhausen.

Mike Hickam, who is also a city councilor, said after the hearing that he and his neighbors never disputed the 30-foot strip had an access and utility easement.

Asked how he was feeling after the hearing, Ray Hunt, another landowner who is also a developer, said: Excellent.

He did not believe the city would appeal, and the citys attorneys did not move a motion to appeal the judges decision at the hearing.

Chelsea Bond, another landowner, was all smiles at the end of the hearing. This was the outcome theyve wanted all along, she said.

She and husband Jason Bond had spent about $10,000 landscaping and fencing after the city signed off on their improvements only to be served notice demanding they execute a deed for the 30-foot portion of their lot two months later.

Related stories:
Global technology leader Epson marks its 25th anniversary in the country with a recognition that acknowledges its excellent customer support in Epson Service Centers. Epson Philippines ranked first in Statista and Philippine Daily Inquirer's Best Customer Service 2023 survey in the Home Goods, Consumer Electronics category. The recognition, based on an independent nationwide survey with over 11,000 participants, showcases Epson's commitment to delivering exceptional support and assistance to its customers, with a focus on accessibility, communication, and professional competence . The Best Customer Service 2023 recognition highlights Epson's dedication to providing outstanding customer experience.

We are inspired by our customers confidence in us to keep pursuing service excellence, said Masako Kusama, Epson Philippines President and Director. This recognition inspires us to continue providing top-notch customer support and exceed expectations.

Epson Philippines has experienced significant growth throughout the years, largely driven by its innovative and sustainable solutions, client-oriented approach, and dedicated staff members.

At Epson, we leverage our efficient, compact, and precise innovations to effect positive and meaningful change in the world, said Kusama. We firmly believe that energy-saving solutions and space-saving innovations contribute to the improvement businesses operations and the protection of our environment.

Epson Philippines has seen consistent year-over-year growth, driven by its continuous ink supply system (CISS) printers, CAD printers, projectors, scanners, and large format printers. The company's focus on driving B2B transformation by leveraging on digital and streamlining operations has contributed to its success in the market.

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), Epson dominated the market across various product categories in 2022, with a 51% market share for inkjet printers, 67% for ColorWorks printers, 36% for CAD, and 83% for photo printers. Epson also emerged as the top brand in POS printers, textile printers, scanners, and high brightness projectors.

The company is targeting to increase its 8% year-over-year growth in 2022 to 12% in 2023.

Epson Philippines also remains strongly committed to pursuing a greener future. Epson's dedication to both local and global environmental preservation is evident in its various initiatives and achievements. Achieving its global commitment to shift to renewable energy across all manufacturing sites ahead of the 2023 deadline, the company's manufacturing plant in Batangas transitioned to geothermal and hydroelectric power in 2021.

Additionally, the company's product range is designed to help reduce environmental impact through its heat-free technology which enables its printers to consume less electricity compared to laser printers, while its high-capacity ink tanks improve operational efficiency.

Guided by our global aspirations, we have placed sustainability at the heart of our business. Sustainability is a key priority for Epson, and this is reflected across all aspects of our business, shared Kusama. The realization of our goal cannot be achieved by Epson employees alone. It requires empathy and shared purpose among our customers, partners, and society.

Epson Philippines has also forged strategic partnerships with organizations like WWF-Philippines to address pressing environmental issues and contribute to a green future. Through projects focused on mangrove conservation and restoration, climate change education, and sustainable food production systems, Epson and WWF-Philippines aim to protect the country's rich biodiversity and empower local communities.

Through these initiatives, Epson Philippines is dedicated to laying the groundwork for a low-carbon society and educating the public for longer-lasting impact.

With our consistently strong business performance, unwavering commitment to sustainability, and customer service recognition, I believe Epson Philippines is poised to continue leading the way in the technology industry, concluded Kusama.
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The 1975s Matty Healy has apologised for hurting some people with his recent controversial actions.

In recent months, the 34-year-old musician has faced criticism for a variety of actions, from shutting down a Malaysian music festival to making racist jokes about the rapper Ice Spice.

During the indie rock bands show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California, on Monday (2 October), Healy pledged to do better.

Because some of my actions have hurt some people, I apologise to those people, and I pledge to do better moving forward, he said in footage shared on X/Twitter.

I think its also important that I express my intentions, so everybody knows that there is no ill will coming from me. You see, as an artist, I want to create an environment for myself to perform where not everything that I do is taken literally, he continued.

Ive kind of performed exaggerated versions of myself on other stages, be it [in] print or on podcasts and in an often misguided attempt at fulfilling the kind of character role of the 21st-century rock star, he said. So, its complicated.

Sometimes playing pretend is the only way you can truly find out who you are, and you could probably also say that men would rather do offensive impressions for attention than go to therapy.

Matty Healy of The 1975 (Getty Images)

In February this year, The 1975 frontman attracted widespread criticism for remarks he made about Bronx rapper Ice Spice during an episode of the Adam Friedland podcast.

At one point in the podcast, which was pulled from both Apple and Spotify, Healy, Friedland and comedian Nick Mullen appeared to confuse and joke about the Princess Diana stars heritage by referring to her as Inuit and Chinese, imitating and mocking the accents of each.

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Mullen called the Princess Diana rapper an Inuit Spice Girl and a chubby Chinese lady.

The group also made a number of derogatory comments about women during the interview.

Ice Spice has since reacted to the comments, saying she was so confused while adding that Healy has apologised to her on a number of occasions. Were good, she said.

Last month, Healy found himself in hot water again when he deactivated his X/Twitter account after making an ableist joke in connection to the indie supergroup, Boygenius.

In August, Healys band was ordered to pay 2m in damages for allegedly breaking contract terms during their controversial show in Malaysia.

The 1975s July performance at Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur was cut short when frontman Matt Healy kissed bassist Ross MacDonald while criticising the countrys anti-LGBT+ laws, under which homosexual acts are illegal.
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India has reportedly asked Canada to repatriate over three dozen diplomats from New Delhi as ties between the two nations worsened over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader.

New Delhi urged Ottawa to repatriate at least 41 diplomats by 10 October and threatened to revoke the diplomatic immunity of those who remained after the deadline, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Arindam Bagchi, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, earlier said there needed to be "parity" between the size of the missions.

"Yes we have informed the Canadian government that there should be parity in strength and rank equivalence in our mutual diplomatic presence. Their numbers here are very much higher than ours in Canada. The details are being worked out but I assume there will be a reduction from the Canadian side," Mr Bagchi said during a press briefing on 21 September.

Canada reportedly has 62 diplomats stationed in India to deal with a bigger consular section that is accessed by the relatives of roughly 1.3 million Canadians with Indian roots.

The diplomatic crisis between India and Canada began in September after prime minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of being involved in the killing of a Canadian national linked to the secessionist Khalistan movement.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar  a designated terrorist in India  was assassinated in Surrey on 18 June by two masked men.

India vehemently denied what it called an "absurd" allegation and responded by suspending visa services in all categories for Canadian nationals due to security threats to its consulates.

Each country expelled one senior diplomat from the other in a tit-for-tat move.

Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in Washington last week that the alleged assassination was "not consistent with our policy". "We told the Canadians that look, if you have something specific let us know we are open to looking at it'," the minister said.

He claimed separately that there was a "climate of violence" and an "atmosphere of intimidation" against Indian diplomats in Canada, which is also home to 770,000 Sikhs.

Mr Trudeau is yet to publicly share any evidence but has claimed that he shared the "credible allegations" with India "many weeks ago".

"Declaring more Canadian diplomats personae non gratae wouldnt help the situation and would make reducing the emotions associated with this disagreement more difficult, Peter Boehm, chair of the Canadian Senate committee on foreign affairs and international trade, told Financial Times.

The US State Department on Monday reiterated that Washington has asked New Delhi to cooperate with Canada's investigation.

"We remain in close coordination with our Canadian colleagues," spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

"We have engaged with the Indian government on a number of occasions to urge them to cooperate with Canada's investigation. The secretary (Antony Blinken) had an opportunity to do that in his meeting with Jaishankar on Friday, Mr Miller said.
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At least 16 babies were among the 30 people who died in a span of two days at a government hospital in India due to a shortage of medicines and hospital staff, according to reports.

Twenty-four people, including six infant boys and six newborn girls, were reported dead between 30 September and 1 October at the Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital in Nanded district, located 620km east of Mumbai in the western state of Maharashtra.

The toll rose to 31 on 2 October after seven more patients were found dead.

The deceased patients were suffering from snake bites, gastric, kidney and heart diseases. Four of the child patients were in terminal stages, reports said.

Opposition Congress party chief Mallikarjun Kharge wrote in Hindi on X: It is said that these patients died due to lack of medicines and treatment. A similar incident took place in a government hospital in Thane in August 2023 in which 18 patients lost their lives.

The news of death of 24 people, including 12 newborns, due to shortage of medicines in the government hospital of Nanded, Maharashtra is extremely sad, wrote Rahul Gandhi, a lawmaker from Indian National Congress.

However, a hospital official tried to downplay the situation by alleging that most patients were brought in in a critical condition from the neighbouring districts.

We are the sole tertiary-care hospital in the district and we often receive patients in critical condition, said superintendent SR Wakode.

Mr Wakode denied that the hospital was understaffed or that there was a shortage of medicines.

The hospital claimed that essential medicines were available at the institution and it had enough funding. "Other patients are being treated as necessary," the hospital added, according to NDTV.

A three-member expert committee has been formed to probe the incident and submit a report by 1pm (local time) on Wednesday, said Dilip Mhaiseka, director of medical education and research, Maharashtra.

State chief minister Eknath Sinhde said the deaths were "unfortunate" and promised a thorough investigation into the incident as the opposition parties criticised the state government over the condition of public health facilities.

"The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) government spends thousands of crores of rupees on its publicity, but there is no money for medicines for children," Mr Gandhi alleged, hitting out at prime minister Narendra Modi's ruling party.

Earlier in August, 18 patients died in 24 hours at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa in Thane city.
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Police in Delhi have raided the homes of senior journalists connected to the news website NewsClick, as well as the outlets offices, in what was described by critics as the latest attack on one of Indias few remaining independent news organisations.

Laptops and mobile phones belonging to reporters were seized as part of the operation carried out early on Tuesday, which the Narendra Modi government described as part of a probe into suspected illegal foreign funding of the news website.

NewsClicks founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha was brought to the Delhi polices Special Cell office for questioning.

The raids come months after Indian authorities carried out searches at the BBCs offices in New Delhi and Mumbai over accusations of tax evasion.

A special investigations team launched a search operation to identify all those individuals who were possibly getting funds from overseas to run a media group with the main agenda of spreading foreign propaganda, said an official in the home ministry overseeing the raids carried out by Delhi police.

A team of 500 officials raided over 100 locations in Delhi, the wider National Capital Region and Mumbai, reported India Today.

The Indian authorities had first registered a case against the site and its journalists on 17 August, weeks after a New York Times report alleged the portal received funds from an American millionaire who, it claimed, funded the spread of Chinese propaganda.

NewsClick has denied the allegations.

The case was filed under a sweeping anti-terrorism law  the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act  that allows charges to be brought for anti-national activities.

The law has been used against activists, journalists and critics of Mr Modi, some of whom have spent years in jail before going to trial. No one has been arrested in connection with the raids on NewsClick so far.

Journalists speak to lawyers outside the office of Delhi Polices Special Cell in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, 3 October 2023 (AP)

The Press Trust of India news agency cited unidentified officials as saying that investigators took data from laptops and mobile phones of journalists, and that two journalists were detained.

At least two journalists posted on X saying their electronic devices were seized.

Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone, said journalist Abhisar Sharma.

Delhi police did not immediately respond for a comment. We have not arrested anyone and the search operations are still underway, an official told Reuters.

Indias junior minister for information and broadcasting, Anurag Thakur, told reporters that if anyone has committed anything wrong, search agencies are free to carry out investigations against them.

In August, Mr Thakur accused NewsClick of spreading an anti-India agenda, citing the New York Times, and of working with the opposition Indian National Congress party. Both NewsClick and the Congress party denied the accusations.

The homes of past and present NewsClick contributors, including satirist and stand-up comic Sanjay Rajoura and historian Sohail Hashmi, were also raided.

Police also carried out raids at the house of opposition leader Sitaram Yechury and Mumbai-based activist Teesta Setalvad, whose think-tank Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research has contributed articles to the platform.

Initially, they barged into our house without showing us the search warrant, Mr Hashmis daughter Sarah Hashmi told The Quint.

They only said that they want to investigate all those linked to the NewsClick investigation. Upon asking them again, we were handed over the warrant which my father read. He was questioned by the officials and was asked what he does, and who he is associated with. They have seized his laptop, phone, hard disk and pen drives.

Security officers stand guard outside the office of Delhi Polices Special Cell in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, 3 October 2023 (AP)

Mr Yechury, a leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, said police came to his residence looking for the son of a party member who works at NewsClick.

Police came to my residence because one of my companions who lives with me there, his son, works for NewsClick. The police came to question him. They took his laptop and phone. What are they investigating? Nobody knows. If this is an attempt to try and muzzle the media, the country must know the reason behind this, he told reporters.

NewsClick officials were not immediately available for comment. The news portals website says it is an independent media organisation launched in 2009 and dedicated to covering news from India and elsewhere with a focus on progressive movements.

Officials said the investigation began after the NYT report named NewsClick as part of a global network receiving funds from American billionaire Neville Roy Singham, allegedly with a view to publishing Chinese propaganda.

NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha said at the time the allegations were not new and the organisation would respond to them in court.

Under Mr Modis rule, several news organisations have been investigated by government agencies for financial impropriety, raising fears about shrinking press freedom in India.

Shashi Tharoor, sitting parliamentarian and member of the opposition Congress party, issued a statement criticising the authoritarian government.

Shocked to learn of the raids on 30 journalists in Delhi and arrests of several of them, he wrote on X.

These are not the actions of a mother of democracy but of an insecure and autocratic state. Why does a government as strong & authoritarian as this one is, feel threatened by a news website? And that too, one that is not even ranked very high in reach or readership? Intolerance is unworthy of everything that India represents. The government has disgraced itself and our democracy today.

Such things are done to intimidate and create fear, said Lalan Singh, a lawmaker and president of the JD(U) opposition party.

When a [section of] media promotes them (BJP), then that media is unbiased, whereas when another (section of) media criticises them, they face actions by CBI [Indias Central Bureau of Investigation], ED [Enforcement Directorate] and IT [Income Tax department] in a bid to intimidate them.

The Press Club of India (PCI) said it was deeply concerned about the multiple raids conducted on the houses of journalists and writers associated with NewsClick.

The PCI stand in solidarity with the journalists and demands the government to come out with details, it wrote in a statement on X.

Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group for journalists, ranked India 161st in its press freedom rankings this year, writing that the situation in the country has deteriorated from problematic to very bad.
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An ordinance to stop people from walking on escalators has been introduced in a city in Japan.

The order went into effect in Nagoya on 1 October and prohibits people from walking on escalators in a bid to prevent accidents such as falls.

While it is customary in the Pacific Coast city for people to stop on the left side of escalators and keeping the right open for those in a hurry, there have been instances of several people losing their balance and knocking others off as well.

Though attempts were made to promote the practice of standing still on escalators after people with disabilities and elderly people raised concerns about the fear of colliding and potential accidents, they yielded no results.

A total of 805 escalator accidents were categorised as being caused by improper use in 2018 and 2019, according to the latest data from the Japan Elevator Association, reported the Japan Times.

Following the introduction of the new ordinance, the city government has also been running commercials and posters at major train stations in attempts to spread awareness.

Some posters featuring animated cartoons on escalators have been seen in the citys subway stations.

Lets stop and get on on both right and left, said one such poster.

When using escalators, stop and use both the right and left sides. Its my duty!

The ordinance also requires operators at train stations and other commercial sites with escalators to inform users about the new rule. The government has, however, not introduced any penalties.

Nagoya is not the first city to introduce such an ordinance.

Saitama citys prefectural government enforced a similar rule two years ago in October 2021.
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A 14-year-old boy has been arrested after two people were killed in a shooting at a luxury shopping mall in the centre of Bangkok, police say.

Officers said a suspect was taken into custody less than an hour after the first reported gunshots at the Siam Paragon Mall, long been seen as one of Bangkok's biggest and most upscale shopping destinations.

National police chief Torsak Sukvimol said the teenager arrested had been receiving psychiatric treatment. Mr Torsak said two people had been killed, a visitor from China and a Myanmar national.

Earlier, Yutthana Sretthanan, director of Bangkok's Erawan Emergency Medical Center, had earlier said three people were killed and six were injured.

Witnesses described seeing crowds of people fleeing the mall after hearing what appeared to be gunfire.

The mall was placed into lockdown with all entrances closed, and police also suspended train services at a station near the mall.

Videos shared by shoppers online showed people streaming out of the shopping centre. In another clip, customers cower in shops as a series of loud bangs can be heard.

Chinese tourist Liu Shiying told the AP from inside the mall that she saw people running and saying someone had opened fire. She said an alarm rang out inside the mall, the lights went out and that she was still taking cover inside the mall. She said: Were temporarily hiding. Who dares to go out?

(AFP via Getty Images)

Prime minister Srettha Thavisin told reporters he was aware of the incident and had instructed the Royal Thai Police commissioner to investigate and monitor the situation.

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

Police spokesperson Achayon Kraithong said the national police chief had dispatched officers to control the area. Television showed long queues of traffic outside the mall in torrential rain.

The incident happened days before Thais were planning to mark the one-year anniversary on 6 October of a grisly gun and knife attack at a rural day care centre that killed 36 people, most of them nursery school children.

Gun violence is relatively common in Thailand. An ex-police officer killed 22 children in a nursery last year during a gun-and-knife rampage, while in 2020 a soldier shot and killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations in and around the northeastern Thai city of Nakhon Ratchasima.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger shared doubts about Donald Trumps self-reported weight with a brutal burn against both the former president and climate crisis deniers in his party.

Mr Trumps weight made headlines in August when he was required to report it during his arrest for election interference charges in Georgia.

His booking forms stated that he is 63 with blond or strawberry hair and blue eyes - weighing 215 pounds. That number drew questions as it was noted that his weight was listed at 240 pounds just four months earlier when he was indicted on criminal charges in New York in April.

The confusion was perfect fodder for late-night TV - but never made it into any scripts at the time because talk shows were on hiatus due to the writers strike at the time.

Now with the strike resolved and shows back on, Jimmy Kimmel wasted no time in bringing up Mr Trumps weight in his first episode back on Monday night.

Mr Kimmel asked guest Mr Schwarzenegger if he thought, given his bodybuilding expertise, that 215lbs was an accurate weight for the former president.

As much as its possible that there is no climate change, the former California governor and frequent Trump critic replied, sparking an eruption of laughter from the audience. As much as its possible that we dont really need to reduce pollution.

Mr Trump has repeatedly set aside climate change as nothing more than a hoax and during his presidential term did everything he could to roll back mention of trying to reduce global warming.

A self-confessed climate denier, Mr Trump repealed or weakened at least 100 environmental regulations and pieces of climate legislation during his administration.

After calling out Mr Trumps environmental record, Mr Schwarzenegger offered his own guess for the former presidents true weight.

We all know the weight he is and it makes him feel good to tell everyone he weighs 215, he said. I think everyone laughs about it because he does not look like he weighs 215, he looks a little bit more like maybe 315.

If he would ask me what should I do for fitness, I would say run around yourself three times, then youre gonna be in great shape.

Trump claims to have lost around 25 pounds in the past four months, due to the differences in records (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Mr Trump and Mr Schwarzenegger have a long-standing feud that dates back to sometime around 2016 when the latter urged fellow Republicans not to vote for the former in the upcoming election, telling them to choose your country over your party.

Since then the two have had a public back-and-forth on social media, often sending each other jabs over various political differences.

However, the two Republicans were not always trying to tear each other down. Back when Mr Schwarzenegger started a new career as the California governor in 2003, the two regarded each other as great friends, with Mr Trump even donating $10,000 to the governors re-election campaign.

The two remained friends even after Mr Schwarzenegger replaced Mr Trump as the host of The Celebrity Apprentice after Mr Trump announced his presidential election campaign.

Mr Kimmel said on his show that he was glad he was back on the air to talk about Mr Trumps apparent 25-pound weight loss.

Every time something happened in the news, I would get texts asking me if I was bummed we didnt have a show that night, Mr Kimmel told his audience. Mostly, I was fine but the one that really got me was when they booked Trump in Georgia and he self-reported his weight at 215 pounds. I almost crossed the picket line for that.

He then continued to say that Mr Trump could have lost all that weight by frying his chicken in Ozempic.
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After a summer of floods, fires, and relentless heat, more Americans than ever are blaming extreme weather events on the climate crisis.

New polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Researchrevealed that 87 per cent of Americans have experienced at least one extreme weather event in the past five years, and three-quarters believe that climate change at least partially played a role.

But as with most hot-button issues, views cut down party lines. Nearly all Democrats (93 per cent) connected more extreme weather events to the climate crisis, compared to just under half of Republicans (48 per cent).

Although liberals and independents have been more likely to accept the scientific evidence of climate change, Republicans are quickly catching up.

The most recent poll showed a six per cent jump in Republicans linking extreme weather and climate from when AP-NORC posed the same question in April. The US South, home to predominantly red states, has experienced brutal, 100-plus degree temperatures for long stretches this summer.

When compared to data from 2017, provided toThe Independent by AP-NORC, Republican numbers have nearly doubled. Only 27 per cent of Republicans thought severe weather was caused entirely or mostly by climate change six years ago.

Yet, growing concern among Republican voters doesnt appear to have registered with the partys current crop of presidential candidates.

At the first GOP debate in August, the climate crisis was largely dismissed by candidates after a young conservative asked how they would calm... fears that the Republican Party doesnt care about climate change.

The debate moderators then asked for a show of hands from candidates if they agreed that human behaviour was leading to rising temperatures. No hands went up.

Political newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire businessman from Ohio, was the most brazen in his denial. "The climate change agenda is a hoax, he told the audience, and was met with boos.

The remains of a destroyed home in Keaton Beach, Florida on August 30, 2023, following the passage of Hurricane Idalia (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Ron DeSantis obfuscated and criticised President Bidens response to the Maui wildfires. The Florida governor is attempting to walk the fine line between the leader of a state being battered by more intense hurricanes and sea-level rise, and an anti-woke, anti-science agenda.

Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley acknowledged climate change is real but downplayed Americas role and blamed China  despite the US being the second largest polluter and having caused the largest share of emissions over the past 200 years.

Former president Donald Trump, who has declined to attend the debates but has a commanding lead among voters, is a seasoned climate denier.

During his time in the White House, Mr Trump rolled back more than 100 environmental and climate regulations that allowed more oil drilling and eased off on industrial polluters.

He repeatedly denied the existence of the climate crisis while president and has continued out of office, claiming last year that rising sea levels were actually a good thing and would create more oceanfront property.

Braxton Hicks, seven, of Livingston, Texas, holds his face to a portable fan to cool off during a Little League tournament in Ruston, Louisiana on August 9. Summer 2023 has brought relentless 100-degree temperatures across large parts of the US south (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Last week, he heaped praise on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for rolling back UK net-zero targets. I always knew Sunak was smart, that he wasnt going to destroy and bankrupt his nation for fake climate alarmists that dont have a clue, Mr Trump wrote. On Friday, he told an audience in California that forest fires could be stopped if we dampen our forests with water.

These kinds of spurious statements are finding little purchase, particularly with young Republicans who are significantly more worried about climate change than older voters.

Another red flag for the Republican party is that swing voters, who will decide the 2024 election, are very much in favour of climate action and clean energy.

Some members of the Conservative Climate Caucus also appeared unconcerned by the lackluster Republican candidates responses on climate change.

I havent really put much thought into it, Rep Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee, told The Independent this week. I dont watch debates - its you bring your side, I bring my side and we both leave thinking weve won.

Congressman Tony Gonzales, who represents a district in southern Texas, said he was focused on migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border. I try not to pay attention to all the other noise, he added.

The Republican party hasnt always shown such aversion to environmental threats.

Former president Donald Trump speaks at the GOP Fall convention on September 29, 2023 in Anaheim, California where he told the audience that forest fires could be stopped if we dampen our forests with water (Getty Images)

The Clean Water and Clean Air Acts, bedrock legislation to protect Americans from pollution, were signed by former Republican president Richard Nixon in the 1970s. In the early 1990s, President George HW Bush signed the Global Climate Change Research Act and made key amendments to the Clean Air Act.

Christopher Barnard, president of the American Conservation Coalition, told The Independent he was baffled that Republican presidential candidates werent offering conservative solutions on the issue, describing the failure as a ticking time-bomb for the party.

Our message to candidates and campaigns has been that conservatives can either fumble on the climate issue, or they can win over independents, young Americans and young conservatives who care, said Mr Barnard, who leads the largest conservative environmental group in the US.

Some 81 per cent of Republicans, aged 18 to 44, think climate change is now a severe threat, or may get worse in the years ahead, according to a 2023 poll from Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions.

The first Republican presidential campaign in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 23, 2023 (REUTERS)

Mr Barnard said that Republican candidates were going to struggle to gain the trust of these demographics and win their votes if they ignored climate and environmental issues.

Especially in a general election where, more and more, these demographics are trending towards Democrats not Republicans, he added.

Mr Barnard favoured the rhetoric from candidates, Nikki Haley and Tim Scott, in the debate, and added that North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum has done great work on clean energy projects in his state.

We see some of the candidates start flirting with this [issue] but not enough yet to really convince young voters and independents, he said.

Theres an opportunity for Republican candidates to acknowledge this concern that young people have but to then come with better ideas  talk about the ways that the US can lead with innovation and grow the economy at the same time as protecting the environment.

Thats a message that resonates with people. Ignoring the problem, or fumbling on it, does nothing to increase your credibility with these key voter demographics.
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Adam DeVine and Chloe Bridges have announced they are expecting their first child together.

The Pitch Perfect star and his wife of two years shared their exciting news via Instagram and in true DeVine fashion  with a sarcastic quip. Look were pregnant! Well, Im just fat now but Chloe is all preggo with a human baby, DeVine, 39, wrote.

In the photo, the two posed back-to-back against a sunny backdrop on the beach, while DeVine held Bridges stomach with joy.

Obviously, very exciting stuff! This will mostly be a baby page now, as I will be dedicating my life to my child in hopes he doesnt use my decades of recorded dirty jokes against me, he continued.

On her page, the 31-year-old Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam lead published a photo with DeVine on the edge of a dock in Newport Beach, California, in which she could be seen leaning her head to rest on her husbands cheek. The mother-to-be said: We have news!! Cant wait to get this lil family started.

Friends flooded the elated actresss post with messages congratulating her and DeVine. Congratulations!!! So happy for you two, Anna Sophia Robb commented, while Francia Raisa said: OH MY GOSH!!!!!! Chloe!!!! I cant wait! Congratulations.

The pair met six years before they tied the knot on the set of The Final Girls.

DeVine and Bridges wed in October 2021, hosting their nuptials in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. However, their original plans for the day they said I do had been sidetracked by the Covid-19 pandemic after getting engaged in 2019.

Still, their weekend affair in Mexico proved to be exquisite. Bridges waited a few months to post pictures from their wedding festivities but ultimately gave her fans an insight into each event.

We kept the rehearsal dinner small, asking our parents and the wedding party to get to Mexico a day early, she noted in a 14 December 2021 Instagram. And maybe the best decision I made all weekend was having an open mic so anyone/everyone could give a speech - they came prepared with jokes, as you can see by the sheer amount of teeth in these photos.

A carousel of images featured Bridges and DeVine smiling and laughing as their close friends and family greeted them with speeches. Then, a screenshot from the A-lists profile in Vogue revealed the ceremony to have taken place on the beach in front of boulders lining the ocean.

Bridges donned a mod gown designed by Danielle Frankel with tulle embellishments lining the top and brushing her exposed shoulders. Meanwhile, DeVine sported a suit jacket and matching trousers by Rich Fresh with just a black T-shirt layered underneath.
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Former US President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, are celebrating another year around the sun together.

The couple, whove been married since 1992, took to their social media accounts on 3 October to mark their 31st wedding anniversary. In his post, Barack shared the snap of him and his wife posing together while standing in front of a field, along with a sweet tribute in the caption.

Happy anniversary, sweetheart! @MichelleObama, youre brilliant, kind, funny, and beautiful - and Im lucky to call you mine, he wrote.

Meanwhile, Michelle also shared a snap of her and Barack smiling together in what appeared to be a park, as the city skyline was captured in the background. She also shared a message in the caption about how special their relationship is.

31 years, and a lifetime to go. I love going through life with you by my side, @BarackObama. Happy anniversary, honey! she wrote.

In the comments of the two posts, fans went on to praise the couple and congratulate them on their latest milestone.

Thats love right there in human form! Happy Anniversary, one commented on Michelles photo, while another added: Role models in a multitude of ways. Congratulations.

Happy anniversary to the best president and first lady! a third wrote in the comments of Baracks post.

Last year, the pair shared similar tributes in honour of their 30th anniversary. On their social media accounts, they both posted the same snap from their trip to the beach, along with an image of the words Barack + Michelle, with a heart around it written in the sand. Their posts also included a throwback snap from the couples wedding day.

Miche, after 30 years, Im not sure why you look exactly the same and I dont. I do know that I won the lottery that day - that I couldnt have asked for a better life partner, the former US President wrote in the caption. Happy anniversary, sweetheart!

After tying the knot in 1992, Barack and Michelle went on to welcome two daughters, Malia, 25, and Sasha, 22. Throughout their three-decade-long relationship, theyve also spoken candidly about the challenges they faced during their relationship.

While speaking with CBS Mornings co-host Nate Burleson in May, Barack opened up about how grateful he is to have more time with his wife, after his eight years as president came to an end in 2017.

It sure helps to be out of the White House, and to have a little more time with her, he said.

He also acknowledged that while raising his daughters throughout his time in office, Michelle was the one who was focused the most on them.

And so I did not fully appreciate, I think - as engaged of a father as I was - the degree of stress and tension for her knowing that not just me and Michelle were under scrutiny and in this strange environment, but that we were raising our daughters in a kind of situation that just wasnt normal, he said.

During a conversation with Revolt TV in December 2022, the former first lady opened up about the ups and downs most couples face and revealed that there was a decade in her life when she struggled with her marriage.

People think Im being catty by saying this - its like, there were 10 years where I couldnt stand my husband, she admitted. And guess when it happened? When those kids were little.

Michelle continued: And for 10 years while were trying to build our careers and, you know, worrying about school and whos doing what and what, I was like: Ugh, this isnt even. And guess what? Marriage isnt 50/50, ever, ever.

However, Michelle added that for a marriage to work, even in times of struggle or disagreement, youve got to know your person and like who they are.

I mean, you could be mad at him, but do you still look at him and go: Im not happy with you, but I respect you. I dont agree with you, but youre still a kind, smart person, The Light We Carry author added.
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On Monday, October 9, millions of Americans will celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day.

Indigenous Peoples Day, which is celebrated on the second Monday in October, is a holiday that honours the history and contributions of Native Americans. The holiday has become a replacement for federal holiday Columbus Day, which also falls on October 9, and which many have argued should no longer be celebrated due to the fact that Christopher Columbus does not deserve credit for discovering the Americas.

Currently, there are 29 states and 198 cities across the country that have chosen to adopt Indigenous Peoples Day, according to renamecolumbusday.org. In 2021 and 2022, President Joe Biden also issued proclamations declaring the holiday Indigenous Peoples Day.

First introduced by Congress in 1885 when it was decided that federal employees should have certain days off from work, the list of US federal holidays is made up of 11 days of significance that Americans recognise - and celebrate.

To ensure that these holidays are observed, certain guidelines have been put in place, with federal holidays that fall on a Saturday observed by federal employees on the previous Friday, while holidays that fall on Sunday are observed the following Monday.

On these 11 days, all non-essential federal offices are closed, while banks, post offices and schools may also be closed. However, that doesnt mean that all Americans will receive a day off from work, as employees in the private sector may or may not get the day off, depending on their employer.

From Memorial Day to Thanksgiving, these are the dates of the 2023 federal holidays.

2023 federal holidays:

New Years Day: Sunday, January 1 (Observed Monday, January 2)

Martin Luther King Jr Day: Monday, January 16

Presidents Day: Monday, February 20

Memorial Day: Monday, May 29

Juneteenth: Friday, June 16

Independence Day: Tuesday, July 4

Labor Day: Monday, September 4

Indigenous Peoples Day (also observed as Columbus Day): Monday, October 9

Veterans Day: Saturday, November 11 (Observed Friday, November 10)

Thanksgiving: Thursday, November 23

Christmas: Monday, December 25

Other important days to note:

Valentines Day: Tuesday, February 14

St Patricks Day: Friday, March 17

Passover: Thursday, April 6

Good Friday: Friday, April 7

Easter: Sunday, April 9

Mothers Day: Sunday, May 14

Fathers Day: Sunday, June 18
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It was a not-so glamourous end to Paris Fashion Week, as a widespread outbreak of bedbugs caused panic and disgust in the French capital.

Paris authorities sent out a public warning that no-one is safe, with the small insects making their way through the city. In recent weeks and months, there have been numerous sightings on public transport and other locations.

No one is safe. You can catch them anywhere and bring them home, and not detect them in time until they have multiplied and spread, deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire, told French TV.

Videos posted on social media show insects crawling over seats on the Paris Metro as well as appearing in huge numbers on cinema seats.

Some users have also shared their experiences of being bitten by the critters.

So, how can you help protect yourself against a bedbug infestation? Heres everything you need to know.

How do you know if you have bed bugs?

Bedbugs cause cause itchy welts aroud the body (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

To find out if you have bedbugs, its best to keep an eye out for two things:

1. Bites on your body  these look like little red marks that cause itchy welts. These welts usually appear in a zigzag pattern, the American Academy of Dermatology Association says.

2. You should always keep an eye out for signs of bedbugs, this includes odour, specks of blood on bedding, exoskeletons, tiny blackish specks and eggs.

 Odour: If you notice a sweet or musty smell in your sleeping area, there might be a heavy infestation in the room, the AADA says.

 Specks of blood: Look at your bedding, mattress and furniture  if you notice specks of blood anywhere, the insects might have made their way into your home.

 Exoskeletons: The small insects have an outer shell that they shed and leave behind. Check for remains on your bedding, mattress and cushions.

 Tiny blackish specks: The blackish specks are a sign of beg bug excrement.

 Eggs: After mating, female bedbugs lay white, oval eggs in cracks and crevices, the AADA says on its website. These will be in the size of an apple seed, so keep your eyes peeled.

These small creatures can be found in your mattress as well as other spaces around your home (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

How do I treat bedbug bites?

The NHS says bedbug bites usually clear up on their own in a week or so but there are a few steps you can take to help you during your recovery process:

 Put something cool, like a clean, damp cloth on the affected area to help with the itching and to ease off any swelling.

 Be sure to keep the affected area clean to prevent any further infection.

 Try your best not to scratch the affected area.

You can also get steroid creams like hydrocortisone cream to ease bedbug bites. However, children under 10 and women who are pregnant should get advice from a doctor before using this cream.

Another option would be to use antihistamines, these may help if the bites are very itchy and youre unable to sleep, the NHS says.

How to get rid of bedbugs  the dos and donts

You might have to call pest control to help you get rid of the insects. (Getty Images)

It can be hard to get rid of the small insects on your own, so you might need to contact your local council or pest control service to get rid of the pesky creatures.

Here are some steps you can take to reduce bedbugs:

 Remove the affected bedding and clothing  wash on a hot wash of 60c and tumble try on a hot setting for at least 30 minutes.

 You can also put the infested bedding and clothing in a plastic bag and place It in your freezer for 3 to 4 days.

 Its time to up your cleaning game  bedbugs are found in both clean and dirty places, but regular cleaning will help you spot them early, the NHS adds.

Heres what you should avoid doing:

 Do not keep clutter around your bed, try to keep your space as clean as possible.

 Do not bring second-hand furniture indoors unless you have cleaned and carefully checked it.

 Do not take luggage or clothing indoors without checking it properly  especially if you have come from somewhere where you know there are bedbugs.

What are the causes of bedbugs and where do they live?

The wingless parasitic insects are found all around the world and may be linked to, more frequent travel, changes in pest control practices and insecticide resistance.

Bedbugs can be found in:

 Clothing

 Luggage

 Bedding

 Boxes

 Box springs

 Mattresses

 Headboards

 Objects near beds

According to the Mayo Clinic, they can also be found:

 Under peeling pain or loose wallpaper

 Under carpeting near baseboards

 In upholstered furniture seams

 Under light switch plates or electrical outlets

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Can bedbugs reach the UK?

The short answer is yes

Bedbugs have a lifespan of between four to six months and are known to cling onto dirty suitcases  so it is possible that they may hitch a ride on the Eurostar which is just two hours away from London.

The Independents Barney Davis asked David Cain, founder and MD of Bed Bugs LTD and a qualified microbiologist, whether the bugs could survive the journey.

Easily, yes, without a shadow of a doubt, he responded.

Read the latest on the bedbug infestation in Paris here.
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Jamie Lee Curtis has praised Pamela Anderson for choosing not to wear any makeup while making an appearance at Paris Fashion Week.

The actor, 64, took to Instagram on 1 October to share a photo of Anderson, who was wearing a yellow gown at the event. In the caption, Curtis condemned societal and beauty expectations that exist in the fashion industry, before she praised Anderson for going makeup-free.

THE NATURAL BEAUTY REVOLUTION HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN! @pamelaanderson in the middle of fashion week with so many pressures and postures, and and and, this woman showed up and claimed her seat at the table with nothing on her face, the Freaky Friday star wrote.

She concluded: I am so impressed and floored by this act of courage and rebellion.

In the comments of the post, many famous faces and fans expressed how meaningful it was to see Anderson attend Paris Fashion Week without makeup.

Thats pretty iconic, Chelsea Handler wrote, while Selma Blair added: Love this. Beautiful self-assuredness.

A third wrote: Famous people have the ability to influence and lead trends, (whether we like it or not,) and while yes, this isnt saving the world or solving world hunger, it sends a message to other women to be themselves and to mature ones to embrace their age and I for one think thats a very positive thing.

Some people in the comments shared a different takeaway from Curtis post, claiming that women should be praised for being comfortable with themselves and their age, rather than for not wearing makeup.

I think that rather applauding women wearing no makeup, we should be applauding that she seems to have found her comfort zone and seems to be embracing what that is for her at that age, one wrote. I dont think we should start applauding less makeup, more makeup, etc, but rather women embracing what THEY want to do in the moment and not what anyone else wants them to do.

Last month, the former Baywatch model first confessed to Elle that after her makeup artist, Alexis Vogel, tragically passed away from breast cancer, she started going makeup-free to most events.

She was the best. And since then, I just felt, without Alexis, its just better for me not to wear makeup, she explained.

However, Anderson also explained that the makeup-free look has been freeing, and fun, and a little rebellious too, adding: Because I did notice that there were all these people doing big makeup looks, and its just like me to go against the grain and do the opposite what everyones doing.

She went on to acknowledge that as shes continued to age, shes still happy with how her physical appearance has changed in the process.

I think we all start looking a little funny when we get older. And Im kind of laughing at myself when I look at the mirror. I go: Wow, this is really...whats happening to me? Its a journey, she said. I feel rooted for. I feel good. Im in a good place.

Meanwhile, Curtis has previously spoken out about the beauty of ageing. During a conversation with Maria Shriver for the Radically Reframing Ageing Summit in March 2022, she shared her hope that the term anti-ageing could cease to exist.

I am an advocate now for natural beauty because I do feel that there has been a genocide on natural beauty, the Halloween star explained. This word anti-ageing has to be struck, because what the f*** is anti-ageing? I am pro-ageing. I want to age with intelligence and grace and dignity and verve and energy. I dont want to hide from it.
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Love Is Blind fans have applauded Stacys father, Dale, for his brutal comment about money.

In the latest episode of season five of the hit Netflix dating series  released on 29 September  newly engaged couple Stacy Snyder, 35, and Ismael Izzy Zapata, 32, made a stop to visit Stacys family.

After meeting with Stacys family, where he was grilled about his work situation, thoughts on children, and his enjoyment of travel, Izzy went outside for a solo talk with Stacys father.

When Izzy asked Stacys father his thoughts on their upcoming wedding, Dale responded frankly: I mean, its a lot. But the whole love is blind, I get that. But love also needs to eat, love needs to have a roof. Sometimes love wants to fly first class.

I love [Stacy] to death, but she likes to do things, he added.

Lmaoooo Stacys dad is brutal! one viewer responded on X, formerly known as Twitter.

A second person wrote: Stacys dad with the checklist and the casual drag about this man wanting to go dutch was exceptional. A father.

Stacys father and Izzy Zapata (COURTESY OF NETFLIX)

Stacys father is PREACHING!!! another commented.

Before reassuring Izzy that hes not trying to focus on money, Stacys father added: But she obviously needs some help, or needs support. Shes got a house that shes worked her a** off and all the rest of that.

Throughout season five, Izzy and Stacys different financial situations have put a strain on their relationship. In the episode prior, the couple had an open and honest dialogue about their approach to money.

Stacy, who is the founder of the organisational company Closet Audit, blatantly told Izzy that shes looking for someone whos willing to split house costs 50/50.

The things that will come up, like an HVAC [Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning unit] can be 10 to 20 grand. I have two, and neither of them have gone out since Ive owned this home - they will go out, she explained. So were talking $20,000 cash.

However, when Izzy - who recently shifted his career from business sales to insurance - shared the same thoughts about splitting the paycheck at dinner, Stacy disagreed as she told him: Dinners not 50/50. The man pays.

Stacy and Izzy are among several engaged couples on the current fifth season of the popular reality dating show, which brings singletons together in the hopes that they can fall in love without seeing each other in person.

Love Is Blind season five is available to stream on Netflix.
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A cat owner has been reunited with his pet, Tux, after describing a series of events about how they got separated during a Lyft ride, and his emotional quest to get him back.

The Austin-based pet owner, Palash Pandey, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, on 2 October to reveal that Tux had been found, days after posting a handful of tweets about the search for her. Speaking to local news station KXAN, Pandey revealed that his pet was discovered about a mile away from Banfield Pet Hospital, where he had initially been dropped off. He added that he was contacted about Tux at around 1.30am on 2 October.

On 30 September, he first revealed how the pet was lost, explaining that when he was leaving his Lyft car, the driver took off while Tux was still in the vehicle.

I was taking my cat to a vet appointment, I was sitting behind the driver and had the cat carrier on the floor of the passenger side back seat, he wrote.

He shared a series of follow-up posts to detail the situation of how he got separated from the pet, writing: I got off from the driver side door and started walking to the passenger side door to pick her up. Before I could open the door, the driver started driving. I banged on the back and passenger windows and screamed running behind him, but he drove off.

Pandey claimed that when he tried to contact the driver through Lyft, the application was not helpful at all, noting that users can only send three messages and three calls to the driver through the app. He added that once the driver responded, about two hours after hed sent the message, the Lyft worker told him that he didnt have Tux.

After explaining that he went on to call 911 and 311 to file a report, he later shared the email that he received from Lyft about the incident. According to the screenshot of the email, the Lyft associate expressed their sympathies to Pandey after he lost his cat, before noting that if his pet was returned to him by the driver, hed see a standard item fee of $20 for their time and effort.

Thank you for showing such amazing empathy and grace, Pandey tweeted, along with a screenshot of the email. However, he also noted that he wasnt pleased with Lyft, and said he still took issue with the additional charge mentioned, adding: The first thing that Im concerned about right now is the $20 return fee on return of my item. Im never using [this] godforsaken app again and advise everyone to do the same.

In another update, shared on 1 October, Pandey claimed that he was contacted by the driver, who allegedly said that he is allergic to cats and would have cancelled the ride if he knew [there was] a cat in the carrier. According to the pet owner, the driver also said that he drove off quickly because he got startled, before noting that he picked up many other passengers after Pandey.

Throughout the search process, Pandey shared a series of tweets tagging Lyft, asking if the company had any information on where the passengers after him could have been dropped off. He also shared a lost pet poster, which included a photo of the black and white cat.

In his tweet about Tuxs rescue, he revealed that while she was found inside a real estate agency building in Austin, she was not found in her carrier. He also shared snippets from an investigator who found her, quoting Cat ran up a set of stairs on the back of the building next to it. The team was able to get her caught up at the top of the stairs and she was too scared to jump from up there.

I was able to give my over shirt to the team member at top of the stairs to wrap her up in and had an extra cat carrier that I brought with me just in case of, the snippet from the investigation continued.

Pandey added that after reuniting with Tux, she looked very tired, was covered in fleas and dehydrated.

She started eating wet food again which is a good sign but Ill monitor her and take her to the vet as soon as she calms down and stabilises a bit, he wrote, before sharing another tweet to criticise the person who allegedly stole her, with claims that the person saw what was coming for him and left [Tux] on the side of the road.

During the search for Tux, Lyfts CEO, David Risher, took to X to explain that his company informed Lyft drivers and riders in Austin to be on the lookout for the cat.

He also asked people not to vilify the driver of Pandeys Lyft, claiming the driver received unwarranted threats and is just as distraught as we all are. Rich later added the drivers account had been deactivated for now. However, he also said that after speaking with the driver, its clear things are somewhat more complicated than they first appear.

In a statement to KXAN on 1 October, before Tux was found, a spokesperson for Lyft said they were in touch with Pandey within minutes of his initial outreach.

In addition to communicating with Palesh, we have been directly in touch with the driver and other passengers that rode with him following the ride with Palesh, the spokesperson said. We realise we could have done better in communicating regular updates to Palesh and the community. We all want the same outcome  for Tux to get home safely  and will keep the community posted.

After Tux was found, Lyft also shared a statement on X, writing: Were focused on making sure Tux has everything she needs right now. We are actively working with all involved to fully understand the situation. We must do better in how we support our community. And, we will.

The Independent has contacted Pandey and Lyft for comment.
Moments after the elation of reaching the summit of Nanga Parbat at sunset alongside his younger brother, Gunther, Reinhold Messners descent into despair began.

At 8,126 metres, on top of the majestic Rupal Face in Pakistan, with no supplemental oxygen, 24-year-old Gunther hallucinated in the thin air, unable to move in the dark. A bitter-cold overnight bivouac near the summit caused his condition to deteriorate, prompting Reinhold to make a judgement: whether or not to attempt to descend via the less steep, but uncharted, Diamir face. Gunthers torturously slow progress through a maze of precarious ice blocks led to a second endless night.

The next day, while Reinhold was picking his way down the glacier, he turned to find that his brother had vanished. Gunther had been seemingly swept away by an avalanche, and buried under snow and ice. Following a desperate, delirious two-day search, Reinhold lost seven toes to frostbite and subsequently faced a separate mountain of accusations, after he was rescued from the glacier himself by local farmers.
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Zoe Ball told listeners tuned into her radio show about her near brush with disaster after leaving a candle burning in her home.

The presenter shared the anecdote on Tuesdays (3 October) edition of The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show, which she has hosted on BBC Radio 2 since 2019.

Ball, 52, prefaced her tale by jokingly telling her co-presenters that she was barely alive this morning, on a personal level.

During Mondays broadcast (2 October), the former Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two co-host told listeners about her pride in having baked a cake for the first time.

Early on in Tuesdays show, Ball began: I havent told you what happened to me at the end of the show yesterday.

Do you remember on the show yesterday I was talking about things that have happened to you for the first time?

Well yesterday, something happened to me for the first time, that the fire brigade went to my house. I had left a candle burning in the lounge.

She continued: I was so obsessed with The Matrix when I watched it on Sunday night and the fact that I had made a cake, I had gone to bed and hadnt blown out one of the candles.

Zoe Ball (PA)

Ball added that shed left the flame burning overnight, and when shed left her East Sussex home for work the next morning.

It was left smouldering in the lounge and at 25 minutes past nine, my smoke alarms went off and thank goodness! Otherwise, I might have gone home to no home!

Ball went on to thank her neighbours, who called the emergency services when they heard the alarms ringing, as well as the firefighters who extinguished the candle.

Together, they stopped my house from burning down, she said.

Ball noted that she later visited the fire station to share some cake with the fighters as a thank-you for their service, before reminding her listeners of safety measures such as checking the batteries of their smoke alarms regularly.

In 2019, Balls appointment as the host of the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show made history; succeeding Chris Evans, Ball became the first woman to hold the position in the stations history.

The Radio 2 Breakfast Show is the most listened-to show on UK radio, attracting 7.26 million weekly listeners as of May 2023.
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The Army is launching a sweeping overhaul of its recruiting to focus more on young people who have spent time in college or are job hunting early in their careers, as it scrambles to reverse years of enlistment shortfalls.

A major part of this is the formation of a new professional force of recruiters instead of relying on soldiers randomly assigned to the task.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, in an interview with The Associated Press, said some of the changes will begin in the next 90 days but a wholesale transformation will take years.

We have not been recruiting very well for many more years than one would think from just looking at the headlines in the last 18 months, Wormuth said, adding that the Army hasnt met its annual goal for new enlistment contracts since 2014.

Last year, the Army fell 15,000 short of its enlistment goal of 60,000 while competing with higher-paying companies in a tight job market and trying to overcome two years of the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down access to schools and public events. In the fiscal year that ended Saturday, the Army brought in a bit more than 50,000 recruits, falling short of the publicly stated stretch goal of 65,000.

Army officials, however, said that number still allows the service to meet its required total strength of 452,000. They said the Army also signed up an additional 4,600 recruits for future contracts, in an effort to build back the pool of delayed-entry recruits, which had eroded. Those recruits will go to basic training over the next year.

In testimony before Congress during his confirmation hearing, Gen. Randy George, who is now chief of staff of the Army, called recruiting " the No. 1 challenge that we face and the one thing that we have to be focused on. And he said the service must better tailor its messaging and marketing.

The Navy and the Air Force also fell short of their recruitment goals for the fiscal year that ended Saturday, but leaders said both did better than predictions earlier this year. The Marine Corps and the tiny Space Force have said they would meet their enlistment targets.

Marine leaders, including Brig. Gen. Walker Field, who heads the Corps' eastern recruiting region, have said one key to their success is choosing the right recruiters and encouraging successful ones to stay on. The Marines are also repositioning recruiting stations to areas where populations have grown.

The Army's recruiting increase this year is considered a short-term victory made possible by a number of new and upgraded programs and benefits. But Wormuth said it will take systemic changes in how the Army approaches the labor market and sells the service as a career to turn things around.

At the same time, she said the Army must concentrate on the things it can change since there are many things it cannot, such as lack of fitness among youths and unwillingness to serve.

While recruiters have long relied heavily on high school seniors or graduates to fill the ranks, Wormuth said they need to reach beyond that pool and seek applicants on job sites like ZipRecruiter, Indeed or Glassdoor.

The vast majority of people who are out there making employment decisions are people who have more than a high school education, Wormuth said. We need to figure out how to talk to that much broader labor market.

She said that as more students go on to college, high school graduates now make up just 15% to 20% of the labor market. And the Army gets about half of its recruits from that shrinking population.

We are not abandoning the high school market by any means, Wormuth said, but by 2028 she wants the Army to have one-third of its recruits to have more than a high school diploma, rather than the current one-fifth,.

Part of that is showcasing the Army's higher-tech jobs with computers, satellites and artificial intelligence to lure those who may still think of the service as just infantry troops.

The other major change, which will begin to form in the coming months, is the transition to a professional recruiting workforce. Rather than using soldiers who are voluntold to take on a special assignment as recruiters, the Army is establishing a new permanent and specialized enlistment workforce.

There are currently about 8,000 Army recruiters, and only a bit more than a third have recruiting as their actual job classification.

The change will mirror how private companies work and will take several years. But Wormuth said the Army will quickly start a pilot program to begin identifying and training the new force. As part of the process, the Army will use a new aptitude test designed to identify soldiers who have a higher potential for being successful recruiters.

Other changes will include planning larger Army career fairs and restructuring the command leadership, elevating the head of recruiting to a three-star job with a four-year term for more continuity.

And, while the Army will still look at increased bonuses and push the health care and education funding in the military, money is not likely to be a key driver for recruits. And recruiters will need to sell the less tangible benefits of service.

At the end of the day, I think that what offsets what we dont offer in terms of compensation we make up for with being part of something bigger, Wormuth said. Ask anyone wearing a uniform in my office. They will tell you that what keeps them re-enlisting or staying until 20 years or beyond is the people and doing something that really matters.
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Spain's King Felipe VI on Tuesday called on acting Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to try to form a new government following a new round of talks with political party leaders to see which party has the best chance of mustering up majority support in Parliament.

Speaker of the House Francina Armengol made the announcement after she was summoned by the king once the two days of talks had finished.

The decision comes after Alberto Nunez Feijoo, head of the conservative opposition Popular Party, failed to win sufficient parliamentary support last week after the king initially designated him to try to from a government.

Sanchezs party finished second behind the Popular Party in July 23 elections. The elections produced a splintered parliament made up of 350 legislators from 11 parties, making the path to power difficult for any party.

I have accepted the kings petition, Sanchez said at a press conference on Tuesday and promised to work for a progressive government.

Sanchez said he would start work immediately on gathering support for the project and that he would hold talks with all parties, including the Popular Party, but not the extreme right group Vox.

If no government is in place by Nov. 27, another national election will be held on Jan. 14.

Feijoos bid was rejected by a vote 177-172 on Friday. Sanchez, whose party holds 122 seats, hopes he can now persuade the legislators who voted against Feijoo to back him and capture at least the required 176 votes for a majority.

The Socialists showed that it is possible by clinching the speaker of the chamber position for Armengol by 178 votes against 139 for the Popular Party candidate on August 17.

To succeed, Sanchez needs most of all to cement the support of two small parties that want independence for the northeastern region of Catalonia. In exchange for their support, both parties have made potentially explosive demands for a self-determination referendum for the region and an amnesty for hundreds, or possibly thousands of people who participated in a failed 2017 Catalan secession push that triggered the most serious crisis for Spain in decades.

The Popular Party and its ally Vox have vowed to fiercely contest any proposal for an amnesty or independence referendum.

Sanchez, 51, has been Spains prime minister for the past five years and is the countrys acting leader until a new government is formed.

His outgoing minority coalition government delivered bold policies in such areas as womens rights and climate change. He called Julys snap election after his party had a poor showing in local and regional elections.

___

Associated Press writer Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, contributed to this report.
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Politicians have a responsibility to make sure we are talking about facts, a Conservative MP has said amid debate over 15-minute cities.

Nicola Richards, MP for West Bromwich East, told an audience at the Conservative Party Conference that sometimes colleagues need a reminder of their language during an event discussing conspiracy theories.

Her comments followed questions about comments made by ministers on the conference floor, including claims that 15-minute cities were sinister and Labour was relaxed about taxing meat.

She said: As politicians we have a responsibility to make sure that we are talking about facts and being accurate about what we say.

If you told me a few years ago that people would be getting vexed about a local planning framework in this respect and that it fed into a whole web of conspiracy theories, I just wouldnt have believed you because on the face of it, it seems so dull and thats the problem.

I am sure and I know for certain that colleagues who are worried about excessive restrictions on motorists, whatever the label is, are absolutely not antisemites or conspiracy theorists but this is just a really good example of why we need to be so careful with our language.

She added: On this it really matters because I dont believe for one second, Ive never met one of my colleagues  with the exception of the one who is no longer a colleague  who I would worry would share antisemitic conspiracy theories, and sometimes colleagues need a reminder of their language and maybe where things are from.

Ms Richards was alluding to former Conservative, now Reclaim, MP Andrew Bridgen, who was expelled from the Tories after comparing Covid vaccination programmes to the Holocaust.

During the Conservative Party Conference, Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, has been criticised by groups such as Greenpeace after suggesting in his conference speech on Monday that some councils wanted to decide how often you go to the shops in a misuse of the concept of 15-minute cities.

Sometimes colleagues need a reminder of their language Nicola Richards MP

The concept, which suggests cities should be planned so residents are within 15-minutes walk of amenities, has provoked conspiracy theories suggesting it is part of a plan to impose radical restrictions on peoples movement.

Claire Coutinho, the Net Zero Secretary, has also been challenged over comments that Labour was relaxed about taxing meat despite the party having no such policy.

During Tuesdays event, hosted by the Antisemitism Policy Trust as part of the conference fringe, Ms Richards said conspiracy theories had become more of a problem because sometimes some of these views, or people alluding to these views, or people who have shared these views elsewhere are appearing on our TV, most notably on GB News, and I try not to watch too much of it.

She added: Really what it definitely comes down to is GB News, and any other platform, taking responsibility themselves and deciding what culture they want to have and who it is their audience is and what messages they want to send out.

Ms Richards did not, however, criticise Conservative MPs for appearing on the channel and said there were a lot of good people on GB News.
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The former prime minister Boris Johnson had bipolar decision-making during the Covid lockdown and was dismissive of disaster, an inquiry heard on Tuesday.

Mr Johnson was also accused of failing to lead the country in the early days of the crisis, the UK Covid Inquiry was told.

Diary entries by Sir Patrick Vallance were read out on Tuesday, in which the governments former chief scientific adviser criticised Mr Johnsons impossible flip-flopping and bipolar decision-making  writing of chaos as usual in Downing Street after a meeting on social-distancing.

As the second part of the inquiry began, the Bereaved Families for Justice group said there was a leadership void in the early days of the crisis and accused Mr Johnson of cavalier public messaging just weeks before the first lockdown.

And long Covid groups claimed that the former prime minister initially denied the truth of the suffering of long Covid patients.

Anthony Metzer KC, speaking on behalf of long Covid groups, told the inquiry: In October 2020, while the Department of Health and Social Care was publishing guidance on long Covid and called for recognition and support for people with long Covid, then prime minister Boris Johnson scrawled in capitals that long Covid was b*****ks.

Mr Johnson has admitted in his witness statement that he didnt believe long Covid truly existed, dismissing it as Gulf War Syndrome stuff. The inquiry will be concerned to probe how the former prime minister could possibly hold this view in October 2020.

He added: Adults and children were and still are suffering from debilitating, painful and terrifying symptoms for months and now years after infection, and yet Mr Johnson denied the truth of their suffering.

The UKs senior most decision-makers were dismissing, diminishing and disbelieving the very existence and risk of long Covid.

The inquirys lead counsel Hugo Keith KC also revealed WhatsApp messages between Boris Johnson, his former chief political aide Dominic Cummings and others, portraying a depressing picture of a toxic atmosphere during the pandemic.

The messages also showed factional infighting and internecine attacks on colleagues, Mr Keith said. A significant number of messages and diary entries are reported to refer to then-health secretary Matt Hancock.

Mr Keith said: A text from Simon Case, then a senior civil servant yet to become cabinet secretary to [former health secretary] Matt Hancock on the 29 April reads: The Cabinet Office is a totally dysfunctional mess at present, so not a great place to be.

But the inquiry also heard that key WhatsApp messages by the then-prime minister from 31 January to 7 June 2020 are unrecoverable.

The loss of these messages is a remarkable and unfortunate coincidence, lawyer Peter Weatherby KC, for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, told the inquiry.

Mr Weatherby called for experts to examine the phone to see whether the messages could be retrieved and whether they might have been deleted.

Mr Johnson claims that although hes downloaded the phone, the WhatsApp messaging from the crucial period of the January 31 to June 7 2020 are unrecoverable, Mr Weatherby said.

A remarkable and unfortunate coincidence, we would say. We would urge the inquiry to commission experts to see why those messages cant be retrieved and whether they may have been deleted.

Sir Patrick Vallance wrote in his diary about fears that scientists were used as human shields by ministers (PA Archive)

His notes reportedly read: On Friday, the two-metre rule meeting made it abundantly clear that no-one in Number 10 or the Cabinet Office had really read or taken time to understand the science advice on two metres. Quite extraordinary.

The notes also alleged faction fighting within No 10 involving Michael Gove and also Mr Johnsons wife, Carrie.

In other entries, Sir Patrick reportedly said he felt scientists were used as human shields by ministers. On 19 September 2020, he wrote: [Johnson] is all over the place and so completely inconsistent. You can see why it was so difficult to get agreement to lock down first time.

Mr Weatherby said that Mr Johnson failed to take the emerging threat seriously as he called on the inquiry to consider whether vital time to form a contingency plan and to act was squandered and that key preparations may not have taken place because part of the government was in denial, and others had a false view of its own preparedness.

The inquiry also heard that a Cobra meeting was briefed on Covid on 29 January  but Mr Johnson was not present.

Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings and Matt Hancock are expected to give evidence at the inquiry (EPA)

Mr Weatherby said: He wasnt at Cobra for more than another month after until March. Hell tell us that he properly left things to others but the reality is there was a leadership void.

He added: It was two months into the emergency before Mr Johnson attended his first Cobra meeting, March 2, the day before he engaged in what can only be described as cavalier and incredibly unhelpful public messaging when he visited the Royal Free Hospital telling the media: I think there were a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, you will be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands.

Its difficult to see his actions and media comments as nothing other than dismissive of a disaster which had been looming for two months, and was now just around the corner.

Mr Weatherby also referenced the Eat Out to Help Out scheme. It appears it was rolled out without any scientific advice, he said.

We anticipate that scientists will say their advice would have been strongly against such a hare-brained scheme.

The inquiry will have to consider whether the government really was following the science, or whether [then chancellor] Mr Sunaks flagship policy hastened the next wave of infections.

Rishi Sunak launched the Eat Out To Help Out Scheme while chancellor (AP)

Mr Johnson, his former chief aide Dominic Cummings, Rishi Sunak, and former health secretary Matt Hancock, are expected to speak at the inqury, along with chief scientific and medical advisers. Hearings are due to continue until 2026, but with interim reports released before that date.

The current hearings relate to the second of four modules into which the inquiry has has been divided: resilience and preparedness; core UK decision-making and political governance; the impact of the pandemic on healthcare; and vaccines and therapeutics.

In his opening statement in June, the inquirys lead counsel said the nation was taken by surprise by significant aspects of the disease that has been recorded on more than 225,000 death certificates.

Mr Keith has suggested that Brexit preparations crowded out and prevented the work needed to improve pandemic preparedness, while bereaved families have warned inquiry evidence will likely show chaos in government led to a slow reaction to a pandemic where lost time is measured in lost lives.
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A man has been stabbed to death in broad daylight in south London.

The 22-year-old victim was found with a knife injury outside a row of shops in Brixton, according to the Metropolitan Police.

Having been called to reports of a stabbing, police discovered the victim in Coldharbour Lane at 4.44pm on Tuesday, said Scotland Yard.

Despite efforts to save him  with both police officers and London Ambulance Service paramedics in attendance  he died at the scene, the force said.

Detectives have launched a murder investigation, but no arrests have yet been made.

Work is ongoing to identify and inform his next of kin, the Met Police said in a statement.

At this early stage there has been no arrest. A crime scene is in place and officers remain on scene.

Images shared on social media showed a police cordon across both the road and pavement, close to a cocktail bar, hairdressers and convenience store.

View more

It comes just hours after a murder probe was launched into the fatal stabbing of a 42-year-old man in Sutton at around 9pm on Monday. A woman has been arrested on suspicion of making threats to kill, police said.

On Sunday, 16-year-old Taye Fake was stabbed to death in a quiet cul-de-sac just yards from his home in Edmonton.

His distraught uncle Altough Faik told MyLondon: He was a beautiful boy. We are devastated. He had a bright future ahead of him. He hasnt been given the chance to flourish like he would have.

His death  the 16th teenage victim of homicide in London so far this year  came just days after 15-year-old Elianne Andam was stabbed to death outside a shopping centre on her way to school. A teenage boy has been charged with murder.

Anyone who witnessed the incident on Tuesday or has information or footage is asked to call police on 101 or X @MetCC quoting 5530/3OCT.
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A toddler was rushed to hospital after being savaged by a large XL Bully dog outside a London hotel.

The one-year-old boy suffered injuries in the dog attack outside the Hilton Double Tree in Greenwich at 10am on Monday.

A witness described the dog as being like a large American Bully type breed online.

A man has been charged with being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog and the pet has been destroyed.

A neighbour who witnessed the attack told The Sun: The woman was screaming quite loudly.

He had his dog on a lead, over the way, the attack had already happened. Next to the Double Tree.

He (baby) was screaming and had a bite on the leg. The mother was beside herself.

I ran out thinking if someone needed CPR.

They said: Thanks again to all who helped. Not trying to scaremonger but do take care if you see those dogs - especially those with children.

A Met spokesman said: The child was taken to hospital where their injuries were assessed as not life-threatening.

The dog and its owner were located by officers.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control. The dog has been seized and will be taken to kennels.

A Met task force had previously posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the dog had been destroyed.

Thomas Ackah, 29, of Old Kent Road was charged with being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog.

He is due to appear at Bromley Magistrates Court on Tuesday the force said.

People take part in a protest in central London, against the Governments decision to add XL bully dogs to the list of prohibited breeds under the Dangerous Dogs Act (Jeff Moore/PA) (PA Wire)

They added: The boys injuries have been treated at hospital. They are not life changing or threatening, fortunately. We wish the victim all the best with his recovery and thoughts with his family.

It comes the week after hundreds of XL Bully owners protested Rishi Sunaks ban by joining a march in central London.

The prime minister has said the breed will be banned by the end of the year following a series of attacks, saying he shared the nations horror at videos of recent incidents shared on social media.

Crowds amassed in the capital to protest the move, insisting their dogs are completely safe and that only a minority are dangerous.
A legal case brought against the Philippines National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) by operator NOW Telecom has been dismissed by the countrys Court of Appeals.

The case relates to NOW Telecoms application for provisional authority to operate a mobile service via a specific range of spectrum frequencies. The operator argued that it had the right to use these concomitant frequencies due to a resolution issued by the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA).

The resolution in question is Republic Act 11032, commonly referred to as the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act. It was issued in 2018 by ARTA, and in theory granted routine approval for NOW Telecoms request for provisional authority to provide mobile services in the 1970MHz-1980MHz, 2160MHz-2170MHz, and 3.6GHz-3.8GHz bands.

TeleGeography reports that NOW Telecom applied for this approval in June 2022, but the Court ruled that at this time ARTAs resolution had not been finalised, noting that an appeal to the Office of the President remains open. Through its legal action, NOW was aiming to force the NTC to comply with ARTAs resolution; however, the Court argued that NOW had failed by prove its rights to the frequencies in question and had instead raised questions over their legal ownership.

NOW had also filed a suit accusing the NTC of negligence for failing to assign the frequencies; however, the Court judged that the regulator holds discretion in implementing the laws policies and objectives under the National Telecommunications Act.
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A pocket watch believed to have been used by a naval officer during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 is to go under the hammer at auction.

The 235-year-old silver watch was discovered alongside a handwritten note from 1897, penned by its 19th-century owner, James H Waters.

The note revealed the watch had belonged to his great-grandfather, Captain Charles Bennett, who had served on the Tonnant at Trafalgar.

The history of the watch was discovered when it was taken for valuation at Hansons Auctioneers Derbyshire saleroom by a Nottinghamshire collector who bought it around 20 years ago.

It is being offered in Hansons October 6 fine art auction with a guide price of 400 to 500.

Matt Crowson, Hansons militaria expert, said the handwritten note offered a fascinating insight into the watchs history.

He said: The note mentioned a seal which is attached to the watch chain. It was given to Bennett by a French officer serving on a ship called Algesiras.

Bennett and members of his crew seized Algesiras during the Battle of Trafalgar  that makes it highly probable Bennett carried this watch with him through the battle.

According to historical accounts, HMS Tonnant, originally a French naval vessel known as Le Tonnant until captured by the Royal Navy at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, played a crucial role at Trafalgar.

During the battle, HMS Tonnant engaged in fierce combat with French 74-gun flagship Algesiras. After a collision between the vessels, the French attempted to board the Tonnant but they were repelled by British firepower.

Mr Crowson said that Rear Admiral Magon, the French vessels commander, was killed during this intense engagement.

He added: With the British gaining the upper hand, Lieutenant Charles Bennett led a boarding party of 50 men from the Tonnant, seizing control of the Algesiras.

They took 270 French officers and men as prisoners below deck. However, with the Algesiras severely damaged and drifting away from the British fleet, the British sailors found themselves in a perilous situation.

Realising they lacked the manpower to both guard the numerous French prisoners and repair the masts, Lt Bennett made a difficult decision. He ordered the hatches to be opened, releasing the French prisoners. The French quickly overpowered the British sailors and regained control of the vessel.

Lt Bennett faced a stark choice  resist the Frenchs claim on the ship, likely resulting in his mens demise, or co-operate and help save the vessel, sparing their lives.

Bennett chose the latter option, working alongside the French to reassemble three of the masts. This allowed the ship to sail to Cadiz.

While official records confirm Bennett as the 3rd Officer on HMS Tonnant during Trafalgar, the handwritten note referred to him as Captain, suggesting a promotion that likely occurred post-Trafalgar.
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Four men have appeared in court charged in relation to Irelands largest ever drugs haul, bringing the total number of people charged in relation to the major seizure to seven.

Cocaine worth an estimated 160 million euro (139 million) was found on a bulk cargo ship off the Irish coast last week in an operation involving the Irish army and Gardai.

Armed Gardai were stationed outside Mallow District Court ahead of the accused mens appearance on Tuesday.

The four men were charged with possession of drugs, namely cocaine, on September 24 for the purpose of supplying it within the Irish State.

Cumali Ozgen, a 48-year-old with an address in the Netherlands; Saeid Hassani, a 37-year-old Iranian national; Mykhalio Gavryk, a 30-year-old Ukrainian national; and Vitaliy Vlasoi, a 31-year-old Ukrainian national, appeared before judge Colm Roberts on Tuesday morning.

Detective Garda David Moran said that Gavryk was charged on October 2 and made no reply when cautioned.

Detective Garda Martin Donovan said that Ozgen, who required a Dutch translator, made no reply when he was charged and cautioned.

Det Garda Val Russell told the court that Vlasoi, was charged and cautioned on October 2 at 8.43pm.

The court heard that Vlasoi replied: I saw straight or direct evidence of the connection between the captain and another vessel, or with somebody else who he contacted. It was shown as straight evidence, I didnt see straight evidence against myself.

Detective Garda Lorraine Brennan said Hassani, for whom proceedings were translated through Farsi, was arrested on October 2 and made no reply to the charge.

The men did not speak except to confirm what type of translators they would need.

All four men were remanded in custody and are due to appear in court again on October 10 via video link.

Solicitors for both Vlasoi and Hassani noted to the judge that they would be making a request to board the ship in order to understand the geographics of the vessel before any major structural changes are made.

The judge noted the intention and said it would be a matter for a later date.

A total of 2,253kg of cocaine was found on the MV Matthew cargo ship after members of the Irish Army Ranger Wing captured the vessel off the coast by abseiling from a helicopter.

Police believe the cocaine, seized after the dramatic military operation at sea, was destined for distribution beyond Ireland, potentially into the UK and continental Europe.

A fishing trawler that grounded off the coast of Co Wexford days before the seizure was also being monitored as part of the operation, amid suspicions it was en route to rendezvous with the cargo ship.

Three men have already appeared at courts in Wexford and Waterford in relation to the major seizure.
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Calls for the restoration of the Stormont Assembly dominated the first of shadow secretary of state Hilary Benns discussions with political parties in Northern Ireland.

The Labour veteran is taking part in his first visit to the region since being appointed shadow secretary of state last month.

On Tuesday he was greeted on arrival at Parliament Buildings in Stormont by Speaker Alex Maskey, before going on to meet the main five parties.

The visit comes as the Stormont Assembly remains collapsed amid DUP protest action against internal UK trade barriers created by Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol.

The party says the framework deal struck by the EU and the UK to reform the protocol does not sufficiently address its concerns and has made clear it will not accept a return to devolution until the Government provides further assurances, by way of legislation, over Northern Irelands place in the UK internal market.

Talks between the DUP and the Government have been ongoing over the summer.

One of the main parts of the framework  the green/red lane system for the movement of goods  became operational at Northern Ireland ports on Sunday.

Mr Benns first meeting on Tuesday was with Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle ONeill and North Belfast MP John Finucane.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Mr Finucane said they had a very positive and constructive meeting.

Top of the agenda in our message to him was the need to restore the assembly, to restore the executive, to have ministers in place at the job they were elected to do over a year ago, he said.

We are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, we have a health service that demands action to begin to tackle the crisis in our waiting lists and the many other problems in our public services.

But we were also keen to stress that we dont want to miss the opportunities of the economic potential that we now have here. We also have a very significant and sizeable delegation coming from America in a couple of weeks led by the US presidents special envoy Joe Kennedy.

Mr Finucane added: People voted in a historic election over 18 months ago now, and the very least that they deserve is to have ministers in place, doing the job they should be doing.

I dont think there is any excuse for the DUP to be remaining out of government  they need to get back in and respect the outcome of last years election without delay.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he is continuing to engage with the government in terms of negotiating a solution to unionist concerns around post-Brexit arrangements.

Every negotiation has a beginning and an end, and we will no doubt reach a moment where both sides will recognise that we have taken this as far as we can. Were not there yet, and thats why were continuing to engage with the government on these issues, he said.

I want to find a solution. Im not planning for failure, Im planning to get this done because we want to see Northern Irelands place within the United Kingdom properly protected and respected in UK law, and we want to see a functioning Stormont.

Alliance leader Naomi Long praised Mr Benn for his level of engagement with, and knowledge of, issues in Northern Ireland.

She said the focus of their conversation was around efforts to resurrect the Stormont Assembly.

We also did raise our concerns about issues such as reform, both of our finances and public services, and about the need for us to be able to do that in a way that reflects the fact that Northern Ireland does have higher levels of need, she said.

I was very impressed both with his levels of interest and also his levels of knowledge. I would have expected nothing else and it was a very good meeting.

She said she hoped future meetings with Mr Benn will take place in the context of a functioning Assembly.

This current situation where we have no Assembly, no devolution is just not a sustainable position for Northern Ireland to be in, and it is not good for the people who we represent, who are languishing on waiting lists, who are struggling with their finances, who cant access childcare and who are facing all of the multiple demands and challenges that everyone else faces but doing it without the support of the people they elected to take on these challenges on their behalf.

On Monday Mr Benn met staff from the Wave Trauma Centre, which supports Troubles victims and relatives of those bereaved, as well as making a visit to Queens University Belfast.

Mr Finucane said the governments controversial new Legacy Act was also discussed during his partys meeting with Mr Benn.
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Defence SecretaryGrant Shapps has suggested recent tweets by Elon Musk mocking Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky are unhelpful.

The senior Cabinet minister made the comments at a Conservative Party conference fringe event in Manchester, hours after the billionaire entrepreneur used Twitter, now known as X, to take aim at Mr Zelenskys repeated requests for western support in the battle against Russian troops.

Mr Shapps, an avid social media user himself, expressed reservations about the owner of Xs recent attitudes to the war.

I think its unhelpful, to be blunt, he said.

I cant speak for him or his motivations. Hes a free individual, we live in a free world. He can tweet or X what he likes.

What Ukraine really needs is strong and steady friends who wont waver, he added.

The mockery by Mr Musk has gone down badly in Ukraine, making it the latest controversial outburst by the high-profile businessman.
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A serving Metropolitan Police officer raped two women in 11 days after meeting them in bars while off duty, a court has heard.

Suspended PC Rupert Edwards, 30, is alleged to have raped one woman in Epsom, Surrey, on August 26, 2022, and the other in Lambeth, south London, on September 5, 2022, Inner London Crown Court heard on Tuesday.

Edwards, from Ashtead, Surrey, denies attacking the complainants, who are in their 20s and 30s.

Prosecutor Robert Brown said the first complainant met Edwards on a night out and later danced with him, before kissing the defendant, who she found attractive at a bar.

They later got a cab back to her home and had consensual sex at least once, possibly twice, Mr Brown said.

The complainant claims she later told him: I cant go again but the defendant pulled her leg up and initiated further sexual intercourse, Mr Brown said.

The prosecutor said she did not consent to this and the defendant knew that, but carried on regardless.

He said the woman slept until noon the next day, at which point Edwards left.

She then tried to put the incident out of her mind and get on with her life, before it was later reported to police in November 2022.

A video of her police interview in December 2022 was played to jurors, in which she appeared tearful as she recounted the alleged rape.

She said: I was saying to myself in my head: Im being raped right now, but its like I froze. I just couldnt do or say anything else (after saying I cant go again), so I just let it happen.

The woman later added: He didnt say anything at this point but in my mind I thought: Well, Ive said it now, I should only have to say once.'

Mr Brown said the second count of rape on the indictment relates to another woman who was interviewed by police on September 6, 2022.

She said she had met Edwards on a night out and recalled kissing him before they took a taxi back to her home, jurors heard.

Mr Brown said the woman recalls engaging in consensual sex with him at the address, but said she told him from the outset there could be no intercourse because they did not have any condoms.

The woman said Edwards agreed to this but that she was later awoken when he raped her, jurors heard.

Mr Brown said she challenged him on what he was doing, and Edwards then apologised and left.

He added: She says she was angry and confused because he had told her he was a police officer and so she sent him a text (at 4.51am) thanking him for destroying her faith in the justice system.

She then called 999 and reported the incident to the police, he said.

The officer, attached to the South West Basic Command Unit, was then arrested on suspicion of raping her in September 2022 and was bailed and suspended from duty.

He was taken to a police station and interviewed under caution, and, in a prepared statement, he denied the allegation, Mr Brown said.

On December 8 2022, he was further arrested on suspicion of raping the first complainant and charged the following day.

He was taken to the same police station, interviewed under caution and denied the allegation, Mr Brown said.

Mr Brown said that in a prepared statement given to police Edwards claimed that all sexual activity with the first claimant was consensual and at no point did she indicate that she was not consenting.

He said Edwards told police the second complainant never said that she did not want sexual intercourse without contraception and that they had engaged in consensual sexual activity.

The trial continues.
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Lovers beware. Paris has been engulfed by an infestation of bedbugs with authorities warning no one is safe.

Footage of the blood-sucking insects has horrified TikTok users, leading to some standing on the infested Parisian metro instead of sitting on the fabric seats, or posting warning about the creepy critters swarming all over their Airbnb rentals.

Speaking to French TV station LCI on Friday, deputy mayor of Paris Emmanuel Gregoire called the infestation widespread.

Typical bedbugs bite (NHS)

You have to understand that in reality no one is safe, obviously there are risk factors but in reality, you can catch bedbugs anywhere and bring them home, he said.

But should Londoners be concerned with a comfortable journey on the fabric seats of the Eurostar just two hours away?

Yes is the short answer. With a typical lifespan of 4-6 months and a penchant for hitching rides in dirty suitcases, it is very possible they can make the 2hr 16min trip from the City of Love to the Big Smoke.

One bedbug expert from Bed Bugs Ltd, based in London, says the creatures are already here but could even increase in numbers with the Paris epidemic.

The Independent asked David Cain, founder and MD of Bed Bugs LTD and a qualified microbiologist, whether the bugs could survive the journey.

France wary over bedbugs spread (REUTERS)

He said: Easily, yes, without a shadow of a doubt. I have known people go on day trips to Paris, not even staying in hotels or other high-risk activities, and come back with them. Paris has been a popular link for the last six years.

Business is already booming. I started doing this in 2005, when bedbugs were rare and obscure, but [they are] not any more.

If everyone had listened to me in 2006 and started a public education campaign, this wouldnt be happening.

They dont know... and check when you travel that you dont get them. Check your home.

More bedbugs (Supplied)

You wont be the first person in your office who has had them. Theres so much psychological [aversion] ingrained in the national psyche. Some people who seem to have it all together simply turn into a gibbering wreck.

So much of our website is dedicated to psychology and emotional support. People are scared by what they dont understand, but we understand what you are going through.

He added: There is no medication that will prevent bedbugs. They tried to recommend ivermectin, the one Trump thought could stop him from getting Covid then got it a couple of days later. Its a nasty drug.

His best advice: Baking soda and an ice cube  make a paste, apply it to the skin for 30 seconds.

One Reddit user helpfully suggested: ALWAYS use a luggage stand when travelling, and if you want to be extra safe bag up your clothes before you get home and then run everything through a wash cycle with a hot dryer cycle.

Use a suitcase with very few nooks and crannies if possible too, so it can easily be vacuumed/wiped down.

NHS signs of bedbugs include: Spots of blood on your bedding  from the bites or from squashing a bedbug

Small brown spots on bedding or furniture (bedbug poo)

On white skin, bedbug bites usually look red. On black or brown skin, they may look purple and may be harder to see.

Technically, bedbugs are mutants.

Scientists have found that the bedbug possesses genes from other organisms, which makes the creatures  which have been around since the age of the dinosaurs  even harder to kill.

There are 400 types of bacteria that can be found in and on bedbugs, which appear to help keep them alive by fending off viruses, pesticides, and other harmful substances.

Eurostar have insisted their trains are cleaned thoroughly (Gareth Fuller/PA) (PA Archive)

Eurostar said they were planning on ramping up preventative treatments across their entire network to keep the critters on the other side of the Channel.

A spokesperson told The Independent: The safety and wellbeing of our customers is always our number one priority, and the presence of insects such as bedbugs on our trains is extremely rare.

The textile surfaces on all of our trains are cleaned thoroughly on a regular basis, and this involves hot-water injection and extraction cleaning, which has proven highly effective in eliminating bugs.

Any reports on hygiene matters are taken very seriously, and our cleaning teams, in addition to the usual cleaning, will also disinfect a train on request or as soon as there is the slightest doubt.

Earlier this year, pest control company Rentokil highlighted a 65 per cent increase year-on-year in infestations across the country, as experts suggested this could be due to more people buying second-hand furniture from resale websites such as eBay and Facebook Marketplace.
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Who cut it down and can the Sycamore Gap tree be saved?

Those are the questions still at the forefront of the minds of tree lovers everywhere from Northumberland to Newquay some four days after the iconic maple was chopped down.

Distraught celebrities and politicians were among those to express their outrage at the felling of the iconic tree, described by police as a deliberate act of vandalism.

Heres everything we know so far as officers continue to hunt for the culprit.

Why is the tree so significant?

The tree, believed to have been one of the most photographed in the country, used to sit in a gap along Hadrians Wall - a UNESCO World Heritage Site - in rural Northumberland and was a popular hotspot for tourists, walkers and others.

It is believed to have dated back to medieval times and has been excavated on two occasions - between 1908 and 1911 and again between 1982 and 1987, when Roman remains linked to Hadrians Wall were found.

The sycamore perhaps first became known around the globe after featuring in the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman and Alan Rickman.

A man has been arrested over the felling of the famous tree (PA) (PA Wire)

When was it cut down?

Reports first emerged that the tree had been felled overnight on 27 September, with Northumberland police vowing to bring those responsible to justice.

The National Trust, which manages the land where the tree stood, said it was shocked and saddened to learn of the news.

It subsequently closed the site where the tree was located.

Who did it?

Police arrested a man aged in his 60s on Friday on suspicion of criminal damage but he has since been released, pending further inquiries.

A relative posted a picture of the retired lumberjack at home with his grandson as they denied his involvement in the felling.

A boy, 16, who was also arrested on suspicion of criminal damage on Thursday, was later released on bail.

On Sunday reports said officers seized a chainsaw near the site where the tree was cut down.

A chainsaw is seized in hunt for culprit (North News & Pictures Ltd)

Can the tree be regrown or will it have to be replaced?

Andrew Poad of the National Trust pointed to the health of the three as one reason to believe it could be regrown.

Its a very healthy tree, we can see that now because of the condition of the stump, he told BBC.

It may well regrow a coppice from the stump. And if we could nurture that, then that might be one of the best outcomes, and then we keep the tree.

But any effort to regrow the tree is likely to take hundreds of years, according to Mark Feather, UK estate manager for conservation charity, the Woodland Trust.

He told of his upset and warned that while it took minutes to cut the tree down it could take literally centuries to grow back.

He added that even though there is a chance of regrowth, this is not guaranteed, especially because of the great age and size of the tree. Hopefully it will, he said. But this is not a given certainty. Time will tell.

Then, if the Sycamore Gap tree does succeed in resprouting, he said it is unlikely it would return to its former statuesque shape, and would instead probably become a bushy tree with multiple stems at the base.

Tree lovers pay tribute

A woman who wrote a poem was among those to have paid tribute to the tree, describing it as a sentinel of time.

Laura Charlton, says she wrote the poem, an Ode to a Sycamore Tree, to try to capture the recklessness of the actions and the sense of bereavement the locals are feeling.

The birds sing their morning song/Wind dances through the leaves/Almost just as it once was/Yet Northumberland is bereaved, it read.

Residents across the UK - not just in Northumberland - have been expressing their anger at the felling of the three.

Stephen Gallen, from Castlederg in Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland, said it was horrifying that someone could destroy something as beautiful as the tree on Hadrians wall.

He also shared a picture of a stunning sycamore tree in his hometown (below).

(Stephen Gallen)

Fundraisers set up

Fundraising efforts are set up by well-wishers who want to see the area where the tree stood rejuvenated.

Some locals had complained that the area around Hadrians Wall had been overfarmed, with sheep often roaming the fields where it stands.

One fundraiser, which planned to give funds to the National Trust, had raised nearly 5,000 as of Monday afternoon.
 Close Sycamore Gap: 300-year-old tree stars in 90s classic Robin Hood movie before vandalism

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Hadrians Wall has been damaged by the vandals who chopped down the Sycamore Gap tree, investigators have discovered.

Historic England said it found some damage had been caused to the 1,900-year-old wall, one of Britains best-known Unesco world heritage sites, in a preliminary inspection.

A spokesperson for the historical preservation body told The Independent: While we identified that Hadrians Wall has sustained some damage, we have not been able to access the site to carry out a full investigation so a further archaeological appraisal will take place once the site is considered safe.

It comes as The National Trust, which manages the land in Northumberland where the iconic tree once stood, said it has been overwhelmed with thousands of messages of support and over 150 offers of help.

The charity told The Independent its immediate priority has been ensuring the safety of the tree and it is still working on plans for the safe removal of Sycamore Gap. But the spokesperson added that The National Trust is beginning discussions with stakeholders about the future of the site.

Police previously arrested a 16-year-old boy and a man, aged in his 60s, in connection with the incident. Both have since been released on bail.
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Minutes to cut down and centuries to grow back, if it ever does, is the devastating verdict of experts on the iconic Sycamore Gap tree after it was felled.

With police believing it to be a deliberate act of vandalism, the chainsaw-cutting down of the world-famous tree next to Hadrians Wall, in Northumberland, has triggered widespread outrage and sorrow.

Northumbria Police launched an investigation on Thursday after the majestic Sycamore Gap tree, thought to be around 300 years old, was cut down overnight. The force arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with the incident but has since released him on bail.

A man in his sixties was arrested on Friday evening. He remains in police custody.

The world-famous tree next to Hadrians Wall in Northumberland (AFP via Gett)

As the forces inquiries continued on Friday, questions remained over the ancient trees felling and future.

Mark Feather, UK estate manager for conservation charity The Woodland Trust, told of his upset as he said the Sycamore Gap tree took minutes to cut down and literally centuries to grow back.

He said one person with some prior experience and a chainsaw could have easily chopped the tree down within 10 minutes  while in such harsh, rocky and exposed conditions, which slow down growth, the Sycamore Gap tree could take up to 200 years to reach a similar size to what it was a few days ago.

He added that even though there is a chance of regrowth, this is not guaranteed, especially because of the great age and size of the tree. Hopefully it will, he said. But this is not a given certainty. Time will tell.

People visit the felled tree next to Hadrian's Wall (PA)

Then, if the Sycamore Gap tree does succeed in resprouting, he said it is unlikely it would return to its former statuesque shape, and would instead probably become a bushy tree with multiple stems at the base.

Jon Stokes, director of Trees, Science and Research at The Tree Council, explained that this sprouting of many stems, which is called coppicing, is the essential first step of regrowth and will begin to happen in spring if the tree had managed to store enough energy in its roots over autumn before it was cut down. It is very difficult to know for certain whether the tree will survive until next spring but we really have to have hope, he said.

However, he added, It may take many decades to be a mature tree, and it will be a different shape. It could still grow to be something impressive, but its never going to regain that original shape  such an iconic and beautifully shaped tree  and thats sad.

The tree stump at Sycamore Gap (EPA)

Mr Stokes offered a sliver of optimism when he said there is the possibility one strong stem could be nurtured while the others are removed and that this could in theory grow to something vaguely like what it looked like before if managed carefully. However, he said this could take up to a century  during which time a lot could go wrong. We can try setting it on the journey for our children and grandchildren though, he said.

The experts suggested the owners of the Sycamore Gap tree should gather and plant its seeds, so that at least its offspring may live on.

Then, the advice was to fence off the trees from all animals, including humans, to give them their best chance at survival.

Experts suggested the tree owners gather and plant its seeds (Paul Joslin)

John Parker, chief executive officer at The Arboricultural Association, agreed that regrowth could be possible if the tree is left alone. However, he added: I personally find it hard to imagine that a tree of that age and size will ever get back to what it was. It may be that we see a more shrubby tree left. It might grow to a half-decent height, but it wont grow to that form.

He spoke of finding the loss of such an important tree absolutely horrible, and felt his personal feelings were echoed by the outcry from the public.

The trees destruction prompted an outpouring of anger and sorrow from MPs, campaigners and the public alike. Shadow security minister Dan Jarvis described the trees felling as a senseless act of vandalism and told of his hopes the culprit is caught, while the conservation charity Woodland Trust wrote of their devastation at the truly irreplaceable loss in a post retweeted by naturalist Chris Packham.

Messages left on stones beneath the remains of the tree (EPA)

Sycamore Gap tree was made famous by actor Kevin Costner when it appeared in his 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, and was voted English Tree of the Year in 2016 in the Woodland Trusts awards. It has become one of the most photographed trees in the UK.

Mr Stokes told of his own heartbreak and said the loss would impact people for decades. He said: These things are more than just a tree  people have proposed under it, scattered ashes under it, its part of the local area, its a waypoint. The tree has embedded itself into peoples lives.

All three experts agreed it was most likely one person and a chainsaw chopped down the tree in a matter of minutes. Although, if done properly and safely, felling a tree takes far longer, they said.

The tree lies behind police security tape (Getty)

The consensus was that this was not done by a professional arborist but also not by a complete amateur.

Mr Parker said, Somebody has cut that tree down who knows how to cut a tree down. But this isnt a professional piece of work  its just someone trying to get a tree down for a reason known only to them at this stage. This just looks like vandalism of some sort.

Both Mr Parker and Mr Feather agreed that the white paint marking, which can be seen in pictures circling the area of the Sycamore Gap trees trunk, is a red herring, as professionals do not need to mark up a tree before cutting it down. Mr Feather suggested someone more amateur, but who nonetheless had enough experience to know of the possibility of marking up a tree, could have used the paint.

It was voted 2016 English Tree of the Year in the Woodland Trust awards (Helen Wilson-Beevers)

Another reason for his theory that the vandal was a semi-skilled amateur is the way the tree was chopped, he said. He described cuttings that looked sloped and slanted in images, which suggested less expert knowledge. However, the way the tree was chopped, including the addition of a hinge cut, suggested some experience. By looking at the pictures the person looks reasonably competent but not a true professional, he said.

Mr Parker added that tree vandalism happens frequently across the country. This is a very notable and public example of what were dealing with all of the time, the damage that can be inflicted by someone in a relatively short space of time after decades of care, he said. Trees are at threat across the country.
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The broken criminal justice system is in chaos with Rishi Sunaks government showing no creative thinking in its approach to easing the courts backlog, the former victims commissioner has warned.

Speaking one year after resigning, Dame Vera Baird said urgent action was needed to cut long waits in courts which make victims feel neglected.

She also criticised the government for failing to appoint a new commissioner for 12 months since she stepped down and accused ministers of downgrading victims interests and sidelining her office.

She told The Independent: There doesnt seem to be any creative government thinking about how to deal with the courts backlog, the long waits and the risk of victims consequent sense of neglect.

You have to hand it to them  very little is being prosecuted, people are not being supported to cope with what has happened to them and are falling out of the system, but somehow the court backlog is getting longer and longer.

She added: It seems like chaos.

Her comments came as new figures show the crown court backlog had spiralled to a new record high of nearly 65,000 cases, having nearly doubled since 2019. The Independent has also reported that as many as 150 suspects had been languishing in prison for five years while awaiting trial.

Dame Vera also accused ministers of seeking to avoid criticism of poor policies by failing to appoint a new victims commissioner.

Dame Vera Baird was victims commissioner for three years (PA)

I do not know why the government is not making an appointment, unless it is because they dont want what it may see as the aggravation of somebody pointing out that many of the things they have announced with great bravado are not necessarily going to be any good for victims, she said.

A victims commissioner would expect to have input into new announcements as we tried hard to do, in the Victims Bill. But, the government disregarded almost all of what we recommended. I would have had real criticisms of the few poor announcements they have made since  and any commissioner would do the same.

That legislation, recently renamed the Victims and Prisoners Bill, now focuses heavily on prisoners, with moves to increase sentences and allow ministers to intervene in the independent parole process for top tier offenders  despite prisons being so full that inmates are having to be housed in police cells instead.

Increasing sentencing to put victims at the heart of the criminal justice system is to misunderstand, said Dame Vera.

Clearly some victims campaign keenly for tougher sentences, usually for the crime which has affected them, and that is to be respected. However, the criminal justice system is now so broken that sentencing is less important to victims.

Instead, there are excellent simple things that this government could and should have done in the long-awaited bill which could help victims of crime, said Dame Vera, who has also served as a barrister, Labour government minister, and police and crime commissioner prior to holding the post from 2019 to 2022.

Essentially victims want to be treated decently with real interest from the police, information about how the system works and how their own case might proceed, she said.

Being a victim can be one of the worst things to happen to a person and they will be affected by it, disturbed and scared or in the worst cases deeply traumatised. They need to feel that they are considered and given the best help to get over this.

If the criminal justice system itself does not treat them well, they do not cope and recover as they should with the risk that we are seeing now that they will withdraw from the case or not be able to give their evidence well. That is a serious risk to justice.

During her tenure, Dame Vera made several detailed recommendations on how to improve the Victims Bill, and said that until the last year before I resigned, the job of victims commissioner was mainly a positive one because the secretary of state actively engaged and wanted to make things better for victims.

But in her resignation letter last September, she lamented that the bill remained inadequate and warned that then-justice secretary Dominic Raabs plans to override the Human Rights Act with a new Bill of Rights  now paused  so severely [threatened] victims rights that it undermined any progress the Victims Bill could bring.

An enforceable strengthened victims code in the bill with a complaints system to ensure that it worked did look possible, but then the government had lost interest in favour of attacking human rights and claiming that increasing sentences was how to make victims satisfied, said Dame Vera.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: We understand how important the role of victims commissioner is and there has been no attempt to deliberately delay the appointment of the next one. The recruitment is underway and we will confirm the outcome of this process as soon as possible.

It is vital that victims and survivors can access the support they need which is why we are quadrupling funding for victim and witness specialist support services by 2025 compared to 2010, including granting 26m to more than 60 support organisations through the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund.
Technology giant Huawei has announced a five-year investment initiative, totalling US$430 million, for the 28 African countries north of the equator.

The initiative supports a strategy, unveiled by Terry HE, President of Huawei Northern Africa at the eighth edition of the Shanghai-based Huawei Connect event in late September, to guide Africa towards a "smart and connected future".

This strategy, entitled Accelerate Intelligence for New Africa, is described as a comprehensive blueprint for Africa's digital and technological future. It is built around the integration of smart technologies, particularly artifical intellgence (AI), into vital sectors that shape and influence the daily lives of Africans, including health, education, transportation, finance, agriculture, and mining.

The associated five-year investment initiative includes US$200 million to establish the region's first public cloud centre, offering over 200 cloud services, and an additional US$200 million to support 200 local software partners and empower 1,300 channel partners.

In term of talent development, Huawei says it will invest US$30 million to train 10,000 local developers and educate 100,000 digital professionals, creating a skilled workforce to drive intelligent transformation in the region.

Terry HE said: To expedite intelligent transformation in Northern Africa, Huawei will intensify its investments in technologies, ecosystems, and talent. He also stressed the critical importance of close collaboration among governments, businesses, educational institutions, and communities to realise these ambitions.
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Nigel Farage has rejected suggestions he could rejoin the Conservative Party.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak left the door open to a possible return after describing the Tories as a very broad church when asked about Mr Farages membership prospects.

Mr Sunak added to GB News: I welcome lots of people who want to subscribe to our ideals, to our values.

But former Ukip leader Mr Farage replied no, no, no to the suggestion while Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands also said he would not welcome it.

Mr Farage is in Manchester for the Conservative Party conference and attended a speech on the conference fringes by Tory former prime minister Liz Truss.

The prominent Brexiteer was also videoed dancing with Conservative former home secretary Priti Patel to Cant Take My Eyes Off You.

Mr Farage, asked about Mr Sunaks remarks, told GB News: Would I want to join a party thats put the tax rate up to the highest in over 70 years, that has allowed net migration to run at over half a million a year, that has not used Brexit to deregulate to help small businesses?

No, no and no.

He added: I achieved a lot more outside of the Tory party than I ever could have done from within it.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg described Mr Farage as a very effective campaigner and said he shared most of his political views.

The Tory former cabinet minister told BBC Politics: I think Nigel is broadly a Tory and always has been. If he wanted to join I cant think his membership would be refused.

We're always delighted if people cross the floor Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg

But Mr Hands told the same programme: I think hes been most recently advocating voting for another political party. That is not consistent with being a member of the Conservative Party.

Pressed if he would welcome Mr Farage into the party, Mr Hands replied: No, I dont think I would because I think hes repeatedly for the last 30 years or more advocated voting for other political parties.

I think he said he doesnt want to see the Conservative Party succeed so I dont think I would.

Sir Jacob countered: Were always delighted if people cross the floor.

Conservative Party deputy chairman Lee Anderson, speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester hosted by Conservative Home and UK in a Changing Europe, and asked if he agreed Mr Farage would win a Tory leadership race if allowed to stand, said: No. I dont.

He said he was friends with Mr Farage and he is a decent man who has done wonders for politics in this country and does a good job scrutinising the Government, adding: But at the end of the day Nigel has stood many, many times for Parliament and has not won.

I think Nigel is much more effective doing what hes doing, Mr Anderson said, adding: For me, if he joined the party Id shake his hand and welcome him, but I dont think he will.
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Some Police Scotland officers have no vetting record, a watchdog has found.

A review of the forces vetting procedures found no requirement for vetting for rank and file officers and staff to be repeated beyond recruitment checks.

His Majestys Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland Craig Naylor said this is a significant risk and called for all personnel to be re-vetted at least every decade.

He said: I do not believe that any officers or staff should be able to go through the entirety of their service having only been vetted at the time of their recruitment.

There is no doubt the publics confidence in and the reputation of policing has been damaged by officers who have behaved inappropriately and broken the law Craig Naylor, HMICS

Police Scotland Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs said a re-vetting programme is being introduced.

The His Majestys Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) review found that before the single force was created in 2014, vetting was varied, inconsistent and not always recorded effectively, but since the late 2000s this has improved, and vetting currently conducted is of a good standard.

The report states: No check nor review of officers and staff employed by the legacy forces was carried out when the new organisation began and some have no vetting record.

There is no clear process for Police Scotland workers to advise of a criminal conviction or a significant change in personal circumstances such as a new partner or address.

It also found a disproportionate number of cases where the appropriate refusal of vetting has been overturned and clearance granted.

The watchdog flagged these historical cases to Police Scotlands force vetting manager and the anti-corruption unit so they can assess risk and whether clearance remains appropriate.

Among 15 recommendations, Mr Naylor called for a new law to be created by the Scottish Government to ensure a minimum level of vetting for all in Police Scotland and to enable the Chief Constable to sack anyone who cannot maintain suitable vetting.

He also called for annual integrity reviews to be held which would note any change in personal circumstances to help identify risks.

These changes should be prioritised above the random review of recruitment vetting for 3-5% of officers and staff, which Police Scotland has already announced, the watchdog said.

Mr Naylor also called for vetting clearance to be reviewed following misconduct proceedings.

He said: A thorough and effective vetting regime is vitally important to assess a persons integrity and it reassures the public appropriate checks have been carried out on those who are placed in a position of trust.

There is no doubt the publics confidence in and the reputation of policing has been damaged by officers who have behaved inappropriately and broken the law.

Significant steps have been undertaken following recent high profile cases in England to ensure that officers and staff have been checked and any risks identified, highlighted and managed appropriately.

Losing intelligence to terrorists or serious organised criminals is a threat which Police Scotland rightly takes seriously but exposing a vulnerable person to an individual who wishes to harm them is, to me, abhorrent and steps need to be taken to provide assurance that the protection of the vulnerable is prioritised.

The review followed Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick, 48, being sacked after being unmasked as a serial rapist.

HMICS independently reviewed 870 vetting case files which had been completed by Police Scotlands force vetting unit staff between 2019 and 2022.

Mr Speirs said: The safeguarding of our values and standards has never been stronger and HMICS rightly highlights the high standards of our vetting.

Over 5,000 officers and staff are vetted to an enhanced level with annual reviews and we will ensure all roles have the right clearance levels.

Weve invested to enable additional checks for new recruits before they are sworn into office and, working with staff associations and unions, we are introducing a programme of re-vetting.

We know the onus is on us to earn public confidence and will carefully review this report to identify any further improvements which can strengthen our vetting.

Speaking to reporters in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, Scotlands First Minister Humza Yousaf said: We will consider, of course, as will Police Scotland.

I think theres a recommendation for the Scottish Government in terms of potential legislation, well give that full consideration, as youd imagine we would with a report of this nature.

When it comes to the creation of Police Scotland, the report made it clear that there are vetting procedures in place for new officers coming into the service. There are some recommendations for what to do for those legacy officers who entered the force pre the creation of Police Scotland.

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay said: In the wake of numerous cases of serious wrongdoing, and to maintain public confidence, SNP ministers must ensure that the force has sufficient resources to conduct these vitally important background checks.

Scottish Liberal Democrat deputy leader and former police officer, Wendy Chamberlain, called on Police Scotland to do far more to prevent potentially dangerous individuals holding positions of authority.
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Cabinet minister Michael Gove has claimed that the infamous Brexit campaign promise about leaving the EU leading to 350 a week for the NHS had been delivered.

The levelling up secretary offered no evidence for his claim on a Brexit boost for the health service, as he recalled the notorious pledge on the side of the Vote Leave battle bus.

Mr Gove  one of the key Tory figures behind the official Leave campaign along with Boris Johnson  used his conference speech in Manchester to talk up Brexit benefits.

Brexit has been delivered, and membership of the worlds fast growing trade block secured, the senior minister said on the move to join the Indo-Pacific trade partnership.

Mr Gove added: And there is now more than 350m extra a week for our NHS  Promise made, promise delivered.

Brexit campaigners have never been able to substantiate the claim of extra money going to the NHS  a claim they made because of the contribution the UK made to the EU for being part of the single market and customs union.

The chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility said leaving the EU would likely cut GDP growth by 4 per cent, the chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility  a 100bn loss.

Even Nigel Farage, part if the unofficial Leave EU campaign, later said he would never have made that [NHS] claim and it was one of the mistakes the official Vote Leave team made during the referendum.

Boris Johnson with the Vote Leave campaign bus (PA)

Earlier this year a book claimed that senior BBC figure Sir Robbie Gibb told a news editor not to investigate the claim that Brexit would mean 350m a week going to the NHS.

Sir Robbie  the former No 10 comms chief who was editor of live politics programmes at the time of the referendum  was reportedly horrified at the idea of scrutinising the claim after the vote and urged colleagues to move on.

Rob Burley, former The Andrew Marr Show editor, made the claim in a new book about his time at the BBC. Sir Robbie told the author it was just not true that politicians lie all the time 350 million was not a lie at all.

Meanwhile, Mr Gove used his conference speech to accuse Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer of being a jellyfish of British politics  saying he was transparent, spineless and swept along by the tide.

He also claimed the Tories would stop Labour taking our fields, meadows, and forests away from our children as he promised government housebuilding plans would protect nature.

The levelling up secretary said the Tories were the party of beauty and nature  despite telling the conference earlier this week he hoped to bring back plans to ditch river pollution rules for housebuilders.

He said the government would build in the hearts of towns and cities and on brownfield land, because that cuts commuting times, revitalises high streets and protects the green belt.
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Business secretary Kemi Badenoch said that there is zero chance of the UK securing a post-Brexit trade deal with the US while Joe Biden remains in the White House.

The cabinet minister risked a diplomatic row with Britains closest ally by saying the Democrat president was too close to the unions to strike a free trade agreement (FTA).

It comes as a report claimed that Rishi Sunak and Mr Biden were in the early stages of a foundational UK-US agreement on trade aimed at being wrapped up before they both face re-election in 2024.

Appearing at a Tory conference fringe event hosted by The Spectator magazine, Ms Badnoch was asked about the possibility of a deal during the current administration.

Under this administration  zero, Ms Badenoch said. She said that the Biden White House has very close links with unions, who are opposed to free trade agreements.

Asked if a Trump-led White House could be more amenable, she did not directly answer the question. An FTA is a tool. It is not the answer to everything. There are other things you can do. You dont always have to wait for the FTA with the president or his administration.

It comes as Politico first reported that negotiations on a foundational deal on trade were set to begin between the UK and the US this month.

Although it will not qualify as a formal FTA in the eyes of the World Trade Organisation, it is expected to cover controversial areas like labour rights, environment rules, supply chains and regulation of services.

It has been initially dubbed the US-UK Trade Partnership Forum (TPF) with the aim of making sure the two countries can coordinate and cooperate on trade policy issues of mutual interest and to further deepen existing trade ties.

Kemi Badenoch says zero chance of full trade deal under Joe Biden (PA Wire)

UK government sources played down the significance of the potential foundational deal to The Independent, since it is not believed to be anything approaching the FTA promised in the Tory manifesto.

A spokesperson for Ms Badenochs Department for Business and Trade pointed to the Atlantic Declaration struck in June. The declaration is a loose economic concord aimed at boosting collaboration on energy, artificial intelligence and other areas.

The spokesperson said: The UK and US are rapidly expanding the work we do together across the full spectrum of our economic, technological, commercial and trade relations through the Atlantic Declaration. Discussions with the US on next steps under this first-of-its-kind agreement are ongoing.

Ms Badenoch  believed to a leading contender to replace Mr Sunak if the Tories lose the election  has been showered in praised by the Tory faithful this week after striking a deal for Britain to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The UK formally agreed to become the first European country to join a major Indo-Pacific trade bloc  hailed as momentous despite forecasts placing its value at just 1.8bn a year.

Reminded earlier this year that a promise was made by the Tories on a US trade deal, Ms Badenoch told the BBC: That was an agreement with the previous president [Donald Trump]. You cannot force countries to join free trade agreements.

The right-winger used her conference speech to attack Sir Keir Starmer over his support for Remain in the Brexit referendum. The people who tell you that Brexit is the cause of every problem, do so because they think the answer to everything is the EU, she said.

And Ms Badenoch told a fringe event: Our political opponents are obsessed with viewing every problem as Brexit  relentlessly wanting to talk down our country.
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Rishi Sunak is set to use the Tory party conference to confirm he has scrapped the northern leg of HS2  weeks after The Independent revealed he had held secret talks about axeing the project.

The Independent understands that the route north of Birmingham will be shelved for seven years in a bid to ditch the project in the long term  a move that has sparked fury among northern mayors and business bosses.

A source close to government discussions said Mr Sunak was most likely to make the announcement in his speech on Wednesday, though it could now be brought forward to Tuesday.

The Independent understands that the decision to leave open the possibility that HS2 could be revived by the end of the decade was only made after this publications initial exclusive provoked a furious backlash and spooked No 10.

The move completely overshadowed the second day of the partys conference in Manchester, with chancellor Jeremy Hunt not getting the attention he would have maybe hoped.

It comes as:

Tory mayor Andy Street blasted Mr Sunak, saying he was turning his back on levelling up

The Treasury refused to confirm the move, saying it was a decision for the prime minister

Labour accused Mr Sunak of turning his conference into a shambles

Mr Sunak plotted to assemble his ministers for an emergency cabinet on Wednesday

Liz Truss was mobbed by scores of Tory MPs backing her call for more tax cuts and deregulation

Andy Street, the Tory mayor of the West Midlands, pleaded with Mr Sunak not to ditch the northern leg of HS2. The influential figure said it would mean cancelling the future and warned that Britains credibility in the eyes of global investors was now at stake.

In a fiery message to the PM outside the conference hall, he added: We must not give up. We must stay the course ... You will be turning your back on an opportunity to level up, a once-in-a-generation opportunity. You will indeed be damaging our international reputation as a place to invest.

Henri Murison, the chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, added that it was madness to leave the UKs flagship infrastructure project unfinished, and said the decision could finish the Tories levelling-up promises.

Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak are set to shelve HS2s northern leg (PA)

The prime minister is expected to call his ministers together on Tuesday, but cabinet ministers told The Independent that, as yet, nothing is in their diary.

A source told The Independent that there would be some reallocation of HS2 money to the east-west rail programme known as Northern Powerhouse Rail in a bid to keep angry Tory MPs and business chiefs onside.

Mr Sunak is also expected to announce that the Birmingham to London leg of the network will end at Old Oak Common in west London rather than terminating at Euston.

The Independent first revealed the secret talks  codenamed Project Redwood  on 14 September. A cost estimate showed that shelving phase 2 of HS2 would save up to 34bn, though 2.3bn has already been lost to the northern leg. No 10 repeatedly stonewalled when approached about our story, before ministers admitted that talks were taking place.

Senior officials involved in the delivery of HS2 said they were still pushing to save the legislation needed to keep building the high-speed rail network in future, in the hope that a Labour government could revive the northern leg if the party wins power in 2024.

Scrapping HS2s northern leg will create mess and turn investors away, industry experts have warned (PA Archive)

A hybrid bill authorises the digging of the HS2 tunnel between Manchester and Crewe. Northern MPs and business chiefs are also pushing for as much money as possible to boost east-west rail links.

The Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said it looked like the Tories conference this year, which is being held in Manchester, will be remembered as the conference when they pulled the plug on us, adding: What gives them the right to treat people here ... as second-class citizens?

Mr Burnham said he could accept changes to the phasing of the project, but that HS2 must not be cancelled.

If the decision is to prioritise that northern section and wider east-west links, we could live with that  on condition, though, that they dont scrap HS2, he told a hastily arranged press conference on the fringes of Tory conference.

Theres a lot at stake here. Our reputation is at stake as a country, Mr Burnham later told an industry reception hosted by the High Speed Rail Group.

If that plug is pulled, in effect, its a statement that the north of England economy is going to be smaller in the 21st century than it might otherwise have been. Its a message to [people] here that they are second-class citizens.

Patrick McLoughlin, a longtime former Tory transport secretary under David Cameron and now the chair of Transport for the North, told the same event: This [decision] should not be made in isolation without talking to elected mayors. Weve got a system of devolution, of elected metro mayors. We shouldnt be suddenly finding out this is under consideration by the prime minister and the chancellor.

Jeremy Hunt delivers his speech during the Conservative conference (PA Wire)

Red-wall Tory MPs in the Northern Research Group have signalled their willingness to accept a long delay to the northern leg of HS2  so long as Mr Hunt and Mr Sunak commit to Northern Powerhouse Rail.

The idea of axeing HS2s northern route has been opposed by three former prime ministers  Boris Johnson, Theresa May and David Cameron  as well as former chancellors George Osborne and Philip Hammond. Mr Johnson said it would be utter madness.

But Jeremy Hunt has said the costs of building the high speed line have ballooned out of control.

The chancellor told the BBC: I have to answer the question as to why it costs 10 times more to build high speed rail in this country than across the channel in France, because it is taxpayers money.

And senior Tory MP Esther McVey, whose Tatton constituency is close to Greater Manchester, welcomed the idea of scrapping the northern leg of HS2.

Ms McVey has claimed the rail line is sucking the life out of our local transport in the north of England.

Speaking to The BBC, she said: Thank goodness that the prime minister is looking at HS2s spiralling costs, because what might have been feasible at 37bn really is not at 120bn going northwards.

She has called on the PM to stop it as soon as possible and pour the money into local infrastructure to better connect cities across the north.

Andy Bagnall, the chief executive of Rail Partners  the umbrella body for the big rail companies  said that scrapping the Manchester leg would send a shockwave through the rail industry, its supply chain and all those with a stake in the project, including the northern communities it would have served.

Sunak is now expected to confirm HS2s northern leg will be scrapped at the Tory conference (Getty Images)

Jurgen Maier, the former Siemens boss, said the government was letting future generations down. He told The Independent: Complex infrastructure projects always hit some problems. Smart people get round the table to solve them  they dont run away and cancel.

Labours Louise Haigh, the shadow transport secretary, attacked Mr Sunaks shambolic conference and said the fiasco showed that the Conservatives are too divided and too distracted to rule. She added: Rishi Sunaks relaunch is now coming off the rails.

The Lib Dems transport spokesperson, Wera Hobhouse, said that the prime minister using a conference in Manchester to cancel the Manchester HS2 leg would make Liz Truss look like a political genius. She added: We have a PM who flies around the country by helicopter, then wants to scrap high-speed rail links for the rest of us.

Recommended Sunak faces open revolt over refusal to back tax cuts

Labours London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said cutting back HS2 would be a catastrophic failure. And Bev Craig, the Labour leader of Manchester City Council, said: My phone is going wild with businesses who are very anxious. She warned that major regeneration projects in Manchester could now be at risk.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Hunt gave the clearest signal yet that he would axe the northern leg as he attacked some of the high-speed rail projects totally unacceptable costs.

A Downing Street spokesperson said no final decisions had been taken on phase 2 of HS2, but did not deny that an announcement could come at this weeks party conference.
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Cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch has insisted that Britain is the best country in the world to black  accusing Labour of bowing before the altar of intolerance.

The business secretary appeared to reject a claim by home secretary Suella Braverman  a possible future leadership rival  that multiculturalism in the UK had failed.

Ms Badenoch, who is also equalities minister, used her conference speech in Manchester to claim that only the Tories tell the truth on race.

The anti-woke Tory condemned a left-wing narrative that says there is no point in trying, because British society is against you and youre better off asking for reparations, a narrative that tells children like mine that the odds are stacked against them.

She added: I tell my children that is the best country in the world to be black  because its a country that sees people, not labels.

Ms Badenoch warned that advocates of identity politics are seeking to re-racialise society. The business secretary claimed Labour wanted to bend the knee before this altar of intolerance, and invoked the words of American civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King.

She told the Conservative Party conference that Labour didnt like the governments Inclusive Britain Report  which caused controversy by failing to acknowledge structural racism in the UK.

She added: Conservatives want young people to be proud of their country when others want them to be ashamed. It wasnt a tough decision for us to reject the divisive agenda of critical race theory.

We believe, as Martin Luther King once said, people should be judged by the content of their character, not the colour of their skin. And if that puts us in conflict with those who would re-racialise society .... all I can say is bring it on.

She added: Let Labour bend the knee before this altar of intolerance, we will keep building a country that is in every way stronger and fairer for all.

Priti Patel says Suella Braverman's US immigration speech was for 'attention'

Ms Braverman claimed last week that multiculturalism had failed  but cabinet colleagues Jeremy Hunt and James Cleverly have also distanced themselves from her remarks at the Tory conference.

Historian Sathnam Sanghera tweeted: Britain is the best country to be black. But also, somehow, multiculturalism has failed. Hope youre keeping up with these Conservative pronouncements.

Elsewhere in her speech, Ms Badenoch praised Rishi Sunak for taking brave decisions to delay key net-zero commitments, including moving the deadline for the sale of new petrol and diesel cars to 2035.

She compared Mr Sunak with Sir Keir Starmer, and sought to discredit the Labour leader over his past support for remain in the Brexit referendum. The people who tell you that Brexit is the cause of every problem, do so because they think the answer to everything is the EU, she said.

Ms Badenoch also appeared to have a dig at the left, anti-Brexit campaigners and the media for talking Britain down. Everywhere I go other countries speak with nothing but admiration and respect for Britain, she told the conference.

Then I feel a twinge of sadness, because I remember that our political opponents back home and their friends in the media continue to speak about our country like its an irrelevant nation. We reject this narrative.
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Rishi Sunaks government plans to send criminals abroad in a desperate bid to solve Britains prisons crisis as overcrowding reaches breaking point.

As figures uncovered by The Independent showed inmate numbers are reaching dangerous levels, justice secretary Alex Chalk said he would look to introduce laws to allow the UK to rent prison space abroad.

Tory figures cited similar measures introduced in European countries including Norway and Belgium which saw hundreds of prisoners sent to the Netherlands.

Mr Chalk told the Conservative Party conference in Manchester the plans would help the government lock up the most dangerous offenders for longer where that is necessary to protect the public.

But a source close to the justice secretary said the proposals were at an early stage and there were no details of how much the plans would cost, where prisoners would be sent or how many inmates would be jailed abroad.

The proposal comes after the Tories failed bid to send migrants seeking asylum in the UK to Rwanda, which the Court of Appeal judged to be unlawful.

Campaigners slammed the fresh plans as half-baked, while Labour said the announcement was proof the Tories had run our criminal justice system into the ground.

It comes on a day of desperate attempts to win over Tories on the right of the party that saw extraordinary statements and pledges including:

Suella Bravermans claim a hurricane of migrants are on their way to the UK as she vowed to close asylum hotels

Health secretary Steve Barclay outlining plans to ban trans women from female NHS wards, claiming Tories know what a woman is

Michael Goves claim the infamous Brexit campaign promise that leaving EU would boost NHS by 350m a week had been delivered  despite providing any evidence

Announcing his prison plans, Mr Chalk told the conference: This government is doing more than any since the Victorian era to expand prison capacity.

I can tell you today that we also intend to look at the Norwegian example and explore renting overseas capacity.

Norway has previously rented prison cells from the Netherlands under a Norgerhaven agreement which saw 650 prisoners sent to the country between 2015 and 2018. Belgium sent as many as 650 prisoners to the Netherlands between 2010 and 2016 under a similar scheme.

Justice secretary Alex Chalk said the plans would keep dangerous inmates behind bars for longer (PA)

In September, Britains prison population grew by 665  more than the number of prisoners who were sent from Belgium to the Netherlands over six years.

Labours shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said the move showed the UKs justice system was broken.

Theres no greater symbol of the way in which the Tories have run our criminal justice system into the ground than the fact they are exploring putting prisoners in foreign jails because they are incapable of building the prison places this country needs to keep our people safe, she said.

After 10 justice secretaries in 10 years, we saw no acknowledgement of their failings across the criminal justice system  from the crumbling prison estate to the courts backlog, and sky-high reoffending rates.

She said Labour would deliver 20,000 prison places needed to tackle the backlog and would drive down the court backlog by increasing the number of crown prosecutors and by open specialist rape courts.

Labour MP Karl Turner, a former shadow justice secretary, said the announcement was a damning indictment of this tired-out, dishonest and utterly incompetent Tory government.

This government has broken our criminal justice system, Im only surprised they havent rented hotel rooms, he said, adding: Its time for them to call it a day.

Red light on prison overcrowding been flashing for years, say campaigners (Getty Images)

The head of the Prison Reform Trust, Pia Sinha, said the governments response to dangerous and growing levels of overcrowding in our prisons is a half-baked idea to rent foreign prison places.

Prison leaders will be in despair at such a superficial response to their very real and urgent concerns. The red warning light of a looming capacity crisis has been flashing on the prison service dashboard for a number of months. Ministers cant say they havent been warned.

Andrea Albutt, president of the Prison Governors Association, told The Independent the plans were utter nonsense. She added: Its just further evidence that this governments policy of locking up more people, and locking people up for longer, has failed miserably.

Ms Albutt said prisons were very close to being full and that the proposals would have no impact on the immediate problem of overcrowding.

Mentioning the money already spent by the Home Office on the failed Rwanda scheme, she added: Is this just going to be another policy that they spend millions on that never gets off the ground?

Andrew Coomber KC, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: This is a national embarassment and one that should come to symbolise the misguidance and misdirection characterising prisons policy in England and Wales for decades.

The Independent revealed earlier this week that the majority of prisons are now dangerously full, with some  including Wandsworth, where ex-soldier Daniel Khalife is accused of escaping  holding 70 per cent more inmates than they should.

The shortfall prompted warnings from the chief of prison governors, former home secretary Jack Straw and former Tory prisons minister Rory Stewart, who all warned that early release may have to be considered to tackle the crisis.

And prison governors chief Ms Albutt warned the nuclear button could be pressed very soon, as the system runs dangerously close to capacity.

Mr Chalk said on Tuesday that Mr Sunaks government has added more than 5,000 prison places, including in new prisons such as HMP Fosse Way. But he said prisons cost around 46,000 a year for each adult male, which he said is a lot of money and highlights the need to break the cycle of reoffending.

Elsewhere at the conference, Ms Braverman warned that Britain faces a hurricane of migrants as she dialled up her anti-immigration rhetoric. She also took aim at domestic rights legislation  saying she was surprised Labours Human Rights Act was not called the Criminal Rights Act.

Meanwhile, the health secretary revealed that transgender women are to be banned from female NHS wards  insisting that the Tories know what a woman is.

Unison said it was deflection politics at its very worst, while he LGBT+ charity Stonewall described it as cynical. Britains first openly transgender MP, Tory Jamie Wallis, also lashed out  saying there was no evidence of even a single complaint about the presence of trans women in particular spaces.

And Mr Gove claimed that the Brexit campaign promise that leaving the EU would boost the NHS by 350m a week had already been delivered. Even Nigel Farage said he would never have made that claim.
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Rishi Sunak will attack the last 30 years of broken politics  much of it under successive Conservative governments  as he pledges to fundamentally reform the UK.

In his first party conference speech as Tory leader on Wednesday, he will hit out at politicians who spent more time campaigning for change than actually delivering it.

After 13 years of Tory rule, including Boris Johnsons Partygate scandal, the chaos of Liz Trusss mini-Budget that rocked the financial markets, and the crumbling concrete crisis in schools, he will argue he is the political leader to take the tough decisions necessary for the good of the country.

It comes as the prime minister is expected to finally confirm he will scrap the HS2 rail link to Manchester, weeks after The Independent revealed the plan.

The row over the high-speed line has overshadowed much of the conference, being held in the city, after Mr Sunak repeatedly refused to clarify its future.

In his speech, he will also accuse Labour, who are still trouncing the Tories in the polls, of wanting power for the sake of power and being everything that is wrong with our politics".

His comments will be seen as throwing down the gauntlet to Sir Keir Starmer ahead of his partys conference, which opens this weekend in Liverpool.

Presenting himself as the change candidate, Mr Sunak will attempt to set himself apart from a party that has been in power since 2010, just as Labour tries to link him remorselessly to the past 13 years.

His speech comes after a final full day of the conference which saw extraordinary claims and pledges from his ministers, including:

Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, saying prisoners could be sent abroad as jail overcrowding reaches breaking point

Suella Braverman claiming a hurricane of migrants was on their way to the UK as she vowed to close asylum hotels

Steve Barclay outlining plans to ban trans women from female NHS wards, claiming Tories know what a woman is

Michael Goves claiming the infamous Brexit campaign promise that leaving the EU would boost the NHS by 350m a week was being delivered  despite providing no evidence

In his speech, Mr Sunak will say: There is the undeniable sense that politics just doesnt work the way it should. [There is] a feeling that Westminster is a broken system.

Rather than anger, there is an exhaustion with politics. In particular, politicians saying things, and then nothing ever changing. And you know what: people are right, he will say.

Politics doesnt work the way it should. Weve had thirty years of a political system which incentivises the easy decision, not the right one. Thirty years of vested interests standing in the way of change."

Boris Johnson, who presided over the Partygate scandal in Downing St (PA Wire)

The PM will say he wants to change the political system, which is too focused on short-term advantage, not long-term success. Politicians spent more time campaigning for change than actually delivering it. Our mission is to fundamentally change our country.

David Camerons government gave the green light to HS2 in 2012, while another of Mr Sunaks Tory predecessors, Theresa May, was in power when the UK made its net zero commitments  another thing the PM has recently rowed back on.

Labour argues that as Boris Johnsons chancellor, Mr Sunak cannot set himself apart from the chaos that has engulfed the party in recent years, including the Partygate scandal and the impact of Ms Trusss mini-Budget.

Senior Tories argue that the tilt to portray Mr Sunak as an agent of change has created some dividing lines with Labour, especially last months announcement on motorists, which helps to create a clearer choice for voters.

Labour, Mr Sunak will say, wants to say as little as possible and hope no one notices.

It is a bet on peoples apathy [that] does not speak to any higher purpose or brighter future. It is about power for the sake of power. It is in short, everything that is wrong with our politics.

Pat McFadden, Labours national campaign coordinator, said: Weve had 13 years of Tory failure. Rishi Sunak isnt a cure for that failure  hes a product of it. And every day the Tories stay in power it all just carries on.

The prime minister is too weak to take on all the competing factions and contenders already jockeying to replace him. The sooner the election comes the better because its time to turn the page on the Tory years and start to rebuild Britain.
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Around 60 Conservative MPs have now signed up to Liz Trusss pro-growth group of rebels demanding tax cuts  putting Rishi Sunaks majority in parliament at risk.

The former prime minister drew a large crowd of Tory members at the party conference in Manchester on Monday as she pushed for tax cuts this year to make Britain grow again.

Ms Truss told the packed event that corporation tax should be slashed to 19 per cent as she urged members to unleash their inner conservative. She added: Lets stop taxing and banning things.

Her close ally Ranil Jayawardena MP said the Conservative Growth Group, which had thought to number around 30, had grown to include 60 MPs  roughly the same size as Mr Sunaks majority in the Commons.

Former home secretary Priti Patel, who joined the Truss rally on Monday along with Jacob Rees-Mogg, told delegates: We cannot be timid any more, we cannot be risk averse and we cannot accept the status quo.

Dozens of MPs have pledged to vote against chancellor Jeremy Hunts autumn statement if he includes any new tax hikes. I think its pretty unlikely that the chief whip will kick people out of the Conservative party if they stand by their pledge, said ex-chairman Jake Berry  one of those who have signed it.

Warning that the tax rebels had significant clout, Mr Berry added: Theres 33 whove signed already with more to come, and thats more than half of the governments majority.

Ms Truss was courting the vast support among the party membership that selected her over Mr Sunak last summer, before a disastrous spree of unfunded tax cuts at the mini-Budget led to the chaotic implosion of her 49-day premiership.

Nigel Farage was also out in support of Ms Truss on Monday, saying he absolutely 100% believes in her. He warned Mr Sunak of the rebellious mood at the conference, adding: Whats really happening this week is who and what takes over the party after we lose the next election.

Liz Truss, Ranil Jayawardena, Priti Patel and Jacob Rees-Mogg (PA)

Other groups on the right of the party were also gathering momentum in Manchester, as the New Conservatives group led by Danny Kruger and Miriam Cates set out proposals to ban gender ideology being taught in schools at a standing room-only event.

Mr Sunak and his team made a pitch to the Tory right with plans to scale back HS2, slash the civil service and impose tougher benefits conditions as the threat presented by Ms Truss and others on the right appeared to grow.

Mr Hunt said there were no short cuts to tax cuts this year  but did not rule out the idea of introducing some at the spring Budget in 2024.

And the chancellor did make offerings that will go down well with the Truss-backing right of the party. He announced a cap on Whitehall hiring to save up to 1bn a year and ordered plans to shrink the number of officials. He pointed towards cutting back on officials working on equality and diversity initiatives.

Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect union, said: We now have government ministers rushing out policies at Tory conference in a desperate attempt to shore up their own support from the hard right of their party, he added.

Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union which represents senior civil servants, said the announcement was out of the playbook of Mr Rees-Mogg. He said the plan was fantasy politics of the worst kind.

Elsewhere at the conference, transport secretary Mark Harper said councils could be blocked from fining drivers, as he targeted the sinister idea of 15-minute cities. He even claimed that local authorities wanted to regulate how often people could drive to the shops.

Business secretary Kemi Badenoch promised a review of regulators so Brexit freedoms can be used to reduce bureaucracy.

Culture secretary Lucy Frazer announced new guidance to ensure statues are explained rather than torn down following the toppling of the slave trader Edward Colston statue. And education secretary Gillian Keegan took on teaching unions by suggesting minimum service levels could be extended to university staff.
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Home secretary Suella Braverman has warned that Britain faces a hurricane of migrants as she dialled up her anti-immigration rhetoric in a bid to appeal to the Tory faithful.

The cabinet minister made a fiery speech at the Conservative conference in Manchester, as she vowed to shut hotels used by asylum seekers and claimed Labour would open the borders.

In an address sure to provoke outrage, the Tory right-winger said there was a surge of millions of migrants around the world trying to come to the UK.

The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming, Ms Braverman told delegates.

She added: [The public] know another thing, that the future could bring millions more migrants to these shores, uncontrolled and unmanageable unless the government they elect next year acts decisively to stop that happening.

Tory London Assembly member Andrew Boff was kicked out of the conference after heckling Ms Braverman  accused her of vilifying the LGBT+ community.

Ms Braverman attacked the dense net of international human rights legislation  and even took aim at domestic rights. The senior Tory said she was surprised Labours Human Rights Act was not called the Criminal Rights Act.

She promised that the government will soon begin closing down asylum hotels, despite the enormous backlog of asylum cases the Home Office has struggled to tackle and problems getting small boat arrivals on the Bibby Stockholm barge.

But Ms Braverman stated: Be under no illusion, we will do whatever it takes to stop the boats and deter bogus asylum seekers.

Suella Braverman railed against woke nonsense and luxury beliefs (PA)

She said Labour had been aided by their allies in the third sector who were always bleating the same incessant accusation  racist, racist, racist. Theyve always used that smear. It wont work against Rishi Sunak and it wont work against me.

The home secretary  believed to be positioning herself as the favourite of the right for a leadership contest if Rishi Sunak loses the general election  also claimed her party stands with the many against the privileged woke minority.

Ms Braverman railed against a wealthy elite with their luxury beliefs, adding: Migrants wont be taking their jobs  theyre more likely to be mowing their laws or cleaning their homes  they have no use for their British passport unless its taking to their second homes in Tuscany.

Surprising that Human Rights Act wasn't called 'Criminal Rights Act', says Suella Braverman

She warned that under Labour, Britain would go properly woke. But she said she was confident that when push comes to shove voters will back the Tories again  calling Sir Keir Starmer her partys secret weapon.

Andrew Boff, a leading Tory London Assembly member, was ejected from Ms Bravermans speech at the Conservative conference for heckling her  accusing her of making his party look transphobic.

The LGBT+ Conservatives group patron has condemned Ms Braverman for saying last week that simply being gay should not be enough to gain protection as a refugee  and said some were pretending to be gay to gain asylum.

After he got booted out, Mr Boff told reporters: This home secretary was basically vilifying gay people and trans people by this attack on LGBT ideology, or gender ideology. It is fictitious, it is ridiculous. It is a signal to people who dont like people who are LGBT+ people.

Recommended Nigel Farage rejects suggestions he could make Tory party return

The senior Tory said Ms Braverman was saying trash about gender ideology that was making our Conservative party look homophobic and transphobic.

Ms Braverman told the conference hall that she was aware she was a hate figure because she tells the blunt, unvarnished truth.
Almana Group of Hospitals, the pioneering healthcare provider in the Eastern Region, has unveiled plans to expand to Riyadh in partnership with Dar International Consultancy, HDR Middle East and ARC Design.

This move of establishing a 300-bed multi-specialty hospital represents a milestone for Almana Group of Hospitals, as it marks its first venture into a new region, allowing it to extend its renowned healthcare services to the residents of the kingdoms capital.

The new hospital will be in the north of Riyadh with the allocated space designed to accommodate the comprehensive medical facilities and services that Almana Hospital is renowned for.

Elevating healthcare

Recognised for its long-standing commitment to delivering exceptional care for more than seven decades across the Eastern Region, this expansion accentuates Almanas dedication to elevating healthcare across Saudi Arabia by complementing the Saudi Health Sector Transformation Programme (HSTP), a core pillar of the Saudi Vision 2030. The new hospital in Riyadh will add to Almanas existing five hospitals, three medical centres, and the management of 30 industrial sites clinics currently spread across four cities - Khobar, Dammam, Jubail and Ahsa.

To make the New Riyadh Hospital (NRH) vision a reality, the Almana Group is partnering with HDR Middle East, LLC. (HDR), a globally recognised leader in healthcare design; Dar International Consultancy (DAR), headquartered in Riyadh; and ARC Design, based in Lisbon, Portugal; to develop the design and planning of the hospital. The team of DAR and HDR have successfully partnered and delivered over 15 healthcare projects for numerous private and public clients throughout the kingdom.

As a global leader in the healthcare design industry, HDR has designed over 14 million sq m of healthcare space and over 19,000 beds in the past five years and HDR has been named the top healthcare design firm in the 2023 Modern Healthcare Construction & Design survey - this marks the 24th time HDR has topped this prestigious list.

Strong opportunity

Mana Almana, CEO of Almana Group of Hospitals, adds: Almana is driven by the desire to provide the best quality care for all and innovating, investing, and partnering for a better tomorrow for all in the Kingdom. Riyadh provides a strong opportunity to deliver our top-notch healthcare service offerings to even more patients, and we are excited to partner with leading healthcare design firms to provide innovative solutions to meet the nations needs, in line with Vision 2030. Driven by our forward-thinking mindset, routed in our deep understanding of our patients and nation  we are ready to embark on the next chapter of Almana Group of Hospitals.

Ahmad Soueid, Senior Vice President of HDR, commented: Our team is passionate about the opportunity to design a facility focused on superior inpatient and outpatient care in a culture that boasts strong family support as an integral part of the healing process within a framework of efficiently designed spaces for clinicians and caregivers. We approach every project with a deep commitment to designing spaces that are not only beautiful and functional, but also compassionate, supportive, and conducive to healing. Our past successful collaborations on projects in Saudi Arabia were always centered around providing international expertise that is locally delivered and this approach will greatly benefit Almana Group as we collaborate with DAR and ARC on this project.

Shahbaz Tufail, Vice President of DAR International Consultancy, commented: Collaborating with our international associates, HDR and ARC, our objective is to create a hospital that is future thinking through the implementation of AI technology, international through the implementation of pioneering healthcare design philosophy and leading edge through the execution of contemporary architectural design.

Human-centric design values
Sabah, a Malaysian state located on the northern portion of Borneo, in the East Malaysia region, is to play host to a Tier IV data centre worth RM119 million (about US$25.2 million).

The Straits Times news service says that the project will be undertaken by Sabah-based Poseidon Technologies, in partnership with Permodalan Risda (PRB), the investment arm of the Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (Risda). Sabah Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry Minister Dr Jeffrey G Kitingan said, after a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing ceremony, that the new data centre is expected to be completed by July next year.

There are few details available about Poseidon, though its website describes the company as an end-to-end IT and solutions firm. The Data Centre Dynamics website says that details around the specifications of the planned data centre are also scarce.

However, it is known that it will be located at the Aeropod mixed development project, which comprises a hotel, a retail mall, retail offices, residential suites, corporate offices and green parks in Tanjung Aru, located about 5 kilometres from the state capital Kota Kinabalu.

In a speech, Dr Kitingan said he hoped the new centre would become a catalyst for us to set up other data centres in other areas where it is needed, adding: This will help us to transform from a conventional to a digital economy."

He also noted that the data centre will have its power generation subject to approval by relevant authorities. PRB's director-general Datuk Abdullah Zainal said the facility will incorporate green energy elements, utilising solar energy and fossil electricity power in line with the Sabah government's commitment to preserving the environment.

If it goes ahead this will apparently be Malaysias first Tier IV data centre, though many other data centres are planned or in place. Indeed, Princeton Digital Group (PDG ) last week announced the launch of its 22MW hyperscale data centre facility (JC2) in Citibung, Greater Jakarta  the companys sixth facility in the country.
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The King has thanked workers at a sawmill in Aberdeenshire that has bought thousands of tonnes of timber from a royal estate.

Charles made his second visit to the James Jones and Sons Limited sawmill at Aboyne, which has bought timber from the Balmoral Estate for more than 34 years but said he does not know whether he will be around for a further visit in another 24 years time.

The sawmill opened in 1962 and primarily serves the Scottish market, but also exports to Australia and New Zealand.

It was rebuilt in 1991, and Charles visited eight years later when he was Prince of Wales, which some workers remembered.

The King thanked marvellous workers for processing timber from Balmoral and asked about the price of it.

Company chairman Tom Bruce-Jones, whose father welcomed Charles in 1999, joked it was too expensive.

Charles said: Well done everybody thank you very much for all the efforts you made.

Thank you for dealing with some of the Balmoral timber.

I hadn't realised what an area you cover around the world, it depends on all the marvellous people who put so much into it King Charles

Whether I will be able to come back in another 24 years, I dont know if I will be around.

I hadnt realised what an area you cover around the world, it depends on all the marvellous people who put so much into it.

The sawmill has bought about 150,000 tonnes of timber from the Balmoral Estate over more than three decades.

Charles wore a hard hat and hi-vis for most of the visit, which is believed to be the first time he has done so since becoming King.

The sawmill now trades indirectly with the Balmoral Estate, including high-quality pine, but the working relationship goes back decades.

It recently had a 15 million investment to increase sustainability and produces construction timber, which can be used as a substitute for steel and concrete.

It can transform one large log into 24 smaller pieces in a single pass with the production process using 100% of the log, with sawn timber going to market, while chips and sawdust go for chipboard and bark to horticulture.

Any remaining residues are used to fire the biomass boiler to heat kilns for timber drying.

The King was introduced to the site manager, primary processing manager and saw-line operator at the five-generation firm.

He also unveiled a plaque commemorating the visit, which was made on-site, and signed the visitor book.

We were told to keep working, we didn't think he would come in. It was like a privilege Saw doctor Robert Booth recalling a visit from then Prince Charles in 1999

Apprentice Kieron Cassie, 21, said: I think a fair few folk have been feeling excited.

He asked me a couple of questions. The plaque was made here.

Saw doctor Robert Booth, 62, has worked there 46 years, and remembered Charles visit in 1999, when he caught workers out who were taking an early lunch break.

Mr Booth said: I was sitting on my bum and Prince Charles walked in.

We were told to keep working, we didnt think he would come in. It was like a privilege.

He spoke about the environment and he seemed pretty concerned about it.

He asked how long the saws last and what happens to them.

Angus Milligan, 48, said: Its a great honour, we appreciate the fact the Royals spend time here. People come and spend money hoping to see the royals.

He comes up here and is able to be himself, its an escape.

Mr Bruce-Jones said: We were honoured to welcome His Majesty to our Aboyne site to demonstrate the extent of investments and technology upgrades.

We discussed the significant benefits of productive forestry acting as carbon sinks and the merits of continuing to meet and exceed annual planting targets across the UK.

We were able to showcase the environmental advantages of UK-grown structural timber products to support our collective views on building future houses sustainably.
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Labours approach to a key by-election shows the party is stuck in the past, the SNPs candidate for Rutherglen and Hamilton West has said as she accuses the rival party of untruth and misdirection.

Katy Loudon said only her party can represent the constituencys concerns on the cost-of-living as she accused her main opponent  Scottish Labours Michael Shanks  of only talking about Margaret Ferrier on the doorstep.

Meanwhile, she said she would push for Westminster to reinstate a 400 energy bill rebate to help struggling families over the winter period.

Voters will go to the polls in the battleground constituency on Thursday after the seat was vacated by Ms Ferrier following a successful recall petition.

The former SNP MP was convicted of breaching Covid restrictions in 2020 by travelling by train from Scotland to Westminster while positive for the virus.

While there are 14 candidates standing for the Westminster seat, it is expected to be a tight race between the SNP and Labour.

Speaking to the PA news agency as the by-election campaign enters its final days, Ms Loudon said: Its not true to say that this area hasnt had an MP  they have had an independent MP who as far as I know was working for them during that time.

The story of this by-election is about contrast  not about what happened three years ago, its about what is happening just now and Labour are offering nothing.

The story of this by-election is about contrast - not about what happened three years ago, it's about what is happening just now and Labour are offering nothing Katy Loudon, SNP

She added: I was described as being parachuted in to a constituency where Ive lived for 14 years. Its a nonsense. And to say that weve not been out on the doorstep  theres a lot of untruth and misdirection just now.

They are not being straight with people about what is going on in this area, and theyre not being straight with people about what they are going to do for this area.

Ms Loudon also denied claims she would always toe the party line, even if it meant going against the needs of her constituents.

Having come under fire for stating she would always follow the position of my party in Cosla in relation to council funding, she told PA: My number one priority is the constituents who live here.

Ms Loudon said she would happily speak out on issues which disproportionately impacted her constituents.

She said: Im not shy to come forward. Ive got the ear of the First Minister and the ear of ministers, especially through this campaign.

Mr Shanks said: While other parties have been relentlessly negative in their campaigns, Scottish Labour has been focused on the priorities of the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West.

From making work pay to putting money into the pockets of the people of the area, I have been proud to run a campaign that puts the people of the area first.

But the fact is that the SNPs campaign has been all about Labour  and its not hard to figure out why.

From threatening to raise council and income tax on working families to closing neonatal units and police stations, its little surprise that the SNP isnt running a positive campaign.

The fact is that the SNP is so desperate they have started using exploitative zero-hours contracts in an attempt to deliver leaflets due to lack of volunteers.

The Tories and the SNP have nothing to offer the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West but more failure, division and incompetence.
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Suella Braverman has hit out at a key British human rights law, claiming she was surprised it was not called the Criminal Rights Act.

Ms Braverman drew migration battle lines between the Conservatives and Labour ahead of the next general election in her speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

She suggested the Human Rights Act, introduced under the last Labour government, was among a series of laws and regulations which had enmeshed the Governments effort to tackle the small boats crisis in the English Channel.

Home Office figures have confirmed that more than 25,000 people have been detected crossing the Channel in small boats this year.

The Prime Minister has made tackling the crossings one of the five priorities of his leadership, with Ms Braverman warning against luxury beliefs in open borders, and that Britain under a Labour government would go properly woke.

Ms Braverman also faced heckles during her speech from Conservative London Assembly member Andrew Boff, who took umbrage with her allusion to the poison of gender ideology.

Addressing the main stage at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Ms Braverman said the future could bring millions more migrants to these shores, uncontrolled and unmanageable, unless the government they elect next year acts decisively to stop that happening.

Talking about illegal immigration, she said: Our country has become enmeshed in a dense net of international rules that were designed for another era. And it is Labour that turbocharged their impact by passing the misnamed Human Rights Act.

Im surprised they didnt call it the Criminal Rights Act.

Returning to the theme of human rights later in her speech, the Home Secretary confirmed she would bring forward a new law, aimed at preventing registered sex offenders from changing their identities.

She said: Let me tell you something. I dont care if anyone thinks this is interfering with their human rights. Its time to worry less about the rights of sexual predators and more about the rights of victims.

Ms Braverman said the Tories stand with the many against the privileged woke minority.

We stand with the many, the law-abiding, hard-working common-sense majority, against the few, the privileged woke minority with their luxury beliefs who wield influence out of proportion to their numbers, she said.

Warning about how under Labour Britain would go properly woke, she said: Things are bad enough already, we see it in parts of Whitehall, in museums, in galleries, in the police and even in leading companies in the City, under the banner of diversity, equity and inclusion, official policies have been embedded that distort the whole purpose of these institutions.

Highly controversial ideas are presented to the workforce and to the public as if theyre motherhood and apple pie: gender ideology, white privilege, anti-British history. And the evidence demonstrates that if you dont challenge this poison, things just get worse.

Looking ahead to the next general election, she said: The British people will get to decide if they want to curb woke with Rishi Sunak or let it run riot with Keir take-the-knee Starmer.

Elsewhere in her speech, Ms Braverman took aim at what she called highly controversial ideas which she said were being presented to workforces and the public as if they are motherhood and apple pie.

She added: Gender ideology. White privilege. Anti-British history. The evidence demonstrates that if you dont challenge this poison, things just get worse.

At this point, Mr Boff, a proud member of the Conservative Party, who was sat near the front of the hall, could be heard to shout out.

He was then hauled out of the conference centre, and told members of the press Ms Bravermans speech was making our Conservative Party look transphobic and homophobic.

Our party has a proud record of standing up for LGBT+ rights and she is destroying it, he added.

Meanwhile, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick suggested Boris Johnsons administration had not been tough enough on reducing legal migration to the UK.

I feel that, and I think Suella would agree, that there were wrong choices taken when we left the European Union By Boris Johnson and his administration, he told LBC.

And that has led to far too many people coming into the country  and that we now need to correct those.

Following Ms Bravermans speech, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said that politicians needed to be careful about how immigration policies are discussed.

Speaking at an event hosted by The Spectator, she said: We live in a multiracial society.

Were very, very comfortable with that because if we werent you wouldnt have a Prime Minister that we have, we wouldnt have the Home Secretary or the Business Secretary that we have.

But we have to be very careful about how we explain and express immigration policies, so that people arent getting echoes of things that were less palatable.
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Body camera video from a central Kansas police department's raid of a weekly newspaper shows that an officer rifled through a desk drawer of a reporter who was investigating its chief and then beckoned the chief over to look at the documents he found.

The police chief leading the August raid on the Marion County Record then says, Keep a personal file on me. I don't care," the video shows. He's briefly seen bending over, apparently to look at the drawer, before the other officer's clipboard blocks the view of what the chief is doing.

Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody obtained warrants for raids on the newspaper's offices, the home of its publisher and a City Council member's home by telling a judge that he had evidence of possible identity theft and other potential crimes tied to the circulation of information about a local restaurant owner's driving record. But the newspaper and its attorney have suggested he might have been trying to find out what it had learned about his past as a police captain in Kansas City, Missouri.

This was all about finding out who our sources were, Bernie Rhodes, the newspaper's attorney, said Monday.

The raids put Marion, a town of 1,900 residents some 150 miles (240 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City, at the center of a fierce national debate over press freedoms and cast an international spotlight on Cody and his tactics. The mayor last week suspended Cody from the chief's job indefinitely; he's facing one federal lawsuit, and others are expected.

The local prosecutor later said that there wasn't sufficient evidence to justify the warrants for the raids. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation then took charge of the probe and hasn't said where it stands.

Eric Meyer, the Record's editor and publisher, blames the stress of the raids for the death the next day of his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, the paper's co-owner.

Cody did not respond Monday to an email and telephone message seeking comment about the raids and the newspaper's view of his motives. But the body camera video shows him repeatedly tellling newspaper staffers that he is investigating how it and City Council member Ruth Herbel obtained information about the owner of two local restaurants, Kari Newell.

It grew into a monster, and it's got your name on it, Cody told Record reporter Phyllis Zorn, who had verified information about Newell online, after reading Zorn her rights, one video shows.

The Associated Press obtained copies of the police department's body camera video through an open records request from a Wichita law firm representing Cody in the federal lawsuit. It was filed by Deb Gruver, the Record reporter who'd been looking into Cody's past, who recently left the newspaper.

The video of Cody at Gruver's desk is from the body camera of Marion Police Officer Zach Hudlin. There appeared to be no corresponding video of the same moment from Cody's own camera.

The video shows that officers, led by Cody, searched the Record newsroom after interviewing Zorn, Gruver and the newspaper's business manager, and escorting them out of the building. Hudlin then goes through a drawer in Gruver's desk  after Gruver told the chief she had nothing to do with the reporting on Newell.

Hudlin asks Cody, You want to look through this desk?

Cody responds that Hudlin has the right to look through it, and Hudlin replies, I know. I'm asking, do YOU want to look through this desk?

After Cody goes to the desk, Hudlin tells him, You will understand shortly.

It's not clear from the video how closely Cody examined what was in the desk, and the object Hudlin found  described by Rhodes as a file on Cody's time in with the Kansas City, Missouri, police department.

Cody retired from the Kansas City police in late April, around the time the Marion City Council interviewed him. He took a big cut in pay: The Kansas City police paid him nearly $116,000 a year, while the Marion job pays $60,000 annually.

Meyer has said Cody knew weeks before the raids that the newspaper was looking into anonymous tips about why Cody retired from the Kansas City police. Meyer said when he asked Cody a question about it, Cody threatened a lawsuit.

___

Vancleave reported from Minneapolis and Ballentine, from Columbia, Missouri. Also contributing were Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Trisha Ahmed in Minneapolis; Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.
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Elon Musk was hit with a $1m defamation lawsuit alleging the X owner falsely suggested a 22-year-old recent college grad from California was involved in a street brawl between far-right and neo-Nazi groups in Oregon in June.

Ben Brody, who is Jewish, claims Musk amplified far-right X users falsely claiming he was a neo-Nazi, or perhaps secretly a federal agent, who was unmasked as the Proud Boys and a group called the Rose City Nationalists duked it out during a June event outside of Portland.

Ben was put through intense terror because of Musks recklessness, and now Ben finds himself depressed, freaked out, and mentally distraught right at the crucial personal moment when he exists college and enters his career path, the suit claims.

The Independent has contacted a lawyer for Mr Musk for comment.

On 24 June, members of the Proud Boys and the Rose City Nationalists, a neo-Nazi group, attempted to disrupt Oregon Citys Pride Night Fest, only to find themselves engaged in a bloody fistfight, where Proud Boys were seen striking neo-Nazis with American flags.

In the chaos, a member of one of the groups lost his face mask, prompting online commenters to speculate about who the unknown right-wing vigilante was.

A series of accounts known for posting right-wing content claimed the man was Mr Brody, even though the political science graduate from the University of California Riverside said he has never been to Oregon City and was in California during the fight.

Responding to one such post claiming to identify the man as Mr Brody, Mr Musk told his millions of followers, Looks like one is a college student (who wants to join the govt) and another is maybe an Antifa member, but nonetheless a probable false flag situation.

Responding to another such post, Mr Musk wrote, Always remove their masks.

Mr Brody took to social media and the news media at the time to clear his name.

I am not a part of the Patriot Front or a member and people who are claiming I am, I am being confused with someone who looks similar to me. Ive never been to Oregon City for any protest whatsoever, he said in a video on Instagram.

Ive been in Riverside only, he added. This is just crazy to me. I graduated on June 21 and Ive just been hanging out with my friends. All these accusations are just crazy and incorrect. My family and I are just being harassed completely.

Elon Musk allegedly falsely claimed a California student was involved in a neo-Nazi street fight (AFP via Getty Images)

"I felt like I was going to have a panic attack. I couldnt sleep. I was like, walking around and just, like, pacing because I was just so nervous about everything, he said in an interview with VICE News about the experience.

Obviously Elon Musk has a huge following and it amplifies stuff, so it definitely made the situation much worse," he added. It was terrifying, Im starting to sort of feel normal now about what happened, but it was just like it was a lot to take in.

The mistaken identification, according to the lawsuit, shattered Mr Brodys life, forcing his family to temporarily leave their home.

Ben and his familys experience of seeing him defamed by one of the powerful men on earth warped their entire sense of reality, leaving them stunned, confused, and afraid, the suit said.

Mr Musk was told of the potential lawsuit in August, the suit claims, but refused to retract his insinuations.

The lawsuit claims the alleged defamation is part of a larger pattern from Musk.

In addition to fostering and monetizing conspiracy nonsense, Musks denial of neo-Nazi violence is particularly troubling given Twitters complicated history with white-supremacist extremism on the platform and Musks proximity to a series of controversies on this subject, often accompanied by Musks frequent interactions with well-known bigots, the suit writes.

Musk frequently uses his large account to entertain right-wing conspiracies, from suggesting in May a far-right shooting at a mall in Texas was a psyop to boosting a conspiracy about the attack on Paul Pelosi to interacting with Richard Hanania, an intellectual who spent years posting on white-supremacist websites and has since become a prominent thought leader among a subset of Silicon Valley leaders.
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A Kansas police chief has resigned after he called a widely criticised police raid on a local newspaper back in August.

The Marion Kansas police chief Gideon Cody resigned on Monday, the citys mayor David Mayfield confirmed to CNN.

His resignation comes after he was suspended last week amid an investigation into the raid.

The search took place on 11 August, when five policemen raided local newspaper Marion County Records office and the home addresses of the papers publisher and the vice mayor of Marion.

"I didnt see it coming," Meyer said. "I thought the suspension would hold for a while but it didnt seem to."

They seized reporters mobile phones and computers, amongst various other items.

"I didnt see it coming," The papers publisher, Eric Meyer said to local outlet KSHB. "I thought the suspension would hold for a while but it didnt seem to."

Mr Meyer said he believed the raid was motivated by a story they published on a local restaurant owner, Kari Newell, who was alleged to have been illegally driving for more than a decade, according to the Marion County Record.

However, authorities stated in the search warrant that they were investigating an identity theft when they raided the premises.

Mr Cody wrote in an affidavit for the warrant request that downloading the document involved either impersonating the victim or lying about the reasons why the record was being sought.

Mr Cody said in an affidavit obtained by CNN that they chose to operate the raids because they had reason to believe that a reporter got hold of the restaurant owners driving records unlawfully before a story went live about her.

Less than a week after the raids were initiated, Marion Countys top prosecutor Joel Ensey withdrew the search warrants and told the authorities to return all the seized items due to insufficient evidence exists to establish a legally sufficient nexus between this alleged crime and the places searched and the items seized.

The driver record database turns out to be open to the public and any driving licence holder in Kansas can be found on there.

The newspapers co-publisher, Joan Meyer, 98, died one day after the raids.

Gideon Cody resigned on Monday after huge criticism from the community and press freedom associations (Marion County Police Department)

While Mr Meyer was saddened by the fact that is how he spent his last days with her, he said, "I think shed take some pride in the fact that she managed to accomplish something by getting people to pay attention to this story."

The incident caught the attention of press freedom organisations, such as the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, who said in a letter to Mr Cody, "There appears to be no justification for the breadth and intrusiveness of the search ... and we are concerned that it may have violated federal law."

A reporter from the Marion County Record Debbie Gruver has filed a federal lawsuit against Mr Cody, stating that he violated her constitutional rights by obtaining an unreasonable and unlawful search warrant to seize her items, the lawsuit states.

The complaint also goes on to allege that Mr Cody was directly targeting Ms Gruver as she had been working on an investigation into misconduct allegations surrounding the chief while he was still in his position, although the paper did not publish anything on the topic at that time.

She claims that the seizing of her personal mobile phone did not fall under the necessary items that should have been taken in the riad.

On top of this, Judge Laura Viar, who authorised the search warrants to go ahead, is also facing a complaint and is being asked by a judicial body to respond.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is now leading an inquiry into the raids.

A new Marion police chief, Officer Zach Hudlin, has now been appointed. Mr Hudlin was also present during the raid and seized various items such as a reporters mobile phone, according to the search warrant.

According to the Marion County Record, the local police chiefs have been providing weekly reports to them for the past 50 years. Mr Hudlin promised the paper he would resume this after Mr Cody allegedly stopped the tradition four months ago.

Mr Cody said in a statement, "I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated."

Mr Meyer said this incident is a step forward in holding people accountable for their wrongdoings.

"The wagons seem to be circling," Meyer said. "Well see who, when the music stops, whos left without a chair."
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The former CEO of fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) and his partner face a potential sex trafficking investigation after they were accused of exploiting young men for sex at lavish events the couple hosted in America and around the world.

Mike Jeffries, boss of the company during its heyday in the 1990s and early 2000s and Matthew Smith, used a network of middlemen to organise events in London, Paris, Venice, and Marrakesh between 2009 and 2015, BBC Panorama has reported.

Eight men told the corporation they attended the events, some of whom claimed they were exploited or abused, with one saying he felt forced to let another man perform oral sex on him.

Mr Jeffries, 79 and Mr Smith, 60, did not respond to the BBCs requests for comment and the couples middleman denied any wrongdoing, saying the alleged victims went in to the events with their eyes wide open.

Two former US prosecutors who reviewed evidence gathered by the BBC and first-hand accounts of the events called on authorities to investigate whether the couple should face sex trafficking charges. In the US, the law states that sex trafficking can include getting an adult to travel to another state or country to have sex for money by using force, fraud or coercion.

Mr Jeffries transformed A&F from a loss-making heritage outfitter to a multibillion-dollar teen fashion retailer, using sex appeal, provocative advertising and shirtless male store models to ramp up sales.

In a now infamous interview from 2006, Mr Jeffries described A&F as a brand that goes after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends, he added. A lot of people dont belong [in our clothes], and they cant belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. He stepped down in 2014 after sales declined.

The eight men who attended the events said they were recruited by a middleman, who they described as having a missing nose covered with a snakeskin patch. The BBC investigation identified him as James Jacobson.

One of the accusers is David Bradberry, who chose to go public with his allegations. He said he was introduced to Mr Jacobson by an agent - who described himself as the gatekeeper to the owners of A&F - in 2010 when he was 23, but that there was no mention of sex.

Following their meeting, he said Mr Jacobson suggested Bruce Weber - then A&Fs official photographer - should take his picture. Then, Mr Bradberry said, "Jim made it clear to me that unless I let him perform oral sex on me, that I would not be meeting with Abercrombie & Fitch or Mike Jeffries." I was paralysed, he told the BBC. "It was like he was selling fame. And the price was compliance.

Mike Jeffries left A&F in 2014 after sales declined (AFP\Getty)

Mr Jacobson, now aged 70, told the BBC in a statement issued through his lawyer that he took offence at the suggestion of "any coercive, deceptive or forceful behaviour on my part" and had "no knowledge of any such conduct by others".

Brad Edwards, a civil lawyer who examined the BBCs evidence, said US prosecutors should investigate whether what these "brave men" describe could be sex trafficking.

"There may have been evidence of coercion for some of the men, whereas others might not have felt the coercive tactics, he said.

"Remember, coercion is the reasonable belief that serious harm will be inflicted - and serious harm could be reputational harm, financial harm, physical harm."

Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith were contacted by the BBC several times by letter, email and phone over several weeks for comment on a detailed list of the allegations against them but did not respond. The couple could not immediately be reached by The Independent.

A&F said it was appalled and disgusted by the allegations and has instructed a law firm to conduct an independent investigation.
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Sam Bankman-Fried was once hailed as the boy wonder of the crypto industry, an altruistic self-made billionaire who hung out with presidents and pop stars and had the ear of lawmakers from both parties in Washington DC.

Nearly one year after his cryptocurrency empire FTX imploded, the 31-year-old will go on trial in New York this week charged with committing one of the largest corporate frauds in US history.

Prosecutors are expected to argue that Mr Bankman-Fried siphoned billions of dollars from FTX customers to prop up his ailing hedge fund Alameda Research, while funding a luxurious life in the Bahamas.

They are expected to outline to the jury how he sought to gain political influence by making $100m in political donations prior to the 2020 presidential election to ensure light-touch regulations of the crypto industry.

In December, Mr Bankman-Fried was arrested at his $40m apartment complex in Nassau and indicted on fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance charges. He was extradited back to the US, and placed under house arrest at his parents Palo Alto home on a $250m bail.

His bail was revoked in August when a judge ruled that he had harassed his former girlfriend and fellow FTX executive Caroline Ellison, who is likely to be a star witness for the prosecution.

Mr Bankman-Fried has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn while awaiting trial.

Heres what to know about the trial, which begins in Manhattan on Tuesday with jury selection.

FTXs rise and collapse

Mr Bankman-Fried, known by his initials SBF, founded Alameda Research in 2017 after figuring out how to exploit a quirk in crypto values that saw Bitcoin trade for slightly less in Asia than in the US.

In 2019, he launched the FTX trading platform that was promoted to investors as a trusted, straightforward exchange. It made money by claiming a percentage of transactions.

When the value of Bitcoin soared in 2021, FTX became one of the largest crypto traders in the world worth an estimated $32bn.

Mr Bankman-Frieds profile soared as he amassed a net wealth of around $16bn while receiving fawning media coverage for his so-called altruistic beliefs and austere lifestyle.

FTX enlisted a band of celebrity backers including Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady, hired Larry Davis to front an expensive Super Bowl advert, and acquired the naming rights to the Miami Heats home arena.

Mr Bankman-Fried made around $100m in political donations to both parties, while attempting to influence cryptocurrency regulatory reform, prosecutors said in court filings.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, second right, is escorted out of Magistrate Court in the Bahamas following his arrest in late 2022 (Associated Press)

When crypto prices collapsed in 2022, cracks began to emerge in SBFs empire.

In November, the crypto trade publication Coindesk published a leaked balance sheet showing that Alameda and FTX were unusually close and Alamedas value was built on a foundation largely made up of a (digital) coin that a sister company invented.

The story sent shockwaves through the crypto world, and FTX customers raced to withdraw their funds, exposing an $8bn deficit in FTXs accounts.

Mr Bankman-Frieds personal wealth fell by an estimated $16bn in a single day on 8 November. Within days, FTX filed for bankruptcy days after and Mr Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO.

He was arrested in the Bahamas on 12 December.

The collapse sent a contagion through the crypto industry that caused several exchanges to implode and prices to collapse.

What are the allegations against SBF?

Prosecutors will claim that Mr Bankman-Fried orchestrated a wide-scale conspiracy to defraud FTX investors and the Alameda Research hedge fund exchange.

The founder and CEO of FTX allegedly used billions of dollars of customer funds for his personal use, and to make millions of dollars of political contributions to federal political candidates and committees.

Mr Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto, the Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler said in a statement last December.

Mr Bankman-Fried concealed the close ties between Alameda and FTX from investors, while effectively using customers funds as an unlimited line of credit to make undisclosed venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations, Mr Gensler alleged.

Around 90 US-based investors collectively lost $1.1bn, the SEC said.

Bankman-Fried was charged in the Southern District of New York with seven counts of fraud and money laundering, some of which carry a maximum prison term of 20 years in prison.

In June, prosecutors severed five charges from the current trial which were brought after his extradition from the Bahamas. He is expected to be tried on the separate charges in March.

In August, prosecutors dropped several campaign finance violation charges against Mr Bankman-Fried.

What will SBFs defence be?

Mr Bankman-Fried will have to convince jurors he didnt have any intent to rip off FTX customers, white collar defence attorney Mark Kasten of Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney told The Independent.

Rather, his defence attorneys will argue he was out of his depth.

Hes going to tell a story that starting a crypto company when he did was difficult, that this was the Wild West, and he wasnt operating an entity that fell neatly into any existing regulatory category, Mr Kasten, a member of the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Practice group, added.

Larry David appeared in a Super Bowl advert promoting crypto exchange FTX prior to its collapse (FTX / YouTube screen grab)

Given Mr Bankman-Frieds accomplishments, it will be challenging to paint him as a dunce.

Its going to be hard to say he was just a kid moving too fast in a young industry and he didnt know what he was doing. Because by all accounts, he is a very smart individual, Mr Kasten said.

Four former FTX executives have pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the companys collapse and could appear at trial after agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors.

Mr Kasten says that undercutting their claims will be critical to SBFs chances.

He has no chance of success if he doesnt pick apart the testimony of those testifiers, Mr Kasten said. To juries, somebodys right and someone is lying. And frankly, no one looks great here.

Mr Kasten told The Independent that the courtroom confrontation between Mr Bankman-Frieds attorneys and Ms Ellison could be critical.

SBF has spoken and written extensively about the reasons for FTXs collapse in media interviews, lengthy tweet threads and on Substack.

And he is likely to have to take the stand to convince the jury of his innocence, an inherently risky strategy for any defendant, Mr Kasten said.

Meanwhile, prosecutors will try to move the focus away from cryptocurrencies and present the allegations as run-of-the-mill fraud.

As much as Bankman-Fried wants to talk about how complicated cryptocurrency is, how new this was, the government will want to stay away from this, Mr Kasten told The Independent.

Its about representations that he made to the public and to investors, its about taking money out of one company to make another one whole.

Michael Lewis book

Acclaimed author Michael Lewis began working on a book about SBF prior to FTXs collapse, gaining extraordinary access as the tycoon endured his dramatic fall from grace.

The new book Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon will reportedly show how Mr Bankman-Fried was exploring the legality of paying Donald Trump $5bn not to run for president in 2024.

Mr Lewis told 60 Minutes on CBS he intended the book to be a Kind of letter to the jury.

Theres gonna be this trial. And the lawyers are gonna tell two stories, he said. And I think neither one of those stories is as good as the story I have.
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Two soldiers were killed and 12 others injured when a military vehicle flipped on its way to a remote training area in Alaska, according to officials.

The accident took place as members of the 11th Airborne Division travelled on a dirt road to the Yukon Training Area near Salcha, around 30 miles southeast of Fairbanks, the 11th Airborne Division said in a statement.

Officials said that the driver lost control of the transport vehicle in the incident on Monday, causing it to flip over.

The Army said that there were 17 soldiers in the vehicle at the time of the accident and that firefighters extracted them from its wreckage and treated personnel at the scene.

The 12 injured soldiers were flown and taken by ground ambulances to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. The two most seriously injured were then taken by air ambulances to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.

Were a real tight-knit group in the military, so right now, the entire 11th Airborne Division is grieving and preparing to provide whatever support is necessary for the families of the deceased and to help support those who are still in the hospital and dealing with their injuries, Army spokesperson John Pennell told the Associated Press.

The names of the two soldiers killed in the incident will not be released until 24 hours after the families have been notified.

The Army will investigate the accident.

In April, three soldiers in the state were killed when two military helicopters crashed near Fairbanks while on their way to Fort Wainwright from a training exercise.
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Only a few hundred ethnic Armenians, mostly the sick and the elderly, are left in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said, describing deserted and surreal streets after nearly 80 per cent of the population fled in a few days.

Teams of ICRC staffers roamed Karabakhs main city with megaphones looking for those who remained in the enclave, which has operated for three decades as a de facto Armenian state despite being internationally recognised as being part of Azerbaijan.

Last month Baku launched a lightning military operation to take control of the separatist region. More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians have fled to neighbouring Armenia over the last week, fearing reprisals. The most vulnerable are among those who had stayed behind, ICRC team lead Marco Succi said from the Karabakh capital known as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan.

"The hospitals ... are not functioning; the medical personnel left; the water board authorities left; the director of the morgue also left. So this scenario, the scene is quite surreal, he said.

He described finding one bed-ridden cancer patient who had just undergone a colostomy, was on her own and had run out of medication. She was showing signs of malnutrition, despite being left provisions.

A satellite image shows empty streets of the city of Stepanakert, known by Khankendi by Azerbaijan, in Nagorno-Karabakh (Reuters)

Neighbours had left her with food and water several days beforehand, but her supplies were running low. She had finished all her medication and could not take care of herself, he said. The neighbours could not take her with them, and while she waited for help, she had started to lose all hope.

Video footage from the main city showed empty streets littered with abandoned prams, suitcases, and childrens toys. In the border regions of Armenia, families who fled told The Independent they fled with whatever they could carry with them.

I just have the clothes Im standing in, said Gregory Ayvazyan, 58, a PE teacher who was picking through a pile of donated clothes in Goris.

The Armenian authorities, who are struggling to house and support the tens of thousands who are now homeless and jobless, have accused Azerbaijan of instigating a direct act of ethnic cleansing and depriving people of their motherland.

Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry strongly rejected the accusations, arguing their departure was their personal and individual decision and has nothing to do with forced relocation.

On Tuesday, Armenias parliament voted to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) which could bring it one step closer to instigating war crimes investigations against Baku.

But the move adds further strain to the countrys ties with its old ally Russia, which brokered a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan following a war in 2020 and has peacekeeping troops deployed in the region.

The Armenian parliament has voted to join the International Criminal Court (AP)

Armenian officials have argued the move has nothing to do with Russia and was prompted by Azerbaijans aggression towards the country.

Earlier this year the ICC issued an arrest warrant for president Vladimir Putin over events in Ukraine and so Kremlin called Yerevans decision to join the court an unfriendly step.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had questions for its current leadership  which will now have to arrest Putin should he visit Armenia, due to an outstanding ICC warrant against him.

The exodus of ethnic Armenians closes a centuries-old chapter of history and a 30-year fight for independence by the majority-Armenian population, which ignited shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union when a bloody war erupted between Azerbaijan and separatist Armenian fighters, resulting in an Armenian win and the displacement of Azerbaijani citizens.

In 2020, Baku launched a military operation to take back the 4,400km enclave, a war in which thousands of people died. Russia brokered a fragile truce, but in December Azerbaijan cut one of the only supply roads and enforced a blockade on Nagorno-Karabakh, strangling food, fuel and water supplies.

And then on 19 September, they launched a 24-hour military offensive which forced the outgunned separatists, weakened by the siege, to lay down their weapons and agree to dissolve.

Amid reports that Karabakh Armenian officials had been arrested, and fearing reprisals, tens of thousands of Armenians fled to neighbouring Armenia.

The United Nations sent its first delegation to Nagorno Karabakh in decades this week and said that only between 50 and 1,000 Armenians were left. In Armenia, Joe Lowry, spokesperson for the UNs migration agency, said its kind of a hidden humanitarian emergency right now because 100,000 people are dispersed all around [Armenia].

They are going to face immense strain from, firstly, the goodwill of people that are sheltering them and, secondly, on the national services that are there  healthcare, education, jobs, accommodation.

In Nagorno Karabakh, the ICRCs Mr Succi said they were trying to bring in essential food to the area and medical supplies to local hospitals which were now unstaffed.

He described helping evacuate an 85-year-old lady and her two daughters who cleaned up their house and arranged clothes and food in the fridge as they left.

Despite speaking through tears as she left, she told us: I hope any people coming to live in my house stay well, and never experience war. These moments reveal the trials and tribulations of people left behind in the rush, Mr Succo said.
Tanzania and Uganda have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to integrate their national information and communication technology (ICT) networks in a deal said to be worth US$28.8 million.

The 15-year agreement will connect Tanzanias National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB) with Ugandas National Backbone Infrastructure (NBI) through collaboration between Tanzanias TTCL Corporation and Ugandas National IT Authority (NITA-U).

As you might expect, this is an important move, one that could boost trade, so key government officials attended the signing of the deal, including Tanzanias Minister for ICT, Nape Nnauye and Ugandas ICT Minister, Chris Baryomunsi.

Indeed, as technology website Tech In Africa reports, Baryomunsi predicted that the deal could reduce business costs by 50% and create new job opportunities. He also pointed out that the integrated network provides connectivity potential with South Sudan and the DRC.

This isnt the first such deal for Tanzania; the country has apparently connected several East African states to its backbone, and others, like Mozambique, are being targeted.

TTCL Director General Peter Ulanga reaffirmed the companys commitment to managing the critical infrastructure for both countries professionally. The backbone offers more than just a terrestrial link; it also enhances Ugandas global capabilities through links to submarine cables.

Ulanga reportedly also invited Uganda to utilise TTCLs National Internet Data Centre, which offers advanced security and storage.

Tech In Africa points out that this ICT integration reflects growing regional cooperation between the neighbouring countries, building on mutual interests in advancing connectivity laid out during recent presidential meetings.
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Ukraine's parliament and its speaker have taunted billionaire Elon Musk after he posted a meme on his social media platform mocking President Volodymyr Zelensky's pleas for assistance from the West against Vladimir Putin's forces.

Musk owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraine's defence effort, but his statements have sometimes angered Kyiv since the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in February last year.

Follow the latest in our live blog here

Early on Monday, Musk posted a meme on his platform X, formerly known as Twitter, showing Zelensky and the caption: "When it's been 5 minutes and you haven't asked for a billion dollars in aid."

The Ukrainian leader and his top lieutenants have appealed to their allies throughout the war to secure billions of pounds of military aid to weather and push back Russia's invasion.

The speaker of Ukraine's parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, hit out at Musk's jibe with his own post on X.

"The case when [Elon Musk] tried to conquer space, but something went wrong and in 5 minutes he was up to his eyeballs in s***," an apparent reference to SpaceX's failed rocket launch in April.

Ukraine's parliament, on its official page on X, accused Musk of spreading Russian propaganda, posting its own version of the meme with a picture of Musk and the caption: "When it's been 5 minutes and you haven't spread Russian propaganda".

A Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, who has criticised some of Musk's statements in the past, said in a post on X that being silent or ironic about Ukraine played into the hands of Russian propaganda.

"Unfortunately, not everyone and not always, while being significant media figures, but being thousands of kilometres away from the war's epicentre, is able to realize what the daily bombardments and cries of children losing their parents are."

The UKs defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said the social media post from Musk about Zelensky was "unhelpful".

Speaking at an event at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, he said: "I think it's unhelpful, to be blunt." He declined to criticise Mr Musk directly, adding it's a "free world".

Shapps added: "He can tweet or X what he likes. What Ukraine really needs is strong and steady friends who won't waver."

Ukrainian officials criticised Musk earlier in the war for suggesting that they should consider giving up land for peace, a position that Kyiv has staunchly rejected.

Zelensky visited the United States in September and met top officials in a bid to secure further aid. Over the weekend, aid for Ukraine was omitted from a stopgap funding measure passed by Congress in Washington to avert a US government shutdown.

Washington has been the largest single donor to Ukraine since Russia's full invasion last year, giving tens of billions of dollars in military and financial aid.

Although right-wing Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump have increasingly called for funding of Ukraine to be halted, President Joe Biden's administration says it expects the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to pass a measure to keep the aid flowing.

On Sunday, Biden pressed congressional Republicans to back the aid, saying he was "sick and tired" of the political brinkmanship that had nearly closed the government down.

Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said on Monday that Kyiv was still confident of US backing.

"We don't feel that the US support has been shattered... because the United States understands that what is at stake in Ukraine is much bigger than just Ukraine," he said.

He added that what happened in the US Congress at the weekend was just "an incident".

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"We have a very in-depth discussion with both parts of the Congress  Republicans and Democrats," he said.

Reuters
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A group of women in Greenland are seeking compensation from the Danish government over an involuntary birth control campaign that was launched in the 1960s.

At least 4,500 women, including teenagers, were fitted with intrauterine devices between 1966 and 1970s without their consent, under a programme aimed at curbing the Indigenous Inuit population.

An official investigation by the governments of Greenland and its former colonial ruler Denmark are due in May 2025. But the group of 67 women were asking for compensation now as most women were in their 70s and 80s.

The women are seeking 300,000 Danish Krone (34,878) each, according to their lawyer Mads Pramming.

"We don't want to wait for the results of the enquiry," psychologist Naja Lyberth, one of the women seeking compensation, told AFP.

"We are getting older, the oldest of us, who had IUDs inserted in the 1960s, were born in the 1940s and are approaching 80," she said.

Ms Lyberth was the first woman to reportedly break her silence six years ago to say that she was a teenager when she was fitted with a coil during a school medical examination without her knowledge or consent.

Our lawyers are very sure that our human rights and the law was broken, she said, according to The Guardian.

Ms Lyberth said she went on to have a child but other women were unable to conceive. It was the same as sterilising the girls from the beginning.

She added that in some cases the devices were too big for the girls' bodies and caused serious health complications that left them with internal bleeding and abdominal infections. Some, she said, had to have their uterus removed or completely lost the ability to have children.

According to reports, these women were unaware of the devices until they were discovered by gynecologists, some until recently.

The scandal came to light when Danish broadcaster DR reported last year that records showed that 4,500 intrauterine devices were fitted into women and girls as young as 13, without their knowledge or consent.

The Danish and Greenland governments commissioned a team of researchers to uncover the extent of the cases and the decision-making process that led to the campaign in the years between 1960 and 1991, when Greenland gained authority over its healthcare system.

The claim was sent to prime minister Mette Frederiksen's office on behalf of the plaintiffs on Monday, the lawyer said. Ms Lyberth said they would take the matter to court if the Danish government refuses to accept the compensation request.

Greenland was a Danish colony until 1953 but is now a semi-sovereign territory of Denmark, with a population of just 57,000.

Allegations of misconduct by Danish authorities against the people of its former colony have emerged in recent years. Copenhagen publicly apologised last year to the victims of a 1950s experiment in which children from Greenland were taken to Denmark.
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Pope Francis has opened the door for the first time to blessing same-sex unions in a cautious step away from the Catholic Churchs traditional attitude towards gay couples.

Maintaining that the Church would crucially not recognise gay marriage, he suggested there could be room for blessings of unions between same-sex Catholic couples distinct from those given at marriages.

The Pope made his opinions known in answer to doctrinal questions from five conservative cardinals who challenged him to affirm teaching on homosexuality.

Their questions came ahead of a major Vatican meeting where LGBT+ Catholics are on the agenda, and at a time when several progressive priests in a number of countries have begun blessing same-sex couples in defiance of conservative archbishops.

The Catholic Church considers homosexuality intrinsically disordered and the Pope has long opposed gay marriage, claiming marriage can only happen between a man and woman. However, his remarks could now signal a change in trajectory and represent a shift away from the Churchs traditional intolerance of homosexuality.

In a letter, published yesterday, he said: We cannot be judges who only deny, push back, exclude.

Pope Francis was sent the set of formal questions known as dubia or doubts ahead of the Vatican synod, which will begin on Wednesday to decide the future direction of the Church and the inclusion of LGBT+ Catholics.

The Vatican subsequently published a letter Francis wrote to the cardinals on 11 July, where he suggested that such blessings could be considered if they didnt confuse the blessing with marriage.

In his seven-point response, Francis said the Church was very clear that marriages could be only between a man and a woman and that the Church should avoid any other ritual that contradicted his teaching.

He said pastoral charity should permeate all our decisions and attitudes, adding that we cannot be judges who only deny, reject and exclude.

For this reason, pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of benediction, requested by one or more persons, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage, he wrote.

Because when a benediction is requested, it is expressing a request for help from God, a plea to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us to live better. He noted that there are situations that are objectively not morally acceptable.

The Church teaches that same-sex attraction is not sinful but homosexual acts are.

The Popes response marks a reversal from the Vatican's current official position. In 2021 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said flat-out that the Church couldnt bless gay unions because God cannot bless sin.

New Ways Ministry, which advocates LGBT+ Catholics, said the letter significantly advances efforts to make the community welcomed in the Church and is one big straw towards breaking the camels back.

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the ministry, in a statement, said the pope's words implied that the church does indeed recognise that holy love can exist between same-gender couples, and the love of these couples mirrors the love of God.

With agency inputs
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Ukraine has achieved the functional defeat of Vladimir Putins prized Black Sea fleet with intensified attacks in recent weeks, a UK defence minister has suggested  but warned that Western allies are running out of ammunition to help Kyiv repel Russias invasion.

Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum from the Polish capital on Tuesday, James Heappey said the kneecapping of the major Russian naval force  including the recent strike on its Crimean headquarters  was every bit as important as Ukraines gains in Kharkiv last year.

While nobody can pretend otherwise that Ukraines counteroffensive has progressed slowly, the UKs armed forces minister told delegates it was simply wrong to suggest there has been no progress at all  with gains every single day after breaching Russias enormous defensive belt and minefield.

James Heappey in Warsaw warns that Western military stockpiles are looking a bit thin (Warsaw Security Forum)

But comparing Kyivs relatively minor gains to those achieved last year diminishes the importance of what has happened in the Black Sea over the last couple of weeks, where a Russian submarine and a Russian ship have been put out of action, and the headquarters of the Black Sea fleet has been put out of action too, he said.

The functional defeat of the Black Sea fleet  and I would argue that is what it is because it has been forced to disperse to ports from which it cannot have an effect on Ukraine  is an enormous credit. And [it is] every bit as important  every bit as much progress  as what was happening in the Kharkiv Oblast last year.

The Black Sea fleet, of huge symbolic value to Russia, has been an increasing target of Ukrainian drone attacks in recent weeks. Throughout the war, the fleet has been used to launch missile attacks on Ukraine and to threaten Kyivs vital shipped grain exports.

With Russia finally pulling out of a UN-brokered grain deal in July, Kyiv has since sought to establish a new corridor hugging the coastline, through which two Marshall Islands and Cameroon-flagged vessels were said to be the latest ships to sail to the port of Odesa on Tuesday.

And the UKs Ministry of Defence said on Monday that the Black Sea fleet was [struggling] to deal with concurrent threats, with Russia resorting to using air power to project force over the area as fleet activities relocate from under-fire Sevastopol to Novorssiysk, some 322km (200 miles) east.

Black Sea fleet HQ engulfed by smoke after Ukrainian missile strike

But Mr Heappey and Natos most senior military official, Admiral Rob Bauer, were among those to warn that Kyivs allies are running out of ammunition, with the latter lamenting that the bottom of the barrel is now visible and urging nations to ramp up production in a much higher tempo.

We need large volumes, the admiral said. The just-in-time, just-enough economy we built together in 30 years in our liberal economies is fine for a lot of things  but not the armed forces when there is a war ongoing.

Also warning that Western stockpiles are looking a bit thin, Mr Heappey said: If its not the time when there is a war in Europe to spend 2 per cent on defence, then when is?

Ukraine and Russia are each firing thousands of rounds each day (AFP)

Underscoring such warnings, US president Joe Biden  who is struggling to pass a package of aid for Ukraine through Congress  convened a phone call of G7 and Nato leaders on Tuesday in which he expressed determination to secure the funding, with Rishi Sunak also vowing to support Kyiv for as long as it takes.

The comments came as Ukraines airforce claimed to have destroyed 29 of 31 drones launched by Russia and one cruise missile, most of them targeting the regions of Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk in the south and east, in an overnight barrage of attacks lasting three hours.

With counteroffensive operations continuing in Zaporizhzhia and near Bakhmut, president Volodymyr Zelensky also visited troops and commanders in the northeast near Kupiansk, where the Ukrainian military says Russian forces have also been staging attacks.

Meanwhile, a report alleged that hundreds of drunk, insubordinate and mutinous Russian soldiers have been pressed into penal units known as Storm-Z squads and sent to the frontlines as punishment for their behaviour.

If the commandants catch anyone with the smell of alcohol on their breath, then they immediately send them to the Storm squads, one soldier told a Reuters investigation, which cited 13 people with knowledge of the matter, including five fighters in such units.
 Close Aftermath of Russian missile strike on Ukraine mail depot that killed six

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Russian forces are trying to regroup and recover their losses near the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, where heavy fighting has been ongoing since mid-October.

This comes after Putins troops bombarded 118 Ukrainian towns and villages over the course of 24 hours, the most intense day of shelling this year, Kyiv said.

Communities near the front lines in the east and south were targeted, with 10 out of 27 of Ukraines regions coming under attack.

Vladimir Putins warplanes have dropped explosive objects into the paths of civilian shipping lanes in the Black Sea, the regions military command said.

The occupiers are continuing to terrorise the paths of civilian shipping in the Black Sea with tactical aviation, dropping explosive objects into the likely paths of civilian vessel traffic, it said.

There were three such drops registered in the last 24 hours. However, the navigation corridor continues to function under the watch of the defence forces.

Ukraine is trying to build up a new shipping lane without Russian approval to revive its vital seaborne exports. But Russia said it would consider any vessel a potential military target after it quit UN-brokered deal allowing Ukrainian goods to pass through.
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Drunk recruits. Insubordinate soldiers. Convicts.

Theyre among hundreds of military and civilian offenders whove been pressed into Russian penal units known as "Storm-Z" squads and sent to the frontlines in Ukraine this year, according to 13 people with knowledge of the matter, including five fighters in the units.

Few live to tell their tale, the people said.

"Storm fighters, theyre just meat," said one regular soldier from army unit no. 40318 who was deployed near the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine in May and June.

He said hed given medical treatment to a group of six or seven wounded Storm-Z fighters on the battlefield, disobeying an order from a commander - whose name he didnt know - to leave the men. He said he didnt know why the commander gave the order, but claimed that it typified how Storm-Z fighters were considered of lesser value than ordinary troops by officers.

The soldier, who requested anonymity because he feared prosecution in Russia for publicly discussing the war, said he had sympathy for the mens plight: "If the commandants catch anyone with the smell of alcohol on their breath, then they immediately send them to the Storm squads."

When contacted by Reuters, an officer at unit no. 40318 declined to comment on Storm-Z and ended the call. The Kremlin referred Reuters questions to the Russian defence ministry, which didnt respond to a request for comment.

Russian state-controlled media has reported that Storm-Z squads exist, that they took part in intense battles and some of their members received medals for bravery, but it has not disclosed how they are formed, or the losses they take.

Reuters is the first news organisation to compile a comprehensive account of how the squads are put together and deployed, by speaking to multiple sources with direct knowledge of what is happening.

Vladimir Putin launched the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February (Sputnik)

Like the soldier from unit no. 40318, the 13 people interviewed - who also include four relatives of Storm-Z members as well as three soldiers in regular units who interacted with the squads - all requested anonymity, citing fear of reprisals. Reuters verified the identities of all the fighters involved using criminal records, social media accounts, or by speaking to their fellow serviceman and their families.

The penal squads, each about 100-150 strong and embedded within regular army units, have typically been sent to the most exposed parts of the front and often sustain heavy losses, according to Reuters interviews with the people, who identified at least five Storm-Z teams fighting to repel a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the east and south.

Three of the five Storm-Z fighters interviewed by Reuters, and the relatives of three other Storm-Z fighters, described nightmarish engagements that saw much of their squads wiped out.

One fighter, with a conviction for theft who was recruited from prison, said all but 15 of the 120 men in his unit embedded with the 237th regiment were killed or wounded in fighting near Bakhmut in June.

The deployment of such squads marks a departure for Russia in Ukraine: while the Wagner mercenary group - now being disbanded after a June mutiny - sent convicts to fight on the frontline, the Storm-Z units come under the direct command of the defence ministry.

The squads also combine convicts who volunteer to fight in exchange for the promise of a pardon with regular soldiers being punished for disciplinary breaches, the people interviewed said.

The Storm-Z squads are useful to the Russian defence ministry because they can be deployed as expendable infantry, according to Conflict Intelligence Team, an independent organisation thats tracking the war. "The Storm fighters are just sent to the most dangerous parts of the front, in defence and in attack," the group, which was founded in Russia, told Reuters.

While the Russian defence ministry has never acknowledged creating Storm-Z units, the first reports of their existence emerged in April when the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think-tank, cited what it said appeared to be a leaked Russian military report on the formation of the squads.

Reuters wasnt able to determine how many soldiers in total are serving in the units, though the interviews with the people familiar with the matter point to at least several hundred Storm-Z fighters currently being deployed on the frontline.

Wagner had about 25,000 fighters engaged in the conflict, its late leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said at the time of his June mutiny.

President Vladimir Putin made reference to convicts fighting in the regular army on Friday. At a televised meeting with a small group of regular Russian servicemen, he said he was aware that two of their comrades, former prison inmates, had been killed in action. "They gave their lives for the motherland and have fully absolved themselves of their guilt," said Putin, adding that the convicts families would be given help, without elaborating.

There is historical precedent for military offenders being pressed into fighting units; in 1942, when the Red Army was retreating from a Nazi advance, Soviet leader Josef Stalin ordered soldiers who panicked or left their posts into "punishment battalions" deployed to the most dangerous parts of the front, according to a decree he signed.

Ukraines government has said it also releases some convicts if they agree to fight in the war.

Storm-Z is an unofficial term used by Russian troops, combining a term for assault troops with the letter Z, adopted by the military as a symbol of their invasion of Ukraine.

Artyom Shchikin, a 29-year-old from the Mordovia region in central Russia, was recruited to a Storm-Z unit (via Reuters)

Artyom Shchikin, a 29-year-old from the Mordovia region in central Russia, was serving a two-year sentence for robbery handed down in December 2021 when defence ministry recruiters came to his jail asking if inmates wanted to go and fight in Ukraine, according to court records and two of his relatives.

He signed up because, even though he was scheduled for release in December this year, he wanted to wipe clean his criminal record plus earn money so his family could renovate their home, his family members said. Three Storm-Z fighters said they were offered wages of about 200,000 roubles ($2,000) per month, though said they had been paid roughly half that amount, on average.

By May this year, Shchikin was assigned to a penal unit within the 291st Guards Motorised Rifle Regiment and deployed to the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine, where Kyivs forces are trying to break through Russian defences, the relatives added.

An official with the regimental headquarters didnt respond to Reuters questions.

Vladimir Rogov, an official in the Russian-installed administration in Zaporizhzhia who gives regular online updates about the conflict, has posted on Telegram that the 291st regiment was fighting in the region throughout the summer. Rogov didnt respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Shchikins relatives last heard from him on June 18.

Days later, his units positions came under Ukrainian fire, the relatives said, citing conversations with two survivors from Shchikins squad. Three comrades who had been in a trench with him were killed, another had his hand torn off, while Shchikin himself is missing, the relatives said. His body hasnt been recovered.

Shchikins relatives said when they asked the defence ministry for answers about his fate, it either didnt respond or didnt give any definitive answers.

"They were from a Storm unit. For them, no one is going to be in a rush," said one relative.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the relatives account of events.

While convicts form the core of the penal squads, some regular soldiers have been assigned to them as punishment for breaking discipline, according to two soldiers who said members of their units had been transferred in this way, as well as a Storm-Z fighter called Igor, a convict jailed for attempted murder.

The two soldiers, including the one from unit no. 40318, said officers had sent soldiers to Storm-Z for being drunk on duty, for using drugs, and for refusing to carry out orders.

According to Russian legislation on military discipline, a soldier can only be transferred to a penal unit if convicted by a military court. None of the people who told Reuters of soldiers being sent to Storm-Z said the men had participated in a court hearing. Contacted last week, the soldier from unit no. 40318 said there were no court hearings involved in such transfers, and Igor, the Storm-Z fighter, said he had no knowledge of court hearings having taken place.

The Geneva convention, a set of international rules of war, doesnt cover soldiers being punished by their own side.

One group of about 20 Storm-Z fighters in Zaporizhzhia, who were part of unit number 22179, decided theyd had enough of their treatment, refused an order to go back to the frontline, and recorded a June 28 video complaining about their treatment. Reuters called numbers listed for the unit, but they were out of operation.

"On the frontline, where weve been, we did not get deliveries of ammunition. We did not get water or food. The injured were not taken away: still now the dead are rotting," said a fighter in the video, whom Reuters was unable to identify.

"Were given dreadful orders that are not even worth carrying out," he added. "We refuse to continue carrying out combat missions."

Reuters established the identities of two of the fighters involved in the revolt, and spoke to a relative of each man who corroborated the account in the video, which was published on June 28 by Gulagu.net, a France-based campaign group for Russian prisoners rights, and reviewed by Reuters.

After the video was published, military police officers beat up the two fighters, and others in their squad, as punishment for their revolt, the two relatives said. Since then, they said the two fighters had told them that conditions had improved but they did not know when the men would be allowed to quit the military.

Russian officials have made no public comment about the incident, and the defence ministry didnt reply to Reuters queries.

The family member of one of the soldiers in the revolt, a man from Siberia who had volunteered to join Storm-Z from prison, said she dreaded news from the front.

"My God, let this end soon," she said of the war.

Reuters
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The European Union (EU) promised Ukraine 4.3bn in military aid as part of its ongoing support in the war against Russia.

The 27-nation bloc remained committed to help defeat a brutal and inhumane Moscow, said Josep Borrell, EUs high representative for foreign affairs. It comes after the US Congress left Ukraine war aid out of its spending bill and a pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia.

Mondays meeting in Kyiv was touted by Mr Borrell as a historic first for the EU but it comes at an awkward time for the Western countries backing Ukraine.

With summer drawing to a close, Ukraines counteroffensive has failed to produce the victories that Kyivs allies had hoped to see before mud clogs the treads of donated tanks.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, quoted by his website, said he was sure "Ukraine and the entire free world are capable of winning this confrontation. But our victory depends directly on our cooperation with you".

Mr Borrell told a news briefing with Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba that the EU remained united in its support for Ukraine. He had proposed an EU spending package for Kyiv of up to 5bn (4.3bn) for 2024 which he hoped to have agreed by then.

Mr Kuleba also brushed off concerns about faltering support on both sides of the Atlantic, amid the omission of Ukraine from the US spending bill.

"We dont feel that the US support has been shattered ... because the United States understands that what is at stake in Ukraine is much bigger than just Ukraine," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, pro-Kyiv officials in the US are scrambling to find the best way to secure approval for further assistance on top of the $113bn (93.6bn) in security, economic and humanitarian aid the US has provided since Russia invaded in February 2022.

Leaders in the Senate, narrowly controlled by president Joe Bidens fellow Democrats, promised to take up legislation in the coming weeks on continued support. But in the Republican-led House of Representatives, speaker Kevin McCarthy said he wanted more information from the Biden administration.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre urged Congress to act quickly.

As for the election victory of pro-Russian Slovak former prime minister Robert Fico, Mr Kuleba said a new leader would still have to form a coalition and it was "too early to judge" the impact on politics there.

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock sought help to prepare Ukraine for winter, including air defence and energy supplies, after Russia bombed energy installations last year.

"Last winter, we saw the brutal way in which the Russian president is waging this war," Ms Baerbock said. "We must prevent this together with everything we have, as far as possible."

Moscow touted the congressional vote in the United States as a sign of increasing division in the West, although the Kremlin said it expected Washington to continue its support for Kyiv.

The omission of aid for Ukraine was "temporary", Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

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"But we have repeatedly said before that according to our forecasts fatigue from this conflict, fatigue from the completely absurd sponsorship of the Kyiv regime, will grow in various countries, including the United States," he said.

Additional reporting from the wires
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Ukraines eastern metropolis of Kharkiv will build the countrys first fully underground school to allow children to continue their education even in the face of Russian fire, the citys mayor said.

Such a shelter will enable thousands of Kharkiv children to continue their safe face-to-face education even during missile threats," mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram.

More than 360 educational facilities have been destroyed while 3,417 suffered bombing and shelling in Ukraine since Russias invasion in February last year, the latest release from the country said.

Persistent attacks meant that only about a third of school-age children were fully attending classes in person and many were forgetting what they have already learnt, the Unicef said in its release last month, whose official figure of school destruction from the attack were four times higher.

It found that more than 1,300 schools have been totally destroyed in the 19 month-long-war.

"Inside Ukraine, attacks on schools have continued unabated, leaving children deeply distressed and without safe spaces to learn," it said.

"Not only has this left Ukraines children struggling to progress in their education, but they are also struggling to retain what they learnt when their schools were fully functioning," said Regina De Dominicis, Unicef regional director for Europe and Central Asia.

Beyond Ukraine, more than half of the children whose families have fled the conflict to seven countries are not enrolled in national education, Unicef said, citing language barriers and overstretched education systems.

It is here that we plan to build the first underground school in Ukraine, announced the Kharkiv mayor in his social media post. He, however, gave no detail on when the school would open and the number of students who would be able to enroll there.

The funding for schools would not be cut by a single hryvnia this year or next, said the mayor, adding that Kharkiv is the most intelligent city in Ukraine, reported The Guardian.

While many schools in the frontline regions have been forced to teach online throughout the war, Kharkiv has organised some 60 separate classrooms throughout its metro stations before the school year that started on 1 September, creating space for more than 1,000 children to study there.

"Lessons in the metro. Could you ever imagine that Ukrainian children will study in the underground? This is our reality now," Ukrainian interior minister Ihor Klymenko said.

According to the countrys education minister Oksen Lisovyi, 84 per cent of the schools in the country are now equipped with operational shelters.

When he was studying online, there was not always an opportunity to get to a bomb shelter, said Mariia Doloban, 32, whose eight-year-old son Oleksii started the year at a new school in capital Kyiv with a proper bomb shelter.

But at school, he will take cover every time the air raid siren goes off.

Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, had a population of more than 1.4 million before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Parts of the city lie less than 35km from the Russian border and it has been subject to nearly daily Russian rocket and missile attacks that can hit before residents can reach shelters.

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In the 24 hours to Monday, a civilian man died and several houses were damaged as a result of Russias shelling and rocket attacks, Oleh Sinehubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region of which the city of Kharkiv is its administrative centre, said.

Additional reporting from the agencies
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Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has suggested recent tweets by Elon Musk mocking Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky are unhelpful.

The senior Cabinet minister made the comments at a Conservative Party conference fringe event in Manchester, hours after the billionaire entrepreneur used Twitter, now known as X, to take aim at Mr Zelenskys repeated requests for Western support in the battle against Russia.

Mr Shapps, an avid social media user himself, expressed reservations about the owner of Xs recent attitudes to the war.

I think its unhelpful, to be blunt, he said.

I cant speak for him or his motivations. Hes a free individual, we live in a free world. He can tweet or X what he likes.

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What Ukraine really needs is strong and steady friends who wont waver, he added.

Mr Musks mockery has gone down badly in Ukraine, making it the latest controversial outburst by the high-profile businessman.
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At least 21 people have been killed, including two children, and 18 injured after a passenger bus plunged from an overpass near Venice in an apocalyptic accident, say Italian authorities.

The vehicle was travelling from Venice to a campsite at Marghera when the shocking accident took place at the elevated street in Mestre on Tuesday.

It completely went off the road, it flew off the bridge. It was a bus; it was a highway. We are in mourning, Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro told Italys national broadcaster RAI.

He added that the scene of the crash was apocalyptic and that he had already declared the citys mourning for the numerous victims

Pictures of the accident show that the bus fell several metres from the overpass and overturned near railway tracks where it caught fire.

Officials say that the accident took place on a raised section of the overpass that the bus broke through before falling to the ground below.

Morris Ceron, general director of the municipality of Venice, told RAI that two children were among the victims of the crash and that the bus was believed to have foreigners aboard as it headed towards a campsite.

Luca Zaia, president of Italys Veneto region, called the bus crash a tragedy of enormous proportions and also confirmed that the victims and injured are of various nationalities, not just Italians.

Unimmane tragedia ha colpito questa sera la nostra comunita.

Ho disposto da subito il lutto cittadino, in memoria delle numerose vittime che erano nellautobus caduto.

Una scena apocalittica, non ci sono parole. pic.twitter.com/APnsQoPMkL  Luigi Brugnaro (@LuigiBrugnaro) October 3, 2023

He said that more than 20 ambulances had been used at the scene and also the Treviso air ambulance. The injured were taken to hospitals in Mestre, Mirano, Padua and Treviso.

Firefighters work on the site of the accident (AFP via Getty Images)

Renato Boraso, a Venice city official, said that some of the foreigners on the bus were Ukrainians.

The Italian prime minister offered her condolence in the wake of the accident.

Rescuers at the site (AFP via Getty Images)

I express my personal and the Governments deepest condolences for the serious accident that occurred in Mestre. Our thoughts go out to the victims and their family and friends, Giorgia Meloni wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered her condolences to the families of the victims and those injured in the serious accident in Mestre, in a post on X on Monday night.
On Wednesday the Cuban Government stated that "palpable progress is being made," although not everything slated is being achieved, with its National Program against Racism and Racial Discrimination, approved in November 2019.

The purported progress of the program, approved by the Council of Ministers and called Color Cubano, was highlighted at a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ines Maria Chapman Waugh and Culture Minister Alpidio Alonso Grau, the state media source Granma reported.

Color Cubano has among its objectives to contribute to the elimination of the conditions that generate equity gaps and racial discrimination associated with skin color in Cuba, the state media outlet stated, referring to the program created 60 years after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

In 1961, at the First Conference of Non-Aligned Countries, the president of Cuba at the time, Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado, claimed to represent "a nation, a Government, a people and a Revolution that have forever abolished the vestiges of racial discrimination." Five decades later, Fidel Castro had to admit that the Revolution had failed to "eradicate the differences in the social and economic status of the country's black population."

Castro made the statement during his talk with journalist Ignacio Ramonet, featured in the book One Hundred Hours with Fidel.

It took 15 years from the late Cuban dictator's confession to the French journalist for the Council of Ministers to sanction the aforementioned program; independent civil society activists have complained about its lack of transparency and, above all, its impact.

According to Granma, the meeting reviewed actions undertaken since 2019 aimed at eliminating inequality and racial discrimination.

The actions, shown in an audiovisual piece provided by the Culture Ministry, include two works dedicated to spotlighting the figure of Jose Antonio Aponte, who led the first slave uprising in Cuba; a national day marking the 130th anniversary of the death of Mariana Grajales; days dedicated to Antonio Maceo, and a tribute to the five Abakua members killed in their attempt to save the eight medical students, on November 27, 1871.

In addition, General Quintin Banderas and union leader Jesus Menendez have been celebrated, seven books have been published, and visual arts exhibitions have been held on the subject.

According to Granma, it has also been publicly addressed "how much is done in the country to eliminate the gaps that still reveal some disadvantages in the treatment of black or mulatto people; with different forums on national television in which the problem of race is addressed with greater responsibility."

The state media report did not specify how the Cuban Government hopes to eliminate the inequality gaps that affect, fundamentally, black and mestizo people, through exhibitions, books and tributes.

Although the black and mulatto population is a minority in Cuba, according to official statistics, most of the people who live in the poorest neighborhoods, where water is lacking and garbage and broken streets abound, belong to it.

DIARIO DE CUBA and the Citizens Committee for Racial Integration (CIR) focused on this reality in the five-part series Continuidad...de la miseria en Cuba.

In June CIR coordinator Juan Antonio Madrazo Luna stated, in an interview with DDC, that most of the Cubans who participated in the anti-government protests of July 2021, as well as those in Caimanera, Guantanamo, in May, were black or mestizo.

"People of African descent continue to languish in the same peripheral neighborhoods, in the same slums, in the same human settlements. The inequalities are increasing, but they are also representative on the informal market," said Madrazo Luna.

Most of the families, mainly made up of single mothers, who have for years resorted to squatting on state premises, or staying at shelters in poor condition, are black or mestizo. DIARIO DE CUBA has been reporting on this situation for years.

In this context, at said meeting representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) presented steps for the international promotion of the Programa Color Cubano through 2030. Granma did not indicate what steps were announced by the MINREX.

According to the state media source, the Cuban Observatory will be inaugurated on Cuban Culture Day. The newspaper did not explain what the function of that observatory will be.
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A French company is aiming to complete a non-stop circumnavigation of the Earth using a solar-powered airship in a bid to test a new form of zero-emission travel.

France-based Euro Airship is building the Solar Airship One with the aim of completing the round-the-world journey without fossil fuels in less than a month.

Flying at an altitude of around 20,000 feet (6,000 metres), the futuristic craft uses a casing of solar panels, batteries, and hydrogen fuel cells to deliver power day and night, making it theoretically possible to fly forever.

The good thing is that were not doing this world tour flight just for an exhibition or for an adventure... There is an additional process after that for our technology, French aerobatic pilot Dorine Bourneton, one of the pilots of the airship, told Flying magazine.

Weve been working for the last 20 years in R&D, and we self financed it. Since July 2020, we signed a partnership with Capgemini, and they are helping to develop the industrialisation phase.

Engineers at Capgemini have been working with Euro Airship on the design, manufacturing and assembly process.

The Solar Airship project demonstrates that it is possible to catalyse an ecosystem to foster the emergence of sustainable air transport solutions, said Corinne Jouanny from Capgemini Engineering.

Construction of the Solar Airship One is set to begin this year, with the non-stop flight taking place in 2026.

How the Solar Airship One might look flying over Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, France (Euro Airship)

The project is part of a new generation of eco-friendly airships that are aiming to offer an alternative to conventional aircraft, which account for around 2 per cent of global CO2 emissions, according to estimates from the International Energy Agency.

British manufacturer Hybrid Air Vehicles is also aiming to begin flights in 2026 of its Airlander 10 airship, while Google founder Sergey Brin is building the Pathfinder 1 airship as part od his Lighter Than Air venture.
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Eurostar has stepped up cleaning on its trains amid the threat of a bedbug invasion that has already engulfed Paris.

Footage of the blood-sucking insects has horrified TikTok users, leading to some standing on the infested Parisian metro instead of sitting down, or posting warnings about the creepy critters swarming their Airbnb rentals.

Eurostar on Tuesday confirmed it was ramping up preventative treatments across its entire network to keep the critters on the other side of the Channel.

Are bedbugs lurking on the Eurostar? (PA)

A spokesperson told The Independent: The safety and wellbeing of our customers is always our number one priority and the presence of insects such as bedbugs on our trains is extremely rare. The textile surfaces on all of our trains are cleaned thoroughly on a regular basis and this involves hot-water injection and extraction cleaning, which has proven highly effective in eliminating bugs.

Any reports on hygiene matters are taken very seriously and our cleaning teams, in addition to the usual cleaning, will also disinfect a train on request or as soon as there is the slightest doubt.

Dylan Rubens, 33, a London-born teacher living in the artist quarter of Montmartre, Paris, spoke of his nightmare after finding bedbugs in the seams of his bed and bedroom curtains.

He told The Independent: I wake up in the middle of the night and turn my phone torch on, expecting to see them in bed with me. Bed is usually a comfortable, relaxing safe space. Now I just feel itchy and paranoid.

He added that his landlord had refused to pay for bug control services as they were spread throughout the building, costing him nearly 1,000 for three separate callouts.

David Cain, founder and managing director of Bed Bugs LTD and a qualified microbiologist, confirmed it was possible the bugs could survive the journey underneath the Channel.

Scientists have found that bedbugs are technically mutants as they possess genes from other organisms, which makes the creatures around since the age of the dinosaurs even harder to kill.

There are 400 types of bacteria that can be found in and outside bedbugs that appear to help keep them alive by fending off viruses, pesticides and other harmful substances.
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A woman sued Walt Disney Parks and Resorts claiming she suffered serious injuries from a painful wedgie at the Typhoon Lagoon waterpark.

Court papers state that the woman visited the Florida park in October 2019 to celebrate her 30th birthday and while there she rode the Humunga Kowabunga, which is a high-speed waterslide that features a five-story drop.

The lawsuit claims that at the top of the slide, the woman followed instructions and got into it with her legs crossed at her ankles, reported FOX35.

Her lawyers state that she was then slammed downward against the slide while descending.

The lawsuit alleges that the impact of the slide caused her swimsuit to be painfully forced between her legs and for water to be violently forced inside her.

The document also said that and her impact into the standing water at the bottom caused a painful wedgie and immediate bleeding.

She allegedly suffered from severe internal pain and was taken to hospital where she was treated by a specialist for the pain.

Court papers state that she suffered severe lacerations, damage to her internal organs, and a hernia.

The lawsuit accuses Disney of negligence for not warning riders of the risks of the waterslide and not informing riders to wear protective swimwear. The woman is seeking compensation for damages of more than $50,000.

The Independent has reached out to Disney for comment.

In 2020, a woman who was arrested at Walt Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom after security found a bottle of CBD oil in her purse took legal action against the Disney company.

Hester Burkhalter, 69, a grandmother from North Carolina, was reportedly arrested for felony drug possession in Orlando, Florida, after Disney security found the bottle when she placed her purse on a table for inspection in April 2019. According to the lawsuit, Burkhalter was arrested, detained and handcuffed at the time of her visit, despite explaining to authorities that the CBD oil was doctor-prescribed for treatment for her advanced arthritis and did not contain THC.
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At the beginning of the new Congress, newly-elected representative Cory Mills (R-FL) handed his fellow Republicans inert grenades. It was an apt welcoming gift since House speaker Kevin McCarthy effectively handed conservatives a live grenade when he allowed for a single member to file a motion to vacate the chair, an arcane rule that allows for a no-confidence vote to depose the speaker.

Investing that much power into any single member of the House Republican conference was never going to end well for the speaker. Doing so meant that any member could have the power to veto his agenda the moment they did something he didnt like.

Up until now, the idea has always been hypothetical. As Republican strategist Liam Donovan posted on X earlier today, the motion to vacate makes for a better sword of damocles than a guillotine. During John Boehners speakership, then-congressman Mark Meadows filed a motion but the vote never happened and Boehner resigned from Congress shortly thereafter. The threat of a motion to vacate has so far been tested more than the actual motion.

Initially, it looked like McCarthy would survive after the debt limit fight. He effectively cut a deal with the White House which caused the House Freedom Caucus to scream and moan, with Rep Chip Roy (R-TX) saying there would be a reckoning. That reckoning never came.

But on Saturday, after the House voted to pass a clean continuing resolution, a stopgap spending bill, to keep the government open for 48 days, the fury from the House GOP was palpable. A whopping 90 Republicans, including many who had voted for McCarthy for speaker, were livid about the fact that a continuing resolution with no major spending cuts or provisions to restrict immigration passed with the help of all but one Democrat.

Still, a motion to vacate seemed tenuous. On Monday evening, Rep Ken Buck (R-CO), an archconservative member of the House Freedom Caucus who has regularly criticised McCarthy, told me that he was not sure that there would be a motion to vacate.

Then, after a series of votes, Matt Gaetz, the Florida firebrand who led the charge in January that delayed the vote for speaker until the wee hours of Saturday 7 January, pulled the pin in the grenade when he announced that he would file a motion to vacate. Reporters and staff alike outside the chamber watched his speech on the floor to see him begin his one-man coup against the speaker.

What comes next is anybodys guess. Back when McCarthy first lobbied for the job, his supporters often said Only Kevin McCarthy meaning only he could unite the Five Families, a phrase borrowed from the Mafia.

His support seems wobbly now, even among his most ardent supporters. Back in January, Rep Wesley Hunt of Texas had to leave Washington when his wife prematurely gave birth to his baby boy but he returned promptly to vote for McCarthy. But before the votes began, he did not hide his frustration on Saturday or on Monday at McCarthy.

But on Monday before votes he was cryptic when I asked whether another candidate could earn enough support.

It doesn't look like that now, but we'll see how the week plays out, he told me.

Another weak spot comes from Rep Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee, who had backed McCarthy from the beginning. Back in January, when a fight nearly broke out on the House floor, Burchett, an archconservative who nonetheless gets along with Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, tried to whisper some sense into Gaetz.

U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) has long supported Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Now, hes not so sure. (Getty Images)

But on Saturday, he seemed dejected when I spoke with him, telling me that GOP leadership just cut a sweet enough deal, or enough people would abdicate their duty.

On Monday, he told reporters that his constituents were telling him to move toward a motion to vacate and said he was torn between voting against my friend Kevin McCarthy or voting my conscience. A Southern gentleman to the end, he said his conscience was leaning toward voting to vacate but Ill pray about it.

Democrats for their part seem to be taking some sadistic pleasure. Rep Maxwell Frost, the freshman Democrat from Florida, seemed to enjoy the spectacle as he walked out saying Oh my God after his fellow Florida man drew his sword against McCarthy.

Rep Eric Swawlell has taken special pleasure in McCarthys misfortunes. As he entered the House floor on Monday, he said simply not my monkey, not my circus. McCarthy removed Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee earlier this year and ever since then Swalwells antagonised his fellow Californian.

When I asked whether McCarthy could cut a deal with Democrats to stay in power, he deferred.

I think that's for our, our leader to negotiate on, he said. When I asked Bill Pascrell, a Democratic congressman from New Jersey, if hed vote to vacate, he said simply youll have to watch.

For his part, Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the democratic socialist member of the Squad, told CNN over the weekend that she absolutely would vote to vacate the chair.

On the surface, it might seem absurd that Ocasio-Cortez, who has emerged as the Democrat on the House Oversight Committee who can best pick apart Republicans vacuous attempts to impeach Joe Biden with ruthless precision, would want to give Gaetz such a tool. But when I spoke with her on Monday, she did not seem deterred.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has expressed openness to filing a motion to vacate to depose the speaker. (Getty Images)

I think our priorities are Democratic priorities and we just assess the conditions of the moment, she said. It's really not about any one individual, it's about the decision we make as a team to really do as much as we can to deliver for people.

(Incidentally, despite their many disagreements, Burchett and Ocasio-Cortez are friends and have bonded over her dog).

Fresh Democrat Brittany Pettersen of Colorado, a member of the moderate Problem Solvers Caucus, also deferred to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who seems to enjoy fileting McCarthy.

I think they have to figure this out and Hakeem Jeffries is going to have to figure out if theres a deal to be made, she said.

At this point, Gaetzs decision has sent the House into uncharted territory. McCarthy has so far gotten lucky throughout his brief speakership.

So far, Democrats have been willing to bail him out on the debt limit and keeping the government open and he might hope that just enough Democrats vote present to keep them out of the voting equation so he can shore up Republican votes. But as Burchett and Hunts discontent shows, he might be facing a mini-revolt even among his allies.

He might also hope that ultimately, a motion to table the attempt at ousting him could succeed, effectively making the threat moot.

Or his luck might finally run out and he could face a coup from Republicans who feel he betrayed them and progressives who want to stick their fingers in his eye. Conversely, he could decide like Boehner did that it simply isnt worth staying and he could call it a day, move to the Florida keys, drink Bloody Marys and go fishing while working as a lobbyist.

But that doesnt mean that the House is not irrevocably changed. Gaetzs move showed that it can be done and now any Republican, no matter how petty their gripe, can follow his lead.

Gaetz has thrown the grenade onto the House floor. And everybody better run for cover, especially McCarthy.
Greencoat Renewables has doubled its stake in a North Sea wind farm as it continues its strategy of expanding in Europe

Irish-listed Greencoat Renewables has acquired a second 22.5pc stake in the Butendiek offshore wind farm, off the German North Sea coast, doubling its initial investment.

It comes two months after it acquired Andella wind farm in Spain, as part of its focus on European expansion.

Greencoat acquired the additional stake in Butendiek from an affiliate of Siemens Pension Trust for around 168m.

The Butendiek investment is subject to regulatory approval and scheduled to complete in November 2023.

Greencoat Renewables expects to make the acquisition together with additional funds managed by its parent company, Schroders.

Greencoats total investment is expected to be 122m, or 72pc of the total stake.

Greencoat Renewables acquired an initial 22.5pc stake in Butendiek from infrastructure fund Marguerite Pantheon in February 2023.

The wind farm is located in Germanys exclusive economic zone in the North Sea and consists of 80 turbines that have been operational since 2015.

Butendiek recently entered into a new power purchase agreement with a large multinational for 62.5pc of the output of the wind farm for a period of six-and-a-half years.

Greencoat claimed it is one of the largest such agreements in Germany.

Post-acquisition of Butendiek, Greencoat Renewables total borrowings would stand at 48pc of gross asset value.

We are delighted to further increase our investment in Butendiek at a value that is accretive to [net asset value], said Bertrand Gautier, Greencoats investment manager.

The transaction was originated on a bilateral basis and reflects the companys continued ability to transact rapidly and generate significant shareholder value through selective off-market investments.

Butendiek also demonstrates Greencoat Renewables ability to actively manage its contracted revenue mix by re-contracting assets and capitalising on the increasing demand for renewable energy PPAs from multinational organisations.

Greencoat Renewables reported a decline in profits in the first half of the year but pointed to a strong opportunity for renewable energy investment across Europe.

Profit after tax came in at 45.2m in the six months to June 30, down from 75m in the corresponding period last year.

The company pointed to a challenging economic environment and said its performance was below budget as it had been less windy than forecast.

Revenues rose to 218.3m due to an expansion of the companys portfolio in the first half and exposure to higher merchant prices. Net cash generation also surged to 125.5m, up from 92.1m last year, with gross assets valued at around 2.5bn in June.
Europa Oil & Gas has almost doubled its estimate for how much gas could be contained at its Inishkea West project, located off the coast of Mayo.

The London-based company has estimated its Inishkea West development could contain a similar volume of gas to the adjacent Corrib field, currently the only domestic source of natural gas in Ireland.

Will Holland, the chief executive of Europa, said the firm hoped to be in a position to drill at the site, located off the north-west coast, by 2025 or 2026.

Its a really good result for us and means the site is much more attractive for a farm out as we cant afford to just do this by ourselves, he told the Irish Independent.

A farm out is where a company which holds the licence to develop a site contracts another firm, usually a much larger company with more resources, to advance the project.

We have a number of companies which are interested. If we farmed out in 2024, we would hope to be drilling by 2025 or 2026.

The project is on the site adjacent to Corrib. Weve spoken to Vermillion (the Corrib operator) who said we could use their facilities if we get a find, which means they could produce from Corrib longer as well as it would be more economically viable for them.

In its statement announcing its findings, Europa said its Inishkea West prospect could hold up to 1.55 trillion cubic feet of gas. This is 92pc more than it previously thought was at the site and would likely be larger than the Corrib field, which currently meets about a quarter of Irelands annual gas needs.

Corrib had been expected to run out around 2026 or 2027. This would leave Irish households and businesses almost fully reliant on the UK for gas supplies.

However, Vermilion Energy, the operator of the field, told the Government last year that the life expectancy of the site could be extended.

Europa said it will now collect further seismic data at Inishkea West, which means the company will have to apply for an extension to its licence for the site.

The farm out process, which had been underway, will be paused until this is completed.

These results have more than justified the additional time and expenditure on what is a key asset for not only Europa, but also Ireland in terms of potential indigenous energy security and as part of the countrys energy transition, the company said.

In 2021, Ireland became one of the few countries in the world to ban licences for new oil and gas exploration.

However, this measure did not apply retrospectively to existing licences, such as Europas, which can still go through the development application process.
Russias GTLK firms valued at 4bn and own as many as 114 aircraft

The joint liquidators of a Dublin-based Russian aircraft leasing firm linked to the Kremlin have launched three legal actions in London against a slew of underwriters as they try to secure restitution linked to jets that are marooned in Russia.

The lessor, GTLK, reportedly owns as many as 114 aircraft but about 40 are linked to the three actions that have just been filed in London, it is understood.

Joint liquidator Damien Murran of Teneo  the other liquidator from the firm is Julian Moroney  confirmed to the Irish Independent that the actions have been filed by GTLK Europe and that they will be joined to a larger group of cases being taken by aircraft lessors in London against a slate of insurers.

They a re seeking restitution from insurance firms for the loss of aircraft and engines in Russia that were seized after sanctions were imposed by the EU, the United States and other countries following Russias invasion of Ukraine last year.

Russias civil aviation regulator has also just urged airlines in Russia using jets from GTLK not to use them on international routes due to the risk of seizure arising from liquidation proceedings in Ireland. A handful of the jets are leased to airlines outside Russia, but are not flying due to sanctions.

In May, the High Court ordered the winding up of two Russian state-owned Irish firms, GTLK Europe and GTLK Europe Capital. In making the order, Mr Justice Conor Dignam said that an application to have the units alternatively placed into examinership was fatally deficient.

The companies were jointly valued at an estimated 4bn, making their liquidation one of the largest ever in Ireland.

The cases taken by the liquidators of the GTLK units in London are against companies including Starr International Europe, Axis Specialty Europe, Fidelis Underwriting, Russias JSC Rosgosstrakh Insurance Company, The Russian National Reinsurance Company, Liberty Mutual and The Oriental Insurance Company.

The worlds biggest aircraft lessors  many of them based in Dublin  have to wait until next February before a London court hearing that will decide if their multi-billion dollar cases against insurance companies over jets seized in Russia will be shifted to Moscow.

The lessors are opposed to any efforts by insurers including AIG, Axa, Allianz and Lloyds to see jurisdiction for the cases transferred to Russia.

Last month, Dublin-based lessor AerCap reached a $645m settlement with a Russian insurance firm in relation to 17 jets it has leased to Aeroflot and the airlines Rossiya subsidiary.

Soon after the joint liquidators were appointed to the GTLK units in May, Mr Murran and Mr Moroney sought a number of orders and declarations from the High Court to formally recognise them rather than any Russian entities as having effective control of the two Irish entities.

The liquidators lawyers urged the court to act with expediency as a director of the companies, Mr Roman Lyadov, who had sworn statements on behalf of the firms in various proceedings before the courts, appeared to have left Ireland and returned to Russia.
Irish firm KB Associates has completed its merger into fund services giant Waystone.

Waystone Group said that the combined firm will have 175bn in assets under management.

KB Associates employs nearly 100 consultants and provides advice to asset managers and investment funds.

Waystone said adding KB Associates to its group will allow it to offer unparalleled expert advice and an extensive suite of services to clients worldwide.

The transaction was first announced in January 2022. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Waystone, which has its European headquarters in Dublin, provides a variety of services to the asset management industry. These include advice around institutional governance, risk and compliance. The firm says it supports businesses with more than $2tn in assets under management.

Waystone was formed after two Irish firms, DMS Governance and Montlake, merged with Luxembourg-based MDO.

Rachel Wheeler, the chief executive of global management company solutions at Waystone, said the integration programme team at Waystone and KB Associates have worked incredibly hard to ensure a true and seamless integration of KBA into the Waystone Group.

The integration has facilitated the implementation of a new and simplified operating model meaning we are now even better equipped to provide comprehensive and innovative solutions to our clients, she said.

Andrew Kehoe, the chief executive of Waystone Management Company Ireland, said: Having now truly integrated our highly successful and complementary organisations, we look forward to delivering substantial benefits to our clients.

By combining the expertise and depth of experience of both organisations, weve expanded our suite of services to create an unrivalled offering.

Waystone said the completion of the merger comes as it nears the finalisation of its acquisition of Link Fund Solutions.

The firm announced in April that it would acquire the Irish and UK businesses of Link Fund Solutions, a division of Link Group.

Link Group is an Australian financial services company.

Waystone said at the time of the deal with Link Group that it would represent a further strengthening of the groups Irish management company.

In its announcement yesterday, Waystone said the transactions represented significant milestones in the companys history as it continues to strengthen its market position.
Indaver Ireland facility produces enough electricity each year to power the equivalent of Drogheda and Navan combined

Last year, An Bord Pleanala cleared the way for the Indaver facility at Duleek to increase the amount of waste it receives to 280,000 tonnes per year. Photo: Frank McGrath

Pre-tax profits at waste processing and power generation firm Ind a ver last year surged by 55pc to 32.87m on the back of an increase in electricity prices.

Belgian-owned Indaver Ireland operates an incinerator at Duleek, Co Meath that produces enough electricity each year to power the equivalent of Drogheda and Navan combined.

New accounts show Indaver Ireland recorded the sharp increase in pre-tax profits after revenues jumped by 24pc from 98.22m to 121.64m.

The company last year paid out a dividend of 18.5m, after paying out a dividend of 19m in 2021.

In the new 2022 accounts, the directors state that profits increased due mainly to electricity prices which are determined by market influence including gas prices, electricity demand and availability of supply of generators.

The pre-tax profits of 32.87m follow pre-tax profits of 21.13m for 2021 when the company also benefited from the rise in electricity prices.

The new accounts show that the firms revenues from sale of goods increased from 78.8m to 88.8m while its revenues from the sale of electricity increased from 19.3m to 32.7m.

The firm recorded post-tax profits of 28.65m after paying out corporation tax of 4.22m.

Last year, An Bord Pleanala cleared the way for the Indaver facility at Duleek to increase the amount of waste it receives to 280,000 tonnes per year  up from 235,000 tonnes per year.

Indaver did secure planning permission for a new 160m incinerator for Ringaskiddy in Co Cork in 2018 that has the capacity to treat up to 240,000 tonnes of waste per annum.

However, that permission has been subject to High Court challenge by a local environmental group and the Supreme Court in September of last year upheld a High Court ruling that the application can be remitted back to An Bord Pleanala for fresh consideration.

The profit last year takes account of non-cash depreciation, amortisation and impairment costs of 10.1m.

Numbers employed increased from 198 to 207 as staff costs rose from 12.26m to 13.68m. Directors pay last year increased from 356,573 to 442,279.

At the end of last December, the firm had shareholder funds of 116m that included accumulated profits of 29.1m. The firms cash funds increased from 302,534 to 2.85m.
Reputation of the broadcaster slumps with Ticketmaster and NCT others to fall foul of public

RTE recorded the biggest fall in its score of any brand  down 17pc. Photo: Niall Carson/PA

RTE has plunged to the bottom of an annual customer experience (CX) ranking of Irish brands, a sign the financial scandal engulfing the public service broadcaster has had a significant impact on its reputation among the wider public.

Ticketmaster, which had Taylor Swift and Coldplay fans up in arms this year over website delays and time-outs, and NCT, which was in the headlines after delays and its refusal to accept cash, also saw their reputations fall.

RTE ranked 150th out of 150 brands in polling carried out by Amarach Research on behalf of The CX Company.

Survey results show the drop was caused by the scandal sparked by revelations about Ryan Tubridys pay after RTE in June said it had paid the presenter 345,000 more than it had disclosed.

The national broadcaster recorded the biggest fall in its score of any brand  down 17pc  while its trust score fell by a massive 25pc, an especially damaging implication for a news provider and for a publicly funded institution.

Kevin Bakhurst took over as RTE director general in July

Comments recorded by the researchers highlighted this loss of trust.

The RTE scandal has destroyed any trust or love I have for RTE. I really feel terrible for the hard-working staff who were treated like crap. The loss of trust in the national news provider is a major worry in this fake news age. My trust for RTE is gone, said one respondent, reflecting a common view.

The CX Companys CEO Cathy Summers, who wrote the report, said the year marked a low for RTE.

Trust is at the heart of every customer interaction and without trust there is no customer relationship. It is built up over time and should never be taken for granted. Its not just about the Ryan Tubridy issue either; major scandals can often have a knock-on effect. Other respondents referenced the regular showing of repeats, issues with the RTE Player which is streets behind other providers and poor-quality programming, she said.

The credit union movement cemented its status as the most user-friendly brand in the country even as individual member unions have launched increasingly sophisticated financial products including current accounts and home loans.

Ms Summers said it means the larger credit unions are well placed to compete with the banks.

Drawing down a mortgage for a new home is a highly emotive purchase and credit unions have been very good at recognising the importance of that. It is the biggest financial transaction most people will ever make so trust is key. Its also a product which requires a lot of human intervention from the provider in tandem with the ability of the customer to upload information and communicate digitally with it. With their large branch network and their deep roots in local communities, credit unions are ideally positioned to do this.
Hewlett Packard employs thousands of people in Ireland, and is set to add 150 new jobs in Galway

US tech giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise is to add 150 jobs at its new cloud computing centre in Galway.

HPE, which split from computing giant HP eight years ago, said on Monday that it will recruit for a range of roles, including architects, software engineers, project managers, researchers, user experience engineers, security specialists, test engineers, data analysts and artificial intelligence (AI) professionals.

The team will work within HPEs newly created hybrid cloud business unit, which comes into effect in November.

They will be based at HPEs global centre of excellence for the firms GreenLake cloud platform in Galway, which is backed by IDA Ireland.

GreenLake supports 27,000 customers and powers more than 3.4 million connected devices, according to the firm.

HPE has several sites in Ireland, including a financial services centre in Leixlip and a facility in Cork.

The new jobs come after former parent firm, HP, said last year that it expects to shed up to 6,000 jobs globally - around 12pc of its global workforce - by 2025.

The new Irish cloud computing team will be led by HPE chief technology officer Fidelma Russo, a Cork native who started her career as an engineer in Ireland in the 1980s.

The new centre of excellence in Galway will help Hewlett Packard Enterprise realise its vision and shape the future experience of the HPE GreenLake platform, Ms Russo said.

This investment will capitalise on the strong pool of technology expertise and engineering talent within Ireland. Im excited to bring together a diverse team, from those starting out in their careers to highly experienced tech professionals, who will play a pivotal role in developing our hybrid cloud business.

Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney said he was delighted at the news.

Galways thriving tech hub continues to grow from strength to strength and this expansion will provide excellent employment opportunities for tech talent, from graduates to experienced tech professionals.

These highly skilled roles are in addition to 150 jobs announced in 2021 and are a fresh vote of confidence in the wealth of talent in Galway and surrounding areas.

HPE has a long history with Ireland dating back over 50 years and their continued commitment to Ireland, and the West, is very welcome.

IDA Ireland chief executive Michael Lohan said the investment will support the transformation of the Galway site.

This strategic investment underscores HPEs long-term commitment to Ireland and will enable the company to grow the employee base in the West region, diversify its R&D presence, and continue to make positive contributions to the Irish economy.

The news comes just days after rival computing firm Intel announced the creation of around 1,500 jobs at its new 17bn manufacturing plant in Leixlip, in Kildare.

Medical device manufacturer Freudenberg Medical also announced on Monday that it is to create 100 new jobs at its newly expanded facility in Spiddal, in Co. Galway.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is to announce the new jobs at an event in IDA Ireland this morning (Brian Lawless/PA)

US data analytics firm EXL is to establish an international business headquarters in Dublin and hire up to 200 staff here over the next three years.

The new roles will include artificial intelligence (AI) specialists, data engineers and other technology positions, the firm said.

EXL is partnering with University College Dublin (UCD) to help address its skills needs.

The New York-based firm said it will also work with the Centre for Applied AI (CeADAR), Irelands national AI hub, which provides research, undertakes training and helps companies find funding.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who is to announce the new jobs at an event in the IDA Ireland office this morning, said the firms expansion in Ireland was very welcome.

Ireland is well-placed to be a hub of innovation in this space, and EXLs plans to partner with local research institutions will be an important contribution to developing the next generation of talent.

EXL helps digitise some of the worlds largest companies, including firms in the insurance, healthcare, banking, media, retail and financial sectors.

The US firm employs more than 48,000 people in around 50 offices worldwide.

The firm intends to establish other global centres across its operation, to streamline management, improve efficiencies and reduce costs, it said.

Developing innovative technology solutions to complex business problems is at the heart of what EXL does for our clients, and by expanding our presence in Ireland, we are gaining access to a truly world-class talent market and a key geographic hub for our global operations, said Rohit Kapoor, vice-chairman and chief executive officer of EXL.

We will look to train AI experts in Ireland to unlock the transformative power of generative AI, revolutionise industries and drive new business opportunities.

Dublins exceptional talent pool will help us shape the future of technology, fuelling innovation and propelling our clients to the forefront of the global AI landscape.

Mary Buckley, IDA Irelands executive director, said the new jobs were very welcome and that the firms collaboration with UCD has potential to drive skills in AI, machine learning and data analytics.
The Mean Girls musical has enjoyed success on Broadway and will now open in the West End (PA)

The musical based on the hit film Mean Girls will come to London in 2024, it has been announced.

The arrival in the West End will coincide with the 20th anniversary of the 2004 film, starring Lindsay Lohan as outsider Cady Heron who has been raised in Africa and who arrives at an American high school where she must navigate the world of The Plastics  the girls who rule the school.

The film, written by 30 Rock star Tina Fey, starred Rachel McAdams as leader Regina George, while Amanda Seyfried and Lacey Chabert played her acolytes Karen and Gretchen.

The musical show has already been a hit on Broadway, where it opened in 2018 and has since embarked on two national tours.

The news of the West End opening was announced on October 3  known as Mean Girls Day in reference to a scene in the film in which Cady is asked what day it is by the boy she has a crush on.

Fans have latched onto the date for years and the stars of the film often celebrate the day by sharing throwback photos.

The show  written by Fey, composer Jeff Richmond, lyricist Nell Benjamin and director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw  will open at the Savoy Theatre in London in June 2024.

Fey said: Were so excited to bring Mean Girls to London, where everyone already knows what Regina means.

Producers Lorne Michaels and Sonia Friedman added: Mean Girls is a timeless comedy that for decades has connected with generations of audiences across the globe.

The Mean Girls musical has enjoyed success on Broadway and will now open in the West End (PA)

Having worked together for several years on this production, we are immensely proud and excited to be bringing this stage musical, led by this incredible writing and creative team, to Londons Savoy Theatre.

Tickets go on sale on November 1.
"As difficult as it was to hear Dolores's voice, they brought back many fond memories," said Cranberries drummer Fergal Lawler. Photo: Getty

Dolores O'Riordan died in January 2018 at 46 years of age after drowning in the bathtub of her London hotel. Photo: Getty

Irish rocker Fergal Lawler said it was bittersweet hearing the vocals of late singer Dolores O'Riordan on The Cranberries' upcoming remastered album.

The band are re-launching their 1996 album To The Faithful Departed on October 13 to include unreleased outtakes and early mixes of the studio album, as well as 12 live tracks recorded on the band's Free To Decide tour.

The Cranberries drummer described being surprised when listening back to the tracks and hearing the powerful voice of O'Riordan, who died in January 2018 at 46 years of age after drowning in the bathtub of her London hotel.

He said: "I hadn't heard these tracks for a long time but have spent many days over the past year or so listening intently to these songs.

"As difficult as it was to hear Dolores's voice, they brought back many fond memories.

"I was shocked at how powerful they sounded and the strong emotions that I felt as I listened."

The upcoming album, which peaked at number two on the official UK charts, includes three previously unreleased album demos recorded with English producer Tim Palmer in Paris.

Lawler said: "When we were on tour for our second album No Need To Argue, we began discussions about recording the next album.

"We had spoken to Island Records about the possibility of trying a new producer and they suggested Tim Palmer who had worked with Tears For Fears, so we decided to demo some new songs with him.

"Tim was a lovely guy and the recordings sounded great but we felt he was a little similar in style to Stephen Street (who had produced the band's previous two albums) and we wanted to try something different.

"We had been touring a lot and wanted more of a live sound."

The band chose to work with Bruce Fairbairn, known for his work with rock bands Aerosmith, AC/DC and Van Halen.

"When the tour finished, we took a short break and met with Bruce and his genius engineer Mike Plotnikoff in Windmill Lane studio in Dublin," Lawler said.

"It was a very different experience for both ourselves and Bruce, he was used to working with heavy rock bands and we were used to working with Stephen (Street), but it worked out really well."

The remastered album will be reissued as a deluxe edition on vinyl and CD and includes an album booklet about the making of the album based on interviews with the remaining members.
A review on the Ash Dieback situation will be brought to Cabinet today in advance of its publication by the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Pippa Hackett.

The report is understood to have 12 recommendations  including one addressing compensation for farmers whose forestry plantations have been hit by the disease, subject to State Aid rules.

The disease, which was first identified in Ireland in 2012, has impacted thousands of farmers, with around 80pc of the countrys ash trees dead or dying.

Farmers at Ash Dieback meetings earlier this year vented their frustration and anger at the situation, with IFA farm forestry vice chairman Simon White saying they would not support the Government's 1.3bn forestry programme, without the Ash Dieback situation being addressed.

"Ash Dieback is the yardstick of how we measure the Department and Ministers' commitment to forestry," he said.

"We will not endorse this forestry programme, unless you sort out ash dieback... and the conditions attached are not attractive. The risk factors are far too high."

Speaking at the launch of the review, Minister Hackett said the independent group would review the existing and previous supports available to landowners with ash plantations.

The review group comprised Jo OHara, former CEO of the Scottish Forestry Commission; Jerry Grant, former Managing Director of Irish Water and Dr. Matt Crowe, former Director of the EPA.

Unfortunately ash dieback is now endemic in our countryside. To date my Department has provided over 9m in support to landowners with infected plantations by removing and replanting their sites with alternative species. We have also doubled the rates for this recently.

"As we approach 10 years of these supports, I have listened to the concerns of landowners and I have tasked an independent group to review existing Department supports.

According to the Minister the Department has received applications for assistance under these schemes for almost 6,500ha of grant aided ash to date.
L to R: Actor Owen Roe, Ged Nash TD and Irish Equity President Gerry O Brien during a protest outside Leinster house today (Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos)

Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy and Ruth Negga are among Hollywood stars to sign a petition to end film industry exploitation of Irish actors that was handed to government ministers today.

The stars are calling for an end to the practice of production companies, that avail of big tax breaks, giving Irish actors less favourable terms and conditions than their overseas colleagues despite working on the same set.

Signed by 3,700 actors across the globe, the petition backs an Oireachtas report on the operation of special tax credits for film makers.

Siobhan McSweeney, David Morrissey, Jonathan Frakes, Jeri Ryan and Adrian Dunbar, have also backed the petition.

Gerry OBrien, Irish Equity president, urged the Government to end the ludicrous practice of buyout contracts that deprive actors of future potential earnings from repeat broadcasts.

Mr OBrien said an agreement already exists to protect actors rights to future earnings from productions in Northern Ireland that should be transposed in the Republic.

Everybody must know everybody is going to get a share, he said. Having a 32-county agreement on terms and conditions makes a huge amount of sense as up to 80pc of inward investment comes through the UK.

He said actors living in Ireland have been offered contracts by production companies with lesser terms and conditions than those offered to their international colleagues working on the same productions.

These contracts have ignored the protections offered to Irish actors by national and international copyright law, denying them access to potential future earnings, he said.

This petition and its signatories are evidence that this is more than a domestic issue, he said. The eyes of the international audio-visual sector are on Ireland.

Irish actors are part of an international community that has no desire to see their hard won rights undermined by these kinds of practices.

The Committee on Budgetary Oversights report, published in May this year, proposed that Irish performers are not subject to lesser terms and conditions in relation to their intellectual property rights than international performers in similar roles on the same project.

In order for this to take place, it said film makers availing of tax credits should be compliant with copyright legislation and an EU copyright directive.

Equity delegates handed the petition into the offices of Arts Minister Catherine Martin and the Minister for Finance Michael McGrath.

A spokesperson at the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media said the Irish film and audio-visual sector is a hugely important industry.

As recently as earlier this year, films such as Banshees of Inisherin and the beautiful An Cailin Ciuin were central to a record number of Academy Award nominations for Irish films, he said.

We rightly took great pride in the achievements of Colm Bairead and Cleona Ni Chrualaoi, and of Kerry Condon and Brendan Gleeson, among so many others.

He said this success has been underpinned by significant government support for the sector though Section 481 film relief, and funding for Screen Ireland and the Arts Council.

All supports evolve over time and Section 481 is no different, he said.

He said the Department of Finance and Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media are considering recommendations set out in the Budgetary Oversight Committees report.

He said responsibility for copyright rests with the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

However, he said Screen Ireland has retained an independent facilitator to meet with stakeholders to discuss issues raised through the implementation of the copyright directive.
The Liverpool consultant who will head the review into Temple Street Hospital is to meet with parents advocacy groups in the coming days.

A spokesman for the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said he met with Mr Selvadurai Nayagam yesterday evening and had a constructive  meeting.

The spokesman said Mr Nayagam will be meeting with a number of patient advocacy groups over the coming days.

The review follows revelations that 19 children with spina bifida in Temple Street after being operated by one surgeon developed serious post-operative complications with one child dying.

Non-medical springs were implanted in three children.

Parents have insisted they want a wide investigation which will also look at surgeries in other hospitals as well as areas of how the service is run.

They said the HSE, which has commissioned the inquiry, should not be reporting to itself.

The parents have insisted there may be a need for a statutory inquiry if they are not satisfied the proposed review will be independent and wide-ranging.

The minister for health has insisted the terms of reference will allow the review team to go wide and deep.

He said Mr Nayagam would listen to what the groups have to say and decide on how far it should go.

A risk assessment will be complete before the end of the year.

It is not expected the review will be completed until this time next year.

However, there remained confusion last night over whether the advocacy groups will agree to meet with the review chairman.

It is understood the chairman of the review will meeting with Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Ireland which is the national support service for people living with the condition.

A meeting is also set to take place with one of the groups supporting families of children with scoliosis.
The Indo Daily: 'We aren't running out of compassion, we're running out of cash' - Welfare payments for Ukrainian refugees
FORMER Deputy Chairman of An Bord Pleanala Paul Hyde will have his appeal against a two month prison sentence for making false or misleading statements about his personal interests heard in November.
Social welfare increases of at least 12 per week and a lump sum payment of the fuel allowance are at the centre of Budget negotiations as ministers scramble for funding a week out from the announcement.

A number of revenue-raising measures are also being discussed with increasing concern within Government over the economys reliance on corporation tax.

This includes an excise hike on cigarettes along with a possible increase of 0.1pc on PRSI to pay for a government commitment to keep the State pension age at 66 years old.

There also talks about increasing taxes on e-cigarettes to deter people from using them, but the policy may not be in place in time for next weeks Budget.

Talks between Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe have yet to conclude and the Coalition has not signed off on the design of a 1.1bn tax package. However, a government source said: Welfare rates will go up by at least 12 a week and there will be a double payment for those who are in receipt of the fuel allowance before Christmas.

This amount could increase when the Government leaders finalise their Budget policies next week. A double payment of all welfare rates in the lead-up to Christmas is also expected.

There will be a cut to the Universal Social Charge (USC), likely to benefit income taxpayers to the tune of about 235 a year, with a likely 1,500 widening of the standard rate tax band at the same time.

There are discussions about widening the bands for the USC so more low-income workers stay out of the higher rates. Alternatively, one of the lower rates could be reduced by 0.5pc.

In other Budget areas there will be an increase in the tax credit for renters, which is currently worth 500 a year, with speculation around a figure of 750.

There will be a package for landlords with proposals currently focused on how to shelter more of their rental income, likely to form a new tax credit. Landlords will have to be registered with the tenancies board in order to avail of it.

However providing mortgage interest relief (MIR) for those in greatest need is said to be very complex because of the need to equitably limit eligibility.

Officials have opposed any resumption of mortgage interest relief, having spent years trying to achieve its abolition as a distorting influence on overall fiscal policy.

There are a couple of options being studied, and it currently appears that eligibility will have to be means assessed, which is deemed costly and time-consuming to administer.

Two new futureproof funds will be announced in the Budget.

One is an investment fund for long-term demographic provision, such as the State pension, which will come under increasing strain from the growing number of older people in the coming decades.

The other will be for infrastructure projects, designed to produce the funds to finish big undertakings should capital budgets come under pressure in economic recessions yet to impact the country.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Michael McGrath is also set to flag a crack down on vaping in the Budget amid growing evidence their use can be worse than cigarettes.

The Government already plans to ban disposable vapes but there are plans to use the Budget to curb their use.

Ireland aims to be tobacco-free by the end of the decade, with 5pc use by the end of 2025  strategy ambitions that are now seen as unlikely to be fulfilled.

Some vaping premises advertise themselves as smoke-free, despite visible vapours, with some in Government considering their policy aims are being openly mocked.

Officials in the Department of Finance are understood to be looking at the whole area of e-cigarettes and there will also be an increase in excise duty on regular cigarettes.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said he wants to ban single use e-cigarettes, while there have been calls for single cigarettes to be priced at 1 to deter loose sales.
Keeping the current law is the only credible safeguard on offer against the normalisation of consensual killing in healthcare, the Oireachtas committee on assisted dying was told today.

Dr Thomas Finegan, Assistant Professor at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Mary Immaculate College said: Currently, as a matter of clear, coherent basic principle, our healthcare excludes choices to self-kill.

Within the euthanasia framework a consensual choice in favour of death becomes a principled part of good healthcare. There is no stable middle ground.

He told the committee: Any line drawn between a legitimate and illegitimate euthanasia ground, or between an acceptable and unacceptable annual number of euthanasia cases, will appear as unfair discrimination against patients excluded from the right to access euthanasia.

Consistency demands that should euthanasia be legalised it would be available on virtually all medical grounds, for example chronic illness, conditions closely associated with disability, experience of suffering (which is inherently subjective and not limited to physical suffering), and mental disorders (once capacity remains).

Tellingly, pro-euthanasia contributions at the Committee have generally avoided affirming euthanasia restrictions, Mr Finegan said.

Also addressing the committee, Professor Kevin Yuill, Emeritus professor of history at the University of Sunderland and chief executive of the Humanists Against Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia cited Canada which legalised euthanasia in 2016.

He said many seek euthanasia for problems of homelessness, poverty, and inadequate medical resources. This is before mental illness becomes an eligibility criterion in March 2024.

The Netherlands expanded the range of conditions considered eligible in 2007, after making euthanasia legal in 2002, while the definition of unbearable suffering central to the law has also loosened. Belgium, which legalised euthanasia in 2003, ended all age restrictions in 2014, making the practice possible for children.

We have a growing number of grotesque examples of unnecessary deaths. Besides the awful stories emerging from Canada, there have been at least eight cases in the Netherlands where the only illness was autism and the reason was intolerable disruptions onto their daily routines, and many more for mental illness. In Belgium; euthanasia for those suffering from dementia.

He added: We believe that it is wrong for the state to kill citizens, whether as punishment for a crime or simply because peoples lives are wretched. The problem is not the fate of the individual concerned but the fate of a society that agrees to kill them.

Dr Annie McKeown O'Donovan, who completed her thesis on the matter in 2021, argued that it could be introduced in Ireland  but within strict, ethically defensible parameters".

Allowing a person with a terminal condition to voluntarily die "could be seen as part of compassionate palliative care", she said.

Dr McKeown O'Donovan argued however that "strict and considered safeguards" must be introduced.

"The patient must be capable of administering the medication to themselves," she said, noting that this "makes sure that it's an instance of assisted dying as opposed to euthanasia".

Helping someone to die should remain illegal, she added.
Rank-and-file gardai are beginning their first day of protest against an incoming new roster by withdrawing voluntary overtime today.

Members of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) have vowed not to work overtime every Tuesday for a month as they oppose a new roster which would mean they switch from working four 12-hour shifts followed by four days off, to six eight-hour shifts followed by four days off from November 6.

The Tuesdays fall on Budget Day and around Halloween, which normally require significant additional policing, raising fears of significant public order problems without extra manpower.

Although gardai cannot legally go on strike, GRA leaders believe this action does not fall within the definition of such action.

The GRA has also vowed to continue to operate the current roster system of four days on, four days off when the old system is due to come back into effect on November 6.

If the stalemate remains, GRA members have indicated they will fully withdraw their labour on November 10.

The GRA wants the deadline for the new rosters, which they say are damaging to gardais work-life balance and not conducive to effective policing, suspended pending talks with Commissioner Drew Harris, but he has refused, although he has said he is willing to enter negotiations.

The four-day roster was brought in during the Covid pandemic, and Mr Harris says it no longer serves its purpose, with management wanting to move back to the six-day so-called Westmanstown roster.

Yesterday, GRA president Brendan OConnor denied the opposition to the new rosters was in any way personalised or driven by sectarianism, as Mr Harris is a Northern Irish Protestant who previously held a senior position in the PSNI.

Garda management are now examining ways to make up the shortfall of manpower on the days of the action.

Press Conference with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris

Yesterday, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee urged a solution to be found.

Speaking to media in Dublin on Monday, Ms McEntee said she has been assured by the Commissioner over gardai numbers.

Whats really clear here is that everybody has the same objective  and everybody is still meeting this week, she said.

Despite the fact that there will be challenges in the weeks ahead, the Garda Commissioner has assured me that there will still be a full complement of gardai, there will be enough members to continue doing the work that they do every day whether it is tomorrow, or the following Tuesday.

But there is time here to negotiate, to double down, to try and find the solution, and that is a new roster, and Im encouraging everybody because the alternative here is that I would as minister intervene and direct what roster should be in place.

We have moved away from that type of policing. We should never be in a situation where the minister of the day is telling gardai where and when and how they should be working.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly will bring the plans to the Cabinet. Photo: PA

Pharmacists will be able to dispense oral contraception without a prescription under new laws.

Currently, pharmacists are able to give the morning after pill without a prescription, but new proposals will mean all oral contraception will be available over-the-counter as part of the free contraception scheme.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly will bring the plans to the Cabinet under the general scheme and draft of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill.

Free contraception is currently available to women aged over 17 but under 30.

The law will allow pharmacists to be able to dispense some current prescription-only medicines without a prescription.

These changes aim to expand the role of pharmacists in Ireland and to make it easier for patients to access services.

An expert taskforce has also been set up to support the expansion of pharmacy which will also look at minor ailment schemes and independent prescribing.

New regulations will be put in place for medicine shortages, by giving power to the Health Minister to put in place medicine substitution protocols.

The law will also be changed to allow a wider range of qualified professionals administer vaccines through amendments to the Irish Medicines Board Act 1995.

People with medical cards will also be able to receive a disregard so they can receive up to 14,000 a year tax free if they rent out a room in their house under the Rent-A-Room scheme.

This aims to remove any potential barriers to participation in the Rent-A-Room scheme.

Separately, a landmark older peoples commission will advise the Government on health and social care services and supports under proposals to be signed off by the Cabinet today.

The Commission on Care for Older Persons will be independent and tasked with examining health and social care services for older people.

It will be set up before the end of the year and begin its work next January. It will be made up of independent experts, as well as a chairperson.

The commission will make recommendations to the Government on the strategic development of health and social care services and supports for older persons.

It will examine the services provided to older people by the HSE, non-governmental organisations and other bodies such as home care and day service providers.

The commission will also look into residential care settings, such as nursing homes and supported living models.

The terms of reference for the new landmark commission will be developed before Christmas.

Initiatives such as the development of a statutory home support scheme, the national rollout of community specialist teams for older persons and chronic disease management (as part of the Enhanced Community Care programme) will be of focus to the new commission.

It will also probe the development of palliative care policy and the development of adult safeguarding policy.

The commission is part of the Programme for Governments plan for an age-friendly Ireland.
Since resigning in January, former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has become a trustee of the Earthshot Prize and has joined Harvard University on a fellowship. Photo: Kerry Marshall

Jacinda Ardern and Trevor Noah are coming to Ireland next month to talk climate change and sustainability. The high-profile former prime minister of New Zealand and the trailblazing comedian will share a platform at AIBs annual sustainability conference in Dublin.

The event will be webcast live for members of the public who dont get tickets to attend in person.

Ms Ardern was one of the worlds youngest-ever national leaders when she became prime minister in 2017, a position she held until her surprise decision to leave politics in January this year.

She had put climate action high on the agenda when contesting her first general election as leader of the Labour Party in 2017 and brought in several significant legislative and policy changes.

New Zealand, which has the same population as Ireland, also has a similar greenhouse gas emissions profile and has been hamstrung by many of the same issues. The country is heavily reliant on agriculture and cutting methane emissions has proved difficult practically and politically.

In her final speech to parliament, Ms Ardern urged her fellow elected members to take the politics out of climate change. Since leaving office, she has become a trustee of the Earthshot Prize, a global fund for the support of climate change solutions and has joined Harvard University on a fellowship.

Mr Noah, who is South African born of mixed-race parents, came into the spotlight overseas for his comedy routines recalling his early childhood under Apartheid.

Also a writer, producer and former host of the late night talk show The Daily Show in the US, he regularly tackles themes of race, refugees and the climate crisis, using dark humour to make serious points. He played sell-out shows here in Ireland last year.

AIBs annual conference often attracts big name guests  Cate Blanchett and Jane Goodall were on the card last year.

AIB chief executive Colin Hunt said the theme of this years event on November 20 would be Its Time To Act, reiterating the urgent action needed.
Nine Irish people who travelled abroad for medical and cosmetic procedures have died in the last three years. Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Nine Irish people who travelled abroad for medical and cosmetic procedures have died in the last three years.

So far this year, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has been notified of three deaths.

The majority of those who lost their lives underwent bariatric (weight-loss) and dental procedures.

In 2021, two deaths were reported to the DFA. Last year, four people died.

The DFA was not notified of any deaths between 2017 and 2020.

It said that the true number of deaths may be higher.

These figures are based on those notified to the department and may not represent all those who have died following medical and cosmetic procedures abroad, the DFA said.

As with all consular cases, the department does not comment on the details of individual cases.

The surge in people travelling abroad for medical procedures has prompted the DFA to issue updated advice amid concerns about the rising number of people presenting at Irish hospitals with complications.

Individuals should seek to inform themselves of both the risks and benefits of any procedures, and are advised to discuss their plans carefully with their own doctor, dentist or hospital specialist before committing to any procedure abroad, it said.

The DFA is aware that some citizens have experienced complications in the course of their treatment in Turkey, and a number have died following medical procedures.

Irish citizens considering medical treatment in Turkey are advised to carry out independent research regarding the credentials of any potential service provider and to ensure that the facility is accredited with the Turkish authorities.

In May, a man died while undergoing a dental procedure in Turkey.

A woman in her 50s who travelled to Turkey in July for a cosmetic procedure also died.

Last year, two women who went to Turkey for bariatric procedures lost their lives.

One of the women was in her 30s, had a young daughter and lived in Dublin. The other was a mother-of-two from Co Waterford.

A father from Louth who travelled to Turkey for a dental procedure in April last year also died.

Turkey has become an increasingly popular destination for Irish people seeking to have dental, cosmetic and bariatric (weight-loss) procedures carried out. High costs, long waiting lists and the lack of availability of certain procedures in Ireland is leading people abroad.

In the UK, the government issued a similar warning regarding medical tourism after a number of British people died.

We are aware of 22 British nationals who have died in Turkey since January 2019 following medical tourism visits, it said in a statement.

It urged tourists to stick to medical providers who are approved by Turkeys Ministry of Health.

Concerns are now growing about the rising rate of complications due to the conveyor belt system being adopted by some hospitals and clinics abroad.

Patients have reported being operated on at 10pm at night and seeing trolley loads of people waiting to undergo cosmetic and weight-loss procedures.

With a marked increase in the number of people choosing to travel abroad for procedures, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) said it is seeing increasing numbers of patients admitted through emergency departments with complications after returning home.

The RCSI has warned that air travel after a procedure increases the risk of blood clots and infection.

Certain clinics and hospitals abroad allow patients to fly home within a week of surgery. They are discharging patients to hotels for their aftercare and sign off on fit-to-fly certs.

Travelling abroad for an operation may add additional risk and you should ensure that you are fully informed before travelling abroad for surgery that is normally available in Ireland, the RCSI said.

Medical tourism is recognised to carry particular additional risks. You should not assume that the normal safeguards that apply to surgery and surgical procedures undertaken in Ireland are automatically in place in other countries.

It is important to understand your rights and protections in the country where the operation is taking place as, if medical negligence or a medical error occurs, the processes may be different than would be the case in Ireland, the RCSI added.
Nearly half of all doctors suffer occupational stress, compared to 23pc of the general population. Photo: Getty Images

Soaring rates of doctor burnout and stress are having a hugely negative impact on patient care in Ireland, the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland has warned.

It called for radical plans for both doctor recruitment and doctor retention in mental health services.

There also needs to be a significant increase in mental health spending. Survey findings show:

:: Nearly half of all doctors suffer occupational stress, compared to 23pc of the general population.

:: One in three psychiatrist specialist doctors experience burnout.

:: One in 10 have severe depression, anxiety and stress.

:: One in five feel they do not have enough time for their family and personal life.

:: Four in five feel effort exceeds non-financial rewards gained.

Dr Lorcan Martin, president of the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland and a consultant in general adult psychiatry warned: Mental health services in Ireland have been hollowed out over the course of decades now, and the concerning and depressing result is a system with far too few psychiatrists treating an ever-increasing cohort of patients with mental illness.

Doctors working in the services are hugely over-worked and chronically under-resourced.

This is ironically having a hugely negative impact on the wellbeing and mental health of psychiatrists.

And the ultimate losers are patients, who simply cannot expect to receive the very best care, if the doctors who treat and support them cannot cope with the demands that are being placed on them.

Dr Martin said that a radical national plan to implement the accepted official doctor workforce planning, recruitment and retention documents for mental health services was urgently needed.

Irish doctors, including psychiatrists, are understandably opting to leave Ireland in their droves to countries which offer them far better working conditions and work-life balance.

The Government and the HSE cannot sit idly by and watch them leave. It needs to present an implementation plan to retain our specialist (consultant) psychiatrists and doctors training to be psychiatrists.

That means wide-ranging reform of our mental health services  including investment, capacity and doctor numbers. Furthermore, we need to attract the doctors of tomorrow into our health system, and that doesnt happen by accident.

He said that of every 20 of funding in the health system, just 1 went into mental health.

This needs to double, at the very least to 2bn, to bring us into line with mental health services of comparable countries such as in France, England and Scotland.

The current funding for training doctors to be specialists in psychiatry is around 600,000 short of what is needed.

The forthcoming Budget, to be announced on World Mental Health Day, gives us yet another opportunity to address the scandalous shortfalls and corresponding systemic issues in our services.

We must produce a plan to reduce burnout and the myriad inequitable pressures on psychiatrists that are beyond the scope of their intended roles as specialist doctors, as they need to be at their best in order to give optimal care to patients.

Anything less is inexcusable and unacceptable.

We have multiple reports, investigations, plans and recommendations for the services - but none is valuable without the political will to fund and prioritise the mental health of the nation, Dr Martin said.

Dr Martin added that there were only approximately 400 consultant psychiatrist approved posts filled on a permanent basis in Ireland when there should be a minimum of 647 filled by this year, with the total number increasing every year to achieve the accepted 835 specialist posts by 2030.

The College calls on the Government and the HSE to develop, fund and implement national clear recruitment and retention plans based on official accepted research, projections and need.

We need to make Irelands mental health services the most attractive place to attend and work instead of accepting competition internationally as a permanent hurdle.
Around 50 roles within An Bord Pleanala have yet to be filled as the Cabinet signed off on a bill which would radically reform the organisation.

Minister Darragh O'Brien has said 117 new staffing posts within An Bord Pleanala have been agreed since October 2021, but later admitted around 40pc of those jobs have yet to be filled.

The jobs come as part of the Government's ambition to have more than 300 people employed within the body, which is to be renamed An Coimisiun Pleanala under a major overhaul to the planning system.

Mr O'Brien told a press conference at Government Buildings that he wants to increase the number of people working within the planning body by 50pc compared to 2021 levels.

However, at the same conference, Green Party leader and Minister for Environment Eamon Ryan revealed to reporters that around 50 of the roles remain unfilled.

The Planning and Development Bill 2023, signed off by senior ministers today, will be passed through the Dail in the coming months and perhaps even early next year.

The major overhaul of Ireland's planning system will see a restructuring of An Bord Pleanala, introduce reform of planning judicial review, a timeframe increase in local authority development plans from six to 10 years, mandatory timelines for decisions within the new planning body An Coimisiun Pleanala, and new provisions for urban development zones.

The Government said the bill, which is the third largest in the history of the State, comes after a 15-month review of the planning system.

It is aimed at making the planning system more coherent and user-friendly for the public and planning practitioners.

Mr Ryan described the new planning reforms are progressive despite previous concerns from his party on judicial reviews.

The Greens raised concerns previously about the proposed laws, which would have banned residents associations, but not individuals from taking judicial reviews.

The final laws will allow residents associations to challenge planning decisions by bringing judicial reviews but only if they follow strict criteria, such as taking a vote and having a constitution.

I think this is a progressive, important piece of legislation and I think there has been good work done on it for those involved, the stakeholders involved in the consultation, said Eamon Ryan. We need this legislation quick.

Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien said the legislation would facilitate increased housing supply.

Speaking at a press conference at Government Buildings, Mr O'Brien said it may take until next year for the legislation to pass. He said: "It is urgent, it is required, it is radical."

Mr O'Brien described the bill as "future-proofing", planning legislation for the next 20-25 years.

He said any criticism that the bill has been rushed is laughable.

Their definition of rushed is something that has taken from May 2021 to now, he said.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the largest shake-up of Ireland's planning system in more than two decades "will bring more certainty and consistency" to the process.

He added: "It's currently taking far too long for applications to get through the system and it's in all our interests to make sure the planning system is resourced properly.

"We have much to do - from housing, to renewable energy, to regional development - and this legislation will be a real step change."

Tanaiste Micheal Martin said the bill will bring about fundamental planning improvements for the delivery of Housing For All and major infrastructure projects.
Calls for a prestigious Dublin school to apologise for employing a Nazi collaborator accused of violence against students is to be discussed at a board of management meeting this evening.

Former pupils of St Conleths College in Ballsbridge have told of how Louis Feutren, who taught French at the private school from 1957 until his retirement in 1985, was a violent man who would assault and intimidate them.

Feutren fled to Ireland in 1945 after being sentenced to death in France following the Second World War.

He was a member of a Breton nationalist group that rounded up Jews and resistance fighters for the Nazis.

But he found employment teaching French in St Conleths and lived in Bray. He died in 2009.

Louis Feutren

A campaign to have the board of management of the school apologise for having employed the ex -SS officer has been instigated by past pupil, writer, Uki Goni, who is the son of Argentinas ambassador to Ireland and who first attended the school in 1971.

He has said a lecture he gave at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York in 2017 is what instigated him seeking an apology.

In a letter to St Conleths on July 31 he said "physical and psychological abuse should have no place in a child's schooling and war criminals should not be allowed to head a classroom.

He also said educators must strive to be examples of integrity and children need to feel physically safe in their presence, not horrified by the educators heinous past or petrified with fear of corporal punishment.

Louis Feutren transgressed these rules. Far from providing a safe space, he used his classroom to unleash his baser instincts upon defenceless children, and far from being an example to emulate, he was a boastful, unrepentant and proud former officer in the most evil and tyrannical organization of the 20th century, the Nazi SS, he wrote.

Mr Goni has said in his letter that since his lecture in 2017 other former students had reached out to him or made online references detailing physical assaults by Feutren.

Described as a chain-smoker of French cigarettes, he said past pupils detailed how he would make students stand in front of his class and take off clothes they could not name in French.

Mr Goni stressed in his letter that he does not believe that St Conleths today should be judged for the deeds of its past.

The school acted within the context of its times, with a different yardstick than ours, and its actions back then do not reflect upon its current stewards.

"What St Conleths can do, however, is underline the distance it has travelled and apologize for actions that it played no part in but that were carried out under the name it still bears today, he said.

We cannot be judged for the behaviour of those who came before us, but that doesnt absolve us from distancing ourselves from that past today, he added.

St Conleths was not in a position to comment when contacted by the Irish Independent, but it is understood the letter seeking the apology is to be discussed at a meeting of the board of management this evening.
Protesters will be blocked from approaching politicians leaving Leinster House on Budget Day under new Garda plans to protect TDs.

A ring of steel will be erected around the national parliament to prevent a repeat of scenes on Kildare Street when the Dail returned last month.

Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail chaired a meeting of the Houses of the Commission on Monday which heard from senior Gardai who set out their policing plan for Budget Day.

The meeting was called amid concerns over Garda industrial action on Budget Day on October 10 which could impact on policing of Leinster House.

There are also concerns among politicians that aggressive protests involving far-right protesters could recur next Tuesday.

The new strategy will see barriers erected about 50 metres down Molesworth Street which leads on to Kildare Street.

This will mean protesters will not be able to prevent politicians, Oireachtas staff or members of the media coming or going into Leinster House on Budget Day.

Kildare Street will also be blocked off to protesters at the bottom of Nassau Street and St Stephens Green.

There will be further restrictions on the Merrion Square side of Leinster House aimed at preventing protesters from directly engaging with politicians when they leave their place of work.

The Budget policing plan will be implemented on a case-by-case basis on other days, meaning smaller protests which are deemed less dangerous will still be able to protest on Kildare Street.

However, if it is believed there is a potential threat to politicians, less access will be provided to protesters.

Details of the policing plan are to be sent to TDs and senators ahead of next weeks Budget.

Mr O Fearghail said the far-right protests on the first day of the Dails return were a rude awakening for everyone in Leinster House.

The protests gave impetus to introducing a new policing plan for protests and we have a very good relationship with gardai, he added.

Politicians were harassed and blocked from leaving Leinster House on the first day of the Dails return after the summer recess.

Gardai arrested 13 people outside the parliament due to the aggressive nature of the protests which saw protesters hurl abuse and throw objects at TDs.

Michael Healy Rae had to receive a garda escort while leaving Leinster House while his assistant had her phone stolen.
New citizien Eniola Oscar and her friend Lola Olawoyin at the citizenship ceremony in Dublin

Chelsea McGrane, from Kingswood in Dublin, helps Gokce Sonmez, originally from Turkey, at the citizenship ceremony at the Convention Centre, Dublin. Photo: Collins

Rosanna Lenane, originally from Brazil now living in Doolin, Co Clare, with daughter Ella

Chelsea McGrane, from Kingswood in Dublin, helps Gokce Sonmez, originally from Turkey, at the citizenship ceremony at the Convention Centre, Dublin. Photo: Collins

Benjamin Aniujbo with wife Happiness and two sons Jidechi (2) and Jachike (3) from Nigeria

Tears of joy were seen across the Convention Centre in Dublin on Monday following the naturalisation of over 3,000 new Irish citizens.

Three ceremonies saw applicants from 131 countries around the world, living in 32 counties in Ireland, being conferred as Irish citizens, after receiving their naturalisation certificates.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee warmly congratulated Irelands newest citizens and their family members in attendance on their momentous milestone day.

Today marks the end of one journey and the beginning of an exciting new one, she said.

Those words rang out as more than true for Eniola Oscar, who through tears of relief, joy and past pain, embraced her best friend, Lola, after the ceremony, saying: It has been a long time coming.

EnIola Oscar and Lola Olawoyin

Its just that relief that its over. My new life is finally starting, she told the Irish Independent, adding that she couldnt wait to hug her son Eden, who was watching on from the crowd.

Eniola arrived in Ireland through the UK, from Nigeria, over six years ago with her husband at the time.

She credited the Government in helping her, especially in obtaining a protection order. She is now separated and just bought a new home in Portlaoise, where she lives with her son.

Everything is working out for her now. She has been through a lot, Lola said.

One man, Olu Davis, arrived as an asylum seeker 14 years ago, following unrest in his native country Sierra Leone. Now working in the security sector for a company, Mr Davis described his path to Irish citizenship as a big journey.

I was waiting for five years, as my case was complicated, coming in as a minor. I now feel more integrated in the community, I feel more welcome, Ireland is my home now, the Dublin resident said.

Presiding Officer retired Bryan MacMahon administered the Declaration of Fidelity to the Irish Nation and Loyalty to the State from the 3,039 successful applicants, who can now apply for Irish passports.

One new Irish passport holder, Rka Nagy, from Budapest, Hungary, works for Google in Dublin.

Rka Nagy, from Budapest

I am here with my mom today. It means a lot. I knew from the moment I moved here that I wanted to be a citizen. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly. It has given me a second home, she said.

Benjamin Aniujbo was all smiles with his wife and two sons Jidechi (2) and Jachike (3) outside the National Convention Centre.

Now a nurse working in the health sector, Benjamin and his family moved from the UK to Ireland in 2017. We just got a mortgage and a new house and are living in Portlaoise. We love it there.

Benjamin Aniujbo with wife Happiness and two sons Jidechi (2) and Jachike (3) from Nigeria

Nigerian internationals made up the fifth biggest cohort of new citizens, with India, the UK, Brazil and Poland taking up the top four spots.

Mondays ceremonies follow three previous ones held in Killarney in July and two ceremonies held in the RDS in Dublin in March. In total, 11,000 people have now been conferred with citizenship this year.

Minister McEntee gave her best wishes to Irelands newest citizens and said: Active involvement in our local communities will ensure everyone has a voice and will help strengthen our democracy.

"I give my best wishes to our new citizens and to their families as they embark on the next steps of their lives in Ireland."
A teenager is to stand trial in the Central Criminal Court accused of sexually abusing a boy, aged around nine, in Dublin over a two-year period.

The youth (17) who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at the Dublin Children's Court facing ten charges: one count of sexual assault, three for aggravated sexual assault, and six for oral or anal rape.

The offences allegedly occurred from 2019 to 2021. Gardai commenced an investigation when a witness claimed he saw the accused with the victim and alerted his mother.

Judge Brendan Toale noted that all charges, except the sexual assault allegation, had to go forward to the Central Criminal Court automatically.

However, the teenager had a right to ask the Children's Court to accept jurisdiction and run a separate trial on the sexual assault charge.

The judge heard an outline of the evidence for that alleged offence.

Detective Garda Olivia Jones said that on a date late in 2021, a witness reported to gardai that he saw the accused, then 15, and the younger boy behind a wall.

He claimed to gardai that he saw the complainant on a chair with his trousers down, facing the wall with his bottom exposed.

They left, but the witness followed to report it to the child's mother and gardai conducted specialist interviews.

The court heard that it was alleged the younger boy told gardai that during the alleged sexual assault incident the teenager "put his willy in my hand".

The defendant's clothes were forensically examined. When questioned by gardai, the accused claimed the child's trousers fell, and he made denials.

The judge didn't have to hear evidence about the other charges, but the detective described the alleged sexual assault as "interconnected with the other incidents".

The accused had no prior criminal convictions.

At an earlier stage, the defence said the teenager was immature, had linked in with mental services, and had ongoing behavioural issues.

The preliminary hearing was also told that he had been affected by family problems and "behavioural issues manifested after that".

State solicitor Ana Bridgeman cited legal authorities with rulings that sequential trials shall not operate unless exceptional circumstances arise.

Judge Toale held that there should be one trial for all the charges in the Central Criminal Court.

A book of evidence was served on the teenager, and Judge Toale granted a return for trial order.

The boy's appearance date before the Central Criminal Court is yet to be set, but it will be in the coming months.

He remains on bail with conditions to stay out of parts of Dublin and to obey a curfew.

The boy, accompanied to court by his parents, was granted legal aid, including junior and senior counsel representation.

He and his parents were told to notify the State if he intended to use an alibi at his trial. Gardai were also ordered to furnish copies of interview videos to the teen's lawyers.
A leading Dublin restaurateur has denied allegations of racial discrimination and workplace rights breaches levelled by his former head chef  accusing the chef of having such a temper he considered calling gardai on Christmas Eve two years ago.

Kinsley Auguste has brought claims against Dillingers Restaurant Ltd in Ranelagh, Dublin 6, where he was head chef until February 2022, alleging excessive working hours, the failure to provide shift breaks or any premium pay for Sunday work.

Mr Auguste brought the claims under the Organisation of Working Time Act, the Payment of Wages Act, the Terms of Employment (Information) Act and the Employment Equality Act

The claims were denied by restaurateur John Farrell, who appeared as respondent-in-person when the Workplace Relations Commission opened a hearing into the statutory complaints yesterday.

Under oath, the men traded accusations about the running of the restaurant, the alleged attitude of its management towards non-Irish staff, and a Christmas Eve row in 2021 that ultimately led Mr Auguste to resign.

Mr Auguste explained that he had referred to family status in his discrimination complaint as well as race because understaffing in the restaurant meant the job was first thing in my life, ahead of his wife and two children.

The complainant said the executive chef at the restaurant group phoned him up at 6am on Christmas Eve 2021 telling him that he was to go to Dillingers to assist a manager drafted in from another group restaurant.

Both of the usual managers at Dillingers were out sick with Covid-19, and the government had ordered 8pm closure orders across the hospitality sector just days earlier.

Mr Auguste said that when he arrived at 7am, the manager was crying about phoning customers to cancel bookings and told him: I cant deal with Johnny.

With the prep done for that day, the restaurant was ready to go for service, but Mr Farrell arrived at 10.30am and wanted the menu changed, Mr Auguste said.

Me and Mr Farrell, we have a big clash, because he knew that the menu was set up that day was set up three or four weeks before, and he never said anything. Only half an hour before service, Mr Auguste said.

He said Mr Farrell was roaring at someone on the restaurant floor and the manager was saying she would not work at Dillingers.

Then he say, why that menu, we need to change that menu. Firstly they address that were overstaffed and he wanted me to send someone home. I say we are fully booked. Second issue we dont want that menu any more, we have to change the menu, then the argument starts, Mr Auguste said.

Then he sent me home and tells me I am suspended without any warning or anything. That ruined the whole day with my family. I will never forget that year, he said.

The [other] chef at the time was Mauritian as well, he wanted to walk off that day as well. Mr Farrell went out to offer a raise [to him] in front of me. Even he wanted to go home because what he seen on that day was unfair to me after five or six years working for Mr Farrell, Mr Auguste said.

Mr Farrell said it wouldnt be my recollection of events on the day in question.

"Theres a lot of people who would be able to clarify, numerous events, Kinsley would have got quite aggressive that morning, Mr Farrell said, adding that the references to the floor manager were quite confusing.

[Mr Auguste] started to bang things, scream and shout. I actually had to tell him to leave because his behaviour was so aggressive to the point that I was about to call the guards if he didnt stop. He went out and stood around in the laneway  at that point I told him to go home, he said.

Mr Farrell said Mr Auguste left with his daughter, who had also worked at the restaurant, and tried to get the chefs to leave with him.

That sounds like the end of the relationship, said adjudicating officer Catherine Byrne.

Mr Auguste, who had also included race as an alleged ground of discrimination, said members of management at the business would sit down and have a coffee with the front-of-house manager if they visited the restaurant but never say hi to kitchen staff.

They treat their own people in a better way than us foreigners, you know, he said.

I would disagree, obviously the [group] executive chef, hes from Mauritius, as well as Nadeem here, Mr Farrell said in response, referring to a chef, Nadeem Ramjahn, who had attended the hearing with him.

When I walk into the kitchen Id be saying hello to everyone. This comes from basically a very strong temper from Kinsley which would have flared up a few times, not being able to talk to him in a calm manner without him getting worked up, angry, Mr Farrell added.

On the pay and working hours complaints, the tribunal heard Mr Augustes contract made provision for shift work up to 48 hours per week, with the employers position being that the premium was provided for in the complainants 798-a-week pay.

Mr Auguste said he worked every Sunday with no exceptions as the restaurant stayed open Wednesday through Sunday, with Monday and Tuesday the only days off. He said his hours of work were more like 55 to 60 hours a week and that accordingly he had gone without pay as his contract only covered a shorter working week and he had not been given time off in lieu.

Denying the complaints, Mr Farrell said the head chef would have been in charge of the roster, in charge of his own days off.

Sunday would be a very busy day, part of what the restaurant is, and wed always pay a lot more over the minimum wage to factor in these things, he said.

Mr Farrell said the firm had signed copies of contracts issued in December 2016 and November 2017 but that Mr Auguste had refused to sign one given to him in January 2018 because he wouldnt want to have signed it.

He said this was a pattern as Mr Auguste had also refused to sign a written warning given to him by the companys operations manager.

Mr Auguste said he was served with the written warning over an inspection during the pandemic when the restaurant was down to just himself and another chef.

They tell me the place was not properly clean whatsoever, so thats why they wanted to give me a warning for that, Mr Auguste said.

We were doing the prep, the service ourselves and we were washing ourselves  even putting customers to sit outside the first time, still we didnt have any KPs [kitchen porters], we were doing everything ourselves.

Should I get any extra warnings for that six months when I have no-one, no KP there? he said.

Ms Byrne ended the hearing of the statutory complaints and asked the press to leave so that she could consider a further complaint under the Industrial Relations Act by Mr Auguste behind closed doors. Its understood a decision will be published on the statutory complaints in due course.
The famous Cliffs of Moher, are located close to Liscannor village in County Clare. They stretch for 8km 5 miles as the crow flies and reach 214m 702 feet at their highest point.

The number of visitors to Irelands leading attractions remains down 42pc compared to pre-Covid levels, according to the Association of Visitor Experiences and Attractions (AVEA).

More than 13.3m people enjoyed a visitor experience or attraction in Ireland in 2022, down from more than 22.9m people in 2019. The figures are based on an AVEA survey of the industry.

Popular attractions that are members of the AVEA include the Guinness Storehouse, Kylemore Abbey and the Cliffs of Moher.

AVEA chief executive Catherine Flanagan said: This shows that there is a recovery in progress, however, visitor numbers remain a long way off the peak of 2019.

She said the pandemic is somewhat in the rear view mirror but the war in Ukraine, the rising cost of living and impact of Brexit are among a variety of challenges in the industry.

The confluence of these challenges has created almost the perfect storm for what is Irelands largest regional employment sector, with one in ten people around the country working in the tourism industry, Ms Flanagan added.

Interim figures for this year show more than half of attractions in Ireland are yet to see their visitor numbers return to 2019 levels.

The survey revealed that 51pc of AVEA members said domestic visitor numbers are down, 61pc reported a decline in visitors from Northern Ireland and 59pc of members said visitor numbers from overseas are down.

Regional and rural attractions are worst impacted while attractions located in Dublin and other popular tourist areas, and those offering free admission reported growth in visitor numbers.

The survey also found that 29pc of AVEA attractions in Dublin earn less than 1m compared to 49pc of attractions outside the capital. Furthermore, 36pc of attractions in Dublin earn more than 2.5m  just 26pc of those outside Dublin earn that much.

Ms Flanagan said the cost of travel needs to be addressed to encourage more people to visit attractions.

Car hire and fuel prices were at some of the highest levels we have seen in Ireland during 2022 and that certainly would have had an impact in terms of urban and regional figures as we know that people would have taken the cost of travel to rural attractions in-particular when planning their tours, staycations and even daycations, she said.
Conde Nast Traveller has published the results of its Readers Choice Awards for 2023

Cork has been named the second-friendliest city in Europe by readers of Conde Nast Traveller.

The port town is even more friendly than the capital, according to our readers, the influential travel brand says.

This place has a big personality, an exciting culinary scene, plenty of coffee shops, galleries, museums, and an iconic food market.

The list of Europes friendliest cities is one of several categories in Conde Nasts Readers Choice Awards for 2023, which celebrate its readers favourite hotels, cruises, countries, cities, trains, airlines, spas, islands and more.

Siena in Italy, described as a pulsating city full of medieval buildings and lively cafe-culture, tops the list of Europes friendliest cities.

Europes 10 friendliest cities 2023

Siena, Italy Cork, Ireland Dublin, Ireland Helsinki, Finland Belgrade, Serbia Malaga, Spain San Sebastian, Spain Dubrovnik, Croatia Bucharest, Romania Ljubljana, Slovenia

Conde Nast Traveller's 2023 awards issue

Ireland is also named Europes friendliest country, and ninth-friendliest country in the world, in the 2023 awards.

Countless global reports have continually dubbed the people of Ireland as some of the friendliest and most welcoming to visitors in the world, and our readers feel the same, it says.

In a boost for a city that has struggled with negative narratives this summer, including high-profile assaults on tourists, Dublin ranks third on the list of Europes friendliest cities.

Dublin is at ease with revelry, Conde Nast says.

From curb-side fiddle-playing to lively nightlife that rages on into the early morning, Ireland's capital seamlessly combines its zest for life with nods to its radical history in the form of landmarks, museums, and the stories told by strangers-turned-friends met along the way.

Dublin also ranks at No. 5 on the Readers Choice list of Europes Best Cities and Ireland ranks ninth on the list of the Worlds Friendliest Countries, though no Irish city makes the global list for Best Cities - topped by Victoria in Canada.

Dublin's Ha'penny Bridge

The awards also see Adare Manor, Ashford Castle and The Europe among the hotels named on a list of Europes top 10 resorts.

This years awards saw more than half a million readers vote in polls jointly conducted by the US and UK editions of Conde Nast Traveller, the titles say.

As in previous years, winners reflect the ways its voters travel and the places they visit. They can also expose winners to valuable future visitors.

If 2022 was all about the return to travel, then 2023 was the year we recalibrated what was really important, the magazine said in unveiling the results.

Few seemed to have disappeared into the metaverse, preferring real life encounters ranging from off-grid wilderness escapes to well-connected urban luxe."

The full listings are in the November issue of Conde Nast Traveller, or online at cntraveller.com/readers-choice-awards.
I probably would remember nothing at all about the referendum which gave the nation the Court of Appeal, bringing on another layer of judges and legal eagles, without some wags ironic posting on social media at the time. This alleged that posters were appearing all across leafy south Dublin, where there are more lawyers per square inch than anywhere else in Ireland, urging voters to: Say Yes to the Court of Appeal and Job Creation.
US President Joe Biden Biden vows to help Kyiv after Republicans drop Ukraine aid from deal to keep US government open. Photo: Reuters

For the people of Ukraine, the invasion just over 18 months ago has been devastatingly traumatic and personal, but its consequences and reverberations are global. Ours is an interdependent world. When order is violently overturned for personal advantage, the international community has to stand against the aggressor.

Russian president Vladimir Putins shattering of half a century of peace in Europe, by waging war against a neighbour, has to be met with unanimous condemnation.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and his people must be given the means to defend and protect themselves from vicious military bombardment.

That is why it felt like such a betrayal when billions of dollars of funding for Ukraine were stripped away as a sop to hardline House Republicans, who want to cut off the embattled democracy.

After such heroic resistance, it seems particularly egregious that the country could fall victim to partisan US politics at such a critical time.

Ukraines war is a fight for shared values and freedoms, yet it is one they did not choose, it was thrust upon them. Their success or failure will have fallout for the rest of the world.

If Moscow gets away with bullying one neighbour, it is only a matter of time before the borders of other countries are threatened. The more Russias forces are degraded, the less risk they pose. US president Joe Biden has made it clear that he will continue to fund Kyiv, but concerns are growing that his job could become more difficult in the weeks ahead.

The extraordinary meeting of the, EU Foreign Affairs Council in Kyiv, which Tanaiste Micheal Martin attended, could not have come at a better time as a signal of support. We stand in solidarity with Ukraine and the European Union is unwavering in our commitment to supporting the Ukrainian people as they defend their homeland, Mr Martin said.

It is hard to imagine America might actually cut Ukraine adrift. The merest hint that such a possibility exists was pounced on by Moscow as evidence that the west is already wearying of assisting its wronged ally.

The potential loss of an ally in Slovakia following the election Robert Fico, a pro-Moscow and anti-Kyiv campaigner, is also a concern. Along with Hungarys Viktor Orban, it could mean there are now two countries prepared to block EU aid for Ukraine.

Moscow will take great comfort in seeing any kind of wobble in the unanimity of support for Ukraine.

The best hope of bringing this war to an end is in giving Ukraine the means to repel Russia.

The moral case for supporting Ukraine is clear, unprovoked aggression has to be resisted. But the material benefits are equally obvious.

However calamitous the costs of this invasion have been, should the war escalate and Russia get the upper hand, the consequences could be apocalyptic as more countries inevitably get sucked in.
A Dublin city councillor claims she was laughed at for suggesting mushroom farms and roller-skating rinks could replace busy city car parks.

Green Party representative Donna Cooney said the Dawson Street and Ilac car parks, currently being leased to Park Rite, could be transformed into more sustainable spaces.

Councillors approved a new five-year lease for both multi-storey blocks, which will secure roughly 1.85m-a-year in rent for the 360-space Dawson Street car park, and 1.78m-a-year for the 1,000-space Ilac centre facility.

Despite this, Cllr Cooney says shes not going to give up on her ideas to make Dublin city a more sustainable space.

There are so many options for the use of space, indoor markets, or temporary housing, she said.

I had Fine Gael laughing at me for speaking about the idea of mushroom farming. Ive reports saying urban farming is profitable in Holland.

They grow all sorts of vegetables to serve local restaurants and businesses, they could be selling that veg on Moore Street.

It doesnt make sense that were not looking for more sustainable ideas. We want to make this a better, liveable city.

A roller disco would be ideal. Weve had pop up roller discos that were successful. Its become quite popular, but we dont have anywhere people can go on a regular basis in the city centre.

Somewhere indoors would be great because of the weather, it wouldnt cost an awful lot. You could paint the walls with graffiti and street art.

I cant understand why they wont consider it. We need more indoor bike parking too. Im not going to give up.

The lease will be gone, but in the meantime, Im going to work on a plan and get a motion passed to see how they can be repurposed.

Ill invite people whove been involved with the urban farms in Holland and those whove been involved with roller-skating to help create a plan for the next council, she added.

Councillor Donna Cooney has called for more sustainable uses for city centre car parks

Cllr Cooney said that part of the car parks could be used to pilot the schemes. Despite both areas being busy shopping areas, she believes partly removing cars could be a positive step for climate change.

It may not be the whole car parking spaces; it could be parts of it to pilot it. When a lease comes up for renewal, I see it as a time where we can use that to bring about the changes we need, she said.

There are 1,000 parking spaces in the Ilac Centre, its pretty congested there. The amount of traffic pollution.

Weve people living in the city centre, they have asthma, theres vulnerable groups, theres children around. If 1,000 cars are going along there every day, is that sustainable?

The climate action plan is out for consultation at the moment. The city transport plan, theyre looking to reduce the number of private cars in the city, they want people to use a sustainable mode of transport.

The business community is looking for hubs for people to drop off last-minute deliveries. We dont have the spaces, so why dont they use this place thats owned by DCC?

Both places are in very busy shopping areas; they could drop their shopping there and then head out for the evening to a cultural event or the cinema, then have their shopping delivered to their home.

One of the reasons why people bring their cars is to get their shopping home but then theyre stuck in traffic jams.

Meanwhile, Social Democrats councillor Cat ODriscoll and the Green Partys Janet Horner suggested that the car parks should be used for bike parking.

Declan Meenagh from the Labour Party also suggested cultural uses for the car parks and has asked for the possibility of hosting evening events to be investigated.
Dublin City Council votes to cut rates by full 15pc, but opposition is on the rise

Some councillors believe the extra property tax revenue would lead to cleaner streets in the city centre. Pic: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Dublin City Council could see an increase in Local Property Tax (LPT) in coming years, according to one local councillor.

A motion was put forward to maintain the base rate of LPT and use the funds for extra cleaning of the capitals streets. However, it was defeated at a council meeting last night.

The annual LPT has a base rate which may be changed by local authorities, who can opt to increase or decrease it by up to 15pc each year.

At the meeting, 22 Dublin city councillors voted in favour of a motion to keep the base rate of tax for next year, while 35 voted against.

A separate motion was then passed that will keep the lowest possible rate of minus 15pc, as has been done in previous years.

Green Party Councillor Michael Pidgeon was one of those who voted against the cut. Instead, he wants the higher rate imposed.

Its frustrating. Its been five years now Ive been on the council and every year councillors voted to cut local property tax and cut funds for the city. I find it so frustrating, he said.

This year, weve had big problems with the city centre being a bit shabby and under loved. Council management came up with a really strong proactive plan.

They were going to hire about 100 people to clean the streets which would be a massive increase in the amount of people doing street cleaning work.

Councillor Michael Pidgeon was one of 22 to vote against reducing the LPT by 15pc

But this weird, unholy alliance of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, People Before Profit, Sinn Fein and some Independents say an LPT cut is needed for people who own homes. I thought it was mad.

I hope it changes after the next election because the city needs a lot. These problems need resources, and we keep shooting ourselves in the foot. I dont get it, he added.

Cllr Pidgeon believes the vote to increase the LPT is growing each year and he hopes that with a new council, the vote will pass in the future.

The extra funds of 14.5m wouldve been divided into 12m for works to improve public streets and 2.5m for the Area Discretionary Fund.

Im hopeful that this might be a change of thinking, but unfortunately, itll be after the council elections before we see any upgrade or ambition, he said.

It did get a little closer than it has in previous years. There were two Independent councillors who said the city needs street cleaning more than it needs a small tax cut, so they changed their vote this year.

None of us like paying tax, I get that. As a politician, Id love to be saying theres no tax. But the core thing is it wouldve brought in up to 15m-a-year.

We couldve put all of that into street improvement, its money that councillors could decide what to do with it, we could be using that for the political challenge of the day.

At the moment, I think adding a cleaner, safer city is the core need. In other years, we could use it for other needs.

I love Dublin and Id personally be happy to pay that if I could see a measurable difference in cleaner, safer streets. Youd feel the benefit from it.

I worked it out that most people would only pay 30 to 40-a-year, thats people who own their homes.

Wed love that bit of money, but I think most people would prefer a cleaner, better city. It works out at 3 to 4-a-week, Cllr Pidgeon added.
On Saturday, the Baile an Sceilg community hall hosted the presentation of a book written by the students of the three Gaeltacht schools, in cooperation with Fighting Words Ireland! Photo by Liam Joy

Its impossible to overestimate the positive effect that festivals such as Aon Sceal  held in recent days in the Glen and Ballinskelligs area, in celebration of local seanchai Sean O Conaill  have on the Irish language in the Uibh Rathach Gaeltacht region.

That was the view of locally based language-planning officer Victor Bayda, and although its almost 100 years since O Conaills death, his work is timeless and deserves to be celebrated again and again, he said. He praised Edel Ni Bhraonain and her fellow organisers for providing a platform to do just that.

This was the second running of Aon Sceal, and poetry, art, music, nature, and heritage abounded over a weekend rooted in the native language.

Victor said the success of this years event makes him confident that Aon Sceal is here to stay. The vast majority of events went ahead  only the weather could affect the schedule  and were very well attended, including some events that Victor did not expect big crowds at as they were held later in the evening. Indeed, several items on the schedule were packed out entirely.

This was the second year, last year being the first, so were very happy it has happened again, and it shows that the festival has the potential to be a permanent fixture, and we look forward to it coming around again next year and into the future, said Victor, who spoke to The Kerryman in Irish.

It is important to the region to celebrate O Conaill, as he is the most famous storyteller from Uibh Rathach, and his book is a textbook in university courses. Its an important book and hes an important figure to Uibh Rathach.

Its important to celebrate his literary artistry as thats important to what were doing in terms of language planning and language promotion.

Victor also pointed out that the Festival brings people to Uibh Rathach during an otherwise quiet time in the calendar. He added that Aon Sceal acts as an important networking opportunity, even introducing people from the Uibh Rathach region who also speak Irish. It adds to foundations laid by Februarys Eigse na Brideoige and language-promotion groups such as Comhchoiste Uibh Rathaigh and Bri Uibh Rathaigh in putting Irish front and centre.

Victor offered his thanks to everyone involved in the organising group, as well as everyone who supported the Festival in any way. He reserved particular praise for Edel.
Fine Gael members at loggerheads over running candidate in Tralee.

Fine Gael candidate Angie Baily has said she will not contest the Castleisland Municipal District Area and wants to be put on the Tralee ticket instead for the 2024 local election.

Less than four weeks after Ms Baily was selected by Fine Gael members to run alongside sitting Fine Gael Cllr Bobby OConnell, the Ballymacelligott woman feels she has a better chance of getting elected in Tralee.

Having assessed the political landscape, Ms Baily said four of the sitting councillors in the Castleisland MD are running again in 2024. However, four of the seven candidates that ran in 2019 in the Tralee MD are no longer running.

With Cllr Jim Finucane stepping down at the next election, Fine Gael has already declared Sinead Donnelly to run in Tralee.

But many associated with Fine Gael in Kerry feel Tralee is more than capable of returning two seats for the party.

Added to Ms Bailys concern is that she is a close neighbour of sitting Fianna Fail Cllr Fionnan Fitzgerald. She feels it would be counterproductive trying to source votes from the same location.

Cllr Bobby OConnell is also considered a strong Fine Gael vote-getter in Castleisland making the chances of securing two seats more difficult. Ms Baily stated she had informed the party of her preference to run in Tralee.

We looked at the figures and decided that, realistically, there is no seat for me here [Castleisland]. Also, why would you want to be running against your neighbour when the locals are very happy with him. Local politics goes beyond the party to what local people want, she said.

Ms Baily informed the Fine Gael party of her closer ties with Tralee. She explained that with one third of the Ballymacelligott electoral area in Tralee, it strengthens her view that she can get elected in the county capital.

You need to think of the needs of people in rural areas against urban areas. What do I have in common with farmers in say the Lyreacrompane and Knocknagoshel areas? Im not a farmer myself and you need to think about what services you can provide the people with, she added.

This did not come out of the blue post-convention. There were lots of phone calls and discussions within Fine Gael and among party members in Ballymac. They are all incredibly supportive to me. But they are of the belief that I have a better chance in Tralee. I would also be more suited to Tralee, Ms Baily said.

Fine Gael strategy personnel in Kerry have been informed of Ms Bailys preference. She will travel to Fine Gael HQ in Dublin to present her case.

Ms Baily teaches part-time in secondary school and is currently writing her PhD doctorate. She is Chairperson of the Parents Council in Mounthawk Secondary School and is on the Board of Management at her childs school in Ballymac.

Angie also volunteers with several local initiatives and is the secretary of the Kerry Chinese Language and Cultural Centre.
Dundalk-based creative design and branding agency

ZOMA, the Dundalk-based multi-award winning creative design and branding agency, is planning to create ten new jobs in the coming year, bringing its workforce up to eighteen.

The company made the announcement as it unveiled its new studio office space at Park Street in Dundalk town centre, following a major investment and over 18 months of planning and renovations

ZOMA acquired the property at 82 Park Street, next door to the former Dunnes Stores, in April 2022, and the impressive office redevelopment was carried out by Kieran Projects Ltd.

The building spans three floors, and has been transformed into a modern office building comprising of the ground floor featuring an open plan reception/foyer, large boardroom/meeting room with interactive AI meeting technology built in, breakout area and canteen. The first floor has an open plan office space catering for hot desking and hybrid working with capacity for up to 30 employees, break out private meeting space, employee canteen, and an open air astro mezzanine space for entertaining clients. Theres also a second floor featuring a state of the art podcast studio and office space for a further four employees.

David Kieran, Chris Brennan and Richard Naylor at the official opening of Zoma, Park Street, Dundalk. Photo: Aidan Dullaghan/Newspics

The brief from our side was very much about breaking the corporate mould, bringing the influence of graphic design, art and light into the space in a creative way that remains true to our brand identity, David Kieran, Founder and Managing Director of ZOMA explained. One of our values is unleashing wild ideas, and we are delighted to have our very own mural developed by Signs by Arter, a renowned street and mural artist, which highlights our creative edge and uniqueness within the industry.

"Our podcast studio also offers us and our clients the opportunity to create the highest quality of audio content, something which is now fundamental, such is the competition and mass of audio on the market.

The unveiling of the new office coincided with the announcement of 10 new roles at ZOMA in the coming year, joining the existing team of eight.

The new roles will all offer hybrid working options; but more and more were seeing our employees choose to come into the office and work side-by-side on projects," David said.

The roles will be in digital marketing, web design, graphic design, content creation, and sales.

"A unique approach to work-life balance helps our team flex their creative muscles which results in distinctive brands and ideas for our clients. Being active is one of our core beliefs which is why we have an active partner who helps set monthly fitness goals by providing training and nutrition plans for all employees to optimise our creativity levels.

Founded in 2016, ZOMAs team of creative experts specialise in cutting edge web design, content creation and digital marketing solutions; working across a range of industries including corporate, health and wellness, fashion, food and hospitality, tourism, sport and events, construction, property, agriculture, medical, and manufacturing.

ZOMA is part of Enterprise Irelands Digital Marketing Unit; and in 2022 secured 655,000 grant funding for clients to develop their digital marketing activities through the Digital Marketing Capability Grant and Online Retail Schemes. In 2023, their clients accounted for over 10% of the total funding for the Online Retail Scheme.

ZOMA is one of the leading Shopify partners and only official Wix partner in Ireland; official Google Partner; Business All-Star accredited and recipient of the Business All-Star One to Watch Award; SFA member; and recent winner of the National Workplace Wellbeing Award at the SFA Awards and Best Place to Work Award at Louth Business Awards.

Their clients have won multiple website and e-commerce awards; and ZOMA is currently shortlisted for two awards at this year's Louth Business Awards.

For more information about the new positions at ZOMA visit www.ZOMA.ie/careers.
A meeting between the HSE and community representatives is set for Friday amid concerns that Lahardane will be permanently left without a GP for the first time in 100 years.

There are fears that over 1,100 patients in Lahardane will have to travel at least 10 kilometres to Crossmolina to avail of a GP service as the area is now without a permanent doctor.

The previous GP, Dr Enda Loftus, has left the practice to take up a vacant position in a two doctor practice in Crossmolina.

Despite the Lahardane position being advertised on two occasions, the HSE has been unable to fill the vacancy.

The issue, which has caused major upset in the community, has been subject to numerous community meetings and over 100 people took part in a protest outside the practice yesterday.

It has now been confirmed that a delegation from the Lahardane community and elected representatives will meet the HSE at the Primary Care Centre in Claremorris on Friday at 10am.

The Rural Ireland Organisation will be in attendance at the meeting having spearheaded the campaign since the concerns first arose around three months ago.

Group Leader Gerry Loftus said the situation is catastrophic and if a replacement is not found there will be over 3,000 patients from across the two areas depending on just one permanent GP.

"We have a situation where there is 1,100 medical card holders and around 700 or 800 private patients in Lahardane while in Crossmolina there is another 980 medical card patients and a further 500 or 600 private patients with just one GP to care for them.

"It is catastrophic and dangerous.

"As things stand, the meeting was confirmed yesterday evening and it is critically important but we see it as positive sign that the HSE has agreed to meet us, said Mr Loftus.

The current situation is causing stress among local residents particularly the elderly and those with young children as they are concerned about the level of healthcare in the area.

Mr Loftus said it is simply unacceptable for the area to be left without a GP.

"Some elderly patients are very upset and not sleeping at night because they felt they had security with a doctor in the local village while there are also families with young children or are caring for someone who is sick need to be near a GP.

"If we are going to go down the road of primary care centres in towns, which we have no problem with, we do have to consider vast areas of country Ireland being left without a GP.

"People cannot be expected to travel 20 or 30 miles to a GP service  that is absolutely out of the question, he said.

All four Mayo TDs have been invited to attend Friday's meeting.

Mayo TD Alan Dillon believes there are critical steps that need to be taken by the HSE including the immediate appointment of a locum doctor as an interim solution.

"The priority will be to ensure the evaluation of the GP interested in the Lahardane position is accelerated and determined quickly.

"We also need to establish clearer communication channels to keep the public and the stakeholders informed by the HSE with the steps that have been taken to resolve this issue.

"The HSE has certainly dropped the ball in this regard, he said.
Picture shows barristers on the steps of Sligo Courthouse on Tuesday with solicitors who are also demanding a reversal in legal aid cuts. Photo Brian Farrell.

A sitting of the Circuit Court in Sligo did not go ahead on Tuesday due to the withdrawal of services by criminal barristers who were also supported by solicitors in a dispute over legal aid cuts.

The one day strike meant the Circuit Court will only sit for three days this week. The nationwide withdrawal of services was recommended by The Bar of Ireland to criminal law practitioners and was also backed by solicitors.

Fees for criminal barristers remain below 2002 levels in nominal terms, following a range of cuts applied during the financial emergency. In 2008 the Government also unilaterally broke the link between fees paid to barristers with increases applied under public sector pay agreements.

Barristers have suffered a pay cut in real terms of more than 40% over the past twenty years while every other group of workers in the criminal justice system has seen pay restoration implemented.

This is despite a range of additional reforms and changed practices being delivered by barristers.

The one-day withdrawal of services has been recommended in pursuit of a mechanism to determine the fees payable to barristers by the Director of Public Prosecutions and under the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) scheme.

The Bar of Ireland is the representative body for the barristers profession in Ireland and has a current membership of approximately 2,150 practising barristers.State Prosecutor in Sligo, Mr Leo Mulrooney BL said the Bar was calling for a meaningful and time limited mechanism to determine the fees that are payable to barristers practising criminal law.

He said: Like most public sector workers the pay rates for criminal prosecutors were reduced by 8% in 2009, another 8% in 2010 and further 11% in 2011. Also, in contrast to the rest of the public sector, none of these cuts have been restored.

The Bar Council has been in touch with the government for a number of years and drawing to their attention that these cuts are having real consequences for the Criminal justice system.

At the bottom level the profession has become very unattractive to newly qualified barristers, while two-thirds of the criminal law practitioners leave the criminal bar after six years of practice. So it threatens the future pipeline of criminal advocacy specialists.

On the top level the senior counsels often decide not to continue with the criminal law once they become senior.

So, last year the Director of Public Prosecutions had to run two trials that were prosecuted by Junior Counsels while in general there would have been Senior Counsels for such cases.

So these cuts are really weakening our criminal justice system.

While the government has never opposed the restoration of pay, there has been no action taken. Justice Minister Helen McEntee has spoken in support of the reversal of pay cuts with the matter likely to be addressed in next weeks Budget.

Mr Mulrooney said: Despite the ministers support and continued engagement with the government, there have been no progress. We have now lost confidence in the governments commitment to the preservation of the highest standards in the administration of justice.

The one day withdrawal of services affected some 1,200 criminal cases around the country.

Members of the Bar withdraw services at 13 courthouses where cases were listed for Tuesday: the Criminal Courts of Justice in Sligo, Longford, Monaghan, Trim, Cork, Castlebar, Dublin, Dundalk, Naas, Nenagh, Limerick, Waterford and Wexford.

Mr Mulrooney said: We had never complained about the pay cuts during the need of the hour, but the complaint now is that unlike rest of the public sector, they have not been reversed for us.

This one-day withdrawal of service has been recommended in pursuit of a mechanism to determine the fees payable to barristers by the Director of Public Prosecutions and under the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) scheme.
Kieran Quinns theme nights are back, and are among the highlights on the events calendar in Sligo for the coming week.

Check out The Sligo Champions pick of the top things to do in Sligo this week.

KIERAN QUINN THEME NIGHTS

Kieran Quinn returns to the Hawks Well this week for a 32nd Theme Night celebrating The Power of Love. Kieran, as always, will collaborate with our huge community of wonderful musicians to bring together an entertaining, energetic and fun show. The shows take place from Wednesday until Saturday, October 7th.

GREENBIRDFLYING

GreenBirdFlying are proud to present their first album. Following a successful launch in The Dock Arts Centre in Carrick on Shannon they are bringing the show to Sligo to the beautiful Yeats Building and its iconic front room. Please join them for a memorable night with great music, beautiful songs and wonderful poetry at the Yeats Building on Saturday, October 7th.

FAITH HEALER

London Classic Theatre present Brian Friels masterpiece Faith Healer coming to the Hawks Well Theatre on Tuesday October 10th, 8pm. Using four enthralling monologues to interweave the stories of these three intriguing characters, Friel takes us on an extraordinary journey of shifting perspectives and uncertain memories.

MATT KEANE

See Matt Keane in concert with Maria Fahy & Colm Naughton on Saturday, October 7th in the Coleman Music Centre in Gurteen. Admission is 15. This group has been entertaining crowds all over Ireland with a mix of traditional, folk, country, rock n roll and anything else that pleases the crowd. Visit the website www.colemanirishmusic.com or call the ticket line 071 9182599.

AN INDIE AFTERNOON

Come to the Hawks Well on Sunday 8th October for free event, An Indie Afternoon with Lepus Print. Lepus Print is an independent publisher based in the northwest committed to connecting with readers in creative ways. To celebrate the launch of two new titles, Love These Days and Sparks from the Flagstones: Irish Folk Traditions & Calendar Customs, Lepus Print welcomes everyone to our third Indie Afternoon with the Hawks Well Theatre for a free event.

SANDY KELLY

Sandy Kelly will celebrate the release of her new album Leaving It All Behind with a special concert at The Sligo Park Hotel on Sunday, October 8th. Special Guests include Philomena Begley, Mike Hanrahan, Louise Morrissey, Margo, Mick Foster, Moyra Fraser, Marc Roberts plus full live band.

GRANGE 10KM

The Grange 10k takes place on Sunday October 8th, at 11am. The race takes place at the Sport Complex, Grange. Walkers are welcome, and will start at 10.30am. More details available on northsligoac.ie.

CREEPSKY MAKERS LAB

Ahead of the Easkey Scarecrow Festival, organisers will host a special scarecrow making workshop for the community to get involved. Taking place on Saturday, October 7th in Easkey Parish Room, artists Catherine Gannon and Derek McLoughlin will be on hand to help everyone develop ideas.

REGINALD D HUNTER

In these supercharged socio-political times the challenge is more and more becoming separating whats true and whats real. Lucille Hunter proudly proclaimed Its easy to see through shit, the hard part is pretending you havent. Join Reginald D. Hunter for an hour of exploring this phenomena in this progressive work in a pre-next-variant world at Andersons, Sligo on Sunday, October 8th.

ASSEMBLED MEMORIES

Jack Butler Yeats Assembled Memories is now open at The Model. Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957) is one of Irelands most acclaimed 20th century artists. The Niland Collection, housed at The Model, comprises a large holding of his work across the many phases of his career - from early pen and ink illustrations, through his water colour period (1898-1910), to his work from the 1920s onwards, which is executed primarily in oil paints.
Santina Kennedy, Paul Smith and Eleanor McGillie at the launch of the October Feast in Powerscourt Distillery.

Gerry Ginty and Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh at the launch of the October Feast in Powerscourt Distillery.

Simon and Summer Black at the launch of the October Feast in Powerscourt Distillery.

Sara Abdul, Sian Conway and Shamim De Brun at the launch of the October Feast in Powerscourt Distillery.

Evan Van Der Burgh, Leon Sutton and Callum Van Der Bergh at the launch of the October Feast in Powerscourt Distillery.

Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council Aoife Flynn Kennedy, East Coast FM broadcaster Declan Meehan and Chef Tadgh Byrne at the launch of the October Feast in Powerscourt Distillery.

Cathy McHugh at the launch of the October Feast in Powerscourt Distillery.

Kimberly Kelly, Oisin Davis and Valarie O'Toole at the launch of the October Feast in Powerscourt Distillery.

Helen Goldin, actor Patrick Bergin and Sarah Slazenger at the launch of the October Feast in Powerscourt Distillery. Photos: Mick Kelly.

Actor Patrick Bergin was among the special guests at the launch of October Feast at The Powerscourt Distillery, with this years theme being Film and Food in Wicklow.

The theme was chosen to celebrate not only the diversity and abundance of filmmaking in Wicklow, but also the diversity and abundance of food and drink  from farming to foraging, innovative food production, brewing, winemaking, beekeeping and distilling. Wicklow Naturally, the food and drink network of County Wicklow, came on board for the launch on last week.

Guests, including food writers and those from the film industry, were treated to a welcome cocktail and mocktail and a selection of canapes from the newly launched Pintxo Bar, at The Powerscourt Distillery. A Viking-themed lunch by Wicklow Chef Tadgh Byrne included Kilmullen Farm Lamb and Ballyhubbock  Ewelloumi, along with vegetables from An Tairseach Organic Farm.

A Disenchanted-themed dessert trolley offered the superb Basque cheesecake, from Bray-based Coconut and MooMoo.

Discussion panels about the Wicklow film and food industry were hosted by food journalist Dee Laffan and Clint Drieberg of Radio Nova. The conversations included entertaining input from guests in the audience, including Sarah Slazenger of Powerscourt Estate, John Powderly, Film Commissioner at Wicklow County Council, Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh of the Irish Costume Archive Project, and John OBrien of Enniskerry Antiques, who has provided food props for many movies.

Guests were delighted to hear from special guest, actor Patrick Bergin, who talked about making movies in Wicklow and beyond.

Costumes from the Irish Costume Archive Project were on display for the event, including some from Wicklow-based productions such as The Tudors, Penny Dreadful and Vikings.

Santina Kennedy, who coordinated the event for Wicklow Naturally, said it was a wonderful opportunity to showcase the food and drink of Wicklow to a new audience.

She said that themed events are an excellent way to introduce people to our locally produced food and drink in a fun and informative way and hopes it has highlighted not only the creativity and opportunity in Wicklows film and screen industry, but the innovation and talent in the thriving food and beverage industry in Wicklow also.

Further information on the events for OctoberFeast, which are being curated in collaboration with Oisin Davis and Dee Laffan of Great Irish Beverages, can be found on Wicklownaturally.ie, including details of its showcase event at The BrookLodge, Macreddin on Saturday October 14.

Paul Smith, coordinator of Wicklow Naturally thanked the Department of Agriculture for supporting the events through its RIDF grant scheme.
Greystones Councillor Derek Mitchell has raised concerns over The All-Island Strategic Rail Review (AISRR), which he said has ignored major improvements required to the Wicklow Rail Service, including the DART.

The AISSRR has been jointly commissioned by the Department of Transport in Ireland and the Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland. Once finalised, the review will inform the future development of the railway system across the island of Ireland to 2050, in line with net-zero emissions commitments in both jurisdictions.

It has examined how the islands railways are currently used, what role rail could play in the future and how the islands railway could better serve the people of both jurisdictions. It also focused on how the rail network across the island could contribute to the decarbonisation of the islands transport system, promote sustainable connectivity into and between major cities, enhance regional accessibility and support balanced regional development.

Some 30 recommendations have been put forward to achieve these goals. The review was launched in April 2021 and public consultation has now closed.

In a submission to the Department of Transport, Cllr Mitchell said: I have made a submission demanding improvements as the Wicklow Rail line has the worst service and is the only single track one in the Greater Dublin Area. The Council has also made a submission of similar points following my request. I hope the strategy is improved as the population is expanding rapidly, he said.

"My 2018 rail plan provided a 3km double tracking north of Greystones allowing 50 per cent more trains. This was validated by a Jacobs Study and I thought included in the DART+ plan. Also it provided more direct trains to Kilcoole and Wicklow Town, which probably needs passing loops. The Sstrategic Study seems to reject this as they are not mentioned.

The service to Kilcoole and Wicklow Town has only two trains at rush hour, both short. The draft Strategy says the direct commuter services will be replaced in the long term by an hourly shuttle from Wexford to Greystones. It says that passing loops were considered but rejected.

Cllr Mitchell highlighted the 30 billion budget of which none is being proposed for Wicklow.

My belief, and that of Fine Gael, is that providing better public transport is the way to reduce car commuting. I call for the Wicklow Rail improvements to be included in the strategy and implemented.

Outlining his concerns, Cllr Mitchell said that the long-term plan is to replace the existing Dublin-Rosslare service with an hourly Greystones-Wexford service; while in the interim, an hourly shuttle service from Wexford to Greystones [is envisaged] while maintaining todays direct Dublin Commuter Services.

However, there is no provision for double tracking or passing loops from Bray to Wexford that would apper to facilitate this.

"Various maps show speed improvements, double tracking, passing loops and new lines all over the country but none shown for Dublin to Wicklow, he has pointed out.

On the Greystones DART service, Cllr Mitchell said it is the only single track section on the DART anywhere.

In order to increase frequency from 30 minutes to 20 minutes it needs to be partially double tracked as detailed in my Plan of 2018 and confirmed by the 2019 Jacobs Study. As detailed and modelled it allows the increase without tunnelling but needs 3.4km of double tracking (2.4 South of the tunnel and 1 km in Bray Station).

He added that was planned as part of DART+ but is omitted in the review.

Cllr Mitchell also criticised the present service from Kilcoole, Wicklow and further south, with just two rush-hour, four-carriage trains the worst in the Greater Dublin Area.

"The population of Wicklows rail area is expanding rapidly. Greystones is increasing by 22 per cent to 22,009 from the 2016 to the 2022 Census. This is likely to grow to 26,000 by 2028, a 44 per cent increase on 2016. Wicklow Town District also grew in that period, by 15.5 per cent. As commuter towns, this places much load on the N11 and it is important to improve the rail service to reduce traffic. In contrast Dublin City only grew at 5 per cent, so the need for transport improvement is in the growth areas such as Wicklow, he concluded.
Presenter says she is learning Pilates in an effort to build up her strength

"Obsessed with Pilates and how it makes me feel," Laura Whitmore posted on social media. Photo: Getty

Broadcaster Laura Whitmore has said she is working on getting strong because carrying her young daughter around has "broken" her.

The Dublin-born TV star (38) welcomed her first child with husband Iain Stirling in 2021.

The couple are very careful to shield their little one, now two, from the public eye and never share photographs of her face.

However, Whitmore has previously hinted at her name, when she shared a photo of one of her jackets with the name Stevie Re emblazoned across the back.

Whitmore, the former host of Love Island, revealed that carrying the toddler around is having a detrimental effect on her body, and said she is learning Pilates in an effort to build up her strength.

Sharing a video to her Instagram story as she walked to the studio in north London, she said: "I'm off to reformer Pilates because I'm getting strong."

Referring to the pink cup she was holding in her hand, she added: "Also this is a cup for keeping wine cold and I'm drinking coffee out of it, who am I?"

She also shared a video of herself on the reformer being put through her paces by an instructor and wrote: "Working on strength at the moment as carrying a toddler has broken me!

"Obsessed with Pilates and how it makes me feel."

Reformer Pilates, which can also take place on a mat, uses a reformer machine, a frame with a platform on wheels that roll up and down as you perform exercises.

The machines also have bands that you can attach to your feet or hands to stretch and elongate as you exercise.

This type of low-resistance exercise is considered to be particularly beneficial if you are recovering from an injury or want to isolate and strengthen particular muscles.
Armenia votes to join International Criminal Court, straining ties with ally Moscow

Move follows Russia failure to halt annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan

Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh sit after arriving in Armenia after fleeing their homes. Photo: Vasily Krestyaninov

Avet Demourian Tue 3 Oct 2023 at 16:21







Armenia's parliament voted today to join the International Criminal Court in a move that further strains the country's frayed ties with its old ally Russia.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and Italys Premier Giorgia Meloni visit the island of Lampedusa (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)

Italy is on track to receive the biggest number of migrant arrivals since 2016 this year, a phenomenon that will likely keep dominating the agenda of Giorgia Melonis right-wing government.

More than 133,220 people have made the journey across the Mediterranean by boat since the start of this year through September 30, according to UNHCR data released yesterday, helped by unseasonably mild weather.
India expels 41 Canadian diplomats as crisis over assassination grows

Trudeau claims India was involved in the killing of Sikh separatist leader in Canada

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) shakes hand with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of the G20 Leaders' Summit in New Delhi last month. Photo: Evan Vucci

Rob Gillies Tue 3 Oct 2023 at 14:33







India has told Canada to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country, ramping up a confrontation between the two countries over Canadian accusations that India may have been involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in suburban Vancouver.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall joined 23 other states in a letter to Pornhubs parent company with concerns over content featuring children.

The letter comes after an employee for the company was apparently captured on video by an undercover journalist discussing Pornhubs moderation practices and discussing a loophole.

According to the employee, when users upload content to the site, they are required to submit a photo ID, but are not required to show his or her face in the material uploaded. The employee states there is no way to confirm the person uploading the photo ID is the same person in the content. When asked if rapists and human traffickers use this loophole to upload content of their victims to make money, he replies, Of course.

The attorneys general, in their letter, state, As you are aware, various Federal and state laws forbid the creation and distribution of CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material). We are concerned that Aylo and its subsidiary Pornhub, and possibly other subsidiaries, may be proliferating the production and dissemination of CSAM through the loophole identified by your employee. Please provide us with an explanation of this loophole; whether Aylo and its subsidiaries do, in fact, permit content creators and performers to obscure their faces in uploaded content; and, if so, whether Aylo is taking measures to change this policy to ensure that no children or other victims are being abused for profit on any of its platforms.

Alabama is joined by Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming on the South Carolina-led letter.
The former CEO of fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch and his partner face a potential sex trafficking investigation after they were accused of exploiting young men for sex at lavish events the couple hosted in America and around the world.
Keeping it in the family: Trumps adult children in the spotlight as they prepare to testify in New York court
Pakistan on Tuesday ordered all illegal immigrants, including 1.73 million Afghan nationals, to leave the country or face expulsion after revealing that 14 of 24 suicide bombings in the country this year were carried out by Afghan nationals.
Pavel Prigozhin (25) was in talks with the Russian National Guard over the future of the mercenary group founded by his father, Yevgeny (above). Photo: Getty

Yevgeny Prigozhins son has reportedly taken over command of the Wagner Group and is negotiating with Moscow on returning its fighters to the war in Ukraine, leading military analysts have said.
Former police officer Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherizier, leader of the 'G9' coalition, leads a march surrounded by his security against Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry, in Port-au-Prince, in recent weeks. Photo: REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol.

The United Nations Security Council on Monday authorised a foreign security mission to Haiti, a year after the Caribbean country asked for help to fight violent gangs that have largely overrun its capital Port-au-Prince.

"More than just a simple vote, this is in fact an expression of solidarity with a population in distress," Haiti's Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus told the council. "It's a glimmer of hope for the people that have for too long been suffering."
Photo courtesy: UNI

Jagdalpur/UNI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit this divisional headquarters of left-wing extremism-affected Bastar in poll-bound Chhattisgarh on Tuesday.

Modi will be protected by no less than six layers of security, involving more than 20 gazetted officers and in excess of 2,000 personnel plus drones, at Lalbagh Maidan, which is the venue of his public meeting.

Meanwhile, the states ruling Congress has supported a bandh called in protest against the Prime Ministers sojourn.

"Senior officers are supervising personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force, including its Commando Battalion for Resolute Action, female commandos, and Border Security Force, besides local law enforcement, Superintendent of Police Jitendra Singh Meena said.

The innermost ring will comprise Special Protection Group bodyguards, then, moving outwards in concentric circles, SPG commandos, National Security Guard commandos, CRPF, the district force, whose members shall line the streets from the airport to Lalbagh, and the outermost layer will cordon off the entire town.

In the words of Inspector General (Bastar Range) Sundarraj Pattilingam, For the past couple of days, searching has been ramped up in sensitive areas. Every district of this division is being searched, and vehicles are vigorously checked at borders. We are leaving no stone unturned.
Abhishek Banerjee protesting in Delhi along with his party MPs | Photo courtesy: X/@AITCofficial

Kolkata/IBNS: Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday skipped the Enforcement Directorate (ED)'s summons in the teachers' recruitment scam case that has kept the West Bengal politics on boil.

Abhishek, a Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal's Diamond Harbour constituency, is presently in Delhi with other parliamentarians of his party and ministers from the state to protest against the Centre's withholding of the MGNREGA funds.

Calcutta High Court judge Amrita Sinha had directed the ED to ensure Banerjee appears before it. If he skips, the central probe agency can take any step, Justice Amrita Sinha had said.

Meanwhile, Abhishek on Tuesday moved the division bench of Calcutta High Court seeking an explanation of Justice Sinha's order.

The TMC MP has also appealed to allow him to skip the summons on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Abhishek's mother Lata Banerjee and father Amit Banerjee have also been summoned by ED on October 6 and 7 respectively in connection with teachers' recruitment scam.

Amit and Lata Banerjee, his parents, serve as directors of Leaps and Bounds Pvt Ltd, which is presently under ED scrutiny. Established in 2012, the company operates in the Food and Beverages sector in Kolkata, according to an India Today report.

Abhishek was a director in the company from April 2012 to January 2014 and is still listed as the CEO, it said.

The ED has previously stated that numerous suspicious financial transactions were conducted through this company.

In connection with the matter, the former COO of Leaps and Bounds Pvt Ltd, Sujay Krishna Bhadra, has also been arrested. Bhadra is known to have close ties with the Banerjee family, and his arrest has added further intensity to the investigation into the company's activities, according to the report.

Abhishek Banerjee faced questioning by the ED for nearly nine hours on September 13. He asserted that this inquiry was an attempt to hinder his participation in the opposition alliance INDIA meeting.
An 11-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by an 80-year-old man in Marka area of Banda district in Uttar Pradesh, a police officer said on Tuesday.

Circle Officer (CO) Baberu Rakesh Kumar Singh said that the incident took place late on Monday evening when the victim had gone to get milk from a dairy.

"Finding the girl alone, dairy owner Krishna Bihari Tripathi sexually assaulted her," he said.

He said that by the time the neighbours could reach the spot after hearing the cries of the girl, the accused had fled from the spot.

"A case was lodged, and the victim was sent for medical examination. The matter is being investigated, and legal action will be taken against the accused on the basis of facts," he said.

(With UNI inputs)
Wallace Community College-Dothan is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Auburn University College of Agriculture (AUOCA) to provide a smoother transfer process for WCCD students who meet the requirements for bachelors programs at AUCOA.

Due to this agreement, Wallace will also introduce five new courses for the program with the plan to expand offerings as the student population grows. These classes would include courses in animal dairy sciences, horticulture, and plant propagation. These classes are slated to begin next fall.

Several community partners have aided WCCD in the development of these courses. WCCD will partner with extension agents at the Wiregrass Extension Center to utilize its facilities as outdoor classrooms.

SunSouth of Dothan has offered to provide professional development opportunities to students where possible, and the Headland Chamber of Commerce played an crucial role in the creation of these courses by assisting WCCD in connecting with community partners.

WCCD is excited to sign this memorandum of understanding with AUCOA and provide our students with a seamless pathway to a promising future in agriculture, Dr. Linda Young, WCCD president, said in a press release. As those of us who live and work in the Wiregrass area know, agriculture is not just a source of industry, it is a way of life. We are proud to contribute to the advancement of agriculture within our community and grateful to the community partners aiding us in that endeavor.

AUCOA is pleased to be partnering with WCCD, Dr. Amy Wright, AUCOA associate dean for instruction, said. We have a broad range of exciting majors in the College of Agriculture, and we are excited to work together with Wallace in this capacity.

The collaboration between WCCD, AUCOA, the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, and the Wiregrass Research and Extension Center enables students from across the Wiregrass to achieve their goals for a successful future, Jimmy Jones, Alabama Cooperative Extension System Henry County extension coordinator, added.

A formal signing ceremony between the two institutions will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 11, at 2 p.m. on the Wallace campus in Dothan
PM Modi in Telangana rally/ courtesy: BJP X page

Nizamabad/IBNS: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his address at a public rally here on Tuesday evening dropped a bombshell stating that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao came to New Delhi and told him that Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) wanted to join the BJP-led NDA at the Centre but he (PM Modi) turned down his proposal.

PM Modi said KCR is maintaining distance with him after he told him that 'we won't cheat people of Telangana by having a BJP-BRS alliance.

"There's a reason KCR doesn't look me in the eye. I did not agree to KCRs request for him to join the NDA in exchange for BJP's support in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. There's no question of supporting BRS," he said.

"I also warned the Chief Minister against passing the baton to his son KTR, who is a Minister in his Cabinet. After all, we are a democracy, not a monarchy," the PM said, whose party has always banked on anti-dynasty politics.

PM Modi exposes KCR during the Public Meeting in Nizamabad, Telangana!



Watch the complete Public Meeting: https://t.co/iyXeuCMIli pic.twitter.com/18vV4o6IiS  BJP (@BJP4India) October 3, 2023

PM Modi said KCR came to the National Capital after the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Election and met him and said he needed BJP support as no one secured a majority. In the election, BJP won 48 wards, BRS 56 wards out of the total 150 wards and no one got a majority.

He said the BJP will not join hands with BRS and it will sit in the opposition in the Corporation.

The PM went on to say that KCR used to receive him at airports when he paid a visit to Hyderabad and grant him courtesy and respect but he stopped doing so after he was not allowed to join the NDA.

He appealed to mothers and sisters to bless the BJP and vote for the lotus symbol in the Assembly election to be held in a couple of months from now.

He attacked BRS by saying it is indulging in corruption.

The Prime Minister alleged that BRS helped Congress to win in Karnataka, and now the grand old party would return the favour in poll-bound Telangana.

In a scathing attack on the Congress, PM Modi said, "My sisters from Telangana have been part of a big revolution, created history. A few days ago the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam bill was passed in Parliament. Congress and its INDIA alliance - this 'ghamandiya' alliance- had stalled this bill for the last 30 years."

Even today, Congress and BRS are betraying the people of Telangana. In many states, Congress made big promises, and now they are keeping conditions to fulfil those promises...



The BRS made a false promise to give allowance to the unemployed youth...They both are the same.



- PM pic.twitter.com/UU8JkNbaQW  BJP (@BJP4India) October 3, 2023

"Due to the collective power of women, this alliance has to support the passing of this bill," he added.

[With UNI inputs]
Videograb of Prabir Purkayastha speaking at an even of NewsClick

New Delhi: Journalist and NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha has been arrested under the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, days after a report published in the New York Times alleged that the news portal had received funding from a network pushing Chinese propaganda.

HR head of the news portal, Amit Chakravarty, has also been arrested.

Earlier in the day, searches at the homes of journalists linked with NewsClick were carried out at 20-odd locations across Delhi-NCR and Mumbai.

The raids prompted protests from the opposition, with some calling it a "crackdown on press freedom".

According to the Delhi Police, NewsClick allegedly received nearly Rs. 38 crore from entities with alleged links to China, and the funds were used to influence pro-China content on the website.

Hours after the raids, the Editors Guild of India, the non-profit organisation of journalists, urged the Centre to follow due process, and not make draconian criminal laws "as tools for press intimidation".

"EGI is concerned that these raids are yet another attempt to muzzle the media. While we recognise that the law must take its course if actual offences are involved, the due process has to be followed. The investigation of specific offences must not create a general atmosphere of intimidation under the shadow of draconian laws, or impinge on the freedom of expression and the raising of dissenting and critical voices," the Editors Guild said in a statement.
In image screengrabs of videos showing TMC MPS-Abhishek, Mahua being dragged/courtesy: TMC

New Delhi/IBNS: Trinamool Congress MPs Abhishek Banerjee and Mahua Moitra Tuesday alleged that they along with some other leaders from her party were "manhandled and mercilessly dragged" away by cops on Day 2 of their protest in Delhi over the release of central funds.

The Trinamool Congress, which was holding a dharna at the Union Rural Development Ministry, claimed that the Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti refused to meet them saying she would not meet more than five representatives.

"Today 02:30 hours was wasted. I left the office at 08:30 while waiting for the Trinamool MPs. According to my information, the delegation of Trinamool MPs and Bengal ministers had taken an appointment in the office at 06:00," the Minister tweeted.

"But later they wanted to meet, presenting Trinamool workers as public, which was against the office system. They backed away from the scheduled topics of the meeting because the intention was not to meet but to do politics. This is a very shameful incident done by Trinamool leaders," Niranjan said.

Sorry @SadhviNiranjan you are a lying so and so (and I am being polite). You gave our delegation an appointment . You vetted all names, checked each one off before allowing us to enter, made us wait 3 hrs & then ran away via the back door. https://t.co/tZ68Qgss0G  Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 3, 2023

The Trinamool leaders, who had brought with them bundles of letters addressed to the Prime Minister and the Rural Development Minister, refused to leave till the Minister met them.

Led by Mamata Banerjee's nephew and party MP Abhishek Banerjee, a group of party MPs, and state cabinet ministers sat on a dharna, which dragged on till 9 pm.

At this point, claims the party, the police broke up the protest and detained several leaders.

"This is how elected MPs of the worlds largest democracy are treated after being given an appointment to meet with a Minister of the Govt of India (which she refused to honour after making us wait 3 hours) Shame @narendramodi shame @AmitShah," Mahua Moitra tweeted.

This is how elected MPs of the worlds largest democracy are treated after being given an appointment to meet with a Minister of the Govt of India (which she refused to honour after making us wait 3 hours)



Shame @narendramodi shame @AmitShah pic.twitter.com/cmx6ZzFxBu  Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 3, 2023

In another video released by the TMC, Abhishek Banerjee could also be seen dragged along with some other leaders of the party. Rajya Sabha MP Derek O' Brien was put into a bus and taken away.

Breaking:



TMC MPs & Bengal Govt Ministers led by @abhishekaitc have just now been manhandled & mercilessly dragged from the Min of Rural Development by Delhi Police & DETAINED.



This also includes 4 poor MNREGA workers from Bengal who had come to place their grievance before pic.twitter.com/UolUZ3iNJr  Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) October 3, 2023

Moitra later tweeted to say that they all are being detained till night in a camp with no paperwork.

We are all being detained at Queensway Camp now. Lady MPs being held after sunset in a police line . No paperwork.  Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) October 3, 2023

The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal has accused the BJP-led NDA government of withholding Rs. 15,000 crore in dues to the state under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and PM Awas Yojana.

The BJP has rejected the charge and accused the Trinamool of doing a "drama" in Delhi to divert attention from the scams in West Bengal.
Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Uganda Airlines on Tuesday announced the commencement of its India Operations with the launch of its new direct service, connecting Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and Entebbe International Airport in Uganda, with effect from October 7.

This flight will be operated thrice a week between the two cities and offer a direct service on its Airbus A330-800 neo aircraft.

The service will offer a Three-class configuration with the Business (20 seats), Premium Economy (28 seats) and Economy (210 seats).

The exciting development will be the first time in more than 50 years that India and Uganda will be connected by a non-stop air service.

The route augments Uganda Airlines service outside the African continent and joins a rapidly expanding network that offers travelers convenient connections to South, West, Central and Eastern Africa.

The direct service will last approximately 5 & 1/2 hours in each direction, bringing unmatched convenience to people travelling between the two points for business, family or tourism.

"We are excited to introduce this, the latest addition to our network, which affirms Uganda Airlines expands travel options for our passengers. Besides convenience, we hope this route will add energy to the existing business and commercial relations between India and Uganda that date back more than a century. said Adedayo Olawuyi, Chief Commercial Officer.

Since 2017, I have relentlessly pursued the dream of a direct flight from Mumbai to Entebbe, believing it to be the catalyst for enhanced trade, commerce, and tourism between our two nations. I am elated to witness the realization of my vision. Madhusudan Agrawal, Hon. Consul of Uganda.

The inaugural flight UR 430 from Uganda will depart Entebbe on October 7 and the return UR 431 will depart Mumbai on October 8.

Uganda Airlines currently operates flights to Dubai, Johannesburg, Bujumbura, Nairobi, Mombasa, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Juba, Kinshasa and Mogadishu. Flights to Lagos, Nigeria, are scheduled to start shortly.
Photo Courtesy: Pixabay

Bangkok/UNI: Three people were killed and four injured in a shooting incident allegedly by an underage gunman at the Siam Paragon Mall in Bangkok on Tuesday, Thai media reported, citing police.

The incident occurred at around 4:40 p.m. local time (9:40 GMT) when a 14-year-old male gunman sprayed bullets from his Glock 19 pistol, the Khaosod newspaper reported.

About half an hour later, the gunman surrendered to the police.

The perpetrator told police officers that he had heard a voice that ordered him to shoot, according to the report.

He was wearing a black T-shirt, camouflage pants, and a baseball hat with a United States flag on it.

In 2022, Thailand witnessed 2,804 gun-related deaths, and with a firearm death rate of 3.91 per 100,000 people, the country ranked 15th globally, the newspaper reported.
A 13-year-old Christian boy, who was identified as Johnson, along with his father Nasir Masih, and other family members, were held by the Faisalabad Police in Pakistan to record their alleged false testimony against Pastor Eliezer.

The minor's uncles- Kasif Masih, Gulfam Masih and Parvez Masih- were also held by the police.

Pastor Eliezer, who is also known as Vicky, has been in police custody since his release from hospital on September 12.

According to reports, the Faisalabad police had been summoning them every morning at 0700 hrs and taking them to the torture cell to pressure them to testify against Pastor Vicky.

However, since Pastor Ghazalas Facebook feed went viral, the five have been in continuous detention by Faisalabad police.

According to reports, all five have so far refused to testify against the Pastor, with Johnson doing so even in court.

Pastor Vicky was attacked and shot by Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) members on September 4 for refusing to embrace Islam and refusing to recite Islamic 'kalma'.

Earlier, Islamic verses were found written in the Pastors Presbyterian Church, Rehmat Town on Satyara Road, Faisalabad.

The Pastor immediately called the police and they removed the graffiti from the walls by using paint.

"The pastor was attacked recently," a source told IBNS.

He was discharged from the hospital on September 10 and was immediately detained by police citing an investigation.

"He was kept in detention for 11 days where he was kept without food and water and tortured," the source said.

He was released on September 21 after the courts intervention.

On September 22, Pastor Ghazala Shafique and Luke Victor went to his house and recorded his statement in a live Facebook feed.

As soon as the feed went viral, police again detained Pastor Vicky, Pastor Ghazala Shafique and Luke Victor from Pastor Vickys home.

Pastor Ghazala Shafique was released later in the evening on the same day without her phone.

"Luke Victor and Pastor Vicky were taken to some unknown location," the source said.

"Luke Victor was released by Faisalabad police on September 25 with torture marks on his body," the source told IBNS.

"Vicky was produced before the sessions court on September 26 in a horrific medical condition with charges that during the investigation they found that Pastor Vicky had himself written Islamic verses on the Churchs wall and had self-inflicted the gunshot injury in order to build a case for seeking asylum in Canada," the source said.

The police sought his physical remand for three more days which was approved by the court.

At the court premise, Pastor Vicky informed that he was beaten up and even the SHO threatened to urinate on Holy Bible and that cases would also be registered against Pastor Ghazala Shafique and others who are trying to help him.
Glens Falls Fire Department Facebook page

Halloween may be a few weeks away but people in the country already seem to be in the mood for festivity.

In Glens Falls, New York, one family decorated their house with such realistic Halloween decorations that their neighbours were tricked and they even called the local fire department for help.

The Glens Falls Fire Department even posted a video of the house on their Facebook page.

The decorations were made in such a manner that it seemed that the house was on fire.

The fire department wrote on Facebook: "Tonight crews were dispatched to the area of Sanford St for a report of a confirmed structure fire. To our surprise, this was an amazing Halloween decoration. Thank you to the gracious owner for permission to post. This display will be up Friday and Saturday nights for the public's entertainment until the end of the month."
In the world of true crime documentaries, the one that has spiked everyones interest is a peculiar case of murder that took place in Indonesia back in 2016. Ice Cold: Murder, Coffee And Jessica Wongso narrates the tragic demise of Mirna Salihin who collapsed in a cafe in Jakarta after drinking iced coffee suspected to be laced with cyanide.

netflix

While being rushed to the hospital, she died en route. Some people involved in the case called it the OJ Simpson case of Indonesia. This tragedy ensued a four-month trial which was televised in their country and also got attention across the globe. It was alleged that Mirnas friend Jessica Wongso was the one who poisoned her drink. Wongso, who was visiting Indonesia from Australia at the time, was found guilty of the crime and sentenced to 20 years in jail.



What were the events that took place before Mirnas death?

netflix

In the documentary, we are made to witness several unclear CCTV footage and a dramatised version of the chats between the two besties. Jessica and Mirna had planned to catch up at a Jakarta cafe called Olivier on January 6th, 2016. The reason why they chose this particular cafe was because it served Vietnamese Iced Coffee which was a favourite of Mirna. On the day of the incident, Jessica arrived early and ordered a coffee for Mirna. During the time before her friend's arrival, Jessica acted strangely and tried to evade the CCTVs. When Mirna finally arrived and took a long sip of her drink, she started convulsing. The workers rushed to her aid and tried to arrange for paramedics to tend to her while Jessica stood there stoically.



netflix

Mirna couldnt make it to the hospital and passed away due to lack of oxygen in her blood stream during the commute. The suspicion immediately fell on the content of the coffee that she had consumed and the cafe was questioned. The CCTV footage provided by them clearly showed the coffee being made and later served without any hanky panky. It was only after it was placed at the table that the coffee was deliberately hidden behind Jessicas shopping bags.

What did Mirnas autopsy report reveal?

After Mirnas collapse, a worker at the cafe tried the coffee and said that it tasted "really rotten" but did not suffer any ill effects post consumption. During the televised trial, Wongso's lawyer opened and smelled the bottle containing the coffee laced with cyanide, claiming to the cameras that there was no cyanide within it.

netflix

Lack of evidence then turned the case into the direction of witness statements and expert findings. Many of them pointed out that Jessica Wongso seemed to be suffering from bad mental health. Her behaviour in those footages seemed odd from the start. How she first arrived at the cafe and did a proper survey and then left only to return after another 40 minutes or so with shopping bags in her hands.



As for Mirnas post-mortem report, a hospital worker testified that her intestines were damaged and her mouth was blackened which was a clear sign of cyanide poisoning.

In another noticeable twist, Mirnas father Edi Darmawan Salihin had said no for an autopsy to be conducted on his daughter at the time despite formal requests made by the police.

netflix

Instead, a toxicology test was done 70 minutes after Salihin's death. It only showed small traces of cyanide found in her stomach fluid which were not enough to have been fatal.



What could have been the motive behind Jessica killing Mirna?

If we go back in time to study their friendship, Mirna and Jessica studied together in Sydney for a few years and were very close friends. After finishing their studies, Wongso stayed back in Australia for seven years, while Salihin returned to Indonesia.

netflix

As per several reports, Jessica Wongso had been dealing with mental issues for a while. She had attempted to commit suicide four times and had been hospitalised for the same. She had also been in a road accident while driving under the influence of alcohol and had a restraining order filed against her by her former partner.

During the publicized trial, prosecutors alleged that Wongso was angry at Mirna for suggesting that she "break up with her boyfriend who was often rough and a drug user," as per Cosmopolitan. Further, it was also claimed that Jessica was jealous of the victim's happy marriage and upset that she wasn't invited to her best friend's wedding the year before.

Where is Jessica Wongso now?

netflix

As of this moment, Wongso is in prison in Indonesia and has served seven years of her two-decade sentence.



After she was found guilty of the murder of Salihin, Wongso lodged an appeal against her verdict. However, her appeal was rejected at both The Jakarta High Court and the Supreme Court, which means that she has now exhausted all routes.

Ice Cold: Murder, Coffee And Jessica Wongso is available to stream on Netflix.
After 31 patients were reported dead within 48 hours in a government hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded district, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Hemant Patil visited the hospital and asked the dean to clean the toilet with a broom.

Visuals showed the dean cleaning the toilet as Patil and other members of the hospital administration stood around him.

lokmattimes

Apart from that, Mr Patil demanded that the hospital's doctors be held responsible for the deaths and a murder case be registered against all of them.



What is the issue at the Nanded hospital?

As many as 24 deaths, including of 12 infants, occurred at the Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital in Nanded in 24 hours between September 30 and October 1, state health department officials said.

Another 24 hours later, at least 8 more patients, including 2 infants, died at the same hospital.

Reuters

A senior doctor at the facility told PTI on Tuesday that the number of admissions in the NICU was 65 against the sanctioned strength of 24 beds when 11 infants died.



Meanwhile, a three-member expert committee from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district has been formed with a mandate to submit a report on Tuesday.

Who is to blame?

The Congress on Tuesday demanded a thorough investigation into the deaths.

"It is said that these patients died due to lack of medicines and treatment. A similar incident took place in a government hospital in Thane in August 2023 in which 18 patients lost their lives," Kharge said.

#WATCH | Mumbai | On the death of 24 patients in Dr Shankarrao Chavan Medical College and Hospital in Nanded, Minister of Medical Education of Maharashtra, Hasan Mushrif says "Patients come to this hospital from far-off places as they cannot pay bills in private hospitals...I pic.twitter.com/BzBlAib1DR  ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2023

However, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde later clarified that adequate medicine stock and medical staff were available at the hospital. He added that the deaths were unfortunate, and many of the deceased were old people with heart ailments, underweight infants or accident victims.

Other reports of deaths emerge

After the Nanded tragedy, reports emerged of the death of ten patients, including two infants, in 24 hours in Sambhajinagar's Ghati Hospital.

Taking to X, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray wrote, "After Nanded now hospital in Sambhajinagar where 8 patients have died, which includes 2 children. More 7 patients died in Nanded."

Why the sudden spike in deaths in Maharashtra hospitals?

The Medical Superintendent at the Nanded Hospital has admitted that the sanctioned budget for medicines falls short of the requirement, resulting in a shortage of medications for non-serious ailments.

Representative image

Dr SR Wakhode said, "Some medicines were supposed to be purchased from Haffkine Institute, but it did not happen, due to which there was some problem. The sanctioned budget for medicines too falls short due to heavy flow of patients from neighbouring districts, including the ones in area bordering Telangana. We always ensure that a patient does not lose his life for lack of essential medicines at our hospital. In such situations, we purchase medicines from local budget. We cannot deny that sometimes, there may be shortage of medicines for non-serious ailments."



Congress leader Atul Londhe pointed out that there is a lack of medical equipment in the hospital as well as a lack of medicines and doctors since half of the staff of Nanded Hospital were shifted to another new hospital.

For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
During a flight from London to Bangkok, a woman caused a scene when she refused to pay for an upgrade and went into the premium section without authorization.



Later, after she and her male partner were removed from the flight, she was spotted tossing money at him on the tarmac.

SWNS

The woman's identity remains undisclosed, and this incident took place on an EVA Air flight on a Saturday, as reported by SWNS.

She went to the premium economy section but declined to pay for the upgraded seat.

A spokesperson from the Taiwanese airline mentioned that both passengers had behaved disruptively during the flight.

Another male passenger traveling with her also engaged in disorderly behavior and smoked an e-cigarette adjacent to the cabin galley, a spokesperson for the Taiwanese airline told the outlet.

Our flight attendants took quick action to stop these passengers but encountered inappropriate insults and physical abuse, the rep said.

After seeking assistance from eight other passengers, these two unruly passengers were successfully restrained.

Things got strange when the plane, about five hours into the flight, made a U-turn and landed in Vienna.

The couple was taken off the plane there. There's footage of the woman throwing cash at her companion on the tarmac while he and airport workers hurried to collect the money, estimated at around $6,000.

The lady and the man, they were already intoxicated, a passenger named Andy Sing, aged 63, who was on vacation in Thailand, shared with SWNS.

They kept talking about money. He would say, Shes got my 5,000 in her bag, he said.

The captain said, We have to go back to Vienna because [of] staff safety and the passengers safety. Ladies and gentlemen, we have got no choice but to get back to Vienna.

He said, It will take two and a half hours to get back there, and we will decide what to do after that, Singh said while adding, decided after a couple of minutes on the tarmac to grab the bag from the lady, but the lady just threw all 5,000.

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Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will attend the signing of the agreement for the management, maintenance, and operation of the Thessaloniki Metro at 13:00 on Wednesday The event will be held at the work area of the 'Agia Sofia' stop on the Thessaloniki Metro , his office said.
No fewer than twenty-two people are reportedly missing following a tragic boat mishap in Niger State.

INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that the boat from Kasabu village in Agwara Local Government Area of the state to Yauri, Kebbi State, capsized on Monday morning.

The Director-General, Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), Salihu Garba, confirmed the incident to pressmen in Minna, the state capital, yesterday.

Garba explained that the agency was informed of the boat mishap, according to him, a survivor of the incident said that the boat had about 22 passengers on board.

READ MORE: 24 Dead, Several Others Missing In Niger Boat Mishap

He added that search and rescue operations were ongoing by the local divers and boat owners under the supervision of the agencys desk officer in Agwara.

The NSEMA boss explained that no passenger has been recovered yet, adding that the incident happened on Yauri market day.

Garba added that only after the market would families be able to declare their missing relatives. He explained that it takes about 24 hours for any drowned person to surface atop the water

He attributed the cause of the incident to water hyacinth coupled with strong waves.

Meanwhile, the state Governor, Ahmed Idris, in another development, appealed to the affected families to accept it as the will of God in good faith and prayed to Almighty Allah to grant the deceased persons Jannatul Firdaus.

I want to urge you to see what happened as the will of Almighty Allah that nobody can question, therefore, accept it in good faith. We should also continue to pray to Allah to forgive their shortcomings and grant them Jannatul Firdaus, he prayed.
Chicago State University (CSU) has released more academic records of Nigerias President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Recall that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the just concluded presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, had asked the CSU to release him records of his political rival.

Atiku is currently challenging the declaration of Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the February 25 poll.

Atiku argued that Tinubu did not graduate from Chicago State University as claimed in his academic records.

READ MORE: US Court Orders Chicago University To Release Tinubus Academic Records To Atiku

In a copy of the latest judgment by the US Court, Judge Nancy Maldonado, noted that CSU raised no objection to Judge Jeffery Gilberts decision that Tinubus academic record be made public.

The court explained that any intrusion on Tinubus privacy interests in his educational records is outweighed by Atikus interest in the sought-after discovery.

Maldonado overruled Tinubus objections to Gilberts recommended ruling and therefore adopted the ruling in full.

Subsequently, CSU on Monday night, released a 32 page document revealing Tinubus full academic records with the varsity.
Fetus Keyamo, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, has reacted to President Bola Ahmed Tinubus academic results released by the Chicago State University, CSU.

According to Keyamo, the 2023 Peoples Democratic Partys presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar should apologize to Tinubu and Nigerians for the humiliation.

In series of post on X, the minister described Atikus journey to Chicago in a bid to expose Tinubu as fruitless.

From the responses by Chicago State University, ATIKUs journey to Chicago and back has been a journey to nowhere, a fruitless exercise and an odyssey in self-humiliation. President Tinubu and Nigerians deserve an unreserved apology from him.

READ ALSO: Tinubus Palliative Plan, A Product Of Limited Thinking  Peter Obi

It is now obvious that the loss of ATIKU Abubakar at the last polls hurt him deeply more than all his previous losses put together; it has since sent him spinning like a drunkard, lashing out to hold on to every single straw that resembles a lifeline. This is bad for his health; he should accept that this game is over (as the Chicago State University responses have shown) and retire peacefully to his famed abode. Those around him have a role to play in this, he posted

CSU had released the academic records of Tinubu following an order of a Chicago court as requested by Atiku.

In the result released, CSU confirmed it found diplomas matching the certificate Tinubu presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, after a diligent search.
The Abia State Government says claims that its sponsoring the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to cause upheaval in the South-East State are utterly false.

The administration also refuted the reports that the State Governor, Alex Otti was funding the litigation of the 2023 Labour Partys (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, with the States funds.

In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Ferdinand Ekeoma, the Government accused opposition parties in the state who were defeated in the last election, of hiring elements to cause discontent and disaffection among people in the state.

The attention of Abia State government has been drawn to videos arising from two press briefings conducted by individuals suspected to have been hired by opposition elements who were roundly defeated in the last Governorship election in Abia state.

Because these allegations are weighty and have the propensity to cause disaffection, insecurity, breakdown of law and order, and even endanger the lives and property of innocent citizens, we strongly and most respectfully make the following demands and submissions:

That His Excellency the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR), the Chief of Army Staff, the National Security Adviser and the Inspector General of Police should kindly use their good offices to cause immediate and thorough investigation into these allegations.

READ ALSO: Tinubu Nominates Balarabe As Minister, To Replace El-Rufai, Names Two Others

That the young men who organised these press conferences should be invited by security agencies to come and throw more light on their allegations to enable law enforcement agents to carry out thorough investigations that could lead to the arrest of culprits.

That Governor Alex Ottis position as Governor of Abia State is a product of a nationally celebrated Governorship election victory, hence, we consider it a demeaning insult and provocative blackmail for a group of greedy hatchet men with zero stakes in the Abia project to sit behind the microphone and spew gibberish that lowers the office of the Governor of Abia State while insulting the sensibilities of our people who have heaved a sigh of relief since the emergence of Governor Alex Otti.

The hate, anger, bitterness and the trademark of terror contained in the text of the press conference and on the facial expression of the accusers showed a despicable design to subject the government and people of Abia State to public opprobrium.

The two opposition parties that are in court against Governor Otti and who are suspected to be the brains behind these allegations know very well that they have terrible cases and that their suits would be thrown into the thrash bin on the 6th of October, hence the resort to this panic and desperate strategy of deceit and destabilisation, the statement read.

The release urged security agencies to expose and punish those who hired the elements for choosing to advance their selfish interest against the genuine interest of Abia people
Popular Nigerian actress, Regina Daniels has disclosed that she was unaware of the scarcity of Naira during the Naira Redesign Policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Recall that the CBN had, in a bid to implement the cashless policy, redesigned the N200, N500 and N1000 Naira notes.

The policy generated outrage among many Nigerians, especially as the newly redesigned notes were unavailable during that period, and the old notes were not accepted for business transactions.

Also, during the period, many Nigerians could not access their money in banks, which negatively affected businesses.

Amidst the Naira scarcity, Regina Daniels took to her Instagram page to flaunt a bunch of new Naira notes, gifted to her by her husband, Ned Nwoko, infuriating many Nigerians.

READ ALSO: Regina Daniels Stunned As Husband Gifts Her N10m For Supporting Political Aspiration

Addressing the backlash in an interview with BBC Pidgin, the movie star said she was unaware of the Naira scarcity that trailed the redesign of some banknotes.

Regina acknowledged that she failed to see the hardship that followed the redesign from other peoples perspective until she posted the Naira notes online.

She said, Personally, I dont use cash to buy anything at all, infact I dont hold cash, so during that cashless policy, I was not even aware that there was such policy, because I dont use cash. So I did not really see it from other peoples perspective that there was a crisis in the country, until I posted.

I told my husband then to send me some cash because I wanted to buy food at a location. So, he sent the cash and I made a Snapchat and posted it. When I started seeing peoples reactions, I was surprised until I was told of the cashless policy.

After seeing how people reacted to it, I had to delete the post. But that time I really felt bad because people wont understand that I did not really know.
Special Counsel to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has accused security operatives in the South East of humiliating Igbos at checkpoints across the region.

In a post via his X handle on Monday, Ejimakor alleged that security agents are forcing passengers out of vehicles and making them walk across checkpoints on foot.

READ MORE: Supreme Court Fixes Date To Hear Nnamdi Kanus Cases Against FG

He alleged that institutional humiliation and oppression started during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari and has continued with the Bola Tinubu government.

He wrote: The phenomenon in Igboland in which every passenger is forced to alight from vehicles & cross on foot at security checkpoints is an exemplar of the institutional humiliation & oppression of Ndigbo that started with Buhari & continues to this day. And it fuels provocation to boot.

The phenomenon in Igboland in which every passenger is forced to alight from vehicles & cross on foot at security checkpoints is an exemplar of the institutional humiliation & oppression of Ndigbo that started with Buhari & continues to this day. And it fuels provocation to boot.  aloy ejimakor (@AloyEjimakor) October 2, 2023

Recall that INFORMATION NIGERIA had earlier reported that Supreme Court will on Thursday, October 5th, 2023, hear all appeals in cases involving Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.

The appeals to hear on Thursday are marked SC/CR/1394/2022, NNAMDI KANU V. FED. REP OF NIGERIA, and SC/CR/1391/2023, FED. REP OF NIG VS NNAMDI KANU.
Operatives of the Department of State Security has reportedly arrested a 23-year-old lady, identified as Fildausi Musa Ahamadu, for threatening to commit suicide following the outcome of the ruling of the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.

Recall that the tribunal had sacked Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and confirmed Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the duly elected governor of the state.

Reacting to the development in a viral video on social media, Ahmadu threatened to kill all those responsible for the victory of the APC governorship candidate at the tribunal.

In the viral clip, Fildausi was overheard attacking the lead judge in the Tribunal, warning that anywhere she sees her, she wont mind holding her with a bomb.

READ MORE: Our Members Are Not Bandits  NNPP Replies Kano Tribunal Judge

In the same vein, Ahamadu, who was wearing a red cap, warned Gawuna, You dare not indicate your location, otherwise, I dont mind striking you with a bomb vest to commit suicide.

She also attacked Vice President Senator Kashim Shettima, blaming him for the court ruling, which was not in favour of the NNPP in the North West state.

However, a source, who pleaded anonymity, told Daily Post that operatives of the secret police have arrested Ahamadu.

The source said the DSS operatives arrested the lady in her home in the Kano metropolis.

We are indeed taking Fildausi Musa Ahamadu to court because these threats should not be taken lightly, the source added.
A former Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, on Monday, faulted the misrepresentation and misuse of national symbols such as the anthem and flag.

Fashola expressed this on Channels Televisions Empowering Tomorrow: A New Vision for Nigeria, a special programme on the 63rd anniversary of Nigerias independence celebrated annually on October 1.

His words: Just this afternoon, I was asked to hoist a flag of Nigeria, he said.

By the time the flag unfurled, I saw that there was a coat of arms in the middle and I whispered to my host that this is not the flag of Nigeria. Nigerias flag does not have a coat of arms in the middle. It is green, white, and green.

The former Lagos State Governor noted that the National Orientation Agency, which has offices in all the states of the country, produces and sells the flag.

He therefore underscored the need to deal with some of the small things that matter, adding that Nigerians must be intentional.

READ ALSO: Stop Saying May Nigeria Not Happen To Me  Fashola Warns Nigerians

When I was in primary school, these were the symbolisms of those Independence Day parades, Childrens Day parades, and this was how we were taught to stand up or maintain our position whenever we heard Nigerias national anthem being rendered.

You sit today and you shudder in your skin what happens today, what people have been taught when the national anthem is rendered, Fashola said.

I have had cause to ask people not to sing the anthem for me, either as governor or minister, because Im not a sovereign. Its a projection of our minds.

These are, for me, the important things to talk about and thats why I say this anniversary provides an opportunity for reflection and, indeed, inflexion, he added.
Eurovent Middle East has launched its new HVACR Leadership Academy, an open platform to bundle course programmes for the professional development of HVACR Technicians and Engineers. This is considered a critical missing link between technology and energy savings in the fight for lower greenhouse gas emissions.

The announcement comes at a time when the UAE has set stricter emissions, announcing an increase in its target of 31% reduction to 40% by 2030, ahead of its hosting of the COP28 climate conference in November, as reported by Bloomberg.

The Climate Group has noted that 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings. In the UAE, up to 70% of buildings' energy consumption goes to cooling and ventilation, leading to an overall consumption of more than 50% for the entire nation.

Preventive maintenance

Eurovent Middle East estimates that 25% energy savings can be achieved through simple preventive maintenance, 15% through better installation and 20% through better operations of HVACR equipment.

The Academy offers certified training courses for engineers and technicians, as well as knowledge development programmes for other HVACR professionals to increase the understanding of products and technologies, standards, and best practices in an industry which is crucial not only for health and comfort but whose energy footprint is rapidly growing around the world.

Tariq Al Ghussein, President of Eurovent Middle East, said: The fight for better energy efficiency to mitigate the impact on climate change is now omnipresent at all government levels. Our industry is investing heavily in better and more efficient products. The transition to alternative refrigerants is becoming a more pressing matter as well. All these developments depend heavily on HVACR professionals trained and educated in new technologies. Without capacity building, we cannot achieve the sustainability targets set by national governments.

Centro Studi Galileo

In line with its educational initiatives, Eurovent Middle East signed a cooperation agreement with the Italian training centre Centro Studi Galileo (CSG). Since the 1970s, CSG has been conducting training in Europe, the USA, Africa, and the Middle East and is accredited to certify HVAC/R technicians under the EU F-gas certification and the REAL Alternatives programme in cooperation with the consortium and the European Association of RAC contractors AREA.

Marco Buoni, Managing Director of Centro Studi Galileo, added: In the Middle East, as globally, there is an increasing need for competence in commissioning, installing, maintaining, and repairing HVAC/R systems. CSG has been helping  in tight cooperation with the United Nations  several GCC countries in setting up a national certification and training scheme through their legislation. The cooperation with Eurovent Middle East is the natural follow-up, and we are keen and honoured to be part of this important and needed process, thanks to this partnership.

Another partner in the Academy is Dr Iyad Al-Attar, an independent consultant specialising in Indoor Air Quality and Air Filtration and a lecturer at several highly renowned universities and institutes, who spoke on the benefits of better maintenance in terms of building occupants' health and safety.

Al Attar concluded: Raising the bar of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) has become a pressing issue facing our well-being and livelihood. Ultimately, the emphasis has shifted towards clean air and the methodologies that avail it. Therefore, it is imperative to embark on professional learning journeys where science meets the industry to take air quality and filtration selections, practices, and policies to the next level.-- TradeArabia News Service
A big change is happening in the job world, especially for young workers. A study by RMIT Online shows that one out of four workers under 30 is thinking about switching careers. This is a major shift in how people approach their jobs.

Nic Cola, CEO at RMIT Online, underscores the importance of understanding these shifting priorities among Gen Z and younger millennials. He notes that these emerging professionals are redefining their career paths and are actively seeking new opportunities, even if it means changing jobs. Given their substantial presence in the workforce, Cola emphasizes the need to empower them to bridge the skills gap and pursue their professional ambitions. This, he believes, will contribute to creating a more resilient and dynamic workforce for the future. The primary driver behind this career exploration is the pursuit of an increased salary, with a staggering 50% of workers under 30 ranking it as their top motivation. Career development opportunities and flexible working arrangements come in closely behind, at 33% and 31%, respectively. Furthermore, a remarkable 56% of the younger respondents have plans to approach their employers for external training or upskilling in the near future. For these young workers, training holds significant importance, as one in three expresses concern about lacking the skills necessary to excel in their current roles. Cola emphasizes that while competitive remuneration is undoubtedly a significant motivator, career development and training opportunities also hold considerable sway for most Australians. He highlights that businesses must provide robust support, value their employees, and engage with them effectively. Failing to do so not only risks losing valuable staff but can also impede innovation and hinder competitiveness in todays dynamic business landscape. For those young workers who report dissatisfaction with their current jobs, the top reason cited is not feeling valued, with a significant 60% highlighting this issue. It is closely followed by concerns related to inadequate compensation for their roles or levels of responsibility and a lack of clarity regarding career progression, both at 55%. These findings underscore the importance of fostering a workplace culture that values employees and provides clear paths for growth and development to retain and motivate young talents in todays ever-evolving job market.

Job satisfaction on the rise

The job satisfaction landscape in Australia paints a positive picture, with 75% of workers expressing satisfaction in their current roles. Senior and mid-level professionals report the highest job satisfaction levels at 76% and 74%, respectively, while junior workers register a respectable 70% satisfaction rate.

Interestingly, consultants (87%) and healthcare professionals (86%) stand out as the most satisfied with their jobs, while those in the science and technology sector report the lowest job satisfaction, at 60%.

While overall job satisfaction remains high, junior staff exhibit lower levels of satisfaction compared to their more experienced peers, with 70% of junior staff content in their roles compared to 83% of Owners, CEOs, and Managing Directors.

Financial considerations play a significant role in job satisfaction, with 47% of respondents emphasizing the importance of receiving an adequate salary. However, salary is overshadowed by cultural factors, with 60% valuing great colleagues and 55% emphasizing feeling valued as critical elements of job satisfaction.

Looking ahead, over one-third of Australian workers (36%) plan to request a pay raise in the next three months. Among those who sought a pay raise in the past three months, 53% attributed their request to the rising cost of living, 42% to a positive performance review, and 40% to taking on additional responsibilities.

When considering career changes, an increased salary ranks as the top motivating factor, with 47% highlighting it as their primary incentive. Flexible working hours (30%) and career development opportunities (29%) follow closely behind.

Moreover, 26% of respondents under the age of 30 have ventured into a side hustle within the past three months, while 53% plan to initiate one in the next three months. Additionally, a substantial 76% of respondents believe that technology will assist them in their roles, particularly among those in senior positions (79%).

Gender disparities are evident, with men expressing greater confidence in the uniqueness and irreplaceability of their skill sets (62% compared to 44% of women). Men also report higher satisfaction levels regarding their personal financial security, with 38% content compared to 29% of women.

Notably, 25% of women have contemplated a career change in the past three months, reflecting evolving career aspirations. Furthermore, 43% of respondents intend to seek external training or upskilling in the next three months, followed by requesting a pay rise (36%) and negotiating a promotion (28%).

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Babatunde Raji Fashola, former Governor of Lagos State, has condemned the popular phrase, May Nigeria not happen to me, often said by citizens.

While advising Nigerians to address the reservations about the country with less negative criticism, he insisted that such a phrase should no longer be heard in the countrys public broadcast

Speaking on Channels Televisions Empowering Tomorrow programme themed: A New Vision for Nigeria, former Minister of Works insisted that the image of the country is the public relations work of all the people.

Those kinds of statements that Nigeria should not happen to me or whatever it is should not have any place again in our public broadcast.

The image and the pride of the nation is the public relations work of all of the people.

READ ALSO: This Is Shameful, Stop Making Excuses For Your Incompetence  Atiku Slams Tinubu Over Minimum Wage

It is not enough to begin to valorize things that Nigerians do outside the country, and that is important ambassadorial work that those people do and I take nothing away from it, he said.

Fashola further urged Nigerians to start emphasising on the minor things more and using them to inspire hope.

Hope is the most important currency that sustains human civilization, that sustains harmony, and the expectation that I can make it.

This is the time that all of us must put our hands on the plough. For those who want to denigrate the country, you must first ask them, Do they have another country? I dont have another one, he added.
Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, on Monday, appeared before the Westminster Magistrates Court in the United Kingdom over an alleged 100,000 bribe.

The district judge, Michael Snow, reportedly granted Alison-Madueke a 70,000 bail.

Snow further imposed other terms on Alison-Madueke including an 11 pm to 6 am curfew, an electronic tag to be worn by her at all times and a 70,000 surety to be paid before she could leave the court building.

Although she did not formally enter a plea, her attorney, Mark Bowen, informed the court that she would plead not guilty, Reuters reported.

Her next court appearance will be on October 30 at Southwark Crown Court, which deals with serious criminal cases.

In August, the UKs National Crime Agency said it suspected that Alison-Madueke had accepted bribes in return for awarding multi-million-pound oil and gas contracts.

READ ALSO: Diezani Alison-Madueke Charged With Bribery  UK Police

In a statement published on its website, NCA said the ex-Nigeria minister is alleged to have benefitted from at least 100,000 in cash, chauffeur-driven cars, flights on private jets, luxury holidays for her family, and the use of multiple London properties.

Her charges also detail financial rewards, including furniture, renovation work and staff for the properties, payment of private school fees, and gifts from high-end designer shops such as Cartier jewellery and Louis Vuitton goods.

Also, in March 2023, the NCA also provided evidence to the US Department of Justice that enabled them to recover assets totalling $53.1m linked to Diezans alleged corruption.

Head of the NCAs international corruption unit, Andy Kelly, said the charges are a milestone in what has been a thorough and complex international investigation. Bribery is a pervasive form of corruption, which enables serious criminality and can have devastating consequences for developing countries. We will continue to work with partners here and overseas to tackle the threat, Kelly added.

Recall that Diezani was the minister of petroleum resources from 2010 to 2015 during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Shortly before Jonathan handed over to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, she left the country for the UK.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alleged that the former minister stole $2.5bn from the Nigerian government while she was a minister.

Efforts by the EFCC to arraign her have been unsuccessful as she has not returned to Nigeria since 2015.

But the anti-graft agency said on Monday that it had commenced an extradition process to bring Diezani back to Nigeria to face trial.

The spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, said, The EFCC welcomes, with keen interest, the arraignment of former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, at the Westministers Court in London, United Kingdom, following alleged bribery allegations.

Although the charges preferred against her at the London court, are diametrically different from the 13 counts, bordering on money laundering that the EFCC has raised against her, it is instructive to note that criminality is criminality, irrespective of jurisdictional differences. No crime can go unpunished. The money laundering charges for which Madueke is answerable to the EFCC, cover jurisdictions in Dubai, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Nigeria.

To bring the former Minister to trial in Nigeria, an arrest warrant has been obtained and extradition proceedings have been initiated. The commission is on course on her trial. She will soon have her day in our courts.
The Chicago State University, CSU, has said it does not in the ordinary course keep copies of student diplomas, hence, cannot locate a copy of the original diploma it prepared for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 1979.

Recall that Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in line with an order of a United States court requested the documents to back his allegation of forgery of CSU certificate against Tinubu.

The institution however confirmed it found the diplomas matching certificate Tinubu presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission after a diligent in its archives.

According to the schools counsel, Michael D. Hayes in response to Judge Nancy Maldonados order, was able to locate and produce seven different certificates for Bachelor of Science degree it issued in 1979

Atiku had apparently requested the documents to compare and contrast them with the one presented by Tinubu as his for the 2023 polls.

Atiku in his request wanted: True and correct copies of any diplomas issued by CSU (other than to Mr. Tinubu) that contain the same font, seal, signatures, and wording (other than the name of the recipient and the specific degree awarded) as Contained in Exhibit C to the First Liu Declaration, which purports to be a CSU diploma issued to Mr. Tinubu on or about June 22, 1979.

READ ALSO: NLC, TUC Suspend Nationwide Strike For 30 Days

Responding, Hayes said: The documents responsive to this request which CSU, after diligent search, has been able to locate are produced herewith and Bates labelled CSU 0008 through CSU 0010.

The students names on these diplomas have been redacted for privacy reasons.

CSU is also producing, Bates labelled as CSU 0011 and CSU 0012, diplomas prepared for other CSU students (with their names redacted for privacy) which match the format of the Tinubu replacement diploma dated June 27, 1997.

On Atikus request that the school should produce a copy of Tinubus certificate issued in 1979, the school maintained its position that it does not keep copies of students diplomas, talk less of the one issued in 1979.

CSU does not in the ordinary course keep copies of student diplomas, and after diligent search cannot locate a copy of the original diploma it prepared for Mr. Tinubu in 1979, hence has no documents responsive to this request, Hayes said.
The Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, on Monday decried the mass exodus of Nigerians to other countries.

According to her, it is impossible to completely halt the development, hence, the government must play its part in providing a favourable environment for its residents.

Dabiri-Erewa stated this in Paris during an appearance on Channels Televisions Empowering Tomorrow: A New Vision for Nigeria, a special programme on the 63rd anniversary of Nigerias independence celebrated on October 1.

She said, You cant stop this migration, legal or illegal, but the question is: Why are you migrating? Are you migrating to a better place? Are you migrating to bigger dreams?

READ ALSO: We Cant Locate Copy Of Tinubus Original Diploma Issued In 1979  Chicago University

Here is a quick thing, government needs to play its own role of [providing] a conducive environment. The Tinubu administration has talked about job creation, SMEs, digital transformation, and digital truth for our younger people, and a lot of that conversation is going on here in France.

Speaking further, the NIDCOM boss opined that moving to another country has no inherent flaws, but it must have a clear goal.

There is nothing wrong with migration, but migrate to a better place. Migrate to become a better person; dont migrate to get into trouble. A lot of people we deal with are looking for jobs but they dont get the jobs when they go abroad.

Why are you migrating? Are you a better person by the time you migrate? But again, government must play its role and do what it has to do, she added.
Philadelphia police are looking for a motorcyclist who stomped out the back windshield of a womans car near City Hall before sticking a gun in the face of the driver and headbutting her as she came out to confront him on Sunday night. Read more

Philadelphia Police say they have identified a person of interest in a Sunday night incident in which a motorcyclist stomped out the back windshield of a womans car near City Hall before sticking a gun in the face of the driver and headbutting her as she came out to confront him.

Around 8:45 p.m. Sunday, a group of ATV, dirt bike, and motorcycle riders crowded around the intersection of South Penn Square Street and South Broad Street next to City Hall, according to a video posted to Instagram by George Coloney, who was riding a double-decker tour bus.

The video shows a motorcyclist, wearing a black T-shirt, black-and-gold helmet, and khaki pants, dismounting from a black motorcycle and jumping on a nearby burgundy sedan that appeared to be unable to move forward because it was surrounded by the group of ATV and bike riders. The rider then stomped on the back windshield of the car, above where the womans two children were seated, smashing the glass and sending pieces flying through the car.

As the motorcyclist jumps off the back of the car, what appears to be a handgun falls from his waistband. The driver, whom CBS3 identified as Nikki Bullock, 23, of Prospect Park, gets out of her car and confronts the motorcyclist, who then appears to point his gun in Bullocks face. He then headbutts her.

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He put the gun back into his waistband. Bullock then pushes the man off his bike, before he gets back on and flees. Bullock and another adult are seen carrying children out of the car.

Additional video filmed by Coloney shows that a person riding an ATV right in front of the attacking motorcyclist motions to Bullocks driver side window and attempts to talk to her moments before the motorcyclist jumps off his bike and stomps on the windshield.

Video also shows Bullock and the motorcyclist having one last quick exchange before the motorcyclist rides away.

There were two children and one other adult in the car that was damaged, said Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore. No injuries to Bullock or those in the car were reported, he said.

No arrests have been made, Vanore said, but police have received numerous helpful tips on the widely viewed video. Efforts to reach Bullock were unsuccessful.

A Philadelphia Police patrol car is also seen a few car lengths behind where the confrontation happened, in the outer left lane. Vanore said it was unclear if the officer or officers in the car were able to see the altercation.

Looks to me like its caught in the traffic out there. So I dont think that car could reach them, he said.

Police released screen grabs of the video, in an effort to solicit the publics help in identifying the motorcyclist. The motorcyclists helmet has gold decals and there is a tattoo on the riders right arm. The T-shirt the rider was wearing had the words You Aint No Killa on the back.

Technology, investigations key to crackdown

At a news conference Monday, District Attorney Larry Krasner called the conduct completely outrageous, and blamed the motorcyclist.

There is no excuse for jumping on the back of somebody elses car and smashing a window above a child, he said. And there will be a price to pay when that person is caught.

Krasner said he has had many meetings with police about how to crackdown on motorbikes and ATVs, but said street-level enforcement is challenging. Police Department policy prevents officers from pursuing the bikers and engaging in high-speed chases, which could put pedestrians and other motorists at risk.

The answer, he said, is using more technology, wiretaps, and deep-dive investigations to target the ring leaders and prevent the meet-ups before they happen, rather than something we have to catch on the street. He said his office hopes to use the funding it received to investigate carjackings and auto thefts to look more closely at the bike and car meet-ups.

This has to stop, he said. We know how dangerous this is, we know how much you are endangering other people with your conduct, and there is a price to pay for that.
Police in Warrington encountered the two suspects just before 4 a.m., according to the affidavit of probable cause for their arrests. Read more

Two men were arrested in Warrington township after prosecutors say they used homemade explosives to blow a two-foot wide crater in a field behind a shopping center.

Vladimir Nostachev, 47, of Bustleton, and Vadim Pokusov, 40, of Warminster, have been charged with weapons of mass destruction, possession of explosive material, conspiracy, and related offenses. They are both being held in lieu of $1 million bail, court records show. There was no indication either man had hired an attorney.

The motive behind the explosions remained unclear Monday. Preliminary hearings for the two men have been scheduled for later this month.

Police first encountered Nostachev and Pokusov just before 4 a.m. Sunday, while responding to reports of fireworks going off near the Valley Square Shopping Center on Main Street, according to the affidavit of probable cause for their arrests.

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While patrolling the area, one of the responding officers heard an explosion, he said. He heard a second explosion not long after, and drove toward the shopping center to investigate, the affidavit said.

As the officer approached the center, he saw a Lexus SUV backing up and turning around in the parking lot, and noticed a large plume of smoke that extended as high as the trees in a wooded area behind the building, the affidavit said. The officer sped up to pursue the vehicle, and smelled gun powder as he got closer to it.

Nostachev was driving the vehicle, with Pokusov in its passenger seat, according to the affidavit. During a search of the SUV, the officers noticed two homemade explosives, one the size of a soda bottle and the other similar in size and shape to a softball. The officers also found a plastic bag filled with what appeared to be bottle rockets.

The officers called in bomb disposal officers from Philadelphia to inspect and handle the devices. They later determined that the homemade explosives were made of cardboard and filled with magnesium powder, sometimes called flash powder, which is a highly volatile explosive.

After the devices were secured, the officers inspected the area where the smoke plume was first spotted. They discovered a large crater blown into the earth about two feet wide, with a debris field stretching about 55 feet, according to the affidavit. A bomb-disposal dog detected the presence of explosive powder in the area.

The arrests were reminiscent of similar criminal activity at the opposite end of the county a few years ago. For several months during the spring and summer of 2018, David Surman Jr. detonated homemade explosions late at night throughout Upper Bucks County.

Surman, the owner of a chemical company near Quakertown, was arrested after an extended manhunt that included FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm agents.

 READ MORE: Bucks County bomber and his girlfriend admit launching homemade explosives in 2018

Residents in the rural tip of the county had complained for months of mysterious late-night explosions. Surman and his girlfriend, Tina Smith, would drive around after dusk, lighting the devices and throwing them out of the window of Smiths SUV. One of the devices didnt detonate right away and nearly injured a township public works employee who was mowing grass.

Surman pleaded guilty in 2020 to possession and manufacturing of a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy, as well as criminal use of a communication facility and unlawful use of a computer for a large cache of child pornography detectives found on an external hard drive while investigating the bombs.

He was incarcerated in county jail for two years, and is currently serving a 10-year probation term. Smith also pleaded guilty to possession of explosive materials and was sentenced to 4 years of probation.
Perkiomen Valley Superintendent Barbara Russell holds up the district's policy prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity during a school board meeting Sept. 5. Seated next to her is board president Jason Saylor. The board on Monday banned transgender students from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identities. Read more

The Perkiomen Valley School District has decided to bar transgender students from using restrooms aligned with their gender identities.

The school board on Monday approved a policy specifying that multi-user restrooms are for students based on their sex  a 5-4 vote that followed a month of heated debate sparked by a man who said his daughter was distressed after believing a boy was in a high school girls restroom.

The comments, first relayed on social media, touched off a firestorm of controversy: While administrators said transgender students have been allowed to use restrooms matching their gender identities without incident, some parents  and school board members  expressed anger that they werent aware of the districts policy.

Hundreds of students walked out of the high school last month, holding signs that read Respect girls rights and Stay in your bathroom.

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LGBTQ students and supporters, meanwhile, pleaded with the board to not enact a policy that they said would marginalize already vulnerable students.

While the board initially moved last month to adopt a policy that would have restricted restroom usage based on biological sex, one board member changed his mind, causing adoption of the policy to fail.

That board member, Don Fountain, instead suggested the district make some of its high school restrooms nonbinary, accommodating any student. The boards policy committee last month directed administrators to consider that proposal.

But on Monday, the board instead put forward a policy similar to its original proposal  with Fountains agreement. Board members said the updated version would limit multi-user facilities based on sex, but allow for more single-use restrooms to be available to any student, including restrooms previously restricted to staff members.

A lot of the students would be able to benefit from this, probably better than any other compromise we could come up with, Fountain said Monday.

Advocates for LGBTQ students say that restricting any access to multi-user restrooms is discriminatory, because it doesnt allow transgender students the same access as their peers.

In 2018, a federal appeals court upheld the nearby Boyertown Area School Districts policy allowing transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms corresponding to their gender identity, rejecting the appeal of six students who said they were uncomfortable after seeing transgender teens using the restrooms of their choice.

There is no legal basis for a district to refuse students right to use the bathroom or locker room that aligns with their gender identity, said Ashli Giles-Perkins, attorney for the Education Law Center. We are appalled that districts like Perkiomen Valley have adopted discriminatory policies aimed squarely at trans and nonbinary students.

Giles-Perkins called on the district to reverse its policy and also urged the Pennsylvania Department of Education to issue long-overdue guidance that reflects federal guidelines to protect, not cause additional harm to, transgender and nonbinary youth.

Superintendent Barbara Russell said administrators had been communicating with counselors Tuesday to support transgender students.

For some, its not a big deal  theyve been using single-user facilities, said Russell, who has said about 1% of Perkiomen Valley High Schools 1,700 students are transgender. For others, it will be a change.

Russell, who had questioned the need for a new restroom policy  noting that the district has a policy prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity  said the district was sorting through other issues around implementation.

What we expect is that our students will follow the rules, staff will uphold the rules and redirect students if necessary, Russell said. She said that at this point, our staff have not been assigned to monitor restroom use.

The question of how the policy would be enforced provoked a heated argument during Mondays board meeting, when one board member asked how teachers would assess a students sex  defined under the policy as the biological sex classification based upon chromosomal structure and anatomy at birth.

Rowan Keenan, a proponent of the policy, responded by criticizing an alternate policy put forward by Democrats that would have enabled students to use the restroom that corresponds to the gender identity they consistently assert at school. (That policy failed Monday, in a 5-4 vote.)

Ive been identifying as a woman for more than a year. I grew a beard, Keenan said.

Mr. Keenan, youre being hateful, board member Laura White interrupted, accusing Keenan of mocking transgender people. A man in the auditorium then began shouting at her.

Keenan said that he was here to protect women, to which White responded, I am a woman.

One girl, a 17-year-old senior, told the board its new policy wouldnt prevent sexual harassment or abuse. She also urged the board to think about someone they loved who was a member of a minority.

Think about going to school and work and having their safety threatened, she said. Thats how these kids in the school are feeling.
Steinhardt Hall, the Penn Hillel building, on the University of Pennsylvania campus, was vandalized by a man shouting antisemitic slurs a day before the Palestine Writes Literature Festival began on the University of Pennsylvania's campus. The university said there was no connection between the two, but the conference stirred controversy and concerns about speakers that critics say have a history of antisemitic statements. Read more

The University of Pennsylvania is planning a review of its policies for granting access to outside groups wanting to host events on its campus following the controversy over the Palestine Writes literature festival held there last month.

The university hasnt elaborated on what that review will entail, though the school made clear its not about excluding controversial speakers.

Neither our board nor university leadership want to be in the business of vetting and approving each of the few thousand of speakers who are invited by faculty or student groups to speak on our campus each year, said Scott Bok, chair of Penns board of trustees. That wouldnt be appropriate. But our president has indicated that the university will look at some administrative processes to be better aware of who is coming to campus, particularly for large-scale events.

 READ MORE: Critics in an uproar over speakers at this weekends Palestine Writes literature festival held at Penn

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The university also pledged to add antisemitism awareness training for faculty, staff and students and find opportunities to have the campus community work together even when there are differences. Work on all is underway, the university said.

Controversy ensued on campus over the last several weeks after critics complained that the festival invited speakers with a history of having made antisemitic remarks. That included Roger Waters, co-founder of Pink Floyd; the U.S. State Department said he has a long track record of using antisemitic tropes and a concert he gave in Germany in May contained imagery that is deeply offensive to Jewish people and minimized the Holocaust, according to the Associated Press. He appeared on a panel by Zoom.

Tensions also flared over the timing of the festival, which ended just before the start of Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar. And, two acts of antisemitic vandalism occurred in the weeks before the start of the festival. On Sept. 13, a swastika was found painted on the inside wall of a spray booth used for painting projects at Meyerson Hall, home of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design. And one day before the start of the festival, a man who Penn police said was experiencing a crisis and acting erratically entered Penn Hillel and broke furniture while yelling antisemitic slurs.

The university said theres no evidence that there was any connection between the acts and the festival, but officials, including university president Liz Magill, in a Sept. 22 statement about the vandalism, acknowledged their proximity to the controversial speakers scheduled for the festival.

Officials, though, stood by the universitys commitment to the free exchange of ideas as central to our educational mission. This includes the expression of views that are controversial and even those that are incompatible with our institutional values.

Though the conference went on without disruption and was described by some as a beautiful celebration of Palestinian literature, emotions remain raw.

Festival proponents believe that the university did not defend them against the criticism they saw as unfair and discriminatory, and groups who opposed the festival say the school did not do enough either to prevent the appearance of objectionable speakers or condemn them strongly enough.

Not a single moment ... of care

Susan Abulhawa, executive director of the festival, which attracted more than 1,500 people, was heartened by the students and faculty who supported the event, but characterized Penns response as caving to racist pressures because thats the side of power and donor money.

She said they are easy targets because they dont have the same connections and highly funded networks.

Abulhawa also faulted Penn for not adequately supporting its Palestinian students.

There was not a single moment or statement of care for Penns Palestinian students who have been marginalized and maligned and subjected to violent propaganda year after year, she said, and now during the festival through direct and specific incitement against them.

Sahar Aziz, professor of law and chancellors social justice scholar at Rutgers Law School, said she credits Penn for not canceling the event, but echoed Abulhawa in saying that the school abandoned its Palestinian students.

Penn fell into the trap of a zero-sum-game framing where any celebration of Palestinian history, art and literature is automatically deemed a threat to Jews and antisemitic, and this is a false frame and it erases and marginalizes Palestinians as a community.

Although it was important for Penn to take a stand against antisemitism, it should have taken an equally strong stand supporting Palestinian history and culture and recognized that any attempt to shut down the festival was anti-Palestinian, she said.

Some Jewish groups on and off campus spoke in support of the festival, and several dozen faculty at Penn signed a letter, also critical of Penns response, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper.

As you are well aware, in recent years, many critics of Israeli occupation, and the oppression of Palestinian people and Arabs within Israel by the Israeli state, have been branded as antisemitic by Zionist organizations and individuals, they wrote. Your statement gives the impression that the entire festival could be seen as hosting views that you see as incompatible with our institutional values.

A request for a transparent explanation

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, was in touch with Magill the week before the event to express grave concerns about some of the speakers at a time when antisemitic acts nationally and on college campuses are increasing. Magill, he said, agreed to some important concessions including committing to incorporate antisemitism-awareness training on campus for faculty, students and staff as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

But he said Penn failed to condemn the antisemitism of the speakers publicly in a clear and cogent way.

Even though the university said it wasnt a sponsor of the event, he called it a difference without a distinction, given that some academic departments were sponsors, the campus was its location, and some professors were involved. He called it extremely disappointing that academic departments were permitted to sponsor the event.

He also said a transparent explanation is still needed on how an outspoken bigot like Roger Waters was approved to talk at an event on Palestinian literature.

This guy is an expert in literature like Im a nuclear physicist, Greenblatt said.

Waters is a member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement that is critical of Israel over its occupation, and he has said his use of a Nazi uniform was meant to oppose fascism and bigotry, according to Reuters.

Magill in a letter to the ADL acknowledged that including Waters among the speakers was deeply offensive, misaligned with the festivals stated purpose, and stands in direct opposition to our institutional values.

Greenblatts group also recommended that the university create a task force of students and alumni to examine the quality of Jewish life on campus.

A university under pressure

The university remains under extreme pressure: An open letter to Magill was sent from more than 4,000 alumni and some current and former board members who took issue with Penns handling of the event. Philadelphia 76ers managing partner Josh Harris was among the signers.

The fact that University of Pennsylvania academic departments are co-sponsoring the festival and its platforming of outright antisemitism without denunciation from the university is unacceptable, they wrote.

Also signing the letter was Paul S. Levy, a former university trustee who once led the law schools board of overseers. He resigned in 2018 in protest over how the university was treating law school professor Amy Wax, who now is the subject of a university review that could lead to sanctions for making racist comments.

They are quick to invoke First Amendment rights on behalf of likely antisemitic speakers and suggest no possible reprimand for students or faculty organizing the event, he said, yet they have instituted action against Wax and havent defended her right to free speech.

Emilio Bassini, 73, a Penn alum whose wife and children also are graduates, said he was distraught that objectionable speakers were allowed to appear. That they were invited in the first place reflects holes in the universitys process for granting access to its facilities, said Bassini, a New York City and Miami-based former fund manager who now manages his familys assets.

He said it certainly will affect his future giving, and he expects others will either decrease or stop altogether.

Bok, the trustees chair, said trustees are reflecting on the range of views expressed by various members of our community and believe the steps the university took to address concerns expressed in the letter.

While its unrealistic to think that everyone can be fully satisfied on a topic as complex as the one involved here, he said, we are confident that the fondness that an overwhelming majority of our alumni feel toward Penn will remain very much intact.
The lovable antihero who appeared in the recent HBO docuseries Telemarketers has been reported missing out of Easton, Northampton County.

Patrick J. Pespas, 54, of Phillipsburg, in North Jersey, became the star of the three-part docuseries that ran this summer, using his knowledge of questionable telemarketing industry tactics to try expose the longtime practice. Pespas, who lived in both Plainfield and South Plainfield during much of the series timeline, was last seen in Easton around 8 p.m. on Friday, according to police, and could be driving his white, 2002 Ford Mustang.

Easton police, in a statement, said they were concerned for his safety.

A little-used Instagram account in his name is now helping spread the word about Pespas disappearance. According to Adam Bhala Lough, who codirected and produced Telemarketers, Pespas may have been seen at a bar called Knuckleheads in Pittsburgh, nearly 300 miles west, over the weekend.

An Easton police officer declined to comment on that possible sighting on Monday.

Telemarketers, which debuted in August, introduces viewers to a slew of quirky characters, including codirector Sam Lipman-Stern. Most of them worked for a New Jersey telemarketing company that solicited money from strangers who believed they were helping the families of fallen police officers.

What we do is we call up people and chisel them out of money, Pespas says in one of the episodes.

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Despite using heroin at work in early footage, Pespas was one of the companys better employees. He later got sober and joined forces with Lipman-Stern to investigative some of the industrys tactics. Pespas chased down interviews while holding barbecue platters; the series culminated with his sit-down with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.).

It was a big-time scam, Pespas says of the industry.

Pespas, according to Bhala Loughs X updates, is taking methadone, a widely used and effective treatment for opioid addiction.

The docuseries stretches over 20 years, in which Lipman-Stern stays in and out of touch with Pespas. One episode ended with a cliff-hanger that left viewers wondering if Pespas, a heavy metal guitarist, was still alive. Throughout the series, he is portrayed as a devoted caretaker to his wife, Sue.
The gravitational pull of great pizza can be as strong as a full moon shifting the planets tides. Ive seen ridiculous lines of pie-obsessed people over the years, waiting hours for the chance to pay cash for some crust topped with pepperoni, sauce, and cheese. And sometimes, yes, it is very worth it.

But will they descend into the basement of an office building in a business district thats remained eerily quiet since the pandemic? There is no supermoon  or hardly even natural light  deep in the bowels of the Comcast Technology Center. And that is where the roaring hearth of Marc Vetris Pizzeria Salvy is wedged into the low-ceilinged corner of a long, often empty basement corridor that has all the charm of a forgotten airline terminal. It can be lonesome down there at one of the rustic wooden country tables during the in-between moments when Comcasts recently returned employees are not swooping in for a lunch break slice or speeding past into an adjacent concourse tunnel for the SEPTA commute home.

But when I first bit into a fresh slice of Salvy pizza? My eyes popped open. The dough was flavorful and complex. And its micro-thin crust held straight with only the slightest gentle bend, despite cradling a fennel-scented mix of sausage, peppers, and onions that whisked me right back to an iconic bowl of South Philly rigatoni. This was the coveted sausage ragu from Vetris Fiorella pasta bar, whose hearty savor has been reimagined here for the two-dimensional elegance of a pizza pie. The South Philly margherita had its own eyebrow-raising twist, a subtle twang, hiding beneath the sunny sweetness of ripe tomatoes and milky mozz, of piquant provolone.

Hold up there, commuters. You might just want to pull up a seat and stay. Is this the single most obscure restaurant location worth paying attention to in Center City? Yes, I think it is  especially if pizza is your passion.

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That is definitely the case for Marc Vetri, who launched his run as one of Phillys most impactful restaurateurs 25 years ago this month at Vetri Cucina. His eponymous alta cucina gem at 1312 Spruce St. remains, based on a meal earlier this year, one of the citys most seamlessly elegant and gracious fine-dining experiences. (Im still dreaming of that morel fettuccine).

Hes since grown his empire twice, the first time selling five of his original restaurants to Urban Outfitters in 2015 (including Osteria and Pizzeria Vetri, though not Vetri Cucina), then once again, opening as many restaurants now from Philly to Vegas and Tokyo as he had before the Urban sale. Thats even true despite his recent departure from Fiore Rosso, the Main Line steak house that was a management deal that never quite lived up to my lofty expectations of a Vetri project.

But theres a more personal stake in Pizzeria Salvy. Its named after his dad, Sal Vetri, whose signature thick-rimmed glasses are the logo branded on its walls, plates, and menu. The location is undeniably a weird choice, but Vetri and partner Jeff Benjamin have a long history of counterintuitive real estate choices, from successes (pioneering North Broads revival with Osteria) to some forgettable stops (remember Osteria at the Moorestown Mall?)

I doubt the pleasantly polished food court vibe of this basement space will draw many destination diners on its own. Vetris best asset  his continued passion to keep evolving in the kitchen  should be all the magnet it needs. And the notion that Vetri has chosen the actual middle of nowhere to reinvent his pizza game yet again, five years after publishing a well-regarded book on the subject, Mastering Pizza (Ten Speed Press, 2018), is as delicious as it is a fascinating commentary on evolving food trends and storied chef careers.

Its like Jiro Dreams of Sushi, he says, evoking the documentary featuring chef Jiro Onos Michelin-starred sushi restaurant in a Tokyo subway station. You have to know about it.

Is Pizzeria Salvy destined for Michelin stars? LOL, no. But its nonetheless a notable addition to our thriving scene. And the first thing you need to know about Salvy is that its style is quite different from the puffy, light-crusted pies that helped Pizzeria Vetri set the early standard for the citys Neapolitan pizza craze 10 years ago.

Philly has since moved on to embrace a variety of other pizza styles, from the peerless seasonal rounds of Pizzeria Beddia to thicker Detroit-style pan pies (Pizza Jawn, Circles and Squares, Down North), paper-thin tavern pies (Darling Jacks), cheese-on-the-bottom Trenton-style pies (CJ & Ds), samosa pizzas (Carbon Copy), al pastor stromboli (Chiquitas), and even innovative frozen pies from Pizza Freak.

Salvys pizzas may look Neapolitan-ish from above, with their well-developed, heat-spotted crusts. But theyre significantly more crispy and complex, thanks to a lower, slower bake, the blend of flours, the right thinness on the cut of mozzarella, and evolved techniques with both fermentation and even mixing.

It reflects everything I think is wonderful about pizza that I have eaten and seen over my lifetime. And Ive eaten a lot of pizza.

In particular, theres much more flavor in the dough due to Vetris embrace of freshly milled local flour, which lends a dynamic depth of flavor, but also the ability to roll those crusts thin for a toasty bottom snap that, despite its thinness, is not brittle. Its more like a micro-layered springboard for Salvys well-conceived flavors, which, under the watch of chef de cuisine Marco Gagliardi, are consistently executed.

Im charmed by the various nods to flavor combinations made famous in some of Vetris other projects, aside from that sausage ragu. Vetri Cucinas famous sweet onion crepe makes a cameo at the suggestion of Papa Sal himself, its creamy truffled onion fonduta tweaked with some Gruyere to complete its sly riff on French onion soup. One pizza that didnt impress me much was the clam pie, a nod to the New Haven classic that was underpowered in the flavor department when it should be a two-fisted gusto dose of garlicky, briny, zesty savor.

But my favorites here, aside from the sausage, were Salvys elegant seasonal veggie pies, including a summery zucchini pizza covered with emerald green shreds of squash lit with mint and enriched with milky puddles of stracciatella. As cooler fall weather settled in, Salvys maitake pie earned favored-mushroom-pizza status, the fungis roasted frills adding a textural crunch to the white pie laced with scallion oil and fontina for earthy harmony.

Salvy does slices from large pies and tagliata squares for the convenience of the lunch crowd, but I prefer the crust-to-filling proportion of the standard single-serving rounds, which hover in the low-$20s.

Pizzeria Salvy also does a little bit more than just pies, if you choose to stay. There are some excellent fresh salads, like the anchovy-draped Ranchovy. An appetizer of Sals veal-beef-pork meatballs, first made famous at the original Amis (RIP), has a combination of tenderness and well-rounded flavors that make them an easy contender for citys best. There are also some simple but satisfying desserts  silky butterscotch budino, vivid gelati, boozy rum cake. Speaking of booze, there is a tight but excellent drink list of smart cocktails (spritzes, Negronis, Calabrian margaritas), local beers, and wines to accompany the meal (try the tasty Scarpetta range on draft for a reasonable $13 a glass, especially the lightly chilled rosso pizzeria locale.)

With experienced and friendly service (I later spotted one of our lunch servers serving dinner at Zahav), Pizzeria Salvy has brought a full-package pizzeria experience to this unlikely subterranean nook in Center City. But will people come for dinner who dont already work inside the building?

I cant help but wonder if this is just a test run for a Pizzeria Salvy expansion into some more prime locations. Another crack at pizza chain supremacy? Vetri insists not. At least, for now: Im not looking at any more chains  unless theyre around my neck.

Pizzeria Salvy

Comcast Technology Center, 1800 Arch St., 267-324-5764; pizzeriasalvy.com

Menu served Tuesday through Friday, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.; 4-9 p.m.

Wheelchair accessible.

Pizzas, $19-$23.

All major cards accepted.
The Australian government is planning to introduce new laws aimed at bolstering privacy protections for citizens and imposing stricter data security requirements on small businesses.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has expressed concerns about the current trend of Australians mindlessly accepting lengthy and convoluted privacy policies without thoroughly reviewing the associated disclaimers.

To address these issues, the proposed reforms include safeguards against dark patterns that manipulate users into granting excessive privacy permissions. University of Technology academic Kate Bower views these reforms as a positive step, emphasizing the urgency of protecting Australians from potential privacy breaches resulting from advanced technologies.

One significant aspect of these legislative changes is the potential introduction of a right for Australians to have their personal data erased, although this right would not override existing legal obligations such as the retention of identification and criminal records. Additionally, the government is contemplating a ban on targeted marketing based on sensitive information unless it can be deemed socially beneficial.

Children are also set to benefit from enhanced privacy protections. Entities would be prohibited from directly marketing to children and trading their personal information, with the implementation of a childrens online privacy code ensuring that their best interests are always taken into account.

Small businesses may no longer enjoy exemptions from privacy obligations applicable to large corporations, potentially necessitating increased investments in safeguarding personal information and the mandatory notification of consumers in the event of a data breach. While Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Billson applauds these reforms as appropriately scaled, shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash expresses concerns that they might place additional complexity and financial burdens on already struggling small businesses.

Furthermore, the government is exploring the expansion of personal data protections, particularly in the context of online identifiers like IP addresses and cookies. As modern technologies continue to integrate into public life, these expanded protections would go beyond the traditional safeguarding of names and street addresses.

Another noteworthy consideration is the potential introduction of a right to be forgotten, allowing individuals to request the removal of certain search engine results associated with their names under specific circumstances. Attorney-General Dreyfus emphasizes that Australians have a legitimate expectation that their data will be adequately safeguarded.

While some commend these legislative efforts, think tank Reset.Tech believes that more comprehensive measures are required and criticizes what it sees as the governments yielding to pressure from large businesses. Executive director Alice Dawkins asserts that participation in the digital world is essential and that individuals rights should not be violated during their day-to-day online activities.

Of the 116 recommendations stemming from the Privacy Act review, the government has agreed to 38, offered in-principle support for 68, and noted 10. Notably, the proposal to narrow the exemption for politicians was among those noted. These privacy reforms are expected to be introduced into parliament in 2024.

Mixed reactions

Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association Ai Group, has expressed support for the importance of ensuring public confidence in the safe and responsible handling of privacy and data. However, Willox also voiced concerns about the potential consequences of over-regulation, which could hinder innovation and increase costs for businesses.

One major concern relates to the proposed removal of the exemption for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) under the Privacy Act. Willox highlights that any modification to the employee records exemption could have wide-ranging implications, affecting how employers manage the employment relationship and comply with workplace laws, especially considering recent Industrial Relations (IR) reforms.

Willox emphasizes that what may appear to be a modest and targeted adjustment to the employee exemption could lead to unintended consequences, potentially impacting employee and community safety.

While acknowledging the support being offered to assist SMEs in complying with new regulations, Willox emphasizes that compliance is an ongoing process, as technology and business practices evolve. He underscores the need for a long-term partnership between the government and industry to address privacy concerns without stifling innovation.

Willox also commends the governments commitment to consulting with industry stakeholders on this issue and expresses Ai Groups readiness to collaborate with the government to find a balanced solution.

In addition to concerns about SME exemptions, Ai Group raises issues related to the introduction of a Data Protection Officer requirement and a Data Impact Statement. There is a concern that these measures could increase the regulatory burden on Australian businesses, particularly those in the public-facing sector. Ai Group calls for extensive consultation with various organizations to prevent regulatory overreach.

Ai Group advocates for the principle of Data Stewardship, which emphasizes the obligations and responsibilities of businesses, regardless of their size or industry, in managing data collected as part of their usual business operations or business models. This approach covers governance requirements, responsible data utilization, technological and behavioral strategies, and the secure disposal of data when it is no longer needed.

Bruce Billson, the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, emphasizes the importance of safeguarding personal information collected by businesses, irrespective of their size. He supports Attorney-General Mark Dreyfuss recent decision to eliminate the privacy exemption for small businesses and is collaborating with the Australian Government to ensure the implementation of appropriately scaled and clear regulations.

Mr. Billson asserts that it is unrealistic for small businesses to have a blanket exemption from providing necessary and suitable protection for the personal information they hold about their customers, employees, and business partners. He acknowledges that applying the full suite of privacy principles, as required for larger businesses and government agencies, is impractical for small and family businesses due to resource constraints.

While recognizing the unique circumstances of small businesses, Mr. Billson welcomes the Attorney-Generals acknowledgment of their limited time and resources. He emphasizes that the exemption will only be removed after conducting an impact analysis, determining suitable replacements through consultation with the small business community, considering support packages, and establishing a transition period for small businesses to prepare.

Mr. Billson highlights the need for clear guidance and actionable steps that small businesses can take to protect personal information. This may involve providing procedural templates, information guides, and checklists to help them meet their privacy obligations. He also suggests integrating these efforts with other important reforms related to cyber risk management, Digital ID, payment times, digital engagement, and responsible artificial intelligence use.

Small businesses are acutely aware that losing customer confidence in their ability to protect personal information can result in lost business opportunities. Mr. Billson underscores the severe consequences of cyber hacks or malicious information releases, emphasizing that such incidents can irreparably damage a businesss operations and its relationships with employees, customers, suppliers, and partners.

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Penn communications vice president Anna Cowenhoven (left) is with Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman at a news conference at the University of Pennsylvania on Monday, after the two were named winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in medicine. Read more

Nearly three decades before she won the Nobel Prize in medicine, the University of Pennsylvania turned down Katalin Kariko for a tenure-track position. The Hungarian American scientist was working on potential uses of messenger RNA in medicine. Her goal of harnessing the bodys own genetic code to develop new therapeutics was so novel that she couldnt secure federal funding and eventually left Penn.

But Kariko's research would prove to have returns that brokers in Wall Street dream of. In addition to the prestige of the Nobel Prize  awarded Monday to Kariko and her research partner, Penn professor Drew Weissman  the COVID-19 vaccine has made Penn the university with the most revenue from licensing agreements in the nation.

 READ MORE: Penn mRNA scientists Kariko and Weissman win Nobel Prize

Penn reported almost $1.3 billion in licensing revenue in fiscal year 2022, according to a survey by AUTM, an association of university tech transfer managers. That is more than the combined licensing revenue of the following top 12 universities that participated in the survey, which include Harvard, Emory, New York University, Duke, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford.

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Breaking down exactly how much of the revenue comes from vaccine royalties is tricky, and only those with insider knowledge know the exact amount that Penn received for the use of mRNA technology. Penn officials said that confidentially agreements with vaccine manufacturers Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna prevent them from disclosing revenue figures, and declined to comment further on the financial success.

But public records provide insight into a bonanza that now includes bragging rights to the 28th and 29th Nobel laureate wins among the universitys ranks. (Neither Penn nor the newly minted Nobel laureates would have predicted the mutual celebration. Kariko told a Nobel official on Monday that she was kicked out of Penn in late 2012 and forced to retire. She then got a job at the German drugmaker BioNTech, which collaborated with Pfizer a decade later to make a COVID-19 vaccine. A second vaccine, also relying on Penns mRNA technology, was developed by Moderna.)

To estimate Penns windfall so far, The Inquirer reviewed federal data disclosing payments to teaching hospitals, company reports to investors, corporate filings, and financial information submitted by universities to a national professional association.

Penns royalties from Pfizer-BioNTech

The revenues Penn received from Pfizer-BioNTechs COVID-19 vaccine are the easiest to track.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services maintains a federal database of payments and in-kind contributions that physicians and teaching hospitals receive from companies for medical devices or drugs. It shows that BioNTech paid $1.2 billion to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 10 payments of royalties or licensing revenues related to the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 and 2022.

Penn receives payments from many other companies, the database shows. But no company, even when adding up the five past years together, paid close to the sums that Pfizer-BioNTech provided Penn for vaccine royalties.

Still, because the exact details of the licensing arraignment between Penn and the pharmaceutical companies have not been disclosed, there is no way to know if this is the full extent of the payments from Pfizer-BioNTech.

Estimating Penns royalties from Modernas vaccine

It is even harder to assess how much money Penn may have received through the Moderna vaccines success. Unlike Pfizer-BioNTech, no payments directly linked to Moderna appear in the disclosures released by CMS.

But Moderna investor documents provide insight into how much the company is paying for licensing related to the vaccine.

Penn does not license mRNA technology directly. Instead the university has a licensing arrangement that started before the pandemic with a company called Cellscript LLC. In its annual report, Moderna discloses what it paid Cellscript from the vaccines revenue: $635 million in 2022 and $641 million in 2021.

Experts told The Inquirer previously that Penns share is likely less than half of the royalties Cellscript receives. So if the universitys cut was as high as 40% of Modernas payment to Cellscript, it would have received more than $500 million in those two years.

This estimate aligns with the payments directly disclosed by Pfizer-BioNTech. In both cases, the total is less than 2% of the overall revenue from the each vaccine.

 READ MORE: Research behind COVID-19 vaccines reaps close to $1 billion in royalties for Penn

A tech transfer success story

Put together, Penn may have reaped as much as $1.7 billion from vaccine royalties and licensing revenues in 2021 and 2022, The Inquirers analysis found.

The university has shared plans to use $750 million in proceeds from the COVID vaccines success to expand its research into emerging medical technologies such as cell and gene therapy  another area of medicine that generates a high return in licensing royalties. This includes $350 million for new laboratory space.

But Penns royalties are just one aspect of its mRNA success story. The world benefited from a COVID-19 vaccine developed in less than a year during a pandemic because of connections established between scientists and the pharmaceutical industry before 2020, said Stephen Susalka, the CEO of AUTM.

That is a goal of a process called tech transfer, in which universities spin off inventions to real world and marketable applications. In addition to a discovery that works, that process involves patents, licensing agreements, and private companies willing to take risks.

Thousands more technologies are currently being developed and commercialized this way, Susalka said, adding that any one could be a lifesaver in another moment of global need.

If none of that work underneath the surface had been accomplished ahead of time, we never would have had this vaccine in the record speed that we had, he said.
Philadelphia officials broke ground Tuesday for the new 10-acre Robert A. Borski Jr. Park along the Delaware River in the city's Bridesburg neighborhood. The Betsy Ross Bridge rises in the background. Read more

The site of a former concrete factory in Bridesburg, now a multi-acre concrete slab rimmed by woods, has an unbroken view of the Delaware River with the Betsy Ross Bridge as a backdrop.

On Tuesday, Philadelphia and other officials broke ground at the site for the first phase of the 10-acre Robert A. Borski Jr. Park, designed with a wide-open lawn, upland trails, meadow, restrooms, and parking. The park is part of a city effort to reconnect city residents with the river they were severed from starting in the 1800s with construction of the Kensington & Tacony rail line.

The park off Orthodox Street is the final in a series of eight planned parks for a stretch of the waterfront known as the Riverfront North Greenway.

The first phase of Borski Park, now under construction, should be complete by 2025 at a cost of about $7 million, raised through public and private sources. A second phase, which has no scheduled start, is expected to cost about $3.7 million and will include a stage, picnic pavilion, terraced lawn seating, and boardwalk with river views.

The nonprofit Riverfront North worked with the citys Parks and Recreation Department to raise the money and build the park.

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Its very humbling, Borski, 74, said of having the park named after him. I will take way more joy when its completed and can see people using it. It will be a major attraction, particularly for the neighborhood, but also everybody in the city.

How Borski Park got its name

Borski grew up in Bridesburg and served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. Congress in 1982, where he served until 2003 and later formed a lobbying firm.

Borski founded the Delaware River City Corp., which became the Riverfront North Partnership. The park was named after him in recognition of his vision for the waterfront and raising funds. Borski is credited with bringing in $45 million for the trail, boat launches, and parks.

Borski Park will connect with other local waterfront trails and become a link in the larger Circuit Trails, a regional network of 375 miles of completed trails, as well as a segment for the East Coast Greenway, a 3,000-mile trail planned from Florida to Maine.

 READ MORE: Waterfront trail with views of Delaware River opens in Tacony  two decades in the making

Community accomplishment

Mayor Jim Kenney said that the goal is to restore the river as a treasured public space.

We can all agree that reliable access to safe, enriching, outdoor space is important, an important factor for growth and equity in any major city and we want every Philadelphia resident to have best in class neighborhood assets, Kenney said. All residents need safe places to come together.

Stephanie Phillips, executive director of Riverfront North, called the park truly a community accomplishment at least a decade in the making.

It has taken a coalition of support from our elected officials, local government, state government, federal government, private foundations, and most importantly neighborhood residents to get here today, Phillips said.

The ground for the park was originally acquired by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. (PIDC), a nonprofit formed by the city and Chamber of Commerce as an economic development corporation. The city now owns the property.

Jim Fries, the project manager for Riverfront North, said theres a fair amount of cleanup needed for the first phase, which is being built by the Camden County-based JPC Group.

Fries said a cap of 1 to 2 feet with draining needs to be built for the main lawn. An adjoining upland forest and meadow that sits atop what was once fill will get trails and terraced steps leading down to the lawn.
Spanish teacher Kayla Dauria (left) talks with students in her classroom for a study hall at Lumberton Middle School Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Students returned to their school Tuesday after mold remediation. Read more

Lumberton school district students who shifted to remote learning after mold was found in some classrooms returned to in-person learning Tuesday.

The South Jersey school system moved students from Bobbys Run School to another building and sent some students from Lumberton Middle School home to learn virtually after mold was found in both schools on Sept. 20.

Parents were told to plan for the possibility of remote instruction for two weeks. However, Superintendent Colleen Murray said crews have nearly completed remediation and students were able to return Tuesday after a two-hour delay to give teachers time to prepare their classrooms.

The Lumberton district has about 1,100 students enrolled in pre-K to eighth grade. It also operates Ashbrook Elementary.

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Heres what to know about the situation.

What caused the mold problem?

Murray said an unseasonably warm spell in September caused the mold, identified as Aspergillus Penicillium. Teachers and custodians are permitted to adjust the air-conditioning settings, and that may have contributed to unstable moisture, she said. The mold was detected after a teacher complained about an odor in her classroom and testing was conducted.

Our state-approved assessment professionals have assured me that ours is not a systemic mold issue, but rather a temporary problem as a result of the humidity, Murray wrote in a letter to parents announcing the return to school.

Is Aspergillus Penicillium dangerous?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Aspergillus Penicillium are fungi that generally arent harmful to people with a healthy immune system. Prolonged exposure and breathing in the mold spores, though, can cause an infection in the lungs or sinuses which can spread to other parts of the body, especially for those with weakened immune systems.

The district recommends that parents who have medical concerns about their children should consult with their physician.

How many students were affected?

Mold was found in 10 classrooms at Bobbys Run, an elementary school, and about 250 students were relocated to an area in the middle school not impacted by mold. About 350 students from 16 classrooms at the middle school were placed on remote learning for eight days. One student without wifi access at home was set up for online learning in the library.

What steps were taken to remediate the classrooms?

The district said it hired AllRisk Property Damage which treated the rooms with plastic protector sheets and then cleaned the sealed rooms. Air purifiers were placed in the hallways and operated around the clock until the remediation was completed. Murray said the district would likely use reserve maintenance funds to pay for the remediation, expected to cost about $10,000 per room.

How does the district know its safe for students to return?

The district said it hired Hillmann Consulting, a state-approved firm, to conduct testing in the affected classrooms, and the remediation team cleared students and staff to return. The state Department of Health and state Department of Education were consulted. Mold reports for every classroom have been placed on the districts website.

There are still six classrooms and four non-instructional areas still to be remediated. Students will not return to those areas until the rooms are cleared, Murray said. Additional testing will be conducted throughout the complex later this week after the affected rooms have been remediated, she said.

What steps are being taken to prevent this in the future?

Murray said the district plans to clean its air filters every two months, instead of the current practice of every three. It will also remove porous materials from classrooms that could cause mold spores. The facilities department will also better regulate the AC systems and use a more robust reporting systems for classroom temperature changes that may require an adjustment, she said.
A vehicle leaves the Chester County Correctional Complex as authorities search for Danilo Cavalcante in Pocopson Township, Pa. on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2023. In the wake of the escape, the county is considering plans to fully enclose the prison's yard. Read more

Pennsylvanias leading prisoner advocacy group says plans to completely wall off an outdoor area of the Chester County prison is an expensive, misguided solution that would harm inmates and fail to properly address other issues that led to an inmate escaping last month.

In a statement released Friday, the Pennsylvania Prison Society said Chester County residents were justified in their calls for security reforms after convicted murderer Danilo Cavalcante escaped on Aug. 31 and led law enforcement on a two-week manhunt through the heavily wooded residential area.

But the advocacy group said the proposed plan  capping the Pocopson Township prisons exercise yards with solid walls and a fully enclosed roof  would create a welfare issue for inmates by blocking out sunlight and fresh air.

 READ MORE: Chester County prison to fully enclose exercise yards after Cavalcantes escape

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Unfortunately, in their rush to reassure the community, county officials are pursuing expensive, misguided solutions that will degrade the physical and mental health of incarcerated people, the advocacy group wrote.

Claire Shubik-Richards, the groups executive director, on Tuesday said focusing on the roof was short-sighted and failed to address one of the root issues plaguing the prison: a shortage of corrections officers.

Chester County Commissioner Josh Maxwell said the plan was still in the design stage and county officials would meet with the prison society to discuss concerns.

He added that the Cavalcante saga  which brought an international spotlight onto the typically sleepy Philadelphia collar county  presented an opportunity to improve quality-of-life changes for both inmates and staff in addition to beefing up security.

Theres opportunities for us to do different things with different yards at the prison, Maxwell said Tuesday. We want to make sure that everyones rights are respected, but that people in the community feel safe at the same time.

 READ MORE: A step-by-step look at Danelo Cavalcantes escape, search, and capture

The Chester County Prison Board last month approved up to $3.5 million in spending to fortify the prison yard where Cavalcante had escaped by propelling himself up a narrow hallway, pressing his hands and feet against the walls and crab-walking up to the roof. Another inmate used a similar method to escape the same yard in May, but was captured nearby moments later.

But Cavalcante, 34, managed to evade detection as he fled the facility and led law enforcement on a 13-day manhunt that drew international attention. He dodged hundreds of law enforcement officers for days in a densely wooded area around the prison, surviving on creek water and watermelon, until he managed to steal a van and flee 20 miles north.

The escape came two weeks after a jury convicted Cavalcante of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death in front of her two children, and his days on the run gripped residents with fear.

Prison officials quickly fired the guard who was on watchtower duty when the escape occurred  but bigger personnel questions at the Chester County prison linger.

Staffing issues have been at the root of several recent jail outbreaks, including in Philadelphia. With prisons nationwide facing a critical shortage of correctional officers, Shubik-Richards said policy makers either need to reduce the prison population in proportion to current staff levels, or improve working conditions to boost retention.

That means making it a meaningful job  a job with a mission, a human services-focused career, a job with competitive pay, and a job thats appreciated, Shubik-Richards said. Just using overtime and overtime and overtime is not a solution.

Maxwell said 241 out of 301 positions are filled at the Chester County prison as of this week, and the prison population is down 25% from a few years ago.

He added that the prisons new warden is actively working on recruitment, and the county views the increased attention in the wake of the manhunt as an opportunity for workplace reforms.

We have to treat our employees there with the respect they reserve, Maxwell said. They have one of the toughest jobs in the county, and theyll be our best recruiters if we treat them better, pay them better, and respect their work.
The request forms sometimes came in tidy block printing, other times in a desperate scrawl. But the men in solitary confinement in the Security Threat Group Management Unit at the state prison at Fayette, south of Pittsburgh, kept asking the same question: Why am I here?

The STGMU, as its known in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC), is supposed to house about 40 gang members and others who pose a threat to the prison system.

I wanted to know why am I going there, said Kareem Mazyck, 42, who spent two years in the unit that he described as a torture chamber, and why is it taking so long to get out.

But the STGMU policies and procedures are confidential, unknown even to those living there.

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The result, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed by the incarcerated men there last fall  and amended this week by the nonprofit Abolitionist Law Center, the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project and Dechert LLP  is a system that unconstitutionally isolates people with serious mental illnesses in permanent solitary confinement.

The Department of Corrections doesnt comment on pending litigation, a spokesperson said.

A decade ago, the U.S. Department of Justice found that Pennsylvania uses solitary confinement in a way that violates the rights of people with [serious mental illness]. Since then, major federal lawsuits have brought an end to death row solitary confinement in Pennsylvania and a pledge to eliminate long-term isolation for people deemed seriously mentally ill.

But as of last year about 1,100 people needing mental-health treatment remained in an ever-shifting alphabet soup of long-term isolation units.

Advocates want to force the state to close units such as the STGMU and the Intensive Management Unit (IMU), where men can remain for years on end  stuck in theoretical step-down programs that many, with deteriorating self-control and social skills, are unable to navigate successfully.

The lawsuit also seeks monetary damages for those who have survived what they say is a Kafkaesque system that violates their right to due process in disciplinary proceedings. Placement in the unit is determined by secret evidence, the suit contends. The operations of the unit are managed by secret policies.

The complaint contends that, to get around the DOCs previous agreement to keep people with serious mental illness out of solitary, the department has simply withheld evaluations, diagnoses, and care from many with very serious conditions.

 READ MORE: Long-term solitary confinement was created in Philly, and rooted in racism

Among the plaintiffs: a man who attempted suicide 10 times over two years in solitary confinement, yet is not considered seriously mental ill; a man who became convinced that the guards were poisoning his food, stopped eating, and lost 20 pounds; and a man who began punching the walls until he bled, then wrote, Kill me, Im ready to go, in his own blood.

Mazyck, who served four years in state prison for selling fake drugs in Lackawanna County, said each day on the STGMU was hell. The paranoid thoughts rattling in his mind were exacerbated by the chaos all around, he said, including brutal assaults by correctional officers, and what he described as a pattern of officers baiting prisoners to verbally harass one another. Under those conditions, it took the men on the unit more than six months to draft their lawsuit, shouting or passing papers from one cell to the next with only minimal access to an on-unit law library.

According to the filings, the harsh conditions of the STGMU  including 22 to 24 hours a day locked in a cell; lights that stay on 24/7; and exercise confined to a cage  have led to ever more deterioration, yet treatment is minimal and conducted at the cell door. A majority of those interviewed by the Abolitionist Law Centers lawyers had attempted suicide there, according to Bret Grote, the organizations legal director.

A series of written grievances submitted over the course of several months by Michael Scullen, who is serving a 10- to 20-year sentence for arson in Schuylkill County, illustrates that cycle. According to the documents, filed along with the lawsuit last fall, he had been diagnosed bipolar, but that diagnosis was removed while he was at STGMU.

I have started seeing a dark-man-like shadow in the corner of my cell. It wants to be called Shareef, he wrote to staff in April 2022. I used to take Haldol when I was hallucinating the last time. I really need to be put back on now.

A few weeks later, on May 5, he wrote an update: Im now able to converse with him on a regular basis. He is either a hallucination or I have a celly.

On May 9, he followed up again.

My celly has finally fallen asleep. I dont know when Ill get the chance to write this again. Hes always watching! Me and my cellmate Shareef are not getting along. Hes a bully and a tough guy and me and him are gonna end up fighting each other or worse.

The response was one terse sentence: You do not have a cellmate.

The Department of Corrections, which houses about 37,600 people, as of last year had identified 1,363 people it deemed were validated members of what it calls security threat groups, including 215 Kensington, Bloods, Crips, Dead Man Inc., Latin Kings, Neta, and white supremacists.

An Inquirer investigation found that the DOC holds Black prisoners in higher security settings than white ones. Black people accounted for 36% of minimum-security prisoners, but 53% of those in close or maximum security prisons and 80% of those on indefinite solitary confinement.

Numerous researchers have identified health consequences of solitary confinement, from psychosis to declining cognitive function, and an extremely elevated risk of self-harm. Many have also concluded that solitary is bad for public safety. One found that in the first few months after they return home, people released from isolation, instead of from general population, were more likely to commit violent crimes.

About a year ago, Mazyck was released from the STGMU. He never completed the program, which was necessary to make parole  instead, he served his maximum sentence. He found a warehouse job and an apartment, but the adjustment was rough: He had to relearn how to talk without yelling, and how to be among people again.

His instinct these days is to retreat into solitude, but he said hes proud to remain part of the lawsuit.

My hope is to shed light about whats going on there and to end solitary confinement for everybody, because all its doing is deteriorating your brain, he said. It makes a person thats already angry angrier. It makes a person thats sick sicker.
Xylazine, sometimes called tranq, is an animal tranquilizer that has infiltrated the fentanyl supply in the United States. Earlier this year, the Biden-Harris administration designated fentanyl laced with xylazine as an emerging threat to the nation. This designation  which has never been used before  will allow for new research and resources to reduce the impact of xylazine, in addition to a concentrated effort to improve treatment strategies.

But the attention has also generated a great deal of media coverage  both for the way that fentanyl laced with xylazine has complicated treatment for patients with opioid use disorder and for how the drug is associated with serious skin wounds.

While this attention is sometimes helpful to amplify the risk of xylazine, I cant help but feel  as an emergency room doctor  that were going about this the wrong way. Much of the language and images we use to discuss fentanyl and xylazine can further stigmatize the individuals who suffer from addiction.

Its easy to sensationalize and dehumanize people with opioid use disorder as zombies, or to show images or videos of people under the influence of opioids. Similarly, it is common for reporting to focus on individual drug users and their wounds, including those who have suffered amputations.

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Words are powerful, and so are photos. While some might argue that sharing images of the consequences of opioid use may deter others from using drugs, the well-intentioned thought is misguided. Doing so can alienate an already vulnerable population suffering from one of the deadliest chronic illnesses to plague our country. I also worry that it deters individuals from seeking medical attention for fear of judgment or poor treatment.

Drug use is not a problem that can be reduced to one individual alone.

Since 2019, heroin has been gradually supplemented and displaced by fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent, less expensive, and more deadly. Doses of fentanyl on the street are highly variable. This increases the risk of overdose, often with deadly consequences. In 2021, 71,238 of the 80,816 deaths from opioid overdose were from synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl.

People with drug addiction are unable to control their cravings and tend to use whatever is available, including fentanyl mixed with xylazine. Less harmful options dont exist, especially in Philadelphia, where the drug supply is 90% adulterated with xylazine. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, xylazine was initially diverted from veterinary supplies and is now also imported from China.

Interrupting the supply of xylazine is one solution, but disrupting demand by using xylazine test strips can be effective, too. Although we know patients are being exposed to fentanyl-xylazine combinations in Philadelphia, the clinical overdose patterns are indistinguishable, and testing is not widely available.

The experiences of people who use opioids are particularly helpful in informing how we speak about and address the threat of fentanyl and xylazine. In a recent study published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, I worked with my study team to analyze Reddit posts in drug-related communities for discussions about xylazine and then surveyed Redditors for additional insights. Due to its anonymity, Reddit and other social media sites can be useful tools to gather information on sensitive topics.

 READ MORE: Supervised injection site controversy met with creative solutions | Opinion

From our surveys, we found that 75% of people exposed to xylazine do not seek it out. Many described that xylazine worsens their fentanyl withdrawal symptoms and makes treatment with highly effective medications (such as buprenorphine) more challenging. Participants also reported skin wounds that occurred whether they injected the drug or used it through the nose.

The people most impacted by xylazine are rarely those whose voices we hear. Rather than stigmatizing individuals who use drugs, its more important to offer care in nontraditional settings, such as overdose prevention sites, that can help direct patients toward prevention and treatment strategies.

There are some ways to mitigate the dangers of fentanyl laced with xylazine, including the use of xylazine test strips and being familiar with drug-checking websites and harm reduction organizations such as Savage Sisters, which provide education, wound care, and wound care supplies. These organizations are also aware of what is in the local drug supply.

Narcan is highly effective in reversing overdoses and should continue to be widely offered and distributed. Despite all the attention on xylazine, fentanyl is still the driver of fatal overdoses. Highly effective treatments such as buprenorphine and methadone are available, but only about 11% of people with opioid use disorder receive these medications.

Rather than stigmatizing people living with addiction, the most important thing we can do is encourage and support people on their journey to recovery.

Jeanmarie Perrone is a professor of emergency medicine and director at the Center for Addiction Medicine and Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Phillies Rhys Hoskins before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 1 against the Miami Marlins in an NL wild-card baseball playoff series at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, in Philadelphia. Read more

The latest installment of Red October started with Rhys Hoskins throwing out a ceremonial first pitch and the Phillies longest-tenured position player hopes it ends with him on the roster.

Hoskins, a day before he flies to Florida to continue his rehabilitation process, was the surprise pitcher before Game 1 of the wild-card series against Miami. The crowd, already amped up from the teams pre-game introductions, went crazy when Hoskins came out of the dugout.

Hoskins, who missed the season after March 31 surgery on a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, only recently began taking batting practice and running the bases. In Florida, he will progress to facing live pitching. The Phillies have said there is a chance Hoskins could be ready to hit if the team reaches the World Series, which begins Oct. 27.
It sounds at first like a laudable if unexceptional plan, something many mayors have promised to do.

Democratic mayoral nominee Cherelle Parker wants to create advisory councils of industry heavyweights, faith leaders, and policy stakeholders to help guide her administration if she wins the general election.

But theres an underlying message in Parkers recruitment of stakeholders across the city: Get on board now  or forfeit your right to complain later.

I need a structure and an organized vehicle that has anyone who has a nickel in the quarter in that industry at the table, so no one is left out, Parker said in an interview last week at her campaign headquarters in Stenton. You may not like the ultimate outcome of the decision, but I will never give anyone the opportunity to say, I have a nickel in the quarter, and this administration didnt even bother to hear me.

The plan is emblematic of how Parker operated as a legislator in Harrisburg and on City Council, and how she would likely govern as mayor if she defeats Republican David Oh in the Nov. 7 general election, as shes heavily favored to do given the citys overwhelmingly Democratic electorate.

Parker, 51, is known as a dealmaker. But instead of forcing her will on others during negotiations, her style is to force everyone to the table, whether they like it or not, and to stay at the table until the deal is done.

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 READ MORE: Cherelle Parker is proud of her West Oak Lane roots. As mayor, could she save Phillys middle neighborhoods?

That approach has led to some of her most notable accomplishments, as well as some head-scratching moments. Its also opened her up to a narrative  fueled by her second-to-none credentials as a Philadelphia political insider  that her vision doesnt go far enough in challenging the status quo. After all, plans tend to get watered down once everyone has a say.

Parkers insistence on hearing from numerous stakeholders also reflects a core aspect of her personality. She is a meticulous planner, often to the frustration of her own staff, and she abhors surprises.

I need structure, she said. I have watched leaders who prefer and thrive in chaos and confusion. Some people do well with that. My mind doesnt work that way.

Kyle Darby, a lobbyist who worked as a policy adviser on Parkers primary campaign, said theres no detail thats too small for her.

Shes not someone that feels comfortable when shes in the dark about things, he said. Some leaders like plausible deniability or some leaders dont care for some of the details. She is not that.

In one of her first extensive interviews since winning the Democratic nomination in May, Parker said her insistence on structure and preparation has everything to do with her background. She is on track to become Philadelphias first female mayor, and she overcame a series of tragedies in her childhood, including being raised by a single mother who died when she was 11.

I am Black, I am a woman who comes from humble beginnings, and I dont have the luxury of giving a knee-jerk reaction that will be accepted coming from someone else, she said. My homework always has to be done.

A high-energy person

Philadelphia mayors are often remembered for their strengths and weaknesses. And for decades, perceptions about the primary failure of the outgoing mayor have aligned with a defining strength of his successor.

Ed Rendell was a cheerleader for the city in one of its darkest hours, but he was biased toward Center City and big business. John Street then focused on neighborhoods, but his administration suffered corruption scandals. Michael Nutter was a reformer, but he couldnt get along with Council. Jim Kenney pushed major initiatives through Council, but he appeared to run out of gas when crisis struck and the city needed an energetic leader.

Energy would not be a problem in a Parker administration.

Im naturally a high-energy person. I literally was a cheerleader, Parker said. I was the athlete, I ran track, and I was a cheerleader.

Parker speaks with a booming voice, and says she would not apologize for so many things  her upbringing, her tough-on-crime policies, her thoughts on the parking tax  that it has become a joke among political insiders.

And she doesnt want to be compared to Philadelphias first 99 mayors.

There is some added value that I can take from each of them, she said. But because no one like me has ever gotten an opportunity to get as close to doing this  if the people decided to choose me  no one should expect me to act like and or be like, walk, talk, govern like any of them.

Parker keeps a tight inner circle. Since winning the primary, she has been making decisions in consultation with two key staffers: Sincere Harris, who left a job at the White House to manage the campaign; and senior adviser Aren Platt, a political consultant with experience in state politics who was involved in the earliest conversations about Parkers campaign.

 READ MORE: Inside Cherelle Parkers winning campaign for Phillys Democratic mayoral primary

Parker, a former Council staffer and a ward leader, has an enormous network of political relationships. She rewards those who have stayed loyal to her, and like many politicians, she has a reputation for remembering those who dont.

Lately, Parker seems to be going out of her way to be magnanimous. She appeared at an event last week with Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson, the only veteran Council member who did not endorse her primary run. And shes spoken favorably about the 76ers plan to build a Center City arena, despite the team apparently funding a dark money group that backed Jeff Brown in the primary.

A narrative that has been promoted that Ive heard from people is that Cherelle Parker is vengeful, and she holds grudges, she said. And nothing could be further from the truth. We cant afford to hold a grudge about something that occurred in the primary election. We have to think bigger, quite frankly, stand taller.

Good deals and no deals

As a legislator, Parker rose to leadership positions and thrived behind the scenes.

In 2014, when she was chair of the Philadelphia delegation to the state House, the city was struggling to recover from the recession and needed a cash infusion for schools. Parker played a key role in legislation that authorized the city to create a new cigarette tax for that purpose, no simple task in a GOP-controlled legislature.

Parker knew that Republicans would use any hint of division among Philly leaders as an excuse not to pass the legislation. At the time, City Council President Darrell Clarke and then-Mayor Nutter were barely on speaking terms.

Parker cajoled them into signing a joint letter to state lawmakers, who approved of the new tax, and the schools opened on time in September.

Shes a convener. Everybody knows that. Shes been in this business for a long time, Darby said.

But Parkers insistence on forging a compromise with all sides is also visible in her defeats.

Parker in 2021 pushed for a cut to the city parking tax. She was hoping to strike a bargain between wealthy parking lot owners who would benefit from the cut and Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, which represents lot attendants.

The deal: Council would lower the tax from 25% to 17% if the lot operators improved pay for their workers.

For Parker, it would have been a win-win. But progressives opposed cutting taxes, urbanists didnt want to encourage car-friendly infrastructure, and many of her Council colleagues saw it as an unnecessary distraction during high-stakes budget talks.

Parker abandoned the bill when she couldnt get all lot operators on board, but its not clear that it could have passed.

It was a bad day for Parker, but it helped to cement her relationship with Local 32BJ. The union often supports more progressive candidates than Parker, a centrist, but it had worked with her for years.

In this years primary, she won their endorsement, a major coup that boosted her and likely deprived candidates running to her left of needed resources.

Transparency concerns

Parker admits that her insistence on preparation can have downsides, including making her appear inaccessible.

As a candidate and a Council member, Parker was far from the least accessible of her peers, and she almost always responded to media inquiries. But she almost never responded quickly.

You dont know how many times I fought with my team when [reporters] called and they want to call back in two minutes, she said. No, Im not calling back right now. I asked for some information  can you please go and get the information I asked? Let me read it. And then I will give you what my response is.

 READ MORE: Mayoral candidate Cherelle Parker pissed and angry after her team made dismissive comments about local journalists

Parkers commitment to accessibility is already being questioned. Last month, a campaign staffer accidentally forwarded to a journalist an internal discussion about how to handle media inquiries that included demeaning comments about smaller and diverse news outlets.

Parker apologized for her staffs actions and has said the episode doesnt reflect who she would be as mayor. Others have doubts, given her lack of public appearances over the summer and her teams reluctance to agree to debates with Oh.

As she looks toward January, Parker is asking Philadelphians to judge her not by how she handles the media, but by how she changes the city.

I want you to be able to say, Well, you know what, I see something different in my community or my neighborhood, she said. Not because Cherelle gave a speech, not because something she said, but because people can tangibly touch it, see it, taste it and feel it.
HARRISBURG  The Pennsylvania House returned from a three-month recess last week with more than $1 billion in unfinished business.

Approximately $1.1 billion from the state budget still needs approval, and was left hanging when lawmakers left Harrisburg for their summer break amid a breakdown in budget negotiations. So was hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for four state-related universities that allows those schools to offer in-state tuition discounts.

Lawmakers also have yet to agree on a new date for the 2024 Pennsylvania primary, which they want to move due to a conflict with Passover.

But they didnt tackle any of it last week. The House was tied 101-101 until a new House representative was sworn in Monday to return the Democrats to their one-seat majority.

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Instead, the House voted last week on a number of noncontroversial bills as lawmakers got back to work. As of Monday, none of these time-sensitive issues were scheduled for a floor vote.

Were in this situation where weve waited all summer to do what? asked House Republican Whip Rep. Tim ONeal (R., Washington). There isnt any reason why we couldnt be here, except to ensure a political win.

Heres a look at the outstanding issues House lawmakers will need to address soon:

$1.1 billion still incomplete in the state budget

The state budget was approved in August after a five-week standoff over a private-school voucher program that Gov. Josh Shapiro helped Senate GOP members create  and then vetoed because it lacked support from House Democrats.

The Senate returned to Harrisburg in August to send the $45.5 billion budget bill to Shapiro for his signature.

Now, $1.1 billion of that budget remains untouched in the state Treasury because additional legislation must be approved to create new programs and continue old ones. That money includes millions of dollars for Democratic priorities, such as a popular home repairs program, $100 million for the states poorest school districts, and $7.5 million in state funds for public defenders offices. It also includes a number of noncontroversial issues that still need legislative approval, like $20.7 million to increase ambulance reimbursement rates and millions set aside for health systems.

Senate Republicans and House Democrats havent yet reached an agreement to approve that spending. The Senate passed its own versions of these bills in August and cut out a number of the Democratic priorities. They also re-added the school voucher program to a separate bill they sent to the House.

Here is our first shot at a negotiation, sending something to the House and letting them counter, Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland) told The Inquirer at the time. Were negotiating in public now.

Beth Rementer, a spokesperson for House Democrats, said last week that conversations with Senate Republicans continue in good faith.

If those conversations do not bear fruit, the House stands ready to send a comprehensive [code bill] to the Senate for their consideration, she said.

The House has not scheduled any votes on the Senate Republicans proposal.

In-state tuition discounts for Pitt, Penn State, Temple, and Lincoln

More than $650 million in state funding still needs to be approved by the state House to go to its four state-related universities: the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania State University, Temple University, and Lincoln University. These schools receive annual appropriations from the state so they can offer an in-state tuition discount to Pennsylvania residents.

House legislators have voted twice this year to approve the state-related universities funding, but they failed both times to get the two-thirds majority vote needed to disburse the funds.

At a Pennsylvania Press Club meeting last month, House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler (R., Lancaster) said he had not seen any movement to date on reaching an agreement with House Democrats to approve state funding for the state-related schools.

House Republicans have opposed funding Pitt and Penn State in recent years, citing concerns with fetal tissue research at Pitt and gender-affirming care offered to minors at Penn States health system.

More recently, House Republican leaders say they oppose funding the schools until they freeze tuition and agree to greater oversight from the state.

ONeal noted a Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi column in PennLive as a recent win. Bendapudi argued that lawmakers create a performance-based funding model to reward institutions with additional dollars for achieving agreed-upon metrics, which House Republicans previously supported.

Rementer said that the universities fall semesters are well underway, and we can no longer wait to approve their funding.

However, House Democrats havent negotiated with House Republicans on the issue since July, ONeal said.

Moving the 2024 presidential primary election

Pennsylvanians will vote in the 2024 presidential primary election in less than seven months. But lawmakers still havent decided when voters will actually head to the polls.

Lawmakers want to change the primary date due to a scheduling conflict that would have voters casting their ballot on the first day of Passover. Traditional Jewish law prohibits many regular activities such as driving, working, and the use of electricity during the holiday, which is observed for eight days in the United States.

Lawmakers are still tied between two dates  March 19 or April 2. Top Democrats have said they favor April 2, because it will maintain the full 13-week election cycle and ensure that candidates can collect nominating petitions after Christmas. Republicans favor the earlier date, March 19, as a way to make Pennsylvania more decisive in presidential primaries.

The Senate last month approved a bill to move the primary to March 19. However, several senators acknowledged that a final agreement on a new date had not been reached.

A House committee will consider legislation Tuesday to move the primary date to April 2.
Bird Safe Philly and the Center City District unveiled the installation of a bird-friendly window treatment of exterior glass walls at Sister Cities Cafe on the third anniversary of the deaths of an estimated 1,500 birds that flew into Center City building windows. Read more

An estimated 1,500 birds died while colliding with skyscrapers and other buildings on Oct. 2, 2020, in a small section of Center City, drawing international attention and prompting local alarm that gave rise to a new organization, Bird Safe Philly.

On Monday, Bird Safe Philly commemorated that day three years ago by unveiling a bird-safe, dotted window treatment at the Sister Cities Cafe on Logan Square  a symbol of the groups success in bringing awareness to the issue of local bird strikes and successfully lobbying building owners to reduce lights at night.

Numerous birds have crashed into the cafes panoramic windows that oversee the citys Sister Cities Park. Now light gray dots, spaced two inches apart on the glass, should reduce collisions dramatically, Bird Safe Philly officials say. In fact, as workers were finishing the installation Sept. 27, a bird flew into the last unfinished section.

Bird Safe Philly, a collaborative of five organizations, raised money to work with the business advocacy group Center City District on the new window treatment. It was made by Ontario-based Feather Friendly and installed by Philadelphia-based Street Media. At least 78 birds have flown into the building in recent years. Center City District manages the building.

Perfect bird trap

We monitor many tall buildings, and people tend to think height is the problem, said Stephen Maciejewski, a volunteer for Bird Safe Philly who discovered the 2020 mass strike. But most people were shocked to hear that Sister Cities Cafe, a small one-story, green building could kill and injure so many birds. But its not the height of this building that makes it a perfect bird trap. Its the glass on all three sides.

Its estimated that 1,000 birds die each year in just a four-block area of Center City spanning 17th to 19th and Market to Arch. Thousands more are killed after striking low-slung buildings in other parts of the city. Overall, its estimated that as many as one billion birds fly into buildings in the United States annually.

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Birds use a variety of ways to navigate at night, including cues from the earths magnetic field and positions of stars. Weather, such as low cloud cover, can push birds lower, meaning they no longer have stars as a guide. Artificial lights can disorient them.

Some flying from remote northern habitats might have little experience with glass. As birds reach Philly in the dark, they are attracted to the lights inside the buildings. Some of the skyscrapers have indoor atriums, which could have led birds to think they could land there. On any given morning, street trees reflect in the glass, making it appear that they are inside buildings.

Philadelphia lies in a major path for millions of birds navigating the Atlantic Flyway, an especially busy avian skyway each spring and fall.

To help, Bird Safe Philly started Lights Out Philly, part of a National Audubon Society program. Building owners or management voluntarily darken their lights from midnight to 6 a.m. twice a year: from April 1 to May 31, and Aug. 15 to Nov. 15. About 140 building owners participate.

Wyncote Audubon Society covers part of Philadelphia as a local chapter of the National Audubon Society. Leigh Altadonna, the chapter president, said the Sister Cities Cafe project was conceived to demonstrate what can be done to help reduce bird strikes The group is working with other building owners throughout the area to install strike-reducing features. The deaths on Oct. 2, 2020, were the catalyst.

He also credited The Inquirers story on the bird strike for galvanizing people.

It was that event that led to a series of steps that created the foundation for Bird Safe Philly to be formed, Altadonna said.

More and more buildings

Stephanie Egger, who led the cafe project for Wyncote Audubon Society, said Bird Safe Philly raised $8,000 for the effort. Egger said workers had to be careful in installing the dots on the floor-to-ceiling glass walls, which already had an anti-graffiti film protecting them.

Sister Cities Cafe is essentially a one-story glass cube thats deadly for birds all around, Egger said. It consists of three whole only glass sides that not only reflect the trees and vegetation but also is transparent and lets the birds see directly through to the other side.

As a result, Egger said, the buildings design basically tricks or lures birds into it.

Keith Russell, a program manager at Audubon Mid-Atlantic, called bird strikes a growing problem.

We have more and more buildings built every year here in Philadelphia that are collision prone, Russell said. Our capacity to address this problem has really been taxed.
A barge carrying sand mined from the Tien River, a branch of the Mekong, in Dong Thap Province, August 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Tung

The Mekong Delta's rivers could run out of sand before 2035 at the current extraction rate of 35-55 million cubic meters a year, a new study has found.

The study released last week by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Vietnam said the volume of sand flowing down to the delta was less than four million cubic meters last year, much lower than the 6.8-7 million average in the past due to the construction of hydropower dams in the Mekong River's upstream areas.

Meanwhile, 35-55 million cubic meters of sand was extracted from its tributaries in the delta.

An author of the study, Sepehr Eslami, a senior researcher and advisor at Deltares, a Dutch consultancy, said at a conference held to release the study last Friday in Can Tho City that the sand bank reserve in the region is currently negative 42.3 million cubic meters.

The reserve must be positive or zero if there is to be no erosion.

"If the current exploitation speed continues, the sand reserve in the delta will only be enough to last until about 2035," Eslami said.

"If exploitation is reduced by 5% a year, the reserve can be maintained until 2040."

According to the study, the reserve is around 367-550 million cubic meters, accumulated over hundreds of years ensuring stability of water flow in rivers.

As of last year the delta had 595 eroded spots stretching almost 583 km along rivers and 48 spots running 222 km along the coast.

The research team predicted that if the sand reserves are fully depleted, the river depth will increase by 0.5-1 m, causing an additional 180-200 thousand hectares to be affected by salinity, and worsening erosion and subsidence in the delta.

But the study has a limitation: it was unable to calculate the volume of sand illegally mined at night.

It used satellite images to record the activities of sand mining barges between 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. to arrive at the data.

There is no indigenous research to provide data about illegal sand mining either.

To exploit sand sustainably, Ha Huy Anh, country manager of the WWF Vietnam's Sustainable Sand Management Project, said a regional agency should be set up to oversee it instead of having it done at the provincial level, which is the current modus operandi.

In the long run, Vietnam should limit the use of river sand for construction and work to replace it with other materials, he said.

He said the Netherlands and other upstream countries the Rhine Meuse Delta banned sand mining after realizing it is impossible to recover the sand in the rivers that had sediments deposited over centuries to create the delta.

For construction, they have used quarry dust and construction waste as substitutes for river sand or design buildings in such a way as to save construction materials.

The study by the WWF Vietnam is part of a project called "Drifting Sands: Mitigating the impacts of climate change in the Mekong Delta through public and private sector engagement in the sand industry" that is funded by the International Climate Initiative, one of the key instruments of the German government to support international climate action and biodiversity and managed by the WWF Germany.

It has been carried out with cooperation from Vietnam's Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Natural Resources and Environment, and Planning and Investment.

Its goal is to help maintain key ecological functions and reduce socio-economic vulnerability to climate change in the Mekong Delta.

It began in 2019 and will go on until 2024.

Nguyen Van Tien, deputy head of the agriculture ministry's Department of Dyke Management and Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, said the results would work as the basis for the government to study sustainable socioeconomic development plans, protect the environment and prevent natural disasters.

The director of the Southern Regional Hydrometeorological Station, Le Ngoc Quyen, said monitoring sand movement throughout the delta is a difficult task and has never been done.

So this research is meaningful for overall and long-term sand management as it predicts annual sand movement to assess reserves, contributing to balancing resource exploitation with economic development, he said.
There were obvious synergies and CE McDonald was already part of the Austbrokers network, Garbutt said. Our history has been based on bringing together like-minded businesses with a passion for customer service. This has resulted in greater financial strength and increased market share.
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Id also like to see what evidence the insurers have to show why, after one big significant claim, that a risk is uninsurable, she said. Do they have examples where a major loss like this has happened and then more have followed? I dont believe thats what usually happens.
Cyber security and related insurance practices are evolving at pace with countermeasures that were effective just two years ago now obsolete. Climate change significantly altered temperatures over the Northern hemisphere summer in 2023 and general liability insurers with memories of the drought and fires that caused so much damage during the last El Nino here are waiting to see what lies in store for Australia. The pandemic has also accelerated existing social change in the way the people work and use shared resources in their everyday lives, which requires a rethink of what kind of insurance is appropriate.
Meyer first came to BHSI in 2014 as a senior underwriter. She has since assumed increasingly senior positions within the companys North American casualty business, recently serving as head of life sciences. As head of product liability, she will continue to be based in Atlanta.
The feeling the syndrome creates is that women feel, or are made to feel, that they shouldnt be in the room. They dont deserve it. They shouldnt speak up. Maybe what theyre saying isnt right. And they dont understand the value they bring in to a conversation. They dont understand the value they bring to the organization, explained Vanvieldt.
An injured worker who collects workers compensation in Rhode Island cannot sue his employer in Massachusetts, according to a ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Both states bar any other recovery once an injured worker has received a payment.

In the same ruling, the court found that under Massachusetts law a homeowner who hires a firm for the purpose of remedying an obvious hazardous condition on her property does not owe the same duty of care to the contractor as she might to another person lawfully on her property.

In 2016, Ryan Ward suffered serious injuries to both his legs when the wall of a dilapidated and partially collapsed garage fell on him. The standalone garage was on a residential property located in Fall River, Massachusetts owned by Catherine Schnurr. Schnurr hired Julio Santanas Rhode Island firm, Go Green Services, LLC, to demolish and remove the garage. Ward worked for Go Green.

Before he was injured, Ward called his boss, Santana, and explained that he did not believe he could take down the structure safely in its then-present condition, and that additional equipment would be needed. Santana told the plaintiff that the job needed to be done, and said that he would try to get to the location as soon as he could.

Ward walked around the garage and reached for a protruding piece of the structure that he believed he could move freely. He pushed it back toward the inside of the garage. The garage then collapsed on top of him, pinning his legs underneath. He sustained bilateral leg fractures, which required surgery.

Ward, a Rhode Island resident, applied for workers compensation benefits with the Rhode Island Workers Compensation Court. Go Green, through its insurer, at first denied liability, claiming that Ward was an independent contractor and thus not entitled to workers compensation. A workers compensation judge agreed and denied his claim. Ward then sought a trial but before the case went to trial the parties settled for a lump-sum payment of $19,000. Ward signed a statement releasing Go Green and the insurer. The release did not expressly cover Santana, or any of the officers or employees of Go Green.

After seeking workers compensation benefits from Go Green in Rhode Island, Ward brought a negligence action in the Superior Court in Massachusetts against Santana individually and against Schnurr, the Massachusetts property owner.

In his defense, Go Greens Santana argued that Rhode Island and Massachusetts workers compensation laws, as well as the settlement release that the plaintiff signed, barred Wards tort claim, and that, in any event, Santana could not be held liable for the Wards injuries because he did not owe any duty to him.

Schnurr similarly contended that she had not owed any duty to the plaintiff, especially where the hazardous condition that the plaintiff was tasked with remedying was open and obvious and Go Green had been hired to remove it.

A Superior Court judge dismissed the claims against both Santana and Schnurr on summary judgment. The Supreme Judicial Court has now affirmed the dismissals.

The states high court said that while it is clear that the tort claims fall under Massachusetts law  they involve the condition of a Massachusetts property, and the injury occurred in Massachusetts  the case requires clarification as to the effect of the Rhode Island workers compensation settlement under Massachusetts law.

The court noted that it is a basic precept of workers compensation schemes that an employees remedy against an employer for injuries suffered on the job is generally limited to the remedy available under workers compensation law.

Both states laws bar any other recovery once an injured worker has received a payment. Thus by pursuing a workers compensation claim and accepting settlement funds in Rhode Island, Ward forfeited any additional claim against his employer, Go Green.

The court said the result is not different because Ward sued Santana rather than Go Green.

In short, by accepting the settlement, the plaintiff released not only Go Green but also Santana, as a matter of Rhode Island statutory and decisional law.

The court said that the plaintiffs release of Santana under Rhode Island law also operates to bar a tort suit under Massachusetts law that has similar exclusivity rules. The purpose of the exclusivity provision is, in part, to preclude exactly the type of tort litigation the plaintiff seeks to pursue here, the court stated.

Claim Against Homeowners

As for the negligence claim against the homeowner, the lower court granted summary judgment for Schnurr on the ground that under the circumstances she owed no duty of care to the Ward. Ordinarily, a landowner does owe a duty of care to those lawfully on his or her property. In this case, however, Schnurr claims that her situation fell into a narrow exception to that rule where the person injured was lawfully on the premises for the very purpose of remedying the hazardous condition that caused the harm.

In affirming that reasoning, the Supreme Court cited the commonsense recognition that a landowner who has a hazardous condition on his or her property may need to invite onto the property another person or persons to remedy that condition. The law, of course, wishes to encourage behavior that remedies hazardous conditions. 

Also, the person engaged to remedy a hazardous condition differs markedly from an ordinary invitee. This person is aware of the danger, and thus there should be no need for warning, and this person will have held him or herself out as capable of remedying the condition. Under those circumstances, it is reasonable for the law to reallocate the risk of harm from the property owner to the person who has sought to take on, and to alleviate, the hazard, the court concluded.

The court added that there is no evidence to indicate that Schnurr either did or should have anticipated the harm that befell the plaintiff. In retaining Go Green, she was appropriately seeking to remedy that risk. Both Go Green and the plaintiff were also aware of the risk and presented themselves as competent to safely remediate it, Thus, Schnurr owed no duty to the plaintiff.

Topics Lawsuits Workers' Compensation Massachusetts
Eli Lilly and Co. and a former employee agreed to settle a lawsuit in which the worker claimed she was terminated after pointing out poor manufacturing practices and data falsification involving one of its blockbuster diabetes drugs, according to court filings.

The former human resources officer, Amrit Mula, contended in the lawsuit that she repeatedly urged leaders at a New Jersey plant to remedy problems involving several biologic drugs, including Type 2 diabetes medicine Trulicity.

Lilly called Mula a non-scientist whose allegations were simply wrong, according to court filings.

Both sides reached a tentative agreement this year and were working to finalize the settlement, according to an August court filing.

A judge set a Wednesday deadline to inform the court whether they would resume litigating, and said that if they did not, the case would be dismissed. Neither side made additional court filings.

A Lilly spokesperson said the resolution in no way admits any wrongdoing, and did not comment on details of the settlement. An attorney for Mula did not respond to an inquiry.

The New Jersey facility has been under scrutiny by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 2019 when inspectors found quality control data had been deleted and not appropriately audited, Reuters has reported. The plant has also produced several cancer medications and a COVID-19 therapy.

Inspectors later returned and found more problems, including that batches of drugs had been discarded because of manufacturing mistakes and quality control problems were not being properly investigated by the company to prevent recurrence.

Lilly has said it was working collaboratively with the FDA to address the agencys concerns.

Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice in 2021 launched a criminal investigation following a Reuters story that detailed some of Mulas allegations.

No charges have been filed. A DOJ spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the status of the investigation.

(Reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco and Marisa Taylor in Washington; Editing by Jamie Freed)

Topics New Jersey Manufacturing
A sluice gate is built on a canal of the Tien River to prevent salinity intrusion in Tien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta. Photo by VnExpress/Cuu Long

The Mekong Delta region is scrambling to protect millions of hectares of crops from drought and saltwater intrusion that could be as severe as in 2016 and 2020.

At the end of September Nguyen Van Can, 50, of Hoa Luu Commune in Hau Giang Province's Long My District prepared to sow winter-spring rice in his three-hectare farm.

He said he was sowing earlier than usual fearing a possible drought once the rainy season ends in October. The dry season in southern Vietnam lasts from November to April.

"Land in this area is at risk of salinity from the sea and with the forecast that the rainy season will end early this year, farmers have started the winter-spring crop earlier than normal."

Tran Ba Hoang, director of the Southern Institute of Water Resources Research, said at a seminar in Can Tho City on September 14 that the total rainfall in the delta this year is forecast to be around 1,350mm, or 13% lower than normal.

The Southern Regional Hydrometeorological Station said the flow in the dry season from the Mekongs upstream areas would be 20 - 25% lower than normal.

In Hau Giang Province, 12,000 ha of winter-spring rice and more than 18,500 ha of fruit orchards are likely to be affected by saltwater intrusion up rivers.

In Ben Tre Province, Vo Van Duc, 64, of Chau Thanh District is closely following the rain and drought forecasts to protect his durian farm.

"After hearing that this year's saltwater intrusion will last longer than normal, my family has drilled another well to get water," he said.

According to the province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, almost all locals have made preparations to store water for both household use and irrigation, and dug canals to lead water from rivers into their farms after learning from the shortages of 2016 and 2020.

In the 2020 dry season the delta, home to 12 provinces and Can Tho City, was hit by the worst drought ever that caused historic levels of salinity in its rivers as water flowed inland from the sea.

The rainy season arrived late in 2019 and was shorter than usual, resulting in 8% less rainfall than normal at 1,240 millimeters, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

A series of upstream dams in China is seen as preventing the natural flow of water down the Mekong, while the sea level rise and gradual subsidence of southern Vietnam are also blamed for saltwater intrusion into the delta.

By mid-March 2020 seawater had intruded 50-110 kilometers into all branches of the Mekong, two to eight kilometers more than in 2016 when the region suffered the worst drought in a century.

It damaged 41,900 ha of rice and 6,650 ha of fruit orchards, while 96,000 families struggled to obtain water for their daily needs.

During the 2016 drought 160,000 ha of paddy were damaged as farmers lost an estimated 800,000 tons of rice. The losses were worth VND5.5 trillion (US$237 million).

In the 2023-24 winter-spring rice crop, farmers will plant 1.47 million hectares and expect to harvest 10.6 million tons.

This year, with El Nino returning, experts have warned of less rainfall and more drought in Vietnam.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has said if the drought and saltwater intrusion are as severe as in 2016, the delta could lack the water to irrigate 60,000 ha of rice and 43,000 ha of fruits in Long An, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, and Soc Trang provinces.

Tran Hoang Nhat Nam, deputy director of the Tien Giang Province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said six sluice gates have been built along the Tien River, a Mekong tributary flowing through the province, to keep out salinity.

They will help store enough water to irrigate 128,000 ha (316,300 acres) of lands and provide 1.1 million people in Tien Giang and neighboring Long An Province with drinking water.

Le Tu Do, director of the Mekong Delta branch of the Southern Irrigation Management One Member Ltd., which operates the region's biggest irrigation system in Kien Giang, said the company is keeping a close eye on salinity levels inside and outside the system to make timely adjustments.

The system, on the Cai Lon and Cai Be rivers, was completed last year at a cost of VND3.3 trillion ($142.2 million)

The system, funded by government bonds, irrigates 384,000 ha of lands in Kien Giang, Hau Giang, Ca Mau and Bac Lieu provinces.
Five Black and Hispanic electricians who felt threatened when several nooses were found at an Amazon warehouse construction site in Connecticut have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the company and two contractors, accusing them of inaction, retaliation and racial discrimination.

The state chapter of the NAACP had called for hate crime charges, but no one was ever arrested.

Plaintiffs were terrified to be in the crosshairs of an FBI investigation, says the lawsuit, which was filed Sept. 21 in U.S. District Court. As men of color from poor and working-class backgrounds, they all had tenuous relationships with law enforcement. Here, they had vocally complained as witnesses to hateful criminal conduct in their workplace and yet they were now being treated as perpetrators.

Seattle-based Amazon, Wayne J. Griffin Electric and RC Andersen are named as defendants in the lawsuit. The electricians worked for Wayne J. Griffin Electric, based in Holliston, Massachusetts, while RC Andersen, based in Fairfield, New Jersey, was the construction manager for the distribution center project.

Phone and email messages seeking comment were left Thursday for Amazon, the two contractors, the companies` lawyers and the FBI.

The lawsuit alleges violations of federal and state laws, including racial discrimination and creating a hostile work environment. It seeks an undisclosed amount of money for damages.

One of the primary points of the case is obviously that no people of color should have to work in an environment where even one noose is hung, said Stephen Fitzgerald, a New Haven lawyer for the electricians. A noose is the most hateful symbol of racism in this country.

The plaintiffs were among about 50 Griffin electricians working at the site, along with iron workers from Texas, who were displaying confederate flags. Some of the nooses were hung up, while others were found on the floor, the lawsuit states.

After the first two nooses were found in late April 2021, Amazon and the contractors did not do anything to prevent further incidents, such as instituting security patrols, the lawsuit alleges.

The electricians installed security cameras at the site, but the cameras were never turned on and were pointed away from areas inside the building were nooses might be hung, the suit claims.

While law enforcement authorities investigated, Griffin officials made comments to the plaintiffs accusing them of leaving the nooses in efforts to be transferred to other jobs that paid a higher rate, the suit alleges.

The electricians also allege that FBI officials first talked to Griffin managers. The way an FBI agent later questioned the plaintiffs suggested he believed the electricians were the perpetrators, the suit says.

The lawsuit says Amazon, Griffin and RC Andersen failed to take adequate steps to stop the noose incidents. It alleges the companies were aware of the problem of nooses at Amazon work sites as early as 2017, when a noose was found at an Amazon distribution center in Bloomfield, Connecticut, also near Hartford.

Another noose was found at an Amazon construction site in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, in March 2022, the lawsuit says.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Training Development Contractors Construction
China blocked a senior executive at US risk advisory firm Kroll from leaving the mainland, the Wall Street Journal reported, in the latest case of authorities imposing exit bans on the employees of foreign companies.

Michael Chan, a Hong Kong-based managing director at Kroll, is assisting an investigation into a case that dates back a few years, the Journal said, citing people it didnt identify. Neither Chan nor the company is the target of the probe, according to the report.

China has imposed exit bans on employees of foreign firms because of investigations before. A senior banker at Nomura Holdings Inc. has been barred from leaving the country in a move connected to a long-running probe of a top dealmaker in the country, the Financial Times reported earlier this month.

China Fines US Firm Mintz $1.5M for Unapproved Work, After Raiding its Beijing Office

The actions have spooked some foreign businesses, highlighting the tensions between Beijings increased focus on economic security and its goals of attracting more overseas investment to bolster its own economy and increase its influence abroad.

Foreign firms providing advisory services in China have come under tighter scrutiny this year. Chinese authorities fined US due diligence firm Mintz Group in August for illegal data collection, months after officials raided Mintzs offices in Beijing and detained five of its Chinese employees.

Security Concerns

In April, American consultancy Bain & Co. said Chinese authorities had questioned staff at its Shanghai office. In May, Chinese state security officials visited a branch of Capvision, an expert-research firm with Chinese founders and headquarters in New York and Shanghai.

Krolls Chan traveled to the mainland in July and subsequently informed his employer he couldnt leave, the Wall Street Journal reported. A Hong Kong passport holder, Chan can move freely in mainland China and is still working, the paper said.

Chinese law prohibits those authorities suspect of crimes from leaving the country. Chinese citizens judged to have endangered national security can also face exit bans under the countrys recently updated espionage law.

Chan and a representative for Kroll didnt respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg News. Krolls New York office also didnt immediately respond to a Bloomberg email. Chinas foreign ministry didnt respond to a query sent on Friday, a holiday in the country.

US Warning

Chinas use of exit bans has been a point of contention between Beijing and Washington. In June, the US State Department advised citizens to reconsider travel to China based on what it called the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans.

An academic analysis published in 2022, which analyzed data from six governments, found 128 cases of foreign citizens facing Chinese exit bans, with at least a third of the cases driven by business disputes.

Even before a court has made a judgment, the staff of companies involved in a lawsuit can be subject to exit bans, said Jeremy Daum, senior research scholar in law at the Paul Tsai China Center.

People not suspected of being accused of breaking the law can also face measures equivalent to exit bans. Chinas high court has made an interpretation that witnesses who will be required to appear at court for trial may be requested to remain in the country, Daum added.

As foreign investment in China has declined this year, Beijing is increasing efforts to allay business concerns. It has proposed relaxing regulations on transferring data abroad after new data laws sparked widespread anxiety about how multinationals could continue to operate in Asias largest economy.

With assistance from James Mayger and Jacob Gu.

Related:

Copyright 2023 Bloomberg.

Topics USA China
Skyrisks Ltd., the London-based MGA and specialist in the advanced air mobility (AAM) sector, has officially launched with capacity and a cornerstone investment from Convex Group, the specialty re/insurer.

Financial details of Convexs investment were not disclosed.

Skyrisks said AAM sector embodies the future of aviation, leveraging revolutionary new aircraft, such as the new breed of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, and a broad array of innovative technologies to ensure the safe, quick, affordable and sustainable movement of people and goods.

Skyrisks offers insurance capacity and coverage for operators of eVTOL aircraft; electric short take-off and landing (eSTOL) aircraft, and conventional take-off and landing (eCTOL) aircraft. Other coverage areas include autonomous and remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) fleets; manufacturers of AAM aircraft and major components; suppliers and distributors of AAM component parts; AAM service, maintenance, and repair operations; vertiport construction and operations; AAM airspace management infrastructure and services; alternative aviation fuels and powertrains, and next generation avionics and technologies.

The formation of the company with its intent to use Convex capacity was first announced in March 2023. Skyrisks was first incorporated in January.

Innovative insurance is a core enabler for the successful adoption of revolutionary aircraft, power systems, and next-generation infrastructure, said Alistair Blundy, chief executive officer of Skyrisks. We meet the emerging risk landscape with proactive appetite, bespoke solutions, and A-rated insurance capacity. We are open for business and accepting submissions. The foundational reception and support from broker partners is outstanding.

Mike Hansen, head of Aerospace at Convex, commented: Our approach to sustainability is integral to and integrated in Convexs strategy. The very purpose of commercial insurance is to support the sustainability of business activities. That is why we are committed to advancing the sustainability agenda across the aviation sector in a long-term partnership with Skyrisks, the leaders in AAM insurance.

Shelley Lyddon-Mills, chief actuary Bermuda at Convex, will join the Board of Directors of Skyrisks.

We are on a mission to be a market leader in AAM insurance. A key driver of our innovative edge will stem from the ability to integrate multiple data sources into a sophisticated API-enabled pricing engine, unlocking valuable metrics and empowering us to walk side-by-side with AAM companies as they grow, Lyddon-Mills said.

Source: Skyrisks

Photograph: The Ryse Recon is shown during the CES tech show, on Friday, Jan. 6, 2023, in Las Vegas. The Recon ultralight is a one-passenger eVTOL multicopter aircraft with a top speed of 63 mph (101 km/h) and has a range of 25 miles (40 km). The aircraft sports six propellers, six electric motors, an open cockpit and open-framed fuselage. The multicopter is capable of making land-based and water takeoffs and landings. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Topics Insurance Wholesale
This edition of International People Moves details appointments at Lockton Europe and Sompo International

A summary of these new hires follows here.

Lockton Europe Taps WTWs Rowley as Head of North American Property

Lockton, the independent insurance broker, announced the appointment of Tom Rowley as the Europe divisions new head of North American Property, based in London.

He takes up his role with immediate effect and will be responsible for driving forward the North American Property team in London, focusing on delivering the best possible risk solutions for clients. He will work in conjunction with Locktons US and Canadian retail partners, as well as in close collaboration with the Lockton US Property Practice, led by Mike Andler in New York. He will also become a member of the P&C Specialties Executive Committee.

Rowley brings over 20 years of experience to the role, joining after five years at WTW, where he started as a development leader, before becoming head of North American Property at the broker. Prior to that, he spent just over 16 years at Brit Insurance in a number of underwriting roles, including short-tail portfolio director, divisional director for property PRV and class underwriter for open market property. Rowley began his career at Denham Syndicate Management in 1999 as an assistant underwriter.

Following Rowleys appointment, Adam Watson will be promoted from the existing Head of North American Property into the newly created role of Production Leader for P&C Specialties. This role will be to lead and execute the P&C Specialties global production strategy, as well as drive forward key growth initiatives and new product development.

Both Rowley and Watson will report to Simon Scholfield, head of P&C Specialties.

The appointment comes after the Locktons P&C division announced the arrival of Clarissa Franks from Marsh as its head of UK P&C Retail in November.

***

Sompo Intl Names Faugas From AGCS as Country Mgr, Insurance, France

Sompo International, the global provider of commercial and consumer property and casualty re/insurance, announced Marilyn Faugas as country manager, Insurance, France.

She will report to Ralph Brand, president, Continental Europe Insurance. Faugas will be based in Paris. The company is in the process of establishing insurance operations in France, subject to required regulatory notifications.

Faugas joins Sompo International from Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, where she spent 13 years, most recently as their country legal representative for France. She has also held underwriting and management positions in Paris for ACE Europe and Marsh.

I am delighted that Marilyn is joining our senior leadership team as we continue to grow our presence and capabilities across Continental Europe. With her extensive market, underwriting and management expertise, Im confident that she will build strong relationships with our broker partners and clients while expanding our offerings and services across France, commented Brand.

Topics Europe Property Willis Towers Watson
Ohio victims of child sexual abuse while in the Boy Scouts of America could see more compensation for the crimes committed against them under legislation passed by the state Senate last week in a unanimous vote and is expected to be approved in the House.

The bill`s passage comes amid the organization`s bankruptcy settlement, first filed in 2020 after tens of thousands of men nationwide brought forth claims they had been sexually abused by their Scout leaders. The organization filed bankruptcy in an attempt to continue operating while still partially compensating victims after an onslaught of lawsuits against them.

Nearly 2,000 abuse claims have been filed in Ohio.

Currently, the amount victims receive from the organizations settlement depends on the length of the statute of limitations for civil claims in the state that they live in, as well as the length and severity of their abuse.

The legislation voids the state`s current civil statute of limitations in bankruptcy cases, in an effort to ensure Ohio victims of Boy Scouts abuse get more compensation.

By voiding Ohio`s existing cutoff of 12 years, the bill would ensure that any victim filing a claim receives all of the money theyre owed through the settlement, rather than a fraction of it.

Nearly 2,000 survivors of childhood sexual abuse are one step closer to justice today, said the bills sponsor, Rep. Jessica Miranda, a Cincinnati area Democrat and survivor of sexual abuse. I see this as the first step towards meaningful statute of limitations reform.

The Associated Press typically does not name sexual assault victims unless they come forward publicly, as Miranda has done.

The proposed law would sunset after five years and only applies to organizations that have been federally recognized as a congressional charter  a recognition given to the Boy Scouts of America in the early 1900s.

A nearly identical version of the legislation already passed the state House, where final approval is anticipated next month.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine would need to sign off for it to become law.

A spokesman for DeWine declined to comment on the bill.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Talent Ohio Politics
A federal appeals court on Saturday blocked a venture capital fund from moving forward with a program that awards funding to businesses run by Black women in a case by the anti-affirmative action activist behind the successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to race-conscious college admissions policies.

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 2-1 vote granted a request by Edward Blums American Alliance for Equal Rights to temporarily block Fearless Fund from considering applications for grants only from businesses led by Black women.

Blums group asked the court to do so while it appealed a judges Sept. 26 ruling denying it a preliminary injunction blocking Fearless Fund from moving forward with its racially exclusive program. Grant applications were due Saturday.

The judges in the majority, U.S. Circuit Judges Robert Luck and Andrew Brasher, agreed with Blums group that Fearless Funds racially exclusionary grant program likely violated Section 1981 of the 1866 Civil Rights Act, a Civil War-era law that bars racial bias in contracting.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash earlier this week concluded that under the U.S. Constitutions First Amendments free speech protections, Fearless Fund had a right to express its belief in the importance of Black women to the economy through charity.

But the appeals courts majority, comprised of two appointees of Republican former President Donald Trump, said the First Amendment does not give the defendants the right to exclude persons from a contractual regime based on race.

Blum in a statement said his group was gratified that the 11th Circuit has recognized the likelihood that the Fearless Strivers Grant Contest is illegal. Defense lawyers said they planned to seek further appellate review.

We remain committed to defending our clients meaningful work, said Jason Schwartz, a lawyer for Fearless Fund.

Fearless Fund describes itself as built by women of color for women of color.

The lawsuit is one of three that Blums Texas-based group has filed since August challenging grant and fellowship programs designed by the venture capital fund and two law firms to help give Black, Hispanic and other underrepresented minority groups greater career opportunities.

A different group founded by Blum, who is white, was behind the litigation that led to the June decision, powered by the Supreme Courts 6-3 conservative majority, declaring unlawful race-conscious student admissions policies used by Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.

According to the Fearless Fund, businesses owned by Black women in 2022 received less than 1% of the $288 billion that venture capital firms deployed.

The fund aims to address that disparity, and counts JPMorgan Chase JPM.N, Bank of America BAC.N and MasterCard MA.N as investors. It has invested nearly $27 million in 40 businesses led by minority women since its founding in 2019.

It also provides grants, and Blums lawsuit took aim at its Fearless Strivers Grant Contest, which awards Black women who own small businesses $20,000 in grants and other resources to grow their businesses.

The fund argued Blum was trying to turn a seminal civil rights statute on its head by suing it under a Civil War-era law enacted to protect formerly enslaved Black people from racial bias.

U.S. Circuit Judge Charles Wilson, an appointee of Democratic former President Bill Clinton, in a dissenting opinion on Saturday called it a perversion of Congress intent to use that law against a remedial program like Fearless Funds.

Topics Funding
Independent insurance agents report unprecedented satisfaction with their carrier partners, but that doesnt mean they arent keeping their options open due to the rising cost of premiums.

According to the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Independent Agent Satisfaction Study, overall agent satisfaction with insurers of both personal lines and commercial lines has reached an all-time high, surpassing 2022s record-setting score.

Year over year, personal lines satisfaction has achieved a significant 17-point increase, reaching a record 774 on a 1,000-point scale. Commercial lines satisfaction has increased by six points to 762 points out of 1,000. The most significant gains in satisfaction with commercial lines are in claims process and support and communication, while the largest gains in personal lines are claims process and commission.

Even so, as client renewals come around, more agents have been shopping for lower prices to help with retention. More than half of personal lines (57%) and commercial (52%) lines agents say they are proactively shopping for clients more now than two years ago.

Carriers are doing a great job of providing quality service to agents, and it creates a huge competitive advantage, said Stephen Crewdson, senior director of insurance business intelligence at J.D. Power. Agents are more willing to place business with a carrier when they are more satisfied with their experience.

Agents cited the most significant factors in placing business with a specific insurer as ease of quoting (18% personal and 17% commercial) and risk appetite aligned with agency (13% personal and 15% commercial). Underwriting experience is more important for commercial lines (10%) than personal lines (5%). Commission and incentives (6% personal and 5% commercial) are among the least important factors.

However, the uptick in agents shopping their clients policies shows that rising premiums are the ultimate disruptor, threatening to upend even a strong existing relationship, Crewdson said. That puts the onus on carriers to find ways to incentivize agents to stay by offering an experience that can justify these cost hikes.

Many independent agents are part of an agency alliance, giving them better access to more carriers, better buying access and increased support and communication. Generally speaking, the larger the alliance, the more satisfied agents are with insurers. However, bigger isnt always better. The largest alliances ($50 million+ in revenue) are the least satisfied of all alliance groups (793 for personal lines and 755 for commercial lines), and agents are less satisfied than agents not in an alliance for commercial lines (765).

This year, Auto-Owners Insurance ranks highest among insurers for personal lines, scoring 839. Erie Insurance (829) ranks second and Progressive (806) ranks third. In 2022, Erie was first followed by Auto-Owners, The Hanover and Travelers.

Auto-Owners maintained its top rank among insurers of commercial lines for a third consecutive year, scoring 847. Cincinnati Insurance (809) ranks second and The Hartford (792) ranks third. These results mirror those from 2022. Progressive moved from below the segment average in 2022 to the fourth spot in 2023.

The study was developed with the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA). It evaluates the evolving role of independent agents in P&C insurance distribution, general business outlook, management strategy and overall satisfaction with personal lines and commercial lines insurers in the United States.

Topics Carriers Agencies
Almost two years after Progressive Insurance announced it would stop renewing some homeowners policies in Florida, Flo and crew have dropped another 100,000 HO and landlord policies in the state.

The insurance giant and Florida regulators said Progressive had struck an agreement with Tampa-based Loggerhead Reciprocal Insurance Exchange, a recent entrant into the Florida market, to offer replacement policies for affected customers early next year.

The dropped HO policies were considered high risk, although Progressive did not say which counties were most impacted. The carrier also will discontinue dwelling-fire and DP-3 policies in the state, and will begin sending nonrenewal notices in late December.

Also, the company said it has determined that certain agents will no longer represent Progressive Home insurance. The insurer did not name the agents but said they would be notified soon.

In a statement, Progressive said it needed to take the actions to ensure we can be a long-term, viable property carrier option for independent agents.

While we need to make these business decisions to help rebalance our book, were encouraged by and grateful for the work of Florida state officials who helped recently enact needed legislative reforms that are stabilizing the insurance business environment and encouraging new carriers to enter the market, the statement reads.

Progressive has a strong presence in Florida. The state represents about 6.5% of all single-family homes in the US, but 17% of all homes insured by Progressive are there, the company said.

Florida is a priority for Progressive Home and we are not leaving the property market, the statement said. We look forward to realizing the benefits of the recent state market reforms while we continue to insure more than 200,000 Floridians and their homes.

Progressive in July 2022 sent a similar bulletin to agents, explaining it had temporarily stopped writing new DP-3 policies in the turbulent Florida market. That came eight months after it had stopped renewing some HO policies. Weve made this difficult decision now so we can remain a stable and viable property market solution for years to come, the bulletin read.

Progressive is one of several national carriers that have pulled back to some degree from Florida and other markets. American International Group said in June it would stop writing homeowners in high-risk ZIP codes in Florida, California, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Montana, New York and Wyoming. Farmers Insurance Group also said it would exit its Farmers-branded personal lines in Florida, although its Foremost subsidiaries remain.

Loggerhead, approved earlier this year to do business in the state, was founded by former Auto Club Group executives Landon Todd Dixon and James Santo. It agreed this summer to take out about 1,000 policies from Citizens Property Insurance Corp., Floridas state-created insurer of last resort.

The pullback by Progressive could bring some opportunity to others in the market. Florida Peninsula, one of the larger insurers in the state with more than 200,000 policies in force, announced Monday that it has begun offering a new dwelling-fire coverage for landlords.

The product is designed to cover homes that may not be eligible for standard home insurance policies, including homes with older roofs, vacation homes and investment properties, the company said in a news release.

Update: A previous version of this article contained an incorrect photograph of James Santo.

Topics Florida Agencies
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP)  A traffic stop captured on video by a bystander shows a handcuffed Black man with swollen eyes and a bloody face sitting on the ground surrounded by officers outside a vehicle in northeast Florida, and the officers` law enforcement agency says it has launched an internal review.

Force was used while taking 24-year-old LeKeian Woods into custody on Friday, and the agency was conducting an administrative review of what happened to see if any policies were violated, the Jacksonville Sheriff`s Office said in a statement.

The agency takes all allegations of inappropriate use of force by JSO officers seriously, the sheriff`s office said.

The sheriff`s office said it couldn`t comment any further because the incident was being investigated.

The video released by Woods` attorney, Harry Daniels, shows at least three officers on top of Woods, who is chest-down on grass besides a car. At one point, an officer appears to slam Woods` heads into the ground. After he is handcuffed, Woods is propped up against an officer`s legs, seemingly unable to sit up on his own. Later, he struggles to stand up.

Daniels told The Associated Press on Sunday that after his arrest, Woods was taken to a hospital for treatment of a severe concussion. In a statement a day earlier, the attorney said his client was lucky to be alive.

If this video of the officers repeatedly assaulting LeKeian, slamming his head in the ground and tossing him around like a ragdoll while hes handcuffed and defenseless isnt enough to convince you that these officers need to be off the street, just look at LeKeians face, Daniels said. He looks like he just went 12 rounds with a professional boxer.

The traffic stop comes more than a month after a white man wearing a mask and firing a weapon emblazoned with a swastika gunned down three Black people at a Dollar General store in a racist attack in predominantly-Black Jacksonville neighborhood.

Online records show that Woods was being held in custody on Sunday on charges of armed traffic of methamphetamine, armed traffic of cocaine, armed possession of a controlled substance, resisting an officer with violence and violation of probation, among other charges.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Florida
Foreign tourists join a parade during the Mid-Autumn Festival in Hoi An in central Vietnam, September 28, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Dac Thanh

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to increase the foreign tourist arrival target to 13 million since the original target of eight million has been achieved.

Bu late September Vietnam had received 8.9 million visitors.

The ministry would seek to increase the target by 56% since at least 1.2 million visitors are expected to arrive each month for the remainder of the year, deputy minister Doan Van Viet said at a tourism conference late last week.

The peak season tourism season typically lasts from September to April as western tourists flock for winter.

Vietnam's initial target of eight million was the lowest among the top five Southeast Asian tourism countries, according to travel market intelligence firm Outbox Consulting.

The changes to visa policies have fostered a recovery, Viet said.

Many tourism insiders are also optimistic that the new target is achievable.

Hoang Nhan Chinh, director of the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board secretariat, said the government has provided strong support by easing visa policies.

Vietnam would get 12-13 million foreign visitors, or even more, and if nothing changes there would be a full recovery to pre-Covid levels next year, he added.

From Aug. 15 Vietnam has been offering e-visas to citizens of all countries and for 90 days and multiple entries.

It has also extended the duration of stay in Vietnam from 15 to 45 days for citizens of 13 countries unilaterally exempted from visas.

But Ha Van Sieu, deputy director general of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said tourism activities have not fully recovered even at major tourist destinations due to the impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war and limited travel by Chinese tourists amid an economic slowdown in their country.

Chinese and Russian tourists used to be Vietnam's largest tourism markets before the pandemic.

The number of Chinese tourists in January-September was 1.1 million, only equivalent to 28% of pre-pandemic levels, and Russia is no longer among the 10 biggest tourist markets.
(Bloomberg)  Semi trailer-sized machines could provide a unique solution to a major source of the fossil fuel industrys methane problem. Rather than flaring or venting the planet-warming gas into the atmosphere, the machines can convert it into methanol, a useful industrial material and fuel.

Florida-based startup M2X Energy has raised more than $20 million from investors, including Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures, to build its gas-to-methanol trailers. The methanol plants on wheels could help reduce methane emissions at remote locations like North Dakotas Bakken shale play where gas is often produced as a byproduct of oil and a dearth of pipeline space means the fuel isnt transported to market.

In the US, more than 286.7 billion cubic feet of gas was wasted through flaring or venting in 2021 from upstream oil and gas facilities, although the actual figure is likely far larger because some releases dont get reported and the total doesnt include emissions from some key producing states that dont track the data. Even so, thats enough gas to supply roughly 4.9 million US homes for an entire year. Globally, about $15.9 billion worth of gas was wasted through flaring last year, according to the World Bank. The practice also damages the climate.

The idea is to tackle the problem of flaring and venting, especially in the oil and gas industry, which is one of the biggest problems as far as carbon emissions and methane emissions are concerned, said Max Pieri, chief executive officer of M2X, which currently has a demonstration unit hooked up to a well in North Dakota.

Methane, which is made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms, is the primary component of natural gas and has a devastating impact on the climate. The invisible, odorless gas has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its first 20 years in the atmosphere. Although combusting the gas through a flare significantly reduces the climate impact, the practice isnt optimal because it wastes fuel that would otherwise be sold and still contributes to global warming because the byproduct of burning it is carbon dioxide.

New studies also show that flaring may have a bigger climate impact than previously thought. Governments and industry have historically assumed that flares combust methane at a 98% efficiency rate. But scientists using airborne sampling across three US fossil fuel basins found flares effectively only destroyed 91.1% of methane. The new amount constitutes 4% to 10% of total US oil and gas methane emissions, according to a study published in Science last year.

Oil wells typically produce a mixture of crude, gas and water that are separated with heat. When an M2X trailer arrives on site, gas that is normally piped to a flare a safe distance away is diverted through a pipe. Although M2Xs initial demonstration project in the Bakken uses supplemental power and an external chiller to get data on power and chiller demand, future commercial units will be fully powered by the units adapted internal combustion engine fueled by the gas stream.

Once inside the trailer, the engine oxidizes the gas to produce a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide known as syngas. Methanol is produced by passing the syngas over a standard methanol copper zinc oxide catalyst.

The majority of the worlds methanol is made from natural gas or coal at large, centralized facilities where the fossil fuel is converted into syngas by heating it with steam in the presence of a catalyst. That process done at scale is cost-effective, even after paying for natural gas.

M2X also plans to pay producers for gas, although prices could go to zero or drillers could even pay M2X depending on methane regulations, according to the startup. The company declined to disclose its production costs, although Pieri said it compares well with conventional approaches.

Methanol is primarily used as a feedstock for producing chemicals such as formaldehyde, and its a building block in thousands of products from car parts to paint to construction materials. Roughly 98 million metric tons of methanol are produced annually, according to the Methanol Institute.

But the compound could also play a significant role in the energy transition because when combusted as a fuel, it generates less CO2 and particulate matter than many other fossil fuel-derived products. That means it could help curb the climate impact of sectors like marine shipping. Although about 20% of global supplies are currently blended into gasoline and used in alternative fuels, the chemical compound still has some challenges to reach widespread adoption because it less energy per liter when compared to conventional fuels like diesel.

While capturing fossil gas that would otherwise be flared or vented and using the fuel to produce methanol offers climate benefits, the approach can also harden reliance on fossil fuels, said Anastacia Davies, an analyst with BloombergNEF, which forecasts a substantial role for methanol made from renewables in the global energy transition.

As a fuel, methanol derived from flare gas is better than methanol produced from fossil fuels, but not as good as methanol from renewable energy and direct air capture, said Davies.

M2X isnt the only company trying to solve the problem of wasted gas  and profit from it. Texas crypto miners have touted hooking up generators to run off gas that would otherwise be wasted as a means to power the vast computer arrays they use to create new Bitcoin. Others are looking at building data centers that can be powered using the surplus gas.

Read more: A Way to Halt Natural Gas Flaring Arrives on the Back of a Truck

But the natural intermittency of gas flows during production, weather conditions and volatile electricity prices can create challenges for those operations. M2X says that because each of its gas-to-methanol units can process between 35,000 and 120,000 standard cubic feet of gas per day, they can accommodate normal changes in flow from oil and gas wells. And because methanol is liquid at ambient temperature, its easy to store and transport.

M2X expects to deploy up to a dozen units over the next one to two years in oilfields in the US and internationally. The companys business model in the US is to purchase stranded gas directly from operators, process it on-site and sell the methanol. Globally, the company expects to sell the units directly to energy producers.

We are targeting all these places where there is no infrastructure to harvest the gas and put it on a pipeline, said M2Xs Pieri.

Copyright 2023 Bloomberg.

Topics Florida InsurTech Energy Oil Gas
A California federal judge has ruled that a group of people who own cars made by Tesla Inc must pursue claims that the company misled the public about its autopilot features in individual arbitration rather than court.

The ruling marks a significant victory for Tesla, as it means the company will not have to face class action claims on behalf of much larger groups of vehicle owners.

U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam in a decision issued on Saturday said four Tesla owners who filed a proposed class action last year had agreed to arbitrate any legal claims against the company when they accepted its terms and conditions while purchasing vehicles through a Tesla website.

A fifth plaintiff who did not sign an arbitration agreement waited too long to sue, Gilliam ruled in dismissing that plaintiffs claims.

Tesla and lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

The lawsuit accuses Tesla of repeatedly making false statements indicating that its advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) technology was on the verge of delivering fully self-driving vehicles.

The plaintiffs all said that they paid thousands of dollars to purchase the optional ADAS technology when they bought Tesla cars between 2017 and 2022.

But instead of delivering on its promises, Teslas technology has been unreliable and has led to accidents, injuries and deaths, the plaintiffs claimed.

Tesla has denied wrongdoing. The company moved to send the claims to arbitration, citing the plaintiffs acceptance of the arbitration agreement.

Gilliam on Saturday rejected claims by the plaintiffs that the agreements signed by four of the plaintiffs were unenforceable.

The decision came in the midst of the first U.S. trial over allegations that Teslas Autopilot feature led to a death because it was based on untested experimental technology that should not have been sold to the public.

The plaintiffs in that trial in California state court allege the Autopilot system caused a Model 3 to veer off a highway near Los Angeles at 65 miles per hour, strike a palm tree and burst into flames, killing the owner and injuring two passengers.

Tesla has said the accident was the result of driver error.

(Reporting by Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Deepa Babington)

Topics California Legislation Claims Tesla
Two lawsuits have been filed against an electric utility for allegedly sparking a fire in eastern Washington that killed a man and burned approximately 240 homes.

A lawsuit filed in Spokane County Superior Court says Inland Power and Light Company`s electrical equipment contacted or caused sparks to surrounding vegetation that started the Gray fire on Aug. 18, KREM-TV reported.

The suit, filed by fire litigation law firm Singleton-Schreiber on behalf of a property owner in Medical Lake, west of Spokane, alleges the utility designed its power lines to be bare, uncovered and carry a high voltage. All of that increases the risk of ignition when coming into contact with grass or equipment, according to the lawsuit.

Inland Power was very aware as a utility company that Washington is deemed a high wildfire risk area, and they should have used this knowledge to properly protect their clients and the residents of Spokane County, lawyer Gerald Singleton told KREM-TV. Because of Inland Power and Lights negligence, a life was lost, other lives were completely upended, and this community will never be the same.

The plaintiff is claiming damages of more than $100,000, according to the lawsuit.

The second lawsuit, filed by a Spokane law firm for 44 people affected by the fire, says an outdoor light constructed by Inland Power was seen sparking near the origin of the blaze.

A person cited in the complaint said they saw sparks or molten/burning material coming from the outdoor light and nearby electrical equipment that day, according to the lawsuit.

Investigators with the Washington Department of Natural Resources have collected the light fixture for further investigation, it adds.

Inland Power told the news outlet that the cause of the Gray fire is still under investigation.

We will not make any speculations while an active investigation is still underway, the utility said.

The Washington Department of Natural Resources has said it could take months to determine what caused the Gray fire, which sparked during critical fire weather conditions west of Medical Lake.

About 240 homes and 86 other kinds of structures were destroyed, and more than 17 square miles were burned.

Carl Grub, 86, died Aug. 18 of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries near an intersection in Medical Lake in the area of the fire, according to the Spokane County Medical Examiners Office.

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Washington
October 3, 2023 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Research has revealed the US states that are least likely to cheat in gaming, with Hawaii coming out on top.

The study by SecureCheats analyzed data from Google to see which states had the lowest amount of searches for cheats in games per 100,000 people. This was done by finding the search volumes of the most popular cheat-related searches in each state and accounting for the respective state's population.

It found that Hawaiians are least likely to cheat in gaming. According to the study, there are, on average, 3,617 searches for cheats each month in the state, which, when accounted for population, equates to just 251 searches per 100,000 people each month.

Second place goes to the state of New Jersey, which comes in with 23,513 searches for cheats each month in the state. When this is accounted for population, there are roughly 254 searches for cheats for every 100,000 people.

Connecticut takes third place on the list, with only 9,267 searches for cheats made in the state each month on average. Accounting for population, there are around 256 searches per 100,000 people for cheats.

The southwestern state of Rhode Island takes fourth on the list, with the lowest number of searches for cheats monthly in the top ten at 2,887. However, when accounted for population, there are around 264 searches for cheats each month.

Rounding out the top five is the state of Massachusetts, which comes in with around 265 searches per 100,000 people for cheats, with an overall amount of 18,468 searches each month.

The most popular games to cheat at in the US are 'The Sims 4', which attracts more than 250,000 searches a month, followed by 'Words with Friends' which attracts more than 160,000, and 'Grand Theft Auto 5', which attracts more than 70,000.

Commenting on the findings, Karl Schmidt, Head of Content & Research at SecureCheats, said: "Cheating in games has become a very broad thing, with it once referring to secret codes to change a gaming experience before multiplayer games were a thing, it now is used by those wanting to get the upper hand over others in online environments, completely altering the definition. Therefore, it's interesting to see which areas have a stronger or weaker interest in cheating, and what these specific people are wanting to get out of said interest."

Methodology: Using a range of keywords regarding gaming and cheating, monthly search volumes averaged over the past 12 months were found for each US State. The search volumes were then aggregated and adjusted to population by dividing the population / 100,000. The states were then ranked by their average monthly search volume per 100,000 people.

Credit to Journo Research

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Vancouver, British Columbia - October 3, 2023 (Investorideas.com Newswire, Mining / Metals / Green Energy Stock news) Defense Metals Corp. ("Defense Metals" or the "Company") (TSX-V:DEFN / OTCQB:DFMTF/ 35D: FSE) is pleased to announce it has commenced Phase 2 of its planned infrastructure and open pit geotechnical drilling. Sonic overburden characterization (site infrastructure geotechnical) and diamond core drilling (open pit geotechnical and near resource exploration) is expected to be complete within 4 to 6 weeks, with results to follow. The work, with the support of the Defense Metals' technical team and APEX Geoscience Ltd., is being completed by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. ("SRK") one of the principal consultants for the preliminary feasibility study ("PFS") regarding the Company's Wicheeda Rare Earth Element (REE) Project located near Prince George, Canada.

Craig Taylor, CEO of Defense Metals, commented:

"We are pleased to commence Phase 2 geotechnical investigations. This work will provide critical inputs for the ongoing PFS study, and in the case of exploration targets have the potential to expand resources. The Company's technical teams and principal Engineering contractors continue to push forward keeping us on track for a planned PFS completion by the end of Q2 2024."

As previously reported (see Defense Metals news release dated August 16, 2023) the SRK geotechnical investigation includes the following scopes:

Geotechnical engineering (waste rock, tailings, contact water pond, and site infrastructure geotechnical investigation),

(waste rock, tailings, contact water pond, and site infrastructure geotechnical investigation), Tailings alternative assessment prior to advancing into PFS-level design of a preferred alternative, and

prior to advancing into PFS-level design of a preferred alternative, and Geochemical characterization (to support mine planning/waste management and to develop preliminary water chemistry predictions for the main mine facilities).

Currently two rigs, sonic and core drills, are operating at the Project, with sonic operations focused on overburden and bedrock characterization within the potential waste rock storage (WSF) footprint (see Image 1), and geotechnical core drilling underway with the east highwall of the proposed open pit (see Image 2).

With WSF drilling nearing completion, sonic operations are expected to transition to the proposed contact water pond (CWP), and crusher and conveyor footprints, followed by tailing storage facility (TSF) and TSF alternative geotechnical investigations.

In pit geotechnical core drilling will progress from current drilling on the east highwall, followed by south, north, and west pit walls. Drilling into the south pit wall is expected to collar in REE mineralized dolomite carbonatite. In addition, geotechnical core drilling of the west pit wall is co-purposed with testing of a high priority ground radiometric geophysical anomaly with the potential to represent undiscovered carbonatite body (see Defense Metals' news release dated September 5, 2023).

Image 1: Sonic Infrastructure Geotechnical Drilling Underway Within WSF Area

Image 2: Geotechnical Drill Core from Hole WI23-80 Wicheeda REE Deposit Open Pit Highwall

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release as it relates to the Wicheeda REE Project has been reviewed and approved by Kristopher J. Raffle, P.Geo. (B.C.), Principal and Consultant of APEX Geoscience Ltd. of Edmonton, Alberta, who is a director of Defense Metals and a "Qualified Person" as defined in NI 43-101.

About the Wicheeda REE Property

Defense Metals 100% owned, 6,759-hectare (~16,702-acre) Wicheeda Project is located approximately 80 km northeast of the city of Prince George, British Columbia; population 77,000. The Wicheeda REE Project is readily accessible by all-weather gravel roads and is near infrastructure, including hydro power transmission lines and gas pipelines. The nearby Canadian National Railway and major highways allow easy access to the port facilities at Prince Rupert, the closest major North American port to Asia.

About Defense Metals Corp.

Defense Metals Corp. is a mineral exploration and development company focused on the development of its 100% owned Wicheeda Rare Earth Element Deposit located near Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. Defense Metals Corp. trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "DEFN", in the United States, trading symbol "DFMTF" on the OTCQB and in Germany on the Frankfurt Exchange under "35D".

Defense Metals is a proud member of Discovery Group. For more information please visit: http://www.discoverygroup.ca/

For further information, please visit www.defensemetals.com or contact:

Todd Hanas, Bluesky Corporate Communications Ltd.

Vice President, Investor Relations

Tel: (778) 994 8072

Email: todd@blueskycorp.ca

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding "Forward-Looking" Information

This news release contains "forwardlooking information or statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, which may include, without limitation, statements relating to advancing the Wicheeda REE Project, completion of additional geotechnical work including pit geotechnical core holes and the expected timelines, the potential of the anomalies to represent previously unknown bodies of REE mineralized carbonatite, the expected completion of the PFS, the technical, financial and business prospects of the Company, its project and other matters. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the price of rare earth elements, the anticipated costs and expenditures, accuracy of assay results, performance of available laboratory and other related services, future operating costs, interpretation of geological, engineering and metallurgical data, the ability to achieve its goals, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms. Such forward-looking information reflects the Company's views with respect to future events and is subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of exploration, engineering and metallurgical results, risks related to the inherent uncertainty of exploration, metallurgy and development and cost estimates, the potential for unexpected costs and expenses and those other risks filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. While such estimates and assumptions are considered reasonable by the management of the Company, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and regulatory uncertainties and risks. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions, adverse weather and climate conditions, failure to maintain or obtain all necessary government permits, approvals and authorizations, failure to maintain community acceptance (including First Nations), risks relating to unanticipated operational difficulties (including failure of equipment or processes to operate in accordance with specifications or expectations, cost escalation, unavailability of personnel, materials and equipment, government action or delays in the receipt of government approvals, industrial disturbances or other job action, and unanticipated events related to health, safety and environmental matters), risks relating to inaccurate geological, metallurgical and engineering assumptions, decrease in the price of rare earth elements, the impact of Covid-19 or other viruses and diseases on the Company's ability to operate, an inability to predict and counteract the effects of COVID-19 and other viruses and diseases on the business of the Company, the price of commodities, capital market conditions, restriction on labour and international travel and supply chains, loss of key employees, consultants, or directors, increase in costs, delayed results, litigation, and failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations. The Company does not undertake to update forwardlooking statements or forwardlooking information, except as required by law.

Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investment involves risk and possible loss of investment. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Contact each company directly regarding content and press release questions. Disclosure this DEFN news is a paid news release on investorideas.com - learn more about costs and services https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/

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Food chain supply firm Kwayga has successfully closed a funding round, with a 1m investment in the company, led by The Redesdale Food & Beverage Fund.

Headquartered in Cork, Kwayga.com enables supermarket buyers to cut their sourcing times using supplier sourcing technology. The funding will be used to scale their operations and team.

Mike McGrath, co-founder and CEO of Kwayga.com, said their mission is to revolutionise the way supermarkets across Europe approach buying. "Redesdales investment is a huge vote of confidence in our groundbreaking technology," he said.

"This partnership will significantly accelerate our growth across Europe as we continue to build high-value relationships with significant UK and European buyers, reducing their sourcing time and costs by rapidly connecting them with the best European suppliers."

"This funding will be used to scale our team and continue to grow our product.

Michael Cantwell, a partner in The Redesdale Food & Beverage Fund said; they were excited about the expertise of the Kwayga team and their technology which solves a key buyer pain point.

"It will be a game changer in how suppliers are sourced in the supermarket sector," he said.

Kwayga.com was founded in 2021 by McGrath and Martin Fitzgerald to provide a sourcing engine for supermarket buyers to engage them with private label and trending product suppliers in European markets where they would not previously have had visibility.

The company said buyers using their software cut 40% off their sourcing lead times, get new product requirements on shelves more rapidly, and replace existing products when necessary.

It already counts the main Irish supermarkets and several UK supermarkets as its customers and has in excess of 80,000 suppliers on its database.

The Redesdale Food & Beverage Fund is a venture capital fund established by some of Irelands best-known and most accomplished financiers, business leaders and commercial scientists. Investors in the fund include Enterprise Ireland, Lord Abbett, Musgrave, Coca-Cola, Monaghan Mushrooms, and Tate & Lyle. The fund targets food, beverage, and nutrition companies, led by ambitious entrepreneurs.
Farmers whose land is designated for hen harrier breeding will be unable to avail of afforestation grants.

Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue told the Dail the question of compensation does not arise and is not one he is considering.

Replying to a question from Kerry Sinn Fein TD Pa Daly, the Minister said designating lands as Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for breeding hen harriers is a function exercised by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in accordance with the European Union Birds Directive.

He said the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has not approved any afforestation projects that are located within such areas.

Under the new Forestry Programme 2023-27, and in keeping with State Aid conditions, areas within any SPA  including the six designated for breeding hen harriers  will not be eligible for afforestation.

I would further clarify that proposed afforestation outside of these SPAs may also be ineligible, where the site in question contains suitable foraging habitat, the planting of which could create an adverse effect on breeding birds within the SPA, he said.

Minister McConalogue said the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine must also consider the current distribution and breeding distribution of hen harrier, as recorded by the NPWS.

When assessing individual projects for afforestation within these areas, the Department considers the potential impacts on hen harrier that could arise.

These include the disturbance of breeding birds arising from certain operations such as machine cultivation and the driving of fencing posts.

The conversion of open habitat suitable for foraging to forest cover, which may only prove useful for foraging during the limited pre-thicket stage, must also be considered.

Where impacts can arise, the Department may exclude afforestation from certain parts of the project or rule out the project in its entirety, he said.

In other written replies, the Minister said these new requirements were necessary due to concerns raised by the European Commission during Irelands state aid approval process and to provide further protection to threatened bird species.

He said he was confident the changes introduced will allow the Department to fully align the licence application and assessment process for afforestation with both environmental legislation and the State aid conditions underpinning the new forestry programme.
Parijuana, the second album by Dublins The Wormholes was originally shelved after it was recorded in 1996. Now 27 years later its finally getting a deserved release. The Ringsend three-piece comprised twins Dave (drums and vocals) and Anto Carroll (bass guitar), and childhood friend Graham Blackmore (guitar and vocals). Dave suffered a stroke, was diagnosed with cancer and died three months later on June 4, 2019. He was 49.

Chicks Dig Scars, the bands 1994 debut, was put out on Dublins independent Dead Elvis Records, set up by Eamonn and Og Crudden, Marc Carolan and Eamonn Doyle. The label released a number of highly regarded albums, some of which were produced by Carolan and recorded at the labels own Fuse studio in the basement of a building on Dublins Parnell St. A CD-Rom manufacturing company pressed these albums on CD and they were sold at an affordable 5 - a game changer for the Irish indie music community.

People thought, If The Wormholes can make an album, we can make an album,' and in the 12 months immediately afterwards there was an absolute explosion of independent album releases, says Eamonn Crudden, who also managed the band. Dead Elvis got albums out by The Wormholes, In Motion and The Sewing Room - and then the world caught up with us and suddenly everyone was releasing albums. We kicked off this mad wave of independent releases.

Anto remembers the fizz of interest in the band: Once Chicks Dig Scars came out major labels started phoning. The Wormholes were the second Dublin group, after Pet Lamb, signed by Roadrunner Records and the album was given a worldwide release.

Roadrunner were the biggest metal label in the world at the time and they were trying to get into something different, more like the American independent music side of things, says Crudden. By the time we turned up in Roadrunners office in London the guy who had signed the band had gone and we were staring at a load of big tall guys with long hair. They didnt know who we were and they didnt understand us. We got some money out of them for good equipment and we got enough money to go on a couple of tours of the UK playing with bands like Cornershop, Mogwai and The Fall.

By the end of it, all I knew is that they were going to be dropped, says Crudden. So I got some money from Roadrunner to at least demo some new material. Marc Carolan recorded another album on the budget we got to record the demos. Graham, Anto and Dave turned against this fantastic album immediately after it was recorded.

The Wormholes: second album Parjiuana has been reissued

If their debut was indebted to the sounds of the American underground, not least records by Pavement and Royal Trux, now the band was taking influence from 70s Krautrock.

We were getting more into long prog-rock passages and improvisational stuff. When we were recording Parijuana the relationship with Roadrunner started getting ridiculous and we started to doubt everything, says Anto.

At the time we were very headstrong about the sound we wanted, so it got put on the shelf and we had to move forward. We were younger and more impulsive. But I think we knew it would shine someday. It was only years later when we realised how good it was recorded. Marc Carolan, who these days tours the world as Muses front-of-house live sound engineer, has only fond memories of his time producing The Wormholes.

If you tried to do it, if you set out to produce them you wouldnt do it, he says. We just did it. The lads were unstoppable once they got playing. I dont want to say it was a happy accident, because it wasnt. There was nothing accidental about it. I can remember thinking, I can do this, I dont need some sound engineer from Windmill Lane to tell me this sounds good.

Parijuanas release is a fitting tribute to Dave. Some days its hard, says Anto reflecting on his brothers passing. But hes in the music and hes going to be there for as long as that lasts.
Mother of three Laura Dempsey is the woman behind Pickled Pom Pom, a small Irish design business that produces a range of celebratory cards and prints.

From her home studio in Kildare, Dempsey creates and illustrates cards for all occasions as well as prints that look great hanging in childrens bedrooms. Many can be customised to include childrens names and other personal details.

Dempsey has recently expanded her offering to include a selection of party hats and decorations as well as a range of homeware and gifts. Available to order from www.pickledpompom.com and all deliveries are packaged using recycled, recyclable and biodegradable materials whenever possible.

Sarah Sproule: Sitting in a Car Podcast is here to help the awkward conversations with your tweens and teens

Sitting in a Car podcast

Do you feel awkward talking to your kids about things like sex, bodies and relationships? A podcast called Sitting in a Car is here to help.

Hosted by occupational therapist and sex educator Sarah Sproule, each episode is between 10 and 15 minutes long and focuses on answering common questions that parents have about how to discuss everything from puberty to porn in an age-appropriate way with children and teenagers.

Sproule is funny, forthright and compassionate. Listening to her will help you overcome the awkwardness and make you feel empowered to give your kids the advice they need to grow into people who respect themselves and the people around them.

Alison Curtis and Joy Harper: launching Trick or Treat in support of Children's Health Foundation

Dress up and raise funds

Are you planning to dress up and have frightful fun this Halloween? Have you considered raising much-needed money for sick children while youre at it?

Broadcaster and mum Alison Curtis was recently joined by young hospital patients including seven-year-old Joy Harper in launching Trick or Treat for Sick Children, the Childrens Health Foundations annual fundraising campaign.

Supported by MiWadi, this campaign is in aid of young patients in Crumlin, Temple Street, Tallaght and Connolly hospitals.

This worthwhile campaign is also a fun one, with organisers calling on the public to dress up and host Trick or Treat parties to raise funds. Free party packs can be downloaded from childrenshealth.ie/trickortreat or you call 01 7091700 to get one sent in the post.

While youre planning your party, you can embrace the Halloween spirit even more by downloading a series of Halloween-inspired stories that MiWadi has created to celebrate its tenth year of supporting this campaign.

The stories illustrate the challenges faced by sick children in Ireland and the bravery they show in overcoming them. They are inspired by the imaginations of young patients like Luke, Noah and Joy and are perfect for keeping little ones entertained in the weeks ahead. They will be available from all podcast streaming platforms until Halloween.

Beating boredom in a low-tech way

Childrens repeated cries of Im bored are a standard lament heard by parents.

Its a problem many exasperated parents try to solve by handing their kids an iPad or mobile phone.

Tech is not the big bad wolf, and its so easy to throw your phone or iPad at the problem when faced with a moaning child, says clinical psychologist Dr Elizabeth Kilbey.

Too much of this and kids can learn to rely on tech to fix their issues. But you do have alternatives.

She suggests creating a boring jar. First scour the internet for simple activities your child will enjoy. Then grab a pen and paper and a jar or bowl.

Inside, fill it with bits of paper that have an activity on each one, like dress up; have a tea party; do a jigsaw, and other crafts and activities, advises Kilbey.

Whenever your kid says theyre bored, let them choose a piece of paper and do what it says.
A strike by criminal barristers today over legal aid fees is a clear indication that the system is at breaking point, practitioners have said.

With fees for criminal barristers hovering around the levels paid in 2002, young professionals are lasting only six years on average before leaving the job, junior counsel and chair of the Irish Criminal Bar Association Simon Donagh said.

Its something Ive heard so much of in my role as chair, Mr Donagh, a barrister in practice since 2013, said.

Theyre really at the point where something simply has to happen. Many have already gone because the job isnt sustainable for them.

Barristers are currently paid a 1,144 fee per case they take ahead of its first hearing, regardless of the length of time the case may take to prepare. Subsequently, theyre paid 572 per day in refresher fees per day thereafter.

Younger barristers however will generally have far fewer cases than their more experienced counterparts, meaning that a steady income could be hard to come by for those trying to establish their practice.

The Bar Council meanwhile argues that legal aid fees are on aggregate 40% lower than they should be at present following a series of cuts in the wake of the 2008 economic crash. Criminal barristers are unique in that they are the only sector of the system yet to see pay restoration, the council claims.

It is not clear what impact the day of action will have on the criminal courts service in terms of cancellations and postponements.

A spokesperson for the courts service said that it is open to each court and judge to adjourn a matter to another date.

Representation by barristers varies across court jurisdiction and it is not possible to say how many cases may be impacted, they said.

Mr Donagh said that he hopes that the necessity for further strikes doesnt arise.

I really hope it doesnt come to that. Weve heard from Minister Harris, Minister McEntee, before them Minister Flanagan, all whove voiced some level of support for our position, he said.

No one is disputing its legitimacy. This is not about increasing pay, its about restoration. Were not looking for more money, just what we used to get.

Those striking will be picketing outside Irelands various criminal courts, in Mr Donaghs case the Criminal Courts of Justice beside the Phoenix Park in Dublin.

The picketers are planning on wearing their barristers robes, Mr Donagh said, though it is not mandatory.

Senior counsel Tom Creed will meanwhile be picketing at the Cork Courthouse on Washington Street.

A senior counsel with more than 40 years of experience, Mr Creed acknowledged that the issues at stake, which do not overly affect him given the breadth of his practice, are nevertheless existential for the profession.

Its disappointing that it has come to this. This is absolutely unprecedented, he said.

It isnt a difficulty for me, but for younger barristers, the figures are that 60% of them leave criminal litigation after 6 years.

The Director (of Public Prosecutions) wants good, experienced counsel to prosecute on her behalf, and she selects barristers who have a number of years experience. Every citizen is entitled to have an appropriately qualified and competent lawyer.

But in order to get that experience you have to be able to work and live, and unfortunately people aren't getting to the stage where they can have a sustainable income, Mr Creed said.
Dominion Energy (NYSE: D) today (Oct 2) announced the retirement of Carter M. Reid, executive vice president, chief of staff & corporate secretary of Dominion Energy and president-Dominion Energy Services, who will step down from her roles on Jan. 1, 2024. The company also announced that it is promoting Carlos M. Brown, senior vice president, chief legal officer, and general counsel, to president-Dominion Energy Services and executive vice president, chief legal officer, and corporate secretary of Dominion Energy. Those changes are also effective Jan. 1, 2024. Brown will continue reporting to Robert M. Blue, chair, president and chief executive officer.

Said Blue:

"Carter Reid has been a key executive and faithful friend for the company as a whole, for her own team at the Services company, and for our board. She helped the company maintain best-in-class governance, relentlessly focused on recruiting and retaining the best talent, and built an unparalleled security and cyber security organization, among her many other accomplishments. The company will miss her as she enjoys her retirement years. When Carter retires, Carlos Brown will pick up most of her duties. Carlos has a depth and breadth of experience that will serve him well as he leads Dominion Energy's law, corporate governance, environmental, IT, supply chain, corporate facilities, and corporate safety and security teams."

Reid came to Dominion Energy in 1996 as assistant general counsel, and later held numerous management positions in the Law Department and in Dominion Energy Services. She was promoted to vice president-Governance and corporate secretary in 2007 and was named vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer, and corporate secretary in 2011. She was promoted to senior vice president in 2013 and added administrative services to her responsibilities and to executive vice president in 2017. Reid has served in her current role since 2019.

"For nearly three decades, I have been incredibly fortunate to work for a company with such dedicated and talented people who are truly the best in the industry," Reid said. "I am so proud of what we do every day, and it has been such an honor to be part of it. But I am even more excited about the future of this company, and I am confident that even greater things lie ahead."

Brown joined the company in 2007 as senior counsel and served in various business, operational, and legal roles until his promotion to vice president and general counsel in 2017. In 2019, Brown was promoted to senior vice president, general counsel, and chief compliance officer, and in 2022 assumed his current position.

Brown received his bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Virginia. He is vice rector of his alma mater's Board of Visitors.

The company also announced today that Regina J. Elbert, senior vice president-Human Resources, will become senior vice president and chief human resources officer, effective Jan. 1, 2024, reporting to Blue.

"We are creating this position in recognition of our greatest asset - our people," Blue said, adding, "and because of its importance, Gina will be reporting to me as part of my leadership team."

Elbert has been at Dominion Energy since 2011, with leadership roles in HR and in the Law Department. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia and a law degree from Harvard Law School.

About 7 million customers in 15 states energize their homes and businesses with electricity or natural gas from Dominion Energy (NYSE: D), headquartered in Richmond, Va. The company is committed to safely providing reliable, affordable and sustainable energy and to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050. Please visit DominionEnergy.com to learn more.
A specialist International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) investigation squad has flown into Ireland to assist gardai in a sprawling investigation into last weeks interception of a cartel mothership in Irish waters.

The five-strong unit brings with it financial, technical, maritime, and drug-investigation expertise.

The Interpol Operational Support Team has arrived over stages, with some of the members here for the last few days.

These members have already travelled to various investigations teams around the country, including Cork and Wexford.

The Interpol team will have a base of operations in the Garda Organised and Serious Crime headquarters in Walter Scott House in Dublin.

A joint Garda, Defence Forces, and Customs operation resulted in a dramatic military storming of a bulk cargo vessel, the MV Matthew, in Irish waters last Tuesday.

Despite bungled efforts by some crew members to set fire to the cocaine, elite soldiers from the Army Ranger Wing secured the load and the vessel.

A total of 2.25 tonnes of cocaine was seized, the biggest haul ever in Ireland.

Gardai are satisfied none of the cocaine was destroyed and that only the outside wrapping of some bales was melted.

The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau is leading the investigation and has separate teams working in Cork and Wexford as well as Dublin.

Cork detective units are assisting the bureau in interviewing the 25 crew members on the vessel.

Eight arrests have taken place and three people have so far been charged.

The Interpol team brings a range of technical and investigative skills, including access to global databases, criminal intelligence analysis, digital forensic analysis, language and technical support in interviews, maritime expertise and tracking of vessels, and expertise on money laundering and drug investigations.

Some of the team arrived in recent days and the rest should be here overnight.

Criminal figures that the Kinahan crime cartel has invested in over the years are being investigated in relation to the drug smuggling operation.

Interpol dispatches specialist support teams in response to requests from member states. It has its HQ in Lyon, France.
Four men have been remanded in custody in Cork in connection with the largest seizure of cocaine in the history of the State.

Saeid Hassani, aged 37, Mykhailo Gavryk, aged 31, Vitaliy Vlasoi, aged 31, and Cumali Ozgen, aged 48, were brought to Mallow District Court under a heavy Garda presence and the Garda Armed Support Unit on Tuesday morning.

The four men were charged with conspiracy to have in their possession, on September 24, cocaine for sale or supply in contravention of section 5 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977, with a value of more than 13,000, an offence contrary to section 15a of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Detective Garda David Moran of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) gave evidence of arrest, charge, and caution of Mr Gavryk, a Ukrainian national, who was assisted in court by an interpreter.

Mr Gavryk made no reply to the charge after caution in a Cork Garda station.

Mykhalio Gavryk at Mallow District Court. Picture: Dan Linehan

Detective Garda Mark Donovan of the GNDOCB gave evidence of arrest, charge, and caution of Mr Ozgen, from The Hague, Netherlands. The Dutch national made no reply after he was charged on Monday, the court heard.

Cumali Ozgen at the courthouse in Mallow. Picture: Dan Linehan

Detective Garda Val Russel gave evidence of arrest, charge, and caution of Mr Vlasoi, a Ukrainain national, in Cobh Garda Station on Monday.

After he was charged under caution, Mr Vlasoi said: I saw straight or direct evidence of the connection between the captain and another vessel or with somebody else who he contacted. It was shown as straight evidence. I didnt see straight evidence against myself.

The accused was given a copy of the charge sheet, the court heard.

Solicitor Joe Cuddigan requested access to the MV Matthew, the large cargo ship on which some 2.25 tonnes of cocaine were found off the Cork coast last week.

Mr Cuddigan said he required access to the ship to properly defend his client, before the ship was materially changed in the course of the Garda search and investigation. Judge Colm Roberts noted his application.

Detective Garda Lorraine Brennan of the GNDOCB gave evidence of arrest, charge, and caution of Mr Hassani at Cobh Garda Station on Monday.

The Iranian national required a Farsi interpreter, said his solicitor, Don Ryan. Mr Hassani made no reply after arrest, charge, and caution, the court heard. Mr Ryan also requested access to the MV Matthew in order to represent his client.

Judge Roberts said the request was at a premature stage as the investigation was still under way, but he noted Mr Ryans application to board the vessel before fundamental changes were made to the ship during the Garda search.

Saeid Hassani at Mallow District Court. Picture: Dan Linehan

All four men were remanded in custody to appear before Mallow District Court via video link on October 10, with the aid of interpreters. Legal aid issues were adjourned until next week.

The State applied for all four men to be remanded in custody. Bail cannot be dealt with at district court level for the drug conspiracy charges involved, Sergeant Linda OLeary told the court.

The four men are the latest to be charged in connection with the major drug seizure off the Cork coast.

More than 2.2 tonnes of cocaine was recovered from the Panamanian cargo ship MV Matthew last week. The haul has an initial value of 157m but may have a street value of some 500m once it has been cut, or diluted, with cheaper substances.

Soheil Jelveh, an Iranian national who captained the MV Matthew before it was intercepted at gunpoint by elite defence force personnel, gardai, and the navy on September 24, was before Wexford District Court on Monday.

He was charged with importing cocaine with a street value of more than 13,000; possession of cocaine; and possession of cocaine for sale or supply. He was remanded in custody to appear before Wexford District Court via videolink on October 9.

A UK national, James Harbron, aged 31, of South Avenue, Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees, UK, and Vitaliy Lapa, aged 60, a Ukrainian national of no fixed abode, were before Waterford District Court on Friday, charged with conspiracy to import drugs.

The two men had been airlifted off a fishing trawler after it ran aground on a sandbar off the Wexford coast. The fishing boat, called the Castlemore, had been bought days previously in Castletownbere, West Cork.
Teacher Enoch Burke is to remain in Mountjoy Prison after he again refused before the High Court to stay away from Wilson's Hospital School in Co Westmeath.

His continued detention in prison was up for review at the High Court on Tuesday, but Mr Burke refused to purge his contempt and give an undertaking to stay away from the secondary school where he once taught.

Mr Burke told Mr Justice Mark Sanfey at the High Court that he would not agree to comply with what he described as an "unjust order" as it would be akin, he said, to asking him to deny his religious beliefs.

He added that he did not want to be in prison, and he alleged that his ongoing imprisonment was as the result of an order that was "manifestly unjust" and he claimed it was an "unconstitutional misuse" of the court.

The case was before the court on Tuesday when Mr Burke's ongoing imprisonment for contempt was up for review. Mr Justice Sanfey, who directed that Mr Burke be returned to Mountjoy, said that the court was not concerned with anything to do with the background dispute between the parties.

The court, he said, was only dealing with the issue of contempt, and if Mr Burke was willing to give an undertaking to stay away from the school, which would secure his release.

Tense exchanges

When the judge was considering the matter, he directed that members of Mr Burke's family be removed from the court by the Gardai for shouting at, criticising and interrupting the court.

Mr Burke's father Sean and sister Ammi Burke were both physically removed by gardai after they refused to leave the court insisting that they had a right to be there. Mr Burke's mother, Martina who at one point said she would not be leaving without her son, eventually departed the courtroom on her own accord.

During what were at times robust and tense exchanges between the defendant, members of the Burke family, and the court, the judge told the teacher that "you don't get to ask the questions around here".

In his brief submissions to the court, Mr Burke argued that he was only in prison because of his religious beliefs, and opposition to transgender issues.

He accused members of the judiciary who have made rulings in the ongoing legal battle between him and the school, of "failing to acknowledge" his constitutional rights to religious freedom. He says that those rights were breached when the school instructed him to refer to a student by a different pronoun.

"This is what this case is all about," he said, adding that this is why he is "in a cell" in Mountjoy prison, despite, he insisted, having "done nothing wrong". After refusing to purge his contempt, Mr Justice Sanfey ruled that Mr Burke remain incarcerated until he is prepared to purge his contempt.

The judge added that Mr Burke could come to court at any time and give undertakings that would secure his release. The matter will be next reviewed by the court on December 12, the judge added.

Case background

Mr Burke was jailed last month after the school's Board of Management asked the court for orders seeking the Co Mayo-based teacher's attachment and committal to prison over his deliberate failure to comply with a permanent injunction granted by Mr Justice Alexander Owens earlier this year.

Mr Burke opposed the application.

However, Mr Justice Heslin ruled that there "was no dispute" that Mr Burke had "flagrantly breached" orders requiring him to stay away from the school and ordered that he be committed to prison "indefinitely," until he purges his contempt by agreeing to stay away from the school.

When the case came before the court on Tuesday, Rosemary Mallon Bl for the school said that with "great reluctance" they were asking that Mr Burke remain in jail unless he was prepared to give undertakings to purge his contempt.

The school's board sought Mr Burke's committal to prison over his refusal to obey Mr Justice Owen's order restraining him from attending at Wilson's Hospital School unless he is given express permission to do so by the school authorities.

The board claims that Mr Burke had attended at Wilson's Hospital campus every day. The school board also claims that Mr Burke's presence at the school caused "severe disruption for staff and students".

It was the second time that the evangelical Christian had been jailed for contempt, and he spent over 100 days in prison between September and December of last year.

Following his suspension in August 2022, Mr Burke was sued by the school over his failure to comply with a court order requiring him to stay away from the school. That resulted in his incarceration in Mountjoy Prison for several months.

He was released shortly before Christmas, without purging his contempt. He again started attending at the school after the holidays, and the High Court imposed a daily fine of 700 on Mr Burke.
Up to 20 crew members are still on board the cocaine mothership docked in Cork harbour after it was intercepted at gunpoint last week.

Many of the remaining crew are understood to be Filipino and are living aboard the 190m vessel, docked at Marino Point in Cobh.

The MV Matthew tried to flee into international waters before it was intercepted by armed army ranger wing members, gardai, and the navy last Tuesday in what would become the largest cocaine seizure in the history of the State.

The crew, who are all understood to be male, are not detained so are free to leave the ship.

Although all onboard have undergone preliminary questioning, some may have to be questioned further as more evidence comes to light.

Sources have said that some crew members may have been completely unaware of the illegal cargo that the ship was carrying from South America to Europe.

Layers of Garda security are stationed around the Panamanian-registered MV Matthew bulk cargo vessel, with gardai securing the perimeter from curious public trying to see or film the ship.

Members of the Garda armed support unit are also stationed around the vessel.

The ship has been described, by people close to the incident, as "old and grotty" and vast, with so many hiding places and storage facilities.

It must now be preserved essentially as an evidential exhibit. It is understood that the State will have to pay significant fees to keep the ship docked at Marino Point.

There is reluctance to move the vessel until it is thoroughly searched due to its important evidential value and the potential for contraband to have been flung overboard.

The forensic search is still in its infancy, with the boats interior still intact, although wall panels and floorboards may have to be removed later in the search.

The search could take many weeks. This could cost the State millions. Its like a parking space in a car park. Its costing thousands, said a source.
Last week the independent Senator Tom Clonan wrote a powerful article here about people with disabilities. The headline on his piece, based on a phrase he used, was Disability rights are in freefall. I utterly agree with the points he was making, except I need to ask one question. What rights?

A fierce clever lawyer once told me that people with a disability in Ireland have exactly the same rights as everyone else  the right to own property, the right to free speech, equal access before the law  that kind of thing. It was the sort of specious nonsense that would make you want to hit someone. People with a disability in Ireland, uniquely among the rest of the population, have no effective rights whatsoever.

An appalling piece of legislation from 2005  one of the worst ever passed by the Oireachtas  gave them the right to an assessment of their needs, but no right whatsoever to anything that flowed from that assessment. Earlier equality legislation was supposed to protect them from discrimination at work, alongside other minority groups, but the Supreme Court decided that people with disabilities had to be excluded from that protection if it involved employers at any expense. They have a constitutional right to an education, but the Supreme Court also decided that for them  for nobody else, only for people with disabilities  that right disappears on their eighteenth birthdays.

So its okay to ignore people with disabilities. We have fought campaigns throughout my lifetime for the rights of all sorts of other people and groups, mainly on the basis of seeking to end discrimination. But discrimination against people with disabilities remains legal. Its ok.

And now the government has decided to add insult to injury. Theyve had a bright idea, and its all set out in a Green Paper theyve just published. Its not enough to discriminate against people with a disability. Were now going to start discriminating between people with a disability. Were going to create different classes of people with disabilities  tiers, were going to call them  and were going to treat each tier differently.

The first media reports I saw about this suggested that what the government was concerned about was the fact that people with different disabilities have different levels of need. But when you read the paper they produced, its clear that what theyre really bothered about is the fact that some people with a disability might be able to do a bit of work.

Theyre clearly the ones who need to be shaken out of their complacency  imagine, all those work-shy people with their sensory or intellectual disabilities, their anxiety or stress, their crutches or their wheelchairs. Lets get them medically assessed and force them to turn up at their local employment office and take whatever bit of part-time or full-time work might be available.

Of course, there might be a few that will never be able to work. Lets leave them alone  in fact, lets give them a few extra bob. Thatll teach the others. Who do they think they are anyway?

Of course, thats not the language of the Green Paper. It talks about the deprivation endured by people with disabilities, and it acknowledges the fact that people with disabilities are nine times more likely to suffer consistent poverty than people without disabilities. But it then creates this weird system of discrimination between different levels of disability and creates the opportunity to begin to coerce some laggards with a disability.

Let me tell you why this new idea, about using the social welfare system to get some people with a disability back to work, is not just cruel but mad.

There is  there was? Maybe still is, who knows?  a thing called the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities. It was published by the then government in 2015 and is supposed to be completed in 2024. It was all about enabling, and taking down barriers, and changing systems to make them friendlier.

And it was hugely welcomed by people with disabilities. Because  believe it or not  those who can work want to work. They cant all sustain high-pressure full-time jobs and they dont all want careers, but if you give people with a disability a chance to do a job thats fulfilling, that matches their capacities, and that enables them to make a contribution, theyll queue up. You dont have to force them at all.

To make that strategy work, an implementation committee of civil servants and people from the sector was put in place. That committee needed an independent chair. The government asked me to do that job.

And I did it, to the best of my ability, for (I think) seven years. I put a huge amount of time and effort into it, and I like to think we made some progress. I could write a book about who contributed and who didnt, but the system did begin to adapt. The social welfare code was changed, a statutory target for employment in the public sector was introduced, and many government departments began to implement their pieces of the jigsaw better. A lot of decent public servants did good stuff. They were doing their day jobs, but they were also stretching.

And then it hit a brick wall. I resigned from that job earlier this year when it became clear that the reasonable innovations that were necessary were simply never going to happen. I hadnt intended even to make my resignation public, because I thought the ministers I worked with had their hearts in the right place, and that the civil servants I worked alongside were overwhelmed but genuinely trying.

I still think that. But the system hasnt moved on. This Green Paper proves that. In the letter I sent to the Department telling them I couldnt do it anymore, I said, For most of my adult life (and most of my political life indeed) I have been convinced that when all is said and done, people who live in Ireland with a disability always find themselves on the bottom of the political priority list. The Comprehensive Employment Strategy was a chance to change that in one respect at least ... It now needs someone with political clout and determination to insist that these approaches start to become part of the mainstream public service.

It would take me a lot of space to explain why, uniquely, people with disabilities are simply not seen as people who deserve rights, and as people carrying burdens the rest of us dont have to deal with. Having failed to do the things that need to be done to give people with a disability some real choices, the system has decided to start down the road of medicalising them again and coercing those they think should be coerced.

At the end of the day, heres what you can do to stop this cruel and mad approach. The disability activist Margaret Kennedy (interest declared  she and her sister Ann are friends of mine) has a petition on Change.org. Its growing every day. Go there. Find it. Sign it. Stand for, and alongside, people with disabilities. Tell the government where to get off.
Perhaps Greta Thunberg was prescient after all about world leaders' commitment to tackling climate change  the way Europe is heading, policy might as well be "green economy, net zero, build back better, blah blah blah".

As the European Commission attempts to install Ursula von der Leyen's handpicked right-wing nominee Wopke Hoekstra  a former Shell employee  to take charge of the EU's climate action until the middle of next year, the ruling Tory party in Britain has abandoned any pretense that it cares a jot about tackling climate change.

By conjuring up make-believe wars on motorists and meat eaters, prime minister Rishi Sunak  previously somewhat of a pragmatist, albeit not gone on the whole climate action thing  has given in to the most extreme elements of Tory MPs and members.

At the Tory party conference in Manchester, ministers  of a party that has been in power for more than a decade, mind you  have tried to convince party members and voters that there is a vast conspiracy afoot by shadowy forces masquerading as climate action advocates.

15-minute cities

SUSTAINABILITY & CLIMATE Check out our Sustainability and Climate Change Hub where you will find the latest news, features, opinions and analysis on this topic from across the various Irish Examiner topic desks and their team of specialist writers and columnists.

With a straight face, transport minister Mark Harper railed against the concept of the 15-minute city. "What is sinister and what we shouldn't tolerate is the idea that local councils can decide how often you go to the shops and that they ration who uses the roads and when, and they police it all with CCTV," he claimed.

Objectively speaking, even a child could fact-check this nonsense in record time. A 15-minute city is ostensibly a community where amenities such as schools, doctors, shops, cycle lanes, and green spaces are all located within 15 minutes of your home.

This is a LIE.



This is a government Minister, Mark Harper, spreading a conspiracy theory that could lead to MORE ABUSE of local councils' employees.



This is hugely irresponsible and dangerous.#CPC23 pic.twitter.com/xcJ4sjEEj5  Greenpeace UK (@GreenpeaceUK) October 2, 2023

A bit like a reimagined village in an urban setting, the kind of place traditional conservatives and older voters wax nostalgically about as they lament the loss of traditional values and times gone by.

Somehow the 15-minute city concept has been hijacked by far-right conspiracy theorists as a New World Order-inspired plan to keep people imprisoned in their local vicinity.

What many councils are in fact attempting to do is to limit speeds in and around schools and pedestrian routes in a bid to stave off deaths and injuries caused by cars. What Mr Harper declined to mention is that many of these local councils are ruled by Tory councillors who have voted for the proposals.

Tory pandering

Such nonsense should be given short shrift by any serious politician, but this is 2023, and the Tory pandering to the irrational fears and conspiratorial fringes has now reached the highest echelons of government.

Energy and net zero secretary Claire Coutinho, one of the very few party allies of Sunak, was no better, getting caught out by Sky News reporter Sophy Ridge after she told the party faithful that only the Tories would fight off plans for a tax on eating meat.

Needless to say, no such tax is remotely being considered by any party. But this is 2023, and the Tories fearing electoral meltdown will spout just about any fearmongering gibberish to gullible party members and voters to somehow shore up its dwindling base.

Sky's Sophy Ridge reads out part of the Energy Secretary's speech where she says, 'there's no wonder Labour seem so relaxed about taxing meat...' - and asks: "You didn't write that, did you? They're not proposing a meat tax?"#PoliticsHub  https://t.co/GlTNastFii



 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/u1uMX0kUPd  Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge (@SkyPoliticsHub) October 2, 2023

The coup de grace was the confirmation-in-all-but-name that the highly anticipated and desired HS2 high-speed rail line between Birmingham and Manchester is to be scrapped as Sunak declares he will "slam the brakes on the war on motorists".

The political satires The Thick Of It or Veep could not have scripted it  the scrappage of the HS2 plan was leaked as the Tory party conference took place in...Manchester.

Cue the Tory mayor of the Midlands, Andy Street, on live TV imploring Sunak not to abandon the HS2 plan for his region, lest the UK's international reputation "as a place to invest" is severely compromised.

European Green Deal

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen seems to have eased on her steadfast commitment to the European Green Deal. File picture: Richard Drew/AP

It might not have the shambolic street theatre of a Tory party imploding by masquerading as a Ukip think-tank, but the EU's own shift on climate action is equally concerning.

Spooked by the centre-right resistance to plans such as the Nature Restoration Law during the summer, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen seems to have eased on her steadfast commitment to the European Green Deal.

When European Commission vice president for the Green Deal and commissioner for climate action, Frans Timmermans, announced he was resigning in order to run in the Dutch elections for prime minister, it seemed there would be a like-for-like swap, with Slovak veteran politician Maros Sefcovic slotting in smoothly.

Instead, while Mr Sefcovic will indeed liaise on Green Deal matters, the climate action brief will now likely fall to Dutch right-wing former deputy prime minister, Wopke Hoekstra.

The nomination of the former Shell employee has set alarm bells off among non-governmental organisations, with 10, such as the European Environmental Bureau and Greenpeace writing to von der Leyen in August to express their misgivings.

"Frans Timmermans was instrumental in driving forward numerous initiatives on climate, energy transition, deforestation and nature restoration. However, much remains to be done. Europe and the world, and especially the most climate vulnerable communities, cannot afford a pause, or a slow down.

"We are highly sceptical that Wopke Hoekstra possesses the required credentials and expertise to lead on this critical portfolio, which includes a number of upcoming critical processes.

Our concerns are based on his lack of expertise on EU climate policy, his lack of experience of climate diplomacy at UN Framework Convention on Climate Change level, his record of both having worked in the private sector for Shell, a multinational oil and gas company, his performance in public roles.

This last includes abandoning government objectives to reduce nitrogen emissions to bring them in line with EU obligations, they warned.

Given the resistance to nature restoration of political leaders in many European states, including Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's complaints that the original proposal went "too far", and the whittling down of air quality targets in the EU in recent weeks, it is hard not to be cynical about whether the EU is serious or not about climate neutrality in the face of clear and incontrovertible evidence that the planet is getting dangerously warmer.

For his part, Hoekstra talked a good game as he was grilled by the European Parliament's environment committee this week, insisting he would push for the EU to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 90% by 2040, as well as cutting subsidies.

Many EU parliamentarians remain unconvinced and it remains to be seen if Mr Hoekstra will be installed.

At least he talked the good fight, unlike the ruling party in Britain which has decided that future generations don't matter because stemming the political bleed in the short-term is the only show in town.
Even as EU foreign ministers met yesterday for an unprecedented gathering in Kyiv, the government and people of the country must have been closely monitoring events elsewhere which seemed to indicate wavering international levels of support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

First up there was the near-miss in Washington DC where Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sagely joined forces with Democrats to find last-minute votes to prevent a government shutdown being forced by the minority Maga element of his own party in Congress.

Unfortunately for Ukraine, the bill agreed in the House of Representatives excluded continued funding for support.

That McCarthys position is now under threat from the extremists within his own caucus is not something which will particularly worry Kyiv, but the potential drying up of the well of dollars is a considerable concern, even if US president Joe Biden has tried to reassure the country by saying he will work hard to restore funding in the short term.

Then came the news from Bratislava that the Slovakian general election had been won by controversial former prime minister Robert Fico on the back of a pro-Russia campaign platform. This result came amid further disquiet in the US and Europe over the billions in aid being sent to Ukraine.

Mr Ficos assertion that not one bullet would be exported from his country to support the war against Russia was a shock to Kyiv as Slovakia had been among the first to send armaments and also donated its entire fleet of ex-Russian MIG fighter jets to bolster Ukrainian defences.

Although Mr Ficos populist Smer party won 23% of the vote in the election, he will need to find a coalition partner in order to enter government, so the tone of his rhetoric could well be watered down if he is to take office.

Ukraine could also become a focus of the forthcoming October 15 election in Poland where the governing hard-right Law and Justice party is fighting a rearguard action against liberal opposition led by former European Council president Donald Musk. The country has already closed its borders to cheap Ukrainian grain.

The gathering of many of Europes top diplomats in Kyiv yesterday was intended to have a bolstering effect on seemingly vacillating support for Ukraine. How much longer that collective support will remain unwavering now seems questionable, but for Ukrainians the presence of so many EU politicians and diplomats in their country yesterday was some small crumb of comfort.

Fentanyl poses risk to Irish lives There is a certain irony in the fact that, as the Citizens Assembly on Drugs is set to announce its recommendations on the potential relaxation of drug laws in this country, a former assistant garda commissioner issued a dire warning that fentanyl will cause more damage than heroin ever did. The words of Pat Leahy, following on from those spoken by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in this paper, that Ireland must brace itself for an inevitable surge of fentanyl in the coming months and years, are deeply worrying. With gangs only too aware of the potency of this synthetic opiate and its appeal to drug users and  by now  fully aware of its chemical make-up, and potentially ramping up industrial-scale laboratories in which to make it, the threat to Irish lives from fentanyl is stark. The drug, along with similar opiates, has taken 75,000 lives in America alone last year as a result of often accidental overdoses. Incrementally, were it to gain a foothold in Ireland, thousands will lose their lives here too. Fentanyl is not like heroin in that it is a classless killer and not restricted to areas of social depravation, and that makes the threat from it to be far greater than anyone can imagine. Accidental overdoses have taken the lives of such as rock stars Tom Petty and Prince, along with tens of thousands of normal everyday folk, including one-year-old Nicholas Dominici who died last week after being exposed to it in a Bronx creche. This drug is a killer. Ireland had better be prepared to deal with its deadly fallout. It is easy to suspect we are not ready. What's your view on this issue? You can tell us here

Freedom of speech

The suspension last week of a small Kansas towns police chief for his involvement in a raid on the offices of the local newspaper  an act which set off global alarm bells about press freedoms  signals something of a conclusion to a very curious affair.

Mayor David Mayfield confirmed at the weekend that police chief Gideon Cody had been suspended after he had led a raid two months ago on the Marion County Record in which computers and other electronic devices were seized.

That raid sparked a storm of questions from news organisations and freedom of speech advocates who viewed it as a heavy-handed abuse of power, especially so when it emerged that one of the computers seized contained details of an investigation by the Record into Codys activities.

That the owner of the Record, Joan Meyer, who was also the mother of the editor, Eric Meyer, died a day after police had searched her home, as well as the newspaper offices, had added further to the controversy.

Initially Mr Mayfield declined to act to suspend Cody, saying he would not do so until a state investigation was completed. Late last week he suspended Marions police chief, despite the fact that the Kansas Bureau of Investigations inquiry into the raid is ongoing.

Time will undoubtedly provide us with more answers, but for now it would appear that Cody got rather more than he bargained for when he tackled a small-town newspaper fulfilling its editorial remit.
With two young children on the farm and plans to grow his beef enterprise, farmer Conor Kennedy recognised the need to invest in his farm, so he turned to his local credit union and applied for a Cultivate loan.

Cultivate is the collaborative credit union finance lending platform for farmers, an initiative that provides short to medium-term loan finance built specifically around the growing needs of Irish farmers. Cultivate is a farmer-friendly finance option for farmers seeking unsecured funding up to 75,000 over ten years and is now available in over 150 locations in Ireland.

Farm safety and better-quality animals

With a young family on the farm, it was a clear priority for Conor and his wife Mary to ensure that they had the right handling facilities in place addressing any health and safety concerns while at the same time improving the quality of the animals.

Mainly what I wanted to use the Cultivate Loan for was to improve breeding stock on the farm and improve the handling facilities, cattle crush and loading areas. From the health and safety point of view with suckler beef cattle, its very important to have good handling facilities.

Competitive loan for farmers

To help realise these key initiatives, Conor and Mary contacted their local credit union and availed of a Cultivate loan. The application process for the young couple was very accessible as Conor describes: The process was very straightforward from the first time I phoned the Credit Union; it was about a two-week process involved.

Participating credit unions make decisions locally. Local loans officers have the discretion to take a farmers circumstances into account. Conor's local credit union understood the reality facing farmers in Ireland and were familiar with his financial circumstances, personal background and track record as part of the loan review process.

Cultivate is a very competitive loan for farmers provided by people who understand farming.

Conor found the application process for his Cultivate loan incredibly straightforward.

Unsecured loans

Having gone through the full process of applying for, and securing, a Cultivate loan, Conors words of reflection highlight a very positive experience: The biggest advantage of applying for the Cultivate loan against other loans was the process was very straightforward and there was no collateral needed. Id certainly recommend the Cultivate Loan for anyone to do any improvements or upgrades on their farm.

As a farmer-friendly finance option, loan repayment schedules are available up to a period of ten years, with flexibility to repay at times that make sense for the individual farmer. Cultivate loans are unsecured, and there is no need to be an existing credit union member to avail of a loan. Farmers can sign up in their local participating credit union office and be eligible to apply for a Cultivate loan immediately.

Conor's farm has been made all the better thanks to his local credit union.

Cultivate loans are used by farmers like Conor Kennedy for a wide range of investments including:

Stocking or working capital

Upgrading farm buildings and handling facilities

Purchasing new or second-hand machinery

Supporting on-farm TAMS investments

Undertaking farm improvement works such as fencing and reclamation

Cultivate loans are available at over 150 locations in Ireland. A full list of participating credit unions is available at www.Cultivate-CU.ie/#map

If you need a flexible farmer-friendly loan, call FREEPHONE 1800 839 999, pop into your participating local credit union today or visit Cultivate-CU.ie to learn more.

Loans are subject to approval. Terms and conditions apply. If you do not meet the repayments on your loan, your account will go into arrears.

This may affect your credit rating which may limit your ability to access credit in the future. The cost of your repayments may increase. Credit unions in Ireland are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.
The conversation around women in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) has been ongoing for some time. What progress has been made, and what still needs to happen?

I believe theres been significant progress made, particularly in the last five years, in highlighting the opportunities for those who choose a career or education in Stem. From an MSD Ireland perspective, weve seen a rise in female engineers joining our business and more women in Engineering, Technology and Manufacturing at a senior level across our organisation and network, which is, of course moving in the right direction. But if we take a step back and look across Ireland and elsewhere, the gender gap at Leaving Certificate and third-level is present and women are still underrepresented in physics, technology and engineering. Ireland is an incredibly buoyant hiring market, which is fantastic, but we need to put measures in place to really start seeing the dial fundamentally shift to a more gender-balanced workforce in Stem positions in the next 10-15 years.

How would you foresee that gap being addressed?

For me, this is where there are opportunities to influence young females in primary and secondary schools about careers in Stem  be honest, transparent and in turn hopefully inspire them. Not to generalise, but in a lot of instances  and even for me personally  I champion women stepping into the spotlight and believe in the ethos of if I can see it, I can be it. Unfortunately, there are still stereotypes about womens abilities that start from a young age and this can undermine their confidence in subjects such as maths. Early influence is key in supporting more young women to choose a career in Stem.

MSD

How early do we need to see major attempts to tackle the imbalance?

I believe attempts needs to happen even before formal education starts; gender stereotypes are still evident in Ireland. Women have a unique opportunity to empower others to raise their profile through education, awareness, training and influence. We need to break the ceiling when it comes to supporting young women into choosing pathways which lead to careers in Stem across all levels. Continuous reimagining of skills-based teaching and curriculum review in line with market/critical skills trends coming into the Irish domain are essential. In short, we all have a role to play.

What does MSD Ireland do to advance the cause?

MSD Ireland has a number of programmes designed to encourage females to consider a career in Stem. Examples include proudly sponsoring a rotating secondary schoolteacher who joins our manufacturing business to work in an operations role and learn our business from the ground up. This provides a unique insight and gives them an opportunity to go back to their students and teach young women what a career in biologics manufacturing really entails, and thats powerful. We partner with Irelands leading universities and technical colleges to elevate our brand as an employer of choice for early career graduates, whilst also working with Government-funded programs such as SOLAS in creating apprenticeship programs. The apprentice programme has grown significantly in the last number of years, particularly in some of our manufacturing sites and by using storytelling and day-in-the-life testimonials; we are seeing more and more female applications and successful hires across engineering and maintenance. Our sites have a unique relationship with local community schools and regularly support events, partnering on career talks etc. Additionally, MSD Ireland has a fantastic weeklong TY programme we run annually with 80+ students coming to our Irish sites; its interactive and fun and we hope it inspires young men and women to consider a career in Stem.

Is that also where programmes like Junior Achievement Ireland and The Big Idea come in?

Yes, absolutely! The Big Idea and JAI are fantastic programmes that were proud to collaborate with. Programmes such as these enhance opportunities for pathways into Stem careers, whilst focusing on supporting key skills development in education which complement academic pathways such as resilience, flexibility and open-mindedness, teamwork, confidence and much more which are all essential ingredients in the workplace.
A large fire caused by a lightning strike has broken out at a processing facility in Oxfordshire, in the UK.

Severn Trent Green Power, a waste management company, confirmed the fire had occurred at its Cassington AD facility, near Yarnton, in a statement posted on Facebook on Monday evening.

It said a digester tank was struck by the lightning at around 7.20pm, causing the gases within the tank to ignite.

The company said no-one had been injured in the incident and it was working with emergency services to secure the site.

Thames Valley Police said the A40 had been closed between Wolvercote and Eynsham, and urged residents to stay home and shut windows and doors.

Videos began circulating on social media on Monday showing a large fireball and the sky in the area pulsing an orange colour.

Jack Frowde, 34, from Oxford, who works at Oxford University, said: I was sitting in my kitchen when the whole room lit up with a brilliant white light, then followed by a huge crack which sounded like really heavy thunder.

I looked out of the kitchen window and it was as if the sky was pulsating orange.

I ran to the back to capture the orange glow as it faded after about 20 seconds.

Stuart Hosking, in his 50s, from Oxford, an AI business director and former contestant on Big Brother, said: We were pretty close. I thought it was the sun setting, until I saw the flickering and smoke.

The lights flickered in the house then a flash, then a rumble like thunder, but a single bang.

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service and Thames Valley Police have been contacted for comment.
LITGRID AB (company code 302564383, registered office address Karlo Gustavo Emilio Manerheimo St. 8, Vilnius, Lithuania), notifies that on September 29th, 2023, the National Energy Regulatory Council set the price cap of 1.329 ct/kWh for high-voltage electricity transmission services. This represents a 103 percent increase compared to the cap set for 2023 (0.654 ct/kWh). The change is attributed to the use of accumulated congestion management revenues in 2023 to amortize the price growth. Excluding the influence of the congestion management revenues, the price cap for 2024, compared to the set for 2023, is 32 percent lower.

The new price cap will take effect from January 1st, 2024, it was approved in accordance with the new wording of the Methodology for determining the price caps for electricity transmission, distribution and public supply services approved by the NERC on May 26th, 2022.

Based on the new electricity transmission price cap, the Board of LITGRID AB will adopt the decision on the price of the electricity transmission service for the year 2024.

More information:

Jurga Eivaite

Communications Manager

tel. +370 613 19977 e-mail: jurga.eivaite@litgrid.eu
Police in India have raided the offices of a news website that is under investigation for allegedly receiving funds from China.

The homes of several of its journalists were also raided in what critics have described as an attack on one of Indias few remaining independent news outlets.

The raids came months after Indian authorities searched the BBCs New Delhi and Mumbai offices over accusations of tax evasion in February.

NewsClick, founded in 2009, is known as one of only a few news outlets in India that is willing to criticise Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government.

Security officers stand guard outside the office of NewsClick (AP Photo/Dinesh Joshi)

Indian authorities registered a case against the site and its journalists on August 17, weeks after a New York Times report alleged that the website had received funds from an American millionaire who, the Times wrote, has funded the spread of Chinese propaganda. NewsClick has denied the charges.

The case was filed under a wide-ranging anti-terrorism law that allows charges for anti-national activities and has been used against activists, journalists and critics of Mr Modi, some of whom have spent years in jail before going to trial. No-one has been arrested in connection with NewsClick so far.

The Press Trust of India news agency cited unidentified officials as saying that investigators took data from the laptops and mobile phones of journalists, and that two journalists were detained.

At least two journalists whose houses were raided by Delhi police confirmed their devices were seized.

Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone, journalist Abhisar Sharma wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Founder and editor-in-chief of NewsClick Prabir Purkayastha is brought to a police centre (AP)

Delhi police did not immediately respond for a comment, but Indias junior minister for information and broadcasting, Anurag Thakur, told reporters that if anyone has committed anything wrong, search agencies are free to carry out investigations against them.

In August, Mr Thakur accused NewsClick of spreading an anti-India agenda, citing the New York Times, and of working with the opposition Indian National Congress party. Both NewsClick and the Congress party denied the accusations.

Under Mr Modis rule, several news organisations have been investigated by the government agencies for financial impropriety, raising fears about shrinking press freedom in India.

Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group for journalists, ranked the country 161st in its press freedom rankings this year, writing that the situation in the country has deteriorated from problematic to very bad.

The Press Club of India said it was deeply concerned about the multiple raids conducted on the houses of journalists and writers associated with NewsClick.

The PCI stand in solidarity with the journalists and demands the government to come out with details, it wrote in a statement on X.

Ties between India and China have been strained since 2020, when clashes between the two militaries in a disputed border area killed at least 20 Indian troops and four Chinese soldiers. Since then, New Delhi has banned many Chinese-owned apps, including TikTok, and launched tax probes into some Chinese mobile phone companies.

The Modi administration has also introduced rules that require government approval for investments by companies from China and other countries.
A powerful faction of the Sinaloa cartel led by the sons of ex-Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has banned fentanyl production and sales in Sinaloa, according to roadside banners, though analysts doubted the group would leave such a profitable business.

The banners that appeared in the northern Sinaloa state in Mexico on Monday, known as "narcomantas", were signed by Los Chapitos, a grouping of brothers who took over their father's criminal empire when Guzman was extradited to the United States in 2017.

It is unclear who put up the banners, festooned to bridges and overpasses. They appeared at a time when US authorities are ramping up pressure on Mexico to take action against crime groups involved in fentanyl production.

The US government this year portrayed Los Chapitos, or "little Chapos", as the principal providers of fentanyl into the United States. Last month, Ovidio Guzman, the youngest of the four Los Chapitos brothers, was extradited to the United States.

"The sale, manufacture, transportation or any type of business involving the substance known as fentanyl is strictly prohibited in Sinaloa," the banners said.

Leo Silva, a former US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent who worked in Mexico, said the banners were likely an attempt by Los Chapitos to shift the blame for fentanyl production on to others.

"Coupled with extradition of one of the brothers, it's a ploy to take the heat off of them," Mr Silva said.

"I don't see them stopping production."

In July, Sinaloan investigative outlet Riodoce reported that Los Chapitos had told producers in Culiacan, the state capital, to stop manufacturing fentanyl. Soon afterwards, bodies were discovered of men who had been tortured and had fentanyl pills dumped on them, in an apparent signal to others.

It was also not clear if Los Chapitos could enact such a ban across Sinaloa, as much of the territory is controlled by El Chapo's old partner, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who runs another powerful grouping of the cartel.

Mr Silva doubted Los Chapitos would stay away from fentanyl.

"It's too much money to turn down or turn their back on," he said.
DHAKA  Bangladeshi security agencies have arrested an Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) commander in connection with the killing of 14 Myanmar soldiers in Rakhine State in 2016.

Bangladeshs Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on Monday said Mohammad Ershad, also known as Noman Chowdhury, 27, had been arrested at the Kutupalang Rohingya camp in Coxs Bazar in connection with the killing of Squadron Leader Rizwan Rushdee last year.

The intelligence officer was killed and several other RAB members injured by alleged ARSA members during an anti-smuggling operation near Myanmars border on November 14.

Lieutenant Colonel HM Shazzad Hassain of RAB said Ershad was the chief suspect in the killing and was the finance coordinator for the 48-year-old ARSA commander-in-chief Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi. The RAB said Ershads father, Sabbir Ahmed, who lives in the US, had connected his son with Ataullah.

Myanmars authorities said an estimated 250 assailants launched simultaneous dawn attacks on October 9, 2016, on three border police posts in Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships near the Bangladesh border.

According to the independent International Crisis Group, the attackers were armed mostly with knives and slingshots and about 30 firearms. Nine police officers were killed and at least 50 guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition were seized, it said.

The RAB said interrogations uncovered that Ershad was involved in the killing of 14 soldiers and looting of firearms at the Border Guard Police headquarters in Maungdaw in the 2016 attacks.

It said Ershad ran ARSAs finances and had procured uniforms and radios for the Rohingya armed group.

Photos were shared of Ershad with a firearm and with Ataullah, who is now believed to be in hiding in Rakhine State.

The Bangladeshi authorities filed a case last November against Ataullah and 31 other named and 35 unnamed suspects over the Rushdee killing.

Mahfuz Imtiaz Bhuiyan of Ghum Dhum police, who is leading the investigation, said on Monday that nine ARSA members had been arrested in connection with the killing.

Since January, the authorities claim to have arrested at least 60 ARSA members with the group claiming its members are being targeted unnecessarily.

John Quinley, director of Fortify Rights, told The Irrawaddy welcomed Ershads arrest.

ARSA and other militant groups have committed widespread abuses in the camps against refugees including killings, abductions, torture and harassment.

Bangladesh authorities must uphold due process rights and fair trial standards for militant and criminal groups who have been arrested.

He said Bangladesh must continue to ensure camp security while protecting refugee rights working alongside the UN refugee agency to provide access to protective spaces for refugees at risk.
BANGKOKThree people were killed and four wounded in a shooting at a major Bangkok shopping mall on Tuesday, with the shooter arrested by police.

Multiple videos circulating on social media showed people running from the Siam Paragon mall, one of the Thai capitals top shopping destinations, which is hugely popular with tourists and locals alike.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin told reporters the attacker had been apprehended and the situation brought under control.

Police are clearing the scene. The situation is easing, Srettha told reporters.

Yuthana Srettanan, director of the Erawan Emergency Center, said three people were killed and four wounded in the incident, in a message sent to reporters.

Dozens of police vehicles and a number of ambulances could be seen outside one of the shopping centers main entrances in the wake of the incident.

People were still being escorted from the mall, while bystanders could be seen walking past along the gridlocked road outside.

The shooting comes just days before the one-year anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in recent Thai history, when an ex-police officer armed with a knife and gun attacked a nursery, murdering 24 children and 12 adults.

In 2020, a former army officer went on a rampage in a shopping mall in Korat, murdering 29 people and wounding scores more.
Fighting between junta troops and resistance forces continues along the main road between Hpruso and Bawlakhe townships in eastern Kayah State, local residents and the Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF) said.

The KNDF and allied resistance forces have clashed with junta troops near Nan Phe and Htar Le villages since a junta convoy of nearly 100 vehicles arrived in Hpruso Township at the beginning of September.

Clashes occur daily near Htar Le Village. Junta troops are heading in the direction of Hpruso-Bawlakhe to take control of the main road so they can send in reinforcements and heavy weapons, a representative of the armed group told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

The number of casualties among junta troops over the past month is still unknown due to communication difficulties, the KNDF said.

In contrast to last year, Kayah residents have reported an escalation of fighting in the state even during the monsoon season, after the military regime sent heavy reinforcements to Loikaw, the capital of Kayah, in late July.

Since the beginning of September, more than seven infantry battalions from the 55th and 66th light infantry divisions have left Demoso for Hpruso and Bawlakhe townships, according to the KNDF.

At the beginning of last month, junta troops suffered heavy casualties during clashes in Thay Su Le and Pu Hpar villages in Demoso Township.

The Irrawaddy was unable to confirm precise casualty figures.

A junta convoy consisting of around 100 vehicles remains stranded in Hpruso Township. Junta infantry troops are currently stationed in Htar Le Village and have been advancing between Htar Le and Nan Phe villages, resistance forces said.

Resistance forces said they need more weapons and ammunition to intercept the junta convoy in the area and urged civilians to avoid using the main road between Hpruso and Bawlakhe townships.

More than 800 clashes have broken out in Kayah State since the 2021 military coup, killing more than 2,300 junta troops, according to the Progressive Karenni People Force, which monitors junta atrocities in the state.

Around 320 resistance forces have reportedly been killed in the clashes.
A young crony close to the ministries of defense and home affairs who bought weapons for the military regime was shot dead in Yangon on Monday night, a Yangon resistance group claims.

Nyan Lwin Aung, commonly known as Ko Nyan, also collaborated with the Ministry of Home Affairs to import and install facial recognition CCTV systems to oppress the public, said Urban Owls, an anti-regime guerrilla force.

The group said it gunned down the 36-year-old crony on Monday night in Lanmadaw Township.

Pictures circulating on Facebook appear to show he was shot in the temple, and pro-junta media claimed he was critically wounded.

Nyan Lwin Aung did business in Thailand, China, Russia and United Arab Emirates and also established a travel company to launder money, Urban Owls said in a statement. He also traveled to Russia along with junta representatives, it added.

An outspoken supporter of the 2021 coup, he often cursed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and revolutionary forces on social media, while forcing his employees to recite the four principles of the military every morning, the group said.

The Irrawaddy could not independently verify the claims.

The group also vowed to take further action against business cronies of the military regime.

From electric cars to the importation of weapons, a list of young businessmen who are collaborating with the terrorist military has been collected and action will be taken when the opportunity arises in cooperation with revolutionary forces, the Urban Owls said.

Yangon troops closed local roads after the assassination, but the groups operatives escaped safely, it added.

In March, Urban Owls shot dead Minn Tayzar Nyunt Tin, a crony who had aided the junta in legal matters and money laundering.

In June, the group assassinated Ye Khine, chief of security at Yangon International Airport, who oversaw the detention of anti-regime activists including artists and striking government staff as they tried to leave the country.

Junta-linked businesses have been targeted by anti-regime forces since November 4, 2021, when Thein Aung, the finance chief at military-owned Mytel Telecommunication Co and an ex-navy lieutenant commander, was shot and killed by the Yangon Revolution Force.

Ex-brigadier general Ohn Thwin and his son-in-law Ye Tayza, a former army captain, were killed by the Inya Urban Force in late September.
The Karen National Union (KNU) has reaffirmed its commitment to Myanmars revolution after former KNU chairman Saw Mutu Say Phoe on Saturday held peace talks with regime leader Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyitaw.

Former KNU Central Committee member Saw Roger Khin and an ex-district chair Padoh Shwe Moung also attended the talks.

A KNU statement said it had no involvement in the meeting, saying it was a junta move to sow divisions.

We resolutely stands together with others who are in the same boat fighting to terminate the dictatorship and will continue to persistently fight, the KNU statement said.

In August the KNUs 17th Congress condemned the regime as illegitimate, saying it would not take part in any negotiations with the junta.

The junta announced that Saw Mutu Say Phoe expressed his commitment to the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), which he said was a legal agreement that would last forever. He signed the peace deal in October 2015.

An analyst criticized Saw Mutu Say Phoes disloyalty to the KNU.

The KNU, founded in 1947, has two armed wings, the Karen National Liberation Army and Karen National Defense Organization.

It has been fighting the regime in Karen and Mon states and Bago and Tanintharyi regions since shortly after the 2021 coup, saying that the NCA was rendered void by the takeover.

The group has sheltered thousands of anti-regime activists, including lawmakers, striking government staff, journalists and artists, fleeing the junta.

It has also provided military training to several thousand recruits who have joined resistance groups and it is stepping up attacks on the regime, including in Naypyitaw, threatening the juntas seat of power.

KNU is also collaborating with attacks in Magwe and Sagaing regions.

In response, the junta carries out airstrikes and indiscriminate shelling inside KNU territory, killing civilians and destroying schools, hospitals and religious buildings.
Indonesia is the only Southeast Asian country that has taken a principled stand on the 2021 coup in Myanmar and should not be selling weapons to the junta in Naypyitaw. Singapore is a major arms exporter and transshipment point for military hardware, and all such transactions are supposed to be governed by local and international rules. But now both issues have been highlighted in connection with recent disclosures of questionable arms deals with Myanmar.

According to an October 2 press release, a complaint has been lodged with Indonesias National Human Rights Commission by Marzuki Darusman a well-known human rights advocate; Salai Za Uk Ling from the Chin Human Rights Organization; and the Myanmar Accountability Project (MAP), an international human rights organization based in London.

They allege that three state-owned arms manufacturers  PT Pindad, PT PAL, and PT Dirgantara Indonesia  have sold supplies to Myanmars military, in violation of Indonesian and international law. Their statement says that this involves the promotion and suspected sale of handguns, assault rifles, ammunition, combat vehicles and other equipment to the Myanmar military over the last decade, including potentially after the attempted coup in February 2021.

According to the October 2 complaint, weapons transfers from Indonesia are likely to have occurred through Myanmar-based companies including the arms broker True North Company Limited, an entity owned by Htoo Htoo Shein Oo, the son of the juntas Planning and Finance Minister, Win Shein.

Win Shein is currently sanctioned by the United States, Canada, and the European Union for his role in undermining democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar.

The complainants are asking the Indonesian government to investigate the reports and, if proven, to take action to prevent such sales. Indonesia voted in favor of the UN General Assembly Resolution for all UN member states to prevent the flow of arms to Myanmar, so if such sales have taken place since the 2021 coup, it would be a clear violation of international commitments.

MAP director Chris Gunness said, Our investigation has turned up damning evidence that suggests shocking double standards.

The complaint may also have legal repercussions given the Indonesian Constitutional Courts recent green light for universal jurisdiction cases, which means that the Myanmar military could be tried in Indonesian courts for its human rights abuses.

With this complaint, we are answering the Constitutional Courts demands, said Gunness.

The Singapore case, meanwhile, has already gone to court. A local dealer managed to get around official restrictions on arms sales by issuing false end-user certificates. The Straits Times reported on August 28 that two Singaporeans who sold a sonar system that ended up in a surveillance center operated by the Myanmar Navy admitted in court that they had broken the law regulating the sale of strategic goods including weapons. The men  Poiter Agus Kentjana, a sales manager at Hydronav Services, and Wui Ong Chuan, one of the directors of the firm  pleaded guilty to the charge under Singapores Strategic Goods (Control) Act.

The equipment was bought from Kongsberg Maritime, a Norwegian firm, and Poiter and Ong claimed that it was meant for re-export to Bina Nusantara, an Indonesian company.

However, their legal punishment turned out to be light. According to the Straits Times, Poiter and Ong were ordered to pay fines totaling 80,000 Singapore dollars, or about US$58,300. Surely, they can afford to pay that: the deal was worth 2 million Singapore dollars, or about $1.58 million.

The export of arms to the Myanmar junta has been a major issue since the 2021 coup, and there is little or nothing international bodies can do when countries such as China, Russia, Belarus and North Korea supply the regime with military hardware. But if punishment in Singapore for breaking export regulations amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist, the junta may not have to worry about receiving more such supplies in the future.

Indonesia, a democracy with free speech and accountability, may be another matter. There, more severe action can be taken if it is proven that state-owned companies have circumvented official policies. The ball is now with the men and women of Indonesias National Human Rights Commission, and it is their responsibility to take the next step.
"ComEd is committed to developing a skilled, local, diverse workforce by providing opportunities for communities that are historically under-represented in STEM to build experience and confidence in this space," said Dave Perez, Senior Vice President of Distribution Operations at ComEd. "As we move toward a cleaner energy future, we need to build a tech-savvy workforce. We hope that programs like ComEd STEM Labs will inspire larger numbers of diverse students to pursue a STEM-focused career."

The event, part of ComEd's STEM Labs program, engaged seventy-five Latino high school students from across Chicagoland and northern Illinois on Saturday, Sept. 30, at ComEd's Chicago North facility. The students worked with ComEd mentors and special guest, Dr. Kate Biberdorf, a renowned author, chemist and science educator to explore a variety of STEM activities including learning about batteries and building their own Bluetooth speakers. In addition to building Bluetooth speakers and networking with ComEd mentors and executives, each student received a $250 scholarship upon completing the program.

Latino Americans make up 17% of the U.S. workforce, but only 8% of STEM workers. Studies show that despite being as interested in STEM as other ethnic groups, Latino students are less likely to take STEM courses in high school, which decreases he likelihood they will pursue opportunities that lead to careers in STEM, according to the Student Research Foundation.

ComEd STEM Labs is one example of how ComEd is preparing more students of color and women to become leaders in the clean-energy transition. Additional STEM and scholarship programs include the ComEd EV Rally, Power of STEM, Future of Energy Scholarships and Drop Me In. These programs all focus on giving diverse groups of students greater exposure to the possibilities of STEM. ComEd STEM Labs is one of the many programs ComEd sponsors to encourage more students of color and women to pursue STEM careers.

Students, parents and educators interested in being notified about upcoming ComEd STEM youth programs and when to apply can submit their email address at: STEMsignUp.com/ComEd.

ComEd is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NASDAQ: EXC), a Fortune 250 energy company with approximately 10 million electricity and natural gas customers - the largest number of customers in the U.S. ComEd powers the lives of more than 4 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state's population. For more information visit ComEd.com, and connect with the company on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
Indiana State Universitys Center for Bat Research, Outreach, and Conservation hosted its 17th annual Bat Festival on September 30th. All the daytime activities occurred in the Science Building on the second floor, and later at night people participated in the evening activities at Dobbs Park.

The Center for North American Bat Research and Conservation was established in September 2005 under the direction of Dr. John O. Whitaker Jr. - they retired in June 2012. In 2013 the name was changed to the Center for Bat Research, Outreach, and Conservation. The centers mission has been to conduct and encourage research on bats, by collaborating with students and other scientists.

This years festival started at 10 am in the Science building. People were able to see live bat presentations, listen to presentations about bats and other creatures. Bats were the main attraction, but there were also snakes, a tarantula, a skunk, and other animals. People could hold, touch, or just look at these animals.

Parents and kids could explore a big bat cave and even go through an echolocation maze. The echolocation maze put people in the perspective of a bat, as they try to find their way through a dark maze while wearing a blindfold and using a clicker.

Some more Daytime activities included a batty photo area for the family, face paintings, informational exhibits, and lots of bat merchandise for sale.

The center welcomed many presenters this year to the science building. Attendees got to hear about where bats call home from Dr. Tim Carter from BSUs department of biology. Sharon Peterson from Incredible Bats, Inc. spoke about bats and held a live bat demonstration with fruit bats.

Dr. Aaron Gooley from the Department of biology at ISU was able to do multiple presentations. Speaking about bat cave neighbors in room 214.

As fall is starting to settle across town, bats are becoming restless. As winter begins to creep up it can be difficult for bats in Indiana. Bats do not do well when temperatures fall below zero, some bats will hibernate while others will migrate south to avoid these cold temperatures.

Evening activities took place at Dobbs Park from 6 pm  9 pm. At Dobbs Park families could listen together for bats. If youd like to volunteer your time you can contact the center via email at ISU-BatCenter@indstate.edu

For donations to the ISU Bat Center, you can visit https://givetoindianastate.org/ISU-Bat-Center
1371138342::cfb49c8e-2422-11e5-99a3-d7f5c6e8b241

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
As you may know, we have been covering the rare-earth series of the periodic table since May of this year, starting with the element lanthanum and getting as far as samarium by August. Looking at the list there are still nine left to go, and I had planned to examine each one every so often as the months moseyed on. But recently, within the last few weeks the science world has been set abuzz with the idea that perhaps one element in this group has indicated the holy-grail possibility of superconductivity at room temperature  clearly a profound discovery if true. We will therefore press the END button on our keyboard and jump to lutetium, the last metal in the lanthanide row and see just what this fuss is all about.

Lutetium is a chemical element with the symbol Lu and atomic number 71. It is a silvery white metal as all its companions in that row are, and historically was the last to be discovered in 1907. While not a particularly abundant element, somewhat more common than silver in the earths crust, it sadly has few practical us,es. It is sometimes employed as a catalyst in the petroleum cracking industry and once in a while pharmaceutical companies use a small amount to manufacture the drug motexafin, a chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of breast cancer.

Lutetium is found in the ore monazite where the slightly radioactive isotope Lu-176 makes up only 2.5% of the material, having a half-life of about 38 billion years. Because Lu-176 decays to the stable hafnium-176 with a release of beta particles, the time of formation of the material can be ascertained by the ratio of each component as the hafnium concentration accrues over time. Lu-175 is not radioactive and makes up 97.5% of that found on earth.

Lutetium was discovered independently by three scientists as an impurity in the mineral ytterbia, although credit is usually given to French chemist Georges Urbain, who made the announcement in 1907. By taking advantage of the atomic weights of rare earths, he was able to design procedures to separate the light from heavy lanthanides and gather enough sample material for spectroscopic observations.

Other contenders for the discovery are Austrian mineralogist Baron Carl Auer von Welsbach, and American chemist Charles James, who didnt publish his findings at all. Naturally an argument broke out between the Europeans about the priority of the discovery, with both Urbain and Welsbach accusing each other of publishing results influenced by the published research of the other.

But what about the use of lutetium as a superconductor? When did this occur? Certainly the idea that a material can become superconductive has many benefits, because superconductors have zero electrical resistance. This allows the construction of electromagnets with immense power that can be used as propulsion motors in electric vehicles. Imagine a motor for your car that was not only 99% efficient but as compact as a gallon jug of milk.

The only problem with superconductors so far is that they have to be cooled down to extremely low temperatures  near absolute zero for them to work, and this takes liquid helium to do the job. A lot of the cost of getting an MRI done as a medical procedure is to account for the liquid helium used to make the magnet wires superconducting. If one could find a superconductor that worked at a higher temperature, our world would drastically change for the better.

The promise of a room temperature superconductor had its first glimmer in 2015 when Mikhail Eremets, a physicist at Max Planck Institute, Germany, taking a cue from the prediction that hydrogen should be such a superconductor when squeezed with enough force, reported that foul smelling hydrogen sulfide turned superconducting at negative 94 degrees Fahrenheit if put under 22 million pounds per square inch of pressure in a diamond anvil. Later, Eremets improved this number by using compressed lanthanum halide and announced superconductivity at minus 10 degrees F  a typical winters day here in Elko.

Just recently, scientists at the University of Rochester, New York, published in Nature the paper: Evidence of Near-Ambient Superconductivity in a N-doped Lutetium Hydrid, and this has turned the world agog due to its amazing implications for our energy-driven world. In that paper the team, led by Professor Ranga Dias, reported evidence of superconductivity on a nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride with a maximum Tc of 294 K with a pressure of 10 kbar. That would be superconductivity at room temperature and only moderate pressure. The paper gives a chart showing the critical temperature at which superconductivity occurs as a function of applied pressure. They also say that when pressure is applied, the sample of the synthetic material changes from a remarkable blue to red color.

Several people working in this field, especially Dr. Jorge Hirsch from UCSD, are taking exception to this announcement and have called on Nature to retract the paper, saying it did not explain how the researchers had subtracted out the ever-present background effects that make such experiments difficult to record data from. Just last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the coauthors of the N-doped lutetium hydride paper were requesting a retraction.

So far Nature is not budging. We shall soon see what happens.
ELKOWhat if Native Americans had their own superheroes, to tell their own stories?

Las Vegas comic book illustrator Theo Tso finds himself called to answer this question. Drawing from his Las Vegas Paiute tribe heritage, he created the superhero character Captain Paiute to bring Native American culture to life for a new generation.

During a panel at the Ruby Valley Treaty Conference, he explained that Native American comic book characters are rare. For instance, the Native American character Slipknot appeared in the 2016 Suicide Squad movie but was killed off almost immediately. Tso was inspired to fill this gap.

Another inspiration to create Captain Paiute came when a high school teacher asked Tso if he had seen a western movie where John Wayne shoots a Native American in the face.

I saw it and it kind of just traumatized me to see that white people view us as savages and not caretakers of the land, Tso said. Were stewards of the land. We dont trash it, we dont tear it up.

I was in my art class one day and just thumbing through comics and was like you know what, maybe I should create a journal, Tso said. So I went home that night and created Captain Paiute.

I created him out of necessity, Tso explained, noting the need to teach the younger generation about Native American culture and traditions. You wont see Batman, Superman, at the reservations.

Those characters wouldnt know what to do with Native Americans sacred traditions, he said.

Tso explained that comic books are an accessible way to teach the young generation about tribal history. They are engaging, unlike textbooks.

Tso and fellow comic book illustrators are collaborating to create the War Party, a team of native superheroes that includes Captain Paiute. They will become the first indigenous comic book publishing company.

Tso said that the FX television series Reservation Dogs, which features Native American teenagers, served as a spark for the project.

Jon Proudstar, an actor from the show, illustrated comics in the 90s and is returning to make more, he added.

Tso said that getting sellers interested in his comics is easier than before, possibly because of how works of media like Reservation Dogs have brought positive representation of Native Americans into the mainstream.

Tso explained how storytelling is nothing new for Native Americans. Tribal elders have passed down stories, many of which Tso references in his comics.

But along with their traditional roots, Tsos comics also bear a strong sense of relevance. His stories often deal with current issues facing Native American tribes, including water shortages. Tso said he is currently consulting with female writers to create a comic about missing woman cases.

I also deal with PTSD from the native veterans that have come back from the wars. So that was my homage to the veterans out there, Tso said. His comic character Mojave Nomad is a veteran with PTSD.

Along with thanking veterans for their service, Tso said he also wants to get the word out about their unaddressed struggles with mental health. The natives are not getting help for that.

Captain Paiute doesnt speak his own Paiute language  and neither does Tso.

Unfortunately, my language is kind of dying out.

Im actually talking to our language class about illustrating a book for our language, he said.

Tso said he draws all his comics by hand, eschewing digital tools.

Im old school. Im freehand.

While teaching a comic book art workshop at the conference, Tso explained that he is a self-taught artist.

The first thing I learned to draw was a TIE Fighter from Star Wars, he said. The reason why I remember that is because I remember how I drew it. It was just a circle and two lines. That was it. That was a TIE Fighter.

Tso explained that he began to grasp how shapes form into images. A Star Destroyer was a big triangle with a box on top, he said. The Millennium Falcon was a circle with a triangle thats been cut in half.

From there, I went into figure drawing, Tso said. He explained that he approached illustration in a gonzo-style way, looking at comics in order to figure out how to draw comics.

Such an approach is unconventional compared to the traditional practices of the comic book industry. They tell you to go to illustration school and all this other stuff. Tso said. I bucked the system.

And in his own special way, he is able to make comic books that bring his culture to life.

We need to tell our stories, not Marvel and DC, Tso said. Were storytellers in our own way.
The COP28 Presidency, in collaboration with the SME Climate Hub and We Mean Business Coalition, has launched a programme to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Mena implement net-zero strategies.

COP28 & SME Climate Hub for Mena (Middle East and North Africa) was developed to elevate the role of SMEs and non-state actors in the climate process and has made the SME Climate Hub available in Arabic for the first time.

The Hub for Mena will allow businesses with under 500 employees to make a globally recognised climate commitment and be counted in the United Nations-backed Race to Zero campaign.

It will also provide access to free tools and resources for businesses to implement emissions reduction strategies across their business, report yearly on their progress, and achieve net zero by 2050 or before.

Providing benefits

The regional adaptation of the SME Climate Hub has been developed by the COP28 Presidency, alongside the global SME Climate Hub initiative and its founding partner, the We Mean Business Coalition. The programme is being run in partnership with Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company - Masdar, with support from First Abu Dhabi Bank and the Abu Dhabi Chamber. COP28 & SME Climate Hub for Mena is expected to provide benefits to thousands of SMEs across the region in the lead up to COP28 and beyond.

Adnan Amin, CEO, COP28, said: SMEs comprise up to 90% of all businesses in the Middle East and North Africa, hence they form a major part of the regions economy and have an integral role to play in accelerating Menas transition to net zero. Expanding the SME Climate Hubs regionalisation in Mena will help us to deliver the most inclusive COP to date, support SMEs with their climate goals and ensure they are a vital part of our collective efforts to keep 1.5C within reach."

Despite the growing startup landscape, SMEs in the Mena region, like their global counterparts, face challenges such as access to finance, the rising cost of doing business, overcoming systemic inequalities, scaling digitalisation, capacity and skill building, and access to resources and networks. These challenges are amplified when the transition to sustainability is factored in.

The COP28 & SME Climate Hub for Mena programme will play a key role in supporting businesses in the region to retain their competitive edge in a fast-changing economy.

All-of-society mandate

Razan Al Mubarak, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion, COP28, said: Climate action is an all-of-society mandate and endeavour. Businesses of all sizes are essential in accelerating our green transition to a net-zero, nature-positive future. At the same time, a robust climate strategy benefits companies by unlocking growth opportunities and future-proofing their businesses. The Mena SME Climate Hub will be a turning point for small and medium-sized businesses in the region to commit to a recognised climate goal, access practical tools and resources, and build business resilience.

Maria Mendiluce, CEO of We Mean Business Coalition, a founding partner of the SME Climate Hub, said: Through this expansion, the SME Climate Hub will mobilise small and medium sized businesses to take climate action and help build more resilient companies and communities in the Mena region. At COP28, the We Mean Business Coalition will host the Business Pavilion for Climate Leadership to ensure companies large and small are at the forefront of these crucial discussions in Dubai. We look forward to working with the COP28 Presidency and partners across business and government to drive the transformative change needed to tackle the climate crisis."

Following COP28, Masdar, with the support of First Abu Dhabi Bank, will lead recruitment of SMEs to the SME Climate Hub for Mena to ensure continued support for regional SMEs.

Masdar CEO Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi said: We welcome the launch of the COP28 & SME Climate Hub for Mena campaign with its range of free tools and resources for SMEs. It will be our privilege to continue leading the expansion of this initiative after COP28 and play our part in helping as many SMEs in the region as possible in overcoming the challenges they face in their efforts to reduce emissions and achieve net-zero targets.

Centre of climate action

Hana Al Rostamani, Group Chief Executive Officer of First Abu Dhabi Bank, said: Integrating businesses into the net zero transition is fundamental to achieving global climate goals, and SMEs must be part of this effort. The COP28 & SME Climate Hub platform allows us to bring SMEs into the centre of climate action and provides them with opportunities for growth in a low-carbon future.

Ahmed Khalifa Al Qubaisi, CEO of the Abu Dhabi Chamber, said: "We are proud to support the launch of COP28 & SME Climate Hub for Mena. This programme represents a crucial step in efforts to enhance the success of SMEs while promoting sustainability and aligning with the UAE's ambitious Green Agenda 2030 and Net Zero commitments. At the Abu Dhabi Chamber, we are committed to facilitating sustainable economic growth, and we believe that the SME Climate Hub will be instrumental in driving this mission forward."

COP28 will begin on November 30 in the UAE with a fortnight of negotiations, opening with commitments from global leaders, bringing forward solutions, and concluding with an agreed negotiated text that helps course-correct to keep 1.5C within reach and enhance global resilience. The Presidencys key focus areas are fast-tracking the energy transition and slashing emissions before 2030; transforming climate finance, by delivering on old promises and setting the framework for a new deal on finance; putting nature, people, lives and livelihoods at the heart of climate action and mobilising for the most inclusive COP ever.--TradeArabia News Service
WASHINGTON  Two U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration grants announced by the U.S. Department of Labor are going to Nevada  to the Desert Research Institute and the Nevada Division of Industrial Relations.

The Nevada Division of Industrial Relations is receiving $421,064 for its mining training program, and the Desert Research Center grant is for $120,061, according to Frances Alonzo of the U.S. Department of Labors Office of Public Affairs.

The money going to the industrial relations division is part of the $10.5 million in grants MSHA is awarding to reduce mining accidents, injuries, and illnesses by supporting programs that include safety and health courses, the Department of Labor stated.

The agency is awarding those grants to support the delivery of federally mandated training and retraining of miners at surface and underground metal and nonmetal mines, as well as coal mines and stone, sand, and gravel operations.

Training is a critical element in protecting the safety and health of our nations miners, said Assistant Secretary for Mining Safety and Health Chris Williamson. Deficiencies in miner training continue to be a root cause of fatal accidents. These grants fund programs and training designed to reduce mining accidents, injuries, and illnesses.

Grant recipients tailor their training programs to address their areas mining conditions and hazards miners may encounter, according to the announcement.

The grant going to the Desert Research Center that is part of the Nevada System of Higher Education is part of $1 million in grants to nine organizations in seven states to support education and training initiatives that will help identify and prevent unsafe working conditions in and around mines, the U.S. Department of Labor stated.

These Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety grants administered by MSHA will allow recipients to create training materials, promote and conduct mine safety training or educational programs and evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts, the announcement states.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration works collaboratively with industry, labor, academia, and other stakeholders to protect the health and safety of all miners. Education and training are vital tools in achieving this objective, Williamson said.

The grants awarded today further key priorities of the agency and the Biden-Harris Administration, including preventing fatalities and serious accidents from safety issues, while also addressing miner health, such as preventing exposure to toxic materials like silica dust, he said.

There have been two mining fatalities in Nevada so far this year. MSHA reports show that Tonatec Exploration LLC contractor Marian Olvera, 45, died Sept. 17 in a truck rollover at Nevada Gold Mines surface operations north of Carlin, and Alejandro Castaneda, 49, died when he fell off a scissor lift at NGMs underground Rodeo Mine on Jan. 23 when a pipe came apart.

Established under the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006, the Brookwood-Saga program honors 25 miners who perished in mine disasters in 2001 at the Jim Walters Resources #5 Mine in Brookwood, Ala., and at the Sago Mine in Buckhannon, W. Va., in 2006.

These grants recognize the sacrifice of 25 miners who died needlessly in two of the nations worst mine disasters in the last 25 years, Williamson said.
Monticello, IL (61856)

Today

A good deal of sunshine. High around 55F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Mainly clear skies. Low 38F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph.
SPRING CREEK  Over the summer our Spring Creek chapter participated in multiple activities.

In June we had a chapter lake day in South Fork. We had fun activities at the lake including paddle boarding, swimming, barbeque and canoeing. Our chapter officers and greenhand officers also took the opportunity to teach some of our members leadership skills through workshops.

Four of our members attended Rotary Youth Leadership Awaking in Portola, California to enhance their leadership and personal growth. Some went in both June and July.

Also in June, members from Silver Sage got the opportunity to attend Range Camp. For a week they camped and learned more about plant identification, outdoor skills, and how to keep range land managed and healthy.

In July our FFA students who show livestock worked hard on getting their animals ready for show feeding, working with and exercising their animals. In August the Silver Sage FFA participated in the Ruby Mountain Livestock Show, and all of our members who participated did very well. They sold their market animals and improved their showmanship skills.

We would like to thank Elko Federal Credit Union for generously sponsoring the commission of all Spring Creek show and sale members.

Following that, our chapter officers went to Lamoille for a three day officer retreat to plan activities for the year, start on our annual POA, and to improve their leadership skills. They also took the time to create friendships with their fellow officers to create a positive environment for the upcoming year.

Our Chapters booster club meeting had their annual Ranchers Roundup fundraiser. They worked hard and successfully raised money for scholarships, as well as funds to help Silver Sage kids with their Nationals fees. They fed everyone a wonderful steak dinner that volunteers helped cook.

School and our Ag classes started August 28th and we are looking forward to a great year full of learning.

We had our Range State competition; seven of our members competed and did very well. Five members of the team, Trent Sarmen, Zane Wines, Kathlyn Smith, Leah Smith, and Graham Slonae, qualified for Range Nationals.

We would like to give a huge thank you to all of our sponsors that help make all our activities run and the Ranchers Roundup. We could not do it without you!

Some of our upcoming events: We will have our back to school bbq, and monthly meeting where we will have a community service event with Great Basin Water Company, glow in the dark dodgeball, and our Greenhand Leadership conference parent meeting.

Finally we will have an opportunity for our Greenhands to go to a Greenhand Leadership conference where they will learn about FFA and important skills and leadership activities.
An N.C. House Select Committee is recommending that the General Assembly change a state law forcing districts to start school the Monday closest to Aug. 26 and end no later than the Friday clo
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Ann Arbor (Informed Comment)  The Arizona state government of Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs and Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes are terminating the license of a Saudi company, Fondomonte, owned by Almirai, which had essentially given the company carte blanche to pump scarce Arizona water to grow alfalfa, which it then exported to Saudi Arabia as cattle feed. So reports Arizonas 12News.

Ella Nilsen at CNN argued that although state law prohibits the export of Arizona water, using that water to produce crops like alfalfa for cattle back in Saudi Arabia is a stealth way of exporting it.

Gulf oil states are buying or leasing large amounts of agricultural land in the Third World as a hedge against food and water shortages in the future. This policy implies, though, that they will be exporting agricultural goods to themselves even if local people are in danger of starving, the way the British exported crops from Ireland during its Great Famine.

The deal had been done by Republican governor of Arizona, Doug Ducey, for reasons best known to him. It functioned as a way for Saudis to use Arizonas water to raise alfalfa and then to export the crop to Saudi Arabia to feed its cattle. Alfalfa can no longer be grown in Saudi Arabia itself because farmers have depleted the countrys aquifers and the Kingdom receives little rainfall.

The Saudis were getting the water cheaply. As I noted last year, Nick Cleveland-Stout wrote at Responsible Statecraft, Fondomonte, a subsidiary of Riyadh-based Almarai, has the bargain of a lifetime: for only $25 per acre annually, it can pump as much water as it wants. Nearby farmers pay six times more than the Saudi company.  Ordinary Arizonan farmers have to pay 6 times that to lease land and get access to aquifers. Cleveland-Stout quoted Holly Irwin, who served on the La Paz County board of supervisors as saying, Were not getting oil for free, so why are we giving our water away for free?

12News says that Governor Hobbs and Attorney-General Mayes have found the Saudi subsidiary, Fondomonte, in breach of its contractual obligations including a failure to include secondary containment structures on its fuel and Diesel Exhaust Fluid storage units. Leases of all four Butler Valley fields will be terminated by February of next year.

Hobbs said in a press release, Im not afraid to do what my predecessors refused to dohold people accountable, maximize value for the state land trust, and protect Arizonas water future. Its unacceptable that Fondomonte has continued to pump unchecked amounts of groundwater out of our state while in clear default on their lease. Im proud my administration has taken swift action to hold defaulting high volume water users accountable and bring an end to these leases. And moving forward, I will continue to do everything in my power to protect Arizonas water so we can continue to sustainably grow for generations to come.

Article continues after bonus IC video

12 News: Arizona to end deal allowing Saudi farms to suck Arizonas groundwater dry

Attorney General Kris Mayes had run for office partly on a platform of ending the Saudi companys lease. Of the Ducey administrations sweetheart deal for Almirai, Mayes told 12News, I have never seen anything this egregious by state government in my life.

Saudi Arabia has over 400,000 head of cattle, and is projected to have 443,710 by 2026. It ranks 112th in the world for cattle production. It is in the same range as Malaysia, which is crazy since only 1.6% of its land is arable, whereas Malaysia is lush, with lots of rainfall.

Beef production is highly carbon intensive and needs to be rolled back or done completely differently to forestall even more deadly global heating.

In Saudi Arabia, rainfall is below 150 mm (5.9 inches) per annum in most of the country except for the southwest, where it can reach 400-600 mm (15.7 to 23.6 inches). The Food and Agriculture Organization says that rainfall agriculture is for the most part not possible in places with less than 450 mm (17 inches) of rain a year.

Saudi Arabia also had extensive aquifers, underground water, but these are being rapidly depleted. Attempts in the 1990s to grow wheat by bringing up aquifer water have collapsed as the aquifers got tapped out. These underground lakes of water can take a long time to replenish, even if they arent being emptied at a rate of 5 trillion gallons a year, as they were in unregulated Saudi Arabia.

Cows are a water-intensive animal, which is why in most of the Arid Zone stretching from Morocco to the Gobi desert in China, people prefer lamb and goat meat (and sometimes camel), since those animals can be raised in semi-arid conditions, that is, they can be herded to where pasturage pops up from snow melt or sudden squalls, on land that is often otherwise just savanna. Dairy cows, in contrast, can drink 3050 gallons of water per day. Sheep can get along with half a gallon but depending on other factors could drink 5 gallons a day.

Starting from on the excellent reporting of Ella Nilsen at CNN, I blogged this issue last November, writing:

Since Saudi water resources are insufficient to raise the alfalfa needed to feed these cows, the Saudi firm Almarai established an American subsidiary, Fondomonte, which has leased land in Arizona to grow this feed crop. The alternative would be to import beef and milk from someplace where producing them makes sense (i.e. neither Saudi Arabia nor Arizona).

The hitch, though is that much of Arizona, especially the southwest, gets only 4 inches of rain a year and isnt much better than Saudi Arabia. Farming depends heavily on irrigating off rivers or using underground aquifer water. As for the Colorado River, it is at historic low levels.

Aquifers can be replenished by rainfall, but given the great Southwest Megadrought that began around the year 2000, many of them are having their water pumped out and not replaced. In some areas of the state, people could dig down 100 feet and hit water. Now, the water table is more like 500 feet, Nilsen says. And the aquifers had been in danger of being emptied out entirely if the state had failed to act.

Now the whole project of Americans trying to do intensive agriculture in Arizona needs to be rethought. It is one of the crazier ideas the US government ever had. Not quite as crazy, though, as essentially giving away Arizonas scarce water supplies to Saudi Arabia.
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By Steve Corbin. | 

( Michigan Advance )  You may be among the 35% of Americans who have never heard the term white Christian nationalism. But of those citizens who are knowledgeable of the concept, it carries a decidedly negative view. The belief is becoming more and more important to understand as cultural diversity, racism, immigration issues, political divisiveness and political candidate pandering is before us.

What is white Christian nationalism? Generally  according to the Southern Poverty Law Center  it refers to a political ideology and identity that fuses white supremacy, Christianity and American nationalism, and whose proponents claim that the United States is a `Christian Nation.

Research conducted by the non-partisan Public Religion Research Institute with the nonpartisan Brookings Institution as well as a poll sponsored by Southern Poverty Law Center/Tulchin have the same conclusion: The white Christian nationalism movement is a growing threat to Americas democracy.

The far-right antigovernment and religious rights movement of the 1990s is getting stronger and stronger and will play a major role in the 2024 local, county, state and federal elections.

During the Nov. 21-Dec. 14, 2022 time period, 6,212 Americans were asked by PRRI/BI for their reply to these five statements: 1) the U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation, 2) U.S. laws should be based on Christian values, 3) if the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore, 4) being Christian is an important part of being truly American and 5) God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.

Answers across all five questions were found to be highly correlated (Cronbachs alpha of 0.92) with a margin of error of +/- 1.6% at the 95% level of confidence. This is a take-it-to-the-bank research endeavor.

Fifty-four percent of the GOP faithful are adherents of Christian nationalism vs. 23% of independents and 15% of Democrats.

Thom Hartmann: The Hidden Roots Of White Supremacy Revealed w/ Robert P. Jones

The PRRI/BI research notes five core attitudes are often associated with Christian nationalist beliefs: anti-Black, anti-Semitic (Jewish), anti-Muslim, anti-immigration and patriarchal adherence of traditional gender roles (for example, the husband is head of the household).

Furthermore, research revealed Christian nationalism beliefs are strongly correlated with support for QAnon, an extremist movement of the political right, whose tenets include:

The government, media and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex-trafficking operation There is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.

The Southern Poverty Law Center offers a summary of the movement that should be a wake-up call to Americans: White Christian nationalism is a key ideology that inspired the failed Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and fueled multiple failed political campaigns in 2022 . . . however, white Christian nationalism remains a persistent and growing threat to U.S. democracy.

Any person with a modicum of intelligence knows European colonists immigrated to America to escape religious persecution, expand their economic opportunities and live in a country where there was separation of church and state. Followers of the white Christian nationalism movement want to contradict the principles and norms of democracy and make America an authoritarian country.

Adherents of white Christian nationalism are the drivers of antidemocratic conspiracy theories and election denialism and possibly book banning, LGBTQIA denigration, sanitized black history curriculum, anti-female reproductive rights, gerrymandering and attacking diversity, equity and inclusion.

Currently, there are 14 Republicans and three Democrats wanting to win the Nov. 5, 2024, presidential election. Hundreds of candidates will be seeking local, county, state and federal offices of power. Citizens must be vigilant.

This column first appeared in the Advances sister outlet, the Daily Montanan.
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By and



(RFE/RL ) Shabana had a bright future ahead of her. She was studying to become a doctor and preparing to get married.

But the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 turned her life upside down. The militant groups ban on women attending university forced her to abandon her studies. Then her fiance, who is based abroad, broke off their engagement.

Shabana, who was in her 20s, last month committed suicide in her hometown of Charikar, the provincial capital of the northern province of Parwan.

She is among the growing number of women and girls who have taken their own lives in Afghanistan, one of the few countries in the world where experts estimate that more women are committing suicide than men.

The surge in the number of female suicides in the country has been linked by experts to the Talibans severe restrictions on women. The hard-line Islamist group has banned women from education and most forms of employment, effectively denied them any public role in society, and imposed strict limitations on their mobility and appearance.

Although there are no official figures, Afghan mental-health professionals and foreign organizations have noted a disturbing surge in female suicides in the past two years.

Today, women and girls make up most of the patients suffering from mental conditions in Afghanistan, said Mujeeb Khpalwak, a psychiatrist based in Kabul.

If we look at the women who were previously working or studying, 90 percent suffer from mental health issues now, Khpalwak added. They face tremendous economic uncertainty after losing their work and are very anxious about their future.

Many Afghan women say they have been turned into virtual prisoners in their homes since the Taliban takeover. The vast majority of women are unemployed. And most say they are gripped by hopelessness.

Violence against women, meanwhile, has increased under the Taliban. The militants have scrapped legal assistance programs and special courts that were designed to combat violence against women and girls.

Forced and early marriages of teenage girls have also spiked across Afghanistan, with parents marrying off their adolescent daughters to avoid forced marriages to Taliban fighters.
New laws increasing criminal penalties for fentanyl trafficking and stealing catalytic converters are part of the more than 100 bills passed earlier this year that took effect in whole or in part on Sunday.

That subset of the roughly 540 bills signed by Gov. Joe Lombardo after this years 120-day legislative session also includes stronger restrictions on pet restraints and changes intended to improve health care for those incarcerated in the states prisons.

On another key date earlier this year, July 1, more than 200 laws took effect, including a law that expanded insurance coverage of gender-affirming care. Read more about those laws here.

Heres a look at some of the new laws in effect as of Oct. 1:

HEALTH CARE

AB404: Medical malpractice lawsuit changes

While the key part of this landmark bill  increasing the monetary cap on pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice lawsuits for the first time in two decades  will not take effect until January, the measure does make a pair of changes to medical malpractice litigation beginning this month.

For injuries or wrongful death caused by medical malpractice on or after Oct. 1, a plaintiff will have up to two years after they discover or should have discovered the injury, rather than one year, to bring forward a lawsuit.

Attorneys representing victims of medical malpractice are also now allowed to collect fees up to 35 percent of the recovered damages. Previously, attorneys could collect fees through a tiered system, adjusted depending on the amount recovered. Under the new system, an attorney could collect a higher share of fees from their client for any awards of about $120,000 or more.

AB404, a committee bill, represented a compromise in a long-running feud between the states doctors and trial lawyers over the medical malpractice law.

SB280: Expanding access to IUDs

This law, brought forward by Sen. Rochelle Nguyen (D-Las Vegas), requires a hospital to, upon the request of a patient giving birth at the hospital, provide for the insertion or injection of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC)  which includes intrauterine devices (IUDs) or arm implants that prevent pregnancy for a certain number of years.

Supporters of the bill said the change would expand access to LARCs and that post-pregnancy is an ideal time to insert a LARC, also noting that it can prevent riskier and unplanned pregnancies shortly after another birth, wouldnt require following up with a separate appointment for insertion and could be less painful if the patient is already anesthetized by an epidural.

The requirement does not apply if the contraception should not be used on the patient or if a health care provider determines the contraception would create an unreasonable risk to the patient. A religiously affiliated hospital can also object to the requirement, but would still be required to notify patients who are giving birth if they do so and are required to refer the patient to another provider if the patient requests the contraception.

CRIME AND PUBLIC SAFETY

SB35: Increased penalties for fentanyl trafficking

There are now higher penalties for trafficking large amounts of fentanyl or fentanyl derivatives. Under the law, possession of 28 grams to 42 grams of the drug (down from 100 grams) will be considered low-level trafficking and punishable by one to 10 years imprisonment, with escalating penalties for possession of greater amounts of the drug.

The law, which was supported by Attorney General Aaron Ford and Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas), also establishes greater penalties for anyone who knowingly sells drugs containing fentanyl and who does not notify the buyer  a provision bill supporters described as a response to the opioid epidemic that has seen thousands of Nevadans die by drug overdose.

SB243: Increased penalties for stealing catalytic converters

Intended as a response to a growing trend of catalytic converter thefts across the state, this law, sponsored by Nguyen, increases penalties for stealing the auto part and makes it illegal to own two or more used catalytic converters unless the person is licensed as an automobile wrecker, scrap metal processor or another relevant profession.

Catalytic converters can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to replace and are used to cut vehicle emissions and help engines run more efficiently. These auto parts have been targeted because they contain precious metals.

Penalties escalate depending on the number of catalytic converters possessed, with possession of 10 or more punishable by one to five years imprisonment and a fine of up to $10,000.

AB408: Allows police to tow vehicles for reckless driving

This law takes aim at so-called trick driving  reckless driving involving vehicle stunts  by allowing law enforcement to remove a vehicle from the road without having to arrest the driver if they are issued a citation for reckless driving.

The bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Tracy Brown-May (D-Las Vegas) also expands locations where trick driving is prohibited from public highways to more generally premises to which the public has access, such as a store parking lot, where law enforcement have encountered such stunts.

SB225: Cannabis for cops

This law  primarily intended to prevent officers who have been decertified, or had their license revoked for misconduct in Nevada or another state, from being hired as police officers by other agencies  prohibits law enforcement agencies from barring prospective peace officer applicants for using cannabis prior to submitting their job application.

And while the law brought forward by Sen. Dallas Harris (D-Las Vegas) still allows agencies to screen for cannabis use as a condition of employment, the law also requires the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission to adopt standards that do not require a police officer to be decertified solely for cannabis use.

PRISONS

AB292: Better health care for women in prison

Under this law, women incarcerated in Nevada prisons will receive free feminine hygiene products and access to certain medical and behavioral health services.

The legislation, sponsored by Assemblywoman Cecelia Gonzalez (D-Las Vegas), also mandates prisoners who are pregnant to receive proper medical services, including services before and after childbirth, and prohibits male prison staff from inspecting women prisoners who are undressing, except in limited circumstances.

The bills original draft included many specific references to gender identity. It allowed incarcerated people to be searched only by staff who have the same gender identity as them, and required prison officials to address prisoners in a way consistent with their gender identity.

All references to gender identity were scrapped from the final bill.

SB416: Fee changes at Nevada state prisons

Although the final bill does less than what criminal justice advocates had pushed for, SB416 removes medical co-pays for incarcerated people and eliminates room and board fees  set at 25 percent of wages  for those working while in custody.

The law means Nevada will join 11 other states in not charging medical co-pays for incarcerated people. The state previously had the second-highest medical co-pay for incarcerated people, according to the Fines and Fees Justice Center.

The law also codifies an existing policy by the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) to remove markups on hygiene items and sell them at cost.

The original bill was a much more comprehensive overhaul of NDOCs financial practices. That measure would have, in part, increased the amount of money a prisoner receives upon release from $25 to $100 and eliminate prisoner debt  such as medical debt accrued while incarcerated  upon release.

HOUSING

AB135: Helping people experiencing homelessness obtain birth certificates

Nevada law previously mandated that those experiencing homelessness must sign an affidavit that they are homeless to receive a copy of their birth certificate.

Now, they only need to sign a statement, under penalty of perjury, that they are experiencing homelessness to receive a copy of their birth certificate within 30 days. Unlike affidavits, the signed statements do not need to be notarized. Its a change advocates hope will make it easier for people experiencing homelessness to replace lost vital documents.

The original version of the bill would have required Clark and Washoe counties to develop a plan to address homelessness before the start of the next legislative session. That language was removed in an amendment.

SB155: Programs for people charged with misdemeanor homelessness offense

This heavily amended bill allows people experiencing homelessness who are charged with misdemeanors to enter diversionary court programs and not be subjected to certain fines. The programs help remedy behaviors that led to an arrest and often involve rehabilitation efforts.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. James Ohrenschall (D-Las Vegas), originally would have prevented local governments from banning homeless people from sleeping outdoors or accepting food. Those provisions were ultimately removed from the legislation.

SB368: Removal of racist covenants from housing documents

Nevada homeowners can now petition a judge to remove racist covenants from their housing documents.

Many housing documents still include racist covenants that forbid non-white people from living in certain communities or buying homes. Researchers from UNR have estimated there are thousands of such covenants in Washoe County.

The law, sponsored by Harris, also requires county recorders to remove the racist covenants from new housing documents at no cost.

In 2017, the Legislature created a new form that allowed residents to voice their opposition to the racist language. But residents could not formally remove the covenants from their housing documents.

ELECTIONS

SB406: Fundraising restrictions for state officers, election worker protections

A top campaign priority of Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a portion of this bill from his office implemented increased criminal penalties for threats or harassment against election workers in May. But starting Oct. 1, it also sets new restrictions that prevent constitutional officers  including the secretary of state and attorney general  from fundraising for their re-election campaigns during the 120-day legislative session.

Previously, only the governor and lieutenant governor were barred from raising campaign funds during sessions.

SB327: Expanding election access for tribal members

For future elections, this law, sponsored by Ohrenschall, requires local election officials to establish a polling place and ballot drop box within the boundaries of each Indian reservation in the state, unless the tribe requests not to have one or does not provide certain information.

Additional polling locations or drop boxes can be established, if requested by the tribe.

Beginning in the 2022 election cycle, tribes could request that a polling location, ballot drop box or both be established within the boundaries of a reservation or colony. The states tribes have historically faced significant barriers to voting.

OTHER

SB269: Animal cruelty restrictions

This law, sponsored by Ohrenschall, adds stricter restrictions on animal restraints.

Previously, it was illegal for a person to restrain a dog  such as using certain chains, ties or choke collars  for more than 14 hours in a 24-hour period. Its now illegal for such restraints to be imposed for more than 10 hours in a 24-hour period.

The restrictions  which also mandate appropriate sizes for outdoor areas for animals  previously did not apply to animals being kept in a boarding facility, but the new law removes that exemption. Animals that were staying in a camping area or part of a rescue operation were also completely exempt from those restrictions, but the new law limits the exemption to one month.

AB299: Medal of Distinction

One living and one deceased Nevadan will be honored annually with the states new Medal of Distinction, under this law brought forward by Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas).

A nine-member committee  composed of people chosen by state officials including the governor and Supreme Court chief justice  will select the annual winners. The governor will also appoint five people to the Nevada Awards and Honors Board, which will oversee the design and creation of the medal.
Cerro de Oro Funding Package Update

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - Minera Alamos Inc. (TSXV: MAI) ("Minera" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of an independent estimate of the Mineral Resources currently outlined at the Santana gold project (the "Project") in Sonora, Mexico. The Resource Estimate was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") by Scott Zelligan P.Geo, an independent QP as defined in NI 43-101. A Technical Report with the details of the Resource Estimate will be filed on SEDARplus under the Company's profile within 45 days of the date of this news release.

"This maiden resource covers just the development zones in the immediate area of the current Santana mine operations and is a major step in highlighting the robust resource data and metallurgical input that provided the Company with comfort in developing our first low capital mine. The next open pit in the development plans for the Project, the Nicho main zone, is largely drilled off in sufficient detail for the estimation of measured and indicated resources with a grade and strip (waste: mineralization) ratio that we expect to provide meaningful low-cost production gold ounces for the next 5-6 years as the rest of the property is explored and better understood," stated Darren Koningen, CEO. "Notable nearby targets such as Benjamin which are outside of our current operations area have shown some excellent potential but will require more preliminary exploration and additional drilling to properly understand mineralization controls, grade distribution and tonnage. Ultimately, this current resource statement is just the first, conservative iteration of the geological potential across the broader Santana property with a goal of the current starter mine being a source of organic funding to prove up the greater potential of the area."

The Resource Estimate for the Santana gold project - contains 198,000 ounces of Measured and Indicated gold resources (9.61 Mt at 0.65 g/t) and an additional 103,000 oz of Inferred gold resources (5.51 Mt at 0.58 g/t). Table 1 shows the Mineral Resource estimate by zone for the Santana Project.

Table 1 - Santana Gold Project Estimate of Mineral Resources

Deposit Category Tonnes (t) Gold Grade (g/t) Contained Ounces (koz) Nicho Measured 6,390,000 0.65 133,000 Indicated 2,810,000 0.64 57,000 Total M&I 9,200,000 0.65 190,000 Inferred 1,530,000 0.66 33,000 Nicho Norte & Divisadero Measured 150,000 0.66 3,000 Indicated 260,000 0.62 5,000 Total M&I 410,000 0.63 8,000 Inferred 2,470,000 0.55 44,000 Benjamin Inferred 1,510,000 0.54 26,000 Total Measured 6,540,000 0.65 136,000 Indicated 3,070,000 0.64 62,000 Total M&I 9,610,000 0.65 198,000 Inferred 5,510,000 0.58 103,000

Notes to Table 1:

The independent QP for the mineral resource estimates, as defined by NI 43-101, is Scott Zelligan, P.Geo. The effective date of the 2023 mineral resource estimate is May 31, 2023.

A gold price of $1,700/oz was used in calculating the Mineral Resources.

The estimate is reported for a potential open pit/heap leach scenario.

The limits of the Resource-constraining pit shell assumed a mining cut-off based on a total operating cost (mining, milling, and general and administrative [G&A]) of $12.00/t stacked, a metallurgical recovery of 75%, and a constant open pit slope angle of 40. This constraining pit shell contained a total volume of 49 Mt (mineralized + unmineralized) implying a strip ratio of approximately 2.25.

The gold cut-off grade applied to mineralized material is 0.15 g/t Au

These Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves as they do not have demonstrated economic viability.

The Mineral Resource estimate follows CIM Definition Standards.

Results are presented in-situ. Ounce (troy) = metric tonnes x grade / 31.1035. Calculations used - metric units (metres, tonnes, g/t). Rounding followed the recommendations as per NI 43-101.

The number of tonnes has been rounded to the nearest ten thousand.

The QPs of the Report are not aware of any known environmental, permitting, legal, title-related, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues that could materially affect the Mineral Resource estimate.

Extensive modelling and statistical work was performed to analyze the effect of the oxide zone on gold grade and rock specific gravity. Due to the fractured nature of the host rock, the oxide-sulphide transition zone of the deposits are irregular and difficult to model using conventional wireframing techniques. It was decided for the current Resource Estimate to model without a transition boundary and allow the measured variations to populate the blocks accordingly. Metallurgical testwork (see section below) is ongoing and results from limited sulphide samples tested to date indicate the potential for heap leaching of this material although final required parameters like crush sizes are not yet fully understood. It has been recommended that the Company continue to evaluate the overall database of exploration information with a goal of incorporating geo-metallurgical information into future resource estimates.

Table 2 - Constraining Pit Parameters for Resource Estimation

Parameter Unit Value Gold Price $/oz 1,700 Refining Cost $/oz 15.00 Process Cost $/t stacked 4.00 Metallurgical Recovery % 75 General & Administrative $/t stacked 0.50 Mining Cost $/t 2.30 Gold Cut-Off Grade g/t Au 0.15 Pit Slope Angle degrees 40

Notes to Table 2:

The parameters listed in Table 2 define a basis for reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction for the Project Mineral Resource estimate and are in-line with current actual operating costs for the project. The processing scenario assumes heap leaching of mineralized material sourced from open pit mining operations. The Mineral Resource has been constrained to mineralized material that occurs within a pit shell derived utilizing the parameters listed in Table 2. All other material within the defined pit shell was characterized as non-mineralized material.

Image 1 - Mineralized Volumes Nicho Cross Section



Image 2 - Visual Validation Angled Cross Section Nicho Gold Deposit



Geology and Background

Mineralization in the Santana Project area is of the intrusive-related gold (Au-Ag-Cu-W) type and is associated with calc-alkaline-oxidized intrusive centres (i.e. San Nicolas Batholith). Gold is hosted by hydrothermal breccias and their causative inter-mineral dykes and stocks and can form important mining districts with clusters of deposits. The intense alteration associated with the mineralization is linked to the emplacement of hydrothermal breccias which are in general sub-vertical pipe-like structures and typically a few hundred meters in diameter.

Locally, mineralization at the Santana Project occurs within breccias that have a jigsaw-type texture. These breccias typically comprise angular elongated fragments that have a preferential sub-vertical orientation. Review of core and outcrop indicates that these fragments did not undergo large displacements or rotations, which left open spaces between them that were subsequently infilled by gold-bearing hydrothermal minerals. The breccias are principally clast-supported and monomictic, and the presence of gold mineralization is directly related to the areas dominated by the breccia intervals.

In the case of Santana, there appears to be a cluster of potential gold-bearing deposits that conform to the description above within an area surrounding the main Nicho complex that is the subject of the current gold resource estimate. Further work is planned to properly understand the nature and size of these important targets and to delineate additional mineralization that could allow for prolonged or expanded project operations beyond what has been identified to date.

Metallurgy

The majority of the Nicho gold mineralization that serves as the basis of the current resource estimate is located within an andesitic breccia zone above the deeper quartz-feldspar porphyry intrusive. Mineralization is generally well disseminated throughout the overall host rock volume with small scale enrichment in the fractures between the breccia matrix fragments.

Overall copper content in the mineralization is generally low and leaching results from ongoing operations at the Project indicate that its presence is manageable using free cyanide level-control in the leach solutions, with little impact on overall gold recoveries. The Nicho Norte mineralized material which was the primary source of past test leaching (2017-2019) and recent operations at the Project responds positively to gold cyanidation. Residual gold levels following these heap leaching activities typically approach levels of approximately 0.1 g/t Au. At mined head grades of 0.6 g/t Au to 0.7 g/t Au this equates to gold overall recoveries in the range of 80%. Leach kinetics are rapid for particle sizes up to approximately 1 (30-45 days or less). Although a reduction in kinetics appears at sizes greater than 1, ultimate gold recoveries at the end of the extended leach period were similar to those experienced with the finer-sized material.

Although more data is available for material from the Nicho Norte satellite deposit, comparative studies looking at test samples from the Nicho main deposit appear to exhibit similar results and additional work is ongoing. Recently tested samples of weathered material from upper zones in the deposit exhibited recoveries in line with the Nicho Norte material described above. Leach tests completed on samples of "worst case" fresh sulphide material from deeper in the Nicho deposit exhibited acceptable gold recoveries approaching 70% at crush sizes of <1/2" (coarsest size used for initial screening tests). Additional testwork is underway to more fully understand the overall gold recovery versus particle size relationships throughout the deposit due to variations in sulphide levels and weathering.

Recommendations

The report recommends that additional diamond drill holes, on approximately 25 m centres be drilled at the Benjamin Zone to further understand the distribution of gold mineralization within the zone and to look at opportunities to expand the size of the currently delineated mineralized area. The Company is currently planning to add approximately 10-12 more drill holes to those already drilled this year at Benjamin as a priority.

Additional recommendations include:

Further review of the additional mineralized breccia targets which have been identified by the Company in the areas surrounding the Nicho complex (Goldridge, Zata, Bufita and East zones) area in order to prioritize the next phases of follow-up resource definition drilling.

A continuation of effective surface sampling activities with a focus on new areas that show similar mineralization characteristics as the Nicho and Nicho Norte zones.

Geophysical studies targeting blind targets that have similar signatures as those observed over the known Nicho and Nicho Norte gold-bearing breccia zones.

Additional metallurgical studies (particularly crushing optimization studies) aimed at improving the overall understanding of variations in parameters such as leachability, recoveries and reagent consumptions for newly delineated zones of mineralization.

Cerro De Oro Project Financing Update

The Company is also pleased to report that final documentation based on the term sheet for the Cerro de Oro project financing package announced on May 31, 2023, is expected to close shortly, following the completion of final project technical due diligence. Proceeds from the financing package will be used to permit and construct the Cerro de Oro heap leach gold mine. Delays from the original expected closing date of mid-July were largely a function of expanded requirements for the drafting of documentation suitable for both the Mexican and Canadian corporate jurisdictions. The broad business and financial terms outlined in the May 31, 2023 release remain unchanged.

Qualified Person Statements

The Technical Report on the Mineral Resource Estimate for the Cerro de Oro Project was prepared by Scott Zelligan P.Geo., Larry Segerstrom, M.Sc. (Geology), C.P.G. and Peimeng Ling, P.Eng., all Qualified Persons ("QPs") as defined under Canadian National Instrument 43-101. The QPs have reviewed and approved the content of this news release. All of the QPs are "independent" of the Company pursuant to National Instrument 43-101. The Technical Report will be posted on SEDARplus within the next 45 days.

The listed Qualified Persons have reviewed the data contained in this new release and verified that such data is accurately disclosed.

Scott Zelligan, P.Geo. Zelligan Consulting Inc. Larry Segerstrom, M.Sc. (Geology), C.P.G Segerstrom Consulting LLC Peimeng Ling, P.Eng. Peimeng Ling & Associates Ltd.

Mr. Darren Koningen, P.Eng. Minera Alamo's CEO, is the Qualified Person responsible for the content of this press release under National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Koningen has supervised the preparation of, and has approved the scientific and technical disclosures in this news release.

For Further Information Please Contact:

Minera Alamos Inc.

Doug Ramshaw, President

Tel: 604-600-4423

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: www.mineraalamos.com



Victoria Vargas de Szarzynski, VP Investor Relations

Tel: 289-242-3599

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

About Minera Alamos Inc.

Minera Alamos is a gold production and development Company undergoing the operational start-up of its first gold mine that produced its first gold in October 2021. The Company has a portfolio of high-quality Mexican assets, including the 100%-owned Santana open-pit, heap-leach mine in Sonora that is currently going through its operational ramp up. The 100%-owned Cerro de Oro oxide gold project in northern Zacatecas has considerable past drilling and metallurgical work completed and the proposed mining project is currently being guided through the permitting process by the Company's permitting consultants. The La Fortuna open pit gold project in Durango (100%-owned) has a positive, robust preliminary economic assessment (PEA) completed, and the main Federal permits are in place. Minera Alamos is built around its operating team that together brought three open pit heap leach gold mines into successful production in Mexico over the last 13 years.

The Company's strategy is to develop very low capex assets while expanding the projects' resources and continuing to pursue complementary strategic acquisitions.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking information and Minera Alamos cautions readers that forward-looking information is based on certain assumptions and risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations of Minera Alamos included in this news release. This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements", which often, but not always, can be identified by the use of words such as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", or "plan". These statements are based on information currently available to Minera Alamos and Minera Alamos provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements with respect to Minera Alamos' future plans with respect to the projects, objectives or goals, to the effect that Minera Alamos or management expects a stated condition or result to occur and the expected timing for release of a resource and reserve estimate on the projects. Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions that, by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results relating to, among other things, results of exploration, the economics of processing methods, project development, reclamation and capital costs of Minera Alamos' mineral properties, the ability to complete a preliminary economic assessment which supports the technical and economic viability of mineral production could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements for many reasons. Minera Alamos' financial condition and prospects could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements for many reasons such as: an inability to finance and/or complete an updated resource and reserve estimate and a preliminary economic assessment which supports the technical and economic viability of mineral production; changes in general economic conditions and conditions in the financial markets; changes in demand and prices for minerals; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; technological and operational difficulties encountered in connection with Minera Alamos' activities; and other matters discussed in this news release and in filings made with securities regulators. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of Minera Alamos' forward-looking statements. These and other factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on Minera Alamos' forward-looking statements. Minera Alamos does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by Minera Alamos or on its behalf, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

The Company does not have a feasibility study of mineral reserves, demonstrating economic and technical viability for the Santana project, and, as a result, there may be an increased uncertainty of achieving any particular level of recovery of minerals or the cost of such recovery, including increased risks associated with developing a commercially mineable deposit. Historically, such projects have a much higher risk of economic and technical failure.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.
TORONTO, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CONSOLIDATED LITHIUM METALS INC. (TSXV: CLM; OTCQB: JORFF; FRA: 2JR1) (CLM or the Company) is pleased to announce that the summer exploration field activities have been completed at the Companys 100% owned Baillarge Lithium Project, located in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt approximately 21 km northwest of Val-dOr, Quebec (see Figures 1 & 2).

The summer exploration program consisted of three key but separate components:

a 29 hole, 4747 m diamond drilling program;

an outcrop stripping and sampling program; and

a soil sampling program covering the area between the Baillarge Est Showing and the Chubb showing, which is located 1.2 km southeast and along strike of the area covered by the summer drilling program.

The Baillarge Est Showing (BE)

A total of 4747 m of diamond drilling was completed with 29 holes testing the three previously known dykes of the Baillarge Est Showing, located just south of Lac Baillarge within the northern half of CLMs Baillarge Property. Lithium mineralization was first found at Baillarge Est in 1955 by Amos Lithium Corporation Limited (see Government of Quebec, Ressources Naturelles et Forets, SIGEOM files GM 3404 and GM 4109-B here)

All 29 holes encountered lithium-bearing pegmatites and extended the known strike lengths of all three previously known pegmatites. Drilling and outcrop stripping also led to the discovery of a new pegmatite dyke system, Dyke 5, which is located between Dyke 3 and Dyke 7 (see Figure 3) located under the BE Soil anomaly defined during the Companys 2022 soil sampling program (see the Companys news release dated July 10, 2023 which is available on the Companys SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com). Samples have been collected from all the lithium-bearing pegmatites intersected and have been submitted for analysis at SGS Laboratories, a company independent from CLM. The Company anticipates receiving the first assay results from the samples collected in the next few weeks.

Dyke 7 has now been defined over a strike length of 354 m and to a vertical depth of 130 m. Dyke 3 has been defined over a strike length of 330 m and to a depth of 120 m. Dyke 1 has a current strike length of 280 m and has been defined to a depth of 100 m. Dyke 5 has a 175 m strike length and has been defined to a depth of 50 m, totaling 1139m strike length for all drill-tested pegmatites.

All four dykes remain open for expansion in both directions along strike and at depth. Dyke widths in individual holes range from tens of centimeters to over 5 m in true thickness. Zoning of spodumene mineralization within the dykes has been observed, consistent with observations made during the 2022 and 2023 outcrop stripping programs. The 2023 exploration program has confirmed the strike direction of the four dykes and that they trend in the direction of the Chubb showing, located approximately 1.2 km southeast of the Baillarge Est area. The Chubb showing is located immediately adjacent to the eastern property boundary and trends onto the Companys property. The area between Baillarge Est and the Chubb showing has never been drill tested and is considered by the Company to be a high-priority target for future exploration.

Outcrop Stripping Program

The Company completed its Phase II outcrop stripping program to expand the known surface strike extent of the three identified spodumene-bearing pegmatite dyke systems that comprise the Baillarge Est occurrence. CLM undertook Phase I of the outcrop stripping program during the fall of 2022 (see the Companys news releases dated December 12, 2022 and March 16, 2023 which are also available on the Companys SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com).

In addition to extending the length of the three known dykes, a new pegmatite dyke was discovered early in the stripping program. The newly discovered Dyke 5 pegmatite was located by stripping the area directly underneath a lithium-in-soil anomaly detected during the 2022 soil sampling program (see the Companys new release dated July 10, 2023). Lithium bearing minerals including spodumene and lithium-bearing micas were observed in the pegmatites in the newly stripped areas and in Dyke 5.

CLM conducted channel sampling of the newly stripped areas of Dykes 3 and 7, as well as along the newly exposed portion of Dyke 5. All four dykes remain open along strike to the north-northwest and south-southeast and at depth.

In addition to the discovery of Dyke 5, the newly stripped area of Dyke 3 northwest of the 2022 stripped area yielded a previously unknown portion of the pegmatite that contained highly visible concentrations of lithium- bearing mica and spodumene located only 25 m from the northern end of the 2022 stripped area.

Channel sampling was completed on all new stripped areas and the samples have been submitted for geochemical analysis at SGS Laboratories. The Company anticipates receiving the results of these analyses in the coming weeks.

Soil Sampling Program using LIBS Analysis

The 2023 drilling and outcrop stripping programs have confirmed that the Baillarge Est pegmatites strike southeast towards the Chubb showing, located immediately east of the east property boundary. From various Quebec assessment reports and public disclosures by the Chubb showing owner Burley Resources, the Chubb pegmatites strike northwest in the direction towards the Baillarge Est showing. The 1.2 km long area between the Baillarge Est and Chubb showing is located on the Companys property and has never been explored. A 248 ppm single sample lithium-in-soil anomaly was detected during the 2022 soil sampling program within the 400 x 200 m grid area along the east property boundary adjacent to the Chubb showing.

CLM has completed a 50 x 50 m spaced infill soil sampling program to follow up this 248 ppm Li anomaly covering the area between the Baillarge Est and Chubb showing to define future drilling targets in the highly prospective Baillarge Lithium Corridor (see Figure 4). A total of approximately 300 samples were collected for analysis.

CLM has elected to analyze the 2023 soil sampling program using the handheld LIBS Analyzer. The Company has been working with the manufacturer of the LIBS Analyzer, SciAps Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts, to develop a soil algorithm for use in lithium exploration using state-of-the-art technology. We anticipate that the development of a LIBS soil algorithm will allow the Company to quickly, efficiently and cost effectively detect lithium-in-soil anomalies in other unexplored areas of CLMs property portfolio. Approximately 10% of the samples will be analyzed using conventional geochemical analysis as a Quality Assurance/Quality Control check on this new application of the LIBS system. Results from the soil sampling program is anticipated to be received in the next few weeks.

Drilling contractor, Les Forages Geo-Nord has drilled at Baillarge Est project. Geo-Nord is employing local drillers from the town of Val-dOr, Quebec. Geo-Nord was the contractor for the 2021 drilling campaign at Vallee Lithium. Geo-Nord familiarity within the local community and Project site, uniquely provides local knowledge of the Health, Safety, Environmental and Community expectations required to execute the drilling contract.

The geochemical soil sampling program was designed and sampled by ABG EXPLORATION technical team based at Amos, Quebec. Their technical team is supervised by a team of 7 OGQ compliant P.Geo. including MSc and 2 PhD geochemist/geostatistician and a structural geologist.

Rene Bharti, Chief Executive Officer, commented, CLM was one of the first to deploy the groundbreaking LIBS technology to our lithium assets in Quebec. This technology will allow us to locate much faster, buried lithium bearing pegmatite dykes and define better drilling targets. We look forward to receiving the results in a timely manner.

Figure 1 - Consolidated Lithium - Location of CLM Properties

Figure 2 - Consolidated Lithium - Location of the Baillarge Project

Figure 3  Consolidated Lithium  Baillarge Est Showing

Figure 4 - Consolidated Lithium - 2023 Exploration Program  Baillarge Project

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information contained herein has been reviewed and approved by Alexandr Beloborodov, P.Geo., an independent consultant that is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Consolidated Lithium Metals Inc.

Consolidated Lithium Metals Inc. (formerly known as Jourdan Resources Inc.) is a Canadian junior mining exploration company trading under the symbol CLM on the TSX Venture Exchange and 2JR1 on the Stuttgart Stock Exchange. The Company is focused on the acquisition, exploration, production, and development of mining properties. The Companys properties are in Quebec, Canada, primarily in the spodumene-bearing pegmatites of the La Corne Batholith, around North American Lithiums Quebec lithium mine.

For more information:

Rene Bharti, Chief Executive Officer and President

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Phone: (416) 861-5800

https://consolidatedlithium.com/

Cautionary Statements

The content and grades of any mineral deposits at the Companys properties are conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource on its properties and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in any target being delineated as a mineral resource. In addition, sample results at or around, and information applicable to, the North American Lithium mine or the Chubb showing are not indications of results that could be obtained at, or information applicable to, the Companys Baillarge lithium project, or any other of CLMs properties.

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to anticipated future drill programs, the timing of the receipt of sample assay results, the expected benefits of a LIBS soil algorithm, and the Companys ability to execute its business plan. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of CLM to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: receipt of necessary approvals; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; future mineral prices and market demand; accidents, labour disputes and shortages and other risks of the mining industry. Although CLM has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. CLM does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE
Vancouver, British Columbia, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Surge Copper Corp. (TSXV: SURG) (OTCQX: SRGXF) (Frankfurt: G6D2) (Surge or the Company) is pleased to announce assay results from drill hole BRG23-243, the first hole of the Companys 2023 drilling program testing the deeper portions of the large Berg copper-molybdenum deposit in west-central British Columbia.

Highlights

Hole BRG23-243 encountered the second longest mineralized interval from the Berg deposit to date, intersecting 756 metres grading 0.36% copper equivalent (0.26% copper, 0.026% molybdenum, 3.6 g/t silver, and 0.02 g/t gold) from 22 metres depth, with the hole ending in mineralization

The upper portion of the hole encountered the chalcocite blanket returning a subinterval with elevated copper of 172 metres grading 0.35% copper, 0.008% molybdenum, 2.8 g/t silver, and 0.03 g/t gold from 34 metres depth

Hole BRG23-243 was collared in the southeasternmost part of the Berg deposit and demonstrates that the deposit remains open in this direction

Hole BRG23-243 accomplished multiple objectives including learning more about the deep characteristics of the deposit within an area of low drill density, providing material for metallurgical testwork, potentially converting Inferred resources to the Measured and Indicated categories, and extending grade and continuity of mineralization near surface and to depth within the current resource model

Prior to the 2023 program the Berg deposit only had 3 holes with lengths exceeding 600 metres; all 3 holes from the 2023 drill program were longer than 600 metres, and each hole will increase the understanding of Berg mineralization at depth

Leif Nilsson, Chief Executive Officer, commented: We consider hole BRG23-243 to be a tremendous drill result for the Berg project. This was a 100-metre step-out exploration hole that was designed to meet multiple scientific and economic objectives, including extending above-average grades in areas of the current block model with limited drill density, collecting potential sample material for various geochemical and metallurgical tests, and testing the characteristics of an important geological contact within the under-sampled deeper regions of the deposit. The results from the upper portions of the hole demonstrate that the deposit remains open for further expansion to the southeast (a region of the deposit that was modeled in the recent PEA as being developed in the second and third phases of the pit), with potential implications for future mine optimization and the life of mine strip ratio. The results from the very bottom of the hole, across the contact with and into the Berg Stock, demonstrate the prospectivity of this geological target, which tends to act as a control on stronger molybdenum grades, and has seen very little testing at depth around its entire circumference.

Hole BRG23-243 was a 100-metre step-out testing the southeast side of the Berg deposit within an area of low drill density and was drilled toward the northwest at a dip of -74 degrees to a total depth of 778 metres. The depth of the hole was targeted to intersect the contact with the Berg Stock which is one of the primary geological controls on mineralization within the deposit. The hole encountered variably developed secondary chalcocite blanket from 22 to about 206 metres depth, then encountered a large interval of veined and mineralized volcanic wall rock to 758 metres depth and ended within mineralized Berg Stock. Copper grades are higher within the near-surface secondary chalcocite blanket, whereas molybdenum grades increase with depth and are highest adjacent to and within the Berg Stock. The hole has successfully demonstrated continuity of mineralization from near surface through its entire length and will extend higher grades through the central and deeper parts of the system.

The hole returned 756 metres grading 0.36% copper equivalent (0.26% copper, 0.026% molybdenum, 3.6 g/t silver, and 0.02 g/t gold) from 22 metres depth, with the hole ending in mineralization. The supergene sulfide zone returned higher grades including 90 metres of 0.46% copper equivalent (0.42% copper, 0.004% molybdenum, 2.8 g/t silver, and 0.03 g/t gold) from 66 metres depth. This is the second longest mineralized intercept from the Berg Deposit to date, exceeded only by hole BRG08-194 which was drilled to a total depth of 866 metres. Hole BRG08-194 was drilled in 2008 in the northeast part of the deposit 800 metres north of hole BRG23-243, and returned an intercept of 772.5 metres grading 0.47% copper equivalent (0.30% copper, 0.051% molybdenum, and 4.7 g/t silver (with no assays for gold)) from 21.5 metres depth.

Figure 1. Berg drill hole location map showing 2023 drill holes and the location of cross section A  A.

Figure 2. Cross section A-A showing hole BRG23-243. See Figure 1 for section location.

Summary of Assay Results for Holes BRG23-243 Drill Hole From (m) To (m) Width (m)1 CuEq (%)2 Cu (%) Mo (%) Ag (g/t) Au (g/t) BRG23-243 22.0 778.0 EOH 756.0 0.36 0.26 0.026 3.6 0.02 including 34.0 206.0 172.0 0.40 0.35 0.008 2.8 0.03 including 66.0 156.0 90.0 0.46 0.42 0.004 2.8 0.03 including 286.0 324.0 38.0 0.38 0.31 0.016 4.1 0.02 including 562.0 764.0 202.0 0.37 0.20 0.051 3.6 0.02 1. Width refers to drill hole intercepts; true widths have not been determined.

2. CuEq (copper equivalent) has been used to express the combined value of copper, gold, molybdenum, and silver as a percentage of copper, and is provided for illustrative purposes only. Calculations use metal prices of US$4.00/lb copper, US$1,800/oz gold, US$15/lb molybdenum, and US$23/oz silver, and deposit average recovery assumptions of 76% for molybdenum, 65% for silver, and 55% for gold.





Figure 3. Photos from BRG23-243. Top left, chalcocite and covellite coated fractures at 25 metres depth. Top right, chalcocite coated fractures at 173 metres depth. Bottom left, biotite altered volcanic cut by quartz-sulfide veins with bleached selvages, quartz-molybdenite-chalcopyrite veins, and purple anhydrite-chalcopyrite veins at 318 metres depth. Bottom right, biotite altered andesite with pyrite-chalcopyrite sulfide veins at 446 metres depth.

2023 Drill Program

The 2023 Berg drill program operated from late July to early September 2023, and 3 diamond core holes (BRG23-243, 244, and 245) totalling 2077 metres of drilling were completed. The program was designed to learn more about the deep characteristics of the deposit while also providing fresh material for metalurgical testwork and converting Inferred resources to Measured and Indicated in areas of low drill density. Holes BRG23-244 and 245 also tested the Berg deposit at deeper levels in areas with limited previous deep information and are expected to contribute to the understanding of the deeper part of the system and potentially extend mineralization to depth. Assay results from these holes will be released once they are received, verified, and interpreted.

Annual General Meeting

The Company held its Annual General Meeting on September 21, 2023. All proposed resolutions, as described in the notice of the meeting and information circular dated August 9, 2023, were approved by the shareholders of the Company.

Quality Control

All drill core is logged, photographed, and cut in half with a diamond saw. Half of the core is bagged and sent to Actlabs in Kamloops, British Columbia for analysis (which is ISO/IEC 17025 accredited), while the other half is archived and stored on site for verification and reference purposes. Gold is assayed using a 30g fire assay method and 33 additional elements are analyzed by Induced Coupled Plasma (ICP) utilizing a 4-acid digestion. Duplicate samples, blanks, and certified standards are included with every sample batch and then checked to ensure proper quality assurance and quality control.

Qualified Person

Dr. Shane Ebert P.Geo., is the Qualified Person for the Ootsa and Berg projects as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has approved the technical disclosure contained in this news release.

About Surge Copper Corp.

Surge Copper Corp. is a Canadian company that is advancing an emerging critical metals district in a well-developed region of British Columbia, Canada. The Company controls a large, contiguous mineral claim package that hosts multiple advanced porphyry deposits with pit-constrained NI 43-101 compliant resources of copper, molybdenum, gold, and silver  metals which are critical inputs to the low-carbon energy transition and associated electrification technologies.

The Companys flagship project is the Berg Project, in which it is earning a 70% interest from Centerra Gold. The Company has announced a PEA on the Berg Project which outlines a large-scale, long-life development project with a simple design and high outputs of critical minerals located in a safe jurisdiction near world-class infrastructure. The PEA highlights base case economics including an NPV 8% of C$2.1 billion and an IRR of 20% based on long-term commodity prices of US$4.00/lb copper, US$15.00/lb molybdenum, US$23.00/oz silver, and US$1,800/oz gold. The Berg deposit contains pit-constrained 43-101 compliant resources of copper, molybdenum, silver, and gold in the Measured, Indicated, and Inferred categories.

The Company also owns a 100% interest in the Ootsa Property, an advanced-stage exploration project containing the Seel and Ox porphyry deposits located adjacent to the open pit Huckleberry Copper Mine, owned by Imperial Metals. The Ootsa Property contains pit-constrained NI 43-101 compliant resources of copper, gold, molybdenum, and silver in the Measured, Indicated, and Inferred categories.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Leif Nilsson

Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

Riley Trimble, Corporate Communications & Development

Telephone: +1 604 416 2978

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Twitter: @SurgeCopper

LinkedIn: Surge Copper Corp

https://www.surgecopper.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This News Release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "will", "may", "should", "expects", "plans", or "anticipates" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to the Companys plans regarding the Berg Property and the Ootsa Property. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the Companys actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Such uncertainties and risks may include, among others, actual results of the Company's exploration activities being different than those expected by management, delays in obtaining or failure to obtain required government or other regulatory approvals, the ability to obtain adequate financing to conduct its planned exploration programs, inability to procure labour, equipment, and supplies in sufficient quantities and on a timely basis, equipment breakdown, impacts of the current coronavirus pandemic, and bad weather. While these forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect the Company's current judgment regarding the direction of its business, actual results will almost always vary, sometimes materially, from any estimates, predictions, projections, assumptions, or other future performance suggestions herein. Except as required by applicable law, the Company does not intend to update any forward-looking statements to conform these statements to actual results.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spey Resources Corp. (CSE: SPEY) (OTC: SPEYF) (FRA: 2JS) ("Spey or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Nader Vatanchi as Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

Mr. Vatanchi has served on the Companys Board of Directors since May 2021 and was formerly Chief Executive Officer of the Company from March 2021 to October 2022.

The Company wishes to thank Philip Thomas for his tenure as Chief Executive Officer during the past year and wishes him all the best in future endeavours.

Approved for release by the Board of Directors,

Nader Vatanchi

Nader Vatanchi

Chief Executive Officer

About Spey Resources Corp.

Spey Resources is a Canadian lithium focused mineral exploration company which has an 80% interest in the Candela II lithium brine project located in the Incahuasi Salar, Salta Province, Argentina. Spey also holds an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Kaslo Silver project, west of Kaslo, British Columbia.

For more information, please contact:

Nader Vatanchi,

CEO, Director

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

+1778-881-4631

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including with respect to Kaslo claims. The Company provides forward-looking statements for the purpose of conveying information about current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections, or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct, and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited those identified and reported in the Companys public filings under the Companys SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events, or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise unless required by law.

The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has not reviewed, approved, or disapproved the contents of this press release. We seek safe harbour.
VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Defense Metals Corp. ("Defense Metals" or the "Company"; (TSXV: DEFN) (OTCQB: DFMTF) (FSE: 35D) is pleased to announce it has commenced Phase 2 of its planned infrastructure and open pit geotechnical drilling. Sonic overburden characterization (site infrastructure geotechnical) and diamond core drilling (open pit geotechnical and near resource exploration) is expected to be complete within 4 to 6 weeks, with results to follow. The work, with the support of the Defense Metals' technical team and APEX Geoscience Ltd., is being completed by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. ("SRK") one of the principal consultants for the preliminary feasibility study ("PFS") regarding the Company's Wicheeda Rare Earth Element (REE) Project located near Prince George, Canada.

Craig Taylor, CEO of Defense Metals, commented: "We are pleased to commence Phase 2 geotechnical investigations. This work will provide critical inputs for the ongoing PFS study, and in the case of exploration targets have the potential to expand resources. The Company's technical teams and principal Engineering contractors continue to push forward keeping us on track for a planned PFS completion by the end of Q2 2024."

As previously reported (see Defense Metals news release dated August 16, 2023) the SRK geotechnical investigation includes the following scopes:

Geotechnical engineering (waste rock, tailings, contact water pond, and site infrastructure geotechnical investigation),

(waste rock, tailings, contact water pond, and site infrastructure geotechnical investigation), Tailings alternative assessment prior to advancing into PFS-level design of a preferred alternative, and

prior to advancing into PFS-level design of a preferred alternative, and Geochemical characterization (to support mine planning/waste management and to develop preliminary water chemistry predictions for the main mine facilities).

Currently two rigs, sonic and core drills, are operating at the Project, with sonic operations focused on overburden and bedrock characterization within the potential waste rock storage (WSF) footprint (see Image 1), and geotechnical core drilling underway with the east highwall of the proposed open pit (see Image 2).

With WSF drilling nearing completion, sonic operations are expected to transition to the proposed contact water pond (CWP), and crusher and conveyor footprints, followed by tailing storage facility (TSF) and TSF alternative geotechnical investigations.

In pit geotechnical core drilling will progress from current drilling on the east highwall, followed by south, north, and west pit walls. Drilling into the south pit wall is expected to collar in REE mineralized dolomite carbonatite. In addition, geotechnical core drilling of the west pit wall is co-purposed with testing of a high priority ground radiometric geophysical anomaly with the potential to represent undiscovered carbonatite body (see Defense Metals' news release dated September 5, 2023).

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release as it relates to the Wicheeda REE Project has been reviewed and approved by Kristopher J. Raffle, P.Geo. (B.C.), Principal and Consultant of APEX Geoscience Ltd. of Edmonton, Alberta, who is a director of Defense Metals and a "Qualified Person" as defined in NI 43-101.

About the Wicheeda REE Property

Defense Metals 100% owned, 6,759-hectare (~16,702-acre) Wicheeda Project is located approximately 80 km northeast of the city of Prince George, British Columbia; population 77,000. The Wicheeda REE Project is readily accessible by all-weather gravel roads and is near infrastructure, including hydro power transmission lines and gas pipelines. The nearby Canadian National Railway and major highways allow easy access to the port facilities at Prince Rupert, the closest major North American port to Asia.

About Defense Metals Corp.

Defense Metals Corp. is a mineral exploration and development company focused on the development of its 100% owned Wicheeda Rare Earth Element Deposit located near Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. Defense Metals Corp. trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "DEFN", in the United States, trading symbol "DFMTF" on the OTCQB and in Germany on the Frankfurt Exchange under "35D".

Defense Metals is a proud member of Discovery Group. For more information please visit: http://www.discoverygroup.ca/

For further information, please visit www.defensemetals.com or contact:

Todd Hanas, Bluesky Corporate Communications Ltd.

Vice President, Investor Relations

Tel: (778) 994 8072

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding "Forward-Looking" Information

This news release contains "forwardlooking information or statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, which may include, without limitation, statements relating to advancing the Wicheeda REE Project, the expected completion of the PFS and the expected timeline, the completion and expected timelines for sonic and geotechnical drilling and the expected results and outcomes (including the potential for undiscovered carbonatite), the technical, financial and business prospects of the Company, its project and other matters. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the price of rare earth elements, the anticipated costs and expenditures, accuracy of assay results, performance of available laboratory and other related services, future operating costs, interpretation of geological and metallurgical data, the ability to achieve its goals, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms. Such forward-looking information reflects the Company's views with respect to future events and is subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of exploration and metallurgical results, risks related to the inherent uncertainty of exploration, metallurgy and development and cost estimates, the potential for unexpected costs and expenses and those other risks filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedarplus.ca. While such estimates and assumptions are considered reasonable by the management of the Company, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and regulatory uncertainties and risks. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions, adverse weather and climate conditions, failure to maintain or obtain all necessary government permits, approvals and authorizations, failure to maintain community acceptance (including First Nations), risks relating to unanticipated operational difficulties (including failure of equipment or processes to operate in accordance with specifications or expectations, cost escalation, unavailability of personnel, materials and equipment, government action or delays in the receipt of government approvals, industrial disturbances or other job action, and unanticipated events related to health, safety and environmental matters), risks relating to inaccurate geological, metallurgical and engineering assumptions, decrease in the price of rare earth elements, the impact of Covid-19 or other viruses and diseases on the Company's ability to operate, an inability to predict and counteract the effects of COVID-19 and other viruses and diseases on the business of the Company, the price of commodities, capital market conditions, restriction on labour and international travel and supply chains, loss of key employees, consultants, or directors, increase in costs, delayed results, litigation, and failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations. The Company does not undertake to update forwardlooking statements or forwardlooking information, except as required by law.
October 3, 2023  TheNewswire - Vancouver, British Columbia  Highlander Silver Corp. (CSE:HSLV) (the Company or Highlander Silver) is pleased to announce that it has negotiated a $3 million offering of units (the Offering) with strategic investors, including the Augusta Group and members of the Lundin family. Concurrent with the Offering the Company will be completing a consolidation of its common shares on a 2 for 1 basis (the Consolidation).

The Offering is comprised of 30,000,000 post-consolidated units of the Company at $0.10 per unit (each a Unit) for gross proceeds of $3,000,000. Each Unit will be comprised of one post-consolidated common share (a Share) and one whole warrant exercisable for one Share at a price of $0.15 per Share for a period of 3 years from the date of issuance.

Highlander Silver President and CEO, David Fincham stated, We very much appreciate the continued support of the Augusta Group and are delighted to welcome members of the Lundin family as new investors in Highlander. The funds from this private placement and the backing from our strategic investors mean we can continue to work vigorously towards our vision of building Highlander into company with a focused portfolio of Tier 1 potential exploration stage assets.

The Company plans to use the net proceeds for permitting and subsequent drilling at the La Estrella project, ongoing assessment of acquisition opportunities and for general corporate purposes.

In accordance with the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange (the CSE), current shareholders of the Company who hold more than 50% of the issued and outstanding common shares have consented, in writing, to Augusta Investment Inc. and the Lundin affiliates participation in the Offering.

The Consolidation and Offering are expected to be completed on or before October 20th, 2023.

The Company's common shares will commence trading on a post-consolidated basis on a date to be announced in a subsequent news release and determined in consultation with the CSE. The Company's name and trading symbols will remain unchanged.

On completion of the Consolidation and Offering, the Company will have 60,460,434 common shares issued and outstanding. The number of post-consolidated common shares to be received by shareholders will be rounded up to the nearest whole number for fractions of 0.5 or greater or rounded down to the nearest whole number for fractions of less than 0.5. A letter of transmittal with respect to the Consolidation will be mailed to registered holders of common shares with instructions on how to exchange existing share certificate(s) for new share certificate(s). The letter of transmittal will also be available on the Company's profile on SEDAR+.

The Offering is subject to CSE approval and the securities issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a statutory hold period of four months from the date of issuance.

The proposed investment by Augusta Investments constitutes a related party transaction as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101). The Company is relying on the exemptions from the formal valuation requirements contained in section 5.5(b) of MI 61-101 and the minority shareholder approval requirements contained in section 5.7(1)(b) of MI 61-101, as the Company is not listed on specified markets and the fair market value of the securities to be distributed to related parties does not exceed $2,500,000.

About Highlander Silver

Highlander Silver Corp. is a mineral exploration company focused on the exploration of silver-polymetallic projects in central Peru, as well as targeting the acquisition of additional mineral projects by leveraging the teams significant experience in Peru and South America more widely. Additional information about Highlander Silver and its mineral projects can be viewed on the Companys SEDAR (www.sedar.com) profile at www.sedar.com and its website at www.highlandersilver.com

Neither the CSE nor the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

For further information, please contact:

David Fincham

Chief Executive Officer

Highlander Silver Corp.

(604) 283 7630

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Forward-Looking Information

Certain information contained in this news release constitutes forward-looking information under Canadian securities legislation. This includes, but is not limited to, information or statements with respect to the completion of a share consolidation, the Offering, the terms of the investments under the Offering, and the use of proceeds. Such forward looking information or statements can be identified by the use of words such as anticipates, plans, suggests, targets or prospects or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results will be taken, occur, or be achieved. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company and/or its subsidiaries to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties, the actual results of current exploration activities, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, accident, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, and delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that could cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking information contained herein are made as of the date of this news release. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or managements estimates or opinions should change, except as required by applicable securities laws. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- United Lithium Corp. (CSE: ULTH; OTC: ULTHF; FWB: 0ULA) (United or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has established a large land position in a historic pegmatite mining district in Fremont County, Wyoming. The Company has staked 1,844 hectares (ha) comprising 206 unpatented lode mining claims (1,585 ha) and acquired one state mineral lease (259 ha) 24 kilometres north of the city of Shoshoni. This new project (Freedom Project) hosts numerous lithium and tantalum-bearing pegmatite bodies, several of which have been mined historically for lithium, tantalum, tungsten, beryllium, and feldspar.

Highlights

Located in historic Copper Mountain Mining District with extensive pegmatite outcrops;

Known spodumene, lepidolite and tantalite-hosting pegmatites on the property;

Easily accessible by a network of gravel roads that are connected to US Route 20; and

The State of Wyoming is mining friendly and is the second-biggest net domestic energy supplier1.

Scott Eldridge, Uniteds President, and CEO stated: We are pleased to add a third hard-rock pegmatite project to our US portfolio. Similar to the projects in Colorado and South Dakota, this property sits within a historic mining district that hosts an extensive lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatite field.

Freedom is the fifth hard-rock pegmatite project in Uniteds portfolio. Our geographically diverse holdings are spread across Sweden, Finland, and the US, and provide shareholders multiple discovery opportunities within one company.

A reconnaissance rock chip sampling program was carried out in conjunction with the staking program to provide an initial assessment of known lithium, in addition to possibly identifying new spodumene or lepidolite hosting pegmatites. A total of 184 rock samples were collected, 144 of which are pegmatites and 40 are host rock mica schists or other minor rocks types (Figure 1). Assay results will be reviewed and reported and will be used to design follow up geological mapping and detailed sampling for a program in spring 2024.

The Project area covers public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and one Wyoming state mineral lease. The Company awaits adjudication of the lode mining claims by the BLM.

Geology and Mining History

The Freedom Project encompasses the most lithium-prospective portion of the Copper Mountain Mining District, located in the eastern region of the Owl Creek Mountains (also known as the Bridger Range). The District is a mineral rich region with historic lithium, tantalum, tungsten, beryl, copper, gold, and silver mining occurring between 1906 and 19402.

Lithium-bearing pegmatites have been historically mapped in the area that the project was staked, with these reportedly hosting spodumene, lepidolite or petalite2,3. The pegmatites are interpreted to be associated with an Archean-aged granitic intrusion hosted in Archean metasedimentary schists, gneisses, and amphibolite. There are two generations of pegmatites: an older set that is concordant to host rock foliation and mineralogically simple, and a younger, discordant, more mineralogically complex set. The pegmatites typically outcrop as long, narrow ridges generally oriented SW to NE. Grain-sizes are typically coarse (1-5 centimetres) and during staking many of these were recorded to host spodumene, lepidolite, hornblende, tourmaline, red garnet, muscovite, perthite and quartz. Historical mapping recorded apparent thicknesses of bodies as much as in excess of 30 metres (m), with an average of 6 m.

Figure 1: Tenure and surface rock outcrop sample locations for the Freedom Project, Wyoming

Note: Historic mines on the Freedom Project comprise tantalite, tungsten, lithium, beryl, and feldspar excavations exploited between 1928 and 1940. The majority of those outside the Project are primarily gold excavations and one historic producer. Mapped pegmatites are from McLaughin (1940)1.

About the Freedom Project

The Freedom Project is comprised of 206 unpatented federal lode mining claims (1,585 ha) and one state mineral lease (259 ha), covering approximately 1,844 ha in Fremont County, Wyoming. The Project covers a portion of the historically producing Copper Mounting Mining District where there was minor production of lithium, tantalum, tungsten, beryllium, feldspar, copper, and gold intermittently over multiple periods between 1906 and 19784. Lithium-bearing pegmatites hosting spodumene, lepidolite and petalite have been recorded historically and confirmed to be present by United during staking activities. The Freedom Project is easily accessed via gravel roads that begin along U.S. route 20, which connects the cities of Shoshoni and Thermopolis.

1U.S. Energy Information Administration.

2McLaughlin, T.G., 1940. Pegmatite dikes of the Bridger Mountains, Wyoming. American Mineralogist, Volume 25, pages 46-68.

3Hanley, J.B., Heinrich, E.W., and Page, L.R., 1950. Pegmatite investigations in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah 1942-1944. Geological Survey Professional Paper 227, 134 pp.

4Jacobson, M.I. 2001. The Copper Mountain Pegmatite District, Fremont County, Wyoming. In: Rocks and Minerals, July 2001. 20 pp.

Stock Option Incentive Grant

The Company also announces that it has granted 600,000 incentive stock options to certain consultants of the Company to acquire an aggregate of 600,000 common shares in the capital of the Company at an exercise price of $0.35 (the Options) in accordance with its 10% rolling Incentive Stock Option Plan. One-third of the Options vest immediately upon grant, one-third in 6 months, one-third in 12 months, and are exercisable for a period of sixty months.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical data contained in this news release was reviewed and approved by Cathy Fitzgerald, M.Sc., P.Geo., Uniteds Executive Vice President, Exploration. Ms. Fitzgerald is a registered professional geologist in British Columbia and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Minerals Projects.

On Behalf of The Board of Directors

Scott Eldridge

President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

About United Lithium Corp.

United Lithium Corp. (CSE: ULTH) is an exploration & development company energized by the global demand for lithium. The Company is targeting lithium projects in politically safe jurisdictions with advanced infrastructure that allows for rapid and cost-effective exploration, development, and production opportunities.

The Companys consolidated financial statements and related managements discussion and analysis are available on the Companys website at https://unitedlithium.com/ or under its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements included in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements including, without limitation, statements with respect to the potential of the Freedom Project; the adjudication of the BLM claims staked; the potential identification of new mineralization; timing and successful execution of future drilling and exploration activities. Forward-looking statements include predictions, projections and forecasts and are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as anticipate, believe, plan, estimate, expect, potential, target, budget and intend and statements that an event or result may, will, should, could or might occur or be achieved and other similar expressions and includes the negatives thereof.

Forward-looking statements are based on the reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis, and opinions of the management of the Company made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management of the Company believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made. Forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions that have been made by the Company as at the date of such information and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may have caused actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: risks associated with mineral exploration and development; metal and mineral prices; availability of capital; accuracy of the Companys projections and estimates; realization of mineral resource estimates, interest and exchange rates; competition; stock price fluctuations; availability of drilling equipment and access; actual results of current exploration activities; government regulation; political or economic developments; environmental risks; insurance risks; capital expenditures; operating or technical difficulties in connection with development activities; personnel relations; contests over title to properties; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing, or other relevant issues. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable, including but not limited to the price of lithium and other metals and minerals; the demand for lithium and other metals and minerals; the ability to carry on exploration and development activities; the timely receipt of any required approvals; the ability to obtain qualified personnel, equipment and services in a timely and cost-efficient manner; the ability to operate in a safe, efficient and effective matter; and the regulatory framework regarding environmental matters, and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and actual results, and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward looking information contained herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. The forward-looking information contained herein is presented for the purpose of assisting investors in understanding the Companys expected financial and operational performance and the Companys plans and objectives and may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Vancouver, British Columbia - TheNewswire - October 3, 2023: Headwater Gold Inc. (CSE:HWG) (OTC:HWAUF) (the "Company" or "Headwater") is pleased to announce the acquisition of the TJ epithermal gold-silver project (the Property) located in Elko County, Nevada.

Highlights:

Headwater has acquired the TJ project in northern Elko County, Nevada, totaling 775 hectares, through claim staking and an option to acquire a 100% interest in pre-existing claims from a private party.

The Property contains a thick accumulation of silica sinter and opaline silica with indications of multiple generations of hydrothermal brecciation and veining.

Shallow historic drilling encountered intense silicification with anomalous gold, silver, and epithermal pathfinder element geochemistry.

Multiple property-scale faults bisect the high-level epithermal alteration and present compelling targets with anomalous gold at surface and potential to host high-grade epithermal veins at depth.

A CSAMT geophysical survey, geologic mapping and soil sampling is planned to aid in refining high-priority drill targets.

Caleb Stroup, the President and CEO of the Company, states: We are very excited to add the TJ project to our portfolio of high-quality epithermal vein targets in Nevada. TJ meets all the criteria we look for in a compelling exploration opportunity, including a fully preserved epithermal alteration cell capped by a silica sinter. The TJ project has many geological similarities with Headwaters Spring Peak and Midas North projects, which are being actively drilled by the Company. None of the shallow historic drill holes on the TJ property penetrated to the projected boiling zone where high-grade gold mineralization tends to form. The anomalous gold, silver, and pathfinder element geochemistry in the historic dataset further demonstrates the potential to host high-grade veins at depth. Targeting work is currently under way to refine drill targets and advance the project to a drill stage.

Figure 1.Simplified geologic map of the TJ project showing Headwater land position, silica sinter exposure, and historic soil samples.

About the TJ Project

The TJ project consists of 103 claims totaling 775 hectares (Figure 1). The Project is located on BLM land in an underexplored area of northeastern Elko County, Nevada.

Indications of a fully preserved epithermal system at TJ include a thick and laterally extensive accumulation of silica sinter, and other alteration features (Figures 1, 2, and 3). Alteration is localized along a series of steeply inclined faults within a graben partially filled by silicified, Miocene-age sedimentary rocks (Figure 2). The graben is bounded and underlain by granitic basement rocks which also host gold mineralization.

Historic exploration at the Property consisted of limited geologic mapping, surface rock chip and soil sampling, various geophysical surveys, and several shallow Reverse Circulation (RC) holes. Significant gold and silver anomalies in historic soil samples include up to 679 ppb Au reported for a sample collected near the sinter exposure and 309 ppb Au in an area of anomalous soil geochemistry to the south (Figure 1). This area of anomalous soil geochemistry aligns with mapped north-trending faults along the main structural corridor and coincides with widespread silicification and clay alteration.

Shallow RC drilling on the Property by Kennecott and Challenger Gold between 1988 and 1992 tested for a shallow, near-surface bulk-tonnage type deposit. Historical drilling records are incomplete but indicate the majority of holes were vertical and drilled to depths of less than 150 metres. The deepest hole reported from the main sinter area ended approximately 150 metres vertically below the sinter and intercepted 38.1 metres of 0.1 g/t Au1 (Figure 2). These historic results are only an indication of the potential for mineralization at depth, as they have not been verified by the Company.

Figure 2.Schematic geologic cross section of main target area showing historic drill holes and conceptual vein targets beneath high-level epithermal alteration and sinter exposed at surface. See Figure 1 for section location.

Figure 3. Top) Laminated silica sinter outcrop at TJ. Bottom left) Laminated silica sinter displaying palisade and clotted textures. Bottom right) Stratiform geyserite layer within the TJ silica sinter.

2023 Work Plan

Headwater plans to employ an exploration strategy at TJ consistent with other early-stage projects in the Companys portfolio. Headwater geologists believe the relatively simple structural setting of the Property presents several potential targets for feeder structures which will be further refined using a combination of geologic mapping, surface geochemistry, and geophysics. The Company plans to complete a controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotelluric (CSAMT) resistivity survey totaling 8 line-kilometres on 200 metre spaced profiles to estimate the depth to basement rock and identify high-resistivity targets at depth, which may correlate to structurally controlled zones of intense silicification and veining. In addition to the CSAMT survey, detailed geologic mapping and rock chip sampling will be completed to help vector within the alteration cell and potentially further expand the footprint of the system.

Acquisition Terms

The TJ project consists of 90 unpatented mining claims staked by Headwater and 13 unpatented mining claims under option from a private arms length party (the Vendor Claims). By making an initial cash payment of US$15,000, escalating annual payments and a US$250,000 work commitment over a two-year term, Headwater retains a 30-year right to purchase an undivided 100% interest in the Vendor Claims for a one-time payment of US$1,500,000 inclusive of the annual minimum payments, subject to NSR royalties of 2.5% on the Vendor Claims and 1.5% applicable on claims within an area of interest. The Company may purchase 40% of the NSR for US$2,000,000 at any time and an additional 40% of the NSR may be purchased for fair value within 90 days after completion of a NI 43-101 compliant pre-feasibility report.

About Headwater Gold

Headwater Gold Inc. (CSE: HWG, OTCQB: HWAUF) is a technically-driven mineral exploration company focused on the exploration and discovery of high-grade precious metal deposits in the Western USA. Headwater is aggressively exploring one of the most well-endowed and mining-friendly jurisdictions in the world with a goal of making world-class precious metal discoveries. Headwater has a large portfolio of epithermal vein exploration projects and a technical team of experienced geologists with diverse capital markets, junior and major mining company backgrounds. The Company is systematically drill testing several projects in Nevada, Idaho, and Oregon; and in August 2022 and May 2023 announced significant transactions with Newcrest Mining Limited where Newcrest acquired a 9.9% strategic equity interest in the Company and entered into earn-in agreements on several of Headwaters projects.

For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.headwatergold.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Caleb Stroup

President and CEO

+1 (775) 409-3197

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For further information, please contact:

Brennan Zerb

Investor Relations Manager

+1 (778) 867-5016

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Qualified Person:

The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Scott Close, P.Geo (158157), a Qualified Person (QP) as defined in National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

1Historical drill intercepts and surface samples are treated by the Company as historical in nature, and not current or NI 43-101 compliant.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding future capital expenditures, exploration activities and the specifications, targets, results, analyses, interpretations, benefits, costs and timing of them, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward looking information can be identified by words such as pro forma, plans, expects, may, should, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates, believes, potential or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, risks related to the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, including the Companys exploration plans and the proposed expenditures for exploration work thereon, the ability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing to fund its business activities and plans, the ability of the Company to obtain the required permits, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, the Companys limited operating history, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims, environmental issues and liabilities, as well as those factors discussed under the heading Risk Factors in the Companys prospectus dated May 26, 2021 and other filings of the Company with the Canadian Securities Authorities, copies of which can be found under the Companys profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements, except as otherwise required by law.




CASA GRANDE, Ariz. & TORONTO / Oct 03, 2023 / Business Wire / Arizona Sonoran Copper Company Inc. (TSX:ASCU) (ASCU or the Company), an emerging US-based copper developer and near-term producer, announces that the City of Casa Grande has approved the rezoning for the northern parcel of the MainSpring Property (Parks/Salyer South) to Industrial use. Rezoning the northern parcel allows ASCU to begin drilling and an exploration plan is being prepared. The southern parcel of Parks/Salyer South is still in process with the City of Casa Grande for rezoning and a General Plan Amendment. Additionally, the Company has acquired a 2.5 acre Mineral Exploration Permit (MEP) within the Parks/Salyer deposit. By acquiring the MEP and Parks/Salyer South, ASCU gains a low-risk, high impact exploration target and operational flexibility for future operations.

As a recap, the Parks/Salyer mineral resource contains a total of 2.9 billion pounds at a grade of 1.015% Copper, inferred, (for mineral resource disclosures, please see PR dated Sept 28, 2022), and is currently bounded at the Parks/Salyer border (see FIGURE 1). The Company is expecting to issue an updated mineral resource update on the entire Cactus Project, inclusive of Parks/Salyer in Q4 2023.

The 2.5 acre MEP situated at the southern border of the Parks/Salyer deposit, was received from Arizona State Lands. The parcel is located at the intersection of Parks/Salyer, Bronco-Creek and the Parks/Salyer South properties (see FIGURE 2). The MEP also allows improved access to mineralized material and eliminates the potential of sterilization related to mine planning activities adjacent to this parcel.

Travis Snider, VP Sustainability and External Relations commented, Our team is appreciative of the ongoing support from the city of Casa Grande and our Stakeholders in every step of redeveloping the Cactus Mine. Rezoning the north parcel continues to open up new land at Cactus for future operations, and adds the potential for incremental mineral resource growth.

Link from the press release:

FIGURES

September 28, 2022 News

Neither the TSX nor the regulating authority has approved or disproved the information contained in this press release.

About Arizona Sonoran Copper Company (www.arizonasonoran.com | www.cactusmine.com)

ASCUs objective is to become a mid-tier copper producer with low operating costs and to develop the Cactus and Parks/Salyer Projects that could generate robust returns for investors and provide a long term sustainable and responsible operation for the community and all stakeholders. The Companys principal asset is a 100% interest in the Cactus Project (former ASARCO, Sacaton mine) which is situated on private land in an infrastructure-rich area of Arizona. Contiguous to the Cactus Project is the Companys 100%-owned Parks/Salyer deposit that could allow for a phased expansion of the Cactus Mine once it becomes a producing asset. The Company is led by an executive management team and Board which have a long-standing track record of successful project delivery in North America complemented by global capital markets expertise.

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 ASCU to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could affect the outcome include, among others: future prices and the supply of metals; the results of drilling; inability to raise the money necessary to incur the expenditures required to retain and advance the properties; environmental liabilities (known and unknown); general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; results of exploration programs; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; political instability, terrorism, insurrection or war; or delays in obtaining governmental approvals, projected cash operating costs, failure to obtain regulatory or shareholder approvals.

Although ASCU has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and ASCU disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.
Measured and Indicated Sulphide Resource Increases by 18%

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - Canadian Copper Inc. (CSE: CCI) ("Canadian Copper" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a new Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE" or "Mineral Resource") for the Murray Brook Project ("Murray Brook") located in New Brunswick, Canada.

"The pending 100% acquisition of an advanced stage, large, and high quality base metal deposit in a safe jurisdiction is rare. Murray Brook has several key attributes: the deposit topography is conducive to surface development, its sulphide Mineral Resource is more than 98% M&I, with an NSR value of C$115/tonne1 mineralized material. With an open pit Mineral Resource of more than 21 million tonnes and situated less than 10 km from a fully operational process plant, this deposit could be supplying the critical minerals Canada needs much faster than most domestic development projects." Simon Quick, CEO of Canadian Copper.

Sulphide Mineral Resource Estimate Highlights

Measured: 15.8 million tonnes ("Mt") grading 2.60% Zn, 0.43% Cu, 0.92% Pb, 0.52 g/t Au, and 39.0 g/t Ag (1.42% CuEq or 8.65% ZnEq).

15.8 million tonnes ("Mt") grading 2.60% Zn, 0.43% Cu, 0.92% Pb, 0.52 g/t Au, and 39.0 g/t Ag (1.42% CuEq or 8.65% ZnEq). Indicated: 5.3 million tonnes ("Mt") grading of 2.14% Zn, 0.52% Cu, 0.85% Pb, 0.67 g/t Au, and 37.3 g/t Ag (1.41% CuEq or 8.58% ZnEq).

Next Steps for the Murray Brook Project

The Company has designed a 12-hole, 3,000 metre drill program to determine the extent of a new copper and gold zone (MB19-01: 1.35% Cu, 19 gpt Ag, 0.18 gpt Au over 26 metres) defined by twelve of the 2017 to 2019 drill holes, which are an approximate 50-metre step-out to previous drilling.

Review process options to potentially recover the 400,000 gold ounce Mineral Resource that exists within the oxide and sulphide MRE. Presently, 0% recovery is attributed for gold.

Initiate an updated Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") to include several critical trade-off studies. For example, the open pit Murray Brook Deposit is high grade (1.42% CuEq or 8.65% ZnEq) and conducive to low capital cost toll processing within the Bathurst region (Figure A). A toll milling development scenario will improve permitting timelines and reduce project execution risk.

Commence regional exploration across the 18 km Caribou Horizon corridor that remains highly prospective and has produced greater than 700 million pounds of zinc plus copper, lead, silver, and gold since the 1970s.

Mineral Resource Estimate Completed by P&E Consultants Inc.

This MRE for Murray Brook is based on data with an effective date of September 27, 2023.

Table 1

Pit-Constrained Mineral Resource Estimate at C$23/t NSR Cut-Off(1-8) Zone Class Tonnes

(k) Cu

(%) Cu (Mlb) Pb

(%) Pb

(Mlb) Zn

(%) Zn

(Mlb) Au

(g/t) Au (koz) Ag

(g/t) Ag

(Moz) ZnEq

(%) CuEq

(%) NSR

(C$/t) Oxide Measured 1,641 1.05 37.9 0.73 26.6 2.20 79.6 0.36 19 38.0 2.0 11.76 1.93 156 Indicated 373 0.97 7.9 0.78 6.4 2.31 19.0 0.51 6 44.7 0.5 11.88 1.95 158 Meas + Ind 2,014 1.03 45.9 0.74 32.9 2.22 98.6 0.39 25 39.2 2.5 11.78 1.93 157 Sulphide Measured 15,830 0.43 150.8 0.92 322.2 2.60 908.3 0.52 264 39.0 19.8 8.65 1.42 115 Indicated 5,275 0.52 60.9 0.85 98.9 2.14 248.9 0.67 114 37.3 6.3 8.58 1.41 114 Meas + Ind 21,105 0.45 211.7 0.91 421.1 2.49 1,157.2 0.56 378 38.6 26.2 8.63 1.41 115 Inferred 110 0.41 1.0 0.68 1.6 1.82 4.4 0.62 2 30.4 0.1 6.94 1.14 92

(1) Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues.

(2) The Inferred Mineral Resource in this estimate has a lower level of confidence than that applied to an Indicated Mineral Resource and must not be converted to a Mineral Reserve. It is reasonably expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resource could be upgraded to an Indicated Mineral Resource with continued exploration.

(3) The Mineral Resources in this report were estimated using the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions (2014) and Best Practices Guidelines (2019) prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by the CIM Council.

(4) The Mineral Resource Estimate was based on July 2023 approx. consensus economics forecast US$ metal prices of $4.00/lb Cu, $1.25/lb Zn, $0.95/lb Pb and $23/oz Ag at a $0.76 USD/CAD exchange rate.

(5) Process recoveries used were 80% Cu, 87% Zn, 75% Pb and 90% Ag. Au was not recoverable.

(6) Overburden, waste, and mineralized material mining costs per tonne mined were respectively $2.00, $2.25, and $2.50.

(7) Processing and G&A costs per tonne processed were respectively $20 and $3.

(8) Constraining pit shell slopes were 50 degrees.

Geologic Model

The Murray Brook sulphide mineralization is classified as a sedimentary rock-hosted volcanogenic massive sulphide ("VMS") deposit. This type of deposit is characterized by massive to semi-massive iron sulphide minerals that contain variable amounts of base metals and precious metals and is well studied and documented. Genetically, these deposits are coeval with felsic volcanic centres, and are generally lens-like and stratabound, with a discordant hydrothermal "pipe" at the stratigraphic base of the sulphide accumulation.

Resource Estimate Methodology

The drilling database for the Murray Brook Project contains 12,900 samples, all of which were analyzed for copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver. A total of 10,200 assays from 187 drill holes have been utilized for the Mineral Resource Estimate. One hundred and fifty-nine drill holes were completed between 2011 to 2013.

Grade capping was investigated on the one metre composite values within the constraining domains to ensure that the possible influence of erratic high values did not bias the database. Based on the log-normal histogram performance, Pb was capped at 16%, Zn at 24% and Ag at 410 g/t, whereas no capping was applied for Cu and Au.

The Murray Brook Mineral Resource block model was constructed using GemcomTM modelling software. The block model is oriented with X-axis at 110 azimuth with 3m x 3m x 3m blocks. Inverse Distance Squared (1/d) grade interpolation was utilized for the Cu, Pb and Zn grade interpolation, whereas Inverse Distance Cubed (1/d) was used for the Au and Ag grade interpolation, both with the capped composites. The average block-model mineralized bulk density was calculated to be 4.24 tonnes per cubic metre.

The Mineral Resource classification was determined with Zn interpolation, due to Zn generating the highest proportionate NSR value in the block model. Based on the semi-variogram performance and density of the drilling data, the Measured Resource classification was justified for blocks interpolated by the first pass using at least seven composites from a minimum of four drill holes within a spacing of 25 m along strike, 40 m down dip and 15 m on the across dip direction. Indicated Mineral Resources were classified to the blocks interpolated with the second pass and Inferred Mineral Resources were classified for all remaining blocks.

Figure A: Murray Brook Deposit Map

Figure B: Pit-Constrained MRE, 3D View

Sensitivity Analysis

A sensitivity analysis is presented below to help conceptualize grade and tonnage estimates at various NSR cut-off value increments for the Murray Brook Deposit.

Table 2

Pit-Constrained Sulphide Mineral Resource Estimate Sensitivity Zone Cut-off

NSR C$/t Tonnes

k Cu

% Cu

Mlb Pb

% Pb

Mlb Zn

% Zn

Mlb Au

g/t Au

koz Ag

g/t Ag

Moz ZnEq

% CuEq

% NSR

C$/t Measured 100 7,910 0.56 97.6 1.40 243.3 3.80 662.3 0.68 172 57.2 14.5 12.25 2.01 163 50 13,995 0.46 142.1 1.02 313.9 2.85 878.1 0.56 251 42.6 19.2 9.39 1.54 125 45 14,524 0.45 144.9 0.99 317.0 2.78 889.3 0.55 255 41.5 19.4 9.17 1.50 122 40 14,982 0.45 147.2 0.97 319.3 2.72 897.5 0.54 259 40.6 19.6 8.99 1.47 120 35 15,349 0.44 148.9 0.95 320.7 2.67 902.9 0.53 261 39.9 19.7 8.84 1.45 118 30 15,633 0.44 150.1 0.93 321.7 2.63 906.3 0.52 263 39.4 19.8 8.73 1.43 116 25 15,795 0.43 150.7 0.93 322.1 2.61 908.0 0.52 264 39.0 19.8 8.66 1.42 115 23 15,830 0.43 150.8 0.92 322.2 2.60 908.3 0.52 264 39.0 19.8 8.65 1.42 115 15 15,901 0.43 151.0 0.92 322.4 2.59 908.8 0.52 264 38.8 19.8 8.61 1.41 115 10 15,917 0.43 151.0 0.92 322.4 2.59 908.9 0.52 264 38.8 19.8 8.61 1.41 114 Indicated 100 2,720 0.70 41.9 1.22 73.0 2.94 176.3 0.94 82 53.0 4.6 11.82 1.94 157 50 4,707 0.56 58.3 0.92 95.9 2.30 239.1 0.73 110 40.6 6.1 9.25 1.52 123 45 4,861 0.55 59.1 0.90 96.9 2.26 242.5 0.71 112 39.7 6.2 9.07 1.49 121 40 5,009 0.54 59.9 0.89 97.8 2.22 245.2 0.70 113 38.8 6.3 8.90 1.46 118 35 5,112 0.54 60.3 0.87 98.3 2.19 246.8 0.69 113 38.3 6.3 8.78 1.44 117 30 5,202 0.53 60.7 0.86 98.7 2.16 248.0 0.68 114 37.8 6.3 8.67 1.42 115 25 5,258 0.53 60.9 0.85 98.9 2.14 248.7 0.68 114 37.4 6.3 8.60 1.41 114 23 5,275 0.52 60.9 0.85 98.9 2.14 248.9 0.67 114 37.3 6.3 8.58 1.41 114 15 5,322 0.52 61.0 0.84 99.0 2.12 249.2 0.67 115 37.0 6.3 8.51 1.40 113 10 5,331 0.52 61.0 0.84 99.0 2.12 249.2 0.67 115 37.0 6.3 8.50 1.39 113

Quality Assurance/Quality Control

Drill core were sawn in half using a using a VanCon diamond saw for 2010-2013 drilling and a hydraulic core saw for all 2017 to 2019 drilling. All samples were weighed by a company technician, with certain samples weighed both in air and water to measure bulk density. One half of the drill core was placed in a standard plastic sample bag and the other half carefully returned to the core box for reference. Samples were picked up from the drill core facility by bonded courier and driven to TSL Laboratories in Saskatoon throughout the 2010 to 2013 drill programs. Samples taken during the 2017 to 2019 drill programs were picked up at the core facility by courier transported to the ALS Global facility in Sudbury for sample preparation, before being shipped to the ALS Global laboratory in Vancouver for geochemical assaying.

Samples at TSL were crushed to 70% passing -10 mesh (1.70 mm), from which a 1,000 gram portion is riffle split and pulverized to 95% passing -150 mesh (106 m). Samples at ALS Global were crushed to 70% less than 2mm, from which a 250 gram portion was riffle split and pulverised to better than 85% passing 75 m. Samples at TSL and ALS were assayed for Cu, Pb, Zn and Ag using a 4-acid total digestion with AAS finish (TSL) or Ultra Trace Aqua Regia followed by ICP-MS (ALS). Gold was determined by a standard lead collection fire assay procedure using a 30 gram aliquot with an AAS finish, with overlimit samples re-analyzed by fire assay with gravimetric finish. Quality control procedures included the routine insertion of prepared certified reference materials and sourced blank material. QA/QC field duplicates have been routinely assayed.

Data Verification

The Authors validated the post 2010 assays in the database against independently acquired analysis certificates from the laboratories who conducted the assaying. Additionally, the Authors collected independent due diligence samples on the site visit and verified them against the database. The Authors are of the opinion that the data in the Murray Brook database is suitable for Mineral Resource estimation.

Technical Report

The effective date of the Mineral Resource Estimate is October 3rd, 2023. A NI 43-101 Technical Report prepared by P&E Mining Consultants Inc. will be filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca within 45 days of this news release and will be available at that time on the Canadian Copper website.

For readers to fully understand the information in this news release they should read the Technical Report in its entirety when it is available, including all qualifications, assumptions, exclusions and risks. The Technical Report is intended to be read as a whole and sections should not be read or relied on out of context.

Qualified Person

Mr. Eugene Puritch, P.Eng., FEC, CET, President of P&E Mining Consultants Inc. and independent Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101. Mr. Puritch is responsible for the Murray Brook MRE and has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical content of this news release.

About Canadian Copper Inc.

Canadian Copper is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company with a copper and base metals portfolio of historical resources and grassroots projects. The Company is focused on the prolific Bathurst Mining Camp (BMC) of New Brunswick, Canada. There are currently 85,322,540 shares issued and outstanding in the Company.

For more information, please contact:

Simon Quick, Director and CEO

email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

phone (905)-220-6661

web www.canadiancopper.com

Neither the CSE nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary and Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding future exploration programs, anticipated content, and commencement in respect of the Company's projects and mineral properties, including the proposed NI 43-101 technical report and timing and content of such technical report, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "will", "may", "should", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's prospectus dated May 24th, 2022 and other filings of the Company with the Canadian Securities Authorities, copies of which can be found under the Company's profile on the SEDAR+ website at www.sedarplus.ca. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this presentation or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law.

Cautionary Note Regarding Mineral Resource Estimates

Until mineral deposits are actually mined and processed, Mineral Resources must be considered as estimates only. Mineral Resource Estimates that are not Mineral Reserves have not demonstrated economic viability. The estimation of Mineral Resources is inherently uncertain, involves subjective judgement about many relevant factors and may be materially affected by, among other things, environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors described in the Company's public disclosure available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. The quantity and grade of reported "Inferred" Mineral Resource Estimates are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define "Inferred" Mineral Resource Estimates as an "Indicated" or "Measured" Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading "Inferred" Mineral Resource Estimates to an "Indicated" or "Measured" Mineral Resource category. The accuracy of any Mineral Resource Estimates is a function of the quantity and quality of available data, and of the assumptions made and judgments used in engineering and geological interpretation, which may prove to be unreliable and depend, to a certain extent, upon the analysis of drilling results and statistical inferences that may ultimately prove to be inaccurate. Mineral Resource Estimates may have to be re-estimated based on, among other things: (i) fluctuations in mineral prices; (ii) results of drilling, and development; (iii) results of future test mining and other testing; (iv) metallurgical testing and other studies; (v) results of geological and structural modeling including block model design; (vi) proposed mining operations, including dilution; (vii) the evaluation of future mine plans subsequent to the date of any estimates; and (viii) the possible failure to receive required permits, licenses and other approvals. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of a "inferred" or "indicated" Mineral Resource Estimate will ever be upgraded to a higher category. The Mineral Resource Estimates disclosed in this news release were reported using CIM Standards in accordance with NI 43-101.

1 US$ metal prices of $4.00/lb Cu, $1.25/lb Zn, $0.95/lb Pb and $23/oz Ag at a $0.76 USD/CAD exchange rate.

Process recoveries used were 80% Cu, 87% Zn, 75% Pb, 90% Ag and Au 0%.
WASHINGTON (AP)  When Washington Sen. Patty Murray received a call early Friday morning that Sen. Dianne Feinstein had died, she immediately started calling her fellow female senators.

The Democrats first call was to Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who had worked with Feinstein almost as long as she had. Murray and Feinstein were elected in 1992  the year of the woman  and Collins was elected just four years later. Murray then called several other female Senate colleagues, hastily arranging a tribute.

My immediate response was my women Senate colleagues that have been her friends and her family for so long, and that we needed to be together on the floor. Murray said in an interview in her Capitol office Friday afternoon.

They were all there when the Senate opened at 10 a.m., just hours after Feinstein had died at her home in Washington after serving more than three decades in the Senate. Standing near Feinsteins Senate desk, now draped in black cloth, the senators  along with some of their male colleagues  described her indomitable, fierce intelligence, her impact on the Senate and her deep knowledge of every issue she touched. They talked about how she had paved the way for so many women as the first female mayor of San Francisco, one of Californias first two female senators and the first female chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

But the women also talked about their private times with Feinstein that were at odds with her tough public persona  how she would invite them out to dinners, how she would sometimes give them the clothes off her back, and how she brought them together for bipartisan gatherings as their ranks in the Senate grew from just a handful to one-quarter of the chamber. Several of them teared up as they spoke.

It was a peek into Feinsteins friendships and also the private, collegial side of the Senate that the public rarely sees  and that has faded in recent years as Congress has become more partisan and divided. Feinstein often received criticism from the left flank for her bipartisanship.

I think its important that people understand that here in the United States Senate, a place that can be so divisive at times, that true friendships actually exist, said Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican.

Murkowski spoke about sharing dinners with Feinstein when the Senate would stay in town over a weekend and they werent able to fly home to their faraway states. She joked that Feinstein, always impeccably dressed, probably wouldnt have approved of the shoes she was wearing.

As the senators spoke, Feinsteins daughter Katherine watched from the gallery, sitting with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Members of Californias House delegation lined the back wall.

Collins said Feinstein held an engagement party for her before she was married more than a decade ago. She displayed a painting that Feinstein had painted for her that now hangs in her office and will have a place of honor there always, Collins said.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said that when attending an event in San Francisco around 15 years ago, Feinstein invited her to stay the night at her mansion in the city. When Klobuchar woke up early the next morning, Feinstein summoned her to her room, where she was wearing fuzzy slippers  and reading a 200-page bill. She proceeded to quiz Klobuchar on the details.

That was Dianne, Klobuchar said, noting that the California Democrat had to work harder than everyone else as she rose up through politics at a time when there were so few women.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., also brought a drawing Feinstein had given her and wore red lipstick in her honor. Murray told a story about admiring one of Feinsteins purses, and then receiving one in the mail from the California senator a few days later. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., said she was wearing shoes she said Feinstein had once admired.

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, was wearing a scarf Feinstein had given her on the spot when she had told her she liked it.

She just took it off and gave it to me, Hirono said. We had to be careful about admiring anything Dianne had, because she would likely take it off and give it to us.

Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Republican, said Feinstein was particularly kind to other women senators. She was the first to invite other women senators to dinner, to lead our gatherings and to focus our attention on things that are good for all Americans without regard to political ideology.

Feinstein was one of the leaders and hosts of regular bipartisan dinners with all the women of the Senate, even as the group got a bit too large for them all to sit around one table and as the gatherings became a bit less frequent.

When eating with Feinstein, said Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Feinstein would have a little parting gift for you, a little coin purse or something to show you just truly who she was.

Speaking at an event Friday, former New York Sen. Hillary Clinton told her own story about a gathering at Feinsteins home.

After she lost the Democratic presidential primary to Barack Obama in 2008, Clinton said, she called Feinstein when the two former opponents  and then-senators  wanted to talk privately and werent sure how to do so without attracting attention. Clinton said she and Obama ended up in Feinsteins living room, talking about what Clinton would do to support the future president while Feinstein would occasionally pop in, asking if they wanted more Chardonnay.

I had total trust in her, Clinton said at The Atlantic Festival in Washington.

For Murray and Collins, one of the places where they had worked most closely with Feinstein was on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which Murray now leads with Collins as the top Republican. The three women served together for decades on the committee, which is known for its bipartisanship.

One of the female senators Murray contacted Friday morning was Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, a first-term Republican and former staffer on the Appropriations Committee. Britt texted back that Feinstein had blazed a trail for her, along with Murray, and asked to sit with the other women senators on the floor during the tribute. My heart is so sad, Britt texted her.

Murray said the text brought her to tears.

There was a side of Dianne that most people probably never saw, which all of us who are so lucky to be her friends here saw, Murray said.

On the Senate floor, Murray teared up again as she recalled seeing Feinstein there just Thursday, casting her last vote.

Im so sorry I didnt hug her when she went back out that door yesterday, Murray said.
Vancouver, BC - TheNewswire - October 3, 2023 - Western Star Resources Inc (CSE:WSR) (the Company or Western Star) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement (the Agreement) to acquire (the Acquisition) the Mount Anderson Property (the Property in the Yukon.

The Mt Anderson is 163 contiguous quarts claims covering 30 km2 that is approximately 60 km south of Whitehorse. The Property is underlain by two intrusive bodies including the Early Jurassic Bennett Granite and the Early-mid Cretaceous Whitehorse Intrusive suite. The latter is referred to as the Mount Anderson Intrusion. Several roof pendants of Nisling Assemblage metasedimentary rocks (Snowcap Group), including quartzites and calcareous meta-clastics, outcrop over a significant area of the NE portion of the Property.

Several historical prospects be identified on the Property

The Adanac Zone is a continuous galena vein ranging from 0.1 to 0.4m in width, within strongly limonitic and moderately azurite-bearing granodioritic host rock. Sample results from a 15m by 0.9-metre pit averaged 62.2 g/t Au and 171.1 g/t Ag

The EPI Zone is a northeast-trending quartz-agate-fluoride epithermal vein roughly 1.0 metre in width within a 50-metre-long limonite and manganese-bearing shear zone.

The Ridge Zone is broad area of quartz-galena veining, returned up to 6.273 opt gold and 15.21 opt silver. Mineralized float was found in all trenches and anomalous values were returned from the soil sampling program

The Rob Skarn mineralization consists of sulphide-rich garnet actinolite-calc-silicate skarn with up to 5% pyrite and pyrrhotite and trace chalcopyrite.

The e Fleming Zn-Pb-Cu-Ag-(Au) skarn mineralization occurs as lenticular zones comprised of pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite- pyrite galena associated with massive magnetite and specular hematite-in a gangue of quartz, calcite, epidote,

47 Target Zone with three mineralized quartz veins in a shear zone ~ 30 m long and 5 metres wide

Blake Morgan, the CEO and President of Western Star, stated The 100% acquisition of the Mount Anderson Property is a huge accomplishment. Given the recent market conditions Western Star was able to pick up an absolute bargain in a well establish mining district. The asset is near drill ready with multiple high-grade zones. The team at Western Star is thrilled to get started on such an outstanding project. We will have some more information regarding the asset shortly.

Terms of the Acquisition

Pursuant to the Agreement, the Company will acquire the Mount Anderson Property through a 100% acquisition, the Company will issue an aggregate of 1,000,000 common shares in the capital of the Company (each, a Common Share) to the Vendors and grant a 1% NSR royalty in respect of commercial production from the Property.

Qualified Person

Derrick Strickland, P. Geo (1000315), a shareholder, and a Qualified Person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release.

Additional Information

Western Star is a mineral exploration and development company. The Company's objective is to increase shareholder value through the development of exploration properties using cost-effective exploration practices, acquiring further exploration properties, and seeking partnerships by either joint venture or sale with industry leaders. The Company currently owns nine non-surveyed contiguous mineral claims totalling 2,797 hectares, which are located within the Revelstoke mining division of British Columbia. The Western Star property group is located approximately 50 kilometres southeast of Revelstoke, B.C., and roughly 10 kilometres north of the abandoned community of Camborne. Access to the Camborne area is via paved highway from either Revelstoke or Nakusp. Access to the property area is best via helicopter from Revelstoke or Nakusp.

Additional information about the Company is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the Company's profile.

Contact Information:

Blake Morgan, CEO and Director

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that are forward looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations or beliefs of future performance, including statements respecting the potential existence of a larger mineralized system on the Property, future exploration programs on the Property and their results, the future demand for copper, the terms of the Agreement, the completion of the Acquisition, and statements respecting the vesting and exercise of the Options are forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company based on information currently available to it. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those detailed from time to time in filings made by the Company with securities regulatory authorities, which may cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. These factors should be considered carefully and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.




Claudia Project located directly south of Cerro Vanguardia Mine: 15 kilometers from the mill

Initial drill program of 3,300 meters currently underway

Southern most veins on the Cerro Vanguardia property trend onto Claudia Property

Five distinct, highly prospective vein trends within the very large Claudia Property

Minimum of 2,500 meters of drilling within the first 24 months and the option to complete 12,500 meters of drilling within 4 years

Mirasol retains 2% NSR Royalty upon the exercise of the Option

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mirasol Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: MRZ) (OTC: MRZLF) (the Company or Mirasol) is pleased to announce that its partner, the Cerro Vanguardia SA Gold-Silver Mine (CVSA Mine) owned by AngloGold Ashanti (92.5%) and FOMICRUZ S.E. (7.5%), has initiated a drill program at the Claudia Gold-Silver Project (Claudia), located directly south of the CVSA Gold-Silver Mine in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina.

The extensive 65,192-hectare Claudia Gold-Silver Project is a highly prospective low sulphidation epithermal (LSE) gold/silver project, located in the Deseado Massif of Argentinas Santa Cruz province, directly adjacent to the southern border of the producing CVSA Mine. Under an Option Agreement, CVSA has the right to acquire a 100 percent interest in Claudia by completing 12,500 meters of diamond drilling within four years. If the Option is exercised, Mirasol will retain a 2% Net Smelter Royalty on future production from the Claudia Project (news release May 23, 2023).

Figure 1: District Regional Map

In this first phase of drilling, over 3,300 meters of drilling will be completed in 13 holes ranging from 100 to >400m in depth to test the prospective vein trends which are potentially southern extensions and/or parallel trends of the CVSA Mine vein field.

The accelerated pace of drilling at Claudia demonstrates the importance of defining potential additional mill-feed within close proximity to the nearby CVSA Mine, Mirasols President Tim Heenan stated. This could offer significant near-term value to Mirasol shareholders through the retained 2% net smelter royalty.

Figure 2: Mineralized Trends and Drill Targets

Five distinct prospective vein trends have been identified at Claudia including the Curahue Vein Field and the Rio Seco Prospect. In 2012, Mirasol discovered the large northwest trending 15-kilometer long Curahue vein field, which may be considered a southern parallel structure, similar to the controlling structures further north at the Cerro Vanguardia vein field. Curahue hosts six isolated vein segments. Claudia also hosts two paleo-surface expressions of sinter fields at both Calandria and Rio Seco. These sinters are considered attractive targets as any mineralized structure found beneath would be completely preserved and not reduced by erosion. Neither of these sinter occurrences have been drilled to date. The exploration potential of the Claudia Project, particularly along the largely untested Curahue and Rio Seco trends, shows clear potential for Vanguardia-style vein-hosted epithermal gold-silver mineralization.

Homenaje Gold-Silver Project in Argentina

Mirasol today also announces that the option agreement on the Homenaje Gold-Silver Project in Argentina (Homenaje) with Patagonia Gold Corp. (Patagonia) has been terminated. Patagonia failed to complete the contractual minimum obligations on exploration during the term of the option agreement (news release dated April 19, 2021). With 100% interest in Homenaje, Mirasol is evaluating options to advance exploration at Homenaje.

About Mirasol Resources Ltd

Mirasol is a well-funded exploration company with 19 years of operating, permitting and community relations experience in the mineral rich regions of Chile and Argentina. Mirasol is currently self-funding exploration at two flagship projects, Sobek and Inca Gold, both located in Chile and controls 100% of the high-grade Virginia Silver Deposit in Argentina. Mirasol also continues to advance a strong pipeline of highly prospective early and mid-stage projects.

For further information, contact:

Tim Heenan, President

or

Troy Shultz, Vice President Investor Relations

Tel: +1 (604) 602-9989

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: www.mirasolresources.com

Qualified Person Statement: Mirasols disclosure of technical and scientific information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Tim Heenan (MAIG), the President for the Company, who serves as a Qualified Person under the definition of National Instrument 43-101.

Forward Looking Statements: The information in this news release contains forward looking statements that are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include: changes in world commodity markets, equity markets, costs and supply of materials relevant to the mining industry, change in government and changes to regulations affecting the mining industry and to policies linked to pandemics, social and environmental related matters. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding future exploration programs, operation plans, geological interpretations, mineral tenure issues and mineral recovery processes. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Mirasol disclaims any obligations to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Orex Minerals Inc. (TSXV: REX) (OTCQB: ORMNF) ("Orex" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the signing of a non-binding Letter of Intent (the "LOI") with Exploraciones El Cairo S.R.L. de C.V. ("EEC"), a Mexican registered private company, to acquire 100% of the Valenciana Gold-Silver Project in Zacatecas State, Mexico (the "Valenciana Property").

The Valenciana Property hosts high-grade epithermal gold and silver veins, with base metals of lead and zinc, in Cretaceous sedimentary units and Tertiary rhyolitic and monzonitic intrusive rocks. It is located on the Mesa Central within the prolific "Silver Trend" of Mexico.

Orex's President & CEO, Ben Whiting, P.Geo., said; "The discovery potential of the Valenciana District was recognized by geologists Perry Durning and Bud Hillemeyer back in 1996. Drilling later that year yielded excellent results, however, a worldwide exploration slowdown took place in 1997 and the main vein intercepts did not receive further work. This is an excellent opportunity to restart exploration at Valenciana."

VALENCIANA GOLD-SILVER PROJECT, ZACATECAS, MEXICO

Located north of the village of Valenciana in northern Zacatecas State, approximately 30 kilometres north of the Nieves Mining District and 33 kilometres southeast of the town of Juan Aldama, the Valenciana Property consists of 277.18 hectares of mineral concessions. The central target area covers about 2.7 kilometres of the main east-southeast Valenciana vein system. There are signs of early production, with old mine shafts and adits, but no historic production documentation is available.

Hydrothermal alteration is extensive in the district due to the emplacement of the low to intermediate sulphidation vein systems, hosted mainly in the Cretaceous sedimentary units. Tertiary intrusive rocks of rhyolite and monzonite composition have been mapped on the western extent of the Valenciana Property.

The 1996 exploration program, conducted by Pan American Silver Corp. and La Cuesta International Inc., included 10 diamond drill holes on the Valenciana Property. Multiple base and precious metal mineralized intercepts were encountered. Examples include hole V002 which yielded 2.19 m grading Au 2.50 g/t, Ag 1,115 g/t, Pb 0.5% and Zn 1.4%. Hole V003 yielded 1.87 m grading Au 1.05 g/t, Ag 739 g/t, Pb 1.10% and Zn 2.71%. A broader zone was encountered in hole V012 which yielded 22.25 m grading Au 0.94 g/t, Ag 99 g/t, Pb 0.93% and Zn 0.94%. While these drill holes pre-date the introduction of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards for Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") standards, they still serve as a good guide for potential future exploration programs.

In 2003, Silver Standard Resources Inc. drilled a series of 9 shallow reverse-circulation holes. Surface lithogeochemical sample data, airborne magnetic and radiometric geophysical survey data and limited ground Induced-Polarization data are also available.

While the LOI is non-binding, negotiation of a definitive agreement is underway at this time, and such definitive agreement is expected to include a four-month due diligence period, scaled option payments, an area of influence and a 2% production royalty ("NSR") on the original concessions, plus a 0.5% NSR on adjacent properties obtained from third party concession holders within the area of influence.

Ben Whiting, P.Geo., is the Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101 and takes responsibility for the technical disclosure contained in this news release. Mr. Whiting is not considered independent of the Company under NI 43-101 as he is the President, CEO and a director of the Company.

ABOUT OREX MINERALS INC.

Orex Minerals Inc. is a mineral exploration company focused on precious and base metals exploration in Mexico and Canada. Orex has several current projects: Two projects are located in Durango State, Mexico, the Sandra Silver-Gold Project with Pan American Silver Corp. and the Coneto Gold-Silver Project with Fresnillo PLC. The third project is the Jumping Josephine Gold Project in British Columbia, Canada. Orex is managed by the experienced Belcarra Group Management Ltd., comprised of highly qualified mining professionals.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Ben Whiting. P.Geo.

President and CEO

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This News Release may contain forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements with respect to the LOI, the execution of and terms of a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the Valenciana Property and future exploration of the Valenciana Property. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties including, among others: the success of evaluation plans; the success of exploration activities; mine development prospects; potential for future metals production; changes in economic parameters and assumptions; timing of receipt of exploration results; the interpretation and actual results of future exploration activities and mineralization; the results of regulatory and permitting processes; future metals price; possible variations in grade or recovery rates; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; the results of economic and technical studies; delays in obtaining governmental and local approvals or financing or in the completion of exploration; timing of assay results. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements and Orex undertakes no obligation to update such statements, except as required by law.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

For additional information on risks and uncertainties, see the Company's most recently filed annual management discussion and analysis ("MD&A"), which is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com and on the Company's website at www.orexminerals.com. The risk factors identified in the MD&A are not intended to represent a complete list of factors that could affect the Company.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Highlights:

New results from 2023 resource drill program returned impressive gold grades and thicknesses indicating strong expansion potential.

Expansion drilling under and inside the Monique conceptual pit intersected new significant mineralization grading up to 26.9 g/t Au over 4.0 metres (68.1 g/t Au over 4.0 metres uncut, including 265 g/t Au over 1 metre); 1.2 g/t Au over 68.0 metres and 1.5 g/t Au over 35.8 metres.

Near-surface infill drilling inside the conceptual pit intersected gold zones grading up to 3.4 g/t Au over 34.0 metres; 5.4 g/t Au over 9.4 metres and 1.0 g/t Au over 44.0 metres.

Over 57,000 metres of drilling have been completed at Novador in 2023. This years drill program has been increased to 74,000 metres (from 68,000).

Three drills are active now, including two at Monique and one at Pascalis. Plans for further exploration drilling on the recently acquired Croinor Val-dOr property this fall.

TORONTO, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Probe Gold Inc. (TSX: PRB) (OTCQB: PROBF) (Probe or the Company), is pleased to provide the second set of results from the 2023 Monique drill program on its 100%-owned Novador property (the Property) located near Val-dOr, Quebec. Results from forty (40) drill holes, totaling 12,950 metres, have returned significant gold intercepts from surface to a depth of 400 meters at the Monique gold zones (refer to figure 1 and the table of selected drill results below). The 2023 drill program primarily focused on expanding the resource both inside and beneath the conceptual pit shell used in the current mineral resource estimate. This is achieved by targeting areas in the extension of the known gold zones characterized by higher grades and thickness. The new results continue to demonstrate growth and strong continuity of gold mineralization at the Monique deposit.

David Palmer, President and CEO of Probe, states Once again, the results from the 2023 Monique expansion program underscore not only the tremendous upside for continued growth at this deposit, but also the improvement of the development project as we add ounces within the current conceptual pit shell. We are in the process of ramping up our expansion drilling program in anticipation of an Updated Resource in the second half of 2024, and we are currently underway on our Updated PEA expected in the first quarter of 2024. These two major milestones for 2024 will add considerable value to our project by demonstrating both current production growth in the new PEA, and future production growth in the Updated Resource. In addition to Novador, we also have a number of other strategic assets that we are advancing to unlock value for our shareholders, including Detour, Croinor and our Casa Berardi-trend properties. This year has proven to be highly productive for our projects, and we anticipate maintaining this momentum throughout the remainder of the year and into next."

All forty (40) holes drilled to identify or confirm in-pit mineralization returned gold intercepts over 0.42 g/t Au, which is above the cut-off grade used in the current pit-constrained resource estimate. Twenty-seven (27) holes returned gold intercepts with a grade times thickness above 10.0 g/t Au. Gold mineralization intersected is mainly associated with deformation zones that cross the deposit at an orientation of 280 - 300 and a 75- 80 dip to the north. This gold mineralization is defined by a network of quartz/carbonate/albite/tourmaline veins and veinlets, along with disseminated pyrite in the altered wall rocks.

Selected drill results from the 2023 Monique deposit drilling program are, as follows:

Hole Number From (m) To (m) Length (m) Gold (g/t) Zone MO-23-586 50.5 74.5 24.0 0.7 J MO-23-587 278.0 280.0 2.0 5.7 S MO-23-588 89.0 105.5 16.5 0.9 J MO-23-589 91.9 121.0 29.1 1.0 J MO-23-591 75.0 82.5 7.5 1.3 J MO-23-592 200.5 205.0 4.5 2.2 J MO-23-593 49.0 65.0 16.0 0.7 J MO-23-594 31.0 54.7 23.7 0.8 J MO-23-596 108.0 152.0 44.0 1.0 J MO-23-598 383.0 405.0 22.0 0.6 P MO-23-598 593.0 595.0 2.0 15.2 G MO-23-599 106.5 132.4 25.9 0.7 G MO-23-599 249.5 270.0 20.5 0.7 J MO-23-600 29.5 53.7 24.2 1.0 J MO-23-601 38.6 71.0 32.4 1.0 J MO-23-603 571.3 577.5 6.2 1.7 A MO-23-604 244.5 258.5 14.0 0.8 Q MO-23-606 131.5 143.0 11.5 1.0 Q MO-23-610 195.4 206.9 11.5 1.2 J MO-23-612 371.0 406.8 35.8 1.5 A Including 371.0 372.1 1.1 30.4 A MO-23-613 41.5 52.5 11.0 1.0 P MO-23-613 145.2 146.2 1.0 11.9 Q MO-23-613 197.3 265.3 68.0 1.2 J Including 236.5 237.5 1.0 56.3 J MO-23-614 425.0 436.9 11.9 2.3 M MO-23-615 178.0 179.0 1.0 15.2 E MO-23-616 289.9 299.3 9.4 5.4 A MO-23-616 401.7 404.5 2.8 5.3 B MO-23-616 446.5 465.0 18.5 1.7 I Including 448.5 452.0 3.5 6.0 I MO-23-616(cut) 526.0 530.0 4.0 26.9 M MO-23-616(uncut) 526.0 530.0 4.0 68.1 M Including 528.0 529.0 1.0 265.0 M MO-23-617 235.0 244.0 9.0 3.2 A MO-23-617 475.0 491.9 16.9 1.6 M MO-23-620 31.5 45.5 14.0 0.9 J MO-23-620 321.7 322.5 0.8 63.1 A MO-23-622 185.0 198.5 13.5 0.7 A MO-23-623 61.0 63.0 2.0 7.0 E MO-23-625 56.0 90.0 34.0 3.4 A Including 89.0 90.0 1.0 58.4 A

(1) All the new analytical results reported in this release and in this table, are presented in core length and cut to 100 g/t Au when needed. True width is estimated between 65 to 95 % of core length. Only grade times thickness above 10.0 g/t Au * m is reported.

Figure 1: Surface Map  Monique deposit new drilling results

About Probes Novador Project

Since 2016, Probe Gold has been consolidating its land position in the highly prospective Val-dOr East area in the province of Quebec with a district-scale land package of 600 square kilometres that represents one of the largest land holdings in the Val-dOr mining camp. The Novador project is a sub-set of properties totaling 175 square kilometres hosting three past producing mines (Beliveau Mine, Bussiere Mine and Monique Mine) and falls along three regional mine trends. Novador is situated in a politically stable and low-cost mining environment that hosts numerous active producers and mills.

Val-dOr properties include gold resources totaling 3,793,900 ounces in the Measured and Indicated category and 1,418,700 ounces in the Inferred category along all trends and deposits.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical content of this press release has been prepared, reviewed, and approved by Mr. Marco Gagnon, P.Geo, Executive Vice President, who is a "Qualified Person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101").

Quality Control

During the last drilling program, assay samples were taken from the NQ core by sawing the drill core in half, with one-half sent to a certified commercial laboratory and the other half retained for future reference. A strict QA/QC program was applied to all samples; which includes insertion of mineralized standards and blank samples for each batch of 20 samples. The gold analyses were completed by fire-assayed with an atomic absorption finish on 50 grams of materials. Repeats were carried out by fire-assay followed by gravimetric testing on each sample containing 3.0 g/t gold or more. Total gold analyses (Metallic Sieve) were carried out on the samples which presented a great variation of their gold contents or the presence of visible gold.

About Probe Gold

Probe Gold Inc. is a leading Canadian gold exploration company focused on the acquisition, exploration, and development of highly prospective gold properties. The Company is well-funded and dedicated to the exploration and development of high-quality gold projects, notably its 100% owned flagship asset, the multimillion-ounce Novador Gold Project in Quebec. Probe controls a large land package of approximately 1,600-square-kilometres of exploration ground within some of the most prolific gold belts in Quebec.

On behalf of Probe Gold Inc.,



Dr. David Palmer,

President & Chief Executive Officer

For further information:

Please visit our website at www.probegold.com or contact:

Seema Sindwani

Vice-President of Investor Relations

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

+1.416.777.9467

Forward-Looking Statements

Neither TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This News Release includes certain "forward-looking statements" which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Companys future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as believes, anticipates, expects, estimates, may, could, would, will, or plan. Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the Company, the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet managements expectations. Risks, uncertainties, and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Companys objectives, goals or future plans, statements, exploration results, potential mineralization, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration and mine development plans, timing of the commencement of operations and estimates of market conditions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to failure to identify mineral resources, failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves, the inability to complete a feasibility study which recommends a production decision, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, inability to fulfill the duty to accommodate First Nations and other indigenous peoples, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, and those risks set out in the Companys public documents filed on SEDAR. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.
Highlights:

80.4% average gold recovery from seven composites representative of the High Grade Panel

Gold recoveries range from 74.6 - 88.1% for these samples

Gravity testwork suggests greater than 31% of the gold may be gravity recoverable

Confirms the the Company's interpretation that recoveries from high-grade gold mineralization can utilize simpler, lower cost, conventional milling processes

Metallurgical process is based on a conventional 75 micron grind size and Carbon-in-Leach (CIL) flowsheet

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - Heliostar Metals Ltd. (TSXV: HSTR) (OTCQX: HSTXF) (FSE: RGG1) ("Heliostar" or the "Company") is pleased to present positive preliminary metallurgical test results as part of the Rescoping Study of the Ana Paula project in Mexico ("Ana Paula" or the "Ana Paula Project").

Heliostar CEO, Charles Funk, commented, "These metallurgical results represent a significant step-change in our understanding of the Ana Paula Project. An 80.4% recovery using conventional grind sizes and recovery techniques indicates the High Grade Panel has the potential to be processed through a simple mill flowsheet. The analysis was completed on composite samples collected from a range of locations, host lithologies, and grade ranges throughout the High Grade Panel. Broadly speaking, high-grade gold mineralization has more coarse-grained gold and is easier to recover than the surrounding low-grade halo of mineralization. The High Grade Panel does not display refractory characteristics. These results will lead to additional optimization work and inform the cutoff grades for gold mineralization in next month's planned resource update."

Summary of Metallurgy Results

Heliostar submitted eight composite samples, prepared from drill holes completed in the 2023 Ana Paula drill campaign to Blue Coast Research Ltd. Seven samples were collected from the High Grade Panel and one from the footwall to the panel. Composites were generally selected from continuous intervals of similar grade and lithologies from spatially diverse areas of the deposit. Composites were then split into two workflows: the first focused on gold recoveries at various grind sizes using kinetic and carbon in leach (CIL) bottle roll testing, while the second tested the potential for gold recovery using gravity techniques.

Gold recovery averaged 80.4% for seven of the eight samples using a primary grind size of approximately 80% passing 75 microns and CIL extraction (the eighth sample was from the High Grade Panel footwall). Gold recoveries ranged from 74.6% to 88.1% for the seven samples. Gold recovery results were similar without carbon and at 45- and 20-micron primary grind sizes.

Gold recovery to gravity concentrates averaged 47% for the same seven of eight samples. During these tests, 2 kilograms (kg) of sample was ground to a primary grind size of approximately 80% passing 75m and then passed through a laboratory scale Knelson concentrator. The Knelson concentrate was subsequently upgraded on a superpanner until the pan tip represented 0.02% to 0.05% of the original feed mass. Gold recovery to the superpanner tip ranged between 31% and 69%. This suggests the potential for gravity recovery from these samples, however future work, including Extended Gravity Recoverable Gold tests, are underway to refine the potential for gold recovery using gravity techniques.

One composite was an outlier and returned a 28% gold recovery at a 75-micron grind size using CIL extraction. This sample represents an area in the footwall to the High Grade Panel that has a lower overall grade than the other samples at 2.48 grams per tonne (g/t) gold. The cause of this lower recovery is unclear but is being further investigated with a gold deportment study, automated mineralogy, and additional assaying.

The composites samples were designed to test and provide guidance on potential recoveries from the most financially impactful ounces from the High Grade Panel. Results indicate the recoveries can be sufficiently high using conventional processing techniques. This supports continued evaluation of Ana Paula as a high-grade underground mine using conventional processing flowsheets.

Composite CIL Bottle Roll (75m) Gravity Recovery Comment Au Recovery (%) Calculated Head

Gold (g/t) Direct Head

Gold (g/t) Gold Recovery (%) Mass Pull (%) AuBOT23-01 79.4 8.19 6.51 51 0.03 Centre of

High Grade Panel AuBOT23-02 78.3 8.21 8.54 35 0.05 East within

High Grade Panel AuBOT23-03 27.7 2.55 2.48 16 0.03 Footwall to

High Grade Panel AuBOT23-04 75.4 13.92 13.69 31 0.02 Centre-West of

High Grade Panel AuBOT23-05 88.1 9.82 11.29 69 0.02 Granodiorite

Rocktype AuBOT23-06 74.6 13.84 13.53 53 0.03 Limestone/Hornfels/Skarn Rocktype AuBOT23-07 86.8 17.00 14.78 51 0.02 Down-plunge within

High Grade Panel AuBOT23-08 80.4 21.26 18.25 40 0.02 Up-plunge within

High Grade Panel

Table 1: Composite identification and gold recovery by process

Metallurgy Sampling Details

As part of the Ana Paula Rescoping study, Heliostar commenced test work focusing on the metallurgical characteristics of the High Grade Panel. Historical test work was designed using an open pit mining scenario, where most of the ore tonnes (approximately 70%) were hosted in the Intrusive Suite (granodiorite lithology) domain with an average life of mine grade of 2.38 g/t gold for proven and probable reserves1. As such, this historic test work focused on optimizing for these parameters by quantifying recoveries from these grade ranges and then optimizing potential recoveries by evaluating atmospheric oxidation. Historic test results for the High Grade Breccia Lithologic Domain (hosting much of the High Grade Panel) ranged from 62 to 68% gold recoveries for whole rock leaching. However, no further work was done to optimize recoveries using conventional milling technology or quantify recoveries within the high grade domains of the unit.

Heliostar is rescoping the Ana Paula project as a high grade underground mine using a conventional comminution, gravity, floatation, and CIL processing circuit. The Company is using previous test work as a foundation for future work while recognizing opportunities to optimize for mining scenarios and grade changes. Composite samples were created from PQ sized core drill holes that were completed early in the 2023 drill program. Coarse rejects from the selected intervals were combined to bring the total weight of each sample to approximately 25-30 kilograms.

Figure 1: Plan map of metallurgical composite source locations

Composites range from 25.2 to 62.0 metres in length and represent continuous intervals of similar grade and lithology that are spatially distributed across the mineralized zone where feasible. In two cases, continuous interval of the same lithology were not available and smaller intervals were collected from around the High Grade Panel (Figure 1). All samples were selected from within or proximal to the High Grade Panel. Six samples represent the Polymictic Breccia, while two other samples represent Sediments/ Hornfels and Granodiorite/Intrusive.

Direct head grades of the eight composites range from 2.48 to 18.25 g/t gold and average 11.13 g/t gold. Though this grade is high, particularly in comparison to the previous metallurgical work, it should be noted that five of the eight samples represent continuous intervals of mineralization across the centre of the High Grade Panel. These were selected in such a way that that could represent gold mineralization over significant volumes for the deposit, and were not built from isolated samples based on grade.

Heliostar is focused on improving the understanding of the gold recoveries under various extraction scenarios. The results presented in this release will refine future metallurgical work to define the most effective, low cost, technically simple approach to maximise gold recoveries for an underground mining operation. This work will include combining the gravity recovery and CIL processes which has the potential to further improve overall recoveries.

Statement of Qualified Person

Andrew Kelly, P.Eng., of Blue Coast Research Ltd., a Qualified Person, as such term is defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), has reviewed and approved the results of the metallurgical test program.

Art Ibrado, PhD, PE, of Fort Lowell Consulting, a Qualified Person, as such term is defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the results of the metallurgical test program.

Samuel D. Anderson, CPG., Vice President of Projects, of Heliostar Metals Limited, a Qualified Person, as such term is defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release and has approved the disclosure herein.

About Heliostar Metals Ltd.

Heliostar is a junior mining company with a portfolio of high-grade gold projects in Mexico and Alaska.

The Company is focused on developing the 100% owned Ana Paula Project in Guerrero, Mexico. In addition, Heliostar is working with the Mexican federal and local government to permit the San Antonio Gold Project in Baja Sur, Mexico. The Company continues to explore the Unga Gold Project in Alaska, United States of America.

The Ana Paula Project deposit contains proven and probable mineral reserves of 1,081,000 ounces of gold (630,000 proven and 451,000 probable ounces) at 2.38 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold and 2,547,000 ounces of silver (1,322,000 proven and 1,226,000 probable ounces) at 5.61 g/t silver. Ana Paula hosts measured and indicated resources of 1,468,800 ounces of gold (703,800 measured and 765,000 indicated ounces) at 2.16 g/t gold and 3,600,000 ounces of silver (1,637,000 measured and 1,963,000 indicated ounces) at 5.3 g/t silver. The asset is permitted for open-pit mining and contains significant existing infrastructure including a portal and a 412-metre-long decline.

References

An updated prefeasibility study titled "Ana Paula Project NI 43-101 Technical Report Preliminary Feasibility Study Update" was filed on SEDAR on April 6, 2023, with an effective date of February 28, 2023, prepared for the Company by Daniel H. Neff, PE, Art S. Ibrado, PhD, PE, Richard K. Zimmerman, RG, SME-RM, Craig Gibson, PhD, CPG, Andrew Kelly, P.Eng., Gordon Zurowski, P.Eng., Paul Daigle, P.Geo., Gilberto Dominguez, PE and James A. Cremeens, PE, PG.

For additional information please contact:

Charles Funk

Chief Executive Officer

Heliostar Metals Limited

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Rob Grey

Investor Relations Manager

Heliostar Metals Limited

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release includes certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "target", "plan", "forecast", "may", "would", "could", "schedule" and similar words or expressions, identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information relate to, among other things: the exploration, development, and production at the Company's properties; permitting at the San Antonio project; the release of exploration results; and future resource and reserve estimates.

Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information relating to any future mineral production, liquidity, enhanced value and capital markets profile of the Company, future growth potential for the Company and its business, and future exploration plans are based on management's reasonable assumptions, estimates, expectations, analyses and opinions, which are based on management's experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances, but which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the price of metals; no escalation in the severity of public health crises or ongoing military conflicts; costs of exploration and development; the estimated costs of development of exploration projects; and the Company's ability to operate in a safe and effective manner and its ability to obtain financing on reasonable terms.

These statements reflect the Company's respective current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of other assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political, and social uncertainties, and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information and the Company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: precious metals price volatility; risks associated with the conduct of the Company's mining activities in foreign jurisdictions; regulatory, consent or permitting delays; risks relating to reliance on the Company's management team and outside contractors; risks regarding exploration and mining activities; the Company's inability to obtain insurance to cover all risks, on a commercially reasonable basis or at all; currency fluctuations; risks regarding the failure to generate sufficient cash flow from operations; risks relating to project financing and equity issuances; risks and unknowns inherent in all mining projects, including the inaccuracy of reserves and resources, metallurgical recoveries and capital and operating costs of such projects; contests over title to properties, particularly title to undeveloped properties; laws and regulations governing the environment, health and safety; the ability of the communities in which the Company operates to manage and cope with the implications of public health crises; the economic and financial implications of public health crises, ongoing military conflicts and general economic factors to the Company; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities; employee relations, labour unrest or unavailability; the Company's interactions with surrounding communities; the Company's ability to successfully integrate acquired assets; the speculative nature of exploration and development, including the risks of diminishing quantities or grades of reserves; stock market volatility; conflicts of interest among certain directors and officers; lack of liquidity for shareholders of the Company; litigation risk; and the factors identified under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's public disclosure documents. Readers are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Although the Company has attempted to identify key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or forward-looking information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements or information, other than as required by applicable law.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - Chesapeake Gold Corp. (TSXV: CKG) (OTCQX: CHPGF) ("Chesapeake" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a significant gold discovery at its Lucy Project ("Lucy") located in central Sinaloa, Mexico. In total, 14 holes were completed in the 2023 campaign, with approximately 1,710 metres drilled. Lucy is one of several regional exploration properties within Chesapeake's Mexican portfolio.

Alan Pangbourne, CEO, commented, "While Chesapeake's primary focus has been advancing the metallurgical work and the oxidative leach technology at Metates, we have continued systematic exploration on our highly prospective regional projects. We are very excited about the first phase of drill results at Lucy. The drill results suggest a mineralized skarn that outcrops at surface, and the system has been traced over a strike length of at least 500 metres. Follow-up exploration is planned to better evaluate the scope and scale of this new discovery."

Lucy Plan Map of Trenches and 2023 Drill Hole Locations



Assay Highlights from the 2023 Lucy Drilling Campaign:

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Width (m) Au (g/t) LU23-06 0 24 24 6.11 LU23-08 3 45 42 0.88 LU23-09 0 30 30 2.57 Including 0 24 24 3.12 LU23-10 0 21 21 1.95 Including 0 9 9 3.30 LU23-13 3 27 24 3.95 Including 12 24 12 5.44

Lucy Long Section A to A' - Trenches 1, 3, 7, 8 & 10, and drill holes LU23-06, LU23-08, LU23-09, LU23-10, LU23-11, LU23-12 & LU23-13

Lucy Project Overview

The Lucy project comprises 483 hectares and is located within 5 kilometres from a paved highway. Lucy was staked by Chesapeake in 2017, and the initial exploration found zinc-bearing skarns to the Northwest (See press release dated June 21, 2018). Follow-up mapping, trenching and channel sampling in 2021 and 2022 identified the presence of a gold-bearing skarn system in the Southeast.

In June 2023, a 1,710 metre 14-hole HQ core drill program was initiated to test this gold-bearing skarn system. Holes LU23-05 to LU23-14 were collared over the gold zone defined by trenching and channel sampling. The eight holes discovered a northeast trending zone of skarn at least 500 metres in strike length with significant gold mineralization. The gold zone remains open along strike in both directions and at depth. The mineralization consists of a possible retrograde quartz-calcite, iron oxides and sulphides veinlets stockwork hosted within garnet skarn and hornfels.

Chesapeake plans to undertake further detailed mapping, rock sampling and trenching as well as mineralogical and petrographic studies prior to the next phase of drilling., Further exploration and analysis are required to better understand the scope and scale of the Lucy gold-bearing skarn system and the controls on the mineralization. At this early stage of exploration with uncertain geological orientation and limited drilling coverage, the drill intercepts should not be considered representative of the true thickness of the gold mineralization.

Drill holes LU23-01 to LU23-04 were follow-up reconnaissance holes on the zinc-bearing skarns in the Northwest. The four holes were drill testing the extension of the known zinc mineralization to the East (directly North of the gold discovery). No significant gold values were intercepted, but the zinc-bearing skarn has now been traced for approximately 1.5 kilometres along strike.

Additional geological cross-sections, selected core photos and the complete assay data table are available here.

Sample Preparation, Analysis and QA/QC Program

All the assays reported by Chesapeake in this news release are from HQ drill cores which were logged and sampled in a secure storage facility. HQ core was cut using disc rock saws, and a representative one-half sample was selected for assay. Core samples were sent to the ALS Global facility in Zacatecas City, Mexico, for preparation of assay pulps which were subsequently sent to ALS labs in Vancouver, Canada, for analysis.

All core samples, generally at 3-metre sample intervals, were prepared using a method whereby the entire sample was crushed to 90% passing -2mm, a split subsample of 1000 g was pulverized to better than 85% passing 75 microns and then a 250 g pulp was taken.

Samples were analyzed for gold using 50 g fire assay fusion with an ICP finish (Method Au-ICP22). Silver and other elements were analyzed by 4 acid digestion with an ICP finish (Method ME-ICP61). Gold (>5 ppm) and silver (>100 ppm) over limits were analyzed by fire assay and gravimetric finish.

Certified standards and blanks from CDN Resource Laboratories were inserted into the sample stream as part of the sampling protocol for the QA/QC program.

Qualified Persons

Alberto Galicia, P.Geo, Vice President Exploration and Gary Parkison, CPG, Vice President Development, are Qualified Persons as defined by NI43-101 and have reviewed and approved the technical information in this release.

About Chesapeake

Chesapeake Gold Corp. is focused on the discovery, acquisition, and development of major gold-silver deposits in North and South America. Chesapeake's flagship asset is the Metates Project ("Metates") located in Durango State, Mexico. Metates hosts one of the largest undeveloped gold-silver deposits in the Americas1 with over 16.77 million ounces of gold at 0.57 grams per tonne (g/t) and 423.2 million ounces of silver at 14.3 g/t within 921.2 million tonnes in the Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource category and a further 2.13 million ounces of gold at 0.47 g/t and 59.0 million ounces of silver at 13.2 g/t within 139.5 million tonnes in the Inferred Mineral Resource category. See the technical report titled "Metates Sulphide Heap Leach Project Phase I" dated January 13, 2023, and news release dated February 23, 2023.

Chesapeake also has an organic pipeline of satellite exploration properties strategically located near Metates. In addition, the Company owns 68% of Gunpoint Exploration Ltd., which owns the Talapoosa gold-silver project in Nevada.

For Further Information:

For more information on Chesapeake and its Metates Project, please visit our website at www.chesapeakegold.com or contact Alan Pangbourne or Jean-Paul Tsotsos at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or +1 778 731 1362.

Alternatively, join us at our webinar on Thursday, October 5th, at 8:00 AM PST (11:00 AM EST) by clikcing here.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements with respect to the Company's strategic plans, timing and expectations for the Company's exploration and drilling programs at the Company's Lucy project, estimates of mineralization from drilling, geological information projected from sampling results and the potential quantities and grades of the target zones.

Such forward looking statements or information are based on a number of assumptions, which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things: the conditions in general economic and financial markets; the price of gold and silver; the availability and costs of mining equipment and skilled labour; accuracy of assay results; geological interpretations from drilling results, timing and amount of capital expenditures related to drilling programs; performance of available laboratory and other related services; future operating costs; and the historical basis for current estimates of potential quantities and grades of target zones.

The actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward looking statements as a result of risk factors, including the timing and content of work programs; results of exploration activities and development of mineral properties; the interpretation and uncertainties of drilling and testing results and other geological data; receipt, maintenance and security of permits and mineral property titles; environmental and other regulatory risks; project costs overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses; availability of funds; failure to delineate potential quantities and grades of the target zones based on historical data, and general market and industry conditions.

Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. The assumptions used in the preparation of such statements, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statements were made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements included in this news release if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as otherwise required by applicable law.

1 Mexico's biggest undeveloped gold deposits. Bnamericas. Published Tuesday, November 24, 2020.
Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh have, after three decades of struggle, agreed to disarm, dissolve their government and reintegrate with Azerbaijan after Baku seized back control in late September.

The collapse of the breakaway statelet could shift the balance of power in the region and has left Yerevan facing a raft of geopolitical concerns.

- Russian 'double-deals' -

Nearly all of Karabakh's estimated 120,000 residents have now fled, with Yerevan accusing Azerbaijan of conducting a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" to clear the territory.

But Baku has denied the claim and publicly called on Karabakh's ethnic Armenian population to stay and "reintegrate" into Azerbaijan.

Russia, a long-standing ally of Armenia, insisted those fleeing the territory had nothing to fear, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying: "It's difficult to say who is to blame (for the exodus). There is no direct reason for such actions."

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has criticised the Russian peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh for failing to intervene during Baku's lightning offensive, which Moscow has denied.

Nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the mountainous region in 2020 as part of a ceasefire deal it brokered between Azerbaijan and Armenia that ended six weeks of fighting.

But Russia gave a lukewarm response to the announcement last week that the ethnic Armenian statelet of Karabakh would cease to exist at the end of the year.

"We have taken notice of this and are closely monitoring the situation. Our peacekeepers continue to assist people," Peskov said.

Analysts say that Russia has chosen to side with the growing power of oil-rich Azerbaijan over its sparsely populated and diplomatically isolated historic ally Armenia.

Moscow also warned last week that Armenia's decision to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin, would be "extremely hostile".

But Russia could still have an upper hand in the region, experts have said.

"The only framework agreement still in place, even though most of its provisions lie in tatters, is the trilateral ceasefire deal brokered by Russia on November 9, 2020," said Carnegie Europe expert Thomas de Waal.

"One of its provisions is for border guards from Russia's FSB security service to protect the transport corridor across Armenia to Nakhchivan -- a distasteful prospect given Russia's war in Ukraine," he added.

- Turkey-Azerbaijan alliance -

A complex hangover from the Soviet era, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, a landlocked autonomous republic, does not share a border with Azerbaijan but has been tied to Baku since the 1920s. It is located between Armenia, Turkey and Iran.

Some experts believe that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev could now seek to launch operations in southern Armenia to create a territorial link with Nakhchivan.

Allies Turkey and Azerbaijan had said in June they wanted to step up efforts to open a land corridor linking Turkey to Azerbaijan's main territory via Nakhchivan and Armenia, a longstanding and complex project.

A few days after Azerbaijan's lightning offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19 and 20, Aliyev met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the exclave.

Aliyev recently referred to southern Armenia as "Western Azerbaijan" and in December said Azerbaijanis "must be able to return to their native lands".

He went further in February 2018, when he told a press conference: "Yerevan is our historic land... We Azerbaijanis must return to our historic lands."

The alliance between Turkey and Azerbaijan, both mainly Muslim, is fuelled by a mutual mistrust of largely Christian Armenia.

The latter harbours hostility towards Ankara over the massacres of some 1.5 million Armenians by Turkey during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire.

More than 30 countries have recognised the killings as genocide, although Ankara fiercely disputes the term.

- Iran unknown -

Another major geopolitical player in the region is Iran, which has commercial interests in Armenia's future.

Iran sees Armenia as its commercial gateway to the Caucasus and therefore "does not want to see the border move" to favour Azerbaijan, said professor Taline Ter Minassian of France's National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations.

The reasons are also geostrategic, as Azerbaijan has for years been drawing nearer to Israel, Tehran's arch-enemy.

Israel accounted for almost 70 percent of arms sales to Azerbaijan between 2016 and 2020, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The French Centre for Intelligence Research has said that Israel has built "several electronic intelligence stations" in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan's key ally Turkey is also a member of NATO, the US-led military alliance with which Iran is also at loggerheads.

In the absence of a convincing Western commitment to Armenia, its "only protection so far has been Iran", said Jean-Louis Bourlanges, chair of the French Foreign Affairs Committee.

"It's a very fragile and worrying guarantee," he added.
Moscow said Russian and Azerbaijani forces on Monday came under sniper fire in Nagorno-Karabakh, days after Baku secured the surrender of Armenian separatists in an offensive to regain control of the mountainous territory.

The report came as Armenia said one serviceman was killed along its shared border with Azerbaijan, underscoring the volatility of the region even after Karabakh's capitulation last week.

"In the city of Stepanakert (Khankendi) a joint Russian-Azerbaijani patrol was shot at by an unknown person using a sniper weapon. There were no casualties," the Russian defence ministry said.

Russia deployed its peacekeepers to the mountainous region in 2020 as part of a ceasefire deal it had brokered between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

But mired in its war in Ukraine, Moscow refused to intervene when Azerbaijan launched a lightning offensive at the end of September.

Separatists capitulated and said 220 were killed in the fighting, while Azerbaijan reported 199 dead.

Another Armenian serviceman was killed when Azerbaijani forces opened fire near the eastern village of Kut on Monday, Armenia's defence ministry said.

It also announced two were wounded. Azerbaijan had rejected the claim.

Days after the lightning offensive, fighting has nevertheless subsided.

- Eerily silent -

Almost all ethnic Armenians -- over 100,000 people -- have fled the breakaway territory over fears of ethnic cleansing.

After nine days of fear and panic, the exodus of Armenians is over with the Lachin corridor that links Karabakh to Armenia mostly deserted.

AFP journalists on a tour organised by Azerbaijani forces in the rebel stronghold of Stepanakert saw an eerily empty city.

Buildings, restaurants, hotels and supermarkets laid deserted in a city that once had 55,000 inhabitants.

Many were smashed up with empty shelves -- signs of looting or hasty departures.

After three decades of Armenian control, the separatist authorities have agreed to disarm, dissolve their government and reintegrate with Azerbaijan.

The separatist government however said some officials would stay to oversee rescue operations.

President Samvel Shahramanyan "will stay in (Karabakh's main city of) Stepanakert with a group of officials until the search and rescue operations for the remainder of those killed and those missing... are completed," the separatist government said.

In addition to the toll from the fighting itself, another 170 people died when a fuel depot exploded during the massive exodus.

Separatist official Artak Beglaryan said "a few hundred" Armenian representatives remained in Karabakh.

He said they included "officials, emergency service, volunteers, some persons with special needs."

- Separatists in jail -

Yerevan has accused Azerbaijan of conducting a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" to clear Karabakh of its Armenian population.

Baku has denied the claim and called on Armenian residents of the territory to stay and "re-integrate" into Azerbaijan, saying their rights would be guaranteed.

AFP journalists on Monday saw a convoy carrying water and communications workers that was allowed to enter Stepanakert.

The convoy was escorted by the Azerbaijani army.

They also saw a bus carrying officials who planned to open a "re-integration" office in the city for any ethnic Armenians wishing to register with Azerbaijani authorities.

Azerbaijan is holding "re-integration" talks with separatist leaders.

Several senior representatives of its former government and military command have been detained, including Ruben Vardanyan -- a reported billionaire who headed the Nagorno-Karabakh government between November 2022 and February.

His four children released a statement on social media demanding his release "from the illegal imprisonment on the territory of Azerbaijan", saying they "feared for his life and health".

Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General Kamran Aliyev said criminal investigations had been initiated into war crimes committed by 300 separatist officials.

"I urge those persons to surrender voluntarily," he told journalists on Sunday.
The case came to a head on August 23, after Swiss NGO TRIAL International published a press release saying that, according to information recently made public, Nezzar was "on his deathbed". In the event of his death, the case will be closed and the victims demands will forever remain unanswered, leaving the wounds of the 'black decade' open," says the press release. Just days later, on August 28, the Swiss public prosecutor's office filed an indictment with the Federal Criminal Court, which is competent to try him under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

The Swiss NGO based its information on an August 12 article on the Atalayar website by Hichem Aboud, an exiled journalist and author of the book La Mafia des generaux (2002), in which he claimed that the former minister was very ill, even dying.

General Nezzar has lived secluded in his home in the heights of Algiers since returning from exile in Spain in December 2020, and no longer sees anyone outside his family circle, according to sources close to him -- a seclusion that resembles house arrest. At 85, the man is suffering from a number of illnesses, which are kept secret, but his state of health is not critical, according to the same source. Nezzar is said to be feeling more psychologically than physically depressed after the dismantling of companies run by his eldest son Lotfi, in the wake of measures against the oligarchs around former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who died two years ago. These companies include SLC, the leading provider of WiMax, a high-speed Internet access system. Nezzar is also said to be very affected by statements made against him by his youngest son, Sofiane, who accuses his father of having killed his mother.

Nezzar has not made any statement since his indictment. However, on September 6 he wrote to two Algerian newspapers, Le Soir and El-Khabar, to deny reports that he had received a visit from the Saudi ambassador at his home. "I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the Minister of Foreign Affairs statement following the violations committed by the Swiss Criminal Court in the handling of my case," he wrote at the end of his message. He thus indicated that he was relieved to be under the States protection, but that he also knew his room for manoeuvre had been considerably reduced since the disappearance of his protector Bouteflika.

"A revisionist reading by Swiss justice

His two lawyers in the Swiss proceedings, Caroline Schumacher and Magali Buser, took it upon themselves to respond to the indictment. In a timid and little publicised statement issued on August 28, they denounced a case "marked by repeated violations of the defendant's right to be heard, in particular the almost systematic refusal of investigative acts requested on his behalf". His defence argues that "the investigation of the case against him has from the outset been part of an eminently political context. The plaintiffs all claimed to be Islamists, then and now. The General embodies the rejection of the extremist Islamist political project". But they did not say whether or not he would be prepared to appear in Switzerland.

The day after this press release, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sought to make public the content of a telephone conversation between the Algerian Minister, Ahmed Attaf, and his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis. The official Algerian agency published extracts of what Attaf had to say during the conversation, without indicating what Cassis said. "The whole world recognises that Algeria was fighting terrorism, with the exception of the Swiss justice system," said Attaf, deploring a "revisionist reading by the Swiss justice system, of Algeria's brave and solitary fight against terrorism". Threatening to break off diplomatic relations with Bern, Attaf expressed the hope that "everything will be done to prevent this affair from dragging relations between Algeria and Switzerland down the path of the undesirable and the irreparable".

Attaf's comments were widely reported in the Algerian media. On social networks, opinions are more nuanced: some, as a matter of principle, denounce "any foreign interference" in the affairs of Algerians, even if they do not necessarily support Nezzar; while others believe that the former minister "saved the Republic" by taking the decision to stop by force the 1992 elections, which would otherwise have allowed the Islamists to take power.

There are also those, less vocal, who are delighted with this procedure. Kamel Guemmazi, a former leader of the FIS [Islamic Salvation Front, which would have won the 1992 elections], described Nezzar's possible appearance in court as a "victory for the victims and families of the disappeared". This day has been awaited for 30 years, he told the London-based Al-Magharibia channel on August 30. We would have liked this trial to take place in Algeria, but unfortunately, there is no justice in Algeria!

Algerian political figures, including those considered close to the former defence minister like former Prime Minister Sid-Ahmed Ghozali, have chosen not to speak out on this.

The Rifaat al-Assad example

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune met his Swiss counterpart Alain Berset on September 18 in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Although nothing has leaked from this brief exchange, it is highly likely that the Nezzar affair, which has become an issue between the two countries, was central to the discussions.

In a September 4 press release, TRIAL International points out that it is independent of the Swiss government and "in no way speaks on its behalf". The NGO points out that it does not "in any way defend particular political or religious interests and above all defends victims of the most serious crimes, who have an absolute right to obtain justice, regardless of their orientation or convictions". TRIAL International also points out that the accused does not dispute the legitimacy of the proceedings against him, and that his lawyer stated last year that Nezzar "would appear at his possible trial".

In conclusion, TRIAL International hopes that Nezzars trial "will provide a unique opportunity for the victims of the mass crimes committed during the 1990s in Algeria to obtain a measure of justice and truth".

To date, Switzerland has not issued an arrest warrant for Nezzar, although in August it unveiled an international arrest warrant for Rifaat Al-Assad, the younger brother of former Syrian president Hafez Al-Assad, for war crimes dating back to 1982. Rifaat Al-Assad is being prosecuted on similar charges to the former Algerian president. The similarities between the two defendants do not end there. Al-Assad, former commander of the Syrian Defence Forces, is accused of having committed massacres during a military operation to regain control of Hama, during an armed uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2021, al-Assad returned to Syria after 37 years in exile.

"If Algeria refuses to hand over the accused, will Switzerland turn to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to force Algeria to comply with the Aut dedere, aut judicare [obligation to extradite or prosecute] principle laid down in the International Convention against Torture? asks lawyer Sofiane Chouiter, president of the Justitia centre for the legal protection of human rights in Algeria. This, she adds, is what Belgium did when Senegal was refusing to hand over former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre or put him on trial.
A military court sentenced a DR Congo army officer to death and handed 10-year prison terms to three others Monday over the August killing of more than 50 protesters in the eastern city of Goma.

The defendants' lawyers have said they will appeal the decision, while two others standing trial were acquitted.

The death penalty is often handed down in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but it has not been applied for 20 years and is systematically commuted to life imprisonment.

During closing arguments on Friday, a senior public prosecutor had not requested capital punishment but life imprisonment for the main defendant, Colonel Mike Mikombe.

But the court handed Mikombe the death sentence with a charge of "murders", although charges of crimes against humanity were dropped.

The prosecutor also asked for sentences ranging between 10 and 20 years for the five other defendants.

The six soldiers had been on trial since September 5 over the deadly crackdown against a religious sect that called for demonstrations against the United Nations' presence in the region.

The crackdown saw 57 people killed, according to the latest official toll, and has led to renewed tensions in the North Kivu capital of Goma, an area plagued by violence by armed groups.

More than 140 civilians including around 30 minors were also arrested during the August 30 army operation.

- Questions -

In the aftermath, the government quickly announced the arrest of several soldiers and promised justice would be served.

But the trial did not answer all the questions about the circumstances of the killings.

Interior Minister Peter Kazadi has indicated that the elite Republican Guard intervened after the lynching of a police officer by members of the religious sect.

Witnesses -- including two army colonels but also sect members and local residents -- however say the operation began before the police officer died.

The same witnesses have also said that before the killings, negotiations between the army and the sect were progressing well, but the military then suddenly opened fire on the unarmed sect members.

The question remained whether Mikombe gave the order to shoot, and whether he was following orders or acting on his own.

He suggested in court that he had been misled by an operational order identifying the sect members as proxies of M23 rebels and the Rwandan army.

The M23 has captured swathes of territory in North Kivu province since 2021 -- one of several militias holding sway over much of the region despite the presence of peacekeepers.

Independent UN experts, the Kinshasa government and several Western nations including the United States and France accuse Rwanda of actively backing the Tutsi-led M23 -- claims that Rwanda denies.

Mikombe also called on the court to probe the military governor of North Kivu, General Constant Ndima, who was recalled to the capital Kinshasa for "consultations".
Indonesian President Joko Widodo officially launched on Monday the operation of Southeast Asia's first high-speed railway, one of the key Belt and Road Initiative projects in the region.

Widodo, who led the launching ceremony at the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway's Halim Station in Jakarta, said the construction of the bullet train marked Indonesia's modernization. He said it also showed that the nation can have an efficient, eco-friendly public transportation system.

The railway will cut travel time between the two cities from the current three hours to about 40 minutes.

"Its technology is new, its speed and construction are new, and (the project) payment model is new. They are all new for us," Widodo said.

Widodo pressed a touch screen and signed the inscription to mark the launching of the 142-kilometer railway. He then joined a group of government officials, diplomats, artists and social media influencers to take a ride from Halim Station to Padalarang Station in West Java province.

Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Lu Kang was among those attending the ceremony. It was the first time that a Chinese railway system as well as Chinese technology and components were fully used in an overseas high-speed rail construction project.

Widodo noted that the bullet train's official name is WHOOSH, which apart from being inspired by the sound of a fast-moving train, also stands for W (waktu, or time), H (hemat, or economical), O (operasi, or operation), O (optimal), S (system) and H (hebat, or amazing).

The Indonesia-China joint venture PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia China built the railway as part of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

This fast train "is a new thing for us, which is like the metro rail transit and light rail transit that are also new things for us," according to Widodo.

He added that Indonesia shouldn't be afraid to learn new things and face challenges along the way.

"Experiences are costly but are very precious, and so we need not be afraid of them. This is because, if we stay consistent, mistakes will become smaller and smaller and, accordingly, the costs of mistakes will also become smaller and smaller. Eventually, production costs (and) project costs will become lower and lower," he said.

The bullet train is among the long list of Widodo's strategic national projects, including toll roads, seaports and airports, irrigation dams, bridges and oil refineries. Widodo said the nation's experience in building such infrastructure will help it produce even better things in the future.

The courage to try new things will lead to confidence and will provide opportunities for the country's people to learn, which will benefit its human resources, the president said.

Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Indonesia's coordinating minister for investment and maritime affairs, said that over the past three weeks, the public has been very eager to ride the fast train. He added that free rides for the public would be extended until the middle of October.

"We are hopeful that this Jakarta-Bandung fast train will encourage people to make more use of public transportation in order to reduce carbon emissions that come from the private vehicle sector," Pandjaitan said.
Syrian authorities abused and left detainees to die at a Damascus military hospital, using the facility to cover up the torture of prisoners, a rights group and former detainees said.

Sick prisoners sent from detention facilities to the capital's Tishreen Military Hospital for treatment rarely received any medical attention, according to a report released Tuesday by the Association of Detainees and the Missing in Sednaya Prison (ADMSP), a Turkey-based watchdog.

Instead, security forces at the hospital jail and even medical and administrative staff inflicted "brutal torture" on detainees, including physical and psychological violence, according to the report titled "Buried in Silence".

It covers abuses from the start of Syria's civil war in 2011 to 2020, but the authors said they believe many of the practices persist today.

Abu Hamza, 43, said he was taken to the jail at the Tishreen hospital three times during his incarceration, but only saw a doctor once.

"Prisoners were afraid to go to the hospital, because many did not return," said Abu Hamza, who was jailed for seven years, including at the notorious Sednaya prison on the Damascus outskirts.

"Those who were very sick would be left to die in the hospital lockup," said Abu Hamza, who like others AFP spoke to used first names or pseudonyms for fear of reprisals.

"If we could walk, we'd be sent back to prison," he added.

ADMSP was founded by former detainees held in Sednaya, Syria's largest jail which has become a by-word for torture and the darkest abuses of the regime.

In a report last year the group described Sednaya's "salt rooms," primitive mortuaries designed to preserve bodies.

The latest ADMSP report is based on interviews with 32 people including former detainees, security personnel and medical staff, as well as leaked documents.

Rights groups have long accused President Bashar al-Assad's government of torturing detainees and executing prisoners without fair trials.

In 2011, Syrian government forces cracked down on peaceful protesters, triggering a complex war that has left more than 500,000 dead and forced millions to flee.

Up to one-fifth of that toll died in government-run prisons, according to Britain-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Some of the horrific images of dead Syrians smuggled out by "Caesar", a defector who had worked as a photographer for the military police, were shot inside Tishreen hospital, according to human rights groups.

- Left for dead -

Abu Hamza said guards at the hospital prison "once barged in and ordered us to lie on the ground", beating them for 15 minutes before leaving.

According to the ADMSP report, inmates who died in custody from torture or poor conditions, particularly at Sednaya, were taken to the Tishreen hospital and then to "mass graves" near the capital.

Inmates arriving at the hospital were first held "in the same room where bodies of detainees were collected", and sick detainees were forced to help transport prisoners' corpses, the report said.

Abu Hamza said he was made to toil for hours, barefoot and in the bitter cold, loading bodies into a vehicle at Sednaya prison and then offloading them at Tishreen hospital near its jail.

There, security forces wrote a number on the corpse or on a piece of paper. A photographer would then take pictures of the dead.

The ADMSP report said no autopsies were conducted and the hospital issued "death certificates with false information", often citing heart attack, kidney failure or stroke as the cause of death.

Sometimes inmates "between life and death" were placed among the corpses and left to die or even killed, according to the report.

Abu Hamza recalled a detainee who was "fighting for his life" in the hospital jail.

"They did not bring a doctor. Instead, they put him aside, among the corpses. They left him to die," he said.

The report said a jail officer would sometimes kill very sick detainees, or prisoners would be ordered to take part in doing so.

- Awoke 'among corpses' -

Tishreen hospital plays a "central role in enforced disappearances, covering up torture, falsifying the causes of death" and other abuses amounting to "crimes against humanity" said ADMSP co-founder Diab Serriya.

"What happens inside Tishreen hospital and other military hospitals is a systematic policy" adopted by the authorities, he added.

A Syrian doctor is currently on trial in Germany accused of torture, murder and crimes against humanity while working in military hospitals in his homeland.

Lawsuits have been filed elsewhere in Europe, as well as the United States and at the International Court of Justice, against the Syrian government and officials on accusations of torture.

Mahmud was only 16 when he was jailed in 2014 and sent to Tishreen hospital, where he said other detainees beat him severely.

"They held me to the ground, stepped on me and covered my mouth... (until) I passed out," he said.

"I woke up a short time later and found myself among corpses in the corner of the cell," Mahmud said, adding he was taken back to Sednaya prison without receiving any medical attention.

During the rest of his time in detention, he was too scared to visit a doctor, despite contracting tuberculosis.

"I could no longer chew food at one point, but I didn't tell anyone so they wouldn't take me back to Tishreen hospital," Mahmud said.
* A lengthy tea road linking the tea-growing region of the Wuyi Mountains to the Russian port city of St. Petersburg thus came into being with the help of these merchant guilds, who brought the aroma of the time-honored tea culture overseas and bore witness to an enduring bond between people along the route.

* Several centuries ago, tea was introduced to Russia and gained traction. Russians loved tea so much that they developed their own unique tea drinking culture.

FUZHOU/ST. PETERSBURG, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Nestled in the picturesque Wuyi Mountains in southeast China's Fujian Province is a tranquil village named Xiamei, one with a rich past and profound culture.

The millennia-old village was once a bustling logistics hub and the starting point of an ancient tea road stretching about 13,000 km all the way to St. Petersburg, Russia, during the Qing Dynasty.

Today, after more than a century of dereliction, the tea road starting from here is regaining its former importance as China, Russia and Mongolia join forces for closer cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and as people rediscover the historical and cultural significance of this trade artery.

A Xinhua correspondent of Russian nationality visits a sculpture located at the starting point of an ancient tea road in Xiamei Village, Wuyishan City, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 5, 2023. (Xinhua/Jiang Kehong)

A CLOSER BOND

Xiamei thrived from the end of the 17th century due to a growing demand in the Russian market for Chinese tea and the booming China-Russia tea trade made possible through Jin (short for Shanxi Province) merchants, who rose to prominence during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

A lengthy tea road linking the tea-growing region of the Wuyi Mountains to the Russian port city of St. Petersburg thus came into being with the help of these merchant guilds, who brought the aroma of the time-honored tea culture overseas and bore witness to an enduring bond between people along the route.

For starters, this was a tea road connecting not only China and Russia, but the north and south of China, with varying natural endowments and comparative strengths.

As a major tea-growing base and the earliest tea exporter along the road, the Wuyi Mountains boasts a suitable climate for tea growing, rich tea resources as well as fine tea traditions and techniques. Tea leaves harvested from here could be well-preserved under the drier climate in the north, as they were shipped north for sale in Russia and other European countries, a process which overall took about a year. The taste and quality of tea transported overland via the tea road was more favored than tea imported by sea.

Zou Yingwen, an inheritor of Wuyi Mountains tea-making techniques, makes tea in Xiamei Village, Wuyishan City, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 5, 2023. (Xinhua/Jiang Kehong)

Zou Yingwen, who is carrying on Wuyi Mountains tea-making techniques, told Xinhua that for more than a century, Jin merchants have partnered with Xiamei businessmen in tea selection, processing and transportation, managing a profitable tea business. The brick tea and black tea were shipped north to Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province and then carried by camel caravans to Kyakhta, a border town in Russia designated for tea trade, before they hit the markets in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and elsewhere in Europe.

During Emperor Xianfeng's reign (from 1850-1861) in the Qing Dynasty, the southern tea road was blocked, so Jin merchants shifted their focus to central China's Anhua, Hunan Province and Yangloudong, Hubei Province, where tea was processed into brick tea before being shipped to Hankou by water and transferred north overland. Today, in the ancient streets in Yangloudong, the ruts of wheelbarrows that once transported tea are still clearly visible.

Tourists visit an ancient street in Yangloudong of Chibi City, central China's Hubei Province, Sept. 9, 2023. (Photo by Du Zixuan/Xinhua)

The special processing technique of making brick tea allows tea to be preserved over a long period of time, and the taste of aged brick tea gets more intense and pure with the passage of time, said Quan Wei, who specializes in dark tea-making techniques.

In the mid-19th century, Russian traders flocked to central China's commercial port of Hankou to engage in tea business. They initially set up tea mills in Yangloudong to process brick tea locally before they moved to Hankou, where they made brick tea with steam engines and hydraulic presses for the Russian market.

After that, Hankou tea exports boomed, accounting for more than 60 percent of China's total tea export by the end of the 19th century. With its key role in the tea trade, Hankou became a veritable "Oriental Tea Port."

Today in Hankou District, Wuhan City, sculptures and Russian-style architecture built by former tea traders bear witness to the flourishing China-Russia tea trade.

With the extension of the tea road for camel caravans, towns and cities sprung up in the wilderness. This trade road extended beyond tea and other goods, but also enabled people from different civilizations to meet.

A TIME-HONORED CUSTOM

Several centuries ago, tea was introduced to Russia and gained traction. Russians loved tea so much that they developed their own unique tea drinking culture. In the 18th century, Russians invented the samovar, which was used for brewing tea. Today, drinking tea with snacks and desserts is still a favored way for Russians to socialize.

Renowned Russian poet Alexander Pushkin wrote in his epic Eugene Onegin, "Day faded; on the table, glowing, the samovar of evening boiled, and warmed the Chinese teapot; flowing beneath it, vapour wreathed and coiled." Throughout his life, Pushkin made frequent references to the immutable importance of tea in Russian culture.

To meet Russians' demand for tea, places such as Moscow and St. Petersburg once opened numerous tea houses. The Russian government even granted tax incentives to tea houses countrywide to encourage tea drinking as an alternative to alcohol.

Two Russian ladies enjoy tea at home in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sept. 25, 2023. (Photo by Irina Motina/Xinhua)

Sergey Kalashnikov, chairman of the Russian Association for International Cooperation, said Chinese tea has had a huge impact on the life and culture of Russians, partly replacing kvass, beer and home-brewed alcohol, and the custom of tea drinking is deeply rooted in Russian culture. "Tea has actually become a national drink in Russia," Kalashnikov said.

In Siberia and the Mongolian plateau, tea refreshes herdsmen and helps with digestion, and is hence an indispensable drink. Drinking salty milk tea made from brick tea has long been a custom of Mongolians.

These traditions wouldn't have emerged without China's Jin merchants. Though Shanxi Province is not the hometown of tea, it is the hometown of a group of prominent merchants who have promoted tea drinking and dominated the tea road for more than 200 years. Many of their businesses or tea houses even had branches in Moscow and other Russian cities. Their history of tea-making and selling is also well documented.

This photo taken on Aug. 30, 2023 shows a view of the Qu family compound, the historical residence of one of China's most prominent Jin merchant families during the Ming and Qing dynasties, in Qixian County, north China's Shanxi Province. (Xinhua/Zhan Yan)

Tian Jian, director of the Jin Merchants Research Institute in Qi County, Shanxi Province, described the Jin merchants as a group of "honest, trusty, pioneering, pragmatic, cooperative and benevolent merchants" who blazed the trail of the tea road and promoted trade based on the principles of "connectivity, harmony and win-win."

A REVITALIZED ROAD

Over the past 250 years, merchants along the route have continuously traded furs and tea, paving an important trade road for a flourishing Eurasia. China-Russia trade centered around tea has boosted tea planting and logistics, and spurred socio-economic growth in China's northern steppe and Russia's Siberia region.

However, by the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the tea road lost its former glory and was gradually forgotten due to war, the rise of railway and sea transportation, and the shrinking demand for Chinese tea.

Today, deeper cooperation via the BRI is revitalizing this old trade road, as China, Russia and Mongolia further tap into the potential of their economic and cultural links through this existing channel.

Visitors taste tea at a tea industry expo held in Moscow, Russia, July 14, 2023. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr/Xinhua)

Over the past decade, China, Russia and Mongolia have worked together to restore global recognition of the significant tea road as a cultural heritage. In March 2019, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage included the Tea Road in the Preparatory List of China's World Cultural Heritage, officially elevating its application to the national level.

Huang Baiquan, dean of the School of History and Culture of Hubei University, believed that the three countries' joint application of the tea road in the world heritage list is "of great significance for enhancing their traditional friendship and political mutual trust and promoting the construction of the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor."

As an important component of the China-proposed BRI, the trilateral economic corridor has been regarded by many as "a modern version" of the ancient tea road, promising innumerable economic opportunities for landlocked regions like Mongolia.

The ancient tea road now boasts developed air, road and railway transportation networks, serving once again as a road to common prosperity, as it witnesses ever closer economic and trade cooperation as well as personnel exchanges.

As a big tea consumer, Russia's import for Chinese tea is growing, largely facilitated with the China-Europe freight trains. In August 2022, Hubei Province's first tea export train carrying about 1,000 tons of black tea left Wuhan and arrived in Moscow in just 20 days.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mongolia donated 30,000 sheep to China to support its fight against the coronavirus and China's Hubei Province returned the goodwill with the Mongolian people's much-loved brick tea. Tea brought back their shared cultural memories from centuries ago.

Kalashnikov compared the tea road to the cultural veins of the Belt and Road. "For centuries, the tea road has been an economic and cultural bridge connecting China, Russia and Europe, and it still plays a special role in people-to-people friendship," he said.

Editor: WXL
People visit the Tian'anmen Square after a flag-raising ceremony to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

BEIJING, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Beijing's scenic areas received more than 6.8 million visitors during the first three days of the ongoing National Day holiday, up 60.6 percent year on year and bringing a sharp increase in tourism revenues, local authorities have said.

During the period, the major scenic areas in the Chinese capital recorded a total revenue of over 418 million yuan (about 58 million U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 25.2 percent, according to the Beijing municipal bureau of culture and tourism.

A total of 100 key enterprises monitored by the municipal commerce bureau, including department stores, supermarkets, specialty stores and enterprises in the catering and e-commerce sectors, have reported a total sales volume of 3.83 billion yuan, up 18.1 percent year on year, according to the latest data released by the bureau.

Local authorities have worked together to fuel the holiday economy, hosting various performances and other cultural activities, and launching attractive tourist routes.

This year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday began on Sept. 29 and will continue until Oct. 6. It is the longest public holiday in the second half of the year in China, and it is also known as "golden week."

Editor: WXL
It will be possible to launch funded pension system only after victory, but infrastructure to be ready before 2025  Zholnovych

Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Oksana Zholnovych has said that the government will prepare the entire infrastructure for the funded pension system until 2025, but if the war continues, it will be possible to launch it only after victory.

"I think that this will be real, because now the draft bill is almost ready for us to work on the design of the funded pension reform. I will say right away that it will be possible to launch it by collecting contributions only after victory, otherwise there will be no way to invest these funds," Zholnovych said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, answering a question about the possibility of launching a funded pension system in 2025.

At the same time, the minister said that before the launch it is necessary to carry out a lot of organizational actions: create a state savings fund, build a structure, create a digital program that will administer all this, and plan everything correctly.

To a clarifying question, if the war still continues until 2025, would it be possible to start savings, Zholnovych said that the government will do everything to ensure that all the infrastructure is ready by that time. "We really hope that the war will not drag on, but it's difficult to predict now," she added.

As reported, in September, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said that the authorities plan to launch the funded pension system in 2025.
Catherine Ankunda

Police in Lyantonde district on Monday raided a shop dealing in electronic appliances and confiscated an assortment of items worth millions of shillings.

The raided shop is located along Kooki Road in Lyantonde town council, Lyantonde district.

Police preliminary investigations reveal the confiscated items including among others CCTV cameras, computer monitors, printers, speakers, generators, microphones, and many others, were stolen from the districts of Lyantonde and Kiruhura.

According to Mr Douglas Kiwanuka , the officer in charge of Lyantonde police station, the operation to seize the stolen items followed numerous calls from individuals who had lost their property to thieves.

In Kiruhura, one of the residents registered a case of missing hair salon equipment and another case of missing public address system was reported by the management of Nyakahita Church of Uganda. Our detectives managed to arrest the suspect and he took them to a shop where he regularly sells stolen items, both suspects are in our custody, he said

He said the shop owner has been buying the items well knowing that they are stolen .

We have received information that some of the items were stolen from Kyazanga, Mbirizi, and Sanga, he added

Mr Emmanuel Sagala, the chairperson Cell III on Kooki road , said the arrested shop owner has a big racket consisting of thieves he calls his agents.
Lithuania has agreed on a corridor for the transit of Ukrainian grain to Baltic ports, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said.

Russia destroys food, Lithuania delivers it. A corridor for grain transit to Baltic ports has been accepted and agreed, relieving pressure at the Ukrainian border and increasing supply to Africa and beyond. Cooperation gives results! he said on Twitter.

Earlier it was reported that veterinary, sanitary and phytosanitary control will be transferred from the Ukrainian-Polish border to the port of Klaipeda (Lithuania) for all agricultural goods going to this port within two days; this will speed up transit through Poland.
A significant investment by Uisce Eireann and Kilkenny County Council involving the replacement of of ageing and damaged water mains in Rathduff will take place this month.

These water mains have been prone to bursts, causing disruption to homes and businesses in the area. This infrastructure upgrade aims to provide a reliable water supply for the community and reduce the frequency of bursts and outages.

Scheduled to commence in October, the works will begin from the crossroads on the R700 towards Kilkenny and end at Barrons Court. To minimise the impact on customers, areas of work will be limited to short sections.

In addition, a stop/go traffic management system will be in place to ensure the smooth flow of traffic, while local and emergency traffic will always be maintained.

While the works may require some short-term water interruptions, Uisce Eireann assures customers that they will be given a minimum of 48 hours' notice prior to any planned interruptions.

Programme Manager, for Uisce Eireanns National Leakage Reduction Programme, Dave Murphy is looking forward to getting crews on site.

Old and damaged water mains remain a huge source of leakage and continue to impact communities right across Ireland, causing low pressure and supply disruption. Replacing these old water mains in poor condition will eliminate existing leaks and significantly reduce the amount of clean drinking water lost into the ground.

Dave Murphy also extended his gratitude to the community of Rathduff for their patience and cooperation during the works. He highlighted that the short-term inconvenience will be greatly outweighed by the lasting benefits of a reliable water supply

Shareridge Civil Engineering will carry out the works on behalf of Uisce Eireann and are expected to be completed by early 2024.

Customers can phone Uisce Eireann on 1800 278 278 if they have any questions about the project or check out the Water Supply Updates section of the Uisce Eireann website for regular updates.

The works involve laying new water service connections from the public water main in the road to customers property boundaries and connecting it to the customers water supply. Where the existing service connections on the public side are lead these are being replaced.
Seventeen patients are on trolleys at St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny according to the latest figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

Nationally 592 patients are being treated on trolleys, chairs and other inappropriate bed spaces across Irish hospitals today according to the INMO.

INMO General Secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said:

We are seeing trolley figures today that we would usually see at the height of winter. The fact that 592 patients have been admitted to hospital today, October 3, without a bed is a high risk event.

Our members are concerned about the spread of infections such as Strep A, Norovirus and indeed COVID-19. It is clear that the spread of viruses is going to have a detrimental impact on patient flow throughout our hospitals over the coming weeks.

The INMO has been calling for a solid plan to deal with hospital overcrowding with a strong emphasis on infection control since early summer. We are now urgently looking to meet each individual hospital group to hear how they plan to deal with the overcrowding crisis that is materialising in the vast majority of Irish hospitals and how they will protect our members and the patients in their care.

Each hospital group should be engaging with their local communities and be upfront about the level of overcrowding and unsafe staffing in each hospital. Those who need care in our hospitals deserve to know what they can expect upon arrival at any ED.

592 patients are without a bed all dealing with varying degrees of illness, nurses and midwives are trying their best to provide care in really testing environments today. Each hospital group and the HSE must outline immediately what they are doing to reduce the pressure in these intolerable environments.

We will be meeting with INMO members in the most impacted hospitals urgently to discuss how we can approach the winter ahead.
Calls have been made to upgrade the status of the R693 (Urlingford to Kilkenny) road following a council motion recently raised by Cllr Mary Hilda Cavanagh.

Cavanagh proposed that Transportation Infrastructure Ireland (TII) upgrade the R693 (Urlingford to Kilkenny) to national road status.

Huge investment is needed on this road due to the increased volume of traffic since the M8 motorway opened, she said.

At the time there was a promise that it would be upgraded but that hasnt come to fruition.

Cllr Michael McCarthy seconded the motion, describing the R693 as a main artery from Limerick, North Tipperary and Laois to the South-East.

Its not wide enough at points for two lorries meeting each other, he said. Vehicles are losing mirrors.



In response, Director of Services at Kilkenny County Council, Tim Butler, stated that the original plan to upgrade the roads status was subsequently impacted by the greater-than-expected development of the M9.

If the R693 is upgraded, it would be competing with other national roads and that may impact funding, he added.

Measures addressing pinch points may be a solution. Its 29kms of road so it would be difficult to get realignment.

The matter will be considered further at the next meeting.
Kilkenny schools had reason to celebrate last month as six local students were awarded All Ireland Scholarships at the University of Limerick on Saturday, September 16.

Enda McCabe, Eoin Deely, Glen Crowe, Jack ONeill, Joan Akaehomen, Philip Byrne and Shalom Oyenuga were honoured during the ceremony with Guest of Honour, Limerick Senior Hurling Manager, John Kiely.

Minister for Further and Higher Education Niall Collins, Deputy Secretary, Skills and Education Group, Northern Ireland, Moira Doherty as well as family, friends and Principals Tom Clarke (CBS Kilkenny), Emma Raughter (Kilkenny College), Colm Keher (Loreto Kilkenny) and Michelle Jefford (Abbey Community College) were all in attendance.

The third level educational scholarship is awarded to 125 of the highest, achieving students per year, with a minimum of two students from each of the 32 counties and offers full academic financial support for the duration of the students' third level studies.

Recipients must meet a further set of criteria, including attending a non-fee-paying school and be in receipt of a third level education maintenance grant from Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) or be in receipt of an Education Maintenance Allowance in Northern Ireland.

The All Ireland Scholarships (AIS) is celebrating 15 years since its foundation, and in that time the scheme has awarded 1,674 scholarships, while 1,348 recipients have graduated and are embarking on successful careers

Commenting on the scheme, Scholarship Sponsor JP McManus said: "This figure demonstrates that the key objective, to provide financial support to many gifted young students so they may succeed during their third-level education has worked. Their drive and determination is admirable, and they should be very proud."
For domestic needs, we only need about 25% of harvested grain, rest needs to be exported  Shmyhal

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says that about 25% of the harvested grain is enough for Ukraine's internal needs, and the rest needs to be exported.

"Bridges should be built on our western border now, and not walls. This, first of all, concerns Ukrainian agricultural exports. We need wide transit routes for food exports. This is important for the sustainability of our economy. This is important for the world, because this is global food security," Shmyhal said at a government meeting on Tuesday.

According to the prime minister, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy forecasts this year's harvest at more than 79 million tonnes, which is 10% more than last year.

"A good harvest means that Ukraine will retain its strategic importance as a guarantor of global food security. For domestic needs, we only need about 25% of the harvested grain, the rest needs to be exported. Because these are resources for farmers, this is foreign exchange earnings for the state, and this is food for starving countries," he noted.

In this regard, the government counts on the effectiveness of the mechanism proposed by Ukraine for verification and control of Ukrainian agricultural exports.
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In this presentation, CPM Groups Jeffrey Christian discusses the economic damage caused by the dysfunction of the two major US political parties. He looks at the drop in the S&P 500, the downgrade of the credit worthiness of the United States, and the overall increase of US gross federal debt.

Jeff concludes the presentation by providing CPM Groups view of how the dysfunction might affect gold, silver, and other precious metals.
(Kitco News) - Chinas decision to ban cryptocurrency trading in 2019 and cryptocurrency mining in 2021 had a material impact on crypto-related activity in the East Asia region, according to data provided in the 2023 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report by Chainalysis, but that may be changing as Hong Kong pushes to become a global crypto hub.

The firm noted that Eastern Asia now ranks fifth in terms of activity in their crypto market and accounted for 8.8% of global crypto activity between July 2022 and June 2023, down from 30% prior to Q1 2020.

Eastern Asias decline in cryptocurrency activity over the last few years has been notable  as recently as 2019, Eastern Asia was one of cryptos top markets by transaction volume, largely powered by Chinas huge trading activity and mining sector, Chainalysis said. But while still substantial, crypto activity in the region at large, and China specifically, has declined in the last two years.

Share of cryptocurrency transaction value by region. Source: Chainalysis

That could soon change, however, as Hong Kong represents a potential tailwind for East Asia, they said, with several crypto initiatives and industry-friendly regulations launched over the past year [now fostering] bubbling optimism.

The increasingly close relationship between China and Hong Kong leads some to speculate that Hong Kongs growing status as a crypto hub may signal that the Chinese government is reversing course on digital assets, or at least becoming more open to crypto initiatives, Chainalysis said.

The authors noted that the crypto market in Hong Kong is extremely active by raw transaction volume, with an estimated $64.0 billion in crypto received between July 2022 and June 2023. Thats not far behind Chinas $86.4 billion received during the same time period, despite Hong Kong having a population 0.5% the size of mainland Chinas, they said.

They attributed this activity to the regions active over-the-counter (OTC) market, which is used to facilitate large transfers for institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals in a more private manner so as to not affect asset prices or broadcast traders activity.

Hong Kong sees a larger share of transaction volume coming in large institutional transactions of $10 million or more compared to other countries in the region  notably mainland China, they said. On the other end of the spectrum is South Korea, which appears to be the least institutional-driven market in the region based on transaction sizes.

Eastern Asia transaction volume by transfer size vs. global average. Source: Chainalysis

As for what Hong Kongs push to become a crypto hub means for the future of crypto in China, Chainalysis said that recent developments have created speculation that the Chinese government may be warming to cryptocurrency and that Hong Kong may be a testing ground for these efforts.

Hong Kong functions as a Special Administrative Region of China, meaning it has autonomy over many aspects of policy, including regulation of cryptocurrency, they said. Over the last year, Hong Kong has implemented rules allowing retail crypto trading within a regulated environment. It has also seen Chinese state-owned businesses launch crypto-focused investment funds and collaborate with local crypto businesses.

According to comments provided to Chainalysis by Dave Chapman, co-founder of OSL Digital Securities, institutional investors in the East Asia region have grown increasingly bullish on crypto in recent months.

The future of digital assets is no longer questionable; its widely acknowledged that digital assets are not going away, Chapman said. Whether or not traditional finance is ready to accept digital assets as a new asset class, the reality is that many institutional investors are now keen to explore and develop their own digital asset strategies.

Merton Lam, founder of CryptoHK, echoed Chapmans experience in the region in a conversation with Chainalysis. We work with many investment banks, private equity firms, and high-net-worth individuals. For them, cryptocurrency is part of their investment portfolio. They mostly want Bitcoin and Ether, though some have shown interest in smaller altcoins recently, which is interesting.

Both Merton and Chapman noted that the potential for high returns is the main motivation for both retail and institutional investors to get involved in crypto. Many are also interested in the asset class due to its ability to move portions of their wealth out of their local currency and banking systems, especially in countries with unstable economies or strict capital controls.

Anecdotally, I hear from other crypto exchanges that many Russians and Ukrainians are coming to Hong Kong to get their money to safety using crypto, said Merton. These arent multimillionaires either  ordinary people are doing this too.

Moving capital across borders may also be driving some of the interest from mainland Chinese investors, Chainalysis said. According to the Financial Times, some users of the Hong Kong OTC market from mainland China use these services to move money to other countries or to on-ramp from fiat to cryptocurrency, both of which are difficult to do in China.

International business payments are also an important use case in Hong Kong, said Merton, as crypto payments offer several advantages over bank transfers.

Its much easier for many businesses to, say, pay a supplier via stablecoin transfer than through banks, he said. It can take as long as three days for a SWIFT transaction to settle, and payments can be especially difficult when dealing with counterparties in developing countries such as in South Asia and Africa.

Chainalysys suggested that the international payments use case for digital assets and central bank digital currencies (CBDC) like the digital yuan is also attractive to China as they offer another avenue to undermine the dominance of the U.S. dollar in international trade, particularly given the power it gives the U.S. to sanction entities around the world.

Given cryptocurrencys value as a tool for international trade generally, even apart from CBDCs, its possible that goal undergirds any potential openness to blockchain technology were seeing from the Chinese government, Chainalysis said.

When it comes to whether or not Hong Kongs embrace of crypto over the past year suggests that the Chinese government is softening its stance on the technology, Chapman said the move is not necessarily indicative of the Chinese governments stance on crypto.

However, we are seeing a number of Chinese state-backed entities indirectly supporting Hong Kongs web3 ventures, and this could be viewed as an exploratory approach to understanding digital assets without loosening mainland policies, he said.

Chainalysis said that while these developments strengthen Hong Kongs chances to become a global leader in the regulated digital asset market, its too early to say what they mean for China as a whole.

Overall, Hong Kongs unique crypto market enables a variety of use cases, not just for local users, but for foreigners as well, they said. Moreover, while nothing is for certain, the apparent tacit approval of Hong Kongs new crypto initiatives could possibly signal that the Chinese governments stance on cryptocurrency is evolving. That may mean interesting developments are in store for what was once one of the most important countries in the crypto landscape.
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(Kitco News) - Shares of Nevada Copper (TSX: NCU) (OTC: NEVDF) are trading higher today after the company announced it has restarted processing operations at its Pumpkin Hollow underground copper mine in Nevada, USA, with the first ore being fed to the mill.

According to the companys statement, processing operations recommenced at an initial feed rate to the mills of 3,000 tpd to allow for the process team to optimize reagent addition and establish and reinforce operating procedures and ensure consistent operations.

The company said the mill is being recommissioned on lower grade ore stockpiles and will transition to a combination of mined stope ore and stockpiled ore, adding that by mid-October, throughput is planned to be increased steadily towards a goal of achieving steady state operations of 4,500-5,000 tpd by the end of 2023.

Once steady-state operations are achieved, the company said it may consider relatively simple optimization opportunities in 2024 to increase mill throughput potential beyond 5,000 tpd.

President and CEO Randy Buffington commented on the milestone, It is with great pride that I announce that we have achieved the critical milestone in restarting process operations.

The restart of the mill has been orchestrated through careful planning and establishing the infrastructure needed to ensure sustained process plant operations, including the building of significant surface stockpiles and progression on critical capital projects. We are now well positioned to move towards steady state operations of 5,000 tons per day.

Nevada Copper is the owner of the Pumpkin Hollow copper project located in Nevada, USA with substantial reserves and resources including copper, gold and silver.

The companys two fully permitted projects include the high-grade underground mine and processing facility, which is undergoing a restart of operations, and a large-scale open pit PFS stage project.
LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - The Bank of England said on Tuesday it will check the health of general insurers in 2025 with a 'stress test' that includes a rapid series of shocks, as sector capital rules are eased.

Regulators have introduced stress tests since the global financial crisis of 2008 to check if banks and insurers are holding enough capital, and uncover risks on their books, typically using "shock scenarios" spanning several years.

"The dynamic nature of the 2025 exercise represents a significant change from previous exercises and will involve simulating a sequential set of adverse events over a short period of time," the BoE's Prudential Regulation Authority said.

"Consequently, the PRA intends to engage with the industry including trade bodies over the next six months, with a view to providing more details of this exercise, including participation, design, and timelines, during the first half of 2024," the it added in a statement.

The results would be disclosed on an aggregate level.

Last month, the BoE said it would use its new powers to publish insurer-by-insurer results in its next test of life insurers in 2025, a major change that provides transparency for that has long been a feature of bank stress tests.

European Union states and the European Parliament are easing the bloc's insurance capital rules to encourage more investment.

EU lawmakers want to give EU insurance watchdog EIOPA new powers to publish insurer-by-insurer results in stress tests - in line with current practice in EU bank stress tests.

EIOPA said in a statement that insurers are robust and mature enough to offer similar levels of transparency as banks.

"Given the expected easing of capital requirements, it is crucial to enhance our understanding of how individual companies navigate situations of stress. We therefore hope that individual disclosures will form part of the final package," EIOPA said.

Post-Brexit Britain is also easing the Solvency II capital rules it inherited from the EU.
Toshiba Gulf FZE (TGFZ), a fully owned subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation (Japan), has announced the launch of its Build Your Own Data Centre initiative across the Middle East and Africa (MEA).

This initiative will help its channel partners adapt to a data-driven future while optimising costs and performance.

In a rapidly evolving technological landscape, companies are faced with the pivotal decision of whether to migrate entirely to the cloud or continue maintaining on-premises data centres. While cloud adoption is on the rise, many enterprises are finding value in balancing the twoa strategy known as a hybrid approach.

Educate and empower

This initiative will help educate and empower channel partners, including System Integrators, VARs, and VAD, to help their enterprise clients enhance their business-critical enterprise server storage systems and cloud storage capabilities while leveraging high-capacity hard drives.

Santosh Varghese, VP, TGFZ said: We want the data storage channel ecosystem to be aware of the kinds of storage backup companies need. We see many companies still using tape as a storage backup option, but a hard drive is the first choice for storage because the cost per GB is still very low compared to SSDs."

As of 2021, approximately 63% of data storage worldwide still relies on traditional hard disk drives (HDDs). However, the landscape is evolving, and by 2025, SSDs are expected to claim a 16% share of data storage, with NAND making up 10%.

Nonetheless, HDDs will continue to hold the majority share at 58%. By 2030, it's projected that HDDs will still account for 48% of total data storage, while SSDs will grow to 29%, and NAND will comprise 12%.

Series of events

To raise awareness, Toshiba will host a series of events across the MEA, with the aim of equipping sales and pre-sales teams with in-depth knowledge about enterprise-level storage and purpose-built hard drives, as an educated channel can better address specific market requirements, such as surveillance, backup, and big data storage.

The Build Your Own Data Centre initiative also seeks to demystify different storage frameworks like RAID and NAS, allowing channel partners to recommend tailored solutions for their clients.

With the global data explosion showing no signs of slowing down, data storage remains a critical concern for businesses - Toshiba, has been dedicated to meeting this demand. In 2018, the company introduced the Helium 14TB enterprise Server HDD, and they have ambitious plans to bring 40+TB enterprise hard drives to market by 2026.

Varghese added: The market has matured quite a bit in the past couple of years in terms of their appreciation of the need to invest in the right kind of storage."-- TradeArabia News Service
Ukraine, having joined the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), received additional foreign policy instruments, acting Chairman of the State Nuclear Regulation Inspectorate of Ukraine Oleh Korikov said at the national telethon United News on Tuesday.

"Ukraine has gained additional influence in the external political vector when it comes to nuclear and radiation safety, safety of the use of nuclear energy," he noted.

According to the head of the nuclear regulator, Ukraine, in particular, received the right to vote and the opportunity to influence decisions made at regular sessions of the Board of Governors, the right to initiate the convening of extraordinary sessions of the Board of Governors on urgent issues relevant to the global atomic community, and the right to convene extraordinary sessions of the IAEA General Conference.

In addition, Kyiv will be able to participate in the review and approval of financial information, budgets and programs of the IAEA, the election of the chairman of the Board of Governors and other officials, as well as consider applications from applicant countries for membership in the agency.

As reported, Ukraine became a member of the IAEA Board of Governors for 2023-2025 during the 67th session of the agency's General Conference, held from September 25 to September 29, 2023 in Vienna.
Germany announces transfer of another package of military aid to Ukraine

Germany has transferred a new package of military assistance to Ukraine, which includes, in particular, 14 Bandvagn 206 all-terrain vehicles and a Biber bridge laying vehicle, as well as radio stations for Leopard tanks.

This follows from a statement posted on the German government website on Monday.

The new package also includes two WiSENT 1 MC engineering vehicles; seven HX81 tractors and eight trailers for them; some 21 border security vehicles; some 99 satellite communication terminals; set of spare parts for UAV Vector; some 20,000 safety glasses and 239 cryptophones; some 32,823 40 mm ammunition for grenade launchers; some 1,202 infusion pumps (medical equipment).
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted the importance of the EU's readiness for a political decision to begin negotiations with Ukraine on its membership.

"Ukraine will definitely fulfill its part of the work  the seven recommendations of the European Commission. And it is very important that on the part of the European Union, all its member states, there is a similar readiness for a political decision on Ukraine, on beginning negotiations," he said in a video address on Monday following the meeting in Kyiv of the foreign ministers of the EU member states.

"Today I had the opportunity to talk to all the top EU diplomats at the bilateral level, at the level of the entire community. We had a good discussion on many issues," he said.

Zelenskyy thanked his partners for their support  military, economic, and sanctions. "Today we paid special attention to the issue of sanctions. To Russia's attempts to circumvent sanctions. I believe that every attempt by Russia to break the sanctions regimes and international law requires a strong response from the world," the president said.

"Any criminals  and especially criminals like those in Moscow  understand only the language of force and the inevitability of punishment," he said.

Zelenskyy also thanked "all of Italy and personally Ms. Giorgi Meloni, Mr. Italian Foreign Minister, for the particularly sensitive assistance, in particular, in the restoration in Odesa: "an agreement was signed with Italy to restore Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral in Odesa, which was destroyed by a Russian missile. Regardless of how much Russia destroys history and culture, Europe is capable of restoring everything. And this is the strength of Europe, our Europe  free and solidary."

The president also thanked Denmark for the decision to open a branch of its embassy in Mykolaiv. "This is an exemplary case of patronage over the reconstruction of the region and an absolutely effective way to implement our agreements with Prime Minister Frederiksen," he said.
Rep. Matt Gaetz runs up the East Capitol stairs as the deadline to avert a partial government shutdown approaches on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Saturday.
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL  Get Free Report) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 350,400 shares, a growth of 15.2% from the August 31st total of 304,100 shares. Approximately 0.3% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 701,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.5 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BXSL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, August 11th. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $28.00 to $29.50 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, August 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Friday, August 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $28.25.

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Blackstone Secured Lending Fund Stock Down 1.6 %

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund stock traded down $0.42 on Tuesday, hitting $26.16. The companys stock had a trading volume of 1,235,639 shares, compared to its average volume of 804,024. The firm has a market cap of $4.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.41 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $27.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.59. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a one year low of $22.08 and a one year high of $29.11.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 9th. The company reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $290.37 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $276.36 million. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund had a net margin of 48.55% and a return on equity of 14.15%. Analysts anticipate that Blackstone Secured Lending Fund will post 3.92 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blackstone Secured Lending Fund

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund in the 4th quarter valued at $222,243,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,630,070 shares of the companys stock valued at $165,288,000 after purchasing an additional 73,428 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,508,684 shares of the companys stock valued at $56,069,000 after purchasing an additional 280,695 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 2,374,473 shares of the companys stock valued at $64,966,000 after purchasing an additional 93,841 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 5.5% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,620,403 shares of the companys stock valued at $40,397,000 after purchasing an additional 84,139 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 36.96% of the companys stock.

About Blackstone Secured Lending Fund

(Get Free Report)

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund is business development company and a Delaware statutory trust formed on March 26, 2018, and structured as an externally managed, non-diversified closed-end investment Fund. On October 26, 2018, the fund elected to be regulated as a business development company (BDC) under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the 1940 Act).

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Invesco FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-U.S. ETF (NYSEARCA:PXF  Get Free Report) saw an uptick in trading volume on Tuesday . 36,749 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 65% from the previous sessions volume of 103,558 shares.The stock last traded at $42.43 and had previously closed at $42.79.

Invesco FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-U.S. ETF Stock Down 1.1 %

The businesss fifty day moving average is $44.84 and its 200-day moving average is $44.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.49 billion, a PE ratio of 10.02 and a beta of 0.90.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Invesco FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-U.S. ETF

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Arlington Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Invesco FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-U.S. ETF during the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Cambridge Trust Co. purchased a new stake in Invesco FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-U.S. ETF during the first quarter worth approximately $53,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Invesco FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-U.S. ETF during the first quarter worth approximately $61,000. Northwest Capital Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Invesco FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-U.S. ETF in the second quarter valued at $102,000. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of Invesco FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-U.S. ETF by 2,409.6% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,359 shares of the companys stock valued at $106,000 after purchasing an additional 2,265 shares during the period.

About Invesco FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-U.S. ETF

The Invesco FTSE RAFI Developed Markets ex-U.S. ETF (PXF) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the FTSE RAFI Developed x US 1000 index. The fund tracks an index of 1,000 of the biggest companies in developed markets outside the US that are selected and weighted based on fundamental measures. PXF was launched on Jun 25, 2007 and is managed by Invesco.

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Shares of NuScale Power Co. (NYSE:SMR  Get Free Report) rose 5.3% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $4.78 and last traded at $4.75. Approximately 159,042 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 958,617 shares. The stock had previously closed at $4.51.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of NuScale Power from $12.50 to $9.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 17th.

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NuScale Power Stock Performance

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $6.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $7.43. The stock has a market cap of $1.11 billion, a PE ratio of -7.23 and a beta of 0.95.

NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 9th. The company reported ($0.13) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. NuScale Power had a negative net margin of 654.97% and a negative return on equity of 43.96%. The firm had revenue of $5.80 million for the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that NuScale Power Co. will post -0.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at NuScale Power

In other news, Director Shinji Fujino sold 5,249 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.97, for a total transaction of $31,336.53. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Director Alan L. Boeckmann purchased 7,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 14th. The shares were bought at an average price of $7.06 per share, for a total transaction of $49,420.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 35,627 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $251,526.62. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Shinji Fujino sold 5,249 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.97, for a total value of $31,336.53. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 3.06% of the companys stock.

Institutional Trading of NuScale Power

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. grew its position in shares of NuScale Power by 80.1% during the 2nd quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 4,426 shares of the companys stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 1,968 shares in the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in shares of NuScale Power during the 2nd quarter worth $37,000. Federated Hermes Inc. bought a new position in shares of NuScale Power during the 3rd quarter worth $43,000. Fiduciary Alliance LLC bought a new position in shares of NuScale Power during the 2nd quarter worth $53,000. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in NuScale Power during the second quarter valued at about $57,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 10.67% of the companys stock.

NuScale Power Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

NuScale Power Corporation engages in the development and sale of modular light water reactor nuclear power plants to supply energy for electrical generation, district heating, desalination, hydrogen production, and other process heat applications. It offers NuScale Power Module (NPM), a water reactor that can generate 77 megawatts of electricity (MWe); and VOYGR power plant designs for three facility sizes that are capable of housing from one to four and six or twelve NPMs.

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Zhihu Inc. (NYSE:ZH  Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,180,000 shares, a growth of 19.6% from the August 31st total of 6,840,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,730,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.0 days. Approximately 1.4% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Zhihu Price Performance

ZH traded down $0.02 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $1.02. 361,379 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,464,260. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $1.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1.10. Zhihu has a 12 month low of $0.89 and a 12 month high of $2.11. The stock has a market cap of $638.74 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.86 and a beta of 0.39.

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Zhihu (NYSE:ZH  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 23rd. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Zhihu had a negative return on equity of 16.66% and a negative net margin of 23.03%. The firm had revenue of $144.00 million for the quarter.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Zhihu

Zhihu Company Profile

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Zhihu by 0.7% in the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 13,736,118 shares of the companys stock valued at $15,522,000 after buying an additional 95,891 shares during the last quarter. Caxton Associates LP bought a new stake in Zhihu in the second quarter valued at $61,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Zhihu by 14.0% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,557,408 shares of the companys stock valued at $4,020,000 after buying an additional 437,474 shares during the last quarter. Jacob Asset Management of New York LLC bought a new stake in Zhihu in the second quarter valued at $442,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new stake in Zhihu in the second quarter valued at $1,111,000. 11.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

(Get Free Report)

Zhihu Inc operates an online content community in the People's Republic of China. Its community allows people to seek inspiration, find solutions, make decisions, and have fun. The company also offers technology, business support, and consulting services; information transmission, software, and information technology services; information and marketing services; vocational training; and internet services, as well as holds audio-visual permit.

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By Park Jae-hyuk

Korean shipbuilders are expected to win more bids than Chinese competitors for forthcoming orders from Qatar for the second phase of the Middle Eastern countrys liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier acquisition project, according to industry officials, Tuesday.

The second phase of the project is intended for Qatar to acquire an additional 40 LNG carriers collectively worth around $10 billion.

Last Wednesday, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, a subsidiary of HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE), stepped closer to becoming the first shipbuilder to win an order for the second phase of the project, by signing an agreement with QatarEnergy for the construction of 17 LNG carriers.

The deal, valued at 14.2 billion Qatari riyals ($3.9 billion), marks the start of the second phase of QatarEnergys LNG ship acquisition program, the Middle Eastern countrys state-owned oil and gas firm said in a press release.

Hanwha Ocean and Samsung Heavy Industries are also reportedly in price talks with Qatar.

When Qatar placed orders for 65 vessels collectively worth $14 billion for the first phase of the project last year, Hanwha Ocean received an order for 19 ships, while Samsung Heavy Industries was asked for 18 ships and HD KSOE 17 ships.

An order for the remaining 11 vessels was given to Chinas Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding.

There is speculation that Qatar may place more orders with Chinese shipbuilders this time, given that Chinas state-run energy firms signed long-term contracts to import LNG from the Middle Eastern country.

In addition, data compiled by Clarksons Research showed that 58 percent of global orders during the first eight months of this year were given to Chinese shipyards, while 27 percent went to Korean shipyards.

However, Samsung Securities analyst Han Young-soo advised investors not to worry too much about the growth of Chinese shipbuilders in the LNG carrier market.

When leading players have enough building slots, clients prefer placing orders for LNG carriers with companies that have proven abilities, the analyst said.

The government has also supported domestic shipbuilders, as Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Bang Moon-kyu and Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong met with Qatars Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, who visited Seoul last week.
Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 48F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low near 35F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Minister of Social Policy Oksana Zholnovych declares the need to develop the system of social services in the country.

"The entire system of social support today, unfortunately, we inherited from the Soviet Union, from Soviet times. And for a very long period of time it was built according to a similar narrative, when very many people were encouraged to have paternalistic sentiments: "let's give you some small payment and forget about you." But that doesn't work. And today, we see that we have a huge "army" of recipients of various types of benefits, and the social policy budget is the largest budget in the entire government. It is clear that at some point the limit may simply come," Zholnovych said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

According to her, today, there are several dependents per working person, and each of them must receive adequate assistance.

"Therefore, if we are talking about support of UAH 1,000, it means nothing. It should be at least UAH 5,000. Can we pay that much? And then how much taxes do we need to collect from everyone? Somewhere this is justified, somewhere- "then we, as a state, as a society, must definitely support the people who need it most. These are, for example, people of disabled age, people with complex disabilities," the minister added.

Zholnovych noted that in other cases, "by smearing such support with small payments, we do not solve anything," because there is a huge range of issues that cannot be resolved with payments.

"And when I spoke about the need to reformat all this social, I precisely meant that we radically need to increase social services, develop them, think as much as possible about where we could find resources for these services. Because by inflating payments, which is being talked about a lot again, we will not achieve anything, but we can destroy the economy of our state," she said.

According to the minister, services should be provided to communities, but they do not understand what to provide, do not know how to do it, and in many cases do not have sufficient resources.

"Now, we are reformatting such opportunities so that each community can simply purchase a service through a national purchaser for its people from different suppliers, so that they do not need to create and hold anything, so that these mechanisms are simpler and market-based. Then it will be possible to co-finance from different budgets: from local, from regional, from state," Zholnovych said.
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BLACKPINK Jennie caught everyone's attention with her skinny all-black fashion.

Jennie departed for Paris, France via Incheon International Airport to attend Chanel's 2024 Spring-Summer Ready-to-Wear Collection Show on the 30th of last month.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Ukraine strongly condemns the forced transfer of illegally convicted Ukrainian citizens from temporarily occupied Crimea to Russia and calls on the international community to introduce new sanctions restrictions against officials involved in the persecution of Ukrainian citizens.

This follows from a commentary by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry received by Interfax-Ukraine. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strongly condemns the forced transfer from temporarily occupied Crimea to Russia to serve their sentences of illegally convicted Ukrainian citizens Nariman Dzhelyal Aziz and Asan Akhmetov, the ministry said in the commentary.

As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs notes, Dzhelyal is the first deputy chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, which has been banned in Crimea since 2016 as an "extremist organization," Aziz and Asan Akhmetov are Crimean Tatar activists. "All three were detained by the security forces of the occupation administration in September 2021 on fabricated charges. In the fall of the same year, Nariman Dzhelyala and the Akhtemov brothers were additionally accused of crimes that they did not commit," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in the statement.

Reportedly, after almost a year of "investigation" of the so-called "criminal cases," on September 21, 2022, the Russian occupation administration sentenced Nariman Dzhelyal to 17 years of imprisonment in a maximum security colony, a fine of RUB 700,000 rubles and one year and six months of restriction of freedom of movement. Asan Akhtemov was sentenced to 15 years with a fine of RUB 500,000 and a period of restriction of freedom of movement of one year. Aziz Akhtemov received a sentence of 13 years in prison, a fine of RUB 500,000 and restriction of freedom of movement for one year.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine states "since the temporary occupation, the Russian occupation administration in Ukrainian Crimea has launched a targeted repressive campaign, the purpose of which was to eradicate any forms of disloyalty. One of the main victims of the repressions was the indigenous people of Crimea  the Crimean Tatars, hundreds of whom were subjected to various forms of persecution on ethnic, political, religious grounds."

"Russia must implement the resolution of the UN General Assembly. The situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine, adopted on December 15, 2022, which requires the release of illegally detained Ukrainians," the ministry said.

"We call on the international community and Ukraine's partners, including within the framework of the International Crimea Platform, to continue to put pressure on Russia with a view to the immediate release of all Ukrainian citizens illegally detained by the Russian occupation administration in Crimea, and to introduce new sanctions restrictions against officials involved in persecution of Ukrainian citizens," the Foreign Ministry said in the statement.
NABU detectives under the leadership of the SAPO, with operational support from the SBU Department in Sumy region, exposed Sumy mayor and the director of the regional Department of Infrastructure for receiving illegal benefits worth UAH 2.13 million, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) press service said.

It is noted that as part of the pretrial investigation, it was established that these persons demanded undue benefits for resolving the issue of establishing a new economically justified tariff for the legal entity for the management of household waste and not creating artificial obstacles in the implementation of economic activities by the enterprise by the executive committee of the Sumy City Council.

"During November 2022  October 2023, the investigation documented the receipt by individuals of unlawful benefits in the total amount of UAH 2.13 million," according to a statement published on Monday evening.

It is noted "October 2, 2023, these persons were exposed immediately after receiving the third part of the agreed funds UAH 1.43 million."

Now the mayor of the city of Sumy and the director of the Department are detained in accordance with Article 208 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine. The issue of informing them of suspicion and choosing a preventive measure is being decided.

The investigation is ongoing.
Bastar (Chhattisgarh) [India], October 3 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers at the Danteshwari Temple in Bastar, Jagdalpur after arriving in poll-bound Chhattisgarh on Tuesday.

Dedicated to Goddess Danteshwari, the temple is one of the 52 Shakti Peethas, shrines of Shakti, the divine feminine, spread across India.

Also Read | Nanded Hospital Deaths: Seven More Die, Including Four Infants; Death Toll Rises to 31 at Government Hospital in Maharashtra District.

During his visit to Bastar, the Prime Minister will visit the tribal heartland to inaugurate the National Mineral Development Corporation's (NDMC) integrated steel plant in Nagarnar, an official statement said.

In addition, the PM will lay the foundation stone of several developmental projects in the state worth over Rs 26,000 crore, as per the official statement.

Also Read | West Bengal Shocker: Unable to Bear Constant Torture, Father Hacks Alcoholic Son to Death With Sickle in Darjeeling.

NMDC Steel Ltds Steel Plant at Nagarnar will provide employment opportunities to thousands of people, in the plant as well as in ancillary and downstream industries. It will put Bastar on the steel map of the world and provide a boost to the socioeconomic development of the region.

Moreover, the PM will also dedicate a new rail line between Antagarh and Taroki and a rail line doubling project between Jagdalpur and Dantewara.

He will lay the foundation stone of the Boridand -Surajpur rail line doubling project and redevelopment of Jagdalpur Station under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.

Prime Minister will also flag off the Taroki  Raipur DEMU Train Service. These rail projects will improve connectivity in the tribal regions of the state. The improved rail infrastructure and the new train service will benefit the local people and help in the economic development of the region.

Prime Minister will also dedicate a road upgradation project from Kunkuri to Chhattisgarh - Jharkhand Border section of National Highway-43. The new road will improve road connectivity, benefiting the people of the region.

PM's visit to Chattisgarh comes as state assembly polls are scheduled to be held later this year and all political parties are throwing their maximum efforts to woo voters.

Earlier after the 2018 assembly polls, the Congress witnessed a landslide victory winning 68 seats out of 90 of those against the then ruling-BJP, which acquired 15 seats. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], October 3 (ANI): A court on Tuesday granted to the Delhi police three-day transit remand of Lokesh Srivas, who was arrested in Chhattisgarh in connection with a burglary at a jewellery shop in the national capital.

According to the Delhi Police, he was arrested under section 41.1 (D) of the Criminal Procedure Code by PS Civil lines, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, in possession of stolen valuables including approximately 18.675 Kg of gold and Rs 2.5 lakhs in cash.

Also Read | Manipur Bandh: Life Paralysed in Churachandpur and Kangpokpi Districts As Tribal Bodies Call Indefinite Shutdown Against Arrests of Kuki-Zo People by CBI.

Seeking formal arrest and transit remand of the accused, the Delhi Police presented their application before the Judicial Magistrate in Raipur.

The court granted a 72-hour transit remand to the Delhi Police, following a detailed inquiry by an Executive Magistrate. Subsequently, the case property will be entrusted to IO S.I Jitender Raghuvanshi.

Also Read | India-Canada Diplomatic Row: Canadian PM Justin Trudeau Says 'Not Looking To Escalate' Tensions As India Tells 41 Canadian Diplomats To Leave.

The Delhi Police team is anticipated to arrive in the capital tomorrow evening.

Earlier on September 29, the accused, Lokesh Srivas, was arrested in Chhattisgarh in a joint operation by Chhattisgarh and Delhi Police.

Delhi Police scanned footage from over 1,000 CCTV cameras in its probe into the sensational burglary case in the citys Bhogal area with the main accused, who has been arrested in Chhattisgarh, also sleeping in the shop overnight before decamping with jewellery estimated to be of about Rs 25 crore. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bengaluru, Oct 3 (PTI) Texas-based Krypton Solutions is likely to invest USD 100 million (Rs 832 crore) to set up a Printed Circuit Board fabrication unit in Karnataka, while semiconductor manufacturing company Texas Instruments has affirmed its commitment to R&D expansion in the state.

This came across during the meeting between the representatives of the companies with an official delegation led by Karnataka Large & Medium Industries Minister M B Patil in the United States.

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Krypton Solutions, which plans to invest in Bommasandra in Bengaluru for a new PCB facility , has already completed preliminary discussions with the government.

The company's discussion with the delegation also explored investment options in Mysuru and Chamarajanagara in the state, an official release said, adding Krypton's interest in local partnerships, seeking support to identify the right entry and growth partner in the Indian market was also tabled at the meeting.

Also Read | Pakistan Orders illegal Migrant Afghans to Leave Country.

The government delegation toured Krypton's 40,000 sq feet facility.

Noting that Texas Instruments was the first technology company to set up an R&D centre in Bengaluru in 1985, the release said, the company's R&D centre in the city is the largest outside of the Texas Instruments' headquarters in Dallas.

Senior Vice-President and General Manager Amichai Ron and Stephen Bonner, Vice-President and the head of Global Government Relations of Texas Instruments' were in discussion with Patil, who was accompanied by senior officials of the Department of Commerce and Industries.

The meeting with Texas Instruments also discussed Research and Development for Analog and Embedded Semiconductors, with a potential exploration in the Whitefield semiconductor park.

Discussions also focused on improving the ease of doing business to lower investment barriers.

At Texas Instruments, the delegation visited the 300-mm wafer fab manufacturing site.

The meeting with both companies is part of the government delegation's 12-day tour to the United States of America to attract investment into the state. The tour is scheduled to conclude on October 6.

Dr S Selvakumar, Principal Secretary to Government, Department of Commerce and Industries, and Gunjan Krishna, Commissioner of Industries are accompanying the minister.

The Minister held discussions with Texas-based ERP Logic which is looking to enter Bengaluru to expand its footprint in India after having a strong presence in Salem, Hyderabad and Chennai.

The two sides discussed exploring potential collaborations for SAP skilling initiatives in Karnataka.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Mumbai, Oct 3 (PTI) The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has arrested four persons and seized 1.840 kg of Alprazolam and 9,696 bottles of banned cough syrups in separate operations, an official said on Tuesday.

The NCB's Mumbai zonal unit seized 1.840 kg (15,000 tablets) of Alprazolam, which was to be shipped to the US from the city-based courier office on September 6, and arrested Lucknow-based financier Sameer S, the official said.

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In another operation, the anti-drug agency intercepted a vehicle in Bhiwandi town of neighbouring Thane district and recovered 75 cartons containing 8,497 bottles of banned cough syrup on September 28, he said.

The team arrested Ravish NA, an employee of the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation and his carrier Akash G when they arrived at the transporter's office to receive the consignment, the official said.

Also Read | Crackdown Against Child Marriage in Assam: Over 1,000 Held in Second Phase of State-Wide Crackdown, Says CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.

On Monday, the NCB recovered 1199 bottles of cough syrups from Dongri locality of south Mumbai and arrested one Riyaz B, he said.

The arrested accused were involved in cases of trafficking previously as well, the official said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Amritsar (Punjab) [India], October 3 (ANI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, for the second straight day, visited the Golden Temple in Amritsar and offered 'Sewa' at the Shoe Stand.

In the pictures shared by Congress, Rahul can be seen arranging shoes at the counter and handing over the shoes to the devotees.

Also Read | Indian Air Force Shares Video Providing Glimpses of India's ISRO Gaganyaan Astronauts (Watch Video).

Earlier in the day, Rahul offered his 'Sewa' at Golden Temples community kitchen, known as Langar.

On Monday too, the Congress offered 'Sewa' after paying obeisance at the Golden Temple, the most revered Sikh place of worship.

Also Read | Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma Orders Socio-Economic Survey of Five 'Indigenous' Muslim Communities.

As part of the services, he could be seen washing dishes and other utensils at the Golden Temple. The Congress's Punjab president Raja Waring had on Monday said Rahul Gandhi was on a personal, spiritual visit.

"Rahul Gandhi-ji is coming to Amritsar Sahib to pay obeisance at Sachkhand Shri Harmandir Sahib. This is his personal, spiritual visit, lets respect his privacy. Request all party workers to not be physically present for this visit. You all can show your support in spirit and meet him the next time," the Congress's Punjab president posted on X.

Senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said the former Congress president was on a personal spiritual visit to the Golden Temple.

"Congress MP @RahulGandhi is on a personal spiritual visit. He paid obeisance at Darbar Sahib #GoldenTemple Amritsar. The country has been going through a very tumultuous period. The kind of violence that happened in the BJP-ruled state, #Manipur has stunned the entire world. Communal clashes also took place in Haryana, another BJP-ruled state. The Congress Party always wishes for a better future for the country. Therefore, apart from making other efforts, it also seeks the kindness of God," he posted on X.

The visit to Punjab is also seen as an outreach effort ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha polls. The Congress lost power to the Aam Aadmi Party in the state in 2022. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bengaluru, Oct 3 (PTI) Senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily on Tuesday asked the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to release the report of the caste census conducted in the State.

Moily, a former Union Law Minister, noted the caste census was conducted by the then Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission under the chairmanship of H Kantharaj during the previous tenure of Siddaramaiah as Chief Minister (2013-2018) and it had later submitted the report.

Also Read | Crackdown Against Child Marriage in Assam: Over 1,000 Held in Second Phase of State-Wide Crackdown, Says CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.

"And the report was available with both during the tenure of (H D) Kumaraswamy, (B S) Yediyurappa and (Basavaraj) Bommai as Chief Minister (between 2018 and 2023). That means they (JDS and BJP) are not for that (releasing the report), it was very clear," Moily told PTI.

"Whenever the Congress government comes (to power), we are very anxious to serve the interests of the backward classes," said the former Karnataka Chief Minister, who was asked if he wants the state government to release the report, similar to what the Nitish Kumar administration did in Bihar on Monday.

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Moily recalled that he had released the report of the Chinnappa Reddy Commission in 1992 when he was the Chief Minister even though the report of the panel constituted by the previous Ramakrishna Hegde regime (Janata Party) was ready during the latter's tenure at the helm itself.

"I am asking Siddaramaiah to release the report immediately," he said. "Now that the Congress government has come to power and Siddaramaiah has become CM, he has to release the report."

If there are "problems" regarding "injustice" (to some communities) in the report, Siddaramaiah can take the course of rectification after releasing it, Moily said, adding, the Chief Minister should not cite technical reasons for not making it public.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
On Tuesday, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the brigades of the Armed Forces in Kupyansk-Lymany direction.

"Today we are visiting our brigades, which are performing combat missions in one of the hottest areas - Kupyansk-Lymany. The 103rd separate brigade of territorial Defense, the 68th separate Jaeger brigade named after Oleksa Dovbush, the 25th separate airborne Sycheslav brigade," Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram.

In particular, the President discussed with the brigade commanders and battalion commanders the operational situation on the battlefield, current issues and needs.

"Every of our combat brigades, every soldier who is killing the invaders, claims with every step forward that there will certainly be a Ukrainian victory. You are force! Thank you for your service!" he added.
New Delhi, Oct 3 (PTI) Bajaj Auto Ltd on Tuesday reported 1 per cent decline in total sales at 3,92,558 units in September 2023 compared to the same month last year.

The company had sold total 3,94,747 units in September 2022, Bajaj Auto said in a regulatory filing.

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Total two-wheeler sales were at 3,27,712 units last month as against 3,48,355 units in the year-ago period, down 6 per cent, it added.

Domestic two-wheeler sales were at 2,02,510 units as compared to 2,22,912 units in the corresponding month a year ago, the company said.

Also Read | Gandhi Jayanti 2023: Interesting Facts About Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi on His 154th Birth Anniversary.

Exports of two-wheelers were marginally down at 1,25,202 units last month as against 1,25,443 units in September last year.

Total commercial vehicle sales were, however, up 40 per cent at 64,846 units as against 46,392 units in the same month last year, the company said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Washington DC, October 3: Former US President Donald Trump has claimed that the civil fraud trial in New York, which began on Monday, is a political attack against him and has taken him "off the campaign trail", CNN reported.

He expressed his frustration about not being able to campaign in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and other places due to his courtroom presence.

This was for politics. It has been very successful for them  they took me off the campaign trail, Trump said as he exited the courtroom after the court was wrapped for the day, CNN reported. Because Ive been sitting in a courthouse all day long, instead of being in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or a lot of other places I could be at, he added. 'I Will Prevent World War 3': Former US President Donald Trump Quotes Bible, Says 'I'll Be Your Peacemaker' Ahead of 2024 US Presidential Election (Watch Video).

On being asked if he was returning for the trial on Tuesday, he said: We may, Id love not to. Id love to be campaigning instead of doing this. Meanwhile, the trial wrapped up for the day, with the first witness for the New York attorney general, Trump's former long-time accountant Donald Bender, testifying about financial documents from 2011.

Bender explained that the accounting firm Mazars USA would not have issued these financial statements if the Trump Organization had not represented that the numbers were accurate. He also stated that Mazars would not have issued these statements if they had learned the numbers were inaccurate, Bender testified, CNN reported.

Allen Weisselberg, Trumps former longtime chief financial officer, signed on behalf of Trump that the documents from 2011 were accurate, he added, as per CNN. Additionally, Mazars would not have issued these statements if they learned the numbers were not true, Bender said.

The New York attorney generals office asked Donald Bender, Trumps former accountant at Mazars, about the price of a penthouse apartment for Donald Trumps daughter, Ivanka Trump. The lawsuit, brought by the New York attorney general, alleges that Trump, his adult sons, their businesses, and Trump Organization executives were involved in fraudulent activities.

Bender testified that his job was not to audit Trumps financial statement, but from time to time, he would point out errors to Trump Organization officials on financial documents. One of the examples he recalled flagging an error was when Ivanka Trump had an option to buy a penthouse apartment at Trump Park Avenue. Bender said that the value on Trumps financial schedule was different than what was listed in Ivanka Trumps option, it reported.

He is expected to continue testifying on Tuesday.

The former president, for most of the afternoon session, continued to look at the documents on the monitor in front of him, looking across the courtroom at the witness and talking quietly with his lawyers. This lawsuit, brought by the New York attorney general, alleges that Trump, his adult sons, their businesses, and Trump Organisation executives were involved in fraudulent activities. Donald Trump Says He Will Be in Courtroom for New York Trial Scrutinising His Business Practices.

Trump is listed as a potential witness for both the attorney general and the defence, although it remains uncertain whether he will be called to testify, according to CNN. There have been various attempts to exclude Trump from the ballot in the upcoming year based on his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. However, the Supreme Court recently declined to entertain one of these challenges, rejecting an appeal from John Anthony Castro, a lesser-known candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

Castro's case rested on a post-Civil War provision of the 14th Amendment, disqualifying any American official who has "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" or provided "aid or comfort" to insurrectionists. Notably, the case was denied without any comment or recorded vote. Nonetheless, there are still ongoing 14th Amendment challenges against Trump in Minnesota and Colorado, with trials scheduled for later this year.

Meanwhile, Trump's campaign continues to criticise Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James, characterising the upcoming fraud trial as politically motivated. Letitia James made clear that getting Trump was the motivating force behind her campaign for attorney general, the Trump campaign said in a new statement, which also referred to James as a Democratic activist, according to CNN.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Washington, Oct 3 (AP) When Ron DeSantis seemed to say during last week's Republican presidential debate that he would support a federal ban on abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy, some anti-abortion activists called it the news they had been waiting months to hear.

The president of Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America, a leading anti-abortion advocacy group, issued a statement thanking DeSantis for his commitment to support minimum federal protections for babies.

Also Read | Statue of Equality: 19-Foot Statue of BR Ambedkar Outside India to Be Unveiled in US State of Maryland on October 14.

But DeSantis' campaign insisted his comment, which was the candidate's most direct answer regarding an abortion ban, wasn't anything new. And millions of voters probably missed the moment entirely.

DeSantis' pledge came during one of many chaotic exchanges on the debate stage, when Sen.

Also Read | US: CDC Recommends Use of Antibiotic Pill After Sex to Prevent Spread of STIs.

Tim Scott  who has made a nationwide ban on abortion at 15 weeks a central focus of his campaign  shouted a question, asking if the Florida governor also would support it. In a bit of barely audible crosstalk, DeSantis responded: Yes, I will.

The exchange and the DeSantis campaign's response provided another example of the muddiness voters are encountering as they seek specific answers from Republicans regarding abortion policy.

Since the Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that established a federal right to abortion, candidates are being pressed  and sometimes stopping short of a straight answer  on whether states should decide laws governing the procedure, as the court's ruling allowed, or if the federal government should establish a standard law across all states.

Some also are dodging questions about when they believe restrictions should occur and what exceptions, if any, should be allowed.

The variations on how far to go created a dust-up in the GOP presidential primary last month. Former President Donald Trump said during a TV interview that DeSantis made a terrible mistake by signing into law a ban on abortions in Florida at six weeks of pregnancy.

Trump also said it's probably better from a legal standpoint for abortion to be banned by individual states, rather than nationwide through federal action. The front-runner for the GOP nomination also said he would negotiate with Democrats on abortion legislation.

In states that hold elections in November, there has also been conflict among abortion opponents and accusations from Democrats that GOP candidates are trying to hide their true, extreme positions.

In Kentucky, where the state's strict anti-abortion law has been a major issue as Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear seeks a second term, Republican Daniel Cameron appeared to redefine his position on the law twice in two weeks.

In Ohio, anti-abortion activists are at odds over messaging and campaign strategy as they try to defeat a constitutional amendment that would protect abortion access in Ohio.

And Democrats in Virginia are hammering Republican candidates for the House and Senate, saying they will pass an extreme abortion ban similar to those in neighbouring states if the GOP wins full control of state government.

Virginia, which currently has divided government, is the only state in the South that hasn't imposed new restrictions since Roe fell.

Virginia Republicans largely support Gov. Glenn Youngkin's proposal that would prohibit the procedure at 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, and they accuse Democrats of fear-mongering and telling lies.

Republicans also have called out Democrats for not wanting to limit abortion at all, though many Democrats favour existing Virginia law, which allows elective abortions in the first and second trimesters.

Abortions in the third trimester are rare and typically occur because of a significant fetal abnormality, experts say.

Democrats say the GOP is suddenly moderating only because of recent election results and advice from pollsters.

Political momentum on abortion has shifted dramatically since last year's decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Voters supported reproductive rights in all six states where a question was on the ballot last year, and Democrats have credited the fall of Roe for helping the party win big races in 2022, including control of the Senate.

Trump also has blamed some GOP midterm losses on how candidates handled the issue, acknowledging its political sensitivity. Speaking at the conservative Family Research Council last month he said that politically, it's a very tough decision for some people and very very hard on elections.

The former president nominated three Supreme Court justices who formed a new conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Looking ahead to the general election, he has tried to position himself as more moderate on abortion than his GOP rivals, who must win over the more conservative primary electorate if they hope to be the Republican nominee.

About half of Americans say abortions should be permitted up to 15 weeks of pregnancy, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in June.

The poll also found that 73 per cent of all US adults believe abortion should be allowed up to six weeks of pregnancy, which is when cardiac activity in a fetus may be detected and before women often know they're pregnant.

In that same poll, 56 per cent of Republicans said abortion should be allowed in their state up to 6 weeks and 29 per cent supported making the procedure legal up to 15 weeks.

DeSantis signed Florida's six-week ban last year without the fanfare of a major bill signing. After launching his presidential campaign weeks later, he has largely avoided specifics when talking about abortion.

During the first presidential debate in August he was asked directly whether he would support a federal abortion ban.

DeSantis didn't answer yes or no, but said he understands different states will handle the issue differently.

He also avoided a specific yes or no answer when asked about a 15-week ban by an Iowa radio station last month, saying I've said from the beginning of this, as president, you put pro-life legislation on my desk, I'm going to look favourably and support the legislation.

Last week, a debate moderator asked DeSantis about Republicans' struggles to win moderate and independent voters in a state such as Arizona, where a reproductive rights question may be on the ballot in 2024.

He disputed the idea that the GOP lost important contests last year because of abortion, countering Trump's stance, then criticised Democrats for allowing abortion later in pregnancy.

I think we should stand for what we believe in, he said. I think we should hold the Democrats accountable for their extremism."

Seconds later, Scott shouted his question and DeSantis answered. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Austin, October 3: A California man who says he was harassed after Elon Musk amplified posts on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that falsely placed the man at a confrontation involving far-right protesters sued the billionaire for defamation in a lawsuit filed Monday.

Benjamin Brody, 22, is represented by Mark Bankston, a Texas attorney who won a defamation case last year against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in a lawsuit brought by families of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. Brody is seeking a jury trial in Austin, Texas, and unspecified damages of at least USD 1 million. Elon Musk-Run Tesla Misses Delivery Target in Third Quarter of 2023, on Track To Produce Around 1.8 Million Vehicles.

Attorneys for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment left through a spokesperson. In June, video posted to X showed a confrontation involving protesters near a Pride festival in Oregon. Some of those involved wore the same colours of the Proud Boys extremist group, according to The Oregonian.

On X, some users falsely identified one of the participants as Brody, highlighting his post-college plans to work for the government to spread baseless assertions that federal agents were involved. The lawsuit includes screenshots of Musk engaging with users spreading the posts involving Brody, including one in which Musk described it as a probable false flag situation.

Brody, a recent college graduate who said he was in California when the event happened, came under harassment because of Musk's reach, according to the lawsuit. The posts by Musk were still on X as of Monday. It is not the first time Musk has been sued for defamation. He defeated a lawsuit in 2019 from a British cave explorer who claimed he was branded a pedophile when the Tesla CEO called him pedo guy on what was then called Twitter. 'Need to Put Homicidal Maniacs in Prison': Elon Musk Expresses Concern After Three People Stabbed, One Assaulted Outside X Headquarters in San Francisco (Watch Video).

Musk's tech company has also taken others to court over what is posted on the site. In August, X sued a group of researchers over accusations that their work highlighting an increase in hate speech on the platform cost the company millions of dollars of advertising revenue.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) [US], October 3 (ANI): Philadelphia journalist and advocate Josh Kruger was shot and killed on Monday morning, CNN reported citing police officials.

Kruger, who was 39 years old, was shot seven times in the chest and abdomen at his Point Breeze home at around 1:29 am, police confirmed.

Also Read | Elon Musk Facing Defamation Lawsuit in Texas Over Posts That Falsely Identified Man in Protest.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital, reported CNN.

However, the police did not recover any weapons and there have been no arrests made yet, according to a police statement.

Also Read | US: Republican Matt Gaetz Files Resolution to Oust Kevin McCarthy As Speaker of House.

Recently, Kruger had worked as a journalist and covered various issues like LGBTQ+ rights, homelessness, HIV and addiction in publications like The Philadelphia Citizen and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

One of his most recent stories was a tribute to the president of Temple University JoAnne Epps, who died last September, according to CNN.

Expressing grief, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney in a statement said, "We are shocked and saddened by Joshs death."

Josh cared deeply about our city and its residents, which was evident both in his public service and in his writing, the Mayor added.

His intelligence, creativity, passion, and wit shone brightly in everything that he did  and his light was dimmed much too soon. We were exceedingly fortunate to call him a colleague and our prayers are with everyone who knew and loved him," the Mayor said.

Kruger's work was based on his own personal experiences living with HIV and experiencing homelessness, according to his LinkedIn profile, CNN reported.

He described himself as a "destroyer of stigma and bureaucratic silos" and a "believer in the common good. He also used social media as a platform to share his own experience surviving addiction and continuing to work with the people dealing with addiction in Philadelphia.

According to his website and LinkedIn, he also worked in Philadelphia for five years with the Department of Public Health as well as the Office of Homeless Services and Office of the Mayor, reported CNN.

Senator John Fetterman shared a post on social media 'X', calling Krugers death a devastating loss.

Josh cared deeply about Philly and fiercely advocated for the most vulnerable communities through his journalism, the senator wrote. He will be sorely missed.

Adding to the praises, District Attorney Larry Krasner in a statement said that Kruger "lifted up the most vulnerable and stigmatized people in our communities  particularly unhoused people living with addiction.

As an openly queer writer who wrote about his own journey surviving substance use disorder and homelessness, it was encouraging to see Josh join the Kenney administration as a spokesperson for the Office of Homeless Services, Krasner added.

Krasner assured people that the Philadelphia Police are working to identify the person behind this, reported CNN.

As with all homicides, we will be in close contact with the Philadelphia Police as they work to identify the person or persons responsible so that they can be held to account in a court of law, the district attorney said.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania state Senator Nikil Saval wrote on his social media 'X' handle that he was "sick over this horrible news."

Josh Kruger fought for housing justice as a public servant and journalist, he had so much more to do, Saval stated. Sending love to his family and everyone close to him.

Earlier in 2014 and 2015, Kruger won the Society of Professional Journalists award for newspaper commentary in Pennsylvania, according to CNN. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Dubai [UAE], October 3 (ANI/WAM): Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Alberto van Klaveren, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, discussed bilateral relations and means to further develop them across various sectors.

This came during the meeting held in the capital, Santiago, as part of the working visit that Sheikh Abdullah made to the Republic of Chile during his tour to a number of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Also Read | Statue of Equality: 19-Foot Statue of BR Ambedkar Outside India to Be Unveiled in US State of Maryland on October 14.

The UAE Foreign Minister and his Chilean counterpart reviewed boosting bilateral cooperation in all fields, including economic, investment, energy, climate change, and others.

Additionally, Sheikh Abdullah and Klaveren exchanged views on a number of regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Also Read | US: CDC Recommends Use of Antibiotic Pill After Sex to Prevent Spread of STIs.

During the bilateral talks between the two sides, the Chilean Foreign Minister was briefed on the UAE's preparations to host the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) this year.

During the meeting, His Highness Sheikh Abdullah reiterated that the UAE is keen to build positive and constructive partnerships with Chile and friendly South American countries to strengthen cooperation that supports comprehensive and sustainable development in all societies.

For his part, Klaveren welcomed the visit of the UAE Foreign Minister and the accompanying delegation, stressing his country's eagerness to boot ties with the UAE at various levels.

The meeting was attended by Saeed Mubarak Al Hajri, Assistant Minister for Economic and Commercial Affairs, and Mohamed Saeed Al Neyadi, UAE Ambassador to the Republic of Chile. (ANI/WAM)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Washington, DC [US], October 3 (ANI): In the midst of escalating tensions between Manila and Beijing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the US military began two weeks of multilateral exercises on Monday with its Philippine allies and other foreign partners, according to CNN.

As per a US Navy news release, Sama Sama 2023 will be the sixth and largest version of the drills as participants from Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia join the US and the Philippines in the defence exercise.

Also Read | UK Shocker: Indian-Origin Man Stabbed to Death in West Yorkshire.

In Tagalog Sama Sama is a phrase that means together and there could not be a better phrase to capture the spirit of this exercise, said Capt. Sean Lewis, commodore of the US Navys Destroyer Squadron 7, in the official US Navy release.

Together we can address a spectrum of security threats and enhance interoperability and with more nations participating than ever before, we can increase innovation and build a ready, united force that ensures stability in the region, he said.

Also Read | Statue of Equality: 19-Foot Statue of BR Ambedkar Outside India to Be Unveiled in US State of Maryland on October 14.

Notably, it is around 1,800 personnel from the participating nations that are involved in Sama Sama, many of them onboard warships from the Philippines, the US, the UK, Japan, and Canada.

Confrontations between Philippine warships and Chinese coast guard and marine militia forces near disputed South China Sea features are considered as posing a growing danger to regional stability.

From territorial defense to countering transnational crimes, Sama Sama helps us to face an array of threats together, the chief of the Philippine Navy, Vice Adm. Toribio Adaci Jr, said at opening ceremonies in Manila on Monday, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency (PNA).

Chinese water cannons restricting supplies to a shipwrecked Philippine military station and a lone Filipino diver breaching a floating Chinese barrier are recent instances that have the region on edge.

A Chinese coast guard ship was accused by the Philippine coast guard of briefly blinding some of its personnel earlier this year with a "military grade" laser, according to CNN. Moreover, Beijing has said that it's Manila responsible for the tensions in the region.

China asserts "indisputable sovereignty" over the majority of the islands and sandbars in the 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea, including several features that are hundreds of kilometres from the Chinese mainland. Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan, and the Philippines all have conflicting claims. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Imphal, October 03: The indefinite shutdown, which began on Monday morning in Manipurs Churachandpur district to protest against the arrest of four Kuki-Zo people by the CBI in connection with the killing of two young students, ended on Tuesday evening. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF), which called the indefinite shutdown, on Tuesday, said that after careful consideration, the shutdown concluded at 6 p.m. on Tuesday evening. Senior leader and spokesman of the apex tribal organisation Ginza Vualzong said that the ITLF would continue to monitor the situation and would issue a public notice if intense agitation is required.

In regards to the ITLF women wing weekly dharna (demonstration), considering the continuous two-day shutdown, the dharna would be cancelled on Wednesday and would be resumed as usual from next week. During the two-day (Monday and Tuesday) total shutdown, normal life was crippled in the tribal dominated Churachandpur. The police said that shops, markets, commercial and business establishments were closed, public vehicles had gone off the road, while government and non-government offices and financial institutions remained shut in view of the shutdown in the mountainous district. Manipur Violence: Life Cripples in Churachandpur District After Tribal Body Calls Indefinite Shutdown in Protest Against Arrest of Four Kuki-Zo People

Chief Minister N Biren Singh had said on Sunday that the four suspects in the murder of two young students have been arrested by the CBI and other security forces. Immediately after the arrests, ITLF on Sunday night called the indefinite shutdown demanding the release of the four people, including two women, within 48 hours, failing which, more intense agitation will follow in all hill districts of Manipur. Meanwhile, Manipur's Kangpokpi-based tribal organisation, Committee on Tribal Unity (COTU), also threatened to launch an indefinite shutdown in the Kangpokpi district if the Central government did not release all those arrested by CBI and NIA during the past few days.

The COTU condemning the arrest of four people by the CBI in connection with the killing of two students, served a 48-hour ultimatum to the Union Home Ministry to direct the CBI to release all the arrested people and initiate an investigation of Meitei criminals. COTU also demanded immediate release of tribal leader Seiminlun Gangte, who was arrested by the NIA on September 30. Gangte was arrested by the NIA in connection with a "transnational conspiracy by Bangladesh and Myanmar-based terror outfits to wage war against the government of India by exploiting the current ethnic unrest in Manipur" and the Kwakta car bomb blast in June which injured three. The NIA took Gangte to Delhi. Manipur Violence: Normal Life Disrupted in Five Valley Districts Due to 48-Hour Shutdown Called for Release of Village Protection Volunteers

Ethnic violence devastated Manipur witnessed massive students agitations last week to protest the killing of a 17-year-old girl student Hijam Linthoingambi and 20-year-old Phijam Hemjit, who hailed from Bishnupur district and had gone missing on July 6 during the height of ethnic violence. The photographs of the two slain students were circulated on different social media platforms on September 25 triggering the intense agitations in which at least 100 students, including girls, were injured after they clashed with the security forces, who prevented them from marching towards the Chief Ministers bungalow. In view of the students agitations, the state government has shut all schools in the state till October 5 besides re-imposing the ban on mobile internet services till October 6.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 03, 2023 06:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Ahmedabad, October 3: Sudden heart attack cases have caused panic in Gujarat and across the country. Recently, two more people died of sudden cardiac arrest in Rajkot in the 24 hours ending Monday afternoon, bringing the total number of heart attack victims in Saurashtra to eight since September 20. The new cases add to the growing mystery surrounding the sudden deaths of young individuals across the state in recent months.

According to the Times of India, Rashid Khan, a 34-year-old factory worker and a native of Uttar Pradesh, was living with his daughter in the Om Udhyognagar area on Kothariya Road. On Monday morning, when a family member tried to wake him up, he was unresponsive. Upon finding him unconscious, they rushed him to the civil hospital, where doctors declared that he had suffered a massive cardiac arrest. The Aji Dam police registered a case of accidental death. Surat Shocker: Minor Schoolgirl Dies Suddenly After Collapsing in Classroom, Heart Attack Suspected.

The report added that Rajesh Bhoot, a 45-year-old farmer and the eldest among two brothers and a sister, suffered shooting chest pain while talking with his brother in Khorana village. He was taken to the emergency ward of the civil hospital, where doctors declared him dead due to a heart attack. Kuvadava police have registered a case of accidental death. Youth Dies While Doing Garba Video: 19-Year-Old Suffers Heart Attack, Dies After Collapsing During Garba Practice in Gujarat's Jamnagar; Shocking Video Surfaces.

In another incident, a 12-year-old schoolgirl collapsed in the class and died of a suspected heart attack on September 28 in Gujarat's Surat. The deceased, Riddhi Mewada, was studying in class 8 at Geetanjali School located in the Godadara area. Riddhi was sitting on the first bench, and she suddenly collapsed during the last lecture at the school and fell down from the bench. The entire incident was captured on CCTV in the classroom. In the video, the teacher can be seen as taking a class, and all the students are in their seats. Suddenly, the girl sitting on the front bench collapsed to the ground.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 03, 2023 08:10 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Lucknow, October 3: After the Bihar census report, backward politics in Uttar Pradesh is also taking the centre stage, and back into focus is the data of the Hukum Singh committee that was set up by the state government in 2001. According to the report, other backward classes (OBCs) in Uttar Pradesh are estimated to be over 50 per cent of the states total population.

Among the key OBC castes, Yadavs are the biggest with 19.40 per cent share and Kurmis and Patels in second place with 7.4 per cent, according to the same data. While Nishads, Mallahs and Kevats constitute 4.3 per cent , Bhars and Rajbhars are 2.4 per cent, Lodhs 4.8 per cent and Jats 3.6 per cent of the total OBC population. Bihar Caste Survey Report Out: Nitish Kumar-Led Government Releases Caste Census Data; EBCs Highest in Number, Check Details.

Though no authentic data of a caste wise break of the OBC population was available after the 1931 Census, Uttar Pradeshs then minister for parliamentary affairs Hukum Singh-led committee in 2001 and had worked out 7.56 crore as the population of 79 OBCs in the state, based on family registers (maintained in rural areas).

If an average of 20.78 per cent of the population living in the urban areas is also considered, OBC population then may have been over 50 per cent of the states 2001 census population of 16.61 crore.

The Hukum Singh committee had brought into focus issues of reservation for most backward classes (MBCs) within the 27 per cent reservation given to the OBCs following implementation of Mandal Commission report.

Prashant Trivedi, associate professor at Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow, said, Based on the Mandal Commission and Hukum Singh committees reports, the possibility of more than 50 per cent share of the OBCs in states population cannot be denied.

The Mandal Commission indicated that the OBC population was 52.2 per cent in the country, he said. As the politics over the MBCs gained momentum, the Yogi Adityanath government, in 2018, decided to set up another social justice committee headed by Justice Raghvendra Kumar in the backdrop of demand for quota for MBCs within the quota for the OBCs. Bihar Caste Census Report: CM Nitish Kumar Announces Release of Caste-Based Census Data, Check Details Here.

Justice Raghvendra Kumar committee submitted its nearly 400-page report in October 2018. The committee classified the OBCs into three categories of backward classes, more backward classes and most backward classes.

BJPs allies -- Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) , Apna Dal and Nishad party -- are now expected to seek a larger share for themselves in the upcoming general elections.

For its part, INDIA bloc, the alliance of opposition parties, has supported the demand for a caste census. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a post on X, said the BJP government should leave politics and conduct a nationwide caste census.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee organisation secretary Anil Yadav said the Bihar caste census report would expose the BJPs attempts to divert focus and dilute the demand for a caste census.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 03, 2023 02:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
The Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS) is helping to equip shelters for temporarily displaced persons (IDPs) in Cherkasy region.

Cherkasy regional organization of the Ukrainian Red Cross, with the support of Canadian Red Cross, is helping Cherkasy City Council and the Department of Education and Humanitarian Policy in the implementation of the project  the arrangement of places of compact residence of internally displaced persons in the city of Cherkasy, the URCS reported on Facebook on Tuesday.

URCS provided necessary household appliances and furniture to one of the shelters for IDPs in the region, where 26 families live.
India has told Canada to withdraw roughly 40 diplomats amid heightened tensions between the two nations over the killing of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, according to a report published by Financial Times. The report said that New Delhi has told Ottawa that it must repatriate around 40 diplomats by October 10. India threatened to revoke the diplomatic immunity of Canadian diplomats who remain after that date, FT said in the report. India-Canada Tensions: Let's Not Normalise What is Happening in Canada, Says EAM S Jaishankar in Washington.

India Asks Canada to Withdraw Diplomats

BREAKING: The Financial Times reports that India 'threatened to revoke the diplomatic immunity' of around 40 Canadian diplomats if they remain after the 10th of October  The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) October 3, 2023

India-Canada Tension

SCOOP  #India tells #Canada to withdraw 41 diplomats by Oct 10 as spat over murder claim escalates. Threatens to strip diplomats who remain of diplomatic immunity. https://t.co/J2CzfntiBq  Demetri (@Dimi) October 3, 2023

(SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
New Delhi, October 3: Apple is no longer providing customer support on Elon Musk-run X Corp (formerly Twitter), and is now redirecting customers to its own website. Customers who send a direct message to the @AppleSupport account on X receive an automated reply with links to the Get Support page on Apple's website, and to the Apple Support app for the iPhone and iPad, reports MacRumors. The account will similarly respond with an automated reply for any message customers send.

It sounds like you have an issue with your iPhone. We can help, but to provide the best support wed like to continue this conversation in another support channel, reads the message. It also means that Apple Support will not help customers who tag the company in posts. Elon Musk's X Platform Faces New Lawsuits in US From 22-Year-Old College Graduate.

The account's description previously said it was "available every day to answer your questions," but that text was removed this week. The account will continue to share tips, tricks, and helpful information, including videos from the Apple Support channel on YouTube, according to report. Apple had offered human support on Twitter since 2016. Bing Not As Good As Google; Becoming Apples Default Search Engine Could It Grow in Global Market: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Human support on the Apple Support Community will continue temporarily amid the transition to phone support. The responses to comments on videos uploaded to the Apple Support channel on YouTube appear to have stopped, according to the report.
Mumbai, October 3: Local authorities in the United States said that a swimmer was reported missing near California's Bay Area after he was allegedly attacked by a shark. The swimmer is believed to be attacked by a shark while he travelling for a wedding celebration. The swimmer is reportedly said to have been pulled underwater after being attacked by the shark near a remote area called Wildcat Beach.

As per a report in the New York Post, the 52-year-old man was allegedly pulled underwater at the southern end of Point Reyes National Park. The alleged incident is said to have occurred at about 10:30 am on Sunday. Although a rescue mission has been launched to search the "missing" man, the search was called off on Monday by the Coast Guard officials. Florida Shark Attack: Teen Girl Fights Off Ocean Predator After It Latched On to Her Stomach.

As per the reports, the 52-year-old man was part of a part of a large group that was celebrating a wedding. The incident took place when the man was backpacking with a group of wedding guests when the alleged shark attack occurred. "My son came up to me, and he said he heard some screaming," Samantha Edell, a witness, said.

After witnessing the group looking for the missing man, Edell, who was camping with her son, brought them to her campsite so they could call for help. The woman said that the group informed her that their friend who was out swimming was attacked by a shark. "They said he never came out of the water," she added. Shark Attack in US Video: Woman in Critical Condition After Shark Bites Her Leg at Rockaway Beach in Queens.

Soon, the Coast Guard was contacted, which then launched a search operation. The National Park Service said that the US Coast Guard suspended the search in the frigid waters on Monday morning. However, a ground search is underway. Meanwhile, officials have begun contacting the man's family.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 03, 2023 07:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
New York, October 3: A 19-foot statue of B.R. Ambedkar, named 'Statue of Equality' and also the largest outside India, is set to be unveiled in the US state of Maryland on October 14 to celebrate the life and legacy of the leader and architect of the Indian Constitution.

Built on 13 acres of land in Accokeek city, just 21 miles away from White House, it is a replica of the world's largest 125-feet Ambedkar statue unveiled in Hyderabad recently, according to the organisers. J&K Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha Unveils Statue of Mahatma Gandhi and Installs Charkha in Srinagar.

According to the Ambedkar International Center (AIC), it is the "largest statue of Ambedkar outside India", and part of the organisation's first Ambedkar Memorial project in the US.

"Be a part of this inspiring occasion as we honor Dr Ambedkars contributions to equality, human rights, and empowerment," AIC said in a statement. "Witness the grand unveiling of the magnificent statue, a symbol of his enduring influence, and pay homage to the great leader who dedicated his life to fighting injustice."

The event, which will begin at 10 a.m., will be followed by cultural performances. The statue is crafted by renowned artist and sculptor Ram Sutar, a Padma Shri award recipient, who also built the biggest Sardar Patel statue in Ahmedabad. Russia: Indian Envoy Pays Floral Tributes, Highlights Relevance of Mahatma Gandhi on Gandhi Jayanti.

Sutar has made more than 90 monumental sculptures in the last sixty years, which have been placed in India, the US, France, Argentina, Italy, Russia and Malaysia.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 03, 2023 09:56 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Mumbai, October 3: A school teacher from Tennessee, United States, who was accused of allegedly raping a 12-year-old student was recently arrested again for reportedly stalking and harassing a victim. The news was confirmed by the Covington Police Department. The fourth-grade teacher, identified as Alissa McCommon (38), was arrested from her Covington home. The teacher has been charged with new criminal charges of coercion of a witness, aggravated stalking, and harassment.

On September 8, Alissa McCommon, who is a former teacher at Charger Academy, was arrested for allegedly raping a child. McCommon, a mother of two, pleaded not guilty to the initial charges. Taking to Facebook, the Covington Police Department said that they received information about the accused using her previously unknown phone number and had even initiated contact with a victim. US Shocker: Daughter Hits Mother With Frying Pan, Stabs Her Nearly 30 Times After Being Kicked Out of College; Found Guilty of Murder.

As per the evidence, the accused teacher texted a victim using a specific code word known to the juvenile. After using the code word on September 28, accused Mccommon sent multiple messages to the victim indicating that he would "regret doing this." McCommon, who used the same number, also admitted to having a sexual encounter with the victim.

Speaking about the incident, Donna Turner, Chief of Covington Police, said, "The actions of McCommon are not only appalling, but CPD is also concerned about this apparent violation of her bond conditions. Due to the nature of the communications, we are concerned others may have been contacted." After being arrested, the accused was taken to Tipton County Jail. US Shocker: Teen Mother Tries to Hire Contract Killer to Murder Her Three-Year-Old Son in Miami, Arrested.

Mccommon is being held without bond pending her appearance in Tipton County General Sessions Court. As per a report in the People, Mccommon, who taught English Language Arts and Social Studies at Charger Academy, was suspended after a parent levelled allegations against her. Cops said the accused admitted to communicating "inappropriately" with her former students.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 03, 2023 03:55 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
On 2 October Brazils justice & public security minister, Flavio Dino, unveiled the Programa Nacional de Enfrentamento as Organizacoes Criminosas (Enfoc), an initiative worth R$900m (US$177.7m) in additional funding for law enforcement authorities to investigate and combat the activities of drug-trafficking organisations (DTOs).

Analysis:

The federal government led by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has sought to address public security concerns, such as a wave of gang violence in the north-east in March and deadly police operations in the south-east in August. On 21 July President Lula launched a series of public security initiatives, known as the Programa de Acao na Seguranca (PAS), and the Enfoc programme launched yesterday marks the governments continued efforts to bolster the PAS. At the Enfoc launch event, Dino also announced specific measures for the south-eastern state of Rio de Janeiro and north-eastern state of Bahia, where violent police raids have sparked concerns about gang crime and police brutality in recent months.

Yesterday, Dino authorised the deployment of the Forca Nacional de Seguranca Publica to Rio de Janeiro, a combined force of federal security units to support the states police forces in their operations against DTOs. The Forca Nacional will provide 300 agents and 50 vehicles, while the federal highway police (PRF) will provide 270 personnel, 22 armoured cars, and a helicopter.

The Bahian police will receive an additional R$23m in funding for Operation Paz, an anti-gang operation launched at the start of September across northern and north-eastern states coordinated by the justice & public security ministry.

According to reports from the news website G1, the Bahian polices raids have resulted in at least 59 killings from 1-27 September; with 56 of the fatalities reportedly of individuals suspected of having ties to DTOs.

According to the 2022 crime statistics released by the public security think tank Forum Brasileiro de Seguranca Publica in July, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro saw the countrys highest murder rates last year, registering 6,659 and 4,485 intentional violent killings, respectively.

Looking Ahead: The Enfoc programme will be implemented until 2026. Over the next 60 days the public security ministry will aim to confirm more concrete deadlines and action plans for the relevant authorities to receive funding, such as the federal police (PF) and the national secretariats on drug policy (Senad) and on prison policy (Senappen).
On 2 October Paraguays justice minister,, denounced that his office had been infiltrated by the drug trafficking organisation (DTO) Clan Rotela, which vies with the Brazilian criminal group Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC).

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Donald Trump finally appeared for his New York fraud trial, where he did most of his defending outside the courtroom in an attempt to win in the court of public opinion instead of the actual trial.

Soon after the trial, Trump spoke at a press conference and immediately attacked Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron. James is the one prosecuting him, his two adult sons, Eric and Don Jr., and the Trump Organization. Meanwhile, Judge Engoron summarily judged that Trump and his sons were already guilty of fraud due to the evidence presented by James.

James is seeking at least $250 million in fines for Trump committing fraud in New York, as well as the dismissal of his business license. Because Judge Engoron has already issued his judgment, the trial will only determine how much Trump would pay. The judge has already suspended the business licenses of the Trumps and the Trump Organization.

The former president told reporters waiting outside the courthouse that the case was a "scam," a "sham," and a political vendetta by James. The president then went to his usual name-calling and called the AG "a corrupt person, a terrible person. Driving people out of New York."

As for Judge Engoron, Trump suggested that he should be disbarred. "This is a judge that should be out of office."

Despite acting defiantly in front of the cameras, Trump also used the moment to fundraise for his campaign as he not only lost his business in New York but could also get a massive potential fine in the state. According to Reuters, Trump's fundraising claimed that the former president was only "defending his family and reputation from New York Democrats," calling them "corrupt tyrants."

Things Get Heated During the First Day of the Donald Trump Fraud Trial in New York

When the judge asked Clifford Robert, attorney for Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, at what point is something "material," the elder Trump's lead attorney, Chis Kise, objected, and things got testy. "I don't think you are an estimate on government accounting and they will tell you what is material and what is not," he told the judge.

READ MORE: Trump Organization Convicted of 17 Felonies, Gets Maximum Punishment

According to NBC News, this led to an argument between Kise and the judge, with Kise accusing AG James of opening the door to issues regarding valuation, which he stated was "a serious accusation to make against one of the most successful employers in this state."

Donald Trump's Claims Fact-Checked

As expected of Trump's public appearances, the former president showed he has a penchant for saying things that are not true, so the BBC did a fact-check on what he said.

"No bank was affected. No bank was hurt," he said before the trial began. However, the BBC pointed out that the attorney general did not have to show that there were victims and only had to show that Trump committed fraud.

As for Trump's claim that he was denied a jury, Judge Engoron himself pointed out that "nobody asked" for a jury trial. Trump also claimed that the DOJ was behind the trial, but the BBC pointed out that there is no evidence of this or if the DOJ was coordinating with either James or Engoron. The news organization also pointed out that the Justice Department has no jurisdiction here.

Trump also claimed that the judge undervalued his properties. However, it was not the judge who placed the value on them but the official assessors. A Palm Beach County assessor was the one who valued Mar-a-Lago to be between $18 million-$27.6 million in value, not Judge Engoron as Trump claimed. The former president continues to claim it is probably worth 50 to 100 times more.

READ MORE: Donald Trump Co-Defendant Jenna Ellis Turns On Ex-POTUS, Calls Him a 'Malignant Narcissist'

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Donald Trump in court today for the start of his fraud trial in New York - CBC News
The UN Security Council has now decided on how to deal with the Haiti Crisis, and their solution is to send a peacekeeping force led by Kenya to fight the gangs taking over the country.

This would be the first time in years that a multinational armed force would be deployed to Haiti, with the mission being led by Kenya. The country has been ravaged by gangs, which have taken over the majority of the capital city, Port-au-Prince.

The vote itself was almost unanimous, with the resolution being drafted by the United States and Ecuador. China and Russia abstained from voting, with the motion being approved with 13 votes.

The UN peacekeeping force will be deployed in Haiti for about a year. A review will happen after nine months and decide if the peacekeeping force should stay. Meanwhile, a non-UN mission would be funded by voluntary contributions. This includes a $200 million pledge from the United States.

According to the Associated Press, the vote happened nearly a year after embattled Prime Minister Ariel Henry called for an immediate deployment of an armed force to help repel the invading gangs. The peacekeeping force is expected to not just fight gangs but also restore security so the country can hold its long-delayed elections.

So far, the Haiti National Police has struggled to contain the gangs, which outnumbered and outgunned them. The police force only has around 10,000 active officers to serve Haiti's population of 11 million people.

"More than just a simple vote, this is, in fact, an expression of solidarity with a population in distress, said Haiti Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus. "It's a glimmer of hope for the people who have been suffering for too long."

READ MORE: Haiti Crisis Explained: How Did It Get This Bad?

Haiti Residents Skeptical of UN Security Council's Peacekeeping Force

While there is still no date when the peacekeeping troops led by Kenya would be deployed to deal with the Haiti Crisis, the Associated Press reported that Haitian residents themselves are already skeptical.

The main reason for this skepticism was because the last time a foreign armed force was deployed to Haiti, it caused a sexual abuse scandal and a deadly cholera outbreak. This was also a UN peacekeeping force and was deployed in 2004. The mission was rife with scandals.

However, the Associated Press noted that many Haitians also acknowledge that such a force is needed to combat the gangs. Despite this, critics also pointed out that Kenya, which is leading the mission, is infamous for police brutality, and this might lead to more scandals.

Haitian Americans Call on Joe Biden To Not Support UN Peacekeeping Force Led By Kenya

Meanwhile, over in the US, the National Haitian-American Elected Officials Network and Family Action Network Movement wrote a letter to Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken with a request.

According to The Hill, they asked President Biden to withdraw support for a Kenya-led peacekeeping mission in Haiti as well as drop his support of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is very unpopular back in Haiti.

"Any military intervention supporting Haiti's corrupt, repressive, unelected regime will likely exacerbate its current political crisis to a catastrophic one," they wrote in the letter. "It will further entrench the regime, deepening Haiti's political crisis while generating significant civilian casualties and migration pressure."

READ MORE: Haiti Gang Burns Courthouse

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: UN approves security force deployment to Haiti - WPLG Local 10
Tragedy struck in southern Mexico as a cargo truck, covertly transporting migrants, overturned on a highway, killing 10 Cuban migrants and leaving 25 others injured, according to Al Jazeera.

The incident occurred early on a Sunday morning in the state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala.

According to a confidential source within the prosecutor's office who spoke to AFP, the victims were predominantly women, with one being a minor, and they appeared to be Cuban migrants.

This portion of the highway, situated along the Pacific coast between the towns of Pijijiapan and Tonala, is frequently traversed by individuals seeking to reach the United States.

READ NEXT: Mexico Bus Collides With Tanker Truck Killing 20

The Mexico Freight Truck Crash

The Mexico freight truck, which was ill-suited for carrying passengers, bore a body partially constructed from wood and was completely wrecked, with the belongings of the migrants scattered in the aftermath, per BBC.

The truck's driver, who was not authorized to transport so many people, fled the scene, as stated by the National Migration Institute (INM).

The INM reported that preliminary findings suggest the driver was speeding, lost control of the vehicle, and subsequently overturned.

Photographs from the scene depicted the truck with an open cargo box on its side, with the victims on the side of the highway.

An employee of the state prosecutor's office disclosed that the migrants had been hitchhiking on passing vehicles.

In Mexico, authorities generally prohibit migrants lacking proper documents from traveling on buses. Consequently, those without the financial means to hire smugglers often resort to walking alongside highways or catching rides on passing trucks.

This tragic incident is part of a series of migrant fatalities in Mexico amid a surge in individuals traveling toward the US border.

Mexico Road Accidents Involving Migrants

Road accidents involving migrants are not uncommon in Mexico, where many people journey through the country using unauthorized and poorly maintained vehicles.

On the previous Saturday, a migrant from Ecuador lost their life, and ten others from Colombia and Guatemala sustained injuries in a van operated by Mexico's immigration agency when it collided with a bus in Mexicali, AP reports.

Just a few days prior, in Chiapas, a truck flipped over on the highway, leading to the deaths of two Central American migrants and injuries to 27 more.

The Migration Institute disclosed that 52 migrants were crammed into the overcrowded truck when the driver lost control and the vehicle overturned.

The injured, including six children, were subsequently taken to the hospital and granted legal asylum status as victims of a crime on Mexican soil.

Other incidents involving migrant fatalities on the journey north to the US-Mexico border have occurred in recent months, involving various modes of transportation.

These accidents are only one of the many dangers migrants and asylum seekers encounter as they undertake their perilous journeys, which include navigating treacherous jungle terrain, evading criminal organizations, and facing the risk of extended detention.

READ MORE: Mexico Bus Crash: 16 Dead, Dozens Injured

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Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: 10 Cuban migrants killed in Mexico road accident - From Reuters
Finland preparing another package of defense assistance for Ukraine

The Finnish government is preparing another package of defense assistance for Ukraine, which will be the 19th in a row, the country's Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said.

Finland has contributed almost EUR 2 bln to Ukraine. Our next defence materiel package is under preparation, she said on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday.

Ukraine is our largest development partner. Finland and the EU will support Ukraine for as long as needed.

Freedom will prevail. Many thanks for hosting us in Kyiv, Dmytro Kuleba, she said.

As reported, on October 2, Valtonen took part in an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he will replace the recently-passed Senator Dianne Feinstein with a known labor union leader named Laphonza Butler.

Feinstein was Gavin Newsom's mentor in politics and is considered a feminist icon and a legend not just in California politics but also at the national level. Filling her now-vacated Senate seat would have been a tall task as there were many well-established California politicians who could have taken the job.

However, Newsom went with Butler, who currently heads a national organization that raises money for women candidates who support abortion rights.

According to the Associated Press, she is a "familiar face who shares his vision for a progressive California." By choosing her to fill his late mentor's seat, Newsom also "elevated someone who could become an important ally for a potential national campaign," as many see him running for the presidency in the future.

Once sworn in, she will also make history as the first openly LGBTQ+ California senator. She will also be the only Black woman in the US Senate today. Her background in labor and women's rights also solidifies the California governor's ties to those movements that have been deemed important to national Democratic constituencies.

Gavin Newsom Happy With His Pick To Fill Late Senator Dianne Feinstein's Senate Seat

The Governor was all praises for Butler, seemingly happy with his own pick to be California's next senator. He then listed reasons why the 44-year-old labor leader is an ideal candidate for the job left behind by his former mentor, according to Politico.

READ MORE: Hollywood Writers Strike Tentatively Ends as Focus Shifts to Actors Strike

"I just think Laphonza Butler is uniquely positioned, simply the best person that I could find for this moment in this job," he said during a Democratic congressional fundraiser in San Francisco. He previously pledged to fill the seat with a Black woman and has followed through with that promise.

Newsom also praised his new pick's "deep knowledge" of the legislative process and added that she was the kind of candidate he would build "if I had to literally design from my imagination." The California governor added more praise to her, saying, "She's the only choice."

Butler is expected to serve out much of what was left in Dianne Feinstein's unfinished term in office. It is slated to end next year. However, several big names are also gunning for that Senate seat in the next election, including Representatives Barabara Lee, Adam Schiff, and Katie Porter.

Who Is Laphonza Butler, the Next California Senator?

Laphonza Butler is the current president of EMILY's List and is a supporter of getting Democratic women who support abortion rights elected. When Feinstein passed away, she posted a tribute to the deceased former senator, calling her "a titan in the Senate" and "a legendary figure for women in politics and around the country."

When Newsom named her as Feinstein's successor, she released a statement saying, "I am honored to accept Gov. Newsom's nomination to be a US Senator for a state I have long called home,"

She added, "I am humbled by the Governor's trust. Sen. Dianne Feinstein's leadership and legacy are immeasurable. I will do my best to honor her by devoting my time and energy to serving the people of California and the people of this great nation."

READ MORE: Gavin Newson Net Worth 2022

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Gavin Newsom Taps Laphonza Butler to Fill Sen. Feinstein's Seat, Rejecting Calls to Pick Barbara Lee - Democracy Now!
Tragedy struck as North Dakota Senator Doug Larsen, his wife, and two young kids lost their lives in a plane crash following a refueling stop in Utah, AP reports.

Senate Majority Leader David Hogue confirmed Doug Larsen's passing in an email from The Associated Press.

The Utah plane crash occurred on Sunday evening, shortly after takeoff from Canyonlands Airfield, located approximately 15 miles north of Moab, Utah, a desert recreation town.

The Grand County Sheriff's Department reported that Senator Larsen was piloting the small plane, and tragically, all four individuals on board perished.

In his email, Majority Leader David Hogue shared the devastating news, stating that Senator Doug Larsen, his wife Amy, and their two young children were returning home from a visit to family in Scottsdale, Arizona, and had stopped in Utah to refuel.

Emergency responders located the crash site in a remote area bordering the airport, just outside Arches National Park, near the Colorado state line.

READ NEXT: Utah Influencer and Family YouTuber, Arrested

Utah Plane Crash Under Investigation

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has initiated an investigation into the crash of the single-engine Piper plane. This was confirmed in a post on social media.

Following Utah plane crash, local authorities swiftly responded to the scene, according to CBS News.

Sheriff's deputies, personnel from the Moab County Fire Department, and paramedics arrived after a medical aircraft had located the downed plane, as reported by the sheriff's office.

An NTSB spokesperson had previously stated that an investigator from the board was anticipated to arrive at the crash site on Monday.

Their primary tasks included documenting the scene, examining the aircraft, securing air traffic communications, radar data, weather reports, and attempting to contact potential witnesses.

The investigator also intended to request the maintenance records of the aircraft, as well as the pilot's medical records and flight history.

Earlier information from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) online indicated that the aircraft had crashed under unspecified circumstances after takeoff in Moab, Utah.

North Dakota Senator Doug Larsen had mentioned that his wife had experienced her inaugural flight as a pilot, accompanied by a photograph of a small, orange plane, in a December 2020 Facebook post.

Efforts to gather further information from sheriff's officials via a phone message were not immediately returned as of Monday.

North Dakota Senator Doug Larsen

Doug Larsen's biography on North Dakota's official website indicated that he was married and had three children, per CNN.

Governor Doug Burgum expressed his deep sorrow over the loss, describing North Dakota Senator Larsen as a dedicated individual who had served in multiple roles, including state senator and lieutenant colonel in the North Dakota National Guard.

Larsen, a Republican, represented District 34 in North Dakota, including the city of Mandan, and had served in the state senate since 2021.

Governor Burgum highlighted Larsen's commitment to individual rights and advocacy for the freedoms he defended through his military service.

The vacancy left by Senator Larsen's passing will be filled by District Republicans, who will appoint a successor, completing the remainder of his term until November 2024.

His Senate seat will also be on the ballot in the upcoming year. It's important to note that Republicans hold a significant majority in North Dakota's Legislature, both in the House and Senate.

Moab, Utah, is a community centered around tourism, with approximately 5,300 residents and proximity to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.

READ MORE: Utah Teen Dies After Falling 30 Feet

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Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: North Dakota state senator, wife and 2 kids killed in Utah plane crash - From New York Post
People who think theyre being targeted by telemarketing scams would be able to legally record calls under an amendment to the Pennsylvania law that allows police and prosecutors to tap telephones.

The addition to the Pennsylvania Wiretap Act would permit potential victims of telephone scams to fight back by recording the calls for use by authorities in investigating such schemes.

This will level the playing field and give our citizens an opportunity to also record the tele-scammer to provide evidence to law enforcement officials, state Rep. Tim Bonner (R-Mercer) said.

The Federal Trade Commission reported consumers lost about $8.8 billion to fraud of all types in 2022. Another study commissioned by a caller ID and call blocking software company put the amount lost to scam calls at an astounding $40 billion.

The legislation was unanimously approved on Tuesday in the state House as an amendment to the Wiretap Act, which is due to expire at the end of 2023.

The Wiretap Act requires law enforcement officials to apply to a judge with evidence to obtain a warrant to secretly intercept phone calls and other communications. It applies to land lines, cellphones and other forms of telecommunication. Others may record calls only if all participants consent.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania said a companion bill in the state Senate to also extend the Wiretap Act provides important protections to Pennsylvanians and allows police to use body cameras.

In addition to extending the Wiretap Act, House Bill 1278 allows parole officers and investigators working for the state Department of Corrections to record conversations.

Rep. Craig Williams (R-Delaware) noted that while telephone scams often target senior citizens, people of any age can be victims.

Williams said his son inadvertently downloaded malware on his computer that threatened to destroy his data and instructed him to call for guidance on how to remove the virus. Williams said there was no legal way for him or his son to record the scammer on the other end of the line.

You have no recourse whatsoever to record that telephone call and provide evidence to law enforcement, Williams said.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Chris Pielli (D-Chester) must be put up for a vote for final approval before it goes to the Senate for consideration.
Operation Transformation psychologist Dr Eddie Murphy was special guest at the launch of Laois Partnership Company's first ever central headquarters this week.

Dr Eddie urged the 40 staff to "be bold" and "aim high" in their ambitions, suggesting that Laois could become a 'blue zone' for healthy living.

"Laois Partnership is the meat in the sandwich between EU funding and communities. I was once in this building as a trainee psychologist with St Francis School. A place of learning and support for vulnerable people, Laois Partnership has come home, offering support to Laois communities, with 50 million spent since it began," he said.

The HQ is the former St Francis Special School on the New Road in Portlaoise, once described as "not fit for purpose" but now renovated at a cost of 300,000 including a new heating system and windows. Roof insulation and solar panels are planned.

It means that LPC staff are working under the one roof for the first time, delivering a dozen programmes including LEADER, Tus, Failte Isteach and community childcare.

Laois Partnership Company Chairman Peter O'Neill and CEO Caroline Lydon with staff at the official opening.

It has a new CEO Caroline Lydon who described a difficult few years for the company, with the sad death of the previous CEO Anne Goodwin while still in her post, and the advent of Covid restrictions.

"I hope to do justice to the role she commenced," she said.

A beautiful wooden plaque was unveiled in Ms Goodwin's memory, created by Mountrath Men's Shed, inscribed with a line from The Parting Glass, a special song for her.

Peter O'Neill with Rodney Goodwin.

"I am very touched by it, the fact that it is handcrafted, it's lovely," her husband Rodney told the Leinster Express / Laois Live.

LPC Chairman Peter O'Neill paid tribute to Anne Goodwin.

"We lost one of our most capable, knowledgeable leaders, who passionately cared about her work. None of this would have been possible without her leadership and drive over 22 years. This work will be a legacy of all she strove for," he said.

He also announced at the launch that he will be stepping down shortly after his seven year stint.

He said that along with the 50 million channelled into Laois over the years of Laois Partnership, a second 50 million was secured through LEADER and the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP).

"We work for the benefit of Laois, it's all about what we can do to support Laois. We are a conduit to get the finance," he said.

Mr O'Neill adds that the building will host a homework club for 24 pupils who will be walked by staff through the park from the nearby schools in Summerhill and Aghnaharna, growing to possibly 36 children in time.

The building was blessed by Portlaoise Parish Priest Monsignor John Byrne and Rev Janet Finlay. It remains owned by the parish, on a long term lease to Laois Partnership Company.

"For so many years this was a place of care and that will continue. Your work will assist communities through the county of Laois and those living in disadvantaged areas," he said.

Music was provided by the Laois Mens Shed Choir, of members from Mountmellick, Portlaoise, Rathdowney and Mountrath.

An official open day will be held next spring for the community to attend.
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has presented the Tanaiste with a prestigious award for services to Ukraine.

Micheal Martin received the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise award today (October 2) while in Kyiv for an extraordinary meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council.

He joined other EU foreign ministers in the war-torn country to discuss how to strengthen and advance the EUs response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in direct consultation with the Ukrainian government.

Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise award reportedly receive the honour for their "distinguished services to the state and people of the Ukrainian nation" in the fields of state building, strengthening the international prestige of Ukraine, development of economy, science, education, culture, art, health care, and for outstanding charitable, humanistic and public activities.

Posting about receiving the award on X (formerly Twitter), the Tanaiste said, "An honour to receive the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise award from [President Zelensky] in Kyiv. Ireland and the EU remain steadfast in solidarity with Ukraine and its people."

Earlier today, he said he was "pleased to be in Kyiv" and reaffirmed Ireland's commitment to continue providing financial contributions to Ukraine.

He stated, "A powerful symbol to have the EUs Foreign Ministers here to stand with the people of Ukraine. We will discuss Ukraines EU pathway, and ongoing supports. Ireland recently announced 23m in humanitarian aid, part of 210m in total support so far."

Martin joins the Leas-Chathaoirleach of Seanad Eireann, Mark Daly, who also received an Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise award (II degree) in 2022.

Senator Daly, who was Cathaoirleach of Seanad Eireann at the time, was one of 12 speakers of parliamentary assemblies to be granted the honour by President Zelensky for significant personal merits in strengthening interstate cooperation, support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and a significant contribution to the popularization of the Ukrainian state in the world".

Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the United States House of Representatives was also honoured.

Speaking at the time, he said, "As Cathaoirleach of Seanad Eireann, it is a great honour to be awarded the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, II Degree by President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. The Irish people and the Houses of the Oireachtas have been steadfast in their support of Ukraine and its people since the brutal and illegal invasion by Russia eight months ago.

"During my visit to Kyiv with the Ceann Comhairle in May when we met President Zelenskyy and saw for ourselves the devastating impact of Russias horrific actions in Ukraine, I told him that the Irish people stood with Ukraine. Ireland, our partners in the European Union and our friends in the United States and the United Kingdom are unyielding in our support for democracy and the rule of law over tyranny and brutality."
US Annual Home Price Growth Picks Up Pace in August, CoreLogic Reports





CoreLogic, a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, today released the CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPItm) and HPI Forecasttm for August 2023.

CoreLogic's Home Price Index dropped to an 11-year low in the spring of 2023 but is starting to regain momentum. While some states in the West still posted annual home price losses in August, that number has been decreasing since the spring of this year. Meanwhile, housing markets in New England are starting to heat up, with New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island seeing the largest year-over-year price gains in August.

"While continued mortgage rate increases challenge affordability across U.S. housing markets, home price growth is in line with typical seasonal averages, reflecting strong demand bolstered by a healthy labor market, strong wage growth and supporting demographic trends," said Selma Hepp, chief economist for CoreLogic. "Still, with a slower buying season ahead and the surging cost of homeownership, additional monthly price gains may taper off."

Top Takeaways:

U.S. home prices (including distressed sales) increased by 3.7% year over year in August 2023 compared with August 2022. On a month-over-month basis, home prices rose by 0.3% compared with July 2023.

In August, the annual appreciation of detached properties (3.7%) was 0.2 percentage points higher than that of attached properties (3.5%).

CoreLogic's forecast shows annual U.S. home price gains at 3.4% by August 2024.

Miami posted the highest year-over-year home price increase of the country's 20 tracked metro areas in June, at 8.3%. St. Louis saw the next-highest gain (6.4%), followed by Charlotte, North Carolina (5.4%).

Among states, New Hampshire ranked first for annual appreciation in July (up by 9.4%), followed by Maine and Vermont (both up by 8.9%). Eight states recorded home price losses: Idaho (-4%), Montana (-2.7%), Nevada (-2.3%), Utah (-2%), Washington (-1%), Arizona (-0.9%), Texas (-0.4%) and New York (-0.2%).

The next CoreLogic HPI press release, featuring September 2023 data, will be issued on November 7, 2023, at 8 a.m. EST.

Methodology

The CoreLogic HPItm is built on industry-leading public record, servicing and securities real-estate databases and incorporates more than 45 years of repeat-sales transactions for analyzing home price trends. Generally released on the first Tuesday of each month with an average five-week lag, the CoreLogic HPI is designed to provide an early indication of home price trends by market segment and for the Single-Family Combined tier, representing the most comprehensive set of properties, including all sales for single-family attached and single-family detached properties. The indices are fully revised with each release and employ techniques to signal turning points sooner. The CoreLogic HPI provides measures for multiple market segments, referred to as tiers, based on property type, price, time between sales, loan type (conforming vs. non-conforming) and distressed sales. Broad national coverage is available from the national level down to ZIP Code, including non-disclosure states.

CoreLogic HPI Forecaststm are based on a two-stage, error-correction econometric model that combines the equilibrium home price?as a function of real disposable income per capita?with short-run fluctuations caused by market momentum, mean-reversion, and exogenous economic shocks like changes in the unemployment rate. With a 30-year forecast horizon, CoreLogic HPI Forecasts project CoreLogic HPI levels for two tiers ? Single-Family Combined (both attached and detached) and Single-Family Combined Excluding Distressed Sales. As a companion to the CoreLogic HPI Forecasts, Stress-Testing Scenarios align with Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) national scenarios to project five years of home prices under baseline, adverse and severely adverse scenarios at state, metropolitan areas and ZIP Code levels. The forecast accuracy represents a 95% statistical confidence interval with a +/- 2% margin of error for the index.

About Market Risk Indicators

Market Risk Indicators are a subscription-based analytics solution that provide monthly updates on the overall health of housing markets across the country. CoreLogic data scientists combine world-class analytics with detailed economic and housing data to help determine the likelihood of a housing bubble burst in 392 major metros and all 50 states. Market Risk Indicators is a multi-phase regression model that provides a probability score (from 1 to 100) on the likelihood of two scenarios per metro: a >10% price reduction and a ? 10% price reduction. The higher the score, the higher the risk of a price reduction.

About the Market Condition Indicators

As part of the CoreLogic HPI and HPI Forecasts offerings, Market Condition Indicators are available for all metropolitan areas and identify individual markets as overvalued, at value or undervalued. These indicators are derived from the long-term fundamental values, which are a function of real disposable income per capita. Markets are labeled as overvalued if the current home price indexes exceed their long-term values by greater than 10% and undervalued where the long-term values exceed the index levels by greater than 10%.

Source: CoreLogic

The data provided are for use only by the primary recipient or the primary recipient's publication or broadcast. This data may not be resold, republished or licensed to any other source, including publications and sources owned by the primary recipient's parent company without prior written permission from CoreLogic. Any CoreLogic data used for publication or broadcast, in whole or in part, must be sourced as coming from CoreLogic, a data and analytics company. For use with broadcast or web content, the citation must directly accompany first reference of the data. If the data are illustrated with maps, charts, graphs or other visual elements, the CoreLogic logo must be included on screen or website. For questions, analysis or interpretation of the data, contact Robin Wachner at [email protected]. For sales inquiries, visit https://www.corelogic.com/support/sales-contact/. Data provided may not be modified without the prior written permission of CoreLogic. Do not use the data in any unlawful manner. The data are compiled from public records, contributory databases and proprietary analytics, and its accuracy is dependent upon these sources.

About CoreLogic

CoreLogic is a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider. The company's combined data from public, contributory and proprietary sources includes over 4.5 billion records spanning more than 50 years, providing detailed coverage of property, mortgages and other encumbrances, consumer credit, tenancy, location, hazard risk and related performance information. The markets CoreLogic serves include real estate and mortgage finance, insurance, capital markets, and the public sector. CoreLogic delivers value to clients through unique data, analytics, workflow technology, advisory and managed services. Clients rely on CoreLogic to help identify and manage growth opportunities, improve performance and mitigate risk. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., CoreLogic operates in North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.corelogic.com.

CORELOGIC, the CoreLogic logo, CoreLogic HPI and CoreLogic HPI Forecast are trademarks of CoreLogic, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

3 october 2023 at 08:20

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At the upcoming Informal EU Summit, the European leaders will reaffirm their commitment to support Ukraine in its fight against the Russian aggression. The issue of kicking off the EU membership talks is not on the agenda since it is scheduled for December, a European senior official told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday.

The Informal EU Summit will take place in Granada, Spain, on October 6.

The official said it is expected that the EU leaders will once again reaffirm commitment to support Ukraine, including weapons supply and financial assistance.

Speaking about Ukraine's membership prospects, the official said the European Commission is expected to present a report at the beginning of November [earlier, it was announced for the middle of October] to give European leaders an opportunity to assess reforms implemented by Ukraine to start the membership talks.

The enlargement of the EU is expected to be discussed in December and a decision will be made also in December, the official said, adding that it will be based on the Commission's report.

He also categorically denied the assumption that the issue of migration has removed the Ukraine issue from the list of priority ones at the Summit of the European Political Community due ahead of the informal summit in Granada.

The Ukraine issue has been among agenda priorities since the beginning of the war and even before it, the official said, adding that the issue was discussed during every meeting of the European Council. Ukraine will be on the agenda of the European Political Community, there will be a session and bilateral meetings, he said.
VMware Named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadranttm for SD-WAN for the Sixth Year in a Row





VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) today announced that it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN?marking it the sixth consecutive year VMware has been named a Leader in the report.

Cloud-native by design, VMware SD-WAN and VMware SASE enable enterprises to deliver more consistent, secure, and reliable connectivity for the branch and distributed workforce. Gartner recognized VMware SD-WAN for its virtual and physical Edge appliances, optional gateway points of presence (PoPs), software licenses and a cloud-based orchestrator.

"It is an honor to be recognized as a Leader for SD-WAN by Gartner once again," said Abe Ankumah, vice president and general manager, SD-WAN and SASE, VMware. "We believe this is a result of our sustained focus on customer needs such as enhancing multi-cloud and SaaS connectivity, hybrid worker connectivity, integrated edge security, and edge-native application support. We continue to evolve VMware SD-WAN as organizations seek a complete solution to enable WAN transformation and the software-defined edge."

From VMware SD-WAN to the Software-Defined Edge

VMware SD-WAN provides connectivity as part of VMware's software-defined edge ? a distributed digital infrastructure that runs workloads and edge-native applications across a number of locations, close to endpoints that are producing and consuming data. Recently, VMware introduced the VMware Edge Cloud Orchestrator (formerly VMware SASE Orchestrator) to provide unified management for VMware SASE and the VMware Edge Compute Stack ? an industry-first offering to bridge the gap between edge networking and edge compute. Earlier in 2023, VMware delivered VMware SD-Access (formerly VMware SD-WAN Client) ? providing enterprises more secure, network optimized connectivity for remote users.

VMware SD-WAN provides the intelligent network overlay for VMware SASE. By delivering cloud networking and cloud security services with VMware SASE, customers can achieve:

With a cloud-first approach , VMware SD-WAN delivers a more secure, reliable, and efficient on-ramping to SaaS and IaaS providers via a unique global network of cloud-hosted gateways, allowing customers to simplify their path to cloud transformation. VMware provides partners the ability to host gateways themselves extending the reach of VMware SD-WAN via federation ? making it unique amongst other SD-WAN providers.

, VMware SD-WAN delivers a more secure, reliable, and efficient on-ramping to SaaS and IaaS providers via a unique global network of cloud-hosted gateways, allowing customers to simplify their path to cloud transformation. VMware provides partners the ability to host gateways themselves extending the reach of VMware SD-WAN via federation ? making it unique amongst other SD-WAN providers. Network evolution to help organizations modernize their digital infrastructures and monetize their network overlays. VMware addresses all three layers of the software-defined edge ? the top edge compute layer which hosts the applications and workloads; the intelligent overlay where SD-WAN and security services run; and the underlay network layer which runs the network connectivity across fixed and 5G networks providing orchestration and network programmability.

to help organizations modernize their digital infrastructures and monetize their network overlays. VMware addresses all three layers of the software-defined edge ? the top edge compute layer which hosts the applications and workloads; the intelligent overlay where SD-WAN and security services run; and the underlay network layer which runs the network connectivity across fixed and 5G networks providing orchestration and network programmability. On-premises and cloud security including Security Service Edge (SSE) capabilities to help customers better secure access to all web and cloud services as well as locally hosted applications. Additionally, VMware capabilities include an ICSA-certified branch firewall, third-party security services, and configurable business policies that direct traffic to the cloud or data center for better protection against attacks at all levels.

including Security Service Edge (SSE) capabilities to help customers better secure access to all web and cloud services as well as locally hosted applications. Additionally, VMware capabilities include an ICSA-certified branch firewall, third-party security services, and configurable business policies that direct traffic to the cloud or data center for better protection against attacks at all levels. Enhanced application performance with user access and an improved experience for mission-critical and real-time apps, even during degraded network conditions.

with user access and an improved experience for mission-critical and real-time apps, even during degraded network conditions. Simplified operations via a centralized, cloud-hosted management solution that provides a single unified interface for configuration, network-level visibility and management, and application usage monitoring across multiple transports, service providers, and remote sites. VMware Edge Network Intelligence delivers AIOps capabilities from end-to-end visibility from device to app to AI-assisted remediation.

Additional Resources:

Gartner Disclaimer

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN, Jonathan Forest, Naresh Singh, Andrew Lerner, Karen Brown, 27 September 2023.

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.

This document was renamed from Magic Quadrant of WAN Edge Infrastructure to Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN in 2022.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

About VMware

VMware is a leading provider of multi-cloud services for all apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control. As a trusted foundation to accelerate innovation, VMware software gives businesses the flexibility and choice they need to build the future. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is committed to building a better future through the company's 2030 Agenda. For more information, please visit www.vmware.com/company.

VMware and Explore are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions. This article may contain hyperlinks to non-VMware websites that are created and maintained by third parties who are solely responsible for the content on such websites.

3 october 2023 at 11:50

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Okanagan and Shuswap area wildfires cause over $720 million in insured damage





2023 BC wildfires the costliest insured event in provincial history

VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 3, 2023 /CNW/ - This summer's wildfires in the Okanagan (McDougall Creek) and Shuswap (Bush Creek East) have resulted in over $720 million in insured losses, according to initial estimates from Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ). These wildfires are now the most costly insured event ever recorded in British Columbia and the tenth costliest in Canada's history.

"This year's wildfire season has broken all records in terms of the amount of land burned and damage caused to homes and businesses in BC," said Aaron Sutherland, Vice-President, Pacific and Western, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). "Our hearts go out to every individual and family who has been impacted by these wildfires, and to the firefighters who lost their lives helping to protect our communities. The wildfires' impact is another tragic reminder of the risk BC residents face due to climate change and the increasing frequency of natural catastrophes."

Combined, insured losses from the Bush Creek East and McDougall Creek wildfires this year far exceed the cost of the last major wildfire in Okanagan Mountain Park near Kelowna in 2003. That fire 20 years ago resulted in $200 million in insured damage.

"Canada's insurers are here to help their customers rebuild following this devastating loss," added Sutherland. "Wildfire damage is covered by all standard home and business insurance policies, and anyone who has been affected by these events or has questions about their coverage should call their insurance representative. They are there to help and to support consumers with recovery and reconstruction efforts. Anyone with general insurance questions can also contact IBC's Consumer Information Centre at 1-844-2ask-IBC."

Shuswap area ? Bush Creek East Wildfire

August 18?September 25, 2023 ? Over $240 million in insured damage

The Bush Creek East wildfire started in mid-July in BC's Shuswap region. It burned in a relatively unpopulated area, until it started spreading rapidly in early and mid-August, and began racing through communities in North Shuswap, including Scotch Creek and Celista. The fire did extensive damage to properties in communities north of Shuswap Lake. More than 270 structures are confirmed to have been destroyed. In addition, the Bush Creek East wildfire caused extensive damage to public infrastructure, including damage to hydro poles that resulted in power outages for thousands of customers.

Most of the Bush Creek East wildfire's destruction occurred during its 20-kilometre run through the North Shuswap region on August 18, 2023. Due to the fire's rapid expansion, there was a dramatic increase in Evacuation Orders and Alerts, with about 3,500 properties subject to Evacuation Orders in the Shuswap region.

Okanagan area ? McDougall Creek Wildfire

August 15?September 21, 2023 ? Over $480 million in insured damage

The McDougall Creek, Clark Creek and Walroy Lake wildfires started in the central Okanagan Valley in mid-August 2023. Due to hot, dry and windy conditions, the three fires spread quickly, prompting widespread evacuations on both sides of Okanagan Lake. Structural damage was reported in the communities of West Kelowna, Kelowna and Lake Country, and many properties were completely destroyed.

In West Kelowna, officials confirmed that 70 homes were affected by the wildfires, and 20 were lost in Westbank First Nation. In Kelowna, three homes and two outbuildings were completely destroyed, with a further three being destroyed in Lake Country. In the areas of Traders Cove and Lake Okanagan Resort, an estimated 100 structures were completely destroyed. The Lake Okanagan Resort was also destroyed.

The amount of insured damage is an estimate provided by CatIQ (www.CatIQ.com) under licence to IBC.

About Insurance Bureau of Canada

Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is the national industry association representing Canada's private home, auto and business insurers. Its member companies make up the vast majority of the property and casualty (P&C) insurance market in Canada. For more than 50 years, IBC has worked with governments across the country to help make affordable home, auto and business insurance available for all Canadians. IBC supports the vision of consumers and governments trusting, valuing and supporting the private P&C insurance industry. It champions key issues and helps educate consumers on how best to protect their homes, cars, businesses and properties.

For media releases and more information, visit IBC's Media Centre at www.ibc.ca. Follow us on X (Twitter) @InsuranceBureau or like us on Facebook. If you have a question about home, auto or business insurance, contact IBC's Consumer Information Centre at 1-844-2ask-IBC.

SOURCE Insurance Bureau of Canada

3 october 2023 at 14:30

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French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Catherine Colonnan LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP

The performing arts industry in France was in a state of shock on Thursday, September 14, as the crisis between France and Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso took its toll on an artistic territory that could have done with more support instead. "On instructions from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs," all subsidized cultural establishments were informed that they must "suspend, until further notice, all cooperation with the following countries: Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso."

This message, dispatched by the General Directorates for Cultural Affairs (DRAC) to the cultural structures that depend on their services, such as national drama and choreography centers and national stages, was forwarded to the secretariat of the Ministry of Culture. The measures recommended were radical: "All cooperation projects carried out by your establishments or departments with institutions or nationals of these three countries must be suspended, without delay, and without exception. All financial support must also be suspended, including via French structures such as associations. Similarly, no invitations should be extended to any nationals of these countries. As of today, France will no longer issue visas for nationals of these three countries, without exception, and until further notice."

Described as "threatening" by the all-powerful National Syndicate for Artistic and Cultural Enterprises union (SYNDEAC), the order from on high sent shockwaves through the ranks of the cultural community. "We've never had an injunction like this before," said Bruno Lobe, vice president of the SYNDEAC and director of Le Manege, a national theater in Reims. "France's philosophy toward artists living in countries with which it is in conflict has always been to continue to invite them, without ever breaking off the dialogue. These artists are already prevented from working by their own governments. If we add another layer of hardship, it will be a real catastrophe, not only for their survival but also for France's image."

'What has become of the values of France?'

Implementing the ban demanded by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs would set a precedent. But it would also reveal an inconsistency that Lobe spelled out: "At the start of the war in Ukraine, the message was to continue to support Russian artists. That they do not represent Vladimir Putin. What's the difference between a Burkinabe, Malian or Nigerien artist and a Russian artist?" The ministerial decision is a cause for concern for artists who come and go on both sides of the Mediterranean.

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A woman with her cholera-stricken son in a temporary center at Bwaila District Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, on February 21, 2023. FREDRIK LERNERYD / AFP

The upsurge is spectacular. The number of cholera cases notified to the World Health Organization (WHO) more than doubled worldwide between 2021 and 2022, rising from 223,000 to 472,000, according to a WHO report published on Friday, September 22. More countries reported cases  44 in 2022, compared with 35 the previous year. Major outbreaks affected countries that had long been spared, such as Lebanon and Syria, which had not recorded a case in over a decade. Epidemics claimed 0.5% of lives, with some 2,300 deaths recorded.

Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes In Syria and Lebanon, cholera epidemic highlights lack of drinking water

Seven nations reported "very large outbreaks," exceeding 10,000 cases: Afghanistan, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Nigeria, Syria and Somalia. Afghanistan reported the highest number of cases (over 280,000), followed by Syria, with over 70,000.

However, WHO is calling for data "to be interpreted with caution." According to the organization, researchers estimate that between 1.3 million and 4 million people contract cholera each year and that between 21,000 and 143,000 of them die. The discrepancy between official figures and projections is due to major gaps in diagnosis, with capacities varying widely from country to country.

Cholera is a bacterial infection caused by the ingestion of water or food contaminated with feces and whose symptoms are essentially diarrhea and vomiting. It is often confused with other diseases, and vice versa. Not to mention the fact that "a certain number of people have few or no symptoms," according to John Johnson, medical specialist for vaccination and epidemic response at Doctors Without Borders.

Climate change is a cause

Under these conditions, "increasing laboratory confirmation of suspected cholera cases remains a priority," according to WHO. "Quality data requires first and foremost the ability to isolate this unusual bacterium from stools, and then to confirm its identification using classical bacteriology or even genomic techniques," explained Professor Francois-Xavier Weill, head of the Institut Pasteur's enteric pathogens laboratory. According to Weill, expertise has made considerable progress in recent decades but remains highly heterogeneous throughout the world. He noted that neither Yemen nor Haiti has reported any cases to WHO, despite the fact that these two countries are suffering the full brunt of cholera.

Despite the relative quality of the data, "we know how to interpret the figures," said Philippe Barboza, WHO team leader for cholera and epidemic diarrheal diseases. According to Barboza, beyond the absolute values, "what is extremely alarming is the trend." The absolute number of deaths had been falling for around 10 years, he noted, before a "significant resurgence in 2021." He added that "this rise is set to continue, and will be worse in 2023."

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Long Read'France and Morocco: Wounds of the heart' (1/3). The first in a series of articles addressing areas of tension between the two nations looks at diplomatic frictions, and the poor personal relationship between King Mohammed VI and Emmanuel Macron.

The past two years of increased waning affection between France and Morocco has to come to an end. It is now time for anxious questioning, both in Rabat and in France. How can the escalation of animosity between the two capitals, once united in "exceptional partnership," a model of post-colonial collusion, be halted? Each time there's a glimmer of respite, acrimony flares up once again. The terrible human toll  around 3,000 dead and 5,600 injured  of the earthquake that struck the High Atlas mountains on September 8 should, in all logic, have calmed tempers. The opposite has happened: the rift between the two countries has only deepened. After the wave of anti-French sentiment in West Africa, will Morocco be the next domino to fall?

"Why King Mohammed VI irritates the French state so much," was the headline on September 20 in the online newspaper Le360  which has close ties with the Elysee  in an attack against the French media's coverage of the earthquake, which it deemed "hysterical" and which, in its view, could only have been engineered from the Moroccan palace. France, both the authorities and the media, is said to be seeking revenge on the kingdom for its "independence from the former colonial power," and in particular for its "sovereign" decision to accept offers of assistance from only four countries  Spain, the United Kingdom, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates  while ignoring Paris.

Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes How Morocco asserts its sovereignty by its choice of international aid

In Morocco, certain televised debates that were aired in Paris with bizarre titles  "Can Morocco cope without French assistance?"  were certainly shocking. The regime's propaganda did not shy away from using these paternalistic overtones to disqualify the entire French press. It described it as a hostile unit ("a mob," which was "insulting" the Moroccan monarchy) because it was apparently asking too many questions about the delays in rescue operations on September 9, as well as about Mohammed VI's reaction. Furthermore, when French President Emmanuel Macron expressed the desire for "divisive controversies to be silenced," he unwillingly only intensified the dispute. His clumsy video message, addressed "directly to Moroccan men and women"  with Arabic subtitles  was seen as a breach of protocol "defying the king," the kingdom's media criticized.

Who could have imagined that a natural disaster could slide into such bitterness? Did the Franco-Moroccan relationship really need to become so heated? Is its two-way ground such a minefield that each official gesture or press article  the object of suspicious, or even paranoid, interpretation in Rabat  sparks a new cycle of controversy as if in a downward spiral? So what had happened between the two capitals to cause the famous Le360, an outlet linked to Mounir Majidi  the King's private secretary  to radicalize its personal attacks on Macron on September 21, in the form of an article entitled "Part man, part woman but he admits nothing: Who is Emmanuel Macron really?" and filled with allusions to an alleged homosexuality?

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The parliament session during lawmakers voted to join the International Criminal Court on Tuesday, October 3, 2023. LILIAN GALSTYAN / AP

Armenian lawmakers approved a key step towards joining the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday, October 3. Russia said it was "wrong" to ratify the treaty to join The Hague-based court, which in March issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine and the illegal deportation of children to Russia. ICC members are expected to make the arrest if the Russian leader sets foot on their territory.

The vote illustrated a growing chasm between Moscow and Yerevan, which has grown angry with the Kremlin over its perceived inaction over Armenia's long-standing confrontation with Azerbaijan.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen hailed the Armenian parliament's ratification of the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court. "The world is getting smaller for the autocrat in the Kremlin," the European Commission president wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in reference to the warrant targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes Azerbaijan's bombardment of Nagorno-Karabakh illustrates waning of Moscow's influence

Azerbaijani forces last month swept through the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh  where Russian peacekeepers are deployed  and secured the surrender of Armenian separatist forces that had controlled the mountainous region for decades.

An online broadcast from the Armenian parliamentary session showed a majority of 60 deputies voting in favor of the proposal, with 22  mainly opposition lawmakers  voting against joining the ICC.

The Kremlin immediately criticized Armenia's decision. "We are doubtful that, from the point of view of bilateral relations, Armenia's accession to the Rome Statute is correct," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "We still believe that it is the wrong decision," he added.

Tensions have also been rising between Yerevan and Moscow over the role of Russian peacekeepers in the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, which announced its dissolution last week following the lightning military operation by Baku. The territory lies within the internationally recognised border of Azerbaijan.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan last week sought to assuage Kremlin fears, saying the initiative was not "directed against" Russia. "It comes from the interests of the country's external security, and taking such a decision is our sovereign right," he said. Pashinyan has been critical of Moscow's refusal to intervene during Azerbaijan's offensive, and previously said his country's security alliance with Moscow was "ineffective".

Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes Nagorno-Karabakh: Terror and humiliation for Armenians fleeing the separatist enclave

Tensions have also been rising between Yerevan and Moscow over the Kremlin reiterated Tuesday that Armenia has no alternative to a Moscow-led security alliance known as the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). "The Armenian side has nothing better than these mechanisms," Peskov said.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, who was on a visit to Yerevan, praised the parliament's vote. "The struggle against impunity for crimes is a condition for peace and stability," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Serbia said on Monday, October 2, that its troop numbers are back to normal near the border with Kosovo  which accuses it of trying to annex the Serb-majority north. This follows deadly clashes in the area which brought a warning from the United States.

The clashes in Kosovo's volatile north, in which a Kosovo police officer and three Serb gunmen were killed, triggered one of the gravest escalations in years in the former Serbian breakaway province with an ethnic Albanian-majority population.

Around 30 gunmen were involved in the hours-long shootout in the village of Banjska on September 24, after they ambushed a police patrol and later barricaded themselves in an Orthodox monastery near the northern border with Serbia.

The number of Serbian troops deployed near the border with Kosovo has been cut from 8,350 to 4,500, Serbian army chief of staff General Milan Mojsilovic told reporters in Belgrade on Monday.

The move was welcomed by Washington, although State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters, "We will be looking for further confirmation" to verify the pullback.

"We continue to be concerned about the cycle of rising tensions and sporadic violence in northern Kosovo and encourage both parties to return to the EU-facilitated dialogue," he said.

General Mojsilovic said the pullback "means the regular number of troops" are now in the area. "The operational regime of the [Serbian army] units (...) tasked with securing the administrative line with Kosovo is back to normal," he added.

The announcement came after Washington on Friday called on Serbia to pull its forces back from the border with Kosovo after detecting what it called an "unprecedented" Serbian military build-up. Serbia had deployed sophisticated tanks and artillery on the frontier after the deadly clashes erupted at the monastery in northern Kosovo last week, the White House said at the time.

Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes Viktor Orban looks to strengthen ties in the Balkans

Mojsilovic on Monday voiced surprise over the "deep concern of some" regarding Serbian forces deployed during what he called a "security crisis." In December 2022 and May 2023, during "similar security crises," Serbia deployed 14,000 troops in the area, he said. At the time, unlike a week ago, they were on the "highest level of alert," Mojsilovic added.

'A larger plan'

Meanwhile, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti accused Serbia of trying to annex the country's north and said that the latest clashes were part of the plan. Kurti said Kosovo police confiscated documents which showed the "terrorist" attack against police in Banjska "was part of a larger plan to annex the north of Kosovo" by a coordinated attack on tens of positions in the area.

"Establishing a corridor to Serbia would follow to enable [the] supply of arms and troops," he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. In the aftermath, Kosovo's government displayed a large arsenal of weapons and equipment and accused the government in Belgrade of backing the incident. Milan Radoicic, the vice president of Serb List  the Kosovo Serbs' main political party  resigned last week after admitting to organizing the armed group. However, he denied receiving any help from Belgrade.

Troubled history

The clash on September 24 was just the latest in a long list of incidents in Kosovo's troubled north since Pristina declared independence from Belgrade in 2008.

Serbia  and key allies China and Russia  have refused to recognize the move which came after a war between Belgrade forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s.

Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said on Monday that if Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who is also the supreme commander of the country's armed forces, would order that the Serbian army enter Kosovo, it would be done "efficiently, professionally and successfully."

But it would provide prior notice of such a move to the NATO-led KFOR mission, he said, pledging that Serbia would do all it can "to prevent such a scenario from happening (...) to maintain peace and seek political solutions."

Relations between Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority and its Serb minority remain tense. Despite years of European Union-sponsored talks between Kosovo and Serbia on normalizing ties, little progress has been achieved.
People leave Siam Paragon shopping center in Bangkok on October 3, 2023, following a shooting incident in the mall. LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA / AFP

Three people were killed and four wounded in a shooting at a major Bangkok shopping mall on Tuesday, October 3, with the attacker arrested by police.

Hundreds of people fled the upmarket Siam Paragon mall in the heart of the Thai capital as shots rang out around 4:30 pm local time, witnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin told reporters the attacker had been apprehended and the situation brought under control.

"Police are clearing the scene. The situation is easing," Srettha told reporters.

Yuthana Srettanan, director of the Erawan Emergency Center, said three people were killed and four wounded in the incident, in a message sent to reporters.

"At around 4:30 pm, I heard loud gun noises, continuously, about 10 times," Thanpawasit Singthongkham, 31, who works at a Japanese restaurant in the mall, told AFP. "Then the department store announced that there was a shooting. The emergency sign was turned on and everyone ran to get out."

In footage shared with AFP, he recorded a scrum of terrified shoppers scrabbling under metal security gates blocking shop entrances, before they fled down emergency stairwells as sirens blared In another video, shared on Facebook and verified by AFP, scores of people can be seen in the mall's basement car park, being directed by loudspeakers. Dozens of police vehicles and a number of ambulances could be seen outside one of the shopping center's main entrances in the wake of the incident.

'Terrified'

People were still being escorted from the mall, while bystanders could be seen walking past along the gridlocked road outside.

"We didn't know what was happening, then staff from a shop asked us to go inside and said there was a shooter," Chinese tourist Xiong Ying 41, told AFP. "Everyone was trying to find a place to hide. So many people were terrified, just like a scene in the zombie movies. I now feel quite scared. It happened just like two minutes after we left by crossing the bridge. We even took photos there."

Siam Paragon is one of Bangkok's top shopping destinations, hugely popular with tourists and locals alike.

The shooting comes just days before the one-year anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in recent Thai history, when an ex-police officer armed with a knife and gun attacked a nursery, murdering 24 children and 12 adults. In 2020, a former army officer went on a rampage in a shopping mall in Korat, murdering 29 people and wounding scores more.
Things are not going well between Paris and Rabat. An icy cold is blowing across a bilateral relationship that was once an excellent model of post-colonial complicity, friendly even to excess. French-Moroccan disenchantment is growing inexorably, fuelled by diplomatic friction over the Western Sahara and Algeria, and the mediocrity of the personal relationship between Emmanuel Macron and King Mohammed VI. The fact that the deadly earthquake in the High Atlas mountains on September 8 inflamed rather than calmed tensions speaks volumes about the depth of the malaise.

Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes Why diplomatic relations between France and Morocco have turned sour

Rabat refused to accept Paris's offer of assistance, which is its absolute sovereign right, but it also reflects an obvious political defiance. In response to French press coverage deemed "hostile" to the kingdom, media close to the palace unleashed a salvo of diatribes against Macron of rare violence. The French president is suspected of being the mastermind of an "anti-Moroccan" campaign in France, dejected as he is  according to Rabat's reading  by the strategic emancipation of Morocco that is broadening the spectrum of its partnerships abroad.

The Western Sahara issue

For two years now, misunderstandings have been plaguing the bilateral relationship. The Moroccans have little taste for the warmth with which Macron has undertaken his work of reconciliation with Algeria, the regional enemy brother. They fear that such a rapprochement will limit Paris's ability to move on the Western Sahara issue toward a more open admission of their sovereignty over the former Spanish colony. Yet Rabat has hardened its position on the subject since the American recognition, at the end of 2020, of the "Moroccanness" of the Western Sahara by Donald Trump, at the end of his term in office. The subsequent normalization of relations with Israel has, moreover, enabled Morocco to strengthen its military capabilities, giving it a new self-assurance bordering on hubris.

Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes Western Sahara, an unresolved dispute between Paris and Rabat

Against this backdrop, Paris's decision to drastically restrict its visa policy in North Africa in autumn 2021 inflamed spirits in Morocco. French-speaking and Francophile elites, humiliated by the obstacles to their movement, turned against Paris. Simultaneously, the press's revelation of Moroccan spying practices with Israeli Pegasus software cast a chill between King Mohammed VI and Macron, whose phone number had been targeted for potential hacking. Their personal falling out had an even more depressing effect given the bridges between the two capitals disintegrated over the years.

It is now urgent to halt the escalation of animosity. With a historic legacy, the close human, economic and cultural ties between France and Morocco make it essential to restore a climate of trust. Paris has a great deal of work to do to break away from its often paternalistic attitude toward its former colonies. Similarly, Rabat needs to understand that France is bound by international law to deal with the Western Sahara issue. It must also admit that its authoritarian stiffening at home and its intrusive practices abroad, revealed by Pegasus as well as by "Moroccogate" in Brussels, damages its image more than serves it. Therein lies the erosion of Morocco's soft power rather than in imaginary squabbles.

Read more Article reserve a nos abonnes The ethno-nationalist wave crashing over North Africa
THEY say you never forget your roots, a statement which rings true for Dr Tony Holohan as he recounts growing up in Limerick, in his new memoir.

In a candid conversation with the Leader, the former chief medical officer (CMO) explained that he spent his early years in Dublin, before relocating to Castletroy, and later, Annacotty.

His mother, Brigid Ryan, hailed from Cappamore, and his father Liam, a former garda, moved the family to the Treaty to be nearer to Brigids parents as they got older, taking a posting at Henry Street garda station.

Having started at Monaleen NS, a young Tony Holohan then moved to the CBS on Sexton Street. I was very clear that I was a city kid, reads an excerpt of his book.

He affirms the familial ties which bind him to the city through his sister Breda who resides in Raheen, and expressed gratitude for the opportunity to reconnect with old friends, in particular, Mandy Bell, a published poet, and Chris Lynch, a schoolmate.

True to his Limerick roots, he remains a steadfast supporter of John Kiely and the hurlers. Recognising their recent successes, he affirms that the Treatymen still reign supreme. That being said, he proudly wears his Dublin heritage as he supports both of his home teams in GAA.

Fondly, he also remembers the times when his late wife, Emer, would visit the city with him during university breaks.

Emer would board the train straight to the bustling Holohan household, and with five younger sisters in the home, their days were often filled with liveliness and laughter.

Their former local, The Black Swan in Annacotty, holds memories of days gone by, as does the pint or three that they shared at The Hurlers in Castletroy.

In his memoir, Dr Holohan shares his journey of being the former CMO, navigating the time of swine flu, the cervical cancer scandal, and then Covid-19, while simultaneously, supporting his two children, and Emer, his wife of 25 years, as she battled a cancer diagnosis.

We Need To Talk by Dr Tony Holohan is available in bookshops now.
An incredible 85 per cent of exhibiting space for this years IBTM World has already been sold, with numbers significantly ahead of both this time last year, and 2019.

With two months still to go until the flagship event opens in Fira, Barcelona on November 28, the organisers report that several destinations have increased their presence at the show, with some returning for the first time since the pandemic.

Regionally, The Americas has grown extensively year-on-year, with Mexico, Costa Rica and Los Angeles returning for the first time since 2019. From Asia, Jakarta will make its debut, and Hong Kong and Macao are both back and bigger than ever, with their return a show of confidence for the Greater Bay Area.

From the MENA region Jordan, Morocco and Abu Dhabi have considerably increased their stand space. This year Morocco has also invested in sponsorship and will bring their trademark hospitality to the Hosted Buyer Lounge with a special activation.

In Europe, Antwerp will have a larger presence than previously alongside their new convention bureau, and France and Paris will take larger stands to promote opportunities around the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

Barcelona will also be strongly represented, as will London, who will launch a new campaign designed to inspire attendees, as well as a practical guide on How to Do London, where they will demystify organising an event after Brexit.

The hotel sector will also feature prominently this year, with major international brands attending including Hilton; first-time exhibitor Choice Hotels International; H10 Hotels; and Melia Hotels International.

Vasyl Zhygalo, IBTM Worlds Portfolio Director, said: The resurgence in exhibitor numbers illustrates the importance of IBTM World in creating a platform for connection and community. The vast and diverse exhibitor participation represents more opportunities to do business, as well as indicating the robustness of the global business events sector. Were thrilled to see the return of several exhibitors as well as welcoming new ones and we look forward an exciting show where attendees come together to shape the future of business events.

Visitor and press registration is now open and can be accessed here. Visitor Buyers will this year have the chance to access the matchmaking platform before the show, but they must register before October 31st to be eligible.  TradeArabia News Service
The Russian occupiers shelled Kherson, as a result, a man was killed, three men and six women were also injured, head of the City Military Administration Roman Mrochko said.

"At 17:00, in Kherson city territorial community, due to shelling by the Russian occupation forces, one person was killed - a man was in the garage at the time of the attack. Nine people were also injured: three men, 63 years old and 49 years old each, and six women - the youngest is 28 years old, the oldest is 77," Mrochko wrote on the Telegram channel.

The head of the Military Administration noted that all the victims were from the suburb of Kherson, on which the Russians still carried out airstrikes on Tuesday.
A TV drama featuring a former pirate of the Caribbean is currently being filmed in Troy Studios and on locations across Limerick.

A pilot for The Wayfinders, a medieval fantasy show starring McKenzie Crook, is being filmed in the Mid-West region. The English actor has played in The Office (UK), Pirates of the Caribbean films, as well as in Game of Thrones.

Filmed by local producers Stephen Hall, Mike Jones and their company Dark Day Pictures with Camera 40, the show is directed by Glen Winter (Smallville, Arrow, The Flash).

Working with a majority of local crew and with support from Film in Limerick through Innovate Limerick, the production has filmed at Troy Studios and Pery Square in Limerick and throughout the region including at Knappogue Castle and Cratloe Woods in Clare, and in Cahir Castle and beside The Rock of Cashel in Tipperary.

Battle scenes shot near to the Rock of Cashel last week drew hundreds of onlookers in bright sunshine, to witness explosions and spectacle with actors in medieval costumes and on horses staging a siege on a castle.

The Wayfinders will explore the story of three GenZ high school students, who are unexpectedly thrown into a brutal medieval fantasy world.

Local producer Stephen Hall said: We are thrilled to be filming in the region and to have the support of the local councils, the OPW and the local towns and people to realise this ambitious and exciting production. It's incredible to be able to tell stories regionally and utilise the unique and dramatic scenery we have available to us in the mid-west. Being a Limerick man myself, it's especially satisfying for Dark Day Pictures to bring a production like this to our home turf. The Mid-West has immense talent and we are excited to bring more productions like this and more local jobs in film and TV to the area in the future."

Film in Limericks Regional Film Manager, Paul C Ryan, said: "The production have had a fantastic experience filming throughout the Mid-West at some of our most iconic locations and the crew and producers have done an amazing job with numerous action and battle scenes filmed on location as well as at Troy Studios. It is especially satisfying to see the number of locally-based crew working on The Wayfinders and all the placements and trainees who have come through Film in Limerick and our Film and TV Crew Academy, run with Screen Ireland."

The filming of Wayfinders follows a surge in TV and film production in the Mid-West, which has included Hidden Assets, The Gates, the upcoming Blackshore TV series as well as upcoming features, Woken, Double-Blind and Gods Spy.
LIMERICK'S ADARE Manor has been named the Best Resort in Europe for the second year running in Conde Nast Travelers 2023 Readers Choice Awards.

The Conde Nast Traveler Readers Choice Awards are the longest-running and most prestigious awards recognising excellence in the travel industry, celebrating the ultimate destinations on the planet.

Running since 1998, these awards are voted on by hundreds of thousands of discerning world travellers, with nominations marked on a wide variety of criteria, including service, food and atmosphere.

Last year, Adare Manor scored higher than any other European resort to win the coveted title of Best Resort in Europe, and also Best Resort in the World.

This years score is again the highest, confirming Adare Manor as winner of this exceptional accolade for an unprecedented second year running.

"We are genuinely thrilled to be recognised as the Best Resort in Europe for the second time by Conde Nast Traveler, says Brendan OConnor, General Manager of Adare Manor, "and therefore by the most important people to all of us here at the resort  our guests.

"Being chosen as their absolute favourite resort in Europe by voters who have visited and experienced our Beyond Everything approach to what we do is such a source of satisfaction and reward to all our team at Adare Manor.

"Being named Best Resort in Europe was a great honour and delight last year, but its almost more magical for us to be chosen for a second year in succession.

"It is really gratifying to have our commitment to making sure every experience at Adare Manor is truly special rewarded with this win, whether youre dropping into us from the village or from across the world.

"I would like to sincerely thank every member of our team at Adare Manor, across all departments at the resort.

"These awards recognise the best travel and hospitality experiences across our industry and I know that the professionalism and passion of each team member has contributed to this wonderful win."
PLANNERS have given the green light to multi-million euro plans to convert the landmark former Debenhams building into an 60-room apart-hotel.

As exclusively revealed by Limerick Live, the former Debenhams building in OConnell Street was acquired by Galway-based developer Michael McDonagh late last year.

Now, he has had plans approved to revamp the upper floors to accommodate an apart-hotel with 60 rooms for both tourists and business people visiting Limerick.

An apart-hotel is a type of hotel providing self-catering apartments as well as some ordinary hotel facilities  although Mr McDonagh has ruled out a food and beverage offering at the listed building.

Limerick City and County Council has green-lit the planning application from his firm Dalespell with the proposal seeking to change the use of the upper floors while retaining retail use on the ground and basement floors.

Mr McDonagh previously said he has already had interest from some big retailers, including those in the food and clothing sector to take the shop space on the ground floor.

I love this building and I just want to get it working again, he previously told this newspaper.

The former Debenhams building in OConnell Street has been out of use for three-and-a-half years.

This came after the collapse of the British retail chain in 2020, which saw the loss of 110 jobs in Limerick.

The other 10 Debenhams stores nationwide closed.

Debenhams had occupied the building in Limerick, at the junction of Sarsfield Street and OConnell Street since 2006 after it acquired Roches Stores.

Following its shuttering, it was placed on the market with an asking price of 9m.

Since acquiring the building, Mr McDonagh has held regular meetings with council executives.

Among the conditions imposed on the development include that all works be supervised by a Grade II Conservation Architect to ensure all works done to the listed building are in keeping with its architectural heritage.
DOZENS of barristers from Limerick and across the Mid-West region work in criminal law will go on strike for the first time this Tuesday in a dispute over the Government's failure to reverse cuts in fees imposed following the financial crash.

From 10am, there will be protests outside courthouses nationwide - including at Limerick Courthouse, Mulgrave Street in Limerick city where sittings of the district court and circuit court are scheduled.

The barristers will be joined by criminal defence solicitors, who are also withdrawing their services.

The exact impact of the action remains to be seen but a large number of cases have already been adjourned in advance of the industrial action while some trials have also been delayed.

Speaking in advance of the protest, Barrister Cian Kelly BL, Limerick representative on the Bar Council, told Limerick Live the decision to withdraw services has not been taken lightly.

"Unfortunately, it has become increasingly difficult to sustain a practice and continue in our profession in the area of criminal law defence. Many practitioners have had no choice but to leave this area of practice and it is not attractive to our young professionals," he said.

"This will lead to difficulties in the future regarding access to justice and will also create a divide for those who can afford and those who cannot. A fair and balanced legal system is at the very core of our democratic society and should be supported and maintained for all stakeholders to include the legal profession," he added.
Derry Girls actress Louisa Harland is set to star in Northern Irish playwright David Irelands production of Ulster American on the London stage.

The satirical dark comedy will see Dublin-born performer Harland play Northern Irish playwright Ruth Davenport, opposite The Lord Of The Rings actor Andy Serkis as English director Leigh Carver, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri star Woody Harrelson playing Oscar-winning actor Jay Conway.

It is billed as a pitch-black comedy which will see the three characters begin rehearsals for a new play which could transform each of their careers, but when it transpires they are not on the same page the night threatens to spiral out of control.

The play, from Belfast playwright Ireland, will preview at Londons Riverside Studios on December 4 and have its opening night on December 13, running until January 28.

Director Jeremy Herrin said: Im delighted that this rollercoaster of a play has summoned such a stellar roster of talent to join us for this pitch-black comedy at the beautifully refurbished Riverside Studios.

Ive always admired David Irelands fearlessness and the way he manages to skewer pretension in its many guises.

Its an honour to bring the legend that is Woody Harrelson to London; to welcome Andy Serkis back to the stage after so much success in the movies; and to enjoy the brilliant Louisa Harland going toe-to-toe with them both.

Itll be a thrilling evening and I cant wait to see our audiences reaction to this explosive show.

In 2017, Harland starred in Oscar-nominated actor Harrelsons feature film Lost In London, with her other screen credits including Channel 4 sitcom Derry Girls where she played Orla McCool opposite Irish stars Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Jamie-Lee ODonnell and Nicola Coughlan.

Ulster American first premiered in 2018 at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and later received the annual Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award and the Scotsman Fringe First Award.

Second Half Productions has announced it will offer 200 free tickets for the upcoming play to west London NHS staff through its partnership with Tickets For Good.

Tickets will go on general sale at 10am on October 12 with priority booking open from October 10.
Tech giant Meta is exploring the implementation of a 13 per month ad-free plan for Instagram and Facebook for European Union members.

According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), as part of Meta's plan, the company would charge roughly 10 a month on a desktop for a Facebook or Instagram account, and about 6 for each additional linked account.

The publication added that when it came to mobile devices, the price for a single account would jump to roughly 13, as Meta would have to factor in commissions charged by Google's and Apple's app stores.

It follows an initial report from The New York Times.

A spokesman for Meta told the WSJ that the company believes in "free services which are supported by personalised ads."

However, they said that the company "is exploring options to ensure we comply with evolving regulatory requirements."

In the context of Ireland, Meta made headlines earlier this year after it was fined 1.2 billion by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) over breaches relating to the transfer of personal data from the EU to the US.

Shortly afterwards, Meta announced that it intended to appeal this sentence.

The business said in a statement: "We will appeal the ruling, including the unjustified and unnecessary fine, and seek a stay of the orders through the courts."
Almost 8,000 taxi drivers in Northern Ireland now need to complete tax checks when renewing their operating licence.

The checks have been introduced to promote tax compliance within the industry.

The Department for Infrastructure will administer the process in Northern Ireland, which involves making sure drivers have completed their tax check before their licence applications can be considered.

Marc Gill, director of individuals and small business compliance, HMRC, said: While most taxi drivers in Northern Ireland pay their taxes accurately and on time, we want to level the playing field and tackle the small minority who dont.

The hidden economy is estimated to cost the UK Government 2 billion in unpaid taxes, which deprives funds for the vital public services we all rely on.

By linking tax compliance to licence renewal, the government hopes to discourage participation in the hidden economy and encourage drivers to fulfil their tax obligations.

The checks were rolled out in England and Wales in April 2022, where more than 120,000 people have already gone through the process.

When renewing their licence, drivers will need to use a Government Gateway account to complete the tax check on GOV.UK.

After answering a few questions about their tax registration, HMRC will provide applicants with a tax check code.

This code must be given to the Department for Infrastructure before they can proceed with the licence renewal application.
Bengaluru: In the 2009 Bollywood movie 3 Idiots, Aamir Khan, who plays an engineering student named Rancho, guides a drone with four rotors to the window of a classmates hostel room and catches him unguarded and unclad. The drone, technically known as an unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV, was an early vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) prototype manufactured by Mumbai-based startup ideaForge Technology.

The company has come a long way in the years since and is now Indias largest drone startup. It had an eye-popping initial public offering (IPO) in June, which was oversubscribed 106 times, with a 93% listing day gain on the BSE on 7 July. In the three months or so since the listing, however, the stock has been sliding steadilyideaForge shares ended trading at 864 on 3 October, still above their IPO price of 672 per share, but well below the euphoric 52-week high of 1,344.

While extreme market swings sometimes make it hard to ascertain the true value of a company, ideaForges management is confident about what the future holds, as are analysts. Today, ideaForge is sitting tight with an overall order book of around 190 crore and is profitable. For the full year ended March, its revenue stood at 186 crore on a profit after tax (PAT) of 32 crore. Revenue for the April-June 2023 quarter stood at 97.1 crore as compared to 38.7 crore in the previous quarter, while its PAT stood at about 19 crore. In comparison, the only other listed drone company, DroneAcharya Aerial Innovations, posted revenue of 18.57 crore and a PAT of 3.43 crore.

View Full Image Graphic:' Mint

In its Q1FY24 presentation to investors, the company cited a report by management consulting firm 1Lattice that listed tailwinds that would boost the performance of the indigenous drone industry. Those tailwinds include the February 2022 ban on import of drones except those used for R&D, defence and security; national security concerns that would boost local drone makers; a favourable ecosystem created by industry-friendly government policies, including the production-linked incentive scheme, and a favourable export policy.

Indeed, according to policy think tank NITI Aayog, Indias UAV market is set to expand to $50 billion over the next 15 years as drones are projected to substitute 80% of operations currently carried out by manned aircraft. The drone manufacturing potential in India could be worth $4.2 billion by 2025, growing to $23 billion by 2030, according to an August 2022 EY-FICCI report titled, Making India the drone hub of the world.

Widespread application

On average, drones made at ideaForges 21,000 sq. ft, 600-person capacity plant in Navi Mumbai, take off every five minutes for surveillance or mapping applications", says Ankit Mehta, the companys co-founder and CEO.

The companys drones are not only used by the armed forces but also for civilian purposes such as agriculture, construction, mining, oil and gas, power transmission, and search-and-rescue operations during earthquakes and floods.

For instance, the Indian Army uses ideaForges high-altitude UAVs to monitor the Line of Actual Control, and those with VTOL capabilities for surveillance purposes. In 2016, for instance, ideaForge UAVs were able to reveal the precise locations of terrorists who attacked Pampore, a town close to Srinagar. On the civilian front, ideaForge UAVs were used during the earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal, and other locations to aid in search and rescue activities.

The company has filed for more than 30 patents, deployed over 1,500 systems, and trained over 3,200 pilots in governmental organizations and the defence forces, as of FY23. Apart from riding on the companys intellectual property, Mehta wants to build a tactical category drone that can fly longer, and also look at a middle-mile logistics drone that can probably carry more than 100kg and travel over 100km.

ideaForge is also building solutions for drones-as-a-service. The pay-per-use model will help customers reduce their initial investment and increase adoption. Meanwhile, the company has started tapping international markets. We have opened a subsidiary in the US, and we are building the capability to do demonstrations there," says Mehta.

When passion pays off

Mehta was interested in building products right since childhood, but drones were the last thing on his mind when he opted for mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay. From the very first year there, Mehta started implementing his own ideas". For instance, he set out building hand crank chargers for electronic mobile devices. The idea was to help people in rural areas to survive with off-grid gadgets. It was something for which I had filed a patent when I was in college," Mehta recollects. However, since he would fall short of funds when building prototypes, he would approach faculty members for small sums of money. They would oblige by giving me some money from their existing budgets. If they did not have the money, I would simply approach another faculty member," he says.

The hopping continued until Mehta began working on various projects for IIT Bombays incubation cell, the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), and even invited other students to showcase their ideas". Thus, he met Rahul Singh and Ashish Bhat, who would become co-founders of his company. Both were two years junior to Mehta but the trio bonded well, much like the characters in 3 Idiots, due to their common love of building new stuff" and participating in robotics competitions.

Singh even dreamt up the ambitious idea of building a hovercraft (a vehicle that moves over land or water) and using it on the Powai lake adjacent to the IIT campus. Instead, we ended up building a quadcopter (also known as a quadrotor), which we thought was novel in the world of aviation, only to realize it was something invented several decades back," says Mehta with a chortle.

After graduating in 2005, Mehta, Singh and Bhat continued building drone prototypes and participating in robotics competitions. The trio finally decided to set up ideaForge in 2007, and got it incubated at SINE.

In 2008, Mehta managed to rope in his childhood friend, Vipul Joshi, as the fourth co-founder. That year, militants attacked the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, spreading panic and terror across the city. When we heard news of the naval helicopters looking into the 3rd and 4th floor of the Taj Hotel, we felt our drones could have been leveraged in a situation like that, maybe even more effectively," he recollects. It was a defining moment for Mehta. Thats what motivated us to actually convert our fun projects into something concrete."

A year later, ideaForge demonstrated Indias first quadcopter drone at the governments Defence Exhibition Organisation. In 2010, Bhat won the award for best autonomous hovering vehicle and received a mention in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)s Technology Review list of innovators under 35, for developing the worlds smallest and lightest autopilot for drones, weighing just 10 grams. Autopilot systems allow drones to operate without the need for manual remote control.

Not an easy bet

ideaForge has several marquee venture and private equity investors, including Qualcomm Asia, Infosys, Celesta Capital, and Florintree Advisors, backed by former Blackstone India head Mathew Cyriac, which is the single largest shareholder in the company. While Celesta Capital made a part exit when ideaForge listed this July, Florintree remains fully invested with an 11% stake.

But way back in 2009, not many were willing to invest in a company that made hardware, especially one that was garnering almost all of its revenue from defence contracts. Besides, India had banned drones for personal use in 2014, stunting the growth of the sector.

We struggled a lot, almost till 2015," recalls Mehta. The companys fortunes changed for the better as they started getting some big orders and bigger opportunities". It was then that they secured some early investments, which were more like pre-series A rounds". This gave Mehta the confidence to reach out to bigger investors, including Celesta Capital, where Mehta and his co-founders met people who had hardware industry experience and had scaled large businesses by leveraging hardware.

However, Nicholas Brathwaite, founder and managing partner at Celesta Capital, recounts that he initially did not share the founders enthusiasm. He was also not impressed with the drone that ideaForge had developed. But later, Brathwaite was impressed with the passion, commitment, and high intelligence quotient of the founders. Also, some components they made were pretty impressive, like the autopilot. And they had a roadmap that was pretty impressive," he says.

We knew that the team was young and lacked the experience of building or managing a business. We also knew it would probably take some time for the drone market to develop in India. I remember going to board meetings and terming their revenue predictions as too aggressive. But when you invest in a company in deeptech, you have to be committed to building a business. That takes time," Brathwaite adds. The fact that Celesta Capital was also betting on India helped Brathwaite take the final leap.

Lending wings

Buoyed by investor money, ideaForge developed the first hybrid VTOL drone with fixed wings in India in 2017. A year later, it also demoed 5G-enabled UAVs at the Indian Mobile Congress. But the pandemic slowed the growth of all drone companies, impacting the supply chain for imported partsdrone makers still import 30-60% of their electronic components.

Post covid-19, things began looking up and the governments liberalized rules in 2021 gave a fillip to the sector. Additionally, the governments production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme aims to incentivize Indian drone and drone component manufacturing companies and make India a global drone hub by 2030.

It (ideaForge) has built a strong foundation on the basis of its industry leading design and technology capabilities and vertically-integrated operations, enabling it to secure numerous contracts for defence and homeland applications, among them being a $20 million contract with the Indian Army for its SWITCH 1.0 UAVs, which it delivered on time in November 2021," said a 9 June report by 1Lattice. SWITCH UAVs are used for surveillance and security operations.

The defence sector will account for almost 50% of the number of drones to be potentially deployed in India by the end of this decade, amounting to a total market of around 1 trillion," says Arun Nagarajan, a partner at EY India. The commercial market, including security and surveillance, will amount to another 1 trillion in market value," he adds.

Growing competition

There are 333 drone startups in India, according to a 16 June note by Tracxn. These include Garuda Aerospace, General Aeronautics, Tata Advanced Systems, Adani Defence & Aerospace, Skylark Drones, and Skye Air Mobility. ideaForge, however, is the largest pure-play drone maker, and much bigger than the other drone startups in terms of revenue.

However, ideaForge also has to compete with bigger public sector companies, including Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), for defence contracts. Besides, there are multinational companies such as Lockheed Martin Corporation and Autel Robotics Corp, according to iLattice.

According to Mehta, ideaForge generated about 70% of its revenue from the defence sector last year, with the remaining 30% coming from enterprises. In its April-June earnings call on 9 August, ideaForges management said that 96% of its revenue came from defence, while 4% was from the civilian sector. Hence, a decline in government budgets, reduction in orders, termination of existing contracts, delays in existing contracts or change in government policies could easily impact its operations and margins.

Well continue to serve the defence market," says Mehta. However, we believe that the potential in the civil market getting unlocked will allow faster growth on that side."

He added that despite being public sector units, companies such as HAL and BEL had no distinct advantage since they too have to bid for tenders".

Shouvik Das contributed to the article.
The Swedish government proposes to allocate SEK 333 million (about $30 million at the current exchange rate) for special export credit guarantees for companies trading with Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy reported on Tuesday.

According to the release, Swedish officials have included a corresponding initiative in the draft budget for 2024; the document is awaiting approval.

"The fact that from next year Sweden will insure against risks in Ukraine is an important signal. This means that the investment insurance market in our country, despite all the security challenges, is starting to work. We are very grateful to the Swedish government and hope that this decision will be supported by Riksdag," First Deputy Prime Minister  Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko is quoted as saying.

The department clarified that the guarantees would be covered by the Swedish Export Credit Agency. They will apply to Swedish companies' exports of goods that can be classified as development assistance, and will apply to transactions for up to three years, but no later than the end of 2026.

The Ministry of Economy recalled that earlier participation in political risk insurance for the operation of their companies in Ukraine had already been confirmed by export credit agencies of Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain and Japan. Also, the state-owned Polish Export Credit Insurance Corporation (KUKE) is ready to insure Ukrainian and international investors.
China Evergrande Group seeks to resume stock trading in Hong Kong on Tuesday following a halt last week after its billionaire founder was put under police control on suspicion of committing undisclosed crimes.

The troubled property group said theres no other pertinent information that needs to be disclosed, in filings to the local bourse Monday. Shares in the company and units including Evergrande Property Services Group Ltd. were suspended on Thursday, a day after people familiar with the matter said the firms founder had been taken away by police.

Authorities in China notified Evergrande last week that chairman Hui Ka Yan has been subject to mandatory measures" relating to suspicion of illegal crimes," according to a company statement. The Shenzhen-based firm didnt elaborate on what the measures entailed or what crimes he is suspected of committing.

Also Read: Evergrande's billionaire chairman Hui Ka Yan is accused of crimes; stocks remain suspended: What we know so far

Chinese authorities are investigating whether Hui attempted to transfer assets offshore while the company was struggling to complete unfinished projects, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing unidentified people with knowledge of the matter.

Evergrande sits at the center of a years-long property crisis that has hurt the Chinese economy and hammered confidence in the housing market. The company faces an Oct. 30 hearing at a Hong Kong court on a winding-up petition, which could potentially force it into liquidation. Its shares only resumed trading in August after a 17-month halt  dropping 87% upon their return  as the indebted developer unveiled more losses and delayed meetings with creditors.

Evergrandes shares should react negatively to the news as the chairman issue will continue to be an overhang," said Willer Chen, senior research analyst at Forsyth Barr Asia Ltd. At this stage its hard to predict what the outcome will be. Its a messy situation now."

Also Read: China Evergrandes offshore creditors to join winding-up petition if it fails to submit new debt revamp plan: Report

The board is of the view that the operations of the company are normal," according to a separate filing by its Property Services unit. That language wasnt included in the China Evergrande Group filing, which advised holders and investors to exercise caution when considering the stock.

If the requests are granted, the shares would resume trading on the Hong Kong bourse on Tuesday.

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Compensation for independent directors has tripled over the last couple of years as companies scramble to get niche and skilled individuals who fit the bill. The demand for specialist directors is especially strong from medium- and small-scale enterprises and mid-tier firms willing to pay more for their expertise.

Companies are rebooting their boards with skilled independent directors, and they need to up the fees offered. There are regulations around what remuneration can be offered depending on the sector, but the unicorns, non-listed firms and MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) are all willing to offer a premium for the statured, credible and effective board members who can truly be a strategic asset to the organization," said Monica Agrawal, managing director for financial services in the Asia-Pacific region and India lead, board and CEO services, at Korn Ferry, a global organizational consulting firm.

India Inc. has sector-wise regulations for listed companies on how much directors can be paid. Typically, the fee is capped at 1 lakh per sitting, and in many cases, there is a profit-linked commission paid to non-executive directors, which can be an incentive to attract more skilled and reputed individuals. Compensation can vary from 20 lakh to 1 crore-plus per director, depending on the size of the company, the industry and profit-linked commissions.

View Full Image Chart: Payal Bhattacharya

A Mumbai-based headhunter specializing in board member searches noted a tripling in compensation over the past two years. According to primedatabase.com, 1,551 independent directors in 825 companies listed on the National Stock Exchange will complete their tenures in 2024.

Smaller firms which are not in the top 100 listed firms in India want to expand their businesses, attract investments, and they need a board that will improve governance," said the headhunter, who did not want to be named.

He noted that firms which were earlier unwilling to pay the capped amount as sitting fees are now willing to stretch their budgets to get niche talent in digital and consumer behaviour, and understanding of generative artificial intelligence.

Compensation is an incentive for senior industry executives who otherwise would prefer to join brag value boards" or boards of established companies.

K. Sudarshan, managing partner at executive search firm EMA Partners, said companies have fees for various committees apart from board sitting fees, and that adds to the overall compensation for independent directors. People accepted more board positions during the pandemic since meetings were virtual. But now that firms prefer physical interactions, directors are limiting the number of board positions they could accept ," he said.

However, some search firms said companies must raise their compensation package for board members.

India Inc. needs to rethink its risk-reward relationship for independent directors, which is not in sync. This is why directors often decline board roles, more so when you factor in the time commitments, and the opportunity cost," said Pankaj Arora, managing director of executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates.

Arora noted that firms have to do a reverse calculation with the given budget to fit in a director rather than the latter quoting a price. Compensation for directors is derived from the companys budget to pay, and that is then structured within the permitted components and parameters such as sitting fees and commission on profits," he added.
The Australian government on October 2 stated that it is going to take strict measures to combat international student visa scams, reported IANS.

Education Minister Jason Clare, Skills Minister Brendan O'Connor, and Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil jointly stated their intention to address the exploitation of Australia's visa system following a government-conducted rapid review reported Xinhua news agency.

The Australian government will strengthen regulations to prevent the widespread rotting of the system they said, following a government-commissioned rapid review report detailing the exploitation of Australia's visa system. O'Neil said, "The party is over, the rorts and loopholes that have plagued this system will be shut down."

These amendments to the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 will bolster the fit and proper provider test which will subsequently elevate the standards required for registration. This will alongside curb cross-ownership between education providers and agents. Their crackdown includes banning private colleges from paying commissions to education agents for enticing international students away from rival institutions. This move aims to prevent students from being lured away from high-quality universities to lower-fee courses.

Australian government also plans to monitor international student attendance to stop migrants from using student visas purely for the purpose of working in Australia. The number of student visa holders in Australia reached a record high of 660,765 by the end of June, an increase of 203,000 from the beginning of 2023, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Data from the Department of Education in September revealed that international education contributed A$26.6 billion ($17 billion) to Australia's economy in 2022, making it the country's fourth-largest export that was behind coal, iron ore, and natural gas.

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Over the past year, amid persistently high inflation, India has taken several steps to keep retail prices of rice in check. One of the them was export ban. The export curbs, rolled out since September last year, has effectively brought rice trade to a grinding halt for some varieties. Global prices have hit record highs as India is the worlds largest exporter of the food grain. But with new crop arrivals imminent, traders are hopeful that some of these restrictions may be eased.

Mint explores the contours of these curbs and if a breather is on its way.

Rice varieties affected by curbs

The initial ban in September 2022 targeted broken rice, a major import for China's hog feed. Subsequently, India levied a 20% export duty on all rice types, barring basmati and parboiled. By July this year, the country had halted non-basmati white rice exports, and the following month saw a 20% duty on parboiled rice alongside a minimum export price (MEP) of $1,200 per tonne for basmati varieties.

Impact on trade

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), these curbs have restricted an estimated 45% of Indias annual rice exports. In the fiscal year 2022-23, the country had exported rice worth 89,532 crore, amounting to over 22 million tonne. Preliminary figures indicate that from 25 August to 20 September, basmati rice exports dropped 30% year-on-year, and parboiled rice sales plummeted a steep 83%. Official data for the period is yet to be released. Meanwhile, as a direct consequence of these export restraints, global rice prices were up 35% year-on-year as of 29 September, according to the International Grains Council.

What are Indian rice exporters expecting?

Mint spoke to several rice traders and exporters and they are hopeful that the 20% export duty on parboiled rice may be revised lower or abolished after 15 October, once the Kharif harvest hits the markets. According to traders of basmati rice, the government has indicated that the MEP will be revised lower to $850 per tonne, very soon. With these decisions pending, tradeers and global buyers have adopted a cautious stance, expecting price to decline once duties and MEP are reduced. For now, some of the parboiled rice have been redirected locally which has led to a drop in prices within India, from 38 per kg (before 25 August) to 31 per kg now. Traders also said that deals may resume after 15 October, even if export restrictions are not eased. For now, any trade deal comes loaded with price risks.

But easing of exports curbs depends on the size of the upcoming harvest. Market arrivals in October and the quantity which the Food Corp. of India is able to directly procure from farmers, at minimum support price or MSP, will provide cues on the size of the crop.

What happens if export curbs are retained for longer?

Some analysts have flagged concerns that following uneven monsoon rains, India's rice production may be hit. Traders said that if export curbs are not eased India may lose market share to neighbouring Pakistan. But the decision is for the government to take after it takes a call on the size of rice harvest.

Data from the ministry of consumer affairs shows that as on 2 October average retail rice prices within India were 11% higher than last year. With pivotal state and general elections on the horizon, the government will likely tread with caution.
In 1987, industry bigwigs and civil servants noted that American semiconductor manufacturing was struggling. Japan was stealing market share and jobs, threatening national security and economic growth. In partnership with industry, the government pledged $100m ($250m in todays money) in annual subsidies to form an r&d consortium called Sematech, to boost production.

The plan, in large part, did not work. Research by Douglas Irwin of Dartmouth College and Peter Klenow of Stanford University, published in 1994, cannot find any evidence that Sematech changed investment plans in the semiconductor industry". But it holds lessons for politicians today. Once again they are keen on chips, with governments across the rich world offering subsidies worth $400bn in the coming years to boost capacity. The eu wants 20% of global chip manufacturing by 2030. Governments also want to incentivise production of rare earths, batteries and solar panels. These ambitious plans will soon collide with reality. It is hard for governments to create viable industries, and the economic costs of industrial policy tend to be high.

The history of industrial policy", a sometimes poorly defined concept that encompasses everything from tax breaks to training, gives some hope to the boosters. darpa, a government organisation which engaged in groundbreaking research after the second world war, was a clear success. Or consider the case of Kia, a South Korean car firm which, with a lot of government help, opened a car plant near Atlanta in 2009. The gleaming factory has workers from all walks of life, from young black women to grizzled Trump voters. Areas near the factory still have their rough parts, but it is the sort of place where you see young men pushing buggies, and a variety of good, cheap Korean food is available.

Let it flow

On the whole, however, industrial-policy successes are few and far between. There is no other way to interpret a paper published by the Peterson Institute, a think-tank, in which Gary Hufbauer and Euijin Jung review American industrial policy between 1970 and 2020. Its record outside America is similarly spotty. Attempts to create competitive advantage through government direction and support were generally unsuccessful," Geoffrey Owen of the London School of Economics argues in a review of post-war European industrial policy. It is no coincidence that during the 1950s, when Britain embraced that approach most enthusiastically, it fell a long way behind the rest of Europe.

Boosters say that industrial policies can work if appropriately designed. They point to South Korea. In a new paper Nathan Lane of Oxford University studies the impact of South Koreas seminal industrial pushthe Heavy Chemical and Industry (hci) drive of 1973-79, in which the government introduced policies including cheap credit to boost production and exports. Mr Lane compares industries which received help with those that did not, and concludes that intentional industrial policies likely played a critical role in creating the modern South Korean economy." In the 20 years after 1973 South Korean real gdp per head rose by 349%.

The study is well crafted, signalling the start of a new and more sophisticated chapter in the analysis of industrial policy. Yet it is not the final word on the subject. It is possible" that for the initial stages of industrialisation government efforts had a significant role", according to a review published in 2003 by Marcus Noland of the Peterson Institute and Howard Pack of the University of Pennsylvania. But old-fashioned, solid macro policy, including limited deficits and stable exchange rates, also take much credit.

Other pundits point to a more recent example of supposedly successful industrial policy: China. Since 2015, under Xi Jinping and his Made in China" project, the Chinese state has played an even more activist role in directing economic activity. Government subsidies as a share of the profits of Chinese-listed companies rose from 3% in 2012 to 5% in 2020. The number of tax measures supporting high-tech industries has jumped, according to a paper published in 2021 by Goldman Sachs, a bank. Has this helped the Chinese economy? Kind of. The country now has a global monopoly in many industries. Subsidies have allowed firms to slash prices, putting foreign competitors out of business.

It is less clear whether China as a whole has benefited from industrial policy. A recent paper by Lee Branstetter and Guangwei Li, two economists, looks at Made in China 2025". Examining listed firms, they find little statistical evidence of productivity improvement or increases in r&d expenditure, patenting and profitability" in firms which received help. Another paper using Chinese data, by Jun Du of Aston University, suggests that helping one firm with subsidies tends to harm others.

This could be because subsidies allow the survival of inefficient firms, making the industries they are in less competitive. Firms may focus on securing subsidies, which removes resources from productive use. As a result, the overall economic effect of subsidies on productivity is uncertain, and possibly negative. Total factor productivity (the amount of output per unit of labour and capital) across China has probably fallen under Mr Xi.

Can todays wave of industrial policies avoid the pitfalls of the past? Governments believe so, and are quick to point out perceived successes. Barely a day goes by without a hard-hatted politician opening a new manufacturing facility. In a recent blog post, economists at Americas Treasury boast about the countrys surge in factory construction. These are, on the face of it, encouraging trends. Yet there are plenty of concerning developments, too.

Take, for instance, Indias production-linked incentives" (pli) scheme, which pays manufacturers a sum for every unit produced (say mobile phones). Supporters boast that, following the introduction of the scheme, exports of mobile phones soared. Indeed they did. But in a recent paper Rahul Chauhan, Rohit Lamba and Raghuram Rajan, three economists, point out that mobile-phone imports also jumped. Perhaps producers were simply re-exporting phones via India in order to get the subsidy.

This year Lightyear, a Dutch solar-car company backed by the government and the European Commission, hit the financial buffers and stopped production (though it has since restarted and says it is continuing its mission of clean mobility for everyone"). Britishvolt, an electric-battery company that the British government loudly pledged to support, has also collapsed.

Promises of money today create expectations of more money tomorrow

As in the 1990s, government attempts to boost their chip industries are running into trouble. Morris Chang, the founder of tsmc, a big Taiwanese producer, told Nancy Pelosi, a senior Democrat, that American efforts to rebuild chip manufacturing at home were doomed. The firm says that production at its first plant in Arizona will be delayed until 2025 due to a shortage of specialist workers.

Economic costs are emerging from another direction: as a result of retaliation. Some of the most aggressive measures have come from China. It recently imposed export controls on gallium and germanium. China produces 98% of the worlds raw gallium, a key ingredient in advanced military technology. In February China placed Lockheed Martin and a unit of Raytheon, two American arms-makers, on an unreliable-entities list after shipping weapons to Taiwan (which China regards as part of its territory). The companies were blocked from making new investments in China and from trade activity, among other restrictions.

Governments are also finding that their promises of money today create expectations of more money tomorrow. In May Stellantis, a carmaker, paused construction at an electric-vehicle battery plant in Canada amid talks with the federal government about its support for the factory. (Stellantiss largest shareholder, Exor, part-owns The Economists parent company.) Intel is probably going to get higher subsidies for a project in Germany after complaining about rising energy and construction costs. In private, chipmakers are pretty clear that they will need subsidies for the long haul if they are to make their new Western factories work.

Flatlining

It is, of course, early days, but in the data it is hard to see much payoff from homeland economics. You might think that lots of global equivalents to Made in America" would boost manufacturing output. No such luck; across the rich world it is flat (see chart). Nor is there much sign of an innovation boom. Global investment in intellectual-property products", which includes r&d spending, is below its pre-pandemic trend. The Economist has estimated global productivity growth in real time by using data on purchasing-managers indices. In recent months it has been well below the pre-pandemic norm (see chart).

View Full Image (The Economist)

There are already questions about value for money. Mr Chauhan and his co-authors, discussing India, cannot reject the possibility that [the pli scheme] is an enormous and possibly misdirected transfer of public resources to large domestic and foreign firms". A report by Britains National Audit Office, a watchdog, noted that governance and delivery mechanisms" behind 4.2bn ($5.2bn) of net-zero funding need to be improved, and that there is a risk that the government will not achieve its carbon and economic objectives, or secure value for money". With an average budget deficit of 4% of gdp across the rich world, can anyone afford such mistakes?

Perhaps, as Jake Sullivan argues, growth is less important. In April Joe Bidens national-security adviser disagreed that all growth was good growth", focusing on its distribution. If governments can reduce inequality and boost the fortunes of blue-collar workers, then perhaps it does not matter if real gdp increases less quickly. Yet the progressive potential of homeland economics remains overstated.

 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved.

From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com
JSW Infrastructure IPO listing date: JSW Infrastructure share price listed on the bourses at a premium on Tuesday. On the NSE and BSE, JSW Infrastructure share price today was listed at 143 per share, 20.2% higher than the issue price of 119. Following a decent listing, JSW Infra shares hit 10% upper circuit.

JSW Infrastructure share price ended at at 157.30 per share on the BSE and NSE, a 32.18% premium. The total number of shares traded on the NSE was 1221.17 lakh, while the total number of shares traded on the BSE was 57.99 lakh. Day 1's total turnover (BSE+NSE) was Rs. 1,849.28 crore.

According to the BSE and NSE, the company's market capitalization at today's closing price was Rs. 33,033.02 crore.

Also Read: JSW Infrastructure IPO listing date today. GMP, experts predict strong debut of shares

JSW Infra IPO opened for subscription on Monday, September 25, and closed on Wednesday, September 27. JSW Infrastructure price band of the public offer was set in the range of 113 to 119.

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JSW Infrastructure Limited IPO had reserved not less than 75% of the shares in the public issue for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB), not more than 15% for Non Institutional Investors (NII), and not more than 10% of the offer is reserved for Retail Investors.

Also Read: JSW Infrastructure IPO subscribed 43% on day 1; retail portion oversubscribed

JSW Infrastructure IPO details

JSW Infra IPO comprises a fresh issuance of 2,800 crore worth of shares, there's no offer for sale (OFS) component.

According to Red Herring Prospectus (RHP), the company plans to invest the net proceeds from the offering into its fully owned subsidiaries, JSW Dharamtar Port Private Limited and JSW Jaigarh Port Ltd, in order to prepay or repay all or a portion of certain outstanding borrowings.

Also Read: JSW Infrastructure IPO: Issue fully booked on day 2; retail portion subscribed over 4 times

The company also intends to finance capital expenditure requirements through investment in its wholly owned subsidiary, JSW Jaigarh Port Ltd, for proposed expansion/upgradation works at Jaigarh Port, including the expansion of the LPG terminal, the establishment of an electric sub-station, and the purchase and installation of a dredger.

JM Financial Ltd, Axis Capital Ltd, Credit Suisse Securities (India) Private Ltd, DAM Capital Advisors Ltd, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Private Ltd, ICICI Securities Ltd, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Ltd, and SBI Capital Market Ltd are the book running lead managers to the Offer. KFin Technologies Ltd is the offer's registrar.

Also Read: JSW Infrastructure IPO: What does GMP signal ahead of share listing?

JSW Infra IPO GMP today

JSW Infrastructure IPO GMP today or or grey market premium is +31 similar to the previous two trading session. This indicated that JSW Infra share price were trading at a premium of 31 in the grey market on Tuesday, according to investorgain.com

Considering the upper end of the JSW Infrastructure Limited IPO price band and the current premium in the grey market, the estimated listing price of JSW Infra share price was 150 apiece, which is 26.05% higher than the IPO price of 119.

'Grey market premium' indicates investors' readiness to pay more than the issue price.

Also Read: JSW Infra IPO: Issue booked over 37 times on last day so far; check GMP, should you subscribe?

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Indian IT players are likely to report a softer set of numbers for the second quarter of the current financial year (Q2FY24) due to prevailing headwinds in the key markets. Experts expect a marginal decline in the IT firms' EBIT margin on a year-on-year (YoY) basis as the cut in discretionary programs, the growth slowdown and the increase in costs such as travel and back-to-office expenses dent profitability.

Even though the Q2FY24 numbers of the Indian IT firms may be better than the last quarter to some extent, they may still fail to meet the expectations envisaged at the beginning of the year.

"Hopes of finding a bottom in the first half of the year have not materialised, we believe, as project ramp downs, cancellations continue. We expect large-cap IT services players to report a modest (1 per cent) to 1 per cent+ constant currency (CC) QoQ (quarter-on-quarter) growth in Q2," said brokerage firm JM Financial.

The brokerage firm expects Infosys and TCS to be at the upper end while Tech Mahindra, still impacted by project ramp-downs towards the first quarter-end, to be at the bottom end of the band. Mid-caps under coverage will fare relatively better. Large deal wins, though positive, are unlikely to contribute meaningfully to FY24 revenues, JM Financial said.

JM Financial expects guidance cut by both HCL Tech (4-6 per cent from 6-8 per cent) and Coforge (12-14 per cent from 13-16 per cent).

"Barring players who gave wage hikes in Q2 (LTIMindtree, Persistent Systems), sharper cost focus will drive modest margin expansion for most. We expect commentary to remain circumspect quelling any hope of a recovery in the second half. A plateau, instead of a rebound, is more likely. Near-term stock performance should mirror that (side-ways movement)," said JM Financial.

Also Read: Q2 earnings expected to make limited waves for IT

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Brokerage firm Motilal Oswal Financial Services expects growth of the IT services industry to remain weak in Q2FY24, as macroeconomic uncertainty continues to weigh on discretionary spending.

"While the industry has witnessed an uptick in order inflow over the past two months with a focus on cost efficiency, the slowdown in project-based business is expected to hamper overall industry growth, even though Q2 is traditionally a robust season for the sector," Motilal Oswal said.

The brokerage firm expects the IT services companies under its coverage to report a median revenue growth of 1.5 per cent QoQ and 5.7 per cent YoY in Q2FY24.

Also Read: Stocks to buy this week: L&T, Exide, Aurobindo Pharma, BHEL among 12 technical picks; do you own any?

Motilal Oswal underscored that this growth rate is among the slowest observed over the last decade, despite a marginal impact from forex fluctuations. However, a focus on cost-control (led by deferrals in wage hikes) measures should lead to margin improvement in Q2, and help the industry deliver 3.7 per cent QoQ growth in EBIT and a 4.1 per cent QoQ growth in PAT.

Motilal Oswal expects the revenue growth of tier-I companies to be in the range of -1.2 per cent to +3.6 per cent QoQ CC. Revenue of tier-II players is expected to grow to the tune of +0.4 per cent to +3.2 per cent QoQ in CC terms.

Also Read: Top 5 fundamentally strong smallcap stocks to watch out in 2024

Kotak Institutional Equities forecast muted revenue growth of (-)0.6-0.8 per cent for tier-1 IT in a seasonally strong quarter.

EBIT margin will decline marginally YoY with the quarterly movement influenced by the wage revision cycle. Kotak expects muted revenue growth for mid-tier, including ERD names. The brokerage firm expects strong, and in some cases, record deal TCVs that will set the platform for FY2025E.

"We expect sharp EPS (earnings per share) cuts in Tech Mahindra, moderate ones in others (1-3 per cent) and a negligible cut for Infosys. No change in company guidance, except a marginal cut for HCL Tech. We retain a constructive view on Infosys, HCL Tech and Cyient," Kotak said.

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Disclaimer: The views and recommendations above are those of individual analysts, experts and broking companies, not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.

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The Securities and Exchange Board of Indias (Sebi) bid to tighten regulations on financial influencers, or finfluencers, could have unintended consequences on overseas banks and brokers providing services to foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), two people familiar with the matter said.

In August, the markets regulator released a consultation paper proposing a fee structure for analysts and investment advisers. In the paper, Sebi suggested that fees for investment advisers should be paid through a portal monitored by a Sebi-recognized supervisory body. The idea is to ensure that only Sebi-registered advisers give stock advice and prevent unregistered finfluencers from accessing the platform.

However, many foreign banks and brokers offer bundled services, comprising broking, custodian and research services, making it difficult to ascertain the value of just the research services, said a custodian privy to the development.

Even after a value is arrived upon, payment of the fee must be done through the platform, and FPIs dont do direct transactions in India generally. Hence, custodian banks will be forced to ensure compliance. There are more than 10,000 FPIs in India, and each one of them uses research services of multiple firms, increasing the compliance burden on banks," said the person cited above.

An email sent to a Sebi spokesperson remained unanswered.

In response to the consultation paper, the Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Asifma), a lobby group for FPIs, said altering the current broker-dealer structure could have unintended consequences.

The proposed mechanism could potentially disrupt most banks research payment mechanism in APAC (Asia Pacific) and India, and create additional frictions operationally to price, monitor and reconciliation of those payments with institutional clients," Asifma said in its response. Altering existing broker-dealer market mechanisms by which research is paid for carries the risk that there could be unintended consequences to the research market ecosystem and by association the capital markets, including the possibility of reduced stock coverage, impairment of overall market transparency and potentially the ability of small-medium cap companies to access capital."

Market participants said foreign institutions generally follow standard procedures while availing of any third-party services, including that of research analysts. Sebis idea is to cut the unregistered advisers, and that concern doesnt apply to FPIs since they generally employ the big banks and brokers to provide research service," said the second person cited above.

Asifma has proposed that Sebi should exempt bundled trading services from the ambit of the proposed payment mechanism. We also suggest that Sebi should clarify that broker-dealers whose payment mechanisms are already covered under the existing regulation are not in scope for the proposed payment mechanism."

In the discussion paper, Sebi said the creation of an exclusive platform will help registered investment advisers and research analysts differentiate themselves from unregistered entities. To be sure, Sebi rules prohibit any unregistered entity from providing research services to clients on listed companies. However, the prohibition has been very difficult to enforce after the advent of social media platforms, said market participants. In some cases, Sebi observed social media influencers, along with certain company insiders or traders, were forging schemes to pump certain stock prices.
Google Doodle's hand-quilted Doodle commemorates German Unity Day today. This day commemorates the historic reunification of East and West Germany on this day in 1990.

The fall of the Berlin Wall a year earlier was a momentous occasion that reunited loved ones after decades of separation, allowing people to travel freely within Germany. However, bridging the cultural and economic gaps that had developed between the two regions proved to be a considerable challenge.

Throughout the country, Germans come together today to reflect on the hard-won reunification and their shared aspiration to create a closely woven culture of shared understanding. This occasion is a public holiday that serves as a reminder to foster unity as a cohesive community and celebrate countrys diverse customs and identities that make up the nation.

Despite occasional differences in perspectives between East and West Germans, they will always remain connected by history. The once-imposing concrete border and barbed wire have now transformed into nearly 1,400 kilometres of lush green landscapes, symbolising hope and new beginnings. The artwork in today's Doodle beautifully represents the collaborative efforts of East and West Germans on either side of the wall, working together to achieve reunification.

In another Doodle released today Google Doodle celebrates 141st birthday of Karol Szymanowski who was a renowned Polish composer of the early 20th century. The doodle was illustrated by Wrocaw-based guest artist Pawe Szlotawa. Szymanowski's works demonstrated originality, explored many styles, and embodied absolute mastery of orchestration. Szymanowski helped Poland create its unique national style, when it gained independence in 1918.

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Delhi police register case against NewsClick under UAPA for alleged Chinese funding; search journalists' homes.

Delhi Police on Tuesday registered a case against digital media platform NewsClick under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) amid allegations that the news portal had received funding from China. Delhi Police Special Cell ACP Lalit Mohan Negi reached NewsClick office in the national capital. The police also searched homes of several journalists associated with NewsClick but no arrests made so far, PTI News agency reported. In the latest development, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick Prabir Purkayastha has been brought to Delhi Police Special Cell office on Tuesday. Police recovered the dump data of laptops and mobile phones of some journalists of NewsClick. The Special Cell has registered a new case and started investigation, officials said. The Special Cell is conducting raids on the basis of inputs provided by the central agency. Abhisar Sharma, a senior journalist, wrote on X, "Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone." Meanwile, The Press Club of India has expressed concerns regarding the incessant raids conducted at the houses of NewsClick journalists. "We are monitoring the developments and will be releasing a detailed statement," Press Club of India wrote on the X platform.

On Delhi Police conducting raids at different premises linked to NewsClick, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said, "I feel that dictatorship has come... This is a message from the BJP to all the journalists. We are in support of free journalism. We strongly condemn these raids".

About NewsClick controversy:

In August this year, US daily The New York Times alleged that Indian news portal NewsClick is among organisations funded by a network tied to US millionaire Neville Roy Singham for pushing Chinese propaganda.

Enforcement Directorate, India's anti-money laundering agency, earlier also conducted raids at the firm's premises probing its sources of funding.

The agency, in February 2021, raided the premises of NewsClick and the residences of its editors in connection with a case of alleged money laundering and conducted search and seizure operations. Its case related to alleged foreign funding is based on an FIR registered by Delhi Polices Economic Offences Wing.

At that time, ED's probe showed that foreign remittances, allegedly totalling over 77 crore, had been received by NewsClick between 2018 and 2021.

The remittances, ED claimed, came in the form of subscriptions to shares of PPK Newsclick Studio, which owns the news portal, and for providing certain services. According to ED, the remittances came from companies such as Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, Delaware; Justice & Education Fund Inc; Tricontinental Ltd Inc, USA; GSPAN LLC, USA; and Centro Popular De Midas, Brazil.

The ED claimed that these companies were linked to Singham.

ED claimed that it found an email from Singham to NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and Tricontinental executive director Vijay Prashad among others on January 26, 2020, where subtitling of a Chinese propaganda film is being talked about.

NYT this year mentioned NewsClick in one of its reports and wrote, "The authorities in India raided a news organization tied to Mr Singham during a crackdown on the press, accusing it of having ties to the Chinese government but offering no proof In New Delhi, corporate filings show, Mr. Singhams network financed a news site, NewsClick, that sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points". The report added that Singham works closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda".

But Singham categorically denied the allegations. " I am a member of, work for, take orders from, or follow instructions of any political party or government or their representatives. I am solely guided by my beliefs, which are my long-held personal views," he told NYT.

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US President holds phone talk with NATO allies in support of Ukraine

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called the telephone conversation between U.S. President Joe Biden and allies in support of Ukraine, which is resisting Russian aggression, "good."

He wrote about this on his page on X (Twitter).

Good call with NATO leaders hosted by U.S. President. As Russia continues its brutal war we are all committed to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes, Stoltenberg said.
The 28th tranche of electoral bonds opened for sale for ten days starting October 4. "The State Bank of India (SBI), in the XXVIII Phase of sale, has been authorised to issue and encash electoral bonds through its 29 authorised branches (as per the list enclosed) w.e.f. October 4-13," the finance ministry said in a statement on Friday.

What is an electoral bond?

An electoral bond is a bearer banking instrument to be used for funding eligible political parties. An eligible political party is the one registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951) and secured not less than one per cent of the votes polled in the last General Election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly.

Who can purchase Electoral Bonds?

The Electoral Bonds under this Scheme may be purchased by a Person, who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India.

The definition of Person" includes-

(i) an Individual;

(ii) a Hindu Undivided Family;

(iii) a Company;

(iv) a Firm;

(v) an Association of Persons or a Body of Individuals, whether incorporated or not;

(vi) every Artificial Juridical Person, not falling within any of the preceding subclauses; and

(vii) any Agency, Office, or Branch owned or controlled by such person

Face Value of Electoral Bonds?

The Electoral Bonds shall be issued in the denomination of Rs1000, 10,000, 1,00,000, 10,00,000 and 1,00,00,000

Electoral Bonds validity

The finance ministry further said the electoral bonds will be valid for 15 calendar days from the date of issue and no payment will be made to any payee political party if the bond is deposited after the expiry of the validity period.

From where can one buy electoral bonds?

SBI is the only authorised bank to issue electoral bonds. The authorised SBI branches include those in Bengaluru, Lucknow, Shimla, Dehradun, Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Patna, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur, and Mumbai.

28th tranche of electoral bonds opens on Oct 4, expected to benefit BJP: Ex-Union Minister

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday described electoral bonds as legalised bribery".
In Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian Army along with police officials launched a joint operation in the area of Kalakote in the Rajouri district to monitor terrorists, according to a report published by the news agency ANI. On October 1, Jammu and Kashmir received specific intelligence about the movement of some unidentified individuals in the area, said officials. A joint operation by the Indian Army and J&K Police was launched in the area of Kalakote. Use of technology is being resorted, to monitor the terrorists. Presently, intense operations are in progress," said Lt Col Suneel Bartwal, PRO Defence Jammu. An encounter broke out between security forces and terrorists on Monday evening following a cordon and search operation in a forest area of the district, said officials, adding that, two army personnel were injured in a gunfight with terrorists. The terrorists fired at the troops in an attempt to break the cordon resulting in retaliatory fire, officials said.

In the gun battle, two army personnel were injured, a senior police officer told PTI. He said that they have been hospitalized and their condition is stable.

Two terrorists are believed to be inside the cordoned area, they said, adding reinforcements have been rushed to plug all possible escape routes, they said.

Currently, an intense operation is underway.

(Disclaimer: This is a developing story. More details are awaited.)

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Maharashtra cabinet will discuss the Nanded Hospital deaths in a meeting today, news agency ANI reported. Cabinet may decide on forming an inquiry committee over the incident: Maharashtra government officials.

A day after it came to light that 24 patients died in a 24-hour period at a government-run hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded, the authorities on Tuesday confirmed that seven more deaths occurred at the same facility between October 1 and 2. The District Information Office (DIO) of Nanded, located around 280 km from here, confirmed this on a social media platform, which took the total count of the deceased patients in the hospital in 48 hours to 31. Earlier, 24 deaths were reported at the Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital in Nanded in 24 hours between September 30 and October 1.

Maharashtra hospital deaths: Congress demands probe, Kharge slams state health apparatus

The Congress on Tuesday demanded a thorough investigation into 24 deaths at a government hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge raising questions on the state government's health system.

In a post in Hindi on X, Kharge expressed his concern over the deaths.

"It is said that these patients died due to lack of medicines and treatment. A similar incident took place in a government hospital in Thane in August 2023 in which 18 patients lost their lives," Kharge said.

"Our deepest condolences to the families of the victims. Such incidents taking place repeatedly have raised a question mark on the health system of the state government," the Congress chief said, hitting out at the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra.

"We demand a thorough investigation so that the culprits of this negligence are given strict punishment by the judiciary," he said.

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More than 30 people have died in 48 hours at a government hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded. According to the latest updates by NDTV, seven more patients, including four children, died late last night at the Shankarrao Chavan Government Hospital.

This takes the death count in the Nanded hospital to 31. Among these 31 patients, 16 were infants or children.

Meanwhile, the Congress party has demanded a thorough investigation into the matter.

Also read: Maharashtra Cabinet to discuss Nanded Hospital deaths, likely to form inquiry panel

Congress President Mallikarjin on the X platform wrote, "Our deepest condolences to the families of the victims. Such incidents taking place repeatedly have raised a question mark on the health system of the state government...We demand a thorough investigation so that the culprits of this negligence are given strict punishment by the judiciary," he said.

Former party chief Rahul Gandhi Monday night alleged why there was no money for children's medicines while the BJP government spends crores of rupees on publicity.

Also read: Maharashtra death row: Sharad Pawar to Rahul Gandhi slam BJP over death of 24 including 12 infants, calls it 'Murder'

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also demanded strict action against those responsible for the inordinate number of deaths and compensation for the affected families.

What is the Nanded hospital saying?

Shyamrao Wakode, the Dean of Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital Nanded said that there was no shortage of medicines or doctors, and the patients were given proper care, but their bodies did not respond to the treatment.

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He also outlined that some of the patients were suffering from arsenic and phosphorus poisoning, snake bites, etc.

"In the last 24 hours, 24 people lost their lives. Around 12 children (1-2 days old) died in the last 24 hours. These children were suffering from different ailments. Among the adults, there were 8 patients between 70 and 80 years of age. They had different problems, like diabetes, liver failure, and kidney failure. Patients usually come here in serious condition," said Wakode, adding, "There was no shortage of medicines or doctors. Proper care was provided to the patients, but their bodies did not respond to the treatment, which caused deaths," he said.

"Due to transfers of various staff, there was some difficulty for us...We were supposed to buy medicines from the Haffkine Institute but that also didn't happen....Also, patients come from far off to this hospital and there were many patients whose sanctioned budget also got disturbed...," he added.

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Delhi police on Tuesday raided the offices of news media company NewsClick. The news media house has been under investigation for allegedly receiving funds from China.

The Delhi Police also raided the homes of several of NewsClick journalists, in what critics are describing as an attack on one of India's few remaining independent news outlets. Newsclick, the news organization NewsClick was founded in 2009. The portal has gained the reputation as a rare Indian news outlets that is willing to criticize Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his brand of politics. Reportedly, a number of other news organizations have been investigated for financial impropriety under Modi's Hindu nationalist government, as international monitors warn that press freedom is eroding in India. Delhi Police crackdown on Newsclick Earlier today Delhi Police, on Tuesday, acted on the information provided by Enforcement Directorate, and raided 30 locations in the national capital.

Electronic devices like mobile phones and laptops were seized and five journalists were taken for further questioning. Some journalists, including Urmilesh and Abhishar Sharma, were taken to the Lodhi Road Special Cell office for questioning.

Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone," journalist Abhisar Sharma wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Another journalist, Bhasha Singh, wrote on X, "Finally last tweet from this phone. Delhi police seizure (sic) my phone."

Among those raided were historian Sohail Hashmi.

His sister, Shabnam Hashmi, posted on X, "Today, early morning at 6 am, Delhi Police's special cell raided Sohail Hashmi's residence. 6 people barged into the house and the bedroom."

Details of Delhi Police's raid on Newclick

The raid by Delhi Police on NewsClick offices and journalists started from 6 am at over 100 places in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, and Mumbai.

Teams from all ranges of Delhi Police Special Cell were including 500 cops are deployed in this raid.

PTI reported that they have posed a list of 25 questions to the NewsClick journalists.

NDTV reported, the Delhi police questioned the NewsClick journalists on protests by farmers against the Modi government's "black" farm laws, and protests in Delhi's Shaheeh Bagh against the citizenship law.

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Founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha was taken to the NewsClick south Delhi office. A forensic team is also at NewsClick's south Delhi office. Purkayastha was later seen leaving the office with Delhi Police.

View Full Image Newsclick writer Paranjoy Guha Thakurta being taken to the special cell offices by the Delhi Police in connection with the case registered on August 17th under UAPA and other sections of IPC, in New Delhi on Tuesday. (ANI )

Case against NewsClick

Investigative authorities in India registered a case against the NewsClick site and its journalists on17 August, weeks after a New York Times report alleged that the NewsClick website had received funds from an American millionaire who, the Times wrote, has funded the spread of Chinese propaganda."

NewsClick has denied the charges.

The case was filed under a draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,an anti-terrorism law that allows charges for anti-national activities" and has been used against activists, journalists and critics of Modi, some of whom have spent years in jail before going to trial.

No one has been arrested in connection with NewsClick so far.

INDIA protests raids on NewsClick

Opposition bloc INDIA strongly condemned the raids on NewsClick journalists linked and alleged that the BJP governments "coercive" actions are directed only against those who speak truth to power and not against those who spread hatred and divisiveness.

The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) said in a statement that the government has also tried to convert the media into a mouthpiece for its partisan and ideological interests by facilitating the takeover of media organisations by crony capitalists.

The Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, and the Samajwadi Party as well as the Press Club of India reacted to the searches and criticised the government for the action.

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The Biden Administration urged the Indian government to cooperate with Canada in its investigations into the death of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a US State Department official said on Monday.

Secretary of State Tony Blinken raised the issue during his meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar here last week.

Addressing a daily news conference, State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller said, As he made clear then, Ill reiterate now, we remain in close coordination with our Canadian colleagues on this question."

We have engaged with the Indian government on a number of occasions to urge them to cooperate with Canadas investigation. The secretary had an opportunity to do that in his meeting with the foreign minister on Friday," he said as quoted by PTI.

I will let the Indian government speak for themselves and I will speak for the United States government, and we urge that cooperation," the official said when asked if India has agreed to cooperate with Canada.

Currently, the United States is in close coordination with Canada on allegations regarding the Indian governments involvement in the Nijjar killing row, ANI reported.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently alleged that the Indian government was behind the fatal shooting of Nijjar, who was a designated terrorist in India. He was gunned down outside a Gurdwara, in a parking area in Canada's Surrey, British Columbia on June 18.

Trudeau claimed his country's national security officials had reasons to believe that "agents of the Indian government" carried out the killing of the Canadian citizen, who also served as the president of Surrey's Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.

Notably, Canada has yet to provide any public evidence to support the claim about the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

India has suspended its visa services in Canada, following Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau's allegations of Indian involvement in the killing.

Amid strained ties, India issued an advisory for its citizens and those who are traveling to Canada to exercise utmost caution in view of growing anti-India activities and politically-condoned hate crimes and criminal violence" in the country.

(With inputs from agencies)

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New Delhi: The state-run Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has forayed into funding airport projects and sanctioned its maiden financing for a greenfield airport project in Andhra Pradesh. This is part of the power-sector lenders plan to diversify its loan book and venture into funding other types of infrastructure projects, as Mint reported earlier. The power-sector lender has been diversifying its loans portfolio to areas such as e-mobility, metro rail, irrigation and utility scale energy storage, among others.

The company said on Tuesday that at a recent meeting in Shillong, the board of directors sanctioned loans amounting to 15,000 crore for various projects, including the airport. "As part of its diversification strategy and funding for infrastructure projects, PFC sanctioned its maiden financing for a Greenfield Airport project in Andhra Pradesh," it said.

The board also reviewed strategic agendas pertaining to the companys business diversification strategy, including exploring avenues for expanding the business into new market segments and accelerating funding in the renewable energy space, the current domestic and international market scenario and its impact on PFCs borrowing costs, and strengthening internal systems to improve asset quality.

Diversifying

Mint reported earlier that PFC has been diversifying its loans portfolio to new areas. We reported on 28 May, citing sources, that PFC was in talks with Omans Galfar group, which will be developing the stretch of the new National Highway-52 (old NH-65), passing through Salasar, Rajasthan, to the Haryana border.

The previous month, the company approved a 633 crore loan to Gensol Engineering Ltd for the acquisition of 5,000 passenger EVs and 1,000 cargo EVs to venture into the e-mobility segment.

Its annual report for FY23 said the company has taken a significant step towards diversification by entering the broader infrastructure sector. "This strategic shift represents a long-term endeavour to enhance portfolio diversification and foster growth of our loan asset book. With a forward-looking perspective, we have designed this venture to create a more robust and resilient financial position while capitalising on the evolving demands of the market," it said.

"Our commitment to maintaining a balanced portfolio is evident in our policy of lending up to 30% of the outstanding loan book, conditional on two-thirds of the new sanctions in a financial year being towards the power sector," read the annual report.

At 1.25 pm, shares of PFC were trading at 248.90 on the BSE, down 1.19% from their previous close.
A wide range of gifts and mementos gifted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the recent past have been displayed as part of an exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Arts here. The exhibition began on Monday and the items will be put up for e-auction.

In a post X (formerly Twitter), PM Modi shared some pictures from the exhibition and said these are a testament to the rich culture, tradition, and artistic heritage of India". "Starting today, an exhibition at the @ngma_delhi will display a wide range of gifts and mementoes given to me over the recent past. Presented to me during various programs and events across India, they are a testament to the rich culture, tradition and artistic heritage of India," he wrote on the microblogging site. Like always, these items will be auctioned and the proceeds will support the Namami Gange initiative. Here is your chance to own them! Do visit the NGMA to know more. Sharing the website link for those who cant visit personally," he added. Take a look at the images below,

According to the auction website PM Mementos, a painting of the Banaras Ghat is being sold at the highest price of 64,80,000. Other mementos, including 900 paintings, indigenous handicrafts, intricate sculptures, and enchanting folk, range from 100 to over 64 lakh. All are set to be auctioned this year, of these, 150 are already on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art in the national capital. The rest are available on the official website  pmmementos.gov.in.

Earlier in the day, Union Minister of State for Culture Meenakashi Lekhi held a press conference on the auction.

"Auction of mementos & gifts presented to PM on various occasions is live now. Request everyone to participate in the e-auction and contribute towards Namami Gange project," she posted on X.

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Congress MP from Wayanad Rahul Gandhi visited the Golden Temple in Amritsar for the second day on Tuesday. Congress took to microblogging site X to share images of Rahul Gandhi paying paying obeisance at the Golden Temple, considered the most revered Sikh place of worship. The X post informed that Rahul Gandhi paid obeisance and served Langar. In the images the Congress MP was also seen washing dishes along with other visitors to the temple. With a blue scarf on his head, the former Congress chief paid obeisance at the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple. Gandhi performed 'seva' (voluntary service) by offering water to devotees on Monday at the Golden Temple. @RahulGandhi ji paid obeisance at Sri Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar and served langar." the post read. On Monday, Rahul Gandhi also visited the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, and performed 'seva' by cleaning water bowls used by devotees. Punjab Congress president Raja Waring had on Monday said that Rahul Gandhi was on his personal, spiritual visit. "Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels  Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights!" Click here! "Rahul Gandhi ji is coming to Amritsar Sahib to pay obeisance at Sachkhand Shri Harmandir Sahib. This is his personal, spiritual visit, lets respect his privacy. Request all party workers to not be physically present for this visit. You all can show your support in spirit and meet him the next time," the Punjab Congress president posted on X.

Senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said that the former Congress president was on a personal spiritual visit to the Golden Temple.

"Congress MP @RahulGandhi is on a personal spiritual visit. He paid obeisance at Darbar Sahib #GoldenTemple Amritsar. The country has been going through a very tumultuous period. The kind of violence that happened in the BJP-ruled state, #Manipur has stunned the entire world. Communal clashes also took place in Haryana, another BJP-ruled state. The Congress Party always wishes for a better future for the country. Therefore, apart from making other efforts, it also seeks the kindness of God" he posted on X.

The visit to Punjab is also seen as an outreach ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha polls. The Congress party had lost power to Aam Aadmi Party in 2022. After spending some time at the shrine, he went to a local hotel and returned later in the evening and performed 'seva' at 'Chhabeel', where he served water to the visiting devotees.

After performing 'seva', Gandhi went to the sanctum sanctorum again and listened to the 'Shabad Kirtan' (religious hymns) there.

Later, he took part in the traditional ritual of 'palki seva', the closing rite in which the Guru Granth Sahib is taken for 'Sukhasan' to the Akal Takth, said Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) IT wing incharge Jaskarn Singh.

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The opposition on October 2 slammed BJP government over the death of 31 people. 24 patients including 12 infants died in 24 hours from October 1 to 2 at the Shankarao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital in Nanded, Maharashtra.

This news has drew strong reactions from opposition leaders, including Sharad Pawar, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Chaturvedi, who are demanding accountability and immediate action.

Sharad Pawar, the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party, asserted that the incident points to the failure of government systems and called for a serious response to ensure the safety of patients in the future. In a post on social media platform X, he stated, The unfortunate incident of death of 24 people including 12 newborns in 24 hours in a government hospital in Nanded is literally shocking."

He recalled a similar incident that took place in Kalwa Hospital of Thane Municipal Corporation in which 18 people died. He alleged that the government did not take this incident seriously leading to its reoccurrence.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova Nicu Popescu held talks and coordinated steps on European integration.

I had a call with Nicu Popescu to reaffirm Ukraines commitment to its strong partnership with Moldova in the face of common security challenges. We coordinated our European integration steps. As future EU members, Ukraine and Moldova are working together to make Europe stronger, he said on Twitter.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insisted on Tuesday that his government was not looking to escalate the situation with India. The remarks came hours after reports indicated that New Delhi had asked more than 40 diplomats to leave the country.

Canada is not looking to escalate the situation with India. Will continue to engage responsibly and constructively with New Delhi. We want to be on the ground in India to help Canadian families there," Reuters quoted Trudeau as saying.

Earlier on Tuesday the Financial Times quoted sources to assert that India had called for the repatriation of 41 diplomats by October 10. Those who ignored the call for departure could have their diplomatic immunity revoked after the deadline.

Trudeau however declined to confirm the expulsion reports while addressing the media on Tuesday.

ALSO READ: India tells Canada to withdraw dozens of diplomats amid Nijjar killing row

Tied between India and Canada have been strained for several weeks now after Trudeau said there were credible allegations" of New Delhi's involvement in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The 45-year-old Sikh separatist leader  a Canadian citizen  was killed by masked gunmen in Surrey in June. The allegations were vehemently denied by Indian authorities even as Ottawa doubled down on its claims.

Since then both countries have expelled a senior diplomat each and India has also canceled visas for Canadians. Trudeau had frosty encounters with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the G20 meeting in New Delhi earlier this month. A few days later, Canada had canceled a trade mission to India planned for the fall.

intelligence pertaining to the death of Nijjar. According to a New York Times report citing sources 'shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners' had prompted Trudeau's allegations.

Meanwhile, US officials are believed to have provided Ottawa with information pertaining to the death of Nijjar. According to a New York Times report citing sources 'shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners' had prompted Trudeau's allegations. The accusations have put the Joe Biden-led government in an awkward diplomatic spot with officials acknowledging the matter but being careful to avoid casting blame.

(With inputs from agencies)

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US President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden will appear in federal court in Delaware on Tuesday and is expected to plead not guilty to charges of illegally possessing a handgun. Currently, he is facing three felony charges stemming from his 2018 purchase of a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver.

Biden is charged with two counts of making false statements for claiming on forms required for the gun purchase that he was not using drugs illegally at the time.

He faces a third charge, based on the same statements, that he illegally possessed the gun -- which he had for only 11 days in October 2018 -- before it was gotten rid of.

Biden's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has informed the court that the president's son plans to plead not guilty at Tuesday's 10:00 am (1400 GMT) arraignment at a federal courthouse in Wilmington, the hometown of the Bidens, AFP reported.

Lowell had also asked Judge Christopher Burke to allow Biden, who lives in California, to appear by video instead of in person but the request was denied.

"The defendant should not receive any special treatment in this matter," Burke wrote in his ruling.

In July, a deal with federal prosecutor David Weiss -- which would have erased the gun charges while Biden pleaded guilty to two tax charges and avoided prison -- fell apart.

That led to Weiss filing the three felony gun possession charges against Biden.

If convicted, Biden could in theory face 25 years in prison, though in practice such offenses, if not accompanied by other charges, are seldom punished by any jail time.

Weiss, who was elevated to special counsel for the Biden probe after the plea deal fell through, in the meantime has signaled that he is still investigating Biden on possible tax charges, as per AFP reports.

Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine and China while his father was vice president under Barack Obama have been a constant target of Republicans.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, bowing to pressure from the party's hard right, authorized the launch last month of an impeachment investigation into the president.

The younger Biden has not been charged with any crimes related to his foreign business dealings, however, and no credible evidence has emerged so far that his father was involved in anything illegal.

Hunter Biden is a Yale-trained lawyer and lobbyist-turned-artist, but his life has been marred by alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction. His legal woes threaten to cast a shadow over his father's campaign for reelection next year.

The 80-year-old president has stood firmly by his only surviving son throughout his personal and legal struggles, saying in an interview earlier this year that Hunter has "done nothing wrong."

"I trust him. I have faith in him," Joe Biden said.

(With AFP inputs)

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WILMINGTON, Del.Hunter Biden walked into a federal courthouse in Delaware one morning in late July set on admitting to misdemeanor tax charges, in hopes that a plea deal with prosecutors would end years of legal scrutiny. It turned out not to be so simple for President Bidens son.

More than two months later, the younger Biden is set to return Tuesday to that same federal courthouse in Wilmington with his legal woes far from resolved. He is expected to plead not guilty to felony charges related to his 2018 purchase of a handgun, during a court hearing that will open a new stage in a long-running legal saga that is coming to a head as his father campaigns for re-election.

The court appearance underscores the heightened legal peril the younger Biden, 53, faces on several fronts.

After months of scrutiny from House Republicans, he now figures prominently in an impeachment inquiry focused on his business dealings and those of other members of the Biden family. He has brought civil lawsuits alleging the invasion of his privacy, including one against the Internal Revenue Service over disclosures two agents made while voicing concerns about the investigation into his taxes.

His most immediate problem is the criminal indictment on charges to which he plans to plead not guilty Tuesday. In July, Hunter Biden was set to admit to failing to pay his taxes in 2017 and 2018, as part of a plea deal that would allow him to avoid prosecution on a gun charge. The deal dissolved during the hearing, as federal prosecutors and Bidens legal team disagreed in open court about the immunity it granted the presidents son from potential additional charges.

In the fallout of that dramatic court hearing, Biden was charged last month with lying about his drug use when he purchased a handgun in 2018 and with illegally possessing the weapon. Bidens indictment centered on a federal government form he was required to fill when he purchased a .38-caliber handgun from a Delaware gun store.

Prosecutors have alleged that, when asked on that form about whether he was using drugs, Hunter Biden answered that he wasnt. He has publicly said he struggled with addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol around the time of the gun purchase.

Hunter Biden was also charged with possessing an illegally obtained gun for 11 days, from Oct. 12 to Oct. 23, 2018.

His lawyers and other legal experts have argued that the Justice Department rarely prosecutes gun charges such as those brought against the presidents son, particularly against nonviolent offenders, unless they can be connected to more serious conduct. His defense may benefit from a recent Supreme Court decision that bolstered gun ownership rights and came under harsh criticism from his father.

Prosecutors didnt bring tax charges against him last month, but they could still do so.

In the face of a federal indictment and House Republicans, Hunter Biden has mounted a legal counteroffensive of sorts. His lawsuit against the IRS alleges that the two agents, in airing concerns about the handling of the tax investigation, disclosed information that federal law deems secret.

Mr. Biden has no fewer or lesser rights than any other American citizen," his legal team argued in the 27-page lawsuit, adding that no agency or government official has a right to violate his rights simply because of who he is."

Meanwhile, in his criminal case, the younger Biden tried to stay physically out of court. Ahead of Tuesdays scheduled hearing, his lawyer asked a judge to allow his client to appear via videoconference rather than have him travel across the country for what should be a rather short proceeding."

Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke denied the request, saying Biden should not receive special treatment in this matter."

Write to C. Ryan Barber at ryan.barber@wsj.com and Sadie Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com
TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and several other party leaders were detained on Tuesday night after they held a dharna at the Union Rural Development Ministry office here demanding a meeting with the minister. The development came as the tug-of-war between the Centre and the West Bengal government over the release of funds to the state intensified with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) holding protests in the national capital for the second consecutive day. Earlier, Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday lashed out at the Centre, accusing it of trying to intimidate protesters who had gathered in the national capital to press for the release of funds to West Bengal.

Banerjee, along with TMC lawmakers, state ministers and supporters including MGNREGA workers, protested at Jantar Mantar here, a day after they held a two-hour dharna at the Rajghat on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary before being evicted by the police.

"Yesterday they sent around 5,000 to 10,000 police personnel, RAF and other forces to stop 50 leaders of the TMC. Today as well the number of security personnel here makes it appear as if India-China war is going on here," said Banerjee, flanked by party leaders holding placards on the stage.

He also mentioned Manipur and said while violence continues in the northeastern state, the Centre is focused on stopping protesters.

The TMC leader accused the central government of trying to threaten the protesters and said despite all its efforts, the Centre could not stop the TMC.

The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal has accused the BJP-led NDA government of withholding 15,000 crore in dues to the state under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and PM Awas Yojana.

The BJP has rejected the charge and accused the TMC of doing a "drama" in Delhi to divert attention from the scams in West Bengal.

Lok Sabha MP from Krishnanagar Mahua Moitra alleged the Centre is collecting taxes from West Bengal, but not giving the state's dues.

"We have not come here to beg but for our rights... Mamata Banerjee is fighting not only for Bengal, but for the people of the entire country," the firebrand leader said.

"All those people who are close to BJP and Modiji dont work as labourers. It is the poor people who have worked and are not getting paid. Eleven lakh people who deserve to get homes under Awas Yojna are not getting money," she alleged.

Demanding the release of funds by the Centre, West Bengal Minister of Rural Development Pradip Mazumdar said Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh, in a meeting with him on November 7, 2022, had assured that the funds would be released.

"There is no difference between the poor people of Begusarai (Giriraj Singh's constituency) and Bengal," Mazumdar said.

"They have not released the rightful funds even after our repeated attempts. The people who withheld our funds even after promising to release them have made false promises in 2019," he said.

TMC leaders are scheduled to meet Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti as Giriraj Singh is not in Delhi.

On Monday, at a press conference held in his constituency Begusarai, Giriraj Singh alleged that the Center's money was "siphoned off" by the state government. The minister said over 25 lakh job cards have been deleted in the state and added that the Centre was contemplating ordering a CBI probe.

With Agency Inputs

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IT WAS A close-run thing, says the director of the power station, as he thinks back to last November. The Russian missile was heading directly for the turbine hall; but it hit some of the plants many power lines a split second before impact, throwing it off course and thus sparing the heart of the operation. It was one of eight missiles to have struck here since the invasion began last year. Now Ukrainian officials are jumpy. The directors name and the location of the station cannot be revealed, they say, nor the locations of factories that have been rushing to fulfil orders for new equipment to replace what has been damaged and destroyed. The officials make no secret of their fear that, in terms of energy, the coming winter could be worse than last.

In the switching yard, from where the plants electricity is distributed, workers are busy installing new insulators, replacing Soviet ones from the 1960s that were shattered during another strike. The cables above buzz softly. A 30-year-old high-voltage transformer, larger than a locomotive, previously used as a back-up elsewhere, is being connected to the system to replace one which was destroyed in another attack. Two exhausted engineers nap in the shade nearby.

Throughout the power station sand-filled bastions surround key pieces of machinery to protect them from shrapnel but, says the director, in the event of a direct hit there is nothing that can be done. Encasing high-voltage transformers in concrete shells is not an option because they overheat.

Ukraines engineers have been widely praised for preventing the collapse of the countrys energy system last winter when it came under sustained Russian attack. Ingenious schemes were found for moving both electricity and equipment around the country. Before the invasion Ukraine had the capacity to produce considerably more energy than it consumed, which gave it a buffer as parts of the system were knocked out. A recent modernisation programme also meant that it had many old but only recently retired transformers, which could be reconnected. Even so, between October 10th and the end of last December the average Ukrainian household had no electricity for a cumulative period of five weeks.

The damage inflicted by the Russian campaign to freeze Ukrainians into submission last winter was immense. According to a report by the UN Development Programme power-generating capacity in April 2023 was down 51% from just before Russias invasion in February 2022. Nuclear power accounts for the largest part of Ukraines energy output, and while the three working nuclear stations still under Ukrainian control have not been directly attacked, the capture of its Zaporizhia plant, the largest in Europe, by Russia has meant that nuclear-generating capacity is down 44%.

With financial and physical help from its allies Ukraines engineers have been working around the clock to repair what they can in time for the coming winter. This comes on top of regular maintenance for a system with much-aged equipment. But it is a slow process.

One hundred new high-voltage transformers have been ordered, half to be produced domestically and half procured abroad; but attacks on Ukrainian factories have meant that few domestic ones have actually been made. As they arrive the foreign ones will be kept safe in Poland and Romania until they are needed.

German Galushchenko, Ukraines energy minister, says that the country is bracing for a renewed attack on its energy system but, with no more excess capacity and little in the way of spare equipment, it is much more vulnerable than it was last year. Ukraines allies have stumped up money but much is routed via international financial organisations. Their procurement processes for equipment are very slow, he says, so he is asking them for a martial law approach" to speed things up. One important improvement compared to before the invasion is that Ukraine is now connected to the European grid, and so it can import power if needed.

Ukrainians now have plenty of experience of how to cope with large-scale attacks, says Mr Galushchenko; but he adds that he expects the Russians, too, to have learned from their experience of failing to destroy the system". When asked what is the best way to ensure that the lights stay on this winter, he says wearily that the country needs more air-defence systems. On September 21st, for the first time since the spring, Russia sent a wave of drones against the Ukrainian power grid; four-fifths of them were shot down.

DTEK, a private company, produced around a quarter of Ukraines energy before the war. Since then it has lost more than 20% of its capacity, says Dmytro Sakharuk, its executive director. Of its pre-war workforce of 60,000, some 5,000 are now in the army. So many have gone to fight that 250 women are now working underground in its coal mines (before the war women did not work underground). The most frustrating thing, he says, is that when DTEK crews repair or replace damaged equipment the Russians simply attack it again. It is like being a hamster in a wheel."

Mr Sakharuk also says that cyber-attacks could be an even bigger threat this winter than missiles and drones. A successful assault can paralyse the whole system" and that can be much more dangerous than physical damage". Ever since the invasion began DTEK and Ukraines cyber warriors have been battling Russias hackers; and this, he says, is a game of cat and mouse". Once you develop a new way to protect yourself the hackers find a new way around your defences. You are always in motion," he says.

 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on www.economist.com
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday visited poll-bound Chhattisgarh to lay the foundation stone for several developmental projects worth 27,000 crore in the state which is ruled by Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel.

At the event, PM Modi hit out at Congress, whose Opposition INDIA ally Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's government released the caste-based census. While the Opposition bloc has hailed it as their victory, the leaders of BJP has been quick to hit out at the grand old party and its allies. On Tuesday, PM Modi, who has harped on the fact that UPA government used caste to divide the society said, Since yesterday, Congress leaders are saying 'jitni aabadi utna haq'... I was wondering what the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be thinking." He used to say that the minority has the first right to the country's resources... But now Congress is saying that the population of the community will decide who will have the first right to the country's resources..." PM Modi added. So now do they (Congress) want to decrease the rights of the minority? Do they want to remove the minorities?... So, should the Hindus, who have the largest population, come forward and take all their rights?... I am repeating Congress party is no longer being run by Congress people. Senior leaders of Congress are sitting with their mouths shut, neither are they asked, nor do they dare to speak after seeing all this. Now Congress has been outsourced...."PM Modi hit out at Congress at the gathering in Chhattisgarh. "Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels  Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights!" Click here!

Ahead of crucial assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, PM Modi said Congress has provided ghotalebaaz sarkar" to the people of the state and corruption and crime are at their peak".

The Prime Minister, who inaugurated a steel plant at an event before addressing the rally, said the facility belongs to the people of the state.

The Prime Minister said that steel industries developed here will provide jobs to more than 55,000 people.

PM Modi dedicated to the nation and laid the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth about 27,000 crore in Chhattisgarh, including the NMDC Steel Ltds steel plant at Nagarnar.

He inaugurated the steel plant at Nagarnar built at a cost of more than 23,800 crore. The steel plant is a greenfield project that will produce high-quality steel.

Chhattisgarh is among five states that will go to the polls by the end of the year. BJP is seeking to oust the Congress government in the state which came to power in 2018.

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LONDON : British media regulator Ofcom will this week push for an antitrust investigation into Amazon and Microsoft's dominance of the UK's cloud computing market, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The recommendation, first issued by Ofcom in April, will remain in the body's final report on the matter, set to be published on Thursday, one of the sources said.

Between them, Amazon and Microsoft enjoy a combined market share of 60-70%. Meanwhile, their closest competitor, Alphabet's Google, has around 10%.

The watchdog previously said it had considered referring the market for investigation by the CMA, the British competition regulator.

Ofcom warned the current state of Britain's cloud computing market made it difficult for some existing customers to bargain for a good deal with their provider.

Technical restrictions and discounts encouraging customers to keep using a single provider for all their needs, even when better alternatives were available, could be considered anti-competitive, the body said in a report earlier this year.

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"We are concerned that constraints on customers' ability to use more than one provider could make it harder for smaller cloud providers to win business and compete with the market leaders," it read.

Both Amazon and Microsoft previously said they would continue working with Ofcom ahead of the publication of its final report.

In response to Ofcom's earlier proposal, Microsoft submitted a 58-page response, stating an investigation could ultimately harm consumers.

It would be a particularly unfortunate outcome if UK businesses and public sector customers faced less vibrant and competitive cloud solutions on a global stage than those available to their rivals in the EU, the U.S. and China," it said.

Amazon, Microsoft, and Ofcom did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday. A spokesperson for the CMA declined to comment.

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According to Alfred Nobel's will, the Nobel Prize in Physics was to go to "the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics." The prize has been awarded every year except for 1916, 1931, 1934, 1940, 1941 and 1942.

Here is the full list of winners:

2023: Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne LHuillier won the 2023 prize for devising a way to generate pulses of light measured in attoseconds  one quintillionth of a second. An attosecond is to a second what a second is to the age of the universe, a miniscule slice of time so short that it can be used to peer at the movements of electrons and molecules.

2022: American physicist John Clauser, French physicist Alain Aspect and Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger each shared the 2022 prize "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science, according to the Nobel Prize organization. Their work demonstrated that what Einstein so famously dubbed "spooky action at a distance" is real and laid the groundwork for early quantum computers.

2021: The 2021 Nobel prize went to three scientists whose work alerted the world to the dangers of climate change. The prize was awarded for "for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems." Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann shared one-half of the prize "for the physical modeling of Earths climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming" while Giorgio Parisi won the other half "for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales."

2020: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 was divided amongst a trio of black hole researchers. One half of the award went to Roger Penrose, "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity", while Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez jointly shared the other half "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy"

2019: Canadian-American James Peebles of Princeton University received one-half of the Nobel "for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. The other half of the prize was awarded jointly to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, "for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star," the Academy said. Mayor is a professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and Queloz is at both the University of Geneva and the University of Cambridge in the U.K.

Together, the trio won the Nobel "for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earths place in the cosmos," the Academy said.

2018: Arthur Ashkin was awarded one half of the prize, and the other half was awarded jointly to Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou, "for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics." This was the first time in 55 years that a woman was part of the Nobel Prize in physics. [Read more about the 2018 prize and Nobel Laureates]

2017: Half of the 9 million Swedish krona ($1.1 million) award went to Rainer Weiss of MIT. The other half was shared jointly to Barry Barish and Kip Thorne of Caltech. The prize honored the trio's "decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves," according to Nobelprize.org. The three scientists were integral in the first detection of the ripples in space-time called gravitational waves. The waves in this case came from the collision of two black holes 1.3 billion years ago.

2016: One half was awarded to David J. Thouless, of the University of Washington, Seattle, and the other half to F. Duncan M. Haldane, Princeton University, and J. Michael Kosterlitz, Brown University, Providence. Their theoretical discoveries opened the door to a weird world where matter can take on strange states. According to the Nobel Foundation: "Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter. Many people are hopeful of future applications in both materials science and electronics."

2015: Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald for showing the metamorphosis of neutrinos, which revealed that the subatomic particles have mass and opened up a new realm in particle physics.

2014: Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura for their invention of an energy-efficient light source: blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

2013: Peter Higgs of the United Kingdom and Francois Englert of Belgium, two of the scientists who predicted the existence of the Higgs boson nearly 50 years ago. [Related: Higgs Boson Physicists Snag Nobel Prize]

2012: French physicist Serge Haroche and American physicist David Wineland, for their pioneering research in quantum optics.

2011: One half awarded to Saul Perlmutter, the other half jointly to Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess, "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae."

2010: Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene."

2009: Charles K. Kao, "for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication," and Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit  the CCD sensor."

2008: Yoichiro Nambu, "for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics," and Makoto Kobayashi, Toshihide Maskawa, "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature."

2007: Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg, "for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance"

2006: John C. Mather and George F. Smoot, "for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation."

2005: Roy J. Glauber, "for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence," and John L. Hall and Theodor W. Hansch, "for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique."

2004: David J. Gross, H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek, "for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction."

2003: Alexei A. Abrikosov, Vitaly L. Ginzburg and Anthony J. Leggett, "for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids."

2002: Raymond Davis Jr. and Masatoshi Koshiba, "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos," and Riccardo Giacconi, "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources."

2001: Eric A. Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle and Carl E. Wieman, "for the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates."

2000: Zhores I. Alferov and Herbert Kroemer, "for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics," and Jack S. Kilby "for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit."

1999: Gerardus 't Hooft and Martinus J.G. Veltman, "for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions in physics."

1998: Robert B. Laughlin, Horst L. Stormer and Daniel C. Tsui, "for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations."

1997: Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips, "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light."

1996: David M. Lee, Douglas D. Osheroff and Robert C. Richardson, "for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3."

1995: Martin L. Perl, "for the discovery of the tau lepton," and Frederick Reines, "for the detection of the neutrino."

1994: Bertram N. Brockhouse, "for the development of neutron spectroscopy," and Clifford G. Shull, "for the development of the neutron diffraction technique."

1993: Russell A. Hulse and Joseph H. Taylor Jr., "for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation."

1992: Georges Charpak, "for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multiwire proportional chamber."

1991: Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, "for discovering that methods developed for studying order phenomena in simple systems can be generalized to more complex forms of matter, in particular to liquid crystals and polymers."

1990: Jerome I. Friedman, Henry W. Kendall and Richard E. Taylor, "for their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics."

1989: Norman F. Ramsey, "for the invention of the separated oscillatory fields method and its use in the hydrogen maser and other atomic clocks," and Hans G. Dehmelt and Wolfgang Paul, "for the development of the ion trap technique."

1988: Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger, "for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino."

1987: J. Georg Bednorz and K. Alexander Muller, "for their important break-through in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials."

1986: Ernst Ruska, "for his fundamental work in electron optics, and for the design of the first electron microscope," and Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, "for their design of the scanning tunneling microscope."

1985: Klaus von Klitzing, "for the discovery of the quantized Hall effect".

1984: Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer, "for their decisive contributions to the large project, which led to the discovery of the field particles W and Z, communicators of weak interaction."

1983: Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, "for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars," and William Alfred Fowler, "for his theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions of importance in the formation of the chemical elements in the universe."

1982: Kenneth G. Wilson, "for his theory for critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions."

1981: Nicolaas Bloembergen and Arthur Leonard Schawlow, "for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy," and Kai M. Siegbahn, "for his contribution to the development of high-resolution electron spectroscopy."

1980: James Watson Cronin and Val Logsdon Fitch, "for the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons."

1979: Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg, "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current."

1978: Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, "for his basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics," and Arno Allan Penzias, Robert Woodrow Wilson "for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation."

1977: Philip Warren Anderson, Sir Nevill Francis Mott and John Hasbrouck van Vleck, "for their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems."

1976: Burton Richter and Samuel Chao Chung Ting, "for their pioneering work in the discovery of a heavy elementary particle of a new kind."

1975: Aage Niels Bohr, Ben Roy Mottelson and Leo James Rainwater, "for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection."

1974: Sir Martin Ryle and Antony Hewish, "for their pioneering research in radio astrophysics: Ryle for his observations and inventions, in particular of the aperture synthesis technique, and Hewish for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars."

1973: Leo Esaki and Ivar Giaever, for "for their experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors and superconductors, respectively," and Brian David Josephson, "for his theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effects."

1972: John Bardeen, Leon Neil Cooper, John Robert Schrieffer, "for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory."

1971: Dennis Gabor, "for his invention and development of the holographic method."

1970: Hannes Olof Gosta Alfven, "for fundamental work and discoveries in magnetohydro- dynamics with fruitful applications in different parts of plasma physics," and Louis Eugene Felix Neel, "for fundamental work and discoveries concerning antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism which have led to important applications in solid state physics."

1969: Murray Gell-Mann, "for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions."

1968: Luis Walter Alvarez, "for his decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen bubble chamber and data analysis."

1967: Hans Albrecht Bethe, "for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars."

1966: Alfred Kastler, "for the discovery and development of optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms."

1965: Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Julian Schwinger and Richard P. Feynman, "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles."

1964: Charles Hard Townes, "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle," and Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov and Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov, "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle."

1963: Eugene Paul Wigner, "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles," and Maria Goeppert-Mayer and J. Hans D. Jensen, "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure."

1962: Lev Davidovich Landau, "for his pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium."

1961: Robert Hofstadter, "for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons," and Rudolf Ludwig Mossbauer, "for his researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the effect which bears his name."

1960: Donald Arthur Glaser, "for the invention of the bubble chamber."

1959: Emilio Gino Segre and Owen Chamberlain, "for their discovery of the antiproton."

1958: Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Ilja Mikhailovich Frank and Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm, "for the discovery and the interpretation of the Cherenkov effect."

1957: Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao (T.D.) Lee, "for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles."

1956: William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain, "for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect."

1955: Willis Eugene Lamb, "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum," and Polykarp Kusch, "for his precision determination of the magnetic moment of the electron."

1954: Max Born, "for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wavefunction," and Walther Bothe, "for the coincidence method and his discoveries made therewith."

1953: Frits (Frederik) Zernike, "for his demonstration of the phase contrast method, especially for his invention of the phase contrast microscope."

1952: Felix Bloch and Edward Mills Purcell, "for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connection therewith."

1951: Sir John Douglas Cockcroft and Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton, "for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles."

1950: Cecil Frank Powell, "for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and his discoveries regarding mesons made with this method."

1949: Hideki Yukawa, "for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces."

1948: Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, "for his development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation."

1947: Sir Edward Victor Appleton, "for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer."

1946: Percy Williams Bridgman, "for the invention of an apparatus to produce extremely high pressures, and for the discoveries he made therewith in the field of high pressure physics."

1945: Wolfgang Pauli, "for the discovery of the Exclusion Principle, also called the Pauli Principle."

1944: Isidor Isaac Rabi, "for his resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei."

1943: Otto Stern, "for his contribution to the development of the molecular ray method and his discovery of the magnetic moment of the proton."

1940-1942: No Prizes awarded.

1939: Ernest Orlando Lawrence, "for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements."

1938: Enrico Fermi, "for his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons."

1937: Clinton Joseph Davisson and George Paget Thomson, "for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals."

1936: Victor Franz Hess, "for his discovery of cosmic radiation," and Carl David Anderson, "for his discovery of the positron."

1935: James Chadwick, "for the discovery of the neutron."

1934: No Prize awarded

1933: Erwin Schrodinger and Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory."

1932: Werner Karl Heisenberg, "for the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has, inter alia, led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen."

1931: No Prize awarded

1930: Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him"

1929: Prince Louis-Victor Pierre Raymond de Broglie, "for his discovery of the wave nature of electrons."

1928: Owen Willans Richardson, "for his work on the thermionic phenomenon and especially for the discovery of the law named after him."

1927: Arthur Holly Compton, "for his discovery of the effect named after him," and Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, "for his method of making the paths of electrically charged particles visible by condensation of vapor."

1926: Jean Baptiste Perrin, "for his work on the discontinuous structure of matter, and especially for his discovery of sedimentation equilibrium."

1925: James Franck and Gustav Ludwig Hertz, "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom."

1924: Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn, "for his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy."

1923: Robert Andrews Millikan, "for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect."

1922: Niels Henrik David Bohr, "for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them."

1921: Albert Einstein, "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect."

1920: Charles Edouard Guillaume, "in recognition of the service he has rendered to precision measurements in Physics by his discovery of anomalies in nickel steel alloys."

1919: Johannes Stark, "for his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields."

1918: Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, "in recognition of the services he rendered to the advancement of Physics by his discovery of energy quanta."

1917: Charles Glover Barkla, "for his discovery of the characteristic Rontgen radiation of the elements."

1916: No Prize awarded.

1915: Sir William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg, "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays."

1914: Max von Laue, "for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals."

1913: Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, "for his investigations on the properties of matter at low temperatures which led, inter alia, to the production of liquid helium."

1912: Nils Gustaf Dalen, "for his invention of automatic regulators for use in conjunction with gas accumulators for illuminating lighthouses and buoys."

1911: Wilhelm Wien, "for his discoveries regarding the laws governing the radiation of heat."

1910: Johannes Diderik van der Waals, "for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids."

1909: Guglielmo Marconi and Karl Ferdinand Braun, "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy."

1908: Gabriel Lippmann, "for his method of reproducing colors photographically based on the phenomenon of interference."

1907: Albert Abraham Michelson, "for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid."

1906: Joseph John Thomson, "in recognition of the great merits of his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases."

1905: Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard, "for his work on cathode rays."

1904: Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt), "for his investigations of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery of argon in connection with these studies."

1903: Antoine Henri Becquerel, " "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity," and Pierre Curie and Marie Curie, nee Sklodowska, "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel."

1902: Hendrik Antoon Lorentz and Pieter Zeeman, "in recognition of the extraordinary service they rendered by their researches into the influence of magnetism upon radiation phenomena."

1901: Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen, "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him."
During his trip to the Kharkiv region, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, met with representatives of the AFU units, in particular the 15th mobile border detachment of the brigade type Steel Cordon and the 113th, 125th separate brigades of the Territorial Defense Forces of the AFU.

"A meeting on the security situation at Kupyansk - Lymany section: General Syrsky's report on the defense in Kharkiv region, offensive actions in Bakhmut and other areas. Reports of local heads of the SBU and the National Police. A separate meeting on the preparation of the region for the winter period," Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram channel.

"We are proud of the defenders who showed maximum strength in the defense of Kharkiv region. Today I had the opportunity to personally thank them, present awards, shake hands. Glory to our heroes! To each and every one!" the President added.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The service for reimbursement of deposits in banks in the event of their withdrawal from the market has become available in the mobile application of government services Diia, Svitlana Rekrut, Managing Director of the Deposit Guarantee Fund (DGF), has said.

"The most important thing is that we all remember that now in Ukraine there is a 100% guarantee of deposits... Depositors will have the opportunity to return all funds back remotely, continuously, clearly and conveniently," she said at the presentation of the service in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Rekrut clarified that the service was developed by the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Deposit Guarantee Fund.

"Today we present the services of refunding funds to depositors of bankrupt banks: 1.4 million accounts, 3.2 billion funds are available for payments, and this is a service for depositors of 34 bankrupt banks," Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation, Development of Education, Science and Technology - Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov added.

According to Rekrut, now depositors have three options to return funds: come to the nearest branch of the agent bank with a passport and identification code, receive the deposit remotely using a phone call with identification and in the Diia phone application in a few clicks.

The head of the Deposit Guarantee Fund clarified that among the participants in the deposit reimbursement program in Diia are: PrivatBank, Ukrgasbank, Universal Bank, FUIB and Idea Bank, but the list may expand.

Fedorov indicated that in order to reimburse a deposit through the Diia portal, you need to register in the application, find the deposit reimbursement service, mark in the list the bank in which the funds were (if there were several of them, you first need to mark one), submit an application and within three days the funds will be credited to the eSupport card. If the depositor does not have such a card, it can be quickly issued through banks participating in the program.

Rekrut emphasized that at the moment there are no restrictions on the amount of reimbursement of deposits, and funds from the eSupport card can be spent without any restrictions.
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The timing of the Succession Planning Advice Grant Scheme (SPAG) is opportune. This is a positive initiative by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in relation to access to land and succession planning.

The Land Mobility Service since its inception has seen the increasing demand for relevant, accurate and independent advice to be provided to landowners and farm families.

The grant scheme of up to 1,500 towards the provision of advice and knowledge to farmers over the age of 60, is a great opportunity for farm families to be armoured with the knowledge and options to make informed decisions and plans.

There is increasing uncertainty in farming at present; continued low margins in some sectors, production constraints in others, and non-farming competition for land.

Despite all this, opportunities must be allowed to exist for skilled young trainee farmers who want to farm, together with viable and sustainable options for older farmers who want to step back.

In order for any industry, including agriculture to thrive, meet modern environmental, security and technology challenges, it needs young, skilled and innovative people.

There is clear evidence that young people in farming add to local communities and better adopt new and environmental technologies. Coupled with this, recent surveys indicate that about one third of farmers want to retire.

Many cannot progress this because of lack of knowledge and fear. This fear can be income security, impact on entitlements and scheme payments, tax, fear for land care and what will they themselves do if a successor is found  i.e., post-retirement or stepping back options.

The Land Mobility Service has the experience, knowledge, and expertise to provide relevant and accurate Information and explain options including how this works in reality.

There is usually a range of viable options. Farm families and landowners cannot plan without first having proper information.

The Land Mobility Service is an approved provider under this grant scheme. The service is the leading independent provider of succession planning advice and facilitator of farm arrangements.

In order to support future knowledge transfer, the service will be hosting information events nationwide in conjunction with other professionals, farm organisations and supporting co-ops.

Options for landowners and opportunities for young farmers is key to successful generational renewal. There are challenges, but options do exist, making it all the more important to be armed with proper relevant information.

Currently the very real risk exists of farmers and landowners being encouraged into unsustainable overpriced arrangements.

Past experience has shown this to be a recipe for disaster, evidence already exists of problems with recent arrangements.

Such problems lead to strife, non-payment, and poor land care. These pressures are also making things difficult for genuine young farmers, realism and sustainability need to prevail.

The Land Mobility Service is a Macra initiative supported by farm stakeholders nationwide.

Austin Finn a B.Ag. and Chartered Accountant together with Patrick Brady also a B.Ag. and Farm Planner are the lead providers of succession planning advice. Queries can be directed to admin@landmobility.ie 086 0357499 / 086 0404002 www.landmobility.ie
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: October 03 2023

Competitive selection process singles out firms for performance, workplace relations, and community engagement.

HIA-LI, one of Long Islands largest business associations, honored five of the regions most outstanding businesses at the organizations 29th Annual HIA-LI Business Achievement Awards ceremony held recently at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury.

An award selection committee evaluated competing firms and organizations based upon factors including corporate accomplishments, superior employee relations, and commitment to the overall Long Island community and beyond.

Over the course of nearly 30 years, many today view the HIA-LI Business Achievement Awards as the Academy Awards of the Long Island business community, said Terri Alessi-Miceli, President and CEO of HIA-LI. These high-achieving companies have created unparalleled workplace environments, while also serving as first-class corporate citizens.

Our Business Achievement Award winners are the inspirational pacesetters for the Long Island economy as a whole, said Carol A. Allen, Board Chair of HIA-LI and President and CEO of Peoples Alliance Federal Credit Union. HIA-LI encourages all businesses throughout our region to emulate the great examples set by these excellent firms.

HIA-LI presented awards in the following categories:

The honoree in the Large Business category, comprising firms with a workforce of 100 or more, was Hauppauge-based Contract Pharmacal Corporation, a pharmaceutical manufacturer. The award was presented to Chief Operating Officer Jeff Reingold.

Other finalists in the Large Business category included Hauppauge-based Suffolk OTB; Woodbury-based Cameron Engineering; Bus Patrol, based in Hauppauge; and Citrin Cooperman, whose regional office is in Melville.

The second award category consisted of Small Businesses employing fewer than 100 workers. The award went to LGC Studios, a production studio based in Edgewood. The award was presented to President Jay Demetriou and CEO Greg Demetrious.

In the Small Business category, other finalists included Ronkonkoma-based Enviroscience Consultants; Amplitech Group of Bohemia; Melville-based Premier Benefit Plans; and Sasserath & Co., based in Ronkonkoma.

In the Not-for-Profit category, the recipient was the Huntington-based Family Service League, a social service agency providing support to children, individuals, and families. CEO Karen Boorshtein accepted the award on behalf of the organization. This is Family Service Leagues second Business Achievement Award.

Other Not-for-Profit finalists included Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Long Island, based in Westbury; Riverhead-based Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk; the Commack-based Marty Lyons Foundation; and Nassau-Suffolk Law Services of Islandia.

In a category reserved for firms less than five years in age, HIA-LI also presented a Rookie of the Year Business Achievement Award to Patchogue-based Native Ceuticals, a seed to shelf producer and distributor of CBD-based products. Accepting the award was Founder/Owner Billy Hatzichristos.

In addition, HIA-LI presented a Business Achievement Award in the Leadership category to JP Morgan Chase & Co., whose regional office is in Melville. Long Island Market Team Lead Jennifer Marks accepted the award. They were chosen for their deep-rooted commitment to Long Islands economic growth and community well-being. JP Morgan Chase has invested millions in initiatives like Ascend Long Island, alongside contributions exceeding $3.9 million to various nonprofit organizations in Suffolk and Nassau, focusing on financial health, community development, skill-building, and entrepreneurship.

Approximately 300 guests attended the gala event.

ABOUT HIA-LI

Now in its 45th year, HIA-LI is one of Long Islands largest business advocacy organizations. It also represents the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge, the largest industrial park in the Northeast. The park supports 55,000 jobs, produces $13 billion in goods and services each year, and accounts for eight percent of Long Islands gross domestic product. For more information, go to www.HIA-LI.org or call (631) 543-5355.
Woman Crashes Car into New Bethpage Federal Credit Union Building in Port Jefferson Station

Local News

By Lon Cohen Published: October 02 2023

The bank in the Nesconset Shopping Center was recently built.

A woman accidently hit the gas instead of the brake and crashed her vehicle into Bethpage Federal Credit Union, at 4900 Nesconset Highway in Port Jefferson Station, on Monday at 11:57am, according to Suffolk County Police.

Photo: Terryville Fire Department Facebook page.

The Terryville Fire Department responded to the scene reporting the incident on their social media page.

According to a police report, a female employee was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries. The driver, who was alone in the vehicle, was not injured.

Photo: Terryville Fire Department Facebook page.

The bank building was recently built in the Nesconset Shopping Center.

Correction: The original article ientified this vehicle as a Toyota Prius.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: October 03 2023

Patients should be able to trust that their wellbeing will be the top priority for the health care providers they visit, said Attorney General James.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr, and New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin filed a complaint against Fresenius Vascular Care, Inc. (FVC), one of its New York-based executives, Gregg Miller, M.D., and several of their affiliates for subjecting Medicaid recipients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) to unnecessary surgeries and defrauding the New York state Medicaid program. The defendants allegedly scheduled ESRD patients for appointments every three to four months purportedly to preserve their dialysis access sites. At these appointments, the defendants sedated the patients and performed invasive procedures on their veins and arteries, putting already vulnerable patients at a heightened risk of grave complications. In reality, most of these patients had no problems receiving dialysis and did not need these surgeries. Moreover, FVCs parent companys own research showed that the so-called monitoring surgeries they performed do not benefit ESRD patients and in fact can damage their ability to receive life-saving dialysis treatment.

Patients should be able to trust that their wellbeing will be the top priority for the health care providers they visit, said Attorney General James. Our complaint alleges that Fresenius Vascular Care not only spent years endangering vulnerable patients with unnecessary invasive surgeries, they used those procedures to defraud taxpayer-funded programs that provide health care for low-income and elderly Americans. Today were taking action to stop these abusive practices and ensure New Yorkers can trust that they will be properly cared for when they walk into a doctors office.

Todays complaint, jointly filed in federal court in Brooklyn with the attorneys general of Georgia and New Jersey, alleges that FVC knowingly subjected ESRD patients  including elderly people, people of color, and low-income individuals  to unnecessary and invasive procedures to increase its revenues. As alleged in the complaint, Medical Directors were trained on the FVC philosophy: simply increase revenue and decrease expense. FVC allegedly falsified patient referrals, ignored relevant medical records, and falsified diagnostic reports to justify billing for repeated diagnostic and surgical procedures. These procedures included fistulagrams, which are radiological procedures in which dye is injected into the patients vein or artery to visualize the port and surrounding blood vessels, and angioplasties, in which wires and balloons are inserted into veins or arteries that have narrowed to restore the patients blood flow.

As alleged in the complaint, due to FVCs scheme, a 41-year-old ESRD patient in New York underwent at least 27 unnecessary angioplasties from December 2012 to May 2018 at a Fresenius Vascular Access Center in the Bronx and an 80-year-old ESRD patient in Brooklyn underwent at least 15 unnecessary angioplasties during the same time period.

The complaint further alleges that FVC knowingly operated a scheme to trap patients in a cycle of clinically timed evaluations that subjected them to these procedures every three to four months. The procedures carried grave risks such as over-sedation, infection, ruptured blood vessels, and internal or external bleeding. The complaint alleges that FVC pressured its providers to adopt this scheme, by creating contests to incentivize its staff to maximize the number of procedures done on dialysis patients and pushing doctors who questioned the scheme to quit. At one point, Dr. Miller allegedly told a physician who questioned whether the repeated procedures were necessary, How can you expect to make money if you are sending 80% of the patients home?

This lawsuit, which seeks damages and penalties under the New York False Claims Act and other state laws, is the result of a joint investigation with the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of New York and the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units. The case was initiated by two doctors, who are pursuing claims on behalf of 16 additional states pursuant to those states false claims acts. The lawsuit was filed under the qui tam provisions of the federal and state false claims acts, which allow average citizens to file civil actions on behalf of the government and to share in the proceeds of any recovered funds.

The case is being handled by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) including Special Assistant Attorneys General Logan J. Gowdicott and Jill D. Brenner under the supervision of MFCU Civil Enforcement Division Chief Alee N. Scott. The case was investigated by Principal Auditor-Investigator Karin Flynn under the supervision of Regional Chief Auditor Stacey Millis, Detective Stanislav Tabakov under the supervision of Detective Supervisor Dominic DiGennaro, Acting Executive Officer Ronald Lynch, and Commanding Officer Chief William Falk, and Legal Assistant Alexandra Schmidt. The MFCU is part of the Division of Criminal Justice and is led by Director Amy Held and Assistant Deputy Attorney General Paul J. Mahoney. The Division of Criminal Justice is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General Jose Maldonado and overseen by First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy.

The MFCUs total funding for federal fiscal year (FY) 2023 is $65,717,936. Of that total, 75 percent, or $49,288,452, is awarded under a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $16,429,484 for FY 2023, is funded by New York state. Through MFCUs recoveries in law enforcement actions, it regularly returns more to the state than it receives in state funding.

Reporting Medicaid Provider Fraud: MFCU defends the public by addressing Medicaid provider fraud and protecting nursing home residents from abuse and neglect. If an individual believes they have information about Medicaid provider fraud or about an incident of abuse or neglect of a nursing home resident, they can file a confidential complaint online or call the MFCU hotline at (800) 771-7755. If the situation is an emergency, please call 911.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: October 03 2023

Together, we can make a significant and positive impact on the Farmingdale High School community during their time of need says Bagel Boss CEO Andrew Hazen.

Bagel Boss, a beloved iconic local eatery, is proud to announce an upcoming initiative aimed at giving back to the community and supporting Farmingdale High School during a challenging time. In response to a recent tragic incident involving the school's band, Bagel Boss has decided to launch a special fundraising campaign to aid Farmingdale High School.

At Bagel Boss, community involvement has always been at the heart of our mission, and we are committed to helping our local communities and schools during times of need. To show our support for Farmingdale High School, we are excited to introduce Farmingdale-colored bagels a/k/a Daler Bagels, featuring black, green, and white hues, which will be available at our Long Island stores.

What makes this initiative even more special is that 100% of all proceeds from the sale of these unique bagels will be donated directly to Farmingdale High School.

The fundraising effort is scheduled to run for approximately one week, during which time we aim to generate as much support as possible.

At the culmination of this campaign, Bagel Boss plans to present a substantial donation to Farmingdale High School.

Together, we can make a significant and positive impact on the Farmingdale High School community during their time of need says Bagel Boss CEO Andrew Hazen.

We are deeply grateful for your unwavering dedication to our values and our community. Let's demonstrate the strength of the Bagel Boss family and make a meaningful difference in the lives of the students and families at Farmingdale High School says Hazen.

About Bagel Boss
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: October 03 2023

Grants Will Support Education Programs by Modernizing Facilities and Enhancing Student Experience while Spurring Economic Development.

Governor Kathy Hochul has announced $63.6 million in capital grants at 30 colleges and universities across New York State through the Higher Education Capital Matching Grant Program. These HECap awards support projects that provide construction of new laboratory and research spaces, educational facilities as well as the purchase of new instructional technologies and equipment.

New Yorks colleges and universities are second to none, and thanks to more than $60 million in state capital funding, we are making transformative renovations at top schools across the state so that they can continue to raise the bar, Governor Hochul said. From the purchase of cutting-edge scientific equipment to overhauling libraries and student centers, these investments will take our institutions to the next level and ensure that students pursuing higher education in New York State have access to the very best resources and facilities.

Under the Governor's leadership, the Higher Education Capital Matching Grant Program has enabled campuses across the state to make critical investments in their infrastructure and equipment while creating construction jobs. Campuses that receive grants are required to invest at least $3 of their own funds for every $1 of state funds they receive.

When combined with the colleges matching funds into these projects, more than $250 million will be invested in New Yorks higher educational communities.

Selected Award Amounts Include:

Fordham University  Renovations of the McShane Center, $5 million

Molloy University (Rockville Center)  Construction of building for Healthcare Workforce Development, $5 million

St. John Fischer University (Rochester)  Library renovation to create Student Center for Success, $5 million

Canisius University of Buffalo  Creation of Allied Health Laboratories and Facilities, $1.4 million

Siena College (Loudonville)  Science Complex Equipment Purchase, $750,000

The funds were awarded at the September 27 meeting of the HECap Board and were awarded pursuant to a competitive application process. The three-member HECap Board includes one member chosen by the Speaker of the Assembly, one member chosen by the Temporary President of the Senate, and a third member chosen by the Governor. DASNY acts as staff to the HECap Board and administers the program. A full list of projects awarded funding is available on the DASNY website.

A request for grant applications for the next competitive round was also approved at the HECap Board meeting. Since HECaps inception in 2005, the State of New York has awarded $336.3 million in funding to 274 projects at colleges and universities across New York State.

State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky said, The Higher Education Capital Matching Grant program is a stellar example of a public-private partnership that works for all New Yorkers. The HECap program helps campuses across the state make critical investments in their infrastructure and equipment, keeping New York's independent colleges and universities competitive on a national and global level.

Assembly Member Patricia Fahy said, "New York's private colleges and universities are vital to our state economy and educate more than 500,000 students every year. Ensuring these institutions are able to retain and attract students, faculty, and staff with critical investments in infrastructure is key to maintaining enrollment and advancing a top-tier education. As Chair of the Higher Education Committee in the Assembly, I'm committed to working with my Senate counterpart Toby Ann Stavisky, Governor Hochul, and our private colleges and universities to deliver the resources they need to continue to thrive."

Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities President Lola Brabham said, Thank you, Governor Hochul, HECap Board Chair Smingler, and the State Legislature for supporting this important program. HECap grants are an investment in infrastructure and higher education that provides both immediate and long-term returns for all New Yorkers. HECap stimulates economic growth in communities across the state, while ensuring that New York remains a global leader in higher education and innovation.

More information on the HECAP program can be found here. Click here for full list of grant awards.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Kharkiv as part of a working trip to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) brigades in Lyman-Kupyansk direction.

In particular, as the head of state said on his Telegram, he held a meeting with Kharkiv leadership, which was also attended by the Minister of Energy, the heads of Ukrenergo and Naftogaz.

We discussed the protection from Russian shelling, energy supply to the cities and villages of Kharkiv region, protection of energy facilities, restoration of housing and social sphere, as well as humanitarian demining with the relevant officials, he said.

According to him, the meeting also resulted in instructions on preparations for the heating season, reconstruction, and physical protection of energy facilities from Russian attacks. Everything needs to be fulfilled, and some issues require significant acceleration, the President noted.

Zelenskyy also stressed that it is extremely important that Kharkiv, despite everything, does not just hold on, but helps keep our entire east strong.

A proud and bright city that will always be a city of strength for Ukraine and the whole of Europe, the President stated.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: October 03 2023

Charlotte's alleged abductor, Craig Nelson Ross Jr., 47, was captured after leaving a ransom note at the home of the victims family.

Governor Kathy Hochul provides an update on the rescue of Charlotte Sena. Photo Credit: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Monday night that 9-year-old Charlotte Sena, who had been kidnapped from Moreau Lake State Park in Saratoga County on Saturday, has been found safe and the suspect in her disappearance has been arrested and charged.

We are overjoyed at the news that Charlotte Sena has been located safely this evening after an intense days-long search. Our hearts are with her family as they welcome her home, she said. Thank you to the New York State Police, New York Park Police and all who worked so tirelessly to find Charlotte. It is because of their efforts that Charlotte will be able to return home safe to her family.

Charlotte's alleged abductor, Craig Nelson Ross Jr., 47, was captured after leaving a ransom note at the home of the victims family; fingerprints that the suspect left on the note were fed into a police database, which returned a match for Ross in connection with a 1999 DWI arrest.

He literally drove up to the familys mailbox, assuming they were not home at 4:20 in the morning, opens the mailbox and inserts the ransom note leaving the critical piece of evidence behind...his own fingerprint, Hochul said at a press conference.

Soon after ascertaining his identity, a SWAT team tracked Ross down and took him into custody, with the suspect reportedly resisting arrest at the time. Charlotte herself was discovered alive and physically unharmed, being held inside the cupboard of Ross' RV camper that was parked in the backyard of his mothers house.

Immediately the little girl was found in a cabinet cupboard, Hochul said. She was rescued and she knew she was being rescued. She knew that she was in safe hands.

Charlotte reportedly was kidnapped while she was alone riding her bike on Saturday through Moreau Lake State Park; she had been there on a camping trip with her family. When her parents, David and Trisha, went looking for their missing daughter, all they found was her abandoned bike on a trail.

The authorities were notified, and soon a 400-person search party began combing the park and its surrounding areas.

It is currently unknown if Ross  who reportedly lived just two miles from the victims home  had specifically targeted Charlotte, or if the alleged abduction was random.
Legislators Urging New York Guv to Sign Bill to Help Cannabis Farmers Sell Their Crop to Tribal Nations

Politics

By Lon Cohen Published: October 03 2023

Cultivators are sitting on unsold crop that will spoil if not sold.

Cannabis farmers will get skunked if they cant move their crop to market. With only 23 dispensaries open statewide there are over 200 farmers with weed they cant sell, according to a letter that bipartisan Senate and Assembly members wrote to Governor Kathy Hochul last week.

This has resulted in more than 250,000 pounds of unsold cannabis, the letter read. Farmers who took out loans and leveraged all their assets to cultivate these crops are demoralized and facing financial disaster unless we act quickly to provide them with an alternate market.

Lawmakers are looking for the governor to sign the Cannabis Crop Rescue Act, which will allow those farmers to sell their cannabis to tribal nations. The act was passed in June and is sitting on the governors desk.

The bill is called a lifeline for these farmers by the legislators who penned the letter.

Very simply, the extended timeline of New York States troubled rollout of the licensing and regulations establishing a safe, legal market for adult-use cannabis has had a significant negative impact on New Yorks licensed cannabis farmers who invested in crops they now have limited places to sell, the letter says.

The crop is also losing value by the day, according to the lawmakers. While the red tape is unraveled it is the cultivators who are paying the steepest price.

The letter was signed by a number of representatives from Long Island including Assemblyman Fred Thiele, Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio and Senator Kevin Thomas.

We are urging the Governor to quickly sign this short-term solution, one that will help provide some measure of relief to what is quickly becoming an agricultural emergency, the lawmakers say.
Francois Bausch, who will not be in office after Sunday's election, re-iterates commitment to cut travel time between EU capital to two hours

New 'fast' train connections will operate daily between Brussels and Luxembourg by the end of 2026 under a letter of intent signed between the two governments on Tuesday, the latest in a long series of pledges to upgrade the line.

Transport Minister Francois Bausch re-iterated a promise to cut the travel time between the two EU capitals to two hours, in a joint letter signed with his Belgian counterpart Georges Gilkinet.

The current journey takes over three hours, longer than it did four decades ago. In July last year, the entire European Commission travelled by bus to Luxembourg for a meeting with the Grand Duke.

The upgrade project started in 2007, with 132 million coming from European funds. However, both countries have since squabbled over the cost, which is set to cost some 750 million. The works on Luxembourg's side of the border cost roughly 100 million, Transport Minister Francois Bausch said in 2021.

A previous letter of intent was signed in 2016 between the two countries, promising a two-hour link by 2023.

The European Commission responded positively to a joint request in March 2021 from the two countries to financially support the modernisation of the line, with fresh funding set to come from the bloc's pandemic recovery fund.

In Tuesday's letter of intent, the two countries said a 'fast' train between the capitals will be introduced from December 2026, but did not outline how much time such a connection would save. The Transport Ministry later told the Luxembourg Times that the time saving is "expected to be around 20 minutes" on the current three-hour journey time.

The countries have also committed to making a joint bid by the end of this year for additional EU funding to upgrade final sections on the line by 2029, which would enable more frequent services. Two high-speed IC trains would operate between the cities each hour once the work is complete, the governments said.

The goal is to double both passenger and cargo traffic on the rail network between the two countries by 2040, according to the document.

Luxembourg's government is also assessing the possibility of removing several level crossings along the network, the joint letter added, with a view to cutting journey times.

A working group will be set up, reporting to both ministers, to oversee the development of the plans. "The commitments included in this letter of intent will be implemented in stages following a timetable to be established," the document added.

A large aim of the project is to encourage Belgian cross-border workers  who overwhelmingly opt for the car  to switch to the train, Luxembourg's transport ministry said in a press release issued after the signing of the joint letter.

"Every day, 45,000 Belgians travel between the two countries. Currently, 85% of these commuters still use the car to make this trip," the ministry said.

Whatever happens with the project in the coming years, Bausch will not be around to oversee it. The transport minister said in 2019 he would not stay in office after the next parliamentary election, which takes place on Sunday.

(Updated with comment from Luxembourg's Transport Ministry)
No matter what Apple Watch you own, you can always use a new band to change things up. And todays deal brings style and savings: Amazons Woot is selling Apples Milanese Loop in gold for $37 and space black for $45, a savings of more than 50 percent off the $99 MSRP and the best price weve ever seen.

The Milanese Loop is one of the original Apple Watch bands and is made from a woven stainless steel alloy. Based on a design developed in Milan at the end of the 19th century, its infinitely adjustable thanks to a magnetic clasp, and comes with a full 1-year warranty from Apple.

Apple still sells the Milanese Loop band in graphite, gold, and silver for $99, and from what we can tell, nothing has changed from the original version other than the colors. So if you dont want to pay full price (or anywhere near it) go grab this deal right now.
The International Group for the Coordination of Assistance to Victims of flight PS752 (representatives of Ukraine, Great Britain, Canada and Sweden) held talks with Iranian officials regarding responsibility for the downing of flight PS752 of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) on January 8, 2020, the Iranian side continues to ignore the claims, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported.

The Coordination Group takes seriously its commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes. Since 2020, the Group has made multiple attempts to resolve this matter through negotiations, and in September 2023 Iran finally agreed to meet with all members of the Group for discussions. Accordingly, representatives from the four members of the Coordination Group met with Iranian officials this week to discuss the Islamic Republic of Irans state responsibility for the downing of Flight PS752, the message reads.

The Coordination Group said that the Groups focus in discussions was Irans responsibility for its violations of international law and the need for Iran to make full reparations for the injury caused by the downing of Flight PS752.

For the group, full reparations means more than financial compensation, it said.

The Coordination Group regrets that Iran remains unwilling to engage meaningfully with our position and continues to disregard our claims. Based on the discussions, which took place this week, the Group considers that our respective positions are too far apart to be reconciled through negotiations, the Group stressed.

Thus, the Group stated that the Coordination Group will continue to pursue action to resolve this dispute in accordance with international law, including at the International Court of Justice.

As reported, in June, Ukraine and other members of the international coordination group filed a lawsuit against Iran in the International Court of Justice for the downing of the flight PS752 of Ukraine International Airlines on January 8, 2020.

The UIA Boeing 737-800 passenger plane, which was supposed to operate flight PS 752 on the Tehran-Kyiv route, was shot down near the Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran immediately after takeoff early in the morning on January 8, 2020. There were 167 passengers and nine crew members onboard. They all died. Among the dead there were 11 citizens of Ukraine (including nine crew members), 82 citizens of Iran, 63 citizens of Canada, 10 citizens of Sweden, four citizens of Afghanistan, three citizens of Germany and three citizens of Great Britain.

On January 11, Iranian authorities admitted that Boeing was shot down by the Iranian military mistakenly. Later, commander of Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that took full responsibility for the crash of the Ukrainian plane.
While the cinemas are still struggling to bring back their audiences to the big screen, the film industry has never been more alive.

Film events have been happening around the metro and in the regions. Great news abound, with Filipino films winning in different international film festivals and breaking boundaries.

Director Carl Papas Iti Mapukpukaw has been named the official entry to the 96th Academy Awards, and it is a welcome news.

Meanwhile, the British Council launched the Climate Film Lab, a three-day intensive training workshop and mentoring sessions by seasoned filmmakers and media professionals from the United Kingdom and the Philippines.

In collaboration with DAKILA, Picture People (UK), and iMedia (UK), the lab will provide grants and support to 10 filmmakers to realize their stories. Application is still ongoing until 15 October.

As part of its commitment to unite people in addressing the challenges of climate change, the organization kicks off the film project with special screenings of its global Climate Stories Playlist in the Philippines in different venues until October 22.

The British Council uses art to spark creativity, innovation, conversations, and actions among individuals in between countries. We are thrilled to partner with DAKILA on putting the spotlight on the climate emergency, an issue that affects us all and is very prevalent here in the country, British Council head of arts Mich Dulce.

Climate Stories Playlist features nine short films  six from the UK, one from Canada, one from the USA, and one from the Philippines. Each film explores what the climate crisis means to different people  personally, politically, and culturally, with unique narratives that reflect on the relationship with homeland, community, indigenous culture, and climate change, and with a vision of hope, courage, and change.

The screenings are part of DAKILAs ongoing Active Vista Human Rights Festival, with the theme Rebelasyon, showcasing artistry that aims to open the eyes and minds of viewers and creators.

At the British Council, we are passionate about connecting people through English, education, and arts and culture. Our commitment to supporting vital projects that highlight important topics such as climate change, diversity, and inclusion remains unwavering. Through our 45 years in the Philippines, we have stood firm in our dedication to fostering positive change through our work, and we look forward to doing more in the coming years, says Lotus Postrado, British Councils Country Director in the Philippines.

To know more about the British Council and their work, visit britishcouncil.ph.

* * *

Dont miss the Spanish films featured in the Pelicula Spanish Film Festival from October 5 to 15 at Shangri-La Plazas Red Carpet. Organized by Instituto Cervantes and the Embassy of Spain in the Philippines, this annual event will showcase 23 films, with seven available online for viewers in Australia and Singapore.

Pelicula, established in 2002 by Instituto Cervantes de Manila, celebrates Spanish-language cinema, presenting the latest acclaimed works from Spain and Ibero-American countries.

A highlight of this years program is Pelicula en Verde, where a tree will be planted for each viewer of specially-marked films, including Alcarras (Carla Simon, 2023), As bestas (Rodrigo Sorogoyen, 2022), El Olivo (Iciar Bollain, 2016), Fonos (Gabriela Badillo Sanchez, 2021), and Tierra (Julio Medem, 1996). This initiative, in partnership with the Haribon Foundation, is sponsored by Acciona, a prominent Spanish infrastructure company with Asian headquarters in Manila.

The festival will also pay tribute to acclaimed filmmaker Carlos Saura, screening his films Embrujo, Goya en Burdeos, and El Rey de todo el mundo.

In addition to Spanish films, the festival will feature works from Ibero-American countries like Chile, Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico, including a Spain-Mexico co-production.

As in previous years, viewers can vote for their favorite films for the Audience Choice Awards, with the winning film screened on the festivals last day, October 15.

All screenings are free on a first-come, first-served basis, with films in Spanish (or their original language) and English subtitles. Visit the festivals website (https://pelikula/org) or Instituto Cervantes de Manilas Facebook page for updates.
By Florent Vergnes

Kyiv, Ukraine  The European Union reiterated its long-term support for Ukraine on Monday as its foreign ministers convened in Kyiv for a historic gathering beyond the blocs borders.

The meeting came as disagreements grow among EU members over support for Ukraine and as Kyivs forces make limited gains in a high-stakes counteroffensive against Russian troops in the south and east of the country.

Concerns are also rising over aid from Washington, where a government funding deal this weekend left out fresh help for Ukraine due to opposition from hardline Republicans.

But the White House on Monday rejected claims by the Kremlin that the West was fatigued on providing aid for Ukraine.

If Putin thinks he can outlast us hes wrong, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

The EUs foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described Mondays gathering as historic but made clear there would be no new concrete announcements.

It is the first time that we met in a candidate country. And, unfortunately, it was also the first time that the foreign ministers of the European Union met in a country at war, he said at a press conference.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, meeting the foreign ministers, said the duration of the war  now in its twentieth month  was linked to the quality and quantity of support Ukraine receives from its allies.

Our victory directly depends on our cooperation: the more strong and principled steps we take together, the sooner this war will end, Zelensky said in a statement.

To bring about a speedy end to the fighting, he urged the European Union to expand its sanctions on Russia and Iran, which has supplied attack drones for Russian forces.

And he called for the acceleration of work to direct frozen Russian assets to finance the restoration of war-torn Ukraine.

The EUs 27 members have remained broadly united through the war on their support for Ukraine, hitting Russia with 11 rounds of sanctions and spending billions of euros on arms for Kyiv.

Lasting support

However, Hungary, Russias closest ally in the EU, could now be joined by Slovakia as a potential block to more backing, as populist Robert Fico pushes for power in Bratislava after winning elections there this weekend.

The foreign ministers of Hungary, Poland and Latvia did not attend the summit, a Ukrainian government official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that the Polish and Latvian representatives were ill.

There have also been tensions between Kyiv and some of its most strident backers  most notably Poland  over the influx of Ukrainian grain onto European markets.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Borrell that the Kremlin was investing huge resources into its efforts to stir disunity among Ukraines allies, but urged them to stand firm.

Putins greatest expectation is precisely that the West and the world will tire of standing on the side of Ukraine in this war, he said.

Frances top diplomat Catherine Colonna earlier addressed the concerns, saying the meeting was a signal of the blocs lasting support for Ukraine, until it can win.

It is also a message to Russia that it should not count on our fatigue. We will be there for a long time to come, she said.

The Kremlin, which anticipated a lightning-fast takeover of Ukraine and is counting on Western countries tiring in their support, predicted Monday that Western war fatigue will grow.

Winter protection plan

Germanys Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for a strategy to limit the fallout from an expected campaign of Russian strikes on Ukraines energy grid in the coming months as temperatures drop.

Ukraine needs a winter protection plan of air defence, generators and a strengthening of the energy supply, she said. We saw last winter the brutal way in which the Russian president wages this war.

Ukrainian authorities say Russia has launched systemic aerial attacks on Ukraines energy infrastructure, a strategy that last year left millions without heating or water.

Kuleba also urged EU support for a new maritime export route in the Black Sea, so it can reach its full capacity.

Ukraine has been pushing for support for a naval route since Moscow scrapped a deal in July guaranteeing safe passage of grain exports in the Black Sea.

A sea corridor through which Ukrainian grain can be exported to the world without the involvement of Russia is possible. We have already demonstrated it, Kuleba said.

Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and his army swept quickly through large swathes of the south and east of the country but were beaten back from the north.

In June, Kyiv launched a long-awaited counteroffensive but has acknowledged slow progress as its forces encounter deep lines of heavily fortified Russian defences.
An ex-employee of MGM Springfield who filed a discrimination lawsuit against the casino nearly a year ago and made claims that diversity hires were improperly reported to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission agreed to dismiss the case, court documents filed last week show.

Chelan Brown is a former diversity manager for MGM Springfield and at the core of the lawsuit were issues about whether the casino discriminated and retaliated against Brown after she notified casino leadership about claims of inaccurate hiring reports. The lawsuit also named the former president of MGM Springfield, Michael Mathis, as a defendant.
Russian troops in Ukraine are using 122-mm HE-FRAG missiles of the Arash family produced by Iran, Bild reports.

"The other day, the Russian Defense Ministry published a short video from Ukraine showing Iranian 122-mm HE-FRAG missiles of the Arash family. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation use them when firing multiple rocket launchers Grad. The video drew the attention of the experts of the UAWeapons project. Just two weeks ago in New York, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi denied that Tehran was supplying Moscow with weapons," the Telegram channel says.

Bild military expert Julian Ropcke noted that footage of Iranian missiles used by Russians in Ukraine had appeared on the web before, but now the Russian Defense Ministry itself has confirmed their use. He also stressed that Grad fires up to 40 missiles per salvo, since the beginning of the war, the Russian Armed Forces have already spent hundreds of thousands of such ammunition.

"Because of this, Moscow is constantly in need of new missiles for MLRS, including from Belarus, the DPRK and Iran," the message emphasizes.
A Boston father is pleading for an end to violence after his two children were shot, one of them on a ventilator bravely fighting for her life.

The shooting happened in the rear courtyard of 50 Ames St. in Dorchester just before 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 17, police said.

Five people were injured, three were adults and two were children. One child was said to have life-threatening injuries while the rest had non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.

The mother, Joanna Algarin, was grilling chicken when she heard what sounded like fireworks, according to the GoFundMe. Both her children, 11-year-old Johan Howard and 15-year-old Juliana Howard, were playing nearby, the fundraiser said.

They were both hit by the gunfire. Juliana had four gunshot wounds, including one the pierced her head, the GoFundMe said.

It states shes had multiple surgeries and is on a ventilator.

The resilience and determination that she demonstrated in the face of adversity are now more critical than ever as she battles to overcome the devastating impact of this senseless act of violence, it reads.

Johan has since been released from the hospital.

Now, the family is calling for an end to violence

Algarin and Howard passionately appeal for an end to violence, emphasizing that it is always someone who doesnt deserve it, and this incident was senseless, the GoFundMe reads. In the wake of this tragedy, the family, together with the community, is calling for action to ensure the safety of children in their neighborhood. They believe that something must be done to protect these young lives, not just during election time but always.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has also expressed her frustration surrounding the shooting.

Im angry, Im upset as a mom, as someone whos been working with all of our teams to make sure that we can do everything possible to create opportunities in the city, Wu said during the press conference. These are the evenings where it just reminds you we cant move fast enough in working to make sure that all of our young people have what they need, that were getting guns off the streets.

The GoFundMe is helping the family cover medical expenses, rehabilitation, counseling, and the day-to-day expenses incurred as they strive to rebuild their lives.

It has raised $27,852 of its $30,000 goal.

Together, we can make their path to healing and justice a little smoother, it reads.
At around 2:20 p.m. on Wednesday, you will receive a text message with a unique notification and vibration.

The sender? The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communications Commission, partnering up to test their Integrated Public Alert and Warning System on Americans phones, televisions and radios across the country.

Both tests  the Emergency Alert System for televisions and radios, and the Wireless Emergency Alerts for cell phones  are scheduled to go off on Wednesday, according to FEMA. The EAS test portion of the test will affect radios and televisions and last about a minute.

The message accompanying the test will say, This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public.

The test that will impact cell phone users will be the WEA test, the second time to be tested on phones but the third time in which the alert system has been tested. Phones will receive a text message displayed in either English or in Spanish, depending on the language settings of the wireless handset.

We recognize that in disasters, second count, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said in a video about the test. Getting alerts out promptly to our communities saves lives... We want to make sure that when it counts, we can keep you informed. Wireless providers that participate in WEA are required to deliver this test message, which will be accompanied by a unique tone and vibration.

The national test will be transmitted by wireless providers for around 30 minutes, but phones should receive the test alert only once, FEMA said on its website.

Wireless cell phones should receive only one test text, with broadcast towers carrying out the tests for around 30 minutes. The message will read THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.

Read more: Government shutdown averted as Biden signs funding before midnight

Phones set in Spanish will display ESTA ES UNA PRUEBA del Sistema Nacional de Alerta de Emergencia. No se necesita accion.

In case of any widespread severe weather or other significant events, the backup testing date is Oct. 11, FEMA said.

In order for the alerts to be accessible for everyone, including people with disabilities, alerts will include a unique tone and vibration, FEMA said. Your phone will sound even if it has alerts silenced, according to Parade.

Online discussions about the test have been broiled in conspiracy. One claim addressed by the AP suggested that the test alert will signal to cell phones nationwide in order to activate nanoparticles such as graphene oxide that have been introduced into peoples bodies.

While a spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is overseeing the test told the wire service that there are no known adverse health effects from the signal, such claims revive debunked conspiracy theories about what are in COVID-19 vaccines.
A 47-year-old man is in custody after Charlotte Sena  a 9-year-old girl who went missing at a state park in Saratoga County  was found hidden in a camper cabinet Monday evening.

Charlotte was taken to an area hospital, but she was safe and healthy, troopers said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul held a news conference Monday night to describe how the girl was found and the man taken into custody.

A ransom note left in the mailbox of Charlottes family home in the town of Greenfield is what led officers to her abductor, Houchul said. The man had pulled up to the mailbox in front of the Sena family home, leaving a note inside, she said.

The note had fingerprints on it, which assisted authorities in tracking down a suspect, Hochul said. The suspects fingerprints were in law enforcement database. Around 2:30 p.m., officers matched a fingerprint to that of a man arrested for a DWI in 1999 in Saratoga, she said.

From there, officers found a home where the man -- Craig Nelson Ross Jr. -- was living, Hochul said. The home was only two miles away from Charlottes home in Greenfield.

Around 6:32 p.m. Monday, officers found a double-wide home with a camper parked behind it where Ross lives, she said.

Troopers moved in and Ross resisted arrest, the governor said. Troopers said he sustained minor injuries during the scuffle.

Charlotte was found covered inside a cabinet inside the camper. Charlotte appeared to not physically be harmed, but was taken to a hospital, Hochul said.

Charges have not been filed against Ross, but theyre expected. Contrary to earlier reports, Ross is not a registered sex offender. They also said it is not known at this time whether Ross knew Charlotte or had her under surveillance for any length of time.

Its been a long two days but tonight our prayers have been answered, Hochul said.

Charlotte was reunited with her mother, father and two sisters -- 4 and 10 years old.

The governor thanked the State Police and others who worked so tirelessly to find Charlotte. It is because of their efforts that Charlotte will be able to return home safe to her family.

Often these stories dont end up like this -- every second is key, Hochul said. Theres a lot of pressure and split decisions are made. Its not just a life is hanging in the balance, its an innocent childs life is hanging the balance.

More than 400 police officers, firefighters and other certified search and rescue personnel looked for the fourth-grade girl who went missing Saturday night in Moreau Lake State Park in Gansevoort in Saratoga County.

Read more: How Massachusetts is retraining police officers to find missing persons

Approximately 400 certified search and rescue personnel are actively searching for Charlotte E. Sena, 9. The searchers include law enforcement agencies, 34 volunteer fire departments, and private search and rescue groups. (Photo provided by state police)

The missing girl was headline news nationally. Hochul came to the park and also met with the girls parents.

On Saturday, Charlotte was riding her bicycle with her cousins around a loop at the park, and she decided to ride the loop an additional time by herself. She was last seen around 6:15 p.m. Saturday.

When about 10 minutes passed and Charlotte didnt return from her ride, her parents started looking for her.

Law enforcement search efforts began around 7 p.m. Saturday. State police issued an Amber Alert Sunday. The search continued Sunday and Monday.

Charlotte was with her family for a camping weekend at the park. They live in the nearby town of Greenfield in Saratoga County.

Read more: Facebook comment from 2021 hinted at location of missing Greenfield man found dead

Charlotte was just elected as an officer for her schools student council at Corinth Central Elementary School. She and her family were having a typical day of camping, the governor said.

New York State Police and other responders search near Moreau Lake State Park for 9-year-old Charlotte Sena, missing since early Saturday night. Anyone with information should call the New York State Police at (518) 457-6811 or dial 911. (NY State Governor's office)

Staff writer Darian Stevenson covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at dstevenson@syracuse.com
A Dorchester man appeared in court on Tuesday after he was arrested in connection with a shooting on Sunday, Sept. 17, that left three adults and one child injured, with another child in critical condition, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Haydens office announced.

Gianni Johnson, 24, was ordered held on $1 million bail in Dorchester Boston Municipal Court by Judge Joseph Griffin, Haydens office said in a statement. He was charged with five counts of assault to murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, unlawful possession of a large capacity feeding device, unlawful possession of a machine gun, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building.

He was arrested Monday night in connection with a shooting at 50 Ames St. on Sept. 17. Five people were injured  three were adults and two were children. Four of the people had non-life-threatening injuries. One of the children had life-threatening injuries and remains in critical condition on a ventilator.

The statement said Hayden met with the family members of the victims at the arraignment. He also praised his offices prosecutors for their work on the case and thanked community members for providing information helpful to authorities.

The brutality of sending bullets flying where people were gathered and children were playing should shock and outrage all of us and should unite us  and I mean all of us, from every community and every sector and every level of society  against the glut of illegal guns in our city and the people so willing to use them. We need to recognize and treat gun violence as a societal epidemic, Hayden said in the statement. How else can we describe a brother and sister shot while playing outside their home on a warm late-summer evening?

Police also announced on Tuesday that a warrant was issued for a second man, Micah Ennis, 24, of Boston. He is wanted for five counts of assault to murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, unlawful possession of a large capacity feeding device, unlawful possession of a machine gun and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building, police said.

Johnson will return to court Nov. 2 for a probable cause hearing, Haydens office said.
Jersey Mikes Subs is taking over the space of a former Subway for its first location in Western Massachusetts, set to open early next year and owned by a local Massachusetts man, a spokesperson for the company confirmed.

The sub sandwich chain began in 1956, and has over 2,000 locations throughout the United States and two restaurants based in Canada.

Though there are several Jersey Mikes in Eastern and Central Massachusetts, the spot planned for January 2024 will be the companys first sandwich shop in the western part of the state, Jersey Mikes Area Director Chad Faulkner said.

The restaurant will open at 819 Williams St. in Longmeadow, Faulkner said, the former location of a Subway sandwich shop, according to Google Maps and Subways site. The building is situated in one of the downtown plazas across the street from a Big Y grocery store.

Nate Tupper will be the owner of the Jersey Mikes location, Faulkner said. Tupper grew up in the Bay State and recently moved back to Longmeadow, just a mile down the road from the store.

This will be Tuppers first Jersey Mikes location, Faulkner stated. Tupper has been training in Simsbury, Conn., for the past year for his role as owner of the chains new location.

In a post to Facebook, Tupper said his location would be veteran owned and operated, and that it was exciting to move to Longmeadow with the goal of opening a Jersey Mikes here.

Read more: Pomegranate champagne among 5 winter flavors introduced by Polar Seltzer

I look forward to welcoming you into the store in January at our grand opening, Tupper added in his post.

The new owner said he was in the process of recruiting people for assistant manager and full-time crew member roles, and asked for any interested in applying to email him at nathaniel@paulushookllc.com with Application JM Longmeadow in the subject line including a resume for manger applications.

Part-time crew members would be recruited at a later date, Tupper added. We are excited to be a part of this community and hope your day is A Sub Above, the new owner concluded his message.
Editors Note: This story has been updated with a statement from Kemran Lachinov.

An MMA fighter from Massachusetts clashed with police officers at The Big E on its final day, ending up in handcuffs after a chaotic interaction involving a group home client, staff member and their car, according to the West Springfield Police Department.
A man police believe to be involved in a Dorchester shooting that injured two children, with one still in critical condition, was arrested, Boston police announced Tuesday.

Gianni Johnson, 24, of Dorchester, will be charged with five counts of assault to murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, unlawful possession of a large capacity feeding device, unlawful possession of a machine gun and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building at his arraignment Tuesday in Dorchester District Court.

Read more: Fingerprints left on ransom note for missing NY girl helped identify suspect

A warrant was issued for a second man police believe is connected with the shooting, Micah Ennis, 24, of South Boston. He is wanted for five counts of assault to murder, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, unlawful possession of a large capacity feeding device, unlawful possession of a machine gun and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building, police said.

The shooting happened in the rear courtyard of 50 Ames St. in Dorchester just before 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 17, police said.

Five people were injured, three were adults and two were children. Four of the people had non-life-threatening injuries. One of the children had life-threatening injuries and remains in critical condition.

The mother, Joanna Algarin, was grilling chicken when she heard what sounded like fireworks, according to the GoFundMe. Both of her children, 11-year-old Johan Howard and 15-year-old Juliana Howard, were playing nearby when they were shot, the fundraiser said.

Read more: Verdict delayed in Cara Rintala murder trial as 3 jurors dismissed

They were both hit by the gunfire. Juliana had four gunshot wounds, including one the pierced her head, the GoFundMe said. The GoFundMe is helping the family cover medical expenses, rehabilitation, counseling, and the day-to-day expenses incurred as they strive to rebuild their lives.

It has raised $27,977 of its $30,000 goal.

In the wake of this tragedy, the family, together with the community, is calling for action to ensure the safety of children in their neighborhood, the fundraiser said. They believe that something must be done to protect these young lives, not just during election time but always.

Read more: Man shot by police officer in Lakeville arraigned from hospital bed

We commend the cooperation from the residents of our City who are fed up with these reckless acts, and the incredible work and dedication of our Homicide Unit who have been working this case round the clock, Commissioner Michael Cox said in the Tuesday statement. We realize this cant erase the pain and suffering of the children and adults who were injured in this outrageous shooting. The Boston Police Department will continue to work to hold all of those responsible accountable for violence in our neighborhoods.

The investigation into the incident remains ongoing, police said. They request that anyone with information call the Boston Police Homicide Detectives at 617-343-4470.
An investigation has been conducted after an owner reported his dog was shot and killed while out for a walk in Winchester, according to WHDH-TV in Boston.

The Winchester Police Department told the news outlet that officers were first aware of the incident on Monday at around 6:30 p.m., and then responded to the wooded area off of Sussex Road.

Officers reportedly spoke with the pet owner who said he was walking his dog-off leash and then heard a gunshot, and found his pet had been hit, the station reported.

The owner then said that while speaking with a concerned neighbor he had another gunshot in the distance, 15 to 20 minutes after the first round was fired, the media outlet reported.

Winchester police told WHDH-TV that officers searched the scene and surrounding area for over two hours, and called in Massachusetts State Police as well.

Police monitored the area overnight, the media outlet reported, and continued to process the scene as of Oct. 3, with additional patrols operating in the area.
The AMBER alert for Charlotte Sena, a 9-year-old who went missing, has been cancelled after she was found safe and in good health, the New York State Police said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Police reported that a suspect is in custody and that the investigation is ongoing.

***AMBER ALERT - UPDATE***

THE AMBER ALERT has been cancelled. Charlotte has been found safe and in good health. pic.twitter.com/p8HyFB7zbP  NewYorkStatePolice (@nyspolice) October 2, 2023

The AMBER Alert for Sena was issued at 9:35 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 1, according to New York State Police.

The 9-year-old girl was believed to be in imminent danger of serious harm or death, state police said, after she was reported missing by her mother at 6:45 p.m. from Moreau Lake State Park at Loop A, Site 18, in Gansevoort, NY, when she didnt return back to her familys campsite that evening.

Although she went missing in New York, some residents in Western Massachusetts got the AMBER alert through an Instagram notification or other social media platforms.

The notification included an image of the child, and stated it was from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. AMBER Alert was at the top with a statement below, Find a missing child in your area.

The alert had been issued for Regions 8 and 9 in New York, and according to spokesperson for the Massachusetts State Police, David Procopio, the radius of those zones crosses over geographically onto parts of Western Massachusetts and Vermont.

Procopio said he believes New York has a media partner or otherwise that pushes AMBER Alerts to the social media pages of people in the range of affected AMBER Alert radiuses, which is why some people in Massachusetts received the New York AMBER Alert when Regions 8 and 9 were activated.

Procopio added that New Yorks AMBER Alert operations are different than Massachusetts State Polices practices, which involve statewide alerts.

Sena was reported missing by her mother after her bike was found in the loop at the state park camp site on Saturday evening as the family was camping for the weekend, according to reports from CNN.

Shed last been seen at 6:15 p.m. and after biking a few loops with her friends, the 9-year-old girl wanted to do a final lap by herself like a big girl and do it by herself, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a news conference Sunday, according to the outlet.

When she didnt return 15 minutes later, her parents knew immediately something was up, and began calling her name, the outlet said.

Other people from the campgrounds also joined the search, and her bike was found in the loop just before 6:45 p.m., the outlet reported Lt. Colonel Richard L. Mazzone, of the New York State Police, said in a news conference.

Her mom called the police to report her missing two minutes later, the outlet said, and the AMBER Alert was issued Sunday morning, Mazzone stated.

We took that step of issuing the AMBER alert because we felt, after (our) exhaustive search, when we couldnt find her here, it was quite possible that an abduction had taken place, he said, CNN reported.

Law enforcement used aviation and underwater rescue teams, blood hounds and drones to try find the girl, along with technology experts to analyze other forms of communications in the park at that time, according to the governor, the outlet said.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court upheld the conviction of a Wareham man who stabbed to death a man inside a convenience store in 2014, according to District Attorney Timothy J. Cruzs office.

On March 17, 2016, a jury convicted Demetrius Goshen, 27, of Wareham, on one count of voluntary manslaughter in connection with a killing that happened at a Cumberland Farms in Wareham in 2014. Brockton Superior Court Judge Richard Chin sentenced Goshen to serve 18 to 20 years in state prison, the DAs office said in a press release.

Police received a 911 call on Oct. 8, 2014 for a report of a stabbing at the Cumberland Farms at 169 Main St. in Wareham, said the district attorneys office.

When the Wareham Police Department and emergency personnel arrived, they found 29-year-old Dwayne Borges, of Wareham, with eight stab wounds, the release said. Borges was taken to Tobey Hospital and was flown to Boston Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

The manager at the Cumberland Farms was able to describe to police four men, including Goshen, who had fled the store just after the incident, said the district attorneys office. A clerk who was working at the register at the time reported seeing the four men fighting with Borges prior to the stabbing.

After the four men fled, the clerk noticed that Borges had been stabbed and called 911, said the district attorneys office. The clerk showed police store surveillance video of the attack. The officers were able to locate the suspects, who were not far from the store, and arrested them.

Read more: Woman dead after car crash on Chicopee Street on Monday night in Chicopee

During the trial, the jury heard evidence that Goshen, who was 18 at the time, has been armed with a knife before arriving at the Cumberland Farms and that the same knife was found in a bush near the store with Borges blood on the blade, said the release.

Goshen attempted to appeal his conviction to the Massachusetts Appeals Court, however the Appeals Court denied his motion. The Court, however, did allow Goshens motion for a new sentencing hearing according to the DAs office.
Investors from Lebanon and Jordan invested $15 million in modernizing the production facilities of MP Agrotrading House LLC (Tarascha, Kyiv region), which is engaged in the cultivation and slaughter of cattle, according to the companys website.

According to the report, the project was implemented after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The new equipment will allow us to provide a full cycle of production of ready-made semi-finished beef and veal products. Modern world-class production facilities include a meat processing plant and our own raw material base of 12,000 animals, the website states.

The enterprise will introduce vertical Argentine deboning technology, which minimizes contact of meat with humans, will adhere to a temperature regime of up to +4 C, and will establish vacuum sealing of products in Sildair bags. In addition, they will master shock freezing of meat at -38C.

Agrotrading House LLC also announced that it had received a certificate for the production of halal meat and confirmation from the Kyiv State Laboratory of the ability to store meat refrigerated for 90 days. Compliance with food standards of Muslim countries will allow the company to export products from Ukraine to the countries of the Middle East.

The expansion of production capacity will create 300 new jobs.

Before the full-scale invasion, Agrotrading House exported cattle through ports to the Middle East. After the start of the war and the blockade of Ukrainian ports by the aggressor country, business owners decided to reformat their activities into meat processing and export of value-added product.
A Boston man has been sentenced in connection with an expansive online fraud scheme that targeted people in the U.S., including romance and advance fee schemes, according to a press release from acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levys office.

Kelechi Collins Umeh, 40, of Boston and formerly Quincy, was sentenced Monday by the U.S. Senior District Judge William G. Young to 40 months in prison and two years of supervised release. Umeh was also ordered to pay restitution of $878,652. Back in January, Umeh pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud conspiracy.

Read more: Verdict delayed in Cara Rintala murder trial as 3 jurors dismissed

Umeh participated in a series of online scams that included romance and advance fee schemes, meant to defraud victims into sending money to accounts that were controlled by him and his co-conspirators, the release said.

Romance scams, the DOJ said, happen when a criminal creates a fake online identity to gain a victims affection and trust. The scam then uses the illusion of a romantic or close relationship to manipulate and or steal from the victim.

Advance fee scams happen when a criminal asks a victim to pay a fee upfront, such as a fee, tax or commission, in order to obtain a bigger payout later, but that payout never occurs, said the release.

In this scenario, about 30 victims lost more than $1.3 million from the schemes.

Umeh used fake passports in the names of numerous aliases in order to open bank accounts in and around Boston to collect and launder the proceeds of the online scams, the release said.

Umeh and his co-conspirators then quickly withdrew large amounts of cash from those accounts often within days of the deposit and generally structured in amounts of less than $10,000 as a way to avoid detection and currency transaction reporting requirements, the DOJ office said in its release.
(*This story was updated at 9:06 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023 with new information.)

Next Monday, Oct. 9, around two-dozen communities across the commonwealth will pause to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day  and not Columbus Day.

But if a Central Massachusetts lawmaker has anything to say about it, by the time Oct. 9, 2024 rolls around, the entire Bay State will officially celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day. And Columbus Day, like its Italian explorer namesake, will be a part of history.

This is happening across the United States. Its not Massachusetts out on the edge, state Sen. Joanne Comerford, whos leading the legislative charge for the change, told MassLive on Tuesday after she made the case for her bill before a joint state House and Senate committee.

Theres an urgency here. Theres a racial justice urgency. Theres an indigenous peoples urgency, Comerford, D-Hampshire/Franklin/Worcester, continued. Theres an urgency of truth.

The debate playing out in the halls of the State House reflects a broader one nationwide.

Indigenous advocates have long argued that celebrating Columbus Day reinforces and legitimizes the torture, slavery and genocide that Christopher Columbus  and decades of European explorers after him  inflicted on native peoples living in the western hemisphere.

We know what he [Columbus] did. Its a historic fact, Mahtowin Munro, of Watertown, a co-leader of the advocacy group United American Indians of New England, and a member of the Lakota tribe, told MassLive. And no one was sitting here waiting to be discovered. We were already here.

Some Italian-American groups, however, make the counter-claim that efforts to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day are an attack on their culture and history. They point out that the holiday traces its roots to a 19th century effort to honor newly arrived Italian immigrants at a time when they faced discrimination.

The people who support [Indigenous Peoples Day] are good-minded people, state Rep. Jeffrey Rosario Turco, D-Suffolk, a descendant of Sicilian immigrants, who testified against the proposal, said. I dont see why it needs to be done at the expense of Italians.

Domenic Amara, an East Boston resident, and the president of the Pirandello Lyceum, an Italian-American heritage group, offered a similar sentiment, arguing that the trauma suffered by indigenous peoples should be recognized alongside, but not instead of, Columbus Day.

Scrapping the holiday will cause sores for generations to come, he told MassLive.

Right now, 11 states celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day, or a similarly named holiday, with a proclamation. Ten more  Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota and Vermont  treat it as an official holiday, USA Today reported in 2022.

In addition, *195 local governments nationwide, including some in Massachusetts, do not observe Columbus Day altogether, or have replaced it with Indigenous Peoples Day, the news outlet reported.

In 2021, President Joe Biden split the difference, as the nation celebrated its first Indigenous Peoples Day holiday, even as the White House issued a Columbus Day proclamation, according to National Geographic.

At the local level, the debate over the holiday has most often played out over efforts to remove statues honoring Columbus. Last year, officials in Worcester tabled a proposal to remove a statue that sits in front of Union Station in the city, Spectrum News reported at the time.

In 2020, a Columbus statue in Bostons North End, already the subject of repeated acts of vandalism, was beheaded during protests over racial justice, MassLive reported at the time.

Here in the Bay State, advocates also are seeking support for a proposed ballot question that would make the change, WBUR reported.

Comerford told MassLive Tuesday that she hopes her bill, which received a favorable committee vote during last years legislative session, will get over the goal line this year.

If that happens, well all wake up feeling more honorable, she said.
Preliminary election season continues across the commonwealth this Tuesday, with voters in New Bedford heading to the polls to choose candidates who will advance to the Nov. 7 general election.

Local interest in the races in this Bristol County community is running high.

New Bedford Elections Board Chairperson Manuel DeBrito, told the New Bedford Light, an online news site, that, compared to the 2019 city elections, hes thus far seen an increase in early voting and mail-in ballots.

Heres a look at those races and whos on the ballot.

Mayor:

Incumbent Mayor Jon Mitchell faces challenges from hopefuls Nathan J. Almeida, Ryan Duarte, Michael Janson, Xavier R. Cardona, and Richard Tyson Moultrie, whos reprising a 2019 challenge according to news reports.

If he eventually wins, Mitchell will capture his sixth term in the top spot, and second, consecutive four-year term, according to the Standard-Times. You can read the candidates stances on the key issues facing the city here.

According to the New Bedford Light, Moultrie has faced scrutiny of his claims about homeownership, military service, and employment.

Janson is a perennial candidate whos run for mayor at least nine times, the New Bedford Light reported, citing data compiled by Ballotpedia. A former seafood broker, hes also lost elections for City Council, the local school committee, and the Massachusetts state House of Representatives, the online news site reported.

The top two vote-getters advance to the general election.

City Council Ward 5:

Two of the four candidates running for the seat being vacated by incumbent Councilor Scott Lima (whos running for an at-large seat) will advance to the November canvass, the newspaper reported. Those candidates are Joseph P. Lopes, Zachery R. Boyer, Carlos M. Maiato, Ian Marcus Saunders.

Councilor At-Large:

Ten of the 12 candidates running for five at-large seats on City Council get to advance to the Nov. 7 general election, according to news reports.

In addition to Lima, those candidates include Shane A. Burgo, (incumbent); Guelmie Santiago; Arya Pixlie Witner; Ian Abreu, (incumbent); Naomi R.A. Carney, (incumbent); Linda M. Morad, (incumbent); Bruce Wayne Duarte Jr.; Devin B. Byrnes; Joyce Rowley; Carmen F. Amaral; Brian K. Gomes, (incumbent), the newspaper reported.

The polls are open for all races from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Compared to the first quarter of 2023, total employment in EOE decreased by 866 (-2.5%) from 35,337 to 34,471. Some 1,173 jobs were lost due to the contraction of workforce in some enterprises whilst 307 jobs were created due to expansion in existing enterprises.

Employment of Mauritians decreased by 283 (-1.4%) from 19,556 to 19,273 and that of foreign workers decreased by 583 (-3.7%) from 15,781 to 15,198.

EOE exports during the second quarter of 2023 amounted to R 11,988 million, 0.1% lower compared to the first quarter of 2023 and 4.1% lower compared to the second quarter of 2022. EOE imports during the second quarter of 2023 amounted to R 7,354 million, 8.0% higher than the first quarter of 2023 and 10.6% lower than the second quarter of 202
I7a significant occasion set to bolster international educational cooperation, the University of Mauritius (UoM) and Edith Cowan University (ECU) of Australia are proud to announce the signing and renewal of their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The signing ceremony was held on Monday, October 2, 2023, bringing together prominent figures from both institutions.

At this event, Professor Sanjeev Kumar Sobhee, Vice Chancellor of the University of Mauritius, was joined by Professor Steve Chapman, Vice Chancellor of Edith Cowan University, along with a distinguished delegation representing eight schools of ECU. This gathering marked the initiation of discussions regarding potential collaborations and the reaffirmation of their commitment to a fruitful partnership.

Australias Charge dAffaires to Mauritius, Ms Katie Lalor said: We are delighted to have such a high-level delegation visit from Edith Cowan University. Education is a key part of Australia Mauritius relations and this visit, including the signing of an MOU with the University of Mauritius, marks another important milestone in our two countries relations.

Partnership Development

The foundation of this partnership was laid in 2017 during a visit by ECU to the University of Mauritius. Since then, both institutions have fostered a thriving relationship. The visit by ECUs delegation to UoM aims to reinvigorate this partnership and explore new avenues for collaboration. The University of Mauritius, being part of the Australia Africa Universities Network, plays a crucial role in engaging Australian universities in sub-Saharan Africa, facilitating the exchange of expertise in areas of mutual interest to Australia and Africa.

Professor Sanjeev Kumar Sobhee, Vice Chancellor of the University of Mauritius stated:

We are delighted to renew our collaboration with Edith Cowan University, Australia. Together, the two universities will create a powerful synergy to drive academic excellence, foster innovation and provide our faculty and students with unique global opportunities. This renewed partnership represents our shared commitment to shaping the future of education and research.

Professor Steve Chapman CBE, Vice-Chancellor at Edith Cowan University said

Edith Cowan University is very pleased to be able to continue our MOU with the University of Mauritius. This MOU signifies a significant step in our continued international collaboration and academic exchange.

Professor Steve Chapman CBE, Vice-Chancellor Edith Cowan University said

The resigning of the MOU demonstrates our enduring partnership with the University of Mauritius. I look forward to the exchange of ideas and experiences that will undoubtedly result from this collaboration, and the positive impact it will have for both universities, our students, academics and society as a whole.

On a concluding note, Australias Charge dAffaires to Mauritius, Ms Katie Lalor stated :
A delegation from the Lahardane community and elected representatives are to meet the HSE to discuss the future of GP services in the village.

There has been widespread concern in the locality after its only GP, Dr Enda Loftus, left his post to take up a vacant position in Crossmolina.

The meeting will take place on Friday, at 10am. All four Mayo TDs have been invited to attend.

The HSE has said that the position would not be filled by a locum doctor. It has advised that the 'best option' for patients is to attend the GP service in Crossmolina, which is ten miles away.

As a result, up to 1,100 medical card holders will have to be transferred to the Crossmolina practice

Local activist Gerry Loftus said it will be 'unworkable' for patients to attend the service in Crossmolina and maintained that the community will not be giving on retaining a GP service for the area.

Various public meetings have been held to discuss the situation, with some campaigners fearing that more people will attend the Emergency Department at Mayo University Hospital for care.

Deputy Michael Ring (Fine Gael) has said that elderly people in the Lahardane area were 'going out of their minds with worry' arising from the situation.

The GP post in Lahardane was advertised twice by the HSE but no interest was expressed on either occasion.
MAYO businesses affected by the loss of 21 percent of the countys hotel bed stock could be in line for a support package in the upcoming budget.

According to a recent report in the Irish Independent, Fine Gael TDs are currently pushing for supports for businesses in areas affected by a drop in footfall from hotel beds being occupied by refugees.

Failte Ireland recently revealed that 21 percent of Failte-registered accommodation in Mayo is contracted to the government to house refugees.

Various forms of accommodation throughout Mayo are currently being used to accommodate refugees from Ukraine and International Protection Applicants.

Local county councillors and business representatives have voiced concerns over the long-term effects of a drop in footfall for auxiliary industries such as restaurants, cafes and other tourist enterprises.

Westport-based councillor Peter Flynn welcomed the proposal but said immediate intervention may not save businesses that are already on the brink of closure.

Tough winter

Thats the real worry because now were heading into another tough winter for businesses after coming through a really horrific summer between one thing and another. Its whether these people can keep their doors open until next summer, he told The Mayo News yesterday.

In my opinion it is essential for all representatives to immediately engage and address these critical issues, especially considering recent crazy rate demands that have added to the challenges faced by local businesses.

Cllr Flynn said the loss of footfall from the lack of tourist beds was an issue right around the county.

Mayo Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon is among those who has publicly called for government support for businesses in areas affected by reduced tourist accommodation.

It is a concern for counties like Mayo and those on the western seaboard, Deputy Dillon told the Irish Independent.

Earlier this year, local projects and community groups across Mayo received over 2.2 million from the governments 50 million Community Recognition Fund.

The fund was introduced for city and county councils earlier this year to help support communities that have taken in Ukrainian refugees.
KIDNEY dialysis patients could soon be able to undergo dialysis treatment in the comfort of their own home in a move designed to reduce pressure on hospitals.

Mayo University Hospital (MUH) has 74 patients currently undergoing weekly kidney dialysis, while another six patients from Mayo travel to Galway University Hospital for their treatment.

A meeting of the HSE Regional Health Forum West heard that demand for renal dialysis has increased significantly across the region.

Ann Cosgrove, Chief Operations Officer with the Saolta University Health Care Group, explained that the HSE is looking at increasing capacity in hospitals and at rolling out home dialysis services.

We have been granted an allocation of nursing staff CNSs (clinical nurse specialists) to try to develop home dialysis. A big part of that is education and educating the patient, and making sure the patient is comfortable and able to work with the home dialysis, she said.

The issue of renal dialysis was raised by Independent Castlebar-based councillor Michael Kilcoyne, who is a member of the health forum. He asked why MUH cannot cater for all the patients from Mayo who require dialysis.

In response, Ms Cosgrove said that due to the increased demand for renal dialysis services it is intended to increase the Mayo service from three to five days a week.

There are currently six patients travelling to Galway for kidney dialysis treatment, and we hope to have 1-2 of these patients returning to Mayo University Hospital for dialysis in the coming week, she stated.
Hotel Indigo, part of IHGs Luxury & Lifestyle portfolio, and located in the heart of Dubai's Business Bay, has launched its newest international marketing campaign that is rooted to the concept of local neighbourhood and the role it plays in the choice of hotels.

The campaign, The Worlds Neighbourhood Hotel reflects the brands long-held belief that when you see the world through the neighbourhood, the neighbourhood changes your world.

A Hotel Indigo brand survey involving 1,000 travellers aged between 25 and 44 years across six countries reveals that 73% of travellers feel it is important for a hotel to be connected to the local neighbourhood as it may inspire more adventurous activities, the desire to try new things, and meet new people.

The international survey also unveils the impact immersive travel has on the travellers perspective of the world, with 1 in 2 UAE-based travellers (52%) having a relook at their lifes trajectory on returning home from a trip, and 88% making major life changes from their experiences on a trip.

Hotel Indigos The Worlds Neighbourhood Hotel is a testament to this perspective  because when you stay at a Hotel Indigo, you dont just visit a place  you fully immerse yourself in it  and then you take a little bit of it home with you, said a statement.

Officially rolling out this month in a phased approach globally, Hotel Indigos The Worlds Neighbourhood Hotel will help guests discover or rediscover some of the most inspiring and culturally rich neighbourhoods in and around the hotel.

Additional insights from UAE-respondents show that 93% of UAE-based travellers are more likely to take risks when they are travelling, in a staggering display of travels impact on our confidence, curiosity, and comfort levels. Of the 93%, 53% admitted to have tried new cuisines, 35% were more likely to strike up a conversation with a stranger, and 28% have altered their appearance with a new tattoo, piercing, or haircut  underscoring the evocative nature of immersive travel and the ways in which it propels us into new experiences.

Of particular interest was the influence of local cultures and experiences, with nearly nine in 10 travellers (87%) saying staying at a hotel connected to the local neighbourhood was important to them, and 65% recalling changing their travel plans based on a recommendation from a local. Interestingly, a whopping 42% of these travellers have even fallen in love with a local they initially met on a trip, showcasing just how important it can be to engage with the native surrounds when travelling.

Commenting on the survey, Haitham Mattar, Managing Director IHG Hotels & Resorts India, Middle East and Africa said: The results are a testament to the importance of providing unique hotel stay experiences that embrace the culture of a propertys local destination. We host travellers that are curious and eager to experience something new, which creates an opportunity for us to support their exploration and appreciation of new cities, cuisines, cultures, and languages.

Its especially significant that UAE travellers are so eager to engage with local communities, as shown by the numbers, and is a reminder to the hospitality industry that immersive travel experiences are incredibly impactful, often leaving long-lasting impressions that can change guests lives forever, he said.  TradeArabia News Service
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. First vice-president of Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR, Khoshbakht Yusifzade, has passed away, Trend reports.

Khoshbakht Yusifzade was born in Pirshaghy village of Baku in 1930. In 1952 he graduated from the Geology and Exploration Faculty (Geology and Exploration of Oil & Fas Fields) of the M. Azizbayov Azerbaijan Institute of Industry (now Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University) majoring in Mining Engineering and Geology.

He started his career in Gosspetsnefteproyekt (State Special Oil Project) Department of the USSR Ministry of Oil Industry in Baku. Within a short time, however, he joined then newly-established Denizneft Union to work as Deputy Chief of Geology Department before continuing his career as a senior geologist in Azneft PU. In 1954 he was appointed Senior Geologist of the First Production Field at Gurganneft Trust (now Neft Dashlary OGPD) and ever since he has been contributing and leading the offshore oil exploration and development projects. In 1958-1959 he joined Neft Dashlary Central Research and Production Plant (CRPP) to work as a senior geologist, where he was promoted to the head of Neft Dashlary CRPP in 1959-1960. In 1960 he was appointed Deputy Chief and Senior Geologist at the Oil Fields Department named after the 22nd Congress of the USSR Communist Party (former Gurganneft), where he worked until 1963. Between 1963 and 1970, he worked as Deputy Senior Geologist and Chief of Section at Bashdenizneft and as Deputy Senior Geologist and Chief of the Geological Exploration Section at Denizneft PU. In 1970-1992 he worked as Deputy General Director and Senior Geologist at Khazardenizneft PU that had different names at different times. In 1992-1994, he became First vice-president of State Concern Azerineft and Adviser to SOCAR President, before working as SOCAR vice-president on Geology, Geophysics and Field Development in 1994-2004 and SOCAR First vice-president on Geology, Geophysics and Field Development in 2004-2016. He was appointed First vice-president of SOCAR by the Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2016.

In 1960 Khoshbakht Yusifzade received a PhD degree in Geology and Mineralogy defending his thesis on the Exploration of Oil Wells and Horizons and Efficient Development and Operation of Oil Deposits in South-West Flank of Neft Dashlary (Oil Rocks). In 1987 he became Doctor of Sciences defending his thesis on the Principles and Methods of Accelerated Exploration of Offshore Oil & Gas Fields at Moscow Institute of Fossil Fuels Geology and Development of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union under the USSR Ministry of Oil Industry. In 2005 he subsequently was conferred the title of Professor. Khoshbakht Yusifzade is a member of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), an honorary member of Russian International Engineering Academy, a foreign member of Russian Natural Sciences Academy, a full member of the International Turkic Studies Academy, a foreign full member of Georgian National Academy of Sciences, and professor of Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University. He is an author of more than 200 academic publications, including 18 monographs, and 8 inventions. He both participated and led the exploration projects to discover more than 20 oil and gas fields in Azerbaijan, including famous ones like Azeri, Chirag, Gunashli, Shah Deniz, Kepez, Bahar, Umid and Absheron.

For his irreplaceable services in the development of the oil and gas industry, particularly in the exploration and development of offshore oil, gas and condensate fields, Academician Yusifzade was awarded former USSR orders of the Red Banner of Labour (1963, 1976), the Badge of Honour (1971), the orders of the Republic of Azerbaijan Istiglal (Independence; 2000), Glory (2004), Honour (2010), Labour 1st degree (2017), the Heydar Aliyev Prize (2019), the Heydar Aliyev Order (2020), the Order of Friendship of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (2011), Honorary Diploma of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (2015), former USSR medals for Labour Valour, Commitment to Labour, and Veteran of Labour (1986), as well as medals of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the 95th Anniversary (1919-2004) of Azerbaijan Border Service, 10 Years (2005-2015) of the Emergency Ministry of the Republic of Azerbaijan, 100 years (1918-2018) of the Azerbaijani Police, 160th Anniversary (1858-2018) of the Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping, 100 Years (1919-2019) of Azerbaijan State Security and Foreign Intelligence Services, 100 Years (1919-2019) of the Diplomatic Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan and 100 Years (1918-2018) of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Academician Yusifzade was awarded two State Prizes of the Republic of Azerbaijan (1982, 1991), the Nizami Ganjavi Golden Medal of the Republic of Azerbaijan (2018), honorary titles of the USSR Honorary Oil Worker (1970), Honorary Explorer of the Earths Interior (1985), First Field Explorer (1988), Honorary Engineer of Azerbaijan SSR (1964) and Honorary Engineer of the Republic of Azerbaijan (2005). Khoshbakht Yusifzade was awarded the Certificate of Merit of the Supreme Council of the Azerbaijan SSR (1960,1980); the Certificate of Merit of the 50th Anniversary of the USSR Oil Industry (1968); the Certificate of Merit of the USSR Society of Sciences and Technology (1981,1983); eight cash bonuses at the order of the USSR ministries of oil and gas industry for discovering and exploration of a number of oil fields; one gold (1973) and two bronze medals (1982, 1985) of the USSR Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy; the Caspian Energy Integration Award of the Caspian Integration Business Club (2007), the Order of Honour and Appeal of Conscience of the United Nations Public Service Awards (UNPSA) International Award Committee (Moscow) (2013), an honorary title and badge of the Art and Science Cavalier of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (2014), the Academician Azad Mirzajanzadeh Silver Medal of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (2015), the title of Honorary Scientist of the Turkic World of the International Turkic Studies Academy (2011), Order with Crown of the European Academy of Natural Sciences (2014) and the Silver Medal of the CIS All Trade Unions Confederation (2017). For his outstanding services in the development and application of nanotechnologies in the oil industry, Academician Yusifzade was awarded the UNESCO Medal and his name was included in the UNESCO Encyclopaedia (2010). For services in the world of science and economy, he was awarded the European Supreme Service Medal by the Geneva-based United Nations Public Service Awards (2018). In 2018 Academician Yusifzade received the Certificate of Merit from Azerbaijani Elders Council of which he has been a member since 2009. An Academician Khoshbakht Yusifzade Scholarship was established in 2016 for A-level students of the ASOIU Geological Exploration Faculty, and in 2020 for two students studying Oil & Gas Engineering at Baku Higher Oil School.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is ready to cooperate with Azerbaijan within the framework of the international space program "Artemis", JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa said during a press conference at the 74th International Astronautical Congress, Trend reports.

"We would like and are ready to establish cooperation with Azerbaijan under the Artemis Accords agreement, which will allow us to expand our joint participation in space research and development," he said.

Yamakawa added that at the moment, JAXA is successfully cooperating with Azercosmos, deepening partnership and participation in various projects and research.

The 74th International Astronautical Congress, in partnership with the Space Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azercosmos) and the International Astronautical Federation, started in Baku on October 2.

The event is attended by representatives of space agencies, the public sector, investors and private companies, local and international media, as well as more than 5,000 representatives from 101 countries. About 150 companies are represented at the International Astronautical Congress in the exhibition hall.

The International Astronautical Congress in Baku will last until October 6.
Biopharmaceutical and Biomedicine Market Is Estimated To Witness High Growth Owing To Increasing Emphasis On Research and Development and Growing Demand for Personalized Medicines

The biopharmaceutical and biomedicine market is estimated to be valued at US$ 561,375.9 million in 2022 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 9.6% over the forecast period 2022-2030, as highlighted in a new report published by Coherent Market Insights.

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Top Companies Associated With The Biopharmaceutical and Biomedicine Market Report Are: Air Methods Corporation, Deccan Charters, Scandinavian Air Ambulance, Air Ambulance Specialists, Air Charter Service, Envision Healthcare Companies, Falck Danmark A/S, AMR Air Ambulance, AirMed International, Express Aviation Services, ALPHASTAR

Market Overview:

The biopharmaceutical and biomedicine market involves the development and production of drugs and therapies derived from biological sources. These products are revolutionizing the healthcare industry by providing personalized treatment options. Biopharmaceutical drugs are manufactured using living organisms, such as bacteria or yeast, and are used to treat various diseases, including cancer, autoimmune disorders, and genetic disorders. The market also includes biomedicine technologies, such as gene therapy and regenerative medicine, which aim to repair or replace damaged cells, tissues, and organs.

Market Dynamics:

The biopharmaceutical and biomedicine market is driven by several factors. Firstly, there is an increasing emphasis on research and development, with pharmaceutical companies investing significantly in innovative biopharmaceutical products. This has led to an expansion of the pipeline for new drugs and therapies. Additionally, the growing demand for personalized medicines is propelling market growth. Personalized medicines are tailored to the individual patients genetic makeup, allowing for more effective and targeted treatment options. Moreover, advancements in biotechnology and bioengineering techniques are driving the development of novel biopharmaceutical and biomedicine products. These advancements enable the production of more complex and effective drugs and therapies. Overall, the biopharmaceutical and biomedicine market is poised for high growth due to the increasing focus on research and development and the growing demand for personalized medicines.

Biopharmaceutical and Biomedicine Market Report Coverage

Report Attribute Details The market size value in 2023 USD 561,375.9 Million The revenue forecast in 2030 USD 1,165,862.8 Million Growth Rate CAGR of 9.6% The base year for estimation 2022 Historical data 2017  2021 Forecast period 2023  2030 Growth Drivers: Increasing biopharmaceuticals and biomedicines product launch and approvals

Increasing research and development activities and robust pipeline of biopharmaceuticals and biomedicines Restraints & Challenges: High cost of biopharmaceutical and biomedicine products

Market Drivers for the Biopharmaceutical and Biomedicine Market:

Increasing incidence of chronic diseases and the demand for innovative treatment options:

The prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes is rising globally. This has led to a growing demand for advanced therapies and drugs that can effectively treat these conditions. Biopharmaceutical and biomedicine companies specialize in the development of innovative drugs and therapies that can provide better outcomes for patients suffering from chronic diseases. The need for improved treatment options is driving the growth of the biopharmaceutical and biomedicine market.

Additionally, the aging population and longer life expectancy have contributed to the increased incidence of chronic diseases. As the number of elderly individuals continues to rise, there is a higher demand for healthcare solutions that can address the unique challenges faced by this demographic. Biopharmaceutical and biomedicine companies are investing in research and development to create tailored therapies for these specific needs, driving further growth in the market.

Advancements in technology and personalized medicine:

The rapid advancements in technology have revolutionized the biopharmaceutical and biomedicine market. Techniques such as genomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics have enabled researchers to understand diseases at a molecular level. This knowledge has paved the way for personalized medicine, where treatments are tailored to the individual patients genetic makeup.

Advances in technology have also improved drug discovery and development processes, reducing time and costs. High-throughput screening, computer-aided drug design, and virtual clinical trials are some of the technological tools that have expedited the drug development process. These technological advancements have increased the efficiency of the biopharmaceutical and biomedicine market, leading to faster translation of scientific discoveries into viable therapeutic options.

Market Restraints for the Biopharmaceutical and Biomedicine Market:

High regulatory requirements and long development timelines:

The biopharmaceutical and biomedicine market is subject to stringent regulatory requirements, particularly in terms of safety and efficacy. Before a drug or therapy can be approved for use, it must go through several stages of clinical trials, which can take several years to complete. This, coupled with the extensive preclinical testing required, significantly lengthens the overall development timeline.

The regulatory approval process adds to the costs and risks associated with bringing a drug to market. Companies investing in research and development must navigate these complex and expensive processes, which can act as a deterrent to smaller players with limited resources. Strict regulations also pose additional challenges to innovation, as companies must comply with numerous guidelines and standards.

High costs and pricing pressures:

The development and commercialization of biopharmaceuticals and biomedicine therapies involve substantial costs. The research and development phase itself requires significant investment in laboratory facilities, equipment, and human capital. Additionally, there are costs associated with clinical trials, regulatory submissions, and marketing.

The high costs of development are often reflected in the pricing of biopharmaceutical and biomedicine products, making them inaccessible to certain segments of the population, particularly in developing countries. As healthcare costs continue to rise, payers, including government agencies and insurance companies, are putting pressure on drug manufacturers to reduce prices. This creates a challenging environment for companies in terms of profitability and sustainability.

In conclusion, the biopharmaceutical and biomedicine market is driven by the increasing incidence of chronic diseases and the demand for innovative treatment options, as well as advancements in technology and personalized medicine. However, the market faces restraints in the form of high regulatory requirements and long development timelines, as well as high costs and pricing pressures. Despite these challenges, the market is expected to continue growing as the demand for effective healthcare solutions remains high.

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Table of Contents with Major Points:

Executive Summary

Introduction

Key Findings

Recommendations

Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Overview

Definition of Biopharmaceutical and Biomedicine Market

Market Dynamics

Drivers

Restraints

Opportunities

Trends and Developments

Key Insights

Key Emerging Trends

Key Developments Mergers and Acquisition

New Product Launches and Collaboration

Partnership and Joint Venture

Latest Technological Advancements

Insights on Regulatory Scenario

Porters Five Forces Analysis

Qualitative Insights Impact of COVID-19 on Global Biopharmaceutical and Biomedicine Market

Supply Chain Challenges

Steps taken by Government/Companies to overcome this impact

Potential opportunities due to COVID-19 outbreak

Conclusion

Appendix

Data Sources

Abbreviations

Disclaimer

TOC Continued!

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Europe in-vitro diagnostics market size was US$ 24.13 billion in 2022 and is projected to attain a market size of US$ 35.22 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 4.5% during the forecast period from 2023 to 2031.

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Europe in-vitro diagnostics market is witnessing a slight growth during the forecast period. The market expansion is due to the expanding elderly population in nations, the rising prevalence of chronic diseases, and the growing public awareness of the need for early detection of life-threatening disorders.

The elderly have a higher frequency of target diseases than other age groups due to their inherent susceptibility to a variety of degenerative diseases. During the forecast period, this is likely to increase the demand for IVDs in this population subset. By 2080, the proportion of people 65 and older in Europe is likely to increase by 28.7%.

The increased incidence of chronic diseases across Europe is one of the key drivers of market growth. The demand for in-vitro diagnostics tests is also being fueled by the increasing prevalence of various infectious diseases, including influenza, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and others. For instance, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reports that 4,690 cases of influenza were reported in Europe during the 20212022 season, a considerable increase over the prior season. The International Diabetes Federation predicts that by 2030, the prevalence of diabetes among people in Europe will rise to 9.8%.

The market players have been driven to invest more in R&D and create innovative products owing to the unexpected increase in demand for in-vitro diagnostic tests and growing competition brought on by the availability of multiple in-vitro diagnostics technologies. Many European in-vitro diagnostics manufacturers raised their R&D spending, which resulted in the development of new products in the region and helped the industry expand. For instance, bioMerieux SA announced the availability of the MONKEYPOX R-GENE PCR kit in February 2023, which enables accurate virus detection. The kit became available on February 6, 2023, in nations that allow products for research use only (RUO).

Reagent Product and Service Segment Capture More Than Half of the Revenue Share

The reagent segment led the Europe in-vitro diagnostics market. Reagents contributed about 80.8% of the market revenue share. Their primary significance stems from their role as important components in diagnostic tests.

With the market for in vitro diagnostics expanding and the prevalence of chronic diseases among the aging population in Europe rising, there is a greater demand than ever for high-quality reagents. For instance, the prevalence of diabetes among people in Europe was 9.2% in 2021, according to data from the International Diabetes Federation.

The trend toward personalized medicine and precision diagnostics, as these tests typically depend on the specificity and sensitivity provided by them, is what further fuels the market for specialized reagents.

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United Kingdom Accounted for the Highest Revenue Share in the Market

The UK is exceptional in that it has significant room for growth. According to forecasts, IVD will have a particularly promising future in the UK, with a CAGR of 6.6%. Europe, a diverse patchwork of nations with distinct healthcare systems and legislation, provides a crucial perspective on the sector. The environment for the UKs developing potential has been shaped by both earlier investments and more recent legislation.

Due to the rise in point-of-care (POC) diagnostics tests and the rising incidence of various chronic diseases in the nation, the in-vitro diagnostics market in the United Kingdom is likely to expand. For instance, research published by Macmillan Cancer Support in October 2022 predicted that in the United Kingdom, there will be 3.5 million new cases of cancer by 2025.

Additionally, the UKs expanding healthcare infrastructure is likely to make a substantial contribution to the market expansion of the nation. For instance, the New Hospital Program in the UK would establish 48 new hospitals by 2030, according to a 2022 article by the Department of Health and Social Care. The hospital is also the main consumer of in-vitro equipment, which will have a big impact on the UK market for in-vitro diagnostics products.

Thus, the rising chronic disease prevalence, increasing healthcare infrastructure investment, and growing elderly population in the United Kingdom will boost demand for and use of IVD devices and promote market growth.

Roche, Siemens, and Becton Dickinson Contribute About Half of the Revenue Share

The in-vitro diagnostics market has a dynamic and ever-evolving competitive environment. Market leaders Roche, Siemens, and Becton Dickinson had combined revenues that made up around 50% of the total in 2022.

Recent years have seen more than 25 important mergers and acquisitions in the IVD industry in Europe, indicating a trend toward market consolidation. However, startups shouldnt be ignored. They have carved out their own niche, with venture capital funding for IVD innovation in Europe reaching a record $800 million in 2022.

List of Prominent Companies

Segmentation Outline

The Europe in-vitro diagnostic market segmentation focuses on Product & Services, Technique, Application, End User, and Country.

By Product & Services

Reagents

Instruments

Software

Services

By Technique

Immunodiagnostics

Hematology

Molecular Diagnostics

Tissue Diagnostics

Clinical Chemistry

Others

By Application

Cancer diagnostics

Blood glucose monitoring

Human genetic testing

Immunoassays

Hepatitis tests

Infectious Diseases diagnostics

Cardiac Diseases

Nephrological Diseases

Gastrointestinal Diseases

Others

By End User

Standalone Laboratories

Hospitals

Academic And Medical Schools

Point Of Care

Others

By Country

Western Europe The UK Germany France Italy Spain Rest of Western Europe

Eastern Europe Poland Russia Rest of Eastern Europe



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The Kidney Cancer Drugs Market is estimated to be valued at US$ 5.83 billion in 2022 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 6.4% over the forecast period 2022-2030, as highlighted in a new report published by Coherent Market Insights.

Kidney cancer drugs are a great boon to patients in controlling numerous problems which cause conditions and complications during kidney diseases. It helps treat several symptoms of kidney failure such as loss of appetite, anemia, and feeling out of breath. However, kidney transplantation is considered to be the most standard treatment for advanced kidney disease. At the advanced stage of kidney cancer, where removal of the cancerous cells is essential, surgical removal of kidney is done to get cure from the disease.

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The Kidney Cancer Drugs Market refers to the pharmaceutical products used for the treatment of kidney cancer. Kidney cancer, also known as renal cell carcinoma (RCC), is a type of cancer that originates in the kidneys. It is a highly prevalent cancer and is more common in older individuals. The market includes a wide range of drugs and therapies aimed at reducing the growth of cancer cells and improving patient outcomes.

The use cases of products associated with the Kidney Cancer Drugs Market primarily include targeted therapies for kidney cancer, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and immunotherapy drugs. These drugs work by targeting specific molecules or pathways involved in the growth and spread of cancer cells, thereby slowing down the progression of the disease and improving patient survival rates.

Market Dynamics:

The Kidney Cancer Drugs Market is driven by various factors, with two key drivers being the increasing incidence of kidney cancer and the rising demand for targeted therapies. Kidney cancer is one of the most common types of cancer, with its incidence steadily increasing over the years. This growing prevalence of kidney cancer is expected to fuel the demand for effective treatment options, driving market growth.

Moreover, there is a growing preference for targeted therapies among healthcare professionals and patients. Targeted therapies offer higher efficacy and better safety profiles compared to conventional chemotherapy drugs. These therapies specifically target cancer cells, minimizing damage to healthy cells and reducing treatment-related side effects. The increasing demand for targeted therapies is expected to boost the Kidney Cancer Drugs Market growth during the forecast period.

Some of the Top Players in Kidney Cancer Drugs Market: Pfizer Inc., Novartis International AG, Genentech, Inc., Active Biotech AB, Amgen Inc., Bayer AG, Cipla Limited, Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Eisai Co., Ltd., and Exelixis, Inc.

Detailed Segmentation:

Global Kidney Cancer Drugs Market, By Therapy: Targeted Therapy Immunotherapy Chemotherapy

Global Kidney Cancer Drugs Market, By Pharmacological Class: Angiogenesis Inhibitors mTOR Inhibitors Cytokines Others (Immune checkpoint inhibitors, CTLA-4 inhibitors, antimetabolites and others)

Global Kidney Cancer Drugs Market, By Distribution Channel: Hospital Pharmacies Retail Pharmacies Online Pharmacies



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Market Driver:

Increasing Prevalence of Kidney Cancer

The primary driver of the kidney cancer drugs market is the increasing prevalence of kidney cancer worldwide. Kidney cancer, also known as renal cell carcinoma (RCC), is a growing health concern with a high mortality rate. According to the American Cancer Society, kidney cancer is among the top ten most common cancers in both men and women, accounting for approximately 4% of all cancers.

The increasing prevalence of kidney cancer can be attributed to various factors, including lifestyle changes, genetic predisposition, and environmental factors. As the global population continues to age and lifestyles become more sedentary, the incidence of kidney cancer is expected to rise.

Moreover, advancements in medical technology have facilitated early detection and diagnosis of kidney cancer. This has resulted in an increased number of patients seeking treatment options, thereby driving the demand for kidney cancer drugs.

Growing Investments in Research and Development

Another significant driver for the kidney cancer drugs market is the growing investments in research and development (R&D) by pharmaceutical companies and research institutions. The increasing understanding of kidney cancer at a molecular level has paved the way for the development of targeted therapies, such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors and immunotherapies.

Pharmaceutical companies are investing heavily in R&D to develop innovative drugs that can effectively treat kidney cancer. These investments are driven by the potential market size and the unmet need for safe and efficacious drugs. Additionally, government initiatives and grants are also encouraging research institutions to focus on developing novel treatments for kidney cancer.

These investments in R&D are expected to result in the discovery of new drugs and treatment modalities, which will further drive the growth of the kidney cancer drugs market.

Market Restraint:

High Cost of Kidney Cancer Drugs

Despite the increasing prevalence of kidney cancer and the growing demand for effective treatments, the high cost of kidney cancer drugs remains a significant restraint for the market. Many of the targeted therapies and immunotherapies used in the treatment of kidney cancer are expensive, often costing tens of thousands of dollars per month.

The high cost of kidney cancer drugs poses a significant financial burden on patients, particularly those without adequate health insurance coverage. This, in turn, limits patient access to these drugs and hinders market growth.

To address this issue, healthcare authorities and regulatory bodies are taking steps to encourage the development of lower-cost generic versions of kidney cancer drugs. Additionally, initiatives such as value-based pricing and patient assistance programs are being implemented to improve patient affordability and access to these drugs.

Adverse Side Effects of Kidney Cancer Drugs

The adverse side effects associated with kidney cancer drugs pose a significant restraint for the market. Many of these drugs have toxic effects on healthy cells and tissues, leading to a range of adverse events, including nausea, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, and immunological disorders.

These side effects often lead to treatment interruptions, dose reductions, or discontinuation of the drug altogether, thereby compromising the efficacy of the treatment. Additionally, the high toxicity of these drugs also limits their use in elderly or frail patients who may not tolerate the side effects.

To overcome this restraint, pharmaceutical companies are focused on developing more targeted and personalized therapies with improved safety profiles. These advancements in drug development are expected to minimize the adverse side effects and improve patient quality of life.

In conclusion, the kidney cancer drugs market is driven by the increasing prevalence of kidney cancer and growing investments in R&D. However, the high cost of drugs and adverse side effects pose significant restraints for market growth. Continued research and development efforts to develop innovative and affordable drugs with improved safety profiles will be crucial to address these challenges and drive market growth in the future.

Table of Contents with Major Points:

Executive Summary

Introduction

Key Findings

Recommendations

Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Overview

Definition of Kidney Cancer Drugs Market

Market Dynamics

Drivers

Restraints

Opportunities

Trends and Developments

Key Insights

Key Emerging Trends

Key Developments Mergers and Acquisition

New Product Launches and Collaboration

Partnership and Joint Venture

Latest Technological Advancements

Insights on Regulatory Scenario

Porters Five Forces Analysis

Qualitative Insights Impact of COVID-19 on Global Kidney Cancer Drugs Market

Supply Chain Challenges

Steps taken by Government/Companies to overcome this impact

Potential opportunities due to COVID-19 outbreak

Conclusion

Appendix

Data Sources

Abbreviations

Disclaimer

TOC Continued!

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The New Born Screening Market is estimated to be valued at US$ 1,412.2 Mn in 2023 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 10.5% over the forecast period 2023-2030, as highlighted in a new report published by Coherent Market Insights.

Market Overview:

The New Born Screening Market involves testing newborn infants for a range of genetic, metabolic, and congenital disorders. This screening is crucial in identifying any potential health issues at an early stage, allowing for timely intervention and treatment. The market offers various screening tests such as heel-prick blood tests, hearing tests, and screening for critical congenital heart defects. These tests help in the early detection of diseases and enable healthcare professionals to provide appropriate care and treatment to newborns. The increasing prevalence of genetic disorders and the growing awareness about the benefits of newborn screening programs are expected to drive the market growth.

Market Dynamics:

The New Born Screening Market is primarily driven by the rising incidence of genetic disorders among newborns. Genetic disorders can lead to various health complications, which can be detected and managed through early screening. Additionally, the increasing government initiatives to implement newborn screening programs are also contributing to market growth. Governments worldwide are focusing on improving healthcare infrastructure and providing financial support for newborn screening initiatives. The growing emphasis on preventive healthcare and the rising demand for targeted and personalized medicine are expected to further propel the market growth in the coming years. However, the high cost associated with newborn screening tests and the lack of awareness in some regions may hinder market growth to some extent. Nevertheless, advancements in screening technologies and the development of innovative screening tests hold significant potential for market expansion in the future.

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Market Drivers:

Increasing prevalence of newborn diseases and genetic disorders:

The New Born Screening (NBS) market is being driven by the rising prevalence of newborn diseases and genetic disorders. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 303,000 newborns die within the first 4 weeks of life due to congenital anomalies and genetic disorders. Additionally, around 3% to 4% of children worldwide are born with major birth defects. The need to identify these conditions at an early stage and initiate appropriate treatment has led to the increased adoption of newborn screening tests.

Newborn screening allows for the early detection of diseases such as phenylketonuria, cystic fibrosis, and sickle cell disease, among others. Early detection and intervention can significantly improve the health outcomes of newborns, preventing disabilities and even death. This has led to the implementation of comprehensive newborn screening programs in many countries, driving the growth of the NBS market.

Furthermore, advancements in technology, such as next-generation sequencing (NGS), have further enhanced the capabilities of newborn screening tests by enabling the detection of a wider range of diseases. The increasing awareness among healthcare professionals about the benefits of early detection and interventions has also contributed to the market growth.

Government initiatives and favorable reimbursement policies:

Government initiatives and favorable reimbursement policies are playing a crucial role in driving the growth of the New Born Screening market. Many governments across the globe are recognizing the importance of newborn screening in reducing the burden of disease and improving child health outcomes. As a result, they are implementing comprehensive newborn screening programs and providing financial support for the implementation and maintenance of these programs.

For example, in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides funding to state health departments for the implementation and management of newborn screening programs. Additionally, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires private insurers to cover newborn screening tests without cost-sharing.

Similarly, other countries, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, have also implemented nationwide newborn screening programs with government funding and support. These initiatives and reimbursement policies encourage healthcare providers to offer newborn screening services, thereby driving the growth of the NBS market.

Market Restraints:

Lack of awareness and infrastructure in developing countries:

One of the major restraints for the New Born Screening market is the lack of awareness and infrastructure in developing countries. While developed countries have well-established newborn screening programs, many developing countries lack the necessary infrastructure, funding, and trained healthcare professionals to implement and maintain such programs.

Limited resources and lack of awareness among healthcare professionals and parents about the benefits of newborn screening pose significant challenges for the market. The high cost of screening tests and the need for specialized equipment and trained personnel further impede the adoption of newborn screening in these countries.

Ethical and social concerns:

Ethical and social concerns surrounding newborn screening pose another restraint for the market. The implementation of newborn screening programs raises questions about privacy, consent, and the potential psychological and social impact on families.

There are concerns about the storage and use of newborns genetic information, as well as the potential for discrimination based on genetic profiles. The screening tests themselves may also lead to false-positive results, causing unnecessary anxiety and stress for parents.

Additionally, cultural and religious beliefs may also impact the acceptance and implementation of newborn screening in certain communities. These ethical and social concerns need to be addressed through appropriate policies and regulations to ensure the responsible and equitable implementation of newborn screening programs.

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Report Attribute Details The market size value in 2023 US$ 1,412.2 Mn The revenue forecast in 2030 US$$ 2,838.4 Mn Growth Rate CAGR of 10.5% The base year for estimation 2022 Historical data 2017  2021 Forecast period 2023  2030 Growth Drivers: Increasing government support for new born screening and development in screening technology

High birth rate and increasing incidence of neonatal diseases Restraints & Challenges: Lack of improvement in healthcare infrastructure and limited number of trained professionals

Table of Contents with Major Points:

Executive Summary

Introduction

Key Findings

Recommendations

Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Overview

Definition of New Born Screening Market

Market Dynamics

Drivers

Restraints

Opportunities

Trends and Developments

Key Insights

Key Emerging Trends

Key Developments Mergers and Acquisition

New Product Launches and Collaboration

Partnership and Joint Venture

Latest Technological Advancements

Insights on Regulatory Scenario

Porters Five Forces Analysis

Qualitative Insights Impact of COVID-19 on Global New Born Screening Market

Supply Chain Challenges

Steps taken by Government/Companies to overcome this impact

Potential opportunities due to COVID-19 outbreak

Conclusion

Appendix

Data Sources

Abbreviations

Disclaimer

TOC Continued!

Why Choose Coherent Market Insights?

 Identified business opportunities  Our market research report can be used to analyze potential markets and new products. It can give information about customer needs, preferences, and attitudes. Also, it compare products and services.

 A clear understanding of your customers  A market report gives companys marketing department an in-depth picture about customers needs and wants. This knowledge can be used to improve products, prices, and advertising.

 Clear data-driven insights  Our Market research encompasses a wide range of activities, from determining market size and segment to forecasting demand, and from identifying competitors to monitoring pricing. All of these are quantified and measurable which means that gives you a clear path for building unique decisions based on numbers

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by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer @mahoney_sarah, October 2, 2023

While no one knows what you smell like on the internet, Gen Z could care less. People between 13 and 26 are spritzing up a storm, using fragrances differently than older people do. And this TikTok-inspired sniffathon is boosting sales, especially for D2C and digitally driven brands.

The latest fragrance data from Circana, the market research company, shows that Gen Z's use of fragrance has expanded significantly, rising 5% to 83%. This cohort ranks higher than any other age group in terms of heavy usage, which means wearing a fragrance at least three times a week. They are also more likely to buy themselves scent multiple times a year than other age groups.

TikTok, or #PerfumeTok, plays a major part, rising to the No. 2 spot for influencing fragrance purchase decisions.

Circana says prestige fragrance sales are growing as a result, with revenue up 13% from January through August 2023 versus the same period last year.

While classics like Chanel No. 5 and Dior arent going anywhere, Gen Z favorites include upstart digital indie brands, including Phlur, Vyrao, Juliette Has a Gun and Parfums de Marly, and D2C reliables like Glossiers You.

Reid Litman, global consulting director at Ogilvy and an expert in Gen Z behavior, says fragrance is increasingly what younger consumers are talking about on social media. One reason for the growing popularity is the way scent can boost mood and help with wellness, since self-care is a priority for these younger shoppers.

And while thats true for other beauty and self-care trends, fragrance also offers instant gratification, he tells D2C Insider. It doesnt require all these steps, like skincare, and you feel the results right away.

Circana says 80% of fragrance users agree that fragrance helps lift or enhance my mood.

Litman says the trend goes beyond the U.S. I checked with some friends in London, who describe it as a symbol of status -- not to show, but as a status of creativity. They talk about how theyre combining fragrance and how they are getting better at recognizing certain scents when others wear them.

Three kids in Paris -- all male -- recently told him they think of cologne as the new watch: It expresses who they are, but without the chance of theft.

The popularity of the digital expression of fragrances fits into this generations interest in products that spark ASMR, or autonomous sensory meridian response, that tingling feel-good sensation.

Peoples descriptions are about connections between memory and place and scent, he says. They talk about what they did as kids and how that relates to what theyre wearing.

But perhaps the biggest shift, he says, is how little conversation focuses on sex appeal. Effective marketing now focuses on a hyper-fragmented collection of stories based on digital first-world-building. Upstart brands are moving toward movies, music, art, nature and poetry to spark the storytelling behind new scents. For Gen Z, fragrance is about creativity, wellness and self -- rather than attracting a partner.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, October 3, 2023

A judge has thrown out a lawsuit by conservative activist Laura Loomer against consumer goods company Procter & Gamble, Meta Platforms and X Corp. (formerly Twitter) over bans of her social media accounts.

The ruling, issued Saturday by U.S. District Court Judge Laurel Beeler in the Northern District of California, was with prejudice -- meaning Loomer can't revise her claims and bring them again.

Beeler's order comes in a lawsuit brought by Loomer last year, when she claimed in a sprawling complaint that Meta and X engaged in a racketeering conspiracy by banning her over alleged violations of their content policies. She later amended her lawsuit to claim that Procter & Gamble was part of the alleged racketeering conspiracy, because it supposedly threatened to stop running ads on Meta unless it banned her.

Meta's Facebook banned Loomer in May of 2019. X banned her in November of 2018, but reinstated her account after Elon Musk acquired the company last year.

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Meta and X urged Beeler to dismiss the complaint for several reasons, including that Loomer previously lost lawsuits against them based on similar claims. The companies also said Loomer's claims were barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects online services from lawsuits over decisions about content moderation.

Procter & Gamble argued separately that Loomer's allegations, even if proven true, would show only that the company asserted its own legitimate business interest in not having its advertisements appear next to hateful, denigrating, discriminatory, or other similarly offensive content.

Beeler sided against Loomer on all counts. The judge specifically noted that the allegations that Procter & Gamble pressured Meta into banning Loomer wouldn't support a racketeering claim.

Loomer "alleges essentially that Procter & Gamble pressured Facebook to ban her by threatening to pull advertisements from Facebook if it did not do so, and Facebook capitulated, Beeler wrote.

Those allegations would show only that Facebook and Procter & Gamble were acting in accordance with their business interests, Beeler wrote. She added that Procter & Gamble's alleged attempt to avoid running ads near objectionable content was a legitimate business decision.

The plaintiff thus has not plausibly pleaded that Procter & Gamble is part of a RICO enterprise, Beeler wrote.
by Colin Kirkland , October 3, 2023

In a move to make up for potential lost ad revenue resulting from the European Unions strict data regulations, Meta is considering charging European users almost $14 per month on mobile devices (and $17 per month on desktop) to use both Instagram and Facebook ad-free if they opt out of the tech giant using their personal data for targeted ads.

In September, the New York Times reported similar news, citing Metas consideration as a clear attempt to relieve regulatory scrutiny over ongoing ad-tracking and data-privacy concerns overseas. A new report from The Wall Street Journal provides further information on the developing story.

As it develops its plan to charge users in the EU for ad-free experiences on Facebook and Instagram, Meta has talked with digital-competition regulators in Brussels, privacy regulators in Ireland and various other privacy regulators in the EU, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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Meta would like to begin rolling out its subscription no ads (or SNA) plan in the coming months, although it is unclear whether the EU regulators believe the plan is sufficient. The report says regulators may ask Meta to propose a cheaper offering, or appropriate fee, as the company attempts to comply with EU data regulations.

Meta believes in the value of free services which are supported by personalized ads, a Meta spokesperson said. However, we continue to explore options to ensure we comply with evolving regulatory requirements. We have nothing further to share at this time.

Through a paid subscription model, EU users would avoid seeing ads in either app -- marking a major shift in Meta's long-standing core business model, which for twenty years has been rooted in offering the public free social networking services while selling advertising to companies interested in reaching a specific audience.

Because of the privacy rules, Metas plans focus specifically on the EU. However, the company did announce Meta Verified in February, a paid verification subscription that offers users increased authenticity and security across Facebook and Instagram. The service costs $11.99 per month on the web and $14.99 on iOS.

Other leading social platforms like X and YouTube have launched similar paid models for in-app experiences, which allow users to dodge ads and/or receive additional benefits like in-app monetization capability and offline downloads.

Furthermore, TikTok on Monday began testing an ad-free subscription tier for users in one unidentified English-speaking market outside the U.S. for $4.99 per month.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, October 3, 2023

AIandYou, a nonprofit that Mark Zuckerberg funded partly through his philanthropic organization, has launched an advertising campaign focused on helping people identify misinformation and synthetic images around the 2024 election generated by artificial intelligence (AI) -- from realistic images to cloned human voices.

The campaign targets multicultural and other voters who overwhelmingly vote as Democrats.

According to AIandYou, the campaign is the first multicultural public awareness message on AI and the 2024 election, according to the nonprofits website.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chans organization, is listed as a supporter of AIandYou on the non-profit's website. The nonprofit has awarded $125,000 since 2020, according to Daily Caller, which first pointed to the grants database.

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Consumers look for inclusive behavior from candidates as well as brands and retailers. Some 42% of participants in a survey conducted by Aki Technologies said diversity, equity, and inclusivity will be more of a priority for them in the coming years, with 55% saying they expect it to be more of a priority for brands in the coming years.

About 53% of participants said they are, or would be, more loyal to brands and/or retailers that appear to be authentically diverse or inclusive, and 42% of consumers said they have shopped with a specific brand because of its level of inclusivity in advertising. The same would apply to electoral candidates.

The AIandYou multimedia, multicultural campaign aims to educate voters about misinformation and how to leverage AI tools to get out the vote.

The initiative centers on young voters of color and women, because of their electoral significance.

The non-profits goal is to demystify new technologies by helping people understand how they engage with AI in a way that is easy to understand by analyzing the good, the bad, and the ugly of AI, including how it influences online safety, education, elections, health, housing, jobs, finances, and more.

A video on the organizations website focuses on how voters can protect their vote against AI and misinformation.

The message in the video describes the use of personalized ad targeting and how information is manipulated to trick voters including the use of deepfakes to create false statements, and make sure to research anything seen or heard pertaining to the 2024 election.

AIandYou plans to launch a deepfake early in 2024 based on AI-generated ads to help voters familiarize themselves with the technology and content.

Jose Villa, president of Sensis, an ad agency working on the campaign, told Politico that the ads are still being developed, but one might focus on President Joe Biden saying something he didnt say, with a message at the end that identifies the content as misinformation.
by Teresa Buyikian , October 3, 2023

Today Dominos announced it has joined forces with Microsoft to collaborate on generative AI technology and cloud computing power.

The companies will use the Microsoft Cloud and Azure OpenAI service to improve the ordering process through personalization and simplification. Domino's expects to begin utilizing generative AI-powered solutions in stores and with customers online within the next six months.

Dominos has already been tooling around with data and AI capabilities with Microsoft as its primary cloud provider to modernize its in-store systems, with a generative AI assistant to improve personnel time spent on daily tasks such as inventory management, ingredient ordering and staff scheduling. Plans are in place to streamline pizza preparation and quality control with predictive tools.

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"Our collaboration over the next five years will help us serve millions of customers with consistent  ordering experiences, while supporting our corporate stores, franchisees, and their respective team members with tools to make store operations more efficient and reliable," said Kelly Garcia, Domino's executive vice president, chief technology officer in a release.

The chain has big plans to continue keeping up with changing consumer demands using Microsoft's AI capabilities, backed by Azure. As part of the collaboration, the two companies will create an Innovation Lab, where leaders from both companies meet with engineers to help speed up smart store and ordering innovations.

Utilizing AI is table stakes at this point. Over the next few years, more and more of our online and real-world experiences and transactions will be backed by AI, Stephen Fahlsing, managing director of digital agency and tech firm BonfireLA, told Marketing Daily. "Consumers will expect the type of results and outputs AI generates, whether they know its AI-generated or not.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. Reforms carried out under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev have not bypassed the prosecutor's office, Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General Kamran Aliyev told Trend.

According to him, the new structure of the Prosecutor General's Office was approved by the order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated June 10, 2020, and the number of structures within the structure of the Prosecutor General's Office was increased from 15 to 18. New departments were created - non-criminal proceedings, coordination of issues of special confiscation and official investigations, as well as the post of another Deputy Prosecutor General was established.

In addition, in order to ensure the organization of management, execution and discipline, work with personnel, document flow, procedural management and control activities in the prosecution bodies, taking into account the requirements of national legislation and international experience, the "Rules for the organization of work" of the Prosecutor General's Office were developed and approved by a decision of the board of the Prosecutor General's Office on 30 July 2020. The Rules for the first time separated the powers to supervise organizational work and execution from the powers to conduct official checks and investigations of prosecutors, the latter functions being assigned to the newly created Department of Official Investigations.

The Prosecutor General noted that the "Rules for the organization of work" returned to the district (city) prosecutor's offices the authority to procedurally supervise the preliminary investigation. Thus, district (city) prosecutors themselves carry out procedural management of preliminary investigation of criminal cases investigated in district (city) prosecutor's offices and district (city) internal affairs bodies, and approve indictments themselves.

"According to the indicators of our activity we can observe the positive result of the conducted personnel and organizational reforms," said Kamran Aliyev.

Speaking about the organization of activities in Azerbaijani territories liberated from Armenian occupation, he noted that district prosecutor's offices and territorial military prosecutor's offices are now operating in administrative buildings temporarily allocated for them.

As a result of the analysis carried out in accordance with the "I State Program of "Great Return to the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan liberated from occupation" approved by the Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated November 16, 2022, military prosecutors were appointed to the relevant districts and presented to the state bodies, as well as construction of new administrative buildings was determined necessary in these territories. The work is carried out in accordance with the general plan of each district after its approval, and the opening of these buildings will be carried out as they are ready.

The Prosecutor General noted that the realization of these measures is possible thanks to the attention and care of the head of state for the prosecutor's office. He added that new administrative buildings of Pirallahi, Nasimi, Narimanov, Sheki, Kurdamir district prosecutor's offices are currently under construction. These buildings may be put into operation in the near future.

Kamran Aliyev emphasized that the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan constantly develops relations with prosecutor's offices and other law enforcement bodies of foreign countries, as well as with reputable international organizations. Participation of employees of the Prosecutor General's Office in international conferences and courses serves to study international experience, as well as to establish relevant working relations. The 33rd meeting of the Coordinating Council of Prosecutors General of the CIS and the 4th meeting of Prosecutors General of the member states of the Economic Cooperation Organization held in Baku on September 15, paved the way for further expansion of these ties. Within the framework of both important events the issues of interaction, cooperation in the field of combating crime were discussed and relevant documents were signed.

At the same time, he said, the delegation of the Prosecutor General's Office took part in the 28th annual conference and general meeting of the International Association of Prosecutors held on September 24-28 in London. And the 29th conference of the organization will be held in 2024 in Baku.

The Prosecutor General noted that thanks to investigative and operational activities carried out jointly with the bodies of internal affairs, state security and penitentiary service from May 1, 2020 to the present, about 35 cases of premeditated murders committed under unclear circumstances have been solved.

"In the process of collecting evidence for crimes committed long ago, there are objective difficulties in terms of the time that has passed since the event. However, despite this, employees of the prosecutor's office manage to solve these criminal cases, thanks to a professional approach to work, analyzing evidence, including with the use of modern technology," he said.

Kamran Aliyev noted that the Investigation Department of the General Prosecutor's Office is conducting preliminary investigation of 8 criminal cases related to gross violation by the military-political regime of Armenia of the requirements of the UN International Convention "On Combating the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries". In these criminal cases, about 17 citizens of foreign states (Russia, Georgia, France) were brought as defendants and declared wanted, with a preventive measure against them in the form of detention and ensuring their international search through the National Central Bureau of Interpol.

He said that in their interviews on social networks, these persons stated that they were members of the Armenian armed forces in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. There are photo and video materials testifying to the participation of these persons in military actions. Investigative and operational activities to apprehend and bring these persons to justice are ongoing. In this regard, numerous requests for legal assistance have been sent to the relevant countries.

Speaking about the arrest of Armenian citizen Vagif Khachatryan, identification and arrest of persons who insulted the Azerbaijani flag, the Prosecutor General noted that all this became possible due to the constantly growing professionalism of the staff as a result of the complex reforms carried out in Azerbaijani Prosecutor's Office, including personnel reforms, strengthening the material and technical base of the Prosecutor's Office, regular involvement of the staff in trainings, as well as implementation of professional management of the apparatus of the Prosecutor's Office.

The Prosecutor General also commented on the issue related to the great attention paid recently in the press and social networks to news about criminal cases.

"If we say that social networks and media have already become part of our lives, I think we would not be wrong. In addition to giving owners and users of social media platforms broad rights of access, dissemination of information, the legislation also establishes a duty to comply with certain requirements. An example is the factor of presumption of innocence, i.e. in the absence of an effective court decision that a person has committed a crime, sharing information that a person is a criminal, dissemination of information that is a secret concerning a person's family and personal life, dissemination of information that constitutes a secret of investigation, etc. can also be noted as sharing of information the dissemination of which is prohibited. Unfortunately, in the course of monitoring on social media platforms, we find that such law violations are taking place," he said.

He noted that the procuratorial authorities are taking action against this. Thus, about 19 persons have been brought to administrative responsibility for dissemination of information prohibited by law on social networks and platforms from May 2020 to the present day, a measure of restraint in the form of administrative arrest or a fine has been applied to them, a measure of prosecutor's response has been applied to 82 persons, a warning has been issued, and a civil suit has been filed against 1 media institution.

"In this area, we regularly take preventive measures and take active steps to prevent such violations. We regularly prepare and disseminate various educational information and video content, organize trainings, seminars and conferences. Our goal is to provide people with access to reliable information through social networks," he said.

The Prosecutor General also spoke about the process of electronization in the prosecutor's office and the work on the creation of the "Electronic Prosecutor's Office" system. All prosecutor's offices have ensured faster consideration of citizens' appeals with electronic registration of received documents and paperless exchange of documents between structural institutions using information and communication technologies since March of this year.

In the forthcoming period, one of the important tasks in this sphere is to integrate the "Electronic Prosecutor's Office" information system into the digital document management subsystem created by the Decree of President Ilham Aliyev dated August 1, 2023, as well as to create real-time exchange of documents with other state bodies, minimizing time losses in interdepartmental correspondence. At the same time, a relevant module on investigative activity, which is the main activity of the Prosecutor's Office, has been developed and put into test operation.

In addition, the work on integration of the information system "Electronic Prosecutor's Office" into the information system of the Ministry of Justice "Electronic Court" will be completed in the near future. Also, by connecting to the existing databases of "Electronic Prosecutor's Office" information system, access to the necessary information in real time is provided.

"I believe that full use of the "Electronic Prosecutor's Office" information system will contribute to the implementation of functional tasks of the prosecutor's office bodies with application of scientific and technical achievements, analysis of information resources with full electronization of the work carried out and, ultimately, increase the efficiency of our daily work," said Kamran Aliyev.

The Prosecutor General also provided information on the results achieved in the fight against corruption. He noted that the decisive position of the head of state in the field of combating corruption further increases the responsibility of the prosecutor's office in this area. The main anti-corruption department of the Prosecutor General's Office has a 24-hour hotline - 161. On the basis of the information received, operative-search measures are carried out and persons who have committed corruption offenses are detained red-handed.

Over the past year, the Main Department for Combating Corruption under the General Prosecutor's Office completed and sent to the appropriate courts for consideration 236 criminal cases against 349 people. About 49 people were detained red-handed, 29 wanted persons were detained, 168 criminal cases were solved. During this time, criminal cases were initiated on 82 appeals received at the hotline under relevant articles of the Criminal Code, as well as submissions were sent to relevant organizations to eliminate the identified violations, as a result of which 72 officials were brought to disciplinary responsibility.
by Ray Schultz , October 3, 2023

German publishing giant Axel Springer, parent of Politico and Business Insider, is not afraid of artificial intelligence.

I dont see it as a structural enemy of journalism. I see it as a potential friend, said CEO Mathias Dopfner in a CNN interview. Why? Because we can come up with new products that we could have never afforded before."

He goes on to say, "And we can basically delegate the boring stuff of our business  translation, technical production, fact-checking, to a certain degree aggregation of information that is already out there  we can delegate that to bots, to artificial intelligence and focus on the very essence of our business, and that is news: To find out something that was not supposed to be found out. To focus on investigative reporting, to go out and watch and describe reality. That is so much more interesting to journalists.

Dopfner made these comments as Axel Springer reportedly had shown interest in buying the UKs Telegraph, leading to the prospect of a bidding war, The Guardian reports.

advertisement advertisement

Axel Springer has registered its interest with Goldman Sachs, The Guardian continues. The auction starts later this month.

Axel Springer, which publishes Bild and Die Welt, lost to Japans Nikkei in an effort to acquire Financial Times, The Guardian also reports.

When asked how Axel Springer could leverage AI to address a mature market, Dopfner told CNN the firm already has five projects where we take advantage of the possibilities of large language models.

However, he warned, If you just use AI in order to save costs, you make a big mistake.
Welcome to your Daily Horoscope for 4th October 2023!

Harness the power of the constellations as we dive into your daily horoscope. Your cosmic adventure begins now.



Aries Horoscope Today - October 04, 2023

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You might face some obstacles, but you have that potential to overcome it all. This is the right time to make some strong moves in a field of your interest, which will yield good results in future. You may get disheartened by peoples negative opinions about you, but try to ignore them. Health wise, some issues might trouble you today, so take care. Financial stability can be predicted.

Your lucky colour is grey. Your lucky number is 25.



Taurus Horoscope Today - October 04, 2023

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Distance yourself from people who are trying to dominate you and have the courage to stand up for yourself. If you stay determined and maintain that level of integration, you will be able to climb the ladder of success. Partners will share heartfelt messages with each other and make each other feel special. You will be in the best of health, but financially, you may have to ask for a helping hand.

Your lucky colour is olive. Your lucky number is 7.



Gemini Horoscope Today - October 04, 2023

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You might be disturbed by the fact that people keep interfering in your life. You like staying in your own space, but this continuous interference is annoying. Calm yourself and do not let the outside world bother you. Students will be occupied with project work today. Health and wealth conditions will be fine.

Your lucky colour is violet. Your lucky number is 2.



Cancer Horoscope Today - October 04, 2023

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Your professional and personal life is likely to gain strength. Appreciation from superiors will uplift your confidence. In personal life, you will share some quality time with your family, which will strengthen your bond with them. Avoid too much sugar or you might end up with stomach-related problems. Financially, a new project may fetch you good profits.

Your lucky colour is charcoal. Your lucky number is 29.



Leo Horoscope Today - October 04, 2023

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Life has been a roller coaster of late, with people entering and leaving your life on a regular basis. You may face challenges throughout the day in both personal and professional life. Kids are likely to trouble you all day long, but try not to be too harsh on them. Your financial position will be satisfactory today.

Your lucky colour is cyan. Your lucky number is 3.



Virgo Horoscope Today - October 04, 2023

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Children might have to deal with some health issues today so stick to hygienic food. Some good news from your family will make you feel over the moon today. Those who have been seeking solace for a long time will finally end up being satisfied. Students will find themselves occupied in completing some last minute tasks. Overall, its a pretty decent day for you.

Your lucky colour is brown. Your lucky number is 10.



Libra Horoscope Today - October 04, 2023

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Today is the day when your determination and hard work will yield favourable outcomes. You may get disheartened by peoples negative opinions about you, but try to ignore them. Employees might have to work for some extra hours due to extra workload. Health wise you might have to face some heart-related issues so, do not over stress yourself. Money wont be a problem for you today.

Your lucky colour is pink. Your lucky number is 27.



Scorpio Horoscope Today - October 04, 2023

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Your personal life is likely to gain strength. You might share some heartfelt messages with your partner and reminisce over past memories. You are likely to face a dilemma by having to choose between the right and the wrong path. Health of a family member is likely to be unstable, so try to nurse them back to health.

Your lucky colour is red. Your lucky number is 1.



Sagittarius Horoscope Today - October 04, 2023

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Youll make important career-decisions today, the impact of which will shape your whole life. Time is in your favour, so embrace the challenges coming your way and and test your extremes. Students might be stressed about extra workload today. Health wise, your cards look promising.

Your lucky colour is white. Your lucky number is 34.



Capricorn Horoscope Today - October 04, 2023

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People around you are likely to please you and see you as their idol. Being an inspiration for others will boost your confidence and motivate you to work harder. Impart ethical and moral values to the younger ones today. Health wise, your conditions will gain strength. Keep confidential documents under lock and key.

Your lucky colour is sea blue. Your lucky number is 11.



Aquarius Horoscope Today - October 04, 2023

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Today youll embrace adventure and self-discovery. Students are likely to receive good news with respect to academics. You might have to face your fears today, so have courage. Your financial conditions are going to improve in the near future.

Your lucky colour is azure. Your lucky number is 33.



Pisces Horoscope Today - October 04, 2023

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Today your parents teachings will prevent you from making any wrong decisions. Its good to demand your own space, but try not to use bitter words. Keep a close watch on your pocket today and beware of the pickpockets. Students are likely to receive good news in their respective academic fields.

Your lucky colour is magenta. Your lucky number is 25.



Conclusion

The celestial scrolls have unfolded their secrets. Carry the cosmic insights from today's horoscope as your guiding stars in the day ahead. All the horoscopes and predictions have been provided by the renowned astrologers from Askganesha.com. For personalised consultations and astrological advice, you can reach out to Askganesha astrologers.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has hailed the arrest of former "state minister" of separatist regime in Azerbaijan's Karabakh Ruben Vardanyan, Trend reports.

Right now there is a conflict between good and evil happening around us. Azerbaijan arrested Vardanyan, who actively supported the war in Ukraine, as well as the so-called foreign minister David Babayan, who developed ties with the so-called Abkhazia and South Ossetia," Saakishvili wrote on his page on X (Twitter).

He also mentioned that the "above-mentioned occupied territories have lost their partners".

As a result of the vigilance of the State Border Guard Service of Azerbaijan, on September 27, Ruben Vardanyan (born in 1968), who was heading from Azerbaijan towards Armenia, was detained at the Lachin border checkpoint, having illegally arrived in the territory of Azerbaijan and holding the "post" of the so-called "state minister" of the separatist regime in Karabakh.

Substantial suspicions were established that Vardanyan, currently a citizen of Armenia, had committed criminal acts under Articles 214-1 (financing of terrorism), 279.3 (participation in the establishment and activities of armed formations or groups not provided for by law), and 318.1 (illegal crossing of the state border of Azerbaijan) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

The Sabail District Court in Baku has sentenced Vardanyan to four-month arrest.
The United Nations Security Council approved Monday a one-year deployment of a multinational armed force to Haiti to be led by Kenya, nearly a year after the crisis-ridden country appealed to the international community for help to put down the violent gangs that have taken over larger parts of the country.

The vote on Res. 2699 came four days shy of one year since the Haitian government first requested an international military intervention on Oct. 6, 2022. Thirteen of the nations on the 15-member council voted for it, while two countries, China and the Russian Federation, abstained.

The vote is a significant victory for the Biden administration, which after failing to get Canada to take a leadership role in the effort over the course of a year of diplomatic efforts, succeeded in securing the approval of the security council. It is also a win for U.N. Secretary General-Secretary General Antonio Guterres who, recognizing past issues with peacekeeping operations in Haiti, proposed deploying a non-U.N. multinational force under a Security Council mandate and visited the Caribbean in July to lobby reluctant leaders for their support.

The Multinational Security Support Mission will not technically be a U.N. mission, meaning member countries are not obligated to contribute toward its cost. According to the resolution, the force would be funded by voluntary contributions from countries, and authorization would initially be for a year, with a review after nine months.

Senior U.S. administration officials say the U.S. is committed to the mission's success and will work with other countries to identify sufficient equipment, personnel and resources. They have declined to say publicly how much the mission is expected to cost, other than the U.S. plans to provide an initial $200 million in funding. Half of that will come from the Defense Department.

"Many of us have stepped up to do as much as we can bilaterally," a senior administration official said Monday ahead of the vote. "But Haiti needs a more ambitious, holistic and concerted effort from partners all over the world and for new partners to step forward to help in this critical moment in Haiti's history."

The U.N. resolution was authored by the U.S. and Ecuador with input from Kenya, which in late July said it would consider deploying 1,000 of its police officers to Haiti for the operation.

This is the first time since the U.N. deployed a stabilization mission to Haiti in 2004 that the Security Council has approved a foreign intervention in the Caribbean country, which has seen an escalation in armed gang violence and kidnappings since the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Then a strong earthquake hit shortly after.

Both events, U.S. officials said, "erased decades of progress in rebuilding stability and governance in Haiti."

The U.S. pushed for the resolution behind the scenes for months, with President Joe Biden calling for its swift passage in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly in September. U.S. officials were concerned that China and Russia would veto it up until the moment of the vote. Late Friday, after a draft of the resolution circulated among members of the Security Council, China asked for stronger language, requiring member countries to do more to halt the illicit trafficking of arms into Haiti. A deal was finally reached with Washington over the weekend.

The approval of the mission is not only "a significant milestone," U.S. officials said, it builds on the work of the council's decision last October to set up a sanctions program to punish Haitians helping fuel the widespread gang violence and destabilizing the country.

The Security Council has two more meetings scheduled on Haiti: One on the Oct. 19th to adopt additional sanctions, and another on Oct. 23 for a regular briefing and consultations on the work of the U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti. Guterres is seeking additional support for the office so that it can assist the mission by helping Haiti address some of the root causes of its instability: a dysfunctional judiciary, overcrowded prisons, corruption and a weak police force.

Monday's vote is only the first step, the U.S. official said, recognizing that much work remains including hashing out rules of engagement, how forces will communicate and how they will work with the Haitian police.

The mission, which is now expected to include military troops as well as police, will involve securing key government installations in Haiti such as the seaport and airport, but also support to Haiti's ill-equipped and underfunded police force on operations "to counter gangs and improve security conditions" in the volatile country.

The security mission would also work to help build the capacity of Haiti's police, which according to Guterres is dealing with a "staggering loss" of officers. In the first half of this year, nearly 800 cops left the force, which continues to struggle to maintain security gains after taking back neighborhoods from gang control. The U.N. political office in Haiti has said while the force has a payroll of less than 15,000 officers, there are only 3,300 cops actually on duty at any time throughout the country of 12 million people.

Monday's vote came after weeks of consultations and heavy behind-the-scenes lobbying by the U.S., which has grown increasingly worried about a mass exodus of Haitians and a complete takeover of the country by gangs, which now control at least 80% of the capital.

There were questions about the nature of the mission and its duration in Haiti, which hasn't had national elections since 2016, when Moise came to power, and today finds itself in a constitutional crisis with no parliament or elected leaders.

"The exit strategy goes through elections," Brian Nichols, assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, said ahead of the vote as the U.S. appealed to countries to pledge support for the mission.

Other countries also raised concerns about the lack of a political agreement to move toward elections in Haiti. The U.N. resolution stresses that "addressing the root causes of instability in Haiti requires political solutions," and emphasizes "the urgent need to encourage wider participation and forge the broadest possible consensus in the political process" to schedule elections once the gangs are dealt with.

Ahead of the security council's vote, the U.S. State Department stressed that the multinational mission is not a substitute for the political dialogue needed to move toward elections.

"This additional security support for Haiti goes hand in hand with the work that Prime Minister [Ariel] Henry is leading to forge a national consensus on a political path forward," Victoria Nuland, acting deputy secretary of state, said in a press conference on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly last month.

The U.S. has repeatedly said that Henry, a neurosurgeon who was handpicked by Moise ahead of his death to be his seventh prime minister and lead Haiti to long overdue elections, would not run for office -- and neither would any members of his cabinet.

U.S. officials said that while several countries have expressed support for fielding the mission, many said strong U.N. Security Council backing was necessary first.The Miami Herald has identified at least a dozen countries that have pledged to support the mission with personnel, equipment or funding. They include Italy, Spain, Mongolia, Senegal, Belize, Suriname, Guatemala and Peru. The Caribbean nations of Jamaica, The Bahamas, and Antigua and Barbuda had previously announced their intent to take part in the mission.

During discussions in New York, Blinken appealed to the international community to pledge support and said the administration is working on securing $100 million from Congress to help finance the mission. U.S. officials say they plan to intensify their efforts after the vote to get more contributions from other countries.

There are still many unanswered questions about the international intervention, including the ability of the U.S. to get countries to finance the mission with voluntary contributions when they have so far struggled to raise $28 million for a Haitian police fund, and the mission's ability to succeed against ruthless gangs.

Critics have raised questions about Kenya's ability to take on gangs and the force's effectiveness given the country's poor human-rights record in the past. The resolution says that all personnel deployed for the mission must be vetted and any allegations of human-rights abused must be quickly investigated.

Member states participating in the security mission will also be asked to adopt appropriate wastewater management and other environmental controls to guard against the introduction and spread of water-borne diseases like cholera, which was introduced during the last U.N. intervention by Nepalese peacekeepers.

"People are right to be skeptical because other emissions have failed before," Kenya's foreign minister, Alfred Mutua told the BBC in an interview before the vote. "But those are U.N. peacekeeping missions. This is a different mission."

 2023 Miami Herald

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Whether Pvt. Travis King will face Army punishment for fleeing into North Korea in July remains an open question days after he returned to U.S. soil on Sept. 28.

The Army said Tuesday that it still had not decided how to handle the case of the 23-year-old soldier as he continued the reintegration process at a Texas base. Service officials said it's still too soon to decide whether he will be punished or charged for any crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

However, legal experts say King is in a position to potentially face a wide range of charges, even desertion, despite the fact that the military never formally labeled him a deserter during his weeks of captivity by the secretive autocratic regime.

Read Next: After Missing Recruiting Goals, Army Announces New Occupational Specialty to Increase the Ranks

"They can go all the way from sending him to a court-martial with a very significant charge -- a desertion charge -- down to taking no action," Eric Carpenter, a law professor at the Florida International University College of Law and a former Army judge advocate, told Military.com in a phone interview Tuesday.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told reporters at a press conference Tuesday that "we will get to the point where the chain of command will decide what consequences he'll be facing, but we're not at that point right now."

Wormuth said the Army is focused on King's reintegration for now.

King was able to see his mom over the weekend and at some point he will face a debriefing where "people are going to want to talk to him and learn from what he saw," she added.

One key detail will be King's state of mind when he darted across the Demilitarized Zone -- one of the most closely guarded areas in the world -- into North Korean custody, according to Carpenter.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in July that King "willfully and without authorization" crossed the border. The soldier had been in some legal trouble in South Korea, where the U.S. has an Army presence, and was in the process of being flown back to Fort Bliss, Texas, when he fled, according to reporting at the time.

If, in his mind, he was "never coming back," Carpenter explained, "that's desertion" and a serious charge. However, absent that frame of mind, then King's actions likely amount to a more basic absence without leave, or AWOL.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters Thursday that King's motivations for crossing into North Korea were under investigation. The country made a surprise announcement last week that it was releasing King back into U.S. custody.

"That's something that the Army is leading with [United Nations] Command," a multinational military force that supports the security of South Korea, Singh added.

Perhaps the closest comparison to King's case is that of former Army Staff Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Bergdahl was a member of 1st Battalion, 501st Regiment, who in 2009 walked away from his post in Afghanistan and was captured by the Taliban, triggering a military search. He was held captive for five years before being released in a prisoner swap for five U.S. detainees.

Bergdahl was "locked up in a Taliban cage for five years and they still charged him" with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, Carpenter said. The Bergdahl case was on a scale much larger than King's, and it lasted for years, drawing debate and heated commentary from top U.S. officials.

Carpenter also pointed out that when Bergdahl was in the same reintegration phase that King now finds himself in, "he was super cooperative."

"He gave over a ton of information and that was really mitigating and that was good evidence for the defense and the court-martial," he said.

Ultimately, the choice to proceed with a court-martial and more serious charges could be a risky one for the Army since it will be forced to present all evidence in a military court of law, as opposed to a nonjudicial setting, and open up the option of appeals for King.

Again, Berghdal's case is informative since, despite securing an initial conviction at court-martial, that conviction has since been overturned on appeal and the case drags on to this day.

Meanwhile, as the gears of military justice turn, Singh said that King "was in good spirits when he was getting on the flight to return home."

King's mother, in a statement released through a spokesman, said that she "will be forever grateful to the United States Army and all its interagency partners for a job well done."

-- Steve Beynon contributed to this report.

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

Related: After North Korea Response, Expert Says Army Pvt. Travis King's Future Is Likely Political Pawn
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. The Azerbaijani Army launched a counter-offensive operation, later called the "Iron Fist", on September 27, 2020 in response to the large-scale provocation of the Armenian armed forces along the frontline, Trend reports.

The erupted 44-day Second Karabakh War ended with liberation of Azerbaijans territories from nearly 30-year Armenian occupation.

Trend presents the chronicle of the eighth day of the Second Karabakh war:

- President Ilham Aliyev announced that the Azerbaijani army raised the Azerbaijani flag in Madagiz (now renamed to Sugovushan), and announced the liberation from occupation of a number of villages in Tartar, Jabrayil and Fuzuli regions;

- On October 3, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan presented a list of the destroyed military equipment of the Armenian Armed Forces. Its total losses amounted to 230 tanks and other armored vehicles, 250 artillery installations, multiple launch rocket systems and mortars, 38 air defense systems, 10 command and observation posts, 7 ammunition depots, more than 130 vehicles, 1 anti-aircraft missile complex S-300;

- During the night of October 3, the combat activity of the Armenian armed forces in various directions of the front was suppressed, crushing blows were inflicted on them;

- The armed forces of Armenia subjected to intensive shelling the city of Tartar, the regional villages of Sakhlaabad, Gazyan, Gapanli, Gaynag, Askipara, Gusanli, the villages of Aghdam region Ayag Garvand, Imamgulubeyli, Garadaghly, Tazakand, Ajabadin region of Muganli, Giyunyungodbaranla

- Prosecutor General Kamran Aliyev said at a briefing that since September 27, 19 civilians have been killed as a result of Armenian shelling. Among those killed are three women and two children;

- The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan has distributed footage of the destruction of Armenian Army's military equipment;

- The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan has distributed video footage from the territories liberated from the occupation;

- residents of Baku on the balconies of their houses celebrated the liberation of the village of Sugovushan.
It's been almost a year, and Michael Patton still wants justice. To him, that means seeing criminal charges filed against the driver who killed his son.

The person behind the wheel wasn't a drunk driver or a texting teen. Records show he was an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who dozed off on his way home from work, killing two U.S. Marines who were stranded on the freeway in Orange County in a disabled vehicle.

Investigators with the California Highway Patrol have asked that prosecutors consider criminal charges against the deputy, Michael Miscione. The Orange County district attorney's office confirmed last week that a homicide prosecutor is considering the matter.

"The loss of any life is a tragedy not only for the victims' family, but for the entire community that loved them," Kimberly Edds, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, wrote in a statement to The Times on Thursday. "One of our veteran homicide prosecutors is carefully reviewing the facts of the case to determine what criminal charges can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt."

To Michael Patton, that came as a welcome development.

"We are hoping to see that the district attorney does prosecute and that he does end up doing some time," he told The Times. "The police are not above the law."

In a statement Monday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said it was aware of the "tragic accident" involving an off-duty deputy.

"We will continue to monitor the investigation," the department said.

Miscione could not be reached for comment.

First reported last week by the Orange County Register, the crash that killed James Patton and Samantha Berrios happened in the early hours of Nov. 5, 2022. It was Patton's birthday weekend  the lance corporal had just turned 20  so, according to his father, he decided to celebrate by going to a hip-hop show in Los Angeles with two friends. On the way back to Camp Pendleton, the driver hit a median wall on the southbound 5 Freeway, just south of Crown Valley Parkway in Mission Viejo.

According to a California Highway Patrol report, the Marines' Honda was too damaged to drive, so Patton and his friends got out to call for a tow truck. The driver  Aden Baker  stayed outside the vehicle, but Patton and fellow Lance Cpl. Samantha Berrios got back in the car because they were cold.

Ten minutes later, the car was still sitting in the high-occupancy lane with the lights off at 3:48 a.m. when records say Miscione plowed into them with his Chevrolet truck.

The 26-year-old deputy had just gotten off work at 3 a.m. and, according to the report, was driving about 90 mph  more than 30 mph over the limit  in a construction zone.

When a Highway Patrol sergeant later asked him what happened, Miscione said: "I fell asleep, I fell asleep." The last thing he remembered before nodding off, according to the report, was getting on the freeway from State Route 91.

The impact knocked off the bumper and cracked the windshield of Miscione's truck, but records show it smashed the trunk, shattered the windows, flattened the rear tires and even crushed the hood of the Marines' Honda.

Afterward, Miscione was taken to Providence Mission Hospital for arm and head pain.

Patton and Berrios both died at the scene.

The wreck came less than a week before they were scheduled to deploy to Japan, Nancy Berrios  Samantha's mother  told The Times.

On the phone from their home in Florida, Nancy and Miguel Berrios described their daughter as determined and highly motivated. She loved music and played lacrosse in school but didn't have any particular career path in mind. Then in her mid-teens, she decided that the military was exactly the kind of challenge she was looking for.

"She always said she wanted to rise above and feel like she could make a difference," Nancy Berrios said. "One day just out of the blue, she said: 'I'm going to be a Marine.'"

At first, her parents were shocked.

"But she kept going and did what she had to do," her mother said. "She was a tough cookie."

Though she didn't come from a military family, Samantha Berrios joined the Marines in 2021 and hoped to one day become a recruiter. She was excited about the upcoming deployment to Japan and thought the trip to Los Angeles with her fellow Marines would be a happy celebration of her last days in California.

As a boy in Cary, N.C., Patton had always dreamed of joining the Marines, his father said. He came from a long line of Army and Navy veterans, and he took pride in knowing his grandfather had been part of the Normandy invasion during World War II.

After high school, he went to Parris Island, where  because he was an Eagle Scout  he started at the rank of private first class. He advanced to lance corporal and was "well on his way to corporal" before he died, his father said.

"He was very gung-ho on the Marine Corps, and he loved every minute of it," Michael Patton told The Times.

To Patton, it's frustrating that the California Highway Patrol did not tell reporters about the Marines' deaths, and that it took nearly a year to complete the accident report and send it to local prosecutors.

"It's almost like they were saying our son and the Berrioses' daughter didn't matter," he said.

The local California Highway Patrol office in San Juan Capistrano did not return a call requesting comment. In an email, the district attorney's office in Orange County confirmed that prosecutors just recently received the case.

The Patton and Berrios families, meanwhile, have filed a lawsuit against the deputy, Los Angeles County and several others. The county deferred to the Sheriff's Department for comment , and it's not clear whether any of the parties have formally replied in court yet.

"I know that the deputy didn't leave his house thinking, 'I want to kill these Marines,'" Nancy Berrios said.

"It was a mistake  and there are consequences for a mistake," she continued. "In my heart, I know he didn't mean to. But these are our children."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

2023 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Two soldiers with the 11th Airborne Division were killed and 12 were injured in a military vehicle accident Monday in Alaska, according to the division.

A Light Medium Tactical Vehicle, or LMTV, rolled over while traveling with a convoy in the Yukon Training Area, the division said in a statement. Seventeen soldiers were riding in the truck around 11 a.m. when the driver lost control.

First responders provided on-scene medical treatment and medically evacuated the soldiers by ground and air to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, about 30 miles from the site of the incident. Two soldiers were so severely injured they were flown 300 miles to Anchorage.

Read Next: After Missing Recruiting Goals, Army Announces New Occupational Specialty to Increase the Ranks

The Army is withholding the names of the deceased soldiers until 24 hours after next of kin are notified, which is standard practice.

"We're all grieving and kind of doing what we can to support the families," Army spokesman John Pennell told a local news station. "Anytime we lose our soldiers, it's a tragic event for the family, for the fellow soldiers, for the soldiers' friends. Essentially, the entire 11th Airborne Division family is grieving the loss of these two soldiers and preparing to step forward for the families they've left behind."

It's unclear what caused the LMTV rollover. But as the post-9/11 wars wind down and combat fatalities become more rare, vehicle accidents, especially those involving rollovers, are a leading cause of death within the military.

The incidents have partly been attributed to sleep deprivation and troops not being adequately trained on vehicles. In many cases, investigators have found soldiers were not wearing seat belts -- which are non-existent in the back of certain trucks like LMTVs.

Soldiers sit on benches in the LMTV with relatively little protection if the vehicle flips over.

In July, eight soldiers with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment based in Vilseck, Germany, were injured when their LMTV rolled over during a training exercise in Bavaria, according to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. Two of the soldiers in that incident required overnight hospital stays.

The rollover in Germany occurred when the driver lost control on a forest road, the newspaper reported.

In May, Army Spc. Jayson Haven, 20, a South Carolina National Guardsman, died in a Humvee rollover accident at Camp Buehring in Kuwait.

-- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon.

Related: The Top Killer of Soldiers, Army Vehicle Deaths Are Tied to Poor Training, Though Numbers Down
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.

Strategic military success and failure most often lie outside of the bounds of solely military knowledge, expertise or execution. Purported failures in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan -- even the microcosm of Kabul -- are arguably symptoms of greater problems in policymaking, rather than shortcomings in professional military education.

Civilian policymakers may not always make the right call with difficult policy decisions in the eyes of the military professional. The military professional might even find those policies "stupid." Perhaps Gen. Douglas MacArthur was right and President Harry Truman was wrong about the need to fight the Chinese in the 1950s. Even if MacArthur was right, this did not protect him from being fired for insubordination.

A pair of articles that has recently appeared on Military.com ("Why Our Generals Don't Win" and "Why Our Generals Can't Think") penned by retired Marine Col. Gary Anderson were broadly critical of senior U.S. military officers and joint professional military education (JPME). The articles are built on a profound misunderstanding of history, civil-military relations, and what is and what is not occurring at JPME institutions. While a close examination and even criticism of both policymakers and military leaders regarding recent conflicts -- particularly the withdrawal from Afghanistan -- are warranted, the record upon which Anderson stakes his arguments must be clarified if we are to draw the right lessons.

In his Sept. 7, 2023, piece, Anderson explains to readers "Why Our Generals Don't Win." The author begins by correlating the "win" in Operation Desert Storm to the fact that the leaders of that era were not professionally or intellectually damaged by reforms in joint education and organization. Blaming the reforms of the Goldwater-Nichols Act for bloated staffs and misguided education, the author provides no evidence that Desert Storm military leaders possessed unique skills that directly led to that operational win. Arguably, the nature of the conflict itself -- given the unusually clear and limited policy goals -- led to unequivocal operational success.

Civilian national policymakers told the military to get the Iraqi military out of Kuwait. The military did so. Many would argue, however, that this was only a temporary "win" and that strategically it resulted in the need to go back 20-some years later. That is a policy issue, not a warfighting issue.

Anderson also points to the reforms as having resulted in deleterious effects on the military services, criticizing the Army, Navy and Marine Corps in turn. His claims about military failures come from a fundamental misunderstanding about who makes policy decisions and who carries them out.

At the direction of the commander in chief of the armed forces, the military conducted the Afghanistan withdrawal not from Bagram but from Kabul. In his second article, in which he explains "Why Our Generals Can't Think," Anderson claims that no general questioned that decision. Perhaps it is a statement about our current society that anyone, let alone a seasoned military veteran such as Anderson, would expect that an article in "The Atlantic" would provide insights into private and likely classified discussions between civilian policymakers and military leaders at the highest level regarding the decisions over war policies. The charge that no general questioned the decision to withdraw from Kabul rather than Bagram is spurious.

Further, comparing that decision to the French disaster at Dien Bien Phu -- with French losses in dead, wounded and captured in the tens of thousands -- borders on ridiculous, despite our shared national pain of losing lives in the attack on our forces during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Along with Anderson's expectation that military advice -- and ultimately any military disagreement with civilian policymakers -- should be part of public debate is his suggestion that military leaders whose advice is not followed should resign. While military leaders must have moral courage, they should not publicly complain, resign or threaten resignation if they do not get their way in a policy decision. U.S. civil-military tradition, which begins with the U.S. Constitution, should not be changed into a system in which civilian policymakers are essentially blackmailed by the generals. Military leaders would never tolerate such behavior from their own subordinates. There is no reason to expect that civilian authorities should be beholden to such coercion.

While military officers have an obligation to refuse an immoral or illegal order -- something Anderson correctly states -- they do not have the right or duty to, as he claims, "say 'no' to a patently stupid order or plan." It is widely known in the military that the ranks above do not know as much as those in the trenches: They are "stupid," in Anderson's terms. "They just don't get it" -- says the private of the sergeant, the lieutenant of the major, the colonel of the general. If those executing military plans refused to do so on the grounds of believing the plans or their leaders were stupid, either nothing would ever get done or the military would need to reinstitute summary execution for refusal to obey orders. Neither of those are good options.

An officer's commission states that they are being bestowed "special trust and confidence" for a reason. Officers do swear an oath to the Constitution, not a president or king. But the U.S. constitutional system is also one of civilian control of the military. The general is not the arbiter of what is or is not constitutional. "We the people" have vested that power in three branches of government.

Moreover, a general who threatens resignation, especially during crises, does not serve his or her country or subordinates well. Readers should recall that Dwight Eisenhower (one of Anderson's examples of great generals) disagreed with the requirement from civilian leaders to liberate Paris during World War II. Eisenhower and other military planners worried that doing so would be a drain on resources necessary for more important military aims. In that case, the political and cultural significance of the objective -- Paris -- outweighed other purely military factors. This is not to say Eisenhower was wrong, but that military and political professionals quite often view problems with different lenses. In the U.S. constitutional system, if there is a difference of opinion, the judgment of those elected by "we the people" must carry the day. If that is not the case, our representative republic will be in peril. The issues at stake are bigger than Kabul or Bagram.

Anderson's criticism of Goldwater-Nichols having resulted in uniformed Navy leaders failing to build enough submarines is misplaced. Likewise, his dig against the Marine Corps' Force Design 2030 indicates bitterness that things are not being done the way the author would have them done, nothing more. The public fight between the Corps' traditionalists and those behind Gen. David Berger's changes also teaches us much -- but nothing good about the supposed military professionals having such a public display. Additionally, just as with attack submarines, if the U.S. Congress wanted the Marine Corps to have tanks and keep all of its Howitzer batteries, then the Marine Corps would have to do it. The Marines may not think it wise, but the Corps would have no choice. Just ask the Air Force about who really determined the long-overdue retirement of the A-10 Warthog and the production of a second F-35 engine. Military professionals give military advice, and civilian policymakers decide and fund.

Anderson next attacks the Goldwater-Nichols requirement that officers serve in joint billets for promotion to flag rank. He charges that "there is no empirical evidence serving in a role like the graves registration officer at Central Command" will provide the makings of a good joint commander.

Perhaps, but a stint at the American Battle Monuments Commission did not seem to impede the military genius of the future five-star general Eisenhower. He had never led so much as a fire team in combat before leading the Allied invasion of North Africa, and ultimately becoming the supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe. However, "Ike" was a graduate of both the Army Command and General Staff College and the Army War College, though this last statement is just as much a declaration of correlation, rather than causation, as Anderson is inclined to use. Further, it was arguably Eisenhower's diplomacy with multiple national leaders and often shockingly self-righteous military subordinates, as well as his keen selection and management of such subordinate combat planners and leaders, that made him so successful in Europe against Axis forces.

While modern U.S. military staffs are arguably too large, blaming reforms made in 1986 comes with no real evidence. Claiming that "Rommel's Panzer Army" was smaller than current joint U.S. military staffs will be chalked up to a typo in the original article. However, Rommel's staff certainly was smaller than current U.S. combatant command staffs. It is also irrelevant. Rommel's warfighting experience was relegated to what he was able to affect in North Africa with his Afrika Korps -- a responsibility dwarfed in time and space by current joint commands.

It is also important to bring to the attention of readers the fact that Rommel lost. That Rommel was able to temporarily "[overrun] most of North Africa" is irrelevant. Drawing on the lessons of losers in terms of exemplary task organization is not the lesson to be learned for today's U.S. joint force.

The author then shifts gears with a non sequitur that the best warfighters in history were largely self-taught the profession of arms, but also that a large number of current officers have had no experience as staff officers. Anderson claims that on staff "is where the real mastery of grand tactics and operational art is learned. ..." Then why point to 10-month JPME programs as the sole source of blame for the supposed tactical, operational or strategic failures of current uniformed military leaders? JPME is certainly not perfect, nor is it perfectible.

A single academic year either mid-way or just past mid-way of an officer's career is insufficient to "master grand tactics and operational art." The timing is also much too late in a military career to suddenly provide "mastery" of such a complex profession. Officers are considered professionals and their individual PME occurs not once or twice, but over a career of service and leadership. That the "real mastery" occurs while doing is quite correct. JPME provides professional growth. If the seeds of the military profession are not planted and nourished early and continuously throughout a career, no 10-month program (master's degree or not) will suffice to make up for that shortfall.

Anderson also claims that JPME does not but "must include a serious study of military theory, history and staff planning." This author agrees and, along with a talented cadre of professors, teaches each of these subjects at JPME. Anderson also claims that the instructors at JPME are not required to be combat experts. This is true, but to say they are not, as he claims, "knowledgeable about the study of war" is inaccurate.

If the requirements to teach at JPME included combat experience, we would have precious few teachers. Not every combat veteran is interested in teaching at JPME. Moreover, many military professionals, though knowledgeable of combined-arms and other martial topics, are still not qualified to teach nor particularly adept at teaching any subject. Certainly, Anderson and the reader can point to many examples of highly knowledgeable, yet abjectly incapable, teachers.

Anderson's solution for JPME is "a program of rigorous reading of military history interspersed with periodic exercises that require the students to make sound decisions, and insist[ence] that they be able to issue clear plans and orders based on those decisions." Perhaps a visit to a JPME institution in the last 20 years or so would reveal these very things are indeed occurring. They were this author's experience as a JPME student nearly 20 years ago, and they continue to form the core of this author's teaching experience at JPME since 2008 at different institutions. Again, no 10-month program is sufficient for true mastery, but these facts suggest that Anderson's charges about what is occurring in our JPME programs are ill-informed.

Next, Anderson's critique of the failures resulting from the revolving door of leaders and units in Afghanistan seems valid enough. However, little evidence is provided to bolster the argument other than a claim that Gens. David Petraeus and Jim Mattis were exceptional leaders compared to the others who came before and after them. This claim borders on hero worship, as do the author's claims of the genius of flag officers of yore. One might ask what then explains these two generals' failure to solve the myriad problems -- military, social, political and otherwise -- in Afghanistan. The author answers his own question and rebuts his fundamental argument at the same time. It was "the stubborn incompetence and corruption of the Afghan government and its military." Therefore, it was not, as Anderson has suggested, an Army that can't plan, a Navy that doesn't build submarines, a Marine Corps that no longer has tanks, Goldwater-Nichols, JPME, or the size of joint staffs.

Anderson concludes, after providing no empirical evidence of his many claims, that "only the top 10% of field-grade officers" annually need to serve on a joint staff, thereby enabling the "slashing" of the size of staffs "without sacrificing quality." No explanation is given for what the right staff size is, what staff billets should be sacrificed, nor how that "top 10%" would be selected across each of the military services. Each of the branches has vastly different areas of "quality" and expertise required to execute its warfighting functions. What are the desired qualities of a joint (versus Army, Air Force, Marine Corps or Navy) staff officer? Is the officer going to the staff to provide advice and assistance to the commander, or to be groomed for command? To ask is to answer. Someone, unfortunately, needs to be assigned as the graves registration officer at U.S. Central Command.

Anderson's final claim is absolutely true: "A military professional must be a master of his trade." Any individual professional or service branch that would rely on one or two 10-month JPME programs to provide that mastery is delusional. Yet, the truth is also undermined by another misleading claim (and misreading of history) that the great generals "never served as joint officers before leading great armies and fleets to victory." Of course they didn't. There was no such thing as a joint staff as we now know it at the time. However, Eisenhower served in multiple staff positions prior to leading the greatest military force ever assembled (again, never having led anything or anybody in combat prior). Grant, Pershing and Nimitz all served in various non-leadership and non-combat roles. The real difference between their experiences and the experiences of today's military officers is that today some of the time that officers spend in staff roles is on a joint staff. Modern military operations require officers with at least a modicum of knowledge outside of their own specialty and service. We are a better force now than we were 80 years ago.

The wisdom of civilian policy decisions should not be conflated with the U.S. military's level of martial prowess. Anderson does make a solid point regarding the compressed timeline in which many things must occur in a modern officer's career. However, this is not a result of Goldwater-Nichols, but both the shortened time between promotions and the "up-or-out" promotion system. Eisenhower spent about 16 years of his career at the rank of major. Today's officers serve at the rank of major for about 6 years, give or take.

U.S. policymaking and military leadership are far from perfect. They deserve -- they require -- pointed criticism and careful reflection by civilian and military professionals. Policymakers, just like generals and admirals, make decisions with incomplete information, in rapidly evolving and complex situations. Carl von Clausewitz famously presented this as "the fog of war" -- a concept with which any JPME graduate is familiar. A selective and incomplete reading of history, doctrine, law and the U.S. Constitution are dangerous things to use as evidence to criticize policymakers and upon which to suggest sweeping changes to civil-military relations and warfighting. It only adds to the fog.

To blame a chaotic withdrawal from Kabul on Goldwater-Nichols, JPME or flag officers' experience on joint staff is not supported by the facts. Further, while it echoes apparently widely shared sentiments, to suggest that flag officers should resign or threaten to resign in protest of policies with which they do not agree is dangerous. The generals and admirals, though their preferred policies may indeed be the best path to military success in a given instance, are not elected by "we the people" and are not the ultimate decision-makers under the U.S. constitutional system.

-- Dr. Brent Lawniczak, Ph.D., is a retired Marine aviator and the author of the book "Confronting the Myth of Soft Power in U.S. Foreign Policy" (Lexington Books) and a number of scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals. He currently serves as an instructor of military and security studies at the Air Force's Air Command and Staff College, where he also teaches an elective on the U.S. Constitution.

-- The opinions, conclusions and recommendations expressed or implied within are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of The Air University, the United States Air Force, the Department of Defense, or any other U.S. government agency.
Spencer Clark is probably the most obscure American ever to appear on U.S. banknotes, and there are a surprising number of people (officially, 53) who've been featured on things like legal tender, silver certificates, Federal Reserve notes and, of course, your everyday currency notes. They include presidents of the United States, treasury secretaries, generals and even one former enemy of the state.

In general, the people honored with appearing on American legal tender have done a lot in their lives, either related to banking or to the ongoing security of the country, to deserve being immortalized on currency. Then there's Clark, an artist and engraver, who pretty much just saw a great opportunity.

Clark, like many Americans at the time, held a number of jobs and started a few businesses before going into his forever career, which turned out to be government work. He was 45 when he started clerking at the Treasury Department in 1856. He eventually worked his way into finishing new currency and monetary notes, working in engraving and printing new currency. By 1862, he was the first superintendent of the National Currency Bureau, a precursor to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

As Clark was organizing the new printing and engraving office for American money, the country was in the full throes of the Civil War. The material demands of the war meant that considerably less metal was available for creating new coins, and the American public wasn't giving up their old coins, which were made of precious metals at the time. Congress decided it would allow the Department of the Treasury to start printing fractional currency notes as a stopgap solution.

The new notes were available in three-, five-, 10-, 15-, 25- and 50-cent denominations and were issued five times throughout the war. Deciding whose image to put on American currency is a big deal, but during the Civil War, it clearly wasn't the biggest issue of the day. The U.S. government had a lot going on, which meant mistakes were bound to be made.

'Wait a minute! Who do we put on the 50-cent note?'

In June 1864, the country was ready to produce its third round of fractional dollar notes. Congress decided it would honor William Clark, who famously explored the Louisiana Purchase with Meriwether Lewis between 1804 and 1806. But when Congress passed the bill to memorialize William Clark, the language of the bill only read "Clark."

It's important to note that Spencer Clark wasn't a very popular guy in the federal government. The official history of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing records that Clark would later resign "amidst a congressional investigation into record-keeping and security." Representatives in Congress had accused Clark of hiring only attractive women and plying them "with oysters and ale to make improper overtures to them."

The record also alleges that Clark paid the women up to $1,000 (almost $20,000 in 2023 dollars) to spend the night with him. The subtle accusation is that the money came from the treasury, not Clark's bank account. He was eventually cleared of the charges when one of the women who testified that she'd slept with him died and her autopsy revealed she'd died a virgin.

In truth, Clark was hiring women whose fathers or husbands had been wounded or killed in the ongoing war. He hired some 300 women to help provide for those affected families, but the air of controversy never really left Clark (and it certainly didn't help the women working at the Treasury Department).

So he really wasn't doing himself any favors when he'd decided the congressional order to immortalize "Clark" on the upcoming five-cent note could be applied to himself: Spencer Clark. Until that time, three Americans had been featured on paper bills while they were still living. These included President Abraham Lincoln; Lincoln's treasury secretary, Salmon P. Chase; and Gen. Winfield Scott.

So when Clark put himself on the five-cent note, you can probably understand why Congress was upset. The new notes appeared in 1866, and featured not only Clark, but also Treasurer of the United States Francis E. Spinner on the 50-cent note. With the war over, Congress had time to pay attention to what the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was up to.

Lie to me and tell me you wouldn't do it.

When it came time to pass an appropriations bill for the Treasury Department, Rep. Martin Thayer of Pennsylvania added an amendment that codified who exactly could be put on American banknotes: "Hereafter no portrait or likeness of any living person shall be engraved or placed upon any of the bonds, securities, notes, or postal currency of the United States."

Spencer Clark kept his job at the treasury due to the intervention of Representative (and later President) James Garfield, Secretary Chase and Treasurer Spinner, but the faces on American currency would be forever limited to dead people.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Facebook, X or LinkedIn.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 2. The Azerbaijani Army launched a counter-offensive operation, later called the "Iron Fist", on September 27, 2020 in response to the large-scale provocation of the Armenian armed forces along the frontline, Trend reports.

The erupted 44-day Second Karabakh War ended with liberation of Azerbaijans territories from nearly 30-year Armenian occupation.

Trend presents the chronicle of the war.

- On October 2, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev gave an interview to Al Jazeera. The president once again defended the rightful position of Azerbaijan in the international media and informed the international community about the reasons of the Second Karabakh War and the latest situation in the region.

- On the night and in the morning of October 2, combat operations continued in different directions of the front. In the direction of Aghdara, Azerbaijani troops liberated the important heights around Madagiz settlement (now renamed into Sugovushan) and took control of it. From 00:00 to 07:00 (GMT +4), five Armenian armored vehicles, three military infrastructure facilities and a large number of personnel were destroyed. Armenian volunteers brought from Armenia to Azerbaijani then-occupied territories refused to fight under various pretexts, fearing the intensity of the fighting and the heavy losses.

- Armenia shelled Azerbaijani settlements. The villages of Khindiristan, Alibayli, Ahmadaghaly and Safarli in the Aghdam district came under heavy artillery fire.

- The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has released new footages of the battles. The Armenian manpower and equipment were destroyed.

- Armenian servicemen inflicted strikes on a kindergarten in Shikharkh settlement near Tartar city.

- Armenian armed forces fired on journalists who were reporting from the frontline. The journalists who were operating in the residential areas fired by Armenian forces came under sudden shooting. Armenians shelled the area where the journalists were.

- Shootout between Armenian soldiers. A shootout took place between the soldiers of the 6th Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Armenian Armed Forces in Madagiz (now Sugovushan), who withdrew during the night fighting.

- Armenian military supplies and combat means were destroyed

- Armenia launched nearly 10 Tochka-U tactical missiles to the Sabirkand settlement of Shamkir district.

- The Azerbaijani Army seized the battle flag of the Air Discount Command Union of the Armenian Armed Forces 193rd airborne assault battalion, as well as a large number of weapons and ammunition of the Armenian forces who fled the battlefield, helpless in the face of the strength of Azerbaijani Army. The Armenian field control point, as well as several other Armenian manpower and equipment were destroyed.
Pirates general manager Ben Cherington met with members of the media (including Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming offseason. Topics on the table included the teams shortcomings in 2023, his plans for improving the roster over the winter, and Andrew McCutchens future with the club.

When asked about the Pirates midseason collapse following a hot start, Cherington didnt mince words, suggesting that the team simply wasnt good enough to contend across a full 162-game season. On that note, he emphasized that improving the team will be his sole focus over the offseason; in other words, the worst of the rebuilding years are over. Going forward, the Pirates are going to make an effort to compete. That doesnt mean theyll be serious contenders for the NL Central crown right away, and the executive acknowledged as much, but it certainly seems like his goal is to field a winning ballclub.

In terms of moves to improve the roster in 2024, the GM spoke about potential trades and free agent acquisitions. In terms of trades, Cherington said he isnt taking anything off the table right now, and hed be willing to make a significant trade if he saw it as the best way to upgrade the roster. As for free agents, he didnt rule out the possibility of some signings, but he cautioned that he doesnt want to lean on free agency exclusively as a means of improving the club. On a similar note, he drove home the point that the most meaningful improvements need to come from players already in the organization. That means young guys like Oneil Cruz, KeBryan Hayes, Jack Suwinski, Henry Davis, Endy Rodriguez, Johan Oviedo, and Quinn Priester stepping up and continuing to grow. Cherington also said he would consider extensions for some of the more established contributors on the roster, including Mitch Keller and David Bednar.

While he didnt get too specific about potential targets in free agency, Cherington did say he might be open to a different type of target than he has signed in the past. That could mean a bigger-impact type of player on a longer-term deal, although the GMs answer was deliberately vague.

One particular impending free agent he could talk about, however, was McCutchen, who remains under contract with Pittsburgh until the conclusion of the World Series. The former MVP was enjoying his best season in years until he tore his left Achilles tendon in early September. Presumably, both sides would be amenable to a reunion in 2024. Cherington said he plans to meet with the beloved veteran in the coming days to discuss his future with the Pirates.
TODAY: Teheran rejected the outright assignment and opted for free agency, according to MILB.coms transactions page.

OCTOBER 2: The Brewers sent righty Julio Teheran outright to Triple-A Nashville, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. Milwaukee had designated the veteran for assignment last week.

Teheran going unclaimed on waivers was a virtual lock. He is headed back to free agency at seasons end and would not have been eligible for postseason play with another team. There was no incentive for anyone else to claim him. Teheran has more than enough experience to reject the assignment and hit the open market a couple weeks early, though he could elect to stick with the organization on the chance theyd decide to call upon him during a playoff run.

The 32-year-old signed a big league contract with Milwaukee in May. It marked his return to the majors after spending 2022 in independent ball and the Mexican League. Teheran logged 71 2/3 innings across 14 appearances, his heaviest MLB workload since a 2019 season that marked the end of a nine-year run in Atlanta. He provided the Brew Crew with a 4.40 ERA, striking out a below-average 17.4% of opponents but limiting his walks to a meager 4.5% clip. Teheran should find some interest as a depth starter this offseason, though it might be limited to minor league offers.

Milwaukee will open their Wild Card Series against Arizona tomorrow with Corbin Burnes against rookie Brandon Pfaadt. Theyd seemed set to turn to Brandon Woodruff to oppose Zac Gallen in Game 2 before the unfortunate revelation that Woodruff would miss the series (at least) with a shoulder issue. Their starter for Wednesdays contest is still listed as TBD, though Freddy Peralta seems the likely choice. Wade Miley, Adrian Houser and Colin Rea would be the top options if the Brewers wanted to hold Peralta for a potential Game 3 matchup with Arizonas Merrill Kelly.
ALLEN PARK -- Duron Harmon is back in the NFC North, with the former Detroit Lions safety signing with the Chicago Bears.

Harmon was plucked from the practice squad in Baltimore. Hes been on the practice squad with the Ravens since early last month after starting 16 games for the Las Vegas Raiders last season.

The 32-year-old veteran safety started all 16 games during his lone season in Detroit back in 2020. He intercepted two passes, adding a then-career-high 73 tackles while playing the most defensive reps (1,103) of his decade-plus career.

Related: Detroit Lions host 8 free agents for tryouts

Related: Lions open practice window for injured edge defender Julian Okwara

Harmon has at least one interception in 10 straight seasons, including eight with multiple picks. Hes seen the most defensive work of his career through the last three years, with 49 starts under his belt with the Lions, Raiders and Atlanta Falcons.

The safety was one of several former New England Patriots players to sign with the Lions during the tenure of former head coach Matt Patricia and general manager Bob Quinn. Back in Detroit, the Lions have Tracy Walker, Ifeatu Melifonwu and Kerby Joseph highlighting their active safety situation. C.J. Gardner-Johnson is out for an extended period of time after tearing his pectoral muscle.
PLYMOUTH, MI  A Michigan man has been found guilty of setting his own house on fire to collect insurance money, officials announced.

Patrick Nolan, 42, of Plymouth, was found guilty by a jury in the 3rd Circuit Court in Wayne County of arson of an insured dwelling, a potential life-sentence offense, and second-degree arson, a 20-year felony, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Each charge may also incur a fine of $20,000 or three times the value of the property, whichever is greater.

In the early hours of Jan. 1, 2019, the Plymouth Township police and fire departments responded to a house fire. Nolan owned the home. He later attempted to make an insurance claim on the loss. He started the fire himself for this purpose, prosecutors said.

Every arson represents another instance where our firefighters and first responders risk their lives to protect public safety, and thats an unacceptable danger to our communities, Nessel said in a statement. Insurance fraud drives up the costs of insurance policies for consumers everywhere.

Investigators determined that the fire was arson for the following reasons:

The fire originated in three separate, unconnected areas identified as the master bedroom, basement storage room and the common hall at the top of the basement stairs;

Gasoline was found throughout the home; and

No natural causes of fire were found in the home.

A review of Nolans trucks infotainment system also showed he was parked at the residence less than two hours before the fire was reported by a neighbor.

Nolan is due back in court for sentencing before Judge William Giovan on Tuesday, Oct. 17.
LANSING, MI -- The parents of a Michigan school shooter may face trial after the state Supreme Court on Oct. 3 rejected their appeal.

We are not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this court, Supreme Court judges wrote.

James Crumbley, 47, and Jennifer Crumbley, 45, each face four counts of involuntary manslaughter, a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Theyre accused of being criminally negligent and failing to intervene before their son, who expressed concerns over his own mental health and asked for help, used a gun his father purchased for him to kill four Oxford High School classmates on Nov. 30, 2021.

The deaths of the four victims could have been avoided if the Crumbleys exercised ordinary care and diligence in the care of their son ...  Oakland County District Court Judge Julie Nicholson said when she bound the case over for trial in February 2022. There was extensive testimony that (their son) was certainly a troubled young man and that the defendants had knowledge of that situation, but they purchased a gun which he believed was his and that he was free to use. Therefore, the court is binding the defendants over as charged.

Defense attorneys appealed the decision to the state Court of Appeals, arguing that parental negligence wasnt a direct cause of the violence, the then-15-year-old sophomores actions were.

The Court of Appeals refused to hear the appeal and upheld the lower courts bind over, leading the defense to appeal to the state Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ordered the Court of Appeals to reconsider the arguments. After doing so, the Court of Appeals said the bind over was proper.

The defense appealed that decision in May. With the Supreme Courts refusal to hear the appeal, the case returns to the Oakland County Circuit Court for possible trial. A next hearing date is pending.

The ruling comes days after Circuit Court Judge Kwame L. Rowe ruled that the now-17-year-old shooter can be sentenced to a mandatory life prison sentence. The sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 8.

In his ruling, Rowe said the parents were negligent, argued frequently, exposed their son to substance abuse and left him home alone for much of his childhood.

His father bought him a gun that was ultimately used in the school shooting, despite knowing (his son) needed a psychological and medical evaluation ...  Rowe said. Despite his parents shortcomings, (the shooter) appeared to have a loving and supportive family.

Crumbley on Oct. 24 of last year pleaded guilty to 24 felonies, including four counts of first-degree murder for the killings of Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; and Justin Shilling, 17.

The shooters parents remain in the Oakland County Jail, where theyve been held for nearly a year and 10 months. Their bond amounts are each set at $500,000.

There are no known school shooter cases in which the parents have been held criminally accountable for their childs actions.

Well, the thing they did not do is plot and plan these murders and hold a weapon and shoot people in cold blood in a school, attorney Shannon Smith, who represents Jennifer Crumbley, said when she argued before the Court of Appeals in March. And thats the main point ... Anything else they could have done  get him help sooner, look in his backpack, go through his cell phone, go through his room, pick apart anything  those are all things that in hindsight always wish they had done when a problem occurs ...

Extending that kind of liability for failure to open a backpack, for failure to give a hug or failure to do one of those things, ends up opening this unlimited liability to every parent across the state.

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald charged the parents two days after the shooting.

We have watched school shootings unfold in communities across this country for far too long, and to prevent further tragedies like the one we witnessed yesterday, and at large, we have got to address responsible gun ownership in this country and in Oakland County, she said at a press conference announcing the charges. We have to address the fact that people should be held accountable who own guns and are not responsible.

More on MLive:

Oxford High shooters parents have been in jail 600 days. Is $500K bond excessive?

He wanted to kill the innocent. Michigan school shooter can be sentenced to life in prison, judge rules

Michigan school shooter took pleasure in his appetite for darkness, prosecutor says

It was crushing. Assistant principal recounts trying to save dying Michigan school shooting victim

Michigan school shooting survivors testify. I realized if I stayed I was going to die

Haunting words of Michigan school shooter: I am the demon
ANN ARBOR  Two University of Michigan students have been identified as suspects in connection with graffiti found on the sidewalk in front of the Jewish Resource Center in Ann Arbor, police announced in a news release Tuesday.

The incident took place shortly after 5 p.m. on Aug. 22 in front of the center, 1335 Hill St.

Ann Arbor police released surveillance video of the incident on Aug. 25 to help identify the suspects.

The male suspect is believed to be responsible for spraypainting male genitalia as well as a homophobic slur, while the female spraypainted her initials, according to the Ann Arbor Police Department.

Police did not release the names of the suspects.

Because the Jewish Resource Center has decided not to press charges, the case has been closed, police said.

A Freedom of Information Act request for the police report has been filed by MLive/The Ann Arbor News.

Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page, the Ypsilanti-area news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Ann Arbor daily newsletter.

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Police release surveillance video of Ann Arbor hate graffiti suspects

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ANN ARBOR, MI  Ann Arbor estimates major storms that resulted in prolonged power outages between February and July cost the city $1.9 million in emergency expenses.

Thats among the details in a new city report examining impacts of some of this years severe weather events, days-long failures of the DTE Energy grid and how the city responded.

Dealing with downed trees and branches that take out electrical lines has been one of the citys big expenses.

The fire department also estimates it incurred nearly $13,000 in overtime costs from responding to over 600 incidents.

Traffic signals and streetlights not operating is another issue highlighted in the report, noting it poses a notable safety concern to the traveling public.

A precarious situation with a leaning utility pole and power line, caused by a fallen tree limb, on Ann Arbor's Brooks Street following a storm on Aug. 26, 2023. (Ryan Stanton | MLive.com)Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News

Records obtained by MLive/The Ann Arbor News through the Freedom of Information Act show city police handled at least four crashes in late July at intersections with traffic signals not functioning amid widespread outages: one at Main and Summit streets, one at Washtenaw Avenue and Hill Street, one at Eisenhower Parkway and Stone School Road, and one where Jackson and Dexter avenues converge.

No one was seriously injured in the crashes, though vehicles were damaged and towed, according to police reports.

By law, motorists must treat intersections as all-way stops when signals are not working, but some drivers have been confused during outages, which have left some busy intersections dark without temporary stop signs or signals.

In one crash two days after a July 26 storm, a driver who approached the busy Jackson-Dexter split without functioning traffic lights stopped to treat it as a four-way stop before observing a Cadillac quickly approaching from behind.

She noticed the driver was not paying attention or slowing down, the police report states. Before she was able to accelerate, the driver crashed into the rear of her car. The impact was hard and caused damage to her vehicle.

A precarious situation with a leaning utility pole and power line, caused by a fallen tree limb, on Ann Arbor's Brooks Street following a storm on Aug. 26, 2023. (Ryan Stanton | MLive.com)Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News

The city has 16 generators refueled every four to six hours to keep at least some traffic signals powered when there are outages, but thats only during the day and they are removed at night due to risk of theft, the new report states.

The city also has temporary stop signs its able to deploy at about a dozen intersections, but officials acknowledge that can leave other intersections without such safety accommodations when there are large-scale outages, since the city has 164 signalized intersections.

The new report still maintains temporary signs and signals are deployed where needed until power is restored.

City Council members discussed the report Monday night, Oct. 2, taking note of the large costs associated with responding to storms and outages.

I am both grateful that we had those resources and marshaled them quickly, but Im hoping that well be able to find ways to get that number down a little bit and looking forward to having discussions about actions we might take to increase our preparedness, said Council Member Lisa Disch, D-1st Ward.

Council Member Jenn Cornell, D-5th Ward, called the nearly $2 million cost in just half a year stunning. With the effects of climate change accelerating, she said, she wonders what the costs might look like in the years ahead.

The costs outlined in the report are for major storm events on Feb. 22, March 3, June 25 and July 26 and do not count another in August.

A precarious situation with a leaning utility pole and power line, caused by a fallen tree limb, on Ann Arbor's Brooks Street following a storm on Aug. 26, 2023. (Ryan Stanton | MLive.com)Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News

The fact that so many city employees live outside the city is a challenge when it comes to emergency responses, officials acknowledge.

It may be difficult for staff to physically get in, especially when road conditions are dangerous or there is no power, the report states. Many staff members live outside the city, some at a substantial distance. Compelling staff to work during emergency events, particularly those that occur over weekends or holidays, can negatively impact morale.

Offering on-call pay and paying for hotels for staff are among the reports recommendations for improving the citys response.

Council voted unanimously Monday night to approve a resolution encouraging DTE to develop a plan to improve grid reliability and resilience through coordination with the city to upgrade and bury power infrastructure wherever possible, including in conjunction with city street projects.

Ann Arbor is still weighing whether to form a municipal power company to try to take over DTE service in the city.

Council members said they hear a lot from residents about the lack of power reliability.

I did a quick search of the emails mentioning DTE in my inbox and its truly overflowing, said Council Member Chris Watson, D-2nd Ward. Its the largest thing that Ive been contacted about in my time on council.

The unreliable and inadequate nature of DTEs infrastructure is a matter of profound and pervasive concern throughout the community, Mayor Christopher Taylor said.

Representatives from the Michigan Public Service Commission, which regulates power companies, came to Ann Arbor last week and met with city staff and residents, Taylor said.

We were able to very clearly describe to them some of the challenges that we face, he said, citing concerns about unreliable DTE infrastructure and the citys perception that DTEs emergency response operations are inadequate.

A DTE Energy truck outside the Beer Depot in downtown Ann Arbor on Sept. 17, 2023. (Ryan Stanton | MLive.com)Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News

Ryan Stowe, DTEs vice president of distribution operations, said in a recent interview DTE takes feedback from local communities into consideration when deciding how and where to prioritize power restorations. DTE is planning to continue to make big investments in upgrading Ann Arbors power infrastructure over the next 15 to 16 years and the city can expect significant reliability improvements, he said, adding that includes new distribution systems and smart-grid technology.

Were targeting about 10,000 new devices that were going to go install in the system over about a five- to six-year period, he said, adding that will mean faster restoration times.

Communication with DTE during outages is one issue discussed in the new report. The city offers a mix of positive and negative feedback, noting one challenge is city staff have to visit remote sites and traffic signals to know for sure whether power has been restored and its labor intensive.

As a result, some residents were frustrated with the pace that signals are restored to normal operation, the report states.

City staff also does not receive notifications from DTE when power lines are removed from trees blocking roadways, which would allow a more prompt response from city staff for debris removal and road opening, the report states.

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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Ann Arbor takeover of DTE could cost city up to $1.15 billion, study finds

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Five Michigan rank on a list of the 100 best teaching and community hospitals in the United States, according to a new ranking from Fortune magazine.

The ranking is divided among teaching hospitals and community hospitals.

Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital ranked No. 2 out of all major teaching hospitals, behind only Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Texas.

This honor is a testament to the hard work, training and experience of our medical team, clinical staff and support functions, and to the culture of excellence that permeates every unit throughout our hospital, Alonzo Lewis, president of Trinity Health Ann Arbor, said in a statement.

The ranking differentiates between 15 major hospitals versus 25 smaller ones. Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital ranked No. 18 on the smaller top-25 ranking.

The community hospitals were divided between 20 large, 20 medium and 20 small communities. McLaren Northern Michigan in Petoskey ranked No. 8 in the medium category.

Among smaller communities, Trinity Health Chelsea Hospital ranked No. 7. Munson Healthcare Cadillac Hospital ranked No. 9.

This recognition is a great honor and reinforces what local residents already know about us, which is that Chelsea Hospital is a destination for outstanding care, Ben Miles, president of Chelsea Hospital, said in a statement. I credit our amazing physicians, our tremendous nursing team, and all our support staff, all of whom devote their careers to bringing hope and healing to our patients.

The Fortune/PINC AI 100 Top Hospitals ranking listed 100 hospitals out of 2,644 short-term, acute care non-federal US hospitals, the ranking states. The methodology, found here, is based on clinical outcomes such as mortality or complications, operational efficiency such as length of stay, patient experience, financial health and community health survey performance.

The ranked hospitals, compared to unranked ones, had 31% fewer deaths, 9% fewer patients with complications, 39% fewer infections associated with healthcare, about 20% lower inpatient expenses per discharge and a half day shorter average length of stay, according to Trinity Health officials.

If you would like more reporting like this delivered free to your inbox, click here and signup for our weekly newsletter: Michigan Schools.

Read more from MLive:

2 Michigan universities are in top-120 in the world, ranking says

These Michigan hospitals provide the best care in the country, U.S. News ranking says

These Michigan hospitals earned 5-star ratings in federal ranking
SALINE, MI -- A woman found dead in a Saline basement last week was fatally shot, police said.

Saline police were called to a residence within the city around 2:45 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 29, for a well-being check, Saline Chief of Police Marlene Radzik said in a release. Although the incident was originally believed to be a missing endangered person, officers found the woman dead in the basement.

Police have identified the woman as Cindy Gochis, 49.

Gochis died of a gunshot wound, Radzik confirmed to MLive/The Ann Arbor News on Tuesday, Oct. 3.

Gochis was found in her home on the 100 block of Elmwood Court, family members told MLive/The Ann Arbor News. Her death is the 16th homicide in Washtenaw County and the second in Saline this year.

Read more: 11 people have been killed in Washtenaw County since June 1. Whats behind the rise in homicides?

The suspect, a 55-year-old man from Indiana, left the residence in the Gochis vehicle, according to police. Police found the suspect in Indiana with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, but is now in stable condition, police said. He is not yet stable enough to be released.

The man was charged with open murder and felony firearm on Saturday, Sept. 30, although has not yet been arraigned, police said. MLive/The Ann Arbor News does not release the name of suspects until they have been arraigned.

He will be extradited to Michigan when he is able to be released, and the prosecutors office works out these details, Radzik said in an email to MLive/The Ann Arbor News. When he returns to Michigan, he will be arraigned.

The death is believed to be a domestic incident, police said. Investigation is ongoing.

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.

Read more from The Ann Arbor News:

2 University of Michigan students responsible for graffiti at Ann Arbor Jewish center, police say

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KENT COUNTY, MI  Two people were injured Monday, Oct. 2, when their vehicle left I-96 and crashed into a tree in the median, state police said.

The passenger, a 19-year-old woman, was thrown from the vehicle.

She and the driver, a 22-year-old man, were taken to a local hospital for treatment of injuries. Their conditions were not available.

The crash happened Monday night on eastbound I-96 near the Walker exit. The vehicle left the road before striking a tree in the median.

The crash remains under investigation, state police said.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 1. The Azerbaijani Army launched a counter-offensive operation, later called 'Iron Fist', in response to Armenian armed forces on September 27, 2020, Trend reports.

The 44-day second Karabakh war ended with liberation of Azerbaijans territories from nearly 30-year Armenian occupation.

Trend presents chronicle of Azerbaijan's second Karabakh war for October 1, 2020:

- President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko made a phone call to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

- The Armenian armed forces units subjected Azerbaijan's Tartar city to artillery fire once again. As a result of Armenia's large-scale provocations, 19 Azerbaijani civilians were killed, a teacher suffered shrapnel wounds, and 11 schools were destroyed.

- Nearly 200 tanks, 228 artillery installations, 30 air defense systems of the Armenian armed forces were disabled.

- The list of the Armenian armed forces' military losses was unveiled. The enemy's military columns moving in different directions of the frontline were destroyed.

- Following the battles in the Fuzuli direction, the Armenian military equipment was captured.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  The head mechanic at a company tied to a scheme to bypass diesel-engine emissions controls was sentenced to probation.

Randy Jeb Clelland, 33, of Grand Rapids, was sentenced Monday, Oct. 2, by U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney in Kalamazoo.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - A new union contract is set to be negotiated for almost 25,000 unionized Meijer workers in Michigan.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 951 and the Grand Rapids-based supermarket chain will begin bargaining a new contract on Wednesday, Oct. 11 at the unions headquarters in Kentwood.

The union is looking for significant wage increases, additional paid time off and an affordable medical plan, according to a press release.

As we begin negotiations, we have made it very clear to Meijer we want a strong contract for our members, said John Cakmakci, UFCW 951 president.

Our members, as essential workers, have endured a lot over the past three years and believe it is now their turn to share in the healthy profits their employer recorded during, and following, the pandemic.

Meijer has been unionized since 1951. Cakmakci would not get into specifics about the wage increases and other things the union is seeking.

We have a positive, longstanding relationship with the UFCW and look forward to productive negotiations, said Frank J. Guglielmi, senior director of corporate communications for Meijer.

The UFCW 951 is the largest private sector union in Michigan, representing more than 28,000 workers statewide. Union membership includes workers in grocery, retail, food processing, pharmacy, and cannabis.

In Michigan, UFCW workers are represented at Meijer, Kroger, Rite Aid, JBS, JLL, Knouse Foods, Pollys, Hardings, Heritage Provisioning, and Grandville Roasting & Packaging Plant.

The Local 951s membership is made up primarily of Meijer workers. The union represents all but two Michigan stores across both peninsulas, Cakmakci said. The last contract was negotiated in 2020.

This contract will impact retail, transportation, and distribution complex workers, Cakmakci said.

Workers across the country, in a wide variety of industries, are taking a stand and demanding the wages, benefits, and working conditions they deserve, and our members are no exception, he said.

This comes during a wave of union support related to the ongoing United Auto Workers strike. The most recent Gallup poll found two-thirds of Americans approve of unions.

The public support for unions and striking workers is at a near all-time high, said Cakmakci. After years of making sacrifices, putting their lives on the line each day as essential workers, and watching CEOs and shareholders reap the rewards, workers are rightfully demanding their fair share.

Cakmakci said striking for a better contract is a possibility.

I think it is on the table more so than in the past, he said. Because theres a level of frustration not just in Michigan, not by our members but really, within the working class in general.

During August polling, 67% of Americans approved of labor unions. That was down slightly from 71% a year ago but marks the fifth straight year this reading has exceeded its long-term average of 62%, according to Gallup.

The highest level of public support, 75% of Americans approving, was in 1957, according to Gallup.

Highly publicized labor disputes like the UAW and automakers and the Hollywood writers and actors strike gained even higher support.

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GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Its important for kids to be in school every day of the year, but student attendance is especially critical on the first Wednesday of every October each year.

Wednesday, Oct. 4 is Count Day, one of two designated days per year when all public schools in Michigan are required by the state to tally the number of students attending their schools. The information is critical to districts, because each student translates into state funding.

Michigan uses a blend enrollment count to determine funding for schools, where the October count represents 90% of state funding, and the remaining 10% is determined from Count Day in February from the prior year.

That means that when local schools tally up their attendance numbers on Wednesday, the majority of their state funding allocation will be determined by how many students showed up.

In June, the Michigan Legislature passed a $24.3 billion school aid budget. This school year, districts receive $9,608 per student, an increase of $458, the largest ever per-pupil allocation from the state.

RELATED: Michigan schools given record per-pupil funding, $204M for at-risk students

Many schools began spreading the word to families this week through email, text and social media alerts about the importance of coming to school on Wednesday.

Grand Rapids Public Schools, the largest school district in West Michigan, sent an alert to families Tuesday afternoon to remind them to send their youngsters to school.

Spread the Word: E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, blog, and talk to all your family, friends, and neighbors encouraging 100% attendance every day  but particularly on Count Day, the district wrote. If your child is sick or unable to attend, please be sure to call the main office at your school to report an excused absence.

In order for schools to count a student for funding, the student must be in attendance and receive instruction in all classes on Count Day, according to the state.

If a student is sick or cant be in school on Count Day, the state does have some exceptions for when schools are allowed to count a missing student.

Schools can count a student who is not in attendance if:

The student has an excused absence and attends within 30 calendar days following count day.

The student has an unexcused absence and attends within 10 school days following count day.

The student is suspended and attends within 45 calendar days following count day.

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JACKSON, MI  After several months of waiting, Jackson County residents will now have a new food option in the area with the opening of Tropical Smoothie Cafe.

The fast, casual chain expects to open its 1,400-square-foot building by Hobby Lobby at Jackson Crossing. on Sunday, Oct. 8, a company representative wrote in an email.

Related: Whats that? New building at Jackson Crossing getting ready for new restaurant

This is the first location of the business in Jackson, officials said, with the next closest being in Ann Arbor at 5609 Jackson Road. People can expect to find a range of fruit smoothies, sandwiches, wraps, flatbreads and other items on the menu.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe originally anticipated the Jackson location would be open by summer, but those plans were delayed due to city inspections, officials said, adding the restaurant wanted to ensure it was up to code for the wellbeing of its guests and staff, officials said.

Once open, the restaurant will have roughly 15 to 20 employees, and will include a drive thru. Tropical Smoothie Cafe will be open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe has found the Midwest region to be a strong market, officials said, adding that the Jackson location aligns with its current expansion goals.

The Tropical Smoothie Cafe building is part of a larger project taking place at Jackson Crossing. The 130,000-square-foot former Sears store is currently being separated into four to six stores, ranging from roughly 6,700 square feet to 57,000 square feet.

Related: Jackson Sears store closing in latest round of company cuts

So far, Hobby Lobby, Planet Fitness, Buckle and Eyemart Express have opened. Other stores, like Burlington, are also slated to join the facility in the future.

Three drive-through style buildings also are planned for the parking lot near the old Sears building, Rhino Investments Group COO Michael Sanchez previously said. These are anticipated to include restaurants such as Five Guys and McAlisters Deli.

Related: Five Guys, McAlisters Deli, Burlington and more slated for Jackson Crossing

Want more Jackson-area news? Bookmark the local Jackson news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Jackson daily newsletter.

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KALAMAZOO, MI -- Kalamazoo-area wing lovers dont have to drive an hour for Wingstop anymore.

The national chain opened a new location on Wednesday, Sept. 27, at 5228B S. Westnedge Avenue in Portage. Its the franchises first location in Kalamazoo County. And more are coming soon.

By the end of October, Wingstops Portage general manager Christopher Garcia said another location is planned for West Main Street and a third location is coming to Gull Road by November or December.

Customers faced wait times up to 2 1/2 hours for the first few days, Garcia said. Previously, the closest Wingstop was in Wyoming, a suburb of Grand Rapids.

Garcia said wait times that long are uncommon, so theyre hoping to reduce them in the coming weeks.

Ive never had to wait more than an hour thirty minutes, at the most. What were looking for is for that to die down, Garcia said.

While there are other wing-focused restaurants in Kalamazoo, Garcia said the wide variety of flavors Wingstop offers is a big draw.

Its a great thing for everyone, Garcia said.

Customers can find their preferred flavor using the heat scale on Wingstops website. Flavor options include lemon pepper, atomic, mango habanero, Louisiana rub, Hawaiian and more.

It costs $7 for 10 boneless wings or $12 for 10 bone-in wings. Wingstop also offers a chicken sandwich, sides and desserts.

The Westnedge Avenue location is open every day from 11 a.m. to midnight.

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GRAND HAVEN, MI -- A dessert spot along the lakeshore known for its gourmet milkshakes has decided to close its doors after being open for less than two years.

Bad Habit, an extreme milkshake bar located at 215 Washington Ave. in downtown Grand Haven announced the permanent closing in a Facebook post this week.

We would like to thank our customers, friends and family for supporting our vision from the moment we first created Bad Habit, the statement reads. We have loved bringing unique desserts to our community.

The dessert spots last day is officially scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 15.

Bad Habit first opened in March 2022 at 1307 S. Beacon Blvd, specializing in shakes topped with slices of cake, cotton candy and other sweet treats. Less than a year later, the business moved to its current location on Washington Avenue to expand and offer more goodies.

RELATED: Michigans Best Local Eats: Grand Havens Bad Habit now has tasty food options and extreme milkshakes

The Oct. 2 Facebook post was flooded with comments from locals, with some questioning the decision to close. Bad Habit responded to customers, citing that the current economics are not in our favor.

MLive reached out to Bonnie Brown, co-owner of Bad Habit, who declined to comment further on the business closing.

Bad Habit encourages customers to use up their gift cards between now and closing day on Oct. 15. Hours are Thursday through Sunday, from 9 a.m. - 7 p.m.

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SAGINAW, MI  Last month, a judge dismissed a felony assault case against a Saginaw Township doctor accused of running over an abortion opponent. Days later, the injured man filed a lawsuit against the physician.

Through Bay City attorney Robert J. Dunn, husband and wife Mark and Donna Zimmerman on Sept. 20 filed their lawsuit against 87-year-old obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Theodore L. Roumell and Midwest Medical Management.

In the suit, Dunn wrote Mark Zimmerman was in the parking lot of the Womens Center of Saginaw and Flint, 3141 Cabaret Trail, the morning of June 23. Arriving for work, Roumell pulled his blue 2018 GMC Terrain into the lot and struck Mark Zimmerman, knocking him down and breaking his left tibia.

Roumell either negligently or intentionally struck Zimmerman, Dunn wrote.

There is overwhelming evidence (Roumell) ran him over, Dunn told MLive. Ive got several witness statements from people who saw it. I have a witness who heard (Roumell) threaten to do it the week before.

The injury caused Zimmerman, 52, to be hospitalized, undergo surgery, and be doctor-ordered to spent several months at home for rest and rehabilitation, Dunn wrote.

Its obvious what happened and (Roumell) has to be held accountable, Dunn said. This guys gonna be held accountable.

The suit contains four counts  negligence causing serious impairment of a bodily function, assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The Zimmermans are seeking at least $25,000, plus interest, attorney fees, and costs, the threshold amount for a suit to be filed in Circuit Court.

In June, the Saginaw County Prosecutors Office charged Roumell with a four-year count of felonious assault. A Sept. 15 preliminary examination ended with Saginaw County District Judge Elian E.H. Fichtner making the rare move to dismiss the case.

Surveillance camera footage of the collision played during the hearing, showed Zimmerman walking across the lot, then stepping back into Roumells path as he pulled into the driveway. Zimmerman stood in front of the SUV until its drivers side front tire rolled over him.

Based on the video footage and witnesses testimony, Fichtner found the prosecution did not meet its burden of establishing probable cause a crime had been committed.

Zimmerman testified he regularly protests outside the abortion clinic. While he often wears a GoPro camera during his protests, he was not wearing it on the day in question. Questioned by defense attorney Matthew L. Norwood, Zimmerman said he was aware of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, and a township ordinance against disturbing people during their lawful occupations.

Zimmerman also said police told him in May he was not to step in front of vehicles or impede traffic at the clinic.

Saginaw Township Police Detective Justin Severs testified his department frequently receives calls for protestors blocking the clinic and its lot.

Attorney Norwood is not representing Roumell in the civil suit but said the matter will be handled by the doctors auto insurance.

Central Dispatch logs indicate the agency has received 58 calls for service at the clinic between June 8, 2016, and June 23, 2023.

In April 2012, Roumell faced an assault charge in Wayne County District Court after he assaulted Pro-Life Michigan Director Lynn Mills outside an abortion clinic in Livonia in February of that year. Mills said Roumell twice drove at her, then hyperextended his vehicles door, causing her to fall backward to the ground. He then sideswiped her with his vehicle, she said.

Roumell received a probationary sentence and the conviction was later dismissed.

Roumells medical license was issued in 1961 and is set to expire in June 2024.
STANDISH, MI  A Bay County Jail corrections officer has received a delayed sentence for drunkenly walking into a Standish home and falling asleep.

Lester A. Cousineau Jr., 48, on Monday, Oct. 2, appeared in Arenac County District Court for sentencing, having pleaded no contest to the lone count he faced, that of entry without permission, in August. The charge is a 93-day misdemeanor.

The presiding judge delayed Cousineau for one year. During that span, Cousineau is effectively on probation.

Bay County Sheriff Troy R. Cunninham said Cousineau is still employed by his agency but has not returned to work since his crime. He is currently on personal leave and has worked as a corrections officer for about 20 years.

About 9:45 p.m. on July 14, the owners of a home in the 400 block of East Beaver Street called 911 to report seeing an intruder enter their home on a Ring camera. The residents were not home at the time, but said a teenager was housesitting for them.

Deputies arrived at the house a few minutes later and saw Cousineaus 2023 Chevrolet Silverado parked in the driveway. The trucks lights and windshield wipers were on, but the vehicle was unoccupied.

As deputies secured the front yard, the house-sitter ran outside, holding a cellphone in one hand and a hammer in the other. The teen, described by deputies as being worked up and frightened, said he was trying to get away for safety and that the intruder was still inside.

Deputies then saw the intruder  later identified as Cousineau  standing inside the house. They told him to come outside with his hands up, but he turned around and walked deeper into the house.

On entering the house, deputies found Cousineau asleep in a recliner. They awoke him and placed him in handcuffs.

Lester looked confused and made the statements, Where am I? Why are you here? How did I get here? deputies wrote in their reports.

Deputies led Cousineau outside and placed him in a patrol vehicle. They noted he smelled of intoxicants, had slurred speech, and had red, watery eyes.

Shortly thereafter, the homeowners son and his fiancee arrived and told deputies they knew Cousineau, adding he used to live at the house some time ago. They said they recognized Cousineau from the Ring camera footage and that he has a drinking problem.

Deputies read Cousineau his Miranda rights and he declined to speak with them. Moments later, Cousineau began banging and yelling inside the patrol vehicle, yelling to speak with them.

A deputy opened the door and told Cousineau to stop banging his head and body.

Lester replied, I want to speak with Curt the prosecutor now! deputies wrote. Arenac Countys elected prosecutor is Curtis G. Broughton.

Deputies did not contact Broughton, they wrote.

The house-sitter told deputies he arrived at the house to find Cousineau, whom he did not know, sleeping in the recliner. He fled to the basement, grabbed a hammer, and called the homeowner. He then ran outside, where he encountered deputies.

The homeowners provided deputies with the Ring camera footage, which showed Cousineau walk into their unlocked home at 9:02 p.m., carrying Burger King takeout. They added Cousineau had no permission to be in their home.

Deputies told Cousineau the homeowners wanted to press charges.

Lester shouted, What?! Im so (expletive)ed, deputies wrote.

Taken to the Arenac County Jail, Cousineau submitted to a preliminary Breathalyzer test. The results indicated his blood alcohol level was 0.118. In Michigan, a person is legally intoxicated when their blood alcohol level hits 0.08.
SAGINAW, MI  Three years after killing a friend of his and fleeing the state, a Saginaw man has been sentenced to several years in prison, despite maintaining his innocence.

A shackled Armond D. Gardner, 31, on Monday, Oct. 2, appeared before Saginaw County Chief Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson for sentencing.

I been sitting here three years being patient, Gardner told the judge. Im innocent, you know, but Im gonna take responsibility for this. I just want to get back out there for my kids.

Jackson sentenced Gardner to a flat five years in prison, plus terms of five to 10 years and 10-to-20 years in prison. Gardner is to serve the two longer terms consecutively with the five-year stint, but concurrently with each other.

Jackson gave Gardner credit for 1,096 days already served, only applied to the five-year term. He gave Gardner no credit on the longer stints.

Gardner, in January, pleaded no contest to manslaughter, felon in possession of a firearm, and two counts of second-offense felony firearm. In exchange, the prosecution dismissed a charge of open murder and another felony firearm count.

The convictions relate to the Aug. 8, 2020, death of 34-year-old Tony D. Joshua. Police found the fatally wounded Joshua in a driveway at 2015 S. Washington Ave. around 6:10 a.m., with medical personnel pronouncing him deceased 14 minutes later.

No loved ones of Joshua gave a victim impact statement at Gardners sentencing.

In a January 2021 preliminary examination, Gardners half-sister Starsterria Moore testified via Zoom from her home in North Carolina that in the early morning of Aug. 9, 2020, she received a phone call from Gardner while she was in Augusta, Georgia.

Armond called me between 4 and 5 (a.m.) and Armond said to me, Hey sis, can you come and get me. I need to get away, Moore said Armond said, Some dudes are trying to get me. They trying to kill me. Im in harms way. Armond said, These dudes are trying to kill me. I need to get gone.

Moore in turn called an aunt in Cincinnati, who bought Gardner a bus ticket from Detroit to Cincinnati, she said. Moore and Gardner met up at their aunts house in Cincinnati on Aug. 11, she testified.

Gardner told Moore and his aunt that he had argued with his girlfriend at their residence, after which he went to a park, she testified. Gardner returned to his house where his girlfriend was arguing with Joshua over drugs and alcohol, Moore said. Gardner intervened in the dispute to calm down the participants, Moore said.

Joshua threatened to retrieve an assault rifle, shoot the house up, and kill Gardner and his girlfriend, Moore said her half-brother had told her. Joshua walked out of the house and Gardner shot him repeatedly in the back, Moore said Gardner told her.

The next day, Moore drove Gardner to North Carolina, she said.

He just steady smoking cigarettes back-to-back, Moore said. You could tell he wasnt hisself. Armond stated that he hated that he had to take his own friend out. He said the situation is crazy.

On arriving in North Carolina, Gardner told the same story to his mother and her husband, Moore said.

Police arrested Gardner in Fayetteville, North Carolina, after which he was extradited back to Saginaw County and arraigned on Oct. 19, 2020.

Joshua graduated from Saginaw High School in 2004 and thereafter attended Delta College.

Tony loved to rap and he studied business in hopes of becoming his own boss in the music industry, his obituary states. Tony was very loving and always happy. He never wanted to engage in any negative energy. He had a crazy sense of humor and loved to laugh and tell jokes that were often stale. More than anything, Tony loved his daughter and his family and he will truly be missed by those who loved him best.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the job Tuesday in an extraordinary showdown, a first in U.S. history that was forced by a contingent of hard-right conservatives and threw the House and its Republican leadership into chaos.

McCarthys chief rival, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, forced the vote on the motion to vacate, drawing together more than a handful of conservative Republican critics of the speaker and many Democrats who say he is unworthy of leadership.

Next steps are uncertain, but there is no obvious successor to lead the House Republican majority.

Stillness fell as the presiding officer gaveled the vote closed, 216-210, saying the office of the speaker is hereby declared vacant.

Moments later, a top McCarthy ally, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., took the gavel and, according to House rules, was named speaker pro tempore, to serve in the office until a new speaker is chosen.

The House then briskly recessed so lawmakers could meet and discuss the path forward.

It was a stunning moment for the battle-tested McCarthy, a punishment fueled by growing grievances but sparked by his weekend decision to work with Democrats to keep the federal government open rather than risk a shutdown.

An earlier vote was 218-208 against tabling the motion, with 11 Republicans allowing it to advance.

The House then opened a floor debate, unseen in modern times, ahead of the next round of voting.

McCarthy, of California, insisted he would not cut a deal with Democrats to remain in power  not that he could have relied on their help even if he had asked.

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a letter to colleagues that he wants to work with Republicans, but he was unwilling to provide the votes needed to save McCarthy.

It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War, Jeffries said, announcing the Democratic leadership would vote for the motion to oust the speaker.

As the House fell silent, Gaetz, a top ally of Donald Trump, rose to offer his motion. Gaetz is a leader of the hard-right Republicans who fought in January against McCarthy in his prolonged battle to gain the gavel.

Its a sad day, Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said as debate got underway, urging his colleagues not to plunge the House Republican majority into chaos.

But Gaetz shot back during the debate, Chaos is Speaker McCarthy.

In this image from video with the final vote total of 208-218 not to table the motion, the House of Representatives voted to move ahead with an effort by hard-right Republican critics to attempt to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, displayed on the floor of the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023.House Television via AP

McCarthys fate was deeply uncertain as the fiery debate unfolded, with much of the complaints against the speaker revolving around his truthfulness and his ability to keep the promises he has made since January to win the gavel.

But a long line of McCarthy supporters, including Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a founding leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus, stood up for him: I think he has kept his word. And some did so passionately. Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., waved his cellphone, saying it was disgusting that hard-right colleagues were fundraising off the move in text messages seeking donations.

At the Capitol, both Republicans and Democrats met privately ahead of the historic afternoon vote.

Behind closed doors, McCarthy told fellow Republicans: Lets get on with it.

If I counted how many times someone wanted to knock me out, I would have been gone a long time ago, McCarthy said at the Capitol after the morning meeting.

McCarthy insisted he had not reached across the aisle to the Democratic leader Jeffries for help with votes to stay in the job, nor had they demanded anything in return.

During the hourlong meeting in the Capitol basement, McCarthy invoked Republican Speaker Joseph Cannon, who more than 100 years ago confronted his critics head-on by calling their bluff and setting the vote himself on his ouster. Cannon survived that takedown attempt, which was the first time the House had actually voted to consider removing its speaker. A more recent threat, in 2015, didnt make it to a vote.

McCarthy received three standing ovations during the private meeting  one when he came to the microphone to speak, again during his remarks and finally when he was done, according a Republican at the meeting who was granted anonymity to discuss it.

At one point, there was a show of hands in support of McCarthy and it was overwhelming, said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a member of the House Freedom Caucus.

Gaetz was in attendance, but he did not address the room.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., one of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's harshest critics, leaves the chamber after speaking on the floor, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. Gaetz has said he plans to use a procedural tool called a motion to vacate to try and strip McCarthy of his office as soon as this week. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)AP

Across the way in the Capitol, Democrats lined up for a long discussion and unified around one common point: McCarthy cannot be trusted, several lawmakers in the room said.

I think its safe to say theres not a lot of good will in that room for Kevin McCarthy, said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.

At the end of the day, the country needs a speaker that can be relied upon, said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. We dont trust him. Their members dont trust him. And you need a certain degree of trust to be the speaker.

Removing the speaker launches the House Republicans into chaos, as they try to find a new leader. It took McCarthy himself 15 rounds in January over multiple days of voting before he secured the support from his colleagues to gain the gavel. There is no obvious GOP successor.

Trump, the former president who is the Republican front-runner in the 2024 race to challenge Biden, weighed in to complain about the chaos. Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves, he asked on social media.

One key McCarthy ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., took to social media urging support for our speaker and an end to the chaos that has roiled the Republican majority.

Republicans were upset that McCarthy relied on Democratic votes Saturday to approve the temporary measure to keep the government running until Nov. 17. Some would have preferred a government shutdown as they fight for deeper spending cuts.

But Democrats were also upset with McCarthy for walking away from the debt deal that he made with Biden earlier this year that already set federal spending levels, as he emboldened his right flank to push for steep spending reductions.

--LISA MASCARO and FARNOUSH AMIRI/The Associated Press
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 30. The Azerbaijani Army launched a counter-offensive operation, later called 'Iron Fist' in response to Armenian armed forces on September 27, 2020, Trend reports.

The 44-day second Karabakh war brought an end to 30-year occupation of Azerbaijani lands and the restoration of country's territorial integrity.

Trend presents chronicle of Azerbaijan's second Karabakh war for September 30, 2020:

- President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva met with wounded soldiers.

- President of the European Council Charles Michel made a phone call to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

- The Armenian armed forces used the Tochka-U high-precision tactical ballistic missile system. However, due to the unsuitability and poor quality of the Armenian troops' military equipment, three of the fired missiles didn't explode.

- The Azerbaijani Army disabled one S-300 anti-aircraft missile system of the Armenian armed forces during the fighting in the Shushakand village of the Khojaly district.

- The Armenian armed positions of the 1st Battalion of the 5th Motorized Rifle Regiment Tartar district's Hasangaya settlement and the 1st Battalion of the 6th Motorized Rifle Regiment stationed in the Talish direction were destroyed. The enemy's military equipment in the Jabrayil direction of the front was destroyed. The Azerbaijani Army units subjected the 4th battalion of the Armenian armed forces in the Fuzuli direction, to heavy artillery fire. The command post of the 41st separate regiment of the 18th motorized rifle division was also fired upon. The troop control was completely broken.

- The personnel of the 2nd Battalion of the seventh Mountain Rifle Regiment of the 10th Mountain Rifle Division of the 1st Combined Arms Army of Armenia in Tonashen, suffered big losses and left their defensive positions without permission. A blow was struck at the headquarters of the 5th Mountain Rifle Regiment in the Aghdere settlement of the division.

- The Azerbaijani Army conducted operations to destroy Armenian manpower and military equipment, surrounded in the Aghdere and Tartar directions, as well as continued the cleansing of the territory. Suffering significant losses in manpower and military equipment, the enemy couldn't cope with the evacuation of the dead and wounded.

- Some 46 civilians have been injured, and 14 have been killed as a consequence of heavy artillery shelling of Azerbaijani densely populated areas.
Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, a Republican who previously ran for Michigan governor before being disqualified due to signature gathering issues, has officially launched his 2024 campaign for U.S. Senate.

In a minute long video posted Tuesday, Oct. 3, to X, formerly known as Twitter, Craigs voice can be heard over a montage of clips pitching his vision for the future of the state and the country.

Look at whats going on in our state. Our country is going in a bad direction, he said. Americans want better, right? They want something different, and Im going to give it to them.

The video features Craig walking with his fellow law enforcement officers and audio of conservative Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson praising Craig for his service in Detroit. It also shows footage of riots with burned cars in the street, seemingly taking aim at U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden.

The issues at the forefront of his campaign center around issues such as fighting crime, rebuilding Americas education system and border security, according to his campaign website.

Craig, who was born in Detroit, served as chief of police for the city from 2013  when he was appointed by then-Emergency Manger Kevyn Orr  until his retirement in 2021. Craig had a very public role, speaking frankly with the media about the department and its handling of various incidents.

The Senate bid will be Craigs second time running for political office. He, along with four other Republicans running in Michigans gubernatorial primary last election, were disqualified after they each fell short of gathering the 15,000 signatures required to earn spots on ballots because the state uncovered a forgery ring of petition circulators, hired by campaigns. Thousands of signatures were deemed fake, and three people were criminally charged in the scandal.

Craig and two other candidates filed legal action attempting to override the ballot disqualification, but the Michigan Supreme Court denied hearing their cases.

He is the seventh Republican to file for the primary, with the hopes of filling the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

Other GOP candidates include former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, businessman Michael Hoover, Michigan State Board of Education member Nikki Snyder, Berrien County Commissioner Ezra Scott, attorney Alexandria Taylor, Oscoda Area Schools Board of Education at-large member Sharon Savage and Southfield resident J.D. Wilson.

Former U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer of Grand Rapids has put together an exploratory committee to test the waters for a potential candidacy.

On the Democratic side, Slotkin is seen as a frontrunner in the field. Shell face actor Hill Harper, former state Rep. Leslie Love, state board of education president Pamela Pugh, businessman Nasser Beydoun and attorney Zack Burns.
Michigan state utility regulators said major power providers are on track to meet a 35% renewable energy benchmark for 2025.

That estimation comes after analysis showed utilities met a required 15% renewable standard for 2021, which lawmakers set five years prior. Yet despite that significant increase, there remains a big gap before reaching the Michigan climate plan goal of 60% renewable by 2030.

A new status report issued Sept. 29 by the Michigan Public Service Commission said more than 16% of Michigans power generation came from renewable energy as of 2022, a 15% year-over-year increase from 2021.

Dan Scripps, MPSC chairman, said the data shows renewable energy is expanding its share of Michigans power generation portfolio, even beyond state requirements in 2021.

Youre still seeing sort of 15% annual growth driven, I think, by the integrated resource planning process and the desires of customers to add more renewables. But when you put that against the targets in the My Healthy Climate Plan, its really clear that we also have a long, long ways to go, he said.

Officials report that renewable energy development in Michigan is keeping pace with national trends, as the U.S. power sector saw similar increases from 12% to 14% in renewable generation.

The next upcoming  but not legally binding  goal is for regulated utilities to by 2025 meet at least 35% of Michigans electricity needs through renewable energy and energy waste reduction efforts. Analysis by the MPSC showed utilities are a quarter of the way to meeting that target.

I think we are on track to get there, Scripps said. And then I think the question is where we go from there.

Related: On Lake Michigan, a giant water battery aids clean energy transition

The MPSC status report said that rate-regulated electric providers had about 6,000 megawatts of renewable energy projects within Michigan by the end of last year. Based on utilities integrated resource plans, the agency expects the state will have more than 8,000 megawatts of renewable energy in operation by the end of 2026.

Wind power remains the dominant renewable source in Michigan at 59% because of its low costs, but rapid decreases in solar costs and problems siting wind farms is spurring a surge in solar, according to the report.

Electricity generation from utility-scale solar in Michigan more than doubled in 2022, and distributed generation installations increased 27% from 2020.

Michigans two largest utilities maintain energy transition plans to reduce carbon emissions and boost renewable generation, particularly in solar power.

Consumers Energy intends to entirely end its coal use in 2025, accelerate battery storage growth, and add nearly 8,000 megawatts of solar generation during the next decade and a half.

DTE Energy intends to shut down some coal-burning units sooner than previously planned and invest in both battery storage and 15,000 megawatts of renewable generation.

Related: Biomass, carbon-capture tech are big sticking points in clean energy bill talks

The MPSCs report comes amid discussions in Lansing as lawmakers consider legislation that would codify the states climate plan and set a required 60% renewable and 100% clean-energy standard for Michigan.

Both the state House and Senate took public testimony during committee hearings in recent months about the goal to shift Michigan toward a carbon-neutral future.

The proposed legislation in both the House and Senate are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower energy costs for Michigan residents. The bills would force utilities off fossil fuels faster than planned and require heavy investment in energy efficiencies and reduced costs for lower-income households.

Renewable energy generation does not result in carbon emissions, which drive the greenhouse effect and cause global warming and the accelerating climate crisis.
Veteran musician Rex Omar has again reiterated calls for Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to vacate his position.

Rex Omar asserts that the Finance Minister has caused the economy to deteriorate beyond repair.

Speaking to reporters at the #OccupyBoGdemo, he said Ghana needed to be protected from the dishonest Bank of Ghana Governor Dr. Ernest Addison and his two deputies.

The legendary Ghanaian artist stated, Ken Ofori-Atta must resign, in all these let us not use our thumbs to vote for Akufo-Addo in the 2024 elections."

The demonstration wont end today, it's just the beginning. All those gathered here when you go home tell your friends and relatives that today is the beginning of a thousand miles. I thank you all for leaving your homes to join us, it means you love Ghana, Rex Omar added.

The Bank of Ghana has faced public backlash after reports revealed that the Central Bank of Ghana, witnessed a loss of over GH60.8 billion cedis in the year 2022.

The opposition party members have also accused the bank of printing GH22.04 billion in 2022 without parliamentary approval.

The NDC contends that the continuing economic difficulties in the nation have been greatly exacerbated by the central bank's and the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government's mismanagement.
The Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) says it has successfully restored its software application system, following a temporary shutdown.

In a statement, the ORC said it continues to operate within its regular working hours, from Monday to Friday, 8.30 am to 4.00 pm.

This schedule ensures that clients can access services and support during the standard working week.

It states, As of today, the ORC has resumed all its services, reaffirming its commitment to being a reliable partner for businesses in Ghana.

We express our gratitude to you for your patience with us. We are poised to be your reliable partner in doing business in Ghana, it added.

The ORC is a pivotal institution in Ghana, responsible for overseeing business registrations, ensuring compliance with regulations and facilitating the growth of businesses in the country.

The restoration of its software application system is a significant step in enhancing its ability to serve the needs of both existing businesses and those looking to establish themselves in Ghana.
New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer hopeful, Kennedy Agyapong has issued a stern warning to the party's elections committee, urging them to ensure a fair and transparent presidential primary scheduled for November 4.

During his Kumasi 'Showdown walk' on Saturday, September 30, 2023, the outspoken politician cautioned that any attempts to manipulate the elections in favour of any candidate would not be tolerated.

Mr Agyapong emphasised that he would not let matters die easily like former Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kyerematen, who resigned from the NPP, citing intimidation and unfair treatment in the party's flagbearership race.

In a strong statement, Mr Agyapong stated, "I'm not like Alan, who is gentle; let them try."

Kennedy Agyapong also revealed that he had been offered huge bribe to withdraw from the race and allow Vice President Bawumia to grab the NPP's presidential slot with ease.

He disclosed that he rejected all offers, including proposals to become Dr. Bawumia's running mate.

Mr Agyapong reiterated his determination to remain resolute and committed to his presidential bid, expressing confidence that he would emerge victorious in the November 4 election.
Presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kennedy Agyapong, has said he expects to garner more votes from the Muslim community than Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, who is a Muslim.

Speaking to party supporters during his 'Showdown Walk' in Kumasi on Saturday, September 30, 2023, Mr Agyapong asserted that he has been more active in the Muslim community than Vice President Bawumia.

He urged Dr. Bawumia to stop playing religious and tribal cards in the NPP's flagbearer race, emphasizing that he vowed never to engage in such politics himself.

However, Mr Agyapong cautioned that if the situation necessitates it, he is prepared to face them head-on.

"I will not play tribal politics, but if it becomes necessary, I will give them bombshells," Agyapong proclaimed, receiving enthusiastic cheers from his supporters.

He added, "They should stop that tribal politics."

Kennedy Agyapong is one of the four aspirants vying for the NPP's presidential candidacy in the upcoming November 4 presidential election, where the party's flagbearer for the 2024 general elections will be elected.
The Ejisu Goodnews Center Assemblies of God on Saturday, 30th September, 2023 donated items worth GH25,000 to the inmates of the Kumasi Central Prisons in Kumasi.

The items were made up of bags of rice, boxes of bottled water, toiletries, oil, etc to support the upkeep of the inmates.

Making the donations, the Head pastor of the church Rev. Augustine Acheampong said the church has recognized the need to support vulnerable groups like prisoners knowing the very challenges inmates go through due to the recent economic challenges bedeviling the nation.

He said as a faith-based organisation, they take inspiration from the teachings of Christ which admonishes Christians to show love to the sick, orphans, and those in prison.

Rev. Acheampong intimated it is the responsibility of the church as a compassionate ministry to be human centered by making human beings the project by supporting one another especially the less privileged in society.

He reminded the general public not to see inmates in prison as society outcasts but rather as those who need Christ while undergoing their reformation processes and contributing meaningfully towards the socio-economic development of the country.

The Head pastor of the Goodnews Center Assemblies of God further charges other churches to regularly visit prisons and children's homes to show love to them.

Receiving the items on behalf of the Regional Commander of Prisons and inmates of the prison, Chief Supt Stella Ama Catherine, Regional Chaplain thanked the church for the gesture and pledged that the items would be put to judicious use to enhance the living conditions of the inmates.

She appealed to individuals, churches and organisations to emulate the example of the church and to donate generously at all times to support the inmates.
The six weeks activity-packed twin event will culminate on 7th October 2023 with a grand durbar. Even though members of the planning committee remain tight-lipped on the guests for the grand durbar, sources reveal that highly revered traditional rulers, powerful government officials, respectable captains and a host of diplomats have accepted to grace the occasion.

The 2023 Asogli Te Za took a dynamic turn as it is laden with activities to build capacity, sustain the environment, uphold traditions and culture, discover potential tourist sites, funfair among others.

The 2023 Te Za coincides with the 20 years accession to the throne of His Royal Majesty Togbe Afede XIV as the overlord or Agbogbomefia of Asogli. In this regard, the traditional council and the 2023 festival planning committee under the chairmanship of Togbe Ayim Adzokoto II, the Paramount Chief of Takla II, have tailored activities to celebrate the son of the soil and the King of the people, whose reign has elevated the state and brought so much pride and progress to the Asogliawo, Volta and Ghana.

The past five weeks has witnessed activities that involved everyone fitting into one or the other. An elderly man in his mid-60s had this to say this is the first time our festival had a programme for everyone. Togbe Ayim and his people have done well. This years lineup of activities saw the return of pilgrimage to Notsei, the ancestral home of the Ewes.

Pilgrimage to Notsei: Embarking on a pilgrimage to one's ancestral home holds profound significance, as it allows individuals to reconnect with their roots, honour their heritage, and deepen their understanding of their cultural identity. Notse holds great historical importance for the people of Asogli and the larger Ewe people, as it is believed to be the ancestral home of the Ewe ethnic group. History has it that the Ewes migrated from Notse centuries ago, spreading across present-day Togo, Ghana, Benin, and parts of Nigeria.

Hiking and Exploration of Mount Galenkui and Adaklu: Mountain Galenkui is a stunning peak forming part of the Akwapim Togo Mountain Range and peaks about 1000ft above sea level. The mountain derived its name from the nickname given to one of the German colonial governors who administered the area. Volta Region was under German administration in the early 1930s. Galenkus residence was on top of the mountain. Galenku was a bespectacled man, hence the mountain's nickname, Galenkui (metal on the eyes). The exploration will start from the foot of the mountain through a path to Akoefe where a mini-durbar was organised at Akoefe.

The Adaklu Mountain, about two thousand (2,000) ft. above sea level, is about twelve (12) kilometres from Ho. It is an isolated mountain not connected to any other nearby mountain. There are about thirty-six communities surrounding the mountain. Tourists from far and near hike up the mountain regularly. During the annual expedition, various groups from Ho and Adaklu communities play games, perform traditional music, and dance to entertain the participants. The chiefs and people of Adaklu also hold a mini durbar in honour of Agbogbomefia and the other Chief from Asogli. The expedition aims to maintain close relations between the people of Asogli and their Adaklu neighbours and promote tourism and investment.

Summit of Ewe chiefs from Ghana, Togo and Benin: Togbe Afede XIV believes traditional leadership should address the people's basic needs and aspirations for better living standards rather than just being a display of expensive regalia. In recent years, it has been argued that traditional leadership has become irrelevant in modern times. To address this, a summit is being organised to unite Chiefs with a shared ancestry to protect the institution of chieftaincy and bring about transformation in their communities and countries. The summit aims to foster unity and love among all Ewe-speaking people, enabling them to work together to confront common enemies such as poverty, illiteracy, and disease.

The environment sustainability was salient throughout the period as planting of trees and flowers were done to help maintain the Ho Oxygen City drive. Plans are underway to launch Asogli State Environment Sustainability Fund (ASEFund).

The grand durbar's multifaceted spectacle will feature a colourful amalgamation of music, dance, costumes, and traditional rituals, all designed to reflect the rich cultural heritage of the people of Asogli State and the wider Ewe community.

The dignitaries, resplendent in their regal attire, will grace the occasion, adding an air of prestige and importance. As the rhythmic beats of traditional drums reverberated throughout the venue, dancers in vibrant costumes will take centre stage, mesmerising the audience with their graceful movements. Representatives from different ethnicities and communities are expected to proudly display their customs, fostering a sense of cultural exchange and appreciation. The event will be one that will serve as a vibrant tapestry, weaving together the threads of diverse traditions and bringing forth a rich colours and sounds.

According to Mr Stephen Tetteh, the secretary to the planning committee extensive preparations have are in place to give a memorable durbar in honour of the king. It will also provide a platform to acknowledge and celebrate the accomplishments, what he stands for and the legacies of Togbe Afede XIV.
The Women's Day programme in this year's Te Za presents an opportunity to recognise and honour women's contributions to society and promote gender equality. It is a day to celebrate women's accomplishments in various fields, with special focus on leadership, education and development on the theme Gender, Leadership, Education and Development; rethinking gender roles in Leadership, Education and Development in Ghana (LED) at the Cedi Auditorium at the University of Health and Allied Sciences on Tuesday 3rd October.

Societies all over celebrate the effort of women, curb their challenges and foster gender equitable society where the contributions of women are well recognized. The history of Asogli cannot be written without the effort of women. Hence, the day serves as a reminder of the progress made towards gender equality while acknowledging the existing challenges.

As a public programme, participants from the various tertiary institutions within Asogli: University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), Nursing Training College, School of Hygiene, Ho Technical University have all shown interest. EPC Mawuko Girls School, OLA Girls SHS, Mawuli School, Wallahs Academy SHS, Sonrise Christian High School are few of the Second Circle Institutions that have also shown interest, with interested groups expressing their readiness to partner Asogli State in this regard.

Mama Bobi III, one of the queen mothers of Asogli, sees the programme as an avenue to assemble women, both achievers and underachievers to chart a course of womens day that will celebrate and empower women to become changers of status quo and positive role models.

The day will bring accomplished women who have made difference in their respective fields and will provide an opportunity to recognise their contributions. The Womens Day programme will provide a platform for women to voice their concerns, share their experiences and also help raise awareness about women's rights, challenge gender stereotypes, and inspire women and girls to achieve their full potential. It will be a time to honour the accomplishments of women in Asogli and beyond, celebrate their resilience, and acknowledge the challenges they face.

While significant strides have been made in advancing women's rights, numerous challenges remain. Women continue to face gender-based discrimination, violence, unequal pay, limited access to education and healthcare, underrepresentation in leadership roles, and other systemic barriers. The programme will be a reminder of the progress towards gender equality and the work that still needs to be done to achieve a more inclusive and equitable society. It is a call to action from Asogli State for individuals, organisations, and governments to work towards creating a society where women have equal opportunities and can live their lives to the fullest potential.
An ultramodern water production plant, constructed through the effort of the Parent Teacher Association of Our Lady of Grace (OLAG) Senior High School has been commissioned.

The multipurpose building and drinking water treatment plant was commissioned on Saturday, 30th September, 2023 by the Chief of Feyiaase Nana Addaie Dwamena on behalf of His Royal Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene.

Assisting him were Most Reverend Joseph Osei-Bonsu (Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Konongo-Mampong), Sir Charles Adjei (Chairman of The Board of Governors) and Mr. Charles Owusu (Chairman of the Parent Teacher Association).

The commissioning was done alongside a pomp event, which was held the same day on the Schools premises to celebrate OLAGs 10th anniversary.

OBJECTIVES FOR CONSTRUCTION

Main objectives for the construction of the plant were:

1. To minimize and/or prevent the risk of infection attacking students and teachers through drinking of water from the open market whose sources cannot be verified.

2. To promote good health for students and teachers with the aim of improving teaching and learning outcomes.

EQUIPMENT CAPACITY

The production system is made up of:

1. One set of KOYO machine with a capacity of 1,500 pcs of bagged water sachets per hour.

2. A set of Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant with production capacity of 2,000 litres an hour.

3. Ground Water Bore-hole capable of producing 100 litres of water per minute.

The production process involves the treatment and packaging of sachet water from a borehole raw water source through a reverse osmosis water treatment plant.

Addressing the media, Chairman of the PTA Mr. Charles Owusu thanked the Chief Executive Officer and Ashanti Regional Director of the FDA for their immense support which aimed at ensuring that the association complied with all the statutory legal and regulatory requirements.

He also expressed his deepest appreciation to the past PTA executives led by Mr. Ofori Koranteng, the current executives, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II (The Asantehene), traditional leaders, benefactors among others for their immense contribution and prayerful support which made the project a success.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. The identities of five more Azerbaijani servicemen killed during anti-terrorist activities in Karabakh have been revealed, Trend reports.

Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has updated the list of Azerbaijani servicemen killed during the anti-terrorist activities.

As a result of successful local anti-terrorist activities conducted by Azerbaijani Armed Forces on September 1920, 2023, the sovereignty of Azerbaijan was fully restored. During the local anti-terrorist activities, 192 servicemen of Azerbaijan's armed forces were killed. Among the dead servicemen, 180 were employees of the Ministry of Defense, and 12 were employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

One of the martyrs was a civilian. The identities of 11 people will be established by forensic medical examinations after forensic genetic examinations. Earlier, identities of six servicemen were revealed. In total, 511 servicemen and one civilian were wounded.
In an event held on the 28th of September 2023, students of Ghana School of Law(GSL), witnessed the official handing over ceremony of the Students Representative Council (SRC) at the Auditorium of the Accra Main campus.

The occasion marked the transition of power as the new SRC Executives took over from the Odupong led-administration.

The ceremony embodies the democratic principles that the GSL seeks to instil in its students. It also serves as a testament to the institution's commitment to nurturing future legal professionals who are not only academically proficient but also socially conscious leaders.

The outgoing SRC Executives, led by the President, Odupong Agyapong Atta-Agyapong, were applauded for their dedication, commitment, and the positive changes they brought to the school during their tenure.

Their achievements included the implementation of various student-centered initiatives, such as the Follow Who Know Road academic series, GLS Volunteers, the digitization of the Ghana School of Law student online journal, enhancement of the SRC Scholarship Scheme, provision of internet infrastructure for students, initiation of the Kumasi Campus Student Clinic, among many others.

As the Odupong led-administration stepped down, they expressed gratitude for the support they received throughout their tenure from the entire student body and the Management of GSL and wished the incoming Executive Council success in their future endeavors. President Odupong emphasized the importance of unity and continuity, urging the new administration to build upon the foundation laid by their predecessors.

Amidst applause, the Chief Justice of the SRC, Kofi Ampaw, swore in the newly elected three Vice Presidents from the respective campuses; Agyemang Duah Benjamin(GreenHill Campus), Sarah Maanaa Ansah(UPSA Campus), Danielle Ellemawusi Danso (Kumasi Campus) followed by the newly elected President, Gertrude Emefa Donkor. The new President then swore in the newly elected General Secretary, Amanda Edinam Ahiadormey, the Treasurer, Joshua Yirenkyi-Smart, Opoku and the Organizing Secretary, Maamah Amin Oteng.

The new Executive Council members in taking their oath of office vowed to represent the student body with integrity, dedication, and transparency. They pledged to work tirelessly to address the concerns and aspirations of their fellow students, ensuring a conducive learning environment and fostering a vibrant campus community.

In her inaugural address, the President of the SRC, Miss Gertrude Emefa Donkor, expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to serve her fellow students. Miss Emefa emphasized the importance of collaboration, inclusivity, and innovation in shaping a progressive educational experience at the Ghana School of Law.

Miss Emefa also pledged to foster a robust dialogue between students and Management, encouraging the exchange of ideas and the pursuit of excellence in legal education. She particularly commended the Director of the Ghana School of Law, Barima Yaw Kodie Oppong and the entire management for always prioritizing the needs of the students. In her words, I firmly believe that through unity and collaboration, we can overcome any hurdle on our path towards a brighter future. I am even more convinced of our ability to confront any challenge because we are very fortunate to have a selfless, compassionate and forward-looking management whose, love and dedication towards the student body is unwavering.

Miss Emefa takes over as the first elected female SRC President following her victory at an election that was held from the 7th to 9th June 2023.

Gertrude Emefa Donkor pulled 698 votes representing 46.63 % of the total valid votes cast, beating Emily A.A Mensah, Sixtus Dong Ullo, Chief Faruk Mayonga and Michael Osei-Koranteng who pulled 452 representing 30.19%, 195 representing 13.03%, 102 representing 6.81 and 50 representing 3.34 votes respectively.

The Director of the Ghana School of law, Barima Yaw Kodie Oppong who graced the ceremony with his presence noted with delight the cordial relationship that has existed between the school management and the SRC, and further expressed his readiness to work with the newly elected female president. The Director encouraged students to continue to take their academics seriously and never lose sight of their primary aim of coming to the Law school.

Meanwhile, Mr Ato Nkrumah Amoah of the UPSA Campus has been elected as the Speaker of the SRC Congress, taking over from Honorable Charles Akoto Lamptey, in an election held during the first Congress sitting, on the same day of the handing over ceremony.

With the support and active participation of the student body, Management, and staff, the newly sworn-in Executive Council is poised to embark on a journey of service, innovation, and positive change. As they embrace their roles, they carry the hopes and aspirations of the entire GSL community, promising to uphold the values of the institution and contribute to the growth and development of legal education in Ghana.
Leadership of the Abossey Okai Spare Part Dealers Association has issued a two-week ultimatum to the government to reconsider its approach towards the VAT compliance policy by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

The associations ultimatum comes after the GRA released a statement on its compliance and invigilation exercise.

In the statement, the GRA said it would be intensifying its compliance and invigilation activities, including the deployment of more staff to markets and other business centres.

The Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association has voiced its concerns and frustrations with the GRAs compliance policy, urging the government to intervene immediately.

In an interview with Citi News, the financial secretary of the association, Samuel Omari, stated that if the government doesnt alter its decision within the given two-week period, they will embark on a nationwide protest.

We had an engagement with the GRA at the AMA hall two weeks ago, and we were thinking they would give us the opportunity to tell them that their compliance policy was not going to help us, but they didnt give us the opportunity. They only told us that they were implementers of the law and that if we had any grievances, we should channel them to Parliament, Omari said.

It is disrespectful to have GRA officials come to our shops after our engagement with them, and so we are going to stage a huge demonstration to send a strong signal to the government and the GRA commissioner-general that that compliance approach is neither here nor there.

-Citinewsroom
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday announced the locations of 238 new gendarmerie brigades to be set up in rural and semi rural areas across the country. Security remains an issue of national concern after urban riots broke out in June following the police killing of a young motorist in the Paris suburbs.

This is an historic effort, Macron said as he presented the plan in the south-western town of Tonneins, where he also inaugurated the local barracks alongside Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and gendarmerie director general Christian Rodriguez.

It will see the creation of 2,144 gendarme positions out of a total 8,500 overall law enforcement positions to be opened up by 2027.

Mobile units

Most of the brigades will be mobile units made up of six gendarmes that will move through the municipalities by truck. Larger brigades of 10 gendarmes will have a fixed location.

Municipalities to benefit include Sisteron (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), Cagnes-sur-Mer (Alpes-Maritimes), Lisieux (Calvados), Gueret (Creuse), Besancon (Doubs), Mont-Saint-Michel (Manche) or Rambouillet (Yvelines).

Overseas territories such as in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (Guyana), Fort-de-France (Martinique) and Papeete (French Polynesia) will also welcome new brigades.

Economic, demographic and operational criteria including delinquency, burglary, domestic violence, etc were taken into account when selecting the bridages sites, which the Elysee Palace said was done following months of consultation with local police prefects.

Macron's much-awaited plan, which will be put before an interministerial meeting next week, is a 2022 campaign promise to strengthen France's law enforcement network.

He has also vowed a 15 billion euro increase for the Interior Ministry budget and to double the number of security forces on public roads over the next 10 years.
02.10.2023 LISTEN

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has threatened to abstain from parliamentary proceedings if the government doesn't give the Keta Sea Defence Project a top priority in its 2024 budget.

According to a member of the Minority, government ought to get its priority right.

In an interview granted to Citi News, Governs Kwame Agbodza, a Member of Parliament for the Adaklu constituency disclosed that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will do all it can to ensure the government takes the situation very seriously.

Bawumia is busily looking for votes and does not even care about the people that are going to vote for him and God willing, he will not be a presidentif we dont see anything in the 2024 budget, then forget it, he will not get our support for anything at all, Governs Kwame Agbodza stated.

Abla Dzifa Gomashie, a Member of Parliament for the Ketu South constituency, urged the government to activate the West African Coastline Management Area Resilient Fund in order to hasten the completion of the sea defense project.

I do not know what Im going to do. Im here biting my fingers and praying and asking God why? 3 years going on  3 years! I have not breathed since 2019. Im suffocating. Im drowning, she emphasised.
03.10.2023 LISTEN

Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, a candidate for the New Patriotic Party's flagbearer position, has accused the party of stealing state money.

In a public outburst, the MP for Assin Central accused some officials of stealing and stashing state monies into accounts in developed nations.

In a video clip circulating on social media, he said the activities of the individuals in question were destroying the party's image.

He said these corrupt actions have been allowed to fester under the Akufo-Bawumia-led government.

He bragged about being the morally upright person to bring sanity into the party.

The way the NPP is looting this country, you will think there is no tomorrow. You steal all this money and stash same abroad, what do you mean?

The youth of this country are not working yet you are intimidating people. I will put my life on the line and defend them, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong stated.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the United States has accused the Electoral Commission (EC) of failing the test of neutrality.

It is accusing the electoral management body of using voter suppression tactics to cheat the NDC in elections.

In a statement released by the NDC USA Communication Bureau, the party said the EC, which has been packed with NPP sympathizers under its current leadership, committed "the greatest crime conceivable in a constitutional democracy" during the 2020 elections by disenfranchising over 17,000 voters in the Volta Region.

That was a state-sponsored organized injustice against the citizens of SALL and the NDC, the statement said.

According to the NDC USA, the EC has relied on "bogus" charges to remove officials originally appointed to the commission and replaced them with known NPP activists and sympathizers.

The EC has since failed the test of neutrality, the statement noted.

The party accused the EC of voter suppression tactics such as restricting voter registration and intimidation by heavy security presence in NDC strongholds leading up to the 2020 elections.

The chief reason the EC gave was that it wanted a credible and efficient voter register (a line of argument taken out of the voter suppression playbook). But the actual outcome of that exercise was the striking out of eligible voters in NDC strongholds, the statement said.

According to NDC USA Communication Officer Hajia Rukaya Abubakari, The NDC and Ghanaians must resist any attempt by the ruling government, working collaboratively with the EC, to rig the upcoming 2024 elections.

Resisting such an attempt must be our call to duty! she added.
03.10.2023 LISTEN

Pro-government group, #Fixing The Country Movement, has notified the Police of their intention to demonstrate over the Airbus bribery scandal.

The group said they are demanding accountability from Former President John Dramani for his alleged role in the scandal.

In a statement jointly signed by Ernest Owusu-Bempah and Kwakye Gyasi, Convener and General Secretary respectively, they said that admissions and supporting court documents from the US and UK have also established culpability on the part of former President Mahama regarding the Airbus bribery.

Below is the full statement

We write with reference to Section 1 of the Public Order Act (Act 491), which provides that any person who desires to hold any special event within the meaning of that Act in any public place shall notify the police of his intention not less than 5 days before the date of the special event.

In this regard, kindly note that FIXING THE COUNTRY MOVEMENT will hold a public assembly on Thursday 12th October, 2023 in front of the office of former President John Mahama.

Purpose: The picketing is being organized on the back of the nonchalant attitude being deployed on the Airbus corruption.

As part of a coordinated global resolution, the Airbus SE entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the United Kingdoms Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over bribes paid in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Indonesia and GHANA, and the Company agreed to pay approximately 990 million Euros equivalent (approximately $1.09 billion) pursuant to the SFO agreement. The PNF and SFO had investigated the Company as part of a Joint Investigative Team.

Admissions and supporting court documents from the us and UK have also established culpability on the part of former President Mahama regarding the Airbus bribery.

We hold the view that Mr Mahama has a lot of questions to answer and as such we want to pursue a public manifestation to bring attention to the issues that have been allow to die a natural dead by our investigative authorities.

We believe in public accountability and want to reiterate the point that no one is above accountability.
The Police have assured the public that adequate preparations have been made to ensure peace, security, law and order for the planned demonstration by the Minority Group in Parliament.

The protest is scheduled to take place Tuesday, 3rd October 2023.

Led by Minority members and other groups, the #OccupyBoGdemo seeks to call for the resignation of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor, Dr Ernest Addison, and his deputies over a GH60.8 billion loss by the bank.

The Police asked the public to bear with them as they rolled out the arrangements to minimise the inconvenience that would be experienced by the public in those parts of the Capital City that would be affected by the demonstration.

The public is hereby urged to take note of the following traffic arrangements: . The demonstrators will converge at the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and proceed to Adabraka  Ridge Roundabout  National Theatre Traffic Light  High Court Complex Traffic Light  Attah Mills Highway and make a U-Turn at the National Lotteries and terminate at the Independence Square.

The road from the Independence Square in front of the National Lotteries towards the Old Parliament Traffic Light will be blocked temporarily to vehicular traffic during the course of the demonstration.

The blocked roads will be diverted through the Starlet Traffic Light through the Ministries Traffic Light to pass in front of the Office of the Department of Urban Roads (DUR), through National Lotteries, to link up with the AMA office Road to EOCO and take a detour back to the John Evans Atta Mills Highway at the old Parliament Traffic Light intersection.

Personnel of the Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) will be deployed at the various intersections to assist the motoring public, a statement issued on Monday October 2 said.

It added We wish to urge the organizers of the demonstration and all participants to cooperate with the Police and abide by the security arrangements in accordance with the Public Order Act.

We would like to assure the public that as always, the Police remain committed to working together with all stakeholders and the public at large, towards deepening our democratic credentials and ensuring peace, security, law and order in the country.
Senior Political Science Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr Kwasi Amakye Boateng has criticised NPP flagbearer hopeful, Kennedy Agyapong for not offering any policy alternatives to solve the country's problems during his campaign.

He said Mr. Agyapong's campaign is rather characterized by insults targeted at his main opponent, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia and his own party.

In an interview on TV3's New Day show, on October 2, 2023, Dr Amakye Boateng advised the handlers of Mr. Agyapong to carve out a message that addresses the prevailing economic issues affecting the country. He said they should come out with new strategies on how to profitably exploit the country's natural resources because insults will not help him win votes.

Ken is a party member who is trying to behave as an outsider. In a situation where he is selected by his party, he will end up being affected by his own jabs. People are only showing excitement by listening to him.

However, his campaign does not have anything significant. He is mainly attacking his opponent and engaging in the rhetoric that his party is known to have already been engaged in since election 2016 which is not governance, the Political Scientist stated.

According to Dr Amakye Boateng, Ghanaians are worried about the current economic hardship and are looking forward to vote for someone who has solutions.

I have not heard anything constructive from the camp of Kennedy. How is the country going to profit from its natural resources? he queried.

Meanwhile, Dr Amakye Boateng has indicated that what happened in the super delegates congress is likely to happen again during the November 4th poll with Dr. Bawumia winning about 60% of the entire votes.

-3news.com
A military court sentenced a DR Congo army officer to death and handed 10-year prison terms to three others Monday over the August killing of more than 50 protesters in the eastern city of Goma.

The defendants' lawyers have said they will appeal the decision, while two others standing trial were acquitted.

The death penalty is often handed down in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but it has not been applied for 20 years and is systematically commuted to life imprisonment.

During closing arguments on Friday, a senior public prosecutor had not requested capital punishment but life imprisonment for the main defendant, Colonel Mike Mikombe.

But the court handed Mikombe the death sentence with a charge of "murders", although charges of crimes against humanity were dropped.

The prosecutor also asked for sentences ranging between 10 and 20 years for the five other defendants.

The six soldiers had been on trial since September 5 over the deadly crackdown against a religious sect that called for demonstrations against the United Nations' presence in the region.

The crackdown saw 57 people killed, according to the latest official toll, and has led to renewed tensions in the North Kivu capital of Goma, an area plagued by violence by armed groups.

More than 140 civilians including around 30 minors were also arrested during the August 30 army operation.

Questions

In the aftermath, the government quickly announced the arrest of several soldiers and promised justice would be served.

But the trial did not answer all the questions about the circumstances of the killings.

Interior Minister Peter Kazadi has indicated that the elite Republican Guard intervened after the lynching of a police officer by members of the religious sect.

Witnesses -- including two army colonels but also sect members and local residents -- however say the operation began before the police officer died.

The same witnesses have also said that before the killings, negotiations between the army and the sect were progressing well, but the military then suddenly opened fire on the unarmed sect members.

The question remained whether Mikombe gave the order to shoot, and whether he was following orders or acting on his own.

He suggested in court that he had been misled by an operational order identifying the sect members as proxies of M23 rebels and the Rwandan army.

The M23 has captured swathes of territory in North Kivu province since 2021 -- one of several militias holding sway over much of the region despite the presence of peacekeepers.

Independent UN experts, the Kinshasa government and several Western nations including the United States and France accuse Rwanda of actively backing the Tutsi-led M23 -- claims that Rwanda denies.

Mikombe also called on the court to probe the military governor of North Kivu, General Constant Ndima, who was recalled to the capital Kinshasa for "consultations".
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the occasion of October 3 - German Unity Day, Trend reports.

"Dear Mr. President,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my most sincere congratulations to you and all your people on the occasion of October 3 - German Unity Day.

We attach great importance to the development of relations of friendship and cooperation between Azerbaijan and Germany. It is gratifying that our countries enjoy the active and fruitful cooperation in the political, economic and humanitarian areas.

Azerbaijan is determined to strengthen relations with Germany and continue mutually beneficial cooperation. I am sure that both our intergovernmental relations and our mutually beneficial interaction within the European Union will continue to develop and strengthen.

On this remarkable day, I extend my best regards to you, and wish the friendly people of Germany everlasting peace and prosperity," the letter reads.
The National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has expressed grave concerns over the fast waning public confidence in Ghana's judiciary.

Speaking on JoyNews' PM Express program on Monday, October 2, Asiedu Nketia emphasized the critical importance of an independent judiciary that citizens widely trust in a functional democracy.

According to him, such a crisis of confidence could undermine the very foundations of the country's democratic order if left unaddressed.

"We must have a democracy where the majority of citizens have confidence in the judicial system. The confidence in the judicial system keep deteriorating, he said.

We are experiencing a defective democracy at the moment, stressed Asiedu Nketiah.

The NDC chief's remarks follow the party's flagbearer, John Mahama's claims of perceived political interference in judicial appointments by the governing NPP.

Mr. Mahama recently accused the Akufo-Addo administration of packing the bench with NPP sympathizers to escape accountability when out of office.
The Chairman of the opposition NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah has indicated that the country is being governed by "rule by law" instead of "rule of law".

In an interview with JoyNews' PM Express on Monday, the NDC chief alleged that the situation has increased due to state capture by the President and his family and friends administration.

According to him, state institutions are no longer independent as required under the constitution's 'rule of law' principles, but are rather serving the whims and caprices of those in power.

"Ghana now runs on 'rule by law' not 'rule of law'. We are under state capture; the state has been captured by Akufo Addo and his government, he said.

Asiedu Nketiah further asserted "The Government knows they have done something wrong that is why they feel unpopular."

According to him, the perceived abuses of executive power are politically motivated efforts to maintain control despite public displeasure.
The Ministry of Education under the leadership of Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum in collaboration with the information ministry organized the second edition of the STEM promotion roadshow at the Abomosu STEM Senior High School on Monday, October 2.

The event aimed to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education across Ghana.

Through industry experts, the ministry focused on showcasing the vast array of career opportunities of STEM for students.

Speaking at the event, MP for Ofoase Ayirebi and Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah acknowledged the current economic hardships stemming from high youth unemployment which is not the fault of this government.

MP for Ofoase Ayirebi and Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah speaking at the event

He expressed confidence that the STEM initiative would provide the next generation with the skills and innovation needed to transform lives and the economy.

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah called on stakeholders including parents, teachers and industry players to support the initiative.

Minister of Education, Dr. Osei Adutwum, noted that through STEM and other initiatives, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is spearheading educational transformation.

MP for Bosomtwe and Minister of Education, Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum addressing the attendees

He explained that major foreign companies are not showing much interest in Ghana's workforce due to the low technical skills, but STEM will reverse this trend.

Dr. Adutwum highlighted STEM's positive impact, citing Afia Kobi Girls SHS students' invention of a mini aeroplane through aviation and aerospace engineering courses.

He stated that the government will provide tablets to students in about 30 senior high schools next academic year to enhance teaching and learning.

CEO of the Association of Ghana Industries, Seth Twum Akwaboah, said the high unemployment rate stems from inadequate science and technology education.

He outlined careers in mechanical engineering, electronics, metal fabrication, machine maintenance, robotics and artificial intelligence as STEM benefits.

Starting STEM in basic school, not just secondary and tertiary institutions, is crucial for industry growth, he added.

Inspiring students, mechanic Nana Afua Adusei, the only lady among the Wanderlust group who journeyed 10,000km by road from Accra to London in August this year shared how STEM allows career opportunities regardless of gender.

With a degree in social sciences, she became a leading mechanic in Ghana through a series of apprenticeships and a show of resilience and determination.

She encouraged students to pursue technical education as a first option, telling parents to avoid choosing it as options for the less knowledgeable.

The event facilitated student, teacher and parent interactions with officials to learn about the STEM program.

Attendees included GES Director-General Dr. Eric Nkansah and other educationists and technical experts.

The Abomosu STEM SHS, established in 2021, currently has a student population of 618 in forms one and two. By next year, it will be a fully-populated high school from first year to the third year as it currently has only two batches.

The inaugural STEM Roadshow kicked off on June 22nd at Accra Senior High School, marking the start of a nationwide initiative to foster a culture of innovation and socio-economic transformation through improved STEM education.

The event highlighted the significant investments being made in STEM sectors across Ghana.

The first roadshow was a major success, engaging students, educators, and local communities through interactive exhibitions, workshops and seminars on key STEM disciplines like robotics, coding, artificial intelligence, and renewable energy.

It garnered significant attention for its hands-on approach to exploring STEM career opportunities with a focus on fields that are driving Ghana's development.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna travels to Armenia on Tuesday to reaffirm France's support for the country as an unprecedented influx of refugees flees the Nagorno-Karabakh region that was recently taken over by Azerbaijan.

I will go to Armenia on Tuesday, Colonna said in a short message posted on X, while a statement by the Foreign Ministry said she would express French support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia.

Colonna was to be received by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian before delivering emergency medical aid to the government.

France has increased its aid package to 12.5 million.

Also on the agenda is a meeting with Colonna's Amernian counterpart, Ararat Mirzoyan, along with some Armenian refugees who fled Nagorno-Karabakh.

Lightning offensive

Azerbaijan's lightning offensive against Armenian separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh mountainous region, launched on 19 September, has killed some 600 people and seen more than 100,000 people seek refuge in Armenia.

Reports say most of Karabakh's estimated 120,000 residents have fled the territory.

Armenian separatists, who had controlled the region for three decades, last week agreed to disarm, dissolve their government and reintegrate with Baku. The move ended a centuries-old dream of reuniting what they view as their ancestral lands.

Azerbaijan is now holding "re-integration" talks with separatist leaders while, at the same time detaining some senior figures from its former government and military command.

Yerevan has accused Baku of ethnic cleansing  an allegation that Baku rejected.

(with newswires)
The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel A. Jinapor, has appealed to the media to partner with the government and the Lands Ministry to create awareness of nature crimes.

He said the public needs to be informed of the urgency of the situation and the adverse effects of these crimes.

Mr Jinapor noted that public education on the devastating effects of these crimes on lives and the planet as a whole can lead to behavioural change.

On the prevalence of nature crimes in the country, he said, "Nature crimes are diverse and cut across various sectors of our economy, including land, forestry, mining, environment, fisheries, maritime and waste management.

He said this at a nature crime workshop that was organized by the US Agency for Global Media for journalists in Accra.

In outlining the measures the government has put in place to combat nature crimes, he mentioned the ban on harvesting of rosewood in the forestry sector, the operation halt in the mining sector and the introduction of the New Land Act 2020 (Act 1036).

He, however, admitted that these measures would not yield the expected results without the cooperation of such important stakeholders as the media.

The Minister also recommended a multi-sectorial and multidimensional approach and the involvement of such stakeholders as the governments, private sector, civil society organisations, academia, research institutions, traditional leaders, and multinational organisations as a solution to this menace.
National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Ghana Chapter, is appealing to the management of various tertiary institutions across the country to provide a grace period for the payment of fees by its members.

In a media interview, NANS President Sam Edem highlighted the instability in the exchange rate between the cedi and naira, which has led to continuous increases in school fees.

Mr. Edem acknowledged that the Nigerian government is taking measures to address the issue with the naira, and urged tertiary institutions in Ghana to consider their plea.

So, while I am putting out word to our government back home, we would appreciate it if a lot more is done about this issue. And we appeal to our institutions here to give the Nigerian students that allowance for the period to ensure that they are able to meet their obligations with regard to fees.

During a public lecture in 2022, Lamido Sanusi , former governor of Nigeria's Central Bank, revealed that over 70,000 Nigerians were studying in Ghana.

Although there are no comprehensive data on the number of Nigerian students abroad, recent data have shown that there are about 71,000 Nigerian students in Ghana paying about US$1 billion annually as tuition fees and upkeep, as against the annual budget of US$751 million for all federal universities.

In other words, the money spent by Nigerian students studying in Ghana with a better-organised system is more than the annual budget of all federal universities in the country, Sanusi said.

Nigeria is today placed third on the list of countries with the highest number of students studying overseas, he added.

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The Western Naval Command of the Ghana Navy has invited the Engineering Club of Afia Kobi Ampem Girls SHS to understand how their rescue water craft works.

The invitation follows the building of an Autonomous Search and Rescue Water Craft by the school to rescue people during floods or disasters at sea.

The Engineering Club of Afia Kobi Ampem Girls Senior High School at Trabuom in the Ashanti Region on Monday, August 7, 2023 successfully completed the testing of a model Autonomous Search and Rescue Water Craft.

Designed for some security agencies in Ghana including the Ghana Navy and the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), the rescue machine will help determine the location of missing persons, items and minerals in water.

In a viral video shared by this reporter, the miniature ship was seen moving effortlessly on a vast river during the test sail.

Satisfaction by the Ghana Navy

Commander at the Western Naval Command, Joseph Kwaku Twum after a meeting with the students said he was impressed with the work of the students.

He noted that the craft is something that can change how rescue missions are done in Africa, adding that the students however need to do some modifications on the craft to make it more effective.

He noted that the Ghana Navy has given the students all the guidelines they will need to improve upon the craft.

He encouraged the students to keep up with doing inventions pledging that, the Ghana Navy would always be available to support such initiatives.

The lead man for the project who is also a tutor at the school, Engineer Sam said they were happy to have gotten the opportunity to meet top officials from the Ghana Navy.

He noted that the visit has encouraged them to go all out and design even more creative craft to serve Mother Ghana.

Sir Ferdinand Sam expressed their readiness to come out with other innovative inventions that can solve everyday problems but pointed out that they will need financial support to achieve that.

"We are ready to change the future of Ghana with our creative works but will need the support from all particularly the business communities who can assist us financially," he stated.
The Minister of Education, Dr Osei Yaw Adutwum says Ghana's quest to revolutionize its industrial sector will be a fruitless move without a strong foundation in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics STEM education in the country.

"You can only build industries with a strong foundation of STEM education that is when you will have a robust economic system.

"We have examples of countries such as South Korea, Vietnam among others who have done it and have succeeded so I do not see why Ghana cannot do it," he stated.

The Minister who doubled as a Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe Constituency observed that pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is the right way to go as a country to be competitive globally.

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, said this while delivering his keynote address at the second edition of the STEM Promotion Road Show held on the campus of Abomosu STEM School on Monday, October 2, 2023 in the Atiwa West District of the Eastern Region.

He emphasized that the fourth industrial revolution required a science-based education system to prepare learners to catch up with the fast-paced technological advancement driving global economies.

He assured the public that Government is ready and will put in the right investment in STEM education for the training of Ghanaian youth
South Africa Entrepreneur, CEO and Founder of The Royal India Restaurant Group, Jagjit Singh was recently honoured with The Nelson Mandela Leadership Award by the NRI Welfare Society of India at the Global Peace Summit in London on the 27th of September 2023.

The NRI Global Peace Summit, which was convened by Mr Deepak Singh, the Cultural Ambassador of Seychelles was graced by leaders from all over the world including British politicians, foreign government representatives and spiritual leaders.

Some of the notable delegates at the event were Her Excellency Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi, the Minister of State for Government Development and the Future in the UAE Government. She is the former Minister of State for Happiness in the United Arab Emirates.

Also present was the Democratic Republic of Congo Presidential Candidate, Dr Justin Bisimwa Mudekereza and an Indian senior Spiritual Leader, BK Surya Bhai, Honourable Katya De Giovanni, Chairperson of the Social Affairs Committee in the Government of Malta as well as Ms Anna Hora, the founder of Indias Empower To Be The Best.

The NRI Welfare Society of India which is the hinge of interaction between the country of India and Non-Resident Indians describes the Nelson Mandela Leadership Award as a felicitation to those who have contributed in encouraging peace and harmony in the globe.

While delivering his emotionally engaging and life touching acceptance speech at The Global Peace Summit, Mr Singh encouraged people from all over the world to be active participants towards creating a peaceful and prosperous world for all.

Jagjit Singh who is a multi-award-winning entrepreneur based in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa highlighted that the root causes of conflict and violence are poverty, inequality, and injustice as well as lack of access to basic resources and opportunities.

He added that poverty, inequality, and injustice fuels resentment and drive people towards extremism and violence and thus there is a great need for positive life transforming initiatives which brings people together.

Jagjt Singh who draws much inspiration from the late global peace icons such as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi said that it is necessary for people all over the world to come together and strive for peace and reflect on its significance to their respective communities.

He stressed the importance of global co-operation and collective efforts by individuals, corporates, and nations towards overcoming serious challenges such as poverty, inequality, and terrorism.

The multi-award-winning entrepreneur also emphasized the relevance of dialogue and diplomacy as indispensable tools that can be used by all and sundry to find common ground in order to resolve conflicts peacefully.

By promoting social and economic development, ensuring equal rights and opportunities for all, and addressing the underlying grievances, we can create an environment conducive to peace and stability Mr Singh pleaded with the Global Peace Summit delegates.

He urged all the delegates to recognize the fact that peace is not solely the responsibility of governments or international organizations but is rather a shared responsibility that falls upon everyone through promoting tolerance, empathy, and dialogue.

Mr Singh further emphasized the need to cultivate a culture of peace in communities, schools, workplaces, and homes since through these actions and interactions, the seeds of peace will create a ripple effect that extends beyond immediate surroundings.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to visit Turkey in October or November, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This as rapprochement efforts accelerate.

The announcement follows a groundbreaking meeting between the leaders who, until recently, had made little secret of their dislike for one another.

Speaking to reporters while flying back from New York, Erdogan said Netanyahu would visit Turkey in October or November and that he would make a reciprocal visit.

Erdogan, a devout Muslim, has reportedly expressed his wish to visit Jerusalem this year and pray at the al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site.

The diplomatic breakthrough came on the sidelines of September's United Nations General Assembly, where Erdogan and Netanyahu met face-to-face for the first time.

The meeting is viewed as a milestone in recent rapprochement efforts in a long and often rocky relationship with both men often trading angry insults. Despite the past hostility, observers suggest the two leaders are not dissimilar.

"There are so many similarities between the two ... both have charisma and both are doers," said Mehmet Ogutcu of the London Energy Club.

"Both leaders have said quite nasty things about each other in the past, but when there are nations, interests override. They forget about the past, and they can move into a new relationship.

"I think we will see Netanyahu and Erdogan building on what has been achieved over the past two or three years."

Turkish-Israeli rapprochement

Turkish-Israeli rapprochement efforts were initiated before Netanyahu returned to power, with Israel President Isaac Herzog visiting Turkey last year.

Despite fears Netanyahu would end reconciliation efforts, both sides described the New York meeting as positive.

In a post on X, Turkish officials said the talks focused on energy cooperation. Ankara is courting Israel as the cheapest route to distribute natural gas from its vast reserves via a pipeline through Turkey to Europe.

"Rapprochement has been on a positive trajectory for quite a while," said Selin Nasi, at the London School of Economics' contemporary Turkish studies department, adding there were several areas where cooperation can be deepened.

"Energy security is one of them, especially with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Energy security has become one of the major topics, and exploitation of the gas reserves in the Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean is a hot topic for Turkey."

However, veteran regional observers voice caution over Ankara's hopes of quickly securing Israel's backing for a pipeline to distribute Israeli gas via Turkey to Europe.

"The biggest trouble is that there's no mutual trust between Israel and Turkey, because if you build a pipeline it will stay for at least 50 years, "warns Ogutucu.

"And so, what happens if Erdogan, or whoever comes later on, decides to turn off the tap one day?"

Common interests

Confidence-building measures are focusing on collaborating on common interests. Iran's growing influence in the region is an area of shared concern.

Azerbaijan, supported by both Israel and Turkey, is where concerns over Tehran really coincide, as Iran backs Azerbaijan's rival, Armenia.

The Azeri military's defeat of Armenian-backed forces over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave underlined the importance of the cooperation. That is the view of Gallia Lindenstrauss, an Israeli foreign policy specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

"For Israel, Iran is an existential threat. For Turkey it's just a nuisance or something that you should deal with," she said.

"The only exception is Azerbaijan, where the tensions between Baku and Tehran have grown substantially in the past two years. And here Israel is a strong supporter of Azerbaijan, and Turkey is a strong supporter in Azerbaijan."

With Erdogan, a strong backer of the Palestinians, the ongoing cycle of violence between Israel and the Palestinians remains a threat to Turkish-Israeli rapprochement.

However, after years of Turkish-Israeli relations remaining in the deep freeze, Nasi of the London School of Economics says Ankara realises engagement with Israel may offer a better chance of promoting the Palestinian cause.

"In the times that Turkey and Israel had distanced relations, Turkey lost its power to influence what was going on between Palestinians and Israelis," he said.

"Now that they are closer with the Israelis, Turkey has a better chance to influence what is going on the ground."
Swiss-Belhotel International, a rapidly growing global hotel management group, has signed an agreement with the NIBS Resort Company to manage the Swiss-Belinn Nairobi, the groups first operating hotel in Africa.

This collaboration underscores Swiss-Belhotel Internationals strategic expansion plans in Africa.

Nestled in the serene Kileleshwa neighbourhood, the hotel features 89 spacious rooms, 9 well-equipped meeting rooms and a gym. The hotel also offers an all-day dining restaurant and a delightful rooftop bar with panoramic views of Nairobis skyline. The hotel's prime location merely 25 minutes away from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, ensures guests are just 5 minutes away from the bustling life of Westlands.

Lizzie Wanyoike, the famous Kenyan entrepreneur and founder of Nairobi Institute of Business Studies (NIBS), was present at the signing ceremony.

Antony, Stella and Eric Wanyoike, the Directors of NIBS Resort Company, expressed their delight in bringing Swiss-Belhotel International to operate their property.

Nairobi, contributing approximately 10% of its GDP to tourism and having welcomed 1.48 million international tourists in 2022, has solidified its reputation as a leading business and leisure destination.

Gavin M Faull, Chairman and President of Swiss-Belhotel International, remarked: We are proud to introduce the Swiss-Belinn brand in the exciting destination of Nairobi. Entering Kenya, and specifically Nairobi, with a reputable partner like NIBS Resort Company Limited, aligns perfectly with our global expansion plans. It is the first operating hotel for our group in Africa and therefore marks a significant milestone for us.

Swiss-Belhotel International will soon begin implementing its international standards and enhancements, targeting a complete rebranding of the Swiss-Belinn Nairobi by January 15, 2024.

Laurent A Voivenel, Senior Vice President  Operations & Development, EMEA & India, added: "The Middle East and Africa are key growth markets for us. With recent tourism data indicating healthy growth in Africa, and Nairobi emerging as a key destination, Swiss-Belhotel International's debut is aptly timed. We look forward to delivering on our brand promise at the Swiss-Belinn Nairobi. - TradeArabia News Service
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Suk Yeol, Trend reports.

"Dear Mr. President,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I sincerely congratulate you and all your people on the occasion of the national holiday of the Republic of Korea.

Relations of friendship and cooperation between Azerbaijan and Korea have good traditions. We are pleased with the development dynamics of our intergovernmental relations and the expansion of our mutually beneficial cooperation.

The Korean companies have been operating very successfully in Azerbaijan for many years. The companies representing your country can contribute to the restoration and reconstruction works carried out in our liberated territories through the use of advanced and modern technologies. By taking advantage of the existing opportunities, I believe that through our joint efforts we will continue to deepen our relations and effective cooperation, which have great potential.

On this festive day, I wish you good health, happiness, and the friendly Republic of Korea everlasting peace and prosperity," the letter said.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is one of many Minority MPs leading the #OccupyBoG protest today, Tuesday, October 3.

The Minority in Parliament joined by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), some Civil Society Organisations, and other political parties are marching today to demand the resignation of Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor Dr. Ernest Addison and his two deputies.

Speaking to journalists at the start of the protest today, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said the Minority after the resignation of the BoG Governor will demand his prosecution.

According to him, if Ghana is a country of law and not a banana republic then Dr. Addison must be prosecuted.

When they resign it sends a very clear message that when you are given the opportunity to our republic office and you mismanage, you totally violate, you destroy livelihoods, you will pay the ultimate price and you will suffer the consequence

His resignation is only the first step in our demands. After that we will make sure he is prosecuted, that is why one of our colleagues Hon. Mahama Ayariga has already petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor. There have to be consequences. As long as we say we want to be a law-abiding country, a constitutional republic, then people must suffer the consequences of their actions, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said.

The Minoritys #OccupyBoG protest today is happening after accusing the Central Bank leadership of gross mismanagement, frightening levels of corruption, and unlawful printing of money for government.
Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia has argued that democracy has become defective in Ghana under President Akufo-Addos government.

Speaking to Joy News in an engagement, he said in current times, government is telling the citizens to say what they want but it will do what it likes.

He said there is a lack of confidence in the countrys democracy  a big problem that needs to be addressed.

Citizens are being told that say what you want, we will do what we like. Are they not spectators? Number two, there's supposed to be a rule of law. Rule of law means the law is supreme, and everybody is subservient to the law. But what we are seeing is not rule by law.

Rule by law means that you are using the law as a tool to achieve your wishes. So it is characterised by a dictator who looks at the law and says if I do it this way, this way, this way, I'll get the appearance of acting with the law, but in actual fact, my wishes prevail. So that is rule by law. That is what we are having now, Johnson Asiedu Nketia said.

Insisting that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government led by President Akufo-Addo has failed the country, the NDC Chairman has implored Ghanaians to vote out the NPP in the 2024 General Election.
The leadership of the Abossey Okai Spare Part Dealers Association has given a two-week ultimatum to the government to reconsider its approach towards the VAT compliance policy by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

The association's decision was due to the GRA press statement on its compliance and invigilation exercise.

In the statement, the GRA indicated that GRA would be intensifying its compliance and invigilation activities, including the deployment of more staff to markets and other business centers.

At a press conference in Accra, the leadership of the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association voiced its concerns and frustrations with the GRAs compliance policy, urging the government to intervene immediately.

According to Gifty Naana Fianu, the General Secretary of the association, the members of the association have been law-abiding citizens of the country.

"We see no reason why GRA officers have to sit in their shops from morning till they close in the name of raising revenue for the country.

"We have always paid our taxes as good as good citizens of this country. We have over 21 import duties we pay at the port. We do what is required of us businessmen and women, so why would GRA come and sit at our various shops all in the name of raising revenue, why must it be so? We are calling on President H.E Nana Akufo Addo to intervene else the association will embark on a nationwide demonstration," she said.

Madam Gifty Naana Fianu is of the view that the action of GRA is clear harassment against traders and called on stakeholders and Ghanaians to speak against the intimidation.

She concluded that the association demanded a proper review of tax policy, reduction of import duties, and abolishment of certain taxes, and levies on the importation of goods.
Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, who served as press secretary to former President John Kufuor from 2001 to 2006, has paid tribute to former First Lady Theresa Kufuor following her death.

The former First Lady died on Sunday, October 1, in the presence of her family at home.

In a statement expressing his condolences, Mr Agyepong recalled how Theresa Kufuor welcomed everyone with her gracious spirit.

Auntie Theresa as we affectionately called her, was a mother to all. Always ready with a kind word of wise counsel, Auntie Theresa opened her heart and home to all," he said.

Mr Agyepong also shared fond memories of Theresa Kufuor from international trips during her tenure as First Lady.

"The joyous expression on her face that memorable night in Tokyo during TICAD 3 will forever remain with me," he reflected.

As a close aide to President Kufuor during his time in office, Mr Agyepong witnessed firsthand Theresa Kufuor's warmth and charm.

He said her loss will be deeply felt, not just by her family but by all those whose lives she touched.

Reflecting on her legacy, Mr Agyepong praised Theresa Kufuor's compassion and generosity.

Auntie Theresa will be sorely missed by my wife Lawrencia and our kids," he stated, adding May her gentle soul rest in perfect peace."
Deputy Majority Leader of Ghanas Parliament, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin has rallied the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament to condemn the coups in the affected countries.

A number of West African countries including Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Gabon in recent times have witnessed coup detats.

With various concerns of insecurity, there are fears that more countries may witness coups as well.

Delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the High-Level Interactive Seminar and the Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament on September 29, Alexander Afenyo-Markin said the recent resurgence of military coups threatens to drag the West African region back.

He called on the ECOWAS Parliament to kick against coups, adding that the regions golden age is ahead and not behind in the shadows of the 1960s to 1980s.

We stand at a juncture where the road we choose will dictate the future of our great region. The recent resurgence of military coups threatens to drag us back to an era we have fought tirelessly to transcend. We must firmly CONDEMN the coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Chad, and Gabon, along with the hostilities in Sudan. These actions are a betrayal of the democratic principles we hold dear, and we demand a swift return to constitutional rule. We must affirm, unequivocally, that regression is not the solution. Our golden age lies ahead of us, not in the shadows of the 1960s to 1980s, the Deputy Majority Leader of Ghanas Parliament said.

According to Alexander Afenyo-Markin who is also Member of Parliament for Effutu, the West African region is at a critical juncture and a time when the decisions and actions taken will shape the trajectory of the region for generations to come.

He stressed that the West African Region cannot afford to falter or to allow the resurgence of military coups and other forms of unconstitutional changes of government.

He argued that if allowed, it would undermine the progress the region has fought so hard to achieve.
The former Kumasi Mayor Kojo Bonsu has eulogized the late former First Lady Theresa Kufuor, wife of former President John Agyekum Kufuor.

Mrs. Kufuor passed away peacefully at her home in the afternoon of Sunday, October 1 at the age of 88.

Her death has seen an outpouring of tributes honoring her service and character.

In a statement shared on Twitter on Tuesday, October 3, Mr. Bonsu paid tribute to the contributions of the late Mrs. Kufuor to the nation's development.

According to Kojo Bonsu, while Theresa Kufuor maintained a calm public presence, she worked tirelessly behind the scenes to back her husband John Kufuor during his eight-year presidency from 2001 to 2009.

He stated, "She was a quiet, calm, heartwarming but worked extremely hard behind the scenes towards the progress of Ghana."

"Aunty Theresa, rest peacefully," Bonsu said in his message, expressing his condolences for her family and the nation as they mourn the lady First Lady.
The Minister for Information, Mr. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has underscored the need for a comprehensive legal framework to address ambiguities in governance communication.

He explained that ambiguities within the law often led to misunderstandings when conveying government programmes, hampering the government's communication efforts.

Mr. Oppong Nkrumah made the call during the launch of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) Law Alumni Association and Public Lecture.

He stated, "There are parts of the legal framework that have clarity and facilitate the communication of governance. It is the ambiguous parts that create confusion in communicating governance, and amendment efforts should be seen through to their logical conclusion urgently. Other non-legal imperatives necessary to facilitate agenda setting should also be urgently attended to.

According to the Minister, there was a need for clarity in defining the mandates and roles of various government entities.

He noted that although Article 67 of the constitution designates the President as the nation's executive authority and defines his role in conveying government actions and policies to the public, the legal framework lacks specificity in that regard.

The President reserves the right to appoint sector Ministers to help execute the agenda of his policy areas, be it education or health, he added.

The Minister further noted that despite the clarity of these constitutional directives, the legal framework lacked clarity in defining the mandates and roles of various government entities.

Executive Instruments (EIs) that established Ministries failed to specify their mandates, he stressed.

He advised that Civil Service and President's Office Act reform should be expedited to improve the efficiency of government operations.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the John A. Kufuor Foundation, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah, has paid glowing tribute to former First Lady Theresa Kufuor following her demise on Sunday, October 1.

Prof Agyeman-Duah says she deserves every respect and honour any First Lady must be accorded.

The wife of former President John Agyekum Kufuor died on Sunday after a long battle with illness.

She served as Ghanas First Lady between 2001 and 2009 while Mr Kufuor was President.

Eulogising her on TV3s Ghana Tonight on Monday, October 2 from his base in the United States, Prof Agyeman-Duah said Madam Theresa was not the kind in the public eye all the time despite her rich political family background. Her brother was former Senior Minister JH Mensah.

I think what we can say about her is that in public life she conducted herself with grace and respect and I think it is that grace and respect that really carved the character that we know of her, he told host Alfred Ocansey.

She was not a politician but her husband who was and still is a politician was called a Gentle Giant because of his stature and in politics he truly became a Gentle Giant.

So, if you are married to a gentle giant, its not easy to kind of assert yourself that much but I think on a more serious note, Madam Theresa deserves every respect and honour any First Lady deserves because without her perhaps her husband will not be a successful president that so many people are clamouring for.

Prof Agyeman-Duah noted that Mrs Kufuor must be a part of the political history anytime we talk about President Kufuor in Ghanaian politics.

Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has instructed that all flags across the nation and in Ghanas missions abroad must fly at half-mast.

This is to take seven days from Monday, October 2 to Sunday, October 8.

President Akufo-Addo said the deceased former First Lady brought great dignity to the position.

She was a composed and articulate First Lady, polyglot, fluent in several languages including Ewe, who brought great dignity to the position.

I knew several members of her family, especially her celebrated brother, and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to know her too.

Her warmth, kindness and grace were exceptional. She bore the vicissitudes of life with great stoicism and an unshakeable belief in the sovereignty of Almighty God.

3news.com
Minority Caucus in Parliament is on the streets along with some civil society organisations, pressure groups and other opposition political parties, marching to the Bank of Ghana in a protest against the Governor and his deputies dubbed #OccupyBoG.

The demonstrators converged on the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle tp start the march.

Designated routes for the protest have been outlined, starting from the Obra Spot at Kwame Nkrumah Circle and concluding at Independence Square.

The police, emphasising a commitment to maintaining peace, will deploy sufficient officers during the demonstration.

Some roads will be temporarily blocked, with alternative routes provided. The Minority, seeking the resignation of the Bank's leadership, cites a GH60.81 billion loss in 2022 and $250 million spent on a new headquarters.

The protest, delayed due to route disputes, aims to convey concerns over financial matters in the Bank

.Journalists covering the event are advised to carry identification for facilitated movement.

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Frustrated residents have taken to the streets in peaceful protest, demanding the authorities to address the bad roads that have plagued their community several years.

Under the hashtag #FixedOurRoads, hundreds of residents in Ashaiman gathered this morning, Tuesday, October 3, to voice their dissatisfaction with the lack of road infrastructure in the area.

Organized by pressure group Concerned Citizens of Ashaiman, the demonstration drew inspiration from a recent 3-day OccupyJulorbiHouse protest that was aimed at voicing concerns over poor governance.

Carrying placards with inscriptions such as "We pay taxes, fix our roads, The lies on fixing our roads are too much, and others, the crowd, as seen in pictures and videos on social media marched through the streets, highlighting the effect of the damage roads on their health and businesses.

They say potholes that were once ankle-deep have become gaping craters, causing accidents and damaging vehicles.

Meanwhile, the Minority caucus in Parliament is currently leading a protest to demand the removal of Bank of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison over what they described as wasteful management of the Central Bank leading to a GHS60.8 billion loss in 2022.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Republic of Iraq Abdul Latif Rashid, Trend reports.

"Dear Mr. President,

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I cordially congratulate you and all your people on the occasion of the national holiday of the Republic of Iraq, and extend my best wishes.

I believe that through our joint efforts Azerbaijan-Iraq relations will continue to develop and strengthen in an atmosphere of friendship and cooperation.

On this festive day, I wish you good health, success in your activities, and the friendly people of Iraq everlasting peace and prosperity," the letter said.
Dakar, October 2, 2023The Committee to Protect Journalists called for the immediate release of Nigerien online journalist Samira Sabou after her arrest by unidentified men on September 30.

The Nigerien authorities must urgently identify the men who arrested journalist Samira Sabou on September 30 and ensure her immediate release and safety, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator, from Durban, South Africa. This arrest deepens CPJs concerns about the working environment of Nigerien journalists and their ability to inform the Nigerien public without fear of reprisal.

On Saturday, four men in plainclothes arrested Sabou, who regularly posts news and commentary on her Facebook page, at her home in Niamey, the capital, according to news reports and Abdoul Kader Nouhou, Sabous husband, who spoke to CPJ over the phone. Nouhou, who was present during the arrest, said one of the men showed him a card, but refused to show his name.

The men took Sabou to an unmarked vehicle and placed a hood over her head, then returned to the house and took her phone before driving away, Nouhou told CPJ. He said he did not know where Sabou was taken, and the Niamey judicial police had denied arresting her.

On July 26, soldiers overthrew Mohamed Bazoum, Nigers democratically elected president, and installed a military government called the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP). On August 25, CPJ joined at least 79 organizations and journalists in calling on Nigers military authorities to protect the rights and safety of journalists. The joint letter noted an intimidating call Sabou received on August 4 from a member of Nigers military over her coverage of Bazoum.

In January 2022, the Niamey High Court sentenced Sabou to a one-month suspended prison sentence and a fine for defamation by an electronic means of communication related to coverage of drug trafficking issues in Niger. She was also jailed in 2020 on cybercrime charges over a post on her Facebook page about an audit of Nigers military.
To form and operate an effective government is to maintain and jealously guard the social contract between the citizens and the government. Within the context of this arrangement, the government is required not only to unreservedly guarantee fundamental human rights, but to protect same by consciously putting in place structures and institutions that will ensure that these rights are protected and respected without any room for discrimination and selective application of whatever form. In this regards, all persons, irrespective of their cultural, religious, social or political backgrounds, must be given the same and equal treatment. The duty imposed on government therefore, is to craft policies aimed at protecting and advancing the interest of minorities, the vulnerable, the weak and marginalized in society. This is why, states and governments in some cases are required to make and implement specific laws and regulations aimed at protecting the above-mentioned groups. So, it was only reasonable that the United Nations General Assembly in September 2007 adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)imposing a duty on member states to guarantee and protect the rights of indigenous people.

It is worthy to note that there are over 370 million indigenous peoples in different regions of the world, occupying about one fifth of the earth surface. Many of these people face extreme situations of marginalization perpetuated by governments and other organized and relatively strong organizations and institutions. Unfortunately, due to political, pragmatic and other reasons, these actors (states and non-state) are reluctant to provide an official definition to such people due to possibly undesirable legal, political and other consequences such a definition will entail. This has left the gate opened for various actors to explore and assign such terms like indigenous peoples, indigenous populations, autochthonous populations, aboriginal peoples, tribal peoples, fourth world, titular nations, etc. to refer to these people. These different sets of labels have created an extreme difficulty in determining who is indigenous in comparison with the rest of the population in modern conditions. Thus, any definition developed on the basis of a set of criteria common to all states might trigger undesirable consequences.

During the round table discussions of the Working Group on the Draft UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, government delegations expressed the view that it was neither appropriate nor necessary to develop a universal definition of indigenous peoples. In addition, some states reluctance to provide a regime of rights granted by international law to indigenous peoples, avoid any generally accepted definition. The lack of a definition of the term gives such states the opportunity to deny the presence of indigenous peoples on their territories, who, in their opinion, are subject to preferential treatment in relation to the rest of the population. In some instances, the indigenous peoples themselves are not enthused with a one-size-fits-all definition, perhaps, their fear is that such a definition may deny certain groups indigenous status when such groups of peoples may in fact be indigenous peoples. Nevertheless, the UN recognized the right of peoples to self-determination and adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities.

In the midst of all these uncertainties about the definition of indigenous peoples, Jose Martinez Cobo attempted a definition which has become the most widely cited. In his 1983 Report on the Study of the Problem of Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations, Cobo couched his definition, thus, Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal systems. (UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1983/21/Add.8, paras. 379-80 (1983).

Other definitions of the term in literature are generally similar to the definition proposed by Cobo. James Anaya for example defined indigenous peoples as living descendants of pre-invasion inhabitants of lands now dominated by others. They are culturally distinct groups that find themselves engulfed by other settler societies born of forces of empire and conquest (See Anaya, J. (2004) Indigenous Peoples in International Law (2nd ed.). Oxford University press. P. 3).

The complexities associated to globalization, uncertainties of the modern global markets, the insatiable quest for exploitation of natural resources and the unfettered growth of governmental power over citizens have undoubtedly left the indigenous peoples disadvantaged and at worse shortchanged in several ways.

For instance, in a conscious effort by some states and non-state actors to extinct indigenous peoples and their systems, their status in most cases is craftily determined on the basis of outdated cultural traditions, and this is certainly disadvantageous. This label seriously constrain indigenous groups to exercise their right to self-determination, which may include the desire to abandon historical traditions and adapt their culture in certain ways to allow them to successfully and conveniently coexist with the modern world around them.

It is absurd that indigenous groups have to reconfigure their ethnic identity or maintain some sort of indigenous cultural authenticity in order to gain recognition. For example, The San must still act as true Bushmen to satisfy a land claim, otherwise judges may rule their identities as false and opportunistic. While, for example, English people are not expected to express their English identity, although being English allowed one to simultaneously be modern and lay claim to an idealized English past of kings and queens, castles, medieval villages and pastoral landscapes.

It must be emphasized that in many jurisdictions in Asia and Africa, the term indigenous peoples evokes feelings of the past, juxtaposing European imperialists against colonized peoples. In such settings, indigenous peoples are seen as populations that are currently the original inhabitants but are dominated by European (foreign) settler populations. Where such conditions no longer exist due to decolonization, some believe that the concept under discussion is no longer applicable.

Given the diversity of opinions, particularly among States, on the issue of indigenous peoples, international standard-setting mechanisms and indigenous peoples themselves support a rights-based approach to the concept rather than an emphasis on indigenous peoples. As a result of active participation in the UN and regional mechanisms for the protection of human rights, indigenous peoples themselves have advocated the criterion of self-identification as a tool for determining their status. The said self-identification can be defined as the right of individuals and groups to identify and proclaim their indigenous identity, regardless of the permission of any certifying institution at any level, either by a local community, a host state or an international organization. It is therefore no surprise that the right of indigenous peoples to self-identify as such has been proclaimed in international legal documents, including in particular the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Out of the 49 Articles of the UNDRIP, Articles 5, 8 and 10 have clearly espoused the rights of indigenous people by recognizing the urgent need to respect and promote their inherent rights especially, the rights to their unassimilated culture, lands, territories and resources. In this regard, Article 5 states that, indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their rights to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the state. Also, Article 8 states thus, indigenous people and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture. Further to this, article 10 conspicuously states thus, indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return.

In particular reference to Article 10, the member states are obliged to recognized the institutionalization of FPIC with regards to taking the lands and exploitation of the resources of indigenous peoples. It is therefore mandatory for dualist state like Ghana who is a signatory to the UNDRIP and the UN Conventions at large, to domesticate and give FPIC and enabling legislation to effectuate the realization of the rights of indigenous peoples particularly their rights to give or withhold consent to the exploitation of their resources, taking of their lands or the execution of some infrastructure projects which will have an ultimate dire consequences on their lives as espoused by Article 10.

It is in this light, that Settle Ghana, a Ghanaian-based Non-governmental Organization with an objective of promoting, defending and advocating for the rights of indigenous people have made it a priority to advocate for Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) to be made law in Ghana. When legislated, FPIC will guide Ghana to fully adhere to the dictates of Article 19 of the UNDRIP which states that, member states shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their Free, Prior and Informed Consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.

The Free, Prior and Informed consent (FPIC) is aimed at establishing a bottom-up participation and consultation of an indigenous population prior to the beginning of development on ancestral land or exploitation of resources in an indigenous population's territories. To protect Indigenous Peoples' rights, international human rights law has created processes and standards to safeguard their way of life and to encourage participation in the decision-making process, and one such method is FPIC.

Incorporated in 2019, Settle Ghana has undertaken vigorous campaigns, education and awareness creation in indigenous communities in Ghana on their rights under the UNDRIP; how to negotiate with government and multi-national organizations. While at this Settle Ghana is consistently advocating for FPIC to be made law in Ghana. Led by its Executive Director, Mr. Abu Karimu, Settle Ghana through its Walking Together Initiative, and in collaborations with ASI and Alcoa Foundation (the funding agency), has successfully completed two projects in this regard.

The two projects were executed in 6 regions in Ghana. The aim is to promote sustainable development and economic opportunities in indigenous communities across Ghana. In view of this, FPIC was used as a tool to empower indigenous people in Ghana to participate in decision-making processes that impact their lands and livelihoods. During the first stage of the Walking Together Initiative in 2022, Settle Ghana conducted FPIC Road shows in these communities, engaging with community elders, members of the communities and key stakeholders like Assembly Members to identify key issues and threats to their livelihoods. These engagements with community members and village elders during the first stage provided a comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing these communities.

The second stage of the Walking Together Initiative conducted extensive community engagements. With a different module of FPIC, about 4,400 indigenous peoples were engaged in the six regions. Having identified the challenges facing these communities during the first stage of the initiative, Settle Ghana in addition to these engagements in the second stage created a vehicle meant to deliver alternative livelihood micro-projects for these communities. In the light of this, the organization provided some educational materials including school furniture, exercise books for school children and some computers for Adukrom in Eastern Region and Kamenga in Upper East Region. Also, the organization successfully installed solar panel streetlights in Awaso community in Western-North Region.

Settle Ghana recognizes how sophisticated the world is becoming coupled with globalization and its attendant consequences on the lives of indigenous peoples. The organization is also cognizant of the existential threats of climate change to the ecosystem and indigenous territories at large, caused by unapproved mining methods and activities, bad farming practices, indiscriminate carbon emission, among others. Lastly, given our engagement with indigenous communities, we have noted with grave concern, the fast rate at which indigenous peoples are losing their cultural identities (i.e. their languages, food, dress code, etc.) and their indigenous institutions to modernization.

In finding a solution to the above, the organization has adopted yet another indigenous, participatory approach dabbed, re-identifying the indigenous identity by re-inventing the old way of living. The organization has design a tool (THEN and NOW) which seek to draw a connection with the ancestry of the indigenous peoples. The questions we are asking are: how did the forefathers of these indigenous people lived and related with their environment? How were the forefathers able to protect and guard their indigenous institutions from adulterations and assimilation? Where is the missing link between Then and Now? Settle Ghana believes that answers to the above and many others will set the path for the indigenous peoples and communities to re-identify themselves and to protect their culture identities, environments and indigenous institutions. As usual Settle Ghana designed the above tool around FPIC.

We, Settle Ghana, duly recognizes that Ghana is a dualist state whose Municipal Laws take precedence over International Laws, and until the latter is given enabling legislations through the process set out in Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, they cannot be directly applied in the domestic setting. The Organization equally takes note of the importance of the provision in Article 257(6) of the 1992 Constitution, which states thus, Every mineral in its natural state in, under or upon any land in Ghana, rivers, streams, water courses throughout Ghana, the exclusive economic zone and any area covered by the territorial sea or continental shelf is the property of the Republic of Ghana and shall be vested in the President on behalf of, and in trust for the people of Ghana. The above notwithstanding, we believe that nothing of any form or kind should stand between the people and their fundamental human rights, in this case, the right of the indigenous people as captured by UNDRIP and the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. It is on this note that Settle Ghana is not reneging on its core duty to keep advocating for FPIC TO MADE LAW IN GHANA. It is our honest believe that Peru, Australia and the Philippines equally have similar provisions in their laws yet, they have included FPIC in their national laws.

By issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese

(Head of Advocacy, Settle Ghana)

0244198031 ( [email protected] )
03.10.2023 LISTEN

The Minority Leader in Parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has indicated that the decision to hit the street for the #OccupyBoG protest is justified and not a political gimmick.

The Minority has today, Tuesday, October 3, hit the streets to demand the resignation of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison, and his two deputies.

In a post on social media during the protest, Dr. Ato Forson said the exercise is important to get rid of the Central Banks Governor after bringing the country to its knees.

This, he explains Dr. Ernest Addison did after printing money to finance the champagne lifestyle on an akpeteshie budget for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his government.

Governor Addison, printing of money is like alcoholism. The perceived good effect comes immediately, and the hangover comes after the party. You printed money to finance the champagne lifestyle on akpeteshie budget of the Akufo Addo/ Bawumia Government. Today, Gh is on its knees, Dr. Ernest Addison said.

The Minority is staging the #OccupyBoG protest today after accusing the Central Bank leadership of gross mismanagement, frightening levels of corruption, and unlawful printing of money for government.

It insists that beyond demanding the resignation of Governor Dr. Ernest Addison, it will ensure the Governor is prosecuted.
2024 Independent presidential candidate hopeful Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen has paid tribute to his longtime friend and colleague, the late Enoch Teye Mensah.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, October 3, Mr. Kyerematen referred to E.T. Mensah, as his "long-standing friend" and "affectionately" as his "Chief of Staff."

He said he received the news of the former Ningo Prampram MPs death in South Africa with a "heavy heart."

According to Alan Kyerematen, he was also "a fiercely competitive politician" who formed "lifelong friendships with many on all sides of the political divide."

He emphasized that the late E.T Mensah would be remembered for his "sterling performance" in all of his roles in government and politics over the years.

Alan Kyerematen stated that the late E.T Mensah "fought a good fight in his political career and has left an indelible mark in the history of Ghanaian politics."

ET Mensah had a distinguished career serving as Mayor of Accra, Minister for Youth and Sports, and Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram for five consecutive terms from 1997 to 2017.
03.10.2023 LISTEN

Oliver Barker Vormawor, lead convener of the #FixTheCountry Movement has expressed his concerns about the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and its current leadership headed by Governor Dr. Ernest Addison.

Barker Vormawor criticized the central bank, stating that it was originally intended to be a pillar of sanity in the country's economic landscape but has now become a vehicle for corruption and theft.

In a tweet on Tuesday, October 3, he wrote, "Even the Bank of Ghana, which was supposed to be a pillar of sanity, is now a vehicle for rot and theft."

In response to the growing discontent, a large number of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Accra, demanding the removal of Dr. Ernest Addison from his position as Governor.

However, tensions between the protestors and the police have risen due to disagreements over the approved demonstration routes.

The protestors allegedly marched to unapproved routes, disregarding prior police authorization.

However, Minority Leader Cassiel Ato Forson who led the protest with other leading members has asserted that they will not disperse until they are granted the opportunity to present their petition directly to the Governor.
The Agenda 111 District Hospital at Kpassa in the Nkwanta North District of the Oti Region will be completed and ready for use by January 2024.

The Minister for Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, disclosed this during a visit to the project site last Tuesday with the Presidential Advisor on Health at the Office of the President, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare.

He noted that the 60-bed capacity project, which commenced in August 2022, is currently about 30.8 per cent complete.

He stated, The needed funding had been secured for the project to be completed as scheduled. The Agenda 111 projects are given priority by the government and 88 of the hospitals which are at various stages of completion across the country would be completed on schedule. Among the components of the hospitals are accident centres and mortuaries.

According to the Minister, the facilities would also become mini hubs for the training of nursing students.

He noted that although some of them had suffered initial challenges, including difficulty in land acquisition, the government was committed to completing them.

He assured residents of Kpassa that discussions were ongoing with the Ministry of Roads and Highways to improve the condition of roads in the area to ensure easy access to the hospital, adding that the facility would enjoy uninterrupted power supply when completed.

On his part, Dr NsiahAsare highlighted the significant socioeconomic and employment opportunities that the initiatives would bring.

Through this project, we expect to employ approximately 20,000 health workers across various roles, from doctors and nurses to support staff. There is wealth in health and this hospital will create a strong socio-economic environment in the district. More than 300 workers would be employed to work in the facility upon completion, he noted.

He bemoaned that currently, the Nkwanta-North District has no public hospital, a development that compels residents to travel long distances on deplorable roads to access health care, leading to the loss of lives sometimes.

Dr Nsiah-Asare entreated the chiefs to allocate more land for the construction of accommodation facilities for the staff of the hospital upon completion.
Former Minister of Local Government and Member of Parliament, Mr Akwasi Opong-Fosu, has decried the decline of Ghana's democracy.

In a speech delivered on 30th September 2023 in London at a conference under the theme "Rethinking Leadership and Governance for Ghana We Want," he identified factors that have led to the democratic crisis Ghana is experiencing today.

He drew particular attention to leadership failures and governance dysfunction at various levels of government.

He warns that citizens thinking that events happening in neighbouring countries cannot happen in Ghana are illusional.

According to him, the situation calls for forthrightness in national conversations, emphasizing the need for changing mindsets and speaking the truth to those in power.

He noted that the 'Ghana we want' is spelt out in the Directive Principles of State Policy. "But because those principles are not being followed, there is an upsurge in citizens wanting to be heard."

The various public agitations currently going on in Ghana, in his view, strongly point to the disappointment of Ghanaians with the current government.

Even though he predicted the imminent return of the NDC to power in the 2024 elections, the standards to which Ghanaians measure the National Democratic Congress are higher.

He, therefore, advised that the party lives up to that expectation in order to help reverse the declining fortunes of Ghana's democracy.
The National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia joined the #OccupyBoG protest on Tuesday, October 3.

Joined by followers of the NDC and several Civil Society Organisations, the Minority in Parliament led the #OccupyBoG protest to demand the resignation of Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor Dr. Ernest Addison and his two deputies.

Speaking to the media during the protest, Johnson Asiedu Nketia said the demonstration is the beginning of the fall of President Akufo-Addos government.

According to him, the Government of President Akufo-Addo and his Vice Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has been fraudulent and must be booted out in the 2024 General Election.

This is the beginning of the fall of the fraudulent Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government.

You have been paid to do a job. There are problems and people are running you to solve the problems but you cant. They must go, Johnson Asiedu Nketia told the media.

Among the many grievances of the Minority in Parliament, it wants Governor Addison to resign over what it says is the gross mismanagement of the Central Bank.

The Minority also accuses the Governor of illegally printing cash for government.

In addition to the call for the BoG Governor to resign, the Minority has stressed that it will push for Dr. Addison to be prosecuted.
03.10.2023 LISTEN

European Union Delegation to Ghana on Friday, 29th September, 2023 engaged over 40 youth organizations drawn from six regions in Kumasi.

The meeting took the form of a dialogue dubbed EU Youth Engagement Initiative, a project aimed at promoting inclusive democratic participation of all young people in society and democratic processes as they bring new perspectives to old challenges, from climate change to natural resources to conflict resolution.

It also seeks to promote dialogue among young people and policies that are future-looking.

Through the initiative, young people can make their voices heard, push new policies, promote better plans and demand accountability within their communities and from their leaders.

Among such EU-funded initiatives include the Youth Sounding Board and the AU-EU Youth Hub.

The former brings together young leaders from across the world to discuss how to achieve better inclusion and empowerment of youth.

The latter on the other hand is an initiative that fosters cross-continental dialogue. Members who have been selected for the 2023-2025 European Union Youth Sounding Board will advise the EU commissioner and the Directorate-General for International Partnership on youth participation and empowerment in EU external action.

Event

Via the participation of the youth organizations, implementers of the initiative heard what and how EU can do better for Ghanaian youth.

In his welcome remarks at the meeting, Massimo Mina Head of Cooperation, EU Delegation to Ghana said exchanges at the event will inform the EUs Youth Strategy and Action Plan in Ghana until 2027 and EUs new programs across seven key sectors such as agri-business, sustainable cities, energy, migration and employment, skills and education, private sector development, and rule of law and corruption.

As youth is a cross-cutting priority spanning all of our projects, this means that the youth should benefit or be involved in each of our interventions, he indicated.

He noted that prior to Kumasis (Middle Zone) engagement, officials of the EU Youth Engagement Initiative held similar consultation in Tamale for the Northern zone of the country and are planning to have two more in Cape Coast (for the southern Zone) and Greater Accra ( launching of the initiative).

As we develop our new programs for the next few years, we want to ensure that we are properly listening and responding to the needs of young Ghanaians.

"This starts by having an honest and transparent conversation about what the EU is doing well and what we can do better. After all we all share the same belief in a democratic, prosperous and peaceful future for Ghana, Massimo Mina noted in his remarks.

Samuel Gariba, a youth advocate and a participant at the engagement commended the EU delegation for the initiative and for sharing what their plan is for young people in Ghana and how they want young people to be integrated into their programs.

I think it is a good thing but we need to look at how we can expand it or scale it up to involve a lot of young people especially those in school, rural communities, those who are into trade since they are equally important as us.

"Also their needs and aspirations are not the same as ours. EU should go down to the community level so that youth at that level will know what the EU is planning and how they can also benefit from it, he suggested.

In an interview on the sidelines of the engagement, Emmanuel Odonkor Youth Consultant helping in the implementation of the initiative announced that the officials will after the Southern zones version cap everything up with the national launch of the EU Youth Engagement Initiative in Accra.

He said they will bring onboard representatives from all the zones and let Ghanaians know what the EU seeks to do with young people and how best EU can come on board to support the works that youth organizations are doing.
Samuel Koku Anyidoho, CEO of the Atta Mills Institute, has criticized National Democratic Congress (NDC) Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketiah over his call for youth to join today's protest in Accra.

Asiedu Nketiah had called on the youth to join the #OccupyBoG protest in large numbers, stating "this demonstration is for the youth because it is the future that is being mortgaged."

However, Koku Anyidoho criticised his statement for inciting the youth to stage what he perceived as a coup against the government.

In a tweet on Tuesday, October 3, he reacted to Asiedu Nketiah's comment: "He is calling for the youth to stage a coup. Where are his children?"

In response to the growing discontent, a large number of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Accra, demanding the removal of Dr. Ernest Addison from his position as Governor.

However, tensions between the protestors and the police have risen due to disagreements over the approved demonstration routes.

The protestors allegedly marched to unapproved routes, disregarding prior police authorization.

However, Minority Leader Cassiel Ato Forson who led the protest with other leading members has asserted that they will not disperse until they are granted the opportunity to present their petition directly to the Governor.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. An interview with Candidate of Technical Sciences, writer, and professor of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Gagik Ohanjanyan, was broadcast on the Baku Network expert platform, Trend reports.

The guest of the program was Gagik Ohanjanyan, Candidate of Technical Sciences, writer, and professor of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.

Ohanjanyan, speaking about the current situation in Azerbaijans Karabakh, said that the Armenian residents of Karabakh blame not Azerbaijan but first of all their separatist leaders.

"Armenians don't blame Azerbaijan. Everyone realized that you can't build happiness on someone else's grief. It all started when it was announced that we could not live together. I am against generalizations about people. There are different people among Armenians. They have a big disappointment connected not with Azerbaijan but with the paradigm that has been instilled for decades, even before the collapse of the USSR, Ohanjanyan said.

People should remember that first of all they are just human beings, and then think about nationality. We have 90 percent in common, 10 percent differences, and maybe even less. Azerbaijanis and Armenians who lived in Karabakh are unpretentious people, and they are basically no different. Neither Armenians nor Azerbaijanis have taught their children to kill, steal, or profit at someone else's expense. We have worked thoroughly with the Armenian people. We were just made enemies of each other. That is, all this was man-made," he said.

According to Ohanjanyan, the first sign that they are starting to work with the people is the suggestion that they are ancient people.

"Both Azerbaijanis and Armenians are conscientious peoples. No Azerbaijani mother teaches her child to seize other people's property, to kill, or to rob. Similarly, the Armenian mother They all teach us to live honestly," he said.

In particular, he touched upon the topic of the so-called incompatibility of the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples, an idea promoted by former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan.

"Robert Kocharyan is a national fascist. How can you say that about people with whom there were fraternal relations yesterday? We are destined to start talking, maybe apologizing or discussing. Without realizing it, we entered the Middle Ages, when we began to destroy cities, villages, and monuments, Ohanjanyan said.

Robert Kocharyan once spoke about the incompatibility of Armenians and Azerbaijanis. I still can't understand how you can say that while living there. I have been living in Karabakh for 17 years, communicating with people. How can you deceive people with this false patriotism? This is nonsense. However, after Kocharyan became president, everyone saw that he was a fool who could be used," Ohanjanyan said.

In addition, he spoke about the great contribution of the national leader of the Azerbaijani people, Heydar Aliyev, to the prosperity of Karabakh.

"Until the 1970s, Karabakh was subsidized. I remember how qualitatively life has changed over the years since the construction of the Sarsang Hydro Power Plant.

The residents of Karabakh came out of their hovels and began to build good houses for themselves. This is despite the fact that in Soviet times there were no building material stores. My father was then the head of one of the districts of Karabakh. He was at a reception with Heydar Aliyev. When we talked about the Armenians building houses there, Heydar Aliyev said, So what? They are also our people. People got access to electricity. It was a great gift for the rural people," Ohanjanyan said.

The full video of the interview:
Seven people accused of being members of an ultra-leftist group are in court on terrorism charges for allegedly organising attacks against the French police and military. While the Interior Minister has blamed violence during social protests on "ultra leftists", it is difficult to define them as a group, and terrorism charges have failed in court before.

The trial comes out of a report from the French DGSI intelligence agency that identified what it said was a group of ultra leftists lead by Florian D, an anarchist activist who went to Syria in 2017 to fight with Kurdish forces against the Islamic State armed group.

Florian and six other people  five men and one woman  are accused of criminal terrorist association linked to planned attacks in France. Three are also on trial for not handing over the codes of their encrypted devices to police investigators.

The case

Upon his return to France in 2018, Florian, who was trained as a sniper during his time in Syria, was placed under surveillance.

Investigators said they found evidence that he was trying to recruit people to perpetrate violent acts against police or military officers in France, and that the group had been experimenting with explosives.

After several months of surveillance and phone taps, on 8 December 2020, police arrested Florian and Camille B, a woman he was romantically involved with, as well as two friends and three other people Florian had met in 2014 at the Sivens ZAD in the south of France

It is the site of a protest against the construction of a dam on the Tarn river.

The seven were suspected of having participated in shooting exercises while playing the Airsoft tactical game with air rifles, and testing explosives. Police found products that could be used to make explosives when they searched the defendants' homes.

The seven have denied accusations that they intended to attack state institutions.

A lawyer who represents Florian, Raphael Kempf, told FranceInfo radio that the explosives were being used to make firecrackers for fun, and that it is the DGSI's "fictionalised reading" of the situation that would make it seem as though his client and the other defendants wanted to attack symbols of the state.

Defining the 'ultra left'

The accused's lawyers have denounced the trial as a political act against people whose world views the government disagrees with, and will argue in court that no target or timeframe for any allegedly planned attack was ever identified.

Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin has repeatedly condemned groups that he has identified as ultra leftist, including environmental activists protesting against the construction of agricultural water reservoirs in Sainte-Soline, in western France.

He had previously blamed the ultra left for violence during demonstrations against the government pension reform.

Environmental groups have also been targeted, with the government in June dissolving a climate activist group that it said instigated violence and vandalism at demonstrations.

But defining the ultra left as a single entity is nearly impossible, as the term encompasses many different people and groups with a wide array of anti-establishment views.

The ultra-left label, which first appeared at the turn of the 20th century to describe anti-Lenin leftist Marxists, has now been used to describe anyone from black bloc protesters to environmental activists.

This makes prosecutions difficult. The last antiterrorist trial of ultra-leftists in France ended with charges being dropped.

Difficult prosecutions

Widely described as a farce or fiasco for the anti-terroism police, what is known as the Tarnac affair involved nine people allegedly members of an anarchist cell who were arrested in 2008, accused of sabotaging electrical lines on high-speed TGV lines in and around the town of Tarnac, in south-western France.

After years of legal wrangling, the nine were acquitted in 2018 of the most serious charges, including sabotage and conspiracy.

The last successful terrorism prosecution of ultra-leftists was in 1995, with the conviction of several members of Lyon branch of the militant leftist group Action directe, a small far-left armed group along the lines of Italy's Red Brigades.

The militants were convicted of terrorism for bombings and attacks in the Paris region during the 1980s, and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The current trial, which started Wednesday, is expected to run through 27 October, with the defendants facing up to 10 years in prison.
In a heartfelt ceremony during the opening event of the High-Level Seminar of the ECOWAS Parliament in Winneba, the retiring Secretary-General of the regional legislature, John Azumah, was honoured for his outstanding service.

The award, described as the highest award of excellence for dedication, devotion, meritorious, and selfless service to the ECOWAS Parliament, was presented by His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana, marking the culmination of a remarkable career dedicated to parliamentary administration.

The citation read in his honour during the event on Friday provided a comprehensive overview of Azumahs life and contributions to the ECOWAS Parliament, situated in Abuja, Nigerias federal capital. It began by highlighting his educational journey, from early education in Ghana to obtaining an MBA in International Public Service from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, in 2001.

Mr Azumahs commitment to continuous learning, the citation explained, was further demonstrated by his postgraduate Diploma in Leadership from the National University of Singapore in collaboration with the University of Columbia Graduate School, USA, in 2022.

Mr Azumahs professional journey, as highlighted by the citation, included teaching accounting at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, from 1987 to 1989, followed by roles as an audit supervisor and senior accountant at various organizations. John Azuma, the retiring Secretary-General of the ECOWAS Parliament, is retiring as he has reached the mandatory age stipulated by ECOWAS staff regulations, it announced.

It went on to state, He was regarded and is still regarded as the linchpin of the ECOWAS Parliament. John is a problem solver, a living memory, and the backbone of the ECOWAS Parliament. John is an effective risk-taker par excellence. The citation added, It is indeed the dawn of a new era in the ECOWAS Parliament. A new chapter would have to open with Johns exit from the Parliament. The parliament would certainly not be the same again without John.

Throughout his tenure, Mr Azumah played pivotal roles, including Acting Director of Administration and Finance and Chief Accountant, effectively building the finance and budget division of the ECOWAS Parliament. His dedication extended to participating in various training courses and parliamentary workshops, further enhancing his skills and knowledge.

The citation also praised Mr Azumah for his unique ability to navigate the complex dynamics of parliament, demonstrating a deep understanding of the psychological and emotional language spoken by parliament members.

Johns exit will no doubt create a void that may not be filled, it said. His leadership and willingness to take risks for the effective functioning of parliament were highlighted.

Without mincing words, the citation then made a bold statement: If the success or otherwise of a Secretary-General at the ECOWAS Parliament is measured in terms of executing approved programs and activities of Parliament, relating effectively with other equal institutions, relating effectively with Member States, relating effectively with other interparliamentary bodies, providing effective leadership to all staff of the General Secretariat, then John Azuma can be regarded as the best of the five consecutive Secretaries-General of the ECOWAS.

The retiring Secretary-General managed two consecutive speakers, fostering harmony and cooperation within the ECOWAS Parliament, which had been challenging for some of his predecessors. John Azuma managed two consecutive speakers, the Right Honorable Mustafa Sisilu and the Right Honorable Dr S. M. Tunis, where his predecessors couldnt manage even one without rancour, it said.

Over his 21-year service to the ECOWAS Parliament, Mr Azumah became a central figure in the development of the parliament, involved in numerous critical issues and initiatives. His exit from the ECOWAS Parliament was acknowledged as the beginning of a new era. His retirement would undoubtedly create a void that might prove challenging to fill, given his longstanding contributions to the organization.

It is indeed the dawn of a new era in the ECOWAS Parliament. A new chapter would have to open with Johns exit from the Parliament.

Before joining the Eccowas Parliament, Mr Azumah served as an administrative staff of the Parliament of Ghana. It is, however, not clear what Azumah intends to do upon retirement.

As John Azumah retires from active service, the ECOWAS Parliament marked the end of an era, with the parliament poised to open a new chapter in its history. His legacy and contributions to the organization, according to members, staff, and experts meeting in Winneba, will be remembered with deep gratitude and respect.

Taking the stage to make brief comments after receiving his award, Mr Azumah said he was humbled by the honour done to him. He expressed intense gratitude to the ECOWAS Parliament, its members, and its staff for supporting him throughout his years of service to the region.
Niger's coup leaders have accepted Algeria's offer of mediation to resolve the country's political crisis following the overthrow of President Mohamed Bazoum, who is filing a legal case against the putschists.

According to an announcement from Algeria's foreign ministry, Niger's military has agreed to a six-month transition plan to restore "the constitutional order".

The junta ousted Niger's democratically elected, pro-Western president Mohamed Bazoum on 26 July and had proposed a three-year transition back to democracy.

In a statement, Algiers said the Algerian government "has received via the Nigerien ministry of foreign affairs a [statement of] acceptance of Algerian mediation aimed at promoting a political solution to the crisis in Niger."

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has tasked Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf with visiting Niamey "as soon as possible with the aim of launching discussions ... with all stakeholders."

In late August, Algeria  which borders Niger  had proposed a transition period of up to six months, which would aim to "formulate political arrangements with the acceptance of all parties in Niger without excluding any party."

In Monday's statement, the Algerian foreign ministry said, "the acceptance of the Algerian initiative strengthens the prospect of a political solution to this crisis".

Niger's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reportedly "indicated the availability of the Nigerien authorities to examine Algeria's offer of mediation".

This comes as Algiers has categorically rejected any foreign military intervention in Niger, underlining a military solution would be "a direct threat" to Algeria.

Bazoum takes legal action

The West African bloc Ecowas has threatened to use force as a last resort to reinstate Bazoum, who has been held in his residence since the coup.

His lawyers say they are filing a legal case in the country against those behind the coup d'etat.

The lawsuit targets Niger's current military leader General Abdourahamane Tiani and "all others".

It constitutes a civil action and alleges "attack and conspiracy against state authority, crimes and offences committed by civil servants and arbitrary arrests and confinements".

The case  which is being brought by Bazoum, his wife and two of their children  is expected to be lodged in the next few days with a court in the capital Niamey.

His lawyers also said in a statement they were appealing to two bodies of the UN Human Rights Council, including its working group on arbitrary detention.

Bazoum filed a lawsuit with a court at the Economic Community of West African States on 18 September.

On Monday, an international collective of lawyers that included American human rights specialist Reed Brody  in a written statement  called for Bazoum's immediate release.

3 days mourning after jihadist attack

Meanwhile, Niger began three days of national mourning this Tuesday after 29 soldiers were killed in a suspected jihadist attack, the deadliest since the military took power in July.

Niger is battling two jihadist insurgencies  a spillover in its southeast from a long-running conflict in neighbouring Nigeria, and an offensive in the west by militants crossing from Mali and Burkina Faso.

The Ministry of Defence said in a televised statement that Monday's attack in western Niger involved "improvised explosive devices and kamikaze vehicles by more than a hundred terrorists."

It added that two soldiers were seriously wounded and "several dozen terrorists" were also killed.

The attack took place northwest of Tabatol near the border with Mali, which is plagued by fighting with militants affiliated with the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda.

Violence in the "three borders" area between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso has fuelled military takeovers in all three countries since 2021.

France maintains about 1,500 soldiers in Niger as part of an anti-jihadist deployment in the Sahel.

The coup leaders have demanded a "negotiated framework" for their withdrawal.
In what initially began as a peaceful protest, the Fix Our Roads demonstration in Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region on Tuesday, October 3 turned into chaos.

This was after protesters pelted police with stones in the course of their march.

It is unclear what triggered the action.

But one of the protesters was picked up while a police officer was severely injured.

The officer has since been rushed to the Ashaiman Hospital for medical care, Media Generals Joseph Armstrong Gold-Alorgbey reports.

The demonstration, which is led by Concern Citizens of Ashaiman, began at the Court Junction, near the Church of Pentecost.

The participants are protesting the bad roads in Ashaiman, one of the populated towns in the Region.

A placard held by one of the protesters read: 155km of roads in Ashaiman has not seen drain construction nor pavement.

Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashaiman Ernest Henry Norgbey joined the demonstrators.

He said central government has turned a deaf ear to their calls for better roads and that is not only him but the district chief executive (DCE) is joining the demonstration.

The demonstration today was not intended against Ernest Norgbey or the Chief Executive of Ashaiman, he addressed journalists.

It is concerned youth of Ashaiman who are organising demonstration for the bad nature of our roads. It is not in any way targeting any individual in authority in Ashaiman especially the Chief Executive.

He later added: As a youth activist, whatever my people are doing, it is my duty to support them.

We all ply the road. . .myself and the Chief Executive, we have fought to draw the governments attention to the bad nature of our roads. We attended meetings together on our roads.

But unfortunately the central government refused to heed to our plight.

-3news.com
Residents of Ashaiman have today, Tuesday, October 3, embarked on a protest to register their displeasure with the government over the poor state of the road network in the area.

The Ashaiman intersection which connects to places including Adjei Kojo, Ashaiman to Tema-Akosombo highway, and Ashaiman-Oyibi-Somanya road was blocked by the residents during the protest.

The residents who were clad in red and black, were wielding placards, some of which read: We pay taxes, fix our roads; Fix our roads to keep our business; You are not employing us but you are killing our businesses with lack of accessibility; GPRTU/Taxi drivers we are fed up driving on bad roads in Ashaiman, among others.

Millicent Apraku, a resident told journalists although Ashaiman was perceived as a stronghold of the NDC, during the 2020 elections, the governing NPP amassed 36,000 votes.

She indicated that due to the bad state of the road their journeys to work are prolonged unnecessarily.

She noted: Ashaiman deserves better, were dying.

A male protestor also stressed that it is the duty of the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, to push for the roads to be fixed though it is not the duty of an MP to fix roads.

We know the MP doesnt fix roads, right. So he should be our mouthpiece. He must go to the assembly to make things happen but we always hear my government is not in power so I can do nothing, he said.

The Ashaiman residents are demanding that the government prioritises fixing their roads.

-classfmonline
03.10.2023 LISTEN

Okyenhene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin has expressed deep concern over the ongoing exploitation of African youth in the Gulf countries, where they are lured into slavery with the promise of better opportunities.

The Okyenhene, who is the paramount chief of the Akyem Abuakwa State in Ghana, highlighted the particularly disheartening situation faced by young African women who are forced into domestic and sex slavery in these countries.

Speaking at the Congregational Ceremony of the North Eastern University in Boston, USA, Osagyeufo Amoatia Ofori Panin emphasized the violation of human rights occurring despite the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which condemns slavery and servitude.

He highlighted the fact that while all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights according to the declaration, this is far from the reality for many Africans.

He attributed these human rights violations to the prevalent poverty in Africa, which he described as multidimensional.

He noted that over one billion people, two thirds of whom are women and children, live in extreme poverty on less than one dollar a day. The majority of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa are engaged in subsistence agriculture, which is heavily reliant on rainfall and lacks year-round employment opportunities. This situation has resulted in mass rural poverty, unemployment, and drudgery.

The Okyenhene also highlighted the impact of climate change on poverty eradication, particularly in developing countries like those in Africa, where agriculture and fisheries, vital sectors for livelihoods, are highly sensitive to climate variations.

He emphasized that African countries lack the resources and capacity to anticipate and respond effectively to the direct and indirect consequences of climate change. These vulnerabilities make poverty reduction efforts and fiscal institutions ineffective.

According to Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, conventional policy models for poverty reduction often disregard the unique socio-economic and political conditions in Africa.

He called for a stronger integration of traditional leaders knowledge, expertise, and leadership in the fight against poverty.

The Okyenhene urged policymakers to recognize the importance of involving traditional leaders in the design and implementation of policies that affect local communities.

To further address these challenges, the Okyenhene called for deeper collaboration between Okyeman and the North Eastern University in Boston, setting an example for cooperation between traditional leaders in Africa and the global academia. He later signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the Akyem Abuakwa State and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the United States, focusing on research activities related to mined land reclamation, eco-tourism, education, and STEM.

The five-year Memorandum of Understanding aims to enhance joint research publications, participation in academic events, scholarships, and exchange programs between institutions in the Akyem Abuakwa State and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

This collaboration seeks to bridge the gap between academia and traditional leadership to find sustainable solutions to poverty and other pressing issues in Africa.

As the Okyenhene continues to advocate for collaboration and the inclusion of traditional leaders in poverty reduction efforts, it is hoped that these initiatives will contribute to a brighter future for African youth and an end to their exploitation in Gulf countries.

-DGN online
With the completion of many preparatory works for the NPP primaries, the party is set to elect the new NPP Presidential Candidate for the 2024 general elections on 4th November, 2023.

This is an internal election which must be undertaken peacefully to ensure that the Party unity prevails at the end of the elections. It is my special appeal to the delegates to complete the work which was started by the Special Delegates elections which took place on 26th August, 2023.

The results of the Special Delegates election clearly confirmed that the leaders of the various Regions which constituted the delegates made a choice and the choice was Dr. Bawumia.

The decision they took was not imposed on them as some people would like others to believe but as leaders, they made the choice after careful consideration of various facts on the ground especially the future of the NPP and how the Party would extricate the country from the current economic difficulties and fulfil its mandate to Ghanaians. The choice they made needs a confirmation on 4th November, 2023 and I appeal to all the delegates to affirm the choice without any reservation.

The Party's mandate cannot be fulfilled completely within the eight years of governance, hence the need to break the 8. Breaking the 8 is not going to be easy without the support of many Ghanaians considering the current economic situation. The delegates must therefore choose a candidate who understands the economy, the state of it and what needs to be done. The arguments to be put across must sound very convincing to the Ghanaian electorate.

Besides the economic issues, the candidate to be chosen should be incorruptible and have the capacity to defeat former President John Mahama. The only aspirant amongst the contestants who can do this, to my mind is Dr. Bawumia.

The economic crisis in many countries of the world today is very serious- whether it is a developed or underdeveloped country but In Ghana, the propagandists want everybody to believe that only Ghanaians are suffering as a result of Government's failure. In Ghana, the economic crisis started with four years of Dumsor and two years after that came COVID-19. Any Ghanaian who does not accept that these two major events seriously affected the economy is not being truthful. The fact of the matter was that two years post Dumsor was not long enough to address its damage to the economy and the effects of COVID-19 that followed aggravated the situation.

The Soviet Union-Ukraine war and its effects on fuel and grains also created further difficulties for many countries but strangely the NDC and some Ghanaians want others to believe that the NPP under Nana Addo is responsible for these events. One issue however which has affected the country's finances to some degree is the introduction of free SHS.

In my previous write-ups I have not hidden my support for free SHS because I believe it is the best thing that has ever happened to this country in recent times, and I think we must bear the cost in good faith for the development of the next generation.

Dear Delegates, other economic issues such as corruption, the attitude of Ghanaians and lack of patriotism, indiscipline and many more are all part of the problems affecting the economy which need to be addressed. We have compromised solutions to these problems in many ways, we have been weak in enforcing discipline and lack the commitment and morale courage to fight corruption. We therefore need a change and a leader who can make the difference. We need a leader who is incorruptible, disciplined, upright, courageous and bold to fight these evils in our society.

In addition, the NDC propaganda machinery is sharp with lies and deceit and the more reason why we need a competent candidate who can hold these criticisms at bay and diffuse all the deceit and lies. The major objective of the party is breaking the 8 and this requires an unblemished and disciplined leader.

There are now four Presidential candidates from whom one must be chosen and the choice must be based on some criteria. I humbly suggest the following four important ones among many others for your consideration. Firstly, you need to consider loyalty to the Party as the number one factor that is not negotiable. Secondly, the candidate to be chosen must be disciplined, honest and incorruptible.

Thirdly, the candidate should be capable of defeating President Mahama in order to break the 8. Fourthly, the economic situation in the country demands a solution. Consequently, the candidate must be someone who knows the state of our economy, has been involved in finding solutions to the current crisis, must be prepared to convince the electorate the way forward to improve conditions and minimise the suffering. Experimentation at this stage will be an expensive exercise and will prolong the suffering of our people.

Some Ghanaians are not happy with the economy due to difficulties being experienced and consequently, the NDC Communication directorate has orchestrated many schemes to throw more dust (as it were) on the President and the Government. Dr. Bawumia has not been excluded from this bashing but he is not the President and cannot be held liable for what is happening.

We need somebody in this Government, who can explain the details of the current economic situation to Ghanaians, what went wrong and what needs to be done to stabilise the situation and to ensure growth.

The economic growth cannot only be achieved on paper but needs the morale and physical support of Ghanaians to succeed. We need a Candidate who can appeal to the electorate and the youth to understand our predicament and rally support to vote him to the presidency.

The candidate with a strong and an unblemished character and especially uncorrupted to stand, fight and ward off these criticisms is Dr, Bawumia.

The 2024 presidential elections will be fought on personalities and by this, I mean between former President Mahama and the candidate to be elected by the NPP. We therefore need a candidate young enough, with intellectual abilities to counter whatever is thrown at him and the Party and that candidate to me is Dr Bawumia.

The younger voter population constitute approximately sixty per cent of the current registered voters which translates to the age group of 55 years and below. These age groups feel that the older generation and politicians have badly let them down. As a result, many young voters are looking for younger leaders and not septuagenarians or octogenarians to lead them.

Even though President Mahama is about 65 years of age, his performance as a President for six years exposed his weaknesses badly to the public and any smart politician can use them to his advantage. I strongly believe that Dr. Bawumia can do it.

You should not be disturbed by the recent resignation of Mr. Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanteng because his relevance in NPP ceased in 2007 after his first resignation. His second resignation and the reasons he has given has proved that in the absence of pampering, he is no politician at all and the resignation should be treated as a distraction. His resignation has removed all doubts about manipulations in the current process which to my mind is good for the Party.

The fight ahead  breaking the 8 is a major battle that needs a candidate with a strong personality and character like Dr Bawumia, who stood tall and fought for the NPP during the election petition trial in 2012.

The time has come for Dr. Bawumia to receive his reward for his fight at the Supreme Court, an event which caught many founders with trepidation. Your vote for Dr. Bawumia must be emphatic to convince every member of the Party and the Ghanaian electorate that the NPP has really made a choice.

Dear delegates, remember that the choice you make will affect the Party and the lives of many Ghanaians who look to NPP for salvation.The major problem facing the country now is the economy and who can fix it. This question will be answered by majority of Ghanaian voters in 2024 elections. What you need to do is to select a candidate who can convince and mobilise Ghanaians to vote for NPP.

As I have said earlier the contest will be between former President Mahama and who the NPP elects (Bawumia). Remember the election will be fought on personalities and not on NPP and NDC. That choice has already been made by your leaders and what is required of you is to affirm it.

I have nothing against the other candidates but looking at the tasks ahead I think Dr. Bawumia is the best suited for them because he has the charisma, the intellect, the sympathy of the youth and the strength to accomplish it.

Elect Dr. Bawumia and make NPP proud.

By Brig-Gen (Rtd) J. Odei
The flagbearer hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Afriyie Akoto has said he is the solution to the cracks within the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Mr. Akoto asserts that there are so many finger-pointing accusations at each other which are setting the party apart.

Speaking during his tour in Kumasi, he noted that, now more than ever the party ought to be united towards breaking the eight.

Speaking to the sizable crowd, he said that Ghanaians needed to be reminded of the Elephant party's formidable presence.

It is clear to me that morale is very low. The expectation of our activists around the country for a better life has not been realized so the NPP is not in a good place to contest to retain power next year.

I have a very clear understanding of the problems on the ground because I have been a Member of Parliament in Kwadaso here in Kumasi so I understand the concerns expressed by activists on the ground.

Anybody who aspires to bear the flag of the NPP, that should be the priority, Afryie Akoto stated.

He thus urged the delegates to elect him on November 4 to lead the party to victory in 2024 general elections.
A two-day technical seminar on leveraging digitalization to extend social security coverage in West Africa has been held in Accra.

The seminar which commenced on Monday 2nd October and ends on Tuesday 3rd October 2023 is hosted by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), under the auspices of the International Social Security Association (ISSA)  an international organization for Social Security institutions, government departments and agencies of which SSNIT is a member.

The seminar, which brought together participants from Togo, Cote D'lvoire, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Liberia, Burkina Faso, and Guinea, aimed to identify innovative solutions and practices in the use of digital and mobile technologies to extend social security coverage in the West African sub-region.

During the regional Social Security Forum for Africa, held in Abidjan, Cote dIvoire, in May 2023, one of the conclusions reached was that social security in West Africa has made some progress over the past decade through the strengthening of legal frameworks and administrative structures.

Despite the progress made, large segments of the population in the region, particularly, workers in the informal sector and self-employed workers, remain without social security cover.

The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for the development of banking services for insured persons and the introduction of new services based on mobile phone technologies. This did not only cushion people from the effects of the crisis but also created new opportunities to extend social security coverage to the difficult-to-reach category of workers.

It is against this background that the ISSA technical seminar has been organized to identify innovative solutions in the use of digital and mobile technologies to extend social security coverage to self-employed persons and workers in the informal sector.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the seminar, the Secretary General of ISSA, Marcelo Abi-Ramia Caetano, expressed appreciation to Cote dIvoire for hosting ISSAs Liaison Office and to Ghana for accepting to host the Office for the next three years.

He indicated that Ghana was chosen to host the 2023 Seminar as well as the ISSA Liaison Office because SSNIT has shown commitment and leadership in social security administration, thereby enhancing social protection in Ghana.

The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Hon. Ignatius Baffour Awuah, in his remarks, noted that the region's inability to cover a large percentage of the workforce under social security schemes is partly due to a lack of digitalized procedures to ease the registration process.

This indicates that leveraging digitalization to extend social security coverage is critical. Therefore, investing in this to extend social security coverage is not an aspiration that can be deferred to the future. I, therefore call on social security institutions within West Africa to take advantage of the emergence of digital technologies to bridge the wide coverage gap," Hon. Baffour Awuah noted.

In his welcome address, the Director-General of SSNIT, Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, charged participants to focus on technology that impacts positively service delivery and access to social security.

Let us not come to the discussions purely from an administrative point of view, but focus on how we can use available technology to truly impact the lives of our people. We cannot fail in this endeavor, because when you look at the map for social security coverage globally, you will find that Africa is one of the least covered areas even though our population continues to grow at substantial rates.

We must find ways of using technology among other interventions to increase the reach of social protection for the vast majority of our people," Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang indicated.

Transfer of ISSA Liaison Office:

The seminar also saw the transfer of ISSA Liaison Office from Cote dIvoire to Ghana. Ghana has been chosen to host the Office from 2023 to 2026. The Office will be located at the Trust Emporium, Airport City in Accra, and will be responsible for promoting excellence in social security administration in the West Africa sub-region.

The Office will also be responsible for developing dynamic social security systems and policies, serving as a communication channel between the West Africa sub-region and the ISSA General Secretariat, gathering information on region-specific interests, needs, and challenges among other functions.
The Coalition of Ashaiman Residents has issued an ultimatum to the government, demanding immediate action on the deplorable state of roads in the area.

This ultimatum follows a protest organized by the residents to draw attention to the deteriorating road conditions in the municipality.

In a petition presented to the Chief Executive Officer of Ashaiman Albert Boakye Okyere, on behalf of the residents, Freeman Tsekpo, the assemblyman for the Nii Komieteh Electoral area pointed out their grievances and demands.

Tsekpo said,We ask as a matter of urgency for the government to instruct all contractors that have been awarded road contracts in Ashaiman Municipality to come to the site and work on fixing our roads. We demand that the following major sections of the roads be fixed immediately.

The residents have given the government a two-month deadline to initiate road rehabilitation works, failing which they have threatened to stage another march to the Ministry of Roads and Highways.

The areas of concern include the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly Traffic Light to Presby section of the Ashaiman Agyei Kwadwo main road, the main market to Lebanon section of the Ashaiman overhead to Zenu road, the Ashaiman Newtown junction to Afariwa junction road, and community 22 to Lebanon inner roads.

He warned, "If within two calendar months, we do not see any action of works within the community, we will organize another march. This time we will march to the ministry and picket at the Ministry of Roads and Highways. It is our prayer that this call will be given the needed attention."

Ernest Norgbey, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashaiman, expressed deep concern over the government's failure to address the dire road conditions in Ashaiman.

He expressed the frustration the residents go through with constant damage to their vehicles and the inconvenience they face daily due to the poor roads.

Norgbey stated, "We are saying enough is enough, all of us use the same road. Our cars and everything is getting damaged."

So we are pleading on behalf of the people of Ashaiman that the government should do the needful and bring the contractors back to the site so that the people of Ashaiman will have some relief," he added.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. Russia has betrayed the Armenian population of Karabakh, President of European Council Charles Michel told Euronews, Trend reports.

He asserts that Russia has not responded in any manner to Azerbaijan's anti-terrorist measures in Karabakh.

"Russia has stated that it wants to send forces to the region to uphold security and stability agreements. But as it is, Russia has taken no action," he stated.

Michel continued by saying that he intended to keep serving as an intermediary between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

In order to ensure the provisions of the Trilateral Statement [signed by Azerbaijani, Armenian, and Russian leaders following the 2020 second Karabakh war], suppression of large-scale provocations in Azerbaijan's Karabakh economic region, disarmament, and withdrawal of Armenian armed forces formations from the territories of Azerbaijan, localized anti-terrorist activities were carried out in the region.

The Azerbaijani Army's high-precision weaponry is only used to destroy military targets that are part of the unlawful armed formations that make up the separatist rule. Localized anti-terrorist operations in the Karabakh area of Azerbaijan do not target civilians or infrastructure items.

Taking into account the appeal of the representatives of the Armenian population of Karabakh through the Russian peacekeeping contingent [temporarily stationed in Azerbaijan under the trilateral statement], an agreement was reached on September 20, 2023, at 13:00 (GMT+4) to cease anti-terrorist activities of a local nature under the following conditions: the formations of the armed forces of Armenia, Armenian illegal armed formations located in Azerbaijan's Karabakh region, lay down their weapons, leave their combat positions and military posts, and completely disarm; the formations of the armed forces of Armenia leave the territory of Azerbaijan; Armenian illegal armed groups are dissolved.
Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen

03.10.2023 LISTEN

Former stalwart of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen says the 'Movement for Change' he formed recently to wrestle for political power is not a political party.

Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen on September 25, 2023 resigned from the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to contest the 2024 presidential election as an Independent Candidate.

Unveiling the movement, Mr Kyerematen said the brand logo for his movement is the Monarch Butterfly which symbolizes change and transformation, hope and positivity.

Ever since his announcement, some analysts have perceived his political movement as a political party.

Speaking on Kumasi-based OTEC 102.9 FM's afternoon political show dubbed 'Dwabrem' on Tuesday, October 3, 2023, Mr Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen said the movement is not a political party in disguise.

"To form a political party, the constitution has stipulated some procedures one has to pass through, so I want to state emphatically that, my movement is not a political party.

"Just as I announced, I am going into 2024 as an independent candidate, but I needed a vehicle to bring my followers together and fight for power," he stated.

According to him, he is in politics because he wants to serve the people of Ghana.

According to the former Minister of Trade and Industry, he formed the movement as a vehicle to organize young people and resources to battle for the 2024 presidential polls.

Mr Alan Kyerematen indicated that he has unique qualities to win power.

He touted himself as a leader with vision, competence, integrity, and action to change the political status quo by moving Ghana from the duopoly of the two main political parties in Ghana, the NPP and NDC.

What Ghana needs is a new transformational leader and not another political leader, hence the Movement for Change which would be anchored on moving Ghana beyond the duopoly of NDC and NPP towards a more united government, under which the governance structure will focus on one national agenda, he explained.

He told the show host Nii Ardey (Dr Cash) that he would champion the establishment of a Government of National Unity, build consensus on a national development agenda and promote behavioural and attitudinal change in the people for a new Ghana.
The leader of Movement for Change, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen says he still has a strong base in the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) despite resigning from the party.

The former minister of Trade and Industry has observed that the grassroots who believe in his ideologies are still behind him although he's no longer a member of the party.

Speaking to Dr Cash on the Kumasi-based OTEC 102.9 FM's afternoon political show Dwabrem on Tuesday, October 3, 2023, Mr Kyerematen emphasized that, he still has a huge following in the NPP.

"You will all agree with me that, you cannot mention three leading persons in the party without mentioning the name Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen.

"Prior to my resignation as a member of the NPP, I was a huge figure in the party, even now I still have the numbers in the party, and I can assure you that my followers in the party are still behind me," he said.

According to him, he will cause a major shake-up in the countrys elections as the first independent candidate to win presidential elections in the history of Ghana.
The Executive Director for Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah has opined that government is taking advantage of the quietness of the Ghanaian people to engage in rot.

Mr. Amoah on Tuesday, October 3, joined over a thousand Ghanaians who stormed the streets of Accra for the #OccupyBoG protest organised by the Minority in Parliament.

Speaking to the media, Duncan Amoah said Ghanaians must rise up against the rot going on at the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

He said it is shocking that the Central Bank could incur over GHS60 billion losses in 2022 when the countrys petroleum importation bill stood at 48 billion in the same year.

He explained that BoG could have provided fuel for every Ghanaian from January to December without any citizen paying a pesewa.

We have become too timid as a people, we have become too quiet and it looks as though they want to take advantage of our quietness to get away with murder. It is inconceivable that as a country that the entire year our petroleum importation bill stood at 48 billion with all the taxes and everything we had done.

You wake up and somebody says we have chopped over 60 billion something that could have provided fuel for every Ghanaian from January to December without paying a pesewa. It is what a few people have collected and have chopped, Duncan Amoah bemoaned.

He continued, So we are here to ask the Bank of Ghana the same questions our fellow Ghanaians are asking. We cannot understand the sort of rot going on is allowed to go on. Wherever they have taken the 60 billion they should return the money.

The #OccupyBoG protest on Tuesday had leading members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), representatives of several civil society organisations, market women, actors, and people from all walks of life taking part in the demonstration.

The message among others is that BoG Governor Dr. Ernest Addison must vacate his role.
The concerned citizens of Ashaiman on Tuesday embarked on a demonstration dubbed "Fix Our Roads" to push their demand for better road networks in the municipality.

The protestants, clad in red, as part of the demonstration, blocked the Ashaiman traffic intersection, which connects the municipality to Tema and other nearby communities, leaving commuters stranded.

They also burned vehicle tyres in the middle of the road as part of the protest.

Singing and chanting, they held placards, some of which read, "Our businesses are collapsing as a result of bad roads; fix them now", "We pay taxes; fix our roads", "Our health is in danger as a result of bad roads; please fix our roads", and "Good roads promote businesses," among others.

To ensure a peaceful demonstration, a number of police personnel were present during the protest.

The protestors therefore asked the government to fix the Ashaiman Municipal Traffic Light to Presby Junction section of the Ashaiman-Adjie Kojo Road, the Ashaiman Main Market to Lebanon section of the Ashaiman overhead-Zenu Road, the Ashaiman Newtown Junction to Afariwaa Junction road, and the Community 22 and Lebanon inner roads.

"If within two calendar months, we do not see any action of works within our community, we will match and picket at the ministry of roads in Accra," they threatened.

Mr. Freeman Tsekpo, the Assembly Member for the Nii Komieteh electoral area and leader of the group, presented a petition to Mr. Albert Otchere, the Ashaiman Municipal Chief Executive, for upward submission to the government.

Mr. Tsekpo said the demonstration was to draw the attention of the government to the deplorable nature of the roads and call for immediate action to fix the life-threatening roads in Ashaiman.

He said that for far too long, the people of Ashaiman had suffered the dire consequences of bad roads.

"While promises upon promises by the Roads Minister, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, our Municipal Chief Executive, and those in authority over the years to fix the roads have yielded nothing, the hoping upon hoping by we the people has become a hopeless hope. Successive governments have been unfair to us, the people of Ashaiman," he added.

He stated that Ashaiman has a total of 166 km of network of roads, out of which only 28 km, representing 17 percent, were paved and 137 km, representing 83 percent, were unpaved.

"As we are gathered now, out of this 28km paved, only 2.7 km, representing 9.5%, can be said to be of good road, and 25 km, representing 89%, are full of potholes and manholes," he stressed.

According to the protestors, in 2016, the government awarded 21 km of roads to Ashaiman, which had been diverted to Tema in the early months of 2017.

He added that within the last six years, the government has promised 16km of roads, but only 1.4km has been done.

The resurfacing of the roads has been a mirage, leaving their health and cars at the mercy of the poor roads.
03.10.2023 LISTEN

The Tatale Police on September 30, intercepted and retrieved a M16 rifle from two herdsmen.

The gun, which was carried without authority, was hidden in a sack and carried on an unregistered motorbike they travelled on.

In a Police alert sighted by the Ghana News Agency, it said the two fled and abandoned both the bike and rifle on sensing that their lives were in danger.

On September 30, 2023, at about 1900 hours, General Constable Wakan Kwaku Williams of Tatale Police Station, brought in unregistered Haujoe Metro motorbike 125-8 together with a sack containing M16 rifle No. GHGHFUS220762-422 with an empty magazine and reported that same day at about 1800hours.

He was on motorbike with a Community Protection Assistant, Jeremiah Njakune Mapibe from Bidrimbombe, a suburb of Tatale, heading towards Tatale township, it said.

Police said, upon reaching a section of the road near the District Electoral Commission Office Junction, they met two unknown Fulani men on the aforementioned motorbike holding a sack heading towards Zabzugu direction.

It said their movement looked suspicious, hence, they were given a hot chase to a distance of about 250 meters.

The Fulani suspects, however sensed danger and abandoned their motorbike as well as the said sack and fled into a nearby bush.

A search conducted on the sack revealed the above-mentioned M16 rifle with an empty magazine. Meanwhile, the motorbike has been impounded and the sack containing the rifle and the empty magazine retained at the station for evidential purposes," Police added.

GNA
Africa's largest airline, Ethiopian Airlines, says it is ready to operate direct flights from Accra, Ghana to Canadian cities Toronto and Montreal if given the 5th Freedom Right by Ghanaian Authorities.

Fifth Freedom Rights refers to the right to carry passengers from ones own country to a second country, and from that country onward to a third country. In Ghana, some international airlines based in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East exercise such freedoms, as granted by the aviation sector regulator--Ghana Civil Aviation Authority-- and can operate flights to a third country within the sub-region after landing in Accra.

"Yes, we are interested in a 5th Freedom Right [from Ghana to Canada]," Ethiopian Airlines' Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Lemma Yadecha Gudeta, confirmed to AviationGhana.

Canada is the top destination for Ghanaian travellers, AviationGhana's analysis of visa applications via VFS for 2022 has shown. According to the visa intermediary, Canadian visa applications in other West African countries have also remained elevated. However, there is no direct flight between the West Africa and Canada.

Interacting with the media during a working visit to Ghana's capital Accra, on Thursday, September 28, 2023, Mr. Lemma Yadecha Gudeta, said Ethiopian Airlines stands ready to operate direct flights from Accra, Ghana to Canadian cities if the requisite approvals are given by Ghanaian Authorities.

"We fly to Canada's capital Toronto five times a week. Now the demand from the eastern part of Africa and its surroundings is very high and we are not able to satisfy that demand. I was in Montreal in February to negotiate with stakeholders over there to get number one: more flights to Toronto at least, a daily flight to Toronto, and the four flights to Montreal.

If you are going to have more frequency, what I suggested to the authorities over there was also to operate via West Africa. The only thing that I didn't mention was which country in West Africa. That is not in our hands because we have to talk to authorities, and we have to get authorization, but we are very keen to operate to Canada via West Africa," Mr. Gudeta said

He added that: "I met so many West African community leaders and ambassadors over there. Many of them are very keen to have a direct flight between Canada and West Africa. Therefore, permissions are the only things that we are waiting for, and we see positive engagements over there [Canada]. Hopefully, we are going to get more slots to fly to Canada. So, for sure, we will connect the Western part of Africa to Canada."
Ngmongmowuyaa Kwesi Animle VI, Paramount Chief of Osudoku Traditional Area, has appealed to the Government to repair roads in the area to facilitate development.

He said good roads were crucial to economic growth, attracted investors and tourists, lamenting that the poor roads in Osudoku have crippled tourism and economic activities.

It is pathetic to mention that there is not a single tarred road in the whole Osudoku Traditional Area, even though our major feeder roads link the Eastern, Volta and parts of the Greater Accra Region, the Paramount Chief said.

He said this at the grand durbar of the 2023 Osudoku Aadegbor Djehayemi (festival) held in Osuwem over the weekend on the theme: Tourism as a Tool for Socioeconomic Development of Osudoku.

He said he was aware of the frantic efforts being made for the Implementation of the portion of the eastern corridor road which passes through the traditional Area with the construction of a bridge across the Volta River at Volivo to link the Greater Accra and Volta Region.

Ngmongmowuyaa Kwesi Animle VI, who is also the President, Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, called for expedited actions on this very important Project.

He appealed to the office of the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) to liaise with Government and lead the discussions on the construction of their roads.

We submitted a petition to the President for the creation of autonomous district and constituency for Osudoku. We would be grateful if you could help us to pursue this noble cause, he added.

Mr George Nkrumah Ansere, Tema Regional Director, GTA, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, called for immediate rehabilitation of the roads to make them motorable, adding that, we are not asking immediately for asphalt, at least it should be compacted so that it can be accessible.

He said GTA would continue to give technical support on tourism issues, including how to enrich the Aadegbor festival.

The Yongua mountain here has very smooth plains and anyone who takes on a parachute will be able to land safely. It will also not be difficult to level the grounds for safety. Mr Nkrumah Ansere said.

GNA
03.10.2023 LISTEN

The Minority in Parliament has pledged to return to the streets in the near future to march to demand the resignation of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Yedu Kwamina Addison, and his two petitions following their absence on Tuesday, October 3.

The Minority had demanded to present its petition to Dr Addison or at least one of his two deputies after a procession from Obra Spot near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange.

But the Governor delegated Wing Commander (rtd) Kwame Asare Boateng, the Head of Security at the Bank of Ghana, to receive the petition on his behalf.

Dr Addison and his two deputies  Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari and Elsie Addo Awadzi  were said to be in a meeting with officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

We were informed that you were coming to present a petition to the Governor but the three governors are currently meeting the IMF and there is nobody there, WC (rtd) Asare Boateng told leaders of the protest.

So, the Governor has asked that I meet you and take the petition.

This did not go down well with the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, who felt disrespected by the gesture.

First, let me say that I feel very disrespected as the leader of the opposition in Parliament for a simple reason that we demanded to present a petition to the Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Ghana otherwise known as the Bank of Ghana

The Governor has two deputies namely Deputy 1 and Deputy 2.

Unfortunately, he has decided to disrespect us and the two deputies have also decided to disrespect us.

So he later served notice they would come back and would not relent in demanding the resignation of the three.

We will come back again, he said.

He later added: Until we see him, we are not stopping. This is just the beginning.

-3news.com
The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has stressed that the Minority will not back down but continue to demand for the resignation of the Governor of Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison.

The MP was at the forefront on Tuesday, October 3, when the Minority with the backing of over a thousand Ghanaians stormed the streets of Accra for the #OccupyBoG protest.

Speaking to Citi News this evening at the end of the protest, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa accused government officials of insane looting.

He said as a result of the stealing by government officials, Ghana is no longer a democratic country but a lootocracy.

Our country is no longer a democracy. What we are seeing now is lootocracy. Just total reckless looting. That is what is going on, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa lamented.

According to the North Tongu MP, it is disrespectful for Dr. Ernest Addison not to meet the Minority to accept their petition after their protest today.

We are not saying that we disrespect other workers at the Bank of Ghana. We have always said that the Governor is our target. So we were totally appalled, we felt disrespected when it was not the Governor or any of his Deputies who showed up to receive our petition, he said.

Samuel Okudzeto further reiterated that the Minority will hit the streets again to protest until the BoG Governor personally meets the group to receive their petition.

The Minority insists that Governor Dr. Ernest Addison has failed in his role and must resign.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) faces an uphill task of retaining power in the 2024 general elections due to unfulfilled promises and low morale in the party, according to Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, an aspiring flagbearer of the governing party.

In a meeting with party delegates in the Ashanti Region, the former Agriculture Minister expressed concern over the state of affairs within the party and warned of a difficult situation for the NPP if issues on the ground are not addressed.

"It is clear to me that morale is very low. The expectation of our activists around the country for a better life has not been realised so the NPP is not in a good place to contest to retain power next year," Dr. Akoto said.

He noted that promises made to activists and grassroots members failed to materialize, dampening their spirits ahead of the crucial polls.

As a former Member of Parliament for Kwadaso in the Kumasi metropolis, Dr. Akoto said he understands the frustrations expressed by party foot soldiers due to unfulfilled pledges.

"I have a very clear understanding of the problems on the ground because I have been a Member of Parliament in Kwadaso here in Kumasi so I understand the concerns expressed by activists on the ground, he told delegates.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. Armenians helped to prepare an anti-Azerbaijani report, Gassia Apkarian, a judge of the Superior Court of Orange County in California, said, Trend reports.

The mentioned report is a notorious document critical of Azerbaijan, authored by Luis Ocampo, the former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Apkarian revealed that Armenian lawyers in both Yerevan and Karabakh have been actively collecting what they refer to as "evidence" regarding the alleged "genocide" in Karabakh, which they claim was committed by Azerbaijan.

Furthermore, she noted that predominantly Armenian Americans in the US have been involved in the development of this particular document.

Apkarian noted that Ocampo was later invited to join, and they worked on the document together.

And what impartiality can be discussed regarding this report when the majority of those who worked on it have direct connections with Armenia in one way or another? Moreover, it has already been proven that Ocampo, while in his position and even after his dismissal, was involved in illegal financial activities. It is impossible to claim that he did not receive any compensation from Armenians for his "work".

At the same time, Azerbaijan also hired a lawyer to conduct a genuine investigation into the facts described in Ocampo's document. Rodney Dixon, an experienced international law attorney, was chosen for this role, and he refuted the subjective opinions expressed by Ocampo. Dixon concluded that the assertion that there is currently a so-called "genocide" of the Armenian population in Karabakh is not supported by any evidence, and the international community should not take this document and its alleged conclusions seriously.
03.10.2023 LISTEN

Highly agitated family members, relatives, and friends of the late Princess Afia Ahenkan, the 35-year-old lady who was murdered by her houseboy at Sokoban near Kumasi, on Tuesday hurled curses on the suspected killer when he appeared before the Asokore-Mampong District court.

They besieged the Police vehicle transporting the suspect, John Allister, out of the court premises and demanded that the Police release him for them to carry out instance justice on him.

After the unsuccessful attempt to get hold and lynch him, they hurled curses at him as the Police van drove him away from the court premises to continue to be on remand.

The court presided over by Mr Buabeng Quansah, adjourned the case to October 17,2023,3 to enable the Police to continue with their investigations.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Mr Stephen Ofori, prosecuting told the court that, a pathology report revealed that Princes Ahenkan, also known as Stella Osei, died un-naturally because of multiple stabbing and other death-related attacks.

The Police, therefore, needed enough time to continue its investigations.

Allister, 22, allegedly attacked and stabbed his employer several times to death, just 11 days into the employment.

Meanwhile, the Police have charged John Allister with a fresh case of stealing.

He was accused of stealing over Gh167,000.00 from his previous employer, a hotel manager at Bantama in Kumasi.

He appeared before the Asokwa District Court on Monday October 02, 2023.

He was alleged to have bolted with the hotel Manager's phone and withdrawn the cash from her bank account, using the mobile banking app on the phone.

GNA
03.10.2023 LISTEN

The mastermind in the Cecilia Abena Dapaah, former Sanitation and Water Resource Minister, stealing case, has been refused bail by an Accra Circuit Court.

The court held that Patience Botwe, the 18-year-old former house help of the ex-Minister jumped bail at Juvenile Court C, Accra, after the court had granted bail.

This court is not inclined to grant bail to first accused person (Patience Botwe) because proceeding of the Juvenile Court C showed that she flouted the court bail and a bench warrant was issued for her arrest.

Even when the case was struck out in March this year, the accused person was not arrested despite the bench warrant. Bail application for first accused person is refused, the court presided over by Mrs Afia Owusua Appiah held.

The court ruling emerged after the lawyer for the accused person, Nana Addo Asrifi, prayed it to admit Patience to bail and that at the Juvenile Court Patience was granted bail.

This compelled the Circuit Court to direct its Registrar to secure proceedings at the Juvenile Court to verify his claims in relation to his client's bail.

The court has further directed Prosecution to complete their investigations so that the pleas of the accused persons could be taken at the next adjourned date.

It also directed the Police to investigate the properties of the sureties presented by the accused persons to facilitate the execution of their bail.

Led by Akosua Agyepomaa, Assistant State Attorney (ASA), the Prosecution told the court they had received voluminous documents from the Police and that they would want to peruse them before taking any action.

According to the ASA, the Police were asked to investigate certain aspects of the case and they have complied and produced the said voluminous documents.

She said in addition, the Attorney General was working on the case docket.

Some lawyers were not enthused with the delay caused by the prosecution by always seeking adjournment.

Mr J. K. Ntoni, who represented two of the accused persons, said the freedom of the accused persons was at stake and quizzed prosecution why they kept seeking adjournment at the detriment of the accused persons.

Earlier, defence counsels expressed the frustration their clients were going through in executing their bail.

Mr Raymond Felli, who was led by Mr Yaw Dankwah, said they had been frequenting the Police station in their bid to execute the bail, adding, they have been asking us to go and come back.

Sarah Agyei and Christiana Achab, both nursing mothers and Job Pomary and Malik Dauda are on bail.

Patience Botwe, Benjamin Sowa, Yahaya Sumaila have not been admitted to bail.

Franklin Sarakpo is said to be at large.

All the accused persons are facing eleven charges for allegedly stealing money and items from the residence of the former Minister.

The charges include six counts of stealing and five counts of dishonesty receiving.

Earlier, the prosecution, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Emmanuel Nyamekye, said that the fact and charge sheets had been amended.

Meanwhile, the court has discharged Kwaku Botwe, father of Patience Botwe, alias, Maabena.

The prosecution said one other accused, Franklin Sarakpo, was at large.

It stated that the complainants in the case were Mr Daniel Osei Kufour and his wife, Mrs Cecilia Abena Dapaah, who lived in Abelemkpe, Accra.

The prosecution said the first accused, Patience Botwe, was a house helper for the complainants, while the second accused, Sarah Agyei, was unemployed and a former house helper of the couple.

The third accused, Benjamin Sowah, was Patience Botwe's lover, the fourth accused, Malik Dauda, was the first accused's former boyfriend, and the fifth accused is Christiana Achab, a trader.

The court heard that the sixth accused is Job Pomary, husband of fifth accused.

Yahaya Sumaila, the seventh accused, is an excavator operator who lives in Sagnarigu, Tamale Metropolis, and Franklin Sarakpo, the eighth accused, is the son of the fifth accused, who is on the run.

The prosecution said the Police commenced investigations when in June 2023, the complainants reported theft of their cash and personal effects.

It said police investigations led to the arrest of the first and third accused persons at their hideouts in Tamale in the Northern Region.

The prosecution said during a search of the rooms of the accused, $40,000 and GHC7,619.70 were discovered.

The prosecution said further investigation indicated that when Mr Kufour returned from town in October last year, he noticed their bedroom had been opened and heard an unusual noise in the house.

The prosecutor said when Mr Kufuor entered the room, he saw the first accused hiding behind the storeroom door with duplicate keys to the master bedroom.

The court heard that the complainants detected theft of money and personal belongings from the room.

The prosecution said the first accused told the Police during interrogation that she gave $70,000 of the stolen money to the fifth accused to buy a three-bedroom property at Amrahia for her, as well as several brand-new items that were retrieved from the house.

The matter has been adjourned to October 18, 2023.

GNA
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has eulogised the late Enoch Teye Mensah, a former Minister of State and Council of State Member, saying he was a good source of advice for him.

I have lost a good friend, the President mourned, in a statement issued on Tuesday, October 03.

The death of a friend of long standing brings up so many emotions  grief, sense of loss, sadness, reflections on friendship, reminiscences on a generation, the stark reality of mortality, the prospects of eternity, the presence of the Living God.

ET Mensah, as he was affectionately called, was reported dead on the evening of Sunday, October 1, while receiving treatment in South Africa.

He was 77.

In the course of his political career, he served as the Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), and the Minority Chief Whip in Parliament prior to Ghana's General Election in 2008.

In January 2009, he became the Majority Chief Whip in Parliament.

Even though we were on different sides in the House, he became a very good friend right till the very end, President Nana Akufo-Addo noted.

The tribute described the late ET Mensah as a warm, generous, gregarious man with a keen intellect and wonderful sense of humour.

In his element, you could find no better company, and was a good source of advice for me as President of the Republic.

The late ET Mensah, one of the longest-serving Ministers of Sports, served the people of Ningo-Prampram as MP for five consecutive terms.

My wife, Rebecca, the First Lady, and I extend our deepest condolences to his widow, his children, the National Democratic Congress, the Chiefs and people of Ningo Prampram, the Council of State and the people of Ghana on this sad loss.

May the Good Lord bless his soul, and give him a peaceful place of abode. Amen!! the President prayed.

GNA
Founder and leader of the Movement for Change, Hon. Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen has called on Ghanaians to choose a President based on his vision and integrity and not on the basis of party partisanship.

He said the basis of the Movement is to mobilize the over 6.6 million floating voters who identify with his vision to transform Ghana.

He said it is time for Ghana to go beyond NPP and NDC hence his Great Transformational Plan (GTP).

According to him, the Movement for Change intends to form a union government and engage representatives of Political parties, religious bodies, and professionals to push the transformational agenda for Ghana for the benefit of the youth in general.

The Independent Presidential aspirant said 60% of all ministerial appointments in his government would be drawn from the youth bracket and that there would also be a gender balance to balance the equation in his appointments

We are in a period of transformation, he said adding that Ghana is about to experience the next major change after Ghanas political independence in 1957

The former Trade and Industry Minister said the proposed GTP hinges on 15 themes whose pillars include a stable economy, Industrialization, agriculture, energy, Health and Education to change Ghana.

Mr. Kyerematen pointed to industrialization as the basis of his approach to job creation to match with advanced countries like America, China, Japan, Germany, France, South Korea and India that focused on industrialization to move their countries forward.

He, however, noted that the economy must at all times be strong to support industrialization and agriculture hence the need to promote industrialization through adequate funding.

The Movement for Change founder cited the One District, One Factory (1D1F) policy as the greatest achievement to take Ghana to places.

According to him, the Ashanti region benefited from 55 projects under the 1D1F programme with 26 being operational and 13 under construction.

He promised to make the Ashanti region, currently the commercial hub of Ghana, the manufacturing hub for Africa to grow the economy.

Talking to Kwame Tanko on Angel Morning drive in Kumasi yesterday, the former NPP Presidential aspirant said Ghana needs a transformational leader and not a new political party.
Ms. Nancy Abedi, a dialysis nurse at the International Maritime Hospital (IMaH), has urged the government to consider building at least one dialysis facility in each region to provide the necessary care for local patients.

Ms. Abedi emphasised the need for subsidies to make treatment affordable for the diseases most disadvantaged patients as well as a call to health institutions to partner the government to establish facilities across Ghana.

Ms. Abedi made the appeal at the weekly Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility! A Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office initiative aimed at promoting communication on health-related topics and setting the medium for the propagation of health information to influence personal health choices by improving health literacy.

Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility! is a public health advocacy platform initiated by the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office to explore the parameters of the four approaches to health communication: informative, educating, persuasive, and prompting.

She stated that most regions lacked dialysis facilities to accommodate patients, forcing some of them to travel great distances to receive care. She also spoke about the number of dialysis machines available for the management of the diseases.

According to Ms. Abedi, the Eastern Region and other regions do not have any centres at all, while the Volta Region only recently received one.

She added that there were currently five privately operated centres in the Tema area and the cost of dialysis is high due to the operation of the electricity-powered machine and water treatment facilities.

Currently, a patient needs at least three dialysis treatments per week to wash out the toxins and additional water from their system because their kidneys are unable to do so on their own, according to the expert, and each session costs between GHs500.00 and GHC600.00.

I have patients who were in the middle class, unemployed, with some as young as 23 years old; it has no class preferencethe poor and the rich are all prone to it, Ms. Abedi dispelled the misconception that kidney illness was a condition for the wealthy.

GNA
Policies are principles that inform or determine the actions of governments. Policies guide states in their decisions and interventions. They embody the interests and positions of countries on issues. Until recently, western policy on religion in Nigeria has been chrislamic, which means it has focused on Christianity and Islam only. It has catered for the interests of Christians and Muslims. Like the Nigerian government, western governments try to appease members of the Abrahamic religions. They do not want to be seen to be biased for or against Christianity or Islam. That is why whenever Western politicians and diplomats visit the country, they only meet with religious leaders and members of the Christian and Islamic faith communities. They visit the bishops, pastors, and priests; they call on imams, sheikhs, the sultan, and other chrislamic clerics.

Whenever western embassies organize programs, they only invite members of these religions. They make sure that the two faiths are represented. Western governments have largely ignored Nigerians from other faiths, minority religions, and irreligious organizations such as traditional religionists, atheists and humanists. They have conducted their affairs as if adherents of other faiths or none do not exist in Nigeria.

Look, the reason for this Western chrislamic policy is not far-fetched. Christianity and Islam are the dominant religions. The followers are in the majority. Christianity and Islam are the 'powerful religions'. Millions of Nigerians identify with these faiths. All Nigerian politicians profess them. Western governments are interested in faith communities that have the numbers and in religions with significant social capital. But as recent developments have shown this Chrislamic policy focus is defective and mistaken. This policy orientation does more harm than good and needs to change.

And here are the reasons. Nigerians are not as Christian and Islamic as the statistics out there show. Many practice a mix of these religions and beliefs. Many Nigerians identify as Christians and Muslims out of fear and by force. They are socially and politically coerced to profess these faiths. Many Nigerians fear that they could be persecuted, discriminated against, attacked, or killed if they openly and publicly renounce these faiths; if they professed their belief or nonbelief.

More importantly, in a religiously pluralistic society, western foreign policy should be neutral. It should not favor any religious or irreligious belief. However, the chrislamic policy focus discriminates against minority religious and nonreligious groups. It reinforces existing inequities and injustices. The policy turns a blind eye on Islamic tyranny in northern Nigeria and Christian tyranny in southern Nigeria. It is pertinent to note that traditional faith and irreligiosity predate Christianity and Islam in Nigeria. Nigerians professed traditional religions as well as irreligious beliefs before the advent of Christianity and Islam. However, after centuries of promotion and propagation of these faiths, traditional religion, and irreligion have been sidelined, and pushed to the margins. The two Abrahamic faiths have become dominant. They are now in the majority. The two religions owe their spread and dominance to oppression, violence, and persecution of Nigerians from other faith or no faith traditions. Western religious imperialists introduced Christianity. Foreign and local missionaries demonized African traditional religions and deployed structural violence against religious and irreligious others. Whilst Arab and North African religious imperialists introduced Islam. They used violence and force to enthrone their faith and suppress others. Islam sanctions violence against apostates and blasphemers. The religion is opposed to the equality of persons of other faiths and none. Meanwhile, all Nigerians as citizens are equal before the law. A chrislamic foreign policy is not good for Nigeria. It negates tolerant pluralism and reinforces this regime of discrimination and oppression of minority religious and irreligious groups. A shift in policy is necessary to address these ills and defects in interfaith relations and perceptions. Western governments should use their powers to foster inclusivity, tolerance, and peaceful coexistence of persons from faith and no faith traditions in Nigeria.

Leo Igwe is a board member of Humanists International, UK.
iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF (BATS:EFAV  Get Free Report) shares hit a new 52-week low during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $64.28 and last traded at $64.40, with a volume of 647120 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $65.22.

iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF Trading Down 1.2 %

The companys 50-day moving average is $67.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.01 and a beta of 0.60.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of EFAV. Venturi Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF by 157.4% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 471 shares of the companys stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Milestone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF during the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC bought a new stake in shares of iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF during the 1st quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Coastal Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF in the 2nd quarter worth $41,000.

About iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF

The iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF (EFAV) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI EAFE Minimum Volatility (USD) index. The fund tracks an index of developed-market equities, ex-US and Canada, selected and weighted to create a low volatility portfolio subject to constraints including sector exposure.

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American Express (NYSE:AXP) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, September 26th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 6th will be given a dividend of 0.60 per share by the payment services company on Friday, November 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 5th.

American Express has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.5% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 2 years. American Express has a dividend payout ratio of 19.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect American Express to earn $12.50 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 19.2%.

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American Express Stock Up 0.2 %

AXP stock opened at $149.44 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.59 and a quick ratio of 1.59. American Express has a 12 month low of $130.65 and a 12 month high of $182.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $110.06 billion, a PE ratio of 15.20, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.19. The companys 50 day simple moving average is $160.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $162.39.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On American Express

American Express ( NYSE:AXP Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 21st. The payment services company reported $2.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.08. American Express had a return on equity of 29.26% and a net margin of 12.99%. The company had revenue of $15.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.41 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.57 earnings per share. American Expresss revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that American Express will post 11.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AXP. Tyler Stone Wealth Management acquired a new stake in American Express in the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Castleview Partners LLC purchased a new stake in American Express during the 1st quarter worth $63,000. Almanack Investment Partners LLC. acquired a new position in American Express in the 3rd quarter worth $53,000. Financial Freedom LLC acquired a new position in American Express in the 4th quarter worth $65,000. Finally, Pacific Center for Financial Services purchased a new position in American Express in the 1st quarter valued at about $74,000. 83.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. 51job reissued a reiterates rating on shares of American Express in a research report on Friday, June 30th. 3M reiterated a reiterates rating on shares of American Express in a research note on Friday, June 30th. 58.com reiterated a reiterates rating on shares of American Express in a research report on Friday, June 30th. Morgan Stanley restated an overweight rating and issued a $188.00 price target on shares of American Express in a report on Monday, July 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of American Express from $149.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research report on Friday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $174.06.

View Our Latest Analysis on AXP

About American Express

(Get Free Report)

American Express Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides charge and credit payment card products, and travel-related services worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Global Consumer Services Group, Global Commercial Services, and Global Merchant and Network Services. Its products and services include payment and financing products; network services; accounts payable expense management products and services; and travel and lifestyle services.

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Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM  Get Free Report) saw a large drop in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,760,000 shares, a drop of 10.5% from the August 31st total of 5,320,000 shares. Approximately 0.9% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,770,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.7 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Archer-Daniels-Midland news, insider Fruit Molly L. Strader sold 1,455 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.80, for a total transaction of $126,294.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 10,809 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $938,221.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Archer-Daniels-Midland

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. PCA Investment Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland in the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland in the first quarter worth $26,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its position in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 41.9% in the second quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 491 shares of the companys stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 88.1% in the first quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 476 shares of the companys stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 223 shares during the period. Finally, MRP Capital Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland in the first quarter worth $40,000. 77.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Stock Performance

ADM traded down $0.39 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $73.81. The companys stock had a trading volume of 1,837,242 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,971,467. Archer-Daniels-Midland has a fifty-two week low of $69.92 and a fifty-two week high of $98.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.57 billion, a PE ratio of 9.91, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $81.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $78.22.

Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The company reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.30. Archer-Daniels-Midland had a return on equity of 17.52% and a net margin of 4.14%. The company had revenue of $25.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $25.82 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.15 EPS. The firms revenue for the quarter was down 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Archer-Daniels-Midland will post 7.19 EPS for the current year.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 16th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 15th. Archer-Daniels-Midlands dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.03%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ADM. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, July 31st. Roth Mkm began coverage on Archer-Daniels-Midland in a report on Thursday, June 22nd. They issued a buy rating and a $92.00 price target on the stock. Argus raised their price target on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $91.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, August 1st. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on Archer-Daniels-Midland in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Archer-Daniels-Midland presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $97.50.

Read Our Latest Analysis on Archer-Daniels-Midland

Archer-Daniels-Midland Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Archer-Daniels-Midland Company procures, transports, stores, processes, and merchandises agricultural commodities, products, and ingredients in the United States, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Ag Services and Oilseeds, Carbohydrate Solutions, and Nutrition.

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Aryzta Ag (OTCMKTS:ARZTY  Get Free Report)s stock price rose 3.5% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $0.88 and last traded at $0.88. Approximately 675 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 5,360 shares. The stock had previously closed at $0.85.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage on Aryzta in a research note on Monday, June 26th. They set a buy rating for the company.

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Aryzta Stock Up 3.5 %

Aryzta Company Profile

The business has a 50 day moving average price of $0.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $0.81.

(Get Free Report)

ARYZTA AG provides frozen B2B baking solutions in Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. It offers pastries, cookies, donuts, muffins, buns, bread rolls and artisan loaves, sweet baked and morning goods, and savory and other products. The company also provides asset management services; and distributes food products.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. Azerbaijan has committed no ethnic cleansing in Karabakh, Chairman of the Political Commission of the European Union (EU) Senate, Senator Giulio Terzi wrote on X (Twitter), Trend reports.

The report of the mission of UN observers and experts does not contain any evidence, testimony or simply recording signs of damage to the environment, livestock facilities, housing and infrastructure, and there is no evidence, testimony or recording even the usual signs of violence in connection with ethnic cleansing which some parties accuse or suspect Baku of in recent weeks," Terzi said.

In order to ensure the provisions of the Trilateral Statement [signed by Azerbaijani, Armenian, and Russian leaders following the 2020 second Karabakh war], suppression of large-scale provocations in Azerbaijan's Karabakh economic region, disarmament, and withdrawal of Armenian armed forces formations from the territories of Azerbaijan, localized anti-terrorist activities were carried out in the region.

Taking into account the appeal of the representatives of the Armenian population of Karabakh through the Russian peacekeeping contingent [temporarily stationed in Azerbaijan under the trilateral statement], an agreement was reached on September 20, 2023, at 13:00 (GMT+4) to cease anti-terrorist activities of a local nature under the following conditions: the formations of the armed forces of Armenia, Armenian illegal armed formations located in Azerbaijan's Karabakh region, lay down their weapons, leave their combat positions and military posts, and completely disarm; the formations of the armed forces of Armenia leave the territory of Azerbaijan; Armenian illegal armed groups are dissolved.
Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Limited (LON:BOCH  Get Free Report) traded down 1.9% on Monday . The stock traded as low as GBX 254 ($3.07) and last traded at GBX 254 ($3.07). 4,600 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 97% from the average session volume of 156,977 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 259 ($3.13).

Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Price Performance

The company has a 50-day simple moving average of GBX 256.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of GBX 243.05. The stock has a market capitalization of 1.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 725.71 and a beta of 0.69.

About Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public

(Get Free Report)

Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Limited Company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of banking, financial, and insurance services. It offers current, demand, savings, time, notice, instant access, and fixed deposits; housing, student, vehicle, mortgage, consumer, business and business premises, term, and home or investment loans; and asset finance, factoring, trade facilities, European financial, project finance, shipping finance, and syndicated and corporate lending services, as well as hire purchase services for car and equipment.

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Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG  Get Free Report) CEO Brian R. Niccol sold 1,044 shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,830.95, for a total transaction of $1,911,511.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 23,347 shares in the company, valued at $42,747,189.65. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Stock Down 1.6 %

Chipotle Mexican Grill stock traded down $29.94 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $1,837.19. The stock had a trading volume of 196,041 shares, compared to its average volume of 280,584. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $1,344.05 and a fifty-two week high of $2,175.01. The company has a market cap of $50.69 billion, a PE ratio of 46.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a 50-day moving average of $1,903.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1,938.33.

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Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The restaurant operator reported $12.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $12.25 by $0.40. Chipotle Mexican Grill had a return on equity of 45.85% and a net margin of 12.00%. The firm had revenue of $2.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $2.53 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $9.30 earnings per share. Chipotle Mexican Grills quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. will post 43.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CMG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Chipotle Mexican Grill from $2,400.00 to $2,200.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 27th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from $2,100.00 to $2,300.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 20th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a hold rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from $1,950.00 to $1,925.00 in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and set a $2,200.00 price objective on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill in a report on Friday, September 8th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $2,153.78.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on Chipotle Mexican Grill

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CMG. Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill by 22.7% in the 1st quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 27 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 5 shares during the period. Citizens & Northern Corp raised its stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill by 0.4% during the first quarter. Citizens & Northern Corp now owns 1,379 shares of the restaurant operators stock worth $2,356,000 after acquiring an additional 5 shares in the last quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill by 4.1% during the second quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 128 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $274,000 after acquiring an additional 5 shares during the period. ETF Managers Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. ETF Managers Group LLC now owns 455 shares of the restaurant operators stock valued at $777,000 after purchasing an additional 6 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SkyOak Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. SkyOak Wealth LLC now owns 156 shares of the restaurant operators stock worth $334,000 after purchasing an additional 6 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.19% of the companys stock.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants. It offers burritos, burrito bowls, quesadillas, tacos, and salads. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Newport Beach, California.

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Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited (OTCMKTS:CJEWY  Get Free Report)s share price was up 0.1% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $15.09 and last traded at $14.86. Approximately 3,882 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 192% from the average daily volume of 1,329 shares. The stock had previously closed at $14.84.

Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Stock Up 0.1 %

The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.53.

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Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 13th were given a dividend of $0.9189 per share. This is a boost from Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Groups previous dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 12th.

About Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group

Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited, an investment holding company, manufactures and sells jewelry products in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Cambodia, Canada, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam. The company offers gem-set, platinum and k-gold jewelry, and gold jewelry and products under the CHOW TAI FOOK, HEARTS ON FIRE, ENZO, MONOLOGUE, and SOINLOVE brands.

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Churchill Capital Corp V (NYSE:CCV  Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 28,000 shares, a growth of 6.5% from the August 31st total of 26,300 shares. Currently, 0.2% of the companys shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 51,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.5 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Churchill Capital Corp V

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CCV. Dryden Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Churchill Capital Corp V during the first quarter valued at approximately $98,000. Trexquant Investment LP purchased a new position in shares of Churchill Capital Corp V in the third quarter worth $123,000. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in Churchill Capital Corp V during the 2nd quarter valued at $170,000. Tuttle Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Churchill Capital Corp V by 31.6% during the 1st quarter. Tuttle Capital Management LLC now owns 24,423 shares of the companys stock valued at $188,000 after buying an additional 5,870 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC bought a new stake in Churchill Capital Corp V in the 2nd quarter worth $305,000. 52.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Churchill Capital Corp V Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CCV remained flat at $10.39 during midday trading on Tuesday. The stock had a trading volume of 38,215 shares, compared to its average volume of 172,648. Churchill Capital Corp V has a 12 month low of $9.90 and a 12 month high of $11.00. The companys 50 day simple moving average is $10.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $10.20.

Churchill Capital Corp V Company Profile

Churchill Capital Corp V does not have significant operations. The company intends to effect a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses. The company was formerly known as One Judith Acquisition Corp.

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Shares of Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:VTMX  Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $31.23 and last traded at $31.25, with a volume of 84444 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $32.21.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VTMX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays initiated coverage on Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. They set an overweight rating and a $42.00 price target for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta in a research note on Monday, August 28th. They set a neutral rating and a $36.00 price target for the company.

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Check Out Our Latest Research Report on VTMX

Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta Stock Performance

The firm has a 50 day moving average of $35.59. The firm has a market cap of $25.55 billion and a PE ratio of 7.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.25.

Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta (NYSE:VTMX  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 20th. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter. Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta had a return on equity of 17.81% and a net margin of 149.56%. The firm had revenue of $51.92 million for the quarter. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta, S.A.B. de C.V. will post 3 earnings per share for the current year.

Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a  dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 1st were paid a $0.1703 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 13th. This represents a dividend yield of 0.5%. Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vestas payout ratio is presently 3.44%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of VTMX. Centersquare Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta in the second quarter valued at approximately $6,444,000. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new position in Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta in the second quarter valued at approximately $4,833,000. Finally, Cohen & Steers Inc. purchased a new position in Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,123,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 7.10% of the companys stock.

Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Corporacion Inmobiliaria Vesta, SAB. de C.V., together with its subsidiaries, acquires, develops, manages, operates, and leases industrial buildings and distribution centers in Mexico. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico.

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CTT  Correios De Portugal, S.A. (OTCMKTS:CTTPY  Get Free Report) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $7.28 and last traded at $7.28, with a volume of 0 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $7.28.

CTT  Correios De Portugal Price Performance

The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $7.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $7.41.

About CTT  Correios De Portugal

(Get Free Report)

CTT  Correios De Portugal, SA, together with its subsidiaries, provides postal and financial services worldwide. It operates through Mail, Express & Parcels, Financial Services & Retail, and Bank segments. The company offers courier and urgent mail transport services; postal financial services; and banking services.

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European Assets Trust PLC (LON:EAT  Get Free Report) declared a dividend on Wednesday, September 27th, Upcoming.Co.Uk reports. Investors of record on Thursday, October 5th will be paid a dividend of GBX 1.45 ($0.02) per share on Tuesday, October 31st. This represents a dividend yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 5th. The official announcement can be seen at this link.

European Assets Trust Stock Down 1.6 %

European Assets Trust stock opened at GBX 82.40 ($1.00) on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of 296.70 million, a PE ratio of 930.00 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.83, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.35. The stocks fifty day moving average is GBX 87.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is GBX 89.52. European Assets Trust has a 1-year low of GBX 74.60 ($0.90) and a 1-year high of GBX 98 ($1.18).

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About European Assets Trust

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European Assets Trust PLC is a closed-ended equity mutual fund launched and managed by F&C Investment Business Limited. The fund invests in the public equity markets of Europe, excluding the United Kingdom. It seeks to invest in stocks of companies operating across diversified sectors. The fund primarily invests in stocks of small and mid cap companies with a market capitalization below that of the largest company in the Euromoney Smaller European Companies (ex UK) Index or below Euro 2.5 billion.

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Federal Agricultural Mortgage Co. (NYSE:AGM  Get Free Report) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 93,000 shares, a decline of 8.0% from the August 31st total of 101,100 shares. Currently, 1.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 51,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.8 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Federal Agricultural Mortgage news, CEO Bradford T. Nordholm sold 7,500 shares of Federal Agricultural Mortgage stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.71, for a total value of $1,340,325.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 43,910 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $7,847,156.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Stephen P. Mullery sold 1,655 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Friday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.24, for a total transaction of $294,987.20. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 21,756 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,877,789.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Bradford T. Nordholm sold 7,500 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Friday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.71, for a total value of $1,340,325.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 43,910 shares of the companys stock, valued at $7,847,156.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,340 shares of company stock valued at $1,666,807 in the last quarter. 2.21% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Boston Partners increased its holdings in shares of Federal Agricultural Mortgage by 2.2% in the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 494,771 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $72,670,000 after purchasing an additional 10,698 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Federal Agricultural Mortgage by 1.4% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 333,394 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $47,921,000 after purchasing an additional 4,534 shares during the period. Copeland Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Federal Agricultural Mortgage by 0.6% in the second quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 325,289 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $46,757,000 after purchasing an additional 2,042 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Federal Agricultural Mortgage by 9.7% during the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 254,993 shares of the credit services providers stock worth $36,653,000 after acquiring an additional 22,562 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Federal Agricultural Mortgage by 3.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 183,324 shares of the credit services providers stock worth $26,351,000 after acquiring an additional 5,442 shares during the period. 66.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods assumed coverage on Federal Agricultural Mortgage in a research note on Tuesday, September 5th. They set an outperform rating for the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Federal Agricultural Mortgage in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They set a hold rating for the company.

View Our Latest Research Report on Federal Agricultural Mortgage

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Stock Down 1.2 %

Federal Agricultural Mortgage stock traded down $1.81 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $149.61. The companys stock had a trading volume of 29,363 shares, compared to its average volume of 61,153. The stocks 50-day simple moving average is $165.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $147.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 0.47 and a quick ratio of 0.47. Federal Agricultural Mortgage has a 52-week low of $100.01 and a 52-week high of $180.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.66 and a beta of 1.07.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage (NYSE:AGM  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 7th. The credit services provider reported $3.86 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.76. Federal Agricultural Mortgage had a return on equity of 21.97% and a net margin of 15.69%. The company had revenue of $84.55 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $77.32 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Federal Agricultural Mortgage will post 14.93 EPS for the current year.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 15th were issued a $1.10 dividend. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 14th. Federal Agricultural Mortgages dividend payout ratio is presently 31.59%.

About Federal Agricultural Mortgage

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Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation provides a secondary market for various loans made to borrowers in the United States. It operates through Corporate AgFinance, Farm & Ranch, Rural Utilities, and Renewable Energy segments. The company's Agricultural Finance line of business engages in purchasing and retaining eligible loans and securities; guaranteeing the payment of principal and interest on securities that represent interests in or obligations secured by pools of eligible loans; servicing eligible loans; and issuing LTSPCs for eligible loans.

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Golden Star Resources Ltd. (TSE:GSC  Get Free Report) (NYSE:GSS) shares fell 0.8% on Monday . The stock traded as low as C$4.96 and last traded at C$4.96. 124,735 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 263% from the average session volume of 34,347 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$5.00.

Golden Star Resources Stock Down 0.8 %

The stock has a market capitalization of C$574.00 million and a price-to-earnings ratio of -49.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 370.50. The companys 50 day simple moving average is C$4.96.

Golden Star Resources Company Profile

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Golden Star Resources Ltd. operates as a gold mining and exploration company. The company owns and operates the Wassa open-pit gold mine, the Wassa underground mine, and a carbon-in-leach processing plant located to the northeast of the town of Tarkwa, Ghana; and the Bogoso gold mining and processing operation, the Prestea open-pit mining operations, and the Prestea underground mine located near the town of Prestea, Ghana.

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Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc (OTCMKTS:HTKKY  Get Free Report)s share price dropped 2.2% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $53.89 and last traded at $53.89. Approximately 100 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 0% from the average daily volume of 100 shares. The stock had previously closed at $55.10.

Hitachi Kokusai Electric Trading Down 2.2 %

The firms fifty day simple moving average is $53.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.89.

About Hitachi Kokusai Electric

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Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc provides video and wireless network, and eco-and thin film processing solutions in Japan, the United States, Taiwan, Korea, other Asian countries, Europe, and internationally. The company offers wireless communications and information systems, such as infrastructure for mobile telecommunications, disaster-preventive administration radio systems, radio systems for transportation, land mobile radio communication products, and wireless broadband systems.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. Footage of Umudlu village, Tartar district, which came under the control of the Azerbaijani Army after anti-terror measures, has been published, Trend reports.

In order to ensure the provisions of the Trilateral Statement [signed by Azerbaijani, Armenian, and Russian leaders following the 2020 second Karabakh war], suppression of large-scale provocations in Azerbaijan's Karabakh economic region, disarmament, and withdrawal of Armenian armed forces formations from the territories of Azerbaijan, localized anti-terrorist activities were carried out in the region.

Taking into account the appeal of the representatives of the Armenian population of Karabakh through the Russian peacekeeping contingent [temporarily stationed in Azerbaijan under the trilateral statement], an agreement was reached on September 20, 2023, at 13:00 (GMT+4) to cease anti-terrorist activities of a local nature under the following conditions: the formations of the armed forces of Armenia, Armenian illegal armed formations located in Azerbaijan's Karabakh region, lay down their weapons, leave their combat positions and military posts, and completely disarm; the formations of the armed forces of Armenia leave the territory of Azerbaijan; Armenian illegal armed groups are dissolved.

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Invesco High Income Trust II (NYSE:VLT  Get Free Report) announced a monthly dividend on Tuesday, October 3rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 16th will be paid a dividend of 0.0964 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, October 31st. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.94%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 13th.

Invesco High Income Trust II Price Performance

NYSE VLT traded down $0.12 on Tuesday, hitting $9.69. 23,846 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 17,507. The companys 50 day moving average price is $10.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $10.38. Invesco High Income Trust II has a twelve month low of $9.45 and a twelve month high of $11.25.

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Institutional Trading of Invesco High Income Trust II

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Osaic Holdings Inc. grew its position in Invesco High Income Trust II by 7.5% during the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 19,047 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $180,000 after purchasing an additional 1,323 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in Invesco High Income Trust II by 18.6% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 45,203 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $475,000 after purchasing an additional 7,084 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its position in Invesco High Income Trust II by 673.3% during the 1st quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 41,032 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $431,000 after acquiring an additional 35,726 shares during the period. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. boosted its position in Invesco High Income Trust II by 12.8% during the 4th quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 17,713 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $182,000 after acquiring an additional 2,012 shares during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in Invesco High Income Trust II by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 15,409 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $161,000 after acquiring an additional 916 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 16.07% of the companys stock.

About Invesco High Income Trust II

Invesco High Income Trust II is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Invesco Ltd. The fund is co-managed by Invesco Advisers, Inc, INVESCO Asset Management (Japan) Limited, INVESCO Asset Management Deutschland GmbH, INVESCO Asset Management Limited, Invesco Hong Kong Limited, INVESCO Senior Secured Management, Inc, and Invesco Canada Ltd.

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Invesco Municipal Income Opportunities Trust (NYSE:OIA  Get Free Report) announced a monthly dividend on Tuesday, October 3rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 16th will be given a dividend of 0.0265 per share by the investment management company on Tuesday, October 31st. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 13th.

Invesco Municipal Income Opportunities Trust Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE OIA traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $5.80. 153,528 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 81,292. Invesco Municipal Income Opportunities Trust has a twelve month low of $5.40 and a twelve month high of $7.12. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $6.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $6.22.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Invesco Municipal Income Opportunities Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. US Bancorp DE bought a new position in shares of Invesco Municipal Income Opportunities Trust in the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Invesco Municipal Income Opportunities Trust in the 4th quarter worth approximately $63,000. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Invesco Municipal Income Opportunities Trust in the 1st quarter worth approximately $63,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Invesco Municipal Income Opportunities Trust in the 3rd quarter worth $64,000. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Invesco Municipal Income Opportunities Trust during the first quarter worth $79,000. 10.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Invesco Municipal Income Opportunities Trust

Invesco Municipal Income Opportunities Trust is a closed-ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Invesco Ltd. The fund is co-managed by Invesco Advisers, Inc, INVESCO Asset Management Deutschland GmbH, INVESCO Asset Management Limited, INVESCO Asset Management (Japan) Limited, Invesco Hong Kong Limited, INVESCO Senior Secured Management, Inc, and Invesco Canada Ltd.

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iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF (TSE:XIU  Get Free Report) shares fell 1.8% on Monday . The stock traded as low as C$29.10 and last traded at C$29.17. 4,338,945 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 85% from the average session volume of 2,339,492 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$29.70.

iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF Trading Down 1.8 %

The firms fifty day moving average price is C$30.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$30.62.

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iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 28th were issued a dividend of $0.245 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 25th. This represents a $0.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.36%.

About iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF

iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index Fund seeks to provide long-term capital growth by replicating, to the extent possible, the performance of the S&P/TSX 60 Index through investments in the constituent issuers of such index, net of expenses. The Index is comprised of 60 of the largest (by market capitalization) and liquid securities listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), selected by Standard & Poors (S&P) using its industrial classifications and guidelines for evaluating issuer capitalization, liquidity and fundamentals.

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John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II (NYSE:HPF  Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 16,100 shares, a growth of 22.9% from the August 31st total of 13,100 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 37,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.4 days.

Institutional Trading of John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II during the second quarter valued at $787,000. Golden Green Inc. bought a new position in John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II during the 1st quarter valued at about $620,000. Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II in the first quarter valued at about $385,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II by 15.3% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 187,030 shares of the companys stock worth $3,559,000 after buying an additional 24,809 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Guggenheim Capital LLC grew its stake in John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II by 23.2% during the second quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 81,818 shares of the companys stock worth $1,235,000 after buying an additional 15,398 shares during the last quarter.

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John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II Stock Down 0.5 %

HPF traded down $0.07 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $14.40. 123,708 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 40,758. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.07. John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II has a one year low of $13.93 and a one year high of $17.90.

John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II Cuts Dividend

John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II Company Profile

The business also recently announced a monthly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 29th. Investors of record on Monday, September 11th were given a dividend of $0.1235 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 8th. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 10.29%.

(Get Free Report)

John Hancock Preferred Income Fund II is a closed ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by John Hancock Investment Management LLC. It is co-managed by John Hancock Asset Management. The fund invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. It seeks to invest in securities of companies operating across diversified sectors.

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Lennar Co. (NYSE:LEN  Get Free Report) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,290,000 shares, a drop of 6.9% from the August 31st total of 5,680,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,170,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.4 days. Approximately 2.1% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lennar

In related news, Director Amy Banse bought 859 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 17th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $117.65 per share, for a total transaction of $101,061.35. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 8,972 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,055,555.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Lennar news, Director Amy Banse purchased 859 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 17th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $117.65 per share, with a total value of $101,061.35. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 8,972 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,055,555.80. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Jeffrey Joseph Mccall sold 10,000 shares of Lennar stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.48, for a total value of $1,264,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 141,386 shares in the company, valued at $17,882,501.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have purchased 2,469 shares of company stock worth $301,842. 9.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Close Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in Lennar in the 1st quarter worth approximately $37,000. MV Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Lennar by 47.0% in the 1st quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 397 shares of the construction companys stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the period. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in Lennar in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $46,000. West Tower Group LLC bought a new position in Lennar in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $57,000. Finally, FNY Investment Advisers LLC bought a new position in Lennar in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $61,000. 79.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Lennar Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of Lennar stock traded down $2.58 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $108.57. 1,207,619 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,218,677. The stock has a market cap of $31.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.05, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 7.09. Lennar has a twelve month low of $69.90 and a twelve month high of $133.24. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $119.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $115.80.

Lennar (NYSE:LEN  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, September 15th. The construction company reported $3.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.52 by $0.39. Lennar had a return on equity of 16.41% and a net margin of 11.66%. The business had revenue of $8.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $5.18 EPS. The firms revenue was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Lennar will post 13.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lennar Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 12th will be paid a $0.375 dividend. This represents a $1.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 11th. Lennars payout ratio is 11.12%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LEN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Lennar from $161.00 to $164.00 in a research note on Monday, September 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Lennar from $141.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 30th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Lennar from $150.00 to $159.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Monday, September 18th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Lennar from $113.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a research report on Monday, September 18th. Finally, Raymond James upgraded Lennar from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $150.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, July 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $134.25.

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Lennar Company Profile

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Lennar Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a homebuilder primarily under the Lennar brand in the United States. It operates through Homebuilding East, Homebuilding Central, Homebuilding Texas, Homebuilding West, Financial Services, Multifamily, and Lennar Other segments. The company's homebuilding operations include the construction and sale of single-family attached and detached homes, as well as the purchase, development, and sale of residential land; and development, construction, and management of multifamily rental properties.

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Liquor Stores N.A. Ltd. (TSE:LIQ  Get Free Report) shares were up 1.9% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as C$9.28 and last traded at C$9.25. Approximately 106,114 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 10% from the average daily volume of 117,621 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$9.08.

Liquor Stores N.A. Trading Up 1.9 %

The stocks 50 day simple moving average is C$9.25.

About Liquor Stores N.A.

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Liquor Stores N.A. Ltd. engages in the retail of wines, beers, and spirits in Canada and the United States. As of March 14, 2018, the company operated 230 retail liquor stores consisting of 174 stores under Liquor Depot, Liquor Barn, and Wine and Beyond brand names in Alberta; 33 stores under Liquor Depot and Liquor Barn brand names in British Columbia; and 22 stores under Brown Jug brand name in Alaska.

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MFS Government Markets Income Trust (NYSE:MGF  Get Free Report) announced a monthly dividend on Tuesday, October 3rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 18th will be given a dividend of 0.02 per share on Tuesday, October 31st. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.96%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 17th.

MFS Government Markets Income Trust has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 6.7% annually over the last three years.

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MFS Government Markets Income Trust Stock Down 1.0 %

MFS Government Markets Income Trust stock traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $3.01. The company had a trading volume of 59,118 shares, compared to its average volume of 65,946. MFS Government Markets Income Trust has a one year low of $3.00 and a one year high of $3.49. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $3.15 and a 200 day moving average of $3.23.

Institutional Trading of MFS Government Markets Income Trust

MFS Government Markets Income Trust Company Profile

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MGF. LPL Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of MFS Government Markets Income Trust by 0.9% during the first quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 424,987 shares of the companys stock worth $1,402,000 after buying an additional 3,619 shares in the last quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. raised its stake in MFS Government Markets Income Trust by 92.4% in the 4th quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 15,765 shares of the companys stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 7,571 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. bought a new stake in MFS Government Markets Income Trust in the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of MFS Government Markets Income Trust during the 1st quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased its holdings in shares of MFS Government Markets Income Trust by 134.6% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 26,908 shares of the companys stock worth $101,000 after purchasing an additional 15,440 shares during the period. 50.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

(Get Free Report)

MFS Government Markets Income Trust is a close ended fixed income mutual fund launched and managed by Massachusetts Financial Services Company. The fund invests in the fixed income markets of United States. It primarily invests in investment grade debt instruments. The fund also invests in mortgage backed, U.S.

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Mitsubishi Electric Co. (OTCMKTS:MIELF  Get Free Report)s share price dropped 1.5% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $12.06 and last traded at $12.20. Approximately 3,428 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 29% from the average daily volume of 2,664 shares. The stock had previously closed at $12.39.

Mitsubishi Electric Stock Performance

The stock has a 50-day moving average of $12.96 and a 200-day moving average of $13.04. The firm has a market cap of $26.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.70 and a beta of 0.70.

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Mitsubishi Electric (OTCMKTS:MIELF  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 31st. The company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $8.89 billion during the quarter.

About Mitsubishi Electric

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation develops, manufactures, distributes, and sells electrical and electronic equipment worldwide. The company operates through five segments: Infrastructure, Industry Mobility, Life, Business Platform, and Other Businesses. It offers turbine generators, nuclear power plant and power electronics equipment, motors, transformers, circuit breakers, gas insulated switchgears, switch controls, surveillance-system control and security systems, transmission and distribution ICT systems, large display devices, locomotive and rolling stock electrical equipment, wireless and wired communications systems, network camera systems, elevators, escalators, building security and management systems, and others.

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Myomo, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:MYO  Get Free Report) rose 0.9% on Monday . The stock traded as high as $1.15 and last traded at $1.12. Approximately 252,862 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 58% from the average daily volume of 595,079 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1.11.

Myomo Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $23.63 million, a PE ratio of -1.33 and a beta of 0.72.

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Myomo (NYSEAMERICAN:MYO  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 9th. The company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $5.96 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $5.75 million. Myomo had a negative return on equity of 106.09% and a negative net margin of 49.70%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Myomo, Inc. will post -0.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Myomo

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Myomo

In other news, CEO Paul R. Gudonis purchased 48,400 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 30th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $0.74 per share, for a total transaction of $35,816.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 878,245 shares of the companys stock, valued at $649,901.30. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link . In other Myomo news, CEO Paul R. Gudonis bought 42,500 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 28th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $0.75 per share, for a total transaction of $31,875.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 792,845 shares in the company, valued at $594,633.75. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link . Also, CEO Paul R. Gudonis purchased 48,400 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 30th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $0.74 per share, with a total value of $35,816.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 878,245 shares in the company, valued at approximately $649,901.30. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here . Insiders purchased a total of 155,899 shares of company stock valued at $113,590 in the last quarter. Insiders own 3.20% of the companys stock.

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. AIGH Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Myomo during the first quarter valued at $1,200,000. Worth Venture Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Myomo by 355.8% during the 2nd quarter. Worth Venture Partners LLC now owns 1,119,317 shares of the companys stock valued at $464,000 after purchasing an additional 873,737 shares in the last quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC grew its stake in Myomo by 130.0% during the second quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC now owns 115,522 shares of the companys stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 65,293 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC lifted its stake in Myomo by 516.0% in the first quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 108,957 shares of the companys stock valued at $82,000 after buying an additional 91,269 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Myomo by 26.7% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 86,898 shares of the companys stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 18,298 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.41% of the companys stock.

About Myomo

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Myomo, Inc, a wearable medical robotics company, designs, develops, and produces myoelectric orthotics for people with neuromuscular disorders in the United States, Germany, China, and internationally. The company offers MyoPro, a myoelectric-controlled upper limb brace or orthosis product used for supporting a patient's weak or paralyzed arm to enable and improve functional activities of daily living.

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Ntt Docomo, Inc. (OTCMKTS:DCMYY  Get Free Report) shares rose 0% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $36.17 and last traded at $36.13. Approximately 3,300 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 89% from the average daily volume of 29,309 shares. The stock had previously closed at $36.12.

Ntt Docomo Stock Up 0.0 %

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $36.13.

About Ntt Docomo

(Get Free Report)

NTT DOCOMO, INC., a telecommunications company, provides various mobile services in Japan and internationally. It operates through three segments: Telecommunications Business, Smart Life Business, and Other Businesses. The company offers iPhone, iPad, smartphone, tablet, and feature phone products and services under the docomo name, as well as d POINT CLUB, a point program.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov met with ICESCO Director General Salim bin Mohammed Almalik on October 3, 2023, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan said, Trend reports.

Issues of cooperation between Azerbaijan and ICESCO, as well as the current situation in the region, were discussed at the meeting.

Bayramov, noting that since the first years of the restoration of independence, Azerbaijan has been closely cooperating with ICESCO in the field of intercultural dialogue, combating such phenomena as racial discrimination and Islamophobia in particular, expressed confidence that the opening of the ICESCO regional center in Azerbaijan in the near future will contribute to the further development of relations.

In addition, the minister noted with satisfaction that the city of Shusha, the cradle of the culture of Azerbaijan, known worldwide for its model of multiculturalism and tolerance, was chosen by ICESCO as the "Cultural Capital of the Islamic World" for 2024.

Having been informed in detail about the current situation in the region in the post-conflict period, peacekeeping, and efforts of Azerbaijan, Bayramov noted that Azerbaijan is taking practical steps to restore the religious and cultural heritage destroyed by Armenia during the conflict that lasted almost 30 years. He said that Azerbaijan faced double standards and noted the unacceptability of attempts to give a religious connotation to the conflict, as well as the fact that such steps do not contribute to peace and stability in the region.

Despite all the existing difficulties and challenges, Azerbaijan is determined to promote the agenda of normalization and peace with Armenia, as well as the process of reintegrating local Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region. Moreover, the minister said that the process of withdrawal and disarmament of Armenian separatist troops in the region as a result of anti-terrorist measures will contribute to efforts to establish peace and reintegration.

Director General Salim bin Mohammed Almalik expressed satisfaction with the visit to Azerbaijan, noting that during the meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, a useful exchange of views took place. He said that ICESCO is interested in expanding cooperation with Azerbaijan, and the importance of further efforts to strengthen ties was also noted.

In addition, the sides exchanged views on other issues of mutual interest during the meeting.
Orion Oyj (OTCMKTS:ORINY  Get Free Report) shares reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $19.00 and last traded at $19.00, with a volume of 0 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $19.00.

Orion Oyj Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $5.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.81 and a beta of 0.26. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $19.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $22.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

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Orion Oyj (OTCMKTS:ORINY  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 17th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $315.26 million for the quarter. Orion Oyj had a return on equity of 35.45% and a net margin of 22.34%.

About Orion Oyj

Orion Oyj develops, manufactures, and markets human and veterinary pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in Finland, Scandinavia, other European countries, North America, and internationally. It provides prescription drugs and self-care products, which includes Nubeqa for the treatment of prostate cancer; dexdor and Precedex for intensive care sedative; Stalevo and Comtess/Comtan for Parkinson's disease; Simdax for acute decompensated heart failure; and Precedex for intensive care sedative, as well as Fareston for breast cancer.

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ADT Inc. (NYSE:ADT  Get Free Report) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 16,650,000 shares, a growth of 13.3% from the August 31st total of 14,690,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,230,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.5 days. Approximately 5.3% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ADT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a sector perform rating and set a $10.00 target price on shares of ADT in a research report on Monday, September 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on ADT from $9.60 to $8.30 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 9th.

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Read Our Latest Stock Report on ADT

ADT Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ADT remained flat at $6.02 during trading on Tuesday. The stock had a trading volume of 1,831,725 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,779,452. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.51. ADT has a 1 year low of $4.89 and a 1 year high of $10.10. The company has a market capitalization of $5.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 200.67 and a beta of 1.70. The businesss 50 day moving average price is $6.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $6.31.

ADT (NYSE:ADT  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 8th. The security and automation business reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.21 by ($0.06). ADT had a return on equity of 11.31% and a net margin of 0.48%. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that ADT will post 0.31 EPS for the current year.

ADT Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 4th. Investors of record on Friday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $0.035 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 14th. This represents a $0.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.33%. ADTs dividend payout ratio is currently 466.67%.

Insider Activity at ADT

In other news, EVP Wayne Thorsen purchased 5,000 shares of ADT stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $6.08 per share, for a total transaction of $30,400.00. Following the purchase, the executive vice president now directly owns 459,761 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,795,346.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of ADT

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Cooperman Leon G lifted its position in shares of ADT by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Cooperman Leon G now owns 3,100,000 shares of the security and automation businesss stock worth $18,693,000 after buying an additional 100,000 shares during the last quarter. Chapin Davis Inc. increased its holdings in ADT by 415.6% in the 2nd quarter. Chapin Davis Inc. now owns 93,048 shares of the security and automation businesss stock worth $561,000 after purchasing an additional 75,000 shares in the last quarter. Virginia Retirement Systems ET AL acquired a new position in ADT in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,122,000. Comerica Bank acquired a new position in ADT in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,246,000. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in ADT by 14.0% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 261,236 shares of the security and automation businesss stock worth $1,575,000 after purchasing an additional 32,128 shares in the last quarter. 87.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

ADT Company Profile

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ADT Inc provides security, automation, and smart home solutions to consumer and business customers in the United States. It operates through Consumer and Small Business, Commercial, and Solar segments. The company provides a range of fire detection, fire suppression, video surveillance, and access control systems to residential, commercial, and multi-site customers.

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Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA (NYSE:FMS  Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,080,000 shares, a growth of 24.6% from the August 31st total of 867,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 411,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FMS. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA by 35.6% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 28,440 shares of the companys stock valued at $958,000 after buying an additional 7,470 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA by 13.0% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 9,490 shares of the companys stock worth $320,000 after purchasing an additional 1,089 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA by 17.4% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 28,037 shares of the companys stock valued at $945,000 after purchasing an additional 4,162 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA by 15.0% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 9,477 shares of the companys stock worth $319,000 after buying an additional 1,238 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA by 56.2% during the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 29,668 shares of the companys stock worth $1,000,000 after buying an additional 10,676 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 5.81% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on FMS shares. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA in a report on Wednesday, July 12th. They set a buy rating for the company. StockNews.com cut shares of Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, September 21st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA to 40.50 ($42.63) in a research report on Wednesday, August 16th. UBS Group raised shares of Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 13th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA in a research report on Tuesday, August 1st. They issued a neutral rating for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $29.89.

Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE FMS traded down $0.23 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $21.31. The company had a trading volume of 274,230 shares, compared to its average volume of 646,252. Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA has a 1-year low of $12.78 and a 1-year high of $27.72. The company has a market capitalization of $12.51 billion, a PE ratio of 20.30 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $23.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.30.

Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA (NYSE:FMS  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.08. Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA had a net margin of 3.01% and a return on equity of 5.15%. The firm had revenue of $5.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.19 billion. On average, analysts predict that Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA will post 1.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA Company Profile

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Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co KGaA provides dialysis and related services for individuals with renal diseases in Germany, North America, and internationally. The company offers dialysis treatment and related laboratory and diagnostic services through a network of outpatient dialysis clinics; materials, training, and patient support services comprising clinical monitoring, follow-up assistance, and arranging for delivery of the supplies to the patient's residence; and dialysis services under contract to hospitals in the United States for the hospitalized end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and for patients suffering from acute kidney failure.

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Skillcast Group plc (LON:SKL  Get Free Report) announced a dividend on Wednesday, September 27th, Upcoming.Co.Uk reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 5th will be paid a dividend of GBX 0.17 ($0.00) per share on Friday, October 27th. This represents a yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 5th. The official announcement can be viewed at this link.

Skillcast Group Trading Up 4.5 %

SKL stock opened at GBX 20.90 ($0.25) on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of 18.70 million and a PE ratio of -2,090.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.46, a quick ratio of 2.22 and a current ratio of 1.95. Skillcast Group has a one year low of GBX 17 ($0.21) and a one year high of GBX 22.50 ($0.27). The companys 50 day moving average price is GBX 20.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is GBX 20.44.

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About Skillcast Group

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Skillcast Group plc provides staff compliance training services in the United Kingdom, Malta, Europe, and internationally. It offers compliance declarations, surveys, and registers; bespoke e-learning solutions; Learning Management System, a fully managed software-as-a-service that enables companies to build and deliver digital training content; Policy Hub, an online tool that provides corporate policy management solution; Training 360, a solution for recording in-person training, mentoring, and consultations; Events Management System for managing online and face-to-face corporate training events; SMCR 360, a suite of compliance tools to centralize, integrate, and automate senior managers and certification regime process; and Regtech tools to manage compliance needs.

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UBS AG FI Enhanced Europe 50 ETN (NYSEARCA:FIEE  Get Free Report)s share price was down 0.7% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $201.23 and last traded at $201.23. Approximately 700 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 465% from the average daily volume of 124 shares. The stock had previously closed at $202.62.

UBS AG FI Enhanced Europe 50 ETN Price Performance

The businesss 50-day moving average is $201.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $202.88.

Institutional Trading of UBS AG FI Enhanced Europe 50 ETN

An institutional investor recently raised its position in UBS AG FI Enhanced Europe 50 ETN stock. Jane Street Group LLC lifted its position in UBS AG FI Enhanced Europe 50 ETN (NYSEARCA:FIEE  Free Report) by 31.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,253 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 534 shares during the period. Jane Street Group LLC owned approximately 2.82% of UBS AG FI Enhanced Europe 50 ETN worth $429,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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VanEck Israel ETF (NYSEARCA:ISRA  Get Free Report)s stock price dropped 0.2% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $33.46 and last traded at $33.46. Approximately 1,244 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 57% from the average daily volume of 2,871 shares. The stock had previously closed at $33.53.

VanEck Israel ETF Trading Down 0.2 %

The stock has a market cap of $52.87 million, a PE ratio of 9.17 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $34.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $35.23.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ISRA. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. lifted its position in shares of VanEck Israel ETF by 48.5% during the 1st quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 1,592 shares of the companys stock valued at $73,000 after buying an additional 520 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC purchased a new position in VanEck Israel ETF in the 1st quarter valued at $797,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in VanEck Israel ETF by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 8,132 shares of the companys stock valued at $377,000 after purchasing an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC purchased a new position in VanEck Israel ETF in the 2nd quarter valued at $386,000. Finally, UBS Group AG lifted its holdings in VanEck Israel ETF by 269.7% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,564 shares of the companys stock valued at $129,000 after purchasing an additional 2,600 shares in the last quarter.

VanEck Israel ETF Company Profile

The VanEck Israel ETF (ISRA) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the BlueStar Israel Global index. The fund tracks a cap-weighted, committee-reviewed index of Israeli and Israeli-linked companies. ISRA was launched on Jun 25, 2013 and is managed by VanEck.

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Abhishek Sahu covers HR and Education (Careers) at Moneycontrol. He can be reached at Abhishek.Sahu@nw18.com and @Abhishek44sahu.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. The Turkic World media platform is one of the main sources of information for Turkish businessmen, Chairman of the Management Board of MUSIAD Azerbaijan, Rashad Jabirli said during a meeting with Rufiz Hafizoglu, Head of the Media Platform and Deputy General Director of Trend News Agency, Trend reports.

"We are pleased to implement joint projects with the Turkic World media platform," Rashad Jabirli said.

Issues of bilateral cooperation and the activities of the media platform were discussed during the meeting.

Noting that the Turkic World will contribute to the further development of cooperation in the field of media between Azerbaijan and Turkiye, Rufiz Hafizoglu added that the media platform will further expand the scope of activities.

"It is expected that new cooperation agreements will be signed by the end of the year," Hafizoglu said.

The delegation of MUSIAD Azerbaijan visited the office of the Turkic.World.

The meeting was attended by Rashad Jabirli, Chairman of the Management Board of MUSIAD Azerbaijan, Huseyin Yapar, Muhterem Oz, Alim Senturk, Administrative Assistant Ahmad Ahmadli, Deputy General Director of Trend News Agency, Head of Turkic.World media platform Rufiz Hafizoglu and Samir Babaoglu, representative of the Turkish Albayrak Media Group in Azerbaijan.

The 'Turkic World' media platform was launched in 2021 as a result of cooperation between the Trend News Agency and the Turkish Albayrak Media Group with the support of Assistant President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev.

The media platform was presented last year at the media forum of the Turkic Council in Istanbul in 2021 and also became the official media partner of the 25th International Business Forum (IBF), organized by the Small and Medium Business Development Agency of Azerbaijan and the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (MUSIAD) of Turkiye.

In addition, the 'Turkic World' media platform was also the official media partner of the "Teknofest-2022" Aerospace and Technology Festival. Along with the above, the platform signed a memorandum of cooperation with Istanbul Commerce University, the Azerbaijan Institute of Theology, and the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH).
Siddharth Upasani is a Special Correspondent at Moneycontrol. He has been covering the Indian economy, economic data, and monetary and fiscal policies for nine years. He tweets at @SiddharthUbiWan. Contact: siddharth.upasani@nw18.com
Yash Sadhak Shrivastava is an aspiring voice in the Journalistic forefront with experience in covering financial markets & geopolitics.
The market lost almost all its previous day's gains and closed half a percent lower on October 3, but the Nifty50 smartly defended 19,500, which is expected to play a crucial role on either side of the trade. If it closes well below the 19,500 mark, then 19,300-19,200 can be a possibility, but holding the same can again raise hopes for a move towards 19,700-19,800 levels, experts said.

The BSE Sensex declined 316 points to 65,512, while the Nifty50 dropped 110 points to 19,529 amid volatility and formed a bearish candlestick pattern with a minor lower shadow on the daily charts, making lower high, lower low formation. The index settled below the 50-day EMA (exponential moving average placed at 19,560).

"Towards the downside, the index found support at the ascending trendline on the daily chart. The sentiment looks pessimistic for the short term," Rupak De, senior technical analyst at LKP Securities said.

Looking ahead, he feels the level of 19,480 is expected to serve as a pivotal "make or break" point. If there is a decisive decline below 19,480, it might trigger heavy selling in the market, he said, adding on the upside, 19,600 will continue to remain a significant resistance level.

However, the broader markets outperformed frontline indices, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 indices rising 0.2 percent and half a percent respectively.

We have collated 15 data points to help you spot profitable trades:

Note: The open interest (OI) and volume data of stocks are the aggregates of three-month data and not just the current month.

Key support and resistance levels on Nifty

The pivot point calculator indicates that the Nifty may be taking support at 19,489, followed by 19,455 and 19,400. On the higher side, 19,599 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 19,633 and 19,687.

Nifty Bank

On October 3, the Bank Nifty remained rangebound with a negative bias and settled 185 points lower at 44,399, forming a bearish candlestick pattern with a lower shadow on the daily timeframe. The index remained below 50-day as well as 20-day EMA, but has been taking support at upward sloping support trendline.

"The pullbacks towards the key hourly moving averages are being sold into and hence until the bank Nifty does not sustain above 44,700  44,800 zone, we can expect the weakness to continue. On the downside the Bank Nifty can slip towards 44,000  43,800," Jatin Gedia, technical research analyst at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas said.

As per the pivot point calculator, the banking index is expected to take support at 44,279, followed by 44,203 and 44,080. On the upside, the initial resistance is at 44,526, then at 44,603 and at 44,726.

Call options data

The weekly options data suggested that the maximum Call open interest (OI) was seen at 19,700 strike with 1.05 crore contracts, which can act as a key resistance for the Nifty. It was followed by the 19,600 strike, which had 99.82 lakh contracts, while 20,000 strike had 87.37 lakh contracts.

Meaningful Call writing was seen at 19,600 strike, which added 62.01 lakh contracts followed by 19,500 and 19,700 strikes, which added 43.32 lakh and 38.66 lakh contracts.

The maximum Call unwinding was at 20,300 strike, which shed 10.9 lakh contracts followed by 20,200 strike and 20,400 strike, which shed 7.16 lakh contracts and 1.9 lakh contracts.

Put option data

On the Put side, the maximum open interest was at 19,500 strike with 81.87 lakh contracts. This can be an important support for the Nifty in the coming sessions.

It was followed by 19,400 strike, comprising 58.78 lakh contracts and 19,000 strike with 50 lakh contracts.

The meaningful Put writing was at 19,300 strike, which added 17.76 lakh contracts, followed by 19,500 strike and 19,400 strike, which added 17.16 lakh and 13.73 lakh contracts.

Put unwinding was at 19,600 strike, which shed 33.73 lakh contracts, followed by 19,700 strike and 19,800 strike, which shed 14.34 lakh and 3.15 lakh contracts.

Stocks with high delivery percentage

A high delivery percentage suggests that investors are showing interest in the stock. Oracle Financial, Bharti Airtel, Britannia Industries, Max Financial Services, and SRF have seen the highest delivery among the F&O stocks.

52 stocks see a long build-up

A long build-up was seen in 52 stocks namely, Mahanagar Gas, Marico, Polycab India, Shriram Finance, and Coforge. An increase in open interest (OI) and price indicates a build-up of long positions.

34 stocks see long unwinding

Based on the OI percentage, a total of 34 stocks, including Maruti Suzuki India, MCX India, Balkrishna Industries, Bharti Airtel, and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals saw a long unwinding. A decline in OI and price indicates long unwinding.

76 stocks see a short build-up

A short build-up was seen in 76 stocks, including Coromandel International, Indiabulls Housing Finance, India Cements, Dalmia Bharat, and Siemens. An increase in OI along with a fall in price points to a build-up of short positions.

26 stocks see short-covering

Based on the OI percentage, 26 stocks were on the short-covering list. These included Apollo Tyres, Navin Fluorine International, IRCTC, Federal Bank, and State Bank of India. A decrease in OI along with a price increase is an indication of short-covering.

Bulk deals

For more bulk deals, click here

Investors meeting on October 4

Stocks in the news

Updater Services: The facility management services company will list its equity shares on the BSE and NSE, in the T+3 timeline, on October 4. The issue price has been fixed at Rs 300 per share. The allotment date was September 30.

Maruti Suzuki India: The country's largest car manufacturing company has received a draft Assessment Order for FY20. In the said order, certain additions or disallowances amounting to Rs 2,159.7 crore with respect to returned income (the income disclosed by the company in its income tax return) have been proposed. The company will file its objections before the Dispute Resolution Panel.

HDFC Bank: Arvind Kapil, the Group Head will now spearhead the mortgage business, and Arvind Vohra, the Group Head will move as Group Head of retail assets. Parag Rao, Group Head, will be additionally responsible for marketing, and liability product group, while Smita Bhagat & Sampath Kumar will be the two new retail branch banking heads. Ramesh Lakshminarayanan, currently the CIO, would lead the IT & digital function, while Rakesh Singh, the Group Head would spearhead the creation of banking as a service (BaaS), reports CNBC-TV18.

Raymond: The company said the board members have approved to invest up to Rs 301 crore in one or more tranches in Ten X Realty, a step-down wholly owned subsidiary of the company. Out of the said investment, the company will invest up to Rs 125 crore in the form of redeemable preference shares, and the balance amount of Rs 176 crore will be invested by providing an inter-corporate deposit (ICD) to Ten X Realty.

Adani Enterprises: Green Vitality RSC, the 100 percent subsidiary of Abu Dhabi's International Holding Company (IHC), has bought 6.43 lakh shares, which is equivalent to 0.06 percent of paid-up equity, in Adani Enterprises via open market transactions on October 3. With this, IHC's shareholding in the company increased from 4.98 percent, to 5.04 percent.

Avenue Supermarts: The D-Mart operator has reported standalone revenue from operations at Rs 12,308 crore for the quarter ended September FY24, up 18.5 percent over Rs 10,385 crore in same period last year. The total number of stores as of September 2023 stood at 336.

South Indian Bank: The private sector lender has reported gross advances at Rs 74,975 crore for the quarter ended September FY24, up 10.3 percent over a year-ago period, and total deposits increased by 9.8 percent to Rs 97,146 crore during the same period, as per provisional data. CASA grew by 2.01 percent YoY to Rs 31,162 crore in Q2FY24.

Hero MotoCorp: The world's largest two-wheeler maker is set to commence deliveries of its first co-developed premium motorcycle Harley-Davidson X440 on October 15. It has been organising test rides for pre-booked customers since September 1, and the new booking window will open on October 16.

Fund Flow (Rs Crore)

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FII) offloaded shares worth Rs 2,034.14 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) purchased Rs 1,361.02 crore worth of stocks on October 3, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed.

Stocks under F&O ban on NSE

The NSE has added Indiabulls Housing Finance to its F&O ban list for October 4. Securities banned under the F&O segment include companies where derivative contracts cross 95 percent of the market-wide position limit.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by experts on Moneycontrol are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. Employees of the Azerbaijani State Migration Service and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population continue their activities to ensure sustainable reintegration of Karabakh's Armenian residents into Azerbaijani society and provide them with patronage from Azerbaijani state, Trend reports.

The activities follow the relevant instructions given to the working group for addressing social, humanitarian, economic, and infrastructure issues in Azerbaijan's Karabakh region.

According to the joint statement from the press services of State Migration Service and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population, for the purpose of initial registration to join the reintegration process, five residents have applied to the reception office in Khankendi city, and during an outreach reception conducted in the region, two residents applied the State Migration Service.

Consequently, their applications for initial registration have been received, and they will be further informed about the processing of these applications. Each of them has expressed the desire to live in the Karabakh Economic Zone and, after obtaining Azerbaijani citizenship, avail themselves of the protection of the Azerbaijani state.

Additionally, during the outreach reception, legal awareness-raising work was carried out with other residents who were informed about the reintegration process.

Furthermore, to assess the current needs related to the humanitarian situation, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population conducted an assessment of primary socio-psychological, social, and rehabilitation services with residents, identifying their needs.

During the assessment, socio-psychological awareness-raising work was conducted, and consultations were provided on disability and rehabilitation services.

Azerbaijan has started practical activities for the reintegration of Armenian residents living in the Karabakh region. In this regard, Ramin Mammadov, who was appointed responsible for contacts with Armenian residents of Karabakh, met with representatives of Armenian residents in Yevlakh and Khojaly on September 21, 25 and 29, 2023.

During the meetings, the reintegration plans of the Republic of Azerbaijan were presented and discussions were held around this.

It was noted that reintegration is carried out within the framework of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan on the basis of the Constitution, laws and international obligations of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Regardless of ethnic, religious or linguistic affiliation, equality of rights and freedom of everyone is guaranteed, including the security of everyone.
Nickey Mirchandani NICKEY MIRCHANDANI Assistant Editor at Moneycontrol. Shes a presenter and a stock market enthusiast with over 12 years of experience who loves reading between the lines and scanning through numbers.
Souptik Datta Reports real estate, infra and city in Bengaluru. Btw, curiosity never kills the cat.
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. The mother of Azerbaijani citizen Farid Safarli, detained in Iran, Dilara Askerova said that she had spoken to her son two days ago and that he had no health problems, Trend reports.

"In the upcoming weeks we will know when the appeal court will take place. There is no hope that he will be pardoned," she said.

Farid Safarli (born in 1997), a student of Jena University in Germany, visited Iran on February 20, 2023, and there has been no news from him since March 4. It later emerged that he had been arrested in Iran.

The charge of "espionage" brought against Farid Safarli during a court hearing was changed to "intent to commit espionage" on July 19.

Farid Safarli was sentenced to 2 years in prison.

Prosecutor General Kamran Aliyev told reporters that during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, he asked him to consider the issue of Farid Safarli in accordance with the principles of humanism.
Sohil Sehran is a journalist with 10 years of experience in print, broadcast, and digital media. He covers politics and national affairs at Moneycontrol. He tweets @SohilSehran
Karishma Vaswani is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.
SNM Abdi is an independent journalist specialising in Indias foreign policy and domestic politics. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. The 74th International Astronautical Congress, held in Azerbaijan, is at the center of attention in the world community, Trend reports.

According to the calculations of Talkwaker, the leading social media monitoring and analysis program in the US, the event has become a trend on social media platforms with the hashtag #IAC2023.

The congress also heads the top events on social networks.

The 74th International Astronautical Congress was held in Baku on October 2 in partnership with the Space Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Azercosmos) and the International Astronautical Federation.

The event was attended by representatives of space agencies, the public sector, investors and private space companies, local and international media, as well as more than 5,000 representatives from 101 countries. 150 companies are represented at the International Astronautical Congress in the exhibition hall. The congress will last until October 6.

This was the second time that Baku was hosting this congress - the first one took place in 1973, also in Baku.
Ana Nakashidze, Chief Executive Officer of AzerTelecom, has once again achieved a significant milestone by being honored with the prestigious Global Leadership Women in Tech Award at the Women in Tech Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) Awards 2023.

The Women in Tech CCA Awards are crucial in bridging the gender gap within the technology sector. By honoring exceptional women like Ana Nakashidze, these awards shine a spotlight on the incredible contributions made by women who are actively reshaping and influencing the technology landscape in the Caucasus and Central Asia region.

The competition, which had over 80 participants from 6 countries, took place in September, in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. The Women in Tech CCA Awards are part of the broader Women in Tech Global Movement, which is dedicated to promoting gender diversity, equality, and inclusivity in the technology industry. It serves as a platform to highlight the contributions and innovations of women who have made a significant impact on the tech industry in the wider geographical area.

Ana Nakashidze's remarkable tech leadership, highlighted by her recent Global Leadership Women in Tech Award, not only reflects her dedication but also inspires women in STEAM. Ana Nakashidze boasts more than two decades of experience within the telecommunications sector. Prior to joining AzerTelecom, she had various leadership roles spanning both national and international contexts in the private, public, and consulting sectors in Georgia and worldwide.

In addition to Ana Nakashidze, who received the Global Leadership Award, two other women representing Azerbaijan, Leyla Orujova and Laman Aliyeva, were among the 43 finalists of Women in Tech Global Movement as the winners in the Start-Up Award and Aspiring Teen Award categories, respectively. The winners of this year's Women in Tech CCA Awards will participate in the final Women in Tech Global Movement Awards, which will be held on November 16, 2023 in Dubai.

It's noteworthy to mention that Ana Nakashidze has already earned recognition within the industry. In March 2023, she was included in Capacity Media magazine's Women to Watch list, which featured 20 outstanding women in telecommunications and IT. Additionally, Ana was featured in Capacity Media's annual "Power 100" list, recognizing the industry's most influential leaders.

AzerTelecom is the leading wholesale telecommunication operator of Azerbaijan. The company is part of the NEQSOL Holding international group of companies operating in various fields and countries.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. The Center for War Games of the Military Administration Institute of the National Defense University hosts Eternity-2023 computer-assisted Command and Staff Exercises with the participation of military personnel from Azerbaijan, Turkiye and Georgia, Trend reports via the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense.

During the exercises, consisting of theoretical and practical parts that involve military personnel of the three countries and representatives of relevant government agencies, tasks will be accomplished to organize the protection of strategically important and regional economic projects.

The main purpose of the exercises, which will last until October 6, is to strengthen mutual cooperation and interoperability between the armed forces of all three countries.
Computershare has sold its US-based mortgage services business for $1.13 billion as part of its strategic realignment to cut costs and deliver more to shareholders, it said in an announcement today.

Australian financial administration company Computershare [ASX:CPU] has agreed to sell its US mortgage services business to Washington DC-based Rithm Capital [NYSE:RITM] for an estimated AU$1.13 billion. The sale comes after a cost-out program helped the division return to profitability following a difficult few years.

News of the divestment has pleased investors, with early spikes in the share price this morning, and finishing the day as one of the few companies trading positively, up by 0.85% at $26 per share.

Computershares US mortgage services business, known as CLS was severely hit during the pandemic, seeing revenue squeezed in its highly competitive market as refinancing and mortgage volumes dropped.

Despite these US challenges, the company maintained profitability in its other global lending sectors and has also moved to acquire a smaller UK-based mortgage services business with about one-third of CLSs annual revenue.

The company has surfed the turbulent macroeconomic environment, rebounding from share price losses seen after its 1HFY23 results to gain 6% in the past 12 months.

So whats next for the company?

Source: TradingView

Computershare simplifies

The US home mortgage servicing sector has posed challenges for Computershare in recent years.

In FY22, the division posted a negative EBIT of $6.3 million, making it Computershares only loss-making segment.

The companys foray into the US market in 2000 had significantly contributed to its earnings in the past, constituting 64% of Computershares total earnings in the last financial year.

However, its share registry business faced challenges due to a weak global market for initial public offerings over the past year.

Computershare had undertaken an aggressive cost-cutting program to improve CLSs profitability, which delivered $23 million in savings for FY23.

CLSs revenue for the last financial year dipped to US$351 million from US$423 million, resulting in a $3.7 million loss in earnings before interest and tax in the 12 months ending 30 June.

As part of the cost-cutting, CPU also embarked on a new strategy to deliver consistency to the business and shareholders.

Computershare CEO Stuart Irving said the company had completed a detailed review of its US mortgage services business and determined that a full divestment was in the best interests of shareholders.

We have completed a detailed review of our US Mortgage Services business and determined that a full divestment of the business via a competitive process would be in the best interests of shareholders.

Todays announcement represents an important milestone in executing Computershares simplification strategy and drive to increase the quality and consistency of earnings.

The divestment of US Mortgage Services allows us to focus our efforts on our core businesses, which have high levels of recurring revenues, long-term growth runways, low capital intensity and attractive returns through the cycle.

The sale of Computershares mortgage services arm to Rithm is anticipated to result in a one-time, pre-tax loss ranging between US$150180 million.

Despite this, the company said the transaction is not expected to have a material impact on FY24 EPS guidance and kept its forecast of 116 cents per share, assuming the deal closes before March 2024.

Looking ahead, Computershare has strategically shifted to mortgage services business in the UK. This was highlighted by its recent acquisition of Morgan Stanleys UK & European Employee Share Plan business.

This mouthful will be simplified to Solium UK once the deal is complete this quarter, subject to regulatory approval.

So what will the new business mean for the companys future?

Computershares Strategy

The sale of the US mortgage services business is part of Computershares simplification strategy, which focuses on core businesses with high recurring revenues, long-term growth runways, low capital intensity, and attractive returns.

While this would sound like any companys ideal situation, the execution of the strategy has so far pleased shareholders.

The proceeds from the sale of CLS will enhance Computershares flexibility to pursue strategic investments and consider other capital management opportunities.

The Solium UK is a good example of this. While its revenues are modest  at only $28 million annually  the low costs and structural growth appear exciting.

Here Computershare is betting on the growing trend of companies issuing equity to attract, retain and incentivise employees. As labour markets remain tight, the managerial tool has moved from the C suite to the main street, as more organisations offer stocks.

It will also be a significant shift away from the US market for CPU, which previously pulled 64% of its revenue from America.

Source: Computershare FY23 Report

Whether this bet pays off remains to be seen, but its a smart play towards a structural trend.

Todays announcement could be seen as the capstone to the simplification strategy Computershare set out to accomplish. It allows CPU to refocus on its core strengths and navigate a tricky financial landscape with a leaner ship.

Dividends back on the menu

The ASX has had another troubled day in the red. The ASX 200 is now near a six-month low and is down -1.13% in 2023.

With the new clarion call of higher for longer being shared by all central banks and fuel prices rising, equity markets are shaking.

Investors are moving into defensive positions, focusing on quality stocks that can provide safety and pay dividends.

But blindly buying the best dividend-payers could be a fruitless move beyond the short term.

Thats why our investing expert and Editorial Director, Greg Canavan, has spent his time finding a better option.

He calls it the Royal Dividend Portfolio, and its the sweet spot between growth and dividends.

You may want to consider a different strategy if you think youre overexposed in uncertain times or simply too defensive.

Click here to learn more about what that looks like.

Regards,

Charles Ormond,

For Money Morning
With the support of the European Union and UNDP, the Khirdalan Municipality organised a public job fair called 1001 Jobs in Khirdalan city. As part of the Mayors for Economic Growth (M4EG) initiative, the job fair aimed to support employment generation and increase public-private partnership opportunities in this location.

The event was attended by the officials of the Executive Power of Absheron District, the Center for Works with Municipalities under the Ministry of Justice, the Khirdalan Municipality, also the State Employment Agency, the State Agency on Vocational Education, and UNDP. The Fair brought together around 30 private sector companies operating in hospitality and tourism, education, publishing, food, alternative energy, and the construction sector. The companies informed the visitors about their ongoing employment and internship opportunities and provided some creative sessions to select potential employees.

The 1001 Jobs Fair attracted over 1000 visitors with their dynamic stands, interactive games, and competitions. The target group was 14-29 aged local youth who were about to choose a new career, looking for a job, or new learning paths to improve their knowledge and skills.

As in line with the thematic direction, the event was supported by the EU-funded and UNDP implemented the VET for the Future project. To this aim, the Vocational Education Center on Culture and Crafts, the VE Center on Tourism and Social Services, the VE Center on IT and Communications, the VE Center on Processing Industry, the VE Center on Industry and Innovations joined the fair with some signature masterclasses and offered hands-on experiences for the visitors.

At the fair, career specialists provided free consultation sessions to the youth and helped them with CV writing, interview tips and networking.

The Khirdalan Municipality is one of the two local authorities from Azerbaijan selected as a beneficiary of Portfolio Journey stream of Mayors for Economic Growth Initiative. Over the last year the municipal team has developed an Urban Transformation Portfolio called Entrepreneurship & Young Talent. The main intent of their portfolio is to create an enabling innovative business environment; leverage and retain existing local talent, and gradually attract talent from outside; establish a new and distinct place identity, also diversify and strengthen the interaction between the Khirdalan Municipality and its residents.

Being one of the frontrunner cities under the M4EG network, the Khirdalan Municipality will continue its efforts to support youth while involving the private sector and other agents to further sustainable development of the area.

This Job Fair is the first in a series of events to be held in Khirdalan city till the end of 2024.

Starting from 2021 The Mayors for Economic Growth Facility is run by UNDP, in close cooperation with the EU, the local authorities, and a range of other partners.
Choosing a degree program is a huge decision. An undeclared option at Michigan Tech lets students get started with their college studies right away, offering time and resources to help them decide on a major.

When it comes to choosing the right school and major, pre-college students and their families often put undue pressure on themselves. Fear of making the wrong choice can be paralyzing. One of the ways Michigan Technological University Director of Admissions Beth Fitzpatrick helps to dial back the stress: she asks older guests who visit campus with their pre-college students to raise their hands if theyre doing what they thought theyd be doing when they were 18.

Typically very few hands go up.

We cant expect all our prospective students to know exactly what they want to do when they grow up. Many dont even know what their options are, said Fitzpatrick. Most careers arent climbing the corporate ladder  its more like climbing a jungle gym. Sometimes you move up, down and sideways. Students dont have to figure out their entire lifetime  just the next step.

Michigan Techs Undeclared: Exploring Majors program helps students take that next step.

"Choosing the undeclared program is not the same as being undecided. These students are making a decision to not declare a major yet until they have explored what their options are." Beth Fitzpatrick Director of Admissions

What to Expect in the Exploring Majors Program

Students who choose the undeclared option have up to three semesters to decide where they want to focus. In the Undeclared: Exploring Majors program, a dedicated advisor helps them select courses that fulfill general bachelors degree requirements, so time and money are put to good use.

In addition to one-on-one discussions about interests, talents and career goals, undeclared students take the semester-long one-credit Exploring Majors course. The class includes visits from current students in a variety of majors who share what its like to study in their programs. Incoming Huskies also gain insight about who they are, what they might thrive doing, and whats important to them in terms of a major or eventual career path, said Heather Simpson, Exploring Majors academic advisor and instructor.

"Its important for students to take the time to understand what they truly love and what their strengths are. Plus, in Exploring Majors they get exposure to most of the different majors available to them at Tech, many of which they never thought existed. The combination helps them decide on a major that is the foundation for a fulfilling and rewarding career." Heather Simpson, academic advisor and instructor, Undeclared: Exploring Majors program

In addition to the Undeclared: Exploring Majors program for students considering options across Michigan Techs seven colleges and schools and 120 degree programs, there are interest-focused general programs for students who are already leaning toward a field of study. Programs in the colleges of Engineering; Sciences and Arts; Computing; Business; and Forest Resources and Environmental Science offer more specific but equally exploratory options. Theres also a general pre-health professions option for students exploring health care careers.

General engineering gets students settled in the Department of Engineering Fundamentals in the College of Engineering. Students in this program take the same math, engineering and physics sections, get to know advisors and faculty, and learn about different engineering disciplines. General computing also establishes a cohort of first-year students who can work together in a supportive atmosphere to find the degree program thats right for them. Like other exploratory degree programs, the general business and general forestry options include one-on-ones with an advisor and smart planning to ensure courses fulfill general education and other degree requirements. General sciences and arts offers an overview of 30 majors ranging from the humanities to physical, natural and social sciences.

Meet Your Advisor Heather Simpson hsimpson@mtu.edu

906-487-3558 Specialties Teaches SA 1000 - Exploring Majors at Michigan Tech

Provides outreach and academic support to student populations

Works with the Wahtera Center for student outreach

Other Helpful Ways to Choose Your College Major

The ability to discover what kind of careers are available  and how what you study at Tech is applied in real life  can also come from working on projects in Michigan Tech's Enterprise Program. Enterprise is open to students of any major who want to work on teams that design, build and implement projects and products for clients in business and industry.

There are also more than 240 student organizations at Michigan Tech where Huskies can find the people and activities that click for them. Student orgs can inspire new ideas and help students discover what theyre most interested in, which can translate into choosing a college major thats the right fit.

Its Not Too Early to Think About Your Major

Fitzpatrick encourages high school seniors to reach out to MTUs Admissions Office for information about specific programs. Getting curious and digging into questions like What is mechatronics? or What kind of careers are available in medical lab science? or How is chemical engineering different from mechanical engineering? can help make decision-making easier.

Job shadowing or informational interviews can also be helpful.

Fitzpatrick, who transitioned from a teaching career into higher education leadership, can relate firsthand to feeling uncertain about committing to a career when youre just starting out and dont have the full picture of what opportunities await. You dont know what you dont know, she said, recalling a talk with her dad that helped her articulate her path.

I told him, while I love being in education, I wanted to focus less on teaching and more on helping students make decisions about their next steps after high school. He said, That sounds like being a college admissions counselor. I didn't even know what the position was, or what I would need to do to get there. My next step was to contact the Admissions Office here at Michigan Tech to schedule an informational interview to learn more about what the job entailed. If you would have told me at 17 years old that I would one day be the director of admissions at a college, I wouldnt have even known that position existed. I had to climb around that jungle gym to get to this place.

Next time: Learn more about the Exploring Majors course (its open to all Tech students) and hear from Huskies who share how they chose their majors.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigans flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
Reporter

Andrew Roberto was raised his whole life on Saipan. He graduated from Saipan Southern High School, holds a degree from Northern Marianas College, and a BA in English from the University of Guam. He once worked for KUAM, UNO Magazine, and the Guam Daily Post.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. The Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan closely follows progress of the criminal case over the attack on Azerbaijani Embassy, investigated in Iran, and regularly communicates with the Iranian side on this issue, the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office told Trend.

The press service made the remark commenting on media and social networks posts about the mentioned attacker being sentenced to death in Iran.

"In accordance with the legislation of Iran, the investigation of the criminal case has been completed, and it has been sent to the court for consideration. The prosecutor has demanded the most severe punishment for the accused. However, at present, the court has not yet reached a final decision. We hope that a fair verdict will be reached in the near future in the case, and the guilty party will receive the deserved punishment," the press service said.

An armed attack took place at the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Iran on January 27, 2023, at about 8:30 (GMT+4). The gunman turned out to be a man in his 50's, who drove up to the administrative building, armed with a Kalashnikov automatic rifle.

Previous reports from the Chief of Tehran police said there were two children in the car with the gunman, the security camera footage released later proved the man was alone. He entered the building after briefly waving hand to the Iranian security guard outside. No attempts were made to detain the gunman, as he freely entered the embassy. The man managed to kill head of the security service and wounding two embassy guards. The shooter was eventually detained. The incident is currently being investigated.

Following the deadly assault, Azerbaijan evacuated its officials from the embassy, including those who suffered as a result of the attack and completely suspended the work of the embassy in Tehran.
The flags of the United States and China fly from a lamppost in the Chinatown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., November 1, 2021.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks on PEPFAR at World AIDS Day event hosted by the Business Council for International Understanding in Washington, U.S. December 2, 2022.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. The "Khazri-2023" joint tactical exercises held in Azerbaijan with the participation of warships and servicemen of the Azerbaijani and Kazakh Naval Forces continue, the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan told Trend.

During the briefing held according to the training plan, the participants were given information on safety rules, tasks to be fulfilled, and their execution sequence, as well as other necessary aspects.

Then tasks on various episodes were worked out with the military personnel and warships of the Naval Forces of both countries, and combat interoperability between them was developed.

The military personnel involved in the training exercises successfully accomplished all the assigned tasks.

The exercises will last until October 8.
Groveland, CA Groveland Community Services District (GCSD) achieved recognition during the California Special Districts Association (CSDA) Annual Conference in Monterey. The district received the Special District Leadership Foundation (SDLF) District of Distinction Award at the Platinum level and renewed the SDLF District Transparency Certificate of Excellence.

The recognition acknowledges the districts accomplishments in areas such as water conservation, infrastructure improvement, emergency response, financial responsibility, and community engagement. Key achievements contributing to this award include GCSDs adherence to annual financial audits, a record free from major deficiencies in audit reports, and the implementation of audit recommendations. The district also conforms to state statutes and regulations, as reflected in its comprehensive policies and procedures manual. Furthermore, all five GCSD Board Members and the General Manager completed the SDLF Leadership Academy, along with Governance Training, Ethics Training, and Harassment Prevention Training.

Peter Kampa, General Manager of Groveland Community Services District, commented, We are honored to receive the Special District Leadership Foundation (SDLF) District of Distinction Award at the Platinum level. This recognition is a testament to the dedication of our team and the support of our community. We are committed to maintaining these high standards and improving our services continually.

Tom Trott, General Manager of Twain Harte Community Services District, and Peter Kampa accepted the CSDA Chapter of the Year Award on behalf of the Tuolumne County Chapter in the Sierra Network at the CSDA Annual Conference. This acknowledgment followed the formal affiliation agreement between CSDA and the Tuolumne County Special Districts Association in January 2023, establishing the Tuolumne County Chapter as the 26th affiliated chapter, known as the Gold Country Chapter, in CSDAs Sierra Network.

For more information about Groveland Community Services District and Special Districts, visit www.gcsd.org or contact the District office at 209-962-7161.
Congressman Tom McClintock (CA-05) delivered remarks on the House floor in opposition of a motion to vacate the chair.

McClintock was Tuesdays KVML Newsmaker of the Day and was featured as part of the Republicans Weekly Address. Here are his words:

Mr. Speaker:

Benjamin Franklin described the limitations of any deliberative body in his closing speech to the Constitutional Convention. He said, when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected?

We have certainly approached these limits in our deliberations in recent days and I want to pause for a moment and assess where we are and where we are going.

The Roman Empire fell for many reasons, but the two most prominent were that it destroyed its economy by overspending and it failed to secure its borders. Clearly, these two self-inflicted calamities are converging right now upon our country and we are fast running out of time to avert them.

For this reason, House Republicans have sought, with the most slender of majorities, to reverse these policies  albeit imperfectly. A few weeks ago, we passed HR 2, the strongest border security bill in a century. Over the past months, our majority on the appropriations committee has drafted the 12 appropriations bills which bend discretionary spending down and enact important reforms.

Now, I admit that we are inexcusably late in that process. The approach of the fiscal year, though, provided us impetus to complete this work. Last week, we began taking up and adopting appropriations bills that now comprise 70 percent of federal discretionary spending, on the eve of an impending shutdown.

We have learned from experience that a government shutdown can be administered in a manner that does enormous damage to the economy and to the lives of millions of Americans. The President, if he wishes, can destroy every small business on federal land and those adjacent to federal land. Obama went so far as to barricade every monument and memorial, chain the gates of every acre of federal land and even barricade the turn-outs overlooking Yosemite Valley so people couldnt even pull over to catch a glimpse of it. Mr. Biden had made it very clear he intended to follow that strategy  specifically designed to create a panic and to force an immediate resolution in favor of the status quo.

Accordingly, our Conference put forward a 30-day continuing resolution to avert a shutdown while reducing non-defense discretionary spending by eight percent and enacting the border security bill we had previously passed.

Unfortunately, 21 Republicans joined House Democrats to defeat this resolution. Now out of time and faced with an imminent shutdown, our conference directed the Speaker to put a 45-day continuing resolution on the floor without the previous reforms, as the only way to avert a shutdown and continue our work to complete the appropriations process. We cancelled the October recess to complete this work.

Yet now, we are faced with the threat that a Republican will move to vacate the Republican Speaker of the House. It will only require four other Republican members to join the Democrats to achieve this result. The immediate effect will be to paralyze the house indefinitely, because no other business can be taken up until a replacement is elected  just when we are on the verge of completing the appropriations process that in turn will finally initiate discussions with the Senate that are vital to change the dangerous path our country is on.

I cannot conceive of a more counterproductive and self-destructive course than that.

The supreme irony is that this is being initiated by self-described conservatives. Do they honestly believe that when the Democrats side with them to remove a Republican speaker that they will then side with them to name a more conservative replacement? Of course not. The Democrats will certainly recruit the most liberal Republicans to establish a left-of-center coalition to run the House. This is exactly what happened in California in 1994. A coalition speaker will move the administration of the House sharply to the left and effectively end the Republican house majority that the people elected in 2022.

I implore my Republican colleagues to look past their Prejudices, their Passions, their Errors of Opinion, their local Interests, and their selfish Views and to make a wise decision when it is needed most  at this critical moment in the life of our country.

The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.
MERIDEN  Novembers at-large City Council candidates come from positions of experience in the hopes of continuing progress, or in search of change and new ideas.

Voters throughout the city will choose two of four candidates on the ballot for spots on the City Council, while four other seats are determined by council area. The at-large candidates are Republicans Elain Cariati and Sean McDonald and Democrats Chad Cardillo and Michael Rohde.

Cariati, who is also endorsed by the We The People Party, is no stranger to local campaigns after running for mayor in 2021. She has served on the citys Planning Commission for three years and is head of the Republican Town Committee.

At age 58, Cariati sees political office as an extension of public service. Her top priorities for change are reduced city spending, blight and the tax rate.

Public service is important to me because it provides me with an opportunity to give back to a community that has always been good to me, Cariati said in an email. It is an opportunity for everyone to actively participate in shaping our community while fostering a sense of belonging. This enhances the quality of life for all its citizens.

Cariati said her strong communication skills, collaborative approach and passion for communication form a strong foundation that is essential for an efficient and diplomatic council member.

She said she feels the city has gone astray for several reasons and points to what she sees as a lack of accountability in how services are delivered, lack of transparency and communication between the city and its citizens. She criticized city officials for foot-dragging before finally disciplining Tax Assessor Melinda Fonda, who had received numerous complaints over the past several years. Meriden moved to terminate Fondas employment in early September.

Meriden is being done a great injustice by the current administration, Cariati said. With all that said, we are not beyond repair. We can be guided toward a positive path.

The self-employed business owner said the city needs to address its infrastructure, economic development, community engagement and good governance.

Cariati criticized the Democratic majority, arguing they are not fiscally responsible.

They have attempted to correlate the fact mill rates werent increased for two consecutive years with being fiscally responsible, she said. But what the Democrat majority fails to mention is the two reasons why. During those two years Meriden received millions in COVID relief funds and a $3.5 million reimbursement from Eversource that was used to offset any increases in spending. During the years that the mill rate did not increase, spending by the Democrats continued to increase by more than 3 to 5% annually, which now the taxpayers are fully paying for.

Cardillo looks to build economic development

Democrat Chad Cardillo is also a member of the Planning Commission. He served seven months on the City Council but lost his bid for a full term in 2021.

Cardillo, 35, is a social studies teacher at Maloney High School, president of the Girls Inc. Board of Directors and a fourth generation city resident.

Ive been involved in community services for 20 years, Cardillo said. We love Meriden as a place to live and we want to continue the momentum.

A key priority for Cardillo is building on economic development. He said the city has laid a foundation downtown by creating the transit-oriented district. Its also worked to improve vacant storefronts through the Meriden BIG program that helps landlords and new businesses fix up their buildings to open and bring to code. The program has allocated $6.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding for economic development and is now processing several dozen requests.

Granted, its not finished yet, but its made a difference, Cardillo said. We are working with different businesses to fill those commercial spaces. Weve been waiting for things to happen.

While serving on the council, Cardillo said he helped carve out a commercial cannabis policy that fit state law while preventing market saturation with caps. He said he helped fellow councilors recognize that the city was in a good position to capture market share because surrounding towns had imposed manufacturing and retail prohibitions.

He believes the city is on an upswing since the pandemic when businesses were closing and wants to see the seed programs take hold.

To bring vitality into downtown, we need more variety, he said. Its a chicken and egg thing. Were using those funds for economic development and the plans so far look promising.

Cardillo said he also wants to ensure police have all the resources they need to combat different types of crime that are plaguing cities and towns across the state. He would like to see more community policing and attention paid on mental health initiatives.

McDonald says hell make himself available to all constituents

Republican Sean McDonald is a familiar face in the community and in politics, except this year he is stepping out from behind the scenes to run in his own right. McDonald has worked on campaigns for former Mayor Manny Santos and six other Republican candidates as well as served as chairman of the Republican Town Committee.

McDonald, 54, is a climate specialist for Meriden Public Schools, and is endorsed by the We The People Party. Like Cariati, he believes in better communication between city officials and residents and will make himself available to all constituents.

Im going to be very transparent, McDonald said. My number will be available and Im not a hard person to approach. Ill be holding active town hall meetings every month. People elect people to represent a visible face at large. Throughout the town. I will be available to them when they are ready to reach out to me, I will find answers for people. Following up is very important.

McDonald criticized economic development efforts that he said focus only on affordable housing that wont attract investors and businesses.

We need to market (Meriden) better, he said. And enforce blight laws. Residents need to be accountable for returning garbage bins. We have to start clearing up the city and controlling panhandling and loitering. I understand the First Amendment pretty well, but to desecrate the (Broad Street monument) area is a disgrace. People avoid it. Or turn their heads to it. And its a disgrace.

As a public schools employee, McDonald sees firsthand the positive effect the school resource officers have with the students.

People love police officers in school, he said. Having them removed is beyond comprehension.

He is also a strong proponent of giving police the tools they need to address adult and juvenile crimes. Hes opposed to the Civilian Review Board.

McDonald said he believes that a way to keep taxes down is to stop allowing more affordable housing development.

He said officials need to start marketing the city as a place people want to come to. Investors dont want to build Dave & Busters because the citys median income cant support it, he said.

Were centrally located, McDonald said. And nobody wants to come here. How many years has it been? We have to do something to help the taxpayer.

McDonald sits on the Neighborhood Rehabilitation Advisory Board and addressed city officials on matters related to blight and development. He also assisted City Councilor Michael Carabettas petition campaign to reopen the budget, which eventually led to Carabettas election to the council. As campaign chairman, hes helped six out of 10 candidates get elected.

Rohde stresses his bipartisan ability

Democrat Michael Rohde is an incumbent councilor and former mayor who has served in public office for 26 years. At 78 years old, he is the director of community relations at the Community Health Center Inc.

Rohde is the founder of the citys award-winning Flood Control Project, chairman of the first Linear Trail Committee, co-founder of the Relay for Life, co-founder of Meriden Farmers Market, and supporter of the new library expansion project.

He points to his ability to work on bipartisan accomplishments as a reason he should be elected. However, the lack of GOP support on the recent library expansion and a proposal for a new storage and bathroom facility on the Meriden Green is troublesome, he said.

This is the first time we didnt have full support, Rohde said. They voted against the library expansion where the technology is unbelievable. The GOP talks about vision and then votes against it.

After five terms on City Council and two and a half terms as mayor, I know how to work with people.

mgodin@record-journal.com

203-317-2255

Twitter: @Cconnbiz
Republican George Logan announced Monday he is running again for Congress, likely setting up another high-profile rematch against U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, in Connecticuts most competitive district.

Logan  a former state senator who works for Aquarion, a water company owned by Eversource  narrowly lost to Hayes last November by 2,004 votes. He is hoping to unseat her as House Republicans seek to hang onto their slim majority in the 2024 elections.

As he gears up for another race, Logan is vowing to work with lawmakers in both parties while knocking his opponent for being a rubber stamp for the Biden administration. Connecticuts congressional delegation is currently made up of all Democrats.

What I keep hearing from everyone across the district is a frustration that politicians representing us in Washington dont have their priorities straight. A gallon of gas is fifty cents more today than it was a year ago. Paying the rent, and buying groceries is breaking the backs of too many hard-working people in our communities, Logan said in a statement.

Our paycheck buys less and less because politicians in Washington spent recklessly, and now were all paying the price. Weve got elected leaders in Washington who would rather default on our debts than come to the table and compromise, he added.

A Republican from Connecticut has not served in the U.S. House since 2009. The last Republican to represent the states 5th District was former Rep. Nancy Johnson, who lost reelection in 2006 to Democrat Chris Murphy, who is now a U.S. senator.

Logan, the son of Guatemalan immigrants who had roots in Jamaica, got into state politics in 2016 when he won his first election and unseated a longtime Democratic state senator. He won again in 2018 but narrowly lost reelection in 2020.

Ahead of his formal announcement on Monday evening from the American Legion Hall in Watertown, Logan rolled out a new video about his second run for Congress.

It features his mother, Olga, who played a role in past campaign ads for his 2022 race. The video shows government agents taking away appliances as his mother cooks, making a reference to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission considering regulations on new gas stoves over health concerns.

As bad as things were a year ago, theyve only gotten worse. As ridiculous as all this seems, politicians in Washington have their priorities upside down, arguing which stoves Americans are cooking on while working families struggle to put food on the table, Logan said in the video.

Im running for Congress because my opponent is a rubber stamp for every one of President Bidens bad ideas, he added.

In June, the GOP-led House passed a bill preventing the agency from using federal funds to ban gas stoves. Twenty-nine Democrats supported that legislation, including Hayes. But the bills fate is unclear in the Senate.

Hayes, who became the first Black woman to represent Connecticut in Congress, announced in August she would seek a fourth term. Before getting into politics, she was a teacher in Waterbury and was named the 2016 National Teacher of the Year.

In a statement following Logans announcement, Hayes called him an anti-choice Trump extremist. During the last campaign, Logan said he opposes a national abortion ban backed by a number of Republicans but also said he did not believe Congress had the constitutional right to protect abortion rights federally.

At the time, he said he agrees with the U.S. Supreme Court that the issue of abortion rights should be left to the states. Connecticut has codified abortion rights into state law, and Hayes supports legislation that would do that on a federal level.

It is fitting that he would announce one day after we witnessed the chaos and confusion of extreme House Republicans, who could not even pass their own bill to avoid a government shutdown and on the same day that Trump once again appears in court, Hayes said.

I will do everything in my power to beat him yet again, so that Trump and dysfunctional House Republicans do not have an ally in the district that I call home, she added.

Hayes won her two previous elections by double-digits margins in 2018 and 2020.

But the 2022 race between Hayes and Logan was one of the most competitive and expensive in years. Last years campaign had spent upwards of $12 million between both parties and outside spending.

Hayes position as an incumbent and her earlier announcement gives her an advantage on fundraising for her reelection. The most recent federal fundraising filings from July show she has more than $620,000 in the bank.

Since the beginning of 2023, Hayes has raised about $476,000 and spent more than $215,000, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Logans most recent FEC filing from July shows he has about $8,900 in the bank. His decision to run again in 2024 came a few months later in the off year than when he announced his campaign for the 2022 election.

This story originally appeared on the website of The Connecticut Mirror, www.ctmirror.org.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. Work on the railway bridge over the Hakari river is nearing completion, Azerbaijan Railways CJSC told Trend.

According to the information, the bridge will be 418 meters long and 6.5 meters wide.

In addition, the work on this bridge is an integral part of the construction of the Horadiz-Aghband railway line.

"The railway line has a single-track traffic system, and its length along the axis is 110.4 kilometers. There will be nine stations on the line (Horadiz, Merjanli, Mahmudlu, Sultanli, Kumlak, Hakari, Mincivan, Bartaz, Aghband). As part of the project, 456 artificial engineering structures will also be put into operation," Azerbaijan Railways said.
Tragedy struck popular socialite Slyvester Mabuda, known as Sly, on his 30th birthday, turning a beautiful evening into a nightmare. The incident occurred along the N4 Highway in Diepsloot, just north of Johannesburg. Sly was enjoying himself with friends in the exclusive VVIP section at the Jacaranda Lounge during a Jah Prayzah show.

Amidst the celebrations, Sly jokingly asked a reporter to take a photo for publication in H-Metro, intending to share his birthday joy with the nation. Little did anyone know that this would be his last photo. Accompanied by his best friend, Larry Mushope, Sly was heading back home to Pretoria after the show when tragedy struck.

Around 1 am, approximately 20 kilometers into their journey, they encountered trouble with the rear tyre of their car. Realizing something was amiss, they decided to stop as the car was now riding on the rim. Seeking assistance, they called their friends for help. Suddenly, three men emerged from the darkness, armed with guns, knives, and broken bottles.

Two of the assailants targeted Sly, while the third approached Larry. The thugs subjected them to a vicious assault, leaving them badly injured. They were robbed of their belongings, including Larrys phone and wallet, as well as Slys possessions. The attackers swiftly disappeared into the surrounding bushes. Dazed and in pain, Larry regained consciousness and discovered that Sly had sustained injuries during the scuffle.

Desperate for help, Larry hobbled across the road to a nearby complex. He sought assistance from a security guard and returned to the car with him, but tragically, Sly had already succumbed to his injuries. The area where the incident occurred has a notorious reputation for crime, with an increasing number of murders. The local community has been protesting against the violence, which often involves thugs throwing metal spikes onto the road to puncture tires, enabling them to ambush unsuspecting motorists.

This incident echoes a similar tragedy when Zimbabwean Elvis Nyathi was killed by a xenophobic mob in the same township last year. Police and forensic experts swiftly arrived at the scene, and investigations are currently underway. Preliminary reports suggest that Sly may have died from either a stab wound or a gunshot wound. The official cause of death is yet to be determined, pending the results of a post-mortem examination.

Slys untimely demise is a significant loss to the entertainment industry. He was renowned for his unwavering support of artists from Zimbabwe, often attending events with his friends solely to show his appreciation. As his family gathers in Pretoria to make funeral arrangements, the entertainment community mourns the loss of a beloved figure.

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There is political tension brewing in Zimbabwe ahead of the Presidents State of the Nation address. According to sources within the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change party (CCC), their legislators plan to boycott the event.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa is scheduled to officially open the new parliamentary session and deliver his annual speech today. However, CCC members passed a resolution not to attend, citing Mnangagwas disputed victory in the 2022 elections. One source told the paper attending would mean accepting Mnangagwas legitimacy, so we have agreed not to.

When asked for comment, CCC spokesperson Gift Siziba did not directly confirm or deny the boycott plans. However, he reiterated their position that their leader Nelson Chamisa is the rightful president-elect. The elections results, which declared Mnangagwa the winner, were deemed illegitimate by the opposition party. They were also declared unfree and unfair by SADC, AU and Commesa, EU and Carter Centre.

Siziba proposed the only way to resolve this political crisis is through negotiations leading to a credible and normal election. For now, tensions remain high, as the CCC refuses to recognize Mnangagwas authority. Their absence from his big annual speech today would certainly escalate tensions further in this unsettled post-election period for Zimbabwe.

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Police have released the names of five of the six people who died last Friday in Mashava when a plane carrying them crashed in Zvemahande area.

The sixth victim, believed to have come into the country as a visitor, is yet to be identified.

National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said:

The Zimbabwe Republic Police releases the names of five of the six victims who were killed in a plane crash which occurred on September 29, 2023 between 7.30am and 8am in Zvemahande area, Mashava. Five victims were positively identified by their next of kin, he said

They are Harpla Singh Randhawa (60) of Murowa Diamonds, Amer Singh Randhawa who was son to Harpla Singh Randhawa, George Sibanda (51) of Murowa Diamonds, Nikhil Mahadik Milind of Murowa Diamonds and Reginald Muchemwa (38) who was the pilot.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police is working with relevant institutions to establish the cause of the accident and to identify the sixth victim who is believed to have come to Zimbabwe as a visitor, Asst Comm Nyathi said.

The plane, believed to be owned by Rio Zimbabwe Company, is suspected to have developed a technical problem before crashing, killing all passengers and crew on board.

It is suspected that the plane was flying from Harare to Zvishavane to collect diamonds.

Eye witnesses said while the weather was misty when the plane crashed while coming from a north-eastern direction towards Zvishavane, the plane started making a strange noise before appearing to circle at the same place and thereafter crashed.

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A man from Queenspark West suburb in Bulawayo who went on a robbery spree targeting school pupils lying to them that he was a Zambian before he robbed them will live to rue his actions after he was slapped with an effective 19-month jail term.

Leornard Tafirenyika Nyabadza (43) was handed his jail package when he appeared before Western Commonage magistrate Linear Khumalo facing two counts of theft.

He pleaded not guilty to both counts but was, however, convicted after a full trial.

For the first count he was slapped with a 15 months jail sentence of which six months were suspended on condition that he does not commit a similar offence within a period of five years.

A further two months were suspended on condition that he restitutes the complainants R500 by 16 October being the value of the cellphone which he robbed them.

For the second count the magistrate sentenced him to serve 12 months in prison and three months were suspended on condition that he restitutes the complainant US$143.

The magistrate brought into effect three months of a suspended sentence of a theft case which he committed in 2022. This means he will effectively serve 19 months behind bars. In sentencing him the magistrate noted that Nyabadza was a repeat offender who has a propensity of stealing.

She highlighted that sometime in 2022 Nyabadza was arrested for theft after he faked his identity and was handed a three months sentence which was wholly suspended on condition that he pays $20 000 fine but he never paid it and went into hiding.

The court noted that he was on a warrant of arrest and due to that he had to be sent to jail to reform.

The court heard that sometime last month on a date not known by the prosecutor Nyabadza who was in the company of a lady who is yet to be arrested met a 14-year-old pupil in Pumula East suburb heading to school and stopped her.

Nyabadza told the teenage girl that he was from Zambia before he requested her to collect groceries for him at a nearby house.

The minor girl fell for the trap and they asked her to hand over her cellphone to him and she complied.

Nyabadza and his accomplice who is on the run disappeared with her cellphone and she reported the incident to the police.

On the second occasion late last month he met another pupil while he was in the company of his two other male accomplices who are also still at large and used the same modus operandi to rob her of her satchel which contained exercise books and other school materials.

They gave her a receipt bearing US$ 3000 and requested her to go and collect it from a nearby house.

When she left they ran away with her satchel. The minor girl reported the incident to the police leading to the arrest of Nyabadza.

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Yves here. I welcome reader input, but if I were to hazard a guess or two about declining academic performance, some top issue would be the fallen status of teachers and with it, parental umbrage at having their kids depicted as doing poorly, which is arguably more likely in hard-skill courses like math. The obsession with preserving fragile egos is a bizarre and destructive cultural obsession.

Ive told this story before, but during Covid, I had a house guest (yes, we were careful) who was a high school chemistry teacher in a magnet school in a poor county. I overheard her teaching a remote lesson. I politely told her that her class was different than the high school chemistry I studied.

She knew immediately what I was driving at, that it was shockingly dumbed down. She said that in California, schools are not allowed to hold a child back a year due to failure to master the material unless the parents consent. She had kids in her classes who are illiterate and others who are poor readers. That limits what you can teach.

By Jon Marcus, the higher education editor at The Hechinger Report. Produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet focused on education.

Like a lot of high school students, Kevin Tran loves superheroes, though perhaps for different reasons than his classmates.

Theyre all insanely smart. In their regular jobs theyre engineers, theyre scientists, said Tran, who is 17. And you cant do any of those things without math.

Tran also loves math. He was speaking during a break in a Boston city program for promising local high school students to study calculus for five hours a day throughout the summer at Northeastern University. And his observation was surprisingly apt.

At a time when Americans joke about how bad they are at math, and already abysmal scores on standardized math tests are falling even further, employers and others say the nation needs people who are good at math in the same way motion picture mortals need superheroes.

They say Americas poor math performance isnt funny anymore. Its a threat to the nations global economic competitiveness and national security.

The advances in technology that are going to drive where the world goes in the next 50 years are going to come from other countries, because they have the intellectual capital and we dont, said Jim Stigler, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies the process of teaching and learning subjects including math.

Theres already ample and dramatic evidence of this.

Several largely overlooked reports, including from the Department of Defense, raise alarms about how Americans disdain for math is a threat to national security.

One, issued in July by the think tank The Aspen Institute, warns that international adversaries are challenging Americas longtime technological dominance. We are no longer keeping pace with other countries, particularly China, it says, calling this a dangerous failure and urging decisionmakers to make education a national security priority.

There are major national and international challenges that will require better math skills, said Josh Wyner, vice president of The Aspen Institute and founder and executive director of its College Excellence Program.

This is not an educational question alone, said Wyner. Its about knowledge development, environmental protection, better cures for diseases. Resolving the fundamental challenges facing our time require math.

The Defense Department, in a separate study, calls for an initiative akin to the 1958 Eisenhower National Defense Act to support education in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM. It reports that there are now eight times as many college graduates in these disciplines in China and four times as many engineers in Russia than in the United States. China has also surpassed the United States in the number of doctoral degrees in engineering, according to the National Science Foundation.

Meanwhile, the number of jobs in math occupations  which use arithmetic and apply advanced techniques to make calculations, analyze data, and solve problems  will have increased by 29 percent in the 10 years ending in 2031, or by more than 30,000 per year, Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show. Thats much faster than most other kinds of jobs.

Mathematics is becoming more and more a part of almost every career, said Michael Allen, who chairs the math department at Tennessee Technological University.

Tennessee Tech runs a summer camp teaching cybersecurity, which requires math, to high school students. That lightbulb goes off and they say, Thats why I need to know that, Allen said.

There are deep shortages of workers in information technology fields, according to the labor market analytics firm Lightcast, which says that there were more than 4 million job postings over the last year in the United States for software developers, database administrators and computer user support specialists.

With billions being spent to beef up U.S. production of semiconductors, Deloitte reports a projected shortage in that industry, too, of from 70,000 to 90,000 workers over the next few years.

All of these careers require math. Yet math scores among American students  which had been stagnant for more than a decade, according to the National Science Foundation  are now getting worse.

Math performance among elementary and middle-school students has fallen by 6 to 15 percent below pre-pandemic growth rates, depending on the students age, since before the pandemic, according to the Northwest Evaluation Association, which administers standardized tests nationwide. Math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress fell by 9 points last year, the largest drop ever recorded, to their lowest levels in more than three decades.

In the most recent Program for International Student Assessment tests in math, or PISA, U.S. students scored lower than their counterparts in 36 other education systems worldwide. Students in China scored the highest.

Even before the pandemic, only one in five college-bound American high school students were prepared for college-level courses in STEM, according to the National Science and Technology Council. Among the students who decide to study STEM in college, more than a third end up changing their majors, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

And these are the students who have done well in maths, said Jo Boaler, who studies the teaching of math as a professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. Thats a huge loss for the U.S.

One result of this exodus is that, in the fast-growing field of artificial intelligence, two-thirds of U.S. university graduate students and more than half the U.S. workforce in AI and AI-related fields are foreign born, according to the Georgetown University Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

Only around one in five graduate students in math-intensive subjects including computer science and electrical engineering at U.S. universities are American, the National Foundation for American Policy reports, and the rest come from abroad. Most will leave when they finish their programs; many are being aggressively recruited by other countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom.

The economic ramifications of this in the United States are twofold: first, on individuals job prospects and earnings potential; and second, on the countrys productivity and competitiveness.

Every one of the 25 highest-paying college majors are in STEM fields, the financial advising website Bankrate found.

Ten years after graduating, math majors out-earn graduates in other fields by about 17 percent, according to an analysis by the Burning Glass Institute using the education and job histories of more than 50 million workers. That premium would be even higher if it wasnt for the fact that 16 percent of math majors become teachers.

Knowing math is a huge part of how successful people are in their lives and what jobs are open to them, what promotions they can get, Boaler said.

A Stanford economist has estimated that, if U.S. pandemic math declines are not reversed, students now in kindergarten through grade 12 will earn from 2 to 9 percent less over their careers, depending on what state they live in, than their predecessors educated just before the start of the pandemic. The states themselves will suffer a decline in gross domestic product of from 0.6 to 2.9 percent per year, or a collective $28 trillion over the remainder of this century.

Countries whose students scored higher on math tests have experienced greater economic growth than countries whose students tested lower, one study found. It calculated that had the U.S. improved its math scores on the PISA test as promised by President George H. W. Bush and the nations governors in 1989, it would have resulted in a 4.5 percent bump in the U.S. gross domestic product by 2015. That increase did not occur.

Math matters to economic growth for our country, Wyner said.

This is among the reasons that it isnt only schools that have been pushing for more students to learn math. Its economic development agencies such as the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, which is trying to get more students into STEM so they can fill jobs in fields such as semiconductor production and electric vehicle design, in which the state projects a need for up to 300,000 workers by 2030.

Math just underpins everything, said Megan Schrauben, executive director of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunitys MiSTEM initiative to improve STEM education. Its extremely important for the future prosperity of our students and communities, but also our entire state.

The top reason young people ages 13 to 18 say they wouldnt consider a career in technology is that it requires math and science skills, a survey by the information technology industry association and certification provider CompTIA finds. Forty-six percent fear they arent good enough in math and science to work in tech, a higher proportion than their counterparts in Australia, Belgium, India, the Middle East, and the U.K.

In Massachusetts, which is particularly dependent on technology industries, employers are anticipating a shortage over the next five years of 11,000 workers in the life sciences alone.

Its not a small problem, said Edward Lambert Jr., executive director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education. Were just not starting students, particularly students of color and from lower-resourced families, on career paths related to math and computer science and those things in which we need to stay competitive, or starting them early enough.

The Bridge to Calculus program at Northeastern where Kevin Tran spent his summer is a response to that. The 113 participating students were paid $15 an hour, most of it from the city and its public schools, the programs coordinator, Bindu Veetel, said; the university provided the classroom space and some of the teachers.

The students days began at 7:30 a.m., when teacher Jeremy Howland roused his sleepy-looking charges by having them run exercises in their heads, such as calculating 20 percent of various figures hed written on the whiteboard.

He wasnt doing it to show them how to leave a tip. He wanted them to explain their thought processes.

I can see the wheels turning in your head, Howland told the sea of faces in front of him one early moning as knees bobbed and pens drummed on pages of paper notebooks crowded with equations.

The students daily two-hour daily calculus class got only tougher after that. Slowly the numbers yielded their secrets, like a mystery being solved. One of the students even corrected the teacher.

Bada-bing, Howland said whenever they were right. Okay, now youre talking math.

Students used some of the rest of their time learning how to apply that knowledge, trying their hands at coding, data analysis, robotics, and elementary electrical engineering under the watchful supervision of mentors including previous graduates of the program.

We show them how this leads to a career, said Veetel, who said the programs alumni have gone on to software, electrical and civil engineering, math research, teaching, medical, and other careers.

They have so many options with math. Slowly that spark comes on, that this is something they can do.

Its not just a good deed that Northeastern is doing. Some of the graduates of Bridge to Calculus end up enrolling there and proceeding to its highly ranked computer science and engineering programs, which  like those at other U.S. universities  struggle to attract homegrown talent.

More than half of the graduate students in all disciplines at Northeastern, including those that require math, are foreign born, university statistics show. In his field of engineering management, 80 percent of us are Indian, Suuraj Narayanan Raghunathan, a graduate student serving as a Bridge to Calculus mentor, said with a laugh.

The American high school students said they get why their classmates dont like math.

Its a struggle. Its constant thinking, said one, Steven Ramos, 16, who said he plans to become a computer or electrical engineer instead of following his brother and other relatives into construction work.

But with time, the answers come into focus, said Wintana Tewolde, also 16, who wants to be a doctor. Its not easy to understand, but once you do, you see it.

Peter St. Louis-Severe, 17, said math, to him, is fun. Its the only subject I can truly understand, because most of the time it has only one answer, said St. Louis-Severe, who hopes to be a mechanical or chemical engineer and whose gamer name is Mathematics Boss. Who wouldnt like math?

Not everyone is convinced that a lack of math skills is holding America back.

We push so many kids away from computer science when we tell them you have to be good at math to do computer science, which isnt true at all, said Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO of CompTIA.

What employers really want, Thibodeaux said, is trainability, the aptitude of people being able to learn the systems and solve problems. Other countries, he said, are dying for the way our kids learn creativity.

Back in their classroom at Northeastern, students spent a brief break exchanging math jokes, then returned to class, where even Howlands hardest questions generally failed to stump them.

They confidently answered as he grilled them on polynomial functions. And after an occasional stumble, they got all the exercises right.

Bada-bing, their teacher happily responded.
Economist Herbert Stein famously said, That which cant continue, wont. That applies to Ukraine. It is increasingly becoming obvious that Ukraine cant prevail in its proxy war with Russia. Absent a nuclear war or some Yellowstone-caldera-blowup-level natural disaster in Russia, the fact that Ukraine can only pursue a war of attrition against the much better resourced Russia means Ukraine will lose on the battlefield. How total that loss is in military terms is a matter of Russias resolve and its willingness to continue to commit men and materiel.

But it is still striking to see Russia doubling down on a battlefield resolution even as the West clearly needs some way out but cant, as they say in Maine, get there from here.

The 2022-2023 level of funding and arms have not been enough to beat Russia. Politically, the West cannot continue that level of support without a prospect of a Ukraine win, or at least fighting to a not-horrible-looking standstill, in say a year, eighteen months tops. The new mantra in some circles of a long war is an admission of defeat, of trying to buy time until a face-saving is found. And thats before considering the elephant in the room, that the Beltway rules based order types see China as the bigger threat, and dont want to blow their wad on Ukraine.

In light of all that, well argue that the failure of the Administration to get $24 billion (then cut to $6 billion) of additional 2023 funding to Ukraine as part of the so-called continuing resolution is a bigger deal than the press is acknowledging and many pundits seem to appreciate. Even though many default to of course Ukraine will get the money, the procedural path for getting that done is not obvious.

First, the fact that the Administration failed to prevail is a sign that Biden is in lame duck terrain. Normally, the continuing resolution drama is a very effective vehicle to get all sorts of Congresscritters to hold their noses and vote for things they dont much like to keep the government open. Must haves like disaster relief serve as cudgels to pass the entire package.

The whole point of putting a huge chunk of additional Ukraine spending in that bill was because that was the easiest way to get it done. Any other scheme will be more visible. And now that one round of Ukraine spending has been denied, it makes it less risky for other Congresscritters to oppose Ukraine spending or insist on lower amounts.

Specifically, Biden is now talking up having the House and Senate vote on a stand-alone Ukraine funding measure. He is acting as if that House Speaker McCarthy agrees to that.1 But McCarthy denies that as Florida representative Matt Gaetz, the leader of the campaign to block Ukraine funding, is now taking a run at McCarthys speakership. From BBC:

The deal late on Saturday that averted a government shutdown left out $6bn (5bn) of funding for Ukraine because Mr Gaetz, of Florida, and other ultraconservatives insisted the US has spent too much on that countrys war with Russia. Mr Gaetz has wielded the threat of dethroning Mr McCarthy ever since January when he led party rebels in opposing the California congressmans bid for the speakership, forcing him to endure 15 gruelling rounds of voting in the chamber. During the political horse-trading before he ultimately won the gavel, Mr McCarthy agreed to a change of rules that would allow any single lawmaker to call for a vote to oust the Speaker.

That paved the way to the motion to vacate. In a speech on the House floor on Monday, Mr Gaetz accused Mr McCarthy of striking a secret deal with the White House to insert new Ukraine funding into separate legislation.

Mr McCarthy has said there is no side deal on Ukraine. After filing the motion to vacate, Mr Gaetz told a crowd of reporters: Well, I have enough Republicans where, at this point next week, one of two things will happen. Kevin McCarthy wont be the Speaker of the House, or hell be the Speaker of the House working at the pleasure of the Democrats, and Im at peace with either result, because the American people deserve to know who governs them.

As an aside, the seemingly obvious route of tucking the extra 2023 Ukraine spending in the Pentagon kitty is problematic too. The House and Senate each passed their versions of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2024, as in the next spending year, in July. The two versions have yet to be reconciled. Trying to cram more Ukraine monies in there wont lead to a faster outcome even assuming both sides are willing to give much on other contested issues, which is what the Ukraine confidence fairy needs right now.

Now the Pentagon is sure to be able to find some change in the sofa cushions to toss some more cash to Ukraine. But scaring up $6 billion would look unseemly even if they could find out of 2023 authorizations.

Since its only six week until the next go at a spending bill, the normal solution to the problem of stubborn representatives is bribes, in the form of pork for their district. For instance, the originally fiercely derided TARP passed after liberal application of handouts. But these Republican ideologues are fierce opponents of more spending save for a few pet categories like border control. They thus might be unwilling to take these inducements out of cussedness or reluctance to be depicted as hypocrites. And as the Washington Post pointed out:

GOP support for Ukraines defense has been dropping precipitously with each House vote, and there is little reason to believe McCarthy will face any less resistance to supporting Kyiv if he tries to rally his conference next time he tries to do so.

The US going visibly wobbly is happening just after various commentators have noted, in the last few weeks, Russia has been taking a tougher line, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Chairman of the Duma Vyacheslav Volodin, and now deputy chair of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev all making statements that pretty much amount to Russia now being committed to a maximalist goal, of either getting Ukraine to capitulate or ending its existence as a state.

Note that is not tantamount to taking all of Ukraine, but of following Clausewitz: War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will. But as Alexander Mercouris and Alex Christoforu have pointed out, Russia has been broadcasting in what look to be recruitment ads that portray campaigns against Odessa and Kiev, as well as others that signal that Russia now expects to move forces west of the Dnieper. Recall not just Kiev but many other cities, such as Dnipro, Nikopol, and Kherson straddle the river, making how far Russia eventually goes West not obvious. 2

As Russia has become more bloodyminded, Ukraines allies seem caught in their own conflicting boundary conditions. There is no willingness to mobilize to defend Ukraine. There isnt even a serious effort to ramp up military production to an adequate level to match, let alone surpass, Russias output. which using a population of 36 million, only has 5 EU states larger than it, which makes is a very costly welfare project.

And thats before getting to the fact that Ukraine as a county has become a very costly ward of all its backers. Alex Vershinin, in his important paper, The Return of Industrial Warfare, clearly envisioned the implications of Ukraines dependence on coalition support:

The Ukrainians terrain-focused war of maneuver is constrained by two factors: limited artillery ammunition and equipment production, and coalition considerationsUkraine simply cannot go toe to toe with Russia in artillery battles Ukraines second constraint is the coalition nature of its warfare. Since running out of its own stocks, Ukraine is increasingly reliant on Western weaponry. Maintaining the Western coalition is crucial to the Ukrainian war effort. Without a constant string of victories, domestic economic concern may cause coalition members to defect. If Western support dries up due to depletion of stock or of political will, Ukraines war effort collapses for lack of supplies. In some ways, Ukraine has no choice but to launch attacks no matter the human and material cost.

Due to not wanting to overload this post, we will put to one side the magnitude of funding for Ukraine ex military support and how its economy is buckling even with all of that backing. Commentators have a understandable tendency to focus on what they can observe, even though that runs the risk of the drunk under the streetlight syndrome. As we hope to discuss in a separate post the dire conditions in Ukraines economy and the extreme measure now taken to keep it going. Many commentators discuss the prospects for the collapse or conquest of Ukraines military, but desperate conditions away from the front can also sap the will to keep fighting.

The problem is that factions in the US leadership have conflicting objectives that are becoming harder to paper over. And now we have fractures in Europe, witness the win of Ukraine-war-skeptic Robert Fico in Slovakia and the prospect of Polands opposition to providing more arms and other rows with Ukraine becoming not just the spat of the day to appease voters before October 15 elections, but enduring as policy. The very short version is Polands lead party Law and Justice (PiS), which was once a diehard Ukraine loyalist, has backed away from that position as Polish voters have soured on Project Ukraine. Ukraine filing a WTO suit against Poland (and others) for rejecting Ukraine grain was correctly perceived as a hostile, ungrateful act after too many displays of Ukraine entitlement. And as one reader pointed out with respect to Ireland, the official budgetary support for Ukraine does not include all of the benefits extended to Ukraine refugees, another source of resentment. Former president Donald Tusk, who is staunchly pro-Ukraine, is running as the opposition leader but even with massive turnout at rallies last weekend, is polling only at 30% The touts seem to favor PIS (now at 38%) forming a coalition with the conservative and Ukraine-critical Confederation party. Youll note Politico does not even deign to mention that outcome in its latest story. But Associated Press did take note last week:

Polands hard-right Confederation party  made their case for lower taxes, less regulation and an anti-European Union and anti-Ukraine foreign policy. Confederation has turned up the heat on the Polish political establishment, riding a wave of support for nationalist conservative parties across Europe. Similar political forces have surged on opposition to widespread migration to Europe and anger over COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates The Polish party, which won nearly 7% of the vote four years ago, was polling at around 15% in the summer, creating the prospect of a third-place finish after the governing national conservative party Law and Justice, which is the frontrunner in surveys, and the opposition Civic Coalition, led by former Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which is trailing in second place. That created speculation that it could end up as a coalition partner in the next government with Law and Justice. Such a scenario could push the EU and NATO even further to the political right and weaken Polands support for the Western alliance defending Ukraine.

While every country is different, polls in other EU members have tended to understate support for anti-EU/NATO factions. Viktor Orban was predicted to at risk of losing when he won in a rout. Fico was projected to be only a possible winner and exit polls had his party as beaten when he won by five points. So that suggests that the conservative groups in Poland might do even better than now projected.

If PiS and Confederation do form a solid coalition after the Polish elections on the 15th, Victoria Nulands head might explode. Too bad it wont be televised.

_____

1 In fairness, the Biden statement was slippery: I fully expect the Speaker will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment.

2 We warned from the outset that Russia could win the war and lose the peace; we think trying to subdue Western Ukraine would be a huge resource drain as well as corrupting, which is why we suggested forcing significant depopulation of that area as potentially the least bad of not good options. Medvedev early on had suggested what amounted to partitioning it among countries with reasonable claims, as in Poland, Hungary, and Romania, but EU and NATO heads would explode over member states of these two organizations executing what they would deem to be a nefarious Russian plot. Medvedev having floated that scheme early on makes it seem unlikely that the Collective West would embrace it as their idea.
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Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg underlined NATOs enduring support for Ukraine in a call with transatlantic leaders on Tuesday (3 October 2023). As Russia continues its brutal war we are all committed to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes, Mr Stoltenberg said. The call was hosted by US President Joe Biden, bringing together G7 leaders with NATO and European Union leadership, as well as Poland and Romania as co-chairs of the Bucharest Nine (B9) group.

Mr Stoltenberg stressed the importance of continued support to Ukraine as the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace. He welcomed that Allies are sharing the burden equitably, with around half of the military support pledged for Ukraine coming from the US, and the other half from European Allies and Canada. He also highlighted the steps taken at the Vilnius Summit to bring Ukraine closer to the Alliance than ever before  including the removal of the requirement for a Membership Action Plan, the establishment of the NATO-Ukraine Council, and a major package to achieve full interoperability of the Ukrainian forces with NATO.



The Secretary General visited Kyiv on 28 September, expressing NATOs strong support in meetings with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government. The following day, Mr Stoltenberg delivered a video address to the first meeting of the International Defence Industry Forum in Kyiv, stressing that Ukraine needs capabilities: high quality, high quantity, and quickly.
NO WHITES ALLOWED: 94% of Corporate Americas new workforce are people of color

Following the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, there is a trend toward systemic discrimination against white individuals. According to a Bloomberg study, the S&P 100 companies collectively added over 300,000 jobs , with 94 percent of those positions filled by individuals from diverse racial backgrounds.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission mandates that companies employing 100 or more workers annually report demographic information about their workforce.

Bloomberg acquired data for 2020 and 2021 from 88 S&P 100 companies and analyzed the overall job growth at these firms. In total, these companies expanded their U.S. workforces by 323,094 individuals in 2021, marking the first year following the BLM protests. This data represents the most recent available.

Among these job additions, 20,524 were white employees, while the remaining 302,570 positions, constituting 94 percent of the overall increase, were filled by people of color. The data suggests a proactive approach to diversity, which may raise questions about discrimination practices. (Related: GONE WOKE: Chick-fil-A embraces woke agenda, names VP for diversity, equity and inclusion.)

As noted by Chris Menahan of Information Liberation, there are reports that the chief executive officer of telecommunications giant British Telecom is terminating white employees en masse to replace them with non-white individuals, achieve "diversity goals" and potentially earn a 220,000 ($266,000) bonus.

When Elon Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, the executives of the social media giant purportedly recommended the dismissal of white employees to prevent legal issues and promote "diversity."

DOJ sues Musk for hiring Americans over refugees and asylum seekers

Musk, however, disregarded their advice. As a result, the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently filed a lawsuit against Musk for prioritizing the hiring of Americans over refugees and asylum seekers.

Following the BLM protests, Walmart initiated training programs stating that "white is not right;" Coca-Cola trained its employees to "strive for less whiteness;" and AT&T conducted sessions telling white employees, "You are part of the problem."

Bloomberg's report indicates that companies are hesitant to discuss the "progress" they have made through race-based hiring practices, possibly due to concerns about discrimination lawsuits.

Many CEOs are now contemplating whether the Supreme Court's June ruling on race-based admissions might apply to their hiring objectives.

"We've noticed that DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) is gradually losing importance three years later. Now, amidst business challenges, the question arises: 'Where should we cut resources and investments?' DEI and HR teams are impacted," said LaJoie-Lubin, a consultant who previously worked for a company but now works independently.

Esther Silver-Parker, an independent consultant who previously helped Walmart establish its DEI program, noted that companies are less eager to discuss topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion on earnings calls and at conferences.

Data compiled by Bloomberg reveals a 54 percent decline in mentions of these topics among Russell 3,000 Index companies during the third quarter. None of the companies that made significant diversity gains were willing to provide extensive details on the matter.

Silver-Parker explained: "The approach now is to do what is necessary without drawing attention to it. 'Let's keep a low profile. Let's avoid attracting attention. But we acknowledge our moral and market obligations.'"

Individuals who have been denied job opportunities or dismissed from these companies based on their race may have a moral and market responsibility to pursue legal action against these companies.

In recent years, numerous white individuals have secured substantial settlements by suing their employers for anti-white discrimination.

Just a few months ago, a jury ordered Starbucks to pay over $25 million in damages to a former regional manager who was terminated due to being white  a move perceived as a gesture to appease the BLM movement.

Bloomberg's comprehensive research could serve as valuable evidence in such legal proceedings.

Visit WokeMob.news for more stories related to the woke policies U.S. companies are pivoting to.

Watch a man sue the city of Seattle for anti-White discrimination.

This video is from the HALOROCK channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Anti-white "diversity officer" among "fastest-growing careers," says LinkedIn.

Anti-white racism is becoming blatant on college campuses.

The Berkeley Files: Faculty applicants were ranked on their support for DEI policies and practices.

Sources include:

Bloomberg.com

InformationLiberation.com

Brighteon.com
Americans can expect a very different winter this year thanks to El Nino

The El Nino weather phenomenon is expected to shake things up in the U.S. this winter, creating colder and snowier conditions in many parts of the country and making it harder for climate change alarmists to insist were feeling the effects of global warming.

U.S. Meteorological Analyst Ryan Hall said: Winter in the U.S. this year is going to be very different. El Nino is ramping up in the Pacific. Sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean are still off the charts, and we're going to have an amplified southern jet stream."

He added that this will affect not only the amount of snow that is dumped on the country but also how often it occurs.

Hall said that while the South and East have enjoyed relatively warm and dry winters over the last three years thanks to La Nina, the situation will be a lot different as we enter this winter in El Nino. This means that the Pacific Ocean will be warmer than usual, spurring a lot of thunderstorm activity, amplifying the Southern jet stream and setting storm systems in motion throughout the South. Some of these storm systems could well be strong enough to latch on to colder northern air and create sizeable snowstorms.

They could even be on the level of the North American blizzard of 2003 or the blizzard of January 2016 that buried much of the Mid-Atlantic in three feet of snow, resulting in $500 million worth of damage. Although he concedes that we cant say for certain whether those weather events were the result of El Nino, this is the type of thing we can see during El Nino winters. However, this is balanced by their tendency to keep things somewhat mild in the East.

The Farmers Almanac Editor Peter Geiger echoed this sentiment, warning in August: The 'brrr' is coming back! We expect more snow and low temperatures nationwide."

The publication shared a 2023-2024 Winter Outlook map showing a cold and snowy northeast giving way to a frosty, flakey, slushy southern New England and a cold and stormy Great Lakes area. Texas and its neighboring states, meanwhile, are expected to be unseasonably cold and stormy, while the Northwest will be seasonably cold and wet. The combination of colder temperatures and more frequent precipitation could mean the South will see much more sleet, snow and freezing rain than usual.

In California and parts of the Southwest, a stronger El Nino could cause more storms and snow at higher elevations, although its effects on these areas can be more challenging to predict.

Meteorologists are expecting a historically strong El Nino

In June, the National Weather Services National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that the expected El Nino had officially arrived and would gradually strengthen into wintertime, staying strong throughout the colder months and sticking around at least until early spring. They noted that this weather phenomenon occurs, on average, anywhere from every two to seven years and is responsible for a range of weather patterns that often set records. This year, NOAA said there is a 71 percent chance of experiencing a historically strong El Nino.

The last winter that had an El Nino of the strength expected this year was 2009 and 2010. That winter saw very cold temperatures in the central and southern U.S. with very snowy and wet conditions on the East Coast, while the Northeast was hit with multiple blizzards in quick succession.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

Weather.gov
Congress abandons Ukraine aid in temporary funding bill to avert government shutdown

President Joe Biden signed a temporary funding bill late Saturday, Sept. 30, to keep the government open after Congress rushed to approve a bipartisan deal.

The package drops Ukraine aid, a White House priority opposed by a growing number of GOP lawmakers. But it meets Biden's request of increasing federal disaster assistance by $16 billion.

The bipartisan deal, which funds the government until Nov. 17, comes after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy failed to unite the disparate factions within the Republican Party, leaving him short of being able to pass a short-term funding bill to keep the government open until Oct. 31.

McCarthy called a procedural vote to start debate on his last-ditch stopgap spending plan earlier in the day on Friday, Sept. 29, which advanced by 218 votes in favor to 210 against.

However, 21 Republicans sided with the Democrats following the debate, voting against the final passage of the bill in a brutal defeat for McCarthy's leadership. The final vote was 198 for and 232 against.

Before the final vote, McCarthy attempted a last-ditch appeal to Republican hardliners, making the case for the bill by playing up the border security provisions being added that can help stem the massive flow of illegal immigrants through the southern border. (Related: House Speaker McCarthy warns of GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN if Biden doesn't agree to protect the border.)

"Every member will have to go on record on where they stand," said McCarthy. "Are they willing to secure the border or do they side with President Biden on an open border and vote against a measure to keep the government open?"

The proposal included spending cuts to welfare programs and other areas across the government while maintaining spending levels for the U.S. Armed Forces and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

But Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who has led the charge for the House GOP to oppose McCarthy's spending bill, criticized the short-term measure as one that actually "weakens the Republican position on strong border policies."

Government shutdown to affect 3.5 million federal workers

In case of a government shutdown, more than 3.5 million federal workers  two million members of the military and 1.5 million federal civilian employees  will go without pay.

Over half of the civilian employees will be furloughed. The rest will be forced to show up to work without pay. Many federal employees who experienced a government shutdown are bracing to go for up to a month without pay.

John Hubert, 42, an airport security officer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), recalls organizing his fellow TSA workers to get essentials from food banks when they worked without pay in 2018.

Hubert, like many other civilian federal workers, still remembers the last shutdown and is now bracing for another potential extended government closure. Now that the House Republicans were unable to come together to pass a stopgap measure, Hubert now feels another extended period of work without pay is an inevitability.

"We're continuously put on the chopping block every year. It's ridiculous," said Hubert, who has worked for the TSA for 21 years. "We should not be put in this position every single year, then used as a bargaining chip to get legislation passed."

"Just like other Americans, we've still got to pay our bills, regardless of what's going on with Congress," Hubert added. "Officers with children, single parents are going to be dramatically affected if a shutdown continues over a long period of time."

The last shutdown lasted 35 days from Dec. 21, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019.

Learn the latest news coming out of the federal government at BigGovernment.news.

Watch this episode of "NTD News" on NTD as news anchor Tiffany Meier discusses the government shutdown on Sunday, Oct. 1.

This video is from the Pool Pharmacy channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Top six government-run and taxpayer-funded INDUSTRIAL COMPLEXES robbing Americans of their health and wealth.

Public NUMBS as government DEBT BOMB explodes to $33T, annual budget DEFICIT approaches $2T.

Massive government spending is keeping inflation high, warns market expert.

Sources include:

APNews.com 1

DailyMail.co.uk

ABCNews.go.com

APNews.com 2

Brighteon.com
STUPID: French residents support banning people from taking more than 4 flights over their lifetime to stem climate change

A surprising number of French people support the idea of placing a limit on the number of times people can fly in their lifetime in the name of saving the environment, with 41 percent of French citizens overall in favor of banning individuals from taking more than four flights  ever.

This is according to a poll of French residents conducted by the research firm Consumer Science and Analytics Institute. The proposed limit would apply to both business and leisure travel.

Young people in particular seem to be on board with this unusual suggestion, with 59 percent of those aged 18 to 24 in favor of imposing a four-flight lifetime limit.

This sentiment is not just limited to French people. A climate survey conducted by the European Investment Bank in a partnership with market research firm BVA revealed that 62 percent of Europeans were in favor of banning short-distance flights and 59 percent were on board with raising prices on food and other goods that bear a large carbon footprint, such as red meat, food that is transported across long distances and cell phones. By comparison, just 49 percent of Americans supported a ban on short-distance flights.

That survey also found that Europeans were largely in favor of measures that penalize the use of cars, with 67 percent saying that they support having less space to accommodate cars in city centers. Moreover, 72 percent of Europeans were in favor of imposing a carbon tax on traveling by plane and 84 percent supported creating more pedestrian-only zones in downtown areas.

France has already implemented a ban on short-haul flights

In May, France implemented a ban on domestic short-haul flights between locations for which train journeys are available that last less than two hours and 30 minutes. France boasts an extensive high-speed rail network. The ban affects flights between cities such as Paris and Bordeaux, Lyon and Nantes; it does not affect connecting flights.

The countrys transport minister, Clement Beaune, said the move was an essential step and a strong symbol in the policy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He added that it was a global first.

However, some experts have criticized the move and labeled it more of a symbolic ban. The interim head of Airlines for Europe, Laurent Donceel, said that banning these trips will only have minimal effects on carbon dioxide output and called for the government to support better solutions.

The ban was originally intended for flights between cities that could be traveled by train in under four hours. The French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir noted: "On average, the plane emits 77 times more CO2 per passenger than the train on these routes, even though the train is cheaper and the time lost is limited to 40 minutes. They also wanted safeguards to be put in place to prevent French railways from inflating their prices to take advantage of the new law.

Beaune said that the decree could be expanded when it comes up for renewal. He stated: "The decree is valid for 3 years so we can be more ambitious as we go further, by increasing the time of travel from 2.5 hours to at least 3 hours in the future."

This trend is gaining steam throughout Europe, where many countries are limiting flights in the name of the environment. Spain presented a plan to ban short-haul flights throughout the country in cases where a journey could be made by train in less than 2.5 hours by 2050, which would see the end of flights from Madrid to other cities on the mainland.

Belgium has already introduced a tax of 10 euros on short-haul flights to cities situated within 500 kilometers of Brussels Airport, while Germany recently raised taxes on short-haul flights by 75 percent.

Sources for this article include:

FoxNews.com

EIB.org

BBC.com

EuroNews.com
Leftist Philly journalist who mocked Scott Adams two days ago about murder prediction was murdered in his home this morning

Chalk this one up as freaky. Radical leftist "queer" journalist Josh Kruger posted an insult aimed at Dilbert creator Scott Adams for his prediction that electing Joe Biden would mean there's "a good chance you'll be dead..."

(Article republished from JDRucker.Substack.com)

"The Dilbert dude is like Nostradamus. Look at this prediction from 2020. Wow. Eerie," he posted.

Two days after that Tweet, he was murdered in his Philadelphia home, shot seven times. According to 6ABC:

The victim of a homicide in Philadelphia has been identified as a local journalist and community activist. Josh Kruger, 39, was shot seven times inside a home in the 2300 block of Watkins Street in the Point Breeze section around 1:30 a.m. Monday. He died at Penn Presbyterian Hospital about 45 minutes later. There was no word on a motive for this shooting. No arrests have been made. District Attorney Larry Krasner said in a statement that Kruger was an "openly queer writer who wrote about his own journey surviving substance use disorder and homelessness." Kruger was a journalist with bylines in multiple publications, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Magazine, The Philadelphia Citizen, WHYY and Billy Penn.

Philadelphia has become lawless under their Democrat Governor, Mayor, and Soros-backed District Attorney. This horrible crime following an eerie Tweet will get buried by corporate media despite the clear newsworthy nature of it.

Read more at: JDRucker.Substack.com
Mysterious Alaska Triangle linked to 20,000 disappearances and UFO sightings

There is a strange triangle of land in Alaska with more sightings of paranormal phenomena than almost any other similarly-sized area on the planet.

Witnesses claimed that they have seen mysterious things like triangle-shaped unidentified flying objects (UFOs), ghosts and "aggressive" creatures similar to Bigfoot in the "Alaska Triangle," an area infamous for many unexplained disappearances.

A hotbed of unsolved missing persons cases and UFO sightings

According to the History Channel, there are more unsolved missing persons cases in the Alaska Triangle than anywhere else on Earth. A Discovery Channel documentary also showcased interviews with eyewitnesses of some of the "most mysterious and compelling UFO sightings."

The Alaska Triangle is a region in northwest Alaska, and in the past 50 years, more than 20,000 people have vanished in the area. To date, no one knows who or what is behind these cases. Some say the disappearances are due to local predators or the rugged, dangerous terrain.

However, legends thrive in Alaska and the ominous history of disappearances in the area has drawn comparisons to another mysterious area: the Bermuda Triangle.

Wes Smith, one of the witnesses, explained that the "very strange" triangular objects he saw didnt move like any known aircraft.

The low-flying mystery craft was completely silent and did not emit even the tell-tale hum of a drone. Smith added that seeing the triangular objects made him think that everything he knew "has gone out of the window" because the sight was impossible to comprehend.

A little over 11 miles from where Smith witnessed the mystery craft, another Alaska resident captured a strange aircraft on camera.

Michael Dillon said a light suddenly appeared in the night sky and that it moved from west to east. He added that it shot straight up like the so-called Nimitz UFOs at breakneck speed. (Related: Scientist claims NASA discovered ALIEN LIFE on Mars 50 years ago, but the agency may have accidentally KILLED it.)

Dillon believes that what he saw was not a natural phenomenon because if something were to change direction at that speed, like a human, his "body would be liquified."

The mysteries of the Alaska Triangle extend beyond the skies. Since 1970, more than 20,000 unexplained disappearances have been recorded in the sparsely-populated patch of land between Anchorage and Juneau in the south to Utqiagvik on the northern coast.

After factoring in the rugged areas low population, the disappearances are more than twice the national average for the United States. Many blame the disappearances on different things, from UFO abductions to magnetic anomalies that interfere with hikers compasses.

Some think that the Wendigo, a flesh-eating Bigfoot-type creature, could also be to blame.

Experienced rescue workers have previously been sent to investigate Alaska's numerous missing-person incidents and have reported hearing phantom sounds. They also said they would sometimes become disorientated and light-headed due to some unknown feature of the desolate Alaskan wilderness.

No one can say for sure if an unknown physical phenomenon is responsible for the lights in Alaska's night sky.

According to Debbie Ziegelmeyer, a UFO expert, Alaska is "attractive" to alien visitors because its sparsely populated. Ziegelmeyer, the Star Team Investigator for the UFO research organization Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), said UFOs can travel wherever they want in Alaska.

Rance Lentz, 41, started his research on UFOs after a strange alien experience when he was a schoolboy. However, a career in the military gave him fresh insight into the phenomenon.

Lentz claims that people report more sightings in areas with "heavy, heavy testing." He added that people conducting the tests see different lights, along with different things, off on the horizon.

Is it a military spacecraft or proof of alien life?

Despite the naysayers, there are also those who suggest that someone  or something  is attracted by the cutting-edge military technology on show.

Others believe that U.S. military officials might know about the UFO presence on their test ranges.

Jonny Enoch, a hypnotherapist and paranormal researcher, insists there is something strange going on in the Alaska Triangle. He suggests that senior figures within the military are secretly in contact with whoever  or whatever  is piloting the mystery craft spotted by eagle-eyed witnesses.

Aliens have been blamed for the disproportionate number of missing persons reports in the Alaska Triangle, but some paranormal experts believe that there could be a different explanation.

Cliff Barackman, a cryptozoologist, explained that something could be hiding in the Alaskan wilderness. He quipped that with so much space and so few people in the area, "sasquatches basically have the run of Alaska."

On the other hand, there are those who say that the huge prehistoric man-beast could have attacked the missing people in Alaska. Non-believers think other factors like the inhospitable terrain and the unpredictable weather are the simplest explanations.

Despite the conflicting beliefs of witnesses and naysayers, the many disappearances make it hard to deny that there is a mystery or two to be solved in the Alaska Triangle.

Read more articles about UFOs and other weird phenomena at Unexplained.news.

Watch the video below for a prophecy involving UFOs and portals.

This video is from The Master's Voice Prophecy channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Whistleblower: UFOs an OPEN SECRET in the US military.

Cryptic radio signals reach Earth from dwarf galaxy 3 billion light years away.

Sen. Marco Rubio, other lawmakers demand answers on UFOs and UAP.

Sources include:

DailyStar.co.uk

History.co.uk

Brighteon.com
NYC distributing flyers to discourage illegals from heading to already-strained Big Apple

New York City (NYC) has begun distributing flyers to discourage illegal aliens from heading to the Big Apple, which is already strained as a result of the ongoing migrant crisis.

Local authorities announced the endeavor during a Sept. 27 press conference, adding that the flyers are written in both English and Spanish. A report by WPDE 15 said the flyers contain a list of warnings to border crossers entering the U.S. illegally.

The flyer began with a warning against "wrong information" coming from both social media and human traffickers. It then emphasized that the city's resources "have been exhausted" as a result of responding to the migrant crisis.

"NYC is one of the most expensive cities in the world. You are better off going to a more affordable city," the flyer continued. "NYC cannot help you obtain a work permit, and you will not be able to easily find work."

It also touched on the issue of illegals being housed in luxury hotels in the city. The flyer clarified that illegal immigrants who end up in the city "will not be placed in a hotel," further emphasizing that earlier batches of illegals "are now getting letters to move out of the shelter."

The flyer's statement about illegal aliens being forced to move out aligned with NYC Mayor Eric Adams' recent mandate limiting adult border crossers to 30 days in the city's facilities. Back in July, he said officials would begin distributing flyers at the U.S.-Mexico border to push migrants to other areas.

"The flyers are the latest attempt by the sanctuary city to quell an overwhelming influx of migrants," the WPDE 15 report further added. "Adams previously said the migrants could cost the city $12 billion over the next three years while pleading for help from the Biden administration." (Related: NYC Mayor Adams blasts Biden admin for burdening Big Apple with ILLEGALS.)

Stefanik: Dem policies to blame for NYC migrant crisis

In August, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) pointed her finger at Democratic politicians such as Adams, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and President Joe Biden for the Big Apple's issues. According to her, the "radical" sanctuary policies in blue cities pushed by the three are to blame.

"Unfortunately, because of these extreme Democrats' policies, every community is now a border community," said Stefanik, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference. She added that those communities are now "reaping the havoc these policies have caused."

She also expressed opposition to a proposal to utilize the Massena International Airport, located at the northern tip of the Empire State, as housing for illegals.

"Upstate New York and the North Country is not a 'sanctuary city.'" Stefanik remarked in a statement. "We should not have to bear the cost of Biden, Hochul and Adams' far-left open border policies and the havoc they are causing."

The congresswoman for the Empire State concluded her statement by calling on Biden to "end his radical open border policies and secure [the] northern and southern borders."

According to Stefanik, her GOP colleagues in the House of Representatives know that border security is national security.

"That is why we made restoring border security a key pillar of our 'Commitment to America' that we ran and won on in 2022. In 2024, border security will once again be on the ballot," she said. "I fully expect New Yorkers and Americans to vote these extreme New York Democrats out of office."

Head over to Migrants.news for more stories about the ongoing migrant crisis in NYC and efforts to resolve it.

Watch NYC Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli tackle the possibility of terrorists blending in with illegal aliens who enter the southern border below.

This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

REPLACEMENTS: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul plans to issue work permits for ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.

NYC Mayor Adams: OVER HALF of bused illegals avoid the Big Apple for fear of CRIME.

NY Gov. Hochul announces EMERGENCY ORDER to deal with surge of illegals.

Migrants leaving NYC for Canada by bus  on taxpayer dime.

Sources include:

Breitbart.com 1

WPDE.com

Breitbart.com 2

Brighteon.com
Relatives used Joe Bidens name to achieve deals worth millions of dollars, says the Wall Street Journal

President Joe Biden built his political identity around his working-class background during a five-decade-long career in public office.

However, a recent investigation by the Wall Street Journal has revealed that various members of his family, beyond his son Hunter Biden, have leveraged the Biden name to advance their business interests, resulting in deals worth millions of dollars.

This practice has come under scrutiny as it raises questions about whether these family members unfairly profited from Joe Biden's political influence. The investigation has prompted a House Republican impeachment inquiry, examining whether the president himself benefited from or played a role in these financial ventures. (Related story: Hunter Biden, other members of Biden family received MILLIONS from business associate linked to CCP.)

While the examination did not uncover evidence of direct personal gain for Joe Biden, it did reveal instances where he was more involved in his family's business dealings than previously acknowledged. For example, the president was occasionally present in business calls involving his brother James Biden and Hunter Biden.

The investigation highlights several deals that capitalized on the Biden name, such as a venture with a healthcare company in which James Biden promised expansion based on Joe Biden's influence with unions and government agencies.

In another instance, James Biden was an executive in a firm aiming to build 100,000 homes in Iraq while Joe Biden held the vice presidency.

In some cases, family members engaged in conventional name-dropping. In others, they aimed to build relationships with business figures seeking to evade regulatory scrutiny, particularly in Ukraine and China.

The investigation also delves into Hunter Biden's involvement in business dealings in Ukraine and China, where he received substantial payments for access to the "Biden brand."

For instance, he served on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, receiving significant compensation. Additionally, bank records show wire transfers to Hunter Biden from a Chinese private equity firm called BHR, raising questions about his financial relationship with the company.

Despite these revelations, Joe Biden maintains that he never discussed business matters with his family members, emphasizing that he only engaged in pleasantries during their conversations. The White House and Democrats have criticized the impeachment inquiry as a political maneuver to tarnish the president's reputation unfairly.

Nearly half of American voters support impeachment inquiry against Biden

In a recent survey, nearly half of American voters support the current impeachment investigation into the president, which is related to the business dealings of Hunter Biden and other family members.

However, the surveys findings, particularly views among Democratic voters, should alarm Biden and his party. Democrats are notably less resistant to impeachment than Republicans were in 2019 at the start of House Democrats' first impeachment probe of then-President Donald Trump.

In another survey conducted on Sept. 15-17 among a representative sample of 1,933 registered voters, 48 percent support the current impeachment investigation against 42 percent who oppose it.

Forty-three percent of voters say the probe is primarily due to evidence of wrongdoing by the president, while 41 percent say it is being done out of motivation to damage Bidens political career.

The findings also showed that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's favorability rating among Republican voters has improved to 49 percent from 42 percent following his impeachment inquiry announcement, while his unfavorability rating dropped to 18 percent from 25 percent since the beginning of September.

More than three of five Republicans, almost half of independents, and surprisingly 36 percent of Democrats approve of the inquiry.

Learn more about the corruption involving Biden and his family at BidenCrimeFamily.news.

Watch Republicans press forward in first Joe Biden impeachment inquiry hearing.

This video is from the NewsClips on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

White House builds defense team for expected GOP impeachment inquiry against Biden.

Journalist called secret cell phone paid for by Hunter Biden and says Joe Biden answered.

BULLY BIDEN: Joe Biden pushed for Shokin to be fired by threatening to withhold $1B aid money from Ukraine, prosecutor confirms.

Sources include:

WSJ.com

Pro.MorningConsult.com

Brighteon.com
Another night of Philly looting: Flash mob ransacks liquor store, robs lottery machine and makes off with safe

On the second night of flash mob looting in Philadelphia, the robbers ransacked the liquor store Fine Wine and Good Spirits, attacking its safe and lottery machine, as shown in footage spreading on social media. Reporter of FOX 29 News Philadelphia Steve Keeley, who originally reported on Wednesday night's thefts, later posted the videos showing the aftermath of some looting that occurred at a sneaker warehouse in the city.

The X, formerly Twitter, post further showed piles of boxes that had been torn into. A source told him that "it may be a Snipes warehouse. It appears they took all they could and left a lot behind." (Related: Philadelphia MAYHEM: Massive LOOTING leads to VIOLENT brawl between cops and thieves.)

The brutes later made off with the safe and raided the lottery machine on a night when liquor stores were shut down by the authorities one day after some young thieves brawled with cops on the streets after mass looting at Footlocker, Lululemon and Apple. Around 18 of the state-run liquor stores were broken into, triggering the closure of all 48 of its Philadelphia retail locations and one in suburban Cheltenham on Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.

BREAKING: 2nd Night of Looting Now in Philadelphia. Again PA state liquor store was hit. Bottles dropped outside by looters as ?@PhillyPolice? arrived. This is on Adams Ave. Police just made at one arrest where a sneaker store on Torresdale Ave was being looted too. pic.twitter.com/gVCDLJ6Jx8  Steve Keeley (@KeeleyFox29) September 28, 2023

No employees were hurt Tuesday night, but 'some were understandably shaken,' said liquor board spokesperson Shawn Kelly. "The stores were closed in the interest of employee safety and while we assess the damage and loss that occurred. We will reopen stores when it is safe to do so and when the damage is repaired."

According to CNN, authorities claimed that the looting happened after the peaceful protests following a judge's decision to dismiss all charges against former Philadelphia police officer Mark Dial in the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry on August 14. However, Acting Police Commissioner John Stanford said the first night's looting had nothing to do with the rally, calling the group 'a bunch of criminal opportunists.'

Some videos from Night 1 of looting showed officers grabbing thieves, some of whom were wearing Halloween masks, as they rioted through a Lululemon store. A cop even managed to hit one of the looters with a punch after tackling them to the ground. The footage also showed bikes and piles of merchandise piled up on the sidewalk outside of the apparel store branch as officers arrived and started making arrests.

A clip from the Apple store showed the aftermath of the looting, with iPhones and other electronic goods seemingly ripped from their display stands, and confused staff members can be seen standing around. There were also photos of a sporting goods store at a mall that showed mannequins and sneakers scattered on the sidewalk. Keeley also shared earlier footage showing the police placing handcuffs on one man, as they guard the exterior of the store. Numerous people can be heard shouting in the background as he is led to the rear of a police van.

Six businesses in a single retail corridor of North Philadelphia were reportedly among the looted stores, including three pharmacies, a hair salon, a tax preparation company and a cellphone store, according to the business group North 22nd Street Business Corridor.

Grandmother of "Meatball" Blackwell is ashamed of her livestream looting granddaughter

Among the 22 looters who were arrested and detained was social media personality Dayjia 'Meatball' Blackwell, 21, who was charged with burglary, conspiracy, criminal trespass, riot, criminal mischief, criminal use of communication facility, receipt of stolen property and disorderly conduct. The police allegedly tagged her "Livestream Looter."

"She (Blackwell) is livestreaming as she is committing burglaries, as she is encouraging others to commit burglaries," said Stanford. She was released on bail Wednesday, court records show, and is due back in court on October 17. Fresh from jail, Blackwell thanked her social media supporters but her grandma Vashti Fields said, "She should be saying she is sorry."

"What goes through my mind, as a grandmother, is I am very ashamed. I'm very ashamed to see my child there, at that time. Number one, she could have gotten hurt," Fields said of "Meatball." The granny also said that she's sickened by all the looting and destruction of local businesses, especially connected to the young woman she helped raise. "When I see someone of my blood, that has been there while this is happening, and they are saying they are an influencer, that hurts me deeply," she added.

Meanwhile, Fields believes Blackwell is not guilty of any of the charges, but she pointed out that she wants "Meatball" to publicly apologize by writing a letter to the city and, hopefully, use her voice for good. "I want her to start a business and, most of all, I want her to be a positive influencer," she stated.

Visit Anarchy.news for more stories related to violent misdemeanors and lawlessness.

Sources for this article include:

DailyMail.co.uk

Edition.CNN.com

News.Yahoo.com
Russian killer drones being used in Ukraine found to contain Western electrical components

Russian forces are escalating their attacks in Ukraine using Shahed-136 drones. These drones have 57 electrical components manufactured by Western companies.

The revelation was contained in a 47-page document submitted by Ukraines government to the G7 governments in August. A copy of the document obtained by the Guardian named five European companies as the original manufacturers of the identified components, including a Polish subsidiary of a British multinational.

"Among the manufacturers are companies headquartered in the countries of the sanctions coalition: the United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Japan and Poland," the document claimed.

It also claimed that Iran has already diversified its production through the use of a Syrian factory, although Tehran continues to supply the components. (Related story: Iran finally admits it is supplying Russia with combat drones.)

During an overnight attack last week, Russia employed a total of 44 Shahed-136 drones, of which the Ukrainian Air Force claims to have successfully intercepted and destroyed all but 10 while they were in the air. This represents the largest deployment of Shahed drones in a single attack witnessed this month, marking a concerning trend.

"Russians are using Shahed drones more extensively," Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat said in a recent national television broadcast. "Unfortunately, Russia now has the opportunity to manufacture its own. This is a new challenge against which we will respond. It is likely they will start attacking energy infrastructure again."

The Shahed-136 drones have recently undergone significant modifications, including updates to their warheads, engines, batteries, servomotors and structural components.

They now incorporate tungsten balls, which enhance the drones' destructive capabilities. This design change allows the shrapnel produced by the explosion to have a wider and more forceful impact, significantly increasing its effectiveness.

In addition to these enhancements, the drones now feature Russian-made components, suggesting a shift toward greater domestic production by Moscow.

The utilization of Shahed-136 drones with Western components has raised alarm due to their involvement in attacks on Ukrainian cities. This development underscores the evolving nature of the conflict and the growing sophistication of the drones employed by Russian forces.

It presents a formidable challenge for Ukrainian air defense systems and emphasizes the necessity of maintaining readiness and vigilance in the face of these evolving threats.

Among the suggested courses of action contained in the document are "missile strikes on the production plants of these UAVs in Iran, Syria, as well as on a potential production site in the Russian Federation."

"The above may be carried out by the Ukrainian defense forces if partners provide the necessary means of destruction," the document went on.

What's inside Shahed-136?

A fuel pump manufactured in Poland by the German company Ti Automotive G,bH was discovered in a Shahed-136, as well as a microcontroller with built-in flash memory and a very low-voltage drop regulator with inhibitor made by the Swiss firm STMicroelectronics. Ti's parent company is the British multinational TI Fluid.

Also discovered inside the drone was an integrated circuit of a buffer network driver and a transistor made by International Rectifier, a subsidiary of the German firm Infineon Technologies AG.

In the previous Shahed-131 model, Ukrainian experts identified a 14-channel, customizable integrated power management circuit and a microprocessor made by the Dutch company NXP Semiconductor and a power transistor and integrated circuit from International Rectifier.

With more Shaheds at its disposal, Russia can continue to force Ukraine to expend its precious, and in most cases, far more expensive air defense munitions trying to shoot them down.

The drones also help the Russians save up on their remaining cruise and short-range ballistic missiles.

Learn more about the conflict in Ukraine at UkraineWitness.com.

Watch a Russian drone hit a Leopard 2A5 tank.

This video is from The Prisoner channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

DOUBLE AGENT? China supplies drones to both Ukraine and Russia.

Fully autonomous KILLER DRONES now closer to reality as rapid development of AI continues.

Two drones shot down right above the Kremlin during an alleged Ukrainian attempt to assassinate Putin.

Sources include:

TheGuardian.com

TheDrive.com

Brighteon.com
The Western world is now a tyranny

Americas reputation as the land of the free is rooted in the Anglo-Saxon legal and political tradition, not in diversity and multiculturalism.Law as a shield of the people instead of a weapon in the hands of rulers is a British achievement that Britains American colonies inherited.It was the accomplishment of a specific ethnicity known as Anglo-Saxon. Bringing rulers to the same accountability to law as the lowest peasant was a centuries-long process beginning with Alfred the Great in the 9th century and culminating in the Glorious Revolution of 1680.

(Article republished from PaulCraigRoberts.org)

In this legal tradition law is based in the customs and mores of the people, not on edicts issued from rulers, government bureaucrats, regulatory agencies, and activist judges. Obviously, this conveys an ethnic basis to law. A Tower of Babelthe fate of all diminishing white countries todayhas no common customs and mores and no basis for law other than rulers edicts enforced by power.

Throughout the Western World today the people have lost the protection of law as a shield and suffer under rulers who wield law as a weapon. In the United States today demonstrators and rally attendees are turned into insurrectionists and sentenced to prison. Even US President Donald Trump is being subjected to four fake felony prosecutions in order to prevent him from being elected president.

During my youth law was seen as a shield of our rights, not as a weapon to be used against us. US Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland explained in 1934 that the purpose of law was to discover innocence or guilt, not to dispose of an enemy:

The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocent suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigorand indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.

US Attorney General and Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson saw it the same way:

Any prosecutor who risks his day-to-day professional name for fair dealing to build up statistics for success has a perverted sense of practical values, as well as defects of character. . . . A sensitiveness to fair play is perhaps the best protection against the abuse of power, and the citizens safety lies in the prosecutor who tempers zeal with human kindness, who seeks truth and not victims, who serves the law and not factional purposes, and who approaches his task with humility.

In 1940 Jackson said that unethical prosecutors are a threat to justice because of the danger that the prosecutor

will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted. With the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes, a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some act on the part of almost anyone. In such a case, it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who has committed it, it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him. It is in this realmin which the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass, or selects some group of unpopular persons and then looks for an offense, that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies. 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 view, or being personally obnoxious, or in the way of the prosecutor himself.

Robert Jacksons 83-year old description of unethical prosecution precisely describes all of the investigations, impeachments, and indictments of President Trump that have been ongoing since 2016 for 8 years and show no sign of abating. The prosecutions of Trump are clearly prosecutions for the purpose of getting rid of a leader who presumes to challenge the ruling establishment. The prosecutions of Trump underline the termination in the US of the impartial rule of law.

Today try to find in the US a prosecutor as defined by Sutherland and Jackson. Try to find a prosecutor who has any interest in justice. They are only interested in coerced plea bargains in order to build their conviction rate and run for higher office on their name recognition. If you dare to go to trial, exculpatory evidence is withheld and prosecutors bribe witnesses to testify against you. The judge is angry because you are adding to his case load. High profile targets such as Michael Milken, Leona Helmsley, Martha Stewart, Donald Trump are favorites even when there is no personal animosity of the prosecutor against them. When the prosecution is driven by animosity, as it is in Trumps case, it signifies the legal systems acceptance of law as a weapon, not as an instrument of justice.

Try to find a honest prosecutor or judge prosecuting Trump supporters and sentencing them to tens of years of imprisonment for attending a political rally. Unarmed people conducted by police on a tour inside the capital, as the videos released by the House Speaker show, are tried as insurrectionists attempting to overthrow the government and establish a Trump coup. The use of law as a weapon by the Biden Regime has sent 1,000 American patriots to prison on this false charge. Law schools dont protest, Bar Associations dont protest. The judiciary aids the false convictions. The Congress does nothing. The media eggs on the false prosecutions.

Every one of these prosecutors and judges are abusing power for the sake of factional politics. If you dont know what factional politics is, look it up. It was defined by our Founding Fathers. They feared it would destroy democracy and the rule of law.

In my book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions published 23 years ago, I pointed out that law and order conservatives enabled government to set aside protective aspects of law in order to easier and more certainly convict the Mafia, drug users, child abuserswhoever the target was at the specific time. I said that the law that is set aside in the interest of easier conviction is also set aside for the rest of us who are not Mafia, drug and child abusers, and that this conversion of law into a weapon would destroy nine centuries of Anglo-Saxon accomplishment in shielding people from arbitrary prosecution by rulers.

This has now happened. The British who created civil liberty and the Americans who inherited it have lost the protection of law.

Law and order conservatives determined to incarcerate criminals, patriotic conservatives anxious to protect national security from the Muslim threat, and woke ideologues determined to demonize and even criminalize white people as racists, while overrunning the ethnic basis of their countries with immigrant-invaders, together brought about the destruction of law as a shield of the people.

One can understand the frustration of Americans when criminals escape justice and when the countrys security seems to be undermined by treason. But when Americans accepted asset forfeiture laws in order to more easily convict criminals and accepted Presidents Bush and Obamas claims that the terrorist threat justified suspending habeas corpus and due process, they forgot Sir Thomas Mores warning. In A Man for All Seasons, Sir Thomas More, Chancellor of England, asks his critic, who is urging him to disregard the protective features of law in order to better pursue wrongdoing, what will happen to the innocent if the law is cut down? When the law turns on us, Sir Thomas asks, where will we stand? This is the question President Trumps lawyers are pondering, and the question applies to everyone of us. If a President of the United States can be ruined because a couple of blacks in positions of power for which they are unqualified hate Trump, what protection does law afford the rest of us?

You can see the lawlessness everywhere in the US and its Western puppet states. A British journalist was arrested for exposing the despicable Trudeau applauding a member of the Nazi SS. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230926/uk-journo-arrested-for-malinformation-after-exposing-trudeau-applauding-nazi-1113677702.html

American parents are arrested, even beaten, for protesting at school board meetings that their kids are being brainwashed that they are racists and their daughters are being sexually assaulted in rest rooms by males claiming to be transgendered females despite still having the male sexual apparatus and lusts. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/loudoun-county-father-school-cover-up-bathroom-assault-daughter

See also: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/fbi-opened-multiple-investigations-into-protesting-parents-gop-lawmakers-say

Think about Seth Richs murder on the street in Washington D.C. Seth Rich is the person who is believed to have leaked the Hillary Clinton emails documenting her participation in criminal activity about which nothing was done. Seth Rich was found dead on a Washington D.C. street, allegedly, according to the Democrat D.C. police, a victim of a robbery. Nothing was missing from Rich, not his wallet, not his credit cards, not his cell phone. Some robbery. His murder has never been investigated and never will be. A corrupt Democrat police force has declared a robbery when there is zero evidence of a robbery. An unsolved and non-investigated murder remains.

Instead of investigating a murder, Trump and Trump rally attendees are being framed and incarcerated on false charges. It is obvious that the US Justice Department has weaponized law. The US Attorney General is serving neither law nor justice. He is serving factional politics. He is a disgrace to law. The fact that a person devoid of integrity is Attorney General of the United States is all the evidence required to know that the rule of law in America is stone dead.

William Blackstone wrote that weaponized law is tyranny and that when executive power weaponizes law, it is incumbent upon Parliament to impeach and punish the conduct of the governments evil and pernicious counselors. The US Congress has taken no such steps, which means the legislature has abdicated its responsibility and assented to the establishment of tyranny.

The Empire of Lies has deep-sixed William Blackstones rights of Englishmen embodied in the US Constitution as the Bill of Rights.

The United States and the Western world have become a tyranny. This is an unavoidable conclusion.

There is no the one as in the movie The Matrix or V as in the movie V for Vendetta to rescue us from tyranny. How are we going to escape the tyranny that has descended upon us now that law is weaponized? The Democrats indictments of Trump are no different than Stalins indictments of Nikolai Bukharin and the Bolsheviks who made the revolution as capitalist spies.

In the framework of Identity Politics imposed on us by liberals and the Democrat Party, the inculcation of hate is the most important element. Hate is inconsistent with objective law. There can be no hope for a rule of law until Identity Politics is purged and unity among the people restored.

Note: Robert Jackson himself descended to the use of law as a weapon in his role as chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. See: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/08/11/tyranny-at-nuremberg/

Read more at: PaulCraigRoberts.org
Spending on mental health services among Americans has risen by 53% since start of pandemic

The Wuhan coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the publics mental health and well-being in many ways  grief from the loss of friends and loved ones, illness and death, isolation and loneliness, job loss and financial instability, and so much more

A new study published in the journal JAMA Health Forum assessed monthly telehealth and in-person use and spending rates for mental health services among commercially insured U.S. adults between 2019 and 2022.

Researchers from the RAND Corporation and Castlight Health reported spending on telehealth and in-person mental health services among Americans with private health insurance rose by 53 percent from March 2020 to August 2022. At the same time, the use of mental health services increased by 39 percent.

Anxiety disorders, bipolar disorders, major depressive disorders, post-traumatic stress (PTS), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and schizophrenia were the conditions examined, according to the study.

"The changes that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic have triggered a significant expansion in the use of mental health services among adults with employer-based health insurance," said Jonathan Cantor, lead author of the study and a policy research at RAND.

Dena Bravata, study co-author and senior scientific advisor, said: "The demand for mental health services further underscores the critical need to integrate behavioral health services into primary care. Through this integration we can address the growing issues around lack of access, affordability, and stigma, while providing a more comprehensive, person-centered approach to overall health."

Stress reduction measures

Here are some natural ways to reduce your cortisol (stress hormone) levels in 30 minutes or less  without the use of prescription medication.

Aromatherapy. Apply a few drops of essential oils known for their calming and relaxing effect while at work. Try bergamot, chamomile frankincense, orange blossom, rose, sandalwood, vetiver and ylang-ylang.

Bathing. Wash away a day of stress by soaking in warm water. Hot water is healing with passive heating.

Breathing. Learn breathing techniques to help you deal with stress or avoid a panic attack, which can lead to a faster heart rate, dizziness, muscle tension and other symptoms.

Laughter. Laughing can lighten your mental load and can lead to positive physical changes in your body. Hang out with your "funny" friends, read or tell some jokes, try laughter yoga or watch a comedy. Learn the stress management benefits of laughter.

Meditation. Consciousness-changing techniques, like meditation, have been shown to have many benefits on psychological well-being  taking your breathing exercises a step further to find inner peace.

Napping. Even 10-15 minutes of napping can help your body and mind reset.

Self-massage. Learn about acupressure and how to stimulate pressure points in your body to relieve anxiety symptoms. Buying a massage pad for your chair is a 'worth-it' purchase to relax your muscles. A back massager with heated functionality will help you de-stress and relax even more.

Sleep. It is the time when your brain and body recharge. How well and how long you sleep affects your energy level, focus, mood and overall hygiene. (Related. Improve sleep quality to bolster your resilience against anxiety and depression.)

Socialization. Reach out to family and friends and make social connections when youre stressed. Take coffee breaks with co-workers and friends or visit your place of worship. Socializing can offer a pleasant distraction give you support and help you cope with lifes ups and downs.

Stretching. Everyone can do stretching exercises regardless of their fitness level. It is also a good start for those who usually dont exercise regularly. Check out these simple stretch exercises you can do sitting or standing at your work desk.

Tea. The warmth of a cup of tea can soothe your mind. Some herbal teas are also packed with mind-easing compounds and scents. Check out these 10 best teas for stress. (Related: 8 Tips to help you manage anxiety naturally plus herbal tea recipes for anxiety relief.)

Read more news about the effects of the pandemic at Pandemic.news

Watch the following video about the seven laws of mental health.

This video is from the PatchSDA channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

9 Herbs that can support mental health.

BURNED OUT: 1 in 5 nurses could quit over the next 4 years due to post-pandemic burnout.

Brain food: Nutrient therapy can address mental health issues.

Food for the brain: Review examines the link between diet and mental health.

Sources include:

JAMAnetwork.com

RAND.org

DailyMail.co.uk

Healthline.com 1

VerywellHealth.com

VerywellMind.com 1

VerywellMind.com 2

KaiserPermanente.org

Healthline.com 2

HealthGuide.org

VerywellFit.com

PsychCentral.com

Brighteon.com
Biden impeachment hearing presenting PLENTY of evidence of corruption and crimes

Though the media and Democrats say there is nothing to it, the impeachment inquiry into Pretender-in-Chief Joe Biden has already brought to light a mountain of evidence showing that serious crimes were committed by the fake president and his son Hunter while the former was vice president under Barack Obama.

Even so, there has been very little press coverage of the inquiry as major media outlets that have been bought and paid for by Democrats pretend as though the whole thing is a big yawner.

"First Impeachment Hearing Yields No New Information on Biden," reads one false headline from The New York Times, the story of which further claimed deceptively that "even their [Republicans'] witnesses said the case for impeachment hadn't been made."

"Which, of course the case hasn't been made yet," commented The Federalist's John Daniel Davidson about the Times' claim. "That's why you launch an inquiry, of which Thursday was day one."

"But if the media had actually covered it, the American public might have heard more about the mounds of damning evidence now piling up by the day, including the release on Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee of reams of text messages and emails between Hunter Biden, his uncle James Biden, and a colorful array of foreign oligarchs, business associates, and bagmen."

(Related: Check out our earlier coverage about the Biden impeachment for more.)

House Republicans presented more than 24 pieces of evidence linking Joe to Hunter's international bribery scheme

On the first day of the impeachment inquiry, House Republicans put forth more than two dozen pieces of evidence showing that "the big guy" does, in fact, have direct ties to Hunter's overseas malfeasances, which makes him a criminal.

Everything presented thus far by House Republicans suggests that the Biden family "business" is nothing more than "an influence-peddling scheme on a scale never before seen in American history," to quote Davidson.

Even with Washington, D.C., being as corrupt as it is, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who testified at the hearing, commented that he has never seen "anything of this size and complexity." Turley continued by stating that Congress absolutely has a "duty to determine if the president is involved in what is a known form of corruption."

For Joe to claim that he knew nothing of Hunter's international bribery dealings while serving as vice president under Obama is simply ludicrous based on the evidence, which includes damning text messages.

One correspondence between Hunter and his uncle from back in June 2017 contains a direct reference to Joe, whom Hunter called his "family's brand" and "only asset." This clearly points to the influence peddling of the Biden family business only being possible because of Joe's then-status as vice president.

Hunter's former business partner Devon Archer testified much the same back in July to the House Oversight Committee when he revealed that the reason Hunter was even added to the board of the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma in the first place was to enhance "the brand," this being another direct reference to then-Vice President Biden.

It was also revealed by Tony Bobulinski, another of Hunter's business partners, that from 2015-16, Hunter and his uncle James engaged in a shady business scheme with CEFC, a Chinese company with direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Because Joe was still vice president at the time, Hunter and James had to wait to get paid for that deal because "there was a concern it would be improper."

"They believed the CEFC owed them money for the benefits that accrued to CEFC through its use of the Biden family name to advance their business dealings," Bobulinski testified.

After Joe left office, Hunter and James received more than $1 million as "back-pay," to quote Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who stated that "now we know why" it all happened the way it did.

The latest news about Biden's impeachment inquiry can be found at Corruption.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheFederalist.com

NaturalNews.com
POKING THE BEAR: Britains defense chief provokes Russia to unleash WWIII by sending its troops to train Ukrainian soldiers

Russia's former President Dmitry Medvedev sent a clear warning to the United Kingdom government that if it pushes through with its plans to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, in addition to training Ukrainian troops in Britain, Russia would not have any choice but to unleash World War III with the West.

Medvedev, who is Russian President Vladimir Putin's top ally, said on Sunday that any British military officers that would train soldiers inside Ukraine would be legitimate targets for Russian forces and they would be "ruthlessly destroyed." His statement came shortly after British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps expressed ideas of expanding the military training to Ukraine. He recently told the Sunday Telegraph that he was considering "eventually" deploying military instructors to the country, in addition to training Ukrainian troops in Britain. He also said that he has spoken with Army chiefs about moving "more training" there and called on British defense firms to set up shop in the country.

Shapps also revealed he had spoken to Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky about Britain playing a more active role in the Black Sea, where Russia has targeted cargo ships. "Britain is a naval nation so we can help and we can advise, particularly since the water is international water," he said. "It's important we don't allow a situation to establish by default that somehow international shipping isn't allowed in that water. There's a lot of places where Britain can help advise," he said cryptically. He also noted that Britain is looking for ways to help Ukraine get in shape for NATO membership, which Ukraine has been long hoping for.

As a reaction, Medvedev warned that these decisions of the West would only bring the world to the brink of nuclear war. The Russian Security Council deputy chairman said: "The number of leading idiots in NATO countries is growing and they are actively pushing us towards a Third World War," he added. "This will turn their instructors into a legal target for our armed forces, understanding perfectly well that they will be ruthlessly destroyed and not as mercenaries, but namely as British NATO specialists."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak clarified the defense secretary's comments. He denied the speculation that their soldiers would enter the war-torn region imminently. "What the Defense Secretary was saying was that it might well be possible one day in the future for us to do some of that training in Ukraine," Sunak explained. "That's something for the long term, not the here and now, there are no British soldiers that will be sent to fight in the current conflict. According to reports, more than 20,000 recruits from Ukraine have received training in the U.K. since the start of 2022. NATO countries have avoided training programs in Ukraine due to the risk of personnel being targeted by Russia.

Medvedev, moreover, warned that should German factories supply Taurus missiles to Kyiv, they would also be a target of Russia's "fury." "They say this is in accordance with international law. Well, in that case, strikes on German factories where these missiles are made would also be in full compliance with international law," he said.

Terrorists to attack U.S. again, 9-11 style but with an atomic or biological component, Medvedev warns

A day before the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Putin's top propagandist suggested that the United States could soon be subjected to an attack just like what happened back on September 11, 2001, but this time, with nuclear strikes. According to him, it seems that everyone is accustomed to the "arrogance and disgusting narcissism" and the "universal arrogance on any issue" among Western nations, especially the United States.

"To their absolute confidence in their own rightness and exclusivity. To their universal arrogance on any issue. Peaceful or military," he wrote in the Russian language on his Telegram account. "You can't touch the Americans, they are "sacred cows," even if they are "seasoned spies, drug addicts shaking in withdrawal, or pedophiles with saliva in the corners of their mouths."

Medvedev uses the tragedy of the upcoming 9/11th anniversary to make more threats towards the West. The rhetoric of former Russian president and current state official indicates that Russia sees threats and blackmail as its preferred diplomatic method. I wonder if Medvedev pic.twitter.com/sDjLpG0Zeh  Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 10, 2023

A translation of the extensive post was shared on X by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's minister of internal affairs.

"I don't want to forebode, but they'll see that at some point terrorists will launch another 11/09/2001-style attack, but with a nuclear or biological component. Or even worse: one of the leaders of nuclear countries will lose his nerve and make an emotional decision to use WMD [weapons of mass destruction]. Especially since the nuclear club is constantly expanding and a significant part of it is not bound by any obligations," he continued. (Related: War with Russia to massacre 50,000 Americans every two weeks, with forced conscription of young Americans now inevitable, warns US Army War College.)

He ended his ominous message with: "And then that would be it. The end of the ball game. There will be only to collect money for a new monument in the neighborhood of Ground Zero. At best. And in the worst case, the wreaths will just be put in water."

Visit WWIII.news for more stories on the nuclear war that could erupt between the U.S. and Russia.

Sources for this article include:

The-Sun.com

Reuters.com

Newsweek.com

https://t.me/medvedev_telegram/384
LA jury convicts three individuals linked to money laundering using gift cards

A jury in Los Angeles convicted three individuals reportedly involved in money laundering through the use of gift cards.

A Sept. 28 press release by the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Office of Public Affairs confirmed the conviction of 26-year-old Bowen Hu, 27-year-old Tairan Shi and 33-year-old Blade Bai. The three were convicted of conspiracy to launder the proceeds of wire fraud stored on more than 5,000 Target gift cards by an LA jury. Hu and Shi are Chinese nationals, while Bai is a U.S. citizen.

The three will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each count as they were convicted of money laundering  a felony offense. A fourth conspirator, 58-year-old Chinese national Yan Fu, previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr. also ordered Fu to pay $48,073 in restitution.

According to the statement, the four worked with overseas-based telephone scammers who "tricked" victims across the U.S., such as older adults, into buying Target gift cards. These fraudsters duped victims into reading card or account numbers and access codes over the phone. One such group was the China-based Magic Lamp group, which conspired with Bai, Hu and Shi to collate personal information from scam victims using the WeChat messaging app to purchase the gift cards.

"Runners" such as Fu then used the gift cards bought using victims' money at Target stores, mainly in LA and Orange counties, to purchase consumer electronics, other gift cards and other items. Investigators even claimed that Fu traveled to as many as 17 Target stores in a single day to purchase items using the gift cards. Bai then resold the purchased consumer electronics, using some of the proceeds to pay the Magic Lamp group for their services.

Authorities warn the public against fraudsters

"Through the purchases and other transactions at multiple Target stores, the four convicted individuals wanted to conceal the fact that the gift cards had been originally funded with fraudulent proceeds," the DOJ statement said. Prosecutors conservatively estimate that between June 2019 and November 2020, the accused laundered more than $2.5 million from more than 5,000 Target gift cards. (Related: Online safety: How to avoid common internet scams.)

Birotte scheduled the sentencing hearing for the three on Jan. 26, 2024. Back in September 2021, a press release by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced the arrest and arraignment of both Hu and Shi. Bai and Fu were also summoned to appear before a federal court in October of that year, the statement added.

Donald Always, assistant director-in-charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) LA Field Office, said: "Anyone being asked to purchase a gift card in order to resolve a technical issue or to avoid an arrest should not spend money but instead, make a report to the FBI at the Internet Crime Complaint Center."

"These defendants knowingly laundered the proceeds of a fraudulent scheme that targeted vulnerable citizens, including older Americans," he added. "This significant conviction should educate potential victims about the scam and send a message to anyone conducting similar schemes that the [FBI] and our partners are serious about combating this fraud."

"Defendants played a key role in victimizing American consumers," said Brian Boynton, principal deputy assistant attorney general and head of the DOJ's Civil Division. "This case is a testament to the commitment of the department and our partners to ensuring that all those who knowingly facilitate fraud face justice."

Head over to Deception.news for more similar stories.

Watch this video explaining how scammers are stealing money from their victims using gift cards.

This video is from the Daily Videos channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Digital fraud: How to avoid QR code scams.

WARNING: AI-powered DEEPFAKE VOICE SCAMS are now coming for your bank balance.

Dating website/app profiles mostly fake catfish that steal your private info while pushing politics, climate change, money scams, vaccines and gender fluidity.

Sources include:

Justice.gov 1

Patch.com

Justice.gov 2

Brighteon.com
Wont get an mRNA jab? Fine. Yale scientists plan to force-vaccinate you with their new nanoparticle AIR VAX

Researchers from Yale University are working on a new way to vaccinate humans using no needle and syringe necessary.

The claim is that the so-called "Air Vax" has already been developed, allowing mad scientists to deliver mRNA into people's bodies via their lungs rather than their arms.

The mRNA in Air Vax is encapsulated into polymer nanoparticles that, following a study on mice, led researchers to declare that this "new method of delivery could 'radically change the way people are vaccinated.'"

In areas of the world that are remote, as well as in people who are afraid of needles, Air Vax can get the job done without a needle and syringe, allowing for greater vaccine coverage.

"The ability to efficiently deliver mRNA to the lung would have applications for vaccine development, gene therapy, and more," the paper explains, adding "that such mRNA delivery can be accomplished by encapsulating mRNAs of interest within optimized poly(amine-co-ester) polyplexes [nanoparticles]."

(Related: The fully jabbed are also shedding their injections via aerosol onto the unvaccinated.)

Will they soon blast the world with mRNA chemtrails?

Cellular and molecular physiologist Mark Saltzman led the research, which many worry will allow for the airborne spraying of vaccines on populations without their consent.

While the traditional needle and syringe method requires a person to roll up his sleeve and get pricked, aerosol mRNA vaccines can simply be sprayed at will. Anyone nearby will then breathe it in, possibly unknowingly.

In the mouse study, the rodents received two intranasal doses of nanoparticles carrying mRNA Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) polyplexes, also known as PACE, which is described as "a biocompatible and highly customizable polymer."

Saltzman had previously led a study using a "prime and spike" system to deliver COVID jabs  the guy really wants people to get jabbed with, or to breathe in, COVID shots. That method involves both an injection and a spray of spike proteins into the nose.

In his latest study, Saltzman determined that perhaps the injection portion is unnecessary if enough spike-laden nanoparticles can instead be blasted into a person's nasal cavity  to "protect" them from COVID, of course.

"In the new report, there is no intramuscular injection," Saltzman bragged. "We just gave two doses, a prime and a boost, intranasally, and we got a highly protective immune response."

"But we also showed that, generally, you can deliver different kinds of mRNA. So it's not just good for a vaccine, but potentially also good for gene replacement therapy in diseases like cystic fibrosis and gene editing ... We used a vaccine example to show that it works, but it opens the door to doing all these other kinds of interventions."

If Saltzman's invention gets approved  and it more than likely will because why not? Nobody seems to care anyway  then it is not out of the question to someday soon see chemtrails full of mRNA nanoparticles and spike proteins blasted out of airplanes over entire cities.

This method would allow for the mass vaccination of the population without having to individual inject each and every person. It is the same type of oral "nanovaccine" now being used on shrimp and other seafood and meats to vaccinate them for COVID.

The Saltzmans of the world are hellbent upon jabbing and spraying everyone with COVID mRNA and spike proteins because they claim this will stop the Chinese Virus from getting anybody else sick.

"When you put the pieces of the puzzle together, a disturbing picture emerges," warns Dr. Joseph Mercola about where all this is headed.

Once vaccines go airborne, there won't be any way to escape them. Learn more at Genocide.news.

Sources for this article include:

DiscernReport.com

NaturalNews.com
Tom Renz says truth-tellers exposing Biden administrations lies are still being CENSORED and SILENCED  Brighteon.TV

Ohio-based lawyer Thomas "Tom" Renz lamented that truth-tellers who expose the lies of the Biden administration are still being shut down, controlled and censored during the Sept. 26 episode of "Lawfare with Tom Renz" on Brighteon.TV

He cited Israeli professor Dr. Gal Luft, who has evidence about Hunter Biden's involvement in China and has disclosed the Biden buyoffs  an issue that wasn't new, according to Renz. But while there is a reason for Congress to investigate given the existence of court-quality evidence, it would eventually lead to the Central Intelligence Agency's connections to the American international bioweapons program.

Luft, the co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, was arrested in Cyprus back in February. According to a BBC article, he was charged with eight counts, "including failing to register as a foreign agent; evading oil sanctions; two counts of making false statements to investigators and three counts of illicit arms trafficking." But in reality, Renz said Luft's arrest stemmed from him speaking out against the Biden crime family.

"This is not a surprise. This is the nature of the Biden mob; [Joe] Biden runs this thing like a mob family," the Brighteon.TV host said. "I mean  they look for money; they look for extortion; they look for bribes; they look for whatever they can, and then they go after you if you tell the truth about it. And so this is what they do."

Renz also cited Catturd, a commentator on X (formerly Twitter), who got swatted recently for telling the truth. According to InfoWars, the fraudster called police while pretending to be Catturd and lied about stabbing someone and threatening to commit suicide. This led to law enforcement rushing to his home, a situation that was quickly diffused when the truth came out. (Related: BREAKING: Anon account holder 'Catturd' swatted after being doxxed by leftist outlets.)

"Catturd tells the truth; he's attacking the regime. Once you reach a sufficient threshold of recognition publicly, you are a target. Once you start taking on and causing trouble for these bad guys, they will do whatever they can to take you out," said the "Lawfare" host.

"They don't play by the rules. They don't play fair. They do whatever they can. Now, if we look at what's happening globally, you can see why they're taking these steps."

Renz: Truth-tellers being HUNTED DOWN

According to Renz, the left loves censoring other people due to their immoral and horrible nature, citing Antifa and Black Lives Matter as examples. He also warned that truth-tellers such as him, Luft, Catturd, InfoWars' Alex Jones and the Health Ranger Mike Adams are on the hit list  with the leftist tyrants seeking to discredit them and shut down their voices.

"If we tell the truth, people will be aware of the truth. And the thing about it is when you hear the truth, it resonates with you," Renz said.

"So the only thing that these guys can do is get people to quit telling the truth. They've got to shut down the truth-tellers. They've got to censor. They've got to make sure that the message is completely controlled."

Renz noted that when the truth makes sense to people, they will no longer believe the lie. Thus, the real fight happens between people pushing for the truth and fighting for it and those who wish to cover it up.

Follow Censorship.news for more news about American truth-tellers being censored.

Watch the Sept. 26 episode of "Lawfare with Tom Renz" below. "Lawfare with Tom Renz" airs every Tuesday at 11:30 a.m.-12 p.m. and Saturday at 12:30-1 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Organized international crime syndicate suppressed the truth about dangers of covid "vaccines."

America Unhinged: Supposedly pro-free speech alternative platforms still beholden to Big Tech, says Jeff Dornik  Brighteon.TV.

Vivek Ramaswamy: Establishment believes Americans CANT BE TRUSTED with the truth.

Censorship industrial complex is waging information warfare against the American people, warns investigative reporter Jefferey Jaxen.

Government is marketing censorship tools to Big Tech to gag conservatives.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

BBC.com

InfoWars.com
US accuses China of pouring BILLIONS of dollars into GLOBAL DISINFO campaign (while the US govt. spews endless lies about everything)

The U.S. has accused China of pouring billions of dollars into a global disinformation campaign , with Beijing using both illicit and legitimate methods to discredit Washington.

The accusation came in the form of a new assessment issued by the U.S. Department of State through its Global Engagement Center (GEC). The GEC, which released the report, was established to counter propaganda and disinformation. GEC Coordinator James Rubin described China's ambition to achieve information dominance in key regions worldwide, pointing out that Beijing's endeavor is backed by significant resources and strategically aims at specific areas.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the report underscores China's collaboration with Russia in reinforcing narratives related to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Beijing amplifies Kremlin-backed claims regarding secret biological warfare laboratories in Kyiv, and echoes Moscow's allegations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization instigating the conflict.

It also emphasizes China's efforts that target developing nations. The GEC report ultimately warns that if unchecked, these disinformation campaigns could reshape the global information landscape and influence governments to align more closely with Beijing.

China often employs various tactics such as investing in satellite networks, intimidating international firms that challenge its preferred narratives and acquiring stakes in foreign media companies to push its narrative. Aside from these, Beijing also orders the publishing of English-language articles authored by fictitious writers in influential local media to promote its narratives. It also exerts diplomatic pressure on foreign universities and newspapers that publish content deemed offensive to China's interests. (Related: Stanford University ADDICTED to China money)

One clear example of the latter is Beijing entering content-sharing agreements with media outlets in Latin America and Africa, influencing news and information dissemination. The WSJ recounted a 2021 incident where Chinese officials paid an East African newspaper to publish articles favorable to Beijing while concealing their sponsorship.

Beijing relying on online trolls to push its narrative

Outside legitimate methods such as partnering with newspapers, the Chinese government has taken to lawfare. Beijing often takes legal action against individuals or entities critical of Chinese companies and investments, discouraging dissent. But aside from this, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often relies on online trolls and bots to manipulate and control narratives on social media and other digital platforms.

Citing a 2017 study by Harvard University political scientist Gary King, the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) estimated that two million Chinese internet trolls are churning out 450 million pieces of content each year. In addition, the CCP has also raised an army of more than 20 million part-time network civilization volunteers to amplify content favorable to its rule.

Most of the trolls are university students, trained by censorship bureaus and asked to combat negative information in their spare time. They average just 19 years old, well-educated, and willing to defend the CCP's worldview against those who speak against it. Despite this, Georgetown University Center for Security and Emerging Technology research analyst Ryan Fedasiuk pointed out that the trolls are beginning to pose serious threats to economic security, political stability, and personal safety worldwide.

The State Department report also touched on the use of trolls to push disinformation. It also zoomed in on other strategies by Beijing, such as technical censorship, harassment of content producers on platforms like WeChat and "flooding" tactics to manipulate search engine and hashtag results. These tactics aim to make critical content less visible and drown out opposing voices.

The Chinese government has consistently denied engaging in online influence campaigns or disinformation targeting the U.S. or other countries. While China has encountered setbacks in targeting democratic countries due to pushback from local media and civil society, it continues to invest in distorting international dialogue around its priorities, including Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Follow Disinfo.news for more stories about China's disinformation tactics.

Watch Tiffany Meier of NTD TV talk about China's information manipulation in the video below.

This video is from the Pool Pharmacy channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

China using social media to sow racial discord in the US.

China tells tech giants to hire more censors  to combat rising dissent.

Disney censors The Simpsons episode mentioning forced labor camps in China.

Disney cowers to China, omits The Simpsons episode featuring Tiananmen Square.

Sources include:

WSJ.com

CFR.org

Brighteon.com
GET READY: The U.S. military-industrial complex is planning a military draft so Americans can fight the bankers third world war

The bankers have once again screwed the pooch financially, meaning another world war is soon on the way

The trillions they have stolen from society via their money-printing press, the corrupt stock market, and "aid" to Ukraine means the economy system is once again on the verge of a collapse, which always mean war is soon to come as cover.

Both major political parties, "blue" and "red," have become pro-war because war is the pillar of American society. Without endless violence and bloodshed, all that "prosperity" would cease to exist.

"War is a racket," stated Smedley D. Butler back in 1935 after fighting in four major conflicts.

"It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives."

The problem today, though, is that Americans are tired of sending their children off to die for the bankers. This means the bankers through their political puppets could attempt to institute a draft.

(Related: Americans are being psychologically programmed by their globalist overlords for nuclear Armageddon, climate lockdowns, and the unleashing of WWIII.)

The bankers won't stop until they've taken over the world  and they'll murder your children if necessary in order to do it

While it is true that some 2.1 million people are currently employed by the U.S. defense industry in some way, shape, or form, many soldiers  if you can even call them that  are too fat, too transgender, and ultimately too weak to get the job done.

The military-industrial complex boasts some 1.37 million uniformed personnel and 849,000 reserves. There are also 750 U.S. military bases in more than 80 countries outside of the U.S., including more than 100,000 U.S. military personnel who are stationed in Europe alone.

America is a war machine, in other words  and pretty much always has been, especially since 1913 when the private Federal Reserve banking cartel took over the financial system.

The first two world wars were largely a success as far as private central banking is concerned. And now the ghouls in finance are gearing up to launch a third and possibly final war that, if biblical prophecy is to be believed, will not go as planned for those at the top of the pyramid.

Still, they are going to try, which means more bodies could end up getting drafted if Pretender-in-Chief Joe Biden keeps his promise to maintain the war in Ukraine "for as long as it takes."

The problem in Ukraine specifically is that actor and stripper Volodymyr Zelensky is running out of Ukrainian men and women to send into the shredder. And since U.S. politicians are beholden to his every demand, it could very soon get ugly once Zelensky runs out of Ukrainians to exploit in the war.

"They have literally been grabbing men off the streets and throwing them into vans," reports End of the American Dream, "but we didn't care because it wasn't our sons that were being forced to go to war."

"Many Americans cheered when the Ukrainians began their ill-fated 'counter-offensive,' but it turned out to be a disaster."

The truth seems to be that Russia is winning the war no matter how much money and bodies Ukraine and the U.S are throwing at it. What will happen once they run out of willing and able bodies?

"Recruitment has been way down in recent years, but our leaders desperately want to win this war with Russia and they also want to be ready to fight a war with China over Taiwan."

"And so the stage is being set to draft young American boys and young American girls into military service."

How much longer do you think it will be before WWIII arrives? Find out more at WWIII.news.

Sources for this article include:

EndOfTheAmericanDream.com

NaturalNews.com
In deserts all around the world, scientists have been able to discover new 'fairy circles' that are unknown thanks to AI.

More Unexplained 'Fairy Circles'

"Fairy circles" are round discs of barren dirt that can cover miles of ground and have the appearance of rows of polka dots. Scientists have been mystified by the phenomenon's enigmatic beginnings for decades, and they may be much more prevalent than previously believed.

Only the Namib Desert in Southern Africa and the outback of Western Australia had fairy circles been observed before. However, a recent study has found hundreds of additional spots in 15 different nations across three continents where vegetation patterns resembling fairy circles can be found. The global creation of fairy circles may now be better understood by scientists.

Searching the World with AI

In the latest survey, researchers analyzed high-resolution satellite data of arid ecosystems worldwide to identify fairy circle-like patterns using a neural network, an AI technology mimicking brain processes. Dr. Emilio Guirado, the lead author from the University of Alicante, called this the first large-scale AI-based approach for such detection.

The team initially tested the neural network with 15,000 satellite images from Namibia and Australia, half featuring fairy circles and half without. Subsequently, the AI analyzed nearly 575,000 plots of land, each about 2.5 acres in size, worldwide. It identified circular patterns akin to known fairy circles, evaluating their size, shape, location, density, and distribution. A human review was then necessary to exclude non-fairy circle structures based on photo interpretation and contextual information.

The findings revealed 263 dryland areas with circular patterns resembling fairy circles in Australia and Namibia. In addition to Madagascar, Western Asia, Central and Southwest Australia, and the Sahel, Western Sahara, and Horn of Africa, these arid regions were found all over Africa.

Standards That Define Fairy Circles

Fairy circles aren't the sole natural phenomena creating repeated round gaps in landscapes. Dr. Stephan Getzin, a researcher at the University of Gottingen, Germany, highlighted the unique feature of fairy circles: a highly ordered pattern among the circles, distinguishing them from other gaps in vegetation. Getzin's November 2021 paper defined fairy circles and their distinct characteristics, stressing their spatially periodic pattern, which surpasses other patterns.

However, the patterns in the latest study didn't meet this high standard. It's worth noting that there's no universally accepted definition of fairy circles, and the new study relied on guidelines from multiple prior research. Some identified locations align with Dr. Fiona Walsh's findings in the Australian outback, suggesting pattern congruence, but she wasn't part of the recent survey.

Also Read: Puzzling Honeycomb Pattern on Czech Rock Formation Solved via Computer Simulations: Moisture and Salt, Study Says

Mysterious Circles, Mysterious Origins

The study gathered environmental data at fairy circle locations, revealing they thrive in dry, sandy, alkaline, and low-nitrogen soils. These patterns also enhance ecosystem stability against floods and droughts.

However, the factors shaping fairy circles are complex and site-specific. Getzin proposed climate and plant self-organization for Namibian circles, with insect activity like termites not directly forming patterns.

In Australia, Walsh tied fairy circles to termites through research with indigenous communities. Termites are central to circles, known as "linyji" and "mingkirri" in native languages, with Aboriginal knowledge dating back decades or even millennia. In Australia, termites aren't just participants; they are the primary mechanism, highlighting termite-grass-soil-water dynamics.

Many fairy circle questions persist, but the authors hope their global atlas will ignite fresh exploration into these enigmatic phenomena, inspiring global scientists to solve evolving fairy circle mysteries. Guirado anticipates their paper will drive new research in fairy-circle formation.

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Texas Canyon Lake's hidden underwater cave, which may be a century old, has been made visible by the lake's low water levels.

Texas Canyon Lake Low Water Levels

At Canyon Lake in Texas, water levels are so low that an underwater cave and the remains of villages that formerly stood there more than a century ago are beginning to surface.

The 8,200-acre artificial lake has 80 miles of shoreline and is situated in Comal County, northeast of San Antonio. According to the US Army Corps of Engineers, it was built in 1958 to reduce flooding and preserve water and had been flooded with water by 1968.

Over the summer, there wasn't much rain in the area. The extreme heat and drought combined to lower water levels than ever before.

The water level on Wednesday dropped to 890.89 feet, the lowest recorded level in recent memory and, according to the government, about 18 feet below normal.

On Tuesday, JM Perez took pictures of the cave, which is normally submerged. The uncommon sighting, he claimed, was bittersweet.

Water levels are so low at man-made Canyon Lake in Texas that an underwater cave and remnants of communities that stood more than a century ago at the site are reappearing https://t.co/B9uwtSgaoY  CNN (@CNN) September 30, 2023

Hidden Underwater Cave

Perez has been observing the lake's level decline as he works there. Over 18 feet of the lake have now been lost. Perez claims that while it is quite upsetting to witness, it is also incredibly fascinating to explore some of the secret caves. Additionally, the history that is emerging.

The area that is now covered by water was originally home to the German immigrant-founded settlements of Hancock and Crane's Mill.

The ruins of a house that was on the lake's bottom can be seen in some of Perez's photographs. The Hancock Bridge's remains could also be seen.

In pictures taken by Porsche Devol on September 2, only a little piece of a cave was visible; now, shots reveal a wide entryway with rock formations and stalactites dangling from the ceiling. The water levels appeared to have dropped suddenly.

Devol claimed that since he moved here, he hadn't seen the water this low, and it somehow depressed him.

Also Read: Puzzling Honeycomb Pattern on Czech Rock Formation Solved via Computer Simulations: Moisture and Salt, Study Says

According to the US Army Corps of Engineers, they frequently check the lake's water levels and close shoreline leisure areas when the water is too low for safety reasons.

According to the agency, as the lake's surface has receded, rubbish and other objects have also started to appear in addition to the cave and the remains of the ancient villages.

According to Clay Church, a representative for the US Army Corps of Engineers' Fort Worth District, abandoned objects are frequently discovered anytime the lake level dips. They appear to find old tires the most frequently.

Additionally, the US Army Corps of Engineers advised visitors to the lake to exercise caution. There are additional underwater dangers like tree trunks and big rocks that are at or near the lake's surface when the lake level drops. According to Church, boaters and swimmers are more at risk because of these hazards.

Related Article: 20-Year Drought Causes Panama Canal to Run Dry, Causing Maritime Trade Disruptions
The smokes brought by the wildfires in Canada have adversely affected the air quality in New York City.

Residents have been advised against the low quality in the city, with authorities saying that a haze will be observed in the area.

Air quality

Authorities said that New York's air quality index was at a "moderate level" of 52, which presents a potential risk to people who are unusually sensitive to air pollutants.

The AQI levels in the metro area are forecasted to go as high as 60, which is still considered as "moderate," according to an update provided by the New York state department of environmental conservation.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that the current forecasts indicate that a plume of wildfire smoke could reach New York City around, which will cause noticeably hazy skies.

On Monday, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has forecasted a moderate Air Quality Index (AQI) of 55 - stating that it could bring some risk to people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.

"While we continue to actively monitor potential air quality concerns for Monday morning, currently, the impacts are projected to be mild, though New Yorkers will likely see hazy skies in the morning," Adams said.

"Throughout the day tomorrow, New Yorkers should listen to their bodies, especially if they have any preexisting health conditions and take any necessary precautions to ensure they stay safe. We will continue to update New Yorkers as forecasts solidify," he added.

Read Also: New York City Weather: Worst Air Quality Emerge in City as Unhealthy Smoke Unfolds in Northeast

Environmental issue

According to New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) Commissioner Zach Iscol said that air quality is more than an environmental issue as it can also be deemed as a public health issue.

Iscol said that a moderate AQI has suggested that those with heightened sensitivities should be cautious for its effects.

Experts said that if one would begin to feel symptoms, such as having scratchy throat or watery eyes, he or she should take time to stay indoors.

They said that if residents are sensitive to worsening air quality, they should limit their time outdoors or reduce their strenuous activity outdoors.

Officials pointed out that the climate and one's health are connected and it is crucial that people are armed with the information they need to make safe and healthy choices.

So far, New York City has recorded the observance of clean air on average. For the last three years (2017, 2018, and 2019), New York's air quality index (AQI) has remained less than 50, or "good."

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines "good" air quality as air that poses little to no risk to one's health.

Since at least 2017, New York air quality has consistently fallen within this target (2017, 2018, and 2019 averaged 6.8, 7, and 7 g/m3 respectively).

Furthermore, these annual PM2.5 levels are comparable to the air quality of Taos, New Mexico and Waco, Texas (6.9 and 6.8 g/m3, respectively).

The present New York air pollution levels continue to threaten communities, particularly lower-income neighborhoods and it also raise the risk for heart and lung health complications.

The New York Health Department estimated that PM2.5 pollution contributes to more than 3,000 deaths and 2,000 hospital admissions for coronary and respiratory conditions on a yearly basis.

Related Article: Hazy Skies in US: Poor Air Quality Alerts Issued in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania

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A recent report showed the concerning status of Emperor Penguins in Antarctica. Climate change and sea ice loss have a devastating impact on the said penguin population.

Climate change has been a significant concern among experts due to the worsening impacts of extreme weather events and sea ice extent. Species are sensitive to changing temperatures, affecting their habitats and food sources.

Emperor Penguin Population Decline

However, emperor penguins have suffered from the effects of climate change on sea ice. They thrive in cold waters and areas in the Antarctic.

The breeding success of emperor penguins will depend on the fast ice or the stable ice attached to the Antarctica coast.Emperor penguins, considered the largest seabirds, are recognizable by their black and white appearance. They can weigh about 40 kg and weigh a height of 120 cm.

Despite their appearance, they are efficient and great swimmers to look for potential prey or food sources.

In a research published in the Communications Earth and Environment, the record-low in the Antarctic ice in 2022 caused devastating impacts on penguin breeding.

The sea ice is essential to the Emperor Penguin's biodiversity and ecosystems. The reductions in the sea ice content could affect the stable land-fast sea ice.

As a result, protecting the Emperor Penguin population is essential to save their species from decline due to the following:

Over 80% of Emperor Penguins' colonies are at risk by 2100.

Meanwhile, two-thirds of species in Antarctica are threatened by extinction.

In the 2022 report, researchers emphasized the increasing concerns about climate crisis impacts on said penguins.

It can likely cause the risk of extinction of Emperor Penguins due to the melting of sea ice.

In a study published in Plos Biology, the report highlighted the threats of greenhouse gas emissions in different antarctic native species. The warmer waters can put significant risks in Penguin's chicks.

The greenhouse gas emissions could unfold the worst impacts on biodiversity in Antarctica, including the species of Emperor Penguins. As a result, the commitment of communities and countries is essential to conserve their population.

Also Read: Climate Change Fuels Frequent Shift From Worsening Drought to Deadly Flooding, Research Warns

What you know more about Emperor Penguins

A recent report showed at least 265,000 to 278,000 breeding pairs of Emperor penguins globally. The male and female penguins show their love for one another in courtships. The parents help to incubate their chicks.

Their feet can walk up to 60 miles in the cold weather and ice.

Despite harsh temperatures in Antarctica, the Emperor Penguins can live in extreme cold temperatures. Their body can prevent them from freezing from the bone-chilling weather conditions.

Penguins are also found in different areas: the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, South Africa, Antarctica, New Zealand, Chile, Australia and Peru.

Related Article: Unique Butterflies Distribution in Eastern Denmark Declined by 72% Since 1993 Due to Habitat Loss, Unsuccessful Conservation

For more similar stories, don't forget to follow Nature News.
A grizzly bear attack killed two humans and their dog in Canada's Banff National Park.

Parks Canada stated in a statement that a GPS tracker alerted them late Friday to a bear attack in the Red Deer River Valley west of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch of the park.

According to the authorities, the bear was later euthanized after displaying hostile tendencies.

Read Also: Bear Attack! Wisconsin Couple 'Double Kills' Massive Bear Who Entered Their Home

Aggressive behavior

The couple has not yet been identified but "loved the outdoors and were inseparable," according to a family member.

"They lived for being in the backcountry and were two of the most cautious people I know. They knew bear protocol and followed it to a tee."

The common-law couple checked in daily while in the backcountry, including on Friday at 5 p.m., when they sent a notification that they had arrived safely at camp in the Red Deer River Valley, an area of steep cliffs and rugged terrain west of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch.

Later that night, park personnel got a distress call from a satellite device requesting assistance following a bear attack. A specialized crew for dealing with wildlife attacks was quickly summoned; however, they were impeded by bad weather and were unable to use a helicopter.

The squad hiked all night and arrived at the secluded campsite around 1 a.m. Saturday, where they discovered the couple and their dog had been killed by the bear.

The bear was exhibiting "aggressive behavior," and Parks Canada killed it "to ensure public safety." Hours later, the RCMP arrived to bring the victims to Sundre, a town approximately 50 miles east of the attack.

"This is a tragic incident, and Parks Canada wishes to express its sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims," the agency said in a statement.

Increasing number of animal attack

According to Kim Titchener, the founder of Bear Safety and More and a family friend who teaches bear protection and bear assessments, such encounters are becoming more common as people spend more time outside, although fatal attacks are extremely rare.

"It's really just the reason why we're seeing more attacks, which is more people heading outdoors and unfortunately not being educated on this," she said in an interview.

Bear sightings increase in the autumn as bears become more active in their search for food before hibernating during the chilly winter months.

Banff National Park, which receives over four million visitors each year, is home to both grizzly and black bears.

Titchener stated that there are approximately 60 grizzly bears in Banff National Park, which is considered a threatened population in Alberta.

The killing incident was the first within the borders of Banff National Park in over a half century; however, the region had a run of assaults by the "Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek" in the summer of 1980, one of which was fatal.

According to experts, bears often leave the area after a "defensive" attack, including when surprised by humans. When the Parks Canada team came, the bear was still with the victims.

Predatory attacks are quite uncommon.

Biologists will conduct a necropsy on the bear, and Parks Canada will conduct a forensic investigation to discover what happened to the victims.

Related Article: How To Survive Grizzly Bear Attack: Simple Tips that Will Keep You Alive
A recent study said that commercial whaling in the twentieth century killed big whale populations, but it also appears to have had a long-term impact on the genetic variety of today's surviving whales.

Researchers examined DNA from whale bones found on beaches near abandoned whaling stations on South Georgia Island in the south Atlantic Ocean to DNA from whales in the current population and discovered high evidence of maternal DNA lineage loss among blue and humpback whales.

Loss of maternal DNA lineages

In a finding published in the Journal of Heredity, experts studied DNA collected from bones found on South Georgia Island and compared the genetic information with previously published data from living whales in the present post-whaling population to better understand how whaling may have altered the genetic variety of today's population.

Angela Sremba, who conducted the research as part of her doctoral studies at Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute, and her colleague's studied humpback, blue, and fin whale bones and discovered that, while genetic diversity among whales remains substantial, there is evidence of a loss of maternal DNA lineages in the blue and humpback populations.

Due to the scarcity of post-whaling samples, researchers were unable to discover differences in diversity between pre- and post-whaling DNA samples from Southern Hemisphere fin whales.

Because some whale species can live for up to 100 years, some of today's whales could have been alive during the whaling era.

As these whales die, it is possible that additional maternal lineages will be lost. This highlights the necessity of protecting genetic information from whales right now, she says.

"It's remarkable these species survived. In another 100 years, we don't know what might change, and we can't measure any change now if we don't have a good understanding of the past," Sremba said. "This work provides an opportunity to reconstruct the history of these whale populations and help us understand what was truly lost due to whaling activities."

Read Also: As Demand Decreases, Iceland will Finally End Commercial Whaling in 2024

Rediscovering habitat

South Georgia is a remote island located about 800 miles southeast of the Falkland Islands that was home to multiple whaling operations from the turn of the century until the 1960s.

More than 2 million whales were slaughtered in the Southern Hemisphere in just over 60 years, including 175,000 killed near South Georgia.

Evidence of the killing can still be found on the island, which is littered with thousands of whale bones, many of which are 100 years or older and were dumped during corporate processing.

The region's cold weather aided in their preservation.

Since commercial whaling was banned, South Atlantic whale populations have begun to recover, but whale sightings off South Georgia have remained low.

According to research co-author Scott Baker, associate director of OSU's Marine Mammal Institute, this shows that local populations may have been extirpated-a phrase used to characterize a form of limited extinction.

"For 60 years, the whales have been absent from the South Georgia feeding grounds, suggesting that cultural memory was lost," said Baker. "The numbers of whales returning to this region today are still not large, but there is a sense that they may be rediscovering this habitat."

Related Article: Norwegian Whaling Season 2021 Claimed the Life of 570 Minke Whales Despite Protests

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An injured Florida alligator was finally rescued and half of her jaw was missing. The alligator touched the hearts of many readers due to her poor conditions after she was found.

With many people concerned, the rescued alligator has been given a new name and life. She is now known as 'Jawlene,' which famous and iconic American Dolly Parton inspired the name.

Rescued Alligator in Florida Became Viral

The rescued Florida alligator's name is 'Jawlene.'

Gatorland helped rescue the alligator with poor health conditions and injuries. The jawless alligator became viral on social media, and many Facebook users sent their sympathies to the animal.

The Florida alligator is now in good condition and the care of concerned rescuers. People treated the alligator as a national treasure after she captivated the hearts of many animal lovers.

In addition, the alligator's name inspired many people who provided their name suggestions. According to the Gatorland announcement, the gator received an exciting welcome, and people were in love seeing the animal.

The injured alligator recently became viral after a concerned person spotted the animal with her jaw noticeably missing. The unfortunate condition of the gator was first seen near Sanford, Florida, in August.

The jawless alligator could result from a bite from another alligator or hunting. After the news broke on the internet, search and rescue were launched to save the alligator.

People are advised to report immediately if they spot a stray alligator. In Florida, the report noted that there are about 1.3 million alligators in the state.

In September's report, people caught a massive alligator weighing more than 900 pounds in Florida. The discovery is considered the second heaviest found in Florida.

Also Read: Emperor Penguin Population Decline: Climate Change, Sea Ice Loss Make it Challenging to Survive

American Alligator: Interesting Facts

The American alligator is also known as Alligator mississippiensis. The huge-looking animal can be recognizable by their armored body with black colors, living about 50 years. Unlike crocodiles, alligators have at least 74 to 80 sharp teeth.

In terms of the size, the male gator is bigger than the female. Males can reach up to 454 kilograms. To attain dominance and potential mates, the male alligators can roar. When the mother alligator produces her young, the animal can make nests with vegetation.

Alligators in the country are not endangered. They can be found in areas in North Carolina, Florida and Texas. The massive animal thrives in freshwater areas and slow-moving rivers in the US.

According to the report, the alligator population has suffered from different threats: habitat loss, wetland destruction, climate change, extreme weather events and destruction of alligator's nest.

The said animals can regulate their temperatures, especially during the challenging winter season. They can also move to warmer areas or waters to live.

The green-looking color of the alligator is due to algae. Furthermore, protecting American alligators is essential to avoid potential population declines.

Related Article: Atlantic Puffin in Canada: Starvation, Ocean Warming Threatened Rare Seabird Populations

For more similar stories, don't forget to follow Nature News.
760k gallons of fire retardant have fallen onto Californian waterways over the past few years after missing their target. It led to a decrease in endangered fish populations rather than preventing wildfires.

Fire Retardant for Wildfires vs. Fish Populations

USFS invented fire retardant in the 1950s, a vital tool for wildfire control. However, accidental drops into waterways harm aquatic life, including endangered species. The retardant contains ammonium phosphate, toxic to fish. In 2001 and 2003, two drops killed thousands of steelhead in Omak Creek, Colville Indian Reservation.

A decade earlier, the Colville Tribe began creek restoration due to historical damage from a 1920s timber mill. Retardant drops severely set back the project, causing catastrophic harm to the creek, as per the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Colville Tribe member Vertis Campbell, living near Omak Creek, finds it heartbreaking, as their heritage and efforts focus on restoring fish populations. A Forest Service-induced fish kill is profoundly saddening to Campbell.

760,000 Gallons of Fire Retardant Dropped Near Waterways

For 70 years, the US Forest Service (USFS) didn't track or report the accidental discharge of fire retardant into waterways. Legal action in 2010 forced them to start recording such incidents.

From 2012 to 2019, the USFS dropped fire retardants near waterways 459 times, totaling 760,000 gallons, primarily on the West Coast. This included 45 drops in the northwest, affecting waterways like Gifford Pinchot and Okanagan-Wenatchee National Forests. Andy Stahl, of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics FSEE, expressed shock at the high error rate, dubbing the USFS the largest water polluter.

In a statement, the USFS contends that fire retardant remains crucial for wildfire control, emphasizing its safe and precise use to protect communities from wildfire threats, a priority they are committed to maintaining.

Violations of the Forest Service

The nonprofit FSEE successfully sued the USFS three times over fire retardant use. Last year, after data on waterway drops emerged, they accused the agency of violating the Clean Water Act. The Act bars pollutant discharge into waterways without an EPA permit, which sets limits to safeguard water quality and health. The USFS previously claimed no need for a permit, citing a 300-foot buffer policy. However, their records revealed inconsistencies.

In May, a federal judge ruled in favor of FSEE, confirming USFS Clean Water Act violations, and mandating EPA permits for fire retardant use.

According to FSEE Executive Director Stahl, the organization views battling fires as a war in which any collateral damage is acceptable.

Also Read: Heatwave Leaves But Wildfires Remain as El Nino Starts with Gusty Winds in Australia

Formula Improvements vs. Non-Toxic Alternatives

Alternatives to toxic chemicals in fire suppression have been investigated, which led to Chico, California, where GreenFire, a company with NSF White Book-listed fire suppression products meeting USDA standards, is based. In 2021, GreenFire engaged with the Forest Service about their non-toxic solutions, but CEO Brandon Miller felt the agency largely dismissed the idea, despite the environmental safety of their product.

Forest Service records indicate a rising use of the current formula due to longer and fiercer wildfire seasons, increasing from 8 million gallons in 2012 to 21 million in 2020. The agency claims openness to improvement but cites a rigorous review process for new products.

While a federal court mandated a Clean Water Act permit, taking years to secure, the agency can continue using the current retardant. Campbell hopes the Forest Service considers their water and salmon, integral to their culture, during this process.

Related Article: Maui Widlfire: Nearly 100-Year Old Wood House Escapes Devastating Wildfire By Surrounding Open Space
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. Azerbaijan has discussed the development of cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence with the World Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), Trend reports.

According to the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport of Azerbaijan, Minister Rashad Nabiyev held a bilateral meeting with ISESCO Director General Salim Al-Malik within the framework of the 74th International Astronautical Congress.

During the meeting, the sides discussed issues related to the development of cooperation with ISESCO in initiatives implemented to achieve sustainable development with the application of advanced technologies in Azerbaijan.

The International Astronautical Congress has been held annually since 1950 under the auspices of the International Academy of Astronautics and the International Institute of Space Law with the support of the International Astronautical Federation.

The history of the International Astronautical Congress in Azerbaijan dates back to 1973. On the initiative of national leader Heydar Aliyev, the 24th International Astronautical Congress was held in Azerbaijan on October 7-13, 1973 under the motto "Space Research - Penetration of Science and Technology", thus Baku became the first city in South Caucasus to organize this event. And Baku won the right to host the most prestigious event of the space industry for the second time at the General Assembly of the International Astronautical Federation in Washington DC on October 25-29, 2019.
Microsoft on Tuesday moved its Cloud for Sovereignty offering from private preview to public preview and said the offering is likely to be made generally available this December.

Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, which is aimed at helping government bodies meet specific compliance, security, and policy requirements, was first introduced in July of last year. Since then the company has released two private releases of the offering.

The public preview version of the offering includes new features such as the Sovereign Landing Zone, support for two country-specific requirements, transparency logs, and automated workload templates.

The Sovereign Landing Zone and policy initiative, which is now available on GitHub, instantiates guardrails for sovereign cloud environments for customer workloads, enabling customers to leverage best practices for secure and consistent environments while supporting their efforts to meet evolving local regulations, the company said.

Transparency Logs, on the other hand, are designed to provide eligible customers with visibility into key operational activities of Microsoft engineers to support customer service and service reliability issues of the Cloud for Sovereignty offering.

In an effort to provide examples for building workloads on the offering, Microsoft is also packing in automated workload templates for Azure Confidential Computing and Azure Lighthouse.

Microsofts Azure Confidential Computing is a service aimed at protecting data in use, the company said, adding that it allows data to be processed only after the cloud environment is verified to be a trusted execution environment.

In this way, confidential computing helps protect data from being accessed by cloud operators, malicious admins, and even privileged software such as the hypervisor, the company wrote in a blog post.

Additionally, in Azure, the root of trust is with independent hardware and this stops even Microsoft operators from accessing the memory encryption keys, the company wrote, adding that this independent hardware root trust is what helps government customers to independently cryptographically verify the identity for execution.

Other security features include Microsofts Azure Key Vault Managed Hardware Security Module, which allows government customers to maintain control of the cryptographic key.

In addition, Microsoft has also added support for Italys ACN requirements and Netherlands BIO regulation to aid government customers in these countries.

Microsoft is currently working with a network of partners, such as Accenture, Atea, G42, and Leonardo, to provide security or any other solution to the customers of Cloud for Sovereignty.

Current governmental bodies, either using or planning to use the offering, include the Dutch National Cyber Security Centre and the Municipal Corporation of Amsterdam.

Microsofts foray into Sovereign Clouds could be seen as a direct result of the demand for secure cloud computing architecture that allows governmental bodies or companies in heavily regulated industries, such as banking and healthcare, to take advantage of the cloud while complying with regulations.

Last month, Microsoft said that it was partnering with G42 to build out UAEs Sovereign Cloud.
The Japanese government on Tuesday said that it had invested $1.3 billion in Microns Hiroshima factory as subsidy for manufacturing more advanced chips that support or power AI and quantum workloads.

The investment is expected to cover the cost of installing ASML Holdings extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment at the factory, according to a Bloomberg report. Lithography machines are used to draw patterns on silicon chips using light, and Dutch company ASML Holdings is one of the top producers of these lithography machines.

The Japanese government's investment in Micron covers almost 40% of the companys planned capital infusion in Japan and is aimed at securing a strong supply of advanced chips for the future, the report cited Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura as saying.

The capital injection into Micron comes at a time when the US-headquartered firm is facing a probe from Chinese regulators as a result of the ongoing chip war between the US and China, threatening to put majority of the companys sales in the Asian market at risk.

Micron attracted the ire of the Chinese government after the US, in January, convinced the Netherlands and Japan to join it in expanding the ban on exports of chip-making technology to China.

The US first imposed restrictions on exports of chips to China in 2015, extending them in 2021 and twice in 2022. The most recent restrictions were introduced in December.

US lawmakers have also been urging the Biden administration to take more action to impede Chinas progress in gaining dominance in areas such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

The suggestions included imposing trade restrictions on Chinese memory chip maker Changxin Memory Technologies as a counteroffensive to China's ban on the use of Microns chips.

In addition to the $1.3 billion investment, the Japanese government has set aside a sum of $1.11 billion and $170 million to help Micron cover production and development costs for the advanced chips, respectively, according to the Bloomberg report.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday condemned the raids conducted at various premises connected to people working or associated with the news portal NewsClick.

The special cell of Delhi Police also landed at Yechurys official residence in New Delhi in the morning.

The leader said that the police team had come to question his staffer Sri Narayan's son Sunmit Kumar.

Terming the incident as an attempt to gag the media, he said, Police came to my residence because the comrade who works in our office lives there. His son works for the NewsClick. The police came to question him. They just took his laptop and phone. What are the charges? Nobody knows. If this is an attempt to muzzle the media, what is the issue, the country must know.

Reacting to the multiple raids, Yechury took to the micro-blogging site X'.

Strongly condemn the growing brazen assaults on the media. After harassing and intimidating various media houses and journalists who speak truth to power, Modi govt is today indiscriminately raiding those connected with popular media portal NewsClick, he wrote.

ALSO READ | Journalist bodies condemn NewsClick raids, say they are to divert attention from burning issues

Meanwhile, the CPIM issued a statement to criticize the police action.

It stated that the party strongly condemns the early morning raids on homes of several journalists, stand-up comedians, satirists, scientists, cultural historians and commentators by the Delhi Police on the basis of an FIR that invokes several sections of the draconian UAPA.

The CPIM said that it would call upon all Indian democratic-minded patriots to rise in unison to protest against such a systematic conspiracy to target, persecute and suppress the media that is meant to be the conscience keeper.

This is a brazen assault on the media and the fundamental right to freedom of expression. During the last nine years, the Modi government has deployed investigation agencies to suppress, harass and intimidate various media houses like the BBC, Newslaundry, Dainik Bhaskar, Bharat Samachar, the Kashmir Walla, the Wire etc., and now raiding all those connected with the NewsClickSuch a large-scale authoritarian assault against media organizations and journalists who speak truth to power is totally unacceptable, the statement read.

Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

NEW DELHI: Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday condemned the raids conducted at various premises connected to people working or associated with the news portal NewsClick. The special cell of Delhi Police also landed at Yechurys official residence in New Delhi in the morning. The leader said that the police team had come to question his staffer Sri Narayan's son Sunmit Kumar.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Terming the incident as an attempt to gag the media, he said, Police came to my residence because the comrade who works in our office lives there. His son works for the NewsClick. The police came to question him. They just took his laptop and phone. What are the charges? Nobody knows. If this is an attempt to muzzle the media, what is the issue, the country must know. Reacting to the multiple raids, Yechury took to the micro-blogging site X'. Strongly condemn the growing brazen assaults on the media. After harassing and intimidating various media houses and journalists who speak truth to power, Modi govt is today indiscriminately raiding those connected with popular media portal NewsClick, he wrote. ALSO READ | Journalist bodies condemn NewsClick raids, say they are to divert attention from burning issues Meanwhile, the CPIM issued a statement to criticize the police action. It stated that the party strongly condemns the early morning raids on homes of several journalists, stand-up comedians, satirists, scientists, cultural historians and commentators by the Delhi Police on the basis of an FIR that invokes several sections of the draconian UAPA. The CPIM said that it would call upon all Indian democratic-minded patriots to rise in unison to protest against such a systematic conspiracy to target, persecute and suppress the media that is meant to be the conscience keeper. This is a brazen assault on the media and the fundamental right to freedom of expression. During the last nine years, the Modi government has deployed investigation agencies to suppress, harass and intimidate various media houses like the BBC, Newslaundry, Dainik Bhaskar, Bharat Samachar, the Kashmir Walla, the Wire etc., and now raiding all those connected with the NewsClickSuch a large-scale authoritarian assault against media organizations and journalists who speak truth to power is totally unacceptable, the statement read. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: As many as 20 universities in India have been termed fake by the University Grants Commission (UGC), with Delhi reporting the highest number of such institutions.

The list also includes universities from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

In a letter to the Vice-Chancellors of these 20 universities, the UGC said that they figure in the list of fake universities as they are not a university within the meaning of Section 2(f) or Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, but engaged in the business of conferring degrees or "using the word university with its name to defraud and cheat innocent students by awarding fake degrees."

It has become a matter of concern as many students are becoming victims of the fraudulent act of your institution.

They were also asked to submit a compliance report within 15 days stating that their institution is not awarding any degree.

If no response is received from your side within the stipulated period, UGC shall be compelled to take strict action, including legal action against your university.

Of the 20 such fake universities, eight were from Delhi. These are All India Institute of Public & Physical Health Sciences (AIIPHS) State Government University in Alipur; Commercial University Ltd., Darya Ganj; United Nations University; Vocational University; ADR-Centric Juridical University, Rajendra Place; Indian Institute of Science and Engineering; Viswakarma Open University for Self-Employment; and Adhyatmik Vishwavidyalaya (Spiritual University) in Rohini.

In Andhra Pradesh, the UGC listed Christ New Testament Deemed University in Guntur and Bible Open University of India in Visakhapatnam.

In Karnataka: Badaganvi Sarkar World Open University Education Society in Belgaum, while in Kerala, St. Johns University in Kishanattam was listed as a fake university.

In Maharashtra, the UGC named Raja Arabic University in Nagpur as a fake university, while in Puducherry, it identified Sree Bodhi Academy of Higher Education as one.

In Uttar Pradesh, it listed four universities. These are Gandhi Hindi Vidyapith, Allahabad; National University of Electro Complex Homeopathy, Kanpur; Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose University (Open University), Aligarh; and Bhartiya Shiksha Parishad in Lucknow.

In West Bengal, the UGC said the Indian Institute of Alternative Medicine and the Institute of Alternative Medicine and Research are fake universities.

The UGC has also written to the state government's Department of Higher Education and Principal Secretaries, urging them to take appropriate action against the fake institutions in their respective states.

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NEW DELHI: As many as 20 universities in India have been termed fake by the University Grants Commission (UGC), with Delhi reporting the highest number of such institutions. The list also includes universities from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. In a letter to the Vice-Chancellors of these 20 universities, the UGC said that they figure in the list of fake universities as they are not a university within the meaning of Section 2(f) or Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, but engaged in the business of conferring degrees or "using the word university with its name to defraud and cheat innocent students by awarding fake degrees."googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); It has become a matter of concern as many students are becoming victims of the fraudulent act of your institution. They were also asked to submit a compliance report within 15 days stating that their institution is not awarding any degree. If no response is received from your side within the stipulated period, UGC shall be compelled to take strict action, including legal action against your university. Of the 20 such fake universities, eight were from Delhi. These are All India Institute of Public & Physical Health Sciences (AIIPHS) State Government University in Alipur; Commercial University Ltd., Darya Ganj; United Nations University; Vocational University; ADR-Centric Juridical University, Rajendra Place; Indian Institute of Science and Engineering; Viswakarma Open University for Self-Employment; and Adhyatmik Vishwavidyalaya (Spiritual University) in Rohini. In Andhra Pradesh, the UGC listed Christ New Testament Deemed University in Guntur and Bible Open University of India in Visakhapatnam. In Karnataka: Badaganvi Sarkar World Open University Education Society in Belgaum, while in Kerala, St. Johns University in Kishanattam was listed as a fake university. In Maharashtra, the UGC named Raja Arabic University in Nagpur as a fake university, while in Puducherry, it identified Sree Bodhi Academy of Higher Education as one. In Uttar Pradesh, it listed four universities. These are Gandhi Hindi Vidyapith, Allahabad; National University of Electro Complex Homeopathy, Kanpur; Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose University (Open University), Aligarh; and Bhartiya Shiksha Parishad in Lucknow. In West Bengal, the UGC said the Indian Institute of Alternative Medicine and the Institute of Alternative Medicine and Research are fake universities. The UGC has also written to the state government's Department of Higher Education and Principal Secretaries, urging them to take appropriate action against the fake institutions in their respective states. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Sudhir Suryawanshi By

Express News Service

A total of 59 deaths have been recorded in two Maharashtra government hospitals in the last 48 hours -- 35 in Shankarrao Chavan Hospital in Nanded and 24 in Ghati Hospital in Aurangabad.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde took serious cognizance of the deaths in Nanded and Ghati and ordered a high-level inquiry. He denied the Opposition's allegations that the deaths in Nanded and Ghati took place due to a shortage of medicines and the unavailability of doctors.

The guilty will be punished after the findings of the probe committee. We have taken serious cognizance of these incidents and sent a team of minister, secretary and officers to visit the hospitals in Nanded and Ghati in Aurangabad and submit a report, Shinde said.

However, former Congress chief minister Ashok Chavan who comes from Nanded alleged that the deaths of 35 people including 16 infants were due to a shortage of medicines and the unavailability of medical staffers.

ALSO READ | Maharashtra hospital deaths: Congress demands probe, Kharge slams state health apparatus

There are 70 other people in serious conditions. We came to know that medicine supply and recruitment of doctors has been stuck due to unknown reasons and that cost the lives of several people. The state government should fix the responsibility and improve the system, he said.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole alleged that the contract for medicine supply has been stuck as a 40% commission has been demanded for the procurement of the medicines by the state public health department. He said earlier 17 people died in the Thane Municipal Corporation-run civic hospital, but no lesson has been learnt so far from such tragedies.

The public health system in the state is suffering from the disease of corruption and the entire system is on a ventilator. There aren't enough doctors and staff in government hospitals and there is also a shortage of medicines. The equipment in the hospitals is dysfunctional and lying idle. If this is the state of health services in major cities, one can only imagine the condition in rural hospitals. A culpable homicide case under IPC 302 should be filed against the state government," Patole demanded.

MNS chief Raj Thackeray also slammed the triple-engine government, saying it has failed to provide public health to the common people.

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A total of 59 deaths have been recorded in two Maharashtra government hospitals in the last 48 hours -- 35 in Shankarrao Chavan Hospital in Nanded and 24 in Ghati Hospital in Aurangabad. Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde took serious cognizance of the deaths in Nanded and Ghati and ordered a high-level inquiry. He denied the Opposition's allegations that the deaths in Nanded and Ghati took place due to a shortage of medicines and the unavailability of doctors. The guilty will be punished after the findings of the probe committee. We have taken serious cognizance of these incidents and sent a team of minister, secretary and officers to visit the hospitals in Nanded and Ghati in Aurangabad and submit a report, Shinde said. googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); However, former Congress chief minister Ashok Chavan who comes from Nanded alleged that the deaths of 35 people including 16 infants were due to a shortage of medicines and the unavailability of medical staffers. ALSO READ | Maharashtra hospital deaths: Congress demands probe, Kharge slams state health apparatus There are 70 other people in serious conditions. We came to know that medicine supply and recruitment of doctors has been stuck due to unknown reasons and that cost the lives of several people. The state government should fix the responsibility and improve the system, he said. Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole alleged that the contract for medicine supply has been stuck as a 40% commission has been demanded for the procurement of the medicines by the state public health department. He said earlier 17 people died in the Thane Municipal Corporation-run civic hospital, but no lesson has been learnt so far from such tragedies. The public health system in the state is suffering from the disease of corruption and the entire system is on a ventilator. There aren't enough doctors and staff in government hospitals and there is also a shortage of medicines. The equipment in the hospitals is dysfunctional and lying idle. If this is the state of health services in major cities, one can only imagine the condition in rural hospitals. A culpable homicide case under IPC 302 should be filed against the state government," Patole demanded. MNS chief Raj Thackeray also slammed the triple-engine government, saying it has failed to provide public health to the common people. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. The Azersky-2 satellite will be produced in Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

According to Azercosmos, a cooperation agreement was signed between Azercosmos and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) on the development of new observation satellites for Azerbaijan within the framework of the 74th International Astronautical Congress in Baku.

The Azersky-2 program will not only ensure sustainability in the Earth's surface surveillance sector in the country but will also open a new page from a business point of view, including serving the further development of the space ecosystem in Azerbaijan.

According to the agreement, two satellites will be manufactured within the framework of the Azersky-2 program.

"These will be remote Earth observation satellites with a high-resolution electro-optical sensor. IAI will design, assemble, integrate, and test the first satellite of the satellite constellation with the participation of Azerbaijani specialists. Israeli specialists will also support Azerbaijan in designing a satellite development center to be built in Azerbaijan. The experience gained by Azerbaijani specialists will make it possible to prepare a second satellite in Azerbaijan," the company said.

According to Samaddin Asadov, Chairman of the Board of Azercosmos, this project is unique for both Azercosmos and Israel Aerospace Industries and will undoubtedly contribute to the development of cooperation between the two countries in the space sphere.

"I consider our cooperation an important step in the development of human capital and space technologies in the country," he said.

Boaz Levy, President and Chief Executive Officer of Israel Aerospace Industries, noted that the company is proud to make a significant contribution to this cooperation and will strive to further strengthen the partnership in the name of mutual interests in Azerbaijan.

In addition, IAI will provide all the necessary ground control and operation systems for the Azersky-2 system in Azerbaijan. Local specialists will be trained in satellite management and satellite image processing. The satellites will be launched in 2026 and 2028. The launch vehicle that will put the satellite into orbit will be announced in the coming months.
Sudhir Suryawanshi By

Express News Service

MUMBAI: After the Bihar Government released the caste census, the BJP-led government in Maharashtra also hinted at a similar caste-based survey exercise in the state.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that they will check the data of the Bihar governments caste census and its authenticity and his government is positive to carry out similar exercises in Maharashtra as well.

He said the Bihar government has yet to release all caste-based census data. We will check Bihar government data and study it as well. We will verify the authenticity and its implications as well. We are very much positive for a caste-based census. Bihar is the only state that has carried out caste-based surveys and released its data as well. So, we will check out which method has to be followed, whether the Bihar government's or some other. Chief minister Eknath Shinde will take the final decision over it, Fadnavis added.

Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule earlier on Monday said that he would write to Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and request him to carry out the caste-based survey in the state.

Leader of Oppositions and Maharashtra Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar also demanded the same. He said the Maharashtra government should carry out the caste-based survey in the state on the line of Bihar.

He said that caste-based surveys will provide authenticated data and that will help to carry out the welfare and development program on the basis of it.

MLC Kapil Patil, general secretary of JD (U) wrote to CM Ekanth Shinde and DCMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar to follow the Bihar government model to carry out the caste-based survey. He said once this survey is done that will resolve the reservation demands of several castes like Maratha in Maharashtra.

He said Bihar government data clarifies many things as the survey reveals that OBCs are 62 per cent in state, but the central government has given them only 27 % reservations while the upper caste is 15%, but they are enjoying 10 % reservations under the EWS quota.

The caste-based data will help to repair the damage to various marginalized and deprived castes in India, Patil added.

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MUMBAI: After the Bihar Government released the caste census, the BJP-led government in Maharashtra also hinted at a similar caste-based survey exercise in the state. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that they will check the data of the Bihar governments caste census and its authenticity and his government is positive to carry out similar exercises in Maharashtra as well. He said the Bihar government has yet to release all caste-based census data. We will check Bihar government data and study it as well. We will verify the authenticity and its implications as well. We are very much positive for a caste-based census. Bihar is the only state that has carried out caste-based surveys and released its data as well. So, we will check out which method has to be followed, whether the Bihar government's or some other. Chief minister Eknath Shinde will take the final decision over it, Fadnavis added.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule earlier on Monday said that he would write to Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and request him to carry out the caste-based survey in the state. Leader of Oppositions and Maharashtra Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar also demanded the same. He said the Maharashtra government should carry out the caste-based survey in the state on the line of Bihar. He said that caste-based surveys will provide authenticated data and that will help to carry out the welfare and development program on the basis of it. MLC Kapil Patil, general secretary of JD (U) wrote to CM Ekanth Shinde and DCMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar to follow the Bihar government model to carry out the caste-based survey. He said once this survey is done that will resolve the reservation demands of several castes like Maratha in Maharashtra. He said Bihar government data clarifies many things as the survey reveals that OBCs are 62 per cent in state, but the central government has given them only 27 % reservations while the upper caste is 15%, but they are enjoying 10 % reservations under the EWS quota. The caste-based data will help to repair the damage to various marginalized and deprived castes in India, Patil added. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: The results of Bihars caste survey announced on Monday galvanised both the opposition parties and the BJP allies alike in UP to reiterate their demand for a similar exercises in the countrys politically most crucial state.

In Uttar Pradesh -- where the Mandal Commission report in 1990 had led to a major political churn aiding the rise of regional satraps Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party  the caste census is set to decide the future course of the states politics.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief and four-time UP CM Mayawati on Tuesday said the caste-based census in Bihar was the first step towards ensuring constitutional rights to other backward classes (OBCs).

Demanding a similar exercise in Uttar Pradesh, she said: "The findings of the caste census in Bihar may be making some parties uncomfortable, but for the BSP, it is the first step in the long struggle for ensuring the constitutional rights of OBCs," she posted on X.

Demanding that the UP government commence the caste-based census immediately, Mayawati said the "right solution", however, would be that the BJP-led central government conducts the exercise at the national level.

The BSP chief said her party was happy that India's politics was taking a new turn in favour of the neglected 'Bahujan Samaj'. She said the new development had rendered what she called "extreme anti-caste and anti-Mandal" sections, worried for their future.

ALSO READ | Caste census: Singhvi strikes discordant note on Congress' pitch for 'jitni abaadi, utna haq'

Mayawati's regional rival and UPs main opposition party Samajwadi Partys chief Akhilesh Yadav also demanded a similar exercise at the national level.

Bihar caste-based census published: This is the mathematical basis of social justice. The caste census will not open a new path of 85-15 conflict but of cooperation and those who are not domineering but are supporters of everyone's rights, they support and welcome it. Those who really want to get the rights, get the caste census done. The BJP government should leave politics and conduct a nationwide caste census," he had posted on X.

Even SP allies including Jayant Chaudhury led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and the Apna Dal (K)  also echoed the same sentiment.

The caste census is a must in UP as well to ensure correct share of various castes in various government schemes, RLD state president Ramashish Rai said. We demand the UP government immediately order a caste census now when the Bihar government has even released the report.

The UP Congress leader and former chief of UPCC Ajay Kumar Lallu said the Bihar survey results had vindicated the Opposition blocs stance.

Even three of the BJP allies, having their bastions in eastern Uttar Pradesh, demanded a caste count in Indias most-populous state, just months before the 2024 general elections.

These allies -- the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) the Nishad Party and the Apna Dal (Sonelal) -- are given weight because they control crucial backward caste groups -- Rajbhars back the SBSP, boatmen and fishermen support the Nishad Party and Kurmis vote for the Apna Dal (Sonelal) -- that are key to winning at least 20 to 25 seats on offer in eastern UP.

While Apna Dal (S) leader and Union minister Anupriya Patel, a Lok Sabha MP from Mirzapur, backed the exercise of caste census saying she had raised the issues in Parliament as well, SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar welcomed Bihars move saying one must ask whether those castes, which had emerged as most backward and whose numbers were high too in their survey, had actually benefited over the years in state, which for the last three decades had mostly been ruled either by Lalu Prasads RJD or Nitish Kumars JD (U).

Meanwhile, the ruling BJP sought to counter Bihars caste census move by highlighting the developmental work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In Uttar Pradesh everyone is getting their rights and respect, said BJPs UP other backward classes (OBC) wing chief and backward welfare minister Narendra Kashyap.

My departments budget that used to be around Rs 500 crore earlier has gone up under Yogi Adityanathjis government manifold and currently is pegged at Rs 2,300 crore...That is why the issue of caste census isnt getting much attention as OBCs have benefited under our government like never before, Kashyap added.

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LUCKNOW: The results of Bihars caste survey announced on Monday galvanised both the opposition parties and the BJP allies alike in UP to reiterate their demand for a similar exercises in the countrys politically most crucial state. In Uttar Pradesh -- where the Mandal Commission report in 1990 had led to a major political churn aiding the rise of regional satraps Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party  the caste census is set to decide the future course of the states politics. Bahujan Samaj Party chief and four-time UP CM Mayawati on Tuesday said the caste-based census in Bihar was the first step towards ensuring constitutional rights to other backward classes (OBCs).googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Demanding a similar exercise in Uttar Pradesh, she said: "The findings of the caste census in Bihar may be making some parties uncomfortable, but for the BSP, it is the first step in the long struggle for ensuring the constitutional rights of OBCs," she posted on X. Demanding that the UP government commence the caste-based census immediately, Mayawati said the "right solution", however, would be that the BJP-led central government conducts the exercise at the national level. The BSP chief said her party was happy that India's politics was taking a new turn in favour of the neglected 'Bahujan Samaj'. She said the new development had rendered what she called "extreme anti-caste and anti-Mandal" sections, worried for their future. ALSO READ | Caste census: Singhvi strikes discordant note on Congress' pitch for 'jitni abaadi, utna haq' Mayawati's regional rival and UPs main opposition party Samajwadi Partys chief Akhilesh Yadav also demanded a similar exercise at the national level. Bihar caste-based census published: This is the mathematical basis of social justice. The caste census will not open a new path of 85-15 conflict but of cooperation and those who are not domineering but are supporters of everyone's rights, they support and welcome it. Those who really want to get the rights, get the caste census done. The BJP government should leave politics and conduct a nationwide caste census," he had posted on X. Even SP allies including Jayant Chaudhury led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and the Apna Dal (K)  also echoed the same sentiment. The caste census is a must in UP as well to ensure correct share of various castes in various government schemes, RLD state president Ramashish Rai said. We demand the UP government immediately order a caste census now when the Bihar government has even released the report. The UP Congress leader and former chief of UPCC Ajay Kumar Lallu said the Bihar survey results had vindicated the Opposition blocs stance. Even three of the BJP allies, having their bastions in eastern Uttar Pradesh, demanded a caste count in Indias most-populous state, just months before the 2024 general elections. These allies -- the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) the Nishad Party and the Apna Dal (Sonelal) -- are given weight because they control crucial backward caste groups -- Rajbhars back the SBSP, boatmen and fishermen support the Nishad Party and Kurmis vote for the Apna Dal (Sonelal) -- that are key to winning at least 20 to 25 seats on offer in eastern UP. While Apna Dal (S) leader and Union minister Anupriya Patel, a Lok Sabha MP from Mirzapur, backed the exercise of caste census saying she had raised the issues in Parliament as well, SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar welcomed Bihars move saying one must ask whether those castes, which had emerged as most backward and whose numbers were high too in their survey, had actually benefited over the years in state, which for the last three decades had mostly been ruled either by Lalu Prasads RJD or Nitish Kumars JD (U). Meanwhile, the ruling BJP sought to counter Bihars caste census move by highlighting the developmental work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In Uttar Pradesh everyone is getting their rights and respect, said BJPs UP other backward classes (OBC) wing chief and backward welfare minister Narendra Kashyap. My departments budget that used to be around Rs 500 crore earlier has gone up under Yogi Adityanathjis government manifold and currently is pegged at Rs 2,300 crore...That is why the issue of caste census isnt getting much attention as OBCs have benefited under our government like never before, Kashyap added. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By PTI

PATNA: The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar on Tuesday announced 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS) in the judicial services, and the state-run law colleges and universities.

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by the chief minister.

"The cabinet approved amendments in the guidelines of the State Judicial Services, 1951, allowing 10 per cent reservation for EWS category in judicial services and also in state-run law institutes and universities," said Additional Chief Secretary (Cabinet Secretariat) S Siddhartha.

A notification with the details will soon be issued by the department concerned, he said.

The state cabinet also gave its approval for the construction of 100 veterinary hospitals in the state, Siddhartha said.

ALSO READ | Bihar govt releases findings of its caste bases survey; BC head count at 63%

"A total of 100 first-class veterinary hospitals will be constructed in different districts of the state. Besides, there will be training centers at all these hospitals. For this, Rs 225 crore will be spent in 17 districts," he said.

The state cabinet also gave its nod for the creation of 30 additional posts of clerks for handling matters related to the Consumers Affairs Department, Siddhartha said.

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PATNA: The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar on Tuesday announced 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS) in the judicial services, and the state-run law colleges and universities. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by the chief minister. "The cabinet approved amendments in the guidelines of the State Judicial Services, 1951, allowing 10 per cent reservation for EWS category in judicial services and also in state-run law institutes and universities," said Additional Chief Secretary (Cabinet Secretariat) S Siddhartha.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); A notification with the details will soon be issued by the department concerned, he said. The state cabinet also gave its approval for the construction of 100 veterinary hospitals in the state, Siddhartha said. ALSO READ | Bihar govt releases findings of its caste bases survey; BC head count at 63% "A total of 100 first-class veterinary hospitals will be constructed in different districts of the state. Besides, there will be training centers at all these hospitals. For this, Rs 225 crore will be spent in 17 districts," he said. The state cabinet also gave its nod for the creation of 30 additional posts of clerks for handling matters related to the Consumers Affairs Department, Siddhartha said. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By PTI

NEW DELHI: After the Congress strongly batted for a national caste census with the assertion that rights should be proportionate to the population, senior party leader Abhishek Singhvi on Tuesday struck a note of caution, saying it will eventually culminate into majoritarianism.

The remarks by Singhvi, a spokesperson of the party and a member of its apex decision-making body Congress Working Committee, countered the pitch for "'Jitni abaadi, utna haq' (rights proportionate to the population)" made by Rahul Gandhi and other leaders following the release of Bihar caste census on Monday.

"Equality of opportunity is never the same as equality of outcomes. People endorsing #jitniabadiutnahaq have to first completely understand the consequences of it. It will eventually culminate into majoritarianism," Singhvi said on X.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi while speaking at a poll rally in Jagdalpur said the Congress should clarify whether rights can be given in proportion to the "abaadi" (population) and asserted that poor people have the first right over the country's resources.

Modi also asked whether the grand old party wants to decrease the rights of Muslims.

On Monday, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said the caste census of Bihar has proved that 84 per cent of people in the state are OBCs, SCs and STs and their rights should be according to their population.

"Out of 90 secretaries of the central government, only 3 are OBC, who handle only 5 per cent of India's budget. Therefore, it is important to know the caste statistics of India," Gandhi had said in a post in Hindi on X.

The party had also called upon the Centre to immediately conduct a similar exercise at the national level to ensure social justice and provide a firm foundation for social empowerment programmes.

If the Modi government does not carry out a caste census, it will be conducted as soon as the Congress government is formed so that every section can get their right, the opposition party said.

Addressing the 'Parivartan Mahasankalp' rally of the BJP at Jagdalpur in poll-bound Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, Modi also alleged that the Congress has entered into a secret pact with some other country and was taking pleasure in speaking against India, as he asked people to remain alert.

"Congress says the 'abaadi' (population) of people will decide the rights (on resources), but for Modi, poor people are the biggest abaadi of the country and they have the first right over resources. The welfare of the poor is my aim," he said.

"What would former prime minister Manmohan Singh be thinking? Manmohan Singh ji used to say minorities have the first right over resources of the country and Muslims have the first right over resources. But now Congress is saying the population will decide who will get how much share of rights. Do they want to decrease the rights of Muslims?" he asked.

Whose population is more, PM Modi asked and said will it be possible to ensure "rights according to population".

"Should Hindus take all the rights? Congress should clarify whether the rights will be given according to the population. Does Congress want to remove minorities?" he said.

The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar on Monday released findings of its much-awaited caste survey which revealed that OBCs and EBCs constitute a whopping 63 per cent of the state's total population.

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NEW DELHI: After the Congress strongly batted for a national caste census with the assertion that rights should be proportionate to the population, senior party leader Abhishek Singhvi on Tuesday struck a note of caution, saying it will eventually culminate into majoritarianism. The remarks by Singhvi, a spokesperson of the party and a member of its apex decision-making body Congress Working Committee, countered the pitch for "'Jitni abaadi, utna haq' (rights proportionate to the population)" made by Rahul Gandhi and other leaders following the release of Bihar caste census on Monday. "Equality of opportunity is never the same as equality of outcomes. People endorsing #jitniabadiutnahaq have to first completely understand the consequences of it. It will eventually culminate into majoritarianism," Singhvi said on X.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Prime Minister Narendra Modi while speaking at a poll rally in Jagdalpur said the Congress should clarify whether rights can be given in proportion to the "abaadi" (population) and asserted that poor people have the first right over the country's resources. Modi also asked whether the grand old party wants to decrease the rights of Muslims. On Monday, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said the caste census of Bihar has proved that 84 per cent of people in the state are OBCs, SCs and STs and their rights should be according to their population. "Out of 90 secretaries of the central government, only 3 are OBC, who handle only 5 per cent of India's budget. Therefore, it is important to know the caste statistics of India," Gandhi had said in a post in Hindi on X. The party had also called upon the Centre to immediately conduct a similar exercise at the national level to ensure social justice and provide a firm foundation for social empowerment programmes. If the Modi government does not carry out a caste census, it will be conducted as soon as the Congress government is formed so that every section can get their right, the opposition party said. Addressing the 'Parivartan Mahasankalp' rally of the BJP at Jagdalpur in poll-bound Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, Modi also alleged that the Congress has entered into a secret pact with some other country and was taking pleasure in speaking against India, as he asked people to remain alert. "Congress says the 'abaadi' (population) of people will decide the rights (on resources), but for Modi, poor people are the biggest abaadi of the country and they have the first right over resources. The welfare of the poor is my aim," he said. "What would former prime minister Manmohan Singh be thinking? Manmohan Singh ji used to say minorities have the first right over resources of the country and Muslims have the first right over resources. But now Congress is saying the population will decide who will get how much share of rights. Do they want to decrease the rights of Muslims?" he asked. Whose population is more, PM Modi asked and said will it be possible to ensure "rights according to population". "Should Hindus take all the rights? Congress should clarify whether the rights will be given according to the population. Does Congress want to remove minorities?" he said. The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar on Monday released findings of its much-awaited caste survey which revealed that OBCs and EBCs constitute a whopping 63 per cent of the state's total population. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Ejas Kaiser By

Express News Service

RAIPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday cited the poor of the country as the biggest caste, asserting that the first right over the nations resources belongs to them.

While addressing the Parivartan Mahasankalp rally of the BJP at Jagdalpur in the poll-bound Chhattisgarhs Bastar, the prime minister said that during the last 9 years, all schemes of the Modi government made for the poor have instilled self-confidence among them.

If the well-being of the poor is served, it will automatically lead to the nations welfare. For me, the poor, whether Dalits, backward, tribals or general category, remain the biggest caste. We have to care for them and change their lives. The welfare of the poor is my goal, Modi said and criticised the Congress, for now, speaking a different language on rights to be given in proportion to the abadi' (population) with caste census as a "conspiracy" and wants to divide the poor.

ALSO READ | Bihar govt releases findings of its caste bases survey; BC head count at 63%

The Nitish Kumar government released findings of its caste survey in Bihar on Monday. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Chhattisgarh last week asserted that the caste-based census can provide the people the rights in accordance with their population and he appreciated the Bihar caste survey.

PM Modi accused the Congress of converting the Loktantra (democracy) into Loot-tantra (corruption) and Prajatantra (peoples politics) into Parivartantra (dynasty politics). He attacked the Congress for saying that the population would decide their rights and cautioned the people against the alleged secret pact of the Congress with some other country and took delight in speaking against the country (India).

While speaking at the BJP's public meeting in tribal-dominated Bastar, he attempted to woo the locals saying that he had spent several years of his life in the adivasi areas. He claimed that compared to Congress, the BJP government gives five times more budgetary allocations for the tribal communities.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee government created a separate ministry and budget for tribals welfare, BJP government has established many Eklavya model residential schools for the tribal belts across India, Van-Dhan Vikas Kendra for forested tribal population besides medical, engineering colleges besides the education city in Bastar. The first woman President is tribal because of the BJP, the PM said.

During his visit, the PM inaugurated the NMDCs Nagarnar Steel Plantthe first such plant in the Bastar region and dedicated other development projects worth around Rs 27,000 crore in Chhattisgarh.

ALSO READ | OBCs and EBCs form nearly two-thirds of Bihar population, caste survey reveals

For a developed Bharat the physical, social and digital infrastructure should be in accordance with the needs of the future. Nagarnar steel plant will create around 50 thousand employment opportunities and ensure the development of the region, he said.

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RAIPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday cited the poor of the country as the biggest caste, asserting that the first right over the nations resources belongs to them. While addressing the Parivartan Mahasankalp rally of the BJP at Jagdalpur in the poll-bound Chhattisgarhs Bastar, the prime minister said that during the last 9 years, all schemes of the Modi government made for the poor have instilled self-confidence among them. If the well-being of the poor is served, it will automatically lead to the nations welfare. For me, the poor, whether Dalits, backward, tribals or general category, remain the biggest caste. We have to care for them and change their lives. The welfare of the poor is my goal, Modi said and criticised the Congress, for now, speaking a different language on rights to be given in proportion to the abadi' (population) with caste census as a "conspiracy" and wants to divide the poor.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); ALSO READ | Bihar govt releases findings of its caste bases survey; BC head count at 63% The Nitish Kumar government released findings of its caste survey in Bihar on Monday. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Chhattisgarh last week asserted that the caste-based census can provide the people the rights in accordance with their population and he appreciated the Bihar caste survey. PM Modi accused the Congress of converting the Loktantra (democracy) into Loot-tantra (corruption) and Prajatantra (peoples politics) into Parivartantra (dynasty politics). He attacked the Congress for saying that the population would decide their rights and cautioned the people against the alleged secret pact of the Congress with some other country and took delight in speaking against the country (India). While speaking at the BJP's public meeting in tribal-dominated Bastar, he attempted to woo the locals saying that he had spent several years of his life in the adivasi areas. He claimed that compared to Congress, the BJP government gives five times more budgetary allocations for the tribal communities. Atal Bihari Vajpayee government created a separate ministry and budget for tribals welfare, BJP government has established many Eklavya model residential schools for the tribal belts across India, Van-Dhan Vikas Kendra for forested tribal population besides medical, engineering colleges besides the education city in Bastar. The first woman President is tribal because of the BJP, the PM said. During his visit, the PM inaugurated the NMDCs Nagarnar Steel Plantthe first such plant in the Bastar region and dedicated other development projects worth around Rs 27,000 crore in Chhattisgarh. ALSO READ | OBCs and EBCs form nearly two-thirds of Bihar population, caste survey reveals For a developed Bharat the physical, social and digital infrastructure should be in accordance with the needs of the future. Nagarnar steel plant will create around 50 thousand employment opportunities and ensure the development of the region, he said. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Ujwal Jalali By

ENS & Agencies

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday morning raided the office of news portal NewsClick and the residences of journalists associated with it.

According to official sources, the Special Cell has booked the news organisation under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

Sources informed TNIE that searches are being made at more than 30 locations across the NCR, including the office of NewsClick while its journalists are being questioned and their mobile phones and laptops have been seized by the cops.

The website's Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha and journalists Abhisar Sharma, Aunindyo Chakraborty and Sohail Hashmi, Bhasha Singh, Urmilesh, and satirist Sanjay Rajoura were among those who were raided.

Staffers across designations as well as contributors and past employees of the portal were raided. The residences of activist Teesta Setalvad and Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, too, were raided. Writer Githa Hariharan, activist and historian Sohail Hashmi, and satirist and stand-up comic Sanjay Rajaura, too, were 'raided' today.

It is unclear as to how many people have been detained for questioning.

Advocate Gaurav Yadav representing NewsClick journalist Urmilesh told The New Indian Express that he has not been allowed to enter the Special Cell office. "Urmilesh's wife informed me that he has been arrested by Delhi Police. I have no other details as of now," Yadav told this paper.

Sources said that the Special Cell has formed a list of at least 25 questions which they are asking from the detained journalists. The questions pertain to anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh, Farmers' Protest, North East Delhi riots and even details of their foreign travels.

VIDEO | "We have been here (outside Police Special Cell office in Delhi) since 10 am and have been trying to meet our clients. However, we have not been able to meet them, neither have we been provided with any documents, nor did we get the copy of the FIR," says Gaurav Yadav, pic.twitter.com/61l5SUoRgY  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 3, 2023

Senior journalist Abhisar Sharma took to social media to inform about the raid being conducted at his residence. "Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and Phone...," Sharma wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and Phone...  Abhisar Sharma (@abhisar_sharma) October 3, 2023

NewsClick journalist Basha Singh also wrote on X confirming the Delhi police action. "Finally last tweet from this phone. Delhi police seized my phone."

Police recovered the dumped data from laptops and mobile phones of some journalists of NewsClick. The Special Cell has registered a new case and started an investigation, officials said.

ALSO READ | Raids on NewsClick journos, a distraction from 'explosive' findings of Bihar caste survey: Congress

Background

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier raided the firm's premises probing its sources of funding. The Special Cell is conducting raids on the basis of inputs provided by the central agency.

The ED had registered a case against the news portal and alleged that NewsClick received foreign funding in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). The agency had also alleged that the money was used for anti-national activities.

In August, the Delhi High Court sought the stand of NewsClick Founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha on a plea by the city police seeking vacation of an earlier order granting him interim protection from arrest in an unlawful foreign funding case.

On August 5, The New York Times published a report titled "A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a US Tech Mogul" which claimed that the news portal NewsClick was part of a global network that received funding from American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, who allegedly works closely with the Chinese government media and promoted its point of view in various countries.

Referring to the NYT report, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur had alleged that the Congress, China and NewsClick are attached to an anti-India umbilical cord and the agenda of the Communist Party of China is being pushed through the website.

Following the NYT report, NewsClick had issued a statement remarking that the allegations made against the organisation were "unfounded and without basis in fact or law."

READ HERE | Journalist bodies condemn Newsclick raids, say they are to divert attention from burning issues

Meanwhile, the press club of India has expressed concern over the raids and demanded the Centre to come out with details of the investigation.

"The Press Club of India is deeply concerned about the multiple raids conducted on the houses of journalists and writers associated with #Newsclick. We are monitoring the developments and will be releasing a detailed statement," the journalists' body wrote on X.

The PCI stand in solidarity with the journalists and demand the government to come out with details. #DefendMediaFreed  Press Club of India (@PCITweets) October 3, 2023

(With additional inputs from Online Desk, ANI, and PTI)

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NEW DELHI: Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday morning raided the office of news portal NewsClick and the residences of journalists associated with it. According to official sources, the Special Cell has booked the news organisation under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. Sources informed TNIE that searches are being made at more than 30 locations across the NCR, including the office of NewsClick while its journalists are being questioned and their mobile phones and laptops have been seized by the cops.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The website's Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha and journalists Abhisar Sharma, Aunindyo Chakraborty and Sohail Hashmi, Bhasha Singh, Urmilesh, and satirist Sanjay Rajoura were among those who were raided. Staffers across designations as well as contributors and past employees of the portal were raided. The residences of activist Teesta Setalvad and Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, too, were raided. Writer Githa Hariharan, activist and historian Sohail Hashmi, and satirist and stand-up comic Sanjay Rajaura, too, were 'raided' today. It is unclear as to how many people have been detained for questioning. Advocate Gaurav Yadav representing NewsClick journalist Urmilesh told The New Indian Express that he has not been allowed to enter the Special Cell office. "Urmilesh's wife informed me that he has been arrested by Delhi Police. I have no other details as of now," Yadav told this paper. Sources said that the Special Cell has formed a list of at least 25 questions which they are asking from the detained journalists. The questions pertain to anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh, Farmers' Protest, North East Delhi riots and even details of their foreign travels. VIDEO | "We have been here (outside Police Special Cell office in Delhi) since 10 am and have been trying to meet our clients. However, we have not been able to meet them, neither have we been provided with any documents, nor did we get the copy of the FIR," says Gaurav Yadav, pic.twitter.com/61l5SUoRgY  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 3, 2023 Senior journalist Abhisar Sharma took to social media to inform about the raid being conducted at his residence. "Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and Phone...," Sharma wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and Phone...  Abhisar Sharma (@abhisar_sharma) October 3, 2023 NewsClick journalist Basha Singh also wrote on X confirming the Delhi police action. "Finally last tweet from this phone. Delhi police seized my phone." Police recovered the dumped data from laptops and mobile phones of some journalists of NewsClick. The Special Cell has registered a new case and started an investigation, officials said. ALSO READ | Raids on NewsClick journos, a distraction from 'explosive' findings of Bihar caste survey: Congress Background The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier raided the firm's premises probing its sources of funding. The Special Cell is conducting raids on the basis of inputs provided by the central agency. The ED had registered a case against the news portal and alleged that NewsClick received foreign funding in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). The agency had also alleged that the money was used for anti-national activities. In August, the Delhi High Court sought the stand of NewsClick Founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha on a plea by the city police seeking vacation of an earlier order granting him interim protection from arrest in an unlawful foreign funding case. On August 5, The New York Times published a report titled "A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a US Tech Mogul" which claimed that the news portal NewsClick was part of a global network that received funding from American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, who allegedly works closely with the Chinese government media and promoted its point of view in various countries. Referring to the NYT report, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur had alleged that the Congress, China and NewsClick are attached to an anti-India umbilical cord and the agenda of the Communist Party of China is being pushed through the website. Following the NYT report, NewsClick had issued a statement remarking that the allegations made against the organisation were "unfounded and without basis in fact or law." READ HERE | Journalist bodies condemn Newsclick raids, say they are to divert attention from burning issues Meanwhile, the press club of India has expressed concern over the raids and demanded the Centre to come out with details of the investigation. "The Press Club of India is deeply concerned about the multiple raids conducted on the houses of journalists and writers associated with #Newsclick. We are monitoring the developments and will be releasing a detailed statement," the journalists' body wrote on X. The PCI stand in solidarity with the journalists and demand the government to come out with details. #DefendMediaFreed  Press Club of India (@PCITweets) October 3, 2023 (With additional inputs from Online Desk, ANI, and PTI) Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Sudhir Suryawanshi By

Express News Service

Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said as the BJP is the elder brother in the three-party alliance government, it should be ready to make sacrifices to accommodate its partners -- Shiv Sena and NCP.

Addressing district presidents of the party and other leaders, he said they should work to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister of India in 2024. Not for the BJP, but for India and the country, Narendra Modi should be made the PM of India once again. Narendra Modi is working to fulfill the dream of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The mission 2024 is very important for the country. Modi ji has the capacity to take the country to the pinnacle of development, Fadnavis added.

ALSO READ | 59 die in two Maharashtra govt hospitals in last 48 hours, CM orders high-level probe

We always say that BJP workers make sacrifices, now the time has come to show that commitment for the country. BJP is the elder brother in government so we should be ready to sacrifice more to accommodate other alliance partners, Fadnavis said.

Our country needs strong leadership and Modi ji can give that to our country. Our economy has been expanding and it is on the right path. Many countries started following us due to the strong leadership of PM Narendra Modi. Modi ji has emerged as a world leader, he said.

Fadnavis claimed there are no strong leaders in the Opposition INDIA alliance. Rahul Gandhi cannot be compared with Modi ji. INDIA alliance members are fighting with each other. They have no clear strategy, he added.

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Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said as the BJP is the elder brother in the three-party alliance government, it should be ready to make sacrifices to accommodate its partners -- Shiv Sena and NCP. Addressing district presidents of the party and other leaders, he said they should work to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister of India in 2024. Not for the BJP, but for India and the country, Narendra Modi should be made the PM of India once again. Narendra Modi is working to fulfill the dream of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The mission 2024 is very important for the country. Modi ji has the capacity to take the country to the pinnacle of development, Fadnavis added. ALSO READ | 59 die in two Maharashtra govt hospitals in last 48 hours, CM orders high-level probegoogletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); We always say that BJP workers make sacrifices, now the time has come to show that commitment for the country. BJP is the elder brother in government so we should be ready to sacrifice more to accommodate other alliance partners, Fadnavis said. Our country needs strong leadership and Modi ji can give that to our country. Our economy has been expanding and it is on the right path. Many countries started following us due to the strong leadership of PM Narendra Modi. Modi ji has emerged as a world leader, he said. Fadnavis claimed there are no strong leaders in the Opposition INDIA alliance. Rahul Gandhi cannot be compared with Modi ji. INDIA alliance members are fighting with each other. They have no clear strategy, he added. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Mayank Singh By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: As China's PLA continues its enhanced level of deployment in eastern Ladakh, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is keeping its plans dynamic and will maintain operations till disengagement from all points is complete.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Chief of Air Staff (CAS) ACM VR Chaudhari said, "The situation continues to remain what it was in the last one year. There have been disengagements in certain contested areas. But complete disengagement has not yet taken place. We will continue to remain deployed till complete disengagement takes place."

The Indian Air Force is gearing up to celebrate its 91st anniversary on October 8.

Meanwhile, the IAF is keeping watch on China's rapid expansion of military infrastructure and enhanced deployment across the borders, through ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) mechanisms, said the IAF chief.

"We make note of the build-up of resources and capabilities across the borders. Our operational plans are very dynamic and keep changing based on the situation that we perceive that is developing across any front," he said.

"So in places where we cannot really counter the numbers or the might of the adversary, we will counter it through better tactics and through better training," he said.

ALSO READ | Chinese belligerence presenting a threat to 'rules-based international order': Indian Army Chief

The IAF's operational plans are very dynamic and it will deal with challenges along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) through better tactics and training in places where it cannot counter the "numbers or the might of the adversary," Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said.

The Air Chief Marshal said the IAF does not have a fixed mindset in terms of the deployment of assets in key areas along the LAC.

"Our focus will remain to be dynamic at all times and not have a fixed mindset in terms of deployment of assets in particular areas. But we have very very flexible and dynamic war plans which we keep revising every now and then based on the ISR inputs that we get," he said.

The IAF is also going ahead with induction of modern systems and platforms to bolster the force's operational prowess, he said, adding that a contract to procure 97 Tejas Mark 1A aircraft at a cost of around Rs 1.15 lakh crore will be concluded soon. In February 2021, Defence Ministry sealed a Rs 48,000-crore deal with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to procure 83 such jets.

Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said the IAF is looking at inducting military platforms, equipment and defence hardware worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore to Rs 3 lakh crore in the next seven-eight years.

The Chief of Air Staff also said the IAF is in the process of deploying mountain radars to improve surveillance along the borders.

On the strategic air defence system S-400, Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said that the IAF received three units of the missile systems from Russia and is hoping to receive the remaining two by next year.

The missile system can track a large number of targets at 600 km and can deploy four different kinds of missiles engaging the targets at varying distances. The system is capable of destroying aircraft, missiles (cruise and ballistic), UAVs and other air assault vehicles up to 400 kilometres from a range of 100 ft to 40,000 ft.

Talking about the Indo-Pacific region, the Air Chief termed it the "new economic and strategic centre of gravity" of the world that offers both challenges and opportunities.

"The Indian Air Force with its inherent capability to see the farthest, reach the fastest and hit the hardest will be critical in mitigating these challenges and will remain a fulcrum in projecting India's might in the region," he said.

"Owing to the volatile and uncertain geopolitical landscape in our region, the need to have a strong and credible military has become an imperative," he said.

The IAF is treading on a transformation journey adding the modern technologies and focusing on self reliance in defence.

The Chief of Air Staff said modern warfare is constantly undergoing a transformation due to rapid advancements in technology and that his force has embarked on a journey of transformation and is progressing in a planned and systematic manner.

"Our focus is on force multipliers in the form of AI (artificial intelligence)-based decision tools, electronic warfare equipment, robust networks and harnessing space and cyber capabilities. While adding newer and more potent equipment, platforms and weapons to our arsenal, we are also committed to Atmanirbhar Bharat and are contributing extensively towards enhancing indigenisation and defence production, fast-paced development and operationalisation of indigenous aerospace projects," he said.

Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

NEW DELHI: As China's PLA continues its enhanced level of deployment in eastern Ladakh, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is keeping its plans dynamic and will maintain operations till disengagement from all points is complete. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Chief of Air Staff (CAS) ACM VR Chaudhari said, "The situation continues to remain what it was in the last one year. There have been disengagements in certain contested areas. But complete disengagement has not yet taken place. We will continue to remain deployed till complete disengagement takes place." The Indian Air Force is gearing up to celebrate its 91st anniversary on October 8.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Meanwhile, the IAF is keeping watch on China's rapid expansion of military infrastructure and enhanced deployment across the borders, through ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) mechanisms, said the IAF chief. "We make note of the build-up of resources and capabilities across the borders. Our operational plans are very dynamic and keep changing based on the situation that we perceive that is developing across any front," he said. "So in places where we cannot really counter the numbers or the might of the adversary, we will counter it through better tactics and through better training," he said. ALSO READ | Chinese belligerence presenting a threat to 'rules-based international order': Indian Army Chief The IAF's operational plans are very dynamic and it will deal with challenges along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) through better tactics and training in places where it cannot counter the "numbers or the might of the adversary," Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said. The Air Chief Marshal said the IAF does not have a fixed mindset in terms of the deployment of assets in key areas along the LAC. "Our focus will remain to be dynamic at all times and not have a fixed mindset in terms of deployment of assets in particular areas. But we have very very flexible and dynamic war plans which we keep revising every now and then based on the ISR inputs that we get," he said. The IAF is also going ahead with induction of modern systems and platforms to bolster the force's operational prowess, he said, adding that a contract to procure 97 Tejas Mark 1A aircraft at a cost of around Rs 1.15 lakh crore will be concluded soon. In February 2021, Defence Ministry sealed a Rs 48,000-crore deal with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to procure 83 such jets. Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said the IAF is looking at inducting military platforms, equipment and defence hardware worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore to Rs 3 lakh crore in the next seven-eight years. The Chief of Air Staff also said the IAF is in the process of deploying mountain radars to improve surveillance along the borders. On the strategic air defence system S-400, Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said that the IAF received three units of the missile systems from Russia and is hoping to receive the remaining two by next year. The missile system can track a large number of targets at 600 km and can deploy four different kinds of missiles engaging the targets at varying distances. The system is capable of destroying aircraft, missiles (cruise and ballistic), UAVs and other air assault vehicles up to 400 kilometres from a range of 100 ft to 40,000 ft. Talking about the Indo-Pacific region, the Air Chief termed it the "new economic and strategic centre of gravity" of the world that offers both challenges and opportunities. "The Indian Air Force with its inherent capability to see the farthest, reach the fastest and hit the hardest will be critical in mitigating these challenges and will remain a fulcrum in projecting India's might in the region," he said. "Owing to the volatile and uncertain geopolitical landscape in our region, the need to have a strong and credible military has become an imperative," he said. The IAF is treading on a transformation journey adding the modern technologies and focusing on self reliance in defence. The Chief of Air Staff said modern warfare is constantly undergoing a transformation due to rapid advancements in technology and that his force has embarked on a journey of transformation and is progressing in a planned and systematic manner. "Our focus is on force multipliers in the form of AI (artificial intelligence)-based decision tools, electronic warfare equipment, robust networks and harnessing space and cyber capabilities. While adding newer and more potent equipment, platforms and weapons to our arsenal, we are also committed to Atmanirbhar Bharat and are contributing extensively towards enhancing indigenisation and defence production, fast-paced development and operationalisation of indigenous aerospace projects," he said. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By Online Desk

The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay has imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 on a student protesting against tables in the mess being reserved for those eating 'vegetarian food', The Hindu reported.

Earlier in July, a controversy had broken out in the institute over some areas in a mess being unofficially earmarked for vegetarians.

The general secretary of the hostel mess had then said in an email that no area could be reserved for anyone, or could seek to exclude anyone. However, in an email on September 27, the mess council informed the students that it had reserved the six tables to create a more inclusive environment for students.

Since the notice, several student organisations on the campus have raised the issue of food discrimination and demanded intervention from the administration.

On Tuesday, the mess council of hostels 12, 13 and 14 at IIT-Bombay decided to impose a fine of Rs 10,000 on a student for 'unruly behaviour' and for 'flouting the mess norms. The student, along with two others, ate nonvegetarian food in the designated space for vegetarian food, to protest against the segregation of eating places in the mess.

While one student from Hostel 12 has been fined, disciplinary action will also be initiated against two others, once they are identified, the mess council said.

On October 2, the students collective Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle posted the minutes of a meeting of the mess council on social media.

@iitbombay has imposed a fine of Rs 10000 on the students who had stood against the food segregation policy of the institute by a peaceful act of individual civil disobedience. This action of the admin is similar to a Khap Panchayat acting to uphold untouchability in modern times pic.twitter.com/dguRluvoV7  APPSC IIT Bombay (@AppscIITb) October 2, 2023

Referring to the protests by the students, the institution said This act was a premeditated attempt to disrupt the peace and harmony within the mess, in defiance of the advice provided by the associate dean SA [Students Affairs].

Meanwhile, the Student collective' Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle' said that this action was similar to a Khap Panchayat acting to uphold untouchability in modern times.

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The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay has imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 on a student protesting against tables in the mess being reserved for those eating 'vegetarian food', The Hindu reported. Earlier in July, a controversy had broken out in the institute over some areas in a mess being unofficially earmarked for vegetarians. The general secretary of the hostel mess had then said in an email that no area could be reserved for anyone, or could seek to exclude anyone. However, in an email on September 27, the mess council informed the students that it had reserved the six tables to create a more inclusive environment for students. googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Since the notice, several student organisations on the campus have raised the issue of food discrimination and demanded intervention from the administration. On Tuesday, the mess council of hostels 12, 13 and 14 at IIT-Bombay decided to impose a fine of Rs 10,000 on a student for 'unruly behaviour' and for 'flouting the mess norms. The student, along with two others, ate nonvegetarian food in the designated space for vegetarian food, to protest against the segregation of eating places in the mess. While one student from Hostel 12 has been fined, disciplinary action will also be initiated against two others, once they are identified, the mess council said. On October 2, the students collective Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle posted the minutes of a meeting of the mess council on social media. @iitbombay has imposed a fine of Rs 10000 on the students who had stood against the food segregation policy of the institute by a peaceful act of individual civil disobedience. This action of the admin is similar to a Khap Panchayat acting to uphold untouchability in modern times pic.twitter.com/dguRluvoV7  APPSC IIT Bombay (@AppscIITb) October 2, 2023 Referring to the protests by the students, the institution said This act was a premeditated attempt to disrupt the peace and harmony within the mess, in defiance of the advice provided by the associate dean SA [Students Affairs]. Meanwhile, the Student collective' Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle' said that this action was similar to a Khap Panchayat acting to uphold untouchability in modern times. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Dilip Singh Kshatriya By

Express News Service

AHMEDABAD: One-third of Gujarats population or over 31 lakh families are living Below Poverty Line (BPL). The poverty line is estimated at Rs 816 per capita per month for rural areas and Rs 1,000 for urban areas or Rs 32 per day for rural and Rs 26 for urban.

On September 14, replying to a question from Congress MLA Tushar Chaudhary, State Minister for Rural Development Bachubhai Maganbhai Khabad informed 31,61,310 BPL families have been identified in Gujarat. Of these, 16,28,744 families fall under the extremely poor category while 15,32,566 in poor.

Moreover, in 2020-21, as many as 1,047 families slipped into the BPL category while just 14 came out of it. The figure for 2021-22, new BPL families was 1,751 while two moved away from the category. In 2022-23, the rise in BPL category families was 303 while the decrease was only one.

Hemant Kumar Shah, an economist based in Ahmedabad, says, If we consider 31.64 lakh poor families with an average of six members per family, then the number of BPL population is 1 crore 89 lahks, implying one-third of population is below the poverty line.

Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

AHMEDABAD: One-third of Gujarats population or over 31 lakh families are living Below Poverty Line (BPL). The poverty line is estimated at Rs 816 per capita per month for rural areas and Rs 1,000 for urban areas or Rs 32 per day for rural and Rs 26 for urban. On September 14, replying to a question from Congress MLA Tushar Chaudhary, State Minister for Rural Development Bachubhai Maganbhai Khabad informed 31,61,310 BPL families have been identified in Gujarat. Of these, 16,28,744 families fall under the extremely poor category while 15,32,566 in poor. Moreover, in 2020-21, as many as 1,047 families slipped into the BPL category while just 14 came out of it. The figure for 2021-22, new BPL families was 1,751 while two moved away from the category. In 2022-23, the rise in BPL category families was 303 while the decrease was only one.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Hemant Kumar Shah, an economist based in Ahmedabad, says, If we consider 31.64 lakh poor families with an average of six members per family, then the number of BPL population is 1 crore 89 lahks, implying one-third of population is below the poverty line. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
ASTANA, Kazakhstan, October 3. The Russian airline Aeroflot is resuming direct regular flights from Moscow to Shymkent (Kazakhstan), Trend reports.

Flights will be operated once a week, starting November 3, on Airbus A320 aircraft.

The departure of flight SU1950 from Moscow is scheduled on Fridays, the return flight SU1951 from Shymkent is scheduled on Saturdays.

According to the airline, tickets went on sale today.

Shymkent is the third most populated city in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the largest industrial, commercial and cultural center of the country. It will become the sixth point in Kazakhstan to which Aeroflot flies from Moscow.

The airline operates its own flights from Sheremetyevo Airport to Astana, Aktau, Atyrau, Almaty and Karaganda.

Aeroflot is the largest Russian airline. The Group of the same name also includes Rossiya and Pobeda airlines. Aeroflot Group is the undisputed leader of Russian civil aviation. In 2022, Aeroflot carried 20.5 million people, and including Aeroflot Group airlines - 40.7 million.
By Online Desk

The escalation of Indo-Canada diplomatic tensions reached a new point on Tuesday after India informed Canada to withdraw dozens of diplomats from the country.

According to a report from the Financial Times, India has asked Canada to repatriate as many as 40 diplomats by October 10 and further threatened to revoke diplomatic immunity for those staying past next week's deadline.

The FT report speculates that India's move comes at the back of New Delhi seeking "parity" in the number and grade of diplomats posted to each other's embassies.

Canada has more diplomats in its High Commission in Delhi than India does in Ottawa owing to larger consular access for over 1.2 million Canadians with Indian heritage. Currently, 62 envoys have been posted to the Canadian mission in India and New Delhi wants it reduced by 41 people.

Tuesday's diplomatic blockade is the latest move among several others after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged the "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of a Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.

Nijjar, who was a designated terrorist in India, was gunned down outside a Gurdwara, in a parking area in Canada's Surrey, British Columbia on June 18.

Trudeau during a debate in the Canadian Parliament, claimed his country's national security officials had reasons to believe that "agents of the Indian government" carried out the killing of the Canadian citizen, who also served as the president of Surrey's Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.

The allegations made by the Canadian Prime Minister and foreign minister were rejected by the Ministry of External Affairs in India which dubbed the statements as "absurd" and "motivated."

Last month, India temporarily suspended its visa services in Canada, "until further notice" after both nations continued to escalate tensions by removing envoys from each other's High Commissions.

On September 19, India expelled a top Canadian diplomat in a retaliatory move, Canada had asked the head of Indian intelligence in Ottawa mission to leave the country a day earlier.

On September 20, India issued an advisory for all its citizens in Canada and those travelling to the country to "exercise utmost caution" in view of growing anti-India activities. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) referred to "threats" targeting Indian diplomats and sections of the Indian community that oppose the "anti-India agenda", and asked Indian nationals to avoid travelling to regions and potential venues in Canada that have seen such incidents.

The India-Canada ties have been reeling under some strain for the last few months in view of increasing activities of the pro-Khalistani elements in the North American country. India believes the Trudeau government is not addressing its genuine concerns.

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The escalation of Indo-Canada diplomatic tensions reached a new point on Tuesday after India informed Canada to withdraw dozens of diplomats from the country. According to a report from the Financial Times, India has asked Canada to repatriate as many as 40 diplomats by October 10 and further threatened to revoke diplomatic immunity for those staying past next week's deadline. The FT report speculates that India's move comes at the back of New Delhi seeking "parity" in the number and grade of diplomats posted to each other's embassies.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Canada has more diplomats in its High Commission in Delhi than India does in Ottawa owing to larger consular access for over 1.2 million Canadians with Indian heritage. Currently, 62 envoys have been posted to the Canadian mission in India and New Delhi wants it reduced by 41 people. Tuesday's diplomatic blockade is the latest move among several others after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged the "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of a Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June. Nijjar, who was a designated terrorist in India, was gunned down outside a Gurdwara, in a parking area in Canada's Surrey, British Columbia on June 18. Trudeau during a debate in the Canadian Parliament, claimed his country's national security officials had reasons to believe that "agents of the Indian government" carried out the killing of the Canadian citizen, who also served as the president of Surrey's Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara. The allegations made by the Canadian Prime Minister and foreign minister were rejected by the Ministry of External Affairs in India which dubbed the statements as "absurd" and "motivated." Last month, India temporarily suspended its visa services in Canada, "until further notice" after both nations continued to escalate tensions by removing envoys from each other's High Commissions. On September 19, India expelled a top Canadian diplomat in a retaliatory move, Canada had asked the head of Indian intelligence in Ottawa mission to leave the country a day earlier. On September 20, India issued an advisory for all its citizens in Canada and those travelling to the country to "exercise utmost caution" in view of growing anti-India activities. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) referred to "threats" targeting Indian diplomats and sections of the Indian community that oppose the "anti-India agenda", and asked Indian nationals to avoid travelling to regions and potential venues in Canada that have seen such incidents. The India-Canada ties have been reeling under some strain for the last few months in view of increasing activities of the pro-Khalistani elements in the North American country. India believes the Trudeau government is not addressing its genuine concerns. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By Online Desk

The National Alliance of Journalists, the Delhi Union of Journalists and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (Delhi Unit) issued a joint statement on Tuesday condemning the Delhi Police raids on NewsClick, its scribes, as well as contributors associated with the news portal.

It said that the residences of journalists like Prabir Purkayastha (founder and editor-in-chief of NewsClick), Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Aunindyo Chakraborty, Bhasha Singh, Urmilesh, Abhisar Sharma, Mahesh Kumar, Subodh Varma, Aditi Nigam, and Mukund Jha were raided this morning.

The statement claimed that several of the mediapersons were also taken into custody.

Media reports stated that past employees were targeted as well. The residences of activist Teesta Setalvad and Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, too, were raided.

Writer Githa Hariharan, activist and historian Sohail Hashmi, and satirist and stand-up comic Sanjay Rajaura, too, were 'raided' today.

"The government has been targeting Newsclick apparently after the coverage this news portal gave to the issues of workers and farmers," the statement alleged.

"We believe that this is yet another attempt by the Centre to muzzle the freedom of press. Such an action, raiding and intimidating almost all the employees in a media organisation is unheard of," it said.

The statement by the journalist bodies also noted that the Newsclick management has been maintaining that whatever funding they have received was through legal sources and that the evidence for this has been submitted to the Delhi High Court.

"These new raids are to divert public attention from burning livelihood issues of people. We condemn this with the strongest possible words. We will stand with these journalists in this matter. We urge the Centre to immediately stop this attack on press freedom. We urge the media fraternity to protest against this witch-hunt by the government," the statement said.

Journalists Pranjoy Guha Thakurata and Urmilesh being taken to Lodhi Road Special Cell office, in New Delhi, on Oct. 3, 2023. (PTI)

Meanwhile, the Press Club of India has demanded the Centre to come out with details of the investigation. "The Press Club of India is deeply concerned about the multiple raids conducted on the houses of journalists and writers associated with #Newsclick. We are monitoring the developments and will be releasing a detailed statement," the journalists' body wrote on X.

The Network of Women in Media, India Journalists, termed the police action "shocking", and said on X that "activists and artists who speak truth to power are being unrelentingly harassed and persecuted by the government, while pliant and sycophantic mediapersons and media houses are being nurtured. This campaign to quell dissent has to stop."

The Editors Guild of India recorded its concern over the raids and asserted that "the investigation of specific offences must not create a general atmosphere of intimidation under the shadow of draconian laws, or impinge on the freedom of expression and the raising of dissenting and critical voices."

Its statement also reminded the government about "the importance of an independent media in a functioning democracy."

DIGIPUB News India Foundation tweeted that they were deeply concerned about the raids and said that it was "another instance of the govts pattern of arbitrary & intimidatory behaviour."

ALSO READ | Raids on NewsClick journos, a distraction from 'explosive' findings of Bihar caste survey: Congress

Raids at 30 locations across NCR

Sources informed TNIE that searches are being made by the Delhi Police's Special Cell at more than 30 locations across the NCR, including the office of NewsClick, while its journalists are being questioned and their mobile phones and laptops have been seized by the cops.

Police have recovered dumped data from the seized laptops and phones.

The Special Cell has reportedly filed a new case under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, following allegations that the news portal received money for pro-China propaganda.

Sources told TNIE that the Special Cell has formed a list of at least 25 questions which they are asking the detained journalists. The questions pertain to anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh, Farmers' Protest, North East Delhi riots and even details of their foreign travels.

There is no confirmation yet of arrests made so far in the searches concentrated in the Delhi-NCR region.

A police personnel arrives at the office of NewsClick at Saket during raids by Delhi Police's Special Cell on its premises, in New Delhi, on Oct. 3, 2023. (PTI)

Background

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier raided the firm's premises probing its sources of funding. The Special Cell is conducting raids on the basis of inputs provided by the central agency.

The ED had registered a case against the news portal and alleged that NewsClick received foreign funding in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). The agency had also alleged that the money was used for anti-national activities.

On August 5, The New York Times published a report titled "A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a US Tech Mogul" which claimed that NewsClick was part of a global network that received funding from American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, who allegedly works closely with the Chinese government media and promoted its point of view in various countries.

Following the NYT report, NewsClick had issued a statement remarking that the allegations made against the organisation were "unfounded and without basis in fact or law."

(With inputs from Ujwal Jalali and PTI)

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The National Alliance of Journalists, the Delhi Union of Journalists and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (Delhi Unit) issued a joint statement on Tuesday condemning the Delhi Police raids on NewsClick, its scribes, as well as contributors associated with the news portal. It said that the residences of journalists like Prabir Purkayastha (founder and editor-in-chief of NewsClick), Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Aunindyo Chakraborty, Bhasha Singh, Urmilesh, Abhisar Sharma, Mahesh Kumar, Subodh Varma, Aditi Nigam, and Mukund Jha were raided this morning. The statement claimed that several of the mediapersons were also taken into custody.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Media reports stated that past employees were targeted as well. The residences of activist Teesta Setalvad and Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, too, were raided. Writer Githa Hariharan, activist and historian Sohail Hashmi, and satirist and stand-up comic Sanjay Rajaura, too, were 'raided' today. "The government has been targeting Newsclick apparently after the coverage this news portal gave to the issues of workers and farmers," the statement alleged. "We believe that this is yet another attempt by the Centre to muzzle the freedom of press. Such an action, raiding and intimidating almost all the employees in a media organisation is unheard of," it said. The statement by the journalist bodies also noted that the Newsclick management has been maintaining that whatever funding they have received was through legal sources and that the evidence for this has been submitted to the Delhi High Court. "These new raids are to divert public attention from burning livelihood issues of people. We condemn this with the strongest possible words. We will stand with these journalists in this matter. We urge the Centre to immediately stop this attack on press freedom. We urge the media fraternity to protest against this witch-hunt by the government," the statement said. Journalists Pranjoy Guha Thakurata and Urmilesh being taken to Lodhi Road Special Cell office, in New Delhi, on Oct. 3, 2023. (PTI) Meanwhile, the Press Club of India has demanded the Centre to come out with details of the investigation. "The Press Club of India is deeply concerned about the multiple raids conducted on the houses of journalists and writers associated with #Newsclick. We are monitoring the developments and will be releasing a detailed statement," the journalists' body wrote on X. The Network of Women in Media, India Journalists, termed the police action "shocking", and said on X that "activists and artists who speak truth to power are being unrelentingly harassed and persecuted by the government, while pliant and sycophantic mediapersons and media houses are being nurtured. This campaign to quell dissent has to stop." The Editors Guild of India recorded its concern over the raids and asserted that "the investigation of specific offences must not create a general atmosphere of intimidation under the shadow of draconian laws, or impinge on the freedom of expression and the raising of dissenting and critical voices." Its statement also reminded the government about "the importance of an independent media in a functioning democracy." DIGIPUB News India Foundation tweeted that they were deeply concerned about the raids and said that it was "another instance of the govts pattern of arbitrary & intimidatory behaviour." ALSO READ | Raids on NewsClick journos, a distraction from 'explosive' findings of Bihar caste survey: Congress Raids at 30 locations across NCR Sources informed TNIE that searches are being made by the Delhi Police's Special Cell at more than 30 locations across the NCR, including the office of NewsClick, while its journalists are being questioned and their mobile phones and laptops have been seized by the cops. Police have recovered dumped data from the seized laptops and phones. The Special Cell has reportedly filed a new case under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, following allegations that the news portal received money for pro-China propaganda. Sources told TNIE that the Special Cell has formed a list of at least 25 questions which they are asking the detained journalists. The questions pertain to anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh, Farmers' Protest, North East Delhi riots and even details of their foreign travels. There is no confirmation yet of arrests made so far in the searches concentrated in the Delhi-NCR region. A police personnel arrives at the office of NewsClick at Saket during raids by Delhi Police's Special Cell on its premises, in New Delhi, on Oct. 3, 2023. (PTI) Background The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier raided the firm's premises probing its sources of funding. The Special Cell is conducting raids on the basis of inputs provided by the central agency. The ED had registered a case against the news portal and alleged that NewsClick received foreign funding in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). The agency had also alleged that the money was used for anti-national activities. On August 5, The New York Times published a report titled "A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a US Tech Mogul" which claimed that NewsClick was part of a global network that received funding from American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, who allegedly works closely with the Chinese government media and promoted its point of view in various countries. Following the NYT report, NewsClick had issued a statement remarking that the allegations made against the organisation were "unfounded and without basis in fact or law." (With inputs from Ujwal Jalali and PTI) Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRINAGAR: Despite the hue and cry from political parties, the Lt Governor administration in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday started the process of handing over land allotment orders to the landless people of Jammu and Kashmir for house construction under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY-G) scheme.

The land allotment orders were handed over to 245 landless families under the PMAY-G scheme by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha at Raj Bhavan in Srinagar today. Sinha said it is a matter of happiness for him that he is handing over land allotment orders of 5 million land to some beneficiaries who are landless but eligible for housing under PMAY.

Rejecting the opposition notion that this scheme might be used to alter the demography of J&K, he asked the grassroots-level representatives to keep an eye on the list of beneficiaries in their respective areas.

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SRINAGAR: Despite the hue and cry from political parties, the Lt Governor administration in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday started the process of handing over land allotment orders to the landless people of Jammu and Kashmir for house construction under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY-G) scheme. The land allotment orders were handed over to 245 landless families under the PMAY-G scheme by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha at Raj Bhavan in Srinagar today. Sinha said it is a matter of happiness for him that he is handing over land allotment orders of 5 million land to some beneficiaries who are landless but eligible for housing under PMAY. Rejecting the opposition notion that this scheme might be used to alter the demography of J&K, he asked the grassroots-level representatives to keep an eye on the list of beneficiaries in their respective areas.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By ANI

MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Working President Supriya Sule on Tuesday slammed the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena Government over the death of 24 patients in Dr Shankarrao Chavan Medical College and Hospital in Nanded and asked the Chief Minister of Maharashtra to seek the resignation of the concerned minister.

"The hospital should have ample stock of medicines. I have repeatedly demanded that medicines for dog bite and snake bite should be available. However, it is seen from the news and complaints of the citizens that there is a shortage of medicines in most of the government hospitals in the state and doctors are not available. This means that the Government does not pay attention to the basic facilities of the citizens", the NCP leader posted on Facebook.

"The Chief Minister must take serious notice of these incidents and immediately resign from the concerned ministers," she added.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal also took to X and pointed out the "carelessness" of the current Maharashtra Government

"It is being said that these deaths occurred due to a shortage of medicines. How can a government be so careless? These people are busy in forming and bringing down the government by buying and selling of MLAs but they do not care about the lives of the people." Kejriwal posted on X.

READ MORE | Maharashtra hospital deaths: Congress demands probe, Kharge slams state health apparatus

"24 deaths, which include 12 newborn babies, in 24 hours in the government hospital in Nanded happened due to a lack of supply of medicine by the state government", NCP's Vikas Lawande wrote on X.

Dr Shyamrao Wakode, in charge dean of the Medical College, said that the deceased were suffering from various ailments including snake bites, arsenic and phosphorus poisoning, etc.

"Around 12 children died in the last 24 hours and 12 adults also died due to various ailments (snake bites, arsenic and phosphorus poisoning etc.). Due to transfers of various staff, there was some difficulty for us. We were supposed to buy medicines from the Haffkine Institute but that also didn't happen. Also, patients come from far off to this hospital and there were many patients whose sanctioned budget also got disturbed," Dr Shyamrao Wakode said.

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MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Working President Supriya Sule on Tuesday slammed the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena Government over the death of 24 patients in Dr Shankarrao Chavan Medical College and Hospital in Nanded and asked the Chief Minister of Maharashtra to seek the resignation of the concerned minister. "The hospital should have ample stock of medicines. I have repeatedly demanded that medicines for dog bite and snake bite should be available. However, it is seen from the news and complaints of the citizens that there is a shortage of medicines in most of the government hospitals in the state and doctors are not available. This means that the Government does not pay attention to the basic facilities of the citizens", the NCP leader posted on Facebook. "The Chief Minister must take serious notice of these incidents and immediately resign from the concerned ministers," she added.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal also took to X and pointed out the "carelessness" of the current Maharashtra Government "It is being said that these deaths occurred due to a shortage of medicines. How can a government be so careless? These people are busy in forming and bringing down the government by buying and selling of MLAs but they do not care about the lives of the people." Kejriwal posted on X. READ MORE | Maharashtra hospital deaths: Congress demands probe, Kharge slams state health apparatus "24 deaths, which include 12 newborn babies, in 24 hours in the government hospital in Nanded happened due to a lack of supply of medicine by the state government", NCP's Vikas Lawande wrote on X. Dr Shyamrao Wakode, in charge dean of the Medical College, said that the deceased were suffering from various ailments including snake bites, arsenic and phosphorus poisoning, etc. "Around 12 children died in the last 24 hours and 12 adults also died due to various ailments (snake bites, arsenic and phosphorus poisoning etc.). Due to transfers of various staff, there was some difficulty for us. We were supposed to buy medicines from the Haffkine Institute but that also didn't happen. Also, patients come from far off to this hospital and there were many patients whose sanctioned budget also got disturbed," Dr Shyamrao Wakode said. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By Express News Service

GUWAHATI: Kuki-Zo organisations in strife-torn Manipur registered a protest on Monday against the arrest of five tribals by central agencies and demanded their release within 48 hours.

Normal life came to a grinding halt in the Kuki-majority hill district of Churachandpur during an indefinite shutdown which was called by some tribal organisations. All shops and business establishments remained shut while vehicles were off the road.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested four tribals, including two women, from Henglep in Churachandpur on Monday by intercepting a Bolero. The arrests were made in connection with the abduction and killing of two Meitei students.

Two minor girls  daughters of one of the arrested women and travelling in the vehicle  were also taken into custody. After the six persons were flown out of Manipur to Guwahati in Assam by the evening, the two children were handed over to the District Child Protection Officer, Kamrup Metro district in Guwahati for their care.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had also arrested another tribal in a case related to a transnational conspiracy by insurgent groups based in Myanmar and Bangladesh to wage a war against India by exploiting the unrest in Manipur.

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) and the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) condemned the selective haste of the central agencies in arresting the persons.

If the CBI can act with such swiftness, why has it not arrested anyone in more heinous cases, like the rape and murder of two tribal girls in Imphal, burning of a 7-year-old tribal boy along with his mother and aunt, torture and beheading of a tribal youth, and so many other acts of atrocities against tribals? the ITLF asked.

The CoTU condemned the CBI and the NIA for their alleged attempt to bring one-sided justice. The tribal organisation said it was compelled to impose an emergency shutdown on National Highway 37  the lifeline of Manipur  till the authorities expedite the safe release of one of the abducted persons Satthang Kipgen.

Further, the organisation served an ultimatum on the home ministry to direct the central agencies to release the arrested persons within 48 hours, initiate a probe against Meitei criminals and convict them for natural justice.

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GUWAHATI: Kuki-Zo organisations in strife-torn Manipur registered a protest on Monday against the arrest of five tribals by central agencies and demanded their release within 48 hours. Normal life came to a grinding halt in the Kuki-majority hill district of Churachandpur during an indefinite shutdown which was called by some tribal organisations. All shops and business establishments remained shut while vehicles were off the road. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested four tribals, including two women, from Henglep in Churachandpur on Monday by intercepting a Bolero. The arrests were made in connection with the abduction and killing of two Meitei students. googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Two minor girls  daughters of one of the arrested women and travelling in the vehicle  were also taken into custody. After the six persons were flown out of Manipur to Guwahati in Assam by the evening, the two children were handed over to the District Child Protection Officer, Kamrup Metro district in Guwahati for their care. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had also arrested another tribal in a case related to a transnational conspiracy by insurgent groups based in Myanmar and Bangladesh to wage a war against India by exploiting the unrest in Manipur. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) and the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) condemned the selective haste of the central agencies in arresting the persons. If the CBI can act with such swiftness, why has it not arrested anyone in more heinous cases, like the rape and murder of two tribal girls in Imphal, burning of a 7-year-old tribal boy along with his mother and aunt, torture and beheading of a tribal youth, and so many other acts of atrocities against tribals? the ITLF asked. The CoTU condemned the CBI and the NIA for their alleged attempt to bring one-sided justice. The tribal organisation said it was compelled to impose an emergency shutdown on National Highway 37  the lifeline of Manipur  till the authorities expedite the safe release of one of the abducted persons Satthang Kipgen. Further, the organisation served an ultimatum on the home ministry to direct the central agencies to release the arrested persons within 48 hours, initiate a probe against Meitei criminals and convict them for natural justice. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: Three sisters were found dead inside a trunk in their house in Kanpur village of Jalandhar district, police said on Monday. Poverty is said to be the reason for the migrant couple to murder their three minor daughters aged four, seven and nine years.

The couple allegedly mixed pesticide in the milk meant for the children and dumped their bodies into a trunk in the house. The three girls were reported missing Sunday night at Maqsudan police station by their parents when they did not find them home after returning from work, said a police officer.

The family had five children, police said. The sisters were identified as Kanchan, 4, Shakti, 7, and Amrita, 9. All three bodies were sent for post-mortem to ascertain the cause of the death, the officer said.

The police said the matter unraveled when the father of the girls was shifting household items on Monday and found the trunk heavier than usual. When he opened the trunk, he found his three daughters inside, police said. According to police, the father of the girls had recently received an ultimatum from his landlord to vacate the house.

Sushil Mandal along with his wife Manju Mandal, both daily wagers, had migrated from Bihar. During questioning, the parents admitted to have killed their daughters as they could not afford to feed them. Earlier Mandal allegedly claimed that the girls got locked inside the trunk, leading to death due to suffocation.

A case was registered against the couple on charges of murder and tampering with evidence. Senior Superintendent of Police of Jalandhar (Rural) Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar said: The parents informed the police on Sunday night that their daughters, who were playing in the street, had not returned home and were missing. We got a call on 112, our helpline number, from their landlord about the missing kids.

The police found gaps in the statement of the parents. The police scanned the CCTV footage of the area and found that the victims did not come out of their house. A search of the house led to the recovery of bodies in the trunk, he said.

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CHANDIGARH: Three sisters were found dead inside a trunk in their house in Kanpur village of Jalandhar district, police said on Monday. Poverty is said to be the reason for the migrant couple to murder their three minor daughters aged four, seven and nine years. The couple allegedly mixed pesticide in the milk meant for the children and dumped their bodies into a trunk in the house. The three girls were reported missing Sunday night at Maqsudan police station by their parents when they did not find them home after returning from work, said a police officer. The family had five children, police said. The sisters were identified as Kanchan, 4, Shakti, 7, and Amrita, 9. All three bodies were sent for post-mortem to ascertain the cause of the death, the officer said.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); The police said the matter unraveled when the father of the girls was shifting household items on Monday and found the trunk heavier than usual. When he opened the trunk, he found his three daughters inside, police said. According to police, the father of the girls had recently received an ultimatum from his landlord to vacate the house. Sushil Mandal along with his wife Manju Mandal, both daily wagers, had migrated from Bihar. During questioning, the parents admitted to have killed their daughters as they could not afford to feed them. Earlier Mandal allegedly claimed that the girls got locked inside the trunk, leading to death due to suffocation. A case was registered against the couple on charges of murder and tampering with evidence. Senior Superintendent of Police of Jalandhar (Rural) Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar said: The parents informed the police on Sunday night that their daughters, who were playing in the street, had not returned home and were missing. We got a call on 112, our helpline number, from their landlord about the missing kids. The police found gaps in the statement of the parents. The police scanned the CCTV footage of the area and found that the victims did not come out of their house. A search of the house led to the recovery of bodies in the trunk, he said. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Jitendra Choubey By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: A series of six earthquakes rocked Nepals western province, which is closer to Indias eastern border, on Tuesday afternoon, sending shockwaves to much of northern India, including the Delhi national capital region.

The epicentre was 206 km South-East of Indias holy city Joshimath in Uttarakhand. The tremors were felt in Nepals Bajhang and adjoining districts including Achham, Doti, Bajura and Baitadi.

Delhi-based National Centre for Seismology (NCS) recorded the strongest quake of 6.2 magnitude (M) at 2.51 pm. It lasted 40 seconds, which caused panic with people running out of their homes and offices.

Reports said many people were stuck in their high rises in NCR. No damage was reported in India.

Flash

Massive earthquake of 6.2 magnitude, tremor felt in Delhi- gurgaon.

EQ Parameters:

M: 6.2

Date: 03/10/2023

Time: 14:51:04 IST

Lat: 29.39 N

Long: 81.23 E

Depth: 5 Km

Region: Nepal @santwana99 @Shahid_Faridi_ @NewIndianXpress  jitendra (@journojitendra) October 3, 2023

The Delhi Police urged them not to panic. "We hope you all are safe. Please come out of your buildings to a safe spot, but do not panic. DO NOT USE ELEVATORS! For any emergency help, dial 112," it said in a post on X. Tremors were felt in Chandigarh, Jaipur and other parts of north India as well.

The Police control room in the pink city said there was no information yet about losses.

Hey Delhi people!



We hope you all are safe. Please come out of your buildings to a safe spot, but do not panic.



DO NOT USE ELEVATORS!



For any emergency help, dial 112.#earthquake  Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) October 3, 2023

However, initial reports suggested Nepal suffered widespread damage to houses and at least 11 people were injured. The earthquakes also induced landslides, which blocked the Prithvi Highway. They impacted the Jaiprithvi municipality, Kedarsyu, Khaptadchanna and Vithardir Municipality.

According to NCS officials, the first quake of 4.6 magnitude struck western Nepal at a depth of 10 km at 2.25 pm, followed by a 6.2 jolt at 2.51 pm, 3.6 tremor at 3.06 pm, 3.1 at 3.19 pm, 4.3 at 5.04 pm, and the last earthquake of 3.9 at 5.23 pm. Nepal witnessed a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake in April 2015, which killed nearly 9,000 people.

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NEW DELHI: A series of six earthquakes rocked Nepals western province, which is closer to Indias eastern border, on Tuesday afternoon, sending shockwaves to much of northern India, including the Delhi national capital region. The epicentre was 206 km South-East of Indias holy city Joshimath in Uttarakhand. The tremors were felt in Nepals Bajhang and adjoining districts including Achham, Doti, Bajura and Baitadi. Delhi-based National Centre for Seismology (NCS) recorded the strongest quake of 6.2 magnitude (M) at 2.51 pm. It lasted 40 seconds, which caused panic with people running out of their homes and offices. Reports said many people were stuck in their high rises in NCR. No damage was reported in India.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Flash Massive earthquake of 6.2 magnitude, tremor felt in Delhi- gurgaon. EQ Parameters: M: 6.2 Date: 03/10/2023 Time: 14:51:04 IST Lat: 29.39 N Long: 81.23 E Depth: 5 Km Region: Nepal @santwana99 @Shahid_Faridi_ @NewIndianXpress  jitendra (@journojitendra) October 3, 2023 The Delhi Police urged them not to panic. "We hope you all are safe. Please come out of your buildings to a safe spot, but do not panic. DO NOT USE ELEVATORS! For any emergency help, dial 112," it said in a post on X. Tremors were felt in Chandigarh, Jaipur and other parts of north India as well. The Police control room in the pink city said there was no information yet about losses. Hey Delhi people! We hope you all are safe. Please come out of your buildings to a safe spot, but do not panic. DO NOT USE ELEVATORS! For any emergency help, dial 112.#earthquake  Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) October 3, 2023 However, initial reports suggested Nepal suffered widespread damage to houses and at least 11 people were injured. The earthquakes also induced landslides, which blocked the Prithvi Highway. They impacted the Jaiprithvi municipality, Kedarsyu, Khaptadchanna and Vithardir Municipality. According to NCS officials, the first quake of 4.6 magnitude struck western Nepal at a depth of 10 km at 2.25 pm, followed by a 6.2 jolt at 2.51 pm, 3.6 tremor at 3.06 pm, 3.1 at 3.19 pm, 4.3 at 5.04 pm, and the last earthquake of 3.9 at 5.23 pm. Nepal witnessed a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake in April 2015, which killed nearly 9,000 people. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Rajesh Kumar Thakur By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The raids by Delhi polices special cell on various locations in the NewsClick portal funding case drew mixed reactions from political parties on Tuesday.

The BJP defended the raids saying the law enforcing agencies were free to act against anything that goes against the law. The law will take its course in the case, the BJP said.

On the other hand, opposition parties, including Congress, lambasted the Central government for the raids.Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur denied government involvement in the raids. He said probe agencies in the country are independent and work as per law. I need not justify the raid. If someone has done something wrong, probe agencies work on it... Nowhere is it written that if you have got money through illegal manner or done something objectionable, then probe agencies cannot investigate that, Thakur told the media

In a statement, Opposition bloc INDIA strongly condemned the raids and alleged the BJP government's "coercive" actions are directed only against those who speak truth to power and not against those who spread hatred and divisiveness.

However, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said probe agencies in the country are independent and work as per law.

"I need not justify the raid. If someone has done something wrong, probe agencies work on it. Nowhere is it written that if you have got money through illegal manner or done something objectionable, probe agencies cannot investigate that," Thakur said in response to queries at a press conference in Bhubaneswar.

"The probe agencies are independent and they work as per the law."

READ HERE: Journalist bodies condemn NewsClick raids, say they are to divert attention from burning issues

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla told media that the law enforcing agencies discharge their duty impartially. However, Congress termed the raids a kind of imposition of emergency on the freedom of press. The Opposition INDIA bloc strongly condemned the raids and alleged that the BJP governments coercive actions were directed only against those who speak the truth and not against those who spread hatred and divisiveness.

Taking to X, Congress leader KC Venugopal said INDIA stands against any form of intimidation or silencing of journalistic voices. We are on the side of democracy, not dictatorship, he said, adding that BJP government had tried to convert the media into a mouthpiece for its partisan and ideological interests by facilitating the media takeover by crony capitalists.

INDIA stands against any form of intimidation or silencing of journalistic voices. We are on the side of democracy, not dictatorship.



This is nothing but yet another distraction from the most important question in India today - of a nationwide caste census. pic.twitter.com/FG1UWXWbrT  K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) October 3, 2023

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor slammed the government over the raids, saying these are not the actions of a mother of democracy but of an insecure and autocratic state. The government has disgraced itself and our democracy today, Tharoor posted on X.

Other parties such as the RJD, Leftists and others also condemned the government. The AAP said the raids were meant to scare the journalists. CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said cops also landed at his official residence in Delhi, but they had come to question the son of a party staff who works for the website.

Referring to the raids, D Raja, general secretary of the Communist Party of India also launched an offensive against the Centre. BJPs crackdown on media has already brought India among the bottom 20 countries in press freedom. Delhi Police under the direct control of MHA raided the residences of journalists Urmilesh, Bhasha Singh, Abhisar Sharma, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta & others and seized laptops and phones, he posted on X.

Terming the incident an attempt to gag the media, he said, They just took his laptop and phone. He said he strongly condemns the growing brazen assaults on the media. The party also criticised the action. It called upon all Indians to rise in unison to protest against such a conspiracy.

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NEW DELHI: The raids by Delhi polices special cell on various locations in the NewsClick portal funding case drew mixed reactions from political parties on Tuesday. The BJP defended the raids saying the law enforcing agencies were free to act against anything that goes against the law. The law will take its course in the case, the BJP said. On the other hand, opposition parties, including Congress, lambasted the Central government for the raids.Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur denied government involvement in the raids. He said probe agencies in the country are independent and work as per law. I need not justify the raid. If someone has done something wrong, probe agencies work on it... Nowhere is it written that if you have got money through illegal manner or done something objectionable, then probe agencies cannot investigate that, Thakur told the mediagoogletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); In a statement, Opposition bloc INDIA strongly condemned the raids and alleged the BJP government's "coercive" actions are directed only against those who speak truth to power and not against those who spread hatred and divisiveness. However, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said probe agencies in the country are independent and work as per law. "I need not justify the raid. If someone has done something wrong, probe agencies work on it. Nowhere is it written that if you have got money through illegal manner or done something objectionable, probe agencies cannot investigate that," Thakur said in response to queries at a press conference in Bhubaneswar. "The probe agencies are independent and they work as per the law." READ HERE: Journalist bodies condemn NewsClick raids, say they are to divert attention from burning issues BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla told media that the law enforcing agencies discharge their duty impartially. However, Congress termed the raids a kind of imposition of emergency on the freedom of press. The Opposition INDIA bloc strongly condemned the raids and alleged that the BJP governments coercive actions were directed only against those who speak the truth and not against those who spread hatred and divisiveness. Taking to X, Congress leader KC Venugopal said INDIA stands against any form of intimidation or silencing of journalistic voices. We are on the side of democracy, not dictatorship, he said, adding that BJP government had tried to convert the media into a mouthpiece for its partisan and ideological interests by facilitating the media takeover by crony capitalists. INDIA stands against any form of intimidation or silencing of journalistic voices. We are on the side of democracy, not dictatorship. This is nothing but yet another distraction from the most important question in India today - of a nationwide caste census. pic.twitter.com/FG1UWXWbrT  K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) October 3, 2023 Congress leader Shashi Tharoor slammed the government over the raids, saying these are not the actions of a mother of democracy but of an insecure and autocratic state. The government has disgraced itself and our democracy today, Tharoor posted on X. Other parties such as the RJD, Leftists and others also condemned the government. The AAP said the raids were meant to scare the journalists. CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said cops also landed at his official residence in Delhi, but they had come to question the son of a party staff who works for the website. Referring to the raids, D Raja, general secretary of the Communist Party of India also launched an offensive against the Centre. BJPs crackdown on media has already brought India among the bottom 20 countries in press freedom. Delhi Police under the direct control of MHA raided the residences of journalists Urmilesh, Bhasha Singh, Abhisar Sharma, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta & others and seized laptops and phones, he posted on X. Terming the incident an attempt to gag the media, he said, They just took his laptop and phone. He said he strongly condemns the growing brazen assaults on the media. The party also criticised the action. It called upon all Indians to rise in unison to protest against such a conspiracy. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday alleged that the raids on contributing journalists at Newsclick were a "fresh distraction" from the "explosive" findings of the caste survey in Bihar and the growing demand for a caste census across the country.

Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday morning conducted raids at 30 premises connected with the online portal NewsClick as well as its journalists' houses, triggering outrage among scribes.

Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said the early morning raids on contributing journalists at Newsclick come as a "fresh distraction from the explosive findings of caste census in Bihar and the growing demand for caste census across the country".

"When he faces questions from out of syllabus, he resorts to the only counter he has in his predictable syllabus - DISTRACTION," Khera said on X.

The early morning raids on contributing journalists at Newsclick comes as fresh distraction from the explosive findings of caste census in Bihar and the growing demand for caste census across the country. When he faces questions from out of syllabus, he resorts to the only  Pawan Khera

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NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday alleged that the raids on contributing journalists at Newsclick were a "fresh distraction" from the "explosive" findings of the caste survey in Bihar and the growing demand for a caste census across the country. Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday morning conducted raids at 30 premises connected with the online portal NewsClick as well as its journalists' houses, triggering outrage among scribes. Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said the early morning raids on contributing journalists at Newsclick come as a "fresh distraction from the explosive findings of caste census in Bihar and the growing demand for caste census across the country".googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); "When he faces questions from out of syllabus, he resorts to the only counter he has in his predictable syllabus - DISTRACTION," Khera said on X. The early morning raids on contributing journalists at Newsclick comes as fresh distraction from the explosive findings of caste census in Bihar and the growing demand for caste census across the country. When he faces questions from out of syllabus, he resorts to the only  Pawan Khera Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Jaison Wilson By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea seeking a direction to declare the Ram Sethu as a national monument and to construct a wall at the site in the sea for a few meters or kilometres, so that it can be open for many to have 'Darshan'.

The public interest litigation (PIL) was taken up before a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia and subsequently rejected by the apex court.

In the plea, petitioner Hindu Personal Law Board, through its president Ashok Pandey, prayed for declaring Sri Ram Setu/ Nalahin Setu/Setu Bandh as a national monument within the provisions of Ancient Monuments, Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1958.

Ram Sethu, also known as Adams bridge, is a chain of limestone shoals between Pamban Island, off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu, and Mannar Island, off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka.

"In case this Setu comes in open, it will give way to people across the world to come to Dhanuskoti (Rameshwaram) for the Darshan of the bridge constructed under the orders of Lord Ram. In case it is done, the common man will be able to walk on this bridge for a few meters. It will fulfil the desire of crores of persons like the petitioner to walk, sit and sleep on the bridge through which Ram along with his army went to Lanka to kill Rawan and to establish Ram Raj in Lanka," the plea said.

"..it is indeed good that Sri Nitin Gadkari, the minister given the charge of this department declared in the Parliament that Sri Ram Setu will not be destructed and without destruction of the same, the Setu Samudram Shipping Canal Project (SSSCP) will be completed," it said further.

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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea seeking a direction to declare the Ram Sethu as a national monument and to construct a wall at the site in the sea for a few meters or kilometres, so that it can be open for many to have 'Darshan'. The public interest litigation (PIL) was taken up before a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia and subsequently rejected by the apex court. In the plea, petitioner Hindu Personal Law Board, through its president Ashok Pandey, prayed for declaring Sri Ram Setu/ Nalahin Setu/Setu Bandh as a national monument within the provisions of Ancient Monuments, Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1958.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Ram Sethu, also known as Adams bridge, is a chain of limestone shoals between Pamban Island, off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu, and Mannar Island, off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka. "In case this Setu comes in open, it will give way to people across the world to come to Dhanuskoti (Rameshwaram) for the Darshan of the bridge constructed under the orders of Lord Ram. In case it is done, the common man will be able to walk on this bridge for a few meters. It will fulfil the desire of crores of persons like the petitioner to walk, sit and sleep on the bridge through which Ram along with his army went to Lanka to kill Rawan and to establish Ram Raj in Lanka," the plea said. "..it is indeed good that Sri Nitin Gadkari, the minister given the charge of this department declared in the Parliament that Sri Ram Setu will not be destructed and without destruction of the same, the Setu Samudram Shipping Canal Project (SSSCP) will be completed," it said further. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By IANS

LAKHIMPUR KHERI: On Tuesday (October 3), it will be two years since the Lakhimpur Kheri violence where eight persons, including four farmers, a journalist, and three BJP workers were killed, under the Tikunia police station.

Currently, the main accused, Ashish Mishra, the son of Bharatiya Janata Party leader (BJP) and Union minister Ajay Mishra, is out on bail.



However, the case seems to be moving at a snails pace and the victims wait endlessly for justice. Politicians have moved on and lost interest in the case.



Shockingly, so far, only four out of 171 witnesses have got their statements recorded before court in the case against Ashish Mishra.



Ashish was arrested on October 9, six days after violence broke out during a farmers protest against three agri-reform laws (since repealed) and the then UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Mauryas visit to the area.



According to the UP Police FIR, four farmers were mowed down by an SUV in which Ashish Mishra was seated. Following this, the person who was driving the SUV and two BJP workers were allegedly lynched by angry farmers. The FIR said that a journalist also died in the violence.



Additional district judge (I) Sunil Kumar Varma, district court, Lakhimpur Kheri, is hearing the case and the first witness recorded his statement in the court in January 2023.



Advocate Suresh Singh, representing farmers in the court, said that the case is being listed for hearing once in every 8-10 days.



The trial began on January 12 this year as a large number of discharge applications came up before the court from both sides - prosecution and defence, he said.



Several public servants are also witnesses in the case, who were posted in Lakhimpur Kheri when the violence took place.



The then DM, SDM, ADM, SP, ASP, S-I and others are witnesses in the case, said Singh.



Jagjit Singh, father of one of the farmers who died in the violence, was the first witness of the prosecution to appear before the court on January 12, 2023. He is also a complainant in the case.



Singh said, Trial of the case is going on at a satisfactory pace. There is a legal process to conduct a trial. It must be followed.



It will take four to five years to complete the trial in the case, he added.



Summons are issued to witnesses to appear before the court on a particular date, but there is no guarantee that the witness will appear. In such a scenario, notice is issued again and a new date is fixed for the witness to appear.



Jagjit Singh, the first witness in the case to record a statement in court, is not satisfied with the pace of trial. Justice delayed is justice denied. We want the trial to be expedited. If it goes on at this pace, it will take several years to complete, he said.

ALSO READ:

8 killed in violence at farmers' protest in UP's Lakhimpur-Kheri

Lakhimpur Kheri violence: How long can we keep Ashish Mishra in custody, asks Supreme Court

Trial in 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case not 'slow paced': Supreme Court

Lakhimpur Kheri violence case: SC extends interim bail of BJP minister's son Ashish Mishra

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LAKHIMPUR KHERI: On Tuesday (October 3), it will be two years since the Lakhimpur Kheri violence where eight persons, including four farmers, a journalist, and three BJP workers were killed, under the Tikunia police station. Currently, the main accused, Ashish Mishra, the son of Bharatiya Janata Party leader (BJP) and Union minister Ajay Mishra, is out on bail. However, the case seems to be moving at a snails pace and the victims wait endlessly for justice. Politicians have moved on and lost interest in the case. Shockingly, so far, only four out of 171 witnesses have got their statements recorded before court in the case against Ashish Mishra. Ashish was arrested on October 9, six days after violence broke out during a farmers protest against three agri-reform laws (since repealed) and the then UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Mauryas visit to the area. According to the UP Police FIR, four farmers were mowed down by an SUV in which Ashish Mishra was seated. Following this, the person who was driving the SUV and two BJP workers were allegedly lynched by angry farmers. The FIR said that a journalist also died in the violence. Additional district judge (I) Sunil Kumar Varma, district court, Lakhimpur Kheri, is hearing the case and the first witness recorded his statement in the court in January 2023. Advocate Suresh Singh, representing farmers in the court, said that the case is being listed for hearing once in every 8-10 days. The trial began on January 12 this year as a large number of discharge applications came up before the court from both sides - prosecution and defence, he said. Several public servants are also witnesses in the case, who were posted in Lakhimpur Kheri when the violence took place. The then DM, SDM, ADM, SP, ASP, S-I and others are witnesses in the case, said Singh. Jagjit Singh, father of one of the farmers who died in the violence, was the first witness of the prosecution to appear before the court on January 12, 2023. He is also a complainant in the case. Singh said, Trial of the case is going on at a satisfactory pace. There is a legal process to conduct a trial. It must be followed. It will take four to five years to complete the trial in the case, he added. Summons are issued to witnesses to appear before the court on a particular date, but there is no guarantee that the witness will appear. In such a scenario, notice is issued again and a new date is fixed for the witness to appear. Jagjit Singh, the first witness in the case to record a statement in court, is not satisfied with the pace of trial. Justice delayed is justice denied. We want the trial to be expedited. If it goes on at this pace, it will take several years to complete, he said. ALSO READ:googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); 8 killed in violence at farmers' protest in UP's Lakhimpur-Kheri Lakhimpur Kheri violence: How long can we keep Ashish Mishra in custody, asks Supreme Court Trial in 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case not 'slow paced': Supreme Court Lakhimpur Kheri violence case: SC extends interim bail of BJP minister's son Ashish Mishra Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
By PTI

BENGALURU/SHIVAMOGGA: Twenty-four cases have been registered and 60 people arrested so far in connection with the violence that broke out during an Eid Milad procession in the district headquarters town of Shivamogga, police said on Tuesday.

The situation in the Ragi Gudda locality in Shivamogga city, where prohibitory orders were clamped after tension prevailed there, following incidents of stone pelting on Sunday, is now peaceful and under control, police said.

"Regarding the Ragi Gudda incident, we have booked 24 FIRs and we have detained 60 people and have arrested them. The situation in the Ragi Gudda area is now peaceful and there are no repercussions of it in the Shivamogga city," Shivamogga Superintendent of Police G K Mithun Kumar told reporters in Shivamogga.

Home Minister G Parameshwara said in Bengaluru: "Everything is under control, there is nothing to worry about. The investigation is on. ADGP Law and Order was sent there, he had camped there and is now back. Once the investigation is complete they will give a report to me".

Minister for School Education Madhu Bangarappa, who is also Minister in charge of Shivamogga district today visited a few houses in the Ragi Gudda area that were stoned during Sunday's incident.

Bangarappa said swords that are seen in some of the visuals, allegedly being carried during the procession "are not original and were made out of plastic or cardboard. in my tradition we hold trishula, similarly here, don't link it to violence. In case they were used for violence, police will take action."

READ HERE | Shivamogga sees stone-pelting during Eid Milad rally, houses damaged; over 40 booked, says CM

Mithun Kumar said the businesses and other activities are going on normally in Shivamogga city.

"Even after the incident, the Eid-Milad procession was held peacefully in the city till 11:30 PM that day. Ragi Gudda area on the outskirts of Shivamogga city only saw this incident, I was also personally present there, we (the police) took steps and brought the situation under control within an hour. The culprits have been arrested," he added.

Noting that there are certain restrictions only in the Ragi Gudda area and they will be withdrawn after assessing the situation, the SP said there is no need for any worry, and the culprits will be given strict punishment.

During the spot visit he came across that stones were pelted on the houses of people belonging to all communities, he said.

"The culprits are criminals irrespective of their community, as stone pelting is wrong. There is no need for the innocents to worry. Cases have been registered against those, against whom there is photo and video evidence."

Responding to a question about reports about the involvement of "outsiders" and that an Omni van was used by the miscreants, Mithun Kumar said the vehicle has been traced and investigation is on and we have questioned those who used it.

"Let's not speculate on this and jump to any conclusion and create panic among the people, investigation is on and all angles will be looked at," he said.

According to police, an angry mob is said to have hurled stones at a few houses and vehicles and injured several people, including the police, allegedly following rumours that there was a stone pelting on the Eid Milad procession on Sunday evening.

Police officials said they had to resort to lathi-charge to disperse the mob.

On the stone pelting incident in Shivamogga | Karnataka CM says "An Eid Milad procession was underway when some miscreants pelted stones. They also threw stones at the police. So far 40 people have been arrested. Our government will not tolerate such activities. The situation is pic.twitter.com/tPvV3vqQ85  ANI (@ANI) October 2, 2023

Earlier on Sunday before the stone pelting incident, there were protests in the Ragi Gudda area over a cutout that was put up as part of the procession, as the police had covered a portion of it, due to "bit controversial (content)", which upset people of a community, police said.

Mithun Kumar and other police officers had reached the spot and held talks with the people to bring the situation under control.

Bangarappa said all those involved in the incident will be dealt with in accordance with law, and appealed to people to maintain peace.

"Police have been given full freedom, they are investigating and will bring the truth out," he said, declining to respond to allegations, speculations, and reports about the involvement of outsiders.

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BENGALURU/SHIVAMOGGA: Twenty-four cases have been registered and 60 people arrested so far in connection with the violence that broke out during an Eid Milad procession in the district headquarters town of Shivamogga, police said on Tuesday. The situation in the Ragi Gudda locality in Shivamogga city, where prohibitory orders were clamped after tension prevailed there, following incidents of stone pelting on Sunday, is now peaceful and under control, police said. "Regarding the Ragi Gudda incident, we have booked 24 FIRs and we have detained 60 people and have arrested them. The situation in the Ragi Gudda area is now peaceful and there are no repercussions of it in the Shivamogga city," Shivamogga Superintendent of Police G K Mithun Kumar told reporters in Shivamogga.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Home Minister G Parameshwara said in Bengaluru: "Everything is under control, there is nothing to worry about. The investigation is on. ADGP Law and Order was sent there, he had camped there and is now back. Once the investigation is complete they will give a report to me". Minister for School Education Madhu Bangarappa, who is also Minister in charge of Shivamogga district today visited a few houses in the Ragi Gudda area that were stoned during Sunday's incident. Bangarappa said swords that are seen in some of the visuals, allegedly being carried during the procession "are not original and were made out of plastic or cardboard. in my tradition we hold trishula, similarly here, don't link it to violence. In case they were used for violence, police will take action." READ HERE | Shivamogga sees stone-pelting during Eid Milad rally, houses damaged; over 40 booked, says CM Mithun Kumar said the businesses and other activities are going on normally in Shivamogga city. "Even after the incident, the Eid-Milad procession was held peacefully in the city till 11:30 PM that day. Ragi Gudda area on the outskirts of Shivamogga city only saw this incident, I was also personally present there, we (the police) took steps and brought the situation under control within an hour. The culprits have been arrested," he added. Noting that there are certain restrictions only in the Ragi Gudda area and they will be withdrawn after assessing the situation, the SP said there is no need for any worry, and the culprits will be given strict punishment. During the spot visit he came across that stones were pelted on the houses of people belonging to all communities, he said. "The culprits are criminals irrespective of their community, as stone pelting is wrong. There is no need for the innocents to worry. Cases have been registered against those, against whom there is photo and video evidence." Responding to a question about reports about the involvement of "outsiders" and that an Omni van was used by the miscreants, Mithun Kumar said the vehicle has been traced and investigation is on and we have questioned those who used it. "Let's not speculate on this and jump to any conclusion and create panic among the people, investigation is on and all angles will be looked at," he said. According to police, an angry mob is said to have hurled stones at a few houses and vehicles and injured several people, including the police, allegedly following rumours that there was a stone pelting on the Eid Milad procession on Sunday evening. Police officials said they had to resort to lathi-charge to disperse the mob. On the stone pelting incident in Shivamogga | Karnataka CM says "An Eid Milad procession was underway when some miscreants pelted stones. They also threw stones at the police. So far 40 people have been arrested. Our government will not tolerate such activities. The situation is pic.twitter.com/tPvV3vqQ85  ANI (@ANI) October 2, 2023 Earlier on Sunday before the stone pelting incident, there were protests in the Ragi Gudda area over a cutout that was put up as part of the procession, as the police had covered a portion of it, due to "bit controversial (content)", which upset people of a community, police said. Mithun Kumar and other police officers had reached the spot and held talks with the people to bring the situation under control. Bangarappa said all those involved in the incident will be dealt with in accordance with law, and appealed to people to maintain peace. "Police have been given full freedom, they are investigating and will bring the truth out," he said, declining to respond to allegations, speculations, and reports about the involvement of outsiders. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
Yeshi Seli By

Express News Service

The hearing of the ongoing trial for the eight Indian naval veterans will be held on Tuesday, October 3, after nearly a two-month period.

Family members of most of the veterans are in Doha at present and are expressing optimism about the outcome of the hearing on Tuesday.

"The wait has been long and arduous for 13 months. Though there is speculation on the veterans being repatriated, going by the background one cant say anything till an actual announcement is made," said a source.

Family members have to wait outside the trial court and are not privy to what goes on inside.

"From offering prayers to writing to the Qatari authorities to grant the veterans pardon, families have left no stone unturned. The Indian government too has extended all possible support. We are avidly waiting to hear the outcome of October 3rds hearing," the source added.

It has been a year since the eight veterans were sent back to pack their bags to leave for India, which didnt happen. Their packed bags always give them hope of returning, but its the court's order that will decide on their fate soon.

It may be recalled that these eight naval veterans were working for a naval consultancy firm called Dhara Consultancies which was owned by an Omani Emir. It was on the night of August 30, 2022, when a knock from members of Qatars Ministry of Interior urging them to leave for a naval exercise landed them in prison. From being under solitary confinement they are now living on a twin-sharing basis.

Mercy pleas have been filed by some members and there is hope that a pardon, if not a court trial could finally help in their repatriation to India.

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The hearing of the ongoing trial for the eight Indian naval veterans will be held on Tuesday, October 3, after nearly a two-month period. Family members of most of the veterans are in Doha at present and are expressing optimism about the outcome of the hearing on Tuesday. "The wait has been long and arduous for 13 months. Though there is speculation on the veterans being repatriated, going by the background one cant say anything till an actual announcement is made," said a source.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-8052921-2'); }); Family members have to wait outside the trial court and are not privy to what goes on inside. "From offering prayers to writing to the Qatari authorities to grant the veterans pardon, families have left no stone unturned. The Indian government too has extended all possible support. We are avidly waiting to hear the outcome of October 3rds hearing," the source added. It has been a year since the eight veterans were sent back to pack their bags to leave for India, which didnt happen. Their packed bags always give them hope of returning, but its the court's order that will decide on their fate soon. It may be recalled that these eight naval veterans were working for a naval consultancy firm called Dhara Consultancies which was owned by an Omani Emir. It was on the night of August 30, 2022, when a knock from members of Qatars Ministry of Interior urging them to leave for a naval exercise landed them in prison. From being under solitary confinement they are now living on a twin-sharing basis. Mercy pleas have been filed by some members and there is hope that a pardon, if not a court trial could finally help in their repatriation to India. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp
ASTANA, Kazakhstan, October 3. An agreement was signed between the World Road Association PIARC and the National Committee of PIARC in Kazakhstan as part of the XXVII World Road Congress in Prague, Trend reports.

During the document signing ceremony, Minister of Transport of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Marat Karabayev, informed representatives of the World Road Association (PIARC) about the development and construction of highways, as well as upcoming plans.

The document was signed by the President of the World Road Association PIARC Nazir Alli and the Chairman of the National Committee of the World Road Association PIARC in Kazakhstan, Berik Kamaliyev.

It is expected that this agreement will contribute to the development of the country's road industry.

This international platform serves to facilitate the interaction of experts and the exchange of experience in the field of roads and road infrastructure. Joining the association provides an opportunity to gain access to modern technical developments and industry documentation.

The XXVII World Road Congress, organized by the World Road Association, takes place October 26 in Prague, Czech Republic.
Mumbai, Oct 3

I ts been nine years since their first film Bang Bang! was released. And now actor Hrithik Roshan and filmmaker Siddharth Anand are celebrating their creative collaborations.

Hrithik took to Instagram, where he shared a picture with his Fighter director.

He captioned: Here's to 10 years of our creative collaborations yaara! Today marks 9 years since Bang Bang released, 4 since War released and our Fighter is on the horizon.

The Greek God of Bollywood shared that they started shooting on a rooftop and now the sky.

Started off shooting with a bang on the rooftops of Shimla, and now we're set to soar the blue skies. May we always fight on, side by side to bring our visions to life! he added.

Their upcoming film Fighter, is an action film which also stars Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoor. 'Fighter' serves as the first in a planned aerial action franchise.

The film has been shot in Assam, Hyderabad, Jammu & Kashmir and Mumbai. The real life Indian Air Force cadets have worked for the film.

Hrithik Roshan, Siddharth Anand celebrate 10 years of 'creative collaboration'

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Mumbai, October 3

T he stunt-based reality show 'Khatron Ke Khiladi 13' is about to come to an end. The host of the highly anticipated show and filmmaker Rohit Shetty shared a gratitude note as he began shooting for the final episode.

Taking to Instagram, Rohit on Monday, As I shoot the final episode of Khatron ke Khiladi season 13, I would like to thank YOU, My amazing audience, for showing your incredible support and making this season of Khatron Ke Khiladi, the no.1 show EVERY WEEK!  I am truly grateful beyond words for all your love! Bas hamesha aise hi pyaar dete rehna!

The show hosted by Rohit Shetty is based on the format of the American show 'Fear Factor'. Aishwarya Sharma, Anjali Anand, Anjum Fakih, Archana Gautam, Arjit Taneja, Daisy Shah, Dino James, Nyra Banerjee, Rashmeet Kaur, Rohit Roy, Ruhi Chaturvedi, Sheezan Khan, Shiv Thakare and Soundous Moufaki are part of the show.

Earlier, speaking to ANI, Rohit shared how he never imagined hosting such a show, and details about Khatron Ke Khiladis 13th instalment that will be hosted in Cape Town, South Africa.

He said, This is our family business. My dad was an action and stunt director, so seeing him I followed his footsteps. Never thought that such a show like would ever be made. And I would be offered to me and then I will host it, not for one or two seasons but 8 seasons. I am thankful to the audience and God that it becomes so popular and grateful for the viewers love that they are showing towards the show to date.

Apart from KKK 13, Rohit will be soon making his OTT directorial debut with the upcoming series 'Indian Police Force' which stars Sidharth Malhotra, Shilpa Shetty and Vivek Oberoi in the lead roles.

The series will stream exclusively on the OTT platform Amazon Prime Video. However, the official release date is still awaited.

Not only that, he is gearing up for his next action film 'Singham Again starring actor Ajay Devgn in the lead role. The film is all set to hit the theatres on Independence Day 2024 and will face a big clash with Allu Arjuns Pushpa 2.

Rohit Shetty expresses gratitude as he shoots for 'KKK 13' final episode

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Tabu on her bond with Vishal Bhardwaj: 'From 'Maqbool' to 'Haider,' our creative journey continues to evolve'

Mumbai, Oct 3

A ctress Tabu, who has reunited with filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj for spy thriller Khufiya, opened up on her bond with the latter, calling it truly exciting.

In the world of Indian cinema, few partnerships have stood the test of time like that of Tabu and Vishal Bhardwaj.

From the gripping narratives of 'Maqbool' and the hauntingly atmospheric 'Haider', this dynamic duo has consistently delivered unforgettable performances and storytelling.

With a bond that has matured over the years, Tabu and Vishal promise to take viewers on yet another journey, this time full of espionage and spies.

Speaking about the same, Tabu shared, I am delighted to join hands with Vishal Bhardwaj once again in 'Khufiya,' and our collaboration with Netflix for this intriguing spy thriller is truly exciting.

Vishal's unique storytelling has always intrigued me, and 'Khufiya' is no exception. From 'Maqbool' to 'Haider,' our creative journey continues to evolve, and I can't wait for audiences to witness our latest venture, she added.

Adding onto that, Vishal shared: Tabu is undeniably an exceptional talent in the world of cinema. Her ability to immerse herself in diverse characters and bring them to life is truly awe-inspiring.

In 'Khufiya,' she once again proves her mettle by portraying the character brilliantly, with a depth and authenticity that only she can deliver. It's a privilege to work with such an extraordinary actor, and her performance in this film is bound to leave audiences spellbound, shared the director.

Khufiya" marks an exciting departure from Vishals usual forte, known for his exceptional work in adapting classic literature and crafting dark, intense narratives set in rural landscapes. This time, he ventures into the realm of espionage with a spy thriller that promises to be a captivating addition to his diverse filmography.

The film also stars Ali Fazal and Wamiqa Gabbi. It will release on Oct 5 on Netflix.

Tabu on her bond with Vishal Bhardwaj: 'From 'Maqbool' to 'Haider,' our creative journey continues to evolve'

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Amit Sadh aims to honour dedication of journalists through his film 'Ghuspaith: Between Borders'

Mumbai, Oct 3

A ctor Amit Sadh, who is known for Kai Po Che!, Breathe, Sultan, Super 30 and Gold, has shared that with his movie Ghuspaith : Between Borders, he aims to honour the dedication of Indian journalists.

Directed by Mihir Kalpana Lath, the film is a tribute to Danish Siddiqui, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. The film is inspired by Danish and his companions' journey to cross borders, where they encounter bandits and a shocking massacre. After escaping, they face more danger, with Danish ultimately sacrificing himself.

As they reach Indian borders, a gunshot rings out, leaving the audience in suspense about the shooter's identity, creating a gripping cinematic experience that honours Siddiqui's legacy.

Talking about why he chose to do this project, Amit shared: I did this film solely for the love of the craft and to support a young and budding director.I also liked his passion and the way he was prepared for the initial meet. I was simultaneously shooting for another project, schedules kept on changing and it led to me saying no twice to the film, but the love for the art pulled me. Mihir was very diligent about doing the film with me and I felt responsible.

He further mentioned: We do short films not for money, but for the love of the art and the people. I did this for the script and for Mihir, he has made a good film. I hope that this can be a good showreel for him. I would like to like JioCinema for giving everyone this platform like a Film Festival that works as a support system for independent film makers.Congratulations to JioCinema for pulling this up.

As a photojournalist in this film, I aim to honour the dedication of Indian journalists. Their tireless pursuit of truth, even amid challenges, inspires me. Through my character, I highlight the vital role the media plays in shaping our world, he added.

The actor shared that as journalists risk their safety to deliver news, a cornerstone of democracy, this film showcases their resilience and sacrifices.

Portraying a photojournalist deepens my respect for the profession and its societal impact. I hope viewers enjoy the film and gain a renewed appreciation for journalists' vital work, he concluded.

'Ghuspaith: Between Borders' will drop on JioCinema on October 6.

Amit Sadh aims to honour dedication of journalists through his film 'Ghuspaith: Between Borders'

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ASTANA, Kazakhstan, October 4. President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev proposed to Germany the creation of a Consortium for the implementation of joint raw material projects with the support of a bilateral working group on project financing involving private German investors, Trend reports.

This issue was discussed during an expanded-format meeting between the Kazakh delegation and the Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz.

Tokayev noted Kazakhstan's readiness to provide all necessary conditions for a broader presence of German businesses in the Kazakh market.

The priority areas identified by both sides include the fields of oil and gas chemistry, rare earth metallurgy, green energy, transportation and logistics, and agriculture.

The German side confirmed a strong commitment to deepening trade, economic, and investment ties with Kazakhstan.

In particular, there is an interest in increasing the volume of oil supplies, diversifying supply chains, and implementing infrastructure projects.

Today, Germany is one of the largest trading partners and leading investors in our country's economy. Kazakhstan accounts for approximately 83 percent of all of Germany's trade with the Central Asian region. Bilateral trade turnover increased by 25 percent in 2022, reaching $2.8 billion.
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Former Vice President Mike Pence is criticizing his boss-turned-rival, Donald Trump, for calling retired Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a traitor
A recent JAMA Network Open study discusses changes in the frequency of cannabis use and its consequences in a sample of high-risk young adults in Canada.

Study: Cannabis Use Frequency and Cannabis-Related Consequences in High-Risk Young Adults Across Cannabis Legalization. Image Credit: Canna Obscura / Shutterstock.com

Background

The legalization of recreational cannabis use leads to an increase in the frequency of its use and several adverse consequences, especially among young adults between 18 and 29 years of age. These young adults are particularly vulnerable, as the consumption of cannabis and alcohol often co-occurs, which leads to further adverse consequences. Despite this, few studies have analyzed patterns of cannabis use in this population.

Several American studies that analyzed the impacts of legalization on young adults presented mixed results. Although some studies documented that following legalization, the frequency of cannabis use increased, most studies have not reported a statistically significant increase.

Although young adults consume more cannabis than other age groups, there remains a lack of research on this population. This is particularly true for longitudinal studies investigating legalization's various impacts.

Longitudinal data aid in estimating rates of change in cannabis use, characterization of within-person changes, and identifying factors influencing cannabis use, such as income or sex.

About the study

The current study addresses these research gaps by longitudinally studying a cohort of young adults with a history of substance use pre-legalization. The primary aim was to explore the relationship between cannabis legalization, frequency of cannabis use, and adverse consequences. The secondary aim was to examine factors influencing cannabis use, such as sex, education, income, and the frequency of use pre-legalization.

The cohort comprised young adults in Ontario, Canada, between 19.5 and 23 years of age. About 65% of the study participants reported cannabis use in the previous month and regular heavy episodic drinking at enrollment.

Between February 2017 and February 2020, study participants were surveyed every four months. This provided researchers with three pre-legalization and four post-legalization waves.

Key findings

The study sample consisted of 619 participants, with the mean and standard deviation of age being 21 and 1.2 years, respectively. About 56% of participants were female, and 53% had a bachelor's degree at the most recent time point. Among 33% of participants, occasional cannabis use was the most common pre-legalization.

Overall, a decrease in cannabis use was observed, which is consistent with substance use patterns in this age group in the absence of any policy change. The observed changes were not significantly affected by cannabis legalization.

Most frequent cannabis users in the pre-legalization period were associated with a significant decline in its use post-legalization. Consequently, a marked reduction in cannabis-related adverse consequences was also reported.

Comparatively, non-users in the recent period of pre-legalization increased their use over time. However, this group was not associated with an increased risk of adverse consequences.

Importantly, complete non-users in the pre-legalization period were associated with no significant increases in consequences or use post-legalization. Since an increase in use was observed for a sub-group and no marked reduction was noted, the determinants of cannabis use in young adults must be further studied.

Strengths and limitations

The current study is the first longitudinal analysis of the impact of Canadian cannabis legalization on young adults that included multiple pre- and post-legalization time points. Due to these unique features, the study design is well-suited to be applied in other jurisdictions, as legalization policies could vary across regions.

The current study did not consider the general population and only included those who used cannabis pre-legalization. Arguably, these individuals are of most interest; however, the study findings do not apply to the general population, as legalization may have altered patterns of cannabis use and consequences in groups not included in this study sample. A fundamental limitation was the lack of a control group to study the effects of legalization in a natural experiment setting.

Conclusions

Frequent cannabis users in the pre-legalization period reduced use post-legalization and, as a result, were associated with fewer cannabis-related adverse consequences. This finding is consistent with the well-documented aging-out patterns of substance use.

Comparatively, individuals not using cannabis in the pre-legalization period reported a modest but significant increase in use over time. Given these patterns, more longitudinal studies are needed to analyze the effects of cannabis legalization further and devise evidence-based public policies.
The rapid aging of the global population is expected to become a significant social problem in the future. A recent Npj Climate and Atmospheric Science study investigates the role of temperature rise on mortality rates in the elderly population in China.

Study: Projection of temperature-related mortality among the elderly under advanced aging and climate change scenario. Image Credit: Ljupco Smokovski / Shutterstock.com

Background

Two of the most interlinked concerns of the 21st century are population aging and rapid climate change. Climate change contributes to rising global temperatures, which has been correlated with higher morbidity and mortality rates. Climate change also leads to biodiversity and ecosystem changes that can have immediate or delayed impacts on human health.

Previous studies on temperature-related mortality due to climate change have shown that the risks imposed by cold and hot temperatures are not the same in relation to age. For example, compared to higher temperatures, low temperature causes more global non-communicable deaths.

A recent survey revealed that as compared to heart-related issues, a more significant number of older individuals died due to cold-associated conditions. These findings imply the importance of mitigating the effect of cold temperatures on advanced aging to combat potential severe public health consequences.

Aging has accelerated due to increased life expectancy and reduced fertility rates. The United Nations World Population Outlook 2022 reported that the proportion of the elderly population will globally increase by 60% from 2022 to 2050.

According to a 2021 analysis, the aging rate of the Chinese population has increased by 14%, which is expected to further increase to 21% by 2025. This increase in the aging rate of Chinas elderly population will likely continue until 2055 and then stabilize. Due to increasing life expectancy, advanced aging could become a significant issue in China, particularly in the second half of the 21st century.

An increase in the number of heat-related deaths has been documented in China and is expected to continue to rise due to global warming. Although many studies have investigated the effects of climate on mortality rates, these studies have not considered individuals over 80 or 90 years of age, many of whom are most affected by non-optimal temperatures.

About the study

The current study analyzed the direct and indirect effects of temperature on the oldest group in China. This study considered population data from Nantong City, China, as it has the highest proportion of older people among 340 cities.

To determine how temperature change affects this population, all-cause mortality and temperature/humidity data were collected between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2017. This data was categorized into three groups based on age, including 65-79 years (young-old), 80-89 years (middle-old), and 90+ years (oldest-old).

The effect of temperature on the aging population was determined using 27 global climate models that are included in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) and four emission scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, SSP5-8.5).

Study findings

The minimum mortality temperature (MMT) for the elderly population in Nantong increased with age, which suggests that climate change and aging increase heat-related mortality and reverse the trend of cold-related mortality.

Based on the assumption that the population demographics of Nantong remained constant, the study findings indicate that climate change, which is defined as an increase in extremely high temperatures (high RR) and a decrease in moderately low temperatures (low RR), will continue to cause an increase in mortality. Thus, future studies must assess whether climate change will influence positive or negative net annual mortality related to temperature.

Consistent with previous reports, the study findings reveal that the range of high temperatures was narrower compared to low temperatures. Furthermore, most of the minimum temperature-related mortality was associated with the local temperature percentile.

Typically, the association between temperature and mortality is dependent on numerous social factors, including urbanization rate, the regions development, usage of air conditioning, central heating, economic performance, and population age structure.

The population-attributable fraction (PAF) of cold and heat varied across different populations and climate change scenarios. The interactive effect of advanced age and increased temperature was even higher than the accumulation of their independent effects.

Since cold-related mortality linked to advanced aging will continue to increase or remain constant, health risks associated with low temperatures must also be considered.

Conclusions

Advanced aging accelerates heat-related mortality; therefore, governments throughout the world must focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate global warming, which will reduce heat-related mortality in the oldest old age group. The study findings emphasize the importance of formulating both cold and heat prevention policies based on local population structure and the extent of climate change.
By genetically testing nearly one thousand embryos, scientists have provided the most detailed analysis of embryo fate following human in vitro fertilization.

Nearly half the embryos studied underwent developmental arrest because of genetic mishaps in early development -; a revealing insight that suggests more IVF babies could come to term with changes in the fertility treatment process. The unique combination of data from arrested embryos also sheds new light on the still largely mysterious earliest stages of pregnancy through natural means.

We think this also happens in natural conception, and it's why it takes on average several or more months to get pregnant. It is very surprising that most of these embryo arrests are coming not from errors in egg formation, but from errors happening in cell divisions after fertilization. The fact that these errors don't come from the egg suggests that maybe they could be mitigated by changing the way IVF is done." Rajiv McCoy, author, assistant professor of biology, Johns Hopkins University

The research is set to publish in Genome Medicine.

Johns Hopkins and London Women's Clinic researchers in the UK compared IVF embryos that failed to develop within a few days of fertilization with embryos that survived, looking for genetic differences.

"Genetic testing is typically only done on IVF embryos that survive in order to decide which embryo to transfer to the uterus," McCoy said. "But from a biology standpoint, if we want to understand what's allowing these embryos to survive, then we have to test all other embryos too."

The findings reveal how some embryos start growing properly while the maternal genetic material pre-loaded into the egg control cell division, only to falter and stall when the embryo's genes take over.

Human cells typically receive 46 chromosomes, 23 from each parent. The team discovered nonviable embryos started with the 46-chromosome set, but then passed down incorrect numbers of chromosomes as cells divided.

"It doesn't really matter if you have extra missing chromosomes in the very beginning because the maternal machinery is controlling things," McCoy said. "When the embryo's genome turns on, that's when things go wrong."

Human embryos experience unusually high rates of chromosome gain and loss, known as aneuploidy, in early development. Scientists have studied aneuploidy for decades by screening IVF embryos, and these mishaps are well understood to be the cause of pregnancy loss in humans. Because aneuploidy is rare in many other species, McCoy said, the findings could help explain why pregnancy loss and miscarriage are so common in humans.

"Aneuploidy is an example of an extremely strong type of natural selection that's going on every generation in humans," McCoy said. "It might just be a feature of human reproduction and development, but it has implications for IVF. So in the long term, we hope that we can improve genetic testing and improve IVF outcomes."

The researchers plan to run additional tests on specific cells from arrested embryos to trace the chromosomes'origins and see whether abnormal cell divisions are linked to maternal or paternal genetics. They also want to better understand if factors such as the chemical composition in the dish where the embryos are grown could improve chances for survival.

"We could potentially correct a lot of these things by understanding more about the machinery that causes embryo arrest," said co-author Michael Summers, a cin reproductive Medicine[ at London Women's Clinic. "The problem could be be that the chemical composition of the culture medium that are commonly used will not allow all embryos to grow, that the abnormal cell divisions are due to stresses on the egg and early embryo that causes the abnormal divisions associated with chromosome abnormalities."

Other study authors include , Abeo McCollin, Kamal Ahuja, and Alan H. Handyside of London Women's Clinic and University of Kent, as well as Christian S. Ottolini, of The Evewell and University College London.
In a recent preprint posted to the SSRN* preprint server, researchers performed a network-based analysis of micro-ribonucleic acids (miRNAs) linked to cognition and Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Study: miR-129-5p as a Biomarker for Pathology and Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer's Disease. Image Credit: ART-ur/Shutterstock.com

*Important notice: SSRN 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

AD pathogenesis remains unclear due to the complicated genetic and neurochemical factors. Dysregulated miRNA expression could contribute to changes in the expression of AD-related genes.

MiRNAs have emerged as promising therapeutic targets due to their crucial role in regulating target gene expression levels. Integrating network analyses and artificial intelligence could provide valuable insights into Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis and prognostic biomarkers.

About the study

In the present study, researchers explored miRNAs as biomarkers of AD pathogenesis.

The researchers analyzed micro RNAs in the brain tissues of the Religious Orders Study/Rush Memory and Aging Project participants (ROS/MAP, 702 individuals) as the discovery dataset, followed by co-expression network-type analyses to identify network modules of AD dementia and associated miRNA, as well as investigate their relationships with cognition and neuropathological markers.

Brain tissue RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) data was used to perform association analyses of AD-related micro RNAs and their genetic targets, followed by differential expression analyses of the target genes. In addition to ROS/MAP data, the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) data was used to perform consensus co-expression-type network analyses of replicative miRNAs.

Furthermore, the scientists assessed the effectiveness of hub miRNAs for AD categorization using an artificial intelligence-based technique. Gene-set enrichment analysis was performed to identify the biological pathways of target genes strongly related to the expression levels of AD-associated hub miRNAs.

Pathways from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and the Gene Ontology (GO)-biological processes (BP) were utilized. Logistic regression modeling was performed for the analysis.

ROS/MAP participants were classified into those with no cognitive impairments (NCI) and AD. To better differentiate between NCI and AD using neuropathology and clinical criteria, Alzheimer's diagnosis was based on Braak NFT scores of 4.0 or more, Consortium to Establish a Registry for AD (CERAD) scores, and cognitive probable AD diagnosis without any other cause.

Braak scores of 3.0 or below, CERAD scores denoting potential or no AD, and a clinical NCI diagnosis were used to define NCI.

Alzheimer's disease was described in Gene Expression Omnibus data obtained from the Brazilian Aging Brain Study Group's Human Brain Bank, as Braak NFT scores of 3.0, and no cognitive impairment as participants without neurological symptoms and neuropathological lesions.

The Accelerating Medicines Partnership for AD (AMP-AD) Portal was used to obtain MiRNA profiles of ROS/MAP participants. Micro RNAs were isolated from the prefrontal cortex on the dorsolateral side of the brain for analysis.

Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to verify the microarray-identified miRNAs. MiRNA profiles for the GEO dataset were obtained from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).

Results

The ROS/MAP cohorts with miRNA included 702 individuals, including 102 NCI and 177 AD patients, with a median age at death of 89 years and 64% females.

The GEO dataset included 16 individuals with miRNA data, including eight NCI individuals and eight AD patients, with a median age of 82 years at death and 69% females.

The network analysis significantly related the glucose metabolism-related module to cognition and AD. In particular, miR-129-5p, miR-1260, miR-433, miR-221, and miR-200a demonstrated robust relationships with the clinicopathological features of Alzheimer's disease, of which miR129-5p showed the strongest association for all phenotypes.

These five AD-associated hub miRNAs' target genes were found to be enriched in the erythroblastic leukemia viral oncogene homolog (ErbB), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), autophagy, 5 adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathways.

Notably, miR-129-5p and miR-221 were discovered to be hub miRNAs in the replication cohort after being identified as AD-associated hub miRNAs in the discovery cohort.

Consensus network analysis identified two AD-related consensus network-type modules and two hub micro RNAs (miR-221 and miR-129-5p).

The machine learning investigation revealed that five AD-associated miRNAs significantly enhanced Alzheimer's disease classification [area under the curve (AUC), 0.8], using covariates such as apolipoprotein E4 (APOE 4) carrier status, sex, and age.

A higher level of miR-129-5p was linked to a decreased risk of Alzheimer's disease, better cognition, slower cognitive decline, and lower CERAD and Braak pathologic features of Alzheimer's disease.

Studies have reported that miR-129-5p is associated with AD-related autophagy, neuroinflammation, and neuronal cell death by targeting genes such as the amyloid precursor protein (APP), yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1), and high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1).

Conclusion

Overall, the study findings highlighted miRNA signatures are associated with AD-related neuropathology and cognition, particularly miR-129-5p.

Integrating network analyses and artificial intelligence could improve Alzheimer's disease classification and aid in identifying potential biomarkers to develop tailored strategies and enhance the standard of care for AD patients.

*Important notice: SSRN 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.
Last year, a student fell unconscious after walking out of a bathroom at Central High School in Pueblo, Colorado. When Jessica Foster, the school district's lead nurse, heard the girl's distraught friends mention drugs, she knew she had to act fast.

Emergency responders were just four minutes away. "But still four minutes  if they are completely not breathing, its four minutes too long," Foster said.

Foster said she got a dose of naloxone, a medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose, and gave it to the student. The girl revived.

Forty-five miles away in Colorado Springs, Mitchell High School officials didn't have naloxone on hand when a 15-year-old student overdosed in class in December 2021 after snorting a fentanyl-laced pill in a school bathroom. That student died.

Colorado Springs' school district has since joined Pueblo and dozens of other districts in the state in supplying middle and high schools with the lifesaving medication, often known by one of its brand names, Narcan. Since passage of a 2019 state law, Colorado has had a program that allows schools to obtain the medicine, typically in nasal spray form, for free or at a reduced cost.

Not all schools are on board with the idea, though. Though more districts have signed on since last year, only about a third of Colorado districts had enrolled in the state's giveaway program at the start of this school year. And within the dozen counties with the highest drug overdose death rates in the state, many school districts had not signed up in the face of ongoing stigma around the need for the overdose reversal medication.

The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recommends that schools, including elementary schools, keep naloxone on hand as fatal opioid overdoses rise, particularly from the potent drug fentanyl. And 33 states have laws that expressly allow schools or school employees to carry, store, or administer naloxone, according to Jon Woodruff, managing attorney at the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association, which tracks naloxone policies across the country.

Among those, about nine states require at least some K-12 schools to store naloxone on-site, including Illinois, whose requirement goes into effect in January. Some states, such as Maine, also require that public schools offer training to students in how to administer naloxone in nasal spray form.

Rhode Island requires all K-12 schools, both public and private, to stock naloxone. Joseph Wendelken, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Health, said in the past four years naloxone was administered nine times to people ages 10 to 18 in educational settings.

In early September, the medication also became available over the counter nationally, though the $45 price tag per two-dose package has some addiction specialists worried it will be out of reach for those who need it most.

But the medicine still isn't as publicly widespread as automated external defibrillators or fire extinguishers. Kate King, president of the National Association of School Nurses, said reluctance to stock it in schools can stem from officials being afraid to provide a medical service or the ongoing cost of resupplying the naloxone and training people to use it. But the main hang-up she's heard is that schools are afraid they'll be stigmatized as a "bad school" that has a drug problem or as a school that condones bad choices.

"School districts are very careful regarding their image," said Yunuen Cisneros, community outreach and inclusion manager at the Public Education & Business Coalition, which serves most of the state's school districts. "Many of them don't want to accept this program, because to accept it is to accept a drug addiction problem."

That's the wrong way to think about it, King said. "We really equate it to our stock albuterol for asthma attacks, our stock epinephrine for anaphylactic reactions," she said.

Colorado health officials could not say how often naloxone had been used on school grounds in the state. So far this year, at least 15 children ages 10 to 18 have died of fentanyl overdoses but not necessarily in schools. And in 2022, 34 children in that age group died, according to the state Department of Public Health and Environment. That included 13-year-old Jose Hernandez, who died in August 2022 from a fentanyl overdose at home just days after starting eighth grade at Aurora Hills Middle School. His grandmother found his body over the bathroom sink in the early morning.

With the arrival of this new school year, supplies of naloxone are on hand for kids in more Colorado schools. Last year, state lawmakers appropriated $19.7 million in federal aid to the Naloxone Bulk Purchase Fund, which is accessible to school districts, jails, first responders, and community service organizations, among others.

"It's the most we've ever had," said Andres Guerrero, manager of the state health department's overdose prevention program.

According to data provided by Colorado's health department, 65 school districts were enrolled in the state program to receive naloxone at low or no cost at the start of the school year. Another 16 had reached out to the state for information but hadn't finalized orders as of mid-August. The remaining 97 school districts either didn't stock naloxone at their schools or sourced it from elsewhere.

Guerrero said the districts decide whom to train to administer the medicine. "In some cases, it's just the school nurses. In some cases, it's school nurses and the teachers," he said. "And in some cases, we have the students as well."

In Durango, the 2021 death of a high schooler galvanized students to push for the right to carry naloxone with them to school with parental permission  and to administer it if need be  without fear of punishment.

It took picketing outside a school board meeting to get permission, said Hays Stritikus, who graduated this spring from Durango High School. He's now involved in drafting legislation that would expressly allow students across the state to carry and distribute Narcan on school grounds.

"The ultimate goal is a world where Narcan is not necessary," he said. "But that's just not where we live."

Some health experts disagree that all schools should stock naloxone. Lauren Cipriano, a health economist at Western University in Canada, has studied the cost-effectiveness of naloxone in secondary schools there. While opioid poisonings have occurred on school grounds, she said, high schools tend to be really low-risk settings.

More effective strategies for combating the opioid epidemic are needle exchange sites, supervised drug consumption sites, and medication-assisted treatment that reduces cravings or mutes highs, Cipriano said. But those approaches can be expensive compared with naloxone distribution.

"When the state makes a big, free program like this, it looks like they're doing something about the opioid epidemic," she said. "It's cheap and it looks like you're doing something, and that's, like, political gold."

Denver Public Schools, the largest school district in Colorado, started stocking naloxone in 2022, said Jade Williamson, manager of the district's healthy schools program.

"We know some of the students are on the forefront of these things before older generations," Williamson said. "To know where to find it, and to access it when needed through these adults who've trained, whether that's a school nurse or a school administrator, I think it brings them some sense of relief."

The state's seven largest districts, with more than 25,000 students each, all participate in the state program. By contrast, a KFF Health News analysis found, only 21% of districts with up to 1,200 students have signed up for it  even though many of those small districts are in areas with drug overdose death rates higher than the state average.

Some school districts figured out a path to getting naloxone outside of the state program. That includes Pueblo School District 60, where lead nurse Foster gave naloxone to a student last year.

The Pueblo school district gets naloxone at no cost from a local nonprofit called the Southern Colorado Harm Reduction Association. Foster said she tried signing up for the state program but encountered difficulties. So she decided to stick with what was already working.

Moffat County School District RE-1 in Craig, Colorado, gets its naloxone from a local addiction treatment center, according to district nurse Myranda Lyons. She said she trains school staffers on how to administer it when she teaches them CPR.

Christopher deKay, superintendent of Ignacio School District 11Jt, said its school resource officers already carry naloxone but that the district enrolled in the state program, too, so that schools could stock the medication in the nursing office in case a resource officer isn't around.

"It's like everything  like training for fire safety. You don't know what's going to happen in your school," said deKay. "If the unthinkable happens, we want to be able to respond in the best way possible."

This story was produced with reporting assistance from El Comercio de Colorado.
Is it true progression or pseudoprogression in tumor growth?

That's the critical question for radiation and medical oncologists treating patients with glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer. Distinguishing between these types of progression is vitally important for treatment management.

Knowing if it's true progression, indicative of a poor response to treatment, or pseudoprogression, a favorable response that may look worse due to swelling or tumor necrosis, is essential for clinicians. That knowledge can guide us in adjusting current treatment in real time." Eric Mellon, MD, PhD, radiation oncologist and researcher with Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

He and his research colleagues are presenting results from two recent studies on this topic at ASTRO 2023, the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology, Oct. 1-4, in San Diego.

One study was designed to determine if daily monitoring of tumor changes during a course of radiation therapy could result in early prediction of treatment response. The MRI-guided linear accelerator systems, known as MR-linac, that deliver radiation therapy allow for this type of monitoring and detection of patterns within these volume changes.

Sylvester researchers used sophisticated analytical and machine learning tools, including a linear fitting model to test their prediction theory on a prospective cohort of glioblastoma patients undergoing chemoradiation for their cancers.

"The model was trained to predict between no progression, pseudoprogression and true progression, and the results were cross-validated," explained Kaylie Cullison, an MD/PhD student who is conducting her PhD research in Mellon's Sylvester laboratory, is the study's first author, and will present the data at ASTRO 2023.

Of the 28 patients analyzed in the study, 11 had no tumor growth on first diagnostic MRI after treatment (no progression), five were found to have pseudoprogression based on long-term stability of MRI findings, and 12 had true progression determined by continuing tumor growth beyond six months, tissue sampling showing active malignancy or rapid death.

The model achieved an overall accuracy of 86%, when predicting three outcome classes (no progression, true progression and pseudoprogression), and an accuracy of 93% when predicting between no progression versus any kind of progression.

"We identified patterns of tumor behavior during therapy that were indicative of differences in growth patterns between true progression and pseudoprogression," said Mellon, co-leader of Sylvester's Neuro-Oncology Site Disease Group who leads numerous clinical trials for brain tumors. "These volume changes during treatment may be early markers of treatment response."

Next steps, according to Mellon and Cullison, include automating real-time tumor monitoring by using a deep-learning solution for volume delineation on daily treatment scans.

Their other study, conducted simultaneously with the above one, sought to determine the predictive value of weekly delta-radiomic features extracted from MR-linac systems used for treating glioblastoma patients.

Whereas radiomics focus on quantitative features extracted from medical images to correlate with various biological features and clinical endpoints for cancer diagnosis, prognosis and clinical decisions, delta radiomics extend that analysis by examining feature variation at different time points, usually before and after therapy.

In this case, however, the acquisition time points were during therapy. Sylvester researchers deployed supervised machine learning with a sophisticated classification model to predict true progression or pseudoprogression outcomes. Their model included 41 variables  39 tumor texture features plus lesion volume and mean lesion intensity  per time point to generate the predictions.

Of the 10 most prognostic features, 90% happened during an early time point, suggesting that prognostic changes in the underlying tumor microenvironment occur within the first 15 treatment sessions (or first half of treatment).

"Our findings support the theory that delta-radiomic features from MR-linac radiotherapy can predict treatment response during therapy, which is earlier than current methods," concluded Mellon. "And doing so would allow physicians to intensify current treatment for poorly responding patients."

Mellon and Cullison say future research should include a larger patient cohort and the use of MR-linac systems with multiparametric MRI to further test the model's prognostic value.
New research being presented at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Hamburg, Germany (2-6 Oct) has found that severe hypoglycemia is more than twice as common among adults with diabetes who struggle to afford food.

Severe hypoglycemia occurs when a person's blood sugar levels fall to such an extent that it can cause loss of consciousness, seizures, coma and, in rare cases, death.

Severe hypoglycemia is rare in people with diabetes unless they are taking insulin or secretagogues  two commonly prescribed classes of diabetes drug. When people are taking insulin or secretagogues, severe hypoglycemia occurs primarily as a side-effect of their medication.

The analysis of data from the US revealed that severe hypoglycemia was 2.2 times more frequent in people who experienced food insecurity.

Food insecurity is known to influence health but there has been little real-world population-based research into its effect on rates of severe hypoglycemia.

In the first investigation of its kind, Dr Alexandria Ratzki-Leewing, of Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues conducted a secondary analysis of data from the US-wide iNPHORM study: a 12-month prospective panel survey of real-world hypoglycemia risk.

Their analysis comprised 1,001 adults (49.6% male) with either type 1 diabetes (T1D, 16.1%) or type 2 diabetes (T2D) who were treated, for at least one year, with insulin and/or secretagogues. Participants were on average 51 years old and had a median diabetes duration of 12 years.

Questionnaires at baseline (spring 2020) and over 12 consecutive months captured data on respondents' characteristics and frequency of severe hypoglycemia. Based on the American Diabetes Association Standards of Care guidelines, severe hypoglycemia was defined as a Level 3 low blood glucose concentration, regardless of blood glucose value, causing altered mental and/or physical status requiring professional or non-professional aid for recovery.At baseline, participants were asked this screening question, "Within the past 12 months, did you ever cut the size of your meals or skip meals because there was not enough food?". Those who answered "yes" were classified as having experienced food insecurity.

Around one in five of the participants said they'd experienced food insecurity; rates were similar in T1D (18.6%) and T2D (20.4%). Among these individuals, over half experienced at least one Level 3 event in the past year.

The authors performed multivariable regression to determine if food insecurity caused higher rates of severe hypoglycemia. Their analysis revealed that, after adjusting for potential confounders (age, annual gross household income, insurance coverage, living arrangements and diabetes type), those who had experienced food insecurity had just over twice as many severe hypoglycemia events during the year studied as those not exposed to food insecurity.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. Freedom Bank of Kazakhstan is considering the possibility of establishing several subsidiary structures of Freedom Holding Corporation in the Tajikistan market, a source at the Kazakh bank told Trend.

A Freedom Bank representative said the bank sees significant potential and opportunities for the development of digital financial services and products in Tajikistan. The bank aims to cultivate partnerships with Tajikistani banks in various areas.

Currently, discussions with Tajikistans National Bank are centered on issues related to the development of state and financial services, the role of digitization in the evolution of the banking system, as well as the existing challenges and opportunities.

Aidos Zhumagulov, advisor to the board of directors of the Kazakh bank, previously expressed Freedom Bank's interest in opening a subsidiary bank or branch in Tajikistan. In response, Hokim Kholiqzoda, Chairman of the National Bank of Tajikistan, noted that the country's banking legislation has created a favorable environment for the establishment of foreign banks, their branches, and representations.

Freedom Holding Corporation offers a wide array of digital banking products, encompassing digital mortgages, digital vehicle purchase loans, payroll processing, commercial loans, savings, and internet banking services in Kazakhstan and various other countries.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, currently on an official visit to the Czech Republic, test-drove a hydrogen-powered bus in the heart of Prague.

The electrifying event was shared on social media, showcasing Indias dedication to environmentally friendly mobility options.

The ministers office also treated the online audience to a captivating series of photographs on X, offering a glimpse of Gadkaris remarkable test drive. The accompanying caption exclaimed, Union Minister Shri @nitin_gadkari Ji took a test drive in a Hydrogen Bus by Skoda in Prague, Czech Republic today, showcasing Indias commitment to exploring sustainable and eco-friendly mobility solutions.

Union Minister Shri @nitin_gadkari Ji took a test drive in a Hydrogen Bus by Skoda in Prague, Czech Republic today, showcasing Indias commitment to exploring sustainable and eco-friendly mobility solutions. #HydrogenBus pic.twitter.com/V5YFykiJfR Office Of Nitin Gadkari (@OfficeOfNG) October 2, 2023

Hydrogen fuel cell-powered buses are revolutionizing public transport by utilizing hydrogen and air to generate electricity, establishing themselves as a greener and more eco-conscious mode of commuting.

Gadkaris arrival in the Czech Republic on October 1 was met with a warm and enthusiastic reception at the Prague airport. The atmosphere was buzzing with excitement, as people gathered to welcome a leader who is making a difference.

On Monday, he didnt waste a moment and jumped straight into action by participating in the Ministerial session on Road Safety at the 27th World Road Congress held in Prague. During this high-profile event, he reaffirmed Indias unwavering commitment to achieving the global road safety targets outlined in the Stockholm Declaration. It was a moment of unity and shared purpose on the global stage.

Nitin Gadkari has consistently championed the transition to green fuels, boldly proclaiming that advancements in green fuel technology will soon make electric vehicles (EVs) as affordable as their petrol-powered counterparts. His commitment to sustainability and innovation is driving India towards a greener and more eco-friendly future.
In the world of financial investments, SIPs have gained immense popularity among Indian investors. SIPs provide a disciplined approach to wealth creation by enabling individuals to invest regularly in financial instruments like mutual funds or stocks.

In India, where savings and investments are deeply ingrained in the culture, understanding the key features of Mutual Fund SIPs and Stock SIPs and deciding which one is a safer bet is crucial.

Also Read: Mutual Fund SIP Mandate Rule; Heres What Changed From October 1

Mutual Fund SIPs

Mutual Fund SIPs are a tried-and-true investment avenue for Indian investors. They offer several key features that make them an attractive option. Mutual funds pool money from various investors to invest in a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, or other securities. This diversification helps spread risk. The market boasts of skilled fund managers who make investment decisions on behalf of investors, aiming to maximise returns while managing risk.

A common knowledge is that mutual funds are highly liquid, allowing investors to redeem their investments anytime, providing access to cash when needed.

SIPs allow investors to start with a minimum investment amount, making them accessible to a wide range of individuals. Many mutual funds like SBI Blue-chip Fund or HDFC Equity Fund in India have delivered consistent returns over the years, making them a trusted choice for long-term wealth creation. This showcases the potential of mutual fund SIPs in India.

Stock SIP

Stock SIPs, on the other hand, involve investing a fixed amount regularly in specific stocks. Stock SIPs provide direct ownership of individual stocks, allowing investors to have more control over their portfolios. If chosen wisely, stocks can offer substantial returns, potentially surpassing those of mutual funds.

However, stocks are inherently riskier than mutual funds due to their individual nature. They are subject to market fluctuations and may require thorough research and monitoring.

Understanding Mutual Funds SIP & Stock SIPs

Unlike mutual funds, stock SIPs lack the diversification that a professionally managed fund offers. This means that risk is concentrated in a few stocks.

Determining whether Mutual Fund SIPs or Stock SIPs are safer depends on an individuals risk appetite, financial goals, and investment knowledge. For novice investors or those seeking a diversified portfolio with professional management, mutual fund SIPs are a safer bet.

Indian consumers have traditionally favoured mutual funds due to their safety and consistent performance. The Indian government has also introduced various investor-friendly regulations, such as the SEBI guidelines, to safeguard the interests of mutual fund investors.

However, for seasoned investors who are willing to put in the time and effort for research and analysis, stock SIPs can be rewarding. The choice between Mutual Fund SIPs and Stock SIPs in the Indian context hinges on an individuals financial objectives and risk tolerance.

While mutual fund SIPs offer diversification and professional management, stock SIPs provide direct equity exposure and the potential for higher returns.

Its important for Indian consumers to weigh the allure of both these types of investment and make a mindful choice keeping in mind their long-term financial goals and the ever-evolving dynamics of the Indian financial market.

-The author is former BSE chairman and Promoter and Managing Partner, Ravi Rajan & Co. LLP. Views expressed are personal.
Delhi University will release the DU PG spot round 2 seat allotment result 2023 today, October 3. Candidates who submitted their application forms and college preferences for postgraduate programme admission via the Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) for PG can check their seat allotment status on the official website at pgadmission.uod.ac.in. Candidates will have to log in using their CUET PG application number and password to check the result.

Candidates will have to accept their assigned seats by October 5. Delhi University stated in an announcement that more spot admission rounds may be conducted if they were deemed to be required.

DU PG Admission 2023 Spot Round 2 Seat Allotment Result: How to Check

Step 1: Visit the official website of Delhi University PG admissions-pgadmission.uod.ac.in

Step 2: On the homepage, login using credentials like your CUET application number, password, and captcha.

Step 3: Once logged in, your DU PG seat allocation result for spot round 2 will be shown on the screen.

Step 4 Carefully check your result, and if you have been allotted a college, download the allocation letter.

Step 5: Next, take a printout of the same for further admission.

The first round of seat allocation for DU PG admission was announced by the university on August 17. During the first round of seat distribution, Delhi University got 11,198 registrations. Out of the total 6,657 applicants were enrolled for PG courses in colleges of their choice.

The spot rounds availability of seats was announced on September 19 in accordance with the schedule. Candidates could register for the PG Spot Admissions starting on September 19 at 11 AM and continuing through September 21. While September 24 was the last day for candidates to accept the seat that had been allocated to them. Departments and institutions had until September 25 to verify and approve the online applications.

The Common University Entrance Test (CUET) (PG)  2023, administered by the National Testing Agency (NTA), serves as the basis for admission to all Postgraduate Programmes at the University of Delhi (DU) for the Academic Session 20232024.
The Telangana National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMS 2023) registration process has begun today, October 3. Interested and eligible students can register on the official website at bse.telangana.gov.in. The last date to apply is October 13. The Telangana NMMS 2023 examination for class 8 will be conducted on December 10. The exam will be held on Dec 10 in a single shift from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm in Telugu, Hindi, Urdu, and English languages.

As per the official notice, the last date for submission of the printed copies of online registered Application Forms and NR (two copies) and fee receipts of SBI collected by the Head Masters of the schools concerned in the office of the concerned District Educational Officer. is October 16. The last date for submission of Printed Nominal Rolls attested by the concerned Head Masters, and fee receipts of SBI collected by the concerned DEOs to the O/o the Director of Government Examinations., T.S., Hyderabad is October 18.

The selected beneficiaries should register and upload their Aadhar-linked bank account particulars in the National Scholarship Portal in the stipulated time by opening the bank accounts in any nationalised bank which has an online clearing system only to get a scholarship of Rs 12000 per year, read the official notice.

Telangana NMMS 2023: Eligibility criteria

To apply for the scholarship scheme, students belonging to other caste (OC) and backward caste (BC) categories must have scored at least 55 per cent of marks in class 7. While those belonging to SC, and ST categories must have scored a minimum of 50 per cent marks or equivalent in the class 7 examination during the academic year 2022-23.

Telangana NMMS 2023: Application Fees

The OC and BC category students will have to submit an examination fee of Rs 100 while SC, ST, and PH students will have to pay Rs 50.

Telangana NMMS 2023: Exam Pattern

The exam will consist of a Mental Ability Test or MAT featuring 90 marks in multiple-choice questions, and a Scholastic Ability Test, or SAT featuring 90 marks in sciences, mathematics, and social sciences questions of classes 7 and 8. Each question carries one mark. Time is one minute for one question.

The minimum qualifying marks for each paper will be 40 per cent and in the case of SC, and ST students the cut-off will be 32 per cent. Selection will be made as per the merit subject to district-wise and community-wise quota allotted as per norms issued by MHRD New Delhi, states the official notice.
The caste survey in Bihar has pushed forward demand in several states for similar census and divided parties across the country on the issue. The survey, released by the Bihar government on Monday, found that Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) constitute more than 63% of the population in the state.

The caste survey has given an opportunity to parties like the JD(U) and RJD to mobilise backward classes and castes in their favour. The survey is likely to amplify the demand for similar caste census in other such states and increase the OBC quota beyond 27 per cent.

Survey Findings

As per the caste survey, the total population of Bihar is 13,07,25,310, while the OBC and EBC categories make up 63 per cent. The Extremely Backward Classes (36 per cent) were the largest social segment, followed by the Other Backward Classes at 27.13 per cent.

In terms of castes, 27.12% of the population was OBCs, while EBCs were 36.01%. Yadavs were the single largest social group with 14.26% of the population.

Dalits constitute over 19.65% of Bihars population while the unreserved category constitute around 15.5% of the total population.

Parties in Favour

The caste census has led to demands by several opposition parties including DMK, BSP, NCP calling for similar surveys. Here is a list of parties that have went in support or against the caste survey:

Bahujan Samaj Party

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has supported the caste survey in Uttar Pradesh and called it the first step in the long struggle for the constitutional rights of OBCs.

The news of the caste census data conducted by the Bihar government being made public is in the news today and intense discussions are going on it. Some parties are definitely uncomfortable with this, but for BSP this is the first step in the long struggle for the constitutional rights of OBCs, Mayawati said in her post on X.

Nationalist Congress Party

The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Jitendra Awhad has hailed the Bihar governments caste survey and demanded that a similar exercise be carried out in all states of the country, including Maharashtra.

The member of the Maharashtra legislative assembly representing the Mumbra-Kalwa constituency in Thane district alleged that the rights of the OBCs were being snatched away.

Bihar has taken a brave step forward. It took a decision to conduct a caste-based census. And what truth came out of it (caste-based census)? It revealed that the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) comprise 61 per cent of the population. The Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs together form 85 per cent of its population, he said.

DMK

The ruling party in Tamil Nadu has also expressed support for the caste census. Earlier this year, a meeting of opposition parties which was called by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader and Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin calling for a national caste census of backward communities.

Aam Aadmi Party

Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh has called for caste-based census in the entire country. Singh also accused the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of running away from conducting a caste census.

Congress

The Congress on Monday too welcomed the Bihar governments move to release the findings of a caste census and called upon the Centre to immediately conduct a similar exercise at the national level to ensure social justice and provide a firm foundation for social empowerment programmes.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi noted that while the Bihar census shows that OBCs, SCs and STs together form 84% of the population, there are only three OBC secretaries out of 90 at the Centre who handle 5% of Indias budget.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the UPA government led by the Congress had conducted a census but its results were not published by the Modi government.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi has also demanded that the central government take up a nation-wide caste census and revise the reservations for various castes accordingly. Earlier in March, the party moved a motion for suspension of rules to discuss caste census in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in this regard.

Other Parties in Support

Several other parties including Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction), PDP in Jammu and Kashmir, Left and Apna Dal have favoured the caste based census.

Trinamool Congress

Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress has not clearly expressed its stance on the caste census. In the past, the party has expressed reservations about conducting a caste census on the grounds that it will lead to demands for self-governance in certain areas, as per reports.

Parties Not Clear

Parties including JD(S) in Karnataka and Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh have not cleared their stance on caste-based census.

(With inputs from agencies)
The caste survey data released by the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government on Monday has reignited the debate on caste-based reservations and the 50 per cent reservation ceiling as ruled in the Indra Sawhney case. While no party has clearly spoken against the caste-based survey in Bihar, it has led to demands for similar surveys in other states and at the national level.

Political experts have said that the caste-based reservations have put Nitish Kumar once again on the centre stage in national politics. The survey findings will likely help Nitish strengthen his position as a champion of the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), non-Yadav Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Mahadalits.

What did the Survey find?

According to the data released here by Development Commissioner Vivek Singh, the total population of Bihar stood at a little over 13.07 crore, out of which the Extremely Backward Classes (36 per cent) were the largest social segment followed by the Other Backward Classes at 27.13 per cent.

The Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) together constitute more than 63% of the population in Bihar.

The survey also stated that Yadavs, the OBC group to which Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav belongs, were the largest in terms of the population, accounting for 14.27 per cent of the total.

Dalits, also known as the Scheduled Castes, accounted for 19.65 per cent of the total population in the state, which is also home to nearly 22 lakh (1.68 per cent) people belonging to the Scheduled Tribes.

Those belonging to the unreserved" category, which denotes the proverbial upper castes" who dominated politics till the Mandal wave of the 1990s comprise 15.52 per cent of the total population.

How the Caste Survey Helps Nitish

The previous survey of all the castes was undertaken way back in 1931. The proponents of the fresh caste survey insist that a new estimate was required for the weaker sections of the society as they must have seen a rise in their proportion of the population.

Moreover, the OBCs have long argued that despite the reservations, the forward castes have got large share of government jobs in proportion to their population.

It was Nitish Kumar who first created the political constituencies of EBCs and Mahadalits to compensate for the inadequate numbers of his own caste, Kurmis. This social engineering, which Nitish achieved during his first term, helped him remain firm in Bihar politics for more than a decade.

With the survey, Nitish Kumar is trying to portray himself as the champion of the extremely backward castes and non-Yadav OBCs in the Hindi heartland. It will also help Nitish play a leading role in the national opposition to the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Caste Census Takes National Agenda

During the first INDIA meeting in Patna earlier in June, Nitish Kumar said caste census should become one of the key agendas of the alliance. He also asked for the bloc to announce that if INDIA bloc wins the Lok Sabha elections, it would conduct a caste census, according to The Indian Express.

Though, some parties expressed reservation to the idea, the caste census has now led to similar such survey in other states as well.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the state government will get details of the caste survey carried out by the Bihar government and CM Eknath Shinde will take a decision on it at the right time.

Meanwhile, other parties including the Aam Aadmi Party, the NCP, Samajwadi Party, BJD, DMK have come out in favour of caste survey.

Debate on 50% quota ceiling

The Supreme Court in its landmark judgement in Indra Sawhney vs Union of India in 1992 had fixed the 50% ceiling for reservation. However, the caste survey data, which puts the general category population at 15.52%, could once again reopen the debate on the 50 per cent ceiling.

In Indra Sawhney case ruling, a nine-judge bench upheld the 27% reservation for socially and economically backward classes (SEBC) and reiterated the 50% limit, unless in exceptional circumstances".
All Indian agencies have been asked to go full throttle in gathering details and inputs of Pakistans illicit activities, including terror backing and financing, which shall be compiled and presented by New Delhi at global forums to expose Islamabad, sources told News18.

Following a high-level meeting where the heads of all agencies were present, the personnel and forces were asked to gather information, starting with NGOs, pressure groups, key handlers, terror outfits working against India and other countries and the radicalization in madrasas of Pakistan.

More importantly, unlike the system of sharing routine inputs, intelligence agencies, investigation units and forces have been asked to provide information in a specific format given by the government.

A senior official told News18 that the details will help the government establish links between different Pakistani agencies, madrassas, clerics, NGOs and the terrorist groups targeting Afghanistan and India. This evidence may be tabled at various global summits, sources said.

The focus, particularly, would be on instances of mass radicalisation in mosques and madrasas of Pakistan, youth training centres, misuse of NGOs and civil society groups raising funds for terror activities.

Indian intelligence agencies have been tasked with gathering details about Pakistani cadre of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and ISIS groups operating in Pakistan, Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and Afghanistan.

Sources told News18 that agencies have also been directed to collect and share details of meetings between top leaders of various terror outfits and the Pakistan government machinery.

Agencies will also work on getting details to unearth links between Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Jamaat-Ul-Ahrar (JUA) with the Pakistani establishment along with details of collaboration between the leaders and cadre of Al Qaeda, LeT, JeM, Haqqani Network and the Taliban.

Meanwhile, agencies have started working on gathering details from the PoK region, including the estimated number of new trainees who have joined terror groups working from there.

Amid multiple inputs of Pakistan-based terror outfits planning attacks in India, agencies and forces, with help from counterparts of other nations, will also be working to plug new drugs and weapon-trafficking routes charted by Pakistan. Investigation agencies have been tasked with finding out possible manufacturing hubs from where the handlers start the journey to smuggle drugs and weapons into India.
After the cancellation of visas, the Indian government is mulling more strong measures amid a spiralling diplomatic standoff with Canada, sources told CNN-News18 on Tuesday. According to them, New Delhi will soon strip several troublemakers" of the Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status.

The government may initiate this step against certain individuals on a case-by-case basis, said the sources.

The Centre is of the firm view that taking up the Khalistani flag and simultaneously earning from agricultural properties in India cannot go together, officials said.

This strong step will be in light of protests that happened outside Indian missions abroad, they added.

The government, said officials, is disappointed as some students protested in front of Indian missions abroad after recently going there on study visas. It wants to give the clear message that loyalty to the country cant be undermined by Khalistani groups.

News18 had reported earlier that New Delhi wants Ottawa to recall more than two dozen of its diplomats from India, according to top government sources.
Jailed Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidus wife Nara Bhuvaneshwari on Monday joined party workers on a hunger strike at Rajamahendravaram in East Godavari district against her husbands arrest. TDP is staging a hunger strike across the state against the arrest of the former CM.

Nara Bhuvaneshwari, who is the daughter of former Andhra Chief Minister Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, also kicked off the Nijam Gelavali campaign to thank the people of Andhra Pradesh for their overwhelming love and support for Chandrababu Naidu and choosing the side of truth and righteousness.

Naidu was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on September 9 in connection with the multi-crore skill development scam case.

Nara Bhuvaneshwari also paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti before starting her day-long hunger strike. A large number of women from across Andhra Pradesh joined the strike extending their support to TDP.

Bhuvaneswari claimed that 105 people died out of sorrow because they couldnt bear to see former Andhra Chief Minister Naidus arrest.

She announced that she would visit the family members of the deceased and offer them support and courage. She also asked people to come forward and fight for their future.

Further emphasising her husbands dedication and commitment towards Andhra Pradeshs development, Bhuvaneswari said Chandrababu Naidu prioritized working for people over his family.

She said Chandrababu Naidu lives for the people and he always thinks about how to develop the state by attracting investments and creating employment.

Bhuvaneswari said the former CM envisioned the potential of Information Technology 25 years ago and worked on its development, adding that Cyberabad is a testament to his hard work. She further claimed that Chandrababu Naidu always dreamed of making Amaravati bigger than Cyberabad.

He worked day and night to make it possible, by sleeping only 3-4 hours a day, she said.

Chandrababu Naidu took charge as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh after bifurcation, the state had no treasury and no infrastructure. Despite this, he tirelessly worked to develop the capital city. Despite this, he tirelessly worked to develop the capital city, she added.

She felt that people should have given him at least 10 years to build the state. But due to peoples mistakes, the efforts he put in for 5 years were wasted, Bhuvaneswari said.

Referring to her father, Bhuvaneswari mentioned that NTR established the TDP for the people.

She said her father was a man of righteousness and discipline and raised their family with these same principles and noted that no cases have been filed against the family so far.

Bhuvaneswari called her husbands arrest unjust and claimed it has ignited a fire in the hearts of the people.
A baby crocodile was found at the Mahatma Gandhi Swimming Pool in Dadar in Mumbai on Tuesday morning. The lifeguard spotted the reptile swimming in the pool, and then captured it, but he was bitten in the process, according to reports.

The baby crocodile has been safely kept inside a drum.

Coordinator of the Mahatma Gandhi Swimming Pool Sandeep Vaishampayan told media that its staff routinely checks the pool in the morning before carrying out any exercise. Today, our staff found a baby crocodile in this Olympic-size swimming pool. With the help of experts, it was rescued and handed over to the forest department.

An official at the pool said the crocodile must have come from a private zoo nearby.

Similar incidents have taken place in the past when snakes had slithered from the private zoo on to the roads, causing panic among people.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Sandeep Deshpande has demanded strict action against the private zoo. This private zoo is unauthorised. Earlier, snakes had come out of this zoo and caused panic in public. Who is responsible for these reptiles and animals attacking people or these reptiles and animals getting hurt in public? Who has given this private zoo permission to keep these animals? Whose political influence have they got? asked Deshpande.

He further told media that the private zoo is built on the land that belongs to the BMC. Many a times, the officials of this swimming pool have complaint to the authority. If you see the condition of this private zoo, it is really bad. In such a scenario, why is the forest department not taking any action?

Deshpande is likely to meet BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal today, and raise the issue along with the delegation of MNS leaders.
Turkish Republic's First Church Reopens Its Doors

St. Ephrem Syriac Orthodox Church. ( AA) The first-ever church built in the Turkish Republic era will open its doors to worshippers on Sunday.

In a 2019 ceremony attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the foundation was laid for the St. Ephrem Syriac Orthodox Church in Yesilkoy on the European side of Istanbul.

Speaking to Anadolu, Sait Susinthe, president of the Istanbul Syriac Kadim Foundation, expressed his excitement on the opening of the church.

Susin noted that the entire process of building the church took 10 years.

Recalling a brief delay in the opening of the church due to the deadly earthquakes that hit Turkiye in February this year, Susin said: "We were going to have the opening on Feb. 19, but the earthquakes on Feb. 6 stopped us. It was a great tragedy for the country. Under such circumstances, it was out of the question for us to have the opening."

He pointed out that Syriac communities worldwide have been closely following this process, with numerous expressing their desire to attend the opening ceremony.

"Our phones are constantly ringing. This is also a prestige for our country. It sends a positive message about the preconceptions from abroad regarding our country. I hope the prayers offered here will be instrumental in enhancing the unity and togetherness of our country," Susin added.

The church, designed as a five-story project in an empty area of the Latin Catholic Cemetery, is located in Yesilkoy.

One floor of the five-story church was reserved as a cultural hall for the community to meet after mass or ceremonies such as baptisms, funerals, and weddings, as well as for meetings and conferences. On the ground floor are the bishop's quarters, guest rooms, and a parking lot.
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, October 3. Tajikistan and the World Bank (WB) discussed the current situation and future prospects of their partnership in developing exports of Tajik goods and products, as well as Tajikistan's entry into the global e-commerce, Trend reports.

This topic was addressed during a meeting between director of the Export Agency under the Government of Tajikistan, Bahriddin Sirojiddinzoda, and representatives of the WB.

The parties also explored opportunities to strengthen and expand cooperation in marketing and logistics.

Regarding the establishment of logistics centers in Tajikistan, the Agency director noted that necessary measures have been taken to address logistics issues and that foreign investments are required for creating these logistics centers.

The parties also discussed future plans for the export of fresh fruits, including lemons, cherries, and grapes, to China using e-commerce. Representatives of the WB expressed their readiness to collaborate with the Export Agency in supporting its initiatives.

Tajikistan became a member of the WB in 1993 and the International Development Association (IDA) in 1994. Since then, the WB has given Tajikistan more than $2.5 billion in grants and low-interest loans to help reduce poverty and enhance the well-being of its people.
As the diplomatic stand-off between India and Canada continues, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said Ottawa is not looking to escalate the situation with India.

Trudeau, who created a diplomatic storm after he linked the Government of India with the killing of Khalistan terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, said Canada will responsibly and constructively with New Delhi.

Canada is not looking to escalate the situation with India, will continue to engage responsibly and constructively with New Delhi. We want to be on the ground in India to help the Canadian families there, Reuters quoted Trudeau as saying.

The relations between both the countries are seeing an all-time low after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged, in his Parliament, the involvement of a foreign agent in the killing of Khalistan separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. He even claimed that he had intelligence inputs and evidence that the Indian government could be behind Nijjars death.

Nijjar was killed by unidentified gunmen outside a Gurdwara in Surrey, Canada, on June 18. He was the chief of banned Khalistan Tiger Force, and was designated a terrorist by the Indian government under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in 2020. Interpol had also issued red corner notice against him quite a few times, the first one being in 2016.

India Asks Canada to Recall Its Diplomatic Staff: Govt Sources

After suspending visa processes for Canadians, New Delhi wants Ottawa to recall more than two dozen of its diplomats from India, according to top government sources.

Top government sources also said Canada cannot be given free hand as their non-cooperation in terror investigations is one of the main reasons why New Delhi is heading towards taking the decision to downsize Canadas diplomatic presence in India. Their top officials (Canadas) come and meet and promise, but dont deliver.

Sources say the final decision has not been taken yet in the matter, but the discussion has been taking place for almost two weeks now.

The latest development means that New Delhi does not see any high-strength diplomatic requirement from its Canadian counterpart in India.

India had earlier asked Canada to reduce its diplomatic presence in the country after suspending visas for Canadians.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday pledged to deepen bilateral ties with the Maldives as he congratulated President-elect Mohamed Muizzu, whose party campaigned for forging close ties with Beijing.

Muizzu, from the Peoples National Congress and a close associate of former Maldives President Abdulla Yameen who forged close ties with China during his Presidency from 2013 to 2018, defeated India-friendly incumbent Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in the presidential runoff held on Saturday.

Yameen is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for corruption.

In his message, Xi said that China and the Maldives enjoy a long history of friendly exchanges.

Xi, who visited Maldives in 2014 and announced several Chinese investments under Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which subsequently evoked criticism of being debt traps by the countrys opposition parties, said the two countries are not only friends of sincere trust and mutual assistance but also partners of joint development and common prosperity.

He said he attaches great importance to the development of bilateral relations and stands ready to work with President-elect Muizzu to carry forward the traditional friendship, deepen practical cooperation and push for new progress in the future-oriented, all-round friendly and cooperative partnership between the two countries, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Muizzus election raised expectations in China that the archipelagic state strategically located in the Indian Ocean close to Indias southern coast will pursue pro-Beijing policies, unlike Solih who pursued Indias first policy and established close ties with New Delhi.

Muizzu is due to take over the office on November 17 after which he was expected to outline his foreign policy priorities.

During Solihs tenure, India besides undertaking many infrastructure projects and providing economic assistance to Maldives which has a population of 5.21 lakh people also actively campaigned for Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid election as President of the UN General Assembly. India also provided vaccines to Maldives during the Covid crisis.

Observers say despite his partys pro-China rhetoric, Muizzu, a British-educated civil engineer, may follow a more nuanced foreign policy as the country faces a precarious economy with several debt repayments due, taking a cue from the worst economic crisis faced by Sri Lanka.

India stepped in with USD four billion in assistance to Sri Lanka while China dithered despite massive BRI investments in the country including the Hambantota port which Beijing took over for a 99-year lease as debt swap.
In a big jolt to jailed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia, his close aide Dinesh Arora and YSRCP MP Magunta Reddys son Raghav Manguta on Tuesday turned approver in the money laundering case pertaining to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.

Delhis Rouse Avenue Court allowed the application filed by them seeking permission to turn approver in the case.

Arora, who was arrested in the money laundering case in July, had also turned approver in the CBI case wherein his statements had played a crucial role in the arrest of former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia.

It has been alleged by the ED and the CBI that the Delhi governments excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi has charge strongly refuted the charge. The excise policy was scrapped after Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the corruption allegation, following which the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Sisodia, the former Delhi deputy chief minister and excise minister, was first arrested by the CBI on February 26 for his alleged role in the scam. He resigned from the Delhi Cabinet on February 28.

The Enforcement Directorate later arrested the AAP leader on March 9 from Tihar Jail where he is currently lodged in judicial custody. In its nearly 270-page supplementary charge sheet which has annexures running into 2,000 pages, the ED has called Sisodia a key conspirator in the case.

The ED had also attached assets of Manish Sisodia, his wife Seema Sisodia, and others in connection with the money laundering case. The attachment includes assets worth RS 81.5 lakh that belonged to Sisodia and his wife. This includes two flats one worth Rs 5 lakh (in Sisodias name) and another Rs 65 lakh (in the name of his wife who is not an accused) along with Rs 11.49 lakh in deposits.
NewsClick founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha on Tuesday were arrested in a UAPA case linked with NewsClick portals funding.

Delhi Police today searched 30 locations connected with online news portal NewsClick and its journalists in a case filed under the anti-terror law UAPA following allegations that it received money for pro-China propaganda.

Regarding the search, seizure and detentions carried out today in connection with a UAPA case registered with Special Cell, a total of 37 male suspects have been questioned at premises, 09 female suspects have been questioned at their respective places of stay and digital devices, documents etc. have been seized/collected for examination. The proceedings are still ongoing; so far, two accused, Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty have been arrested, the Delhi Police said.

The issue led to political ripples with the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Samajwadi Party as well as the Press Club of India reacting to the searches and criticising the government for the action.

The Congress alleged that the raids on journalists were a fresh distraction from the explosive findings of the caste survey in Bihar and the growing demand for a caste census across the country.

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said probe agencies in the country are independent and work as per law.

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said the law will take its course in the Newsclick funding case and raked up the imposition of Emergency by Congress to slam the opposition party for coming out in support of the news portal. Former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had, in fact, curtailed freedom of speech in the first amendment to the Constitution, he charged.

Slamming the Congress for coming out in support of the news portal, Poonawalla said it should be the last party lecturing about free speech and press freedom.

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.

In 2021, an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate 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.

(With PTI inputs)
The Special Cell of Delhi Police on Tuesday raided the locations linked to media outlet NewsClick in connection with a case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on charges of money laundering and publishing content favouring China on its platform.

The raids were carried out on the offices of the media outlet and its employees residences in the Delhi-NCR region. The police seized the journalists laptops and also issued summons to them to join the probe.

The resident of CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury was also raided by the Delhi Police to search belongings of some NewsClick employees who had stayed at the premises. Yechury has said that this is an attempt to muzzle the media, adding that this is the proof why India is sliding in the press freedom index.

Meanwhile, reacting to the raids on the premises linked to NewsClick, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said, I dont need to justify If anyone has committed anything wrong, search agencies are free to carry out investigations against them under set guidelines

NewsClick is being probed by the ED in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case in which the news outlet is accused of taking Rs 38 crore from a Chinese citizen and using it to spread pro-China propaganda in India through its news stories.

While sources said NewsClicks Abhisar Sharma is among the journalists being raided by Delhi Police, Sharma took to X and wrote about the same. Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and Phone, he wrote on X.

Another NewsClick journalist, Bhasha Singh, also wrote on X, Finally last tweet from this phone. Delhi police seizure my phone.

An August 5 report of the New York Times, headlined, A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a US Tech Mogul claimed that NewsClick was a part of a global network that received funding from American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, who allegedly works closely with the Chinese government propaganda 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 report noted.

Following the report, the news website issued a statement on August 7 and claimed that the allegations were made against it by certain political actors and sections of the media are unfounded and without basis in fact or law.

The NYT investigation revealed how a group of influence campaigns, media organisations and shell companies were funded by China to disseminate its propaganda showed how Singham financed NewsClick which was also a part of the Chinese propaganda.

The ED on August 10 moved the Delhi High Court seeking vacation of its interim order directing no coercive action against NewsClick.

The agency said the news portals plea, in which the interim order was passed, sought quashing of ECIR which is an internal document and is not even statutory as held by the Supreme Court in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary & Ors. vs Union of India & Ors.

In light of a further investigation into the matter, the federal agency said that additional material has been revealed which discloses the commission of the offence of money laundering as well as the commission of a scheduled offence which has been intimated to the predicate agency as well, by way of an appropriate communication u/s 66(2) of the PMLA as well.

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.

The news websites office in New Delhi was previously raided by the ED in 2021.

The federal agency began an enquiry against the website based on critical evidence of money laundering. During this investigation, the search on the premises of PPK lasted for five days and a total of 10 premises were including the residence of Prabir Purkayastha, the promoter of the company.

The ED said that 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.

In August this year, 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.
A lawyer of Pakistans former prime minister Imran Khan on Tuesday expressed fear about the safety of the ex-premier and said that he maybe slow-poisoned to death in jail.

Naeem Panjutha, who is also Khans spokesman on legal affairs, said that Khan was being mentally tortured and his movement has been restricted.

Imran Khan can be slow food poisoned. He is being mentally tortured and his movement has been restricted, he claimed.

Panjutha said that Khan, 70, was on Monday night transferred to a lower class cell at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi where he was shifted on September 26 from the Attock jail following court orders.

Security personnel have been stationed outside the cell, he said.

He also claimed that new ways were being used in an effort to break Khan.

Panjutha said that he filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court about Khans conditions in jail which was fixed for hearing on October 5.

He said that Khans wife Bushra Bibi also met him today.

Khan was arrested on August 5 after conviction in the Toshakhana case. He was implicated in scores of cases after his ouster from office in April last year.

On Monday, IHC restored the bail of Khan in nine different cases by annulling the different trial courts decisions to cancel the same.

Khan, who served as the countrys prime minister until April last year, currently faces around 180 cases. These cases primarily stem from incidents that occurred following the sacking of the Lahore corps commanders house on May 9.
After suspending visa processes for Canadians, New Delhi wants Ottawa to recall more than two dozen of its diplomats from India, according to top government sources.

Top government sources also said Canada cannot be given free hand as their non-cooperation in terror investigations is one of the main reasons why New Delhi is heading towards taking the decision to downsize Canadas diplomatic presence in India. Their top officials (Canadas) come and meet and promise, but dont deliver.

Sources say the final decision has not been taken yet in the matter, but the discussion has been taking place for almost two weeks now.

The latest development means that New Delhi does not see any high strength diplomatic requirement from its Canadian counterpart in India.

India had earlier asked Canada to reduce its diplomatic presence in the country after suspending visas for Canadians.

The relations between both the countries are seeing an all-time low after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed in his Parliament the involvement of a foreign agent in the killing of Khalistan separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. He even alleged that he has intelligence inputs and evidence that the Indian government could be behind Nijjars death.

Nijjar was killed by unidentified gunmen outside a Gurdwara in Surrey, Canada, on June 18. He was the chief of banned Khalistan Tiger Force, and was designated a terrorist by the Indian government under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in 2020. Interpol had also issued red corner notice against him quite a few times, the first one being in 2016.

The external affairs ministry had said on September 21 that there was a degree of prejudice involved in Canadas allegations against India. No specific information was shared by Canada on this case (Nijjar case). We are willing to look at specific information. From our side, specific information regarding criminal activities by individuals based on Canadian soil was shared but has not been acted upon, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said during a press conference in New Delhi that day.

He also said Canadas diplomatic presence in India was higher compared to Indias in Canada. There should be parity in strength, he had said earlier.

He also said all categories of visas have been suspended. The issue is not about travel but incitement of violence and inaction by the Canadian government. Only those with valid visas and OCI cards can travel freely, he stressed.
In a gruesome incident, a man allegedly killed his four minor children by throwing them into the canal to hide his crime in Lahore city of Pakistan, police said on Tuesday.

The victims  Sabir, Ayesha, Nabiha and Samia  were aged between 5 and 11.

Muhammad Azeem, a resident of Kahna, a densely populated low-income area, filed a complaint with police on Monday that his four children had been kidnapped, police said.

Police after registering an FIR against unknown kidnappers launched an investigation.

During the course of the probe, the investigators suspected Azeem and grilled him. During interrogation, he disclosed that he threw his three minor daughters and a son into the canal. He said he committed the crime after a fight with his wife, the police said.

The suspect staged the drama of kidnapping to get away with his crime, they said.

Police officer Muhammad Ali said that the suspect took his four children on a bike to the canal road and gave them burgers. While they were eating at the edge of the canal, he pushed them into it.

The suspect killed his children primarily to hide his immoral activity, the officer said.

Police and Rescue 1122 have launched efforts to recover the bodies from the Lahore canal. A murder case has been registered against the suspect.
The family of a Mumbai-based man alleged that he died as doctors at the HBT Trauma Care Hospital refused to admit him the first time he was taken on Sunday. The family accused the hospital of negligence.

According to Hindustan Times, the patient, who was an autorickshaw driver in Mumbais Jogeshwari, was taken to HBT Trauma Care Hospital on the night of October 1 with complaints of chest pain and discomfort.

The family claims that he was taken to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation-run hospital twice that night as he was constantly feeling discomfort, however, the doctors refused to admit him the first time despite his familys persistent requests.

Rajesh came home after 10 pm on Saturday. After dinner, he complained of chest pain and discomfort and started to vomit. We rushed him to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation-run hospital where they conducted an ECG. Though we requested them to admit him, a doctor said the report was normal, gave him an antacid, and sent us home, Brijesh, his brother, told HT.

The family further said that the victim had relief after the first visit and thus, was taken to the hospital again where another ECG was conducted. They said the doctors in the casualty ward repeated the ECG but did not share the details, gave him a painkiller and sent him home again.

Rajesh again complained of chest pain and discomfort at around 6 in the morning and while being taken to the hospital, he collapsed at the gate of his home and later declared death.

The victims family complained that if the doctors had admitted him the first time he was taken to the hospital and kept him under observation, he would have been alive, HT reported.

Meanwhile, the hospital said that the provisional cause of death was left ventricular hypertrophy  thickening of the wall of the hearts main pumping chamber  and myocardial infarction  heart attack.

As per HT, this was the second such incident at the hospital in the last two weeks where a patient and his relatives insisted on admission but the doctors refused. However, this time a life was lost.
A 24-year-old woman from Mumbai was allegedly raped by a man who threatened and extorted money from her, police said on Tuesday.

The police on Tuesday registered a case under sections 376 (rape), 384 (extortion) and 419 (punishment for cheating by personation) of the Indian Penal Code against the accused, who is a resident of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, an official from Vakola police station said.

The woman, who is a lab technician, befriended the accused Samir Sheikh on a dating application. She went to meet him in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar after he allegedly threatened to kill himself by slitting his throat on a video call, he said.

When the woman went to meet the accused, he allegedly took her to a hotel and raped her. He then started blackmailing her and forced her to pay for two mobile phones, the official said, adding that the woman was also threatened by the accuseds mother.
The Mumbai police busted a racket involved in selling babies and arrested six women for allegedly selling a newborn for Rs 5 lakh in the eastern suburbs here, an official said on Tuesday.

The police had received a tip-off about a fake nursing home being operated in Trombay and that a baby was sold at the premises for Rs 5 lakh to a woman without providing any documents, the official said. The police laid a trap on Monday, nabbed two women and recovered a baby from their possession, he said.

The duo revealed that four other women, one of them a fake doctor, were involved in the racket, the official said, adding that one of the accused had six cases to her name for committing similar crimes.

The women have been arrested under section 370 (trafficking of persons) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and Maharashtra Medical Practitioner Act, he said.
As many as 31 people, including 16 infants died in a government hospital in Maharashtras Nanded in the last two days. This shocking incident has also sparked a political row with the Opposition slamming the state government over the deaths.

However, the hospital deaths in Nanded are not a first, heres a look at the previous cases of hospital deaths across India:

Nanded: Toll Reaches 31 After 7 More Deaths in 24 Hours

As many as 24 patients including 12 infants died at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Maharashtras Nanded. The death toll rose to 31, after 7 more people, including 4 infants reportedly died since Monday night.

The Dean of Doctor Shanakarrao Chavan Hospital, Dr Wakode said that as the hospital is at a tertiary-level, people visit there from far-off areas. We usually get emergency and extremely critical cases in this hospital as there is no hospital available like us in the periphery of 70-80km. Due to transfers of various staff, there was some difficulty for uswe were supposed to buy medicines from Halfkin Institute but that also didnt happen, he added.

Meanwhile, Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, Director of Medical Education and Research, Maharashtra, informed that a three-member expert committee from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad)  formed to probe the matter  is to submit a report of its probe by 1 pm on Tuesday.

Maharashtra: Over 179 Children Die in Nandurbar Civil Hospital

Last month a report said that the Nandurbar Civil Hospital in Maharashtra saw the deaths of 179 children in a span of three months. According to a Free Press Journal report, the data was provided the Chief Medical Officer of Nandurbar, M Sawan Kumar.

Kumar said that among the several factors that play a key role in these tragic deaths, low birth weight, sepsis, birth asphyxia and respiratory diseases were the main causes. What increased the gravity of the matter was that over 70 per cent of the deaths involved babies between the age of 0-28 days.

Authorities in Nandurbar also launched an initiative called Mission Lakshya 84 Days to tackle these pressing issues and save lives. The mission aims at handling the root causes of child mortality, improve healthcare services and provide feedback to ensure better survival chances of infants.

Thane: Over 27 Patients Die in 4 Days in Kalwa Hospital

Over 27 people died in a span of four days in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Thanes Kalwa in August this year. The management of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC)-run facility said that critical nature of the patients as well as their age were among the key reasons behind their deaths.

A committee was formed on the orders of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to conduct an extensive enquiry into the matter, taking into consideration the possibility of any medical negligence on the part of the hospital or the doctors.

Action will be taken as per the report of the dean, the state health minister Tanaji Sawant said.

Hospital sources also said that some doctors were down with dengue at the time, which also affected the running of the facility, a Livemint report said.

Heatstroke: Over 50 People Die Within 3 Days at UPs Ballia District Hospital

Nearly 57 people died in Uttar Pradeshs Ballia district hospital during this Summer. A two-member committee of the health department was formed to determine the cause of deaths. However, amid speculation of heatwave causing the deaths, Ballia Chief Medical officer (CMO) Dr Jayant Kumar said that  at the time  only people had died due to heat stroke in the district.

According to an Economic Times report, Dr Divakar Singh, Chief Medical Superintendent (CMS) of the district hospital, was removed and sent to Azamgarh, after he allegedly made a careless remark about the cause of deaths.

Chhattisgarh: Four Infants Die Within 24 Hours at Govt Hospital

A total of four newborn babies died at a government hospital and medical college within a span of 24 hours in Ambikapur in Chhattisgarhs Surguja district.

While one baby died in the paediatric ward of the GMCH, the other three passed away in the special neonatal care unit, said an India Today report.

Dr Lakhan Singh, Superintendent at GMCH, said that there was nothing unusual about the deaths and birth-related complications were the main cause behind their deaths.

Maharashtra: Fire at Govt Hospital Kills Ten Newborns

A fire in the Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) at Maharashtras Bhandara District General Hospital killed ten infants in January 2021.

The then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, termed the tragedy to be mind-numbing and ordered a probe into the matter. He also called for a fire audit of all the government hospitals in the state.

The Hindu reported that while ten infants were killed, seven other newborns were rescued from another ICU in the hospital.

The state government also announced financial aid of Rs 5 lakh from the Chief Ministers Relief Fund to the families affected.

Jamshedpur: Over 100 Infants Die in Two Months, Hospital Blames Malnutrition

Over 100 infants including newborns reportedly died at a government-run hospital in Jharkhand within two months. According to a Wire report, more than 52 of the newborn deaths at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Medical College and Hospital occurred in a month.

Although a state-level probe into the high-mortality did not find any negligence on the hospitals part, the medical staff however indicated that infant care in the healthcare system is far from satisfactory.

Insufficient number of incubators at the hospital was also cited as a reason by a hospital staff. This increases the chance of infections manifold and can even cause the death of a newborn, a medical staff was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

Uttar Pradesh: 60 Children, Including Newborns Die in Gorakhpurs Biggest Hospital

As many as 60 children, including newborns died in Uttar Pradeshs Gorakhpur district. The state government ordered an investigation into the matter, but denied reports linking the deaths to a disruption in the oxygen supply, an India Today report said.

The maximum deaths were on August 10, the same day that the hospitals oxygen supplying firm cut off the supply as the previous bills were not paid by the hospital.
A total of 24 patients including 12 infants died at a government hospital in Maharashtras Nanded in a time span of 24 hours. Adding to the Nanded tragedy, ten patients, including two infants have reportedly died in 24 hours in Sambhajinagars Ghati Hospital.

Taking to X, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray wrote, After Nanded now hospital in Sambhajinagar where 8 patients have died, which includes 2 children. More 7 patients died in Nanded. He said that the states health system has collapsed to the BJP government. They dont have to be in power and run government in Maharashtra, he added.

Congress leader Ashok Chavan on Tuesday claimed that the death toll has continued to rise as seven more patients have died in the hospital since yesterday, taking the death toll to 31. Taking to X, Chavan wrote, Death toll continues in Nanded. 7 more patients unfortunately died in Government Medical College Hospital since yesterday. 4 children are also included in the dead. The state government should determine the responsibility.

A three-member expert committee, which was formed to probe the matter on Monday, will be submitting its report on Tuesday afternoon.

On the 24 deaths, Dr Wakode, the Dean of Doctor Shanakarrao Chavan Hospital, Nanded said six male and female infants have died in the last 24 hours, adding that 12 adults died due to various ailments like snake bites, phosphorous poisoning etc.

People do come here from far-off areas. We usually get emergency and extremely critical cases in this hospital as there is no hospital available like us in the periphery of 70-80km. Due to transfers of various staff, there was some difficulty for uswe were supposed to buy medicines from Halfkin Institute but that also didnt happen, Wakode said pointing at the tertiary-level status of the hospital.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that he will seek more information on the incident, adding that, appropriate action will be taken in this regard.

TOP POINTS

 Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar condoled the death of the 24 people and said that such an incident shows the failure of the government systems. Citing a similar incident that took place two months ago in Thane, Pawar posted on X, The state government needs to ensure that concrete steps are taken so that these incidents are not repeated and the lives of innocent patients are saved.

 The Congress on Monday slammed the BJP government over the 24 deaths in as many hours at Nandeds government hospital. Senior party leader Rahul gandhi alleged that the BJP government spends crores of rupees on publicity but no money is spent on childrens medicines.

 Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, on the other hand, demanded strict action against those responsible and compensation for the families affected.

-Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, Director of Medical Education and Research, Maharashtra, informed that a three-member expert committee from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad)  formed to probe the matter  is to submit a report of its probe by 1 pm on Tuesday. Mhaisekar added that he is personally visiting the hospital the review the matter.

 Senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan visited Nandeds government hospital and said that the Shinde government must make necessary arrangements for medical staff as well as provide funds to the GMCH on priority basis. I will speak to state deputy chief minister and finance minister Ajit Pawar seeking his intervention for funds, Chavan said. He also said that presently, 70 people were critical at the hospital.

 Dr Shyamrao Wakode of the government medical college said that transfer of various staffs were an obstacle in procuring of medicines from the Haffkine Institute, adding that patience come from far off to the hospital and for many of them their sanctioned budgets were also disturbed.

 Several other opposition leaders took a hit at the government for the deaths in the hospital. NCP MP Supriya Sule took a jibe at the triple engine sarkar for the incident and said that each of these deaths need to be investigated extensively. She also said that the resignation of the concerned minister should be accepted by CM Eknath Shinde with immediate effect.

 The Thackeray faction leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said called these deaths a murder and cited that absolute negligence on the part of the constitutional state government is the reason behind it.

 Dr Kishore Rathod, Head of Paediatricts Department of the GMCH told CNN-News18 that nothing went wrong in the hospital. Critical patients were referred to hospitals. We have everything available for treatments, Rathod added.

 GMCH Dean said that transfer of various staffs, nurses was an obstacle for the hospital, adding that since this is a tertiary-level hospital, people have to come from far off. He noted that the hospital usually gets emergency and extremely critical cases.

(With inputs from PTI)
A day after outrage over the death of 31 patients in 48 hours at a government hospital in Maharashtras Nanded, Shiv Sena MP Hemant Patil on Tuesday made the acting dean of the facility clean a dirty toilet and urinals. A video has gone viral on social media where the Hingoli MP can be seen handing a broom to SR Wakode and making him clean a toilet and wall-mounted urinals.

Patil visited Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital and took stock of the situation. You dont have simple mugs (in the toilet) and you shout at people who dont use toilets. Do you (doctors and the dean) behave similarly at your home? Patil can be heard saying. He then asked a doctor to get another bucket.

Do you have only one bucket in this medical college? Patil asked. The video shows Patil handing a broom to the acting dean, SR Wakode, and making him clean a toilet and wall-mounted urinals.

The video shows Wakode cleaning the toilet with a wiper while Patil was spraying water into the toilet.

The government spends crores but I am pained to see the situation here. The toilets have not been cleaned for months. The toilets in the wards of the hospital are locked. No water is available in toilets, Patil, who belongs to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena, told a news channel. He added, I went to the office of the dean where I saw that the wash basin is broken and the tap has no water.

Patil said he would request Shinde to order the registration of cases against these people who draw salaries from the government but are negligent in work. The chief minister has said that the state government had taken the deaths at the Nanded hospital very seriously and assured appropriate action after a detailed inquiry. He denied the shortages of medicines and staff.

Earlier on Monday, Wakode said six male and six female newborn babies have died in the 24 hours. He also said that 12 adults have died due to various ailments, like snake bites, etc. The death toll later rose to 31, after seven more people, including four infants, died.

Nanded Deaths Not The First Time Hospital Apathy Killed Patients | A Look Back

Dr Kishore Rathod, Head of Paediatrics Department told CNN News 18 that nothing went wrong in the hospital. Critical patients were referred to hospitals. We have everything available for treatments, he added.

In a statement, the medical superintendent of Dr Shanakarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital said that the hospital has enough stock of medicines for emergency and critical patients.

In the last two days, many cases of critical and last-stage patients have been reported at the hospital. These patients had come from other districts, our staff is treating them and monitoring their health condition. A Rs 12 crore budget was already sanctioned for this hospital and more Rs 4 crore has been sanctioned for this hospital, read the statement.

Incidentally, in a 24-hour period between August 12 and 13, a total of 18 patients died in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital at Kalwa in Thane district.

Meanwhile, police detained the NCP (Sharad Pawar Faction) workers for protesting outside the Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Hospital on the visit of Maharashtra Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif and Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Girish Mahajan.

#WATCH | Nanded, Maharashtra: Police detained the NCP (Sharad Pawar Faction) workers for protesting outside the Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Hospital on the visit of Maharashtra Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif and Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Girish pic.twitter.com/8rU4spuYjB ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2023

Former Maharashtra chief minister and Congress leader Ashok Chavan said it is a serious incident and the situation is also concerning. Around 31 patients have lost their lives so far and out of those 15-16 were children so there are many reasons. This is a government medical college so the government needs to take a decision soon, he added.

(with inputs from PTI)
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of Mumbai recently foiled three major smuggling bids leading to a seizure of 1.840 kg of Alprazolam (15,000 tabs), 9,696 Codeine-Based Cough Syrup (CBCS) bottles (850 kg) and four arrests.

OPERATION 1

The NCB Mumbai had gathered credible intelligence about a network, which was involved in export of illicitly diverted pharma based medicines for recreational purpose from India to USA. Active digital surveillance and other methods were employed to identify the target network. Soon, a Lucknow-based network was identified, which was reported to have recently completed a deal of illicitly diverted pharma drugs to USA and was scheduling another shipment. Accordingly, enhanced sources were utilized which led to tracking of a shipment at a courier facility in Mumbai which was about to be shipped out to USA.

The NCB team intercepted the shipment from the Mumbai-based courier office on September 6. On opening the shipment, a packed branded tea leaf box was found. When opened, it contained multiple strips of Alprazolam tablets. The shipment had 1,000 strips containing a total of 15,000 Alprazolam tablets.

During investigation, Lucknow-based Samar S was found to be associated with the network. After days of rigorous on-field surveillance and data analysis, Samar S was intercepted and brought to NCB-Mumbai office. It was found that the members of this network were heavily depending on no-digital contact method to evade the agencies. Investigation to find other crucial members is underway.

OPERATION 2

Initial information was gathered wherein an interstate syndicate was involved in procurement of illicitly diverted cough syrups and further distribution in Mumbai and adjoining areas. Accordingly, intelligence sources were geared up along with technical surveillance which soon led to identification of a Bhiwandi- based person named Ravish NA. Soon, it was learnt that a consignment was being provided by a Gujarat-based person. Accordingly, strict alert was maintained which later led to generation of input wherein a bulk consignment was to be transported into Mumbai. Further intelligence led to identification of the consignment details and a transporter company at Bhiwandi Industrial Area. On inspection, the consignment was found to be of 75 cartons containing total of 8497 CBCS bottles.

On September 28, Ravish NA and his carrier, Akash G, arrived at the transporter office to receive the consignment. They were arrested. Ravish is an employee of the Bhiwandi-Nijampur Municipal Corporation. During investigation, it was noticed that Ravish was trying to re-establish the drug trafficking circuit which was snapped after a previous CBCS seizure by NCB Mumbai.

OPERATION 3

Initial information showed Mumbai-based network was procuring illicitly diverted cough syrups from an interstate syndicate for further distribution in Mumbai and adjoining areas. Accordingly, sources were contacted to generate further information which led to identification of a Gujarat-based supplier who was engaged with a Mumbai-based person. Later, identity of the receiver was obtained. Soon, information was gathered about a consignment which led to a transporter company in Dongri area of Mumbai. Scrutiny of the consignment led to identification of 10 cartons of CBCS.

On October 3, the NCB Mumbai team intercepted Riyaz B, who confessed to his involvement. When the cartons were opened, a total of 1199 CBCS bottles (119.9 kg) were recovered. The contraband was seized and Riyaz B was taken to NCB Mumbai office for further questioning. Riyaz B has been in the business for the past seven-eight years and was associated with Mumbai-based kingpins and other drug peddlers.
In a landmark verdict, the Madras High Court (HC) has held that educational institutions administered by religious and linguistic minorities are not obligated to adhere to reservation quotas for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Class (OBC) students. The HC also emphasised that government authorities cannot enforce such reservations upon these institutions.

A bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice PD Audikesavalu cited Article 15(5) of the Indian Constitution, which exempts minority educational institutions from communal and social reservation requirements.

The court ruled that minority educational institutions, even if they receive state government aid, are not obliged to implement social reservations.

However, the court clarified that the State Government would be within its right to impose the threshold cap of admitting students from the minority community to 50%.

However, in the remaining 50% seats, filled on merit from the General Category, the students of the minority community can also compete and be admitted on merit and the same would not be counted in the 50% threshold cap meant for the minority students, it added.

The judgment came in a petition filed by Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed College for Women. The college had challenged a government order that revoked its minority status and had also requested the court to grant it permanent minority status.

The state governments representative, Advocate General R Shanmugasundaram, informed the court that the petitioner institution was benefiting from state assistance. He also explained that the institutes minority status had been revoked because it had exceeded the annual admission limit of Muslim minority students set at 50% by the State.

On the other hand, representing the petitioner college, Senior Counsel Vijay Narayan argued that the State lacked the authority to enforce a 50% threshold.

While partially granting relief to the petitioner college, the division bench said, We have no hesitation to hold that the concept of communal reservation or reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Classes of citizens would not apply to minority institutions.

The bench cited the Supreme Courts judgments in Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust vs. UOI, and Ashok Kumar Thakur vs. UOI wherein it was held that exclusion of Minority Educational Institution from Article 15(5) of the Constitution of India is not violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, as the Minority Educational Institution, by themselves, are a separate class and the Rights are brought by other Constitutional provisions.

However, on the issue of the threshold cap of not admitting students of the concerned minority Community beyond 50%, the division bench referred to a bunch of the Supreme Courts rulings and held: The policy of the State government, which was implemented through a government order dated June 17, 1998, which provided that in the case of self-financing Institutions, imparting Professional courses of Education, established and administered by the Minority, they shall admit students of that Minority alone, not exceeding 50% of the sanctioned strength, is not arbitrary or unreasonable or against the provisions of any Statute, Rules or Regulations in force.

Accordingly, the court held that the petitioner college had to abide by the said government order and admit students from the minority community, not exceeding 50%.

However, while calculating the 50% of the minority students, those students who are admitted on merit in the remaining 50%, belonging to the minority community, has to be excluded, because they have been admitted on their own merit competing with the others and not as students of Minority Community, the bench clarified.

While stressing that merely admitting more students than the sanctioned 50% threshold would not ipso facto permit the cancellation of the minority status of the educational institution, the court quashed and set aside the government order refusing the extension of religious (Muslim) minority status to the petitioner institution.

it is not clear from the impugned Order as to whether some of the students belonging to the minorities are admitted on the basis of their own merit, while competing with the 50% students of non-Minorities. The same also has to be taken into consideration, said the bench.

Apart from that, court held that minority status is not a tenure status, ergo is not for a limited period and the minority status of an Institution, accorded by the Competent Authority or the Commission, would subsist until the Commission cancels the same, as provided under Section 12-C of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutes Act, 2004.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharajs Tiger Claws or Wagh Nakh will return to India for an exhibition after a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Maharashtra government and the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London.

The MoU coincides with Maharashtras 350th anniversary celebrations of the coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji.

Maharashtra Minister for Cultural Affairs Sudhir Munganitwar signed the pact with Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A, at a meeting at the museum.

Hunt hailed the historic partnership between the V&A, the government of Maharashtra and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) museum in Mumbai, which will enable the unique object to form part of celebrations in India next year.

Given their fascinating heritage, I hope that the displays across Maharashtra and the accompanying events will help support new research into the Tiger Claws history and provenance, said Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A.

We look forward to working with colleagues to finalise plans in the months ahead, he said.

3-year Loan Agreement for Wagh Nakh

According to the V&A, the MoU sets out the details of a three-year loan agreement for the unique pair of Tiger Claws or wagh nakh in the V&A collection. They are described as an example of a weapon that was popular in the 17th century.

The signing of the agreement on Tuesday is the first step in the process which, following a formal loan agreement being finalised later this year, will enable the Tiger Claws to travel to multiple destinations across India to feature in commemorative events planned next year to mark the 350th anniversary of Shivajis coronation.

Amish Tripathi, Author and Director, The Nehru Centre, London said it is a fantastic day for those who follow Indian history. It was such a special and wonderful moment. It almost felt like a divine object, he said.

Wagh Nakh: History & Significance

As per historical accounts, Shivaji and Afzal Khan had arranged a truce after political upheavals in order to meet in a tented enclosure, virtually alone. The V and A description of the history of the Tiger Claws explains: Both came armed: Shivaji wore mail under his clothes and metal skull protection under his turban. He also held a metal Tiger Claws weapon concealed in his hand. The two men fought, and Shivaji disembowelled his opponent.

(Image: V&A Museum)

Whereas, other reports say that in the Battle of Pratapgarh in 1659, the wagh nakh was used by Shivaji Maharaj to kill Bijapur Sultanates general Afzal Khan the commander of the opposing Bijapur army. Despite being outnumbered, the Marathas victory enhanced Chhatrapati Shivajis reputation as a brilliant military strategist.

The last Peshwa (Prime Minister) of the Marathas, Baji Rao II, surrendered to the British in June 1818 after defeat in the Third Anglo-Maratha War and was banished to Bithoor near Kanpur. It is possible he also surrendered this weapon to Grant Duff. It has not been possible to verify whether these tiger claws are the ones used by Shivaji nearly 160 years earlier.

Shivajis act of killing Afzal Khan at the foot of Pratapgarh fort in present-day Satara has become a popular episode, symbolising his courage in defeating a powerful adversary.

HOW IT LANDED WITH THE BRITISH

According to historians, the wagh nakh was kept in the sanctum sanctorum of a temple housed within Satara rulers family residence.

It is believed, though unverified, that the set of claws then came into the possession of James Grant Duff, an officer of the East India Company who was appointed Resident or political agent of the Satara state in 1818 and gifted to the Victoria and Albert (V and A) by a descendant.

This Relic was given to Mr. James Grant-Duff of Eden When he was Resident at Satara By the Prime Minister of the Peshwa of the Marathas, the museum website stated.

According to the V and A, the weapon is accompanied by a fitted case made after Grant Duff returned to Scotland. The inscription on the case reads: The Wagnuck of Sivajee With Which He Killed the Moghul General. This Relic was given to Mr. James Grant-Duff of Eden When he was Resident at Satara Minister of the Peshwa of the Marathas.
A day after evading News18s questions about the alleged protection to Khalistani terror groups on Canadian soil, Sukhminder aka Sukh Singh Dhaliwal, Liberal Party MP and close aide of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was seen at the Surrey gurdwara which is at the centre of the diplomatic tensions between India and Canada.

Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was the president of the gurdwara until he was shot dead outside the Sikh temple on June 18. Trudeaus explosive allegations of the potential involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar, whom India had designated as a terrorist in 2020, pulled down bilateral ties to their lowest last month.

India has strongly rejected the allegations as absurd and motivated and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawas expulsion of an Indian official over the case.

Sources told News18 that Dhaliwal had visited the gurdwara to seek the support of Sikhs who had arrived for a pro-Khalistani rally on Sunday from other parts of Canada and North America.

Speaking to News18 on Monday, Dhaliwal, who had earlier mentioned that India and Canada share good ties, said Trudeau had credible information and evidence when he accused India in Parliament last month.

The law enforcement agencies have enough evidence that made Trudeau make that statement. I can certainly say that PM Trudeau is very credible when he makes a statement. He does not do so without any evidence. I am happy someone can speak for Canada, Dhaliwal said.

The Canadian government has so far not provided any evidence after it accused India of being involved in Nijjars killing despite New Delhis insistence.

When asked if there was any FIR or a suspect list from the Canadian police in the matter, Dhaliwal said only time will tell. At this point, I can say that the PM was given the information, and he spoke. This is real leadership. The justice system in Canada is very fair. There is credible information that has made PM Trudeau say this.

Dhaliwal has confirmed meeting Nijjar in 2019 at a time when a red corner notice (RCN) was issued against him. Dhaliwal was evasive on whether he as an MP alerted the government authorities about Nijjar when he was declared a terrorist by India in 2020.

Dhaliwal was also at a loss to explain Nijjars proximity with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) as claimed by Nijjars son. He also was evasive on the inference whether the Canadian authorities were actively shielding a wanted man.

There are in fact allegations that the Canadian government was protecting Nijjar and allowing him to run his operations that included networking, training, financing and operationalising his Khalistan Terror Force (KTF) terror module.

I am not here to defend Nijjar but Canada. This issue is about assassination. That is bothersome, Dhaliwal said.
In a piece of shocking news, British actor-model Jodie Turner-Smith has filed for divorce from Canadian actor husband Joshua Jackson after 4 years of marriage. According to the plaintiff, irreconcilable differences is being stated as the reason behind the divorce. The Queen & Slim actress, 37, has filed the divorce in the Los Angeles Superior Court. As per the documents filed by celebrity divorce lawyer Laura Wasser, Jodie has demanded the joint custody of the couples 3-year-old daughter Juno. However, she wishes to take spousal support off the table for both herself and her husband Joshua.

There is going to be no prenup in their marriage and the date of separation has been mentioned as September 13 in the documents.

Joshua and Jodie met each other in 2018 during the Fatal Attraction actors birthday celebrations and immediately hit it off. They fell head over heels and quickly got engaged just months later. Right after, they decided to get married in 2019 as they caught a wedding license from Beverly Hills Courthouse, even before a lot got to know they were dating.

In April 2020 the couple welcomed Juno, their daughter. In the past, both Joshua and Jodie have spoken fondly of each other in various interviews. In April 2021, Jodie spoke to PEOPLE about how lucky they were to have found each other.

I think its really beautiful to be with someone who is so supportive and so loving, shared the Murder Mystery 2 actress.

Adding, Were so similar in so many ways. Were like mirrors for each other. And I just really love that human being.

Earlier this year in May, Joshua had an interview with Andy Cohen from Watch What Happens Live and said he knew Jodie was the one when she walked into the room looking like that. The duo had been spotted out together recently in September as they celebrated Jodies 37th together in New York City.

Jodie also celebrated her birthday last year in NYC with Joshua.
Ranbir Kapoor is currently making headlines after the release of the teaser of his highly-anticipated film Animal. The actor seems to be on a roll because soon after the release of Animal, he will reportedly begin shooting his next film, the first instalment in Nitesh Tiwaris Ramayana franchise. The films leading lady, Sai Pallavi is also said to begin shooting early next year with Ranbir. Meanwhile, reports claim that Yash will join the shoot from July onwards.

Pinkvilla quoted a source as saying, Nitesh Tiwari and team have been working actively on creating the world of Ramayana and the blueprint is finally all ready. The VFX plates are prepared by the Oscar Winning Company, DNEG and its a world that would blow away the minds of audiences. However, the strength of Ramayana wont be the visual but the simplistic storytelling and compelling inter-character emotions.

The source added, Ranbir and Sai will start shooting for the film around the month of February 2024. The first part of the trilogy will focus more on Lord Ram and Sita, leading towards the conflict of Sita Haran. The duo will be shooting for the film from February till August 2024, before calling it a wrap for Ramayana: Part One.

Yash has a rather extended appearance in Ramayana: Part One, however, his character will dominate the proceedings in the second part, which is set in Sri Lanka. He has allotted 15 days to shoot for Ramayana: Part One, the source was quoted as saying.

Ranbir Kapoor will play the role of Ram and Sai Pallavi will essay the role of Sita in the film. Yash will play the role of Ravana. The three actors have reportedly completed their look tests for the film. Backed by Madhu Mantena as the producer, the trilogy will be helmed by Nitesh Tiwari as the director.
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, October 3. Uzbekistans Uzbekcosmos space agency has become a full member of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), Trend reports.

This was announced during the regular meeting of the General Assembly of IAF at the 74th International Astronautics Congress held in Baku.

The inclusion of Uzbekistan in the IAF membership provides the following opportunities:

- expansion of cooperation with leading international organizations in the space industry

- recognition of Uzbekistan by the global space society

- financial benefits and preferences

- the possibility of using the IAF electronic library free of charge

The International Astronautical Federation is an international non-governmental, non-profit scientific organization that deals with the problems of exploration of space for peaceful purposes, as well as issues of rocket technology and space.

The organization was founded in 1950 at the first International Astronautics Congress in Paris by the heads of 8 countries that include Austria, Argentina, Great Britain, and Denmark, as well as Spain, France, Germany, and Sweden.
The most loved stunt based reality-show Khatron Ke Khiladi 13 is wrapping up for this year. Rohit Shetty, the host of the show took to his social media handle to pen a gratitude note, as he begun shooting for the finale episode. Sharing a happy glimpse of himself with the contestants, he wrote, As I shoot the final episode of Khatron ke Khiladi season 13, I would like to thank YOU, My amazing audience, for showing your incredible support and making this season of Khatron Ke Khiladi, the no.1 show EVERY WEEK!  I am truly grateful beyond words for all your love! Bas hamesha aise hi pyaar dete rehna!.

Have a look at the video :

This year, Khatron Ke Khiladi tested the limits of its brave contestants. A diverse lineup of celebrities participated in the show. The constant list of the stunt-based reality show featured Anjum Fakih, Soundous Mufakir, Daisy Shah, Ruhi Chaturvedi, Sheezan Khan, Arjit Taneja, Rohit Bose Roy, Archana Gautam, Rashmeet Kaur, Shiv Thakare, Nyrraa M Banerji, Dino James, Aishwarya Sharma,and Anjali Anand.

In an interview with Pinkvilla, host Rohit Shetty and earlier expressed his excitement for the upcoming show. Hosting Khatron Ke Khiladi each year is something that I absolutely enjoy. With season 13 we are going into the wild with a jungle theme and the ultimate rule of the jungle is  the survival of the fittest and the bravest. It will be exciting to witness the wilderness of South Africa as the stakes are going to rise and the magnitude of action will be greater than the previous seasons, he said.

Earlier last month, actresses Divyanka Tripathi and Hina Khan returned to the show as challengers.

Speaking about her return to Khatron Ke Khiladi 13 as a challenger, Divyanka Tripathi shared, Coming back to Khatron Ke Khiladi felt like I returned to an adventure I loved the most. All the memories of the 11th season came back to me. I was fortunate to have relived those moments and created new ones. This edition of Khatron Ke Khiladi is different with its mind-boggling stunts. I know what it takes to even attempt these stunts and thats why I have huge respect for all the khiladis, who fought their fears. Im thankful to host Rohit Shetty and COLORS for this wonderful opportunity. I hope the audience enjoys my journey as a challenger in Khatron Ke Khiladi 13.

Hina Khan on the other hand, said, Returning to Khatron Ke Khiladi was like revisiting the adventure that made me what I am today. I could not have imagined overcoming my fears if I had not been on this show. Returning to it as a challenger brought back a flood of wonderful memories. This season of Khatron Ke Khiladi is unique in its own way and filled with mind-blowing stunts. It is an honour to be chosen to set a benchmark for some of the bravest souls. Im grateful to host Rohit Shetty for his mentorship and for this incredible opportunity. I hope the audience enjoys my journey as a challenger in Khatron Ke Khiladi 13.

Khatron Ke Khiladi 13 airs on Colors every Saturday and Sunday at 9:00 PM.
Supriya Pathak, who married Pankaj Kapur in 1988, has had a unique journey when it comes to family relationships. Pankaj was previously married to actress Neelima Azeem and together they had a son, Shahid Kapoor. After their divorce in 1984, Pankaj went on to marry Supriya and despite this complex family background, today, we see Shahid sharing strong bonds not only with his birth mother, Neelima, but also with stepmother, Supriya. In a recent interview, while promoting her upcoming film Gangster Ganga, Supriya candidly spoke about her close relationship with Shahid and calls the actor her own son, she goes on to share that she considers the Jersey actors children as her grandchildren.

The Ram Leela actress told ANI, Shahid is my son and his kids are my grandchildren. I share a great bond with both my grandchildren and as a family, we all put in efforts to strengthen our bonds. We are very family-oriented and believe in sticking together through thick and thin. I feel as generations pass, the bonds within families evolve. I have a friendlier and more open relationship with my daughter than I had with my mother.

While Pankaj Kapur has Shahid Kapoor with his first wife, Neeliima Azeem, after marrying Supriya Pathak, they welcomed two children into their lives, a son named Ruhaan Kapoor and a daughter named Sanah Kapur. Neelima later married Rajesh Khattar and together, the couple had a son Ishaan Khatter.

In an earlier interview with Twinkle Khanna for Tweak India, Supriya Pathak spoke about her first meeting with Shahid and said, I met Shahid when he was six years old. He was the cutest baby Id seen. He was such a lovely child. He was very warm and he did not have any defiant reactions towards me nor did I have them too. So, when we met, it was instantly liking each other as people and I think that is what just carried on. Though there were many times when he was not with us, so whenever he would come and we kind of always, we reacted to each other as people.

Further, she shared an anecdote about her mothers concerns regarding her marriage with Pankaj Kapur. Her mother had doubts about the stability of the wedding and repeatedly expressed the fear that Pankaj would leave her. Despite her mothers worries, the Khichdi actress remained confident and continued with her marriage.
The third war over Nagorno-Karabakh, the long-disputed Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan, ended almost as soon as it began. The Azerbaijani anti-terror operations began on the afternoon of September 19 with artillery and drones and within 24 hours, the Karabakh Armenians, a population that has been pushed to the brink of starvation by a months-long economic blockade, capitulated, leaving Azerbaijan in effective control of the territory.

In scenes reminiscent of the Balkans in the 1990s, images of convoys of cars filling the mountain road from Karabakh to Armenia carrying thousands of ethnic Armenians leaving their homeland with as much as they can carry are flooding cyberspace. A region that has witnessed many such upheavals over the years faces yet another round of de facto ethnic cleansing.

While the focus of the West continues to remain on Ukraine, there is a bigger long-term failure here, in their inability to prevent the violence and get the Armenians and Azerbaijanis to agree on an equitable resolution to this bitterly contested conflict.

For the local population, the pendulum has swung since the collapse of the Soviet Union from euphoria, siege, victory, defeat and this outcome marks a bitter end and the complete destruction of a project that began in 1988 when the Armenians of Karabakh first tried to split away from Soviet Azerbaijan. The present loss of this territory and the consequent eviction of its people with centuries-old Armenian history and heritage is no doubt a brutal outcome.

The Azerbaijanis have called for the dissolution of all political structures in the territory  the local Presidency, Parliament, and elected Mayor  and are not offering any kind of political autonomy. In contrast, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan told the Karabakh Armenians that an earlier offer of status had gone to hell and what was left on the table were as yet undefined educational rights, cultural rights, religious rights, and municipal electoral rights.

Under those terms, some older people might choose to stay in Nagorno-Karabakh, and thousands of Azerbaijanis who lived there up until 1991 might return. But little or nothing will remain of all the local institutions built there over three decades.

Although the enclave had in theory been under the protection of Russian peacekeepers, Russian guarantees ended up being worthless. Russia has instead brokered a deal whereby the local population agreed to a full disarmament of their own defence forces, numbering several thousand men and to begin talks over their full reintegration into Azerbaijan. It has intervened to broker a ceasefire, the price for which is that Russia gets to keep its peacekeeping force on the ground and thereby a foothold in Azerbaijan; and to push Western mediators  the EU and US  further to the margins.

Cross Roads of History & Geography

The modern maps of the South Caucasus were drawn between 1918 and 1921, during and after World War I. Then, Armenians and Azerbaijanis fought over the disputed territories of Karabakh, Nakhchivan, and Zangezur, and Turkish and Russian armies marched in and out. In 1923, the Soviet Union established the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblasthome to a 95 per cent ethnically Armenian population within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. Nagorno-Karabakhs regional legislature passed a resolution in 1988 declaring its intention to join the Republic of Armenia, despite its official location within Azerbaijan.

The South Caucasus region which lies between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea comprises Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan apart from Southern Russia. This region has been the crossroads of the Persian, Ottoman and Tsarist Empires as also the intersection between Christianity and Islam. Armenia is mainly Christian, with 97 per cent of the population belonging to the Armenian Apostolic faith, one of the oldest Christian churches founded in the first century CE. Azerbaijan is 96 per cent Muslim, with 65 per cent of the people adhering to Shia Islam and the rest to the Sunni faith. Four-fifths of Georgia is Orthodox Christian.

During the Soviet era, the roughly 1,700-square-mile region of Nagorno-Karabakh, whose population has been predominantly Armenian, was an autonomous Oblast of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was internationally recognised as part of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which completely surrounded it. However, fighting erupted between Azerbaijan and local Armenian forces supported by Russia. Internationally sponsored negotiations tried to balance Azerbaijans territorial integrity and its viability as a state with the aspirations of the Karabakh Armenians.

Back in 1992, when the first war expanded to full-scale fighting, the Foreign Ministers of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe met in Helsinki and called for a conference to be held in Minsk to resolve the conflict. It was to be attended by all parties, including elected representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and othersin other words, both Karabakh Armenians and Azerbaijanis. But in the end, the conference never happened.

The security organisations mediation was supposed to be based on the principles of the Helsinki Accords, the 1975 agreement between the West and the Soviet Union that formally established territorial integrity, self-determination, and the non-use of force as essential to preserving European peace. In practice, none of these principles were honoured. In fact, international commitment to this conflict was always under-resourced because the South Caucasus was considered too marginal.

In 1994, Russia brokered a ceasefire, and for the next 25 years or so, a stalemate was held in which forces backed by Armenia and Russia effectively controlled the territory. After 1998, the Karabakh Armenians were no longer represented in the talks, as the then President of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, was a Karabakh Armenian who said he could negotiate on behalf of his people. Diplomacy was reduced to secret talks between Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders.

In 2017, the Karabakh Armenians, encouraged by Armenian nationalists in the region and the Armenian diaspora, formally renamed their region Artsakh, an Armenian name dating back to ancient times. The implication was that Azerbaijan should give up on not just Nagorno-Karabakh but also surrounding regions under Armenian control.

Azerbaijan also showed little interest in substantial negotiations focusing instead on reconquest. For more than thirty years, no Azerbaijani leader negotiated directly with the Karabakh Armenians or put down any formal proposals for their future within Azerbaijan. Western mediators came up with peace formulas but were never able to offer the boots on the ground to enforce them. All this gave Russia the strongest leverage, and at the end of the 2020 war, it duly became the only outside power to intervene directly and put boots on the ground in the form of peacekeepers.

In 2020, however, the momentum in the conflict, which seemed to have been frozen, shifted decidedly toward Azerbaijan, which won a clear-cut military victory over Armenia during a short but consequential war over the territory which is widely remembered in military circles for the devastating role played by the Turkish Bayraktar drones against the Armenian tanks. That outcome heightened the latent tensions among the countries in the region at a time when Russia, which has traditionally been the most important outside actor in the conflict, was distracted by its commitment in Ukraine.

Unusual Alliances at Play

The long-running conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh has created partnerships in the South Caucasus that cut across religious, ethnic, and geopolitical lines in surprising ways. Iran, which is ruled by Shiite clerics, has provided an economic lifeline to Christian-majority Armenia, whose primary backer has for long been Russia. Meanwhile, Israel and Sunni-majority Turkey have formed a strategic alliance with predominantly Shiite Azerbaijan. And the two Shiite-majority countries in the mix  Iran and Azerbaijan  remain locked in a bitter, decades-long dispute over territory and identity.

As Israels ties to Azerbaijan deepened, since 2016, Azerbaijan has received nearly 70 per cent of its arms imports from Israel, which in turn purchases 40 per cent of its oil from Baku. Iran became concerned that Israel is turning Azerbaijan into its proxy and using it as a launchpad for operations against it including the 2018 theft of information regarding its nuclear archive.

In recent years, the growing proximity of Israel and the Persian Gulf Arab monarchies has also been of concern to it. The Iranians now fear that a similar dynamic is taking shape between Israel and two countries with predominantly Turkic populations, Turkey and Azerbaijan. The perceived threat of being sandwiched between an Israeli-Gulf Arab bloc to the South and an Israeli-Turkic bloc to the North, combined with domestic unrest in Iran, led to Iranian support for the Armenians. They also feared the instigation of separatism among the Iranian Azeri population.

Fallouts of the War of 2020

The War of 2020 led to 7,000 deaths in just six weeks of fighting. It also re-shifted the ethnic balance in the region. On one hand, by recapturing the area of Azerbaijan surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, which had been devastated and occupied by Armenian forces for two and a half decades, Bakus victory allowed hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani refugees to return to their homes. For the remaining 12,000 Karabakh Armenians, the situation was ever more precarious. The three-mile Lachin Corridor  their only supply route to Armenia  a slender and vulnerable lifeline was entirely dependent on the small Russian peacekeeping force, and by extension, Russias relations with Azerbaijan to keep the road open.

Once the war in Ukraine began in February 2022, Russia was distracted and its priorities in the Caucasus shifted. Azerbaijan, Russias main land route to the South, became a more important partner than Armenia, its traditional Christian ally in the region. This resulted in Azerbaijan sealing off the Lachin Corridor in December last year.

Having effectively lost control of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan started saying publicly that Armenia renounced its territorial claims on the region. Instead, the formula he adopted in talks with Azerbaijan facilitated by the EU was that the issue was now the rights and security of the Karabakh Armenians. In turn, President Aliyev frequently used the words territorial integrity and used the war in Ukraine as cover. Western officials told him that the territory would return to Azerbaijani jurisdiction but that patience was needed. As recently as mid-September, he received calls from the US and other Western officials warning him against resorting to military force.

Domestic logic also dictated Aliyevs actions. For two decades, he has been the leader of an authoritarian state. Hence why should he agree to Western demands for a model of conflict resolution that compels him to offer autonomy to a national minority community, weakening his hold on power?

Moreover, analysts feel that Aliyev believes that Turkey and Russia, not the West, are the only powers he needs to take seriously. In the present case, both Turkey and Russia see the utility of limiting Western engagement in the South Caucasus, a region where they have traditionally wielded influence.

Turkey, Aliyev felt, would support his effort to take full control of Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia would not prevent it, and the West, with very little leverage in the region, would be a bystander.

Flurry of Diplomatic Activity

In a flurry of diplomacy in May 2023, the US, EU, and Russia all hosted peace talks. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosted four days of talks with the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan and said they made steps toward normalisation and peace. Shortly after, European Council President Charles Michel mediated discussions in Brussels between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, describing them as productive talks.

Then, in late May, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted a trilateral meeting with the two leaders to discuss the reopening of transportation links between Armenia and Azerbaijan, though no agreement was reached. After three days of US-held talks on Nagorno-Karabakh in late June, Blinken applauded further progress toward a peace agreement and said both sides showed a willingness to negotiate seriously.

On September 14, a senior Biden administration official said, The United States will not countenance any action or effortshort-term or long-termto ethnically cleanse or commit other atrocities against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. Five days later, Azerbaijan launched its military operation. On September 21 at the UN, the German Foreign Minister said, The displacement and forced exodus of ethnic Armenians from Karabakh are not acceptable, while the US Ambassador called for an international mission on the ground.

But the fight for the rights of Karabakh Armenians seems to be over before it began. Presently it is difficult to imagine an outcome that would protect their historic legacy and assure the survival of the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. The cost of their defeat will reverberate for decades to come.

Nakhchivan: The Next Boiling Point

A potential outcome of Azerbaijans victory is the future of Nakchivan, an enclave of Azerbaijan between Iran, Armenia, and Turkey. Azerbaijan is demanding that Yerevan agree to the establishment of a corridor through Armenian territory that would connect Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan. President Ilham Aliyev called this passage a historical necessity . . . [that] would happen whether Armenia wants it or not.

Such a corridor would cut Irans access to Armenia as the two countries would no longer share a border. Iran, which views Armenia as a critical link with Eurasia, had threatened to use military force against any changes to the internationally recognised borders of the region. During a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last July, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned against creating a barrier between Iran and Armenia by blocking what has been a communication route for thousands of years.

Even though most of its provisions lie in tatters, the trilateral Ceasefire brokered by Russia in November 2020, and co-signed by Aliyev, Pashinyan, and President Vladimir Putin has as one of its provisions, Border Guards from Russias FSB to protect the transport corridor across Armenia to Nakhchivan, a region being referred to as Western Azerbaijan.

This is where the next battleground lies. It is felt by some that the UN backing should put this under a broader international umbrella but Azerbaijan and Russia may resist this. The crisis in the South Caucasus has the potential to spiral out of control and also draw Iran and Russia closer.

Conclusion

The Karabakh conflict has been central to the modern national identities of both the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis. Both sides still use language that excludes the other: for example, the Armenians call Karabakh by the old Armenian name Artsakh, implying a region without Azerbaijanis, and the Azerbaijanis call the Armenian-populated town of Stepanakert by an Azerbaijani name, Khankendi.

The return to violence is also a reminder of the failure to establish a European security and rights framework for the South Caucasus. Western diplomats have for decades backed an approach to Nagorno-Karabakh built on international legal principles and modelled on resolving the Balkan conflicts. In theory, such a settlement would involve international peacekeepers, war crimes tribunals, political autonomy, and the eventual peaceful coexistence of Karabakh Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Russian commitments in Ukraine have also limited its capacity to project power in its neighbourhood.

To quote Lenin, Having gone a full circle we are back to square one. Once again violence, not diplomacy, has played a role in determining key outcomes. Unfortunately, the importance of history and geography in geopolitics cannot be ignored and small players take full advantage of settling lingering disputes when major players are distracted. The pulsating ripples of the Ukrainian conflict have undoubtedly exposed yet another faultline.

The author is an Army veteran. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
Rahul Gandhi has penned a metaphorical essay on his understanding of the essence of Sanatan Dharma. As metaphors go, it is sufficiently esoteric and, therefore, for the most parts, likely to be understood only by Gandhis inner circle. But having said this, Rahul Gandhi does draw one problematic conclusion.

He writes: She (Hinduism) is not a victim. And never allows her fear to capture her and turn her into a vehicle for anger, hatred or violence.

It is one thing to counsel Hindus to make a virtue out of the power of forgiveness; to let go off their fears; to never allow their fears to turn them into a vehicle for anger, hatred or violence. It is quite another to deny that Hindus have suffered at the hands of colonisers who were intent on dismantling the richness of the Hindu civilisation.

Rahul Gandhis eagerness to deny that Hindus have been victims in the land of their birth appears to stem from two impulses among secular-liberals. First, to propagate a sense of civilisational oneness (Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb) at all costs; even if it means to distort history. Second, to absolve non-Hindus of the blame of carrying out atrocities against Hindus. This latter tendency is a factor of a callow politics. The hope that appeasing minorities will shape a vote bank.

Two instances of this kind of sophistry spring to mind.

In 1921, Moplah Muslims attacked Hindus in hordes along the Malabar coast. In one such attack on September 25, 1921, 38 Hindus were beheaded. There were several other well-documented accounts of ineffable atrocities upon Hindus. But no less a figure than Mahatma Gandhi normalised the violence, shockingly placing the onus on the Hindus saying: (Hindus) must find out the causes of Moplah fanaticism. They will find that they are not without blame. They have hitherto not cared for the Moplah. They have either treated him as a serf or dreaded him. They (Hindus) have not treated him as a friend and neighbour, to be reformed and respected. It is no use now becoming angry with the Moplahs or the Muslims in general.

Dr BR Ambedkar shed light on the reasons why Mahatma Gandhi took such a partisan stand. In his book Pakistan or Partition of India, Dr Ambedkar wrote: Can any sane man go so far, for the sake of Hindu-Muslim unity? But Mr Gandhi was so attached to Hindu-Muslim unity that he did not stop to enquire what he was doing in this mad endeavour

Without going into the reasons why Gandhi felt the need to propagate an idea of Hindu-Muslim unity beyond what has been pointed out, it is sufficient to say that the Mahatmas decision to paint Hindus as provocateurs and not victims mocked Hindus. After all, which other community in the world can claim to be part of an unbroken tradition that has opened its heart, mind and hearth to others?

More recently, in Kashmir, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, another attempt was made to place the upon Hindus the onus for inviting a genocide. Kashmiri Hindus were externed from the Kashmir Valley by Islamists. But the atrocity was blamed by many upon economic inequity and not Hindumisia. Indeed, it was subtly posited that Kashmiri Pandits invited a backlash because they had a near monopoly over the states resources.

Imagine, saying that to six million Jews who were gassed by the Nazis. Would they ever accept the suggestion that they were responsible for their own genocide because they were the patricians mean-spiritedly denying others their due in Germany?

Rahul Gandhi might be as well-disposed as the Mahatma was to the cause of Hindu-Muslim unity, but to deny that Hindus have not been victims is to give a licence to Hinduphobes. In any event, since when is giving a licence to violence without cause an inherent part of Hindu Dharma?

Rahul Gandhi missed a golden opportunity to shame those who betrayed the innate Hindu impulse of placing their blind trust in the goodness of others. By not doing so, has Rahul Gandhi squandered an opportunity to honestly galvanise all Indians to abide by the precepts of the most eternal and universal dharma known to humanity  Sarva Dharma Sambhava?

Introspection is strongly advised.

Rahul Shivshankar is Consulting Editor at Network18. He tweets at @RShivshankar.
The mood on the ground in Chhattisgarh has completely changed in the last couple of months. People are livid over the unending scams that have tumbled out of the Bhupesh Baghel governments closet. From being in a seemingly good position, the Congress state government is struggling to resist an imminent defeat. This is the result of a perspicacious, persistent, streamlined communication strategy of the BJP, where the focus has primarily been on exposing each of the financial frauds of the state government threadbare.

It goes without saying that the huge response to Prime Minister Narendra Modis recent rallies in Raigarh and Bilaspur has raised the bar for the state unit. The BJP now senses a win in Chhattisgarh, one that inflicts a body blow to the Congress partys murky funding model for 2024, disguised as Mohabbat ki dukaan.

To understand the magnitude of loot in Chhattisgarh and the impunity with which it was carried out, one will need to get into some of these scams in detail.

Rs 2,161 Crore Liquor Scam

In May 2023, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) busted a Rs 2,161 crore scam in Chhattisgarh which was believed to be operated with the help of top politicians and bureaucrats. The ED arrested a key accused, Anwar Dhebar, who was sent to ED custody by a Raipur court. Anwar Dhebar is the brother of Congress leader and Raipur mayor Aijaz Dhebar.

It is noteworthy that Chhattisgarh generates the highest contribution in excise from the liquor circulation in the state. The excise department is responsible for the regulation of the liquor in the state and the quality of the product. The state government also controls all the aspects of liquor trade from procurement to retail sale to consumer sale. No private liquor shops are allowed. All 800 liquor shops are run by the state government.

The accused operated as a private entity, in complete defiance of government regulations, minting illegal money through complicity with select bureaucrats and members of the ruling Congress party in the state. These people had made a fake hologram and illegal country and foreign liquor was sold from it. According to the probe agency, 15 per cent of the commission would go to Anwar Dhebar, and the rest would go to bureaucrats and ruling party politicians in the state.

When the Delhi liquor scam broke out, there were indications that the Opposition had discovered a federal model of corruption wherein similar liquor scams were taking place in other Opposition states using similar techniques. The Chhattisgarh Liquor Scam shows amazing symmetry of vile intent between the I.N.D.I alliance partners.

Coal Levy Scam

The Rs 540 crore Coal Levy scam is another big loot unleashed in Chhattisgarh under the close watch of the Baghel government. The exact quantum of this scam is yet in the realm of speculation. As per the ED, a levy of Rs 25 was being extorted for every tonne of coal transported in Chhattisgarh by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen. A special PMLA court in Raipur has issued notices to nine accused, including two Congress legislators, in connection with the coal scam case, as the court registered the second supplementary prosecution complaint on Saturday.

In the latest in this case, on September 23, the Special PMLA court of Ajay Singh Rajput issued notices to Congress MLA Devendra Singh Yadav from Bhilai in Durg district and MLA Chandradev Rai from Bilaigarh constituency in Raipur district and six others. According to Dr Saurabh Kumar Pande, Advocate and Special Public Prosecutor for the Enforcement Directorate in Raipur, there were a total of 11 accused in the scam, out of which two, including IAS Ranu Sahu and Nikhil Chandrakar, have already been arrested in the scam.

State administrative service officer Saumya Chaurasia, a powerful deputy secretary in the chief ministers office, is already in judicial custody in connection with the coal scam.

That this scam was unfolding right under the nose of the Chhattisgarh chief minister is another glaring indicator of the permissive and complicit character of the Congress Chhattisgarh government.

PSC Scam

Another outrageous scam to hit Chhattisgarh is the PSC scam, which unfortunately caught the attention of the national media only after a nude protest by a group of SC/ST candidates who alleged large-scale rigging of caste certificates by existing government employees for their relatives. The allegations included a compromised selection process full of discrepancies and which lacked transparency. Even data shows the selection of several relatives of government officials giving credence to the allegations.

The primary losers from this scam have been the deserving ST students whose outrage was obvious. It has put a lid on the aspirations of thousands of youth coming from poor families.

Cow Dung and Gothan Scams

The list of scams by the Chhattisgarh government doesnt end here. They include of all things the Cow Dung scam. Godhan Nyay Yojana, the Congress governments cow dung procurement scheme in Chhattisgarh, is facing allegations of corruption to a speculated tune of approximately Rs 229 crore. In short, the amount spent by the state government on procuring cow dung in the past three years was disproportionately higher than what had been realised through the sale of dung-based products during the period. Then there is the alleged Gothan scam to the tune of approximately Rs 1300 crore, whereby only a minuscule fraction of the 10,000 Gothans shown to be operational in the state are actually operational. These scams again are a direct attack on the poorest of the poor.

In addition to these, a fraud to the tune of Rs. 43 crore was discovered in the PM Kisan Yojana in Chhattisgarh wherein this money was deposited in the accounts of 53,000 ineligible farmers through an act of fraud. Another big fraud that thrives in both Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand every time a Congress government is in power is the conversion mafia. One is aware of the increase in these activities in the tribal belts of Chhattisgarh yet again.

Given the omnipresence and inherence of loot and cut money in the governance character of the Baghel government, one cannot rule out the discovery of far bigger scams once this government is shunted out. Mohabbat ki dukaan is just the code word for everything dystopian.

The writer is the National Spokesperson of BJP. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
Hours after Nitish Kumars government in Bihar released the caste data yesterday, Rahul Gandhi reiterated Congress commitment to the contentious survey and defined his partys pledge to bring greater rights for greater population.

Although caste census is being seen as the biggest poll plank for the Congress and its gung-ho INDIA bloc, Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress (TMC)  one of the prime movers of the alliance  seems to be the thorn in the flesh.

Of the 28 political parties forming the INDIA bloc, Banerjees TMC is the only one that is opposed to the idea of having a caste census. For the TMC, it is only about securing its largest vote bank Muslims.

TMCs national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, while addressing media in Delhi last evening, said his party leaders would discuss the issue and will take a call in the next meeting of the INDIA alliance.

Meanwhile, TMC MP Saugata Roy said Mamata Banerjee always stayed away from any politics that divides people. Mamata Banerjee never talked about caste, and West Bengal as a state has largely stayed away from caste divide. It has been a caste neutral state. However, the issues of caste census are still being discussed but Mamata Banerjee will take the final call.

It is yet to be seen if the parties will use the Bihar survey to deepen the caste faultlines to win an election or bring social justice. But the exercise in Bihar is surely being seen as a prequel to the caste surveys in other Congress-run states, and a pre-cursor to a national caste census in the future.

With the 85: 15 (85% being Others and 15% being upper caste Hindus) politics over the caste ratios of Other Backward Class, Extremely Backward Caste (EBC), Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) on one hand, and the general caste on the other, lets see what it means for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee and other Opposition parties, including the Congress.

Religion Above Caste

Modi and Mamata Banerjees politics on their respective turf has been identical, with religion always being the pivot and caste playing limited roles.

For Modis BJP, caste is almost a deal-breaker but politics of religion  primarily Hindu vs Muslim  pans out best on the national canvas. For the saffron party, castes only work in some parts of north India where Rajputs, Jats and Gurjars have dominance.

In fact, the conflict between two upper castes in Uttar Pradesh  the Brahmins and Rajputs  became a tough challenge for the parties to handle before the assembly elections. The caste arrangements, however, during ticket distribution is nothing similar to having a caste census.

The BJP never wants its Hindu votes to get fragmented on caste lines. The Hindu-Muslim polarisation works well for them. They would rather try to break the Muslim consolidation by taking some of its backward groups and sub-groups out of the block voting system. This is why, the Pasmanda Muslims (the backward group within the community) politics emerged before the elections.

The scenario is almost similar for Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal. She has added the majority of Muslim sub-groups to the OBC list. According to the National Commission for Backward Classes, West Bengals OBC list of 179 groups include 118 Muslim groups. A senior leader in Congress said Didi objected to the caste census saying it wold hurt her Muslim vote bank.

According to the OBC list available with the West Bengal Commission For Backward Classes, there are 171 communities in the groups, which include group A and B. Of the 80 communities listed under A category, 72 are Muslims. Under B category, 43 of 91 groups are Muslims. The categorisation is meant for the access to welfare schemes and other reservations. For instance, Mamata Banerjee announced a monthly financial assistance of Rs 500 to women of general category and Rs 1,000 for those of the SC, ST and OBC communities.

Caste Neutral Bengal?

Depending on the social indices and other parameters, a caste census might hurt Muslims in West Bengal. In fact, the politics in the state has superficially been caste neutral. However, the state cabinets across governments  the Left and Trinamool  always consisted of majority upper caste men and women, mostly Brahmins. An OBC or an SC/ST minister is brought as a representation of the communities, not on the normal course.

Caste calculations entered the mainstream politics in West Bengal with the advent of the BJP as a political force post 2016. For the BJP, calculations were creating its own vote bank among the Hindus as the consolidation of Hindu votes was never possible in West Bengal. BJP created its own constituencies of caste and region-based communities, which include Matua, Rajbanshi, Kurmis and so on. It was an idea to have splintered groups among Hindus.

Following BJPs political calculation, Mamata Banerjee started catering to different caste groups through different policies. But the 30% votes of the Muslim community still remain the mainstay of the TMC in West Bengal.

Fresh Momentum for Congress

For Congress, caste census is another political play. India has seen its last caste census taking place in 1931. The country and its successive governments have used the colonial data as the marker for SC, ST, OBC reservation. Over the past 80 years and more, Congress never mooted the idea of caste census. However, Rahul Gandhis enthusiasm for the survey will give its policies a fresh momentum.

Analysts told News 18 that caste census may bring political dividend to the Congress, if used wisely. It may give the party a chance to break the stranglehold of the BJP over the Hindu votes, at least in some Hindi-heartland states where caste is still a burning issue and a pain point for many. States such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Bihar, where the caste fault lines are deep, Congress may see positive changes with caste-specific policies.

Interestingly, the caste survey report in Bihar has also brought OBCs at the fore.
Moments after the Bihar Government released the caste census findings, leaders from the ruling Congress party in Karnataka have also demanded that findings of the seven-year-old Karnataka caste census (named socio-economic study of castes/religion) be made public immediately.

B K Hariprasad, a senior Congress leader who is now disgruntled, posted a comment on microblogging site X (formerly Twitter), urging the Siddaramaiah government to make the findings public. His tone and tenor suggest it is imperative for the Congress government to release the sensitive data, which might change Karnatakas socio-political landscape permanently.

Hariprasad posted: Bihar which is governed by INDIA alliance has released its caste census. Rahul Gandhi Ji has spoken passionately about ensuring justice for the backward classes. It is now imperative for Karnataka to forthwith release the caste census conducted in 2017."

Karnataka is now bracing for a caste census, which could potentially change its socio-political landscape permanently and turn state politics on its head.

The census, named Socio-Economic Survey, was held during Siddaramaiahs previous term (2013-18) and its findings are in the safe custody" of the government. Several groups had opposed the caste census, claiming the state government had no right to conduct such an exercise, following which it was renamed.

Bihar which is governed by INDIA alliance has released its caste census. Rahul Gandhi Ji has spoken passionately about ensuring justice for the backward classes. It is now imperative for Karnataka to forthwith release the caste census conducted in 2017. Hariprasad.B.K. (@HariprasadBK2) October 2, 2023

STATE SECRET

The government is hesitant to make the findings public, calling it a state secret". After his defeat in the 2018 Assembly elections, Siddaramaiahs successors  HD Kumaraswamy, BS Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai  had flatly refused to release the caste census data.

The demand for the release has now pitted the OBC, SC/ST and minority leaders of the Congress against upper caste leaders of their own party. The powerful Lingayat and Vokkaliga MLAs, ministers and other leaders of the Congress are opposing the release fearing it might reduce their bargaining power, if the findings are not to their advantage.

The AHINDA (minorities, OBCs, SC/STs), which Siddaramaiah leads, are favouring the immediate tabling of the caste census data, arguing it will set many historical injustices right. They claim that their numbers are much more, and the census data will empower them socially, politically and economically.

Personally, Siddaramaiah is in favour of releasing the data, but political compulsions are not allowing him to take that decisive step. The upper caste leaders of the party fear that any such move might consolidate Lingayat and Vokkaliga votes completely in favour of BJP-JDS alliance and might lead to AHINDA versus upper castes fight in the state.

Reacting to this, Home Minister and Dalit leader Dr G Parameshwara gave an evasive reply, pushing the ball in Siddaramaiahs court. He said: My opinion does not count here. CM Siddaramaiah will consult everyone and will take a decision soon."

LINGAYATS & VOKKALIGAS

In March 2018, News18 had accessed the leaked main findings of the survey and they have the potential to end the political hegemony of the two dominant upper castes in the state  Lingayats and Vokkaligas.

Since Independence, these two major castes have been controlling the levers of power, claiming to be the top communities in the state. The two castes have always accounted for 50% of the MP and MLA seats from the state, irrespective of the party in power. The Lingayats even want to be recognised as a separate religion, a demand backed by the previous Siddaramaiah government.

According to the census data seen by News18, Dalits and Muslims outnumber Lingayats and Vokkaligas. The Scheduled Castes (SCs) account for 19.5% of the total population in the state, making it the single-largest caste entity. Muslims come next, making up about 16% of the population. These two groups are followed by the Lingayats and Vokkaligas, who make up 14% and 11% of the population, respectively.

Among the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), the Kurubas alone account for 7% of the states population. Overall, the OBCs make up 20% of Karnatakas population.

As per the data, SCs, STs, Muslims and Kurubas together form 62% of the total population, making it the strongest combination. Siddaramaiahs AHINDA group would be the most formidable one in the state, forcing Lingayats and Vokkaligas to play second fiddle to them.

ALSO READ | BJP, Congress on Caste Track: How Lingayats Can Make or Break Government in Karnataka

Alarmed by the findings, both the castes have joined hands to dismiss the findings as fabricated to suit the political interests".

Speaking to News18, national secretary of Veerashaiva-Lingayat Mahasabha HM Renuka Prasanna said there is no way" they could accept the findings of the caste census. According to Justice Chinnappa Reddy Commission, our population was 69 lakh in 1980s. We formed 16.92% of the total population. The Havanur Commission claims it was 17.23%. How can our population be just 14% after 30 years? If our population has decreased, then the states total population should also have decreased proportionately. But that is not the case. We have conducted our own caste census and our population stands at 1.20 crore. We make up around 20% of the total population," he said.

He alleged that enumerators have not conducted the census in a fair and scientific manner. He said that Lingayat caste will support a new caste census if it is done in a fair and scientific way. He has also said that Lingayat and Veerashaiva caste leaders are planning to hold a joint meeting to oppose the current census and demand a fresh one.

The Vokkaligas are of the same opinion. A senior Vokkaliga minister in the government told News18 that the community accounts for 16% of the population, not 11%. Deputy chief minister and KPCC president D K Shivakumar himself a Vokkaliga is not in favour of releasing the data.

A Vokkaliga bureaucrat said that if the findings are true, it can end Lingayat and Vokkaliga hegemony in the state. It is alarming. If it is true, SC, STs, Muslims and Kurubas will decide the fate of Karnataka. Our 70-year hold over the state will be weakened," he said.

JUST RUMOURS

CM Siddaramaiah has refused to confirm the findings, saying nobody has the exact caste figures and that these were just rumours". I cant comment on this. Who has made it public? No one has released it. It is all pure speculation," he has told the same many times in the past seven years.

The states Congress government is in a dilemma on whether to release the data. Some argue that if they make the details public, the Vokkaligas and Lingayats may join hands to take on the government, and it may even lead to socio-political unrest.

Secondly, the BJP might make the growth in Muslim population an election issue during upcoming Parliament and local bodies elections.

According to the caste census data leaked by some, Dalits form 19.5% of the states population, tribals 5%, Muslims 16%, Kurubas 7%, rest of the OBCs 16%, Lingayats 14%, Vokkaligas 11%, Brahmins 3%, Christians 3%, Buddhists and Jains together 2%, and the others account for 4%. And the Karnataka Government is flatly refusing to confirm these figures dismissing these leaked" data as imagined.

Karnatakas total population is around 6.41 crore. Of them, about 5.21 crore are registered voters.
An alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be like signing the death warrant" for the Congress in the state. And we do not want to demolish the Congress," the Leader of the Opposition in Punjab and senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa told News18 in an interview.

This strong stand seems to extinguish any hopes for an alliance between the INDIA partners in Punjab. In fact, such is the bitterness between both sides that Bajwa went on to say the AAP government would soon be toppled by the Congress. If we get 10-11 seats in the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab (there are 13 seats), we can topple the AAP government. Many AAP MLAs are in touch with us. Whenever we get a chance, we will topple them. If most MLAs of AAP want to come over and dont want to stay with them, what can I do? Who can save a failed marriage?" Bajwa told News18.

The arrest of Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira in an old drugs case has pitted AAP and Congress against each other in Punjab. Bajwa said the case against Khaira was lodged under Akali Government due to vendetta as Khaira has always been on the wrong side of the establishment. In 2017, why did Bhagwant Mann give an assembly ticket to Khaira when the case was going on, and he switched to AAP? A year later, Arvind Kejriwal made Khaira the leader of the opposition in Punjab. Mann has earlier said the case was of political vendetta. Also, Khaira has already got a sort of clean chit from the Supreme Court," Bajwa told News18.

The Congress LoP claimed that AAP has no cadres in Punjab and hence wants to show the Congress as a corrupt party. By arresting our former ministers, they want to demoralise our leadership and bring the Congress cadres to AAP. For Gods sake, we should not have an alliance with AAP. People have seen the real face of AAP in 18 months, people are disillusioned and coming back to Congress," Bajwa said. He claimed the Congress would get 35-36% votes if it fights alone in 2024 in Punjab and can win 9-10 seats on its own.

We are going hammer and tongs against each other, how can we sit on the same stage? We want a settlement like the one in Keralawhere both parties contest against each other," Bajwa said. He said that the party had spoken to Congress cadres, its district presidents, and the MLAsall of whom were not ready for any alliance with AAP. except a couple of our MPs sitting in Delhi who think their job will become a bit easier, no one wants an alliance with AAP," Bajwa said.

Training his guns on AAP, Bajwa said the ruling partys performance in the state could be held akin to the famous Urdu couplet, Har shaakh pe ullu baitha hai, anjame gulistan kya hoga", and argued that the sooner the AAP government goes, the better it will be for Punjab. They have already taken a Rs 50,000 crore loan. The AAP government will prove to be the biggest plunderers and looters of Punjab," the senior Congress leader said.
Archana Gautam, model and former Bigg Boss 16 contestant, was expelled from the Congress on grounds of misconduct and indiscipline, a party letter has revealed. According to sources, Gautam was expelled in June this year, but the letter issued to her by the Congress went viral recently.

The reality show contestant, who won the title of Miss Bikini India 2018 and represented India at Miss Cosmos World 2018, had contested the 2022 Uttar Pradesh elections on a Congress ticket from Hastinapur constituency in Meerut, but received only 1,519 votes, forfeiting even her deposit.

Congresss UP spokesperson Anshu Awasthi confirmed that Archana Gautam is no longer with the party told News18 that the decision has been taken by the party on the grounds of complaints received from the Meeruts Congress Unit.

She had no political background, yet the party trusted her, gave her respect and honour and fielded her from Hastinapur constituency. There were frequent complaints of misconduct and misbehaviour from the party workers in Meerut unit who stood by her and supported her in the 2022 Assembly elections. Hence, the partys disciplinary committee has decided to expel Archana Guatam from the party, he said.

The Congress letter said Gautam had been expelled for six years. Awasthi added that Gautam was issued a showcause notice prior to being expelled and was given a weeks time to respond. The notice said there were written complaints from party workers of the Meerut unit against her, alleging that she had not cleared dues of several vehicle owners whom she had hired for campaigning despite having party funds.

When the car owners did not receive payment despite repeated efforts, they filed a complaint with the party workers. The notice added that Gautam was also accused of misusing campaigning material and selling it later.

However, she didnt respond to the notice. When the complaints went up to Priyanka Gandhi, disciplinary action was initiated against Archana Gautam, a party source said.

On September 30, 2023 Gautam had alleged that she and her father were manhandled during her visit to Congress headquarters in Delhi. Gautam, in her statement, said that she had visited the Congress office to extend wishes to the partys national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Priyanka Gandhi in recognition of the passage of the Womens Reservation Bill.
Rahul Gandhi has a new obsession. Its the OBC vote and the caste census. And with Bihar leading the way after releasing the results of its caste survey, Rahul Gandhi is sure that this obsession of his will click in 2024. As per the survey, the OBC+SC+ST bloc constitutes 84% of the population. Rahul Gandhi feels that if similar exercises in other states throw up similar statistics, it can be a win-win for his side.

Talking about obsessions, Rahul Gandhis earlier ones like Rafale, where he built the narrative of Chowkidar chor hai or the PM is corrupt, just did not work. Many Congress leaders in private disagreed with that campaign.

But this time, Congress colleagues are convinced that Rahul Gandhis current obsession may actually work.

The BJP has scored with the combination of upper-caste votes and lower OBCs. In fact, the Other Backward Classes have never been a consolidated vote. The BJP is aware of this, which is why it was able to woo and even win over the OBC votes.

Its not that the Congress did not try to woo the upper-caste votes. The projection of Sheila Dikshit as a chief ministerial face for the Uttar Pradesh polls in 2016 (and later abandoning her as Akhilesh Yadavs Samajwadi Party and the Congress tied up). It was hoping to cash in on her Brahmin credentials. The strategy hasnt worked for the Congress.

Hence, it is now falling back on the combination of the Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes. The fact that the Congress has three OBC chief ministers in Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel, and Siddaramaiah, and a Dalit as its president in Mallikarjun Kharge has given Rahul Gandhi the hope that in 2024, what has clicked for the BJP till now, may work for his party.

So, sources say the party plans to make the demand for a nationwide caste census its main manifesto slogan. It plans to project the BJP as a party of the privileged class.

Not just this. The opposition INDIA front also plans to make the caste census its focal point. This suits some of the members, like the Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal, and of course the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. For the DMK, Udhayanidhi Stalins comments on Sanatan Dharma are in sync with the anti-Brahmanical stance and politics of the party.

Not that the BJP will cede space to the Congress. It has already released statistics to show how Congress-ruled states and during the UPAs tenure, the OBCs did not have an easy time.

With the caste census, the Congress hopes to show how the OBC, SC, and ST matter more and that the BJP has not done much for them. The question is, will this new obsession of Rahul Gandhi work?
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. Iran uses its nuclear technology to produce various kinds of industrial supplies that are used in different sectors, such as oil, gas, petrochemical, and food production, Vice President of Iran and Chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami, Trend reports.

Eslami noted that Iran had to rely on its own specialists to produce these supplies, because the sanctions imposed on Iran prevented their import.

The vice president added that Iran was advancing its nuclear technology in both energy and non-energy fields. He stressed the importance of building nuclear power plants for clean energy production, as climate change had made fossil fuels unsustainable.

According to him, Iran had a nuclear power plant that could generate 1,000 megawatt hours of electricity, and that it had saved 90 million barrels of crude oil and avoided 58 million cubic meters of greenhouse gas emissions by operating this plant.

Meanwhile, in the non-energy field, Eslami said that Iran had produced 60 types of radioisotopes, some of which were exported. AEOI Chief also said that these radioisotopes were used by 1 million patients in Iran for medical purposes.

"However, if Iran did not operate in the nuclear industry sector, if it did not enrich uranium, it would not be able to produce radioisotopes now," he noted.

Iran discloses various programs related to its nuclear industry to reflect that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. However, according to the information obtained by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has increased the amount of highly enriched uranium by 27 percent in the last three months, and currently, the country's enriched uranium reserves are 4,745 kilograms. This is 15 times more than the amount of uranium allowed for Iran in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

On January 16, 2016, Iran's nuclear program triggered the creation of the JCPOA between Iran and the P5+1 group (US, Russia, China, UK, France, and Germany).

However, 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.

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.

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The release of the first-of-its-kind caste survey findings in Bihar has set the political tone in the state, and its broader impact will soon be felt on a national scale as well. While the survey report still lacks clarity on several issues, it highlights the numerical dominance and electoral influence of OBCs in the state in no uncertain terms. This is also seen as a boost to chief minister Nitish Kumars political stature both inside and outside Bihar.

Buoyed by the potential electoral implications of the survey results, the CM posted on social media that his government would soon convene a meeting with the nine parties in the Bihar assembly to discuss the findings.

The electoral significance of these findings has triggered a race among political parties to claim credit for the survey. Nitishs ally and the largest political party in the state, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, has asserted its role, along with the Congress, and even the opposition BJP in the state.

However, upon closer scrutiny of the survey numbers, it becomes evident that the biggest political gains will be enjoyed by CM Nitish Kumar. Hailing from the Kurmi caste, which constitutes just around 2.87% of the states population, according to the survey, Kumar has been basing his politics on what political scientists term, a tripod.

The first pillar of this strategy involved garnering support from the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), a term used to collectively denote numerous smaller and scattered backward castes in the state. The survey has now found that the EBCs, constituting 36.01% of the population, are the largest social segment in the state, followed by the Other Backward Classes at 27.13%.

The second caste grouping that Nitish innovated was the concept of Mahadalits, which refers to the poorest social groups within the Scheduled Castes (SC). The survey has found that 19.7% of those counted belong to the SC community, a number significantly higher than the 2011 census count of 15.91%.

However, besides Nitishs JD(U), the Lok Jan Shakti Party of the late Ram Vilas Paswans clan and former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhis Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) also claim a significant share of the Dalit votes in the state. Paswans party lays claim to Dusadh votes, while Manjhis support comes from the Mushar community.

The results of the new survey though may prompt Nitishs opponents to question whether he can retain the position of CM, considering that he hails from the Kurmi caste, which comprises only 2.87% of the population. In contrast, the Koeris, with a 4.21% share of the population, have two prominent leaders: Samrat Chaudhary, the BJP state president, and Upendra Kushawaha of the Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal, who was once a friend but is now a foe of Nitish.

Lastly, Kumar relied on the Kurmi-Koeri or Luv-Kush caste matrix, although not in the same order.

The survey outcome will also elevate Nitish Kumars standing within the INDIA bloc, where, despite being the first mover in alliance formation, he has recently been sidelined. Additionally, it will alleviate the pressure on the Bihar CM, as some insiders have suggested that the RJD, his ally, was pressuring him to pursue a larger national role, which could have meant leaving the state to the Tejashwi Yadav-led party.

The accomplished survey could also smoothen Nitishs journey and bolster his negotiating strength, should he choose to rejoin the BJP-led NDA camp.

It will further intensify competition among opposition parties as they strive to reach out to backward castes and secure their votes.

For the RJD, having a definitive count of both its core Muslim and Yadav voters is significant. The number of Yadavs in the state, previously estimated to be between 9% and 12%, has now emerged as the largest caste group with over 14% headcount, constituting over 50% of the Backward Caste population (27.12%).

Additionally, the proportion of Muslims in the states population has risen from 16.86% in the 2011 census to 17.70%.

Despite the expansion of its core voter base, the RJD could face challenges in maintaining power and influence in state politics, particularly in the race for the chief ministers post. This is because the politics of the Extremely Backward Classes may overshadow the politics of the Backward Castes, which has been the focus of Lalu Prasad Yadavs efforts for years.

In addition, the aggressive number posturing by the Yadav leadership may further alienate the EBCs from the RJD, as there could be a rise in anti-Yadav polarisation, as both groups are not seen as socially compatible on the ground.

The Yadavs, alongside the Kurmis and Koeris, who have been the primary beneficiaries of government schemes and reservations, might now need to share resources and power more equitably with the EBCs.

The Muslims, who have so far largely followed the Yadav leadership within the RJD, may start seeking better representation both within the partys leadership and in positions of power.

The increase in the share of Scheduled Castes, rising by 3.79% to 19.7% compared to the 2011 census, is likely to further bolster the ambitions of Dalit leaders in the state. Dusadhs, who constitute the core vote bank of the Paswan clan, along with Dhari and Darahi communities, account for 5.31% of the states population. Meanwhile, Mushars, the electoral backbone of Manjhis HAM, make up 3.08% of the total population, according to the survey. Leaders like Manjhi may leverage these numbers to negotiate for more seats from the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

For the BJP, the findings of the survey do not pose a concern. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is himself an OBC, leading the party, it would not be easy for the opposition to level charges of the BJP being anti-OBC. The BJPs Bihar state president, Samrat Chaudhary, also comes from the EBC grouping. Central schemes, like the recently launched PM Vishwakarma, are specifically targeted at the politically non-dominant but numerically superior EBCs.

Furthermore, the survey findings have also laid the groundwork for the BJP-led Centre, in case it decides to implement the recommendations of the Justice Rohini Commission. Although the report of the commission, which was established for the sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes and fair distribution of benefits among the groups, has not yet been made public, experts believe that this could potentially be a game-changer for the saffron party.

The general category, or the upper castes, constituting 15.52% of the population, is in line with expectations. However, with the continued focus on appeasement of OBCs and EBCs, this group may further lean towards the BJP.

At the national level, the survey will intensify competition among opposition parties as they vie for a share of the OBC vote. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has already praised the survey, while the Aam Aadmi Partys Sanjay Singh has reportedly called for a nationwide caste census.

In the coming weeks, this issue will dominate the political discourse until another political party makes a bigger, bolder, and better move related to the OBCs.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said the INDIA alliance has credibility and leadership issues and it is no match for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.

Addressing a meeting of state BJP functionaries, Fadnavis said the investigation against a news portal has revealed Chinese funding which shows that certain forces want to derail the Modi governments development train.

Earlier in the day, Delhi Police searched 30 locations connected with online news portal NewsClick and its journalists in a case filed under the anti-terror law UAPA on allegations that it received money for pro-China propaganda.

The opposition grouping led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi lacks credibility. None of the leaders from the INDIA bloc has a national appeal. They dont have an agenda for development and also lack the vision for the development of the country, Fadnavis said.

He alleged the only agenda of the grouping is to oppose PM Modi because they know they are staring at a bleak future when Modi returns to power for a third term.

The senior BJP leader claimed leaders like Mamata Banerjee (TMC), Akhilesh Yadav (SP), and Tejashwi Yadav (RJD) cannot provide leadership to the opposition bloc.

There are differences among these leaders which will aggravate further after the elections, he said, adding that the people of the country know very well that the INIDA bloc is no match for Modi.

He said the welfare schemes launched by the Modi government in the last nine years have lifted people out of poverty.

India is now the fastest growing economy. Earlier, we used to go after other countries but now the other developed countries are coming to us, the former Maharashtra chief minister said.

He said the BJPs fight is not against the INDIA alliance but the forces behind them who want to unleash anarchy in the country.

Fadnavis further said the BJP is an elder brother in the tripartite government comprising Shiv Sena and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction).

As an elder brother, BJP needs to be accommodative and make sacrifices if needed. But we will not deviate from our principles and objectives, he added.

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Within a week of the Hyderabad municipal election results on December 5, 2020, which threw up a hung house as the Bharatiya Janata Party had bagged 48 seats, Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) paid a visit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, carrying a fancy shawl.

Modi stated on Tuesday that in this meeting on December 12, 2020, KCR said he would like his party to be inducted into the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). KCR needed support in the Hyderabad municipal body. He came with a fancy shawl and gave me a lot of respectwhich was quite uncharacteristic of KCR. Then, he said the country is progressing under you and we also want to be part of the NDA and induct us. In return, he wanted help in the municipal body. I told him that your acts are such that Modi cannot join with you and refused him entry into the NDA as well as to help him in any way, the Prime Minister said in Telangana.

Sources say the PM made this revelation as he wanted to make it clear that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Bharatiya Janata Party have no backhand deal in Telangana and that the BJP is a force to reckon with in the state as even the CM wanted to join the NDA at one stage. The Congress has been accusing the BJP and BRS of having an understanding to stop the grand old party from coming to power in the state.

Sources also said that Modi wanted to make it clear to the party cadres that the BRS and BJP are at daggers drawn when it comes to the states politics and will contest the assembly elections with full might. The PM said that the Bharatiya Janata Party chose to sit in the opposition in the Hyderabad municipal corporation but did not side with the BRS which torments BJP workers and is corrupt and Modi has a strong stand against corruption.

Modi wanted to expose KCR, who has been strongly attacking the BJP, by revealing that at one point the BRS chief wanted to join the NDA, sources explained.

The Prime Minister, in fact, cited another meeting that KCR had with him in Delhi and said that he had worked enough and now wanted to hand over the baton to his son, KTR. The CM said he would send KTR to me and that I should bless him. I told him, KCR, this is democracy and not a monarchy. How can you give the chair to your son like you are an emperor. I told him that the people of Telangana will decide who will be the next CM, the PM said.

Sources said the Prime Minister could have revealed this as the BJP and Modi himself have been against dynastic politics, and he has been speaking on all forums against parivaarvaad in regional parties.

The date of the second meeting that is being spoken about could be September 3, 2021. Since then, KCR has never met the Prime Minister.

Modi said KCR has not been able to look him in the eye and does not want to see even his shadow. Before that, he used to receive me at the airport, give me garlands, give me a lot of respect. Suddenly all of that stopped after these meetings with KCR, where I refused his entry into the NDA. No corrupt person can stand next to me, the PM said. The chief minister has been avoiding facing Modi for nearly two years and dishonouring protocol during the Prime Ministers visits to Telangana since 2022.

KT Rama Rao, KCRs son, termed the PMs words white lies and accused him of suffering from selective amnesia. KTR held a press conference in Hyderabad after the PMs rally.

PM Modi is lying through his teeth and he always does this before elections. Its shameful that the PM of this nation is lying. He should start writing scripts for films. He will win an Oscar for acting and scriptwriting. Have we been bitten by a mad dog? KCR is a fighter, he will never work with a cheater like you. We are not Ghulam of Delhi or Gujarat. Why will we take NOC from Modi if KCR indeed wanted to make me the CM? Who is he? KTR said in the press conference.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday continued his election campaign in Chhattisgarh, where he attacked the Congress government for jhutha prachar (false advertisement) and ghotalebaaz sarkar (corrupt governance). Amid the caste census debate, the Prime Minister also attacked the Oppositions INDIA bloc and said that for him, gareebi (poverty) is the biggest population in the country.

Prime Minister, who was addressing a public rally in Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarhs Bastar region also attacked Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and other ministers of his Cabinet for not attending his official event where he dedicated to the nation the NMDC Steel Ltds steel plant at Nagarnar, built at a cost of more than Rs 23,800 crore.

Top 10 Quotes Of PM Modi
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is on a Punjab tour, visited the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Tuesday to perform seva (voluntary service) by arranging the shoes of devotees at a Jaura ghar (shoe house). Wearing a blue scarf on his head, he visited the Sri Harimandir Sahib for the second consecutive day and also peeled vegetables at the langar (community kitchen), served food to devotees, and washed dishes.

In the langar hall, the Gandhi scion sat with women devotees as he peeled vegetables and interacted with them.

He served chapattis to the visiting devotees and partook langar. Later, he performed paid obeisance inside the sanctum sanctorum before leaving.

On Monday, he had performed seva by offering water to devotees and cleaning their utensils.

The former Congress chief had listened to the Shabad Kirtan (religious hymns) and taken part in the traditional ritual of palki seva, the closing rite in which the Guru Granth Sahib is taken for Sukhasan to the Akal Takht.

Earlier in the day, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) said it extended all cooperation to Gandhi during his visit to the temple. SGPC general secretary Gurcharan Singh Grewal said Gandhi was facilitated in every way during his visit to the Golden Temple and all support was extended to him while he performed seva.

The Sikh community is very generous and never keeps any personal animosity or hatred towards anyone, he said, referring to the anti-Sikh riots in 1984, when the Congress was in power at the Centre.

He, however, added many women lost their husbands and family members in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi but the Gandhi family never bothered to visit them.

Gandhi never bothered to say anything on these issues that could show his repentance, Grewal said referring to the riots and Operation Blue Star.

(with inputs from PTI)
Rahul Gandhis demand for a caste census and igniting the 84% question after a similar exercise in Bihar may portray an advocacy for the Backward Castes, but in reality is a ploy to break the Hindu vote of the BJP.

The Congress leaders demand originates from Hindi heartland allies like the RJD, JD(U), and also the Samajwadi Party, which have been demanding a caste census in a bid to break the Hindu voter consolidation and bring back the Mandal politics era by wooing castes back into their fold.

The BJPs politics has been the opposite of that, combining all castes under one umbrella of welfare-ism through various schemes, and the Kamandal of Hindutva, as well as sheer nationalism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said some people want to divide the country in the name of caste.

Rahul Gandhi first raised the issue of caste census in his rally at Kolar during Karnataka elections earlier this year. Last week, he said caste census was the biggest issue before the country and the Congress would embark on the same as the first step if it comes to power.

The BJP, however, questions this as a retrograde step when people are more worried about development in an aspirational country. It also terms Gandhis demand as hypocritical as the Congress had been against such a study for nearly 60 years till mulling one 2011, which also did not see the light of the day.

Sample this: Between 1951 and 2011, Congress prime ministers like Jawaharlal Nehru were against a caste census, while PMs like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had put the Mandal Commission report on the back-burner. A caste census was last done in India by the British.

In 2011, too, it was Congress allies like RJD who pushed the UPA to conduct a caste census, overturning the Congress stated policy position of decades of not doing one. In 2011, too, senior Congress leaders like P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, and Pawan Kumar Bansal objected to a caste census and a group of ministers (GoM) never reached a conclusion over it.

It took five years to complete the survey at a cost of over Rs 4,000 crore but it was riddled with technical flaws and never became public.

In Karnataka, till 2018, Siddaramaiah did not release a caste census report, despite commissioning one in 2015. He is yet to make it public in his current term. The Modi government instead has rolled out social welfare benefits for all, and by some estimates, the Backward groups, including OBCs, have benefitted the most from them.

Government sources make it a point to say that the so-called 50% unreserved pie in the country right now is also not a preserve of the upper castes but the Backward communities can also compete for the same besides the near 50% reserved pie for OBCs, SCs and STs.

A report by the Rohini Commission for sub-categorization of OBCs, meanwhile, is pending a decision of the government after it was submitted to the President earlier this year. If the government brings a bill on it in the Winter Session of Parliament, it could well be the governments answer to the caste census bogey of the Opposition.
On Tuesday, BJPs West Bengal Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari upped the ante by demanding a CBI enquiry into what he calls a scam into MNREGS fund allocation in the state. Speaking to News18, Adhikari stressed that TMCs top brass siphoned off the alleged ill-gotten money abroad, which could be of any scams.

Yes. All (ill-gotten money) are siphoned off. I cant say whats from coal (money received from alleged coal scam) or MNREGS (alleged MNREGS scam). It is the job of the agencies. That is not my job, Adhikari told News18 while responding to a question on the alleged money trail.

Both the CBI and ED are probing the alleged coal scam in West Bengal. But Adhikari also wants the CBI to look into the MNREGS scam under which fake jobs were allegedly created for which money has been paid.

Adhikari alleged that the total amount is to the tune of crores of rupees, which ended up in TMC hands  a charge the party has vehemently denied in the past calling it few aberrations at best.

While holding a press conference on Tuesday, Adhikari called the TMC leadership holding a protest in Delhi as drama and referred to them as goondas from Kolkata.

Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee is leading the TMC protest in Delhi for MGNREGA funds on October 3, in open defiance of an Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons on the date in connection with the school jobs scam in Kolkata.

The TMC has accused the BJP-led NDA government of withholding Rs 15,000 crore in MNREGS dues for which it protested at Raj Ghat on Monday and Jantar Mantar on Tuesday.

Ahead of the TMC meeting with MoS rural development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti on Tuesday, under whose ministry MGNREGS falls, Adhikari had scheduled a meeting with her at 4 pm to demand the CBI probe. Adhikari called TMCs Delhi protest a political campaign to counter its receding mass base.

In Bengal, the TMC wants to create a perception that the state is being deliberately neglected by the Centre. No wonder that the BJP wants to answer it politically as well.

Adhikari is also expected to meet home minister Amit Shah later in the evening where he is likely to brief him about BJPs counter strategy.
Telangana minister and BRS leader KT Rama Rao accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of fabricating lies, after he claimed that his father K Chandrashekhar Rao wanted to join the NDA, and said they are not bitten by a mad dog to even think about entering into the BJP-led bloc.

KTRs remarks came hours after PM Modi, who was in Telangana on Tuesday to campaign for his party, claimed that KCR once came to him dressed up in a nice shawl and requested that his party be inducted into NDA. The prime minister further claimed that he refused KCRs request and since then the chief minister never faced him.

We are not bitten by a mad dog that our party would even think of joining NDA, said KTR while addressing the media on Tuesday.

KTR highlighted that several BJP allies have quit the NDA and said there is no one to support the PM except federal agencies like CBI and ED.

This Prime Minister is so inconsistent. On the one hand, he says BRS has funded Congress in Karnataka and then he says he has not allowed us into NDA. Have we been bitten by a rabid dog that we will go and join the NDA? he asked.

So many parties are leaving your alliance. First, the Shiv Sena left you, then the Janata Dal (United) left, and now did the Telugu Desam Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal, who are you left with? Theres no one to support you except ED and CBI, he added.

The BRS leader also said that the Prime minister must stop spreading white and fabricated lies and termed the BJP as the biggest jhoot factory of India.

KCR Wanted to Join NDA: PM Modi

While addressing a rally in Nizamabad, PM Modi said, KCR needed support for the Hyderabad municipal body. He came with a fancy shawl and gave me a lot of respectwhich was quite uncharacteristic of KCR. Then, he said the country is progressing under you and we also want to be part of the NDA and induct us. In return, he wanted help in the municipal body. I told him that your acts are such that Modi cannot join with you and refused him entry into the NDA as well as to help him in any way, the Prime Minister said in Telangana.

According to sources, the reason behind PM Modis revelation was that he intended to clarify that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Bharatiya Janata Party have no backhand deal in Telangana.

Rama Rao attacked Modi, saying that the PM believes that he is so clean and the rest of the world is corrupt and sought to know what happened to the cases that were filed against some of the leaders who later joined the BJP.

I wanted to remind the Prime Minister what happened to the case that was filed against Himanta Biswa (Assam Chief Minister). Once he joined your party. The case is gone, he said.
A major earthquake on Tuesday was the perfect way to test the new Android earthquake alert system in India this week. The incident was reported in Nepal at around 2:51 PM IST and ideally the alert should have beeped but nobody got any notification on their Android phone. So why didnt Google alert users about the earthquake today?

Thats because the alert system is not supported in India as of now, even though Google officially shared the update about its availability in the country last week.

You can access the earthquake alert in the Emergency settings of your Android smartphone, which is available on most of the recent Android phones. You will notice that the Earthquake alerts feature is enabled by default but a small note below explains the features inability to notify you about the earthquake. As you can see here, the settings of the app says the alerts arent available and not supported in this region, which is India in this case.

Google even explains how the feature works but it does come with a host of riders, which includes not being able to detect all the earthquakes, errors in the estimates for the magnitude of the earthquake and shaking intensity. This Android Earthquake Alerts System was announced in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the National Centre for Seismology (NCS) under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

So, when Google announced the earthquake alert in India, why did it not alert the users? The simple answer is that the feature rollout seems to be taking place in a gradual manner which might take weeks before being operational in the country.

The earthquake on Tuesday was a bit too early for Googles liking to show what its earthquake alert can offer for Android phone users.

Having said that, many people were able to see the alert on the web, which doesnt inspire much confidence as nobody is going to search for the earthquake before it actually happens. The company even has a demo version of how this alert will show on your smartphone screen but it seems the implementation is still not fully done. Maybe next time Google will have the systems in place to alert the people.
Its festive time in India, so this is your best chance to pick up a great deal on iPhones, especially the older models. Weve already got a teaser for whats to come in the next few weeks and one of the exciting developments is the special price offer on the iPhone 12 model, which can be picked up for as low as Rs 32,999 with all the offers in place.

This iPhone model is now more than three years old but only because this is an Apple most of you might consider buying it, especially for its mentioned price tag. But should you consider buying the iPhone 12 for Rs 32,999 or any figure below 35K in the market? Well, to be fair, the iPhone 12 was introduced in October 2020 around the time we had the pandemic.

Since then, Apple has launched the iPhone 13 series, 14 series and this year we got the 15 series. The company has generally offered a 5-years iOS update support and in some cases even gone to 6 years.

So, if you buy the iPhone 12 in 2023 for Rs 32,999 then you will most likely get up to iOS 19 version, after which Apple will offer a few more years of security updates. That gives you 4 years effective product life, which is not bad in general.

Going purely by specs, what you get with the iPhone 12 is the A14 Bionic chip, decent dual rear cameras, a wide notch for the screen. However, you get a slow-charging battery, which isnt the case if you opt for an Android phone in this range. You might argue that the iPhone buyers never base their purchase on specs but in this case, it is vital that they see the value they get for spending over Rs 30,000.

And heres the other thing. The iPhone 12 deal price of Rs 32,999 isnt straight forward, as it includes Rs 3,000 for bank offer and another Rs 3,000 is applicable if you exchange your old phone, which might not even get you the full amount. All things said, if you really want to spend over Rs 30,000 on the older iPhones during the special sales in the coming weeks, wed suggest you to consider the iPhone 13 or even the iPhone 14 models.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3. An appeal was sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at a meeting of the Grand National Assembly of Turkiye, demanding that it take measures regarding the Metsamor nuclear power plant located in Armenia, Trend reports.

At a meeting of the Turkish Parliament, it was noted that the nuclear power plant is located 16 km from the Turkish border.

The Petitions Commission of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, which analyzes petitions and complaints submitted by citizens to parliament, has been asked to take action against the risks caused by nuclear power plants.

The Commission responded to the request based on information provided by the Ministry, institutions and organizations on this issue.

The response of the parliamentary commission indicated that a seminar on radiation emergencies was held, the purpose of which was to educate the population of Igdir.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry emphasized that the IAEA and the European Union have determined that the plants safety status does not meet modern technical standards. The Agency continues its efforts to address safety deficiencies associated with plant design deficiencies. IAEA staff periodically conduct visits and inspections to Armenia, and after each security mission a detailed report is compiled.

The nuclear power plant is a risk factor for the entire region. Our country speaks about these risks both at the IAEA general conferences and during the necessary appeals to the international community, the Turkish Foreign Ministry noted.

The Foreign Ministry stated that the nuclear power plant should be closed.

The issue related to this will continue to be under the close attention of our country, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
Google is ready to host its Made By Google 2023 on October 4, where the company will launch its next-generation products, including two new smartphones  the Pixel 8 and the Pixel 8 Pro, the Pixel Watch 2 and Pixel Buds Pro. According to reports, Google is planning to launch the latest Android version 14 on the same day.

Gr8 things are coming.Tune in to #MadeByGoogle on October 4th at 10am ET and sign up for updates at the Google Store: https://t.co/sPT67T3LsR pic.twitter.com/yZt2qAkjV2  Made by Google (@madebygoogle) September 7, 2023

Google Pixel 8 Launch Livestreaming: When, Where and How To Watch Google Event LIVE

Made By Google event will start at 7:30 PM IST. Interested viewers in India can watch the live streaming of Google Pixel 8 series launch event on Googles YouTube channel and the Google Store website. You can also catch the Google Pixel launch event live updates on News18.com

Made By Google 2023 Event: What To Expect

The Pixel 8 series, Pixel Watch 2, and the new Pixel Buds Pro will soon be available for pre-order on Flipkart. According to leaks, the vanilla Pixel 8 model is expected to be available at EUR 799 (around R. 70,200) and the starting price for the Google Pixel 8 Pro could be EUR 1099 (approximately Rs.96,500).

Latest report from WinFuture recently revealed press renders of the upcoming Pixel devices. According to the WinFuture, the Google Pixel 8 is expected to have a 6.17-inch full-HD AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 24001080 pixels.

Coming to the the Pixel 8 Pro, the next-gen google phone is rumored to come with a 6.7-inch OLED display with a resolution of 31201440 pixels with a 120Hz refresh rate. Both devices are coming with Google Tensor G3 chipset.

Also, the Pixel 8 is expected to have two storage options 8GB+128GB and 8GB+256GB, paired with 8GBRAM and the Pixel 8 Pro is rumored to come in three storage configurations  12GB+128GB storage, 12GBRAM +256GB storage, and 12GB+ 512GB storage.

In terms of camera specifications, both Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro phones will feature a 50MP main rear camera. However, the Google Pixel 8 will come with a dual camera setup, including a 12MP camera, and the Pixel 8 Pro, on the other hand, is rumored to come with a triple camera setup, including a 64MP and a 48MP ultra-wide-angle camera. Additionally, both devices are expected to have a 10.5MP front camera for video calls and selfies.
In a shocking and unbelievable turn of events, Fernanda Valoz Pinto, a 27-year-old woman from Brazil, passed away after consuming a chocolate gift from a palm reader who had predicted her imminent demise. This mother of one was strolling through the Maceio area in Brazil, known for its abundance of fortune tellers, on August 3, when she was approached by an elderly woman who requested to read her palm.

Following the palm reading, the mysterious woman conveyed to Pinto that she had only a few days left to live, leaving her with a parting gift  chocolate. Initially, everything seemed fine, and Pinto didnt suspect any harm from the candy. Feeling hungry, she decided to indulge. As her cousin Cristina explained to local media, As (the candy) was packaged, it didnt occur to her (that it could pose any danger). And as she was hungry, she decided to eat it.

Also Read: Boss Mysteriously Deletes WhatsApp Messages After Approving Employees Leave and Internet is Furious

However, a few hours after consuming the chocolate, Pinto fell seriously ill, experiencing symptoms such as vomiting and dizziness. In text messages to her family shortly after eating the sweet, she described her deteriorating condition, saying, My heart is racing. Ive thrown up. But I have this taste in my mouth  so bitter, bad. My vision is blurry. Im so weak.

She went on, I leaned on the water tank. I almost fell. I almost met God. I dont know why Im like this, sis. Ive been feeling bad all day. Initially, the family attributed her condition to her pre-existing health issues, including gastritis and an ulcer. However, suspicions arose after Pinto mentioned her encounter with the psychic woman.

In a text message sent before her death, Pinto said, Because I accepted a chocolate in the city center. I ate it. After that, I felt sick. At the time, it didnt even cross my mind. She was an old lady.

Eventually, her condition continued to deteriorate, prompting her cousin to rush her to the Santa Casa de Misericordia hospital. Upon arrival, Pinto began bleeding from her nose, and foam formed in her mouth. Despite the best efforts of doctors, Pinto tragically passed away the following day on August 4.

While the circumstances surrounding her death bewildered her family and the community, a later autopsy report revealed a disturbing revelation. The chocolate had been laced with a high concentration of sulfotep and terbufos, types of pesticides commonly available in Brazil. Notably, these chemicals had not been found in individuals who had died over the past five years, according to a report by the Daily Mail.

Also Read: Never-ending Staircase? Old Video of Mysterious Phenomenon Has Internet Scratching Heads Again

Meanwhile, the Civil Polices homicide squad is actively investigating Pintos death but has not yet made any arrests.
A former Recruiting Manager at Google was laid off while on maternity leave after over 12 years at the company. The story of Nichole Foley has now gone viral with many people as it resonated with many. It speaks volumes about the challenges faced by mothers returning to work after giving birth to their child. Nicole had served 12.5 years of her life at Google when she became a target of layoffs. This was when she was busy caring for her 10-week-old infant.

Nicole took to LinkedIn and shared her entire story and it has garnered over 9,000 likes.

Also Read: UK Man Dies Of Brain Tumour After Doctors Misdiagnose It As Appendicitis

After 12.5 years at Google, I unfortunately was impacted while on maternity leave by the Google recruiting layoffs that happened last Wednesday. I am heartbroken & devastated to say the least, especially while on leave with a 10 week old. I will however be forever grateful for all of my time at Google, and for the AMAZING people I was able to work with who I call my friends & more importantly, my family," she mentioned.

Nicole further explained how she is having a hard time wrapping her head around what is next or how she is going to interview and work elsewhere at this moment. But I know that things will work out, and I am excited to see what is next," she said.

Also Read: When Former Indian PM Lal Bahadur Shastri Took Rs 5,000 Loan to Purchase a Fiat

With this, she expressed interest in Staffing Manager roles in any industry. Also, she invited connections, even if there were no immediate job opportunities.

Here is the viral post:

Many people took to the comment section and came in support of her. Utterly gutted to be reading this, holding you and your family in my heart Nichole. Youre such an incredible leader and model for others, will support you and hope that this moment of unknown is as brief as it can be," commented a LinkedIn user. Another person wrote, So sorry to hear this Nichole. You were absolutely instrumental in getting me into Google. Happy to spread the word for you."
Imagine a time when a miraculous device existed, capable of instantly pinpointing your location on Earth and effortlessly guiding you to any remote destination you desired. This magical device, once considered fantasy, is now a tangible reality we all know as GPS, or Global Positioning System. While todays generation might take it for granted, its worth pondering that this remarkable innovation came into being after a significant turning point involving 269 lives. A recent social media post by an X user ignited curiosity and led us to revisit the fascinating story behind the accessibility of GPS for civilians.

A snapshot shared from a written account that narrates the same story unveils the origins of GPS. Initially, this satellite-based system was exclusively intended for the U.S. military since they were the creators and launchers of the satellites. Moreover, they harbored concerns that granting public access might potentially jeopardise U.S. military operations, given that this system was originally designed to aid missiles in locating their targets.

Also Read: UFO in Lucknow? Viral Reddit Video Captures Mystical Clouds Bursting into Colours, Fuelling Theories

So, what caused them to change their stance?

Heres the Snapshot:

Historical accounts and available articles shed light on this transformation. Initially, the military had no intention of opening up the system to civilians. However, a pivotal incident occurred in 1983 when a Soviet SU-15 fighter jet shot down a Korean passenger plane, resulting in the tragic loss of all 269 lives on board.

The Korean Air Lines flight 007 had deviated from its intended route from Anchorage, Alaska, to Seoul, straying over 200 miles from its scheduled path into Soviet-prohibited airspace. Soviet authorities alleged that the plane was on an espionage mission for the United States, although there was no evidence to support this claim. In response, the Soviet plane fired two air-to-air missiles, destroying the aircraft, which crashed into the Sea of Japan approximately 30 miles from Sakhalin Island.

The realisation that a worldwide GPS could have prevented this tragedy, as well as potentially prevented similar incidents in the future, prompted President Ronald Reagan to make a significant decision. On September 16, 1983, he made the bold choice to open the GPS to the public, marking a significant turning point in its history.

However, there was a catch: The civilian version of GPS deliberately introduced a degree of inaccuracy, limiting its precision to a radius of about 100 meters.

Finally, in the year 2000, President Bill Clinton signed a bill discontinuing this intentional degradation of accuracy, as it had become outdated. This move resulted in a free and precise GPS that paved the way for numerous innovations, most notably the development of modern smartphones and their mapping applications.

Also Read: UAE Astronaut Shows How He Uses Honey to Make Sandwich in Space, Video Is Now Viral

Isnt it truly amazing how the internet can lead us down the rabbit hole of captivating historical tidbits like this?
Vivek Ramaswamy is on a lookout for a nanny to take care of his kids. A job listing on a recruitment website reveals that the Indian-origin billionaire is willing to pay over $100,000, which isRs 83 lakh approximately, for a suitable candidate. The job listing was found by Business Insider on EstateJobs.com.

As per the listing, the opportunity to nanny for Ramaswamys two children is an exceptional opportunity to join a high-profile family, contributing to the growth and development of their children while participating in unique family adventures. If chosen, the candidate will work on a weekly schedule. The schedule will be alternative days, which means one week on and one week off. The nanny will earn $100,000 for 26 weeks of work.

Also Read:Heartbroken: Google Employee Laid Off During Maternity Leave After Serving 12 Years at Tech Giant

The job description also requires the person to travel almost every week through private air travel. Weekly family travels, often via private flights, are a regular occurrence, read the listing.

It further added that the candidate will join a household staff of Chef, Nannies, a Housekeeper, and Private Security.

The nanny is expected to work in collaboration with the nanny team. The main role will be to help establish a daily routine for the children, pack and unpack their belongings for travel and sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Also Read: These Videos of Indians Celebrating 2011 Cricket World Cup Triumph Will Fill You With Immense Pride

This comes just a few days after the billionaire asserted that many people are annoyed by his rise and believe that a 38-year-old is too young to become US President. Well, look, we have been taking intense criticism, Shannon, over the last several weeks since I performed well on that second debate. And this is part of the process, so I invite the open debate, the Indian-American presidential hopeful told Fox News.
Firefighters warned people on Tuesday to flee or take shelter if it is too late to leave as warm, gusty winds fanned very challenging bushfires in Victoria, eastern Australia.

About 650 firefighters were battling fires across 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres), said Jason Heffernan, chief officer of the states Country Fire Authority.

Wind gusts of up to 80 kilometres per hour (50 miles per hour) were reported around East Gippsland, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) east of Melbourne, he said.

Emergency services issued evacuation orders for nine rural neighbourhoods, saying the fires were threatening homes and lives.

People who had not yet left from another seven neighbourhoods were told to take shelter immediately because it is too late to leave the area safely.

We are experiencing spot fires well ahead of the main fire front and firefighters are doing their best to try and contain that fire but it is very challenging, Heffernan told Australian public broadcaster ABC.

It is proving to be quite difficult, burning in both private property but also in some pine plantations. So the next couple of hours will remain very challenging for firefighters on the ground.

Rain was expected to help dampen the flames late in the afternoon, he said.

Separately, a bushfire was out of control in an area of Flinders Island in Tasmania, the states emergency services said, although recent rainfall had slowed its spread.

After several wet years, experts are expecting the coming Australian summer to bring the most intense bushfire season since 2019-2020.

During that Black Summer, bushfires raged across Australias eastern seaboard, razing swathes of forest, killing millions of animals and blanketing cities in smoke.
At least 18 people, including a pregnant woman, died in southern Nigeria when an illegal oil refinery exploded into flames, a security official and residents said on Tuesday.

The blaze, late on Sunday in Rivers State, occurred when a homemade refinery ignited a nearby oil reservoir, leaving victims severely burned, a security official said.

The fire outbreak started at a very late hour 18 victims were burnt beyond recognition while 25 injured persons were rescued, Olufemi Ayodele, spokesman for the local Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, said.

Most of the victims were youths a pregnant woman and a young lady getting ready for her marriage ceremony next month were all casualties, he said.

Local residents in Emohua district said the toll could be higher as dozens of people were at the site scooping up spilt crude oil.

Oil theft is a major problem in Nigeria, an OPEC member and one of the continents largest petroleum producers.

Accidents and spills are common in the makeshift refineries hidden in swamps in the Niger Delta, where smugglers tap into pipelines to steal crude and refine it into fuel for sale.
A far-right lawmaker launched a bid on Monday to oust US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his post, triggering the most serious showdown yet within the Republican party as it battles to contain firebrand supporters of ex-president Donald Trump.

Matt Gaetz, a representative from Florida, entered his resolution from the House floor, later telling reporters McCarthy doesnt have my support anymore, and he doesnt have the support of a requisite number of Republicans to continue as the Republican Speaker.

Bring it on, McCarthy quickly responded on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The resolution, a rare maneuver which requires a simple majority to pass, could force a vote within days and comes after McCarthy brokered a last-gasp budget deal with Democrats over the weekend temporarily avoiding a government shutdown.

Gaetz has been vowing retribution since the deal was struck.

The Florida congressman and Trump loyalist is a leading figure within the small group of far-right Republican legislators who ignited the shutdown crisis with their refusal to adopt fresh federal funding without deep spending cuts.

The group also opposes sending additional support to Ukraine, saying the money would be better spent in the United States on combatting illegal immigration.

Republicans have such a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress, that the hardliners  though they are a small minority  hold a de facto veto over legislation there.

The American people are tired of Washington DC not having a budget, running $2 trillion annual deficits sitting atop a $33 trillion debt, Gaetz told reporters Monday after introducing his motion.

If this countrys going down, Im going down fighting, he said.

Stop playing games

The resolution throws up fresh obstacles as lawmakers race to cut a new deal on funding for the federal government, with the stopgap brokered by McCarthy over the weekend running out by mid-November.

The last-ditch continuing resolution came as millions of public workers looked set to be sent home unpaid, upending government functions from military operations to food aid to federal policymaking.

US President Joe Biden has lambasted both McCarthy and the hardliners for failing to live up to an agreement forged around a debt crisis months ago that was meant to avoid a damaging shutdown fight  and for stripping out support for Ukraine.

Stop playing games, get this done, Biden said during a press conference on Sunday, adding that he was sick and tired of the brinksmanship, and so are the American people.

The timeline for next steps on Gaetzs resolution is variable, and it is not yet clear if Democrats would come to McCarthys aid.

Gaetz allowed for the possibility as he talked with reporters Monday, but vowed McCarthy is not going to be speaker in power as a consequence of Republican votes.

He added that if the Democrats want to own Kevin McCarthy, they can have him. Because one thing Im at peace with is  when we stand here a week from now, I wont own Kevin McCarthy anymore.

Gaetz on Monday called for the border funding and Ukraine aid to be voted on separately.

Regardless of how you feel about Ukraine money or border money, these two things should not be lumped together. They deserve their own dignity and their own vote, he said.

McCarthy had made concessions to the far-right bloc in January in return for their support in his quest to gain the speakers gavel  among them, a rule change that allows just one member to file a such a motion to vacate.
Hunter Biden, US President Joe Bidens son, will appear in a federal court in Delaware on Tuesday morning (local time) and will most likely plead not guilty to charges of illegally possessing a handgun.

Hunter faces three felony charges due to his purchase of a .38-calibre Colt Cobra revolver in 2018.

He also faces two counts of making false statements in forms required for the gun purchase. Hunter lies about not using drugs illegally while purchasing the guns.

He also faces a third charge, based on the same statements, that he illegally possessed the gun  which he had for only 11 days in October 2018  before it was gotten rid of, according to a report by AFP.

Abbe Lowell, Hunters lawyer, told the court that his client plans to plead not guilty at Tuesdays 10:00 am arraignment at a federal courthouse in Wilmington. Wilmington is the hometown of the Bidens.

There was an initial request made to the judge by Hunters legal team to allow him to attend the arraignment virtually but the request was denied.

The defendant should not receive any special treatment in this matter, Judge Christopher Burke wrote in his ruling.

Hunter chose to plead not guilty after a deal with federal prosecutor David Weiss, which would have erased the gun charges while Biden pleaded guilty to two tax charges and avoided prison, fell apart in July.

Weiss then filed three felony gun possession charges against Biden.

Biden could face 25 years in prison if convicted but the AFP report said that in practice such offences, if not accompanied by other charges, are seldom punished by any jail time.

Weiss said he is still probing Hunter Biden on possible tax charges. Hunter Bidens business dealings in Ukraine and China while his father was vice president under Barack Obama have been a constant target of Republicans.

It has also led to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy launching an impeachment investigation into the president based on these charges following demands from the far-right of the party.

Hunter is yet to be charged for any crimes related to his foreign business dealings and no evidence has emerged that points to his father being involved in anything illegal.

The Yale-trained lawyer and lobbyist-turned-artist Hunter Biden has suffered due to his alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction. Republicans are using his legal problems to threaten Bidens reelection bid. The 80-year-old president has stood firmly by his only surviving son throughout his personal and legal struggles, saying in an interview earlier this year that Hunter has done nothing wrong.

I trust him. I have faith in him, Joe Biden said.
An Israeli government minister arrived on Monday in Saudi Arabia for a United Nations conference, his office said, amid mounting speculation that the two countries will normalise ties.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi travelled to Riyadh for a meeting of the Universal Postal Union, a specialised UN agency intended to facilitate international cooperation in the postal sector.

During his visit  the second by an Israeli minister to the Gulf kingdom in less than a week  Karhi is expected to give a speech and meet with officials including the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Turkeys communications minister, a statement from his office said.

He is heading a 14-member delegation that includes lawmaker David Bitan and representatives of the foreign ministry, the statement said.

Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest sites in Islam, in Mecca and Medina, has never recognised Israel and long insisted it would not do so without a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a just settlement for Palestinian refugees.

However the administration of US President Joe Biden is pushing for a landmark deal that could reorder the Middle East.

Riyadh is bargaining hard for security guarantees from Washington as well as assistance with a civilian nuclear programme that would have uranium enrichment capacity.

The Palestinians have warned that they must be taken into account in any deal, and it is unclear what concessions Israel might be willing to make.

Last week the White House said Saudi Arabia and Israeli were moving towards the outline of a deal.

All sides have hammered out, I think, a basic framework for what, you know, what we might be able to drive at, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

His comments came on the heels of a visit to Riyadh by Israeli Tourism Minister Haim Katz, who attended a United Nations World Tourism Organization event, becoming the first Israeli minister to head an official delegation to the kingdom.
Connecting the worlds of vintage and modern watchmaking in the UAE

Christies is proud to announce the continued partnership with Dubai Watch Week (DWW), taking place from 16 through to 20 November at DIFC, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Christies has worked closely with Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, founder of DWW, since the inaugural event in 2015, together witnessing the growth of the secondary watch market across the Middle East. The collaboration supports the founding principles of the event, creating an experiential, educational and networking opportunity, which brings together the biggest collectors, watch brands, independent makers and thought leaders.

This year Christies is introducing a newly designed structure in the heart of DWW, within which a programme of engaging and illuminating talks and specialist panels from Horology and Fine Jewellery specialists, collectors and members of the watch industry will take place as well as complimentary watch valuations by appointment, with Christies international horology experts sharing their expertise. Christies Pavilion at Dubai Watch Week will also encompass an open plan exhibition space featuring watches on view including rare references by Rolex, Patek Philippe, Richard Mille and many more.

Christie's at DWW  Christie's, DWW

Remy Julia, Head of Watches Christies Middle East, India & Africa comments, The Christies watch auctions held in Dubai over the last decade have clearly played a role in cementing the importance of Dubai not only as a regional hub, but as a global beacon in the watch world. The continued growth and success of Dubai Watch Week is thanks to Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons and Christies is honoured to be a part of this event once again this year. DWW touches every corner of the international watch community and brings together such a diverse spectrum of brands, collectors, and watch aficionados who truly appreciate the event and regard it as one of the most important in the year it takes place. For its 6th edition the bar is set even higher, and the Christies Pavilion provides the perfect setting for our specialist teams to share their collaborative authority across watches, jewellery and art with visitors from around the world.

Hind Seddiqi, Director General, Dubai Watch Week comments, We are pleased to welcome back our long-term partner Christies to Dubai Watch Week 2023. With a strong program and unique offering during the event, the Christies pavilion embodies our core objective to create a platform for creative exchange and learning, while celebrating the luxury and horology industry.
A video capturing the initial moments of the blaze that engulfed a wedding hall in the Iraqi town of Qaraqosh which killed over 107 people and injured over 150 is going viral on social media.

Pakistani digital creator Ali Qasim shared the video where a drone camera inside the wedding hall captured the exact moment the fireworks ignited the prefabricated panels in the ceiling and also the halls decorations.

Iraq: Bride and groom survived but they lost everyone they loved. The bride lost all her family, groom lost his mother! The fire resulted in 98 deaths.Please avoid indoor fireworks and extra risky activities during events, may Allah protect us all. Ameen pic.twitter.com/A781YNELRc  Ali Qasim (@aliqasim) September 29, 2023

The four fireworks that shot showers of sparks four metres (13 feet) high were also captured in the video.

Fireballs from the ceiling are seen falling on the head of one of the guests and slowly more orbs of fire keep hurtling from the ceiling towards the guests. The bride and the groom who were dancing, also startled, stopped dancing and headed for the exit.

While the bride and groom, Haneen and Revan, respectively, survived the blaze, hundreds of guests who joined them to watch them tie the knot were not so lucky. Inside we are dead. We are numb. We are dead inside, Revan was quoted as saying by Sky News.

One mayor and his fire chief are among five Iraqi officials sacked for grave negligence. Those attending the wedding were from a small Christian community near Mosul, a wedding hall with the capacity of no more than 400 people, but on that night there were at least over 900 people, Interior Minister Abdel Amir al-Shammari said, according to AFP.

General Saad Faleh is investigating the tragedy. He ordered the arrest of 14 people and four, including the venues owner, were directly responsible for installing the fireworks.

The Iraqi public are angered over the high death toll. Shammari said the Qaraqosh mayor, municipal director, tourism and recreation division head, chief of firefighting and security in Nineveh provinces Civil Defence corps have been fired.

The mayor was negligent: the hall was built illegally on the land, but the mayor authorised its going into service, without the approval of other public agencies, Shammari said. Failures in the exercise of their duties was also one of the reasons cited for their firing.

The minister further added that the halls owner, thinking that a short circuit had started the fire, cut the electricity and plunged the room into darkness, provoking chaos, panic and a stampede.
Following the launch of the Only Watch (OW) World Tour in Los Angeles and New York, the collection of unique timepieces of this 10th edition has arrived in Monaco, where it is exhibited until Saturday, September 30, at the Monaco Yacht Show

For this occasion, the OW community - watchmakers, donors, partners, media and the researchers - was hosted by TT.SS.HH. Prince Albert and Princess Charlene of Monaco at the Princes Palace. WorldTempus's Suzanne Wong and Brice Lechevalier from GMT were among the few members of the press invited to the palace. It was an opportunity for the Prince to reiterate his commitment to Only Watch from day one, as the auction has been held under his high patronage and in his presence since the first edition.

These exceptional timepieces will then travel to Asia and the Middle East before being auctioned on November 5, in Geneva, under the hammer of Christie's (info on onlywatch.com/attend). The proceeds from the auction will be donated to research into Duchenne muscular dystrophy and genetic diseases (info on onlyproject.org). A total of 62 lots are offered for sale, and 73 brands are taking part in the 2023 edition, including 16 collaborations and 16 first-time entries.

Luc Pettavino, Founder of Only Watch and President of Association Monegasque contre les Myopathies:

"I am extremely happy to have brought the Only Watch community together in Monaco around TT.SS.HH. Prince Albert and Princess Charlene of Monaco, whom I thank from the bottom of my heart for their warm welcome. Only Watch federates, in a convivial and friendly atmosphere, an industry around a cause - research into Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It's a space where intimacy meets universality, where creativity is fully unleashed to offer a therapeutic hope."
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A headmaster at Kana Primary School in Lupane reportedly turned away some Grade 7 learners who were scheduled to write their national examinations due to unpaid tuition fees.

Exams for grade seven began last week.

According to school sources who talked to CITE on the condition of anonymity due to fear of victimisation, eleven students did not sit for their Grade 7 exams because the headmaster evicted them from the school grounds.

On Monday, we learnt that 11 learners in Grade 7 did not sit for their examinations after they were sent away for not paying school fees. We didnt have the energy to ask the headmaster, but we knew that he broken the governments policy, claimed the sources.

The move by the headmaster was condemned by sources who claimed it harmed the childrens progress.

However, the school headmaster, Thomas Manda denied these allegations and insisted no learners were sent away.

Right now, all the learners are writing their exams, no one chased away the learners. I have been writing notices to parents reminding them about payment of fees. At the moment I am now compiling the names of the village heads where these parents live so that they can take action, said the school head in an interview.

Manda, however, added that if any learner missed their exams, it was due to their own fault and not that they were sent away.

He also cited that the government does not allow school authorities to chase away learners.

There is an Education Amendment Act where the President says we should deal with the parents and not the learners. Thus, this is the procedure we are taking, said the headmaster who claimed some individuals were lying about such to tarnish the schools reputation.

Parents are like that, when you tell them you are taking legal channels, they become angry instead of coming to the school to speak to authorities.

The school headmaster added that last year, some Grade 7 learners proceeded to secondary school even though their results were still withheld at the primary school.

They didnt collect results due to the issue of fees but went to secondary so no child can fail to take an exam because they didnt pay school fees, Manda said.

Right now, the children are writing, but there are some who are absent, they absconded on their own, having thought of that by themselves. But some parents didnt come to us, they just became angry.

When contacted for response, Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) spokesperson Nicky Dlamini stated they had not received an official report that learners failed to write their grade seven examination at Kana primary.

Once learners register for an examination, they must sit for that examination, Dlamini said.

Director of Communications and Advocacy in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Taungana Ndoro added that they have repeatedly told schools that chasing away children for non- payment of fees was prohibited.
Government has clarified incorrect assertions that State-owned enterprises (SOES) whose shares are vested in the renamed Mutapa Investment Fund are now exempt from the provisions of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act.

Following the publication of an extraordinary Government gazette on the PRAZ Act last Friday, there have been incorrect claims in certain quarters, including news media, that had largely misinterpreted the contents and implications of new legal provisions on the Mutapa Investment Fund.

Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion permanent secretary Mr George Guvamatanga told delegates attending this years edition of the Zimbabwe Economic Development Conference in Victoria Falls yesterday that the statutory instrument, which brought about the provisions, amending the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Zimbabwe (SWFZ) Act, also amended the Public Procurement Act and Disposal of Public Assets Act.

He said Section 3 of the SWFZ Act already dealt with the issue of which institutions may be accorded exemptions, and that there was nothing new as the legal provisions were already in place before the promulgation of the latest amendments.

So, that amendment has made it possible that these entities that operate in competitive markets may be accorded an exemption from the application of the Procurement Act.

Therefore, on Friday, President Mnangagwa exempted one entity, which is the Mutapa Investment Fund, from the application of the procurement law, he said.

Mr Guvamatanga said that in order to clear the air, in terms of the law, as contained in the general notice published last Friday, the exemptions apply only to the fund and not to any other entities listed on the schedule of the recently published SI.

The fund merely owns shares in those entities but does not change their legal character or separate legal entities distinct from the fund. So, all these noises that all the institutions have been exempted from are not correct, he said.

The fund Mr Guvamatanga, by its nature, would operate and compete in competitive markets, both local and international, competing against private and agile equity funds.

He said that as a result, the fund will need to be quick, efficient, and cost-effective, and in some instances, by its nature, it will be involved in market-sensitive transactions, which would require such transactions to be handled differently.

As such, it was important to place it on par with its peers. The fund, through its structures, will be governed by best-practice rules and procedures in the area of procurement.

The institutional framework introduced by the changes made in the Act is designed to provide a robust organisational design to enable it to achieve its objective as stated in the Act, said Mr Guvamatanga.

He noted that from a reporting perspective, the fund would be required 60 days after the end of each financial year to submit to the President and to the relevant minister an annual report on its operations and activities for the presiding year, and the reports would be shared publicly.

Through Statutory Instrument (SI) 156 of 2023 gazetted last Wednesday, President Mnangagwa used Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) (Investment Laws Amendment) Regulations, 2023, to change the name of the fund.

The fund is a state-owned investment entity established from the balance of payment surpluses, official foreign currency operations, the proceeds of privatization, Government transfer payments, fiscal surpluses, and resource earnings.

It was created in 2014 following the enactment of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Act.

Mr Guvatanga said the Government was determined not only to earn a return on its investments, but also to create employment, operate profitably, and contribute to the economy.

The Act was amended in terms of which certain shares that the Government owned in various companies are now vested in the sovereign wealth fund created under the Act, which has now been renamed the Mutapa Investment Fund.

These funds form part of the initial capital for the fund. They might not be performing well and have liabilities, but they also have assets, so these assets form the initial capital of the fund, said Mr Guvamatanga.

He added that the fund itself is wholly owned by the Government, albeit managed by a board, and as such, the ultimate beneficial owner of the shares remains the Government.

Mr Guvamatanga added that the current board of the fund will be enhanced with a skills mix to effectively oversee fund operations, and an appropriate substantive management team will be appointed thereafter.

The 20 companies whose shares were vested in the fund include Zesa Holdings, Telone, POSB, Zupco, Netone, Powertel, Air Zimbabwe, Hwange Colliery, Cottco, and Air Zimbabwe.

Analysts have since said the move was long overdue, as management of the state entities will fall under one professional agency. Herald
An alternative mental health court program designed to fast-track people with untreated schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders into housing and medical carepotentially without their consentkicked off in seven California counties, including San Francisco, on Monday. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom created the new civil court process, called "CARE Court," as part of a major push to address the homelessness crisis. Lawmakers approved it despite deep misgivings over insufficient housing and services, saying they needed to try something new to help those suffering in public from apparent psychotic breaks, the AP reports.

Families of people diagnosed with severe mental illness rejoiced, because the new law allows them to petition the court for treatment for their loved ones. Residents dismayed by the estimated 171,000 homeless people in California cheered at the possibility of getting them help and off the streets. Others blasted the new program as ineffective and punitive given that it could coerce people into treatment. But as petitions roll in Monday, it's not clear whom the program might help nor how effective it will be. That's because the eligibility criteria is narrow and limited largely to people with untreated schizophrenia and related disorders. Severe depression, bipolar disorder, and addiction by itself do not qualify.

"It's hopefully going to help some people who need some help, and it is probably not going to make a huge dent in what you observe in the community," said San Francisco Superior Court Judge Michael Begert, who will supervise the court. Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the state Health and Human Services Agency, said last week that the program is aimed at catching people in need before their condition worsens, per the AP. San Francisco, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Glenn counties launched the program Monday. Los Angeles County will begin its program Dec. 1. The state estimates roughly 1,800 to 3,100 people could be eligible in the first seven counties. Los Angeles County could bump up estimates to 3,600 to 6,200, though uptake could take time.

(Read more California stories.)
Former President Trump has complained that court dates will pull him off the campaign trail, but he addressed the scheduling conflict on Monday by combining a campaign-rally attitude with a defendant's righteous anger at the New York courthouse where his civil fraud trial began . The presidential candidate found the row of television cameras lining a hallway outside the courtroom tough to pass up, Politico reports, stopping several times to denounce the proceeding, the prosecutor, and the judge in terms familiar to followers. The strategy could be a preview of how Trump will handle the series of trials he faces, per the Washington Post .

Trump also slammed the goings-on in all-caps social media posts ahead of time, and his campaign staff released opposition research on the New York Attorney General Tish James, who was in the courtroom. "Every time they give me a fake indictment, I go up in the polls," he told the cameras, calling the case against him "election interference." Trump sneered at James as he passed while leaving for lunch, per the AP; when James left, she was smiling. He was under no obligation to attend the session but said outside court that he did so because "I wanted to watch this witch hunt myself."

Still, Trump looked straight ahead, with his arms crossed, turned away from a screen when it showed a prosecutor's presentation. His mood brightened near the end of the day, per NBC News, when Judge Arthur Engoron told prosecutors that parts of the testimony by Donald Bender, Trump's former accountant, were redundant. To be relevant to the current case, the judge said, those statements need to be connected to contracts within the statute of limitations. Christopher Kise, one of Trump's lawyers, said he agreed, and the defendant responded with two thumbs-up. When it was over, reporters asked Trump if he'd return Tuesday, per CNN. "We may, I'd love not to," he said. "I'd love to be campaigning instead of doing this." (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
A group of women are demanding Greenland's former colonial ruler Denmark pay millions of dollars in compensation for an involuntary birth-control campaign launched in the 1960s to limit births among Greenland's Indigenous population. Records show 4,500 intrauterine devices were fitted into females as young as 13 without their knowledge or consent between 1966 and 1970, as told in a 2022 podcast from Danish broadcaster DR. Greenland's government believes 35% of women of childbearing age had been fitted with an IUD by the end of 1969, though the campaign is thought to have continued for years beyond that date, the BBC reports. Denmark controlled Greenland's health system until 1991.

The governments of Greenland and Denmark have launched an official investigation, with a report due in May 2025. But the women, some of whom are nearing their 80s, see no reason to wait. "It's already 100% clear that the government has broken the law by violating our human rights and causing us serious harm," says Naja Lyberth, one of 67 women seeking compensation. She notes some women only recently learned the devices were in their bodies, while others were fitted with too-large devices that caused serious health complications or infertility, the Guardian reports. "We are getting older ... We want to act now," Lyberth, a psychologist, adds, per the BBC.

The group is calling for Denmark to pay 300,000 Danish kroner, or about $42,000, to each of the women, per Reuters. A lawyer for the group submitted the claim to the office of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Monday, though the office has yet to comment. Lyberth, who accuses the Danish government of wanting to control Greenland's population to save on welfare costs, says she expects it will refuse the request pending the outcome of its commission. However, she says the women are prepared to take the matter to court in that case. Only last year, CNN reported that Denmark paid compensation to Inuit victims who were taken from their families in Greenland as part of a 1950s experiment. (Read more Greenland stories.)
The police chief who led an August raid on a small weekly newspaper in central Kansas has resigned, just days after he was suspended from his post, a City Council member confirmed Monday. City Council Member Ruth Herbel confirmed to the Associated Press that the mayor announced Chief Gideon Cody's resignation at Monday's City Council meeting. The announcement comes days after Cody was suspended for reasons that were not made public, and weeks after a local prosecutor said that there wasn't sufficient evidence to justify the search of the Marion County Record.

Cody did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment about his resignation. The mayor also did not respond to a text and phone call about it. The public announcement of Cody's resignation was initially reported by the Marion County Record and the Wichita Eagle. Cody's departure comes after recently obtained body camera video from the search of the newspaper shows that an officer rifled through a desk drawer of a reporter who was investigating its chief. The video then shows the officer beckoning Cody over to look at the documents he'd found. Cody then says, "Keep a personal file on me. I don't care," the video shows. He's briefly seen bending over, apparently to look at the drawer, before the other officer's clipboard blocks the view of what the chief is doing.

Cody obtained warrants for raids on the newspaper's offices, the home of its publisher and Herbel's home by telling a judge that he had evidence of possible identity theft and other potential crimes tied to the circulation of information about a local restaurant owner's driving record. But the newspaper and its attorney have suggested he might have been trying to find out what it had learned about his past as a police captain in Kansas City, Missouri. "This was all about finding out who our sources were," Bernie Rhodes, the newspaper's attorney, said Monday. The local prosecutor later said that there wasn't sufficient evidence to justify the warrants for the raids. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation then took charge of the probe and hasn't said where it stands. (More from the bodycam footage here.)
Natasha Beresford, 26, who works as a nurse in a dental clinic, became the first ever winner of a beauty contest where participants are not allowed to wear makeup. She was crowned Miss London 2023 in the regional selection for the Miss England pageant.

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It was attended by 19 contestants who could not even use lip gloss. The winner of the unique competition was featured in the Daily Mail (scroll to the bottom of the page to see the photo).

They started preparing for the innovation last year, when they asked to submit photos without filters, makeup, or editing. The contest organizers decided that the natural beauty of the participants, which cannot be seen under a layer of cosmetics, should be evaluated.

The concept of this decision is aimed at empowering women, boosting self-confidence and promoting a more realistic body image.

This year, Natasha Beresford will compete in the larger Miss England pageant, where she has a chance to win the right to participate in an international competition. The 26-year-old beauty works as a nurse in a private dental clinic in London. She sees her future in this field.

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"I plan to volunteer at Dentaid dental clinics in the UK, where they provide dental care and oral health counseling to people who are homeless, victims of violence, poor families, refugees, cancer patients, and people recovering from drug addiction," said the winner.

She wants to use her victory to help women around the world feel more confident without makeup.

Earlier, OBOZREVATEL wrote that the disqualified Miss Ukraine 2023 contestant Iryna Pilyaeva confirmed her relationship with Russian businessman Alexander Orlov. Read here how she explained her romance with the Russian during the full-scale war in Ukraine.

Only verified information on our Telegram channel Obozrevatel and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!
Authorities say a Democratic congressman was carjacked at gunpoint on Monday night in Washington, but he's OK, and his vehicle has since been recovered. Aides for Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar say the incident took place in the Navy Yard area of DC, about a mile from the US Capitol, per the Washington Post . Sources tell ABC News that an alert sent to congressional members indicated Cuellar, 68, was attacked by three to four men who held guns to his head and swiped not only his car but his phone. A Cuellar spokesperson confirmed the carjacking.

"As Congressman Cuellar was parking his car this evening, [three] armed assailants approached the congressman and stole his vehicle," Jacob Hochberg, Cuellar's chief of staff, said in a statement. "Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement." DC Police say the carjacking took place around 9:30pm local time, just down the street from the area in DC where "dozens of lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, live in ... apartment and condominium buildings," per the Post.

DC Police say that, as of this past weekend, there've been 750 carjackings in Washington, DC, three-quarters of which have involved firearms, per ABC. The AP notes this is the second DC attack on a member of Congress this year: Minnesota Democratic Rep. Angie Craig was left bruised and shaken, but without serious injury, in February when she was assaulted in the elevator of her apartment building. She fended off her attacker by throwing hot coffee at him, per the Post. The perpetrator in that case was captured and pleaded guilty to assaulting a member of Congress and law enforcement officers. (Read more Henry Cuellar stories.)
Two US soldiers were killed and a dozen injured when the transport truck they were traveling in flipped near Salcha, Alaska, according to US Army Alaska. Officials with the 11th Airborne Division of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson say at least 17 soldiers were in the LMTV (light medium tactical vehicle) Monday, on a dirt road headed toward the Yukon Training Area, when it overturned, report NBC News and the New York Times . US Army Alaska spokesman John Pennell says the accident took place around 11am local time, and that the driver of the LMTV apparently lost control of the vehicle, leading it to flip.

First responders helped get the soldiers out of the vehicle and assist the injured until they could all be evacuated, per an Army statement. The injured were taken to two area hospitals; their conditions weren't immediately clear. Officials say an investigation into the single-vehicle accident is ongoing. "We're all grieving and ... doing what we can to support the families," Pennell says, per KTUU. "Anytime we lose our soldiers, it's a tragic event for the family, for the fellow soldiers, for the soldiers' friends." (Read more US soldiers stories.)
Banners appeared Monday in northern Mexico purportedly signed by a faction of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel claiming that the gang has sworn off the sale and production of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. But, as the AP reports, experts quickly cast doubt on the veracity of the claim, saying that fentanylwhich has caused tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the United Statesremains one of the cartel's biggest money makers. Prosecutors in Sinaloa confirmed that the banners appeared on overpasses and near roadways, but could not say whether they were authentic or who had hung them up.

The machine-printed banners purportedly signed by the sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman claim they have prohibited the sale or production of fentanyl in the northern state of Sinaloa. The sons are known as "the Chapitos" after their famous father. "In Sinaloa, the sale, manufacture, transport or any other business dealing with fentanyl, is strictly prohibited, including the sale of chemicals used to produce it," the banners read. "You have been warned. Respectfully, Chapitos." Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said there is concrete evidence that "Sinaloa is the biggest producer of fentanyl in Mexico" and that there has been no sign the cartel is moving away from it.

"I think the Chapitos started feeling the pressure when they increased the reward for their capture. I think they are trying to create a massive illusion to take the pressure off," he said. "It's almost like a big campaign to convince the US they're not involved. It's nothing more than pure propaganda." In September, Mexico extradited Ovidio Guzman Lopez, one of the Chapitos, to the United States to face drug trafficking, money laundering, and other charges. Mexican security forces captured Guzman Lopez, alias "the Mouse," in January in Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa state, the cartel's namesake. In May, the Chapitos claimed in a letter that they were not involved in the fentanyl trade.

story continues below

"The Sinaloa Cartel strategy is to move away from plant-based drugs" like cocaine, marijuana, and heroin, Vigil said. Giving up fentanyl "is going to give (the rival Jalisco gang) the keys to basically overshadow them in terms of money." In April, US prosecutors laid out how the Chapitos steered the cartel into synthetic drugs like meth and fentanyl. The indictment said their goal was to produce huge quantities of fentanyl and sell it at the lowest price. Fentanyl is so cheap to make that the cartel reaps immense profits even wholesaling the drug at 50 cents per pill, prosecutors said. An estimated 109,680 overdose deaths occurred last year in the US, according to the CDC. About 75,000 of those were linked to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.

(Read more El Chapo stories.)
She'd been missing two days, but the saga of 9-year-old Charlotte Sena ended with unexpectedly good news: She is safe and sound, having been rescued from a stranger's cupboard thanks to an unexpected break in the case. Meanwhile, 47-year-old Craig Ross Jr. is being held without bail in the Saratoga County Jail in upstate New York on kidnapping charges, reports ABC7. All of this began when Charlotte disappeared in a state park north of Albany on Saturday while riding her bike, setting off a massive search that wasn't yielding much progress through Sunday night. Details:

The break: Authorities say Ross dropped off a ransom note about 4:20am Monday at the Sena home in nearby Greenfield. "He literally drove up to the family's mailbox assuming they were not home," said Gov. Kathy Hochul, per CNN. As it turns out, Charlotte's parents were out searching for her at the time. State troopers were keeping on eye on the house, but the note dropoff "happened very quickly," said Hochul. Troopers were unable to stop the car, but they were "able to make out the type of vehicle," per ABC News. (Note: This has been updated with new details regarding the surveillance of the home.)
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In the morning of October 3, Russia complained about the shelling of Belgorod region. Russian propagandists reported seven hits on the Monocrystal plant in Shebekino.

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This company produces synthetic sapphires used, among other things, in electronics. One of the Russian propaganda Telegram channels writes about the shelling.

"Right now, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are shelling the Monocrystal plant in Shebekino, Belgorod Region. According to our data, there have been seven arrivals since 7:18 am. At least one shell did not explode," the propagandists said.

They also emphasized that Monocrystal is "one of the world's largest producers of synthetic sapphire, which is used, in particular, in electronics. In particular, in the Apple Watch".

Meanwhile, local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said that there were no casualties as a result of the shelling. But he indirectly confirmed the target of the shelling.

"The town of Shebekino came under fire from the Ukrainian armed forces. There are no casualties. The shells landed on the territory of the industrial zone. Operational services are clarifying the consequences on the ground," Gladkov wrote.

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As a reminder, on October 1, Russia claimed to have shot down drones, but explosions were heard in Shebekino and Sochi that day, and a plant was reported blown up in Smolensk

According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, three out of four drones hit a plant producing Kh-59 missiles in Smolensk. They accurately hit the buildings of the Russian military enterprise, causing significant damage to its production facilities.

And near Sochi, the Main Directorate of Intelligence successfully attacked a helicopter parking lot in Adler, while in Bryansk it flew to the airfield.

Only verified information on our Telegram channel Obozrevatel and Viber channels . Do not fall for fakes!
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The Cabinet extended its condolences to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and to the people of the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the families of the fallen servicemen.

The Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) servicemen died while carrying out their national duty in Operation Restoring Hope, as part of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition Forces at the southern border of Saudi Arabia.

The Cabinet expressed its support for the family during this difficult time and wished the injured servicemen a speedy recovery. It acknowledged the sacrifices made by the Kingdoms forces and added that the honourable sacrifices of the fallen serviceman will be etched forever in the Kingdoms history.

The Cabinet also thanked the allied countries and international organisations who have expressed their support to the Kingdom of Bahrain during this time. His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, yesterday chaired the weekly Cabinet meeting at Gudaibiya Palace.

HM Kings address

On the occasion of the Royal Order issued by His Majesty the King on calling the Shura Council and Council of Representatives to convene for the second session of the sixth legislative term, the Cabinet emphasised the importance of His Majesty the Kings address be given at the opening of the second session of the sixth legislative term of the Shura Council and the Council of Representatives, in laying the foundation for national efforts in the next phase of the Kingdoms progress and development.

The Cabinet highlighted that the second session of the sixth legislative term showcases the Kingdoms ongoing commitment to national development, noting the importance of ongoing cooperation between the Executive and Legislative Authorities, and building on the cohesion achieved for the benefit of the country and its citizens.

On the occasion of World Teachers Day, the Cabinet expressed its gratitude to the teachers and their efforts in supporting the Kingdoms education sector, by upskilling the youth to ensure their contributions to the comprehensive development. The Cabinet wished the teaching professionals success in carrying out their duty and passing on their knowledge to future generations
In Russia, after successful drone strikes on Russian territory, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation charged in absentia the head of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, and other representatives of the country's top military command with "terrorism." In addition to the head of Ukraine's military intelligence, "suspicion" was announced to Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk and Commander of the Ukrainian Navy Oleksiy Neizhpapa, and the occupiers also labeled the commander of the 383rd separate regiment of remotely piloted aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force Serhiy Burdeniuk as a "terrorist."

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The Russian Investigative Committee also stated that they would put Ukrainian military leaders on the wanted list and intend to arrest them, also in absentia. This was reported by Russian media.

Thus, the aggressor state called the attacks on military targets in the Russian Federation and the occupied territories of Ukraine "terrorism." Representatives of the Ukrainian military command were "suspected" by the Russian Investigative Committee under the article "terrorist act".

"Charges in absentia of committing crimes under subpara. "a", "c" of Part 2 of Art. 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (terrorist act), were presented to the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Kirill Budanov, the commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexei Neizhpapa, the commander of the 383rd separate regiment of remotely piloted aircraft of the Air Force of Ukraine Sergey Burdenyuk," the Russian Investigative Committee said.

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According to the occupiers' estimates, "Ukraine's top military leadership has organized 100 air strikes with drones on the territory of the Russian Federation" since the spring of 2022.

"The investigation has gathered evidence that it was under their leadership that more than 100 air strikes were carried out between April 2022 and September 2023 using aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles on the territory of Moscow and Moscow region, the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (occupied by Russia since 2014 - Ed.), Rostov, Belgorod, Bryansk regions and a number of other regions of the country," the Russian Investigative Committee said.

However, the aggressor state did not limit itself to the listed military commanders of Ukraine. They also labeled other servicemen of our country as "terrorists".

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"It has also been established that the perpetrators involved their subordinate servicemen in committing crimes. In the near future, the investigation plans to put them on the wanted list and choose a preventive measure in the form of detention in absentia," the Russian Investigative Committee said.

At the same time, as journalists of the opposition Russian media outlet ASTRA noted, the Russian Investigative Committee did not say whether Russia's strikes on Ukraine or the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops would be investigated.

As a reminder, on October 1, the Russian Federation reported downed drones, but explosions were heard in Shebekino and Sochi that day, and a factory was reported blown up in Smolensk.

According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, three of the four drones hit the plant that produces Kh-59 missiles in Smolensk. They accurately hit the buildings of the Russian military enterprise, causing significant damage to its production facilities.

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And near Sochi, the Main Directorate of Intelligence successfully attacked a helicopter parking lot in Adler, while in Bryansk it flew to the airfield.
Agencies | Abu Dhabi

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain is keen to formulate the future of global energy systems and renew the kingdoms commitment to reducing carbon emissions by 30% by 2035, and reaching net zero by 2060.

This was affirmed by His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, HM the Kings Representative for Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs, Board of Directors Chairman of Bapco Energies Group, as he took part in the opening of the Abu Dhabi International Progressive Energy Congress (ADIPEC 2023), hosted by the UAE, under the patronage of President His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan on October 2-5.

HH Shaikh Nasser asserted that the kingdoms participation in ADIPEC 2023 is within the framework of its commitment to leading the global transformation in the energy fields, as well as in facing the challenges created by the current energy landscape, through a forward-looking strategy and a strong commitment to climate action, affirming Bahrains full readiness to play a proactive role in shaping the future of energy.

His Highness indicated that the importance of the ADIPEC 2023 emanates from the gathering of the whole world in the UAE to attend the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), where the values of humanity, ambition, and creativity will come together under the umbrella of the UAE, which, he said, is a great country in the region that calls for unity in delivering innovative, sustainable and real action on climate challenges.

Themed Decarbonising. Faster. Together, ADIPEC 2023 aims to bring together world energy leaders and mobilise their efforts in confronting the pressing challenges facing the global economy as a result of the current energy crisis.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain's High Appeals Court has ordered an airline company to compensate three passengers with BD2,132 each for the cancellation and one-day delay of their flight. The court stated that the Montreal Convention established a compensation of 4,150 units, valued at the above amount.

The plaintiffs' lawyer claimed that they had booked round-trip airline tickets with the company but were surprised when their flight was rescheduled for the next day, forcing them to bear additional expenses for accommodation, transportation, and food.

The company refused to compensate them for these costs. The plaintiffs' representative filed a lawsuit seeking a judgment to obligate the company to pay each of them BD2,132, along with legal fees and attorney fees.

However, the court ruled that the company should pay only BD300 to each claimant. Dissatisfied with the ruling, the plaintiffs appealed the decision. The company's representative requested the court not to accept the lawsuit, arguing that the travel agency had been notified since that date.

The plaintiffs' lawyer referred to Articles 19 and 22 of the Montreal Convention, which state that a passenger's claim against the air carrier for delay in transportation is a compensation claim based on the principles and criteria established by the convention, not exceeding the maximum limit set therein, which is 4,150 special drawing rights per passenger.
AFP | Bangkok

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Floodwaters have inundated more than 4,000 homes in central Thailand, officials said Tuesday, after a river burst its banks following heavy monsoon rains.

The kingdom's rainy season typically brings months of daily deluges but scientists say man-made climate change can make rainfall more intense.

Riverside areas of Bangkok are bracing as officials warned that incoming rains could cause flooding in the sprawling capital.

In Sukhothai province, around 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Bangkok, heavy rains caused the shallow river Yom to overflow its banks.

The Sukhothai Disaster Prevention Centre told AFP that more than 4,300 homes had been flooded, affecting some 5,000 people.

Video from the province showed partially submerged homes, with residents wading through muddy waters sometimes up to their waists.

"This year's flood is the hardest in history," said one resident, who did not give his name.

"It was raining four days in a row," he said, describing how water inundated his paddy fields in Si Samrong district.

Officials said the flooding had affected more than 160 square km of farmland.

"We're finding ways to handle the floods," said Sophan Srisawangworakul, Director of the Sukhothai Provincial Irrigation Project.

Teams were using water pumps to move the waters, he said, adding he was hopeful the river level would subside.

"The situation looks set to improve," he said.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said the flooding was concerning because of the prolonged rainfall in the area, adding that he was in touch with the Royal Irrigation Department's deputy director-general.

Srettha is due in eastern Ubon Ratchathani province, where heavy rainfall is also expected, later this week.

Some 28 provinces have experienced floods with more than 15,000 households affected since late September, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation.
DreamLine, a company that rents servers and server space, has opened the first data center in Ukraine that uses the technology of natural air cooling - free cooling. The company has been operating since 2008 and the first DC is located in Kyiv under the Dline trademark.

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As you know, equipment consuming electricity generates heat, and one of the problems is the cost of cooling servers. Typical cooling costs are up to 25% of equipment consumption. This is reflected in the so-called PUE coefficient. In 2008, 6 Google data centers had a PUE of 1.21, i.e. approximately 20% of electricity consumption was spent on cooling and energy consumption for own needs (heating, losses in power grids, etc.).

Large data centers are trying their best to reduce these costs. In 2015, Facebook's Prineville already had a PUE coefficient of 1.078, and the French hosting company OVH had a PUE of 1.09.

Until recently, the cheapest way to cool small data centers was with freon air conditioners. For larger data centers, it was justified to use chillers at a higher initial cost, but with lower costs in the future.

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Today, the use of natural cooling methods is coming to the forefront. For example, Microsoft uses underwater data centers with seawater cooling, and Allied Control declares a PUE of 1.02 when using so-called immersion cooling by immersing equipment in a conductive liquid.

DreamLine uses air cooling - the so-called friction cooling.

The company acquired a plot on the outskirts of Brovary, taking into account the prevailing winds so that the masses of air would not heat up in the city, and began building a data center using free-standing.

This data center is designed for 12 isolated containers with 7 racks each, which will allow to place up to 3500 units of equipment. Each container is supplied with 25 kW of power. Two electrical connections to different substations. Three optical lines with a capacity of 40 GB/s have been laid.

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The company continues to build a more extensive network. It plans to do the same as in Kyiv, where it has already built a 40Gb/s optical ring to connect corporate clients.

It is important for the data center to control temperature and humidity, as well as air pollution. DreamLine opted for a rotary recuperator, which allows them to control all these parameters.

After the tests, DreamLine can use air from the street up to 18 degrees Celsius, which is more than 8 months a year and even in summer. In case of a lack of cooling capacity, the recuperator connects a proven freon air conditioner, which cools the air to the desired temperature.

The consumption of the entire recuperator at a temperature of 18 degrees does not exceed 4.5 kilowatts, while the equipment power consumption is 25 kilowatts, and in colder periods it is less than 2.5 kilowatts.

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To reduce costs even further, the company uses the heated fresh air to heat the premises where the data center staff is located. Thus, for about 8 months of the year, the PUE does not exceed 1.10.

But the company is not resting on its laurels, conducting tests on immersion cooling and getting good results. And perhaps in the near future it will use this technology for servers that it leases.




The Abia State government has denied sponsoring the activities of the Indigenous Peoples Of Biafra (IPOB) in the state.





The Alex Otti-led administration also denied using the states funds to sponsor legal battles of Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25 Presidential polls.





The denials were made by Ferdinand Ekeoma, the Special Adviser to Governor Alex Otti on Media and Publicity, in reaction to some recent media reports.





The Abia government said the press conferences where the allegations were made, were suspected to have been sponsored by the two opposition parties currently in court against Ottis governorship victory.





The state government said the allegations were heavy and should be investigated by security agencies, with the view of inviting the culprits to explain their claims.





In the first press conference, a group of young men alleged that Governor Alex Otti was using Abia funds to sponsor the litigation of LP presidential candidate in the last election, Mr Peter Obi.





In the second press conference, another group of strange fellows alleged that the four-month-old government of Dr Alex Otti was sponsoring the Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB, to cause terror in the State.





They went further to call for the governorship election judgement billed for 6th October 2023 not to be delivered in Abia because the Abia State government had allegedly concluded plans to intimidate the Justices to deliver judgement in favour of Governor Alex Otti or alternatively, would ensure that the Judges would be killed if they fail to deliver judgement in favour of the Governor  Ekeoma said.





He said the allegations had the propensity to cause insecurity and the breakdown of law and order in the state and even endanger the lives of innocent citizens.
Renowned Kenyan pan-Africanist and human rights activist, Patrick Lumumba said liberation of the African continent will not come by fasting and prayer.

Lumumba stated this while speaking at The Platform, a non-political and non-denominational program organised by The Covenant Nation in Lagos on Monday.

He noted that, to save Africa, leaders must address the issue of conflict and the change of governance.

The don added that if the question of governance is left out, the continents progress will be stalled.

Lumumba said, Africa has become a continent where after every election, there is conflict because the pursuit of power is the cutthroat competition where our throats are actually cut.

We have a problem in that direction and the sooner we resolve that, the safer we will be. Africa can rise and Africa will rise, but it is not going to rise by prayer and fasting, he added.

He pointed out that freedom will not be given to Africa on a silver platter, but that the continent must stand up and take responsibility for itself.

Lumumba said, We must pray and fast but it will not happen, because the last time I checked even those of you who are believers  when Abraham was taken from the Ur of the Chaldeans and given Canaan, it was not on a silver platter. He had to fight the Canaanites; he had to fight the Philistines.

That is the nature of divine instruction, Go ye and subdue the world by the sweat of thy brow. The kitchen where they made manna was closed. Manna will no longer come, because you must now make your manna and it is our duty as Africans to begin to rethink, he added.

Lumumba noted that the bold step the continent will take is an extension for a better future for the generations to come.

The younger generations  (there is a saying in Tchi Malawi, more precious than our children than our childrens children) When we are doing these things we must remind ourselves that we are doing this for this generation and generation yet to be born, he said.
President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday replaced the erstwhile ministerial nominee from Kaduna State and the immediate past governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai with a former Secretary to the Kaduna State Government, SSG, Abbas Lawal Balarabe.

This was announced in an executive communication forwarded to that effect and read during plenary by President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio.

Balarabe, apart from serving as the SSG from 2019 to 2023, was a Special Assistant to the President in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT and Chief of Staff to the FCT Minister from 2003 to 2007.

His last appointment was the chairman of a 65-member transition committee that ushered in the present administration of Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State.

The Senate had in August after screening of the first 48 ministerial nominees forwarded to it in July by President Tinubu, confirmed 45 and withheld confirmation of three.

Apart from El-Rufai, the two other nominees rejected then were Ms Stella Okotete from Delta State and Abubakar Danladi from Taraba State.




Bayelsa State Governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Douye Diri, has warned that any traditional ruler that allows election violence in his domain during the November 11 gubernatorial election in the state would be deposed.





He issued the warning at the weekend when he led the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship campaign team on a visit to the palace of the Okpo XXI of Okpoama Kingdom, King Ebitimi Banigo, at Okpoama in Brass Local Government Area of the state.





He said Let me caution that any traditional ruler that connives to breach the peace during the election risks being dethroned by my administration. We will not condone electoral violence as a government that upholds democratic principles.





Political parties and their supporters should be allowed to canvass for votes without molestation.





While thanking the Okpoama monarch, the council of chiefs and other stakeholders for their royal blessings and warm reception, the states helmsman urged them to sustain the prevailing peace in the state before, during and after the election.





In a related development, the governor received hundreds of defectors from the Seibarugu Political Dynasty of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state.





The influential group, with members across the state, is led by a former Acting Governor and Speaker of the House of Assembly, Chief Werinipre Seibarugu.





At a formal declaration during a meeting with Governor Douye Diri in Government House, Yenagoa, coordinator of the Seibarugu Dynasty, Mr. Ebiye Waripamo, said they were attracted to the PDP by the governors leadership style that is peaceful and development-oriented.





Waripamo said after assessing Governor Diris performance in almost four years, particularly the prevailing peace and security as well as the ongoing developmental projects across the state, they were left no choice than to join hands with him to move Bayelsa forward.





He assured the governor and members of the PDP of their unalloyed commitment to the governors re-election on November 11, 2023.





In his remarks, the state PDP chairman, Mr. Solomon Agwana, welcomed the group and assured that the members will not be discriminated against.





Responding, Diri expressed appreciation to leader of the Seibarugu Dynasty and described Chief Seibarugu as a man of conviction and integrity.





He said the APC in the state was a deceitful party that does not mean well for its development, saying its candidate, a former governor, had nothing reasonable to show for his time in office.




Music star, Azeez Fashola aka Naira Marley, has been taken into custody for interrogation and other investigation activities over the death of his former singee, Mohabd.





This was confirmed by Lagos State Police Command PRO, SP Benjamin Hundeyin via his X handle.





He wrtoed, Azeez Fashola aka Naira Marley has been taken into custody for interrogation and other investigation activities#justice4Mohbad #justiceforMohbad.





Earlier, the Marlian Music boss announced via his verified X handle on Tuesday night that he had returned to Nigeria.





He wrote, Id like to share that Ive just arrived back in Lagos, Nigeria to assist the authorities with the ongoing investigation. Its important I do my part for Imole. Ill be meeting with the police with hopes for the truth to be uncovered and for justice to prevail.





Recall that Naira Marley has debunked allegations that he has a hand in the death of Mohbad, stressing that despite their fallout in 2022, no harm was wished on him.
Chicago State University, United States of America has released to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar the academic records of President Bola Tinubu.





The CSU released the documents to Atiku on Monday in compliance with the order of a United States District Court in Northern District of Illinois.





In ordering the CSU to release Tinubus academic record, a US district judge dismissed the Presidents objection.





The judge ruled: For the foregoing reasons, the court overrules President Tinubus objections to Magistrate Judge Gilberts recommended ruling, and therefore, adopts the ruling in full.

Mr Atikus Application is, therefore, granted. In light of the pending Supreme Court of Nigeria deadline, represented to the court as October 5, 2023, and based on CSUs representations that it is ready to comply with the discovery requests and produce a witness, the court sets an expedited schedule for completion of discovery.

Respondent CSU is directed to produce all relevant and non-privileged documents in response to Requests for Production Nos. The Rule 30(b)(6) deposition of CSUs corporate designee must be completed by 5:00 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, October 3, 2023. Given the October 5, 2023, filing deadline before the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the court will not extend or modify these deadlines.





In the CSU documents, which went viral late Monday night, the institution responded to Atikus four requests.





Responding to Atikus request for A true and correct copy of any diploma issued by CSU in 1979 to Mr Tinubu, the US varsity said: CSU does not, in the ordinary course, keep copies of student diplomas, and after the diligent search cannot locate a copy of the original diploma it prepared for Mr Tinubu in 1979, hence, has no documents responsive to this request.





Atiku intends to use the CSU academic record in pursuit of his appeal at the Supreme Court where he is challenging Tinubus victory in the February 25 presidential election.





But Tinubus legal team has argued that the documents would be of no use at the Supreme Court.
People who are on the verge of death are likely to retain the ability to hear, understand, and even in a sense see what is happening around them even when their hearts have already stopped. Instead, the perception that people seem to be flying out of their bodies at this point is misleading.

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This is stated in the research of scientists who studied how the brain works after the heart is no longer able to pump blood, and also talked to people who had near-death experiences.

According to Popular Science, the main problem with researching what exactly happens to people after death is that we are not able to talk to the dead, so we have to look for other approaches to studying this situation.

This is especially true given that people who have been rescued from death talk about similar experiences, so it cannot simply be written off as delusions. People who have had a close "encounter" with death often recall seeing a bright light, their lives flashing before their eyes, or their deceased loved ones. Some even claim to have seen a figure that they took to be Death itself.

Kevin Nelson, a professor of neurology at the University of Kentucky (USA), notes that this is a rather paradoxical situation, as there is a common vision, such as a bright light, but there is also a unique experience of near-death experiences.

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To better understand these states, scientists have studied the brains of people who were on the verge of death and allowed scientists to track what exactly happens afterwards. And the research, according to medical experts, confirms that near-death experiences are not a figment of the imagination.

Jimo Bordjigin, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School, explains that such research will allow scientists to better understand how cardiac arrest occurs.

"This research not only helps us to better understand consciousness, but also to realize the importance of the heart, lungs, and brain in our daily physiology," she explained.

Surveys of people who were on the verge of death have shown that, in fact, 1 in 10 people talk about heightened sensations, slowing down of time, out-of-body sensations, or other signs associated with the near-death experience. Researchers divide near-death experiences into four types: emotional, cognitive, spiritual and religious, and supernatural.

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According to scientists, supernatural experiences are a false awareness of what is happening to the body. We are talking about the statements of people who felt as if they were detached from their physical body. And these are not isolated statements, as 76% of respondents say so.

However, scientists are convinced that this is a sensory deception caused by the brain. A similar condition was reproduced in sleeping people. It turned out that direct electrical stimulation of a brain area that is usually inactive during REM sleep can trigger an out-of-body experience.

Often, people who have been rescued from cardiac arrest also recall the experiences they had on the verge of life and death. And, as Bordzhygin notes, this is no longer an illusion.

She explains that cardiac arrest leads to the body's inability to pump blood, and thus vital oxygen. As a result, the brain reacts to the lack of oxygen and undergoes certain changes that contribute to the distortion of the perception of reality.

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Tests were conducted on four people who were in critical condition and subsequently disconnected from life support. In two of them, electroencephalography (EEG) recorded a surge in gamma brain waves that occurred when the bodies began to shut down. Gamma brain waves are usually a sign of consciousness because they are most active when a person is awake.

Bordzhigin said that the increase in gamma waves occurred in the area of the brain that is responsible for combining information from our senses, including touch, movement, and vision, into consciousness. Scientists were unable to find out what exactly people saw or felt at that moment, because, unfortunately, both patients died. But the scientist suggests that the activation of this area may mean that people can probably pick up sounds and understand speech.

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"They can hear and perceive the conversation around them and form a visual image in their brain, even when their eyes are closed," Bordzhigin said.

Another study, which was conducted in 2017-2020 and tracked 567 people, also recorded a surge in brain activity in dying people. The international team of doctors who worked on it believes that this is a manifestation of latent consciousness.

In the study, people who were brought back to life by cardiopulmonary resuscitation after cardiac arrest were able to have memories and remember conversations that took place when they were seemingly unconscious.

They found that people who were successfully resuscitated were able to recall what happened after their death. During resuscitation, they were also played a recording that repeated the names of fruits, and some people were also able to recall the names of the fruits they heard.

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The study also showed that the brain deprived of oxygen remains alive not only for five to ten minutes, as is believed, but much longer, but scientists are not sure whether doctors can save people who have already been declared dead.

"These patients were actually alive on the inside, as evidenced by positive EEG waves, but they were dead on the outside," said Chinwe Ogedegbe, co-author of the study and head of the Emergency Trauma Center.

Scientists also suggest that it may not be about the brain's ability to survive without oxygen, but about the existence of an "inhibitory system" that can explain the distorted perception of consciousness. This system, as explained by scientists, filters and inhibits unnecessary information when a person is awake. However, in the unconscious state, it is absent and this can allow dormant brain pathways to activate and access a deeper realm of consciousness that contains all your memory, thoughts, and actions.

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"Rather than being a hallucination, illusion, or delusion, it seems to contribute to a clear understanding of new dimensions of reality," the researchers believe.

Earlier, OBOZREVATEL also told about scientists who discovered that after death, zombie genes wake up in people's brains.

Subscribe to OBOZREVATEL's Telegram and Viber channels to keep up with the latest developments.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo has reacted to President Bola Tinubus academic results released by the Chicago State University, CSU.

Keyamo said the 2023 Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar should apologize to Tinubu and Nigerians for the humiliation.

In a post on X, the minister described Atikus journey to Chicago in a bid to expose Tinubu as fruitless.

According to Keyamo: From the responses by Chicago State University, ATIKUs journey to Chicago and back has been a journey to nowhere, a fruitless exercise and an odyssey in self-humiliation. President Tinubu and Nigerians deserve an unreserved apology from him.

CSU had released the academic records of Tinubu following an order of a Chicago court.

In the result released, CSU confirmed it found three diplomas matching the certificate Tinubu presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, after a diligent search.

Atiku obtained victory at the court in his fierce legal battle to probe into the academic qualification of Tinubu in the February 25 presidential poll.

Tinubu had supplied certificates from the Chicago State University, CSU, to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to secure eligibility to participate in the election.

A United States of America court on Saturday ordered CSU to release Tinubus academic records for verification and in support of Atikus petition challenging the result of the 2023 presidential poll.

Justice Nancy Maldonado in a judgment dismissed the objection raised by Tinubu against Atikus request and expressly ordered that the CSU must submit the academic records to Atiku.




The Department of State Security has arrested a 23-year-old lady, Fildausi Ahamadu, for allegedly threatening to commit suicide with all those she felt were responsible for the victory of the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Kano State, Nasiru Gawuna, at the election petitions tribunal.





A reliable source within the DSS who craved anonymity, confirmed on Tuesday the arrest of the lady, who claimed to be fighting for the New Nigeria Peoples Party and governor, Abba Yusuf, in a viral video clip circulated in the city.





In the Clip, Fildausi was overheard in Hausa attacking the Lead Judge in the tribunal, warning that anywhere she sees (the judge), she (Ahamadu) wont mind holding her with a bomb to commit suicide.





In the same vein, the lady warned Gawuna, saying, You dare not indicate your location, otherwise, I dont mind striking you with a bomb vest to commit suicide.





The lady also used the video clip to attack Vice President Kashim Shettima, calling him names and blaming him for being behind the court predicament of the NNPP in Kano State.





Already, the source explained that the operatives are after the arrest of Ahamadu and taking her to court.





We are indeed taking Fildausi Musa Ahamadu to court because these threats should not be taken lightly, the source added.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has hailed the arraignment of a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, at the Westministers Court in London, United Kingdom, over alleged bribery allegations.

Diezani Alison-Madueke, on Monday, appeared in a London court over charges of receiving bribes in the form of cash, flights on private jets, luxury goods and the use of high-end properties in Britain in return for awarding oil contracts.

Prosecutor, Andy Young, alleged that Alison-Madueke, who was not asked to enter a plea, accepted a wide range of advantages in cash and in-kind from people who wanted to receive or continue to receive the award of oil contracts which were worth billions of dollars in total.

Reacting, EFCC, in a statement issued by its Head, Media & Publicity, Dele Oyewale, said the charges preferred against Diezani at the London court are diametrically different from the 13-count charges bordering on money laundering the anti-graft agency had raised against her.

He said it is instructive to note that criminality is criminality, irrespective of jurisdictional differences.

No crime can go unpunished. The money laundering charges for which Madueke is answerable to the EFCC, cover jurisdictions in Dubai, United Kingdom, United States of America and Nigeria, he said.

Oyewale added that EFCC has obtained an arrest warrant and extradition proceedings have been initiated to bring the former Minister to trial in Nigeria.

The Commission is on course on her trial. She will soon have her day in our courts.
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adamu Garba, has warned that the demands being set before the Federal Government by the labour unions would force companies in private sector to sack some of their workers.

According to him, the level of demands the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC and Trade Union Congress, TUC are hanging on the Federal government is not sustainable.

The former presidential aspirant noted that the total number of federal, state, and local government workers are far below the number workers in the private sector.

With us as private employers of labour, how do they want us to cope? How would the government be for us too?

If you force us to increase the minimum wage of all our staff beyond what our income can handle, it means retrenchment across many private companies.

He said the labour unions must negotiate with caution.

We must not continue spending 70% of our budget on civil servants salaries, remove subsidies to earn more for development, increase the minimum wage yet again for the civil service and end up spending all the subsidy gains on salaries: a clear vicious circle.

The truth of the matter is, we are at crossroads; a proverbial battle between body and soul: We either choose our bodily pleasure by eating everything today and damn the consequences from tomorrow, our we choose our soul by enduring the pains of now for the overall benefit of tomorrow.




President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has sent a request to the Senate asking it to screen Balarabe Abbas Lawal as minister from Kaduna.





Lawal, who served as secretary to the government under Governor Nasir El-Rufai, replaces El-Rufai in Tinubus cabinet.





His portfolio will be the ministry of environment.





El-Rufai was earlier nominated and screened by the senate. But he was not cleared, over what was called security concerns.





Tinubus letter to Akpabio also included two other nominees for the youth ministry: Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim and and Olawale Olawande.





While Jamila, from Kwara state and a medical doctor, will serve as the minister, Olawande from Ondo State will serve as minister of state.





Balarabe Lawal was born 5th February 1958 in Kachia, Kaduna State.





He was educated at Kofar Kuyambana Primary School from 1964 to 1970.





He thereafter went to the famous Barewa College Zaria from 1971 till 1975. From Barewa, Lawal went to Katsina College of Arts, Science and Technology, graduating in 1978.





He left Katsina to Ahmadu Bello University Zaria to study political science from 1978 to 1981. He also bagged a Masters in political science from the school in 1987.





Post-graduation, Balarabe Lawal was a lecturer at College of Advanced Studies, Zaria, up till July 1989.





He then worked with Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) as Principal Management Development Officer from July 1989 till August 1991.





His next port of service was National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), where he worked from July 1991 to 1999 as Principal Manager (Administration) .





When democracy returned to Nigeria in 1999, Balarabe Lawal first served as Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Education from September 1999 to February 2001. Later, he performed a similar role as Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Army, Ministry of Defence, Abuja from February 2001 to May 2003.





He also served as Special Assistant to the President in FCT and Chief of Staff to Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. From July 2003 to July 2007.





Before he was appointed secretary to Kaduna government in 2015, Balarabe Lawal managed his own real estate business Rightedge Property Nigeria Limited. He was secretary to Kaduna government up till 2023 May, when he capped his service with the chairmanship of the transition committee, that ushered in the government of Governor Uba Sani on 29 May, 2023.




The senate committee on gas has asked President Bola Tinubu to send a supplementary budget to facilitate the procurement of compressed natural gas (CNG) buses for mass transit across the country.

The federal government agreed to earmark N100 billion for the buses in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between it and organised labour.

The MoU was put in place to avert an indefinite strike by labour.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) had planned to embark on a strike to protest economic hardship and removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol.

In a statement on Tuesday, Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, chair of the senate gas committee, said it would be illegal for the president to make the procurement of the CNG buses without recourse to the national assembly.

Jarigbe commended the president for the initiative to provide the CNG buses, adding tha it would ameliorate the suffering of citizens.

"The law frowns at extra budgetary spending," the chair said.

"It will be illegal to spend tax payers money without approval by the national assembly."

The Cross River senator added that it would be appropriate for the federal government to raise the funds through a supplementary budget and not "ways and means", a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) provision.
Reno Omokri, former presidential aide to Goodluck Jonathan said he is still supporting Atiku Abubakar, despite his affiliation ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and support for President Bola Tinubu on his Chicago State University records saga.

Omokri, in a tweet via his verified Twitter handle, emphasized that he successfully graduated from the same institution.

He said he could make this claim because he personally took a trip to the varsity in 2022, to establish the truth and didnt rely on speculations while parties were preparing for the 2023 elections.

Omokri noted that while he continues to support Atiku, who requested four document categories from CSU regarding Tinubus graduation, it doesnt prevent him from recognizing Tinubus legitimacy as an alumnus of the American institution.

He noted as a result of his investigation on the matter, he was able to counter Rufai Oseni, co-host of Arise TV morning Show as well as the stations report on Tinubu being denied by CSU.

According to Omokri, he isnt the kind of person whose words falter and would always speak the truth whether it would end up favouring his enemies or hurting his allies.

He stated, I am one of the few persons whose stories NEVER changed. I fire to Chicago on September 18, 2022, and went to Chicago State University on September 19, 2022. I did not rely on the Internet, rumours, gossip or beer parlour talk.

On November 22, 2022, when Rufai Oseni and AriseTV lied that Chicago State University denied Bola Tinubu, I told them they were lying on air. That was three months before the election.

Two weeks after appearing on AriseTV, I was at Chatham House protesting against Bola Tinubu, whom I called out.

So, when exactly did I dump Waziri Atiku Abubakar? When I was saying before the election that Bola Tinubu was admitted, attended, and graduated from Chicago State University.

What I am saying today and what I said before, during, and after the election are the same. Because the truth is constant.

It is because some people have a trader mentality and can sell their fathers for money that they believe everyone is like them. I will always tell the truth, even if it favours my enemy and injures my friend! #TableShaker.

Recall that the Chicago State University (CSU) responded to the request by former vice president Atiku Abubakar in line with an Illinois, United States (U.S.) court order.

In its compliance with the September 30 judgment by Justice Nancy Maldonado of the Northern District of Illinois Court, the CSU stated that it does not keep copies of diploma certificates issued to students.

In his earlier application, Atiku had sought four categories of documents from the CSU.

The CSU confirmed Tinubu graduated in 1979 with a bachelors degree in Business Administration.

The university said it found some diploma certificates with the same font as the one being queried by Atiku.
Reno Omokri, a former presidential aide, has slammed Peter Obi, the Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate in the last election, for suggesting that President Bola Ahmed had submitted a fake certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Peter Obi had, while reacting to the university certificate issues surrounding Tinubu, said people should be honest about their qualifications, insisting that educational qualification is not even a criterion to be a good President. He cited some American leaders who lacked good educational backgrounds.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, obtained victory in his fierce legal battle to probe the academic qualification of Tinubu in the February 25 presidential poll.

Tinubu had supplied certificates from the Chicago State University, CSU, to INEC to secure eligibility to participate in the election.

A United States of America court on Saturday ordered CSU to release Tinubus academic records for verification and in support of Atikus petition challenging the result of the 2023 presidential poll.

Justice Nancy Maldonado, in a judgment, dismissed the objection raised by Tinubu against Atikus request and expressly ordered that the CSU must submit the academic records to Atiku.

And on Monday evening, the records were made available to the PDP leader, although the authenticity is still being questioned by some sections of social media users.

But Reno is calling out the Labour Party candidate for even suggesting that there could have been a fake certificate somewhere.

Peter Obi, Chicago State University, has backed Bola Tinubus certificate and stands by the legitimacy of his academic credentials, he wrote on X.

Only yesterday morning, you were on AriseTV accusing a certain leader of having a fake certificate.

Now, answer this question: Why did you not tender your own degree from the University of Nigeria Nsukka to the INEC?
A former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, on Monday, appeared before the Westminster Magistrates Court in the United Kingdom over an alleged 100,000 bribe.





The district judge, Michael Snow, granted Alison-Madueke a 70,000 bail.





Snow further imposed other terms on Alison-Madueke including an 11 pm to 6 am curfew, an electronic tag to be worn by her at all times and a 70,000 surety to be paid before she could leave the court building.





Although she did not formally enter a plea, her attorney, Mark Bowen, informed the court that she would plead not guilty, Reuters reported.

Her next court appearance will be on October 30 at Southwark Crown Court, which deals with serious criminal cases.





In August, the UKs National Crime Agency said it suspected that Alison-Madueke had accepted bribes in return for awarding multi-million-pound oil and gas contracts.





In a statement published on its website, NCA said the ex-Nigeria minister is alleged to have benefitted from at least 100,000 in cash, chauffeur-driven cars, flights on private jets, luxury holidays for her family, and the use of multiple London properties.

Her charges also detail financial rewards, including furniture, renovation work and staff for the properties, payment of private school fees, and gifts from high-end designer shops such as Cartier jewellery and Louis Vuitton goods.





In March 2023, the NCA also provided evidence to the US Department of Justice that enabled them to recover assets totalling $53.1m linked to Diezans alleged corruption.





Head of the NCAs international corruption unit, Andy Kelly, said the charges are a milestone in what has been a thorough and complex international investigation. Bribery is a pervasive form of corruption, which enables serious criminality and can have devastating consequences for developing countries. We will continue to work with partners here and overseas to tackle the threat, Kelly added.





Diezani was the minister of petroleum resources from 2010 to 2015 during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.





Shortly before Jonathan handed over to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, she left the country for the UK.





The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission alleged that the former minister stole $2.5bn from the Nigerian government while she was a minister.





Efforts by the EFCC to arraign her have been unsuccessful as she has not returned to Nigeria since 2015. But the anti-graft agency said on Monday that it had commenced an extradition process to bring Diezani back to Nigeria to face trial.





The spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, said, The EFCC welcomes, with keen interest, the arraignment of former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, at the Westministers Court in London, United Kingdom, following alleged bribery allegations.





Although the charges preferred against her at the London court, are diametrically different from the 13 counts, bordering on money laundering that the EFCC has raised against her, it is instructive to note that criminality is criminality, irrespective of jurisdictional differences. No crime can go unpunished. The money laundering charges for which Madueke is answerable to the EFCC, cover jurisdictions in Dubai, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Nigeria.





To bring the former Minister to trial in Nigeria, an arrest warrant has been obtained and extradition proceedings have been initiated. The commission is on course on her trial. She will soon have her day in our courts.




The West African Examinations Council has initiated the 76th meeting of the Nigeria Examinations Committee to deliberate on cases of malpractice and irregularities arising from the 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination for school candidates.

The body disclosed this on Tuesday via its official X handle.

Earlier on Monday, WAEC appointed Dr. Amos Josiah Dangut as the Head of the Nigeria National Office.

The 76th Meeting of the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC) to consider & decide on the malpractice/irregularity cases arising from the conduct of WASSCE for School Candidates, 2023 begins today.

In August, the examination body initially released the 2023 WASSCE results, but the outcomes of 262,803 candidates were put on hold due to instances of examination malpractice.

However, the body has assured candidates that information about their results will be communicated after the NEC meeting concludes its deliberations.

The 76th Meeting of the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC) to consider & decide on the malpractice/irregularity cases arising from the conduct of WASSCE for School Candidates, 2023 begins today, the post read.

Details later
A "monument to Stepan Bandera" has appeared on the Google map of Russian Belgorod. The geographical point is the location of a multi-story building at 46 Zhovtneva Street in the city center, but the marker has not been removed for several months.

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This was reported by the local Telegram channel Pepel. As noted, the "Bandera monument" appeared on Google Maps at least five months ago.

This is evidenced by user comments.

In their reviews of the "monument," some write that the monument is "the most beautiful" in their hometown, while others are "very proud of their native land."

Still others complain that they cannot find the object and attach a photo of the house where the "Bandera" allegedly stands.

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As reported by OBOZREVATEL:

- On September 18, a giant letter "Z" was set on fire in Belgorod, which became a symbol of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine. Russian police began searching for the arsonists.

- On the morning of October 3, Shebekino, Belgorod region, reported seven air raids on the Monocrystal plant, which produces synthetic sapphires used, among other things, in electronics.

Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Ganduje, has explained why he led a delegation of National Working Committee members to see the immediate past president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, in Katsina State.

Ganduje and his team visited the former President in his home town, Daura, on Monday.

Buhari, Ganduje and some other members of the APC NWC

In a statement issued in Abuja by his Chief Press Secretary, Edwin Olofu, the former governor of Kano state said he went to formally introduce the new leadership of the APC to the former president and to rejoice with him on the occasion of Nigerias 63rd Independence anniversary.

He said, It is mainly to introduce the newly constituted National Working Committee of our great party. And also to show to him our solidarity and to thank him for what he has done for the country in eight years.

To also congratulate him on the Independence Day celebration, 63 years of development for Nigeria for which eight years must be a portion for his administration. That is why we are here in Daura at his residence, and we thank him for receiving us.

Speaking on the victories of the APC in some of the Tribunal judgments delivered so far, the National Chairman said: Of course, seeing is believing and we are happy and comfortable. But that is not enough.

We have three off-season elections coming up in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo. Insha Allah, we will also win these elections. So, we are happy with the developments.

The national chairman and other NWC members on his entourage have since returned from Daura to the Federal Capital Territory.
A New Jersey woman has filed a class action suit against Tinder, claiming the dating apps photo verification system doesnt work and has allowed potential scammers to steal her images and use them as verified on fake accounts.

The 38-year-old woman from Elmwood Park states in court papers she signed up for Tinder in 2018 and was permanently banned for unknown reasons the following year.

(She) was confused about why she was banned because she had barely used her account since signing up, states the suit, filed Sept. 27, in Superior Court of Bergen County. The lawsuit was first reported by the New Jersey Law Journal.

The woman received a direct message Dec. 1, 2022, from a friend on Instagram who warned her that someone named Gloria was using her pictures on Tinder.

The woman became horrified when she noticed that the Gloria profile had been verified by (Tinder).

A spokesperson for Tinder did not respond Monday to a request for comment on the suit.

The lawsuit claims that Tinder promotes its photo verification system and requires users to take a video selfie as a safety measure.

The photo is verified if the person in your video selfie passes both the Liveness check and 3D Face Authentication step, Tinder states in instructions for verification, according to the lawsuit.

But the person who created the Gloria account was somehow able to bypass the verification process, even with photos stolen from the user who sued, according to the complaint.

Tinders photo verification process does nothing to verify the users identity  it lacks the capability to detect whether a selfie was actually taken by the user at the time they seek verification, the suit alleges.

It simply compares the stolen public photos against other stolen public photos, the suit alleges.

Tinder further gives users the false impression that verified users who are mostly likely scammers, have been confirmed as real and authentic, according to the suit.

The reason for the fake accounts, according to the suit, is so that scammers can catfish real users, striking up conversations, moving the conversations to other platforms and digging for personal information.

This is to gain information which may be exploited by convincing the target to voluntarily send the scammer money, disclose their sensitive personal information, or click on a link containing malware, the suit says.

The lawsuit claims the womans photos continue to be used on fake accounts. In addition, as recently as March, the woman found another falsely verified Tinder account using a friends photo.

She claims shes suffered substantial damage to her reputation caused by scammers posing as her online and blames Tinder for false advertising and deceptive business practices.

The woman has filed the suit on behalf of all New Jersey Tinder users under New Jerseys Consumer Fraud Act.

One of the attorneys who filed the suit, Todd Friedman, of California, reached a $24 million settlement with Tinder after accusing the dating app of age discrimination, according to the New Jersey Law Journal.

The suit was based on fees for a premium membership that cost $10 more for people age 30 and up. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the lower courts approval of that settlement by a 2-1 margin in 2021, the law journal reported.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Two Newark men have been charged after allegedly selling guns to undercover law enforcement officers over the summer.

One of the men  Carlo M. De Leon De Jesus, 26  also sold cocaine and fentanyl during the deals, the U.S. Attorneys Office for New Jersey said Monday.

De Jesus sold a pistol for $1,500 near his girlfriends home on July 6, according to charging documents.

On Aug. 28, he sold a short barrel rifle to the same undercover officers for $5,500, according to federal prosecutors. During that meetup, De Jesus allegedly sold 24 grams of fentanyl and 19 grams of cocaine for $1,100 in cash.

On Sept. 11, the undercover cops bought a semi-automatic handgun for $2,400 and 53 grams of fentanyl for $1,600 cash, charing documents state.

The other man charged  Victor Gonzalez, 36  sold a pistol to an undercover officer for $1,500 on Sept. 21 near a car dealership on South Orange Avenue in Newark, according to court papers.

Both men are charged with dealing firearms without a license, transferring firearms to an out-of-state resident and firearms trafficking. De Jesus is also charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

De Jesus and Gonzalez were ordered held in jail following a court appearance on Monday. Attorney information for the defendants wasnt immediately available.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com.
Hoboken Dual Language Charter School (HoLa) has become the first charter school to receive the School Leader Award from the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA) for 2023. The announcement came on Monday, Sept. 25.

HoLa is a K-8 dual language public charter school in Hoboken with more than 415 students. Students predominantly join HoLa in kindergarten and, regardless of language background, spend 90 percent of their day in Spanish-speaking classrooms in the early grades. Students gradually receive increasing amounts of instruction in English as they get older, and by 4th grade, instruction is 50 percent Spanish and 50 percent English.
In another sign that former Gov. Jim McGreevey is serious about reviving his political career, the potential Jersey City mayoral contender is taking aim at the current administration as he urged the city council to reject an ordinance that would keep the Municipality Utilities Authority in charge of city water supply for 40 more years.

The announcement, via a letter to the editor, comes a couple days after the one-time mayor of Woodbridge sent a letter to Jersey City residents laying out his concerns for the city  public safety, community well-being, economic development, education, housing affordability, responsible government and taxes and quality of life.
Are you ready to celebrate Postmodern Jukeboxs 10th anniversary?

Scott Bradlee and his Postmodern Jukebox collective will head out on a North American tour to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

The 10 tour will begin on Feb. 8, 2024 in Salem, Ore. and will wrap up on April 2 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Before embarking on their anniversary tour, Postmodern Jukebox will perform a set of shows in New Jersey, including Dec. 5 in Morristown and Dec. 21 in Red Bank, as part of their Life in the Past Lane tour.

This tour will also celebrate Postmodern Jukeboxs 1,000th show in 2024.

Tickets to see Postmodern Jukebox on tour are available on Ticketmaster.

However, fans also can find tickets on secondary market sites, such as StubHub, Vivid Seats, TicketNetwork, MegaSeats and TicketCity.

First-time Vivid Seats users can save $20 on ticket orders over $200 by entering promo code NJ20 at checkout.

TicketCity users can save $15 on orders over $400 using promo code TCITYSAVE15 at checkout.

You can find a full calendar of Postmodern Jukeboxs tour dates here.

More massive upcoming tours in 2023-2024

Postmodern Jukebox are not the only artists going out on tour in the next few months.

Here are a few more upcoming tours you wont want to miss.

RELATED STORIES ABOUT LIVE EVENTS:

Stevie Nicks tour 2023: Full schedule, dates, where to buy tickets

Olivia Rodrigo tickets go on sale today, starting at just $20

How to get Olivia Rodrigo GUTS tour tickets if you didnt sign up for presale

Is Harryween 2023 going to happen?

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Nicole Iuzzolino can be reached at niuzzolino@njadvancemedia.com. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips.
A New Jersey man has admitted his role in an interstate burglary spree that targeted Asian American business owners, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.

Kevin Jackson, 57, of Rahway, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property.

Jackson conspired with seven others to burglarize the homes of Asian American small business owners in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware from December 2016 to March 2019, authorities said.

The group stole large sums of cash, high-end jewelry and other valuable items from the victims homes and transported the goods between states, officials said.

In one of the burglaries, Jackson and his co-conspirators allegedly stole about $130,000 worth of items from a home in Union County, authorities said.

The seven other alleged participants were all charged with conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property along with Jackson in 2021  James Hurt, 47, of New York, Randi Barr, 42, of Vauxhall, Rabine Armour, of Easton, Pennsylvania, Kevin Burton, of Newark, Thomas Rodgers, of Newark, Sherman Glasco of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Terrance Black, of Irvington.

During interviews with detectives, a member of the group said they were targeting Asian business owners because it was believed that the victims kept large sums of currency and jewelry in their residences, according to a criminal complaint.

Barr was sentenced to 50 months in state prison in August and was ordered to pay a combined $127,661 in restitution and forfeiture.

Hurt pleaded guilty in the case last month is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 20. Jackson will be sentenced on Feb. 13.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Nicolas Fernandes may be reached at nfernandes@njadvancemedia.com.
A New Jersey man has been convicted of indecent assault for inappropriately touching and kissing his girlfriends sleeping housemate at a college in Pennsylvania nearly two years ago.

The assault took place after Eric Jones, now 24, entered the womans room and asked for her phone number at the Lincoln House on the campus of Lincoln University in Lower Oxford, the Chester County District Attorneys Office said Monday.

The woman, who had earlier been out drinking while attending Homecoming activities and parties on campus into the early morning of Oct. 17, 2021, provided Jones her number and attempted to end the interaction, officials said. Instead of leaving, though, Jones began to kiss and touch her.

Lincoln House on the campus of Lincoln University in Lower Oxford, Pennsylvania.Lincoln University

The victim was unable to move or consent due to intoxication, the district attorneys office said. The victim stated that the defendant rolled her onto her stomach and continued to kiss and touch her without her consent.

The office lauded the woman for reporting the assault.

This defendant violated the victim when she was incapable of consent, District Attorney Deb Ryan said in a statement. She showed tremendous courage by coming forward.

Sentencing for Jones, of Newark, has not been scheduled.

Founded in 1854, Lincoln University is the countrys first degree-granting, historically Black college or university. It is about 50 miles west of Philadelphia.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com.
A second brother has admitted he robbed and killed a New Jersey man two years ago before dumping the victims body in the woods in Pennsylvania.

Anthony J. Gamble, 22, of the Somerset section of Franklin, pleaded guilty to murder and criminal conspiracy to commit robbery in the death of Kevin Rosero in June 2021, the Bucks County District Attorneys Office said.

Gambles brother, Joshua D. Gamble, 19, of Somerset, pleaded guilty last year to robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, theft, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and abuse of a corpse.

Both are scheduled to be sentenced in November.

Rosero died about two weeks before his 27th birthday on June 17, 2021. His body was found just after midnight in a wooded area off a road in Richland Township, near Quakertown, after police took the two bloodied suspects into custody, according to the Bucks County District Attorney and arrest affidavits.

An autopsy found Rosero been stabbed 28 times in the face, neck, upper torso, and upper extremities.

Pennsylvania state troopers came upon two vehicles at 12:03 a.m. on the side of East Pumping Station Road near Heller Road. One had New Jersey plates, the other was a rental.

Joshua Gamble was found on the ground near one vehicle, wearing gloves and with blood on his shoes and key fob, an affidavit said. Anthony Gamble was found in the woods nearby, with blood on his shirt and shoes. He also had work gloves in his pocket.

The troopers saw a substantial amount of blood in the rental car and requested backup before finding Roseros body a short distance into the woods, the affidavits say.

Investigators allegedly recovered a blood-stained knife from the rental and also found a cellphone and sanitizing wipes on the vehicles roof as well as a second phone in the Audi, officials said.

A receipt from a nearby 7-Eleven was found in the other vehicle, showing two sets of work gloves and sanitizing wipes were purchased at 11:41 p.m. that night, authorities said. Surveillance video and other evidence confirmed Joshua Gamble made the purchase.

An analysis of Anthony Gambles cellphone showed searches for 7 eleven, junk yards near me, and can soap wash off fingerprints. the Bucks County DA said. Joshua Gambles phone showed a $400 transfer from Roseros CashApp account made at 11:20 p.m.  43 minutes before troopers spotted the vehicles and began the investigation.

Rosero graduated from Plainfield High School and Raritan Valley Community College before earning a bachelors degree from Rutgers University in 2019.

Hes someone who always brought light to everyone  but his flame burned differently, said Khushwant Pall, who became friends with Rosero when both attended Raritan Valley Community College. He was not only a man of God, he was an incredible son, an extraordinary student and and amazing friend.

His demeanor and everything about him was something thats hard to find in this world, Pall said in a phone interview in 2021. He always stood up for the right things. He stood up for justice.

Roseo planned to attend law school to become an immigration attorney, according to friends.

Authorities said Rosero lived in Somerset but another friend told NJ Advance Media he lived with his parents in South Plainfield.

LehighValleyLive.com staff writer Steve Novak contributed to this report.
A veteran police officer in Union County has filed a lawsuit alleging rampant and widespread sexual harassment, corruption, and misconduct within the ranks of the Union Township Police Department.

The 47-year-old officer claims she has been harassed and humiliated since having a relationship in early 2014 with a fellow officer who lied about his marital status. She broke off the relationship, but he continued to pursue her  until she called his wife, according to a lawsuit filed Sept. 14.

(The) conduct was severe and pervasive enough to make a reasonable woman believe that the conditions of employment were altered, and the working environment was hostile or abusive, states the 42-page suit, filed in Superior Court of Union County.

Daniel Antonelli, attorney for Union Township, declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing pending litigation. However, he said the allegations deserve a serious review.

The township has already begun and has completed some internal reviews and will continue to ensure that our police department performs to the highest standards, Antonelli said.

After the woman ended her relationship with the first officer, a second one identified in the suit as a detective lieutenant, began expressing his romantic interest.

He allegedly sent the woman two Easter bunny stuffed animals, a Serenity Prayer cross, and a note of interest in a large brown box filled with green foam packing peanuts, the suit says.

The woman declined the detective lieutenants advances, but then found herself the subject of rumors around the station house that they were sleeping together, the suit alleges.

When she reported the rumor to a now-former police director, he allegedly told her that he did not care who was sleeping with whom, the suit states.

No action was taken by the director or the township, according to the suit.

In the years that followed, the officer claims she has been denied promotions, hounded about her compensatory time, and brought up on bogus charges having to do with her side jobs.

In November 2021, she was assigned to supervise the evidence and property unit.

While working in the unit, she became aware that the deputy chief had two officers and civilian employees move a snow blower from the property room to his parents house for personal use in case there was a storm, the suit alleges.

The snowblower had been seized months earlier as evidence when officers executed a search warrant at a building on Springfield Avenue in Vauxhall, according to the suit.

When she emailed a lieutenant about the snowblower, the supervisor allegedly yelled at the woman for documenting that the deputy chief took something from an active case, the suit says.

The woman was ordered to document that the snowblower was still in the property room  even though it was not  or face insubordination charges, the suit alleges.

The deputy chief returned the snowblower to the evidence room on May 25, 2022, using his personal pickup truck and a trail hitch, the suit says.

The same day, a police officer made a comment regarding (the womans) genitalia. The comment was made in front of other male officers, the suit says.

The alleged harassment continued into the fall of 2022, when the woman says she asked a male co-worker how she could receive additional side jobs. In response, the co-worker motioned as to unbuckle his belt and pants, the suit states.

On another occasion, a male supervisor entered her office and asked if she got an upgrade on her boobs because they were looking larger, the suit alleges. Another officer asked her several times to take her boobs out, the suit says.

On Jan. 2, the woman claims she was returning to the property room from a bathroom in the basement, when she was allegedly shot in the buttocks and upper legs with rubber pellets from a BB gun.

At the same time, the woman says she heard several male officers laughing. She overheard one officer say, Id like to shoot my wife with this, according to the suit.

The woman noticed several yellow pellets on the ground and continued to get shot at until she made it to her office and closed the door, the suit alleges.

(She) began to tear up because she could not believe that someone had shot at her with the pellets, the suit says. She also felt humiliation from the fact that others were audibly amused by this misconduct.

On Jan. 25, the woman met with a female lieutenant privately on a street in Union, away from police headquarters, to report the pellet gun incident, according to the suit.

On Feb. 1, the department sent out a written warning about sexual harassment. On Feb. 14, the officer was told that the targets of her complaint had been disciplined, but nothing else, the suit says.

The department also failed to give the woman a written disposition of her internal affairs complaint. Failure to provide a complainant with a written disposition is a violation of the state attorney generals guidelines, according to the suit.

On April 21, the woman notified the township through her attorney that she intended to file a discrimination lawsuit. A few days later, on April 24, the woman found out she was the target of an internal affairs investigation involving a problem with her side job at ShopRite, according to the suit.

Initially, a civilian made a complaint against (the woman) but none of his allegations resulted in a finding that (she) engaged in violations of the departments policies and procedures, the suit states.

On April 27, the woman was served with two more internal affairs notifications, investigating her for alleged misconduct at her side jobs and for alleged improprieties involving her vacation days in 2022, the suit says.

The lawsuit says the woman ultimately received a one-day suspension following a departmental hearing.

The lawsuit alleges a hostile work environment due to her gender, in violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, disparate treatment, and retaliation.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
While the Russian authorities are cultivating the idea of the "greatness" of the USSR, and the invaders are naming streets after Soviet names and erecting monuments to figures from the Soviet Union, "people's decommunization" continues in Russia. In Astrakhan, Russia, unknown persons demolished a monument to Lenin.

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Russian communists are demanding to find and punish those who destroyed the statue. Details and photos from the scene were published by Nexta.

"People's decommunization continues in Russia. In Astrakhan, for example, a monument to Lenin was demolished, leaving only his legs. The Communist Party demands to find and punish the perpetrators," the publication writes.

The published photos show the mutilated monument. The more or less surviving bust of the "leader of the world revolution" is lying on the ground, on a pile of rubble.

Only the legs of the statue are really left on the pedestal.

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Earlier it became known that a monument to Lenin was accidentally dropped in Kazakhstan.

In the city of Altai, as can be seen from the video that appeared online, an excavator with a large bucket approached the monument from behind, hitting the monument and knocking it to the ground.

Local authorities assured that the monument would be restored and returned to its place.

Meanwhile, in Russia, a man tried to set fire to Lenin's mausoleum with a Molotov cocktail.

Only verified information on our Telegram channel Obozrevatel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
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Today

Moderating temperatures will change morning snow showers to rain showers by late day. High 44F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

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Pope Francis has not ruled out the possibility that the Catholic Church may bless same-sex couples. In his opinion, requests for blessing should be treated with "pastoral charity" and church officials cannot be "judges" who can only "deny, reject and exclude."

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At the same time, the Vatican continues to consider same-sex relationships "objectively sinful" and does not recognize marriages between members of the same sex. The details are reported by the BBC.

According to the publication, before the week-long global gathering to discuss the future of the Church, the Pope received a request from a group of cardinals who asked to dot the i's and cross the t's on the issue of church blessing for same-sex couples. It is a prayer or request to God for a favorable attitude toward a person or people that is said by priests.

The question arose after the bishops of a number of Western European countries, including Belgium and Germany, began to allow priests to bless same-sex couples.

In his response, Pope Francis emphasized that any request for a blessing should be treated with "pastoral charity."

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"We cannot be judges who only deny, reject and exclude," he said.

However, the Pope added, the Church still considers relations between members of the same sex "objectively sinful" and does not recognize marriages between them.

According to the Pontiff, the Church understands marriage as "an exclusive, stable and indissoluble union between a man and a woman" and should avoid "any rites or ceremonies that may contradict this conviction." However, he added, asking for a blessing is "an expression of a plea to God for help, a request to live a better life."

"Pastoral discernment must adequately distinguish whether there are forms of blessing, requests by one or more persons, that do not convey a false view of marriage," the Pope said.

He also recommended that each request for a blessing be considered separately, while, according to Francis, "decisions that may be part of pastoral discretion in certain circumstances should not necessarily become the norm."

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"Canon law should not and cannot cover everything," the Pope emphasized.

The pontiff also added that the Church should always approach its relations with people with "kindness, patience, understanding, tenderness, and encouragement."

In 2021, a similar request was already made to the leadership of the Catholic Church. At that time, the Vatican's doctrinal department decided not to allow this practice.

Meanwhile, in February 2023, the highest clergy of the Anglican Church supported the proposal to allow prayers of blessing for same-sex couples.

"This move will mean that a same-sex couple will be able to go to the Anglican Church after the official wedding ceremony for services, including prayers of dedication, thanksgiving, and God's blessing," the BBC writes.

In March this year, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine registered a bill on civil partnerships for same-sex and different-sex couples. If passed, this bill, authored by MP Inna Sovsun of the Voice party, will create an institution of legal relations between same-sex partners and greatly simplify the procedure for their registration.

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According to Sovsun, her proposed bill will also help protect the rights of military personnel belonging to the LGBT community.

Not everyone appreciated Sovsun's initiative. For example, in Volyn, deputies opposed civil partnerships for same-sex and different-sex couples. In their opinion, such legalization of relationships is "the destruction of national values." And the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church called the bill "a bill of lawlessness, not law".

From March 14 to the present day, according to the website of the Verkhovna Rada, the draft law has been "under consideration" in one of the parliamentary committees.

Meanwhile, a petition calling on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to publicly support the creation of the civil partnership institute and facilitate the adoption of the draft law collected the required number of signatures in April.

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The author of the petition noted that "the adoption of this draft law will solve the problem of the legal status, rights and obligations of partners, the legal regime of their property, inheritance, social protection, and rights in the event of the death or disappearance of one of them."

In late May, Zelenskyy responded to the petition. He emphasized that Ukraine is fully committed to three fundamental European values: democracy, the rule of law, and human rights. However, the president added, according to the Constitution of Ukraine, marriage is based on the free consent of a woman and a man (Article 51), and in a state of martial law or emergency, the Constitution cannot be changed (Article 157).

Meanwhile, in early June, the ECHR ordered Ukraine to legally recognize same-sex couples. This was based on several complaints filed by a Ukrainian same-sex couple back in 2014, who demanded official state recognition and registration of their relationship.

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Festival goers walk through booths in the shadow of the Louisiana State Capitol at the 2019 Louisiana Book Festival, November 2, 2019, in downtown Baton Rouge, La.
It is creeping up the river like a rising thermometer. Pumping in fresh water via pipeline from above what is known as the "Kenner hump" in the Mississippi River could help solve the problem.
It tastes like fish oil, has the mouthfeel of rubber and looks like a ball of earwax, but wild pigs are literally dying to eat it.
As a wedge of salt water creeps up the Mississippi River, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering an unusual tactic: Using the massive Old River Control Structure to reduce the amount of water flowing from the Mississippi into the Red River and the Atchafalaya Basin.
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau has explained why he refused to come to Ukraine for the EU Council of Ministers. According to him, he declined the invitation because of the decline in Polish-Ukrainian relations.

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The diplomat also explained his decision by his poor health. Zbigniew Rau said this on Polsat News.

The head of the diplomatic ministry said that Poland and Ukraine have a common interest - both countries want to stop Russian imperialism.

The Polish diplomat called the meeting of the EU Council of Ministers in Kyiv important, but added that his absence at the meeting was an expression of the decline in Polish-Ukrainian relations.

"There are many reasons, including my health. But first and foremost, it is due to the fact that in politics, in particular bilateral politics, between the countries, we are in a period of decline in relations between Poland and Ukraine. We are entering a period of decline, and my absence is partly an expression of this," said Zbigniew Rau.

In addition, the diplomat emphasized that the criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the UN General Assembly against Poland has shaken the trust of Polish society in the current policy of the Ukrainian government.

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"The incident with the transfer of the sectoral dispute to an international forum, and in the way it happened - at a meeting of the UN General Assembly - has led to the fact that the trust of our society in the current policy of the Ukrainian government towards Poland has been shaken," Rau said.

As a reminder, a meeting of European Union foreign ministers took place in Kyiv on October 2. Diplomats gathered to express their solidarity and support for the Ukrainian people.

Earlier it was reported that the United States demanded explanations from Poland regarding military support for Ukraine. The American authorities are concerned about the statements of Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki about the termination of arms supplies to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Later, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that his country would continue to provide military assistance to Ukraine. However, he clarified that such an opportunity would arise if the Polish army received new weapons.

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As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, the Polish authorities announced that they would stop all assistance to Ukrainian refugees from 2024. In particular, they were going to deprive them of the right to free access to healthcare, education, and the labor market, as well as the opportunity to legally stay in the country and receive benefits.

At the same time, the EU Council intends to actually force Poland to extend temporary protection to Ukrainians until at least 2025.

Only verified information on our Telegram channel Obozrevatel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Fall is in the air as walkers and golfers take advantage of the early morning cooler temperatures in Auburn Park in New Orleans Monday Oct, 2, 2023. A cold front is expected to push through Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region over the weekend, bringing the coldest temperatures of the fall season so far to New Orleans, Baton Rouge and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The National Weather Service forecast shows a small chance of rain Friday and "more seasonable temperatures ahead" this weekend. The high temperature for Saturday in New Orleans and Baton Rouge is forecast to be 79 degrees, the NWS in New Orleans tweeted Tuesday morning. (Staff photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune)
Louisiana should have an accessible, balanced, fair-minded governor who can work on behalf of all of its people. We need someone who can work 
On the night of October 3, the Russian terrorist army launched a massive attack on the Dnipropetrovsk region. The air defense forces destroyed 13 drones and a cruise missile in the sky over the region.

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As a result of the falling debris, a private enterprise, a garage, and a vehicle caught fire in Dnipro. The head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, Serhiy Lysak, reported this on Telegram (scroll to the bottom of the page to see the photo).

According to the regional military administration, the debris of enemy drones landed on the territory of an industrial enterprise in Pavlohrad. In addition, a hit was recorded there. As a result of the attack, a fire broke out on the territory of the enterprise. Destruction of production facilities was also recorded.

Lysak noted that rescuers extinguished the fire on the territory of the enterprise in Pavlohrad. The fire caused by falling debris was also extinguished in Dnipro.

Moreover, Russian occupants continued to terrorize Nikopol district. The enemy shelled the community of Myrove with heavy artillery. As a result of Russian criminal actions, 2 private houses and an outbuilding were damaged.

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The French company Turgis & Gaillard has signed an agreement with the Ukrainian enterprise Antonov to jointly produce a smaller and cheaper version of the Aarok MALE expendable drone. The agreement was signed during a visit to Kyiv by French Defense Minister Sebastian Lecorneuil on September 28.

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This was reported by the French newspaper LaTribune. It is noted that the Aarok drone, which will be produced by Antonov, is intended only for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

No specific timeframe for the release of the drones has been given. However, Fanny Turgis, president and founder of Turgis & Gaillard, said that Aarok MALE "is likely to take off in Ukraine next year."

According to her, after signing the agreement, the Ukrainian and French sides will have to agree on all the next steps at the industrial and operational level to start producing drones. In particular, they need to decide on a place to assemble the drone and decide which French and Ukrainian equipment to choose for this UAV.

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The Aarok drone was secretly developed by Turgis & Gaillard, a defense company based in France. For the French defense industry, this UAV can rightly be called a record-breaking development, as it is the largest unmanned aerial vehicle ever developed by the French.

Aarok was presented at the Paris Air Show in June 2023.

The Aarok drone belongs to the MALE class - medium-altitude, long-endurance aircraft that carries various sensors and weapons depending on the mission.

The maximum speed of the drone is 463 km/h. It can fly for 30 hours and does not require prepared infrastructure.

This drone can carry up to 1500 kg of weapons and surpasses the capabilities of the MQ-9 Reaper. It has enough power and wing space to combine different payload systems. At the same time, the Aarok UAV can carry both an optoelectronic camera and a multi-mode radar and radio reconnaissance systems.

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In addition, to perform strike missions, Aarok can be equipped with, among other things, the high-precision modular air-to-ground weapon AASM Hammer from the French company Safran. With this missile, the Aarok drone will have a range of 35 km.

Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
"This was a record-breaking summer for us this year," owner Alison Scates said. "Tourism was great and we waited on people traveling from outside of the country every weekend this summer. It was a party atmosphere on Saturday and Sunday mornings all summer at FLUID. We always take people back to see the roaster and enjoy the coffee experience."

Summer tourism to Indiana Dunes beaches always has been popular but it's gotten even more so as a result of the National Park designation, Weimer said.

"People have a bucket list of visiting all 63 National Parks and Northwest Indiana is a one day's drive from 80% of the U.S. population," she said. "Its location in an urban area means it gets people from all over the country. We've always gotten beach-goers from Illinois and Indiana but now someone who was at the Visitors Center for the Indigenous Cultural Trail groundbreaking was stunned to see that the license plates were all over. It gives you the idea of just how significant it is."

More Indiana Dunes visitors are now staying for at least a few days instead of just a weekend afternoon and exploring sites beyond the beaches like the Bailey Homestead, Chellberg Farm, Tolleston Dune, Cowles Bog and Hobart Prairie Grove Trails.

"People who visit the front desk are now walking in with very specific questions. They've clearly done their research," she said. "The name change really changed it from a summer beach destination and expanded that beyond going to the beach to hiking, birding, kayaking, seeing all the biodiversity and other activities. The National Park visitors come here to see the natural assets and absorb all of that."

More people come looking to hike trails like the Three Dunes Challenge at the Indiana Dunes State Park or the Diana of the Dunes Dare at West Beach, which can be done in any season. Hiking is especially popular in the fall when the colors change in the many wooded portions of the National Park like the Miller Woods, the Glenwood Dunes Trail or the Great Marsh Trail.

That trend has boosted visitation during the shoulder seasons of spring and fall, Weimer said. But the summer season remains the busiest.

"The beaches are still the main driver," she said. "But we're continuing on our path of being a year-round attraction and not just a summer trip now that we're on more bucket lists."
Fire departments throughout Northwest Indiana will be hosting open houses during national Fire Prevention Week.

Started in 1922, Fire Prevention Week works to educate the public about fire safety. It commemorates the Great Chicago Fire which began Oct. 8, 1871 and burned over 2,000 acres of land, killing more than 250 people. This year Fire Prevention Week will go from Oct. 8 to 14 and will revolve around the theme "Cooking Safety Starts with You: Pay Attention to Fire Prevention."

According to the National Fire Protection Association, cooking was the leading cause of reported home fires and home fire injuries between 2015 and 2019.

To mark Fire Prevention Week, multiple Region fire departments are hosting educational open houses that will feature safety trainings, games, raffles food and more.

Crown Point

The Crown Point Fire Department will be holding an open house Sunday, Oct. 8 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event will take place at the Crown Point Fire Station, 126 N. East St., and will include practice fire drills, a fire extinguisher demonstration, a junior firefighter obstacle course, a kitchen fire demonstration, rides on the department's 1949 American LaFrance pumper, educational booths and food vendors.

This event is just one way we try to reach everyone in the community about fire and life safety, Anthony Flynn, a firefighter/paramedic and fire and life safety educator with Crown Point Fire Rescue, said in a city news release. The best emergency we can respond to is the one that never happens.

Hammond

Hammond's open house will take place Saturday Oct. 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Fire Station No. 8, 6350 Parrish Ave. There will be a live burn demonstration, a vehicle extrication demonstration, a free bike raffle, a bike helmet giveaway, free hot dogs, bounce houses, games and more.

Schererville

Also on Saturday Oct. 7, the Schererville Fire Department will be hosting an open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event will be located at Fire Station No. 2, 280 Plum Creek Dr. It will include a car extrication demonstration, a kid's obstacle course, a CPR demonstration, a fire extinguisher training, free bike helmets, hot dogs and more.

Dyer

The Dyer Community Risk Reduction Open House will take place Oct. 14 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. The Dyer Fire Department is located at 2150 Hart St.; the open house will feature a bike helmet giveaway, bike repairs, heart attack and stroke identification training, CPR classes, a smoke detector giveaway, car seat inspections, fire truck rides, a junior firefighter obstacle course, K-9 demonstrations and more.

PHOTOS: Riding shotgun with the Gary Fire Department Riding shotgun with the Gary Fire Department Riding shotgun with the Gary Fire Department Riding shotgun with the Gary Fire Department Riding shotgun with the Gary Fire Department Riding shotgun with the Gary Fire Department Riding shotgun with the Gary Fire Department Riding shotgun with the Gary Fire Department Riding shotgun with the Gary Fire Department
MICHIGAN CITY  Police say a 24-year-old man died after his wife struck him with a vehicle Monday afternoon and then fled the scene.

Miranda Eggleston-Suarez, 34, of Michigan City, was being held at the LaPorte County Jail on a felony count of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, records show.

Additional charges may be coming, officials said.

Michigan City police said they were called out at 2:59 p.m. Monday to the Tall Timbers apartment complex at 3065 Springland Ave. where they learned a driver in a black Chrysler 200 had struck a pedestrian and another vehicle before fleeing the parking lot.

The pedestrian, identified as Kyle Suarez, 24, of Michigan City, was found unresponsive and taken to Franciscan Health Michigan City where he died from his injuries, police said.

Chesterton teacher pulled from class, charged after former student claims they had sex 50 times "She stated that she was still a CHS student but there were too many times she had sex with McCoy at his mother's house to give an exact figure," police said.

Eggleston-Suarez, who was identified as the alleged hit-and-run driver, returned to the scene after being contacted by officials and was taken into custody.

Police said they learned Suarez had been involved in an altercation with another person at the apartment complex parking lot and his wife, Eggleston-Suarez, wanted to leave. While leaving, Eggleston-Suarez reportedly struck her husband and a red pickup truck before fleeing the scene.

Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact Cpl. Brian Wright at 219-874-3221, extension 1008 or at bwright@emichigancity.com.

Tips can also be sent via direct message to the Michigan City Police Department Facebook page, to the crime tip hotline number at 219-873-1488, or to the WeTip Hotline for General Crime at 800-78-CRIME.
OGDEN DUNES  A dispute over lakeshore building height in this Porter County community appears headed for trial after the Indiana Supreme Court recently declined to intervene in the case.

The 5-0 decision by the state's highest court to deny transfer leaves intact a June 16 Court of Appeals ruling reversing the trial court's prior dismissal of the litigation.

As a result, Greg and Robin Shinall will get a chance to challenge a town zoning board decision authorizing construction of a taller than usual lakefront house that would block the couple's view of Lake Michigan from their hillside home.

The appellate court said in its 2-1 decision that impairment of a water view, in this case, constitutes a substantial grievance against the zoning variance, and conveys legal standing to seek judicial review under Indiana law.

The case centers on a proposal by David and Cheryl Tarpo to construct a 6,500-square foot home on their property at 58 Shore Drive with a height of 39 feet, instead of the 30-foot maximum height permitted by the Ogden Dunes Zoning Code, according to court records.

Records show the Shinalls, who live almost directly south of the Tarpos at 3 Cedar Trail, along with several other neighbors, objected to the Tarpos' request for a zoning variance because it would reduce their views of Lake Michigan over the roofline of the Tarpos' existing house.

Following a June 9, 2022, public hearing, the board of zoning appeals (BZA) approved the height variance, prompting the Shinalls to file a lawsuit claiming, among other things, the taller house will sharply reduce the value of their property because homes like theirs with a largely unobstructed lake view tend be worth 10% to 30% more than similar homes without a lake view, according to court records.

Records show the Shinalls' lawsuit initially was dismissed, however, because Porter Superior Judge Michael Fish concluded the Shinalls did not have legal standing to file suit because they were not sufficiently aggrieved by the zoning decision, since Fish said there's no legally protected right to an unobstructed view of the lake.

Two of the three appellate judges disagreed and reversed Fish's ruling. They said, in this case, the facts "clearly establish" the Shinalls are aggrieved for purposes of establishing standing to seek judicial review of the zoning board action.

Specifically, the judges said while Indiana law has not established an unobstructed lake view as a legally protected right, the town of Ogden Dunes effectively has by limiting the height of residential construction to 30 feet.

"The Shinalls and the adjacent property owners would likely suffer from the loss of enjoyment and market value from an obstructed waterfront view of Lake Michigan. As a result, we hold the Shinalls had standing because they had a substantial grievance with BZAs decision granting a variance to the Tarpos," said Appeals Judges Rudolph Pyle III and Robert Altice Jr.

Appeals Judge Patricia Riley dissented from the court's decision. She said there's no right in law for landowners to have an unobstructed view of water, and granting standing to the Shinalls based on the mere existence of the zoning code opens the floodgates for anyone to claim standing to contest any zoning decision.

A trial date in the Porter Superior Court has not yet been set.

Close The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant at Port Chester, now Ogden Dunes, features white actors playing the role of American Indians in a recreation of the area's history. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant at Port Chester, now Ogden Dunes, features white actors playing the role of American Indians in a recreation of the area's history. The Indiana Dunes pageant in 1917 was staged to gain support for creating a new national park in the Indiana Dunes. That didn't happen until 1966, but Indiana Dunes State Park was created in 1925. The Indiana Dunes pageant in 1917 was staged to gain support for creating a new national park in the Indiana Dunes. That didn't happen until 1966, but Indiana Dunes State Park was created in 1925. The Indiana Dunes pageant in 1917 was staged to gain support for creating a new national park in the Indiana Dunes. That didn't happen until 1966, but Indiana Dunes State Park was created in 1925. The Indiana Dunes pageant in 1917 was staged to gain support for creating a new national park in the Indiana Dunes. That didn't happen until 1966, but Indiana Dunes State Park was created in 1925. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. EPSON scanner image The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. Throwback Thursday: 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant These photos are from the spring 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant held at Port Chester, now Ogden Dunes. The pageant is a charming but often overlooked part of the campaign to save the Dunes. Read more about the history of the pageant by clicking here after checking out the historic images in the gallery below. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant at Port Chester, now Ogden Dunes, features white actors playing the role of American Indians in a recreation of the area's history. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant at Port Chester, now Ogden Dunes, features white actors playing the role of American Indians in a recreation of the area's history. The Indiana Dunes pageant in 1917 was staged to gain support for creating a new national park in the Indiana Dunes. That didn't happen until 1966, but Indiana Dunes State Park was created in 1925. The Indiana Dunes pageant in 1917 was staged to gain support for creating a new national park in the Indiana Dunes. That didn't happen until 1966, but Indiana Dunes State Park was created in 1925. The Indiana Dunes pageant in 1917 was staged to gain support for creating a new national park in the Indiana Dunes. That didn't happen until 1966, but Indiana Dunes State Park was created in 1925. The Indiana Dunes pageant in 1917 was staged to gain support for creating a new national park in the Indiana Dunes. That didn't happen until 1966, but Indiana Dunes State Park was created in 1925. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. EPSON scanner image The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development. The 1917 Indiana Dunes pageant was billed as an opportunity to tell the story of the Dunes and promote efforts to save the dunes from further industrial development.
PORTER  The South Shore Line is preparing to resume running trains between its Michigan City and Dune Park stations later this month, after more than one year of bussing passengers between the stations.

The South Shore is targeting the week of Oct. 16 to begin running trains between Michigan City and Dune Park, railroad President and General Manager Michael Noland told its Board of Trustees Monday.

"We have successfully completed out test runs  commissioning and testing the segment between Michigan City and Dune Park," Noland said. "Everything's been tested, everything worked out very well."

He said contractor Walsh Herzog is finishing some remaining work items on the railroad this week, and next week South Shore train crews will do "route familiarization" runs.

The railroad will continue bussing between Dune Park and Gary Metro Center as it works to complete the $378 million Double Track project by next May, when it plans to begin full, expanded service along the Chicago-to-South Bend commuter rail line.

Work between Dune Park and Gary is expected to be completed this year, with testing and preparations along the full route next year before revenue service starts in May.

The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District's other ongoing capital project, the $583 million West Lake Corridor, is nearing the half-way point, Noland told the board.

Contractor FH Paschen/Ragnar Benson recently completed a bridge for a pedestrian underpass under CSX freight rails at the line's southern terminus, near the Munster-Dyer border, requiring shutting down the freight line for more than 40 hours.

"It was a very tightly choreographed effort, Noland said.

The work opened the entire West Lake line to trackwork for a project expected to open to full service in May 2025. "It was a key portion of the work that we needed to accomplish," Noland said.

Also, Monday, the NICTD board authorized issuing up to $200 million in bonds to finance a project in Chicago to convert a train storage track into a fourth main track as the railroad enters its final phase at Van Buren and Millennium stations. The project, which will also include platform work at the stations, is intended to accommodate the additional 26 trains the Shore intends to run after the Double Track and West Lake projects are completed.

The Monon Corridor

Noland also announced at Monday's meeting that the West Lake Corridor will be known as the Monon Corridor of the South Shore Line. The existing line from Hammond to Michigan City, tentatively, will be known as the Lakeshore Corridor.

"South Shore Line is a brand everyone knows  from Hammond to South Bend, everyone understands what the South Shore Line is," Noland said.

The railroad wants that brand to include the new north-south route, and that the West Lake moniker was simply intended as a "description" of the project's location.

The Monon railroad operated from 1897 to 1971. The West Lake line follows its Chicago leg.

"There's a lot of history that goes with the name Monon," Noland said.

Railroad officials decided "Lakeshore" would be an appropriate term for the existing line, though they're still investigating the availability of that name.

The issue came up after the board approved an expenditure of $657,500 on 14 monument signs that will bear the new corridor designations under the South Shore Line name, alongside each station's name.

GALLERY: The Times Photos of the Week
A television news director from South Bend will address the Gary Chamber of Commerce.

Gary Wordlaw, the news director of the WNDU NBC affiliate in South Bend, will give a talk at the chamber's general membership luncheon at noon on Monday, October 9 at The Chateau Banquets at 530 W. 61st Ave. in Merrillville.

Wordlaw has worked as a reporter, writer, photographer, producer, news director, president and general manager at television stations in major markets like Seattle, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Over the course of his career, he's won a number of awards, including Emmys and honors from the Associated Press, United Press International and the National Association of Black Journalists.

He's also lectured at universities around the country, including Florida A&M.

"Mr. Wordlaw will share with the audience ways in which WNDU can assist the Gary and Northwest Indiana business communities," the Gary Chamber of Commerce said in a news release. "As a veteran station executive, he has worked for many of the nations largest local television markets and can easily see how it can be done."

Networking starts at 11:30 a.m. before the luncheon and attendees are encouraged to bring their business cards.

The luncheon costs $25 and can be paid for over the phone with American Express, Master Card, Visa or debit card. Reservations are required in advance to plan the meals.

For more information or to reserve a seat, call 219-885-7407.
Chelsea played a significant role in the growth of the contemporary art market over the last 20 years, said Gagosian, who had moved from SoHo by 2000. (He operated a gallery in Chelsea from 1985 to 1988 but did not settle there permanently until the neighborhood had gathered some momentum.) The buildings in Chelsea, he said, allowed dealers to do more ambitious shows, with larger works and more of them than had been possible in the comparatively compact lofts of SoHo, where exhibition spaces were typically interrupted by columns.

By expanding both their physical footprints and their artist rosters, dealers could increase supply and bolster their gallerys profile in a newly competitive industry. Physical growth proved especially important in Chelsea, which had become the art worlds most prominent and prestigious stage. To date, most of the artists Gagosian represents, he said, feel that Chelsea is more relevant and just more part of the contemporary art world than uptown Manhattan, Paris, Berlin or any other city with a gallery scene.

The cultural scene in Chelsea did not go unnoticed by New York bureaucracy. Whereas the architectural character of SoHo was largely protected by its landmark status, Chelsea was seen as a kind of blank slate. In 2005, the administration of Michael R. Bloomberg, then the citys mayor, rezoned West Chelsea from manufacturing to mixed use. The decision was key to the mayors larger plan for the West Side, which included the developments of the High Line and Hudson Yards, the largest mixed-use private real estate venture in American history. The zoning proposal boldly claimed that it was designed, in part, to enhance the neighborhoods thriving arts district.
Members of the Ukraine Volunteer Army operating a drone flying over Russian-held territory from a position in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine last month.

Across desolate fields and shattered villages, Ukraines counteroffensive is confronting Russian minefields and Russian soldiers dug into elaborate trench networks.

But one unusually daunting obstacle to Ukrainian troops is a tactic adopted by Russian forces: ceding ground and then striking back.

Rather than holding a line of trenches at all costs in the face of Ukraines assault, security experts say, Russian commanders have employed a longstanding military tactic known as elastic defense.

To execute the tactic, Russian forces pull back to a second line of positions, encouraging Ukrainian troops to advance, and then strike back when the opposing forces are vulnerable  either while moving across open ground or as they arrive at the recently abandoned Russian positions.

The goal is to prevent Ukrainian troops from actually securing a position and using it as a base for further advances. That is what Ukraine was able to do successfully in the village of Robotyne in the south, its biggest breakthrough in recent weeks.

The defender gives ground while inflicting as heavy casualties as they can on the attackers with a view to being able to set the attackers up for a decisive counterattack, said Ben Barry, a senior fellow for land war studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a British research group.

This tactic is just one of several factors that have impeded more rapid progress, according to Ukrainian officials and military experts. They also cite Moscows use of dense minefields, networks of trenches and tank barriers, and the reluctance of the countrys NATO allies to supply advanced fighter jets and longer-range weapons sooner in the war.

Perhaps the most formidable problem for Ukraine is Russias large stockpiles of artillery, which have been deployed throughout the conflict and not least to repel the counteroffensive that began in June.

Elastic defense is not a new strategy, Mr. Barry said. The Soviet Union employed it during its defeat of Germany in 1943 at the Battle of Kursk, one of the biggest on the eastern front during World War II. Russia also appears to have been applying it for some time in Ukraine, especially to hamper this summers counteroffensive.

Historically its been used very successfully, but to succeed it requires good leadership and well-trained forces and to deliver decisive counterblows, Mr. Barry said.

Assessing whether the tactic is being deployed on any given day is difficult without direct access to Russian commanders, experts said. But the Institute for the Study of War, an organization based in Washington, noted signs of it in recent days around the village of Robotyne, which fell to Ukrainian forces at the end of August.

Some significant field fortifications had changed hands several times, it said in a report this weekend, adding that Russian forces had been conducting successful limited tactical counterattacks.

Competing claims this week illustrated the issue: Russian forces said they had staged an assault on Ukrainian troops on the front line in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, where Kyiv has staged the main thrust of its counteroffensive, while Ukraines forces said they had repelled the attacks.

In a report on Monday, the institute said that geolocated footage and satellite imagery appeared to show that Ukraine had regained control of a trench system, southwest of Robotyne, that it had previously lost to Russian troops. Another indication of the back-and-forth nature of the fighting came on Tuesday, when Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, the head of Ukraines forces in the south, said that there had been an advance by his troops. It was not possible to verify his report.

In recent months, Ukraines war has consisted of battles for tiny villages and individual trench systems  contests that can last for weeks, with each side sustaining significant casualties to secure control. Overall, however, the conflict is being fought over a front line that stretches for hundreds of miles from the small city of Kupiansk, in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, where Russian forces have been trying to advance, to the Zaporizhzhia region in the south.

Ukrainian forces have also pushed forward in the south of an eastern region, Donetsk, where fighting over Bakhmut, one of the wars most savage battles, has not stopped since Moscow gained control of the city in May.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine visited troops near Kupiansk on Tuesday to hand out medals and inspect military equipment, including Leopard tanks that have been donated by the countrys NATO allies in Europe. His Telegram account posted a video of him in a forest shaking hands with a small group of soldiers, who appeared to include older men  a sign of the toll the war has taken on Ukraine.

Military experts believe that Russia, too, has suffered significant losses in the course of Ukraines counteroffensive, though it has slowed Ukraines military to a crawl, in part through its elastic defense.

A key factor in the successful implementation of the tactic is the judicious use of military reserves, who can be thrown into the battle for a counterattack, said Oleksiy Melnyk, a former Ukrainian commander who is now a senior official at the Razumkov Center, a nonprofit institute in the capital, Kyiv.

Moscow appeared to have begun to deploy elite airborne units to its defense in the Zaporizhzhia region, according to Mr. Melnyk, suggesting that its supply of regular reserves could be running thin  a development that Mr. Melnyk said would be encouraging news for Ukraine.

Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that if Moscows forces begin to retreat more than a few hundred yards at a time, and Ukrainian troops, particularly mechanized units, are able to build up enough momentum to advance in significant numbers, it would be a sign that Russias defensive strategy was beginning to falter.

One of the biggest things that remains in question is whether or not the Ukrainian military will be able to achieve a breakthrough, he said on the War on the Rocks podcast last week. One alternative, he said, is that what were seeing is largely how this offensive was going to unfold from now until, lets say, we get into the winter, or perhaps even through the winter.
Jump to: Todays Theme | Tricky Clues

TUESDAY PUZZLE  Many of lifes most basic lessons come with handy mnemonic devices for easy recall. Roy G. Biv, for example, is a personified acronym for the colors of the rainbow. To predict a coming storm, we need merely trust the old rhyme: Red sky at night, sailors delight; red sky in morning, sailors take warning.

Thats not to say a mnemonic would have done me any good in finishing todays crossword, which was constructed by Troy Laedtke in his New York Times debut. It might, however, have let me know which of the puzzles creatures I might need to defend against, should any of them spring suddenly to life once Id solved it. (Were approaching Halloween  you never know.)

Todays Theme

The shaded gray squares in Mr. Laedtkes grid pay tribute to a classic video game, the name of which is represented by the contents of those squares. If you havent made any headway in filling them, dont worry: He reveals what theyre supposed to be at 48-Down.

The Creature that grows longer in a classic video game (also in this puzzle, when it eats a black square) is a SNAKE. Beginning with an ASP, in the lower left quadrant, you can see the snake changing in variety while increasing in length: it becomes a MAMBA, then a GARTER, then an ANACONDA, and finally a whopping BOA CONSTRICTOR.
Another "tragedy" with the invaders took place in the temporarily occupied part of Donetsk region. There, a freight train crushed a vehicle of the Strela-10 anti-aircraft missile system along with the invaders.

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This was reported by the ASTRA Telegram channel. It calls itself a publication of independent Russian journalists who have been censored or persecuted in Russia.

The incident occurred the night before on the Yenakiyevo - Vuhlehirsk stretch. The driver of the combat vehicle was moving as part of a military convoy, but at some point "lost control, drove off the bridge and was hit by a train."

It is noted that there were five servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces inside the Strela-10: three of them died on the spot, and two others were injured.

The other day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that the enemy had withdrawn the "torn" 41st Army from near Kreminna, sending in its place the 25th Army, formed of contract mercenaries and those who were transferred there from other units.

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As OBOZREVATEL reported, a Russian truck crushed a car with people in occupied Luhansk. The propagandists themselves posted a video of the accident, but did not indicate whether there were any victims.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel Obozrevatel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
After an intense 48-hour search, a missing 9-year-old girl who disappeared over the weekend while on a camping trip with her family in upstate New York was found safe Monday evening, and a suspect was in custody, according to the New York State Police.

The girl, Charlotte Sena, went missing during an early evening bike ride on Saturday in Moreau Lake State Park, about 45 miles north of Albany. Soon after her disappearance, Charlottes bike was found, leading authorities to conclude that she had been abducted  a scenario that the states governor, Kathy Hochul, called every parents nightmare.

In a late night news conference on Monday, Ms. Hochul identified the suspect as Craig Nelson Ross Jr., 47. She said that the case began to break before dawn on Monday morning, when state police, monitoring Charlottes family home in nearby Greenfield, N.Y., noticed a car approach and someone  believed to be Mr. Ross  placed a ransom note in the mailbox.

Troopers retrieved that note and managed to draw a fingerprint off it, the governor said. That fingerprint was linked to an arrest of Mr. Ross in 1999 for driving while intoxicated.
A Manhattan federal judge on Monday said Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who faces charges of wide-ranging corruption, will stand trial on May 6 next year, along with his wife and three businessmen who were indicted with him.

The date would place the trial just one month before the June 4 New Jersey state primary and raises the specter, if Mr. Menendez runs for re-election, of voters going to the polls while he is on trial, without knowing what verdict, if any, the jury might return.

In court on Monday, a prosecutor said the government expected the trial to last four to six weeks, assuming all five defendants were still part of the case.

Mr. Menendez, a Democrat who has stepped down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had been preparing to run for re-election but has not indicated whether, in the face of bribery charges, he still intended to seek a fourth full term. If he were to pursue his partys nomination, he would almost certainly face a crowded field of opponents.
In large urban cities, bedbugs are just there. Its a fact of life, said Zachary DeVries, an assistant professor of urban entomology at the University of Kentucky. But some of the videos of things theyre showing  especially on public transportation  were a little bit alarming. Usually if youre seeing bedbugs out in the middle of the day crawling around on these surfaces, you probably have a lot of them.

At Paris Fashion Week, the rumors and gossip about what hotels, restaurants and bars may be infested have taken on a life of their own.

Whoever is having FOMO about this Paris Fashion Week must know that one of my editor friends saw bedbugs at one particularly upscale restaurant today, tweeted Mayra Peralta, the fashion and beauty editor for EnVi Media. The very idea that Avenue Montaigne could be crawling with tiny bloodsucking insects is enough to send any visitor into a spiral.

Bedbugs are a democratizing force, an unwelcome reminder that regardless of wealth, fame or influence, none of us are immune to the power of nature. After all, bedbugs are just as likely to make a home inside a Chanel tweed jacket as they are a Zara knockoff. Bedbugs dont care if youre staying in a palace hotel or a 1-star Airbnb, if youre dining in the 8th or the 18th. Certainly money can keep you from taking the metro, but you may still have to go through the citys Charles-de-Gaulle Airport to fly home  and the bugs are reportedly there too.

As Paris Fashion Week comes to a close, the editors, influencers and stylists who flocked to the city will start to make their way home. Professor DeVries said it was possible that travelers could bring bedbugs back with them, but as long as youre aware of your surroundings and keeping luggage and clothing off hotel beds and rugs, you should be fine.
A state senator from North Dakota, his wife and two of their children were killed on Sunday evening when a small plane he was piloting crashed at an airport in Moab, Utah, the authorities said.

The senator, Doug Larsen, 47, a Republican, was flying the single-engine plane when it crashed right after taking off from the Canyonlands Regional Airport, over 200 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, according to the Grand County Sheriffs Office.

The authorities were notified of the crash at 8:26 p.m., and sent emergency responders, the Moab Valley Fire Department as well as other airport and medical staff, the Sheriffs Office said in a statement posted to Facebook, noting that all four people, including Mr. Larsens wife, Amy Larsen, had died.
J.B. Pritzker, the influential Democratic governor of Illinois, called out President Biden on Monday for a federal response to the migrant crisis that he said was suffering from red tape, disorganization and a lack of funding.

Unfortunately, the welcome and aid Illinois has been providing to these asylum seekers has not been matched with support by the federal government, Mr. Pritzker said in a three-page letter to the president that described how his states largest city, Chicago, had been overwhelmed as more than 15,000 migrants arrived in Illinois over 13 months.

Most critically, added the governor, whose state will host the Democratic National Convention next summer, the federal governments lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois.

The letter from Mr. Pritzker, usually a staunch ally of the president, reflected the fast-growing impatience of state and local Democrats who are scrambling to keep up with the busloads of migrants arriving in places like Chicago and New York City.
The artist Robert Motherwell was a bridge between continents: at once a spokesman for the New York School and a conduit for the theories of European modernists. And yet, there has not been a retrospective of his work in Europe since 1998. In Austria, the last major Motherwell exhibit took place in the 1970s.

That will change this month as the Kunstforum in Vienna hosts Robert Motherwell  Pure Painting. The retrospective, which runs Oct. 12 to Jan. 14, was first unveiled at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, earlier this year (it closed on Sept. 17).

The show  as the title indicates  focuses exclusively on his paintings, featuring loans from private collections and museums from across the United States and Europe. Pure Painting spans half a century, beginning with figurative abstractions of the 1940s and extending into representative works of his last years. The retrospective unfolds chronologically, allowing for an examination of how his artistry evolved.
A show of her work was presented at the University of Pennsylvania in 2016. That year she was named a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Mr. Birnbaum told the New York magazine site Curbed that in all of Ms. Pattisons projects you see the hand of an artist.

Hers was a complicated life. Her romance with Mr. Kahn, who was nearly 28 years her senior, occurred while he was married to another woman. And for many years, while she raised her son and tried to establish herself as a landscape architect, she all but hid herself away.

I was with a man I loved; I had a child I adored and a path toward a career, she wrote in a memoir, published in 2020. But these had cost me the acceptance of society. I felt caught between two eras, and even two parts of myself.

Ms. Pattison never married, and she lived alone until her death.

To viewers of Mr. Kahns film, she may have seemed to have sacrificed everything for a man she couldnt marry. By contrast, her book, Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir With Letters From Louis Kahn, portrays her as a woman who built a career and a family despite great challenges.

The book includes hundreds of letters, telegrams and postcards that Ms. Pattison received from Mr. Kahn in the 15 years before his death. The letters are intimate, revealing and self-deprecating; one, sent from Pakistan on March 31, 1965, begins: Sweetie, The conquering hero has conquered nothing. They often included sketches of buildings or drawings of imaginary animals for young Nathaniel. Some document their professional collaborations.

We were soul mates and inspired each other, Ms. Pattison said in her sons film. It was an equal exchange in many ways.
Vincent van Gogh died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the Paris suburb of Auvers-sur-Oise in July 1890. He succumbed to serious mental illness and to a consuming sense of despair. Yet the two months he spent in Auvers were extraordinarily prolific ones: He produced more than 70 paintings, including a few that today are considered among his greatest masterpieces.

The Musee dOrsay in Paris is staging the first-ever exhibition dedicated to those final months in Auvers. Co-produced with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, it features about 48 paintings and 40 drawings and prints by the Dutch prodigy, and promises to be another crowd-puller for the museum  a converted train station thats one of the worlds finest museums of the 19th century.

Like every other major museum, however, Orsay needs to keep up with the times and offer its 3.3 million annual visitors a smoother experience. So it is moving its research and educational facilities into a building next door and revamping the main building. The esplanade will be refurbished; visitors will no longer have to line up for tickets outside; and the permanent collections will be rearranged and rehung. The museum will remain open while the changes are made; work is scheduled to start in 2025 and finish by the end of 2027.
Ed Young, whose illustrations in some 100 childrens books, many of which he also wrote, mesmerized young and not-so-young readers with intricate depictions of fairy tales, poetry and his own life story as a Chinese immigrant, died on Sept. 29 at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. He was 91.

His daughter Antonia Young confirmed the death.

Mr. Young trained as an architect and worked as a graphic designer; he never intended to become an illustrator of childrens books. But a chance opportunity to work on the book The Mean Mouse and Other Mean Stories (1962), by Janice May Udry, led to widespread praise, a deal with an agent and a 60-year career as one of the countrys most beloved childrens artists.

He churned out books across a wide variety of subjects and media, among them collage, pencil and charcoal, and experimented with different bookmaking formats, like accordion.
Speaker McCarthy is ousted from his post

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives voted yesterday to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his leadership position. The vote was instigated by a group of hard-liners from his own Republican Party.

It was the first time in the modern history of the House of Representatives that such a vote passed. The House speaker is second in line to the president after the vice president.

The vote passed 216-210.

The effort to oust the speaker, led by Representative Matt Gaetz, was incited by McCarthys reliance last weekend on Democrats to pass a temporary spending bill to keep the government open until mid-November. The rebellion prompted an extraordinary Republican-against-Republican debate on the House floor over McCarthys future before the final vote. There was no groundswell of support from Democrats to give the Republican leader an easy way out.

Background: In January, McCarthy made concessions to hard-line conservatives to get elected as speaker, allowing any member to move to vacate the position  virtually assuring this day would come.
Russian occupants in the occupied part of Kherson region are massively stealing cars for possible escape. The other day, the invaders killed a woman in the village of Olhyne who tried to defend her property.

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This was reported by the Center for National Resistance on October 2. They noted that the local underground recorded the theft of cars in Chaplynka, Zaliznyi Port, Mali Kopani and other settlements.

The Center for National Resistance explained that the occupiers are in a panic because of the successful actions of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, so plans to escape from the temporarily occupied cities and villages are increasingly being discussed among the rank-and-file of the Russian aggressor country's troops.

"As a result, more and more cases of theft of personal cars of the local population and looting have been recorded recently. In cases when locals try to defend their property, the Russian military opens fire on them. Recently, a woman was killed in the village of Olhyne," the Center for National Resistance reported.

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The Center added that they have lists of Russian military personnel looting in the occupied territories and promised that every occupier will get what they deserve.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL, in Henichesk, Kherson region, Russian invaders are taking away people's household appliances, alcohol and even food under the guise of "confiscation." One of the farmers was "confiscated" 200 kg of meat and a ton of grain.

Only verified information is available on our Obozrevatel Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
They went to the best universities in China and in the West. They lived middle-class lives in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen and worked for technology companies at the center of Chinas tech rivalry with the United States.

Now they are living and working in North America, Europe, Japan, Australia  and just about any developed country.

Chinese  from young people to entrepreneurs  are voting with their feet to escape political oppression, bleak economic prospects and often grueling work cultures. Increasingly, the exodus includes tech professionals and other well-educated middle-class Chinese.

I left China because I didnt like the social and political environment, said Chen Liangshi, 36, who worked on artificial intelligence projects at Baidu and Alibaba, two of Chinas biggest tech companies, before leaving the country in early 2020. He made the decision after China abolished the term limit for the presidency in 2018, a move that allowed its top leader, Xi Jinping, to stay in power indefinitely.
Some 11 billion tons of cargo are shipped by sea each year, accounting for as much as 90 percent of the worlds traded goods. Nearly all of it is enabled by burning heavy fuel oil, but that is beginning to change.

Cargill chartered the Pyxis Ocean, a vessel that began its first wind-assisted voyage in August. It sailed from China to Brazil with two wings that turned to capture the wind and folded down when not in use. While each weighs 125 tons, Mr. Dieleman said it is a small proportion of the vessels carrying potential of 82,000 tons. Each sail can cut fuel usage by 1.5 tons per day, or 4.65 fewer tons of carbon dioxide emissions, and decrease fuel usage by 30 percent. The ship docked in Brazil last week.

The French company Airseas developed a different design, the outsize kite. It is housed in a storage tank on a ships bow and deployed by cable and crane to slice nearly 1,000 feet into the sky, where winds blow strong. A prototype has been at sea for a year and a half, said Vincent Bernatets, the chief executive and co-founder of Airseas. The design could slash fuel consumption by up to 40 percent on some routes, he said, adding that a major Japanese ship company has ordered five sails.

Wind-powered ships still need a backup fuel to navigate harbors or to function when the air is still. But the idea is to significantly reduce the reliance on fossil fuels.

Every ton of carbon you save is actually a third of a ton of fuel that you save, Mr. Dieleman said. We need to get the emissions profile down today.
Headliner

Jeans

An American bistro with its eye on New York is what Max Chodorow, a son of the prolific restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow, intends for this restaurant just steps from the Public Theater. At one time, the space housed the elder Mr. Chodorows Asia de Cuba and Butter. Now, his son has a teamed up with Ashwin Deshmukh, a managing partner at Superiority Burger, for this new venture. The restaurant is distinguished by using produce from Max Chodorows farm in New Hope, Pa. In addition, meat, poultry and some of the seafood also come from local sources. His menu offers grilled oysters with Espelette hollandaise, lobster rolls served with a shot of lobster bisque, a French dip sandwich, mussel bouillabaisse, wood-grilled half chicken, seared local fluke meuniere, bone-in tuna au poivre and an espresso creme brulee. Pedro Cruz runs the kitchen. The titular Jean is no one in particular: It was chosen as a name that works both in English and French. Mirrors, gold leaf, Venetian plaster and an open kitchen define this informal room that seats 110. (Opens Friday)

415 Lafayette Street (East Fourth Street), 212-301-7672, jeans.nyc.

Opening

Jazba

The esteemed and palatial Indian restaurant Junoon has headed downtown to the East Village with this offshoot, an ode to hawker street food. It opens with a menu featuring fried fish and a ros omelet. Cocktails often deploy Indian seasonings.

207 Second Avenue (13th Street), 646-861-3343, jazbanyc.com.

Noksu

The tasting counter with 13 seats for the chef Dae Kims 12-course menus is opening this week in the Herald Square subway station, in a former newsstand and barbershop. (Friday)

49 West 32nd Street, underground, noksunyc.com.

11 Tigers

A new eight-seat omakase counter has been added to this spot which combines Japanese izakaya food with Thai-style drinks. The counter serves a mix of Japanese and Thai fare.

225 Avenue B (14th Street), 929-235-6826, 11tigersnyc.com.
Why It Matters: Rates of S.T.I.s are skyrocketing.

In 2021, there were 1.6 million cases of chlamydia, more than 700,000 cases of gonorrhea and nearly 177,000 cases of syphilis in the United States, together tallying up to $1.1 billion in direct medical costs. (Rates of babies born with syphilis also soared that year, with nearly 3,000 affected.)

All three S.T.I.s are caused by bacteria and are easily treated with antibiotics. But the closure of sexual health clinics across the country and a drop in public awareness has contributed to a sharp rise in infections.

Gonorrhea cases have increased 118 percent since a historical low in 2009, according to the C.D.C. Syphilis was nearly eliminated in the United States about 20 years ago, but cases have risen 74 percent since 2017.

On any given day in 2018, about one in five Americans had an S.T.I., the C.D.C. has estimated.

We need game-changing innovations to turn the S.T.I. epidemic around, and this is a major step in the right direction, Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the agencys National Center for H.I.V., Viral Hepatitis, S.T.D. and TB Prevention, said in an emailed statement.

Background: Doxycycline is a powerful deterrent of infection.

The C.D.C.s guidelines are based on studies that show that a single dose of doxycycline taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex dramatically cuts the risk of the infections.

Evidence from emerging research was compelling enough that clinics in some cities, such as San Francisco, have been offering doxy-PEP to those at high risk of infection for months. Generally, patients are given a supply of pills and told to take one within three days of an encounter during which they might have become infected.

But rates of S.T.I.s are highest among Black people and Native Americans, who are often those with the least access to health care. No prevention tool  no matter how powerful  will change the S.T.I. epidemic if it doesnt reach the people who need it most, Dr. Mermin said.

What Critics Say: Wider antibiotic use may pose risks.

Doxycycline has been in use for decades, and there are few indications that bacteria have become resistant to it. Syphilis and chlamydia do not often develop resistance, but gonorrhea is another question: Those bacteria have become resistant to multiple classes of antibiotics.

Still, the picture may change depending on how many people take doxy-PEP and how often, some experts cautioned.

At the population level, that does worry me, said Anton Castellanos Usigli, a sexual health expert who is an adjunct lecturer at the Columbia Mailman School of Health.

In places like his native Mexico, Dr. Castellanos Usigli said, indiscriminate use of antibiotics has fueled the rise of drug-resistant bacteria and can also alter a persons gut microbiome.

What Happens Next: The C.D.C. will finalize new guidelines.

Evidence so far supports doxy-PEPs use only in men who have sex with men and in transgender women. In those groups, the antibiotic cut rates of syphilis and chlamydia by about 90 percent and gonorrhea by about 55 percent.

Men who have sex with men account for nearly half of reported syphilis cases, according to the C.D.C. If studies show the approach to be effective in heterosexual cisgender men and cisgender women, the guidelines may be expanded.

The agency said doctors should prescribe doxy-PEP as part of a comprehensive sexual health program that includes counseling, screening and treatment for the infections and for H.I.V.

Doxy-PEP will be a good option for some patients, Dr. Castellanos Usigli said. But we will have to do a lot of education with medical providers and patients so that we target the best candidates and prevent misuse and overuse.
More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente employees are threatening to walk out Wednesday morning if they cannot agree to a new labor contract. The previous contract expired on Saturday. Union leaders say this could be the largest strike by health care workers in recent U.S. history.

Kaiser, a large nonprofit health system, provides care for 13 million people in eight states, including California, Colorado and Washington, and the District of Columbia. The job action would involve support and other staff, including X-ray and lab technicians; sanitation workers who disinfect rooms between patients; and pharmacy workers who help dispense medications. These workers attend surgeries, run imaging equipment and assist in outpatient clinics. Doctors and many nurses are not part of the strike, which is set to last three days in some places. Some nurses, therapists and aides could also walk out.

Kaiser said it was preparing for a possible strike and would do what it could to minimize any disruptions to patients. Our hospitals are going to remain open, including the emergency departments, said Michelle Gaskill-Hames, regional president for Kaiser Permanente in Southern California and Hawaii.

But patients could experience delays in getting appointments, or procedures that are not considered urgent could be postponed.
It was Year 2 of the pandemic, in the spring, that I hit on the idea of having my high school saxophone refurbished. My 48-year-old horn came back from the repair shop in Midtown Manhattan a week later. I put it together in my Upper West Side apartment and  for the love of God, it was loud. A couple of days later, I saw my downstairs neighbor in the lobby, and he asked, Is that a sax I hear? He professed to be OK with my rudimentary jazz stylings, but I was uncomfortable.

My building is directly adjacent to Riverside Park. The day after that encounter, I walked 10 minutes down to the bank of the Hudson, found an arrangement of boulders where I could put my case and started to improvise to some 1960s soul jazz playing through my headphones. I was loud. Gloriously, triumphantly loud. Within minutes, bike riders and strolling couples stopped to listen. Some took photos. After that, I took my sax to the park almost every day. Over the next few weeks and on through this summer, paddleboarders, canoers and motorboats on the river hove to the shore to listen for a few minutes. When the traffic on the nearby West Side Highway ground to a halt, I got a round of applause. I had at least two cameos on Instagram.

I find it hard to practice inside now, even in my building, where the jazz pianist and composer Billy Strayhorn once lived. Its inhibiting. I miss the expansiveness of playing outside. And Ive found nature surprisingly attentive, despite the noise. Robins and sparrows  and only one word is possible here  flock to me as if Im St. Francis of C Minor. Squirrels stand on their hind legs and fix me with hard stares, like miniature critics. My most cherished fan, though, was Zippy, a goose with whom I had a prior relationship. (My wife is known as the Goose Lady of Riverside Park, but thats a subject for another essay.) One summer day, Zippy and his extended family were paddling south down the Hudson but then circled back and flew up to the riverbank next to me. Zippy sat there quietly for the next 45 minutes until I packed up to head home. There is nothing more satisfying than entertaining a goose youre fond of.

But, of course, its the interactions with people that mean the most. Little kids in matching T-shirts on day-camp outings are delighted. They clap for the noisy man. The guy with the wild hair, eating a sandwich on a nearby bench, loved it too. Do you know Hall and Oates? he asked. You should learn Maneater. You could make a lot of dough playing that. Hey, if you need some grub, that church on 99th is pretty good. I wasnt sure if I looked like I could use a square meal or just sounded like it.
The Great Lawn, the 12-acre oval of green space that is one of the most popular gathering places in Central Park, will be closed to the public until April after it was damaged during a concert late last month, the Central Park Conservancy confirmed on Tuesday.

The concert, the Global Citizen Festival, typically brings about 60,000 people to Central Park each year. It was held this year on Sept. 23 and drew a crowd about half its usual size, despite a heavy rainstorm that dropped about an inch of rain on the park.

The heavy equipment used to put on the concert and the foot traffic it attracted caused extensive damage during the downpour, and fully destroyed a third of the lawn, the Central Park Conservancy, which manages the park, said in a statement.

The Central Park Conservancy is very disappointed that the iconic Great Lawn is now closed and unavailable for New Yorkers to enjoy this fall, the statement said.
In June 2014, Dina Esfandiary and Ariane Tabatabai wrote an article in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, making the case that Iran had genuine and reasonable concerns about its nuclear fuel supplies and that it would need many more centrifuges to become energy independent. There had to be a mechanism to guarantee Iranian supply, they wrote, a position plainly sympathetic to Tehrans interests.

At the time, Esfandiary was a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and Tabatabai was a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy Schools Belfer Center. But both women also belonged to the Iran Experts Initiative. According to blockbuster reporting in Semafor and Iran International, it was a high-level informal influence operation, involving a handful of scholars of Iranian descent, that was conceived and manipulated by the Iranian regime.

Another well-known participant in the I.E.I. was Ali Vaez, now the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group. Over several years, the trio wrote guest essays (including in The Times) and gave scores of interviews to major Western media outlets, making them unusually influential in the debates about Iran.

Vaez is also close to Robert Malley, who helped lead the Obama administrations negotiations over the nuclear deal. Malley returned to government as the Biden administrations special envoy to Iran. Tabatabai joined his team at the State Department and later moved to the Pentagon, where she is now chief of staff to Christopher Maier, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations.
Its hard to get excited about a victory in a fight that never needed to happen, especially at the last possible moment. But the saga reflects the reality of D.C. today: Bipartisan compromise has become the sole path to governing in the United States in 2023.

Democrats have the White House and a one-seat majority in the Senate, while Republicans control the House of Representatives and appointed a supermajority of conservatives on the Supreme Court. President Bidens executive authority extends only as far as the courts have allowed, while the only path through the Senate is with enough bipartisan support to skirt the shoals of a filibuster. The government, like the nation, is divided.

But political polarization is not the excuse for inaction that so many grandstanding politicos too often take it to be. With a divided Congress, the only way to get any legislation passed is with some support from the center of both parties. A Congress that operated in a more bipartisan manner could move the country beyond its impasses over issues like immigration or the sustainability of the social safety net. A more confident center-right party that doesnt genuflect to Donald Trump would have an easier time achieving those ambitious acts of self-governance.

While thats a tall order, it is not impossible: Just look at the past few days.

To keep the federal government open, Mr. McCarthy outmaneuvered the radicals in his own party, led by Representative Matt Gaetz. The next speaker needs to deprive Mr. Gaetz and his ilk of the weapon theyve been using to force the House leadership into compliance with their demands. Congress represents more than 330 million Americans; Mr. Gaetz and his allies should not be given a hecklers veto over the business of government.

It was a conscious choice by the ousted House speaker to give them one. In the face of intransigence from his right flank, his successor should drop the anachronistic practice that demands Republicans bring up only legislation backed by a majority of their members. The so-called Hastert rule, named for Dennis Hastert, the disgraced former speaker, appears nowhere in the Constitution and can be used to prevent the House from moving forward with bipartisan legislation.
Mr. Adams could have held weather-related news conferences  as mayors have often done  to build awareness among city agencies and New Yorks sizable press corps that a significant storm was on the way. He could have addressed the city by television or radio before the storm hit. He could have used his large bully pulpit to direct New Yorkers out of harms way.

As the effects of climate change worsen, Mr. Adams could use severe weather events like this one to galvanize New Yorkers around initiatives aimed at hardening the citys defenses, like installing more bioswales, which use porous soil and plants to help divert storm waters from pavement and sewer systems. Instead, the mayor opted out of all that work. Thursday evening, as the storm loomed, he attended a fund-raiser for his campaign.

The job of alerting the public was left to city agencies. Urgent action may be needed to protect lives and property, the citys Department of Emergency Management warned at 6:55 a.m. Friday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Americans shouldnt have to be tuned into social media to receive critical public service announcements.

With residents unprepared, Friday was a day of unnecessary chaos and frustration. The city was lucky: No deaths have been reported from the storm, despite extremely hazardous conditions for millions of New Yorkers that could easily have turned deadly.

Buses with passengers on them flooded. Children, some traveling alone, made their way to school through rushing waters. Many basement apartments flooded  a hazard that the city is well aware of and that in other storms led to deaths. So did some classrooms. Motorists had to be rescued by firefighters after stretches of the citys major highways flooded and were temporarily transformed into rivers. At one point, half of the citys subways were not running, were partly suspended or were snarled in long delays. Terminal A at La Guardia Airport flooded and was closed.
Neighbors Object to Chicago Assyrian Church Parking Lot Expansion

The Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, in Rogers Park, Chicago. ( Charles Thrush/Block Club Chicago) Every Sunday morning, Chicago's Catholic Assyrian community gathers for mass at Mar Gewargis Cathedral on the northeast corner of Touhy and Ashland avenues, quickly filling up the church's 31 parking spaces.

The congregation that calls the cathedral home is now looking to demolish the neighboring house to expand its parking lot, a project that would benefit the local Assyrian community and alleviate neighborhood parking problems, supporters said. But neighbors are again rejecting the proposal, with some saying they are not on board with demolishing a century-old home for a blacktop.

The Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, the denomination headquartered at Mar Gewargis, or St. George, Cathedral, is asking the city's permission to expand its parking lot on what is currently a vacant single-family home at 1530 W. Touhy Ave.

It's the second time the church has looked to expand its parking lot, a project which would require rezoning the next-door home. The project is being considered by Ald. Maria Hadden (49th), who held a community meeting Sept. 26 for neighbors and the church to discuss the plan.

Neighbors oppose the rezoning of the property due to claims it would "diminish the quality and character of [the] neighborhood, change the streetscape and lead to more traffic congestion," according to a petition created to oppose the project.

The Assyrian Church of the East, one of the earliest denominations of Christianity, has been headquartered in Rogers Park since the early '80s. Khanania Dinkha IV, the leader of the Assyrian Church of the East, moved the seat of the church from Iraq to St. George's in Rogers Park following a large Assyrian diaspora that populated the Chicago area.

The church at 7201 N. Ashland Ave. has been a destination for the religious congregation ever since. St. George is the central diocese cathedral for Chicago's Assyrian population, anchoring a community of four other parishes throughout Chicago and its suburbs. It drew several thousand visitors for Dinkha's funeral services in 2015.

Parking has long been an issue for the congregation, though.

The home that could be demolished, as seen from St. George's existing parking lot. ( Rykley Braun)

Families slowly trickled into St. George's throughout the duration of Sunday's service, with some churchgoers driving in from the northern suburbs. After mass, the church held communion and a large breakfast in the basement.

Many parishioners have to park in Eugene Field Elementary School's lot three blocks south of the church. Shuttle buses between the lot and the church alleviate some -- but not all -- of the traffic congestion.

One parishioner walking back to his car said that when the school parking lot reaches capacity, he sometimes spends upwards of 30 minutes circling the neighborhood searching for street parking, echoing a familiar sentiment of many other attendees.

In 2011, the parish bought the single-family home next door to the cathedral, Cook County property records show. The home, which neighbors say dates back to about 1905, has been vacant for over a decade.

Shortly after that, the church made its first attempt to rezone the home to make way for a parking lot. The surrounding community fought the proposal, and it was subsequently rejected by former Ald. Joe Moore, according to neighbors.

That project is now back, with the church hoping to raze the home and add 22 parking spaces. The new lot would bring the church's number of parking spaces to 53, project officials said at the community meeting.

"We've discussed rehabilitating the house before. I work in the construction business, and construction costs have almost quadrupled since COVID-19," said Al Youna, president of the Assyrian Church's eastern U.S. diocese. "I was one of the ones that was opposed to demolition, but the prices just kept going up."

So, the church settled on expanding its parking lot, which could allow an additional 50-60 parishioners to park near the church and also "encourages other people to come to church events," Youna said in an interview.

But those plans did not pass muster with many Rogers Park neighbors who spoke at last week's virtual community meeting.

Resident Marilyn Lehman said demolishing the home would hurt the neighborhood's architecture and history as the building is nearly 120 years old, though it is not protected under the city's historic registry.

Kitty Juda, who lives across from the church, voiced concern over the potential environmental effects of the parking lot.

Studies show parking lots contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and they can create heat islands. Supporters of the project said a larger parking lot would reduce the number of people driving around the neighborhood looking for parking, which would cut down on emissions.

"It's just going to add to problems of flooding and heat on the 1500 block of Touhy," Juda said.

Some residents said the parking lot would hurt the character of the residential area and could cause the further loss of old homes if parking issues are not solved by the new lot.

Bill Phillips, an outspoken neighbor of the church who led the opposition to the recent zoning proposal, said St. George's is an important part of the fabric of the community. But that community fabric would not be aided by a parking lot expansion, he said.

"They have big celebrations here every Saturday for people's weddings," Phillips said. "When my family came for a cookout a few months ago, we watched the celebrations from our porch, and the kids were dancing to the music. We love to see their community, and from what we learned, this is the seat of their church."

Phillips strolled down Touhy Avenue last week, pointing out homes and recounting the tales of those who inhabited each residence. Some of that history could be lost if homes were to be replaced, he said.

"Touhy's a street with some beautiful, old, single-family homes, and people really take pride in and maintain their property," Phillips said. "So, replacing one of those homes would really just take away from the quality of the streetscape."

Supporters of the parking lot expansion said it will aid an immigrant community that has long called Rogers Park home.

"We don't want to leave this community," Sera, a St. George parishioner, said at the community meeting. "We love it, and we migrated from Syria to the U.S. to come here and stay in Rogers Park. I have been a resident of this community for the past 25 years, and this church has been our home. This parking lot will help my community."

Some residents present on the Zoom call felt differently.

"I live in a historic house, and I love historic houses, but I hear a lot of comments saying that it would be ideal if a family lived there," said Laura Nordell, another neighbor. "But the reality is, it's not going to be a family home at any point, and so I think we need to be realistic about this. The parking lot seems to serve the church the best. Churches are gathering places for communities, especially immigrant communities."

Hadden said her office will release a community survey for neighbors to weigh in on the rezoning request before she decides whether to support the project.

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Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, condemned on Friday the Israeli occupations intensified attacks in Gaza, denouncing the bombardment, killing, and cutting of electricity and internet connections as blind terrorism and a clear violation of legal and humanitarian principles.
Ever since learning that in 1947, Walter Lippmann popularized the term Cold War to define the emerging conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States, I thought it would be cool to be able to name a historical epoch. Now that the post-Cold War has expired, the post-post-Cold War that weve entered is just begging to be named. So here goes: Its the age of That Was Not the Plan.

I know, I know, that doesnt trip off the tongue  and I dont expect it to stick  but boy is it accurate. I stumbled across it on a recent trip to Ukraine. I was speaking with a Ukrainian mother who explained that since the war started, her social life had been reduced to occasional dinners with friends, kids birthday parties and funerals. After typing her quote into my column, I added my own comment: That was not the plan. Before last year, young Ukrainians had been enjoying easier access to the E.U., embarking on tech start-ups, thinking about where to go to college and wondering whether to vacation in Italy or Spain. And then, like a meteor, comes this Russian invasion that turns their lives upside down overnight.

She is not alone. A lot of peoples plans  and a lot of countries plans  have gone completely haywire lately. Weve entered a post-post-Cold War era that promises little of the prosperity, predictability and new possibilities of the post-Cold War epoch of the past 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

There are many reasons for this, but none are more important than the work of four key leaders who have one thing in common: They each believe that their leadership is indispensable and are ready to go to extreme lengths to hold on to power as long as they can.
The English sociologist Anthony Giddens once observed that modern societies are uniquely dependent on trust, particularly trust in what he termed abstract systems. Members of smaller traditional societies are embedded in face-to-face relationships with neighbors, friends and family members. By contrast, we are dependent on a vast array of interconnected social institutions, especially expert institutions, which involve faceless commitments to those we do not (and usually cannot) know personally.

It is characteristic of these abstract systems that we cannot opt out, at least not entirely. Sustaining trust in them therefore becomes a basic requirement for the functioning of modern societies. Essential to this process is what Mr. Giddens calls access points: interactions between lay citizens and individual members (or representatives) of abstract systems; think of experts such as Dr. Anthony Fauci or even your family physician.

Such interactions provide opportunities for experts vested with authority not only to exemplify the requisite skills but also to exhibit the character traits  rectitude, professionalism, disinterestedness  needed to generate and sustain the trust of those lay individuals who depend on them. If your doctors lie to you or put their financial interests ahead of yours, you will probably stop trusting them. If their behavior appears egregious enough, it might shake your confidence in the entire medical establishment. Access points are where trust is established and sustained or broken and lost; they are vulnerabilities in abstract systems.

The Covid-19 crisis simultaneously laid bare our dependence on abstract systems and shook many Americans confidence in them. From this point of view, expert institutions lost the publics trust not only because of unpopular policies but also because prominent representatives of these institutions either were or were perceived as being self-interested rather than disinterested, politically motivated rather than dispassionate. In this way, the experts appeared to many Americans to be violating the very standards of behavior on which their authority depended.

And yet not all Americans have grown distrustful since the pandemic. Though Democrats confidence in institutions has declined overall, our survey found that there are more Democrats who expressed a great deal of confidence in scientists compared with those who expressed a similar level of confidence in a 2016 Pew survey. These Americans might see the criticism of pandemic policies by their political opponents as wholly unjustified. For them, officials such as Dr. Fauci are simply following the science and so deserve our trust and gratitude.
[MUSIC PLAYING]

ezra klein

From New York Times Opinion, this is The Ezra Klein Show. Hey, it is Ezra. I am on book leave, but our guest this week is my colleague, the Times Opinion columnist David French, whose work I have learned a ton from, and whos just way of comporting himself in public life Ive often quite admired. He began his career as a lawyer. He has deployed with the U.S. military. Hes the author of many books, including Divided We Fall: Americas Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation. And Im excited to see what he does here behind the mic. I hope you enjoy it too. [MUSIC PLAYING] One more thing today. So I am doing the annual Jefferson Memorial Lecture for U.C. Berkeley, which Im excited about as a kid who grew up in California idolizing and then getting repeatedly rejected by U.C. Berkeley when I applied there. [LAUGHS] And its going to be the first time I try to work through the ideas of the book in public with an audience, in conversation with someone else who knows what theyre talking about on these issues  Amy Lerman in this case. And if youd like to join and hear what Ive been thinking about, you can. Tickets are available at calperformances.org. Well put the link to the event page in show notes. And again, that is Oct. 5 at U.C. Berkeley. [MUSIC PLAYING]

david french

At first glance, the U.S. Senator J.D. Vance, Catholic integralists and bigoted right-wing influencers might not be so obviously connected. But theyve all been associated with the new right, an umbrella term for a range of subcultures and schools of thought that are generally critical of traditional conservatism and embrace illiberalism. Today, I want to help you understand the new right, both the ideological movement emerging in the conservative establishment and the fringier extremely online subculture of edge lording that seems to loom over it. Ive called the men who occupy the space  and yes, its mostly men  the lost boys of the American Right. Theyve made headlines for openly flirting with white supremacy, anti-Semitism, ethnonationalism, and nakedly authoritarian politics. And to me, they represent one of the strangest and most troubling aspects of contemporary politics. Why are these voices emerging? What is their worldview? How dangerous are they? To help answer these questions, Ive turned to Stephanie Slade, a senior editor at Reason. I cant think of anyone who has done more original reporting on the New Right than Stephanie. Shes been to their conferences. Shes read their books. And she knows their culture. Stephanie is going to be our guide into a dark world. As always, the shows email is ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. [MUSIC PLAYING] Stephanie, welcome to The Ezra Klein Show.

stephanie slade

Thank you so much for having me on.

david french

So Stephanie, were here to talk about the new right. Not just to talk about the new right ideologically, but also to talk about the new right culturally and why it matters. How, Stephanie, would you define what the new right is? And lets just start ideologically. Ideologically, what is the new right?

stephanie slade

In American politics, we have a tendency to mostly, first and foremost, think about the left versus right distinction. But what were talking about when we talk about the new right is a different axis  A-X-I-S  which would be the liberal versus illiberal distinction. And of course, it runs across both the left and the right. You could have four quadrants. And on the right, you can have a liberal conservative or liberal right, which strikes some people as an oxymoron. But its not. Classical liberalism is what you think of when you think of Reagan-style, old-school fusionist conservatism, a commitment to limited government and individual rights and rule of law. And then theres this schism thats opened up. I call it the liberalism schism. And on the far side, you have the illiberal right. And these are folks who kind of think that that stuff is pretty outdated or maybe ideologically and philosophically wrong, and always was. And so they reject the idea of limited government and individual liberty, to a greater or lesser extent. And part of this as well is the distinction here is that on the classically liberal side, theres a pretty strong continuing commitment to what might be considered the Martin Luther King Jr. approach to race relations, which says what should matter is the content of your character, not the color of your skin. But on the far side of that divide, there is more willingness to say, no, in fact, identity groups matter, ethnicity matters, and maybe, in some cases, to flirt with the idea that certain races or identity subgroups are superior to others, or that we should care about the purity or lack thereof of our society. So thats the stuff thats happening on the far side of that schism. And the New Right would be made up of a whole bunch of different factions, and different groups and individuals, and currents, and theyre not all synonymous with each other, and they dont even always all play nicely with each other. So I think of the New Right as an umbrella term that contains a whole bunch of different  I mean, they are a legion, as you might say.

david french

So who would be the politicians? Again, lets talk ideology. Who would be the politicians of the New Right? The people  if theyre going to look and theyre going to say, OK, these are the people, perfectly or imperfectly, who best embody what were trying to do in the body politic.

stephanie slade

I think there are three members of the US Senate who fall into this category. First and foremost would be JD Vance, brand new senator in his first term who ran explicitly to be a part of the vanguard and the face of the New Right. And he says things like, my voters hate the right people.

david french

Right.

stephanie slade

And there is no longer a distinction between the public sector and the private sector in America. I mean, its very militant and its pretty radical. Its quite populist. And hes very explicit about this. He wanted to be the face of the new right. I think Josh Hawley is another one. And we all remember the famous image of him raising his fist on Jan. 6 before the actual insurrection activities began. But he cares a lot less about things like individual liberty and free markets than old-school Reaganite conservatives would. And then another person whos kind of gone on a journey would be Marco Rubio, who I think started definitely as much more of a Reaganite, fusionist, old-school classically liberal conservative, but has adopted what he calls common good conservatism. And this is definitely part of the lingo of the new right, which is freedom is not enough, individual liberty, free markets are not enough. We need, again, muscular government thats willing to pursue our goals as conservatives including potentially through interventions into the marketplace that conservatives in the past have been skeptical of. And in some cases, in the social sphere, a willingness to use the power of the state to impose virtue on people or forcibly reorient society to the common good as they understand it.

david french

And then in the presidential race, probably the paradigmatic example of the new right would be Ron DeSantis.

stephanie slade

Yeah. Ron DeSantis is interesting because he is a hybrid of the two. In many ways, he came up as very much a free market guy, right? A limited government guy. But in the last few years, he has absolutely adopted the rhetoric of the culture warrior. Hes clearly responding to the influence of the new right. And again, when it comes  if youre thinking about what is a paradigmatic example of willing to use state power to prosecute the culture war, to reward our friends and punish our enemies, as they might say, DeSantis going after Disney would be the perfect example.

david french

Right. So DeSantis  Disney  all Disney did was, essentially, raise its voice in opposition to Florida state laws that were restricting education on sexual orientation and gender identity in K through 12 schools. Disney objects to that. And then Ron DeSantis takes strong and decisive action against Disney, eliminating an improvement district, a state entity that had been built around the Disney property, then replacing it with the new state entity who then take action against Disney on the basis of trying to, essentially, punish Disney for its more progressive ideas. Would you say that, of the political figures, DeSantis has been most successful at actually translating the new right vision into actual policy, as compared to a JD Vance, or a Josh Hawley, or a Marco Rubio, who really dont have policy wins to point to? But DeSantis actually has concrete policies that look like what the new right wants.

stephanie slade

Yeah, thats fair to say. Its easier to do when youre the governor of a state. You have more leeway to implement your will. And in the past, thats just not been a thing that most Republican governors have said they wanted to do or an agenda they have pursued of, again, exercising their will and imposing their will on their state. But that is something that DeSantis has been very clear that he sees no problem with. And I think in the Disney case, to be clear, this is problematic from a classically liberal perspective for two reasons, in two dimensions. One is that its an intervention in the marketplace. Its saying the state should be able to tell businesses how theyre run, what views theyre allowed to express, and so on and so forth. So its a challenge to the, again, the old-fashioned idea that Republicans are pro-free market or pro-business even. But I think the much more disturbing part of this  and of course, youve done amazing work elucidating why this is  is that its a challenge or a violation of the rule of law. By using the power of the state to enact retribution against a private entity. Whether an individual person, or a private business, or whatever it may be, when the government uses power to punish somebody retributively for their political speech  that is a true violation of the rule of law as far as Im concerned.

david french

So Im going to read something that you wrote  or actually read a quote that you quoted in a piece that you wrote. And this is when, in 2022, you went to NatCon 3, the convention for national conservatives. And there was a speech, a segment that you highlighted. Heres the key language. The institutional left does not intend to leave anything of the old republic behind for us to salvage. Constitutionalism, scientific inquiry, individual liberty, civil society, volunteerism, patriotism, parental authority, free expression, free enterprise, religious pluralism, cultural diversity, theyre coming for everything. So national conservatism must come for them. I think that thats one of the best distillations of that view of the world that Ive read. And it seems to cut across all of the strands of national conservatism or the new right, whether its Catholic integralism or national conservatism. It is this idea of wielding the power of the state in a punitive way. Not just in a way thats advancing a particular set of policies, but also in a way thats designed to destroy political opponents, to end their influence in American life. Is that a fair summary?

stephanie slade

Yes. And so thats why I have tried to coin the term will to power conservatism as an alternative to common good conservatism, which I think is pretty self-serving and obviously doesnt tell us anything, because, of course, I believe in the common good very much as well. We have different ideas about how to go about pursuing the common good. What differentiates us is that they have that will to power. They want power and they want to wield it to destroy their enemies and to reward their friends. And that phrase, to use power to reward friends and punish enemies is an explicit quote from that conference and from some of these self-identifying national conservatives. They say that thats what theyre for. But I would draw something else out from that excerpt from the speech that you were just mentioning, which is really important, I think, to understanding whats going on here, which is that it is reactionary. It is a reaction against what they perceive as egregious violations of the rule of law and of classical liberalism from the left. So they say the left is not abiding by the bargain that we had, where we dont try to destroy you and you dont try to destroy us, and we coexist peacefully. The left is unwilling to play by those rules, and so we must respond in kind. Because they have kind of a point in some cases  theyre not completely imagining that  it means that they are able to hold their heads up high and believe that they have the moral high ground, while  even as they succumb or give in to their temptations to use power in this way.

david french

Yeah. I think the free speech arena is a good place to locate some of these differences. So for example, I litigated First Amendment cases for most of my career. Ive only been a journalist for only eight years. And I was a litigator for more than 20. So Im dating myself right now. [LAUGHS] But one thing that I litigated for more than 20 years were university speech codes. In other words, universities were enacting policies that were designed to cleanse the university space from so-called hate speech. But these speech codes have been struck down in court repeatedly. And it has seemed to me that that First Amendment context has been where its most acute, whereas the classical liberal defense to an illiberal speech code was open up the marketplace of ideas. The new right defense to a speech code is no, no, no, our speech code instead of your speech code. So that would be, for example, the Ron DeSantis Stop Woke Act, which limits speech even in higher education  classroom speech in higher education regarding race, for example. Or in many of these states where youve seen bans on, for example, drag queen events or bans on events related to drag queens, that no, no, no, were going to use the power of the state to target expression that we dont like. It seems to be as a way of showing the different ways that state power should be exercised.

stephanie slade

Yeah, and they openly explicitly reject liberal neutrality. So they would say this idea that we can have a state that just calls balls and strikes and doesnt throw its weight behind one side or the other, that thats a fantasy. That it never happens that way in practice. What really happens is that the state is constantly throwing its weight behind the left. This is the story they tell themselves. And so we should stop even aspiring to any kind of neutrality or any kind of impartial adjudication by the state and say, nope, were going to use that power the way we want to use that power, to impose our will against them.

david french

So thats the ideology. Its a very state-centric ideology. Its designed to exercise state power on behalf of right-wing ideas with the goal to ultimately eradicate or dominate your opposition. But the cultural part of it, to me, Stephanie, is almost more salient. The way in which the New Right interacts with its ideological competitors, the way in which the New Right interacts with each other really gives a flavor for the kind of people that they want exercising power. So if youre talking about pulling more power into human beings and government, it becomes quite fair to ask, OK, well, who are these human beings? What is the culture of this movement that wants to exercise so much power? I find that theres insufficient attention paid to the culture. Youve been to NatCon 3. You have been reading these folks for years and years. How would you sum up the culture of the New Right?

stephanie slade

In a word, angry, aggrieved, right? I want to go back to something I said, which is that there are a whole bunch of different factions and currents that are coexisting under the banner of the New Right. And so, actually, the folks on stage at the National Conservatism Conference, if you can believe it, are the most respectable faces of this movement.

david french

Right.

stephanie slade

Whats happening in the shadows and mostly online is many of the same themes, but amped up on steroids and dialed up to maximum inflammatoriness, right? And so it depends a little where youre looking. If youre looking at where the self-proclaimed public intellectuals of the New Right in the NatCon movement are and what theyre saying, youre going to see one thing. And if you go to 4chan or even corners of Twitter, youre going to see something thats similar, but, again, worse.

[laughs]

If I say 

david french

Yeah.

stephanie slade

So it depends a little about which part of the culture youre looking at. But theyre angry. Again, they feel like what characterizes the Reaganite conservative consensus or classically liberal conservatism was weakness and an unwilling to treat politics for what it is, which is  to borrow a phrase  war and enmity. And so they just think that those of us on the other side of the divide are weak and unwilling to see reality for what it is. And so its angry, and its militant, and its extremely self-consciously and sometimes comically  almost in a caricatured sense  masculine.

david french

Right. Were going to drill down on that for a minute. But I want to talk about the anger for a moment. The anger that I have seen isnt just an ideological anger. In other words, its not just Im angry about ideas and angry that this idea is still advanced and I believe doesnt work. Theyre angry at people. Theyre very angry at individual conservatives. So for example, there was an essay written several years ago called Against David Frenchism. So not just against classical liberalism, but against, very specifically, me and my brand of classical liberalism. And that essay went viral. And it turned into a debate in Catholic University that got pretty heated. Its all so very personal. And so heres the question that Ive long had. Part of this feels like a legitimate intellectual exercise. In other words, the role of the state in a large, diverse multiethnic society is a matter for debate. The extent and the scope of the First Amendment is certainly a matter for debate. And we can have good faith debates about this all day long. But whats happening in the new right is it seems to be taking place against the backdrop of personal animosity. And what I am having difficulty parsing out is how much of the personal animosity is driven by ideology and how much of it is driven by, quite literally, a desire to tear down one set of people and stand in their place. In other words, this is a combination of personal ambition and ideological enmity. And it strikes me that theres a lot of very personal beef that is attached to this ideology.

stephanie slade

Yeah, its tribal for sure. And so an example  this is a little bit less personal. I havent had anybody write against Stephanie Sladeism yet.

david french

Yet.

stephanie slade

But what you saw in the second half of the 20th century was the idea that in order for conservatives to succeed, you have to build a big tent. Bring a bunch of people under the same tent and come together and create some sort of a functioning coalition. That is not  definitely not the approach here. Instead, its if you speak out against us on even one thing ever, you are the enemy. Even if you are actually quite close to us ideologically, if you dont pledge allegiance to us and to our tribe, you are just as much the enemy as the far left is. And so somebody coming at this from the libertarian camp, I definitely see that they perceive me as an enemy because I am consciously attempting to stand in the way of their desire to use power against the left. Not because I agree with the left, but because I disagree with using power in that way. So Im seen as an enemy. And so they have no compunction, they have no sense of lets build a coalition or lets get ahead by making friends. Its much more about purity in tribal allegiance.

david french

All right. Now lets talk about masculinity, because Im so glad you brought that up. That is a pervasive theme here. So it is not just that our ideology is superior  they would say not just that their ideology is more superior to progressive ideologies or classical liberalism, to all the competitors; they also make some very specific claims about the masculinity of their views. In other words, that the movement, both as an ideological and cultural matter, is an authentic expression of what real masculinity is. And it seems like a largely male-dominated space. NatCon doesnt strike me as nearly as gender diverse as even CPAC, for example. What are you seeing as youre looking at this phenomenon, because it has been an absolute  Im not going to say undercurrent. Its often the main current.

stephanie slade

I think thats absolutely right. I mean  and its even more heightened if you move, again, off the stage at NatCon, where theyve made at least some effort to at least showcase diversity or give the perception of diversity. And if you go into these online spaces, which is where most of the ferment is actually happening, its overwhelmingly male. Its young men on the right that were talking about here, overwhelmingly. There are very few women. There are few and far between who are seduced by these ideas. On the other hand, even if we were to take a step back and just talk about the Trump phenomenon, which, of course, was both men and women who lined up behind Donald Trump and who swept him into office in 2016, if you were to ask them why they supported him, why line up behind Donald Trump, why is he your man, and if you expected them to give some sort of an ideologically coherent answer, you would be disappointed. The answer was he fights, right?

david french

Right.

stephanie slade

That is the way that they would characterize what he has that other people dont is he fights. So thats kind of the theme here. [MUSIC PLAYING]

david french

So thats actually a perfect segue. So you have a lot of personal animosity. You have a lot of commitment to this ideology as a matter of masculinity. So this is going deep into identity. And then lets bring up the race angle of this. And this is where youre going to start to see where a lot of this starts to get really, really grim. And what youve begun to see is a lot of people online dabbling in explicitly anti-Semitic language, dabbling in anti-Semitic dog whistles  sometimes not that dog whistley, sometimes just like referee whistley, very loud. So you see an anti-Semitic strain. Youve seen a strain talking about the virtue of ethnicity, of defending particular ethnicities. Youll see things, for example, like Charlie Kirk tweeting, for example, about how great it is to be white. And you see this real racialization of the movement. You hit on a word reactionary. Reactionary. And whatever you see the left latch on to as an issue, the new right is going to latch on to in an equal and opposite way. And one of the ways weve seen this is in the matter of race. As the left gets more anti-racist, there seems to be a pull, in parts of the new right, to flirt with, if not jump into, outright racism. Often, it appears to be as a troll or a troll that turns genuine. Whats going on?

stephanie slade

I think theres two parts of this. One is the more intellectual part of it. And in this case, I dont mean that as a compliment. And the other part is the more populist groundswell component of this. On the intellectual side, there are people who  and they coined terms like race realism and human biodiversity  and theyre making a case for why, in some cases, in the most extreme cases, for why some races are superior to others. And they want to call upon race and IQ science, and they want to compare crime trends, and they want to build an intellectual case for why we ought to care about keeping America pure in some sense, racially pure in some sense. And then that trickles down, of course, into their policy preferences of low or no immigration and very aggressive policing in inner cities, in Black communities, and that sort of thing. That is actually the more intellectual  its probably actually the more disturbing part.

david french

Right.

stephanie slade

But that is the part where theyre attempting to put a veneer of science on top of what theyre doing. I think there is this other thing, which is a little closer to what you were talking about, which is that theres just a lot of people out there who did not start out caring about this. If anything, they came up, again, in that paradigm of, ideally race is irrelevant. We ought to care about the content of your character and not the color of your skin. That that being the ideal that we are striving towards in America, and that thats a worthy ideal. I think most people, even the vast majority of people on the right of center, start there. But as it seems like identity becomes the only thing that the left wants to talk about, and as they tend to approach  the left is seen as approaching this in a sort of zero sum way where advances or achievements on behalf of previously marginalized groups come at the expense of the status of other groups, then it heightens the salience of those identity characteristics and it creates a backlash. So theres a lot of people that I think theyre not reading the race and I.Q. stuff. Theyre not reading the literature on this and putting together an intellectual case for racism. Theyre just saying race is becoming more salient in our politics  the other side is injecting race into our politics. And so we are going to react in the natural way, which is to think more about race as an important part of our identities as well. I think its somewhat of a natural backlash thats happening  which isnt a defense of it. But I think that the bigger phenomenon here actually is that stuff thats bubbling up from the bottom as a reaction against  among the grassroots, as opposed to the people who are reading these blog posts and doing the intellectual stuff. However, the intellectual stuff has now come out from the shadows recently, and that is disturbing. The fact that these folks feel that they can talk openly about this and that people who have dabbled in this stuff are finding their ways into positions of influence in our mainstream politics, thats the thing that has changed.

david french

Yeah. And then you also add on to it one final layer, which is actually taking delight in the anger or misery of your enemies. So youre going to enjoy, if youre a member of the New Right and this culture, when you make people angry. So youre going to want to press boundaries. Youre going to want to go a little further than youre, quote, supposed to go. If youre pushing the discourse to the edge and beyond, if you are advocating ideas that were previously considered to be unspeakable, that that is what they would call based. It demonstrates that you dont care what people think of you. You have the strength. You have the strength of will, et cetera. That is what this dynamic that says we are actually trying to hurt your feelings, for lack of a better term. Were actually trying to make you angry as part of this culture.

stephanie slade

Yeah, its transgressiveness as the source of social capital. And its especially the case, again, in these online communities. So to the extent that were focusing on this young men online, which is where a lot of this stuff is happening, but its not  I cant go to that conference and report on it. So were not going to be  naturally were not going to be focusing on it as much. And because up until recently those folks also were not in positions of influence in our country, it was easy to overlook that and focus on whats happening in the more intellectual levels. But yes, transgressiveness, being intentionally provocative and even inflammatory, dancing right up to the line, and crossing it, and daring someone to call you out for it, and then laughing at them for being a snowflake if they do, its irony. The culture of these spaces is what defines them, not the ideas.

david french

Yeah. And lets make it kind of concrete. Theres a lot of examples of individuals who its been a consistent pattern, Stephanie, really since 2016, which is a young, usually male figure on the right gained some notoriety, almost always initially on Twitter, with some very edgy rhetoric, really pushing the boundaries of whats within the Overton window, which is a term for the zone of acceptable conversation. Theyre always right on the edge of that. And then you find out that in private theyve been saying even worse things. And then as their public voice evolves, it gets worse and worse and worse, and to the point where the private starts to merge with the public. And then when theyre called out or when its exposed, sometimes theyll say, hey, thats not me. Sometimes theyll just say, hey, dont even try cancel culture on me. And almost like it baptizes their expression. Their expression is  the worst sin is not their expression, its the imposition of cancel culture. And so thinking of example like a young man named Pedro Gonzalez, who rose to prominence in the last five or six years. And when I say prominence, I mean like Twitter prominence, not a famous person. But rose to Twitter prominence, so much so that he was considered a DeSantis influencer earlier in the campaign. And his cycle was basically this  so hes very overtly aggressive in his Twitter persona. One of his trademarks was when he saw somebody he hated, he would put a picture of them  a particularly unflattering picture of them and talk about their physiognomy. And he got called out for doing this because at one point he did it to a Jewish economist. And he called that the Rothschild physiognomy, which has  its not just subtly anti-Semitic, its really anti-Semitic. But then his defense was, well, I say that about everybody, Jew or gentile. Im not anti-Semitic. Im just hateful in general, I guess, is the defense? Then later on, it emerges that a lot of the things that hed said in private messaging groups with people who are also in the new right were not just subtly or dogwhistley anti-Semitic, but extremely aggressively and also with a lot of racist content. And then as this comes out, he said this really interesting thing to the Free Beacon, The Washington Free Beacon. He attributed the remarks to his descent into what he described as an online Trump world that embraced absurd rhetorical extremism. What starts off as joking can very quickly become unironically internalized as an actual belief, he said. Adding that, I said those things. And I take responsibility for them. And I apologize for them. And ultimately, its on me. And he said he had a change of heart since becoming a father. He said, You develop a kind of revulsion for the immaturity that defines these extremely online movements, a kind of performative bigotry thats a feature of it. So here he was being pretty self-aware, I would say. And I think the really key element here is this statement: What starts off as joking can very quickly become unironically internalized as an actual belief. And the way I would describe it is from trolling to conviction. And I have seen this pattern time and time and time again. I have a piece where I wrote and I had example after example after example of that. And its as if the trolling develops a momentum all its own. That it cant be ironic anymore. It has to be a matter of conviction or youre not really with the team.

stephanie slade

Yeah, you are what you pretend to be, right? So a lot of these conversations  because hes, of course, not the only young right wing activist who has been outed in this way in the last few months. And often, the conversation turns to trying to parse whether or not the things that were said or done reflected the sincerely held belief of the person. If you incorporate Nazi imagery in a campaign video, does that make you a Nazi, for example. And some of those conversations may be worth having. But ultimately, I think what youre pointing to is why that conversation is kind of irrelevant. Because ultimately you are what you pretend to be. And these young men who play-act, or another phrase that Ive heard used is LARPing, Live Action Role Playing, which is a gaming word. Theyre play-acting or theyre LARPing as neofascists or choose your adjective. But maybe they start out as play-acting, but at some point, theyre also spreading those ideas to other people. And Pedro Gonzalez has 150,000 followers on Twitter. So I would always prefer to receive an apology than not and to hear somebody express some regret. But the damage is continuing to be done. Whether or not they believe what theyre saying, theyre spreading the ideas. And the fallout from that can potentially be enormous for the  especially because were talking about the culture that the next generation is being steeped in.

david french

I think your point about you are what you say is particularly salient because the common pushback that you get is, how dare you believe that what I said was what I actually meant? So you had this DeSantis staffer who has the sonnenrad, a Nazi symbol thats between two lines of troops. So not exactly subtle, right? And one of the defenses is, no, he obviously doesnt believe that. Or  this is a person who had said before about Nick Fuentes, whos one of the most notorious just out and out white supremacists in the United States, that in many ways Fuentes was a better model for conservatives than, say, Ben Shapiro. Time and time again, theres this argument that, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, you dont think were actually fascists, do you? I mean, this is  you cant hold this against us. But how is anyone supposed to know that your true beliefs, your true self is somehow fundamentally opposed to what you say?

stephanie slade

Such an important point. And Im glad that you brought up Fuentes. He is, in some ways  I hate to elevate him like this, even rhetorically  but he is, in some ways, the man behind the curtain for a lot of this stuff. Among the young men that I talk to, college-age and just out of college, I mean, this is who they are looking to. Hes such a huge influencer online. Hes like  I think hes the self-proclaimed King of the dissident right. And he has this huge following. He puts out these videos. And he has said, explicitly, that the use of jokes and irony are important for giving a lot of, quote, cover and plausible deniability for our views. So hes admitted this openly that theyre using irony to make it so that you can never hang anything on them. They can say what they believe or what they dont believe. How could we possibly know the difference? And then they can always have deniability by keeping it light and ironic and jokey. And a lot of people have learned that skill from Nick Fuentes, including the young man you were referring to who lost his job on the DeSantis campaign after using this Nazi imagery.

david french

Yeah, its really remarkable the level to which this guy Nick Fuentes keeps coming up. I mean, to say that hes irrelevant  well, he had a meal with Donald Trump. And he is a model for a lot of, again, mainly young men, which is remarkable. [MUSIC PLAYING] All this is interesting. All this is disturbing in many ways. But how pervasive is this? How much does this matter? Or is this just interesting only because, oh, its always fascinating to find out about really obscure and dangerous subcultures? But theyre not  how dangerous are they really?

stephanie slade

Its a hard question because its a live debate right now. The future of the conservative movement of the Republican Party, all of this is being actively litigated in real time. And we dont know which of the factions or which side of the liberalism schism, as I called it, is going to come out on top, is going to actually define the future of this movement. Once we expand the lens from the more intellectual new right, or what I earlier called the more respectable new right, into the dark corners of the internet where people are watching Nick Fuentes videos and exchanging anti-Semitic and misogynistic messages in their private group chats that we cant see, then you actually start to see even other disturbing things. So Nick Fuentes has hosted events. In fact, I was at CPAC in 2022, which was in Orlando, Florida. And the night before, he hosted a rival called AFPAC, America First PAC. It was a rival  I essentially described it as CPAC for people who think CPAC isnt racist enough.

david french

Right.

stephanie slade

Marjorie Taylor Greene was there. She spoke at AFPAC, at the Nick Fuentes event. And then the next day, she was on the main stage at CPAC. So theres definitely bleeding of the lines between this stuff. What starts out, again, in the dark corners of the internet, and you think, well, how important could this 25-year-old kid really be, then you start to see these ideas and people associated with these ideas showing up in the actual halls of power. All of that said, I think its really important to recognize that I do not think that the average American voter, even the average Republican primary voter, is even aware of most of this stuff. To the extent that they are in any way buying into any of this, it is entirely what I described earlier as the bubbling up from the ground up of just saying something has gone wrong in the left. There really is illiberalism on the left as well, a willingness to use state power to enforce their will upon us. And we dont want to take it anymore. And we want somebody who will fight back against that. But its not very well thought out. And I do think when it comes to the racial stuff that the way forward is a return to colorblindness or an approach in which we say it should be irrelevant what the color of your skin is. What we care is about who you are on the merits and whats inside. And that I think is a winning message even among most conservatives now. But there is definitely an open question about which direction the movement is headed. And since there are people articulating these two paths, one of which is really ugly, racialist, race realist stuff, then we have to care about whether its going to go down that path, whether the movement is heading that direction or not.

david french

Yeah. I would put it like this  I would say if you dive into the intellectual aspects of this, like we did at the very start, and you run them by your average Trump-supporting Republican, say where I live in Williamson County, Tennessee, they would look at me like, come again? What are you talking about? Use of power for the common good to punish enemies and reward what? That would not compute. Theres still a lot of background-level Reaganism  limited government, fighting against socialism, et cetera, et cetera. Although there is a lot of animosity towards the left. So theyre very willing to hear the fight, fight, fight message. But theres a couple of aspects here. One is Trumpism is kind of an ideological void. What is Trumpism, besides the ambition of Donald Trump? And into that ideological void, a lot of people are pouring a lot of different things. Weve talked about the intellectual new right. Well, theres also this pop culture Christian right, like the Michael Flynn, seven mountain dominionism, very sort of Christians are destined to rule this country kind of strain that gets poured into this. But heres where, Stephanie, I think that the young new right has an advantage over all of these other streams trying to put some flesh and bones on Trumpism is that they tend to be highly educated and many of them living in DC. And so therefore are going to be disproportionately staffing the next Republican administration.

stephanie slade

And they have been hardcore in institution-building mode in the last few years. So theyre launching new online journals. And theyre standing up organizations that help seek out college students who subscribe to these views and funnel them into internships on Capitol Hill in the Senate or wherever. Theyre putting a lot of thought and effort in a really sophisticated way into how do we take our ideas and translate them into actual exercises of power. They said that thats what they believe and theyre trying to do it. Theres another example of this phenomenon. Being Catholic, I try to keep an eye on whats going on in the Catholic integralist space. I cant emphasize enough that the average Catholic in the pews has never heard of Adrian Vermeule, who is the leading Catholic integralist intellectual in America today. Hes a Harvard Law professor. Hes written a book on this. People who are paying attention to the intellectual currents are reading Adrian Vermeule. The average Catholic in the pews has never even heard his name, let alone the word integralism. Theyre not buying into this. However, what I am hearing from people who would know is that the young men studying to be Catholic priests, the seminarians, are paying attention and they are buying into these ideas. And so even if Catholics today are not interested in this, if the next generation of Catholic priests have bought into these ideas, that is scary. That is a scary thought. That is a potential vector in which we could see this incredibly fringe set of ideas actually enacted in real ways in the real world.

david french

You used a term, and Ive used a term, and I just realized we probably havent defined it very well. Catholic integralism  what is integralism?

stephanie slade

So this is one of the strains of the New Right, one of the currents thats under that umbrella category. And I think its probably the most fringe of all in terms of the actual number of people who believe in it. But it has gotten a lot of attention because it has these high-profile advocates such as Adrian Vermeule. Its a rejection, from a Catholic perspective, of the separation of church and state. And so they say that church and state ought to be integrated. That doesnt mean that they should necessarily be the same thing. But depending on who you talk to, actually a lot of times what theyll say is, well, we need a civil government and we need the church government, the church hierarchy. But if theyre ever in conflict with each other, the civil government ought to be subordinated to and take its cues from and, in fact, could be ordered around by the Pope, by the Catholic hierarchy, because the Pope, the church is concerned with our eternal salvation, which is a higher order good than our mere temporal salvation, which is what the government is in charge of. And so civil government exists to do the will of the church if needed. Again, this is like a very wonky thing that not a lot of people are buying into. But it does have historical antecedents, right? Because if you think about medieval Europe, this is closer  this is the ideal theory for what they were attempting to accomplish in medieval Europe. And so these are people today who are saying, well, maybe we didnt do it perfectly back then, but thats still what we ought to be striving for.

david french

So were going to get into some of the weeds here because  but its important to get into these weeds because these kinds of debates and arguments really are animating a lot of the most politically motivated young men on the right. Theres this kind of fantasy world in which  and Im sure youve seen this, Stephanie, where people will extol, for example, the experience of the medieval peasant as a substantially superior way of life than what we have now. The rise of what are called the rad trads. In other words, a radical traditional Catholic perspective. So this is all percolating in subcultures. But again, hyper politically engaged subcultures. But whats the difference between Catholic integralism and Christian nationalism, writ large?

stephanie slade

Theres some overlap. But as a general matter, as I understand it, Christian nationalism tends to be a Protestant phenomenon. And its nationalist. Its explicitly and self-consciously saying we are an ethnic body. We ought to be trying, in some sense, to maintain our homogeneity as a people, as the American people. And that the important characteristic is that we are a Christian people and a Christian nation. And so that leads to policy preferences like limiting or ending immigration from non-Christian countries and non-Protestant countries. And Catholic integralists tend to not be as concerned about the nationalistic side of things, in part, because the Catholic Church is a universal church. In fact, more immigration from Latin America would probably increase our Catholic character as a country. So theres not really any reason, in principle, for a radical Catholic to be opposed to immigration. That doesnt mean that every radical Catholic is in favor of open borders. But in terms of the theory here, its more universalistic and its more about subordinating all the countries of the world to the one true leader in the Pope and the one true faith. So there are definitely theoretical differences. In practice, theres a lot of overlap in terms of preferences in terms of domestic policy that people in these camps would be for. Maybe not so much on the international side, but domestically theyre going to be talking about things like making it harder to get a divorce, requiring stores to be closed on Sundays, perhaps bringing back prayer and Bible reading to public schools. Theres more and less radical versions of this. So the more radical versions might be reestablishing a test in which you have to affirm your faith in God or to a particular church in order to be able to run for office or serve on a jury. Or even the most illiberal and most troublingly illiberal versions of this would say were going to ban mosques in this country. This is a Christian country. You cannot practice a religion that isnt the religion of the country. Theyre very, very vanishingly few people would even think about defending that. But they are out there. And they are publicly articulating these views. And because, as we talked about earlier, the culture of these online new right communities, you gain cultural capital by being as transgressive and edgy as possible, then flirting with these ideas becomes a way forward. It becomes a way to gain status within your online community.

david french

Well, and also, its tied to your masculine strength, right? So you see this in the pro-life communities right now torn apart by a debate between traditional pro-life advocates and what are called abolitionists. And abolitionists strongly believe in prosecuting women who have abortions. That is a core element of abolition  of abortion abolitionism. And one of the ways in which they engage in this conversation or engage in this fight is by essentially attempting to bully anyone who is in disagreement. That you dont really want to protect babies. You dont really believe babies are a human life equivalent to other human lives. And in this kind of pattern of Im going to stake out the most extreme position and then anyone whos one inch to my left is woke and has to be fought viciously, if necessary, it is the pattern here. What can be done? Is this the future of the right? Or what is it that can be done to pull people back from this precipice?

stephanie slade

I really do think this is a live debate. Its a live question. Where is the conservative movement going to go? What is the future of the Republican Party going to look like? And anybody who thinks they know for sure what the answer to that is  it has to be thought out at the level of ideas and at the level of, again, practical institution-building. So I dont know the answer about what the future looks like. I like this question, though Im a little bit apprehensive about the answer I want to give. I think we ought to remember the difference between fault and responsibility. Of course, the people adopting these horrifying views, they are to blame. And I would never in any, even the slightest way, want to sound like I am justifying or excusing them. But I do think that there are ways in which our approach  among libertarians, among classical liberal conservatives, and on the left as well  approach to advocating for social change can make it more or less likely that the more radical elements of the new right will be successful. And so if we treat social change as zero sum, if we act as if any advance toward justice for one group of people comes at the expense of another group, that is going to provoke backlash and that is going to empower the worst voices that weve been describing. There is an alternative to that approach of social change as zero sum. We can talk about it as positive sum. And if you look at the ways that, for example, gay rights activists in the 1990s and early 2000s advocated for the change that they were in favor of, they did it in an inclusive way. They did it by humanizing their cause. They did it by talking about equal rights under the law and liberal values like that. And in some cases, even appealing to conservative values, family values, family formation, lifelong commitment. So they achieved an incredible feat really in terms of, if you look at the polling data, about how quickly public opinion changed on support for gay marriage, for example. It was rapid and it was dramatic. And that is the kind of activism success story that there are going to be textbooks written about. And I think if were being honest with ourselves, we compare that to the kinds of activists in the gender politics space today or really any kind of social justice space today, we find that they have adopted a very different approach to pushing for the things they believe in which it is much more militant and much more retributive against anyone  not just we want equal rights under the law, but we want to punish you if you do not line up behind our views. I think that is a huge mistake. It is definitely empowering the worst voices on the right and making it much harder for people like us to counter them because then they can point to us as enablers of the cultural rights defeat. So I would call upon folks who are on the center left, on the left of center as well, in thinking about not in any way how they are at fault for this phenomenon, but what can they do, how can they contribute to stopping it, which I think  I hope we can all agree is the most important thing here.

david french

All right, three books, Stephanie. Im eager to hear what three books I should be reading that Im not.

stephanie slade

I would recommend the book Radicals for Capitalism by my Reason magazine colleague Brian Dougherty. It is a freewheeling history of the modern Libertarian movement. So anybody who may be wondering what is libertarianism all about, this is the book to read. It is long and thorough, but it is also thoroughly entertaining. Radicals for Capitalism. Charles Taylors, The Ethics of Authenticity is a short work of political theory that I really love because it is the model of the kind of thinking through of ideas and approach to ideas that I aspire to in my own work, which is to say he does not say the answer is black or white, which is the way so many people nowadays cant help but approach every issue. So hes talking about individuals and expressive individualism and authenticity and these things that many people on the right seem to think are completely at odds with other goods like transcendent truth and objective morality and tradition. And instead of saying one or the other of these two positions is the right one, he says lets figure out what the productive synthesis is between them. So The Ethics of Authenticity. And then because Im a huge fiction reader, and I especially love big books of fiction, I would recommend one of my favorite novels of all time, which is War and Peace. Its a huge investment of time, and its absolutely worth it.

david french

Thank you, Stephanie, and thank you for the yeomans work youve been doing for years, diving into this movement, into this emerging movement, and understanding it from the inside out. And thank you for sharing your insights with Ezras listeners. Very much appreciated.

stephanie slade

Thank you for having me on. I really enjoyed it. [MUSIC PLAYING]

david french
Ms. Richards, who grew up in Orange County, Calif., built Shen into a hot spot during the time of the so-called girlboss movement, when mediagenic female entrepreneurs were on the rise in the fashion, wellness and beauty industries. Several of the more than 15 former employees interviewed for this article described the initial excitement of going to work for Ms. Richards, whom Vanity Fair described in 2014 as a cool hunter who looks like a surfer girl but with a downtown-chic edge.

But for many staff members, the good feeling didnt last. Four of them described seeing Ms. Richards in various states of undress, including fully nude, while they were working. Mr. Boyer said he had seen his boss topless when he was preparing to give her facials.

Although clients often undressed and put on a wrap before receiving beauty treatments, Mr. Boyer said his experience with Ms. Richards was unique. Lara Kaiser, another former Shen aesthetician, said Ms. Richards would change in front of her before receiving facials. She was, like, pointing her boobs at me, Ms. Kaiser said.

During work meetings at Ms. Richardss home or on business trips, another former employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive issue, recalled seeing Ms. Richards fully naked roughly 20 times. Noting that employees would regularly conduct business from a dining table in Ms. Richardss home, this person added that the experience had made her uncomfortable. Another former employee, also speaking anonymously, described similar experiences while working at Ms. Richardss home. This person recalled seeing Ms. Richards nude on at least five occasions.

Ms. Richards disputed those accounts. As a beauty retailer and spa, many of our services involved clients in partial or total states of undress, so it was a daily occurrence that my staff treated with the utmost respect and professionalism, she wrote in an email to The Times. She added that she had often participated in photo shoots that involved rapid clothing changes while getting dressed and undressed in small spaces while employees were assisting with makeup, hair and other preparations.
Mexico does not have a long history with ice cream. The countrys first versions of the dessert were akin to snow cones, made from ice that was harvested from the summits of the countrys volcanoes and transported via donkeys and mules to urban areas. With a dash of salt and fruit mixed in, these raspados (literally, shavings) or nieves (snow), were prepared in flavors like lime and guava and were sold out of pushcarts along streets, just as they are today.

That changed roughly 80 years ago, when locals no longer needed to rely on these troves for their ice supply. With the advent of the refrigerator, ice cream shops started to blossom throughout Mexico City. Today, you can teleport from the capital citys present into its past by visiting both of-the-moment ice cream parlors that are branching away from traditional flavors and shops from the last century that remain practically untouched by the hand of time. Here are five spots to hit on an ice cream tour of the city.

Cometa
Dorothy Hoffner, born in 1918, had survived both the Spanish flu and Covid pandemics, as well as her first skydiving attempt at age 100.

That might explain what was on her mind before her second skydive as she prepared for a roughly 10,000-foot descent.

What are we having for dinner? she recalled thinking.

Ms. Hoffner, now 104, had decided sometime in the spring to recapture the feeling of gliding in the air, buoyant, her wavy hair whipped by winds. So on Sunday, Ms. Hoffner was picked up from her home at the Brookdale Lake View senior living center in Chicago and driven to Skydive Chicagos headquarters. There, she left her walking cane behind before boarding a small plane.

Did she feel nervous? No, she said in an interview Monday.

Was she aware that she would be likely to break the Guinness World Record for oldest person in the world to skydive? Had no idea.
Two U.S. Army soldiers died and 12 others were injured on Monday after a military vehicle flipped en route to a training exercise in Alaska, the U.S. Army Alaska said.

The truck, a light medium tactical vehicle used for troop transport, was traveling to a training near Salcha, Alaska, about 30 miles southeast of Fairbanks, where the soldiers were based. Seventeen soldiers of the 11th Airborne Division were in the vehicle, which was traveling with a convoy of others, a U.S. Army Alaska spokesman, John Pennell, said Monday night.

At about 11 a.m. local time, the driver of the tactical vehicle lost control, and it overturned on a dirt road in the Yukon Training Area, just outside Salcha near Richardson Highway, Mr. Pennell said.

First responders extracted the soldiers and provided on-scene medical treatment until they could be medically evacuated by ground and air, the Army said in a statement.
Several months ago, as a federal judge worked through a docket of smuggling cases in the bustling border city of Laredo, Texas, three people were escorted into the courtroom.

Because they were undocumented immigrants, the judge explained, they would be sent to jail. But they were not being charged with a crime. Instead, they would be compelled to testify against the people accused of helping them enter the United States.

The hearing took less than five minutes. The immigrants never spoke, not to ask questions or explain why they had made the illegal journey across the Rio Grande. They were then taken to jail, where they joined a long list of people  nearly 104,000 since 2003  detained as so-called material witnesses in federal criminal proceedings.

While the law allowing the detention of witnesses in criminal cases dates back to George Washingtons presidency, its modern use has been most prevalent along the Mexican border as successive administrations have prioritized the prosecution of human-smuggling cases, according to an analysis by The New York Times of U.S. Marshals Service data obtained through a public records request.
The leader of the House Democrats instructed his caucus to vote to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy after a party meeting on Tuesday morning became a bitter venting session in which Democrats aired their disdain for the top Republican.

Hours before a vote in which Mr. McCarthy would almost certainly need their support to survive, there was little sign that any Democrat  even the most moderate  wanted to save him, according to lawmakers who emerged from the closed-door gathering.

Democrats watched a video clip of an appearance Mr. McCarthy made on television on Sunday  the morning after Democrats helped him push through legislation to avert a government shutdown  in which he blamed them for trying to prompt a shutdown.

The minority leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, waited until after many members had spoken to issue his marching orders to the caucus: that they should vote against any procedural motion brought to the House floor that would delay the removal of Mr. McCarthy.
Representative Matt Gaetzs successful push to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy has cemented his status as one of the most reviled members of the House of Representatives  including among many of his fellow Republicans  and drawn attention to a long-running investigation by the House Ethics Committee into Mr. Gaetzs conduct.

Mr. McCarthy has argued that Mr. Gaetzs motion to remove him as speaker is little more than personal payback for Mr. McCarthys failure to interfere with the inquiry, which is looking into allegations of sexual misconduct and misuse of funds by Mr. Gaetz.

Mr. Gaetz, a Florida Republican, has asserted that the more than two-year, wide-ranging inquiry into his conduct is the work of Mr. McCarthy and his allies, who he argues are bent on smearing him.

I am the most investigated man in the United States Congress, Mr. Gaetz said Monday night of the ethics inquiry, adding: It seems that the Ethics Committees interest in me waxes and wanes based on my relationship with the speaker.
The US Senate voted largely along party lines on Tuesday to confirm Jack Lew as the country's next ambassador to Israel.
The workaday 30-minute hearing was held in a drab, second-floor courtroom before federal magistrate, Christopher J. Burke. Mr. Biden was released without any cash bond, and Judge Burke disclosed that Mr. Biden has continued to pass drug tests administered to him. No trial date was set.

Mr. Bidens lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said he intended to file a motion seeking to have the gun charges dismissed on procedural and constitutional grounds, and suggested he might also request an additional hearing to contest the governments evidence.

These charges are the result of political pressure from President Trump and his MAGA allies to force the Justice Department to ignore the law and deviate from its policies in cases like this one, Mr. Lowell said in a statement after the hearing.

Mr. Lowell did most of the talking during the hearing. He entered Mr. Bidens not guilty plea.

Mr. Biden, sporting a new close-cropped haircut, only spoke a few times, and then only to say yes, your honor, when Judge Burke asked him if he understood the charges and his conditions of release.

He left the courtroom through a side door without taking questions.

In late July, Mr. Biden arrived at the same courthouse with hopes of putting his legal problems behind him after reaching a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that would have ended a five-year investigation into both the weapons charges and separate allegations that he had failed to pay his income taxes on time. The gun case would have been resolved with what is known as a pretrial diversion agreement, under which Mr. Biden would not be prosecuted if he remained drug-free for 24 months and agreed never to own a firearm again.
John F. Kelly, the onetime chief of staff to former President Donald J. Trump, confirmed on Monday some of Mr. Trumps most startling comments about service members and veterans, reeling them off in a statement in which he said his onetime boss had contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution and the rule of law.

A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as P.O.W.s are all suckers because there is nothing in it for them, he told CNN.

He went on: A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because it doesnt look good for me. A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family  for all Gold Star families  on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in Americas defense are losers and wouldnt visit their graves in France.

The mention of a Gold Star family was a reference to Mr. Trumps 2016 attacks on the parents of an Army captain killed in Iraq, which he made after they criticized him. Four years later, he suggested that Gold Star families might be to blame for infecting him with the coronavirus.
The entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie, the former New Jersey Governor, lashed out at the Republican National Committee on Tuesday after the organization effectively squashed plans for the two presidential candidates to face off in an unofficial debate tonight on Fox News.

The Christie-Ramaswamy event was teased Monday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, as an hourlong special segment called Candidates Corner, to unfold at 6 p.m. Tuesday with Fox News host Bret Baier.

But according to a person familiar with the discussions, the R.N.C. told the candidates that if they went through with the one-on-one event, they would not be allowed to participate in future R.N.C.-sanctioned debates. (The next official debate is set for Nov. 8 in Miami.)

On Tuesday Mr. Christie criticized the threat on X, saying: Our party needs more debates and in-depth conversations, not less, adding: When the R.N.C. stops conversations between candidates from happening that is real cause for concern. He added that Fox News had offered every campaign the same opportunity, of a one-on-one discussion with another candidate. In a statement, Mr. Ramaswamy took a sharper tone: Last weeks R.N.C. debate was a disgrace, and Im starting to believe that was by design. This is what a broken and rigged nomination process looks like.
Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, is expected to lead a bipartisan delegation of six senators on a trip to China next week, the latest in a series of high-level visits by U.S. officials to Beijing.

The lawmakers are expected to hold meetings with Chinese government and business leaders and discuss a number of contentious issues that have raised tensions between Washington and Beijing in recent months.

The delegation plans to ask Chinese leaders about human rights violations, including Chinas crackdown on ethnic minorities, and its role as the top source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related products that are fueling an epidemic of overdoses in the United States. An aide to Mr. Schumer also said that the senators planned to raise concerns related to global competition and what many of them considered Chinas unfair business and trade practices, Beijings role in the international community and potential areas for cooperation.

The trip, details of which were reported last month, comes during a weeklong Senate recess and will also include stops in Japan and South Korea. It takes place at a challenging moment in the U.S.-China relationship, as the Biden administration tries to reduce the countrys reliance on China and make it harder for Beijing to gain access to advanced technology that could be used to fuel its military ambitions.
Mr. Trumps public remarks, whether online, in interviews or at rallies, have always had the potential for incendiary effects. A number of defendants prosecuted over the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, said they believed they were acting on Mr. Trumps orders.

Part of what has changed is that his violent remarks now come at a time when the indictments have already stoked anger among his supporters and when attacks against institutions, judges and prosecutors around the country have increased. The special counsel, Jack Smith, has asked the federal judge overseeing the case in which Mr. Trump was charged with trying to subvert the democratic process in 2020 for a limited gag order because of his threatening statements against witnesses, prosecutors and others.

In a statement, Mr. Trumps spokesman, Steven Cheung, was unapologetic, saying, President Trump is a truth teller and calls it like he sees it. He has laid out the most transparent policy proposal of any campaign and voters will know who they are voting for  someone who will Make America Great Again!

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump was given a gag order in the New York case, after sending around a campaign email with lengthy attacks on Justice Arthur F. Engoron, who is presiding over the civil fraud trial, as well as a post on his own social-media website attacking the judges clerk. The judge told the courtroom he ordered Mr. Trump to delete the post, and Mr. Trump did.

Any gag orders will be legally constraining for Mr. Trump in a way he has rarely experienced. But in the political realm, where he is increasingly trying to focus attention on the cases, gag orders may only increase Mr. Trumps appeal with his supporters: The former president, who claims to be a victim of political persecution, is finding a receptive audience for his increasingly menacing language at campaign appearances. Mr. Trump has always leavened his sharpest words with humor, which can have a softening effect, a pattern that has continued with his recent appearances.
On Capitol Hill, Republican lawmakers have drafted a broad authorization for the use of military force against cartels  echoing the war powers Congress gave former President George W. Bush before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. They have also pushed for designating Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations  a related idea Mr. Trump flirted with as president but backed off after Mexico hotly objected. Now, if Mr. Trump returns to the White House in 2025, he has vowed to push for the designations and to deploy Special Operations troops and naval forces to, as he put it, declare war on the cartels.

The Republican Partys attraction to seeking a military solution to the drug problem is a reminder that the G.O.P.  despite its populist shift toward anti-interventionism in the Trump years and the growth of a faction that opposes arming Ukraine against Russias invasion  still reaches for armed force to address some complex and intractable problems. Mr. Trump himself has been something of a walking contradiction when it comes to the use of force abroad, alternately wanting to pull back U.S. involvement overseas and threatening to drop bombs on enemies such as Iran.

The plans have angered officials in Mexico. Its president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has denounced the proposals as outrageous and unacceptable. It has been more than a century since the United States sent military personnel into Mexico without the Mexican governments assent.

Mexico has a bitter history with American interference: Much of the southwestern United States was part of Mexico before the United States took it by force in the middle of the 19th century. To this day, Mexico generally does not allow U.S. agents with guns to carry out operations on its soil, in contrast to other Latin American countries that have agreed to joint operations with the Drug Enforcement Administration and invited the American government to help train, equip and assist their own security forces.

Analysts have also warned about the potential for military action to cause significant economic damage. The plans could rupture the United States relationship with Mexico, its largest trading partner, and curtail other types of cooperation, including the arrest and extradition of criminals and Mexicos efforts to deter migrants from trying to cross illegally into the United States. Some Republicans view the threat of sending the military into Mexico as a negotiating tool to force Mexican officials to get aggressive with the cartels.
The question came from out of the blue in 2021, as Gov. Gavin Newsom of California was on television, fending off a campaign to recall him. If Senator Dianne Feinstein left office before the end of her term, Joy Reid of MSNBC wanted to know, would the governor rectify a glaring gap in representation and name a Black woman to fill the seat?

On tape, the governors own eyes seemed astonished by what his mouth was about to do to his political options.

We have multiple names in mind, Mr. Newsom said. And the answer is yes.

Two and a half years later, that pledge  along with a second televised remark in September calling it an interim appointment  would box Mr. Newsom into one of the most complex personnel decisions of his tenure, forcing him to juggle competing political agendas from Capitol Hill to California, including his own national aspirations.

When Senator Feinstein died last week, Mr. Newsom had already made it clear that he did not want to appoint Representative Barbara Lee, a Black woman running in next years Senate race, because he said he did not want to interfere in the contest. But Mr. Newsom also wanted to avoid frustrating Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, who has put her considerable muscle behind the candidacy of Representative Adam Schiff. And Mr. Newsom did not consider Ms. Lee, one of the most liberal members of the California delegation, to be an ideological match for his own politics, as he increasingly tacks to the middle.
A majority of the justices at a Supreme Court argument on Tuesday seemed ready to reject a challenge to the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency set up during the Obama administration to crack down on abuses by banks and other financial services providers.

The justices appeared unpersuaded by the argument that the way Congress had funded the bureau had crossed a constitutional line. Instead, they signaled that they believed it was authorized by the plain words of the Constitution and had deep historical roots.

At stake is not just the continued functioning of the agency, which has been the target of lawsuits from business groups since its establishment, but also every regulation and enforcement action it has taken in the dozen years of its existence.

There was little talk in the arguments of what would happen if the funding mechanism were to be rejected, which was an indication that it was likely to survive.
Q: Im confused about how to take care of the skin on my face. What are the basics?

Browsing your drugstores skin care aisle can be a puzzling experience  and thats before you start looking at social media.

Doctors are frustrated, too. Everyones giving skin care advice, and people are inundated with information, said Ahmad Amin, an associate professor of dermatology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Dermatologists recommend keeping it simple and say that everyones skin care routine should include a few essential steps: cleansing, moisturizing and sun protection.

We asked experts to walk us through the fundamentals.

Wash your face.

You probably know you should be washing your face, but you might not really know why, or the best way to do it.
This article is from a special report on the Athens Democracy Forum, which gathered experts last week in the Greek capital to discuss global issues.

Not a lot of democracy happening at the moment, the BBC journalist Will Ross said on the radio in August about the situation across West and Central Africa while reporting on a postelection coup in Gabon. He cited a litany of examples across the region  Guinea, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Mali  where there have been coups or armed rebellions in the last two years.

And yet, despite concern for the region and worries about vote-rigging in recent elections in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe, there are examples across the continent where democracy continues to prevail.

After terrible violence in the last few presidential races in Kenya, last years election was largely peaceful. In Tanzania, there have been some hopeful signs this year of a return to press freedom. The World Health Organization recently highlighted Botswanas government as an example of African leadership when it came to universal health services and research and development.

It is the young, of course, who often bring about political sea change. Because Africa has the youngest population in the world  more than 60 percent of Africans are under 25  there is the belief that its youths can move the needle toward more democratic ideals.
Donald Trump used a speech at a Republican Jewish convention Saturday to promise the reimposition of a controversial travel ban that targeted a slew of mostly Muslim countries if he gets re-elected.
SANNEH The question of deconstructing the colonial infrastructure, especially culturally, is an extremely hard task. Because the African continent is a space that has always been somebody elses object.

And its extremely hard to shake it out.

ERLANGER Namatai, I dont know how old you are, but youre a Kofi Annan prize winner, youre working with young people, youre trying to get them to lead. Youre a generation that grew up in the sense post colonial. Does that make a big difference?

NAMATAI KWEKWEZA I am 24 years old this year. I grew up in Zimbabwe, and I was born in 1998. And 1997 really was the peak of things going downhill. So Ive never seen a functional society where theres proper sanitation, theres just basic things that are essential in terms of human rights.

And I think the critical conversation for me as an activist has always been when we are putting pressure on the government and we are demanding that they deliver, they have often taken this position where they blame it all on the West, and they say, Oh, the West gave us sanctions, and we are part of a very ugly geopolitical infrastructure, be it financially, be it politically. And at some point it almost felt as if it was rhetoric on their part, because there is a lot of corruption. No one can deny that Covid-19 funds were looted. No one can deny the dilapidation in our hospitals. No one can deny the issues around the lack of freedom of expression.

But when you do listen to some of the arguments that some of those leaders are presenting, it is true. And I think that for us as African citizens, and particularly as a young African, we are basically stuck between a rock and a hard place. So the idea is not to blame and point fingers. Its not to say, They are wrong, we are right. Its actually to have a critical reflection around where do we bear the responsibility as locals within Africa, but also as the international system?
This article is from a special report on the Athens Democracy Forum, which gathered experts last week in the Greek capital to discuss global issues.

Moderator: Serge Schmemann, editorial board, The New York Times

Participants: Natalia Herbst, social impact consultant and Obama Foundation Scholar alumnus; Jorge Fernando Quiroga, former president, Bolivia; and Adriana Mejia Hernandez, executive director, Fundacion Innovacion para el Desarrollo

Excerpts from the panel Disunited States of South America have been edited and condensed.

SERGE SCHMEMANN In my preparatory reading, I found a dual image of the continent. On the one hand were talking about one of the most promising regions in the world. Theres no wars. Its the most democratic region in the developing world. And its set to become an economic powerhouse with the green minerals that will be necessary for a green world. At the same time, you read about democratic backsliding, politics that veer from far left to far right and a region plagued by inequality, crime, drug trafficking, social upheavals. And despite similarities of language and history, there has been no successful attempt to bring unity, a European Union type of cohesion to the continent. Having spouted a bunch of stereotypes, I would like to ask you, which stereotypes of your region irritate you the most?

JORGE FERNANDO QUIROGA We in Latin America, without having the frameworks that you have built in Brussels, and the Parliament, and the currency, we do have the Inter-American Democratic Charter, the Inter-American Human Rights System, the Election Observation Mission. And I can tell you from experience having gone to observe elections in Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, other places, that is something to be treasured. Is it perfect? No. Do we have exceptions? Certainly. Glaring ones. We had three dictatorships in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, but we do have a framework. And I know when you go to Asia and Africa they dont have that.

So having those common values leads to the challenge of why do we not do more integration with Europe and South America. Because the trade arrangement discussions between Europe and South America have been going on forever, and ever and ever. Its a never-ending date, and theres no marriage. And if Europe is not open for business, and the U.S., by the way, is not open for business, then do not please come preach to us about get China out of the way. Because China is actually open for business.
The police in New Delhi raided the homes and offices on Tuesday of journalists who worked as staff or contributors for a left-leaning online news portal known for criticisms of the Indian government. The founder and editor of the news site and one of its journalists were also arrested, according to The Indian Express, a local outlet.

Some writers were detained while their property was searched or seized during the early-morning raids. As one unfolded at his house, a video journalist, Abhisar Sharma, made one last plaintive post to X, formerly known as Twitter, at 8:05 a.m. local time: Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone 

The police, who fall under the direct command of Indias government, have not issued an official statement about their action.

Mr. Sharma, like the other targeted journalists, had produced reports for a website called NewsClick, a scrappy outlet best known for its sharp invective against Narendra Modi, the countrys right-wing prime minister.
It was a bloody reminder that the dark days of extremist violence appeared to have returned to Pakistan: a suicide attack on a religious festival in the countrys southwest this past week that left around 60 people dead.

For nearly a decade, Pakistan had seemingly broken the cycle of such deadly attacks. In 2014, the countrys security forces carried out a large-scale military operation in the tribal areas near Afghanistan, forcing militants across the border and returning a relative peace to the restive frontier region.

But since the Taliban seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021, offering some groups safe haven on Afghan soil and starting a crackdown on others that pushed their fighters into neighboring Pakistan, the violence has roared back. The number of terrorist attacks in Pakistan rose by around 50 percent during the Talibans first year in power, compared with the year before, according to the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, which monitors extremist violence and is based in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

This year, the pace of attacks has continued to rise. The attacks themselves have also become bolder, reviving the fears of a terrorism-scarred nation. In January, a suicide bombing at a heavily guarded mosque killed more than 100 people. A month later, militants struck the heart of Pakistans largest city, Karachi, waging an hourslong siege at the police headquarters. Another suicide blast, at a political rally, killed more than 50 people in July.
A 14-year-old with a gun opened fire in a luxury shopping mall in downtown Bangkok on Tuesday, the authorities said, killing two people and injuring five in one of Thailands most popular tourist destinations.

The shooting started around 4:20 p.m. in the Siam Paragon mall, according to Bangkok police. The suspect was arrested within the hour, according to the forces metropolitan bureau. The Erawan Center, a Bangkok emergency response center, provided the casualty count.

On social media, witnesses uploaded videos of people fleeing the mall and others screaming as gunshots were heard. Other video clips showed the injured being taken away in an ambulance.

The slayings have left the country in shock, offering a stark reminder that nowhere in Thailand was safe from gun violence. The country has one of the highest gun ownership and gun homicide rates in Southeast Asia, but most of the high-profile incidents so far have involved personal disputes and are often perpetrated by former army or police officers who can buy their weapons at a steep discount from the government. Gun violence is also higher in the south, where Muslim insurgents are battling the authorities.
FLORINI Absolutely not. Autocracy is the worst possible response to the climate emergency, because if you need vocal empowerment, what do autocracies not do? They do not empower citizens. They do not give citizens information to make their own decisions. They do not allow for contestation of ideas about what ought to be done. They may be very good at building a big solar power industry, which is a very significant part of the solution, but it is a small piece of a much larger set of issues.

The idea that an autocracy will have the information systems, flexibility and resilience to deal with the climate emergency for the next several generations, to me, is self-evidently ludicrous. But our current democracies are not ready.

ALDERMANSo I think when people question whether a so-called autocratic model would be more efficient, its more of a reference to the fact that, unlike in Western countries, in that other model, were not having to deal with two- or four-year election cycles. So is there at all an in-between that you can see?

LINDVALL We did a study where we compared basically all the data we have on climate policy performance of different government systems, and we could see that democracies are performing much better when it comes to adopting more ambitious policies. When it comes to carbon reduction, its difficult to say. Because carbon emissions are very tied to economic growth, and thats beyond the political system, to some extent.

Rolling out renewable energy will have different social, economic and cultural consequences, and you need a government that could get some feedback about where you put your investments and what kind of consequences the policy has, so it can correct itself.
Hours after a Rolling Stones concert in downtown Toronto, a woman found herself trapped in the plush bedroom of an office building with Peter Nygard, a renowned Canadian fashion mogul at the time, the woman testified in court on Tuesday.

When she rebuffed his advances, he became enraged, she told jurors, pulling off her clothes and raping her. Afterward, she said, he threw a Canadian 100-dollar bill at her as she fled.

The womans description of the 1989 sexual assault is a key part of prosecutors case against Mr. Nygard, now 82, who is accused of sexually assaulting five women in a bedroom suite at his companys headquarters in downtown Toronto. He was charged two years ago by the Toronto Police with five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement for episodes beginning in the 1980s.

Mr. Nygard has also been indicted by prosecutors in Manhattan, and he is set to be extradited to New York after his criminal cases, which include charges in Montreal and Winnipeg, conclude in Canada. Over a 25-year period, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said, he used his companys influence, its money and its employees to recruit adult and minor female victims for the sexual gratification of him and his associates.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said on Tuesday that his country was in talks with India over its latest demand that dozens of Canadian diplomats leave within a week.

The demand represents a further escalation of tensions between the two countries, which have been clashing since Mr. Trudeaus assertion last month that India had played a role in the killing of a Canadian Sikh activist in British Columbia. On Monday, the Financial Times reported that India has told 41 of Canadas 62 diplomats based there that they must go.

Neither Mr. Trudeau, who spoke briefly to reporters on this way into a cabinet meeting, nor Melanie Joly, Canadas foreign minister, discussed the specifics of Indias demand or confirmed the number designated for expulsion. Both said they wanted to avoid further inflaming the rhetorical and political battle between the two countries.

Were not looking to escalate, as Ive said, were going to be doing the work that matters in continuing to have constructive relations with India, Mr. Trudeau said, adding: Were going through an extremely challenging time with India right now. But thats why its so important for us to have diplomats on the ground working with the Indian government there to support Canadians and Canadian families. Were taking this extremely seriously and were going to continue to engage responsibly and constructively.
President Biden has told his counterparts in a number of allied countries that he remains confident that Congress will approve military and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine for as long as it takes in spite of opposition among some Republicans that blocked funding over the weekend, a national security spokesman said on Tuesday.

In a call on Tuesday morning, Mr. Biden spoke with the prime ministers of Canada, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom, and the presidents of Poland and Romania. The chancellor of Germany and the foreign minister of France also joined the call, along with the leaders of the European Commission, the European Council and NATO.

John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said early in the afternoon that Mr. Biden had told the leaders that we cannot under any circumstances allow Americas support for Ukraine to be interrupted. Time is not our friend. Mr. Kirby said Mr. Biden made it clear that he did not expect any interruption in U.S. aid to Ukraine, despite Congresss weekend passage of a 45-day stopgap funding bill that did not include any new aid to the country.

The president certainly talked to the leaders about the vote over the weekend and expressed to them exactly what I expressed to you, Mr. Kirby said. Hes confident that were going to continue to have bipartisan and bicameral support up on Capitol Hill.
LINDE Right, exactly, and I think one element of cyberdefense work that I think is important to get across is theres of course a race between those that want to use cyber as a weapon and then cyberdefense technology. The same with A.I. Some will use A.I. as a weapon, some will use A.I. as a tool, and what weve learned from the war in Ukraine is that the defensive technology has by far won over the offense technology and this is one reason that we were able to work closely together with government and private companies.

ERLANGER Benedikt, how afraid should we be of this cybersecurity world? I mean are you as confident as Nanna-Louise that the defenses are superior to the attackers?

FRANKE I think thats the wrong question because we are already scared. We did a little polling ahead of the last Munich Security Conference asking a thousand people in every European country, are you scared when it comes to cybersecurity, what do you feel most threatened by, and you know three results sort of stand out. Seventy-eight percent of Europeans are massively concerned about increasing attacks on them in their function as the smallest but also the most vulnerable building blocks of democracy. I mean were at the Athens Democracy Forum here thats really at the core of their worry that they feel already that they are targeted not only for their money and not only for scams but also because they are the building blocks of democracy and through them you can turn democracy on its head, you can break it up. So 78 percent are concerned about that massively. Ninety-six percent of Europeans that we surveyed are concerned about the inability of their national governments and the European Union to protect them. They have a much higher faith in companies to protect them than they have in their governments. Europeans arent quite sure about the U.S. component of that. There are a good 60 percent who are worried about having their data stored outside the European Union, that are worried about the U.S. governments intent. You know in Germany we still talk about Angela Merkels mobile phone being hacked by the U.S. government. No hard feelings, but its still a thing. And the A.I. component is massively complicating the picture because its so diffuse, so nebulous, people just cant wrap their heads around it.

And there are three things that we believe need to be done. Were really bad at aligning tech regulation with security considerations. We need to get much better at aligning the trans-Atlantic tech agendas. If its true that 60 percent of Europeans are worried about the U.S. component thats almost as many as are worried about the North Koreans and the Russians. And we need to work on that and then strengthen societal resilience.

LINDE I think theres one more thing we need to do, if I can add one to your list. In this world we live in, we need norms. One thing that was really great after World War II in 1949 was that the world came together and adopted the Geneva Convention which really spells out how to protect civilians in times of war and I think we should really think hard about whether we could do something like that. How states can act against each other when it comes to cyberspace  so like a Geneva Convention on digital.
When government leaders in Saxony learned that Rheinmetall, Germanys most prominent arms manufacturer, was considering building a new munitions factory in the former East German state, they saw visions of economic boom.

It was a chance, they thought, to capitalize on the citys storied airfield  home to the Red Baron in World War I, the Nazis in World War II and the Soviets in the decades that followed  to bring in hundreds of jobs and a slice of a huge infusion of federal funds to rebuild Germanys depleted armed forces.

Some in the chosen city of Grossenhain, with a population approaching 20,000, saw it differently.

Sixteen of 22 members of the City Council signed a letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz urging him to block the project. The local wing of Alternative for Germany, or AfD, the resurgent far-right political party, held a rally in June where speakers railed against arms sales to Ukraine. Residents lined up to sign a petition circulated by the citys Left Party.

We reject a further economic-military use after years of military use, the petition read. We do not want to be involved in wars all over the world in a roundabout way.
Over the next few weeks, I worked closely with Karam Shoumali, a Syrian reporter who was indispensable in tracking down sources, as well as Dr. Jan Bikker, a Dutch forensic anthropologist. Six years ago, Dr. Bikker moved to Athens to help migrant families find lost loved ones, offering his services for free.

Together we tried to piece together information. As the only one of us who spoke Greek, I called every Greek governmental department involved to learn of any progress in the identification of the bodies.

At the morgue, I examined the few pieces of evidence that survived: a ring with a square black stone (I sketched a drawing in my notebook); a blackened men's wristwatch (no discernible markings); and two smartphones (one a white Samsung, the other melted beyond recognition). Some of those details were helpful in our quest to learn who the victims were.

Early on, we found Qusai al-Ahmad, a 31-year-old engineer from Aleppo, Syria, who had been living in Norway as a refugee and was looking for his younger brother Basel. He flew from Oslo to Athens to provide a DNA sample, which would prove key to determining the identities of the 18 people. Qusai knew that his brother had been traveling as part of a group of Syrian men and boys; he helped us build a list of people in the group. One was 13.

Over WhatsApp, Qusai shared videos and voice messages Basel had sent him, as well as locations that he had shared along his route. Qusai was in touch with other relatives who also started forwarding us information from their last communications with their loved ones. Many relatives were in denial that their families were dead  some still are.
Naja Lyberth, one of the women, said she was about 13 years old when she visited the doctor, thinking she was going to a routine annual checkup, but instead was scheduled for an IUD insertion.

As girls aged 12 to 17, we were defenseless against the doctor, she said, adding that the damages would amount to an apology from the government. We were not treated as equal citizens within the Commonwealth.

Many of the women seeking compensation had been living in boarding schools or school dormitories throughout Greenland at the time, sometimes far from their families. Some had never been sexually active and were called into a doctors appointment without knowing what was going to happen, according to the complaint.

Some of the women reported that they had felt so exposed, anxious and shamed by the experience, the complaint stated, that they never told their parents. They called the procedure, which inserted a device larger than modern IUDs, painful and traumatizing.

Ms. Lyberth, 61, now a psychologist and womens activist, said she was not yet sexually active when it was inserted and did not feel she had the option to refuse. The pain, she said, felt like there were knives inside her.
Sitting under the bright house lights of a theater near the Vatican, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, the de facto leader of the Roman Catholic Churchs opposition to Pope Francis, displayed a theatrical sense of timing on Tuesday for the adoring conservatives in the red velvet seats.

The day before, Cardinal Burke and other traditionalist prelates made public an exchange of letters with Francis in which they aired grave doubts about the legitimacy of a major assembly of the worlds bishops and laypeople that will, on Wednesday, begin discussing some of the most sensitive topics in the church.

In their letters, they urged Francis to slam the door shut on proposals that they believe would erode the doctrine of the church, including the blessing of same-sex unions.

Instead, Francis cracked the door open. In his response, he seemed to reverse a 2021 Vatican ruling that came down hard against the blessing of gay unions. While the pope clearly upheld the church position that marriage could exist only between a man and a woman, he said that priests should exercise pastoral charity when it came to requests for blessings.
The goal is to prevent Ukrainian troops from actually securing a position and using it as a base for further advances. That is what Ukraine was able to do successfully in the village of Robotyne in the south, its biggest breakthrough in recent weeks.

The defender gives ground while inflicting as heavy casualties as they can on the attackers with a view to being able to set the attackers up for a decisive counterattack, said Ben Barry, a senior fellow for land war studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a British research group.

This tactic is just one of several factors that have impeded more rapid progress, according to Ukrainian officials and military experts. They also cite Moscows use of dense minefields, networks of trenches and tank barriers, and the reluctance of the countrys NATO allies to supply advanced fighter jets and longer-range weapons sooner in the war.

Perhaps the most formidable problem for Ukraine is Russias large stockpiles of artillery, which have been deployed throughout the conflict and not least to repel the counteroffensive that began in June.

Elastic defense is not a new strategy, Mr. Barry said. The Soviet Union employed it during its defeat of Germany in 1943 at the Battle of Kursk, one of the biggest on the eastern front during World War II. Russia also appears to have been applying it for some time in Ukraine, especially to hamper this summers counteroffensive.
A bus filled with tourists in Venice careened through an overpass guardrail, crashed near train tracks and exploded on Tuesday evening, killing at least 21 people on board and wounding more than a dozen more.

Its an apocalyptic scene, Mayor Luigi Brugnaro of Venice told reporters. He also declared a day of mourning.

The crash occurred in Mestre, the mainland section of Venice, and rescue workers were still trying to recover survivors and bodies from the wreckage late Tuesday night. At least 12 people were injured and sent to a hospital, according to the mayors office.
In the abandoned sheep pens of Al Baqa, a remote Palestinian hamlet in the West Bank, you can still smell the livestock. But the sheep themselves, as well as their shepherds, have vanished.

The 54 Palestinian residents of the hamlet pulled down most of their huts and left with their animals en masse after a group of Israeli herders set up a rival farmstead a few dozen yards away in June. The Palestinians said the Israeli herders, who often carry guns, tried to intimidate them by wandering around the hamlet and sometimes through their homes at night.

On the eerie, arid mountainside, only the Israelis remain.

Their job was to provoke us, said Muhammad Mleihat, 59, one of the village leaders, who decamped to a valley five miles away. They want to empty the area, he added.

Across remote parts of the West Bank, the mountainous territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Palestinian herding communities are abandoning their homes at a rate that has no recorded precedent, according to the United Nations.
The trial will determine whether Mr. Trump pays a significant penalty or is subject to any other punishment. Ms. James has asked that he pay $250 million and that he and his sons be permanently barred from running a business in New York.

Mr. Trump, a Republican, has denied all wrongdoing. He attended the trial on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and is expected to return sometime next week.

Here is what has happened so far in the trial:

Gag Order Violated

During the first week of trial, Justice Engoron ordered Mr. Trump not to attack, or even comment on, members of the judges staff on social media. This admonition came in response to a post by Mr. Trump showing a picture of the judges clerk, Allison Greenfield, with Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, and mocking her as Schumers girlfriend. He added that serious sanctions would follow if he were disobeyed, but he did not elaborate further.

Mr. Trumps post was deleted on Oct. 3, but a copy remained on Mr. Trumps campaign website until Thursday evening, when the court notified his counsel of its existence. It was removed later that day at around 10 p.m.

On Friday morning in court, Justice Engoron called it a blatant violation of his gag order. He noted he had said quite clearly that personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them under any circumstances.
For my state which has been targeted with busloads of asylum seekers by the border politicians seeking to increase the partisan divide, this crisis has strained the already stretched human services network we have attempted to rebuild in our recovery from the pandemic. As just one state in our union, we cannot lead coordination efforts at the border. It is time for the federal government to take a much more active role in managing the transport and destination of the transport of asylum seekers. Our nation is large and resourceful. Allowing just one state to lay the burden upon a certain few states run by Democrats is untenable. We are a nation that has welcomed immigrants and refugees since our founding, and we have done so in a bipartisan manner. It cannot be that just a few cities and states should now bear the cost of this effort alone. Below is a list of specific requests to address this crisis without further delay. These actions include:   Waive fees for TPS applications O I'm grateful that you have listened to some of the requests other governors and I have made over these many months. As you know, I remain deeply concerned that the high cost of applying for TPS is yet another obstacle for the population we have in Illinois. I urge you once again to waive those fees for those who cannot afford them and just want to be able to work and build a better life. Significant increases in logistical coordination and data collection O The federal government must take over the interior coordination of routing buses of newly arrived migrants across the country and oversee communication between states, so they are aware of who is arriving and when. The federal government must stop abdicating responsibility once CBP releases migrants into the interior of the country. Your administration has the capacity, resources and legal recourse to do this right now. o Currently, very little data is being made available to states on the migrants arriving in the country, making legal applications for asylum, extended parole, etc. difficult for advocates and government workers. There is no reason that the United States federal government should be unable to collect and share simple data on people presenting themselves at our border. Sending federal staff to Illinois and other affected states to provide data analytics and on the ground coordination between local city, state and federal agencies would massively streamline these processes. o Specifically, I am calling for a federal coordinator and task force based at the border that are solely dedicated to migrant coordination and resettlement. Provide financial support to states, local governments, and NGOs for temporary housing, food and social services. O The Biden administration has provided modest funding to Illinois through FEMA's Emergency Food and Shelter Program and the Shelter and Services Program, which we are thankful for. However, this funding is not nearly enough to close the gap between what the state is able to provide and what is needed to address concerns. The burden of funding the state and city have taken on is not sustainable only by our budgets.  Unfortunately, Congress has long failed to provide the comprehensive immigration reform and funding resources necessary to tackle our nation's immigration issues.
The sixth assembly of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) launched yesterday in New Delhi with the participation of ministers from 20 countries and delegates from 116 ISA member countries, including Egypt.
WPP launches a strategic, global partnership with Shopify that brings the companies together to jointly develop products. It will also pair WPPs network of commerce experts with Shopifys platform to help brands scale faster and reach more customers. The collaboration will cover targeted solutions across such sectors as consumer packaged goods, health and wellness, and fashion. The companies will also roll out global customized training and certification pathways for WPP employees, creating 300 certified Shopify specialists across WPPs global network within the first year of the partnership. The commerce sector has seen an incredible explosion in growth over the last few years, which is why Shopify is a natural fit for our clients given their enterprise credibility and speed at which they innovate, said WPP chief executive officer Mark Read.

Alan Twigg,

Camila Gamero

Quinn, which represents clients in travel, hospitality, food & drink and real estate, opens an office in London. The new business, which joins the agencys existing offices in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, will help service its European, US and global clients from the UK. Quinn London is led by UK industry veteran and consultant director Alan Twigg, who will work alongside Quinn VP Camila Gamero, who is relocating to London from Miami. London-based property veteran Fiona Vogel, plus a travel specialist and a social-media expert, are also coming on board. Quinn is launching in the UK with a roster of clients that includes Fraser Yachts; W South Beach, Miami Beach; St. Peters Bay, Barbados; The Pendry Residences Barbados; and Emerald Chateau, Barbados. London has always been in our growth plans, said Quinn founder and president Florence Quinn. This felt like the right time. London is a leading hub for the expanding luxury and ultra-luxury markets which have become increasingly borderless and global.

Gusto, a Matter company that provides video, animation and podcast production services, releases a guide to maximizing event ROI with video, showing brands successful video assets to use before, during and after events to help engage key audiences and create lasting brand affinity. The guide outlines video assets that can be employed to create stronger audience engagement with your audiencefrom pre-event (teaser videos, save-the-date videos) to during the event (live stream or pre-recorded segments, on-site testimonials) and post-event (recap videos, sizzle reels). Companies invest a tremendous amount of time and money into events each year, often overlooking one of the most valuable tools available to them: video, said Matter president Mandy Mladenoff. The preparation and collaboration required just to have a presence at an industry event is immense, so trying to execute a strategic video strategy on your own can feel impossible.
Akiko Karaki

Brunswick Group appoints Akiko Karaki as a partner in Tokyo. Karaki joins the firm from PwCs Strategy& unit, where she was a partner, advising consumer-facing companies, financial institutions and healthcare and life sciences clients on corporate strategy and sustainability-related matters. She previously held senior roles at McKinsey & Company, J.P. Morgan and Credit Agricole. In her new post, Karaki will advise Japanese companies globally and international clients with operations in Japan on financial, regulatory and political and social issues. Akiko has deep experience in advising companies on their most pressing issues, said Brunswick CEO Neal Wolon. She brings senior networks and strong leadership expertise, which will further enhance our capabilities in Japan, where we see significant opportunity to grow.

Mike Waterman

ROKK Solutions brings on BCW managing director Mike Waterman as a senior VP. At BCW, Waterman was the leader in corporate and technology issues, building relationships with colleagues and advising clients in Brussels, Beijing, Singapore and Seoul. After starting his career as press secretary to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Waterman worked at agencies including Ketchum, Hyde Park Communications and Ruder Finn, in addition to serving as a VP at Zeno Group and Levick. He has advised and consulted major companies on public affairs matters, corporate positioning, reputational goals and issue campaigns.

Mini Peiris

Nintex, a platform that manages, automates and optimizes business processes for more than 10,000 public and private sector organizations, appoints Mini Peiris as CMO. Peiris was most recently CMO at Doma, which uses machine intelligence to conduct real estate transactions. She has also served as CMO at Elementum and Ambra Health, and VP, worldwide marketing at NetSuite. In her new role, Peiris will be responsible for shaping and executing Nintex's global go-to-market strategy, driving awareness, demand generation, partner and customer engagement, and furthering the company's position as an industry leader. Mini's experience perfectly aligns with this stage of growth for Nintex," said Nintex CEO Amit Mathradas.
Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks does it again..Tom Hanks and wife, Rita Wilson, announced March 11, 2020 that they had been diagnosed with COVID-19. His Instagram message occurred at a time when few people knew anything about the virus.

He posted: Well, now. What to do next? The medical officials have protocols that must be followed. We Hanks will be tested, observed, and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires.

A survey released Feb. 4, 2021 by two Penn State and Washington State professors and conducted the day after the actors Instagram post found that 90 percent of respondents heard about his diagnosis and about half of them said they had changed their attitudes about COVID-19 because of it.

The researchers concluded that Hanks highlighted the reality of COVID-19 and broadened their understanding of not only the severity of the situation, but also their susceptibility to the illness.

After his image was used to plug a dental plan, Hanks is now using his high-profile and credible brand to warn about the dangers of artificial intelligence.

Beware! Theres a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it," he posted on Instagram.

Here we go again. Hanks has raised the profile of AI beyond the worlds of technology and communications. He uses his everyman celebrity well.

The Public Relations Society of America should convince Tom to become its honorary chair.

Journos for Ukraine. The Society of Professional Journalists has established a fund to support embattled journalists in Ukraine.

Sixty-six journalists have been killed since the launch of the invasion, ten of them while carrying out their reporting duties.

Russias secret police has rounded up another 22 journalists in its quest to suppress the free flow of information.

Those kidnap victims are currently being held in Ukrainian territory that is currently occupied by the Russians.

The war also has resulted in the shutdown of 233 media outlets and the seizure of equipment at other editorial offices.

SPJ Foundation president Hagit Timor said contributions to the fund will help publications reopen to deliver the vital information that citizens need. They deserve the insight that can only come from local journalists who are able to report independently, added Limor.

SPJ is working in conjunction with the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine. Click to donate.

Thank you, John Kelly. Donald Trumps former chief of staff has forcefully reminded America of the threat that his ex-boss poses to US democracy, if he gets re-elected.

On the day that fraudster Trump spewed nonsense and hate against the New York attorney general and judge involved in his civil trial, Kelly told CNNs Jake Tapper:

A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all suckers because there is nothing in it for them. A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because it doesnt look good for me. A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star familyfor all Gold Star familieson TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in Americas defense are losers and wouldnt visit their graves in France.

A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women. A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

There is nothing more that can be said. God help us."

The US and the world owe Kelly a huge debt of gratitude.

Upward and onward in Adland. Edelman Hong Kong has developed billboards in which the marketing message only becomes visible when a person shakes her head.

The billboards support the launch of KFCs FING FING Cajun Chips that are served with a packet of seasoning to be mixed for enhanced flavorings. Fing Fing means shake in Cantonese

The ad press praised the Edelman work as a fun and interactive way to connect with consumers and generate buzz online.

Edelman is pretty crafty for a PR firm.
Banagher College proudly welcomed the students who achieved in excess of 500 points in their Leaving Cert back to the schoolfor a coffee and a chat.

The students were very excited about moving on to the next stage of their educational path.

Banagher College announced that 3% of our Leaving Cert cohort received over 600 points, 25% received over 500 points and 55% received over 400 points.

The Leaving Cert Applied students, were according to Ms Breed Hassett (LCA Co-ordinator), an exceptionally dedicated, focused and hardworking LCA class. She said that the entire staff are all delighted at their success.

The class of 2023 will now be spreading their wings all over Ireland to Universities, Technological Universities, PLC Colleges of Further Education, Agricultural Colleges and SOLAS Apprenticeships. Ms Claire Kenny (Guidance Counsellor) said that the most important thing now is that our students are happy with their course choices and make the most out of every opportunity presented to them. She also added that our doors will always be open to our past students, remember each and every one of you are part of the Banagher College family.

Finally, the principal of Banagher College, Ms Lily Kinahan has praised the Class of 2023 and said I want to express my wholehearted congratulations to all the students, teachers and indeed parents of this group, the results are outstanding. Students have reaped the rewards of two years of very hard work, I wish them continued success and happiness in the future.

Go n-eiri an bothar leo go leir.
Criminal law practitioners have protested outside courts across the country as part of a nationwide strike over fees.

It follows The Bar of Irelands recommendation of a one-day withdrawal of service for criminal law barristers.

Criminal barristers say their fees remain below 2002 levels in nominal terms, following a range of cuts applied during the financial crisis.

They say the 2008 government also unilaterally broke the link between fees paid to barristers with increases applied under public sector pay agreements in 2008.

Barristers say they have suffered a pay cut in real terms of more than 40% over the past 20 years while every other group of workers in the criminal justice system has seen pay restoration implemented.

They say this is despite a range of additional reforms and changed practices being delivered by barristers.

The action, which is in pursuit of determining the fees payable to barristers by the Director of Public Prosecutions under the legal aid scheme, comes one week ahead of the Budget next Tuesday.

More than 100 barristers gathered outside the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin on Tuesday morning as part of the action.

Speaking to reporters there, chair of the Council of The Bar of Ireland Sara Phelan said there is pent-up frustration among members.

She added: What brought us to this point is the failure of successive governments to actually reverse pay cuts that were applied during the austerity era, when the reversal of those pay cuts was actually recommended by the Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2018.

Were expecting the minister and I suppose the various ministers and indeed the Government to take notice of the fact that we are here.

There is a show of support for this action, barristers are very frustrated, and hopefully there will be progress in the budgetary process.

Ms Phelan warned a pipeline of young criminal practitioners will leave the system if the issue is not resolved.

She said: Our stats show that about two thirds of criminal practitioners leave the criminal bar after six years and if we dont have that pipeline coming through, we wont have an experienced skill set amongst criminal practitioners, both to prosecute serious crime, and therefore victims of crime wont have their rights vindicated in a timely manner.

Secondly, we wont have experienced defence practitioners to defend those accused of serious crime who obviously stand innocent until proven otherwise.

Chair of the Criminal State Bar Committee Sean Guerin said the DPP was unable to find senior counsel for serious cases on two occasions this year.

He said: The unavailability of counsel with those skills and that experience is a threat to the integrity of the criminal justice system.

Mr Guerin stressed the dispute was for barristers both defending and prosecuting crime.

He said: At every level, engagement with the criminal justice system as a citizen requires a sufficient cohort of skilled and experienced practitioners to be available to act for people.

Ms Phelan said she was hopeful that there will be a change for barristers in the budgetary process but said members would have to decide on the next step if that does not happen.

Asked about the impact on court proceedings, she said Tuesday, which is the first full day of the new legal year, was chosen to avoid disruption for the most number of people.
Thousands of children are feared to be dying in Sudan as violence, disease and severe malnutrition rip through the conflict-torn country, the United Nations said Tuesday.

The UN refugee agency said more than 1,200 children in refugee camps had died since May due in part to a measles outbreak.

Thousands more were dying due to malnutrition and lack of health care, the UN's children's agency UNICEF said.

"UNICEF fears Sudan's youngest citizens are entering a period of unprecedented mortality," spokesman James Elder told reporters in Geneva. "We are really on the precipice."

Sudan is being ripped apart by a violent conflict that erupted on April 15 between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The violence has killed at least 7,500 people across the country, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

The war has also decimated already fragile infrastructure, shuttered 80 percent of the country's hospitals, displaced millions and plunged millions into acute hunger.

Newborns risk dying



The crisis is taking a particularly harsh toll on Sudan's youngest residents.

The fighting has killed 435 children, according to official casualty numbers, but Elder said the true number of deaths was likely far higher.

UNICEF fears that "many thousands of children ... will die in the next few months," he said.

"We fear many thousands died in the last few months. And as long as this crisis continues, many, many thousands of children will continue to die".

"It's hard to quite understand what the world is waiting for," he said.

Among other things, he said the "cruel disregard for civilians and the relentless attacks on health and nutrition services" meant that many thousands of newborns risked dying by the end of the year.

The World Health Organization has verified 56 attacks on health care facilities and personnel since the start of the conflict, resulting in at least 11 deaths and 38 injuries.

Elder pointed out that 333,000 children were due to be born in the country between October and December, at a time when nutrition services had been "devastated".

"Every month, 55,000 children require treatment for the most lethal form of malnutrition and yet in Khartoum less than one in 50 nutrition centres is functional. In West Darfur it's one in 10," he said.

Measles, cholera



The UN refugee agency said its teams in Sudan's White Nile state had determined that between May 15 and September 14, more than 1,200 children under the age of five had died across nine refugee camps.

Those camps were hosting mainly refugees from South Sudan and Ethiopia, Allen Maina, UNHCR chief of public health told reporters.

Another 3,100 suspected cases of measles were also reported in the same period, as well as more than 500 suspected cases of cholera in other parts of the country, along with outbreaks of dengue and malaria, the agency said.

"The world has the means and the money to prevent every one of these deaths from measles or malnutrition," UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said in a statement.

"We can prevent more deaths, but need money for the response, access to those in need, and above all, an end to the fighting," he said.

UNICEF also said it sorely lacked funds, noting that it had received just a quarter of the $838 million it had requested to help 10 million children in Sudan.

"Such a funding gap will mean lives lost," Elder said.

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Maharashtra: 31 Patients Die In 48 Hours In Nanded Hospital Due To Lack Of Medicines

India

oi-Sushmita Halder

The death toll in Shankarrao Chavan Government Hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded rises to 31 in the past 48 hours. Among these 31 patients, 16 were infants or children.

Earlier it was reported that 12 newborns died in a government-run hospital in Nanded in the last 24 hours. According to the dean, the deaths are caused by a shortage of medicines and a lack of hospital staff.

Apart from the newborns, 12 adults also lost their lives as reported by the dean of the hospital. Reportedly, adults were suffering from various ailments, mostly snake bites.

"Six males and six female babies died in the last 24 hours. Twelve adults also died due to various ailments, mostly snake bites. We faced some difficulty since various staff were being transferred," the dean of Nanded's Government Hospital Shankarrao Chavan was quoted as saying.

The dean further said that the government hospital is a tertiary-level care centre and patients from far-off places come to the hospital as this is the only place in the 70 to 80-km radius.

Maharashtra Hospital Deaths: Congress Demands Probe, Kharge Slams State Health Apparatus

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Maharashtras Nanded hospital death toll rises to 31; state cabinet to hold meeting | Oneindia News

Talking about the lack of facilities and medicine supply in the hospital, the dean said, "There is an institute Haffkine. We are supposed to buy medicines from them but that also didn't happen. But we did buy medicines locally and provided them to the patients."

However, the hospital authorities declined the claims by the dean and were quoted saying as, "Essential medicines are available in the hospital. The hospital has  12 crore in funds. For this financial year,  4 crore has been approved. Other patients are being treated as necessary."

The statement released by the hospital authorities said that there were 12 adult patients (five male and seven female) and 12 children. Among adults, four were suffering from heart disease, one from poisoning, one from gastric disease, two from kidney ailments, one from obstetric complications, and three were accident victims. Among the children, four in the terminal stage were referred from private hospitals.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde expressed condolences for the deceased and called the incident unfortunate. He further ensured that strict action would be taken after a thorough investigation would be done to find out the real cause of the deaths.

A committee has been formed to probe the deaths, Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, Director, Medical Education and Research, Maharashtra, told PTI.

"A three-member expert committee from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) district has been formed with a mandate to submit a report by 1 p.m. tomorrow. I am personally visiting the hospital to review the situation," he informed.

A similar incident took place in a Thane-based government hospital in August this year. Reportedly, 18 patients died in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Memorial in Thane's Kalwa within a span of 24 hours.

According to Thane civic commissioner Abhijit Bangar, the patients were suffering from complications due to kidney stones, chronic paralysis, ulcers, pneumonia, kerosene poisoning, and septicemia among other ailments.

Reacting to the deaths of the patients in government-run hospitals, the Opposition in Maharashtra slammed the Eknath Shinde government and said the triple-engine sarkar (of the BJP, Eknath Shinde Sena and the Ajit Pawar faction of NCP) should take responsibility.

SC Raps Maharashtra Speaker For Delaying Disqualification Pleas

"The triple-engine sarkar is responsible for the deaths of all the 24 innocent people. They should be made accountable," Congress leader Supriya Sule said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took to his X handle to express condolences to all the bereaved families and accused the Centre.

"The BJP government spends thousands of crores of rupees on its publicity, but there is no money for medicines for children? In the eyes of the BJP, the lives of the poor have no value," he alleged.

On the other hand, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Congress veteran Ashok Chavan who visited the hospital sad, "A total of 24 lives were lost. Seventy are still critical. There is a lack of medical facilities and staff. Many nurses were transferred and their replacements were not given. Many machines are not working. The hospital's capacity is 500, but 1,200 patients are admitted. I will speak to Ajit Pawar (about this). The government should look into the matter keenly and take control of the situation."

"24 deaths, which include 12 newborn babies, in 24 hours in the government hospital in Nanded happened due to lack of supply of medicine by the state government. Shame on a government that only advertises festivals and events," a spokesperson of Sharad Pawar's NCP, Vikas Lawande, wrote on X.

Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena (UBT) lashed out at the state government and said, "This is shameful, please don't call them deaths, this is murder due to absolute negligence on the part of the unconstitutional state government. They are so busy planning influencer events or foreign trips that they have forgotten their basic job is to serve the state."
7th Pay Commission: Big Decision To Be Taken On Dearness Allowance (DA) Hike On Wednesday

DA Hike In UP: 4% DA Hike Likely For Govt Employees, Arrears Expected In October

7th Pay Commission: Railway Employees Get Salary Boost With 4% DA Hike; Check How Much Increase

7th Pay Commission: TN Govt Employees Get Salary Boost With 4% DA Hike; Check How Much Increase

7th Pay Commission: Panel Consults With CM Siddaramaiah On Fiscal Impact Of Salary Revision

India

oi-Prakash KL

The 7th Pay Commission on Friday met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to discuss fiscal implications of revision of salaries of state government employees.

Former chief secretary K Sudhakar Rao, Commission members P B Ramamurthy (retired IAS) and former Karnataka State Audit And Accounts Department principal director Srikanth B Vanahalli and member-secretary Hephsiba Rani Korlapati met the Karnataka Chief Minister on Saturday.

The 7th Pay Commission was formed in November 2022, with a stipulated six-month period for submitting its recommendations. In May this year, the Commission's term was extended till November.

"General discussion was held on fiscal implications, but the 7th Pay Commission did not share any indications of their likely recommendations during the meeting with the CM," a source told Deccan Herald.

7th Pay Commission: Railway Employees Union Demands Productivity-Linked Bonus

Enforcing the 7th pay scale for state government workers will result in a substantial rise in both salaries and pensions in the upcoming years. Based on the fitment factor, the financial impact of the 7th pay scale is estimated to range from Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 18,000 crore in the initial year of implementation, as outlined in the Medium Term Fiscal Plan.

Approximately six lakh employees' salary prospects will be reviewed by the Pay Commission.

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Story first published: Tuesday, October 3, 2023, 18:28 [IST]
Bihar Caste Census: Congress Leaders Not On The Same Page Over Rahul Gandhi's 'Jitni Abadi Utna Haq'

India

oi-Stuti Tripathi

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi has shared his perspective on the "jitni abadi utna haq" (right as per population) debate that has emerged in the wake of Bihar's caste census findings.

Singhvi cautioned against the consequences of prioritizing rights solely based on population, suggesting it could lead to majoritarianism. This statement comes after Rahul Gandhi, former Congress President, advocated for "jitni abadi utna haq."

Singhvi emphasized the difference between equality of opportunity and equality of outcomes, hinting that a focus on population-based rights could culminate in majoritarianism. Taking to his social media handle X, the Rajya Sabha MP said, "Equality of opportunity is never the same as equality of outcomes. People endorsing #jitniabadiutnahaq have to first completely understand the consequences of it. It will eventually culminate into majoritarianism,"

Bihar Caste Census: SC To Hear Plea On October 6

The Bihar government, led by Nitish Kumar, disclosed the results of its highly anticipated caste survey on Monday, which comes just a few months ahead of the 2024 general elections. The data revealed that Bihar's total population is a little over 13.07 crore, with the Extremely Backward Classes making up the largest social segment at 36%, followed by the Other Backward Classes at 27.13%.

Rahul Gandhi welcomed the Bihar caste survey results on social media, highlighting the dominance of OBC, SC, and ST communities in the state's demographics. He argued that the data underscores the need for comprehensive caste statistics in India and suggested that a greater population should equate to greater rights. "The caste census of Bihar has revealed that OBC SC ST are 84% there. Out of 90 secretaries of the Central Government, only 3 are OBC, who handle only 5% of India's budget! Therefore, it is important to know the caste statistics of India. The greater the population, the greater the rights - this is our pledge", wrote the Wayanad MP on his social media handle X.

However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticized Rahul Gandhi's stance during a rally in poll-bound Chhattisgarh today, questioning whether the Congress now intends to decrease the rights of minorities, given its emphasis on population-based resource allocation.

"Since yesterday, Congress leaders are saying 'jitni aabadi utna haq'. I was wondering what the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be thinking. He used to say that the minority has the first right to the country's resources", said PM Modi at a rally in Jagdalpur, Chattisgarh.

The PM went on further to question Congress's intentions for the minority saying, "Congress is saying that the population of the community will decide who will have the first right to the country's resources. So now do they (Congress) want to decrease the rights of the minority? Do they want to remove the minorities?"

Do They Want To Remove Minorities? PM Modi Attacks Cong On Caste Census

This debate over population-based rights and resource allocation has stirred discussions about social justice, representation, and the potential consequences of such policies in India's diverse and complex societal landscape.
Outbreaks of cholera and dengue fever have been reported in eastern Sudan, where thousands of people are sheltering in crowded camps amid deadly fighting between the countrys military and a rival paramilitary force, the U.N. health agency said on Tuesday.

According to the World Health Organization, 162 people suspected of having cholera were admitted to hospitals in Qadarif province and other areas along Sudans border with Ethiopia. Eighty cases have been confirmed, and 10 people have died of cholera, a bacterial infection linked to contaminated food or water, WHO said.

Sudan was engulfed in chaos in mid-April, when simmering tensions between the military and the powerful paramilitary group exploded into open warfare in the capital, Khartoum, and other areas across the east African nation.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders has set up two centers to treat cholera patients along with two mobile teams in Qadarif. WHO and the U.N. refugee agency have renovated the isolation center for cholera at the Qadarif Teaching Hospital, the provinces main medical facility.

Cholera outbreaks are not uncommon in impoverished Sudan. The disease left at least 700 dead and sickened about 22,000 in less two months during the countrys last major outbreak in 2017.

In Ethiopia, a cholera outbreak that started in August 2022 has sickened at least 20,000 people and caused more than 270 deaths, according to WHO. The outbreak has affected seven regions, including areas along the border with Sudan.

WHO said more than 500 suspected cases of dengue were reported across Sudan, most of them in urban centers in Qadarif. Dengue is caused by the dengue virus transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes.

The reported figure was the tip of the iceberg as the actual number is much higher, given that most of the patients rely on home remedies and often do not go to hospitals, WHO said.

The Sudanese doctors union says hundreds of dengue patients have died in the countrys east, describing the outbreak as a health crisis. It did not give a time frame for the deaths but said most hospitals in Qadarif have been overwhelmed by patients.

Heavy rains and flooding, meanwhile, have destroyed or damaged at least 13,000 houses in seven provinces across Sudan since July, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. More than 72,000 people have been affected, OCHA said.

The World Health Organization reported last month that while poverty and conflict remain enduring drivers for cholera around the world, more power storms and flooding from climate change are also fueling outbreaks.

The conflict in Sudan has turned Khartoum and other urban areas into battlefields, wrecking civilian infrastructure and an already battered health care system. Without the basics, many hospitals and medical facilities have closed doors.

At least 5,000 people have been killed and more than 12,000 others wounded, according to the United Nations, though the actual numbers are likely higher. The U.N. refugee agency said last week that more than 1,200 children under the age of 5 have died in nine camps in Sudan in the past five months because of a deadly combination of measles and malnutrition.

More than 5.2 million people have fled their homes, including more than 1 million who crossed into Sudans neighboring countries. Half of the countrys population  around 25 million people  needs humanitarian assistance, including about 6.3 million who are one step away from famine, according to U.N. humanitarian officials.

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Naresh Goyal And Family In Deep Trouble As ED Attaches Assets Of Rs. 538 Crores In Jet Airways Probe

Bihar Caste Census: SC To Hear Plea On October 6

India

oi-Sushmita Halder

The Supreme Court announced on Tuesday that it will consider a plea related to the Bihar caste census on the 6th of October. The plea is in objection to the Bihar government's caste survey which was made public on Monday; it reportedly contravenes the top court's ruling on privacy.

Additional chief secretary of Bihar Vivek Kumar Singh on Monday said, "Backward class in Bihar is 27.13 percent. The extremely backward class is 36.01 percent, General category is 15.52 percent. The total population of Bihar is more than 13 crore."

According to the survey, a considerable majority of Bihar's population is Hindu, making up 81.99 percent of the total, while Muslims account for the next largest group at 17.70 percent.

According to the data, the Unreserved category denotes the proverbial upper castes comprise 15.52 percent of the total population.

Bihar's Chief Minister Nitish Kumar highlighted that the legislature unanimously approved the motion for caste-based counting.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar Calls All-Party Meet To Discuss Caste Census Results

"It was decided with the consent of all the 9 parties of Bihar Assembly that the state government will conduct caste-based census from its own resources and its approval was given from the Council of Ministers on 02-06-2022. On this basis, the state government has conducted caste-based census from its own resources."

He asserted that the census based on caste not only uncovered the various caste categories but also provided insights into everyone's economic status. The Bihar CM also emphasized that additional measures will be pursued to foster progress and improvement across all societal segments.

The caste census, opposed by the BJP-led NDA government, is at a vital point before the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. It could potentially fuel calls for a similar caste-focused census in other places, which is a priority for the opposition INDIA bloc.

The study began last year after the Narendra Modi-led central government stated it couldn't incorporate a caste-based demographic tally for groups other than the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the country's census.

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Story first published: Tuesday, October 3, 2023, 14:57 [IST]
Congress Criticizes Modi Government for Arresting NewsClick Founder Prabir Purkayastha Amid Alleged Undeclared Emergency

India

-Krishna Kripa

The arrest of NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha has ignited a political firestorm in India, with the Congress party accusing the Narendra Modi government of imposing an undeclared Emergency since 2014. The situation, they claim, is deteriorating as the current administration allegedly fears electoral defeat in 2024. This bold assertion was made by Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on October 3rd.

Congress Criticizes Modi Government

Ramesh took to social media platform X to express his concern and dissent over Purkayastha's arrest. He drew attention to Gyan Prakash, a renowned historian at Princeton University who has penned an insightful account of India's controversial Emergency period from 1975-77 titled 'Emergency Chronicles'. In this book, Prakash lauds Purkayastha as a hero of resistance during that time.

According to Ramesh, "One such hero of the resistance that Dr Prakash describes in great detail is Prabir Purkayastha who later became an expert on energy policy. Today, the very same Prabir Purkayastha along with many others stands arrested by the Modi regime."

Allegations Against Journalists

In addition to criticizing the government for arresting Purkayastha, Ramesh also mentioned journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in another post. He alleges that Thakurta is currently bearing the brunt of what he calls 'the Modani regime's vengeance' due to his persistent investigations into one of PM Modis favoured business groups.

The Delhi Police arrested NewsClick founder Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakravarty after executing search operations across more than 30 locations and interrogating several journalists. The case was filed under unspecified charges, adding to the cloud of uncertainty and fear surrounding press freedom in India.

Underlying Tensions

This incident has highlighted the underlying tensions between the current government and sections of Indian media. Critics argue that this is part of a broader pattern where journalists critical of the Modi administration are targeted, thereby creating an atmosphere of intimidation and self-censorship among news outlets.

The arrest has also brought into focus once again the controversial period known as 'the Emergency' when civil liberties were curtailed in India. The Congress party's comparison of today's political climate with that dark phase in history indicates their belief that democratic norms may be under threat under the present regime.

In conclusion, Purkayastha's arrest serves as a stark reminder of the challenges faced by journalists in India today. As debates around press freedom continue to gain momentum amid allegations from opposition parties, it remains to be seen how this will impact public sentiment and electoral outcomes going forward. For now, these incidents underscore a growing concern over perceived attempts to stifle dissenting voices within Indian media by those wielding power.
Delhi Government Begins Special Audit of DJB amid Mounting Debt and Decreasing Revenues

A special audit has been initiated by the Delhi government into the financial matters of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), in light of allegations regarding increasing debts, dwindling revenues, and potential misdirection of funds. The aim is to ascertain how a sum of Rs 12,712 crore provided over five years was utilized by DJB as its debt escalated from Rs 26,000 crore in 2018 to around Rs 70,000 crore.

India

-Krishna Kripa

The Delhi government has initiated a special audit of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), the city's water works agency, in light of its escalating debt and declining revenues. The Finance department is leading this special audit, which will also investigate allegations of fund diversion by DJB from capital heads to other tasks.

Increasing Debt and Shrinking Revenues

Sources revealed that the audit would scrutinize how DJB utilized a corpus of INR 12,712 crore provided over the last five years. This inquiry comes at a time when DJB's debt has risen dramatically to approximately INR 70,000 crore from just over INR 26,000 crore in 2018. Furthermore, it was reported that out of INR 1,557 crore allocated for various projects this year alone, INR 750 crore was used to address pending liabilities.

DJBs Multifaceted Role

Besides producing and distributing water and managing sewerage disposal in Delhi, DJB also oversees Yamuna river cleaning within city limits. Currently executing projects worth around INR 18,000 crore indicates that DJB plays an instrumental role in maintaining essential services for one of India's most populous cities.

Allegations of Fund Diversion

However, concerns have been raised about financial management within the organization. It has been alleged that DJB diverted funds earmarked for capital expenditure towards settling outstanding bills related to various projects. If these accusations hold true after thorough investigation by the Finance Departments special audit team; it could potentially lead to significant changes in how funds are managed within public utilities like DJB.

Government Intervention

In August earlier this year, Saurabh Bharadwaj  Delhi Water Minister had addressed these issues during an Assembly session. However, it is the initiation of this special audit that marks a more direct intervention by the Delhi government in scrutinizing DJB's financial management and operational efficiency.

In conclusion, given the critical role DJB plays in providing essential water services to millions of Delhi residents, maintaining its financial health is crucial. The outcome of this special audit could have significant implications for how public utilities are managed in India's capital city. It could lead to increased transparency and accountability within such organizations while ensuring they remain financially sustainable to continue delivering vital services efficiently. This initiative from the Delhi Government serves as a reminder that effective governance involves constant vigilance and proactive measures against potential mismanagement.
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Police to Conduct DNA Test on Chained Body of Swiss Woman Found in Delhi

Delhi Police At Residences Of Sitaram Yechury, Teesta Setalvad After Raids At Newsclick Journalists

India

oi-Prakash KL

The Delhi Police Special Cell on Tuesday raided the residence of CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury in connection with the ongoing action concerning entities associated with the NewsClick website, according to a report in Asianet News.

The raid was prompted by the presence of an individual associated with the case reportedly residing within the premises, sources told the publication.

Delhi Polices Special Cell Raids NewsClick's Office, Journalists' Houses

Also, the cops have reached activist Teesta Setalvad's residence, according to the visuals shared by ANI.

On Delhi Police conducting raids at different premises linked to NewsClick, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury says, "Police came to my residence because one of my companions who lives with me there, his son works for NewsClick. Police came to question him. They took his laptop and phone. What are they investigating, nobody knows. If this is an attempt to try and muzzle the media, the country must know the reason behind this."

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NewsClick Raid: Delhi Police raids NewsClick office, homes of journalists under UAPA case | Oneindia

Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday morning conducted raids at the premises of online portal NewsClick and its journalists, triggering outrage against the action among scribes.

The Special Cell has registered a new case and started an investigation, officials told PTI.

Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate carried out raids at the company's premises to investigate its funding sources. Now, acting on information provided by the central agency, the Special Cell is conducting a raid at the media firm.

Officials familiar with the matter stated that the police have seized data from laptops and mobile phones of certain journalists affiliated with NewsClick.

Abhisar Sharma, a journalist, wrote on X, "Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone." Another journalist, Bhasha Singh, wrote on X, "Finally last tweet from this phone. Delhi police seizure (sic) my phone."

In August, the Delhi High Court sought the stand of NewsClick Founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha on a plea by the city police seeking vacation of an earlier order granting him interim protection from arrest in an unlawful foreign funding case.

The website recently hit the headlines for allegedly receiving money from US millionaire Neville Roy Singham for pro-China propaganda in India.

Citing an investigation by The New York Times, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur too recently claimed that the NewsClick's money trail revealed an "anti-India agenda."
Investigation into Foreign Funding of News Portals: Delhi Police Questions 46 Suspects

India

-Krishna Kripa

The Delhi Police, on Tuesday, interrogated 46 individuals including nine women in connection with an investigation into foreign funding of news portals. The suspects were questioned for several hours about various issues such as the northeast Delhi riots, details of their foreign travels and their involvement in the farmers' agitation.

Details of Interrogation

Among those questioned was Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, a journalist who reported that nine police personnel visited his residence in Gurugram at 6:30 am to question him. He voluntarily accompanied them to the office of Delhi Polices Special Cell at Lodhi Road where he was asked the same set of questions again. The primary focus seemed to be whether or not he was an employee of NewsClick.

"I said no, I am a consultant," Thakurta explained when asked about his relationship with NewsClick. In addition to this, they also probed him regarding his salary and coverage activities. When enquired if he had covered the Delhi riots, Thakurta denied doing so but affirmed that he did cover the farmers' agitation.

A Long Day Under Investigation

In response to how long he had been consulting with NewsClick, Thakurta revealed that it has been since May 2018. After being under questioning from around 8:30 am till approximately 6 pm, Thakurta discovered that an FIR has apparently been lodged under UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act).

Conclusion

This incident points towards escalating scrutiny over media outlets and journalists in India by law enforcement agencies. It raises concerns about press freedom and transparency in one of world's largest democracies. While investigations are necessary for ensuring legality and propriety within any system including journalism; intimidation tactics or excessive probing can infringe upon the rights of journalists and hinder their ability to report freely. The balance between freedom of press and legal scrutiny is delicate, requiring careful handling to ensure neither aspect is compromised.

As this case unfolds, it will be interesting to observe how these issues are addressed by both law enforcement agencies and media outlets alike. The outcome could set a precedent for future interactions between these two entities in India. It could also potentially influence the public's perception of news portals, their funding sources and the independence of journalism in general.
How Delhi Police Cracked The Case Of Jigisha Ghosh's Killing And Soumya Vishwanathan's Murder

Police to Conduct DNA Test on Chained Body of Swiss Woman Found in Delhi

Delhi Police Raids NewsClick And 30 Other Locations In Money Laundering Case

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

The Special Cell of Delhi Police conducted searches at 30 locations associated with the digital news website NewsClick and certain journalists connected to the organisation on Tuesday. The residence of activist Teesta Setalvad was also subject to a search by the investigating authorities.

As of now, the police searches are ongoing at various locations in Delhi-NCR. The Special Cell initiated these raids based on information related to alleged illegal funding.

''Delhi Police's ongoing raids at different premises linked to NewsClick are based on a case registered on 17th August under UAPA and other sections of IPC. Case registered under sections of UAPA, 153A of IPC (promoting enmity between two groups), 120B of IPC (Criminal conspiracy),'' ANI quoted sources as saying.

#WATCH | Delhi Police Special Cell ACP Lalit Mohan Negi reaches NewsClick office in Delhi.



Raids at different premises linked to NewsClick are currently underway at over 30 locations, no arrests made so far. pic.twitter.com/KezrcJes7A  ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2023

In the most recent update, Prabir Purkayastha, the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick, was taken to the Delhi Police Special Cell office on Tuesday.

#WATCH | Founder and Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick Prabir Purkayastha brought to Delhi Police Special Cell office.



Delhi Police is conducting raids at different premises linked to NewsClick under UAPA and other sections. pic.twitter.com/rDZEqZGn0z  ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2023

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During the operation, the police retrieved data from the laptops and mobile phones of several NewsClick journalists. The Special Cell has registered a new case and launched an investigation, officials told news agency PTI.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier also conducted raids at the firm's premises probing its sources of funding. The Special Cell is conducting raids on the basis of inputs provided by the central agency.

Reportedly, those subjected to raids included the website's editor, Prabir Purkayastha, as well as journalists Abhisar Sharma, Aunindyo Chakravarty, and Bhasha Singh, alongside satirist Sanjay Rajaura.

Delhi Police At Sitaram Yechury's Residence After Raids At Journalists Linked To Newsclick

NewsClick is currently under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The news outlet faces allegations of receiving Rs 38 crore from a Chinese citizen and using these funds to disseminate "pro-China propaganda" in India through its news articles.

Abhisar Sharma, a senior journalist, wrote on X, "Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone."

Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and Phone...  Abhisar Sharma (@abhisar_sharma) October 3, 2023

Another Journalist Bhasha Singh tweeted what would be the final missive from her phone, before its seizure.

Finally last tweet from this phone. Delhi police seizure my phone.  bhasha singh (@Bhashak) October 3, 2023

Delhi police come to comic and satirist Sanjay Rajauras house. Forcibly take his phone and lap top for investigation.  Abhinandan Sekhri (@AbhinandanSekhr) October 3, 2023

On August 5, The New York Times released an article alleging that NewsClick had received financial support from a network affiliated with American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, with the purpose of disseminating "Chinese propaganda" on a global scale, as reported by News18.

The report asserted that Singham maintained close ties with the "Chinese government media apparatus" and actively advocated its perspective in multiple nations.

Nevertheless, during that period, Purkayastha had refuted the claims, stating to Scroll that the allegations regarding the organization serving as a mouthpiece for the Communist Party of China were unfounded.
UP Cabinet Minister Criticizes Greater Noida Officials over Non-Functional Emergency Alarm During Earthquake

During an official visit to Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister, Nand Gopal Gupta expressed displeasure at the non-functional emergency alarm system amid earthquakes. He urged officials to conduct mock drills for such emergencies.

India

-Krishna Kripa

In a recent incident that highlighted the lack of preparedness for natural disasters in India, Greater Noida Authority officials came under severe criticism from Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Nand Gopal Gupta. The issue was triggered by the failure of an emergency alarm system during an earthquake. This event underscores the importance of having functional safety measures in place to mitigate risks during emergencies and protect lives.

Incident Details

The incident occurred on October 3rd when tremors were felt across parts of North India, including the National Capital Region. Four quakes within an hour were recorded between 2:25 pm and 3:19 pm, with their epicentre in Nepal. The most intense one had a magnitude of 6.2 on the Richter scale, as per data from the National Centre for Seismology.

At this time, Gupta, who serves as Uttar Pradesh's Industrial Development Minister, was conducting a review meeting at Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority building's auditorium with several officials present. Sensing tremors mid-meeting, he promptly alerted everyone present and instructed them to ring the emergency bell so that evacuation could be initiated swiftly.

Alarm Failure Sparks Controversy

To everyone's dismay though, it turned out that the emergency bell was not functional. This lapse did not sit well with Minister Gupta who expressed his displeasure at this negligence towards safety protocols which are meant to ensure swift action during times of crisis such as these.

A Call for Better Preparedness

Gupta sternly warned officials about tolerating such negligence and stressed on taking immediate corrective measures to avoid any future mishaps.In light of this incident, he also urged authorities to conduct regular mock drills simulating earthquake scenarios so that they can handle any kind of emergency more efficiently.

This incident serves as a stark reminder of the importance of having fully functional emergency systems in place, and regular drills to ensure preparedness during natural disasters. The failure of an alarm system at such a critical juncture not only questions the safety measures in place but also highlights the need for their regular maintenance and inspection. It is crucial that these issues are addressed promptly to ensure public safety and instill confidence in disaster management systems.

In conclusion, this event underscores the urgent need for authorities across India to review their emergency response mechanisms and take necessary steps towards ensuring they function optimally when required. Regular checks, maintenance, and mock drills should be made mandatory to prevent any lapses that could potentially endanger lives during emergencies. As we continue to face unpredictable natural calamities, it becomes even more important for us as a society to equip ourselves better against them.
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ISIS Module Case: Arrested Suspected Terrorists Are Engineers, One Pursuing PhD

India

oi-Prakash KL

The Special Cell of Delhi Police on Monday arrested "most-wanted" terror suspect along with two of his accomplices. This comes after the authorities carried out two months of surveiilance-based operations and raids at over 200 locations.

According to the cops, Shahnawaz, who is alleged to have links with an ISIS module, was arrested Sunday night from southeast Delhi on Monday. He had carried a cash reward of Rs 3 lakh after escaping from the Pune Police's custody.

What has come to light is that Shahnawaz and his accomplices Mohammad Rizwan Ashraf and Mohammad Arshad Warsi were arrested in Lucknow and Moradabad, in Uttar Pradesh, respectively, have studied engineering.

Educational Background

Shahnawaz is an engineer by profession. Hailing from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, he did his mining engineering from the prestigious Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology.

Delhi Police Nabs Suspected ISIS Operative Shahnawaz Alam In Major Crackdown

Mohammed Arshad Warsi had completed his BTech in Mechanical Engineering from Aligarh University and Officials stated that he was presently enrolled in a doctoral program at Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi.

The other accused is Mohammed Rizwan Ashraf, who is from Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh, had done BTech in computer science.

At a press conference on Sunday, Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) HS Dhaliwal, said, "Last month NIA declared award on three persons who have alleged involvement in blasts cases. Of them, Mohammad Shahnawaz, the main accused, has been arrested with his two associates-- Mohammad Rizwan Ashraf and Mohammad Arshad Warsi."

During the raids, the cops have recovered bomb-making literature, sent from Pakistan-based handlers, and other incriminating materials from Shahnawaz's hideouts.

"Several explosives-making materials including, elementary, plastic tubes, and iron pipes, were recovered. (Apart from it) Pistol, cartridges, and bomb-making literature sent from Pak-based handlers, were (also) recovered," the Special CP stated.

The preliminary interrogation has revealed that the trio conducted elaborate recce in Western Ghats, southern India, including Hubbali, Dharwad, and Ahmedabad in Gujarat to establish their hideouts.

ISIS Module Case: NIA Searches House Of Accused Shamil Nachan In Maharashtra, Gets 'Incriminating Material'

Responding to a question, Dhaliwal said, "Shahnawaz is a mining engineer from Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology. His wife, Basanti Patel, is converted to Islam and is now known as Mariam."

The three wanted suspected terrorists were produced before the court and have been sent to seven days of police custody.
Unfounded Claims About DSP Adil Mushtaq's Role in Kokernag Attack Dismissed by J&K Police

The Jammu and Kashmir Police have dismissed allegations made by a news outlet suggesting that arrested deputy superintendent of police, Adil Mushtaq was involved in the recent terror incident in Kokernag area of Anantnag district. They warned against spreading such misinformation which is liable for legal action.

India

-Krishna Kripa

The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Tuesday dismissed allegations made by a news outlet claiming that Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Adil Mushtaq was involved in the recent terror incident in Kokernag, Anantnag district. The police have condemned this as irresponsible journalism and warned that such actions are liable for legal action.

Unfounded Allegations Against DSP

A video news item circulated by Bharat TAK suggested that DSP Adil Mushtaq played an insider role in the Kokernag terror incident. However, the Jammu and Kashmir Police categorically denied these claims. Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Kashmir, Vijay Kumar stated on social media site X, "There is no truth to this video news."

Mushtaq was arrested last month on corruption charges unrelated to any terrorist activities. He is currently under investigation for a case based in Srinagar district rather than Anantnag where the terror incident occurred. ADGP Kumar clarified these details while emphasizing on the irresponsibility displayed through such journalism.

Irresponsible Journalism Condemned

Kumar expressed his disapproval towards such unfounded accusations stating, "This type of irresponsible journalism is also an act of criminal misconduct and is liable for legal action." This statement underscores the severity with which law enforcement agencies view false accusations aimed at disrupting ongoing investigations or maligning individuals without substantiated proof.

The Kokernag Terror Incident

Last month witnessed a tragic gunfight in Kokernag area of Anantnag district resulting in loss of four security personnel lives including two army officers and one police officer. In addition to this heartbreaking loss, Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Uzair Khan was among the two terrorists killed during the encounter.

In light of these events, it becomes crucial to maintain the integrity of news reporting. Unsubstantiated allegations and irresponsible journalism not only impact the individuals concerned but also have a broader societal impact by creating unnecessary panic and confusion.

In conclusion, while freedom of press is an integral part of democracy, it must be exercised with responsibility and adherence to truth. Misinformation or disinformation can lead to unwarranted consequences including legal action as highlighted by ADGP Kumar's statement. The incident serves as a reminder about the importance of responsible journalism in today's world where information spreads at lightning speed making fact-checking more important than ever before.
KCR Wanted To Join NDA, But I Rejected His Proposal: PM Modi In Telangana

India

oi-Prakash KL

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday claimed that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao wanted to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance but he turned down his proposal.

"When BJP won 48 seats in the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election, KCR needed support. Before this election, he used to welcome me at the airport, but later suddenly he stopped doing so. After the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections, KCR came to meet me in Delhi and said that he wanted to join NDA. He also asked me to extend support to him. I told him (KCR) that due to his deeds Modi cannot be associated with him," ANI quoted the PM in a tweet.

For the sixth time in a row since February 2022, the Telangana CM refused to welcome the PM at the airport and sent a minister from his cabinet.

The Prime Minister attacked the BRS leader during an event in Nizamabad in Telangana. "My sisters from Telangana have been part of a big revolution, created history. A few days ago the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was passed in Parliament. Congress and its INDI alliance - this 'ghamandiya' alliance- had stalled this bill for the last 30 years. Due to the collective power of women, this alliance has to support the passing of this bill," he stated.

Do They Want To Remove Minorities? PM Modi Attacks Cong On Caste Census

K Chandrashekhar Rao has been critical about the Prime Minister and the BJP in the last one year. Notably, the BRS has not joined either the NDA or the Opposition bloc INDIA alliance even as the Congress accuse it to be the B-team of the BJP.

The Prime Minister then said, "You must remember the rule of Nizam...The country had attained independence but Hyderabad and all these areas were yet to gain independence. Nizam had created hurdles. A Gujarati son - Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel showed strength and cemented your independence. Today, the other Gujarati son has come for your development, your welfare."

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Story first published: Tuesday, October 3, 2023, 17:58 [IST]
Egypts Cabinet announced that Thursday, 5 October 2023 will be a paid holiday for public sector employees to celebrate Armed Forces Day, which commemorates the victory of the 6 October 1973 War.

The decision applies to ministries, governmental bodies, public facilities, municipal units, public enterprises, and public business sector companies, according to a decree issued by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Wednesday.

Students in universities and schools will also be given a day off to celebrate the occasion.

The same decision is expected for private sector employees.

The victory's anniversary falls this year on next Friday. However, it was pushed one day forward based on a 2020 government decision to designate Thursday as a day off whenever a public holiday falls outside the working week. The decision gives citizens a chance to have a long weekend.

This year, Egypt will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its victory against Israel under the leadership of late President Anwar El-Sadat.

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Maharashtra Hospital Deaths: Congress Demands Probe, Kharge Slams State Health Apparatus

India

oi-PTI

The Congress on Tuesday demanded a thorough investigation into 24 deaths at a government hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge raising questions on the state government's health system.

Twenty-four deaths, including that of 12 infants, were reported between September 30 and October 1 in a government hospital in Nanded, a top Maharashtra health official said on Monday. In a post in Hindi on X, Kharge expressed his concern over the deaths.

''It is said that these patients died due to lack of medicines and treatment. A similar incident took place in a government hospital in Thane in August 2023 in which 18 patients lost their lives,'' Kharge said.

SC Raps Maharashtra Speaker For Delaying Disqualification Pleas

''Our deepest condolences to the families of the victims. Such incidents taking place repeatedly have raised a question mark on the health system of the state government,'' the Congress chief said, hitting out at the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra.

''We demand a thorough investigation so that the culprits of this negligence are given strict punishment by the judiciary,'' he said. Former party chief Rahul Gandhi Monday night alleged why there was no money for children's medicines while the BJP government spends crores of rupees on publicity.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also demanded strict action against those responsible for the inordinate number of deaths and compensation for the affected families.

In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi expressed his grief at the news of the deaths and offered his condolences to the bereaved families. ''The BJP government spends thousands of crores of rupees on its publicity, but there is no money for medicines for children? In the eyes of the BJP, the lives of the poor have no value,'' he alleged.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also asked Modi to break his ''silence'' on the incident. In a post in Hindi on X on Monday, Priyanka Gandhi said ''May God grant peace to the departed souls. My deepest condolences to the bereaved families.'' ''Strict action should be taken against those responsible and compensation should be given to the affected families,'' she said.

Maharashtra CM Pledges Retribution for Recent Anantnag Encounter Casualties

Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, Director of Medical Education and Research in Maharashtra, told PTI, ''In the last 24 hours, 24 deaths have been reported at Nanded Government Hospital and Medical College (GMCH). Out of these, 12 are infants who were referred here by some local private hospitals. The remaining deaths are of adults from various causes.'' Dean Dr S R Wakode of Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital told reporters the 12 infants comprised six males and six females.

Most of them were in the 0-3 day age group and had ''very low weight,'' he said.

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Story first published: Tuesday, October 3, 2023, 10:45 [IST]
Dark Day for Democracy as TMC Leaders are Detained in New Delhi Protest

In an event that has sparked outrage, TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and several others were detained during a protest at the Union Rural Development Ministry. The incident is being seen as an attack on democratic values by many.

India

-Krishna Kripa

In a recent incident that has sparked controversy, Abhishek Banerjee, the general secretary of Trinamool Congress (TMC), along with several other party leaders were detained on Tuesday night. The detention took place as they staged a dharna at the Union Rural Development Ministry office in New Delhi, demanding a meeting with the minister. They were released approximately three hours later.

Allegations of Manhandling and Misuse of Anti-Terror Law

Banerjee postulated that this incident would be remembered as an exemplar of 'New India', where public representatives are allegedly dragged and manhandled by Delhi Police. He further claimed that journalists who question the government are being charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), which is primarily an anti-terror law.

"Today is a black day for Indian democracy," he told reporters after his release. These statements have added fuel to the ongoing discourse about freedom of speech and rights of political dissenters in India.

Tug-of-War Over Funds Release Intensifies

This development surfaces amidst an escalating tug-of-war between the Centre and West Bengal's state government over releasing funds to West Bengal. TMC has been holding protests in Indias capital city for two consecutive days now, indicating intensifying tensions between them and Central Government.

Banerjee was joined by party lawmakers, state ministers, supporters including MGNREGA workers during their protest at Jantar Mantar - following their two-hour sit-in at Rajghat on Mahatma Gandhis birth anniversary before police evicted them.

A March Towards Rural Development Ministry

The protestors later marched towards Krishi Bhawan housing Rural Development Ministry where they had scheduled appointment with Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti. However, approximately an hour and a half into their appointment, they were detained.

The incident has raised several questions about the current political climate in India. While it is not uncommon for protests to be held by opposition parties, the allegations of manhandling and misuse of anti-terror laws have stirred up debates on democratic rights in India.

In conclusion, this recent episode involving TMCs general secretary Abhishek Banerjee's detention along with other party leaders serves as another example of the ongoing power struggle between state governments and the Centre. The incident also brings into focus issues related to freedom of speech and expression in India, especially when it comes to holding those in power accountable. It remains to be seen how these dynamics will play out in future interactions between different levels of government.
NewsClick Editor-In-Chief And Amit Chakravarty Arrested After Day Long Raids, Questions, Seizures

India

oi-Stuti Tripathi

The Delhi Police arrested Prabir Purkayastha, the founder and editor-in-chief of NewsClick, on Tuesday, invoking the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and criminal conspiracy charges. These actions stem from allegations that NewsClick received funds for promoting pro-China content. In addition to the arrest of Prabir Purkayastha, the Delhi Police also sealed the office of NewsClick. Amit Chakravarty has been apprehended in connection with the same case, according to the authorities.

The Delhi Police issued a statement that read, "Regarding the search, seizure, and detentions carried out today in connection with a UAPA case registered with Special Cell, so far, two accused, Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty have been arrested.

A total of 37 male suspects have been questioned at premises, 9 female suspects have been questioned at their respective places of stay, and digital devices, documents, etc. have been seized/collected for examination" ANI quoted.

WHAT HAPPENED EARLIER ON 3RD OCTOBER: The Delhi Police's Special Cell conducted searches at 30 locations associated with the online news portal, NewsClick and its journalists as part of an ongoing investigation initiated under the anti-terrorism law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). These actions were taken in response to allegations that the news portal had received funds for promoting pro-China propaganda. Authorities have confirmed that the proceedings related to this case are still in progress.

During these operations, law enforcement officials questioned 37 male suspects at the office of the Delhi Police Special Cell, while nine female suspects were interviewed at their respective places of residence. Digital devices, documents, and various other items have been seized for further examination as part of the ongoing investigation.

WHAT POLITICAL PARTIES SAID: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur addressed the issue and emphasized the independence and adherence to the law of the country's investigative agencies. He stated, "I need not justify the raid. If someone has done something wrong, probe agencies work on it... Nowhere is it written that if you have obtained money through illegal means or engaged in objectionable activities, then probe agencies cannot investigate that?" Thakur made these remarks while speaking to reporters in Odisha.

Following the Congress party's condemnation of the raids and questioning of journalists in the alleged NewsClick portal funding case, the BJP responded by cautioning against the Congress's stance on free speech and freedom of the press.

BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla remarked, "Congress preaching about the press is like Satan preaching about scriptures." He emphasized that the law would follow its due course in the Newsclick funding case and took the opportunity to bring up the imposition of Emergency by Congress as a point of criticism against the opposition party for supporting the news portal.

In response, the Congress party asserted that the raids on journalists were a diversion from the "explosive" findings of the caste survey in Bihar and the growing demand for a caste census across the country.

Meanwhile, the opposition bloc INDIA strongly criticized the raids and alleged that the BJP government's "coercive" actions were selectively targeting those who speak truth to power while not taking similar actions against those who propagate hatred and division.

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Story first published: Tuesday, October 3, 2023, 22:09 [IST]
NewsClick Office Sealed; Editor's Guild Call It An ''Attempt To Muzzle Media'

India

oi-Stuti Tripathi

Delhi Police's Special Cell has taken action against 'NewsClick' in Delhi, sealing its office and conducting raids at various associated premises today. These actions are being carried out under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other relevant sections as reported by ANI.

Earlier, on Tuesday, Delhi Police's Special Cell carried out raids at more than 30 locations linked with the online news portal NewsClick and its journalists. The raids came in connection with a case registered on August 17 under UAPA and other sections of IPC, including 153A (promoting enmity between two groups), and 120 B (criminal conspiracy).

The Editors Guild of India has raised concerns over the recent raids conducted by Delhi Police at the residences of journalists associated with 'NewsClick.' In a statement, the guild expressed apprehensions that these actions are "another attempt to muzzle media"

Furthermore, the Guild, said it was "deeply concerned" about the raids at the residences of senior journalists early this morning.

"Their laptops, mobile phones, and other devices have been seized. Senior journalists have been taken into custody by the Delhi Police, allegedly for 'questioning.' Media reports suggest that the raids have been widespread. The raids are reportedly being conducted in connection with an FIR filed under the draconian UAPA and laws relating to criminal conspiracy and disruption of communal harmony against journalists, including those associated with the website Newsclick.in," the Guild said in a statement as quoted by ANI.

"EGI is concerned that these raids are yet another attempt to muzzle the media. While we recognize that the law must take its course if actual offenses are involved, due process has to be followed. The investigation of specific offenses must not create a general atmosphere of intimidation under the shadow of draconian laws, or impinge on the freedom of expression and the raising of dissenting and critical voices," it added.

"We remind the government of the importance of an independent media in a functioning democracy and urge it to ensure that the fourth pillar is respected, nurtured and protected," it added.

Meanwhile, according to sources, the Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick, Prabir Purkayastha, and writers Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Urmilesh were brought in for questioning at special cell offices in Delhi as part of the ongoing investigation.

Back on August 10, an expose published in The New York Times had suggested that 'NewsClick' had affiliations with an expansive worldwide network that purportedly received financial support from the affluent American billionaire, Neville Roy Singham.

Singham has earned a reputation as a generous patron of far-left ideologies, reportedly positioning himself at the epicenter of a generously bankrolled campaign aimed at promoting and safeguarding China's interests and pushing its propaganda. Furthermore, there have been claims of Singham maintaining intimate connections with the Chinese government's media apparatus.

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Story first published: Tuesday, October 3, 2023, 18:48 [IST]
Odisha CM Clears Air About 'Mysterious Woman' During His Vatican Visit

In response to opposition queries, BJD Chief and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik clarified that a woman named Shradha who accompanied him during last year's visit to Vatican City was his physiotherapist. He refuted allegations of her being allotted government quarters or having her travel bill paid by the Government of Odisha.

India

-Krishna Kripa

The Chief Minister (CM) of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, has recently found himself at the heart of a political controversy. The opposition parties have been raising questions about the identity and role of an unidentified woman who was seen accompanying him during his visit to Vatican City in 2020. This issue began circulating after photographs and videos from their trip surfaced on social media platforms.

Chief Minister's Response

In response to these allegations, CM Patnaik clarified that the said woman is named Shradha and she is his physiotherapist. He made this clarification before the end of the monsoon session on Tuesday. According to him, Shradha was sent by his late sister Gita Mehta with the purpose of taking care of his physical fitness during his travel. He further added that she has neither been allotted government quarters nor her travel bill paid by Government of Odisha.

"We should use the precious time in this august House to debate on issues of public interest," he stated, urging for attention to be redirected towards more pressing matters affecting public welfare.

Opposition's Allegations

The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, raised suspicions over this 'mysterious' woman accompanying CM both inside and outside the House. Jaynarayan Mishra, Leader of Opposition from BJP had initially brought up this issue in assembly but due to chaos within parliament proceedings at that time, his statement went unrecorded.

Mishra alleged not only that Shradha had accompanied CM Patnaik during multiple occasions but also claimed she had been allotted a government house - a claim which contradicts Patnaiks statements regarding her housing arrangements and financial support received from governmental bodies.

Conclusion

This incident underscores how personal lives of political figures often come under intense scrutiny, especially when there is perceived ambiguity or mystery. It also highlights the role of social media in fuelling such controversies as images and videos can easily be shared and discussed on these platforms. However, it's important to remember that while transparency in public life is crucial, focusing on issues directly affecting public welfare should remain a priority.

As for CM Patnaiks case, by providing a clear explanation about Shradhas identity and her role during his travels, he has attempted to put an end to this controversy. Yet whether this will satisfy the opposition parties or lead to further inquiries remains uncertain.
Naresh Goyal And Family In Deep Trouble As ED Attaches Assets Of Rs. 538 Crores In Jet Airways Probe

Skill Development Scam: No Interim Bail For Chandrababu Naidu, SC To Hear Plea On October 9

India

oi-Sushmita Halder

The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied providing interim relief on a plea filed by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu, who is currently imprisoned due to his alleged involvement in the Skill Development Corporation fraud case.

The case has been adjourned to October 9 by a bench comprising Justices Bela M. Trivedi, and Aniruddha Bose.

Meanwhile, the bench requested the state government to present all documents submitted to the Andhra Pradesh High Court for review.

SC Judge SVN Bhatti Recuses Self From Plea Hearing Of Ex-Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu

Harish Salve, a senior lawyer representing the TDP Chief, stated that any investigation into Naidu could not have taken place without the state Governor's approval.

He argued that Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which prohibits police from investigating a public servant without prior approval, was established to thwart misuse of the criminal process.

Senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi stated that any investigation into claims, where the supposed crime is linked to any advice given or verdict taken by the public servant, necessitates prior approval.

During the last hearing on September 27, Supreme Court Justice S.V. Bhatti had excused himself from the case's proceedings.

On the same day, a panel led by Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, did not issue any orders for an immediate hearing on Naidu's appeal by an alternate panel, nor did they provide him interim relief.

Skill Development Scam: Chandrababu Naidu Moves SC Against HC Order Dismissing His Petition

Senior lawyer Sidharth Luthra argued that the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh was being targeted with consecutive FIRs due to the impending 2024 general elections.

Naidu has filed a Special Leave Petition with the Supreme Court following the dismissal of his appeal by Justice S. Reddy of Andhra Pradesh High Court on September 22. His appeal sought to nullify the FIR against him and to overrule his judicial detention.

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Story first published: Tuesday, October 3, 2023, 14:46 [IST]
Escalating Tensions as TMC Leaders Including Abhishek Banerjee Detained in New Delhi

In an escalating conflict between the Centre and the West Bengal government over fund release, several Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders were detained during a protest at the Union Rural Development Ministry office. Post-release, General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee alleged that they were manhandled by police.

India

-Krishna Kripa

The political landscape of India was charged with tension on October 3rd, as Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and several other party leaders were detained in New Delhi. The TMC leaders had staged a dharna at the Union Rural Development Ministry office, demanding a meeting with the minister. After being held for around three hours, they were released.

Allegations of Police Misconduct

In an interaction with the media following his release, Abhishek Banerjee made serious allegations against Delhi Police. He claimed that TMC leaders, including women members, were manhandled by police officials during their detention. They were pulled by their hair and dragged out in an apparent disregard for basic human rights and democratic norms, he alleged. "Today is a black day for Indian democracy," said Banerjee.

A Political Firestorm

The incident sparked a political firestorm across the country. In response to Tuesday's events, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee posted on social media platform X expressing her dismay over BJP's perceived disdain towards the people of West Bengal. These developments have added fuel to the ongoing tug-of-war between Centre and West Bengal government over fund releases to the state.

Demonstrations in National Capital

This incident marked another day of protests led by TMC in New Delhi - their second consecutive demonstration in the national capital this week. Abhishek Banerjee along with party lawmakers, state ministers and supporters including MGNREGA workers protested at Jantar Mantar after staging a two-hour sit-in at Rajghat on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary before being evicted by police forces.

March Towards Rural Development Ministry

Following their protest at Jantar Mantar, the TMC leaders and supporters took out a march to the Rural Development Ministry at Krishi Bhawan. Their demand for a meeting with the Union Minister was met with detention, marking an escalation in their ongoing struggle against what they perceive as central government's apathy towards West Bengal.

In conclusion, this recent incident of detention of TMC leaders has intensified the political tension between Centre and West Bengal State Government. The allegations of police misconduct have raised questions on democratic norms and human rights in Indias capital city. As these developments unfold, it remains to be seen how this political tug-of-war will pan out and what its implications would be on Centre-State relations in India.
Detained TMC Leaders Released, Label Incident as 'Black Day for Indian Democracy'

The release of TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and other party leaders, hours after their detention during a sit-in at the Union Rural Development Ministry office, has sparked controversy. The event is seen as an example of 'New India', where public representatives are manhandled by police and journalists questioning the government are booked under anti-terror law UAPA.

India

-Krishna Kripa

The democratic fabric of India witnessed a tense episode on October 3, as Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and other party leaders were detained by the police during a sit-in at the Union Rural Development Ministry office in New Delhi. The leaders were released later that night, with Banerjee declaring it as a 'black day for Indian democracy.'

Allegations of Manhandling and Misuse of Anti-Terror Law

Banerjee expressed his distress over what he described as an unprecedented incident where public representatives were allegedly dragged and manhandled by Delhi Police. He also criticised the booking of journalists questioning the government under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), an anti-terror law. According to him, this incident will stand as an example of 'New India'.

Tug-of-War Between Centre and West Bengal Government

This development occurred amidst escalating tensions between the central government and West Bengal's state government over fund release issues. The TMC has been holding protests in the national capital for two consecutive days to express their discontentment regarding this matter.

Series of Protests

Banerjee, accompanied by party lawmakers, state ministers, supporters including MGNREGA workers staged a protest at Jantar Mantar following their previous two-hour sit-in at Rajghat on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary from where they were evicted by police force. Subsequently, they marched towards Krishi Bhawan housing Rural Development Ministry where they had scheduled meeting with Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti.

However, around ninety minutes after reaching Krishi Bhawan, TMC leaders claimed that Minister Jyoti refused to meet them without specifying any reasons which further aggravated their grievances.

Conclusion

The incident has sparked a row, with TMC leaders alleging an assault on democratic values and misuse of anti-terror laws. The standoff between the central and West Bengal government over fund release is likely to intensify further in the coming days. As political tensions continue to rise, it remains to be seen how these issues will be resolved while maintaining the sanctity of India's democracy.
Governor CV Ananda Bose Steps Up: Donates Salary for West Bengal Flood Relief

Following severe flooding in seven districts of West Bengal, Governor CV Ananda Bose announces his decision to donate a month's salary to the CM's relief fund. The state government has initiated evacuation efforts and is providing aid through relief camps.

India

-Krishna Kripa

As West Bengal grapples with a severe flood situation affecting seven districts, the state's Governor CV Ananda Bose has pledged to donate his one-month salary to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund. This announcement was made on Tuesday by an official from Raj Bhavan, marking a significant personal contribution towards relief efforts in the flood-stricken regions.

The floods have already claimed one life due to lightning in Purba Barddhaman District since Monday and prompted large-scale evacuations. The state government has moved 1,259 residents to safer locations while another 970 people were evacuated from Mejia Char area and nearby villages adjacent to the Damodar river under Sonamukhi Block in Bankura district.

Rainfall Across Multiple Districts

The state witnessed rainfall across multiple districts including Kolkata, Coochbehar, Purba Medinipur, Bankura, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Purulia, Paschim Medinipur and South 24 Parganas. According to a statement released by the state government detailing weather conditions and relief measures initiated so far.

Water Logging Issues

There were reports of water logging at Ghatal located within Paschim Medinipur district. In response to these developments, the state administration opened as many as 35 relief camps spread across Bankura and Purulia districts. As part of immediate aid provided for affected citizens; around 14,467 pieces of tarpaulins have been distributed among them till now.

Dams Release Water

In addition to this precarious scenario caused by incessant rains leading up-to flooding situations; approximately 90 thousand cusecs of water had been released from Maithon and Panchet Dams controlled by Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC). The irrigation department is closely monitoring the situation.

The Governor's decision to donate his salary for a month towards flood relief efforts symbolizes a gesture of solidarity and commitment towards the citizens of West Bengal. It sets an example for other officials and individuals who are in positions to contribute financially or otherwise to aid those affected by this natural calamity.

In conclusion, West Bengal is currently facing severe flooding across seven districts with thousands of people being evacuated for safety. The state government has initiated several measures including setting up relief camps, distributing tarpaulins, and coordinating evacuation procedures. Meanwhile, Governor CV Ananda Boses decision to donate his one-month salary serves as a beacon of hope amidst these challenging times. His contribution not only provides financial assistance but also signifies unity and empathy during this crisis.
It Is "Extremely Important" For Canada And Its Allies To Engage With India: Canada PM Justin Trudeau

Canadian MP Raises Questions On 'Evidence' Of Nijjar's Killing As Claimed By Justin Trudeau's Ally Jagmeet Sin

International

oi-Stuti Tripathi

Canadian Member of Parliament Kevin Vuong has called on the Justin Trudeau government to provide evidence supporting its allegation that the Indian government may have been involved in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil.

Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was fatally shot in June in British Columbia (BC). India has categorically denied Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau's claim that the Indian government had a role in Nijjar's murder, which occurred in the parking lot of a gurdwara in Surrey, BC.

Jagmeet Singh, the leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, an ally of Trudeau's Liberal Party of Canada, has stated that there is a "clear" indication of foreign government involvement in the killing of a Canadian citizen. He has also called for the inclusion of India in a probe initiated in September into alleged interference in Canadian affairs by other countries, particularly China.

Singh said, "In my experience, as a Sikh Canadian, there have always been suspicions that India was interfering in the democratic rights of Canadians," as per a report in HT quoting him.

Kevin Vuong, while questioning Jagmeet Singh on NDTV, stated that if the New Democratic Party possesses "clear evidence" related to Nijjar's death, it has a duty to present it to the appropriate authorities. He wrote on his social media handle X "Canada is a country of #RuleOfLaw. If Jagmeet Singh has "clear evidence" related to Mr. Nijjar's death, he must bring it forward to the appropriate authorities. Being the leader of a political party does not give you the right to be judge, jury & executioner."

Canada is a country of #RuleOfLaw.



If Jagmeet Singh has clear evidence related to Mr. Nijjars death, he has a duty to bring it forward to the appropriate authorities.



Being the leader of a political party does not give you the right to be judge, jury & executioner. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/Ccrzx2eUAi  Kevin Vuong (@KevinVuongMP) October 1, 2023

Tensions escalated between India and Canada following Prime Minister Trudeau's explosive allegations against India. In 2020, India designated Nijjar as a terrorist.

India vehemently rejected the allegations as "absurd" and "motivated" and reciprocated Ottawa's expulsion of an Indian official over the case by expelling a senior Canadian diplomat.

WHAT JAGMEET SINGH SAID: Jagmeet Singh's NDP is the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons, the Lower House of the Canadian Parliament.

Speaking about Trudeau's allegations against India, Jagmeet Singh described them as a very serious matter, based on the intelligence briefing he received. "As the Prime Minister (Traudeu) shared publicly, there is Canadian intelligence which indicates that a Canadian citizen was killed on Canadian soil and a foreign government was implicated," said the NDP leader in Ottawa as quoted by HT.

Jagmeet Singh emphasized that Canada will continue to push for transparency from India and underscored that the United States has been supportive of Canada's call for transparency.

The NDP leader mentioned that he received briefings prepared by former Governor-General David Johnston, who had been appointed as a special rapporteur to investigate the issue but has since resigned from the role.

According to Jagmeet Singh, "This is unprecedented intelligence that has come forward and that is why we're going to continue to urge that the Canadian government have a thorough investigation that those responsible are brought forward,"..."The briefings were of the nature where I can confirm what the prime minister has shared publicly, that there is clear intelligence that Canada has that lays out the following case: that a Canadian citizen was killed on Canadian soil and a foreign government was involved ... That intelligence is something that I think is very credible."
A "terrorist attack" took place near Turkey's parliament in Ankara on Sunday leaving two police officers injured, the interior ministry said.

The ministry said two attackers arrived in a commercial vehicle around 9:30 am (0630 GMT) "in front of the entrance gate of the General Directorate of Security of our Ministry of the Interior, and carried out a bomb attack."

"One of the terrorists blew himself up and the other was neutralized," the ministry added on social media, saying two officers received "minor injuries".

The targeted district is home to several other ministries and the Turkish parliament, which was due to reopen today with an address from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to Turkish media.

TV channel NTV reported gunfire in the cordoned-off district, where emergency services were in attendance.

There was no immediate information on the assailants. Kurdish and far-left militant groups as well as the Islamic State group have carried out deadly attacks throughout the country in the past.

Television footage showed bomb squads working near a parked vehicle in the area, as police cordoned off access to the city center.

The two police officers were being treated in a hospital and were not in serious condition, media reports said.

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Military museums will open their doors to the public for free from 1 to 6 October, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the victory in the 6th of October War, according to a statement by the Egyptian Armed Forces spokesman.

The museums include the October War Panorama in Nasr City, along with the three military museums located at Al-Alamein, Port Said, and Saladin Citadel, the statement said.

The military spokesperson emphasized that this initiative will promote military and national awareness among the youth. It aims to acquaint them with the valor and heroism displayed by Egyptians in the Armed Forces, as well as their sacrifices in defence of the nation's honour, the spokesman said.

Additionally, the Cabinet declared Thursday, 5 October as a paid holiday for public sector employees.

This year, Egypt celebrates the 50th anniversary of its historic triumph over Israel, a victory that led to the liberation of Sinai and was achieved under the leadership of the late President Anwar El-Sadat.

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Latvia is the newest addition to Indian students' most preferred spots to pursue higher education. The cost of education and living is lower in the country compared to Western European countries and the United States.

Another factor that attracts students to this country is the allocation of Schengen visas, which is advantageous to those who want to explore job opportunities in other parts of Europe.

Many universities in Latvia offer programmes in English, making them more accessible to international students. Here is a list of five sectors that have scope for better job opportunities in Latvia.

1. Information Technology (IT)

Latvia has a rising demand for software developers, IT specialists, and programmers, due to the rapid emergence of tech startups in the country. Many companies, including those from Western Europe, outsource IT services to Latvia due to the competitive cost and skilled workforce.

2. Manufacturing and Engineering

Skilled workers and engineers have a huge demand in Latvia, in the wake of its export-oriented manufacturing sector. Companies often invest in modern technologies and automation, requiring skilled labourers and experts to operate and maintain these systems.

3. Tourism and Hospitality

Latvia's rich cultural heritage, historical sites, natural beauty, and events attract tourists, creating a steady demand for hospitality services. As more tourists discover Latvia as a travel destination, the hospitality sector is expanding to meet the demand for accommodations, dining, and tourism-related services.

4. Healthcare and Life Sciences

Latvia, like many developed countries, has an ageing population, leading to increased demand for healthcare services, including medical professionals and support staff. There is a growing interest in biomedical research and pharmaceuticals, creating opportunities for researchers and scientists.

5. Finance and Banking

Latvia has positioned itself as a financial hub in the Baltic region, attracting international banks and financial institutions. Its location in the European Union makes Latvia a gateway for cross-border financial transactions in the region, creating a steady requirement for finance and banking professionals.

Educational institutions that offer courses related to these sectors:

Riga Technical University

Riga Stradins University

University of Latvia

Ventspils University College

Liepaja University

Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences

Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies

(Information Courtesy: Santhosh Sankar, Managing Director of Universal Study, Ernakulam. www.universalstudy.net/ 7902411111)
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

Uh" gulp" you thought it was bad when that experienced pilot ejected from one of the Air Force's hottest "new" planes, the F-35 combat fighter, near no, not China or somewhere in the Middle East but Charleston, South Carolina. The plane then flew on its own for another 60 miles before crashing into an empty field. And that was without an enemy in sight.

Perhaps we should just be happy that an F-35 ever even made it into the air, given its endless problems in these years. After all, as Dan Grazier of the Center for Defense Information wrote, it's now "the largest and most expensive weapons program in history." Yet when it comes to something as significant as "mission availability," according to the Congressional Budget Office, only about 26% of all F-35s, each of which now costs an estimated $80 million to produce and $44,000 an hour to fly, are available at any moment. Not exactly thrilling, all in all.

As TomDispatch regular and Pentagon expert William Hartung makes clear today, if that's what happens with the Air Force's least intelligent fighter plane, what should we expect of its just arriving artificial-intelligence-driven fleet of drones or "robot wingmen" that could be deployed, as he suggests, in a future war with China? Given the history of the U.S. military's three-decade-old drone warfare program, which caused such havoc among civilian populations during this country's Global War on Terror, what could the future hold in store? After all, non-AI drones were "roughly thirty times more likely to result in a civilian fatality than an airstrike by a manned aircraft." And remember, that fleet of aircraft was still, at least officially, run by human intelligence, not the artificial variety. Who knows what may occur when such drones, freed from the human brain, are let loose on this planet? While you're considering that possibility, let Hartung take you on a quick flight to the Pentagon and then to China. Tom

AI Goes to War

Will the Pentagon's Techno-Fantasies Pave the Way for War with China?

By William D. Hartung

On August 28th, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks chose the occasion of a three-day conference organized by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), the arms industry's biggest trade group, to announce the "Replicator Initiative." Among other things, it would involve producing "swarms of drones" that could hit thousands of targets in China on short notice. Call it the full-scale launching of techno-war.

Her speech to the assembled arms makers was yet another sign that the military-industrial complex (MIC) President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about more than 60 years ago is still alive, all too well, and taking a new turn. Call it the MIC for the digital age.

Hicks described the goal of the Replicator Initiative this way:

"To stay ahead [of China], we're going to create a new state of the art" leveraging attritable, autonomous systems in all domains which are less expensive, put fewer people at risk, and can be changed, upgraded, or improved with substantially shorter lead times" We'll counter the PLA's [People's Liberation Army's] with mass of our own, but ours will be harder to plan for, harder to hit, and harder to beat."

Think of it as artificial intelligence (AI) goes to war and oh, that word "attritable," a term that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue or mean much of anything to the average taxpayer, is pure Pentagonese for the ready and rapid replaceability of systems lost in combat. Let's explore later whether the Pentagon and the arms industry are even capable of producing the kinds of cheap, effective, easily replicable techno-war systems Hicks touted in her speech. First, though, let me focus on the goal of such an effort: confronting China.

Target: China

However one gauges China's appetite for military conflict as opposed to relying more heavily on its increasingly powerful political and economic tools of influence the Pentagon is clearly proposing a military-industrial fix for the challenge posed by Beijing. As Hicks's speech to those arms makers suggests, that new strategy is going to be grounded in a crucial premise: that any future technological arms race will rely heavily on the dream of building ever cheaper, ever more capable weapons systems based on the rapid development of near-instant communications, artificial intelligence, and the ability to deploy such systems on short notice.

The vision Hicks put forward to the NDIA is, you might already have noticed, untethered from the slightest urge to respond diplomatically or politically to the challenge of Beijing as a rising great power. It matters little that those would undoubtedly be the most effective ways to head off a future conflict with China.

Such a non-military approach would be grounded in a clearly articulated return to this country's longstanding "One China" policy. Under it, the U.S. would forgo any hint of the formal political recognition of the island of Taiwan as a separate state, while Beijing would commit itself to limiting to peaceful means its efforts to absorb that island.

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European Court Finds Turkey in Violation of Assyrian Foundation's Property Rights

St. Gabriel Assyrian Monastery, Midyat, Turkey. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has faulted Turkey for violating a Syriac foundation's rights by expropriating a property that was used by the minority community for centuries in Mardin province, Deutsche Welle Turkish service reported on Tuesday.

The Strasbourg court concluded that Turkey violated the property rights of the Mor Gabriel Foundation while dismissing the foundation's complaints regarding freedom of conscience and discrimination.

The case originated from land registry work in 1986 and 2007 that resulted in the registration of a 140-square-meter (1,506 square feet) piece of property as treasury-owned, in spite of the Assyrian community's claims of ownership.

The foundation had launched litigation in domestic courts, which ruled for the return of certain cemeteries in the area to the group but not the property in question on the grounds that it was no longer a cemetery due to construction work done on it.

Once a sizeable ethnic minority during the Ottoman era, the Assyrians suffered a mass slaughter in 1915 that some refer to as a genocide. Subsequently, they faced pogroms in the early days of the Republic of Turkey, after which some of them fled to neighboring Syria.

Despite being a predominantly Christian minority, the Assyrians were not granted minority status under the Treaty of Lausanne, a provision from which other non-Muslim groups benefit, namely Armenians, Jews and Greeks.

Their number in Turkey is currently estimated at 25,000. Most of them live in Istanbul, having fled their hometowns in the southeast of the country due to the Kurdish conflict.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that "terrorists" will never achieve their aims, hours after a blast near the parliament in Ankara injured two police officers.

The powerful explosion outside the interior ministry, which was followed by large flames, was heard for several kilometres from the site of the attack.

The targeted district is home to several other ministries and the Turkish parliament, which reopened as planned in the afternoon with an address from President Erdogan.

"The villains who threaten the peace and security of citizens have not achieved their objectives and will never achieve them," Erdogan told the parliament.

The interior ministry said two attackers arrived in a commercial vehicle around 9:30 am (0630 GMT) in front of "the entrance gate of the General Directorate of Security of our Ministry of the Interior, and carried out a bomb attack."

"One of the terrorists blew himself up. The other was killed by a bullet to the head before he had a chance to blow himself up," Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said in a press statement outside the ministry.

"Two of our police officers were lightly injured" in the exchange of fire, but their lives were not in danger, he added.

The Ankara police headquarters said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that it was carrying out "controlled explosions" of "suspicious packages" to prevent other explosions.

The Ankara prosecutor's office said it was opening an investigation and banned access to the area. Local media was asked to stop broadcasting images from the scene of the attack.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the blast.

Erdogan slams EU

Erdogan later opened the parliamentary session by slamming his country's long wait for accession to the EU, stating that Turkey "no longer expects anything from the European Union, which has kept us waiting at its door for 40 years".

"We have kept all the promises we have made to the EU but they have kept almost none of theirs," he said, adding that he would not "tolerate any new demands or conditions" for his country to join the bloc.

This session of Turkey's parliament must also validate Sweden's entry into the NATO alliance.

Hungary and Turkey in July lifted their vetoes against Sweden's entry into the Atlantic alliance, but have been slow to ratify its membership.

Erdogan indicated in July that ratification by the Turkish parliament would not take place before October, but it is expected to be approved during this parliamentary year.

For months, Erdogan has been putting pressure on Sweden to take action against Koran desecrations that have strained relations between the two countries.

Sweden's prime minister Ulf Kristersson was quick to assure in a statement that his country "once again confirms its commitment to long-term cooperation with Turkey in the fight against terrorism".

Numerous foreign leaders also voiced support for Turkey after the attack, with messages of support coming from Germany, the United Kingdom, and the US embassy in Ankara.

The Turkish capital has been the scene of several attacks, particularly during the years 2015 and 2016 -- many claimed by the outlawed separatist group the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), or the Islamic State group.

The PKK, which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

PKK-affiliated Kurdish militants control most of northeastern Syria.

In October 2015 an attack in front of a central station in Ankara claimed by the Islamic State group killed 109 people.

The most recent bomb attack in Turkey was in a shopping street in Istanbul in November 2022, where six were killed and 81 were injured.

There was no claim of responsibility, but Turkey accused the outlawed PKK of being behind the attack and said it had detained 46 people including a Syrian woman suspected of planting the device.

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None of us knows what will happen election night, 2024. But if I were in Las Vegas and could make a bet on the outcome, I would bet Donald Trump would not be on the ballot.

Many observers look at his lead in the polls and are certain he will be the Republican nominee for president. I am not one of those people.

As 2023 progresses and 2024 right behind it, Donald Trump will spend a lot of time in the courtroom. He will be in front of judges and grand juries multiple times in the coming months. He has 91 felony charges against him and we can expect many more.



Donald Trump must not be president again.

(Image by Gage Skidmore) Details DMCA



.

The evidence against him is overwhelming. Trump has lied and cheated in every business or political venture he has ever undertaken. His lawyers are unable to mount a credible defense. He could mount a defense of his own in court, but doesn't have the ability to do so. If he spoke during his trial, his lawyers would have a fit. They know he would dig himself a deeper hole.

As popular as he is with his base, as the election draws nearer, Republicans would have to wonder about the value of a potential or real criminal representing their party. Besides that, he has begun saying more bizarre and crazy things as the pressure mounts on him. He has already begun to repeat more absurb, unhinged complaints and irrational attacks on his prosecutors. Potential voters will start noticing his rapid mental breakdown. I suspect the ex-president's polls will gradually decline, especially if one of his GOP opponents looks electable.

But we know Trump does not give up easily or at all. However, as it appears all his legal troubles are mounting and the possibility of going to jail becomes more likely, he has displayed obvious signs of fear.

Under those circumstances, the Justice Department might welcome a way out of their own difficult position. Most likely, Attorney General Merrick Garland recoils at the idea of sending a former President of the United States to prison. As much as Trump deserves that fate, there is no knowing how his millions of his MAGA cult-like followers might react. The potential for violence from his angriest supporters is something to be concerned about.

That is when Merrick Garland could play his trump card, so to speak. He might be willing to present the ex-president an opportunity to avoid prison time. Being behind bars is no doubt terrifying to Trump. But if he accepts a plea deal from the government that would guarantee that he avoids prison time, that would be the best realistic outcome for Trump, his lawyers, his family, and his supporters.

Of course, there will be a cost that will be hard for Trump to stomach.To avoid spending time in prison, he would have to agree to no longer run for public office, including for president.

The Justice Department would have to get Trump's prosecutors in other jurisdictions to back that plea deal and not sentence Trump for his many other crimes. For the good of the country--and assuming the legalities would be worked out--it is likely they will agree, knowing the dangerous consequences of Trump potentially becoming president again. They would see that accepting the plea bargain would be the smart and patriotic thing to do and spare the country from certain upheaval if the former president were sent to prison.

I expect Trump would agree to the plea bargain. Spending time in prison would be frightening to him and would be further proof of his crimes. It would be the last thing he would want for himself. Trump will see the benefits of agreeing to the plea deal. Remember, this is the guy who claims to have written "The Art of the Deal".

The country would benefit from precluding the possibility of him becoming the leader of the country. He would still be allowed to spout out the garbage he posts on his social media site and would still have access to the media. He might be able to live with that.

Naturally I can't guarantee such a plea deal will come about, but that would be where my money would go in Las Vegas. I think the plea deal should and will happen. It would save the United States the prolonged nightmare of a vicious and divisive election, and the possibility of re-electing this anti-democratic, authoritarian, ego-driven man. Both pro- and anti-Trump camps will be disappointed they won't get what they want, but it would be best for the future of our divided and insecure nation.


Prime Ministers of India and Canada at the G20 summit held in New Delhi InSAepterm,ber 2023

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Subramaniam Jaishankar, a career diplomat turned foreign minister of India, and his colleagues have been quite vocal in dubbing Canada as a 'haven' for Khalistani separatists; they are worried that Canadian cities have become unsafe for Indian diplomats.

This is a development following India-Canada diplomatic spat set-in motion by Prime Minister Justine Trudeau over the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar (45) in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb with a large Sikh population.



proposed Khalistan flag

(Image by public domain, wikipedia) Details DMCA



It is difficult, however, to gloss over the fact that the UK and the US were giving shelter to these elements much before they were lured by Canada's more liberal immigration policies. Put simply, foreign minister Jaishankar and his ilk should also be directing their ire at London, Washington and Canberra (if not some other capitals) with the same vehemence Delhi has reserved for Ottawa. Well, if verbal fuselage is capable of bringing results India wants.

The Sikh separatist movement may have been born in India but it did not take it long to establish roots in the UK way back in the 1960s and 1970s with Dr Jagjit Singh Chihan being a prominent leader. The Khalistanis exploited the Sikh diaspora to their end, even though to this day, the majority of the Sikh diaspora, as indeed the Sikh community within India, has refused to support the Khalistan concept of an independent nation for the Sikhs, carved out of India.

True, Canada appears to be in a special category because not only India but two of its neighbours, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, have also accused it of giving refuge to fugitives wanted in their respective countries on serious criminal charges.

AK Abdul Momen, the economist-diplomat turned foreign minister of Bangladesh, is making a pointed attack. Canada is giving shelter to a Bangladeshi traitor, he says. His reference is to Noor Chowdhury who was involved in the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman (hailed universally as the father Bangladesh) and nearly all his family at their Dhaka residence on August 15, 1975. Canada has turned stone deaf to requests from Dhaka for sending Noor back to stand trial.

Sri Lanka is sore with Canada for letting in Tamilians suspected of links to separatist Tamil Tigers. Also, for marking May 18 as 'Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day' when, Colombo says, no 'genocide' had taken place in the island nation. No surprise, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry says, "terrorists have found 'safe haven' in Canada, we support India's 'strong' response". He goes on to add: "I am not surprised with (Canadian Premier) Trudeau's outrageous and unsubstantiated allegations linking India's role behind Nijjar's killing."

While Jaishankar on the US soil was fulminating against the Canadians, reports came from Glasgow that the Indian high commissioner in the UK, Vikram Doraiswami, was prevented from entering the Gurdwara where he was invited as a guest. The police were informed in advance about the high commissioner's visit. He was stopped by three persons, who, the Gurdwara management said, were 'outsiders', and "not regular local visitors".

How just a group of three people was able to stop the Indian diplomat from entering the Gurdwara while the Gurdwara management watched helplessly? Why could the trio not be overpowered? Did the local police send any personnel to the Gurdwara or did the police merely assume that there was absolutely no threat to peace of any kind? A deeper probe is required.

It is possible that the police with caps and without caps in Scotland and the UK think that the Khalistani activists who swarm all over the country will always disperse after a 'peaceful' demonstration against Indian government, and its functionaries. This surmise glosses over the fact that the Sikh separatists advocate and justify violent means, and have been part of many plots to kill innocent people.

One of the most reprehensible plots attributed to the Khalistanis was the mid-air bombing of Air India flight 182, Kanishka (Boeing 747-237B), from Toronto to New Delhi on 23 June 1985. All the 329 aboard were killed when it exploded over the Atlantic about 190 kilometres (120 miles) off the coast of Ireland. It was the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history and the world's deadliest act of aviation terrorism until the September 11 attacks shook the US and the world at large 16 years later in 2001.

Canadian police arrested and tried a handful of people, according to Wikipedia, but only one person, Inderjit Singh Reyat, a dual British-Canadian national, was convicted in 2003 of manslaughter. He emigrated to Western Canada during the 1970s like fellow Punjabis, Talwinder Singh Parmar, Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik, who became prominent in British Columbia and turned it as the largest centre of Sikhs outside India.

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The Latest published market study on Global Low Rolling Resistance Tire Market provides an overview of the current market dynamics in the Low Rolling Resistance Tire space, as well as what our survey respondents- all outsourcing decision-makers- predict the market will look like in 2029. The study breaks the market by revenue and volume (wherever applicable) and price history to estimate the size and trend analysis and identify gaps and 
Scoot Henderson speaks with the media during Portland Trail Blazers media day at the Rose Quarter in Portland, Oregon on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023.Sean Meagher/The Oregonian
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Monday that unfair tactics used by Google led to its dominance as a search engine, tactics that in turn have thwarted his companys rival program, Bing.

Nadella testified in a packed Washington, D.C., courtroom as part of the governments landmark antitrust trial against Googles parent company, Alphabet. The Justice Department alleges Google has abused the dominance of its ubiquitous search engine to throttle competition and innovation at the expense of consumers, allegations that echo a similar case brought against Microsoft in the late 1990s.

Nadella said Googles dominance was due to agreements that made it the default browser on smartphones and computers. He downplayed the idea that artificial intelligence or more niche search engines like Amazon or social media sites have meaningfully changed the market in which Microsoft competes with Google.

Nadella said users fundamentally dont have much choice in switching out of default web browsers on cell phones and computers.

We are one of the alternatives but were not the default, he said.

Googles lead litigator John Schmidtlein questioned Nadella about instances when users switched from Bing to Google even when Microsofts search engine had default status on their devices  arguing that Microsoft made missteps with Bing that prevented it from rivaling Google.

When questioned, Nadella denied that Bings adoption of artificial intelligence had led to dramatic shifts in its market share. Google has argued that artificial intelligence programs like chatbot ChatGPT have increased competition in the search engine market.

Even the app store downloads are interesting but not ... something you write home about, Nadella said about Microsofts revamped search engine enhanced with artificial intelligence.

Nadella was called to the witness stand as the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in the past quarter-century moved into its fourth week of testimony before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who isnt expected to issue a decision in the case until next year.

The Justice Departments antitrust case against Google centers on deals the company struck with Apple and other device makers to use Googles search engine.

In the 1990s, Microsoft faced accusations it set up its Windows software in ways that walled off applications made by other tech companies, just as Google is now facing accusations of shelling out billions of dollars each year to lock in its search engine as the go-to place for finding online information on smartphones and web browsers.

In an ironic twist, the constraints and distractions posed by the governments antitrust case against Microsoft helped provide a springboard for Google to turn its search engine into a dominant force. By the time Microsoft started its scramble to develop its own search engine, Google had already become synonymous with looking things up on the internet.

But Microsoft nevertheless has poured billions of dollars trying to mount a serious challenge to Google with Bing and, at one point, even tried to buy Yahoo for more than $40 billion in a bid that was rejected while Steve Ballmer was still the software makers CEO.

Nadella, who was working at Microsoft during the late 1990s antitrust showdown with the Justice Department, succeeded Ballmer as CEO in 2014. During his tenure, he has steered to Microsoft huge gains in personal and cloud computing that have boosted the companys stock price by nearly nine -fold since he took over while creating more than $2 trillion in shareholder wealth.

Despite all that success, he hasnt been able to make any significant inroads in search against Google, with Bing still a distant second in the market.

-- The Associated press
The Oregonian/OregonLives Mike Rogoway won a silver award in the prestigious Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Journalism for his 2022 work on data centers in Oregon, the competition announced Tuesday.

Rogoway won a silver award in the regional/local category in the business journalism competition sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State Universitys Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The awards are named for Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, who were nationally recognized business journalists.

Rogoways series on Data Centers examined the tradeoffs for Oregon for the generous tax breaks major tech companies were granted.

Mikes methodical and knowledgeable reporting continues to shed light on one of Oregons fastest-growing industries, The Oregonian/OregonLives Business editor Elliot Njus said. Its helped bring the impacts of rural and urban data centers to the attention of policymakers at the highest level, a tremendous public service.

Tuesdays award announcement said, These pieces show how the initial triumph of landing a huge contract with a large company like Amazon in a rural, sparsely populated area was deflated by the sacrifice and ethical lapses that came along with it: conflicts of interests with part-time politicians, increased power demands that translate into dirtier electricity, and the secrecy behind the massive amounts of water required for cooling servers in a region grappling with an extended drought.

The winning entry included Rogoways coverage of Googles water consumption in The Dalles. The city refused to reveal Googles water consumption to Rogoway or the public, characterizing it as a trade secret. The Oregonian/OregonLive, with assistance from the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, challenged the secrecy and The Dalles eventually agreed to settle the case by revealing the data.

The records showed Googles water consumption, even as it sought access to more for expansion, had nearly tripled. After the settlement, Google said it would no longer keep its water use secret across the country wherever it operated.

The stories raise awareness about the costs that go hand-in-hand with the benefits of attracting major tech companies in communities that are desperate for jobs and growth, including the startling revelation of just how water is drained to keep running and cooling off those servers, said the judges. Its a must-read for any community thinking of handing over hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits to big tech companies that may not ultimately be the best neighbors.

The gold award in the regional/local category honored coverage that exposed lethal health dangers associated with production of stone countertops. Public Health Watch, KPCC/LAist and Univision collaborated on the project.

The Los Angeles Times took top honors in the global/national category for Legal Weed, Broken Promises, which exposed the unintended crime, corruption and environmental consequences of legal cannabis.

Read about all the winners here.
Hazelbrook Middle School in Tualatin is open again after shutting down Friday  and staying closed Monday  following bomb and shooting threats against the school and school staff.

Tualatin Police Department and the FBI fully investigated the threat; the threat is not credible and has been resolved, the school said on its website.

The school said it planned to have heightened security Tuesday out of an abundance of caution.

The threats of violence against the Tualatin school community, coming from across the country, were sparked by a viral video of one student brutally assaulting an unsuspecting classmate in the hallways.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive
Shelby Rothmeyer said she was excited for her daughter to start kindergarten at Kalapuya Elementary School in Salem this fall. Its a milestone few parents forget. But her excitement quickly dissolved into dread when she discovered last week that her daughters music teacher faces a $10 million civil lawsuit accusing him of grooming two teenage girls at his previous school.

I found out via social media last Thursday, Rothmeyer said. I was horrified.

Rothmeyer and other parents complained after learning about the lawsuit and the events surrounding teacher Joshua Rists move from McNary High School to Kalapuya, and now the school district has put Rist on paid leave.

Rist has been accused of grooming students at McNary by discussing indecent topics, complimenting their appearance and promising relationships would escalate when they were older. An investigation by the Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission resulted in a 60-day paid suspension, which Rist completed over the summer, a requirement that Rist take a training course and serve three years under probation.

Marion County prosecutors declined in November 2021 to criminally charge Rist, citing a lack of sufficient evidence.

Despite numerous requests from parents, Rothmeyer said the school at first refused to remove Rist from his Kalapuya classroom. In an email to parents Friday, principal Jennifer Neitzel did not address parents concerns directly but assured them that the district was doing its best.

I am sure that many of you have seen the news involving a lawsuit against one of our employees and the school district, Neitzel wrote. What I know is that when issues arise, the district investigates.

The elementary school announced Sunday night it would place Rist on paid leave.

Rothmeyer said she believes he was removed only because of the efforts and concerns of parents.

The decision to have him put on yet another paid leave was because of us parents, because of the effort that we put into this to protect our children, Rothmeyer said.

School officials declined to comment further on the lawsuit, or why Rist was placed on leave. The school district assigned a substitute teacher for the school year, according to Salem-Keizer spokesperson Aaron Harada.

The district is focused on the safe education of its students, Harada said in a statement.

The civil lawsuit alleges that Rist would give students lingering hugs and massages and talk about sexual topics. It also claims that Rist requested the two students delete all text messages from him.

Rist did not respond to calls or messages for comment Tuesday.

Kensey McMillan, who has a son in first grade at Kalapuya, said parents felt dismissed by district officials. She started a Facebook group to generate support for parents, which amassed 437 members as of Tuesday afternoon.

Now that weve got him away from our children, I think our biggest goal is to make sure that hes not around children again, McMillan said.

 Austin De Dios; adedios@oregonian.com; @austindedios; 503-319-9744

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There he is! someone called out.

Terry Schrunk bit down on his pipe and stepped awkwardly from the jail elevator. Camera flashbulbs popped. Reporters pressed forward, barking questions.

Its just an old shrapnel wound, the mayor of Portland said, responding to one of the queries yelled at him.

Local journalists knew about Schrunks slight limp  the former Navy man had been wounded during World War II. But most of the men in the courthouse hallway were from out of town. Theyd come to Portland for this moment alone, to witness the humiliation of a politician.

Schrunk pushed through the pack of reporters until he reached a counter, where a flustered deputy booked him on a charge of perjury. A waiting bail bondsman stepped forward with a $2,000 bond that allowed Schrunk to go free.

This was not how the new mayor wanted to gain the nations attention.

Mayor Terry Schrunk stands quietly while a deputy prepares booking slips on charges facing the mayor. A bail bondsman (right) waits, holding $2,000 in security posted for Schrunk's freedom. (The Oregonian archives)Oregonian

Schrunk had been in Portlands top job for less than three months on March 28, 1957, when he walked the block-and-a-half from City Hall to the Multnomah County Courthouse. Not that the felony case surprised anybody. This was the age of machine politics. Portland, like so many other American cities, was notoriously corrupt and had been for decades.

The times were starting to change when 44-year-old Terrence Doyle Schrunk became mayor  hence the perjury charge, which landed amid a high-profile U.S. Senate racketeering probe that roiled Oregons largest city.

The Senates effort, piggybacking on local and state investigations, revolved around a tussle over control of Portlands illegal vice operations. This caught the nations fancy, leading to newspaper headlines across the country  which in turn inspired a noir B-movie, Portland Expose, which was filming in Portland and Gresham.

While titillating, the whole thing was a confusing mess. Jewel Lansing, Multnomah Countys auditor in the 1970s and a local historian, would call the public imbroglio the most contradictory, convoluted, controversial, inconclusive, overblown and sensationalized scandal in Portlands history.

Terry Schrunk, seen here in 1949, was a fire department captain and Multnomah County sheriff before being elected Portland mayor in 1956. (The Oregonian archives)

The accusations Schrunk faced enraged his supporters, who called them a frame-up. The mayors backers pointed out that he had aided the vice investigations while still serving as Multnomah County sheriff. Hed authorized raids, made arrests, conducted interrogations.

Of course, it wasnt as simple as that. As the investigations gained steam in 1956, Schrunk also was running for mayor. And his opponent, Fred L. Peterson, the incumbent, had been implicated in the scandal, accused of ignoring gambling and prostitution  for a price.

Schrunk, the cynics said, was posturing in public, playing the straight-arrow lawman for trailing newspapermen, all the while, like Peterson, allowing favored racketeers to carry on with their business.

Politics being politics, these suspicions about the sheriff inevitably reached the public just days before the election. A raid on a North Portland gambling joint resurfaced in the newspapers more than a year after it occurred, this time thanks to a new claim: that the sheriff had accepted a bribe.

Schrunk won the election anyway, but the bribe allegation lingered.

Schrunk would testify that he happened to be driving past the notorious Kenton-neighborhood club on September 11, 1955, and made a spontaneous decision to shut the place down, radioing for deputies to meet him there.

Portland police officer Richard Sutter said that in the immediate aftermath of the raid he saw the clubs manager, Clifford Bennett, drop a hefty envelope by a telephone pole outside the club and that Schrunk picked it up.

But Sutter soon changed his story, swearing in an affidavit that he was mistaken in my identification, and the party that I saw was definitely not Sheriff Schrunk.

He then added another unexpected twist. He said hed been instructed to regularly watch Schrunks house late at night  but not because police brass thought the sheriff was up to something crooked. It was because the police bureaus leaders were crooked.

The reason that I was assigned to watch the sheriffs house, Sutter said, was that they were afraid the sheriff would get up sometime during the night and leave his home and go out and knock over some of their bootleg joints or gambling establishments or some of their illegal enterprises, anyway, and that was the reason that I was assigned to watch his home.

Confirming  or knocking down  Sutters revised testimony proved difficult.

"Big Jim" Elkins (left, with his lawyer) ran Portland's vice rackets in the 1940s and '50s. (The Oregonian archives)

Detectives and reporters trying to figure out what actually happened had to wonder if Big Jim Elkins, the racketeering boss whod bankrolled the illegal Kenton club, had bought off every elected official and law-enforcement officer in Multnomah County. The underworld players who answered to Big Jim certainly thought that was the case.

In a secretly taped conversation after the election, Bennett pondered whether investigators were now targeting Schrunk because Elkins had decided he wanted someone else in the mayors office.

Who is Elkins planning on making mayor? Bennett wondered.

As it turned out, the investigations produced a lot of secret recordings, which revealed Multnomah County District Attorney William Langleys outsized malfeasance  though Langley insisted on one tape that Portland Police Chief Jim Purcell was far more determined than him to suck in bribes.

That Jim Purcell is so goddamned hungry for money that he wouldnt even go to his dads funeral if it meant making a few bucks, Langley complained.

The question now, after Schrunks victory over Peterson: Was the new mayor among the countys many corrupt public officials? The question hung there on the dirty-laundry line, perpetually damp, throughout the investigations and headlines and prosecutions.

William Langley, on the right at the table, testifies before the U.S. Senate select committee.

In another recorded conversation, Elkins associate Ray Clark explained in front of five people how he planned on framing Schrunk, investigators wrote in one memo.

But Bennett steadfastly maintained that Schrunk took a bribe from him that September night in 1955. And Elkins backed him up, saying Bennett was short in the bankroll, and he said he had given [Schrunk] $500.

A longtime Multnomah County sheriffs deputy named Wally Wallen also insisted on Schrunks corruption, though he admitted the sheriff was extra-careful. If he had a watch, he wouldnt tell you what time it was, Wallen said when asked whether Schrunk had instructed him to pick up a payoff from Elkins. I understood what he meant, but he didnt to my recollection come right out and say for me to go down to Elkins.

The investigation into Schrunk churned for months, turning over every rock and pebble in its path. Eventually, the Oregon State Police came upon allegations against the Portland mayor beyond the alleged bribe-taking and perjury.

Mayor Terry Schrunk with Jan Brinker, Florists' Telegraph Delivery Association's choice for Miss National Flower, in 1959. (The Oregonian archives)

In a June 1956 interview, former FBI agent Kelly Deaderick told detectives that Portland police officers one night came upon a man peering through the back window of a house on Southeast 36th Avenue. The gawker told officers it was his own house and that there was a man in the house in bed with his wife, according to an Oregon State Police summary of the interview.

The man in the house supposedly was Schrunk.

The married Schrunk, while sheriff, also had carried on a torrid affair with a secretary, Deaderick added. One night, deputies found the sheriff and the young woman in a state of undress in Schrunks office where Schrunk had the tax moneys from the vault stacked on the table for the obvious reason to impress his secretary.

The story went that Schrunk, wearing only underwear, waved a gun around and told the deputies: Get the hell out of here or I will blow your asses off.

Deaderick, who had lost a contentious sheriffs election to Schrunk in 1954, gave investigators the name of a deputy he said could confirm the story.

Detectives did not corroborate Deadericks salacious claims, and they would stay under wraps for years.

But rumors about sexual peccadilloes didnt need to come to light for Schrunk to remain ensnared in scandal. The allegations that he helped maintain the vice rackets run by Elkins were enough to do that.

Terry Schrunk tried to prove his innocence by taking a polygraph exam. (The Oregonian archives)LC-

How big was that story?

The Oregon Journal newspaper would call the intersection of North Denver Avenue and Kilpatrick Street, where Schrunk allegedly pocketed the bribe, one of the most famous street corners in the United States today.

Under oath, Schrunk denied that he took an envelope stuffed with money, and that denial resulted in the perjury charge. He sat for a lie-detector test to put the accusation to rest but failed it. He angrily walked out on a follow-up polygraph exam, blaming loaded questions.

At his trial, Schrunk testified: So help me God, there was no package picked up. No bribe offered or accepted.

His lawyers argued that Elkins  or perhaps others involved in the Portland rackets  had attempted to discredit the mayor, including trying to photograph Schrunk alone with a nude juvenile girl, the Journal reported.

The defense strategy worked. On June 28, 1957, a jury unanimously voted to acquit Portlands mayor, prompting cheers and applause in the courtrooms gallery.

I thank God for our American system of justice, Schrunk said as he walked out of the courthouse.

The sprawling inquiries into the Rose Citys criminal underworld, full of narrative switchbacks and opaque testimony, soon began to peter out. Despite a host of indictments, the scandal resulted in only one elected official being convicted: Langley, for neglect of duty, a misdemeanor, for refusing to prosecute illegal-gambling operators. He was fined $428 and removed from office.

(Langley blamed The Oregonian for his travails, declaring that the newspaper worked hand-in-glove with gangsters to bring about his downfall. The Oregonians Wallace Turner and William Lambert won a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on the vice scandal.)

Mayor Terry Schrunk presided at a City Council session for the last time in December 1972. (The Oregonian archives)Oregonian

Terry Schrunk  who died in 1975, and whose son Mike would serve as Multnomah County district attorney from 1981 to 2012  emerged more-or-less unscathed from the brouhaha. With the national press labeling Portland the vice capital of the West, locals were embarrassed  and so they rallied around their young leader. The Journal called Terry Schrunk the citys virile and popular mayor.

Schrunk would go on to win reelection as mayor three times. When he stepped down for health reasons in January 1973, The Oregonian heralded his long tenure, crediting him with improving the downtown business environment, creating TriMet and expanding the Port of Portland.

Which didnt mean Schrunk planned on going anywhere. He vacated the mayors office, but he remained on the city payroll  as a local government specialist. The City Council created the post for him.

-- Douglas Perry; dperry@oregonian.com
A 19-year-old Gresham man who was caught on Ring doorbell cameras slashing a knife in the air and threatening to rape, paralyze and murder his Black and Latina neighbors has been indicted for 33 alleged crimes, including hate crimes.

New video released Monday shows Dominic Austin repeatedly making threats that include racist and misogynistic slurs as he walked up to the front door of one of the women, who is Latina and was in her third trimester of pregnancy. She lives in the same apartment complex as Austin.

Want to get paralyzed, (slur)? Wheelchair-bound, Austin said in one clip.

Youre the (expletive) (slur) because you will go nowhere ever in America, he is heard saying in another.

Austin can be seen frequently holding a knife, jabbing it into the womans door, punching toward her Ring camera and trying to open the door, which was always locked.

Although Austins father hasnt been charged, video also appears to show a man matching his description yelling slurs at the womans apartment door. In one clip, he removes a fire extinguisher from the outside of the womans home and takes it into the apartment he shares with Austin.

Hope your house dont catch fire, he exclaims.

The woman told police that she was about to leave her apartment one day when she saw Austin standing outside her door with a knife, according to court papers. She said she has been afraid to leave her home and often stays inside instead of risking an encounter with Austin. She filed a stalking order.

Video released last month showed Austin making similar threats to two Black women  a mother and her adult daughter  who also lived in the same apartment complex near Southeast 202nd Avenue and Burnside Street in Gresham.

The threats continued over the course of months this summer until police arrested Austin on Sept. 19, after the women say they made repeated calls to police. Austin was charged with making threats and violating a stalking order. He pleaded not guilty.

It wasnt until last Friday that a Multnomah County grand jury indicted Austin on accusations of more than 30 crimes, including bias crime, unlawful use of a weapon and attempted burglary for trying to enter their homes.

All three women enlisted the help of Portland civil attorney Greg Kafoury to advocate on their behalf. Kafoury said it appears Gresham police were slow to make an arrest because they chalked up Austins behavior to a mental health problem that Austin told them was already being addressed because he had a counselor.

The police attitude seems to have been my clients had nothing to worry about because this is simply a mental health issue, Kafoury said.

In a statement, Gresham police said given the criticisms theyve heard about their handling of the case, they will review our response to identify ways to improve our service to the community. Police also said they understand the unique impact bias crimes, in particular, have on victims.

Kafoury also faults the apartment complexs management for not acting on a clause in every tenants lease that allows management to immediately kick them out if they threaten serious violence against other tenants.

The apartment complexs management didnt return a request for comment Monday. But according to court papers, a lawyer for the company sent Austin and his father an eviction notice Sept. 8, saying Austin has repeatedly engaged in threatening behavior and his father had pepper-sprayed another tenants door. The letter was sent more than two months after all three women said the threats began.

If this had happened in a different part of town, or if the knife-wielding man threatening to rape and murder my clients had been Black and my clients white, one might wonder whether these episodes would have been allowed to continue from late June to mid-September, Kafoury said.

-- Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee

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Hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese refugees fleeing Sudan's brutal war are facing "a hunger emergency", the United Nations warned Tuesday, with 90 percent of families going multiple days without meals.

The fighting between forces loyal to Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo has forced nearly 300,000 South Sudanese to return home in the last five months, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said.

The crisis was taking a particularly harsh toll on its youngest victims, with 20 percent of children under five malnourished, the WFP said.

"We are seeing families leave one disaster for another as they flee danger in Sudan only to find despair in South Sudan," said Mary-Ellen McGroarty, WFP's country director in Juba.

Since fighting erupted in Sudan in mid-April, at least 7,500 people have lost their lives, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

Multiple truces have failed to stop the violence that has driven tens of thousands over Sudan's borders and raised fears of a humanitarian crisis engulfing the wider region.

WFP said that South Sudanese, who account for almost all the refugees arriving in South Sudan, "are returning to a country already facing unprecedented humanitarian needs".

"Those arriving today are in an even more vulnerable condition than families that fled in the early weeks of the conflict."

Torrential rains pummelling crowded camps and border crossings have worsened living conditions and exacerbated the spread of diseases, WFP said.

One of the world's poorest nations, South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 but was immediately plunged into a brutal conflict that left the young nation divided and traumatised.

Some 380,000 people died in five years of bloodshed before the civil war formally ended in 2018, with a ceasefire between warring leaders who remain in power today.

The nation of more than 60 ethnic groups and 12 million people continues to grapple with deadly violence, natural disasters and relentless political infighting.

The UN has repeatedly criticised South Sudan's leadership for its role in stoking bloodshed, cracking down on political freedoms and plundering public coffers.

Four out of five South Sudanese live in "absolute poverty" despite large oil reserves, according to World Bank figures for 2018.

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Attorneys for Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center and the city of Portland Tuesday urged a judge to throw out a federal civil rights suit filed by 26 Black descendants of families whose homes in Portlands Albina district were destroyed in the 1960s and 70s.

The suit, filed in December, alleges the hospital conspired with the city and what was then the Portland Development Commission to destroy the predominantly Black community and displace hundreds of families from their homes and businesses in the central Albina neighborhood, under the guise of urban renewal.

The descendants contend the hospital and city worked together to violate their families civil rights, engaged in unjust enrichment, and left a public nuisance, a vacant plot of land at North Russell Street and Williams Avenue that was never used for hospital expansion.

Attorneys for Legacy Emanuel, the city and Prosper Portland, the current name for the development commission, argued that the families suing are not the homeowners who were directly impacted, and that the suit was filed far beyond the two-year or six-year statute of limitations allowed for the various claims brought.

The families descendants have not shown theyre the legal personal representatives who stand in their relatives shoes and can validly assert their rights, or were directly involved, attorney Misha Isaak wrote on behalf of the hospital.

Legacy Emanuels lawyers argued that the hospitals motivation was economic, and largely centered on the expansion of its services and campus, and not based on racial animus.

This was lawful, said Attorney Rizwan A. Qureshi, also representing the hospital. This was an effort to engage in expansion of the hospital, which was an anchor for the community.

Attorney Clifford S. Davidson, hired to represent the city, said any recourse sought for harms suffered by the Black community impacted by the historic practice of urban renewal in Portland should be through the states legislative or executive branches, not by this Court.

The City and Prosper Portland do not deny or minimize the community-wide effects of the implementation of urban renewal laws in the 1960s and 1970s, which uprooted and disrupted the lives of Central Albina residents and their families, Davidson wrote in the citys motion to dismiss. Prospective relief fails because the Court cannot compel the return of property that no Plaintiff owned or the reconstruction of homes now demolished, nor require development of vacant land.

The city also noted that policies have changed to prevent a recurrence of the harm caused.

The federal government funded the destruction of hundreds of communities across the country, including central Albina, in the name of eliminating blight under slum clearance laws that required very little community process and disproportionately affected communities of color, Davidson wrote.

The city has repeatedly disavowed the policies alleged in the complaint, he said. Those policies were racist at the time, and theyre racist now.

The plaintiffs defended their suit before U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon.

The judge urged the plaintiffs lawyers to tell him the real guts of their position on why the statutes of limitations should not bar their case from proceeding.

This case is not about racism generally or institutional racism baked into urban renewal law, said their lawyer Edward Johnson, of the Oregon Law Center. This case is about a very specific racist conspiracy that destroyed central Albina.

He said the city, Portland Development Commission and Legacy Emanuel hatched a plan to remove Black people from the area around the hospital to stop the undesirable encroachments on the hospital, quoting from a 1964 report that Emanuel-hired consultants had produced regarding the future role and development of the hospital.

Nearly all those named in the suit either lived in or spent considerable time in the family homes that were taken and destroyed by defendants, and have suffered the fracturing of their families, the loss of their community and sense of security, and a loss of past and future economic opportunity, he said.

Losing the ability to grow up in a supportive Black community has all sorts of repercussions, Johnson told the court, as plaintiffs filled two rows behind him in the courtrooms public gallery to listen to the arguments.

People werent moved to another supportive Black neighborhood, he said. They were displaced into hostile environments where they were exposed to racism.

The harm hasnt ceased, plaintiffs contend, and the suit is timely because they only became aware of the full alleged conspiracy between the hospital and the city as result of a 2021 report by Portland State University graduate students titled, Reclamation Towards the Futurity of Central Albina.

The plaintiffs allege that the hospital intimidated people into leaving their homes and then acquired and demolished about 101 properties in the central Albina district. The city and the development commission, they said, later reimbursed Emanuel $835,584 for the property acquisitions and demolitions.

The city and development commission pursued a false narrative that central Albina was blighted to take remaining properties, even distributing a brochure titled Creepy Blight in 1962 that depicted an ogre-like cartoon character, according to court filings.

Johnson said the Portland State Universitys report, finalized in early 2022, was an aha moment for the plaintiffs and their team, helping them to connect the dots for the first time about the alleged conspiracy by the city and hospital to displace the Black residents in the central Albina neighborhood.

Those revelations in the past year or two should allow the easing of the statute of limitations and enable the case to continue, Johnson said.

He argued that the report revealed that the citys professed public statements that the move to push people from their homes in central Albina was done under a lawful urban renewal strategy of blight clearance, was a false story to cover up the racist conspiracy to destroy this neighborhood.

Even if Legacy Emanuels interests in taking Albina homes resulted from a mix of racist and economic interests, that does not defeat the suits claims, Johnson said.

The vacant lot at North Russell Street and Williams Avenue, owned by Legacy Emanuel but never used for hospital expansion, serves as a constant reminder to plaintiffs  the survivors and descendants of those displaced families  of what they once had, what their family could have had for generations, and what was taken from them, Johnson said.

Asked by the judge what the hospitals unjust enrichment has been from the alleged scheme, attorney Diane D. Nguyen, also representing the plaintiffs, said its the fact that the hospital continues to own the properties and makes decisions on how the developed or undeveloped land is used. Nguyen is a lawyer with Legal Aid Services of Oregon.

The land in question is not land that the city or Prosper Portland owns, Davidson said. Legacy Emanuels lawyers argued their client was not enriched because its a tax-exempt, nonprofit hospital.

Qureshi acknowledged that the Creepy Blight advertisements were clearly racist and intended to instill fear in the community, but he said the plaintiffs failed to show any evidence that the city, its development commission and the hospital conspired together to put out the advertisements or effectuate a racist plan.

Legacy Emanuel has taken steps to right those wrongs, by offering to return to the community the approximately 1.7-acres of undeveloped land at North Russell and Williams Avenue with input from a community-based working group, he added.

The pain suffered by the homeowners and their descendants, though, cannot overshadow the fatal flaws in the complaint before the court, he said.

Several of the plaintiffs said they were buoyed by the judges questions throughout the court hearing and look forward to his decision.

We remain steadfast in our mission and focus to correct the past and ongoing harm of the defendants, who intentionally destroyed our thriving Black neighborhood, the plaintiffs said in a joint statement issued on their behalf.

The judge said hed issue his ruling on the motions to dismiss within 60 days.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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Armenian lawmakers are scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to join the International Criminal Court, a parliament spokeswoman told AFP, a move that would anger the ex-Soviet Caucasus country's historic ally, Moscow.

The Kremlin has said that a decision in Armenia to join The Hague-based court, which has issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin, would be "extremely hostile."

The vote in parliament to ratify the court's founding treaty -- known as the Rome Statute, is scheduled for Wednesday -- spokeswoman Tsovinar Khachatryan told AFP.

Lawmakers began hearings on joining the ICC Tuesday, with Armenia's representative on international legal matters, telling parliament that the decision was focused on the country's security concerns.

"We are creating additional guarantees for Armenia" in the face of the threat to the country's territorial integrity from arch-foe Azerbaijan, Eghishe Kirakosyan, told lawmakers.

Opposition parties, which control 36 seats in Armenia's 107-seat legislature protested the move and their MPs walked out from the plenary session.

Russia has repeatedly warned Armenia against ratifying the Rome Statute. ICC members are expected to move on Putin's arrest if the Russian leader steps foot in their territory.

In March, the ICC announced an arrest warrant for Putin on the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.

Armenian's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan however last week sought to assuage Kremlin fears.

"The decision is not directed against... the Russian Federation. It comes from the interests of the country's external security, and taking such a decision is our sovereign right," he said.

Tensions have been rising between Yerevan and Moscow over the role of Russian peacekeepers in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, which announced its dissolution last week following a lightning military operation by Baku.

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Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The head of the UN mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has hit out against unilateral and competing initiatives being proposed by authorities in the divided country to rebuild the shattered city of Derna, and other flood-affected areas
Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - The UN World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended Takeda Pharmaceuticals vaccine against dengue for children aged six to 16 living in areas where the infection is a significant public health problem
Photo: (Photo : Siddhant Soni on Unsplash)

Upon setting foot in Ciudad Hidalgo, situated in Mexico, the CNN team was immediately overwhelmed by the potent, smoky aroma of burning wood intertwined with the acrid scent of melting plastic. This poignant beginning was punctuated by the innocent sight and sound of youthful laughter and playful splashes as children, oblivious to the political boundaries, enjoyed themselves in the Suchiate River, the natural divider between Mexico and its southern neighbor, Guatemala.

Young Voices, Old Souls

The environment navigated bore an uncanny resemblance to a deeply rooted, traditional community, as opposed to what it truly was: a temporary camp for migrants. As the team ventured deeper into this settlement, the heart-wrenching tales shared by its inhabitants, who hailed predominantly from Venezuela, began to weave a tapestry of desperation, hope, and resilience.

Among the voices, it was the tales from the children that struck the most profound chords. Their descriptions of the arduous journey they had taken, particularly their navigation of the perilous Darien Gap, a treacherous passage that meanders between Colombia and Panama, were delivered with an unsettling maturity.

Mathias, a young boy of just nine years, hauntingly recalled an encounter with a deceased blond woman, her face marred by blood. The calmness and matter-of-fact manner in which he and his peers narrated their traumatic experiences were deeply unsettling, reminding us of the weight of their prematurely aged souls.

Diving deeper into their stories, Mathias painted a vivid picture of the sheer desperation they felt while navigating the dense jungle, emphasizing moments where starvation became a tangible reality, surrounded by the grim sight of fallen travelers. His cousin Sofia, aged 12, and his little brother Joandry, merely 6, recounted similar harrowing experiences, providing a deeply human face to the crises many only read about.

Despite the adversity faced during their journey, the dream of a potentially brighter and more promising future in the United States binds the individuals at this border, especially the younger ones.

Sofia, with a twinkle in her eye, proudly pointed out her father, a beacon of strength and hope, as he assisted others in their river crossing. A stone's throw away, her mother, Susana, kept a watchful eye on their makeshift encampment while tending to the younger members of their family.

As the conversation meandered towards their hopes and aspirations, the children's eyes lit up with dreams of settling in cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, and Florida. Their ambitions were palpable; both Sofia and Mathias expressed a fervent desire to pursue medicine, with Mathias also contemplating a career in law.

Read Also: Migrant Parents Sending Children Unaccompanied to Cross International Border Into South Texas out of Desperation

The Odyssey Behind

However, a moment of reflection brought with it a poignant silence. When CNN asked about their journey as a collective unit, their cheerful demeanor momentarily gave way to somber, contemplative expressions.

Their odyssey, spanning two exhaustive months following a six-year sojourn in Colombia, was marked by challenges and hardships. Their decision to leave Colombia was a heartbreaking one, necessitated by the unbearable shackles of poverty, reminiscent of their earlier escape from the clutches of Venezuela's all-encompassing corruption, crime, and economic instability.

Interestingly, the underlying tone among these migrants in southern Mexico contrasted sharply with that of the migrants we've previously encountered further north. While both groups had braved significant hardships, those in the south appeared blissfully unaware of the further threats they would soon encounter, notably the menacing extortion by cartel-backed smugglers and the life-threatening journeys atop moving freight trains.

However, in the face of these adversities, their spirit remained unbroken. As Mathias' mother succinctly put it, their journey was one of unwavering faith and forward momentum.

The news team's interaction culminated in a heartwarming moment as Sofia and Mathias extended a playful invitation to join them on their watery escapades in the river. Their laughter and playful antics, as they receded into the distance, served as a stark reminder of the undying spirit of childhood, even in the face of overwhelming adversity.

With smiles on their faces and hope in their hearts, their cheerful goodbye, "Nos vemos! See ya later!", resonated long after their paths diverged.

Related Article: Ursula Burns: On Motherhood, Being a Minority and Climbing the Corporate Ladder
Photo: (Photo : DDDanny D on Unsplash)

In a gripping turn of events, 9-year-old Charlotte Sena, who had been reported missing from Moreau Lake State Park in New York over the weekend, has been safely found. Authorities are now holding a suspect in custody in connection with her disappearance.

Charlotte's sudden disappearance from the state park where she was last seen biking prompted a massive search operation. The New York State Police announced the arrest of a suspect on Monday night after the child was discovered in healthy condition. Subsequent to her rescue, Charlotte underwent a medical evaluation at a local hospital.

Swift Arrest: 47-year-old Craig Nelson Ross Jr. in Custody

The case took a dramatic twist in the early hours when, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul, state police observed a man leaving a ransom note in the Sena family mailbox. After ruling out their first person of interest, forensic investigators found a match with fingerprints from a 1999 DWI arrest. The suspect, identified as 47-year-old Craig Nelson Ross Jr., was apprehended by state and federal tactical teams in Milton.

Governor Hochul detailed the moment of the rescue during a news briefing, revealing that upon storming a camper positioned behind Ross's mother's trailer, the child was found concealed in a cabinet. The suspect was captured after showing some resistance.

Charlotte's aunt, Jene Sena, expressed immense relief to Fox News Digital upon hearing the news of her niece's safe discovery, stating, "We are just elated she came home." The child has since been reunited with her family at the hospital.

Patrick Kane, a family friend, had parked his vehicle opposite the park's entrance, hopeful for positive news about Charlotte. "God's going to bring her back home," he confidently asserted hours before Charlotte was eventually found. His faith in the young girl's return was unwavering.

The governor joined the chorus of relief, articulating her joy at Charlotte's safety. In a statement, she expressed gratitude towards the New York State Police and other agencies for their relentless pursuit, attributing Charlotte's safe return to their hard work.

Read Also: Four Missing Children From Amazon Plane Crash May Still Be Alive as Rescuers Found Footprint, Eaten Fruit

The Hours Before Charlotte's Disappearance

Before her disappearance, Charlotte was last spotted biking on Loop A within Moreau Lake State Park at about 6:15 p.m. on Saturday. It took just half an hour before she was reported missing. Following her sudden disappearance, an Amber Alert was sent out, highlighting the severe risks she might be facing.

While the search was underway, officials lauded Charlotte as a compassionate young girl who often looked out for others. The state police described her as a "bright and adventurous girl" who cherished outdoor activities. Highlighting her kind nature, they mentioned her aspiration to establish a club at her school to support children without friends, always prioritizing the needs of others.

Authorities continue to probe deeper into the circumstances surrounding Charlotte's disappearance. They encourage anyone with pertinent information to reach out to the New York State Police or contact their crime tip email.

For the family, friends, and community members who had been on tenterhooks since Charlotte's disappearance, her safe return is undoubtedly a profound relief. The episode serves as a powerful reminder of the unpredictability of life and the importance of community support and law enforcement in such challenging times.

Related Article: Missing Missouri Children Found Safe After Nearly a Year in Florida Supermarket
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Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria said Tuesday they were introducing checks on borders with Slovakia to curb illegal migration, but Bratislava called for a "European solution".

"Starting midnight, we are reintroducing border controls at the border with Slovakia," Poland's Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski told reporters.

Working "in coordination with neighbours", Prague will follow suit, said the Czech interior ministry.

Later Tuesday, Austria's interior ministry also announced it would reintroduce checks at its eleven border posts with Slovakia before smugglers could "change their routes".

In all three countries, the checks are expected to last ten days initially.

"The number of illegal migrants into the EU is beginning to grow again. We are not taking this lightly," Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on X, formerly Twitter.

Slovakia has recently seen an uptick in migrants coming largely from Serbia via Hungary.

'Cascading effect'



Following the moves by Warsaw and Prague, outgoing Slovak Prime Minister Ludovit Odor said "migration needs a European solution at the external borders."

"Once a country boosts the protection of its own border, it creates a cascading effect, we will all pay money for it, and the result will be very unclear," Odor said in a statement.

He added Slovakia would respond to its neighbours' move on Wednesday.

In the first eight months of this year, Slovakia detected approximately 24,500 migrants who had entered illegally.

That was up from nearly 10,900 for all of last year and only hundreds per year before that, according to Slovak police.

The force's chief, Stefan Hamran, said the vast majority identified themselves as Syrians, who cannot be detained or deported under international rules, and that they continued on to Western Europe.

Robert Fico, whose Smer-SD party won the Slovak election on Saturday, vowed to introduce immediate checks on the Hungarian border if he becomes prime minister, as expected.

"We will need to use force to resolve the problem with migrants," he said.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia form the so-called Visegrad-four (V4) group of ex-communist Central European EU and NATO members.

When the migrant wave hit Europe in 2015, the V4 stood up against migrant redistribution quotas proposed by the EU, earning scorn across the bloc.

Germany said last week it would step up policing of its borders with Poland and the Czech Republic in a bid to get a grip on rising levels of illegal migration.

German Interior Ministry Nancy Faeser recently raised the possibility of fixed controls on Polish and Czech borders, a measure already in place along the boundary between Germany and Austria.

All of the said countries are members of the European Union and of Europe's Schengen open-borders zone.

The reintroduction of border checks in the Schengen Area is permitted only in exceptional circumstances and must be notified to Brussels before it can be implemented.

Warsaw said it had already notified the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, about the decision.

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Over on the Peterson Obsession Board, there is a poster who goes by the pseudonym Everybodys WC, or something of that sort. One of his odd specialities through the years has been inventing fictions about me that, unless and until hes called on them, he tries to pass off as true. Among his most egregious lies was claiming to have been an unbelieving bishop who went on one of the tours that I led to Israel in order to observe at first hand my buffoonish antics and my shameless falsehoods. But thats only one among many such instances. Its pretty safe to assume, whenever he pretends to know me well or to have damning inside information on me from, say, my neighbors, my university colleagues, my former Maxwell Institute associates, my fellow volunteers in the Interpreter Foundation, and so on  hes claimed all of these on various occasions  that hes either lying or, much less likely, that hes being played.

A few days ago, supposedly on the basis of intelligence from his supposed network of supposed informants, Everybodys WC revealed to his eagerly credulous marks that relations between me and Mike Parker (aka Peter Pan) have grown frosty because of my refusal to come to Mikes defense when his identity as the person behind the invaluable Neville-Neville Land blog came to public light. Since that was the first that I had ever heard of such frost, I wrote to Mike to ask him about it and to inquire whether he needed me to act in some way or to do something that I hadnt. This is his reply, which I share here with his kind permission:

Now that Ive picked myself up off the floor from laughing so hard that I was wheezing, I can say no, theres nothing that I need from you.

Honestly, where do these people get this stuff? There is not even a shadow of a thread of truth in his claim.

Not surprisingly, a gullible member of the audience for whom Everybodys WC performs responded very quickly by reminding them of a previous act of similar disloyalty on my part: When my late and lamented friend Bill Hamblin was involved in an informal but public online debate with a prominent non-Latter-day Saint academic about the historicity of the Book of Mormon, I did not come to his assistance despite the fact (as they imagine it to be) that he was being badly beaten and publicly humiliated. This, of course, further confirms the verdict of Everybodys WC, that I am [an unrepeatable epithet].

However, back in the day when that claim about my alleged disloyalty to Bill was all the buzz at the Obsession Board, I dropped a note to Bill about it. I explained to him that I had judged him to be doing just fine in his back-and-forth with Professor X, and that I hadnt thought that he needed any help. Still, I asked, had he felt that I had let him down? Quite seriously and honestly, I wanted to know. No, he responded. He hadnt needed any help, and I hadnt let him down at all or left him twisting in the wind. (I expect that the usual suspects will claim that Im lying about that exchange with Bill, but its authentic. Its just that I have literally thousands of notes from Bill and see little value in spending the time to comb through them all in order to find it: The Obsession Board would just dismiss it anyway.) Mostly, I dont respond to the myth-making of my Malevolent Stalker and of his less-talented wannabe, Everybodys WC. Doing so in every case would be the equivalent of a full-time job, and not a very satisfying one. Now and again, though, I feel that I need to flatly deny some of the allegations, lest, unchallenged, they become a permanent part of my online biography. I apologize for taking the time and space here for so unworthy a subject.

To change the tone pretty completely, heres a wonderful undertaking at Brigham Young University that you might find of interest. It is headed up by my friend and former department chairman, Professor Dana Bourgerie: The Cambodian Oral History Project

And heres something new on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Interpreter Radio Show  September 17, 2023

In the 17 September 2023 episode of The Interpreter Radio Show, Bruce Webster, Kris Frederickson, and Robert Boylan discussed Come, Follow Me New Testament lesson 42 during the first hour and then were joined during the second hour by Janiece Johnson to discuss her new book on the Mountain Meadows Massacre. You can listen to or download the 17 September 2023 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show at the link provided just above. The New Testament in Context portion of this show, for the Come, Follow Me New Testament lesson 42, I Can Do All Things through Christ Which Strengtheneth Me on Philippians and Colossians, will also be posted, separately, on Tuesday, October 3. The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard on Sunday evenings from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com. These archived recordings have been edited to remove commercial breaks.

We are briefly down here in southern Utah in order to attend the open house, tomorrow, of the renovated St. George Utah Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This pioneer temple, the oldest still functioning in the Church, holds a special place in my heart and in the history of my family, as well as in the history of the Church itself. Were staying with friends, former neighbors, who have moved down this direction. The view from their house (in just about every direction) is perfectly astonishing. (Their backyard vista probably covers about 170 degrees. And the view from the front of the house is magnificent, too.) On a partly cloudy day that has been washed clean by rain, we watched the light of the descending sun move across Pine Valley Mountain, the peaks of Kolob Canyon, and a broad expanse of Zion National Park. We enjoyed dinner out on their veranda. Its difficult to say which was better, the food or the view.

Posted from Hurricane, Utah
In light of this new information, this will be my last critique. Its a shame, because I was enjoying myself so much, and I felt that I came up with some fresh arguments, but this book deserves no further response. It was already a very weak, poor volume (desperately in need of an editor), even if these factors werent in play. What I have written thus far has, in my opinion, value in and of itself, as a ten-part Catholic apologetics course. So it wasnt a waste of time at all. But no more. Im only interested in responding to serious, adequately researched, honest apologetics.

Just as I finished my tenth installment (10-5-23), Fraternidade Newman Brasil [Newman Brazil Fraternity] published a devastatingly comprehensive (and shocking) expose entitled Apologetica da Desonestidade: Evidencias de Plagio e outras Trapacas no Livro do Protestante Juan Roberto Oliveira [Apologetics of Dishonesty: Evidence of Plagiarism and other Cheating in the Book of Protestant Juan Roberto Oliveira].

Brazilian Protestantis the author of the book, Nenhum Caminho Leva a Roma: O pecurso ate o protestantismo [No Road Leads to Rome: The Path to Protestantism]. It has no date or publisher listed. But it was recently released. Hes aand is active on Twitter (now X) and, especially, Instagram . When I informed Juan of my replies, he quickly wrote on Twitter:I wish him all the best in that endeavor. If anyone discovers that he has ever answered any of my critiques, please let me know.His words will be in. Translations from the Portugese of his book will be made with Google Translate (with an occasional additional modification). I will use RSV for Bible translations.

The existence of purgatory is based on theological assumptions and specific beliefs rather than concrete evidence. There is no objective proof or scientific knowledge of its existence, and the idea was developed and sustained mainly by specific religious doctrines and traditions. Without any factual basis, it becomes difficult to justify the existence of an intermediate place where souls are purified. (p. 27)

Clearly, this teaching lacks a biblical basis, . . . (p. 30)

In fact, the central, essential ideas concerning purgatory are massively present in Scripture. The nutshell argument for purgatory is that we must be without sin to enter into Gods presence (Eph 5:5; Heb 12:14 [holiness without which no one will see the Lord]; 2 Pet 3:13 [. . . in which righteousness dwells]; Rev 21:8, 27 [nothing unclean shall enter it]; 22:3, 14-15 [Blessed are those who wash their robes, . . . that they may enter the city by the gates). Therefore, God must purge or wash away our sin to make us fit to be in heaven with Him. All agree so far. The only disagreement is whether this divine cleansing takes place in an instant or is more of a process. Its merely a quantitative difference; not an essential one. Purgatory is indicated most directly in 1 Corinthians 3:13, 15:

Each mans work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. . . . [15] If any mans work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Protestant commentators fully agree that sin must be purged prior to anyone entering heaven (and this is the central idea and purpose or nature of purgatory). Heres what several of them observe about Revelation 21:27:

Ellicotts Commentary for English Readers The gates stand open always, but no evil thing may find a home there. The emphatic repetition here (see Revelation 21:8) of the idea that all sin is excluded, is in harmony with all other Scripture: no unholiness can dwell in the presence of God. Matthew Henrys Concise Commentary Nothing sinful or unclean, idolatrous, or false and deceitful, can enter. All the inhabitants are made perfect in holiness. Now the saints feel a sad mixture of corruption, which hinders them in the service of God, and interrupts their communion with him; but, at their entrance into the holy of holies, they are washed in the laver of Christs blood, and presented to the Father without spot. None are admitted into heaven who work abominations. It is free from hypocrites, such as make lies. As nothing unclean can enter heaven, let us be stirred up by these glimpses of heavenly things, to use all diligence, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God. Barnes Notes on the Bible [N]othing will be found in that blessed abode which is unholy or sinful. It will be a pure world, . . . Matthew Pooles Commentary [T]his strongly denying particle is brought to make the bar excluding all unclean persons from heaven evident.

The Bible also often refers to this same purging process taking place before we die: the very common biblical theme of Gods chastising or purifying His people. By analogy, this shows us the same notions that lie behind the apostolic and Catholic doctrine of purgatory (methods of how God works, so to speak). When these passages are included, one can rather easily find (as I did) as many as fifty biblical passages that are relevant to purgatory.

Scripture refers to a purging fire (in addition to 1 Corinthians 3 above): whatever shall pass through the fire will be made clean (Num 31:23); Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you; and on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire (Dt 4:36); we went through fire (Ps 66:12); our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:29); do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you (1 Pet 4:12); We also see passages about the baptism of fire (Mt 3:11; Mk 10:38-39; Lk 3:16; 12:50).

The Bible makes frequent use also of the metaphor of various metals being refined (in a fire): when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold (Job 23:10); thou, O God, hast tested us; thou hast tried us as silver is tried (Ps 66:10); The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tries hearts (Prov 17:3); I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy (Is 1:25); I have refined you, . . . I have tried you in the furnace of affliction (Is 48:10); I will refine them and test them (Jer 9:7); I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested (Zech 13:9); he is like a refiners fire, and like fullers soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver (Mal 3:2-3); . . . your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire (1 Pet 1:6-7).

God cleansing or washing us is another common biblical theme: Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! . . . Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean (Ps 51:2, 7); Blows that wound cleanse away evil; strokes make clean the innermost parts (Prov 20:30; cf. 30:12); the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning (Is 4:4); I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me (Jer 33:8); I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses (Ezek 36:25); cleanse them from sin and uncleanness (Zech 13:1); our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Heb 10:22); he was cleansed from his old sins (2 Pet 1:9); the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).

Divine chastisement is taught clearly in many passages: as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you (Dt 8:5); do not despise the LORDs discipline or be weary of his reproof, (Prov 3:11); I will chasten you in just measure (Jer 30:11); God who tests our hearts (1 Thess 2:4); For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? . . . he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness (Heb 12:6-7, 10).

We are subject to Gods indignation or wrath, insofar as we sin: God will bring every deed into judgment (Ecc 12:14); I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, . . . He will bring me forth to the light (Mic 7:9).

Purgatory is written all over the passages above. Once upon a time I didnt make the connection of what seems so obvious to me now. I think there are many who (like myself) may be able to be persuaded to see that the Bible is far more Catholic than they had ever imagined.

Many religions teach that salvation is achieved through faith and Gods grace, not through human actions. But purgatory suggests that souls must be purified through suffering and penance to achieve complete salvation. (p. 27)

God is doing most of the actions in purgatory, as can be seen in the above passages. Its He Who is purifying, washing, chastising, refining, testing, cleansing, disciplining, purging, etc. Purgatory doesnt suggest anything. Its God Who revealed in His revelation that sins have to be purged and that no sinner, with sin in his soul can enter heaven. Its not allowed there. Sin must be actually purged and cleansed, not just the superficial, surfacey, pretend, external, merely declarative justification that Protestantism dreamt-up, contrary to Holy Scripture and all previous tradition.

This perspective places an additional burden on individuals, shifting the focus away from mercy and divine love. Another criticism of purgatory is that it seems to contradict the idea of an almighty and compassionate God. If God is infinitely merciful, why would he allow the souls of the elect to undergo a process of additional suffering after death? (p. 27)

Purgatory is no more of a burden than has always been part of the Christian life:

Romans 12:1 . . . present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 1 Corinthians 3:17 . . . For Gods temple is holy, and that temple you are. 2 Corinthians 7:1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God. Ephesians 4:24 and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Colossians 3:12 Put on then, as Gods chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, 1 Thessalonians 2:10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our behavior to you believers; Hebrews 12:14 Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 1 Peter 1:15-16 but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; [16] since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. 2 Peter 3:11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,

A loving and merciful God, of course, made all these commands, through His apostles. Repetition is a great teacher: For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? . . . he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness (Heb 12:6-7, 10).

The most serious criticism is this: the idea of purgatory nullifies fully the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. (p. 28)

If thats the case, then the Bible is self-contradictory, since it refers to holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Heb 12:14) and states that nothing unclean shall enter heaven (Rev 21:27) and that Blessed are those who wash their robes, . . . that they may enter the city by the gates (Rev 22:14). Do all these inspired portions of the infallible revelation of Holy Scripture nullify Jesus sacrifice on the cross, too?

In Romans 8:1, Paul states, Therefore now no condemnation there are for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (p. 28)

Exactly. Whoever is truly in Jesus will be saved.

Now, if there is no condemnation or suffering for those who are in Christ, what is the reason for purgatory? (p. 28)

Quite obviously, to prepare a still sinful soul for entering a place where no sin is permitted. See the above relevant biblical passages.

The Bible is very clear. Whether you are in Christ or you are not, there is no middle ground. If you are not in Christ, what awaits you in the afterlife is hell. (p. 28)

Exactly. Everyone in purgatory is saved. This is a non-issue. The issue isnt salvation, but rather, the necessity of purification prior to entering a totally holy place.

The doctrine of purgatory . . . suggests that souls must go through a process of purification and atonement before entering heaven. (p. 29)

The Bible teaches that souls must go through a process of purification and atonement before entering heaven, per all of my prooftexts above.

If salvation is a free and unconditional gift offered by God, why would it be necessary to go through a additional purification process? (p. 29)

Precisely because no sin is allowed in heaven, and we still have much sin in our lives and souls. In heaven there are no more games, such as imputed justification. There, we will be  must be  actually holy, not merely declared so, in some sort of equivocating word game. Protestants themselves stress that we are not actually holy, only declared to be, even though we arent. Therefore, to enter a place that requires actual holiness (if we go by Protestants own premises), we have to somehow be transformed in actuality. And that is purgatory. And we can begin the process right now in this life, so the entrance will be much easier when the time comes.

Furthermore, the doctrine of purgatory can also lead to a works mentality as opposed to faith. People may feel that need to perform good works or penances to guarantee their entry into heaven, instead of trusting in the grace of God. (p. 29)

The two things are not mutually exclusive. Good works are an intrinsic part of faith, and are central in fifty biblical passages that discuss being saved and entrance into heaven. St. Paul alone writes at least fifty passages that tie together grace, faith, and works, in an organic, inseparable whole.

Catholic theologians developed the doctrine of the two judgments, a conception absent in the Eastern church. According to this Roman Catholic perspective, there are two judgments: the individual judgment, that occurs immediately after death, beginning the intermediate state of those who have passed away, and the general judgment, which takes place at the second coming of Jesus, at the end of the intermediate state. . . . individual judgment invented by Rome (p. 32)

It could hardly have been invented by us, since it is present in Scripture:

John 3:18, 36 He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. . . . [36] He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him. Hebrews 9:27 . . . it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment,

Moreover, in Jesus story about Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16), its clear that both men have been judged and that their fate is sealed, even though they are in Hades (divided into good and bad compartments). The rich man is condemned, and Lazarus is saved. This was all determined before the Final Day of Judgment; indeed, while Jesus still walked the earth.

Fourthly, Jesus referred to Judas as the son of perdition (Jn 17:2), meaning that he was damned for all eternity.

[M]ost problematic . . . for Catholic doctrine, the Bible nowhere mentions an individual judgment occurring in an intermediate state before the resurrection, . . . This doctrine simply has no biblical support, . . . (p. 33)

This isnt true. The rich man in Hades has been condemned:

Luke 16:23-25 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. [24] And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame. [25] But Abraham said, `Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.

Fifthly, we know that certain people have been rejected by God. For example, we have King Saul, whom God turned away from (1 Sam 16:7, 14; 18:12; 19:9), and whom the prophet Samuel (appearing after death) confirmed as one who was forsaken by God (the LORD has turned from you and become your enemy: 1 Sam 28:16). How can such a person be saved? Saul died in the forsaken state, as an enemy of God! So we know where he went. He was already judged.

Sixthly, many bad Kings of Judah and Israel were described as having done evil in the sight of the Lord. Excepting a repentance on their part, if they were evil all the way to their deaths, we can reasonably assume that they were damned.

*

Summary: Juan Oliveira attempts many futile & bad arguments against purgatory, but fails to interact at all with scores of relevant passages that I bring up from Holy Scripture.
An Accra High Court has ruled that Ecobank Ghana Limited was abusing court processes in filing suit to re-litigate matters settled by the Supreme Court.



The court presided over by Justice Abena Amponsah Buansi in her ruling on September 25, 2023 struck out paragraphs 1 to 32 of the plaintiffs (Ecobank) pleadings in the amended statement of claim filed on June 13, 2023 and further dismissed the suit.



The court said, a study of the plaintiffs pleadings disclosed that the same grounds and arguments that were put before the Supreme Court in the applications to enable them prove fraud on the part of the applicant (Mr Daniel Ofori), were the same grounds on which this suit was premised.



Ecobank filed a suit seeking the court for a declaration that the judgement of the Supreme Court obtained by Mr Ofori herein against it was void having been obtained by fraud and acts of false pretence.



It also wanted a declaration that at all material times that the suit was pending before the Superior Courts, Mr Ofori herein was the owner of the said shares as he had exercise acts of ownership over the said shares till date.



The Bank sought an order setting aside impugned judgement of the Supreme Court as same and procured by fraud.



The Supreme Court refused to grant the applications on the finding that the Ecobank allegations did not amount to fraudulent acts on the part of the Mr Ofori.



The court said it found that there was nothing further for it to enquire into.



Justice Amponsah Buansi observed that the Supreme Court had had cause to bemoan the protracted nature of the litigation between the parties.



She said she did not consider it necessary to consider the other grounds on which Counsel for Mr. Ofori had applied for the dismissal of the suit.



She said, I find that the claim before this court is an abuse of the courts processes and therefore award costs of GHC 40,000 against Ecobank Ghana Limited in favour of Mr Ofori.



Mr Ofori was represented by Nana Boakye Mensah-Bonsu, led by Tsatsu Tsikata, holding Thaddeus Sorys brief, while Ecobank Ghana Limited was represented by Samuel Adumoah-Addo with Sekyere Duodu, holding brief for Barima Kodie Yaw Oppong.





Source: GNA









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Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, Leader of Ghanas delegation to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, has condemned military coups that overthrow democratically elected leaders in the sub region.



He said there should not be any rationale for the recent coups in the sub-region.



Not even the barbaric onslaught from jihadists and terrorist groups and the economic challenges of the various countries must be justified, he said.



Mr Afenyo-Markin said this at the ECOWAS 5th Legislature Parliamentary seminar underway at Winneba in the Central Region, under the theme: The Challenges of Unconstitutional Regime Change and Presidential Term Limits in West Africa: Role of the ECOWAS Parliament.



The ECOWAS Parliament, which began on Friday, September 29 to Saturday, is scheduled to end on October 7, 2023, is the second time Ghana has hosted and it convenes twice a year.



The ECOWAS Parliament, also known as the Community Parliament, is one of the Institutions of ECOWAS which is the Assembly of Peoples of the Community serving as a forum for dialogue, consultation, and consensus for Representatives of the people of West Africa with the aim of promoting integration.



Established under Articles 6 and 13 of the ECOWAS Revised Treaty of 1993, the initial Protocol establishing the Parliament was signed in Abuja on August 6, 1994. It provided for the Structure, Composition, Competence, and other matters relating to Parliament.



The Parliament is composed of 115 seats, with each Member State having a guaranteed minimum of five seats while the remaining 40 seats shall be shared on the basis of population.



With the need for a community mechanism to forge greater ties with the citizens of the West African Community serving as momentum towards the creation of the Community Parliament, it strengthens representative democracy in the Community.



It is to contribute to the promotion of peace, security, and stability on the West African Region by informing and sensitising the population on issues of integration, promotion and defending principles of human rights, democracy, the rule of law, transparency, accountability, and good governance through the practices of accountability.



It will also give the National Delegates the opportunity to present their countrys reports to inform the Body on unfolding developments in their respective Member States and the status of implementation of their communitys texts.



Mr Afenyo-Markin, also the Deputy Majority Leader in Ghanas Parliament said the recent resurgence of military coups threatened to drag Africa back to an era we they fought tirelessly to transcend.



We must firmly condemn the coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Chad, and Gabon, along with the hostilities in Sudan.



These actions are betrayals of the democratic principles we hold dear, and we demand a swift return to constitutional rule. We must affirm, unequivocally, that regression is not the solution. Our golden age lies ahead of us, not in the shadows of the 1960s to 1980s, he said.



According to him, it was under the shade of democracy that Africans could cultivate the progress they aspired adding, it is here that we can construct the schools that will nurture the minds of our future leaders. It is here that we can build modern hospitals to heal our people, and foster technology to propel Africa into an era of supreme industrialization in the wake of the AfCFTA.



Together, we can construct robust and resilient economies that will position Africa as a formidable competitor on the global stage, he said.



Addressing the theme for the seminar, Mr Afenyo-Markin said it was not just a call for reflection, but a clarion call for action as the sub-region found itself at a pivotal moment in history where the pillars of democracy were being called into question.



Criticising the actions of leaders who unlawfully modify their constitutions to perpetuate their hold on power, he said it was a serious affront to the principles of democracy, which enshrined the fundamental rights of citizens to choose their leaders and to live under a government that was held accountable for its actions.



As we traverse this difficult period, we must remain vigilant, standing firm against the erosion of these principles and fighting to protect the sanctity of our democratic processes.



The answer to these acts of terror and economic challenges lied within our democratic institutions, standing as strongholds of hope and fortitude amidst the turmoil, he said.



He, urged leaders to take inspiration from the late Mr Kofi Annan, a former United Nations General Secretary that, though there is no one model of democracy, it is essential that the principles of democracy, human rights and freedoms are upheld universally, it gives a renewed commitment to enhance our democratic systems, making them more responsive to the needs and aspirations of every citizen, regardless of where they find themselves on the broad spectrum of society, he added.



Indeed, no form of governance has ever been perfect, yet history has proven time and again that democracy stands as the best option for nations seeking development in peace and harmony. Even in its imperfections, it carries within its structures the capacity to rise above the ills that afflict it, fostering environments where innovation, justice and freedom thrive.



It is incumbent upon us, the custodians of this sacred trust, to continually refine and enhance these structures, ensuring that they remain resilient in the face of the ever-changing challenges that our societies encounter, he stated.



The decision for the this meeting was taken at the 2023 First Ordinary Session of ECOWAS Parliament in May this year in Abuja, convened under Article 21.1 of the Supplementary Act relating to the enhancement of the powers of the ECOWAS Parliament, which provided that Parliament should meet twice a year in Ordinary Sessions to provide a platform to deliberate and strengthen Member States position on issues of regional and continental importance.



As provided for in Article 32 of the supplementary Act, the Session also provides the President of the ECOWAS Commission the opportunity to present a general report on the implementation of the Community Work Program to the Plenary where the House would be updated with developments in the Community, and usually followed by debates, expressed opinions as well as recommendations.





Source: GNA









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The death of former First Lady, Theresa Kufuor, has been reported by pro-government radio station, Asaase Radio.



She died at the age of 88, a source close to the Kufuor family confirmed to Asaase News.



The trained midwife died today Sunday 1 October 2023, 24 days to her 89th birthday, the report added.



The second first couple of the Fourth Republic occupied the presidency between 2001 and 2009 when Kufuor spent eight years as president.



Mrs. Kufuor has been out of the news unlike her husband whose engagements politically and through his foundation has seen him in the news quite often.



He has also used his Twitter (now X) handle to share news on courtesy visits he receives from individuals and groups - locally and internationally.



GhanaWeb tracking of Kufuor's X handle shows that the last post he made on his late wife was as far back as May 2021.



The post, a photo of the couple was captioned: "Happy Mothers Day to Mrs Theresa Kufuor and all Mothers."



Having tied the knot on September 8, 1962, the two barely three weeks back celebrated their 61st anniversary as a couple.



The former president once revealed that he married Theresa a year after they got to know each other.



In an interview with Adom TV's Afia Amankwah Tamakloe, Kufuor disclosed that they met at a Republic Day Anniversary Dance in 1961 in London.



He added that he had just completed his law course the same year Theresa finished her nursing programme in Scotland.



We got talking at the dance and became friends who got married in 1962 and gave birth to our first child in 1963, the second in 1964," Myjoyonline quoted him to have said.





Happy Mothers Day to Mrs Theresa Kufuor and all Mothers  pic.twitter.com/Cn6gLWI6kC  John Agyekum Kufuor (@JohnAKufuor) May 9, 2021









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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Patricia Obo-Nai, CEO of Vodafone Ghana, has been honoured as the 'Marketing Woman of the Year 2022' at the 34th Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG) Annual National Awards.



The prestigious event saw over 50 companies and individuals celebrated for their remarkable marketing performance in 2022. This year's theme, 'Marketing: A Tool for Economic Recovery', highlighted the significance of effective marketing in driving the growth of companies, products, and goodwill causes.



The citation for Patricia Obo-Nai's award reads: You lead an organisation that believes in building a sustainable digital society that is all-inclusive and leads to the improvement of life. Under your leadership, Vodafone Ghana introduced irresistible offers in the year under review, including a 20-minute call to all networks and 1 GB data for only 1 Ghana Cedi.



This resulted in a 5% growth in data revenue month on month and a 35% annual growth from the previous year. Your unmatched ability to use marketing insights to generate offers has maintained a steady market share. Your contributions to Ghana's telco industry, especially through impactful CSR initiatives in education and health, are truly commendable.



In response to the honour, Patricia Obo-Nai expressed her gratitude, stating, I am deeply humbled by this recognition. I would like to thank my dedicated team at Vodafone Ghana and all our customers for their unwavering support and commitment.



With 23 years of experience in the telecommunications sector, Patricia Obo-Nai has been a beacon of leadership in Ghana's communications industry. Her achievements have been acknowledged with several awards, including the Outstanding Woman in Telecommunications at the African Women Awards 2023, Leadership Excellence Award, Telecommunications Sector, CEO Summit 2023, CEO of the Year at the Telecommunications Innovations and Excellence Awards 2022, and Africas Most Respected CEO Awards in the Telecommunications Industry (Dubai, UAE) 2021.



With the acquisition of Vodafone Ghana by Telecel, Patricia's visionary leadership is expected to propel the company to higher heights. The acquisition underscores Vodafone Ghana's robust focus on business innovation and growth and is set to usher in a new era of telecommunications excellence in Ghana.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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In a continued effort to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education across the nation, government will hold it's second STEM Road Show, at Abomosu Senior High School in the Eastern Region on Monday, October 2, 2023.



Building on the success of the nationwide STEM promotion Roadshow launched earlier this year, this event will concentrate on illuminating the vast array of career opportunities within STEM for beneficiaries.



The inaugural Roadshow, which kicked off at Accra Senior High School on June 22, 2023, marked the beginning of a nationwide initiative aimed at fostering a culture of innovation and driving socio-economic transformation through enhanced education and innovation and exhibiting to Ghanaians the huge investment made in the sector.



The event garnered significant attention as it engaged students, educators, and communities in interactive exhibitions, workshops, and seminars focused on various STEM disciplines, including robotics, coding, artificial intelligence, and renewable energy.



This upcoming event at Abomosu Senior High School will build on that momentum, concentrating on the career prospects within STEM fields. It will provide students with valuable insights into the numerous opportunities that STEM education can unlock, showcasing the potential for rewarding and impactful careers.



Government officials, educators, and representatives from various industries are expected to attend the event. They will share their experiences, knowledge, and expertise with students, helping them make informed decisions about their future career paths.



The government's commitment to improving STEM education extends beyond the Road Show, with initiatives aimed at enhancing teacher training programs, increasing access to quality educational resources, and strengthening partnerships with the private sector. These efforts align with the broader vision of creating an enabling environment for STEM education in the country.













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 Member of Parliament (MP) for Ningo-Prampram, Samuel Nartey George, has offered his heartfelt condolences following the passing of his predecessor, Enoch Teye Mensah, affectionately known as ET Mensah.



E.T Mensah, the former MP for the Ningo-Prampram constituency and a respected Council of State member, passed away at the age of 77 in South Africa on Sunday, October 1, after a prolonged battle with illness.



In a statement issued on Monday, Mr. Samuel Nartey George conveyed his sympathies on behalf of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Ningo-Prampram Constituency.



He stated, "On behalf of the National Democratic Congress, Ningo-Prampram Constituency, I wish to extend our profound condolences to the family of the late Honourable Enoch Teye Mensah."



He continued, "We pray for the peaceful repose of his soul and strength for his family left behind."



E.T Mensah, born on May 17, 1946, made significant contributions to Ghana's political landscape during his tenure.



He served as the Minister for Education and held the position of Member of Parliament from January 1997 to January 2017.









Source: ghanaweb.com









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Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has underscored the critical importance of investing in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education for Ghana's future.



Addressing participants at the 2nd STEM Promotion Roadshow at the Abomosu Senior High School in the Eastern Region, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah emphasized that STEM knowledge is essential not only for individual career growth but also for the nation's development and competitiveness on the global stage.



The people who developed online systems for accessing your SSCE results, the former students who developed digitization systems for some of the government services, the Ghanaian engineers who built this school in which we sit today. It was not just about the investments and the careers. It is more about the value they have created for society, he said



Minister Oppong Nkrumah highlighted the pervasive influence of STEM knowledge in our daily lives, pointing out that virtually every aspect of our environment, from transportation to communication, has been made possible by STEM. However, he also noted that despite this dependence on STEM, Ghana has often relied on external expertise to meet local market demands.



He stressed the need to change this pattern by investing in STEM education. The Minister asserted that these investments are not only about careers but also about creating a larger pool of professionals capable of designing, building, and servicing the various elements of our society right here in Ghana. This practical approach, he believes, is the key to shaping Ghana's future.



Minister Oppong Nkrumah acknowledged that while Ghana faces fiscal constraints, it is commendable that the government has prioritized STEM education. He emphasized that even in the face of challenges, critical investments in the youth's future should not be sacrificed. These investments, he noted, are laying the foundation for the next generation of civil engineers, architects, industrial machine developers, aviation experts, and more.



Furthermore, the Minister expressed his enthusiasm for the focus of the STEM Promotion Roadshow, which highlights not only the investments made in STEM education but, more significantly, the diverse careers accessible to STEM-educated individuals. He highlighted that knowledge and careers in STEM are not ends in themselves; they are means to a greater end  the development of solutions to societal challenges and the creation of value for society.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









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At the prestigious 2023 HR Focus Awards held in Accra, Vodafone Ghana showcased its leadership in human resource innovation by securing five significant awards. These accolades underscore the companys commitment to organisational excellence and its investment in top-tier talent.



Vodafone Ghana was recognised as the Best Organisation in HR Information Systems, Best Organisational Culture, Best Organisation in Employee Safety, Wellbeing, and Workplace Design, and Best HR Management in Telecommunications and IT. Additionally, Maxwell Darko, the Rewards and Human Resource Information Systems Manager at Vodafone Ghana, was named the HR Rising Star of the Year.



During a panel discussion, Vodafone Ghanas HR Director, Hannah Ashiokai Akrong, emphasised the importance of building resilient organisations. Resilience means creating teams that can weather any storm, whether they are economic challenges or unforeseen crises like COVID-19, she said. She further cautioned against over-reliance on a single leader and highlighted the necessity of robust succession planning.



Ashiokai also urged businesses to prioritise continuous training, ensuring teams are equipped to handle crises. In the era of Artificial Intelligence and advancements like ChatGPT, she stressed the importance for HR professionals to stay updated and integrate AI seamlessly into operations.



Vodafone Ghanas commitment to promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) is evident in its initiatives. The Grow Western Girls in STEM programme recently provided 50 young girls from Sekondi-Takoradi with free training in robotics, web development, and coding. Additionally, under its workplace diversity and inclusion efforts, Vodafone Ghana inducted ten young women into its Female Engineering Student Sponsorship Programme (FESSP) in May this year.



Since its launch in 2011, FESSP has been dedicated to narrowing the gender gap in STEM fields and offering women equal opportunities. The programme has supported 65 female students from renowned Ghanaian universities, providing financial aid, internships, mentorship, and job opportunities.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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In February this year, Egypt issued its first sovereign sukuk (Islamic bonds) to the tune of LE60 billion ($1.5 billion). It thereby joined the global sovereign and private sector sukuk market whose volume currently stands at $3.6 trillion and is growing by 16 per cent annually, according to Mohamed Al-Beltagui, chairman of the board of directors of the Egyptian Association for Islamic Finance, in a speech last week to the first regional conference for sukuk launched by the Al-Baraka Islamic Forum.

The first corporate sukuk in Egypt was issued by the Talaat Moustafa Group in 2020. Corporations have raised LE12.9 billion from the sale of these Sharia-compliant bonds, although so far, there have been no new corporate sukuk issuances in 2023.

Sukuk are Sharia-compliant securities which give the holder ownership of a share in an existing or emerging project. The operative principle here is that the bonds are linked to assets. Companies issue sukuk with the aim of financing projects while enabling sukuk holders to share in the companys profits and losses, in keeping with the Islamic jurisprudential injunction al-ghunm bil-ghurm which means that sukuk certificate holders are entitled to a share of the profits and bear a share of losses, if any.

Mohamed Hegazi, advisor to the minister of finance, said that a social dialogue was held before the issuance of the sovereign sukuk in February in order to shed light on the importance of the measure. Hegazi said the decision boosted the Egyptian economys entry into the global sukuk market and that the first sovereign sukuk issue, which offers an indicative return rate of 10.875 per cent, was four times oversubscribed, receiving more than $8.6 billion in subscriptions. The sovereign sukuk issue is part of a $5 billion three-year sukuk programme that the Ministry of Finance launched in February and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Hegazi added that the offerings success made it more likely that Egypt would adopt a programme to offer $5 billion worth of sukuk annually with an eye to increasing the amount later.

Sukuk have a vital role to play as a financial instrument that can make a significant contribution to the attainment of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), said Nasser Al-Qahtani, director-general of the Arab Administrative Development Organisation. The world today is going through a time of immense economic, environmental and social challenges. To overcome them and ensure a sustainable future, financial innovations related to sustainable development are essential, Al-Qahtani said.

He said that most big powers, including the US and UK, issue sukuk and that many Arab countries have had considerable success with the sukuk they have issued to meet their financial needs.

Participants at the first regional conference for sukuk held that Egyptian sovereign sukuk Law 138/2021 marked a breakthrough in the diversification of funding sources in the Egyptian economy. They pointed to the success of the Egyptian sovereign sukuk offering as proof of the ability of the Egyptian economy to withstand unfavourable global and regional circumstances. This, they said, is more reason why the current law should be broadened to include all types of sukuk. In this context, they urged drawing on the experiences of Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Indonesia in using sovereign sukuk to finance major infrastructure projects.

A short documentary Sukuk: Green Investment was screened during the conferences opening session, recounting the origin of the sukuk, its development globally, and international efforts to increase their use as a funding tool, especially for sustainable development projects. The film also highlighted Egypts success in issuing sovereign sukuk to finance infrastructure projects and support economic growth.

The Egyptian National Bank and Abu Dhabi Capital, which is a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, will establish sukuk-issuing companies to meet growing demand in the market for such firms. They have obtained approval in principle from the Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), according to Daily News Egypt.

Earlier this year, the FRA reported that it was studying the possibility of allowing companies to sell sukuk without the need for a credit rating.

The amendment to the capital market law has also cleared the way for another funding vehicle. Sustainable Development Investment Funds will be created to finance green projects and other environmentally friendly activities.

The closing statement read by Yousef Khalawi, secretary-general of the Al-Baraka Forum for Islamic Economy, presented the recommendations reached by participants. Generally, they underscored the need to study the sources of success in international sukuk issuances, the need to diversify sukuk issuances to meet different economic sectors and SDG goals, and the need to develop a sukuk investment database to gain a clearer picture of the market.

The participants, in their recommendations, called for the development of an integrated plan to train human resources for this market, and to equip them with the necessary economic, financial and accounting knowledge and expertise related to sukuk, as well as the relevant Islamic jurisprudence. They also stressed the need to promote and ensure transparency and good governance in the development of a financial Islamic market that is efficient and effective in mobilising financial resources and optimising their allocation.

The importance of a robust market that invites new investors cannot be overstated. The succession of shocks in financial markets in recent years, such as that delivered by the Covid-19 pandemic, has thrown into relief the need to be able to make high-quality liquid assets available quickly and inexpensively in times of crisis and liquidity shortages. This requires developing a broad range of instruments, not least of which are the short-term sukuk.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 5 October, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Abu Kasangbata, a former Deputy Upper West Regional Minister has called on the government to give Ghanaians a listening ear in the face of economic challenges and other issues on development.



With an upcoming demonstration on the horizon, various stakeholders, including political parties, people in creative industries, market women, fishermen, fishmongers, civil society organizations, taxi drivers associations, the Ghana Hotel Association, GPRTU (Ghana Private Road Transport Union), and Road Contractors Association, have come together with shared concerns.



In a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Monday, the former Deputy Minister said the government should not only respect the concerns but also address them through effective policies and programmes.



These measures are seen as vital in mitigating the growing suffering experienced by Ghanaians and their businesses.



He also raised concerns on consistent increment of utility bills every three months, a situation that had impoverished many Ghanaians and threatened their livelihoods and businesses.



Kasangbata appealed to Organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), other diplomatic communities, and other external development partners, to take an interest in the countrys growing economic meltdown as a crucial step in safeguarding the image of Ghanas multi-party democracy and participatory government.



He said the harsh economic policies were detrimental and could erode the gains of democracy over the years.



While Ghana has long been hailed as a beacon of democracy in Africa, recent events have raised questions about the direction in which the nation is heading.



In some countries, the erosion of democratic values and the emergence of leadership paralysis have led to dire consequences. It is a stark reminder that no nation, regardless of its democratic heritage, is immune to such challenges.



The former Deputy Minister urged the government to respect the opinions of opponents and ordinary people as that could inure to the benefit of all and reminded that the preservation of democratic values and principles transcended partisan lines and should unite citizens in their commitment to a thriving democracy.



On the Inspector General of Police, he expressed some disappointments in the police service in law enforcement and their handling of public demonstrations.



Despite the challenges and disappointments, the former Deputy Minister underscored the unwavering will of the Ghanaian citizenry. This collective resolve remains solid and consolidated, symbolizing a determination to push for positive change in the nation.



He said Tuesdays Occupy BoG demonstration was framed as a wake-up call, an opportunity for the government to address the economic challenges that had impacted negatively on the country.



The road ahead is challenging, but it is a road that many believe must be taken for the betterment of Ghana and its citizens.





Source: GNA









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Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has described the late Madam Theresa Kufuor, former First Lady, as an elegant woman whose loss is personal to him.



The loss of this elegant woman, Madam Theresa Kufuor, former First Lady is a national one but for me is personal, he said.



The former First Lady peacefully passed away at her home on Sunday, October 1, 2023, at age 87.



She served as Ghana's First Lady from January 7, 2001, to January 6, 2009



In a statement, Kwesi Pratt fondly recalled how Mrs. Kufuor paid attention to our welfare including feeding and health and provided relevant advice whenever necessary



Undoubtedly, she was one of the most dignified first ladies Ghana has ever had and we will miss her greatly

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The Vice President of Ghana, HE Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and the Second Lady, HE Hajia Samira Bawumia, were in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, to join the former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party and former presidential candidate hopeful, Mr. Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, and his family to celebrate the Ten (10) year anniversary of the death of the latters late mother, Mrs. Margaret Agyepong, at the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church at Asokore Mampong.



The Vice President was the only presidential aspirant who participated in the memorial service, a touching gesture which communicated his unmatched magnanimity to admirers. The congregation was amazed by his calm, humble and accommodating disposition making the members uncontrollably ecstatic.



Mr. Agyepong, in expressing gratitude to the Vice President, declared that, he [Dr. Bawumia] will win massively in both the November 4 presidential primary and the 2024 General Elections because of his good heart.



Your victory in the elections would be massive because of your good heart. God will grant all your heart desires, the former Chief Scribe of the NPP declared.



Accompanying the Vice President and the Second Lady were the Ashanti Regional Minister, Hon. Simon Osei Mensah, the MMDCEs, the MPs, the Regional Executives of the party, the forty-seven (47) Constituency Chairmen of the region, the Regional Womens Wing of the party, other government functionaries, numerous other stalwarts of the party and some former supporters of Hon. Alan Kyerematen who have recently joined the camp of the Vice President following the resignation of the former Minister for Trade and Industry.



The NPP will elect its flagbearer in November, and the Vice President is already the obvious favourite. Another former aspirant, Mr. Nsafoah Poku, recently endorsed him.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









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Prior to the New Patriotic Party's presidential election on November 4 and with the candidates heated up to give themselves a showdown, reports of Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia negotiating with Kennedy Agyapong, an aspirant, to become his Running Mate have flooded the airwaves.



Ken Agyapong during his Kumasi Showdown Walk on Saturday, September 30, 2023, alleged that he was approached by some elders in the camp of Dr. Bawumia to convince him to step down from the flagbearer race and partner Dr. Bawumia as a Running Mate.



He further alleged he was also offered huge sums of money but declined the offers.



Reacting to the allegations, the Bawumia campaign team says no such meeting has happened stressing "we wish to state in unequivocal terms that the Bawumia Campaign team has not approached Kennedy Agyapong for such a running mate offer, nor have we assigned any member of the team to approach him for the same".



To add weight to the statement by the team, Sammi Awuku, the Director General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), also says the Veep has, at no point in time, commissioned any person in his team or outside the team to solicit Kennedy Agyapong to be his Running Mate.



He stated that the appointment of a Running Mate can only happen after the New Patriotic Party has elected its flagbearer, adding the decision is between the flagbearer-elect and the National Council of the party.



"How can Dr. Bawumia choose a Running Mate when we are yet to hold our presidential election to elect a flagbearer?", he questioned.



"I can state in confidence that the Vice President, on his own, has not commissioned anybody", Sammi Awuku, in an interview on Peace FM's morning show "Kokrokoo", maintained.



He added; "I can also speak on authority that, at no point in time, have we spoken about a Running Mate matter at campaign level whether private or public, whether official or unofficial."





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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NLA Director General, Sammi Awuku has waded into discussions regarding Alan Kyerematen's resignation from the New Patriotic Party (NPP).



On September 25, 2023, the former Trade Minister and NPP presidential hopeful, Alan Kyerematen said he is "honourably resigning with immediate effect from the NPP to contest for the high office of the President of the Republic of Ghana as an independent presidential candidate".



"...the NPP as it exists now has very little resemblance to the Party that I joined in 1992 and helped to nurture. The Party has been hijacked by a selected group of Party leaders and elders, government appointees, 'behind the curtain power brokers and some unscrupulous Party apparatchiks", he also slammed his former party.



Prior to the annoucement, Alan had accused the NPP of trivializing some concerns he shared before, during and after its Special Delegates Congress.



"After having carefully analysed the results of the said elections, it is absolutely clear to me from events leading to, during and after the elections, that the Special Delegates Conference was strategically and tactically skewed in favour of one particular Aspirant", he said, adding "the level of intimidation of varying intensity, directly and indirectly unleashed on a significant number of Delegates at various Voting Centers across the sixteen regions, is unprecedented in the history of our Party".



"The fact that my Polling Agent in the North East region has suffered severe damage to his eye sight, arising from his bold and courageous effort to ensure compliance with the very rules and regulations for the conduct of the elections as approved by the Presidential Elections Committee, will forever remain a dark spot in the history of internal elections within the Party. This incident and various acts of violence and collusion, reported in other Voting Centers, are appalling, unconscionable, and despicable", he then withdrew from the NPP November 4th flagbearer election before his final decision to exit the party.



Speaking to Kwami Sefa Kayi in an interview on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show, Sammi Awuku dissented to Alan's claims which undergirds his resignation from the NPP.



Mr. Awuku noted that Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia won the super delegates election on merit and not that his victory was orchestrated by some sort of cabal within the NPP.



"Personally, he's visiting constituency by constituency. Out of the 205,000 delegates, he has currently interacted with not less than 160000 of these delegates...Before the super delegates, he had engaged with 128,000 delegates out of the 205,000. He combines that too effectively with his official duties. There are times he will come from his campaign trail to do his official duties, then he moves back to the field," Sammi Awuku testified of Dr. Bawumia's hard work.



He, however, appreciated Alan's decision saying "we disagree with the reasons given but it is also important that you also respect the Hon. Kyerematen's decision".



Mr. Awuku also charged his colleagues in the NPP who are "not be happy with his (Alan) decision" to "respect it", stressing Alan "is not a child".





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The Member of Parliament for Tema West, Carlos Ahenkorah, has urged the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to engage in peace talks with Kennedy Agyapong and Chairman Wontumi for the sake of party unity.



According to him, when these two important individuals in the party are not controlled, the attacks on each other will cost the party its peace and the attempt to break the eight.



Ahenkorah's appeal comes in the wake of recent comments made by Kennedy Agyapong, a flagbearer hopeful for the NPP, in which he levelled allegations against the party's hierarchy.



Agyapong accused the NPP of engaging in activities that he found deeply concerning, stating that they were 'looting' the country without regard for the future.



In response to these claims, Carlos Ahenkorah emphasised the need for measured responses from influential figures within the party, such as Agyapong and Chairman Wontumi, as their statements can significantly impact the party's cohesion.



As a matter of urgency, if the leaders of the party do not speak with Ken and Wuntumi, the outcome will not be to the benefit of the party. If you want the party to enjoy some peace and break the eight, then both Ken and Wuntumi must be called and spoken to, he said.



He acknowledged that Agyapong's recent comments were not entirely different from his past statements but underscored that the presidential aspirant's elevated status demanded a more cautious approach to sensitive issues.



What he said is not very different from what he has been saying all these while, except that some of the things he said in Kumasi carry some weight. I want to use this opportunity to plead with Kennedy Agyapong, whether he accepts it or not, he is a forerunner of the party. Now, he wants to run as a flagbearer of the party.



His reaction to certain situations and his delivery to same situations should inform him that people are watching and based on that, they will decide whether to share thoughts with you or not. Many people are expecting that all the things he used to say when he was just a member of parliament, he will relax on some of them particularly because he is a presidential aspirant, he stated.



He continued You cannot change Ken because he has his own personality and he is a self-made person but if he should continue on this tangent, those who feel victimised by this approach are likely going to confront him on that.



Ahenkorah also expressed concern about Chairman Wontumi's recent remarks, in which he hinted at revealing secrets about Kennedy Agyapong if the latter misbehaved.



He questioned the necessity of such statements and urged the party not to allow itself to be divided.



Apart from his comments as well, I saw a publication that was attributed to Wontumi. He was also quoted saying that if Ken should misbehave, he would also reveal some secrets of his, I mean why should we get to this? Why must we sell ourselves to the NDC for them to get us on that pedestal?



I know Ken and I know Wontumi, they are very good friends and so, if comments such as these are made by Wuntumi then it is concerning. Why will he come out to make such statements, why must we get ourselves to that point, he questioned.















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Director General of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Sammi Awuku has made hard-hitting remarks about accusations by Kennedy Agyapong that the National Council of the New Patriotic Party is being manipulated by the Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Bosiako.



The NPP presidential hopeful, Kennedy Agyapong, addressing party supporters at his "Showdown Walk" in Kumasi on Friday, September 30, alleged that Bernard Antwi Bosiako alias Chairman Wontumi and four other Regional Chairmen have turned the National Council into a "hooliganism group", according to a publication on Graphic Online.



Sammi Awuku, in response, found this assertion "weird", noting in an interview on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show that the party's National Council is made up of very prominent persons who have held leading positions or still holding significant positions in the New Patriotic Party.



"You have someone like Hon. Hackman Owusu Agyemang who has been with this party for a very long time, personally contributed his finances to support this party. Professor Mike Aaron Quaye is a member of the National Council. You have former National Chairmen like Mac Manu and Freddie Blay. You have former General Secretaries and Chairpersons of all the Committees of Parliament led by our leaders.



"Apart from parliamentary representation, you have former national offices; I'm a part of the National Council representing Eastern Region. John Boadu is in the National Council by virtue of the fact that he is a former General Secretary. Our former Chairmen and former Secretaries are automatic members but from Eastern Region, after serving as National Organizer, Eastern Region nominated me to represent the Region at the National Council. You have my Uncle, the Hon. Boakye Agyarko, at the National Council; so the Council is made up of luminaries," he told Kwami Sefa Kayi, affectionately called 'Chairman General'.



Mr. Awuku also made a shocking revelation while disclosing the composition of the National Council.



"Ken is a Chairperson of a Committee, yes, so Ken is a member of National Council", he stressed, adding "the last one (meeting) we had where we discussed the petition that some of the aspirants brought to us, I was sitting with Ken, the Hon. Kwabena Agyepong, Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku on my lane and the issues that the petitioners issued to the National Council, the National Council dedicated almost an hour and half to two hours brainstorming and taking the various plus and minus".



"President of the land is on the Council. President Kufour is on the Council. So, how? I will find very weird," he further said, questioning Mr. Agyapong's claim that Chairman Wontumi has seemingly bought the minds of the National Council members to support Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to become NPP flagbearer.



Sammi Awuku also recounted an incident where he and former NPP presidential aspirant, Boakye Agyarko together with another bigwig in the party, all representing Eastern Region on the Council, shared different political ideologies, emphasizing the Council permits variation in political positions of its members.



"We open up for every person at National Council and every Region has representation there. When we have deliberated upon an issue and there is no conclusion...we subject it to a vote," he further asserted to defeat Kennedy Agyapong's allegation.





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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Majority Leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has distanced himself from what he terms a "spirited attack" on his person by the Assin Central MP and Presidential aspirant of the New Patriotic Party, Kennedy Agyapong who accuses him of resorting to "tribal and religious politics".



Kennedy Agyapong alleged during a rally at the Jubilee Park in Kumasi on Friday, September 30, that the Majority Leader, who plays a lead role in the campaign to elect Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, is fanning tribal sentiments within the party.



But according to a statement from the Majority Leader's office and copied to Peacefmonline, he says he has not condoned or connived with anybody to hijack the party.



The Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu stressed his character trait in the New Patriotic Party has been of "truthfulness, pragmatism and realism and these have always guided and guarded his statements, discussions and conversations".



He added that he has always comported himself, emphasizing "his discourses are well-reasoned; not philippic, in other words, not statements that bitterly attack other persons; or petulant, that is, ill-tempered or peevish; or populist".



He therefore found it unfortunate that Kennedy Agyapong would pick on him.



On the other hand, he, together with others at the National Executive Committee and National Council, stood firmly and thwarted attempts by some of the presidential hopefuls to set aside clearly stated, unambiguous provisions of the NPP Constitution. If that amounts to hijacking or intimidation or collapsing the party, in the opinion of Mr Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, then it can only be described as unfortunate, he said.



Read full statement below:





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Fixing the Country Movement has notified the Ghana Police Service of their intention to exercise their constitutional rights under Article 21(1)(d) and (f) of the 1992 Constitution to picket at the office of former President John Mahama.



"We write with reference to Section 1 of the Public Order Act (Act 491), which provides that any person who desires to hold any special event within the meaning of that Act in any public place shall notify the police of his intention not less than 5 days before the date of the special event."



"In this regards, kindly note that FIXING THE COUNTRY MOVEMENT will hold a public assembly on Thursday, 12th October, 2023 in front of the office of former President John Mahama," a letter signed by its Convenor, Ernest Owusu Bempah said.



Airbus Saga



The movement highlights that it has been over three years since Airbus SE, a global aircraft provider based in France, agreed to pay hefty fines totaling more than $3.9 billion to resolve foreign bribery charges. The charges were brought forth by authorities in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, stemming from the companys scheme to bribe government officials and non-governmental airline executives worldwide.



As part of the global resolution, Airbus also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the United Kingdoms Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over bribes paid in several countries, including Ghana.



The investigation revealed that Airbus engaged in a scheme from 2008 to 2015, offering and paying bribes to decision-makers and influencers to gain improper business advantages.



Of particular concern to the movement is the revelation that Airbus employed intermediaries, including renowned British actor Philip Middlemiss and John Mahamas brother Samuel Adam Mahama, to facilitate the sale of military transport aircraft to Ghana.



The British and American authorities court records indicate that Airbus sought to obtain an undue favor from a member of the Ghanaian government, identified as Government Official 1.



The movement asserts that the Ghanaian justice system should conduct a thorough inquiry into the Airbus corruption, as the former President Mahama may have significant questions to answer. Despite a year passing since the Special Prosecutor announced the new phase of investigations, there has been little progress on the matter.





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Nana Ofori Owusu, the National Chairman of the Progressive People's Party, has thrown his full weight behind the #OccupyBoG demonstration targeted at the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor, Dr. Ernest Addison.



The opposition National Democratic Congress and some Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) including some Ghanaians have embarked on a protest to oust the BoG Governor and his deputies.



The Governor and the deputies are accused of mismanaging the Bank of Ghana.



The protesters led by the Minority in Parliament have forewarned that they won't stop their action unless their demand is heeded.



Speaking on Peace FM's morning show "Kokrokoo", Nana Ofori gave the protesters a pat on the back.



"The protest is at a time that they (BoG) are building new head office; the colossal big monies they are using at the time that the economy isn't going well. All of a sudden, citizens are waking up to their right. Citizens are waking up to the horror that things are not going well. The attack on BoG or the demo against the BoG is in the right direction...I'm in full support of what is happening because it is part of our democratic dispensation; the right of citizens to protest. So, they should protest and make their voices heard."





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry said on Tuesday that Egypt is ready to provide "skilled and trained" labour through legal avenues to meet the needs of the European market, including the Dutch market.

Shoukry made his remarks during a meeting with Eric van der Berg, the Dutch State Secretary for Migration, in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

Both officials discussed ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of migration, read a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry.

The pair also discussed means of accelerating the implementation of a 2021 migration agreement between the two countries, which addresses all aspects of migration governance.

The deal tackles the root causes of illegal migration and facilitates labour mobility between both nations.

Egypt and the Netherlands seek to set a mode of cooperation in the migration field, the statement noted.

Egypts top diplomat highlighted the North African countrys efforts in combating irregular migration and human trafficking.

No irregular migration cases departed from Egyptian shores since 2016, Shoukry stressed.

He also spotlighted Egypt's efforts in hosting approximately 9 million refugees and migrants from various nationalities, ensuring equal access to basic services for them alongside Egyptian citizens.

The Dutch official welcomed Shoukrys offer, voicing his countrys keenness to bolster cooperation with Egypt in the field of migration, according to the statement.

The Netherlands is committed to working with Egypt to combat illegal migration and address its underlying causes, he pointed out.

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Police are searching for a man they believe smashed in the rear windshield of a car in Philadelphias Center City over the weekend.

WPVI reports that a man driving a dirt bike stopped next to a car at a red light, got off of his vehicle, climbed onto the back of the car and stomped and jumped on the rear windshield. The windshield broke and fell into the backseat, where a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old were sitting.

The incident, which took place around 9 p.m. on Sunday near Philadelphias City Hall, was recorded and can be seen on Instagram here.
A retired New Jersey fire chief was sentenced to two to four years in a Pennsylvania correctional institution Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to 111 charges of child pornography, the Cumberland County District Attorneys Office says.

Frank Svitak, 66, of Plainfield, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty on June 29, and will now have to register as a sex offender, the district attorneys office says.

The Cumberland County Criminal Investigation Division and Pennsylvania State Police searched Svitaks home on Jan. 11, 2023, after receiving a tip that child pornography was being downloaded there.

Digital forensics found more than 100 videos and images of child pornography on various devices in the home, court documents say. Svitak was also charged with one count for the illegal use of a communication facility.

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A state House Republican lawmaker sees a possible path forward to end the logjam that is holding up funding for Pennsylvanias state-subsidized universities.

House Republican Whip Tim ONeal, R-Washington County, said he finds it to be an encouraging sign that Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi recognizes the need for more transparency in exchange for state funding.

But he added, Pitt and Temple need to come to the table and acknowledge that more transparency needs to be done as well.

Bendapudi, in an opinion piece that appeared on PennLive, urged the General Assembly to work with Penn State as well as the states other public-funded universities to develop a performance-based funding model for higher education.

She said that would go a long way toward addressing concerns about accountability and transparency. In the meantime, she said Penn State will begin releasing an annual accountability report that will be publicly available by the end of this month.

It will consolidate in one location information that lawmakers and the public request most often, with links to financial reports, campus safety reports, enrollment data, graduation and retention rates, alumni wages and more.

Its very encouraging to me that she is taking this leadership position on the state-related universities to really acknowledge there are issues that need to be addressed, ONeal said. Its a recognition that this needs to be a partnership rather than just a one-sided thing where the state just gives these universities money to do whatever they want.

While the lawmaker said he would like to see the university go further and provide information not already available, he pointed out that neither Pitt nor Temple have stepped up to commit to providing more transparency.

ONeal tempered his enthusiasm that a solution to the budget stalemate may be close, saying, It needs to be more than Penn State.

He further said he would be excited to have a conversation about moving to a performance-based funding model, noting it started last year with a legislative-appointed higher education funding commission but that work was left unfinished.

Funding for these independent but state-subsidized universities totaling as much as $642 million has been held up in the House of Representatives for three months so far over Republicans concerns about transparency and tuition.

The House has taken several votes on bills to fund the four state-related schools but only one  funding for Lincoln University  achieved the required two-thirds majority, or 136 votes. Lincoln was the only university of the four to commit to not raising tuition this year.

According to the Pitt-funded University Times, Pitt is willing to freeze its in-state tuition next year if the state provides it with a 9.25% increase - more than the 7% that Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed in his budget this year.

When asked about that proposed tuition freeze, ONeal told reporters he was encouraged Pitt was considering that for next year but added, Were not in next year yet. Weve got to deal with it this year.

House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler of Lancaster County said, I dont think its unreasonable to ask. Were making an investment and you should make an investment by freezing tuition.

GOP leaders say the Senate could amend funding into bills to send them to the House, or the House Democrats could bring the funding bills up for a vote but instead are using them to take political shots at the House Republicans.

Penn State this year froze tuition at its 19 branch campuses where nearly half of its students are enrolled and raised tuition by 2% for in-state students at its main University Park campus.

In her opinion piece, Bendapudi said the state funding Penn State receives is to used to discount tuition for Pennsylvania students, saving them an average $15,000 last year compared to their out-of-state peers.

Without the funding, she said the university has had to redirect funding from other parts of its budget  including delaying employee salary increases  to provide that tuition discount this year.

We cannot afford to subsidize in-state tuition for our Pennsylvania students indefinitely, Bendapudi warned.

Noting student tuition and state funding are the primary funding sources for its education budget, university spokeswoman Lisa Powers said, we remain hopeful that the stalemate in Harrisburg will be resolved within the next few weeks of the fall semester but additional delays in our funding will have more serious impacts.

Tuition freezes, along with transparency, are what the House Republicans are pushing for, ONeal said.

We would love to see it, he said. But we at least need to have the conversation to acknowledge the fact that tuition costs are out of control and we need to find a way to get them back under control as we move forward.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @JanMurphy.
A man was sentenced to three to eight years in prison plus seven years of probation for DUI and causing the fatal crash that killed an 18-year-old two years ago in Lancaster County.

Phillip Sullivan, now 20, of Lititz, entered a guilty plea and was sentenced on 13 charges including a lead charge of homicide by vehicle while DUI, a second-degree felony, according to the Lancaster County District Attorneys Office.

Sullivan admitted to having a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of .103 and marijuana in his system after he drove from a Fourth of July party and crashed into a horse and cart traveling on Division Highway, U.S. Route 322, around 2:45 a.m. on July 5, 2021.

The hit and run killed Andrew Stoltzfus, 18, of Honey Brook, who was on his way home after visiting his girlfriend, according to Assistant District Attorney Kyle Linardo.

Linardo said Stoltzfus died from his injuries after being ejected from the horse-drawn cart. The horse also died. He also said Sullivans vehicle was traveling approximately 68 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone.

[The Amish community] refrains that it is not their place to judge and that it is up to any person, and in this case the defendant, to take that second chance and make something of it, Linardo said to Judge Jeffery Wright on behalf of the victims family. I am not here to ask your honor to not offer a second chance, but I am asking your honor to protect the citizens of the Commonwealth in the interim.

Prosecutors also said Sullivan left the scene after the collision.

In the affidavit, East Earl Township police said Sullivan reeked of booze when they pulled him over less than an hour after the crash. He was driving a Lexus with heavy front-end damage when he was stopped at 3:23 a.m.

Being a judge would be a lot easier if I could hold a crystal ball and see what your future may hold, Wright said to the defendant.

Linardo asked for a sentence of six to 20 years in prison while the defense counsel asked for a sentencing of three to eight years.

The defendants actions by speeding down Division Highway while drunk and high at night are the only reason we are here, Linardo said. Such actions are unfortunately not uncommon in Lancaster County, but thankfully those actions resulting in the death of any member of our community are much less common, yet much more serious. So too, I ask this Court, to enact a much more serious sentence.

Wright also ordered Sullivan to write a letter of apology to the Stoltzfus family.

If you dont [turn your life around], youll be spending a lot of time in an orange jumpsuit, Wright continued. You understand me? Sullivan responded, Yes, sir.

Phillip Sullivan Photo provided by the East Earl Township Police Department

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HACC has closed its main law enforcement training facility until further notice after the discovery of high levels of lead in blood tests from some instructors who worked at the indoor firing range there.

We are sorry this situation occurred, HACC stated in a notice on the closing posted to its Website.

However, we know that closing the law enforcement complex is the right and moral decision. The health and safety of our students, employees, visitors and partners remain our top priority.

The Jeffrey E. Piccola Law Enforcement Training Complex - home base for a police academy program that produces several classes of graduates certified to work for municipal or county police forces throughout Pennsylvania - closed on Sept. 19.

The Sen. Jeffrey E. Piccola Law Enforcement Complex at Harrisburg Area Community College. January 18, 2023. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

HACC said the closure was prompted by results of blood tests that came back above federal standards for lead, plus follow-up monitoring by a third-party vendor that showed concentrations in air samples slightly exceeded action levels in the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act.

HACC said it is currently completing more thorough air testing through the entire Piccola building, which includes classrooms and offices in addition to the range, plus any needed modifications or upgrades to air flow systems.

After this work is completed, fresh air sampling is planned to see if the corrective measures have worked.

The college also said it is currently accepting online requests for lead testing from current or former students, staff or external clients who have paid to use the indoor firing range.

University officials did not immediately respond to PennLives requests for more information late Monday, so it was impossible to say how long of an exposure to the building would trigger cause for a test, or how many people would be in that pool.

But in addition to the police academy students, the building also hosts continuing education and training courses for active-duty police, lethal weapons and other training for people seeking employment as armed security guards, and other courses.

Many of the academy instructors are current or retired officers who teach a portion of the curriculum.

According to OSHA documents, firing range operators are required to monitor for lead exposure, because of the pervasive lead dust that can be generated by gun smoke, on spent cartridges and degradation of bullets fired at targets.

That dust can enter a persons bloodstream from the air, or by ingestion through transfer from hands, surfaces and clothing to food. Once in the bloodstream, lead can damage various organs and cause health problems.

If employee exposure is at or above OSHAs action levels for more than 30 days a year, employers can be required to offer ongoing medical surveillance, including blood lead level monitoring.

It was not immediately clear from HACCs notice what kind of impact the closure is having on its current municipal police academy classes, which opened in July.

The announcement did say the school is working to identify other firing ranges that can accommodate its students while the Piccola Center is closed. Impacted employees, HACC said, are working in other campus locations or from home.

External firing range clients, meanwhile, are encouraged to temporarily use other area ranges until HACCs law enforcement complex reopens.
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, The Associated Press

A Pennsylvania mans guilty plea and prison sentence for attacking police during the U.S. Capitol riot has remained under seal for months, but a court filing on Monday reveals a reason for the unusual secrecy: He cooperated with federal authorities after the Jan, 2021, siege.

Prosecutors want to keep certain details of Samuel Lazars cooperation under wraps, but they have acknowledged for the first time that he supplied the government with information as part of a plea agreement.

Publicly releasing information that Lazar provided could interfere with ongoing investigations, according to a joint court filing by prosecutors and Lazars attorney. The filing, which is dated Friday but was docketed on Monday, also says Lazar named individuals responsible for criminal conduct who may not have been charged.

Samuel Lazar, 37, of Ephrata, is pictured shouting to the crowds outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Justice Department court filings/TNS, file)TNS

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Jan. 6-related crimes, and hundreds of them have pleaded guilty. But it is rare for records of a guilty plea and sentence to be sealed, even in cases involving a defendants cooperation. Court hearings and records are supposed to be open and available to the public unless theres a compelling need for secrecy.

Lazar, 37, of Ephrata, Pa., was released from federal custody on Sept. 13 after serving a 30-month prison sentence. His cooperation with the government was discussed at a March 2023 sentencing hearing that was closed to the public, the joint filing says.

A coalition of news outlets, including The Associated Press, on Friday renewed its request for the court to unseal records of Lazars guilty plea and punishment. Prosecutors and Lazars attorney are asking for 30 days to redact records of his cooperation before they are publicly released.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who sentenced Lazar, didnt immediately rule on either request.

In May, Jackson had rejected the initial request from media outlets to release any sealed records that may exist. Jackson said the case law cited by the press coalition plainly recognizes that there may be circumstances where a need for secrecy can be outweighed by competing significant interests.

Lazar was arrested in July 2021 on charges that he came to the Capitol on Jan. 6 dressed in tactical gear and protective goggles and used chemical spray on officers who were trying to hold off the mob of Donald Trump supporters.

Videos captured Lazar approaching police lines outside the Capitol and discharging an orange chemical irritant toward officers, an FBI agent said in a court filing. Lazar shouted profane insults at police through the bullhorn, calling them tyrants and yelling, Lets get their guns!

Detained Monday, July 26, 2021, by federal investigators, 37-year-old Samuel Lazar is identified as the man seen here approaching the police barricade Jan. 6, 2021, outside the U.S. Capitol and spraying an orange chemical irritant. (U.S. Department of Justice, file)U.S. Department of Justice

Lazar remained jailed for nearly two years before his sentencing. A magistrate judge who ordered Lazars detention concluded that his pretrial release would pose a concrete, prospective threat to public safety.

Attorneys for the news outlets questioned why records of Lazars guilty plea and sentence remained under seal even after his release from prison.

The press, the public, and presumably even the police victims of Lazars violence on January 6 therefore have no idea how or why this January 6 riot participant, deemed just a couple of years ago to be too dangerous to release, is now free, the lawyers wrote on Friday.

As recently as last month, the Justice Department refused to say why the case remains under wraps, while attorneys for Lazar did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The AP.
A woman died after a tire flattened the top and side of the vehicle she was driving with her husband and kids on Sunday afternoon, according to state police in Virginia.

According to a report from abc27, Tammy Parsons, 53, was driving eastbound on I-64 near Williamsburg at 12:22 p.m. when a tire came loose off a Jeep Renegade traveling west.

Police said the tire dislodged from the Jeep and traveled into the eastbound lanes, hitting the drivers side of a Ford Explorer, killing Parsons.

Her husband and five children were inside the vehicle at the time of the accident but all escaped injury, police said.

A photo of Parsons vehicle shared by Virginia State police showed that the tire caved in the drivers side windshield and roof. According to a report from WAVY news, friends of Parsons said she was a hospice worker and a team mom for the Williamsburg Hornets Youth Cheerleading Team.

Police say the investigation is ongoing and charges are pending, although alcohol and speed are not considered factors.

The community has started a GoFundMe to help support Parsons family. To contribute, you can click here.

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Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect that prosecutors asked for secured bail, and Davis is separated from his wife.

A judge has set bail for a suspended Pennsylvania State Trooper accused of strangling his ex-girlfriend and involuntarily committing her to a mental hospital.

Ronald Davis, 37, of Williamstown, has a bail of $25,000 cash bail which his his family is expected to secure, Jay Nigrini, Davis lawyer, said. He is separated from his wife and has children.
UPDATE: Harrisburg police-car crash that killed teen was perfect storm of worst-case scenarios: neighbor

A teenager was killed in an overnight Tuesday crash involving a Harrisburg police cruiser, authorities said.

Marion Holmes, 18, was the front-seat passenger of a Mercury Sable that crashed around 12:34 a.m. at 19th and Holly streets in the city, according to the Dauphin County Coroners Office and Pennsylvania State Police.

State police said the Harrisburg police cruiser was on its way to assist another city police officer at the time of the crash.

Holmes died from multiple traumatic injuries caused by the crash, the coroners office said.

The Mercury Sables driver left the scene after the crash and was last seen walking east on Holly Street, state police said.

State police said the officer and the Sables backseat passengers  a 19-year-old and another 18-year-old  were treated for minor injuries.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. State police said more information will be released as the investigation progresses.

READ MORE: State police wont be charged in Dauphin County chase that led to triple-fatal crash

Cumberland County woman says she stabbed boyfriend over affair with her mom: court docs
Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife arrive at the U.S. District Court in New York City on Sept. 27, 2023. Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

Theres an empty seat in the U.S. Senate now that Californias longtime and senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, has died. California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on social media that he has chosen former state labor leader and current Emilys List president Laphonza Butler, whom he said would be the first Black lesbian to openly serve in the U.S. Senate, to the seat.

And, following the Sept. 22, 2023, federal indictment on bribery and other charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, numerous people, including some prominent Democratic lawmakers, have called for Menendez to resign. Even Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who would appoint a replacement for Menendez, has said the senator should step down.

So far, Menendez, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, has refused to resign from the Senate.

The possibility of other U.S. Senate vacancies looms, as well. Following two on-camera episodes during summer 2023 when Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Republican, appeared temporarily unable to speak or move, some Republicans called for McConnell to resign.

McConnell has not indicated he plans to step aside.

The Conversation asked Gibbs Knotts, a professor of political science at the College of Charleston, to explain states processes for replacing U.S. senators who choose or are forced to vacate their seats, or who die while in office.

Who has the power in most states to temporarily or permanently replace US senators?

The basic rules about replacing U.S. senators are spelled out in the 17th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

In simple terms, in 46 of the 50 states, governors have the power to make temporary appointments to fill U.S. Senate vacancies until either a scheduled or special election determines who will fill the remainder of a vacating senators term. Thats the case in California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, will name Feinsteins replacement. That person will serve until the next election for that seat, in November 2024.

Permanent replacements require an election. But there are rules about when and how these elections occur and those rules vary by state.

In 37 states, gubernatorial appointees serve the remainder of the term or until the next scheduled general election. In the remaining states with gubernatorial appointments, special elections are required, often with an accelerated timetable. For example, Alabama law requires a special election within 60 days of the gubernatorial appointment, while Massachusetts law calls for an election 145 to 160 days after the appointment.

North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin do not allow governors to make temporary appointments. Those states only fill U.S. Senate vacancies by special election, but laws specify time periods in most states. For example, special elections in Wisconsin must take place between 62 and 77 days of the vacancy unless the opening occurs after July 1 during an even-numbered year. In this case the contest takes place during the November general election. However, there is not a time period specified by state law in Oregon.

How long do those appointments last?

If a person appointed to the seat by the governor then wins a special election or a contest scheduled alongside statewide elections, they will serve the remainder of the vacating senators term. Otherwise, if someone else wins the special election, they get to serve out the vacating senators term.

What rules are there on how governors make the appointments?

Governors have some restrictions on how they make U.S. Senate appointments. In 10 of the gubernatorial appointment states, U.S. senators must be from the same party as the prior incumbent. Arizona, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming have this restriction.

In Utah, the governor is required to select from a list of three candidates submitted by the party of the U.S. senator being replaced.

In the rest of the states, the governor has the power to appoint a successor, regardless of party, including in California.

Do state legislators have a say in the process?

While governors have most of the power, state legislators also have a say in the process. Most notably, legislators establish the appointment procedures and set the general rules about when an election must occur. If they dont like the process, they have the power to change it.

A recent example occurred in Oklahoma in 2021, which was then one of a very few states where a vacated Senate seat went unfilled until the next election.

Dissatisfied with that process, the Republican-controlled legislature passed a law to allow gubernatorial appointments for vacated U.S. Senate seats. Republican legislators were motivated to change their states law, in part, because of the 50-50 split in the U.S. Senate and a fear that a vacated seat would give an advantage to Democrats.

Gibbs Knotts, Professor of Political Science, College of Charleston

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi laid wreaths at the Memorial of the Armed Forces Martyrs in Nasr City on Tuesday as well as the tombs of late presidents Anwar El-Sadat and Gamal Abdel-Nasser to mark the 50th anniversary of the 6th of October War 1973.

Senior state officials, including Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Defence and Military Production Mohamed Zaki, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Osama Askar, and Minister of Interior Mahmoud Tawfik attended the annual ceremony with President El-Sisi.

The ceremony was attended by Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayyeb and Head of the Coptic Orthodox Church Pope Tawadros II, and a number of army commanders and family members of the two late presidents.

President El-Sisi, the supreme commander of the Armed Forces, also chaired a meeting of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, where he extended greetings to Egyptian people and Armed Forces personnel.

During the meeting, El-Sisi also saluted the members of the Armed Forces who had been martyred in duty, stressing that the Egyptian people appreciate the armys role in preserving the nations security and territorial integrity.

This year, 550 events will be held in Cairo and other Egyptian governorates to commemorate the anniversary of Egypts historic victory over Israel that led to the liberation of Sinai from Israeli occupation.

Military museums have opened their doors to the public for free from 1 to 6 October, including the October War Panorama in Nasr City, along with the three military museums located at Al-Alamein, Port Said, and Saladin Citadel.

The Cabinet declared that public and private sector employees will have a paid holiday on Thursday, 5 October to celebrate the anniversary.











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A state senator from York County said Gov. Josh Shapiros silence over the sexual harassment accusations against a former senior-level aide speaks volumes about the governors feelings toward the value of working women.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York County, is calling on the Shapiro to disclose what he knew about the allegations made in a draft of a Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission complaint about his Secretary of Legislative Affairs Mike Vereb, who resigned last week. Its unknown if his resignation was related to the allegations raised in the draft complaint.

The accusations were made by a female former deputy secretary who worked in the legislative affairs office and resigned in early March after less than six weeks in the position. The woman, whose name is being withheld by PennLife, claims in the draft complaint that she could no longer work in an environment where she was regularly subjected to lewd and sexually inappropriate comments from Vereb. She said she was retaliated against when she complained.

Shapiro himself has not so far issued a statement about the matter. His spokesman, Manuel Bonder, said he couldnt discuss personnel matters but said robust procedures are in place in that office to investigate reports of discrimination and harassment.

The lack of information or even acknowledgment by Governor Shapiro regarding the alleged sexual harassment by one of his former top officials is humiliating to women in the workplace, Phillips-Hill said in her statement. It sends a message to working women that they are not valued.

She went on: It also raises more questions than answers for Governor Shapiros administration such as how long did Governor Shapiro know, and have taxpayers been affected? Secrecy continues to be a trend with this administration.

She pointed to a three-page nondisclosure agreement that the administration required staff to sign during the transition period. Shapiro also has refused to provide a list of donors who funded his inauguration festivities in January. He also has broken with past practice of his predecessors in making public his daily calendar.

If the governor can expedite the states permitting process and tout a major bridge repair in days, Phillips-Hill said, referrigng to the reconstruction of the I-95 bridge in Philadelphia, he needs to address why he allowed the alleged offender to remain in his taxpayer-funded role for several months while never addressing this serious matter.

On Monday, Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland County, voiced her outrage over the governors offices, saying she thinks the matter was handled poorly.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @JanMurphy.
FILE - This image made from surveillance video provided by the Marion County Record shows Marion, Kan., Police Department confiscating computers and cellphones from the publisher and staff of the Marion County Record, Aug. 11, 2023, in Marion, Kan. The police chief who led the highly criticized raid of the small Kansas newspaper is suspended, the mayor confirmed to The Associated Press on Saturday, Sept. 30. Marion Mayor Dave Mayfield in a text said he suspended Chief Gideon Cody on Thursday, Sept. 28. (Marion County Record via AP, File)
All parks in Cairo will offer free entry to the public this Friday in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the October War victory, announced Cairo Governor Khaled Abdel-Aal in a statement on Tuesday.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Egypts historic triumph over Israel that led to the liberation of Sinai from Israeli occupation, a victory achieved under the leadership of the late President Anwar El-Sadat.

Earlier in September, the cabinet declared that Thursday 5 October would be a paid holiday for public sector employees.

In celebration of the occasion, all military museums will be open to the public for free from 1 to 6 October.

Moreover, as many as 550 events will be held in Cairo and other Egyptian governorates to commemorate the anniversary, according to a statement issued by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.

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At one time the City of North Augusta used to advise taxpayers in its annual budget that the total millage rate  reflects the 25th year without a millage rate increase. The last time that happened was 2017. What has happened since? In 2018 taxes were raised 3 mils. In 2022 taxes were rais Read moreLetter: North Augusta must stop raising taxes
The U.S. infant mortality rate rose 3% last year, which is the largest increase in two decades. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows significant death rate increases for white and Native American infants, infant boys and babies born at 37 weeks or earlier. It also shows larger increases for deaths from maternal complications and bacterial meningitis. U.S. infant deaths surpassed 20,500 in 2022. That's 610 more than 2021. The report did not try to answer why the unusual jump occurred, nor whether the rise was a one-year statistical blip or the beginning of a trend. Read moreThe U.S. infant mortality rate rose last year. The CDC says it's the largest increase in two decades
Egypt awaits pleasant weather with possible light to moderate showers in some areas in the coming days, which will see Egyptians hanging out in parks and open areas during the Sixth of October holiday.

On Wednesday and Thursday, there is a chance of rain in some parts of northern Egypt, home to Matrouh and Alexandria, said the Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA). Rain may extend to areas in Greater Cairo and the Nile Delta.

Chances of light rain will continue in northern Egypt on Friday.

Cairo and northern Egypt governorates, such as Alexandria and Port Said, as well as northern Upper Egypt governorates, such as Fayoum, Minya, and Beni Suef, will all witness warm weather until Monday.

Moderate weather will prevail in Matrouh in northwestern Egypt during the daytime and in all areas across Egypt during the night.

However, the weather remains hot in South Sinai, including Sharm El-Sheikh, and extremely hot in southern Upper Egypt, home to Luxor and Aswan.

The temperature in Cairo and Nile Delta will range from 30 to 31 degrees for the highs and 23 to 24 degrees for the lows until Monday.

In South Sinai, the temperature will be in mid-30s degrees Celsius during daytime and in mid-20s degrees Celsius during night.

Those heading to the North Coast should expect a consistent, nice temperature of 27-28 degrees Celsius throughout the weekend. They may enjoy cooler temperatures in the evenings, with lows of 21-22 degrees.

Northern Upper Egypt will experience slightly higher temperatures of 32-33 degrees Celsius until Monday.

Meanwhile, southern Upper Egypt will see highs of 39-41 degrees Celsius and lows of 26 degrees Celsius.

On Thursday, public and private sectors' employees will enjoy a paid holiday to celebrate the Sixth of October War anniversary, with Cairo parks ready to receive visitors for free on Friday.

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North Augusta's top administrative position will no longer come with the outright requirement of North Augusta residency.

The change removes some pressure from current city administrator Jim Clifford, who resides in Columbia County, Ga.

North Augusta City Council determined Oct. 2 that the residency requirement is extremely restrictive to the point that it could prevent the city from employing and retaining the most qualified person for the job.

Should it make it past a final reading later this month, the 1977 ordinance governing qualifications for North Augusta city administrator will be amended to replace the residency requirement with language more lax: the city administrator may reside outside the city while in office if given the approval to do so by City Council.

Monday's 5-1 vote did not make a determination in Cliffords case  this would have to come up as a separate vote  but it did give elected officials the legal authority to make that determination.

Beyond the ordinance, Cliffords employment contract with the city of North Augusta does currently include a residency requirement, one that requires him to establish residence inside the city limits within three years of his Aug. 17, 2020, start date, a provision that made Aug. 17 of this year the final deadline for his relocating to North Augusta.

Clifford confirmed for Post and Courier in September that his residence is still in Columbia County and declined further comment.

North Augusta Mayor Briton Williams said the residency issue was one that has been loosely on the radar for City Council at least since the start of this year but that it got pushed to the side as other business was prioritized. I dropped the ball on it, he said. Thats my fault as mayor. As a leader, I take that."
The location of the Blessing is the East Branch of the Cooper River, in the Huger area of St. Thomas and St. Denis Parish of Berkeley County. Todays location is off South Carolina Highway 41 on Cainhoy Road. We are told in A Day on Cooper River that Dr. Irving didnt know how the name Bl Read moreA history of the Blessing Plantation
Dorchester County Council has approved tax incentives, a water-service agreement and a land deal to reel in a secretive business thats proposing to invest $510 million but has yet to disclose its identity or how many jobs it will bring to an industrial park west of Summerville.

A series of votes on Oct. 2 sealed the deal, with no discussion about what the company will be building on the property it plans to acquire in Pine Hill Business Campus off of U.S. Highway 17A.

The agreements are with Autumn Timber LLC, which was incorporated in Delaware but seems to have no existing physical operations. No public information is available about its ownership.

John Truluck, the county's economic development director, said the company behind Autumn Timber is working through some final "regulatory issues." He hopes it will be ready to disclose its identity and plans by the end of the month.

"No one wants to talk about this more than me," Truluck said after Monday's council meeting.

The newly approved deal would cut Autumn Timber's property taxes to a fixed rate of 4 percent of the assessed value of any land and buildings it owns and occupies for at least 40 years. According to the agreement, the terms can be extended to 53 years.

County Council members said the arrangement is expected to generate about $2 million a year in new revenue.

Also, Autumn Timber will receive a 100 percent refund of the taxes it pays on personal property, such as vehicles.

Details of the water- and-sewer service agreement were not immediately available. A resolution that was passed Monday said Autumn Timber will create an unspecified number of jobs and "stimulate" the local economy, and that "the success of such operation depends upon the long-term commitment of substantial resources of the company as well as the county."

The tax breaks are among the biggest ever approved for a private business by Dorchester County. They increasingly look to be tailored toward a data center operator, which requires vast amounts of water to cool equipment.
More than seven decades ago, The Post and Courier's predecessors set up shop on upper King Street in a three-story building that was expanded and upgraded over the years.

In the not-too-distant future, the block-long structure that for 70 years until 2021 served as the home of the South's oldest daily newspaper will become history itself.

Plans are in the works to demolish the now-empty building bounded by King, Columbus and Line streets and the future Lowcountry Lowline linear park on the Charleston peninsula.

In its place will sit the third and final phase of a 12-acre redevelopment project called Courier Square. The concept calls for five buildings rising three to 12 stories with one level of underground parking on the footprint of the existing structure.

"Having multiple buildings with multiple elevations will make it much more interesting," said Ron Owens, CEO of Evening Post Industries Inc., the former parent company of The Post and Courier. "Putting parking underground will be more expensive, but we believe it's worth it."

The uses haven't been determined, but Owens noted they are likely to include retail, office, residential and hospitality.

About an acre of the 3.6-acre site is set aside as green or open space, with setbacks to allow for on-street parking, wider sidewalks and a planned pedestrian plaza through the center of the block.
In its two-plus decades, Pure Theater has demonstrated time and again its commitment to new writing. Its current offerings are no exception  and particularly meaningful in how closely they hit home, focusing on local talent. In one recent week alone, the company mounted two works powered by original ways with words. Read moreHogan: In back-to-back productions, Pure Theatre lavishes love on local wordsmiths
IRMO  The Lexington-Richland Five School District pulled a book from high school libraries after it received a challenge Sept. 26 to the novel's presence in the Chapin- and Irmo-area schools.

Sarah J. Maas' "A Court of Mist and Fury" is under review by a district review committee, which will decide whether to put the young adult fantasy novel back on library shelves during its next meeting Nov. 7.

It is unclear who made the challenge against the novel or what motivated it. The district has not released the materials complaint form that triggered the review process. District spokeswoman Amanda Taylor said the form would be released after the Nov. 7 meeting but declined to comment on the form's contents.

"A Court of Mist and Fury" was tied as the 10th-most challenged book in the United States in 2022, according to an American Library Association report, which said the novel was "claimed to be sexually explicit."

Before the book's removal in Lexington-Richland Five, it was only found in high school libraries and was not assigned reading for any classes, the district's supervisor of library media services Carol Lunsford told the review committee Oct. 2.

That committee, comprised of parents, school faculty and district staff, has 30 business days after receiving the complaint form to decide whether the book is appropriate to go back on library shelves. Its decision can be appealed to the school board.

Lunsford explained that committee members should read the book in full and base their decision on a number of principles outlined in district policy, which include its "educational significance," "appropriateness for students in each school" and "high artistic quality and/or literary style."
COLUMBIA  Slightly more than 200 short-term rental owners have received permits to operate after the city put regulations in place, representing only a fraction of what city officials had initially expected.

After a year of deliberation, the Columbia City Council passed an ordinance in April requiring permits for any unit available to rent for 30 days or less, regulating but not restricting the increasingly popular lodgings.

During the initial window to apply for a permit, which spanned May 4 to Sept. 5, the city's Code Enforcement Division issued 233, according to data from the police department.

"It was less than we expected," said Councilman Howard Duvall, who headed the city's push to regulate the industry.

By cross-checking listings in the Columbia area with the city's geographic information system, code enforcement officers identified another couple of hundred properties where owners had not yet applied for a permit.

The division sent out 214 letters the week of Sept. 25 notifying rental owners they needed to apply. On top of the $50 application fee and permit fee, which is $100 for units the owner also lives in and $250 for those otherwise empty, anyone without a permit will have to pay a $100 late fee. By the time a rental owner receives the letter, they will have 15 days to apply or face another $500 fee.

Much of the idea behind having a permit process for short-term rentals was to determine exactly how many are in the city and where they're located, since it's otherwise difficult to gauge. Council members have floated the prospect of revisiting stricter rules on the properties in the coming year once the city has a more accurate idea of the landscape.

"Hopefully, we'll have a feel for the exact number in the coming months," said Mayor Daniel Rickenmann, who has advocated for regulating but not restricting the rentals, arguing they act as a boon for tourism.
LEXINGTON  An election in the Lexington County Republican Party seems to mark an irreparable divide between two dueling factions of the party leadership, but the county GOP's path forward remains unclear as both groups claim to be the sole legitimate representatives.

After having dueling meetings for several consecutive months, a group of Lexington GOP elected party officials voted Oct. 2 to elect First Vice Chairman Mark Weber as the party's new chairman. But, Chairwoman Pamela Godwin, who was elected at the county party convention in April, is conducting separate meetings with a separate group of elected party officials.

In an Oct. 2 email, Godwin blasted her rival group and dismissed the election as unsanctioned and chaotic.

"The attempted coup by Weber and (Third Vice Chairman John) Allen is not going to happen and is inappropriate and damaging for our organization," Godwin wrote.

The chaos comes just months after a far-right slate swept to power in Lexington. Yet, unlike the bruising fights between mainline Republicans and Donald Trump-aligned groups that have convulsed many county parties in the last two years, the latest drama in Lexington pits rival hard-liners against each other.

Despite the severe rift between the groups, the South Carolina Republican Party still recognizes the party as one, said Abby Zilch, a spokeswoman for the state party.

"The job of any Republican county party organization is to help us grow our numbers and organize in order to register voters, turn out voters and win on Election Day," South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick said. "Anything that doesn't help accomplish that goal is a waste of time and resources."
COLUMBIA  A civil rights organizer's day planners from the 1940s to '60s. A signed photograph of a South Carolina astronaut. A book of piano music from 1840.

The public will be able to get up close with pieces of South Carolina's history starting Oct. 5, when the University of South Carolina reopens its historic South Caroliniana Library. The college closed the library for six years to renovate the building that houses more than 4,000 linear feet of archives.

"The building itself is a historic document," said David Banush, USC's dean of libraries. "You could actually come in, and while you're working with materials, experience a building that was used 183 years ago by students like yourself. We don't know, we have no way of knowing, how many discoveries and inspirations took place within these walls over that long history."

Built in 1840, South Caroliniana is the oldest freestanding college library in the country. In its nearly two centuries of existence, the building transformed from USC's main library to the home of the largest collection documenting South Carolina's history, Banush said. Students, faculty and researchers use the library to study materials related to the state from the colonial period to the present.

"Especially for students, the visceral experience of being able to hold and touch something from the 18th or 19th century, there's something special about that," said Graham Duncan, the library's head of collections.

The library on the campus' iconic Horseshoe closed its doors in 2017. The renovations cost $10 million, with $5 million coming from the state Legislature. The rest was funded with donations, including a significant contribution from USC alumnus Jim Barrow.

South Caroliniana will soon have a new director at its helm. Nathan Saunders, who comes from a special library collections associate director position at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, will begin at USC on Nov. 1.

"The biggest leap that the renovation has enabled is the ability for people to see many more materials than they ever could before," Banush said.
Growing up in Puerto Rico, Shamil Velazquez dreamed of attending culinary school.

By the time he could walk, Velazquez was already donning chefs whites, and his uncle, also named Shamil, had became an early mentor. Young Shamil would cook with his uncle, grandmother and mother at home so often that eventually, he could not see himself doing anything else with his life.

For the last six years, Velazquez has lived his dream, working in Greenville and Charleston kitchens within the Neighborhood Dining Group family of restaurants. Most recently, the Puerto Rican chef led the kitchen at Delaney Oyster House, and he was the opening executive chef at Minero on Johns Island before Cheyenne Bond took over earlier this year.

Velazquez credits his upbringing for his love of cooking, but he is also quick to mention his time at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. Thats where he met his wife Katie and made the connections that propelled him to Napa Valley to work for chef Cindy Pawlcyn, who taught him how to build relationships with local farmers.

In July, Velazquez announced he would be leaving Charleston to pursue a teaching position at his alma mater.

Though Velazquez has left the area, there are still several Charleston area chefs who attended culinary school, many paying thousands and thousands of dollars to do so. Would they do it again?

At a crossroads

For the younger generation of cooks, culinary school is becoming less attractive, recent data shows.

A 2022 report by The Washington Post found that the number of individuals seeking higher culinary education is decreasing, making it easier to get into cooking schools. The Culinary Institute of America, Velazquezs alma mater, now accepts 97 percent of applicants, compared to 36 percent two decades ago. In the same 20-year period, the number of accepted students who actually attended dropped from 91 percent to 33 percent, according to the report.
There is an "overwhelming risk" that human rights atrocities will continue in Ethiopia, United Nations-backed investigators probing the situation in the country said Tuesday.

Last November, a peace deal between Ethiopia's federal government and rebels in the northern Tigray region ostensibly ended a brutal two-year conflict.

But serious violations are still being committed in Ethiopia, the UN rights experts have concluded. They fear the conflict is spreading across the country and putting regional stability at risk in the Horn of Africa.

"There is an overwhelming risk that human rights atrocities will continue," the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia warned in a new report.

Atrocity crimes, considered to be the most serious crimes against humankind, include genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The commission found that all eight of the common risk factors are now present in Ethiopia, plus the majority of the specific risk factors, which include ongoing serious violations, widespread violence and instability, and deeply entrenched impunity.

"We are gravely concerned about the situation in Ethiopia and the potential for future atrocities," said commission chair Mohamed Chande Othman.

The commission has confirmed the ongoing presence of Eritrean forces in Ethiopia, and continuing atrocities against civilians, in particular rape and other forms of sexual violence.

"There is a very real and imminent risk that the situation will deteriorate further, and it is incumbent upon the international community to ensure that investigations persist," said Steven Ratner, a member of the commission.

The commission was first mandated by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021. Unless it is renewed, its mandate is set to expire at the end of the current rights council session in Geneva, on October 13.

A mosaic of more than 80 ethno-linguistic communities, Ethiopia has long struggled with territorial conflicts inside its borders.

The Tigray conflict, which erupted in November 2020, pitted Ethiopia's government forces -- backed by Eritrea's army and forces from the neighbouring region of Amhara -- against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

It was marked by mass atrocities by all sides, but there were hopes the violations would cease after the signing of last year's peace deal.

Yet the commission said that Eritrean troops and Amhara militia members were continuing to commit grave violations in Tigray.

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GREENVILLE  Candidates for Greenville City Council and mayor debated live for the first time this campaign season.

Mayor Knox White, whos running for his eighth and final term, faces Michelle Shain, a former city councilwoman and nonprofit leader. City Councilwoman Dorothy Dowe, a first-time incumbent, faces Randall Fowler, a resident with experience in charter schools who said City Council hasnt listened to neighborhoods wishes.

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The debates were hosted at the Kroc Center on Oct. 2 by The Post and Courier and the Greenville Chamber.

White, who has been mayor since 1995, faces his first serious challenger in his final campaign  Shain has nearly matched him in fundraising through the end of June.

As for City Council, there's only one contested race this year as Councilmen Ken Gibson and John DeWorken are running for reelection unopposed. But as of the end of June, Dowe has outraised Fowler $107,000 to $7,800.

Greenville mayoral candidates face off

White, a Republican, lauded the citys revitalization across his 27-year career and said he wants to shepherd more initiatives in affordable housing and green space. But Shain, a Democrat, asserted some of Greenville's biggest challenges  especially rising housing costs  have come about during Whites tenure and said the city needs a new leader after 28 years.

When he ran for mayor in the 1990s, White campaigned on term limits. During the debate, White said he had term limits of a sort because he faced reelection every four years. He did not directly answer a question asking about the possibility he could go back on his word and run for mayor again after this election.
BEAUFORT  Law enforcement officers are looking for a suspect in a shooting that resulted in the death of a 3-year-old child and injured two adults.

Officers from the Beaufort Police Department responded to the report of a shooting at the Cross Creek Apartments on the 300 block of Ambrose Run at 12:41 p.m. Oct. 1.

Arriving on scene, officers discovered a 26-year-old female shooting victim with serious injuries. She was stabilized and transported to a local hospital. Her current condition is not known.

While investigating the incident, officers learned another victim was already on the way to the hospital. Responding to the hospital, officers located two victims, a 3-year-old child with life-threatening injuries and a 25-year-old male victim with non-life-threatening injuries.

The child later died as a result of those injuries.

The law enforcement investigation determined that a domestic dispute during a child exchange escalated into a shooting.

Investigators are searching for Jonathan Tyleke Fair, 27, who is wanted for questioning related to the incident. Fair is known to frequent the Big Estates and the Yemassee areas.

Fair was arrested Aug. 1 by the Yemassee Police Department for driving on a suspended license and simple possession of marijuana, among other charges. He was booked in the the Beaufort County Detention center that day and released the following day.

Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact Investigator Andersen at 843-322-7941 or the Anonymous Tip Line at 843-322-7938.
Charleston-area lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle are calling for Gov. Henry McMaster to launch an official investigation into the Charleston County School Board following allegations that a five-member faction violated state transparency laws.

On Oct. 1, state Rep. Joe Bustos, the Republican chairman of the Charleston legislative delegation, accused the board's five-member majority of violating the state's open meetings law after having a discussion about suspending Charleston's new superintendent in executive session.

After the closed-door meeting, the board voted 5-4 to put Superintendent Eric Gallien on paid administrative leave while an outside firm investigated a complaint made about him.

Members of the community who attended the meeting last week were outraged by the decision and accused the board of racism and asked "where's the justification?" Gallien is Black and had only been in the role for three months.

More coverage To read more in-depth stories from The Post and Couriers Education Lab, go to postandcourier.com/education-lab.

"The citizens of Charleston County, because they are paying the bill and expecting their children be educated, should know what is happening," Bustos wrote in the letter obtained by The Post and Courier.

He also asked the state Office of Inspector General to investigate the matter. Duties for the office include "investigating and detecting fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, misconduct, violations of state or federal law, and wrongdoing in the executive branch," according to its website.

On Oct. 2, state Rep. Wendell Gilliard, D-Charleston, published his own letter calling on Attorney General Alan Wilson to launch an investigation into the five-member group's actions against the superintendent. He noted the five board members were all supported by the conservative parents' rights group Moms for Liberty. Gilliard referred to the five members of the CCSD board as the "Moms for Liberty faction."
Over the next year, Charleston leaders in charge of drafting plans for the Union Pier proposal have a tall order.

They are starting over on plans for a 65-acre downtown property that is estimated to sell for $400 million and have major implications for the future of the peninsula.

After an original proposal for the site was met with significant public outcry, the South Carolina Ports Authority, which owns the property, agreed to wait one year before presenting a new plan.

The goal is to draw up a Planned Unit Development proposal, or PUD, which is a zoning document that outlines what can and cannot be built on the property when it gets sold to a private developer. The document will work its way through several city approval processes before a final vote from City Council. Then the port will be free to put up the site for sale.

Here are the two entities involved in the process for drawing up the PUD and how it will work going forward:

Riley Center for Livable Communities

The Joseph Riley Center for Livable Communities was tapped in June to lead the planning process after residents and advocacy groups decried the original planning process led by the port as lacking meaningful community input.

The center, based at the College of Charleston, compiled a committee of community members to help shape the plans. They represent entities such as neighborhood associations, preservation groups, environmentalists and real estate interests.
NORTH CHARLESTON  North Charleston police arrested three people, including a minor, on Oct. 2 in the recent shootings that ended in charges of murder and attempted murder.

A 16-year-old boy was charged with murder and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a violent crime and booked into the Charleston County Juvenile Detention Center. He is accused in the Sept. 24 homicide on the 4000 block of Bream Road in North Charleston.

When officers arrived at the scene, a male victim suffering from gunshot wounds was transported to a local hospital and pronounced dead.

The Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo ONeal identified the victim as 19-year-old Quindaris Washington-Russ, according to data maintained by The Post and Courier.

Two adults were also arrested on Oct. 2 and charged with attempted murder in connection to separate shootings, a North Charleston Police Department news release announced.

A 21-year-old Ebony Zhane Johnson Nelson was arrested in connection to a Sept. 20 shooting on the 2300 block of Dorchester Road.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found a victim sitting in a vehicle and suffering from gunshot wounds. The victim was taken to a local hospital, where he received medical treatment.

Nelson was charged with attempted murder and attempted armed robbery and booked into the Al Cannon Detention Center.

The U.S. Marshals Task Force and the Intelligence Led Policing Unit arrested 46-year old Robert Ernesto Williams in connection to a Sept. 26 shooting on Fairwinds Drive.

Williams was charged with attempted murder and the possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a violent crime and booked into the Al Cannon Detention Center.

The arrests come after a spree of murders and attempted murders in North Charleston.

Detectives arrested Jeremy Keyes, 27, and charged him with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime in a Sept. 27 shooting at Zips Car Wash on Rivers Avenue.
JAMES ISLAND  Ammellia Wiggins is glad she was wearing steel-toed work shoes the day a coyote attacked in her backyard.

Alerted by the frantic barking of her pit bull, Ayda, Wiggins ran to the back of her house on Clark Sound and found a coyote breaking through the fence the afternoon of June 13.

She came charging at us," said Wiggins, 56. I kicked it about a foot off the ground, then my pit bull bit it."

We spent probably a full minute in battle before my husband came around (the house)," she said. "He fired about four shots into her before she went down."

A Charleston County Sheriff's Office report said the husband, Ronald Wiggins, was justified in killing the coyote that was attacking his wife and dog in his backyard.

The terrifying incident on Stone Post Road came during a summer when coyote attacks on pets have been rising in the greater Charleston area.

Ammellia Wiggins feared the unusually aggressive coyote that broke through her fence was after her elderly father, who was recovering from chemotherapy and resting on the porch.

It could have been a lot worse if my husband hadnt got in the habit of toting his pistol," Wiggins said. We found out later from talking to neighbors that this animal had chased humans already and had attacked a few dogs, but nobody called animal control."

She said the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control refused to test the dead coyote for rabies because it hadn't bitten a person. An agency spokesman said that is not the agency's policy, and the local rabies- prevention team is unaware of the incident.

Ayda the pit bull was bitten by the coyote in multiple places but survived and was given a rabies booster shot. Later that day, she got steak for dinner, Wiggins said.

James Island Mayor Bill Woolsey said he had been unaware of the coyote attack and said the town is "obviously concerned."
Roughly 40% of households in our tri-county area live on the verge of financial instability, struggling to cover their basic needs as the cost of living continues to outpace earnings. That's almost 128,000 households. Read moreCommentary: SC households work hard but never get ahead. We aim to change that.
If youre upset about the growing upheaval in the Charleston County School District, you need to reach out to your school board member, because its theoretically possible the board could come to its senses  or at least tell us what Superintendent Eric Gallien is accused of doing thats so awful that it merits placing him on administrative leave. Not to mention all the other disruptive stuff unrelated to educating children that the silent majority on the board is up to.

Then you need to reach out to your state senator and representative. Not because state legislators need to micromanage the school district  they absolutely do not  but because it was our local legislators micromanagement that created the problem we have today. And so really, theyre our best bet of fixing the problem.

The chain of events that led to the current mess began in 2019, when the board was advancing a mission critical plan to consolidate schools, shift programs, change who can attend and who gets priority seating at magnet and partial-magnet programs, seek freedom from some state regulations and sign contracts with nonprofits to run some schools. The plan was drawing criticism not only from liberals who chafed at the idea of working with nonprofits but also from both parents of students in high-achieving schools who worried the changes would lower standards and some parents of students in low-achieving schools who worried those schools might close.

Just hours after the school board approved the plan, 14 of the 22 senators and representatives who represent Charleston County in the Legislature unveiled disturbing plans to strip the school board of the authority to make the changes.

The district responded by putting off closing tiny, under-performing schools and repeatedly modifying its proposals to get more low-income students into better schools. Then we had the pandemic. But even that wasnt enough to deter the Charleston County legislative delegation from upending the two-year effort to improve education at low-performing schools while also addressing long-simmering concerns about equity in the highest-performing.
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The European Union and Ethiopia inked a 650 million euro development deal on Tuesday during a visit by a top EU official aimed at improving ties following the end of a bloody two-year war in the Tigray region.

"It is time to gradually normalize relations and rebuild a mutually reinforcing partnership with your country," European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen said in signing the deal with Ethiopia's Finance Minister Ahmed Shide.

The so-called Multi-annual Indicative Programme (MIP), which amounts to 650 million euros ($680 million) for the years 2024-2027, should have been concluded in 2021 but was suspended due to the Tigray conflict.

Urpilainen, a former Finnish finance minister, said the MIP "is the concrete first step towards normalization".

"It renews the EU's commitment to work, together with the EU member states... to contribute to Ethiopia's stability, post-conflict reconstruction and macro-economic recovery."

Ahmed said the signing of the MIP was "very important" for Ethiopia, adding that the EU had for 40 years been a "strategic partner for Ethiopia, supporting Ethiopia's economic development and economic reform".

He acknowledged that the partnership had "slowed down" because of the Tigray conflict, adding: "Now, the signing of MIP will enable us to move back into a normal development partnership."

Signed every seven years, MIPs define priority areas of cooperation between the EU and its partners, including financial allocations.

Budgetary aid not resumed



The 27-member EU bloc is one of the main development partners for Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation which is grappling with internal violence, a worsening economic situation, and natural disasters such as drought.

About 17 percent of its 120 million people depend on food aid, which was suspended by the United States and the UN's World Food Programme in June citing widespread diversion of supplies.

Urpilainen said Brussels was not however resuming budgetary aid to Ethiopia which was suspended a month after the November 2020 start of the fighting in Tigray.

"When it comes to budget support modalities there are also very strict conditions," she said, adding that an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme was needed.

Ethiopia is currently negotiating with the Washington-based lender seeking support for the country's economic reforms.

"In addition to that we also have some political conditions," Urpilainen said without elaborating.

The Tigray war killed untold numbers of civilians and forced about two million from their homes before it ended with a surprise truce in November last year.

The EU supports the implementation of the peace deal "through the national dialogue, as well as also accountability and transitional justice", said Urpilainen.

"Stabilisation in Tigray is underway, but the situation remains complex and fragile including in several other regions."

Fighting erupted earlier this year between federal troops and local militias in the Amhara region and violence persists in several other parts of the country, a mosaic of more than 80 ethno-linguistic communities.

The visiting EU commissioner also held separate talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and African Union Commission head Moussa Faki Mahamat but the press was excluded.

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We live in an area that has been, is and will be experiencing population growth for years to come. With that growth comes growing pains, and its a topic that warrants our utmost attention. Read moreEditorial: Responsible approaches to growth is a balancing act
FLORENCE  The Florence County Museum is debuting an educational exhibit featuring Alfred Hutty, a Charleston artist known for his etchings.

The exhibit, which opened in September and will be shown through May 3, shows off Huttys skill as an etcher by focusing on his work depicting trees of the Southeast. It also offers viewers the opportunity to learn more about the regions trees and the printmaking process.

Hutty was a key figure in the Charleston Renaissance, a period of rapid growth in the citys arts and culture scene during the first half of the 20th century.

He was born in Grand Haven, Michigan, in 1877 and grew up in the Midwest. He worked for years in the Woodstock, New York, art community before moving to South Carolina after World War I.

The artist quickly became a fixture in the Charleston art world. He spent his winters in Charleston and his summers in Woodstock, where he died in 1954.

Hutty was a member of the first print society organized in the South, the Charleston Etchers Club, and was the director of the Carolina Art Association Art School. He was the first American elected to the British Society of Graphic Art, according to a press release from the museum.

Many of his pieces captured Charleston, from colorful streetscapes to finely detailed images of the outdoors. Hutty worked in multiple mediums during his career  oil paintings, watercolors and pencil sketches, among others. But he is most famous for his etchings.

He made a name for himself here even though he was not born here, said Uschi Jeffcoat, the museums curator of education and community engagement. However, his contribution and his depiction of the South helped promote visitation in the area.

Jeffcoat said Huttys work provided the museum an opportunity to expand viewers knowledge of the region's trees, especially for children. The pieces are on loan from the Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation, and private collectors Anne B. and Dan Ervin.
Update: With a vote of 216-210 on Oct. 3, 2023, Kevin McCarthy became the first House Speaker voted out of office in U.S. history. U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-Isle of Palms, was one of eight GOP members and the only South Carolina Republican to vote for his removal.

Embattled House Speaker Kevin McCarthy just picked up support from a most unexpected South Carolina source.

Republican U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, who has been at odds with the speaker in nearly every major fight this Congress, says now is not the time to oust McCarthy from his leadership post.

In an Oct. 3 message on social media, Norman, of Rock Hill, said the GOP priority must be in passing a spending plan in the next 43 days  not pressing forward to oust the speaker.

"I have been profoundly disappointed in several elements of Speaker McCarthys leadership, but now is not the time to pursue a Motion to Vacate," Norman wrote on the social media website X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Instead, Congress desperately needs to devote its full attention to passing these appropriations bills within the next 43 days," he said. "We need to turn our focus now to securing the border and responsible spending reductions to get our nation on a trajectory to balance the budget."

Norman has been a vocal and unrelenting critic of McCarthy for the last 10 months, which makes his defense of the speaker a remarkable moment in their public political relationship. Earlier this year he joined a closely watched four-day revolt to block McCarthys bid for House speaker, opposing McCarthy in 11 rounds of voting. McCarthy was eventually elected in the 15th round of voting.
An Israeli air strike wounded two Syrian soldiers near the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, the Syrian defence ministry said on Tuesday.

A little before midnight (2100 GMT) on Monday, "the Israeli enemy carried out air strikes on some of our armed forces' positions near the city of Deir Ezzor," leaving "two soldiers wounded," a ministry statement said.

During more than a decade of conflict in Syria, neighbouring Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its territory, targeting Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.

On September 21, Israeli tanks shelled "two temporary structures" that the Israeli occupation army said were being used by Syrian troops in violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement between the two countries.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes it carries out on targets in Syria, but it has said repeatedly that it will not allow its arch foe Iran to expand its presence.

Militias linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards have a heavy presence across Syria, especially around the border with Iraq, and south of the Euphrates in Deir Ezzor province.

The conflict has killed more than half a million people since it broke out in 2011, following the bloody repression of pro-democracy protests.

It quickly escalated into a broader conflict that pulled in jihadists and foreign powers.

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Its a stiff competition. Democratic Party prosecutors who have brought frivolous charges against Donald Trump are certainly in the mix. Nevertheless, I would award that title to Mary Moriarty, the County Attorney for Hennepin County, Minnesota. Hennepin is the states most populous county, and it includes Minneapolis along with a number of other high-crime towns. Nevertheless, Moriarty ran for office on a platform of not prosecuting criminals, and she is the rare politician who has kept her campaign promises.

The situation is so bad that it is now drawing national (the New York Post) and even international (the Daily Mail) attention. The Post headlines: Fury as Minneapolis woke DA Mary Moriarty allows accused rapists and killers to stay free. The Daily Mail headlines: Is this Americas wokest DA? Democrat Minneapolis prosecutor sparks fury by giving probation to murderers, pedophile and killer drug dealer, with even Soros-backed Minnesota AG blasting her. I guess the headlines pretty much tell the story, but this is what it is all about:

Veteran prosecutor Catherine Markey was only told moments before a plea hearing that the DA was only seeking probation for one of the teens involved in the 2019 carjacking that killed her son, Stephen Markey.

This is really amazing. Even a prosecutor cant get justice when her son is murdered.

Sherrice Barnett similarly recalled her horror at being told the teen charged with murdering her 27-year-old son, Derrell Freeman, would be spared a prison sentence. I couldnt breathe, she told the paper.

***

Another mom, Nancy Caspersen, recalled her disgust at the repeat offender charged with the third-degree murder of her daughter, Kailey  for selling her the pain pills laced with fentanyl that killed her in 2021  getting probation and up to 240 days in jail instead of the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

Tim Walz might be Americas most far-left governor, but even he may have had enough:

In April, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz reassigned the case against the alleged murderers of mother of one Zaria McKeever to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is backed by left-wing billionaire George Soros, the Star Tribune explained. McKeever, 23, was killed in 2022 by two teen brothers hired by her ex-boyfriend, the outlet said. While prosecutors initially wanted to try both boys as adults, they were offered probationary deals in exchange for testimony against McKeevers ex. The controversial arrangement prompted Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Leah Erickson to remove herself from the case, then leave the office entirely, the Star Tribune reported at the time.

Prosecutors are walking away because Moriarty wont let them prosecute:

Similarly, the case of a 15-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by a relative for three years prompted prosecutor Raina Urton to remove herself from the case after the new administration pushed her to seek probation instead of prison for the defendant, the outlet said. She walked away because she knows what happened was wrong, the teens mother said of Urton. She was fighting for us. She was fighting for our daughter.

What does County Attorney Moriarty have to say in her own defense? Well, she is doing what she promised voters she would do:

Moriarty says she plans to stick with her plan to bring reform

Reform.

to the DAs office  dismissing the anger as the expected cost of change. I think it takes a lot of courage actually to act upon what you say youre going to do, she told the Star Tribune.

Beyond that, Moriarty peddles the familiar line that she is following the science.

[I]f youre truly going to make change, if you truly are about your values, and you want to have integrity, and you believe in research and look at the data, these are the right decisions and I stand by them.

What research and data justifies letting murderers and rapists go? She means the claim that a persons brain doesnt finish developing until he or she reaches the age of 25, so that people younger than that age cant be held accountable for their actions. But of course, a high percentage of violent crime is committed by people aged less than 25. It doesnt take a lot of research and data to know that if you dont punish young violent offenders, it will be open season on law-abiding citizens.
Julie Su, Joe Bidens pick for Labor Secretary, can avoid Senate confirmation and keep running the Labor Department. This is due to a September 21 ruling by Edda Emmanuelli Perez, general counsel of the General Accountability Office (GAO).

As the Deputy Secretary of Labor, Ms. Su may serve as Acting Secretary under section 552 until a successor is appointed, Emmanuelli Perez ruled. The Vacancies Acts time limitations do not apply to her service.

Sus past service will be of great interest to American workers. For example, as California Labor Commissioner, Su supported Assembly Bill 5, a veritable declaration against workers independence. The measure primarily targeted independent truckers and rideshare drivers but there was more to it. AB5 also limited freelance writers, photographers and videographers to 35 submissions per publication, per year. The measure even targeted musicians.

Trumpeter Joe Mazzaferro, leader of a septet, told reporters that AB-5 had already begun reducing his bands pay, and he also objected on principle. I feel like its our right to work as we choose, the jazzman explained. That right to choose applies to all workers.

In 2020, Proposition 22 rolled back some of the AB-5s provisions, but last June Julie Su told the House Committee on Education and Workforce, I dont remember how I voted on that. Su denied that she was involved in drafting AB-5, but later conceded that she had given technical advice on the measure.

Julie Su also headed Californias Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) which oversees the Employment Development Department (EDD) responsible for unemployment claims. On Sus watch, the EDD sent more than $31 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims to California, out of state, and even out of the country. In 2020 alone, Su confirmed, fraudsters stole at least $11.4 billion in California unemployment benefits.

On Sus watch, the state approved more than $140 million for at least 20,000 prisoners. Convicts who made fraudulent claims included convicted murderers Scott Peterson and Cary Stayner. Death row inmates accounted for at least 158 claims landing more than $420,000 in benefits.

Criminals exploited the system, and rapper Nuke Bizzle even posted a video about the ease of ripping off Californias EDD. Scammers filed hundreds of fake claims, including one in the name of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. While this massive fraud carried on unchecked, legitimate workers waited months to collect the benefits they deserved.

Asked in June if she accepted responsibility for more than $30 billion in unemployment fraud, Su replied, I think an unemployment insurance system that truly delivers in times of crisis should be the goal of everybody. That non-answer recalls Saule Omarova, Bidens nominee for Comptroller of the Currency in the U.S. Treasury Department.

A Moscow State University alum and Soviet apologist, Omarova wanted to change the role of independent banks and have the Federal Reserve control every Americans money. Based on her record, Sen. Tim Scott could think of nobody more poorly suited for the comptroller job than Omarova. The same could be said about Julie Su.

The Government Accountability Office has ruled that the person most poorly suited for the job, an incompetent administrator and anti-worker ideologue, will head the Labor Department without Senate confirmation. This opens the door for similar end runs in the future. American workers arise. You have everything to lose.
In the early days of Power Line John and I wrote several columns for the local newspapers decrying the murder of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards. Tyesha was doing her homework at the dining room table in November 2002 when she was caught in the crossfire of Minneapolis gangbangers. Myon Burrell was convicted twice of Tyeshas murder and sentenced to life in prison.

In our columns we made three basic points: 1) Minneapolis has a serious gang problem; 2) it was not talked about publicly by Minneapolis municipal leaders because Minneapoliss gangs are largely black, even though the primary victims of Minneapoliss gang crime are black as well; 3) appropriate municipal leadership and law enforcement could take back the streets from the gangs, but the mayor (then Mauor R.T. Rybak) and the Minneapolis Chief of Police (then chief Robert Olson) had failed to provide such leadership.

Our 2002 columns on Tyeshas murder and the nonfeasance of the leaders we called out drew an incredibly stupid response from Rybak and Olson, versions of which were published in both the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Star Tribune. I noted their column here in a 2002 post. Unfortunately, links to all the published columns  our own and Rybak/Olsons  are dead.

Burrells sentence was commuted in 2020 by a pardon board including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Out on the streets, Burrell was free to offend again and recent charges suggest that he has done so.

Why did Walz vote to release him? It was all about the science  the science of teenage killers. We cannot turn a blind eye to the developments in science and law as we look at this case, said Walz. We cant shackle our children in 2020, added Walz. We need to grow as our science grows.

John found this rationale somewhat less than persuasive. He criticized the commutation of Burrells sentence in 2020 here.

Alpha Newss Liz Collin has now tracked down former Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Mike Furnstahl. Furnstahl is one of the prosecutors who put Burrell away in the 2008 retrial. Liz revisits the case with Furnstahl in the video below. Lizs companion Alpha News story is posted here. Furstahls report, referred to in the interview, has been posted online by KARE 11 here.

Among other things, Lizs interview indicts and convicts the Minnesota media of criminal negligence in this matter. The video seethes with Furnstahls indignation and performs a badly needed public service.

Quotable quote (on Burrells alleged innocence): Thats just a joke. No innocent person has five different alibis. He could only have been in one place at the time. He said he was in five different places. Thats not the words of an innocent person.
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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / ARway.ai ("ARway" or the "Company") (CSE:ARWY)(OTCQB:ARWYF)(FSE:E65) is an AI powered Augmented Reality Experience platform with a disruptive no-code, no beacon spatial computing solution enabled by visual marker tracking with centimeter precision announces new strategic international partnerships, which will propel ARway's reach further into the indoor navigation industry and towards profitability. These partners represent a significant growth opportunity for the Company.AI Africa, a digital agency and marketing company, specializing in retail and event organization has partnered with ARway to provide indoor navigation services to its clients. Their large portfolio of clients is varied. It includes a prominent social media company with a staggering monthly engagement of 5 million followers; the leading events company in South Africa, orchestrating a remarkable 70 events per year with the collaboration poised to elevate AI Africa's presence in the events industry, offering unparalleled opportunities for innovation and growth; a prominent local tourism department and a distinguished property management company that owns and manages 17 malls and shopping centers.Vraxa, one of the top international production houses specialized in 360 videos and AR/VR/XR solutions using the latest technology has partnered with ARway. They are an agency with a multitude of clients in retail, media, hospitals and more, representing a variety of use cases for ARway's technology.Brink Interactive is an agency that is distinguished by seasoned practitioners across branding, customer experience, marketing technology, strategy, and account services. Similar to VRAXA, they have a number of clients in various industries, representing a variety of use cases for ARway's technology. Brink Interactive has clients in retail, automotive, telecom, real estate and more. These partners represent significant potential for ARway business, and follow the recent newly signed contract with Suleyman Demirel Universitesi situated in Isparta, Turkey. The university currently has approx 70,000 students enrolled, making it the second-largest academic institution in Turkey. This new contract has two phases with phase one starting at around $10,000 and phase two worth six figures annually. This contract comes shortly after the recent announcements that ARway.ai has signed a multi-year contract with Localiza, the largest car rental network in South America, to deliver a differentiated customer experience through newly established rental hubs at all major airports in Latin America, including AR navigation from baggage pickup to the transport depot, which includes car rentals, bus stops, Uber, etc., and a phased rollout with one of the largest shopping malls in California.Recent News ARway.ai Completes First Build of the ARway Platform on Apple's Vision Pro Hardware & Announces Platform + SDK UpdatesARway.ai Selected to Participate at Apple Vision Pro Developer LabsARway.ai Announces Major Win As it Lands a Contract With Second Largest Academic Institution In TurkeySign up for Investor News - HERETo learn more about ARway, please follow on Social Media: Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and visit our website: www.arway.ai About ARway.ai ARway.ai (CSE: ARWY) (OTCQB: ARWYF) (FSE: E65) is a spatial computing platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI) providing an array of augmented reality (AR) experiences for indoor spaces. ARway's breakthrough no-code no-beacon IPNN allows for the easy creation of navigation, tours, information sharing, notifications, advertising and gamification. ARway works seamlessly as a cross platform solution on iOS/ Android. ARway's technology is optimized for both mobile devices and AR glasses: Apple's Vision Pro, Magic Leap and Microsoft's HoloLens. ARway has unlimited use cases for augmenting physical spaces, making it a valuable tool for creators, brands and companies in various industries. The complete ARway platform includes: the Web Creator Studio, the ARwayKit Software Development Kit (SDK) and a mobile app for iOs and Android.Nextech 3D.aiOn October 26, 2022, ARway.ai . was spun-out from its parent Company, Nextech3D.ai (OTCQX: NEXCF) (CSE: NTAR) (FSE: EP2). Nextech retained a control ownership in ARway.ai . with 13 million shares, or a 50% stake. Nextech3D.ai is a Metaverse Company and leading provider of augmented reality ("AR") experience technologies and 3D model services. Nextech's AI-powered 3D modeling platform, "ARitize3D" has contracts with; AMZN, KSS, CB2, Genuine Parts & many others. To learn more about Nextech3D.ai , visit www.nextechar.com For further information, please contact:Investor Relations ContactJulia Violainvestor.relations@arway.ai ARway.aiEvan GappelbergCEO and Director866-ARITIZE (274-8493)Forward-looking StatementsThe CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Certain information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, "will be" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements regarding the completion of the transaction are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. ARway.ai will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.SOURCE: ARway Corporation
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TAMPA BAY, FL / ACCESSWIRE / October 4, 2023 / In a groundbreaking move set to redefine European agriculture, Next Generation Agriculture (NGAG Inc), a wholly owned subsidiary of AP&I (OTC PINK:AWSL), has acquired a substantial 25% equity share in Nature Soak Ltd. This visionary partnership signifies a significant leap towards transforming the agricultural landscape in the UK and Europe.Key Partnership Objectives:Expanding Product Accessibility: This strategic collaboration ensures that Next Generation Agriculture's revolutionary products, branded as Nature Soak, will now reach a wider community of farmers and growers throughout Europe. Nature Soak Ltd. has been granted an exclusive European distribution mandate for NGAG's unique ultra-absorbent bio stimulant, ASCOGEL, now rebranded as Nature Soak for the European market.Continuous Innovation through Data: A robust data collection system will be established to gather user feedback and monitor product performance. This data-driven approach will pave the way for enhancing and evolving Next Generation Agriculture's innovative agricultural solutions.Revolutionary Impact on Farming:Nature Soak's ASCOGEL, now Nature Soak, has the remarkable ability to retain 400 times its weight in water, even in arid conditions. This groundbreaking technology reduces crop reliance on water and fertilizers, cutting down irrigation needs by over 40%. Derived entirely from plants, it offers vital nutrients, water retention, and organic solutions, all while significantly boosting crop growth and yield. This eco-friendly product stands as a beacon of sustainable agriculture, lowering costs for growers and increasing overall income.Nature Soak UK is a pioneering force in environmentally conscious agricultural technology, committed to providing sustainable solutions that benefit both farmers and the environment. Appointed recently as the exclusive distributor for the UK and Europe of NGAG proprietary agricultural products. www.naturesoak.co.uk Empowering Farmers, Transforming Agriculture:By uniting forces, AP&I and Nature Soak UK are tackling the most pressing challenges in modern European agriculture. This partnership not only provides farmers with unparalleled access to cutting-edge technology but also encourages active participation in the evolution of these groundbreaking products.Martin Driscoll, President of Next Generation Agriculture and Director / Member of the Board of AP&I expressed his enthusiasm:"We are thrilled to partner with Nature Soak Ltd in our shared mission to advance agricultural innovation. This collaboration not only widens the reach of groundbreaking agricultural technology but also underscores our commitment to ensuring affordable food security for the UK and Europe, backed by continuous improvement through data-driven insights." Richard Lipscombe, CEO of Nature Soak Ltd, added:"This collaboration represents a significant milestone in the agricultural industry. Together with Next Generation Agriculture, we will empower farmers with sustainable solutions and utilize their feedback to drive further innovation in our products." For more information about Next Generation Agriculture, please visit NGAG's Website.About AP&I's Next Generation Agriculture Division (NGAG):Next Generation Agriculture stands at the forefront of agricultural innovation, dedicated to transforming the future of farming through cutting-edge technology and sustainable practices. As a wholly owned subsidiary of AP&I - NGAG is committed to revolutionizing agriculture worldwide. Learn more at Atlantic Power & Infrastructure.Empowering farmers with forward-looking solutions, our Next Generation Agriculture division offers a range of benefits. From eco-friendly fire retardants to Ascogel. https://apaicorp.com/NGAG.htm About AP&I's Scrap Tire Construction Products Division (STCP):For over two decades Atlantic Power & Infrasrucure Corp's, wholly owned subsidiary - K.B. Industries Inc., has pioneered the revolutionary Flexi-Pave technology, which is part of the STCP Division, this advanced material, characterized by its high porosity and durability, is a game-changer in stormwater management, water treatment, shoreline protection, and ship docks. https://apaicorp.com/kbi.htm Flexi-Pave's extraordinary qualities include long-term and short-term permeability, remarkable flexibility, crack resistance (even in challenging freeze-thaw conditions), enhanced resistance against trip hazards, and exceptional slip resistance.About AP&I's Water Purification Next Generation (WPNG):The Global Challenge: Algae and Red Tide Infestation - a Serious Health HazardAlgae infestation in water bodies worldwide poses a rapidly growing and critical health risk worldwide. AP&I is at the forefront of combating this crisis with an ingenious solution.Through proprietary Algae Vessels (AVs), these vessels are strategically placed within hazardous water bodies to target and eliminate harmful Algae Blooms that plague rivers, ponds, and lakes, as well as Red Tide Algae blooms in saltwater bodies. The AVs adeptly absorb the harmful Algae and Red Tide, processing them onboard before safely returning benign Algae to the water body. This transformed Algae then contributes as a natural and non-hazardous food source for aquatic life.Innovative Benefits and Sustainable PracticesWhile battling this environmental menace, the AVs operate with a zero-carbon footprint, harnessing wind and solar power for their operation.This commitment aligns with AP&I's overarching corporate goal of benefiting the environment.https://apaicorp.com/atlantic-power-infrastructure-corp-revolutionizes-water-cleaning-technologies-with-groundbreaking-algae-and-red-tide-removal-solution.html With its pioneering proprietary technology, AP&I is not only safeguarding aquatic ecosystems but also promoting healthier water bodies. The subsidiary's efforts are set to alleviate what has rapidly become a critical health hazard worldwide. Until now, environmental authorities have been grappling with a solution to this swiftly escalating crisis. Through innovation and dedication, AP&I's subsidiary is rewriting the narrative and leading the charge toward a safer and more sustainable future.As AP&I continues its innovative journey, we remain steadfast in our commitment to "proven sustainable pioneering solutions" that create lasting positive impact across the planet.For media inquiries, please contact:enquiries@ apaicorp.comVisit: www.AtlanticPIC.comTel . +1 (727) 723-3300Disclaimer: Shareholders and investors are strongly cautioned against placing undue reliance on information set forth within this website an
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PORTLAND, OR and MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Belle Bonica Luxe Corp. / BlockChain Loyalty Corp. (BBLC) is pleased to announce the official closing of the acquisition of True + Luscious a clean beauty brand making waves in the skincare and cosmetics industry. In a previously issued Letter of Intent (LOI) dated May 19th, 2023, BBLC acquired all the assets of True + Luscious, closing the transaction on October 2nd, 2023.This acquisition is an integral part of BBLC's growth plans to increase revenues through geographic expansion and strategic acquisitions of product lines and companies which are compatible with its business philosophy, brand, and strategic corporate path. BBLC is dedicated to promoting a lifestyle of health, beauty, and wealth; through the acquisition and development of creative & innovative brands that cater to various sectors of the luxury markets, aimed at improving the way of life, while seeking long-term shareholder value. In the next couple of weeks BBLC will be making other important announcements that will shape the direction of the company going forward.Mehir Sethi founded one of Pakistan's top clean beauty brands; Luscious Cosmetics, which saw its products on the shelves of Sephora Australia after global goods corporation, LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) snapped up Singapore based e-commerce brand Luxola.com in the summer of 2015, where Luscious had been regularly selling its products. Sephora became aware of Luscious' success after acquiring Luxola. The management and board are delighted that Ms. Sethi will stay on to assist with True + Luscious, supporting BBLC and its management through the transition and beyond, as a strategic consultant to the company."BBLC's new flagship brand True + Luscious, is an important milestone that the company is pleased to check off it's long list of catalysts. This is just the beginning, and we can't be more thrilled," said Joel DeBellefeuille Chairman & CEO of BBLC.True + Luscious presents a unique opportunity, as the acquisition comes complete with $2,615,000 in existing inventory, and an email list that consists of over 8,000 customers. The brand is a reputable and profitable business in the high growth clean-beauty industry. Ongoing partnerships with the QVC & HSN (Home Shopping Network) and independent retailers also exist.About True + LusciousFounded in 2018 by a beauty industry veteran, True + Luscious is a makeup & skincare brand with established traction in the clean beauty niche. All products are Clean, 100% Vegan, with Sustainable Packaging. True + Luscious is certified by Leaping Bunny, which is the only internationally recognized symbol guaranteeing consumers, that no new animal tests were used in the development of any product displaying their logo.About Belle Bonica Luxe Corp.Belle Bonica Luxe Corp. (OTC Pink:BBLC) is dedicated to promoting a lifestyle of health, beauty, and wealth; through the acquisitionand development of creative & innovative brands catering to luxury markets that are aimed at improving your way of life, whileseeking long-term shareholder value. BBLC's promise is to commit to optimizing shareholder value by continuously sourcing un-paralleled revenue generating brands that match the group's 5 pillars of: "no limits. passionate. creative. innovative. fun"For more information visit: www.bellebonica.com Joel DeBellefeuille, Chairman & CEO, E. joel@ bellebonica.com Tel. 1.888.653.1268To learn more about Joel visit: www.joeldebellefeuille.com Investor Relations: Just3 Public Relations, E. ir@ bellebonica.com This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 27E of the Securities Act of 1934 as well as relevant Canadian securities laws. These statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's expectations regarding future business prospects and opportunities. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict", "potential", "continue", "target" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, the ability to obtain financing and regulatory and shareholder approval for anticipated actions.The Company does not assume any responsibility to update or revise any past statements regarding plans or projections related to any expected future events in cases where such plans or projections have not materialized or developed as previously stated or expected.SOURCE: Blockchain Loyalty Corp.
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GREENVILLE, SC / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Cameron Ashley Building Products (Cameron Ashley) is pleased to announce its distribution partnership with Roseburg Forest Products, a leading manufacturer of sustainable wood products. Cameron Ashley's three distribution centers in Louisiana will distribute RigidLam LVL and RFPI Joist products.Cameron Ashley Partners with Roseburg Forest Products for Distribution in Louisiana "We're thrilled to add Roseburg to our growing list of industry-leading suppliers," said Chris Grube, Category Merchant Director. "Their model of vertical integration of owning and operating the manufacturing facilities and timberlands that supply them sets them apart from competitors and ensures quality products." "Cameron Ashley continues to invest in our commitment to Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region by delivering the top brands in the industry to our customers along with best-in-class service," said Regional Vice President John Gambone. "Our three Louisiana distribution centers will be stocking the full line of Roseburg LVL and I-Joist products, with a focus on value-added services such as plan takeoffs, floor & truss estimates, beam sizing, custom cut lengths, and we will have engineering stamps available. We will be lightning fast with our service offering and provide convenient pickup options for the entire Louisiana market." RigidLam LVL and RFPI Joists are now available in Cameron Ashley's Louisiana distribution centers in Alexandria, Covington, and Lafayette.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.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 864-281-3435SOURCE: Cameron Ashley Building Products
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- Global sustainability titans and innovators converge to share their visions and strategies driving the world towards a greener future at the Future Sustainability Forum on 4th-5th October at the Ritz Carlton, Dubai.- The forum co-hosted by the Commercial Bank of Dubai will invite eminent leaders from the public and private sectors to engage in ground-breaking discussions on sustainability's impact on the global financial market.DUBAI, Sept 29, 2023 - (ACN Newswire) - As the UAE prepares to host the COP28 Summit later this year, the Future Sustainability Forum is poised to serve as the ideal platform for global sustainability leaders and innovators. They will assess emerging technologies while exploring avenues for cooperation to enhance capital flow toward sustainable financing.The forum co-hosted by the Commercial Bank of Dubai will invite eminent leaders from the public and private sectors to engage in ground-breaking discussions on sustainabilitys impact on the global financial market.The collaboration will further invigorate the regional innovation ecosystem, propelling industrial sectors towards adopting ESG measures and steering the region towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient future. The collaborations further establishes a longstanding partnership between CBD and DIFC to promote innovation in the region.As one of the longest established financial institutions in the United Arab Emirates, Commercial Bank of Dubai plays a pivotal role in reshaping the regional financial sector, especially with the increasing demand for sustainable financial instruments. Commercial Bank of Dubai's dedication to the UAE's pursuit of a climate-neutral economy and the adoption of ESG policies is underscored by its sustainable financing framework. The successful issuance of its inaugural green bonds further reflects the growing confidence of investors in the financial sector's transition toward a greener future.Commenting on the partnership with DIFC, Dr. Bernd van Linder, Chief Executive Officer of Commercial Bank of Dubai said: Commercial Bank of Dubai is proud to co-host the Future Sustainability Forum, a platform that aligns perfectly with our commitment to sustainability and responsible finance.As a longstanding financial institution in the UAE, we recognize the importance of driving the transition towards a greener future. Our sustainable financing framework and the successful issuance of our inaugural green bond demonstrate our dedication to supporting the UAE's journey towards a climate-neutral economy.Through collaboration with the Dubai International Financial Centre, we aim to highlight the future of sustainable finance, furthering our collective mission to promote sustainable and responsible financial practices in the region. With the pivotal COP28 Summit on the horizon, the forum will underscore the shared commitment and efforts aimed at showcasing UAEs unwavering dedication to advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.By nurturing a sustainable and innovative ecosystem, the Future Sustainability Forum encourages collective action against climate change and mobilizes towards this critical cause. To learn more about this event and to secure your registration, please visit: www.futuresustainabilityforum.com About TresconTrescon is a pioneering force in the global business events and services sector, driving the adoption of emerging technologies while promoting sustainability and inclusive leadership. With a deep understanding of the realities and requirements of the growth markets we operate in  we strive to deliver innovative and high-quality business platforms for our clients.For media inquiries and further information, please contact:Shadi DawiDirector, Public Relations & Partnerships - MENAshadi@ tresconglobal.com +971 55 498 4989
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Chris joins CTI Digital from Oliver Agency, where he most recently held the position of UK Group COO. Previously he was the UK Group MD of Oliver and MD of Dare, the digital arm within the Oliver network. He is also one of Campaign Magazine's 40 over 40 top UK marketing professionals.MANCHESTER, ENGLAND / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Effective 2 October, this strategic appointment marks a pivotal moment for CTI Digital as it prepares for an exciting phase of growth. As part of the leadership transition, Chris will succeed Nick Rhind, who will assume the role of 'Founder.' In his new capacity, Nick will focus on mentoring the board and driving forward the extensive M&A initiatives scheduled for the group in 2024.Chris Woodward CTI Digital's New CEO, Chris Woodward These changes come as part of a strategy to bolster the CTI Digital leadership team as the business gears up for growth. This follows a multimillion-pound investment from private equity firm LDC in March 2022.Commenting on the appointment, Nick Rhind said: "CTI has grown substantially over the last five years and is now poised to expand further with the backing we have secured from LDC. It is therefore the right time to grow the strength and depth of our leadership team and I am delighted that Chris is joining us. His track record at Oliver speaks for itself and his softer skills as a leader are also second to none. Having Chris as part of the team will allow me to concentrate on our M&A activity that has become a significant focus for us as we grow capability to address broader client needs. Our goal is to consolidate our position as one of the UK's leading and fastest growing end-to-end digital agencies." Chris adds: "I have loved my four years at Oliver. To have played a key role in an agency that routinely sees year-on-year organic growth of +25% is an incredible roller coaster ride. But now felt like the right time to take that experience and apply it in a different setting. The combination of working with private equity firm LDC and the CTI team was too good to miss. Six specialist businesses have already joined the group and further acquisitions will now follow. CTI is becoming a hive of creativity, expertly placed to support brands across the full breadth of their digital growth. We engineer rock-solid digital foundations, create effective campaign content and significantly optimise conversion at the other end. Too often agencies can only partially help brands in this space, and the fact that we have strength in all areas under one roof is highly compelling, and can provide significant commercial advantage to our clients." Established in 2003, CTI Digital is one of the UK's leading full-service digital agencies that deliver digital transformation, build, and growth-based services for clients such as Visit Britain, Little Greene, Department of Health and Social Care, Zip World and Aldermore Bank. Its team of 200+ strategists, designers, marketers, and developers delivers transformational digital solutions with its commitment to quality, its focus on technology and through building long-lasting relationships with its clients. Find out more at ctidigital.com Contact InformationOlivia Simpson Head of Marketing o.simpson@ ctidigital.com +77 161 713 2434SOURCE: CTI Digital
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SCOTTSDALE, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Earnhardt Auto Centers is proud to join the first wave of independent Genesis storefronts with the opening of its Genesis of Scottsdale location. The new store represents the luxury brand's expansion nationwide as well as Arizona.Earnhardt Genesis of North Scottsdale Lobby New location for Earnhardt Genesis in North Scottsdale, offering a relaxed setting for customers to explore the latest Genesis models, and chat with the dealership's staff about their automotive needs "As a newer luxury brand, Genesis dealers share space at Hyundai dealerships," explained Dodge Earnhardt, owner of Earnhardt Genesis of Scottsdale. "When the brand gave the go-ahead for independent storefronts, our family-owned business jumped at the chance." The beautiful new storefront with its welcoming showroom is exclusively for Genesis sales. It is located on N. Scottsdale Road near the intersection with N. Greenway Hayden Loop in the Scottsdale Quarter."For me, this is an opportunity to focus on the Genesis concierge concept," said James Orosco, Genesis of Scottsdale Manager. "My staff and I will offer a tailored shopping experience that invokes the spirit of this cutting-edge, stylish brand. For current Genesis drivers, concierge services will be available to make their ownership journey even more luxurious." In fall 2017, the Genesis brand started with three luxury car models. Today its eight-car luxury lineup includes two performance SUVs, three sedans, and the all-electric GV60, GV70 and EG80."Going head to head with the biggest legacy nameplates, this luxury brand has firmly established its credentials with automotive critics and consumers alike," said Earnhardt.The Genesis brand has been nationally recognized for dependability, initial quality, safety, technological achievement, and luxury. Plus, individual models consistently earn Best Buy Awards, Car or SUV of the Year Awards, editors' choice honors, and Top Ten recognition."This is an exciting time to open a Genesis store," said Orosco. "The brand has demonstrated leadership in electrification and performance technologies. It's not just following trends. It's creating benchmarks for the industry." The full address for Genesis of Scottsdale is 15345 N. Scottsdale Rd., Suite K150, Scottsdale, AZ 85254. The phone number is 480-429-2400.Contact InformationNature Earnhardt Media & Promotions Director nature.earnhardt@earnhardt.com 480.449.8222Related ImagesEarnhardt Genesis of North Scottsdale Lobby New location for Earnhardt Genesis in North Scottsdale, offering a relaxed setting for customers to explore the latest Genesis models, and chat with the dealership's staff about their automotive needsEarnhardt Genesis of North Scottsdale Meeting Space Earnhardt Genesis of Scottsdale provides a cozy setting for customers to explore the latest Genesis models and engage in conversations with the dealership's staff about their automotive requirements within a small meeting room.Earnhardt Genesis of North Scottsdale reception The North Scottsdale-based Earnhardt Genesis has a fresh space in its reception area, providing a serene environment for visitors to discover the newest Genesis models and chat with the dealership's team about their automotive requirements.Earnhardt Genesis of North Scottsdale New Location Earnhardt Genesis of North Scottsdale's new location is a state-of-the-art automotive dealership situated in the vibrant North Scottsdale area, offering a luxurious and modern showroom experience for Genesis car enthusiasts and customers.SOURCE: Earnhardt Auto Centers
Singapore defended its reputation as a global financial hub on Tuesday after a massive money laundering case crossed $2 billion in seized and frozen assets, with a senior minister saying it was likely among the world's biggest.

The scale of the investigation has exposed potential loopholes in the city-state's anti-money laundering laws that crime syndicates could exploit, prompting questions in parliament on why it was not detected sooner.

"This case is a reminder that even the most stringent preventive measures can be circumvented by determined criminals," Second Home Affairs Minister Josephine Teo said in a speech to lawmakers in parliament.

Authorities have seized and frozen assets now worth more than Sg$2.8 billion ($2.04 billion) in a series of raids since August against the suspected international money laundering ring, said Teo.

Police arrested 10 foreign nationals -- from China, Turkey, Cambodia, Cyprus and Vanuatu -- accused of being members of the ring suspected of laundering proceeds from overseas criminal activity including scams and online gambling.

All 10 are originally from China.

More arrests and asset seizures are expected as police continue with their investigation, Teo said.

Last month Singaporean police said they had seized and frozen more than $1.76 billion worth of assets in sweeping raids but those have since grown by hundreds of millions.

Teo said the latest trove included 152 properties, 62 vehicles, thousands of bottles of liquor and wine, cash, cryptocurrencies, gold bars, luxury bags and watches and expensive pieces of jewellery.

Police first received "disparate information" about suspicious transactions in 2021, including the use of suspected forged documents to support sources of funds, and began conducting raids after they had collected much more evidence, she said.

It was not only one of the biggest anti-money laundering cases in Singapore but also "likely the world", Teo told MPs.

An average of 43,000 suspicious transactions were reported annually in Singapore between 2020 and 2022, or more than 150 per working day, she said.

Reports that China had put any pressure on Singapore to resolve the case were "completely untrue," she added.

Second Minister of Finance Indranee Rajah said an inter-ministerial committee will be formed "to keep our regime up to date with increasingly sophisticated crimes".

Alvin Tan, a minister of state for trade, said some of the accused may have been linked to family offices -- entities that manage the controlling assets of one family -- that were granted tax incentives.

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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Galway Metals Inc. (TSXV:GWM)(OTCQB:GAYMF) (the "Company" or "Galway") is pleased to report drill results that expand the SW Deposit to the east at the George Murphy Zone (GMZ), and outside of the resource, at the Clarence Stream gold project in southwest New Brunswick, Canada (see figures 1 and 2). Assay results for metallurgical holes drilled at the SW Deposit have been received as well (see figure 3). Drill results from the SW deposit west end will be released in the coming weeks.Quote from the Company"The SW Deposit, with a previous total strike length of 3.1 kilometers, is still open for expansion to the south, north, east, and to depth," said Robert Hinchcliffe, President and CEO of Galway Metals. "The results in the Triangle area, which is outside the existing resource, indicate a vast area with potential to increase mineralization. These results to the east and north are promising and will lead to more drilling in those directions in future." Highlights include:The SW Deposit (GMZ) East Area has been extended 191 metres further east with hole CL-165 intersecting 19.1 grams per tonne (g/t) gold over 1.05 metres on what appears to be a new vein (Figure 1)The SW Deposit (GMZ) East Area has had drilling in hole CL-170 intersect 0.5 g/t gold over 17.0 metres located just east of and outside the resource pitDrilling 475 metres north of the SW Deposit pit (Adrian Zone) intersected 0.8 g/t gold over 5.5 metres and 0.7 g/t gold over 4.2 metres in hole CL-171Drilling 214 metres northeast of the SW Deposit pit (Adrian Zone) intersected0.6 g/t gold over 12.0 metres in hole CL-155Diamond drill core drilled for Metallurgical purposes taken along the SW Deposit has returned 12.6 g/t gold over 18.0 metres in hole MH-07 and 8.6 g/t gold over 24.3 metres in hole MH-16George Murphy Zone East Highlights:Hole CL-172: 0.6 g/t gold over 6.0 metres beginning at a vertical depth of 16 metresHole CL-170: 0.5 g/t gold over 17.0 metres beginning at a vertical depth of 94 metresIncludes 1.5 g/t gold over 1.0 metre, 1.4 g/t gold over 1.0 metre, and 1.3 g/t g over 1.0 metre**Hole CL-166: 0.6 g/t gold over 41.0 metres beginning at a vertical depth of 62 metres, 0.7 g/t gold over 4.5 metres beginning at a vertical depth of 35 metres, and 1.2 g/t gold over 3.0 metres beginning at a vertical depth of 20 metresHole CL-165: 19.1 g/t gold over 1.05 metres beginning at a vertical depth of 111 metresIncludes 35.8 g/t gold over 0.55 metresHole CL-159: 0.8 g/t gold over 4.75 metres beginning at a vertical depth of 207 metresIncludes 4.0 g/t gold over 0.5 metresHole CL-147: 0.9 g/t gold over 5.0 metres beginning at a vertical depth of 75 metresAdrian North Highlights:Hole CL-171: 0.8 g/t gold over 5.5 metres beginning at a vertical depth of 111 metres and including 6.1 g/t gold over 0.5 metres, and 0.7 g/t gold over 4.2 metres beginning at a vertical depth of 179 metres, including 4.0 g/t gold over 0.5 metresAdrian Highlights:Hole CL-144: 0.6 g/t gold over 6.0 metres and 4.4g/t gold over 1.5 metres including 11.7 g/t gold over 0.5 metres, starting at vertical depths of 104 metres and 312 metres, respectivelyHole CL-155: 0.6 g/t gold over 12.0 metres and 0.6 g/t gold over 3.0 metres, starting at vertical depths of 255 metres and 206 metres, respectively**previously released- not in resourceResults Indicate the SW Deposit is Open East and NEThe Adrian north drill intersections are important because they illustrate there are significant gold intersections located 475 metres from the existing block model. These drill intersections are well north and east of the Triangle area where Galway is attempting to fill in the area between the new Stewart Zone discovery and the existing resource area. Drilling in the Triangle area has returned intersections such as 8.0 g/t gold over 9.5 metres, 3.9 g/t gold over 6.0 metres, 4.1 g/t gold over 10.25 metres, and 8.6 g/t gold over 2.0 metres along 1,380 metres. These intersections are not included in the existing resource and are interpreted to dip towards veins in the SW Deposit that are dipping the same way; the Sawyer Brook fault (the main accretionary structure on the property that controls most mineralization) is located there; the area of the triangle is 180% larger than the SW Deposit. The intersection of 0.6g/t gold over 12.0 metres in hole CL-155 is located well into the Triangle area.The drill results east of GMZ include 19.1 g/t gold over 1.05 metres, and 0.5 g/t gold over 17.0 metres. These results indicate that the deposit is open in that direction. Previously released results of 0.6 g/t gold over 41.0 metres (CL-166), and 2.0 g/t gold over 14.0 metres (CL-164) were returned after the resource was completed and would also widen and extend the GMZ resource east.Drilling for Metallurgical Testing and Ore SortingDiamond drilling was undertaken to retrieve PQ-sized core (i.e. big core - 85 mm diameter) at Clarence Stream for use in studies to determine the amenability of the mineralization for pre-concentration on site via ore sorting and for metallurgical testing. The first assay results from the new SW Deposit have been received from the metallurgical core holes. No MET work has been conducted on this new deposit. The Clarence Stream work is designed to check five different areas to confirm if conventional cyanide will liberate good recoveries and if gravity recoveries are adequate.Intersections from the PQ core include: 12.6 g/t gold over 18.0 metres (Richard Zone) and 8.6 gold Au over 24.3 metres (GMZ west). Other intersections are 1.3 g/t gold over 16.0 metres plus 0.6 g/t gold over 15.0 metres (Richard Zone), 1.4 g/t gold over 14.0 metres (GMZ), 1.0 g/t gold over 11.0 metres plus 24.8 g/t gold over 1.0 metres (GMZ), and 1.5 g/t gold over 42.9 metres (Adrian Zone). Drill holes were drilled in the vicinity of specific existing drill holes that provided a range of assays from low-grade to high-grade.For results of all holes that Galway has drilled at Clarence Stream, go to Galway's website at www.galwaymetalsinc.com New Brunswick Junior Mining Assistance ProgramGalway would like to acknowledge financial support from the New Brunswick Junior Mining Assistance Program, which partially funded drilling of the SW Deposit.Clarence Stream Geology and MineralizationClarence Stream deposits can be characterized as intrusion-related, quartz-vein hosted gold deposits. They contain elevated levels of bismuth and arsenopyrite in multiple quartz veins, with significant antimony in the South and North Zones and tungsten in the vicinity. The Zones contain multiple zones of quartz veining with sulfides and sericite alteration. In general, mineralization at Clarence St
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PORT HUENEME, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 2, 2023 / Yellow banana wigs, boat rides, sounds of a tropical steel drum band and perfect late summer weather got the party started at the Port for the 10th Annual Banana Festival!Welcoming people inside the Port, Oxnard Harbor District President Jess Herrera stated, "The Banana Festival is a way for us to say thank you to our community partners and stakeholders. We are grateful for the wonderful partnership we have with all of you. This festival shows the interest level about the Port of Hueneme is at an all-time high and we can't wait to celebrate your local Port with you today! The reason we exist is for you - to improve your lives." Port Leadership, Partners and Customers on stageEager festival-goers were excited to take part in the Port's famous boat tours of the harbor to get a behind the scenes look at Port operations. As the community explored, they learned that the Port is one of the nation's top six automobile ports and a gateway to move the crops grown here in Ventura County to global trading partners.Waterside ToursOf course, the banana was a big part of the show, being the Port's largest import commodity. Tour attendees also learned that the Port is the Greenest Port in the USA.Electric Vehicle at Banana FestivalIn fact, attendees had the opportunity to observe one of the most advanced zero emissions Heavy Duty trucks in the world. Attendees were able to explore and learn about the Kenworth truck, which is powered by a Toyota hydrogen fuel cell and, when driven, only emits water vapor! It is just one example of the kind of cutting edge zero emission technology that the Port is bringing more of to Ventura County!Zero Emission Truck at Banana Festival"We congratulate our customers and stevedores for leading the way and investing in green technologies along with the Port of Hueneme. Together we are walking closer to our goal of being the first 0 emissions Port in the country," said Vice President of the Board of Oxnard Harbor District Commissioners Celina Zacarias.Port Land ToursThe Port's union labor partners were present at the Festival, showcasing their trades work with the Port of Hueneme. Last July, an unprecedented $79.8 million was awarded to the Port of Hueneme for its strategic PACED (Port Action, Climate, and Environment Development) project. The project's multiple components contribute significant benefits to the Port and our surrounding communities while sustaining supply chain fluidity, flexibility, and resilience, while ensuring continued operational excellence, sustaining, and creating new employment opportunities, improving air and water quality, mitigating the impacts of climate change, and promoting transportation equity and environmental progress. The labor projects for this historic funding will help support local jobs and fund the environmental leadership initiatives at the Port."The Port is a community partner, for generations we've been helping grow the economic opportunities for people with family sustaining jobs and I'm proud that we are now also leading the nation in environmental sustainability," said Oxnard Harbor Commissioner Jess Ramirez.Overview of 10th annual Banana FestivalAttendees danced their way around the Festival celebrating the over 5 billion bananas that come through the Port of Hueneme each year, making it the banana capital of the West Coast. They were treated to free bananas from Dole, Chiquita and Del Monte Fresh, the Port's largest banana importers and major sponsors of the event. Attendees were delighted with banana-inspired foods including banana taffy, deep fried banana fritters, banana-flavored popcorn, banana beignets, chocolate frozen bananas, banana funnel cake - and on the savory side, banana empanadas, banana lumpias and peanut butter banana melts from the grilled cheese truck!Banana pie eating contest"We are pleased to host the 10th annual Banana Festival to celebrate all of our from community, workforce, and customers; they make our port the economic engine that creates prosperity and an astounding $2.4 billion economic impact," said CEO & Port Director Kristin Decas.About the Port of Hueneme The Port of Hueneme is one of the most productive and efficient commercial trade gateways for niche cargo on the West Coast. The Port is governed by five locally elected Port Commissioners. The Port consistently ranks among the top ten U.S. ports for automobiles and fresh produce. Port operations support the community by bringing $2.2 billion in economic activity and creating 20,032 trade-related jobs. Trade through the Port of Hueneme generates more than $173.2 million in direct and related state and local taxes, which fund vital community services. In 2017, the Port of Hueneme became the first port in California to become Green Marine certified and was voted the Greenest Port in the U.S. at the Green Shipping Summit. www.portofh.org Press ContactLetitia AustinPublic & Government Relations Managerlaustin@ portofh.org(805) 271-2205SOURCE: Port of Hueneme
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NEW ORLEANS, LA / ACCESSWIRE / October 2, 2023 / Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until October 23, 2023 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HE), if they purchased the Company's securities between February 28, 2019 and August 16, 2023, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.What You May DoIf you purchased securities of Hawaiian Electric and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email ( lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com) , or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-he/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by October 23, 2023.About the LawsuitHawaiian Electric and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.The alleged false and misleading statements and omissions include, but are not limited to, that: (i) the Company's wildfire prevention and safety protocols and procedures were inadequate to meet the challenges for which they were ostensibly designed; (ii) accordingly, despite knowing the degree of risk that wildfires posed to Maui, the Company's inadequate safety protocols and procedures placed Maui at a heightened risk of devastating wildfires; and (iii) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.The case is Bhangal v. Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc., et al., No. 23-cv-04332.About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCKSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients - including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors - in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California, Louisiana and New Jersey.To learn more about KSF, you may visit http://ksfcounsel.com/ CONTACT:Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCLewis Kahn, Managing Partnerlewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com1-877-515-18501100 Poydras St., Suite 960New Orleans, LA 70163SOURCE: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC, a nationally recognized law firm, notifies investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. ("Hawaiian Electric" or the "Company") (NYSE:HE) and certain of its officers.Class Definition:This lawsuit seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws on behalf of all persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired Hawaiian Electric securities between February 28, 2019 and August 16, 2023, inclusive (the "Class Period"). Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm's site: www.bgandg.com/he Case Details:The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Hawaiian Electric's wildfire prevention and safety protocols and procedures were inadequate to meet the challenges for which they were ostensibly designed; (2) accordingly, despite knowing the degree of risk that wildfires posed to Maui, the Company's inadequate safety protocols and procedures placed Maui at a heightened risk of devastating wildfires; and (3) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.What's Next?A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to review a copy of the Complaint, you can visit the firm's site: www.bgandg.com/he or you may contact Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or his Law Clerk and Client Relations Manager, Yael Nathanson of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 332-239-2660. If you suffered a loss in Hawaiian Electric you have until October 23, 2023 to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff.Why Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman:Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a nationally recognized firm that represents investors in securities fraud class actions and shareholder derivative suits. Our firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors nationwide.Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.Contact:Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLCPeretz Bronstein or Yael Nathanson332-239-2660 | info@ bgandg.com SOURCE: Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC
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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / IBMIBM ImpactIBM has a longstanding commitment to helping build a diverse and inclusive workforce. Last month, IBM announced a commitment to train two million learners in AI by the end of 2026, with a focus on underrepresented communities. And, through IBM SkillsBuild's collaboration with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, we are providing free education and career readiness resources to Hispanics nationwide. Through this collaboration, Hispanic learners are also earning IBM-branded digital credentials that are recognized by the market to create direct pathways to tech jobs.We are inspired by stories from learners like Oscar Ramirez, an immigrant from Mexico who has studied AI and many more courses through IBM SkillsBuild on his path to a career in technology.Oscar arrived in California from Mexico when he was five. "We left because of rising crime and the lack of educational resources," he shared. For years Oscar had no official status in the US, but eventually had the opportunity to apply for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), which allowed him to work and pursue college.Growing up in Silicon Valley, it was almost inevitable that Oscar would be drawn to the world of technology. His family couldn't afford a computer, so they frequented the local library to learn and experiment with computers, ultimately leading him to choose computer science as his major in college. To afford education, Oscar had to work full-time while also attending college full-time since he couldn't access student loans due to his immigration status. It was a demanding path, filled with major life changes, but his determination paid off when he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics and Computational Mathematics from San Jose State University in June 2023.During his last semester of college, Oscar was introduced to IBM SkillsBuild through the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (via the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers). He started taking courses and earning credentials, to better stand out for a great role in a great company."I've taken many IBM SkillsBuild courses and credentials, including AI fundamentals, Cybersecurity, Web Development, Data Analysis, Project Management, and more. What I liked most about the program is that it centralizes a lot of important information and allows you to learn in-depth about the things that most interest you. I like that I can do this as fast or as slow as I want and, in the end, you can have an official way to show people what you've been spending your time doing. I enjoyed going through the learning modules which allow me to distinguish myself as a great candidate for any employer." As a generalist with a wide range of interests, IBM SkillsBuild's career assessment tool helped him identify areas where he could excel and allowed him to dig deeper into learning paths that matched his interests and skills.For peers considering embarking on the IBM SkillsBuild journey, Oscar offers some advice: "If there's anything that you'd be interested in doing that IBM SkillsBuild can offer, take the first step, and start with the courses. It'll paint a clearer picture of what you need to do to get where you want to be." Oscar's story is a testament to the power of determination, hard work, and the opportunities that programs like IBM SkillsBuild can provide. Oscar has transformed his life from being an immigrant with limited resources to someone who's actively shaping their future in the tech industry."We are at an inflection point in the development of technology. AI has the potential to revolutionize many aspects of our lives, and it is important that we ensure that Latinos have the opportunity to participate and become a part of the next generation in technology. That way can ensure that this technology is being used and developed in a way that benefits all people." To learn more about IBM SkillsBuild and AI skills, visit ibmskillsbuild.org View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from IBM on 3 blmedia.com Contact Info:Spokesperson: IBMWebsite: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/ibmEmail: info@3 blmedia.com SOURCE: IBM
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COEUR D'ALENE, ID / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Idaho Strategic Resources, Inc. (NYSE American:IDR) ("IDR", "Idaho Strategic" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the commencement of its drill program and initial high-grade intercepts at the Company's Golden Chest gold mine. This drill program is designed to target both the H-Vein and the Idaho Vein at-depth below the current underground workings.The high-grade drill intercepts announced in today's press release are from the first hole drilled (GC 23-233) and estimated to be approximately 20 meters below the Company's actively mined stopes on the H-Vein. Assay results from the H-Vein intercepts indicate 2.24 meters (m) at 18.7 grams per tonne (gpt) gold which is inclusive of 1.31 m at 28.0 gpt gold, reported in true thickness.Assay results for sample intervals of the H-Vein in hole GC 23-233 are shown in the table below and are reported in drilled and calculated true thickness and in grams of gold per tonne (gpt).HoleTargetFrom (m)To (m)Drilled Interval (m)Calculated true thickness (m)Gold Assay (gpt)GC 23-233H-Vein161.5162.30.80.565.5GC 23-233H-Vein162.3163.421.120.7833.6GC 23-233H-Vein163.42163.90.480.346.33GC 23-233H-Vein163.9164.170.270.1943.3GC 23-233H-Vein164.17164.70.530.375.9Idaho Strategic's VP of Exploration, Rob Morgan commented, "These are some of the best intercepts we have ever seen in the H-Vein. My first thought after receiving the results from the lab was that our stakeholders would appreciate hearing about these intercepts. Not only are they impressive, but they are also below our current operations, and we look forward to mining these ounces within the next year. In addition to the H-Vein providing the bulk of our current production, the hangingwall geology is being studied for the possibility of other similar veins nearby." The H-Vein is located in the hangingwall of the Idaho Fault, which is why it is referred to as the H-Vein. Previous drilling by IDR identified this vein zone when drilling for targets along the Idaho Vein. The H-Vein system consists of both banded quartz vein, and the adjacent silica-flooded zone. The banded vein exhibits abundant visible gold with associated pyrite, galena, chalcopyrite, and sphalerite. Initial production from the H-Vein began in April 2023 and the Company has continued to prioritize production from this area while simultaneously filling-in with production from the Idaho Vein as backfill cycles and mine development allow. Idaho Strategic plans to complete a 12-hole drill program at the Golden Chest mine this fall season. The goal of this drill plan is to add immediate ounces ahead of the Company's current mine production, where existing infrastructure and support is readily available and/or already in-place.H-vein core intercepts of gold-bearing quartz vein and brecciaQualified personIDR's Vice President of Exploration, Rob Morgan, PG, PLS is a qualified person as such term is defined under S-K 1300 and has reviewed and approved the technical information and data included in this press release. All reported assays are 30-gram fire assays with a gravimetric finish completed by American Analytical, Inc. of Osburn, Idaho. A Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/AC) program includes a series of blank, standard, and duplicate sample assays for verification and quality control.About Idaho Strategic Resources, Inc.Domiciled in Idaho and headquartered in the Panhandle of northern Idaho, Idaho Strategic Resources (IDR) is one of the few resource-based companies (public or private) possessing the combination of officially recognized U.S. domestic rare earth elements properties (in Idaho), the largest known concentration of thorium resources in the U.S., and Idaho-based gold production located in an established mining community.Idaho Strategic Resources produces gold at the Golden Chest Mine located in the Murray Gold Belt (MGB) area of the world-class Coeur d'Alene Mining District, north of the prolific Silver Valley. With over 7,300 acres of patented and unpatented land, the Company has the largest private land position in the area following its consolidation of the Murray Gold Belt for the first time in over 100-years.In addition to gold and gold production, the Company maintains an important strategic presence in the U.S. Critical Minerals sector, specifically focused on the more "at-risk" Rare Earth Elements (REEs) with an overall land position of approximately 18,030 acres in Idaho's REE-Th Belt. The Company's Lemhi Pass, Diamond Creek, and Mineral Hill REE properties are included the U.S. national REE inventory as listed in USGS, IGS and DOE publications. IDR's Lemhi Pass REE-Thorium Project is also recognized by the USGS and IGS as containing the largest concentration of thorium resources in the country. All three projects are located in central Idaho and participating in the USGS Earth MRI program.With an impressive mix of experience and dedication, the folks at IDR maintain a long-standing "We Live Here" approach to corporate culture, land management, and historic preservation. Furthermore, it is our belief that successful operations begin with the heightened responsibility that only local oversight and a community mindset can provide. Its "everyone goes home at night" policy would not be possible without the multi-generational base of local exploration, drilling, mining, milling, and business professionals that reside in and near the communities of the Silver Valley and North Idaho.For more information on Idaho Strategic Resources click here for our corporate presentation, go to www.idahostrategic.com or call:Travis Swallow, Investor Relations & Corporate DevelopmentEmail: tswallow@ idahostrategic.comPhone: (208) 625-9001Forward Looking StatementsThis release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended that are intended to be covered by the safe harbor created by such sections. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by forward-looking words such as "intends, "potential", "believe", "plans", "expects", "may", "goal", "assume", "estimate", "anticipate", and "will" or similar words suggesting future outcomes, or other expectations, beliefs, assumptions, intentions, or statements about future events or performance. The forward-looking statement information above, and those following are applicable to both this press release, as well as the links contained within this press rel
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Family-Owned Business Grows from One Delivery Station Wagon to 45-Truck Fleet as Largest Metal Supplier to California and ArizonaLOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Third generation family-owned Industrial Metal Supply Co. (IMS) is proud to celebrate 75 years in business. What started as a single storefront in Burbank, California in 1948 has grown to become one of the largest metal distributors in California and Arizona by serving customers in industries ranging from manufacturing and aerospace to technology, telecommunications, medical devices, fabricators, artists, engineers and contractors with same-day access to an extensive array of metals and accessories at seven locations.Industrial Metal Supply Ribbon Cutting "We're proud and humbled to see how far IMS has come in 75 years, and don't take this longevity, or our valued team members dedication for granted," said IMS CEO Neil Sherman. "IMS customers expect the highest quality materials, unmatched customer service and convenience from our team, and we're proud to exceed their expectations at each of our locations while recognizing this milestone wouldn't be possible without their long-term loyalty." Founders Norman and Sally Sherman started IMS using their 1940s Pontiac station wagon to pick up and deliver metal to nearby businesses during the day, and to transport their growing family at night. Norman's knack for finding deals and Sally's head for marketing combined to create an ambitious business plan catering to the glitzy demands of Hollywood and aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Aircraft. The nearby movie studios needed metal, and IMS was their behind-the-scenes supplier, meeting every demand of production. From movie sets to silver screens, their metal became part of the magic of movies.The business expanded quickly under the guidance of their son, Neil, whose desire for growth led to the opening of a second IMS branch in 1989, in nearby Irvine, California. By the late 80s and early 90s new IMS branches sprouted up in San Diego, Phoenix and Riverside. In 2012, Tucson joined the family. IMS currently uses a fleet of 45 trucks to transport thousands of pounds of metal from seven locations in two states.More recently, a focused investment in technology, equipment and innovation has allowed IMS to expand to new cities, while continuing to provide exceptional customer service and wide product availability to its customers. San Jose opened in 2022 marking IMS's first presence in Northern California. In early 2023, responding to Arizona's technology and manufacturing boom, the Phoenix branch more than doubled in size, moving into a new 160,000 square foot warehouse including a 15,000-square-foot retail store. Still family owned, IMS prides itself on a welcoming business culture, revolutionary operations and providing expedited order fulfillment and easy to shop storefronts stocked with metals for businesses and hobbyists alike."We pay close attention to the changing needs of our diverse customers and their business climates to ensure we're helping make their jobs easier through our partnerships," added Sherman. "This continued focus on innovation as needs and industries evolve is a big part of our long-term success." The tremendous variety of IMS products available to customers includes steel, aluminum, stainless steel, copper, brass, tool steel, lead and bearing bronze. Other items include expanded, perforated and welded wire sheet, casters, welding accessories, ornamental iron, patinas, structural aluminum pipe fittings and hobbyist miniature shapes. IMS stores also stock thousands of metal accessories in a clean, organized indoor space, making it easy for novice metal buyers to navigate.Sherman concluded, "In addition to providing the highest level of product and customer service, our team is steadfast in our commitment to the community. We seek out and support local charities, high school and college robotics clubs, F1 and Baja college racing and engineering teams." Learn more https://www.industrialmetalsupply.com or call (602) 454-1500.Contact InformationHeather Austin PR for IMS heather@ theferrarogroup.com 602-738-9252SOURCE: Industrial Metal Supply
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GREENSBORO, NC and ANGUILLA, BRITISH WEST INDIES / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / AT Research Partners is pleased to announce the issuance of US Patent #11,771,125 for a natural serotonin stimulant for appetite appeasement and weight loss, called Lactova.Overweightness is not an invincible predator. Its causes surround us in plain sight. The epidemic is endemic to ordinary, perfectly normal biology. In cultures of abundant food and universal access to it, perceptions of hunger are often manifested as "food noise" with predictable outcomes.Food noise is an amorphous sensation that leads to random eating that triggers hormones that stimulate more perceived hunger. This cycle eventually leads to the accumulation of adipose tissues, or bodily fat deposits.The solution is "Targeted Eating" - which is so fundamental to addressing the obesity epidemic that AT Research Partners have trademarked this term to complement this newly patented nutraceutical. By stimulating intestinal serotonin production, Lactova can provide a path to enjoying a daily unrestricted, satisfying meal and help restore a natural circadian rhythm.In a "real world" feasibility study, most initial subjects were reporting consistent weight loss, but a larger study is needed for commercial performance claims to be established."Trying to optimize my patients' weight in preparation for aesthetic and reconstructive procedures has been one of the greatest challenges in my practice for many years," said co-inventor, Dr. Lowell Hughes, whose patients have been participating in the feasibility study. "While the GLP-1 agonists have exploded with impressive weight loss effects, an increasingly concerning litany of reported side effects - and given our early results - are compelling reasons to recommend Targeted Eating and Lactova as a first line of treatment. It is a safe option for anyone who needs to lose stubborn pounds to manage their health and live a longer, more active life." "Lactova is ready for a commercialization partner at a critical time," said lead inventor, Terry Brady, who has been awarded several patents for his previous innovations. "The media is in a frenzy over the injectable weight loss drugs, but the cost, supply issues, and requirements for chronic therapy are challenges for many people. Frightening press about side effects like malnutrition and lost food gratification are also making an urgent case for a totally new approach." At this juncture, with this newly issued patent, AT Research Partners is seeking seed capital and/or divestiture for commercialization to offer a safe, affordable, sustainable "cure" to obesity - without chronic therapy.For more information, please visit: www.Lactova.com and www.ATResearchPartners.com # # #About A.T. Research PartnersA.T. Research Partners is dedicated to the development of intellectual property. Visit www.atresearchpartners.com to learn more about their expertise, achievements, and intellectual property portfolio.Lactova is a trademark of A.T. Research Partners and has been awarded US Patent (USPTO Patent No. 11,771,125) entitled, "Concentrated Nutritional or Supplemental Compound for Intestinal, Gut-Brain Axis and Neurobiological Homeostasis through Calibrated Absorption Including Neurotransmitter or Any Equilibrating Compound Release to Treat or Mitigate Disease and Co-morbidities." Targeted Eating is a trademark of A.T. Research Partners.Contact: AT Research Partners (atresearchpartners@ gmail.com; +1-336-217-5163)Lactova is a Natural Serotonin Stimulant for Appetite Control and Healthy Weight Loss through Targeted Eating. Linking Brain, Body, and Environment: In a world of abundance, "food noise" can trigger overconsumption that leads to weight gain and obesity. By gently stimulating serotonin production, Lactova provides safe appetite appeasement, helping to align with natural circadian rhythms and enable healthy, targeted eating. SOURCE: AT Research Partners
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Business North Carolina Recognizes CEO of Regenerative Medicine Franchise as a Growth LeaderCHARLOTTE, NC / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / QC Kinetix, a fast-growing regenerative medicine franchise that offers a cutting-edge, non-surgical alternative to joint and pain relief, is proud to announce that Chief Executive Officer, Scott Hoots, was named CEO of the Year in the Growth Division by Business North Carolina magazine. This prestigious accolade was awarded at the annual NC CEO Summit held at Pinehurst Resort on October 2-3.QC Kinetix CEO Scott Hoots Hoots joined the QC Kinetix corporate team as Chief Operating Officer in 2020, taking the reins as CEO in 2022. In his first year as CEO, QC Kinetix has experienced remarkable growth, with system-wide sales growing to $100.5 million, marking a 260% growth in 2022. Clinic growth soared by 145% last year as well. It is easy to see why he was chosen as CEO of the Year in the Growth Division."I am both humbled and honored to receive this recognition from Business North Carolina magazine," said Scott Hoots. "This award is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire QC Kinetix team. Our success is a collective effort, and I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved together. As we continue to expand our footprint, we remain committed to improving people's quality of life by delivering exceptional care to our patients and robust support to our franchisees." The Charlotte-based company was founded in 2017, began franchising in 2020, and has more than 170 regenerative medicine clinic locations from coast to coast. QC Kinetix clinics offer an effective, non-surgical treatment option for patients using the latest natural, regenerative therapies and treatments. These innovative approaches have positively transformed the lives of countless individuals, alleviating joint discomfort, chronic pain, and mobility challenges.The NC CEO Summit is a two-day gathering of North Carolina's top decision-makers, offering a platform for networking, panel discussions, and shared insights on leadership and company engagement. The event highlights the collaborative spirit and innovative mindset that propels the state's business community forward."A committee of our CEO Summit Board members conducts an exhaustive look into which CEOs have innovated and grown their company over the past year. We are very excited about this year's CEO of the Year group," said Ben Kinney, Publisher, Business North Carolina Magazine.For more information about QC Kinetix and its franchise opportunities, visit www.qckinetix.com.Media Contact:Jennifer Williams919.459.3592jwilliams@919marketing.com About QC KinetixQC Kinetix is a franchise company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, leading the way in promoting an active lifestyle through comprehensive regenerative medicine treatments designed to address musculoskeletal conditions and joint pain. QC Kinetix leverages the body's inherent healing properties through state-of-the-art natural biologic treatments, offering alternatives to invasive surgery and addictive pain medications. With rapid expansion underway throughout the United States, the healthcare franchise currently operates in over 75 cities. QC Kinetix clinics are committed to maximizing the body's ability to alleviate pain and restore health from within, significantly enhancing overall function and quality of life. For more information, please visit www.qckinetix.com ###SOURCE: QC Kinetix
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ALISO VIEJO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Ringler Associates announced today that Gerardo Monroy has been named President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) succeeding Peter Jachym who becomes Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Directors effective immediately. Gerardo and Peter will work closely together to ensure a smooth transition and to enable the organization to keep the strong growth momentum experienced in 2023.Mr. Monroy brings to Ringler Associates 30 years of well-rounded business experience. With more than 20 years of Financial Services experience, he has worked closely with all sales and distribution channels and has special appreciation and expertise in working collaboratively with both independent distribution channels and large field organizations. Mr. Monroy most recently worked at Aflac as the SVP, Innovation Strategy & Execution and Business Owner of Empowered Benefits (a wholly owned Aflac subsidiary based in Charlotte, NC.) Before Aflac, Mr. Monroy worked at CNO Financial in various Executive Leadership roles, his last two being CNO's Chief Marketing Officer and President of Colonial Penn Life Insurance. Prior to joining the Financial Services Industry, Mr. Monroy played leadership roles in the USA, Europe and Latin America at Carrier Corporation/United Technologies and Procter & Gamble. Mr. Monroy earned a BA in public accounting from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico) and an MBA from Harvard University."It is a tremendous honor and privilege to join the Ringler Associates family as its new President and CEO. With a vision of accelerated growth and diversification, we will strongly position Ringler for further success for many years to come," said Mr. Monroy.Mr. Jachym said of the transition, "It has been an honor to have served as Ringler's President and Chief Executive Officer on an interim basis for the past sixteen months. As a member of the Search Committee of the Board of Directors, I developed an understanding of Gerardo's great experience and energy, as well as his insights and vision for Ringler's business. I am confident in Gerardo's ability to manage and grow our business and I look forward to working with him." Brian Farrell, Chairman of the Ringler Board of Directors, commented, "With his broad business experience and, in particular, his successful management of organizations with independent producers, Gerardo Monroy's acumen and energy will help drive Ringler to future growth and success. I would also like to thank Peter Jachym for his excellent leadership and stewardship as interim President and CEO. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am pleased to extend a warm welcome and best wishes for success to Gerardo Monroy as Ringler's next President and CEO." Contact InformationAndrea Haupert Director of Marketing Communications ahaupert@ ringlerassociates.com303-669-6053 Related ImagesGerardo MonroySOURCE: Ringler Associates
Canada sought Tuesday to maintain its full diplomatic presence in India after New Delhi reportedly ordered Ottawa to withdraw 40 diplomats in a dispute over the killing of a Sikh separatist.

Relations between Delhi and Ottawa deteriorated sharply two weeks ago when Canada raised the possibility of Indian government involvement in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar near Vancouver in June.

"In moments of tensions, because indeed there are tensions between both our governments, more than ever it's important that diplomats be on the ground," foreign minister Melanie Joly told reporters.

"And that's why we believe in the importance of having a strong diplomatic footprint in India."

She spoke after the Financial Times reported that Canada had been instructed by India to repatriate around 40 diplomats by October 10.

Joly would not confirm the report, saying instead that the dialogue with New Delhi was taking place "privately."

"We are in good ongoing conversations with the Indian government," she said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the situation as "extremely difficult."

"We're not looking to escalate. As I've said, we are going to be doing the work that matters in continuing to have constructive relations with India," he said Tuesday.

The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also declined to comment on the report.

Describing Ottawa's accusations over the killing as "absurd," the Indian government has advised its nationals against traveling to parts of Canada and has temporarily stopped processing visa applications to Canada.

Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former senior Canadian intelligence official, said Ottawa was under pressure to reveal its evidence behind the assassination claim.

"Canada is in a bad position because of Mr Trudeau's inaction," he told AFP.

Canada is home to some 770,000 Sikhs, with a vocal group voicing support for creating a separate state of Khalistan in India.

The Sikh separatist movement has largely dissipated within India where security forces used deadly force to put down an insurgency in the 1980s.

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NEW ORLEANS, LA / ACCESSWIRE / October 2, 2023 / Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until October 19, 2023 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE:FOUR), if they purchased the Company's securities between November 10, 2021 and April 18, 2023, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.What You May DoIf you purchased securities of Shift4 and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email ( lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com) , or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-four/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by October 19, 2023.About the LawsuitShift4 and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.On April 19, 2023, Blue Orca Capital reported that "Shift4 [is], in reality, a roll-up of low-tech POS systems and payment processors which is substantially less profitable, generates far less cash, and is materially more levered than investors are led to believe," and that in 2022, the Company "engaged in a string of highly questionable and hyper-aggressive accounting maneuvers seemingly designed to keep the stock afloat, from cash flow manipulation to inexplicable distributor acquisitions that enabled it to capitalize a major component of COGS [cost of goods sold]."On this news, shares of Shift4 fell $5.95 per share, or 8.68%, to close at $62.59 per share on April 19, 2023.The case is O'Meara v. Shift4 Payments, Inc., et al., No. 23-cv-03206.About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCKSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients - including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors - in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California, Louisiana and New Jersey.To learn more about KSF, you may visit http://ksfcounsel.com/ Contact:Kahn Swick & Foti, LLCLewis Kahn, Managing Partnerlewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com1-877-515-18501100 Poydras St., Suite 960New Orleans, LA 70163SOURCE: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
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Leading automated referral management (ARM) provider now empowers staffing agencies to leverage their digital network to grow their customer baseDENVER, CO / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Staffing Referrals, the #1 automated referral management (ARM) platform for the staffing industry, is launching a new Client Referral feature to help agencies increase their job orders. With this feature, Staffing Referrals becomes the only complete end-to-end referral automation platform designed for agencies to get more customers as well as more candidates.Staffing Referrals enables agencies to make their talent pool a competitive advantage by turning the contractors they work with into brand ambassadors who refer their family, friends, and colleagues for jobs. The new Client Referrals feature allows these agencies to leverage their unique ambassador networks even further to grow their book of business."I'm thrilled to announce the release of Client Referrals because it represents a significant step forward in empowering our customers to differentiate their services by turning their talent pool into a competitive advantage," said Staffing Referrals President and CEO David Folwell. "Historically, it's been difficult for agencies to stand out from the crowd, and yet one completely unique asset that every agency has is their proprietary network. With Staffing Referrals, agencies can already find talent they can't reach on job boards, and now they can also access job orders that only their network knows about." Key benefits of Client Referrals:Grow sales: Get access to job orders that only your network knows aboutIncrease productivity: Automate the ask for new client referralsImprove ambassador experience: Provide transparency with real-time referral tracking"Our team already promotes our use of Staffing Referrals to showcase our access to a unique talent network, and now with Client Referrals, we'll be able to use that network to find new customers," said Dan Mastropolo, Chief Vision Officer at Shiftfillers."With the consumerization of employment, talent now expects their entire experience with agencies to be as transparent and seamless as it is with Uber and DoorDash. The referral process is no exception and aligns with the changes we are seeing in this new value system. If you're not providing transparency to your ambassadors with real-time referral tracking, not only are you behind the times, but your talent will go to a competitor that offers the experience they're looking for," commented Andre Mileti, Product Evangelist - Talent Experience at Bullhorn.Staffing Referrals customers can reach out to their account representatives or get on the waitlist to learn more about the new feature.About Staffing ReferralsAs the #1 automated referral management (ARM) platform, Staffing Referrals helps agencies turn their talent pool into a competitive advantage. Founded in 2017, the staffing software elevates the candidate experience, reduces agency dependency on job boards, and eliminates administrative workload. Staffing Referrals is integrated with leading applicant tracking systems (ATSs) including Bullhorn, Avionte, TargetRecruit, JobDiva and LaborEdge.To learn more about Staffing Referrals and to request a demo of the software, visit https://staffingreferrals.com/ Contact:Email: sales@ staffingreferrals.comPhone: (800) 496-1727SOURCE: Staffing Referrals, Inc.
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Experience the cutting-edge as TBo leads co-creation, empowering consumers to shape design. The ingenious rewards program that gamifies engagement and encourages informed choices was unveiled on August 30, 2023. Brace for a journey beyond NFT badges, where community involvement redefines brand-consumer dynamics and transforms undergarments into a nexus of collaboration.ZURICH, SWITZERLAND / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / TBo, a trailblazer in co-creation, is venturing into uncharted territory, granting consumers unprecedented control over design decisions. But their vision extends beyond this pioneering effort.Men's Underwear Mens Bamboo Boxer Briefs, Trunks and Briefs available at TBo On September 30, 2023, TBo introduced its groundbreaking community rewards program in collaboration with Decommerce. This program goes above and beyond, showcasing TBo's unwavering commitment to its community. What sets it apart is its ingenious gamification strategy, designed not just to incentivize engagement but also to educate users about the platform and its offerings, empowering them to make informed choices.The program rollout is divided into several phases, each building on the last. The first phase introduces NFT (Not for Trade) badges, earned through completing tasks and active participation on the community platform. But this is just the beginning.Subsequent phases will seamlessly merge co-creation principles with gamified learning, creating an immersive, community-centric experience. In true TBo fashion, their vision extends far beyond the ordinary. Upcoming stages will engage men in the underwear design process as active contributors, offering a range of exclusive rewards exclusively within the community.TBo's strides in the co-creation space represent a paradigm shift in the way businesses engage with their customers. By placing consumers at the heart of the design process, they not only tap into a wellspring of creative potential but also establish a profound sense of ownership and belonging. The inception of the rewards program serves as a natural progression of TBo's community-centric philosophy, amplifying the sense of camaraderie among its members.At its core, TBo's approach is not solely about undergarments; it's about building a thriving ecosystem founded on collaboration, knowledge sharing, and mutual benefit. By gamifying the rewards program and integrating it with co-creation principles, TBo not only incentivizes engagement but also nurtures a community of discerning consumers who are empowered to make choices aligned with their preferences and values.Looking ahead, TBo's ambitious plans will continue to redefine the boundaries of customer involvement and loyalty. As the phases unfold, participants will find themselves not only adorning NFT badges but also reaping the unique benefits of active participation. Through this inventive blend of community engagement and innovative design, TBo is not just revolutionizing underwear; they are reshaping the future of brand-consumer relationships.Contact InformationSumarie EngelbrechtManagersumarie.engelbrecht@tbo.clothing SOURCE: TBo
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DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / October 2, 2023 / Element by Vesti proudly launched its official digital banking app that allows users from other countries to open a US bank account. Designed for founders and start-ups, the app was originally launched at Lagos Start-Up Week 2023. The launch highlights Element by Vesti's commitment to empowering immigrants and fostering financial inclusion on a global scale.Photo Credits: Baycarl PhotographyThe immersive experience featured an engaging keynote address by Vesti's Co-Founders, CEO Olusola Amusan and COO Abimbola Amusan, unveiling the remarkable features of the Element by Vesti app. It also featured power-packed entrepreneurial and investor panels, dynamic fireside chats, along with an interactive Q&A session. The event concluded with a networking reception, connecting global entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and visionaries all under one roof.In the next five years, Element by Vesti aims to have five million entrepreneurs and companies utilizing the Element by Vesti app. Element by Vesti is a digital banking solution for US and Europe-bound start-ups. This new solution means that businesses can expand their reach to new markets without having to worry about location-based barriers. Element by Vesti is specifically designed for business founders, entrepreneurs, high-net-worth individuals, and global leaders with registered businesses in the United States and Europe, setting it apart from Vesti's flagship offerings, the Vesti GlobalGeng Cards (Physical and Virtual Dollar Cards), available to all Vesti account holders.Photo Credits: Baycarl PhotographyFeatures of the Element by Vesti app include:A remarkable "send money" functionality, enabling users to effortlessly transfer funds to US bank accounts or other US dollar-denominated accounts. This feature also facilitates Element-to-Element transfers, allowing users to send money to other Element app users using their unique usernames.The "add money" feature empowers users to easily deposit funds into their Element accounts using debit cards from their home countries. Users with existing US bank cards or accounts can effortlessly link them to their Element accounts. Vesti users who share the same email address for both their Vesti and Element accounts can seamlessly transfer funds from their Vesti USD wallet to their Element accounts.The convenience of virtual cards for smooth online transactions and physical cards for in-person purchases, generating payment invoices and creating payment links.Photo Credits: Baycarl Photography"Through extensive research and development, we have created a product that will truly transform the lifestyle of business owners who are North America-bound. Element brings together cutting-edge technology and user-centric design to empower our target audience with unmatched banking capabilities tailored for innovative companies. Element is like Brex for African founders that are US Bound," - Olusola Amusan, Co-founder and CEO of Vesti.The Element by Vesti app is now available for download starting today on the App Store. For more details on each feature of Element by Vesti, please visit our website at https://wevesti.com/element ABOUT VESTIFounded by two brothers who immigrated to the United States, Vesti is a company with a unique blend of African and US-based investors. It proudly hosts a vibrant community of ambitious individuals who symbolize the upcoming generation of innovators and pioneers. Specializing in tailored payment solutions, Vesti simplifies the often complex process of immigration and offers a range of financial services to those relocating to the United States and other prominent destinations across North America and Europe. Vesti envisions becoming the primary destination for legal and financial services for the next billion immigrants. The company is steadfastly dedicated to becoming the preferred platform for immigrants even before they embark on their journey, providing crucial information, fostering a supportive community, and ensuring a seamless transition for newcomers.For more information, visit our website here.ABOUT ELEMENT BY VESTIElement is a digital banking solution that eliminates location as a barrier for businesses. With Element, businesses can open a US bank account with their native KYC, get a credit card, and start transacting from Day 1. This means that businesses can expand their reach to new markets without having to worry about location-based barriers. Element is a fast, easy, and affordable way for businesses to grow their international operations.For more information, visit our website here.ABOUT THE CO-FOUNDERSOlusola (Olu) Amusan, Co-founder and CEO at Vesti, is a distinguished figure in technology and entrepreneurship. As an Artificial Intelligence Evangelist and Disruptor, he has significantly influenced the industry. Olu's achievements include training over 1000 Junior AI Experts and founding Coven Works Inc., a venture-backed by major tech players, addressing critical issues through technology. Leading VESTI, a Neobank for immigrants, Olu's impact on the migration fintech industry is profound and far-reaching.Abimbola Amusan, Co-founder and COO at Vesti, is a prominent figure in Nigeria's entrepreneurial sphere, boasting exceptional achievements. With a valuation of $17.5 million, Vesti stands as a testament to Abimbola's prowess in the tech industry and immigration law. He is a member of the Forbes Business Council and also the driving force behind successful ventures like Plush Magazine, Partyvendors.com , Kings Ride, and the Bimbo Amusan Foundation, showcasing his dynamic leadership and commitment to positive change.MEDIA CONTACTS:Country: USAName: Erika EnyoluDesignation: Senior Platform/Marketing EvangelistCompany: Element by VestiEmail: erika@ wevesti.comPhone: 469 569 1940Website: https://wevesti.com/element Country: NigeriaName: Ifeoluwa Ariyo-AgbajeDesignation: Partnerships and Communications LeadCompany: Element by VestiEmail: ife@ wevesti.comPhone: +234 813 4025438Website: https://wevesti.com/element SOURCE: Element by Vesti
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HOLLYWOOD, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Charlie Walk is one of the rare individuals who have managed to make a mark across multiple industries. His impressive career is testament to his strong connections and unique set of skills. What sets him apart is his deep sense of curiosity, which he brings to the fore in his Walk This Way podcast. As a background in music, Charlie approaches each episode with the enthusiasm of an explorer, delving into topics across a wide range of industries, always bringing insightful information to his listeners. From music to fashion, to politics, Charlie's podcast is a must-listen for anyone who wants to stay informed and entertained.In a recent episode of the Walk this Way Podcast, listeners are welcomed to a fascinating conversation between Charlie Walk and Bob Roth, CEO of the David Lynch Foundation. This discussion focuses on the practice and benefits of Transcendental Meditation, a practice that has gained much attention in the health and wellness world. Research has shown that this unique meditation technique can significantly reduce stress levels and anxiety, lower risk of heart disease, and decrease cortisol levels. It's no surprise that some of the world's most thriving celebrities have turned to Bob to learn the art of TM.Bob Roth, defines Transcendental Meditation, (TM), to Charlie Walk as a natural and effortless technique. It involves sitting comfortably in a chair with your eyes closed for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day. During this period, your body gains a state of rest that is deeper than the deepest part of deep sleep, as evidenced by published research. At the same time, your brain's mental activity settles down to a unique state of restful alertness. From a medical standpoint, this is breakthrough information. It shows that the body can take profoundly deep rest. The benefits of that 15 to 20 minute period include a reduction of the stress hormone. If you get a good night's sleep, cortisol drops by 10%. In contrast, 20 minutes of Transcendental Meditation drops cortisol by 30 to 40%. This translates into less anxiety, less depression, better sleep, more resilience, and less getting your buttons pushed during the day. Additionally, it wakes up the creative networks in the brain. With so many benefits, Transcendental Meditation is rapidly gaining popularity worldwide.Bob Roth provides an analogy of how Transcendental Meditation works stating, "During Transcendental Meditation.. I like to use the analogy of an ocean where we have choppy waves on the surface. But there's a vertical demand but the ocean is two miles deep. The ocean is not just choppy waves on the surface, the ocean is actually silent at its depth. And the mind is very similar to that. The active thinking mind some people call it the monkey mind I got to do this. And I got to do that. And I gotta calm lifeIt's a natural human desire to say whoa, I'd like to have some inner calm, some inner clarity, some inner subtleness, some inner peace. I'm not talking about something out there just inside and the operative word there is inner Transcendental Meditation says those waves are fine. Thoughts are fine. The silence is at the depths of the mind. So we hypothesize that deep within every human being right now there's a level where your mind is already settled and peaceful and calm and wide awake. We've lost access to it. It's in me and when I access that A whole constellation of changes take place in the brain and body." Bob Roth is a man who has experienced first-hand the transformative power of meditation. As the CEO of The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, he has witnessed the profound impact that Transcendental Meditation (TM) can have on both individuals and communities. Roth's dedication to this cause has led him to help bring this practice to schools throughout the world, helping children and young adults achieve greater peace and focus. In his candid conversation with Charlie on this episode, Roth opens up about his own background and childhood, providing a fascinating glimpse into the life of a man who has made it his mission to make the world a more mindful, peaceful place. If you're interested in learning more about Roth's journey and the power of TM, be sure to give the full episode a listen on apple podcasts, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/meditation-star-chip-transcendental-meditation-godfather/id1630208810?i=1000587412630 Are you looking for a podcast that can help you unlock your inner potential? Look no further than Charlie Walk's Walk this Way, the podcast that covers everything from law to medicine and business. With each episode, you'll have the opportunity to hear from inspiring individuals who have achieved great success in their respective fields. Whether you're looking to start your own business or simply want to gain a deeper understanding of the world around you, Walk this Way has something for everyone.Discover new episodes here: https://walk-this-way.simplecast.com Learn More about Charlie Walk: https://www.charliewalk.comEmail: powder@ aspenartists.comhttps://www.instagram.com/charliewalk/https://www.aspenartists.com SOURCE: Charlie Walk
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STAMFORD, CT / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Webster Bank is pleased to announce its recognition as a Corporate Citizen of the Year by Long Island Business News in the publication's 2023 Corporate Citizenship Awards.Long Island Business News annually publishes this list to showcase companies that promote and prioritize giving back to the Long Island community. Corporate Citizenship honorees are recognized for their impact on multiple nonprofit organizations through financial contributions, fundraising and volunteer efforts."We are honored to be recognized by Long Island Business Journal for our support of the many organizations that work to create opportunity and economic vitality on Long Island," said Marissa Weidner, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer at Webster. "As a values-driven organization, we are proud to support the communities we serve throughout our footprint." Webster Bank, whose contributions are made by the corporation as well as its charitable foundation, will be honored along with fellow honorees at the LIBN's Corporate Citizenship Awards on September 19 at Crest Hollow Country Club, Woodbury, New York.About WebsterWebster Bank ("Webster") is a leading commercial bank in the Northeast that provides a wide range of digital and traditional financial solutions across three differentiated lines of business: Commercial Banking, Consumer Banking and its HSA Bank division, one of the country's largest providers of employee benefits solutions. Headquartered in Stamford, CT, Webster is a values-driven organization with more than $70 billion in assets. Its core footprint spans the northeastern U.S. from New York to Massachusetts, with certain businesses operating in extended geographies. Webster Bank is a member of the FDIC and an equal housing lender. For more information about Webster, including our latest annual report, please visit our About page. To find our latest press releases, visit the Webster Newsroom.View original content hereView additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Webster Bank on 3 blmedia.com Contact Info:Spokesperson: Webster BankWebsite: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/webster-bankEmail: info@3 blmedia.com SOURCE: Webster Bank
VFD Group, an investment firm, will list its shares on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) in the days ahead after receiving the go-ahead to do so, the investment firm said Tuesday in a statement seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

About four months in the making, the move could help the firm gain more visibility and prestige by being listed on Africas second-largest stock exchange, where it can tap capital from the investing public through public offer or private placement.

The firm is on course to raise N32.5 billion from a blend of equity and debt, with N12.5 billion planned to be sourced through the sale of shares to existing shareholders.

This listing will give us greater access to capital markets and will help us achieve our strategic goals for growth and expansion, said CEO Nonso Okpala.

Last week, the firm exited the NASD OTC Securities Exchange, where its shares were traded over the counter, after nearly four years in move to list on the Nigerian Exchange.

VFD Groups portfolio investments span nine sectors including technology, finance, real estate, telecoms and oil & gas.

The company acquired a 5.2 per cent stake in the NGX last January, which fell to 5 per cent at the end of the year, making it the exchanges third-biggest shareholder.

VFDs listing is coming when the stock exchange sees a flurry of exits by quoted companies, the latest being last weeks announcement to quit by Capital Hotels.

Energy firm Ardova delisted its shares last July to explore private ownership, while the exit of Union Bank, Oando and PZ Cussons is in the works.

Listing on the Nigerian Exchange Limited will increase our visibility and broaden our reach, allowing us to attract new investors and deepen relationships with our existing investors, said Babatunde Busari, chair of VFDs directors board.

READ ALSO: Nigerian Exchange proposes dollar securities for companies battling forex crunch

We are excited about the opportunities ahead and remain committed to delivering value to our shareholders, he added.

The groups funds under management surged to N55.7 billion in the quarter to June compared to N29.7 billion one quarter prior.

According to its financial report, net profit for the period stood at N3.5 billion, 16 times higher than that of the preceding quarter.

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Luxury womens fashion brand DWL, founded by Nigerian designer Ivie Odemwingie-Osula, has been accepted into the Scale7 Fashion Accelerator programme funded by Qatar Development Bank (QDB).

Based in Qatar with operations in Lagos and Doha, DWL, an acronym for Defining Womens Lifestyle, was selected alongside nine other prominent Qatar-based fashion and design brands for the programme, which kicked off on 18 September.

The programme involves the provision of specialised mentorship, business development activities and funding.

Scale7 is the first fashion and design business incubator in Qatar, founded by Qatar Development Bank (QDB) in partnership with M7, Qatars epicentre for innovation and entrepreneurship in design, fashion and tech.

Established by Qatar Museums under the leadership of Her Excellency Sheikha Al-Mayassa, M7 responds to the demands of Qatars growing fashion and design industries.

It aims to support Qatar-based promising innovative entrepreneurs with huge market potential to grow their businesses into iconic global fashion and design brands.

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We are thrilled to have DWL selected for the prestigious Scale7 fashion accelerator program after a rigorous selection process, said Ivie Odemwingie-Osula in a statement.

This recognition not only validates our vision and hard work but also provides us with unparalleled opportunities for mentorship, networking, and capacity growth towards positioning DWL as a competitive global brand.

Impact

On how the support from Qatar Development Bank will impact her business, she said, undoubtedly, the government of Qatar will enhance the status of the DWL brand to increase their operations and growth globally.

For us at DWL, the Business Accelerator Programme will amplify our capabilities, allowing us to refine our strategies and scale faster for enhanced brand presence, increased capacity, streamlined operations, and a wider reach and audience. We are excited for the journey ahead and its positive impact on the DWL brand and community.

Surulere to Doha

DWL is a luxury female fashion brand that offers unique designs that present a fusion between modest fashion and Western contemporary trends and helps women use the power of dressing as a tool to project confidence and an amplified version of themselves.

Established in 2017 in the bustling Surulere neighbourhood of Lagos State, the now famous luxury DWL brand makes ready-to-wear and bespoke blazer sets for women from internationally sourced fabrics and accessories, initially imported ready-made dresses.

DWL has emerged as a synonym for womens lifestyle. Personalities that have regularly donned DWL brands include Owen Omogiafo, CEO of Transcorp Group, Funke Bucknor of Zapphaire Events, Folly Thibault of AlJazeera, and Harriet Gyamfuah of Creatives Amplified, among others.

Ivie Odemwingie-Osula, a professional photographer and former banker, holds an MBA from Aberdeen Business School of Robert Gordon University.

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The iconic phrase Nigeria to the world resonated with profound significance as Seun Kuti, son of the late Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti, marked his debut with an unforgettable appearance on the catwalk during the ongoing Casablanca Day of Victory fashion event.

This extraordinary moment unfolded on the seventh day of the esteemed Paris Fashion Week.

Seun, radiating charisma and style, confidently strode down the runway, showcasing an avant-garde ensemble known as Stuntman on Set.

This remarkable attire featured a captivating fusion of white and green, meticulously designed with a flag-inspired stripe adorned in stunning shades of blue and green.

His distinctive fashion statement not only captivated the audience but also left an indelible imprint on the event.

Taking centre stage, Seun lent his modelling prowess to the contemporary French brand Casablanca during their Day of Victory Printemps-Ete 2024 runway presentation.

In a post-show interview with Hypebae, Charaf Tajer, the Creative Director and founder of Casablanca, briefly elaborated on the collections concept.

He described how the group drew inspiration from Nigerias vibrant youth culture, revolutionary design talent, and unparalleled potential.

Seuns participation at the event underscored the undeniable global allure of African talent and fashion on one of the worlds most prestigious fashion stages.

Nigeria to the world

Seuns runway debut is a significant milestone for Nigeria, especially within the music industry. It is worth noting that he is not the first Nigerian celebrity to make a remarkable appearance at an international fashion event.

In 2016, Wizkid left fashion enthusiasts awe-inspired as he graced the runway, adorned in an ensemble embellished with intricate gold applique during the prestigious Dolce & Gabbana show at Milan Mens Fashion Week.

Davido also ascended to new fashion heights when he was appointed a prominent Puma ambassador and brand representative in 2021.

This prestigious role allowed him to walk in support of Pumas Futrograde show, where he sported a striking matching tracksuit ensemble accentuated by eye-catching maroon PUMA hand gloves and a chic black fur bucket hat.

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Cameroons Anglophone conflict undermines national unity and is arguably the most damaging of the countrys multiple crises. It sparked demands for secession and led to separatists proclaiming a new state of Ambazonia in the countrys English-speaking North West and South West regions on 1 October 2017. The regions are home to about 20 per cent of the population.

Celebrations surrounding Independence Day are typically marred by clashes between government forces and armed separatist groups. Violent attacks during this years commemoration underscore the depth of the problem that seems forgotten.

The crisis was sparked in October 2016 when demands by teachers and lawyers for reform of the English-speaking regions educational and judicial systems were brutally suppressed. The authorities violent response to citizens concerns about the marginalisation of Anglophone linguistic and educational systems and the underrepresentation of English-speaking Cameroonians in politics turned into an ongoing political crisis.

The government made some concessions, including a Major National Dialogue in 2019, but failing to invite key separatist leaders, achieved little. Decisions stemming from the dialogue led to the granting of an ambiguous special status, with supposed autonomy, to the regions.

In October 2022, discreet talks between the government and Anglophone leaders in the diaspora signalled interest in formal negotiations. However, these efforts have not quelled the separatist rebellion, which has claimed over 6,000 lives and internally displaced 630,000 people, with 86,000 seeking refuge in Nigeria.

A recent Amnesty International report details atrocities  including sexual and gender-based violence  by armed separatists, militias and security forces against civilians. The crisis has also disrupted hundreds of thousands of childrens education and halted socio-economic activities in the two regions.

The government has intensified its pursuit of a military solution, hoping to take advantage of widening fragmentation between the armed separatist groups, which it calls terrorists. In early 2023, troops deployed to the North West attacked separatist positions.

Separatists are committed to fighting for an independent Ambazonia, regardless of the cost. They have repeatedly expressed readiness for talks under international mediation, but the government wont accept their conditions. These include the release of political prisoners, demilitarisation of the Anglophone regions and amnesty for exiled separatists.

The conflict continues to evade continental and international scrutiny. Besides some statements of concern by African Union (AU) Commission chairperson Moussa Mahamat, the AU has done little. During Mr Fakis visit to Yaounde in 2018, President Paul Biya committed to resolving the crisis, but these promises have fallen flat.

And despite the grave implications for stability in Central Africa, the AUs Peace and Security Council (PSC) has yet to discuss the Cameroon crisis. As a PSC member, Cameroon likely blocks attempts by other member states to table the issue for debate.

At the same time, the government has pulled the plug on mediation efforts. In September 2022, President Biya halted a government-sponsored Swiss-led dialogue. A new initiative saw discreet pre-mediation meetings with several separatist groups in Canada late last year. Although the government denied seeking Canadian assistance, Canadas foreign ministry maintained it had accepted an invitation from both parties to mediate.

Further political turmoil is brewing ahead of Cameroons 2025 general elections. Rival elites are jostling to succeed Mr Biya, who has held power since 1982. He will be 92 when the polls open. Since gaining independence in 1960, Cameroon has not had a single democratic transfer of power.

The military coup on 30 August that ousted Gabons Ali Bongo has had an unsettling effect in Cameroon. It forced Mr Biya to reshuffle senior military roles and consolidate his power by reducing the influence of some security services branches and suppressing coverage linking Cameroon with coups.

Health problems could rule him out of the 2025 race, creating a power vacuum. Mr Biya has reportedly been pursuing plans for his son Franck Biya to succeed him, although a dynastic succession would probably be unwelcome among the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movements senior members. The military could exploit any succession-driven instability to justify a coup.

The country is also battling Boko Haram violence in the Far North. Fatalities from this conflict are well above 3,000, with at least 250,000 people displaced. Rebel incursions from the Central African Republic affect the countrys east, complicated by sporadic intercommunal clashes in the Far North and South. Farmer-herder tensions have also resurfaced between Nigerian pastoralists and Cameroonian farmers.

The nation is also grappling with a web of corruption scandals tied to the Africa Cup of Nations organisation in early 2022, and the assassination of journalist Martinez Zogo in January 2023.

Ahead of Ambazonias Independence Day, tensions soared in the North West and South West, and security forces stepped up attacks on separatist hideouts. Separatists have recently hardened their stance, enforced moratoriums on public life through ghost towns, threatened government employees, and increased violence against civilians. With both parties to the conflict unwilling to compromise, clashes will probably continue as economic and social neglect are further entrenched in the Anglophone regions.

The crisis cannot be ignored. The PSC must table Cameroon for discussion, especially as the Economic Community of Central African States  which has rarely tackled conflicts in its member countries  is unlikely to deal with the matter. The PSC could recommend deploying the Panel of the Wise as a preventive diplomacy tool, instead of reacting only after the country disintegrates.

Cameroons international partners should press for inclusive dialogue to resume. Should talks gain traction, partners must highlight the need to strengthen governance and expedite decentralisation so the Anglophone regions benefit from the autonomy their special status should have granted them.

Hubert Kinkoh, Researcher, African Peace and Security Governance, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Addis Ababa and Thierry Boudjekeu, Communication Officer, ISS

(This article was first published by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication partner. We have their permission to republish).

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Egypt is required to pay $29.23 billion in external debt service in 2024, with $14.59 billion due in the first half (H1) of the year and $14.63 billion in the second half (H2), according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).

The country is also required to pay $19.43 billion in 2025, including $11.15 billion in H1 and $8.28 billion in H2, noted recent data released by the CBE.

Similarly, the countrys debt service will amount to $22.94 billion in 2026, with nearly $11.46 billion due in H1 and $11.48 billion in H2.

The debt service is expected to decline in 2027 and 2028 as Egypt is required to pay $12.11 billion and $7.5 billion, respectively, the CBE further revealed.

Egypts total external debt reached $165.36 billion at the end of March 2023.

In August, Egypts foreign asset deficit amounted to nearly $25.92 billion.

The country seeks to collect $191 billion in annual US dollar revenues by 2026.

The country is currently under review for a $3 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

However, the IMF loan deal is currently facing challenges as the completion of the first review, originally scheduled for 15 March, has yet to conclude.

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The White House said Monday that National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke on the phone with National Security Advisor Sydney Mufamadi of South Africa.

During what has been described as a productive phone call, Mr Sullivan appreciated the seriousness with which President Ramaphosa had addressed the concerns about the Lady Rs activities last year, the White House said.

Despite limited international awareness, the Lady R incident, is still not widely known about among the American public nor the broader world, but has led both South Africa and the US to intensify their bilateral cooperation. During a recent conversation, the National Security Advisors from both nations reaffirmed their strong partnership. They underlined their commitment to promoting shared interests encompassing trade, investment, infrastructure, healthcare, and climate concerns.

On Russia, With regards to Russias war in Ukraine, they confirmed they would continue to confer on pathways toward a just and lasting peace, said the White House.

Mr Sullivan also expressed gratitude to the South African government for hosting the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum in early November, emphasizing the forums importance in strengthening US relations with the region.

This phone call follows South Africas Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandors visit to Washington DC on September 26. During her visit, she was warmly welcomed at the US Department of State, engaging in a productive discussion that emphasized the significance of strong cooperation between the two countries on shared interests.

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Secretary Blinken highlighted South Africas strategic importance and stressed the importance of the meeting considering evolving global dynamics. He expressed eagerness for dialogue with Minister Pandor. Mr Pandor, in return, appreciated Mr Blinkens time, emphasizing the USs pivotal role in South Africa and Africa, especially during her discussions with South Africas ambassadors in the Americas.

In South Africa, the National Security Advisor plays a critical role as an advisor to the president on national security, foreign policy, and defence matters. This role is vital for maintaining diplomatic relations and addressing security challenges while contributing to the nations foreign policy objectives.

The US and South Africa have, in the past, shared a complex diplomatic relationship. During the apartheid era, the US pursued constructive engagement, involving diplomatic pressure to end apartheid and economic ties. After South Africas transition to democracy in the early 1990s, relations improved significantly.

Pearl Matibe is a Washington, DC-based White House Correspondent, and media commentator with expertise in U.S. foreign policy and international security. You may follow her on Twitter: @PearlMatibe

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Liberias Supreme Court has summoned the National Elections Commission to release the final voter roll, just days before the election.

The Liberia National Elections Commission (NEC) said it had released the voter roll officially on its website on 31 July, but various political parties and concerned citizens said they have not been able to download the document, adding to the confusion just days before the 10 October elections.

Respected local media Front Page Africa reported on Monday that the voters roll had been released.

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Two opposition parties  the Unity Party and the Liberian Peoples Party  filed a lawsuit to compel the National Elections Commission (NEC) to publish the document. According to NEC regulations, the voter roll must be released at least 30 days before elections.

Liberians go to the polls to pick their next president and representatives on 10 October.

Read the full story here.

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Much worse for the climate than carbon dioxide, despite global efforts to control methane, emissions continue soaring. With over a third stemming from fossil fuels production and operation, oil majors  led by Shell  publicly claim to be reducing their methane pollution, but scientists, experts and watchdogs warn that industry data reporting is very misleading.

By Fermin Koop, Michael Buchsbaum and Samuel Ajala

Despite years of awareness about the climate crisis, greenhouse gas levels continue to soar. Historically, much of the focus has been on carbon dioxide; however, it is now clear that a rapid and sustained reduction in methane is also key to limiting global warming.

Methane, with over 80 times the heat-trapping potential of carbon dioxide over 20 years, has contributed to over 30 per cent of global temperature rise since the Industrial Revolution, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Unlike carbon dioxide, which is a wasteful by-product of human activities, methane is a sought-after gas, a product of fracking and other gas-extraction methods.

In that sense, allowing methane to be leaked or vented would seem a waste of potential profits. Nevertheless, the energy sector alone is responsible for about 40 per cent of all methane emissions, an estimated 80 million tons per year.

In the case of Shell, one of the worlds largest oil and gas producers and leader in industry efforts to control methane, the company reported a decrease in total methane emissions from its operations from 50,000 metric tons in 2021 to 40,000 metric tons in 2022, a 27 per cent reduction. It also claims to have met its target to keep methane emissions intensity below 0.2 per cent.

However, the way fossil giants calculate their emissions is flawed. Currently, only a small number of producers regularly take field measurements and do routine maintenance on equipment to determine leakages or other accidental emissions.

Sector-wide, theres virtually no direct measurement happening at oil and gas extraction sites or infrastructure, including pipelines, said Dominic Watson, a methane expert at the Environmental Defense Fund.

Watson said that oil and gas producers have generally been self-reporting their methane emissions for decades. They have also been setting pollution targets in whatever ways they saw fit for their sustainability reports, using whatever metrics, baselines and target years they wanted to, he said.

Everywhere we go, we find methane

As power plants and industrial facilities have been rapidly shifting away from burning dirty coal towards cleaner natural gas, fugitive methane escaping all along the oil and gas value chain has been significantly underreported  even in jurisdictions where regulators are supposedly paying attention.

In 2018, a pivotal study of oil and gas facilities in the United States found that rates of methane pollution were more than 60 per cent worse than what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was then estimating.

Researchers found that over 2.3 per cent of all produced methane was simply venting into the atmosphere.

In early 2023, Clean Air Task Force released a report visually documenting widespread methane pollution venting from 430 European oil and gas sites over two years.

Almost everywhere we go, we find methane, said Theophile Humann-Guilleminot, a certified thermographer at the nonprofit. Up and down the value chain, there is dangerous methane pollution coming out of Europes oil and gas network.

Even very small methane leakage rates from gas systems rival coals greenhouse gas emissions, said Debbie Gordon, senior principal of RMIs Climate Intelligence Program.

Shells role in methane emissions

Shell is now the worlds 5th largest oil producer by volume and fifth largest oil and gas super major by revenue with ongoing exploration, production, refining and chemical operations spread across 70 countries. The companys profits soared to $40 billion in 2022, almost double the amount reported in 2021.

Aware of the industrys growing methane problem, in 2018, Shell made headlines by announcing their intent to lead the sectors efforts to control leakage. The company vowed to keep methane emissions intensity below 0.2 per cent by using advanced equipment to detect and repair methane leaks and replacing older equipment.

Other companies then followed with similar targets, leading to industry initiatives such as the United Nations Environmental Programme Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP) in 2020. Its the worlds only attempt to set a comprehensive measurement-based reporting framework, covering all material sources of methane emissions from both operated and non-operated assets in the oil and gas sector. Over 100 companies have already signed up.

In the OGMPs 2022 report, Shells efforts yielded the awarding of a Gold Standard label  the OGMPs highest rating.

For Shell and the rest of the industry to curtain emissions, operators need to both understand where accidental emissions are escaping from, as well as end the practice of deliberately liberating methane during routine venting operations. Unintentional methane leaks can flow from malfunctioning valves, compressors and storage tanks, which often are designed to vent methane when pressures build.

Studies conducted by the IEA found that more than 70 per cent of emissions can be abated using existing technologies and that about 40 per cent of current emissions can be avoided with measures that would come at virtually no net cost.

How oil majors address methane emissions at their owned and operated assets compared to their non-operated assets also varies dramatically. Shell and others make a lot of public-facing statements that say they are addressing the issue, but significant equity is placed in non-operated assets for which they do not report and have not made any commitments towards cleaning up, said James Turrito, director of Global Campaigns at CATF.

To date, we have not seen as many [national oil companies] attempt to really tackle the methane issue. There are reasons for this and barriers that go beyond simply being bad actors, Mr Turrito said.

Shells on-going methane stain in Nigeria

25 years after Shell left Ogoniland in Nigeria, it continues to ooze oil from wellheads and pipelines into the Niger Delta, said Avena Jacklin from Friends of the Earth South Africa. As it reduces its climate commitments, Shell continues to extract massive profits from countries in the Southincreases in methane emissions, and contamination of our critical water supplies from Shells operations will exacerbate the climate crisis, she said.

According to the World Banks 2020 Global Gas Flaring Tracker, Nigeria is the seventh-largest gas-flaring country globally. But a 2022 World Bank report shows Nigeria contributed most to the overall global reduction, reducing its flare volumes by 1.3 bcm in 2022, a 20 per cent reduction from 2021 levels. Shell joined the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization programme alongside other producers in support of Nigerias goal to achieve zero routine gas flaring by 2035. First launched in 2018, the program was relaunched in 2022.

Shell which helped establish Nigerias oil sector in the 1950s, contributes close to 40 per cent of the countrys total oil production and is the largest oil operator. In 2022, Shell Nigeria paid the Nigerian government over $900 million in taxes and royalties.

According to statistics provided by Nigerias National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and the Gas Flaring Tracker satellite of the World Bank, oil companies throughout the nation, including Shell, have flared about $3.9 billion worth of gas in the last four years.

However, Shells Sustainability Report 2022, scope 1 emissions for upstream flaring in Nigeria witnessed 2 million metric tons of emissions reduction, with a figure of 3 million metric tonnes in 2022 compared to 5 million metric tonnes in 2021. Their data also shows that between 2018 and 2019, the metric tonnes emissions were pegged at 4 million, respectively. For 2020 it increased to 5 million metric tonnes of emissions.

They have to explain their data, said Segun Omidele, President of the Polaseo Group, a Nigerian oil and gas service company and former Shell employee. Given all the many crude thefts throughout the Niger Delta, leading many operators to reduce, shut down or abandon production, it is difficult to accept theres been an emissions reduction, he said.

Ayodele Oni, an oil and gas expert and member of the legal advisory team for Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), said all identified gas flare points in Nigeria are part of the commercialization programme and compliance with it is necessary for companies and producers to get or renew their mining and operating permits. He said reported gas flaring in Shell dropped by 80 per cent between 2010 and 2019. Mr Oni said this was due to the IOCs investment in gas-gathering facilities in Aloma, Adibawa and Otumara.

Send in the satellites

Detection tools, including handheld devices, airborne technology and more robust methane monitoring satellites, are increasingly available and coming online.

Last year, satellites detected around three million tons of methane from oil and gas operations. The European Space Agency alone tracked dozens of methane events from oil and gas operations lasting for more than 15 days across almost 70 countries, according to IEAs Methane Tracker.

A BBC investigation last year, using World Bank flare-tracking satellite data, identified millions of tons of undeclared emissions from gas flaring at oil fields where Shell, ExxonMobil, and other majors operate.

In 2021, Geofinancial Analytics, a satellite data provider, compared the methane output of fossil fuel companies with their expected emissions level based on self-reported data. Shell and Chevron were the worst performers. The company relies on satellite readings of airborne methane concentrations in North America, Europe and Brazil.

However, the coverage provided by satellites isnt complete, which means there could be more leaks that are not being accounted for. Existing satellites dont provide measurements over equatorial regions, offshore operations or northern areas such as Russias main oil and gas-producing areas, the IEA said in a report last year.

With help and support from the UN, using a combination of satellite, private and public monitoring methods, the OGMP funds, coordinates and facilitates measurement studies around the world.

There are plans to launch a series of cutting-edge satellites with significantly enhanced resolutions in the coming years. EDF will launch MethaneSat in early 2024, which they argue will be the most advanced methane-tracking satellite in space. Carbon Mapper, a US-based NGO, said it will deploy a complete satellite constellation by 2025.

Shell Games

Despite the ongoing climate crisis, Shell continues to develop new oil and gas assets. Since a Dutch high court ordered the company in May to make deeper carbon cuts, Shell has made investments in 10 assets in various countries, including Argentina, Australia, and Brazil.

The companys share of the oil and gas from these assets, once burned, will result in 325 million metric tonnes of CO2 emissions, campaigners estimate. The company also co-owns more than 750 untapped oil and gas assets which would amount to 4.3 billion metric tonnes of extra CO2; 30 times more than the total emissions from the Netherlands in 2021.

Every new extraction project Shell approves digs the world into a deeper hole of climate crisis, and the companys relatively meagre investments in renewable energy do not make up for that, Kelly Trout, research co-director at the NGO Oil Change International, said.

This report was supported by Clean Energy Wire grants for cross-border journalism on company climate claims.

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Two major Nigerian labour unions have suspended the nationwide strike they were to commence on Tuesday to pressure the government to address the hardships occasioned by the removal of subsidy on petrol.

Both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), coalitions of various workers unions, have been battling the federal government over the fallout of the subsidy removal which President Bola Tinubu announced in his inauguration speech on 29 May.

Since the removal of the subsidy, the petrol pump price which was selling at less than N200 per litre has increased to over N600 per litre, leading to an increase in the cost of transportation, food and other basic needs and services which millions of Nigerians depend on.

The labour unions announced their decision to suspend their strike in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the representatives of the labour unions and the federal government late on Monday.

According to the MoU, the unions will now suspend their strike by 30 days, with parties to the agreement committing to henceforth abide by the dictates of Social dialogue in all our future engagements.

The NLC and TUC accept to suspend for 30 days the planned Indefinite Nationwide strike scheduled to begin, Tuesday, the 3rd of October, 2023, the MoU shared with PREMIUM TIMES late Monday, read in part.

The MoU also stipulated that the document shall be filed in relevant court of competent jurisdiction within one (1) week as consent judgment by the Federal Government.

The document was signed by NLC representatives  its president, Joe Ajaero, and the secretary, Emmanuel Ughoaja  as well as TUC representatives  its president, Festus Usifo, and general secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja.

Officials who signed the agreement on behalf of the federal government are the Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Bako Lalong; the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha and the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris.

The MoU contains terms and conditions both sides had earlier agreed on.

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Among them is the granting of a wage award of N35,000 to all federal government workers beginning from the month of September pending when a new national minimum wage is expected to have been signed into law.

Another of the terms is that a minimum wage committee shall be inaugurated within one month from the date of this agreement.

The federal government, under the agreement, is also expected to suspend the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) on diesel for six months beginning from October 2023.

READ THE FULL MOU BELOW:

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING REACHED BETWEEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA AND THE NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS (NLC) AND TRADE UNION CONGRESS OF NIGERIA (TUC) AS A RESULT OF DISPUTE ARISING FROM WITHDRAWAL OF SUBSIDY ON THE PRICE OF PREMIUM MOTOR SPIRIT (PMS) ON MONDAY, THE 2ND DAY OF OCTOBER, 2023

Arising from the withdrawal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) by the Federal Government and the resultant increase in the price of the commodity, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) issued a strike notice which had elapsed and they were poised to embark on a strike billed to commence on Tuesday, the 3rd of October, 2023.

Consequently, a meeting was called by the Federal Government to avert the strike and after much discussion, the following agreements were reached:

1. The Federal Government grants a wage award of N35,000 (thirty-five thousand Naira) only to all Federal Government workers beginning from the month of September pending when a new national minimum wage is expected to have been signed into law.

2. A minimum wage committee shall be inaugurated within one month from the date of this agreement.

3. Federal Government suspends collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) on Diesel for six months beginning from October, 2023.

4. Federal Government accepts to vote N100 billion for the provision of high capacity CNG buses for mass transit in Nigeria. Provisions are also being made for initial 55,000 CNG conversion kits to kick start an auto gas conversion programme, whilst work is ongoing on state-of-the-art CNG stations nationwide. The rollout aims to commence by November with pilots across 10 campuses nationwide.

5. The Federal Government plans to implement various tax incentive measures for private sector and the general public.

6. On the leadership crises rocking the NURTW and the purported proscription of RTEAN, the Federal Government commits to handling Labour matters in line with relevant ILO Conventions and Nigerian Labour Acts. A resolution of the ongoing impasse is expected by or before October 13.

7. The issue of outstanding Salaries and Wages of Tertiary Education workers in Federal-owned educational institutions is being referred to Ministry of Labour and Employment for further engagement.

8. The Federal Government commits to pay N25,000 per month for three months starting from October, 2023 to 15 million households, including vulnerable pensioners.

9. The Federal Government will increase its initiatives on subsidized distribution of fertilizers to farmers across the country.

10. The Federal Government should urge State Government through the National Economic Council and Governors Forum to implement wage award for their workers. Similar consideration should also be given to local government and private sector workers.

11. The Federal Government commits to the provision of funds as announced by the President on the 1st of August broadcast to the Nation for Micro and Small Scale Enterprises. The MSMEs beneficiaries should commit to the principle of decent jobs.

12. A joint visitation will be made to the refineries to ascertain their rehabilitation status.

13. All parties commit to henceforth abide by the dictates of Social dialogue in all our future engagements.

14. The NLC and TUC accept to suspend for 30 days the planned Indefinite Nationwide strike scheduled to begin, Tuesday, the 3rd of October, 2023.

15. This Memorandum shall be filed with the relevant Court of competent jurisdiction within one (1) week as consent judgment by the Federal Government.

Signed:

NLC:

Comrade Joe Ajaero Comrade Emmanuel Ugboaja, mni

President NLC General Secretary

TUC

Comrade (Engr) Festus Osifo Comrade Nuhu A. Toro

President Secretary General

Federal Government:

H.E. Simon Bako Lalong

Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment

Hon. Dr Nkeiruka Onyejeocha

Honourable Minister of State for Labour and Employment

Mallam Mohammed Idris

Honourable Minister of Information and National Orientation

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In leadership, only some individuals genuinely embody the principles of inclusivity, diversity, and talent development. One exceptional leader who stands out is Catriona Laing, the former British High Commissioner to Nigeria. Throughout her tenure, Laing embraced diversity and demonstrated an unwavering commitment to harnessing and developing talent for the progress and growth of the organisation.

During her time in Nigeria, Catriona Laing encouraged the opportunity for collaboration and learning across all levels of the hierarchy. As a junior member of the HM Civil Service, I had the privilege of acting as a reverse mentor to her. This experience was an honour and a testament to Laings inclusive leadership style.

Recently, I was awarded the HM Civil Service FCDO Star Impact Award for my leadership in initiating the Senior Leadership Reverse Mentoring Scheme within the British Mission in Nigeria. Laing and four other senior leaders participated in the mentoring program, providing them with valuable insights from staff across the network. Laing and I have found this experience immensely rewarding, and we are excited to share our journey with you.

Ijemamaka Ovia:

Catriona Laings success as the Head of the British Mission in Nigeria can be attributed to her ability to empower staff and nurture their growth. We both share a common trait of spotting opportunities for learning, development, and knowledge-sharing. When I came across Catrionas interest in launching a Reverse Mentoring Scheme, I knew it was an opportunity we couldnt miss. I reminded her about it during a meeting she attended in Lagos, and with the support of Ben Llewellyn-Jones, the British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, I approached Catriona. To my delight, she graciously accepted my offer to be her reverse mentee.

Securing an appointment with Catriona proved challenging due to her extensive responsibilities and engagements. However, the reward was well worth the effort, as I had the privilege of meeting her and her lovely family. Our shared optimism enabled us to establish an immediate connection. Our goal as a mentoring pair was to celebrate our successes, identify areas for improvement, and create a sustainable mentoring relationship within the British Mission of the HM Civil Service in Nigeria.

Catriona Laing:

Although we had both worked with mentors before, this was our first experience with reverse mentoring. I was impressed by Ijes initiative in setting up our reverse mentoring scheme. When she approached me in Lagos with the idea and expressed her desire to be my reverse mentor, I knew we had something special. Our first meeting in Abuja allowed us to establish our approach. I expressed my desire for honest feedback on my communication style, advice on effective communication strategies, and insights into the concerns of our staff, particularly those based in-country. In return, I offered career advice to Ije, appreciating her ability to seize opportunities, live in the present, and make the most of her current situation. This drive and initiative led to her well-deserved award nomination, and I am proud to see her accomplishments recognised.

Ijemamaka Ovia:

In conclusion, I want to emphasise the importance of pursuing your dreams relentlessly. I almost gave up on bringing this idea to fruition , but the timely support of the most senior leader in my organisation made it possible. I am confident that Catriona Laing will continue to foster diversity and inclusion through unspoken heroes within the HM Civil Service. Let this serve as a reminder to all aspiring leaders that with determination and the right support, your dreams are indeed worthy of pursuit. Never give up, for success lies just beyond the horizon.

Ijemamaka Ovia is a mentorship, expertise and administrative support enthusiast

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The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the state of pension funds and recover the N10 trillion loaned to the federal government.

The call was sequel to a unanimous adoption of a motion sponsored by Aliyu Misau (PDP-Bauchi State) at the plenary on Tuesday.

Moving the motion earlier, Mr Misau said the Retirement Saving Accounts (RSAs) are the lifelines that pensioners rely upon to cater for their needs upon retirement.

He said that most pensioners cannot access their retirement funds despite complying with the requirements of the contributory pension scheme.

According to him, neither the National Pension Commission (PenCom) nor the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) have been able to ensure prompt payment of entitlements.

Aware that the pension fund assets which PenCom regulates, being the proceeds of the contributory pension scheme and returns on investment, stood at more than N15.5 trillion at the close of the first quarter of 2023, there is no justification for retirees not to have access to their RSA.

Worried that critical stakeholders have expressed concern that 65 per cent of the funds, which amount to N10 trillion, loaned to the federal government is an investment which exposes the contributors to unnecessary volatility as the federal government may fail to pay back the loan in due time.

Being unable to access their pension has caused untold hardship to the retirees as they are unable to afford even basic necessities, he said.

The House urged PenCom to ensure the immediate release of funds for the payment of pension funds to all retirees in the country.

In his ruling, the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, mandated the Committee on Pension to investigate the status of pension fund assets of over N15.5 trillion.

READ ALSO: Reps to probe operations of fertility clinics in Nigeria

He said that the aim is to ensure that the N10 trillion loaned to the federal government from pension funds is duly recovered, and modalities are put in place to hinder a collapse of the scheme.

He mandated the committee to also scrutinise the failure of PFAs in fulfilling obligations to retirees regarding access to their retirement savings.

(NAN)

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The Chicago State University (CSU) has finally released the academic records of President Bola Tinubu to his political opponent, Atiku Abubakar, in line with an order of a United States court.

Atiku, the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigerias 25 February election, had requested the documents to back his allegation of forgery of CSU certificate against Mr Tinubu. The allegation of forgery was one of those dismissed by Nigerias presidential election court in the suit Atiku filed to challenge the election of Mr Tinubu.

Despite the courts ruling, Atiku continued his case at the US court, hoping to get official documents to back his claim and possibly include them in his appeal at Nigerias Supreme Court. PREMIUM TIMES reported how a US court on Saturday ordered the university to release the records within 48 hours.

The university, on Monday, presented to Atikus legal team, a cache of documents connected to Mr Tinubus education at the institution and copies of certificates with redacted names issued to other persons about the same time the Nigerian president finished from the school in 1979.

It also contained Mr Tinubus admission records, and a letter dated 27 June 2022 confirming that he attended the university from August 1977 to June 1979 majoring in accounting. The letter said Mr Tinubu was awarded Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Honours on 22 June 1979.

Complying with court order

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the District Court in Northern Illinois, had in its judgement delivered on Saturday, given the university up till 12 noon on Monday to deliver the documents to Atiku.

The judge, Nancy Maldonado, gave the other after dismissing Mr Tinubus objection in the judgement.

Ms Maldonando dismissed Mr Tinubus objection to the 20 September decision of a magistrate judge of the court, Jeffery Gilbert.

She affirmed Mr Gilberts ruling, ordering the CSU to release Mr Tinubus academic records as requested by Atiku. She insisted Atiku had the right to have access to the records.

Compliance

Complying with the court order on Monday, the university produced four sets of documents copies of which went viral online on Monday. Phrank Shuaibu, a spokesperson to Atiku, confirmed the documents as those received from the university to PREMIUM TIMES.

In a deposition detailing its compliance with the court order, the university confirmed it was able to grant three of Atikus four requests.

Responding to one of the requests it granted, the university said, after diligent search, it was able to locate and produce seven different certificates for the Bachelor of Science degree it issued in 1979.

Atiku had apparently requested the documents to compare and contrast them with the one presented by Mr Tinubu for the 2023 presidential election.

The university also handed to Atikus team, documents relating to Mr Tinubu certified by an official of CSU, Jamar C. Orr, a lawyer.

The university also produced, after diligent search, copies of three other diploma certificates issued to other students other than Mr Tinubu in 1979.

This was in response to Atikus request for true and correct copies of any diplomas issued by CSU (other than to Mr Tinubu) that contain the same font, seal, signatures, and wording (other than the name of the recipient and the specific degree awarded). Atiku sought these documents to compare and contrast them with the one Mr Tinubu submitted.

However, the university said it was unable to locate a copy of the original diploma it prepared for Mr Tinubu in 1979 as requested by Atiku.

The university said it does not in the ordinary course keep copies of student diplomas, and after diligent search cannot locate a copy of the original diploma it prepared for Mr Tinubu in 1979, hence has no documents responsive to this request.

Atikus battle with Tinubu

Atiku had asked for the documents for possible use in Nigerian courts to support his claim that Mr Tinubu forged a diploma certificate he claimed to have obtained from CSU in 1979 and submitted to Nigerias electoral body, INEC, for the 2023 presidential election.

The release of the documents by CSU, however, confirms that Mr Tinubu did indeed graduate from CSU in 1979 although observers say the released documents raised other questions.

Atiku had argued that authenticity of the certificates presented by Mr Tinubu goes to the root of the latters qualification to contest the last presidential election.

Although Atiku lost his case against Mr Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petition Court which delivered its judgement in early September, he hopes to reintroduce the issue backed with the documents from the CSU in his appeal which he is pursuing against the election courts decision at the Nigerian Supreme Court.

Atiku had told the US district court that he had up till 5 October to file the documents from the CSU against Mr Tinubu at the Supreme Court in Nigeria.

Mr Tinubu opposed the release of the documents to Atiku, arguing that the Nigerian election proceedings and the Nigerian courts had explicitly rejected the documents Atiku sought to obtain and tender in his case aimed at overturning the results of the 25 February presidential election.

Mr Tinubus second reason was that Atikus request is unduly intrusive because it allows Applicant (Atiku) to conduct a fishing expedition into Intervenors private, confidential, and protected educational records.

But dismissing Mr Tinubus objection on Saturday, Ms Maldonado said she was only affirming Atikus right to have access to the CSU documents, not confirming the merit of his allegations against the Nigerian president or his comments on the validity of the countrys presidential election.

In reaching this conclusion, the Court emphasises that it is expressing no view on the merits of Mr Abubakars underlying claims regarding President Tinubu or his graduation from CSU, or on the validity of the Nigerian election.

Nor is the Court taking any position on what any of the documents or testimony from CSU may or may not ultimately show. The Court simply finds, on the narrow question before it, that Mr Abubakar is entitled to the production of documents and testimony that he seeks from CSU, the judge ruled.

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A boat carrying 50 people has capsized in Yauri Local Government, Kebbi State with 40 passengers unaccounted for.

The boat capsized on Monday around noon while it ferried passengers to the Yauri weekly market.

PREMIUM TIMES learned that the boat was coming from Kasabo in Agura Local Government in Niger State to Yauri in Kebbi. The two states share an expansive boundary covering about eight local governments.

The boat capsized due to intense water waves in the Niger River, Bala Mohammed, the chairman of Yauri told Radio Nigeria in Birnin Kebbi.

He said only 10 passengers have been rescued.

Mr Mohammed said rescue operations are still ongoing in the river.

But the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) said the boat was carrying only 22 passengers and none has been recovered yet.

The Director General of the agency, Salihu Garba, told journalists in Minna, the Niger State capital, that local divers were conducting search and rescue operations under the agencys supervision.

Riverine states in the country are witnessing a resurgence of boat mishaps this rainy season. Mondays mishap is coming a few weeks after the Niger accident 26 people lost their lives in another Niger State boat accident while 15 died in another incident recorded in Adamawa State.

States like Kwara, Kogi, Niger, Adamawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, and Kano witness a high rate of boat mishaps which are blamed on several reasons including lack of life jackets, overloading of boats, and violations of safety reasons among others.

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Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN climate change high level champion for Egypt, said that a clean and healthy environment is essential to the human rights to life, health, water, food, housing, and a decent standard of living.

His remarks came during a meeting on Tuesday at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), on the sidelines of the Building Bridges Conference in Geneva.

Mohieldin, who is also the UN special envoy on financing 2030 sustainable development agenda, stated that governments and other actors can address climate change in a way that is consistent with their human rights obligations, including the right to development.

He stressed the importance of dealing with loss and damage caused by climate change as a way to protect human rights in the most vulnerable communities, pointing to the breakthrough launch of the Loss and Damage Fund during COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh.

Mohieldin and Ambassador Mohamed Nasr, director of the Environment, Climate, and Sustainable Development Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed that they expect that an agreement on the funds activation would be one of the most important outcomes of COP28 in Dubai this year.

Confronting climate change requires overcoming gaps, including the adaptation gap between capacities, finance and technology required to achieve adaptation to climate change and what is available, they added.

International Labour Organization meeting



In a separate meeting held by the International Labour Organization (ILO), Mohieldin stressed that the success of a just transition depends on ensuring social and economic development.

He explained that climate action must strengthen the link between confronting climate change and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The climate champion said that a just transition requires developing skills, achieving economic diversification, strengthening social support and governance, activating financing for low-carbon economies, along with including the guiding principles of the transition process within the nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

Mohieldin, along with the participants of the meeting, noted that most-affected individuals must be protected from the impacts of the transition.

This can be achieved through providing alternative jobs to the affected workers, supporting emission-intensive sectors in the transition phase, and providing financial and technical support to countries and regions that are highly dependent on producing or consuming fossil fuels.

World Trade Organization meeting



During a meeting with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of the World Trade Organization, Mohieldin and Ngozi confirmed the important role of trade in the transition to global low-carbon economy and more sustainable societies, saying that tariffs, for example, are important tools used by governments to signal the right prices for markets.

In a separate meeting with Ngozi, Secretary General of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Rebeca Grynspan, and President of World Economic Forum Borge Brende, Mohieldin stated that the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) approved by the EU imposes restrictions on developing countries and limits the competitiveness of their products.

He added that the mechanism also negatively affects the hard-to-abate sectors in the exporting countries to the EU and reduces the volume of trade between the two sides, which will be reflected in the decline of the GDP of these countries.

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President Bola Tinubu has asked the Senate to screen and confirm a ministerial nominee from Kaduna State, Abbas Balarabe.

The president also requested the confirmation of Jamila Bio Ibrahim from Kwara State and Ayodele Olawande.

The presidents request was contained in a letter read by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, at the plenary on Tuesday.

Mr Tinubu had in September announced the appointment of Mrs Ibrahim to serve as minister of youth and Mr Olawande to serve as minister of state for youth pending their confirmation by the Senate.

The nominee from Kaduna appeared to have been nominated to replace a former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, whose nomination was rejected by the Senate in August.

Mr El-Rufai was rejected alongside Abubakar Danladi (Taraba) and Stella Okotete (Delta) over non-security clearance.

Mr Tinubu has since inaugurated 45 ministers cleared by the Senate.

Balarabes Profile

Mr Balarabe was the chairman of the 65-member transition committee that handled the swearing-in of Uba Sani, as governor of Kaduna State, on 29 May.

He is a former Secretary to the Kaduna State Government and had also headed the transition committee of the state in 2015. He also served as the vice-chairman of the committee in 2019.

Meanwhile, Mr Tinubu in his letter, urged the Senate to consider his request expeditiously.

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The Lagos State government on Tuesday dislodged street traders operating along the Yaba railway corridor and sealed a market in the Mushin area of the state over poor sanitation.

The eviction was enforced by the states Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA) alongside the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps popularly known as KAI operatives to ease traffic movement.

Tokunbo Wahab, the states commissioner for environment and water resources, made this known via his X handle.

Mr Wahab said he ordered the seal up of the Alamutu (Ologede) market at Idioro, Mushin due to its poor sanitary conditions and inefficient waste disposal practices.

On Monday, the commissioner said that LAWMA cleared an illegal dumpsite, a major black spot, on Eric Moore Road, Surulere, near Orile Bridge.

We appeal to residents to shun cart pushers and indiscriminate waste dumping, he said.

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The Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, has asked Nigerians to be wary of the desperation of former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the last presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, to rule the country.

Mr Okechukwu stated this on Monday while speaking with journalists on the release of President Bola Tinubus certificate by the Chicago State University (CSU) in the United States.

CSU had on Monday released Mr Tinubus certificate following a case instituted by Atiku in a U.S. court.

Some people said they had noticed discrepancies in the certificate and the documents presented to INEC by the president, who was the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 25 February poll.

Mr Okechukwu, a foundation member of the APC, said Atiku lacked the moral ground to speak on the rule of law.

He said the survival of Nigerias fledgling democracy and the fragile unity of the country are of premium importance, especially with anti-democratic wind blowing in the West Africa sub-region

Honestly lets not cherry pick, can an elder statesman who vehemently breached the rotation convention in his partys constitution and the subsisting national rotation convention sincerely talk of the rule of law? For its trite law that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands.

Whereas one, like most of our countrymen is concerned over the whirlwind raised over the Chicago State Universitys Papers, however, the bottom line is the survival of our nascent democracy.

He further stated that Atikus decision to run for president in violation of the PDP constitution and the partys principle of rotation, practically facilitated Mr Tinubus victory at the poll.

Lets not forget that Atiku anointed Tinubu by deliberately breaching the PDPs Constitution and the national rotation convention which uphold equity, natural justice and good conscience as the armour unifying our dear country, he said.

Mr Okechukwu asked the PDP candidate to be bold enough, step down from his high horse and profusely apologise to the entire membership of the PDP he betrayed and his in-laws  Ndigbo, who put all their eggs in the PDPs basket for over 20 years, hoping that PDP will oblige them their turn in 2023 presidential election.

He warned Nigerians to resist the temptation of following Atikus inordinate ambition drive to become president to set our dear country on fire.

We must not undermine our democracy, which has been improving from every election cycle. Things are hard and agreed, the 2023 presidential election has its flaws, but we cannot risk our fledgling democracy to the windstorm of anti-democrats blowing in our West African sub-region.

Albeit, democracy we all know is not revolutionary, but evolutionary. Methinks, Atikus greed is wittingly or unwittingly driving him to hysteria of either grabbing the presidency by any means or pulling down the house.

In the eyes of the law, outside cherry picking, Atiku cannot be absolved of infractions on Section 7 of the PDPs Constitution and the ethos of rotation convention which governed the 4th Republic.

Recall that in 2014, Atiku stormed out PDPs convention when Jonathan breached rotation convention and in 2019, only northern presidential aspirants contested PDPs primary in Port Harcourt and he was the greatest beneficiary and in 2022 he betrayed his great party, Mr Okechukwu stated.

The VON DG argued that the 25 February presidential election would have been a southern affair between Mr Tinubu and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) if Atiku had played statesmanship and complied with the rotation convention of the country and that of the PDP.

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Nigeria has recorded a total of 1,068 Lassa fever cases across 112 Local Government Areas in 28 states between January and September.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) revealed this in its latest Lassa fever situation report for week 37, spanning 11-17 September.

NCDC in the report published on its website on Monday, said the disease has killed no fewer than 181 persons in the country.

With the current death toll, the agency noted that the case-fatality ratio of the outbreak stood at 16.9 per cent.

Cumulatively from week one to week 37, 2023, 181 deaths have been reported with a case fatality rate of 16.9 per cent which is lower than the CFR for the same period in 2022 (19.1 per cent), It said.

In total for 2023, 28 states have recorded at least one confirmed case across 112 Local Government Areas.

According to NCDC, 75 per cent of all confirmed Lassa fever cases were reported from three states; Ondo, Edo, and Bauchi while 25 per cent were reported from 25 states with confirmed Lassa fever cases.

Of the 75 per cent confirmed cases, Ondo reported 35 per cent, Edo 29 per cent, and Bauchi 11 per cent.

The predominant age group affected is 21-30 years (Range: one to 93 years, Median Age: 32 years). The male-to-female ratio for confirmed cases is 1:0.9.

It said the suspected cases are now 7,352, indicating an increase compared to that reported for the same period in 2022.

The NCDC noted that the national Lassa fever multi-partner, multi-sectoral Technical Working Group(TWG) continues to coordinate the response activities at all levels.

Lassa Fever

Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic (excessive bleeding) illness transmitted to humans through contact with food or household items contaminated by infected rodents or contaminated persons.

Its symptoms include fever, headache, sore throat, general body weakness, cough, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, muscle pains, chest pain, and in severe cases, unexplainable bleeding from ears, eyes, nose, mouth, and other body openings.

Lassa fever remains a major public health challenge as poor environmental sanitation, poor awareness, and late presentation of cases are reported to fuel the epidemic in Nigeria.

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Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State says he would appeal the majority judgement of the Governorship Elections Petition Tribunal sitting in Lafia that annulled his declaration as the winner of the 18 March election.

The governor stated this on Monday in Lafia, the state capital, while reacting the the split judgment of the tribunal.

He said the judgement was a temporary setback that they would learn from to re-strategise and come out stronger.

I still remain the governor till the Supreme Court decides otherwise because the law allows me to appeal and we will do that to reclaim our mandate, Mr Sule said.

The governor called on his supporters to remain calm and not take laws into their hands by engaging in street protests.

He cautioned the youths and supporters of APC against responding to the opposition, especially on social media.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the tribunal in a split judgement annulled the election of Governor Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and declared Mr David Ombugadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the rightful winner of the election.

NAN recalled that the majority judgement was read by Justice Ezekiel Ajayi, chairman of the tribunal.

Chiemelie Onaga, a member of the panel, agreed with the lead judgment read by the panel chairman.

The only dissenting judgement was delivered by Justice Ibrahim Mashi, who dismissed the petition filed by the PDP candidate and upheld the declaration of the governor by the INEC.

(NAN).

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The Lagos and Kwara states government as well as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) are drumming support for the 7th annual conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), scheduled for Thursday, 5 October at the Abuja Continental Hotel (Old Sheraton) by 10 a.m.

Chairman of the 2023 Conference Planning Committee, Danlami Nmodu, revealed this in a press statement by the Publicity Secretary of GOCOP, Remmy Nweke, saying that a good number of bluechip companies and high net-worth companies as well as Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have been on the queue to support this years conference.

He also said that aside Lagos and Kwara states government, NNPC, NCS, GOCOP annual conference has attracted support from the likes of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), SEPLAT, Nigerians Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Dangote Group, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Mr Nmodu further revealed that the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Sahara Energy, Sterling Bank, First City Merchant Bank (FCMB), Department State Security (DSS), Ecobank, First Bank, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, Emadeb, Kogi State, T-Pumpy Concepts and Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) are not left out.

Mr Nmodu beckoned on those corporate entities still on the sideline to leverage GOCOP for partnership, pledging they will not regret such collaboration.

Meanwhile, he said that activities, have been lined up for a successful hosting of this years GOCOP annual conference with the theme: Nigeria: Roadmap for Socio-Economic Recovery and Sustainability. Prominent stakeholders in the polity, civil society organisations, security, judiciary, media, among others have confirmed participation.

Reiterating that the 7th annual conference, is slated for the 5th October to be chaired by the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Ishaq Oloyede, while Uche Uwaleke has confirmed as the keynoter for this year.

He affirmed that seasoned panelists for this year would include the Secretary-General, Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU), Yakubu A. Ochefu; Special Adviser to the President (Policy Coordination) Hajia Hadiza Bala-Usman, and Chief Executive Officer, Cowry Assets Management Ltd, Johnson Chukwu.

A pre-conference day has been advanced to hold on 4 October comprising the GOCOP business session, the luncheon and interactive segment with nationwide media managers of corporate entities and advertisers.

In addition, he said, the pre-conference day activities include that presentation of annual report and election of new National Executive Council (NEC) for another two years.

Past Speakers at the Conference include: Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto who delivered the 2019 lecture on Economy, Security and National Development: The Way Forward. In 2021, Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation keynoted the Conference in his capacity as Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19.

He spoke on: Post Covid-19 Pandemic: Recovery and Reconstruction in Nigeria. In 2022, Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission delivered the address titled: 2023 Elections: Managing the Process for Credible Outcome.

GOCOP was established to ensure that online publishers uphold the tenets of journalism in doing their jobs and our membership is a constellation of editors and senior journalists, whom, having distinguished themselves in their various stations in the print and electronic media, ventured into online publishing which is both the present and future of journalism globally. Currently, the Guild has over 90 corporate publishers as members.

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The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Taoreed Lagbaja, a lieutenant general, has ordered investigation into allegations of poor feeding of frontline troops in the North-east Theatre of operations.

The Director, Army Public Relations, Onyema Nwachukwu, made this known in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.

Mr Nwachukwu, a brigadier general, said that the welfare of troops has been given premium by the present leadership of the Nigerian Army and was one of the vital pillars of the COAS Command Philosophy targeted at motivating the force.

The Nigerian army therefore takes these allegations very seriously and COAS has directed immediate investigation into the complaints to ascertain its veracity and unravel the circumstances, the army spokesperson said.

Mr Nwachukwu assured the public and all army personnel that a thorough investigation would be conducted to get to the bottom of the claims.

He said the Nigerian Army had always prioritised the welfare of troops, including their nutrition, adding that it has a comprehensive feeding system for troops, especially those serving at the frontlines.

We, however, acknowledge that there may be isolated incidents where lapses occur, and we are determined to squarely address them.

An internal investigation has already been initiated to ascertain the truth behind these allegations.

We will thoroughly examine the supply chain, the quality of food provided, and any other factors that may have contributed to this situation, he said.

Mr Nwachukwu stressed that the Nigerian Army remained committed to transparency and accountability, and would not condone any form of negligence or misconduct.

If any culpability is detected, it will attract appropriate disciplinary action and immediate corrective measures to ensure that such incidents do not recur in the future, he assured.

Mr Nwachukwu called on personnel to report any grievances or concerns they might have regarding their feeding arrangements through the established channels for feedback, assuring that prompt action would be taken to address any legitimate complaints.

He said that the army would continue to be resolute in the fight against insurgency and other security challenges, and would ensure that its soldiers were provided with the necessary support and care to carry out their duties effectively.

We are committed to ensuring that our troops are well-fed, motivated, and equipped to defend our nation, he said.

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A filmmaker, Bolanle Austen-Peters, has revealed that Afrobeats artistes, Wizkid, Ice Prince, Wande Coal, and one other performed at her event for a combined fee of N250,000.

She spoke at The Platform, an annual programme put together by The Covenant Place on Monday tagged Africa Rising Continent: Nigerias Strategic Role at the Iganmu area of Lagos.

Mrs Austen-Peters commended the youth for exporting the Nigerian brand to the global stage using creativity, innovation and arts.

I remember 13 years ago, I had a party and I invited the Mo Hits crew. Im sure some of you know them. They came with four artistes Wizkid, Ice Prince, Wande Coal, and one more person, she said.

Guess how much I paid 13 years ago, N250,000 for all of them.

Today, I dare not even ask that they come and play for me. The beauty of our youths is that they have been able to transform their talents into wealth and that is something that is commendable and that we all need to start understanding.

She also said that some years ago, the movie industry was at the backseat but the story has changed and that movies made by Nigerians are sought after worldwide.

She said, There is a lot to celebrate and there is a lot for us to want to fix.

Comparing the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Nigeria, she said the former is where we should be headed as a people.

Recently, as a fellow of MIT, I got the opportunity to go on a leadership course that took me to different countries. And in the course of that journey, we started to understand why certain ecosystems work and some dont work, she recounted.

During that journey, we went to the grand mosque in Abu Dhabi and to my surprise I was told that prayers are being said 365 days a year, seven days a week for the founder of the United Arab Emirates.

The award-winning movie producer said that the reason prayers were observed for the founder of UAE is because in less than 60 years, this man has been able to transform the destiny of his people and the nation from being a rural backward country to becoming an advanced economy, a business destination and a tourist centre.

She said that the country was developed about the same time Nigeria got its independence.

She wondered how they did it and why we are not able to replicate such development in Africa and Nigeria especially.

She said that the founder of UAE had a vision for the country.

READ ALSO: Fans jubilate as Wizkid announces joint tour with Davido

What is Nigerias vision? she asked. We have had Vision 2020 but in reality can we articulate our vision as a people?

She noted that one of the factors that make a nation successful is an effective and efficient government that creates an enabling environment for entrepreneurs to thrive.

She also said that the UAE looked away from its oil resources and changed its strategy to focus on innovation and knowledge acquisition.

She also said that the future is no longer about what you have in the ground as natural resources.

It is about what our imagination can give to us as a people and our ability to implement that, design it and bring it to fruition and that is what is driving the rest of the world today.

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Students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, (OAU) Ile-Ife, Osun State, have taken to the university campus gate to protest the fee increment by the management.

The students occupied the gate and carried placards with different inscriptions, calling for further reductions.

Some inscriptions on the placards read; Fee Must Fall, Poor students must not drop out of school and I cannot afford to drop out.

They vowed to continue with the protest until the university management accedes to their demands

The Chairman, National Association of Nigerians Students (NANS) Joint Campus Council (JCC) Osun State Axis, Ogungbe Adedamola, demanded a 50 per cent reduction of the increased fees.

Our demand remains that we want a 50 per cent reduction of the fees irrespective of whatever should happen, he told PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

Hike

The university had in mid-September increased sundry charges payable by students, despite an earlier presidential directive directing tertiary institutions to desist from increasing the fees.

However, after a series of separate dialogues with the student union and the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NAN), the management of the institutions reduced the charges.

According to a statement it released to confirm the decrease in fees, the university said it slashed the fees for students in humanities from N89,200 to N76,000 for returning students and N131,000 for new students.

For students in the sciences, the fees were reduced from N101,000 to N86,000 for returning students and N141,000 for new students.

The university also agreed that students can make payments in two equal instalments.

In the same vein, the returning students in the Pharmacy and College of Health Sciences will now pay N109,000, instead of N128,200. The new students in the same Faculties will now pay N164,000 instead of the initial charges of N190,000, the statement by the university spokesperson Abiodun Olarewaju, reads.

Students insist on 50% reduction

The students of the university are demanding a further reduction in the fees, insisting on a 50 per cent decrease from the initial hike.

Speaking with our reporter on Tuesday, Mr Adedamola said the students had, in previous meetings, demanded a significant reduction in fees.

He said: We want a 50 per cent reduction by the management and by the federal government. The fees are too exorbitant. Before, we were paying N10,000 as hostel fees. Now, were asked to pay N30,000. The fees are not justifiable.

So, our demands are simple; reduce the fees or we will continue this protest until our demands are met.

Currently, Im at OAU with the school union and students and we will be here until our demands are met.

On Wednesday, I, my Vice Chairman and PRO met with the school DSA, VC, and other management bodies. We told them our stance is we want a substantial reduction, which we were assured that they will adhere to and reduce it significantly. And we told them that our demand, which is the students demand, is 50 per cent reduction. They said theyll work on the reduction only for them to meet and the reduction was not up to 20 per cent.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe

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The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Ogun Area 1 Command, has decried incessant attacks on its operatives by smugglers in Ogun State.

The Area Controller of the service in the state, Ahmadu Shuaibu, said many of the officers had lost their lives or suffered permanent disability in such attacks.

Mr Shuaibu raised the concern at Idiroko during the 5th annual independence symposium organised by the Ipokia Local Government Youth Forum (IPYF) in conjunction with the NCS Ogun Area One Command.

The symposium was held under the theme: Smuggling and hoarding of petroleum products: effects on border communities and national security.

The controller, who spoke through his deputy, Charles Ogunesan, said smuggling activities not only retard economic development and social well-being but also endanger national security.

Over the years, the Command had recorded a series of horrible and unwanted experiences in our line of lawful duties.

These experiences range from blocking of access roads by smugglers and their sympathisers, mob attacks of officers either going in pursuit of information or conveying seized goods to the government warehouses, skirmishes to altercation which often result in casualties.

We have lost scores of officers to death and permanent disability while our dear communities have also lost many of their members to the evil of this unfortunate demon called smuggling. It is high time we say no to smuggling considering the dangers inherent in it, he said.

READ ALSO: Customs give update on revenue generated in 2 months

Mr Shuaibu said the command seized goods valued at N1.5 billion in the last nine months, noting that if such amounts were spent on legitimate trade it would have improved the economy of the communities and the nation.

Our core mandate in Ogun State is to generate revenue, suppress smuggling and facilitate legitimate trade and secure our border lines.

I want you to know that the security and development of our dear nation are the responsibility of us all, he said.

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UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt Elena Panova explains international and Egyptian efforts to achieve the UN SDGs and address climate change challenges to Mahmoud Bakr

Tackling climate change and the pursuit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are taking centre stage on both the national and international fronts, and in the wake of conflicts such as the present war between Russia and Ukraine it has become more urgent than ever for countries to work on achieving the SDGs.

Recent natural disasters such as Storm Daniel, which devastated the cities of Derna and Al-Bayda in Libya resulting in widespread loss of life and damage to infrastructure, are threatening countries worldwide, along with continuously rising temperatures.

The focus now is on measures to mitigate the impacts of climate change, plans to transition to renewable energy sources, and the formulation of policies that will compel nations to take further action on climate change.

Against this background, UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt Elena Panova spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly about endeavours towards realising the SDGs.

What were the highlights of the 2023 summit designed to monitor efforts to realise the SDGs?

The UN General Assembly, held last month at UN headquarters in New York, saw a multitude of high-level summits and gatherings. Among these, the most pivotal were the summit dedicated to tracking progress on the SDGs, the climate summit, a high level session on boosting financing for development, and high-level meetings on universal health coverage, on tuberculosis, and on pandemic prevention, preparedness and respons.

The summit addressing the implementation of the SDGs by the target date of 2030 was the highlight of the week, particularly because we are half-way through our journey towards achieving these goals, set in motion in 2015 with a target deadline of 2030. To date, we have accomplished only 15 per cent of them.

The SDG summit culminated in the unanimous adoption of a Political Declaration by UN member states that outlines a comprehensive development plan encompassing certain critical objectives, including the attainment of food security, the eradication of hunger and malnutrition, ensuring universal access to sustainable energy at affordable rates, providing Internet services and digital connectivity for all, and increasing investment in high quality educational services.

This approach aims to ensure equal opportunities for everyone, extend social protection measures, and bolster efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change, enhance biodiversity, and combat pollution.

What are the objectives of the Political Declaration from the SDGs summit?

The declaration serves as a comprehensive roadmap outlining the developmental tasks essential for maximising progress in the upcoming months. It underscores a firm commitment to allocate $500 billion annually for investment in sustainable development  the so called SDG Stimulus Plan. Furthermore, the worlds leaders have reaffirmed their dedication to scrutinising budgets in a manner that ensures meaningful contributions towards achieving these goals.

Additionally, the declaration recognises the role played by the multilateral development banks (MDBs). Particular emphasis was put on prioritising food security and social protection. The objective is to reach a coverage of one billion additional people by 2025 and four billion by 2030 through the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection.

The declaration also calls on wealthy nations to allocate a minimum of 0.7 per cent of their GDP towards development aid to impoverished countries.

How can countries be brought to commit to financing agreements on environmental and sustainable development issues?

Further efforts must be made to bolster financing, reduce debts, reform the multilateral development banks, enhance aid delivery to developing nations, and overhaul the global financial system.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are set to convene their annual meetings in Marrakesh in Morocco in October. There was a call to redirect $100 billion in their Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to assist the developing countries in tackling post-Covid-19 crises.

In recent years, only $34 billion SDRs was allocated to Africa, while $138 billion was allocated to Europe, with a portion of these funds remaining unutilised. There is now a compelling call to redirect these unused resources to the aid of the developing nations that are in dire need of financing.

The 2023 SDGs summit witnessed commendable endeavours to galvanise countries into increased commitments. But the financing gap for implementing the SDGs has surged from $2.7 trillion prior to the Covid-19 pandemic to $4 trillion.

Moreover, 40 per cent of the developing countries suffer from severe debt problems and extremely expensive market-based financing. In addition, the African nations find themselves allocating more resources to servicing debt than to vital development, education, and healthcare services.

Borrowing costs have skyrocketed eight-fold for these developing nations, which is not fair and requires the reform of the global financial system. During the High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development, Egypts minister of international cooperation underscored the importance of innovative financing and introduced an initiative on converting debts into investments in climate projects and renewable energy.

What is the UNs view of Egypts Nationally Determined Contributions on environmental issues?

Egypts dedication to climate action is indispensable for attaining the SDGs, as underscored in Egypts Vision 2030, the National Climate Change Strategy 2050, and the revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDGs).

I was particularly pleased with the clarity and coherence evident in Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukris speech, delivered on behalf of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, at the Climate Ambition Summit this year.

Based on Egypts presidency of the UN COP27 Climate Conference last year in Sharm El-Sheikh, Shoukri emphasised the pressing global challenges confronting climate action. He stressed the imperative to bolster climate financing for developing nations and the necessity for a mechanism to address the debt concerns of low- and middle-income countries, including by potential restructuring.

He also highlighted the significance of the just transition path, focusing on the NDGs and Egypts flagship Nexus of Water, Food and Energy (NWFE) programme. As highlighted by Ministry Shoukry in New Yor, NWFE is a nationally owned vision with associated targets for delivering on energy transition and resilience building. He noted that Egypt has issued two updates to its NDGs, with the latest update in July 2023 to include sector-specific emissions-reduction targets to be achieved by 2030 compared to business-as-usual scenarios.

Among these targets is a commitment to accelerating the contribution of renewable energy to reach 42 per cent of total electricity generation by 2030 instead of the initially planned 2035. Other targets include the reduction of carbon emissions in the electricity generation sector to 37 per cent and making significant emissions reductions in the oil and gas sector and the transportation sector.

What would you say are Egypts most important development programmes and projects?

Egypts successful implementation of the Decent Life Initiative will enhance the quality of life for millions of citizens in rural parts of the country. Recognised by the UN as one of the most substantial poverty reduction programmes to date, the initiative encompasses a wide range of projects aimed at improving infrastructure, education, healthcare services, employment opportunities, and ultimately reducing poverty.

It also carries the promise of stemming the tide of rural-to-urban migration, a development that has garnered optimism from the UN.

It is crucial for the government to invest more in social protection, a domain witnessing both vertical and horizontal expansion. Egypt is also providing direct financial support to the most vulnerable segments of society through initiatives like the Solidarity and Dignity Programmes.

Egypts pledge to provide universal health insurance for all citizens by 2030 is a laudable endeavour, especially considering that 60 per cent of healthcare services involve out-of-pocket payments.

Egypts commitment to revamping educational curricula and reducing classroom overcrowding is noteworthy, as are its efforts to empower women and increase their participation in the labour market, given that womens participation was 14 per cent in 2020.

How do you see the outcomes of last years COP27 Climate Conference and their effect on the UAEs holding of the COP28 Conference later this year?

Egypts presidency and hosting of the COP27 presented the country as a leading nation in the realm of climate change. The conferences achievements include the historic global agreement to establish a fund aimed at financing losses and damage. This fund is expected to be activated during the upcoming COP28 Conference in the UAE.

During the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt and the UN secretary-general unveiled a global early warning plan meant to provide early warning systems for every person against the increasingly hazardous weather phenomena expected in the years ahead. This plan is expected to be achieved by 2027.

How is the UN preparing to address climate challenges during the COP28? How is it cooperating with Egypt in this regard?

In our efforts to address climate change, our aim for the upcoming COP28 Conference in Dubai is to arrive with specific and actionable goals and commitments. These include advancing the establishment of a fund to provide compensation to countries affected by climate related damage, a critical agreement reached during the Sharm El-Sheikh conference last year.

Additionally, we are actively engaged in the second replenishment of the Green Climate Fund, with projected increase to $10 billion and current funding gap of $3 billion. These funds will be instrumental in mobilising resources for adaptation projects and mitigating the consequences of climate change.

I am pleased that Egypt has assumed a leadership role in efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Collaborating with the UN and various international agencies, Egypt is working to implement its national strategy to combat climate change and manage natural resources.

This endeavour encompasses a range of programmes, including the establishment of solar energy generation units, energy saving projects, initiatives to address rising sea levels in the Delta region, and the protection of coral reefs in the Red Sea.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 5 October, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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A Civil Society Organisation, Nigerian Mental Health, has called on the countrys lawmakers to repeal laws that currently penalise citizens who try to take their lives with a one-year jail term.

This is as the CSO launched a policy brief on decriminalising attempted suicide in Nigeria to drive legislative and societal change, and transform suicide from a criminal offence to a public health concern.

The policy brief, which was launched in September, was in commemoration of National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.

The group said individuals who attempt suicide need compassionate, evidence-based mental health support, not jail.

Suicide statistics

Nigeria with a population of over 200 million is one of the epicentres of suicide in the world according to a 2016 WHO report indicating that the country had the seventh-highest suicide rate in Africa and the 15th highest globally.

According to a report, no fewer than 79 persons committed suicide in Nigeria in 2022.

Meanwhile, the country has since labelled attempted suicide a criminal offence, as both the Criminal Code Act in the South and the Penal Code in the North regard those who attempt to end their own lives as offenders in the misdemeanour category.

As part of advocacy efforts, Nigeria Mental Health and other partners launched the #SuicideNotCrimeNG campaign in 2022 and advanced a petition that has amassed thousands of signatures calling for the policy change.

The CSOs argued that the law prevents individuals with suicidal behaviour from engaging in help-seeking behaviour or authorities from collecting accurate data on suicide because they fear legal sanctions.

Policy brief

Speaking at the launch of the policy brief, Chime Asonye, Founder of Nigerian Mental Health, and a co-author of the report, said the brief is the continuation of collective advocacy efforts to decriminalise attempted suicide in Nigeria.

Mr Asonye said along with other initiatives, the CSO has released an Open Letter with over 40 mental organisations calling on this critical policy change that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends.

The WHOs Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 20132030 recommends that the decriminalisation of suicide and suicide attempts is a critical step that governments can take in their efforts to prevent suicide.

The policy brief highlights reasons why laws criminalising attempted suicide should be repealed noting that current government regulations have colonial origins.

It also cited studies that found that laws that criminalise the act of suicide are ineffective and increase suicide rates, especially among women.

The CSO said it plans to conduct advocacy visits to the National Assembly and engage lawmakers to elevate this issue as a legislative priority.

The launch also featured panellists including M.I Agbada, a rapper and entrepreneur; Tunde Ojo, National Mental Health Programme Coordinator, Nigerias Federal Ministry of Health; Sunday Umeha, Deputy Chairman, Nigerias House Committee on Justice; and Antionette Lecky, an educator and former Big Brother contestant.

We need to support legal reforms for those who are neurodivergent, said Mr Agbada. It is not a sign of weakness to discuss mental health openly, its a sign of strength. Im glad I could serve on the panel and lend my voice to this important cause, the group said.

Implementation of National Mental Health Act

Nigerian Mental Health and 40 other campaigners recently called for the implementation and enforcement of the National Mental Health Act signed by former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Buhari signed the Mental Health Bill 2021 into law in January after two failed attempts at overhaul in 2003 and 2013, which is now the first legislative reform adopted in the field since the countrys independence.

The group comprises CSOs that are focused on the health sector including the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria (APN), Association of Psychiatric Nurses in Nigeria (APNON), Nigerian Association of Clinical Psychologists (NACP), Mentally Aware Initiative, Mental Health with Ditty, among others.

The group said the Mental Health Act should be adopted at the subnational level, noting that state governments are critical actors in dispensing healthcare for citizens.

It said only two states, Ekiti and Lagos currently have mental health legislation in the country.

The group also appealed to the National Assembly and the Federal Ministry of Health to ensure published copies of the National Mental Health Act 2021 are available to citizens.

Policy recommendations

In addition to expunging these laws from the Criminal and Penal Codes, the policy brief recommends adopting alternative interventions like early screenings and limiting access to items used to commit suicide.

It noted that stopping medical dentition or compulsory requirements that involve prosecution and engaging traditional and religious stakeholders to dispel moral and cultural justifications to criminalise suicide.

It also recommends training first responders such as police and emergency health care providers in psychological first aid and crisis intervention education to support post- decriminalisation transition.

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There was a mild drama on the floor of the House of Representatives on Tuesday over moves to suspend a member, Solomon Bob (PDP, Rivers), who had an altercation with the Deputy Speaker, Ben Kalu.

Mr Bob, during the debate on a motion on Nigerias Independence Day celebration, criticised the deputy speaker, who presided over the session, for preventing some members from contributing to the debate.

During the debate, Mr Kalu selected some lawmakers to speak on the motion, stating that the House could not afford to allow everyone to speak.

However, Mr Bob, a ranking member, raised a point of order, stating that he was disappointed in the deputy speaker for preventing all members who wanted to speak from doing so.

The Rivers lawmaker was subsequently overruled by the deputy speaker. But he continued to protest the ruling of the deputy speaker.

My point of order is that this is a very important subject, and everyone that wants to speak should be allowed to speak, he said.

Apologise or face suspension Deputy Speaker

About 30 minutes after the incident, Inuwa Garba (PDP, Garba) moved a motion on privilege and called for an apology from Mr Bob for disrespecting the presiding officer and the House.

Mr Garba, a former speaker of Gombe State House of Assembly, said Mr Bob should be given three days to apologise or be suspended for three months.

While the speaker was discharging his constitutional responsibilities, our colleague showed a sign of disrespect to this honourable chair and the House. Honourable Solomon Bob, in front of all the camerasthe whole world is watchingsaid he is disappointed with the action of the speaker and the House. I think that it is unethical and unlawful.

We have to show examples for others to see. I want to move that from now to the end of this week, the honourable member should come to the floor and put it in writingapologise to the speaker, apologise to the House and all the honourable members for his action because we are here because we have a law.

If he refuses, he should be suspended from all activities of the House for three months, Mr Garba said.

In a bid to prevent the situation from escalating, the Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers), said the comments made by Mr Bob did not warrant the call for suspension as suggested by Mr Garba.

His intervention failed to quell the situation, as the deputy speaker insisted that Mr Bob must apologise or be suspended by the House.

He stated that Mr Bob, who was not on the floor at the moment, must apologise before the end of the plenary.

About one hour after the ultimatum was issued, Mr Bob returned to the chamber and apologised. His apology was accepted by the deputy speaker.

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The death of a prominent banker and former managing director of the Nigerian Printing and Minting Company, Baffa Suleiman has been announced.

Mr Suleiman is the chairman of the Jigawa State Elders Forum.

The governor of Jigawa State, Umar Namadi, in a statement through his media aide, Hamisu Gumel, announced the demise of Mr Suleiman on Tuesday.

It is with profound sadness and a heavy heart that Governor Mallam Umar Namadi announces the passing of a great leader and pillar of the Jigawa community, Alhaji Sulaiman Baffa, Chairman of the Jigawa Elders Forum.

Alhaji Sulaiman Baffa departed from this world in the early hours of today (Tuesday) leaving a void that will be hard to fill.

The deceased was a well-known banker and administrator who held the positions of managing director of two old-generation banks as well as managing director of the Nigerian Printing and Minting Company before he retired from active service in 1999.

The late Alhaji Sulaiman Baffa was not just a prominent figure in Jigawa State but also a highly respected elder statesman and a dedicated servant of the people. His life was a testament to his unwavering commitment to the betterment of our dear state and its people. He dedicated himself to the pursuit of peace, progress, and prosperity for Jigawa State throughout his long and illustrious career.

As Chairman of the Jigawa Elders Forum, Alhaji Sulaiman Baffa played a pivotal role in fostering unity, understanding, and collaboration among various communities and stakeholders in our state. His wisdom, guidance, and tireless efforts were instrumental in resolving conflicts and addressing the concerns of our people. He was a true bridge-builder and a source of inspiration to many.

Governor Mallam Umar Namadi extends his heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and associates of Alhaji Sulaiman Baffa during this difficult time. The Governor also calls on the people of Jigawa State to join him in mourning the loss of this remarkable leader and in celebrating the legacy of service and dedication that Alhaji Sulaiman Baffa leaves behind.

The Governor, on behalf of the government and people of Jigawa State, expresses gratitude for the invaluable contributions of Alhaji Sulaiman Baffa to our states growth and development. His memory will forever be cherished, and his legacy will continue to inspire generations to come.

May the soul of Alhaji Sulaiman Baffa find eternal peace, and may his family find strength and solace during this challenging period, the governor said.

The death of Mr Baffa was announced a day after another elder statesman from Borno State, Umaru Shehu, died.

Mr Shehu, a popular Nigerian academic and professor of medicine was among the founding fathers of the Borno Elders Forum.

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Following the expiration of the seven days ultimatum it gave Deputy Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa to respond to allegations of gross misconduct made against him by some lawmakers, the Ondo House of Assembly is now set to proceed with his impeachment.

This is in spite of an order of the Federal High Court in Abuja, restraining the House from doing so until the court determines a suit filed by Mr Aiyedatiwa.

But the House said the court cannot stop the exercise, saying it is protected by the Nigerian Constitution against the interference of courts.

The House also responded to another suit filed by Mr Aiyedatiwa before the State High Court by describing the suit as an abuse of court process.

At its sitting on Tuesday, the legislative house noted that Mr Aiyedatiwa was yet to respond to the notice of allegations against him.

The impeachment process will continue in line with the 1999 Constitution since the deputy governor failed to respond within seven days stipulated by the law, the Speaker, Olamide Oladiji, said.

He issued a fresh directive to the Chief Judge of Ondo State, Olusegun Odusola, to immediately set up a seven-person panel to investigate the allegations levelled against the deputy governor.

Mr Odusola is joined in the suit filed by the deputy governor at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Counsel to the assembly, Femi Emodamori, had earlier stated while urging the court to dismiss the suit that the House of Assembly had not breached the impeachment procedure stipulated in Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

He urged the State High Court to dismiss Mr Aiyedatiwas suit as he had earlier filed another suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja, thereby turning the suit at the Ondo State High Court to multiplicity of action, forum shopping, and a gross abuse of judicial process.

The assembly has also protested against the order issued by the Federal High Court, and asked the National Judicial Commission to sanction the judge.

The impeachment is a fallout of a sustained animosity between the deputy governor and elements in the state government loyal to Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.

The fracture occurred shortly after the governor took Ill and was flown abroad for treatment, following which his powers were transferred to Mr Aiyedatiwa as acting governor.

The national secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had earlier set up a panel to look into the crisis, but some party elements told PREMIUM TIMES that the intervention is coming too late.

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The House of Representatives has called for the encouragement of community policing to facilitate the arming of constituents to fight bandits.

This resolution was a sequel to a motion of urgent public importance moved by Kabiru Mai Palace (PDP, Zamfara) and other lawmakers from the North-west.

Moving the motion on behalf of his colleagues, Mr Mai Palace said the North-west is already overwhelmed by bandits and other criminals.

This wave of criminality has since extended into various communities in my constituency, Mr Mai Palace said.

He noted that in his constituency alone, over 126 individuals were abducted, including 33 children and tragically more than 53 lives were claimed, all in the past three months, he said.

Our motions have no impactRivers Rep

During the debate on the motion, Solomon Bob (PDP, Rivers), raised on point of order, stating that the motion was pointless because similar motions had failed to yield results in the past.

He stated that members are only able to listen to the wailing and mourning of constituents without being able to help.

The issue of insecurity is overflogged. There is no attention paid to it. My view is that until we see action on the parts of the government or agencies to whom There is no point taking new ones, Mr Bob said.

Basically, every motion here has to be moved based on notice. Since we have been here, for five years now, we have dealt with issues like this almost on a daily basis

We do nothing except to listen to this wailing and mourning about the inability of our people to go to the farms and do their business

Until we see any action has been taken by the relevant authority, this House has to be spared the ordeal of going through these boring motions every day and face more substantive matters, he said.

Mr Bobs position did not go down well with many lawmakers some of whom protested against the comments by asking the Rivers lawmaker to sit down.

Responding to the point of order, the Deputy Speaker, Ben Kalu, who presided over the session, said the legislature has a constitutional mandate to protect the lives of citizens.

He stated that lawmakers cannot afford to keep mute amid general insecurity in the country.

He said: The issue remains our mandate as enshrined in the Constitution

The issues of insecurity are not boring. Discussing the way forward for the executive to take solution is not boring.

Resolutions

Mr Mai Palace prayed that the House should call on the federal government to intensify effort towards rescuing all those held hostage by these criminals and conduct a comprehensive investigation into these bandit attacks, apprehend those responsible and their prosecution to the full extent of the law.

Call on the commander in chief to direct the relocation of the defence headquarters to the North-west until peace and sanity are restored.

And call on the federal government to ensure the deployment of additional security to the region.

Several other lawmakers also moved amendments to the prayers by the movers of the motion.

Dabo Haruna (APC, Bauchi) moved the amendment for the motion to cover all regions and called for the deployment of an anti-kidnapping special squad to protect the areas.

Suleiman Gumi (PDP, Zamfara) asked the House to mandate the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to convene a security conference to deliberate on the security situation in the country.

Abdullahi Balarabe (APC, Sokoto) moved the amendment to encourage community police and arming of constituents.

The House also adopted another amendment that called for an end to illegal mining across the country.

The motion, as amended, was adopted by the House unanimously when the deputy speaker put it into question.

Therefore, the Committees on Defence, Police, and National Security and Intelligence were mandated to ensure compliance.

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At least 37 people, including two pregnant women, were burned to death after a blast in an illegal oil refinery in a community in River State, South-south Nigeria, a report has said.

The incident occurred in the early hours of Monday in the Ibaa community, in Rivers State, Reuters reported on Tuesday, quoting a local security official and community leader.

Thirty-five people were caught in the fire. Two people who were lucky to escape also died this morning in the hospital, Rufus Welekem, the head of security in the community was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Relatives had identified some of the victims and taken them for burial, he said.

The report added a witness saw the charred remains of 15 people in an open space surrounded by burnt palm trees and a motorbike.

Illegal oil refining involves siphoning off crude oil from pipelines and redirecting it into tanks, generally in bushes and forests, where the crude oil is boiled at high temperatures to turn it into different petroleum products.

In recent times, illegal oil refining has resulted in severe fatal accidents.

PREMIUM TIMES in April last year reported how many people were killed when an explosion rocked an illegal crude oil refinery in Abaezi forest, Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State.

This newspaper also reported in March that at least 12 people were confirmed dead following an oil pipeline explosion from an illegal oil bunkering site in the Rumuekpe community, in the Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State.

Guardian newspaper reported in October 2021 how the illegal refining of petroleum products killed 20 people in the Rumuekpe community.

According to the newspaper, youths of the community were siphoning petroleum products from several pipelines within the stretch of the community when an explosion occurred.

Similarly, in April last year, Business Day newspaper reported that over 60 persons were killed in Imo-Rivers illegal refinery explosion. The incident occurred at the boundary area of Rivers and Imo States.

In Rivers State, one of Nigerias oil-richest states, air pollution, especially the soot in Port Harcourt, the state capital, and its environs, has been attributed to the operation of illegal oil refineries.

Over the years, Nigeria has recorded a surge in pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft incidents in its oil-producing region, a development that worsened the nations revenue challenge.

Earlier in September, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, said Nigeria lost N16.25 trillion to crude oil theft between 2009 and 2020.

He said the menace of crude oil theft had hampered the growth of the countrys oil production, with between five and 30 per cent of crude oil production lost daily.

Security agents have frequently discovered illegal refining sites in the countrys oil-producing region.

In September, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) said troops of Operation Delta Safe have in the last two weeks, uncovered and destroyed 89 illegal refining sites in the Niger Delta region.

The Director of Defence Media Operations, Edward Buba, said the troops also discovered and destroyed 21 dugout pits, 56 boats, 138 storage tanks, 235 cooking ovens, six pumping machines, one outboard engine, and two speedboats.

He said the troops have recovered about 1.2 litres of stolen crude oil, 452,910 litres of illegally refined Automotive Gas Oil, 22,650 litres of Premium Motor Spirit and 3,000 litres.

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As we look forward to Odia Ofeimuns continued service in the literary vineyard, the editors have enriched our libraries and the growing bibliography on Odia Ofeimuns writings by publishing this book that should be of interest to students and teachers of literature, culture and politics alike. People like Odia are hardly ever remembered when national honours and other diadems are given out, mostly to the undeserved, but it is his kind who speak and write truth to power who represent the vanishing oases of sanity and humanity

Last Thursday, I was invited to review a book on Odia Ofeimun, one of Africas leading poets and public intellectuals, a committed, empathetic scholar, as Professor Tunji Olaopa describes him elsewhere. Our own Odia is not a man to be disappointed; he is our Baba, our Owalen, as many of his brothers from his Iruekpen clan of Esan West kingdom of Edo State call him. But Lagos, the subject of Ofeimuns anthology: Lagos of the Poets can be often multi-dimensionally treacherous, the product of the chaos that is built into its structure, sustained by the inability to transform the city to serve the purposes of those who live therein on a sustainable basis. Professor Wumi Raji and Kunle Ajibade had been on my matter, in literal Yorubanglish. I promised them I would be there and indeed immediately I stepped off the set of The Morning Show on Arise TV, I started heading towards Rights House, Adeniyi Jones Street, Ikeja, Head Office of the Campaign for Democracy and Human Rights (CDHR), the venue of the event. The car was properly fuelled and that is a statement not to be taken lightly in Tinubus Nigeria.

But the road laid in wait, not for a sacrifice, but in mischief. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had served notice that it would embark on a total and indefinite strike on Tuesday 3 October, in protest over the decision of the Tinubu administration to remove fuel subsidy, which resulted in the pump price of fuel jumping up by over 300%. Organised Labour raised its objections and at negotiation meetings, presented a set of demands before the Federal Government. The same Federal Government set up a Presidential Steering Committee and sub-committees on resolving the issue, but this yielded no results as government officials abandoned the negotiating table, and resorted to appeals to Labour to be patient and understanding. Understand what? Labour issued a 21-day warning notice. The government kept begging.

The NLC later embarked on a two-day warning strike on 5 and 6 September. Government officials, including the Minister of Labour and Employment and the Vice President, at the last meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC), continued to preach without addressing the issues. By that Thursday when I set out for Ikeja, the entire stretch of Awolowo Road was blocked by queues at petrol stations. People had embarked on the panic buying of petrol, ahead of the announced Labour strike, with NUPENG having declared that all petrol stations would be shut down. I had to struggle through the traffic, endure the terrible potholes on the Third Mainland Bridge, which had been shut down on many occasions in the recent past for repairs, but where shortly after the repairs, the same potholes returned, putting motorists on that bridge in a state of prayer, with the fervent hope that the day would not come when those potholes would become craters and vehicles on that bridge would begin to drop into the ocean below. An imaginable calamity!

I finally made it to Ikeja to meet even more difficult traffic hold-ups. I was lucky it wasnt one of those days when the rains fell. When it rains in Lagos, it could be practically impossible to travel from one side of the city to the other. By the time I reached Rights House, the book presentation ceremony had begun. It was well attended: there was Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN) as the chair of the occasion; Professor Kayode Soremekun, former vice chancellor of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti; Femi Falana (SAN); Professor Mike Ikhariale, my former teacher at the Lagos State University (LASU); Professor Akin Onigbinde, my former colleague at Ogun State University (now OOU); Senator Yunus Akintunde, representing Oyo Central; Molara Wood, writer and editor; Managing Director of The Guardian, Martins Oloja; Kabiru Aregbesola, representing his father, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, former Minister of the Interior, who later joined us straight from the airport. Editors. Reporters. Poets. Novelists. Word merchants. I met all the Mainland people already seated. The city of Lagos inflicts psychological terror on residents with its structural divisiveness. I know people who live and work on the Island, who will never cross the bridge to the Mainland, and vice versa. I was not even allowed to take a glass of water before Professor Sylvester Odion-Akhaine, the compere, announced that it was good that I had arrived in time or on time  I arrived late anyway  and I should immediately present my review. It was an assignment I was glad to take seriously.

One of Odia Ofeimuns famous books, the product of a 2003 lecture at the University of Ibadan, is a collection of essays titled Taking Nigeria Seriously, in which he reflects on issues about the making and the unmaking of Nigeria, the contradictions that have turned an otherwise promising country, of enormous potentials, into the very opposite of its original value, or perhaps something dangerously close to that due to the absence of enabling leadership opportunities, and an inevitable descent into the lower depths. Those who know Odia, the title of the third part of the book under review, The Odia We Know, know him to be a man who takes everything that he does seriously. It is this single-minded devotion to his craft, and to his environment, to society, that has been a defining characteristic of his polyvalent genius, encountered in virtually every facet of his persona as a poet, writer, polemicist, journalist, dramatist, producer, essayist, publisher, literary critic and entrepreneur. The last definition may seem odd to many but it is true, for as Chairman and Founder of the Hornbill House of the Arts, Odia has had a long experience running an enterprise, even if the main substance of that enterprise is literature and ideas, not money. Hornbill House has nonetheless produced profit in that regard: it published Tade Ipadeolas The Sahara Testaments, winner of the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature, 2013. It is also the publisher of Obari Ogombas Grit, a play that has been shortlisted for the 2023 NLNG Literature Prize, both a firm confirmation of how Odia Ofeimun takes literature seriously too, not just as creator but also as promoter of the genres.

Odia Ofeimun is one of the most impactful, productive, influential public intellectuals that Nigeria has produced in the past four decades, with his contributions to poetry, journalism, literary criticism, public affairs and stage presentations forming a formidable part of the canon. His influence is cross-disciplinary and multi-dimensional  involving politics, literature, drama, activism, journalism, culture, and, as a person, he remains one of the most actively engaged citizens of our time.

While Odia Ofeimun takes what he does seriously, it is noteworthy that the publication under review is an affirmation of the man himself being taken seriously. Essentially, the book, Odia Ofeimun: In Search of a Common Morality  Essays, Tributes and Conversations (Ile-Ife: Obafemi Awolowo University Press, 307 pp.) is the product of a conference in honour of the subject, held on 16 March, 2020, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, at the University of Lagos. Three years later, the presentations at that conference and other materials have now been put together for posterity in a book form by a troika of editors and scholars: Wumi Raji, Sylvester Odion-Akhaine and Akin Adesokan. The editors have done a praiseworthy and remarkable job of putting a fence around that year 2000 septuagenarian celebration, and whereas they claim that the readers will be encountering for the first time what represents more or less a sustained critical engagement with Ofeimuns writings, I doubt if indeed this is the first effort of its kind. I refer the editors to an earlier book: Vicky Mnguember Sylvester (ed.) Critical Perspectives on Odia Ofeimun (Lagos, Ibadan: Malthouse Press, 2012, 271pp), with contributors including Kole Omotoso, Onookome Okome, Tanure Ojaide and Effiok Uwatt. But whereas this earlier book focused mainly on Odia Ofeimuns texts, what can be seen at first glance in the latest appraisal is the extensive scope of the content, the depth of the analysis, the array of scholars and friends taking Odia Ofeimun seriously, and the focus on not just the literature, but also informed portraits of the man, his life and times, which is a near-balanced coverage of the literary and the biographical.

It is not difficult to see why this is so. Odia Ofeimun is one of the most impactful, productive, influential public intellectuals that Nigeria has produced in the past four decades, with his contributions to poetry, journalism, literary criticism, public affairs and stage presentations forming a formidable part of the canon. His influence is cross-disciplinary and multi-dimensional  involving politics, literature, drama, activism, journalism, culture, and, as a person, he remains one of the most actively engaged citizens of our time. What further stands him out is his courage, his conviction, and the sheer daredevilry with which he reinvents himself. Long before the Labour Party became such a movement in contemporary Nigerian politics, Odia Ofeimun had made an attempt to become a state Governor on the platform of the same party, in pursuit of his oft-stated optimism that Nigeria can be rescued and saved through direct involvement of the right persons in the governance process.

The book is divided into four parts, with a total of 18 chapters. The reference in the title to a common morality is extracted from Akin Adesokans The Fragmented Poetics of a Common Morality in Part I titled, Critical Essays  which are seven in total in this section. It would appear, however, that the common morality that is referred to is the humanistic temper that underlines Odia Ofeimuns writings: his deep interrogation of what makes us human, what makes us less human, and what could make us more human, across all the spectrums of human experience. These seven critical essays examine Odias writings, not the entire oeuvre but his essays, his poetry infused by what Idaevor Bello and Lizzy Onyeiwu call the tradition of resistance writing: The Poet Lied, A Handle for the Flutist, Under African Skies, London Letter, Go Tell the Generals, and I will ask questions with stones if they take my voice. The city is a central symbol and referent in Odia Ofeimuns writings. In A Melting Pot: Representations of the Lagos Imaginary, Professor Wumi Raji examines Ofeimuns book of selected poetry, Lagos of the Poets (2010).

The discursive, research-oriented tone of the critical essays is sustained further in Professor G.G. Darahs, Odia Ofeimun and the Dialectics of Nigerias Long Revolution and Sylvester Odion-Akhaines review of The Politics of Odia Ofeimun, both drawing attention to and exploring his interventions with regards to the issues of nation-building, federalism, a national conference and the centrifugal tensions in the Nigerian process. It may be said that this first part of the book, for deliberate, obvious reasons, is the more rigorous part, given the academic, research-based flavour of the contributions. Two poems follow  by Professor Niyi Osundare and Okinba Launko  Professor Femi Osofisans nom de plume. The editors describe this section of the book as an interlude. Osundare and Okinba Launko are Ofeimuns contemporaries, members together, with Kole Omotoso, Bode Sowande, Tanure Ojaide, Funso Aiyejina, Abubakar Gimba, Festus Iyayi, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Tunde Fatunde, Zaynab Alkali, Buchi Emechetaof the second generation of writers who helped to shape the ideological character of what came later.

A much easier offering is Chapter III of the book titled: The Odia We Know, a collection of friendly, appreciative tributes to the subject by Owei Lakemfa, Rauf Aregbesola, Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, Yewande Omotoso, Omowunmi Segun, Chris Dunton, Ogaga Ifowodo  presented in the form of personal encounters and relationships with the poet, revealing how, in the course of his career within the community, Odia as he is fondly called, or Uncle Odia as Yewande Omotoso and Chris Dunton refer to him, has been a source of inspiration and a mentor to many, not just through his craft but also his example and generosity of spirit.

There is no doubt that apart from documenting an important milestone in the life of Odia Ofeimun, a poet and writer of the first rank, whose love for literature and language is in a class of its own, this book will generate further discussions about his art and thoughts, as well as interest in his entire oeuvre. Few writers have been as prodigious and compelling. It is important that the essays in the book do not convey any hint of hagiography or undeserved praise

In Chapter 5, Professor Biodun Jeyifos keynote address during Odias 70th birthday is reproduced, an even-handed, first-hand portrait of the subject by a fellow-traveller through the decades titled, When Poverty is Wealth  in Connection with the Word (for Odia Ofeimun at 70). Chapter IV is titled Conversations and here, in three Chapters: 16-18, we hear directly from the celebrant himself in three major interviews: his romance with the word, his life, literature and struggles  a more directly biographical section of the book which lends it a fresh momentum and appeal through story-telling and the vehicle of reminiscences.

There is no doubt that apart from documenting an important milestone in the life of Odia Ofeimun, a poet and writer of the first rank, whose love for literature and language is in a class of its own, this book will generate further discussions about his art and thoughts, as well as interest in his entire oeuvre. Few writers have been as prodigious and compelling. It is important that the essays in the book do not convey any hint of hagiography or undeserved praise  for although it was Ofeimuns 70th birthday, the commentators and critics know him well enough to understand that he could not be swayed by any form of flattery. Ogaga Ifowodo tells him to write the long-awaited, long-promised book on Awo, otherwise Nigeria would not forgive him. Omowunmi Seguns portraiture of Ofeimun at poetry reading sessions in a critical but humorous tone, is right on point, a well-pointed jab below the belt, but it speaks more to the mans passion for the word, written or spoken.

Adesokan, one of the editors, tells us that Odia Ofeimun is a writer that we will continue to encounter deep into the future. He is right. Ofeimuns place in the world of letters is more than assured. After more than 40 books of essays, poetry, criticism and public affairs analysis, we can only look forward to a feast and a harvest of more words from his fecund imagination. The present book does not in any way, comprehensive as it may seem, exhaust the many possibilities for analysis that Odia Ofeimuns work offers: his unionism, for example, as secretary general and later president of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), and the many battles he had to fight; his journalism before and after the military era as a columnist/member of the editorial board of The Guardian and later as chairman of the Editorial Board of The News newspaper, and, of course, his practical involvement in politics, either as Private Secretary to Chief Obafemi Awolwo, or as a Labour Party gubernatorial aspirant, who had progressive ideas about how society could be organised for growth and development, but was limited by his own idealism in a political environment, where commerce and vainglory prevail.

As we look forward to Odia Ofeimuns continued service in the literary vineyard, the editors have enriched our libraries and the growing bibliography on Odia Ofeimuns writings by publishing this book that should be of interest to students and teachers of literature, culture and politics alike. People like Odia are hardly ever remembered when national honours and other diadems are given out, mostly to the undeserved, but it is his kind who speak and write truth to power who represent the vanishing oases of sanity and humanity in this land, where the peoples hope for a better tomorrow is stained by the blood of the innocent and the wickedness of persons in high places. It is about time Nigeria and Nigerians began to take themselves seriously.

Reuben Abati, a former presidential spokesperson, writes from Lagos.

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The creeping deployment of security reports as a tool for political intrigue, as seen in the latest ministerial confirmation saga and the past case of Ibrahim Magu risks making an issue of public trust in the integrity of security reports. Politicians are being accused of cloaking, as security reports, innuendos and angst arising from political differences, ruptured friendships, failed marriages and even ill-fated dalliances.

When the Senate announced on 9 August that it would commence a recess and resume on 26 September, it left a few questions unanswered. Its major assignment until that point was the screening of 48 ministerial nominees forwarded to it in batches by President Bola Tinubu.

On 7 August, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, announced that the Senate had confirmed 45 of the 48 ministerial nominees it screened over the previous week. Senator Akpabio blamed the non-confirmation of three nominees on security reports from the State Security Service. The nominees whose confirmations were withheld were Nasir El-Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna State; Stella Okotete, an executive director at NEXIM Bank and; Abubakar Danladi, a former senator.

Mr Akpabios shocked many Nigerians, especially given Mr El-Rufais political standing. He is believed to have accepted El-Rufais nomination as minister only after considerable pressure from President Tinubu. His non-confirmation and those of his two colleagues, therefore raised questions about the entire screening process, who influenced it, the role of security agencies in it, and the options for redress by the persons of whom the purported security reports may have impugned. As the Senate resumed last week, it is yet to answer these questions or grapple with the implications of the constitutional provision, which deems a nominee to have been confirmed as minister, if no return is received from the Senate within 21 working days of receipt of his or her nomination.

Who Confirms: The Senate or Akpabio?

During the proceedings of 7 August, Mr Akpabio named the 45 confirmed ministerial nominees. And as mentioned, he announced the non-confirmation of the other three nominees, attributing the decision to security reports. There was no debate by the Senate on the content or merit of the security reports as it pertained to the nominees, neither was any vote taken on the matter. It felt more like diktat than a collegial or collective decision. Many senators were said to have been incensed that Mr Akpabio usurped their powers, and twisted what should be an institutional responsibility into an unprecedented exercise of personal power.

That was believed to be one of the issues fuelling the grievance of some senators against Mr Akpabio, who recalled that despite its hostility to the executive, the Bukola Saraki Senate leadership did not embarrass President Muhammadu Buharis cabinet nominees in 2015.

What Is the Status of the Three Nominees Yet To Be Cleared?

While the Senate was on recess, President Tinubu nominated two more ministers. The Senate is likely to conduct their screening this week; an exercise that will remind everyone of the pending confirmations of Mr El-Rufai, et al. The expectation is that the Senate will be eager to clear up the issue once it resumes. But there are arguments by some people that Messrs El-Rufai, Okotete and Danladi are already deemed as confirmed ministers by virtue of Section 147 (6) of the Constitution, which states that An appointment to any of the offices aforesaid shall be deemed to have been made where no return has been received from the Senate within twenty-one working days of the receipt of nomination by the Senate.

Whether or not this interpretation prevails, the Senate is expected to dispose of the hazard it hung on the neck of nominees like Mr El-Rufai, who was publicly courted, to join the Tinubu government and Mrs Okotete, who is serving in a senior role within a federal parastatal.

Who Influences the Screening Process?

Some aggrieved senators are alleging that external forces and personal interest influenced Mr Akpabios action. Influential figures from the executive branch are believed to have pressured Mr Akpabio to block the confirmation of certain persons. In persuading the Senate president to act as they desired, the figures from the executive branch recalled a similar event during the Buhari years, when security reports from the Lawal Daura-led DSS, a parastatal of the executive branch, was used to thwart the confirmation of Ibrahim Magu as EFCC chairman. But unlike Magus case, no security agency has owned up to issuing any adverse report on President Tinubus nominees. There is yet to be any valid security issue about the concerned nominees made known and neither have the so-called petitions nor security reports been brought to their knowledge.

The Role of Security Agencies

The creeping deployment of security reports as a tool for political intrigue, as seen in the latest ministerial confirmation saga and the past case of Ibrahim Magu risks making an issue of public trust in the integrity of security reports. Politicians are being accused of cloaking, as security reports, innuendos and angst arising from political differences, ruptured friendships, failed marriages and even ill-fated dalliances. For the health of the polity, politicians are advised to use other tools in their contestations, rather than imperil the objectivity of security reports and thereby devalue the hard work of the security agencies that compile them.

Nigerians await Senator Akpabio-led Senates answers to these bewildering non-confirmation of President Tinubus nominees.

Femi Falade, a teacher and public affairs analyst, writes from Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. He can be reached via faladeolufemi2003@yahoo.com

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The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr Simbi KesiyeWabote, has commended the Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti for the decision of his administration to establish the Abia Industrial Innovation Park (AIIP), Owaza, in Ukwa West Local Government Area of the State.

In a goodwill message at the ground-breaking ceremony on Saturday, Mr Wabote, an Engineer, said the Park would spur industrial production and position Abia State as a competitive player in the global market as it will attract national and international investors which will then contribute significantly to the State and nations economy.

According to him, A virile manufacturing sector will not only create much-needed employment opportunities, but it will also have a multiplier effect on the economy especially if the right policies and mechanisms are put in place to stimulate both forward and backward integration for the products and materials that will be manufactured. Such policies and mechanisms should be geared toward reduced production costs.

Citing the local content philosophy of the Federal Government and its emphasis on domestication and domiciliation of high value-adding activities, which have necessitated the establishment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Park Scheme (NOGaPS), the NCDMB boss said, Based on the realisation that high production cost is a major challenge for local manufacturers, we adopted a shared-services strategy where we provide infrastructure such as power supply and utilities, road network, water, waste treatment, and so on for businesses that will be located on the site.

Such a strategy, he noted, would enable manufacturers to focus on their core business of manufacturing rather than adding the role of power generation, road construction, etc. to their operations. While assuring the Abia State Government of the preparedness of the NCDMB to share our experience with you to ensure this Park becomes a success story, he disclosed that the pilot phases of NOGaPS at Emeyal 1 in Bayelsa State and at Odukpani in Cross River State are at the final stages of completion, and both will come on stream soon.

Mr Wabote implored the people of Abia State to give their full cooperation to the State Governor to make the project a success.

In his own address, Governor Oti said, Our vision is clear and our goal direct: we want to responsibly harness the abundant oil and gas reserves within Ukwa for the economic development of the communities within the State and the regions connected to this project location. He assured the people of the determination of his administration to actualise that vision, while soliciting their support.

The Governor equally expressed the appreciation of the State Government to the guests who honoured the invitation to participate in the ground-breaking ceremony. He wished them a safe journey back to their respective destinations.

The AIIP is envisaged to comprise a Technology Innovation Centre, a Modern Vehicle Assembly Plant, Power Generating Plant, a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Manufacturing Plant, an LPG and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Tank Farm, a Haulage and Warehousing Facility, an Agricultural storage and processing facility, a mini seaport, a five-star hotel, and a carbon-neutral residential estate.

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A Y M Shafa Holdings Limited, one of the frontline indigenous oil and gas firms, has opened up a multi-million-dollar gas plant in Navy Town Ojo, Lagos State to cater for the cooking gas needs of all residents in Navy Town and its environs in the Ojo area of Lagos State.

The joint venture project which is between the Admiralty Exchange Ltd and A Y M SHAFA Holdings Limited was commissioned last week. This was a fulfillment and realisation of 26 January, this year.

The project brought a relief to residents of Navy Town who travelled long distances in the past, to get a supply of Liquified Natural Gas (LPG) also known as the cooking gas used in households.

While speaking at the commissioning last week, the Executive Director of Business Development, A Y M Shafa Holdings Limited, Mallam Musa Yahaya, promised that the companys team of professionally driven work force will ensure uninterrupted and safe supply of LPG to the barracks residents and its environs and at a good rate also.

He said the plant is one of the two 25mt tanks that were planned for Navy Town Ojo and that once demand is established they will bring in the second part of the project.

He stated further that it may be of interest to know that A Y M SHAFA Holdings Limited has similar plants and inland LPG depots spread across the country. He added that A Y M SHAFA Holdings Limited is one of the leading oil and gas marketing and distribution companies in Nigeria.

He also stressed that their liquid fuel stations are among the best quality in the Country. He said that with the permission of the Chief of Naval Staff, the company can also structure similar partnership vendor managed inventories in diesel and petrol supplies in Navy Town Ojo or any other area so desired.

Responding, the Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, explained that the Admiralty Shafa gas plant is a joint venture project between the Admiralty Exchange Limited, a subsidiary of Navy Holdings Limited and A Y M SHAFA Holdings Limited.

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Terrorism is just one of the woes of the African Sahel region.

The African Sahel has experienced turbulence on the political and security fronts since the early 1980s, and the countries of the region have suffered from significant famines, social unrest, military coups, civil conflicts, and, in some cases, even territorial division.

These challenges have been rooted in the poverty and marginalisation of a significant portion of the populations across the Sahel region from Senegal and Mauritania in the west to Sudan and Eritrea in the east.

For nearly a decade, the region has also been under the spotlight due to the actions of armed Azawad movements aligning with jihadist groups that most countries in the region label as terrorist organisations. In 2012, such groups declared the independence of northern Mali.

Despite the defeat of the separatist-jihadi alliance in northern Mali, the wave of terrorism has not receded in most of the Sahel countries, and the ongoing instability has drawn these nations into military coups and complex international alliances that have not always placed their interests first.

In Mali last weekend, the countrys military reported that at least two people had been killed and five injured in a bombing carried out by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam w-al-Muslimin group in the historic city of Timbuktu.

Local officials in the city renowned for its libraries dating back to the Middle Ages said that the group, classified as a terrorist organisation by the Malian government in Bamako, had fired three shells at the city, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Timbuktu, often referred to as the city of 333 saints, has been besieged by jihadists since August when the Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam w-al-Muslimin group declared a war in Timbuktu after a jihadist insurgency lasting for several years.

On 8 September, the Malian military announced that jihadists, whose identities were not confirmed, had also launched attacks on the city of Gao in the northern part of the country, as well as its airport and a ferry on the Niger River near Timbuktu.

The assaults resulted in the deaths of 64 people, including 49 civilians and 15 soldiers. In response, the army engaged in counterattacks, reportedly eliminating 50 terrorists, according to a military statement.

Timbuktu has a population numbering in the tens of thousands and is one of the major northern cities in Mali that fell under the control of Tuareg rebels and subsequently Salafi groups following the 2012 rebellion. It was not until 2013 that French and Malian forces managed to reclaim the city.

In 2015, the rebel factions, primarily composed of Tuareg groups, entered into a peace agreement with the government of Mali at a meeting in Algeria. However, this accord was rejected by the armed Islamist groups.

The ensuing violence not only engulfed northern Mali, but also spread to central Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. This escalation has resulted in numerous casualties, with estimates from Western media suggesting thousands of lives lost.

The failure of the elected governments in these three countries, as well as others, to effectively counter terrorism in the region has created an environment conducive to military coups, and the recent tensions in northern Mali have raised concerns about the sustainability of the 2015 peace agreement and the potential for renewed confrontations in the region.

FRANCE AND RUSSIA

The recent series of coups detat in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea has led these countries to demand the departure of French forces, as the new governments have demonstrated a shift towards Russia.

Khaled Mahmoud, an African affairs researcher in Cairo, said that Russia and France share the objective of countering the armed Islamists, but each pursues a distinct approach.

The crisis in Europe following the conflict in Ukraine has also prompted Russia to exert pressure on France in its African territories, as well to cease gas supplies to Germanys industry.

The new military governments in the Sahel countries have requested the withdrawal of French forces, contending that the French presence has not effectively addressed the jihadist threat.

In response, French President Emmanuel Macron said that if we had not been involved, with Operations Serval and then Barkhane, there would probably no longer be any Mali and no longer be any Burkina Faso. Im not even sure there would still be a Niger.

If our soldiers had not fallen on the field of honour in Africa, if Operations Serval and then Barkhane had not been deployed, we would not be talking about Mali, Burkina Faso or Niger today, he said.

Since 2013, France has deployed thousands of its soldiers in the five Sahel countries of Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania, with additional contributions from the US and various other European countries.

The Sahel nations have also established a joint force to counter the jihadist groups, which are classified as terrorist organisations by countries in the region.

Despite these efforts, the groups have carried out attacks resulting in numerous casualties, injuries, and the displacement of thousands of people from their homes.

The new military authorities in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso have now formed a new coalition aimed at defending themselves against foreign interference, terrorism, and organised crime, as a way of tackling the issue.

These three countries are also concerned that the West African Economic Community (ECOWAS) may intervene to reinstate former Niger president Mohamed Bazoum, a scenario they wish to prevent.

REGIONAL ISSUES

The African Sahel region became highly volatile during the Decade of Lead in Algeria from 1991 to 2002.

Late Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika introduced a civil peace initiative in 1999 aiming to end the conflict in the country, and this was accepted by the majority of the Algerian jihadist elements. However, a few then formed the Salafi Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).

The GSPC faced significant pressure from the Algerian security forces, leading to its isolation and lack of supplies or support and its eventual pledging allegiance to Al-Qaeda.

However, its influence remained limited until after the downfall of the regime led by the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at the hands of NATO in 2011. This resulted in the proliferation of Libyan weapons across the Sahel region, along with the presence of thousands of Tuareg fighters who had fought alongside Gaddafi.

There now appears to be a concerted effort to curtail the activities of terrorist groups that exploit the grievances of Arab pastoralist tribes in countries such as Niger, Mali, Chad, and others.

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) is engaged in a conflict with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group primarily composed of Janjaweed camel herders.

In Libya itself, forces led by General Khalifa Haftar in collaboration with Chadian President Mohamed Idriss Deby are encircling Chadian opposition forces in southern Libya, a group predominantly made up of Arab camel herders.

The recent ousting of Bazoum in Niger, who belongs to the Rizeigat tribe like Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemedti, the leader of the Sudanese RSF, can be seen as a significant development in the decline in the influence of the Abala tribes who are traditionally associated with camel herding.

Veteran Sudanese journalist Al-Nour Ahmed Al-Nour said that Bazoum invited Hemedti to his inauguration ceremony in 2021, while Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, the head of the Sovereignty Council in Sudan, was not extended an invitation.

Bazoum and Hemedti held a private conversation during which it was reported that Hemedti advised his relative Bazoum to focus on training special militias to address potential future crises, Al-Nour added.

Sudan, led by Al-Burhan, and Libya, led by Haftar, along with several countries in Central Africa, including Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea, share a common goal of countering terrorism and neutralising the influence of pastoralist Arab tribes that may be involved with terrorist groups, whether allied with Al-Qaeda or affiliated with the Islamic State group.

However, addressing terrorism in the Sahel and Sahara regions is a complex challenge that requires substantial international support.

The root causes of terrorism in these areas often include historical injustices, marginalisation, and the economic disparities faced by various ethnic and tribal groups, including Arabs, Azawads, and others.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 28 September, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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In a resounding chorus of praise, a stakeholder group in the Nigerian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector has commended the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr Umar Garba Danbatta, for his remarkable leadership and the unprecedented achievements in the nations telecom sector.

The stakeholders who came under the auspices of the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) expressed satisfaction with the transformative programmes of Mr Danbatta, who is a professor of Engineering.

According to the group, under Danbattas visionary leadership, Nigerias telecom sector has witnessed an astounding transformation, transcending previous limitations and emerging as a beacon of progress. His eight-year tenure as the EVC of the NCC has seen the sector attract a staggering $77 billion in investments, catapulting it to the forefront of the nations economic landscape.

The ICT group lauded Mr Danbatta for overseeing a sector that now contributes a substantial 16 percent to Nigerias Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a notable increase from its eight percent contribution in 2015. The financial impact of the sector is undeniable, with a recent report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealing a significant N2.508 trillion contribution to the nations GDP in the first quarter of 2023, representing 14.13 per cent.

National Chairman of NITRA, Mr Chike Onwuegbuchi, in a statement, said one of the key achievements highlighted by the ICT community was Mr Danbattas bold move to embrace 5G technology, positioning Nigeria as an early adopter in the global digital economy. He said this strategic decision resulted in the generation of $820.8 million for the federal government from 5G spectrum license fees paid by leading operators.

Furthermore, the issuance of a license to Elon Musk-owned SpaceX for Starlinks broadband services, a satellite-based wireless broadband offering with nationwide coverage potential, has been a game-changer for the industry and a testament to Mr Danbattas forward-thinking approach, he said.

The ICT group also emphasised the remarkable growth in telephone users, internet subscribers, and broadband users under Mr Danbattas stewardship, which has soared to 218.9 million, 159.5 million, and 88.7 million, respectively, noting that these figures, along with the creation of numerous jobs, have underscored the sectors pivotal role in Nigerias economic development.

The ICT group said Mr Danbattas unwavering commitment to innovation, regulatory excellence, and active stakeholder engagement has set a powerful precedent for success and acknowledged the sectors resilience in the face of challenges such as infrastructure vandalism, regulatory complexities, and power supply issues.

The ICT community has urged the federal government to replicate the telecom sectors success in other industries to propel Nigeria into the ranks of the worlds top 20 economies. They view Mr Danbattas leadership as a testament to what can be achieved with dedication, innovation, and visionary leadership.

Meanwhile, as the accolades pour in, Mr Danbattas transformative leadership in Nigerias telecom sector serves as an inspiring example of how visionary leadership can drive growth, innovation, and prosperity in the nations economy.

His legacy will undoubtedly be remembered as a cornerstone of Nigerias digital transformation journey, said Mr Onwuegbuchi in the statement.

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The governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Lafia, Nasarawa State, has sacked Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State and declared David Ombugadu, the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the duly elected governor.

In a split judgement delivered by the three-member tribunal on Monday, two of the judges agreed that the election was won by the PDP while the other dissented.

Governor Sule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) sought re-election for a second term but faced stiff opposition during the election.

Mr Sule polled a total of 347,209 votes to defeat his closest opponent, Mr Ombugadu, who secured 283,016 votes.

In the lead judgment delivered virtually, lasting more than four hours on Monday, the chairperson of the three-member tribunal, Ezekiel Ajayi, declared Mr Ombugadu the rightful winner of the election.

Chiemelie Onaga, a member of the panel, agreed with the judgement read by the panel chairperson.

Mr Ajayi declared that Mr Ombugadu provided the results of the various polling units and forms EC 8A and proved to the tribunal that the results were manipulated in favour of the APC.

He said that based on the proof from the various polling units before the tribunal, Mr Ombugadu had the majority of valid votes at the election.

He ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Mr Sule and issue a new one to Mr Ombugadu.

The dissenting judgment was delivered by Ibrahim Mashi, who dismissed the petition filed by the PDP candidate for lacking in merit.

He said the petitioner failed to prove his case and upheld INECs declaration of Mr Sule as the winner.

Reacting to the tribunals decision, Mr Ombugadus counsel, Johnson Usman, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), lauded it for a detailed judgment.

The counsel said the tribunal had proved that the court is the last hope of the common man by affirming the decision of the majority of the people of the state at the poll.

Mr Sule has also vowed to appeal the tribunals decision.

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LONDON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Global lifestyle brand MINISO celebrated the official opening of its first UK "Blind Box" store on Shaftesbury Avenue, London, on Friday, 29th September. This captivating shopping destination aims to bring the thrilling blind box trend to life in a completely immersive manner, aiming to delight Londoners, tourists, and toy enthusiasts alike. Offering over 50 different blind boxes filled with mystery toys and collectibles, the new store promises to ignite a blind box frenzy, infusing MINISO's signature atmosphere of joy into the heart of central London.

The grand opening of MINISOs first UK Blind Box store Blind Box collections in the store create a dreamland of childlike wonder for shoppers

The new 40m2 store is MINISO's first in central London and will bring MINISO's co-branded blind box collections with some of the world's best-known IP owners altogether under one roof. Shoppers will discover blind boxes from the Sanrio, Disney Pixar, Tokidoki, We Bare Bears, Minions, Winnie the Pooh, and more collections. The store also sells a curated edit of MINISO's popular original products, including plush toys and accessories.

During the Grand Opening, curious Londoners were welcomed by a lively party atmosphere, animated by the rhythmic beats of a live drummer. Families and children happily joined in the celebration, capturing joyful moments with MINISO's beloved mascot, PenPen. Customers also had the opportunity to claim a goody bag worth over 25 with any purchase, making it a memorable celebration for the store's inaugural day.

Blind boxes, a favourite on TikTok which sees mystery collectible characters packed in identical packages, have taken the world of swappable toys and collectibles by storm. Perfect for swapping with family or friends, they often include a "secret" rare character, further adding to the thrill of collecting.

London is the fashion hub of both Europe and the world. It is our honour to open MINISO's first 'Blind Box' store here," said Saad Usman, Chief Operating Officer of MINISO UK. "Blind boxes are perfect products that seamlessly blend pop culture and trendy content. We are confident that these items will create a devoted fan base, and individuals of all ages will discover something truly special in our 'Blind Box' store. Blind boxes have become an integral part of our global strategy, and this new store represents MINISO's latest milestone as we continue our UK expansion."

The opening of MINISO's first dedicated "Blind Box" store in UK marks the latest development in the brand's continuing worldwide expansion strategy, as it aims to become a global lifestyle super-brand. In total, the brand has nearly 5,800 stores around the world, of which more than 20 are located in the UK, including London, Belfast, Cambridge, Cardiff, Manchester,and more.

About MINISO

MINISO Group is a global lifestyle brand offering a variety of design-led lifestyle products. The company serves consumers primarily through its large network of MINISO stores, and promotes a relaxing, treasure-hunting and engaging shopping experience full of delightful surprises that appeals to all demographics. Aesthetically pleasing design, quality and affordability are at the core of every product in MINISO's wide product portfolio, and the company continually and frequently rolls out products with these qualities. Since the opening of its first store in China in 2013, the company has built its flagship brand "MINISO" as a globally recognized retail brand and established a massive store network worldwide.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2237391/MISO0086.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2237392/MISO0684.jpg

SOURCE MINISO
Highlights:

Mowilex is working with Habitat for Humanity Indonesia, the National Carpentry Council, and the Vocational Training Centre to support a Tukang (craftsman) certification.

The three-year program will provide job skills and economic opportunities for 210 participants.

Mowilex is investing funds, donating paint and providing volunteers for the program.

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- PT Mowilex Indonesia (Mowilex), a leading producer of premium paints and wood coatings, is partnering with Habitat for Humanity Indonesia, the National Carpentry Council, and the Vocational Training Centre on a three-year program to certify highly qualified Tukang (craftsmen).

Mowilex technical start classes on the first day of training. (PRNewsfoto/PT Mowilex Indonesia)

Habitat for Humanity funding supports the program that will train 210 low-income participants from Indonesia's Tangerang Regency, including painters, applicators and other beginner construction worker. Mowilex is donating funds, paint and volunteer hours, while the Vocational Training Centre is leading classroom sessions. The National Carpentry Council will oversee on-the-job training experiences and award an applicators' certification to students who successfully complete the 10-day training.

The investment will bring much-needed professionals to the industry. The Ministry of Public Works and Housing (PUPR) says fewer than one million of Indonesia's 8.3 million building tradespeople are certified. Certification makes workers more competitive in a global marketplace. It also opens job opportunities that help low-income workers achieve financial independence.

"Habitat for Humanity is a global leader that helps families attain the stability and independence they need to build better lives, and Mowilex is honored to be selected as their partner in this project. Together with the National Carpentry Council and the Vocational Training Centre, we are educating young people for gainful employment. As this program improves overall paint application quality, it also lifts people out of poverty and benefits entire communities," says Niko Safavi, CEO of PT Mowilex Indonesia.

"We know that in Indonesia, the number of certified construction workers is still small. The implementation of this certified training program is an effective step. In addition to supporting the government to produce skilled construction workers to build better houses, this training is expected to increase the workers' income in the future. We appreciate Mowilex's support in launching this training program," said Susanto Samsudin, National Director of Habitat for Humanity Indonesia.

The first nine days of training explore theory and practice. On day 10, participants take a related certification exam. The certification equips builders and applicators with the knowledge to construct sturdy commercial and residential structures meeting the standards of building material manufacturers.

Learn more about Mowilex's ESG programs and products at Mowilex.com.

About PT Mowilex Indonesia

PT Mowilex Indonesia (Mowilex), a subsidiary of Asia Coatings Enterprises, Pte. Ltd., is a leading producer of premium paints and coatings. Since launching the first Indonesian-made, water-based paints in 1970, the company has expanded its commitment to environmental ethics, equality, community and innovation. PT Mowilex is Indonesia's only certified carbon neutral manufacturer, producing zero and low VOC paints in modern colours, and the company regularly wins awards for its corporate social responsibility and sustainability efforts.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2237469/ONI6740.jpg

SOURCE PT Mowilex Indonesia
89% of clients say their quality of life has improved because of their microfinance experience.

Clients who have been with their financial service provider longer are more likely to 'strongly agree' that their lives and household welfare have improved. 4 in 10 of longer-tenure clients report "significant improvements" compared to 3 in 10 of shorter-tenure clients.

Clients who access additional services from the financial service provider beyond their loan report 1.5x stronger individual, business, and household outcomes.

Group loan clients report higher Net Promoter Score (62) than individual clients (47). People who borrow together are more likely to understand loan terms, and withstand unexpected financial shocks, than those who borrow on their own.

LONDON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Microfinance improves borrowers' quality of life, helps to build gender equality, and invest for the future. These are some of the findings of the 60 Decibels Microfinance Index 2023 , published today.

Based on interviews with over 32,000 microfinance clients in 32 countries, the 2023 index has gathered over 1 million data points. The survey represents over 84 million microfinance borrowers, equivalent to around 40% of the global total.

60 Decibels Microfinance Index 2023

Key findings

This second Microfinance Index shines a light on the ways microfinance is helping improve the lives of some of the world's most marginalized communities. Key insights include:

1. Clients who have been with their financial service provider (FSP) longer are more likely to 'strongly agree' that their lives and household welfare have improved.

Around 22% of longer-tenured clients reported significant improvement in their spending on home improvements; eating better quality and quantity of meals at home; and increased spending on their childrens' education. By comparison, 16% of shorter-tenure clients reported similar improvements.

Longer-tenured clients were also more likely to report improved resilience to financial shocks. Nearly 3 in 10 longer-tenure clients report significant improvement in their ability to face an emergency expense because of their financial service provider, compared to 2 in 10 shorter-tenured clients. The compounded benefits of such associations are evident across various household metrics, and reveal the transformative power of long-term engagement with financial service providers.

2. Clients who access additional services from the FSP beyond their loan report stronger individual, business, and household outcomes.

Of those surveyed, clients who accessed any services in addition to credit from the FSP in the last six months reported more substantial improvements in quality of life, business income, ability to manage finances, savings, and confidence compared to those who do not.

At the household level, clients who access both non-financial and financial services in addition to their loan from the FSP are more likely to report very much improved quality of life (53% of those who accessed both vs. 31% who accessed only credit), increased savings balance (36% vs. 16%), ability to manage finance (48% vs. 28%), and confidence in their abilities (53% vs 32%).

The trend is similar for business-level outcomes  nearly double the amount of clients who access both additional services are more likely to report 'very much increased' income compared to clients who access only credit, saying the same.

These findings support the thesis that offering bundled, or any, additional services beyond credit to clients, has the ability to significantly improve social performance outcomes for clients in quality of life, confidence, savings, and ability to manage finances. Two-thirds of the FSPs in the dataset currently offer both financial and non-financial services to clients in addition to credit.

3. Clients with group loans report a significantly higher Net Promoter Score (62) for their FSP than clients with individual loans (47).

The data suggests the group lending approach has some significant advantages over individual lending, particularly in client satisfaction, loan terms and understanding, and financial resilience. Group loan clients were also more likely to report that they have a better understanding of loan terms, and stronger financial resilience.

Group loan clients more so than individual loan clients reported that their ability to face an emergency expense has improved because of their financial service provider (82% vs 71%).

Group loan clients also reported a better understanding of their loan fees, penalties, and conditions compared to individual loan clients (93% versus 87%); and were more likely to say that FSP agents treat them fairly (73% versus 65%).

This data remained consistent across all three regions analyzed: suggesting group loans have a greater impact on clients than individual loans, no matter the geography.

There are many consistencies with the 2022 60dB including that the majority of women continue to report their households and businesses have improved because of microfinance. Now, there is additional data on the impact financial service providers have on women, individually.

83% of women report improvements in their confidence because of their financial service provider, and 67% report improved financial decision making. The improvements that women report are marginally greater than men.

Despite the overall positive impact reported by microfinance clients, there are 1 in 4 clients who reported their loan repayments are a burden - with a handful reporting that they are a heavy burden. Loan repayment burden is strongly linked to clients' worry about finances and their household food consumption - those who say their loan repayments are a burden are more likely to report reducing their household food consumption and say their concern around their finances has increased.

"These data set a new standard around how we can understand what social performance means for microfinance institutions and their investors," said 60 Decibels CEO Sasha Dichter. "By speaking directly to 30,000 clients who represent tens of millions of borrowers, we can see what is working, at scale, and also to point out where accepted wisdom does not align with what customers are telling us about their lives. By listening betterin a standardized, consistent wayand comparing like-to-like performance of FSPs, we can get better data that helps serve clients, improve products, and, ultimately, improve lives."

"Results from this survey are a validation of our work. The 60 Decibels survey has been done very professionally and we enjoyed being part of this process," said Nitesh Kumar Sinha, Vice President  Operations Risk Management at Svasti Microfinance, a top performer in this year's Index . "Capturing client outcomes data internally comes with its own challenges including that of validation. Having someone like 60 Decibels conduct the survey and ask questions directly helps us understand the impact of our programs and it will help us improve our products and services."

About the MFI Index

The 60 Decibels Microfinance (MFI) Index is a groundbreaking financial inclusion initiative that exists to measure and benchmark the impact of the microfinance industry  providing high-quality, comparable social performance data for Africa, Asia and Latin America.

This year the index includes data from more than 114 participating FSPs and is supported by 32 Partners, including Abler Nordic, Accion, Advans Group, ASN Impact Investors, Baobab Group, BRAC, Ceniarth Group, Developing World Markets, Enabling Qapital, FinnFund, FMO, Global Partnerships, Gojo, Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation, HOPE International, International Solidarity for Development and Investment (SIDI), Invest In Visions, Kiva, MCE Social Capital, Mercy Corps, Opportunity International, Pro Mujer, Proparco, Social Performance Task Force (SPTF), Triodos Investment Management, Symbiotics, Temasek Trust, Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing, TripleJump, Vision Fund International, and WaterEquity. The financial service providers assessed in the 2023 dataset collectively serve more than 84 million clients in 32 countries.

Building on findings from 2022, the report provides detailed data on how different aspects of microfinance (such as lending methodology, wraparound services, and client tenure) influence individual and household outcomes. It also provides a deeper understanding of client protection, giving insight into the current risk of overindebtedness and client treatment globally (along with more detailed data on key markets like Cambodia). Finally it provides new data on agency to understand the impact of financial service providers on decision-making and confidence, particularly for women.

Download the 2023 Microfinance Index report here

Editors Note

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is one of the most widely-respected measures of customer satisfaction and loyalty. The scale goes from -100 to 100, with above 0 considered to be good, above 50 is great and above 70 is excellent.

Contact: Victoria Medina; Robin Grainger,

victoria.medina@fourteenforty.uk

robin.grainger@fourteenforty.uk

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2236891/60_Decibels_Microfinance.jpg

SOURCE 60 Decibels
While Finance teams have been slow to adopt AI for fear of errors or hallucination, Stampli's AI has been successfully deployed in one of Finance's most sensitive functions for years.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Stampli, a leader in AI-powered accounts payable automation, today announced that it has raised $61 million in a Series D venture funding round led by funds managed by Blackstone, with the participation of existing investors Insight Partners, SignalFire, Bloomberg Beta, and NextWorld Capital. This latest funding round takes the total amount raised by the company to over $148 million.

Stampli Co-founder and CTO, Ofer Feldman (left), and Co-founder and CEO, Eyal Feldman (right).

Accounts Payable automation and B2B payments represent a massive and largely unpenetrated market. Put simply, every business has to pay bills, which means every business has an accounts payable function. Sizing the market opportunity, Deutsche Bank Research estimated in 2021 that AP automation and ePayments combined represent ~$70bn in US revenue opportunity, not including the international opportunity, which they estimated could be ~3-5x larger.

Launched in 2015, Stampli is today one of the fastest-growing providers of accounts payable automation and ePayment services. In August alone, Stampli processed more than 1 million invoices totaling a collective value of more than $5 billion.

A model for AI in sensitive financial applications

Stampli's 1,300 accounts payable automation customers trust its AI with invoice capture, expense allocation, approval routing, fraud detection, and more.

These activities are the final checkpoint before money is released, which means there's zero tolerance for errors or hallucinations.

This safe and effective use of AI is significant because today's CFOs feel immense pressure to embrace AI for faster workflows, lower costs, and fewer mistakes. But AI is infamous for issues with data security and unpredictable outcomes. Stampli's success demonstrates that AI can succeed even in finance. Stampli also provides a blueprint for CFOs to maintain human validation of critical data as well as to ensure rank-and-file team members accept AI as a partner.

"Before we brought on Stampli, our AP team was nervous that the AI would be a threat rather than an asset to their jobs," says Amanda Brown, Controller of Wenspok Companies, a $150M+ Wendy's franchisee that operates 67 restaurant locations in 10 states. "But with Billy the Bot now performing such time-consuming manual tasks as coding invoices to the correct general ledger accounts, the AP team has seen their responsibilities shift to projects that add much greater value to the business. Today, we think of Billy as a team member, not an AI. Honestly, we love Billy the Bot and frequently refer to it by name."

Stampli's core promise: Implementation without disruption

The efficiency and cost benefits of accounts payable automation are widely known. For CFOs, the overriding concern in choosing a provider is minimizing the disruption of implementation to existing processes and the ERP systems, and ensuring the fastest time to value.

Stampli's solution is designed specifically to eliminate implementation risk. Stampli builds its ERP integrations in-house to support the full range of native functionality, allowing customers to implement without reworking their ERP, changing their existing processes, or engaging expensive consultants; in addition, it reduces deployment time to days instead of months. Stampli's adaptability makes it especially well-suited for complex multi-entity corporate structures, highly regulated industries such as healthcare, and businesses that have already automated their AP but are disappointed with their current provider.

"Stampli has reduced our invoice processing time by 75%, which has a strategic impact on cash flow management," says Brown. "With a more accurate picture of our operating costs, Wenspok leadership can schedule major operational projects with confidence in budgeting and timing of cash flow requirements. At the tactical level, Stampli has created efficiencies across the board  not just on the AP team, but for all our operating team members outside of finance that we consult to validate the bills we receive. The average invoice approval time has dropped from 16 days to 2 days, and we think we will bring that number down even further."

Stampli offers its fast implementation for more than 70 different ERPs, including systems from Sage, Oracle, Microsoft, QuickBooks, SAP, Acumatica, IBM and many others. Beyond Accounts Payable, Stampli offers an integrated suite of FinTech products, including Stampli Credit Card and Stampli Direct Pay.

Blackstone's focus on AI and strategic finance

This investment in Stampli highlights Blackstone's thematic focus on investing in businesses driving the digitization of the economy, as well as those enabling and benefitting from AI adoption. In Stampli, Blackstone sees a company that is well positioned at the intersection of these trends.

With stakes in more than 230 companies and 12,600 real estate assets, Blackstone uniquely understands the strategic necessity to automate legacy processes with the benefit of AI technology, and it is excited to partner with Stampli as it continues to work to ensure that its portfolio is equipped with the right tools and technologies needed to succeed.

Additionally, Blackstone has been an industry pioneer in its commitment to invest significant resources to streamline procurement across its portfolio and then garner strategic insights across spend categories from that data. Stampli stands to benefit from Blackstone's reach and scale as it builds a best-in-class offering.

Quotes

Eyal Feldman, CEO and Co-founder of Stampli, said, "In this macroeconomic environment, where companies have to be more careful with their spend and their cash, Stampli became the solution of choice due to our superb user experience, super-fast implementation and deep ERP integration capabilities. We chose Blackstone as our partner because of our shared vision and experience driving operational efficiencies through best practices, technology and AI. I am honored that they see a similar fit in our company. Together, we will make Stampli one of the largest FinTech companies in the world."

Yifat Oron, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone and head of the firm's office in Israel, said, "In today's environment, building a digital-first modern finance organization is a top priority for CFOs and controllers. While we are still in the early innings of AP automation, Stampli stands out as a transformative leader in this extremely large, underpenetrated market. Stampli's best-in-class team has built a product loved by customers and differentiated by its ease-of-use and out of the box integration. We are thrilled to have Stampli join our growing portfolio of innovative companies."

Praveen Akkiraju, Managing Director at Insight Partners, said, "Stampli continues to provide a differentiated accounts payable automation platform by building deep ERP integrations and best-in-market AI/ML features that bring enterprise-grade functionality to the midmarket. We're excited to continue our partnership with Stampli as they expand and grow."

MARKET DATA SOURCE: Deutsche Bank Research. "Understanding the B2B Payments Sector." Published 6 October 2021.

About Stampli

Stampli is a complete AP automation platform that brings together accounts payable communications, documentation, and payments in one place. By centering communications on top of the invoice itself, AP departments collaborate and communicate better with approvers, vendors, and anyone involved with purchases, allowing approvals to happen 5x faster. Stampli's AI, Billy the Bot, learns an organization's unique patterns to simplify GL and costing-related coding, automate approval and verification flows, identify duplicate invoices, and reduce time spent on manual data entry. Stampli's flexible platform fits seamlessly into any existing processes and integrates with financial systems, including NetSuite, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, and more. For more information, visit stampli.com .

About Blackstone

Blackstone is the world's largest alternative asset manager. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our $1 trillion in assets under management include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, private and liquid credit, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, public securities and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com . Follow @blackstone on LinkedIn , Twitter , and Instagram .

SOURCE Stampli
RESTON, Va., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Agile Defense, an end-to-end provider of large-scale, digital transformation solutions to the Department of Defense (DoD) and other national security customers, is pleased to welcome Rick Wagner as its new Chief Executive Officer. Jay Lee, who served as CEO from 2010 to 2023, will transition to a strategic advisory role supporting corporate growth and M&A, while continuing to serve on the Company's Board of Directors. Agile Defense is backed by Enlightenment Capital.

Wagner brings years of experience to the position, most recently as President of Microsoft Federal, a $5 billion business unit responsible for delivering leading technology solutions and services to civilian, defense, and intelligence agencies across the Federal Government. Prior to joining Microsoft, Mr. Wagner was President of ManTech's Mission, Cyber & Intelligence Solutions (MCIS) Group. Before joining ManTech in 2015, Mr. Wagner was the Chief Strategy Officer at TASC, Inc., where he led growth strategy and business development. Mr. Wagner has been selected to the Washington 100 for six consecutive years. He was selected, by Washington Exec, as 2019 Intelligence Leader of the Year and is a 2021 Federal 100 awardee.

"Agile Defense has built an amazing team dedicated to helping customers integrate technologies by delivering end-to-end IT services and solutions," said Wagner. "I am excited to join the Agile Defense team and look forward to leveraging my experience as we enter the next stage in our partnership with Enlightenment."

"We are delighted to bring Rick on board," said Jason Rigoli, Agile Defense Chairman and Partner at Enlightenment Capital. "Agile has grown significantly, and Rick is uniquely qualified to help the company expand its capabilities and provide differentiated offerings for both existing and new customers."

"I am humbled to have served as Agile Defense's CEO for the last fourteen years. As we welcome Rick to the family, we are incredibly excited for our bright future and the Company's next chapter," said Agile Defense Executive Jay Lee.

About Agile Defense:

Headquartered in Reston, VA, Agile Defense is an end-to-end enterprise IT solutions provider, delivering leading-edge digital transformation solutions at scale. The Company solves its customers' critical challenges by leveraging a customized combination of advanced technology capabilities and tools including Cloud Services, DevSecOps, Cybersecurity, and AI / Automation. With approximately 1,000 technically proficient engineers and subject matter experts, Agile Defense has been critical in enabling IT transformations of large-scale, high-profile mission-essential programs, including multi-environment upgrade projects and complex cloud-based initiatives. For more information, visit www.agile-defense.com .

About Enlightenment Capital:

Enlightenment Capital, a Washington, DC area based private investment firm, provides flexible capital and strategic support to middle-market companies in the Aerospace, Defense, Government & Technology (ADG&T) sector. The firm partners with businesses that provide vital services, protect critical infrastructure, innovate cyber and data solutions, enhance decision making capabilities, engineer aerospace and space systems, safeguard national security, and endeavor to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. For more information, visit www.enlightenment-cap.com and follow us at www.linkedin.com/company/enlightenment-capital.

SOURCE Agile Defense
The Kurdistan Workers Party has claimed responsibility for a terrorist attack that targeted the heart of the Turkish capital Ankara this week.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and the Western nations, has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack in the vicinity of the General Security Directorate in Ankara earlier this week that wounded two police officers.

A statement released by the PKKs military arm, the Peoples Defence Forces (HPG), said that what it described as an act of legitimate defence was carried out by an HPG unit called the Brigade of Immortals on 1 October.

The attack, carried out by two suicide bombers according to Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya in a press conference on Sunday, throws into relief the complex ways in which Turkish foreign policies in the region interweave with domestic policies.

It will focus attention on developments related to the Turkish military involvement in northern Syria and Iraq, where the PKK or related groups operate. It may also cast a shadow over the crucial municipal elections in Turkey in 2024, when political tensions are likely to peak especially in the predominantly Kurdish areas of south-eastern Turkey.

The General Security Directorate in Ankara is located near the Turkish Parliament and ministerial buildings, and it may be no coincidence that the attack occurred only hours before the parliament was due to reopen after the summer recess.

Coming less than a year after the bomb attack in Istanbul in November last year, Sundays suicide bombing in Ankara belies the Turkish authorities claims of success in curbing terrorist violence.

Turkey has recently escalated its actions against Kurdish groups in northern Syria, where it has been backing local Arab tribes against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), associated with the Syrian Kurds, in the Deir ez-Zor governorate.

On 27 August, the SDF launched an open-ended security tightening operation in the areas under its control in the governorate east of the Euphrates. Ankara notched up its support for the Arab tribes in response.

Meanwhile, skirmishes continue between the SDF and Turkish-backed armed factions in the vicinity of Manbij in Aleppo governorate. The Turkish-backed factions have intensified artillery shelling of SDF positions in an attempt to infiltrate SDF-controlled Manbij.

Inside Turkey itself, the authorities have escalated campaigns to arrest and forcefully deport Syrian refugees. Previously, the government had announced plans to resettle a million such refugees in northern Syria despite the ongoing conflict there.

The question of the Syrian refugees has become a hot-button electoral issue in Turkey, where they have increasingly been the victims of racist abuse and violence.

A short documentary titled The Silent Invasion released in May 2022 helped fuel the anti-immigrant sentiments. It depicts a dystopian Istanbul in 2034, where Syrians are in control, the city is devastated, and Turks are hunted down in the streets.

The film was financed by Umit Ozdag, leader of the far-right and anti-refugee Victory Party (ZP).

In its statement in the wake of the attack, the HPG described the attack in the vicinity of the Turkish Interior Ministry building as a response to the disregard for human rights by the Turkish authorities and the inhumane practice and policy of isolation that is being implemented in the jails of Turkey and Kurdistan.

The PKK wings or factions evidently wanted to demonstrate that they had the ability not just to disrupt Turkish security, but also to strike in the heart of the capital and on the doorstep of the countrys powerful security apparatus.

In addition to the ongoing warfare against SDF-controlled areas in northern Syria, the attack may also be a response to the frequent Turkish military strikes against PKK locations in northern Iraq.

Kurdish sources there allege that the Turkish military has used internationally banned chemical weapons in these attacks, though the Turkish authorities deny this.

It could be that far-right elements in the Kurdish nationalist movement are gaining ground against the backdrop of these developments and that they took the initiative to stage a suicide bombing that would expose the weakness of the Turkish government and upset the calculations of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) ahead of the 2024 municipal elections.

The PKK may have had some success in this regard, as it appears that the PKK caught the Turkish security authorities off-guard. There were no prior indications or warnings of a possible terrorist attack, and the perpetrators were able to move freely until they reached the heart of the capital without arousing suspicion.

The planners of the terrorist operation may have calculated that security would not be as tight in Ankara as in the bustling metropolis and tourist hub of Istanbul.

Tensions and violent confrontations between Turkey and Kurdish groups and organisations are now likely to intensify, and within hours of the attack in Ankara the Turkish military launched a series of air strikes against PKK areas in northern Iraq.

According to a Turkish Ministry of Defence statement, it destroyed 20 PKK targets in Jarra, Hakurk, Matina and Qandil.

The suicide bombing in Ankara has shown that Turkey is still vulnerable to terrorist attacks. It also suggests that at least some segments of the PKK have been driven by the systemic violence against Kurdish groups in Syria, Iraq, and even in Turkey to go on to the offensive again against the Turkish government.

Judging by past experiences of this sort in its decades-long conflict with the Kurds, the Turkish government will likely only harden its stance with the aim of showing its toughness against terrorism and solidifying public opinion behind it.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 5 October, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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TORONTO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE: AEM) (TSX: AEM) ("Agnico Eagle" or the "Company") today announced that it will release its third quarter 2023 results on Wednesday, October 25, 2023, after normal trading hours.

Third Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call Webcast

Agnico Eagle's senior management will host a conference call on Thursday, October 26, 2023 at 11:00 AM (E.D.T.) to discuss the Company's financial and operating results.

Via Webcast:

A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available on the Company's website at www.agnicoeagle.com.

Via URL Entry:

To join the conference call without operator assistance, you may register and enter your phone number at https://bit.ly/3CqkUBg to receive an instant automated call back.

You can also dial direct to be entered to the call by an Operator (See "Via Telephone" details below).

Via Telephone:

For those preferring to listen by telephone, please dial 416-764-8659 or toll-free 1-888-664-6392. To ensure your participation, please call approximately five minutes prior to the scheduled start of the call.

Replay archive:

Please dial 416-764-8677 or toll-free 1-888-390-0541, access code 587191#. The conference call replay will expire on November 26, 2023.

The webcast, along with presentation slides, will be archived for 180 days on the Company's website.

About Agnico Eagle

Agnico Eagle is a senior Canadian gold mining company, producing precious metals from operations in Canada, Australia, Finland and Mexico. It has a pipeline of high-quality exploration and development projects in these countries as well as in the United States. Agnico Eagle is a partner of choice within the mining industry, recognized globally for its leading environmental, social and governance practices. The Company was founded in 1957 and has consistently created value for its shareholders, declaring a cash dividend every year since 1983.

SOURCE Agnico Eagle Mines Limited
A multicultural campaign to educate voters about misinformation

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- AIandYou, a nonprofit educating marginalized communities about the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence (AI), launches the nation's first public awareness campaign on AI and the 2024 election. The awareness campaign aims to increase awareness about AI opportunities and misinformation in the 2024 election. The goal is to empower people to protect their vote.

Misinformation will be unprecedented in the 2024 election due to the evolution of AI. AI can scan the internet, think about strategy, and develop hyper-targeted messaging, which could be a speech, photo, or video touting the benefits of one candidate over another. Today, average citizens can create professional-looking fake campaign ads to sway voters. And campaigns will have access to more data about voter behavior because of AI. The stakes are high in an election that a small percentage of voters will decide.

Recent elections were significantly influenced by women and young people of color which makes them ideal targets for misinformation. The public awareness campaign will prioritize these communities. The awareness campaign, in English and Spanish, will include online educational videos, glossaries, news, and other resources, public events, and an outreach marketing campaign. Voters can access AIandYou elections resources at www.aiandyou.org and https://youtube.com/@AIandYou2

"We aim to help people understand how AI impacts the election in easy-to-understand languages," said Susan Gonzales, Founder and CEO of AIandYou. Encouraging AI literacy, a basic understanding of AI, will help voters navigate this unprecedented digitally driven election."

AIandYou was launched in 2019 when Gonzales, a former Facebook exec, identified the chasm between the AI industry and the marginalized. She created the AIandYou.org platform, including easy-to-understand bi-lingual videos and other online resources to improve basic AI literacy. Gonzales serves on the National AI Advisory Committee advising the Biden Administration on artificial intelligence, the Boards of EqualAI, and the Eva Longoria Foundation. Gonzales co-authored "A Blueprint for Equity and Inclusion in AI," a 2022 report by the World Economic Forum.

About AIandYou

AIandYou educates marginalized communities about the benefits and risks of AI and its impact on daily life. The organization provides online videos, public awareness campaigns and community town halls to educate communities about AI in easy-to-understand language.

To learn more about AIandYou, visit their website.

Media Contact:

Rebekah Epstein

[email protected]

SOURCE AIandYou
Funding led by Energize Capital to unlock more value from grid data and advance electricity forecasting innovation

HOUSTON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Amperon Holdings, Inc., the leader in AI-powered electricity forecasts, raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Energize Capital . Other participants in this round include the D. E. Shaw group , Veriten , and existing investor, HSBC Asset Management . Two long-time Amperon customers, rsted and another strategic utility partner, also joined the round. The funding will propel Amperon's evolution from an electricity demand forecasting platform to a comprehensive data analytics solution, enabling businesses to navigate the energy complex and accelerate grid decarbonization. This brings Amperon's total funding to $30 million.

From ERCOT's grid failure in February 2021 to CAISO's rolling blackouts in the summer of 2022, the escalating impact of extreme weather events underscores the urgent need for critical forecasting tools for the energy transition. Today, predicting and planning for power demand is more challenging than ever. This is due not only to the effects of climate change, but also the increasing penetration of variable energy resources, like wind and solar, on the supply side, and surging demand growth driven by flexible loads and rapid electrification . Amperon's advanced data analytics software has emerged as a critical linchpin to mitigate the systemic risk that comes with increasingly turbulent power grids worldwide.

"Amperon is uniquely positioned to help market participants better navigate the transitioning grid." Post this

"The energy transition is creating unprecedented market volatility, and Amperon is uniquely positioned to help market participants better navigate the transitioning grid  both in the U.S. and as we expand globally," said Sean Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Amperon. "We've already established ourselves as the premier provider of electricity demand forecasting software. With this funding, we are poised to leverage our cutting-edge AI models to enable customers to unlock more value from data and asset optimization, spanning from on-site solar to commercial load management with backup generation and microgrid deployment."

"Today's electricity grid is facing uniquely modern challenges as we work to rapidly transform our energy assets and decarbonize our economy," said Energize Capital Partner Tyler Lancaster, who joins the Amperon board of directors. "To facilitate the energy transition  a multitrillion-dollar market opportunity  we need more software tools custom-built to handle the complexities of our evolving energy markets. Amperon's AI-powered analytics platform is exactly that, providing the accuracy and sophistication necessary for energy players across the value chain to manage their energy use and streamline our collective pathway to net-zero. After getting to know Sean and the Amperon team since inception, Energize is thrilled to officially partner with them as a lead investor in this funding."

Amperon has experienced exceptional growth in the last two years. Since 2021, the company grew revenue by 5x, finding product-market fit with existing customers, and helping new market participants navigate the space. Headcount has grown by 4x over the same period, and Amperon plans to hire more engineers, data scientists, customer support, and sales roles as the company expands into new markets. This growth will provide customers with invaluable insights and predictive capabilities to help them anticipate market shifts, advance energy utilization, and optimize their carbon footprint.

With increasing global net-zero commitments and impending carbon accounting requirements , Amperon's expertise in granular data management further enables companies to measure the carbon footprint of their hourly electricity usage, optimize load and lower-carbon power resources, and integrate carbon into industry business models  accelerating decarbonization on both the supply and demand side.

About Amperon

Amperon is a technology company based in Houston that builds AI-powered electricity analytics for energy market participants. Founded in 2018, Amperon empowers businesses to make informed decisions, optimize energy utilization, and work toward a more sustainable grid. With a commitment to innovation and sustainability, Amperon is the forecasting company of the energy transition. For more information about Amperon, visit www.amperon.co/ .

About Energize Capital

Energize Capital is a leading climate software investor focused on scaling sustainable innovation. Founded in 2016 and based in Chicago, to date Energize has funded 27 companies and deployed more than half a billion through its venture capital and growth equity strategies. The firm is backed by institutional, strategic and impact LPs including Invenergy, CDPQ, Credit Suisse, SE Ventures (corporate venture arm of Schneider Electric), GE Renewable Energy, Xcel Energy, Caterpillar, HASI and more. For more information on Energize, please visit www.energizecap.com .

SOURCE Amperon
Continuing to Climb in Newsweek's Annual Listing, Automation Anywhere Ranks 14 Among 100 U.S. Companies Recognized for Outstanding Employee Sentiment and Satisfaction

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Newsweek announced their annual rankings for the Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces list, and Automation Anyhwhere ranked 14. The 2023 Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces are the result of a collaboration with the Best Practice Institute (BPI), a leadership development and benchmark research company.

The results were determined after surveying more than 1.4 million employees from businesses with workforces varying in size from 50 to more than 10,000. The list recognizes companies that have created a workplace where employees feel respected, inspired, and appreciated and are at the center of the business model.

"At the core of Automation Anywhere is our dedicated and exceptional team, whom we owe this incredible honor as one the most-loved workplaces," said Mihir Shukla, CEO, and Co-founder of Automation Anywhere. "We are deeply appreciative of their dedication to our culture and vision, as we continuously strive to advance AI and automation technology to drive to fuel the future of work by unleashing human potential."

The key areas included in the analysis are based on how well companies demonstrate the areas within the Spark Model as defined by BPI, including Systemic Collaboration, Positive Vision of the Future, Alignment of values, Respect, and Killer Achievement. How engaged employees are, how positive they feel about their workplace, and how committed they are to the organization's success were all identified and analyzed to identify the Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces.

"With the dynamic workforce and competition for top talent, more companies are recognizing the importance of employee engagement and commitment", said Nancy Cooper, Global Editor in Chief, Newsweek. "The workplaces that have demonstrated a commitment to their employees in 2023 are more likely to attract top talent and deliver strong business outcomes."

"Attracting and retaining top talent continues to be a challenge and top priority of executive leadership" said Louis Carter, CEO, Best Practice Institute. "The companies on this list have committed to listening intently to their employees and then creating a better workplace where employees love to come to work."

For the full Newsweek list of 2023's Most Loved Workplaces, please visit https://www.newsweek.com/rankings/most-loved-workplaces-america-2023

Methodology

To identify the top 100 companies for the Newsweek ranking, companies were evaluated and scored as follows: 35 percent of the initial score was based on employee survey responses; 25 percent was derived from analysis of external public ratings from sites such as Comparably, Careerbliss, Glassdoor, Indeed and Google; and 40 percent came from direct interviews with and written responses from company officials. Newsweek then conducted additional research into every company on the list, as well as the top runners up, to determine the final list of 100 companies and their ranking. (The list includes both U.S. firms and companies with a strong U.S. presence that are based overseas.)

About Newsweek

Newsweek is the modern global digital news organization built around the iconic, over 85-year-old American magazine. Newsweek reaches 100 million people each month with its thought-provoking news, opinion, images, graphics, and video delivered across a dozen print and digital platforms. Headquartered in New York City, Newsweek also publishes international editions in EMEA and Asia.

For more information on how to apply to become a certified Most Loved Workplace in 2024, go to: http://www.mostlovedworkplace.com

About Automation Anywhere

Automation Anywhere is the leader in intelligent automation solutions that put AI to work across every aspect of an organization. The company's Automation Success Platform is infused with generative AI and offers process discovery, RPA, end-to-end process orchestration, document processing, and analytics, with a security and governance-first approach. Automation Anywhere empowers organizations worldwide to unleash productivity gains, drive innovation, improve customer service and accelerate business growth. The company is guided by its vision to fuel the future of work by unleashing human potential through intelligent automation. Learn more at www.automationanywhere.com.

Engage with Automation Anywhere

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SOURCE Automation Anywhere, Inc.
NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Backcast Partners ("Backcast"), a provider of debt and equity capital for both middle-market private equity and non-private equity owned companies, is pleased to announce its most recent investment in support of Jackson Hewitt Tax Services, Inc. ("Jackson Hewitt" or the "Company"), the second largest tax prep provider in the United States. Backcast structured and agented a multi-party senior secured debt financing for the purpose of refinancing the Company's existing syndicated bank debt and providing additional capital to accelerate the Company's future growth plans.

"Jackson Hewitt is one of the clear market leaders in the tax prep industry, highlighted by its robust management team and trusted service offerings," noted Mark Gudis, Managing Partner at Backcast. "The Company is dedicated to assisting hard-working Americans complete their taxes to receive a maximum tax refund and providing access to innovative, value-additive financial products. Mr. Gudis added, "This financing is yet another prime example of our ability to execute on a large, complex transaction, utilize our corporate operating partners for diligence and value creation, and deliver a flexible capital structure."

"The Backcast team and their co-investment partners were diligent in understanding the intricacies of our business and created a flexible solution to support our future growth plans, so that we can continue to deliver the highest level of assisted tax services and products to our loyal clients," said Justin DiTrolio, Jackson Hewitt's Chief Financial Officer. "Their solutions-driven mindset and high degree of senior level engagement was simply outstanding."

Backcast was represented in the transaction by Greenberg Traurig LLP. The Company was represented in the transaction by Chapman and Cutler LLP. Configure Partners was engaged by the Company as its investment banker to advise in raising debt capital to support the refinancing of Jackson Hewitt's capital structure to accelerate the Company's future growth plans.

About Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc.

Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. is an innovator in the tax industry with a mission to provide its hard-working clients access to simple, low-cost solutions to manage their taxes and tax refunds. Jackson Hewitt is devoted to helping clients get ahead and stands behind its work with its Maximum Refund Guarantee and Lifetime Accuracy Guarantee (restrictions apply, see Jackson Hewitt's website for more details). Jackson Hewitt has more than 5,600 franchise and company-owned locations nationwide making it easy and convenient for clients to file their taxes. For more information about products, services, and offers, or to locate a Jackson Hewitt office, visit www.jacksonhewitt.com or call 1 (800) 234-1040.

About Backcast Partners

Backcast Partners, formed in 2016, manages value-additive, private credit investment funds providing capital to both private-equity backed and privately held management-owned companies and over $1.3 billion in AUM. The Backcast team has been supporting traditional middle-market companies ($7.5 million to $50 million of EBITDA) for decades. Backcast Partners has a very flexible capital mandate and seeks to invest from $20 million to over $100 million per transaction. Backcast Partners operates out of offices in New York City and Millburn, NJ, with a satellite office in Los Angeles, CA.

Information for Companies Seeking Capital, please contact:

Mark Gudis, Managing Partner

[email protected]

(973) 512-7487

www.backcastpartners.com

Investor Information, please contact:

David Petrucco, Managing Partner

[email protected]

(973) 512-7482

www.backcastpartners.com

SOURCE Backcast Partners
NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The bar soap market is estimated to grow by USD 8.3 billion from 2022 to 2027, growing at a CAGR of 4.31%. The bar soap market is fragmented owing to the presence of many global and regional companies. A few prominent companies that offer bar soap market are Beaumont Products Inc., CST Soap, Dr. Woods Products, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd., Henkel AG and Co. KGaA, Himalaya Global Holdings Ltd., ITC Ltd., John Drury and Co. Ltd., Johnson and Johnson, LOreal SA, Manos Soap Co., Natura and Co Holding SA, Neals Yard Ltd., Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, The Original Bradford Soap Works Inc., The Procter and Gamble Co., Twincraft Skincare, Unilever PLC, Vanguard Soap, and VVF Ltd. The report provides a full list of key companies, their strategies, and the latest developments. Download a FREE Sample before buying

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Bar Soap Market 2023-2027

Company Offering:

Beaumont Products Inc: The company offers various types of bar soaps such as aloe vera, vitamin E, honeysuckle, and tea tree, under the brand Clearly Glycerin bar soaps.

The company offers various types of bar soaps such as aloe vera, vitamin E, honeysuckle, and tea tree, under the brand Clearly Glycerin bar soaps. Dr. Woods Products - The company offers various types of bar soaps such as raw black soap with shea, peppermint castile soap with fair trade shea butter, and tea tree castile soap with fair trade shea butter.

The company offers various types of bar soaps such as raw black soap with shea, peppermint castile soap with fair trade shea butter, and tea tree castile soap with fair trade shea butter. Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. - The company offers various types of bar soaps and toilet soaps such as Cinthol.

The company offers various types of bar soaps and toilet soaps such as Cinthol. For details on companies and their offerings  Buy the report!

By Geography, the market is classified as APAC, North America, Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa. APAC will have the largest share of the market.

APAC accounts for 50% of the growth of the global market during the forecast period. Factors such as the diverse population are significantly contributing to the growth of the global bar soap market in APAC. In addition, the cultural preferences in India and affordability are also positively impacting the growth of the market in the region. For example, in India, several traditional beauty rituals and holistic wellness practices leverage the use of bar soaps infused with natural ingredients that align with local botanical knowledge. Furthermore, other factors that are fuelling the growth of the market in APAC include rising urbanization and increasing disposable income. Hence, such factors are expected to drive the market growth in APAC during the forecast period.

Download a FREE sample report to get more insights on the market share of various regions and the contribution of the segments.

Impactful driver- Growing hygiene awareness

Growing hygiene awareness Key Trend - Growing use of sustainable materials in soap bar packaging

- Growing use of sustainable materials in soap bar packaging Major Challenges - Growing consumer awareness about the toxicity of chemical ingredients

Market Segmentation

The market share growth of the synthetic segment is significant during the forecast period.

Technavio Research experts have provided more insights on the market share of segments - View a FREE Sample Report

FAQS

How do the major trends impact the market?

How big is the APAC market?

How do the key drivers and challenges impact the market?

Related Reports:

The organic baby shampoo market size is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 4.91% between 2022 and 2027. The market size is forecast to increase by USD 148.4 million. The market is segmented by type (below 500ml and above 500ml), distribution channel (offline and online), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa). Increasing customer awareness about baby health and hygiene is a major factor driving the market growth.

The body masks market size is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 10.04% between 2022 and 2027. The market size is forecast to increase by USD 215.46 million. The market is segmented by type (natural and synthetic), distribution channel (offline and online), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa). The increase in product offerings specific to distinct skin concerns and skin types is driving growth in the body mask market.

TOC:

1 Executive Summary

2 Market Landscape

3 Market Sizing

4 Historic Market Size

5 Five Forces Analysis

6 Market Segmentation by Material

7 Market Segmentation by Distribution Channel

8 Customer Landscape

9 Geographic Landscape

10 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

11 Company Landscape

12 Company Analysis

13 Appendix

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 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 US:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
NEW HAVEN, Conn., Oct. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Biohaven Ltd. (NYSE: BHVN), a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of life-changing therapies to treat a broad range of rare and common diseases, today announced the pricing of its underwritten public offering of 10,227,273 of its common shares at a price to the public of $22.00 per share. In addition, Biohaven has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,534,090 common shares at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The gross proceeds from the offering are expected to be approximately $225 million before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable by Biohaven. The offering is expected to close on October 5, 2023, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Biohaven intends to use the net proceeds received from the offering for general corporate purposes.

J.P. Morgan, TD Cowen, Leerink Partners, and Piper Sandler are acting as the joint lead book-running managers of the offering, William Blair is acting as a book-runner of the offering and BTIG is acting as lead manager of the offering.

The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, copies of which, when available, may be obtained from the offices of the following: J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, by telephone at (866) 803-9204, or by email at [email protected], Cowen and Company, LLC, 599 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022, by telephone at (833) 297-2926 or by email at [email protected], Leerink Partners LLC, Syndicate Department, 53 State Street, 40th Floor, Boston, MA 02109, or by telephone at (800) 808-7525, ext. 6105, or by email at [email protected], and Piper Sandler & Co., 800 Nicollet Mall, J12S03, Minneapolis, MN 55402, Attention: Prospectus Department, by telephone at (800) 747-3924 or by email at [email protected].

The shares will be issued pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3. Copies of the registration statement can be accessed through the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the applicable securities laws of such state or jurisdiction.

Forward-looking Statements

This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The use of certain words, including "continue", "plan", "will", "believe", "may", "expect", "anticipate" and similar expressions, is intended to identify forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the expected closing of the public offering and the expected use of proceeds therefrom are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Actual results, developments and events may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors including: Biohaven's ability to complete the offering of its common shares on the proposed terms, or at all, and Biohaven's expectations related to the use of proceeds from the offering of its common shares. Additional important factors to be considered in connection with forward-looking statements are described in Biohaven's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including within the sections titled "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". The forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this new release, and Biohaven does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Investor Contact:

Jennifer Porcelli

Vice-President, Investor Relations

jennifer.porcelli@biohavenpharma.com

(201) 248-0741

Media Contact:

Mike Beyer

Sam Brown Inc.

[email protected]

312-961-2502

SOURCE Biohaven Ltd.
College students throughout Georgia, aspiring to start a biotech business, will have an opportunity to gain invaluable insights from renowned industry experts.

ATLANTA , Oct. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Black Women in Science and Engineering (BWISE), in collaboration with the National Science & Technology Medals Foundation (NSTMF), is hosting Innovation Unscripted on Thursday, October 5, 2023, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Atlantic Theater at Georgia Tech's John Lewis Student Center, 351 Ferst Drive NW in Atlanta, Georgia. BWISE and NSTMF are providing college students throughout Georgia an opportunity to engage and have meaningful dialogue with biotech giants during a Fireside Chat. The event is free and open to the public. Food will be served at the networking reception to be held immediately following the program. For more information or to register for Innovation Unscripted visit www.nationalmedals.org/gtbiotech.

The program will kick off with a welcome by Andy Rathmann-Noonan, President of NSTMF, followed by opening remarks from Dr. Angel Cabrera, President of Georgia Tech. After his remarks, the spotlight will shift towards the main attraction, the engaging Fireside Chat featuring biotech trailblazers, Dr. Ted Love, Chairman of Bio and former President & CEO, Global Blood Therapeutics; Dr. Tia Lyles-Williams, Founder and CEO, Helaplex; and Brad Hartman, Chief People Officer, BE Bio Pharma. The panel discussion will be moderated by Dr. Raheem Beyah, Dean of Engineering at Georgia Tech.

College students attending Innovation Unscripted will leave with a wealth of knowledge and invaluable insights gained from industry giants who will expose them to an unscripted candid conversation about challenges and successes associated with launching a thriving biotech business, and ways to chart their course through complexities of the biotech landscape.

According to a CBRE report released in April 2023, Atlanta had one of the fastest-growing life sciences workforces in the United States from 2019 to 2022. "I am thrilled to partner with NSTMF to host this meaningful event that exposes area college students to these powerful industry pioneers who have paved the way for them to achieve success in biotech," said Erika Jefferson, Founder and President of BWISE. "Atlanta is poised to become a biopharma hub, and we want to encourage these young, aspiring entrepreneurs to capitalize on opportunities in biotechnology that lie ahead for them in this city."

Contact: Erika Jefferson

BWISE

404/461-9964 (cell)

[email protected]

Kathy Warren

Kwarren, LLC

770/856-0305 (cell)

[email protected]

SOURCE Bwise
Matthew West Accepts ASCAP Golden Note Award

David Spencer and Essential Music Publishing Win Top Song Honor

Capitol CMG Publishing Earns Publisher of the Year for 21st Consecutive Year

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, the only US PRO that operates on a not-for-profit basis, tonight honored the songwriters and publishers of Christian music's 25 most-performed songs of the past year at an exclusive celebration for its ASCAP Christian Music Award winners in Nashville.

Top honors were awarded to the following:

Christian Music Songwriter of the Year : Brandon Lake

: ASCAP Golden Note Award : Matthew West

: Matthew West Christian Music Song of the Year : "In Jesus Name (God of Possible)," David Spencer , David Spencer Songs, Essential Music Publishing LLC

: "In Jesus Name (God of Possible)," , David Spencer Songs, Essential Music Publishing LLC Christian Music Publisher of the Year: Capitol CMG Publishing

This marks artist and songwriter Brandon Lake's first ASCAP Songwriter of the Year honor with five most-performed songs: "Ain't Nobody," "Gratitude," "Honey in the Rock," "Same God" and "This Is Our God." A Grammy Award-winning artist for his work with Maverick City Music, Lake leads the upcoming Dove Awards nominations with a total of 11 including Artist of the Year, three Song of the Year nominations for titles on which he was a co-writer, and four Worship Recorded Song of the Year nominations on which he also was a co-writer. Lake will release his Coat of Many Colors LP on October 20. Gospel Music Association President and Executive Director Jackie Patillo congratulated Lake as part of a video tribute at the party..

After personal remarks from film star Dennis Quaid (who recently released Fallen: A Gospel Record for Sinners), ASCAP Chairman of the Board and President Paul Williams presented artist and songwriter Matthew West with the ASCAP Golden Note Award, a special honor for songwriters, composers and artists who have achieved extraordinary career milestones. A five-time Grammy nominee, West has had cuts by Rascal Flatts, Scotty McCreery, Casting Crowns (including back-to-back #1 singles), Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant, among others, and has notched 30 #1 songs as an artist and/or songwriter. Amy Grant, Anne Wilson, Michael W. Smith, Casting Crowns vocalist Mark Hall, A.J. Pruis and Tim Tebow offered recorded messages of congratulations to mark the occasion.

As a songwriter and producer, David Spencer  co-writer of Song of the Year "In Jesus Name (God of Possible)"  has amassed over a quarter billion streams and has occupied the top spots on the Billboard and iTunes charts across multiple genres. Recorded and released by Katy Nichole, "In Jesus Name (God of Possible)" was a #1 hit on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs and Christian Airplay charts. Spencer and Jamie Rodgers, Vice President of Essential Music Publishing, the song's publisher, accepted the award.

The ASCAP Christian Music Publisher of the Year Award was given to Capitol CMG Publishing for a remarkable 21st consecutive year with an impressive 10 award-winning titles, including: "Build a Boat" (performed by Colton Dixon), "New Creation" (Mac Powell), "Same God" (Elevation Worship feat. Jonsal Barrientes), "See Me Through It" (Brandon Heath) and "Sunday Sermons" (Anne Wilson). Capitol CMG Executive Vice President Casey McGinty, VP Administration and Operations Kent Draughon and SVP A&R Karrie Dawley accepted the award for their team.

The party was hosted by Williams, Vice President of Nashville Membership Mike Sistad and Nashville Assistant Vice President, Strategic Services, Kele Currier before a crowd of distinguished songwriters, Christian music stars and music industry leaders. Notable songwriters and artists in attendance included Rachel Lampa, Colby Wedgeworth and Ben Glover.

For a complete list of ASCAP Christian Music Award winners: www.ascap.com/christianawards23 .

About ASCAP

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a membership association of more than 940,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, and represents some of the world's most talented music creators. Founded and governed by songwriters, composers and publishers, it is the only performing rights organization in the U.S. that operates on a not-for-profit basis. ASCAP licenses a repertory of over 18 million musical works to hundreds of thousands of businesses that use music, including streaming services, cable television, radio and satellite radio and brick and mortar businesses such as retail stores, hotels, clubs, restaurants and bars. ASCAP collects the licensing fees; identifies, matches and processes trillions of performances every year; and returns nearly 90 cents of every dollar back to its members as royalties. The ASCAP blanket license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. ASCAP puts music creators first, advocating for their rights and the value of music on Capitol Hill, driving innovation that moves the industry forward, building community and providing the resources and support that creators need to succeed in their careers. Learn more and stay in touch at www.ascap.com , on Twitter and Instagram @ASCAP and on Facebook .

SOURCE ASCAP
Brightside recognized for its efforts to improve the financial health of working families

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Brightside , the only Financial Care solution for employers, today announced that it has been named to CB Insights sixth-annual Fintech 100 ranking (previously the Fintech 250), showcasing the 100 most promising private fintech companies of 2023.

Brightside created the employee benefits category of Financial Care to improve the financial health of working families and help income go further for the seven in 10 Americans living paycheck to paycheck. In supporting hundreds of thousands of families  with a focus on Fortune 500 employers and their frontline workers  Brightside meets employees where they are in the moments that matter most and helps them with all financial needs, including managing financial emergencies, reducing debt, and building savings. This, in turn, drives employer ROI by boosting retention, lowering healthcare costs, increasing productivity, and improving workforce diversity. Whether the challenge is struggling to pay bills or saving for the future, Brightside offers a unique combination of unbiased personal financial support and a platform of real solutions to help reduce financial stress which impacts overall employee wellbeing.

"As the only comprehensive Financial Care solution, we're helping employees effectively navigate their unique financial situation in a way traditional financial wellness benefits can't," said Tom Spann, CEO and co-founder of Brightside. "Our approach is creating real value for employers and their front-line employees, and this recognition is a testament to that. It's an honor to be named to this year's list and to be recognized amongst such an exclusive cohort of companies innovating in the fintech space."

Utilizing the CB Insights platform , the research team selected these 100 winners from a pool of over 19,000 private companies, including applicants and nominees. They were chosen based on factors including equity funding, investor profiles, business relationships, R&D activity, news sentiment analysis, competitive landscape, proprietary Mosaic scores , and Yardstiq transcripts - and criteria such as tech novelty and market potential. The research team also reviewed thousands of Analyst Briefings submitted by applicants.

"Representing 24 different countries across the globe, this year's Fintech 100 is shaping the future of real-time payments, spend management automation, embedded finance, and more," said Chris Bendtsen, lead fintech analyst at CB Insights. "Together, they are not only increasing the pace of innovation, but launching new products and features to revolutionize the industry as a whole. I cannot wait to see what this cohort accomplishes next."

Quick facts on the 2023 Fintech 100:

Equity funding and deals : The Fintech 100 includes a mix of companies at different stages of maturity, product development, and funding. The cohort has raised nearly $22B in equity funding across 381 deals since 2019.

: The Fintech 100 includes a mix of companies at different stages of maturity, product development, and funding. The cohort has raised nearly in equity funding across 381 deals since 2019. Unicorns : There are 31 companies with $1B+ valuations on the list.

: There are 31 companies with $1B+ valuations on the list. Global Reach: This year's winners represent 24 different countries across the globe. Forty-three percent of the selected companies are headquartered in the US. The UK comes in second with 12 winners, followed by Singapore with seven. Additionally, some emerging markets stand out with multiple winners this year. For example, India has three winners, while Indonesia and Egypt each have two.

About Brightside

Brightside created Financial Care, a new category in employee benefits, to help reduce financial stress for the seven in 10 Americans who are not financially healthy. Since 2018, its Financial Assistants, proprietary rules engine, and innovative product platform have helped thousands of families save more than $1,200 annually (on average) while improving emergency savings and reducing debt, resulting in improved retention, productivity, and workforce diversity while lowering healthcare costs. Brightside is located in San Francisco, CA; Chandler, AZ; and Philadelphia, PA. For more information, please visit: https://www.gobrightside.com .

About CB Insights

CB Insights builds software that enables the world's best companies to discover, understand, and make technology decisions with confidence. By marrying data, expert insights, and work management tools, clients manage their end-to-end technology decision-making process on CB Insights. To learn more, please visit www.cbinsights.com.

SOURCE Brightside
Efforts are continuing to schedule local elections in the Gaza Strip and West Bank after years of disagreements between the Palestinian factions.

The Palestinian factions are trying to find a consensus over holding local elections in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. The elections were cancelled in 2007 when Hamas took control of Gaza after bloody clashes with the security services of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

It is widely believed that finding common ground on the elections could be a way to close ranks and end the divisions that have persisted between Fatah and Hamas for the last 16 years. The rift has negatively impacted the Palestinian cause, and Israel has exploited this to dodge its obligations in negotiations with the PA.

Successive Israeli governments  mostly led by leader of the right-wing Likud Party and current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  have moved in leaps and bounds towards the Judaification of the occupied city of Jerusalem and the annexation of large areas by expanding settlements in the West Bank under the pretext that there is no Palestinian partner capable of negotiations.

The incumbent far-right Israeli government has also taken even more radical steps in the West Bank and Jerusalem, in response to continued right-wing pressure for more Judaification and raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The most recent incursion on the Al-Aqsa Mosque occurred on Sunday and Monday this week, when 3,000 settlers stormed the mosques courtyard to mark the Jewish Sukkot holiday that concludes on 7 October.

Among the assailants were Knesset members and former members of the Israeli Cabinet. They stormed the courtyard of the mosque in groups from the direction of the Moroccan Gate and performed Talmudic rituals.

They also walked through the alleys of Jerusalems Old City and performed rituals at the gates of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israel wants to trigger the situation in the Palestinian Territories and impose a fait accompli that the Palestinians will not accept, no matter what the cost, declared Rawhi Fattouch, chair of the Palestinian National Council (PNA).

However, the Palestinians have limited options to counter the Israeli assaults on Jerusalem and the West Bank, due to inter-Palestinian divisions and Israels policy of dealing with the Gaza Strip and Hamas as separate from the PA.

The PA has also incessantly complained that Israel is trying to weaken and undermine it.

The Palestinians tried to hold legislative and presidential elections in 2021, but Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cancelled them because Israel would not allow elections to take place in Jerusalem because Tel Aviv views the city as its unified capital.

The PA demands that East Jerusalem be the capital of a future Palestinian state within the June 1967 borders and before Israel invaded Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.

At the end of 2021, local elections were held in the West Bank, but Hamas refused to hold them in the Gaza Strip. Hamas appoints its associates as representatives to head local and municipal councils without holding elections.

A delegation from the Palestinian Central Elections Commission headed by Chairman Hanna Nasser visited the Gaza Strip in late September and met with Hamas and other representatives.

Leaders attending the meeting reported that they had agreed to hold local elections in Gaza.

However, Palestinian Minister of Local Government Majdi Al-Saleh said on Sunday that disputes with Hamas over local elections in the Gaza Strip had not been entirely resolved.

We have not agreed on election mechanisms, nominations, and the legal framework, or on who will secure the ballot boxes, financial declarations, and other issues, Al-Saleh told Voice of Palestine radio station.

These are also the main obstacles that blocked the local elections in Gaza in 2017, but the Palestinian factions are nevertheless hoping that everyone can agree on a solution to hold the elections soon.

The move to hold elections benefitted from positive momentum at meetings attended by Abbas, Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh, and other Palestinian leaders in the city of Al-Alamein in Egypt at the end of July.

The meetings recommended forming a committee to continue the Palestinian national dialogue, with the aim of ending divisions and reaching national unity.

At the time, Abbas stressed that the Al-Alamein meeting is a first and important step towards completing our dialogue. We hope it will achieve the desired goals soon.

However, taking steps to hold local elections and then presidential and legislative elections in the Palestinian Territories requires confidence-building between the two rival groups, according to political analyst Mustafa Ibrahim.

A consensus on holding elections requires more efforts to address the issues that have accumulated during the years-long rift, Ibrahim told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Fatah and Hamas have been exchanging accusations about the political arrests of their members and generating media campaigns to malign each other. This has increased tensions between the grassroots of the two groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Ibrahim said the Palestinian factions must decide if the rift has become too deep to be mended or whether Palestinians must learn to live with it. Everyone will be at fault if the obstacles preventing the local elections from taking place are not overcome, followed by the holding of legislative and presidential elections, he said.

According to the Palestinian Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights, a NGO, holding elections for local government bodies in the Gaza Strip is now an urgent necessity and an objective need in the light of the deteriorating economic and social conditions.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Shtayeh has called for an urgent decision to be taken on a date for the third phase of the local elections, including in the Gaza Strip, under the supervision of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission.

Electing local councils that are trusted by the public will enable them to overcome the obstacles and difficulties that are facing them in providing basic services, he said.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 5 October, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Our audience of food enthusiasts across the US can now savor the delectable dumplings from Brooklyn Chop House in their homes!

NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Brooklyn Chop House & Brooklyn Chop House Grocer, the Black-Owned restaurant group renowned for its innovative fusion of classic Asian cuisine with New York flair team made up of Robert "Don Pooh" Cummins, Dave Thomas, Charles Suitt, and Stratis Morfogen are thrilled to announce the expansion of their famous dumplings in partnership with legendary artist, actress, author and entrepreneur, Patti LaBelle, and Patti LaBelle Foods into over 1,000 Walmart stores exclusively across the United States. Ms. LaBelle brought this deal to Walmart through her company, ZPAC, which focuses on placing minority companies into big box stores. This exciting development marks a significant milestone for the iconic eatery, bringing its delectable dumplings to a broader audience of food enthusiasts.

Patti La Belle, Owner Patti LaBelle Foods and ZPAC Consulting (PRNewsfoto/Brooklyn Chop House) Brooklyn Chop House Dumplings are now Available Nationwide (PRNewsfoto/Brooklyn Chop House) Stratis Morfogen, Chief Development Office. Brooklyn Chop House Founders: Robert "Don Pooh" Cummins and David Thomas. Charles Suitt- Owner *ZPAC Consulting. (PRNewsfoto/Brooklyn Chop House)

Brooklyn Chop House and BCH Grocer are known for their commitment to quality and flavor and have garnered a loyal following for their bold and inventive culinary creations. Introducing BCH Grocer and their signature dumplings in Walmart stores nationwide is a testament to the brand's dedication to sharing its culinary expertise with a broader demographic.

Brooklyn Chop House Grocer Partners expressed their enthusiasm for the collaboration: "We're thrilled to partner with the legendary Patti LaBelle to bring the flavors of Brooklyn Chop House and BCH Grocer dumplings to homes across the nation through Walmart stores. These dumplings are a testament to our commitment to excellence in the culinary world. We have already sold out in some locations. We are overwhelmed with the response from so many friends, loyal customers, and those who have always wanted to experience Brooklyn Chop House menu items but have yet to be able to get to our NYC locations; what a feeling, what an unpredicted response! Says BCH Grocer Partners.

A Culinary Collaboration Like No Other

BCH Grocer Frozen Dumplings represent a fusion of flavors and cultures that are genuinely unique and crafted with the same dedication to quality and innovation, making Brooklyn Chop House a celebrated dining destination. These dumplings offer a compelling blend of tastes that captivate our consumers' palatesresulting in a delectable range of frozen dumplings that are currently shipping to over 1,000 Walmart locations across the United States. Those who have not had the opportunity to dine at Brooklyn Chop House NYC locations can now experience one of the most sought-after menu items. This exciting venture brings together the culinary expertise of BCH partner's passion for innovative food, resulting in a delectable range of frozen dumplings.

Patti LaBelle, a GRAMMY-winning artist known for her timeless music, dynamic performances, and love of cooking, is equally excited about this partnership: "Delicious food and cooking are two of my passions, so I'm delighted to be collaborating with Brooklyn Chop House Grocer Partners and Walmart on these incredible dumplings. They're not just a delicious treat but a culinary experience everyone can enjoy."

Available Now in Walmart Stores Nationwide

The nationwide availability of BCH Grocer dumplings is a testament to Walmart's dedication to offering customers diverse, innovative food options. By collaborating with established culinary brands like BCH Grocer and Patti LaBelle, Walmart continues to serve as a one-stop destination for ingenious food selections.

A Delicious Assortment

BCH Grocer Frozen Dumplings will offer an array of flavors inspired by the restaurant's diverse menu, ensuring there's something for every palate. It features an array of mouthwatering options: classic pork, mac and cheese, Korean BBQ-inspired beef cheese and bacon, and chocolate cake dumplings. This collection promises to transport your taste buds to the heart of New York City's culinary scene. BCH Grocer dumplings are crafted with the finest ingredients, ensuring an unforgettable taste experience. Each dumpling is meticulously prepared to balance flavors and textures perfectly, reflecting the brand's unwavering commitment to culinary excellence.

For additional information about Brooklyn Chop House Frozen Dumplings, including product availability and locations, go to BCHGrocer .

About Brooklyn Chop House

Brooklyn Chop House was founded by Robert "Don Pooh' Cummins and David Thomas. Their Chief Development Officer is Stratis Morfogen. Brooklyn Chop House is a celebrated culinary establishment that blends Asian fusion, classic chophouse dishes, and hip-hop culture's vibrant spirit under one roof. Renowned for its innovative creations and commitment to quality, Brooklyn Chop House has become a cherished destination for food enthusiasts seeking a unique and unforgettable dining experience.

About BCH Grocer

It was established in 2019 by partners Robert "Don Pooh" Cummins, Dave Thomas, Charles Suitt, and Stratis Morfogen. BCH Grocer is dedicated to bringing Brooklyn Chop House dumplings to homes across America via over 1,000 Walmart locations. With an unwavering commitment to quality, authenticity, and innovation, we take pride in offering a selection of handcrafted dumplings that cater to every palate. Each dumpling is a fusion of tradition and innovation, delivering a burst of flavors that are sure to tantalize taste buds.

About ZPAC

ZPAC Consulting is an LLC created for the purpose of helping minority brands get into big box stores. The company is owned by Zuri Edwards, Patti LaBelle, Alex Thompson, and Charles Suitt.

Websites

Brooklynchophouse.com

BCH Grocer

Walmart

www.PattiLaBelle.com

www.PattisGoodLifeShop.com

Social Media (Instagram)

@BrooklynChophouse

@Donpoohmusic

@MsPattiLaBelle

@PattisGoodLife

@Walmart

Link to product images HERE

SOURCE Brooklyn Chop House
HOUSTON and TUPELO, Miss., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --  Cadence Bank (NYSE: CADE) will release its third-quarter 2023 earnings on Monday, October 23, 2023, after the close of the financial markets. It will also hold its earnings webcast on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. CT.

The webcast will be a live coverage of management's conference call with analysts and can be found by visiting: https://ir.cadencebank.com/events . This will be an interactive session between management and analysts; others may listen to the live broadcast as it happens. The conference call will also be available in archived format at the same web address.

About Cadence Bank

Cadence Bank (NYSE: CADE) is a leading regional banking franchise with approximately $50 billion in assets and over 350 branch locations across the South and Texas. Cadence provides consumers, businesses and corporations with a full range of innovative banking and financial solutions. Services and products include consumer banking, consumer loans, mortgages, home equity lines and loans, credit cards, commercial and business banking, treasury management, specialized lending, asset-based lending, commercial real estate, equipment financing, correspondent banking, SBA lending, foreign exchange, wealth management, investment and trust services, financial planning, retirement plan management, and personal and business insurance. Cadence is committed to a culture of respect, diversity, inclusion and belonging in both its workplace and communities. Cadence Bank, Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.

SOURCE Cadence Bank
CHICAGO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Veteran mortgage lending executive John Cady has been announced as the new President of Citywide Home Loans, a rapidly growing national lender powered by the financial stability and innovative technology of Guaranteed Rate Companies. The Utah-based firm, founded in 1998, has steadily expanded to 55 offices in 36 states.

Cady will be charged with continuing Citywide Home Loans' explosive national growth as well as maintaining the dynamic, entrepreneurial spirit for which the brand has come to be known. He joins the firm with over 35 years of experience in the mortgage industry, having grown both regional and national platforms in excess of $15 billion in yearly production. As a producer during the first 20 years of his career, he personally closed over 6,500 loans for over $2 billion in volume. He has extensive experience in building and managing all channels of mortgage production and operations, including retail, wholesale, joint venture, credit union, consumer direct and recruiting.

"I'm incredibly pleased to be joining Citywide Home Loans," said Cady. "The company is the perfect mix of culture, service and programs that many mortgage professionals have been looking for. I believe we're in position to pick up market share throughout the country."

Citywide's Charter Branch Model was designed for collaborative leaders who are hungry to grow and feel a part of something bigger. Branch and regional lenders tend to work with large companies to leverage marketing and operational support, plus lead generation  but soon find themselves buried in red tape, restricted in what they can and cannot do, and conforming to an uninspiring brand all while losing lots of take home due to unknown fees and constantly changing rules.

Cady came to Citywide because of the brand's reputation for treating originators like entrepreneurial partners. That includes providing superior tools, technology and pricing and training. "We help build habits that will stay with the loan officer the rest of their career," he said. "We're especially proud to have seen an increase of over 40% in production."

Cady has been recognized throughout the mortgage lending industry multiple times during his career, including the 2023 HousingWire Insider award. He has also been designated among National Mortgage Professional's 2023 Most Connected Mortgage Professionals, National Mortgage Professional's 2023 Titans of Industry and National Mortgage Professional's 2023 Legends of Lending honorees.

For more information, go to Rate.com.

About Citywide Home Loans

Citywide Home Loans was founded in 1998. It's entrepreneurial, dynamic, and determined approach to growth led the small broker company of just 5 employees to grow for 20+ years. In 2021, Citywide joined forces with Guaranteed Rate, enabling the rapidly expanding, nimble, boutique firm to gain unrivaled support from the mortgage industry's innovation leader. Citywide's mission is to become the largest partnership branch model in the country and one of the nation's top 20 mortgage companies. Learn more at Citywidehomeloans.com.

About Guaranteed Rate

Guaranteed Rate is a leader in mortgage lending and digital financial services. Headquartered in Chicago, the Guaranteed Rate Companies have over 850 branches across the U.S., serving all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Since its launch in 2000, Guaranteed Rate Companies have helped more than 1 million homeowners with home purchase loans and refinances. The company has cemented itself as an industry leader by introducing innovative technology, offering low rates and delivering unparalleled customer service. Honors and awards include: Top Lender for Online Service for 2018 by U.S. News & World Report; Best Mortgage Lender for Online Loans and Best Mortgage Lender for Refinancing by NerdWallet for 2021; HousingWire's Tech100 award for the company's industry-leading FlashClose in 2020, digital mortgage platform MyAccount in 2022, and Language Access Program in 2023; No. 2 ranking in Scotsman Guide's 2022 list of Top Retail Mortgage Lender; the most Scotsman Guide Top Originators for 11 consecutive years; Chicago Agent Magazine's Lender of the Year for seven consecutive years; and Chicago Tribune's Top Workplaces list for seven consecutive years. Visit rate.com for more information.

Guaranteed Rate, Inc.; NMLS #2611; 3940 N Ravenswood, Chicago, IL 60613; 866-934-7283. For licensing information visit nmlsconsumeraccess.org. Equal Housing Lender. Conditions may apply.  AZ: 14811 N. Kierland Blvd., Ste. 100, Scottsdale, AZ, 85254, Mortgage Banker License #0907078  CA: Licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act  CO: Regulated by the Division of Real Estate  GA: Residential Mortgage Licensee #20973  MA: Mortgage Lender & Mortgage Broker License #MC2611  ME: Supervised Lender License #SLM11302  NH: Licensed by the New Hampshire Banking Department, Lic #13931-MB  NJ: Licensed by the N.J. Department of Banking and Insurance  NY: Licensed Mortgage Banker - NYS Department of Financial Services, 750 Lexington Ave. Suite 2010, New York, New York 10022  OH: MB 804160  OR: Licensed and Regulated by the Department of Consumer and Business Services  PA: Licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities  RI: Rhode Island Licensed Lender  WA: Consumer Loan Company License CL-2611.

SOURCE Citywide Home Loans
CHICAGO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In the near future, the cardiac safety services industry is poised for significant growth and innovation. As pharmaceutical research continues to advance, the demand for robust cardiac safety assessments throughout drug development pipelines will remain crucial. With the integration of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, wearable devices, and remote monitoring, the industry will become increasingly adept at identifying and addressing cardiac risks in real-time. Furthermore, as precision medicine gains prominence, cardiac safety services will play a pivotal role in tailoring treatments to individual patient profiles, ensuring safer and more effective therapies. This dynamic sector will not only contribute to the acceleration of drug approvals but also foster a heightened emphasis on patient-centric, personalized healthcare, reshaping the landscape of cardiac safety services in the years to come.

Cardiac Safety Services Market in terms of revenue was estimated to be worth $739 million in 2023 and is poised to reach $1,282 million by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 11.6% from 2023 to 2028 according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The growth of this market is driven by rising incidence of cardiovascular diseases, large number of cardiac issue related clinical trials. Additionally, the increasing outsourcing of cardiac safety services leading to expanded adoption of cardiac safety services.

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Browse in-depth TOC on "Cardiac Safety Services Market"

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Cardiac Safety Services Market Scope:

Report Coverage Details Market Revenue in 2023 $739 million Estimated Value by 2028 $1,282 million Growth Rate Poised to grow at a CAGR of 11.6% Market Size Available for 20212028 Forecast Period 20232028 Forecast Units Value (USD Million) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered Type, Service Type, and End User Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America (LATAM) and The Middle East and Africa (MEA) Report Highlights Updated financial information / product portfolio of players Key Market Opportunities Emergence of new methods to curb cardiotoxicity Key Market Drivers Rising incidence of cardiovascular diseases

The integrated services segment accounted for the largest share, by type in the cardiac safety services market in 2022.

By type, the cardiac safety services market has been further categorized as integrated services and standalone services. The integrated services segment held the largest share of the global cardiac safety services market in 2022. This can be attributed to benefits associated with integrated services. Integrated services offer benefits such as comprehensive data integration and improved data quality. Additionally, these services help enhance and expedite clinical trials in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical development cycle. These advantages make integrated services as preferable option against standalone cardiac safety services.

The ECG/ Holter measurement services segment accounted for the largest share of the service type segment in the cardiac safety services market in 2022.

Based on service type, the global cardiac safety services market has been segmented into ECG/Holter measurement services, blood pressure measurement services, cardiovascular imaging services, thorough QT studies, and other cardiac safety services. The ECG/ Holter measurement services segment held the largest market share in 2022. The large share of this segment can be attributed to the low cost of ECG/Holter services and rigorous regulations for drug safety, increasing research & development activities to develop effective and innovative drugs.

The North America region catered the largest share of the cardiac safety services market in 2022.

The cardiac safety services market in North America has experienced significant growth in recent years, showcasing a robust expansion trajectory, owing to large pharmaceutical & biopharmaceutical industry in the region, the rising R&D expenditure, stringent regulations, and the presence of major providers of cardiac safety services in the US and Canada. Additionally, growth of the North American cardiac safety services market is driven by significant factors such as a multitude of ongoing clinical trials, the expansion of the biosimilars and generics sector, and the increasing adoption of outsourcing preclinical, clinical, and laboratory testing services by pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies.

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Cardiac Safety Services Market Dynamics:

Drivers:

Rising incidence of cardiovascular diseases

Restraints:

Inadequacy of cardiotoxicity testing

Opportunities:

Emergence of new methods to curb cardiotoxicity

Challenge:

High cost of cardiac safety evaluation services

Key Market Players:

Key players in the cardiac safety services market include Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (US), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands), Clario (US), Banook Group (France), IQVIA (US), Biotrial (France), Certara (US), Celerion (US), Medpace (US), Ncardia (Netherlands), Richmond Pharmacology (UK), PhysioStim (France), Shanghai Medical (China), Pharmaceutical Product Development, Inc. (US), and SGS S.A. (Switzerland).

Recent Developments:

In August 2023 , Clarion (US) collaborated with Dr. Vince Clinical Research (DVCR) (US). The strategic collaboration helps Clario (US) deliver accurate and cost-efficient cardiac safety data in the early clinical development stages.

, Clarion (US) collaborated with Dr. Vince Clinical Research (DVCR) (US). The strategic collaboration helps Clario (US) deliver accurate and cost-efficient cardiac safety data in the early clinical development stages. In October 2022 , IQVIA (US) launched its first self-collection safety lab panel for US clinical trial participants by a leading global clinical trial laboratory.

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Cardiac Safety Services Market Advantages:

Patient Safety: Ensuring the safety of participants in clinical trials is paramount. Cardiac safety services help identify and mitigate potential cardiac risks associated with new drugs, ultimately protecting the health and well-being of trial participants.

Regulatory Compliance: Regulatory bodies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) require thorough cardiac safety assessments as part of the drug approval process. Cardiac safety services help pharmaceutical companies meet these stringent regulatory requirements, facilitating faster drug approvals.

Risk Mitigation: Early identification of cardiovascular risks associated with new drugs allows pharmaceutical companies to make informed decisions during drug development. This helps in optimizing drug formulations, dosages, or discontinuing the development of unsafe drugs, thereby reducing financial risks.

Cost Savings: Detecting cardiac safety issues early in the drug development process can save pharmaceutical companies significant costs associated with late-stage clinical trial failures or post-market withdrawals.

Time Efficiency: By proactively addressing cardiac safety concerns, pharmaceutical companies can expedite the drug development process and reduce the time to market. This is especially important in the competitive pharmaceutical industry.

Improved Drug Development Strategies: Cardiac safety services provide valuable data and insights that can inform drug development strategies, allowing companies to prioritize candidates with a better safety profile and a higher likelihood of success.

Enhanced Market Reputation: A commitment to cardiac safety can enhance a pharmaceutical company's reputation and build trust among healthcare professionals, regulatory agencies, and patients.

Personalized Medicine: Cardiac safety assessments can help identify patient populations that may be more susceptible to certain cardiovascular side effects, enabling the development of personalized medicine approaches and tailored treatment strategies.

Global Reach: Cardiac safety services are offered by specialized contract research organizations (CROs) and can be accessed globally, ensuring that pharmaceutical companies have access to expertise and resources regardless of their location.

Long-term Benefits: Establishing a strong cardiac safety program can have long-term benefits, as it contributes to the overall quality and safety of the pharmaceutical industry's products, fostering patient trust and sustainability.

In summary, cardiac safety services are integral to drug development, offering numerous advantages that include patient safety, regulatory compliance, cost savings, and enhanced drug development strategies. These services play a pivotal role in ensuring that new medications are safe and effective for patients, ultimately benefiting both the pharmaceutical industry and the broader healthcare ecosystem.

Related Reports:

CRO Services Market - Global Forecasts to 2028

Clinical Trial Imaging Market - Global Forecasts to 2028

Drug Discovery Services Market - Global Forecasts to 2028

eClinical Solutions Market - Global Forecasts to 2027

Clinical Trial Management System Market - Global Forecasts to 2025

About MarketsandMarkets:

MarketsandMarkets has been recognized as one of America's best management consulting firms by Forbes, as per their recent report.

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.

Earlier this year, we made a formal transformation into one of America's best management consulting firms as per a survey conducted by Forbes.

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.

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MarketsandMarkets INC.

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
Matt Joyner added as Chair of Endowment Committee and Trust Committee Member

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cascade Pacific Council of the Boy Scouts of America, in collaboration with Fortis Capital Advisors, has appointed Matt Joyner as Chair of the Endowment Committee and Member of the Trust Committee. With a notable finance background and commitment to the community, Joyner is primed to enhance the council's financial objectives and mission.

With a distinguished career in finance and a strong commitment to community service, Matt Joyner brings a wealth of experience to both roles. As Chair of the Endowment Committee, he will emphasize the growth of the Cascade Pacific Council's endowment and ensure prudent trust asset management, resonating with the Boy Scouts' core principles. Gary Carroll, CEO of the Cascade Pacific Council, remarked, "We enthusiastically welcome Joyner. His financial expertise and alignment with our mission makes him a perfect fit for these vital roles. His leadership and financial expertise will drive the council's mission and financial goals forward."

Fortis Capital Advisors is equally enthusiastic. "Matt Joyner's appointment reflects our commitment to supporting the communities we serve," stated Rob Hagg, CEO of Fortis Capital Advisors. "We believe his leadership will enhance the stewardship of the Cascade Pacific Council, ultimately benefiting individuals across the council."

Matt Joyner expressed his excitement for this new chapter: "It's an honor to be part of an organization like the Boy Scouts. As an Eagle Scout, I am eager to contribute to the organization's growth and help ensure its legacy for the next generation."

Fortis Capital Advisors and the Cascade Pacific Council of the Boy Scouts of America look forward to working closely with Matt Joyner to advance their shared mission of character development and community engagement.

About the Cascade Pacific Council, Boy Scouts of America

Cascade Pacific Council, BSA (CPC) serves around 8,000 youths across 19 counties in NW Oregon and SW Washington. We provide unique programs fostering leadership and citizenship, welcoming all backgrounds and perspectives. Join our inclusive, safe environment. Learn more at https://cpcbsa.org.

About Fortis Capital Advisors

Fortis Capital Advisors offers advanced tech, compliance, back-office support, and wealth management tools, enabling advisors to prioritize client acquisition and relations, visit fortiscapitaladvisors.com for more.

Investment Advice is offered through Fortis Capital Advisors, LLC, 500 Damonte Ranch Parkway, Building 700, Unit 700, Reno, NV 89521. (913) 222-8862.

Chris Bartell, Director of Marketing & Communications

[email protected]

Alyson Cohen, Associate Marketing Manager

[email protected]

SOURCE Fortis Capital Advisors
PATCHOGUE, N.Y., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- October is Orthodontic Health Month, and Babylon Dental Care is celebrating with a special offer you won't want to miss! All month long, children seven and over can get a free consultation and work-up with BDC's own in-house orthodontist, Dr. John Baker, a $250 value. The work-up involves taking panoramic X-rays of developing teeth, scanning the mouth to make a computer mold of the dental features, and using modeling software to predict growth over time, which helps Dr. Baker and his team develop a course of treatment tailored to the patient's exact needs.

Dr. John Baker, longtime orthodontist at Babylon Dental Care, with his family

"The American Association of Orthodontics recommends that children have their first screening at seven and a half years old," says Dr. Baker, who's been a vital part of the Babylon Dental Care family for the last 24 years. "While that might seem young, starting treatment at an early age has many long-term benefits. Most importantly, it allows us to make major adjustments to the patient's teeth, jaw, and even face structure without the need for surgery or other expensive, traumatic procedures. When you start early, you're giving your child the gift of healthier teeth for life."

That concern for minimizing pain whenever possible is informed by Dr. Baker's own experiences with orthodontia as a child. "When I was a kid, I wasn't treated until I was 13 years old. I needed five baby teeth and four permanent teeth taken out. They had to surgically bring down my canines. My wife had a similar experience in that she needed surgery because she got started too late for less-invasive widening options. That's why all our kids got jaw-widening at seven, so there was no need for surgery."

Now, he wants every family to enjoy the same benefits his did.

Assisting with this promotion is new orthodontic liaison Marcela Bonilla, who strengthens Dr. Baker's services and facilitates his treatment with patients and their families. "I love helping patients and parents and coordinating their needs with our team," she says. "My job is to work with families, discuss financial matters, and help them get the treatment they need in a way that fits their budget."

That emphasis on teamwork and family fits perfectly with Babylon Dental Care's philosophy, and it's why Dr. Baker has been with the practice for almost a quarter-century and two generations of Long Island families.

"What I love about orthodontia is that my patients, their families, and their friends all get to see the work I've done for them, since the results are right there on their faces" Dr. Baker explains. "And what I love about Babylon Dental Care is that everyone's here cooperating together. Being a multi-specialty practice means that patients can get all the dental care they need under the same roof."

Ready to take advantage of our limited-time offer and start your child on the path to a healthier smile? Then book their initial appointment with Dr. Baker, Marcela, and the rest of the orthodontic team at Babylon Dental Care today!

About Babylon Dental Care

Since 1983, Babylon Dental Care has been proud to serve the Long Island community by providing them with high-quality dental care. We have two locations on the south coast of Suffolk County: Gateway Plaza Shopping Center in Patchogue (499 N Service Rd # 13B, Patchogue, NY 11772) and Great South Bay Shopping Center in West Babylon (785 W Montauk Highway, West Babylon, NY 11704).

Visit us online at www.babylondentalcare.com.

Contact:

Jenn Brown

516-680-1133

[email protected]

SOURCE Babylon Dental Care
NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "cellular M2M value-added services (VAS) market size by end-user (consumer electronics, automotive, healthcare, transportation and logistics, and others), service (managed services and professional services), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa) - Forecast and Analysis 2023-2027" report has been added to technavio offering. With ISO 9001:2015 certification, Technavio has proudly partnered with more than 100 Fortune 500 companies for over 16 years. The potential growth difference for the cellular M2M value-added services (VAS) market from 2022 to 2027 is USD 50.39 billion, according to Technavio. The growing demand for enhanced M2M data communication is a key factor driving market growth. Businesses are growing more and more willing to recognize the value of data as a decision-making factor. A significantly increased M2M data communication provides several benefits, including the collection, transmission, and analysis of large amounts of information from connected devices. This data can provide useful information on different aspects of operations, with a view to helping businesses optimize processes, reduce interruptions, and make strategic decisions. Furthermore, in maintenance applications, faster transmission of diagnostic data is facilitated by improved M2M communication. Hence, these factors are expected to drive market growth during the forecast period. Get deeper insights into the market size, current market scenario, future growth opportunities, major growth driving factors, the latest trends, and much more. Buy the full report here

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Cellular M2M Value-Added Services (VAS) Market 2023-2027

Market Challenge

The high upfront cost of cellular M2M devices and services is a significant challenge restricting market growth. To install cellular M2M devices and services, there will be a significant investment in the beginning. The costs for the purchase of M2M equipment, sensors, communication modules, and integrating software and value-added services fall within this category. However, other communications technologies and solutions, such as low power wide area networks (LPWAN) or non-cellular M2M options, can offer lower upfront costs, encouraging businesses to look for effective connectivity solutions, thereby providing them with an attractive alternative. Hence, these factors are expected to restrict market growth during the forecast period.

Learn about additional key drivers, trends, and challenges available with Technavio. Read a Free Sample PDF Report Now

The cellular m2m value-added services (VAS) market has been segmented by end-user (consumer electronics, automotive, healthcare, transportation and logistics, and others), service (managed services and professional services), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa).

The market share growth by the consumer electronics segment will be significant during the forecast period. M2M technology is being adopted due to the increased integration of consumer electronics into the Internet of Things ecosystem. Consumers are looking for a connected device that offers convenience, automation, and real-time data sharing. Furthermore, the growing trend of smart homes where every household appliance and equipment is connected to a mobile phone or voice assistant allowing it to be remotely controlled has fueled demand for M2M-enabled consumer electronic devices. M2M connectivity improves user experience by enabling remote control, personalization, and device automation. Hence, these factors are expected to drive segment growth during the forecast period.

Europe is estimated to contribute 34% to the growth of the global market during the forecast period.

View the Free Sample Report for insights into the contribution of all the segments and regional opportunities in the report.

Key Companies in the cellular M2M value-added services (VAS) market:

Aeris Communications Inc., Amdocs Ltd., AT and T Inc., China Mobile Ltd., Choice IoT Inc., Deutsche Telekom AG, Digi International Inc., eDevice S.A., KDDI Corp., Nippon Telegraph And Telephone Corp., Orange SA, Rogers Communications Inc., Semtech Corp., Telefonica SA, Telenor Group, Telit IoT Platforms LLC, Thales Group, United States Cellular, Verizon Communications Inc., and Vodafone Group Plc

Related Reports:

The virtual customer premises equipment (vCPE) market size is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 40.77% between 2022 and 2027. The market size is forecast to increase by USD 13,106.69 million.

The SATCOM on the move market size is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 18.25% between 2022 and 2027. The market size is forecast to increase by USD 23,221.27 million.

Cellular M2M Value-Added Services (VAS) Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2022 Historic period 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 24.59% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 50.39 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 20.45 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution Europe at 34% Key countries US, China, Japan, Germany, and the UK Competitive landscape Leading Companies, Market Positioning of Companies, Competitive Strategies, and Industry Risks Key companies profiled Aeris Communications Inc., Amdocs Ltd., AT and T Inc., China Mobile Ltd., Choice IoT Inc., Deutsche Telekom AG, Digi International Inc., eDevice S.A., KDDI Corp., Nippon Telegraph And Telephone Corp., Orange SA, Rogers Communications Inc., Semtech Corp., Telefonica SA, Telenor Group, Telit IoT Platforms LLC, Thales Group, United States Cellular, Verizon Communications Inc., and Vodafone Group Plc Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, 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.

ToC:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market Sizing

Historic Market Sizes

Five Forces Analysis

Market Segmentation by End-User

Market Segmentation by Service

Market Segmentation by Geography

Customer Landscape

Geographic Landscape

Drivers, Challenges, & Trends

Company Landscape

Company Analysis

Appendix

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base comprises enterprises of all sizes, including over 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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Website: www.technavio.com

SOURCE Technavio
HOUSTON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) today announced the appointments of Thaddeus J. Malik, Principal at S2T Solutions, LLC, and Ricky A. Raven, Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Allstate Insurance Company, to its Board of Directors, effective Sept. 28. With the appointments of Malik and Raven, CenterPoint Energy's Board is now composed of 11 directors, 10 of whom are independent.

"The decision to expand our Board of Directors with the additions of Thad and Ricky reflects our ongoing commitment to anchor the Board with directors who have outstanding corporate governance backgrounds," said Earl M. Cummings, Independent Chair of the Board. "At the same time, we are broadening the Board's industry experience and expertise to advance the company's long-term growth strategy and objectives as a pure-play, regulated utility."

Cummings added, "Each of the new directors brings impressive and diverse experience in public companies, regulatory affairs and risk management, as well as a proven track record of driving operational and strategic excellence. We look forward to their contributions as we collectively focus on delivering value for all our stakeholders."

Malik said, "CenterPoint Energy serves an immensely important role in supporting communities by delivering electricity and natural gas to millions of customers across six states, and I am honored to join the Board. I am excited to leverage my knowledge of regulated industries and corporate governance to contribute to CenterPoint Energy's continued success."

Raven said, "Strong customer and stakeholder relationships are the cornerstones of the company's success, and I look forward to sharing my experience to support the team as we guide CenterPoint Energy into the future. As a CenterPoint Energy customer, I have long admired the critically important work and services the company provides to its customers and communities."

Consistent with the Board's commitment to pursuing an appropriate mix of skills, diversity and expertise, the Board has also retained a leading director search firm to identify an additional independent director candidate with significant financial or audit experience.

About Thaddeus J. Malik

Malik has extensive experience advising Fortune 500 companies and extensive knowledge of regulated industries, including aerospace and defense, insurance, gaming (land-based and online) and telecommunications. As Principal at S2T Solutions, he supports external and internal deal teams on transactional matters, including acquisitions and dispositions. Prior to forming S2T Solutions, he was a Partner at Paul Hastings, LLP where he established their Corporate Department in Chicago.

Malik currently serves on the Board of Directors of Health Care Service Corporation and as President and board member of The First Tee of Greater Chicago and as a board member for the Illinois PGA Foundation and The TimeLine Company.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Northwestern University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

About Ricky A. Raven

Raven is Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of the Allstate Insurance Company. He serves on the boards of the National Judicial College Board of Directors and International Academy of Trial Lawyers Board of Directors. He is currently a member of the University of Houston Board of Regents and former Commissioner for the City of Houston Civil Service Commission.

Raven previously was a Partner at ReedSmith LLP, where he was a member of the Global Commercial Disputes Group and a leader of the firm's Mass and Toxic Torts team.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and Biology from the University of Houston and a Juris Doctor from the University of Houston Law Center.

About CenterPoint Energy, Inc.

As the only investor-owned electric and natural gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. As of June 30, 2023, the company owned approximately $38 billion in assets. With approximately 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "goal," "intend," "may," "objective," "plan," "potential," "predict," "projection," "should," "target," "will" or other similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon assumptions of management which are believed to be reasonable at the time made and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Any statements in this news release regarding future events, such as the potential growth, including the timing and scale of such growth, of CenterPoint Energy, CenterPoint Energy's long-term capital plan and its ability to execute on its long-term capital plan, future financial performance of CenterPoint Energy, composition of the Board of Directors and representation of skills and expertise on the Board of Directors, and any other statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement contained in this news release speaks only as of the date of this release. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the provided forward-looking information include risks and uncertainties relating to: (1) the impact of pandemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) financial market conditions; (3) general economic conditions; (4) the timing and impact of future regulatory and legislative decisions; (5) effects of competition; (6) weather variations; (7) changes in business plans; (8) continued disruptions to the global supply chain and increases in commodity prices; (9) legislative decisions, including tax and developments related to the environment such as global climate change, air emissions, carbon and waste water discharges; (10) CenterPoint Energy's ability to execute on its initiatives, targets and goals and operations and maintenance goals and (11) other factors, risks and uncertainties discussed in CenterPoint Energy's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 and CenterPoint's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2023 and June 30, 2023, and other reports CenterPoint Energy or its subsidiaries may file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For more information contact

Media:

Communications

Media.Relations@CenterPointEnergy.com

Investors:

Jackie Richert/Ben Vallejo

Phone 713.207.6500

SOURCE CenterPoint Energy, Inc
Local family is set to introduce Central Bark's unique approach to whole dog care and enrichment in Rochester as the brand's first franchise owners in New York

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Central Bark, the premier whole dog care franchise and industry pioneer, is proud to announce the signing of its newest multi-unit franchise agreement in the state of New York. Totaling three locations, this deal marks the brand's first entry into the state beginning in and around Rochester.

Leading Central Bark's growth in Rochester is Phillip Clark Jr. and his wife Lindsay Clark, who executed a multi-unit development agreement for three locations. Joining them in the endeavor is Phillip's father, Phillip Clark Sr. They believe so much in what Central Bark stands for and its commitment to whole dog care that they executed their first lease essentially in tandem with the signing of their franchise agreement. The 6,800 sq.ft. indoor and 2,000 sq.ft. outdoor space is in Henrietta, N.Y., a southern suburb of Rochester. Phillip Jr. and his wife Lindsay will assume day-to-day operations once their Central Bark opens alongside Lucy, their poodle mix, and Brooklyn, their goldendoodle.

Totaling three locations, this deal marks Central Bark's first entry into New York beginning in and around Rochester. Post this

"After spending many years in corporate America, we knew it was the right time to invest and determine our own direction," said Phillip Clark Jr. "Dogs are what we are passionate about. And after meeting the team at Central Bark and realizing that the culture and mission aligned so directly with our values, the decision was easy. Whole dog care is the future of this space and Central Bark is leading the way. We're so happy to be a part of this incredible brand and can't wait to get started."

For nearly 20 years, Central Bark has drawn in dogs and their owners across the country to experience its Whole Dog Care, which combines Central Bark's industry-leading dog day care expertise with the latest in canine behavioral science. Enrichment Care provides a healthy and balanced blend of exercise, social group play, learning, rest, and "TLC" to help dogs be healthy, happy, calm, and well-rounded members of the family. Furthermore, Central Bark also offers dog boarding, baths, grooming, a retail market, training and more.

"We are so excited to welcome the Clarks to our Central Bark family, as we continue our expansion in the Northeast," said Tim Weiderhoft, Ed.D., CFE, vice president of franchise development for Central Bark. "These three new Central Bark facilities mark our first entry into the state of New York, and we could not be happier with these new owners who are leading the charge. Given their incredible professional backgrounds and proven abilities to lead and develop teams, along with their passion for customer service, we know the Clarks will find long term success."

Central Bark typically features approximately 6,000  7,000 square feet of indoor space plus more than 2,000 square-feet of outdoor play area. Activities include small flexible playgroups, group skills work, rest periods, and personalized one-on-one enrichment sessions. Enrichment add-ons give pups the extra attention they love and the freedom to use their senses, safely exploring with their instincts as they engage with interactive toys, puzzles, and games. For more information on Central Bark franchising opportunities, visit centralbarkusa.com/franchising.

About Central Bark:

The Central Bark franchise system was founded in 2003 and now operates under the name Barkley Ventures Franchising, LLC. For nearly 20 years, the brand has grown to nearly 40 locations across more than a dozen states. The company has hosted over two million dog visits. Central Bark participates in VetFran, the International Franchise Association's (IFA) veteran program, and offers a franchise fee discount to qualifying veterans. Central Bark is also an IFA MinorityFran participant. For more information about franchising with Central Bark, visit centralbarkusa.com/franchising or call 866-799-2275.

SOURCE Central Bark
Century Fasteners Corp. and Cherry Aerospace Relationship Showcased at the International Fastener Expo, Las Vegas, NV - October 9th  11th, 2023.

ELMHURST, N.Y., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Century Fasteners Corp. (www.CenturyFasteners.com) is an authorized distributor for Cherry Aerospace (www.CherryAerospace.com).

The Century Fasteners Corp. and Cherry Aerospace relationship is to be showcased at the International Fastener Expo on October 9th -11th, 2023. Booth #1348 at Mandalay Bay, Halls E & F, Las Vegas, NV.

For more info about the Event, please go to: International Fastener Expo

In addition to making world-class Cherry products more broadly available to distributors and OEMs, the partnership expands Century's existing services to the manufacturing community by enabling the company to provide deeper bill of material coverage to complement its product offering.

About Century Fasteners

Century Fasteners Corp. is a Master Distributor of fastener and non-fastener components to the military, aerospace, electronics, automotive, sheet metal fabrication, contract manufacturing, telecommunications and medical industries. The ISO and AS Registered company stocks more than 100,000 discrete parts, and offers a wide variety of value-added services, including VMI in-plant programs, custom kitting, engineering services, and supply chain management solutions.

For Cherry Aerospace product quotes for Distributors, email the requirements to Century Fasteners Corp. at [email protected]. To learn more about the products and services offered by Century Fasteners Corp., visit online at www.CenturyFasteners.com.

About Cherry Aerospace

Headquartered in Santa Ana, CA, Cherry Aerospace is a global leader in the design and manufacture of fastening systems for the aerospace industry. The Cherry name is synonymous with aerospace fasteners, and the CherryMax line of rivets is the most widely used in the industry. Cherry Aerospace is well known for their industry leading blind rivets, blind bolts, rivetless nut plates, shear pin fasteners and installation tools. The company is a member of the SPS Fastener Division of Precision Castparts Corp.

Media contact:

John Ringold

Century Fasteners Corp. / Director of Marketing

800-221-0769

[email protected]

Contact:

***@optonline.net

Photo(s):

https://www.prlog.org/12987162

Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE Century Fasteners Corp.
The world leaders meeting on climate change and other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ended disappointingly at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) last week. This adds another set of obstacles to be faced by the UN Conference of Parties (COP28) to be held in Dubai in November. SDGs include combatting climate change, wiping out hunger and battling extreme poverty around the globe.

Almost everybody at the UNGA meeting warned of the dangers the world faces if those goals are not met by the set deadline of 2030. A summit before the UNGA meeting issued a declaration about climate change and other SDGs agreed on in 2015. It mentioned 17 goals, besides cutting greenhouse gases, which included matters relating to water and reducing inequality. The declaration reads: The achievement of the SDGs is in peril We are alarmed that the progress on most of the SDGs is either moving much too slowly or has regressed below the 2015 baseline.

The irony is that those are the same countries either not doing enough to achieve the commitments they signed to and or backtracking on some of their legally binding targets. Most remarkable are the government policies in developed countries which are not focused on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Developed countries are slashing international aid to the developing world, or even scrapping it all together. The commitment to provide assistance to developing countries financing energy transformation is not met and only a small fraction of the agreed sum is promised.

The latest sad news was an announcement by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that watered down the UKs commitments to fighting climate change. The move included extending the deadline to ban new gasoline and diesel cars and new natural gas home heating to 2035 instead of 2030. That backtracking might lead to environmental groups taking the government to High Court for violating a legal commitment.

When the UK hosted COP26 in 2021, the government boasted of Britain being a leader in cutting carbon emissions. A couple of months ago, government climate advisers warned that the pace of action is actually worryingly slow. A month after that warning from the independent Climate Change Commission (CCC), Sunaks government approved more than a hundred permits for oil and gas drilling off the coast of Scotland. That bluntly contradicts the promised policy of energy transformation away from fossil fuels to renewables and clean sources.

The UK government is not alone in reneging on climate change goals fulfilment. The Paris accord of 2015, signed by 193 countries, stipulated limiting the earths temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius by 2030. Rich industrialised countries that emit more than three-quarters of global greenhouse gases are in fact not reducing emissions at a fast enough rate to reach the Paris accord goal. On the contrary, they are increasing fossil fuel production and reliance on it as a source of energy.

This spring, the American administration approved drilling in vast areas of Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico  concessions in the Gulf cover an area the size of Italy. According to a tally by biologicaldiversity.org earlier this year, Joe Bidens administration approved more oil and gas drilling permits than the previous administration of Donald Trump. This is diluting the slogan championed by the US which is pioneering the fight against climate change. In the first two years of his presidency, Bidens White House approved 6430 permits outpacing Trumps 6172 drilling permits in his first two years as president.

Other major economies, from Australia to Germany through to China and India are backtracking on promises to limit greenhouse gas emission. The increased use of coal-powered stations is one huge factor, since coal emits far more carbon into the atmosphere than oil and gas.

The developed worlds regressed action on climate change poses a serious challenge to COP28 in Dubai in a few weeks. Though the Western media are focusing on the person that will lead the summit and the fact that he is a CEO of the Emirati oil and gas company, the policies of Western countries are more frustrating to UN environmentalists. The head of COP28, Dr Sultan Al-Jaber CEO of Abu Dhabi energy giant ADNOC picked up on the lack of progress by developed nations in fulfilling climate change goals, in an article in Fortune this week. He chose the issue of climate finance, which dominated COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh last year. Trying to take the heat out of the fossil fuel debate, he stressed: It is time to transform climate finance and bridge its 2.4 trillion dollar gap.

The Loss and Damage Fund launched in the last conference in Egypt is meant to aid vulnerable nations in responding to climate-related crises along with financing energy transformation in the developed world. The cost is almost two and half trillion dollars, but commitments by rich nations so far are at a hundred billion dollars a year up to 2030. Even this fraction of the whole sum is not yet guaranteed.

Al-Jaber wrote: Is the world capable of mobilising the trillions of dollars necessary to fund the climate transition? I believe the answer is yes  but not without concerted effort from governments, international financial institutions, and the private sector to reform the current financial architecture and better align global and domestic financial flows with the worlds climate goals.

Will the divided attention in COP28 on climate finance conceal the worlds backtracking on the main issue of emissions? As many analysts point out, even diverting attention will not address the main obstacle of more and more countries reneging on targets set by the Paris agreement to reduce emissions by 2030.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 28 September, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Combination Creates Preferred Provider of Smallwares and Supplies for Foodservice, Healthcare, Hygiene Industries

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CFS Brands announced today that it has acquired The Foodware Group (TFG), creating a preferred provider of smallwares and supplies to the foodservice, healthcare, and hygiene markets, well positioned to capitalize on future growth opportunities. The transaction was completed October 2, 2023. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Foodware Group was formed through a strategic combination of G.E.T, which has a 40-year legacy of providing complete "front of house" solutions in dinnerware, drinkware, display, and buffetware; and Winco, a "one-source" supplier for tabletop, smallwares, janitorial, and countertop equipment. Through a commitment to customer-focused service, along with a unique strength in product development and sourcing, The Foodware Group has become an award-winning supplier partner for foodservice operators and distributors.

With the combination of CFS Brands and The Foodware Group, customers will have access to the broadest and deepest line-up of products and solutions to enhance their business, including Carlisle FoodService Products, San Jamar, Dinex, Winco, and G.E.T. brands, among others. Distributors and end users will be able to consolidate their purchases under a single supplier, reduce complexity in their operations, and lower their total costs.

"The acquisition of The Foodware Group is a transformational opportunity for CFS Brands," said CFS Brands CEO Trent Freiberg. "The Foodware Group joins a portfolio of businesses and brands that are leaders in their respective markets. CFS Brands and TFG are a great fit, and together we will build on our combined strengths and shared values to continue our track record of sustainable growth and exceptional results. We are excited to work with the leadership team at The Foodware Group, and we welcome all TFG employees to CFS Brands."

Jim White, CEO of The Foodware Group, said, "We have built a great company over the last few years that has driven strong growth and created many opportunities for our exceptional team. Our products and capabilities are a great complement to what CFS Brands offers, creating the opportunity to leverage the best of both. This is one of those rare situations where the complementary strengths of two companies create an opportunity to make one plus one equal three."

The Foodware Group Executive Vice President and President of Winco Elaine Shen added, "We see tremendous opportunities ahead of us to enhance our value and partnership to customers. While we will continue to deliver outstanding customer service, we will also develop greater depth in our product capabilities and strengthen our competitiveness to better serve foodservice, healthcare, hygiene, and international customers."

The integration process will be a gradual evolution that begins with taking needed time to develop a deep understanding of the businesses, brands, and teams, and the companies' respective strengths and opportunities. G.E.T. and Winco will each continue to operate as stand-alone entities within CFS Brands. Customers and suppliers will continue to interact with CFS Brands, G.E.T, and Winco as they have in the past.

Guggenheim Securities, LLC, is serving as financial advisor, and Winston & Strawn is serving as legal counsel to CFS Brands. Houlihan Lokey is serving as financial advisor, and Kirkland & Ellis is serving as legal counsel to The Foodware Group.

ABOUT CFS BRANDS

CFS Brands (www.CFSBrands.com) is a U.S.-based manufacturer of products for the foodservice, healthcare, and janitorial industries. CFS Brands operates Carlisle FoodService Products, Dinex, Sparta, El Castor, Jofel, Piper, San Jamar, Snap Drape, WipesPlus, Elite Global Solutions, and AyrKing brands globally. Based in Oklahoma City, OK, CFS Brands employs more than 1,600 people across its headquarters, six manufacturing locations, and seven distribution centers worldwide.

ABOUT THE FOODWARE GROUP

The Foodware Group (www.thefoodwaregroup.com) is a leading end-to-end provider of supplies to the foodservice industry, delivering the highest value solutions to all of its partners with uncompromised quality and exceptional service. The Foodware Group provides front-of-the-house and back-of-the-house supplies and smallwares for diverse foodservice applications. G.E.T. was founded in 1982 and Winco in 1992. The companies joined to form The Foodware Group in 2018. The company is headquartered in Lodi, N.J., and operates four warehouses throughout the U.S. (Lodi, NJ; Miami, FL; Houston, TX; and Las Vegas, NV) with nearly 450 team members and more than 800,000 square feet of total warehouse space.

SOURCE CFS Brands
Top Bartender Wins a $30,000 Contract as Cocktail Creator and Evangelist for the Legendary Lobos 1707

Esteemed Judges Include Diego Osorio, Dale DeGroff, Wendy Hodges, Cindy Wang Simms, and Bridget Albert

NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CHILLED announces the Best-In-Class Cocktail Challenge, presented by Lobos 1707 Tequila and Mezcal. The competition invites bartenders from across the country to raise the bar and showcase their best-in-class skills and talent. The bartender who outshines all others wins the opportunity to serve as Brand Ambassador for the legendary brand, creating original cocktail recipes and traveling the country to spread the word on the award-winning best-in-class liquid.

The challenge will feature two rounds. In the first, contestants are required to submit two original cocktails  one simple serve that embodies the spirit of the pregame occasion using Lobos 1707 Reposado Tequila and a second cocktail that accentuates the notes of the PX sherry finish used across the entire Lobos 1707 portfolio, with bartender's choice of Lobos 1707 expression. Submissions are due by October 15. Twelve semi-finalists will be selected to progress to Round 2, where they will provide a video submission communicating why they should be selected as Lobos 1707 Brand Ambassador while demonstrating one of their cocktail recipes.

"We aim for best-in-class in everything that we do; from our liquid to our team," said Diego Osorio, Founder and CCO of Lobos 1707. "Our partnership with Chilled Media follows the same pursuit as we search for a best-in-class mixologist to join our pack. The cocktail community is full of impressive talent, so we know it'll be difficult to narrow down from all the entries."

Five finalists will be announced October 25, and those five will be hosted at CHILLED 100 ELEVATE, a multi-day industry program featuring educational seminars, professional development, tours and tastings, and more, including the Best-In-Class Challenge finale event. Finalists will compete live at the event and the prestigious judges will crown one winner who will become the Lobos 1707 Brand Ambassador with a $30,000 contract. Second place will receive a $1,000 prize, and third place a $500 prize.

The judges for the competition:

Diego Osorio , Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Lobos 1707

, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, 1707 Dale DeGroff , King Cocktail, Master Mixologist and Author

, King Cocktail, Master Mixologist and Author Wendy Hodges , Chilled 100 National Director, Chilled Magazine

, Chilled 100 National Director, Chilled Magazine Cindy Wang Simms , Chief Marketing Officer, Lobos 1707

, Chief Marketing Officer, 1707 Bridget Albert , Senior Director, External Communications, Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits, Co-Host of Served Up Podcast and Author

Details for submissions including judging criteria and program rules can be found at https://chilledmagazine.com/bestinclass/. All entries must be received by October 15 to be eligible.

About Lobos 1707 Tequila & Mezcal

Lobos 1707 Tequila is an independent spirits producer that blends heritage and innovation. Inspired by his ancestor of the same name, Founder and Chief Creative Officer Diego Osorio launched Lobos 1707 Tequila in 2020 with backing from legendary athlete and cultural icon LeBron James. The Lobos 1707 Tequila and Mezcal portfolio is made up of five ultra-premium award-winning offerings infused with history, culture and family legacy: Lobos 1707 Joven Tequila, Lobos 1707 Reposado Tequila, Lobos 1707 Extra Anejo Tequila, Lobos 1707 Anejo Tequila (limited release), and Lobos 1707 Mezcal Artisanal. All sourced from the finest ingredients, Lobos 1707's portfolio is all natural and gluten-free, with zero color or flavor additives. Lobos 1707 Tequila, made with 100% Blue Weber Agave, is harvested, distilled and bottled in Jalisco, and the Mezcal Artisanal, made from Espadin, is distilled and bottled in Oaxaca. Lobos 1707 Tequila and Mezcal are influenced by both old and new world techniques, aged in American white oak barrels, then finished in Pedro Ximenez (PX) Sherry wine barrels using the Solera method for unique and elevated flavor profiles. Lobos 1707 has received numerous taste awards for its portfolio, including earning a Master recognition and two gold medals at the 2022 Tequila and Mezcal Masters, a double gold medal and Best Reposado Tequila at the 2022 San Francisco World Spirits Competition and a double gold medal at the 2022 SIP Awards. Since its recent launch, the Lobos 1707 Limited-Edition Anejo Tequila has won gold at the 2023 SFWSC, Gold at the 2023 NYWSC and 91 points at the 2023 Chilled 100 Awards. Everyone has a seat at the table to stir, sip and savor and sin with Lobos 1707. For more information on Lobos 1707, visit www.lobos1707.com or follow us on Instagram @lobos1707.

About Chilled Media

Chilled Magazine is a leading beverage industry publication dedicated to the world of mixology, spirits, and the art of crafting exceptional cocktails. With a global readership and a commitment to delivering the latest trends, innovations, and insider insights, Chilled Magazine serves as an invaluable resource for bartenders, bar owners, distributors, industry professionals, and cocktail enthusiasts.

Chilled's dynamic content covers a wide spectrum of topics, including in-depth bartender profiles, spirit reviews, cocktail recipes, and industry news. Whether you're seeking inspiration to elevate your mixology skills, staying updated on the latest trends, or looking to discover the stories behind your favorite spirits, Chilled Magazine and Chilledmagazine.com are your go-to destinations.

As a trusted authority in the world of bartenders, Chilled Magazine is dedicated to celebrating the craftsmanship, creativity, and passion that go into every cocktail. Join Chilled in raising a glass to the art of the pour and the spirits behind every sip.

Contact

[email protected]

[email protected]

SOURCE Lobos 1707 Tequila and Mezcal
SINGAPORE, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- China Yuchai International Limited (NYSE: CYD) ("China Yuchai" or the "Company") a leading manufacturer and distributor of engines through its main operating subsidiary in China, Guangxi Yuchai Machinery Company Limited ("GYMCL"), today announced that GYMCL's wholly owned subsidiary, Guangxi Yuchai Marine and Power Genset Co., Ltd. ("MPG"), won a new contract to install Yuchai's ferroalloy off-gas power generation system at a production plant which specializes in silicon-manganese alloys production in Inner Mongolia, China.

The smelting process for producing silicon-manganese alloys will emit a combustible and hazardous ferroalloy off-gas at high temperatures. Yuchai's ferroalloy off-gas power generation system effectively utilizes this off-gas as a fuel resource for power generation, which not only eliminates greenhouse gas emissions but also enhances metal production safety. Upon installation and integration to the local grid, this project is expected to produce more than 160 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year and greatly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, creating a positive impact on both the economy and the environment.

This Yuchai ferroalloy off-gas power generation system, comprising 16 units of YC16VCN engines, is a newly improved gas power generator produced by MPG to match global standards. The YC16VCN engine is designed to satisfy the requirements for various applications and features high reliability, high efficiency, environmental protection, low maintenance cost, and safety protection. It improves electrical power efficiency by more than 40%.

Mr. Weng Ming Hoh, President of China Yuchai, said, "YC16VCN is a high-performance product that has earned the trust and satisfaction from customers in China and abroad. We will continue to innovate and deliver high-quality, efficient and sustainable power generation solutions that add value to our customers."

About China Yuchai International



China Yuchai International Limited, 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 http://www.cyilimited.com.

Safe Harbor Statement:

This news release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "project", "targets", "optimistic", "confident that", "continue to", "predict", "intend", "aim", "will" or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements concerning China Yuchai group of entities' operations, financial performance and condition are based on current expectations, beliefs and assumptions which are subject to change at any time. China Yuchai cautions that these statements by their nature involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially depending on a variety of important factors such as government and stock exchange regulations, competition, political, economic and social conditions around the world and in China including those discussed in China Yuchai's Form 20-Fs under the headings "Risk Factors", "Results of Operations" and "Business Overview" and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. All forward-looking statements are applicable only as of the date it is made and China Yuchai specifically disclaims any obligation to maintain or update the forward-looking information, whether of the nature contained in this release or otherwise, in the future.

For more information:

Investor Relations

Kevin Theiss

Tel: +1-212-510-8922

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE China Yuchai International Limited
Highlights:

The agreement allows Vale Base Metals to advance its circular mining ambitions by utilizing BluestOne's expertise to repurpose slag and other waste to useful valuable products.

It includes an offtake agreement of ~50,000tpa of slag from Vale's Onca Puma operations for 10 years.

A non-binding MOU setting out the scope of further cooperation in waste-to-value and circular mining has also been agreed.

Reduces Vale Base Metals' legacy environmental footprint at its Onca Puma mine in Brazil with opportunity to scale across operations.

TORONTO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Vale Base Metals has signed a commercial off-take and non-binding MOU with BluestOne, a leading Brazilian company that transforms waste to products for agriculture, to provide up to 50,000 tonnes per year of refinery slag from its Onca Puma mine in Brazil for the next 10 years. BluestOne will commence construction within two years of a plant near Onca Puma to process slag products into a solution to enhance carbon-efficient mineral fertilizers with broad use in the agricultural sector.

Under the terms of the agreement, both companies also agree to work together to explore additional circular economy opportunities for treatment and repurposing further waste products from Onca Puma as well as other Vale Base Metals operations globally. This includes potentially bolstering BluestOne's production of recycled nickel recovered from waste products around the world.

The MOU also envisages cooperation between Vale and BluestOne to explore additional sustainability partnerships including utilizing the fertilizer from slag for biomass production.

Deshnee Naidoo, CEO of Vale Base Metals, said: "Waste-to-value and circular mining are key levers in our sustainability strategy and technology roadmap. This MOU and scalability of BluestOne's technology supports our ambition to capture value from what have historically been waste streams while reducing our legacy environmental footprint as part of a wider approach to circular mining."

Marcelo Carratu, BluestOne's Co-Founder, said: "BluestOne was born with the circular economy in its DNA and sustainability is the reason for our existence. This long-term partnership with Vale Base Metals fills us with pride as it represents a significant milestone to globally advance our mission in further developing new green mining solutions and to promote biodiversity preservation, education and environmental restoration initiatives."

About Vale Base Metals

Vale Base Metals is North America's largest integrated nickel producer and among the largest copper businesses globally, with the scale, resources and capital to deliver critical minerals essential for the global decarbonization and electrification megatrends. The company has secured agreements to supply low carbon and high purity nickel to major automakers and is strategically focused on expanding mine life and development of growth projects across the portfolio.

About BluestOne

BluestOne is a leader in South America in transforming environmental liabilities into high-quality, high-performance products and low-carbon solutions for sectors including the automotive industry, technical applications such as welding, abrasive electrodes, and fertilizers. BluestOne has its headquarters in Saltinho, Sao Paulo state, Brazil.

SOURCE Vale Canada Limited
The annual list honors companies and nonprofits that have built cultural relevance and impact through compelling branding and efforts that naturally extend their presence into communities

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Code for America, the leading civic tech nonprofit, announced today it has been named to Fast Company's third annual Brands That Matter list, honoring brands that communicate and demonstrate brand purpose. These companies and nonprofits have built cultural relevance and impact through compelling branding and efforts that naturally extend their presence into the community.

Code for America earned this designation for its work with government and community leaders to improve the way people interact with the social safety net, tax benefits and criminal justice systemseach with its own history of inequity, technological barriers and exclusion of marginalized populations.

"Code for America is proving that government can work for the people, by the people, in the new digital age," said Amanda Renteria, CEO of Code for America. "Our mission is to use technology and human-centered principles to reimagine and transform government systems to work for everyone. We are thrilled to receive this recognition and look forward to continuing to work shoulder to shoulder with our government partners."

The final list, which includes large multinational conglomerates, small-but-mighty companies, and nonprofits, recognizes 165 brands that give people compelling reasons to care about themand offer inspiration for others to buy in. All 165 have found an ability to forge an emotional connection with customers, whether leading on the environment or pop culture, engaging B2B customers, or responding meaningfully to current events.

All brands that applied were considered for overall recognition. Additionally, there are also honorees on category-specific lists based on region, size, and status.

"The scale and scope of honorees this year is incredible," said Brendan Vaughan, Fast Company's editor-in-chief. "At first glance, there might not be much in common between brands like M&M's, Dungeons & Dragons, and healthtech platform WellTheory, but the thread that binds them is a commitment and purpose as a brand and relevance to their audience, whether that's through fun, games, or healthcare."

In 2022, Code for America made a tremendous impact through:

Strengthening the nation's safety net: Helped 3.85 million people access food benefits; processed more than 1.6 million SNAP applications; and helped people access $89 million through MNBenefits, an integrated benefits application built in partnership with the state of Minnesota .

Helped 3.85 million people access food benefits; processed more than 1.6 million SNAP applications; and helped people access through MNBenefits, an integrated benefits application built in partnership with the state of . Promoting economic justice through tax benefits: Distributed $374 million in flexible cash to individuals and families; established a Child Tax Credit application path for nearly 300,000 newly-eligible Puerto Rican families; and helped file 138,000 tax returns. In addition, the 2022 National Tax Benefits Outreach Campaign launched by Code for America worked with agencies in over 30 states to send more than 10 million direct messages and prompt 30,000 households to claim an estimated $42 million .

Distributed in flexible cash to individuals and families; established a Child Tax Credit application path for nearly 300,000 newly-eligible Puerto Rican families; and helped file 138,000 tax returns. In addition, the 2022 National Tax Benefits Outreach Campaign launched by Code for America worked with agencies in over 30 states to send more than 10 million direct messages and prompt 30,000 households to claim an estimated . Removing barriers resulting from the criminal legal system: Cleared 357,223 records in Utah ; helped pass three new automatic record clearance laws; and impacted 832,000 people living with a criminal record. In Colorado , Code for America streamlined the automatic record clearance process to reduce complexity and save over $5 million .

Fast Company editors judged each brand on relevancy, cultural impact, ingenuity, and business impact to compile the list. The Fall issue of Fast Company magazine is available online now and will be on newsstands beginning October 10, 2023.

About Fast Company

Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies, and thinkers on the future of business. The editor-in-chief is Brendan Vaughan. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with our sister publication, Inc., and can be found online at fastcompany.com.

About Code for America

Code for America, a nonprofit founded in 2009, believes that government can work for the people, and by the people, in the digital age. We work with government at all levels across the country to make the delivery of public services equitable with technology. We work with community organizations and governments to build digital tools, change policies, and improve programs. Our goal: a resilient government that effectively and equitably serves everyone.

Media Contact:

Kate Fogarty

[email protected]

703-507-0286

SOURCE Code for America
Coined the "Trust Premium," the report shows consumers are willing to spend 46% more with retailers they trust

NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Forter , the Trust Platform for digital commerce, today published the 2023 Trust Premium Report which explores the relationship between consumer shopping habits and brand trust. The report found alarming rates of false declines, cart abandonment and trust issues heading into the holiday shopping season, based on the feedback of 5,000 survey respondents across the U.S., U.K., Germany, Singapore and China.

When many consumers are cutting their spending , trust plays a critical role in retail performance. In fact, the report found survey respondents are willing to spend 46% more on average with retailers they trust  coined the "Trust Premium." Unfortunately, the vast majority of respondents (76%)1 reported having a negative online shopping experience in the past three months.

"The Trust Premium represents potentially millions of dollars in revenue uplift for retailers," said Michael Reitblat, chief executive officer and co-founder, Forter. "Retailers that lean into and invest in customer experience  from account creation to authentication to checkout  are best positioned to turn a profit over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend."

False Declines are Leading to Lost Revenue

Despite their growing buying power, younger shoppers face the most friction with online shopping; as Millennials and Gen Z (49%)2 are up to four times more likely to be falsely declined at checkout compared to Gen X (27%)2 and Baby Boomers (8%)2. In the race to win the next generation of shoppers, ensuring the legitimate ones have a friction-free experience is critical.

While false declines impacted consumers across all five regions, the U.S. had the highest percentage (56%)2 of false declines in the last 90 days, followed by Singapore at 48%2.

With many new shoppers venturing into digital commerce, Forter has found that retailers often turn away new  but trustworthy  customers simply because they've never encountered them before. The company's first-party data revealed that false declines are typically five to 10 times higher than actual fraud. In fact, Forter estimates based on its first-party data that for every $1 retailers lose to fraud, they forfeit $30 by declining legitimate consumers.

A lack of data and insight ultimately leads to false declines instead of an opportunity to secure the customer's lifetime value.

Abandoned Carts at the First Sign of Friction

A seamless checkout experience is one of the most essential pieces of building trust and completing a transaction. However, 77%3 of survey respondents report that they would abandon a purchase if the checkout experience is too difficult or time-consuming.

While retailers often rely on one-time passwords (OTP), CAPTCHAs and order reviews to enhance security, when used indiscriminately, they deter good customers and leave money on the table. Forter's first-party data found that mandating account creation can cause, on average, 3-5% of consumers to drop off, while requiring consumers to validate their email addresses/phone numbers can cause an average 4-7% drop-off rate. By creating unnecessary friction, retailers are turning away good customers  and their wallets.

Retailers Have a Trust Problem

Consumers globally dealt with negative shopping experiences  from alarmingly high rates of false declines to lengthy checkout processes.

Surprisingly, while retailers are in heated competition for every dollar, they are unknowingly turning away good customers. That stems from a struggle to identify those customers. Because retailers aren't able to accurately assess the trustworthiness (and identity) of consumers visiting their sites, their fear of fraud leads to unnecessary friction, abandoned carts, false declines and lost revenue.

"Our report reveals the brands that win the next generation of shoppers will provide fast, frictionless and fraud-free shopping experiences  and establish a mutual trust with their consumers," said Reitblat. "Friction in the purchase process no doubt persists, but it doesn't have to go unabated. Balancing the importance of fraud prevention without impacting customer experience will be the next major test for retailers during the upcoming holiday shopping season."

To read the full 2023 Trust Premium Report, visit this link .

Methodology

The research was conducted by Opinion Matters in May 2023. The survey gathered responses from 5,000 adults aged 18+ who have at least two active eCommerce accounts and shopped online at least once in the last three months in the U.K., U.S., Germany, Singapore and China. There were 1,000 respondents from each territory. Opinion Matters abides by and employ members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles.

About Forter

Forter is the Trust Platform for digital commerce. We make accurate, instant assessments of trustworthiness across every step of the buying journey. Our ability to isolate fraud and protect consumers is why Nordstrom, Instacart, Adobe, Priceline, and leaders across industries have trusted us to process more than $500 billion in transactions. Our deep understanding of identity and use of automation helps businesses prevent fraud, maximise revenue and deliver superior experiences for their consumers.

Media Contact

Mission North for Forter

[email protected]

(516) 978-0005

1Reverse of none of the above

2Yes, on multiple occasions and yes, once combined

3Very likely and somewhat likely combined

SOURCE Forter
Funding to Support Expanded Access to Whole-Child, Value-Based, Outcomes-Driven Autism Care

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cortica, the United States' leading physician-led, whole-child, value-based autism services company, has raised $40 million in a Series D extension, bringing the total Series D round to $115 million. The extension was entirely strategic, led by CVS Health Ventures, in conjunction with LRVHealth, Ascension Investment Management (a subsidiary of Ascension), and the University of Wisconsin Foundation.

"There is an increasing need for access to evidence-based care for children with neurodivergent conditions and autism, and we believe that Cortica is well positioned to help support our members and their dependents by deploying an integrated, medical and behavioral care model," said Justin Brock, partner at CVS Health Ventures. "Through our investment and collaboration with Cortica, we believe that we can help improve the overall quality of care for individuals with autism, as well as provide support to their caregivers."

Founded to fix the fragmented care journey families typically experience when seeking diagnoses and treatments, Cortica's whole-child, whole-family, value-based care model for autism spans medical treatment, neurodiversity-affirming behavioral therapy, developmental therapy (encompassing speech, occupational, physical, and music therapies), and family support and counseling.

Cortica's care model has shown improved outcomes across conditions that frequently co-occur with autism, including sleep disorders, seizures, psychiatric comorbidities, and gastrointestinal, communication, behavioral, and sensorimotor issues, among others  while utilizing less than 50% of standard applied behavioral analysis volumes, limiting the use of antipsychotic and stimulant medications, and reducing emergency department and inpatient admissions.

Cortica delivers on multiple metrics related to the healthcare effectiveness data and information set (HEDIS), one of the healthcare industry's most widely used performance tools. Cortica's value proposition has led to four whole-child value-based care contracts, with several more in the pipeline.

"After working closely with our strategic network and developing a deep thesis on autism, one of the most complex challenges in healthcare, we're thrilled to have discovered and invested in Cortica," said Ellen Herlacher, principal at LRVHealth. "Cortica's validated care model and technology platform improve clinical outcomes, enhance the healthcare experience, and reduce waste in the system."

The additional funding will support the company's continued national scaling of whole-child autism value-based care, as well as deeper investments in technology, data capture, clinical decision support, research, and optimization of the clinician and patient experience.

"I'm deeply grateful to have the support of these impactful and visionary strategic partners," said Neil Hattangadi, MD, co-founder and CEO of Cortica. "With 1 in 36 children in the United States now affected with autism, and that prevalence continually climbing, partnerships between the field's most innovative clinicians, strategic investors, health plans, and health systems are essential to defragment the traditional care model and evolve the reimbursement paradigm. We can no longer wait. Collectively, we're in a position to solve one of the most pressing challenges confronting humanity."

About Cortica Inc.

Cortica's mission is to design and deliver life changing care  one child, one family, one community at a time. Founded in 2017, Cortica now employs more than 1,800 experts across disciplines, including pediatric neurologists, developmental pediatricians, epileptologists, pediatric nurse practitioners, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, music therapists, board certified behavior analysts, marriage and family therapists, and more. The researchers and physicians in the company's Cortica Innovation Network conduct outcomes research, serve as global leaders in clinical trial recruitment, and have assembled the largest long and wide dataset in autism and neurodevelopment. Cortica will serve more than 12,000 children and their families this year. For more information, visit corticacare.com.

About CVS Health Ventures

CVS Health Ventures is a dedicated corporate venture capital fund that works with high-potential, early-stage and growth-stage companies focused on making health care more accessible, affordable, and simpler. The company focuses on investments that transform care delivery and focus on whole person care, consumer-centric health, and disruptive technology enablement. CVS Health Ventures' goal is to enable promising entrepreneurs to scale more quickly and effectively through access to their unmatched enterprise capabilities and consumer touchpoints, while offering expertise and insights from their company's unique perspective. For more information, visit cvshealth.com/health-care-redefined/ventures.html.

About LRVHealth

LRVHealth is the "Inside Healthcare" venture capital platform. Through a network of strategic limited partners that includes leading providers, payers, and vendors and touches half of all healthcare consumers in the U.S., LRVHealth applies industry knowledge and operational experience to early-stage companies focused on innovation. LRVHealth's exclusive focus is helping to transform healthcare by forging partnerships among its network members and the entrepreneurs addressing the industry's biggest challenges and opportunities. For more information, visit lrvhealth.com.

About Ascension Investment Management, LLC

Ascension Investment Management (AIM) is an SEC-registered investment adviser with a mission to help faith-based organizations meet their operating, investment, and mission goals by investing its clients' capital according to their values. AIM is a Missouri limited liability company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Ascension Capital, LLC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ascension, one of the nation's leading non-profit and Catholic health systems, with a Mission of delivering compassionate, personalized care to all with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. For more information, visit ascensioninvestmentmanagement.com.

About the University of Wisconsin Foundation

The University of Wisconsin Foundation (UWF) raises, invests in, and distributes funds for the benefit of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. UWF's mission is to help ensure that the University of Wisconsin-Madison has the financial resources necessary to maintain its national leadership in teaching, innovative research, and outreach. For more information, visit supportuw.org.

Press Contact

Sarah Wall

Communications Manager, Cortica

[email protected]

SOURCE Cortica Inc.
Crete Mechanical Group, a leading nationwide building solutions provider, expands its HVAC and refrigeration services by partnering with Versatile Refrigeration in Dallas, TX.

DALLAS, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Crete Mechanical Group ("Crete"), a leading national building solutions provider, is excited to announce its strategic acquisition of a majority stake in Versatile Refrigeration ("Versatile"), a prominent HVAC and refrigeration company based in Dallas, TX. This partnership marks Crete's entry into the Dallas market and underscores its commitment to growth and excellence in the HVAC and refrigeration industry.

Versatile's team of EPA certified technicians are dedicated to putting the customer experience first, which aligns perfectly with Crete's core values  integrity, teamwork, and relentlessness. "We are thrilled to welcome Versatile to our partner network and expand our reach in Texas to the Dallas market," said Mike Cox, Chief Executive Officer at Crete.

Versatile is led by its founder Trent King, who fosters a team environment and provides ample opportunities for career advancement. "Our partnership with Crete will provide several growth opportunities including additional career development resources for our current and future employees. We are looking forward to what we will achieve together, "said Trent King.

About Crete Mechanical Group

Crete Mechanical Group (CMG) is a national provider of essential building services to commercial, industrial and government markets. Crete offers customers a high-quality, multi-service solution for HVAC, mechanical, electrical, network cabling, plumbing and automation services to support safe, energy-efficient and productive facilities. For our partners, CMG provides the resources of a large organization while maintaining the freedom to continue operating their successful businesses.

About Versatile Refrigeration

Serving the North, Northeast, Central and South Texas regions, Versatile Refrigeration offers a wide range of commercial, industrial, and residential HVAC and refrigeration services, including comprehensive maintenance plans, parts replacement, and repairs.

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE Crete Mechanical Group
SAN ANTONIO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- SWIVEL is excited to announce Amanda Crocker has joined their team as Chief Operating Officer (COO), a new role for the growing software company. In this role, she will focus on streamlining operations, managing business-critical projects, and driving the business forward. She is also highly focused on SWIVEL's efforts to deliver greater value to its clients while holding true to the values that make SWIVEL a trusted partner and client.

Amanda Crocker Joins SWIVEL as COO

"We're proud to welcome Amanda as our first COO. She has the grit and resolve we value," said Jason O'Brien, CEO of SWIVEL. "Her experience in building global payment operations, as well as her commitment to a strong team culture and customer service are unmatched. I knew we needed a special person for the role and I'm thrilled we found Amanda; she'll be amazing for the clients and team alike."

Prior to joining SWIVEL, Crocker was Global Head of Payment Operations at Meta, where she built the team from the ground up. During her tenure, Meta Financial Technologies grew to over 35 different global payment products across the family of apps with over 42 million monthly active payment users, processing 700 million annual transactions. She has deep experience in global regulations, money licensing, and money movement technologies across many different market and user segments.

Crocker graduated from the University of Phoenix with a Bachelor of Business Administration with an emphasis on Program Management. She holds her Project Management Professional (PMP), and ISO9001 Quality Management System (QMS) certification.

About SWIVEL

SWIVEL Transactions, LLC, is a financial technology and services company providing specialized, integrated transaction enablement solutions that remove friction for account holders, borrowers, and departments across financial institutions, as well as collections agencies and departments, while also mitigating risks associated with moving funds in digital domains. More than 800 financial institutions use SWIVEL's payment solutions across the United States. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of SWBC, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. For more information about SWIVEL and its innovative solutions, visit getswivel.io.

About SWBC

As a diversified financial services company, SWBC provides financial institutions, businesses, and individuals a wide range of services, including insurance, mortgages, wealth management, employee benefits, and more. Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, SWBC has partners and divisions across all 50 states and manages business around the world. No matter how wide its reach, SWBC always listens to its customers' needs, analyzes their current situations, and recommends customized solutions. For more information about our innovative approach to personalized service, visit SWBC's website at swbc.com.

SOURCE SWBC
Multi-year contract will improve user experiences across service desk and IT support

DXC to innovate and accelerate CPS operations with AI and automation

LONDON, UK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC), a leading Fortune 500 global technology services provider, has been selected to run and transform essential IT infrastructure for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for England and Wales.

Crown Prosecution Service for England and Wales Taps DXC Technology for Workplace Transformation

As part of the multi-year contract worth up to 9 million GBP ($11 million USD), DXC will become the CPS's trusted service desk partner, using the CPS's existing service management platform, ServiceNow. The CPS will benefit from DXC's secure hub, a dedicated platform providing 24/7 support to manage IT issues and helping to ensure uninterrupted service for its approx. 7,000 employees.

DXC and the CPS will work together to integrate a "digital by default" strategy, driving down calls to service desk colleagues and promoting interactions via other channels such as self-service.

DXC will support the CPS to optimize their ServiceNow platform, making use of artificial intelligence and process automation to speed up and improve IT experiences for CPS colleagues.

As an independent body that prosecutes criminal cases on behalf of the Crown that have been investigated by the police and other investigative organizations, the CPS operates across England and Wales through 14 regional divisions and CPS Direct, its centralized 24-hours charging unit. Handling over 400,000 cases annually, it works closely with local and national UK police forces, the Ministry of Justice, and other central government departments.

"This is an important moment in our organization's modernization plan. Enhanced digital capabilities and strong strategic partnerships will enable our people to thrive and ensure excellent casework quality," said Matthew Cain, Interim Chief Digital Information Officer at the CPS. "DXC demonstrated its expertise and ability to deliver a broad scope of services, understood our operating environment, and shares our commitment to providing social value."

As a ServiceNow Global Elite Partner, over 1,400 certified ServiceNow experts make up DXC's ServiceNow practice which manages over 7,000 implementations for more than 350 customers globally. As a result, the CPS will leverage DXC's expertise in modernizing workplace environments, helping continually improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the CPS's service management processes, and deliver cost reduction by adopting knowledge driven, user-centric approaches to both service delivery and innovation.

"We are delighted to strengthen our position as trusted partner to the UK government", said Derek Allison, Vice-President UK Public Sector, Aerospace and Defence at DXC Technology. "By evolving on-demand IT support to an agile service desk model, we will help the CPS to ensure essential services are always available to its employees, enabling cases to be managed efficiently 24/7, and ensuring maximum business continuity. Ultimately, this will support the delivery of more efficient services to UK citizens."

Forward Looking Statements

All statements in this press release that do not directly and exclusively relate to historical facts constitute "forward-looking statements." These statements represent current expectations and beliefs, and no assurance can be given that the results described in such statements will be achieved. Such statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements, many of which are outside of our control. For a written description of these factors, see the section titled "Risk Factors" in DXC's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, and any updating information in subsequent SEC filings. No assurance can be given that any goal or plan set forth in any forward-looking statement can or will be achieved, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements which speak only as of the date they are made. We do not undertake any obligation to update or release any revisions to any forward-looking statement or to report any events or circumstances after the date of this report or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events except as required by law.

About DXC Technology

DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) helps global companies run their mission-critical systems and operations while modernizing IT, optimizing data architectures, and ensuring security and scalability across public, private and hybrid clouds. The world's largest companies and public sector organizations trust DXC to deploy services to drive new levels of performance, competitiveness, and customer experience across their IT estates. Learn more about how we deliver excellence for our customers and colleagues at DXC.com.

Jonathan Davies, DXC Public Relations UKI, [email protected]; John Sweeney, Investor Relations, +1-980-315-3665, [email protected]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2236434/DXC_Technology_Company_Crown_Prosecution_Service_for_England_and.jpg

SOURCE DXC Technology Company
Indian ambassador Ajit Gupte planted small plants on Monday as a symbol of friendship between the two countries to commemorate the 154th birthday of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi in Cairo.

Ambassador of India to Egypt Ajit Gupte delivered the opening remarks to the ceremony.

Participants also laid flowers at the bust of Ghandi in Horreya Park in Zamalek, which was installed in 2019, and sung some of Gandhis favourite bhajans (hymns).

General Mohamed Sultan, head of the specialized parks sector in the Cairo governorate, represented the Egyptian government and paid his respect to Mahatma Gandhi, who is widely revered in Egypt as a symbol of the anti-colonial movement.

Ambassador Gupte and Sultan planted two small plants as a symbol of friendship during the occasion.

Attending the celebration were Ambassador Gupte's spouse Priti Gupte, Head of Chancery Johon Kerketta, together with wives of the Indian diplomats, members of the Egypt-India Friendship Association, and members of the Indian community in Egypt.

The birthday of Mahatma Gandhi has been celebrated globally as the International Day of Non-violence since 2007. Every year, events are organized on 2 October to commemorate and revive Gandhis philosophy and principles.

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Rock and roll photographer Janet Macoska and Fox8's Natalie Herbick return to annual celebration

FAIRLAWN, Ohio, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons will present Ohio's Pink Runway on Thursday, Oct. 19 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Our Lady of the Cedars Banquet Center, 507 S. Cleveland-Massillon Road in Fairlawn. Natalie Herbick, a Fox8 news anchor and host of New Day Cleveland, returns as master of ceremonies. Celebrated rock and roll photographer, Janet Macoska, whose work has graced album covers and is featured at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, will cover the event.

Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons again presents Ohio's Pink Runway, featuring breast reconstruction patients who walk the Pink Runway. Pictured here are 2022 Pink Runway models and survivors with Fox8's Natalie Herbick (front row, far right).

Pink Runway celebrates and empowers women facing breast cancer with the knowledge to make the best choice for their breast reconstruction surgery, with Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons providing information about options and innovative techniques in breast reconstruction. This special event features Crystal Clinic breast reconstruction patients walking the Pink Runway and sharing their breast cancer stories and journeys.

"Pink Runway is a unique opportunity to educate the community about breast reconstruction as we celebrate the strength and courage of our remarkable patients who are now thriving," said Derek Cody, M.D., a plastic and reconstructive surgeon with Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons. "We have an amazing team of plastic surgeons, nurses and staff who work all year long to make this special event a reality. It is truly an honor to share the inspiring stories of our breast reconstruction patients, as we provide those facing breast cancer with the knowledge to choose the breast reconstruction technique that is right for them."

Tickets are $10 with all proceeds benefitting the Breast Reconstruction Awareness USA Campaign. Guests will enjoy hors d'oeuvres and drinks, and receive a special gift. Tickets to this inspiring event are limited, so reserve your spot today at ccpspinkrunway2023.eventbrite.com.

About Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons

Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons is a division of the nationally renowned Crystal Clinic Orthopaedic Center, a physician-owned hospital system. Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons is one of the largest plastic and reconstructive surgery groups in Northeast Ohio with six board-certified surgeons on staff and clinics in Barberton, Canton, Fairlawn, Green, Hudson, Independence, Kent and Medina. The group specializes in a wide range of procedures, including comprehensive care for complex reconstructions and treatment of soft tissue defects related to orthopaedic injuries. They provide the entire spectrum of plastic surgery, including breast reconstruction, skin cancer surgery, facial cosmetic surgery, post-weight-loss body contouring, rhinoplasty, as well as non-surgical, facial rejuvenation options. For more information, visit CrystalPlasticSurgeons.com.

SOURCE Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons
Fortinet Fortigate 100F and 70F models are Recommended.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CyberRatings.org (CyberRatings), the non-profit entity dedicated to providing confidence in cybersecurity products and services through its research and testing programs, has issued a Recommended Rating for Fortinet's Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) Fortigate 100F model as a high availability pair at the head-end, along with Fortigate 70F models at corporate headquarters, a regional office, and a retail outlet. A product with the "Recommended" rating has the highest rating assigned by CyberRatings.

SD-WAN technology helps organizations achieve operational savings by enabling remote configuration of new locations rather than requiring engineers to be on site. Many vendors, such as Fortinet, offer zero-touch provisioning, where on site engineering expertise is optional other than the ability to power up the device and connect to the appropriate internal and external links. Once online, the device will call "home" through a cloud configuration service to gather the configuration details.

The Fortinet SD-WAN handled all use cases with ease and proved to be highly reliable and capable. Post this

An SD-WAN offers traditional routing and policy control features including basic application identification, policy controls, stateful network controls and a virtual private network (VPN). It prioritizes applications, has remote configuration capabilities and should have a predictable performance experience for users. SD-WANs have highly resilient remote office connectivity.

To assess the SD-WAN, the traffic content, throughput, transport, and impairments were tailored for each use case to provide insight into how the SD-WAN would perform under various conditions. Management, routing and stateful access control, encryption, application identification and prioritization, WAN maximum capacity, stability and reliability, and rated throughput were all rigorously tested.

"The Fortinet SD-WAN handled all use cases with ease and proved to be highly reliable and capable. It should be on everyone's short list," said Vikram Phatak, CEO of CyberRatings.org.

SD-WAN is a component of the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) security model which integrates multiple security services in a cloud-native platform. The SD-WAN report published today by CyberRatings is part of the independent, third party testing program that CyberRatings provides to the industry at large.

In addition, CyberRatings and MEF, a global industry association of network, cloud, security and technology providers, signed an agreement in August to launch a new SASE Certification Program for MEF technology and service provider members worldwide. The SASE certification program, based upon CyberRatings' methodologies and test programs, will issue a rating on product and service effectiveness of SD-WAN, Security Service Edge (SSE Threat Protection), Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and SASE. Participants in the beta program were announced today.

CyberRatings members can read Fortinet's SD-WAN report here.

Additional Resources:

2023 SD-WAN Methodology

Choosing the Right ZTNA Offering

About CyberRatings.org

CyberRatings.org is a 501(c) 6 non-profit organization dedicated to providing confidence in cybersecurity products and services through our research and testing programs. We provide enterprises with independent, objective ratings of security product efficacy to make informed decisions. To become a member, visit www.cyberratings.org and follow us on LinkedIn.

SOURCE CyberRatings.org
Dematic Sprocket helps turn maintenance departments into profit centers

ATLANTA , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Dematic announces its first product to be hosted on the Google Cloud Platform and sold on Google Cloud Marketplace, Dematic Sprocket Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) software.

This software streamlines and automates processes to assist in maintenance management, improve workflow within maintenance departments, and minimize costs to perform maintenance.

With more than 500 implementations, over 35,000 daily users, and a 98% customer retention rate, Dematic Sprocket continues to enhance EAM processes for leading companies around the globe.

"Dematic Sprocket offer specific benefits for a wide variety of applications and can bring immediate and lasting value to most any operation," says Bashir Shama, senior director of global software commercial acceleration at Dematic. "As an enterprise asset management, cloud-enabled solution, it is poised to appeal to many of Google Cloud Marketplace seller groups. Plus, Dematic sellers and Google Cloud Marketplace sellers have expert knowledge of Dematic Sprocket, and they are aligned and equipped to meet any customer need."

"We are pleased to welcome Dematic Sprocket to our growing partner ecosystem," says Dai Vu, managing director, cloud marketplace & ISV GTM programs, Google Cloud. "With its solution now available on Google Cloud Marketplace, the company is empowering our joint customers along their digital transformation journeys."

Since 2003, Dematic Sprocket has provided the insight and data needed for customers to cost-effectively install, operate, maintain, and retire their assets for current and future operations. By serving customers on Google Cloud Marketplace, Dematic Sprocket builds on its proven success across diverse industries.

Dematic Sprocket is ready-made for cloud hosting and inclusion into the Google Cloud Platform. It delivers a robust, yet flexible solution that can be customized to meet the asset management needs of almost any maintenance organization. In addition to a suite of features related to the management of corrective and preventive maintenance, Dematic Sprocket offers features to aid with inventory management and replenishment, as well as a built-in reporting module that provides standardized and custom reports.

Dematic and Google Cloud formed a partnership in 2022 to transform the supply chain industry through accelerated cloud innovation. Dematic will bolster supply chain resiliency and deliver go-to-market solutions by combining its supply chain expertise with Google Cloud's expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.

For more information about Dematic, visit dematic.com and follow us on LinkedIn , Facebook , and X .

About Dematic

Dematic designs, builds, and supports intelligent automated solutions empowering and sustaining the future of commerce for its customers in manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution. With research and development engineering centers, manufacturing facilities, and service centers located in more than 35 countries, the Dematic global network of over 11,000 employees has helped achieve successful customer installations for some of the world's leading brands. Headquartered in Atlanta, Dematic is a member of KION Group, one of the world's leading suppliers of industrial trucks and supply chain solutions.

Disclaimer:

This release and the information contained herein are for information purposes only and do not constitute a prospectus or an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in the United States or in any other jurisdiction. This release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Future results could differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements due to certain factors, for example, changes in business, economic, and competitive conditions (including with respect to further developments in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic), regulatory reforms, results of technical studies, foreign exchange rate fluctuations, uncertainties in litigation or investigative proceedings, and the availability of financing. We do not undertake any responsibility to update the forward-looking statements in this release.

Media Contact

Damon Gran

Global Marketing and Communications Manager, Dematic

[email protected]

SOURCE Dematic
BATON ROUGE, La., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Journalist and award-winning television host Dianne Andrews' investigative journey began at the LSU Cold Case Project through the 2008 Emmett Till Cold Case Act, inspired by a Klansman's daughter seeking forgiveness for her father's hate crimes and unsolved murders perpetrated by the Silver Dollar Group (SDG) of the Ku Klux Klan against Black people during the 1950s - 1970s.

Dianne Andrews' riveting documentary of KKK's Silver Dollar Group in 1950s-70, inspires justice and forgiveness. Post this Investigative Journalist and Syndicated TV Host Dianne Andrews, MBA, PhD, documentary on "Silver Dollar Group, KKK" Wins Audience Choice at the National Whistleblowers Summit & Film Festival. Andrews has authored 6 books, is a filmmaker, producer, entrepreneur, speaker and inventor.

Andrews' documentary also exposes corruption and the December 9, 1964, murder of Ferriday shoe repair shop owner Frank Morris, who was murdered by arson, being barricaded in his business because he refused to repair the shoes of Ferriday Deputy Sherrif Frank DeLaughter for free any longer.

Known as the most heinous sect with only 15 to 20 members, SDG terrorized northeast Louisiana and southwest Mississippi. For her documentary writer /producer Andrews won the Audience Choice Award for "Silver Dollar Group, Ku Klux Klan" on July 30, 2023, at the National Whistleblowers Summit and Film Festival.

"My purpose was to seek justice and support forgiveness," said Andrews. "Tremendous progress has been made in the past 50 years in racial relations with much more to be done. These victims and heroes' legacies must not be forgotten."

Andrews is working on her 6th book, has written and produced several documentaries capturing the attention of movie production companies, but says this one is the most important to date.

The Silver Dollar Group didn't burn crosses or wear white hoods. Their symbol was a silver dollar that each member carried representing their birth year. Their drownings used barbed wire to hold the bodies down. They are credited with killing 7 black men and one white man because of his relationships with Blacks.

Andrews saw an article in The Advocate newspaper on Debra Taylor, daughter of SDG leader Sonny Taylor, seeking to locate victims and ask for forgiveness for her father's actions. Andrews was moved to investigate and began searching for victims, like David Whatley, who was the first Black student to desegregated Ferriday High School, now a disabled veteran, who at the time he entered the school was assaulted, kicked, spat on, and pushed. Andrews took Whatley back for the first time in 50 years.

Whately recounted how Sonny Taylor and the SDG planted a bomb under his grandmother's home with he, his grandmother, and a leader in The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Roy Innis, inside. The bomb failed to detonate, and they were sparred.

For the documentary, Andrews arranged a surprise meeting for Whatley and Taylor. In a heartfelt tearful conversation, Taylor asks Whatley for forgiveness for her father's evil actions. He humbly accepted, saying she was not responsible for her father's evil deeds.

A series of viewing events are now being planned to share the film. This documentary, Andrew's biography, and links to her catalog of projects can be found at www.allofDianneAndrews.com.

ABOUT DIANNE ANDREWS: As High School Valedictorian, Andrews earned a B.S. in Mathematics/Chemistry at age 19, hired by IBM, fast tracked for management representing IBM nationally and internationally. She holds an MDA, honorary PHD and later founded the Lemmie & Mabel Andrews Foundation to feed the elderly, provide sponsorships, and sponsored displaced children's art after Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. She built an orphanage in Haiti with CNN Hero Aaron Jackson of Planting Peace. Andrews recently invented "FUJI'S TOTES" design patent pending, the first pet pillow tote carrier of its kind launching November 2023, online and retail.

SOURCE Dianne Andrews
NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "digital food management solutions market size by application (food safety, marketing, and others), end-user (restaurants, convenience stores, institutional kitchens, catering, and others), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa) - Forecast and Analysis 2023-2027" report has been added to Technavio's offering. With ISO 9001:2015 certification, Technavio has proudly partnered with more than 100 Fortune 500 companies for over 16 years. The potential growth difference for the digital food management solutions market from 2022 to 2027 is USD 2.99 billion, according to Technavio. The growing demand for food safety and traceability is a key factor driving market growth. This growth is driven by factors such as increased foodborne illness, consumer demand for transparency in the food supply chain, and the implementation of stricter regulations by government agencies. The demand is being fueled by a growing incidence of food-borne illnesses. In addition, over the years there have been several food-borne illness outbreaks that resulted in serious health consequences for consumers. As a result, concerns related to the safety of the food chain have a positive effect on the market, more attention is being paid to applying measures to guarantee product safety. Hence, these factors are expected to drive market growth during the forecast period. Get deeper insights into the market size, current market scenario, future growth opportunities, major growth driving factors, the latest trends, and much more. Buy the full report here

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Digital Food Management Solutions Market 2023-2027

Market Challenge

High maintenance costs of digital systems are significant challenges restricting market growth. One of the main factors contributing to high maintenance costs is rapid technological progress and innovation in digital technology. In addition, as new features and capabilities are introduced to keep pace with competition, it is often necessary for businesses to upgrade their digital systems. However, these improvements are at a price as regards financing requirements and the means required to implement this degradation. Therefore, businesses that do not have sufficient funds to invest in digital solutions that are negatively affecting the market will find it difficult to improve them. Hence, these factors are expected to restrict market growth during the forecast period.

Learn about additional key drivers, trends, and challenges available with Technavio. Read a Free Sample PDF Report Now

The digital food management solutions market is segmented by application (food safety, marketing, and others), end-user (restaurants, convenience stores, institutional kitchens, catering, and others), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa).

The food safety segment is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period. The growing concerns about foodborne illnesses and increasing government regulations aimed at ensuring food safety are some of the key factors contributing significantly to the growth of the food safety segment. Food safety is an essential part of the food industry and with technological advances, digital solutions are being developed to improve food safety operations. Innovative tools and techniques to prevent contamination of foodstuffs, track the ingredients used in foods as well and monitor storage and transport conditions are some of the key advantages of digital food management solutions. Hence, these factors are expected to drive market growth during the forecast period.

North America is estimated to contribute 48% to the growth of the global market during the forecast period.

View the Free Sample Report for insights into the contribution of all the segments and regional opportunities in the report.

Key Companies in the Digital Food Management Solutions Market:

365 RM UK Ltd., Agilysys Inc., Apicbase NV, Booking Holdings Inc., Chetu Inc., FlexiBake Ltd., iNECTA LLC, JAMIX Oy, jiWebTech Technologies LLP, Kellton Tech Solutions Ltd., Kitchen Brains, Omega Softwares, Oracle Corp., Roper Technologies Inc., SmartSuite Holdings LLC, SweetWARE, Toast Inc., TouchBistro Inc., Vision Software Technologies Inc., and Zoho Corp. Pvt. Ltd.

Related Reports:

The identity (ID) verification market size is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 16.18% between 2022 and 2027. The market size is forecast to increase by USD 10,813.97 million.

The Home Security System Market size is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 8.33% between 2022 and 2027. The market size is forecast to increase by USD 24.84 billion.

Digital Food Management Solutions Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2022 Historic period 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 16.58% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 2.99 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 15.58 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution North America at 48% Key countries US, China, Germany, France, and UK Competitive landscape Leading Companies, Market Positioning of Companies, Competitive Strategies, and Industry Risks Key companies profiled 365 RM UK Ltd., Agilysys Inc., Apicbase NV, Booking Holdings Inc., Chetu Inc., FlexiBake Ltd., iNECTA LLC, JAMIX Oy, jiWebTech Technologies LLP, Kellton Tech Solutions Ltd., Kitchen Brains, Omega Softwares, Oracle Corp., Roper Technologies Inc., SmartSuite Holdings LLC, SweetWARE, Toast Inc., TouchBistro Inc., Vision Software Technologies Inc., and Zoho Corp. Pvt. Ltd. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, and Market condition analysis for the forecast period. Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

ToC:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market Sizing

Historic Market Sizes

Five Forces Analysis

Market Segmentation by Application

Market Segmentation by End-user

Market Segmentation by Geography

Customer Landscape

Geographic Landscape

Drivers, Challenges, & Trends

Company Landscape

Company Analysis

Appendix

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base comprises enterprises of all sizes, including over 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contacts

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com

SOURCE Technavio
I-95 corridor move supports clients' needs and capacity requirements, use of data, technology, and its craft to build a healthy, welcoming and fun workspace.

BOSTON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- DPR Construction, a leading self-performing builder working throughout New England, has completed its move to a new office space in Waltham, MA. The sustainable, modern and collaborative workspace is a testament to the company's purpose to build great things and a model for what is possible for property owners looking to refresh aging office spaces.

In less than ten years DPR Construction has gone from a start-up office in Cambridge with ten employees to nearly 200 admin and craft, by building highly technical, complex and sustainable projects for New Englands leading life science, healthcare, higher education and commercial organizations and institutions.

"DPR offices are living laboratories," said Patrick Cusson, DPR's Boston business unit leader. Our teams always incorporate new materials and test emerging technologies to ensure we understand the true costs and benefits of what we are building for our customers. For example, in our new offices we used Dusty Robotics' solution that prints virtual design and construction based layout information with millimeter precision quickly and accurately, allowing our foremen to focus on moving the project forward. We also use data, prefabrication, and self-perform work to streamline designs, create efficiencies, and expedite schedules. Applying this kind of curiosity and ingenuity in our own spaces equips us to innovate for our owners in truly unique ways."

In less than 10 years, DPR Construction has grown from a start-up office in Cambridge with just a few employees to a team of nearly 200 admin and craft, The growth is largely driven by highly technical, complex and sustainable projects for New England's leading life science, healthcare, higher education and commercial organizations. With the rapid expansion, DPR quickly outgrew its Cambridge space and chose to transform an outdated 1970s office into a fun, welcoming and collaborative space built for the future.

With the support of architect, Elkus Manfredi, DPR turned vacant office space into a showcase of its ever-forward thinking. The new space boasts an open floor plan with ample space for collaboration, huddle and conference rooms, an expansive cafe and outdoor patio, and DPR's signature wine bar. It is a model for what can be affordably accomplished within existing buildings throughout the region. DPR has done similar work to bring aging office space up to modern standards with its offices in Reston, VA, Sacramento, Phoenix, and Nashville.

Focused on being able to take care of its people and the places where they build, the new office was designed to meet WELL certification standards. People spend 90% of their time indoors, so offices and workspaces should promote health and well-being. Standing desks, healthy snacks, and wellness rooms are available to all employees in the new Waltham office. The outdoor patio, with a firepit and heaters, for cold Boston days, allows employees to enjoy the fresh air and gather outdoors comfortably and safely.

"As the hub for our New England operations, this new location will allow our employees the flexibility needed to serve our customers throughout the region," Cusson added. "There is significant potential in this market and we are excited to be at the center of it. We are excited to grow with New England."

Committed to New England Communities

Being integral and indispensable to the local community is part of DPR's mission. Locally they have partnered with the Margaret Fuller House, Boys & Girls Club of America, ACE Mentors, Cradles to Crayons. With their partner organizations, events are planned throughout the year to ensure a meaningful impact towards the organizations mission. Annually, each DPR office participates in Service September, where they work with their partner organizations to support a construction project. This year the New England team is supporting the expansion of the Margaret Fuller House's food pantry.

DPR is one of the region's Top Contractors, as ranked by Engineering-News Record and was recognized among the Boston Business Journal's Best Places to Work

About DPR Construction

DPR Construction is a forward-thinking, self-performing general contractor and construction manager specializing in technically complex and sustainable projects for the advanced technology, life sciences, healthcare, higher education and commercial markets. DPR's portfolio of work ranges from large-scale new construction to small tenant improvements and special projects. Founded in 1990, DPR is a great story of entrepreneurial success as a private, employee-owned company that has grown to a multi-billion-dollar organization with offices around the world. Strategically focused on delivering more predictable outcomes through applications of virtual design & construction, prefabrication, its team of self-perform craft, and leveraging data to learn and improve from DPR consistently ranks among the top building contractors and employs approximately 11,000 professionals across its family of companies. For more information, visit http://www.dpr.com.

For more information, please contact:

Lisa Ruano

DPR Construction

Tel: 908-451-9622

Email: lisaru@dpr.com

SOURCE DPR CONSTRUCTION, INC
JACKSON, Miss., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE: EGP) (the "Company" or "EastGroup") announced today that it will hold its Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call and Webcast on Wednesday, October 25, 2023, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. On the call, Marshall Loeb, CEO, and Brent Wood, CFO, will discuss the Company's third quarter results, current operations, and earnings outlook for 2023.

EastGroup plans to release financial results for the quarter after the market closes on October 24, 2023. The earnings release and supplemental information package will be posted on the Company's website, www.eastgroup.net, at that time.

A live broadcast of the conference call is available by dialing 1-888-346-0688 (conference ID EastGroup) or by webcast through a link on the Company's website at www.eastgroup.net. If you are unable to listen to the live conference call, a telephone and webcast replay will be available on Wednesday, October 25, 2023. The telephone replay will be available until Wednesday, November 1, 2023, and can be accessed by dialing 1-877-344-7529 (access code 1255767). The replay of the webcast can be accessed through a link on the Company's website at www.eastgroup.net and will be available until Wednesday, November 1, 2023.

EastGroup, a member of the S&P Mid-Cap 400 and Russell 1000 Indexes, is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust focused on the development, acquisition and operation of industrial properties in major Sunbelt markets throughout the United States with an emphasis in the states of Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and North Carolina. The Company's goal is to maximize shareholder value by being a leading provider in its markets of functional, flexible and quality business distribution space for location sensitive customers (primarily in the 20,000 to 100,000 square foot range). The Company's strategy for growth is based on ownership of premier distribution facilities generally clustered near major transportation features in supply-constrained submarkets. EastGroup's portfolio, including development projects and value-add acquisitions in lease-up and under construction, currently includes approximately 58.7 million square feet.

EastGroup Properties, Inc. press releases are available at www.eastgroup.net .

SOURCE EastGroup Properties
NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The much-awaited Ecom Power Summit 2023 is all set to unfold from October 10th to 12th 2023. Hosted by the renowned e-commerce experts Michal Chapnick, Founder of eCom Creative Team Agency & the Selling on Walmart Facebook Group , and Norm Farrar, Founder of Lunch with Norm , this virtual event promises three days of insights, strategies, and networking opportunities. This summit, dedicated to empowering online businesses, will focus on the enormous potential of Walmart Marketplace, the second-largest e-commerce platform in the US.

Ecom Power Virtual Walmart Marketplace Summit. Virtual Walmart entrepreneur conference.

Why Ecom Power Summit 2023 is Unmissable:

1. The Walmart Advantage:

E-commerce is experiencing an unprecedented boom, and Walmart Marketplace stands tall as the second-largest player in the US. With Walmart's e-commerce sales projected to reach $1 trillion by 2025, this summit aims to help sellers tap into this massive opportunity.

2. Expert Insights and Strategies:

Over 21 industry experts, including Kevin King of Billion Dollar Sellers, Matthew Adam Smith - Walmart Head of Marketplace Strategy & Business Development, and Yael Cabilly of Cabilly & Co., will share proven techniques on topics ranging from product selection to brand protection and cutting-edge AI applications. Participants will gain actionable insights to optimize their operations and drive profitability.

3. Global Networking:

Attendees will have the chance to connect with fellow entrepreneurs and industry leaders, fostering collaborations and partnerships. With a thriving Facebook community, participants can continue their learning journey long after the summit concludes.

4. Convenience of Virtual Learning:

Ecom Power Summit 2023 is a virtual event, ensuring attendees can participate from the comfort of their homes. Each day's masterclass sessions will be available for 24 hours in the Facebook group, allowing flexibility in attendance.

5. All-Access Pass Benefits:

For those seeking in-depth knowledge, the All-Access Pass provides unlimited anytime replay access to all masterclass sessions. Additionally, pass holders gain access to 18 exclusive summit bonuses, offering immediate positive impacts on their businesses.

"Whether you're a seasoned Walmart seller or considering venturing into e-commerce, the Ecom Power Summit 2023 is tailored for you," says Michal Chapnick. "Our speakers are not just industry leaders; they're passionate mentors ready to guide you through the intricacies of online selling. This event is your gateway to accelerating your business growth."

Don't miss this opportunity to scale your e-commerce venture. Register now for Ecom Power Summit 2023, and access the knowledge and connections that can transform your business. To secure your spot, visit https://www.ecompowersummit.com/registernow2023 .

For media inquiries, please contact:

Email address: [email protected]

10400 W. Cheyenne Avenue Ste 170-122, Las Vegas, Nevada

Phone: (702) 706-7289

About Ecom Power Summit:

Ecom Power Summit is a premier virtual event dedicated to empowering e-commerce businesses. Hosted by industry experts Michal Chapnick and Norm Farrar, the summit brings together leading entrepreneurs, mentors, and professionals to share invaluable insights and strategies. Focused on the vast potential of Walmart Marketplace, the summit equips attendees with the knowledge and resources to thrive in the competitive e-commerce landscape.

SOURCE Ecom Power
New WorkForce Pro Office Printers Offer Functional and Environmental Benefits with Productivit3y and Reliability to Ensure Business Operations Run Smoothly

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Epson America, Inc., a worldwide leader in inkjet printing solutions, today added four new A4 business printers to its WorkForce Pro portfolio  the WorkForce Pro ST-C5500 and ST-C5000 Supertank Color MFPs, and WorkForce Pro WF-M5899 Monochrome MFP and WF-M5399 Monochrome Printer. With PrecisionCore Heat-Free technology, an advanced printing technology engineered to power the world's top performing printers, these new desktop solutions provide businesses with both functional and environmental benefits. Delivering high performance at a great value, the Supertank MFPs are ideal for retail, education and corporate environments, while the monochrome models are ideal for government, financial and legal applications.

Epson introduces four new desktop solutions to its Business Print WorkForce Pro lineup of office printers. Post this Delivering high performance at a great value, the new Epson Business Print WorkForce Pro printing solutions offer functional and environmental benefits with productivity and reliability to ensure businesses run smoothly.

The new WorkForce Pro Supertank Color MFPs deliver a robust feature set that better meet the needs of business users in its class. The ST-C5500 and ST-C5000 have the lowest power consumption in their classes1 and include high-yield ink bottles with up to two years of ink in the box,2 enough to print up to 12,000 pages black/8,800 pages color.3 Businesses can save up to 80 percent with replacement ink bottles  equivalent to about two cents per color ISO page compared to 14 cents vs. color laser toner cartridges4  making the new WorkForce Pro Supertank Color MFPs ideal for cost-conscious businesses.

The new monochrome models feature low power consumption and are designed to help businesses boost workflow efficiency with replacement ink packs for printing up to 40,000 ISO pages5 black without the need to intervene, an 1,830-sheet total capacity6 with three optional trays, print speeds of 25 ISO ppm black with virtually no warmup time, and a fast first page out.

"The four additions to the Business Printer WorkForce Pro lineup are engineered for the reliability and productivity that businesses require in a printing solution," said Madison Phillips, product manager, Epson America. "With the four WorkForce Pro printers, we are providing our partners new A4 color and monochrome options that require minimal intervention and low power consumption to help businesses stay productive and help meet their sustainability goals."

The new ST-C5500, ST-C5000 and WF-M5899 have a large 4.3" color touchscreen for easy setup and navigation. The monochrome models are compatible with Epson Solutions Suite, which simplifies printer installation, device configuration and workflow management, and allows for remote diagnosis and operation, as well as compatibility with third-party solutions. The four new WorkForce Pro models are backed by a 2-year limited warranty and world-class service and support for added peace of mind.

More About the ST-C5500 and ST-C5000 Supertank Color MFPs:

Built for productivity: Print speeds of 25 ISO ppm (black/color)  with virtually no warmup time and a fast first page out for quick and seamless printing

with virtually no warmup time and a fast first page out for quick and seamless printing Designed for efficiency with auto two-sided print, copy, scan, and fax

Enhance your workflow: The ST-C5500 includes PCL 7 and PostScript  3  support

and PostScript 3 support Flexible, efficient media handling: Businesses load paper less often with a 500-sheet paper capacity with two front trays and a rear feed included for special media

Innovative ink bottles for ease of use: Uniquely keyed bottles for each color, with convenient auto-start and auto-stop

Versatile connectivity: Users can easily print from iPad, iPhone, Android tablets, and smartphones,8 also includes Wi-Fi Direct9 and Ethernet networking

More About the WF-M5899 Monochrome MFP and WF-M5399 Monochrome Printer:

High performance at a great value: Businesses can save up to 50 percent on low-cost replacement ink packs vs. monochrome laser toner 10

Engineered for reliability: Recommended monthly page volume of 5,000 pages

Low power consumption with PrecisionCore Heat-Free technology, advanced printing technology engineered by Epson

Epson Open Platform: the WF-M5899 also offers seamless integration with enterprise applications such as PaperCut  MF and other workflows

MF and other workflows Enhance your workflow: Both models support PCL 7 and PostScript  3 

and PostScript 3 Enabled for remote printer data collection: Compatible with MPS software solutions from PrintFleet  , ECI FMAudit  and more

, ECI FMAudit and more Security features include PIN number certification for job release, user control access, printer and network settings via Web Config with printer's IP address, SSL/TLS security, and IPsec

The WorkForce Pro WF-M5899 will replace the WorkForce Pro WF-M5799 and the WorkForce Pro WF-M5399 will replace the WorkForce Pro WF-M5299 to join Epson's line of WorkForce Pro Business Print solutions.

Availability

The Epson WorkForce Pro ST-C5500, ST-C5000, WF-M5899, and WF-M5399 are now available through authorized BusinessFirstSM dealers. For more information, visit epson.com/business-inkjet-printers.

About Epson Business Inkjet

Epson's portfolio of high-performance business inkjet printing solutions forges the future of office printing and set the new standard for minimal intervention, affordability and low energy consumption. Engineered with Epson's innovative PrecisionCore Heat-Free technology, Epson's groundbreaking business printing solutions  from Supertank, WorkForce, WorkForce Pro and WorkForce Pro HC for hybrid work-from-home and in-office small businesses to WorkForce Enterprise  deliver high performance with few moving parts to exceed market needs.

To learn more about Epson's portfolio of business inkjet printing solutions, visit Epson.com/BusinessInkjet. To learn more about Epson PrecisionCore Heat-Free technology, visit Epson.com/Heat-Free.

About Epson

Epson is a global technology leader whose philosophy of efficient, compact and precise innovation enriches lives and helps create a better world. The company is focused on solving societal issues through innovations in home and office printing, commercial and industrial printing, manufacturing, visual and lifestyle. Epson's goal is to become carbon negative and eliminate use of exhaustible underground resources such as oil and metal by 2050.

Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, the worldwide Epson Group generates annual sales of more than JPY 1 trillion. global.epson.com/

Epson America, Inc., based in Los Alamitos, Calif., is Epson's regional headquarters for the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. To learn more about Epson, please visit: epson.com. You may also connect with Epson America on Facebook (facebook.com/Epson), Twitter (twitter.com/EpsonAmerica), YouTube (youtube.com/epsonamerica), and Instagram (instagram.com/EpsonAmerica).

* This product uses only genuine Epson-brand ink packs. Other brands of ink supplies are not compatible and, even if described as compatible, may not function properly or at all.

 Black and color print speeds are measured in accordance with ISO/IEC 24734. Actual print times will vary based on factors including system configuration, software, and page complexity. For more information, visit www.epson.com/printspeed

1 Actual energy savings will vary based on print task and use conditions. Compared with best-selling, similarly featured color laser printers priced at $1,499 (USD) or less and 40 ppm or less, as of February 2023. Competitive data gathered from manufacturer websites and third-party industry sources.

2 Based on average monthly document print volumes of about 300 pages.

3 Part of the ink from the included bottles is used for initial setup. Yields are lower than those of replacement ink bottles. Included and replacement ink bottle yields based on the ISO/IEC 24712 pattern with Epson's methodology. Actual ink yields will vary considerably for reasons including images printed, print settings, temperature and humidity. Yields may be lower when printing infrequently or predominantly with one ink color. All ink colors are used for printing and printer maintenance, and all colors must be available for printing. For more information, visit www.epson.com/inkinfo

4 Actual savings and costs will vary considerably based on print tasks, print volumes and usage conditions. Savings and cost per ISO page are based on the cost of replacement ink bottles and the cost of enough standard-capacity color laser toner cartridges to achieve the total page yields of the ink bottles using the manufacturers' online prices and yields for the best-selling similarly featured color laser printers, available at retail, priced at $1,499 MSRP (USD) or less with speeds of 40 ppm or less per industry available data as of February 2023. Savings of up to $600 (USD) and cost per ISO page of about $0.09 (USD) for XL-capacity color laser toner cartridges based on the same methodology.

5 Included and replacement ink pack yields are based on the ISO/IEC 24711 standard using the ISO/IEC 19752 pattern in default mode printing continuously. Ink pack yields vary considerably for reasons including images printed, print settings, temperature, humidity, and frequency of use. Yields may be lower when printing infrequently. Ink is used for printing and printer maintenance. For print quality, part of the ink from the included ink packs is used for printer startup and a variable amount of ink remains in the ink pack after the "replace ink pack" signal. For details, see www.epson.com/inkinfo

6 With three optional paper trays.

7 Not all media types are supported for PCL printing.

8 Most features require an Internet connection to the printer, as well as an Internet- and/or email-enabled device. For a list of Epson Connect enabled printers and compatible devices and apps, visit www.epson.com/connect

9 Wi-Fi CERTIFIED; level of performance subject to the range of the router being used. Wi-Fi Direct may require printer software.

10 Actual savings will vary based on print tasks, print volumes and usage conditions. Savings comparison based on the purchase cost of replacement ink packs and the cost of enough mono toner cartridges to achieve the total page yields of the ink packs using the manufacturers' online prices and yields for the highest-capacity toner cartridges for the best-selling similarly featured cartridge-based mono laser printers priced between $200 and $1,499 (USD) with speeds of 20  31 ppm per industry available data as of July 2023.

EPSON, PrecisionCore, PrecisionCore Heat-Free and WorkForce are registered trademarks and Epson Connect is a trademark of Seiko Epson Corporation. BusinessFirst is a service mark of Epson America, Inc. iPad and iPhone are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Android is a trademark of Google LLC. Wi-Fi Direct is a registered trademark and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED is a trademark of Wi-Fi Alliance. All other product and brand names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Epson disclaims any and all rights in these marks. Copyright 2023 Epson America, Inc.

SOURCE Epson America, Inc.
Indonesia's environment ministry on Monday denied accusations that forest fires in Sumatra and its portion of Borneo island, which have blanketed some of its cities with thick haze, have also affected air quality in neighboring Malaysia.

Malaysia on Friday warned residents of high pollution levels in most areas on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and the western Borneo region of Sarawak, blaming trans-boundary haze from Indonesia, its Department of Environment said in a statement.

Indonesia's Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar responded by saying Jakarta has not detected any travelling haze from Indonesia to neighboring countries. "We continue to follow up any development and there is no trans-boundary haze to Malaysia," she said in a statement.

At the moment, Indonesia is focusing on quelling forest fires in some provinces in Sumatra and Borneo with water bombing from helicopters, the minister added.
Leading U.S. Brunch Franchise Forges Partnership with '21 Daytona 500 Champion to Rev Up Continued Expansion

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Famous Toastery, the renowned better brunch franchise known for its "Famously Fresh" and simple-scratch menu, proudly announces its dynamic partnership with NASCAR Cup Series driver and 2021 Daytona 500 Champion, Michael McDowell.

Michael McDowell

With more than 25 locations across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, Famous Toastery aims to leverage its official motorsports partnership with Michael McDowell to reach a new audience of breakfast and brunch lovers, as well as to expand their inviting atmosphere, delicious cuisine, and community spirit to more markets across the nation.

"Michael is a trusted and respected partner in NASCAR as well as in our community," said Mike Sebazco, President of Famous Toastery. "By partnering with Michael, we're able to pursue our common goal which is to communicate our Famously Fresh message and continue to be actively rooted in our community. This partnership came about organically as Michael and his family frequently visit our Famous Toastery franchises."

Famous Toastery, a brand synonymous with brunch, offers a well-crafted menu with only the freshest ingredients, emphasizing both decadence and nutrition. The restaurant serves a range of breakfast favorites including omelets, pancakes, waffles, stuffed French toast, benedicts, sandwiches, burgers, wraps, and salads. Their commitment to quality extends to their specialty coffees and brunch cocktails, creating a delightful dining experience for patrons.

"Breakfast at Famous Toastery has been a weekly staple in the McDowell family household for nearly a decade," said McDowell. "Their food is always fresh and delicious, their staff is friendly and very approachable, and every time we walk through the front door at one of their locations, there's always this welcoming atmosphere that keeps us coming back  sometimes three or four times a week. I'm humbled by this opportunity to partner with Famous Toastery, a company that shares very similar values and beliefs as my own, and I'm eager to introduce their growing brand to all the passionate race fans and breakfast lovers across the country."

To help kick off their exciting new partnership, Famous Toastery welcomes race fans to come out for a special meet and greet opportunity with Michael McDowell this Friday, October 6 from 9  10 a.m. ET at their Concord Mills, NC location (8680 Concord Mills Boulevard #10, Concord, NC 28027). Enjoy a delicious breakfast, take a picture with Michael and his Daytona 500 trophy, and receive an autographed hero card.

Don't miss any of this weekend's NASCAR Cup Series action as Michael McDowell and his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports team get ready to take on the lefts and rights of the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Bank of America Roval 400  this Sunday, October 8, 2023, airing live at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.

For more information about Famous Toastery, please visit www.famoustoastery.com. To learn about franchising opportunities, please visit www.bestbreakfastfranchise.com. Follow @FamousToastery and @Mc_Driver on social media to be a part of future contests, giveaways, and more.

ABOUT FAMOUS TOASTERY

Charlotte, N.C. based Famous Toastery is a breakfast, brunch and lunch franchise that encourages its guests, team and franchise owners to "Be Famous" in their local community by offering "Famously Fresh" meals and a much-needed hub for friends, families and neighbors to get together in a comfortable atmosphere where "every server is your server." The brand began in 2005 before evolving into a franchise system in 2013 and growing to over 25 locations today. In 2020 and 2019, Famous Toastery placed on Restaurant Business' The Future 50, featuring the fastest-growing small chains. Famous Toastery was ranked No. 9 in the Full-Service Restaurants category of Entrepreneur Magazine's Top Food Franchises of 2019 and on Entrepreneur Magazine's Franchise 500 Rankings in 2019 and 2022. In 2018, Famous Toastery received recognition by CNBC as a top franchise to buy, FSR Magazine as one of the Top 14 restaurant chains ready for lift-off, Inc. 5000's list of the fastest growing companies and Franchise Times' Top 200+ franchise opportunities. For more information about Famous Toastery, visit www.famoustoastery.com. To learn about franchising opportunities, please visit www.bestbreakfastfranchise.com.

ABOUT MICHAEL MCDOWELL

Michael McDowell is an American professional race car driver who currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the flagship No. 34 Ford Mustang for Front Row Motorsports. He is the 2021 Daytona 500 Champion, 2023 Brickyard 200 winner, and is well-known by road racing enthusiasts for his impressive career as a former open-wheel and sports cars driver. Beyond his racing achievements, Michael McDowell is a loving husband and father to five, devoted Christian, and strong advocate for adoption. To learn more about Michael McDowell, please visit www.mmcdowell.com.

SOURCE Famous Toastery
The annual list honors companies and nonprofits that have built cultural relevance and impact through compelling branding and efforts that naturally extend their presence into communities

MCKINNEY, Texas, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- FarmHouse Fresh, the leading farm-grown skincare company focusing on high-nutrition ingredients and potent botanical extracts grown daily through sustainable hydroponic farming, announced today that it has been named to Fast Company's third annual Brands That Matter list, honoring brands that communicate and demonstrate brand purpose. These companies and nonprofits have built cultural relevance and impact through compelling branding and efforts that naturally extend their presence into the community.

FarmHouse Fresh and the The Smurfs have launched a 6-piece, limited-edition skincare collection with proceeds benefitting animals in need.

The final list, which includes large multinational conglomerates, small-but-mighty companies, and nonprofits, recognizes 165 brands that give people compelling reasons to care about themand offer inspiration for others to buy in. All 165 have found an ability to forge an emotional connection with customers, whether leading on the environment or pop culture, engaging B2B customers, or responding meaningfully to current events. All brands that applied were considered for overall recognition. Additionally, there are also honorees on category-specific lists based on region, size, and status.

"The scale and scope of honorees this year is incredible," said Brendan Vaughan, Fast Company's editor-in-chief. "At first glance, there might not be much in common between brands like M&M's, Dungeons & Dragons, and healthtech platform WellTheory, but the thread that binds them is a commitment and purpose as a brand and relevance to their audience, whether that's through fun, games, or healthcare."

"We're thrilled to be named to Fast Company's Brands That Matter list and particularly thankful that the timing falls so close to World Animal Day on October 4th," said Shannon McLinden, Founder and CEO of FarmHouse Fresh. "As a company with animal rescue in its DNA, we're constantly on the lookout for new ways to creatively showcase our 'Rescue for Two' mission that helps both complexions and animals in need."

FarmHouse Fresh: The 'Rescue for Two' Mission

FarmHouse Fresh was founded almost 20 years ago with a 'Rescue for Two' mission  saving complexions and animals in need. Currently 46 rescued farm animals reside at the FarmHouse Fresh Rescue Ranch Sanctuary  the majority were victims of cruelty and neglect.

In any month, profits from purchases of FarmHouse Fresh products buy 14,000 pounds of hay, 1,000 pounds of grain and nearly $2,000 in medical expenses for the FarmHouse Fresh Sanctuary animals. Purchases also fund employee time in all day-to-day caregiving including feeding, cleaning and administering medicine. Donating 10 percent of annual profits, every year the company saves more and more animals, allowing them to expand the animals' living environment. FarmHouse Fresh has also been able to help thousands of animals through rescue groups in Texas, California, Colorado, Ohio and more.

Fast Company editors judged each brand on relevancy, cultural impact, ingenuity, and business impact to compile the list. The Fall issue of Fast Company magazine is available online beginning October 3rd, and the complete listing will be on newsstands on October 10, 2023.

About Fast Company

Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies, and thinkers on the future of business. The editor-in-chief is Brendan Vaughan. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with our sister publication, Inc., and can be found online at fastcompany.com.

About FarmHouse Fresh

FarmHouse Fresh is an award-winning natural skincare company growing fresh hydroponic botanicals daily on their farm in McKinney, Texas. The company's Farm to Table treatments are served through spas, hotels and resorts around the world, from Dallas to Dubai. The company focuses on high-nutrition skincare using sustainable hydroponic farming to grow botanical microgreens that become extracts in the company's products.

Philanthropy is at the core of the company's sustainability promise, with the ranch headquarters doubling as a nonprofit farm animal sanctuary. FarmHouse Fresh believes in providing rescue for 2: complexions and animals in need. Every purchase helps rescue and rehabilitate animals  customers can track the batch code on their jar to learn the stories of the animals directly benefiting from their skincare purchase. At the FarmHouse Fresh Ranch Headquarters, employees are directly involved with the care of rescue animals.

FarmHouse Fresh products can be purchased at thousands of top destination spas, resorts, and finer retailers across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Middle East, including Four Seasons, Ritz-Carltons, Beaches Resorts, Disney, Marriotts, Hyatts, The Broadmoor, Waldorf Astorias, Omni Hotels, Burke Williams Spas, The Woodhouse Day Spas and more. For more information about this or any other FarmHouse Fresh retail or professional spa product, please contact FarmHouse Fresh at 888-773-9626 or visit the website at www.farmhousefreshgoods.com.

SOURCE FarmHouse Fresh
WESTON, Ma., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Fastweb, the leading website for scholarship and financial aid information and a member of the Monster network, introduces their 12th annual Student Contributor Team.

Each year, Fastweb offers students the opportunity to be a part of the Student Contributor Team. The team, which includes high school and college student writers, will share their voices, experiences, and student advice through articles on the Fastweb platform. Student members with listed career interests, such as creative writing, journalism, news media, publishing, and related fields, are notified when applications open and writers are selected from the applicants. Students apply in July of each year to be a part of the series, which runs from September to June.

"Through the Student Contributor Team, our writers share their student focused experiences on relevant topics such as the college application process, admissions, and scholarships," said Mark Nelson, Senior Vice President, Fastweb. "We support this program annually to showcase diverse and inspiring student writers." Here is the year's talented Student Contributor team:

For 2023-24, Fastweb welcomes back talented contributor:

Piper Megella: University of Chicago, Freshman

Additionally, Fastweb welcomes new contributors:

Jessica Ramirez: Carl Sandburg High School, Senior

Piper McGuffey: Great Crossing High School, Senior

Zhane Loiseau: Deerfield Beach High School, Senior

Adarsh Vinodh: Dallas School for the Talented and Gifted, Junior

Read all their current articles on Fastweb.

Fastweb is in its 28th year providing access to scholarship and internship opportunities to college bound and existing college students. For more helpful free online resources, visit Fastweb.com.

About Fastweb:

Fastweb, a top site in the Monster network, is the nation's recognized leader in helping students pay for school, by providing scholarship and financial aid information, as well as information on jobs and internships. As the oldest and most popular free online scholarship matching service, one out of three college-bound seniors use the site and more than 50 million users have benefitted from Fastweb's information and services. Fastweb lets students create personalized profiles that can be matched against its expansive databases of colleges and scholarships. To learn more about Fastweb, visit www.fastweb.com and follow Fastweb on social media for the latest on paying for school all year long: Twitter (at @PayingForSchool); Facebook; Instagram and Pinterest.

About Monster

Monster is a global leader in connecting people and jobs. Every day, Monster aims to make every workplace happier and more productive by transforming the way employers and candidates find the right fit. For 25 years, Monster has worked to transform the recruiting industry. Today, the company leverages advanced technology using intelligent digital, social and mobile solutions, including the flagship website Monster.com, Monster's innovative app, and a vast array of products and services.

SOURCE Fastweb
AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --

2023 total U.S. sales decrease 1% in Q3 versus the same quarter last year

Chrysler brand up 96%, with Pacifica sales up 120% versus the same quarter last year; Pacifica Plug-in Hybrid, up 329% over same period last year, holds No. 3 spot among top-selling PHEVs in the U.S.

Jeep Wrangler 4xe total U.S sales up 31% versus same quarter last year

Jeep Wrangler 4xe and Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe top No. 1 and No. 2 sales spots, respectively, as best-selling plug-in hybrids in the U.S. market

Grand Wagoneer U.S. total sales up 22% versus the same period last year

Grand Cherokee U.S. total sales up 52% versus the same quarter last year

Ram ProMaster van total U.S. sales up 34% versus the same quarter last year

Ram brand's commercial fleet channel's total U.S. sales increased 19% versus the same period last year

FCA US LLC reports sales of 380,563 vehicles in the third quarter for 2023. Overall, total U.S. sales for the third quarter decreased 1% versus the same period last year.

"We've gained traction over the summer and we're starting to see some momentum at the end of this third quarter," said U.S. Head of Sales Jeff Kommor. "Our Jeep 4xe and Pacifica Plug-in Hybrid models continue to perform extremely well, taking the 1-2-3 sales spots among plug-in electric vehicles in the U.S. market, and our progress toward our Dare Forward 2030 plan also remains on track with the introduction of many all-new, all battery-electric vehicles next year, including the all-new Fiat 500e, Dodge Charger, Wagoneer S, Ram 1500 REV and Jeep Recon."

Chrysler brand was up 96% versus the same quarter last year, with the Chrysler Pacifica up 120% in total U.S. sales in that period. Chrysler Pacifica Plug-in Hybrid was up 329% in total U.S. sales over the same period last year. The Chrysler Pacifica Plug-in Hybrid accounted for 23% (8,949 units) of total Pacifica sales in the third quarter and ranks No. 3 in the U.S. among the best-selling plug-in hybrids.

Total U.S. sales of the Jeep Wrangler 4xe and the Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe, which went on sale in Q3 2022, are up 31% and 2,198%, respectively, versus the same period last year. Jeep Wrangler 4xe remains *America's best-selling plug-in hybrid vehicle, followed by the Grand Cherokee 4xe at No. 2. Jeep Wrangler 4xe accounted for 42% (17,662 units) of total Wrangler sales in the second quarter. Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe accounted for 17% (9,722 units) of total Grand Cherokee sales in the second quarter.

Jeep Grand Cherokee posted total U.S. sales gains over the same quarter last year, up 52%. The Grand Wagoneer increased 22% in total U.S sales versus the same quarter last year.

Total U.S. sales of the Ram ProMaster van were up 34% versus the same period last year. Additionally, the Ram brand's commercial fleet channel's total U.S. sales increased 19% versus the same period last year.

The all-new 2024 Dodge Hornet arrived in dealerships this quarter, selling 1,753 units.

New to the Alfa Romeo brand, the all-new 2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale sold 746 units in the quarter.

FCA US LLC is a North American automaker based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It designs, manufactures, and sells or distributes vehicles under the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, FIAT and Alfa Romeo brands, as well as the SRT performance designation. The company also distributes Mopar and Alfa Romeo parts and accessories. FCA US LLC is a subsidiary of Stellantis N.V.

FCA US LLC Sales Summary Q3 2023





















Q3 Sales Vol % CYTD Sales Vol %





Model Curr Yr Pr Yr Change Curr Yr Pr Yr Change





Compass 20,268 20,631 -2 % 71,560 66,966 7 %





Wrangler 41,909 47,659 -12 % 126,551 147,156 -14 %





Gladiator 14,202 21,511 -34 % 41,528 60,268 -31 %





Cherokee 3,798 11,495 -67 % 23,017 30,852 -25 %





Grand Cherokee 57,915 38,176 52 % 182,871 172,545 6 %





Renegade 6,412 6,523 -2 % 15,561 23,776 -35 %





Wagoneer 7,248 13,001 -44 % 20,883 30,276 -31 %





Grand Wagoneer 2,867 2,353 22 % 8,135 9,454 -14 %





JEEP BRAND 154,619 161,351 -4 % 490,106 541,297 -9 %





Ram P/U 109,391 118,106 -7 % 332,440 363,089 -8 %





ProMaster Van 22,446 16,742 34 % 60,340 42,031 44 %





ProMaster City 2,541 4,448 -43 % 12,333 10,201 21 %





RAM BRAND 134,378 139,296 -4 % 405,113 415,321 -2 %





200 0 0

1 2 -50 %





300 3,962 4,175 -5 % 11,159 11,757 -5 %





Pacifica 38,353 17,439 120 % 112,198 75,902 48 %





CHRYSLER BRAND 42,315 21,614 96 % 123,358 87,661 41 %





Dart 0 3 -100 % 0 4 -100 %





Hornet 1,753 0 New 4,350 0 New





Charger 16,915 24,201 -30 % 63,647 62,660 2 %





Challenger 11,075 16,412 -33 % 35,350 42,094 -16 %





Journey 1 31 -97 % 13 187 -93 %





Caravan 0 5 -100 % 2 26 -92 %





Durango 16,473 19,104 -14 % 53,582 39,543 36 %





DODGE BRAND 46,217 59,756 -23 % 156,944 144,517 9 %





500 1 7 -86 % 2 8 -75 %





500L 0 5 -100 % 3 8 -63 %





500X 144 179 -20 % 422 757 -44 %





Spider 0 17 -100 % 0 24 -100 %





FIAT BRAND 145 208 -30 % 427 797 -46 %





Giulia 863 1,338 -36 % 2,694 3,662 -26 %





Alfa 4C 0 0

1 1 0 %





Stelvio 1,280 2,102 -39 % 4,032 6,151 -34 %





Tonale 746 0 New 863 0 New





ALFA ROMEO 2,889 3,440 -16 % 7,590 9,814 -23 %





FCA US LLC 380,563 385,665 -1 % 1,183,538 1,199,407 -1 %







For the methodology of determining FCA US LLC monthly sales, click here. These statements are based on current expectations and projections about future events and, by their nature, are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. They relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur or exist in the future and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on them. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in such statements as a result of a variety of factors, including: volatility and deterioration of capital and financial markets, changes in commodity prices, changes in general economic conditions, economic growth and other changes in business conditions, weather, floods, earthquakes or other natural disasters, changes in government regulation, production difficulties, including capacity and supply constraints, and many other risks and uncertainties, most of which are outside of our control.

U.S. fleet business includes three channels  rental, governmental and commercial.

*Per S&P Global Jan '23 year-to-date vehicle registrations (most current data available); PC + light-duty trucks

SOURCE FCA US LLC
Drivers, Monitors, Aides Secure Teamster Representation

NEW LONDON, Conn., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- First Student workers in New London have voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 493. The 67 bus operators, monitors, and aides provide transportation services for the New London School District.

"Congratulations to these hardworking men and women on their organizing victory," said Craig Mitchell, President of Local 493 in Uncasville. "These workers were motivated and determined to get the strongest possible contract, and that's why they overwhelmingly voted to join North America's strongest union. We are grateful these workers sought out Teamster representation and we look forward to getting them the contract they deserve."

The workers are now covered under the First Student National Master Agreement, the largest collective bargaining agreement at any private school bus company in the United States.

"My co-workers and I are thrilled to work alongside Local 493. We are looking forward to our future with the Teamsters and everything they have to offer us," said Tiffany Hook, bus driver and union steward at Local 493.

Teamsters Local 493 represents workers in Eastern Connecticut and has been hard at work organizing and educating workers toward a higher standard of living since 1943. For more information, visit teamsters493.org.

Contact:

Matt McQuaid, (202) 624-6877

[email protected]

SOURCE Teamsters Local 493
Through this program, Africa's leading payments technology company aims to cultivate a robust and highly skilled talent pipeline while accelerating product delivery across emerging markets

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Flutterwave, Africa's leading payments technology company, today announced its plan to launch an inaugural Engineering Mobility Program in India with the support of Capgemini, a global leader in business and technology transformation services. Flutterwave's Nigeria and UK-based engineering team will work with Capgemini's extensive technology talent in Bangalore to share industry best practices and nurture the next-generation workforce. This collaboration will see Capgemini draw upon its deep domain expertise to enhance Flutterwave's product delivery via a new cloud service provider.

Flutterwave launches Engineering Mobility Program in India for its Nigeria-based engineering team in collaboration with Capgemini

In addition, Capgemini will play a pivotal role in Flutterwave's technology strategy by defining a clear target-state and a detailed roadmap for seamless implementation. Capgemini will help lay the foundation for Flutterwave's agile transformation journey and the adoption of cloud-native solutions, enabling a vision to facilitate payments in emerging markets.

Today's announcement reaffirms Flutterwave's commitment to empower its engineers to build innovative payment solutions.

Expressing his excitement, Gurbhej Dhillion, Flutterwave's Chief Technology Officer, said, "This engineering mobility program is the first of its kind in Flutterwave, and I'm happy to see it happen. It goes beyond collaboration with a global tech leader like Capgemini; it's about diversity, inclusivity, and the mobility of ideas to fuel continuous innovation. We cannot wait to see the incredible solutions this program will birth. I'm looking forward to seeing how our engineers will take their learnings back home and share their experiences with their teams as they continue building payment solutions for the emerging economies of Africa and beyond."

Reiterating the company's commitment to empowering its people, Flutterwave's Chief People Officer, Mansi Babyloni, commented, "As an ever-growing company that is becoming increasingly diverse, this program is a testament to our responsiveness to our talent's needs, dedication to making improvements, and commitment to investing in our people. It also reflects our value for nurturing talent and contributing to the development of the tech ecosystem in Africa."

"Like every other person in our senior leadership," Mansi continued, "I have first-hand experience of how cross-border work experiences and programs like this could contribute significantly to shaping one's career, and I'm happy that we are providing our engineers with this life-changing opportunity. As a company, we are excited that a tech giant like Capgemini is on board and will be with us every step of the way to make this program successful."

"For more than 50 years, Capgemini has harnessed the power and value of technology to deliver great business value, operational excellence, and innovation for clients worldwide. We are very happy to work hand in hand with Flutterwave for this talent development program, accompanying them on their journey towards innovation in the new ultra-competitive payments landscape," said Sujit Kini, Global Account Executive, Financial Services at Capgemini.

Reacting to the news, Bode Abifarin, Chief Operating Officer at Flutterwave, said, "Since we started in 2016, Flutterwave has been on an incredible journey of growth, innovation, and outstanding performances, which includes the fivefold increase in usage of our remittance product, Send App by Flutterwave, and offline solution, Flutterwave POS, respectively, in just one year. Behind this success is our world-class engineering infrastructure and an amazing team that has been growing and adapting to rapid changes in the company's needs and customers' demands."

"Now, as we continue expanding our operations, penetrating new markets, entering important partnerships, scaling our Engineering Team also becomes crucial. Our Engineering Mobility Program is a fundamental part of this effort, and we are convinced that working with Capgemini will make this a reality," Bode added.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2237420/Flutterwave.jpg

SOURCE Flutterwave
NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Content Marketing Institute awarded the top eight winners in the 2023 Content Marketing Awards program at the Content Marketing World Conference and Expo. The Content Marketing Awards is the largest and longest-running international content marketing awards program in the world.

Fortune Brand Studio, Fortune Media's four-year-old in-house branded content studio, took home the event's top prize, Content Marketing Project of the Year, for The Ecopreneurs, an 11-episode series produced in partnership with Salesforce and highlighting global climate tech entrepreneurs. The series also won B2B Branded Content Campaign of the Year, and Fortune Brand Studio also won the Agency of the Year award for Brand Studio or Agency within a Media Company.

"Our Fortune Brand Studio team are some of the premier storytellers in the business, and The Ecopreneurs series is just the latest remarkable display of that talent," said Michael Schneider, Chief Revenue Officer, Fortune Media. "Industry recognition is not new to FBS. The studio is so fortunate to be able to work with clients who allow us to produce inspiring work that leads to the highest industry accolades and awards. We appreciate all our clients, but I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Salesforce for its partnership and for challenging our team to create this incredible body of work."

"We're in a climate crisis right now that affects all of us and the real heroes are the people who wake up every day dedicated to taking action and preserving our planet: the ecopreneurs," said Matthew Jaffe, Head of Salesforce Studios. "It's been a joy to get to know them and share their stories with the world. Hopefully it inspires others to join the fight and show that business can be the greatest platform for change."

The series was filmed across four continents and seven countries, from thousands of miles off the coast of Hawaii to 16,000 feet high in the Andes to sub-Saharan Africa. Every one of the ecopreneurs says they have benefited from increased awareness, social followers, volunteers, employees, and/or monetary investments. SeaTrees, the organization featured in the series pilot, says their audience increased by 7 million and its income grew by 80% after the episode aired. It also received its first donation of $1 million. Tino Aucca, the ecopreneur featured in the series' third episode about Accion Andina, was named Champion of the Earth by the United Nations and spoke at Salesforce's World Economic Forum event last year in Davos.

You can watch The Ecopreneurs on Salesforce+ here

You can view related and behind-the-scenes content here

When more than 60 individual Content Marketing Awards category winners were announced in July, The Ecopreneurs won the award for Strategy  Best Integration of Purposeful Marketing and was named a finalist for two additional Distribution categories: Best Motivational Video or Video Series and Best Content Marketing Video Series. See the full list of Content Marketing Awards 2023 winners here.

About Fortune Media

Fortune Media upholds a legacy of award-winning writing and trusted reporting for executives who want to make business better. Independently owned, with a global perspective and digital agility, Fortune tells the stories of a new generation of innovators, builders, and risk takers. Online and in print, Fortune measures corporate performance through rigorous benchmarks, and holds companies accountable. Fortune creates communities by convening true thought leaders and iconoclaststhose who shape industry, commerce and societythrough powerful and prestigious lists, events and conferences, such as the iconic Fortune 500, the CEO Initiative and Most Powerful Women. For more information, visit fortune.com.

About FORTUNE Brand Studio

FORTUNE Brand Studio (FBS) is Fortune Media's in-house branded content studio. FBS tells stories of business transformation, innovation, and action in a changed world on behalf of global brands. Since 2020, work created by FBS has won 77 international creative awards, including 5x Anthem Awards, 1x Signal Award and 4x Content Marketing Awards.

About Salesforce

Salesforce empowers companies of every size and industry to connect with their customers through the power of data + AI + CRM + trust. For more information about Salesforce, visit: www.salesforce.com.

Press Contacts:

Patrick Reilly

[email protected]

Vince Bitong

[email protected]

SOURCE Fortune Media (USA) Corporation
After announcing its rebranding and a rapid transformation of a San Francisco building in just 24 hours, Freepik launches the nationwide contest "The Urban Canvas," encouraging all emerging creators across the US to use their imagination and redesign the building with their own unique designs

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Freepik , the global tech company and world's largest platform for audio-visual resources, has announced a contest for young talents in the US. The announcement comes shortly after launching their latest campaign in the country, during which they painted a building in just 24 hours with Osmani Contreras's team.

Freepik takes over San Francisco: The big reveal Freepik has painted a building in San Francisco in just 24 hours

In line with the company's spirit of fostering creativity, enhancing visual communication, and facilitating connections among diverse communities, Freepik has launched The Urban Canvas, a nationwide contest inviting any creator from the United States to digitally reimagine the building painted by Osmani Contreras with their own designs. Using the building's render as a foundation and Freepik's new brand identity color palette, the company encourages participants to utilize the building as a creative resource and reimagine it in their own style. Contestants will enjoy full creative freedom, including the option to use Freepik's own AI tools as a design complement. All US creators can participate in the contest by submitting their designs here: www.urbancanvasbyfreepik.com

The contest will be open for submissions from October 3rd until November 3rd. The winner will be recognized on Freepik's platform, which enjoys a significant global audience, with over 100 million monthly visits. The top five designs will receive one year of access to Freepik Premium, equipping them with the tools to bring their ideas to life.

The jury responsible for selecting the award-winning designs will be composed of Carlos Cantu, Chief Marketing Officer of Freepik, Paula Vivas, Product Marketing Manager US, and Cristobal Oviedo, Creative Director.

"The Urban Canvas aims to inspire and, especially, provide an opportunity to all young creators. What's beautiful about this contest is that it perfectly embodies the essence of Freepik: bringing ideas to life should be accessible to everyone" stated Carlos Cantu.

With this initiative, Freepik continues to expand its presence in the United States, exemplifying its dedication to empowering creativity, facilitating efficient design, and promoting meaningful visual communication.

Contact for Media:

Carla Herrera,

cherrera@pwpr,

+34 638339519

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62xvFJVa52s

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2236604/FREEPIK_SF.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2236603/Freepik_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Freepik Company S.L.
The gas lift system market is flourishing in response to the global industrialization trend, the growing emphasis on sustainability, increasingly stringent environmental regulations, and investments in renewable energy sources.

PORTLAND, Ore, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Gas Lift System Market By Lift Type (Gas Lift, Others), By Component (Mandrels, Valves, Packers), By Application (Onshore, Offshore), By Gas Lift Type (Continuous Flow, Intermittent Flow), By Well Type (Horizontal, Vertical): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2023-2032". According to the report the gas lift system market was valued for $1.8 billion in 2022 and is estimated to reach $3.8 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 7.6% from 2023 to 2032.

Gas lift systems, playing a crucial role in optimizing oil and gas production, contribute to operational efficiency and minimize resource wastage. The demand for dependable gas lift systems has surged with the rising dependence on fossil fuels and the expansion of energy-intensive technologies.

Request PDF Brochure: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/220913

Prime determinants of growth

The growth of the gas lift system market is primarily fueled by the relentless demand for efficient and cost-effective methods of oil and gas production. Technological innovations, such as smart sensors and real-time monitoring, are driving increased adoption by enhancing system efficiency. Additionally, stringent environmental regulations are incentivizing the industry to opt for cleaner production techniques, making gas lift systems an attractive choice. The market's dynamics are further influenced by reservoir characteristics, geopolitical stability, fluctuating oil prices, competition among providers, and a strong emphasis on safety and regulatory compliance.

Report coverage & details:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 20232032 Base Year 2022 Market Size in 2022 $1.8 billion Market Size in 2032 $3.8 billion CAGR 7.6 % No. of Pages in Report 299 Segments covered Lift Type, Component, Application, Gas Lift Type, Well Type, and Region Drivers Cost-effective production and improved recovery rates Environment regulations Increase in oil and gas production Restraints Fluctuating oil prices High initial costs and technical challenges Opportunities Technological advancements and evolving EOR techniques.

Impact Scenario

The Russia-Ukraine war had significant consequences for various sectors, including gas lift system.

North American countries are expected to prioritize enhancing their energy independence as tensions in Eastern Europe persist.

persist. This is projected to lead to higher investments in domestic oil and gas production, benefiting the gas lift system market.

Increased production and exploration activities are projected to spur demand for artificial lift solutions such as gas lift systems.

Geopolitical tensions, such as the Russia - Ukraine conflict, is anticipated to contribute to energy price volatility.

- conflict, is anticipated to contribute to energy price volatility. Fluctuations in oil and gas prices can lead to uncertainty in the industry, potentially causing operators to delay or reconsider investments in gas lift systems.

European nations may seek to diversify their energy sources and reduce dependence on Russian gas.

This could stimulate investment in domestic oil and gas production, potentially increasing the demand for gas lift systems.

The conflict is anticipated to disrupt energy supplies, causing uncertainty in the European energy market.

Economic instability and energy supply concerns may lead to reduced investments in the gas lift system market as operators prioritize immediate challenges.

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The onshore application segment to maintain its leadership status during the forecast period

Based on the application, the onshore segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for more than two-thirds of the global gas lift system market revenue. The rapid expansion of oil and gas producers to meet the growing demand for fuel have driven the demand for gas lift system which are eco-friendly compared to other systems. However, the offshore application is projected to manifest a CAGR of 7.86% from 2023 to 2032, as government and companies across the globe has set their sights on offshore oil and gas resources to meet the ongoing demand and to reduce their dependency on the oil and gas imports from other countries.

The continuous flow segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period

Based on gas lift type, the continuous flow segment held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for more than four-fifths of the global gas lift system market revenue, and is estimated to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period. The increase in demand for efficient and sustainable oil and gas production methods drives the adoption of continuous-flow gas lift systems. However, the intermittent flow segment is projected to manifest a CAGR of 7.7% from 2023 to 2032. The intermittent flow in the gas lift system market has experienced a notable surge in demand and innovation, driven by a convergence of factors. Gas lift systems offer a cost-effective and environmentally conscious solution with a global emphasis on optimizing hydrocarbon production, particularly from aging wells and unconventional resources.

The horizontal segment to maintain its leadership status throughout the forecast period

Based on the well type, the horizontal held the highest market share in 2022, accounting for more than two-thirds of the global gas lift system market revenue, and are estimated to maintain their leadership status throughout the forecast period. The market for horizontal well types in gas lift systems is thriving, driven by several key trends and growth factors. The surge in unconventional resource exploration, particularly in shale formations, has elevated the importance of horizontal wells with gas lift systems for optimizing production rates. Technological advancements, such as improved control systems and downhole sensors, have enhanced the efficiency and reliability of these systems, making them attractive. However, the vertical well type segment end-use is projected to manifest a CAGR of 8.13% from 2023 to 2032.

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North America to maintain its dominance by 2032

Based on region, North America held the highest market share in terms of revenue in 2022, accounting for nearly two-fifths of the global gas lift system market revenue, and is likely to dominate the market during the forecast period. Furthermore, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness the fastest CAGR of 8.36% from 2023 to 2032. The Asia-Pacific region presents significant growth potential in the gas lift system industry. Emerging markets, such as India, China, and Southeast Asian countries, have witnessed rapid industrial growth which will lead to increased demand for market. The increase in investment toward energy resources especially in offshore is a factor that is anticipated to offer new growth opportunities for gas lift system in Asia-Pacific during the forecast period.

Leading Market Players: -

Baker Hughes Company

ChampionX

Weatherford International Plc

Schlumberger Limited

Saudi Arabian oil co. (Saudi Aramco)

Emerson Electric Co.

Tally energy services

National Oilwell Varco, Inc.

Tendeka

SPOC Automation, Inc.

The report provides a detailed analysis of these key players in the global gas lift system 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 highlight the competitive scenario.

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BEIJING, Oct. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The fourth episode of season three of the China Daily series Youth Power, "Pathways of Promise: Gen Z Celebrate 10 Years of the Belt and Road Initiative", was broadcast online on September 30.

Gen Zers from China, Kazakhstan and Russia gathered in the birthplace of the Belt and Road Initiative, Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, to review the initiative's achievements over the past 10 years.

In 2013 during a visit to Nazarbayev University in Astana, President Xi Jinping proposal the Silk Road Economic Belt. Since then the Belt and Road Initiative has gone through a long journey of growth, Gen Zers in this episode of Youth Power talked about how they see the Belt and Road Initiative continuing to unfold.

Lashyn Zeiin, a Kazakh Gen Zer student at Nazarbayev University, said that in 2013 she visited China. "To me it was a breathtaking new world." She then decided to continue learning Mandarin, Zeiin said.

Guests of the Youth Power episode said the Belt and Road Initiative is an international framework benefiting many countries, bringing abundant opportunities for economic development.

The host Zhong Yutong, a graduate of Fudan University in Shanghai and Cambridge University in England, said the initiative has injected new dynamism into a world suffering from unbalanced development and is a token of China shouldering more international responsibilities.

During the program there was discussion about how the initiative has promoted the "hard connectivity" of infrastructure and "soft connectivity" of rules and standards. Participants agreed that the initiative has improved lives and strengthened bonds between countries.

"We have an international center for cross-border cooperation," said Kairat Bekmurzayev of Kazakhstan. "This is one of the projects of the Belt and Road Initiative. This center has helped my people to improve the quality of their lives."

Temelidi Yulia, a Russian student at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said the inItiative has promoted cultural exchange among countries in fields such as literature, theatre, music and ballet. It has also encouraged countries to work with one another, she said.

A Chinese Gen Z guest, Wang Zongnan said the Belt and Road Initiative upholds the principles of good neighborliness and mutual respect and enhances the synergy of countries' development strategies and mutual benefits.

Zhong Yutong said so-called China experts in the West have often questioned the Belt and Road Initiative. "Media in the West have connived to form a media matrix, smearing Chinese from different perspectives with the same rhetoric."

Wang Zongnan, citing the example of how a Chinese livestreamer helped sell pine nuts from Afghanistan, said that the initiative has delivered benefits to many people.

Kairat said Western media have cast China and the initiative in a bad light because they see it as a threat to Western business.

Wu Shanshan, who studies at Duke Kunshan University in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, said that all countries should focus on the big picture rather than being preoccupied with narrow, domestic interests.

Xue Rui, a Chinese student pursuing a master's degree at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty, Kazakhstan, said that after her college entrance exam, seeing a joint declaration between China and Kazakhstan, she decided to study Kazakh. She has a blog and hopes to eventually be a journalist and contribute to building the Belt and Road Initiative, she said.

Botakoz Yelshibek, a Kazakh student studying at East China Normal University in Shanghai, said she promotes Kazakh culture on social media platforms and helps companies in Kazakhstan enter the Chinese market. Like Xue, she said her aim is to help build the Belt and Road Initiative.

Youth Power, organized by China Daily and first broadcast in June 2021, aims to build a global platform of communication and exchange, focusing on the interests and ideas of Generation Z. The program comes in the form of interviews, forums and speeches, with topics related to anything of current interest in the world.

SOURCE China Daily
The biggest age group in Korea is currently in their 50s, totaling 8.62 million people this year or 17 percent of the total population, and their biggest concern is whether it is too late to start preparing for retirement.

However perhaps it is never too late. Investment guru Warren Buffett had only 0.2 percent of his current wealth when he was 50 years old and accumulated the rest in the autumn of his years.

Shin Dong-hoon at Meritz Securities said, "Whether the 30 years after retirement will be a pleasant journey or a difficult one depends on how you live your life in your 50s. It's not too late to build up a reasonable amount of assets in your 50s to ensure a comfortable retirement for yourself and your loved ones."

The 50s is the period in life when people's income typically reaches its peak. According to Statistics Korea, the average net assets of people in their 50s are the highest among all age groups, worth W534.73 million (US$1=W1,349).
GROTON, Conn., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- General Dynamics Electric Boat, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), announced today it has been awarded a $967 million contract modification from the U.S. Navy for Lead Yard Support and Development and Design efforts for Virginia-class fast-attack submarines.

General Dynamics Electric Boat, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), announced today it has been awarded a $967 million contract modification from the U.S. Navy for Lead Yard Support and Development and Design efforts for Virginia-class fast-attack submarines.

The cost-plus-fixed fee modification to a previously awarded contract totals $967,185,528. Work will be performed in Groton, Connecticut; McLeansville, North Carolina; Newport News, Virginia; and Newport and Quonset Point, Rhode Island. Work is expected to be completed by October 2024. This contract was awarded on September 29. 2023.

"This contract award supports critical work to further advance the capability and superiority of the Virginia class submarine," said Kevin Graney, president of General Dynamics Electric Boat. "We are proud to continue our tradition of delivering this state-of the-art platform that ensures the safety of our sailors and their continued dominance in the undersea domain."

Virginia-class submarines are designed for the full range of 21st-century mission requirements, including anti-submarine and surface ship warfare and special operations support.

General Dynamics Electric Boat is the prime contractor and lead design yard for the Virginia class and constructs the ships in a teaming arrangement with HII's Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia.

General Dynamics Electric Boat designs, builds, repairs and modernizes nuclear submarines for the U.S. Navy. Headquartered in Groton, Connecticut, the company employs more than 21,000 people. More information about General Dynamics Electric Boat is available at www.gdeb.com .

General Dynamics is a global aerospace and defense company that offers a broad portfolio of products and services in business aviation; ship construction and repair; land combat vehicles, weapons systems and munitions; and technology products and services. General Dynamics employs more than 100,000 people worldwide and generated $39.4 billion in revenue in 2022. More information about General Dynamics is available at www.gd.com .

SOURCE General Dynamics
Now Available at FourWallsWhiskey.com

NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Four Walls, the Irish American whiskey brand founded by Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney, and Charlie Day, is headed for bars everywhere and is now available to order online at FourWallsWhiskey.com.

Four Walls is a tribute to the four walls the gang calls home, the bar, and was initially sold as a limited edition release, raising money for the bartending community. "We wanted to create a brand celebrating the four walls that have held our good times in and kept our troubles out," is how Glenn Howerton describes the gang's initial inspiration.

Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton and Rob McElhenney's Four Walls Whiskey is coming to a bar near you. Shop now at FourWallsWhiskey.com

Following the success of the limited drop, Glenn, Rob, and Charlie began exploring ways to make a new version of Irish American whiskey, distilled as much for Saturday night as Tuesday afternoon. The unique style of whiskey they envisioned would become a go-to in the type of rooms they cherish, where friends could raise a glass together and not be concerned about whatever is happening outside of that moment.

"After our higher-end releases, it was important for us to make a whiskey priced that all of our fans could try and that bartenders would want to use in everyday drinks," adds Charlie Day. The 80-proof Irish American Whiskey blend is smooth enough for shots and is blended with an award-winning American Rye to hold up in cocktails - a true utility whiskey.

Watch 'Origin Story' to see how the gang came up with Four Walls on YouTube .

"The three of us have come up with some of our best ideas and had some of our most memorable nights out together in unassuming rooms where great bartenders made us feel like a million bucks when we probably didn't have a hundred between us," said Rob McElhenney, "That is the power of a great bar - when your favorite people are there, your favorite bartender is working, and a great song is playing. Nothing can beat that good time, and that's what Four Walls is all about."

As part of Howerton, McElhenney, and Day's upcoming live podcast tour, Philadelphia was able to have a first taste of Four Walls at the gang's recent performance at The Mann Center. The tour hits New York City's Radio City Music Hall on October 12th and 13th, where Four Walls will also be poured.

Just as the limited release donated proceeds to the bartending community, fans can shop the new Four Walls merchandise shop, where 100% of the proceeds of select items will benefit Tales of the Cocktail Foundation, a non-profit that works to Educate, Advance, and Support the global cocktail community.

Follow @FourWallsTheBetterBrown on Instagram, @TheBetterBrown on X, and sign up for the newsletter at FourWallsWhiskey.com for the latest.

About Rob, Charlie & Glenn

Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, and Glenn Howerton have always had a knack for crafting fine things together. Like a fine whiskey, their collective work has only gotten richer and intensified its distinct flavor through the years. As writers, producers, and actors, they've collaborated on a number of projects, and as friends, they've collaborated on a number of great nights out. Four Walls Irish American Whiskey is their way of sharing some of those good times.

About Tales of the Cocktail Foundation

Tales of the Cocktail Foundation (TOTCF) is a non-profit organization that works to Educate, Advance, and Support the global cocktail community. Founded in 2002, the organization has become the world's leader in spirits education and a dynamic platform dedicated to addressing the challenges of today's hospitality industry. TOTCF offers a spectrum of programs designed to enrich individuals and organizations, including the annual Tales of the Cocktail conference, which welcomes guests to Tales' home city of New Orleans with nearly 400 unique, curated events. To learn more, visit talesofthecocktail.org .

SOURCE Four Walls Whiskey
DUBLIN, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Gate Driver IC Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2023-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global gate driver IC market size reached US$ 1.4 Billion in 2022. Looking forward, the market to reach US$ 2.0 Billion by 2028, exhibiting a growth rate (CAGR) of 5.8% during 2023-2028.



A gate driver IC is a power amplifier that accepts a low-power input from a controller IC and generates the necessary high-current gate drive for power devices. It enhances the performance of external power transistor gates that are used to supply current to an electric motor.

It serves as a link between the logic level control inputs and the power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). It is robust and flexible for offering an intelligent solution to drive the power semiconductor efficiently and ensuring minimal internal resistance to the transistor. Apart from this, it provides several advantages like reducing switching losses in the load transistor, decreasing its switching time, and driving the transistor into the conductive and non-conductive states.



Gate Driver IC Market Trends:



The growing traction of smart homes among individuals across the globe represents one of the key factors driving the market. Moreover, there is a rise in the demand for high voltage devices in the residential and commercial sectors. This, along with the increasing electrification of automobiles to replace gasoline vehicles with an electric powertrain, is propelling the growth of the market.

In addition, there is a rise in the utilization of transistors in different renewable energy systems for amplifying, controlling, and generating electrical signals. This, coupled with the growing initiatives by governments of several countries to use renewable energy sources such as tidal, solar, and wind power, is positively influencing the market.

Besides this, the increasing implementation of smart grids for effective power management is offering lucrative growth opportunities to industry investors. Additionally, key market players are extensively investing in research and development (R&D) activities to introduce a slimmer version of gate driver IC and decrease the size of consumer goods, which is bolstering the growth of the market.

Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global gate driver IC market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global gate driver IC market?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the transistor type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the semiconductor material?

What is the breakup of the market based on the mode of attachment?

What is the breakup of the market based on the isolation technique?

What is the breakup of the market based on the application?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global gate driver IC market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Competitive Landscape:

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being

Hitachi Power Semiconductor Device Ltd. (Hitachi Ltd.)

Infineon Technologies AG

Microchip Technology Inc.

Mouser Electronics (TTI Inc.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.)

NXP Semiconductors N.V.

Onsemi

Renesas Electronics Corporation

Rohm S

Key Market Segmentation:



Breakup by Transistor Type:

MOSFET

IGBT

Breakup by Semiconductor Material:

Si

SiC

GaN

Breakup by Mode of Attachment:

On-Chip

Discrete

Breakup by Isolation Technique:

Magnetic Isolation

Capacitive Isolation

Optical Isolation

Breakup by Application:

Residential

Industrial

Commercial

Breakup by Region:

North America

United States

Canada

Asia-Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

Australia

Indonesia

Others

Europe

Germany

France

United Kingdom

Italy

Spain

Russia

Others

Latin America

Brazil

Mexico

Others

Middle East and Africa

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/h6o277

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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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SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, Oct. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Rare Hemophilia Factors Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Type (Factor I, Factor II, Factor VII), By Treatment (Factor Concentrates, Fresh Frozen Plasma, Cryoprecipitate), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2023 - 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global rare hemophilia factors market is poised for substantial growth, targeting a USD 499.5 million market size by 2030, accompanied by a noteworthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.9% from 2023 to 2030.

The surge in the market is primarily attributed to the increased availability of tailored factor concentrates securing regulatory approvals, notably from the U.S. FDA.

Additionally, the rising adoption of prophylaxis treatment among patients is expected to be a significant growth driver in the coming years. Prophylactic treatment is recommended for individuals with severe rare hemophilia factor disorders to prevent bleeding episodes and enhance their quality of life. Notably, the COVID-19 pandemic had a notable impact on the market's trajectory.

Pandemic Spurs Emphasis on Safety:

The pandemic underscored the importance of patient safety and infection control measures, resulting in heightened awareness and stringent safety measures during clotting factor therapy administration. Healthcare providers and patients alike prioritized hygienic practices, including proper disinfection, hand hygiene, and personal protective equipment usage during treatment.

This intensified focus on patient safety measures is expected to have enduring benefits for rare hemophilia factor administration. Despite pandemic-induced challenges, the demand for specific clotting factor therapies for rare hemophilia remained robust, underscoring the essential role these therapies play in effectively managing and treating the condition.

Government Initiatives and Mandates Fuel Growth:

Favorable government initiatives and mandates aimed at increasing diagnosis and treatment rates are propelling market growth. The Orphan Drug Act (ODA) enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1983 is a noteworthy example, resulting in the designation of over 3,600 drugs as orphan drugs and the approval of 554 drugs by the U.S. FDA from 1983 to 2015.

Market Players Pursue Innovation:

Key market players are actively pursuing innovation through product launches and collaborations, seeking a competitive edge in this dynamic landscape. A notable instance is the FDA's approval of Kymriah, an innovative gene therapy for the treatment of genetic blood-clotting Hemophilia B disorder, announced in November 2022. Kymriah caters to B-cell precursor hemophilia patients below 25 years of age.

Segment Insights:

In 2022, the factor VII segment commanded the largest revenue share at 32.5%. It is also projected to exhibit the fastest CAGR of 7.6% from 2023 to 2030, driven by the increasing prevalence of factor VII deficiency.

Among treatments, the fresh frozen plasma segment secured the largest revenue share in 2022, owing to its ease of consumption and growing consumer preferences.

In 2022, North America emerged as the industry leader, capturing a 39.8% share, thanks to its well-established pharmaceutical and medical industry. Conversely, Asia Pacific is anticipated to experience the fastest CAGR of 8.2% during the forecast period, driven by the rising child population in countries like China and India .

Company Profiles

Novo Nordisk

Biogen

Bayer Healthcare

Pfizer, Inc.

Shire

Baxalta (Baxter Healthcare)

CSL Behring

Bio Products Laboratory Ltd.

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Methodology and Scope

1.1. Market Segmentation & Scope

1.2. Research Methodology

1.3. Information Procurement

1.4. Information or Data Analysis

1.5. Market Formulation & Validation

1.6. Model Details



Chapter 2. Executive Summary

2.1. Market Outlook

2.2. Segment Outlook

2.3. Competitive Insights



Chapter 3. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market Variables, Trends & Scope

3.1. Market Lineage Outlook

3.1.1. Parent market outlook

3.1.2. Related/ancillary market outlook

3.2. Penetration & Growth Prospect Mapping

3.3. Market Dynamics

3.3.1. Market driver analysis

3.3.2. Market restraint analysis

3.4. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market Analysis Tools

3.4.1. Industry Analysis - Porter's

3.4.2. PESTEL Analysis



Chapter 4. Rare Hemophilia Factors: Type Estimates & Trend Analysis

4.1. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market: Key Takeaways

4.2. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market: Movement & Market Share Analysis, 2022 & 2030

4.3. Factor I

4.4. Factor II

4.5. Factor V

4.6. Factor VII

4.7. Factor X

4.8. Factor XI

4.9. Factor XIII



Chapter 5. Rare Hemophilia Factors: Treatment Estimates & Trend Analysis

5.1. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market: Key Takeaways

5.2. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market: Movement & Market Share Analysis, 2022 & 2030

5.3. Factor Concentrates

5.4. Fresh Frozen Plasma

5.5. Cryoprecipitate



Chapter 6. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market: Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis

6.1. Regional Outlook

6.2. Rare Hemophilia Factors Market by Region: Key Marketplace Takeaway



Chapter 7. Competitive Landscape

7.1. Recent Developments & Impact Analysis, By Key Market Participants

7.2. Market Participant Categorization

7.2.1. Company overview

7.2.2. Financial performance

7.2.3. Product benchmarking

7.2.4. Strategic initiatives

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/9zjfea

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



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SOURCE Research and Markets
New role includes strategic oversight of Grosvenor's D.C. and San Francisco development program and serving as a liasion for U.S. Capital Partnerships





development program and serving as a liasion for U.S. Capital Partnerships Promotion represents latest component of Grosvenor's reorganized approach to project execution and expanding its USD$4.7bn development pipeline





development pipeline Jonathan's track record includes the delivery of Margarite, Grosvenor's latest premium rental community in Union Market

WASHINGTON and SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Grosvenor, a privately held property owner and developer with a 70-year track record in North America, announced the promotion of Jonathan Carr to Managing Director, Development. In his new role, Mr. Carr will oversee and support the company's Washington D.C. and San Francisco development teams, as well as serve as the U.S. development point person for capital partners.

Jonathan Carr, Managing Director, Development, Grosvenor Margarite, new Grosvenor mixed-use rental community in D.C.

James Patillo, Chief Development Officer for Grosvenor's North American property business, notes: "Jon has led development teams in Grosvenor's San Francisco and Washington, D.C. offices and his promotion reflects leadership excellence and supports our focus on building partnerships in the U.S. The Managing Director position was created in response to the significant growth of our development program, and Jon's experience, strategic thinking and management expertise make him the right fit for this critical new role."

Jonathan has a strong performance history of team management and strategic project execution. He is responsible for the delivery of numerous impactful residential and mixed-use projects to the D.C. region, including District on 14th St, City Homes in Eckington, F1RST in Navy Yard, Central in Silver Spring, and Grosvenor's newest best-in-class mixed-use rental community in Union Market, Margarite. This new development is currently 31% leased and provides 260 contemporary residences across 13 stories along with a new 6,000-square-foot community park.

Grosvenor has operated a diversified real estate business in North America since 1952. As of December 31, 2022, the Company had assets under management of USD$4.1bn, including 74 high-quality properties, and is executing on a USD$4.7bn development pipeline across its active markets. Consistent with the firm's farsighted approach to ownership and development, Grosvenor values long-term partnerships; across their nine active capital partners, the average relationship is 17 years.

Grosvenor signed the World Green Building Council's Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment in 2019 and has publicly reported its annual consumption and reduction values for 15 years.

About Grosvenor

Grosvenor has been an active property owner and developer in the US and Canada for over 70 years. We focus on vibrant urban locations, making positive contributions to neighbourhoods and communities.

Part of an international property company with a track record of over 340 years, we develop, manage, and invest to improve property and places across many of the world's leading cities, promoting sustainability within the built environment and enhancing the wellbeing of our customers and communities.

We are a values-led organization which represents the Grosvenor family. Our work in property, alongside Grosvenor's other activities in food & agtech, rural estate management and support for charitable initiatives, shares a common purpose  to deliver lasting commercial, social and environmental benefit  addressing today's needs while taking responsibility for those of future generations.

www.grosvenor.com

Follow us on

Twitter: @Grosvenor

LinkedIn: Grosvenor

Instagram: ThisisGrosvenor

For more information, please contact: Great Ink Communications Tom Nolan, Rick Van Warner, Eric Waters +1 212-741-2977 [email protected]

SOURCE Grosvenor
New programs included in expanded 2024 Professional Development Program calendar.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Harvard Division of Continuing Education (DCE) introduced three new programs this fall offered through its Professional Development unit.

The three new programs are:

With these new programs, Harvard DCE will offer 53 unique programs in 2024 to help professionals build essential skills. Post this

From Management to Leadership

Product Management from Design to Launch

Real Estate Investments: Assets, Markets, and Current Trends

"We surveyed business leaders and tapped into market trends to determine which programs to add to our portfolio," said Linda Cross, Senior Director of Professional Development, Harvard DCE. "These programs are great additions to our already extensive program line-up."

With the addition of the new programs, Harvard DCE will offer 53 unique programs in 2024 designed to help professionals build essential skills. Existing programs fall under seven topic areas: Business Strategy, Executive Leadership, Marketing, Negotiation, Communications, Innovation, and Leadership and Management.

These programs are intentionally designed to be short but intensive and help working professionals fit training and development into their busy schedules. All programs are held multiple times throughout the year and taught live by industry leaders and subject matter experts either in-person on Harvard University's campus, online, or in a hybrid format. Many programs also feature Harvard Business School cases studies, offering participants the opportunity to tackle real-world business issues in a hands-on learning experience.

"Robust discussions are a critical part of developing professional skills, which is why our professional development programs are taught live and not recorded," added Cross. "Through conversations, role-playing, and break-out sessions, participants can gain a deeper understanding of the practical use of these business-related skills that will help them advance their careers."

In addition to courses for individual participants, Harvard DCE also offers programs for organizations, which can be tailored to meet specific company needs.

Participants earn a Harvard Professional Development Program Certificate upon successful completion of a program.

About the Harvard Division of Continuing Education

The Harvard Division of Continuing Education is a division of Harvard University dedicated to bringing rigorous programs and innovative online teaching capabilities to modern purpose-driven learners including working professionals, high school students, visiting college students, and those seeking higher learning in retirement. We've been fueled by innovation and dedicated to excellence for over 100 years. Learn more at Harvard Division of Continuing Education.

Contact: Harry Pierre, [email protected]

SOURCE Harvard University Division of Continuing Education
Home sponsored by Bass Pro Shops and Lennar

DENVER, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Helping a Hero, a non-profit providing support for military personnel severely injured in the war on terror, Bass Pro Shops and Lennar, one of the nation's leading homebuilders, today held a ceremony to welcome U.S. Marine Corporal Ryan Garza (Ret.) to his brand-new, wheel-chair accessible home. Situated in the master-planned Sterling Ranch community in Littleton, CO, near Denver, the home is adapted to make daily life easier for the amputee injured in Afghanistan.

Helping A Hero, Bass Pro Shops and Lennar Welcome U.S. Marine Corporal Ryan Garza (Ret.), an Amputee Injured in Afghanistan, to His New Adaptive Lennar Home in the master-planned community of Sterling Ranch in Littleton, CO. Pictured left to right, Tate Stevens, an American country music artist and National Ambassador for Helping a Hero; Meredith Iler, Founder and National Chair of the Helping a Hero Home Program; U.S. Marine Corporal Ryan Garza; Jason Nazarenus, Lennar Colorado Division President; and Vicki Brentin, Colorado Chair for Helping A Hero.

Today is Corporal Garza's Alive Day, the anniversary of the day he was blown up in Afghanistan, resulting in the loss of his leg. The Littleton community came out in droves waving American flags and holding handmade signs cheering "Welcome Home, Cpl. Garza." Garza was greeted by special guests X Factor Winner Tate Stevens, an American country music artist and National Ambassador for Helping a Hero; Ryan Harris, Champion, Super Bowl 50; Ian Eversole, General Manager of Bass Pro Shops Denver; Brock Smethills, President of Sterling Ranch Development Co.; and Jason Nazarenus, Denver Division President for Lennar.

The Welcome Home Ceremony was part of Helping a Hero's 100 Homes Challenge, which was launched by Johnny Morris, Founder and CEO of Bass Pro Shops. Lennar has joined the effort and committed to building 10 homes for Helping a Hero as part of the 100 Homes Challenge. Homes by Lennar are being built in Texas, Arizona, Florida and Colorado  with more homes to be added.

Lennar worked with Helping a Hero to adapt the new home  a single-story wheelchair-accessible 2,600-square-foot model featuring four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. The home includes adaptations such as a roll-in shower, roll-under sink, wider doors and other safety features that will enable Garza to have freedom inside his home for the first time. Sterling Ranch, a master-planned community of more than 12,000 homes, lies just 20 miles south of downtown Denver. This award-winning community of new homes is positioned in an idyllic valley at the gateway to the Front Range  nestled between two state parks, three regional parks, and a national forest.

"Helping a Hero is proud to partner with Lennar and Bass Pro Shops on this home. It means the world to us to know we have changed Ryan's life by providing this adapted home at a time when he was facing homelessness," said Meredith Iler, Founder and National Chair of the Helping a Hero Home Program.

"On behalf of Lennar, we are honored to have had the opportunity to create a first-rate home for an extremely deserving American hero like Ryan," said Jason Nazarenus, Denver Division President for Lennar. "It is our hope that the thoughtful details incorporated into this home provide Ryan with a sense of independence to make daily life easier."

Marine Corporal Ryan Garza joined the Marines in April 2008 and was deployed with Combat Logistics 8 in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. Despite the danger, Garza ultimately volunteered for four tours and experienced significant firefights almost daily. During his final mission on October 3, 2011, Garza was in a seven-ton truck when it was hit by an improvised explosive device. Garza lost his right leg and sustained other injuries requiring intensive rehab. He spent 13 months in the Naval Medical Center and retired in November 2012.

Garza has always been adventurous and loves Colorado  especially its mountains. After completing his recovery in San Antonio, Garza moved to Colorado where he could spend more time in the outdoors and rebuild his life. He thought he had found true love and bought an engagement ring for her. The night before his elaborate planned proposal, she broke off their relationship. He had been living with her and found himself alone and homeless. While visiting his parents a week after his life fell apart, he thought he was shopping for a kayak at a local Bass Pro Shops when over 40 Bass Pro Shops, Helping a Hero and Lennar team members surprised him with the news he had been selected for this Helping a Hero adapted home in his beloved Colorado. Garza was so surprised by the news that he had tears streaming down his face.

Garza aspires to be a successful author with a focus on children's books. He just completed a book entitled "My Journey from Guilt to Forgiveness" after witnessing a buddy commit suicide and not being able to help him.

"Walking into my Helping a Hero home brought tears to my eyes as I think back to a few short months ago when I was homeless and hopeless. Lennar and Bass Pro Shops have given me hope for tomorrow and have reminded me how much America supports me. I never dreamed I would own such a beautiful home. And with all the adaptations, this home provides me with everything I need to make daily tasks, like taking a shower, easier. Helping a Hero has given me a family of wounded warriors who face the same battles I face. Having the love and support of my family and everyone who made this home possible, I am grateful. Thank you for not forgetting me and for making this home a reality," said Cpl Ryan Garza.

About Helping a Hero:

Texas-based Helping a Hero is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan organization providing support for military personnel severely injured in the war on terror. Our principal activity is to provide specially adapted homes for qualifying service members as well as engage the community to provide services and resources for our wounded heroes and their families. Home recipients include veterans whose permanent injuries from combat have left them paraplegics, quadriplegics, amputees, blind, with severe burns and other injuries. Helping A Hero provides additional support programs including marriage retreats, caregiver retreats, recreational activities, and emergency needs support. Helping a Hero Outdoors has expanded to serve our heroes through hunting and fishing outings.

About the 100 Homes Challenge:

Johnny Morris, founder and CEO of Bass Pro Shops and noted conservationist, launched the 100 Homes Challenge and committed to fund 25 percent of the cost of the next 100 Helping a Hero homes. Helping a Hero invites the public to join Johnny Morris in the 100 Homes Challenge by making a donation, however large or small, to help to fund the other 75 percent of the cost of these homes.

Helping A Hero is accepting applications from Post 9-11 wounded warriors needing a specially adapted home due to their combat injuries to become part of the 100 Homes Challenge. We also invite the public to Nominate a Hero. Both the home application and the Nominate a Hero form are available on our website at www.helpingahero.org.

About Lennar Corporation

Lennar Corporation, founded in 1954, is one of the nation's leading builders of quality homes for all generations. Lennar builds affordable, move-up and active adult homes primarily under the Lennar brand name. Lennar's Financial Services segment provides mortgage financing, title and closing services primarily for buyers of Lennar's homes and, through LMF Commercial, originates mortgage loans secured primarily by commercial real estate properties throughout the United States. Lennar's Multifamily segment is a nationwide developer of high-quality multifamily rental properties. LENX drives Lennar's technology, innovation and strategic investments.

Contact:

Danielle Tocco

Vice President Communications

Lennar Corporation

[email protected]

Direct Line: 949.789.1633

SOURCE Lennar
Consolidates Critical Functions onto a Handheld Device to Simplify Testing and Speed Deployments

RICHARDSON, Texas, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- HFR Networks, delivering industry leading intelligent xHaul RAN Transport and Edge Access solutions, today announced availability of the flexiTester, a handheld device driven by a Smartphone application to field test access wavelengths and services. When configuring DWDM networks, field engineers are required to use various pieces of test equipment to validate optical connectivity. This process is time consuming, cumbersome, and can be dangerous when equipment is located at great heights on top of buildings or towers. The flexiTester consolidates many pieces of test equipment into one handheld device to simplify the testing process and significantly decrease the testing time while also improving safety.

HFR Networks' flexiTester

The flexiTester supports multiple critical functions, including; optical power meter, OTDR, Smart Tunable SFP+/SFP28 testing, and Visual Fault Finder functions. Open and standards-compliant for use across 3rd party vendors, the flexiTester supports both semi-active and passive DWDM deployments. Field engineers utilize it to pro-actively validate the service path, including the optical connections within the fiber distribution panel. When used with HFR Networks' flexiHaul Smart Tunable Optics (SFP+/SFP28), flexiTester checks the automatic wavelength self-tuning functions, allows for manual wavelength tuning, and enables control of the optics via the handheld device or through the Smartphone application.

"The flexiTester eliminates common testing challenges while increasing productivity and accelerating deployments," stated Paul Crann, President, HFR Networks. "Field engineers can now rely upon one handheld device, the flexiTester, to speed installation and/or troubleshooting  freeing their valuable time to focus on other critical tasks."

About HFR Networks:

HFR Networks, Inc. is leading the industry with our flexiHaul portfolio of intelligent xHaul RAN Transport and Edge Access solutions. We solve today's most critical RAN transport demands, especially when fiber is constrained for fronthaul or backhaul applications. Our solutions have optimized economics for this segment of the network, while also delivering high performance, simplified operations, interoperability across wireless technologies, and a diverse ecosystem of 3rd party RAN suppliers. HFR Networks' technological leadership helps customers to lower costs for 4G operations, while also accelerating new 5G and Ethernet services. We enable advanced mobile networks by utilizing nanosecond timing to connect radios using CPRI and eCPRI, within both traditional and cloud-based mobile architectures. For more information, visit www.hfrnetworks.com.

For more information, contact:

Kelly Friedland, Director of Marketing

HFR Networks

+1 781-640-4864

[email protected]

SOURCE HFR Networks
Lifestyle-Inspired Collection Offers Sophistication in Function and Design

SOLON, Ohio, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kichler Lighting LLC, a leader in innovative lighting and ceiling fans, gives any space a breath of fresh air with its new Ceiling Fans Decor. This introduction of four new families is engineered for performance and comfort while boasting sophisticated, on-trend designs.

Inspired by the palm leaf, the Nani collections ABS fan blades can easily transform their global settings into their own slice of paradise.

"Our latest Ceiling Fans Decor release bridges the gap between the delivery of cooling comfort and elevated design," says Kichler Lighting's Product Manager, Ceiling Fans, Scott Williams. "For this collection, we focused on versatility, enhancing the use of finishes and aesthetic elements to give customers more choices for their unique styles. Whether that be luxe, modern, or global, these fans are designed to meet you where you are and take your space to the next level."

Kichler's latest life-style inspired ceiling fan families include:

Nani

Inspired by the palm leaf, the Nani collection's ABS fan blades can easily transform their global settings into their own slice of paradise. Its broad five-blade sweep makes it ideal for medium-sized indoor or outdoor applications. Its Weather+ rating combats the effect of certain environmental elements, like saltwater spray, and UV rays to the fan finish and blades. The Nani is available in Matte White and Satin Natural Bronze finishes.

Almere

Almere is designed to be simple yet influential. It's tight-ribbed body, unique fan blade connections, and sprawling reach add an element of understated elegance to any room. The simplistic style and minimal details make Almere perfect for a variety of spaces. The three-blade design comes in Satin Black, Brushed Nickel, and Natural Brass finishes.

Breda

Inspired by the trend of incorporating softness into all objects, Breda adds an air of ultimate relaxation to any space. Welcome an element of tranquility into modern style settings with the soft, light curvature and simple yet sculptural form. To accommodate larger spaces, the eight-blade ceiling fan is available in 65", 75", and 84". Breda's finish options include Brushed Nickel, Satin Black, and Satin Natural Bronze.

LED Low Profile Light Kits

New Universal Light Kits blend across various styles to coordinate with multiple fan models and are damp rated. Updated to classic shapes, these high-efficiency LED light source fixtures offer a clean, soft, modern feel with no visible finish trim, allowing for coordination with any fan body finish. The two new shapes are available in 9", 10", and 14" sizes, each of which have a different lumen output of 1900, 2600 and 3100 respectively. Lumen output can be chosen if the light is used with a fan that has a remote with dimming capabilities. At installation, select a color temperature (CCT) of warm 3000k or cooler 5000k hue.

KICHLER LIGHTING LLC

Kichler Lighting LLC strives to transform the home and workspace by developing fixtures that perform efficiently, install intuitively, and deliver an overall effect that combines style with purpose. With an extensive portfolio of more than 3,000 on-trend products  including lighting, landscape and ceiling fans  and a commitment to providing services and project solutions, Kichler is the brand homeowners and professionals know and trust since 1938. Everything Kichler does, every single day, is with the intention of creating an environment that illuminates what matters most. As the first-ever and exclusive national sponsor of interior and exterior lighting and ceiling fans for the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway, Kichler is committed to providing fixtures for more than 40 homes across the U.S. annually. Kichler Lighting products are available at independent showrooms, Lowe's, Home Depot, electrical and landscape distributors, and online. For more information, visit www.kichler.com.

Connect with Kichler Lighting socially on:

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MASCO CORPORATION

Headquartered in Livonia, Michigan, Masco Corporation is a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of branded home improvement and building products. Our portfolio of industry-leading brands includes Behr paint; Delta and Hansgrohe faucets, bath and shower fixtures; Kichler decorative and outdoor lighting; LIBERTY branded decorative and functional hardware and HotSpring spas. We leverage our powerful brands across product categories, sales channels and geographies to create value for our customers and shareholders. For more information about Masco Corporation, visit www.masco.com.

SOURCE Kichler Lighting LLC
HOUSTON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HHH) ("the Company" or "Howard Hughes") announced today that Elena Verbinskaya has been appointed Chief Accounting Officer and designated Principal Accounting Officer for the Company, responsible for overseeing accounting and financial reporting across the Company's national portfolio.

Verbinskaya joined Howard Hughes in 2023 as Executive Vice President of Accounting. Prior to joining Howard Hughes, she served as Vice President of Financial Reporting and Accounting Integration at IPSCO Tubulars Inc., a North American division of TMK Group. She also held the position of Chief Accounting Officer at TMK Group, one of the world's leading producers and suppliers of steel pipe for the oil and gas industry. Verbinskaya has over 20 years of accounting experience, and is a Certified Public Accountant in the U.S. and a Fellow Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in the U.K. She holds a Masters in Accounting, Analysis and Audit from Far Eastern State University.

"Since joining Howard Hughes, Elena has proven to be a tremendous asset to the Company and will help us continue to achieve our financial goals in her role as Chief Accounting Officer," said Carlos A. Olea, Chief Financial Officer for Howard Hughes. "With a strong competitive advantage and dominant market share, Howard Hughes is well positioned across our portfolio to deliver outsized risk-adjusted returns."

There are no arrangements or understandings between Verbinskaya and any other person pursuant to which she was selected as an officer, and there are no family relationships between Verbinskaya and any of the Company's directors or other executive officers. Verbinskaya has no direct or indirect material interest in any existing or currently proposed transaction that would require disclosure under Item 404(a) of Regulation S-K.

About Howard Hughes Holdings Inc.

Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. owns, manages, and develops commercial, residential, and mixed-use real estate throughout the U.S. Its award-winning assets include the country's preeminent portfolio of master planned communities, as well as operating properties and development opportunities including: the Seaport in New York City; Downtown Columbia in Maryland; The Woodlands, Bridgeland and The Woodlands Hills in the Greater Houston, Texas area; Summerlin in Las Vegas; Ward Village in Honolulu, Hawaii; and Teravalis in the Greater Phoenix, Arizona area. The Howard Hughes portfolio is strategically positioned to meet and accelerate development based on market demand, resulting in one of the strongest real estate platforms in the country. Dedicated to innovative placemaking, the company is recognized for its ongoing commitment to design excellence and to the cultural life of its communities. Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange as HHH. For additional information visit www.howardhughes.com.

Media Contact

Cristina Carlson, 646-822-6910

SVP, Head of Corporate Communications

[email protected]



Investor Relations Contact

Eric Holcomb, 281-475-2144

SVP, Investor Relations

[email protected]

SOURCE Howard Hughes Holdings Inc.
Loneliness has many consequences in peoples lives. Numerous studies have shown that lack of companionship is detrimental to health, so much so that in some cases it increases the risk of developing diseases that increase ones mortality risk by about 30%. Recent research published in the journal Jama Neurology reveals a correlation with Parkinson disease, a degenerative condition that still has no cure.

Loneliness is a distressing feeling. We believe that over time it can generate physiological stress in the brain, especially in people who have other vulnerabilities, explains Antonio Terracciano, the Florida State University geriatrician who coordinated the study. The effects of loneliness on other aspects of life, such as obesity and cardiovascular disease, had been analyzed before. But until now, its link with Parkinson disease had not been investigated. For 15 years, Terracciano and his team monitored a total of 491,603 participants from a biobank in the United Kingdom; at the beginning of the study, they all had to answer the same question: Do you often feel lonely?

All participants were over the age of 50 years old when the research began, because Parkinson disease is more prevalent among older adults. To better identify the temporal relationship between loneliness and Parkinson disease, the tests were repeated every five years. The final results show that people who said they frequently felt lonely were 37% more likely to develop Parkinson disease. This correlation holds even when other demographic factors are taken into account, such as socioeconomic status, unhealthy lifestyle habits and genetic predisposition to other diseases, says Terracciano, although he acknowledges that some variables may attenuate the result.

There are two factors that reduce this likelihood, which the researchers have identified as possible clues for understanding the causes of the correlation. The study shows that loneliness is more likely to be associated with an increased risk of Parkinson disease through metabolic, inflammatory and neuroendocrine pathways, as the correlation decreases by 13% after accounting for chronic conditions such as diabetes. However, the variable that most attenuates the correlation between loneliness and Parkinson disease is mental health (24%). The evidence suggests that there are bidirectional associations between loneliness and depression, which tend to occur simultaneously. These results suggest that the same thing happens with Parkinson disease, although we cannot yet say for sure which of the two happens first, the expert notes.

Certainly, one interesting aspect of this study is the gender variable, which the researchers show does not exist when talking about Parkinson disease, observes Maria Jose Martin, a neurologist at the Center for Biomedical Research Network on Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED). Indeed, despite the fact that most of the people who reported feeling lonely were women, had fewer economic resources and were more likely to suffer from anxiety or depression, the studys results do not show that women are more likely to develop Parkinson disease than men.

Uncertain origins

The Florida teams findings complement other evidence that loneliness is a psychosocial determinant of health associated with increased risk of morbidity and mortality. A recent study from the Nanchang Neuroscience Institute in China warned that loneliness is linked to a 23% increased risk of dementia, while another study from the University of Florida, which used the same measure of loneliness as the current study, found that feeling lonely was associated with an increased risk of Alzheimers disease and vascular and frontotemporal dementias. The current and previous findings suggest that loneliness may be associated with an increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases and that the detrimental effects of loneliness are not limited to a single cause or neuropathological pathway, Terracciano explains.

Despite the results, the study does not reach a conclusion about the causes underlying the correlation; it merely sets out different interpretations of the data. In addition to the endocrine thesis, the researchers delve into the possibility that people who experience loneliness tend to engage in health-damaging behaviors, such as sedentary lifestyles. It is true that loneliness has been studied a lot in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. It certainly affects aspects of immunity and inflammation. But I dont think we can draw an accurate conclusion about whether loneliness is a cause or consequence of Parkinson disease at this point. It could be that the pathology was first, and that this feeling of loneliness was a previous symptom, Martin says.

Nevertheless, Dr. Ana Martinez of the Center for Biological Research (CIB-CSIC), who did not participate in this study, celebrates this research because it is the first to investigate this correlation, which had already been observed in other neurodegenerative diseases. Basically, this study says that a persons emotional state influences the prevention or delay of Parkinson disease. Although it doesnt offer solid explanations as to why [that is the case], its admittedly pretty good advice for the general population. It is not going to do any harm, and it will probably end up being like Alzheimers disease, where it has been shown that positive character has helped prevention, the expert believes.

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CHICAGO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The HVDC Transmission Market is expected to reach USD 14.9 billion by 2028 from USD 11.4 billion in 2023, at a CAGR of 5.4 % during the 2023-2028 period according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The increasing number of VSC-based HVDC projects, growing adoption of renewable energy globally, surging demand for reliable power supplies, and favorable government policies and initiatives for HVDC transmission are the major factors driving the market growth. Furthermore, constantly increasing technological advancements related to converter station components such as valves, circuit breakers, and reactors, among others, are also fueling the market growth for HVDC transmission. Moreover, the growing need for integration of power grids globally for seamless electricity exchange is expected to provide growth opportunities for market players.

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Report Coverage Details Market Revenue in 2028 $14.9 billion Estimated Value by 2023 $11.4 billion Growth Rate Poised to grow at a CAGR of 5.4% Market Size Available for 20192028 Forecast Period 20232028 Forecast Units Value (USD Million/Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered By Component, Project Type, Technology, Application, and Region Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of World Key Market Challenge Lack of standardization and interoperability Key Market Opportunity Technological advancements related to HVDC transmission Key Market Drivers Shift towards renewable energy

Bulk power transmission to lead the HVDC transmission market during the forecast period.

HVDC systems are preferred over conventional AC lines for transmitting bulk power across long distances due to advantages such as lower power loss and the ability to control transmission accurately with respect to power level as well as direction. Moreover, the growing global population and increasing residential and commercial developments are expected to create a surge in demand for electricity, thereby driving the market growth for HVDC systems in urban areas.

LCC-based transmission to account for the largest share of the HVDC transmission market from 2023 to 2028.

In LCC, power transmission is done through thyristor valves. Commutation can be defined as the transfer of direct current (DC) from one thyristor valve to another valve in the same row. Commutation is carried out by a synchronous voltage source (AC system voltage) in LCC. An LCC station is ideal for high-power, long-distance transmissions as it reduces power losses in an HVDC transmission system. The growing need to transmit electricity over longer distances with lower losses is a major factor driving the market growth for LCC technology.

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Asia Pacific is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

In Asia Pacific, China is the major market for HVDC transmission industry due to the constantly growing demand for power in the country. Some other factors driving the growth of the market in this region include an increase in power consumption patterns and initiatives for low carbon emission. High power quality reliability and stability of power transmission are the major requirements of the power industry in the region, which are driving the growth of the HVDC transmission market in this region. Asia Pacific is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Growing developments in power transmission networks and various initiatives taken by countries to integrate wind energy in power grids to ensure clean energy generation are some of the major factors contributing to the market growth.

The key players profiled in the HVDC transmission companies include Hitachi (Japan), Siemens Energy (Germany), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Japan), General Electric (US), Prysmian Group (Italy), Toshiba Corporation (Japan), NKT A/S (Denmark), Nexans (France), LS Electric Co., Ltd. (South Korea), and NR Electric Co., Ltd. (China). These companies not only boast a comprehensive product portfolio related to HVDC transmission but also a strong geographic presence. These companies have mainly used inorganic growth strategies such as collaborations, partnerships, agreements, acquisitions, and joint ventures to strengthen their position in the HVDC transmission market.

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HARRISBURG, Pa., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- IEC Pennsylvania, the state chapter of Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC), announced it is accepting applications Oct. 18-27 for its electrical apprenticeship class that starts in January.

IEC Pennsylvania's apprenticeship program covers residential, commercial and industrial construction and electrical wiring. Individuals accepted into the four-year program work full-time as apprentices for electrical contractors and attend employer-paid instructional classes in-person and online. The program is registered with the U.S. Department of Labor and Pennsylvania Apprenticeship and Training Council.

Historically, electrical work has been predominantly performed by men. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up only 3.1 percent of electricians in the country. However, a shortage of electricians is creating a call to increase female representation.

"Demand for electricians is high and the field provides excellent opportunity for anyone who is seeking a career with a bright job outlook and strong earning potential," said IEC Pennsylvania Executive Director Marissa Bankert. "About 2.4 percent of our apprenticeship program graduates are women and we would love to see that number grow. Apprenticeship is a perfect path to start a new career, offering the ability to get paid during a comprehensive program of on-the-job training."

The job outlook for electricians is strong, as more electricians are retiring than entering the field. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, about 79,900 openings for electricians are projected each year on average through 2031. The median annual wage for electricians in Pennsylvania was $73,540 as of May 2022, which is an hourly wage of over $35 not including benefits.

Applicants for IEC Pennsylvania's apprenticeship program must be age 17 or over and have a high school diploma or their GED. To view all eligibility requirements and apply, visit the "Apprenticeship" page of IEC Pennsylvania's website. Individuals may also call 717-697-7553 or email [email protected] for more information.

IEC Pennsylvania also offers a state-registered pre-apprenticeship program for high school students and individuals who are interested in the electrical field. Pre-apprentices gain hands-on experience in the field and opportunities to shadow electricians as they prepare for the apprenticeship program.

IEC Pennsylvania represents merit-shop and independent electrical and systems contractors in all but three of Pennsylvania's 67 counties. (Beaver, Lawrence and Mercer counties in Pennsylvania are served by IEC Western Reserve based in Youngstown, Ohio.) To learn about IEC Pennsylvania membership, events, apprenticeship opportunities and continuing education programs, visit IECPennsylvania.org.

SOURCE IEC Pennsylvania
SANTIAGO, Chile, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Inversiones La Construccion S.A. ("ILC" or "the Company"), a leading company in its sector, announced today that it will host a hybrid Investor Day ("ILC Day") on Wednesday, December 13, 2023, in Santiago, Chile.

During this event, key members of the ILC management team will engage in discussions centered around strategic presentations and business updates from ILC and Subsidiaries.

The event is set to begin at 8:30 a.m. CLST with a breakfast session, followed by presentations starting at 8:45 a.m. CLST, and concluding by 13:00 p.m. CLST.

ILC Day is open to the investment community, and pre-registration is required. Confirmation and additional event details will be provided to registered attendees.

Financial analysts and institutional investors interested in attending the event in person should contact InspIR Group at +1-646-940-8843 or email [email protected].

Company Description

Inversiones La Construccion S.A. operates in the financial and health sectors in Chile, Peru, and Colombia. It offers annuities, consumer loans for pensioners, individual life insurance, credit life insurances, and mandatory and voluntary retirement savings products. The company also provides corporate banking products and services, including checking accounts, lines of credit, insurance, financing, state guarantees, foreign trade, leasing, factoring, investments, cash management, treasury, and others; and retail banking products and services comprising checking accounts, lines of credit, insurance, mortgages, investments, online time deposits, and others. In addition, it offers collective health insurances and collective credit life insurances for mortgage. The company was founded in 1980 and is based in Santiago, Chile. Inversiones La Construccion S.A. is a subsidiary of Camara Chilena de La Construccion A.G.

SOURCE Inversiones La Construccion S.A.
Immediately after acquiring Plutonic, Catalyst set about stabilising the mine and its workforce. Managing Director & CEO, James Champion de Crespigny, based himself at site while the Company installed a transition team that would help in the early stages of its ownership of the mine.

The transition team was led by the highly experienced team of David Baumgartel (Management), Mick Garbellini and Mark Day (Operations), Cathy Barclay (Planning & Technical Services), Paul Quigley (Chief Geologist) and Ted Coupland (Senior Advisor to the Board).

The engagement with the team at Plutonic has been positive. Plutonic has a highly capable workforce, some with long histories at the site. These first quarter results under Catalyst's ownership demonstrate a broad buy-in of the operating strategy by the workforce beyond just the senior management. It also shows that these early changes are yielding positive results.

Catalyst's Managing Director & CEO, James Champion de Crespigny, commented:

"We're thrilled with the team's first quarterly results. Improvements such as these do not come easily. They are months in the planning.

We're buoyed by the improved month-on-month performance over the quarter. It indicates a trend forming in a positive direction for the mine's key performance indicators.

Catalyst has installed a high calibre management team who are driving cultural and behavioural changes and we are seeing the first demonstrable signs that strategy is working.

"Obviously, these quarterly results are a considerable improvement on the mine's past performance. The task we have set ourselves at Plutonic is delivering consistent results, quarter-in, quarter-out. We believe we are a small, focussed team, very determined to meet this objective."

Background

Catalyst completed the consolidation of the Plutonic Gold Belt on 30 June 2023. This consolidation commenced in January 2023 with the announcement that Catalyst would acquire ASX listed Vango Mining Ltd. In February 2023, Catalyst announced it would acquire Vango's neighbour, TSX listed Superior Gold Inc, and owner of the Plutonic Gold Mine. Superior Gold shareholders voted in favour of the Transaction in June 2023.

With the shareholders vote out of the way, Catalyst then went about installing a transition team that would focus its efforts on the underground mine. After spending the month of July, watching the operations and getting to know the people and mine site, the transition team spent August and September systematically working through the issues identified. Such changes were focused on increasing equipment availability, appropriately staffing cross shifts, filling truck to nameplate capacity, sourcing a higher percentage of stopes for the month from larger stopes and thereby mining fewer stopes a month while still achieving the same ore tonnes.

The consequence of these, and other, changes resulted in key performance indicators lifting across the mine site.

New Equipment

Comfortingly, these results have been achieved with the existing fleet.

While Catalyst has ordered new equipment, it is not expected to arrive on site until October 2023. The arrival of this new equipment should improve performance and consistency of operations. Further equipment will be acquired on an as needs basis.

Table 1: September quarter monthly metrics compared to 18-month average to June 2023

Metric 18-month average to June September quarter

average Variance Development metres (m) 585 719 +23 % Drilling metres (m) 12,517 18,405 +47 % Ore processed (t) 71,145 97,305 +37 % Material movement (t) 95,530 118,368 +24 % Gold produced (oz) 4,857 5,678 +17 %

The Plutonic mill has significant excess mill capacity. The site is mine constrained, not mill constrained. Previous owners sought to fill that latent mill capacity with mineralised waste (<0.5 g/t Au) from various sources. Catalyst sees this material as uneconomic and as such needed to find an alternate ore source to replace the mineralised waste. This ore source was found in additional underground stope tonnes from the Plutonic mine.

Trident Development Project

Catalyst's longer term operating strategy, the Plutonic Underground Mine will be supported by the addition of high-grade ore from nearby satellite deposits within the consolidated belt. Studies are planned for numerous deposits with the intention of mining these deposits over the coming years.

Catalyst believes this strategy will allow it to significantly increase gold production and lower costs. Ultimately, Catalyst believes it will become a 200koz gold producer.

The first project to be developed on the belt is expected to be Trident, a deposit with a Mineral Resource of 400koz at 8g/t and lying 25km immediately north of the Plutonic processing plant. All infrastructure to develop Trident is already in place.

Catalyst has received approvals to construct early works and a decline for Trident.

Catalyst's recently released scoping study on Trident (19 July 2023) contemplated an underground mine development with ore transported and processed at the Plutonic processing facility. Trident will be an incremental ore source to a base load being processed at Plutonic. Key parameters of the scoping study are noted below.

Table 2: Trident Scoping Study outputs

Operational outputs



NPV (5%) A$m 245 IRR % 132 % Pre-production capital A$m 36 Payback (yrs) Yrs 1 AISC A$/oz 1,046





LOM yrs 4.3 LOM grade g/t Au 6.7 LOM gold production oz 229,521





Average annual gold production oz 57,005 Average annual free cashflow A$m 82

This announcement has been approved for release by the Board of Directors of Catalyst Metals Limited.

Catalyst Metals

Catalyst Metals controls three highly prospective gold belts. It has a multi asset strategy.

It owns the 40km long Plutonic Gold Belt in Western Australia hosting the Plutonic gold mine and neighbouring underexplored, high-grade resources.

It also owns and operates the high-grade Henty Gold Mine in Tasmania which lies within the 25km Henty gold belt. Production to date is 1.4Moz @ 8.9 g/t.

Catalyst also controls +75km of strike length immediately north of the +22Moz Bendigo goldfield and home to high-grade, greenfield resources at Four Eagles.

Capital Structure

Shares o/s: 219m

Options: 1.4m

Rights: 2.5m

Cash: $31.8m

Debt: $32.8m

Board Members

Robin Scrimgeour

Interim Non-Executive Chairman

James Champion de Crespigny

Managing Director & CEO

Bruce Kay

Non-Executive Director

Corporate Details

ASX: CYL

E:[email protected]

W:catalystmetals.com.au

T: +61 8 6107 5878

JORC 2012 Mineral Resources and Reserves

Catalyst confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in the original market announcements and that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimates in the relevant market announcements continue to apply and have not materially changed. The Company confirms that the form and context in which the Competent Persons findings are presented have not been materially modified from the original market announcements.

SOURCE Catalyst Metals LTD.

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BOULDER, Colo., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Allium Data, Inc ., a disruptive insurtech startup, announced the close of a pre-seed funding round of $750,000. The funding round comes from Markd , an insurance/insurtech-focused venture capital firm. This investment boosts Allium's resources for disrupting the incredibly antiquated data acquisition and analytics market in insurance.

Allium, established in 2022, is a platform company with several products currently in market. Allium's data analytics product is unique in its ability to source and digitize current in-force policy and premium data. With nearly 40,000 policies and $10,000,000,000 of premiums analyzed, agents, brokers, and carriers can use this information to better prospect, price risk, and develop market insights.

Extending from this core product, Allium introduces a game-changing technology to automatically parse, analyze, and structure insurance data. This groundbreaking development marks the end of the era in which agents are burdened with manual policy data entry and policy or quote comparisons. Powered by state-of-the-art machine learning (ML) and generative artificial intelligence (AI), this product has been designed to empower insurance brokers by streamlining the client administration process.

"Parker Beauchamp is a bold, out-of-the-box thinker in the insurtech space" says Michael Rost, CEO of Allium. "He has a background rooted as an independent insurance broker, and because of that, he understands the failures and opportunities inherent in the legacy systems and distribution better than anyone I know."

Markd's Beauchamp iterated, "Michael is a sharp, veteran insurance lawyer that discovered a remarkable opportunity to help agents, brokers, carriers, and insureds. His use of data, powered by today's technologies, for the purpose of good is exciting to be a part of."

"Further, his interest in sharing technology that he has created for his own purposes is an adjacent opportunity for those in the space. It is mind-boggling to think of the billions of hours wasted by those seeking the information account by account that then needs to be manually entered, all of which he already has available at his fingertips or can provide for others to use. I am proud of him."

This pre-seed round will fuel Allium's growth and go-to-market strategy for all platform products. The recent advancements in Generative Artificial Intelligence have created a unique moment in time for early adopters to take advantage.

About Allium Data, Inc.

Allium Data, Inc. is a Boulder, CO-based insurtech SaaS company that seeks to disrupt the data intelligence industry in insurance by creating novel and unique products that solve data transparency, data integration, and data analytics issues.

About Markd

Markd is a venture capital company focused on funding and partnering with transformative insurtechs. It pays homage to the insurance industry's legacy while helping design its future. Markd's mission is to power substantial work and continually inspire more ideas to prevent hurt and loss.

SOURCE Allium Data, Inc
The brand will join InvestBev's portfolio of adult beverage brands including Cann, Ten to One Rum, Pilot Project Brewing, and Nomadica among others.

CHICAGO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- InvestBev, a leading private equity firm dedicated to the adult beverage industry, announced it has made a strategic investment in Thomas Ashbourne Craft Spirits, the woman-founded, award-winning brand of handcrafted, ready-to-sip classic cocktails created by CEO Cara Kamenev. The partnership will drive product innovation and retail expansion for the brand as well as back office infrastructure support.

InvestBev Makes Significant Strategic Investment in Thomas Ashbourne Craft Spirits to Fuel Innovation and Expansion

In addition to its focus on sustainable ingredients and an elevated drinking experience, Thomas Ashbourne is known for partnering with passionate and creative tastemakers who are deeply invested in their craft including Sarah Jessica Parker's The Perfect Cosmo; Neil Patrick Harris's The After Hours Espresso Martini; Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens and Rosario Dawson's The Margalicious Margarita; The Hardscatto from Playboi Carti and The Classic Old Fashioned house cocktail.

"We are excited to support Cara and the Thomas Ashbourne team as they elevate and expand the ready-to-drink category," said Brian Rosen, Managing Partner of InvestBev. "Thomas Ashbourne combines what today's consumers care about: taste, convenience, and sustainably-sourced, natural ingredients. Add to it the fact that Cara is a marketing genius who has built lasting talent partnerships that stand out, and you have all the ingredients for a brand whose growth has no limits. We are proud to have Thomas Ashbourne as an InvestBev Fund III investment."

"We are thrilled to be partnering with InvestBev, the leader in the adult beverage investment space," said Cara Kamenev, CEO of Thomas Ashbourne Craft Spirits. "Brian and his team bring unmatched expertise in the alcoholic beverage industry with a range of resources to further accelerate the growth of Thomas Ashbourne Craft Spirits. As we move into our next phase of brand development, it's imperative we align with a strategic capital partner like InvestBev  who maintain a proven track record of growing and supporting disruptive brands in the space. This partnership will greatly enhance our strategic capabilities as we establish leadership in the premium ready-to-drink category, expand our beverage portfolio, and connect more deeply with our consumers and retail partners."

InvestBev's investment in Thomas Ashbourne Craft Spirits reflects the firm's ongoing commitment to identifying and supporting innovative and promising ventures within the beverage sector. The brand will join InvestBev's impressive portfolio which includes Ten to One Rum, Cann, Pilot Project Brewing, Siempre, Nomadica, Fyllo, L'Uva Bella Winery, Basbas, and Speakeasy Co, and over $100 million of raw distillate holdings.

About Thomas Ashbourne Craft Spirits

Launched in summer 2022, Thomas Ashbourne Craft Spirits delivers a line of five premium, all-natural, and high-quality craft canned and bottled cocktails. In addition to the brand's house cocktails, Thomas Ashbourne is known for partnering with passionate and creative bold-faced names, who are deeply invested in their craft including Sarah Jessica Parker's The Perfect Cosmo; Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens and Rosario Dawson's The Margalicious Margarita; The Hardscatto from Playboi Carti; Neil Patrick Harris's The After Hours Espresso Martini and The Classic Old Fashioned house cocktail.

Led by CEO and Founder Cara Kamenev, Thomas Ashbourne continues to disrupt proof spirits and fresh ingredients. With a commitment to sustainability and philanthropy, Thomas Ashbourne supports Keep America Beautiful, the nation's leading community improvement organization.

Thomas Ashbourne ready-to-sip craft cocktails are sold direct-to-consumer as well as at brick-and-mortar stores nationwide. To learn more about Thomas Ashbourne and to discover where drinks are sold, please visit www.thomasashbourne.com.

About InvestBev

Founded by Brian Rosen in 2015, InvestBev Group, a division of Growth Beverage, has grown to become a top adult beverage private equity firm. Helmed by 3rd generation industry veteran Brian Rosen, IBG has raised nearly $200 million over the last four funds, as well as a $100 million credit fund called Algoma Cap. They specialize in short return windows while offering non-correlated investing as a cornerstone of their strategy.

Press Contact:

Lynn Munroe, 845-548-1211

SOURCE InvestBev
Mass participation of the European Commission

Africa Green Growth, the forum for African embassies, governments and institutions

Focus on water, energy, food (WEF-Nexus), the key connection for determining environmental impact

RIMINI, Italy, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Droughts, desertification, floods. Extreme phenomena are increasingly threatening the African continent and the need for green tech approaches and solutions is of the utmost relevance and urgency. Topics that will also be discussed during the international conferences at Ecomondo (26th edition), Italian Exhibition Group's (IEG) leading trade show for the green economy in Europe and the Mediterranean basin, to be held from 7th to 10th November in Rimini with 1,500 exhibiting brands in 28 halls occupying the entire Rimini Expo Centre premises.

From Technological processes to stop climate change, to EU-funded projects aimed at a more circular blue (bio)economy in the Mediterranean, the States General for Soil Health (2nd edition) to Africa Green Growth, to mention just a few of the events on the busy calendar organised by Ecomondo's Technical-Scientific Committee, directed by Professor Fabio Fava from Bologna University, in collaboration with the event's main institutional and technical partners, together with the international board of experts from the European Commission, OECD, FAO, UfM, EEA, ISWA.

A sold-out edition that has registered the participation of all the green supply chains on the foreign front, numerous delegations of top buyers, journalists, associations and institutional representatives from all over the world, thanks to the solid and valuable collaboration with ITA  Italian Trade Agency for the promotion and internationalisation of Italian companies abroad and with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Africa Green Forum (Thursday 9th November) organised by RES4Africa and Ecomondo's Technical-Scientific Committee, with the participation of the European Commission, will focus on the Water Energy Food (WEF) Nexus approach as an integral part of international development agendas. The conference, with institutional speakers and a large delegation of professionals from the African continent, will highlight the interconnections between water, energy and food systems, revealing business models and financing mechanisms capable of increasing economic productivity in an area like Africa, where the consumption and need for water, electricity and food is expected to grow exponentially in the future.

The constantly updated programme of events is available on the link

Contact:

Italian Exhibition Group Press Contacts

Head of media relation & corporate communication: Elisabetta Vitali

Press office manager: Marco Forcellini

International press office coordinator: Silvia Giorgi, [email protected], P. +39-0541-744814

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/723307/Italian_Exhibition_Group_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Italian Exhibition Group
SAN ANTONIO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Jacob and Arleen Garza, Co-Founders of REEP Equity, philanthropists, and dedicated community advocates, announced on Saturday, September 30th at THRU Project's "Betting on Success Casino Night" a generous pledge of $100,000 to support the San Antonio nonprofit's Next Step Housing Program, providing housing to former foster youth.

Jacob Garza, Arleen Garza, Courtney Laverty and Greg Laverty

THRU Project is a nonprofit organization committed to bridging the gap between foster care and adulthood for youth who age out of the foster care system. The Next Step Housing Program provides an apartment, rent-free, while also providing support services and assisting youth in learning the basic life skills needed to live independently.

The Garzas' donation will support the housing for four young adults over the next four years.

Having the opportunity of a rent-free apartment allows youth a sense of stability and safety so they may focus on other areas of their life like elevating their job status, applying for college or trade school, or both.

"We are immensely grateful to Jacob and Arleen Garza for their remarkable generosity," said Courtney Laverty, THRU Project's CEO. "We are thrilled to have the Garza's join our network of donors, which also includes the San Antonio Apartment Association. Today, we have a waiting list of young adults who are in need of housing. The Garza Family's generous support will enable us to continue our vital work and extend our reach to even more young adults who have experienced the challenges of aging out of the foster care system. This donation is a true testament to their commitment to making a positive impact in their community and being champions of causes that are creating a brighter future for those who need it most."

"Jacob and I believe that every young person deserves a chance to thrive, " said Arleen Garza. "As owners of apartment communities in San Antonio, we have seen the impact that providing quality housing has on the tenants in those communities and our support of the San Antonio THRU Project allows us to partner with them to fulfill their mission to empower former foster youth with the tools they need to build successful, independent lives."

The Garzas' hope their contribution will serve as an example for others in the San Antonio area to join the mission of supporting foster youth in their transition to adulthood.

For more information about the THRU Project and how you can get involved, please visit THRU Project | Resources for San Antonio Area Foster Youth

About Jacob and Arleen Garza:

Jacob and Arleen Garza are the Co-Founders of REEP (Real Estate Equity Partners), headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. Since 2012, REEP Equity has bought, sold, and managed 30 apartment communities throughout Texas (20 in San Antonio). The Garzas are well-respected community advocates in San Antonio, known for their dedication to supporting initiatives that improve the lives of individuals and families facing challenges. Their commitment to giving back has left a lasting positive impact on the community.

About THRU Project:

THRU Project is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to helping youth overcome the challenges of growing up in the foster care system by providing guidance, support, and access to resources. Through mentorship programs, life skills classes, housing, and mental health services, THRU Project helps youth bridge the gap between foster care and adulthood and achieve self-sufficiency.

For media inquiries and further information, please contact:

Vanessa Garza

7269997570

[email protected]

SOURCE REEP Equity
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell speaks during a joint press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba (not pictured) after the informal EU-Ukraine Foreign Ministers Meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, 02 October 2023.

The European Unions foreign policy chief on Monday led a delegation of top diplomats on an unannounced visit to Kyiv and dismissed concerns about political tension in the bloc over its long-term support for Ukraines fight against Russia.

Though largely symbolic, the informal meeting between EU and Ukrainian diplomats demonstrated the EUs clear commitment to Ukraine in its 19-month-long war, Josep Borrell said. The EU remains united in its support to Ukraine  I dont see any member state folding on their engagement, Borrell told a news conference in the Ukrainian capital.

The gathering was the first time EU foreign ministers have met outside the bloc and in a war zone, according to Borrell. The talks took place after the weekend election victory in EU member Slovakia of former Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose pro-Russian agenda has increased the question marks about the EUs continued support for Kyiv.

The small eastern European country could bring more tension to the EUs discussions on Ukraine, as has happened with Hungarys at-times cool attitude toward Kyiv. Budapest has maintained close relations with Moscow and argued against supplying arms to Ukraine or providing it with economic assistance. Slovakia operates a key rail line used to transport western military hardware to Ukraine.

The EU, the United States and the United Kingdom have provided massive military and financial support to Ukraine, enabling it to stand up to the Kremlins attack. The assistance is crucial for Ukraines weakened economy and has so far been open-ended.

But uncertainty has set in over how long Kyivs allies will keep sending aid worth billions of dollars (euros). U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday reassured allies of continued U.S. financial support for the war effort, after Congress averted a government shutdown by adopting a short-term funding package that dropped assistance for Ukraine in its battle against Russia.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that Biden had rallied more than 140 countries to condemn Russias invasion and built a coalition of more than 50 countries to provide aid to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russias finances are deteriorating in part over sanctions.

There is a strong, very strong international coalition behind Ukraine, Jean-Pierre said. And if Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks he can outlast us, hes wrong. Many U.S. lawmakers acknowledge that winning approval for Ukraine assistance in Congress is growing more difficult as the war grinds on.

Borrell, at his news conference, insisted the EU is devoted to sustained engagement with Ukraine. Our resolve  is firm and will continue, he said. He ticked off a list of ongoing commitments the 27-nation EU has made and hopes to make, including proposed military aid of 5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) next year, a target to train some 40,000 Ukrainian troops and possible joint arms industry ventures between EU and Ukrainian defense companies.

Other signs of the EUs commitment include help with cyber defense, a demining program to enable Ukraines postwar recovery and the reform of Ukrainian law enforcement to crack down on corruption, Borrell said. But the EUs strongest security commitment for Ukraine is to grant it membership of the bloc, he said.

Ukraine is bent on becoming a member of the EU, and EU officials have encouraged that course, even though it could take years amid a war of attrition with no end in sight. With every village, with every meter that Ukraine liberates, with every meter in which it rescues its people, it is also paving its way to the European Union, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters in Kyiv.

Both Ukraine and the European side are determined to move forward at maximum speed, taking into account all the reforms that Ukraine has carried out, is currently carrying out and will continue to implement, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

Kuleba also offered reassurances about the countrys allies after the U.S. Congress left Ukraine aid out of its funding package. Kuleba told reporters that Ukraine held discussions with representatives of both parties in Congress to ensure more help will arrive.

The decision was taken as it was, but we are now working with both sides of the Congress to make sure that it does not repeat again under any circumstances, Kuleba said. The question is whether what happens in the U.S. Congress last weekend is an incident or a system. I think it was an incident, he added.

Kuleba said he also urged the foreign minsters to provide maximum support to their defense companies in building cooperation with Ukrainian defense companies. Such cooperation recently became a frequent topic in the talks between Ukraine and its partners.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that he did not doubt that Washington will continue to be directly involved in the conflict. At the same time, Putin is wagering that international support for Kyiv will sooner or later begin to flag. Peskov said the fatigue will eventually bring fragmentation of Ukraines foreign assistance.

U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps insisted Monday that the U.S. was a long way from withdrawing its support from Ukraine, and he reaffirmed the British commitment. Britain will, regardless of what happens elsewhere, take a leadership role, Shapps said during a meeting at the Conservative Partys annual conference in northern England.

Borrell said the peace proposal offered by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is the only one still under discussion by international leaders, Borrell claimed, after competing efforts by China and some African leaders faded away.

Zelenskiys 10-point plan, which demands Russias total withdrawal from Ukrainian soil, includes establishing a special tribunal to prosecute Russian war crimes and building a European-Atlantic security architecture with guarantees for Ukraine.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said the only way to achieve peace is to inflict an unequivocal military defeat on Russia and then rebuild Ukraine. This path is achievable if the West commits to supporting Ukraine in the prolonged effort likely needed to walk down it, the agency said in an assessment published Sunday.

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Local artisanal stores no longer need to open brick and mortar locations to grow, Jingle empowers mobile stores that deliver in minutes at a fraction of the cost

MENLO PARK, Calif., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Jingle , a platform that enables local stores to go mobile, connect with consumers directly, and do their own deliveries, today announced that Bessemer Venture Partners has joined its seed round, totaling the amount raised to $2.9 million. The other participants of the round are angel investors, mostly from Silicon Valley and Europe.

New delivery startup Jingle, provides a digital platform for sellers of goods and services to carry out their own deliveries and go mobile. It's the neighborhood ice cream truck for everything and drums up local demand for mobile shops such as bakeries, ice cream makers as well as services in grooming, personal training, knife sharpening and more. Jingle will become a marketplace that gives retailers an alternative to brick-and-mortar stores in new markets and a means of discovering new demand. Jingle has faster delivery and lower fees. Consumers pay a flat $2.99 delivery fee - a fraction of what other services charge.

The investment will allow the company to bring more vendors to its mobile store platform and grow its consumer base. Jingle offers delivery of artisanal foods, as well as services such as mani-pedi, knife sharpening, personal training and many other household services vendors on their platform. The company operates in the San Francisco Bay Area and intends to grow into Southern California and other West Coast locations.

Jingle was founded in 2022 with the vision to eliminate high delivery fees and wait times for foods and services, as well as create a new channel for artisanal local stores to grow. Unlike other delivery services where items are "pulled" from a store upon an order, Jingle employs the "push" model where mobile stores stocked with products, drive around neighborhoods and notify users when they are close by allowing faster and cheaper delivery. Think of it like an ice cream truck with an app.

While demand for delivery has grown, the challenge has been cost, quality and time. With Jingle, consumers pay less than one-third the delivery costs on other services, and food can be delivered within minutes from stores l out of the delivery reach of other platforms.

"It is much cheaper and faster to order ice cream from ice cream trucks that are driving through your neighborhood than to order from a fixed based store. Jingle brings the 'dim sum' model for food and services delivery," said Baris Karadogan, co-founder and CEO of Jingle.

"With Jingle we don't need to open brick and mortar stores to reach new customers. Jingle presents a fresh new distribution model, and we are happy to be partners," said Beck Sunseri, Founder of Tin Pot Creamery who has been with Jingle for nearly 6 months.

"With Jingle we are able to further expand our distribution without the investment of brick-and-mortar stores. And in a fun and spontaneous way that may appeal to new customers," said Jina Osumi, CEO of Humphry Slocombe, who joined the Jingle platform in early 2023.

"Jingle is building a platform that turns the delivery model on its head. Mobile stores offer faster and cheaper delivery, and allow the business to have a direct relationship with customers," said David Cowan, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. "I speak as a happy customer myself. Jingle is my go-to source for local ice cream and croissants."

About Jingle

Jingle is a platform that enables local stores to go mobile, connect with consumers directly, and do their own deliveries, and provides consumers with a convenient, cost-effective way to enjoy their favorite foods and local services. The company was co-founded in 2022 by Silicon Valley veteran Baris Karadogan and is headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif. More information can be found at www.jingle-app.com .

PR contact: Alison Stout at Aspire PR  [email protected] or (415) 307-1682

SOURCE Jingle
MIAMI, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Amerijet International Airlines, a leading cargo airline, announced today that Chief Financial Officer, Joe Mozzali, will be appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) effective October 7.

Amerijet International Airlines

Mozzali has a long track record of success in international transportation and logistics. Before joining Amerijet in February 2023, the 30-year industry veteran held an extensive array of senior leadership roles in finance and strategy at UPS. Mozzali's global experience includes serving as Chief Financial Officer of UPS Airlines, Chief Financial Officer of UPS International & Supply Chain, Vice President of Strategy for UPS Europe, Middle East and Africa and Chief Executive Officer of Kiala, a European e-commerce logistics company acquired by UPS.

"We are very excited about Joe becoming Amerijet's next CEO. His leadership skills, strategic insights, deep industry knowledge, and disciplined management style make him the perfect choice to lead our company. We have great confidence in Joe's ability to lead us to new heights as the air cargo carrier of choice," said Bob Horne, a partner at ZS Fund L.P. and Amerijet board member.

"I am thrilled and honored by the opportunity to lead Team Amerijet as we execute our vision to be the go-to, world-class cargo carrier of choice for our customers and our people," said Mozzali.

With the entire cargo sector facing cooling macroeconomic conditions after several years of strong growth, Mozzali will lead continuous improvement efforts involving Amerijet's people, processes, and technology. "Over the past several years, Amerijet has significantly expanded its fleet and entered into new markets while diversifying its service offerings. With much of the industry facing cost and demand headwinds, success demands agility, innovation, and disciplined operational excellence with a surgical focus on enhancing the customer experience. We will leverage our current strengths while continuing to build foundations for future growth," Mozzali said.

Mozzali replaces outgoing CEO Tim Strauss, who is retiring. "We thank Tim for his excellent leadership during a period of tremendous growth for Amerijet over the past three years and wish him well in his retirement," said Horne.

About Amerijet

With nearly 50 years of experience in the air cargo industry, Amerijet operates a dedicated fleet of freighters from its primary hub at the Miami International Airport to destinations throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The company provides approximately 450 million Available Tonne Kilometers (ATKs) of freighter capacity throughout its scheduled service region annually. Amerijet's portfolio of worldwide scheduled as well as long and short-term contracted charter services provide seamless and transparent transportation solutions for a variety of customers across many industries.

Amerijet's primary hub, located at the Miami International Airport, consists of 360,000 square feet of warehouse space and a 40,000 square foot refrigerated perishable handling center. The Amerijet facility is the most modern cargo warehouse at the airport. The integrated import/export warehouse features automated freight weighing and dimensioning stations, ULD management, and by-pass roller systems to maximize handling efficiencies. Advanced monitoring procedures, real-time shipment alerts, and cargo tracking provide end-to-end visibility of every shipment.

More information about Amerijet can be accessed at www.amerijet.com

SOURCE Amerijet International Airlines
DALLAS, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Comerica Bank Women's Business Symposium returns to North Texas this October, helping women in business Learn, Connect, Grow & Celebrate their potential. The popular business networking event will be held on Thursday, October 12, from 10 a.m.  3 p.m. CT at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory (300 West Las Colinas Boulevard; Irving, TX 75039).

Comerica Bank Women's Business Symposium

Now in its fifth year, the Comerica Bank Women's Business Symposium, designed with women in mind, provides business owners, executives and professionals at all levels as well as entrepreneurs from across North Texas to learn from inspiring speakers, connect with like-minded individuals, grow personally and professionally and celebrate their potential.

Moderator Eva Saha will lead a conversation with featured guest Marlee Matlin, Academy Award-winning actress and devoted social activist.

Emceeing the Comerica Bank Women's Business Symposium is celebrity chef, syndicated radio host and cookbook author Jamie Gwen. Joining Gwen on stage is a powerful lineup of speakers that include:

Gaby Natale : A sought-after thought leader and motivational speaker, Natale is the first Latina to win three Daytime Emmys back-to-back (as host and executive producer of her own show), the first Hispanic author to be published by HarperCollins' Leadership division and one of the few foreign-born writers to narrate their audiobook in English.

This year's event opens with Conversations at Comerica, a moderated panel discussion led by Laura Harris, co-anchor of NBC 5 Today's weekday mornings, featuring three extraordinary change-makers who lead as women founders and executives, including:

Katie Aung , Executive Chairwoman of GBC Food Services and Yummi Sushi , co-founded Yummi Sushi in 2010 and leads one of the nation's largest providers of premium sushi products and services, as recently cited in the Wall Street Journal.

, co-founded Yummi Sushi in 2010 and leads one of the nation's largest providers of premium sushi products and services, as recently cited in the Wall Street Journal. Jasmin Brand , Founder and CEO of HER Texas , is an award-winning marketer, published author and serial entrepreneur who has built a solid reputation as an out-of-the-box strategist and expert at the business of strategic innovation and ecosystem development.

, is an award-winning marketer, published author and serial entrepreneur who has built a solid reputation as an out-of-the-box strategist and expert at the business of strategic innovation and ecosystem development. Dr. Froswa' Booker-Drew, President and CEO of Soulstice Consultancy, LLC, provides philanthropic guidance, community engagement strategies, leadership, and organizational culture work for companies and nonprofits.

To register, or for more information, visit https://events.comerica.com/wbsdfw2023. A portion of the proceeds from the event will benefit Viola's House.

Since its inception, the program has successfully engaged thousands of attendees across Comerica's markets with a variety of speakers and conversations.

About Comerica

Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA) is a financial services company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and strategically aligned by three business segments: The Commercial Bank, The Retail Bank and Wealth Management. Comerica, one of the 25 largest U.S. financial holding companies, focuses on building relationships and helping people and businesses be successful. Comerica provides more than 400 banking centers across the country with locations in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Texas. Founded 174 years ago in Detroit, Michigan, Comerica continues to expand into new regions, including its Southeast Market, based in North Carolina, and Mountain West Market in Colorado. Comerica has offices in 17 states and services 14 of the 15 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, as well as Canada and Mexico. Comerica reported total assets of $90.8 billion at June 30, 2023. Learn more about how Comerica is raising expectations of what a bank can be by visiting www.comerica.com, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Comerica Bank
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE: LDOS) announced today that it received a contract award from NASA extending production of the company's Laser Air Monitoring System (LAMS) for Artemis IV and V missions. The follow-on contract, worth $14.1 million, was awarded in August and will extend for a period of 19 months. The total contract value of $37.8 million includes the completed fabrication of LAMS for the Artemis III, IV and V missions to the moon.

This will be an important part of the ORION spacecrafts Environmental Controls and Life Support Systems (ECLSS). Each mission will require four individual LAMS units, as well as one spare unit.

This will be an important part of the ORION spacecraft's Environmental Controls and Life Support Systems (ECLSS). Each mission will require four individual LAMS units, as well as one spare unit.

"This extension reaffirms the importance of LAMS to the ORION Program and our commitment to NASA's mission," said Leidos Space Division Manager for the Dynetics Group Robert Wright. "This is a long journey of product research, development and improvement of the particular units in ECLSS, which will support protecting astronaut life. We are relying on the success of our previous work and feedback from NASA to ensure these systems are both resilient and effective."

"We have a talented team of committed engineers working on this exciting NASA program, and they are ready to build and deliver nine LAMS units for both Artemis IV and V missions," said Trista Niemann, Leidos LAMS Program Manager.

LAMS is the first air monitor for a human spacecraft to use this type of technology.

Work on the contract will take place in Huntsville, Alabama. Testing is scheduled to take place at various NASA sites before delivery to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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 31, 2021, 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 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.

Media Contacts:

Alyssa Pettus

Dynetics Group Communications Director

O: 571-526-6743 | C: 571-992-5499

[email protected]

Mackenzie Hicks

Dynetics Communications Specialist

O: 256-964-4034 | C: 2556-929-5229

[email protected]

SOURCE Leidos
MEDINA COUNTY, Ohio, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Lit Fiber, a leading telecommunications provider, proudly announces a remarkable achievement: successfully installing over 1,000,000 feet of fiber optic cable in Medina County, Ohio. With the final feet pulled in August, this marks a significant step toward closing the digital divide for their residents.

Overcoming Challenges

The journey to this milestone wasn't without hurdles. Lit Fiber faced the challenge of keeping residents informed while minimizing disruption. Michael Jones, Director of Field Operations, said, "Informing residents and sharing progress were key challenges." Yet, strategic planning ensured transparency with the community.

Navigating permitting agencies was another obstacle, but Lit Fiber's strong relationships and collaboration eased the process, according to Drew Housand, Director of Permitting.

Successes and Lessons

Early collaboration with their internal marketing team allowed Lit Fiber to engage the community before construction, mitigating potential issues. Strong alliances with the Medina County Fiber Network (MCFN) and the Medina Port Authority played a significant role. "We could not have surpassed the 1,000,000-foot mark without the partnership we created with Dave Corrado, CEO of Medina County Fiber Network," said Michael Jones.

Coordination with utility partners expedited underground work. By managing daily footage calls to 811 in tandem with utilities, Lit Fiber increased productivity, eliminating duplicate marking efforts.

Looking Ahead

Lit Fiber remains dedicated to advancing connectivity and continues to transform communities through reliable, high-speed telecommunications solutions. Michael Jones expressed gratitude, stating, "We extend our deepest thanks to our partners, collaborators, and the entire Medina County community for their unwavering support. This milestone is a testament to what can be achieved when vision and determination come together."

About Lit Fiber

Lit Fiber takes a community-first approach to providing residents and businesses with fiber-optic internet and advanced telecommunications solutions. Our mission is to empower and educate communities and individuals through our services. By collaborating closely with communities, deploying local construction teams, and hiring support staff in-market, Lit Fiber is committed to delivering high-speed broadband access to unserved and underserved regions, while also fostering opportunities for economic impact in the communities we serve. To learn more about our transformative initiatives, please visit www.Lit-Fiber.com.

SOURCE Lit Communities - LW
The Steuben County-based manufacturing site marks the 13th siding facility in LP's portfolio

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- LP Building Solutions (LP), a leading manufacturer of high-performance building products, today announced the opening of its new state-of-the-art LP SmartSide ExpertFinish prefinishing facility in Bath, New York. The 90,000-square-foot facility will bring more than 60 new jobs to the area over the next several years.

"I am honored to be a part of this historic day for both LP and the town of Bath." Jason Ringblom Post this LP Building Solutions opens new LP SmartSide ExpertFinish facility in Bath, New York.

Located on 75 acres in Steuben County, New York, the new multimillion-dollar ExpertFinish prefinishing facility will help LP meet customer demand for its high-quality, sustainable products. To celebrate the facility's opening, LP and Steuben County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony today with speakers from New York state and local government.

At the ceremony, LP Executive Vice President, General Manager of Siding Jason Ringblom expressed LP's enthusiasm to join the Bath community and expand the company's prefinished home siding offerings in the Northeastern U.S.

"I am honored to be a part of this historic day for both LP and the town of Bath," said Ringblom. "LP's prefinished siding product, ExpertFinish, has seen strong growth since its 2020 launch. By expanding into the Northeast, we can better serve the popular new home construction and repair and remodel markets in the region. Additionally, we are excited to welcome Steuben County and its highly skilled workforce to the LP family. We look forward to the mutual benefits this collaboration will undoubtedly bring."

With the establishment of its first New York-based facility, LP celebrates the opening of its 23rd manufacturing site and its 13th siding facility across North and South America. This new facility joins LP's three existing siding prefinishing facilitiesLP Roaring River, LP Green Bay and LP St. Louis.

"LP chose to expand into the Southern Tier thanks to the top-tier talent and industry assets that are invaluable to the region's success," said Empire State Development President, CEO and Commissioner Hope Knight. "This project highlights how our strategic incentives to foster forward-thinking companies are helping to strengthen the economy and create good-paying jobs, both in Steuben County and across New York State."

The Southern Tier region of New York is ideally suited for ExpertFinish production due to its proximity to the Northeastern U.S. and Eastern Canada siding markets. LP will receive its exterior home siding product at the new facility via rail from its siding production mills. The material will then be painted, packaged and distributed via LP's existing network throughout the Northeast and beyond.

The facility, which first broke ground in July 2022, was celebrated by more than 100 attendees at today's ribbon-cutting ceremony. Speakers included Executive Vice President, General Manager of Siding Jason Ringblom, LP New York Plant Manager Jonathon O'Hora, New York State Senator Thomas F. O'Mara, New York State Assemblymember Philip A. Palmesano, Steuben County Manager Jack Wheeler, Steuben County IDA Executive Director James C. Johnson, and Town of Bath Supervisor Ronald Smith.

"The Steuben County IDA would like to thank LP for its commitment to and investment in our community," said Steuben County IDA Executive Director James C. Johnson. "Today's celebration is the culmination of the hard work of many individuals and a vision held by those involved to transform this site into an economic engine for Bath. We look forward to supporting the LP team beyond this celebration and working together to promote future growth of its business in Steuben County."

For over 20 years, LP SmartSide Trim & Siding has provided customers with the beauty of traditional wood with the advanced durability of engineered wood. To complement the SmartSide portfolio, ExpertFinish Trim & Siding, the prefinished siding product LP will produce at its Bath site, is available in 16 versatile prefinished colors. Finished in the factory with acrylic latex paint, the ExpertFinish color collection is guaranteed to look great and remain durable for years to come. ExpertFinish lap also features a proprietary joint that helps builders avoid the need for seam caulking, joint molds or pan flashing.

To learn more about ExpertFinish prefinished siding, click here.

About LP Building Solutions

As a leader in high-performance building solutions, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (LP Building Solutions, NYSE: LPX) manufactures engineered wood products that meet the demands of builders, remodelers and homeowners worldwide. LP's extensive portfolio of innovative and dependable products includes Siding Solutions (LP SmartSide Trim & Siding, LP SmartSide ExpertFinish Trim & Siding, LP BuilderSeries Lap Siding and LP Outdoor Building Solutions), LP Structural Solutions (LP TechShield Radiant Barrier, LP WeatherLogic Air & Water Barrier, LP Legacy Premium Sub-Flooring, LP FlameBlock Fire-Rated Sheathing, LP NovaCore Thermal Insulated Sheathing and LP TopNotch 350 Durable Sub-Flooring) and oriented strand board (OSB). In addition to product solutions, LP provides industry-leading customer service and warranties. Since its founding in 1972, LP has been Building a Better World by helping customers construct beautiful, durable homes while shareholders build lasting value. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, LP operates 23 plants across the U.S., Canada, Chile and Brazil. For more information, visit LPCorp.com.

SOURCE LP Building Solutions
WWW.CHARLIEBABYCOUTURE.COM

TORONTO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Luxury pet brand CharlieBaby has just launched the first style in its high-end dog fashion line. Made in Italy using tailoring techniques as traditional fashion houses, CharlieBaby is taking canine style to the next level with stylish bespoke garments.

CharlieBaby Founder Khary Dandy with his canine companies Charlie and Baby L'ARMURE

Styled with Ragland sleeves and accented with gold studs, L'Armure is made with 100% polyamide recycled nylon, faux leather trim, Bemberg Cupro lining, and high-quality notations and trims, lurex ribbed collars and cuffs allow for comfort and ease. Thindown Rio Boosted Insulation keeps your furry companion warm on colder days.

"Charlie Baby was created to fill the void between mass-produced and ill-fitting dog apparel," says CharlieBaby founder Khary Dandy. "I wanted to create a luxury house dedicated exclusively to pet garments and accessories using the finest materials and paying attention to detail, fit, comfort, and ease of wear."

From chihuahuas to cocker spaniels, the first style, L'Armure, is available in six sizes to fit most small to medium-sized dogs. The black diamond quilted bomber jacket is meticulously hand-sewn in a workshop in Italy.

The lack of high-quality, luxury dog apparel inspired founder Khary Dandy to launch CharlieBaby, a luxury house dedicated exclusively to pet garments and accessories. Following traditional fashion houses' footsteps, Dandy enlisted the help of Italian suit tailor Jean-Paul Logiacco to develop the intricate design for CharlieBaby's first and signature product, L'Armure. They created a bespoke garment comprising 20 pieces using tailoring methods of high-end designer suits.

Prioritizing slow fashion, impeccable standards for quality and craftsmanship, and a commitment to sustainable practices naturally led to production based in Italy. Materials are sourced in Italy and France and then meticulously hand-sewn in a workshop in Italy. The name CharlieBaby was adopted for Dandy's cherished canine companion, Charlie. For more information, please visit charliebabycouture.com.

TO PURCHASE

The first style, L'Armure, is available in various sizes for pre-order starting at $965 CAD and ships in six weeks. CharlieBaby pledges to donate 5% of its gross revenues to charities dedicated to improving the lives of dogs. Visit charliebabycouture.com for more details.

THE FOUNDER/DESIGNER

KHARY DANDY

CharlieBaby is, at its core, an expression of artistry. Visionary founder Khary Dandy spent most of his professional career creating music and was prolific in performance and songwriting. His recording group Hotsauce signed with Elektra Records in the late '90s, after which he spent years writing music for Universal Music Publishing Group.

As a connoisseur of haute couture, the transition into fashion was seamless for an artistic chameleon such as himself. Dandy's insatiable curiosity, impeccable taste, and appreciation for the craft drive his continued pursuits of creative expression.

CONTACT

PRESS/MEDIA

For sample requests, additional images, and interviews with CharlieBaby founder

Khary Dandy, please contact:

Ayana West, OSNND

[email protected], (470) 231-6215

SOURCE CharlieBaby
Newly appointed Publisher, Jennifer Woodring, and Managing Editor, Lisa Klein Powers, have taken the helm of the lauded lifestyle publication, which is now available on newsstands worldwide

CHICAGO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- An exhilarating compendium of must-see destinations, exquisite treasures, and statement-making designs punctuates the latest issue of Luxury Portfolio magazine, the iconic, biannual publication produced by Luxury Portfolio International (LPI) -- the exclusive prime property network comprising more than 250 of the world's premier independent residential real estate brokerages.

On newsstands today -- and also available digitally via LuxuryPortfolio.com -- the freshly revealed edition was overseen by Publisher Jennifer Woodring and Managing Editor Lisa Klein Powers. Both Woodring and Klein Powers were promoted to their current roles following years of work with Luxury Portfolio magazine. Under their direction, featured stories in "Volume 13, Issue 2" include an extremely rare look into one of the world's most intriguing private islands, Mustique, what's triggering a resurgence in maximalist design, and an in-depth tour of an enchanting, turn-of-the-20th-century Art Nouveau greenhouse in Lake Como, presented by LPI member Property At Lake Como. From fine arts to pop culture, the magazine puts a spectacular spotlight on some of life's greatest joys and bucket list-worthy experiences.

"Joie de vivre, the French art of a spirited, almost purposeful, zest for life was the muse for the latest edition of Luxury Portfolio," said Klein Powers, who was a senior staff writer for the magazine before being named to the top spot. "This is something easy to lose sight of in our fast-paced world, but with each feature and breathtaking property in this issue, we celebrate the most important luxury of all in life  enjoying it."

In an added nod to timeless designs and synergetic works of art -- pillars of Luxury Portfolio International's foundation and mainstays of the prime properties it showcases worldwide -- the publication's sublime cover features a stunning interior by Raymon Boozer of New York-based Apartment 48 Interior Design, complete with artwork by Andy Dixon.

"We are thrilled to present the newest issue of Luxury Portfolio magazine," said Woodring, who is also the Vice President of Luxury Portfolio International. "It is a testament to our unwavering commitment at Luxury Portfolio International to celebrate extraordinary real estate and the world of luxury. At the core of luxury are exceptional experiences, and this issue beautifully captures the essence of indulging in the joie de vivre lifestyle."

Additional articles and exposes include a vibrant, multi-page spread about Jaipur's deep-rooted block printing traditions, as well as a conversation between Klein Powers and expert gem masters and jewelers from Graff, 1stDibs, and Milan-based Pomellato, who delve into the historical and cultural significance of precious stones. Interviews with French interior designer Stephanie Coutas and Melbourne, Australia-based lighting designer Christopher Boots provide brilliant insights into the history of chandeliers and their significance today within some of the world's greatest interior designs. Swoon-worthy real estate is also explored throughout the magazine -- from a striking, architectural masterpiece in Muskoka, Canada, the "Bridgehouse," (presented by LPI member Bosley Real Estate), to a Napa Valley, Calif. Tuscan-style, custom-built retreat with a working vineyard (presented by member Vanguard Properties).

Luxury Portfolio has a readership of more than 200,000 high-net-worth individuals globally. It is distributed at Barnes & Noble and newsstands across the U.S. and Canada, shipped to top LPI member clients in more than 70 countries, and available in top FBOs in over 30 markets around the U.S. as well as international airport lounges.

In addition to accessing the digital edition at luxuryportfolio.com/magazine, requests for print copies can also be submitted through the site.

ABOUT LUXURY PORTFOLIO INTERNATIONAL (LPI)

Luxury Portfolio International (luxuryportfolio.com) is the leading network of the world's premier luxury real estate brokerages and their top agents, offering unparalleled marketing and intelligence services across the globe. It is the luxury arm of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World the global network of top independent real estate firms, with 550 companies and 136,000 sales associates in over 70 countries. Last year, network members participated in over 1.2 million global transactions. LPI attracts a global audience of visitors from over 200 countries/territories every month and markets more than 50,000 luxury homes annually. Well Connected.

CONTACT:

Israel Kreps

Caroline Underwood

[email protected]

[email protected]

Kreps PR & Marketing

SOURCE Luxury Portfolio International
On October 6, MAG Interactive is once again participating in the One Special Day charity fundraiser to support differently abled gamers.

STOCKHOLM, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- MAG lnteractive is proud to support the charity fundraiser One Special Day for the seventh consecutive year. The annual event raises funds to assist differently abled gamers. MAG will donate all revenue generated in the UK on October 6 from all games to the charity.



One Special Day is organized by the British non-profit organization SpecialEffect. The donations go to developing technology and building special game rigs that assist differently abled gamers in playing their favorite games.



"We are proud to once more support SpecialEffect and the fantastic work that they do to ensure fun and fulfilling game experiences for differently abled gamers. We hope that participating in the fundraiser can help them reach their goals and be able to help even more gamers play their favorite games than before," says Daniel Hasselberg, CEO at MAG Interactive.



One Special Day 2023 takes place on October 6 and is supported this year by over 90 gaming companies worldwide.



About SpecialEffect

Since 2016 the UK based charity SpecialEffect has organized One Special Day on an annual basis to raise money that benefits gamers with disabilities. SpecialEffect uses video games and technology to enhance the quality of life for people with various disabilities. From controller modifications to eye-control, all customized gaming setups are designed to suit the specific individual needs of every person regardless of his or her disability. The charity's projects and resources for game developers including its virtual dev kit and dedicated website www.gameacess.info are increasingly having a global impact, including Eye Gaze Games that assists gamers with disabilities in over 50 countries to play games at no charge. For more information visit http://www.specialeffect.org.uk

For additional information, please contact:

Tove Bengtsson / Communication Lead / +46 (0)72-220 73 22 / [email protected]

SOURCE MAG Interactive
Magnitude Digital, a key marketing agency partner of the prestigious 2023 Milken-Penn GSE Business Plan Competition, launches the Magnitude Digital Startup Grant Program with a focus on growth and late-stage startups.

NEW YORK, Oct. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Magnitude Digital, a full-service digital marketing agency with over a decade of expertise building performance and product marketing strategies for startups at varying stages to established publicly traded brands. The agency is launching the Magnitude Digital Startup Grant , an application-based program offered to all growth and late stage emerging businesses. The program's goal is to identify high-growth prospects and to invest our expert agency resources to achieve critical mass and long-term success for selected startups with a focus on North American and European markets.

"Our robust digital strategy and execution help startups compete in an ever-evolving landscape." - Mike Kujanek, CEO Post this Magnitude Digital Startup Grant Program

The Magnitude Digital Startup Grant will launch its inaugural program at the Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition on October 4, 2023. The service grants will be valued up to $10,000 USD in free agency marketing services to selected applicants on a rolling quarterly basis. The selected applicants will receive the digital agency's advisory and consulting program custom-tailored to the startup's needs. Such services could encompass, but are not limited to:

Paid Media and SEO Audits

Custom Product Marketing Strategies

Performance Marketing Guidance

Funnel Strategy Consultations

Data Feed & CRM integrations

Advanced Analytics

Mobile User Acquisition

Audience Development & Management

Media Buying Services

Product Marketing Advisory

Interested businesses can start their application by visiting the Startup Grant's webpage and completing the online form. For more details on the Magnitude Digital Startup Grant, visit magnitudedigital.com/startup .

Media Contact:

Tom Farrell

(212) 257-9378

[email protected]

About Magnitude Digital

Magnitude Digital is an award-winning full-service digital marketing agency. The agency's focus lies in crafting and implementing strategies to empower brand and sales growth. Headquartered in New York, NY and with locations worldwide, Magnitude Digital and its client work have been recognized with over 25 industry awards and is a 3-time Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Business. Magnitude Digital brings together over a decade of expertise, enterprise-level technology, and premium partners to achieve success in digital acquisition marketing. Execution focuses on multiple channels including Paid Search, Paid Social, Mobile App Marketing, Programmatic Display and Connected TV, and SEO. For more information, please visit www.magnitudedigital.com .

SOURCE Magnitude Digital
Just two weeks after war broke out in Sudan between the regular military, the Armed Forces of Sudan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) was already issuing warnings that the heavy fighting was forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. After a month and a half of hostilities, the country had recorded more than 2.2 million internally displaced people, a figure similar to what had been documented over the previous 10 years due to a series of conflicts in Sudan. By mid-September, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the figure exceeded four million people, just over 9% of the countrys population, an average of 26,500 people per day.

Almost 70% of refugees from the current war have fled the capital Khartoum, where much of the heaviest fighting has taken place, and the Darfur region (30%), according to the IOM.

In addition, some 3.8 million people had already been forced to leave their homes and migrate to safer regions of the country prior to April 2023 due to the violence that has plagued Sudan for years. Thus, UNHCR estimates that Sudan is currently the country with the highest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world, with more than seven million, ahead of other states ravaged by armed conflicts such as Ukraine and Syria. More than 1.2 million refugees have fled beyond Sudans borders.

Almost 70% of refugees from the current war have fled the capital Khartoum, where much of the heaviest fighting has taken place, and the Darfur region (30%), according to the IOM

Many of those who have fled their homes have done so with little more than the clothes on their backs, placing pressure on host communities where in many cases resources and access to basic services were already limited before the war. All of this has increased the humanitarian requirements in Sudan, where today an estimated 25 million people  over half the entire population  are in urgent need of assistance. The influx of new IDPs in some parts of Sudan has overwhelmed public services and resources in the areas of arrival, especially in terms of shelter, health care, education and other services such as civil registration, water, energy and sanitation, says Assadullah Nasrullah, UNHCRs communications officer in the country.

Most of the IDPs registered in the country before 2023 were already taking refuge in areas subsequently affected by the war that broke out in April. As such, some people could have been displaced for a second or a third time, which would result in a double count, warns Clementine Andre, coordinator for Africa and the Middle East at the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

Added to all this are the effects of the heavy rains and floods that have hit some regions of Sudan since July, affecting more than 70,000 people, especially in states in the north, center and west of the country. The same people displaced by the war may have been displaced by the floods. Many families may have experienced multiple displacements in the last six months, says Andre.

Before April, by far the worst-affected region was Darfur, where ex-dictator Omar al-Bashir launched a ferocious offensive and ethnic cleansing campaign in 2003  carried out by many of the militias that today make up the Rapid Support Forces  with the aim of quelling an armed uprising against his repressive regime.

In 2008, the UN estimated that more than 300,000 people had been killed and 2.5 million displaced as a result of the violence, for which al-Bashir was indicted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by the International Criminal Court. Most of these displaced persons remained in camps in the Darfur region.

War, ethnic cleansing, and flooding

In the areas where the displaced are sheltering, the prices of basic necessities and housing are skyrocketing, says Arif Noor, the director of the NGO Save The Children in Sudan. Before the escalation of violence, Sudan was already facing a severe economic crisis, which is now compounded as people flee their homes and lose their property, livelihoods, and access to land. The current displacement crisis is having a devastating effect on the population, especially children, who are increasingly exposed to risks such as child labor, early marriage, sexual exploitation, and recruitment by armed groups, notes Noor, who adds the war is also depriving children of access to education.

UNHCRs Nasrullah points out that there is also an increase in hunger. The growing economic crisis has exacerbated food insecurity among both IDPs and their host communities.

In parallel to the direct effects of the fighting between the Armed Forces of Sudan and the RSF, another major cause of the high number of new IDPs being recorded in Sudan is ethnic-based violence, including specific cleansing campaigns, that have been documented in Darfur since mid-April. Both the army and the police in the region have withdrawn from many areas to secure strategic installations, including military bases, creating large power vacuums that have been exploited by paramilitaries and like-minded militias to spread terror among people, mainly those from non-Arab tribes.

The current displacement crisis is having a devastating effect on the population, especially children, who are increasingly exposed to risks such as child labor, early marriage, sexual exploitation, and recruitment by armed groups Arif Noor, director of Save The Children in Sudan

The humanitarian and health situation in Darfur has become catastrophic, says Adam Rojal, spokesman for a coordinator of displaced people and refugees in the region. There are thousands of people who have taken refuge in areas controlled by Abdul Wahid al Nurs Sudan Liberation Movement [in the Marrah Mountains of central Darfur] and in camps, and they are in need of basic emergency aid and services.

Living conditions are particularly precarious in some of the camps hosting displaced people, especially for minors, who are particularly vulnerable. Between May and September, more than 1,200 children under the age of five died in camps in South Sudans White Nile State from what UNHCR called a fatal combination of malnutrition and a measles outbreak.

A mother hugs her daughter while receiving medical assistance in Um Sangour, Sudan. UNHCR (via REUTERS)

Insufficient humanitarian aid

The majority of internal displacement in Sudan last year was due to inter-communal tensions and violence in Blue Nile State in the south, and West Darfur. In both cases, the violence stemmed primarily from disputes over increasingly limited access to land and other resources.

The big difference with the IDPs since April is that they have probably had to leave the place where they were living several times, and that the prospect of returning home or finding durable solutions in general is probably very remote, says Andre.

Floods due to heavy rains, which usually occur between June and September and often cause rivers such as the Nile to overflow, have in recent decades been a recurrent cause of internal displacement. Between 2017 and 2021, these episodes affected on average 388,000 people per year, according to the humanitarian analysis platform ACAPS.

Despite this context, humanitarian aid agencies are encountering many difficulties in maintaining their activity in Sudan as a result not only of the war, but also due to bureaucratic and administrative obstacles, looting or attacks on humanitarian staff, and forced controls on supplies.

Added to all these issues is the lack of funding from the international community to meet the growing needs of the Sudanese population. To date, the UN has only been able to secure about 31% of the total funds it has requested to meet the countrys most urgent requirements.

Despite all these difficulties, UNHCR says it has been able to reach more than 400,000 IDPs so far in 2023, the vast majority of them since the war broke out in April, providing them with aid in the form of basic relief items, emergency shelter, cash assistance, or psychosocial and legal support.

From Darfur, however, Rojal warns that the aid that is arriving is not enough: Citizens have reached the height of their suffering and are in dire need of protection mechanisms to be activated and avenues opened to deliver humanitarian aid, food, and medicine, after more than five months of war.

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WALL TOWNSHIP, N.J., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Manasquan Bank proudly announced the successful completion of its 3rd Annual Days of Giving donation program. The event witnessed a substantial amount of support from the bank's patrons across Monmouth, Middlesex, and Ocean counties, which helped raise over $10K for ten non-profit organizations. This year is the Bank's 10th annual Community Day, and to mark this milestone, Manasquan Bank's Charitable Foundation decided to donate to ten individual organizations as a gesture of its unwavering commitment to support the community.

The ten non-profit organizations that received the donations included Bridging the Gap For Veterans, Don't Shock Me - Maddy Massabni Foundation for Toxic Shock Awareness, Rally Cap Sports, Mental Health Association of Monmouth County, The Alayna Jayne Foundation, CONTACT of Ocean & Monmouth Counties, Ocean Housing Alliance, Inc., Your Grandmothers Cupboard, Mignolo Arts, and Prevent Child Abuse - NJ Chapter, Inc.

The Bank encouraged clients and non-clients to visit one of its 15 branch locations during the five-day event to exchange their loose coins free of charge. The Bank matched up to 15% of each transaction total, while participants kept their entire redemption amount. Participants also had the option to donate all or a portion of their counted coins or make a separate monetary donation.

"Manasquan Bank has always been committed to empowering the communities we serve, and we take great pride in the impact we've made over the years," shared James S. Vaccaro, Chair, President, and CEO of Manasquan Bank. "We remain steadfast in our mission to support the growth and success of individuals, families, businesses, and non-profit organizations who provide support to various societal needs. We look forward to continuing to make a positive difference in our communities through our annual Days of Giving events."

The Days of Giving event was introduced in 2021 as an opportunity to build a stronger community by inviting those who share the bank's passion to participate. It is typically held during the week leading up to Community Day, an annual event that began in 2014 as a celebration of Manasquan Bank's 140th anniversary and has continued every year since. This year, Community Day was postponed for the first time in ten years due to inclement weather and will now take place on Saturday, October 21, 2023.

For more information about Manasquan Bank's Community Day and Days of Giving, please visit: Community Day 2023 | Manasquan Bank

About Manasquan Bank:

Manasquan Bank, a mutual community bank with consolidated assets of $2.8 Billion, is headquartered in Wall Township, NJ. The Bank has been serving New Jersey residents since 1874 and continues to pioneer the future of banking with both traditional and digital solutions. The Bank offers a full line of personal & business services, and operates fifteen branch locations throughout Middlesex, Monmouth & Ocean Counties. Manasquan Bank proudly supports community-focused, non-profit initiatives through the Manasquan Bank Charitable Foundation. For more information, visit www.manasquan.bank

SOURCE Manasquan Bank
CHICAGO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Marine VFD Market is expected to reach USD 1.6 billion by 2030 from USD 1.1 billion in 2023 at a CAGR of 5.0% during the 20232030 period according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. Marine VFDs are essential because they help reduce power consumption, prevent damage, and enhance safety. VFDs also allow remote tracking of ship VFDs, regulate speed and torque, and provide fuel savings. The majority of propeller applications use VFDs, which can boost energy efficiency.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Marine VFD Market"

175 - Tables

57 - Figures

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Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=85395523

Marine VFD Market Scope:

Report Coverage Details Market Revenue in 2023 $1.1 Billion Estimated Value by 2030 $1.6 Billion Growth Rate Poised to Grow at a CAGR of 5.0% Largest Market Asia Pacific Market Size Available for 2019-2030 Forecast Period 2023-2030 Forecast Units Value (USD Billion) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered Type, Voltage, Application, End User, and Region Geographies Covered Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and South America Key Market Challenge Supply chain disruptions due to shortage of components and parts Key Market Opportunities Growing adoption of electric and hybrid propulsion systems Key Market Drivers Increasing demand for energy-efficient systems in maritime vessels

Marine Ships, by end-user, is expected to grow by the largest segment during the forecast period.

Based on end users, the Marine VFD Market has been split into Marine Ships and Offshore Platforms. The Marine Ships segment is anticipated to be the largest during the forecast period. The Marine Ships segment is growing in the Marine VFD Market due to the increased emphasis on meeting energy efficiency targets and achieving environmental sustainability. VFDs aid vessels in meeting strict environmental regulations by reducing emissions, aligning with the industry's sustainability objectives. They ensure precise and dynamic control, enhancing vessel maneuverability and operational flexibility while contributing to overall safety and reliability by reducing the risk of accidents and equipment failures.

The steering segment, by application segment, is expected to grow at the second-fastest during the forecast period.

This report segments the Marine VFD Market based on application into pump, propulsion, fan, compressor, crane and hoist, winch, HVAC, steering, scrubber, shaft generator, and power electronics. The steering segment is expected to be the second-fastest growing segment during the forecast period. The steering segment is growing as they are instrumental in governing the speed and control of AC electric motors responsible for driving critical steering components like azimuth thrusters or electric rudders. VFDs in marine steering systems are imperative to attain precise and responsive control over vessel direction, a paramount requirement for safe navigation and maintaining position in challenging maritime scenarios. VFDs offer dynamic, real-time adjustments, ensuring optimal steering responses, especially in situations demanding rapid course changes or precise vessel positioning

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Asia Pacific is expected to be the largest region in the Marine VFD Industry

Asia Pacific is expected to be the largest Marine VFD Market during the forecast period. The region's increasing focus on renewable energy, coupled with supportive government policies and incentives The adoption of VFDs is driven by a focus on renewable energy integration, environmental concerns, and offshore energy projects, all requiring advanced energy-efficient technologies. These large-scale projects contribute to the rapid expansion of the Marine VFD Market in the Asia Pacific, attracting investments, fostering innovation, and establishing the region as a key player in the global transition towards sustainable energy solutions.

Key Market Players:

Some of the major players in the Marine VFD Companies are Siemens (Germany), ABB (Switzerland), Danfoss (Denmark), General Electric (US), and Rockwell Automation (US). The major strategies adopted by these players include sales contracts and agreements.

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Recent Developments

In May 2023 , GE Power Conversion signed an agreement to renew its partnership with Nedstack Fuel Cell Technology for the development of marine fuel cell solutions. The agreement follows on from a previous cooperation agreement for collaborative work. A pilot project for a large-scale marine fuel cell application provided valuable feasibility support to a cruise provider for their technical and commercial evaluation of decarbonization solutions.

, GE Power Conversion signed an agreement to renew its partnership with Nedstack Fuel Cell Technology for the development of marine fuel cell solutions. The agreement follows on from a previous cooperation agreement for collaborative work. A pilot project for a large-scale marine fuel cell application provided valuable feasibility support to a cruise provider for their technical and commercial evaluation of decarbonization solutions. In June 2022 , ABB leads a consortium to implement shore-to-ship power connections for ferries and cruise ships at the port of Toulon . ABB's technology reduces emissions and noise during port stops. Additionally, ABB is installing an energy storage system to handle grid demand fluctuations and incorporate renewable energy sources, ensuring a sustainable and efficient solution.

, ABB leads a consortium to implement shore-to-ship power connections for ferries and cruise ships at the port of . ABB's technology reduces emissions and noise during port stops. Additionally, ABB is installing an energy storage system to handle grid demand fluctuations and incorporate renewable energy sources, ensuring a sustainable and efficient solution. In December 2020 , Cochin Shipyard selected Siemens to implement advanced marine solutions for India's first fleet of 23 boats equipped with electric propulsion and battery-integrated technology.

Browse Adjacent Markets: Energy and Power Market Research Reports & Consulting

Related Reports:

Variable Frequency Drive Market by Type (AC, DC, Servo), Application (Pumps, Fans, Compressors, Conveyors), End User (Industrial, Infrastructure, Oil & Gas, Power), Power Rating (Micro, Low, Medium, High), Voltage and Region - Global Forecast to 2027

AC Drives Market by Voltage (Low and Medium), Power Rating (Low, Medium, and High Power), Application (Pumps, Fans, Compressors, Conveyors, Extruders), End-Use Industry and Region - Global Trends & Forecast to 2021

About MarketsandMarkets:

MarketsandMarkets has been recognized as one of America's best management consulting firms by Forbes, as per their recent report.

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.

Earlier this year, we made a formal transformation into one of America's best management consulting firms as per a survey conducted by Forbes.

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.





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RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Markel Group Inc. (NYSE: MKL) announced today that it will hold its 2024 shareholders meeting at the University of Richmond Robins Center in Richmond, Virginia on Wednesday, May 22, 2024 at 2:00 p.m. ET. Beyond a short business session, company leaders will tell the story of Markel Group's financial performance, system, and culture before taking questions from the audience.

"It doesn't get much better than sharing an arena with shareholders, associates, and friends of Markel Group," said Chief Executive Officer Tom Gayner. "These people are everything to us, and the campus at the University of Richmond is a great place to connect and celebrate together."

The company has a full day of events planned around the meeting, including a series of panel discussions and keynotes in the morning with Markel Group leaders and speakers from a variety of fields. More details on these sessions and speakers will be available in the coming months on the event website at www.MKLReunion.com. As in years past, there will be a reception after the main event with a live band, refreshments, and food trucks.

"Somebody last year said that this event feels like a big family reunion, and I think that's right," said Mr. Gayner. "Whether it's a company or career, the great ones are built from deep and lasting relationships. That's why our main goal for this event is to give our shareholders, associates, and friends an opportunity to create and maintain connections that last."

Shareholders and others interested in attending the meeting and related events are encouraged to visit www.MKLReunion.com. Note that you do not have to be a shareholder to attend.

About Markel Group

Markel Group Inc. (NYSE: MKL) is a diverse family of companies that includes everything from insurance to bakery equipment, building supplies, houseplants, and more. The leadership teams of these businesses operate with a high degree of independence, while at the same time living the values that we call the Markel Style. Our specialty insurance business sits at the core of our company. Through decades of sound underwriting, the insurance team has provided the capital base from which we built a system of businesses and investments that collectively increase Markel Group's durability and adaptability. It's a system that provides diverse income streams, access to a wide range of investment opportunities, and the ability to efficiently move capital to the best ideas across the company. Most importantly though, this system enables each of our businesses to advance our shared goal of helping our customers, associates, and shareholders win over the long term. Visit www.mklgroup.com to learn more.

SOURCE Markel Group
Iconic Mars brand, M&M'S, also receives General Excellence category recognition

CHICAGO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Fast Company announced its third annual Brands That Matter list, honoring brands that communicate and demonstrate brand purpose. This year, for the first time, Fast Company included a Family of Brands category and is recognizing the work of Mars, Incorporated, maker of some of the world's most loved and iconic brands including M&M'S, BEN'S ORIGINAL, the PEDIGREE brand, and veterinary care brands including Banfield, BluePearl and VCA. Fast Company also recognized M&M'S, another iconic Mars brand in its General Excellence category. The companies and nonprofits included in the Brands That Matter list have built cultural relevance and impact through compelling branding and efforts that naturally extend their presence into the community.

"At Mars, whether it's your favorite snacks, treats and meals or your favorite pet care product or veterinary clinic, we are in the business of creating long-term happiness across our family of consumer and pet care brands," said Anton Vincent, President, Mars Incorporated North America & Global President, Mars Ice Cream. "We are so pleased to receive this recognition from Fast Company and we celebrate all of our Mars Associates  across the business  who come prepared and committed to deliver meaningful and purposeful work to create the world we want tomorrow."

Consumers, including their furry family members, have enjoyed Mars products and services for generations, not just because of their high quality, but also because of the positive impact the Mars brands have on its consumers and in communities across the United States. In the past year, brands from across the Mars portfolio have demonstrated this impact in a variety of ways:

M&M'S  influenced conversation on important topics like equality, female empowerment, authenticity and transparency through a refresh of its spokescandy characters and the introduction of a new Purple spokescandy.

influenced conversation on important topics like equality, female empowerment, authenticity and transparency through a refresh of its spokescandy characters and the introduction of a new Purple spokescandy. BEN'S ORIGINAL , another iconic Mars brand, launched its Seat At The Table Fund Scholarship across the United States and Canada to provide opportunities for underrepresented students studying in food-related industries.

, another iconic Mars brand, launched its Seat At The Table Fund Scholarship across and to provide opportunities for underrepresented students studying in food-related industries. The PEDIGREE  brand created the PEDIGREE  Essential Support Dogs program, celebrating dogs as essential supporters during challenging times and establishing a $2.5 million nationwide fund to provide nutritional and financial assistance to ensure dogs can stay with their loving families.

brand created the PEDIGREE Essential Support Dogs program, celebrating dogs as essential supporters during challenging times and establishing a nationwide fund to provide nutritional and financial assistance to ensure dogs can stay with their loving families. The PEDIGREE brand also developed innovative ways to encourage dog adoption through its Rescue Doodles program that creatively brought kids' drawings to life and the PEDIGREE FOSTERVERSE initiative which brought dog foster opportunities to the Metaverse, allowing prospective pet parents to foster real life rescue dogs. All of these PEDIGREE programs are in service of the company's ambition to end pet homelessness.

The Brands That Matter final list - which includes large multinational conglomerates, small-but-mighty companies and nonprofits - recognizes 165 brands that give people compelling reasons to care about them and offer inspiration for others to buy in. All 165 have found an ability to forge an emotional connection with customers, whether leading on the environment or pop culture, engaging B2B customers or responding meaningfully to current events.

"The scale and scope of honorees this year is incredible," said Brendan Vaughan, Fast Company's editor-in-chief. "At first glance, there might not be much in common between brands like M&M'S, Dungeons & Dragons, and healthtech platform WellTheory, but the thread that binds them is a commitment and purpose as a brand and relevance to their audience, whether that's through fun, games, or healthcare."

Fast Company editors judged each brand on relevancy, cultural impact, ingenuity, and business impact to compile the list.

Click here to see the complete list.

The Fall issue of Fast Company magazine is available online now and will be on newsstands beginning October 10, 2023.

ABOUT MARS, INCORPORATED

For more than a century, Mars, Incorporated has been driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. This common purpose unites our 140,000+ Associates. It is at the center of who we are as a global, family-owned business, and it fuels how we are transforming, innovating, and evolving to make a positive impact on the world.

Every year, our diverse and expanding portfolio of quality confectionery, food, and pet care products and services delight millions of people and supports millions of pets. With more than $47 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world's best-loved brands including Ben's Original, CESAR, Cocoavia, DOVE, EXTRA, KIND, M&M's, SNICKERS, PEDIGREE, ROYAL CANIN, and WHISKAS. We are creating a better world for pets through nutrition, breakthrough programs in diagnostics, wearable health monitoring, DNA testing, pet welfare and comprehensive veterinary care with AniCura, BANFIELD, BLUEPEARL, Linnaeus and VCA.

We know we can only be truly successful if our partners and the communities in which we operate prosper. The Mars Five Principles  Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom  inspire our Associates to act every day to help create a better world tomorrow in which the planet, its people and pets can thrive.

For more information about Mars, please visit www.mars.com. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

About Fast Company

Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies, and thinkers on the future of business. The editor-in-chief is Brendan Vaughan. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with our sister publication, Inc., and can be found online at fastcompany.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Jonathan Guerin

Director, U.S. Corporate Reputation

[email protected]

773-318-5617

SOURCE Mars, Incorporated
September Marks the 12th Straight Month of Year-Over-Year Gains

IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported total September sales of 28,031 vehicles, an increase of 17.9 percent compared to September 2022. Year-to-date sales totaled 272,617 vehicles; an increase of 26.6 percent compared to the same time last year. With 26 selling days in September, compared to 25 the year prior, the company posted an increase of 13.4 percent on a Daily Selling Rate (DSR) basis.

CPO sales totaled 5,558 vehicles in September, an increase of 34 percent compared to September 2022.

Sales Highlights

- 12th Straight month of year-over-year gains.

- Best-ever sales of CX-90 with 4,701 vehicles sold.

- Best-ever September sales of CX-50 with 3,417 vehicles sold.

- Best-ever September sales CX-30 with 6,924 vehicles sold.

Mazda Canada, Inc., (MCI) reported September sales of 5,556 vehicles, an increase of 13.5 percent compared to September last year. Year-to-date sales totaled 43,783 vehicles; an increase of 9.4 percent compared to the same time last year.

Mazda Motor de Mexico (MMdM) reported September sales of 6,795 vehicles, an increase of 26 percent compared to last year. Year-to-date sales totaled 53,138 vehicles; an increase of 70 percent compared to the same time last year.

Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, California, and oversees the sales, marketing, parts, and customer service support of Mazda vehicles in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Colombia through approximately 795 dealers. Operations in Canada are managed by Mazda Canada Inc. in Richmond Hill, Ontario; operations in Mexico are managed by Mazda Motor de Mexico in Mexico City; and operations in Colombia are managed by Mazda de Colombia in Bogota, Colombia. For more information on Mazda vehicles, including photography and B-roll, please visit the online Mazda media center at News.MazdaUSA.com.

Follow MNAO's social media channels through Twitter and Instagram at @MazdaUSA and Facebook at Facebook.com/MazdaUSA.





















































Month-To-Date

Year-To-Date





























September September YOY % % MTD

September September YOY % % MTD





2023 2022 Change DSR

2023 2022 Change DSR



























Mazda3 2,632 1,860 41.5 % 36.1 %

23,364 19,980 16.9 % 16.4 %



Mazda 3 Sdn 1,565 1,179 32.7 % 27.6 %

12794 8,438 51.6 % 51.0 %



Mazda 3 HB 1,067 681 56.7 % 50.7 %

10570 11,542 (8.4) % (8.8) %



















































MX-5 Miata 603 752 (19.8) % (22.9) %

7,569 4,571 65.6 % 64.9 %



MX-5 290 346 (16.2) % (19.4) %

4017 1,752 129.3 % 128.3 %



MXR 313 406 (22.9) % (25.9) %

3552 2,819 26.0 % 25.5 %



























CX-3 - 0 - -

- 0 - -



CX-30 6,924 4,855 42.6 % 37.1 %

59302 37,387 58.6 % 57.9 %



CX-5 9,742 10,216 (4.6) % (8.3) %

115855 115,949 (0.1) % (0.5) %



CX-9 12 3,264 (99.6) % (99.6) %

17440 23,469 (25.7) % (26.0) %



CX-50 3,417 2,823 21.0 % 16.4 %

31719 13,376 137.1 % 136.1 %



MX-30 0 0 - -

100 324 (69.1) % (69.3) %



CX-90 TTL 4,701 0 - -

17268 0 - -



CARS 3,235 2,612 23.9 % 19.1 %

30,933 24,886 24.3 % 23.8 %



TRUCKS 24,796 21,158 17.2 % 12.7 %

241,684 190,505 26.9 % 26.3 %



























TOTAL 28,031 23,770 17.9 % 13.4 %

272,617 215,391 26.6 % 26.0 %



















































*Selling Days 26 25





230 229































SOURCE Mazda North American Operations
Solution Combines Embedded Generative with Authoritative AI To Maintain Enterprise-Grade Compliance and Elevate Verified Knowledge Accessibility.

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- MeBeBot Inc. , an industry-leading software-as-a-service provider of digital employee experience (DEX) solutions, today announced the release of embedded Generative AI in the MeBeBot DEX platform. Building on its legacy of transforming employee support delivery with Authoritative AI, combining generative AI with the existing Authoritative AI makes it easier and more efficient for security-conscious companies to ingest and utilize company documents as they are updated, to auto-suggest answers, allow for verification, and ensure the compliance and consistency of responses.

"Our DEX Platform with Generative AI is a critical step in the journey towards a more efficient and empowered workforce. It aligns with our mission to make work more meaningful by enabling employees to work smarter, not harder," explains founder and CEO, Beth White. "AI, automation, and integration are competitive business differentiators that drive lasting positive change in the digital employee experience. The longer a business waits, the harder it will be to catch up with your competition."

MeBeBot's DEX platform is a paradigm shift in engaging, empowering, enriching, and supporting employees. At the core, MeBeBot DEX uses a hybrid of authoritative and generative AI models to (1) query knowledge base content and then (2) present verified answers via MeBeBot's AI Chatbot, as an app in collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams. MeBeBot DEX platform expands to include an AI Communication Engine to facilitate targeted notification outreach and feedback collection through preferred employee channels that drive 60% higher employee participation than traditional point solutions. The platform consolidates employee communication and survey services into a singular system. Furthermore, MeBeBot DEX delivers an invaluable usage insights dashboard and support for manager effectiveness development.

"Generative AI continues to find new and unexpected places to generate value in the workplace. The availability of enterprise-grade Generative AI empowers organizations to elevate knowledge management and enhance employee efficiency," says MeBeBot Technology Advisor and Aptos VP/Head of Architecture, John Carney. "Platforms like MeBeBot DEX provide an excellent entry point into the world of AI." John explains further, "Combining both generative and authoritative AI, MeBeBot distills and simplifies complex policies, procedures and documentation into easily digestible formats for employees. Simultaneously, it ensures that compliance-approved communication is delivered with precision and predictability."

Providing unique capabilities to clients:

Elevating Workforce Productivity: MeBeBot's focus on Employee Experience (EX) extends to the entire workforce, ensuring that employees, teams, and managers receive accurate and compliant responses swiftly, enhancing their overall experience and ability to get back to the work that matters most.

Turnkey Solution: Launching and maintaining MeBeBot's no-code DEX platform is remarkably easy, ensuring a hassle-free start-up and ongoing maintenance experience for everyone.

Affordable: MeBeBot's solution is not only groundbreaking but also cost-effective, at a quarter of the cost compared to other solutions in the market today.

"Advances in AI are flipping the script for how organizations maintain truth in access when it comes to how employees' source, consume, interpret, and make decisions based on requested information," says Zachary Chertok, Research Manager for Employee Experience at IDC. "Universal accessibility and accuracy are paramount in this multi-modal era, and the choice of the right digital assistance tools and partners are key to enhancing trust, productivity, and transparency within the workforce."

Organizations looking to boost workforce productivity, knowledge management, and stakeholder empowerment now have an enhanced solution in MeBeBot DEX. Explore the possibilities and discover how MeBeBot can benefit your organization in today's fast-paced environment of hybrid and remote workplaces.

Lastly, "While AI initiatives take a top-down approach, the business problems to solve need to be surfaced by the people in day-to-day roles. This innovation economy requires a mindset shift, and it's time to embrace AI, rather than fear it," Beth emphasizes. "MeBeBot's Hybrid AI DEX platform is poised to transform the way we work, embodying our commitment to efficiency, empowerment, and a reimagined employee experience."

For more information or to request a demonstration, please visit our website .

About MeBeBot, Inc.

MeBeBot is a forward-thinking software-as-a-service provider of digital employee experience (DEX) solutions, dedicated to enhancing workplace productivity for remote and hybrid teams. Seamlessly integrating with Microsoft Teams, Slack, and web portals, MeBeBot's AI Intelligent Assistant offers immediate access to accurate responses to common queries, boasting an impressive accuracy rate exceeding 93%. Its DEX platform also includes real-time dashboards, push messaging, and custom pulse surveys, empowering employees to provide swift feedback on critical matters. Acknowledged as a "Top HR Chatbot for 2023 by Select Software Reviews" and recognized as a "2022 Brilliant Bot by Slack App Directory". Becoming a productivity asset to numerous remote and hybrid workplaces, including IGT, e2open, Epicor, Care.com, and HireVue. Headquartered in Austin, TX, MeBeBot is proud to be a certified women's business enterprise by WBENC.

Press Contact:

Bennett Sung, 206-579-7904, https://www.mebebot.com/

SOURCE MeBeBot Inc.
Mesh recognized for a second year for its achievements in spend management

NEW YORK , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CB Insights today named Mesh Payments to its sixth-annual Fintech 100 ranking (previously the Fintech 250) - showcasing the 100 most promising private fintech companies of 2023.

"Representing 24 different countries across the globe, this year's Fintech 100 is shaping the future of real-time payments, spend management automation, embedded finance, and more," said Chris Bendtsen, Lead Fintech Analyst, CB Insights. "Together, they are not only increasing the pace of innovation, but launching new products and features to revolutionize the industry as a whole. I cannot wait to see what this cohort accomplishes next."

"We see a growing number of global enterprises looking to modernize their travel and expenses management platform, increase finance automation, and give their employees a better, frictionless experience," said Oded Zehavi, co-founder & CEO, Mesh Payments. "We are honored that CB Insights recognized the concrete value that Mesh delivers to its customers by featuring us on their Fintech 100 list for the second consecutive year."

Utilizing the CB Insights platform, the research team selected these 100 winners from a pool of over 19,000 private companies, including applicants and nominees. They were chosen based on factors including - including equity funding, investor profiles, business relationships, R&D activity, news sentiment analysis, competitive landscape, proprietary Mosaic scores, and Yardstiq transcripts - and criteria such as tech novelty and market potential. The research team also reviewed thousands of Analyst Briefings submitted by applicants.

The CB Insights recognition comes on the heels of 3X growth in the 1H 2023 against prior 1H year revenue, expansion of global card infrastructure across Europe, UK and APAC and the launch of Travel Management capabilities for the Mesh Travel and Expense Management platform. Mesh fills a significant gap in the corporate travel market with the industry's only TMC-agnostic solution integrated with global corporate cards and expense automation.

Quick Facts on the 2023 Fintech 100:

Equity funding and deals: The Fintech 100 includes a mix of companies at different stages of maturity, product development, and funding. The cohort has raised nearly $22B in equity funding across 381 deals since 2019.

in equity funding across 381 deals since 2019. Unicorns: There are 31 companies with $1B+ valuations on the list.

Global Reach: This year's winners represent 24 different countries across the globe. Forty-three percent of the selected companies are headquartered in the US. The UK comes in second with 12 winners, followed by Singapore with 7. Additionally, some emerging markets stand out with multiple winners this year. For example, India has 3 winners, while Indonesia and Egypt each have 2.

About CB Insights

CB Insights builds software that enables the world's best companies to discover, understand, and make technology decisions with confidence. By marrying data, expert insights, and work management tools, clients manage their end-to-end technology decision-making process on CB Insights. To learn more, please visit www.cbinsights.com.

About Mesh Payments

Mesh Payment is the travel and expense management platform for global enterprises and uniquely meets the needs of distributed workforces and multinational companies. Finance teams rely on Mesh to power automate manual accounting tasks, and optimize spend and finance workflows.

Mesh powers some of the world's fastest-growing brands, including Monday.com, Hippo Insurance, Sezzle, and Snyk. For more information, visit www.meshpayments.com or follow on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Mesh Payments
NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Metal Foam Market size is projected to increase by USD 23.63 billion, accelerating at a CAGR of 4.5% during the forecast period, according to Technavio. Increase in sales of lightweight vehicles in automotive industries is notably driving the metal foam market. However, factors such as soldering, welding, and bonding complications in metal foam may impede market growth. We provide a detailed analysis of 20 companies operating in the metal foam market incluidng Alantum Corp., Aluinvent Zrt, American Elements, CYMAT Technologies Ltd., ERG Aerospace Corp., Exxentis Ltd., Havel metal foam GmbH, Hollomet GmbH, LIAONING RONTEC ADVANCED MATERIAL TECHNOLOGY CO LTD, Mayser GmbH and Co. KG, Nanoshel LLC, Pohltec metalfoam GmbH, Recemat BV, and Ultramet. The report offers an up-to-date analysis of the market, and to know the exact growth variance and the Y-O-Y growth rate, Request Free Sample Report

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Metal Foam Market 2023-2027

Metal Foam Market 2023-2027: Company Analysis

Recemat BV: The company offers metal foam such as Recemat metal foam that has a very low density compared to solid material.

This report provides a full list of key companies, their strategies, and latest developments. Buy Now for detailed company information

Metal Foam Market 2023-2027: Segmentation

Product

Open cell

Closed cell

Material

Aluminum

Nickel

Copper

Others

Geography

APAC

North America

Europe

Middle East and Africa

and South America

The open-cell segment is expected to experience substantial growth during the forecast period. Open-cell metal foam possesses unique characteristics that render it well-suited for a wide range of industrial applications. Thanks to its porous structure and extensive surface area, open-cell metal foam has become the preferred material for heat exchangers across diverse industries, including HVAC, automotive, and industrial processes. Additionally, open-cell metal foams serve as a structured foundation for enhancing chemical reactions, leading to improved yields and efficiencies in various catalytic processes.

Learn about the contribution of each segment summarized in concise infographics and thorough descriptions. View Free PDF Sample Report

Metal Foam Market 2023-2027: Market Dynamics

Driver - The growing sales of lightweight vehicles in the automotive industry is a key driver for the global metal foam market. Lighter vehicles are more fuel-efficient, a crucial factor for automakers facing strict fuel economy and emissions regulations worldwide. The use of lightweight materials, such as foam metal, offers a competitive advantage by improving vehicle economy and performance. As a result, the rise in lightweight vehicle adoption is expected to fuel the growth of the metal foam market

The growing sales of lightweight vehicles in the automotive industry is a key driver for the global metal foam market. Lighter vehicles are more fuel-efficient, a crucial factor for automakers facing strict fuel economy and emissions regulations worldwide. The use of lightweight materials, such as foam metal, offers a competitive advantage by improving vehicle economy and performance. As a result, the rise in lightweight vehicle adoption is expected to fuel the growth of the metal foam market Trend - Growing interest in energy management

Growing interest in energy management Challenge - Soldering, welding, and bonding complications in metal foam

Metal Foam Market 2023-2027: Key Highlights

Historic Market Size 2017-2021

CAGR of the market during 2023-2027

Detailed information on factors that will assist metal foam market growth during the next five years

Forecasts on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the metal foam market

Analysis of the competitive landscape and detailed information on companies

Comprehensive details of factors that will impede the growth of metal foam market companies

Related Reports:

Polyurethane (PU) Foam Market: The Polyurethane (PU) Foam Market size is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.63% between 2022 and 2027. The size of the market is forecast to increase by 6.84 million tons.

Low Foam Surfactants Market: The low foam surfactants market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 6.21% between 2022 and 2027. The size of the market is forecast to increase by USD 5,844.49 million.

Metal Foam Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2022 Historic period 2017-2021 Forecast period 2023-2027 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 4.5% Market growth 2023-2027 USD 23.63 billion Market structure Concentrated YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 4.22 Regional analysis APAC, North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and South America Performing market contribution APAC at 39% Key countries US, China, Japan, India, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading Vendors, Market Positioning of Vendors, Competitive Strategies, and Industry Risks Key companies profiled Alantum Corp., Aluinvent Zrt, American Elements, CYMAT Technologies Ltd., ERG Aerospace Corp., Exxentis Ltd., Havel metal foam GmbH, Hollomet GmbH, LIAONING RONTEC ADVANCED MATERIAL TECHNOLOGY CO LTD, Mayser GmbH and Co. KG, Nanoshel LLC, Pohltec metalfoam GmbH, Recemat BV, and Ultramet Market dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, Market condition analysis for 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.

TOC:

Executive Summary Market Landscape Market Sizing Historic Market Sizes Five Forces Analysis Market Segmentation by Product Market Segmentation by Material Market Segmentation by Geography Customer Landscape Geographic Landscape Drivers, Challenges, & Trends Company Landscape Company Analysis Appendix

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning 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.

Contacts

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
Fallon Two Rock Road Solar Farm (Fallon) will produce an estimated 2,300 MWh/year as part of Marin Clean Energy's portfolio

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Renewable America (RNA), a leading provider of local small utility-scale solar+storage and multi-customer community microgrids projects in California, today announced the achievement of mechanical completion for its project located in the Petaluma area of Marin County, CA. The deal is financed with Sunwest Bank through a sale leaseback structure, allowing RNA to maintain the project through its entire lifecycle. The solar site will become part of MCE's service area portfolio and produce an estimated 2,300 megawatt hours (MWh) per year - powering up to 300 homes and saving roughly 19,000 tons of CO 2 emissions throughout the project's lifetime.

Milestone Unlocked: Renewable Americas Ferro Ranch Project Paves the Way for Local Solar Success with CCAs

"We're thrilled to reach this milestone with one of our forty projects and are excited to further contribute to California's clean energy portfolio targets," says Ardi Arian, President & CEO of Renewable America. "This deal also marks the inception of fruitful partnerships with both Sunwest Bank and MCE, and we look forward to future opportunities to collaborate with other Community Choice Aggregators."

California is striving to secure 90% of its electricity from renewable and zero-carbon energy by 2035. RNA's commitment to the clean energy transition is demonstrated through its solar and storage projects, optimized to enhance grid resiliency. The Fallon project utilizes fixed tilt and bifacial modules with 1.45 MW dc capacity, and the Marin County community will become more energy-independent and less vulnerable to supply disruptions through this distributed solar generation. RNA has committed to sourcing a portion of its workforce from within the local community, supporting job creation and contributing to economic growth in Marin County.

RNA also obtained a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemption permitting the construction of the photovoltaic facility, and was one of the first developers approved for agricultural compatible land use under the Williamson Act contract in Marin County. Specifically, the site will occupy only 3.6% of the parcel's total acreage and retain the natural state of the remainder. As part of RNA's Ag Management plan, monitored sheep grazing will take place around the solar facility, and the county will evaluate the area on an ongoing basis, ensuring the land usage is environmentally beneficial across the board.

"As we're focused on transforming the energy landscape across California, we have a strong sense of guardianship for the local communities in our purview, including its citizens, workforce, and environmental landscape," says Ardi Arian.

About Renewable America

Renewable America is a leading provider of distributed energy resources, serving communities with small utility-scale, locally generated solar plus storage facilities and community microgrids that work in conjunction with the distribution grid. With over 15 years of experience in development, engineering, procurement and construction throughout Europe and North America, Renewable America creates resilience within communities by delivering local power to local load. The company's end-to-end development process maximizes quality and efficiency, while minimizing lasting environmental impact on site. Based in Santa Clara, Renewable America has over 320 megawatts MW of solar and 680 MWh of energy storage projects under development throughout California. Learn more at https://renewam.com.

Renewable America Media Contact:

Richele Delapaz

(408) 663-6647

[email protected]

SOURCE Renewable America
Real Estate Veteran Will Help Bolster Company's Property Investment Initiatives

BOCA RATON, Fla., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Mill Creek Residential, a fully integrated rental-housing investment firm that acquires, manages and develops premier rental communities across the U.S., today announced it has hired Kel Frazier as president of acquisitions. Frazier will have a prominent role in all facets of the acquisition process, including sourcing, underwriting and closing transactions in addition to participating on the Investment Committee.

Frazier's hire is emblematic of Mill Creek's strategic approach to acquisitions, as the company constantly monitors investment opportunities in key markets across the U.S. Mill Creek's most recent acquisition was Modera Art Park in the River North District of Denver, which the company acquired in late June.

"We're excited to add Kel to the Mill Creek family, and we know his proven track record and dynamic approach to acquisitions will prove invaluable," said Darren Schackman , chief investment officer for Mill Creek Residential. "We've always prided ourselves on taking a thoughtful and strategic approach to acquisitions, and we believe Kel is the ideal individual to lead Mill Creek's growth and expansion in this vertical."

Frazier has extensive experience in the multifamily investment sector. He most recently spent 11 years with Berkshire Residential Investments as senior vice president of investments. At Berkshire, he oversaw the company's investment activity in the East Region and participated in direct investment of over 28,000 apartment homes which resulted in $7 billion in total capitalization.

Frazier graduated from Ohio State with a Bachelor's degree in Human Ecology. He also earned a Master of Science in Real Estate Development from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Master of Business Administration (Finance) from Boston University Graduate School of Management.

"I'm thrilled to join the Mill Creek team and spearhead acquisition efforts in our target markets across the country," Frazier said. "While we will remain aggressive in pursuing potential properties to acquire, we will continue to do so with a measured approach and seek opportunities that align with our investment criteria and long-term strategy. I look forward to working with this wonderful team."

About Mill Creek Residential

Mill Creek Residential Trust LLC is a national rental housing company focused on developing, acquiring, and operating rental communities in targeted markets nationwide. The national company, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, proactively develops, acquires, constructs, and operates communities through its seasoned team of real estate professionals in offices across the United States. Mill Creek is building its portfolio in many of the nation's most desirable markets in Seattle, Portland, the San Francisco Bay area, Sacramento, Southern California, Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, Austin, Houston, South Florida, Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, Raleigh, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, New York, and Boston. As of June 30, 2023, the company's portfolio comprises 128 communities representing over 35,000 rental homes operating and/or under construction. For more information, please visit www.MillCreekPlaces.com .

Media Contact

Stephen Ursery

LinnellTaylor Marketing

[email protected]

303.682.3945

SOURCE Mill Creek Residential
Surrounded by an aura of defeat after the debacle of Nagorno-Karabakh, accused of being a traitor by the opposition and abandoned by his ally Russia, by the West, and by the diaspora, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will this week at the European Community Political Summit in Granada, Spain, attempt to advance towards a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, which is increasing its demands toward the government in Yerevan, buoyed by its military victories and recovery of control over the enclave. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh are scattered across Armenia, where a population jaded by a conflict that has lasted more than three decades is now fearful of the possibility of fresh Azerbaijani attacks.

Pashinyan has sold us out. A few years ago, he came to Artsakh [the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh] and said Artsakh is Armenia; now he says Artsakh is Azerbaijan. He deceived us, said Susana Gevorkian, who fled the Armenian enclave  located in territory internationally recognized as Azerbaijani  a few days ago. She was one of over 100,000 people who, demoralized, hungry and traumatized, have crossed the border to leave what was until a week ago a territory populated by around 120,000 Armenians. Some experts believe the migratory flow could destabilize Armenia, a country of around 2.8 million inhabitants with scarce financial resources.

The opposition blames Pashinyan directly for the defeat: both in the 2020 war, which forced the Armenian Armed Forces to withdraw from the territory they controlled around Nagorno-Karabakh, and in the 24-hour campaign by Azerbaijani forces launched on September 19 that resulted in the capitulation of the enclave. Haik Mamiyanian, a deputy with the opposition Republican Party, has stated that Pashinyan destroyed the Armenian Armed Forces by means of purges and that he failed to mobilize the full power of the army in 2020, and after the defeat, lied to the population in order to be reelected in 2021, promising terms of negotiation with Azerbaijan which he has not fulfilled.

By recognizing Bakus sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh this year, Pashinyan has given Azerbaijan a free hand to occupy the region, and has also antagonized Russia, Armenias strategic partner, with a terrible foreign policy, said Mamiyanian, who described the prime minister as a traitor and illegitimate ruler, who is not qualified to negotiate a peace treaty with Azerbaijan.

As such, Mamiyanian stated that after a pause in recent days to focus on helping displaced people, his party will resume protests, which two weeks culminated in riots with dozens of arrests, including opposition leaders. The only way to get rid of Pashinyan is with street protests, says the MP. The differences between us are considerable. There can be no unity with traitors.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addresses the nation on September 24, 2023. ARMENIAN GOVERMENT PRESS SERVICE (EFE)

Hybrid war

Sources close to the Armenian government are of the opinion that these protests are part of a hybrid war, behind which they see the hand of Moscow, which they accuse of not having come to Armenias aid when it has been attacked by Azerbaijan despite collective defense treaties. It also accuses Russian peacekeeping troops deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh after the 2020 war of nothing to stop the lightning Azerbaijani offensive last month. The Kremlin, meanwhile, has not attempted to veil its hostility towards Pashinyan, who it accuses of responsibility for the loss of the Armenian enclave for having allied himself with the West.

Neither has this rapprochement with the European Union and the United States brought Armenia much in the way of security. Beyond the pledge of a few million euros to contribute to the needs of refugees and a few communiques expressing concern, only France has committed to selling arms to Armenia so that it can defend itself. The European Commission considers Azerbaijan a reliable partner for its energy supply, as an alternative to Russian gas.

After the war in Ukraine and with this new Cold War between the West and Russia, it is impossible for a small country like Armenia to maintain a balance of relations with both blocs. And, right now, neither Russia nor the West is willing to defend us militarily; perhaps the only country willing to do so is Iran, because it fears the increase of Azerbaijans influence in the Caucasus and, with it, of its partner Israel, says Benjamin Poghosian, an analyst at the Applied Policy Research Institute (APRI) in Yerevan.

There is growing fear among the Armenian population that Azerbaijan will now directly attack Armenian territory, something Poghosian considers quite likely if Baku does not achieve the desired results at the Granada summit on October 5. The Pashinyan government maintains that to ensure Armenias survival it is necessary to secure peace with Azerbaijan and normalize relations with Turkey, which would make it possible to reopen the eastern and western borders  closed since the 1990s  and break its isolation. But for this, Azerbaijan is demanding concessions. It has already destroyed Nagorno-Karabakh, but it seems that this price is not enough; now it is demanding more, says Poghosian.

As the Armenian government has gradually stepped back from its earlier red lines, Azerbaijani objectives have increased: Baku is demanding a corridor through southern Armenia, the de-occupation of several tiny Azerbaijani enclaves on Armenian territory, which are unpopulated but through which strategic Armenian roads run, and the return of Azeris expelled by Armenia in the 1990s.

We know that some concessions are inevitable. The problem is that, with Azerbaijan, after every demand comes a new one. In the end, what will it ask for, that we hand over Yerevan? says Anna Pambukhsyan, director of the Democracy Development Foundation: That is why I do not believe that the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh is the end of this conflict. It can resurface at any time. Everyone is afraid of another war.

Armenia announced last week that it will raise its defense budget to 7.3% of GDP, or about $1.36 billion. Even so, that is only around half the military expenditure of Azerbaijan, a more populous and wealthier country. Even I, who have always been a pacifist and have been involved in reconciliation processes with Azerbaijani colleagues, am now of the opinion that we must rearm. We are facing an existential threat, says Pambukhsyan.

The analyst does not believe that the opposition demonstrations will bring down the Pashinyan government: The population trusts the opposition even less, because those leading the protests are members of former governments that are also responsible for the current situation. So, if the current government manages to deal with the humanitarian situation of the refugees and moves forward with certain reforms that offer more social justice, it will gain enough support to maintain power. The rulers who preceded the current prime minister, Robert Kocharyan (1998-2008) and Serzh Sargsyan (2008-2018), who are now pulling the strings of the protests, were known as the Karabakh clan because they both came from the enclave. For years, they controlled the machinery of power in Armenia, reliant on certain oligarchs and the security forces, until a revolt against corruption five years ago elevated Pashinyan to government.

The diaspora  some nine million Armenians live overseas  has always been a major player in the countrys politics and an indispensable driver of investment. After a short honeymoon at the beginning of his government, the powerful expatriate organizations in Europe and the United States have turned their backs on the Pashinyan government and moved closer to the opposition parties, as well as maintaining a much tougher stance on Azerbaijans demands. It is true that the government has not been able to establish a good dialogue with the diaspora, but sometimes the diaspora does not realize the delicate situation we are in, says Pambukhsyan: Here we are fed up of burying 19-year-olds, and they are not going to lose their children in combat.

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LOS ANGELES, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Musick, Peeler & Garett LLP announced today that Partner Kristine Kwong has been elected by Pasadena City College to serve as President of the Board for 2024-2025. The election took place at the College's Board of Trustees meeting where she was elected based on her proven record of expertise, leadership, integrity, and her service and commitment to the community.

"We are incredibly fortunate to have Trustee Kristine Kwong at the helm of our Board," said Dr. Jose A. Gomez, Ph.D., interim superintendent/president. "Kristine brings important insight and perspective to the governance of the college. We look forward to our continued working relationship and success."

Pasadena City College provides the San Gabriel Valley with a high quality, innovative and dynamic learning environment that inspires student success. Each semester the college offers academic programs that encompass degrees, transfer programs, and certificates, to 20,000+ students.

In her new role as President of the Board, Kwong will be leading the college in their search for a new superintendent and focusing on increasing student enrollment, among other issues. She will also be leading the college towards its centennial celebration in 2024.

Managing Partner R. Joseph De Briyn adds, "we are so proud that Kristine has been elected to this prestigious position. This recognition is a testament to her leadership and dedication to the betterment of our community."

In her legal practice, Kwong advises and counsels clients on a wide range of business, corporate, operational and employment issues, including business counseling, contract negotiation and preparation, restrictive covenant and non-compete agreements, executive mobility issues, due diligence in connection with mergers and acquisitions, and range of employment matters.

Elected in 2022, Kristine represents the Cities of San Marino, South Pasadena and Temple City, California.

About Musick Peeler

Founded in 1954, Musick Peeler has offices in five major commercial centers across California, with over 100 attorneys practicing in 16 disciplines. For more information, visit MusickPeeler.com.

SOURCE MusickPeeler
Salon Suite franchise acquiries Sierra Salon Suites, continuing nationwide expansion with new growth strategy

CARROLLTON, Texas, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- MY SALON Suite , a salon suite franchise that focuses on providing stylists and beauticians a personal space to build their business and the beauty industry's future, announced today that it has acquired six Sierra Salon Suites in Reno, Nevada, as part of its ongoing growth strategy. The acquisition brings the total MY SALON Suite network to more than 280 locations across North America and marks the brand's inaugural entry into the Reno market.

Sierra Salon Suites was founded by brothers Kyle and Justin Ryckebosch in 2012 to provide independent beauty professionals the opportunity to own and operate their own business. After merging with MY SALON Suite in early September, Sierra Salon Suites' six locations throughout the northern Nevada area will rebrand as corporate MY SALON Suite locations and gain the support of the brand's unparalleled resources, support and training.

"As we got to know the outstanding team from MY SALON Suite, we realized they share the same principles and values that we built our company on," said Kyle Ryckebosch, founder of Sierra Salon Suites. "MY SALON Suite has been successful in expanding across the country, and their Members are happy with the benefits and incentives the brand offers, so we knew our beauty professionals would be in great hands. MY SALON Suite was the right fit to acquire Sierra Salon Suites and continue the legacy that we have established here in Reno."

The strategic purchase of Sierra Salon Suites is part of MY SALON Suite's aggressive new growth strategy as it continues a record-breaking 2023 . So far this year, MY SALON Suite has grown to more than 35 corporate-owned locations along with signing more than 25 franchise agreements, putting the brand on pace to surpass 40 new deals signed by the end of the year. Through targeting acquisitions in strategic corporate markets and franchisee conversions, MY SALON Suite will continue its mission to dominate the salon industry and accelerate the growth of its footprint across the country.

With no on-site employees and a semi-absentee model, MY SALON Suite is an ideal opportunity for business owners looking to scale and diversify their portfolios. The expansion of the brand's conversion program also allows independent salons to rebrand under the company and gain the benefits of being a MY SALON Suite franchisee.

"The acquisition of Sierra Salon Suites underscores MY SALON Suite's tremendous growth potential, highlighting in an exciting new way how our scalable business model provides the perfect opportunity for both new and existing salons to find success," said Mark Jameson, chief development officer of MY SALON Suite parent company, Propelled Brands. "Whether through future acquisitions, conversions or multi-unit franchising, MY SALON Suite remains committed to penetrating new markets with the value we offer to our ever-growing clientele."

The initial investment for a MY SALON Suite franchise is approximately $823,344  $2,241,800, including a $50,000 franchise fee. Ideal candidates have a net worth of $1.5 million, of which $500K is liquid. Additionally, MY SALON Suite offers a special incentive for veterans and first responders, including paramedics, emergency medical technicians, police officers, sheriffs and firefighters, which includes a 50% reduction on the franchise fee  a savings of $25,000.

MY SALON Suite is currently seeking qualified franchise candidates as it targets continued nationwide growth. For more information about MY SALON Suite franchise opportunities, visit https://www.mysalonsuite.com/franchise , or contact Mark Jameson at [email protected] or 214-346-5679.

About Suite Management Franchising

Suite Management Franchising, the parent company of MY SALON Suite, is a salon suite franchise created for entrepreneurial-spirited individuals interested in diversifying their portfolio while living a semi-absentee lifestyle. Founded to inspire and empower the modern-day salon owner, the company offers a unique opportunity for a diverse range of beauty and health professionals to run their businesses successfully. Salon members are provided ongoing training, support, and a strong referral network to help their business. Ranked #66 on Entrepreneur's Highly Competitive 2023 Franchise 500 List, the brand is widely recognized for its rapid expansion and noteworthy success. A strategic alliance partnership with Propelled Brands, the nation's largest family-owned collection of salons, continues to propel the brand's growth. With more than 275 and soon over 300 open locations in 35 states across the United States and Canada, the franchise concept plans to add 200 franchise partners and 500 salons in the next three years.

For more information about Suite Management Franchising, visit mysalonsuite.com/franchise. To learn more about MY SALON Suite and Salon Plaza, visit mysalonsuite.com and salonplaza.com .

SOURCE MY SALON Suite
Iconic musicians join forces with nonprofits Petco Love and Dogs Playing for Life to showcase adoptable dogs

SAN ANTONIO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In a unique collaboration, national nonprofit organization Petco Love is teaming up with Dogs Playing for Life , BOBS from Skechers , musicians Rick Springfield and Ace Von Johnson, as well as "Doggy Parton", Dolly Parton's pet apparel line, to put the spotlight on dogs in 43 animal shelters across the country during National Playgroup Rockstars Adoption events. The events are being held on October 7th in the heart of Rocktober.

Maila, and her Rock Star best friend, L.A. Guns guitarist Ace Von Johnson team up with nonprofits Petco Love and Dogs Playing for Life to put the spotlight on Rockstar dogs in 43 animal shelters during national adoption events. Photo credit: Anabel DFlux

The adoption events will highlight social dogs, "Playgroup Rockstars," while they are playing harmoniously in groups, so potential adopters can see their personalities shine. For those interested in adopting a Rockstar dog, or duo, at National Playgroup Rockstars Adoption events on October 7th, adoption fees will be waived. Community members are invited to attend a 'meet and greet' and see these dogs play.

Iconic and world-renowned musicians are supporting this one-of-a-kind adoption event designed to find loving homes for these amazing dogs while promoting the importance of playgroups at animal shelters and rescues. L.A. Guns guitarist and Rock Star Ace Von Johnson is passionate about rescuing dogs. "My best friends, Maila, Rufus, and foster Willow, mean the world to me. Adopting my dogs from a shelter was the best decision I could have made. We need to rally as many pet lovers as possible at these Playgroup Rockstars events so they can truly see how wonderful these shelter dogs are, and hopefully they will meet their new best friend." Von Johnson will be 'meeting and greeting' with the rockstar dogs at the adoption event at Williamson County Animal Center in Franklin, TN on October 7th.

Tennessee native and legendary musician, songwriter, and animal lover Dolly Parton, is offering support via her playful line of pet apparel, available at Petco. The international superstar is providing iconic flair from her "Doggy Parton" line for adoptable dogs at Williamson County Animal Center so they can shine bright while being center stage. Award winning musician and Rock Star Rick Springfield has cherished dogs all his life and knows what a difference they make. "Dogs are the real Rock Stars. They have a way of showing you unconditional love and loyalty, but also, they are a blast! These Rockstars will certainly put on a show for you at the adoption events, when they get to play together and enjoy their day."

Dogs Playing for Life created the unique playgroup shelter dog enrichment program operating with the simple philosophy of "Every Dog, Every Day, Let Them Play!" Their goal  to ensure shelter pets' positively experience life at an animal shelter, while providing shelter personnel the information needed to help those pets find new loving homes. For people who already have dogs, the Playgroup Rockstars Adoption Event allows you to see these dogs in action and find that perfect match for your existing pet. For those considering adopting two dogs, the teams on the ground can help you find the perfect pair.

"Big dogs often spend longer time periods in shelters waiting to be adopted, especially now. Playgroups create a healthy and mentally stimulating environment for these dogs while showcasing their fun, playful side to potential new families," said Petco Love President, Susanne Kogut. "Dogs are usually social by nature; they simply love some fun, rough and tumble playtime. I always encourage adopters to consider two canine friends to make life more enjoyable for the pets and people in your household."

Dogs Playing for Life programming takes place at more than 350 shelters across the U.S. Founder and CEO, Aimee Sadler, began developing the program in 1998, when she observed that large dogs at shelters often never left their kennels due to staffing and volunteer limitations. The nonprofit organization trains animal shelter personnel to assess and integrate dogs into large-dog playgroups properly as a normal part of shelter life. "Events like Playgroup Rockstars allow dogs to have fun with each other and showcase their playful nature and true personalities. When people visit the shelter and see the dogs in action, they can better picture these dogs as part of their family," said Sadler.

For a list of shelters hosting Playgroup Rockstars Adoption Events on October 7th, and for more information on the events, visit PlaygroupRockstars.com.

Media Contact:

Crystal Bugary, Petco Love, [email protected]

About Petco Love

Petco Love is a life-changing nonprofit organization that makes communities and pet families closer, stronger, and healthier. Since our founding in 1999 as the Petco Foundation, we've empowered animal welfare organizations by investing $370 million in adoption and other lifesaving efforts. We've helped find loving homes for more than 6.7 million pets in partnership with Petco and organizations nationwide. Our love for pets drives us to lead with innovation, creating tools animal lovers need to reunite lost pets, and lead with passion, inspiring and mobilizing communities and our more than 4,000 animal welfare partners to drive lifesaving change alongside us. Join us. Visit petcolove.org or follow on Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn to be part of the lifesaving work we lead every day.

About Dogs Playing for Life

Founded in 2015, Dogs Playing for Life has been redefining the meaning and importance of quality of life for all sheltered dogs by improving their experience through playgroups and individualized training, resulting in urgent and responsible lifesaving. Since inception, DPFL has introduced playgroups to 356 shelters and counting, who realize an average 6% increase in lifesaving and 38% decrease in length of stay for dogs. Shelters frequently describe DPFL programming as "game changing," "transformational," and "the most important thing to happen for shelter dogs." To find out more, visit dogsplayingforlife.com/ or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn.

About SKECHERS U.S.A., Inc.

Skechers U.S.A., Inc. (NYSE:SKX), a Fortune 500 Company based in Southern California, designs, develops and markets a diverse range of lifestyle and performance footwear, apparel and accessories for men, women and children. Collections from The Comfort Technology Company are available in over 180 countries and territories through department and specialty stores, and direct to consumers through digital stores and over 4,700 Company- and third-party-owned physical retail stores. The Company manages its international business through a network of wholly-owned subsidiaries, joint venture partners, and distributors. For more information, please visit about.skechers.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

About BOBS from Skechers

BOBS from Skechers' charitable collection of shoes, apparel and accessories have improved animals' lives: over the past eight years, Skechers has contributed more than $10 million to help 1.9 million shelter pets, including saving more than 1.4 million rescued animals in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Japan. It all started in 2011, when Skechers launched a movement to support children impacted by natural disasters and poverty  a cause that has helped the Company donate more than 16 million new pairs of shoes to kids in more than 60 countries worldwide. To learn more about BOBS from Skechers' commitment to making a difference, visit BOBSfromSkechers.com and follow the brand on Facebook and Instagram.

SOURCE Petco Love
Program offers the first systematic biobanking pipeline for U.S. endangered species

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The nonprofit Revive & Restore announces a groundbreaking new initiative to biobank U.S. endangered species, in partnership with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, ViaGen Pets & Equine, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. This multi-institution collaboration is the first systematic biobanking pipeline for U.S. threatened and endangered species. The initiative will protect genetic diversity for current and future recovery efforts.

Groundbreaking new initiative to biobank U.S. endangered species in light of extinction crisis Post this An endangered Prebles meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius preblei) captured during a population survey. Before the mouse was released, a small skin sample was collected for genome sequencing and biobanking as part of a new initiative to protect U.S. endangered species | Kika Tuff, Revive & Restore

"This is about creating a legacy of America's natural history before it is lost and provides an important resource to enhance species recovery efforts now and in the future," said Ryan Phelan, Executive Director of Revive & Restore.

In light of the biodiversity crisis and escalating extinction risks, new solutions are urgently needed to preserve genetic diversity for America's endangered species. Biobanking describes the intentional and indefinite preservation of living cells, tissues, and gametes. Biobanking both protects unrecoverable genetic diversity in wildlife species and expands capacity for genetic rescue strategies. Currently, only 14% of the 1,700+ U.S. species listed as threatened or endangered have living tissue cryopreserved.

"Biobanking gives us the chance to save irreplaceable genetic diversity," explains Seth Willey, Deputy Assistant Regional Director at the US Fish & Wildlife Service's Southwest Region. "If done right, it creates a marker-in-time and gives future recovery biologists options, like genetic rescue, that are only possible if we act now."

This new biobanking pipeline includes tissue collection, the creation of living cell lines, and a national repository for cryopreservation. As part of the initiative, Revive & Restore also developed resources for field biologists looking to biobank the species they work with, including peer-reviewed sample collection protocols, visual aids, and a collection of published resources on biobanking and cryopreservation. These resources can be found at the dedicated project webpage (https://reviverestore.org/projects/biobanking).

"We want to provide the greatest possible set of options for ensuring the continued survival of the native wildlife of the United States," says Oliver Ryder, Ph.D., Kleberg Endowed Director of Conservation Genetics at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. "This creates a mandate for expanded efforts in biobanking living cells."

For more information, see https://reviverestore.org/new-biobanking-partnership-safeguards-genetic-diversity/

Associated photos

SOURCE Revive & Restore
Major trends include shift toward earthy boldness, continued dominance of white and popularity of MasterBrand's 2024 Finish of the Year Foxhall Green

JASPER, Ind., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Leisure-first, subtle luxury and sophistication are trending across fashion, art and pop culture, and the home is no exception. MasterBrand Cabinets today released new data from a survey of more than 1,200 interior design industry experts giving an in-depth look at the emerging influences that will drive kitchen design in the coming year, including the announcement of its 2024 Finish of the Year, Foxhall Green.

Courtesy of MasterBrand Cabinets Courtesy of MasterBrand Cabinets

"Today, individuals are seeking solace within walls of their homes and adopting features that promote comfort and flexibility," said Stephanie Pierce, director of design and trends at MasterBrand Cabinets. "More than any other room in the home, the kitchen has become a space that brings people together and a sanctuary where time slows down."

The recent survey findings of kitchen designers and dealers uncover what's next in kitchen design, the materials designers are gravitating toward and the ways spaces are transforming around us in 2024, including:

Slower-Paced Living

Today, people are looking to preserve some of the slower pace of living learned during the pandemic, and ongoing self-care is now viewed as essential for mental preservation and peace. Forty-five percent of those surveyed are spending more time than ever in their kitchens, which is taking center stage as a hub of relaxation and connection and driving the design decisions we're making.

Simple Yet Versatile Colors and Finishes

Light tone wood finishes, whites and off-whites are on the rise, including bleached-out natural woods and white oak with a light or natural tone. According to Houzz, 40% of renovated kitchens feature white cabinets and 46% of homeowners are also opting for color mixing in the kitchen. Most often, they are choosing a contrasting island cabinet color with the most popular choices being blue, gray, black and warm brown tones.

Also on the rise is a suite of greens that are becoming steadfast cabinet standbys in designers' toolboxes. This trend has earned Foxhall Green, a grayed forest green, the title of MasterBrand Cabinets' 2024 Finish of the Year. Foxhall Green pairs seamlessly with a wide range of other colors and stains to create a palette that's perfectly in line with current home trends and marries nicely to the resurgence of stained wood tones. The versatility of the color means it can be a classic choice when paired with gold hardware or create a moody ambiance when paired with black.

Raw, Organic and Warm

Emerging color trends also include a notable rise of boldly soft colors and raw, organic and warm shades. A transition from vivid reds to warmer, orange-based reds brings an earthy boldness to interior spaces. Hues of warm orange-reds are showing up on walls, furnishings and decor, adding depth and character to interiors and providing a visual focal point that effortlessly draws the eye in and sparks interest without taking away from a neutral, earthy space.

Top Kitchen Styles and Emerging Influences

Transitional, soft modern and modern traditional are the top three trending kitchen styles, with homeowners and designers blending design elements to balance aesthetics, functionality and personal flair in kitchens. The result is both modernity and timeless elegance, including curved edges and arches becoming increasingly popular in home design.

Simplifying for Functionality and Universal Storage

Eighty-three percent of designers surveyed noted kitchen islands have replaced traditional dining tables. Multifunctional islands with optimal storage allow for a clutter-free and well-organized space to be used as a gathering place, workstation and serving area.

With the rise of open shelving, there is also a need to offset the reduction in kitchen storage space, leading to an increase in the use of working butler's pantries and large walk-in pantries as space allows.

For more information or to find a dealer near you, visit www.masterbrand.com/dealerlocator.

MasterBrand Cabinets: The power of the portfolio

As the largest cabinet manufacturer in North America, MasterBrand Cabinets offers designers a powerful portfolio of more than 15 nationally distributed cabinetry brands, including Aristokraft, Decora, Diamond, Schrock, Kemper, Homecrest, KitchenCraft, Omega, Mantra, Mid Continent, Ultracraft and Starmark. With options ranging from standard to custom, designers can rely on MasterBrand to offer high-quality cabinetry solutions for kitchens, baths and areas throughout the home.

Methodological Notes:

The MasterBrand 2023 Kitchen Trend Survey was conducted by MasterBrand Research among a representative base of dealer customers and designers selling MasterBrand brand lines across all regions in the U.S. and provinces in Canada, between Q4 of 2022 to Q1 of 2023. The survey was conducted online with an email invitation sent to this audience for a total of 1,224 respondents. The results are quantitative and representative of the dealer customer and designer community for insights into the latest trends based on users' recent kitchen cabinet project activity.

Press Contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE MasterBrand Cabinets
ISTANBUL, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Nomic DAO Foundation announced today that Nomic, a decentralized, non-custodial Bitcoin bridge, will soon enable Bitcoin (BTC) to be universally accessible within the Cosmos ecosystem. Presented at Cosmoverse, the Cosmos Network's premier conference, by Nomic's founders and core-contributors, Turbofish, Nomic will be upgraded to enable seamless BTC deposits and withdrawals throughout the entire Cosmos Network, from any platform or chain in the ecosystem.

At present, there is a lack of decentralized and streamlined methods available to users for bringing BTC into the Cosmos Network. To address this, Nomic instead empowers users to bring their BTC into Cosmos with nBTC, an IBC-compatible token, which saves users from having to convert their BTC into a different cryptocurrency.

Nomic Brings Bitcoin to the Entire Cosmos Ecosystem Post this

During today's keynote, Turbofish CEO Matt Bell unveiled Nomic's nBTC Interchain Upgrade, scheduled for release on October 27, 2023 and activation on October 30, 2023, which will unlock a truly seamless and interoperable Bitcoin experience in Cosmos. The upgrade will do so by enabling users to deposit, withdraw, and transfer BTC from anywhere in the Cosmos ecosystem. Additionally, as demonstrated on stage, nBTC is launching on Osmosis, the premier decentralized exchange of Cosmos, with the ability to deposit and withdraw Bitcoin directly within the Osmosis Zone app.

"I believe the destiny of Cosmos is to become the application layer of Bitcoin; in fact it was that vision that drew me to the ecosystem many years ago in the first place. However, getting BTC off the Bitcoin chain in a secure and decentralized way remained a challenge -- until now. With Nomic, users will be able to use native Bitcoin on Osmosis and throughout the Cosmos ecosystem," said Sunny Aggarwal, co-founder of Osmosis. "Bitcoin is in deep need of an application DeFi ecosystem, and Cosmos is in need of a base money asset that can serve as its primary store of value. Nomic will help make this long-awaited union for a Bitcoin-centric Cosmos a reality."

In addition to Osmosis, from day one users can deposit and withdraw BTC directly in other popular Cosmos applications like Kujira and Levana.

To ensure BTC security, Nomic is currently undergoing an auditing process that will test the integrity of the bridge. Following the publishing of the audits, an update will transfer bridge capacity and fee controls to the Nomic DAO, which will control any BTC capacity limits along with deposit and transfer fees and result in expansion of bridge utilization. These upgrades represent a significant step toward advancing the functionality and accessibility of the Nomic platform.

"The Cosmos ecosystem is too important for it to lack a seamless and secure way to receive BTC. With these forthcoming upgrades, Nomic is poised to be the most secure bitcoin bridge on the market today," said Matt Bell, CEO of Turbofish, who spoke at Cosmoverse today to introduce the upgrades. "We see today's announcement as the beginning of the most seamless and secure way to on-ramp users into the Cosmos ecosystem with BTC. With these upgrades, we are thrilled that Nomic will now unlock the exciting DeFi capabilities of the Cosmos ecosystem for any user holding BTC."

With Nomic, rather than merely holding BTC in wallets without active utilization, users can participate in various markets and DeFi products, such as liquidity provisioning (LPing). This approach is designed to maximize the potential benefits of BTC within the Cosmos network, fostering growth and sustainability for both the platform and its users.

Cosmos, known for its scalability and security since its 2019 launch, features the IBC Protocol for token transfers between different blockchains. Until now, a secure method for transferring BTC into Cosmos was lacking  a gap now addressed by Nomic.

To learn more, visit https://www.nomic.io/ .

About the Nomic DAO Foundation

The Nomic DAO Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to the growth and integration of the Nomic ecosystem. The Foundation supports the goals and objectives of the Nomic DAO (decentralized autonomous organization), is the initial steward of the Nomic blockchain, and will support and grow the Nomic DAO until it becomes self-sufficient.

About Nomic

Nomic is a blockchain which offers a decentralized, non-custodial Bitcoin bridge. Built on Turbofish's Orga, a custom high-performance blockchain application framework, Nomic uses IBC to securely and efficiently bridge your BTC to Cosmos for use on any IBC-enabled chain.

About Turbofish

Turbofish is building the next generation of open-source blockchain technologies, focusing on security, decentralization, and efficiency. Turbofish is the founder and core-contributor of Nomic, a decentralized, non-custodial Bitcoin bridge dedicated to bringing Bitcoin to the entire Cosmos ecosystem. As a proud member of the Rust Foundation, Turbofish is committed to supporting and expanding open-source software ecosystems.

SOURCE Nomic DAO Foundation
Acts of violence against health care workers occur at a rate five times to twelve times higher than the estimated rates for workers overall; and a Massachusetts caregiver is assaulted every 38 minutes

BOSTON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Lawmakers will hold a hearing at the State House on Wednesday, Oct. 4 on legislation that would require hospitals to design and implement policies and procedures to prevent what has been characterized as an epidemic of violence against frontline nurses and other direct care staff in Massachusetts healthcare facilities.

The bill, sponsored by State Senator Joan B. Lovely (Beverly/Danvers) and supported by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, would require health care employers to perform annual risk assessments and identify factors which may put employees at risk. It requires hospitals to look at factors like time of day, public access, staffing levels and other factors that affect safety. Hospitals would then need to develop a program, including a written violence prevention plan based on these assessments and put measures in place to minimize risks. The bill also requires the creation of an in-house crisis response team to support victims of workplace violence.

"Violence in healthcare has been an epidemic for many years, resulting in nurses and other direct care staff being assaulted on the job more than any other worker," said MNA President and ICU nurse Katie Murphy. "Without legislative action, hospitals and other health care facilities are under no obligation to put the measures in place that will help to mitigate workplace violence- that is why we are asking the legislature to take action to protect those on the frontlines from these unwarranted and traumatizing attacks."

Legislative Hearing Details

What: Legislative hearing for An Act Requiring Health Care Employers to Develop and Implement Programs to Prevent Workplace Violence (S.1539/H.2330) would require health care employers to perform an annual safety risk assessment and, based on those findings, develop, and implement programs to minimize the danger of workplace violence to employees and patients. Click here for the legislative webpage for the bill and link to view the hearing.

Where: Virtually and in Room A-1, State House, Boston MA.

When: Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023 at 11 a.m.

Who: MNA President Katie Murphy, nurses who have been assaulted on the job; State lawmakers who co-sponsored the bill. Among those testifying will be a nurse from Holy Family Hospital in Methuen who left her position after being strangled by a patient on a behavioral health unit, sustaining a concussion after passing out and falling to the floor unconscious.

The Problem: Assaults on Health Care Workers are Frequent and Violent

Acts of violence against health care workers occur at a rate five times to twelve times higher than the estimated rates for workers overall, according to a recent GAO report.

Every 38 minutes in a Massachusetts healthcare facility, someone is either physically assaulted, endures verbal abuse, or is threatened, according to the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association.

healthcare facility, someone is either physically assaulted, endures verbal abuse, or is threatened, according to the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association. Healthcare workers experience the most non-fatal workplace violence as compared to other professions, accounting for nearly 70% of all non-fatal workplace assaults, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

More than 80% of emergency department nurses have been the victim of workplace violence, according to the Emergency Nurses Association.

During the pandemic, WBUR reported that two to three Massachusetts General Hospital nurses are assaulted every day.

A growing number of nurses fear violence in their workplace and view it as a serious problem, according to the 2023 "State of Nursing in Massachusetts." The threat is even more dire among nurses in direct care at hospitals.

24% of nurses said they do not feel safe in their workplace, an increase from 9% of nurses in 2019 and 17% in 2020.

63% of nurses said workplace violence and abuse is a serious problem, up from 42% in 2021.

76% of nurses in direct care at a teaching hospital said workplace violence and abuse is a serious problem.

79% of nurses in direct care at a community hospital said workplace violence and abuse is a serious problem.

MassNurses.org  Facebook.com/MassNurses  Twitter.com/MassNurses  Instagram.com/Massnurses

Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 25,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association
Expansion supports vitality of rural hospitals, enables access to quality care, and addresses unique needs of smaller communities

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- OCHIN, a nonprofit leader in equitable health care innovation, now offers OCHIN Epic to rural hospitals nationwide. With four hospitals already live on the new system and five more onboarding across six states, OCHIN's entrance into acute care helps ensure smaller hospitals can seamlessly connect care for their patients and recruit new talent using clinicians' electronic health records (EHR) platform of choice.

"OCHIN is honored to partner with rural hospitals for the first time," said Abby Sears, president and CEO of OCHIN. "Our connected care platform will help ensure these pillars of their communities are able to remain independent, grow sustainably, and continue supporting the health and well-being of their hometown patients and broader region for years to come."

Building on more than 20 years of experience supporting ambulatory care organizations, such as community health centers, OCHIN analyzed persistent gaps in rural health care delivery and chose to launch OCHIN Epic for acute care in service of its broader mission to advance health equity by transforming access to care.

"Implementing a new EHR system is significant for any health care organization, and it's especially important for rural hospitals to have the unique tools and technology that will enable them to increase their communities' access to high quality, connected care," said Kim Klupenger, chief experience officer of OCHIN.

OCHIN offers EpicCare Inpatient, a full-service inpatient EHR system that supports interdisciplinary care plans and clinical teams across a full range of care. The OCHIN Epic EHR platform improves patient health one patient, one record at a time by driving new efficiencies and connecting rural hospitals with an ever-expanding system of care. OCHIN also provides full-service implementation with project management support, a personal support team, workflow optimization, training, and access to Best in KLAS third-party vendors.

The first acute care member to go live on OCHIN Epic in June was Minidoka Memorial Hospital in Idaho, joining a nationwide network of about 30,000 active providers who reach more than 5.5 million patients on OCHIN Epic. This year, OCHIN achieved Epic Gold Stars Level 9 Epic Gold Stars Level 9 distinction for the second year in a row.

For more information about OCHIN Epic for acute care, visit ochin.org.

About OCHIN

OCHIN is a nonprofit leader in equitable health care innovation and a trusted partner to a growing national provider network. Our solutions draw from more than 20 years of industry expertise and the largest collection of community health data in the country to improve the health of rural and medically underserved communities.

SOURCE OCHIN
Experienced Healthcare Executive to Lead Two Key Business Functions in Newly Created Role

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- One Call, a care coordination leader within the workers' compensation industry, today announced that Howard Cutler  a highly accomplished healthcare executive  has been named the organization's chief strategy and network officer (CSNO).

Howard Cutler, Chief Strategy & Network Officer, One Call

The newly created role brings together two key business functions  corporate strategy and network management and development  to further advance the organization. As a member of One Call's executive committee, Cutler will be responsible for leading strategic planning efforts and driving the execution of key initiatives. He will oversee the organization's provider network, product management, and marketing teams, effectively leveraging all three areas to better serve clients and injured workers.

"One Call is already highly respected and sought after for its high quality and extensive provider network, comprehensive ancillary solutions, and genuine regard for injured workers," said Cutler. "And the team knows they have something special  you can feel it in the culture, in the way they talk about their client relationships, and through the product enhancements they've introduced over the last few years. I'm excited to align One Call's strategy more closely with one of its greatest assets, the network of providers who care for a key One Call constituent  injured workers  and I look forward to the work ahead."

Cutler joins One Call with more than 25 years of extensive healthcare experience across both the payer and provider landscapes. Most recently, he served as senior vice president, payer strategies for VillageMD, a leading provider of innovative primary care services across the nation. In his role, he led the team responsible for managing fee-for-service and value-based total cost of care arrangements for the Medicare Advantage, commercial group, and individual/ACA exchange lines of business for more than 4,000 clinicians across 26 geographic markets.

Prior to VillageMD, Cutler held progressive leadership roles in a variety of critical functions  such as strategy, healthcare delivery, network operations, healthcare finance, and network development  for payer organizations such as Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Jersey, Aetna, and Coventry Health Care. His provider experience includes nine years leading payer contracting for VillageMD, as well as acute care delivery providers Universal Health Services (NYSE: UHS) and Philadelphia-based Main Line Health.

In addition to his professional experience, Cutler brings strong academic credentials. He earned a joint J.D. and MBA from Temple University and a dual bachelor's degree in political science and marketing from the University of Pennsylvania.

"At One Call, we feel privileged to be a leader within the workers' compensation industry," said One Call CEO Jay Krueger. "For more than 30 years, we've continued to innovate our services and solutions to remain at the forefront of the industry. With Howard joining our team, I look forward to extending our capabilities and continuing One Call's position as synonymous with value and outcomes, for clients and injured workers alike."

About One Call

As a care coordination leader within the workers' compensation industry, One Call has an unwavering commitment to get people the care they need when they need it. Leveraging more than 30 years of industry experience and innovative solutions, One Call alleviates costs and burdensome administrative work for clients and positions injured workers for high quality of life and long-term success, both in and out of the workplace. For more information and the latest news, visit onecallcm.com, LinkedIn (One Call), and Facebook (@onecallcm).

Media Contact:

Lisa Noakes

One Call, Sr. Director, Communications

[email protected]

SOURCE One Call
NEW YORK, Oct. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The penicillin market is expected to grow by USD 2.45 billion from 2022 to 2027. In addition, the momentum of the market will progress at a CAGR of 4.98% during the forecast period, according to Technavio Research. The market has been segmented by type (oral and parenteral), source (semisynthetic and natural), and Geography (North America, Europe, Asia, and the Rest of the World (ROW)). North America is estimated to contribute 31% to the growth of the global market during the forecast period. The introduction of favorable regulatory initiatives for the approval of antibiotics is encouraging pharmaceutical companies to explore new treatment options. Due to an increased awareness of antibiotic use and the increasing usage of generics, the demand for antibiotics in the US is decreasing. Moreover, the US Federal Government endorsed an action plan for implementing a national strategy to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria in September 2014. The plan's goals include slowing the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria and strengthening national health surveillance against antibiotic resistance. Additionally, CDC is funding 34 innovative projects to achieve this goal. Hence, these factors are expected to drive market growth in the region during the forecast period. This report offers an up-to-date analysis of the current market scenario, the latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. Read a Free PDF Sample Report

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Penicillin Market 2023-2027

Company Profile:

Abbott Laboratories, AdvaCare Pharma, Aenova Holding GmbH, Astellas Pharma Inc., Canvax Biotech SL, Cipla Ltd., F. Hoffmann La Roche Ltd., FUJIFILM Corp., GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Hikma Pharmaceuticals Plc, Lupin Ltd., Merck KGaA, Novartis AG, Pfizer Inc., Recipharm AB, Sanofi, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Viatris Inc., and Wellona Pharma

Abbott Laboratories - The company offers penicillin such as Abbott Penicillin G Potassium tablets, which provide effective solutions for a wide range of bacterial ailments.

The company offers penicillin such as Abbott Penicillin G Potassium tablets, which provide effective solutions for a wide range of bacterial ailments. AdvaCare Pharma - The company offers penicillin such as Penicillin G Sodium Powder, for a range of infectious diseases.

The company offers penicillin such as Penicillin G Sodium Powder, for a range of infectious diseases. Sanofi - The company offers penicillin such as amoxicillin, playing a crucial role in combating bacterial infections.

To gain access to more company profiles available with Technavio, buy the report!

Penicillin Market: Segmentation Analysis

The market share growth by the oral segment will be significant during the forecast period. Unlike parenteral penicillin antibiotics, oral penicillins are administered orally without special support and clinical evidence for their use.

Learn about the contribution of each segment summarized in concise infographics and thorough descriptions. View a Free PDF Sample Report

"Besides analyzing the current market scenario, our report examines historic data from 2017 to 2021"- Technavio

Penicillin Market: Market Dynamics

Key Driver

Rising prevalence of infectious diseases

Growing awareness of various diseases and their treatment

Special regulatory designations

The rising prevalence of infectious diseases is a key factor driving market growth. Infectious diseases are caused by pathogens, which may be transferred from one person to another through direct or indirect contact. Therefore, the spread of infectious diseases is made possible by factors that promote the growth and transmission of these pathogens. The main causes of the spread of infectious diseases around the world are population changes caused by globalization as well as increasing urbanization. In addition, some other factors that increase morbidity include an increasing number of dams, poor living conditions, insufficient hygiene, and inadequate waste management systems. Furthermore, there is an increased incidence of infectious diseases in human beings due to changes in environmental conditions and the development of trade and tourism. Hence, these factors are expected to drive market growth during the forecast period.

Major Trend

Strategic alliances and M&A is the major trend in the penicillin market

Identify key trends, drivers, and challenges in the market. Download a free sample report to gain access to this information.

Related Reports:

The Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) therapeutics market is estimated to grow by USD 2,397.67 million at a CAGR of 21.2% between 2022 and 2027.

The photodynamic therapy market is estimated to grow by USD 2,053.68 million at a CAGR of 8.22% between 2022 and 2027.

What are the key data covered in this penicillin market report?

CAGR of the market during the forecast period

Detailed information on factors that will drive the growth of the penicillin market between 2022 and 2027.

Precise estimation of the penicillin market size and its contribution to the market in focus on the parent market

Accurate predictions about upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

Growth of the penicillin market in North America, Europe, Asia, and ROW

A thorough analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information about companies

Comprehensive analysis of factors that will challenge the growth of the penicillin market companies.

ToC:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market Sizing

Historic Market Sizes

Five Forces Analysis

Market Segmentation by Type

Market Segmentation by Source

Market Segmentation by Geography

Customer Landscape

Geographic Landscape

Drivers, Challenges, & Trends

Company Landscape

Company Analysis

Appendix

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base comprises enterprises of all sizes, including over 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contacts

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com

SOURCE Technavio
At 69 years old, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is starting the final stretch of his presidential term. His main priorities are completing major infrastructure projects, supporting Claudia Sheinbaum as his partys candidate in next years elections, and ensuring a smooth succession. Mexicans must now envision a future without Lopez Obrador. The president has repeatedly expressed his desire to withdraw from public life and settle down on his farm in Chiapas (southern Mexico) after his term ends on September 30, 2024. Im retiring  I am completely retiring from politics, he said.

Its hard to believe that a political animal like Lopez Obrador could simply retreat into seclusion. Whether you admire him or not, he has undeniably dominated Mexicos public discourse for the past five years. Furthermore, Lopez Obradors influence extends beyond his presidency, as he has played a significant role in shaping the regional leftist movement over the past 20 years, culminating in the creation of his own political party. The void he leaves behind will undoubtedly be challenging to fill.

This week marks the beginning of the final year of Lopez Obradors presidency, the top vote-getter in Mexicos history and its most popular president in the past 30 years. With a 69% approval rating after five years in office, Lopez Obradors popularity is higher than Ernesto Zedillo, the last PRI president; Vicente Fox, the first post-PRI president; Felipe Calderon, the second PAN leader; and Enrique Pena Nieto, the most unpopular recent president by far.

Lopez Obrador is definitely not an irrelevant lame-duck leader in his final year, overshadowed by his successor. He has shown that every year of his term is important to him. Thats why he decided to spend all his political capital to lead the presidential succession process within the party he created  Morena. Lopez Obrador personally crafted the rules for candidate selection and closely supervised the process. His involvement not only validated Claudia Sheinbaums victory as the partys standard-bearer but also minimized allegations of fraud by the runner-up, Marcelo Ebrard.

President Lopez Obrador turns over Morena party leadership to Claudia Sheinbaum; September 7, 2023. Nayeli Cruz

Lopez Obradors involvement in the upcoming presidential race has compelled the political opposition to devise strategies counteracting the president. A united opposition movement  Frente por Mexico  has surprisingly coalesced parties from across the political spectrum, including the conservative PAN party, the centrist PRI party and the leftist PRD party. Their sole commonality lies in their rejection, and at times, contempt for Lopez Obrador and Morena.

The presidents final year in office will focus on combatting what he calls conservative thinking, a topic he plans to write about when he retires. He also plans to propose a constitutional reform that enables citizens to directly elect federal and Supreme Court judges. To accomplish this, Lopez Obrador will need his party and allies, including the Green Party and the Labor Party, to win a strong congressional majority in the upcoming elections.

Currently, the president has requested a budget from Congress that will address the countrys fiscal deficit, and also fund the completion of major infrastructure initiatives like the Maya Train tourism project, the Interoceanic Corridor to connect the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and the Dos Bocas oil refinery in Tabasco (southeastern Mexico). The budget Lopez Obrador wants will also extend the reach of social welfare programs that benefit Mexicos most vulnerable citizens. Political analysts are predicting that electioneering will boost public spending.

Lopez Obrador likes to maintain a historical perspective and is skilled at anticipating the political moves of his rivals. He forcefully pushed the ruling bloc in Congress to include social aid entitlements in the constitution, a strategic maneuver that aims to make it difficult for future presidents to reverse what he sees as a major achievement of the leftist movement. Lopez Obrador also implemented a mechanism that allows voters to confirm or remove a sitting president at the midpoint of a term. He put himself to this test in 2022, and the results were a resounding affirmation, as expected. More than a vanity project to demonstrate his own popularity, the recall mechanism will oblige Lopez Obradors successors to govern effectively or risk a recall.

A citizen casts his vote for a referendum to implement a presidential recall mechanism; Puebla, Mexico; April 2022. Hilda Rios (EFE)

Lopez Obrador has effectively managed the economy by curtailing public debt, boosting oil production and strengthening the currency, disproving his critics dire predictions.

In terms of foreign policy, the Mexican government achieved a favorable trade agreement with the U.S. and Canada, although there are still ongoing negotiations about corn and energy policies. Tensions with the United States have also been strained by the fentanyl crisis. Moving south, Lopez Obrador is regarded as a leader of the Latin American left, standing alongside influential leaders like Brazils Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Uruguays Jose Mujica. During the height of the pandemic, a diplomatic and political strategy was implemented to ensure that Mexico received vaccine doses promptly, while facilitating access for other needy countries.

The unresolved challenges of the outgoing administration are undeniable. While some issues like infrastructure improvement have been addressed, others will carry over to the next administration. These include the alarming increase in violent crime and homicides. During Lopez Obradors term, homicides exceeded the numbers during the Pena Nieto (2012-2018) and Calderon (2006-2012) administrations, two presidents he blames for initiating an ineffective war on drugs.

The president has faced criticism for distributing social aid to address the causes of violence, and for transferring control of the National Guard  a civilian institution  to the Army. Lopez Obrador attempted to reform the constitution for this purpose, but the measure was defeated in one of the presidents biggest setbacks. He plans to reintroduce the initiative next year, along with the reform to elect new judges.

Mexican National Guard forces near Malpaso in the State of Zacatecas; September 29, 2023. Nayeli Cruz

Lopez Obrador usually points to mistakes by previous administrations as the reason behind the negative data about violent crime. The presidents promise to improve Mexicos health system to match Denmarks has fallen short, as he again used the tired formula of blaming inherited problems for the lack of progress.

The countdown has begun for a president who tenaciously won the office on his third try. Lopez Obrador succeeded Cuauhtemoc Cardenas as the leader of the Mexican left, wresting the role from a man whose father was the legendary agrarian reformer, President Lazaro Cardenas. Lopez Obrador is a charismatic and strong leader, cherished by supporters who shower him with gifts and tears of adoration wherever he goes. During his term, he suffered a heart attack, three bouts of Covid-19, and still found the time and energy to author numerous books. Next year well see if Lopez Obrador can really make good on his promise to withdraw from public life.

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GURUGRAM, India, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Philippines car rental market is booming, riding on the waves of a tourism surge and the widespread embrace of the internet. Booking cars online is now a breeze, making travel more convenient. With growing urban traffic woes, car rentals are becoming the go-to choose for hassle-free mobility. Exciting innovations like vehicle sharing are enhancing accessibility, and the ongoing tourism is expected to keep propelling the Philippines car rental industry forward with strong momentum.

Key Market Findings:

Leisure travel is estimated to continue being the highest revenue generating segment with the increase in tourism across the country.

Tourists and Corporate Clients are majority of the customers of the market.

Players are looking to expand their fleet size to premium cars to offer comfort and luxury to customers.

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Ecosystem of Philippines Car Rental Market

There are five markets in this report: Car Rental, Car leasing, Ride Sharing, Ride Hailing and Self Drive. The Philippines car rental market and self-drive market is highly fragmented with Avis and Diamond Rent-a-Car hold the major share respectively. Philippines car leasing market is moderately consolidated and Orix, is the market leader. Philippines rides hailing market and ride sharing market are highly consolidated where Grab is the market leader.

Online Bookings: With increase in internet penetration and digital adoption in the country, car rental services are shifting to online platforms for direct bookings and confirmations. This makes the entire process hassle-free and contactless.

Tourism Surge Ignites Philippines Car Rental Demand: More and more tourists are coming to the Philippines, and they need an easy way to get around. Renting cars is a great option because it lets them travel around the beautiful places and experience the culture at their own pace. Because of this, we expect a lot more people to rent cars in the future.

Urban Mobility Challenges Fueling Philippines Car Rental: As Philippine cities grow rapidly, traffic jams and limited parking space are becoming real headaches. But here's the good news: more people are discovering the convenience of ride-hailing and ride-sharing. This shift is also making car rentals a hot choice, offering urban folks' hassle-free access to wheels when they need them, fueling the car rental industry's growth.

Evolving Services in Philippines Car Rental: Car rental companies are getting tech-savvy, offering exciting new options. Now, private car owners can share their vehicles on rental platforms, turning idle cars into profit. For customers, it means more car choices, a sense of community, and fits perfectly into the sharing economy trend. It's making car rentals more convenient, flexible, and appealing for everyone.

Unique Business Models: Year-on-Year with the help of technology, unique business models and features are coming up in the market like allowing private car owners to give out their spare vehicles on lease or rent. Ultimately, car rental services are becoming more accessible to customers.

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Increasing Traffic and Congestion in Crowded Areas: Rising traffic congestion in densely populated urban areas, exacerbated by limited parking space and population growth, is driving a shift towards increased reliance on ride-hailing and ride-sharing services. As cities grapple with inadequate parking facilities and heightened traffic, commuters and residents are seeking convenient alternatives. Ride-hailing and ride-sharing platforms offer a solution by providing on-demand transportation, reducing the need for personal vehicle ownership and parking. This trend is expected to continue as urban areas expand, making these services increasingly integral to urban mobility solutions, alleviating congestion, and improving the overall efficiency of transportation networks in crowded city environments.

Increase in Tourism: Lately, the international tourism sector is again increasing in Philippines with more than ~1500% increase in tourist arrivals from 2021 to 2022P. With that, there's only an expectation of the demand to grow in future by tourists.

Conclusion

Analysts at Ken Research in their latest publication "Philippines Car Rental Market Outlook to 2027 - Driven by the increase in tourism and business activities along with deeper internet penetration and adoption of digital services," observed that the Philippines car sharing market is expected to showcase considerable growth in the coming five years. In the upcoming years, it is predicted to expand more rapidly due to increased internet penetration and the adoption of smartphones. The Philippines Car Rental Market is expected to grow at robust CAGR over the forecasted period 2022 -2027. With the Increasing internet adoption leads to a surge in online car rental bookings in the Philippines.

Also, the growth in tourism is driving higher demand for car rentals among travelers. And Urban traffic challenges are making car rentals an attractive option for hassle-free mobility. Innovative tech-savvy services, like vehicle sharing, are enhancing accessibility in the car rental market. The tourism boom in the Philippines is expected to boost car rental demand even further.

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Market Taxonomy

Philippines Car Rental Market

By Type of Car

Small Cars (PHP 3500-7500 / per trip)

Medium (PHP 3500-7500 / per trip)

Luxury (PHP 7500+)

By Type of Booking

Online

Offline

By Purpose

Leisure

Business

Philippines Car Leasing Market

By Type of Region

Manila

Luzon

Visayas

Mindanao

By Time Duration

1 year

2 year

3 year

4 or more year

By Vehicle Price Range

Economical (PHP 20000-35000

Mid-Range (PHP 35000-50000)

Premium (PHP 50000+)

By Type of End User

Corporate

Retail Individuals

Philippines Ride Hailing Market

By Type of Region

Metropolitan

Non Metropolitan

Philippines Ride Sharing Market

By Point of Service

Rest Area

At Airport

By Type of Car

Sedan

SUV

By Type of Distance

Short distance

Long distance

Philippines Self-Drive Car Rental Market

By Type of Region

Metro cities

Non metro cities

By Type of Booking Channel

Online

Offline

By Time Period

1-2 days

A week

A month

By Type of Car

Standard (PHP 1000-4000/24hours)

Luxury (PHP 1500 + / per hour)

By Type of Booking Period

Weekend

Weekdays

By Segment of Car

Standard

Luxury

By Status of Ownership

Owned

Leased

By Point of Service

At Airport

Rest area

For More Insights On Market Intelligence, Refer To The Link Below: 

Philippines Car Rental Market

Related Reports by Ken Research: 

Vietnam Car Rental Market Outlook to 2027F Driven by Increasing Internet Penetration Rate, Tourism and Urbanization

According to Ken Research estimates, due to the impact of COVID-19, there has been a decrease in tourism resulting in a reduction in demand for car rentals and car rental prices in Vietnam. The Vietnam car rental market is expected to grow at a 16.7% CAGR during 2022-2027F, driven by Increasing Internet Penetration Rate, Tourism and Urbanization.

Belgium Car Rental Market Outlook 2027F driven by increasing tourism, technological prospects & customer loyalty

Belgium Car Rental market has witnessed a steady growth in the 2017-2021 period in terms of fleet size & revenue owing to the expansion in the number & size of both local & international players & market size as a result of increase in the number of tourists travelling to Europe. Regarding the future projections, the Belgium Car Rental market is expected to reach US $ ~Mn in 2022P & will grow at an annual growth rate of ~% (CAGR). The user penetration is expected to reach ~% by 2027 & the average revenue per user will be US $ ~ Mn.

Bahrain Car Rental Market Outlook to 2027F Driven by Type of Market Structure (Organized and Unorganized), by Type of Car (Sedan, Hatchback, SUV, Van, Crossover, Others), By Vehicle Type (Economy cars, Luxury cars)

According to Ken Research estimates, the Bahrain car rental market is expected to witness healthy growth during the forecast period of 2017P-2027F this growth can be attributed to the increasing demand for car rental services from tourists, business travelers, and locals. Additionally, the increasing number of international flights to Bahrain and the growing disposable income of the population are expected to further drive the growth of the market.

Japan Car Rental Market Outlook to 2027F By Market Structure (Organized and Unorganized), By Type of Vehicle (Small Cars/ Hatchbacks, Sedans, SUVs and Others) and By Booking Mode (Online and Offline)

According to Ken Research estimates, the Japan Car Rental Market is forecasted to grow at a robust CAGR in the period of 2022P-2027F, owing to the increased internet and smartphone penetration, rising population and increasing demand from tourists for business and leisure purposes hiring rental cars.

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Ken Research Private Limited

Ankur Gupta, Director Strategy and Growth

[email protected]

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SOURCE Ken Research
First-of-its-kind, non-invasive continuous glucose monitor (CGM) was designed leveraging Phillips-Medisize extensive medical device design and development expertise

Phillips-Medisize's proven experience in human-centered product design, electronics, connectivity, software, manufacturability and regulatory compliance will drive commercialization

HUDSON, Wis., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Phillips-Medisize, a Molex company, and a leader in the design, engineering and manufacturing of pharmaceutical drug delivery, invitro diagnostic and medtech devices, has teamed with GlucoModicum, an innovative medtech company based in Finland, to design and eventually commercialize a proprietary non-invasive, wearable device that removes technology and patient-care roadblocks to continuous glucose monitoring (CGM).

Phillips-Medisize and GlucoModicum team up to deliver a first-of-its-kind, needle-free continuous glucose monitoring device (CGM) that removes patient-care roadblocks by leveraging magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) technology for non-invasive glucose monitoring.

"We wanted to create a solution that is needle free, accurate and more affordable so people would better monitor their glucose," said Jokke Maki, managing director of GlucoModicum. "Working with Phillips-Medisize, we applied compelling science to develop a world-class product that may help billions of people better manage their diabetes."

Accelerating the Product Innovation Journey

In seeking a more convenient, rapid and gentle CGM alternative, GlucoModicum discovered that magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) technology could be used to apply a small amount of energy directly to interstitial fluidthe body fluid between blood vessels and cellsto drive it to the surface of the skin for quick and easy extraction of a glucose sample.

While their scientists conducted rigorous research, GlucoModicum sought an experienced contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) to assist in realizing their vision for a new device, called Talisman. This device is designed to adhere to a patient's arm, and integrates the MHD technology, ultra-sensitive biosensors and advanced algorithms while connecting to a smartphone app for data collection and reporting. The device is not yet FDA approved and does not have the CE mark.

In developing the Talisman, Phillips-Medisize applied special expertise in industrial design, mechanical and electrical engineering, connectivity, material science, miniaturization, supply chain management, software development, manufacturing, testing, quality assurance and regulatory compliance.

"We started with ideas, concepts and drawings," said Homer Fairley, business development manager for Phillips-Medisize. "The day we provided the finished sample product to GlucoModicum was a moment of celebration for both parties, as it really brought the possibilities to life. Now that there is a proven concept, we look forward to the opportunity to leverage Phillips-Medisize's high-volume manufacturing capabilities to produce hundreds of millions of units on time and in a cost-effective manner. That's a big benefit to this project."

In November 2022, GlucoModicum published results of the safety, efficacy and effectiveness of its proprietary MHD technology in Scientific Reports, based on glucose tolerance tests conducted on five healthy volunteers. The results further supported previously published data that demonstrated GlucoModicum's MHD technology and biosensor solution was 13 times more effective than other needle-free approaches tested in extracting interstitial fluid from the skin. Additional testing of the five healthy volunteers revealed that Talisman's biosensor is eight times more sensitive to glucose molecules than comparative biosensors on the market.

Since a CGM informs treatment decisions, the clinical efficacy and documentation required by notified bodies and similar regulators, such as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Agency (PMDA), are critical to planning a successful launch. The Phillips-Medisize Design and Development team offers its medical customers regulatory capabilities customized to each company's needsfrom regulatory documentation to guidance on device classification, risk assessments and device-specific submission requirements for regulatory bodies. In this case, Phillips-Medisize counseled GlucoModicum on what will be required for submissions to regulatory bodies in the markets where the company plans to launch this device. The GlucoModicum team found the advice and regulatory knowledge insightful and beneficial to their commercial launch plans.

Preparations are underway to leverage Phillips-Medisize's global manufacturing footprint, extensive supply chain network and advanced assembly automation capabilities to produce hundreds of millions of devices and biosensors once in-depth clinical studies and regulatory approval are completed. Together, the companies are also beginning to explore other potential uses of this innovative technology to support management of other diseases.

Supporting Resource

Phillips-Medisize Brings Possibilities to Life

Phillips-Medisize, a Molex company, collaborates with leading pharmaceutical, medical technology and invitro diagnostic companies to design, engineer and manufacture life-saving innovations. In addition, the company's specialty commercial business supports automotive, consumer and defense industries. A contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), Phillips-Medisize leverages its 60 years of expertise and globally renowned capabilities to collaborate with customers to deliver products and solutions that annually help millions of patients, healthcare professionals and individuals live healthier, more productive lives.

About Molex

Molex is a global electronics leader committed to making the world a better, more-connected place. With presence in more than 40 countries, Molex enables transformative technology innovation in the automotive, data center, industrial automation, healthcare, 5G, cloud and consumer device industries. Through trusted customer and industry relationships, unrivaled engineering expertise, and product quality and reliability, Molex realizes the infinite potential of Creating Connections for Life. For more information, visit www.molex.com.

SOURCE Molex Incorporated
EDMONTON, AB, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Plug and Play Alberta has appointed Dawn Newton as a new Director in Edmonton, focusing on their presence in the growing tech community there. The team in Edmonton has a new dedicated office in the Edmonton Unlimited space. With her exceptional expertise in running accelerator programs and serving the Edmonton innovation community, Dawn will play a pivotal role in leading the provincial programs team and continue expanding Plug and Play's impact across the region.

"Having Dawn Newtown join our team, along with the new office space reflects our dedication to fostering innovation and supporting our team's growth in Edmonton," said Lindsay Smylie, Director of Plug and Play Alberta. "We believe it will further enhance our ability to effectively serve the innovation community and our Scale-Up GAP partners."

"The steady growth of made-in Edmonton technologies, innovation and research is diversifying our economy each and every day. With the exciting announcement of Plug and Play establishing an office in Edmonton, we are collectively taking yet another step forward in strengthening our region's economy and supporting local entrepreneurs in a big way, while retaining talent and attracting new investments to the Edmonton region," said Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi. "Congratulations to Plug and Play and welcome to Edmonton  together, we can build a more innovative city for all of us."

"Edmonton Unlimited is a committed 'fund and fellowship' partner with Silicon Valley-based Plug and Play, helping to attract this and other global accelerators to our city and connect local companies through their networks to the world," said CEO of Edmonton Unlimited, Catherine Warren. "With our new downtown space hopping with local innovators and loads of free programs, the time is right to open our doors to the growing Plug and Play team, providing a dedicated office space and our cutting-edge event venue to drive North America's high-growth tech sector, accelerate local startups, and advance our city as an inclusive global innovation capital."

To commemorate these exciting announcements, Founder and CEO Saeed Amidi will be joining the Plug and Play Alberta team to host an opening celebration on October 3 in the Edmonton Unlimited Atrium.

"Building and establishing a presence in Edmonton is critical to advancing the innovation ecosystem, said Laura Kilcrease, CEO of Alberta Innovates. "We're pleased that Plug and Play Alberta now has an office in Edmonton to help grow tech businesses across the entire entrepreneurial landscape of Alberta."

"It's an exciting time for the Edmonton innovation space," said Saeed Amidi, Founder and CEO of Plug and Play. "We're thrilled to establish a physical presence in Edmonton, aligning ourselves with the city's vibrant entrepreneurial spirit and dynamic tech landscape."

The event will offer attendees the opportunity to connect with industry leaders, meet the Plug and Play Alberta team, and engage in networking with the local tech community.

The highly regarded Plug and Play Alberta Sector Agnostic and Digital Health EXPO will be hosted for the first time in Edmonton on November 30, 2023. Additionally, a number of events are also on the map in Edmonton within the coming months, including weekly meet-ups and networking sessions.

Visit the Plug and Play Alberta website for more information.

About Plug and Play

Plug and Play is the leading innovation platform, connecting startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we're present in 50+ locations across 5 continents. We offer corporate innovation programs and help our corporate partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. We also organize startup acceleration programs and have built an in-house VC to drive innovation across multiple industries where we've invested in hundreds of successful companies including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, Lending Club, N26, PayPal, and Rappi. For more information, visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/ .

About Plug and Play Alberta

Plug and Play Alberta is building a world-class innovation platform to attract top technology and investment to the region and support Albertan entrepreneurs to scale and grow, hire tech talent, and propel digital transformation across the province. Plug and Play is part of the Alberta Scaleup and Growth Accelerator Program that is run by a consortium led by Alberta Innovates . The consortium, which also includes the Government of Alberta , Edmonton Unlimited , the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund , and Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) , allocated $35 million over three years to retain business accelerators. It's part of the Alberta government's goal to help create 20,000 jobs and increase technology firm revenue to $5 billion by 2030.

Contact:

Lindsay Smylie

Director, Alberta

Plug and Play Tech Center

[email protected]

SOURCE Plug and Play
Syntax to Acquire Beyond Technologies, Creating a Global Team of 2,800+

Expands Syntax's Industry-Focused Capabilities, SAP Expertise and Professional Services Talent

MONTREAL, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Syntax Systems , a leading global technology solutions and services provider for cloud application implementation and management, today announced its plans to acquire Montreal-based Beyond Technologies , and its subsidiaries. Beyond is a professional services firm specialized in SAP solution integration and business performance optimization, with operations in Canada, the United States, France, Morocco and South Africa. The combination of Syntax and Beyond is expected to create a team of more than 2,800 experts serving more than 900 mid-market and large enterprise clients globally, with 26 operations across the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

"Beyond Technologies has a stellar reputation for professional services excellence and SAP ecosystem mastery," said Christian Primeau, Global CEO of Syntax. "Beyond Technologies is home to an entrepreneurial culture that attracts the best-and-brightest technology experts who are passionate about what they do and driven to deliver outstanding outcomes for clients. A guiding principle for all Syntax acquisitions is prioritizing culture fit. We're enthusiastic about the people-first, customer-centric mentality shared by Syntax and Beyond and excited to bring the talent and energy of these teams together to better serve our clients," said Primeau.

Industry specialization in the mid-market is a particular focus for both Syntax and Beyond Technologies. Both companies offer complementary industry-focused solutions for manufacturing, as well as natural resources that further capabilities in this space. The joint portfolio of industry-specialized offerings will also include construction, retail, consumer industries, life sciences and the public sector.

"Syntax has been delivering comprehensive technology solutions and services for a remarkable 50 years. The portfolio of enterprise applications, cloud platforms, technology practices and industry specialization are the ideal complement to Beyond's expertise in SAP solution integration and business transformation," said Luc Dubois, Partner and CEO of Beyond Technologies. "We're excited to join the Syntax family of talented people, and we're very optimistic about how this enhances the outcomes we'll achieve for clients and allows us to continue to deliver value, with increased scale."

As the technology landscape for mid-market and large businesses becomes increasingly complex, more organizations require multi-cloud, multi-ERP, and enterprise application expertise. In addition to SAP, the combined Syntax and Beyond Technologies solution portfolio will include a diversified portfolio of cloud and unique, industry-specific intellectual property.

"Novacap is proud to support Syntax's acquisition of Beyond Technologies, highlighting our belief in their leadership within the application management and cloud services sector. Syntax's success in expanding its portfolio underscores the potential for value creation. As committed partners, we're dedicated to advancing Syntax's growth on the global technology stage," said Pascal Tremblay, President and CEO, Managing Partner at Novacap.

"There's a sense of hometown pride with this announcement," said Primeau. "It's a great story about the strength of two Quebec-based technology companies joining forces on the global stage with the backing of a leading Canadian private equity firm, all based in the province."

"This step is a clear reflection of our belief in the strengths and capabilities that both companies bring to the table," said Ted Mocarski, Chairman of the Syntax Board of Directors. "This strategic move enables us to broaden our global reach while consistently delivering top-tier solutions and services to our clients worldwide."

The acquisition, which is expected to be completed later this quarter, is subject to the customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Until the transaction is completed, Syntax and Beyond Technologies will continue to operate separately. Terms of the transaction will not be disclosed.

National Bank Financial Inc. served as the exclusive financial advisor to Beyond Technologies on the transaction.

About Syntax

Syntax provides comprehensive technology solutions and trusted professional, advisory, and application management services to power businesses' mission-critical applications in the cloud. With 50 years of experience and 800+ customers around the world, Syntax has deep expertise in implementing and managing multi-ERP deployments in secure private, public, hybrid, or multi-cloud environments. Syntax partners with SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards, AWS, Microsoft, and other global technology leaders to ensure customers' applications are seamless, secure, and at the forefront of enterprise technology innovation. Learn more about Syntax at www.syntax.com or follow Syntax on LinkedIn.

About Beyond Technologies

Founded in 2005, Beyond Technologies has grown from 100 to over 400 professionals in the past five years, and today supports more than 150 organizations across its seven offices in Canada, the United States, France, Morocco and South Africa. Beyond Technologies specializes in providing organizations with SAP expertise, tools and solutions to digitally transform their businesses. Beyond Technologies is recognized as one of the top 20 Best Workplaces in Canada and one of Canada's Best Managed companies, and its service offering spans across the entire transformation cycle, from cross-industry functional and technical business consulting to customer experience, project management, business intelligence, as well as continuous business improvement and performance. For more information, please visit https://www.beyondtechnologies.com

About Novacap

Founded in 1981, Novacap is a leading North American private equity firm with over C$8B of AUM that has invested in more than 100 platform companies and completed more than 150 add-on acquisitions. Applying its sector-focused approach since 2007 in Industries, TMT, Financial Services, and Digital Infrastructure, Novacap's deep domain expertise can accelerate company growth and create long-term value. With experienced, dedicated investment and operations teams as well as substantial capital, Novacap has the resources and knowledge needed to help build world-class businesses. Novacap has offices in Montreal, Toronto, and New York.

For more information, please visit www.novacap.ca.

Contact:

Walker Sands for Syntax

syntax@walkersands.com

SOURCE Syntax
2023 Global Influencer Marketing To Reach $21.3 Billion More Than Doubling in Size in Three Years

Chtrbox India and QYOU USA Continue to Rack Up New Clients and Industry Recognition

LOS ANGELES, MUMBAI, India and TORONTO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - QYOU Media Inc., (TSXV: QYOU) (OTCQB: QYOUF) a company operating in India and the United States producing and distributing content created by social media stars and digital content creators, has announced a series of recent accomplishments by its India and US based Influencer Marketing divisions. Both business divisions of QYOU Media continue to build upon expanding client bases and the increasing importance of Influencer Marketing for all brands seeking to reach young audiences in the US, India and around the world.

(CNW Group/QYOU Media Inc.) (CNW Group/QYOU Media Inc.)

The Influencer Marketing industry continues to experience unprecedented growth as the industry moves ahead as a mainstream marketplace for advertisers and brands. In the last three years the overall global business has more than doubled. Data Bridge Market Research has projected that the industry will experience a compound annual growth rate of 32.5% from 2022-2029 and reach a level of nearly $70 Billion in 2029.

Recent highlights for each QYOU Media Influencer Marketing business unit includes:

QYOU USA:

CHTRBOX/ CHTRBOX REPRESENT/ CHTRSOCIAL:

National Geographic and IndiGo Airlines: Following our award winning campaign in 2021, Chtrbox partnered with National Geographic India for their most recent campaign in collaboration with IndiGo - #nofilterbyIndiGo , wherein we exclusively led their influencer campaign.

, wherein we exclusively led their influencer campaign. Chtrbox curated Warner Music India & Flipkart Fashion's first ever college campus ambassador program with students across colleges in India , while facilitating a collaboration between the two brands and building a strong student community that drives awareness for the launch of Flipkart's latest GenZ collection - SPOYL - while building on an organic content bank for WMI to promote their songs.

& Flipkart Fashion's first ever college campus ambassador program with students across colleges in , while facilitating a collaboration between the two brands and building a strong student community that drives awareness for the launch of Flipkart's latest GenZ collection - - while building on an organic content bank for WMI to promote their songs. Karan Perwani featured in Indian Television re: New WhatsApp Channels Initiative:

re: New WhatsApp Channels Initiative: ChtrRepresent Clients Featured Across Multiple Publications Including: Ruchika Lohiya on Social Nation Now and Instagram

on and Travel creator Jinali Sutariya (@travelstoriesbyus) was invited by Punjab's Honourable CM Bhagwant Mann for the very first edition of Punjab's Tourism Summit held in Mohali to capture and promote awareness towards the state's travel landscape.

(@travelstoriesbyus) was invited by Punjab's Honourable CM Bhagwant Mann for the very first edition of Punjab's Tourism Summit held in Mohali to capture and promote awareness towards the state's travel landscape. ChtrSocial founder Darshil Shah featured in Campaign India .

Curt Marvis, CEO and Co-Founder, QYOU Media, commented "When we started to engage in influencer marketing, it was still an add-on approach for most major brands. This has now officially changed and we are in the middle of one of the fastest growth ad businesses in history. It holds at its core everything we are about as a companycontent, community and commerce driven by the young and dynamic content creators we see across platforms that are all part of our daily routines and liveswhether on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram or other platforms. This is what makes our business so exciting and why we are so bullish on our current position in the market. We work with A-list world brands bringing them the audiences they need at scaleall the while showing real engagement. We continue to develop and believe in the business and financial growth potential of both QYOU USA and Chtrbox more than ever before."

About QYOU Media

One of the fastest growing creator-media companies, QYOU Media operates in India and the United States producing, distributing and monetizing content created by social media influencers and digital content stars. In India, under our flagship brand, The Q and on connected TV, via channels Q Kahaniyan, Q GameX, Q Comedistaan & Sadhguru TV, we curate, produce and distribute premium content across television networks, VOD and OTT platforms, mobile phones, smart TV's and app-based platforms. In addition, QYOU has numerous additional content destinations, apps and gaming platforms engaging over 125 million Indian households weekly. Our influencer marketing company, Chtrbox, has been a pioneer in India's creator economy, leveraging data to connect brands to the right social media influencers. QGamesMela is a recently launched casual gaming business leveraging access to the large audience enjoyed by Q India products. In the United States, we power major film studios, game publishers and brands to create content and market via creators and influencers. Founded and created by industry veterans from Lionsgate, MTV, Disney and Sony, QYOU Media's millennial and Gen Z-focused content reaches more than one billion consumers around the world every month. Experience our work at www.qyoumedia.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE QYOU Media Inc.
Round will enable scaling of nationwide network for spray drone services in agriculture

IOWA CITY, Iowa, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Rantizo, the leading operator network for spray drone services, announced today an expansion of its oversubscribed Series A funding round. Led by Leaps by Bayer , with Fulcrum Global Capital and Innova Memphis , this round will allow the new executive team to lean into a new growth strategy for Rantizo.

"Our vision is to build a service network that puts autonomy to work in ag, starting with spray drone services. We are excited to expand our nationwide operator network, deploy our work management and as-applied map software, and continue our exponential growth in acres treated," said CEO Mariah Scott.

Rantizo Announces Over $6M Series A Funding Expansion Post this

Rantizo has more than doubled the total acres flown YoY, with operators in 30 states. Rantizo operators currently fly and apply with more than 20% of the Top 50 ag retailers, using spray drones to provide timely, local and precision application services for crops ranging from Arkansas rice to Iowa corn to Oregon hops and Idaho potatoes, enabling ag retailers to expand their services to growers.

"A common mantra you hear across agriculture is 'we are going to have to do more, with less.' We believe that autonomy is the future of modern agriculture, and the Rantizo best-in-class software platform, deep drone operator network, and experienced management team provide acceleration not only for the emerging 'spraying-as-a-service' industry but the entire agriculture automation sector as well," said Kevin Lockett, Partner at Fulcrum Global Capital.

Up to 60% of ag retailers say their number one challenge within their operations is workforce availability. Another top five item on that list is the adoption and use of new technology. Rantizo provides a solution for both with a nationwide operator network, leading drone service and support, and job management software.

"The way Rantizo addresses farmers' problems by seamlessly integrating drone services into existing workflows is a perfect fit for our FarmTech focused fund," said Jan Bouten, Partner at Innova Memphis.

"Rantizo has been a great partner in servicing our grower customers. The drones utilized by Rantizo allow us to provide crop inputs on acres that otherwise may miss an application or go untreated due to poor or wet conditions. We look forward to building upon our current successes and growing this partnership across more of our geography," says Jordan Hart, Regional Operations Manager, Simplot.

This year, Rantizo more than tripled the acres treated for Simplot, a result of the new strategy introduced by CEO Mariah Scott. She joined the company in April, after leading Verizon Robotics and the successful acquisition of Skyward, a drone management company, by Verizon. At Rantizo, she strengthened the executive team, bringing in leaders with extensive experience in software, service operations, agricultural sales and marketing, aviation, drones and finance.

"We are excited about the new leadership team at Rantizo. They bring the deep and diverse experience across drones and agriculture required to effectively deploy the service and deliver on the strategy" said PJ Amini, Sr. Director, Leaps by Bayer.

About Rantizo

Rantizo connects demand and supply for agricultural spray drone services with a turnkey service platform. We enable industry leading drone applicators by selling drones, support, software and training, and our service platform connects demand for acres to be sprayed to local operators. Rantizo operators fly and apply in 30 states, providing qualified, licensed, and insured precision application services. Look for us in a field near you or learn more at www.rantizo.com . For media inquiries please contact Brady Eilers .

SOURCE Rantizo
REDDING, Calif., Oct. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Redding Rancheria is thrilled to announce a historic milestone with the successful passage of Assembly Bill 854, authored by Assemblymember Ramos. This landmark legislation, which was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday, September 30th, 2023, formally ratifies Redding Rancheria's Indian gaming compact with the state of California.

The bill passed the Assembly floor on a 74-0 vote, with 6 members absent or not voting at the time of the vote. The bill passed the Senate floor on a 38-0 vote, with 2 members absent or not voting at the time of the vote.

This compact will carry Redding Rancheria through the next 25 years of gaming in California. The ratification signifies a momentous achievement in our ongoing commitment to tribal sovereignty and self-governance. This achievement underscores the importance of maintaining strong government-to-government relationships between tribal nations and other government organizations. The agreement between Redding Rancheria and the state government is a testament to the shared vision of promoting economic growth, job creation, and community development.

The compact establishes a solid framework for responsible gaming operations while fostering a fair and mutually beneficial partnership between our tribal nation and the state. It also expressly authorizes class III gaming at the Tribe's I-5 property, once the federal government puts the land into trust, paving the way for a successful casino relocation project.

Tracy Edwards, CEO of Redding Rancheria, "This momentous occasion represents an example of the strength of tribal sovereignty and the effectiveness of government-to-government negotiations. We are committed to utilizing the opportunities provided by this compact to enhance the well-being of our community members, support local economies, and continue our tradition of responsible gaming operations. As we've always said, this community is our home and it is our priority to have a positive impact on everyone that lives here."

The ratification of this Indian gaming compact will enable Redding Rancheria to further its economic development initiatives, provide essential services to our tribal members, and contribute to the prosperity of the local community through job opportunities and local partnerships. The compact also reaffirms dedication to responsible gaming, ensuring the highest standards of integrity, fairness, and transparency.

Redding Rancheria extends its gratitude to Assemblymember Ramos, Governor Newsom, and all those who played a pivotal role in the passage and signing of AB 854.

SOURCE Redding Rancheria
The homologous-use application validated by Dr. Ryan Robinson and NP Rachel Reynolds sets a precedent for non-surgical allograft application.

PENSACOLA, Fla., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Regenative Labs (Regenative), a leading HCT/P manufacturer, announces a retrospective case series demonstrating new care advancements using its Wharton's Jelly allografts in the supplementation of Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) defects.

Board-certified sleep medicine and craniofacial pain specialists Dr. Ryan Robinson and NP Rachel Reynolds of The Pain and Sleep Therapy Center have presented for publication a novel case series studying the application of Wharton's Jelly, an umbilical cord connective tissue, to the structural tissue defect of the temporomandibular joint. This homologous use application validated by Robinson and Reynolds sets a precedent for non-surgical allograft application.

"We've seen a decrease in terms of healing time for patients when we've compared it to other types of injections that we've used previously for patients with temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMD). We've also seen improvement in outcomes for patients who've been utilizing Wharton's Jelly in conjunction with other types of modalities that we've used for these patients," shared NP Rachel Reynolds.

Nearly 10 million patients suffer from TMD in the United States each year. These patients often experience symptoms ranging from joint arthralgia, displacement, degenerative arthritis, limited and painful mouth opening, painful subluxation of the joint, joint clicking, and referred pain to the periauricular area or head and neck muscles. Although there are many treatments for TMD, therapy specific to degenerative pathology of the TMJ disc itself is limited in scope and therapeutic effect.

Standard treatment includes simply resting the jaw muscles and avoiding use, massage, physical therapy, medication management, and, when all else fails, surgery. The rising annual number of surgeries and high out-of-pocket costs for patients, overall treatment costs ranging from 5,000-50,000 USD, are enough to implement conservative protocols alternative to invasive surgical repair of the TMJ.

"Today, we see many physicians who are wary about treating TMJ and often revert to standard surgical treatments. Showing the outcomes that we have for patients will hopefully help to bolster more physicians to join us in using more conservative treatments. Our patients deserve more options," concluded Reynolds.

The five patients in this case series presented with chronic refractory TMD, specifically from severe degeneration of the structural tissues within the joint, and had failed standard-of-care practices for at least three months. After one application of Regenative's Wharton's Jelly allograft, the patient's pain improved by an average of 75% after 90 days.

"A few years ago, we started using PRF (platelet-rich fibrin) therapy in the jaw joint, and we thought that was revolutionary. We have seen amazing results; however, the protocol involves additional technology like a centrifuge and consists of multiple rounds of injections to get the desired outcome. It also subjectively eliminates some patients from treatment who are opposed to blood draws on themselves. With Wharton's Jelly, there is only one injection, which makes the application much easier, more convenient, and less invasive to the patient. What's most exciting is the results we are seeing! We're seeing much better patient outcomes than any other modality we've ever treated. We're really excited to continue the use of Wharton's Jelly in our Pain and Sleep clinic, and it soon becoming a routine standard for our patients who can benefit," shared Dr. Ryan Robinson.

To advance the necessary research and fill the need for non-surgical alternatives, Regenative has been tracking data in its comprehensive retrospective data repository in which physicians across specialties submit patient data as they track patient outcomes up to 120 days after the patient receives an application of Regenative's products, like its Wharton's Jelly allografts.

Regenative has collected data from clinics nationwide on Wharton's Jelly homologous-use applications around the body. Still, very few have documented data on the jaw joint, and Regenative is excited to highlight this unique procedure in the first of many publications on regenerative orthodontic medicine.

"Given the high incidence rate and few effective treatment options for defects in the Temporomandibular Joint, this study aims to provide a new, promising alternative intervention for patients who have failed all other standard-of-care treatments. This is just one of many homologous-use applications in regenerative medicine to improve patient outcomes," shared Regenative Labs CEO Tyler Barrett.

Barrett and his team hope to enlist physicians to take part in studies regarding uncovered uses. Physicians will have their outcomes highlighted, furthering the understanding of regenerative medicine and uncovering new applications for this groundbreaking field of medicine.

"We're doing the research at Regenative, and the results are very promising. We are calling on all physicians across the country to engage with us to advance the field of regenerative medicine," Barrett concluded.

Contact Regenative to get your practice involved today.

About Regenative Labs: Regenative Labs produces regenerative medicine products to address the root cause of a patient's conditions using Wharton's Jelly innovations rather than masking the pain with other treatments. Regenative Labs works closely with scientists, physicians, hospitals, and surgery centers to constantly monitor and improve patient progress and outcomes for new product development. Formed by veteran industry professionals familiar with the daily challenges of innovations in healthcare, the company provides non-addictive, non-invasive options for patients. Regenative Labs' expert product research and development team complies with FDA guidelines of minimal manipulation for homologous use. The company adheres to AATB and FDA guidelines. Learn more at Regenative's website: www.regenativelabs.com

About Dr. Ryan Robinson: Dr. Robinson is Delaware's first and only doctor triple-boarded in Craniofacial Pain and Dental Sleep Medicine. After many years of treating the airway in his general dental practice, Dr. Robinson decided to open up a specialty practice to address the needs of the community. This new practice, called The Pain and Sleep Therapy Center of Delaware Valley, focuses on finding the origin of the problem as opposed to treating it with medications and "band-aid" fixes that have become so routine in today's medical system. Learn more at Pain and Sleep Therapy Center's website: https://painandsleepcenter.com/

About Rachel Reynolds: Rachel is a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) who joined the Pain and Sleep team in July 2021. Originally, Rachel is from upstate New York, where she completed her Bachelor of Nursing and Master of Nursing at Binghamton University. Prior to completing her Master's, Rachel worked in Neurology as a registered nurse, focusing on patients who dealt with chronic pain and headaches. Upon moving to Delaware, Rachel completed a fellowship in Primary Care with Christiana Care. During her fellowship, she identified her passion for comprehensive patient care, which resulted in her devotion to identifying the root cause of her patient's issues. Upon identifying a need for nutritional guidance for our patient population, Rachel acquired a certification in nutrition from the University of Stanford. Rachel is also completing a second master's degree program in Psychiatry at this time to better assist patients and provide a more comprehensive scope of practice. Learn more at Pain and Sleep Therapy Center's website: https://painandsleepcenter.com/

SOURCE Regenative Labs
MONTREAL, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Relocalize, the developer of the world's first autonomous micro-factory for the food & beverage industry, announced today that it has raised US$2.5 million in the initial closing of a US$3.5 million seed round led by i4 Capital and Waterpoint Lane.

The proceeds from the round will be used to prepare Relocalize's autonomous production platform for scaling and to solidify its leadership position as the industry's first mover in distributed, hyper-local food & beverage manufacturing.

Relocalize Team Photo (CNW Group/Relocalize) Relocalize micro-factory RELO1 (CNW Group/Relocalize)

D. Wayne McIntyre, Co-founder and CEO of Relocalize, expressed his excitement stating, "This is a big step towards a truck-free future for our food system. It reflects both the urgent need to decarbonize food production and the high market demand for sustainable and affordable products."

Also joining this round is RGS Ice, LLC, a California-based private equity investor focused on investments in retail and technology led by managing partner David J. Moore.

The new seed investors bring valuable expertise in cleantech, advanced manufacturing, and deep tech. i4 Capital is committed to building a prosperous and responsible future by championing innovative, disruptive technologies. Waterpoint Lane focuses on driving sustainability, social, and economic outcomes, shaping a positive future for our planet. The company is proud to collaborate with these pioneers in building a relocalized future for manufactured foods.

Tim Tokarsky, Founder & Managing Partner of i4 Capital, said, "We believe that Relocalize's micro-manufacturing technology will help reinvent the way consumers access quality food and beverage products. The world's first hyper-local micro-factory for packaged ice is just the beginning; numerous applications will leverage their disruptive manufacturing platform, directly cutting GHG emissions."

Ben Gibbons, Founder & Managing Partner of Waterpoint Lane, said, "We are excited to partner with the Relocalize team to advance our shared vision for a more sustainable food system. By harnessing the potential of Relocalize's technology, it becomes possible to both decarbonize and decentralize key segments of the food and beverage supply chain. Their approach is not just innovative; it is transformative, setting a new standard for the industry."

In March 2023, Southeastern Grocers announced a partnership with Relocalize to pilot an autonomous micro-factory, known as RELO, at their Jacksonville distribution center. The pilot RELO is successfully producing the world's first hyperlocal, certified plastic-negative packaged ice, on-demand for local supermarkets in Florida. Building on this achievement, Relocalize plans to install multiple new systems to further impact climate change mitigation.

The company recently received international recognition for sustainability innovation, winning major awards such as "Best Climate Change Innovation" at CogX and "Sustainability Product of the Year" by the Business Intelligence Group, alongside major brands like DHL, Honeywell, IBM, S&P Global Sustainable1, and Siemens. Relocalize's recent accolades also include the Real Leaders Awards, the CDL-RBCx Innovation Prize, the CFIN FoodTech Next Award, Clean50 Top Projects, and the FoodTech 500.

About Relocalize

Relocalize offers autonomous food production platforms as a service (PaaS) to grocery and convenience retailers. Positioned at retailer distribution and fulfillment centers, these micro-factories, known as RELOs, produce CPG products on-demand for 100200 retail stores. Each RELO performs all the functions of a traditional factory but at approximately 1/20th the scale, aiming to disrupt the US$1+ trillion ice and beverage CPG market by eliminating 100% of transportation-related CO2 emissions and waste.

About i4 Capital Fund

i4 Capital is a venture capital fund with over $40 million dedicated to early-stage, innovative companies developing disruptive technologies. I4 Capital focuses on innovative manufacturing/Industry 4.0, CleanTech, information technology, and advanced technologies, aiming to transform industries and economic sectors.

About Waterpoint Lane

Waterpoint Lane is a venture capital and growth equity firm specializing in the agrifoodtech sector, dedicated to revolutionizing the global food system by investing in growth stage enterprises that are reshaping the way we produce and consume food.

SOURCE Relocalize
Authentic Indian Food Brand Elevates Ready-to-Heat Product Line with Its Flavorful White Queso & Jalapeno Seasoned Basmati Rice Now Exclusively Available at Walmart Stores

CYPRESS, Calif., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Royal, recognized as the #1 brand of Authentic Basmati and Sona Masoori rice in America, is expanding its celebrated line of Ready-to-Heat products with a new White Queso & Jalapeno flavor that is now available in more than 700 Walmart locations nationwide.

Royal's Ready-to-Heat White Queso & Jalapeno Seasoned Basmati Rice Royal's latest Ready-to-Heat flavor is now available in Walmart stores

Royal's White Queso & Jalapeno Seasoned Basmati Rice is a culinary delight that features a blend of white cheddar cheese and a kick of jalapeno combined with extra-long grain Basmati Rice to elevate any dining experience. This fluffy, aromatic, delicate-tasting rice has 2g sugar, 5g protein, only 220 calories per serving and comes in a pouch designed with convenience in mind that allows consumers to get authentic flavor fast. The White Queso & Jalapeno Basmati Rice adds a versatile dimension to personalize any dish and take it to the next level.

"With the launch of Royal's Ready-to-Heat White Queso and Jalapeno Seasoned Basmati Rice across Walmart stores nationwide, this exciting addition to Royal's product line embodies our commitment to innovation and diverse flavors," said Andrew Cops, SVP Sales, Marketing & Product Development at LT Foods Americas. "This culinary blend brings together the best of two worlds, mirroring the tapestry of cultures and tastes that define the many flavors of you. We hope consumers will savor the experience, enjoy the fusion of flavors, and celebrate the unique and diverse flavors that Royal has to offer."

Royal's latest Ready-to-Heat Queso White Queso & Jalapeno Basmati Rice flavor is now available in Walmart stores and will feature the brand's new packaging while delivering the same exceptional taste to elevate the brand. The Ready-to-Heat product line is available in 12 different flavors including its best-selling flavors, White Basmati, Cilantro Lime, Yellow Rice and Mexican Street Corn.

For more information about Royal, please visit authenticroyal.com and on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.

About Royal

For over 30 years, Royal has been providing consumers with the ingredients to create delicious, authentic Indian meals and memorable moments of comfort, celebration, and excitement around them. Royal's commitment to quality, authenticity and sustainability has made it the #1 brand of Basmati rice and the #1 brand of Sona Masoori rice in the U.S. Proudly grown in India, Royal is on a mission to bring people together over food, blending cultures, flavors, and traditions to help consumers create, express, and share the many flavors of life. For more information about Royal and the brand's roster of authentic Indian products, please visit authenticroyal.com and join us on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.

About LT Foods

LT Foods is a renowned, global leader in Indian foods, with a successful legacy marked by three generations and 70 years as a family-run business. With a deep-rooted commitment to nurturing the goodness of food for individuals, communities, and the planet, LT Foods has established itself as a trusted name within the industry. LT Foods delivers the finest quality and authentic taste experiences in more than 60 countries, spanning regions such as India, the United States, Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, and more. The company's diverse portfolio includes the highly acclaimed Daawat, one of India's most loved and consumed Basmati brands, and Royal, a leading Indian foods brand known as the #1 brand of Basmati in the US. The company is also proudly expanding by offering organic staples through the brand Ecolife in markets across the globe and supplying organic agri-ingredients to leading businesses. For more information about LT Foods please visit ltgroup.in/.

Media Contact:

Cassie Yanogacio, 408-854-0636

SOURCE Royal
Claudia Paola Suarez Fernandez, in an image from her social media accounts. claudiasuarezf

The model who represented Venezuela at the 2007 Miss World pageant, Claudia Paola Suarez Fernandez, received a substantial gift from the network that looted $2 billion from her countrys main state-owned firm, the oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA).

The businessman Luis Mariano Rodriguez Cabello, the alleged frontman of the ring, gave the beauty queen a $996,000 apartment in the Parque Residencial Campo de Oro residential building in Caracas in 2010, according to a confidential report from the Financial Intelligence Unit of Andorra (Uifand) to which EL PAIS has had access.

Through an instrumental Panamanian company (without any real activity), the alleged frontman for the corrupt organization transferred the money to an account at Bank Sarasin and Co in Switzerland belonging to the Venezuelan couple who sold the property. Rodriguez Cabello sent the money on February 11, 2010, from one of his accounts at Banca Privada dAndorra (BPA), a bank in the European microstate of Andorra that was selected by the network to conceal the money looted from the Venezuelan state oil company. The tiny country of 78,000 inhabitants was shielded until 2017 by banking secrecy. I am attaching the support for the transfer of $950,000 for the purchase of a property for Mrs. Claudia Suarez, Rodriguez Cabello indicated by email in April 2010 to a senior manager of the Andorran financial institution, according to the documents.

This is just the latest case of alleged corruption to emerge from a long-running investigation into the activities of the PDVSA ring. Formed by over 30 former officials of the powerful state firm  including several loyalists of deceased former president Hugo Chavez (1999-2013), such as Nervis Villalobos and Javier Alvarado, his former vice-ministers of Energy  the network that looted PDVSA devised an elaborate scheme through which it received under-the-table commissions of up to 10% from businessmen. The firms that paid the bribes  especially Chinese companies  were later awarded energy contracts. To mask the trace of the money, the organization hid its loot through an opaque web of accounts at BPA, more than 4,000 miles away from Caracas. The flow of funds circulated through 30 companies, which were registered in Switzerland and Belize. BPA itself was raided in 2015 by Andorran authorities for allegedly engaging in money-laundering activities for criminal groups.

Investigators in Andorra, where a court has been probing 30 members of the PDVSA ring since 2018 for money laundering, were surprised that Rodriguez Cabello paid the amount for the apartment yet the sales contract only shows Suarez Fernandez as the buyer. It is suspicious that Highland [front company] ordered the transfer, yet neither this company nor Rodriguez Cabellos names show up in the sales contract, said a confidential Uifand report dated November 2022.

Passport that the model Claudia Paola Suarez gave Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA) when she opened an account there on March 4, 2009. EL PAIS

The sales document is signed by the Venezuelan couple who owned the apartment and by Claudia Paola Suarez. The document established a price of 5,795,000 bolivars, which at the exchange rate on that date would be worth $1.3 million. This newspaper has tried without success to reach the model and the apartment sellers for comment.

Miss Venezuelas connection with the ring that looted PDVSA does not end there. Suarez Fernandez opened an account at BPA in March 2009 in order to make a deposit of one million dollars, as this newspaper revealed. At the time, the model then informed the bank that she had a business relationship with the companies High Rise and Red Bouquet, controlled by another member of the plot, Diego Salazar, cousin of Rafael Ramirez, a former Chavista energy minister, former president of PDVSA and former ambassador to the United Nations. And in the Know Your Client procedure that banks are obligated to perform to check the origin of clients funds, Suarez Fernandez indicated that she wanted to make quarterly transfers of $500,000 whose origin lay in insurance and administration.

Luxury skyscrapers in Miami

An analysis of the financial operations by Rodriguez Cabello in Andorra, where he moved over $1.1 billion between 2007 and 2015, reveals that the networks main operator resorted to his opaque financial web to acquire a $5.3 million luxury apartment in the One Thousand Museum skyscraper in Miami in 2014.

Designed by the late Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, famous for works such as the London Aquatics Center, the Miami property is part of a 62-story building with 100 six-star residential units, a rooftop helipad, glass elevators, a pool and a solarium, among other amenities listed on the Miami Residential website.

To acquire the property, Rodriguez Cabello ordered two transfers worth $2.1 million in 2014 from his financial network at BPA to a Bank of America account in the name of Chicago Title Insurance, according to the documents. The sale contract was signed on October 12, 2014.

The One Thousand Museum skyscraper in Miami, where Luis Mariano Rodriguez Cabello acquired an apartment for $5.3 million. 'One Thousand Museum', por Zaha Hadid Architects (Miami, EE UU)

In 2019, Rodriguez Cabello managed to avoid an extradition request made by Venezuelan authorities to Spain. The active financial operator, who is accused of corruption, was not the only member of the ring to be seduced by the architectural excellence of this exclusive Miami building that has attracted the attention of celebrities such as David Beckham, who acquired a penthouse in 2020 for $18 million, according to Vanity Fair. Diego Salazar, now in serving time in a Venezuela prison for corruption, also bought a $15.3 million property in the One Thousand Museum in 2014 through the holding company Worldwide Traders Line.

An Andorran court has been investigating the colossal looting since 2015. Diego Salazar was prosecuted in 2018 for money laundering in a banking establishment. And, along with him, the oil company executive Francisco Jimenez Villarroel is also facing charges in Andorra; as are the companys former lawyer Luis Carlos de Leon Perez; the Venezuelan insurance magnate Omar Farias and Rodriguez Cabello himself, among others.

In 2018, the justice system of the European microstate also prosecuted a dozen former directors of BPA, the financial institution chosen by the corrupt plot to hide its loot and which was intervened in March 2015 for allegedly acting as a launderer of funds for criminal groups.

investigacion@elpais.es
EAST HARTFORD, Conn., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- RTX (NYSE: RTX) has been selected by Boeing as a collaborator on the X-66A flight demonstrator, part of NASA's Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project. Two RTX business units, Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace, will support Boeing with Pratt & Whitney GTF engines, and Collins nacelles and engine accessories. Pratt & Whitney and Collins will also support ground and flight tests, slated to start in 2028.

RTX selected by Boeing to provide propulsion and electric power systems for X-66A NASA Sustainable Flight Demonstrator Project (photo credit: Boeing)

The Sustainable Flight Demonstrator is part of NASA's broader Sustainable Flight National Partnership, which is dedicated to developing the technologies needed to achieve net-zero CO 2 emissions for commercial aviation. Boeing's X-66A program is focused on developing the Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) concept, which could enable significant improvements in fuel efficiency and reduced emissions for next generation single-aisle aircraft.

"NASA's Sustainable Flight Demonstrator is a leading example of how public-private partnerships can help foster the technological breakthroughs needed to deliver on the industry-wide goal of a more sustainable, net-zero emissions future," said Geoff Hunt, senior vice president of Engineering & Technology at Pratt & Whitney. "We'll work with Boeing to apply GTF engines to the X-66A and help demonstrate the potential of its pioneering truss-braced wing design."

The GTF engine, with its revolutionary geared fan architecture, delivers industry-leading fuel efficiency and sustainability benefits for single-aisle aircraft. With up to 20% better fuel efficiency, GTF engines have helped airlines save more than 1.4 billion gallons of fuel and over 14 million metric tons of CO 2 emissions since entering service in 2016. GTF engines are certified to operate with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and offer up to a 75% reduction in aircraft noise footprint compared to previous generation engines.

"Collins has a long history of successful partnerships with NASA, Boeing, and Pratt & Whitney, with decades of experience pushing the boundaries of innovation in aerospace," said Dr. Mauro Atalla, senior vice president, Engineering & Technology for Collins. "Now, as part of the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator program, we will work together to demonstrate new technologies and systems to support the next generation of low-emission single-aisle aircraft that will play an integral role in reducing the environmental footprint of the aviation industry."

Collins' nacelles consist of lightweight and durable composite and metallic materials that encase the engine and serve many functions, including safeguarding the engine, controlling airflow, reducing noise and facilitating thrust reversal for deceleration during aircraft landings. In addition, Collins provides the control system components for the GTF engine, including heat exchangers, the integrated fuel pump and control, the air turbine starter and electronic controls.

"The learnings from the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator, X-66, and the partnership with NASA are important elements in the industry's efforts to decarbonize aviation," said Dr. Todd Citron, Boeing's Chief Technology Officer. "We're grateful for the support from RTX on this critical effort."

RTX is advancing a wide range of technologies to support the future of sustainable aviation, including engine readiness for unblended 100% SAF, hybrid-electric propulsion and hydrogen fuel. Pratt & Whitney and Collins are also collaborating with NASA on other Sustainable Flight National Partnership projects, including Hybrid Thermally Efficient Core (HyTEC) and Hi-Rate Composite Aircraft Manufacturing (HiCAM).

About RTX

RTX is the world's largest aerospace and defense company. With more than 180,000 global employees, we push the limits of technology and science to redefine how we connect and protect our world. Through industry-leading businesses  Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon  we are advancing aviation, engineering integrated defense systems for operational success, and developing next-generation technology solutions and manufacturing to help global customers address their most critical challenges. The company, with 2022 sales of $67 billion, is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

Contact:

Pratt & Whitney

+1 (860) 565-9600

[email protected]

SOURCE RTX
ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- RTX (NYSE: RTX) will issue its third quarter 2023 earnings Tuesday, Oct. 24, prior to the stock market opening. A conference call will take place at 8:30 a.m. ET.

The conference call will be webcast live on the company's website at www.rtx.com and will be available for replay following the call. A presentation corresponding with the conference call will be available for downloading prior to the call.

About RTX

RTX is the world's largest aerospace and defense company. With more than 180,000 global employees, we push the limits of technology and science to redefine how we connect and protect our world. Through industry-leading businesses  Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon  we are advancing aviation, engineering integrated defense systems for operational success, and developing next-generation technology solutions and manufacturing to help global customers address their most critical challenges. The company, with 2022 sales of $67 billion, is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

Media Contact

C: 202.384.2474

Investor Contact

C: 781.522.5123

SOURCE RTX
Global recognition reflects SATO's consumer-centric focus and the impact of its innovative and affordable sanitation and hygiene solutions

LONDON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- SATO, an award-winning social business that empowers people everywhere to live a better life, every day, and to enjoy a brighter future through innovative sanitation and hygiene solutions, is delighted to be honoured by Fast Company's Brands That Matter 2023.

Erin McCusker, SATOs Leader, with the Brands That Matter award.

The brands selected for this prestigious annual list have achieved relevance through cultural impact and social engagement and are judged to have authentically communicated their missions and ideals. SATO, part of LIXIL, was recognised in Brands That Matter's International category  brands outside of the United States that achieved relevance in their home markets.

Erin McCusker, Leader, SATO, and Senior Vice President at LIXIL, said: "To be recognised as a Brand That Matters is a fantastic reflection of SATO's development and relevance. Ten years ago, LIXIL launched the SATO brand with one prototype to address the critical sanitation needs of consumers in Bangladesh. A decade on, SATO offers an innovative and aspirational sanitation and hygiene portfolio that has positively impacted the lives of 45 million people in 45 countries, and growing.

"Looking to 2030 and the ambitious targets of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal 6.2  achieving access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all  we believe SATO, and its role as a social business, innovator, and empowering, consumer-centric brand, is an important accelerator in unlocking health, social and economic value for more communities around the world."

As the world's leading award for showcasing brands that communicate and demonstrate brand purpose, Brands That Matter's recognition of SATO is a testament to the continued success of its offer, solutions, and brand. "We see this as the culmination of our brand refresh last year which cemented our positioning as a vibrant and customer-centric brand. It is also an important milestone that reflects our ambition to grow a global brand that resonates locally with households, retailers, and masons, and becomes a reference in the sector," says Janaina Campoy, Leader, Global Marketing and Communications, SATO.

Each year, Fast Company's judges compile the list which features large and small companies and non-profits based on their ability to achieve relevance through cultural impact and social engagement as well as an ability to effectively communicate their mission and ideals through branding.

According to data from WHO and UNICEF, one-fifth of the global population (1.7bn) live without access to safe sanitation and one in three (2.3bn) lack basic handwashing facilities at home. For many  particularly in Asia and Africa  the simple task of going to the toilet can be a dangerous, unsafe, and unpleasant experience. Meanwhile, limited access to a handwashing solution with soap risks the spread of preventable diseases. Combined, poor sanitation and hygiene lead to significant economic loss, absenteeism among schoolchildren, and negative health outcomes.

However, SATO is on a journey to inspire global change. With its portfolio of innovative, affordable, and water-saving sanitation and hygiene solutions, SATO directly addresses the everyday challenges facing consumers in rural and peri-urban areas. Using its patented trapdoor technology, easy-to-clean and easy-to-install design, the SATO Pan seals open pit latrines to instantly create a fresher sanitation experience. The Pan also combines with the brand's off-pit connectors  the SATO V-Trap and I-Trap connection systems  to divert waste and create a sanitation solution that can be safely managed by consumers. Finally, the SATO Tap repurposes a plastic bottle to create a portable handwashing solution that needs just 100ml of water per handwash.

To date, SATO's unique and customer-focused designs have led to multiple awards. This includes the Red Dot design award for its V-Trap connection system, while the SATO Tap was named a Finalist in Fast Company's World Changing Ideas 2021 and one of Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2020.

To find out more about SATO's solutions, impact, and countries of operation, visit www.sato.lixil.com.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2237518/SATO_Erin_McCusker.jpg

SOURCE SATO
Oberheiden P.C. a federal litigation, compliance, and corporate security defense firm announces the addition of several high-ranking public officials to join the firm as Of Counsel.

DALLAS, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Oberheiden P.C., a business defense and federal litigation firm, has announced the addition of three high-ranking former government officials and representatives.

Secretary Mike Pompeo , Former U.S. Secretary of State, Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Former Congressman (KS)

, Former U.S. Secretary of State, Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Former Congressman (KS) Director John Ratcliffe , 6th Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Former Congressman, and Former U.S. Attorney (EDTX)

, 6th Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Former Congressman, and Former U.S. Attorney (EDTX) Congressman Trey Gowdy , Former Congressional Chairman, Former Assistant U.S. Attorney, and Elected State Prosecutor (S.C.)

Mike Pompeo

"Welcoming these outstanding public servants and well-known officials reflects the firm's commitment to serve our clients with the highest caliber legal advisors," says founder Nick Oberheiden. "I believe it is fair to say that the advent of these proven leadersand their impeccable expertise will further boost our already rapidly expanding national security, corporate security, cybersecurity, and congressional investigation practice," adds Lynette Byrd, a long-time partner with Oberheiden P.C. and former Assistant U.S. Attorney in Dallas.

Oberheiden P.C. is a frontline federal litigation, compliance, and corporate risk assessment law firm comprised of Department of Justice veterans, former FBI and Secret Service agents supplemented by a nationwide network of seasoned litigation attorneys including long-time senior DOJ trial attorneys. The firm has served as lead counsel to elected officials, CEOs, company executives, dignitaries, publicly traded companies, professionals, and business owners in DOJ, FBI, SEC, FINRA, FTC, FEC, OIG, CID, whistleblower, and high-stake litigation matters across the United States. For more information, contact us at [email protected] or visit www.federal-lawyer.com.

Disclaimer :

The content of this press release is subject to the website disclaimers found on www.federal-lawyer.com. Readers are advised that this press release is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to solicit clients, to provide legal advice, or to create an attorney-client relationship with Oberheiden P.C. This information may constitute attorney advertisement in some jurisdictions. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

SOURCE Oberheiden P.C.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Silk Way West Airlines' first Boeing 777 Freighter arrived at Heydar Aliyev International Airport today as the airline becomes the newest operator of the world's largest, longest range and most capable twin-engine freighter. The 777 Freighter will enable Silk Way West to increase its capacity to meet growing cargo demand around the globe.

Silk Way West Airlines first Boeing 777 Freighter arrived at Heydar Aliyev International Airport today as the airline becomes the newest operator of the world's largest, longest range and most capable twin-engine freighter. (Photo: Boeing)

"Delivery of this aircraft marks a defining moment in our strategic plan to make Silk Way West Airlines greener, more fuel efficient, and better positioned for growth from conception to reality," said Fadi Nahas, vice president of Silk Way West Airlines, Americas. "This expansion of the fleet will open up opportunities for Silk Way West Airlines to boost the volume of flights and extend our reach to additional strategic destinations, reflecting the growing importance of our home base of Baku as a regional and global transportation hub."

Designed to integrate smoothly with existing cargo operations, the 777 Freighter will provide Azerbaijan-based Silk Way West with enhanced efficiency and operational flexibility. With a range of 9,200 kilometers, the 777 Freighter can carry a maximum structural payload of 107,000 kilograms, allowing operators to make fewer stops and reduce landing fees on long-haul routes. The airplane's large fuselage diameter allows carriers to transport tall and outsized cargo loads on 3-meter-tall pallets, and its main deck side cargo door is 3.72 meters wide, allowing convenient loading of taller and wider cargo.

The enhanced fuel efficiency of the 777 Freighter, along with the airline's recent selection of the 777-8 Freighter, will support the carrier's near- and long-term sustainability goals.

"With the global air cargo fleet expected to grow by more than 60% over the next 20 years, the unmatched efficiency of the 777 Freighter will boost Silk Way West's capabilities and allow them to further scale their world-class cargo operations," said Paul Righi, Boeing vice president Sales, Eurasia. "We are honored to strengthen our partnership as Silk Way West continues to build its freighter fleet."

The 777 Freighter is Boeing's top-selling freighter of all time. Customers from around the world have ordered 319 777 Freighters since the program began in 2005. As the market leader in cargo airplanes, Boeing provides more than 90% of the worldwide dedicated freighter capacity, including new-production and converted airplanes.

About Silk Way West Airlines

Founded in 2012 in Baku, Silk Way West Airlines is the largest cargo airline in the Caspian Sea region with an annual cargo turnover of 350,000 tons. Based at Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku, the airline operates approximately 350 monthly scheduled flights to 40 destinations around the world.

About Boeing

As a leading global aerospace company, Boeing [NYSE: BA] develops, manufactures and services commercial airplanes, defense products and space systems for customers in more than 150 countries. As a top U.S. exporter, the company leverages the talents of a global supplier base to advance economic opportunity, sustainability and community impact. Boeing's diverse team is committed to innovating for the future, leading with sustainability, and cultivating a culture based on the company's core values of safety, quality and integrity. Join our team and find your purpose at boeing.com/careers .

Contact:

Boeing Media Relations

[email protected]

SOURCE Boeing
The donation, which included ham, smoked sausage, pork chops and other Smithfield products, will provide over 130,000 servings of protein to individuals facing food insecurity in a 26-county area of northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas. Following the donation, team members from Smithfield's Kansas City, Martin City and Princeton, Missouri, operations volunteered at Harvesters, packing more than 600 bags for the food bank's BackSnack program.

"As a food company, we are passionate about giving back to support our neighbors facing food insecurity," said Jonathan Toms, senior community development manager for Smithfield Foods. "On behalf of our team members, including more than 2,500 right here in Kansas City and the surrounding communities, we are proud to present this donation of protein to help fight hunger in a place we call home."

Stephen Davis, president and CEO of Harvesters, said, "We are so grateful for the commitment from Smithfield Foods and Price Chopper to fight hunger in our region and give back to neighbors experiencing food insecurity in our communities. Protein is always a much-requested food item from our agency partners, and this particular donation comes at a critical time with an increasing need for food assistance in our area."

Through its Helping Hungry Homes hunger relief program, Smithfield Foods is standing together with Price Chopper to fight hunger in northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas. This donation to Harvesters will provide more than 130,000 servings of protein to help support more than 760 nonprofit agencies including emergency food pantries, community kitchens, homeless shelters and children's homes.

Smithfield's Helping Hungry Homes program has provided hundreds of millions of servings of protein in all 50 U.S. states, as well as in Poland, Romania and Mexico, since 2008. In 2022, the company donated nearly 25 million servings of protein to food banks, disaster relief efforts and community outreach programs across the U.S. To reflect its continued commitment to fighting food insecurity, Smithfield has pledged to donate 200 million servings of protein by 2025.

About Smithfield Foods, Inc.

Headquartered in Smithfield, Virginia, since 1936, Smithfield Foods, Inc. is a U.S. food company that employs nearly 60,000 people in seven countries and partners with thousands of American farmers. As one of the world's leading vertically integrated protein companies, we are dedicated to producing "Good food. Responsibly." to feed a growing world population. We have pioneered sustainability standards for more than two decades, including our industry-leading commitments to become carbon negative in our U.S. company-owned operations and reduce GHG emissions 30% across our entire U.S. value chain by 2030. We believe in the power of protein to end food insecurity and have donated hundreds of millions of food servings to food banks, disaster relief efforts and community outreach programs in all 50 U.S. states. Smithfield boasts a portfolio of high-quality iconic brands, such as Smithfield, Eckrich, Gwaltney and Nathan's Famous, among many others. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com and connect with us on Facebook, X, formerly known as Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Threads.

About Price Chopper

Price Chopper's 52 Kansas City stores are locally owned by the Ball, Cosentino, McKeever, and Queen families, all of whom live in Kansas City and oversee store operations on a daily basis. For 40 years, the owners and employees of Price Chopper have been committed to providing the highest quality products and top-of-the-line customer service to the thousands of customers they serve every day. For more information, please visit www.mypricechopper.com.

About HarvestersThe Community Food Network

Harvesters is a regional food bank and was Feeding America's 2011 Food Bank of the Year. Serving a 26-county area of northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas, Harvesters provides food and related household products to more than 760 nonprofit agencies including emergency food pantries, community kitchens, shelters and others. Agencies in Harvesters' network of pantry partners serves more than 226,000 people every month. Harvesters, which was founded in 1979, is a certified member of Feeding America, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks, serving all 50 states. For more information, visit www.harvesters.org.

SOURCE Smithfield Foods, Inc.
Acquisition provides enhanced customer value for water and wastewater treatment sales and services and supports direct go-to-market strategy

WILMINGTON, Del., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Solenis , a leading global producer of specialty chemicals for water-intensive industries, completed the acquisition of CedarChem LLC on October 2, 2023. As part of the acquisition, Solenis will acquire all CedarChem operating assets.

Headquartered in Cedartown, Georgia, CedarChem offers a full suite of water and wastewater treatment products for industrial and municipal markets, primarily in the southeastern U.S.

The acquisition aligns with Solenis' direct go-to-market strategy to provide customers with improved chemical and wastewater treatment product and service offerings.

"CedarChem has a reputation for being one of the most reliable and customer-intimate suppliers of quality products and services in their market," said Mark Wescott, vice president of the municipal/multi business at Solenis. "We are pleased to combine their talented team of professionals with the Solenis team. Together, we will continue to provide enhanced value for our customers."

About Solenis

Solenis is a leading global producer of specialty chemicals focused on delivering sustainable solutions for water-intensive industries, including consumer, industrial, institutional, food and beverage, and pool and spa water markets. Owned by Platinum Equity, the company's product portfolio includes a broad array of water treatment chemistries, process aids, functional additives, and cleaners and disinfectants, as well as state-of-the-art monitoring and control systems. These technologies are used by customers to improve operational efficiencies, enhance product quality, protect plant assets, minimize environmental impact and create cleaner and safer environments. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, the company has 71 manufacturing facilities strategically located around the globe and employs a team of over 15,400 professionals in 130 countries across six continents. Solenis is a 2023 US Best Managed Company.

For additional information about Solenis, please visit www.solenis.com or follow us on social media.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2237383/Solenis_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Solenis
"We are thrilled to collaborate with Northwell Health in revolutionizing their visitor management practices,"- Curtis H. Post this

Soloinsight's cutting-edge visitor management platform offers advanced features that streamline the check-in process, ensuring a smoother and more efficient experience for all stakeholders. With a focus on security and convenience, the platform leverages state-of-the-art technology to enhance Northwell's already robust visitor management infrastructure.

"As an organization dedicated to providing exceptional patient care, we continuously evaluate opportunities to improve operational efficiency and enhance safety," said Will Corrigan, Vice President of Operations at North Shore University Hospital. "This agreement with Soloinsight aligns with these goals, allowing us to offer an enhanced visitor management system that prioritizes the well-being of our patients, staff and guests."

Soloinsight's platform incorporates key features such as real-time visitor tracking, customizable check-in processes, integration with access control systems and robust reporting capabilities. These functionalities empower North Shore University Hospital to monitor and manage visitor traffic effectively, enabling a secure and controlled environment within its facilities.

"We are thrilled to collaborate with Northwell Health in revolutionizing their visitor management practices," stated Curtis Hrncirik, Senior Director Security Solutions and Architecture at Soloinsight. "Our solution's ability to combine state-of-the-art technology with user-friendly interfaces aligns seamlessly with Northwell Health's commitment to excellence."

North Shore University Hospital's adoption of Soloinsight's visitor management solution is expected to have a far-reaching impact on the healthcare experience, optimizing patient care workflows, visitor interactions and overall facility security.

For more information about Northwell Health and its partnership with Soloinsight, please contact:

Curtis Hrncirik

Senior Director Security Solutions and Architecture

407-432-2674

[email protected]

About Soloinsight:

Soloinsight is a leading provider of innovative visitor management solutions, offering advanced technologies that transform how organizations manage and control visitor access. With a focus on security and efficiency, Soloinsight's platform enhances the visitor experience across various industries, from healthcare and education to corporate and government sectors.

About Northwell Health

Northwell Health is New York State's largest health care provider and private employer, with 21 hospitals, about 900 outpatient facilities and more than 12,000 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 85,000 employees  18,900 nurses and 4,900 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners  are working to change health care for the better. We're making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We're training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu and follow us @NorthwellHealth on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Soloinsight Inc.
The acquisitions of CompuWorks and A.D.B. Services helps Sourcepass deepen their client base and tech bench in the northeastern and southeastern United States while adding resources to enhance client experience.

NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Sourcepass, an innovative IT Services and Cybersecurity provider, announces its acquisition of two nationally recognized Managed IT Services Providers, CompuWorks and A.D.B. Services, Inc.. Based in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, CompuWorks is the ninth acquisition made by Sourcepass since March 2022, with A.D.B. Services Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia it's tenth in eighteen months.

Founded in 1987, CompuWorks has played an instrumental role in empowering small and mid-sized clients to optimize their technology investments. As part of Sourcepass, CompuWorks broadens its client base and tech bench in the northeast. With the integration, Sourcepass welcomes 30 seasoned IT professionals to positively enhance their expertise and services.

Sourcepass is committed to maintain their Pittsfield office to best service clients in western Massachusetts and upstate New York. In combination with 2022 acquisition, Suite3 of Easthampton, MA, Sourcepass envisions its western Massachusetts operations to serve as the hub for the greater region.

"The CompuWorks team believes in aligning IT initiatives with strategic business goals and delivering a world-class customer experience," said Chuck Canton, CEO and Founder of Sourcepass. "The CompuWorks acquisition positions us to become the largest and most capable managed service and security provider in Western Massachusetts. And we have extended our dedication by committing an additional $15mm to the region over the next five years to invigorate job creation and elevate community well-being."

"We are excited to be part of Sourcepass. And we are confident that this step will only build upon the client experience we have created over the past 35 years", said CompuWorks Founding Partner, Alan Bauman. "We look forward to expanding our presence in our communities and growing local jobs in western Massachusetts."

Providing IT support since 1995, the acquisition of A.D.B. Services broadens Sourcepass' geographical footprint in the thriving Georgia market.

"There are several clients currently experiencing rapid growth and share deep-rooted relationships with A.D.B." said Chuck Canton, CEO and Founder of Sourcepass. "We look forward to building upon this strong history backed by our deep service bench and obsession with delivering an experience client's love."

"My vision has always been to build and grow an innovative business that delivered exceptional value to clients" said A.D.B. Founder, Drew Blumberg. "Joining Sourcepass provides our clients with a wealth of resources that a small company just can't provide. I am confident that together, we will bring immense benefits to our valued customers and employees alike."

For more information on how Sourcepass is revolutionizing the IT space through M&A and innovative client service delivery, please visit us at www.sourcepass.com.

About Sourcepass

Sourcepass is positively disrupting the way businesses consume IT, putting you in control of your digital universe so you have the power to transform your business. For more information on how Sourcepass is revolutionizing the IT space through M&A and innovative client service delivery, please visit www.sourcepass.com.

SOURCE Sourcepass, Inc.
Drivers Unite to End Disrespect, Improve Jobs at Restaurant Technologies

DALLAS, Oct. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Drivers at Restaurant Technologies in Dallas have voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 745.

"These drivers are sick and tired of the inconsistent enforcement of work rules and consistent lack of respect shown to them by management at Restaurant Technologies," said Brent Taylor, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 745 and Teamsters International Vice President for the Southern Region. "We look forward to winning our new members a strong Teamster contract with enforceable standards so they can do their jobs with the dignity and respect they deserve."

Restaurant Technologies drivers overcame an aggressive anti-union campaign by the company to join the Teamsters. The drivers want to see an end to favoritism and management suspensions of workers over faulty equipment.

"No one should have to go to work afraid for their job or that they might get suspended, depending on how management feels that day," said Kevin Hill, a driver with four years of experience. "We are excited about becoming Teamsters and getting a contract that will ensure we will have a good work environment."

"The fortitude of these drivers to fight back against management perfectly embodies Teamster power, and this is only the beginning for these new members," said Juan Campos, Director of the Teamsters Tankhaul Division and Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 705 in Chicago. "They make a welcome addition to the Tankhaul Division and one we look forward to building on."

"There is momentum in this industry. The word is spreading that being a Teamster means better wages, benefits, and working conditions for tankhaul drivers," said Michael Perez, an Assistant Business Agent with Local 745. "We are looking forward to more workers joining the Teamsters in this industry in Texas and beyond."

Tankhauling involves the skilled transport of essential liquids and gases. Drivers with Restaurant Technologies deliver and pick up cooking oil for eateries like McDonald's, Whataburger, Texas Roadhouse, and Chipotle.

Teamsters Local 745 represents workers throughout Texas across different industries. Find out more at Teamsters745.org.

Contact:

Kara Deniz, (202) 497-6610

[email protected]

SOURCE Teamsters Local 745
A pedophilia scandal is cornering the Society of Jesus in Bolivia. Half a year after the publication of the diary of the late Spanish Jesuit priest Alfonso Pedrajas, in which he admitted to having abused dozens of Bolivian children while his superiors looked the other way  and which triggered a series of accusations against a dozen priests in the Latin American country  a group of victims on Tuesday brought legal action against the Roman Catholic organization for covering up the abuse, for protecting pedophile clerics and for silencing the victims.

The plaintiffs, former students at several Jesuit-run schools who suffered sexual assaults between 1972 and 1995, had already independently brought complaints against their attackers months ago. Now, they have filed a class action suit against the current provincial of the religious order in Bolivia, Bernardo Mercado, as the highest authority of the institution. The plaintiffs are accusing the Society of Jesus of being the author by omission of the crimes of rape of minors, since for years officials were aware of the sexual abuse that was going on and did nothing to stop it. This is the first class action complaint by victims against the order in Bolivia.

Although the Bolivian penal code indicates that pedophilia crimes expire four years after the victim has reached the age of majority, the plaintiffs lawyer, Jose Luis Gareca, argues that the cases of pedophilia committed by the Jesuits and their cover-up are crimes against humanity, which have no statute of limitations as per the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of the United Nations. Article 7 of this statute establishes that crimes against humanity must have been committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack and must be directed against a civilian population, as happened in the case of the plaintiffs, says Gareca.

The complaint, filed in the Cochabamba Prosecutors Office, is based on the investigation that this newspaper carried out on the diary that Pedrajas, known among his students as Pica, wrote between 1964 and 2006. In its pages he wrote repentantly about the sexual assaults he had committed against at least 85 children and how several senior officials of his order looked the other way when he told them what he had done. He also explained that they protected him when several victims reported the abuses they suffered.

Some of these former provincials (the highest position of the Jesuit order in Bolivia) are Ramon Alaix and Marcos Recolons, both Spaniards who, like Pedrajas, traveled to Bolivia as missionaries. Recolons, in addition to being a close friend of Pedrajas, as noted in his diary, held a high position in the Vatican between 2004 and 2008. In total there were seven superiors and a dozen other clerics who, according to the memoirs of Pedrajas, covered up the crimes.

The original story about Pedrajas was followed by other reports of new victims who accused other Spanish Jesuits of pedophilia at several schools, but mainly at the Juan XXIII school of Cochabamba, where Pedrajas was the principal for two decades and where more of his victims have surfaced. But there were other schools in Oruro, Santa Cruz and Sucre. In some of these cases, those affected said that they told various officials and superiors of the order about what was going on, but that, far from being listened to, they were threatened and punished. The accused Jesuits are Antonio Gausset (a deceased Spaniard), Luis To (a deceased Spaniard who in 1992 was transferred to Bolivia after a conviction for abusing a girl in Barcelona), Alejandro Mestre (a deceased Spaniard who became archbishop of La Paz and president of the Bolivian Episcopal Conference), Jorge Vila (a deceased Spaniard and founder of the humanitarian association DNI), Lucho Roma (a deceased Spaniard), Carlos Villamil (a deceased Bolivian and deputy principal at Juan XXIII), Francisco Pifarre (who also served as principal at Juan XXIII) and Francesc Peris (a Spaniard who taught at Juan XXIII in 1983, also accused of abusing girls in Barcelona until 2005). The Jesuit order, both in Bolivia and in Spain, never reported the cases to the authorities when these were first brought to their attention.

The group of victims recalls in the complaint that the Society of Jesus itself has acknowledged in several statements published in recent months that it knew about these abuses and that it did nothing about it. We recognize that, in the past, some actions in this regard have not corresponded to the dimension of the crime perpetrated. For this reason we must ask for forgiveness. But it would be useless to recognize it if we do not act now to meet the circumstances, says one of these statements. The first action by Jesuit leaders was to provisionally remove eight priests who held the position of provincial: five who held the position during the years in which Pedrajas committed the abuses, and another three who did so after his death. The Society of Jesus states that there is an ongoing internal investigation into all such cases of abuse.

For the plaintiffs, says their lawyer, the silence imposed by the order and the impunity with which the pedophiles acted has given rise to an institutional conduct of criminal permissiveness in which hundreds of children fell into the clutches of sexual predators and pedophiles who took it upon themselves to write diaries, take photos and film their victims. They also emphasize that civil justice can in no way be replaced by the canonical law that to date the Church uses to internally manage many of these cases, and where the aggressors typically purge their errors via confessions and transfers to new locations to evade criminal sanctions.

Several investigations underway

The tsunami caused by the publication of the Pica case forced the Bolivian Episcopal Conference to launch a general investigation of past cases of pedophilia. The Bolivian president, Luis Arce, wrote to Pope Francis requesting from the Vatican all the files on cases of pedophilia committed by clerics in Bolivian territory. This request is still waiting to be fulfilled. In May, Arce also presented a bill in the Bolivian Legislative Assembly to eliminate the statute of limitations on pedophilia crimes and to create a truth commission to investigate all past cases. This initiative is still undergoing parliamentary processing. Meanwhile, the Bolivian Senate has created another investigative committee exclusively focused on cases of pedophilia by members of the cloth in that country.

The Bolivian Prosecutors Office is still investigating both the attacks committed by Pedrajas and those reported in recent months. Prosecutors already have a copy of the diary and internal documentation of the Society of Jesus that was found after the police searched several offices of the order in La Paz, where its headquarters and some of its offices are located.

EL PAIS launched an investigation into pedophilia in the Spanish Church in 2018 and has an updated database with all known cases. If you know of any case that has not seen the light, you can write to us at: abusos@elpais.es. If it is a case in Latin America, the address is: abusosamerica@elpais.es.
Students compete by developing unique 3D designs, engineering pins to honor U.S. veterans

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The " AEOP Veterans Appreciation Challenge " returns for its third year, inviting 4 - 12th grade students to put their 3D design and engineering skills to the test to show their appreciation for U.S. veterans. The Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) will again sponsor the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) challenge in partnership with Future Engineers , an organization that administers free, online STEM competitions for students.

"At the AEOP, STEM education is about the intersection of what can be learned in the classroom and what can be done out in the world to make an impact," said Christina Weber, AEOP cooperative agreement manager at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM). "The AEOP Veterans Appreciation Challenge allows students to express their creativity and develop their 3D design and engineering skills while expressing appreciation for our country's valued Americans  our veterans. We look forward to seeing the unique designs students across the country create, and we commend them for their work to honor our veterans."

"It's so rewarding to work with AEOP on a challenge that gets students engaged in STEM learning while inspiring them to show their appreciation for our veterans in a unique, creative way," says founder and CEO of Future Engineers, Deanne Bell. "We are proud to once again open this challenge up to students across the country and look forward to seeing their amazing 3D pin designs."

Previously known as the "We (Heart) Veterans Pin Design" challenge, students in grades four through 12 will design a digital 3D model of a wearable pin that celebrates their appreciation for our veterans. The challenge is free to enter, and the landing page features no-cost resources and tools for students and teachers alike. In the past two years, the competition has reached over 4,000 students from across the country, U.S. territories and possessions, and schools operated by the U.S. for the children of U.S. personnel overseas. The ten finalists from each grade band, 4th - 8th and 9th - 12th, had their pins 3D printed and distributed to veterans at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus, Ohio.

"Integrating 3D printing is a strategic way to help students of this generation learn to fuse both technology and an appreciation for the military into a competition," said Cheryl Hernandez, teacher at STEM Academy in San Antonio, Texas. "The AEOP Veterans Appreciation Challenge combines research and competition to encourage students not only to problem solve but to seek out ways to be compassionate, community-serving individuals through innovation."

All entries will be judged by volunteers, including U.S. service members and veterans. Ten finalists will be selected from two grade bands (20 finalists total), 4th - 8th and 9th - 12th. Their designs will be brought out of the digital world, 3D printed and distributed to the veterans who visit the National Veterans Memorial and Museum. Finalists will also each receive five prints of their design and a $100 gift card toward a professional 3D print. The two grand prize challenge winners will win a trip for two to Columbus, OH, to attend a special Memorial Day event at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum. Each winner will also receive a 3D printer donated to the school, library or organization of their choice. Learn more and register for the challenge here .

About the Army Educational Outreach Program

The Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) seeks to provide an accessible pathway of STEM opportunities to attract, develop, and mentor the next generation of our nation's diverse talent through U.S. Army educational outreach programs. AEOP offers our nation's youth, young professionals and educators opportunities for meaningful, real-world STEM experiences, competitions and paid internships alongside U.S. Army researchers. From elementary school through to post doctoral students and educators, participants of all proficiency levels, interests, ethnic, economic and academic backgrounds are encouraged to participate in AEOP. For more information on AEOP, visit usaeop.com . Follow AEOP on X , Facebook , Instagram and LinkedIn .

About Battelle

Battelle is an independent nonprofit organization that advances science and technology to have the greatest impact on our society and economy. With more than 90 years of experience, we turn knowledge into profound innovation. And we use our proceeds to reinvest in the advancement of science and technology, as well as build schools to advance STEM programs. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio since its founding in 1929, Battelle provides comprehensive scientific solutions to companies and government agencies across multiple markets, including: health, industry, national security, infrastructure, and environment. For more information, visit battelle.org . Follow Battelle on LinkedIn , Facebook , and Instagram .

About Future Engineers

Future Engineers hosts online contests and challenges for K-12 students. Previous challenges have helped produce historic achievements  from naming NASA's Perseverance rover to manufacturing the first student-designed 3D print in space. All challenges are offered free for student and classroom participation. For more information, visit futureengineers.org . Follow Future Engineers on X , Facebook , and Instagram .

Media Contact:

Morgan Livingston

[email protected]

SOURCE AEOP
MonetizeMore earned a spot at No. 136 on the Globe and Mail list of Canada's Top Growing Companies 2023.

VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- MonetizeMore , a global leader in advertising technology and ad monetization solutions for web publishers and app developers, is proud to announce that The Globe and Mail has recognized it as Canada's Top Growing Company for the fourth consecutive year. This prestigious accolade reflects their unwavering commitment to innovation, excellence, and sustained growth in the ad tech landscape.

Four Years in a Row: MonetizeMore Recognized as One of Canada's Top Growing Companies by Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail's Canada's Top Growing Companies program celebrates outstanding companies in Canada with the most significant revenue growth over the past three years. MonetizeMore is pleased to announce it has placed No. 136 out of 425 companies on the 2023 Report on Business Ranking of Canada's Top Growing Companies. MonetizeMore earned its spot with a three-year growth of 352%.

The complete list of 2023 winners, along with editorial coverage, is published in the October Report on Business magazine issue. The list is out now and online here.

Kean Graham, CEO and Founder of MonetizeMore, expressed his gratitude for the recognition, stating, "According to The Globe and Mail report, only 55 companies have made it onto Canada's Top Growing Companies list four times. We're proud to announce that we are now part of this exclusive group, achieving this remarkable feat for the fourth consecutive time. This achievement highlights MonetizeMore's commitment to being a dependable partner to our publishers and our team's consistent high-level performance year after year."

"In the upcoming year, as global advertising expenditure surpasses the milestone of $1 trillion, let this achievement serve as a source of inspiration for MonetizeMore and industry leaders to scale even higher summits. Together, we can seize the opportunities before us, shaping an industry that grows and enriches publisher businesses, communities, and people's lives worldwide," he adds.

Despite the unusual global economic circumstances, MonetizeMore has continued to expand its presence by acquiring Germany-based ad tech company Advanced Ads . This leading platform specializes in advanced ad management tools and WordPress publisher plugins. At the forefront of the company's offerings is PubGuru , a robust, data-driven reporting ad platform that equips publishers with powerful tools to unlock customized revenue enhancement opportunities.

MonetizeMore's growth journey has also addressed one of the industry's most pressing challenges, thanks to their innovative AI-driven solution, Traffic Cop . Fraudulent ad activities have long been a major concern for publishers, as they can lead to revenue loss and even account suspensions. However, with Traffic Cop, publishers can proactively safeguard themselves by efficiently detecting and addressing issues related to invalid traffic and ad setup policy violations. In the past year, Traffic Cop has achieved remarkable results. The solution screened over 5 billion pageviews across 1000+ websites, blocking nearly 9 billion ad impressions due to invalid traffic. The Traffic Cop solution also garnered the prestigious Innovation Award at the Google Certified Publishing Partner Summit in 2022, showcasing MonetizeMore's dedication to a secure and thriving digital advertising landscape for its publishers.

About MonetizeMore

Founded in 2010, MonetizeMore is a leading publisher monetization company with 300+ team members across North America, Europe, Asia, and South America. We are a Google Certified Publishing Partner trusted by 1000+ websites and app developers to manage their ad revenue optimization across 40 countries through our comprehensive and AI-powered platform PubGuru, including Google award-winning tool Traffic Cop protecting publishers from invalid traffic and revenue clawbacks.

For more information, visit: www.monetizemore.com

PRESS CONTACT:

Kimaya Mehta

Phone: 1 778-836-0160

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.monetizemore.com

SOURCE MonetizeMore
RALEIGH, N.C., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- MAKO Medical continues to disrupt healthcare with its new nationwide venture, the MAKO Alliance. Aimed at creating a full-service reference laboratory in each state, the new enterprise consists of hand selected companies and partners across pathology, clinical, and molecular laboratories. With an expanded national footprint, the Alliance is able to offer more coverage and drive costs down for its members. While similar ventures have worked in other industries, this is the first of its kind in healthcare.

Chad Price, MAKO Medical CEO, explained that this alliance is a revolutionary concept in the sector: "This model is unique in healthcare, but other industries have done it. You've got insurance companies like Keystone that have brought many members together. You've got MarineMax, which brought independent boat dealers together and created one brand. Safelite did it with auto glass companies. There's lots of examples where you had many members come together to create one super company."

The companies and organizations partnered under the MAKO Alliance umbrella will centralize the selection of services offered, creating strategic partnerships with vendors and suppliers. By creating a unified and national footprint, the Alliance is able to reduce the costs that often hinder leading research, pathology, and laboratory testing companies. Organizations and healthcare businesses within the MAKO Alliance will benefit from reduced pricing of up to 80% on current COGs, supplies, and reagents. This is on top of lower costs with some of the mainstream vendors, like FedEx, that help businesses run on a daily basis.

Upon acceptance into the MAKO Alliance, partner buinesses will gain full access to a broad national customer base. This increased exposure will enable businesses to enhance their revenue streams and venture into new markets at both regional and national levels.

Aside from the cost savings and earnings potential, this approach seeks to strengthen the service offering that each partner supplies, allowing member companies to focus on their area of specialty.

From a recruiting standpoint, the unique benefits offered to the MAKO Alliance members will provide employers with a distinct advantage when enlisting new employees. Membership will allow companies to recruit talent on a national scale, handpicking the most valuable professionals and allowing employees the opportunity to move, transfer, or take on leadership positions in other states.

The MAKO Alliance plans to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of research and clinical trials nationwide. This powerhouse conglomerate will consist of various specialized companies focused on research, clinical trials, and phases 1 through 4 studies. This element of the Alliance will be split into three distinct areas including bio-banking, bio-repository, and site management organization (SMO). Consequently, this will open up an additional source of revenue for the organization, as it can monetize data, samples, and manage clinical trials from inception to completion.

While recruitment for the MAKO Alliance has operated somewhat under the radar to date, the business model is clearly garnering attention. The Alliance's reach now expands across multiple states including Colorado, New Jersey, and Texas, to name just a few. Within the next three years, the business plans to have acquired labs in all 50 states, creating regional super labs of excellence for esoteric testing and unmatched value for its members.

About MAKO Medical

Founded in 2014 by entrepreneurs Chad Price, Adam Price, and Josh Arant, MAKO Medical quickly experienced meteoric growth that was further compounded by the COVID pandemic. The business played a leading role in testing COVID-19 samples during the pandemic, processing more than 13 million COVID-19 tests and partnering with the CDC to provide next generation sequencing.

The College of American Pathologists (CAP)-accredited laboratory operates more than 85,000 square feet of lab space and has the capacity to process over 200,000 tests per day. MAKO Medical is ranked among Inc. 5000's fastest growing privately held companies in the US.

With sights set on disrupting healthcare, MAKO Medical continues to test the limits with the creation of the Alliance. The MAKO Alliance aims to transform American healthcare and testing, by partnering with some of the country's leading organizations and labs. The new venture will offer more coverage across the US, lowering costs and fees, and expanded access for research opportunities.

SOURCE MAKO Medical Laboratories
The Therapeutics Accelerator (the 'Accelerator') will identify, fund and advance innovative projects from academic partners in the U.K. and U.S. with the goal to deliver 40 new potentially life-changing therapies for rare diseases into clinical trials over the next ten years, targeting multiple approvals in key markets.

The Accelerator will operate a unique non-profit/for-profit model with the intention to commit up to 200 million ( $250 million ).

The Accelerator will receive support from a new partnership between University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio , University of Oxford and investment company Oxford Science Enterprises.

Former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron to lead the international efforts of the Accelerator as Chair of the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre Advisory Board.

OXFORD, United Kingdom and CLEVELAND, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Oxford and Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio announced the launch of the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre Therapeutics Accelerator with an official signing event at the University of Oxford. The event was hosted by the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre (OHC), a partnership established in 2019 between the University of Oxford and Harrington Discovery Institute. Attendance at the signing included leaders from OHC, the University of Oxford, the Harrington family, University Hospitals, and Oxford Science Enterprises.

The OHC unites world-leading research across the U.K. and U.S. with expertise in therapeutics development by combining University of Oxford's scientific leadership and resources (250+ principal investigator scientists working on over 350 rare diseases) with Harrington Discovery Institute's track record of advancing breakthrough medicines into clinical development (177 medicines funded, 36 companies launched, 19 medicines into the clinic, and 13 licenses to pharma companies since its founding in 2012).

The Accelerator is a first-in-kind, transatlantic initiative to identify, fund and advance breakthrough academic discoveries to deliver new treatments for the 400 million people worldwide who suffer from rare diseases. Its goal is to deliver 40 new potentially life-changing therapies for rare diseases into clinical trials over the next ten years and target multiple approvals from regulators in key markets including the U.S., the U.K. and Europe.

David Cameron, the former U.K. Prime Minister, who was present at the launch event, will lead the international efforts of the Accelerator under his role as Chair of the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre Advisory Board.

David Cameron said:

"I know from my own experience of having a son born with an incredibly rare and incurable disease, how little we really know about rare diseases. Although individually they may only affect small numbers of patients like my son, Ivan, collectively they represent a major global health crisis that affects millions of patients and their families in life-changing ways.

As Prime Minister and since, I have been fortunate to follow the enormous scientific breakthroughs that have taken place over the last decade, such as the use of genomics, which opened my eyes to how much we could know about rare diseases. That's why I set up Genomics England and personally championed the 100,000 Genomes Project - now expanded to sequence 5 million adults across the UK - and that is why today I am so pleased to back this unique Rare Disease Therapeutics Accelerator, designed to make a transformational, global impact on the treatment of these devastating and often neglected diseases.

I have long said that beating these diseases is within our grasp. This Accelerator will deliver new, real and tangible therapies for patients and, by doing so, offer huge benefits for patients, their families and wider society. I am delighted to play my part in making it a reality."

The OHC prioritizes rare genetic diseases affecting children or adults where there is urgent need and opportunity for greatest impact and that fall into the areas of rare neurological diseases, cancers and developmental diseases. Projects will be sourced from academic labs across the U.K. and U.S.

The Accelerator will operate a unique non-profit/for-profit model with the intention to commit up to 200 million into new projects. Project funding will be paired with research, drug development, commercial strategy and business development expertise from pharma-experienced industry leaders with a track record of bringing new drugs to market.

The Accelerator will receive support from a new co-funding and co-investment agreement between University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, University of Oxford and investment company Oxford Science Enterprises, and aims to ensure that capital is deployed efficiently to advance a sustainable pipeline of new therapies either through academia or via the creation of venture-backed spinout companies.

The first investment by the Accelerator was made in September 2023 in conjunction with the creation of AlveoGene, a new U.K. company launched to develop innovative inhaled gene therapies and transform outcomes in patients with rare respiratory diseases.

The partners are also collaborating to create a dedicated Rare Disease Impact Fund to enable investments in mission-aligned projects and accelerate the development of rare disease therapeutics.

Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford and member of the OHC Steering Committee, said:

"It requires true innovation, collaboration, vision and commitment to make meaningful progress in changing the global rare disease landscape for patients, their families and society. Since the creation of the OHC in 2019 we have made good progress along this path  and the hope is that by building on this foundation with this exciting new initiative, we can really create momentum to drive the translation of cutting-edge science into life-changing therapies targeting some of the most debilitating diseases."

Jonathan Stamler, MD, President and Founder of Harrington Discovery Institute, said:

"Harrington has been supporting the advancement of treatments for rare and other diseases for more than a decade, committing significant funds and resources to this global challenge with considerable success. Our commitment is to major unmet needs in society to better the world. This new Accelerator and extended collaboration with Oxford and Oxford Science Enterprises represents a major step forward towards finding the best medicines that improve outcomes for the millions of individuals and families affected by rare diseases."

Matthew Wood, Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the OHC, said:

"OHC was set up with a bold vision and ambitious goals to make an impact on the treatment of rare diseases. This new Accelerator initiative takes this a step further with its unique collaboration and for-profit and not-for-profit model. It is only by combining resources and adopting innovative approaches that we can truly accelerate the development of new drugs for patients in need. Already we have seen many exciting opportunities and look forward to engaging with scientists at the forefront of rare disease research."

Georg Hollander, Head of Department of Paediatrics at the University of Oxford, said:

"This is a great moment for Paediatrics at Oxford as it expands its commitment to childhood diseases across the U.K. and the U.S. There is so much great research being done on these diseases and only through exciting multi-organizational collaborations like the OHC and the Accelerator can we make the progress we need to bring hope to patients and their families around the world."

Ed Bussey, CEO at Oxford Science Enterprises, said:

"As a company focused on translating scientific breakthroughs into commercially successful businesses, we are thrilled to partner with OHC on the introduction of a Rare Disease Therapeutics Accelerator. Through this initiative we hope to uncover the most promising opportunities, creating and building innovative new companies with the goal of improving patient outcomes for people impacted by rare diseases globally."

Ronald G. Harrington, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist, said:

"Our family is thrilled to see the extraordinary progress that Harrington Discovery Institute has made since we launched in 2012. It is humbling and gratifying that our efforts are recognized and supported by so many participants in the industry from disease foundations to prestigious universities and innovative biopharmaceutical companies. The launch of this new rare disease initiative and extension of our relationship with Oxford is a further example of our ambition to make a meaningful positive impact on global health challenges affecting millions of people around the world."

Cliff A. Megerian, MD, FACS, CEO, University Hospitals, said:

"Every day, through the work we do at University Hospitals, we are inspired by the courage and determination of patients with rare diseases and their families. This gives us a real sense of urgency and motivation to make a difference in the lives of these families and we are fully committed to supporting this new Accelerator and the efforts of our transatlantic team and partners in their mission."

Daniel I. Simon, MD, President, Academic & External Affairs and Chief Scientific Officer, University Hospitals, said:

"Our health system is focused on translating discoveries to address unmet clinical needs. Leveraging the unique Harrington model in the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre will catalyze the development of new medicines for hundreds of thousands of patients across the globe."

For academics and researchers to find out more about the Therapeutics Accelerator at the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre and how to apply, please go to OxfordHarrington.org.

Notes to Editors:

About Rare Diseases

More than 400 million people worldwide are living with a rare disease, and approximately 50 percent are children. There are about 7,000 known rare diseases, with new diseases being discovered every day. A rare disease affects one in 10 Americans, or 10 percent of the US population. Similarly, Europe has approximately 30 million people who suffer from a rare disease. The majority of all rare diseases are genetic in origin, which means they are present throughout a person's life. Only five percent of rare diseases have a treatment approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and similar estimates have been made for treatments approved by the European Medicine Agency (EMA). Therefore, someone with a rare disease today faces a lifelong, often life-threatening, condition with little hope for a cure, or even an effective treatment option.

About Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre

The Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre (OHC) is a partnership between the University of Oxford, U.K. and Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals, Cleveland, OH, USA. OHC combines world-leading strengths in research and therapeutics development from across these organizations, to set the science and innovation agenda, driving cutting-edge rare disease breakthroughs to address the unmet need in rare disease across the globe to deliver major clinical impact for patients. For more information, visit: OxfordHarrington.org | Twitter

About the University of Oxford Medical Sciences Division

Oxford University's Medical Sciences Division is one of the largest biomedical research centres in Europe, with over 2,500 people involved in research and more than 2,800 students. The University is rated the best in the world for medicine and life sciences, and it is home to the UK's top-ranked medical school. It has one of the largest clinical trial portfolios in the UK and great expertise in taking discoveries from the lab into the clinic. Partnerships with the local NHS Trusts enable patients to benefit from close links between medical research and healthcare delivery.

About Oxford Science Enterprises

Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE) is an independent, billion-pound investment company, created in 2015 to found, fund and build transformational businesses via its unique partnership with the University of Oxford, the world's #1 research university. This partnership enables OSE to work with the brightest academic minds tackling the world's toughest challenges and guarantees unrivalled access to their scientific research. In collaboration with its global network of entrepreneurs and advisers, OSE goes well beyond funding to shape and nurture these complex ideas into successful businesses. Actively focused on a core portfolio of around 40 companies spanning three high-growth, high-impact sectors  Life Sciences, Health Tech, and Deep Tech  the company adopts a flexible, long-term investment approach, recognising the path from ground-breaking research to global markets takes time and resilience. To date, OSE has invested 0.6 billion in over 80 ambitious companies built on Oxford science. For more information, visit: oxfordscienceenterprises.com | Twitter | LinkedIn

About Harrington Discovery Institute

The Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, OH  part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development  is a translational accelerator that advances promising discoveries from academic labs into the clinic for the benefit of patients and society. The institute was created in 2012 with a $50 million founding gift from the Harrington family and is a prime example of the commitment they share with University Hospitals to a Vision for a 'Better World'. For more information, visit: HarringtonDiscovery.org | LinkedIn | Twitter

About University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio

Founded in 1866, University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of 21 hospitals (including five joint ventures), more than 50 health centers and outpatient facilities, and over 200 physician offices in 16 counties throughout northern Ohio. The system's flagship quaternary care, academic medical center, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Oxford University, the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and National Taiwan University College of Medicine. The main campus also includes the UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. UH is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research programs in the nation, with more than 3,000 active clinical trials and research studies underway. UH Cleveland Medical Center is perennially among the highest performers in national ranking surveys, including "America's Best Hospitals" from U.S. News & World Report. UH is also home to 19 Clinical Care Delivery and Research Institutes. UH is one of the largest employers in Northeast Ohio with more than 30,000 employees. Follow UH on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. For more information, visit UHhospitals.org.

SOURCE Harrington Discovery Institute
The 2023 Awards Recognize Global Success in Platform Launch, Business Impact, Innovation, Learner Experience, and Overall Excellence.

BOSTON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Thought Industries, the leading external enterprise learning platform for customer, partner, and professional training, today announced the winners of its COGNITION23 Customer Awards at the company's annual enterprise learning conference, held online from October 2 through October 5, 2023.

2023 Thought Industries Customer Award Winners

Over the past 10 years , Thought Industries customers have been pioneers in the external learner industry, leveraging the platform to create more than 20 million certifications and deliver more than 41 million courses world-wide with Thought industries' multi-tenant solution, Panorama. Customers using Panorama have generated more than $1.5B in learning license revenue, enabling training for more than 75% of the Fortune 500.

This year's Customer Awards highlight success in platform launch, business impact, innovation, learner experience, and overall excellence. They represent a cross section of industries using the platform to provide exceptional learning experiences for customers, partners, and professionals.

"I'm incredibly proud to see our customers rewarded for their creative, innovative, and high-impact solutions with Thought Industries," says Thought Industries President, Robin Wadsworth. "We work closely with our customers around the world to support their ambitious customer, partner, and professional training vision, and once again I'm happy to see their hard work paying off."

The winners of Thought Industries' COGNITION23 Customer Awards are:

Power Launch: Exterro

The Power Launch award celebrates organizations that have been able to swiftly launch and deliver valuable learning experiences. By recognizing organizations that have achieved significant milestones within tight timelines, this award inspires others to embrace efficiency, agility, and accelerated implementation in their learning endeavors.

Exterro is a software company providing privacy, e-discovery, and information governance solutions for IT and in-house legal teams, including in-person, live online, and on-demand training.

Business Impact: Educate 360

The Business Impact award celebrates organizations that have leveraged the potential of learning as a strategic business tool, and have successfully harnessed its power to drive meaningful business impact. The recipient of this award exemplifies excellence in leveraging education as a means to enhance customer satisfaction, create efficiencies, achieve scale, and improve overall business performance.

Since migrating from a homegrown LMS to Thought Industries in 2022, Educate 360 has realized a massive business impact, including learner satisfaction scores improving to 4.7/5.0 and an average NPS of 72.3 - well above industry averages. Additionally, Ti's monetization features have enabled Educate 360 to earn over $80K in in-platform revenue since launch, which is a net-new revenue stream for the organization.

Best Innovations Using Extensibility: Enverus

The Best Innovation Using Extensibility award showcases the creative ways our customers leverage various tools in addition to Thought Industries to create a learning experience that is an extension of their organizational brand and goals.

Enverus' new continuing education program offers five different learning options for energy professionals to grow their understanding of how to effectively use Enverus solutions and stay up to date on industry trends that will ultimately benefit their careers. Throughout the program, Enverus utilizes multiple Panoramas , sub-licenses within Panoramas to power their Learning Sites products, and Bongo for all ViLT and on-demand certifications.

Best Learner Experience: Industrial Training International (ITI)



The Best Learner Experience award showcases the groundbreaking learner experiences, instructional design, and visual content design that stretches and pushes the Thought Industries platform to new levels.

ITI connected content, technology, and best practices using the Thought Industries platform to craft the best possible learner experience, leading to a 520% increase in subscriptions in just one year. They also quadrupled the amount of learning content available and facilitated personalized learning, ensuring every learner gets exactly what they need, when they need it.

Overall Excellence: Celonis

The Overall Excellence award recognizes a customer who has been with Thought Industries for more than two years, who has not only been innovative and creative in the way they have built their education program, but has also been an all-around leader in customer, partner, or professional training within their industry, or with current or future TI customers.

The Celonis Academy is responsible for providing a holistic training curriculum for the entire Celonis customer, partner, academic, and internal base, along with process mining enthusiasts from around the world, who can sign up to the Celonis Academy for free. In the last year, as part of its data-driven improvement process, Celonis has focused on improving continuous education, localization, and its certification program, cementing a strong year of innovation and customer focus.

The 2023 Customer Awards are the result of nominations and voting from within the Thought Industries Customer Community, which is a testament to the supportive environment to be found among Thought Industries customers worldwide.

COGNITION23 continues until October 5. Find out more about their biggest and best virtual event yet here .

About Thought Industries

Thought Industries powers the business of learning with the industry's leading enterprise learning platform for customer, partner and professional training. The company was founded in 2013 around the core belief that online learning experiences should be modern, intuitive, engaging, and scalable. Today, the Thought Industries growing team builds and maintains the only learning platform with completely native tools and integrations that drive higher customer engagement, learner proficiency, and retention. Headquartered in Boston, Thought Industries has offices across North America and Europe. For more information, visit thoughtindustries.com .

SOURCE Thought Industries
The fast-growing National Automotive Styling Centers franchise continues to serve as the area's trusted automotive aftermarket provider with new owners Zach Cohen and Zach Nussbaum

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Tint World Automotive Styling Centers, a leading auto accessory and window tinting franchise, introduces a new ownership team at the National Automotive Styling Centers franchise location in Charlotte.

With new owners Zach Cohen and Zach Nussbaum, Tint World Charlotte continues delivering premium automotive products and services, including window tint, automotive paint protection film, audio and video, electronics, and safety and security solutions, throughout the state's largest metropolitan area.

Tint World Automotive Styling Centers, a leading auto accessory and window tinting franchise, introduces new owners Zach Cohen and Zach Nussbaum at the National Automotive Styling Centers franchise location in Charlotte.

"With Tint World's world-class franchise systems, we're continuing to grow this location and enhancing the Tint World brand in the region," Cohen said. "The company has enjoyed spectacular success in North Carolina by offering a complete range of services for a wide variety of drivers. We're committed to maintaining Tint World's position as the go-to automotive service provider in the Charlotte area and building the brand across the state."

Tint World Charlotte, located at 6331 South Boulevard, Charlotte, North Carolina 28217, serves the Charlotte, Concord, Rock Hill, Gastonia, Cornelius, Huntersville, Kannapolis, Matthews, Hickory, Monroe and Salisbury areas as well as High Point and Burlington. To book an appointment, request a quote, or find out more about the store and its products and services, call (704) 603-6121 or visit https://www.tintworld.com/locations/nc/charlotte-032/.

"Zach Cohen and Zach Nussbaum are an experienced team that has led a very successful transition at Tint World Charlotte," said Charles J. Bonfiglio, president and CEO of Tint World. "They've implemented our proven franchise processes to ensure Tint World remains the trusted automotive aftermarket provider in the area, and that's opened exciting new opportunities to grow and offer value for more drivers and enthusiasts."

Tint World Automotive Styling Centers offer sales and installation of auto accessories, mobile electronics, audio video equipment, security systems, custom wheels and tire packages, window tinting, vehicle wraps, paint protection films, detailing services, nano ceramic coatings, maintenance and repair services, and more. Tint World is also the leading provider of residential, commercial and marine computerized window tinting and security film services with locations throughout the U.S. and abroad, with franchise opportunities available worldwide.

About Tint World

Founded in 1982, Tint World Automotive Styling Centers is America's largest and fastest-growing automotive accessories and window tinting international franchise, specializing in window tinting, protective films, vehicle wraps, audio and electronics, security systems, car and truck accessories, wheels and tires, detailing and ceramic coating, and installation services.

Tint World Mobile Services include marine, residential, and commercial window tinting films, solar films, decorative films, safety and security films, and protective ceramic coatings. Tint World has locations in the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, with master franchise opportunities available worldwide. To find out more, please visit www.TintWorld.com or https://www.tintworld.com/franchise-opportunities .

TINT WORLD CONTACT:

Charles J. Bonfiglio, CEO

(888) 629-8777

[email protected]

MEDIA CONTACT:

Heather Ripley

Ripley PR

(865) 977-1973

[email protected]

SOURCE Tint World
OAK BROOK, Ill., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- TreeHouse Foods, Inc. (NYSE: THS) will host an audio webcast on Monday, November 6, 2023, at 8:30 a.m. ET to discuss the results for the third quarter and its outlook for the balance of the year.

An earnings release will be issued before the market opens on the same date, and the accompanying slides will be posted on the Company's website at https://www.treehousefoods.com/investors/investor-overview. A replay will also be available on the site following the call.

ABOUT TREEHOUSE FOODS

TreeHouse Foods, Inc. is a leading private label food and beverage manufacturer in North America. Our purpose is to engage and delight - one customer at a time. Through our customer focus and category experience, we strive to deliver excellent service and build capabilities and insights to drive mutually profitable growth for TreeHouse and for our customers. Our purpose is supported by investment in depth, capabilities and operational efficiencies which are aimed to capitalize on the long-term growth prospects in the categories in which we operate.

Additional information, including TreeHouse's most recent statements on Forms 10-Q and 10-K, may be found at TreeHouse's website, http://www.treehousefoods.com.

SOURCE TreeHouse Foods, Inc.
CHICAGO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Tricoci University of Beauty Culture is proud to unveil an exciting lineup of strategic brand partnerships aimed at enhancing the educational experience for its students. These collaborations introduce a wide range of innovative products, training opportunities, and certifications that will help empower Tricoci University of Beauty Culture students to excel in the dynamic beauty industry.

Reuzel : Tricoci University is excited to partner with Reuzel, the #1 hair product brand in North America; created by barbers. Reuzel's education library is embedded into Tricoci University's Cosmetology and Barber curriculums and loaded directly to each student's digital platform. This collaboration offers students unparalleled opportunities to acquire cutting-edge skills without the need to travel far and wide for training.

Pivot Point Snap Cap Mannequins: Snap Cap Mannequins: Tricoci University of Beauty Culture is excited to announce its partnership with Pivot Point, a renowned global leader in beauty education. Pivot Point will now serve as the university's exclusive kit vendor, providing students with top-quality tools to kickstart their beauty education journey. This collaboration introduces Pivot Point's premium Snap Cap Mannequins into our classrooms, featuring a wide range of detachable snap caps in various lengths and textures.

These premium heads aren't just excellent training tools, they're also ethically made and eco-friendly, aligning perfectly with Tricoci University's commitment to sustainability and responsible practices.

Beauty as a Business : In today's competitive beauty industry, mastering essential skills like branding, social media marketing, and website building is critical for success. Tricoci University's partnership with Beauty as a Business ensures that students have access to the tools required for effective self-promotion and business development.

Sugarlash PRO Brow Lamination and Eyelash Extension Certifications: This dynamic partnership brings hands-on learning opportunities and coveted certifications in brow lamination and eyelash extensions, preparing students to meet the high demand for these sought-after services.

"At Tricoci University, we are relentless in our pursuit of creating diverse opportunities for our students to expand their skill sets and enhance their resumes, setting a strong foundation for their future success," said Larry Foster, Vice President of Education, Compliance and Student Services at Tricoci University. "These partnerships reflect our dedication to providing students with the highest quality education and resources available in the beauty industry."

Tricoci University's commitment to forging transformative partnerships is not new. The institution has a rich history of collaborating with industry leaders, including Ulta Beauty , Dermalogica , L'Oreal , Redken , Mizani , Biolage , Matrix , Malibu C ; Razor Roar Wellness Barber Lounge , Keratin Complex , Cirepil , Ardeur and Beauty Salon, Mario Tricoci Salon & Spa , Prosper U and United Parcel Service (UPS) .

These strategic brand partnerships exemplify Tricoci University's dedication to innovation and the future success of its students. By continuously expanding its offerings and providing access to world-class tools and resources, Tricoci University of Beauty Culture is ensuring that its students are well-prepared to forge a successful career in the beauty industry.

The partnership program is effective immediately and more information about Tricoci University of Beauty Culture can be found by visiting https://www.tricociuniversity.edu/

About Tricoci University of Beauty Culture

Tricoci University of Beauty Culture is a premier beauty education provider with 15 campuses throughout Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Tricoci University is focused on producing salon-ready graduates who are prepared for successful careers in the beauty industry. Founded by international beauty industry leader Mario Tricoci, Tricoci University is developing a new type of beauty professional by using innovative teaching methods, an interactive learning platform, and upscale facilities. All guest services are provided by students under the supervision of licensed instructors. For more information about Tricoci University of Beauty Culture please visit www.tricociuniversity.edu

SOURCE Tricoci University of Beauty Culture
TUV Rheinland has established itself in Mexico as a leader in the Testing, Inspection and Certification sector.

as a leader in the Testing, Inspection and Certification sector. The company has participated in key projects within the public initiative and different sectors such as e-commerce, energy, automotive, retail, consumer goods, among others.

MEXICO CITY, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- TUV Rheinland, a German company specialized in quality and safety by applying standards and certification in different sectors, celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in Mexico reinforcing its leadership, innovation and service excellence with the aim of continuing to contribute to the economic development of the country.

"Commemorating this thirtieth anniversary in Mexico represents a milestone for TUV Rheinland, since in 1993 the global company identified that there was a great market opportunity in our country and arrived with a specific service offering. Today, thanks to the work of our employees and the trust of our clients, we have increased our portfolio of solutions adapting it to the challenges that have arisen in the industries and soon we will have a great announcement that will open business opportunities in key economic sectors inside and outside the country", says Hermann Saenger, Country Manager of TUV Rheinland Mexico.

For three decades the company has positioned itself in Mexico as a pioneer and leader in the Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC) industry, which has a worldwide value of approximately 200 billion dollars and generates one million jobs around the world. In Mexico, the main sectors that TUV Rheinland serves are automotive, electronics, petroleum, agriculture and food, construction, railways, telecommunications, among others.

TUV Rheinland has specialized collaborators in the different national and international norms and standards, which are distributed throughout the country attending projects for strategic clients. Thanks to the work of its professionals, the company has obtained several accreditations during these thirty years that have allowed it to expand its services and recently received for the second consecutive year the recognition of the Mexican Accreditation Entity (EMA), for demonstrating its commitment to integrity, standardization and focus on its Quality Management System for all its accreditations.

In this way, TUV Rheinland has been part of unique strategic projects of its kind in the country for the benefit of the quality and safety of users. One of them is the Mexicable Ecatepec, in which the company collaborated prior to the inauguration of the first line to perform the safety certification of the system, according to Regulation (EU) 2016-424 and the ILNAS-EN 1709:2019 Standard.

This certification did not exist in Mexico, as a cable car had never been developed as a means of mass transportation, so it was the first time that this European standard was established as the line to follow for safety. Likewise, since 2019 the company has been carrying out permanent supervision of both cable car lines, which represents a historical fact, since no other urban mobility project in the country or at a regional level maintains 24/7 external supervision.

TUV Rheinland has also participated in key public initiative projects, as well as for companies in the e-commerce, energy, automotive, retail, electrical and electronic consumer goods, construction, and other sectors. "During these three decades we have constantly reinforced our commitment to be part of the transformation of the country's industries through compliance with regulations, with which we are proud to promote the quality and safety of products and services offered in Mexico," said Saenger.

In this way, TUV Rheinland celebrates its 30th anniversary reinforcing its commitment to positively impact the different industries by providing them with strategic solutions for testing, inspections and certifications with which they can increase their competitiveness, reduce risks and professionalize their processes for the benefit of all users in Mexico. The company will continue working to shape the future based on quality and sustainability, with the goal of making the world a safer place for everyone.

About TUV Rheinland

TUV Rheinland stands for safety and quality in virtually all areas of business and life. The company has been operating for more than 150 years and ranks among the world's leading testing service providers. It has more than 20,000 employees in over 50 countries and generates annual revenues of around 2.3 billion euros. TUV Rheinland's highly qualified experts test technical systems and products around the world, support innovations in technology and business, train people in numerous professions and certify management systems according to international standards. In doing so, the independent experts generate trust in products as well as processes across global value-adding chains and the flow of commodities. Since 2006, TUV Rheinland has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact to promote sustainability and combat corruption. Website: www.tuv.com

Press contacts:

Michael Garcia Carbajal

Telefono: +52 55 3488 2108

Email: [email protected]

Mariana Taborda do Amaral

Telefono: +55 11 3514 5867

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE TUV Rheinland
Key hire further enhances Two Ocean's generational wealth management capabilities including its industry-leading digital asset and private trust company offerings

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Two Ocean Trust, a Wyoming-chartered trust company that provides generational wealth management for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, families, and foundations, announced today the appointment of Albert Forkner as its new Chief Risk and Compliance Officer. In this role, Forkner will be responsible for overseeing all risk management and ensuring compliance with federal, state and international regulatory requirements, both for clients and for Two Ocean itself. With a distinguished background in financial infrastructure and governance, Forkner brings invaluable expertise to further enhance Two Ocean's leading-edge trust and investment offering to its clients, including its industry-leading digital asset and private trust company capabilities. Forkner will also become a member of the Two Ocean board of directors and will be based at the company's Jackson Hole headquarters.

For more than 20 years, Forkner held oversight and regulatory positions at the Wyoming Division of Banking. Beginning as a bank examiner in 1996 he assumed increasing responsibilities in new roles, eventually being named State Banking Commissioner in 2012, a position he held for 10 years. Forkner's responsibilities included the administration of laws and regulations governing all state-chartered banks and non-depository trust companies, fostering innovation and economic opportunities in the state and regularly meeting with senior leadership of the FDIC, Federal Reserve and the CFPB.

Throughout his career, Forkner has shown a commitment to innovation and industry stewardship. Since 2011, he has held leadership roles at the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, including serving as Chairman. At the Wyoming Division of Banking, he played a pivotal role in establishing compliance and regulatory protocols for the creation of private trust companies (PTCs) and the handling of digital assets, making Wyoming a leader and top destination for these services.

"I've long known Two Ocean Trust, and in working with the team over the years I recognized the depth of knowledge and the quality of character they bring to work every day," said Forkner. "This is an industry built on trust and relationships, and Two Ocean has made these ideals the hallmark of how they do business. I'm excited to join an enterprise built on experience and traditional values but looking every day to innovate and bring their clients results they can have complete confidence in."

"Albert's extensive experience in both traditional finance and digital assets regulation makes him an ideal addition to Two Ocean Trust," said Joel Revill, CEO of Two Ocean Trust. "He has been at the forefront of regulatory conversations on a national level, placing him in a unique position to manage risk and ensure full compliance across all aspects of our business, whether investment management, trust services or PTC administration for clients. We couldn't be more excited to welcome him to Two Ocean."

About Two Ocean Trust

Two Ocean Trust provides a full range of trust and investment capabilities to ultra-high-net-worth individuals, families, and foundations. Based in Jackson Hole, Two Ocean Trust is uniquely positioned to provide access to Wyoming's modern trust laws, tax advantages, and enhanced privacy and asset protections. For additional information, visit www.twoocean.com.

Media Inquiries

Michael Kingsley

Forefront Communications for Two Ocean Trust

[email protected]

914-522-9471

SOURCE Two Ocean Trust
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Once upon a time, a king was bathing in the river when a badly wounded deer came down to the water to give birth. Overwhelmed with compassion, the king adopted it as his pet. Over time, he became so attached to the deer that at his death, his last sensation was his boundless affection for the animal. For this reason, the legendary King Bharata  the first ruler to unite India  was to be reincarnated as a deer.

We are here, of course, in the world of myth and legends, but also of reality. Because King Bharatas name gave rise to Bharat, India in Sanskrit. It means the lands of King Bharata.

Bharat is the name that Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, may be considering as his countrys official name. There are many ways to practice populism, and this is one of them. Its a way to demonstrate power, to nourish narratives that demonize the countrys recent past and commemorate the glorious days of the distant past. It also serves to create debates that distract public opinion from the governments mounting list of daily failures. Thus, Persia became Iran, Burma became Myanmar, Venezuela became the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and so on.

More information Dictators without an exit

Modis political party is the Bharatiya Janata Party, is the Bharat Peoples Party, or in other words, the Hindu Peoples Party. And this whole family of words  Bharata, Bharat, Bharatiya  have the same religious origin: they all come from the sacred writings of Hinduism, starting with the Mahabharata, something like the Old Testament of that religion, which is essentially the epic of the Bharat kingdom.

And heres the problem: India today, the most populous country in the world, is a much more diverse nation than it was in the times of legend. It contains a staggering 950 million Hindus, who form the support base of Modis Hindu Nationalism. But it is also home to 170 million Muslims  more than in Iran and Saudi Arabia combined  as well as 28 million Christians, 20 million Sikhs, eight million Buddhists, and many smaller groups. Trying to impose a purely religious term like Bharat to designate the entire country is an aggressive act of chauvinist populism. In short, ignoring the national identity of the more than 200 million non-Hindu citizens of India is a dangerous provocation.

None of this is surprising because religious chauvinism has been Modis stock-in-trade since his career began. In 2002, when a series of riots between religious communities shook the state of Gujarat, then-governor Modi stood by while more than 1,000 Muslims were murdered by hordes of angry Hindus. The lesson that Modi took from this tragedy was manifested in his political behavior: the more cruelty he showed towards the Muslim minority, the more electoral victories he was able to rack up.

Modis BJP government has never stopped inflaming religious tensions because it knows its a tried-and-true method of clinging to power. Through a gigantic social media machine, the BJP and its sister organizations fuel tensions between religious communities every time an election looms. WhatsApp chains spread explosive rumors about sexual abuse perpetrated by Muslim pedophiles against Hindu girls, and of course they underline Muslims voracious appetite for beef, since cows are considered sacred in Hinduism.

And Hindu revanchism doesnt just target Muslims. In June, Indian secret agents allegedly murdered Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a well-known Sikh community leader, in broad daylight in a quiet suburb of Vancouver, Canada. The Canadian governments outrage and the ongoing volley of accusations between the two countries has created a diplomatic incident that is expanding across the globe, introducing unprecedented tensions between India and Western partners that, until recently, were friends.

Modi has perfected the techniques of populism, polarization and post-truth, and continues to use them to hold on to power. Trying to change the name of India to a purely Hindu term like Bharat fits perfectly into this pattern of behavior that is endangering Gandhis democratic legacy. And all this in the name of King Bharata, who just wanted to take care of an orphaned deer.

@moisesnaim
PITTSBURGH , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- UPMC Children's Hospital Foundation has received its largest gift to date from an individual with a $8 million bequest from the estate of Mr. David V. Duchini to support UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Duchini passed away on March 23, 2007, at 84 years old, having planned for distribution of his assets to family and philanthropic organizations. Duchini personally selected these recipients with the guidance of his friends, estate trustee, and UBS financial advisor, Helene Naftali, who recommended the gift to the Foundation.

"For Mr. Duchini, he wanted to take care of his family, friends, and of course make a philanthropic impact. After our discussion of his values, we decided that UPMC Children's was a clear choice. Nationally renowned, with innovations and breakthroughs, the overall care at UPMC Children's is unparalleled. Mr. Duchini would be proud of this gift and the future it will create for countless children," said Naftali.

"We're thrilled and honored to receive such a generous gift from the Duchini estate," said Rachel Petrucelli, president of UPMC Children's Hospital Foundation. "Mr. Duchini had no connection to Pittsburgh or to UPMC Children's, but Helene recognized that a gift to the Foundation meant helping children and families in their greatest time of need and he agreed. Her work reminds us of the important role professional advisors play in ensuring donors' wishes are carried out and we are eternally grateful to be the recipient."

A native of Queens, N.Y., Duchini was a graduate of the University of Miami and eventually ran Adolph Trucking Company Inc., in Manhattan. Duchini's father, Adolph, immigrated to the United States and founded the company prior to turning it over to Mr. Duchini, which he then ran for 60 years.

For more information on UPMC Children's Hospital Foundation, or to donate through estate planning, visit www.givetochildrens.org.

About UPMC Children's Hospital Foundation

UPMC Children's Hospital Foundation is the catalyst that unites communities and contributors to create healthier futures for all children through life-changing care and cutting-edge research. As the sole fundraising arm of UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, we support their vision of being the world leader in pediatric health care, education, and discovery. The Foundation is a public charity under 501(c)(3) and 170(b)(1)(A) of the Internal Revenue Service Code. For more information, visit www.givetochildrens.org

About UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh

Regionally, nationally, and globally, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh is a leader in the treatment of childhood conditions and diseases, a pioneer in the development of new and improved therapies, and a top educator of the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists. With generous community support, UPMC Children's Hospital has fulfilled this mission since its founding in 1890. UPMC Children's is recognized consistently for its clinical, research, educational, and advocacy-related accomplishments, including ranking in the top 10 on the 2023-2024 U.S. News Honor Roll of Best Children's Hospitals.

Contact: Andrea Yorchuck

Mobile: 412-552-7448

E-mail: [email protected]

Contact: Mendy Nestor

Office: 412-692-3917

Mobile: 412-849-9470

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE UPMC Children's Hospital Foundation
Integration adds AHI System (Analytic for Hemodynamic Instability) to award-winning wearable biosensor providing better insights and potential to intervene earlier

SAN JOSE, Calif. and ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- VitalConnect, Inc., an award-winning leader in remote and in-hospital wearable biosensor technology, today announced a relationship with Fifth Eye Inc., a provider of intuitive real-time clinical analytics that has been recognized as a "Top Ten Artificial Intelligence Solutions Provider" for multiple years. The VitalConnect end-to-end remote patient monitoring solution already monitors up to 11 measurements in near real-time with customizable alerts, while allowing screening for 21 cardiac arrhythmias, to enable constant and unprecedented insight into patient health. Integrating Fifth Eye's AHI SystemTM, which is the only FDA-cleared medical device software that can detect hemodynamic instability signaling potential deterioration ahead of vital signs, will provide even more comprehensive patient information allowing healthcare professionals to optimize the delivery of care to their patients.

VitalConnect, an award-winning leader in remote and in-hospital wearable biosensor technology, now incorporates Fifth Eye's AHI System, adding predictive analytics to its patient monitoring platform.

"This is a significant milestone for AHI," said Andrew Malcolmson, CEO of Fifth Eye. "AHI is the only FDA-cleared noninvasive patient monitoring technology of its kind, combining real-time hemodynamic status with a future risk indicator. Adding this unprecedented analytic capability to VitalConnect's robust monitoring parameters results in a wearable solution that is convenient for patients and produces actionable outputs for physicians."

"Incorporating the power of predictive analytics is the future of remote patient monitoring," said VitalConnect CEO Peter Van Haur. "We developed VitalConnect to deliver better healthcare while providing more convenience for the patients and healthcare providers. By integrating AHI, we add a vital new layer of analytic surveillance to provide better insights through detecting potential deterioration significantly sooner than traditional vital signs."

About VitalConnect, Inc.

VitalConnect is a leader in wearable biosensor technology for wireless patient monitoring in both hospital and remote patient populations. VitalConnect leverages extensive expertise in biomedical engineering, data analytics, chip design, and mobile and cloud software to create technology that supports decision-making paradigms that achieve better health and economic outcomes. VitalConnect's products are designed for use in a broad range of inpatient and outpatient settings, such as hospital monitoring, post-discharge care, cardiac monitoring and pharmaceutical solutions. VitalConnect's advanced, yet easy-to-use, platform, was designed to deliver better healthcare at lower costs while providing more convenience for the patients and healthcare providers. For more information: www.vitalconnect.com

About Fifth Eye

Fifth Eye Inc. is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based company that develops intuitive, real-time clinical analytics based on physiologic waveforms to improve outcomes and reduce costs. The AHI System is the only FDA-cleared clinical decision support software that continuously predicts the risk of hemodynamic instability earlier than vital signs. Using real-time, continuous ECG lead II data feed, AHI automatically performs a series of advanced signal processing analyses, extracting HRV patterns that indicate a patient's hemodynamic status. AHI System helps hospitals prevent adverse events, improve patient throughput, and better allocate valuable clinical staff resources to avoid nursing burnout. Fifth Eye's machine-learning technology is licensed from the University of Michigan. For more information: www.fiftheye.com.

AHI System is intended for use by healthcare professionals managing patients 18 years or older who are receiving continuous physiological monitoring with electrocardiography (ECG) in hospitals. This device is intended for adjunctive use with other physical vital sign parameters and patient information and is not intended to independently direct therapy.

Media Contacts:

Steve Kelly

VitalConnect, Inc.

206-856-6488

[email protected]

Tricia Strong

Fifth Eye Inc.

719-433-4836

[email protected]

SOURCE Fifth Eye Inc
NEW YORK and SINGAPORE and MUMBAI, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Everise, a leading global healthcare services outsourcing company, announced today that Warburg Pincus, a leading global growth investor, has agreed to invest in the company. Warburg Pincus joins existing investor Brookfield and both investors are committed to accelerating the growth trajectory of the company through business expansion and M&A. Warburg Pincus' investment values the company at around $1 billion.

Since its inception in 2016, Everise has evolved into an end-to-end customer experience solutions provider and one of the fastest-growing businesses in the healthcare services outsourcing space today. Headquartered in the US, with over 19,000 employees in eight markets, Everise provides customer service solutions to some of the world's leading healthcare companies. The company has attained numerous industry awards in recognition of its leadership, as well as its commitment to innovation and a people-centric culture.

As part of the transaction, Everstone Group, the Singapore-headquartered private equity firm will exit its investment in Everise.

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close by the end of 2023.

Saurabh Agarwal, Managing Director of Warburg Pincus, said, "We are pleased to partner with Brookfield in our shared vision to elevate Everise into a next-generation global leader in the healthcare customer experience industry. Everise extends a vast array of top-tier services to its clients, including some of the world's largest healthcare organizations. We are excited about backing Everise's exceptionally experienced leadership team that has a proven track record of driving scale and profitability. With our deep network and resources across Asia and the US, we are well-positioned to help Everise gain further momentum as a leader in the industry."

Warburg Pincus has invested in healthcare for over 50 years with investments in some of the most iconic and innovative healthcare companies such as Ensemble Health Partners, Quantum Health, Alignment Healthcare, Modernizing Medicine, Qualifacts, and ParetoHealth.

Viraj Sawhney, Managing Director of Warburg Pincus, added, "Warburg Pincus has been an active investor in the global outsourced technology-enabled services space, and Everise presents an attractive platform to offer such services to the global healthcare payer and provider ecosystem. We have continued to see strong underlying demand for quality customer experience, driven by an increasing outsourcing trend across the global healthcare industry. We are excited about the growth prospect of the company and look forward to leveraging our global presence and extensive experience in both healthcare and outsourced services to help the management team accelerate growth, innovate, and drive more value for its customers."

Sudhir Agarwal, Founder and CEO of Everise, said, "I and the management team are confident that the partnership between Warburg Pincus and Brookfield will take Everise's growth to the next level. Warburg Pincus' deep domain expertise across diverse industries and next-generation technologies, coupled with the institutional knowledge of our trusted partner Brookfield, will contribute substantively to Everise's next phase of growth in offering strategic customer solutions. I would also like to thank Everstone Group for being a strong and supportive partner to Everise from its inception."

Aditya Joshi, Managing Partner at Brookfield, said: "Since our investment in Everise in 2020, the company has delivered strong organic growth following investments in technology and operations and has become a strategic partner for its customers around the world. We look forward to partnering with Warburg Pincus and the Company's management team for the next stage of the journey."

About Warburg Pincus

Warburg Pincus LLC is a leading global growth investor. Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 21 private equity and 2 real estate funds, which have invested more than $112 billion in over 1,000 companies in more than 40 countries. The firm has more than $83 billion in assets under management. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore. For more information, please visit www.warburgpincus.com. Follow us on LinkedIn.

About Everise

Founded in 2016, Everise is a global leader transforming customer service for healthcare, transport, logistics, insurance, financial services, and tech businesses. The Company solves problems for the millions of customers of some of the world's leading brands, by combining the best technology with compassionate service. With over 19,000 champion agents operating across eight strategic markets globally, Everise seeks to deliver happiness to customers of some of the world's best loved brands. Our customer service solutions are high-performing, secure, and agile, with fluent proficiency in 32 languages, enabling businesses to scale globally while achieving top customer satisfaction. Learn more at www.weareeverise.com.

About Brookfield Business Partners

Brookfield Business Partners is a global business services and industrials company focused on owning and operating high-quality businesses that provide essential products and services and benefit from a strong competitive position. Investors have flexibility to invest in our company either through Brookfield Business Corporation (NYSE, TSX: BBUC), a corporation, or Brookfield Business Partners L.P. (NYSE: BBU; TSX: BBU.UN), a limited partnership. For more information, please visit https://bbu.brookfield.com.

Brookfield Business Partners is the flagship listed vehicle of Brookfield Asset Management's Private Equity Group. Brookfield Asset Management is a leading global alternative asset manager with approximately $850 billion of assets under management.

SOURCE Everise
VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Westcore Logistics is pleased to announce it placed No. 3 on the 2023 Report on Business ranking of Canada's Top Growing Companies. Westcore Logistics also placed No. 1 on the ranking within British Columbia and the Logistics Sector.

Canada's Top Growing Companies ranks Canadian companies on three-year revenue growth. Westcore Logistics earned its spot with a three-year growth of 13,996%.

Westcore Logistics is a niche player within the logistics sector and predominantly specializes in providing managed logistics solutions for clients engaged on large scale projects across the Infrastructure, Energy, and Renewables industry. While being headquartered in British Columbia, the company operates on a global scale and has recently completed projects in the United States, Mexico, Chile, and China among others.

"It is an honour for our team to receive recognition from The Globe and Mail as one of Canada's rapidly growing companies. Being able to share this honor with other pioneering businesses across the nation is an exceptional privilege. Placing No. 3 overall and No. 1 across the Logistics Sector, is a testament to our team's ability to continually offer streamlined and differentiated solutions within a historically fragmented industry," said Harman Sahota, CEO of Westcore Logistics.

Canada's Top Growing Companies is an editorial ranking that was launched in 2019. It aims to bring the accomplishments of innovative businesses in Canada to the forefront. In order to qualify for this voluntary program; companies had to complete an in-depth application process and fulfill requirements. In total, 425 companies earned a spot on this year's ranking.

The full list of 2023 winners along with editorial coverage is published in the October issue of Report on Business magazine. The list is out now and online here.

"Canada's Top Growing Companies acknowledges the drive and ingenuity displayed by Canadian business," says Dawn Calleja, Editor of Report on Business magazine. "This year's ranking serves as an inspiration for future business owners."

"This year's Report on Business magazine's list of Top Growing Companies shows how innovative ideas always rise to the top, perhaps even more so in times of uncertainty," says Andrew Saunders, CEO of The Globe and Mail. "The Globe and Mail congratulates this year's winners for meeting and surpassing those economic challenges."

About The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is Canada's foremost news media company, leading the national discussion and causing policy change through brave and independent journalism since 1844. With our award-winning coverage of business, politics and national affairs, The Globe and Mail newspaper reaches 6.3 million readers every week in our print or digital formats, and Report on Business magazine reaches 2.8 million readers in print and digital every issue. Our investment in innovative data science means that as the world continues to change, so does The Globe. The Globe and Mail is owned by Woodbridge, the investment arm of the Thomson family.

About Westcore Logistics

Westcore is a multi-modal transportation and logistics management firm dedicated to designing and delivering client-centric solutions across North America. Our service offering encompasses all modes of logistics including air, ocean, rail, and truck transportation, with an emphasis on providing managed solutions for large scale and complex projects.

SOURCE Westcore Logistics Ltd
RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Williams Mullen is pleased to announce that Walter L. Tippett, Jr. has joined the firm's Raleigh office as a partner in the Litigation Section.

Tippett has extensive litigation experience with over 25 years serving as counsel to professionals and privately held companies. He advises clients regarding fiduciary relationships and ownership rights, in addition to the development of real estate, technology, and research innovations.

Walter Tippett

Tippett frequently represents clients dealing with the governance of closely held companies and both their investment and borrowing relationships with all manner of stakeholders. Tippett also has proficiency in handling regulatory and administrative compliance matters, including matters before professional licensing boards, agencies and commissions.

"We are thrilled to have Walt join our Raleigh office and our firm's accomplished Litigation Section," said David Paulson, Williams Mullen's Carolinas managing partner. "The magnitude of his experience and his reputation as a well-known commercial, business, regulatory and construction litigator, further strengthens our ability to strategically advise our clients."

Tippett's addition marks the firm's third North Carolina veteran partner hire in the last three months.

Tippett is licensed to practice in North Carolina, as well as the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. Tippett received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law and his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

About Williams Mullen

Williams Mullen is a regional, full-service law firm with approximately 250 attorneys in offices across North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Since our firm began in 1909, our goal has been to provide business and legal solutions to help our clients' businesses thrive. Visit us at www.williamsmullen.com.

SOURCE Williams Mullen
BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- WK Kellogg Co (NYSE: KLG) today is celebrating its launch as an independent, publicly traded company with the completion of its planned separation from Kellanova (NYSE: K), formerly Kellogg Company, on October 2, 2023. The company now trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "KLG."

WK Kellogg Co is a leading food company in the U.S., Canada, and Caribbean with a deep heritage of innovation and operational success, supported by its portfolio of trusted, beloved brands including Kellogg's, Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Mini-Wheats, Special K, Raisin Bran, Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes, Kashi, and Bear Naked, that have delighted consumers for more than a century.

"Today is a defining moment for all of us at WK Kellogg Co. With the spirit of a start-up and a strong foundation of iconic brands and characters, we are writing the next chapter of our founder W.K. Kellogg's original story. We are confident that as a standalone, publicly traded company, we are well positioned to deliver on our strategic objectives, win in cereal and create value for customers, consumers, employees, communities and shareholders," said Gary Pilnick, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of WK Kellogg Co.

Pilnick continued, "On behalf of the WK Leadership Team and the Board, I want to thank our 3,000+ employees for their hard work and dedication in getting us to this exciting stage. It is a privilege to launch this company and celebrate this milestone alongside them."

Members of WK Kellogg Co's executive leadership team will ring the Opening Bell at the NYSE today. The company will also host a variety of events for its employees across its offices and plants in the U.S., Canada, and Caribbean. A live feed of the NYSE Opening Bell can be found at https://www.youtube.com/live/049XGwC3Pkg?feature=shared.

As previously announced, WK Kellogg Co will remain headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan.

About WK Kellogg Co

At WK Kellogg Co, we bring our best to everyone, every day through our trusted foods and brands. Our journey began in 1894, when our founder W.K. Kellogg reimagined the future of food with the creation of Corn Flakes, changing breakfast forever. Since then, we have embraced the same spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in everything we do, channeling our founder's passion and commitment to creating high quality and delicious products while fostering communities. Our iconic brand portfolio includes Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies, Froot Loops, Kashi, Special K, Raisin Bran, and Bear Naked. With a presence in the majority of households across North America, our brands play a key role in enhancing the lives of millions of consumers every day, promoting a strong sense of physical, emotional and societal wellbeing. Our beloved brand characters, including Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam, represent our deep connections with the consumers and communities we serve. For more information, visit www.wkkellogg.com.





Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains a number of forward-looking statements, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include predictions of future results or activities and may contain the words "expect," "believe," "will," "can," "anticipate," "estimate," "project," "should," or words or phrases of similar meaning. You are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain, and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those indicated or anticipated by such forward-looking statements. The inclusion of such statements should not be regarded as a representation that such plans, estimates or expectations will be achieved. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such plans, estimates or expectations include, among others, (1) the ability of WK Kellogg Co to succeed as a standalone publicly traded company, (2) the possibility that the separation will not achieve its intended benefits, (3) the possibility of disruption, including changes to existing business relationships, disputes, litigation or unanticipated costs in connection with the separation, (4) uncertainty of the expected financial performance of WK Kellogg Co following completion of the separation, (5) negative effects on the market price of the securities of WK Kellogg Co and/or on the financial performance of WK Kellogg Co, as a result of the separation, (6) evolving legal, regulatory and tax regimes, (7) changes in general economic and/or industry specific conditions, (8) actions by third parties, including government agencies and (9) other risk factors as detailed from time to time in WK Kellogg Co's reports filed with the SEC, including its Registration Statement on Form 10, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and other documents filed with the SEC. Copies of these filings are available online at www.sec.gov, www.investor.wkkellogg.com or on request from WK Kellogg Co. The foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive. Any forward-looking statement made in this press release speaks only as of the date of this press release. WK Kellogg Co does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information or future events or developments.

Analyst Contact:

Karen Duke, (269) 401-3164

Matt Harrison, (269) 961-2457

Media Contact:

Stacy Flathau, (269) 401-3002

SOURCE WK Kellogg Co.
Long-term agreement will reduce more than 469,000 metric tonnes of CO2 from corporate air travel.

Agreement enables Microsoft to fully decarbonize the equivalent of more than 824,000 passengers flying round trip between Microsoft's home base in Seattle and New York City . 

and . 43.7 million gallons of fossil jet fuel will be replaced with sustainable, low carbon aviation fuel supplied by World Energy.

BOSTON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today World Energy , the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) producer and low-carbon solutions provider, announced a long-term agreement with Microsoft to accelerate the decarbonization of corporate air travel and its supply chain cargo through the purchase of sustainable aviation fuel certificates (SAFc).

This agreement highlights World Energy's ability to enable companies from all sectors of the economy to participate in decarbonizing the hard-to-abate aviation sector. The agreement connects Microsoft's ambitious decarbonization goals directly and verifiably with SAF via a Book & Claim tracking framework.

World Energy and Microsoft Join Forces to Drive Aviation Decarbonization Through Sustainable Aviation Fuel Certificates Post this

Spanning ten years, this is the longest SAFc Book & Claim agreement ever signed. It is expected to deliver significant decarbonization results. An estimated 43.7 million gallons of petroleum jet fuel will be displaced with low-carbon SAF. The emissions reduction is expected to exceed 469,000 metric tonnes of CO2. That is the equivalent of flying 824,053 economy class passengers from Seattle to New York and back on fully decarbonized flights, or decarbonizing the transportation of over 54,000 metric tons of cargo between Asia and North America.

The length and size of this commitment will help accelerate the emergence of the aviation decarbonization industry by helping it reach profitable operation at scale.

"We're thrilled to be launching this long-term collaboration with Microsoft," said Gene Gebolys, CEO of World Energy. "Through this agreement, we will empower one of the world's most recognized innovators to grow their business while minimizing their carbon impact and together we're committing to making a sustained push well into the next decade to decarbonize aviation at ever greater scale. Microsoft has made some the most ambitious decarbonization commitments of any corporate leader and we are honored to be teaming up to help them meet those goals."

"This agreement exemplifies the power of collaboration and technology in driving meaningful change in one of the hardest-to-abate sectors," said Katie Ross, director, carbon reduction strategy & market development, Microsoft. "Not only will it help to reduce our business travel and supply chain logistics emissions, but we hope this agreement will inspire others to take action and support the transition to alternative fuels that will enable a decarbonized aviation industry."

This agreement will also help establish broader trust in digital monitoring and verification for SAFc. With SAFc, the fuel's environmental attributes are separated from the fuel itself and are purchased by a partner as part of their decarbonization program. The physical production and use of the SAF is tied specifically to the certificates, independently accredited, transparently tracked, and third-party verified using a digital chain of custody system referred to as "Book & Claim." This enables both airlines and corporate leaders, such as Microsoft, to support the decarbonization benefits of SAF without having to take delivery of physical fuel.

Additionally, SAFc delivered via Book & Claim helps to minimize both logistic costs and emissions because the fuel can be used near where it is produced rather than being shipped around the world. All product will achieve the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) certification, widely recognized as the most rigorous standard in the industry. This supply will be produced at World Energy's facility in Paramount, CA, the world's first commercial scale SAF production plant, where the company is now making a multi-billion dollar investment to expand scale and drive innovation.

SAF is made from non-petroleum based renewable feedstocks such as fats, greases, oils, yard waste, other municipal solid waste, woody biomass and other feedstocks. Currently, SAF is blended with conventional Jet A fuel at a level up to 50%, reducing aviation emissions by up to 80%.

About World Energy

World Energy is a low-carbon solution pioneer working with leading companies to help meet their net-zero commitments. With operations in sustainable aviation fuel, clean hydrogen, advanced biofuels, and fully transparent decarbonization services, World Energy is collaborating to confront the biggest decarbonization challenges in the hardest-to-abate sectors. For over 25 years World Energy has been at the forefront of commercializing renewable fuels and was the world's first commercial-scale sustainable aviation fuel producer. Today, World Energy is investing over $15 billion into major new projects in California, Texas, and Newfoundland to help leaders accelerate their efforts to make net-zero real. Learn more at www.worldenergy.net.

https://applications.icao.int/icec

Estimated using the Global Logistics Emissions Council Framework and ISO:14083 approved IATA RP 1678 emissions factors.

SOURCE World Energy
Over 200 world-leaders from across the mining and mineral sectors are set to attend FMF 2024, including Chairmen and CEOs of Glencore, Codelco and Vale

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ministry of Industry and Mineral Recourses announced that over 200 speakers, including CEOs from the world's foremost mineral companies, are set to attend the third edition of the Future Minerals Forum (FMF), which is scheduled to take place from January 9-11, 2024, at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh.

Among them are speakers who are attending for the first time, including Gary Nagle, CEO of Glencore, which produces and markets more than 60 commodities; Eduardo Bartolomeo, CEO of Vale, the world's largest producer of iron ore, nickel and manganese; Maximo Pacheco, Chairman of Codelco, the largest copper mining company in the world; Mark Cutifani, Chairman of Vale Base Metals, the largest producer of iron ore, pellets and nickel; Evy Hambro, Managing Director, Global Head of Thematic and Sector at BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager; Jonathan Price, CEO of Teck, one of Canada's leading mining companies; and Mikael Staffas, President and CEO of Boliden, the Swedish multinational metals, mining and smelting company.

FMF 2024 will also witness the return of several speakers such as Robert Friedland, Founder and Executive Co-Chairman of Ivanhoe Mines; Mark Bristow, CEO of Barrick Gold; Andrew Southam, CEO of KAZ Minerals; and Joc O'Rourke, President and CEO of The Mosaic Company.

"FMF is a government-led initiative, serves as a vital platform for fostering partnerships among global investors, mining firms, and stakeholders. With a focus on the super region covering Africa, Western and Central Asia, FMF amplifies the voices of mineral suppliers, facilitating their pivotal role in the global green transition. In doing so, FMF supports economic development by uniting decision makers, driving investment, and promoting responsible mining, processing and manufacturing industries needed for supplying clean energy and goods." said His Excellency the Vice-Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources for Mining Affairs, Khalid Al-Mudaifer.

The third edition's program themes will include developing a global critical minerals strategy, enabling investments in the super region to develop intra-regional value chains, building centers of excellence that contribute to building human capacities, developing sustainability standards that meet the requirements of host countries and maintain trust with society and creating green metals hub within the super region.

For registration: https://www.futuremineralsforum.com/registration/

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2002111/4320358/FMF_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Future Minerals Forum
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a recently published report from Dell'Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the telecommunications, security, networks, and data center industries, preliminary readings indicate that worldwide telecom capex, the sum of wireless and wireline telecom carrier investments, experienced a slowdown in growth during the first half of 2023 after a couple of years of favorable developments. This moderation was not a surprise and reflects the anticipated pullback in especially wireless related investments, consistent with the findings in the total telecom equipment reports. Looking ahead, conditions are expected to remain challenging in 2024 before stabilizing in 2025. Worldwide telecom capex is projected to drop 7 percent by 2025, relative to 2022 levels.

"The forces that shape the capex cycle have not changed," said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President of the Dell'Oro Group. "Operators can raise capital intensities over the short-term, but there is a reason the trend line has stayed flat over the past 10+ years. Since we are now operating at elevated ratios, capex acceleration remains a transitory phenomenon in a world where neither 4G nor 5G has been able to change the revenue trajectory," continued Pongratz.

Additional highlights from the September 2023 3-year Telecom Capex forecast report:

The broader telecom outlook is mostly unchanged. Global telecom capex is projected to decline at a 2 percent CAGR over the next three years, as positive growth in India and stable trends in Europe will not be enough to offset steeper capex deceleration in North America .

and stable trends in will not be enough to offset steeper capex deceleration in . In the US, the transition towards steady-state conditions will weigh on wireless activity, leading to a 25 to 30 percent reduction over the next three years.

Given the highly unlikely prospect of a change in the current revenue trajectory and the expectation of flat operator top-line growth, capital intensity ratios are on track to approach 16 percent by 2025, slightly below the current trendline.

About the Report

The Dell'Oro Group Telecom Capex Report provides in-depth coverage of more than 50 telecom operators highlighting carrier revenue, capital expenditure, and capital intensity trends. The report provides actual and 3-year forecast details by carrier, by region by country (United States, Canada, China, India, Japan, and South Korea), and by technology (wireless/wireline). To purchase this report, please contact us by email at [email protected].

About Dell'Oro Group

Dell'Oro Group is a market research firm that specializes in strategic competitive analysis in the telecommunications, security, enterprise networks, security, and data center infrastructure markets. Our firm provides in-depth quantitative data and qualitative analysis to facilitate critical, fact-based business decisions. For more information, please contact Dell'Oro Group at +1.650.622.9400 or visit www.delloro.com.

SOURCE Dell'Oro Group
NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Zoetic Global leadership had a significant presence at Climate Week NYC, joining forces with influential figures in government, corporations, scientists, and climate experts during the United Nations General Assembly.

At Techonomy NYC, Tim Ryan, Zoetic's Chief Global Business Development Officer and former U.S. Congressman, highlighted Zoetic's groundbreaking 30,000 square foot refrigerants production facility in Ohio's Steel Valley as an example of how the reindustrialization of America's small towns can lead the fight against climate change. The new plant will employ trade union workers to produce refrigerants that deliver significant savings on cooling costs and allow companies to earn carbon credits through precise energy and emissions reduction data collected by sensors in their HVAC systems.

"Our mission is to make a positive impact in Youngstown, Ohio's manufacturing hub, as well as other cities that stand to benefit from reindustrialization. We will earn carbon credits upon production at the new facility, which will be passed on to the companies, schools, and municipalities with which we collaborate so that they can also give back to the local community and carry out meaningful work at a grassroots level," explained Ryan.

Zoetic Global was also invited by EarthX, a leading environmental non-profit organization, to participate in exclusive discussions on the "State of the Carbon Markets" and explore innovative ways to make carbon credits more accessible to individuals and businesses, thus intensifying the fight against climate change.

"We see immense potential for our technologies, as the reduction of emissions from cooling is a major target. The demand for air conditioning is projected to triple by 2050 due to global warming and the expanding middle class. We are proud that our Youngstown plant represents a shining example of positive change that begins at the local level," stated Zoetic CEO Avery Hong.

"Zoetic's game-changing strategy empowers businesses with advanced climate technologies and carbon credits. We're bringing technology solutions to leaders who require renewable energy solutions to further their economic and social development, and we remain committed to intentional leadership that shifts the carbon credit market in new and exciting ways," said Zoetic Chairman and Co-Founder Jerome Ringo.

For information on Zoetic Global, visit https://zoeticglobal.com/about/.

Link to presentation - https://techonomy.com/video/innovation-and-re-industrialization-in-youngstown-ohio-with-tim-ryan/

About Zoetic Global

Zoetic is a minority-owned solutions provider focused on delivering critical energy, water, and food technologies to areas of greatest need. Working in conjunction with its technology and strategic partners it has assembled a compelling portfolio of now solutions for now problems. Zoetic means, "of or pertaining to life." It embodies the dedication of its Co-Founder and Chairman, Jerome Ringo, who has been a leader in the climate movement for two decades. Zoetic is focused on the inclusion of areas of the world disproportionately impacted by climate change. Zoetic believes that critical solutions exist and require a next level commitment by leaders to implement them.

Media Contact:

Charlotte Luer

+1.239.404.6785

[email protected]

SOURCE Zoetic Global
(l-r) Ferenc Krausz, Anne L'Huillier and Piere Agostini, the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2023.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Tuesday awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne LHuillie for developing new tools to explore the world of electrons inside atoms. The announcement was made at a ceremony in Stockholm.

The jury noted that the award winners have created experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter, or a new way to create extremely short pulses of light, which can then be used to measure the rapid processes in which electrons move or change energy.

Anne LHuillier, who is from France, teaches at the University of Lund (Sweden) and has become the fifth woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. Ferenc Krausz of Hungary heads the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching (Germany). And the Frenchman Pierre Agostini is a professor at Ohio State University (United States).

This is Nobel week. On Monday, the Karolinska Institute announced that this years Nobel Prize for Medicine goes to Hungarian biologist Katalin Kariko and American immunologist Drew Weissman, for their work on effective RNA vaccines against Covid-19.

On Wednesday, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry will be announced; on Thursday, the Nobel Prize for Literature; and on Friday, the Nobel Peace Prize. The award is worth 11 million Swedish crowns, close to $1 million.

Last year the Nobel Prize in Physics went to Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger for their pioneering work in the science of quantum communication.

The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded since 1901 to 217 men and four women (1.8%): Marie Curie in 1903 for studying radiation; Maria Goeppert Mayer in 1963 for describing the nucleus of atoms; Donna Strickland in 2018 for a new technique to generate ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses; and Andrea Ghez in 2020, for discovering a supermassive compact object in the center of our galaxy.
Spains National Police have arrested a man in Madrid who allegedly sexually assaulted his months-old baby daughter and offered her to strangers for sex. According to police, the suspect also filmed the abuse, and used different social networks, as well as instant messaging services, to download and share the contents. The babys mother  who was also arrested  held conversations with her partner in which they exchanged child pornography, Spains National Police said in a press release.

Officers in Spains Central Cybercrime Unit  which patrols the web and social networks in collaboration with the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)  detected that a person was sharing images of young children being sexually exploited on social media. The investigators, through various efforts, were able to identify the man and investigate his personal circumstances. They discovered that he had just had a daughter with his partner.

After collecting further evidence and discovering that the man had previously been arrested for similar abuse, the officers requested a search warrant of his apartment, where he lived with his partner and their child. According to the press release, once inside the home, they saw that he not only had downloaded child pornography, he had also shared it with third parties. The home was in a terrible state, and the agents reported the case to social services in the Madrid region, which withdrew custody from the parents a few weeks later.

When analyzing the material seized at the home, officers found videos showing the man sexually assaulting his daughter. They also uncovered multiple conversations in which he offered the baby to third parties for sex. The childs mother was also arrested, as she allegedly exchanged child pornography files with her partner, the little girls father. After being brought to justice, the man was sentenced to pre-trial detention.

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A lot has happened during the 80 says since the actors union SAG-AFTRA called a strike on July 13, but not when it comes to negotiations. It was not until Monday that the union finally met with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to start talks on their new collective contract, which is renewed every three years. The union and Hollywood studios have maintained such distant positions that it took two and a half months for them to finally sit down and talk.

On Monday, October 2, representatives of both parties met to discuss the actors concerns: an increase in the minimum wage, guarantees regarding the role of artificial intelligence, regulations for the increasingly demanding self-taped auditions and fairer residuals  the long-term payments to those who worked on films and television shows for reruns and other airings after the initial release  in line with the rise of streaming. The meeting does not mean that the two sides have reached an agreement, but it does show greater willingness to strike a deal.

The SAG-AFTRA did not release a statement on the meeting until 8 p.m. LA time. We have concluded our first day back in the bargaining with the AMPTP and will resume talks on Wednesday, October 4, it stated, while encouraging actors to join the picket line on Tuesday. One day longer. One day stronger. As long as it takes, it ended. No details of the negotiation have been leaked, and both parties decided months ago not to give specific information to the media about the talks until a deal had been struck.

The SAG-AFTRA, which represents more than 160,000 actors, announced last week that they were finally going to sit down with the AMPTP, which represents Paramount, Disney, Universal, Netflix, Amazon, Sony, Warner and Apple. The strike has already led to $6 billion in losses, according to calculations by the state of California.

The talks with the actors union come after Hollywood studios and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) reached an agreement to end the screenwriters strike, which began on May 2 and lasted almost 150 days. The two parties negotiated for days before coming to a tentative deal on September 24. Writers in the union still need to vote on the deal, but it is widely expected to be ratified. If approved, the new collective agreement will be in effect until May 2026.

Just days after the end of the screenwriters strike, the actors union announced that they were set to begin negotiations with the Hollywood studios. But actor Fran Drescher, the president of the SAG-AFTRA, warned they had differing demands. Were happy WGA came to an agreement but one size doesnt fit all, she told CNN.

The hat, full of pins and badges, of an actor protesting at a strike picket in Manhattan, New York, on September 28, 2023. MIKE SEGAR (REUTERS)

Since the actors strike was called in mid-July, tensions have been running high between the union and the Hollywood studios  so much so that it took more than 80 days for them to initiate talks.

The key issues are salaries and artificial intelligence. Now that the WGA has struck a deal, the SAG-AFTRA is alone on the picket line. It is seeking to negotiate a deal that is as good as the exceptional agreement achieved by writers.

But analysts warn the union shouldnt rush to reach a deal, given 160,000 families will be affected by the terms of the new collective contract. It is not the actors responsibility to bring Hollywood back to life, the Los Angeles Times wrote Monday in an editorial. It was not the actors who created the problems that forced two incredibly disruptive strikes, any more than it was the writers. The studios created a system in which working actors can no longer earn a living wage in their chosen profession, and its up to the studios to change that.

The strike has put hundreds of workers in grave financial strain. Some of Hollywoods highest-paid actors have donated millions of dollars to a common fund to help actors navigate these months of uncertainty.

This is the first time actors have been on strike since 1980. So far, it has been an upward battle. Chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told EL PAIS that the actors have been willing to negotiate from day one, but that the studios have been reluctant to engage in talks. We think that there is only one way to reach an agreement, and that is to talk and negotiate. And if they dont want to talk to us, and they dont want to negotiate with us, were going to be ready to do that any time theyre ready, she said.

That moment has taken almost three months to arrive. And this time, there will be new talks within 48 hours.

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New Delhi, Sep 30 : A 18-year-old youth succumbed to his injuries on Saturday which he had received following a scuffle in northeast Delhi, an official said.

The deceased was identified as Kashif, a resident of Janta Mazdoor Colony in Welcome area.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast) Joy Tirkey said that on Saturday around 2.30 pm, Kashif and some persons had an altercation and scuffle in gali number 5.

"Kashif was injured and subsequently rushed to Jag Pravesh Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries," said the DCP.

"Kashif sustained two deep penetrating injuries on his chest. The possibility of an ice pick-like object used as a weapon offence cannot be ruled out," said the DCP.

"We are registering a case of murder. Identity of alleged persons involved in the scuffle is being ascertained," the DCP added.
Largest Ambedkar statue outside India to be unveiled in US on Oct 14. Image Source: IANS News

New York, Oct 3 : A 19-foot statue of B.R. Ambedkar, named 'Statue of Equality' and also the largest outside India, is set to be unveiled in the US state of Maryland on October 14 to celebrate the life and legacy of the leader and architect of the Indian Constitution.

Built on 13 acres of land in Accokeek city, just 21 miles away from White House, it is a replica of the world's largest 125-feet Ambedkar statue unveiled in Hyderabad recently, according to the organisers.

According to the Ambedkar International Center (AIC), it is the "largest statue of Ambedkar outside India", and part of the organisation's first Ambedkar Memorial project in the US.

"Be a part of this inspiring occasion as we honor Dr Ambedkaras contributions to equality, human rights, and empowerment," AIC said in a statement.

"Witness the grand unveiling of the magnificent statue, a symbol of his enduring influence, and pay homage to the great leader who dedicated his life to fighting injustice."

The event, which will begin at 10 a.m., will be followed by cultural performances.

The statue is crafted by renowned artist and sculptor Ram Sutar, a Padma Shri award recipient, who also built the biggest Sardar Patel statue in Ahmedabad.

Sutar has made more than 90 monumental sculptures in the last sixty years, which have been placed in India, the US, France, Argentina, Italy, Russia and Malaysia.

--IANS mi/
New Delhi, Oct 3 : Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday expressed grief over the death of 24 persons in a government hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded due to lack of medicines and demanded a detailed investigation.

In a post on X in Hindi, Kharge said, "The news of death of 24 patients, including 12 infants in a civil hospital in Nanded, Maharashtra is extremely painful, serious and worrying. It is being said that these patients died due to lack of medicines and treatment. A similar incident took place in a government hospital in Thane in August 2023 in which 18 patients lost their lives."

"Our deepest condolences to the families of the victims. Continuous such accidents have raised a question mark on the health system of the state government. We demand a detailed investigation, so that the culprits of this negligence are given strict punishment from the judiciary," he added.

Rahul Gandhi in a post on X, said, "The news of death of 24 persons including 12 infants due to lack of medicines in a government hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded is worrying. My prayers with the families."

Hitting back at the government, Rahul Gandhi said, "The BJP government spends thousands of crores of rupees on its campaign, but there is no money for children's medicines? In the eyes of BJP, the life of the poor has no value."

His remarks came after 24 persons, including 12 infants, died at a government hospital in 24 hours.

According to officials, among the dead were at least 12 infants aged between 2 and 4 days, while the remaining were adults at the Dr. Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital.
I-T raids were aimed at damaging my image, says BRS MLA. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Oct 3 : Delhi Police Special Cell on Tuesday raided the houses of journalists and employees of the media outlet NewsClick in connection with allegations that the organisation received funding from China.

However, no arrests have been made so far.

During the raid, the Special Cell had also seized electronic evidence, laptops, mobile phones and also took data dumps of hard disks.

Sources said that NewsClick's Abhisar Sharma was among the journalists raided by Delhi Police.

"Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and Phone," Sharma on Tuesday wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Finally last tweet from this phone. Delhi police seized my phone," another journalist of the web portal, Bhasha Singh tweeted.

As per sources, the Special Cell has registered a fresh case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Photo taken on Sept. 19, 2021 from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico shows Migrants attempting to cross the river Rio Bravo on the border between Mexico and the United States. (Str/Xinhua/IANS). Image Source: IANS News

Washington, Oct 3 : US Border Patrol apprehended more than 200,000 migrants crossing the country's border with Mexico unlawfully in September, marking the highest so far this year, according to an official from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The latest figure marked an increase from August, when Border Patrol arrested around 181,000 migrants crossing between ports of entry, reports CNN.

September's tally is the highest since December 2022, when more than 222,000 migrants were apprehended.

"We remain vigilant and expect to see fluctuations, knowing that smugglers continue to use misinformation to prey on vulnerable individuals," CNN quoted the DHS spokesperson as saying

"DHS has used its executive authorities to improve processing, strengthen consequences at the border, and more quickly remove individuals who fail to establish a lawful basis to remain in the country."

The spokesperson also said that the Department has repatriated more than 281,000 individuals since May while "expanding refugee processing and family reunification options".

This week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Attorney General Merrick Garland and White House Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall will meet with their Mexican counterparts in Mexico City for annual security talks, during which migration is said to be a main point of discussion.
San Francisco, Oct 3 : Elon Musk and his social media platform X have been slapped with fresh lawsuits, as a 22-year-old college graduate sued the tech billionaire "due to the astonishingly reckless conduct of the wealthiest man on the planet." The lawsuit alleged that Musk defamed Benjamin Brody by saying he "participated in a violent street brawl on behalf of a neo-Nazi extremist group".

Musk also falsely stated that Brody's alleged participation in the extremist brawl meant the incident was probably a "false flag" operation to deceive the American public, the lawsuit read.

"Two weeks after Musk's statements, it was apparent to Ben that his reputation had been catastrophically damaged and that a huge number of people believed he was either a neo-Nazi or a provocateur involved in a deceptive "psyop" to commit political terrorism," the lawsuit alleged.

Musk made these "ridiculously false and damaging accusations" based on a tweet he had seen from an anonymous far-right extremist Twitter account.

Musk amplified the false claims on X, describing Brody's purported involvement as a "probably false flag situation."

Musk's response resulted in a deluge of hate toward Brody.

According to the lawsuit, Brody and his family were "repeatedly doxed and suffered an enormous wave of harassment from belligerent strangers."

The lawsuit is being led by Mark Bankston, the same lawyer who took Alex Jones to task in court after the right-wing media personality spread Sandy Hook conspiracies for years.

"I am proud to announce I have filed suit against yet another notorious disseminator of false information: The owner of this platform, Elon Musk," Bankston wrote in a long thread on X late on Monday.

"Musk will not stop until someone stops him. It seems that responsibility now falls upon a shy 22-year-old whose life has been shaken by Musk's reckless conduct," he added.

Meanwhile, a company has filed a lawsuit in the US against Musk's X, over its renaming of Twitter.

The ad agency called X Social Media alleged that X Corp is guilty of violating Florida common law because of "unfair competition and trademark and service mark infringement," as well as the state's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Kanpur, Oct 3 : A local shopkeeper was assaulted by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillor and his associates here over a cigarette worth Rs 15.

Bhavani Shankar and his aides allegedly abused and threatened the elderly shopkeeper.

The incident, which was recorded on a mobile phone, was shared on social media.

According to reports, the incident occurred at Ajay Rai Gupta's paan shop in Kanpuras Chakeri, where BJP councillor Shankar and his colleagues purchased cigarettes worth Rs 30 but only paid Rs 15.

When the shopkeeper requested for the remaining amount, Shankar and his accomplices got into a physical fight with him.

The BJP councillor also threatened to send the shopkeeper to prison for selling marijuana, while the old man asked for his money.

After the video of the incident went viral on social media, the councillor released another video with the shopkeeper, and asserted that they had reached a mutual agreement at the police station.

Neither of the parties has filed any complaints in the matter.

However, social media users are reacting to the video, raising questions over the BJP's rule in the state.

The police have confirmed that both parties were summoned to the police station, and have reached a settlement, agreeing to avoid police intervention.
The fate of U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was swiftly sealed. His colleagues voted on Tuesday to remove him as the countrys third-highest authority, less than 24 hours after his great rival in the Republican ranks, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, a member of the radical wing and a figure who has shown during the last week an unusual appetite for the spotlight, announced his intention to file a motion to vacate against his leader in Congress. The historic decision plunges the United States into an unprecedented legislative paralysis and has left Capitol Hill in chaos.

After 2:30 p.m. EST, the floor voted to go ahead with the motion to vacate, while the reporters, crowded in the press gallery, counted McCarthys allies (11), rivals and absences, with the most resounding of all being that of Nancy Pelosi. A little more than an hour of crossed speeches later, the fulminating political dismissal was consummated with an archaic voice vote. Eight Republicans and all the Democrats present (208) withdrew their confidence in McCarthy, who watched with apparent glee at his public humiliation from the middle of the chamber and soon received several standing ovations from his few supporters. It had been more than a century since such a vote had been taken on the floor, and it is the first time in history that a speaker has been removed from office in such a dishonorable manner.

The reason for the ousting is McCarthys last Saturdays in extremis pact with the Democrats, from whom he wrested a vote to avoid a federal government shutdown in Washington, which resulted in a budget extension until November 17. Left out of that compromise was aid to Ukraine, which divides the Republican Party. Gaetz and the rest of the fractious congresspeople McCarthy has been battling for nine months, when they put him through 15 votes before allowing him to be elected speaker, interpreted that compromise as an unforgivable betrayal.

Gaetz, banished by his own, took the floor from a microphone on the Democratic side before the final vote. He spoke with the fervor of someone who has been waiting for his moment for a long time. My colleagues and I cannot support our party in leading the country into chaos, he said to justify his initiative. Chaos is Speaker McCarthy. Chaos is somebody we cannot trust with their words. Chaos is accumulating $33 trillion in debt, and an annual deficit of $2.2 trillion.

Tuesday was another of those hectic days on Capitol Hill for McCarthy, a political circus show broadcast live to a public already too accustomed to Washingtons dysfunctionality. It soon became known that the House did not intend to use up the two-day maximum time limit to hold McCarthys confidence vote. McCarthy, a representative from California, tried to stop the punch and unsuccessfully save himself from the bitter pill, appearing before the press with the half-smile that has been frozen on his face for several days. He tried to convey self-confidence and announced that if he obtained the support of the Democrats it would not be in exchange for any compromise.

The Democrats decision

Both parties held closed-door meetings. Members of Congress only left them to attend to the press, who ran from one representatives office to another. By mid-morning, when chaos had become the word of the day, Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries confirmed to a swarm of reporters that he was not going to ask his party to vote to save McCarthy. The choice was whether to let an opponent who does not arouse any sympathy fall or to save him in order to avoid paralysis in the House until a successor is chosen, while time is already ticking toward the next deadline to avoid the dreaded government shutdown. This Wednesday, it will be just 43 days away.

Early in the afternoon, Jeffries went even further, sending a letter to his colleagues in which he confirmed that they would vote to expel McCarthy given the unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner. In the text, the politician accused his rivals of unleashing chaos, dysfunction and extremism on hard-working American taxpayers by, among other things, failing to fulfill a funding commitment made to Biden, promoting radical legislation and launching an impeachment against the president for the affairs of his son Hunter without the prior approval of the full House of Representatives.

Matt Gaetz addresses the media on Tuesday morning. SHAWN THEW (EFE)

Gaetzs initiative had the initial support of several Republicans from the hard right, who announced on Monday that they were on board: among them, Bob Good (Va.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), and Eli Crane and Andy Biggs (both Ariz.). Good took the floor when it appeared that McCarthy had no solution with a speech that began by lamenting that all this was happening and then mercilessly proceeded to make firewood out of the fallen tree. A simple majority of those taking part in the vote was enough for the removal to take place. The House has 435 congressmen, but there are two vacancies (one for each party). The composition resulting from last Novembers elections gave the conservatives a meager advantage of 222 to 213.

McCarthy did not have to look very far to find those responsible for him being at the edge of the abyss. It is well known that the political dream of his life was to become speaker of the House, but the slim majority which put him on the verge of achieving it also forced him to make some concessions to the most extreme wing of his party. One of them was to change the rules so that the efforts of a single representative  instead of the five that were previously required  would be enough to present a motion to vacate. That lone sniper has turned out to be Gaetz. Since January, neither of them has made any secret of their mutual dislike for each other.

Back then, it took 15 votes to bend the wayward will of Gaetz and his followers. It was a historic embarrassment: it had been more than a century since the House of Representatives had had to repeat the vote so many times to choose the majority leader.

Tuesdays affair was similarly unprecedented. The last time there was such an attempted removal on Capitol Hill was in 2015, when then-Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) (who would later become Donald Trumps chief of staff) introduced a resolution to oust John Boehner (Ohio). The House never got to vote on it, but Boehner resigned anyway.

In 1910, it was the Speaker of the House of Representatives himself, Joseph Cannon, who raised a motion to vacate the seat and which, being advanced by the incumbent himself, served instead as a motion of confidence. Fed up with the criticism from some lawmakers, he called for a vote so that he could win it and thus turn the move into a show of force.

The fall of the gavel after the vote that ousted McCarthy on Tuesday left the echo with an urgent question: what now? His seat will now be filled on an interim basis by the top of a list submitted by McCarthy himself to the Clerk of the House. His first mission will be to secure the appointment of a new speaker. There is no Republican candidate who enjoys enough support to do so.

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Washington, Oct 3 : The US Postal Service (USPS) has released a new postage stamp honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a feminist icon who served for years as the senior-most member of the court's liberal wing.

In a statement, the USPS said theunveiling of the stamp took place on Monday at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery during a first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony that was open to the public.

Designed by Ethel Kessler, an art director for USPS, with a Michael J. Deas oil painting based on a photograph by Philip Bermingham, the stamp captures the 107th US Supreme Court justice in her black judicial robe and favourite white-lace collar.

"Justice Ginsburg was an iconic figure who dedicated her life to public service and the pursuit of justice," said USPS Board of Governors Chairman Roman Martinez IV.

"She was a true pioneer, and it is our honor to celebrate her incredible legacy in this way. This stamp serves not just as a tribute but as an inspiration for future generations to uphold the values she fought for."

The Ruth Bader Ginsburg stamp is being issued as a Forever stamp and is available in panes of 20 at select Post Office locations nationwide and online at the USPS website.

Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce price.

"The stamp will serve as a lasting tribute to the Brooklyn native who has left an indelible impact on American jurisprudence and society at large," the USPS said in the statement

Ginsburg was a lifelong trailblazer as a woman in a male-dominated field, a law professor, an expert on anti-discrimination and equal protection law, and a judge who was unafraid to dissent from her colleagues in steadfast defense of her principles.

Former President Bill Clinton nominated her to serve as a Supreme Court justice in 1993.

After a 2007 decision upholding a federal abortion procedure ban, she took the unusual step of reading her dissent aloud from the bench, a practice she continued with greater frequency during her second decade on the court.

During her Supreme Court years, Ginsburg battled cancer several times.

Ginsburg died at the age of 87 on September 18, 2020, at her home in Washington, D.C., of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer.

After Ginsburg's death, she lay in repose for two days at the Supreme Court -- outdoors due to Covid-19 restrictions at the time -- after which, during a private ceremony.

She was the first woman to lie in state in the US Capitol.
Washington, Oct 3 : Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella has admitted that the company's Bing search engine is not as good as Google, and becoming Apple's default search engine could actually help Bing grow in the global search market.

During a testimony in the landmark US vs Google antitrust trial late on Monday, Nadella said that he sees search as the largest software category out there by far, reports The Verge.

"I used to think of Windows and Office as attractive businesses until I saw the search," he said during the testimony.

He said that Microsoft was prepared to give Apple all of the economic upside of the deal if Apple were to switch to Bing, and "he was prepared to lose up to $15 billion a year in the process".

Nadella said he was willing to hide the Bing brand in Apple users' search engines and respect any of the company's privacy wishes. "Defaults are the only thing that matter, in terms of changing user behaviour," he was quoted as saying.

For Nadella, becoming Appleas default search engine wouldn't be about the money, at least not directly.

"We needed to be less greedy and more competitive," he said during the testimony.

Asked if Microsoft tried to become Appleas default search engine, Nadella said yes but the effort did not go well. Not only are the economics of the Google deal hugely favourable for Apple, he said, but Apple may also be afraid of what Google would do if it lost default status, according to the report.

Google also has immensely popular services like Gmail and YouTube. Nadella said AI has the potential to shake up the market a bit but he also believes it could "further entrench Googleas dominance".

The US Justice Department alleges that Google, which has around 90 per cent of the search market, has abused the dominance of its search engine to throttle competition and innovation.
Washington, Oct 3 : Indian-American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign has asked the Republican National Committee (RNC) to limit the number ofpresidential candidates on stage for the party's next presidential primary debate in Miami on November 8.

In a letter to RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, the presidential aspirant has asked the party to allow only top four candidates in national polling, aside from former President Donald Trump, to be allowed onto the debate stage, CBS News reported.

"Another unhelpful debate in November is not an option," Ben Yoho, the CEO of Ramaswamy's campaign, wrote in the letter.

"Voters are not well-served when a cacophony of candidates with minimal chance of success talk over each other from the edge of the stage, while the overwhelming frontrunner is absent from the center of that same stage," he added.

Yoho also called for the donor threshold to be raised to 100,000 unique donors -- up from the 70,000-donor threshold in the RNC's current debate criteria.

He requested "greater time for candidates to respond to their competitors", and for a single debate moderator "who is able to enforce debate rules and avoid candidates indiscernibly shouting over each other".

Including Ramaswamy, the last primary debate in September had seven candidates -- former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.

According to the RNC, to qualify for the third debate, candidates will have to register a minimum of 4 per cent support in two national polls or one national poll and two state-wide surveys in early-voting states, and also have to show they have at least 70,000 unique donors.

Trump, DeSantis, Ramaswamy and Haley appear to have met the qualifications for the third debate stage, according to a tracker by Politico.

An average of national polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight shows that Trump remains the strongest challenger with 54.8 per cent votes, followed by DeSantis and Ramaswamy.

Chris LaCivita, a Trump campaign adviser, told CBS News that the former President will skip the third debate as well.
Seoul, Oct 3 : The South Korean Coast Guard apprehended 22 Chinese nationals on Tuesday suspected of attempting to illegally enter a western coastal city by boat, officials said.

The group of Chinese nationals, known to be around their 40s, faces charges of attempting to flee after the vessel carrying them illegally docked at a port in Boryeong, 140 km south of Seoul, at 1:53 a.m., Yonhap News Agency quoted the officials as saying.

Coast Guard officials arrived at the scene after being tipped off by military authorities on the unidentified boat approaching waters near the coastal city.

One of the group members had fled the scene by land, but the police later caught the Chinese national in Ansan, 29 km south of Seoul.

Police found the person at an acquaintance's home and handed the individual over to the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard also gave the vessel a chase, which fled toward China and conducting an investigation into the apprehended Chinese nationals.

"We have so far confirmed that these are all Chinese nationals who departed from China," a Coast Guard official in Boryeong said.

"We are investigating the exact location of their departure and the details of their illegal entry."
Chicago, Oct 3 : The United Auto Workers (UAW) has reached a tentative five-year contract agreement with Mack Trucks that covers about 4,000 workers in the US states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Florida amid the ongoing strike.

Mack Trucks confirmed the deal on Monday after the UAW's announcement just before midnight Sunday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The temporary agreement must still be ratified by the UAW.

"The terms of this tentative agreement would deliver significantly increased wages and continue first-class benefits for Mack employees and their families," said Mack President Stephen Roy in a statement.

"At the same time, it would allow the company to successfully compete in the market, and continue making the necessary investments in our people, plants and products," he added.

The UAW said that more details would become available as members review the tentative deal with Mack, one of North America's largest manufacturers of medium-duty trucks, heavy-duty trucks, proprietary engines, and transmissions, according to its official website.

Founded in 1900, Mack Trucks was purchased by Volvo Group in 2000.

Meanwhile, the UAW's strike against the Big Three US automakers has entered the 18th day.

So far, about 25,300 out of some 146,000 workersrepresented by the UAW have been on strike across the country.
Los Angeles, Oct 3 : Actor Joseph Gatt, famed for playing Thenn Warg in 'Game Of Thrones', has appeared in court after being charged with having sexually explicit chats online with a minor.

The 51-year-old actorarrived at a Los Angeles courtroom on Monday, October 2 with his longtime actress and writer girlfriend Mercy Malick, also 51, reports aceshowbiz.com.

Gatt is free on a $5,000 bail after he was arrested in April 2022 on an outstanding felony warrant for "contact with a minor for a sexual offense" in L.A.

Superior Court judge presiding over the case, said during Gatt's Monday court appearance the case would continue on December 4 after prosecutor Michael Fern said additional discovery was needed for it to progress.

Gatt's appearance came 18 months after he was arrested in L.A. and his home was searched by police from the Juvenile Division's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. He was charged with "contact with a minor for sexual offense" and faces a second charge of felony possession of an assault weapon.

He pleaded not guilty to both charges and under the terms of his $5,000 bail was barred from having unsupervised time with minors, as well as possessing pornography and the use of social media unless it was for work.

Gatt, who suffers a condition called alopecia universal is which caused him to lose all his hair at the age of 14, strongly denied the charges on Twitter, now known as X. He said on the platform, "I obviously want to address the absolutely horrifying and completely untrue allegations recently levelled against me."

"They are 100 per cent categorically wrong and reckless," he insisted. "I have confirmed errors and misleading information in today's press release. I am fully cooperating with police and Los Angeles Police Department to get to the bottom of this."

"I look forward to clearing my good name," he continued to state. "Thank you to all my friends and supporters who know that this is untrue and understand for legal reasons I cannot comment further on social media."

Mercy has taken to social to brand the allegations against her partner "beyond insane."

She added, "So much love to everyone who has already reached out in support of Joe and myself. Those who know us obviously know that the allegations levelled against him are insane."
Washington, Oct 3 : Three armed assailants reportedly stole US Congressman Henry Cuellar's car while he was parking his vehicle in Washington D.C., but he was unharmed in the incident, his office said in a statement.

On Monday night at 9.32 p.m. when the Texas Democrat "was parking his car, three armed assailants approached the Congressman and stole his vehicle", Cuellar's chief of staff, Jacob Hochber was quoted as saying in the statement.

"Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement. Thank you to Metro PD and Capitol Police for their swift action and for recovering the Congressman's vehicle," Hochberg added.

According to Cuellar's office, his sushi dinner, phone and iPad were among the stolen items from the vehicle.

The armed carjacking took place at the intersection of K Street and New Jersey Avenue in Southeast DC's Navy Yard neighbourhood, according to an alert from the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.

Police are searching for three male suspects, according to the alert.
Helsinki, Oct 3 : Finland has launched a major five-day joint preparedness exercise, dubbed LATU 23, to prepare for a potential large influx of migrants into the country.

International representatives of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), the European Union Asylum Agency and the Estonian Police and Border Guard participate in the exercise alongside various Finnish government agencies, Xinhua news agency quoted the Finnish Border Guard as saying on Monday.

In July 2022, Finland's Parliament approved changes to the country's border laws, enabling the authorities to close borders or limit the number of border entry points during exceptional circumstances.

During the 2015 European migrant crisis, approximately 32,000 asylum seekers from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia arrived in Finland, according to Finnish public broadcaster Yle.

In 2020, Finland reported 1,275 registered asylum-seekers (first-time applicants) -- the lowest number in a decade -- most of them comingfrom Iraq, Afghanistan and Russia.
Kolkata, Oct 3 : Unable to bear constant physical assault, a senior citizen from the tribal community at Matigara block of West Bengal's Darjeeling district hacked his alcoholic son to death, sources said on Tuesday.

The deceased has been identified as Bishal Shabar (30).

His father, Kutanu Shabar (55) has been taken into custody by the cops of the Matigara Police Station.

The body has been sent to the North Bengal Medical College & Hospital for post-mortem.

According to the locals, coming back home in an inebriated state and assaulting his parents had been a regular affair for the now-deceased.

Even his wife was not spared when she objected to her husbandas unacceptable behaviour.

When the daily physical torture and assault continued unabated, the man attacked his son with a sickle late on Monday night killing him on the spot.

The man then told the neighbours, who in turn informed the police.

Neighbours have said that the now-deceased son was short-tempered by nature and would pick up fights with the neighbours also.

Often the neighbours had to intervene to save the parents from his daily assault in an inebriated state, but he continued with his nuisance.
London, Oct 3 : The family of Avtar Singh Khanda -- the principal orchestrator of the violence at the Indian High Commission in London who died this year -- has sought a formal inquest into his death from the chief coroner for England and Wales.

The request by the family, as well as the Sikh Federation UK, came just as Khalistan supporters staged an anti-India protest outside the Indian High Commission in London on Monday.

It also corresponds with a bitter diplomatic spat between New Delhi and Ottawa, fuelled by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's recent allegations of India's involvement in the death of pro-Khalistan hardliner Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Both Nijjar and Khanda were associated with Khalistani organisations banned as terror groups in India.

According to the Guardian, the call for an inquest is being led by the barrister Michael Polak, who alleged that the British police should have understood that Khanda was potentially in danger.

Polak said he could not definitively state that India was behind Khanda's death, but that the circumstances clearly called for an investigation.

"If it was happening in a vacuum and we believed India was a law-abiding country, we would say that it is unlucky. But there were threats against him and he was named as enemy No 1 (in the media). At the very least it is suspicious," Polak told the Guardian.

Khanda died on June 15 this year after he was admitted to a hospital in Birmingham due to sudden illness.

The official cause of death, which was declared post-mortem, was acute myeloid leukaemia (blood cancer).

His family said they have not received medical records, nor evidence that backed the leukaemia diagnosis.

His mother, who was not able to attend the funeral after allegedly being denied a visa by the Home Office, said she believed he was poisoned, the news report stated.

The West Midlands police said they had undertaken a "thorough review" of Khanda's death and that they had concluded there were "no suspicious circumstances".

Khanda was also the handler of arrested Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh, and played a key role in establishing him after the death of Deep Sidhu, IANS had reported earlier.

Amritpal was arrested by the Punjab police on March 23 and charged with crimes relating to disharmony among classes, attempt to murder, attack on police personnel, etc.

--IANS

mi/ksk
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, appeared Tuesday in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, to be arraigned on three counts related to illegally purchasing and possessing a gun.

As expected, the defendant pleaded not guilty in a brief appearance that lasted around 20 minutes and was surrounded by great expectation at the J. Caleb Boggs Building, which houses the courthouse, in downtown Wilmington.

The case is being used by Republicans as a weapon against the president with just over a year to go before the election.

Joe Bidens son is facing three counts. According to federal prosecutors, he lied about his drug use when he purchased a .38 Colt Cobra five years ago, in October 2018. Prosecutors say he lied on a federal form certifying that he was not a consumer of illegal drugs, narcotics or any other controlled substances, even when he knew this to be false. Two charges are related to this form, while a third is for possession of a gun while using a narcotic.

During the arraignment, the judge went through the charges in a didactic manner, asking the defendant if he understood them. Yes, your honor, were the only words Biden uttered, half a dozen times. The plea of not guilty was entered by his lawyer Abbe Lowell.

The judge maintained the previous terms of release in place. Conditions include supervision by a U.S. probation officer from the Central District of California, where he resides, actively seeking employment, not possessing weapons, not consuming alcohol, not consuming drugs, and submitting to drug testing if required by the probation office. He would also be required to participate in drug abuse counseling.

Hunter Biden signed those conditions and left the courtroom through a side door, avoiding reporters, whom he had greeted with a half-smile as he entered the courtroom.

The two counts of making false statements and one count of illegal gun possession are punishable by up to 25 years in prison upon conviction. Under the earlier failed deal, the defendant admitted to the facts as part of a plea bargain whereby criminal prosecution would be waived in exchange for his staying away from drugs for two years and giving up owning a firearm in the future. This is a common deal in similar cases where the defendants have been rehabilitated and have no criminal record. Biden has acknowledged struggling with a crack cocaine addiction at the time of the purchase.

The deal to file the gun case had also acknowledged two tax fraud offenses in 2017 and 2018 (already regularized with the payment of $1 million) for which he was to be sentenced to lesser penalties, predictably avoiding prison time. Hunter Bidens attorneys have suggested that prosecutors were pressured by Republicans who claimed the presidents son was getting a sweetheart deal.

There is no date yet for the trial, but it is likely to be held less than a year before the presidential elections in which Joe Biden will seek re-election, on November 5, 2024. It may overlap with one of Donald Trumps multiple court cases, four of which are criminal in nature and total 91 offenses, according to the indictments.

Although the charges against Hunter Biden are over a completely private matter, Republicans are holding him up as an example of a pattern of corruption by the Biden family, even as they forgive Trumps run-ins with the law.

Support from his father

Joe Biden has always been supportive of his son, although he has generally avoided answering questions about him or commenting on the indictment, deferring to the Justice Department. Attorney General Merrick Garland, appointed David Weiss as special counsel for this case, giving him added independence, but he is the same person who had been investigating him in Delaware as a federal prosecutor since Donald Trumps term in office. Ongoing investigations since 2018 have so far found no evidence of other possible crimes.

His sons business dealings in Ukraine and China when Joe Biden was Barack Obamas vice president have been under scrutiny by Republicans for years. No evidence has been found that the current president intervened in them, beyond courtesy greetings and the like, but that has not stopped House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from ordering a formal investigation as a preliminary step to impeachment proceedings against Biden.

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Jaipur, Oct 3 : Many hidden messages were given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his speech in Chittorgarh, and sources say they were meant both for the Gehlot government and the BJP as well.

Modi during his speech on Monday mentioned aboutGehlot government's schemes, assured delivery of guarantees, and said the only one face for the BJP in the elections is the lotus symbol of the party.

Through the mention of lotus flower, he gave a message to the senior BJP leaders that they will not contest the elections on any single face. At the same time, by continuously attacking Gehlot, he gave the message that this election will be Modi versus Gehlot.

PM Modi not only gave hidden messages but also revealed the BJP's action plan through his speech.

The PM made it clear that even after the BJP government comes to power in the state, the public interest schemes of the Gehlot government will not be stopped.

Modi said that Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot says that if the BJP government comes, his schemes will be stopped. "It means clearly that Gehlot has accepted that a BJP government is going to be formed in the state," Modi said.

He said, "I assure the people of Rajasthan that no scheme of public interest will be stopped after the formation of the BJP government. Rather, efforts will be made to make them better."

On Sunday, the government employees from all over the country had gathered in Delhi against the Central government. There was a demand of the employees that the Centre should also give the benefits of the old pension scheme to the central government employees on the lines of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Himachal.

In such a situation, the pressure on the Central government to implement OPS for the employees is continuously increasing. By talking about continuing these flagship schemes of Chief Minister Gehlot, PM Modi has in a way tried to woo the working class in the Assembly elections as well as the Lok Sabha polls.

Prime Minister Modi has visited Rajasthan 10 times in the last one year. Since the last two meetings, he has changed his way of addressing the people. Usually, Modi addresses people by saying 'My dear people of the state', 'Brothers and sisters'. In the public meetings in Jaipur and Sanwalia, Modi addressed the people of the state as his family members.

The intention behind this is clear that Modi wants to give a message to the people of the state that Rajasthan is like a family for him and the people living here are part of his family.

Further PM Modi said, "Kamal (lotus) has to win with an overwhelming majority. Elections have to be contested under the leadership of Kamal. Rajasthan has to move forward by pressing the button on the lotus symbol."

Sources said that his gesture was also towards the leaders sitting on the stage. Modi wants to make it clear that no leader is bigger than the party. Every leader and worker is identified with the lotus symbol of the party.

At the same time, he also gave a clear message to the workers that they should not fall prey to factionalism. It was also made clear that the BJP will not have any particular face in the Assembly election. The face will just be a lotus symbol of the party.
New Delhi, October 3 : India is learnt to have told Canada to withdraw around 40 diplomats from the country by October 10 amid worsening ties between the two nations, according to reports.

The reports have said that New Delhi has conveyed to Canada that if the diplomats are not withdrawn by the deadline, they will lose their diplomatic immunity.

There are more than 60 Canadian diplomats posted in India.

Last month, after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had alleged in Parliament that Indian intelligence agents may have been involved in the murder of Sikh pro-Khalistan hardliner Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the diplomatic relations have hit an all time low between the two nations.

Following Trudeau's allegations, both the countries had expelled a diplomat each.

India had also termed Canada's allegations as "politically driven".

On September 21, while replying to questions related to a possible reduction of Canadian diplomats stationed in India, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said: "Yes, we've informed the government of Canada that there should be parity in strength in our mutual diplomatic presence. Their number is very much higher than ours in Canada... I assume there will be a reduction from the Canadian side."

Nijjar was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18 by masked gunmen.

--IANS

ans/ksk
Nanded, Oct 3 : The dance of death continued at the government hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded with seven more, including four infants succumbing to various health issues since October 2 night.

The toll reached 31 on Tuesday.

Former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said in an X post on Tuesday that the death toll continues unabated at the government hospital "and the government must fix responsibility" for the same.

Under fire from various quarters, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said he will get full details on the incident before taking further steps.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, MP Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra expressed grief over the continuing tragedy, slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party and called for remedial measures.

"This is not the first time In Aug. 2023, another 18 persons had died in a Thane hospital. It has raised questions about the government health department. We demand a thorough probe into the Nanded tragedy and stringent punishment for those responsible," said Kharge.

"The BJP government has thousands of crores of rupees to spend on publicity but not for the medicines for the children The lives of the poor have no worth for the BJP," said Rahul Gandhi sharply.

"The government must take strong steps against those responsible and give compensation to the families of the victims," urged Priyanka Vadra.

Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, Working President Supriya Sule, state President Jayant Patil, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray, MP Sanjay Raut, Sushma Andhare, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena spokesperson Sandeep Deshpande and others have reacted strongly on the Nanded hospital deaths.

"The Maharashtra government is clearly responsible for these deaths and the Health Minister Tanaji Sawant must be made to resign," demanded Sule.

On Monday afternoon, the state was horrified after the revelations of 24 deaths, including 12 infants, at the Dr. Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College & Hospital, in Nanded.

Chavan said he spoke with the Dean DR. S. R. Wakode who informed him of shortage of nursing and medical staffers, certain equipment not working or certain departments inoperational for various reasons.

Andhare alleged negligence on the part of the health authorities and referred to similar deaths of 18 patients in Thane's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Government Hospital in mid-August.
Belagavi : , Oct 3 (IANS) An incident of gang-rape has come to light during an investigation in a dacoity case in which five men were arrested, said police here on Tuesday.

The accused confessed to the crime during their interrogation in Karnataka' Belagavi district, police said.

After the confession, the police found the victim, filed the complaintand are investigating the case.

The accused were identified as Ramesh Khilari from Benachimaradi village, Durgappa Vaddar, Yallappa Gisnigavvagol, Krishna Pujari, and Ramasidda Tapsi. The police have launched the hunt for the main accused in the gang-rape case, Basavaraja Khilari, who was known to the victim.

The incident took place in the limits of Gokak police station on September 5. The victim had come to Gokak town from her village for some work. At the bus station she met a person known to her family. She also met the accused Basavaraja Khilari, who knew her family, at the bus station. He took them to his house in Aditya Nagar.

He gave them tea and informed his other gang members to come to his house. The five-member gang, including Basavaraja Khilari threatened them and gang-raped the woman. Later, they released them in the evening. They also robbed the cash, and ATM card from the man who accompanied the victim.

The accused had threatened that they had gotten the video of the woman with the man she was speaking to at the bus station and it would be made viral on social media. The victim was afraid of the consequences and did not file a complaint.

The accused gang members were arrested by the Gokak police in a dacoity case on September 13. During the interrogation, they confessed to the committing the gang rape. Further investigation is on.
I-T raids were aimed at damaging my image, says BRS MLA. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Oct 3 : Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday raided more than 30 locations in the national capital which included the premises of NewsClick, as well as the residences of its journalists, after the media outlet was accused of receiving funds from China.

However, no arrests have been made so far.

During the raid, the Special Cell had also seized electronic evidence, laptops, mobile phones, pen drives and also took data dumps of hard disks from the NewsClick office and the journalists associated with the organisation including Bhasha Singh, Abhisar Sharma and Sanjay Rajoura among others.

The residences of NewsClick writers Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Urmilesh were also searched.

"Delhi Police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and Phone," Sharma wrote on X.

"Finally last tweet from this phone. Delhi police seized my phone," Bhasha Singh also said on the micro-blogging website.

On August 5, The New York Times published an article titled "A US Tech Mogul Linked to a Global Web of Chinese Propaganda", which alleged that NewsClick was part of a global network receiving funding from American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, who was purportedly closely associated with the Chinese government media.

Citing the report, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur asserted that the Congress, China and NewsClick had an "anti-India umbilical cord" and were pushing the agenda of the Communist Party of China through the website.

Two days after the Times report, NewsClick issued a statement in which it denied the allegations as baseless and lacking factual or legal support.

Sources indicate that the searches at various locations connected to NewsClick were conducted based on a case registered on August 17 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including Section 153A (promoting enmity between groups) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy).
The Supreme Court of India in New Delhi on Sept 1, 2014. The government Monday told the Supreme Court that they stood by its verdict holding allocation of coal blocks since 1993 as illegal, and was ready to auction these blocks if they are cancelled . Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Oct 3 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a PIL seeking directions to the Centre to construct a wall in the vicinity of Ram Setu and to declare it as a national heritage monument.

A bench comprising Justices S.K. Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia said that such administrative matters be left to the government and courts should not interfere.

"We are not inclined to exercise our jurisdiction under Article 32 of the Constitution to give any nature of direction which the petitioner seeks," the bench ordered.

Further, it did not direct the government to treat the petition as a representation. "Give it to the government, we are not prohibiting you," the apex court told the petitioner-in-person.

The public interest litigation filed by Hindu Personal Law Board through its President Ashok Pandey claimed that the Union government has failed to take required steps to manage Ram Setu.

It may be recalled that the top court had agreed to hear a similar plea filed by former BJP MP Subramanian Swamy to declare the Ram Setu a national heritage monument and had sought the response from the Central government.

In January this year, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court that the government was examining the issue and the process is currently underway in the Union Ministry of Culture.

Ram Setu, which is also known as Adam's Bridge, is a chain of limestone shoals between Pamban Island or Rameswaram Island, off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu, and Mannar Island, off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : Opposition leaders on Tuesday slammed the Centre over the early morning raids on the premises of several journalists here and called it an attempt to silence them before the 2024 general elections.

Veteran leader and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal in a post on X, formerly Twitter said, "Early morning raids on journalists, satirists and activists in UAPA case. Objective perhaps : Silence them before 2024! Precursor for times to come!"

Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Gurdeep Singh Sappal in a post on X, said, "Crackdown on Journalists by Delhi Police: Yesterday was Gandhi Jayanti. In 1931, Mahatma Gandhi guided Jawaharlal Nehru in drafting the Karachi Resolution on Fundamental Rights in independent India. The first Fundamental Right promised to citizens of India was: Every citizen of India has the right of free expression of opinion, the rights of free association and combination, and the right to assemble peacefully and without arms, for purposes not opposed to law or morality."

He said that this resolution was placed just six days after the execution of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru.

"Executed for what? Because they wanted their voice to be heard, their opinion to be expressed. But their voices fell on deaf imperial government. So they threw a bomb in the Assembly, surrendered, didnat contest their punishment and used the trial to send their message to the People of India," Sappal said.

He also highlighted that Karachi resolutionas first Fundamental Right promised to the people of India that their Supreme Sacrifice will not go waste. Independent India will have freedom of expression.

"RSS was also formed by then. But never during the independence struggle did they promise Freedom of Expression and Association. There is not a single statement by their leaders, not a single resolution, not a single write up in support of freedom of expression. RSS never stood for freedom of expression. Naturally, the BJP never really believed in freedom of speech. It only paid lip-service to it, though it enjoyed the freedom to serve its own political goals," he said.

"So the crackdown on media and journalists is not just a matter of instant causation. It is an expression of the political philosophy of BJP or RSS, it represents the India they want to create surreptitiously. So mere condemnation of crackdown on journalists is not enough. Stand up to save India that was promised by the Independence Movement, crafted by the Constitution of Indiaa by voting BJP out," the Congress leader said.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha also slammed the government and said, "On the orders of the top, the police is showing its disgusting face in the houses of senior journalist cum thinker Urmilesh ji, Sohail Hashmi, Abhisar Sharma, Bhasha Singh, Sanjay Rajoura, Prabir Purkayastha, Anindyo Chakraborty and many colleagues. Many have been taken to Lodhi Road Police Station without any reason."

In another tweet, he said, "In these dark times, this is your SOP for those who refuse to join your group and ask you questions about freedom and justice for the underprivileged and the Bahujans. Now be prepared for retaliation...the struggle will again take place on the streets. If this is not the character of a fascist state, then what should we compare it to?"

Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi slammed the government and in a post on X, said, "Unfortunate to see how media questioning the government is being muzzled through excessive use of power. The early morning raids on journalists by Delhi Police should be condemned by all. We are now a democracy where only lapdog journalism is allowed and the rest silenced."

The remarks from the Opposition leaders came in the wake of Delhi Police Special Cell carrying out searches at the houses of journalists and employees of the media outlet NewsClick in connection with allegations that the organisation received funding from China.

However, no arrests have been made so far.

During the raid, the Special Cell had also seized electronic evidence, laptops, mobile phones and also took data dumps of hard disks.

As per sources, the Special Cell has registered a fresh case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Sources said that NewsClick's Abhisar Sharma, Bhasha Singh, Prabir Purkayastha, Anindyo Chakraborty and many others were raided by Delhi Police.
SC sets aside Kerala HC stay on conviction of Ex-Lakshadweep MP Mohammed Faizal in attempt to murder case (Ld). Image Source: IANS News

Kochi, Oct 3 : The Kerala High Court on Tuesday refused to suspend the conviction of Lakshadweep Member of Parliament Mohammed Faizal in an attempt to murder case.

The court, however, suspended his sentence in the case.

Suspension of Faizal's plea to suspend his conviction can spell trouble to his Lok Sabha membership.

Incidentally, the court had earlier suspended Faizal's conviction and sentence but in August this year, the Supreme Court set the order aside and directed the High Court to reconsider and decide Faizal's plea afresh within a period of six weeks.

It was Justice N. Nagaresh who heard the matter and on Tuesday passed the order suspending the sentence of four persons, including Faizal who were convicted by the trial court.

On January 11, a sessions court in Kavaratti had convicted Faizal and three others for attempting to murder Padanath Salih, the son-in-law of former Union Minister and Indian National Congress leader, PM Sayeed, in relation to a political controversy during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. All four accused were effectively sentenced to undergo 10 years of rigorous imprisonment by the trial court.

Soon, the four convicts moved an appeal before the High Court on January 12 besiding filing applications to suspend their conviction and sentence and release them on bail during the pendency of their appeal.

On January 25, the Kerala High Court suspended the conviction and sentence imposed by the trial court prompting an appeal before the apex court.

The High Court opined that the case fell in the category of rare and exceptional circumstances and that the ramifications of not suspending his conviction were enormous.

The Union Territory of Lakshadweep appealed to the Supreme Court against the High Court order arguing that going by the reasoning in the order, every conviction and sentence of elected politicians would have to be suspended to avoid the financial burden of bye-elections.

However, the apex court set aside the High Court decision and directed it to hear the matter afresh, which led to the latest verdict.
Mumbai, Oct 3 : The maximum city of Mumbai, India's financial capital, witnessed a spectacular evening with Bright Outdoor Media Limited, a revolutionary name in the out-of-home (OOH) advertising industry, as it hosted its 5th Bright Awards Night & Dr. Yogesh Lakhani's (CMD BOML) Birthday celebration.

The event, which celebrated excellence, marked a series of significant corporate announcements that reinforce and highlight Bright's focus and commitment to technological innovation and sustainability in the OOH sector.

During the event, Bright announced a strategic partnership with Zest Outdoor. This collaboration defines Bright's dedication to be the trailblazer of technological advancements while prioritising sustainability in the OOH industry.

With a collaborative and combined strength, Bright and Zest Outdoor aim to completely change the landscape of outdoor advertising with cutting-edge solutions.

Bright Outdoor Media also introduced its 9th Digital LED Hoarding, located in the heart of Prabhadevi, in Mumbai's Dadar area. It is a testament to Bright's pursuit of innovation and its dedication to providing state-of-the-art advertising platforms. The launch of this new hoarding further cements Bright's position as a flagbearer in the OOH advertising arena.

These exciting developments come on the heels of Bright's successful IPO launch at the BSE SME, which serves as a signature for the company's commitment to progress and its vision for a dynamic future. Bright Outdoor Media is also part of the team that holds the Guinness World Record for Green Energy and Solar Hoarding. Bright Outdoor Media continues to drive growth and evolution in the industry.

The 5th Bright Awards Night set the perfect stage to announce these significant corporate initiatives. Bright Outdoor Media remains dedicated to pushing boundaries, fostering sustainability, and advancing technological innovations in the OOH industry.
Panaji, Oct 03 : Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao on Tuesday alleged that the BJP Government headed by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has deliberately adopted a 'go slow' approach on dilapidated heritage buildings to wipe out the traces of the Portuguese in Goa.

"It is certain that the BJP Government has deliberately adopted a go slow approach on dilapidated heritage buildings in Goa with the ulterior motive to allow them to collapse. This appears to be one of the modus operandi of the BJP Government to wipe out traces of the Portuguese in Goa," Yuri Alemao alleged.

He has demanded that the government immediately come out with an action plan for repair, renovation and refurbishment of all the heritage buildings in Goa.

"The government should first focus on preserving these heritage structures rather than wasting public funds on events," Yuri Alemao said.

He said that the Public Works Department has identified several such heritage buildings, which are in a dilapidated condition.

"It is shocking that the government has not taken any proactive steps to undertake repairs of all such buildings despite the structural audits pointing out to their deteriorating condition, thereby endangering the lives of the occupants as well as people visiting them," he said.

Stating that 60 years have passed since Goa was liberated, Pramod Sawant had earlier said, "We should wipe away all the Portuguese traces from the coastal state."

Sawant had drawn flak over his remarks from politicians and netizens, who stated that Portuguese had brought many things (like cashew and other things) from their land to Goa, which can't be wiped out.
The United States avoided a partial shutdown of the government on Saturday with a last-minute spending bill approved by Congress. The solution was not only temporary  a budget extension until November 17  but it left open wounds, especially among Republicans. The future of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is now up in the air. Some of the 20-strong members of the hard-right faction have not forgiven him for leaning on the Democrats to avoid the government shutdown. One of the leaders of this group, Congressman Matt Gaetz, introduced on Monday a motion to remove him as House speaker. The conflict between Gaetz and McCarthy has personal overtones, but its impact could have far-ranging political consequences, threatening to plunge the House of Representatives into chaos.

Gaetz is not well-liked within the Republican Party He is a charlatan, Mike Lawler, a fellow Republican, said of him a few days ago. In order to be elected House speaker, McCarthy had to make several concessions, including allowing just a single House member to present a motion to vacate. It remains to be seen how many in the hard-right faction will support him. In the House, the Republicans have 221 seats and the Democrats, 212, meaning if just half a dozen of the hardliners support the motion to vacate, his future as speaker will lie in the hands of the Democrats.

A few House Democrats, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have already said that it is not their job to save Republicans. After all, McCarthy recently ordered an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Saving him would be a bitter pill. On the other hand, it was McCarthy who reached a deal with Biden to raise the debt ceiling, and the one who proposed the stopgap measure to avoid a government shutdown. Whats more, he is possibly the Democrats only hope of getting a new spending bill approved, when the temporary funding bill expires in a month and a half.

Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of House Democrats, has so far provided no clues about what the party would do if McCarthys future as speaker were in its hands. We havent had a discussion about any hypothetical motion to vacate. And well cross that bridge when we get to it, he said Saturday.

One scenario being considered is for a large number of Democrats to vote present or abstain. It is also possible that they may vote against the motion being submitted to the House for consideration  a way of rejecting the motion to vacate via a procedural step. This would be more palatable to the party than voting in favor of McCarthy, but even so, it is likely that they will want some concessions from McCarthy in exchange. The problem is that if McCarthy has to rely on the Democrats again, it would weaken his position in the Republican Party even more.

McCarthy was aware that he was risking his position with his last-minute proposal to avert a government shutdown. Earlier, he had tried to appease the Republican hardliners with a spending bill that included severe cuts, but they rejected it. While he ended up putting forward a new proposal that removed aid to Ukraine, in most areas, the bill temporarily extends funding, without making cuts.

If I have to risk my job for standing up for the American public, I will do that, he said Saturday when presenting his proposal. If somebody wants to remove [me] because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try, he later insisted.

Democratic bailout

That somebody is Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz. I think we need to move on with new leadership that will be trustworthy, he told CNN on Sunday, in an interview in which he said he intended to file a motion to vacate this week. The only way Kevin McCarthy is speaker of the House at the end of this coming week is if Democrats bail him out, said Gaetz, arguing that the motion would be backed by his people.

McCarthy responded defiantly to the threat: So be it. Bring it on. Lets get over with it and lets start governing. He added that the Gaetz was acting for personal, political reasons.

In an address to the House on Monday, Gaetz accused McCarthy of secretly negotiating with Biden to approve additional aid to Ukraine outside the stopgap deal to prevent a government shutdown. He also reiterated his threat to file a motion to vacate, but did not take that step until Monday evening. It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the House already works for, and its not the Republican Conference, Gaetz said in his speech, hours before he filed the resolution.

Later, as he appeared on the steps of the Capitol, delighted by the attention of the cameras and microphones, he promised to present as many motions as needed to oust McCarthy as speaker, just as it took 15 votes for McCarthy to win the speakership.

If McCarthy is removed, it will not be easy to find a replacement who is capable of uniting the votes of the partys moderates and far right hardliners. A power vacuum would not help the Democrats, who still need to approve the final spending bill for the new fiscal year, which began on October 1. However, the most far-right Republicans  who just want to burn the whole place down, McCarthy himself said  do not care about a possible leadership void, just as they did not care about the government shutdown or the debt ceiling.

The motion to vacate was used was in 1910, when it was introduced by the then Republican speaker, Joseph Cannon, against himself. In that case, it functioned as a vote of confidence to silence the criticism of his fellow Republicans. In McCarthys case, it is being filed by an opponent, making it like an impeachment. No motion to vacate has succeeded. However, the one presented in 2015 against John Boehner led to his resignation.

If the motion to vacate prevails, the position would be provisionally occupied by the first person on a list delivered by McCarthy to the secretary of the House. The name would be made public at that time. The provisional speakers first task would be to get a new speaker appointed. There is no Republican candidate who commands as much support as McCarthy, who even still needed 15 rounds of voting to be elected in January. Given these divisions, there is a high chance that a vote for a new speaker would lead to a political quagmire.

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Kolkata, Oct 03 : The West Bengal government will finalise implementation of the changed system of salary payment for the teaching and non-teaching staff of state universities in the state on Wednesday at a special meeting with the finance officers of these universities.

"On September 20 we had a similar meeting with the finance officers of state universities and there was a proposal to bring the teaching and non-teaching staff under the human resource management system (HRMS).

"In that meeting the views of the finance officers were also sought. Now, in all probability, the final blueprint for bringing the teaching and non-teaching staff under HRMS will be finalised at the meeting on Wednesday," said a senior official of the state education department.

Once the teaching and non-teaching staff is brought under the HRMS, their salary will be directly credited to their accounts.

In the current system, the state government transfers the funds for salary payments to the accounts of the state universities concerned and then the latter pay salaries to their teaching and non-teaching staff.

In the new system, the drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) for these state universities will be bureaucratic representatives from the state's higher education department, which will virtually end the financial autonomy of the state universities.

Apprehensions about the end of financial autonomy for the state universities have been brewing for quite some time following the recent threat by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to stop the funding to those state universities which operate as per the directives of the Governor CV Ananda Bose, who is also the Chancellor of these state universities.

Different teachers' associations have threatened to go to court in case there is any attempt by the state higher education department to end the financial autonomy of the state universities by introducing the HRMS.
Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 3 : A day after Rev Kuriakose Mattem, a Catholic priest in Kerala took membership of the BJP and was quickly moved out as Vicar of the St Thomas Catholic Church in Idukki district, the case will now be heard by the higher ups, according to a Church spokesperson.

Rev Fr Jins Karakattil, the spokesperson of the Idukki dioceses, said the Church premises cannot be used for party work.

"At the moment, he has been moved out as the vicar and we will be forming a Commission to look into it. The priest who took this decision will be asked to appear before the Commission as the Church wishes to know about it and then a decision will be arrived," said Karakattil.

The orders of his temporary removal as vicar was given by the Idukki diocese of Catholic Church to which he is attached an hour after news surfaced thathe has taken the saffron party membership.

BJP sources claimed that this is the first time a Catholic priest in Kerala has joined the saffron party.

The 62-year-old Catholic priest after joining the party said that he did not agree to the common belief that the BJP is not the party for Christians.

In Kerala, Christians constitute about 18 per cent of the state's 3.30 crore population.
Cairo, Oct 3 : Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has announced his re-election bid for a third term in office in the upcoming polls scheduled for December.

"Just as I responded to the call of the Egyptians before, today I respond to their call once again, and I announce that I'm determined to nominate myself for a new presidential term," Sisi, who assumed power in 2014 in the aftermath of the 2013 coup, announced on Monday.

"I call on Egyptians to participate in the elections to choose the country's president," Xinhua news agency quoted the 58-year-old leader as saying.

The election will be held on December 10-12, while Egyptians living abroad will cast their votes on December 1-3.

Candidate registration will begin from Thursday through October 14.

An estimated 65 million Egyptians are eligible to vote in the crucial polls.

Sisi won his first presidential elections in 2014 and was re-elected in 2018.

In 2019, constitutional amendments stretched the presidential term to six years from four and exceptionally allowed him to run for a third term.
Lucknow, Oct 03 : Nearly 20 per cent of the total farmers registered under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PMKSNY) in Uttar Pradesh have failed to get their documents validated by the state government, thereby depriving them of an annual grant of Rs 6,000.

Uttar Pradesh (UP) is now apparently stepping up efforts to cover the maximum number of farmers under the scheme.

UP Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi said on Tuesday that of an estimated 2.6 crore farmers registered under the scheme, till date only 2.5 crore have got their bank accounts and Aadhaar cards verified. The rest have either failed to produce their documents or have discrepancies in their Aadhaar cards and records pertaining to ownership of land.

The PMKSNY, launched in February 2019 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, happens to be the most prestigious scheme for small and marginal farmers. The government is scheduled to release the 15th installment of Rs 2,000 to eligible farmers in November.

Farmers are required to furnish identity documents like Aadhaar card or PAN card. Besides they have to submit information related to land records, bank account, including a passbook and statement and proof of address.

Shahi said that the data is consistently updated for maximum possible precision. He said that more than 10 lakh farmers submitted or got their documents verified during the two-month-long drive between April and May.

"We aim to saturate all the districts vis-a-vis PMKSNY in the coming days," he said. "But for that the farmers need to be made much more aware about the importance of getting their credentials verified so that the benefits of the scheme reach them," he maintained.

The agriculture department has initiated a fresh drive to cover the maximum number of eligible farmers under the scheme by October 15. In a government order issued to all District Magistrates and CDOs, Additional Chief Secretary (Agriculture) Devesh Chaturvedi said that an efficient mechanism for farmers' e-KYC and Aadhaar seeding was required to be put in place.

Additionally, the officials have been directed to conduct a door-to-door survey to get the eligible farmers authenticated. The campaign, he said, may also be conducted in village-level conventions and 'Kisan Pathshalas'.

The department has also decided to set up a helpdesk at the state agricultural seed centres. The farmers whose land records have not been attested will be required to do so from the tehsil level. This will be done under the supervision of District Magistrates, SDMs and tehsildars.

Sources said that the agriculture department has been deploying its officials at various common service centres to complete the e-KYC of the farmers.
Lucknow, Oct 3 : Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sanjay Singh has said that their demand to roll back the new pension scheme for government employees was valid.

The AAP has already announced support for the government employees' demand to implement the old pension scheme.

"The government is investing the money of employees in the share market. Their future is not safe. Our governments in Delhi and Punjab have not allowed it to be implemented. Kejriwal has demanded that the NPS should be rolled back," Singh said.

In the coming months, Singh said, the AAP would be organising meetings across the state to expose the BJP before people.

He added that the party had failed to deliver on its promises of houses, doubling the income of farmers and giving employment to the youth.

Singh also supported the caste census and said that benefits of reservation can reach beneficiaries only when the caste census is carried out.

Citing the Deoria incident, where six persons were killed and of Basti where a woman was allegedly raped in front of her husband, Singh questioned the BJP for celebrating birth anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri who believed in non-violence, peace and brotherhood.
No interim relief to Chandrababu Naidu, SC to hear plea on Oct 9. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Oct 3 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to pass any interim relief on a plea filed by Telugu Desam Party supremo and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who is behind the bars in connection with the alleged Skill Development Corporation scam case.

A bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M .Trivedi adjourned the matter to October 9.

In the meantime, the bench asked the state government to place before it compilation of all documents filed before the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief, said that enquiry against Naidu could not have been conducted without getting sanction from the Governor of the state.

He contended that Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which disables police from conducting any enquiry or investigation against a public servant except with prior approval, was introduced to prevent abuse of the criminal procedure.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi added that every enquiry into allegation "where the alleged offence is relatable to any recommendation made or decision taken by the public servant" requires a prior sanction.

In the last hearing held on September 27, Justice S.V. Bhatti of the Supreme Court had recused himself from hearing the matter.

Later on the same day, a bench headed by the CJI D.Y. Chnadrachud did not pass any directions for urgent hearing on Naidu's plea by a different bench or grant him any interim relief.

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra had pleaded that the former Andhra CM was being "looped in FIRs after FIRs" only because of the upcoming 2024 general polls.

Naidu has approached the Supreme Court by filing a Special Leave Petition after a single judge bench of Justice S. Reddy of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on September 22 dismissed his petition to quash the FIR registered against him and to set aside his judicial remand.
Four arrested for beating man to death in Delhi. Image Source: IANS News

Prayagraj : , Oct 03 (IANS) The Director of SHUATS administration, Vinod B Lal, who was apprehended in Lucknow on Sunday night, has faced intense questioning from police officers posted in five different districts.

The Prayagraj police produced Vinod B Lal before the court, subsequently sending him to judicial custody.

Prior to this, investigating officers from Prayagraj, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, Kaushambhi, and Mirzapur districts conducted inquiries into various cases linked to Vinod B Lal.

Authorities have indicated that further action will be determined in accordance with the courtas directives.

The legal predicament surrounding Vinod B Lal began with an FIR lodged on June 21 by Sarvendra Vikram Singh, a resident of Civil Lines.

Singh alleged that on the night of June 20, four individuals on motorcycles intercepted him, brandishing a firearm and issuing threats. He further claimed that they assaulted him, pressuring him to withdraw a case he had previously filed against the SHUATS (Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences) vice-chancellor and others in Fatehpur.

Subsequent investigations resulted in Vinod B Lalas name being added to the FIR, leading to his arrest during a police raid at his Lucknow farmhouse on Sunday night.

The following day, Naini police secured his custody in the case initiated by Sarvendra Vikram Singh, while Ghoorpur police obtained a remand for a case involving allegations of molestation and religious conversion, filed by a woman a few days earlier.

Officials have confirmed that Vinod B Lal now faces incarceration in both of these cases. Additionally, it has been disclosed that Vinod B Lal is entangled in multiple legal disputes across several districts of the state.

Specifically, four cases were registered against him at Naini and Ghoorpur police stations, with bail granted in two of them. Moreover, he is implicated in over a dozen cases spanning Fatehpur, Pratapgarh, Kaushambhi, and Mirzapur.

On Monday, officials from various districts, including a Circle Officer from Kaushambhi and two inspectors from Pratapgarh, joined their counterparts from Fatehpur and Mirzapur at Naini police station to question Vinod B Lal in connection with the cases within their respective jurisdictions.

A Special Investigation Team established to probe the religious conversion case is also considering seeking custody remand for further questioning.

Meanwhile, the charges against Vinod B Lal have expanded to include fraud and forgery. This development emerged after a forged Aadhaar card, bearing the name Sobaran Singh but featuring Vinod B Lalas photograph, was discovered in his possession.

Vinod B Lal had been evading the police in two other cases, one of which pertained to a teacher recruitment scam, for which he had secured bail. He had assumed a false identity while hiding at his Lucknow farmhouse.
Bhubaneswar, Oct 03 : Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said on Tuesday that the central investigation agencies are free to carry out action against anyone involved in illegal activities.

"The investigative agencies probe if anyone does anything wrong. It is not written anywhere that the agencies can't initiate any probe even if you have received money through illegal means which is objectionable. Investigative agencies are free and they take action as per the rules," said Thakur answering a query on the raids on NewsClick and its journalists by the Special Cell of Delhi Police.

Addressing a Press conference, Thakur urged the Odisha government to ensure speedy and better implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission that can bring significant changes to the lives of women'

"I would like to request the state government to ensure speedy and proper implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission," Thakur said.

He also stated that all the schemes of the Centre are meant for the welfare of the poor, especially for the welfare of women.

Thakur emphasised that by passing the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam Bill, the Modi Government has delivered the promise of 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament and state Assemblies ensuring the empowerment of women leadership in the country.

"As per data, the Modi Government has given several times more funds to Odisha than the UPA Government. It cooperated with the state in the process of development," Thakur added.

"During the G20 more than 200 meetings were held in 60 cities in different states and union territories showcasing the art and traditions of the country which will boost the tourism sector. Odisha will also be benefitted from the economic corridor connecting Europe through Arab countries," Thakur asserted.

He also claimed the tax collection in Odisha increased following the enactment of GST by the Modi Government.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed immediate release of the directors of Gurugram-based realty company M3M Group, Pankaj Bansal and Basant Bansal, who were behind the bars in connection with a money laundering case pertaining to the alleged bribing of a CBI/ED judge.

A bench of Justices A.S. Bopanna and Sanjay Kumar, which had reserved the verdict on September 11, quashed and set aside the arrest and remand order against the Bansal brothers.

In its judgement, the bench emphasized that the action of the anti-money laundering agency should be fair and stringent in accordance with the procedural law.

On August 11, the top court had agreed to examine the special leave petition filed by the directors of the realty firm and issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and others on their plea.

Bansals had moved the Supreme Court after the Punjab & Haryana High Court in July denied bail to them. They were arrested in connection with a Prevention of Money Laundering Act case pertaining to the alleged bribing of a former CBI/ED judge.

According to the FIR filed by the Haryana Police's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), reliable information was received that Sudhir Parmar, the then Special Judge in Panchkula, showed favouritism to Roop Kumar Bansal, Basant Bansal, and IREO Group owner Lalit Goyal, in the criminal cases filed by the ED under the PMLA and other cases of the CBI pending against the aforementioned accused individuals in his court in exchange for undue advantage.

It was alleged that the judge received undue benefits through his relative Ajay Parmar. Subsequently, Ajay Parmar and the suspended special judge were also arrested.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday in a virtual address, on the occasion of spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi's (also known as Amma) 70th birthday, said that her aura is difficult to describe in words and it can only be felt.

"The aura of Amma's presence and her blessings is difficult to describe in words, we can only feel it," Modi said in his address.

Modi highlighted that in the last 10 years, Amma's work and her impact on the world has grown manifold and recalled inaugurating Amrita Hospital in Faridabad, Haryana in her presence.

"Amma is the embodiment of love, compassion, service and sacrifice. She is the bearer of India's spiritual tradition," he added.

"Be it the field of health or education, every institution under Amma's guidance gave new heights to human service and social welfare," he said.

Amma, he said, is a reflection of India's human-centric approach to development that is being accepted today in the post-pandemic world.

He added that she had also donated Rs 100 crore to build toilets on the banks of the Ganga which gave a new boost to cleanliness.

"Amma has followers all over the world and she has always strengthened the image of India and its credibility. When the inspiration is so great, the efforts also become great," he added.
KYODO NEWS - Oct 3, 2023 - 13:24 | All, World, Japan

A Japanese lawmaker who has long championed close ties with Moscow has met with a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official, the ministry said Monday, on a trip that defied Japanese government advice against its nationals including legislators traveling to the country.

Muneo Suzuki, a member of the opposition Japan Innovation Party, met with Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko during the first known visit by a Japanese lawmaker to Russia since its invasion of Ukraine began in February last year.

Suzuki, a veteran lawmaker hailing from Hokkaido, northern Japan, arrived in Russia on Sunday and is scheduled to return home on Thursday, people close to him said.

At a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, the top government spokesman, noted that Japan has urged its nationals to avoid traveling to Russia "regardless of" the purpose of their visit.

Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said Suzuki did not report his plan to the Japanese government in advance.

The Japan Innovation Party is considering taking disciplinary action against him for failing to comply with the necessary travel procedures when going abroad, its lawmakers said.

Suzuki previously belonged to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, currently headed by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

According to the Russian ministry, Rudenko told Suzuki that he has made important contributions to the enhancement of bilateral relations and regretted that such close ties, based on decades-old cooperation, have been harmed by Japan's decision to join the United States in sanctions against Moscow.

Rudenko also told Suzuki that Japan's stance does not serve its national interests and runs against the will of the Japanese people, the ministry said.

Suzuki was considering visiting Russia in the spring of this year but stopped short of making such a trip at the request of his party's leadership.

Ahead of his departure, Suzuki said at an event in Tokyo on Friday that he will "face" Russia and continue to make "correct decisions" regarding Japan's relations with Moscow.

Related coverage:

China, Russia top diplomats discuss Ukraine war ahead of Putin visit

North Korea's Kim, Russian defense chief discuss deeper defense ties
Hubballi : , Oct 3 (IANS) Karnataka Police were in touch with their counterparts in Delhi in connection with the arrest of NIA's most wanted terrorist, Shahnawaz a.k.a Shafi Uzzama.

The links of the terrorist, Shahnawaz, in Karnataka had come to light after his arrest.

Hubballi-Dharwad Police Commissioner Renuka Sukumar, reacting to the development stated on Tuesday, "We are in constant touch with the Delhi Police. Since the Hubballi-Dharwad connection has come to light in the case, we are gathering all the information."

"But, we don't have information on whether the terrorists received training here or whether they hail from Hubballi-Dharwad or where they belong to," Commissioner Renuka Sukumar.

"The Delhi Police have not shared any information in this regard. We are discussing the matter with high-level officers. The report published in the media does not specify any particular place. Our police are alert and precautionary measures have already been taken. The intelligence inputs are also being gathered," she said.

The Delhi Police had arrested one of the NIA's most wanted terrorists, Shahnawaz, who is alleged to have links with an IS module.

Shanawaz had escaped from the custody of the Pune Police and was living in Delhi. He carried a reward of Rs 3 lakh. Shahnawaz, an engineer, was arrested from an area in southeast Delhi by the Delhi Police's Special Cell and is currently being interrogated. Four to five people, connected to the module, are also being interrogated.
Guwahati, Oct 03 : Assam Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi's convoy met with an accident when he went to attend a party program in Cachar district on Tuesday, officials said.

However, the Congress leader was unhurt as his vehicle passed before the collision occurred.

Approximately 100 vehicles were transporting MP Gogoi and other Congress members from Kumbhirgram Airport in Cachar district to the Congress Bhavan in Silchar, when one of the vehicles in the convoy was struck by a vehicle coming from behind on the same highway, the police stated.

According to accounts, the cavalcade was travelling at a fast speed when a car suddenly drove in front of one of the vehicles in the convoy and was struck by other vehicles in the same lane.

Seven Congress members, including some women, who were in one of the vehicles that were involved in the collision, were hurt. Ajit Singh, a former minister was one of the people who suffered minor wounds.

Gogoi was not hurt in the incident since his car had passed the area before the collision occurred. The cops arrived in the interim and removed the damaged vehicles.
Hyderabad, Oct 3 : Launching a sharp attack on the Congress, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K. T. Rama Rao on Tuesday alleged that the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee was functioning under RSS leader Revanth Reddy and was instigating communal violence.

He claimed that former chief minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh had written a letter to Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi questioning why an RSS leader was made the chief of the Congress party in Telangana.

"Can Revanth Reddy openly make a statement that he did not work for RSS, and he does not hate Muslims," KTR asked.

"Congress party is an old fox which has failed miserably," KTR said at a public meeting in Jagtiyal. He added that the Congress was given 11 chances but could not do any good to any section of society in 65 years.

KTR reminded the people of those days when farmers suffered due to electricity problem. "Any Congress leader who has doubts on uninterrupted power supply in Telangana, can come and hold current wires for an answer," said KTR. He also said that it was ironic to see Congress leaders talk about current problems in the state.

"Revanth Reddy is a leader who said three-hour current supply was sufficient for the farmers in our state," said KTR. He asked the people to recollect Congress days when farmers were deprived of many benefits, apart from current and water problems, inadequate supply of seeds and fertilizers, and many more. "No other leader loves farmers and works for their welfare like CM KCR does," said KTR.

"As BRS leaders, we can proudly say KCR is our CM. Can Congress tell who will be their CM?," asked KTR.

"If you want to see the difference between Congress and BRS, just compare the Indiramma houses of Congress and 2BHK Dignity houses of BRS. You will get a clear picture," said KTR.

In a sarcastic tone, KTR said that "Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a God who increased cylinder prices from Rs. 400 to 1200, petrol prices from Rs 70 to Rs 110, and ensured skyrocketing prices of other essential goods."

KTR said that the BJP leaders were indulging in "religious fanaticism" and would leave no chance to "instigate communal disturbances".

"I ask Modi, are you a follower of Gandhi or Godse? Modi should answer this in Nizamabad," said KTR.

"The pension given by CM KCR is helping boost the self-esteem of beedi workers in Telangana. While 16 states in the country have beedi workers, no other state government was providing pension amounts on par with KCR Government," he said.

KTR said that the KCR Colony in Jagityal is one of the largest colonies outside Hyderabad which has over 4500 2 BHK Dignity houses. He assured of bringing major brands like Pepsi or Coca-Cola to set up their units in Jagityal which would benefit the locals.
New Delhi, Oct 03 : India is now the second-biggest manufacturing hub for mobile phones due to heavy investment from original equipment manufacturers, original design manufacturers and companies dealing in components and parts, a new report showed on Tuesday.

India is expected to export about 22 per cent of its total assembled mobile phones in 2023, according to Counterpoint Research.

However, China's manufacturing and supply chain will still maintain its essential role in the longer run," said senior research analyst Ivan Lam.

In a fillip to the 'Make in India' initiative, India saw mobile phones exports worth $5.5 billion (over Rs 45,000 crore) in the April-August period in the ongoing fiscal year (FY24), government and industry data showed recently.

As per the estimates by the Department of Commerce and the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), the April-August period saw mobile phone exports worth $5.5 billion, against $3 billion (about Rs 25,000 crore) in the same period in FY22-23.

India is set to cross Rs 1,20,000 crore in mobile phone exports in the current fiscal year, with Apple leading the market with more than 50 per cent in FY24.

Meanwhile, according to the report, smartphone shipments from original design manufacturers (ODMs) and Independent Design Houses (ODMs/IDHs) declined six per cent (year-on-year) in the first half this year, according to the report.

"The YoY decline in ODM/IDH companies' H1 2023 shipments was driven by Samsung, Xiaomi and Lenovo Group's weak performance. However, Vivo, HONOR and Transsion Group's rise offset part of the decline," said senior research analyst Shenghao Bai.

Huaqin, Longcheer and Wingtech continued to dominate the competitive landscape of the global smartphone ODM/IDH industry in H1 2023.

The companies, also known as the 'Big 3,' accounted for 76 per cent of the global ODM/IDH smartphone market in the first half. Outsourced design shipments decreased in H1 2023 but their share increased when compared to the same period last year, the report mentioned. The top six ODMs took 95 per cent share of the total ODM shipments.
Kolkata, Oct 3 : Enforcement Department (ED) has given an option to Trinamool Congress national general secretary and party Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee to appear at the agency's Salt Lake office on Wednesday for interrogation in connection with the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal.

But instead of giving any intimation on this count directly to Banerjee, ED floated this proposal at the Calcutta High Courtas division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Uday Kumar on Tuesday, where Banerjeeas counsel had filed a petition seeking clarification on the September 29 order of the single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha on the ED probe in the multi-crore cash-for-school job case.

In her order on September 29, Justice Amrita Sinha directed ED that their scheduled investigation process should not be hampered at any cost and for the sake of carrying forward the investigation, the central agency will have the liberty to take any step as per legal provisions.

Banerjee was supposed to be present at ED's Salt Lake office on the northern outskirts of Kolkata for questioning in relation to the school job case on Tuesday. Though Banerjee had made it clear through an X (formerly Twitter) message that he will not be present at the central agency office owing to his political preoccupation, he had not given any written intimation to ED.

Incidentally, while ED has given an option to Banerjee for appearance at its office on Wednesday, the hearing on the fresh petition by Banerjee will also come up on the same day.
Chamarajanagara : , Oct 3 (IANS) The failure of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and state Home Minister Dr. G. Parameshwara has resulted in the communal violence of Shivamogga, alleged Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Shobha Karandlaje on Tuesday.

Over 50 arrests have been made by the state police in connection with the Shivamogga violence during the Eid Milad procession. The rioting group had pelted stones at Hindus and police, and also had damaged vehicles and property. The group had also barged inside the houses and assaulted residents.

Minister Karandlaje alleged that the security arrangements were improper even after knowing well that a large number of people were participating in the Eid Milad procession. "According to our information, the communal clash had taken place with the abetment of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Home Minister Parameshwara," she alleged.

"The state government is directly responsible for this incident. To cover up the failure, the government will indulge in such acts once every two months," she charged.

She further stated that, prima facie it is established that it was a planned act. The government had totally neglected the inputs and warning from the intelligence wing that outsiders are taking part in the procession.

"There are many past instances of communal clashes in Shivamogga city. The government should have taken precautions much earlier. They have forgotten the people while bickering for power resulting in the tragedy," said the Union minister.

"What's the use of visiting the place once everything is over?" Shobha Karandlajequestioned.
Kolkata , Oct 3 : The West Bengal government informed the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday that students' council elections in different state universities can't be held without the appointment of permanent vice-chancellors (VCs) there.

Currently, majority of the state universities are running with interim VCs appointed by Governor C.V. Ananda Bose, which has become an issue of major contention between the Raj Bhavan and the state secretariat with the latter accusing the Governor of making such appointments without the concurrence of the state education department.

On Tuesday, a PIL demanding holding of studentsa council elections immediately came up for hearing before the division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, during which the state government's counsel detailed the practical problems in conducting elections in the state universities which currently donot have any permanent VCs.

Advocate general S.N. Mukhopadhyay, appearing for the state government, argued that the issue of appointing permanent VCs is pending before the Supreme Court and till the matter is settled there and permanent VCs are appointed, studentsa council elections cannot be held.

Already the apex court has ordered formation of search committees for appointing permanent VCs in different state universities. However, the disagreement between the Raj Bhavan and the state education department has persisted after the latter objected to the recommendations of the Governor as members of the search committee.
Deoria, Oct 3 : On the complaint of Satya Prakash Dubey's daughter Shobhita, the police in Uttar Pradesh's Deoria have registered a case against 27 named and 50 unidentified people under various sections like murder, murderous assault and assault in connection with the murder of six persons.

The six of one family were murdered on Monday in their house.

According to the FIR, Shobhita stated that after kidnapping her uncle Prakash Dubey in 2014, Prem Prakash Yadav, the family's rival, had got their entire farm registered in his (Yadav) name.

"When my father Satyaprakash Dubey came to know about this, he filed a case in the court. This case is still going on. Our house was attacked due to this rivalry," she said.

The FIR said that dozens of attackers armed with sticks, guns and weapons tried to attack Satya Prakash Dubey's house on Monday. Shobhita said that the father closed the door of the house but the attackers entered the house by breaking the locked door and killed her father Satya Prakash Dubey, mother Kiran Devi, brother Deepesh a.k.a. Gandhi and sisters Shaloni and Nandini. Younger brother, 8-year-old Prajesh was also badly injured in the attack.

The injured brother is undergoing treatment in the hospital.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited the BRD medical college and inquired about the well-being of the child undergoing treatment in the hospital. He met the child and asked doctors to ensure proper treatment.

Additional police force has been deployed in the village to prevent fallout of the incident.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : After objecting to an advertisement by e-commerce giant Flipkart, featuring veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan last week, the Confederation of All India Traders on Tuesday (CAIT) filed a complaint with Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) of the consumer affairs ministry.

CAIT in its complaint has said that Flipkart be penalised (as per section 89 of the CPA), for false or misleading advertisement with imprisonment for a term of two years and a fine of Rs 10 lakh and Bachchan too should be fined Rs 10 lakh as per section 89 of the Act.

In the complaint to the CCPA, CAIT further said that as per the definition under Section 2(47), Flipkart, acting through Amitabh Bachchan (endorser), has misled the public regarding the price at which mobile phones are being made available by sellers/suppliers in the smartphone market of India (relevant market).

This, they added, has the effect of disparaging the goods, services or trade of another person.

"Further, as per rule 4 of the Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022, the advertisement by Flipkart is misleading because it doesnat contain truthful and honest representation and is wholly incorrect, malicious, misleading and manipulative," CAIT said in a statement.

The traders body has also urged CCPA to direct Flipkart to suspend the advertisement to avoid further damage to offline retailers ahead of the festive season.

Last week, CAIT and offline smartphone retailers had called out the advertisement where Bachchan was promoting Flipkart's upcoming Big Billion Day sale, telling consumers that deals on mobiles won't be available offline at retail stores.

The Big Billion Days sale is scheduled to take place from October 8-15.

CAIT, in a letter, called for the advertisement to be withdrawn, stating this unfairly impacts the livelihood of shopkeepers and misleads consumers on the other hand.

"If this concern is not addressed, we will be left with no choice but to seek intervention from the Ministry of Information," the letter dated September 29 had stated.

On the other hand, the All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA), had also written to most smartphone brands to take up the issue and publicly clarify that the claims made in Flipkart's advertisement are not true.

"The CAIT demand has come under Section 2 (47) of the Consumer Protection Act which deals with unfair trade practices, misleading advertisements & false and misleading facts," the traders' body's statement issued on Tuesday said.
Patna, Oct 3 : A day after the caste-based survey report was published by the Bihar government, the Congress and RJD leaders on Tuesday demanded that the chief minister and deputy chief ministers be appointed according to the strength of the castes.

Congress leader and former state president Anil Sharma demanded appointment of three more deputy chief ministers apart from Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar.

He claimed that while one would belong to the Muslim community, the other two would be from Other Backward Class (OBC) and Economically Backward Classes(EBC).

As the Muslim community has 17 per cent population which is the highest in the state, they are running a campaign on social media having # Muslim chief minister of Bihar.

Lalu Prasad Yadav also hinted that the CM should belong to the caste with highest population.

He has always maintained that the share of power should be given according to the strength of the caste.

Meanwhile, Bihar Finance Minister and JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary categorically expressed his disapproval at the demand.

"A demand to make chief minister according to the population of a particular caste has been there since long. We only know Rahul Gandhi as a Congress leader. Since he has always been in favour of it, it has been done and hence the statements of other leaders have no meaning," Chaudhary quipped.
KYODO NEWS - Oct 4, 2023 - 08:07 | World, All

Two people were killed and five others injured Tuesday in a shooting at a shopping mall popular with tourists in central Bangkok, with a 14-year-old boy apprehended as the suspect, local authorities said.

Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said a Chinese tourist died in the incident at Siam Paragon, a high-end shopping mall also popular with locals. The country's National Police chief also identified one Myanmar citizen, an employee of a shop inside the mall, as among the fatalities.

The boy, who is a student, began his rampage by opening fire in the mall at around 4:20 p.m., prompting an evacuation, police said.

He eventually surrendered to the police, but his motive remains unknown.

Emergency services corrected an earlier statement by lowering the number of dead from three to one. Later, one of the injured died at hospital, bringing the latest death toll to two.
New Delhi: MCD Mayor Dr Shelly Oberoi with Leader of the house MCD Mukesh Goyal address the Media. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Oct 3 : In yet another tussle between AAP and the Centre, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday said that it will hear on Wednesday Mayor Shelly Oberoi's plea seeking political clearance by the Union Government so as to be able to fly abroad ahead of the 2023 Asia Pacific Cities Summit and Mayor's Forum in Brisbane.

Oberoi moved the court challenging the rejection of political clearance by the Central Government.

A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula has listed the matter for hearing on Wednesday.

"Only three working days remain. She has to go on the 9th," Oberoi's lawyer said, seeking an urgent hearing.

To which, the bench said: "Tomorrow we will have it."

The event is scheduled to take place between October 11 and 13.

Last month, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai had moved the high court seeking quashing of Centre's order denying his official request for political clearance to attend the Columbia India Energy Dialogue in New York.

While the Centre had eventually granted him permission, Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, had informed Justice Subramonium Prasad that the court should not view this decision as setting a precedent.

He had clarified that the courts cannot intervene in policy decisions when exercising jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution.
New Delhi: A view of the Supreme Court in New Delhi on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. (Photo: Wasim Sarvar/IANS). Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Oct 03 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that it will hear on October 30 the Shahi Eidgah Masjid managing committee's plea against the Allahabad High Court order transferring to itself a clutch of petitions seeking various reliefs with respect to the dispute.

A Bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia heard the matter.

The counsel appearing for the mosque committee told the court that both communities have been living in harmony for years but "it's now that these suits have been filed."

The mosque is located in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura and the counsel pointed out to the Bench that the distance between Allahabad and Mathura is 600 kms, but from Mathura to Delhi, it's about a 100 kms.

The mosque committee's appeal comes on the grounds that it does not have the funds to travel to Allahabad and would prefer the pleas be heard in a place that is closer.

Responding to the petitions, Justice Kaul noted that this is a problem of the Allahabad and Lucknow High Courts. Places proximate to Lucknow still fall within Allahabad's jurisdiction.

"Unfortunate consequence, but no one wants to make a hard decision there. Let us have the list of suits first. Then we'll say. First, we need to know what the contours are," said Justice Kaul.

Justice Kaul further sent a firm reminder to the Registrar of Allahabad High Court to send the required information and documents regarding the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Eidgah Mosque dispute.

"Office report shows in pursuance to our order dated July 21, 2023 sent to Allahabad HC's Registrar, no requisite information has been received... A reminder should be sent along with the last order..." said Justice Kaul.

The petitions are related to the Krishna Janmabhoomi dispute. The controversy dates back to Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb's rule. It is alleged that the mosque in question was built on the order of the Mughal Emperor after demolishing a temple that was built at Lord Krishna's birthplace.

Earlier in May, the Allahabad High Court transferred to itself all the suits pending before the Mathura court concerning this case.

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Jaipur, Oct 3 : A scene reminiscent of the popular web series 'Money Heist' came out live on the streets of Jaipur when a youth standing atop a car flung currency notes in the air.

While actor Anil Kapoor could be seen burning cash in reel life, in real life the youth was throwing away cash notes among people which was being openly looted by people.

The incident which was captured on video is going viral on social media and garnering traction.

Covering his face under a mask, the man was seen showering money at the people in front of a mall with people catching it leading to a traffic jam .

Meanwhile, police officials reached the location only after the video went viral.

The youth kept flinging in the air notes with Rs 20 denomination every now and then for 20 minutes. People also captured the incident in their mobiles. No policeman posted at the open post near GT Market tried to get any information about the youth.

The young man then left the spot in his car.

According to DCP East Gyanchand Yadav, Jawahar Circle SHO has been asked to investigate the video matter. On the basis of the car number, the police reached the youth's house and arrested him for disturbing the peace.

Investigations are in progress.
Mumbai, Oct 3 : Actor Mohit Dagga, who plays Ashok in 'Doosri Maa' shared insights on maintaining a sound mental state, revealing how he faced body shaming, which had left him feeling anxious and depressed.

On October 10th, 'World Mental Health Day' is observed to raise awareness about mental health issues.

Talking about the same, Mohit shared: "There was a time when I faced body shaming, which left me feeling anxious, angry, and depressed. To heal, I embraced self-love as a way of life, which has helped me find inner peace."

"I started practising meditation and reading to nurture my mental well-being. Meditation is my means to get closer to a higher power and establish a profound connection, making it an integral part of my daily routine," he said.

Mohit added: "I dedicate a significant amount of time to meditation, whether at home or on set, as it helps me be strong and focused, leading to a more productive life. I firmly believe in being true to yourself to find happiness."

In the current track of 'Doosri Maa', Krishna (Aayudh Bhanushali) emerges victorious in the Kabbadi match and offers the winnings to Yashoda (Neha Joshi). Initially, Yashoda hesitates to accept the money due to her anger towards him. However, she eventually relents after he offers a heartfelt apology.

Using the money, Yashoda opens a tea stall and extends an invitation to Suresh (Sunil Dutt) and Malti (Anita Pradhan). In the meantime, Shamshera (Swatantra Bharat) informs Yashoda Ashok (Mohit) is in Haridwar at the Mandal Baba Ashram. Yashoda promptly leaves to find him. Upon meeting Ashok, Yashoda implores him to return home, but he refuses, leaving her in shock.

The show airs on &TV.
New Delhi: A view of the Supreme Court in New Delhi on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. (Photo: Wasim Sarvar/IANS). Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Oct 3 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed three petitions by sacked IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt against a trial judge alleging unfairness in a trial related to a drugs planting case against him, and also imposed Rs 3 lakh fine on him.

The fine money will be deposited into the Gujarat High Court Advocates Welfare Fund, said a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Rajesh Bindal.

Hearing the pleas, Justice Nath asked: "How many times have you been to the Supreme Court? At least a dozen times?"

Noting Justice B.R. Gavai (now retired) was kind to impose only a Rs 10,000 fine the last time, Justice Nath reminded Bhatt about a previous Supreme Court fine from February which rejected his challenge to a High Court order.

Bhatt has filed a petition to transfer the trial to the Court of the senior most Additional Sessions Judge at Banaskantha in Gujarat, alleging bias and unfairness against the current trial judge.Along with the transfer, Bhatt also sought audio-video recordings of the trial court proceedings and additional witnesses in the trial.

Representing Bhatt, senior advocate Devadatt Kamat requested the bench to omit or reduce the costs of the fine imposed.To this, Justice Nath replied: "He has been repeatedly approaching the Courts with the best of lawyers. Of course, he has no dearth of finances."

Bhatt is accused of lodging a false case to harass a lawyer due to a property dispute. The case dates back to 1996, when Basankantha police seized drugs from an advocate's hotel room in Rajasthan's Palanpur. At that time Bhatt was serving as the Superintendent of Police at Basankantha and he was arrested in the case in September 2018.

Bhatt is also currently serving life imprisonment since July 2019 after he was convicted in a 1990 custodial death case.
New Delhi, Oct 03 : Modern warfare is constantly undergoing transformation due to rapid advancements in technology. The Indian Air Force being a technology-intensive force needs to keep pace with these advancements and assimilate new technology to remain relevant, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari said on Tuesday.

The MiG-21 fighter aircraft will no longer be a part of the IAF and would be replaced by LCA Tejas aircraft, he said.

Chaudhari said, "We had signed a contract for 83 LCA Mark 1A. We want 97 more such aircraft. With this we will have 180 aircraft. He said that MiG-21 fighter aircraft will be phased out of the fleet by 2025. The iDEX and Make programmes have given the desired impetus to the 'Make in India' initiative for Defence-specific research and development."

"While work is in progress to develop capabilities like MUM-T and High Altitude Pseudo Satellites, we are also looking at innovative solutions to resolve day-to-day functional issues to improve operations, maintenance and administration activities," the IAF Chief added.

"To give you all an idea of the kind of the money involved, contracts for LCH, LCA Mk1A, HPRs and CIWS are likely to be concluded and the cost is approximately Rs 1, 72,469 crore.

"The yearly cash outflow for this year is Rs 41,180 crore. When we talk about contracts already signed in this financial year, we are looking at about Rs 16,000 crore for only domestic acquisition schemes," he said.

He added, "Owing to the volatile and uncertain geopolitical landscape in our region, the need to have a strong and credible military has become imperative."

The Indo-Pacific region is the new economic and strategic centre of gravity of the world and offers us both challenges and opportunities, Chaudhari said.

He said that the IAF, with its inherent capability to see the farthest, reach the fastest and hit the hardest, will be critical in mitigating these challenges and will remain a fulcrum in projecting India's might in the region.

"To achieve this, we have embarked on the journey of transformation and are progressing in a planned and systematic manner. Our focus is on hidden force multipliers in the form of AI-based decision tools, electronic warfare equipment, robust networks and harnessing space and cyber capabilities," he added.

He said, "We have recently witnessed the induction of the first C 295 aircraft in 11 Sqn. The project is an important milestone in boosting our Defence industry and will contribute immensely by generating 42.5 lakh man-hours of work involving over 6,000 direct and indirect jobs and skill employment opportunities. Around 125 MSMEs, spread over seven states, will be involved in the manufacturing of over 13,400 parts, 4600 sub-assemblies and all the seven major component assemblies."

He said that research and development plays a significant role in ensuring the armed forces remain future-ready.

Scientific breakthroughs will convert into battlefield capabilities after a certain gestation period but they are critical to ensure that we are equipped to fight tomorrow's war with weapons and systems incorporating the latest technology, he pointed out.

"To encourage innovation within the service, we have introduced the concept of Innovation Managers who have been identified and selected based on their capabilities and are being provided additional training at a premier business school in the field of innovation.

"Officers finally designated and posted as Innovation Managers will have the opportunity to steer IAF's innovation initiatives in design and development and become IAF's interface with R and D centres, start-ups and MSMEs," he said.
Mumbai, Oct 3 : Spelling cheers to the poor in Maharashtra, the state cabinet on Tuesday decided to give a Diwali gift food kit of Rs 100 to different categories of ration-cardholders with additional items included this year, an official said.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who presided, said that the kit will include items like 500 gms each of Rava, Maida, Poha and Chanadal, plus 1 kg each of Sugar and Cooking Oil.

The previous kit comprised 1 kg each of Rava, Chanadal, Sugar and Cooking Oil, which has been enhanced by two items of Maida and Poha.

This will benefit 1.67 crore under the Antyodaya Food Yojana and Preferential Family Ration Card holders, Orange Ration Card holders, including those from the farmers suicide hit 14 districts of the state who are in the BPL category.

The distribution of these special Rs 100 festival kits will start from October 25 and will continue till November 30 and an expenditure of Rs 530.19 crore was also sanctioned for the scheme.
New Delhi: AITC General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee With Other TMC Leaders During A Protest. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Oct 03 : Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee along with several party leaders and scheme beneficiaries on Tuesday staged a protest in the national Capital alleging lack of fund allocation to the state government for schemes like MGNREGA and others.

He skipped the ED summons which asked him to appear on Tuesday in Kolkata in connection with the schoolteachersa recruitment case.

Banerjee arrived at Jantar Mantar here on Tuesday afternoon and staged a protest against the central government for the second day running.

Banerjee, meanwhile, who joined the protest on Tuesday afternoon in the national Capital skipped the Enforcement Directorateas (ED) summons which has asked him to appear before it in Kolkata on October 3.

On Monday, the Trinamool Congress leaders had staged a protest at the Rajghat. The Trinamool Congress workers and leaders raised slogans against the central government demanding the release of the funds of the Mahatma Gandhi Employment National Rural Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and other social housing welfare schemes.

The Trinamool Congress leaders will meet the Minister of State in the national Capital.

On Tuesday, the ED has intimated Calcutta High Court's Division Bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Uday Kumar that Banerjee can visit the agencyas Salt Lake office on Wednesday.

The Division Bench also observed that Banerjee should have informed ED in advance about his inability to appear for integration on Tuesday because of his preoccupations at the national Capital.
Shimla, Oct 3 : Two prime accused in the crypto currency fraud of approximate Rs 18 crore have been arrested by the Special Investigating Team of Himachal Pradesh Police, officials investigating the scam said on Tuesday.

The SIT headed by Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Abhishek Dullar comprising 13 members was constituted on September 26 to investigate cases related to crypto currency.

The SIT has been directed to look into the bigger conspiracy. During the course of investigation of a case registered in the police station of Palampur in Kangra district, it has been found that Subhash Sharma, Sukhdev Thakur, Hemraj Thakur and others, all residents of the state, are the prime suspects.

The crime includes the promotion of a fake crypto currency called 'Korvio Coin' with promise of high returns and exaggerated claims to lure investors, a statement by the police said.

The suspects are accused of manipulating the crypto currency's prices to their advantage, leading to losses for the investors.

They also switched to new crypto currencies like 'DGT Coin' and 'BTPP Token', changing terms and values to the detriment of investors.

Furthermore, the complainants claim the accused resorted to threats and intimidation when investors sought refunds or expressed dissatisfaction.

They are also alleged to have deleted online records and websites related to the crypto currencies to potentially erase evidence.

The legal allegations against the accused include cheating, fraud, criminal conspiracy and money laundering.

The impact of this scheme is substantial with complainants collectively reporting losses exceeding Rs 18 crore, said the statement.

With more people or investors coming forward, the losses suffered are likely to increase. The fraud scheme started in 2018-19 and continued for around three years.

It said 10 cases have been taken up by the SIT. Over 50 complaints are under enquiry. The amount involved is huge.

Director General of Police Sanjay Kundu said, "We are closing in on the kingpins of crypto currency scams in Himachal Pradesh. We are making all efforts to arrest the accused. We have mapped their assets and are conducting a financial investigation into their assets."

He asked the victims to come forward to report their cases to the SIT constituted for the purpose.

--IANS

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Imphal, Oct 03 : The indefinite shutdown, which began on Monday morning in Manipur's Churachandpur district to protest against the arrest of four Kuki-Zo people by the CBI in connection with the killing of two young students, ended on Tuesday evening.

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF), which called the indefinite shutdown, on Tuesday, said that after careful consideration, the shutdown concluded at 6 p.m. on Tuesday evening.

Senior leader and spokesman of the apex tribal organisation Ginza Vualzong said that the ITLF would continue to monitor the situation and would issue a public notice if intense agitation is required.

In regards to the ITLF women wing weekly dharna (demonstration), considering the continuous two-day shutdown, the dharna would be cancelled on Wednesday and would be resumed as usual from next week.

During the two-day (Monday and Tuesday) total shutdown, normal life was crippled in the tribal dominated Churachandpur.

The police said that shops, markets, commercial and business establishments were closed, public vehicles had gone off the road, while government and non-government offices and financial institutions remained shut in view of the shutdown in the mountainous district.

Chief Minister N Biren Singh had said on Sunday that the four suspects in the murder of two young students have been arrested by the CBI and other security forces.

Immediately after the arrests, ITLF on Sunday night called the indefinite shutdown demanding the release of the four people, including two women, within 48 hours, "failing which, more intense agitation will follow in all hill districts of Manipur".

Meanwhile, Manipur's Kangpokpi-based tribal organisation, Committee on Tribal Unity (COTU), also threatened to launch an indefinite shutdown in the Kangpokpi district if the Central government did not release all those arrested by CBI and NIA during the past few days.

The COTU condemning the arrest of four people by the CBI in connection with the killing of two students, served a 48-hour ultimatum to the Union Home Ministry to direct the CBI to release all the arrested people and initiate an investigation of "Meitei criminals."

COTU also demanded immediate release of tribal leader Seiminlun Gangte, who was arrested by the NIA on September 30. Gangte was arrested by the NIA in connection with a"transnational conspiracy by Bangladesh and Myanmar-based terror outfits to wage war against the government of India by exploiting the current ethnic unrest in Manipur" and the Kwakta car bomb blast in June which injured three. The NIA took Gangte to Delhi.

Ethnic violence devastated Manipur witnessed massive students' agitations last week to protest the killing of a 17-year-old girl student Hijam Linthoingambi and 20-year-old Phijam Hemjit, who hailed from Bishnupur district and had gone missing on July 6 during the height of ethnic violence.

The photographs of the two slain students were circulated on different social media platforms on September 25 triggering the intense agitations in which at least 100 students, including girls, were injured after they clashed with the security forces, who prevented them from marching towards the Chief Minister's bungalow.

In view of the students' agitations, the state government has shut all schools in the state till October 5 besides re-imposing the ban on mobile internet services till October 6.
KYODO NEWS - Oct 3, 2023 - 13:49 | All, Japan, World

Japan will provide up to 192 billion yen ($1.3 billion) in additional subsidies for U.S. chipmaker Micron Technology Inc.'s plant in Hiroshima Prefecture, the industry minister said Tuesday, as the country tries to strengthen its chip supply chain.

The move, which comes on top of the up to 46.5 billion yen aid announced earlier, adds to Japan's efforts to ensure a stable supply of chips at a time when rising tensions between the United States and China are increasingly posing a threat to its economic security.

Micron has said it plans to invest up to 500 billion yen in Japan in the next few years and will become the first chipmaker to introduce extreme ultraviolet lithography machines -- state-of-the-art equipment for manufacturing advanced semiconductors -- in Japan.

The company is slated to start mass production of next-generation 1-gamma dynamic random access memory chips in 2026.

Micron is not the only chip company to receive financial support from Japan.

The country has decided to provide up to 476 billion yen to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s factory to be built in Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan. It is also giving up to 92.9 billion yen in subsidies to domestic chipmaker Kioxia Corp.

"It is important to make investments" in areas where demand is expected to increase, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told a press conference.

Related coverage:

ASML to set up base in Hokkaido, support Japan chip venture Rapidus

China to curb exports of raw materials used for chip production

Japan state-backed fund to buy JSR to enhance chip supply chain
New York, Oct 3 : Venus may be a (slightly) gentler place and bolts of lightning may not very often flash from Venus' thick, acidic clouds, as thought previously, a new study suggests.

Known as Earthas twin, Venus is one of the most mysterious, and inhospitable, bodies in the solar system.

The planet is about the same size as Earth, but has a dense, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere and a searing temperatures of 900 degrees Fahrenheit and crushing atmospheric pressures.

No spacecraft has ever survived for more than a few hours on the planet's surface.

In the research, space physicists at University of Colorado-Boulder, US, took data from NASA's Parker Solar Probe, which launched in 2018 as part of a 7-year mission to investigate the physics of the sun's corona, or outermost atmosphere, and the solar wind.

In February 2021, the spacecraft swooped around Venus at a distance of roughly 1,500 miles. In the process, its instruments picked up dozens of what scientists call "whistler waves" -- pulses of energy that, on Earth at least, can be kicked off by bolts of lightning.

The team's data, detailed in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, showed that Venus' whistler waves may not actually originate from lightning, but rather from disturbances in the weak magnetic fields that envelop the planet. The results agree with a 2021 study, which failed to detect radio waves generated by lightning strikes coming from Venus.

"There's been debate about lightning on Venus for close to 40 years," said lead author Harriet George, a postdoctoral researcher at the varsityas Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

"Hopefully, with our newly available data, we can help to reconcile that debate."

Much of the debate around Venus and lightning dates back to 1978 when a NASA spacecraft called Pioneer Venus entered into orbit around Earth's hotter, angrier twin. Almost immediately, the spacecraft began picking up the signals of whistler waves hundreds of miles above the planet's surface.

For many scientists, these signals were reminiscent of a familiar phenomenon from Earth: lightning.

George noted that, on Earth, whistler waves are often -- but not always -- created by lightning. Lightning strikes, she said, can jostle electrons in the planet's atmosphere, which then launch waves that spiral out into space. These waves create whistling tones that early radio operators on Earth could hear using headphones, hence the name "whistlers".

If Venus' whistler waves have a similar origin, then the planet might be a monster of lightning, experiencing roughly seven times more strikes than Earth. Scientists have also spotted lightning on Saturn and Jupiter.

"Some scientists saw those signatures and said, "That could be lightning,'" George said. "Others have said, "Actually, it could be something else." There's been back and forth about it for decades since." Parker Solar Probe could offer scientists an opportunity to resolve the debate for good, the team said.
Nizamabad : , Oct 3 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday claimed that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had requested him to include the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) into the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) but he refused to do so.

Addressing a public meeting here, he said the BRS chief had met him after Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections as BRS had failed to get the majority in the civic body while the BJP had won 48 seats.

Modi said he told KCR that the BJP would sit in the Opposition rather than inducting BRS into the NDA.

The Prime Minister claimed that KCR had met him again to say that he wants to hand over the reins of power to his son KTR.

"He requested me to bless KTR. I asked him are you a Raja maharaja? This is democracy and people will decide who should rule them. That was the last day he met me," claimed Modi.

The Prime Minister was explaining why KCR had stopped welcoming him on his visits to Telangana.

He remarked that the Chief Minister does not have courage to make eye contact with him. Modi also alleged that BRS helped the Congress party in Karnataka elections and the Congress party was now paying back in Telangana by dividing the votes.

Modi launched a scathing attack on the BRS government saying it 'looted' huge funds sent by the Centre for the development of Telangana.

He said while thousands of families made sacrifices for Telangana, only one family had grabbed everything.

"They use your votes only to become richer. They only promoted family rule and corruption," he said.

Modi appealed to the people to be cautious of the Congress party saying it had taken a contract of dividing the votes at any cost.

"The entire country has rejected the Congress. You know, when the Congress loses power in one state it becomes difficult for the party to come back," he said.

He alleged that the BRS had opened its coffers for the Congress to split the votes. "There is a game going on behind the curtains. BRS and Congress are working together for a backdoor entry," he said. Appealing to Telangana people to give him five years, he promised to give them back whatever BRS has looted from them.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : Journalists Urmilesh, Aunindyo Chakravarty, Abhisar Sharma, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, along with historian Sohail Hashmi, underwent questioning but were subsequently released in the evening after extensive inquiries for hours.

During the questioning at Special Cell police station in Lodhi Colony, the police presented them with a list of 25 inquiries encompassing various topics, such as their international trips, involvement in protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, and participation in the farmers' agitation, as per sources.

Notably, no arrests have been made during the ongoing searches primarily focused on the Delhi-NCR region.

In another development, Prabir Purkayastha, the founder and editor-in-chief, was brought to the portal's south Delhi office in the presence of a forensic team.

Simultaneously, officials from the Delhi Police Special Cell sealed the 'NewsClick' office in Delhi.

Sources indicate that the searches at various locations linked to NewsClick were conducted based on a case registered on August 17 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including Section 153A (promoting enmity between groups) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy).

A source told IANS that section 16 (Terrorist Act), section 17 (raising funds for terrorist acts), section 18 (Conspiracy) and section 22 C (Offences by Companies) of the UAPA have been invoked in the FIR.
New Delhi, Oct 03 : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday vacated its interim order issued on September 21, which directed that the services of professionals engaged as fellows with the Delhi Assembly Research Centre (DARC), whose contracts were terminated by the Assembly Secretariat, shall continue in their positions until December 6, and stipends shall be paid to them.

Last week, the court had said that it will decide on Wednesday on the potential modification of its interim direction. "List for order on October 3. Let me think over it," he had said.

This comes on an application submitted by the Legislative Assembly Secretariat and other relevant authorities, which sought to vacate the interim order.

Justice Subramonium Prasad, who presided over the case, noted that the Supreme Court in July had refused to stay the operation of the letter issued by Delhi Government's Services Department directing the disengagement of the Fellows and Associate Fellows.

He observed, "Propriety demands that this court ought not have passed any interim order which had the effect of staying the Order dated 05.07.2023 and other consequential orders."

While Justice Prasad disposed the application, he said that it is always open for the Fellows to approach the Supreme Court to get appropriate clarifications.

The respondent authorities had argued that the previous order could not be sustained because there was no sanction for the posts by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, and there was an ongoing matter in the Supreme Court concerning control of services.

Counsel for the petitioners had countered the application by stating that the scope of the current petition did not overlap with the matter pending before the Supreme Court.

They had argued that the petitioners were caught between two behemoths and expressed concerns about a breach of the principle of separation of powers between the Legislature and the Eexecutive.

The court had expressed concerns about "propriety" and suggested that the petitioners seek clarification from the Supreme Court regarding the continuation of the petition in the High Court. Seventeen fellows had challenged the termination of their contracts.

Justice Prasad, on September 21, had sought explanations from the Delhi Assembly Secretariat, services, and finance departments regarding the termination of the Fellows' contracts.

The court had noted that the Assembly Speaker had previously stated that the reasons for termination did not apply to the petitioners' services and sought clarification on the change in the stand.

The petitioners had contended that their services were terminated prematurely, arbitrarily, and illegally after a letter issued by the services department on July 5, and they were not paid their stipends.

They argued that this violated their fundamental rights and the doctrine of separation of powers, as they were engaged at the Delhi Assembly Research Centre, which operates under the Assembly and the Speaker's authority.

The court had directed that the services of the petitioners be maintained until the next date of hearing on December 6 and that replies be filed within two weeks.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : Two women inter-state arms traffickers were arrested by the Delhi Police's Special Cell and 10 good quality pistols, procured from Madhya Pradesh and meant to be supplied to criminals in Delhi and its peripherals, recovered from them, a police official said on Tuesday.

The duo was identified as Chanchal, 32, and Vikansha, 23, both residents of Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr

The officials said that out of 10 pistols, recovered from the possesion of the duo are, five pistols of .32 bore and five single-shot pistols.

According to police, on October 1, specific information was received that two female key members of this syndicate, namely Chanchal and Vikansha, had procured a consignment of pistols from MP's Khargone.

"It was also informed that they were on the way to Delhi to meet one of their contacts at the intersection of MB Road-Surajkund Road in Delhi between 9 p.m and 10 p.m on October 1, to deliver the pistols," Special Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, H.G.S Dhaliwal said.

Acting on the inputs, a trap was laid and Chanchal and Vikansha were nabbed with the weapons.

"The arrested persons have been thoroughly interrogated, and they have disclosed that they received the consignment of recovered pistols from a firearms manufacturer and supplier in Khargone," said Dhaliwal.

"They have also divulged that they had to supply these pistols to the gangsters and hardened criminals in Delhi/NCR. Both have also revealed that they were working for Sonu Chaudhary, a resident of Mathura, UP, who had sent them to procure pistols from a MP-based supplier," he added.

The accused women had to supply the pistols to a person in Delhi as per the instructions of Chaudhary. "Both the arrested accused have also disclosed that they were to be paid Rs 10,000 for safe delivery of recovered pistols after taking the consignment of the same from the supplier in MP and handing over the same to receivers in Delhi/NCR," the Special CP said.

"Both have disclosed that they have been indulging in the supply of firearms in Delhi and UP from MP for the last two years and have supplied more than 200 pistols in Delhi during the period," he added.
New Delhi, Oct 03 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with an order of the Madras High Court granting bail to a Madurai-based advocate, who was arrested by the NIA in connection with the Tamil Nadu Popular Front of India conspiracy case.

A Bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal ordered release of the accused on bail taking note of the translation provided by the Registrar of the High Court of the alleged conversation between the accused individuals.

The accused, in his counter-affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, claimed that a "twisted translation with wrong inference" was produced to mislead the apex court, adding that the High Court had heard the audio recording of the alleged conversation in Tamil but was not impressed with the contention of the anti-terror agency.

The top court on August 4 temporarily stayed the operation of the decision of the High Court while issuing notice on a Special Leave Petition filed by the NIA.

In its impugned decision, the High Court had granted bail to advocate M Mohamed Abbas who was booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for carrying out alleged unlawful and anti-national activities of the banned PFI.

The NIA initially registered an FIR in September last year and arrested around 15 accused for conspiring and planning to eliminate "perceived enemies" who were not aligned to the PFI ideology and were opposed to its plans to establish an Islamic State in India by 2047.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : After hours of questioning by the Delhi Police's Special Cell, journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta on Tuesday said that nine policemen came to his house in morning and he came to know about the FIR apparently under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

While leaving from the office of the Special Cell here in south Delhi's Lodhi road area, Thakurta said: "I hold an accreditation card from Press Information Bureau, Government of India. Nine police personnel came to my home in Gurugram at 6:30 a.m. in the morning. They asked me various questions. I came with them voluntarily to the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on Lodhi Road."

He said that they asked him same set of questions over and over again, they asked me if I am an employee of Newsclick, I said 'No, I'm a consultant'.

"They asked me how much I am paid, I told them. They asked me all the kinds of questions, if I covered Delhi riots, I said no. They asked if I covered farmers agitation, I said yes. Why are you consultant with NewsClick, I said I am a journalist. How long have you been a consultant with them. I said since May 2018. They asked me all kinds of questions," he said.

When asked about if he knew the sections under which the case has been registered, Thakurta said: "After I came here I learnt that an FIR has been lodged apparently under the Unlawful Activities Preventions Act and I have been here for roughly here since 8.30 a.m. and I am leaving around 6.30 p.m."

The Special Cell on Tuesday carried out searches at over 30 locations in the national capital including the premises of the NewsClick and journalists associated with it including him.

During the questioning at Special Cell police station in Lodhi Colony, the police presented them with a list of 25 inquiries encompassing various topics, such as their international trips, involvement in protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, and participation in the farmers' agitation, as per sources.

Notably, no arrests have been made during the ongoing searches primarily focused on the Delhi-NCR region.

Meanwhile, the Special Cell officers brought Prabir Purkayastha, the founder and editor-in-chief of NewsClick to its office in south Delhi in the presence of a forensic team and they sealed the its office.

Sources indicate that the searches at various locations connected to NewsClick were conducted based on a case registered on August 17 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including Section 153A (promoting enmity between groups) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy).

A source told IANS that section 16 (Terrorist Act), section 17 (raising funds for terrorist acts), section 18 (Conspiracy) and section 22 C (Offences by Companies) of the UAPA have been invoked in the FIR.

The opposition parties on Tuesday slammed the government for the police action against the journalists and alleged it of suppressing the voice of the media.
Mumbai, Oct 3 : Actor Amit Sadh, who is known for 'Kai Po Che!', 'Breathe', 'Sultan', 'Super 30' and 'Gold', has shared that with his movie 'Ghuspaith : Between Borders', he aims to honour the dedication of Indian journalists.

Directed by Mihir Kalpana Lath, the film is a tribute to Danish Siddiqui, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. The film is inspired by Danish and his companions' journey to cross borders, where they encounter bandits and a shocking massacre. After escaping, they face more danger, with Danish ultimately sacrificing himself.

As they reach Indian borders, a gunshot rings out, leaving the audience in suspense about the shooter's identity, creating a gripping cinematic experience that honours Siddiqui's legacy.

Talking about why he chose to do this project, Amit shared: "I did this film solely for the love of the craft and to support a young and budding director.I also liked his passion and the way he was prepared for the initial meet. I was simultaneously shooting for another project, schedules kept on changing and it led to me saying no twice to the film, but the love for the art pulled me. Mihir was very diligent about doing the film with me and I felt responsible."

He further mentioned: "We do short films not for money, but for the love of the art and the people. I did this for the script and for Mihir, he has made a good film. I hope that this can be a good showreel for him. I would like to like JioCinema for giving everyone this platform like a Film Festival that works as a support system for independent film makers.Congratulations to JioCinema for pulling this up."

"As a photojournalist in this film, I aim to honour the dedication of Indian journalists. Their tireless pursuit of truth, even amid challenges, inspires me. Through my character, I highlight the vital role the media plays in shaping our world," he added.

The actor shared that as journalists risk their safety to deliver news, a cornerstone of democracy, this film showcases their resilience and sacrifices.

"Portraying a photojournalist deepens my respect for the profession and its societal impact. I hope viewers enjoy the film and gain a renewed appreciation for journalists' vital work," he concluded.

'Ghuspaith: Between Borders' will drop on JioCinema on October 6.
Seoul, Oct 3 : Popular K-drama actor Lee Je Hoon has been hospitalised after he was diagnosed with ischemic colitis. Due to severe abdominal pains, the 'Taxi Driver' actor was rushed to the emergency ward.

The actor's managing agency Company issued a statement: "Lee Je Hoon went to the hospital on the night of October 1 due to severe abdominal pain, and he was diagnosed with ischemic colitis. He received emergency surgery early on October 2."

The agency added: "Thankfully the surgery was successful, and he is currently recovering at the hospital. We will have to watch the progress of his recovery, but he will probably have to hospitalised for about a week."

The 'Move to Heaven' actor was set to host the Opening Ceremony at the Busan International Film Festival 2023 along with fellow actor Park Eun Bin. While the surgery was a success and Hoon is now out of danger, due to his hospitalisation the actor will not be attending the ceremony.

His agency also apologised for the inconvenience that the festival and fans will be facing and issued an apology on the actor's behalf. "We feel very apologetic to the Busan International Film Festival and the Buil Film Awards."

The festival will be held from October 4 to 13 at the Busan Cinema Center in Busan, South Korea.

Ischemic colitis is a condition where the blood supply to the colon is reduced greatly causing massive abdominal pains, as well as suffocation and a tight chest among others.

The diminished blood flow doesn't provide enough oxygen for the cells in the digestive system. This can result in tissue damage to the affected area of the intestine. Any part of the colon can be affected, but ischemic colitis most commonly causes pain on the left side of the belly area.

The people with problems on the left side typically tend to heal on their own with some irritation though the end result is generally non-lethal. However, those with colitis on the right side of their belly are at much greater risk as they suffer from massive blood pressure, atrial fibrillation and kidney disease which can lead to death.

Meanwhile, on the work front,Lee Je Hoon is set to star in the K-drama series 'Chief Investigator 1963' and the South Korean war film 'Noryang'.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : Before dawn on Tuesday, a meeting at 2 A.M of Delhi Police gathered over 200 police personnel to prepare for an extensive operation conducted by the Special Cell.

The operation spanned over more than 30 locations in Noida, Delhi, Mumbai among others, targeting NewsClick and its journalists.

Sources said that the raid commenced at 6 A.M and covered over 30 locations across Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, and Mumbai.

A contingent of over 200 officials from various units of the Delhi Police Special Cell participated in the operation.

Sources said that a list of targeted individuals was categorised into three groups (A, B, C), with those in category A were taken to Special Cell's police station in Lodhi Colony for questioning.

Journalists Urmilesh, Aunindyo Chakravarty, Abhisar Sharma, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, along with historian Sohail Hashmi, were subsequently released in the evening after extensive inquiries for hours.

During the questioning at Special Cell police station in Lodhi Colony, the police presented them with a list of 25 inquiries encompassing various topics, such as their international trips, involvement in protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, and participation in the farmers' agitation, as per sources.

Notably, no arrests have been made during the ongoing searches primarily focused on the Delhi-NCR region.

Sources said that the searches at various locations linked to NewsClick were conducted based on a case registered on August 17 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including Section 153A (promoting enmity between groups) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy).

A source told IANS that section 16 (Terrorist Act), section 17 (raising funds for terrorist acts), section 18 (Conspiracy) and section 22 C (Offences by Companies) of the UAPA have been invoked in the FIR.
RAMALLAH, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian government on Monday established a ministerial committee to confront Israeli settlement expansion in Area C of the West Bank.

Following a weekly cabinet meeting held in Ramallah, the Palestinian government said in a statement that the new committee will focus on the development of infrastructure in Area C, including the construction of roads, land reclamation, and the extension of electricity lines as well as water and communications networks.

"The committee aims to support the existence of the Palestinian residents in area C by imposing our sovereignty over the area and improving urban life in the territories," the statement said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye was quoted as saying in the statement that the incumbent Israeli government attempted to annex Area C, noting that the area are "an integral part of the entire territory of the State of Palestine."

Being the largest and most strategically important part of the West Bank, Area C spans 3,456 square kilometers, or about 60 percent of the territory.

According to the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestinians in 1993, the West Bank was divided into three areas, with Area A under full security and administrative control of the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Area C under full Israeli control. The PA exercises administrative control over Area B but shares security control with Israeli authorities.

Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 and has since established settlements there, which are considered as violations of international law.

The Israeli settlement issue is the most prominent aspect of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and one of the main reasons for the breakdown of the U.S.-sponsored peace talks in March 2014. 
Mumbai, Oct 3 : With 41 deaths, in barely two days, reported from two government hospitals in Maharashtra's Nanded and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar districts, a furious opposition on Tuesday termed it "?murders" and demanded criminal action against those responsible.

Facing the opposition outcry, the Eknath Shinde government sent ministers Girish Mahajan and Hasan Mushrif to Nanded to assess the situation and a panel has been set up to probe the 31 deaths recorded in barely 36 hours at the Dr. Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College & Hospital there.

Another embarrassment cropped up for the ruling alliance on Tuesday with reports of at least 10 more deaths including two infants from the Government Hospital in Ghati, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (ex-Aurangabad), triggering a fresh Opposition onslaught.

Chief Minister Shinde, Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, and Health Minister Tanaji Sawant came under severe fire from the Congressa Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar, state chief Nana Patole, Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, Working President Supriya Sule, state chief Jayant Patil, Shiv Sena-UBT's Aditya Thackeray, Sanjay Raut, Sushma Andhare, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray and spokesperson Sandeep Deshpande, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi President Prakash Ambedkar and other parties/leaders.

Top Congress leaders from the centre including party President Mallikarjun Kharge, MP Rahul Gandhi, and General Secretary Priyanka Vadra also reacted strongly to the incidents in Maharashtra.

Patole said that "the government has not learnt lessons from the 18 deaths in a single night at the state-run Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Thane in mid-August".

"Thereas an outrage among the peoplea it's evident that the Shinde-Fadnavis-Ajit Pawar government is totally indifferent and thick-skinned and all the more troubling that these deaths occurred due to lack of medicines and other essentials," he said.

Instead of spending on these much-needed medicines and requirements, "the government has money for self-glorifying events, advertisements and buying political leaders", and the police should register "murder cases" against all those responsible, he demanded.

Sule also labelled the deaths of so many patients as "state murders" and demanded that Health Minister Tanaji Sawant must be made to resign, and compensation for the kin of the victims.

Taking serious cognisance, Shinde assured that "stringent action will be taken against all those guilty after the probe" into the Nanded hospital deaths.

"On preliminary enquiry, it is found that there was no shortage of medicines, doctors or other staff, yet such a tragedy occurred. We shall investigate the matter thoroughly and take further action," a grim Shinde told media persons.

As Ministers Mushrif and Mahajan visited the Nanded hospital this evening, a large number of NCP-SP demonstrated outside the venue and demanded the sacking/resignation of the Health Minister.

Other leaders spoke on how the public health system is riddled with corruption, idling or non-functional equipment, erratic supply of medicines, inadequate medical and para-medical staff, and other problems, making them "death traps".

"Some officials demanded 40 percent commissions on deals, the government failed to procure medicines on time and funds of Rs 600 crore for 2022 lapsed. In the CMas home town (Thane) though so many deaths took place (August), there is no progress on the probe panel set up till nowa" said Patole.
Kolkata, Oct 3 : West Bengal BJP was left embarrassed on Tuesday after an article published in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) linked Bangla magazine 'Swastika' went slightly soft on Trinamool Congress' national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee in connection with the cash for school jobs case in West Bengal.

"It is true that for many the main concern is why Abhishek Banerjee is still not behind the bars. This is an aberrant thought. Arrest is just a part of the entire investigation. It seems that such one-sided thought process has disassociated the opposition in West Bengal from the truth," read the article penned by Nirmalya Mukhopadhyay.

It also raised question as to whether the arrest of Banerjee is just a "sensual pleasure" or is it prompted by any "political compulsion".

The article claimed that those who are constantly demanding his arrest are not even properly aware of the reasons behind the move.

"The matter is entirely up to the investigating agencies. The matter depends on the investigating officers," it read.

Mukhopadhyay, however, refused to speak to mediapersons about the merits of the article.

The editorial board members of the vernacular mouthpiece have claimed that their policy is always 'liberty of thought and expression' of the writers concerned and the said article in no way intends to influence the process of any investigation.

Understanding that the article might create confusion among the grassroots-level party workers, Bengal BJP President Sukanta Majumdar has come forward in a damage control mode.

According to Majumdar, 'Swastika' is an independent publication, where one columnist has expressed his independent views.

"It will be wrong to think that his article will influence the general feeling of the public on any issue. It will also not influence our demands in the school jobs case. We feel that the probe agencies should adopt all steps necessary for smooth progress in the investigation process," Majumdar said.
Los Angeles, Oct 3 : Director David Yates, who is best known for directing the last four films in the 'Harry Potter' franchise all the way from 'Order of the Phoenix' to 'The Deathly Hallows Part 2', is set receive the Raindance Icon Award for his work in the film franchise as well as his contributions to cinema.

Talking on receiving the award, Yates said, quoted by ' Variety', "The Raindance Festival has been part of our filmmaking landscape for over 30 years, championing and showcasing the work of emerging writers, producers and directors, from all over the world.

"Elliot and his team have encouraged, inspired and helped educate so many along the way, including me, and it's an honour to be the recipient of a Raindance Icon Award as we celebrate and enjoy the work of this year's latest generation of storytellers," he added.

Previous recipients of the Raindance Film Festival award include Vanessa Redgrave, Jonathan Pryce, Gemma Arterton, Michael Caine, Sally Hawkins, Jude Law, Olivia Colman, Terry Gilliam, Guy Richie and Ken Loach.

In 2016, he directed the action adventure 'The Legend of Tarzan' and then returned to J.K. Rowling's world of wizardry with 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' the same year. This was followed by 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald' in 2018 and 'The Secrets of Dumbledore'.

Raindance founder Elliot Grove on Yate's name coming up for the honour said: "From making hard-hitting, award-winning television to taking the director reins of one of the biggest and most-loved film franchises of all time, David's career trajectory is nothing short of inspirational. His ongoing support of emerging writers and directors is also commendable."

He further mentioned: "An alumnus of the Raindance Film School, and a member of the Raindance Film Festival jury in 2019, David Yates is already a part of the Raindance story. His contribution to the British film industry is iconic, and it's therefore a great privilege to present David Yates with a Raindance Icon Award."

David Yates will be presented the award at the festival's opening gala on October 25. The 31st edition of the festival, which will be held between October 25-November 4 will open with the U.K. premiere of British actor Jack Huston's directorial debut 'Day of the Fight' and close with the U.K. premiere of Isabel Coixet's 'Un Amor'.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri on Tuesday met OPEC Secretary General Haitham al-Ghais on the sidelines of the ongoing Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC 2023).

"Discussed the global energy scenario in my meeting with OPEC SG, HE #HaithamAlGhais. India imports about 60% of its crude oil worth $101 billion & other Petroleum products from OPEC members. I highlighted how ensuring access to affordable energy is a must for social upliftment", Puri posted on X after the meeting.

"During pandemic, when crude oil prices crashed, the world came together to stabilise the prices to make it sustainable for the producers. Now, as the world is at cusp of economic recession & slowdown, oil producers need to show same sensitivity towards the consuming countries," he added.

"Also took the opportunity to discuss how it's the sovereign right of the oil producing & exporting countries to decide the production capacity, but, all of this is subject to the doctrine of consequences - intended & unintended."

ADIPEC 2023, which is taking place in Abu Dhabi between October 2 and 5, is the world's largest and most inclusive gathering for the energy industry. The focus area of the conference is advanced decarbonisation strategies presented by energy industry leaders.
Panaji, Oct 03 : The AAP's Minority Cell leader from Goa on Tuesday alleged that the 'IT Cell' had planned the strategy of posting a derogatory Instagram Post on Prophet Muhammad and has demanded swift action against the culprits.

"These comments were posted from abroad in Konkani but they are not properly worded. It seems like the person is not Goan. The IT cell planned it well and told the person (abroad) to write what they wanted him to write," AAP state Vice President of the Minority Cell Sarfaraz Ankalgi told reporters here.

Though Sarfaraz Ankalgi alleged that the 'IT Cell' was behind the ongoing issue of disturbing communal harmony, however he didn't mention which party or organisation this 'IT Cell' belongs to.

"Chief Minister Pramod Sawant says if the culprit is from India, then police will arrest him/her, but he also said that if the culprit is from overseas then it will be difficult (to nab). This means he is sure that s/he is from abroad," Ankalgi said.

Ankalgi expressed concern about the timing of the incident, occurring just before the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

"Such actions aimed at sowing discord threaten Goa's long-standing tradition of communal harmony," he said.

The AAP has submitted a memorandum to the Director General of Police urging the force to take swift action against the culprit behind the alleged derogatory Instagram post on Prophet Muhammad.

"We are deeply concerned about the incident and its potential to disrupt communal harmony in Goa. We expect the government's commitment to upholding the law and justice in the state, especially considering its 'double engine' approach," Ankalgi stated.

He said that if the Chief Minister stands in solidarity with the minority community of Goa, then he should implement strong measures.

According to him, the incident occurred on September 29, just after the peaceful observance of Eid-e-Milad.

"An Instagram post containing derogatory references to Prophet Muhammad went viral, causing distress and anger within the Muslim community and among the wider Goan populace. The AAP strongly condemns this offensive content and demands swift and decisive action against those responsible," he said.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : A 31-year-old woman was shot at by three assailants in Southwest Delhi, an official said on Tuesday.

Police said that as per the medico-legal case information regarding gunshot injury of one Roshni (31), a resident of Dwarka, was received from Indira Gandhi Hospital at Palam Village police station.

"Upon reaching the spot, it was fond that Roshni was referred to Safdarjung Hospital for further treatment," said a senior police official.

However, on reaching Safdarjung Hospital, victim was found unfit for statement.

"Statement of her husband Tara Chand was recorded who alleged that three accused persons shot his wife by a gun," said the official.

The official said that a case under section 307, 34 of the Indian Penal Code and 27 Arms Act was registered and further probe is going on.
Farmers not getting MSP on paddy in Haryana, says Hooda. Image Source: IANS News

Chandigarh, Oct 3 : Congress leader and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday said depriving farmers of crop loss compensation and the minimum support price (MSP) was the policy of the BJP-JJP coalition government.

He said the government procurement was deliberately started with delay so that farmers could not get the MSP.

However, the government said 8.06 lakh metric tonnes (MT) paddy and 1.14 lakh MT millet were procured across the state till Tuesday and the procurement is underway smoothly.

Contrary to this, Hooda said no arrangement has been made by the government even for the lifting the purchased crop.

"The markets are flooded with paddy and millets and lakhs of quintals of the crop is yet to arrive. But from now onwards, the arrival has been stopped and farmers have to go wait for long hours and even days to sell the produce," he said.

Hooda said the Congress has repeatedly demanded the government start procurement soon, improve the arrangements in the mandis, and bring promptness in procurement and payment but the government remained asleep and handed over the farmers to private agencies.

Reiterating his demand, Hooda said the MSP is the right of the farmer and every farmer's crop should be purchased at MSP.

Meanwhile, according to the government, total payment of Rs 690 crore has been disbursed directly into accounts of over 32,000 farmers for their crop purchases through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system. In a farmer-centric move to accommodate the early arrival of Kharif crops, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar took the decision to commence procurement in September, ahead of the traditional October 1, said the government in a statement.

Haryana has thereby become the first state to initiate the procurement of Kharif crops earlier than usual, it added.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 3 : The INDIA bloc on Tuesday condemned the searches at the premises of NewsClick and several journalists associated with it, saying that the government is "paralysed" when it comes to taking action against those journalists inciting hatred and divisiveness in the nation.

In a statement, the opposition bloc said: "INDIA parties strongly condemn the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) government's fresh attack on the media. We steadfastly stand with the media and for the constitutionally protected freedoms of speech and expression."

It pointed out that in the last nine years, the BJP government has deliberately persecuted and suppressed the media by deploying investigative agencies to suppress the BBC, Newslaundry, Dainik Bhaskar, Bharat Samachar, the Kashmir Walla, the Wire etc., and most recently the journalists of NewsClick.

"The BJP government has also tried to convert the media into a mouthpiece for its partisan and ideological interests by facilitating the takeover of media organisations by crony capitalists. Both the government and its ideologically aligned organisations have resorted to reprisals against individual journalists who spoke truth to power," it alleged.

It also said that the BJP government has also spearheaded regressive policies like the Information Technology Rules 2021 that constrict the media from reporting objectively. "In doing so, the BJP is not only hiding its sins of omissions and commission from the people of India. It is also compromising India's global standing as a mature democracy," it said.

"The BJP government's coercive actions are invariably directed against only those media organisations and journalists that speak truth to power. Ironically, the BJP government is paralysed when it comes to taking action against those journalists inciting hatred and divisiveness in the nation. In the national interest, it would behove the BJP government to focus on genuine issues of concern to the nation and the people, and stop attacking the media to distract attention from its failures," it added.

The strong statement from the INDIA bloc came following the searches at over 30 locations in the national capital, including the premises of NewsClick as well as the residences of its journalists, after the media outlet was accused of receiving funds from China. However, no arrests have been made so far.

The Special Cell had brought several journalists to its office for questioning. During the searches, the Special Cell had also seized electronic evidence, laptops, mobile phones, pen drives and also took data dumps of hard disks from the NewsClick office and the journalists associated with the organisation including Bhasha Singh, Abhisar Sharma and Sanjay Rajoura, among others.

--IANS

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Bengaluru : Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and other leaders participate in an event organised to mark the International Day of Democracy. Image Source: IANS News

Belagavi : , Oct 3 (IANS) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Tuesday that the Backward Classes Commission has been asked to submit the caste census report to the state government.

"Once the report is submitted, it will be verified," he said.

The move is likely to trigger a political slugfest in the state.

Speaking to reporters in Belagavi, Siddaramaiah said, "The report was prepared during the tenure of former CM H.D. Kumaraswamy. H. Kantharaju was the Chairman of the Permanent Commission of Backward Classes. When he went to Kumaraswamy to submit the report, the latter did not accept it."

"The then secretary to the government did not give his signature to the report. The report will now have to be submitted after getting a signature from the secretary," he added.

Siddaramaiah maintained that he had initially ordered the socio-economic survey. Then Kantharaju was the President of the Backward Committees Commission.

"The report was not fully prepared my previous tenure. Then Kumaraswamy became the CM under the coalition government and the Commission was headed by MLA Puttaranga Setty. The report was not taken," he said.

The BJP had appointed Jayaprakash Hegde to the Commission. He had been asked to submit the report, but he had not given it, Siddaramaiah said.

The socio-economic survey, popularly known as the caste census, was conducted in Karnataka in 2015 by the Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission (KSBCC) headed by H. Kantharaju. Though Siddaramaiah ordered the caste census, he had to bend before the leaders of the Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities of his party who insisted not to accept the report.

Sources said the report stated that SC and ST groups form the majority in the state, followed by Muslims.

The Lingayats, considered to be the majority population, were shown as the third largest group, while Vokkaligas, believed to be in second position, were shown in fourth position, sources said.

The facts created a stir in the state, triggering a huge controversy as the Muslim community was shown as having the second-highest population in Karnataka.

Meanwhile, Minister for PWD, Satish Jarkiholi, has said that the caste census is ready.

"It should be accepted and implemented soon. The previous Siddaramaiah-led Congress government had spent Rs 162 crore to conduct the economic, social and academic census in the state. We are under pressure to release the report," he said.
Patna: Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav along with RJD chief Lalu Prasad speaks to the media. Image Source: IANS News

Patna, Oct 03 : A hearing in the land-for-job case against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Chief Minister Rabri Devi, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and 14 others is scheduled in the special CBI court on Rouse Avenue in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The court has asked them to be physically present for the hearing on Wednesday.

The CBI has already served summons to all 17 people in this case.

The alleged land-for-job scam took place during the second tenure of the UPA Government when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Union Railway Minister.

The Home Ministry had given an order on September 12 this year to file a case against Lalu Prasad Yadav and the special CBI court has admitted the case.

The court had accepted the chargesheet filed against Tejashwi Yadav as well.

The CBI has claimed in a chargesheet that Tejashwi Yadav is an accused in this case.
Palestinian farmers sort dates in the central Gaza Strip Oct. 2, 2023. The annual date harvest season kicked off in the Gaza Strip in the first week of October. This year's harvest, bearing the hopes of Palestinian farmers for more income, lasts until mid-November, according to the Hamas-run agriculture ministry in Gaza. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

GAZA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The annual date harvest season kicked off in the Gaza Strip in the first week of October.

This year's harvest, bearing the hopes of Palestinian farmers for more income, lasts until mid-November, according to the Hamas-run agriculture ministry in Gaza.

Mohammed Abu Oda, spokesman of the agriculture ministry, told Xinhua that the coastal enclave is expected to produce about 15,000 tons of dates this year, a rebound from low yield last year under the impact of bad weather.

"In Gaza, there are about 240,000 palm trees, while about 180,000 are fruitful, and the rest are unproductive," Abu Oda said, noting that the ministry had suspended date imports to benefit locally produced types.

For Gazans who are in economic difficulty, the date harvest season is considered one of the most important seasons, as it provides work for dozens of unemployed local people.

Medien Abu Rujaila, a farmer, told Xinhua that he waits for the yearly date of harvest season to get a seasonal job to keep his family afloat.

In the peak harvest season, "I work for 12 hours a day and can earn about 40 U.S. dollars," said the 42-year-old father of six, adding that the money he saved during the harvest season could feed his family for two months at least. 

A Palestinian farmer harvests dates from a date palm tree in the central Gaza Strip Oct. 2, 2023. The annual date harvest season kicked off in the Gaza Strip in the first week of October. This year's harvest, bearing the hopes of Palestinian farmers for more income, lasts until mid-November, according to the Hamas-run agriculture ministry in Gaza. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

Palestinian farmers sort dates in the central Gaza Strip Oct. 2, 2023. The annual date harvest season kicked off in the Gaza Strip in the first week of October. This year's harvest, bearing the hopes of Palestinian farmers for more income, lasts until mid-November, according to the Hamas-run agriculture ministry in Gaza. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

A Palestinian farmer harvests dates from a date palm tree in the central Gaza Strip Oct. 2, 2023. The annual date harvest season kicked off in the Gaza Strip in the first week of October. This year's harvest, bearing the hopes of Palestinian farmers for more income, lasts until mid-November, according to the Hamas-run agriculture ministry in Gaza. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

A Palestinian farmer presents newly-harvested dates in the central Gaza Strip Oct. 2, 2023. The annual date harvest season kicked off in the Gaza Strip in the first week of October. This year's harvest, bearing the hopes of Palestinian farmers for more income, lasts until mid-November, according to the Hamas-run agriculture ministry in Gaza. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)
New Delhi: BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur at Parliament complex during the ongoing winter session, in New Delhi on Friday, Dec. 16, 2022. (Photo: Qamar Sibtain/IANS). Image Source: IANS News

Mumbai, Oct 3 : Bharatiya Janata Party MP Pragya Singh Thakur, a prime accused in the Malegaon 2008 bomb blast case, broke down while recording her statement before the Special NIA Court here on Tuesday, according to her lawyers.

Thakur was posed around five dozen questions pertaining to the testimonies of the medicos who had treated the injured and conducted the post-mortems of the dead victims of the blast case, but she replied in the negative to the queries.

Seated in the witness box, at one point, a disturbed Thakur became visibly emotional and the court proceedings were halted for 10 minutes till she regained her composure, informed advocates J.P. Mishra and Prashant Maggu later.

The Special NIA Court Special Judge A.K. Lahoti took up recording the statements under CrPC Section 313, of Thakur and six others who are accused in the case, affording an accused the opportunity to detail the circumstances appearing in the evidence against them.

The other accused in the case, besides Thakur, are -- retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Ajay Rahirkar and Sameer Kulkarni. So far the court recorded the testimonies of 323 witnesses of which 34 turned hostile, since the trial began in December 2018.

As ordered earlier (September 25) by the Special Judge Lahoti all the 7 accused were present in the court and the recording of statements will continue on Wednesday.

The blast on September 29, 2008 killed around 9 persons and injured over 100 when the explosives planted on a motorcycle went off near a mosque in this Muslim-dominated town in Nashik.
Nizamabad : , Oct 3 (IANS) In a politically explosive 'disclosure' ahead of Telangana assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday claimed that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had requested him to take Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) into National Democratic Alliance (NDA) but he denied him entry due to his misdeeds.

Addressing a public meeting here, he said for the first time he was sharing a secret. Claiming that it is '100 percent truth', he suggested the media to crosscheck the same.

He said BRS Chief had met him to seek BJP's help after Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections (2021) as BRS had failed to get the majority in the civic body while BJP had won 48 seats.

"You might have seen before the Hyderabad elections, he used to come to the airport with his entire army to welcome me. What happened, he suddenly stopped coming and is angry now. The reason is that after the Hyderabad elections he came to meet me in Delhi, presented a shawl, tried to show immense love that is not in KCR's character. He told me the country is progressing under your leadership and we want to become part of NDA," said Modi

"He requested our help in Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. I told KCR your deeds are such that Modi can't join you. If we have to sit in opposition we will sit but we will not betray the people of Telangana. I refused to help him and denied him entry into NDA which has made him angry."

The Prime Minister claimed that KCR met him again to say that he wants to hand over the reins of power to his son KTR. "He requested me to bless KTR. I asked him are you a Raja maharaja? This is democracy and people will decide who should rule them. That was the last day he met me," claimed Modi.

The Prime Minister said that after this KCR never had the courage to make eye contact with him. He remarked that a corrupt person can't sit next to him.

Modi also alleged that BRS helped the Congress in Karnataka elections and the Congress was now trying to pay back in Telangana by dividing the votes.

The Prime Minister launched a scathing attack on the BRS government saying it 'looted' huge funds sent by the Centre for the development of Telangana.

He said while thousands of families made sacrifices for Telangana, only one family had grabbed everything. He told people that KCR's family used their votes only to become rich and was busy only in promoting family rule and corruption.

He alleged that BRS turned Loktantr into 'Loottantr' and Prajatantr into 'Pariwartantr'. "There is KCR, his son, daughter, nephew or their in-laws. There is no other work but only loot," he remarked.

This was Modi's second public meeting in Telangana in three days. This time he was speaking in Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, where BJP's D. Arvind had defeated KCR's daughter K. Kavitha in 2019 elections.

Modi appealed to people to be cautious of the Congress party saying it had taken a contract of dividing the votes at any cost.

He alleged that the BRS has opened its coffers for Congress to split the votes. "There is a game going on behind the curtains. BRS and Congress are working together for a backdoor entry," he said.

"These anti-Telangana people extend small benefits to people before elections to get the right to loot Telangana for next 5 years. We have to reverse this tradition in Telangana," he said.

Modi appealed to people to give BJP a chance. "Trust me for five years, not more.. Whatever they looted I will bring all that to your feet," he said.

He alleged that Congress made big promises in several states but to implement them imposed several conditions.

Alleging that BRS also made a false promise for unemployment allowance, he said both BRS and Congress were the same in their approach.

"There is no need for youth to get disappointed. This is Modi's guarantee. After BJP comes to power we will expose all their sins. I will remove all their evils and take up this as a movement because I am seeing how they are looting Telangana," he said.

Modi said after India became independent, Nizam had created hurdles in liberation of Hyderabad region but a 'Gujarati son Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel demonstrated power and gave you independence.'

"Today another Guujarati son has come for your development, welfare and prosperity," he added.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Limited (BAGIC) has received a show-cause notice from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence alleging tax demand of Rs 1010 crore.

Bajaj Finserv said that Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company, an unlisted material subsidiary of the company, has received a show-cause cum demand notice from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence, Pune Zonal Unit, under Section 73(1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (the Act) on 29 September alleging a tax demand of Rs 1010,05,80,540.

aThe alleged demand and the impugned show-cause cum demand notice pertains to non-payment of GST on the co-insurance premium accepted as follower in case of coinsurance transactions and non-payment of GST on re-insurance commission accepted on the reinsurance premium ceded to various Indian and foreign reinsurance companies during the period July 2017 to March 2022," the company said.

The show-cause cum demand notice refers to the two matters that are industry-wide issues and based on the advice of its tax advisors, BAGIC will be filing appropriate response to the said notice within the prescribed timelines.

Earlier, ICICI Lombard had said the company has received a show-cause cum demand notice from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence, Pune Zonal Unit, under Section 73(1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (the Act), on September 27, 2023 alleging a tax demand of Rs 1,728.86 crore.

The alleged demand and the impugned show-cause cum demand notice pertains to non-payment of GST on the co-insurance premium accepted as follower in case of coinsurance transactions and non-payment of GST on re-insurance commission accepted on the reinsurance premium ceded to various Indian and foreign reinsurance companies during the period July 2017 to March 2022, ICICI Lombard had said.

The show-cause cum demand notice refers to matters relating to industry wide issues and based on the advice of its tax advisors, the company will be filing appropriate response to the said botice within the prescribed timelines, it had said.
Guwahati, Oct 3 : The Assam government has given its in-principle nod to the initiation of the process for a socio-economic assessment of the state's five 'indigenous' Muslim communities -- Goria, Moria, Deshi, Syed and Jolha, an official said on Tuesday.

The decision was taken at a meeting on Tuesday presided by the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Minister for the Department of Minority Affairs Chandra Mohan Patowary and senior officials of the State government were also present in the meeting.

Sarma instructed the concerned authorities to take necessary measures so as to ensure the upcoming socio-economic assessment, on its completion, is able to furnish adequate data that can be utilised by the state government to take steps for comprehensive socio-political, academic and economic uplift for the five indigenous Muslim communities.

The state Cabinet has already approved the 'indigenous' status for the above-mentioned five Muslim communities.

The latest decision to go ahead with a socio-economic assessment of the members of the state's five 'indigenous' Muslim communities is expected to provide a push for their inclusive development in the fields of healthcare, cultural identity, education, financial inclusion, skill development and women empowerment, among others, a statement mentioned.

Earlier, Sarma had participated in an interactive session with the intellectuals and leading citizens of the indigenous Muslim communities of the state.

This was followed by a formation of several sub-committees by the state government with representatives of indigenous Muslim community. The sub-committees, in their reports which were subsequently submitted to the state government, recommended a comprehensive socio-economic survey covering the members of the five indigenous Muslim communities, the official statement said.
Colombo, Oct 3 : Amidst pressure by China on Sri Lankan government to have the joint research program as planned using controversial Chinese vessel Shi Yan 6, Sri Lankan state university that was to represent Sri Lanka has decided to step aside.

The University of Ruhuna, the government-run university on Tuesday announced that it will stay away from the planned geophysical scientific research with the Chinese ship.

The university had decided to drop the joint research with China as one of the lecturers who agreed to join the research had migrated while another lecturer had already left his duties with the university.

According to the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) the Chinese geophysical scientific research vessel was to enter Sri Lankan waters following an agreement with the University of Ruhuna.

Even though Sri Lanka Navy had earlier announced that the vessel was to dock in Sri Lanka on October 25, countryas Foreign Ministry is yet to give clearance for the research.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry has said that Sri Lanka has not given green light for the Chinese vessel Shi Yan 6 as Indian security concerns were important to the country.

The FM has said that the negations are still continuing and the vessel could enter the island nation if China agreed to comply with the standard operating procedures of Sri Lanka.

According to reports Sri Lanka also wanted to delay the research till November and also to avoid research on Northern seas closer to India.

However, China is adamant on having the research as scheduled in October.

Despite awaiting clearance the vessel last week entered the Indian Ocean and on Tuesday it was located around 474 nautical miles away from the China-run Sri Lankaas southern Hambantota Port on Tuesday.

According to Beijing, the vessel was to conduct a joint military scientific research in the Sri Lankan EEZ and beyond in October-November 2023.End

--IANS

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New Delhi: A view of the Supreme Court in New Delhi on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. (Photo: Wasim Sarvar/IANS). Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Oct 3 : Here is a list of some important cases which Supreme Court heard on Tuesday: Chandrababu Naidu

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to pass any interim relief on a plea filed by Telugu Desam Party supremo and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who is behind the bars in connection with the alleged Skill Development Corporation scam case.

Ram Setu

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a PIL seeking directions to the Centre to construct a wall in the vicinity of Ram Setu and to declare it as a national heritage monument.

Rahul-Sonia pleas

While referring to pleas filed by Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi against the transfer of their tax assessments to the central circle, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said that central assessments may be required if there were cross-transactions between individuals.

PFI conspiracy case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with an order of the Madras High Court granting bail to a Madurai-based advocate, who was arrested by the NIA in connection with the Tamil Nadu Popular Front of India conspiracy case.

Ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed three petitions by sacked IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt against a trial judge alleging unfairness in a trial related to a drugs planting case against him, and also imposed Rs 3 lakh fine on him.

Krishna Janmabhoomi case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that it will hear on October 30 the Shahi Eidgah Masjid managing committee's plea against the Allahabad High Court order transferring to itself a clutch of petitions seeking various reliefs with respect to the dispute.

Bribing special judge

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed immediate release of the directors of Gurugram-based realty company M3M Group, Pankaj Bansal and Basant Bansal, who were behind the bars in connection with a money laundering case pertaining to the alleged bribing of a CBI/ED judge.
Hyderabad, Oct 3 : A 31-year-old man from Hyderabad in the US died of drowning after accidentally falling into a swimming pool, as per information reaching his family here.

Mohammed Mustafa Shareef, who was working as a food delivery boy in Pinellas Park in Florida state, slipped into a swimming pool and died while returning after delivering food, according to the information.

He is survived by his wife and two sons with the youngest only five-month-old.

A resident of Mallapur in Rangareddy district near Hyderabad, Shareef had gone to the US only nine months ago. His family has requested External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to ask the Indian Embassy in Washington and Indian Consulate in Atlanta to provide the assistance. They also requested the minister to ask the US Embassy in New Delhi and Indian Consulate General in Atlanta to issue emergency visas to the deceasedas parents and in-laws to attend final rites.

Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) leader Amjed Ullah Khan met Shareefas family members and consoled them.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : Trinamool Congress MPs Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O'Brien were allegedly detained by Delhi Police as they sat on dharna at the Krishi Bhawan here when denied meeting by Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan on Tuesday.

In a post on X, Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Saket Gokhale said: "TMC MPs and Bengal Government Ministers led by Abhishek Banerjee have just now been manhandled and mercilessly dragged from the Mininstry of Rural Development by Delhi Police and detained."

He said that this also includes four poor MGNREGA workers from Bengal who had come to place their grievance before the Minister.

"After inviting us and keeping us waiting for three hours, MoS Sadhvi Niranjan quietly slipped out of her office without a meeting. When we protested, Delhi Police, CISF, and RAF manhandled the entire delegation and everyone is now under detention. What sort of fear is this (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and (Union Home Minister Amit) Shah?" Gokhale said.

Meanwhile, according to Trinamool leaders at least 30 party MPs and 10 Bengal ministers were made to wait for three hours. After the Union Minister did not meet the delegation, the Trinamool leaders sat on dharna in the Ministry office.

In a video statement, Trinamool said: "The insulting treatment of our delegation, led by Abhishek Banerjee at Krishi Bhawan today, is a glaring example of the arrogance and high-handedness of BJP. Our leaders arrived at the appointed time of 6 PM to meet MoS Sadhvi Niranjan only to be subjected to an outrageous 90-minute wait following which they were informed that an audience was not possible.

"Let it be known that our National General secretary Abhishek Banerjee, and our leaders will not budge from Krishi Bhawan until the Minister acknowledges the blatant disrespect and meets with our delegation," it added.

Meanwhile, many police officials rushed th Krishi Bhawan to control the situation. On Tuesday afternoon, Abhishek Banerjee led the second day protest of the party leaders and workers at Jantar Mantar demanding the funds of the state government of the MGNREGA and other schemes. In the evening they marched from Jantar Mantar to Krishi Bhawan for the meeting.

On Monday, the party had staged a protest at Rajghat. On Monday too, party leaders and workers were allegedly manhandled by the police.
Srinagar, Oct 3 : J&K Police on Tuesday termed as baseless a video news suggesting involvement of a police officer in the recent Kokernag terror incident.

ADGP, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said that the video news item suggesting that suspended police officer Adil Mushtaqas involvement in Kokernag terror incident is baseless.

"This type of irresponsible journalism is an act of criminal misconduct and is liable for legal action," he said, adding that DSP Mushtaq is being investigated for an entirely different case in Srinagar district and not in Anantnag.

"It has come to notice that a video news item has been uploaded purportedly issued by a news agency by the name of Bharat TAK suggesting that Dy.SP Adil Mushtaq is involved in the Kokernag terror incident as an insider betrayal. There is no truth to this video news", police said in a post on X.
Tripura CM picks up scalpel again, operates on former MBBS student. Image Source: IANS News

Agartala, Oct 3 : In a display of dedication, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, who is also an oral and maxillo-facial surgeon, on Tuesday returned to the Tripura Medical College and Dr BRAM Teaching Hospital to perform an operation amidst his hectic schedule.

Saha, who was a professor of the medical college, performed a successful operation on one of his former students, an MBBS doctor, who had suffered a right subcondylar fracture in his mouth in a recent two-wheeler accident.

With precision and skill, he performed the surgery, ensuring a smooth and successful procedure.

Haradhan Choudhury, father of doctor Sayantan Choudhury, approached the Chief Minister seeking advice regarding his son's treatment. Initially, they had planned to seek treatment outside the state.

However, as the Chief Minister was ready to personally oversee the operation, they decided to cancel their plan to go outside the state.

In a Facebook post, Saha said: "As an Oral & Maxillo-Facial Surgeon, I have managed the time to return to my old working place at Tripura Medical College & Dr. BRAM Teaching Hospital, Hapania to treat a patient with Rt. Subcondylar fracture. The patient is an MBBS doctor and was my student and he met with an accident (RTA) while driving a two wheeler."

He said that the surgery was successful and smooth and would be followed up.

--IANS

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BEIRUT, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Minister of the Displaced Issam Charafeddine on Monday called on Syrian authorities to appoint observers on the Lebanese-Syrian borders to stop the smuggling of displaced Syrians, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

While urging Syria to dismantle the networks involved in smuggling displaced people, Charafeddine stressed "the need to stop the displacement of Syrians, which requires a political decision and repeated meetings between Lebanese and Syrian authorities."

The Syrian refugee crisis was further aggravated as thousands of Syrians attempted to enter Lebanese territories through illegal crossings over the past weeks.

Syrians' recent attempts to illegally enter Lebanon prompted Lebanese security agencies to increase border measures to stop Syrians' smuggling attempts into Lebanon.

Lebanon remains the country hosting the largest number of refugees per capita, with an estimated 1.5-2 million Syrian refugees living in the country.

Lebanese officials have repeatedly insisted on returning Syrian refugees to their homeland, saying the large number of Syrian refugees weighed heavily on Lebanon's economy and infrastructure. 
Jaipur, Oct 3 : More than a month after his "corruption is rampant in judiciary" comment, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday apologised for his statement.

In his reply filed in the Rajasthan High Court (Jaipur Bench), Gehlot said that whatever he had said was not his views, as former judges have also given statements many times regarding corruption in the judiciary.

"Even in my statement, I expressed my views while quoting them. Still, if my statement has hurt the dignity of the judiciary, I apologise," he said.

Taking the statement of Gehlot on record, the division bench of Chief Justice A.G. Masih fixed the next hearing in the case for November 7.

Advocate Prateek Kasliwal, who appeared on behalf of Gehlot, said: "We have presented the documents of statements given by former judges along with the reply of CM Gehlot in the court."

Gehlot, while talking to the media in Jaipur on August 30, had said that severe corruption is taking place in the judiciary.

"The situation is serious. Countrymen should think," he had said.

"The allegations made by BJP MLA Kailash Meghwal against Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal are true. I have come to know that there was a lot of corruption during his (Arjun Ram Meghwal) time. It has been suppressed. These people have taken a stay from the high court."

There was a stir in the judicial circles over Gehlot's remarks. Lawyers had also demonstrated against Gehlot in the high court and district courts.
Nizamabad : , Oct 3 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that the Congress party's new thinking of rights in proportion to population will do grave injustice to South India and backstab the minorities.

Addressing a public meeting here, he launched a bitter attack on the Congress in the backdrop of the caste survey in Bihar, saying that poor are the biggest caste in the country and their welfare and development is real social justice.

A day after Bihar government released the report on caste survey, Modi came down heavily on the Congress, alleging that it has come out with a new slogan 'jitni abadi utna haq' to grab power.

Modi asked Congress to declare whether it is against minorities and South India.

"Their new thinking will do grave injustice to South India and it will also backstab the minorities," he said.

Referring to the ongoing discussion in the country on delimitation of parliamentary constituencies, he said that wherever the population is less, the number of seats comes down and wherever the population is more, the number of seats go up.

"All states in South India helped the country in population control. The Congress' new slogan means it wants to bring down the number of MP seats in South India. Will South India accept this? Will South India forgive the Congress," he asked.

Alleging that the Congress is playing games to do injustice to South India, he asked the constituents of the opposition INDIA bloc to question the Congress.

The Prime Minister said that the poor are the biggest needy section in the country.

"If there is a biggest caste in India, they are the poor. Serving them, working for their welfare and their development is the real social justice," he said.

Claiming that his government worked for the welfare of the poor for the last nine years, he cited Niti Aayog's report that in five years, 13.5 crore people came out of poverty.

"For me, if there is one biggest caste in the country, it's the poor. If we remove the poor out of poverty, nobody can stop a country from becoming a developed nation. This is Modi's dream and this is Modi's guarantee," he added.
New Delhi: Maharashtra newly elected CM Eknath Shinde along with Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis during a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday, July 09, 2022. (Photo: Anupam Gautam/IANS). Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Oct 3 : Amid purported annoyance of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who is not attending cabinet meetings, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis arrived in the nation capital on Tuesday and met Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The fact that Ajit Pawar, who heads a breakaway NCP faction that is a member of the ruling coalition, is not accompanying the duo have added to the rift rumours.

According to sources, Shinde and Fadnavis, cancelling all their engagements, left for Delhi to confer with Shah, and were briefing him on the state's political situation and Ajit Pawar's attitude and demands. They were also discussing the planned cabinet expansion.

Ajit Pawar is said to be annoyed for some days now and is skipping cabinet meetings, with the delay in the cabinet expansion and appointment of Guardian Ministers among the reasons for him sulking.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : Delhi Police have got the transit remand of Lokesh Sriwas, who was arrested from Chhattisgarh in connection with the sensational heist in the heart of the national capital in which jewellery worth over Rs 20 crore was burgled last month.

Sub-inspector Jitendra Raghuvanshi of Hazrat Nizamuddin police station moved an application on Tuesday for the formal arrest and transit remand of the accused.

"The accused was produced before the judicial magistrate, Raipur, and the court granted 72-hour transit remand of Lokesh to Delhi Police," an official said.

"After punchnama before an executive magistrate, the case property shall also be handed overto investigating officer Jitendra Raghuvanshi.The police team is expected to reach Delhi along with Lokesh on Wednesday," added the official.

Lokesh Sriwas (31), a.k.a Golu, was apprehended from Bhilai for his alleged involvement in the theft of gold and diamond jewellery from the Umrao Singh Jewellers last month.

Preliminary investigations suggest that he carried out the entire operation single-handedly, spanning over an 18-hour period. His entry into the store occurred at approximately 10:45 p.m. September 24, and he exited at around 5 p.m. the following day.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : Trinamool Congress MPs Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O'Brien were allegedly detained by Delhi Police as they sat on dharna at the Krishi Bhawan here when denied a meeting by Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan on Tuesday.

In a post on X, Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Saket Gokhale said: "TMC MPs and Bengal Government Ministers led by Abhishek Banerjee have just now been manhandled and mercilessly dragged from the Mininstry of Rural Development by Delhi Police and detained."

He said that this also includes four poor MGNREGA workers from Bengal who had come to place their grievance before the Minister.

"After inviting us and keeping us waiting for three hours, MoS Sadhvi Niranjan quietly slipped out of her office without a meeting. When we protested, Delhi Police, CISF, and RAF manhandled the entire delegation and everyone is now under detention. What sort of fear is this (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and (Union Home Minister Amit) Shah?" Gokhale said.

Meanwhile, according to Trinamool leaders at least 30 party MPs and 10 Bengal ministers were made to wait for three hours. After the Union Minister did not meet the delegation, the Trinamool leaders sat on dharna in the Ministry office.

In a video statement, Trinamool said: "The insulting treatment of our delegation, led by Abhishek Banerjee at Krishi Bhawan today, is a glaring example of the arrogance and high-handedness of BJP. Our leaders arrived at the appointed time of 6 PM to meet MoS Sadhvi Niranjan only to be subjected to an outrageous 90-minute wait following which they were informed that an audience was not possible.

"Let it be known that our National General secretary Abhishek Banerjee, and our leaders will not budge from Krishi Bhawan until the Minister acknowledges the blatant disrespect and meets with our delegation," it added.

Meanwhile, many police officials rushed th Krishi Bhawan to control the situation. On Tuesday afternoon, Abhishek Banerjee led the second day protest of the party leaders and workers at Jantar Mantar demanding the funds of the state government of the MGNREGA and other schemes. In the evening they marched from Jantar Mantar to Krishi Bhawan for the meeting.

On Monday, the party had staged a protest at Rajghat. On Monday too, party leaders and workers were allegedly manhandled by the police.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : In wake of the drama at the Krishi Bhawan on Tuesday evening as a Trinamool Congress delegation, led by party General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, staged a sit-in alleging that Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti had not met them despite an appointment, she said that she had waited two and a half hours for them.

Sharing a video of her sitting in her office on X, the Union Minister for Rural Development said that the Trinamool delegation, comprising party MPs and West Bengal ministers, was supposed to come at 6 p.m. but did not reach then.

She had only left the ministry at 8.30 p.m. after waiting for them for two and a half hours, she said, calling their conduct "shameful".

The Union Minister also accused the Trinamool leaders of playing politics, alleging that they had no intention of meeting her over their grievances.

As per the Trinamool, its MPs Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O'Brien were allegedly detained by Delhi Police as they sat on dharna at the Krishi Bhawan here when denied a meeting by Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan on Tuesday.

In a post on X, Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Saket Gokhale said: "TMC MPs and Bengal Government Ministers led by Abhishek Banerjee have just now been manhandled and mercilessly dragged from the Mininstry of Rural Development by Delhi Police and detained."

"After inviting us and keeping us waiting for three hours, MoS Sadhvi Niranjan quietly slipped out of her office without a meeting. When we protested, Delhi Police, CISF, and RAF manhandled the entire delegation and everyone is now under detention. What sort of fear is this (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and (Union Home Minister Amit) Shah?" Gokhale said.
New Delhi, Oct 3 : Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took a swipe at Narendra Modi by saying the Prime Minister has accepted that Telangana's ruling party BRS means 'BJP Rishtedaar Samithi' and the BJP-BRS partnership has destroyed the state in the last 10 years.

In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi said, "Today Modi ji openly accepted what I had said - BRS means BJP Rishtedaar Samiti. The BJP-BRS partnership has destroyed Telangana in the last 10 years."

"People (of Telangana) are intelligent and have understood their game - this time they will reject both of them and form a Congress government with six guarantees," the Congress leader added.

His remarks came after the Prime Minister, while addressing a public meeting at Nizamabad in Telangana, made a politically explosive disclosure that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had requested him to take Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) into the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold, but he had denied him entry due to his 'misdeeds'.

The revelations came ahead of the crucial Telangana Assembly elections scheduled later this year, where the BRS, Congress and the BJP are in a direct fight.

Modi said for the first time he is sharing a secret. Claiming that it is '100 per cent truth', he suggested the media to crosscheck the same.

He said the BRS chief had met him to seek BJP's help after the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections (in 2021) as the BRS had failed to get majority in the civic body while the BJP had won 48 seats.

"You might have seen before the Hyderabad elections, he used to come to the airport with his entire army to welcome me. What happened that he suddenly stopped coming and is angry now.

"The reason is that after the Hyderabad elections, he came to meet me in Delhi, presented a shawl, tried to show immense love that is not in KCR's character. He told me the country is progressing under your leadership and we want to become part of NDA," said Modi

"I told KCR that your deeds are such that Modi can't join you. If we have to sit in the opposition, we will sit but we will not betray the people of Telangana. I refused to help him and denied him entry into NDA which made him angry," Modi said.
Washington, Oct 3 : Gen Mark Milley, who just retired as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US armed forces, said there is no role for the US Military in domestic politics and its role or duty lies overseas. And the greatest threat to the US is from overseas, and that's "China". The Ukraine conflict is the biggest since world war 11.

"So as I look overseas, I think you have a wide variety of threats. I think China is the single most significant national security challenge to the US, and will remain so for many, many years to come. But the immediate threat right now is clearly this war that's in Central Europe, with Ukraine and Russia. Russia is a very powerful country. This is the biggest war since World War II," Milley told the TV programme "All Things Considered" in an interview of how the military behaves and takes.

All Things Considered (ATC) is the flagship news programme on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). The 1st programme aired on NPR, May 3, 1971.

Looking at this way, Milley said: "I think that as a soldier and as a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my primary responsibility is overseas and anything domestically is a matter of either domestic politics or domestic law enforcement unless deemed otherwise for a specific reason for orders to follow."

The US military stayed out of actual politics, he said adding, I think that's an important distinction.

"Marching behind the president, bad optics, bad image, clearly -- and I knew that, you know, within 90 seconds, walked away from it, and then later tried to make amends on that."

But having said that, that is not the same, by the way, as entering into politics.

Now, you asked me how close, but there's no role for the US military there, Milley said that it was a bad decision to march behind former US president Donald Trump during the Lafayette protesters march.

There is no role for the military there , he said to the question: "How close, General Milley, did we come to the American military being deployed against the American people?"

Milley said President Trump was also the Commander in chief of the armed forces of the US and as President he wanted active duty military in the streets of American cities to suppress the protests.

He very well could have ordered that. He didn't order it. "So that's an important distinction as well. So what I'm telling you is that the military has no role -- zero -- in actual electoral policy, or politics. So the active duty military is a very high bar for deployment on the streets of America."

"We don't take an oath to an individual; we don't take an oath to anything other than the Constitution of the US," Miley said adding: "Our loyalty,we are duty bound, we are oath bound ,to protect and defend the Constitution. And part of that, by the way, is to follow the lawful legal orders of whoever is the elected representative, whether you like the orders or not."
New Delhi, Oct 3 : Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday slammed the Centre after senior journalist Prabir Purkayastha was arrested by Delhi Police's Special Cell, saying that the Modi regime had imposed an undeclared Emergency since 2014 and it has been getting worse as it fears a loss in the 2024 elections In a post on X, Ramesh, who is Congress General Secretary in charge communication, said: "Gyan Prakash, the eminent historian at Princeton has written a deeply researched account of the 1975-77 period called Emergency Chronicles. One such hero of the resistance that Dr. Prakash describes in great detail is Prabir Purkayastha who later became an expert on energy policy.

"Today, the very same Prabir Purkayastha along with many others stands arrested by the Modi regime, which has imposed an undeclared Emergency since 2014, that has been getting worse as it fears a loss in the 2024 elections."

The Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday said that it has arrested NewsClick founder Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakravarty. Delhi Police team has also sealed the office of NewsClick in New Delhi.

Opposition parties slammed the government over the searches at the premises of NewsClick and its journalists and dubbed it as a crackdown on press freedom.

The Editors Guild of India urged the Centre to follow due process, and not make draconian criminal laws "as tools for press intimidation".

"EGI is concerned that these raids are yet another attempt to muzzle the media. While we recognise that the law must take its course if actual offences are involved, the due process has to be followed. The investigation of specific offences must not create a general atmosphere of intimidation under the shadow of draconian laws, or impinge on the freedom of expression and the raising of dissenting and critical voices," it said in a statement.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Oct 4 : The Delhi High Court has rejected a petition seeking a ban on the display of anti-tobacco health warnings containing "graphic or gross images" during films in theatres, on television, or on OTT platforms.

Justice Subramonium Prasad said that the graphic descriptions used in government-issued advertisements are intended to be "eye-openers for the people" to deter tobacco and tobacco product use, serving the public interest.

"The purpose of displaying distasteful, graphic anti-tobacco imagery in health warnings shown during movies and TV programs is solely to make people aware of the ailments and ill-effects of consuming tobacco and tobacco products and to illustrate what tobacco can do to their health," the court stated.

Regarding the petitioner, Advocate Divyam Aggarwal, the court described the plea as a misuse of the legal process but refrained from making any comments that might impact his future.

"However, this court warns the petitioner not to file such kind of frivolous petitions in the future," the court cautioned.

Aggarwal's grievance centered on the presence of "distasteful, gross, and graphic anti-tobacco imagery" in health warnings played during movies and TV programmes.

The court stressed on the harmful health effects of smoking and mentioned the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply, and Distribution) Act, 2003, which mandates statutory warnings on cigarette and tobacco product packaging and outlines the manner of specifying warnings.

The court said that the government uses these graphic descriptions in advertisements to educate the public about the dangers of tobacco and tobacco products. It noted that these government-issued ads, which the petitioner considered to contain gross and graphic imagery, are meant to discourage tobacco use and are in the public interest.
This photo taken on Oct. 3, 2023 with a mobile phone shows emergency staff members on duty at the shopping mall where a shooting took place in Bangkok, Thailand. A suspected gunman was arrested following gunshots heard in a renowned shopping mall in downtown Bangkok on Tuesday, police said. The Central Investigation Bureau of the Thai police said a perpetrator with a gun was arrested, and they were monitoring the situation of potential casualties. The official Thai News Agency, quoting local police, said the initial report put the casualties at three dead and two injured. (Xinhua/Wang Teng)

BANGKOK, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- A suspected gunman was arrested following gunshots heard in a renowned shopping mall in downtown Bangkok on Tuesday, police said.

The Central Investigation Bureau of the Thai police said a perpetrator with a gun was arrested, and they were monitoring the situation of potential casualties.

The official Thai News Agency, quoting local police, said the initial report put the casualties at three dead and two injured.

Earlier reports from local media said shoppers were evacuated from the shopping mall following suspected sounds of gunshots.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said in a social media post that he was informed of the shooting and instructed the national police chief to investigate the incident. 

This photo taken on Oct. 3, 2023 with a mobile phone shows emergency staff members on duty at the shopping mall where a shooting took place in Bangkok, Thailand.

A suspected gunman was arrested following gunshots heard in a renowned shopping mall in downtown Bangkok on Tuesday, police said.

The Central Investigation Bureau of the Thai police said a perpetrator with a gun was arrested, and they were monitoring the situation of potential casualties.

The official Thai News Agency, quoting local police, said the initial report put the casualties at three dead and two injured. (Xinhua/Wang Teng)

This photo taken on Oct. 3, 2023 with a mobile phone shows emergency staff members on duty at the shopping mall where a shooting took place in Bangkok, Thailand.

A suspected gunman was arrested following gunshots heard in a renowned shopping mall in downtown Bangkok on Tuesday, police said.

The Central Investigation Bureau of the Thai police said a perpetrator with a gun was arrested, and they were monitoring the situation of potential casualties.

The official Thai News Agency, quoting local police, said the initial report put the casualties at three dead and two injured. (Xinhua/Wang Teng)
Nairobi, Oct 4 : At least two al-Shabab logisticians were killed when a bomb they were assembling exploded at a village in Kenya's eastern county of Garissa, police said.

The police added the two were planting the improvised explosive device on the main supply route used by security agencies and other motorists when it went off.

The police said in a report that the security teams that responded to the scene found the badly mutilated bodies sprawled all over the place, Xinhua news agency reported.

The police added this indicates the terrorists are now attempting to deploy the explosives after a slight decline in attacks in September.

Such incidents are common in the area amid calls on the locals to raise the alarm whenever they witness the same.

The Somalia-based al-Shabab terrorists have been attacking places in eastern Kenya, especially in Mandera, Wajir and Garissa counties, after breaching security zones, which has left dozens of civilians and security officials dead and wounded.
Washington, Oct 4 : Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, was removed from office in a historic legislative vote for the first time in the history of the country.

The effort to remove McCarthy was spearheaded by fellow Republican Matt Gaetz, a member of a group of hardliners often called the MAGA wing for their association with former President Donald Trump, whose campaign slogan "Make America Great Again" gives them the name.

McCarthy's exit was written into the script that saw him ascend to the Speakership, a lifelong ambition, in a prolonged fight within his own party in January. He won in the 15th round of voting in a deal with the same hardliners who extracted a concession that any one member could move to have him removed. And Gaetz used that rule to introduce a resolution to vacate the office of the Speaker.

He was removed in a 216 to 210 vote, with eight Republicans voting with the Democrats.

"The office of the Speaker of the House of the US House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant," said the Republican, who presided over the vote.

Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina took over as interim Speaker till a new Speaker was elected by the Republicans.

McCarthy's removal marked another chapter in the chaotic Republican leadership of the House as he struggled to lead, torn between the bulk of the party and the hardliners, who were just a handful but their clout was significantly outsized because the thin majority enjoyed by the party. He never had much elbow room. A good example of that was the impeachment inquiry he ordered giving in to the hardliners despite the absence of any real evidence of any wrongdoing by President Joe Biden and, remarkably, opposition from fellow Republicans.

The present round of McCarthy's trouble began over funding of the federal government. The two parties were deadlocked over funding for Ukraine and other issues. The Speaker reached a deal with the Democrats and managed to pass bills keeping the government funded till mid-November.

As Gaetz used that to announce his intention to move a resolution to remove McCarthy, there was talk he might be bailed out by the Democrats, who would easily give him the numbers to make up for members of his own party who would vote to remove him. But it became clear later that was not happening.
Segro has appointed Philipp Oevermann to lead the companys investment activities in Continental Europe.

Oevermann has been with Segro for over five years and was previously Director of Logistics in Germany. He has over 15 years experience in real estate investment and asset management.



As He...

Photos: Segro



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KIEV, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Tuesday that his country needs to export 75 percent of crops from this year's harvest, the government press service reported.

"About 25 percent of the harvested grain is enough for our domestic needs, we need to export the rest," Shmyhal was quoted as saying at a cabinet meeting.

Ukraine is counting on exporting its grain via the European Union countries and Danube River ports, as well as through new "grain corridors," Shmyhal said.

According to the authorities, Ukrainian farmers are expected to reap more than 79 million tons of grain and oilseeds in 2023, up 10 percent from the previous year. 
Banned Books Week runs October 17 this year. Although seven days wont be enough to address the U.S. crisis over the right to read, BBW offers the chance to catch up on the issues and the grassroots actions under way in support of reading and writing.

Advocacy organizations have declared Saturday, October 7, a day to write a letter to an elected official, post about the freedom to read on social media, or put a local school board meeting on the calendar. American Library Association members call October 7 Freedom to Read Day, while PEN America followers refer to it as Banned Books Week Day of Action. Whatever the appellation, its an opportune time to champion the right to read.

Theres swag, too. MoveOn.org, which is among the several organizations sending a book bus around the country, unveiled a T-shirt with Banned Books Week honorary chair LeVar Burton, producer of the 2023 documentary The Right to Read. On social media, literary all-stars modeled the shirt, which features a Roy G. Biv color scheme.

Weve gathered a number of efforts taking place throughout the week. For more virtual events and inperson opportunities, check out the many organizations that represent the Banned Books Week Coalition.

The American Library Association offers free virtual BBW programming through its Office for Intellectual Freedom. On October 4, at 1 p.m. ET, authors John Green (Looking for Alaska; The Fault in Our Stars) and Mike Curato (Flamer) appear with Texas FReadom Fighters co-founder Becky Calzada and Banned Books Week youth honorary chair DaTaeveyon Daniels. That evening, at 8 p.m. ET, youth activist Daniels will interview LeVar Burton, via Instagram Live (@banned_books_week).

On October 5 at 2 p.m. ET, ALA executive director Tracie Hall will speak with Chris Jackson, publisher and editor-in-chief of PRHs One World imprint, bringing audience members a virtual Rally for the Right to Read. Webinar hosts will screen a video of How to Be an Antiracist author Ibram X. Kendis speech at the 2023 ALA Annual Conference, and representatives from ALAs Unite Against Book Bans will share resources. Ten attendees will win a full set of Kendis books. That evening, BBW youth chair Daniels will lead a roundtable with other student activists from South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, on Instagram Live (@banned_books_week).

The Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators is teaming up with the American Library Association at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, October 5, for a virtual workshop called Free People Read Freely: How Childrens Book Creatives Can Fight Book Banning. Joyce McIntosh, assistant program director for the Freedom to Read Foundation, will address First Amendment education, litigation, and advocacy, and how SCBWI members can stand against book challenges. SCBWI has more than 21,000 members, according to SCBWI executive director Sarah Baker.

The American Booksellers Association and American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression provide resources in support of the freedom to read, plus talking points and q&as with booksellers, in the ABA Right to Read Toolkit. This year, our main online event is our Banned Books Week 2023 Instagram Display Contest, in which we are asking member stores to tag pictures of their Banned Books Week displays for a chance to win a scholarship to Childrens Institute 2024, said ABA advocacy associate manager Philomena Polefrone. Submissions to the Instagram contest are due by midnight on October 7.

The National Coalition Against Censorship and Kids Right to Read Network agitate year-round for the right to read. NCACs Christine Emeran, Youth Free Expression program director, encourages podcast listeners to download the Brooklyn Public Library podcast Borrowed and Banned, which recently hosted KRRN student activists.

PEN America shares Banned in the U.S.A. resources and statistics, and reports on censorship in classrooms. Visitors to PENs site can sign an I Stand with the Banned petition in conjunction with a federal lawsuit that PEN, PRH, and several authors are filing to challenge removals and restrictions on books in Escambia County, Fla.

PEN lists 19 panelsvirtual and inpersonthroughout October and well beyond BBW. Online participants can tune in for a conversation between PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel and playwright Richard Dresser on October 4, 7 p.m. ET, and a From Howl to Now virtual event through City Lights Booksellers in San Francisco on October 3, at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, featuring author Nic Stone, the Texas FReadom Fighters Becky Calzada, PEN America chief program officer for free expression Summer Lopez, and PEN student activist Leela Hensler. Additional in-person events are happening at PEN chapters nationwide.

PEN is working with the ALAs Unite Against Book Bans and with the Writers Guild to motivate writers and readers to write a letter to an elected official, leave a message at a state or local office, or post to social media about the right to read.

The Childrens Book Council is a member of the Banned Books Week Coalition. CBC executive director Carl Lennertz said the CBC, in partnership with Sourcebooks, mailed 2,000 CBC Free Speech Kits to librarians, teachers, and booksellers in August and September. Sticker templates, #freadom pages, and additional resources can be found on the CBCs website, and the organization will host a Keep Bans Off Our Books panel at New York Comic Con on Thursday, October 12.

The CBC is also planning a Banned Books Week discussion for its membership at 12:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, October 5. Free speech advocate Pat Scales, author of Banned Books for Kids, will moderate a discussion with Raj Haldar, author of This Book Is Banned; Jonathan Haupt, executive director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort, S.C.; and student leader Millie Bennett of the Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization at Beaufort High School. When the Beaufort County Library pulled 97 books following a complaint of inappropriate content, DAYLO successfully rallied to get more than half of the books restored to the stacks.

The New York Public Library and the Atlantic are livestreaming a conversation between playwright and novelist Ayad Akhtar (Homeland Elegies), scholar and columnist Imani Perry (South to America), and Atlantic executive editor Adrienne LaFrance, to be held on October 5 at 7 p.m. ET. The panel will discuss the danger that book banning poses to democracy as well as ways to counteract attempts to silence authors and artists.
Caldecott Medalwinning author-illustrator Ed Young, best known for his reinterpretations of folktales and legends from his native China, and evocative illustrations rendered in a range of mediums, died September 29 in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. He was 91.

Ed Tse-chun Young was born November 28, 1931 in the coal-mining town of Tianjin, China. He grew up with four siblings in Shanghai where their father was dean of engineering at St. Johns University. As a boy, Young was fond of making up stories and was already exhibiting a talent for drawing.

Young immigrated to the U.S. on a student visa in 1951 at age 19, and attended City College in San Francisco and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, initially studying architecture before switching to art. In 1957, he graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and soon after, he moved to New York City to launch a career in advertising, and also began additional art study at Pratt Institute. In his free time, he enjoyed sketching animals at the Central Park Zoo and at other sites around the city.

When Young sought a more expressive direction for his art outside of advertising, a friend suggested he pursue childrens book illustration. Legendary Harper & Row editor Ursula Nordstrom encouraged Young on this new career path and offered him a contract to illustrate The Mean Mouse and Other Stories by Janice M. Udry, which was published in 1962. That debut led to many other books, written by a variety of authors.

Young received the first of his two Caldecott Honor awards in 1968 for Jane Yolens The Emperor and the Kite (World Publishing). In 1978, he began writing his own texts, mostly retellings and adaptations of folk and fairy tales inspired by his Chinese culture and the philosophy of Chinese painting, as well as by his love for animals and the natural world. Youngs Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China (Philomel) won the 1990 Caldecott Medal. And in 1993, his Seven Blind Mice (Philomel) was named a Caldecott Honor book.

Whether illustrating his own words or someone elses, Young continually looked for a new challenge in his work. To that end, he experimented with an array of mediums including pencil, ink, pastels, paints, cut- and torn-paper collage, and found objects. He sometimes hid symbols and puzzles in his artwork for readers to find. Before I am involved with a project I must be moved, and as I try something exciting, I grow, he wrote on his website. It is my purpose to stimulate growth in the reader as an active participant as well. I feel the story has to be exciting, and a moving experience for a child.

In all, he created more than 100 books for young readers and among his many other accolades were two nominations for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, and Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Eric Carle Museum and the Society of Illustrators. At different times over his career, he taught art at the Pratt Institute, Yale University, Naropa Institute, and the University of California at Santa Cruz.

The Chinese martial art and health discipline of tai chi chuan had profound influence upon my way of thinking and on the things I do, Young said in a 1968 Something About the Author profile. Young had learned tai chi chuan in 1964 from a master who was newly arrived in New York City. By 1967, Young had begun to teach the discipline and became director of the Shr Jung Tai Chi Chuan School in New Yorks Chinatown. He continued as a tai chi chuan instructor for more than 40 years in Hastings-on-Hudson.

Patricia Lee Gauch, former editorial director of Philomel Books and editor of Lon Po Po and numerous other titles, paid tribute this way: All the world was Eds paint box: a scrap of wrapping paper, a brown paper bag, a discarded piece of metal. Nothing was ever found for Ed, every thing, every scrap, was something to be repurposed for arts sake. Side by side with him in his studio, amid his scraps, bags, throwaways, I began to see art everywhere and in everything. But it wasnt art alone; Eds ideas were attached to his art of whatever texture and story. They spun out from him, embracing humanity itself as he tried, valiantly, stubbornly, to attract childrens attention to the power of goodness and what was natural.

Alvina Ling, v-p and editor-in-chief at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, offered this remembrance: My first opportunity to work with the brilliant Ed Young was on the picture book Wabi Sabi, written by Mark Reibsten. It was a profound experience. Eds wife Filomena was sick during the creation of the art for Wabi Sabi, and during the chaos of her illness and eventual death, the completed original art somehow went missingevery artist and editors nightmare! When Ed reemerged to work on the project and discovered that the art was missingstolen, perhaps he took it in stride and said, Ill do the art again. And I can only promise you that it will be better. Well, the finished art was indeed better. Wabi Sabi went on to win a New York Times best illustrated award and became a New York Times bestseller. Ed and I worked on four more books together, from the lighthearted and silly Nighttime Ninja written by Barbara DaCosta, to a book about his childhood growing up in wartime Shanghai called The House Baba Built. Another was based on a poem he wrote for his children to reassure them after the death of their mother. Should You Be a River was a book about unconditional love, and we all can take some solace from the words he wroteEd is still with us all.

Victoria Rock, founding childrens publisher and executive publishing director at Chronicle Books, fondly recalled: I first met Ed when I was an assistant working for his longtime editor Ann Beneduce. Even as a rookie, I quickly saw that Ed was an Artist, with a capital A, and also a lovely person. Years later, when it was my great pleasure to work with him on Beyond the Great Mountains (Chronicle, 2005), he told me that he had used some scraps of paper that he had saved from books he had worked on with Ann, as a secret nod to our mutual connection. In that little moment, you see both the artist and the human.

And Neal Porter, v-p and publisher of his eponymous imprint at Holiday House, shared a favorite anecdote: I was lucky to have worked with Ed on three books in the mid-2000s; I wish there could have been more. Spending time with him gave me a re-education in the art and craft of picture book making. One notable exception occurred after I made one of my regular trips to Hastings to retrieve finished artwork, done in his typical collage style. When I returned home and examined the art, I realized that many bits of collage had shaken loose in transit and fallen to the bottom of the envelope, leaving me in the unenviable position of trying to determine where they were meant to go. In time we figured it out, and that was true of working with Ed. No matter what the challenges were, we always figured it out.
Childrens authors and booksellers met at mealtimes and on the show floor at the California Independent Booksellers Alliance Fall Fest, held September 2728 in South San Francisco.

Everyone came with a few fall picks. Maureen Palacios of Once Upon a Time Bookstore (Montrose, Calif.) expressed enthusiasm for Olivers Great Big Universe by Jorge Cham (Abrams). Palacios said Cham, who has a Ph.D. in robotics and is co-executive producer of the PBS animated series Elinor Wonders Why, specializes in communicating complex topics to middle graders. I was just in schools with his book, and I havent seen kids so excited about science, she said.

Carol Doup Muller of Hicklebees named several graphic narratives she likes for fall, notably Pedro Martins Mexikid and Thien Phams Family Style (its very San Jose). Muller also recommends Erin Bows Simon Sort of Says, about a seventh-grader whose family moves to a town without wi-fi or even a radio signal. Simon tells his story in an observant, witty voice, even as readers learn he has survived a school shooting. Muller called Simon Sort of Says a challenging handsell but an astonishing read.

Authorillustrator Jane Mount salutes favorite titles in her forthcoming Books Make Good Friends (Chronicle, Nov.), which depicts the brimming stacks of a bookworm named Lotti. Booksellers will spot the spines of well-known kids books, and Chronicle is sending a broadside to authors whose work Mount featured.

Bookstore owners, too, are increasingly adding value by promoting childrens literacy in-house. Claire Bone of Wild Sisters Book Co. in Sacramento said shes in the process of moving to a more walkable location, expanding into a much larger space, and adding a tutoring center, in an appeal to families and young readers.

Change and Complexity

Childrens book buyer Ivy Quirk of Bookshop Santa Cruz was excited to hear about Mason Deavers fourth novel, Okay, Cupid (Scholastic/PUSH, Jan. 2024), during a Scholastic-sponsored lunch. Brein Lopez, manager of Childrens Book World in Los Angeles, moderated the panel of four authors and noted that their forthcoming books share a common thread of activism or pushing conventional boundaries.

Deavers YA rom-com Okay, Cupid, which features trans characters, is set in a world where matchmaking cupids really do exist. As Deaver told it, one cupid breaks the number one rule by falling for the person theyre supposed to be setting upbring on the hearts and arrows. Booki Vivat detailed her new graphic novel, Meet Me on Mercer Street (Scholastic Press, Apr. 2024), about a girl whose best friend moves away. While writing, Vivat herself relocated from Brooklyn to Oakland, Calif., and recalled her complex feelings after a childhood best friend left for a new town. She found there was so much to be said about change, personal identity, and shifting communities.

Ali Terese overcame embarrassment to write Free Period (Scholastic, Mar. 2024), a middle grade novel about menstrual equity. Sometimes when its difficult to talk about an issue, [an author can] talk about it through a character, Terese said. She imagined two unruly friends, one outspoken and the other shy, bonding over obnoxious pranks and craftivismactivism that includes crocheting uteruses and making period-themed desserts.

Whereas the other authors shared fiction, Joanna Ho detailed her picture book biography On the Tip of a Wave: How Ai Weiweis Art Is Changing the Tide, illustrated by Catia Chien (Orchard, Oct.). Weiwei is a Chinese dissident and former political prisoner who spent part of his childhood in a labor camp. Ho was inspired by his 2015 exhibition about political prisoners, installed at Alcatraz, and his 2016 display of life jackets discarded by refugees on the Aegean shore.

Ho compared photos of Weiweis work to Chiens illustrations, in which highly visible safety orange complements the saturated blue of Chinese porcelain. Although Ho did not talk about her new picture book on culturally diverse monikers, Say My Name, illustrated by Khoa Lee (HarperCollins, out now), she previewed her historical picture book, We Who Produce Pearls: An Anthem for Asian America, illustrated by Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya (Orchard, Apr. 2024).

The lunch doubled as a celebration of the career of sales representative Roz Hilden, whos retiring after 30 years with the company. After the author panel, the organizers screened a video with well wishes from childrens authors and booksellers, the audience participated in a[singalong to Hilden, and the guest of honor stepped onstage to thank the crowd.

Diverse Representation

Another authors panel, moderated by Connie Lin of Books Inc., emphasized the importance of intersectional and diverse representations for teen readers. Maggie Tokuda-Halls The Siren, the Song, and the Spy (Candlewick, out now) is a sequel to The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea. Tokuda-Hall, a former Books Inc. bookseller, called her LGBTQpositive books high fantasy with dismantling of colonialism and maybe a little destruction of capitalism.

Educator Carolina Ixta aims for socially relevant content and authentic Latino and Latina voices in her YA debut Shut Up, This Is Serious (HarperCollins/Quill Tree, Jan. 2024). A bilingual fourth-grade teacher in San Leandro, Calif., Ixta grew up reading from what she called the school of John Green, and she initially wrote fiction about white characters. I felt so much shame about it, because both my parents came from Mexico, Ixta said. After thinking about the voice and character in Jason Reynoldss Ghost, and the reasons she assigns that book to her own students, I flipped the story, creating a Latina protagonist who narrated as a 17-year-old would speak, to hook kids into reading.

Lambda Literary fellow Dale Walls, a graduate student at Stanford University, didnt set out to become a novelist. Their novel The Queer Girl Is Going to Be OK (Levine Querido, Nov.) started as an undergraduate project about queer stereotypes in cinema, accompanied by a draft film script intended to undo tired formulas. Although the project started to collect dust, Walls said their friends kept asking about it. Walls revised the script into a manuscript about Black, Latina, Asian American, and queer characters. Being fresh off the teen experience, they said, gave them insight into the YA cast.

Comics writer Jasmine Walls (no relation to Dale Walls)who has a side gig in receiving at Barnes & Noblewrote Brooms, illustrated by Teo DuVall (Levine Querido, Oct.), because she wanted to read a story about people with magic that wasnt set in Europe and wasnt predominantly white. Her Black and Choctaw characters live in 1930s Mississippi, and the book explores cultural diversity as well as disability. I love the comics mediumit combines all the visuals from a motion picture and all the fun of reading into the perfect medium to tell a story, Walls said.

Lin asked the panelists about representation, notably about being a person of color writing to people of color. Tokuda-Hall, who earlier this year defied Scholastics request to excise references to white supremacy and racism from her afterword to Love in the Library, said that I will never center white people in my books because there are enough [books with white main characters]. I can do new things that feel exciting and relevant to me.

Tokuda-Hall added that its not often that you see a panel that is all people of color. She reminded booksellers that they play an essential role in creating the environment that allows our books to exist. You have the ability to look at your sales reps and ask, Are any of these people of color touring? or Do you have ARCs for this?  Booksellers hold a lot of power in getting books on shelves and into the hands of readers, Tokuda-Hall said, and their requests influence who gets tours, who gets ARCs, who gets marketing support.

Baylee Van, director of Drag Story Hours San Francisco chapter, led a session around best practices for hosting a controversial event, protecting patrons, and supporting performers. DSHs mission is to provide glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models, Van said, and to deflect hostility directed against people in cute makeup, reading lovely books.

Van talked about refusing to let protestors trespass on private businesses (Your greatest tool is saying no), working with law enforcement (the stickiest part of keeping everyone safe), and restricting photos, videos, and social media (do not use a performers real name and do not link to their social media accounts).

Bookstores hosting DSH events and other events that attract protest must consider how presenters get calmly to and from transportationthat means no cheering them outside the event spaceand must ensure that theres a buffer around the stage area. You want the kids and the performer to feel like theyre in a space of joy, even if that space of joy is surrounded by chaos, Van said. A pamphlet for defenders, with more information on hosting, is available from DSH.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has set a tentative schedule to decide whether a judges order blocking the states controversial book rating law, HB 900, should stand. But an administrative stay issued last week by a separate motions panel of the Fifth Circuit remains in forcemeaning that, despite being found unconstitutional, the law is now in effect, putting Texas booksellers in a precarious position.

In a filing this week, the plaintiffs (two Texas booksellers together with the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund) filed their reply to the states emergency motion to have Judge Alan D. Albrights September 18 injunction stayed. With that filing in, a motions panel of the Fifth Circuit now has enough to rule on the states emergency motion to stay the injunction. But it remains unclear how quickly the motions panel will rule on the states bid to stay the law, lawyers told PW, meaning that the administrative staywhich was issued without considering the meritshas effectively trumped the district court, allowing HB 900 to become law.

Administrative stays are usually brief, and are commonly used to maintain the status quo until an appellate court can more fully consider arguments for emergency relief.

The latest twist in the case comes after federal judge Alan D. Albright on September 18 issued a substantive 59-page written opinion and order officially blocking HB 900 from taking effect. The judges written decision came after he had orally enjoined the law at an August 31 hearing, following two previous hearings, and had denied the state's request for a stay.

Signed by Texas governor Greg Abbott on June 12, HB 900 requires book vendors, at their own expense, to review and rate books for sexual content under a vaguely articulated standard as a condition of doing business with Texas public schools. The law includes both the thousands of books previously sold to schools and any new books. Furthermore, the law gives the state the unchecked power to change the rating on any book, which vendors would then have to accept as their own or be barred from doing business with Texas public schools.

In their October 2 reply brief, the plaintiffs argued that the stay is causing irreparable harm to the plaintiffs and putting Texas booksellers in jeopardy. Furthermore, the plaintiffs argue allowing the injunction to take effect is the only way to maintain the status quo while the case is litigated, since the new law imposes enormous, unprecedented, and, according to the district court, unconstitutional burdens on the plaintiffs.

 Staying the preliminary injunction would radically upend the status quo... 

Staying the preliminary injunction would radically upend the status quo, the brief argues. Plaintiffs would be immediately prohibited from selling books to public schools because they would be unable to review and rate every book ever sold to a public school, as required. To lift the prohibition, Plaintiffs would need to undertake the painstaking process of reviewing and rating hundreds of thousands of books, which would significantly disturb Plaintiffs businesses and cause economic injury, the reallocation of significant resources, and the potential closure of independent booksellers throughout Texas. A stay would also require public schools to change the way they store and purchase books and impact public school students access to books. Under the status quo as it exists now (and has existed for 170 years)without Rating Provisionsnone of these impingements are present.

In a tweet, Texas state representative Jared Patterson, the primary author of HB 900, portrayed the administrative stay as a green light for the law. "After a foolish ruling by a confused Austin judge, HB 900 is back on the books and moving forward," Patterson wrote on September 26.

Meanwhile, the court also set a preliminary schedule for the Fifth Circuit to hear the states appeal of Albrights decision on the merits. Under the tentative schedule: the state is set to file its appeal brief by November 13; the plaintiffs reply is due on December 13; amicus briefs would be due December 20; and the states reply brief would be due January 10. Under that schedule, oral arguments would not be set until February at the earliest.

In his emphatic September 18 opinion and order blocking the law, Albright called HB 900 a web of unconstitutionally vague requirements that would force private individuals and corporations into compliance" with an unconstitutional law.

The government has the power to do the contextual ratings for the books itself. The government has the power to restrict the ability of its school district as to which books it may purchase. The exercise of these powers must, of course, comply with the requirements of the constitution, but these are powers that should be exercised by the state directly," Albright held. "Not by compelling third parties to perform it or risk losing any opportunity to engage in commerce with the school districts."
Stephan Biller (L) and Ajay Malshe (R) serve as co-chairs of the eXcellence in Manufacturing and Operations Purdue Engineering Initiative. (Photo provided)

Purdue experts lay out a road map to reignite manufacturing in the U.S. as part of November summit

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Purdue Universitys recently launched eXcellence in Manufacturing and Operations Purdue Engineering Initiative, or XMO PEI, is positioned to strengthen the U.S. advanced manufacturing industrys adaptability for the 21st century across multiple sectors, such as semiconductors, aerospace, defense, biomanufacturing for agriculture, and transportation.

The XMO initiative is building a national coalition of academia, government and industry partners to meet at the intersection of physical, digital and sustainable manufacturing to achieve excellence at scale.

As part of the initiative, Purdue will in November host a summit at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) in Washington, D.C. This event will bring together industry, government and academic leaders to discuss building resilient U.S. infrastructure for advanced manufacturing and operations, which are critical to Americas security and economic durability in the era of globalization.

Additional Information

Its not just advanced manufacturing in the sense of making things in a factory. Its also the supporting operations that you need for creating these resilient supply chains, resilient infrastructure and a resilient workforce, said Stephan Biller, the Harold T. Amrine Distinguished Professor in the School of Industrial Engineering and the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business.

Biller and Ajay Malshe, the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering, were named XMO PEI co-chairs in May 2023.

Both are members of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering.

Our biggest challenge is that the U.S. has great scientific innovations, technologies and minds. What we need is infrastructural resilience and a system for fast and real-world engineering and industrial translation of innovations at scale, Malshe said. While the U.S. is starting to make notable moves toward building a robust supply chain, we need to be more focused and intentional about resilient manufacturing and operations for the present and future as a matter of national security. Were addressing that through the XMO initiative with a unified national message that we make, and we move.

To bring about that change, the co-chairs said the country needs to undergo a seismic shift in the manufacturing sector.

Biller said the U.S. needs a manufacturing renaissance, adding, At the same time we want to do it in a digitally enabled and sustainable way. The renaissance is quite critical for prosperity, for our ability to innovate and for our society. If you only design and then have other nations manufacture this, youre losing your ability to innovate.

Malshe, who is the inaugural director of the Manufacturing and Materials Research Laboratories, echoed Billers sentiments and added the shift supports a key pillar for economic stability and security.

I would like to go from designing in America and manufacturing elsewhere to designing in America and manufacturing in America. Thats the renaissance Id like to see, and thats the renaissance we need to build resilience, Malshe added.

The multidisciplinary scope of the co-chairs research mirrors the junction of disciplines that govern advanced manufacturing and operations today, as it spans physical processes, digital transformation and sustainable production. The collaborative multidisciplinary approach at Purdue mirrors the endeavors of large and small innovators; most innovation happens in the intersection of disciplines today, said Biller, who has 25 years of experience as a senior executive at companies including General Electric Co., General Motors Co. and IBM.

I would argue that there is probably no resiliency without sustainability, because you really have to ensure that you produce in a more environmentally friendly way, Biller said. If you want the next-generation workforce interested in manufacturing, you better make sure that its happening sustainably.

Malshe and Biller said the initiative will be an instrument to foster nationwide collaborations from multiple academic disciplines that share a common bond to develop, educate and retrain the workforce in critical industrial sectors.

Biller said accelerating the adoption of innovative technologies and tools in advanced manufacturing, strengthening operations, and bolstering the supply chain must benefit not only large corporations.

We need to build an advanced manufacturing operations innovation ecosystem that will allow us to help the small and medium-sized businesses that supply the original equipment manufacturers, Biller said. If you want resilient supply chains and transparent supply chains, we need these small and medium manufacturers to transform in physical, digital and sustainable manufacturing.

Biller cited work underway at Purdues Dauch Center for the Management of Manufacturing Enterprises, in which he serves as director, as the types of efforts to be supported by XMO PEI.

In particular, it is contributing to Indianas electric vehicle product commission initiatives, analyzing transformational risk and opportunities in both innovation and workforce development and helping with courses and conferences to educate the small and midsize enterprises in digital transformation, Biller said.

Malshe, who has more than 30 years of experience in industry and academia, said advanced manufacturing related to defense and in-space applications, agriculture and food security, transportation, and semiconductors is often not discussed.

The new space age is upon us, and Space 2.0 will provide colossal returns for Americas engineering and scientific sectors, said Malshe. Today, space commerce, security and exploration are getting seamlessly interconnected to Earth physically, digitally and sustainably.

Conexus Indiana, a statewide organization that exists to promote Indianas advanced manufacturing and logistics sector, hails Purdues critical role in the transformation of industry.

Working with Purdue University, we look forward to accomplishing digital transformation and workforce readiness at scale, Conexus Indiana president and CEO Fred Cartwright said. Our efforts in digital transformation and workforce readiness, through statewide programs such as Manufacturing Readiness Grants and Catapult Indiana, contribute to building resiliency in these critical sectors.

Along with national alliances, within Purdue the PEI will foster academic alliances across campus with the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, the College of Agriculture, the College of Science, and the Purdue Polytechnic Institute to statewide and national impact.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution with excellence at scale. Ranked among the top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top 4 in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, with 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdues main campus has frozen tuition for 12 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap, including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes, at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.

Writer/Media contact: Wes Mills, wemills@purdue.edu

Sources: Ajay Malshe, Stephan Biller
TOKYO, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo Customs kicked off its largest auction of smuggled gold, presenting about 180 kilograms of the precious metal for online bidding starting on Tuesday, local media reported.

The gold, worth about 1.75 billion yen (about 11.7 million U.S. dollars) at market value, is the largest to be auctioned in terms of both value and amount, the national broadcaster NHK reported on Tuesday.

The gold was seized at ports of entry to Japan including Haneda and Narita airports, Tokyo port and others between 2015 and 2017.

Usually in the form of accessories, the metal was fashioned into individual bars, each weighing one kilogram.

Gold smuggling was rampant during the period, which came after Japan's consumption tax increase in 2014, the report said, citing a senior customs official, who added that many cases were apparently aimed at evading consumption tax payments.

Proceeds of the sale will go to the national treasury, the report added. 




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Photo credit: ThisisEngineering-RAEng on Unsplash
Shown, Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and his wife, Fatima Goss Graves.

By Julie Kelly, RealClearInvestigations

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland is the public face of the governments unprecedented effort to identify, arrest, and prosecute those connected to the Jan. 6, 2021 protest at the Capitol. But the person handling the day-to-day management of the one of the largest and most politically freighted efforts in the history of American law enforcement has largely flown under the radar: Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

Nathan Hughes: He's part of the steady stream of Jan. 6 defendants still being prosecuted by Matthew Graves ...

An appointee of President Biden, Graves office has prosecuted at least 1,100 Jan. 6 defendants  including roughly 200 people so far this year. Republicans claim that the Justice Departments steady pace of Jan. 6 arrests and Graves prosecutions aim to keep one of Bidens animating narratives in the news  that, as the president put it, Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.

The political nature of the Jan. 6 prosecutions is illustrated by the long partisan history of Graves and his wife, Fatima Goss Graves.

... while the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia declines to prosecute Hunter Biden.

According to documents on file with the U.S. Senate, Matthew Graves, a registered Democrat, served as a domestic policy adviser to the Biden campaign in 2020. According to the questionnaire submitted for his Senate confirmation, he assisted with Vice-Presidential vetting for the Kerry Campaign in 2004, resulting in the nomination of John Edwards, well before an extramarital affair got wide attention and helped end Edwards 2008 presidential campaign. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washingtons Democratic delegate to the House of Representatives, recommended Graves for his influential current post.

Recently, Graves declined to pursue charges against Hunter Biden for tax offenses. And his wife is an influential progressive activist who has frequently visited the White House as her husband has pursued the presidents political opponents.

One week after he was sworn into office, Graves indicted longtime Trump confidant Steve Bannon on two contempt of Congress charges, acting on a referral from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosis January 6 Select Committee. Graves filed a separate indictment on the same charges against Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro in June 2022. Both men were quickly convicted by D.C. juries; Bannons conviction is on appeal, with oral argument scheduled for October. Navarros lawyers recently filed a motion seeking a new trial.

Much of Graves work now involves prosecuting the steady stream of people the FBI has arrested in connection with Jan. 6. On August 30, Nathan Hughes was taken into custody at a Fayetteville, Ark., mall by at least seven FBI agents brandishing automatic rifles. That same morning at least 10 vehicles apparently driven by FBI agents and local law enforcement raided Hughes Bentonville home. They ordered my girlfriend Taylor out of the house with her hands up and had rifles pointed at her too, Hughes would write. They put her in handcuffs, unplugged our home security cameras, and turned our house upside down searching it.

Another angle of the FBI arrest of Nathan Hughes over J6



The feds REALLY didnt want people getting close and videoing them pic.twitter.com/l6UFDMBGT5  Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) September 7, 2023

Hughes was later indicted for assaulting or interfering with police, civil disorder, and three misdemeanors for his involvement in the Jan. 6 mayhem at the U.S. Capitol. Four other men were named as Hughes co-defendants, charged for crimes they allegedly committed nearly 33 months ago. His case, like every Jan. 6 case, is now transferred to Washington, D.C., the scene of the alleged "attack on the Capitol."

Graves appears to be making good on his pledge to double the number of Jan. 6 defendants, a growing caseload that monopolizes Department of Justice resources and clogs the D.C. federal court calendar with trials and hearings. Graves told the Washington Post in a February 2022 interview that somewhere around 2,000 people could be identified and charged before his work was over  or before the statute of limitations for most offenses expires in 2026.

Ray Epps: Charged with a single misdemeanor offense.

In September, for example, Graves announced the arrest of 17 more individuals related to January 6  including Ray Epps, a man whom many suspect of being a plant of some sort, charged with a single misdemeanor offense. Graves also published his sixth report on the status of Jan. 6 cases documenting the number of convictions and categories of offenses: The Department of Justices resolve to hold accountable those who committed crimes on January 6, 2021, has not, and will not, wane.

Near-daily press releases trumpet details of the latest arrest, which are subsequently posted on Graves social media account. Roughly three-quarters of the posts on X (formerly Twitter) are Jan. 6-related; at the same time, Graves is under fire for declining to prosecute 67% of violent crimes in the nations capital amid an unabated crime wave. (Graves is the only U.S. attorney responsible for prosecuting federal and local crimes in his jurisdiction.)

While the overwhelming majority of Jan. 6 defendants face low-level nonviolent charges such as parading in the Capitol or remaining on restricted grounds, the Justice Department continues to cast the crimes committed as quite serious.

For example, despite the common description of Jan. 6 as an armed insurrection, only 10% of all defendants have been charged with a weapons violation, usually involving flag poles, riot shields, and pepper spray, not firearms. And no one has been charged with insurrection.

Separately, House Republicans have asked Graves to explain why he, according to IRS whistleblowers, declined to charge Hunter Biden for failing to report income in 2014 and 2015 during his time on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The IRS investigators told the House Ways and Means Committee that Graves overrode the recommendation of a career prosecutor in his office to protect the first son from prosecution in the matter.

Graves is expected to sit for a transcribed interview with the House Judiciary Committee within the next few weeks.

Fatima Goss Graves' organization makes clear its stand on hot-button issues.

In a statement to RealClearInvestigations, Tristan Leavitt, Jason Foster, and Mark Lytle, the legal team representing IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, said that as an appointee of President Biden, U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves had no business making charging decisions regarding the President's son. Nor should he have even been consulted about the strengths or weakness of the case. The IRS whistleblowers' testimony to Congress suggests he became involved contemporaneous with the White House reiterating that the President believed his son had done nothing wrong, presenting a clear conflict of interest for Mr. Graves. That he overruled his own career First Assistant, as the IRS whistleblowers testified they had been informed, is even worse.

Concerns about Graves impartiality are intensified because of his wifes involvement in partisan issues and her closeness to the Biden White House. As president and CEO of the National Womens Law Center (NWLC)  whose primary focus is reforming the Supreme Court, demanding unrestricted access to abortion, and promoting LGBTQ rights  Fatima Goss Graves plays a crucial role in advancing priorities of Democrats and the Biden administration.

According to government records, Goss Graves has visited the Biden White House at least 28 times since her husband was confirmed. Some appointments and events have involved the president, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic lawmakers, and top cabinet officials. (Logs also indicate Matthew Graves joined his wife for a Fourth of July barbecue at the White House in 2022.)

Earlier this month, Goss Graves took part in a White House roundtable organized by top Biden advisers to discuss economic issues for black women. White House officials and participants discussed strategies for further closing wage gaps, as well as opportunities for partnership to continue advancing the economic security of Black women and their families, according to a White House readout of the Sept. 15 event.

Matthew Graves is under fire for declining to prosecute 67% of violent crimes in the nations capital, which in September passed the grim milestone above.

The Graveses seem particularly close to Vice President Kamala Harris. Graves and Harris husband, Douglas Emhoff, were both partners at DLA Piper law firm in Washington before Graves took his new assignment. Goss Graves has attended several meetings with Harris and her staff over the past few years; her social media accounts feature numerous photos of the vice president.

Meena Harris, the vice presidents niece, is an NWLC board member. (Its unclear whether board members are compensated.)

The National Womens Law Center is a beneficiary of some of the richest foundations in the world; the Ford Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation are listed as donors in a report by InfluenceWatch. The Tides Foundation, heavily funded by global activist George Soros, has donated at least $45,000 to the NWLC since 2017.

Contributions spiked in 2021, the year Biden took office and her husband was confirmed as arguably the countrys most powerful U.S. attorney. The group reported $67.7 million in assets in 2020; in 2021, that figure skyrocketed to $101.7 million, a 44% increase.

That same year, grant money from deep pockets tied to the Democratic Party started to flow in. Two of NWLCs largest benefactors are satellite nonprofits tied to Arabella Advisors, a multi-billion-dollar consulting company run by a former Clinton administration official that the liberal Atlantic magazine has described as the massive progressive dark-money group youve never heard of and the indisputable heavyweight of Democratic dark money.

The NWLC received $993,000 from the New Venture Fund and $200,000 from the Hopewell Fund, two affiliates in Arabellas network, in 2021. Records indicate it was the first year either nonprofit donated to the NWLC.

In this video, Goss Graves helps amplify unproven allegations against Brett Kavanaugh.

A big part of Goss Graves work is delegitimizing and reconfiguring the Supreme Court. For example, she was deeply involved in the organized opposition to Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court nomination in 2018. After President Trump announced Kavanaughs nomination, Goss Graves spoke at a nighttime rally outside the Supreme Court. We are not going back to the days when women were considered a pre-existing condition, Graves shouted into the microphone as Sen. Bernie Sanders stood beside her. We know Judge Kavanaughs record. We know Trumps promises. If we all join together, we will win this fight!

Goss Graves then helped amplify unproven allegations that Kavanaugh committed sexual assault as a teen and college student. She accused Senate Republicans in 2018 of trotting out the 1991 playbook in comparing the treatment of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to that of Clarence Thomas accuser Anita Hill. (Hill is a NWLC board member.) As co-founder of the Times Up Defense Fund formed in response to the #MeToo movement, Graves helped organize a national walk-out in support of Ford and fellow Kavanaugh accuser Deborah Ramirez in September 2018.

Goss Graves now is a leading figure in a broad coalition that wants Clarence Thomas removed from the Supreme Court for alleged ethics violations, which the justice vigorously denies. NWLC signed on to a six-figure ad campaign this spring as part of an umbrella organization called Alliance For Justice, demanding Thomas resignation. The blitz involved posting video ads and banners that appeared online in major national outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Politico, Fox, and The Hill, according to the groups website.

While ProPublica, the New York Times and other influential outlets have suggested that the partisan, political efforts of Thomas conservative wife, Ginni, raise questions about the justices impartiality, they have ignored potential conflicts involving the Graveses.

In addition to enjoying close relationships with top officials in the Biden White House, Goss Graves also counts top Democratic lawmakers as friends and allies. In May, she joined Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Alex Padilla for a Capitol Hill press conference to publicly call for Thomas resignation. Congressional Democrats are keeping the heat on Thomas; Whitehouse wants the body that oversees the federal judiciary to send a criminal referral to Attorney General Merrick Garland and ask the DOJ to open an investigation into Thomas for failing to report income and gifts.

Goss Graves accuses Moms for Liberty of actively terrorizing parents, teachers, and worst of all  our children." White women who support Donald Trump, she wrote, are "aided by a toxic mix of racism and disinformation."

But Goss Graves perceived political enemies dont just wear black robes; some wear yoga gear and business suits. She recently unleashed a fierce tirade against Moms for Liberty, a group fighting woke ideology, among other issues in public school curriculums. Writing in Philadelphia Gay News in July, Goss Graves accused Moms for Liberty of actively terrorizing parents, teachers, and worst of all  our children  claiming to do so in the name of parental rights.

Moms for Liberty is anything but a grassroots band of moms who just care about their kids. Instead, lets call it out for what it is: theyre deeply entrenched in a mutually beneficial relationship with the GOP machine. Goss Graves noted that the Southern Poverty Law Center this year designated Moms for Liberty an extremist group in a recent report.

Meena Harris: The Vice President's niece serves on the board of Goss Graves' group. The Graveses appear close to Kamala Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff. The latter worked with Matthew Graves at the DLA Piper law firm.

The CEO and president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Margaret Huang, sits on the NWLC board of directors.

No issue, however, seems to animate Goss Graves more than abortion. She routinely testifies to Congress about the need to protect unfettered access to abortion with no restrictions. During a July 2022 House hearing on the impact of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Goss Graves said that access to abortion is a key part of a persons liberty, equality, and economic security and warned the opinion could signal a rollback of other fundamental rights, including the rights to contraception, same-sex marriage, and consensual sexual relations, among others.

Suggesting a connection between her politics and her husbands official actions, critics note that Matthew Graves indicted nine pro-lifers last year in connection with a non-violent October 2020 protest in Washington, D.C., accusing the individuals of engaging in a conspiracy to create a blockade at the reproductive health care clinic to prevent the clinic from providing, and patients from receiving, reproductive health services. The conspiracy, according to Graves, involved blockading two clinic doors using their bodies, furniture, chains and ropes.

All nine were convicted by D.C. juries in two separate trials and taken into immediate custody per Graves request; they now are being held in a D.C. jail awaiting sentencing. (Defendants include three women in their 70s.) All face up to 11 years in prison.

Goss Graves has a record of publicly expressing racially tinged views related to Donald Trump and his supporters. Writing for CNN in November 2020, Goss Graves criticized white women who voted for Trump. To be clear, most White women who support Trump are not blindly voting against their own self-interest. These Trump supporters, aided by a toxic mix of racism and disinformation, seem to be consciously supporting what they believe to be their own group interest, putting them on the same team as the White men society has been largely built to benefit.

White women who oppose Trump, Goss Graves continued, need to push to dismantle systemic racism within White communities. This includes having difficult conversations with other White women in their families and communities to address and stop implicit bias, end racism, and move forward the common causes that are shared with women regardless of race, gender, sexuality and disability.

After Jan. 6, Goss Graves issued a statement on behalf of the NWLC calling for Trumps impeachment. She referred to Capitol protesters as terrorists and demanded that Trumps enablers in Congress must be held accountable for their attempt to subvert our democracy.

The disconnect between the treatment of peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters this summer and violent insurrectionists this week puts our unequal society on full display, making all the more clear the national travesty Black people have lived with for generations.

Graves told Congress earlier this year that his predecessors dropped many of the charges filed against those responsible for the 2020 riots in Washington after the police killing of George Floyd. And his office has not brought new charges against anyone involved in the mayhem, which lasted for weeks and resulted in more destruction than the events of Jan. 6, along with hundreds of assaults on federal law enforcement officers, according to a government report. Graves also has not indicted individuals who attempted to assault lawmakers leaving a White House event in September 2020 or those who attacked Trump supporters during election rallies in November and December 2020.

Graves, however, did help settle a civil lawsuit between BLM rioters  whom his office described as racial justice demonstrators  and law enforcement related to accusations of excessive force at Lafayette Square in 2020. We appreciate the Park Police and Secret Service for their efforts to constantly review and revisit their law enforcement policies to evolve and protect those that seek to peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights, Graves said in an April 2022 press release.

Graves office declined to comment. The NWLC did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The recent flare of violence that left at least four people dead in Kosovo was a tragedy that sent shockwaves throughout the Balkans, raised Serbian and international worries about an escalation of the conflict, and served as a stark reminder of the fragility of peace.

Serbia is determined to protect that peace. The first step is to have a transparent, independent, and international investigation into the incident and, among other things, to determine if excessive force was used against local Serbs. The loss of life is unacceptable. Responsible parties must be held to account.

The event also illustrates the complexity of the situation. The heart of the problem is Prime Minister Albin Kurti who has sewed discord and instability in the region. Rather than engaging in constructive dialogue, Kurti has ignited a series of crises and sent Kosovo into a rapid, downward spiral.

Actions like these are contrary to the spirit of the Brussels Agreement of 2013, which sought to normalize relations between Belgrade and Pristina.

Under Kurti, hate crimes against Serbs have surged, casting a shadow of fear over the vulnerable non-Albanian population. Ensuring the safety and protection of all ethnic groups is not just a moral imperative, it is also the foundation of a sustainable peace.

The Kurti Administration deployed special police units comprised of ethnic Albanians to Serb-majority areas. These units have enforced unilateral and illegal measures, further eroding trust between communities and violating prior agreements, including the Brussels Agreement.

Serbs have been systematically denied the right to participate in referendums and elections, and their rights are diminishing day by day. Kurti also has refused to initiate the process of establishing the Association/Community of Serb-majority Municipalities. This was an essential component of the Brussels Agreement, which aimed to safeguard the rights of the Serbian population in Kosovo by granting self-management to the Serb-majority municipalities. Kurti's intransigence in this matter violates agreements facilitated by the European Union and the United States and agreed to by his predecessors.

The latest tragedy in Banjska grew out of heightened tensions, desperation, and frustrations. The incident is a reminder of the consequences of unilateral decision making and intentionally provocative behavior. It also is part of a pattern that could lead to further violence and instability because where there is oppression, there will be resistance.

Serbia, in contrast, is committed to stability, and has called for the immediate withdrawal of Kurti's mono-ethnic police forces in attempt to de-escalate the situation. Illegitimate "mayors" installed with the support of heavily armed special police forces must also be withdrawn, paving the way for democratic and free elections. Serbia expects the Association/Community of Serb-majority Municipalities to be established as soon as possible.

At this crucial and decisive moment, it is imperative to have a clear overview of the situation. Contrary to claims by some media outlets, Serbia is not deploying troops; rather, we have reduced our military presence by half in the past year, demonstrating our unwavering commitment to the preservation of peace. We believe that the top priority at this moment should be conflict prevention by any means necessary. Therefore, we are calling KFOR  the United Nations-mandated, NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo  to increase its presence and assume control of all security aspects and management in North of Kosovo, thus replacing Kurti's police. This measure should be implemented temporarily, pending a return to an EU-facilitated dialogue, a call for new local elections in the North of Kosovo, and the establishment of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities. Further steps must be taken to ensure the participation of local Serbs and their reintegration into local police structures.

This measure aligns with NATOs legal mandate under UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the Military-Technical Agreement between NATO, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and Serbia. Maintenance of a safe and secure environment  the primary KFOR objective  is at risk and requires concrete action.

At the same time, EU facilitated dialogue should continue. The Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, supported by successive U.S. administrations, remains a vital avenue for stabilization of the situation. This diplomatic initiative deserves unwavering attention and support from the international community. Through dialogue and compromise, a path toward a more stable and prosperous future can be charted for the region and beyond.

Serbia remains steadfast in its commitment to adherence to agreements and the pursuit of diplomacy over provocation. Incidents like the one in Banjska must become a thing of the past.

Marko Djuric is Serbias ambassador to the U.S.
Following a brutal onslaught last week, it appears the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict may be over. For years, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought over the territory, laying claim to this region. Thousands have died during the three-decade war, and many more have been injured.

In 2021, a false sense of hope emerged, suggesting that Armenia and Azerbaijan had reached a potential agreement in their ongoing conflict. During the negotiation process, Armenian officials stated that ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh would leave, and that Azerbaijanis would be able to move to the area. The Armenian government offered incentives to Armenians living in the region, such as thousands of dollars to help them relocate and other possibilities, but residents opted not to move.

Azerbaijani officials then began to pressure the Armenians, but nothing occurred during these discussions. Finally, after two years of waiting, the Azerbaijani government became impatient, and it decided to resort to violence.

Over the course of 24 hours, Azerbaijani forces attacked residents in Nagorno-Karabakh, arguing that it was engaging with separatist forces in the region. Hundreds of people were killed during the attack, and many more were injured. Azerbaijan then stated that it would stake claim to the area, and that Armenians would have to leave.

What followed was chaotic. Photos and videos emerged on social media, showing ethnic Armenians fleeing the region. Traffic jams were apparent, and residents were fearing for their lives. A few Russian soldiers were also reportedly killed during the Azerbaijani attack.

Armenia was quick to condemn the events. First, the Armenian government stated that it did not have a military presence in Nagorno-Karabakh, thus, it could not demilitarize the area. Second, Armenian officials said they could no longer rely on Russian authorities to provide them with safety and assistance. Third, the international community was criticized as it failed to intervene during the Azerbaijani attacks.

For decades, the globe has been unable to resolve this conflict. For years, the United States provided millions in humanitarian and financial assistance, but these efforts did not materialize. Similarly, the European Union provided humanitarian aid. American and European officials also met with their Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts on several occasions to try and resolve the ongoing conflict. Western officials even declared that these dialogues were producing promising results, and that progress was being made between both parties. But recent events and forced takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan suggests that these talks never materialized, and that diplomacy was unfortunately not going to play a role in resolving the war. Instead, it suggests that brute force was only ever going to be the solution to potentially ending the conflict.

Similarly, involvement from Russia and Turkey never materialized. During the renewed fighting in 2020, Russia and Turkey brokered a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The fighting briefly ended, and a few thousand Russian soldiers were deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh as a peacekeeping force. Despite these discussions and the ceasefire, Russia and Turkey also failed to stop the continued violence in Nagorno-Karabakh. When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, several of its partners began to distance themselves as they did not want to be associated with Russias actions, nor be punished by international sanctions. Since the start of the war, Russia has lost hundreds of billions of dollars and the Russians are distracted by their failed war. Meanwhile, Turkey has been faced with significant economic issues. This has preoccupied the Turkish government, and authorities are trying to do what they can to resolve the economic woes so that they stay in power. Given the internal affairs of these two states, Russias and Turkeys role as intermediaries in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has declined. This, combine with failed American and European attempts to end the war, led Azerbaijan to believe that it had to take matters into its own hands.

Overall, multiple states within the international community have attempted to resolve the multidecade conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Despite their efforts, these attempts failed. Multiple ceasefires were violated, thousands were killed and injured, and this only worsened the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Now, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is chaotic. While the conflict may be forcibly resolved soon, the end to the war came as a result of violence and bloodshed. In short, the international community failed, and the consequences have been devastating. The globe, therefore, must learn from the brutal events that occurred in the region, and it cannot afford to make similar mistakes. Otherwise, similar conflicts around the world may result in identical, catastrophic outcomes.

Mark Temnycky is an accredited freelance journalist covering Eurasian affairs and a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Councils Eurasia Center. He can be found on X @MTemnycky
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YANGON, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- On a rainy morning in Yangon, Myanmar, local residents eagerly awaited their turn to receive Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treatment from a team of Chinese doctors at a temporary clinic.

The charity clinic was established by the Returned Overseas Chinese Federation of Fujian Province and the Fujian General Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar.

The clinic has provided free medical consultation, acupuncture and various TCM treatment to the city's residents, the federation said.

Daw May Hlaing, 58, suffering from cervical spondylosis (neck pain) and waist discomfort, shared her positive experience with acupuncture, praising Chinese doctors' expertise.

"I'm getting better now. It is my first time with Chinese TCM doctors. I think there are no experts like them in Myanmar," she said, recounting her previous success with TCM treatment that aided in her recovery from a partial stroke.

Another patient, 80-year-old Li Hong Fang, said she had come to the clinic seeking a medical evaluation for her breast and liver health.

"They (the organs) are good after a medical checkup, but the doctor advised me to be careful as I'm aging," she said.

Li Hong Fang was no stranger to TCM. She said she had received TCM treatment in the past for alleviating body stiffness and maintaining overall wellness, saying "I'm grateful to the Chinese doctors."

Ma May Zin, 42, received treatment for throat, nerve, and ear pain from the TCM experts. Following her medical assessment, she was informed of high temperature in her body, she said.

"This is my first experience with TCM treatment. However, my grandparents used to receive TCM treatments," she said, mentioning her use of Chinese balm for relief.

Regarding the free TCM healthcare program, she said by providing free medical treatment like this, more people in Myanmar would come to know about TCM.

Liu Guoguang, 63, a Yangon resident who came to see TCM doctors for his gastrointestinal disease at the temporary clinic, said: "This program is very good. I am grateful to China and also hope to have many medical activities like this in the future."

Chen Jie, chief physician of the Rehabilitation Department of Fujian Provincial Hospital and a member of the Chinese TCM team, said this was his second visit to Myanmar for a charity TCM clinic. He also noted a significant increase in the number of patients seeking TCM services this time, mostly with back pain.

The team of five Chinese doctors aided by medical staff provided free TCM healthcare services to about 300 people, mostly overseas Chinese, during their healthcare mission this time.

Zhang Yao, a member of the Returned Overseas Chinese Federation of Fujian Province, said their federation annually assembles TCM professionals and dispatches them to foreign countries for charity clinics. Myanmar is the third country that they visited in this program this time, following their previous endeavors in Laos and Sri Lanka.

"Our purpose is to take care of overseas Chinese people and to promote the essence of traditional Chinese medicine," she said. 
The Georgia Rodeo, which was originally scheduled for Oct. 6, has been postponed to April 12, 2024 after headline singer HARDY announced he wa
Indias pharmaceutical exports to Iran have been hit owing to depleting rupee reserves in the West Asian country because of India stopping the import of crude oil from it in 2019 following US sanctions.

Pharmaceutical exports dropped 71.25 per cent in April-August this year over the same period last year.

The data from the Pharmaceutical Exports Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) showed exports to Iran had declined 31.29 per cent in 2022-23 as against the previous financial year.

Uday Bhaskar, director general of Pharmexcil, told Business Standard: Indias exports to Iran reduced in the first few months of this year by about 71 per cent owing to India buying less oil from Iran and the rupee-trade taking a hit.

Pharmexcil is trying to hold a dialogue with Iran to boost trade. Bhaskar recently met Heydar Mohammadi, head of administration, Food and Drug Administration, Tehran, and Mohammad Abdehzadeh, chairman of the board, Syndicate of Iranian Pharmaceutical Industries, to discuss potential areas of collaboration between the two countries in pharma and biopharmaceuticals.

Iran primarily imports bulk drugs and intermediates from India while it depends on European countries for formulations.

Bulk drugs constitute almost 65 per cent of pharma exports to Iran.

Iran is an important market in the West Asian and North African region for Indian pharma exports.

Value-wise it is small compared to the US ($8.3 billion in FY23) or Europe ($5 billion).

Indias pharma exports to Iran stood at $59.14 million in FY23, down from $86 million in the previous financial year.

Exports were $205.1 million in FY20.

Between April and August this year, they were $8.03 million.

Bhaskar said Irans pharma market in 2022 was $2.6 billion and the market is forecast to decline by 6.4 per cent in dollar terms in 2023.

A pharmaceutical exporter to Iran said: China is making inroads into the Iranian market with bulk drugs because Iran has the yuan to support this trade.

"China continues to buy discounted Iranian crude oil even after sanctions.

India is fast losing its advantage in this market, he added.

Not just pharmaceutical products, other trade items like basmati rice and tea have been hit due to depleting rupee reserves.

The data from UNComtrade shows in 2021 Irans imports of formulations from China, the Netherlands, and Turkiye grew 91.1 per cent, 62.2 per cent, and 205 per cent, respectively.

Indias pharma exports grew by 3.2 per cent in FY23 to $25.4 billion, led primarily by Europe and the US.

Exports to Africa were down 5.4 per cent in FY23 because shipments to countries like Zambia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Burkina Faso dipped.
'The Centre prevaricates on the question of effecting a change of state-level leadership or on the imposition of President's rule in the state.'

IMAGE: Manipur Citizens Forum members gather in solidarity at the Palace Compound IN Imphal, October 2, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

Indefinite shutdowns and ethnic killings have returned to Manipur once again.

The trouble that started on May 3 between the two major communities of Manipur, Meiteis and Kukis, seems to be never ending.

The situation has become so serious that the central government had no option but to bring back the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) in the state though it has excluded 19 police stations falling under the purview of the Imphal valley from the legislation.

Chief Minister N Biren Singh's Bharatiya Janata Party government has failed to control the law and order situation and blamed the nation's enemies for disturbing the peace in the state.

'The current crisis in Manipur is not a clash between ethnic groups and not a law-and-order issue of the state, but purely a war against the Indian Union by Myanmar- and Bangladesh-based Kuki militants in collaboration with militant groups operating in Manipur,' Biren Singh said (external link).

To know more about the situation in Manipur, Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.comspoke to Professor Kham Khan Suan Hausing, former head, department of political science, University of Hyderabad, and senior fellow, Centre for Multilevel Federalism, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi. Professor Hausing made it clear that the views expressed by him in the interview are personal.

Why has the situation in Manipur once again gone from bad to worse?

The situation in Manipur has gone from bad to worse following the circulation of a photo which allegedly confirmed the death of Luwang Linthoingambi Hijam (17) and Phijam Hemjit (20), who went missing since July 6.

Large-scale violent rioting in Imphal and other valley areas compelled the state government to shut down Internet service for another five days. The state swiftly pressed the service of the CBI led by its special director Ajay Bhatnagar to investigate the matter.

This is not surprising as the BJP's double-engine sarkar has miserably failed to disarm militant groups and recover over 5,000 automatic rifles and 600,000 rounds of live ammunition.

The failure to resolve the problematic division of labour between the state police and the central paramilitary forces in managing law and order where the latter merely plays a subservient role to the former suggests that law and order shall continue to remain precarious.

The massive distrust and hostile attitude displayed by civil society groups in the valley areas towards the central paramilitary forces, especially the Assam Rifles, on the one hand, and the uneasy relation between the state police and Assam Rifles on the other hand are not particularly amenable to effective restoration of law and order.

This means that agent provocateurs will exploit the fragile law and order situation to further their militant agenda on a whim. That this matter was flagged as a 'kidnap and murder' case allegedly in a Kuki-Zomi area in Lamka (Churachandpur) thickens the plot and may put law and order for a full toss in Manipur for quite some more time.

From May till September, was there any time when there was a hope that normalcy would return to the state? If yes, why was that opportunity lost?

Yes, towards the end of May when both the Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Pande and Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit A Shah visited Manipur, it was widely expected that normalcy would return to the state.

The idea and practice of 'buffer zones' which emerged from these visits was expected not only to insulate the hills from aggressive militant attacks from the valley areas but also to establish a semblance of law and order pending a political solution to the impasse.

Although the buffer zones considerably helped in securing the hills from violent armed attacks, they have not succeeded in establishing peace.

The opportunity for peace and normalcy was lost because the state government continues to play a partisan role in the violence.

The central government also does not seem to be serious in resolving the conflict. It prevaricates on the question of effecting a change of state-level leadership or on the imposition of President's rule in the state.

Absent President's rule or the imposition of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in the valley areas, massive deployment of central forces is not likely to secure law and order as their hands are continued to be tied from behind.

Are relations between Kukis and Meiteis permanently damaged? Is there any chance that the trust between these two communities can be restored?

Unfortunately, the relations between Kukis and Meiteis have been badly damaged. I will not, however, foreclose the possibility of restoring trust between the communities in the future. This, however, will depend on navigating a more capacious politics where politics is harnessed as the art of the possible.

If you can explain to a common man why the Kukis and Meitei are fighting, what would be your answer?

What is it that the Kukis want which the Meitei community does not want to part with, and what do the Meiteis want which the Kuki community cannot part with?

At the risk of oversimplification, the Manipur violence since May 3, 2023, is principally centred around contestation and control over land and its resources.

While the Kuki-Zomi group considers the Meiteis' demand for Scheduled Tribe status as a camouflage by the latter to have direct control and ownership over tribal lands, the Meiteis consider unacceptable binary land laws where they are, unlike the tribals, precluded from having direct control and ownership over land in the tribal hill areas.

Also allowing the state to capitulate to powerful social forces and allowing the latter to dictate not only the terms of political discourse, but also of law and order in the state are equally responsible for perpetuating this violence.

Part 2: 'Biren Singh is part of Manipur's problem'
Four earthquakes, the strongest being of magnitude 6.2, jolted Nepal in quick succession with tremors reverberating through parts of north India including Delhi-NCR, the National Centre for Seismology (NCS) said on Tuesday.

An NCS official said the first quake of magnitude 4.6 struck west Nepal at a depth of 10 kilometres at 2:25 pm, followed by the 6.2 magnitude jolt at 2:51 pm.

Two more quakes (magnitude 3.6 and 3.1) hit the same region at a depth of 15 km and 10 km at 3:06 pm and 3:19 pm, respectively.

The epicentre for the strongest quake was 206 km southeast of the pilgrimage town of Joshimath in Uttarakhand and 284 north of Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow.

People in Delhi and the National Capital Region reported strong tremors after the second quake and rushed out of their offices and high-rise residential buildings. The Delhi Police urged them not to panic.

"We hope you all are safe. Please come out of your buildings to a safe spot, but do not panic. DO NOT USE ELEVATORS! For any emergency help, dial 112," it said in a post on X.

News channels aired visuals of shaking ceiling fans and TV screens. Social media was also flooded with such visuals.

In a video shared by DD News on X, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and a group of officials were standing in the Nirman Bhawan building complex after the tremors were felt.

The Nirman Bhawan houses offices of the health ministry and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, among other important offices.

People also shared videos of employees of offices in Gurugram rushing downstairs after the tremors were felt in Delhi-NCR.

Taking to X, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in Hindi, "Strong earthquake tremors have also been felt in Delhi. I hope you all are safe."

The Delhi police said in another post an hour later, "Thankfully, no damage to life or property was reported to us in Delhi after the earthquake tremors. Stay safe! #DelhiPoliceCares,"

Tremors were felt in Chandigarh, Jaipur and other parts of north India as well. The police control room in the pink city said there was no information yet about losses.

Tremors were also felt at various places in Uttarakhand including Pauri, Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Haridwar and Pithoragarh.

People ran out of their houses in panic as they felt the tremors in Kotdwar, Yamkeshwar, Gumkhal and Lansdowne too, officials said, but added no loss of life or property was reported from anywhere in the state.

Nepal lies in one of the most active tectonic zones (seismic zone IV and V) of the world, making the country extremely vulnerable to earthquakes.

According to the US's National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal on April 25, 2015, killing more than 8,000 people and injuring over 21,000.
The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar on Tuesday announced 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS) in the judicial services, and the state-run law colleges and universities.

IMAGE: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar greets Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav during the 77th Independence Day celebrations at Gandhi Maidan, Patna, August 15, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by the chief minister.

"The cabinet approved amendments in the guidelines of the State Judicial Services, 1951, allowing 10 per cent reservation for EWS category in judicial services and also in state-run law institutes and universities," said Additional Chief Secretary (Cabinet Secretariat) S Siddhartha.

A notification with the details will soon be issued by the department concerned, he said.

The state cabinet also gave its approval for the construction of 100 veterinary hospitals in the state, Siddhartha said.

"A total of 100 first-class veterinary hospitals will be constructed in different districts of the state. Besides, there will be training centres at all these hospitals. For this, Rs 225 crore will be spent in 17 districts," he said.

The state cabinet also gave its nod for the creation of 30 additional posts of clerks for handling matters related to the Consumers Affairs Department, Siddhartha said.
PUL-E-ALAM, Afghanistan, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Afghan security forces have detained four people with 350 kg of opium poppy in east Afghanistan's Logar province, state-run news agency Bakhtar reported Tuesday.

The smugglers attempted to smuggle the opium poppy by car, but the security forces discovered the smuggled goods and detained the four commuters on the charge of trafficking the contraband, the news agency added.

The Afghan caretaker government has banned the cultivation of illegal crops, including poppy, processing to drug and drug trafficking since April last year. 
As Delhi police raided different premises linked to NewsClick on Tuesday, sources informed that the special cell of the Delhi police held a late-night meeting on Tuesday.

Kindly note that this image has been posted for representational purposes only. Photograph: ANI Photo

The raid was launched on the basis of information from central agencies.

Sources also said that an FIR was filed at the New Delhi Range of Delhi Police special cell against NewsClick.

As part of the investigation, editor of NewsClick Prabir Purkayastha and writers Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Urmilesh were brought to the special cell offices in the national capital on Tuesday.

Sources said that the first meeting before launching the crackdown was held by the top officials of the special cell on Monday (October 2). The meeting was attended by over 200 police personnel at 2 am at the special cell office in Lodhi colony.

Apart from senior officials, the mobile handset of junior officials were kept at the station, to hide any leaked information.

The special team carried out raids at more than 30 locations, sources said, adding that suspects were marked in the A, B, and C categories.

Meanwhile, in Mumbai, teams of the Delhi police special cell and the Mumbai police conducted searches at the residence of activist Teesta Setalvad.

The raids are being conducted on a case registered on August 17 under UAPA and other sections of IPC, which include UAPA, 153A of IPC (promoting enmity between two groups), and 120 B of IPC (criminal conspiracy).

The raid team on Tuesday morning also reached at Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Sitaram Yechury's residence to question his staffer Sri Narayan's son Sunmit Kumar.

The raid team seized the mobile, laptop, and hard drive of Sunmit Kumar, who works at NewsClick, sources said.

Earlier on August 10 a report in the New York Times had alleged that NewsClick was part of a global network that receives funding from American billionaire Neville Roy Singham.

Singham is known as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes, is at the centre of a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda. Neville Roy Singham is said to have close ties to the Chinese government media machine.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said Canada was not looking to "escalate" the situation with India amid the diplomatic row between the two countries over the killing of a Khalistani separatist and asserted that his government will continue to have "constructive relations" with New Delhi.

IMAGE: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Photograph: Blair Gable/Reuters

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Trudeau also said that it's important for Canada to have diplomats on the ground in India, amid a report by London-based Financial Times that New Delhi wants as many as 41 of 62 remaining Canadian diplomats out of the country, the Toronto Sun newspaper reported.

"Obviously, we're going through an extremely challenging time with India right now," Trudeau was quoted as saying by the Canadian newspaper.

He, however, did not confirm the FT report that India has asked Canada to withdraw 41 of 62 diplomats from the country.

Asked if his government would retaliate by asking India to remove diplomats based in Canada, Trudeau insisted his government would try to keep working with New Delhi.

"We're not looking to escalate, as I've said, we're going to be doing the work that matters in continuing to have constructive relations with India through this extremely difficult time," Trudeau was quoted as saying by the State-run CBC News.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told reporters in Ottawa that the government believes in having a "strong diplomatic footprint" in India.

"We are in contact with the Government of India. We take Canadian diplomats' safety very seriously, and we will continue to engage privately because we think that diplomatic conversations are best when they remain private, she said.

"In moments of tensions -- because indeed there are tensions between both our governments more than ever -- it's important that diplomats be on the ground, and that's why we believe in the importance of having a strong diplomatic footprint in India," she was quoted as saying by Global News.

Tensions flared between India and Canada last month following Trudeau's allegations of "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18 in British Columbia. India angrily rejected the allegations as "absurd" and "motivated".

Nijjar was shot dead by two masked gunmen. India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020.

Last month, India asked Canada to downsize its diplomatic staff in the country, arguing that there should be parity in strength and rank equivalence in the mutual diplomatic presence. The size of Canadian diplomatic staff in India is larger than what New Delhi has in Canada.

India also asked Canada to come down hard on terrorists and anti-India elements operating from its soil and suspended visa services for Canadians.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told journalists in Washington last week that the governments of India and Canada will have to talk to each other and see how they resolve their differences over the issue and underlined that the larger issue of "permissiveness" must be flagged and addressed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said he had rejected a request of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to join the NDA, after the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections in 2020, citing his "deeds".

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a rally in Nizamabad, Telangana, October 3, 2023. Photograph: ANI on Twitter

Speaking at a rally in Nizamabad in Telangana, Modi said before Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls, Rao used to come to the airport to receive him with fanfare and show a lot of respect.

"But, why did it stop suddenly?" he asked.

"Why so much anger suddenly? The reason for that is, after Hyderabad polls, he came to Delhi to meet me. He gave a beautiful shawl and honoured me. He showed so much love that it was not in the character of KCR," Modi said.

"Then, he told me that the country is progressing under your leadership. We also want to be part of NDA. Make us part of NDA. I said what next? Support us in Hyderabad municipal corporation. I told KCR, your deeds are such that Modi cannot join with you," he said.

Modi said he had "rejected the entry of KCR into NDA" even if it meant the BJP sitting in opposition in GHMC.

Modi accused the BRS dispensation of 'looting' funds meant for development of the state.

BJP government has given huge funds to the BRS government for the development of Telangana. But unfortunately the BRS govt looted that money. Loot is their mantra, Modi claimed.

He charged that the Congress and its 'arrogant' INDIA alliance had blocked the Women's Reservation Bill for the last 30 years. They did not care about it.

On the liberation of the erstwhile Hyderabad state and its merger with Indian Union, Modi said a son from Gujarat, Sardar Vallabhbbai Patel, ensured the liberation from nizams.

Today another son of Gujarat (Modi) came for your prosperity, development and welfare, he said.

Telangana has talent everywhere. Telangana made a vaccine for Covid-19 and gave it to the world, he lauded.
India has asked Canada to recall 41 of its diplomats from the country by October 10, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Tuesday.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra D Modi with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau on the margins of the G20 Leaders Summit, in New Delhi, September 10, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

Neither India nor Canada reacted to the report that came 12 days after New Delhi asked Ottawa to downsize its diplomatic presence in India.

Canada has 62 diplomats in India and New Delhi said that the number should be reduced by 41, the report said.

The ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations of a "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.

India rejected the allegations as "absurd" and "motivated" and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa's expulsion of an Indian official over the case.

Nijjar was shot dead by two masked gunmen on June 18 in British Columbia. India had designated him a terrorist in 2020.

On September 21, India asked Canada to downsize its diplomatic presence in the country as relations between the two countries plunged to an all-time low following Ottawa's allegations against New Delhi.

Announcing the measure, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said the size of Canadian diplomatic staff in India is larger than what New Delhi has in Canada and that there should be a "parity in strength and rank equivalence" in the mutual presence.

"We have informed the Canadian government that there should be parity in strength and rank equivalence in our mutual diplomatic presence. Their numbers here are very much higher than ours in Canada. The details of this are being worked out," Bagchi had said.

India also announced temporarily suspending issuance of visas to Canadian citizens.

The India-Canada ties were reeling under some strain for the last few months in view of increasing activities of the pro-Khalistani elements in the North American country.

India says the Trudeau government is not addressing its genuine concerns.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told journalists in Washington last week that the governments of India and Canada will have to talk to each other and see how they resolve their differences over the issue and underlined that the larger issue of "permissiveness" must be flagged and addressed.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Pragya Thakur, a prime accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, got emotional on Tuesday while replying to questions as her statement was recorded by the special National Investigation Agency court in Mumbai.

IMAGE: BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur at the Parliament premises during the Monsoon Session, in New Delhi, August 3, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

The trial court on Tuesday started recording the statements of Thakur and other six accused in the case under section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure under which an accused person gets an opportunity to explain circumstances appearing in the evidence against him or her.

Around 60 questions related to the testimonies of the doctors who had treated the injured and conducted autopsies after the blast in Malegaon were asked the accused.

Thakur, seated in the witness box, got visibly emotional at one point and the proceedings were halted for ten minutes.

Her response to all the questions was "I don't know."

Thakur, the Lok Sabha member from Bhopal, got uncomfortable when questions describing the injuries of the blast victims were put to her, her lawyers J P Mishra and Prashant Maggu told reporters later.

The recording of the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses in the case is over.

Since the trial began in December 2018, as many as 323 prosecution witnesses were examined, and of them 34 turned hostile or did not support the prosecution case.

Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhyay, Ajay Rahirkar, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Sameer Kulkarni are facing trial under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Indian Penal Code.

All seven accused were present before special NIA court judge A K Lahoti for the recording of statements under section 313, which will continue on Wednesday.

Six people were killed and more than 100 injured when an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque in Malegaon in north Maharashtra, about 200 km from Mumbai, on September 29, 2008.

The case was initially probed by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad before it was transferred to the NIA in 2011.
The legendary Russian-origin MiG-21 jets are set to participate for the last time at the annual Air Force Day parade on October 8, with the IAF rolling out the process to phase out the remaining three squadrons of the aircraft.

Photograph: Courtesy, ministry of defence, Government of India

Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhary, addressing a press conference ahead of the Air Force Day, said on Tuesday that the indigenously-developed Tejas Mark-1A aircraft will replace the MiG-21s from 2025 onwards.

He said a contract to procure 97 Tejas Mark-1A aircraft at a cost of around Rs 1.15 lakh crore will be concluded soon. It will be in addition to the Rs 48,000-crore deal signed with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in 2021 to procure 83 such jets.

At present, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has three MiG-21 squadrons with a total of around 50 aircraft. A timeline has been finalised to phase out the Mig-21s.

The IAF chief suggested that the remaining squadrons of the MiG-21 jets will be phased out by next year.

"We will replace the MiG-21 squadrons with the LCA Mark-1A.... The induction of the LCA Mark-1A will fill the gap of the outgoing MiG-21s," he said.

Another official said the MiG-21s will participate in the Air Force Day parade for the last time on October 8 in Prayagraj.

He said around 120 aircraft of various types will participate in different formations and displays during the Air Force Day parade.

The recently-inducted C-295 transport aircraft will also be part of the parade.

The MiG-21s were the mainstay of the IAF for a long time.

After its induction in the early 1960s, the IAF procured more than 870 MiG-21 fighters to boost its overall combat prowess.

However, the aircraft has a very poor safety record.

"Air Force Day is a momentous occasion for all air warriors as we reaffirm our sacred pledge to protect the nation's sovereignty and integrity," the IAF chief said.

"We also pause to remember and pay tribute to our predecessors who laid the foundation for the IAF and nurtured it with their sweat and blood to transform it into a potent and combat-ready air force," he added.

"This annual landmark event allows us to assess the achievements of the year gone by and set new targets for the future," Air Chief Marshal Chaudhary said.
The Delhi police on Tuesday arrested NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and HR head Amit Chakravarty after searching more than 30 locations and questioning several journalists in a case filed under the anti-terror law UAPA following allegations the portal received money for pro-China propaganda.

IMAGE: Delhi police special cell ACP Lalit Mohan Negi reaches NewsClick office in New Delhi, October 3, 2023. Photograph: ANI on Twitter

The police sealed NewsClick's office in Delhi, officials said, adding that 46 suspects were questioned and digital devices, including laptops and mobile phones, and documents were taken away for examination.

They said 37 male suspects were questioned at the office of the Delhi police special cell, while nine female suspects were quizzed at their respective places of stay.

Two accused -- portal founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha and human resources head Amit Chakravarty -- have been arrested, Delhi pPolice spokesperson Suman Nalwa said.

The searches began early in the morning and were concentrated in Delhi-NCR. Earlier in the day, portal founder and editor-in-chief Purkayastha was taken to the special cell's office for questioning.

Among those questioned were journalists Urmilesh, Aunindyo Chakravarty, Abhisar Sharma, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta as well as historian Sohail Hashmi, satirist Sanjay Rajoura and D Raghunandan of the Centre for Technology & Development.

After being questioned for over six hours, they were allowed to go.

"After a day long interrogation by Delhi special cell, I am back home. Each and every question posed will be answered. Nothing to fear . And I will keep questioning people in power and particularly those who are afraid of simple questions . Not backing down at any cost," Abhisar Sharma posted on X.

Addressing a gathering in Bhubaneswar, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said probe agencies in the country are independent and work in accordance with law.

"... If someone has done something wrong, probe agencies work on it... Nowhere it is written that if you have got money in an illegal manner or done something objectionable, then probe agencies cannot investigate that," Thakur said.

Police sources said investigators posed a list of 25 questions on various issues, including their foreign travels, protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Shaheen Bagh as well as the farmers' agitation.

Those being questioned have been divided into three categories, A, B and C, sources said, but did not divulge details on this.

The media firm is under the scanner of the Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of the Delhi police and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) amid allegations it received funds from China.

A fresh case was registered by the Delhi police special cell against the news portal on August 17 under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other sections of IPC, including Section 153A (promoting enmity between two groups), 120B (criminal conspiracy).

Sources said the police have seized laptops and mobile phones related to some journalists, adding that most of the people were questioned about their association with NewsClick and details about their calls to people residing in foreign countries.

In 2021, the EOW had started an investigation against NewsClick over suspicious foreign funding. The EoW had also registered an FIR in this case.

The ED in 2022 had attached a South Delhi flat, worth Rs 4.52 crore, linked to Purkayastha apart from fixed deposits worth Rs 41 lakh as part of this money laundering probe.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury's official residence at Pt Ravi Shankar Shukla lane was one of the premised searched by the police to question his staffer Sri Narayan's son Sumit, who works with NewsClick.

In a statement, the National Alliance of Journalists, the Delhi Union of Journalists and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (Delhi unit) claimed that the residences of Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Teesta Setalvad, Mahesh Kumar, Subodh Varma, Aditi Nigam, Mukund Jha and many others were raided this morning.

The issue caused political ripples with the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Samajwadi Party as well as the Press Club of India reacting to the searches and criticising the government.

Urmilesh and Chakravarty emerged from the special cell office at Lodhi Road after about six hours of questioning around 4.15 pm. They did not respond to queries of media-persons who had gathered at the spot.

"I will not say anything," Urmilesh told the battery of camera crews.

Sharma came out of the probe agency's office about an hour later. He was followed by Raghunandan, who told reporters that he was asked very general questions about NewsClick.

Recalling how the day unfolded, Thakurta told media-persons that nine police personnel came to his house in Gurugram at 6.30 am. "They asked me various questions and I came with them voluntarily to the office of the Delhi police's special cell at Lodhi Colony."

On Tuesday morning, a special cell team took Sharma with it after questioning him at his home in Noida Extension. Before he was detained, the journalist wrote on X, "Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone."

Another journalist, Bhasha Singh, wrote on X, "Finally last tweet from this phone. Delhi police seizure (sic) my phone."

Hashmi's sister Shabnam Hashmi, posted on X, "Today, early morning at 6 am, Delhi police's special cell raided Sohail Hashmi's residence. 6 people barged into the house and the bedroom."

She alleged that the team questioned him for two hours and seized his computer, phone, hard disc and flash drives.

The police action drew a sharp reaction from opposition parties, which accused the BJP of indulging in a "witch-hunt" against journalists who criticise the government.

Opposition bloc INDIA strongly condemned the raids and alleged that the BJP government's "coercive" actions are directed only against those who speak truth to power and not against those who spread hatred and divisiveness.

But BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla retorted, "The Congress preaching about the press is like Satan preaching about scriptures."

Congress leader Pawan Khera said the early morning raids on contributing journalists at NewsClick come as a "fresh distraction from the explosive findings of caste census in Bihar and the growing demand for caste census across the country."

"When he faces questions from out of syllabus, he resorts to the only counter he has in his predictable syllabus - DISTRACTION," Khera said on X.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said the searches represent a sign of a "losing BJP."

"This is not a new thing, BJP rulers have always raided honest journalists. But how many crores of rupees are being given to 'Mitra channels' every month in the name of government prachar-prasar (advertisements), anyone should also print this," Yadav said in a post on X.

AAP chief national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar alleged the Modi government is pretending to fight China by arresting journalists because it didn't have the courage to engage with it directly.

The Press Club of India said it is deeply concerned about raids on the houses of journalists and writers associated with NewsClick.

"We are monitoring the developments and will be releasing a detailed statement. The PCI stands in solidarity with the journalists and demands the government to come out with details," it said.

In August, the Delhi high court sought Purkayastha's stand on a plea by the city police seeking vacation of an earlier order granting him interim protection from arrest in an unlawful foreign funding case.

The website recently hit the headlines for allegedly receiving money from US millionaire Neville Roy Singham for pro-China propaganda in India.

Citing an investigation by The New York Times, Anurag Thakur had recently claimed that NewsClick's money trail revealed an "anti-India agenda".
Hindu right-wing activists staged a protest on Tuesday and the Gujarat government ordered a probe after Hindu students were allegedly asked to perform namaaz as part of an awareness programme at a private school in Ahmedabad.

Image used for representational purpose only. Photograph: Yogendra Kumar/ANI Photo

Videos of the protest showed a teacher being beaten up.

The state government ordered an inquiry into the programme organised at Kalorex Future School, located in Ghatlodia area of the city, on September 29.

The intention behind organizing the program in question was only to make students aware of the practices of different religions and no student was forced to perform the Islamic prayer, the school said, while also tendering an apology.

In a video of the event, which was later removed from the school's Facebook page, a student of the primary section can be seen performing namaz. Then, four other students join him in singing 'Lab pe aati hai dua', a prayer, in the Islamic way.

Activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Bajrang Dal and other right-wing organisations staged a protest on the school premises.

"It seems that some people want to disturb the peaceful atmosphere of the state by organising such programs in schools. Students who took part in that program may not be even aware what exactly they were doing. This is not at all acceptable," said minister of state for primary, secondary and adult education Praful Pansheriya.

"We will conduct an investigation to find out the mentality and intention behind organising such a program and then appropriate action will be taken. We will not spare those who have done anything wrong," the minister added.

"We came across a video which showed that Hindu students of this school were forced to perform namaz during an activity. Following our protest, the school management has tendered an apology and also given an assurance that such activities will not be conducted in the future because only Hindu students have taken admission here," said Meet Bhavsar, Gujarat ABVP's media coordinator.

A teacher seen playing a musical instrument in the event's video was thrashed by the activists as well as angry parents during the protest on Tuesday, some viral videos showed. No police case had been registered in this regard yet.

In a written apology, the school management said they will be careful next time.

School principal Nirali Dagli said it was the tradition of the school to make students aware of different religions and religious practices ahead of festivals.

"In view of Eid, we had organised this activity for the students of standard II to give them information about the festival. We carry out such activities ahead of festivals of all religions, including Samvatsari and Ganesh Chaturthi. No student was forced to perform namaz. It was just a two-minute activity, and the students who participated had taken consent from their parents," she told reporters.
After Congress MP Rahul Gandhi worshipped at the Golden Temple on Gandhi Jayanti 2023, he again paid obeisance at the shrine and served langar for a second day on Tuesday, October 3, 2023.

On Monday, his head covered by a saffron turban, Rahul paid obeisance at the sanctum sanctorum.

After paying obeisance, he visited the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, and performed sewa (voluntary service) by cleaning water bowls used by devotees.

On Tuesday, he offered Chandoa Sahib and performed the service of shouldering the Palanquin Sahib during Sukhasana at the Golden Temple.

Photograph: ANI Photo

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Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Anant SalviRediff.com

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
RAMALLAH, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Palestine said on Tuesday that the ongoing Israeli violations in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, east of Jerusalem will explode the region.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesperson of the Palestinian presidency, said in a press statement sent to Xinhua that "the daily provocative actions by the Israeli authorities and settlers in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, will explode the territory."

He added that Israeli authorities attempted to change the status quo in East Jerusalem, stressing that "all these attempts will fail as the Palestinian people will not be silent."

Abu Rudeineh called on the U.S. and the international community to pressure Israel to stop its provocative actions in the holy city.

Earlier on Tuesday, hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque compound under the protection of Israeli police forces on the fourth day of the Jewish Sukkot, according to the Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is located in East Jerusalem's Old City, a territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war along with the rest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The holy site is the third-holiest site for Muslims and the most sacred place for Jews. 
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that it will hear on October 6 pleas challenging the Patna high court's August 1 order giving the go-ahead for a caste survey in Bihar.

IMAGE: Bihar Additional Chief Secretary Vivek Kumar Singh releases the caste-based census results at the Old Secretariat, Patna, January 2, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that it has listed the pleas for hearing.

The bench made the remark after Mehta sought adjournment in a different matter pertaining to the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd and sought listing it on Friday.

On Monday, the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar released the findings of its much-awaited caste survey months ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections, which revealed that OBCs and EBCs constitute a whopping 63 per cent of the state's total population.

According to the data released, the state's total population stood at a little over 13.07 crore, out of which the Extremely Backward Classes (36 per cent) were the largest social segment followed by the Other Backward Classes at 27.13 per cent.

The survey also stated that Yadavs, the OBC group to which Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav belongs, were the largest in terms of the population, accounting for 14.27 per cent of the total.

Dalits, also known as the Scheduled Castes, accounted for 19.65 per cent of the total population in the state, which is also home to nearly 22 lakh (1.68 per cent) people belonging to the Scheduled Tribes.

On September 6, the top court had deferred for October 3 the hearing on pleas challenging the Patna High Court's August 1 order giving the go-ahead for a caste survey in Bihar.

On August 7, the top court had refused to stay the Patna high court's order giving the go-ahead for a caste survey in Bihar, and deferred the hearing on petitions challenging it to August 14.

Besides a plea by NGO 'Ek Soch Ek Paryas', several other petitions have been filed including one by Nalanda resident Akhilesh Kumar, who has contended that the notification issued by the state government for the exercise is against the constitutional mandate.

Kumar's petition says in terms of the constitutional mandate, only the Union government is empowered to conduct a census.

The high court had said in its 101-page verdict, "We find the action of the state to be perfectly valid, initiated with due competence with the legitimate aim of providing development with justice."

A day after the high court held the caste survey as "valid", the state government had swung into action and suspended all ongoing training programmes for teachers so they can be engaged for early completion of the exercise.

The Nitish Kumar government had said on August 25 that the survey has been completed and data will be made public soon.

Senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, who represents a petitioner in the case, had opposed making the data public, contending it will infringe people's right to privacy.
With the opposition raising questions over a 'mysterious woman' accompanying Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to his visit to Vatican City last year, the Biju Janata Dal chief clarified that the woman is named Shradha and she is his physiotherapist.

IMAGE: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik during the inauguration of Odisha Startup Yatra and Startup Xpress 2023, in Bhubaneswar, September 12, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

Clearing the air before the end of the monsoon session on Tuesday, the CM said, "Shradha is a physiotherapist sent by my sister late Gita Mehta to take care of my physical fitness."

"She (Shradha) has neither been allotted government quarters nor have her travel bill been paid by government of Odisha. We should use the precious time in this august House to debate on issues of public interest," he added.

Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party had raised the issue of a "mysterious woman accompanying the CM" both inside and outside the House after photographs and videos of their visit to Vatican City in June last year recently surfaced on social media.

Earlier, Leader of Opposition Jaynarayan Mishra of the BJP had raised the issue in the assembly, but his statement was not recorded due to din in the House. Mishra sought to know who was Shradha and alleged that she was allotted a government house.

Mishra also alleged that Shradha had accompanied Patnaik to Vatican City during the CM's visit to seek the blessings of Pope Francis on June 22, 2022. He was officially accompanied by his private secretary V K Pandian to meet the Pope on the third day of his trip to Italy. He was in Italy at the invitation of the World Food Programme.

However, opposition BJP had raised questions after videos and photographs showing Shradha greeting the Pope after Patnaik and Pandian went viral on social media.

Kalahandi's BJP MP Basanta Panda and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi raised questions about the "mysterious woman".

"When Leader of Opposition, Sri Jaynarayan Mishra & senior MP, Sri @basantpandabjp ask abt a MYSTERIOUS WOMAN accompanying CM to the Vatican and the reasons for her unhindered access to Naveen Nivas, they are described as 'mad' by BJD spokesmen!" Sarangi wrote on X.

"There are media reports suggesting that she could be a nurse or therapist. If this were true, this is all the more concerning and the CM of an important State cannot be left to private and secretive treatment. Who selected this therapist? What kind of therapy is going on?" Sarangi added.
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft dropped this capsule in the Utah desert.

The spacecraft OSIRIS-REx did not return to earth but continued onto a new mission to explore the asteroid Apophis.

The capsule contained a sample collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020.

The sample will help scientists understand the origin of organics and water that may have seeded life on Earth 4.5 billion years ago.

IMAGE: The capsule seen shortly after touch down at the US department of defense's Utah test and training range in Dugway. Photograph: NASA/Keegan Barber/Handout/Reuters

IMAGE: A long shot of the capsule and parachute. Photograph: NASA/Keegan Barber/Handout/Reuters

IMAGE: A recovery team examines the capsule and takes photographs. Photograph: NASA/Keegan Barber/Handout/Reuters

IMAGE: Lockheed Martin Recovery Specialist Levi Hanish, left, and Michael Kaye, right, transfer the capsule to a cradle. Photograph: NASA Solar System Exploration/Instagram

IMAGE: Lockheed Martin System Safety Engineer Victoria Thiem performs preliminary checks on the capsule. Photograph: Kind courtesy NASA/Instagram

IMAGE: A recovery team wrap the capsule to be taken to the lab. Photograph: NASA/Keegan Barber/Handout/Reuters

IMAGE: On Scene Commander of Recovery Jasmine Nakayama attaches the capsule to a helicopter for transport to the cleanroom. Photograph: NASA/Instagram

IMAGE: Jasmine Nakayama looks on as the capsule flies away. Photograph: NASA/Instagram

IMAGE: The capsule en route to the cleanroom. Photograph: NASA/Instagram

IMAGE: Members of the Kennedy Space Center Flight Operations team await the capsule. Photograph: NASA Solar System Exploration/Instagram

IMAGE: The capsule is lowered into the parking lot in front of the cleanroom hangar. Photograph: NASA/Instagram

IMAGE: Applause as the helicopter with the capsule is sighted. Photograph: NASA Solar System Exploration/Instagram

IMAGE: A view of the lab with a steel-and-glass glovebox, around which four people in blue cleanroom suits have hands in white gloves inside the glovebox.

In the centre of the glovebox is a large metal canister with its lid opened. Photograph: Robert Markowitz/NASA Solar System Exploration/Instagram

IMAGE: An inside view of the glovebox.

In the centre of the glovebox sits a round metal canister with dark powder on the surfaces.

The lid of the canister is propped open and also coated with the dark powder. Photograph: Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator/NASA Solar System Exploration/Instagram

IMAGE: Curation teams process the capsule in a cleanroom.

NASA stated: 'Today's OSIRISREx asteroid sample landing isn't just the end of a 7-year, 3.9-billion-mile journey through space.

It takes us 4.5 billion years back in time.

These rocks will help us understand the origin of organics and water that may have seeded life on Earth.' Photograph: Kind courtesy @NASA/Twitter

IMAGE: The sample was later taken to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on board a C-17 Globemaster aircraft with nitrogen tanks in the middle of the plane. Photograph: NASA Solar System Exploration/Instagram

Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
Political watchers say the caste survey report was made public to play the OBC-EBC card and stall the BJP's campaign to win most of Bihar's 40 Lok Sabha seats.

M I Khan reports from Patna.

IMAGE: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, right, and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav. Photograph: ANI Photo

Bihar's Mahagathbandhan government led by Nitish Kumar made the much awaited caste survey known locally as Jati Adharit Ganna public on Monday, October 2, 2023.

It is widely seen as a move to strengthen the ruling Mahagathbandhan's social support base among Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Economically Backward Classes (EBCs) and Dalits, fulfilling a significant promise to these communities ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

In August, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced that the caste survey was complete and its report and all the data would be made public soon.

Bihar's caste survey, Nitish added, would serve as a role model for the country and followed by other states.

Till last year the state government described it as a caste census, but when it was challenged in the Patna high court and the Supreme Court, it forced the Bihar government to changed it as a caste survey.

Earlier, the governments of Rajasthan and Karnataka conducted caste-based surveys, but did not make their data public.

The caste survey report was formally made public by Bihar Development Commissioner Vivek Kumar Singh at a media interaction in Patna.

The last caste census was conducted in 1931.

According to the Bihar caste survey report, there are 215 castes in Bihar. The total population of Bihar is 13.7 crore (137 millionn) that include 36 percent EBCs, 27 percent OBCs, 19 percent Scheduled Castes and 1.68 percent Scheduled Tribes.

The caste survey report revealed that the population of upper castes is 15.52 percent including 2.86 percent Bhumihars, 3.66 percent Brahmins, 3.45 percent Rajputs and 0.60 percent Kayasths.

As per the report Chief Minister Kumar's Kurmi caste numbers 2.87 percent. RJD chief Lalu Prasad's Yadav caste numbers 14.26 percent, one of the highest among all the castes.

State Bharatiya Janata Party President Samrat Kushwaha's Koeri or Kushwaha (OBC) caste numbers 4.21 percent.

The caste survey report revealed that Bihar's Hindu population is 81.9 percent followed by 17.7 percent Muslims, 0.05 percent Christians, 0.01 percent Sikhs, 0.08 percent Buddhists, 0.0096 percent Jains and the rest from other religions.

In the caste-ridden politics of Bihar, the caste survey report and its data are set to heat politics in coming days.

The state government is also likely to release socio-economic report and data of all castes.

Political watchers say the caste survey report was made public to play the OBC-EBC card and stall the BJP's campaign to win most of Bihar's 40 Lok Sabha seats.

Leaders from Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United, a major ally in the ruling Mahagathbandhan, have repeatedly accused the BJP leadership of obstructing the caste survey in Bihar.

IMAGE: Janata Dal-United supporters in Patna, October 2, 2023, celebrate after the Bihar government releases the caste-based survey. Photograph: ANI Photo

The conflict between the Mahagathbandhan and the BJP revolves around the intervention by the central government in the hearing of petitions challenging the Patna high court's decision to proceed with the caste survey in Bihar.

In early August, the Patna high court granted permission to complete the caste survey.

The court's nearly 100-page ruling dismissed all public interest litigation seeking suspension of the survey.

The Supreme Court declined to halt the high court's verdict.

Following the court's decision, the Bihar government promptly initiated the third and final phase of the survey.

The majority of the fieldwork was concluded by mid-August, and the remaining collected data was uploaded by the month end.

State Advocate General P K Sahi affirmed the government's right to conduct the caste survey, highlighting its authority to gather socio-economic data that informs welfare policies.

IMAGE: Enumerators collect informations from residents during the caste-based survey in Bihar. Photograph: ANI Photo

The first phase of caste survey was launched in January 2023 aimed to identify the number of households across Bihar.

Subsequent phases involved collecting caste and socio-economic data from each household.

The second phase of the caste survey began in April, despite opposition from influential segments of society.

Nitish and Lalu, champions of Mandal politics, have advocated a caste census for long. They argue this data will inform targeted development plans and uplift historically deprived communities.

While the BJP-led central government rejected a national caste census two years ago, the ongoing dispute highlights the complex interplay between politics, social dynamics, and the pursuit of accurate socio-economic data.

Since 2015, Lalu has been demanding that socio-economic and caste data from Census 2011 be made public to 'ensure the empowerment of all those lagging behind in development'.

The caste survey data will strengthen the demand for raising quotas for the OBCs, who are estimated to be more than 50 per cent of the population and presently get 27 per cent reservation.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
Rich Hulett, left, speaks to Daniel Banyai in front of the Pawlet Town Hall after Banyai's tax hearing in late August 2021.
The Windham County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help in determining who might have drawn a swastika with a carrot on a town sidewalk.
Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.

Bob Galvin, of Richmond, is the Vermont state director for the nonprofits Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of Vermont News & Media.
DAMASCUS, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Two Syrian soldiers were wounded in an Israeli air attack targeting military sites in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour late Monday, the Syrian military said in a statement.

The air strike was carried out at approximately 23:50 (2150 GMT) in the vicinity of the city of Deir al-Zour, it said, adding that the attack also caused some material losses.

No further details were provided in the statement.

For years, Israel has carried out attacks against what it deemed targets used by Iran-backed Shiite fighters in Syria, including airports and military bases alleged to house weapon shipments. 
BEIRUT, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon has to shut some schools that receive displaced students from Syria amid a lack of international funding, Lebanese Education Minister Abbas Halabi said on Tuesday.

"Donors were late in paying due funds for this academic year and the previous one, which will force us to cut down on the number of schools that receive refugee students," Halabi said.

Currently, many public schools in Lebanon are hosting refugee students from Syria in the afternoon shift.

The minister's remarks came during his meeting with the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka.

Wronecka emphasized the importance of education, noting that education is necessary for the future. She pledged to exert all possible effort to secure the donations by following up with the UN in this regard.

As a result of Lebanon's financial crisis, the country's 2022-23 scholastic year was marked by learning disruptions for over two months, affecting hundreds of thousands of students as the government lacks the funds to pay teachers and staff. 
After the South Korean prime minister visited China last month, a claim circulated in Korean-language posts that Chinese media outlets did not cover the prime ministers visit at all in protest against Seouls recent efforts to strengthen ties with the United States and Japan.

But the claim is false. Keyword searches found Han Duck-soos visit was widely covered by Chinese media, including the Peoples Daily and Xinhua News Agency. His meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping also garnered significant media attention in China.

The claim was shared here on Facebook in a group with more than 70,000 members who mostly maintain anti-U.S, pro-China view.

South Korean media outlets have been heavily promoting the S Korean PMs visit to China as if it's a big deal. But there is zero coverage by the Chinese media. Nothing. If S Korea wants a proper summit with China, Yoon [referring to the South Korean President] must apologize to China first for upsetting it [with latest moves to cement ties with the U.S. and Japan], reads the post.

It was shared by a user who claims to be a head of South Korea-based NGO Green Transport Policy Institute. Further searches found the user has often spread Chia-related misinformation online.

Similar claims have been shared in other Korean-language Facebook posts that claimed both Xinhua News Agency and Peoples Daily did not cover South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soos visit to China.

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, taken on Sept. 27, 2023

The claim began to circulate after Han arrived in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou on Sept. 23 to attend the opening ceremony of the Asian Games and meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the sporting event.

During his two-day visit, Han attended a luncheon hosted by Xi for the leaders of countries competing in the Asian Games and held talks with Xi ahead of the opening ceremony later in that day.

South Koreas Yonhap News Agency reported that Xi, who has not visited South Korea since 2014, told Han that he will seriously consider visiting South Korea as part of efforts to support peace and security on the Korean Peninsula.

Han was the first high-level South Korean official to meet with Xi since President Yoon Suk Yeol met with him on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, in Nov. 2022.

But the claim is false.

Keyword searches of Hans Chinese name in simplified Chinese, used in mainland China, show Chinese media outlets have been heavily covering Hans visit to China and his meeting with Xi as seen on CCTV and China News Agency, etc.

Both People's Daily and Xinhua News Agency also covered the news in their Korean language service.



Screenshots of reports from Peoples Daily and Xinhua News Agency, captured on Sept. 27, 2023

Yoon, a conservative, has endeavored to align Seouls foreign policy with that of the United States in order to counter global challenges such as North Koreas nuclear ambitions. Yoon has prioritized strengthening its military and economic cooperation with Washington and Tokyo to this end.

South Koreans are largely divided on Yoons policy, with conservatives applauding the approach because they believe it could effectively promote North Koreas denuclearization. Liberals, including the main opposition Democratic Party, contend that such an approach exacerbates tensions on the Korean Peninsula, citing the possibility of jeopardizing relations with China.

Hans visit to China has become a source of disinformation among pro-China online users who support the DP. In addition to the false claim that Chinese media outlets ignored Han, users claimed that Xi was intentionally rude to Han to teach him a lesson and that Chinese authorities mistreated South Korean delegates in a protest against Yoon.

Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) is a branch of RFA established to counter disinformation in todays complex media environment. Our journalists publish both daily and special reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers understanding of public issues.










A major government-backed developer in Shanghai is the latest to launch its Peoples Armed Forces department.

Major state-owned companies across China are setting up corporate militias under the direct management of local garrisons of the Peoples Liberation Army, according to official reports.

Shanghai Municipal Investment Group, a major property and infrastructure developer affiliated with the city government, held a formal opening ceremony on Sept. 28 for its new Peoples Armed Forces department, which will be run by the Peoples Liberation Armys Shanghai garrison, according to reports in The Liberation Daily News and The Paper.

The Peoples Armed Forces departments were set up at every level of government, in schools, universities and state-owned enterprises to strengthen ruling Chinese Communist Party control over local militias, guard weapons caches and find work for veterans, all as part of Chinas national defense mobilization strategy, according to Wikipedia.

After decades of relative invisibility throughout the post-Mao economic boom, they are once more mobilizing to build militias in big state-owned companies and consolidate party leadership over local military operations.

The new department at Shanghai Municipal Investment Group, also known as Shanghai Chengtou, came after similar moves in the central city of Wuhan and in the eastern province of Jiangsu, according to official statements and media reports.

The Shanghai Municipal Investment Group holds an opening ceremony [left] on Sept. 28, 2023, for its new Peoples Armed Forces department. At right, some online commentators suggest it could mean authorities are anticipating mass unrest in connection with unfinished real estate projects. Credit: Screenshot provided by Gu Ting





The Wuhan Agricultural Group, which is affiliated with the municipal government, set up its own armed forces department on Aug. 31, the state-run Changjiang Daily newspaper reported.

The establishment of the Peoples Armed Forces Department in a municipal state-owned enterprise has important political significance, the report said, adding that the department would be tasked with cultivating a spirit of unity, cooperation and tenacious struggle among employees, as well as improving their political literacy.

According to its website, the company has total assets of nearly 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion), 12 subsidiaries, and employs more than 800 people, engaging in agricultural finance, landscaping, aquatic animal husbandry, new rural construction, capital operation, and agricultural culture and tourism.

And in Jiangsus Nantong city, the Haian City Construction Development Investment Group set up its own armed forces department on June 16, according to a press release from the municipal government.

The press release quoted Han Tao, Director of the Mobilization Bureau of the Jiangsu Provincial Military Region, as saying that strengthening the armed construction of state-owned enterprises is of great significance to promoting the construction of reserve forces.

Similar moves are in the pipeline at other companies, it said.

Going forward, the province will ... create a number of Peoples Armed Forces departments in [other] companies with ... standardized operations, the statement said.

The announcement from Shanghais Chengtou sparked considerable online debate about the purpose of the move, with some comments calling it a corporate militia, others suggesting it means the government is readying cities on its eastern seaboard for war, and others saying it could mean the authorities are anticipating mass popular unrest in connection with unfinished real estate projects as the wheels come off Chinas property market.

At the very least, it shows that their debt situation is complex ... the armed forces department can be used to deal with debt collection ... or various detentions, wrote @zyqq on the question-and-answer site Zhihu, prompting more than 1,000 users to hit agree.

But @ZhihuUser disagreed, saying that the armed forces departments are in charge of militia training, defense drills, air raid shelters, warehousing of supplies, weapons and ammunition, as well as the coordination of mass evacuations during emergencies.

This is not about preparing to deal with creditors  its about preparing in case the Taiwan authorities and Japan and the United States behave irrationally, and organizing responses to emergencies such as air raids on big cities, the user wrote, garnering more than 500 agree votes.

And user @Protect_the_best_pure_pure_pure quipped: Maybe the soldiers will now have to complete all of those unfinished buildings.

The Mengniu Group in Inner Mongolia established a Peoples Armed Forces Department on May 26. Credit: WeChat screenshot provided by Gu Ting





Jiangsu-based current affairs commentator Zhang Jianping said the move is likely linked to concern over potential social unrest, however.

Urban investment groups ... owe huge debts and they must want to maintain stability, Zhang said. [Armed forces departments] can also help to solve the issue of unemployment among veterans.

Current affairs commentator Bi Xin agreed.

They are expanding their capacity to control confrontation between the people and the government, he said. Shanghai Chengtou is mostly engaged in urban development and property investment, as well as infrastructure projects like bridges, tunnels, metro lines and so on.

The Peoples Armed Forces departments are a new way to maintain stability.

Current affairs commentator Ma Ju said corporate militias have their organizational roots in private security operations that have always existed at state-owned enterprises, often bearing arms.

He said the announcement came after ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping visited Zhejiang ahead of the Asian Games in Hangzhou, and referred to the Fengqiao experience of the early 1960s, when then supreme leader Mao Zedong called on the masses to mobilize to wage class struggle across the country.

Xi Jinping ... went off to Zhejiang and talked about the Fengqiao experience, which basically means a peoples war, Ma said.

These armed forces departments have nothing to do with any threat from overseas or about national defense mobilization, he said. They are about using military force to suppress people inside the system who are seen as disloyal.

Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie.
Ma Ying-jeou says the use of the word Taiwan is tantamount to declaring independence.

Taiwans then-President Ma Ying-jeou cheers with the audience during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei, Taiwan, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013.

Updated on Oct. 3, 2023, at 12:25 p.m. ET

In the latest twist in Taiwans possibly most surprise-a-minute presidential election since they commenced in 1996, former Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou has announced hes boycotting Taiwans Double Tenth National Day celebrations.

Calling the day Taiwan National Day, said Ma, is part of a ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) plot to make Taiwan independent.

Since when [has] our official title ... been changed from the Republic of China to 'Taiwan? said Ma in a statement on Monday.

Local pundits were quick to point out that in fact Ma himself, as president in 2010, celebrated Double Ten (Oct. 10) as Taiwan National Day.

Remember when Ma Ying-jeou told the world as president, in English, that Taiwan's future has to be decided by the 23 million Taiwanese? asked Taiwan-based journalist Klaus Bardenhagen on X, formerly known as Twitter, referencing a YouTube video of Mas statement.

Taiwan Special Forces members rappel from a helicopter during the National Day celebrations in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020. Credit: AP

Oct. 10 is celebrated by Taiwans former Nationalist government, also known as the Kuomintang (KMT), as the date when the 1911 revolution started, leading to the collapse of the Manchu Qing dynasty and the founding of the Republic of China (ROC).

Taiwan acquired the name ROC when the KMT were defeated by the Chinese Communist Party and retreated to the island in 1949. The KMT and the CCP both lay claim to all of China to this day. According to the DPP party charter, on the other hand, self-ruled Taiwan is a de facto independent nation.

Constitutional violation

Ma urged voters to remove the DPP government in January's presidential election, accusing the DPP of violating the Taiwanese constitution.

According to the latest polls, the opposition to the DPP is so divided  three high-profile so-called Blue politicians are competing against one Green candidate, Lai Ching-te  that the DPP at present looks very likely to win an unprecedented third term in January.

As for Mas accusation that the word Taiwan is unconstitutional, Taiwan-based Californian lawyer Michael Fahey said, Ma should  and does  know better.

Hes saying that calling Double 10 Taiwan National Day is an act that does not abide by or uphold the ROC constitution  and he must also know that ordinary people will understand this to mean that Taiwan National Day violates the constitution.

Thats not the case, said Fahey, adding that Taiwans constitutional court would throw the case out.

Its a political question. Political questions are issues that are not subject to constitutional review because they are issues that other branches of government have sole power over.

Ma also probably couldnt even bring the case to court because he would have to prove that he is in some way being specifically and concretely harmed, said Fahey, which he isnt, so he has no case.

The only reasonable explanation is that he is disingenuously using his reputation as a legal graduate of Harvard to make a symbolic political gesture, said Fahey.

Even China, added Fahey, has never complained about Taiwan National Day.

Theres a very good reason for that  they object to any National day by any name because neither Taiwan nor the ROC is a nation.

This picture released by Taiwan's former president Ma Ying-jeou's office on April 1, 2023 shows him visiting his family's tomb in Xiangtan, in China's Hunan Province. Ma's 12-day trip was the first cross-strait visit by a current or former leader of the island in more than 70 years. Credit: Handout / Ma Ying-jeou's office / AFP

It has been longstanding policy of the KMT to subsume Taiwan into its Greater China myth and symbol systems and suppress its independent Identity, said long-term Taiwan observer and columnist Michael Turton.

They have failed. Instead, the pro-Taiwan side has defeated them, hollowing out and redefining ROC symbols, such as the flag, as symbols of Taiwan. The recasting of ROC national day as Taiwan National Day is just another example of this process at work.

Ma knows this, which is why he is sulking.

Taiwan political observer and former Tiananmen student leader Wuer Kaixi is less forgiving. He said, I think hes suffering from dementia. Hes called it Taiwan National Day himself in the past, and in fact, his 2010 National Day logo doesnt even look all that different from the DPPs 2023 logo.

But if hes of sound mind, added Wuer Kaixi, its a kind of betrayal of the Taiwanese people.

Ma was president twice and he was one of the highest polling presidents in Taiwan history. The Taiwanese who voted for him voted for a man who was unafraid of calling Taiwan by its name, as well as referring to it as the ROC. He would never have been elected president if he had refused to call Taiwan in the past.

Edited by Mike Firn and Elaine Chan.

Updated to delete the final two paragraphs.
A bipartisan group of six senators led by Chuck Schumer and Mike Crapo reportedly also hope to meet with Xi.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer [left] will lead a bipartisan group of senators  that will include Sen. Mike Crapo [right] of Idaho, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee  on a trip to China, South Korea and Japan next week.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will lead a bipartisan group of six senators on a trip next week to China, South Korea and Japan, with reports they hope to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

The delegation will include Democrats Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Jon Ossoff of Georgia, according to an announcement from Schumers office. Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, will be joined by Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, both Republicans of Louisiana.

The trip to China was scheduled with the goal of advancing U.S. economic and national security interests in the region, the document says, and will also include business leaders from both countries.

Leader Schumer will focus on the need for reciprocity in China for U.S. businesses that will level the playing field for American workers, as well as on maintaining U.S. leadership in advanced technologies for national security, the document says. It also lists fentanyl, human rights and Chinas role in the international community as topics.

The announcement does not provide dates for the trip  or details about South Korea and Japan legs  but says it will take place during next weeks Senate recess, which begins Friday and ends Oct. 16.

Xi meeting

A report by Bloomberg, citing anonymous courses, said the senators hope to meet with Xi while in China, and plan to discuss a ban on the sale in China of products made by U.S. chipmaker Micron, which was unveiled in June amid the ongoing U.S.-China chip war.

Crapos office confirmed the planned trip to RFA but declined to comment further on the itinerary. Schumers office did not respond to a request for comment. The Chinese Embassy in Washington welcomed the trip but also declined to comment on any Xi meeting.

China welcomes people from all walks of life in the United States, including members of the Congress, to visit China so as to have a better understanding of China, promote exchanges between the two countries, and inject more positive energy into the China-U.S. relationship, said embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu.

Next weeks trip comes amid an attempted thaw in the relationship between China and the United States that is now four months old.

Over that time, four members of President Joe Bidens cabinet have visited Beijing, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. However, a senior member of Chinas government is yet to make the reverse trip to Washington.
A South Korean group that helps escapees starts up again after COVID, but fewer are getting through.

In 2019, a North Korean refugees cell phone is seen with the phrase I want to go to South Korea translated into English, which they used when escaping from North Korea.

More North Koreans fleeing poverty and a repressive government have reached South Korea this year compared to last, as rescue operations restart after a hiatus during COVID.

But the number remains well below the historical average  and advocates say likely will for the foreseeable future given the rising challenges of safely navigating the perilous route, which for most escapees includes traveling through China to a third country from which they can be safely flown to Seoul.

An expansion of surveillance technologies both in North Korea and China has made the trek harder and costlier than ever, Ji Chul-ho, who heads the settlement support team for Now Action & Unity for Human Rights (NAUH), told RFA Korean. The group recently restarted helping to rescue escapees after a three-year pause for the pandemic.

North Koreans desperate to flee the repression of their government and limited opportunities offered by their economy used to pay $1,500 for a chance to make it to South Korea, according to rescue groups RFA spoke with. Now the price is at least $6,000, and some estimates put the cost much higher.

Ji said a planned rescue in May of four escapees had to be called off when it became too difficult for the group to move safely. The group included a woman in her late 20s who had been trapped in China for a decade, trafficked as a wife to a rural Chinese man.

We went as scheduled, but that time crackdowns in China were intense, and the North Korean refugees were unable to come toward the Mekong River as scheduled, Ji said.

A rise in surveillance

Defection rates have fallen steadily since Kim Jong Un took power after his father, Kim Jong Il, died in late 2011. Two years earlier, the number of defectors who made it was more than 2,900, a record level, according to South Koreas Ministry of Unification. By 2019, the number had fallen by about 1,000.

In 2021, when COVID border restrictions were at their peak, only 63 North Koreans reached the South. So far this year, 99 have made it.

In total, nearly 34,000 escapees are thought to have settled in South Korea.

One thing that experts on North Korea say hasnt changed is a desire to leave. With a repressive regime and one of the worlds poorest economies, North Koreas conditions remain depressingly constant.

But Kim has made a point of making it harder to escape.

The regime built a border wall during COVID as the country sought to shut itself in even further in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to keep the virus out, and border guards reportedly have orders to shoot to kill North Koreans trying to flee.

Migrants, not refugees, China says

Some North Koreans are sent abroad by their government to earn wages for a regime shut off from the global economy by economic sanctions. Most wind up in China, where some have then fled.

But China presents its own difficulties. The country considers the escapees illegal migrants, not refugees. If caught, they are deported to North Korea, where they face years of hard labor or even execution.

Restrictions within China imposed in response to the pandemic made travel by anyone problematic, let alone people as vulnerable to exploitation as escapees.

The Mekong River runs low in May 2023. North Korean escapees must spend more time walking on newly exposed riverbeds, which increases their chance of capture. Credit: Courtesy of Ji Chul-ho

Now-ubiquitous facial recognition technologies can help spot defectors on buses and trains. As a result, its safe only to travel by car or vans provided by brokers, limiting the number of passengers to four at a time, a U.S.-based rescue activist told RFA Korean. The person asked to remain anonymous so as not to jeopardize future rescue efforts.

The greater risk has translated into fewer brokers willing to help, another problem for desperate North Koreans fleeing their country.

Even climate change may be complicating the journey. Escapees usually try to reach a Southeast Asian country by crossing the Mekong River before their flight to South Korea.

But Ji said water levels on a recent trip to a rendezvous point along the river were much lower than in previous years, making it difficult even for small boats to cross. For North Korean escapees, that means more time walking on newly exposed riverbeds, which also increases the chances of capture.

There were more ways to rescue North Korean refugees in the past than there are now, but the number of rescue options is starting to decrease, Ji said.

A rare success

Eager to help North Koreans, NAUH must nevertheless be careful that the people who reach out for rescue are genuine and not decoys trying to infiltrate rescue operations.

Ji asks why they want to leave and checks to see that their dialects match where they say they come from in North Korea.

Once we connect with them, we will ask simple questions like how they lived, their address and place of birth in North Korea to confirm that they are North Korean refugees, Ji said.

The South Korean government gives the escapees a settlement package of $40,000, which includes money for vocational training and housing. It is often from this money that escapees pay the brokers, and the higher costs of escape leaves new arrivals with fewer financial resources to navigate what is often a bewildering environment.

In its 12 years of operation, NAUH has rescued more than 500 escapees. This year, theyve been able to get six North Koreans to safety.

In 2019, an employee of a North Korean refugee rescue group says goodbye to a refugee before heading to a police station to surrender after being smuggled into a country in Southeast Asia [left. At right, 13 North Korean refugees head to the police station. Credit: RFA

The woman who was among the four whose rescue was thwarted at the last minute had been pushed to leave North Korea by her extreme poverty. Still in her late-teens, she dreamed of studying in South Korea.

Instead Ji said she was trafficked to a man and caught in a horrible holding pattern: stay and live her life largely as a slave or run and risk the likely circumstance she would be caught and sent back to North Korea.

It was only recently that she was able to contact NAUH to set up an escape plan.

While the initial effort went awry, Ji later learned that the group made it to another country in Southeast Asia. From there, she and the three other escapees would be flown to South Korea, a success story thats rarer these days.

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee and edited by Jim Snyder and Abby Seiff.
But some who were forced to watch doubted one person could commit such a crime.

Boys play soccer in the town of Hyesan in North Korea's Ryanggang province, in a file photo. A manager at a pharmaceutical warehouse in the city was executed in September 2023 for allegedly stealing penicillin from the facility.

A manager at a North Korean pharmaceutical warehouse was publicly executed last month for stealing 20,000 doses of penicillin, sources inside the country said.

The man, who was in his 40s, was shot to death on Sept. 25 in Hyesan, a northern city in Ryanggang province on the Chinese border, said a resident of the province who declined to be identified for safety reasons.

It was the same spot where 25,000 people were forced to watch the execution of nine people on Aug. 30 for running a beef smuggling ring.

But this time, the number of people who witnessed the execution was much smaller, the source told Radio Free Asia.

Only housewives and relevant officials gathered at the execution site, the source told RFA Korean. Factory and farm work did not stop, and the marketplace was not closed.

North Korean authorities carry out both secret and public executions by firing squad, hanging or other brutal methods as a means of deterrence to keep its estimated 26 million people in line and loyal to the authoritarian socialist state.

The Sept. 25 execution took place as officials were on edge about the rising number of people with coronavirus-like symptoms and respiratory illnesses, a second source from Ryanggang province said.

In the public execution, it seemed as if the rapid increase in colds and respiratory symptoms was caused by a shortage of penicillin, he said.

No more than a fly

And while those who witnessed the execution believe there is a medicine shortage, many believe that shooting someone to death was too excessive a punishment, said the second source.

In August, people were shot to death for distributing beef, and this month, a manager is shot to death for stealing penicillin, he said.

In this country, human life is worth no more than that of a fly.

Residents also raised doubts that one person could commit such a crime on his own, the first source said.

Security is not so lax so that only one person could steal them, he said. It is difficult for one manager to steal more than 20,000 doses of penicillin as stated by the court.

The manager who died oversaw medicines at the No. 4 Warehouse where supplies belonging to the Civil Defense Department under the Provincial Peoples Committee are stored for use during wartime, the first source said.

The man had secretly sold a large amount of wartime reserve medicine but it wasnt clear who he had sold it to, the source said.

The No. 4 Warehouse sends medicines that have almost expired to local hospitals and receives new orders to replace them, he added.

In this process, the entire shortage of penicillin was blamed on one person, and he was shot, the source said.

A day after the execution, the government-controlled Korean Central News Agency issued a report on the further strengthening of quarantine measures in response to seasonal changes in the North Korean capital Pyongyang.

City officials are closely monitoring the quarantine situation, quickly establishing preventive measures related to respiratory diseases, including colds, and ensuring that the rapid mobile quarantine team and rapid diagnosis and treatment team are always on high alert, the article said.

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee for RFA Korean. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
YANGON, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Myanmar Investment Commission approved six new investment projects which can create over 2,600 local job opportunities, the state-run Myanmar News Agency reported on Tuesday.

The newly approved investment projects are from the sectors of power, manufacturing, hotels and tourism, the media reported, saying that a renewable energy project was also included in the approved projects.

Those projects will pump in 72.98 million U.S. dollars and over 314.73 billion kyats into the country, it said, adding that eight existing businesses were also allowed to expand capital.

According to the state-run media, Singapore, China, and Thailand are the three largest investors in Myanmar out of 52 countries and regions as of August this year.

The power sector topped the list with 28.45 percent of total investment, followed by the oil and gas sector with 24.46 percent and the manufacturing sector with 14.38 percent, the report said. 
The Urban Owls said the man was an arms dealer who traveled abroad with senior leaders.

A man accused of working with Myanmars ruling junta has been shot in the head in central Yangon, a local guerrilla group said.

The Urban Owls released a statement shortly after Mondays shooting claiming responsibility for the attack, saying that businessman Nyan Lwin Aung was targeted for his close relationships with military leaders.

They said the man accompanied junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing on his trip to Russia last year and met with Russian Defense Ministry officials.

Nyan Lwin Aung also bought weapons for the junta, the group claimed.

He was shot in the head at an intersection in Latha township, residents told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday.

It happened at around 10 p.m. last night, said one local, asking to be kept anonymous for fear of reprisals.

He was sent to the Yangon General Hospital. A large number of junta troops arrived with military vans and investigated 17th to 19th Street after the shooting incident.

Police and soldiers began searching civilians along the busy Shwedagon Pagoda Road after the shooting, the local said.

Another Latha resident said Nyan Lwin Aung was shot at close range in his left temple and was sent to Yangon General Hospital.

The hospitals emergency department confirmed to RFA Burmese that Nyan Lwin Aung arrived at the hospital Monday night with a serious wound. One surgeon said he was in a critical condition and being treated in the intensive care unit.

Yangon divisions junta spokesperson and regional attorney general Htay Aung had not responded to RFA at the time of publication.

Mondays statement by the Urban Owls added that Nyan Lwin Aung had also worked for the Ministry of the Interior, installing CCTV facial recognition cameras.

It said he had a company in Myanmar with business subsidiaries in Thailand, Russia, China, and the United Arab Emirates under the name North Gate Engineering and Technology.

RFA has yet to confirm the groups claims. When a reporter called North Gates Yangon office an employee said he was not authorized to comment.

The guerrilla group has carried out a number of killings, claiming responsibility for the death of Ye Khine, security chief of the Yangon International Airport, as well as Minn Tayzar Nyunt Tin, a junta-affiliated lawyer accused of money laundering.

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.
The militarys recent use of air power and artillery prompted the exodus.

Villagers who fled from their homes in Sei Lant village due to fights between Myanmar junta troops and Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) forces are seen on Aug. 29, 2023.

Fighting between junta troops and the ethnic Taang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, has driven more than 1,000 people from northeast Myanmars Shan state across the border with China to seek shelter, according to residents.

The group is the latest example of civilians displaced by conflict in Myanmar, where the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that tens of thousands have fled into neighboring countries to avoid conflict since the militarys February 2021 coup.

More than 1.6 million people have been internally displaced by fighting since the takeover, according to the U.N.

Fighting between the military and the TNLA in Shans Muse and Kutkai townships broke out on July 23, when the latters forces attacked a pro-junta militia convoy near Sei Lant village on the Muse-Namhkan highway.

Since then, more than 1,000 residents of seven villages  including the border tracts of Nam Kat and Sei Lant  have fled into China, said a resident of Nam Kat who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA Burmese on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns.

We have been fleeing from our homes for two months now, said the resident. We cant make a living and the childrens education has also been impacted.

The resident said that few people felt the need to flee the fighting initially, even when the military began firing artillery in the area.

But one evening recently, lots of people from Namhkan fled after being attacked because the military used a jet fighter and the attack was at night, he said.

There are more than 100 internally displaced persons, or IDPs, sheltering in Namhkans Kawng Tat village and more than 300 IDPs sheltering in Muses Nam Hsant village, the resident said, while at least 1,000 people have fled to Ruili and Jie Gao in southwest Chinas Yunnan province. The number of people who have fled elsewhere was not immediately clear, he added.

Caught between two factions

Residents of Sei Lant told RFA that while some villagers had fled to Muse, most are living in fear in their homes. One resident named Aik Sai said that although fighting has stopped in recent days, they are worried that it will resume due to the presence of troops from both sides stationed near the village.

Both sides are staying [near] the village and we cant drive them out, he said, urging the troops to fight in the jungle, if possible  [because] it isnt good for both sides to use locals as shields.

Aik Sai said life in the village had ground to a halt amid the fighting and that we cant earn a living.

Were worried about residents being shot in the village, he added.

TNLA spokesman Lt-Col. Mai Aik Kyaw confirmed the militarys recent use of air power in the area.

He said that on Sept. 25 at around 10:00 p.m., the military dropped six bombs, including two 500-pound bombs with an impact radius of up to 30 meters (100 feet), in the jungle near a TNLA camp along the Muse-Namhkan highway, around 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the Chinese border.

We dont know why they came and attacked, he said, adding that the TNLA has only engaged in self-defense.

Since Sept. 22, there has been no retaliatory attack from our side, Mai Aik Kyaw said. On their side, they are constantly firing from the air and artillery every day. In the last three or four days, there have been drone attacks.

A Myanmar junta jet dropped 500 lb. bombs on a TNLA base on Loi Mauk Mountain, Sept. 26, 2023. Credit: News & Information Department

A resident of Kutkais Ngawt Ngar village also confirmed the militarys use of aircraft, saying that two fighter jets fired on the tract on the afternoon of Sept. 26. That same evening, he said, junta troops in nearby Nam Hpat Kar lobbed artillery at Ngawt Ngar, damaging a home.

The resident said that the incidents were enough to cause many villagers to flee and others to go into hiding nearby.

There are only a few people left [in the village], he said. Some ran away to the jungle, since people dont dare to stay in the village anymore.

Control of border town

Attempts by RFA to reach the juntas economic minister and Shan state spokesman Khun Thein Maung went unanswered.

Similarly, RFA contacted the Chinese Embassy in Yangon via email regarding the issue of Myanmar nationals fleeing into China due to fighting near the border, but received no response.

Than Soe Naing, a Myanmar political commentator, said he believes that the junta has been stepping up attacks in the area because it cannot tolerate TNLA control of Muse, a town of economic importance due to its proximity to the border.

Thats why the junta is putting pressure on the TNLA, and the fighting has become intense, he said.

According to the TNLA, the two sides fought nearly 50 battles between July 23 and Sept. 26.

RFA reporting found that a total of nine civilians  including a child  were killed and 13 civilians were injured in Mogoke, Muse and Kutkai townships over the same period.

Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
The Myanmar junta is going all out with its air and ground forces to wipe out the headquarters of ethnic Kachin rebels in northern Kachin state, eliminating a lifeline of support for anti-regime militias in neighboring Sagaing region, political and military analysts said.

A fierce battle broke out between military troops and Kachin Independence Army forces on Monday near the Lai Lum Awng Jar base camp in Kachins Momauk township, said Col. Naw Bu, the groups information officer. Between 50 and 100 junta soldiers have been trapped by KIA forces inside the camp for more than two months, he said.

The junta launched three air strikes while some of its troops who tried to rescue them were intercepted by the KIA along the route.

Fierce fighting between junta troops and joint KIA and local Peoples Defense Forces  ordinary citizens who have taken up arms against the junta  in the upper townships of adjacent Sagaing region earlier this year began moving in July towards the KIAs headquarters in Laiza, a remote mountainous town in Kachin state that lies on the border with China, area residents and KIA members said.

Since then, the juntas 1,000-strong force has been attacking Nam Sam Yang village in Waingmaw township near Laiza, while the KIA and some soldiers from the Arakan Army, another ethnic armed group, have jointly defended it, they said.

There also has been three months of intense and continuous fighting along the Myitkyina-Bhamo road as the junta tried to gain control of the major cities of Hpakant, Bhamo and Myitkyina in Kachin state, Naw Bu said.

The junta even launched air strikes, he said. Thats how intense the military situation is.

They have reinforced their troops to try to control Hpakant, Myitkyina and Bhamo cities, he added. Thats why their troops have reduced strength in Sagaing region, and fighting there has decreased as well.

Hotbed of resistance

Up to now, areas of northern Sagaing bordering Kachin have been a hotbed of armed resistance since the military seized power from the democratically elected government in a February 2021 coup.

Nine military junta warships loaded with weapons and food supplies, which sailed up from Mandalay along the Ayeyarwady River, arrived in Bhamo on Aug. 19 to reinforce the military base along the Myitkyina-Bhamo road near Laiza, according to local and KIA sources who declined to be named for safety reasons.

When the junta columns could not move forward after intercepting KIA forces burned their vehicles and destroyed their supplies, the junta launched air strikes, they said.

More than 1,000 residents displaced by the fighting have taken refuge in monasteries and Christian churches in Momauk and Bhamo, said a Bhamo local.

Kachin Independence Army recruits undergo training at a military camp near Laiza in northern Myanmar's Kachin state, Feb. 13, 2012. Credit: Vincent Yu/AP

Over 80 battles have occurred in the vicinity of Bhamo, Hpakant, Tanai, Shwegu, Momauk, Waingmaw and at the KIA's Laiza headquarters between July 23 to Sept. 11, during which junta forces conducted more than 20 air strikes, Naw Bu said.

During these battles, 51 junta soldiers were killed and 106 were injured, he said, though he did not disclose the number of KIA casualties.

Win Ye Tun, the juntas social affairs minister and Kachin state spokesman, said he did not know details about the fighting.

Junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun could not be reached for comment.

Cut it from the roots

Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the pro-military Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, said the military is targeting KIA headquarters in Laiza because it wants to eliminate the supply source for armed opposition in the region.

As long as you cannot control the sources of supply for your enemies, you wont be able to control what is happening on the front, he said. This means that if you only cut the branches without cutting the root sources, it will not be enough to kill a tree. To cut down a tree, you need to cut it from the roots.

Because Laiza is a major source of supplies for the resistance groups, the militarys major aim is to wipe it out so that at least its supply lines of personnel and weapons can be eradicated, he said.

The military junta is trying to wipe out Laiza, so it can control the upper part of Sagaing region, said a political and military analyst on condition of anonymity so he could speak freely.

Since the junta has suffered the loss of many territories especially in Sagaing region, it is attacking Laiza in Kachin state to strategically control and cut the source of supplies for the revolutionary forces becoming stronger in Sagaing region.

Junta troops have been attacking the Laiza headquarters with a much larger force than before, while the KIA is strongly resisting them to prevent the regime from achieving its goal, he added.

With junta soldiers stepping up fighting in Kachin state, the number of attacks in the upper Sagaing region, such as Indaw, Tigyaing, Katha and Banmauk townships, has decreased, local defense forces said.

The juntas Light Infantry Battalions 416, 309, 301 and 416 used to be stationed in Indaw township and would raid villages, but now only the 77th battalion is there, said the information officer of Indaw Revolution, a defense team in Sagaing region, as troops appear to be headed to Hpakant for reinforcement.

More than 80 battles have been fought in Indaw township, and more than 20 civilians have been killed by junta soldiers since the 2021 coup, said the information officer, who declined to identify himself by name for safety reasons.

Similarly, KIA-PDF joint forces have fought more than 100 battles with junta troops in Katha township, resulting in the deaths of over 80 civilians and the burning of more than 900 houses, according to an official of the Katha township Peoples Defense Force.

RFA could not independently confirm the death toll figures.

More than 24,000 civilians have fled to safety due to the fighting in Kachin state since the coup, according to a statement issued on Monday by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Translated by Myo Min Aung for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
Le Minh The is being investigated for abusing democratic freedoms.

Police in the southern Vietnamese city of Can Tho have extended the pre-trial detention of former political prisoner Le Minh The, his family told Radio Free Asia on Sunday.

They only found out that he was being held for additional questioning when they visited him in a detention center last month, they said.

The, 60, was released from prison in July 2020 after serving a two-year term for abusing democratic freedoms under the controversial Article 331 of Vietnams criminal code.

On Feb. 22 this year, he was arrested again on the same charge.

According to Vietnams criminal procedure code the investigations can last up to three months and can be extended twice, the first for as long as three months and the second not exceeding two months.

Thes daughter Le Thi Nghia Tinh, told RFA she and her mother met him at Long Tuyen temporary detention center on Aug. 1.

My father did not confess so the police could not finish the investigation and were forced to extend it, she said.

However, my family was not informed about the extension of the investigation.

My father also said that his trial could be in  December this year.

The maximum sentence under Clause 2 of Article 3 is seven years but The told his family he does not want them to hire a lawyer.

RFA called Binh Thuy District Police, but the person on the phone asked the reporter to go to the agency's headquarters to get information.

When The was arrested for the second time, state media quoted information from local police saying that The regularly posted and shared articles and images with illegal content on his personal Facebook page. However, the newspapers did not name any specific articles.

In Thes 2019 trial he was accused of using Facebook to broadcast live propaganda defaming the Communist Party of Vietnam and the state.

He was accused of destroying national unity, causing division between the people and the party and state; causing harm to national political order and threatening security and social safety.

The indictment also accused The of colluding with domestic and foreign reactionary subjects to exchange information, call for protests, demand regime replacement and a multi-party system.

Rights groups have said that Article 331 is used by the government to silence dissenting voices and repress the people.

Vietnam has arrested at least 18 people and convicted nine for violating Article 331 since January this year, according to RFA statistics.

Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
Pakistan on November 1 began rounding up undocumented foreigners, the vast majority of them Afghans, hours ahead of the deadline for them to evacuate the country.

The country's Interior Ministry said in a statement before the midnight deadline that "a process to arrest the foreigners...for deportation" had begun, but that voluntary return would still be encouraged.



The undocumented foreigners were reportedly being transferred to transit centers.



Officials in the southwestern port city of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and capital of Sindh Province, said that up to 40 people without proper documents had been moved to one of the transit centers.

WATCH: Pakistani authorities have cracked down on undocumented foreigners, mostly Afghans, ahead of a deadline to leave the country or face deportation. In Karachi, Afghan men and boys on November 1 were put on buses and taken to a temporary detention center.



Pakistan announced in early October that it would expel an estimated 1.7 million undocumented immigrants who remained in the country after November 1. As the deadline approached, tens of thousands of Afghans -- some who have been in Pakistan for decades -- made their way back to Afghanistan with their families and belongings.

More than 165,000 Afghans have fled Pakistan since Islamabad issued its ultimatum, officials said on November 2. Just over 129,000 have fled from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, the provincial Interior Ministry said, while a total of 38,100 have crossed through Chaman in Baluchistan, border officials there told AFP on November 2.

In the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, which borders Afghanistan, officials said on November 1 that more than 100,000 Afghan nationals had returned to their homeland via the Torkham border crossing in the past two weeks.

WATCH: Authorities in Islamabad demolished mud houses belonging to Afghan refugees on October 31, a day ahead of a deadline for them to leave Pakistan. An estimated 1.7 million Afghans living illegally in Pakistan have been told to return to their country or face detention and deportation.

An undetermined number of Afghans have returned to Afghanistan by way of the Chaman border crossing in the southwestern Balochistan Province.



Overall, more than 140,000 people had voluntarily left Pakistan following the government's October 3 order, according to Pakistan's Interior Ministry.



Pakistan's move to remove undocumented foreigners is seen as part of an anti-immigrant crackdown that has been criticized by human rights groups and the United Nations.

On October 31, the chair of the nongovernmental Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Hina Jilani, wrote the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warning that Islamabad's move to expel Afghans could "trigger a humanitarian crisis."

"The decision amounts to forced repatriation, which is not recognized under international customary law, and will invariably affect vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers, which include women, children, the elderly, persons living with disabilities, persons from low-income groups, and Afghans at risk because of their professions -- many of whom fled Afghanistan after the Afghan Taliban took over the government in August 2021," Jilani wrote.

Ahmad Afghan, an Afghan national who lives in Islamabad, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that he and his family left Afghanistan after the Taliban regained power in Kabul. He said his visa has since expired and he has been unable to extend it as he and his family await documents to move to a third country.



"We are very worried. We cannot go back to Afghanistan," Afghan said. "If we go back to Afghanistan, [the Taliban] will kill us -- 100 percent."



Pakistan has been a popular refuge for Afghans for decades, beginning during the 1979-89 Soviet occupation. Others fled fighting during the ensuing Afghan civil war and the Taliban's first stint in power from 1996 to 2001. Millions of Afghans returned to their homeland following the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban from power.



Some 3.7 million Afghans fleeing war, poverty, and political upheaval in their homeland currently reside in Pakistan, according to the United Nations, with Islamabad putting the number as high as 4.4 million.



Officials in Islamabad have said that about 1.4 million Afghans possess documents allowing them to legally stay in Pakistan and that the order for undocumented immigrants to leave affects 1.7 million people.



Afghanistan's ruling Taliban has previously criticized the move to remove undocumented Afghans from Pakistan, saying they are being punished for tensions between Kabul and Islamabad.



On November 1, the Taliban called on the Pakistani government to give undocumented Afghans more time to leave as large numbers of evacuees created bottlenecks at the Pakistan-Afghan border.



While thanking Pakistan and other countries that have harbored Afghans over years of conflict in Afghanistan, the Taliban asked Islamabad "to not forcibly deport Afghans with little notice, but give them time to prepare."



Mohammad Zaman, an Afghan national who spoke to Radio Azadi at the Torkham border crossing on November 1, said the large group his family traveled with struggled to prepare for the evacuation.



"More than 30 families came with us. They are people who had left their country due to poverty. They are people who could not find a loaf of bread, so they left the country and came [to Pakistan]," Zaman said. "Instead of supporting us, Pakistan gave us a very short deadline. The deadline was so short that we couldn't even wrap up our businesses."



An Afghan national who spoke to Radio Azadi on condition of anonymity following his arrival in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar Province expressed hope that he and his children would be treated fairly by the Taliban.



"I swear by God, I have neither a place to live in nor a piece of land," the man said, adding that he and his family had moved to Pakistan in search of work. "I ask the Taliban to provide us with shelter, at least a tent to live in.... Here, we may die of hunger."



On November 1, Afghanistan's state news agency, Bakhtar, which is under Taliban control, said the Taliban government had dedicated 2 billion Afghanis (about $27 million) to provide returnees "with basic needs."

With reporting by Reuters
A 13-year-old boy drove seven relatives out of Nagorno-Karabakh to safety in Armenia amid a mass exodus from the region. With his military father away during fighting, the family says the young teenager, Gor Khachatrian, was their only hope to reach Armenia. The arduous journey took almost three days after the family fled their village of Khnapat (known in Azeri as Xanabad) and left almost everything behind.
VOSKEVAN, Armenia -- Nelly Babayan says leaving Artsakh, the Armenian name for the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh now under full Azerbaijani control, is the most painful emigration of her life.

Which is saying something.



Babayan, 65, had already fled deadly crises in the former Soviet Union including leaving her birthplace, Baku, after bloody anti-Armenian violence in 1988 and then escaping Luhansk after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine 3 1/2 decades later to end up in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2022.



Now, barely a year on, Babayan, an ethnic Armenian woman with closely cropped hair and a confident demeanor, is giving an account from northeastern Armenia of the two frenetic weeks since Azerbaijani troops took control of her village of Nngi, in easternmost Nagorno-Karabakh. A cease-fire agreement ended Azerbaijan's September 19-20 flash military operation that gave Baku complete control over the region.



In those two weeks, she tells RFE/RL's Armenian Service, she was encouraged by Russian peacekeepers to stay calm and "live completely carefree," before being ordered by the capitulating ethnic Armenian leadership to "step aside" and eventually told to pack up and leave.



"We were calm for a while, [knowing] that there were up to 25 Russian peacekeepers there, [that] there wouldn't be any fighting," she says. "But I saw that everything is a lie. Everything is a lie."

Babayan is one of at least 100,000 residents to have crossed the border into Armenia since the Azerbaijani offensive. The exodus has virtually emptied the territory of ethnic Armenians, who were already on edge following the six-week war in 2020 that led to a Russian-brokered cease-fire and parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts being returned to Azerbaijani control.



Yerevan for decades has provided a lifeline to the ethnic Armenians controlling Nagorno-Karabakh but is now outgunned by its much larger regional archfoe Azerbaijan.



Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has denounced the supposed inaction of the estimated 2,000 Russian peacekeepers on the ground as Azerbaijani troops and artillery routed ethnic Armenian forces.



Moscow responded by calling Pashinian's criticism "unacceptable outbursts addressed against Russia" and a "big mistake."

Babayan described the chaotic days that followed Azerbaijan's 24-hour offensive when she was still in Nngi, a village of around 300 people. By then, the separatist government in Stepanakert, the region's de facto capital, had agreed to dissolve and hand over its weapons, although it was still unclear to whom.



Separatist leader Samvel Shahramanian arrived in Nngi late on September 20. "They had come to disarm. They collected the weapons of [ethnic Armenian] soldiers," says Babayan, who was watching the events unfold. Then, she says, they put ethnic Armenian soldiers into military trucks.



She recalls the fear she and other bystanders felt that the men would be killed and says the locals were demanding to know where they were being taken.

"Everyone was going home," she recalls their escorts saying.

The newly instated commander of the Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh, Kiril Kulakov, was there, too, she says. "As Kulakov was getting out of his car, I approached and asked him about what had happened and why they had allowed it to happen," she says.



Babayan says his response was that it "wasn't their concern," adding that the Russian commander said, "We have nothing to do with it."



She says Kulakov embraced her and told her not to worry. "Everything is going to be alright," she quotes him as saying. "Don't fear, no one will touch you, no one will hurt you."



Amid her insistence on learning what was happening, Babayan says, she was addressed by Shahramanian, who was flanked by bodyguards. "Step aside, Granny, you talk too much," she quotes the separatist leader as saying. "It's none of your business."

WATCH: Azerbaijan continues to arrest and charge Nagorno-Karabakh's ethnic Armenian leadership following Baku's takeover of the region. Baku has said it plans to give amnesty to Armenian fighters but is looking to arrest people it claims committed "war crimes."

The next day, on September 21, she says that she and the other villagers were told they had two days to leave. She acknowledges it's unclear where the order originated but says news of the deadline spread quickly from house to house. The local administration distributed enough gasoline to families with vehicles to reach the regional capital, Stepanakert, and said there they would be given more fuel to get them to Armenia.



Four days after this latest cease-fire, Azerbaijan opened the only road leading from Karabakh to Armenia.



Babayan, who is single with no immediate family, says she had nearly finished her supplies of wheat, flour, and canned fruit and vegetables -- all of which were in short supply since Azerbaijan began imposing a de facto blockade of the territory in December 2022.

Baku-born Babayan had long dreamed of settling in Nagorno-Karabakh, a place where she'd spent summers as a child. During the four months that she spent in Armenia last year, preparing documents to resettle in Nagorno-Karabakh, she says people called her "crazy" for planning to return to a war-torn territory.

"My heart would break if I didn't go," she says she told them.

She says she felt confident she would be safe in the shadow of Russian peacekeepers. "We were assured a bit that the Russian presence in Karabakh would be until 2025, and that there would not be any fighting until then," she says. "But it turned out to all be lies."



To get out, Babayan hitched a ride on a minibus and agreed with three families to meet up in Voskevan, just a kilometer or so from the Azerbaijani border. They eventually made the trip to northeastern Armenia in three days.



During her journey, Babayan recalls looking back to see an endless convoy of vehicles crammed with passengers, some of the trucks loaded to the sky with families' belongings.



"We had fled from Baku, then I fled from Ukraine and went to Karabakh, but I had to flee Karabakh, too," Babayan says. "Where should I go? May God help establish peace."

Written by Andy Heil based on reporting by RFE/RL Armenian Service correspondent Karine Simonian
5 Yeltsin's Interior Ministry estimated that around 600 heavily armed men had taken up the defense of the parliament building by the night of October 3. On October 3, pro-parliament demonstrators broke through police lines surrounding the parliament building. Yeltsin declared a state of emergency in Moscow.
On September 27, 1993, after a week and a half of fierce fighting, control of Sukhumi, the largest city of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, passed from Georgian units to Abkhaz formations supported by the Russian military. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee as a result. Some estimates put the total who left at 250,000, while thousands died. Thirty years have passed since the conflict ended, yet those who fled still cannot return home and Abkhazia remains internationally isolated. Only Russia, Nicaragua, Nauru, Venezuela, and Syria recognize the region as an independent state, while the rest of the world views it as part of Georgia. Current Time, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA, spoke with ethnic Georgians and Abkhazians who survived that momentous summer in Sukhumi in 1993. Nanuli Anchabadze, 73: 'We still can't forget our city' Nanuli Anchabadze was 17 when she entered university and moved from Ochamchira to Sukhumi. She married in the seaside city and had three children. During the Soviet period, Anchabadze taught Russian at one of the most respected schools in the city. She remembers Sukhumi as being full of intelligent and noble people. Georgians, Abkhazians, Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks, and people of many other nationalities lived there, Anchabadze says. I always liked that it didnt matter to anyone who you were or where you came from. The main thing was human decency and some kind of 'Sukhumi zest.'"

Among the Georgians and Abkhazians living in Abkhazia, there were always radicals, but only very few of them, Anchabadze says. When a major clash between ethnic Georgians and Abkhazians occurred in July 1989 over the authorities decision to create a Sukhumi branch of Tbilisi State University, many activists traveled from elsewhere within Soviet Georgia to take part in protests. These people did not understand the customs and traditions of the people or the relations between those living there," she says. This, Anchabadze says, destroyed the goodwill of the Abkhazians who intermingled and, in some cases, intermarried with ethnic Georgians. The fighting in Abkhazia that broke out in the summer of 1992 paused in July 1993 when the warring parties signed a cease-fire that Moscow was tasked to enforce. That summer passed calmly, Anchabadze remembers, and schools were already preparing to reopen.

At the time, the teacher was looking after her 2-year-old grandson Temur. Anchabadzes eldest daughter was pregnant and had traveled to Tbilisi to avoid giving birth under bombs. On September 16, 1993, ethnic Abkhazian fighters broke the cease-fire and launched an attack on Sukhumi. There were only two ways out of the surrounded city: through the mountains toward Georgia's Svaneti region or by sea. Relatives helped Anchabadze and her grandson get to Svaneti, but she soon returned with the baby. Nanulis 17-year-old son, as well as her son-in-law, had remained in Sukhumi. At 17, everyone thinks theyre a hero, she says of her son, who remained as war engulfed Sukhumi. Anchabadze reached Sukhumi with her grandson by walking and hitchhiking. There was heavy artillery fire on the approaches to Sukhumi, but the teacher managed to reach her house, pick up her son, and help evacuate him out of the city. The teenager eventually reached Tbilisi, where he stayed with relatives.

Anchabadze was then faced with the risky journey back out of Abkhazia as winter closed in, while caring for her 2-year-old grandchild. Several times she heard artillery shells whistling overhead. Many times death came so close that you could feel its breath, she says. The teacher met an ethnic Svan family crossing the pass on horseback who said that an evacuation helicopter was supposed to land nearby. The family promised to put her and her grandson on board. The helicopter landed at a hut where shepherds usually spent the night. But when she arrived with baby Temur, about 200 refugees were sheltering in the hut and it wasnt possible to leave that day. Everyone rushed the helicopter and many women and children were pushed onto the aircraft by their men. Anchabadze had no one to help her. She spent about a week in the hut, unable to board each subsequent chopper. There were always more people than places. She begged a Svan pilot to take her earrings and promised to give him her daughters jewelry in Tbilisi if he would let her on board, but he refused to take the earrings. He took it as an insult.

When another helicopter flown by the same Svan pilot was about to take off, Anchabadze managed to get close. She handed her 2-year-old grandson to someone inside and, in desperation, lied that the boys mother was inside the helicopter, telling people in the crowd, Give him to her. After Temur was taken, Anchabadze fought to get into the helicopter herself. While I was pushing through, I heard the engine start and I realized that I could lose my grandson. He doesnt know anyone. He wont be able to say anything -- not his last name, nothing. I screamed so much that the men who were standing nearby covered their ears. Then the pilot who had refused her offer of jewelry saw Anchabadze and said in the Svan language: Throw her here. Several men then picked her up and tossed her onto the floor of the helicopter. I remember that I hit my head and blacked out for a moment," she says. The helicopter took the pair to Kutaisi in western Georgia. They then took a bus to a sanatorium in Tskaltubo where many other internally displaced people were housed. There, Anchabadze, who was probably concussed, realized that she had forgotten her last name and why she was even in the spa town. The amnesia turned out to be temporary and her memory soon returned. Anchabadze lived with her family in Tbilisi for a little over a year, then emigrated to Moscow. I was in a country that had contributed to my expulsion from home. But the world is full of good people. These people gave me a lot of good -- both spiritual and material," she says of her time in Russia. Now, Anchabadze is back in Tbilisi living with one of her daughters. She dreams of reconciliation between Georgians and Abkhazians and of returning home. In Tbilisi, Anchabadze organizes meetings of Sukhumi residents, both online and in person. Several years ago she created the project Children Of Sukhumi in which locals who fled, and those who stayed, share memories. We still cant forget our city. Is it possible to love it still, yet get used to the idea that this life was all in the past? We cant do it, explains the Sukhumi native. One elderly mother of Anchabadze's friend asked her daughter to bury her in such a way that it would be easier to dig her up when the Georgians returned [to Abkhazia] and to rebury her alongside her son, who died in Abkhazia. People leave with a dream to return to their native land. If not alive, then at least dead, Anchabadze says. Tengiz Tsulukiya, 56: 'During the war, I met Murtaz. We both had guns. Hes on one side, I'm on the other.' When the war in Abkhazia began, Tengiz Tsulukia was 25. He worked as a veterinarian in the Ministry of Agriculture and lived in a village in the Ochamchira region. On August 14, 1992, when Tsulukiya learned that the Georgian military had entered the territory of Abkhazia in tanks, he couldnt believe what he was hearing. Then, as the first victims of the war became known, he says he couldnt stay away. He joined the ranks of the Abkhazian militia and fought the incoming Georgian military.

Tsulukiya becomes nostalgic when he talks about life in Abkhazia before the war. His uncle, who served as an officer in the Soviet Army, had ethnic Georgian friends who often visited their house. One of those friends, Murtaz Guteridze, was a keen accordian player. During the war, I met Murtaz. We both had guns. Hes on one side, Im on the other. He started crying. He hugged me and asked how my mother and father were. Its very sad, but the war happened. It can't be helped, he says, adding, If I met Murtaz now, I would definitely hug him and speak with him." There were many family relationships between Georgians and Abkhazians. I had wonderful Georgian and Mingrelian friends, and then what happened happened, he continues.

According to Tengiz, in his youth, even before the war, he and some Georgian acquaintances had disputes about who owns this land and where the Abkhazians came from. He recalls a scene from his childhood during a trip to a youth camp in Pitsunda. I remember how Georgian children painted the phrase Abkhazia is Georgia in Georgian script on the trees. I dont know why they did that. Another time, he witnessed a fight on a bus that began after two Georgian men objected to two other passengers speaking to each other in Abkhazian. But these were isolated incidents. Tengiz believes that if the Georgians had turned against the bandits and Mkhedrionites (a notorious ethnic Georgian paramilitary group involved in the attempt to recapture Abkhazia), the Abkhazians and Georgians on the disputed territory would have been able to come to an agreement and live again as a big, friendly family. Irakli Adamia, 37: 'Dad covered my eyes with his hands and told me not to look.' When the war began, Irakli Adamia was 7 years old. I remember how shells were constantly flying in 1992, and it always seemed to me that our house was about to be hit. And I prayed, 'God, please not here,'" he recalls. On September 27, 1993. Adamias father gathered his family and 10 colleagues and prepared to leave the city through the mountains of Svaneti. Adamia remembers the date well because the next day was his birthday. At first, we drove by car from Sukhumi, but somewhere near a small village in Svaneti, they were held up by bandits who pointed a gun at the driver, Adamias uncle, then made off with the familys 1989 Honda.

The boy continued on foot through the mountains with his family. Adamia remembers how his shoes broke apart and he continued barefoot, then how there was no water for long hours. When he finally managed to find a stream and drink from it, his lips immediately cracked in the cold. Helicopters carrying humanitarian aid sometimes flew over the refugees and dropped food packages. When we were walking, we saw corpses lying along the road, Adamia recalls. There were a lot of them. My dad covered my eyes with his hands and told me not to look.

Eventually, the family moved to Tbilisi. Adamias parents were divorced, and for seven months the boy did not know where his mother was or whether she was alive. Adamias mother, Olga Morozova, a Ukrainian from Kharkov, had sheltered at home in Sukhumi with her sister and parents. Twelve days into the attack on the city, Russian troops entered Sukhumi with Cossacks, Chechens, Circassians, and the notorious Abkhaz battalion, which was the very last, Morozova says. We were all almost shot in the basement. Morozova eventually managed to fly to Moscow with her parents and sister. Seven months later she learned that her children and their father had reached Tbilisi through the Svaneti mountains. I remember when we received a letter [from my mother], I was so happy! says Adamia. In the summer of 1994, Olga took the children on vacation to Moscow. Soon, she met her future husband, a Georgian Jew, and in 2001 they moved to Israel, and Adamia went too. The family still lives there today. Now, Adamia is married to a woman from Sukhumi who he met in Israel. Early in the relationship, the pair discovered that they had been born in the same maternity hospital in Sukhumi, then also lived in the same area in Tbilisi.

Adamias father, Davit, died during a partisan offensive that attempted to recapture Sukhumi in 1997. Davit was a civil engineer but couldnt find work in post-war Georgia. Adamia thinks that this influenced his decision to return to Sukhumi with the partisans. He kept saying, 'How can we look our children in the eyes when we have lost their home? Adamia says. Davit and his fellow fighters reached Gulripsha, just south of Sukhumi, where Davits sister had a house. The two siblings took a last photo together before Davit disappeared. "My father's name was not found on any lists of the living or lists of the dead," Adamia says. "At first, to be honest, I didn't believe he'd died, that perhaps someone helped him and he simply couldnt find us. TikTok And 'Treason' In the summer of 2023, the Abkhaz language was heard for the first time in the European Parliament when the co-founders of the Amra movement, Mikhail Kvatashidze and Daur Buava, spoke from its podium. They talked about reconciliation between the Abkhaz and Georgian people. "Amra" means "sun" in Abkhazian. The founders say the goal of the organization is to establish communication between Abkhaz and Georgian youth. Like many Abkhazians, Buava initially believed the official position of the Abkhaz authorities, that Georgia wants to bring Abkhazia to its knees and exterminate its people. But Buava wanted to see for himself. Arriving in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, in 2021, he experienced kindness and hospitality. No one told me that Abkhazians dont exist. There were no Georgian tanks on the border waiting to enter Abkhazia, says Buava.
Where water once stood is now an arid, dry, open landscape in western Kazakhstan punctuated with low-lying shrubs. Only when you finally reach the Little Aral Sea, known as Kishi Aral, can you feel the coolness and breathe deeply.

The fisherman are either napping or chatting about the intricacies of rural life as they rest after their morning catch. They are all residents of the tiny settlement of Shomishkol. Abilbay Abildaev, a 51-year-old father of 10 -- nine daughters and one son -- says he was able to provide for them thanks to fishing.

"Fishing is the trade of my ancestors. God willing, I won't give up this business either. It's difficult for a man over 50 to find another job," Abildaev said, looking at the ripple of the waters above the blue sea as it moves toward the shore. Abildaev's son did not want to become a fisherman, and his father understands. In recent years, water levels have dropped as the levels of salinity has increased. As a result, fish stocks are falling, much like the income of fishermen. "When the water from the river stopped flowing into the sea, there were noticeably fewer fish. Our earnings dropped by 50-70 percent. The situation now is not very good. The sea needs water. When there is more water, the catch will increase. But now the situation is such that we can't justify the costs [of going out], and we instead linger in the parking lot. This spring, there were no fish at all," Abildaev says.

Many fishermen live nearby for 10-15 days at a time, bringing with them fishing equipment, fuel for their boats, and food. Lately, they've had to rely on loans to finance their costs. Only when there is a catch can they pay off their debts and have something left over for their families. On a good day, a fisherman can haul in 20-30 kilograms of fish. The catch is divided equally between the two fishermen who work each boat. Afterward, the fresh fish are sold and taken to a fish factory. Demand Sets The Price "I've been fishing since the construction of the [Dike Kokaral Dam] in 2005. At first, because the seawater was salty, all of the fish were found at the mouth of the river where we fished. As the volume of water increased there were more fish. In the last two to three years, the sea stopped receiving the river's water, and there were no fish again. Previously, fishermen could catch 100 kilograms of fish a day; now they are happy with 20-30 kilograms. Sometimes we come back empty-handed," said another fisherman, Mukangazy Ibaev. In the afternoon, the fishermen began to prepare for the next trip. They load the nets onto an old motorcycle that will be driven close to the water's edge. Getting to the water with the nets is a challenge in and of itself. Over the course of the past year, the sea has moved away from the coast by about 1 1/2 kilometers. Ibaev's assistant, Askhat, loads a large net onto the boat. According to fishing tradition, they shout "Maylansyn!" or "Big catch!" as the fishermen answer loudly, "Let it be so!" After launching the boat, the fishermen have to push it another 500-600 meters to get past the shallow water.

"We walked about 1 1/2 to two kilometers from the shore. But we are still dragging the propeller. It's too shallow here; there's only half a meter of water. We'll drop the nets somewhere in the 20-30 kilometer range. Then we will return in the evening. During this time, we will burn 50 liters of fuel with our little motor. There are times when we return empty-handed and cannot reimburse the cost of fuel," Ibaev said. Livelihoods Tied To The Sea Due to the receding waters, more and more people are leaving fishing to pursue work in other industries -- even leaving for other regions. This is confirmed by the many abandoned boats along the shore.

"Fishermen work on a rotating basis. In the summer, they must work in construction. These are all their boats. Who will buy these boats? Nobody! Everyone here is a fisherman. On the one hand, they probably don't want to lose hope that the sea will return or that the water will come back. Everything ultimately comes down to water. If water came, the situation would improve. In previous years, there was a lot of water in the dam, and all of the boats were on the water. People worked and lived well," said Zhetkergen Akmyrzaev, a local businessman in the fishing industry. For those living nearby, their communities are closely connected with fishing. One of them is the village of Karashalan, located at the mouth of the Syr-Darya River (also known as the Jaxartes), 170 kilometers from the city of Aralsk.

In Karashalan, there are still houses that locals call "tokal tam," built of reeds and without roofs, whose outsides are decorated with clay. "Fishermen used to live in such houses. Later, when the Kokaral Dam was built and the water flowed into the sea, life in the fishing villages began to improve," a local resident explained. A large house in a traditional Kazakh village is an indicator of a good life, and there are many of them in Karashalan. There are also those who built cottages in remote villages. Fishing and cattle breeding have been practiced here for a long time. But the sea is closer to those who live here -- it is the source of livelihoods.

"No water has flowed into the sea since March. We have 124 families living here and everyone is worried. There are between 70 and 80 fishermen in our village. The well-being of their families is connected with the sea," said Orazbay Ospanov, a Karashalan resident. Irreparable Damage Zaualkhan Ermakhanov, a local ichthyologist, is concerned that the Little Aral Sea could become a dead sea. After all, the salinity has increased as the flow of water from the Syr Darya has decreased. Currently, the amount of salt per liter of seawater is 13 grams. If the salinity of the water exceeds 16 grams, the fish in the sea will die off.

"The native fish of the Aral spawned at an average water salinity of 10 grams. If a liter of seawater contains more than 10 grams of salt, it will be difficult for fish to spawn. Even if they do spawn, the eggs will die. We've been noticing this lately. The salinity of seawater is now 13 grams. That's why the fishermen are worried," Ermakhanov said. "Without additional water from the Syr Darya River flowing into the Little Aral Sea, the fish will not survive," he adds. Experts warn that if the problem of the Little Aral Sea is not urgently tackled it will cause irreparable damage to nature and humanity. "Previously, before the construction of the Kokaral Dam, the salinity of the Little Aral was 35 grams. That is, it was the same as the salinity of the ocean. In those difficult years, there were no fish. If urgent measures are not taken at the top, the Little Aral will cease to be a breadwinner," Ermakhanov said. According to official data, out of 12 cubic kilometers of water annually entering the Kyzylorda region, only three cubic kilometers flow into the Little Aral Sea. Ermakhanov doubts the water volume indicated in the data actually flows into the sea.

According to Ermakhanov, Kazakhstan doesn't use its river water efficiently. According to his calculations, the Little Aral Sea will return to its previous state in five to six years if it receives at least six cubic kilometers of water per year. "On the banks of the Syr Darya is the Koksarai Dam. Its goal is to collect water and send it to the Kyzylorda region in the summer. If you look now, there is water in Koksarai and the fish are thriving. They shouldn't be. The water should be directed downward. The purpose of the Syr Darya watershed isn't intended for fisheries -- it should be directed to the Little Aral Sea. This is one of the ways to save it, Ermakhanov said.

Water levels in the Aral Sea have been falling rapidly since the 1960s. This is due to several coastal states irrigating fields from the two main rivers flowing into the Aral Sea, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, which have led to environmental disasters. Eventually, the sea split into four lakes: the Little Aral (the North Aral Sea), the eastern and western basins of the once far larger South Aral Sea, and the smaller Barsakelmes Lake. By 2009, the southeastern lake had disappeared and the southwestern lake had retreated to a thin strip at the western edge. Now there is no Aral Sea; it is a dead sea. Experts are concerned that the Little Aral could be next.

"To prevent a catastrophe, it is necessary to increase the volume of water flowing from the river to the sea. The Syr Darya is a river whose water is used by four countries, whose populations and needs for water are increasing every year," says Ainagul Baimakhanova, director of the Aral Tenizi public association. "As far as we know, at least 50 percent of the river water entering the Kyzylorda region does not reach the sea. The reason is wastefulness," she adds. "Few of us pay enough attention to water, count it, or care about where our water goes. For example, water meters have been installed in Uzbekistan. The waterways are completely monitored. There is no wastefulness allowed there. But this is not the case with us [in Kazakhstan]." "Due to poor monitoring, less and less water reaches the Little Aral, and the sea becomes shallower every year." The first studies related to marine restoration on the Aral Sea began in 19751976. During this period, scientific research was carried out on "restoration of the mouths of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, restoration of the Little Aral Sea." It was decided to build two dams.

Kazakhstan completed construction of the first of the two dams, Kokaral, in 2005. More than 18 years have passed and the second stage of saving the Aral Sea was proposed by never implemented. According to experts, over the past five years the sea level has dropped by 2 1/2 meters. Once the volume of the Little Aral was 27 cubic kilometers but now 10 cubic kilometers are gone. That is, more than one-third of the water has disappeared. Politicizing Water Scarcity On September 15, a meeting of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea was held in Tajikistan. The issue of restoring the disappearing sea and ensuring that rivers continue to flow into it was discussed. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev, who took part in the meeting, expressed his concern that the Kushtepa canal being built in Afghanistan will lead to a further decrease in the water volume flowing into the Amu Darya. Mirziyoev proposed holding discussions with the Taliban. Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev also drew attention to the condition of the two main rivers flowing into the Aral Sea and the problem of the inefficient use of water.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the creation of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, whose members are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The presidents of those countries hold a summit every three years, though there's no mention of how much money has been allocated to the fund or where and how it is spent. Previously, experts agreed that the funds were not enough to solve water shortages and environmental problems in the region. Botha Sharipova, an associate at the Institute of Water Sciences in Delft, the Netherlands, and a consultant on transboundary water cooperation and diplomacy, says issues of water scarcity in Central Asia are becoming more complex and politicized every year. "It's a paradox, but in order to avoid disputes and conflicts, government officials did not fully discuss water issues with experts, but only left them on paper at a high political level, further complicating the problem," Sharipova explains. "The international fund still cannot agree on the location where the executive committee, its main body, will be located. Therefore, every three to four years a new institution opens in the next country. It is planned to open in Kazakhstan in January next year. And the member states of this fund do not allocate money for the fund's projects. They implement projects only on their own land and say this is their contribution to the fund."
VIENTIANE, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Northern Laos' Luang Prabang province welcomed almost 800,000 tourists in the first nine months of 2023, an increase of 121.49 percent from the same period last year, with total spending amounting to 431 million U.S. dollars.

Lao News Agency on Tuesday quoted Director of Luang Prabang provincial Information, Culture and Tourism Department Soudaphone Khomthavong as saying that the town of Luang Prabang is a popular tourist destination for both domestic and foreign visitors, offering a variety of natural, historical, and cultural attractions.

Soudaphone said in preparation for Visit Laos Year 2024, the provincial authorities are increasing advertising and promotion of tourism through various media, improving tourism resources, and creating favorable conditions to attract more foreign tourists.

She added that the province also offers unique cultural experiences, such as traditional clothing, food, and local lifestyle which are of interest to people visiting the province.

The province expects to attract over 1 million visitors by the end of 2023 and more than 2.8 million visitors by 2024, with its outstanding natural, historical, and cultural attractions seeing footfalls from even more domestic and foreign tourists.

Luang Prabang province, some 220 km north of the Lao capital Vientiane, is one of the most well-known provinces in Laos and a top tourist destination because of its ancient temples and scenic rural landscapes.

The town of Luang Prabang was inscribed on the World Heritage list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in December 1994.

The mountainous Luang Prabang province has 228 officially designated tourist sites, of which 111 are nature-based, 78 are of cultural heritage, and 39 have historical buildings. 
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Analysts chronicling the rapid disappearance of what remains of democracy in Kyrgyzstan have been very busy of late.

But when a country once known as an outlier in an authoritarian region abandons even the pretense of judicial independence, it is probably worth flagging.

Such are the implications of the legislation currently awaiting President Sadyr Japarov's signature, which will give the head of state the power to reverse rulings of the Constitutional Court in instances when national morals are deemed offended.

Constitutional courts exist in dozens of countries as the final authority on important issues, including those affecting the fundamental rights of citizens. That doesn't mean there are no precedents for reversing their rulings -- or that all of the governments of the countries where they operate respect the idea of an independent judiciary.

But even the more authoritarian countries don't tend to say the quiet part out loud. Japarov's Kyrgyzstan does.

Lawmakers on September 28 quickly passed second and third readings of the bill that will allow Japarov to overturn any rulings conflicting with the moral values of the people. Only five lawmakers voted against.

But how exactly does it define those moral laws?

Unsurprisingly, the law is not particularly specific about this. And that is a problem, according to Nurbek Sydykov, a lawyer for the nonprofit Institute of Media Policy, which reviewed the legislation.

"This concept of morality is not a stable one. It is something that changes. I believe that it is wrong to tie the law to this concept," the lawyer wrote in a commentary. "The state must maintain balance. If the balance is upset, then with more interference wrong decisions can be made."

The Patronym Strikes Back

Views like this didn't carry much weight where it mattered. While promoting the law in parliament, Deputy Justice Minister Orozbek Sydykov invoked "the traditions of the Kyrgyz people, which do not limit or insult human rights and freedoms [and] are protected by law."

The need for the legislation had been spotlighted, Sydykov argued, by an unusual ruling handed down by the nine-judge Constitutional Court on June 30. The court deemed that citizens 16 or older should have the choice of using a mother's name as a "matronymic" in place of the Russian-style "patronymic" if they so wished, with the patronymic remaining as the default for younger children.

The deputy minister maintained that the decision went against Kyrgyz tradition, which stipulated that everyone should know the names of their last seven male ancestors so as to avoid the trap of accidentally marrying off a daughter to a blood relative.

The court ruling followed a long campaign led by feminist activist Altyn Kapalova that began with her attempt to change her children's birth certificates to rid them of her former spouse's name.

But it immediately proved unpopular among the establishment, with powerful national security chief Kamchibek Tashiev and Mufti Zamir Rakiev among the naysayers. And after Japarov joined them in their objections it became a useful pretext to limit the court's writ -- and expand the president's.

Catching Up With The Neighbors

Japarov was a member of the authoritarian Bakiev government overthrown in the bloodiest of Kyrgyzstan's many political crises, in 2010. The next decade for him was defined by a mixture of opposition, exile, and jail.

In some ways the constitutional changes he championed after being freed from prison and brought to power amid another wave of unrest in 2020 are turning the clock back to those times. The powers that parliament had acquired from the executive in the 2010 constitution were handed back. A prohibition on presidents serving multiple terms was scrapped.

But the 2010 revolution changed political discourse, ushering in fierce confrontations over social mores and national values. Populist Japarov and his supporters in the parliament have not missed this trick, typically invoking loose arguments around tradition to promote laws that appear to discriminate against civic groups or to justify blocks on the media.

During the rollout of the law on the Constitutional Court, the government's representative to the court, Almazbek Moldobaev, cited practice from Latvia and Kyrgyzstan's authoritarian neighbors Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as justification.

But Sydykov of the Institute of Media Policy suggests that this is at minimum a manipulation, noting that none of the laws governing the equivalent courts in these countries had norms of the type drafted by Japarov's team.

To be sure, the website of Uzbekistan's Constitutional Court calls the court's decisions "final and not subject to appeal."

One institution that looks doomed to fall in line with Bishkek's more authoritarian neighbors is the Jogorku Kenesh, Kyrgyzstan's unicameral legislature. The decline of parliament began several years before Japarov's arrival to power, as predecessors Sooronbai Jeenbekov and Almazbek Atambaev exerted whatever pressure they could to bring lawmakers back into the orbit of the presidency.

But if the new man's almost three-year-reign has shown anything, it is his penchant for finishing off a job. The September 28 vote on the court was rushed through without debate after the law passed a first reading on September 6. Several amendments suggested by parliamentarians were ignored by the relevant committee.

And appetite for resistance in the Jogorku Kenesh is unlikely to grow in the near future, after one of the president's more notable opponents was arrested at the beginning of last month on what many say are trumped-up charges.

Adakhan Madumarov, leader of the six-member Butun Kyrgyzstan faction in parliament, is facing charges of treason over a land deal signed in 2009 with rival neighbor Tajikistan.

Written by Chris Rickleton with additional reporting by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service
For centuries, Afghans in impoverished rural areas have used opium to relieve pain and induce sleep.

Now, a severe shortage of medication fueled by a health-care crisis has forced Afghans to resort to opium to treat common illnesses.

Opium remains readily available across Afghanistan, one of the world's largest producers of narcotics, despite the Taliban banning the cultivation, production, and trafficking of all illicit drugs in April 2022.

The growing number of Afghans using opium as a remedy for colds, stomachaches, and headaches could compound the drug epidemic in the country, health experts warn.

Afghanistan is home to around 4 million drugs users, or some 10 percent of the total population, according to the United Nations.

"I'm not the only one who uses opium as medicine," Homayoon, a young man from the northern province of Baghlan, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "Many in our region do the same."

Homayoon, who only gave his first name, says he smokes opium to treat the common cold and flu. "We don't have any health-care facilities here in our village, so what choice do we have?" he asked.

'Opium For Medicinal Purposes'

Afghanistan's heath-care system, propped up by foreign aid for nearly two decades, has been in free fall since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. International donors immediately cut financial funding and imposed sanctions on the new Taliban government.

Hundreds of health facilities have been shut down in the past two years, with no funds to pay the salaries of doctors and nurses. Hospitals that are still open suffer from severe shortages of medicine.

Some of the losses have been offset by the continued involvement of foreign aid organizations. But many of them have been forced to limit their operations as international funding recedes.

Afghan health professionals say they have seen a rise in the use of narcotics, including opium, crystal meth, and cannabis, to treat common illnesses.

Rahmatullah, a doctor based in Kabul who only gave his first name, says the lack of health care facilities and medicine has forced people, especially in rural areas, to turn to illicit drugs to treat illnesses like diarrhea, sore throats, and insomnia.

"But the repeated use of opium for medicinal purposes leads to addiction," he told Radio Azadi, revealing that many of his patients have become addicted to the drug.

Abdul Basit Karim, a doctor in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, said the shortage of "sufficiently staffed and equipped" medical facilities was the main reason Afghans are turning to narcotics.

'Massive Funding Shortage'

International organizations operating in the country have been forced to cut their assistance to Afghans in the fields of health care and food aid in recent months, largely due to funding shortages.

The UN World Food Program in September cut emergency assistance to millions of vulnerable Afghans because of a "massive funding shortage."

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross stopped funding 25 hospitals across Afghanistan on August 31, citing a lack of resources.

The UN estimates that more than 28 million Afghans, or over two-thirds of the country's population of 40 million, need humanitarian assistance.

"The situation in Afghanistan is grave, and the lack of resources and funding to support health workers and facilities is putting countless lives at risk," World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in August.

That includes drug rehabilitation facilities, many of which do not have enough basic medicine, food, and clothes for patients. Many centers have closed or are struggling to remain open since the Taliban takeover.

The Taliban has taken an extremely hard line in tackling Afghanistan's massive drug problem, rounding up addicts and locking them up for months as a form of treatment. But critics have said the cold-turkey approach is cruel and ineffective, and many addicts find themselves back on the streets soon after their forced detox is over.

Safia, a woman living in Kabul, says she used opium to treat a chronic toothache. But after several weeks of use, she became addicted.

"I took some opium with tea at night," she told Radio Azadi. "But my dependence on the drug continued."

Written by Abubakar Siddique based on reporting by Mursaleen Arsala and Naqiba Barekzai of RFE/RL's Radio Azadi
MOSCOW -- It brought Russia to the brink of civil war and resulted in the worst street violence in Moscow since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

Thirty years ago, on October 4, 1993, months of political conflict climaxed when President Boris Yeltsin ordered the army to shell and storm the country's legislature.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country had been riven by a fundamental conflict between the leftists in parliament and the right-centrist, free-market reformers in Yeltsins government. The much-amended and fatally outdated 1978 Soviet Constitution offered no way out of the mounting standoff.

Yeltsin ordered the disbanding of the parliament, the Supreme Soviet, on September 21 and called for new elections. But under the leadership of Yeltsin's chief rivals, Supreme Soviet speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov and Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi, rebel lawmakers barricaded themselves in Moscow's White House -- the building housing parliament -- and voted to impeach the president over what they regarded as an illegal order.

The country fell into a dangerous dual-power situation.

Yeltsin responded by isolating the building, surrounding it with police and cutting off electricity, telephones, and water.

When Khasbulatov and Rutskoi incited armed gangs of anti-Yeltsin protesters to attack the Ostankino television studio, the nerve center of Russia's broadcast media, and the Moscow mayor's office, Yeltsin declared a state of emergency and ordered a military assault on the Supreme Soviet.

RFE/RL takes a look at some of the key players in these events, which in many ways set the stage for the course Russia took over the following decades.

The President: Boris Yeltsin

He was the unlikely hero of Russia's perestroika-era democratic movement. In the late 1980s, Boris Yeltsin transformed himself from regional Communist Party boss to populist firebrand. This metamorphosis climaxed with the iconic image of Yeltsin standing on a tank and facing down a hard-line coup in front of the Moscow White House in August 1991 -- which precipitated the breakup of the Soviet Union and catapulted Yeltsin into the Kremlin.

But by the spring of 1993, the luster of those heady days was wearing thin.

Russia's post-Soviet economy was mired in crisis as Yeltsin's market reforms, known as shock therapy, were increasingly unpopular. Throughout the second half of 1992, the legislature refused to confirm economist Yegor Gaidar as Yeltins choice for prime minister. In a compromise move, Yeltsin nominated former Gazprom head Viktor Chernomyrdin instead and he was confirmed in December 1992.

Yeltsin performed well in an April 1993 referendum on his rule. But as the summer wore on, he found himself increasingly in conflict with the Supreme Soviet, its speaker, Ruslan Khasbulatov, and his own vice president, Aleksandr Rutskoi.

With gridlock and confrontation paralyzing the country, Yeltsin on September 21, 1993, signed Decree No. 1400, which dissolved the legislature and set elections for a new bicameral parliament for December.

Yeltsins move contravened several articles of the Soviet-era constitution then in effect, which Yeltsin and his supporters had long argued was so hopelessly outdated and extensively amended that the new country desperately needed a new one. Yeltsin based his decree on the fact that nearly two-thirds of Russians in the April referendum had voted in favor of immediate parliamentary elections.

The president claimed the move was necessary to carry out needed economic reforms, establish a market economy, and prevent a return to the Soviet past.

When legislators barricaded themselves in the Moscow White House and impeached Yeltsin, he ignored them and cut off electricity, phone service, and hot water to the building.

Clashes broke out between police and anti-Yeltsin protesters, who set up barricades in the capital. When demonstrators attacked the Ostankino TV tower and the Moscow mayor's office, Yeltsin ordered the Interior Ministry to declare a state of emergency.

And in the early hours of October 4, Yeltsin reportedly ordered Defense Minister Pavel Grachev to have his troops shell and storm the White House. By midday, troops loyal to Yeltsin had managed to secure the building and arrest the rebel lawmakers.

Three months later, a new constitution was approved in a national referendum, giving the president enormous powers that the office maintains to this day.

Yeltsin won a second term as president in a controversial election in 1996. His health had deteriorated, and the Kremlin became embroiled in a series of corruption scandals. Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned on New Year's Eve 1999, turning power over to his prime minister and chosen successor, former KGB officer Vladimir Putin, who has since used the powers of the presidency to steer Russia in a more authoritarian direction.

Yeltsin died in 2007.

Sergei Filatov, the president's chief of staff in October 2003, reflected on the crisis in a 2013 interview with RFE/RL's Russian Service:

"Most important, of course, is in that fight with the opposition all contact was lost between the president and the parliament. Confidence between each other was completely lost. And most importantly, there was strong interference in the efforts to carry out economic reforms.

"It wasn't just Yeltsin who had the sickness. We all had that Soviet, imperial mentality, where strength will always better solve the problem as opposed to negotiations and compromise. It was a sickness of Yeltsin, it was a sickness of [former Soviet leader Mikhail] Gorbachev -- it was a sickness we all had. It wasn't an accident that we always supported the forceful option in solving this or that issue, which means that we didn't grow up to the level of ability to solve issues by peaceful means.

"We survived that time and we should have learned something from it, but unfortunately, we didn't learn anything. For the last 20 years, we've acted with the same methods -- without agreement, attention, or understanding of public opinion and all actions are used by the authorities, which constitutionally can use their power to preserve a normal state for society. But it's not always good. If we're headed to a democratic society, we need to change our methods of managing the country and the methods of interaction with elements of power."

The Speaker: Ruslan Khasbulatov

An economist of Chechen origin, Khasbulatov was a close ally of Yeltsin's in the waning days of the Soviet Union. He was elected to Soviet Russia's Congress of People's Deputies in 1990 and backed Yeltsin in his resistance to the failed hard-line coup in August 1991.

After the Soviet breakup, Khasbulatov was elected speaker of the Supreme Soviet, where he quickly consolidated power.

He also began to fall out with Yeltsin over policy differences, most notably Yeltsin's pursuit of so-called shock therapy to establish a market economy. This quickly escalated into a bitter power struggle between the two men and their supporters.

In September 1993, Khasbulatov publicly denounced the president as an alcoholic and called for his resignation. After Yeltsin's decree to dissolve the legislature, Khasbulatov gathered rebel lawmakers in the White House, where they voted to impeach Yeltsin and install Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi as president.

Addressing supporters from the balcony of the White House, Khasbulatov urged them to storm the Kremlin and imprison "the criminal usurper Yeltsin."

After the storming and shelling of the White House on October 4, Khasbulatov was arrested. In 1994, the newly elected parliament, the State Duma, amnestied him and other leaders of the anti-Yeltsin resistance.

He left politics and taught economics at the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics in Moscow. He died in January 2023.

Speaking to RFE/RL's Russian Service in 2013, Khasbulatov indicated that he believed his position in the fall of 1993 had been vindicated by subsequent events:

"An unconstitutional, criminal decree was issued on September 21. But before that, the executive branch had devised a plot to overthrow the existing political system. On September 21, they began implementing that plot through a military coup.

"The only option we had left was to launch an impeachment procedure, in accordance with the constitution, and to submit both the presidential decree and our decision for consideration by the Constitutional Court. Need I remind you what the Constitutional Court decided? The Constitutional Court, under the leadership of Valery Zorkin, who is still the court's chairman, ruled that Yeltsin's decree was illegal and that parliament had the right to impeach him.

"Yeltsin and his entourage committed a grave crime against the state. This should be the subject of a new parliamentary investigation. We need a new commission to investigate it, without any haste, and bring this issue to a close.

"Yeltsin received support when he shelled the parliament, but do you see what kind of constitution we have now? It's not just a constitution, it's a super-constitution. Nobody has any power in our country except the president. You can't even sneeze without his permission. And that is a direct consequence of what happened back then."

The Vice President: Aleksandr Rutskoi

A decorated Afghan war veteran, Yeltsin chose Rutskoi as his running mate in 1991 when he successfully ran for president of the Soviet Union's Russian republic.

Like Khasbulatov, he was on Yeltsin's side during the failed August 1991 coup. And like Khasbulatov, he fell out with Yeltsin and his team after the Soviet collapse. He was particularly critical of the team of young economists, including Yegor Gaidar and Anatoly Chubais, whom Yeltsin tapped to spearhead his economic reforms.

Beginning in late 1992, Rutskoi began accusing Yeltsin and his entourage of corruption. As head of a state anticorruption council, Rutskoi famously claimed to have "suitcases of kompromat," or incriminating materials, on them.

In September 1993, after Yeltsin evicted Rutskoi from his Kremlin office and had the door sealed, Khasbulatov gave him space in the parliament building.

After Yeltsin dissolved parliament and the rebel lawmakers voted to impeach him, Rutskoi was sworn in as "acting president." Speaking with Khasbulatov from the balcony of the White House on October 3, Rutskoi called on protesters in Moscow to storm the Ostankino TV station and the mayor's office, setting off the chain of events that led to the shelling of the White House.

Rutskoi was arrested together with Khasbulatov and other leaders of the rebellion and charged with inciting mass disturbances. He was freed in an amnesty the following year.

Rutskoi formed a nationalist political party, Derzhava, and in 1996 was elected governor of Kursk Oblast, serving until 2000. He has since left public life.

He spoke to RFE/RL's Russian Service in 2013:

"For 18 years we've been given a series of lies about the events of 1993. But in the past two years, the seeds of truth have begun to sprout. I strongly support this for two reasons: not to settle scores with anyone, but to let people know the truth about these tragic events so they're never repeated. Because it's a fratricidal war.

"This is purely a principled position: so no one would ever think and no one would ever say that I cast aside Yeltsin from his chair and rushed to power. I wanted just one thing: that economic reforms were not in the interests of a list in Forbes [magazine] but in the interest of the population. Tragically, I was right -- this was the consequence of the privatization: The impoverishment of the population was total -- we lost our industrial, agricultural, and military capacities.

"When it's said that there was a constitutional crisis, there was no such thing. All Yeltsin's legislative initiatives were, in accordance with the constitution, introduced and decided on in the Congress of People's Deputies."

The Would-Be Prime Minister: Yegor Gaidar

In June 1992, Yeltsin named 36-year-old liberal economist Yegor Gaidar as prime minister. He advocated a radical and painful program of rapid economic liberalization known as shock therapy that polarized the country. The legislature repeatedly refused to confirm him as prime minister over the summer of 1992, producing the most visible symbol of the split between the two branches of government.

In December 1992, as part of a bid to reach a compromise with the Supreme Soviet, Yeltsin nominated former Gazprom head Viktor Chernomyrdin as premier and he was confirmed. Gaidar continued as a leading economic adviser to the government. In September 1993, in what was seen as a deliberate snub of the legislature, Gaidar was appointed first deputy prime minister overseeing economic policy.

On October 3, shortly after Khasbulatov and Rutskoi called on their supporters to storm Ostankino and the mayors office in the capital, Gaidar appeared on TV, speaking from a remote studio because of the heavy fighting outside Ostankino, and urged ordinary citizens to come out into the streets and support Russias reforms despite the presence of numerous snipers across the capital. He said that if Khasbulatov and Rutskoi prevailed, Russia would be turned into an enormous concentration camp for decades.

In the December 1993 Duma elections, Gaidar headed the progovernment Russias Choice party. In a time when government-allied parties in Russia could still lose elections, Russias Choice polled just 15.51 percent, losing to nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovskys Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and barely beating Gennady Zyuganovs Communist Party.

Gaidar resigned from government in 1994 and returned to academic life. He remains widely reviled among the Russian public.

He died in 2009 at the age of 53. Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister at the time, described Gaidar as a genuine citizen and patriot.

He didnt dodge responsibility and took his blows in the most challenging of situations with honor and courage, Putin said.

The Radical: Viktor Anpilov

Viktor Anpilov was a hard-line communist member of the Supreme Soviet and one of the most radical and outspoken opponents of Yeltsin and his economic reforms. He maintained ties with the radical, anti-Semitic Pamyat movement and openly called himself a Stalinist.

He organized numerous mass demonstrations against Yeltsin in the 1991-93 period.

On October 3, Anpilov led his supporters to a mass demonstration outside the besieged parliament building. About 2,000 supporters showed up and broke through the barricades and into the area around the White House. There they joined forces with armed supporters of parliament inside and launched the assault on the mayors office and Ostankino.

Anpilov was arrested with the other leaders of the uprising on October 7 and was pardoned by the Duma in February 1994. He continued to participate in radical leftist politics until his death in January 2018 at the age of 72.

The Defense Minister: Pavel Grachev

As Yeltsin's standoff against Khasbulatov and Rutskoi careened toward violence, the role of the army became increasingly vital.

As a career soldier, Defense Minister Pavel Grachev rose through the military ranks and became head of the Soviet paratroopers in 1990. He backed Yeltsin during the thwarted hard-line coup of August 1991 and, according to some press reports, even warned him of the plot ahead of time.

And Yeltsin rewarded him handsomely. After the Soviet breakup, Grachev enjoyed a meteoric rise, becoming defense minister in May 1992.

As the constitutional crisis of 1993 unfolded, Grachev again demonstrated his loyalty to Yeltsin, ordering his troops to shell and storm the White House. Footage taken at the time showed Grachev praising his troops for saving Russia from a civil war.

Just weeks after the storming of the White House, Grachev was made a member of Yeltsin's powerful Security Council and decorated for "personal courage."

But in the coming years he would be dogged by allegations of corruption, earning the moniker "Pasha Mercedes." Grachev's reputation additionally suffered when Dmitry Kholodov, a 27-year-old journalist at the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets, was killed by a booby-trapped briefcase after publishing a series of articles on corruption in the Defense Ministry.

In the halls of power, Grachev also became part of the so-called party of war, a group of advisers -- including presidential security chief Aleksandr Korzhakov, Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Mikhail Barsukov, and First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets -- who reportedly persuaded Yeltsin to launch his disastrous military campaign in breakaway Chechnya in 1994.

Grachev was fired in July 1996, shortly after Yeltsin won a second term in the Kremlin, in a move seen at the time as a purge of Kremlin hard-liners. He worked as an adviser to Russia's state arms exporter until 2007.

Grachev died in September 2012 at the age of 64.

The Interior Minister: Viktor Yerin

Just as with the army, the role of the police and Interior Ministry forces was central to how Yeltsin's conflict with the parliament played out.

Interior Minister Viktor Yerin was a career police officer, a veteran of the Afghan war, and a Yeltsin loyalist.

On October 1, in the midst of the standoff, Yeltsin promoted him to the rank of general and, afterward, awarded him with the title "Hero of the Russian Federation."

Yerin was forced to resign as interior minister in June 1995 after a failed attempt to rescue hostages taken by Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev in Budyonnovsk, in southern Russia. He served as deputy head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) until 2000 and then faded from public life.

He died in March 2008 at the age of 64.

The Bodyguard: Aleksandr Korzhakov

Aleksandr Korzhakov was Yeltsin's chief bodyguard, confidant, and reportedly, his drinking buddy.

A career KGB man, Korzhakov hailed from the security agency's 9th Division, which was tasked with guarding high officials. In the 1980s, he was assigned to Yeltsin when the future president was a rising party star who had just been named first secretary of the Moscow Communist Party, essentially the capital's mayor.

When Yeltsin was removed from office after criticizing the slow pace of Gorbachev's reforms, Korzhakov stuck with him. And as Yeltsin ascended in the perestroika-era democratic movement, Korzhakov was by his side.

When Yeltsin got to the Kremlin, Korzhakov became head of the powerful Presidential Guard Service, wielding enormous behind-the-scenes influence.

Some observers say it was Korzhakov who ultimately convinced Yeltsin to shell and storm the White House. After the crisis of October 1993, Korzhakov's influence grew. Together with Grachev, he reportedly persuaded Yeltsin to send troops to breakaway Chechnya in 1994.

Korzhakov was fired in July 1996. In 1997, he published a memoir of his Kremlin years, titled Boris Yeltsin: From Dusk Till Dawn, in which he lambasted Yeltsin's entourage. He wrote that Yeltsin, before the October 1993 events, ordered him to prepare a plan to arrest all the members of the Supreme Soviet if they passed an impeachment resolution against the president. He also wrote that Yeltsin had looked into the possibility of using chemicals to smoke out the deputies who were barricaded in the White House.

He served as a deputy in the State Duma as an independent representative from Tula from 1997 to 2011.

The American: Terry Duncan

Terry Duncan, known by his middle name Mike, was an American lawyer who went out to the Ostankino firefight out of curiosity.

When fighting broke out and snipers began shooting into the crowd and at journalists, Duncan, 26, began helping wounded victims.

He went back and forth several times, checking on people to see if they were OK, said Otto Pohl, a New York Times photographer who was shot that day and was one of the people assisted by Duncan.

Duncan was shot in the head and killed during the firefight.

He had been in Moscow just a few months, working to set up a new law firm with a partner, Jamison Firestone.

The firm they created, Firestone Duncan, later had another brush with tragedy in Russia. It was the firm that hired Russian lawyer and auditor Sergei Magnitsky, who died in Russian custody in November 2009, sparking a massive international campaign against human rights abuses in Putins Russia.

A previous version of this story was published on October 3, 2013.

Interviews conducted by Mikhail Sokolov and Anastasia Kirilenko. Compiled by Tom Balmforth, Robert Coalson, and Glenn Kates.
On the wall of the apartment building at No. 10 Bolshoi Gnezdnikovsky Lane in central Moscow, a paper sign commemorates the life and death of Trofim Yurkevich, a professor who was born in 1891, arrested on March 22, 1938, and summarily executed on July 10 of the same year.



Immediately beneath the sign, a second, handwritten notice begs passersby not to tear down the first one.



"This is a replacement for an approved plaque that was destroyed by vandals," the notice reads. "Have a conscience."

For almost a decade, activists with the Last Address project have been installing modest commemorative plaques on the facades of buildings where some of Stalin's millions of victims lived. Since May, they say, incidents of vandalism against the memorials have been on the rise, particularly in Moscow but in other cities as well.



"I can't say what the number of incidents is," said Moscow-based Last Address activist Oksana Matiyevskaya, who called the vandalism a "targeted attack" on the project. "But now practically every week we learn that one has disappeared somewhere."



Although the project has encountered vandalism and other forms of resistance from the beginning, the recent incidents seem different.

"This isn't a coincidence," Matiyevskaya said. "We understand perfectly well why this is happening. There is a new reality here compared to 10 years ago when the project started. Everyone understands what is going on and why this is happening at this moment."



Stalin's reputation has been steadily rehabilitated under President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB operative. This process has accelerated in an atmosphere of jingoistic patriotism since Moscow's massive invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the consequent harsh repression of dissent in Russia.

The human rights group Memorial, which documents and studies Stalin's repressions and which was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize along with two other recipients, has been shut down and many of its activists have been imprisoned or forced to flee the country.

Civil society activists report that 110 monuments to Stalin, including 22 full-scale statues, have been erected in Russia, 95 of them since Putin came to power in 1999. In August, a Russian Orthodox priest blessed a statue of the tyrant in the Pskov region town of Velikiye Luki by saying that, thanks to him, "we have a large number of new martyrs to whom we now pray and who now help us in our lives."



Journalists have documented at least 11 cases in recent months in which monuments to victims of Stalinist repressions -- in which millions were killed or had their lives torn apart -- were dismantled or substantially altered.



In the Perm region, in April, unknown people dismantled an unofficial memorial to Lithuanians and Poles who were forcibly resettled there under Stalin in a forest near the settlement of Galyashor.



In June, grave markers for similarly resettled Poles in two villages in the Chelyabinsk region were removed, while in Buryatia a memorial to resettled Poles was also quietly dismantled.



While in most cases, it is not known who removed the monuments, in the Irkutsk region village of Pivovarikha, authorities acknowledged removing a similar monument to repressed Lithuanians and Poles, saying it had been "taken into storage."

Matiyevskaya says the removal of such monuments has been carried out on the initiative of the authorities, perhaps in retaliation to the dismantling of Soviet war memorials in the Baltic states and other Eastern and Central European countries.



"Vandals couldn't dismantle entire monuments without being noticed," she argued. "Of course, with the Last Address plaques, it is much easier. I don't think any order has been given regarding them. It just a desire to please the boss on the part of individuals who understand the dominant mood these days."



"But I'm absolutely certain these are related phenomena," she said. "It is a sign of what is going on in society: triumphal ignorance, a reluctance to face history, a desire to view history through a particular lens, and ressentiment that has been transformed into a cult."



'Particular Cynicism'



On Stoleshnikov Street, Matiyevskaya said, two Last Address plaques were replaced by a sign for a security firm that had been clearly sized and placed "with particular cynicism."



An employee of the Aris security firm who identified himself only as Aleksei told RFE/RL that he knew nothing about the removal of the Last Address plaques. The next day, however, the security firm's sign had been removed.

Matiyevskaya said her organization was working to restore the tributes to Stanislav Kozlovsky and Yelena Makovetskaya as soon as possible. Kozlovsky was arrested in 1938 and died in a Far North labor camp in 1942. Makovetskaya was arrested in August 1937 and executed on November 15, 1937, at the age of 49.



The handwritten sign on the building on Gnezdnikovsky Lane is an indication of what Matiyevskaya calls "a grassroots resistance" that has arisen in response to the vandalism targeting Last Address.



"Where some of the plaques have been removed, handmade duplicates have appeared," she explained. "This is a completely independent initiative that is not connected with Last Address. It is just people who saw that there was a plaque and now there isn't."

"This means a lot to me," she added. "The reaction of such people is much more important, it seems to me, than these acts of vandalism."



Eventually, she said, all the plaques will be restored, since the information has been preserved in the project's database.



"Maybe a year will pass, maybe two or five or 10," Matiyevskaya said. "We will restore them. Replacing a steel plaque is not hard, but the human life behind it is irreplaceable. Our main goal is to preserve the memory of these innocent, persecuted people."

RFE/RL's Robert Coalson contributed to this report.
More than a year after DJI -- the preeminent Chinese drone maker -- first said it would stop doing business in Russia and Ukraine, its products continue to play a decisive role on the battlefield, with new research shared with RFE/RL showing that they are being sold to Russian companies and training centers with links to Moscow's war effort.

The findings -- compiled by Molfar, a Ukrainian business intelligence consultancy and corroborated by RFE/RL -- show that DJI's small, low-cost drones are being sold to Russian entities that are part of its sprawling military-industrial complex or to companies in the country that train government personnel or military units on how to use the unmanned aerial vehicles.



In some cases, the training centers state plainly and even boast on their websites and Telegram channels that they are training pilots and members of the Russian military on DJI drones for Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Molfar established the connections by identifying 10 Chinese-based legal entities that, according to their certificates of conformity, are production sites linked to DJI or to its parent company IFlight that continued exports to Russia until June 2023 -- the latest available date for the documents.



Through the certificates, Molfar was able to trace various Russian entities that purchased the drones and conduct civilian and military training on how to operate them for surveillance, reconnaissance and, in some instances, how to modify them for attacks.



While the research is not a comprehensive set of all the Chinese-made drones sold to Russia or those that make their way to the battlefield in Ukraine, it offers a window into the continued flow of dual-use -- nonlethal but militarily useful -- equipment from China to Russia that is having an impact in aiding the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.



"Since the war began, China has shown a willingness to support Russia that comes up to, but doesn't cross, the West's red lines," Joseph Webster, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who tracks the flow of Chinese exports to Russia amid the war in Ukraine, told RFE/RL. "Ensuring dual-use shipments to Russia is likely seen by Beijing as a form of support that ensures some balance as China watches American and European military supplies go to Ukraine."



The findings also raise questions about the effectiveness of official Chinese efforts to limit the sale of drones and other dual-use technologies -- the latest of which came into effect on September 1.

Trade data shows that Ukrainian imports have fallen sharply following new Chinese restrictions, while Russia's remain strong.



Ukraine is facing growing difficulties in sourcing consumer drones and their parts, which is borne out in Chinese, Russian, and Ukrainian trade statistics. Those figures show that Chinese companies sent over $200,000 in direct drone shipments to Ukraine from January to June this year, while Russia received at least $14.5 million during the same span, including the training centers identified by Molfar.



This adds to a growing body of evidence since February 2022 that demonstrates how Moscow has been able to draw critical items for its military from abroad, particularly from China, despite Western attempts to restrain Russia's war machine. The European Union estimates that up to 70 percent of the vital, hi-tech products reaching the Russian military are coming from China, with David O'Sullivan, the bloc's sanctions envoy, saying in late September that the flow of such goods is "killing Ukrainians."

In response to RFE/RL's request for comment, a DJI spokesperson said the company has actively denounced the use of its products in combat and that they should not be modified "into weapons," noting that "DJI and its subsidiaries voluntarily stopped all shipments to and operations in Russia and Ukraine" in April 2022.





The Drone War And Russian Training Centers



Despite its statements and official bans, DJI consumer drones continue to make their way to the battlefield.



Small and affordable drones, many of which can even be bought online or off the shelf, have become a staple of the war in Ukraine for both Kyiv and Moscow for reconnaissance and targeted attacks. Ukrainian forces have proven particularly adept at retrofitting consumer drones with explosives and then crashing them into Russian forces and territory.



This has led to both sides burning through the products at a high rate and constantly needing to replenish their stocks. The Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, estimated earlier this year that Ukraine goes through 10,000 drones a month. The spokesperson added that that the company takes compliance seriously and that "all of our distributors, resellers, and other business partners around the world are contractually obligated to prevent the sale of DJI products to customers who clearly plan to use them for combat purposes." Breaching this agreement, the spokesperson said, would lead to the company immediately ending its business relationship with the individual or entity.Despite its statements and official bans, DJI consumer dronesto make their way to the battlefield.Small and affordable drones, many of which can even be bought online or off the shelf, have become a staple of the war in Ukraine for both Kyiv and Moscow for reconnaissance and targeted attacks. Ukrainian forces have proven particularly adept atconsumer drones with explosives and then crashing them into Russian forces and territory.This has led to both sides burning through the products at a high rate and constantly needing to replenish their stocks. The Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, estimated earlier this year that Ukraine goes through 10,000 drones a month.

While Iran and Turkey produce large, military-grade drones used in the war, the consumer market is cornered by Chinese companies, with DJI holding more than 90 percent of the global consumer drone market, according to the industry research group DroneAnalyst.



DJI's dominance within the drone war in Ukraine is highlighted in Molfar's research, with many of the training centers or other entities identified specializing in the use of DJI drones.



One such company, Skymec, lists Russia's Interior Ministry, the Federal Protection Service, and the Emergency Situations Ministry as distribution clients on its website.



Other findings by the Ukrainian consultancy follow a trail of Russian training centers that more directly shows their links to the country's military.



One of these entities is Pustelga, a company that, according to its website, offers training on DJI drones to both regular and mobilized military personnel of the Russian military, the National Guard, and "specialists from other Russian security structures."



According to Russian media, the group also launched a training program in June with the National Guard focused on FPV drones, the term used for drones piloted through a video feed wirelessly transmitted to a pilot's headset, mobile device, or other display.



The company claims to be operational since March and runs an active Telegram channel where it regularly offers updates on its courses and graduates, including with photos and videos.



The group says it also operates two training programs in parts of Russian-occupied Ukraine and, in a video posted on May 5, a man in a military uniform with a Russian Army patch is seen receiving a diploma from Pustelga.



Another post from May 25 includes photos of DJI consumer drones next to explosives with the caption: "Our graduate will soon receive these drones on the Zaporizhzhya front and will effectively combine them with the new standard ammunition. We not only educate, but we also support our graduates with words, deeds, and equipment as much as we can."



Another company identified by Molfar is SHUBBA-Octagon, a drone-pilot school based in St. Petersburg that offers courses across Russia. According to its website, it specializes in training DJI Mavic drones and offers a path for its students to be militarily recognized as drone pilots.

While the group has no explicit ties to the Wagner mercenary group, the private military company's insignia can be seen on the windows in photos posted to SHUBBA-Octagon's website.



Additional photos on the training center's website show a person whom it says is one of the program's instructors in a military uniform with the call sign "Svyatoy" displayed. Another photo shows military equipment belonging to Svyatoy shown next to a Syrian flag, where Wagner has been operating since 2015.



On SHUBBA-Octagon's Telegram channel, the center claims Svyatoy and other instructors identified only by their call signs received medals from the government for their military service and that they've served among the Russian General Staff, the National Guard, and Wagner in the past.

Not all of the companies traced through Molfar's investigation have clear military connections. One entity that received DJI drones is a limited-liability company registered to Avanti Education, a company that sponsors robotics competitions and conducts training for young people. A separate LLC linked to Avanti Education that records show was established in May uses a legal registration code that is commonly applied by scientific organizations in Russia that work closely with the military, according to Molfar analysts.



Molfar also identified two other companies that offer training courses on DJI drones and in their resale throughout Russia using certificates of conformity from China that use the same registration code usually associated with military work.



Shifting Supply Lines



Molfar couldn't find out how many DJI drones are being sent to the Russian entities and is unable to say if Chinese authorities played any role in the sales or if it is merely Chinese businesses taking advantage of opportunities presented by the war in Ukraine.



As consumer drones have become prominent on the battlefield, global logistical networks have sprung up to navigate sanctions and other obstacles to ensure that unmanned vehicles reach both militaries on the front. These networks have varied from leaning directly on Chinese exporters to corporate cutouts in neighboring countries and crowdfunding campaigns run by volunteers at home and abroad.



The full effect of the September 1 export restrictions on drone components enacted by Chinese authorities is still unclear.



As seen in 2023 trade data, Ukraine still obtained millions in Chinese-made drones and components, although Russia has been able to purchase far larger amounts and Ukrainian customs data shows that most sales to the country came through European intermediaries.

Several Ukrainian activists and others involved in crowdfunding DJI drone purchases have posted publicly that Chinese firms are still willing to sell to Ukrainian buyers, but the sales often involve intermediaries and prices for the drones are increasing. Some Chinese suppliers or resellers based elsewhere are also reportedly turning to an open bidding system for the drones that sometimes involves Russian and Ukrainian buyers competing against one another.



Others have raised alarm that the Chinese export restrictions seem to affect Ukraine disproportionately. Writing in June on X (formerly known as Twitter), Serhiy Sternenko, a Ukrainian activist involved in crowdfunding drone purchases, said he worried the looming restrictions leave Ukraine at a disadvantage as it looks for new intermediaries to buy drones while Russian entities could still make direct purchases.



Some Russian entities also say they have felt the effects of the Chinese restrictions. According to a September survey of companies done by the Russian daily Kommersant, the measures have caused supply disruptions and shortages in the country.

Many Russian agricultural, surveillance, and industrial drone retailers told Kommersant they had either run out of stock entirely or doubled prices due to the export curbs. Other companies said they had stocked up on Chinese-made drones and components ahead of the September restrictions coming into force, with some stockpiling supplies that could last up to six months.



Whether this will have a lasting effect in curbing Chinese drones on the battlefield is unknown. The Atlantic Council's Webster says that while the restrictions could cause some immediate disruption to logistics networks, "they're unlikely to have an impact in the long term," especially when it comes to shipments to Russia.



"There are just too many ways for something to get to Russia. It can be direct and it can go through Belarus, Central Asia, Turkey, or elsewhere using intermediaries," Webster said. "These new controls are not likely to be effective."
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The new academic year in Burkina Faso starts with 1 million children out of school due to ongoing violence and insecurity, UNICEF said on Monday.

The UN Children's Fund warned that at least 6,149, or one in four schools, remain closed due to ongoing violence and insecurity in parts of the country. It means more than 31,000 teachers and over a million children cannot return to their classrooms, fearing for their safety.

At least 230 schools now serve as temporary shelters for more than 52,000 internally displaced persons, further impeding education, said the UN agency.

As insecurity becomes rife in certain conflict hotspots, schools are immediately closed, and teachers, parents, and children are forced to flee their homes to find refuge elsewhere, it said.

"Having so many children still unable to return to school due to violence and insecurity, and so many schools closed, is very upsetting," said John Agbor, UNICEF Representative in Burkina Faso. "We need to continue our work and ensure every child in Burkina Faso can access education and fulfill their dreams in peace and safety."

However, UNICEF said that despite the ongoing insecurity, more than 3.8 million girls and boys are returning to school, including in regions strongly affected by conflict.

In collaboration with UNICEF and other partner institutions, the Burkinabe Ministry of National Education, Literacy and Promotion of National Languages (MENAPLN) ramped up efforts to bring children back into classrooms, particularly in areas most affected by the security crisis, including the Nord, Centre-Nord, Boucle du Mouhoun, Est, Centre-Est and Sahel regions.

This year alone, UNICEF said it had supported MENAPLN to facilitate access to education for 763,000 children through formal education, accelerated schooling strategies, vocational training, and education by radio programs, and distributed more than 150,000 school kits and supplies.

In addition, the fund said 2,670 radio sets to support education by radio, 500 school-in-a-box kits, and 435 recreational and early childhood development kits are being distributed to cover the needs of 37,400 children.

The World Food Programme said that Burkina Faso ranks 184th out of 191 countries on the Human Development Index, with 40 percent of the population living below the poverty line.

Burkina Faso has suffered internal conflict for decades, including two military coups in 2022.

In line with the 2023 Humanitarian Action for Children Appeal, UNICEF said it requires 226.7 million U.S. dollars to continue providing children and vulnerable populations with life-saving goods and services. Only 13 percent of the necessary funds have been allocated. 
TEHRAN, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Iran's intelligence forces have arrested seven members of a "terrorist" network affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group in the southeastern province of Kerman, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday.

The "terrorist" network sought to cause insecurity in the country, but was smashed in a joint operation carried out by the forces of the provincial intelligence office and the Intelligence Organization of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps over the past few days, Tasnim quoted Kerman's Prosecutor General Mehdi Bakhshi as saying.

He added the "terrorists," who were arrested before being able to perpetrate any act of terror, would be brought to judicial proceedings soon. 
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution to authorize a Multinational Security Support mission for Haiti.

Resolution 2699 authorizes UN member states to form and deploy a Multinational Security Support mission for an initial period of 12 months with a lead country, in close cooperation and coordination with the Haitian government.

The mission is tasked to provide operational support to the Haitian National Police (HNP), as it works to counter gangs and improve security conditions in Haiti, and to help the HNP with the provision of security for critical infrastructure sites and transit locations.

It also calls on the mission to help ensure unhindered and safe access to humanitarian aid for Haitians in need.

The resolution decides that the mission may, to prevent the loss of life and within the limits of its capacities and areas of deployment, adopt urgent temporary measures "on an exceptional basis" to help the HNP maintain basic law and order and public safety, including through arrest and detention. It requests the leadership of the mission to update the Security Council on any measures that may be adopted on this basis.

The resolution states that the cost of implementing this temporary operation will be borne by voluntary contributions and support from individual member states and regional organizations. It calls on UN member states and regional organizations to contribute personnel, equipment, and necessary financial and logistic resources.

Kenya has agreed to lead the Multinational Security Support mission.

Immediately after the adoption of Resolution 2699, the UN secretary-general's special representative in Haiti, Maria Isabel Salvador, welcomed the move, describing it as "a positive and decisive step" to bring peace and stability to Haiti.

She pledged the full support of the UN Integrated Office in Haiti, which she leads.

"Haiti is facing an emergency on multiple fronts: security, humanitarian, and socio-economic. Haitian political actors must rise to the occasion to address the challenges facing the country and its population," she said. 
Nanded Hospital

The dire situation has brought the spotlight on healthcare challenges, calling for immediate action and accountability

NANDED: A Grim Occurrence unfolded at a government hospital in Nanded, Maharashtra, as at least 24 lives were lost, with a dozen of them being newborns aged between 2 to 4 days. The remaining casualties were adults, some reportedly affected by poisoning. Dr. Shankar Rao Chavan, affiliated with the Government Medical College and Hospital, confirmed these distressing numbers.

Although the hospital authorities have been reticent about the sudden spike in deaths, the opposition, particularly the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), has seized upon the tragedy to criticize the government's handling of healthcare. Demands for the dismissal or resignation of Health Minister Tanaji Sawant and heightened scrutiny of the situation have gained traction.

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Dean of the hospital, S. Wakode, revealed that six male and six female children succumbed to various causes, while another 12 adults passed away, mainly due to snake bites. He disclosed the challenges the hospital faced in promptly securing appropriate medicines for patients due to budget constraints and logistical hurdles exacerbated by the influx of patients from distant locations.

Former chief minister and senior Congress leader of Nanded, Ashok Chavan, expressed concern about an additional 70 patients referred from private hospitals within the district, highlighting their critical condition. He emphasized the shortage of nursing and medical staff, malfunctioning equipment, and operational issues within various departments, deeming this a severe crisis.

Pointing to recent similar fatalities at a Thane hospital, Shiv Sena (UBT) deputy leader Sushma Andhare criticized Health Minister Sawant's effectiveness and called for accountability from the Chief Minister. Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule held the government responsible for the tragic loss of innocent lives, urging a thorough investigation. NCP Spokesman Vikas Lawande attributed the deaths to government negligence and inadequate medical supplies, expressing dissatisfaction over the prioritization of festivals and events over essential healthcare needs.

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Earthquake

Two Quakes, 25 Minutes Apart, Rock Nepal & Reverberate Across North India, Including Delhi-NCR

NEW-DELHI: Nepal experienced seismic activity in the form of two earthquakes, registering magnitudes of 4.6 and 6.2 respectively, causing reverberations felt as far as Punjab and other regions of Northern India. The National Seismology Center confirmed these tremors, underlining the seismic connectivity of the region.

The first earthquake, measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale, struck Nepal at a depth of 10 km around 2:25 pm. Subsequently, at 2:51 pm, a more intense quake, measuring 6.2 in magnitude, shook the Himalayan nation.

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In the aftermath of the second earthquake, the tremors reached Delhi and the National Capital Region, prompting people to swiftly exit buildings and tall structures. Delhi Police urged the public not to succumb to panic but to move to safe locations without using elevators. An official statement from the police stated, "We hope you are all safe. Please come out of your buildings and move to a safe place, but don't panic. Do not use the elevator. Call 112 for any emergency help."

Notably, The impact of the earthquakes extended beyond Nepal, affecting various parts of Northern India, including Chandigarh and Jaipur. Residents in Jaipur reported feeling the tremors, but authorities from the Jaipur Police Control Room assured that no damage had been reported thus far.
Fact Check

We did not came across any news confirming the the viral claim

RSFC (Team Mohali): Amidst the India-Canada tension, a post is going viral on social media. This post having a picture in which some people can be seen protesting in front of Canara Bank. Now it is being claimed that some people mistook Canara Bank as Canada Bank and protested outside the bank.

Facebook user "Gagandeep Singh" shared the viral picture and wrote, "People are protesting in front of Canara Bank considering it to be Canada Bank."

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Spokesman in its investigation found the viral post to be misleading. This viral picture is edited. Now people are being misled by making the edited picture viral.

-- Spokesman's Investigation

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Starting the investigation, we first did keyword search on this claim. We did not came across any news confirming the the viral claim.

Moving ahead we did a reverse image search on this picture. We found the actual picture of the bank shared in many news reports. In the actual picture there were no protesters in front of the bank. The Indian Express shared this photo in one of its 2021 stories and captioned the photo, "Canara Bank ATM in Sector 44 of Chandigarh (Express photo by Kshitij Mohan)".

Indian Express

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Now moving forward we started finding the real picture of these protesters.

"Viral Picture of protesters is of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha workers"

We found the real picture of these protesters published in the report of Hindustan Times. According to the report, this picture is of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha workers, who protested against Shahrukh Khan's film 'Pathaan' in Agra.

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Hence, it is clear that the viral picture was edited.

Conclusion- Spokesman in its investigation found the viral post to be misleading. This viral picture is edited. Now people are being misled by making the edited picture viral.


Fact Check

We investigated the Defense Outpost account that shared the viral claim in the final phase

RSFC (Team Mohali): A Post is going viral on social media claiming that Sikh Pilots and workers in IAF refused to perform their duties due to harassment given by their Senior Hindu Officers.

X account Defence Outpost shared the claim and wrote, "A source from inside the Indian Air Force claims that majority of Sikh pilots and personnel are refusing to perform their duties because of their hindu seniors insulting them on regular basis."

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Breaking??



A source from inside the Indian Air Force claims that majority of Sikh pilots and personnel are refusing to perform their duties because of their hindu seniors insulting them on regular basis. pic.twitter.com/PhlAxe92jX  Defence Outpost (@ODA_Foxtrot) October 1, 2023

Spokesman in it's investigation found the viral claim to be fake. IAF denied the viral claim.

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-- Spokesman's Investigation

To Start our investigation, we first did keyword search to find the news reports regarding the claim. In our search, we did not found any news claiming this news to be true but we found a tweet by Indian Air Force denying the viral claim.

Indian Air Force On 2 October 2023, tweeted about the viral claim and wrote, "#FakeNewsAlert #Beware The information is not true and has been posted to spread rumours. #IndianAirForce"

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#FakeNewsAlert#Beware



The information is not true and has been posted to spread rumours.#IndianAirForce pic.twitter.com/URByBoOlZ4  Indian Air Force (@IAF_MCC) October 2, 2023

Hence, it is clear that the viral claim is fake.

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"We investigated the Defense Outpost account that shared the viral claim in the final phase. We found that the account often spreads misleading and false claims against the Indian Army and the account also frequently posts in favor of the Pakistani Army."

Conclusion- Viral claim is fake. Indian Air Force in it's tweet denied the claim.
Arshdeep Dalla

Mandeep Singh and Saurabh Kumar Arrested in Mohali; Police Recover Firearm & Cartridges

KHARAR: Law enforcement authorities in Mohali, Punjab, have apprehended two associates of KTF operative Arshdeep Dalla, identified as Mandeep Singh, also known as Deepa, hailing from Dhudike village (Moga), and Saurabh Kumar, alias Sabi, a resident of Ludhiana. The arrests were made in connection with an alleged threat incident targeting a local individual in Kharar. A case has been filed against the two individuals under various sections of the Arms Act at the Sadar Kharar police station.

According to police sources, the accused had been sent to the area with intentions to intimidate someone by a foreign-based terrorist entity. The authorities were already monitoring both individuals, and on Monday night, acting on a tip-off, the police approached the accused near Captain Chowk in Khanpur village. Upon investigation, a 32 bore pistol and four cartridges were found from their possession.

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Both Mandeep Singh and Saurabh Kumar have multiple cases registered against them in Ludhiana and Moga, and they are fugitives in these cases. The ongoing police interrogation is expected to yield crucial insights into their criminal activities. Authorities are particularly interested in uncovering any instances where the accused had extorted money under the guise of Arsh Dalla's influence by threatening individuals in the Tricity region.
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Two U.S. Army soldiers were killed and 12 others injured after a military vehicle was involved in a single-vehicle accident in Alaska on Monday, Army officials said.

At least 17 soldiers were riding in a light medium tactical vehicle used to transport troops when the incident happened in the Yukon Training Area, near Salcha, the U.S. Army said in a statement.

The conditions of the injured soldiers were not immediately clear as of early Tuesday morning. The cause of the accident is still under investigation. 
iA Financial Corp., Inc., the holding company of iA Financial Group (IAG.TO), announced Tuesday it has entered into a definitive merger agreement whereby iA American Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of the Company, will acquire Vericity, Inc. (VERY) for $11.43 per share or a total cash consideration of about $170 million. The deal will be funded by iA with cash in hand.

The per share merger consideration represents a 101% premium to Vericity's closing share price of $5.70 on October 2, 2023, the last full trading day prior to the announcement of the transaction. The transaction is not subject to any financing condition or contingency.

Vericity comprises two entities, Fidelity Life and eFinancial, servicing the middle-market life insurance space, with synergies in between and combining artificial intelligence and rich data analytics.

The merger, which is unanimously approved by Vericity's board of directors, is expected to close in the first half of 2024, subject to obtaining the usual regulatory approvals in Canada and the United States. The transaction is expected to become slightly accretive to core EPS in year 2 and to EPS in year 3.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
JetBlue (JBLU) has teamed up with Uber to offer vouchers to customers who face travel delays.

Uber for Business, Uber's enterprise arm, and JetBlue announced that the airline will offer complimentary Uber vouchers to JetBlue customers who experience qualified travel disruptions. The companies aim to ease the burden in what is typically a stressful situation for travelers.

The program is currently available across the U.S. in every city where JetBlue operates. The companies also plan to expand this service internationally in the months to come, beginning with major airports in Paris, London, and Amsterdam, and even more popular destinations across North America, South America, and the Caribbean.

"We always work to give our customers a great onboard experience and get them to their destination safely and on time," said Joanna Geraghty, President and Chief Operating Officer at JetBlue. "Sometimes travel doesn't go as planned, and flights can get delayed or cancelled. In those cases, when the disruption is due to something in our control, our partnership with Uber for Business will make options for our customers more seamless."

"No matter how much you prepare, travel is always full of surprises," said Susan Anderson, Global Head of Uber for Business and Business Development at Uber. "What matters most is how companies support their passengers, even in the face of unforeseen circumstances. That's why we're proud to work with JetBlue, a company that shares our dedication to delivering exceptional customer experiences. Together, we can help to ensure that even if travel doesn't go as planned, travelers will have an easy and streamlined ground transportation option, so they can get where they need to go quickly."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
The 457cc parallel-twin engine on Aprilia RS 457 develops 47 bhp of power and weighs 175 kg  Boasting best-in-class power-to-weight ratio

The iconic Italian motorcycle brand, Aprilia, is set to enter the sub 500cc multi-cylinder motorcycle machine. Manufactured in India, Aprilia will sell RS 457 both here in the Asian subcontinent and in many global markets. Official TVC aired some time ago. Exhaust note is spied ahead of launch, revealing a loud and bassy note that will surely appeal to many.

Aprilia RS 457 Exhaust Note  Best sounding twinner under 500cc?

Sticking to its usual naming scheme, Aprilia has opted to go with a displacement number in its name. Aprilia RS 457 is positioned below RS 660 which is a fiercely popular middle-weight motorcycle in its global lineup. In the recent past, sub 500cc multi-cylinder motorcycle space has heated up.

Yamaha R3 and MT-03 are inbound to rival Kawasaki Ninja 300 and Ninja 400. Recently launched Kawasaki Ninja ZX-4R is a league above these motorcycles in terms of pricing, owing to its inline-four config. So, Aprilia RS 457 only has Yamaha R3 and Ninja brothers in its crosshair.

Where single-cylinder sub 500cc fully faired motorcycles are concerned, upcoming KTM RC 390 with the new 399 cc engine may be another contender. Where single-cylinder bikes lack, however, is in the sound department. Sound from a multi-cylinder engine is a cut above the noise a single-cylinder engine makes.

As revealed by recent spy video posted on Rushlane Spylane, Aprilia RS 457 has an exhilarating exhaust note. The sound may not be boomy, but has quite a bit of bass in it. Pitch goes higher as the engine speeds climb and gives out a sporty vibe. Aprilia has given RS 457 an underbelly exhaust, which might limit compatibility with aftermarket exhaust cans, without extensive modding.

What does it pack?

The 457cc parallel-twin engine might be quite free-revving too. However, Aprilia hasnt revealed engine speeds as of yet. This engine develops 47 bhp of power and the bike weighs 170 kg wet. This should yield highest power-to-weight ratio as opposed to the rivals mentioned above. A 6-speed gearbox and a slipper clutch are on board.

Aprilia is offering a fully digital instrument cluster that could feature smartphone connectivity too. Full LED lighting, wide 150-section rear tyre, USD telescopic front forks and rear mono-shock setup, single disc setup at both ends and committed riding posture are some of the highlight elements.

All the componentry are mated to a perimeter frame which is exposed and a part of overall aesthetics. The fairing shares similar DNA with bigger RS 660, which is a key strength. Aprilia RS 457 will be manufactured at Piaggios facility in Baramati and will be shipped to multiple global markets. Launch is expected soon.
The 1498cc NA petrol engine offered with Honda City Elegant Edition, generates 119 bhp of power and 145 Nm of torque

Popular sedan maker in India, Honda, has launched new special editions with City and Amaze sedans. Named City Elegant Edition and Amaze Elite Edition, they bring functional features along with styling elements and a few attributes limited to their respective special editions.

Honda City Elegant Edition

The company has expressed that these special editions with City and Amaze sedans are for limited volumes only. Honda is bundling an enhanced premium package with both cars and is offering these special editions with all their respective colour options. In this sense, these special editions are more about the features than exclusive colours.

As of now, Honda offers City in 4 trims  SV, V, VX and ZX. City Elegant Edition is based on mid-spec V trim. In Citys variant lineup, the V trim gets Hondas Sensing ADAS suite and is the most popular. Honda City Elegant Edition costs Rs. 12,57,400 (ex-sh) with manual transmission and Rs. 13,82,400 (ex-sh) with automatic gearbox option (CVT). Honda is not offering Elegant Edition with higher trims.

As part of Elegant Edition, City now gets legroom lamps, multiple Elegant Edition badges on body, an elegant illuminated step, Elegant Edition seat covers, front fender garnish, a wireless cellphone charger and a trunk spoiler along with LEDs. When compared to standard City V trim, Elegant Edition costs Rs. 6,500 more.

Honda Amaze Elite Edition

Just like City, Amaze gets a special edition too, named Amaze Elite Edition. As of now, Honda offers Amaze in 4 trim levels  E, S, V and VX. Unlike City Elegant Edition, Honda Amaze Elite Edition is based on top-spec VX trim. Like City, Amaze Elite Edition is on offer with both manual and automatic (CVT) gearbox choices.

Priced at Rs. 9,03,900 for a manual gearbox and Rs. 9,85,900 for an automatic gearbox, Amaze Elite Edition costs just Rs. 15,000 more than regular VX trim. For the price, Amaze Elite Edition brings a tyre inflator, Elite Edition badging and seat covers with illuminated step, anti-fog film on ORVM, sliding front armrest, front fender garnish, TPMS with readout in Honda Connect App and a trunk spoiler with LEDs.

Words from the manufacturer

Speaking on the introduction of the festive editions, Mr. Yuichi Murata, Director, Marketing & Sales at Honda Cars India Ltd said, As we gear up for the festive season, our focus has been to enrich our models with a distinct premium package which will appeal to our discerning buyers. The new editions of City and Amaze aim to offer enhanced styling and convenience with added features at an attractive price.

Festivals give us a reason to celebrate and always have a special place in our lives. In addition to the launch of these new limited editions, we have also rolled out exciting offers and promotions on other variants of City and Amaze to make the new car purchase more rewarding for all our customers, he added.
New Verna has become the first Hyundai car to score a 5 star safety rating in a Global NCAP crash test

In a significant development for the Indian automotive industry, the Hyundai Verna has been awarded a prestigious five-star safety rating by the Global New Car Assessment Programme (Global NCAP). This achievement places the Hyundai Verna among Indias elite group of cars known for their exceptional safety standards.

First Hyundai to score 5 star safety in India

New Hyundai Vernas top rating comes as part of the #SaferCarsForIndia campaign, which aims to promote safer vehicles in the Indian market. This achievement is particularly timely, as it precedes the activation of Bharat NCAP later this year, which will set official safety standards for Indian vehicles.

Global NCAPs stringent crash test protocols encompass frontal and side impact protection, Electronic Stability Control (ESC), pedestrian protection, and side impact pole protection. To attain the highest star ratings, vehicles must excel in all these areas.

The Hyundai Verna was evaluated in its most basic passive safety configuration, equipped with six airbags and ESC as standard features. Despite achieving a five-star rating for both adult and child occupant safety, it was noted that the vehicles structure was unstable in the tests.

In the adult safety category, the Hyundai Verna performed admirably in frontal impact tests, providing good protection for the drivers and passengers head and neck. However, drivers chest protection was marginal, while the passengers chest received a good rating. Drivers and passengers knees showed marginal protection, and the footwell area was rated as unstable. The bodyshell was also found to be unstable.

During side impact tests, the Hyundai Verna offered good protection to the head, pelvis, and abdomen, while chest protection was deemed adequate. In side pole impact tests, the curtain airbags met fitment requirements, providing good protection to the head and pelvis, marginal protection to the chest, and adequate protection to the abdomen. The ESC, which is fitted as standard, met the latest Global NCAP requirements.

Redefining Safety Expectations in Indian Cars

Regarding child safety, the Hyundai Verna impressed in frontal impact tests, where child seats for a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old, installed rearward-facing with support legs, provided full protection to the occupants. In side impact tests, both child restraint systems (CRS) offered full side impact protection. The car features three-point seatbelts in all seating positions as standard, and it complies with CRS installation requirements.

Alejandro Furas, Secretary General of Global NCAP, expressed his appreciation for Hyundais commitment to improving safety performance in emerging markets. He commended Hyundai for bringing these safety improvements to the basic version of the Verna and encouraged the automaker to continue enhancing safety across its model range worldwide.

David Ward, President of the Towards Zero Foundation, praised the continuation of the trend for five-star safety performance in India. He highlighted the importance of maintaining this safety momentum in the Indian automotive industry and expressed anticipation for the safety assessments of remaining #SaferCarsForIndia models before Bharat NCAP commences its testing later this year.
Tata Motors is getting ready to launch the new Safari facelift this month  It will get new exteriors and interiors

Tata Safari and Harrier have been facing strong competition in the mid-size SUV segment. They have lost a lot of sales to newly launched Mahindra XUV700 and Scorpio N. To ensure it continues as an able competitor, Tata Motors will launch updated Harrier and Safari this month.

New Tata Safari Facelift Teaser

In a lead up to its estimated launch just ahead of the upcoming festive season, new Safari and Harrier have now been officially teased for the first time. We get to see the new front with connected LED DRL along with new grille and a golden colour on Safari, which was seen on the now discontinued Jet Edition.

Tata Safari facelift and Harrier get a new front fascia, vertically stacked LED headlamps, connected LED light bar and a new front slatted grille. Sides do not get much update, except for the fact that it receives black alloy wheels. Changes towards the rear include a new rear bumper, LED tail lamps and skid plate.

New Safari and Harrier are expected to get a much larger touchscreen than seen on the current Safari. Cabin updates on the facelift could show off a revised dashboard design. It will also continue to sport wireless charging, ventilated seating at the front and rear, a panoramic sunroof and electrically-adjustable driver and co-driver seats.

Tata Harrier, Safari facelift Safety

Safari and Harrier are the only Tata cars on sale today which have never been crash tested. New Safari and Harrier will get 6 airbags, ABS, EBD, 360 degree camera along with radar-based ADAS safety features. New Tata Safari and Harrier will continue to draw power via the same 2.0 liter diesel engine. This engine makes 170 hp power and 350 Nm torque mated to either a 6 speed manual or automatic transmission.

The company is also expected to introduce a petrol engine with this update. This could include a 1.5 liter turbo petrol unit offering 170 hp power and 280 Nm torque mated to manual or automatic transmission. Set to enter production in the coming days, the Tata Safari facelift and Harrier will command a premium over its current counterpart. Official bookings open on 6th Oct 2023.
After a 17-year-long production run, Toyota discontinued FJ Cruiser recently, which enjoys cult following in off-road world

At the unveiling of Land Cruiser 250 Series event, Toyotas presentations included three new products greyed-out. Two of these three products are off-road-worthy SUVs, one large modern crossover design and one smaller old-school boxy design. Apart from these, Toyota even showed an off-road three-wheeler scooter as well.

Toyota Hints Two New Off-Road SUVs

The Japanese automotive juggernauts Land Cruiser lineup is very popular in off-road scene. With the launch of Land Cruiser 250 Series, Toyota intends to offer a rugged off-roader that may give Ford Bronco and Jeep Wrangler, a run for their money. In a recent presentation, Toyota showed two greyed-out SUVs and a scooter.

Starting with the one on the left, it bears semblance with Toyota Compact Cruiser EV concept that debuted in 2021. We say this because the similarities between these are uncanny.

That said, some aspects are likely to be toned down in production-spec model. There is a good probability of this being FJ Cruisers replacement, which went out of production recently after a 17-year-long run. The vehicle in Toyotas presentation looks almost identical to Compact Cruiser EV concept.

Were talking about similarities in profile, LED headlights, DRL signature, beefy bumpers, LED tail lights, doors, and overall silhouette. Production version has a rear-mounted spare wheel, higher ground clearance, off-road tyres, and more generic ORVMs, and lacks a few flamboyant elements seen on concept vehicle. A fully electric powertrain is highly likely too.

Rear doors are now conventional as opposed to suicide-door layout of FJ Cruiser. Toyota could launch these vehicles around 2025. Both production-spec version of Compact Cruiser and the second SUV in Toyotas presentation may take Land Cruiser name.

The new off-road 3W scooter from Toyota

Speaking of, second SUV in Toyotas presentation is more modern and has a sleeker body style. Looking at the closed-off front grill, this could also be a fully electric offering. Family DNA from Toyotas BZ series are very scarce too. It is a much larger vehicle than the supposedly FJ Cruiser replacement mentioned above.

There was a 3-wheeled minimal and futuristic-looking electric scooter in the same presentation. It has two wheels at front and one at the rear. Saddle holds just a rider. This may be fully electric too. Toyota is referring to this scooter as a new approach to mobility.

Maybe this scooter has a foldable design and is bundled with a Land Cruiser vehicle as a recreational vehicle, or sold separately. Either way, it has a quirky appeal and is likely to attract a lot of eyeballs. Possibilities of these vehicles making it to India are thin, but we may get the new mid-size SUV instead.
JERUSALEM, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen condemned on Tuesday a recent wave of street attacks on Christian worshipers in the country.

"I condemn the ugly phenomenon of spitting on Christians and harming any person because of his religion or belief," Cohen wrote on social media platform X.

The minister said that hundreds of thousands of Christian tourists make a pilgrimage to Israel every year to visit holy sites. "I call on all citizens of Israel to respect the tradition and faith of all who arrive in Jerusalem," he said, referring specifically to East Jerusalem's Old City, where the recent incidents occurred.

The condemnation came after a group of ultra-Orthodox Israeli youths were caught on video spitting on Christian worshippers in the narrow alleys of the Old City.

There has recently been an uptick in anti-Christian incidents, including vandalism of Christian property and institutions, spitting, and verbal insults. 
Auto workers take part in a strike outside a Ford assembly plant in the southern suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, the United States, on Sept. 29, 2023. (Photo by Vincent D. Johnson/Xinhua)

In all, about 25,000 out of some 146,000 Big Three U.S. automaker workers represented by the UAW are now on strike across the country.

CHICAGO, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against the Big Three U.S. automakers has resulted in nearly 4 billion U.S. dollars of losses as it enters the 18th day Monday.

According to Michigan-based economic consulting firm Anderson Economic Group (AEG), the strike has resulted in 325 million-dollar losses in direct wages, 1.1 billion-dollar losses to Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. (GM), and Stellantis NV, nearly 1.3 billion-dollar losses to automotive suppliers and 1.2 billion-dollar losses to dealers and customers.

AEG expects the third week of the strike to be "significantly more costly for Ford."

Public support for the strike remains strong so far, a new poll conducted by Navigator Research on Monday shows.

Based on a nationwide survey of 1,000 registered voters conducted on Sept. 21-25, the poll indicates that 78 percent of Americans support the striking UAW autoworkers more than the automakers. The support is shared across partisan and demographic lines, with 69 percent of Republican and 87 percent of Democrat respondents indicating they support the UAW more than the automakers.

Over half of respondents view the UAW favorably, and majorities across political parties and demographic groups said they support workers' collective bargaining rights.

The UAW announced just before midnight Sunday that it has reached a tentative five-year contract agreement with Mack Trucks that covers about 4,000 workers in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Florida.

"The terms of this tentative agreement would deliver significantly increased wages and continue first-class benefits for Mack employees and their families," Mack President Stephen Roy said in a statement on Monday. "At the same time, it would allow the company to successfully compete in the market, and continue making the necessary investments in our people, plants and products."

The UAW said that more details would become available as members review the tentative deal with Mack.

Following a new Stand-Up strike approach, the UAW announced a strike at three select factories of Ford, GM, and Stellantis on Sept. 14, after its contract with the Big Three expired. It spread the strike to 38 GM and Stellantis parts distribution centers around the country on Sept. 22, following a lack of meaningful progress in new contract negotiations. It called on around 7,000 workers at two more GM and Ford SUV assembly plants to strike on Sept. 29.

In all, about 25,000 out of some 146,000 Big Three U.S. automaker workers represented by the UAW are now on strike across the country.
URUMQI, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has introduced new dimensions for China's opening-up to the outside world and provided Xinjiang with unprecedented new opportunities for development, according to an official in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

After a decade of exploration and practice, Xinjiang has made breakthroughs in promoting the construction of BRI projects, Yusupjan Mamat, vice chairman of Xinjiang regional government, told Xinhua in an interview.

"Xinjiang will continue to expand the opening-up and promote high-quality development of the BRI core area to achieve new progress and results," he said.

As the core area of the BRI, Xinjiang has made continuous efforts in areas such as policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, financial integration, and people-to-people exchange over the past decade.

"Xinjiang's circle of friends has been expanding," said Yusupjan Mamat, noting that Xinjiang enterprises have made investments in more than 60 countries and regions, built four overseas economic and trade cooperation parks, and organized seven China-Eurasia Expos and nearly 50 commodity fairs in the past 10 years.

At present, the region has launched 118 international road transport routes, accounting for one-third of China's total, and its second railway line with Kazakhstan has been completed and put into operation. By the end of August, 65,000 China-Europe freight trains had passed through Xinjiang, making up more than half of the country's total.

Xinjiang has unique advantages in location, policy and resources, and in recent years it has been accelerating the formation of a modern industrial system supported by major local industries, such as green mining, grain and oil, cotton, textiles and clothing.

"With a series of preferential policies bolstering support for Xinjiang in trade, logistics, agriculture and energy, the region's advantageous industries have accelerated upgrading, which has provided new momentum for high-quality development," Yusupjan Mamat said.

"It has been proved that Xinjiang has the foundation, advantages and potential for opening-up and development, which can bring more benefits to people of all ethnic groups," he added.

"Xinjiang has always given priority to ensuring and improving people's wellbeing so that people of all ethnic groups can share the fruits of reform and opening-up and stable development," the official added.

He noted that all prefectures and cities in Xinjiang have been connected with expressways, all county-level areas with second-class and better roads, and all townships with paved roads. Besides, 25 civil transport airports have been built and put into operation.

Noting that Belt and Road cooperation now faces new circumstances, new tasks and new requirements, Yusupjan Mamat said Xinjiang will continue to focus on its priorities, push for a deeper and wider opening-up, and make new and greater contributions to promoting high-quality development of the Belt and Road cooperation. 
Supporters of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi take part in a rally in Cairo, Egypt, on Oct. 2, 2023. Sisi announced on Monday that he will run for the upcoming presidential election slated for December this year. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

CAIRO, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi announced on Monday that he will run for the upcoming presidential election slated for December this year.

Sisi made the remarks while speaking at the three-day Story of the Homeland conference that ends on Monday in Egypt's New Administrative Capital.

"Just as I responded to the call of the Egyptians before, today I respond to their call once again, and I announce that I'm determined to nominate myself for a new presidential term," Sisi announced.

"I call on Egyptians to participate in the elections to choose the country's president," he said.

The election will take place in Egypt on Dec. 10-12, while Egyptians living abroad will cast their votes on Dec. 1-3.

Sisi won his first presidential elections in 2014 and was re-elected in 2018. In 2019, constitutional amendments stretched the presidential term to six years from four and exceptionally allowed Sisi to run for a third term. 

A supporter of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi takes part in a rally in Cairo, Egypt, on Oct. 2, 2023. Sisi announced on Monday that he will run for the upcoming presidential election slated for December this year. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)
Saturns rings could have evolved from the debris of two progenitor icy moons that collided and shattered a few hundred million years ago; debris that didnt end up in the rings could also have contributed to the formation of some of Saturns present-day moons, according to new simulations carried out by planetary researcher from the University of Glasgow, the University of Oslo, NASAs Ames Research Center, SETI Institute and Durham University.

Most contemporary high-quality measurements about Saturn have come from NASAs Cassini spacecraft that spent 13 years studying the planet and its systems after entering Saturns orbit in 2004.

An analysis of Cassini data indicated that Saturns rings were much younger than first thought.

To investigate this further, Dr. Jacob Kegerreis from NASAs Ames Research Center and his colleagues modeled what different collisions between precursor moons in Saturns system may have looked like.

Theres so much we still dont know about the Saturn system, including its moons that host environments that might be suitable for life, Dr. Kegerreis said.

So, its exciting to use big simulations like these to explore in detail how they could have evolved.

The teams simulations were conducted at a resolution more than 100 times higher than previous such studies, using the open-source simulation code SWIFT and giving scientists their best insights into the Saturn systems history.

Saturns rings today live close to the giant planet, within whats known as the Roche limit  the farthest orbit where a planets gravitational force is powerful enough to disintegrate larger bodies of rock or ice that get any closer. Material orbiting farther out could clump together to form moons.

By simulating almost 200 different versions of the impact, the researchers discovered that a wide range of collision scenarios could scatter the right amount of ice into Saturns Roche limit, where it could settle into rings.

And, while alternative explanations havent been able to show why there would be almost no rock in Saturns rings, this type of collision could explain that.

This scenario naturally leads to ice-rich rings. When the icy progenitor moons smash into one another, the rock in the cores of the colliding bodies is dispersed less widely than the overlying ice, said Dr. Vincent Eke, a researcher at Durham University.

Ice and rocky debris would also have hit other moons in the system, potentially causing a cascade of collisions.

Such a multiplying effect could have disrupted any other precursor moons outside the rings, out of which todays moons could have formed.

But what could have set these events in motion, in the first place? Two of Saturns former moons could have been pushed into a collision by the usually small effects of the Suns gravity adding up to destabilize their orbits around the planet.

In the right configuration of orbits, the extra pull from the Sun can have a snowballing effect  a resonance  that elongates and tilts the moons usually circular and flat orbits until their paths cross, resulting in a high-speed impact.

Saturns moon Rhea today orbits just beyond where a moon would encounter this resonance.

Like the Earths Moon, Saturns satellites migrate outward from the planet over time.

So, if Rhea was ancient, it would have crossed the resonance in the recent past.

However, Rheas orbit is very circular and flat. This suggests that it did not experience the destabilizing effects of the resonance and, instead, formed more recently.

We conclude that the impact of two destabilized icy moons is a promising scenario for the recent formation or rejuvenation of Saturns rings and reaccretion of mid-sized moons, the scientists concluded.

Future work on the long-term evolution of the orbit-crossing debris, combined with further and more detailed modeling of collisions between both icy moons and smaller fragments, will help to constrain the implications of this scenario for Saturns rings, its moons, their craters, and other surface environments.

Their paper appears in the Astrophysical Journal.

_____

L.F.A. Teodoro et al. 2023. A Recent Impact Origin of Saturns Rings and Mid-sized Moons. ApJ 955, 137; doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/acf4ed
ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Deputy Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Monique Nsanzabaganwa has called for ensuring inclusive development for African citizens.

The senior AU official made the remarks during the AU Executive Council meeting, which is being held under the theme "Accelerating the Implementation of Agenda 2063" on Oct. 1-3 in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.

"As we pursue our vision to have an equal say in global decision-making, let us also ensure that none of our African citizens are left behind in our development endeavors, be it at local government, national or continental level," an AU statement quoted Nsanzabaganwa as saying during the opening session of the meeting Sunday.

Nsanzabaganwa emphasized the importance of realizing the AU's 50-year continental development blueprint, Agenda 2063, toward realizing Africa's inclusive development.

Noting that the AU Executive Council meeting will evaluate the first 10-year implementation plan of the Agenda 2063 as well as the lessons learned and the emerging contextual imperatives, Nsanzabaganwa said the meeting will further harness political will and commitment toward the second ten-year implementation plan.

The draft second 10-year implementation plan highlighted seven ambitions that are aligned with each of the seven aspirations of Agenda 2063.

The seven ambitions stipulated include seeing every African nation in the middle-income category, more integrated and connected Africa, public institutions more responsive to citizens' needs, Africa resolving conflicts amicably, African values explicit and promoted, African citizens more empowered and more productive, and realizing Africa as a strong and influential global player.

"The seven moonshots of the second 10-year implementation plan are aligned to the broad scope and aspirations of Agenda 2063. These ambitions will require courage and conviction to make them a reality," Nsanzabaganwa said.

According to the AU, the AU Executive Council retreat discussed the second ten-year plan of the Agenda 2063, spanning from 2024 to 2033.

The meeting brought together ministers in charge of foreign affairs, ministers in charge of finance and development planning, African envoys, AU commission leadership, heads of AU organs, and heads of regional economic communities, among others, the AU said.

The AU said the Agenda 2063 embodies the aspirations of the African people framed in a collective ambition of realizing "the Africa We Want" in 2063. The agenda is operationalized through five 10-year implementation plans, with the first plan straddling 2014 to 2023.

According to the AU, the second decade of Agenda 2063 implementation is one of acceleration, building on the first that focused on convergence. 
This 2023, the Nobel prize for medicine or physiology has been granted to a duo of scientists who worked on the mRNA vaccine technology used as the first COVID-19 combatants.

2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine Granted to COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Proponents

The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine work was done by Professor Katalin Kariko from the University of Szeged in Hungary as well as Dr. Drew Weissman, the director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations. Both of them will be sharing the prize of $1.02 million, or 11 million Swedish krona.

The revolutionary work of the duo enabled messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to not come up with an undesirable response from the immune system. This enabled the shots to enter the human body without leading to serious inflammation. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Modern COVID-19 vaccines are grounded on this mRNA work.

Rickard Sandberg, who is part of the Nobel committee for physiology or medicine and who is from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, explained during the announcement that mRNA vaccines and other COVID-19 shots have undergone over 13 billion administrations. Sandberg notes that the duo have saved the lives of millions, hampered the severity of COVID-19, reduced the general burden of the disease, and helped societies open once more.

Aside from winning the Nobel Prize, the duo also won the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award as well as the Breakthrough Prize for their mRNA vaccine work.

ALSO READ: COVID-19 Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna Vaccines: What Makes mRNA Technology Effective Against the Virus?

Vaccine Creation and Function

Before the creation of mRNA vaccines, earlier vaccines functioned by introducing a seriously weakened or killed version of the virus into the human body. This gives the immune system room to become immune prior to contracting or getting exposed to the full pathogen.

Other later vaccines had proteins taken from the surface of the virus. When they became exposed to the proteins, immune cells that make antibodies could block them and their source viruses. These come as shots that make use of carrier viruses that are empty for transporting blueprints of a pathogen's DNA into the human body.

The drawback is that in order to come up with these kinds of vaccines, scientists need to nurture huge cell batches, infect them with viruses, and then take away the protein and viral chunks for the vaccine. The process of doing so is quite slow and taxing, which would affect the rollout of vaccines.

Scientists in the 1980s tried to get around this by finding more efficient ways for the cells to create the necessary proteins. One technique known as in vitro transcription operated by generating mRNA directly within the cultured cells. However, there was still a big hindrance. When animals received the lab-made mRNA injections, they had a grave immune response that led to dangerous inflammations. This, in turn, harmed the animal and destroyed the vaccine.

mRNA Vaccine Revolution

The two Nobel Prize winners were able to refine the building blocks, or nucleotides, of the injected mRNA to mirror those that can be found within the body. This stopped the triggering of the immune response.

When the COVID-19 pandemic was still at its early phases, this technology enabled the rapid production of mRNA vaccines that functioned against the spike protein of the coronavirus. This protein can typically be found on the surface of the germs.

Aside from revolutionizing the vaccine production and rollout during the pandemic, the technology has also led to opportunities for rapid vaccine development for viral threats and possibly even cancer vaccines.

Dr. J. Larry Jameson, the executive vice president from the University of Pennsylvania for Health System, explains that the same approach and technology is being tested for other conditions and diseases.

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RELATED ARTICLE: Printable Vaccine Patches? Mobile Printer Could Help Scale Up Production, Boost Accessibility to mRNA Doses

Check out more news and information on Medicine & Health in Science Times.
BEIRUT, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that the United States is responsible for the Syrian refugee crisis, the local Al-Manar English website reported on Tuesday.

In a speech addressing a ceremony marking the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammad in Beirut on Monday, Nasrallah said the United States was responsible for the war in Syria and the economic crisis there.

He further noted that the United States is the "primary culprit" involved in the Syrian refugee crisis, explaining the terrorist war initiated by Washington was behind the first wave of Syrian displacement and the Caesar Act was behind the renewed displacement wave.

The Caesar Act, coming into force on June 17, 2020, is United States legislation that sanctions the Syrian government for alleged war crimes against the Syrian population.

"Those who believe that the Syrian displacement threatens Lebanon's existence must ask Washington to revoke the Caesar Act to save Lebanon," Nasrallah said, adding that if the Caesar Act is canceled, hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees will return to their homeland.

The Hezbollah leader called on the various political parties in Lebanon to form a parliamentary or ministerial committee that represents all the segments of the nation to cope with the refugee crisis.

Lebanon remains the country hosting the largest number of refugees per capita, with an estimated 1.5-2 million Syrian refugees living in the country. The large number of Syrian refugees weighed heavily on Lebanon's economy and infrastructure. 
DAMASCUS, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Six non-Syrian, pro-Iran fighters were killed on Monday night in an Israeli missile attack on military sites in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour near the Syrian-Iraqi border, a war monitor reported on Tuesday.

The latest strikes hit positions of the pro-Iran militias in the city of al-Bukamal in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour, including a conduit for supplies coming to the militias from Iran via Iraq, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The strikes also hit a radar battalion in the same area, injuring four Syrian government soldiers, two of whom were in critical condition, the observatory added.

The attack is the latest in a string of Israeli targeting of Syrian military sites, including those belonging to the pro-Iran militias, which fought alongside the Syrian army in the battles against Islamic State (IS) in eastern Syria.

The Syrian army released a short statement after midnight, confirming the strikes in the vicinity of Deir al-Zour, without giving details about the targeted sites, but reported the injury of two soldiers and material losses. 
Cynthia Martinez attended Western Michigan University to pursue her dream of becoming a pilot.But soon after learning how to fly a Cessna 172 single-engine aircraft, Martinez had to leave the WMUs aviation program because of mounting expenses she couldnt afford. She switched to an aviation administration science major.That experience of how financial access can cut short aspirations is an underlying theme of her award-winning documentary First Voice Generation.I'm excited for the impact the film is making, especially on our young people, says Martinez, who graduated in 2006.Shes bringing her film to WMU. It will show at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, in the WMU Student Center ballroom. Admission is free, and free parking is available behind Sangren Hall."First Voice Generation" tells the stories of three Latinx high school students from Holland, Michigan, who were part of the TRIO Upward Bound Program, a pre-college preparatory program. It highlights their dreams of becoming the first in their families to go to college and how the COVID-19 global pandemic and virtual learning exacerbated their struggles.A graduate of Columbia Universitys Graduate School of Journalism, Martinez moved back home to Holland in 2020 to shine a light on the difficulties some students experience in navigating high school and higher education.I saw the challenges the pandemic was putting on first-generation students, says Martinez. I wanted to use my passion and my education to give a voice to Latinx students just like me. I wanted to give an inside look into our stories.Following the screening, Martinez will participate in a Q&A session.The Latinx Employee Association is partnering with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Office of the Provost to sponsor the screening. It is one of several events at Western celebrating Latino culture and the richness it brings to the campus community planned during Hispanic Heritage Month , which runs through Sunday, Oct. 15.The film is very much a piece of history for the West Michigan community because the film highlights what the students were going through during the pandemic, Martinez says. We see what has happened in our community and in our state and nationally, how the pandemic impacted our education system and our students.Martinez believes that the pathway out of poverty is often through education. She hopes the film inspires better representation Latino teachers and school leaders in West Michigan as its Latino population continues to grow.The films screening is among several campus showings across Michigan during Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. Earlier, it was shown at Grand Valley State University, Michigan State University and Ferris State University.The film has been making the circuit of film festivals and colleges.The film won Best Independent Feature Documentary at its premiere at Central Michigan Universitys International Film Festival, and Martinez won Best Director at the Mexican-American Film & Television Festival .Shes managed to promote the film while completing another major project: the birth of her daughter. Now, 10 months old, she has accompanied her mom to several film festivals  making an adorable plus one.Martinez understands the struggles of generational poverty all too well. Shes the granddaughter of Mexican migrant farm workers and the daughter of two teenage parents who had a rough start, she says. She graduated from West Ottawa High School, then earned her bachelors from Western Michigan University and a masters from Columbia Universitys School of Journalism.She credits the TRIO Upward Bound program at Hope College as her bridge to college, showing her how to navigate a path that was unfamiliar to her family. The works with students in grades 812, who are interested in pursuing an educational program beyond high school.In 2020, nearly 22% of U.S. undergraduate college students were Latinos, the second largest ethnic group enrolled at the undergraduate level. While Latinos outpace other ethnic groups as first-generation college students (44%), compared to Black (34%), Asian (29%) and white (22%) students, they lag behind in receiving financial aid, according to the Postsecondary National Policy Institute Martinezs ultimate goal is for the documentary to be screened at the White House to bring awareness to first-generation students like herself and the students featured in the documentary.I think the work of making college more accessible and affordable can be done at the national level, meaning legislation can be put into place to help first-gen students, Martinez says. I also feel that it starts with the institutions, with colleges, with universities, recognizing those challenges and how they can work with getting students into the colleges and then keeping them.
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Monday stressed the importance of an arms embargo on Haitian gangs.

Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, welcomed the expansion of the arms embargo to include all gangs in Haiti by the UN Security Council in its just adopted Resolution 2699.

Previously, the arms embargo targeted only designated individuals and entities.

"This is a very important decision. If the Security Council had taken this step at an earlier time, the security situation in Haiti might not have deteriorated to what it is today," said Zhang in an explanation of vote.

From now on, all countries are obligated to take concrete actions in accordance with this resolution to contribute to curbing gang violence in Haiti and protecting the safety of lives of the Haitian people, he said.

Resolution 2699 also authorized the deployment of a multinational security force for Haiti. The resolution was supported by 13 of the 15 members of the Security Council. China and Russia abstained.

Zhang explained that China has always been cautious about the invocation of Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which authorizes the use of force.

"Proceeding from the principles of respect for sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs, China has always taken a cautious and responsible approach on the Security Council's invocation of Chapter VII on the authorization of the use of force. In previous practices, there have been precedents of abusing Chapter VII authorization," he said.

However, China did not obstruct the adoption of the resolution given the current security situation in Haiti and the concerns and appeals of the international community, he said.

In accordance with Resolution 2699, China hopes that the countries leading the multinational security force will hold in-depth consultations with Haiti on the specific arrangements for the deployment of the mission, with a view to reaching agreement and ensuring that these arrangements will be supported by the Haitian people, said Zhang.

Zhang also emphasized the importance of improved governance in Haiti.

"Without a legitimate, effective, and responsible government in place, any external support can hardly have any lasting effects. The Haitian authorities and all parties and factions should reach the broadest possible consensus on transitional arrangements as soon as possible and come up with a feasible and credible timetable. Regrettably, the resolution just adopted fails to send the strongest signal in that regard," he said.

China urges the Haitian authorities and all parties and factions to respond positively to the mediation efforts by the Caribbean Community and the UN Integrated Office in Haiti, work in the fundamental interests of the people, demonstrate sincerity for dialogue and assume their responsibilities, so as to create conditions conducive for the early holding of free and fair elections, he said.

The multiple crises in Haiti are intertwined, of which security issues are only one dimension. Therefore, a holistic approach is required to find a comprehensive solution. China looks forward to working with the international community and Security Council members to assist and support the Haitian people in finding the right path out of their crises, he said. 
India's Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Madan Mohan Sethi, highlighted the cordial and friendly relationship between India and Vietnam, emphasizing their historical ties through civilization that spans over 2,000 years. "More than 400 Indian companies, small and big, have invested in Vietnam for a cumulative value of more than USD 1 billion," he said.

He mentioned that both countries have collaborated in various areas, including trade, defense, and strategic cooperation. He noted the increasing number of Indian tourists visiting Vietnam, with over 400,000 Indian tourists estimated to have visited the country in recent times. "As far as the relationship between India and Vietnam is concerned, both countries enjoy a very cordial and friendly relationship," Sethi said.

The two countries have a "historical connection through culture and civilizational roots going back to more than 2000 years. In recent times, we have cooperated with Vietnam in multiple areas, including trade and commerce, defense, and strategic areas. He also mentioned a growing interest among Vietnamese travelers to explore India. "But from last year June onwards, with more connection between cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, with our cities of India like Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmadabad and very recently Kochi, what we are witnessing that hundreds of Indian tourists are visiting Vietnam," the Consul General said.

"So by one estimate, I think more than 400,000 Indian tourists have already visited Vietnam, and we are also seeing a surge in the number of Vietnamese traveling to India," he added. As per Sethi, Vietnam has a relationship with India through yoga and Buddhism. "Nowadays, we are promoting the Vietnamese provinces to visit Indian states to develop partnership and cooperation in multiple areas including higher education, IT, healthcare, and tourism."

He said "India's image has changed a lot in recent times due to the steps by the government of India under PM Modi. And perhaps more engagements have been made with a large number of countries in the last nine years. But definitely, there is a more intense engagement with the countries, with our friendly countries and again countries of the south actually."Recently, the Defence Minister of Vietnam, General Phan Van Giang, called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
TEHRAN, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Tuesday called for unity among the Islamic community in West Asia and North Africa to prevent U.S. "plunder, bullying and interference" in the region.

He said the United States is dealing political and economic blows to regional countries, stealing Syria's oil, and interfering in their internal affairs, according to the leader's website.

However, he added, if all countries in the Islamic world, especially those in the region, unite with each other and adopt a united policy toward the fundamental and general issues, the bullying powers do not dare and cannot interfere in their domestic affairs and foreign policy.

"As we have stressed repeatedly, we do not encourage anybody to launch a war or take military action. Thus, the call for standing together and being united is aimed at preventing U.S. warmongering," he noted. 
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The platform promises followers that are more likely to engage with your content. Money-Back Guarantee: Stormviews.net offers a full refund if they fail to deliver the promised number of followers within the specified timeframe.

Cons

Slower Delivery: Due to the targeted nature of the followers, the delivery might take longer than some other services.

Likes.io

Likes.io focuses primarily on delivering targeted followers who are likely to engage with your Facebook content. Their sophisticated algorithms promise to deliver followers that will contribute to meaningful interactions on your page, thereby positively affecting your page's reach and engagement metrics.

One downside to Likes.io is that the delivery of followers may take a little longer compared to other platforms. This is because of their focus on delivering high-quality, targeted followers. However, they do offer a money-back guarantee, providing a safety net if the service does not meet your expectations.

Pros

Authentic Followers: Likes.io prides itself on offering real and genuine followers that can help boost your page's credibility.

Likes.io prides itself on offering real and genuine followers that can help boost your page's credibility. User-Friendly: The platform is designed to be easy to use, allowing users to make purchases with just a few clicks.

Cons

Limited Payment Options: Likes.io does not offer as many payment options as some of its competitors, which could be a drawback for some users.

InstaFollowers

InstaFollowers stands out for its wide array of social media services, including affordable packages for Facebook followers. Their competitive pricing makes them an ideal choice for individuals or small businesses looking to grow their social media presence on a budget.

However, the user interface can be a bit complex and less intuitive, especially for those who are new to buying Facebook followers. But once you get the hang of it, their variety of services and budget-friendly options make InstaFollowers.io a compelling option for expanding your Facebook follower count.

Pros

Affordable Packages: The site offers some of the most competitively priced follower packages in the market.

The site offers some of the most competitively priced follower packages in the market. Variety of Services: Apart from Facebook followers, they offer a multitude of other social media services, making it a one-stop-shop for your social media growth needs.

Cons

Complex User Interface: Some users have found the platform's interface to be less intuitive compared to others, making navigation slightly more complex.

Is Purchasing Facebook Followers Safe?

The question of safety when purchasing Facebook followers is not a straightforward 'yes' or 'no'it's nuanced and largely dependent on the source from where you're buying these followers. Reputable and high-quality service providers will often abide by Facebooks terms of service, ensuring that they deliver followers from genuine accounts. This not only makes the transaction safer but also lowers any risks associated with potential account penalties or suspensions.

As a measure of added precaution, it's a smart practice to scrutinize customer reviews, and perhaps start by purchasing smaller packages to test the waters. The bottom line is, when conducted responsibly and through credible platforms, buying Facebook followers can be a safe venture.

How Can Buying Facebook Followers Improve My Online Presence?

Answer: At face value, a high follower count can significantly boost your profile's perceived value, giving it the appearance of being popular and reputable. In the world of social media, credibility often attracts more credibility. This means that a profile with a high follower count is likely to draw in even more organic followers and interactions, creating a virtuous cycle of increasing online visibility.

However, it's crucial to realize that these purchased followers are not an end, but rather a means to an end. They can kickstart your profile's growth, but sustaining that growth requires quality content that engages your audience. Without engaging content, the numbers will remain just thatnumbers, devoid of value or meaningful interaction. Therefore, buying followers should be seen as a part of a larger, more comprehensive social media strategy.

Whats the Timeframe for Receiving My Purchased Facebook Followers?

Answer: Delivery timelines for purchased Facebook followers can vary considerably from one service provider to another. Some platforms specialize in rapid delivery, often fulfilling orders within hours or even minutes of purchase. However, speed isn't everything. Other platforms might take a longer time to deliver followers because they focus on providing a more organic growth pattern, or because they concentrate on offering followers who are more aligned with your profiles niche or target audience. Either way, it's imperative to review the terms of service and FAQ sections of your chosen platform to get a comprehensive understanding of their delivery timelines. Knowing this information upfront can help set your expectations and inform your decision-making process.

Is There a Risk of My Facebook Account Getting Banned for Buying Followers?

Answer: When venturing into the realm of purchasing Facebook followers, it's essential to exercise caution, as the wrong choice of service provider could put your account at risk. Opting for low-quality or unreliable platforms could lead to Facebook flagging your account for suspicious activity, and in extreme cases, even result in a ban. However, established and reputable platforms take extra precautions to comply with Facebook's terms of service. They usually deliver followers from real, active Facebook accounts, which considerably minimizes the risk of your account being penalized. Therefore, the importance of doing your due diligence, reading reviews, and making an informed decision cannot be overstated.

Remember, the cornerstone of any successful Facebook profile isn't just a large follower count. Quality content and meaningful engagement with your audience are equally vital. Think of purchasing followers as a catalyst for growth, one that should be part of a multi-faceted approach to building your online presence.

Purchase Facebook Followers and Reach Your Desired Audience

Answer: Buying Facebook followers can act as a catalyst for reaching a larger, more targeted audience. When you have a substantial follower count, it serves as social proof, implying that your brand or profile is worth following. This can attract more organic followers, amplifying the reach of your posts and, consequently, the visibility of your product, service, or content.

Moreover, many platforms offer segmented follower packages based on geographical location or interest, allowing you to reach a specific target audience more effectively. However, its essential to remember that simply having a large number of followers is not enough; you'll also need to post high-quality, engaging content that resonates with your audience to maintain and capitalize on this newfound visibility.

Can I Earn Money by Purchasing Facebook Followers?

Answer: Technically, buying Facebook followers alone won't directly generate income, but it can be a stepping stone toward monetization opportunities. A larger follower count enhances your profile's credibility and attractiveness, which can help in multiple ways. For instance, you may find it easier to secure brand partnerships or sponsored posts if you have a significant number of followers. Such partnerships frequently bring financial advantages.

Additionally, a large follower base can boost your organic reach and engagement, making your profile more appealing to advertisers or even qualify you for Facebook's own monetization features like ad breaks in videos. However, you should view the act of buying followers as part of a broader strategy, which should include quality content creation and genuine engagement with your audience. In other words, while buying followers can facilitate the process, making money on Facebook is a more complex equation that involves multiple factors.

Conclusion

Buying Facebook followers has become a common practice for those looking to boost their social media presence quickly. However, it's crucial to choose a service that aligns with your needs and brings you genuine, engaging followers. Each of the platforms mentioned above has its own set of advantages and drawbacks, so weigh these factors carefully before making your decision.

Remember, your ultimate goal should be not just to increase your follower count, but to build a genuinely engaged community around your brand or content. Choose wisely, and take the first step towards achieving that objective.
Capgemini announces the acquisition of HDL Design House, a leading independent provider of silicon design and verification services in Europe. The acquisition will extend the Groups global silicon engineering capabilities that are already among the worlds largest. It reinforces silicon services as a key enabler of the intelligent industry revolution where the Group is a leader. The transaction closed on September 27.

Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Belgrade (Serbia), HDL Design House comprises approximately 300 highly skilled engineers with substantial experience in delivering advanced custom chip designs for multiple industries. Its clients are highly complementary to Capgeminis and include major players in the semiconductor industry as well as leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), who are harnessing the full potential of chips to create intelligent and connected products.

As a strategic business and technology transformation partner, Capgemini enables the convergence of products, software, data, and services for industry leaders. Silicon engineering services are a central piece of that combining the Groups expertise in digital technologies while delivering business outcomes, whether in terms of performance, connectivity, sovereignty, or sustainability. This acquisition will allow Capgemini to significantly reinforce its semiconductor presence in Europe, a key destination for this strategic industry.

As part of our intelligent industry work for clients Capgemini is designing, developing and delivering tomorrows products and services that are both smart and connected. With digital now inside everything, semiconductors are at the heart of companies business transformations, comments William Roze, CEO of Capgemini Engineering and Group Executive Board Member. HDL Design House is a leader in silicon innovation. It will strengthen our team and presence in Eastern Europe to further meet global demand for the latest generation of high-performance and intelligent products. I am very happy to welcome them to Capgemini.

After 22 years of building and developing world class expertise for each and every step of systems on a chip implementation, and continuously increasing our capabilities in chip design services, while working with major semiconductor companies on leading edge development projects, HDL Design House begins a new chapter in its evolution. Joining Capgemini is a natural next step for us as we will become part of an important global and multidisciplinary organization. It is a very exciting prospect for HDL Design House and its employees, said Predrag Markovic, President & CEO, HDL Design House.
EPAM Systems, Inc. a leading digital transformation services and product engineering company, today announced that it is now a Microsoft Globally Managed Enterprise Systems Integrator (SI) partner helping to accelerate technology innovation, growth and business impact for enterprises through end-to-end solution design and implementation in the cloud.

The newly acquired Globally Managed Enterprise SI partner status marks a significant milestone in EPAMs expanding strategic partnership with Microsoft. The elevated status positions EPAM as a proven service provider for enterprise customers undertaking complex digital transformation, modernization and cloud migrations and enables the Company to build cloud-native intelligent applications powered by Azure OpenAI Service.

Were pleased to achieve this Globally Managed Enterprise SI partner status with Microsoft, said Elaina Shekhter, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, EPAM. This enhanced status, coupled with our accredited proficiency in executing cloud implementations and spearheading the development of next-generation applications, empowers us to provide an even wider spectrum of capabilities to our global customers to unlock the benefits of Microsoft Azure.

As a long-standing Microsoft partner, EPAM helps customers engineer the future using Microsoft cloud. With more than 55,000 consultants, engineers and architects operating in more than 50 countries, EPAM provides enterprise customers worldwide with specialized Microsoft expertise to optimize Microsoft Azure cloud outcomes. The enhanced Globally Managed Enterprise SI partner status will further enable EPAM to drive the growth of Microsoft certifications and specializations and leverage Microsofts partner investments to accelerate results in cloud native, data and application modernization, building intelligent solutions infused with Azure OpenAI service.

In July 2023, EPAM won the 2023 Microsoft U.S. Azure Migration Partner of the Year Award for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementing customer solutions based on Microsoft technology. As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, EPAM owns five solution partner designations and 10 specializations, enabling EPAM to deliver tailored solutions and accelerate business value and innovation for clients, further cementing EPAM's position as a trusted Microsoft technology partner.

We are thrilled that EPAM is now a Microsoft Globally Managed Enterprise Systems Integrator, said Kelly Rogan, CVP, Global Systems Integrator and Advisory Partners at Microsoft. Through our expanded collaboration, EPAM will deliver innovative solutions and services on the Microsoft Cloud, which will help customers realize business transformation and growth.

Since 2004, EPAMs collaboration with Microsoft has helped global customers accelerate their journey to Azure by planning and architecting a strategy for executing Azure migrations at scale without compromising quality.
Federal Bank has secured a prestigious spot in the India's Best Workplaces for Women 2023 (Large): Top 10 by Great Place to Work. What sets this achievement apart is that Federal Bank is the sole banking institution in India to secure a place in the top 10 list among other multi-national corporations (MNCs).

The recognition reaffirms Federal Bank's commitment to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace environment, where gender diversity thrives, and employee growth is paramount. Federal Bank's relentless dedication to employee satisfaction is reflected in its high employee retention rates. Employees at Federal Bank are not just part of a workforce; they are integral to the Bank's journey towards excellence. The Bank's supportive culture, encouraging leadership, and numerous employee engagement initiatives have contributed to the organization's impressive retention numbers.

Federal Bank stands out for its exceptional gender ratio of 41%, firmly believing in the strength of diversity. The Bank has consistently promoted gender equality by providing equal opportunities for both men and women across all levels. This commitment has resulted in a workforce that is diverse and representative, contributing to innovative thinking and holistic growth.

Shalini Warrier, Executive Director, Federal Bank expressed her delight, stating, "This recognition is a proud moment for Federal Bank. We have always believed in the power of diversity and the importance of providing a conducive environment for growth and development. Being featured among the top 10 Best Workplaces for Women reflects our commitment to our core value CARES. We will continue to strive for excellence and set new benchmarks for workplace inclusivity."

Federal Bank has consistently invested in employee development initiatives, including training, mentorship, and leadership programs. These programs empower employees to excel in their roles, realize their full potential, and drive the Bank's success.
India is now the second-biggest manufacturing hub for mobile phones due to heavy investment from original equipment manufacturers, original design manufacturers and companies dealing in components and parts. India is expected to export about 22 percent of its total assembled mobile phones in 2023, according to Counterpoint Research. However, Chinas manufacturing and supply chain will still maintain its essential role in the longer run, said senior research analyst Ivan Lam.

In a fillip to the Make in India initiative, India saw mobile phone exports worth $5.5 billion (over Rs 45,000 crore) in the April-August period in the ongoing fiscal year (FY24), government and industry data showed recently. As per the estimates by the Department of Commerce and the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), the April-August period saw mobile phone exports worth $5.5 billion, against $3 billion (about Rs 25,000 crore) in the same period in FY22-23.

India is set to cross Rs 1,20,000 crore in mobile phone exports in the current fiscal year, with Apple leading the market with more than 50 percent in FY24. Meanwhile, according to the report, smartphone shipments from original design manufacturers (ODMs) and Independent Design Houses (ODMs/IDHs) declined six percent (year-on-year) in the first half this year, according to the report. The YoY decline in ODM/IDH companies H1 2023 shipments was driven by Samsung, Xiaomi and Lenovo Groups weak performance. However, Vivo, HONOR and Transsion Groups rise offset part of the decline, said senior research analyst Shenghao Bai.

Huaqin, Longcheer and Wingtech continued to dominate the competitive landscape of the global smartphone ODM/IDH industry in H1 2023. The companies, also known as the Big 3, accounted for 76 per cent of the global ODM/IDH smartphone market in the first half. Outsourced design shipments decreased in H1 2023 but their share increased when compared to the same period last year, the report mentioned. The top six ODMs took 95 percent share of the total ODM shipments.
Karnataka Minister for Large and Medium Industries, Infrastructure Development, MB Patil participated in a luncheon meeting with the Consul-General of India, DC Manjunath at Houston in Texas, USA and discussed investment opportunities. In the meeting with the Consul-General, the minister expressed the state's interest in fostering a global partnership and the possibilities that lie ahead for collaboration between America and Karnataka.

Both sides also discussed potential ways to strengthen economic and business ties. The minister also put forth the states intent of focusing on sectors for investment in which Karnataka has a competitive advantage. The delegation ensured the Ease of Doing Business and a favorable regulatory environment in Karnataka in order to safeguard the interests of investors.

The luncheon was part of the 12-day tour the Minister has embarked upon along with some senior officials of the Ministry of Industries, which includes Dr. S Selvakumar, Principal Secretary to Government, Department of Commerce and Industries, Ekrup Kour, Principal Secretary to the department of ITBT and Gunjan Krishna, Commissioner of Industries.
Applied Ventures, LLC, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, Inc., along with Applied Materials India Private Limited, selected seven deeptech startups during the fourth cohort of its start-up engagement program ASTRA (Applied Startup Technology & Research Accelerator) in Bengaluru. ASTRA aims to collaborate with start-ups and transform disruptive possibilities into reality. Based in India and Singapore the selected startups during ASTRA 2023 include Lightspeed Photonics, Portkey, Sungreen H2, Exposome, OIP Technologies, App Sentinels, and Ethereal Machines.

Chosen from a pool of 50+ outstanding applications, the selected start-ups pitched their business proposals to Applied Materials executives and industry leaders during the event. The start-ups were then evaluated based on criteria such as Fit to Applied Technology and Business, High-Value Problems Addressed, Differentiation from Existing Market Solutions and Business Models, and Growth Potential. The areas of focus for ASTRA 2023 were Generative AI, Semiconductor and Display Technologies, Sustainability, Supply Chain Solutions, Cybersecurity, Advanced Materials, Advanced Optics and Photonics, and AI Hardware.

Commenting on the occasion, Om Nalamasu, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Applied Materials, Inc., and President of Applied Ventures said, "I would like to congratulate the seven selected start-ups for their innovative solutions. All of them have showcased exciting visions of the future, and we look forward to helping them reach their full potential through collaboration and mentorship. The ASTRA program connects us with some of the most dynamic deeptech startups, and we want to continue this incredible journey where Applied Ventures can play a significant role in fostering innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurship to cultivate a thriving start-up ecosystem".

Anand Kamannavar, Global Head, Applied Ventures, and sponsor of ASTRA, said, "The fourth cohort of ASTRA has showcased breakthrough innovations across the broader Materials to Systems stack in the areas of Generative AI , Semiconductors, ESG, and Supply Chain. We are thrilled to engage with the shortlisted startups; they all have tremendous potential to transform the market ecosystem. Applied Ventures will continue to support breakthrough companies across the globe, help bring their innovations to market, and guide their journey towards becoming successful business models".

With ASTRA 2023, Applied Materials and Applied Ventures are leveraging their extensive technical and industry expertise to accelerate the growing start-up ecosystem. The companies selected during the fourth cohort of ASTRA will now be assessed for mentorship, possible collaboration with Applied Materials, and investment opportunities from Applied Ventures. As a consultant, Applied Materials will help the final start-ups selected this year address market and technology challenges and explore potential scale-up pathways. The selected companies will also have access to Applied Materials product development expertise, best-known methods for maximizing market opportunities, infrastructure, and ecosystem connections.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The smell of buttery croissants, crisp loaves of bread and decadent pastries is about to envelope a small corner of Oakwood. Paris Baguette, a global boulangerie that has more than 4,000 stores throughout the world, is slated to open in Tysens Park Shopping Center this weekend -- and the company is offering a couple of grand opening deals to sweeten the occasion.

We are thrilled to open our newest location in Staten Island, bringing expertly crafted baked and brewed goods to the community through a warm and welcoming bakery cafe experience that delivers joy, noted Eric Lavinder, chief development officer at Paris Baguette. We look forward to welcoming future guests to enjoy our freshly made pastries, breads, and cakes as well as our hand-crafted Lavazza coffees, sandwiches, and salads. Our artisan baked goods are made each day in our cafes by our master bakers and cakers.
New York State Police revealed the identity of the man accused of kidnapping Charlotte Sena, the 9-year-old girl who went missing from Moreau Lake State Park in Saratoga County over the weekend.

Craig N. Ross Jr., 46, of Ballston Spa, N.Y., has been charged with kidnapping in the first degree, according to a press release issued by authorities.

Ross was processed at the Latham State Police headquarters and then arraigned at the Milton Town Court, Ballston Spa, where he was remanded to the Saratoga County Correctional Facility without bail.

Im at the New York State Police Troop G Headquarters in Latham providing an update on the rescue of Charlotte Sena. Watch live: https://t.co/XAGYj6mm79  Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) October 3, 2023

Gov. Kathy Hochul held a press conference about the kidnapping Monday evening.

According to Hochul, the case began to break when the kidnapper left a ransom note in the mailbox of the victims family early in the morning.

State police worked diligently trying to find a match for a fingerprint, said Hochul.

After several attempts, the police were able to match the fingerprints to a 1999 DWI case from the city of Saratoga, officials said.

That hit led them to the home of Ross mother, where Ross was found with the missing little girl, Hochul said.

This photo provided by her family on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023, shows Charlotte Sena, 9. who was found Monday. She had vanished during a camping trip in upstate New York. (Family photo)

KIDNAPPING

The child was last seen on Saturday at around 6:45 p.m. near Moreau Lake State Park, where shed been camping with family.

State police issued an Amber Alert and actively searched for the girl, who they believed was the victim of a possible abduction.

According to a report from CNN, the 9-year-old went on a bike ride with close friends around dinner time and never returned  prompting her mom to report her missing.



Related Coverage: Recent Staten Island news

>> Sundog Theatre to honor five who champion the arts during benefit gala Oct. 19

>> A young, gay student brutally murdered 25 years ago will be remembered on Staten Island Oct. 12 in West Brighton

>> These air fryers are being recalled for fire and burn hazards

>> HS boys soccer: Phillip Vitarellis late tally helps Sea stun defending CHSAA A champ St. Johns Prep, 3-2
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The wife and daughter of a 41-year-old man shot by his neighbor Sunday in Eltingville bore witness to the near-fatal incident, according to prosecutors with the Richmond County District Attorneys Office.

The defendant, Dominick Giordano, 57, was arraigned Monday in Criminal Court for charges that include second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, criminal use of a firearm and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the shooting, court records show.

Police responded to the scene around 12:20 a.m on the 400 block of Pompey Avenue in what started as a dispute over fireworks, sources previously told the Advance/SILive.com. A Happy 16th Birthday banner was on display in the victims yard on Monday.

Giordano first pointed a gun at the victims forehead, then opened fire as the man turned to walk away, according to a criminal complaint filed by investigators.

A search warrant subsequently executed at the defendants home turned up a loaded, Polymer 80 ghost gun in the back yard, court documents allege.

Ghost guns, which are illegally manufactured and untraceable by authorities, have become a focal point of local and federal law enforcement in recent years.

The bullets in the weapon were 9mm, matching that of a shell casing found at the scene, prosecutors said Monday.

Judge John McPadden issued full orders of protection for the victims wife and daughter, who is a minor.

The intersection of Pompey and Rye Avenues, where police said a 41-year-old man was shot in the torso. (Staten Island Advance/Joseph Ostapiuk)

Defense attorney Eliza Pacheco with the Legal-Aid Society requested an exception for incidental contact, given the fact the family lives directly across the street from the defendant. But that was denied by McPadden, who cited the serious nature of the charges.

When McPadden asked the defendant if he understood the conditions of those orders, Giordano replied, clearly.

The defendant has a rap sheet that includes multiple violent felonies, qualifying him as a persistent felon in New York with the potential. If convicted on the latest charges he faces lifetime parole, the judge noted. His record also prohibits him from owning a firearm.

The district attorneys office requested $700,000 cash bail or $1.5 million bond in the case.

Pacheco argued the attempted murder charge was sensationalized in the interest of higher bail, given the fact the initial arresting charge was for first-degree assault.

The bail requested, Pacheco furthered, was not something Giordano could reasonably attain, noting he works as a mover for a commercial kitchen equipment company making about $50,000 per year. She said he also is dealing with undisclosed medical conditions.

The felonies are all at least 20 years old, said Pacheco, and her client just wants to spend time with his daughter, who is about to graduate college and his six grandchildren.

McPadden deemed the charges were not sensationalized, given the fact the victim was shot in the back and nearly killed. He set bail higher than what prosecutors requested at $1 million cash, $2 million partially secured bond at a 10% undertaking or $2 million dollars insurance company bond.

I think this very easily, by a matter of inches or fractions of inches, could be a remand case as a murder, McPadden said.



OTHER STATEN ISLAND NEWS:

>> NYPD: Car stop lead to arrests of 2 men in connection with gun seizure on the North Shore of Staten Island

>> Staten Island man, 51, arrested in carjacking attempt; victim allegedly punched

>> 6 years after body was found in Maine fire, Staten Island man arrested

>> NYPD: Raid nets drugs at Staten Island home of felon previously convicted in narcotics ring

>> NYPD: Man, 21, arrested in fatal shooting of store owner during attempted robbery on Staten Island
TEHRAN, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Army on Tuesday launched large-scale joint drone drills across the country, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

The exercises involve close to 200 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from the Iranian Army's four units of Ground Force, Navy, Air Force and Air Defense Force, Tasnim quoted Habibollah Sayyari, the drill's commander, as saying.

Sayyari, who is also deputy chief of the Iranian Army for coordination, added the drills are being staged in a vast area across the country, stretching from the southern waters to eastern, western, central and northern parts to improve the units' combat preparedness in real-life conditions.

The drills involve border monitoring and target detection carried out by the army's domestically-developed patrol and reconnaissance drones, including such modes as Chamrosh, Yasir, Sadeq, Pelican, Ababil, Kaman-12, Yazdan and Mohajer, he said.

The drones are being tested under difficult circumstances and pressure and assessed in terms of their capabilities in the patrolling, reconnaissance, electronic warfare and combat areas, he added.

Also on Tuesday, spokesman of the exercises Alireza Sheikh said the homegrown Kaman-19 drone was being tested first time in the wargame, performing radar jamming and deception as well as electronic warfare missions successfully. 
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Authorities allege that a 39-year-old woman launched a firecracker that lit a tree and the Oakwood apartment building where she lived on fire this summer.

Lauri Sixon faces arson and other charges in connection with an incident on July 23 at about 3:25 p.m. at her apartment building on the 3000 block of Amboy Road near Windemere Avenue, according to the criminal complaint, which was based on an investigation by the FDNY fire marshals.

Sixon allegedly lit a bottle rocket from the sunroof of her car and the explosive device hit a tree. The topiary caught fire and so did the six-unit apartment building next to the tree, the complaint alleges.

I went outside for a cigarette and I saw a handful of bottle rockets on the passenger seat, the criminal complaint quotes Sixon as saying to police. So I stuck it on top of my car into the sunroof and lit it with my torch lighter with no knowledge where it was going.

I expected to shoot straight up into the sky. Never would have expected it to turn and shoot straight into the middle of the tree and catch on fire.

The tree was scorched and damages inside the two-story apartment building included charring and scorching on ceilings in the kitchen and living room of one unit, authorities say. On the exterior of the building, damages included melting, charing and scorching on the eaves, according to the complaint.

In addition to arson, the defendant has been charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and reckless endangerment of property.

The investigation included a review of footage from area surveillance cameras, according to the complaint.

Sixon, who was arrested on July 25, pleaded not guilty to all charges and has been released on her own recognizance.

She is due to appear in Criminal Court on Oct. 12.

An attorney for the defendant did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



OTHER STATEN ISLAND NEWS:

>> Source: Fireworks sparked Staten Island shooting where man, 41, was injured

>> NYPD: Car stop lead to arrests of 2 men in connection with gun seizure on the North Shore of Staten Island

>> Staten Island man, 51, arrested in carjacking attempt; victim allegedly punched

>> 6 years after body was found in Maine fire, Staten Island man arrested

>> NYPD: Raid nets drugs at Staten Island home of felon previously convicted in narcotics ring

>> NYPD: Man, 21, arrested in fatal shooting of store owner during attempted robbery on Staten Island
A 104-year-old woman from Chicago took to the sky to become certified as the oldest person to ever skydive after making a tandem jump in northern Illinois, the Associated Press reported.

Age is just a number, Dorothy Hoffner told a cheering crowd moments after touching the ground Sunday at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, about 85 miles southwest of Chicago, the report said.

The Guinness World Record for oldest skydiver was set in May 2022 by a 103-year-old woman from Sweden.

Hoffner first took to skydiving when she was 100 years old. On Sunday, she left her walker behind as she was helped up the steps of a Skyvan to take the plunge once again, the report said.

Seven minutes later, Hoffner clung to her harness as she landed softly onto the grass landing area, the report said.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  An agreement that allows New York City to house migrants in the former St. John Villa Academy shelter is set to expire in mid-November, the Staten Island Advance/SILive.com has learned.

During a Community Education Council (CEC) meeting for Staten Islands District 31 on Monday evening, the School Construction Authority (SCA)  which acquired the former seven-acre property in Arrochar in 2019  said the shelter operation is expected to cease by Nov. 15, according to Andrea Bender, vice president of external affairs for the SCA.

That is when the citys agreement with SCA expires for their [the citys] use of the high school building, said Bender.

Migrants have been being housed in a shelter at the former St. John Villa Academy since August.

Despite the ongoing shelter operations, the SCA continues to send contractors to perform environmental analyses on the space as it prepares to transform the campus into an educational facility  a plan that would bring hundreds of new school seats to the neighborhood.

Bender noted that the expiration date is independent of whatever court processes are playing out concurrently. However, the SCAs license agreement with the city to use the space as a shelter expires on Nov. 15.

A request for comment from City Hall on Monday evening went unanswered.

Last week, a Staten Island Supreme Court judge ruled that migrants must vacate the premises following a lawsuit filed by Attorneys Mark Fonte and Louis Gelormino, who are representing the cases plaintiffs  Scott Herkert, a neighbor who lives directly next door to the shelter, and Staten Islands Republican elected officials.

Shortly after New York Supreme Court Judge Wayne Ozzi reached his decision granting a preliminary injunction against the site, Mayor Eric Adams administration notified the court of their intention to appeal, and cited a portion of state law that prevents Ozzis ruling from being enforced.

The city has 30 days from Ozzis recent ruling to appeal leaving the migrant shelter in place for the time being.

City officials confirmed the St. John Villa site at the intersection of Chicago and Landis avenues as a migrant shelter in late August, and began moving people in a few days later. At the time, Ozzi made an earlier decision in the case ordering the city to vacate the location, but the Adams administration appealed that decision a few hours later.

The second division of the Appellate Court overturned that decision leaving the migrant shelter in place. While the city initially estimated up to 300 people living at the site, the highest number theyve shared is 72.

That population is part of the more than 60,000 migrants currently in the citys care as Adams administration has worked to respond to an influx of more than 110,000 new arrivals to the five boroughs since April of last year, including the opening of 210 emergency shelters around the five boroughs.

Few sites around the city have seen the massive protests that have occured at the former St. John Villa and the former Island Shores Senior Residence in Midland Beach by Staten Islanders who have lashed out at the mayors response to the migrant crisis.

Last week, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom reiterated the citys position that just about 2% of new arrivals to the city are being housed on Staten Island.

MORE LOCAL NEWS

St. John Villa shelter will remain open for time being despite judges ruling to shutter

Judge orders migrants to vacate St. John Villa shelter, but appeal likely

Former resident, a 95-year-old veteran, slams Island Shores after conversion into NYC migrant shelter
Charlotte Sena, a 9-year-old girl who went missing from Moreau Lake State Park in Saratoga County over the weekend, has been found safe and a suspect is currently in custody, New York State Police said Monday evening.

Charlotte Sena has been located and in good health,' The state police announcement said. A suspect is in custody. This is still an active investigation. More details will be released as they become available.

***AMBER ALERT - UPDATE***

THE AMBER ALERT has been cancelled. Charlotte has been found safe and in good health. pic.twitter.com/p8HyFB7zbP  NewYorkStatePolice (@nyspolice) October 2, 2023

The child was last seen on Saturday at around 6:45 p.m. near Moreau Lake State Park, where shed been camping with family.

State police issued an Amber Alert and actively searched for the girl, who they believed was the victim of a possible abduction in Gansevoort, New York.
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ABUJA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian authorities on Tuesday launched an investigation into an explosion that recently rocked an illegal oil refinery in the country's delta region, with dozens feared killed.

The explosion occurred Monday at the illegal oil refinery in the Emohua local government area of the southern state of Rivers, Olufemi Ayodele, a spokesman for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) in the state, told Xinhua over the telephone.

Ayodele, who declined to give a figure of casualties following the explosion, said that "the anti-vandal unit (of the NSCDC) has been dispatched to investigate the incident."

Local police also confirmed the incident but said to be investigating the cause and gathering details about the casualties.

At least 35 people were feared killed, and dozens of others injured, by the fire from the illegal oil refinery, as locals gathered to scoop petroleum products, local media reported.

Such illegal oil refineries operate by tapping crude oil from pipelines owned by oil companies and are distilled into products in improvised tanks.

Oil pipeline vandalism and oil theft are frequently reported in Nigeria, causing huge economic losses. 
The 10-week Google trial is being closely watched as a referendum on whether the government can slow down Silicon Valleys biggest companies. A Google victory could be a major rebuke of regulators who say the tech giants have too much sway over their customers, partners and startup competitors. At the heart of the governments case is the contention that Google illegally cemented its monopoly in online search by paying to be the default search engine on browsers such as Apples Safari and Mozillas Firefox, as well as on the home screen of smartphones. Google has argued that the default positions are not overwhelmingly powerful and that users can switch to a new search engine if they like. Loading But in court, Nadella said that argument was bogus because users generally dont change their default search engine, even if they can do so. You get up in the morning, you brush your teeth, and you search on Google, he said, later adding that the arrangement between Google and Apple in particular was oligopolistic.

Nadella said Microsoft had tried to win deals for the default positions on browsers and smartphones for Bing, its own search engine. But it had not been very successful, he said. Microsoft introduced Bing to compete against Google in 2009. At the time, Microsoft began an aggressive public relations campaign against Google and both companies lobbied against the other with regulators in Europe and the United States. In 2016, the public mudslinging seemed to come to an end with Nadella and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who were both new to their roles, declaring a detente. The rivalry had become a distraction, they said, and they had different priorities. The testimony from Nadella showed their rivalry had continued. John Schmidtlein, Googles lead litigator, said in his opening statement that the case was really all about Microsoft. Last week, other Microsoft executives such as Jonathan Tinter, a business development executive, and Mikhail Parakhin, an advertising executive, testified about the search business. Tinter said Google used its scale to make its search engine the default on Apple and Samsung phones, stifling competitors such as Microsoft.

On Monday, Schmidtlein sought to undermine Nadellas testimony by suggesting that Microsofts failure to compete with Google was the result of an inferior product and a lack of investment. Schmidtlein hammered Nadella with questions about instances in which Bing had been the default on mobile phones only for users to switch back to Google. He noted that Nadella had referred to Google as dominant, and asked him if he could substitute for the word popular. Loading Nadella said that whether you call it popular or dominant, Microsoft was still competing against Googles massive market share. This testimony paints Google as a bully that everyones afraid of, said Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School, adding that it suggested that Googles motivation for signing exclusive search deals was not merely sharing revenue for a valuable product with a distributor like Apple, but it is primarily to keep competitors like Bing at bay.

While much of the trial has revolved around Googles past behaviour, Nadella shifted some of the focus to the future and AI. Microsoft has invested $US13 billion in OpenAI, the maker of the ChatGPT chatbot, which can now use Bing as a search default. Google has begun offering its own AI-powered chatbot, Bard. Nadella said he was worried that Google would strike deals to exclusively use content online to train its AI tools. Loading When I am meeting with publishers now, they are saying, Googles going to write this cheque to us, and its going to be exclusive, and you have to match it, he said. Nadella said that would prime Google to dominate the next generation of online search, too.
Footy finals fever can drive even the most senior of ministers to carry on like an excited schoolkid.

So in that spirit, CBD takes great pleasure in relaying the concerns AFL legend Dermott Brereton says he had with the conduct of one powerful supporter at Saturdays blockbuster grand final.

Don Farrell at his Canberra parliamentary office desk this month. Credit: Louie Douvis

Breretons version of events, which went down while he was signing autographs and was later relayed on talkback radio, is worth quoting at length.

He walked up and pushed to the front of the queue and he was really well-dressed. And he said  this is verbatim  you have to have a photo with me. And I said, Im sorry sir, I dont have to have a photo with you, but I can have a photo with you if you stay in line, Brereton told the hosts.
David Marrs powerful Killing For Country: A Family Story might help explain, as well as to fill, this apparent gap. Marrs account is a relentless expose of the violence at the heart of the colonisation of Australia. It is also something of a family saga: Marr is a descendant of the migrants on which the book focuses, the Uhr family.

Volume three in the trilogy claimed to demonstrate that the Stolen Generations were a myth. Oddly, no volume two has ever appeared. As a result, we have never been allowed to see how Windschuttle might go about proving that the notorious Queensland frontier, or, for that matter, the blood-soaked estates of the other mainland colonies, were tranquil places where God-fearing colonists attached to British law and order established their sheepwalks and cattle runs without much bloodshed.

In the early years of this century, Keith Windschuttle produced two volumes of a projected trilogy, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, which became central to the history wars of the era. The first, published in 2002, purported to show that the colonisation of Van Diemens Land (Tasmania) was a relatively peaceful affair. The numbers killed in frontier violence, he argued, were far fewer than historians had claimed.

Their Australian career unfolded mainly under the patronage of a sticky-fingered emigrant merchant, pastoralist, politician and philanthropist, Richard Jones. Jones engaged a brother-in-law, Edmund Uhr, in helping him to expand his pastoral holdings. With ambition that well and truly outstripped his ability, Uhr later ran  badly  a sheep boiling-down works in Maryborough, served as a magistrate, and ended up as Sergeant-at-Arms of the Queensland Parliament.

Killing Aboriginal people became a family business when Reg, Edmunds son, established a career as an officer in the Native Mounted Police. Younger brother Darcy, also in this force for a time, and rather more wild and more famous, was celebrated as a cheeky and hard-living larrikin of the type Australians are said to love. A compulsive liar, aggressive racist and serial killer, he was responsible over many decades for murders of Indigenous people in Queenslands Gulf country, the Northern Territory, and the Western Australian goldfields.

Land-grabbing and its corollary, the massacre of Indigenous people, provided the unifying theme of this familys early history. There must be many Australians who have such stories in their genealogy. They, like the rest of us who have inherited this history, will recently have heard from Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price that, far from having suffered from colonisation, Indigenous people have it to thank for benefits such as running water. Those being killed in their tens of thousands in frontier warfare would not have been aware of such advantages, even if they had been invited to consider them before they were shot.

Marr shows that colonists evolved a discreet system for clearing Aboriginal people from their land through slaughter without incurring serious risk of interference by the authorities. Indeed, the vague instructions issued by British-appointed governors and, later, elected colonial governments about what was and was not permissible gave something close to carte blanche to white vigilantes and Aboriginal police charged with keeping order.

The latter were usually recruited from distant places such as the southern colonies, so that they would be as foreign to the Aboriginal people of Queensland as the white colonisers who had hired them. The violence was often extreme and fuelled by the spoils that the Native Police, in essence a military force, gained from their efforts, such as access to women.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Dear teenage girls of the 1970s, what did you think of subcultures? Were you part of one? Did it free you from oppressive gender norms, or was it just another set of rules to follow? If culture is, as writer McKenzie Wark, says, A series of totally made up consensus, hallucinations, and myths through which we all live then subculture is its wayward twin and subcultural style is a form of resistance. I am thinking of a hat I bought in a Footscray op shop in 1986. The hat was black velvet, cloche-ish. I thought it made me look cool. My mum said it made me look like a pensioner. I wore the hat for months, teaming it with a black T-shirt and a pair of orange paisley mens pyjama pants. I no longer have the hat or the pants. The pants I retired but the hat, as far as I know, was disappeared by my mum. I dont know what style I was going for with this look. I only knew what it was against. The 1980s were not the 1970s, but they were not that far from them either. In my early teenage rebellion I had a moment at a party with a person I remember as Croydon Skinhead. This felt like the height of daring. I must acknowledge now that its unlikely he was a for-real skinhead, just a yoof with a number one haircut and his grandads braces. In the suburbs, in the 1980s, we were all making it up. Compared to the information available to todays teenagers, we had so little to go on. But if it was bad for me (and Croydon Skinhead), how was it for the generation before us? In 1976, when I was five, queening around the cork floors of my childhood home in Ringwood, Julie Mac was 13, owning the streets of Croydon, two stops down on the Lilydale line. Mac was a Sharpie, which is not so unusual. What is unusual is that she kept a diary, and published it in 2010 as Rage  A Sharpies Journal. It is so laden with historical vernacular scrags, yobs, connies, baggies, Brandevino, punch-ons  it almost reads like a parody. Moira Burkes Losing It and Julie Macs Rage explore Melbournes Sharpie culture. Macs days consist of identifying with and being infatuated by Sharpie subculture. Her life revolves around ritual events (Moomba, Royal Melbourne Show, public holidays) as well as gigs and dances at places both familiar (Eastland, Luna Park) and lost (Iceland, Ferntree Gully disco). Sharpie activities include: roaming, defacing public property, hooning, going to house parties, riding the Red Rattler, getting drunk, spewing, getting into fights, visiting friends in youth training centres, shoplifting, getting tattoos, hanging out under the clocks at Flinders Street Station. In Macs diaries, acceptance from Sharpie boys is an ongoing concern. For girls, sexual accommodation is expected, sex being just another activity. Typically the boys are older; 13-year-old girls with 18-year-old boyfriends is normal.

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Like teenagers all through time, Mac is committed to the present: if there is no future, its only because shes not ready to think about it yet. The journal ends with her deciding after a stint in a squalid share house to move back to Croydon and do her HSC. In the words of academic and musician Stuart Grant, the Australian outer suburbs of the 1970s were a masculinist, working-class culture of violence. While some girls were gang-adjacent, most were in their bedrooms, dreaming about Sherbert or subconsciously in training for their future domestic roles. Girls who were out in the world, unaccompanied, that is to say not with friends, or under the protection (possession) of a boyfriend, ran the risk of being deemed slags or a social menace. Could wild girls run free in the suburbs? How many lived lives of quiet desperation, or had the moxie blanched out of them? Even then it was not wise for girls to be contrary; even then, there was still only safety in numbers. I am now remembering another teenage party, at an outer suburban footy club where I was punched in the face by a guy, a stranger, but someone who belonged there more than me. There were no police that night. My friends got me out. I can remember running across the dark oval, trying to laugh through the shock, trying to not be so horrified, although Id had a feeling all night that we shouldnt have gone, had anticipated what we might encounter. Bad things always happened when my inner suburbs friends crossed over. Loading Even then, it was not wise for girls to be contrary; even then, there was still only safety in numbers. As a teenager, the things I was most afraid of were getting raped, getting pregnant, ending up a prostitute, ending up in prison. Did my inner suburbs sisters have the same fears or were these borne of the outer burbs where at night it was so quiet you could hear your heart beating? In Moira Burkes novel Losing It, Josie is growing up in working-class Fawkner. Clothes are important. If she looks right on the outside, it doesnt matter how shes feeling on the inside. She wears Sharpie clobber: Eastcoast jeans, tight overalls, chokers. Her emotional development is meted out in haircuts from her uncertain Olivia Newton-John do to something tougher short up the back with a plaited tail hanging down. The top is curly and its dyed dark red  You look like a flame, a burning flame.

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An alleged human trafficking boss who exploited Australias migration regime to set up a sprawling underground sex worker racket has been hunted down and deported amid a major shake-up of border security.

Home Affairs Minister Clare ONeil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles will on Wednesday unveil the latest in a series of reforms to the visa system aimed at stopping what an inquiry led by ex-police chief Christine Nixon has described as the grotesque exploitation of foreign workers.

Binjun Xie is escorted to a plane after being arrested.

Among the reforms are the establishment of a new immigration compliance division within the Department of Home Affairs. A new multi-agency taskforce investigating suspected sex and drug traffickers, known to specialise in obtaining visas via fraud, will also run for at least two more years.

The reforms have been prompted by the Trafficked series of reports by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, 60 Minutes and Stan, which also forced the Albanese government to commission the Nixon inquiry.
When Tim Vincent, a double-lung transplant recipient, was experiencing the worst pain he says he had felt in his life, he called an Uber instead of an ambulance.

He knew the paramedics would take him to Blacktown Hospital, where a fortnight earlier he waited 13 hours in emergency with a punctured lung. Instead, he asked the Uber driver to take him to Westmead Hospital.

Tim Vincent spent 13 hours in Blacktown Hospital emergency with a hole in his lung before seeing a doctor. Credit: Kate Geraghty

Id never go there [to Blacktown] again, the 55-year-old said. Id rather die in someones Uber.

Emergency patients at Blacktown Hospital are facing some of the longest wait times in the state. The median time spent in the ED is five hours and 42 minutes, more than two hours longer than the state average, and only one in three patients leaves within four hours.
Police are searching for a gun stolen from an unmarked police car during an aggravated burglary at the home of an off-duty officer in Melbournes south-eastern suburbs.

Images of a gun are being circulated on encrypted messaging apps used by underworld figures.

The vehicle was stolen from the property about 5.30am Tuesday and found dumped several suburbs away five hours later.

Images of a gloved hand holding a loaded magazine next to a gun were circulated on encrypted chats used by organised crime figures following the theft. The Age is unable to verify if the image is of the stolen police firearm.

An underworld source speaking on the condition of anonymity said the firearm was being offered for sale on the black market for $30,000.


The Three Blue Ducks team have taken over the restaurant at this former motel, which has also been given a contemporary new look.
ANKARA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Turkish forces carried out a fresh round of airstrikes on the targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, Turkiye's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

The airstrikes destroyed 16 targets of the group, including caves, bunkers, shelters and warehouses, the ministry said in a statement.

"Air operations were carried out against terrorist targets in the Metina, Gara, Hakurk, Qandil and Asos regions in the north of Iraq," said the statement.

Two terrorists carried out a bombing attack in front of the interior ministry's building in the Turkish capital Ankara on Sunday, slightly injuring two police officers. One attacker died after he set off the suicide bomb, while the other bomber was shot dead by the police. One of the attackers was identified as a member of the PKK, said the Interior Ministry.

Soon after the bombing attack, Turkish forces carried out airstrikes and destroyed 20 targets of the PKK in northern Iraq, Turkish Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

The Turkish forces frequently carry out ground operations, airstrikes, and artillery bombardments in northern Iraq against the PKK, especially in the Qandil Mountains, the main base of the group.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States, and the European Union, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for more than three decades. 
Manchester: Australias top diplomat in London, Stephen Smith, says Britain needs to explain to the international community that it is not retreating from net zero, despite rolling back some climate mitigation measures including the adoption of electric vehicles.

Last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was delaying the mandatory take-up of electric vehicles until 2035, in line with the European Union, as well as delaying the phasing out of gas boilers.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Credit: Getty

The move has buoyed previously gloomy Tory MPs and the prime ministers own standing in the polls, amid expectations that the Conservatives are on course to lose to Labour when the election is held sometime before the end of January 2025.

But Smith said the election result was no foregone conclusion because Sunak had done a good job of stabilising government.
Wilmington: Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to three federal firearms charges filed after a plea deal imploded, putting the case on track toward a possible trial as the 2024 election looms.

His lawyer Abbe Lowell said in court he plans to file a motion to dismiss the case, challenging their constitutionality.

President Joe Bidens son Hunter Biden arrives for a court appearance, in Wilmington, Deleware on Tuesday. Credit:

President Joe Bidens son faces charges that he lied about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days.

Hes acknowledged struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine during that period, but his lawyers have said he didnt break the law. Gun charges like these are rare, and an appeals court has found the ban on drug users having guns violates the Second Amendment under new Supreme Court standards.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Police Force of Sint Maarten (KPSM) would like to inform the public of Sint Maarten the outcomes of the Special Operations Team's efforts during the week spanning from September 25th to September 30th, 2023.

The paramount objective of the KPSM is to ensure the safety and well-being of the residents of Sint Maarten. Over the course of the past week, the KPSM Special Operations Team upheld these fundamental principles. KPSM would like to spotlight the achievements of their operations:

1. Advancing Road Safety:

PHILIPSBURG:--- The team conducted inspections on a total of 80 vehicles, ensuring their compliance with mandated safety standards.

Furthermore, they conducted stops and inspections on 6 scooter/motorcycle riders.

In total, 28 fines were issued for various violations.

2. Window Tint Compliance:

The team also engaged with 20 individuals regarding vehicles with darkened or tinted windows.

3. Combating Narcotics and Firearms:

In commitment to combat the illegal drugs, the team executed checks on 45 individuals at various locations.

A total of 132 grams of narcotics were confiscated during these operations.

They also arrested two individuals in the Fort Willem area for multiple infractions. Additionally, another suspect was detained on the A.Th. Illidge Road for narcotics possession.

4. Vigilance Across Key Locations:

The team's operations encompassed all prominent areas on the island of Sint Maarten.

KPSM would like to assure the general public that these efforts will persist. We encourage everyone to remain vigilant, as our officers may continue to conduct inspections in these areas. Our officers remain steadfast in their duty and are resolute in ensuring the safety of the community.

Once again, KPSM extends its gratitude for the publics cooperation and support.

KPSM Press Release.
Orthodoxy, not Heterodoxy, Works





NEWS PROVIDED BY

Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

Oct. 3, 2023



NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Synod on Synodality begins in Rome on October 4. To that end, we thought it would be fruitful to examine the data on orthodoxy v. heterodoxy within the Catholic Church. For a longer version, click here.

Mass Attendance Globally

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) has found that major discrepancies exist on Mass attendance in different nations. Nations that score high on orthodoxy do a better job than those that are less orthodox.

Nigeria

Despite terrorist attacks, the Catholic Church in Nigeria remains strong. While approximately 20 million people (roughly 13 percent of the population) are Catholic, church attendance among Catholics in Nigeria is 94 percent. This is the highest rate of Mass attendance in the world. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria is noted for its adherence to Catholic orthodoxy, and the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, a more traditional Catholic society, flourishes in the African nation, as well.

Germany

Though it enjoys a strong financial basethe Catholic Church in Germany is generously subsidized by the taxpayersit has been in rapid decline. While CARA averages Mass attendance for German Catholics between 2017 to 2022 to be approximately 14 percent, local statistics indicate that in 2022 only 5.7 percent of Catholics were weekly in the pews.

In 2019, the Central Committee of German Catholics and the German bishops' conference began a collaborative effort known as "The Synodal Way." This provided a forum for activists with more heterodox views to promote making substantive changes to Church teachings. Throughout the process the heterodox advocates dominated the proceedings and called for more and more significant departures from Catholic traditions.

Ultimately, when the process concluded in March of 2023, "The Synodal Way" overwhelmingly endorsed measures changing Catholic practices on transgender ideology, accepting the ordination of women to the sacramental diaconate, approving the blessing of same-sex relationships, normalizing lay preaching, and asking Rome to reexamine the discipline of priestly celibacy.

Brazil

Following Vatican II, Latin America became a hotbed for liberation theology. As its name would suggest, liberation theology is a Christian theological approach emphasizing the liberation of the oppressed and downtrodden.

In practice, though, liberation theology replaces Catholic orthodoxy with strong Marxist overtones. As Friar Clodovis Boff, brother of renowned liberation theologian and former Catholic priest Leonardo Boff, warns in his new book, The Crisis in the Catholic Church and Liberation Theology, that adherents to this heterodoxy fall "into utilitarianism or functionalism in relation to the Word of God and to theology in general." In other words, political and socio-economic concerns trump spiritual ones under a liberation theology interpretation.

After several decades of liberation theology, Catholic Brazilians now count for 51 percent of the total population. Further, less than one in ten (eight percent) of Brazils Catholics attend Mass weekly. This is one of the lowest levels of Mass attendance in the world.

American Seminaries

As a general rule, the more orthodox an institution is the more seminarians it attracts. Conversely, the more heterodox an institution has become the fewer candidates for the priesthood will attend.

For instance, the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University and the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry are two prominent seminaries that are more heterodox in their nature. Respectively, in the 2022-2023 academic year, their enrollments were 34 and 32 seminarians. Out of all 39 seminaries in the country, these are the 29th and 30th highest attended.

However, more orthodox seminaries attract significantly more seminarians. Institutions such as Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Maryland, Notre Dame Seminary in Louisiana, St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Colorado, St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Florida, and St. Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana are all orthodox and in the 2022-2023 academic year all had over 100 seminarians in attendance.

Sisters of Charity

Founded by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in New York City, the Sisters of Charity were once a prominent order of nuns that worked to help the poor and promote the Catholic faith. However, over the last two centuries, the Sisters of Charity began to embrace heterodoxy.

Ultimately, this led to their numbers dwindling. According to the current congregation president Sister Donna Dodge, "in 21 years, no one entered and stayed." The median age of the sisters today is 83 years old, and there are 154 members left in the community. Demographic statistics indicate that they may have approximately 35 members left in the next 15 years. As a result, in April of 2023, the Sisters of Charity voted to stop accepting new members and embark on a "path to completion" of their mission.

Several traditional orders of nuns have thrived while maintaining Catholic orthodoxy. For instance, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist was founded in 1997. Yet in just over a quarter of a century, these more traditional sisters have grown to 150 members with an average age of 35 and the average age of women joining the order is 21. Similarly, the Franciscan Sisters of Renewal and the Sisters of Life, founded in 1988 and 1991, respectively, continue to grow and thrive attracting new, younger members while remaining steadfast in upholding the orthodoxy of the Catholic Church.

SOURCE Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights



CONTACT: 212-371-3191, pr@catholicleague.org


This photo taken with a mobile phone shows farmer Yan Qihua checking the growth of roxburgh rose fruits at a planting base in Chaxiang Village of Longli County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Aug. 3, 2023.(Xinhua/Zhou Xuanni)

GUIYANG, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- As autumn sets in, a stroll into Chaxiang Village in Gujiao Town, Longli County, located in southwest China's Guizhou Province, unveils a picturesque scene.

Alongside a meandering concrete road lie roxburgh rose fruit farms of various sizes. The bushes are adorned with numerous golden roxburgh rose fruits, filling the air with their delightful aroma.

Under the autumn sun, local villagers are busy gathering roxburgh rose fruits into baskets, while large trucks stand by to transport tonnes of these fruits to a nearby processing plant.

Shaped like an orange sea urchin with a delightful sweet-tart flavor, roxburgh rose fruit holds a special place in Guizhou's economy. Rich in vitamin C and various essential microelements, this fruit is used for making jam, tea and wine, and can even be candied. Moreover, its stems and roots find use in traditional Chinese medicine.

Longli County belongs to the Bouyei-Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Qiannan and is located in the middle of the Miaoling Mountains. Thanks to its warm climate and ample sunshine, Longli is very suitable for the cultivation of roxburgh rose fruits, earning it the title "County of roxburgh rose fruits in China."

Yan Qihua, a 60-year-old farmer from Chaxiang Village, deftly plucks ripe roxburgh rose fruits from his field. As he moves amongst the bushes, he carefully selects the fresh, mature roxburgh rose fruits adorned with their vibrant orange hue.

Yan started cultivating roxburgh rose fruits at the age of 38 and boasts over two decades of farming experience. He also lent his expertise to fellow villagers who followed his step. Yan's success story mirrors the significant growth of the roxburgh rose fruit industry in Longli.

"Villagers began to plant roxburgh rose fruits around 2000, but there was no market here. After picking the fruits, they would immediately ride to Guiyang on their motorbikes to peddle their fresh harvest along the street. Back then, the mountain roads were in poor condition, causing significant delays in transportation and making it difficult to sell all the fruits," Yan recalled.

He realized that the only solution to this problem was to establish efficient sales channels and develop a processing industry.

Between 2002 and 2003, Yan visited a nearby county's roxburgh rose fruit processing factory to acquire the skills needed for making fruit preserves. After numerous attempts, he successfully produced the first batch of handmade fruit preserves and generously shared his newfound expertise with fellow villagers.

"Since 2004, our village has started developing the fruit preserve processing industry, which opened up sales channels for local roxburgh rose fruit farmers. We also cooperate with enterprises in Guiyang to provide standard fresh fruits, slices, or preserved fruits according to their requirements," Yan said.

To inspire himself, Yan penned a Spring Festival couplet dedicated to roxburgh rose fruits and pasted it on his door. Though the red paper had slightly faded over time, the ink remained vibrant and bold.

It reads "As spring comes, Chaxiang Village is permeated with the aroma of roxburgh rose fruits; the well-off village is on its way to achieving moderate prosperity."

Pointing to this couplet, Yan said, "We are turning this dream into reality."

At the roxburgh rose fruit production and processing base of Chaxiang Village cooperative, Yan Qifu, responsible for checking the roxburgh rose fruit production equipment, quickly takes a seat and starts the day's online promotion session.

Seated in front of the camera, he skillfully introduces roxburgh rose fruits and the candied fruit to viewers, with fresh fruits neatly arranged on the desk.

Inspired by his older brother Yan Qihua, Yan Qifu returned to their hometown in 2008 to start a roxburgh rose fruit farm and processing workshop. He began to produce fruit preserves, tea, wine and various other specialty products derived from roxburgh rose fruits.

"Roxburgh rose fruit is rich in a variety of nutrients. The plant can also prevent desertification and soil erosion, and protect our ecological environment. Cultivating roxburgh rose fruits not only generates economic value but also benefits the environment, and this is why I decided to return to my hometown," Yan Qifu explained.

"After the formation of our village cooperative, I encouraged my fellow locals to join in. Our plantation base currently covers an area of 540 acres, yielding more than 450 tonnes of roxburgh rose fruits annually, with a total output value of 8 million yuan (about 1.1 million U.S. dollars). More than 300 villagers work in the base every year," Yan Qifu said.

Today, the roxburgh rose fruit industry stands as an important force driving the rural revitalization of Longli County.

The plantation area of roxburgh rose fruit in the county has expanded from nearly 6,000 mu (about 400 hectares) in 2000 to 105,000 mu today, yielding 16,000 tonnes of fresh fruits annually, with a comprehensive output value of more than 400 million yuan.

This industry has enabled over 8,000 farmers to boost their income, with roxburgh rose fruits fostering prosperity among the local people. 

This photo taken with a mobile phone shows a view of a roxburgh rose fruit planting base in Chaxiang Village of Longli County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Aug. 3, 2023.

(Xinhua/Zhou Xuanni)

This photo taken with a mobile phone shows roxburgh rose fruits in Chaxiang Village of Longli County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Aug. 3, 2023.

(Xinhua/Zhou Xuanni)
TRIPOLI, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Libya Abdoulaye Bathily has voiced his concern about the unilateral and competing initiatives from various Libyan actors and institutions on the reconstruction of the flood-hit areas in the North African country.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said in a statement on Monday that Bathily expressed his concern after his Sept. 16 visit to Derna, the city that was hit hardest by the deadly floods.

The UNSMIL warned that such unilateral efforts would deepen the existing divisions and impede reconstruction efforts in the country, and are at odds with the Libyan people's solidarity and national unity in response to the disaster.

The statement underlined the importance of having a unified national mechanism to effectively and efficiently move forward the reconstruction.

The statement also raised the Libyan people's concerns about arbitrary cost estimates and unilateral reconstruction initiatives announced without transparency.

On Sept. 10, Mediterranean storm Daniel triggered the largest and worst floods in Libya for decades. Thousands of people were killed and went missing, while the infrastructure in the flood-hit region was severely damaged.

Shortly after the floods, the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity announced the allocation of 2.5 billion Libya dinars (approximately 510 million U.S. dollars) to rebuild the flood-hit areas, while the eastern-based House of Representatives announced the allocation of 10 billion dinars for the same purpose. 
But the market hasnt been convinced. Boohoo shares fell by as much as 9.8% to 28.5p today, their lowest price since 2015. That values the firm, once worth 5.2 billion, at 364 million. ASOS lost as much as 4.2%, and is down 15% in the last month, or 95% since its 2018 peak. ASOS is the most shorted share in the City, followed by Boohoo. Mike Ashleys Frasers Group has been one of the few investors still betting on a recovery, repeatedly upping its stake in both.
Richard Hunter at interactive investor said: Keeping shopping prices low has had a positive impact on the groups market share, but of course this comes at a cost to Sainsbury itself. Since March, for example, the company has invested 118 million on price reductions. The ferocity of competition, particularly in the supermarket arena, is well established and shows little sign of abating, such that the group will need to keep a constant lid on prices in order to remain in the mix.
Its unfortunate for the Right-of-centre world that GB News hogs the headlines as if Right-wing news is failing, says David Elstein, former chief executive of Channel 5. Calling it a news channel where theres very little news doesnt help. Its basically people shouting. That is not sustainable. The UK is different to America. Fox News was available here for years until it surrendered its licence in 2017 and no one watched it at all.
My play, The White Factory, opened last month in London. Its a story about the life of the Jewish ghetto in the Polish city of odz under the Nazi occupation, a story about how pressure from a monstrous force destroys some people physically, but not morally, and in others it exterminates the human being while preserving his undamaged shell. These events are more than 80 years old. There is no one left whom they touched  which makes it all the more important for us to remember them.
At the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester yesterday, Ms Hall suggested that Jewish Londoners are frightened of Sadiq Khan. This is both unwise and untrue. Not least because Jewish Londoners, like any other community in our city, do not speak, think or act with one voice. They will judge the Mayor on his record and vote accordingly. Moreover, Jews dont need to be told who to be afraid of.
Find two Jews and youll get three opinions, but it is simply not true to suggest that as a group, Jewish people are frightened of Khan. Like everyone else, Jews will weigh up the Mayors record, while their view of the Ulez will depend on whether or not they drive a non-compliant car. Halls comments are problematic because they treat Jews as if they are different. And indeed Khan, who is Muslim, as a creature to be viewed with suspicion.
On TV earlier this year, Jones talked touchingly about the horrendous abuse she receives online and in person. On stage she plays this down, although she does say that people come up to her and say, I know you. You are on everything and dont mean it as a compliment. She is so skilled though, she flips an upsetting scenario like this into a sublime routine, claiming the last laugh.
TRIPOLI, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday that 271 illegal migrants were rescued off the coast of Libya in the past week.

The migrants, including 25 women and 23 children, were rescued and returned to Libya between Sept. 24 and 30, the IOM said in a statement, adding four dead bodies were also found.

So far this year, a total of 11,736 illegal migrants were rescued and returned to Libya, the IOM revealed, adding that 925 died and 1,168 went missing on the Central Mediterranean route off the Libyan coast.

In 2022, 24,684 illegal migrants were rescued and returned to Libya, while 529 died and 848 went missing en route off Libyan coast.

Since the fall of late leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011, insecurity and chaos have made Libya a popular transit point for migrants, mostly Africans, attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to European shores. 
The hood paintings were the startling result of Gustons return to figuration after more than a decade of success as an abstract painter. Abstraction had been his big earlier shift. He began in the 1930s with dynamic surrealist-inspired paintings, clearly prodigious in his abilities. He then made those first anti-fascist works as part of a series of murals; one, The Struggle Against Terrorism, is captured in a film, projected to a huge scale here. But when he switched to easel painting, he soon became disillusioned with figuration. In the delightful Drawing no2 (Ischia) (1949), we see one of the crossover points: hints of a place, but the forms are becoming abstracted.
The success of those two prestigious Scottish financial institutions speaks to a much bigger story of migration. London has long been what it is today  a city of migrants. The result is that the capital has two distinct functions in the story of the union. It has been a place to which people from all four nations have, for generations, migrated. At the same time, the sheer economic and demographic power of the capital, and its propensity to draw in not just people but enormous levels of investment and infrastructure, has often been resented and at times regarded as a weakness of the Union.
The eight-part series follows London teenager Mia Polanco (Sophie Wilde), who returns home after seven months in an eating disorder clinic and is thrust back into the chaotic world of sixth form. What would you do if, for the last seven months, your life had been made of walls? Mia asks the audience, in the first of the internal monologues that run throughout the show. Every morsel you eat had been monitored, every pound of weight chartered? We first meet her on her final day in the ward, being discharged by the kindly Dr Nell (Stephen Fry) who walks her through her treatment plan. It is raw, vivid and devastating  and far from the typical opener to a teen drama.
After being released from prison, George moved to Ireland in 2010, to be closer to his sister. Since then he has talked several times about the anger he felt at losing so many years of his life to the case, as well as having to look over his shoulder after being acquitted. "I was living in fear  nobody should have to live like that, he said in 2018.
Oh and of course, Hermes [Gaultier became creative director of the French brand in 2004]. It was a challenge for me because I was so punky. Maybe I did Hermes because my ex-assistant Martin Margiela did Hermes also. His collection was not Hermes at all and I remember seeing it and thinking thats great, its fabulous, its exactly what it needs to feel more modern but still respecting the code, bravo! But also, I saw what I would have done. So then I saw Monsieur Dumas and he asked me to do it, at first I said no I cannot because I already have too many collections to produce, but then I thought, oh, why not? Martin did it very well, would I do it as well as him? Or better? No. I didnt do better, I did it my way.
Talk at the event surrounded the 100 new additions to BoFs fashion 500 power list; 63 of whom were at the party. New recruits from the UK included Sir Lewis Hamilton, photographer Gabriel Moses, Elle UK Editor-in-Chief Kenya Hunt and designer Bianca Saunders. Other overheards included a guest muttering: Who here do you think is on Ozempic? Response: Oh, everyone, while others began guessing who will replace Sarah Burton, who had showed her final collection as creative director of Alexander McQueen that night.
Elianne was a beautiful person inside and out who loved Jesus. She was intelligent, thoughtful, kind and had a bright future ahead. It is our request that you keep our cherished daughter Elianne and our family in your thoughts and prayers.
When questioned, Edwards, who lives in Ashtead in Surrey, denied rape and insists both encounters were entirely consensual. He said the first woman had agreed to have sex throughout, and insisted the second woman had not refused to have sex without a condom and had not been asleep during their sexual encounter.
A police spokesperson said: Officers from the Mets Roads and Transport Policing Command have carried out a number of enquiries. They are now asking for the publics help to name this man.
She said: I was saying to myself in my head: Im being raped right now, but its like I froze. I just couldnt do or say anything else (after saying I cant go again), so I just let it happen.
KINSHASA, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Denis Mukwege, gynecologist from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner, officially declared on Monday his candidacy for the presidential election scheduled for Dec. 20.

"The right moment is now. My only motivation is to save our homeland, to develop our country. We are with the people. We cannot wait to react. I am going there now," he said when addressing a large crowd of sympathizers gathered in the capital Kinshasa, stressing his urge to save his country.

Mukwege treated hundreds of war rape victims through the Panzi Foundation he founded in 1999 in the conflict-ravaged eastern DRC. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his nearly two-decade fight against sexual violence.

He will vie with outgoing President Felix Tshisekedi, while opposition leader Martin Fayulu, who came second behind Tshisekedi in the 2018 election, also announced his candidacy over the weekend. 
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: Thousands of patients are at risk of not getting the scans and x-rays they need, this will include non-urgent activity such as some fracture clinics and GP walk ins also being cancelled and rebooked due to staff shortages with patients asked to come back for their x-ray on another day if it is not urgent.
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan told journalists at the time how a suspect had initially asked officers if he could speak to a soldier hours before King Charles and Queen Cammilla were crowned at Westminster Abbey.
The strikes were the latest in a dispute that began in 2021 when TfL proposed axing of up to 600 station staff posts as it looked to make savings, in line with Government orders to break even this financial year following 5bn of covid bailouts.
He searched Mr Dos Santos once he was out of the car and was heard on body-worn camera footage saying I can also smell cannabis coming from the car, which was played at the misconduct hearing in south east London where five Metropolitan Police officers could be sacked if gross misconduct is proven.
Well continue to enforce what powers we have to take these rip-off rickshaws off the streets, but we need a Transport Bill in November with clearly defined legislation that gives more power to us and TfL.
During a Conservative Friends of Israel event at the partys conference in Manchester on Monday, she said one of the most important things she would do if elected Mayor next May would be to make the city safer  particularly for Jewish communities.
Theyre not saying that people arent coming to London. Theyre just saying, certainly for the upmarket stuff, that theyre going to Paris more - or theyre going to Paris, but then not extending their trip to London, because theyve already done their tax-free shopping.
THE backroom gurus hold the real political power. Last night in the bar of the Midland hotel, we spotted the PMs special adviser Cass Horowitz brandishing a silver trophy from YouTube. The trophy is a belated gift from the company after the PMs channel got 100,000 subscribers. Horowitz, known as the man behind brand Rishi and his video content, told us its now nearer 500,000, and could reach a million by the end of next year, earning him a gold trophy in time for an election. It will be displayed prominently in No 10, he said. If theyre still there.
Sir Jeffrey said they have made some progress in discussions with the Government, but said there is further to go if we are to get to a place where we believe we have got what we need to both respect and protect Northern Irelands place within the United Kingdom and its internal market, and well keep working at that until we get that solution.
Hilary Benn is taking part in his first visit to the region this week since he was appointed to the role last month.
MONROVIA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Liberian government has declared that stringent security measures will be in place to ensure the safety and integrity of the democratic process during the forthcoming presidential election.

Speaking to the media in the national capital of Monrovia Monday, Minister of Justice Frank Musa Dean warned citizens of the West African country against fomenting troubles during the election process.

"Notwithstanding law enforcement's willingness to work with the public in preserving the peace, no one has the right to disrupt the peace. Anyone or group thinking otherwise must reconsider," Dean said, with just one week remaining until the presidential election scheduled for Oct. 10. "We caution members of the public not to test the resolve of the joint security. Any attempt by anyone to disrupt the peace will be met with the full force of the law."

This comes amid rising concerns about the potential for election-related tensions and disruptions. At least two people were killed in Liberia's Lofa County on the weekend following an alleged violent clash between supporters of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change and the opposition Unity Party.

While confirming and condemning the incident, Dean said the country's security agencies "shall be robust and prepared to do anything and everything legally permissible to protect the peace," pledging that a reasonable and proportionate force shall be used where required.

He said the Liberia Immigration Service has also been ordered to heighten security during the election period while ensuring that the country's territorial borders and boundaries remain safe and secure.

"In the event the police and other law enforcement officers are overwhelmed, the military will be called to quell any situation of unrest," he added. 
But capacity constraints on the WCML  one of the main reasons why HS2 was planned  mean the number of high-speed trains that could run on the existing line will be limited to around three per hour in each direction.
This current situation where we have no Assembly, no devolution is just not a sustainable position for Northern Ireland to be in, and it is not good for the people who we represent, who are languishing on waiting lists, who are struggling with their finances, who cant access childcare and who are facing all of the multiple demands and challenges that everyone else faces but doing it without the support of the people they elected to take on these challenges on their behalf.
He went on: That is why today I am going further, by announcing that we will change the NHS constitution following a consultation later this year to make sure we respect the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients, recognise the importance of different biological needs and protect the rights of women.
He said he was friends with Mr Farage and he is a decent man who has done wonders for politics in this country and does a good job scrutinising the Government, adding: But at the end of the day Nigel has stood many, many times for Parliament and has not won.
Warning about how under Labour Britain would go properly woke, she said: Things are bad enough already, we see it in parts of Whitehall, in museums, in galleries, in the police and even in leading companies in the City, under the banner of diversity, equity and inclusion, official policies have been embedded that distort the whole purpose of these institutions.
He added: That is why today I am going further, by announcing that we will change the NHS constitution following a consultation later this year to make sure we respect the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients, recognise the importance of different biological needs and protect the rights of women.
He went on: Today I am going further, by announcing that we will change the NHS constitution following a consultation later this year to make sure we respect the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients, recognise the importance of different biological needs and protect the rights of women.
I am writing to ask you to bring some urgency to the resolution of this dispute and encourage the DEaS chief executive to travel to North Ayrshire ahead of this scheduled meeting in a months time.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: Thousands of patients are at risk of not getting the scans and X-rays they need, this will include non-urgent activity such as some fracture clinics and GP walk-ins also being cancelled and rebooked due to staff shortages with patients asked to come back for their X-ray on another day if it is not urgent.
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- UN peacekeepers and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) military have launched an operation against the armed CODECO group in the Djugu territory, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.

"This operation is taking place in the Djugu territory, in the province of Ituri, and comes in response to recent attacks against civilians and the presence of CODECO members in the area," said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The joint operation came on the heels of yet another request from the DRC government for the UN peacekeeping force in the country, known as MONUSCO, to pack up and leave. The latest request came last month from President Felix Tshisekedi, who wants MONUSCO to withdraw by the end of this year.

The reason given is that the peacekeepers are not protecting people targeted by multiple rebel groups.

Dujarric said the most recent reports place CODECO forces near the Lala camp for displaced persons, about 9 km southeast of Djugu. When peacekeepers were deployed, they fired warning shots near CODECO members approaching the site, forcing them to withdraw.

"Peacekeepers are continuing to patrol the area to protect civilians and deter armed groups, including by physical protection to more than 100,000 displaced men, women and children who have been displaced through four temporary bases in the Djugu territory," the spokesman said.

Analysts have argued withdrawing MONUSCO from the DRC will leave a vacuum, making room for rebel groups to move in.

CODECO is an abbreviation for a coalition of armed groups operating in the eastern DRC known as the Cooperative for Development of the Congo or the Congo Economic Development Cooperative. 
Gardai announced the planned appearance of three of the arrested males on Monday night. On Tuesday morning they said a fourth suspect who had remained in custody would also now appear before the same court.
Southern Water, which provides water to 2.5 million Brits based in south-east England, wants to increase their bills from 412 a year to 674 by 2030. They want to use the extra money to upgrade their four largest water-supply works, cut leaks, replace mains, roll out smart meters, and deal with sewage.
Countries that have signed and ratified the Rome Statute that created the ICC are bound to arrest Mr Putin, who has been indicted for war crimes connected to the deportation of children from Ukraine, if he sets foot on their soil.
Police say a 14-year-old suspect was apprehended and has been taken into custody after the incident at the Siam Paragon shopping centre. Emergency services shared an image of a police officer apprehending and handcuffing an individual laying face down on the floor.
Volcanologists say thousands of small tremors in the area since 2019, which have grown in intensity this year, might be being triggered by tongues of magma pushing up into the subsurface of the volcano at a depth of about five to six kilometres.
The doctors and nurses are doing all they can to ensure the students recover," adding that several of the children had to be put on an intravenous drip.
Bankman-Frieds lawyers have signalled they plan to challenge the credibility of those witnesses - former Alameda chief Caroline Ellison, and former FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh - by arguing they are motivated to implicate their client to get a lower sentence for themselves.
The former US president arrived for the first day of his civil fraud trial on Monday to hear that he had repeatedly lied to secure better loan and insurance terms.
"What do we need it for when we clearly know that there have been violations of the law and human rights," Naja Lyberth, one of the women seeking compensation, told news agency Reuters.
The Popes shift on gay unions comes before a key synod of bishops, which starts this week at the Vatican and will tackle contentious issues including homosexuality, the introduction of female deacons and married priests.
NAIROBI, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Judiciary of Kenya on Tuesday called on African countries to come up with new strategies to combat transnational organized crimes that are currently negatively impacting the society.

Chief Justice Martha Koome said strong enforcement of laws and the adoption of new strategies are crucial in combating the fast-evolving transnational organized crimes and illicit financial flows, and called for the need to continuously evolve, learn, and train the judiciary to deal with the changing face of crime.

"These illicit profits fuel corruption, undermine governance, erode the rule of law, and threaten the stability of states and regions," Koome told the judiciary training institutes, judges, and judicial officers from 21 African countries attending a three-day regional forum in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.

The conference dubbed "Judicial Dialogue" discusses experiences, challenges, and potential solutions in the adjudication of different forms of transnational organized crime and illicit financial flows.

Koome noted that transnational organized crimes and illicit financial flows are not just legal issues but also pose inherent threats to the social fabric, economies, and governance structures, which threaten the shared vision of a prosperous, secure and peaceful Africa.

Given the transnational nature of these crimes, the courts have a duty to facilitate international cooperation through mechanisms like extradition and mutual legal assistance, Koome said, adding that human trafficking, narcotics trade, illegal arms dealing, cybercrime, wildlife poaching, counterfeiting, and the alarming growth of illicit financial flows have cast a shadow over development aspirations.

The Kenyan chief justice expressed concern that the most vulnerable in societies bear the brunt of these crimes, citing from children ensnared in human trafficking rings to communities wrecked by drug epidemics.

Chief Justice of the Federal Supreme Court of Ethiopia Tewodros Kebede noted the need to develop indigenous jurisprudence on transnational organized crime and illicit financial flows, adding that there is a need to lead regional and continental cooperation of judiciaries with a view to ensuring that the rule of law and justice prevail throughout Africa. 
Mark Dixon of the Moral Rating Agency, which lobbies firms not to do business in Russia, said Burger King needs to accept the legal risk of doing the right thing in quitting the contract, saying: No company should be obliged to dance with the devil.
Kevin McCarthy wont be the Speaker of the House, or hell be the Speaker of the House working at the pleasure of the Democrats, and Im at peace with either result, because the American people deserve to know who governs them.
Originally born in 1882, to Polish nobility who had been outcast to the Ukrainian suburb of Timoshovka, he was a young boy when he learned to play the guitar. He then moved to Warsaw in Poland as a young adult in 1901 to learn more about his history and to develop his love of music. There, he learned about harmony, counterpoint, and composition, deciding to become a composer.
Explaining the needs of young people in care, Brigid Robinson, Managing Director for Coram Voice and Coram Group Young People Programmes, said she hears from young people in care who have nowhere to stay during the holiday, who are unable to go to university open days, have no one to go with them, no way to pay the train fare, no way to stay overnight if its more than fifty milesand not that support from an individual person to actually help them.
From refillable and recyclable packaging, to plastic-free alternatives, some of the biggest beauty brands in the biz are getting creative with ways to reduce waste. But one of the more surprising solutions goes back to basics in the form of solid bars. Weve seen a massive resurgence in soap bars as well as shampoo and perfume in solid form, but the latest, cleansing bars may just be the most innovative yet.
First of all, I saw him before he saw me and when I saw him, I was like, I want that. And then when he saw me, I just pretended like I didnt see him.
Although 70s ska and pop band Madness are more synonymous with Camden, where they are set to play a homecoming gig at KOKO on October 18 in support of their 13th album Theatre Of The Absurd Presents CEst La Vie, musician Suggs  real name Graham McPherson  says they have played Brixton a couple of times and are pleased it might soon be welcoming back music fans.
He then became a news reporter for television news in 1982 where he covered the Falklands conflict, as well as covering Margaret Thatchers 1983 general election campaign for the BBC, before returning to Belfast to become the BBCs Ireland correspondent.
Even apart from the damage to his reputation, Ben and his family were put through weeks of terror due to Musks recklessness, and now Ben finds himself depressed, freaked out, and mentally distraught at the crucial moment when he exits college and enters his career path, Banskton says.
CANBERRA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The value of Australia's commodity exports is set to fall by almost 25 percent over the next two years, government projections have revealed.

The federal Department of Industry, Science and Resources on Tuesday published the September 2023 edition of the resources and energy quarterly (REQ) report.

According to projections included in the report, the total annual value of Australia's resources and energy exports will fall 24.6 percent from a record-high 467 billion Australian dollars (296.9 billion U.S. dollars) in the financial year 2022-23 to 352 billion Australian dollars in 2024-25.

Exports of iron ore - Australia's most valuable commodity - will fall from 124 billion to 99 billion Australian dollars in that period, the report said, and earnings from liquefied natural gas exports will fall 32.2 percent from 93 billion to 63 billion Australian dollars.

Responding to the report, Resources Minister Madeleine King said in a statement on Tuesday that the projections reflected a return to normal prices amid concerns over sluggish global economic growth.

"While overall export revenue is easing from record highs, Australia's resources and energy exports remain strong and continue to underpin Australia's economic wellbeing," she said.

The REQ report contained a special chapter on the global battery value chain, finding that Australia is a world-leading exporter of minerals used in rechargeable batteries such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper as growing electric vehicle sales drive global demand.

"Demand for Australia minerals is growing as the world works to build the technology needed to decarbonise," King said. (1 Australian dollar equals 0.63 U.S. dollar) 
PHNOM PENH, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- More than 4.2 million vehicles had traveled on the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway in the first 11 months since its official opening to the public in November last year, a senior Cambodian official said on Tuesday.

"From November 2022 to September 2023, the total traffic volume on the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway was 4.24 million," Heang Sotheayuth, spokesman and director general of Technology and Public Relations at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, told Xinhua.

Invested by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) with 2 billion U.S. dollars, the 187-km expressway connects the capital Phnom Penh with the international deep-water seaport province of Preah Sihanouk.

Sotheayuth said the expressway has played a crucial role in enhancing the efficiency of the travel and logistic system in Cambodia, and it is a strategic road to boost tourism and trade exchanges with other countries.

"The Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway has been boosting the country's economy, tourism and trade as it connects the capital with the kingdom's largest seaport," he said.

The spokesman said traveling on the expressway saves fuel and time and is considerably safer than traveling on ordinary roads.

Sotheayuth said the expressway was one of the fruits of cooperation between Cambodia and China under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

With two lanes for traffic in each direction plus an emergency lane on each side and paved with asphalt concrete, vehicles will be able to reach their destinations within two hours through the expressway instead of five hours on National Road 4. 
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The minister of Foreign Affairs, Luminita Odobescu, supported, on Monday, in Kyiv, the importance of the continuation of the EU's multidimensional support for Ukraine and highlighted the need to accelerate the steps at the European level to ensure the flexibility and predictability of the EU's military support for Ukraine, including through the creation of a military fund within the European Peace Facility.

Luminita Odobescu participated, on Monday, in the informal meeting of the ministers of Foreign Affairs from the EU member states, the Foreign Affairs Council which took place in Kyiv. The meeting had an extraordinary character, given that it was hosted in a third country, Ukraine. The idea of organizing a Council of Foreign Affairs in Kyiv was initially launched by Romania, since the beginning of 2022, to show the EU's solidarity and support for Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a statement sent to AGERPRES.

She reconfirmed Romania's assistance to Ukraine, at all levels, and informed about the latest developments regarding the constructive efforts made by our country, in full solidarity with Ukraine, to facilitate the export of Ukrainian grains. He stated that, until now, 27 million tonnes of grain have been transited through Romania, a major contribution to the Solidarity Corridors of the EU, agerpres reports.

With regard to Ukraine's European course, Luminita Odobescu expressed her support for the adoption, by the end of the year, of the decision to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova and welcomed, in the context, the progress made in Ukraine's implementation of the recommendations European Commission.Minister Odobescu emphasized the importance of the full implementation of the recommendations of the Venice Commission within the legislation on the protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities in Ukraine and reiterated the request of the Romanian side that the Ukrainian authorities record the non-existence of the so-called "Moldovan language".
Louise Mushikiwabo, secretary general of Francophonie, was decorated with the National Order Star of Romania in the rank of Grand Cross.

President Klaus Iohannis signed the decoration decree on Monday, agerpres reports.

The head of state awarded the secretary general of the Francophonie the National Order Star of Romania in the rank of Grand Cross, on the occasion of the anniversary of 30 years of membership in the institutional Francophonie, as a sign of "high appreciation for the constant collaboration with Romanian officials, highlighting the substantial contribution of our country in promoting the values and principles of the International Organization of Francophonie (OIF)".

Louise Mushikiwabo was received by president Klaus Iohannis at the Cotroceni Palace and participated in the inauguration of the House of Francophonie.
CANBERRA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Tens of thousands of South Australians have been left without electricity after a damaging storm swept across the state.

According to South Australia (SA) Power Networks, 23,000 households and businesses across the state were without power as of 8 a.m. local time on Tuesday morning, following an intense lightning storm on Monday night that caused widespread damage.

The State Emergency Service (SES) received more than 250 calls for assistance after 5:30 p.m. on Monday, mostly due to fallen trees and branches after wind speeds exceeded 100 km per hour.

"Weatherzone recorded about 45,000 lightning strikes between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.," Paul Roberts, a spokesperson for SA Power Networks, told state media Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio.

"We're facing lightning strikes on things like insulators and powerlines, and tree limbs and tree falls onto the power lines as well.

"There's a big job ahead of us and we'll be working closely obviously with the SES."

SA Power Networks issued an apology on Tuesday morning to customers who were sent a message saying their power was cut off due to high bushfire danger.

Motorists have been urged to take caution across the state due to debris on roads and several traffic lights being affected by the blackouts. 
As many as 1,077 people with covid-19 are hospitalized in specialized health units, the Ministry of Health informed on Tuesday.

The source says that 82 patients are hospitalized in ICU, Agerpres reports.

Out of the total number of hospitalized patients currently, 131 are minors, 129 being hospitalized in wards and two in ICU.

In the week of September 25 - October 1, the National Institute of Public Health reported 31 deaths: 20 men and 11 women, as follows: one of the deaths was registered in the age category 20-29 years, four in the age category 50-59 years, three in the age category 60-69 years, 10 in the age category 70-79 years and 13 in the age category over 80 years.Also, 29 of the patients who died presented comorbidities and 14 were vaccinated against covid.All in all, 68,372 people diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection have died in Romania since the pandemic outbreak.
President Klaus Iohannis will participate on Thursday, in Granada, in the third Summit of the European Political Community (EPC), and on Friday he will be present at the informal meeting of the European Council, the Presidential Administration informed on Tuesday.

President Iohannis will co-chair, together with the Norwegian prime minister the round table during which issues related to energy, the environment and the fight against climate change will be debated. Leaders from Iceland, Monaco, Slovenia, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia, Malta and Hungary will also participate in this working group, Agerpres reports.

The Romanian president will express Romania's support "for decisive actions in addressing the strategic challenges discussed during the round table, in order to effectively combat climate change and strengthen collective resilience by ensuring a predictable supply of energy, including by limiting dependence on third parties that do not share the same values and by ensuring the sustainability of energy resources".

The informal meeting of the European Council on Friday, hosted in Granada by the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council, has as its main objective the launch of the reflection process on the future Strategic Agenda of the EU, as well as the debate, in this framework, of some major topics such as defense, resilience and competitiveness, the EU's global commitment, migration, as well as enlargement.Regarding the new Strategic Agenda, president Klaus Iohannis will show that the Strategic Agenda must be designed pragmatically and focus on achieving concrete results.The president of Romania "will emphasize the strategic nature of enlargement, as one of the most successful policies of the Union" and will plead for a positive decision by the end of this year for the opening of accession negotiations for the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. He will point out, at the same time, that the advancement of the enlargement process and the internal reforms must be treated as complementary processes, which take place simultaneously, in parallel.The Romanian president will also highlight the fact that "internal resilience largely depends on deepening integration, solidarity and cohesion, by reducing development gaps between member states and avoiding fragmentation".As regards the migration phenomenon, Klaus Iohannis will highlight that the Union must continue to seek, at this level, the right mix of measures - short, medium and long term - in cooperation with countries of origin and transit, which will be reflected in "customized and mutually beneficial partnerships".
MONDAY, Oct. 2, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Millions of people who live with the pain and stiffness of arthritis in their hands get steroid or hyaluronic acid injections directly into their finger joints in the hopes of feeling better.

Now, a new review shows that even though these injections are widely recommended in treatment guidelines, they dont really work.

Joint injections to relieve the symptoms of hand osteoarthritis were no better than dummy (placebo) injections, the study found.

Thats not all current treatment recommendations for hand arthritis seem to get wrong, either. Most also call for topical pain relievers as the first-line therapy for hand osteoarthritis, but the evidence on those is iffy, said study author Dr. Anna Dssing, a rheumatology resident at the Parker Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark.

So, what does relieve the pain of hand arthritis?

Oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs [NSAIDs] and oral glucocorticoids effectively reduce pain in people with hand osteoarthritis, Dssing said. Of these, glucocorticoids (steroid) pills were most effective, the study showed.

Oral NSAIDs also improved function and grip strength, and oral steroids improved function and peoples health-related quality of life, a measure that encompasses physical and mental health status. People who took either of these medications reported improvements in hand symptoms and their overall health.

For the study, Dssing and her colleagues reviewed 65 studies of close to 5,250 people with hand osteoarthritis. The studies looked at 29 types of treatment for the condition.

Injections were found to be ineffective, but most people in the study received injections for osteoarthritis in the base of their thumb. Hydroxychloroquine, an arthritis medication that affects the immune system, was also found to be ineffective for hand arthritis, and the effectiveness of topical creams and gels for pain wasnt clear, the study showed.

The findings were published Sept. 28 in the journal RMD Open.

The article reveals a surprising lack of effectiveness of intra-articular glucocorticoids, a widely employed and traditionally fundamental treatment for hand arthritis, specifically thumb-base arthritis, said Dr. Daniel Polatsch, co-director of The New York Hand and Wrist Center of Lenox Hill Hospital and an associate professor in the department of orthopedic surgery at Zucker School of Medicine/Northwell in New York City.

This discovery stands in stark contrast to the prevailing beliefs and experiences of most hand surgeons, myself included, in our clinical practice," Polatsch said.

He said that treatment for hand arthritis should be individualized. I consistently advocate for commencing treatment with the option that carries the lowest risk, he said. Short-term usage of oral NSAIDs or glucocorticoids is a reasonable approach.

That said, long-term use of these medications can cause side effects. Prolonged use of NSAIDs has been linked to bleeding ulcers. Oral steroids, when taken for prolonged periods of time, can cause high blood pressure, weight gain, thinning skin and infections.

My recommendation is to engage in a discussion about the different treatment options with your health care provider and formulate a plan together, Polatsch advised.

Its also a good idea to see a hand surgery specialist if symptoms persist.

A hand surgery specialist  can thoroughly assess the full spectrum of alternatives, including medication, splinting, hand therapy, injections and, as a final resort, surgery, Polatsch said.

More information

HealthDay has more on arthritis symptoms.

SOURCES: Anna Dssing, MD, rheumatology resident, Parker Institute, Copenhagen; Daniel Polatsch, MD, co-director, The New York Hand and Wrist Center of Lenox Hill Hospital, and associate professor, department, orthopedic surgery, Zucker School of Medicine/Northwell, New York City; RMD Open, Sept. 28, 2023
Joe Holleman Metro reporter Follow Joe Holleman 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

Its autumn and a politicians fancy turns to big meetings  like the Democratic National Committees annual fall meeting this weekend in downtown St. Louis.

And the big draw for this gathering is none other than Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris office said the vice president and her husband, Doug Emhoff, are scheduled to appear on Friday, with Harris making remarks at a campaign reception later in the evening.

The get-together will be at the Marriott St. Louis Grand Hotel, 800 Washington Avenue. The doors open on Thursday and Friday at 8 a.m. and the Saturday closing session is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The convention is open to all Democrats, the Missouri Democratic Party notes on its website, although registration is recommended.

St. Louis Aldermanic President Megan E. Green will be a featured speaker at the event. Green said she has been slated to speak at 5 p.m. Friday at a poverty caucus, then will take part in a panel discussion.

Mayor Tishaura O. Jones' campaign staff did not respond to requests for information concerning the mayor's participation in the event.

Kicking off the meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday will be a meeting of the DNCs environment and climate crisis council.

St. Louis Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer, of Boulevard Heights, will speak to that council about environmental justice. She will be joined by Peggy Flanagan, lieutenant governor of Minnesota.

Other councils also are scheduled will meet during the three-day event, including groups focused on issues involving veterans and military members; the LGBTQ community; seniors; women; and several minority groups.

The most politically tantalizing news related to the DNC coming to town  at least one being whispered by some political observers  was that Mayor Jones move Monday night to clear a homeless encampment from City Hall was her own attempt to tidy up the neighborhood before conventioneers hit town.

Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, of Downtown, who was instrumental in halting Jones effort to relocate the encampment, said, I dont know what Mayor Jones administration was thinking in ordering the action.

My goal was just to find some accommodations for the homeless who have been camping on City Hall property for the last month or so.

Jones office maintains that its decision to break up the encampment  not an easy one to make, according to a spokesman  was based on numerous emergency calls for police and ambulances, drug use and fighting among tenants and complaints from city employees.

After Jones' move was delayed Monday night, the encampment had been cleared from City Hall property by Wednesday morning.
ST. LOUIS  A man died last month in St. Louis downtown jail from dehydration and a lack of insulin, according to his autopsy.

Carlton Bernard, 32, was the first of three inmates to die at the City Justice Center in about the past six weeks when he was found dead on Aug. 20.

Bernards mother, Shante Winston, and the familys attorney, Mark Pedroli, say the autopsy proves his cause of death was preventable.

I will never hear his voice again because of their actions. Im hurt and angry, Winston said. They left my son in that cell to die. Carlton didnt deserve this. He had his whole life in front of him.

The jail has been the scene of several high-profile inmate deaths and claims of poor conditions in recent years. The jails civilian oversight board, city aldermen and other criminal justice advocates have called for the firing of jail Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah over treatment of inmates and a lack of transparency at the facility.

Days after Bernards death, other detainees briefly took a 73-year-old corrections officer hostage.

Another inmate, Terrence Smith, died a few weeks later, and his family expressed concern about a lack of medical treatment at the jail. A third inmate, Juwon Carter, 44, died this past weekend after a medical emergency, marking the 10th person to die at the jail in the past two years.

In response to the string of deaths, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones on Monday called for the creation of a new position in the St. Louis Department of Health, called a chief medical officer, who would specifically oversee medical operations and services at the jail.

Jones has already announced the city will not renew its contract with the jails medical provider, Corizon, and is accepting proposals until Oct. 16. Officials did not receive how many or if any new proposals had been received by city officials.

Despite the calls for Clemons-Abdullahs resignation, Jones and Public Safety Director Charles Coyle have defended and praised the job shes done. However, recently state Missouri Sen. Steve Roberts Jr requested the state auditor examine the jail, and Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzgerald responded, telling the Post-Dispatch that he would determine how to investigate claims made about the jail.

Bernards official cause of death was ketoacidosis due to diabetes mellitus  a diabetic coma due to a lack of insulin  and hyponatremic dehydration, a type of dehydration where the body has too little sodium.

Bernard had been jailed since June on third-degree assault charges. Pedroli, his familys attorney, said city and jail officials must address the death as an emergency.

Im confident all of St. Louis will stand up for Carlton, his mom and his family. Carltons rights are secured by the constitution, as are all of our rights, said Pedroli. We demand full transparency, accountability, justice and action on behalf of Carltons family and all other families affected.
ST. LOUIS  Federal authorities last month asked the citys development arm to release tax incentive records related to a 152-unit apartment building on Pershing Avenue developed by Lux Living.

The Aug. 2 subpoena sent to the St. Louis Development Corp. from the U.S. Attorneys Office was released Monday in response to an open records request from the Post-Dispatch, which last week reported the existence of the subpoena. A former employee has said the FBI interviewed him about his time at the company, and an attorney involved in lawsuits against the company says he has heard a federal investigation is underway.

Brothers Victor Alston and Sid Chakraverty run Lux Living, which has developed several large apartment complexes with more than 1,000 units in recent years. Another Alston firm, STL CityWide, owns hundreds more apartments across the region.

But controversy has followed the brothers. Tenants have complained of deferred maintenance and unresponsive management in their properties, the brothers used legal maneuvers to stymie a competing development and last year the landlords settled a class-action lawsuit over a failure to refund security deposits.

Though Lux and its affiliated companies have developed several apartment buildings in recent years, the subpoena seeks only records tied to the Chelsea apartment complex at 5539 Pershing Avenue. Specifically, the subpoena asks for records related to sales and use tax exemptions granted to the property.

The Chelsea was first pitched in late 2018 and received an 85% property tax abatement from the city. An SLDC board approved entering into a sales tax exemption in December 2018. The project was completed around 2020.

The subpoena was requested by Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith, who has prosecuted several high-profile public corruption cases in recent years, including that of former St. Louis Board of Alderman President Lewis Reed and former St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger.

Goldsmith has also investigated incentive fraud at SLDC, recently sending a construction executive to prison for falsifying records related to a city minority hiring program tied to development incentives. And in 2020, Goldsmith brought a case against a problem property landlord, Michael Fein, who had purchased and mismanaged several large apartment complexes in the area.

A U.S. Attorneys Office spokesman has declined to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation, per U.S. Justice Department policy.

Ira Berkowitz, the brothers attorney, on Monday played down the significance.

Its a subpoena for records, it doesnt mean anything, Berkowitz said.
ST. LOUIS  An O'Fallon man was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison for leaving the scene of a fatal crash in the city's Baden neighborhood.

John W. Springer, 41, pleaded guilty to a single count of leaving the scene of a deadly crash on Oct. 16, 2019 that left 38-year-old Melissa Bassett fatally injured.

Charges said Bassett was ejected from her Chevrolet S10 after being struck by a Saturn Sky that was driving at least 30 mph over the speed limit at North Broadway and Jackson Street. She died nearly two weeks after the crash.

Springer pleaded guilty in August 2022 and was accepted into treatment court  a program designed to help people get help for people with substance abuse without sending them to prison. But he was kicked out of the program after failing to appear several times, according to a news release from the 22nd Judicial Circuit in St. Louis.

On Monday, Springer's attorney, Terry Niehoff, said all of his client's cases, including some in St. Louis and St. Charles counties, are related to his addiction, according to a news release from the St. Louis circuit court. He also noted that Bassett was the one who caused the crash by turning in front of Springer.

Springer apologized to Bassett's family and said he thinks about the crash often.

Bassett's mother, for her part, called Springer's conduct "a senseless act" for which he should be held responsible. She said her daughter had three children and wanted to find work helping the homeless, according to the news release.

Prosecutors and Niehoff both argued for a five-year sentence, but Judge Madeline Connolly ultimately sentenced him to seven.
SYDNEY, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Australian states of New South Wales (NSW), Victoria, and Tasmania on Tuesday continued to remain on high alert as bushfires kept sprawling under hot and windy conditions.

In Australia's most densely-populated state, 82 fires were burning across NSW as of 9:00 a.m. local time on Tuesday, with 16 not yet contained.

As the maximum temperature was tipped to hit 37 degrees Celsius with gusts in alpine areas likely to peak at 130 km/h, high-to-extreme fire dangers have been forecast across the state.

"There are currently Total Fire Bans declared for the Greater Sydney Region, Greater Hunter, Far South Coast, Northern Slopes, North Western, Upper Central West Plains, Lower Central West Plains, and Central Ranges," NSW Rural Fire Service noted on social media.

Residents in Bermagui, Cuttagee, Barragga Bay, Abernethy, and Elrington received emergency warnings on Tuesday afternoon, which urged them to seek shelter inside a solid structure, as it was "now too late to leave" due to burning blazes nearby.

As for Victoria, challenging fire situations spread rapidly overnight, fueled by hot northerly winds, with households living in the state's east strongly warned by local fire authorities to take shelter indoors immediately.

"This morning, we saw particularly the Briagolong and the Loch Sport fires really move, rapidly grow in size, and affect more communities in the East Gippsland region," Country Fire Authority Chief Officer Jason Heffernan told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

He provided an update about major blazes across Victoria, noting that the impacted area of the Briagolong fire has grown from 5,000 hectares to 17,500 hectares, while the wild flame at Loch Sport expanded from 600 hectares to 3,000 hectares over the last 24 hours.

"There are no more reported losses other than the original house loss that we had when the Briagolong fire first started on Sunday," Heffernan said.

According to the forecast by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), a strong cold front may help tone down fire conditions in eastern parts of Victoria, which would bring highly-anticipated rainfall and cooler temperatures.

But for the Gippsland region which has been enduring days of bushfire threats, the rollercoaster of natural disasters has yet to stop. The weather bureau said a flood watch is current for eastern Victoria for minor to moderate flooding likely from late Tuesday into Wednesday.

"The most significant rainfall totals are expected for Gippsland, where totals may exceed 150 mm in some places," said the BOM.

In the island state of Tasmania, a fire originated from a hotspot in Boat Harbour Creek in Flinders Island and moved rapidly to the east under strong wind on Sunday afternoon, which later sparked an emergency warning for local communities with waterbombing aircraft deployed to contain the flame.

The bushfire warning on Tuesday was downgraded to the "advice" level, given that there is no immediate threat. However, the fire has not been fully under control, and emergency services reminded people to keep up to date with the changeable conditions. 
ST. LOUIS  A St. Louis woman was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for killing her girlfriend in the city's Kingsway West neighborhood.

Claytiana Bolar, 23, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the death of 24-year-old Brittany Gregory, who was found shot to death behind the wheel of an SUV in the 5100 block of Greer Avenue, according to a news release from the St. Louis courts.

Court documents say Bolar and Gregory had argued and that Bolar grabbed a gun, got out of the car, and fired, hitting Gregory twice.

Gregory's sister said in court that she believes Bolar committed murder and not manslaughter, according to the news release.
BELLERIVE  The wife of a St. Peters veteran who died after falling off a 10-foot parking lot ledge while leaving a military band concert at the University of Missouri-St. Louis is suing the university for wrongful death.

Phyllis Massa-Busch filed suit Sept. 21 against UMSL and the University of Missouri system claiming both were negligent in the January death of her 67-year-old husband Lee Busch.

Busch and his wife both attended a United States Air Force Band of Mid-America holiday concert Dec. 2, 2022, at the universitys Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center. After the show, the couple walked to the centers parking lot about 7 p.m., and Busch fell off a 10-foot retaining wall in an unlit portion of the lot, the suit alleges.

Its an event you look at and think: This never should have happened, said attorney Andrea McNairy, who is representing Massa-Busch in the case. The university should have and could have done more to prevent this.

Busch had internal injuries, several broken bones and multisystem organ failure, among other injuries, from the fall, the suit states. He was hospitalized for more than a month before he died on Jan. 7.

The suit argues UMSL failed to properly light the parking lot or add guardrails to protect visitors from the steep drop.

When you see pictures, at night you really cant tell the drop-off is there coming from the direction he was walking, McNairy said.

A spokesman for the UM system declined to comment on the suit, stating that the system will be providing our response in court.

Busch was a veteran of both the Army Reserve and Navy. He attended the concert the night of his fall as part of his longtime volunteer role with the Civil Air Patrol Illinois, an Air Force auxiliary nonprofit, McNairy said.

The couple were active in the Scottish-American Military Society and the dog show circuit, where they bred and competed with husky dogs.

They were married 26 years before Buschs death.

The suit filed in St. Louis County Circuit Court seeks more than $25,000 in damages.
CLAYTON  During the roughly three months Edward L. Jones, 74, was incarcerated at the St. Louis County Jail, he told his wife that his reports of chest pains, black stools and trouble breathing or standing were often ignored and that he sometimes didnt receive his medication.

Jones died in custody March 6 from an ulcer, with congestive heart failure and cardiovascular disease, according to medical records obtained by the Post-Dispatch.

They were just totally negligent, said Kathy Jones, his wife.

County spokesman Doug Moore said he had no comment on the familys claims of negligence.

Two days before he died, Edward Jones was sitting on the bottom bunk inside his county jail cell when he became weak and was not able to reach for an emergency button, according to the medical report.

A guard walking past heard him yelling for help and noticed he was sweating profusely with altered mental status, slurred speech and complaining of chest pains.

Edward Jones was treated at the jails infirmary, but the next day his symptoms worsened, so jail officials contacted Clayton Fire/EMS at 10:38 p.m.

It should be noted, he was handcuffed while enroute to the hospital, the medical investigator wrote in the report.

Edward Jones was taken to St. Marys Hospital, which is less than 3 miles from the jail but arrived at 11:29 p.m.  when his handcuffs were removed.

The report notes life-saving measures were performed. He was pronounced dead at 2:46 a.m. on March 6.

Jones did receive some medical attention while incarcerated. Right after being booked into the jail in November, he was hospitalized for about two weeks, something Kathy Jones said she didnt find out about until days later.

There was also another hospital visit, but she said having more questions than answers from the jails administration is why shes hired an attorney.

The attorney, Alex Ledbetter, says they are still in the investigative stage.

The timeline of events is going to matter here, he said.

A county official asked for comment about Edward Jones death in custody in March said he had a brain tumor  but no tumor was mentioned in the medical examiners report. Kathy Edwards said her husband had had a small tumor about 20 years ago.

Edward Jones death is another trauma the family is healing from, his wife said.

He was arrested and charged with assault and armed criminal action in November, Moore said in March.

The arrest stemmed from a family dispute over storage at the couples home in St. John, and Edward Jones was accused of shooting his son. The bullet hit the younger mans lung, and he was hospitalized in the ICU.

Edward Jones was not his biological father, and their relationship had become estranged over the years, Kathy Jones said. Shed noticed a difference in her husband, that his personality changed  he was more depressed and less tolerant, she said.

I was more forgiving. Ed was not, she said.

Still, she says everyone deserves to be treated with humanity. The shooting divided the family. Edward Jones, a Navy veteran who served in Vietnam, was buried last month, his wife said.

Whatever reason someone goes to jail, they shouldnt die there, Kathy Jones said.
JEFFERSON CITY  As the threat of a government shutdown loomed last week, some U.S. governors said they would keep national parks open by tapping into state funds.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson was not one of them.

Although a shutdown was averted late Saturday after Congress rushed to approve a bipartisan deal to keep things running until Nov. 17, Parsons office said he would not have moved to keep sites like the Gateway Arch in St. Louis or the Ozark National Scenic Riverways Park open.

Governor Parson believes national parks are the responsibility of the federal government and would decline to use state taxpayer dollars to keep them open during a shutdown, especially as there is no appropriation in the state budget to do so, said spokesman Johnathan Shiflett.

That approach would have left a key piece of the St. Louis tourism market  the Arch  shuttered at a time when attendance numbers are slowly coming back after seeing a significant drop during the pandemic.

Last year, the number of people who visited Gateway Arch National Park jumped by 41% to 1.62 million people, compared with about 1.15 million in 2021, according to the National Park Service.

The park, which reopened its visitor center and grounds in July 2018 after a $380 million overhaul, still has a ways to go. In 2019, it welcomed 2.1 million visitors. In the late 1990s, the park regularly welcomed about 3.5 million visitors a year.

On Friday, as a government shutdown appeared imminent, the park service said entrances to national parks would be blocked and thousands of park rangers will be furloughed if Congress didnt reach a budget agreement.

While the majority of more than 420 national park units would have been off-limits to the public beginning Monday had the shutdown gone forward, the governors of Arizona and Utah vowed to keep some of the most iconic parks, including Grand Canyon and Zion, open with state funding.

Arizona paid about $64,000 a week during the 35-day shutdown in 2018 and 2019 to cover restroom cleaning, trash removal and snow plowing at Grand Canyon. People with permits to hike in the backcountry or raft on the Colorado River could still go, but no new permits were issued.

Utah paid some $7,500 daily during the last part of December 2018 to keep Zion, Bryce Canyon and Arches running during the shutdown, according to the Associated Press. The nonprofit Zion Forever Project put up $16,000 to pay a skeleton crew and keep bathrooms and the visitor center open at Zion, which continued drawing several thousand visitors daily, AP reported.

The last time the Gateway Arch closed because of a shutdown was in 2019.

At the time, partners of the Gateway Arch National Park estimated that they had jointly lost more than $600,000 in revenue and sidelined dozens of workers since the shutdown began.

During a shutdown in 2013, former Gov. Jay Nixon directed his administration develop a plan to reopen the Gateway Arch and the national scenic riverways using state funds. The shutdown ended before any plan was announced.

Parson, meanwhile, said he has an alternative in mind for visitors if a shutdown occurs in the future.

Should national parks ever close due to a federal shutdown, the good news for Missourians and visitors alike is that the State of Missouri maintains over 90 state parks for them to visit and enjoy, the governors spokesman said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The state ethics commission has fined five former St. Louis-area political candidates for violating campaign finance disclosure rules in recent years.

The fines range from $100 to $2,000 and were issued to a sitting Sunset Hills alderman, two school board members, a retired St. Peters alderman and an unsuccessful candidate for state office.

Each campaign signed consent orders with the Missouri Ethics Committee that allow the candidates to pay a portion of their fine within 45 days and have the rest waived in two years if they dont commit any more violations.

The MEC fined Marie Davis, who was elected April 4 to the Sunset Hills Board of Aldermen, up to $2,000 for failing to file all campaign expenses in a quarterly report and failing to file a finance report by the deadline eight days before the election. Sunset Hills is a city of about 9,100 in south St. Louis County.

Daviss campaign, which collected $1,400 in contributions and spent $1,126.60, corrected the reports in June after it was contacted by MEC investigators. Davis said she didnt know her campaign treasurer had not filed the reports until she was contacted by the MEC. Her campaign paid a $200 fine and could see the rest waived.

They let me know it was wrong, and I worked with them to correct it, she said.

The MEC also issued a $2,000 fine to Mike Swaringim, who ran in the Aug. 2, 2022, Republican primary for House District 64, which includes St. Paul, Josephville, Flint Hill and parts of OFallon and Wentzville.

Swaringim was fined for failing to file a report for a payment to an independent contractor and for accepting $2,046 donation from a donor  $46 more than the limit for individual donations to a candidate for the Missouri House.

Swaringim said both violations were the result of errors in reporting and that they were later corrected. The contribution over the limit was returned to the donor.

I take the position that ignorance is not an excuse, but there was no maliciousness or intention of wrongdoing, he said.

Dave Thomas, a former St. Peters alderman from 2007 to 2019, was fined $1,000 for closing his official campaign depository account three years before he terminated the campaign committee. Campaigns are required to maintain an official fund. The committee, Citizens for Dave Thomas, closed the empty fund July 15, 2019, but did not terminate the committees registration until April 14, 2022, the MEC said.

Thomas said his wife was his campaign treasurer and forgot to close the committee when he retired from politics ahead of the 2019 election. They paid $100 and could see the remaining fine waived, he said.

This simply was just a clerical error we forgot about when I retired and moved on, he said.

Two St. Louis-area school board members reelected in April were also each fined $100 for distributing campaign signs that didnt disclose that they were paid for by their campaigns: Lindbergh School District Board Member Christy Watz and Wright City School District Board Member Heidi Box Halleman.

MEC laws require that any person publishing, circulating or distributing any printed material about a candidate for public office or a ballot measure identify in a clear and conspicuous manner with the full name of the person or entity who paid for the material.

Watz said her campaign signs did identify that they were paid for by her campaign committee but did not include the name of the committee treasurer. Watz said she was unaware the disclosure needed to include the treasurers name.

They will the next time, she said.

Halleman could not be reached for comment.

Lindbergh schools serve about 7,100 students in south St. Louis County, including Sunset Hills, Crestwood, Fenton and Kirkwood.

The Wright City School District serves about 1,700 students in parts of Warren and Lincoln counties.
ST. LOUIS  A former Missouri Supreme Court justice is joining the St. Louis Circuit Attorneys Office to help train attorneys, the citys chief prosecutor announced Tuesday.

George Draper retired in August after serving roughly 12 years on the states highest court. Before that, he spent nearly two decades on the bench in lower courts and worked for roughly a decade as a city prosecutor.

He will join Gores office in a new position on the senior leadership team, chief training officer.

Judge Drapers knowledge, wisdom and commitment to service will play a vital role in our work to restore the publics trust in this office, Gore said at a news conference Tuesday.

Draper is the latest in a string of experienced hires for Gore, who took the helm of an office in turmoil on following the abrupt resignation of former Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner in May.

Gore immediately pledged to replenish the ranks of an office that had roughly a third of the attorneys as when Gardner was elected. He re-hired Gardners former chief trial attorney, Marvin Teer, and brought back longtime city prosecutor Mary Pat Carl to lead his homicide team. He also called upon the U.S. Attorneys Office for attorneys to help in the short term. Draper is the 20th attorney to be hired during Gores tenure.

Draper said it was an easy decision to re-join the office where he and his wife both got their starts as attorneys and where his father served as the chief trial lawyer under Thomas Eagleton.

This office really does protect the crime victims and helps to protect the city, along with the police department, he said. This city is better when this office works.

Beyond that, Draper also joked that he came out of retirement because if you sit at home and vegetate, you fully retire.

My wife also wanted me out of the house, he said.

Drapers career began in the early 1980s when he graduated with his law degree from Howard University in Washington D.C. and clerked for federal Judge Shellie Bowers.

Draper then worked at the St. Louis Circuit Attorneys Office from 1984 to 1994 and was the offices first assistant in 1993 and 1994.

He was first appointed to the bench in 1994 as an associate circuit judge in St. Louis County then was promoted to a full circuit judge four years later. He served on the Missouri Court of Appeals starting in 2000 and was then appointed in 2011 to the Missouri Supreme Court where he was only the second Black chief justice in the states history.

In his 2021 State of the Judiciary address, Draper touted increasing diversity among members of the judiciary and new implicit bias training requirements for all licensed lawyers in the state. Still, he said, more work needed to be done.

Our judicial branch does not work as intended if we are not trusted to provide a fair and impartial forum for all people to have their cases heard and decided, he said.

On Tuesday, Gore said he hoped that Draper joining the office would bolster efforts to recruit young lawyers.

I can think of no finer role model for those who answer the call to service, he said.

In addition to Draper, last week, Gore announced he had hired Kerri Davis, the first assistant public defender in Edwardsville, Illinois, to join the homicide unit. He also hired local attorney and former federal prosecutor Lois C. Jackson to lead his financial unit, assistant Greene County prosecutor Kelli Reichert and Rachel Morgan, a litigator for the Missouri Attorney Generals Office, to join his team.
JEFFERSON CITY  Missouri issued 48 cannabis microbusiness licenses on Monday to marijuana industry entrepreneurs, expanding the states legal market.

The state licensed six additional dispensaries and 12 wholesale cultivators in St. Louis area congressional districts.

The additional licenses were mandated in the constitutional amendment voters approved this past November legalizing marijuana for individuals 21 and older.

Dispensary license winners include:

 Ever Eco LLC, 5409 Bulwer Avenue, St. Louis.

 N&M&R Enterprise LLC, 1020 Meadowlark Drive, Florissant.

 The Joke Smoke SE LLC, 1717 West 5th Street, Eureka.

 Seashore Rhythm LLC, 575 Jeffco Boulevard, Arnold.

 FLY-HI LLC 1778 North Mall Parkway, Wentzville.

 An individual, 1658 South Highway W, Elsberry.

A spokeswoman for state cannabis officials said an address associated with a winning applicant isnt necessarily where a dispensary would be located, meaning it wasnt initially clear where businesses are planning to open.

For example, the Florissant address listed for a dispensary winner appeared to be residential.

The state said the next phase of the licensing process includes a minimum standards and eligibility review for awarded licenses.

The 48 new microbusinesses  including two dispensaries and four wholesalers per congressional district  will compete against already licensed entities.

Wholesale microgrowers face a 250-flowering plant limit, which doesnt apply to comprehensive cultivators that are already licensed.

The restriction was included in the legalization amendment voters approved last year, which was largely bankrolled by owners of existing marijuana companies.

The state plans to license additional microbusinesses in 2024 and 2025.

Full results can be viewed on the state health department website.
Recent letters and events call to mind Pope Benedict XVIs prescient 2005 concern about moral relativism  that moral principles have no objective standards. Now elites are redefining what we should believe or do.

For example, while we are told to follow the science, the science is ignored when it tells us life begins at conception and there are two immutable sexes. Our Judeo-Christian and Victorian norms are trashed in this new ideological world, which ignores our human nature and natural law.

Other examples are free speech. It is only okay if it agrees with your ideology. So it is okay to prevent others from speaking. Freedom of religion must be restricted to fit the new ideology. Profess tolerance, but be intolerant.

The nuclear family, the bedrock of society for centuries, is under fire by activist groups while births out of wedlock have escalated from 3.8% in 1940 to more than 40% by 2021. Many studies show this leads to increasing crime, poverty, and poorer educational results.

But choice in education is blocked by those elites who have all sent their children to private schools. This especially harms poor Black and Hispanic children. San Francisco is 48% white but only 15% of white children attend public schools.

The ruling class has one set of rules for itself and another for its subjects. The Biden administration is replete with examples and programs which foster this new nihilism.

A.F. Kertz  Oakland
I had to read Board of Aldermen President Megan Greens homeless proposal several times before I believed it. ("Plan to cut restrictions on homeless shelters in St. Louis advances," Sept. 14.) Green claimed that since residents constantly voted down possible homeless placements in their neighborhoods, the city would just strip the residents of their right to vote on the placements. Smart. Does she think that residents will be more receptive to receiving homeless in their neighborhoods now that they cant vote?

While I dont know what the homeless solution is, I think I know what doesnt work. In 2017, Los Angeles eliminated the restrictions for sleeping on public sidewalks. Within a year, the homeless population in LA increased by 23%. Why wouldnt homeless from other areas flock to St. Louis to enjoy the proposed homeless bill of rights" that, among other things, prohibits removal of encampments on public land?

Our homes are most people's biggest asset. Shouldnt residents be concerned about something that may affect their value? Do our aldermen really believe their constituents dont have the right to vote on these issues?

Ill be glad to support something that has a history of success. Stripping the voting rights from citizens doesnt sound like a solution.

Rich Iezzi  St. Louis
ISLAMABAD, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Thirty-six students were injured or fell unconscious when a fire erupted in an academy in the capital city Quetta of Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province on Tuesday, hospital administration said.

The Medical Superintendent of the Civil Hospital Quetta, where all affected students were shifted, said that 10 of them got burn injuries while 26 others fell unconscious after inhaling smoke.

The official, Ishaq Panezai, told media that conditions of all the students were stable, and they will be discharged after treatment.

The accident happened in the academy when the students were preparing for a test for medical studies. 
Turkey is developing its own stealth fighter. Turkey had ordered F-35s, but before they arrived Turkey and the United States got into a dispute over Turkey ordering the Russian S-400 air defense system. Turkey was warned that a Russian air defense system could not be integrated into the NATO joint air defense system compromising the security of current NATO air defense systems. Turkey disagreed but that did not prevent Turkey from having its F-35 ordered canceled. The only other countries with stealth fighters were Russia and China. The Russian Su-57 didnt work and the Chinese J-20 has little stealth plus production problems China will not talk about. Turkey believes they can avoid the problems Russia and China encountered and deliver its Kaan stealth fighter by 2028. The first flight of the prototype is supposed to take place by the end of 2023.

Kaan is a 27-ton twin engine aircraft with a top speed of 2,200 kilometers an hour, a max altitude of 17 kilometers (55,000 feet), a combat range of 1,000 kilometers and max weapons payload of six tons. While having stealth features, Kaan is not as stealthy as the F-35 and does not have the advanced sensor fusion and flight control capabilities of the F-25. Pilots who have flown all agree that the sensor fusion and novel flight control systems are what really makes the F-35 unique and easier to fly. American warplane manufacturers have been developing these features for decades and the F-35 made full use of that.

Other countries have been less successful at developing stealth fighters. The best example of this is Russia, which failed to get its first stealth fighter, the Su-57, to work as it was designed to. Russia has not stopped trying. For example, in 2021 Russia revealed a new single engine stealth fighter called Checkmate. Sukhoi, the developer and manufacturer of the most successful current Russian fighters, displayed a mockup of the new single-engine Su-75 Checkmate stealth fighter, which is apparently the Russian answer to the similar American F-35. Checkmate is being developed by the same team that designed the Su-57, the Russian answer to the American F-22. The Su-57 proved to be a failure as an F-22 clone and few are being built, and those only for the Russian Air Force. Export customers canceled orders and accused Sukhoi and the Russian government of fraud and trying to sell an aircraft that does not work. Checkmate appears to be a desperate move to salvage something from all the money spent on developing the Su-57. The Su-75 is supposed to enter service in 2027. The Su-57 is still in service and officially entered service in 2020. Currently there are fewer than 20 of them available and the sanctions imposed because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine have limited the ability of Russia to build as many Su-57s as was planned. That was supposed to be about 15 aircraft a year. The Su-57 has not been in combat, although it did briefly operate in Syria where the Israeli were able to track and monitor its performance, Israel concluded that the Su-57 was not very stealthy and did not appear to be capable of exceptional combat performance. That may explain why Su-57s have not been used in Ukraine, where Russia has not been able to achieve air superiority due to the many air defense systems NATO countries have sent Ukraine. So far the Ukrainians have been using older Russian combat aircraft, like the MiG-29 fighter and Su-34 fighter-bomber. These aircraft have been modified to use Western guided missiles and have done so successfully in combat. Russia has not sent any of its Su-35 fighters to Ukraine while Ukraine is about to receive F-16s. Ukrainian pilots believe the F-16s will be able to defeat the Su-35 and MiG-29 fighters and Russia is not eager to test that claim. The F-16 has an extensive and impressive combat record. The Russian fighters do not and want to take on the F-16, even with the Su-35 which was designed to defeat the F-16. That feature has never been tested in combat.

Despite this history, Russia is proceeding with development of its Su-75. This aircraft will come in one and two seat versions, with the two-seater used as a trainer or an electronic warfare aircraft. There were also plans for an unmanned version, without a cockpit, and thus cheaper to build. Russia already has the S-70, a UCAV (unmanned combat aircraft) in production. This stealthy, delta wing aircraft has already been tested accompanying manned fighters and production is underway.

Checkmate is shaped more like the American YF-23, the loser in the competition to select a stealth fighter design. The YF-22 won and in 1991 became the F-22. Only two YF-23s were built as development aircraft and given the amount of data obtained from defense industries by Russian hackers since then, that could have included detailed plans for the YF-23. Moreover, the two YF-23s eventually became museum aircraft and available for anyone to photograph. Over the years many details of the YF-23 performance were published.

Russia used a similar approach when the U.S. had two competing designs for a new ground attack aircraft. The YA-10 won out over the YA-9 in 1973 and entered service in 1976. Russia adopted the YA-9 design and their Su-25 entered service five years later. The Su-25 was successful and over 1,024 were built, compared to 713 A-10s. Both aircraft were popular with the ground troops and are still in use after undergoing several upgrades.

Checkmate saves a lot of time, effort and money adopting the YF-23 design. The Su-57 was an overall disappointment but many of its features were successful and these are apparently being incorporated into the Checkmate. In one respect Checkmate will not match the F-35 and that is the extensive software and data-fusion systems that all pilots report as remarkable and make the F-35 a truly unique aircraft, giving the pilot unique situational awareness of what is going on around him. The Russians have seen the Israelis F-35s in action and were impressed.

Despite all the tech Russia has available for Checkmate, they have much less money available to integrate it all into a new aircraft that will approach the F-35 in performance. Then again, Russia may just be trying to salvage what they can from their Su-57 debacle and find some satisfied export customers for their new Su-75, which is believed to be the official designation of Checkmate once it is flying in a few years. The Checkmate is expected to be a lot cheaper than the Su-57 and F-35 and, unlike the Su-57, deliver what was promised.

Turkey is aware of what the Su-57 has been through and the problem China is having developing its J-20 stealth fighter. Foreign aircraft manufacturers and air forces are looking forward to how the Turkish Kaan stealth fighter turns out. So are the many Moslem countries that Turkey plans to sell Kaan to. Turkey believes that Moslem nations would be interested in buying a stealth fighter developed by a Moslem nation. Turkey already has an impressive track record developing and exporting modern weapons. This includes armored combat vehicles as well as warships. Turkey believes it can succeed with Kaan as well.
PORTLAND, OR and MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Belle Bonica Luxe Corp. / BlockChain Loyalty Corp. (BBLC) is pleased to announce the official closing of the acquisition of True + Luscious a clean beauty brand making waves in the skincare and cosmetics industry. In a previously issued Letter of Intent (LOI) dated May 19th, 2023, BBLC acquired all the assets of True + Luscious, closing the transaction on October 2nd, 2023.

This acquisition is an integral part of BBLC's growth plans to increase revenues through geographic expansion and strategic acquisitions of product lines and companies which are compatible with its business philosophy, brand, and strategic corporate path. BBLC is dedicated to promoting a lifestyle of health, beauty, and wealth; through the acquisition and development of creative & innovative brands that cater to various sectors of the luxury markets, aimed at improving the way of life, while seeking long-term shareholder value. In the next couple of weeks BBLC will be making other important announcements that will shape the direction of the company going forward.

Mehir Sethi founded one of Pakistan's top clean beauty brands; Luscious Cosmetics, which saw its products on the shelves of Sephora Australia after global goods corporation, LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) snapped up Singapore based e-commerce brand Luxola.com in the summer of 2015, where Luscious had been regularly selling its products. Sephora became aware of Luscious' success after acquiring Luxola. The management and board are delighted that Ms. Sethi will stay on to assist with True + Luscious, supporting BBLC and its management through the transition and beyond, as a strategic consultant to the company.

"BBLC's new flagship brand True + Luscious, is an important milestone that the company is pleased to check off it's long list of catalysts. This is just the beginning, and we can't be more thrilled," said Joel DeBellefeuille Chairman & CEO of BBLC.

True + Luscious presents a unique opportunity, as the acquisition comes complete with $2,615,000 in existing inventory, and an email list that consists of over 8,000 customers. The brand is a reputable and profitable business in the high growth clean-beauty industry. Ongoing partnerships with the QVC & HSN (Home Shopping Network) and independent retailers also exist.

About True + Luscious

Founded in 2018 by a beauty industry veteran, True + Luscious is a makeup & skincare brand with established traction in the clean beauty niche. All products are Clean, 100% Vegan, with Sustainable Packaging. True + Luscious is certified by Leaping Bunny, which is the only internationally recognized symbol guaranteeing consumers, that no new animal tests were used in the development of any product displaying their logo.

About Belle Bonica Luxe Corp.

Belle Bonica Luxe Corp. (OTC Pink:BBLC) is dedicated to promoting a lifestyle of health, beauty, and wealth; through the acquisition

and development of creative & innovative brands catering to luxury markets that are aimed at improving your way of life, whileseeking long-term shareholder value. BBLC's promise is to commit to optimizing shareholder value by continuously sourcing un-paralleled revenue generating brands that match the group's 5 pillars of: "no limits. passionate. creative. innovative. fun"

For more information visit: www.bellebonica.com

Joel DeBellefeuille, Chairman & CEO, E. [email protected] Tel. 1.888.653.1268

To learn more about Joel visit: www.joeldebellefeuille.com

Investor Relations: Just3 Public Relations, E. [email protected]

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 27E of the Securities Act of 1934 as well as relevant Canadian securities laws. These statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's expectations regarding future business prospects and opportunities. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict", "potential", "continue", "target" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, the ability to obtain financing and regulatory and shareholder approval for anticipated actions.

The Company does not assume any responsibility to update or revise any past statements regarding plans or projections related to any expected future events in cases where such plans or projections have not materialized or developed as previously stated or expected.

SOURCE: Blockchain Loyalty Corp.

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / BioNxt Solutions Inc. ("BioNxt" or the "Company") (CSE:BNXT)(OTCQB: XPHYF)(FSE:4XT), announces that Per Thoresen and Peter Damouni have resigned as directors of the Company. The Company would like to thank Mr. Thoresen and Mr. Damouni for their contributions to the Company.

The Company is pleased to also announce that Joseph Meagher, the Chief Financial Officer of the Company, has been appointed as a director of the Company to fill one of the vacancies.

About BioNxt Solutions Inc.

BioNxt Solutions Inc. is a bioscience accelerator focused on nextgeneration drug formulations and delivery systems, diagnostic screening tests, and new active pharmaceutical production and evaluation, including: precision transdermal and oral dissolvable drug formulations; rapid, lowcost infectious disease and oral health screening tests; and standardization and clinical evaluation of emerging active pharmaceutical ingredients for neurological applications. The Company has research and development operations in North America and Europe, with an operational focus in Germany, and is currently focused on regulatory approval and commercialization of medical products for European markets

BioNxt Solutions Inc.

Hugh Rogers, CEO and Director

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +1 780-818-6422

SOURCE: BioNxt Solutions Inc.

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EdTech powerhouse, Career Certified, maximizes potential by consolidating all Revenue and Customer Operations, further building on their Centers of Excellence model and solidifying their leadership across multi-vertical career education

DENVER, CO / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Career Certified is pleased to announce the promotions of Dan Harris to President and Chief Revenue Officer and Pat Hirschberg to Senior Vice President of Operations in a move to continue accelerating the Company's strong growth track record and scale for the future.





Dan Harris, Chief Revenue Officer, Career Certified





From his beginnings in Sales at UPS, Dan Harris has mastered success in all his previous posts. Leaning into challenges and evolving market conditions, Dan was the Business Unit President at The CE Shop, a sub-brand of Career Certified, for the past 8 years. With the expansion of the company's portfolio from one brand to several, Dan's objective is to bring the same approach to new brands that he successfully implemented for The CE Shop, the leader in real estate education under Career Certified. Dan will be responsible for all of Product Management, Product Marketing, Sales, and the Learner's Experience, which includes Curriculum, Compliance, and Customer Success.

"Dan Harris embodies everything we hold sacred to doing business the right way," said Gary Weiss, CEO of Career Certified. "Dan is customer-centric, champions the company's Core Values, and is best-in-class when it comes to market strategy and execution. Dan has been an innovator in the EdTech industry, having built the first B2B Sales Team for the Real Estate Industry, implemented cutting edge marketing tactics, and having built and launched new products with great success. This is evident in how he has grown The CE Shop - no matter how challenging the market - from a niche player to the dominant market leader."

"In this role, I'm excited to create an alliance of best practices, focus on core values, and execute with momentum as we continue to build and launch innovative and results driven products that satisfy the needs of our customers," said Dan Harris, "and ultimately serve a group of people I'm deeply proud of and truly enjoy working with."

About Career Certified

Career Certified makes purpose attainable by elevating modern education while accelerating success for students in licensed professions. From Pre-Licensing, Post-Licensing, and Continuing Education coursework to tools for the entire lifecycle of a professional's career, the company pairs an easy-to-use platform and flexible learning options with a deep understanding of students' needs conducive to guiding them to career freedom. Visit CareerCertified.com to learn more.

Contact Information

Liz Meitus

SVP of Corporate Marketing

[email protected]

720-822-5314

SOURCE: Career Certified

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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Gen

An Interview with Erin Gallegos

Gen Blog | Community

By Kim Allman, Head of Corporate Responsibility and Public Policy

Erin Gallegos is no stranger to social impact. She supported English education in a rural village in Thailand as a Peace Corps Volunteer and then led part of an anti-corruption education project supported by the United Nations Development Program. She joined AVG, which is now part of the Gen family of consumer Cyber Safety brands, in 2016 in an internal communications role and before she began her current role as Corporate Responsibility Manager at Gen, based in the Czech Republic, she led programs that focused on equity and inclusion, employee engagement, and philanthropy at the former Avast Foundation.

I recently spoke with Erin about social impact at Gen in the Czech Republic.

KA: I want to start by asking what drew you towards and has kept you working in corporate responsibility?

EG: Well, I'm interested in systems and communities. Our field is constantly evolving, which is also very compelling. Today, there's a greater focus on how companies can both do well and do good, and that increases the potential to make a positive impact in partnership with the communities and NGOs tackling challenging societal problems day in and day out.

KA: How does social impact typically manifest for employees in the Czech Republic?

EG: While people have individual preferences and interests, our Czech employees are united in two things: they care about community impact and efficiency, and they rightfully challenge our team to make sure we're working in ways that create meaningful impact.

People seem especially keen on volunteering. I'm always pleasantly surprised to learn that many of my colleagues volunteer their time outside of work or make recurring donations to nonprofits they care about. I'm focusing on connecting what resonates with them with what we offer as a company to make a bigger impact.

KA: Are there any social impact highlights from the Czech Republic sites you'd like to mention?

EG: Recently, a few of our employees participated in summer camps and summer IT schools for kids organized by our strategic partner, Czechitas. They acted as judges at student competitions and taught lectures, as well. I'm consistently impressed with how many of our employees work directly in the community to share their knowledge.

KA: I'm curious if there are unique perspectives you've gained or things you've learned by working in social impact in the Czech Republic specifically.

EG: I'm still learning about this sector overall and in the Czech Republic specifically. I have experienced two large-scale social upheavals while living here-COVID and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In both, what I observed in Czech society at large, as well as in the Gen community, was the immediate sense of solidarity. People see a need, and no one has to ask them to fill it. They just act.

KA: Finally, when you look back at your work in social impact, are there projects you're especially proud of, or moments that still stick with you?

EG: I'm always proud of the work that centers on young people. We have numerous Cyber Safety education programs that help prepare youth for the challenges and opportunities of a fully connected future - partnerships with Discovery Education, World Association of Girl Guides and Girls Scouts, Save the Children India and more. I'm also proud of our work with Global Fund for Children and Moonshot Platform to support young people who are making change.

We're excited to have Erin on the Gen Corporate Responsibility Team and welcome her as a new contributor to the Gen Impact Blog. Check back on the blog soon for her insights leading product donation and for the new targeted product donation pilot program she is running in partnership with TechSoup.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Gen on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Gen

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/gen

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE: Gen

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MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / October 2, 2023 / Intraway, the leader in no-code orchestration and provisioning OSS, stands out as the only vendor to win two catalysts during Digital Transformation World 2023 - Ignite. Out of over 50 exceptional innovations presented at the event, Intraway achieved remarkable recognition by securing top honors in both categories in which it participated.

Intraway's Double Win at DTW 2023

Intraway Wins Big at TM Forum DTW 2023 - Ignite with two Catalyst Project awards

Intent-Driven Autonomous Networks - Phase III

Winner in the Outstanding Catalyst - Best Innovation & Future Techco Category - Finalist in the Outstanding Catalyst - Use of TM Forum Assets and Outstanding Catalyst - Excellence in the application of AI & Automation Categories.

Intraway's triumph in this category marks a significant milestone in the evolution of IDAN. The company's commitment to creating a comprehensive view of intent APIs has unlocked immense potential for business benefits within autonomous networks. The collaboration included participation from AIS, CAITC, China Mobile, China Unicorn, Ericsson, Huawei, Infosys, TIM, Sparkle, Telenor Group, and Universit Degli Studi Di Milano.

Intelligent Edge For Sustainable Agriculture - Phase II

Winner in the Outstanding Catalyst - Sustainability & Impact on Society Category and Finalist in the Outstanding Catalyst - Best Innovation & Future Techco and Outstanding Catalyst - Excellence in the application of AI & Automation Categories.

Intraway's second award-winning project focuses on sustainable agriculture, presenting a scalable blueprint and reference implementation that efficiently delivers IoT, 5G network slicing, MEC orchestration, and sustainability services tailored to specific precision operations. This initiative encompasses smart weeding, smart irrigation, and animal health management. Intraway collaborated with industry giants such as AWS, ETIYA, EPAM, NTT, OneCup AI, RedHat, Telus, VantiQ, and Verizon to bring this innovative project to life.

"We are thrilled to receive this recognition for our work in Intent-driven Autonomous Networks and Sustainable Agriculture," said Diego Ambuhl, Product Portfolio Director at Intraway. "These awards reflect our commitment to being at the forefront of Digital Transformation, and we are honored to have engaged with industry leaders and TM Forum to achieve these remarkable milestones. These catalyst projects testify to our commitment to innovation and our determination to provide cutting-edge solutions for our clients. As part of this commitment, Intraway has been one of the 31 Companies that signed the Autonomous Networks Manifesto to help our customers move forward into the Network Automation initiatives."

Intraway also extends heartfelt gratitude to its dedicated team members whose expertise and dedication made these achievements possible.

For inquiries and interviews regarding Intraway's award-winning projects, please contact our marketing department at [email protected].

About Intraway

With over 40 million subscribers successfully served in more than 20 countries over three continents, Intraway specializes in driving fixed-line and wireless operators' Digital Transformation projects with a 100% success rate.

Symphonica, Intraway's Business Process and Service Orchestration platform, is a no-code, cloud-native, telco-grade orchestration and service activation platform for automating the entire life cycle of services orchestrated across multiple networks and technology domains.

Contact Information:

Alexa Lazerow

Marketing Manager

[email protected]

443-453-7337

SOURCE: Intraway

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MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / October 2, 2023 / Alphinat Inc. (TSXV:NPA), a leading Canadian software low-code solution company for public sector listed on the TSX-V, formally announces the resignation of all its external directors from the board of directors including Eric David, Edwin Shepherdson, Sridhar Subramanian, Rachel Porteous. These decisions come during the increasingly challenging economic climate the company is facing and changed IT allocations by Canadian public sector that government focused software companies are presently navigating. The company's external audit firm RCGT has also resigned as a result of to date only receiving partial payment for their services as the company continues to manage cash.

The board acknowledges the substantial contributions of the departing directors and understands the weight of their decision given the current economic landscape. The company is taking prudent steps to ensure continuity in governance and will provide further updates on the progression of these measures in due course. We sincerely thank our investors, partners, and clients for their ongoing support during these transitional times.

While this is undoubtedly a significant transition for Alphinat Inc., we remain committed to steering the company through these turbulent times. We are initiating immediate steps to strengthen our governance and will communicate our way forward in due course. Our commitment to our shareholders, stakeholders, and the broader community remains unwavering, and we thank you for your continued trust and support.

About Alphinat

Alphinat is a FINTECH company which develops software for governments and is actively used to serve over 50 million end-users of federal, state, and municipal digital services. Alphinat employs Artificial Intelligence and reduces the need to code, allowing managers to quickly deploy online solutions that easily integrate with existing systems.

Recent advances include LIVEaiASSIST which entered BETA release in July 2023. LIVEaiASSIST greatly accelerates solution development for easy-to-use digital services for public sector. Alphinat is also adding AI generate testing and training modules , both high value upgrades, to better test and scale solutions while enhancing transfer & retention of knowledge within organizations.

At Alphinat, we enable people to easily develop and deploy secure digital service leveraging our SmartGuide low code development software. We provide those closest to an application's end-users with an easy-to-use no-code software development platform. At the same time, we're constantly working to reduce the need to code to make application development and maintenance simpler and less error prone.

So, whether you choose to develop your applications with the help of our low-code platform SmartGuide, kickstart your project using one of our pre-built apps or engage us or one of our partners to do the work for you, we're here to help you deploy better applications in record time. Visit us at https://www.alphinat.com for more information. We look forward to hearing from you.

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements in this document, including those which express management's expectations or estimations with regards to the Company's future performance constitute "forward-looking statements" as understood by applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are, of necessity, based on a certain number of estimates and hypotheses; while management considers these to be accurate at the time they are expressed, they are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and risks on the commercial, economic and competitive levels. We advise readers that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other known and unknown factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. A number of factors could cause significant differences between actual results and those described in forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to,the Company's capacity to increase acceptance of its products on the market, and to penetrate new markets; the potential existence of defects or undetected problems in the Company's products; the Company's ability to manage its growth; the Company's ability to compete with others; potential commitments; maintaining the Company's intellectual property rights and defending against litigation putting those rights in question; the Company's reliance on the knowledge of its key personnel; and the Company's access to sufficient capital to finance its future needs. This is a partial and non-exhaustive list of factors that could bear on any of our forward-looking statements. Investors are advised to not rely unduly on the forward-looking statements. This advisory applies to all forward-looking statements, whether expressed orally or in writing, attributed to Alphinat or to any individual expressing them in the name of the Company. The Company is under no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events, or other circumstances. Risks and uncertainties that bear on the Company are described in greater detail in the Company's Annual Report.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information please contact

Mr. Curtis Page

Chief Executive Officer

Alphinat Inc.

(514) 398-9799 ext. 225

SOURCE: Alphinat Inc.

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Highlights

Discovery of a new mineralised ultramafic magmatic intrusive complex. This strongly suggests potential for additional mineralised bodies in the Lac Brul virgin territory.

The July 2023 maiden drill program outlined nickel and copper mineralisation within the discovered Ultramafic Magmatic ("UM") intrusive complex: Hole LB-23-12 intersected 112 metres ("m") of UM intrusions with 19.1m of combined mineralisation grading 1.35% Copper Equivalent ("Cueq") including 12.6m at 0.56% nickel ("Ni") and 0.38% copper ("Cu"). Hole LB-23-04 intersected a total of 50m of UM intrusions with a combined 14m grading 1.19% Cueq including 6.1m at 0.54% Ni and 0.39% Cu. Hole LB-23-05 intersected a total of 155m of UM intrusions with a combined 13m grading 1.08% Cueq including 4.3m at 0.55% Ni and 0.35% Cu.



MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / SRQ Resources Inc. ("SRQ" or the "Company") (TSX-V:SRQ) is pleased to announce the discovery of a virgin UM intrusive complex hosting base metal mineralisation at its Lac Brule project in Quebec. This important new discovery reinforces SRQ's commitment to unlocking the region's mineral potential. The UM intrusive complex discovery was informed by SRQ's geological reinterpretation of the notoriously under-explored region and revealed through a maiden 13-hole drilling program on Lac Brule.

The 13 drill holes for the 3,950m maiden drilling program were conducted in July 2023 on Lac Brule located in the Upper Laurentian region of Quebec (Figure 1), a five-hour drive from Montreal.

Key Findings

UM Intrusive Complex: The existence of an UM intrusive complex provides valuable new insights into the geological history of this never-explored region and implies untapped potential for additional mineralised bodies. Tectonic Significance: Pyroxenite intrusive units are injected into highly deformed and highly metamorphosed gneiss, intercalated with garnet-rich amphibolites of the Grenville geological province. Characteristics of the newly discovered UM intrusion suggest it intruded the gneissic assemblage during the last tectonic event related to the Grenville metamorphic event. Base Metal Sulfide Mineralisation: Analysis of the drilling samples indicates the presence of significant Ni and Cu mineralisation (Figures 2 & 3) associated with pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and pentlandite. This discovery strongly suggests potential for additional mineralised units of large UM intrusive complexes.

Dr. Marc-Antoine Audet, Ph.D., P.Geo., CEO and President of SRQ, said, "We are thrilled that our first-ever drilling program on the Gossan Zone led to the discovery of this mineralised magmatic complex intruding the highly deformed Grenville rock sequence. Today's maiden results not only underline the prospectivity of the region, but also demonstrate our commitment to structured and sustainable exploration for base metals. We look forward to unlocking the full potential of this fantastic discovery."

Untapped Geological Potential of SRQ's Lac Brule Property

SRQ's new discovery was made on its 100%-owned Lac Brule property located 50km north-west of the former Renzy Ni-Cu mine on the unceded lands of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg community. The former Renzy mine operated from 1969 to 1972 (Figure 1). UM intrusive bodies host mineralisation at both the Renzy mine and at Lac Brule. Both sites present several striking similarities, including mineralogy, petrology and timing of emplacement.

No historical prospecting or ground exploration had been reported from the Lac Brule area prior to SRQ's involvement. The past-producing Renzy Ni-Cu mine is the closest mining activity with historical information available.The Company is targeting Ni and Cu mineralisation at Lac Brule that could be similar to those at the Renzy mine and at other known Ni-Cu deposits in Canada and worldwide.

Figure 1: SRQ's Properties in Canadian Province of Quebec

As a follow-up to the gossan discovered in May 2021 (see Sama Resources Inc, Press Release 2021-06-16), SRQ commissioned Xcalibur Multiphysics (MPH) Canada Inc. to conduct a HELITEM II electromagnetic ("EM") survey in December 2021. SRQ followed up with ground EM and Induced Polarisation ("IP") surveys in the summer of 2022, confirming two major target sectors with high conductivity (Figure 2).

July drill hole locations in relation to conductivity targets are shown on Figure 2. Only the Gossan Zone has been drilled while the larger North Zone is still untested.

Holes LB-23-01 to -05 and LB-23-10 to -13 were drilled at the main 600m-long, NE-SW oriented conductive zone. Holes LB-23-06 to -08 tested a smaller conductive zone 500m north of the first one. Hole LB-23-09 was used for geological purposes to help understand the geological sequencing.

Figure 2: Enlargement of 2022 IP Results from Untested North Zone, together with 2022 Ground EM Survey and Location of 13 Drill Hole Maiden Drilling Program

Lac Brule Newly Discovered Ni-Cu Mineralisation

The Ni-Cu mineralisation encountered is characterized by cumulate and aggregates of iron, copper and nickel sulfides: pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and pentlandite, respectively. Pyrrhotite is the dominant sulfide with visible chalcopyrite. Pentlandite can be seen mixed with pyrrhotite. The textures of the sulfide mineralisation vary from disseminated to semi-massive to massive (> 80% of sulfide material) showing net-texture or brecciated sulfides between pyroxene and amphiboles. Thin massive sulfides horizons are intercalated and sometimes associated with garnet-rich xenoliths.

Cobalt mineralisation is present in the sulfide material on hole LB-23-06.

Figure 3: Drill Hole Core Mineralisation: LB-23-12 at 123.6m (pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and pentlandite)

Appendices 1 and 2 provide composited drilling results at cut-off-grades ("COG") of 0.2% and 0.4% Ni, respectively. All measurements are in core lengths.

Quality Control

Core logging and sampling are performed at SRQ's field facilities by SRQ's staff. Sample preparation and analysis are carried out by Activation Laboratories Ltd (Actlab), Ancaster and Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. All samples were assayed for Ni, Cu, Co, Fe, S, Pt, Pd and Au using sodium peroxide fusion ICP for the first five elements and by Fire Assay ICPOES for the last three.

The technical information in this release has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Marc-Antoine Audet, Ph. D geology, P. Geo and President and CEO of SRQ Resources, and a Qualified Person', as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About SRQ Resources Inc.

SRQ is a Canadian base metals company exploring for nickel, copper and platinum in the province of Quebec.

A near-surface Ni-Cu project, Lac Brule is located on a 288km virgin exploration property at a five-hour drive from Montreal. The project's prospectivity for base metals has been confirmed by geological mapping, the presence of a surface gossan, and geophysical surveys. The presence of the historic Renzy Ni-Cu mine located 50 kilometers to the south-east and at the heart of the large regional pattern further adds to the area's mineral exploration appeal.

For more information about SRQ, please visit SRQ's website at www.srqexploration.com

Contact Information:

Marc-Antoine Audet, President and CEO

Tel: (514) 726-4158

Forward-Looking Statements and Forward-Looking Information:

Certain of the statements made and information contained herein are "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information characterized by terms such as "will", could", "expect", "estimate", "evidence", "potential", "appears", "seems", "suggest", are inherently subject to significant business, economic, and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Known and unknown factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and forward-looking information, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements and information. Such factors include, but are not limited to: the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development; assumptions relating to the trading price of the Company's common shares; the ability of the Company to convert resources in reserves, its ability to see through the next phase of development on any project, its ability to produce a pre-feasibility study or a feasibility study regarding any project, its ability to execute on its development plans in terms of metallurgy or exploration, the availability of financing for activities, risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results and the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits, the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, metal price fluctuations, environmental and regulatory requirements, availability of permits, escalating costs of remediation and mitigation, risk of title loss, the effects of accidents, equipment breakdowns, labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties with or interruptions in exploration or development, the potential for delays in exploration or development activities, the inherent uncertainty of cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, commodity price fluctuations, currency fluctuations, expectations and beliefs of management and other risks and uncertainties. Many of these uncertainties and contingencies can affect the Company's actual results and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements and forward-looking information made by or expressed on behalf of the Company. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Appendix 1 and 2

Appendix 1: Drill Hole Intercepts Defined Using a COG of 0.2% Ni (in core lengths)

Cueq: ((Cu%*3.75)+(Ni%*9.0))/3.75

HOLE-ID FROM TO LENGTH Cueq Ni Cu Co S Fe MgO m m M % % % % % % % LB-23-01 127.5 127.75 0.25 0.86 0.30 0.15 0.03 3.80 12.10 22.39 134.35 135.75 1.40 0.76 0.21 0.25 0.01 1.35 8.70 15.17 164.90 165.45 0.55 0.68 0.20 0.20 0.03 4.00 14.10 13.20 181.00 182.00 1.00 0.66 0.21 0.17 0.03 3.99 12.20 17.74 188.00 189.10 1.10 0.72 0.22 0.20 0.03 4.61 13.75 18.99 192.00 211.45 19.45 0.81 0.24 0.22 0.04 4.98 14.40 18.99 Combined 23.75 0.79 0.24 0.22 0.03 4.67 13.91 18.62 LB-23-02 130.70 132.00 1.30 0.77 0.23 0.23 0.02 1.98 11.40 24.54 147.80 151.65 3.85 1.06 0.30 0.33 0.04 6.59 16.58 17.21 152.25 152.40 0.15 1.07 0.35 0.25 0.05 7.57 18.00 18.74 157.50 164.20 6.70 0.85 0.24 0.28 0.03 4.79 14.29 16.06 171.20 174.80 3.60 0.77 0.22 0.24 0.03 4.86 14.27 20.10 Combined 15.6 0.88 0.25 0.28 0.04 5.04 14.64 18.01 LB-23-03 130.15 149.05 18.90 0.76 0.23 0.22 0.03 4.32 13.47 16.92 150.05 151.55 1.50 0.78 0.24 0.20 0.03 4.54 13.62 20.02 153.35 153.70 0.35 0.84 0.27 0.19 0.04 5.28 14.00 18.08 160.70 164.30 3.60 0.88 0.26 0.25 0.04 4.85 13.70 19.08 168.70 171.60 2.90 0.74 0.24 0.17 0.03 4.39 12.70 18.32 198.25 202.10 3.85 0.78 0.25 0.19 0.03 3.68 14.29 24.95 218.20 220.20 2.00 0.84 0.27 0.19 0.03 3.05 13.55 24.71 221.20 222.00 0.80 0.87 0.25 0.28 0.02 3.10 12.80 17.91 222.85 223.85 1.00 0.79 0.24 0.22 0.03 2.80 13.80 27.20 Combined 34.90 0.78 0.24 0.22 0.03 4.19 13.53 19.05 LB-23-04 150.70 161.30 10.60 1.30 0.41 0.32 0.05 7.91 17.65 15.52 164.00 167.45 3.45 0.87 0.26 0.24 0.03 5.23 13.78 13.31 Combined 14.05 1.19 0.37 0.30 0.05 7.25 16.70 14.98 LB-23-05 139.20 152.15 12.95 1.08 0.34 0.27 0.04 6.34 15.98 16.87 LB-23-06 198.75 201.00 2.25 1.36 0.44 0.31 0.11 17.09 31.28 15.92 202.30 202.40 0.10 0.91 0.31 0.16 0.08 12.50 23.70 18.24 Combined 2.35 1.34 0.43 0.30 0.11 16.90 30.96 16.01 LB-23-12 106.15 113.50 7.35 1.19 0.38 0.28 0.05 7.05 15.68 14.35 114.90 115.10 0.20 1.63 0.53 0.35 0.07 10.30 20.50 15.95 118.00 124.70 6.70 1.32 0.42 0.31 0.06 8.15 18.71 19.49 127.50 130.85 3.35 1.57 0.51 0.34 0.07 9.64 21.00 19.05 133.30 134.80 1.50 1.78 0.55 0.46 0.07 10.60 20.97 17.30 Combined 19.10 1.35 0.43 0.32 0.06 8.20 18.14 17.23

Appendix 2: Drill Hole Intercepts Defined Using a COG of 0.4% Ni (in core lengths)

Cueq: ((Cu%*3.75)+(Ni%*9.0))/3.75

HOLE-ID FROM TO LENGTH Cueq Ni Cu Co S Fe MgO m m m % % % % % % % LB-23-01 210.85 211.45 0.60 1.31 0.41 0.34 0.06 8.80 19.50 18.24 LB-23-02 149.30 149.60 0.30 1.39 0.48 0.24 0.07 10.40 21.60 16.91 LB-23-03 132.55 133.30 0.75 1.57 0.46 0.46 0.06 9.06 19.80 17.58 138.80 138.95 0.15 2.00 0.62 0.51 0.09 12.40 24.80 11.26 145.05 145.35 0.30 2.38 0.70 0.70 0.09 13.70 25.30 16.91 146.00 146.40 0.40 2.17 0.64 0.64 0.09 12.40 23.00 17.41 Combined 1.60 1.91 0.56 0.56 0.07 11.08 22.10 16.82 LB-23-04 150.70 154.95 4.25 1.68 0.56 0.35 0.07 10.72 21.45 15.62 158.65 160.10 1.45 1.81 0.53 0.53 0.07 10.63 21.21 14.99 160.90 161.30 0.40 1.32 0.41 0.34 0.05 8.09 17.80 15.21 Combined 6.10 1.69 0.54 0.39 0.07 10.53 21.15 15.44 LB-23-05 140.20 141.20 1.00 1.16 0.41 0.17 0.05 7.44 17.00 15.85 143.15 144.40 1.25 1.55 0.53 0.27 0.07 10.53 22.34 13.13 145.40 145.95 0.55 1.89 0.65 0.32 0.09 12.90 23.40 15.26 147.75 149.25 1.50 2.05 0.62 0.55 0.08 12.14 23.23 16.24 Combined 4.30 1.68 0.55 0.35 0.07 10.68 21.54 15.12 LB-23-06 200.00 201.00 1.00 1.77 0.59 0.36 0.15 23.00 39.30 11.56 LB-23-12 106.15 107.80 1.65 2.06 0.71 0.36 0.09 12.89 23.82 17.71 110.65 113.00 2.35 1.51 0.49 0.34 0.06 9.21 18.59 17.47 114.90 115.10 0.20 1.63 0.53 0.35 0.07 10.30 20.50 15.95 119.00 120.95 1.95 1.67 0.52 0.42 0.07 10.15 21.55 19.10 122.45 124.70 2.25 1.57 0.52 0.33 0.07 9.97 22.22 20.90 128.15 130.85 2.70 1.79 0.59 0.39 0.07 11.04 23.00 19.37 133.30 134.80 1.50 1.78 0.55 0.46 0.07 10.60 20.97 17.30 Combined 12.60 1.71 0.56 0.38 0.07 10.55 21.64 18.73

SOURCE: SRQ Resources

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NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 3, 2023 / Zimtu Capital Corp. (TSXV:ZC)(FSE:ZCT1) (the "Company" or "Zimtu") announces that it has entered into an agreement with Todd River Resources (ASX:TRT) ("Todd River") to sell thirty-seven (37) mineral claims located approximately 250 kms northeast of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (NWT) collectively known as the Munn Lake properties (the "Halo-Yuri Lithium Project"). Zimtu will receive a cash payment of $80,000 in addition to 32,240,000 shares of Todd River Resources for the transaction. Zimtu will retain a 1% net smelter returns royalty (NSR) on all metals and minerals and a 1% gross overriding royalty (GOR) on Lithium and/or Diamond production from 33 of the 37 mineral claims, which constitute the Halo Property.

Halo-Yuri Lithium Project

The Halo-Yuri Lithium Project covers approximately 450 square kilometers and comprises 37 contiguous claims. It is located approximately 250 kms northeast of Yellowknife on the Gahcho Kue annual winter road which provides access for exploration programs and is within a few hundred meters of the OIG' spodumene occurrence. Historically, exploration on the project has focused on diamonds with little or no previous work on lithium bearing pegmatites albeit there is documented spodumene (Li bearing mineral) bearing pegmatites with numerous unexplored targets (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - Halo-Yuri Lithium Project showing mapped spodumene occurrences and the distribution of pegmatites.

Approximately 40 kilometers to the northeast of the Halo-Yuri Lithium Project is the Alymer Lake pegmatite field that contains both the Big Bird Lithium Pegmatite (1,280m in strike with 34m @ 1.24% Li2O in drilling) and the Curlew Lithium Pegmatite (400m strike length and 14.8m @ 1.72% Li2O in drilling). No assurances can be given that a similar or any mineral resource estimate will be determined at the Halo-Yuri Lithium Project.

Historical work across the project by Southern Era noted that most outcrop occurrences on the property consisted of various types of granitoids, metasediments and pegmatites with large NW-SE trending pegmatites of the MacKenzie Dyke Swarm crosscutting the property.

Spodumene is mapped at the OIG' pegmatites in the northwest of the project, and at the Sweet' pegmatite which is located a few hundred meters to the east of the project. The OIG pegmatites are described in a 1991 Master's thesis by Paul Tomascak submitted to the University of Manitoba which states "The four dikes of this series all contain spodumene and little K-feldspar, although OIG-4 is largely aplitic and the spodumene is not as coarse as it is in all other dikes of the series. Despite the presence of extensive spodumene, dikes are poorly zoned. Dikes are elongated, in general striking north south. Contact relations are incomplete, but most dikes appear concordant with metasediment schistosity. Lengths of dikes range from 6 to 18 m. Texturally and mineralogically these dikes appear to belong to Cerny's (1982) albite-spodumene type, bearing similarities to the King's Mountain pegmatites of North Carolina, U.S.A. (Kesler, 1976)."

Furthermore, Tomascak goes on to say "OIG-1, 2, 3: These dikes are spodumene-rich and poorly zoned. They consist of a random assemblage of 0.5-4.0 cm spodumene + quartz + plagioclase (usually cleavelandite) muscovite K-feldspar (some megacrysts up to 5 cm). Randomly distributed pods of blocky spodumene + K-feldspar cleavelandite also are present in these dikes. Aside from spodumene they remarkably lack other rare-element minerals.

OIG-4: This dike is much smaller than the others and appears extensively metasomatized. It contains a near-homogeneous and relatively fine-grained assemblage of cleavelandite + spodumene +muscovite+ quartz."

High resolution satellite-based targeting and mapping will be utilized to filter out high priority areas prior to undertaking detailed field work. A field program is proposed to start in fall of 2023.

Private Placement Update

The Company announces that it does not intend to proceed at this time with the third tranche of its non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") as previously announced in its News Releases of March 14, 2023, May 2, 2023, May 16, 2023, June 16, 2023 and July 17, 2023, for the issuance of up to 18,750,000 units (each, a "Unit") at a price of $0.08 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $1,500,000.

On May 2, 2023, the Company closed the first tranche of the Offering pursuant to which it sold an aggregate of 13,759,042 Units for gross proceeds of $1,100,723.36. On July 17, 2023, the Company closed a second tranche of the Offering pursuant to which it sold an aggregate of 2,312,500 Units for gross proceeds of $185,000. Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company (each, a "Share") and one non-transferable share purchase warrant (each, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant is exercisable into one additional Share (a "Warrant Share") at a price of $0.10 per Warrant Share for a period of three years from the closing date.

National Instrument 43-101 Disclosure

Nicholas Rodway, P.Geo, (License #46541) (Permit to Practice# 100359) is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Rodway has reviewed and approved the technical content in this release.

About Todd River Resources

Todd River Resources (ASX:TRT) is an Australian-based resources company that is focused on critical minerals that are essential for the future. The Company is in the process of acquiring several lithium focused projects in Canada and continues to own a base metal resource at its Mt. Hardy Project in the Northern Territory as well as several exciting Ni-Cu-PGE and base metal projects in Western Australia.

With a strong management team and strong financial position, Todd River is well placed to pursue additional critical mineral opportunities across Canada and Australia.

About Zimtu Capital

Zimtu Capital Corp. is a public investment issuer that aspires to achieve long-term capital appreciation for its shareholders. Zimtu Capital companies may operate in the fields of mineral exploration, mining, technology, life sciences or investment. The Company trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "ZC" and Frankfurt under symbol "ZCT1". For more information visit: www.zimtu.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

ZIMTU CAPITAL CORP.

"Sean Charland"

Sean Charland

President & Director

Tel: 604.681.1568

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Zimtu Capital Corp.

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 Sub-group analysis from Blue Earth Diagnostics Phase 3 LIGHTHOUSE trial highlights POSLUMA utility to guide treatment selection and potentially avoid futile surgery 

This press release is for U.S. audiences only

MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J. & OXFORD, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Blue Earth Diagnostics, a Bracco company and recognized leader in the development and commercialization of innovative positron emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceuticals, today announced results from a sub-group analysis from the Phase 3 LIGHTHOUSE trial (NC04186819) which evaluated the safety and diagnostic performance of POSLUMA (flotufolastat F 18) PET in men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer. Specifically, this sub-group examined the performance of flotufolastat F 18 PET in newly diagnosed, high-risk prostate cancer patients who had negative results with conventional imaging. Recently approved by the U.S. FDA, POSLUMA is indicated for positron emission tomography (PET) of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positive lesions in men with prostate cancer with suspected metastasis who are candidates for initial definitive therapy or with suspected recurrence based on elevated serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003074334/en/

POSLUMA (flotufolastat F 18) PET/CT image showing uptake in the prostate gland, consistent with primary prostate cancer Photo courtesy of Blue Earth Diagnostics

Results highlights:

The sensitivity and specificity of flotufolastat F 18 for the detection of pelvic lymph nodes in 174 patients who underwent surgery ranged from 24-33% and 92-96%, respectively, across 3 blinded, independent readers.

The detection rate for M1 lesions (lesions that have spread beyond the pelvic area) for flotufolastat F 18 in 197 patients was 14% - 25% across the 3 readers.

Of identified lesions, 16-25 were successfully verified as True Positive, providing a M1 Verified Detection Rate (VDR) of 8.1  13%, across the 3 readers.

Effective initial staging of prostate cancer, particularly with regards to the detection of metastatic disease, is critical to optimal clinical management of patients, said Phillip H. Kuo, MD, Ph.D., Departments of Medical Imaging, Medicine, and Biomedical Engineering. The demonstrated performance of PSMA-PET imaging fits an important unmet need, given that conventional imaging techniques are limited in the information they provide. This analysis from the LIGHTHOUSE study showed that flotufolastat F 18 provides clinically useful information about the presence of both metastatic pelvic lymph nodes and M1 disease prior to surgery in patients with high-risk prostate cancer who had negative results on conventional imaging. Such information can help guide treatment selection and potentially avoid futile surgery for patients with high-risk disease.

We are pleased to present these results from the LIGHTHOUSE study to the radiation oncology community at ASTRO, said David E. Gauden, D.Phil., Chief Executive Officer of Blue Earth Diagnostics. POSLUMA provides physicians with high-quality diagnostic information based on its diagnostic performance even at low PSA levels, high-affinity PSMA binding and low urinary bladder activity. In a post-hoc Phase 3 analysis, as well as in preclinical and Phase 1 studies, POSLUMA demonstrated low urinary bladder activity, providing for enhanced image evaluation in the prostate and regions near the ureters for patients with prostate cancer. The product is labeled with the radioisotope fluorine-18 (18F) to leverage the high image quality of 18F-labeled PSMA PET imaging, to facilitate effective detection of disease and enable broad, readily available geographic access for patients through the manufacturing and distribution network of our commercial U.S. manufacturer and distributor, PETNET Solutions Inc, A Siemens Healthineers Company. Nationally recognized clinical oncology guidelines for prostate cancer now include POSLUMA, alongside and for all the same categories as the other currently FDA-approved PSMA PET radiopharmaceuticals.

The findings were discussed in a poster Q&A session at the 2023 ASTRO Annual Meeting on October 3, 2023,Diagnostic Performance of 18F-rhPSMA-7.3 PET in Men with Newly Diagnosed High-risk Prostate Cancer and Negative Conventional Imaging, by Phillip H. Kuo, MD, Ph.D., Departments of Medical Imaging, Medicine, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. on behalf of Gary A. Ulaner, MD, Ph.D., Hoag Family Cancer Institute, Irvine, Calif. and University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif., for the LIGHTHOUSE Study Group. Full session details and the abstract are available in the ASTRO online program here.

About the study

The sub-group analysis of LIGHTHOUSE data evaluated a subgroup of patients with high/very high-risk prostate cancer who had no evidence of nodal or metastatic disease on conventional imaging. Treatment-naive patients scheduled for radical prostatectomy (RP) plus pelvic lymph node (PLN) dissection underwent flotufolastat F 18 PET. Local readers interpreted the scans prior to RP and ahead of a blinded read by 3 central readers. If the local read indicated M1 disease, verification (biopsy, surgery, or confirmatory follow-up imaging) of PET-positive M1 lesions was attempted before treatment. The analysis evaluated flotufolastat F 18 sensitivity and specificity for detection of PLN metastases in all high/very high-risk patients with negative conventional imaging at baseline who underwent flotufolastat F 18 PET and subsequent surgery. Histopathology was used as the standard of truth (SoT). Additionally, the M1 verified detection rate (VDR; % of patients with true positive (TP) M1 lesions using histopathology or follow-up imaging as SoT out of all patients scanned) was assessed in an extended population of all patients who had flotufolastat F 18 PET, regardless of surgery.

The sensitivity and specificity for PLN detection among 174 men with very/high-risk PCa and negative conventional imaging ranged from 24-33% and 92-96%, respectively, across the 3 readers. M1 lesions were identified in 28-51 of the 197 patients in the extended population, giving an overall M1 detection rate of 14-26%, across the 3 readers. Of the identified lesions, 16-25 were successfully verified (predominantly using follow-up imaging as SoT) as TP, providing a M1 VDR of 8.1-13%, across the 3 readers.

No serious adverse events were observed in the LIGHTHOUSE study. Overall, 28 of the 356 (7.9%) patients who received flotufolastat F 18 had at least one treatment-emergent adverse event that was considered possibly related to flotufolastat F 18. The most frequently reported adverse event for patients in the LIGHTHOUSE study was injection site pain among 0.8% (3/356) of patients.

About Radiohybrid Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (rhPSMA)

Radiohybrid Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (rhPSMA) compounds consist of a radiohybrid (rh) Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen-targeted receptor ligand which attaches to and is internalized by prostate cancer cells, and they may be radiolabeled with imaging isotopes for PET imaging, or with therapeutic isotopes for therapeutic use  providing the potential for creating a true theranostic technology. Radiohybrid technology and rhPSMA originated from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Blue Earth Diagnostics acquired exclusive, worldwide rights to rhPSMA diagnostic imaging technology from Scintomics GmbH in 2018, and therapeutic rights in 2020, and sublicensed the therapeutic application to its sister company Blue Earth Therapeutics. Blue Earth Diagnostics received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its radiohybrid PET diagnostic imaging product for use in prostate cancer in 2023. rhPSMA compounds for potential therapeutic use are investigational and have not received regulatory approval.

Indication and Important Safety Information About POSLUMA

INDICATION

POSLUMA (flotufolastat F 18) injection is indicated for positron emission tomography (PET) of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positive lesions in men with prostate cancer

with suspected metastasis who are candidates for initial definitive therapy

with suspected recurrence based on elevated serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

Image interpretation errors can occur with POSLUMA PET. A negative image does not rule out the presence of prostate cancer and a positive image does not confirm the presence of prostate cancer. The performance of POSLUMA for imaging metastatic pelvic lymph nodes in patients prior to initial definitive therapy seems to be affected by serum PSA levels and risk grouping. The performance of POSLUMA for imaging patients with biochemical evidence of recurrence of prostate cancer seems to be affected by serum PSA levels. Flotufolastat F 18 uptake is not specific for prostate cancer and may occur in other types of cancer, in non-malignant processes, and in normal tissues. Clinical correlation, which may include histopathological evaluation, is recommended.

The performance of POSLUMA for imaging patients with biochemical evidence of recurrence of prostate cancer seems to be affected by serum PSA levels. Flotufolastat F 18 uptake is not specific for prostate cancer and may occur in other types of cancer, in non-malignant processes, and in normal tissues. Clinical correlation, which may include histopathological evaluation, is recommended. Risk of Image Misinterpretation in Patients with Suspected Prostate Cancer Recurrence: The interpretation of POSLUMA PET may differ depending on imaging readers, particularly in the prostate/prostate bed region. Because of the associated risk of false positive interpretation, consider multidisciplinary consultation and histopathological confirmation when clinical decision-making hinges on flotufolastat F 18 uptake only in the prostate/prostate bed region or only on uptake interpreted as borderline.

POSLUMA use contributes to a patients overall long-term cumulative radiation exposure. Long-term cumulative radiation exposure is associated with an increased risk for cancer. Advise patients to hydrate before and after administration and to void frequently after administration. Ensure safe handling to minimize radiation exposure to the patient and health care providers.

The adverse reactions reported in 0.4% of patients in clinical studies were diarrhea, blood pressure increase and injection site pain.

Drug Interactions: androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and other therapies targeting the androgen pathway, such as androgen receptor antagonists, may result in changes in uptake of flotufolastat F 18 in prostate cancer. The effect of these therapies on performance of POSLUMA PET has not been established.

To report suspected adverse reactions to POSLUMA, call 1-844-POSLUMA (1-844-767-5862) or contact FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch.

Full POSLUMA prescribing information is available at www.posluma.com/prescribing-information.pdf.

About Blue Earth Diagnostics

Blue Earth Diagnostics, an indirect subsidiary of Bracco Imaging S.p.A., is a growing international molecular imaging company focused on delivering innovative, well-differentiated diagnostic solutions that inform patient care. Formed in 2014, the Companys success is driven by its management expertise and supported by a demonstrated track record of rapid development and commercialization of positron emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceuticals. Blue Earth Diagnostics expanding oncology portfolio encompasses a variety of disease states, including prostate cancer and neuro-oncology. Blue Earth Diagnostics is committed to the timely development and commercialization of precision radiopharmaceuticals for potential use in imaging and therapy. For more information, please visit: www.blueearthdiagnostics.com.

About Bracco Imaging

Bracco Imaging S.p.A., part of the Bracco Group, is a world-leading diagnostic imaging provider. Headquartered in Milan, Italy, Bracco Imaging develops, manufactures and markets diagnostic imaging agents and solutions. It offers a product and solution portfolio for all key diagnostic imaging modalities: X-ray imaging (including Computed Tomography-CT, Interventional Radiology, and Cardiac Catheterization), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS), and Nuclear Medicine through radioactive tracers and novel PET imaging agents to inform clinical management and guide care for cancer patients in areas of unmet medical need. Our continually evolving portfolio is completed by a range of medical devices, advanced administration systems and dose-management software. In 2019 Bracco Imaging enriched its product portfolio by expanding the range of oncology nuclear imaging solutions in the urology segment and other specialties with the acquisition of Blue Earth Diagnostics. In 2021, Bracco Imaging established Blue Earth Therapeutics as a separate, cutting-edge biotechnology vehicle to develop radiopharmaceutical therapies. Visit: www.braccoimaging.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003074334/en/

For Blue Earth Diagnostics (U.S.)

Priscilla Harlan

Vice President, Corporate Communications

(M) (781) 799-7917

[email protected]

For Blue Earth Diagnostics (UK)

Clare Gidley

Associate Director Marketing and Communications

Tel: +44 (0) 7917 536939

[email protected]

Media

Sam Brown Inc.

Mike Beyer

(M) (312) 961-2502

[email protected]

Source: Blue Earth Diagnostics
BANGKOK, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- One Chinese national was killed and another injured during a shooting at a renowned shopping mall in downtown Bangkok on Tuesday, the Chinese Embassy in Thailand said.

The embassy said it activated its emergency response mechanism to verify the situation and collaborated with relevant Thai departments to handle the follow-up of the incident. Consular officers were dispatched to the scene and visited the injured in the hospital.

The identities of the victims have been confirmed, and the injured has received medical treatment and was in stable condition, the embassy added.

According to the embassy, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin visited the injured Chinese national at the hospital. The prime minister and Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara, the deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, respectively made phone calls to Chinese Ambassador to Thailand Han Zhiqiang, expressing their condolences to the deceased Chinese national and wishing a speedy recovery for the injured on behalf of the Thai government.

In the afternoon shooting, local media footage showed visitors were evacuated from the Siam Paragon Mall after gunshots were heard. Police rushed to the scene and arrested the suspected gunman.

National Police Chief Torsak Sukvimol told reporters later that at least two were killed and five others injured, down from the previous media reports of three deaths.

The arrested suspect is a minor, said Torsak, adding that he has a history of mental health issues and has been previously treated in a hospital. 
Enhanced benefits and features include 4X Membership Rewards points for essential business spending like new categories for transit and electronics, up to $395 in statement credits each year on eligible purchases at select business merchants, and a new Rose Gold design option

The Business Gold Card also offers access to a suite of digital payment services, including payment flexibility and Business Blueprint insights

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- American Express today introduced the refreshed U.S. American Express Business Gold Card with enhanced ability to earn 4X Membership Rewards points in top business spending categories, enroll in benefits to earn statement credits, and other new business-focused benefits. It also comes with the option for the popular Rose Gold design, which until now was only available to Consumer Gold Card Members.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003034641/en/

American Express Business Gold Card (Photo: Business Wire)

According to a recent survey from American Express1, 86% of small businesses surveyed say that either value, flexibility, convenience, or a breadth of benefits are most important when looking for a card to help run their business. The refreshed U.S. Business Gold Card provides all those features, as well as the powerful backing of American Express to help small businesses run and grow their business.

The refreshed Business Gold Card helps our Card Members spend more time on whats important: running their business, said Anna Marrs, Group President of Global Commercial Services and Credit & Fraud Risk at American Express. Whether theyre making purchases for business needs like advertising, wireless bills, technology expenses, or on office supplies, booking travel, or dining with clients, the refreshed Business Gold Card will help small businesses unlock value.

Flexible Rewards that Adapt to Business Spend

As the smarter rewards Card for small businesses, Card Members can use the U.S. Business Gold Card to automatically earn 4X Membership Rewards points in the top two eligible categories where their business spent the most each billing cycle, to help take the guesswork out of earning rewards. Applicable on the first $150,000 in combined purchases each calendar year, including:

(NEW) U.S. purchases made from electronic goods retailers and software & cloud system providers ,

U.S. purchases made from and , (NEW) Monthly wireless telephone service charges made directly from a wireless telephone service provider in the U.S.,

Monthly wireless telephone service charges made directly from a provider in the U.S., (NEW) Transit purchases including trains, taxicabs, rideshare services, ferries, tolls, parking, buses, and subways,

purchases including trains, taxicabs, rideshare services, ferries, tolls, parking, buses, and subways, Purchases at U.S. media providers for advertising in select media (online, TV, radio),

for advertising in select media (online, TV, radio), U.S. purchases at gas stations , and

, and U.S. purchases at restaurants, including takeout and delivery.

Card Members will continue to earn 1X points on other eligible purchases.

New Everyday Essentials to Help Run Your Business

In addition, U.S. Business Gold Card Members can now enjoy:

(NEW) $240 Flexible Business Credit : earn up to $20 in statement credits each month after you use the Business Gold Card for eligible purchases at FedEx, Grubhub, and Office Supply Stores. Enrollment required.

: earn up to $20 in statement credits each month after you use the Business Gold Card for eligible purchases at FedEx, Grubhub, and Office Supply Stores. Enrollment required. (NEW) Walmart+ Membership Credit: use the Business Gold Card to pay for a monthly Walmart + membership (subject to auto-renewal) and receive a statement credit that covers the full cost each month, valued at $155 annually2.

use the Business Gold Card to pay for a monthly Walmart + membership (subject to auto-renewal) and receive a statement credit that covers the full cost each month, valued at $155 annually2. (NEW) Earn 3X Membership Rewards points: on eligible purchases through AmexTravel.com3.

on eligible purchases through AmexTravel.com3. (NEW) Rose Gold: for the first time, the Business Gold Card now comes with the option for the popular Rose Gold design.

Service, Support and Powerful Backing of American Express

In addition to the new business-focused benefits, the U.S. Business Gold Card offers a number of built-in digital payment services and cash flow tools that help small and mid-size businesses seamlessly manage their accounts, meet their payment needs, and get more value from their Card  all backed by American Express exceptional servicing.

(NEW) Cell Phone Protection: with Cell Phone Protection4, you can be reimbursed the lesser of your repair or replacement costs following damage, such as a cracked screen, or theft for a maximum of $800 per claim when your cell phone line is listed on a wireless bill and the prior month's wireless bill was paid by an Eligible Card Account. A $50 deductible will apply to each approved claim with a limit of 2 approved claims per 12-month period. Additional terms and conditions apply.

with Cell Phone Protection4, you can be reimbursed the lesser of your repair or replacement costs following damage, such as a cracked screen, or theft for a maximum of $800 per claim when your cell phone line is listed on a wireless bill and the prior month's wireless bill was paid by an Eligible Card Account. A $50 deductible will apply to each approved claim with a limit of 2 approved claims per 12-month period. Additional terms and conditions apply. Payment Flexibility: with the Pay Over Time option you have the ability to carry a balance with interest up to your Pay Over Time Limit, so you can handle expected and unexpected expenses that come your way.

with the Pay Over Time option you have the ability to carry a balance with interest up to your Pay Over Time Limit, so you can handle expected and unexpected expenses that come your way. Insights via American Express Business Blueprint  : view your Business Gold Card data with Business Blueprint, plus other solutions for eligible Card Members like American Express Business Checking5, to get a view of your business financials in one place.

view your Business Gold Card data with Business Blueprint, plus other solutions for eligible Card Members like American Express Business Checking5, to get a view of your business financials in one place. Membership Rewards Program: from booking travel to top brands and everything in between, Card Members can use Membership Rewards points on the reward that means the most to them.

With these new benefits, the Business Gold Card will have an annual fee of $375 starting February 1, 2024.

American Express Presents: Raise the Bar with Business Gold

To celebrate the refreshed Business Gold Card, select greater NY area small business owners and their guests will be invited to join American Express at Raise the Bar with Business Gold, an interactive pop-up experience powered by small businesses for small businesses in New York City on November 2 and 3, 2023. Learn more about the experience here.

Terms and limitations apply. For more information about the Business Gold Card, visit here.

AMERICAN EXPRESS SURVEY METHODOLOGY: The survey of 556 U.S. small businesses was conducted by The Morning Consult LLC on behalf of American Express from July 12 to July 17, 2023. The survey includes responses from 252 businesses with

ABOUT AMERICAN EXPRESS

American Express is a globally integrated payments company, providing customers with access to products, insights and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. Learn more at americanexpress.com and connect with us on facebook.com/americanexpress, instagram.com/americanexpress, linkedin.com/company/american-express, twitter.com/americanexpress, and youtube.com/americanexpress.

Key links to products, services and corporate sustainability information: personal cards, business cards and services, travel services, gift cards, prepaid cards, merchant services, Accertify, Business Blueprint, Resy, corporate card, business travel, diversity and inclusion, corporate sustainability and Environmental, Social, and Governance reports.

________________________________

1Conducted by The Morning Consult LLC on behalf of American Express.

2 $12.95 monthly plus applicable taxes. Plus Up Benefits not eligible.

3American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. is acting solely as a sales agent for travel suppliers and is not responsible for the actions or inactions of such suppliers. Certain suppliers pay us commission and other incentives for reaching sales targets or other goals and may provide incentives to our Travel Consultants. For more information visit www.americanexpress.com/travelterms.California CST#1022318; Washington UBI#600-469-694

4 Coverage is provided by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.

5 Separate application and eligibility requirements apply. Accounts offered by American Express National Bank. Member FDIC

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003034641/en/

Media:

American Express

Megan Hunsicker

[email protected]

M Booth

Amanda Perez

[email protected]

Source: American Express
Launch in Kyiv and Silicon Valley with cyber security consultancy Midnight Blue and author and cyberterrorism expert Winn Schwartau underscore the need for communication technology capable of dealing with current cyber terrorism and cyber warfare threats

KYIV, Ukraine--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Russian invasion of Ukraine has ignited an arms race in the theater of cyber warfare. Zero trust is the operative term for military, defense sectors, and governments across the globe. U.S. intelligence agencies and international partners recently published a report warning of the new Russian malware program Sandworm, likely targeting Ukrainian interests in its ongoing war, and U.S. defense agencies set a deadline of 2027 for implementation of zero trust cybersecurity environments [FedTech, August 2023].

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231002887540/en/

Switzerland-based ARMA Instruments AG announces the launch of their ARMA G1 Mark II Secure Messaging Device. Developed with zero trust principles, the device is a closed mobile system for person-to-person messaging at the highest security levels to counter advanced adversary attacks. The device will be beneficial for NGOs, defense agencies, cybersecurity operations, financial organizations, embassies, and global corporations. (Photo: Business Wire)

In this environment of advanced global threats, Switzerland-based ARMA Instruments AG announces the launch of their ARMA G1 Mark II Secure Messaging Device in Kyiv this month. Developed with zero trust principles, the device is a closed mobile system for person-to-person messaging at the highest security levels to counter advanced adversary attacks.

ARMA was created in response to the lack of security products capable of dealing with advanced adversaries, such as hostile nation-state actors, says Pim Donkers, founder and CEO of ARMA Instruments AG. The G1 device was inspired by Article 12 of the U.N.s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that no one shall be subject to interference with privacy or correspondence, especially in conflict zones where humanitarian situations are compromised.

Donkers and CTO Andrey Loginov will unveil the G1 device at the Kyiv event with presentations by Netherlands-based cyber security consultancy Midnight Blue detailing TETRA:BURST, their recent exposure of the TETRA standard vulnerabilities, and U.S.-based author and cyberterrorism expert Winn Schwartau, at both events.

The G1 uses cellular networks, has no microphone or third-party applications, and does not use WIFI, NFC, Bluetooth, GPS, or connectors. It charges wirelessly and has an anti-tampering mechanism capable of destroying all secrets on the device to protect sensitive information.

Using end-to-end encryption and Tor, a public onion routing network, data is anonymously routed through random encrypted relay servers across the globe, making sure that there are no data breaches or infrastructure to attack. ARMAs patented Dynamic Identity as part of ARMAs proprietary virtual SIM, prevents users from becoming a target of cyber-attacks or anti-personnel attacks.

Anti-personnel attacks that use a targeted individuals smartphone as a means of a homing device for, lets say, a drone rigged with explosives, are the future attacks of tomorrow, Donkers continues, Dynamic Identity is the only solution out there that protects our clients against such attacks to date.

The ARMA G1 device will benefit communications security for NGOs, defense agencies, cybersecurity operations, financial organizations, embassies, and global corporations.

For media interested in attending, please email [email protected]. For more information on the Kyiv and 24 October Silicon Valley event visit: https://armainstruments.com/launching-the-arma-g1-mark-2-events/

ARMA Instruments is a secure communication systems technology provider and creator of the worlds first secure communications messaging device, the ARMA G1. Based in Baar, Switzerland, and founded in 2017 by CEO Pim Donkers, ARMA is based on zero-trust principles, and stays politically neutral. The ARMA G1 is powered by their patented Dynamic Identity solution and is a closed mobile system. ARMA is an acronym for Advanced Relay Mission Applications in response to products technologically incapable of dealing with current cybersecurity and cyber terrorism threats, advanced adversaries, and nation-state actors. For more information visit www.armainstruments.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231002887540/en/

Media Contact:

Kimberly Hathaway

+1 415-994-1097 (Voice, text, WhatsApp)

[email protected]

Source: ARMA Instruments
PEMBROKE, Bermuda--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AXIS Capital Holdings Limited (AXIS Capital or the Company) (NYSE: AXS) today announced that it expects to release financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023 on Wednesday, November 1, 2023 after the close of the financial markets.

Vince Tizzio, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Peter Vogt, Chief Financial Officer, will host an investor teleconference, including a question and answer period, on Thursday, November 2, 2023 at 9:30 a.m. ET to discuss the third quarter results as well as related matters.

The teleconference can be accessed by dialing 1-877-883-0383 (U.S. callers), or 1-412-902-6506 (international callers), and entering the passcode 6504226 approximately 10 minutes in advance of the call. A live, listen-only webcast of the call will also be available via the Investor Information section of the Companys website at www.axiscapital.com.

A replay of the teleconference will be available for two weeks by dialing 1-877-344-7529 (U.S. callers), or 1-412-317-0088 (international callers), and entering the passcode 6757410. The webcast will be archived in the Investor Information section of the Companys website.

About AXIS Capital

AXIS Capital, through its operating subsidiaries, is a global specialty underwriter and provider of insurance and reinsurance solutions. The Company has shareholders' equity of $5.0 billion at June 30, 2023, and locations in Bermuda, the United States, Europe, Singapore and Canada. Its operating subsidiaries have been assigned a financial strength rating of "A+" ("Strong") by Standard & Poor's and "A" ("Excellent") by A.M. Best. For more information about AXIS Capital, visit our website at www.axiscapital.com.

Follow AXIS Capital on LinkedIn and X Corp.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003513159/en/

Investor Contact

Miranda Hunter

AXIS Capital Holdings Limited

[email protected]

(441) 405-2635

Media Contact

Nichola Liboro

AXIS Capital Holdings Limited

[email protected]

(917) 705-4579

Source: AXIS Capital Holdings Limited
Multinational seafood companies Mitsubishi Corporation, Pulmuone Co. Ltd. and Thai Union extend MOUs to facilitate the introduction of BlueNalus cell-cultured seafood across international markets

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- BlueNalu, a global leader in the development of cell-cultured seafood, announced today the extension and enhancement of its strategic partnerships with three multinational seafood industry leaders headquartered in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. These partnerships will support BlueNalus planned introduction of cell-cultured seafood in a number of APAC nations over the coming years, by fostering market insights, understanding regulatory requirements, and developing go-to-market strategies.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003399175/en/

(Left to right) Lou Cooperhouse, President & CEO of BlueNalu, and Sang Yun Lee, Global CTO of Pulmuone celebrate signing of renewed MOU at BlueNalu headquarters. (Photo: Business Wire)

The expanded collaborations include independent Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with Mitsubishi Corporation in Japan, Pulmuone Co. Ltd. in South Korea, and Thai Union in Thailand, each of whom boasts a rich legacy and strong presence in the global seafood sector.

BlueNalu's strategic alliances with these industry giants are designed to focus on three key areas of collaboration: facilitating comprehensive market research to understand consumer preferences, emerging trends, and evolving market dynamics; identifying and understanding the regulatory requirements unique to each market to expedite the process of gaining approvals and certifications necessary for the distribution of BlueNalu's products; and developing market entry, distribution, and supply chain management strategies to introduce BlueNalu's products to consumers, restaurants, and retailers across the APAC region.

BlueNalu has continually differentiated itself with scalable technologies, and a culinary and market-driven focus that targets premium foodservice opportunities, in both sushi and fine-dining restaurants. The companys first product under development is the high-value toro portion of bluefin tuna, which is highly sought after in Asia where over 80% of the estimated global supply is consumed. Bluefin tuna is available in very limited supply, can be extremely variable in its quality and sensory attributes, and has faced steep declines in fish stocks due to issues like overfishing and illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing.

Lou Cooperhouse, President and CEO of BlueNalu, shared his excitement about these strengthened partnerships, stating, "We are honored to deepen our collaborations with Mitsubishi Corporation, Pulmuone Co. Ltd., and Thai Union, visionary partners who share our commitment to driving innovation and shaping the future of the seafood industry. These extended partnerships in the APAC region underscore our dedication to working collaboratively with local experts in each region that we target, and our ultimate goal to provide our customers with healthy and trusted seafood options that have superior product benefits and align with evolving market conditions."

The renewed collaborations, which began with Pulmuone Co. Ltd. in 2020 and with Mitsubishi Corporation and Thai Union in 2021, represent a shared interest in the commercialization of cell-cultured seafood in Asia and a commitment to sustainable seafood solutions in order to meet rising demand. Global seafood consumption is at an all-time high and continues to increase, particularly in Asia, outpacing the growth in population. Current seafood production from wild-caught and farm-raised sources cannot keep pace with demand according to the United Nations, which projects a supply chain gap representing 28 million metric tons of new seafood production will be needed by 2030. In addition, the global seafood supply is challenged by overfishing, climate change, and environmental contamination like microplastics and nuclear waste. BlueNalus cell-cultured seafood is designed as a third solution that can help meet growing demand in a safe and sustainable way.

For more information about BlueNalu, please visit www.bluenalu.com.

About BlueNalu

BlueNalus mission is to develop great-tasting, healthy, safe and trusted cell-cultured seafood products that support the sustainability and diversity of our ocean. BlueNalu is a member of the United Nations Global Compact and aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a blueprint to achieve a better and more resilient future for our planet. BlueNalu began its operations in 2018 and is based in San Diego, California.

Forward looking statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements related to the scalability of BlueNalus products, the development and commercialization of BlueNalus products and the benefits of BlueNalus strategic partnerships. These forward-looking statements are based on BlueNalus current expectations and inherently involve significant risks and uncertainties. BlueNalu undertakes no duty or obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003399175/en/

Mia Montanile

Public Relations & Corporate Affairs Manager

[email protected]

+1(858)248-6334

Source: BlueNalu
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Dallas-based Braniff Airways, dba Braniff International, retro clothing and luxury products online store Braniff Boutique announces the release of Braniffs Travel Poster Collection, in conjunction with famed European atelier Stick No Bills, which covers the unique era of flight from 1948 to 1965. The new line of posters are printed on the finest quality lithographic materials and feature rich vibrant color never seen in these beautifully remastered posters, according to Braniff Airways Chief Operating Officer Collin L. Ice.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003339843/en/

Braniff International's exciting new Latin America Travel Poster Collection features, in full lithographic color, the golden era of air travel between the America's. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Braniffs unique poster collection is offered in two editions at Braniff Boutique: Premium Grade (every day pricing) and Museum Grade (collectors pricing). Premium Grade are open edition in unlimited offerings, while our Museum Grade posters are only offered in exclusively limited quantities.

With the tremendous cooperation and official endorsement of Braniff International we are thrilled to present the inaugural Stick No Bills Braniff Poster Art Collection, showcased here for the very first time as one unified, authenticated and exclusively licensed poster series.

"This Oklahoma City-born airline, formed in 1928 and famous for 'ending the plain plane,' is a glamorizing trailblazer in the aviation industry; a game-changer in terms of the sheer level of connectivity the brand pioneered across the Americas and its promulgation of wonderfully vibrant, stylish and provocative destination marketing collateral.

Quote from Richard Ben Cass, President Braniff Airways, Incorporated

ABOUT BRANIFF INTERNATIONAL

Braniff Airways, Incorporated, d/b/a Braniff International, the former international airline, is now a leading global historic airline branding and marketing, online retail and historic airliner tour firm and hotelier, which was originally formed in 1928. Braniff manages a portfolio of licensing agreements worldwide. The company operates its lucrative Braniff Boutique Online Retail store www.braniffboutique.com that sells to 120 plus countries worldwide along with three brick and mortar stores. Braniff also administers its original Employee/Retiree Airline Pass Benefits Program, which offers current and former employees discount travel on partner airlines and travel companies and offers travel services through its www.flybraniff.com website.

Braniff Airways supports Braniff Airways Foundation, which is the official repository for Braniff's historical corporate and employee records, photographs and negatives and memorabilia. Over 100 million pages of Braniff corporate documents and 40,000 historical items are preserved in the Foundation's Braniff International Heritage Archives, which are housed at four locations in Dallas, Texas, and the companys records retention facility in Arkansas.

Braniff Airways has created an endowment at The University of Texas at Dallas to support the Space Sciences Department. An additional endowment has been created to support the administration of Braniff International Heritage Archives.

For more information: www.braniffinternational.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003339843/en/

Jessica Martin

Braniff Airways, Incorporated

Braniff International

P. O. Box 610646

2200 Braniff Boulevard

DFW Airport, Texas 75261

[email protected]

214-233-6473

www.braniffinternational.com

www.braniffboutique.com

www.flybraniff.com

Source: Braniff Airways
New National Day to Raise Awareness about Ecommerce Risk

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- EverC, a pioneer in AI-driven merchant and marketplace risk intelligence and insights for companies in the ecommerce ecosystem, is pleased to announce the first ever Safer Ecommerce Day on Nov. 1, 2023.

Conceived and sponsored by EverC, this new national day is dedicated to educating key players in the payments industry about online commerce risk and best practices for safer ecommerce. It will involve online marketplaces, associations, and entities that are working together to make ecommerce safer, through technology, solutions, regulations, and initiatives. Most important, it will function as a platform to raise awareness about the far-reaching effects of ecommerce fraud on the global community, and how payment providers can help disrupt it for the betterment of the world.

We are working to ensure that Safer Ecommerce Day is recognized not just nationally, but on a global level, said Melissa Sutherland, industry thought leader and EverC VP. Fighting dark commerce online is core to our mission, and education and advocacy are foundational requirements to our success.

By partnering with the MRC for this event, EverCs goal is to align our compliance community across regions, business models, and payment methods, creating one team to combat bad actors, Sutherland added.

Fraud trends grow as quickly as ecommerce transactions multiply globally, and keeping ahead of the fraudsters is always a challenge for online retailers and their solution providers. MRC is happy to support this initiative by EverC and any such event that promotes risk management, fraud prevention and detection and a collaborative industry approach to fighting financial crime, said Una Dillon, Vice President Advocacy at the MRC.

The past few years have seen a proliferation of online financial crime conducted via ecommerce channels. We are no longer dealing with individual threats  todays bad actors operate in collaborative criminal networks that prey on victims and organizations using highly sophisticated methods.

This unified threat landscape has the potential to negatively impact everyone in the ecommerce ecosystem: buyers, sellers, banks and acquirers that enable payment processing, and marketplace platforms where legitimate entities conduct business. These crimes also fund bigger crimes such as human trafficking and terrorism, making it a serious global problem.

Safer Ecommerce Day will be observed with an awareness campaign leading up to an online event that will feature a day of educational sessions led by handpicked experts on ecommerce trends, upcoming regulations, and more. Participants may register at Safer Ecommerce Day (everc.com).

About EverC

EverC is focused on powering safe, scalable growth for the ecommerce ecosystem, with automated, AI-driven merchant and marketplace risk management solutions. We provide immediate and ongoing merchant risk intelligence for banks, acquirers, payment providers, and marketplaces. Learn more at www.everc.com.

About the MRC

The MRC is a global non-profit membership association for payments and fraud prevention professionals, established in 2000 and operating in the US, Europe and APAC with plans to expand operations in LATAM and other regions in the near future. The power of MRC membership lies in staying connected, current, and empowered to influence and transform the industry.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003627713/en/

Mary York, York Public Relations

[email protected]

Source: EverC
MILL VALLEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Four Corners Property Trust (NYSE: FCPT), a real estate investment trust primarily engaged in the ownership and acquisition of high-quality, net-leased restaurant and retail properties (FCPT or the Company), is pleased to announce the disposition of a Red Lobster property for $3.8 million. The property is located in Kentucky and is corporate-operated under a triple net lease. The transaction was priced at cap rate in range with previous FCPT dispositions. The Company plans to repurpose the proceeds into new investment opportunities consistent with FCPT thresholds.

FCPT anticipates redeploying the proceeds from this transaction through an Internal Revenue Code Section 1031 like-kind exchange (1031-Exchange). As a result, net cash proceeds from the sale will be held in an escrow account until one or more properties are purchased through the 1031-Exchange. However, there can be no assurance that an acquisition of a new property or properties will occur. If the Company fails to identify one or more like-kind replacement properties of comparable value within 45 days of the date of sale and/or fails to acquire such property or properties within 180 days of the date of sale, the Company will be required to pay a tax at the highest corporate income tax rate on any gain recognized on the sale of this property.

About FCPT

FCPT, headquartered in Mill Valley, CA, is a real estate investment trust primarily engaged in the ownership, acquisition and leasing of restaurant and retail properties. The Company seeks to grow its portfolio by acquiring additional real estate to lease, on a net basis, for use in the restaurant and retail industries. Additional information about FCPT can be found on the website at www.fcpt.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231002014684/en/

Four Corners Property Trust:

Bill Lenehan, 415-965-8031

CEO

Gerry Morgan, 415-965-8032

CFO

Source: Four Corners Property Trust
WOKINGHAM, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Ferguson plc (NYSE: FERG, LSE: FERG) (the Company) announces today that it purchased a total of 13,779 of its ordinary shares in the period from September 25, 2023, up to and including September 26, 2023, in connection with its $3.0 billion share repurchase program.

Aggregated information about the purchases carried out during this period

Trading day Aggregate daily volume (in number of shares) Daily weighted average purchase price of the shares Trading venue September 25, 2023 2,563 123.015119 BATE September 25, 2023 880 123.015119 CHIX September 25, 2023 10,049 123.015119 XLON September 26, 2023 122 127.577021 BATE September 26, 2023 165 127.577021 XLON

The Company intends to hold these shares in treasury. Following the purchase of these shares (including those purchased but not yet settled), the number of shares held by the Company in treasury will be 28,307,378.

Following the purchase of these shares, the remaining number of ordinary shares in issue will be 203,863,804. The figure of 203,863,804 may be used by shareholders (and others with notification obligations) as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company under the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

In accordance with Article 5(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (the Market Abuse Regulation), as it forms part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, and the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052, detailed information about the individual purchases can be found at Ferguson - Investors - Shareholder Center - Share Buy-Back Details - 2023 Share Buy-Back.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003336341/en/

For further information please contact:

Brian Lantz, Vice President IR and Communications, +1 224 285 2410

Pete Kennedy, Director of Investor Relations, +1 757 603 0111

Source: Ferguson plc
NEWNAN, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- On September 21, 2023, Foley Products Company, LLC (Foley) and Pre-Con Products (Pre-Con) reached an agreement to assign all the StormPrism Patents and Trademarks to Foley in the United States and Canada. Pre-Con will continue using and selling StormPrism products in California. The parties will continue to cooperate on product development and marketing of the products.

StormPrism is an innovative underground stormwater storage system. It provides a way to store large volumes of captured stormwater underground in a more efficient and safe manner than other products in the market. It is also easy to install, access and maintain.

Keith Haas, CEO of Foley said: The addition of StormPrism to our product portfolio is an important step in Foleys growth strategy. We will now be able to offer high-value stormwater solutions across North America and play an expanded role in the management of one of societys most vital resources. David Zarraonandia, President of Pre-Con, also remarked: This is an exciting time for us, we are thrilled to work with Foley Products and look forward to seeing StormPrism available to more customers."

For more information about StormPrism, please visit http://stormprism.com/. Please direct your questions to [email protected] at Foley and [email protected] at Pre-Con.

About Foley Products:

Established in 1981, Foley Products Company, LLC, (Foley), is a leading manufacturer of concrete pipe and precast products, with 17 manufacturing locations in high growth markets across the United States. The company offers a range of products including reinforced concrete pipes, box culverts, precast concrete manholes, stormwater management systems and utility vaults, thereby supplying critical products to the underground utility and water management industry. Foley is an approved supplier to the Departments of Transportation, and numerous other agencies and municipalities across its footprint.

About Pre-Con Products:

Pre-Con Products is a second-generation family-owned business founded in 1963 by Don Zarraonandia. Over the last 60 years Pre-Con has provided creative precast solutions such as specialty vaults, sewer and drain structure, custom foundations and proprietary stormwater tanks including StormPrism. With their rich heritage in precast concrete, the company is uniquely qualified to deliver innovative custom precast designs for challenging construction to demanding customers such as the US Navy, Missile Defense Agency, NASA, National Science Foundation, with products shipped as far away as Antarctica.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231002833236/en/

[email protected]

Source: Foley Products
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Agbonkhianmeghe E. (Bator) Orobator, S.J., the new dean of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (JST-SCU), will be among the 364 voting members at the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops meeting this month in Rome.

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The dean of Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, A.E. Orobator, S.J., giving a homily at Santa Clara University's Mission Church. Photo by Jim Gensheimer. (Photo: Business Wire)

The gatheringknown as the Synod on Synodalitybrings together bishops, archbishops, cardinals, priests, religious, and over 100 lay women, men, and young people invited by Pope Francis, to consider in dialogue and shared discernment how the Holy Spirit is leading the Church to meet contemporary challenges and needs. The members will meet this month and in October 2024, after which they will provide suggestions to Pope Francis for a possible papal publication on synod findings.

From the outset, Pope Francis has expressed his wish for the synod to be an experience of hospitality, one that would allow people who feel alienated from the church or banished to the peripheries of the churchs pastoral care to rediscover a place where they can call home and feel they truly belong, said Orobator. The Synod is a common space of listening, dialogue, and discernment. The most important protagonist in this space is the Holy Spirit, just as the most important disposition is a prayerful and respectful attentiveness to what the Spirit is saying to the church as a community of discernment.

About Dean Orobator

Fr. Orobator became dean of JST-SCU in August, after having served as president of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar. As JCAM President, he was an active participant in the African continental phase of the synodal process, and leads the African Synodality Initiative. He is known internationally for his scholarship and talks on ecclesiologythe study of the Churchas well as theological ethics, human rights, and human dignity, especially the fuller participation of women in the life of the Church.

Media wishing to interview Fr. Orobator or other experts from Santa Clara and JST should contact Deborah Lohse ([email protected] (408-768-6898/cell) of Santa Clara University or Preston Carmack ([email protected] or 541-908-1696/cell) of the Jesuit School of Theology.

About the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University

The Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, located in Berkeley, California, is a preeminent international center for the culturally contextualized study of theology. Its mission is to inspire and prepare men and women to become leaders in the Church, academy, and society, serving others through a faith that does justice. Rooted in the Catholic and Ignatian tradition, JST-SCU educates and trains Jesuits, religious, ordained, and lay students from across the United States and from 40 other countries for lives dedicated to ministry and scholarship.

About Santa Clara University

Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit, Catholic University in the epicenter of Silicon Valley, infusing ethics and social consciousness into a rigorous cross-disciplinary education for its nearly 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

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Deborah Lohse | SCU | [email protected] | 408-554-5121

Preston Carmack | JST-SCU | [email protected] | 510-549-5041

Source: Santa Clara University
YEREVAN, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Armenian parliament approved on Tuesday the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) with 60 votes in favor and 22 against.

Following the ratification, the document is to be signed by the country's president and go into effect in 60 days after the completion of internal state procedures, Armenia's state-run news agency Armenpress reported.

Armenia is taking all steps to ensure its security in various ways, the country's MP Sargis Khandanyan, chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, said after the ratification.

The move is in the national interests of Armenia and has nothing to do with its relations with Russia, he said.

Russia considered Yerevan's effort to ratify the Rome Statute an "unfriendly step," and the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Armenia's ambassador last month for this. 
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- On September 29, 2023, KBRA assigned a long-term rating of AA- with a Stable Outlook to the Power Authority of the State of New York (NYPA) Green Transmission Project Revenue Bonds, Series 2023A. Concurrently, KBRA affirmed the long-term rating of AA- and Stable Outlook on NYPA's outstanding Green Transmission Project Revenue Bonds.

To access rating and relevant documents, click here.

Click here to view the report.

About KBRA

KBRA is a full-service credit rating agency registered in the U.S., the EU, and the UK, and is designated to provide structured finance ratings in Canada. KBRAs ratings can be used by investors for regulatory capital purposes in multiple jurisdictions.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003779514/en/

Contacts

Linda Vanderperre, Senior Director

+1 646-731-2482 [email protected]



Lina Santoro, Director

+1 646-731-1419 [email protected]



Business Development Contacts

William Baneky, Managing Director

+1 646-731-2409 [email protected]



James Kissane, Senior Director

+1 646-731-2380 [email protected]

Source: KBRA
The company contributed over $215,000 worth of footwear through the Red Cross

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- LaMO Sheepskin Inc. has donated thousands of shoes to Maui residents affected by the wildfires through the Red Cross. The companys brands, LaMO Footwear and Oomphies, contributed over 6,000 pairs of shoes together, totaling out to a retail value of more than $215,000.

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Cars lined up for more than three miles in Maui to receive LaMO Sheepskin Inc.'s donation. (Photo: Business Wire)

The wildfires were devastating, and we wanted to show the people of Maui that the world is behind them, said Brent Williams, Sales Rep at LaMO Sheepskin, Inc. and Lahaina area resident. Its changed their lives forever and as a company, we knew we could do something. We pulled together as many shoes as we could and shared our love and support for the islanders.

The Maui wildfires have left thousands of residents without homes and with uncertainty about the future. The owners and employees at LaMO Sheepskin Inc. knew that those affected would need shoes. The companys hope is that LaMO and Oomphies footwear options for families will help meet their needs.

On Saturday, September 30 the shoes were distributed to those affected by the Lahaina fire, helping Maui locals get back on their feet. As seen in the pictures attached, cars are lined up for more than three miles.

LaMO Sheepskin Inc. would like to thank its distribution center, PPM Fulfillment, and Carrier TQL and Carrier Front Line for providing resources to transport these shoes to those in need.

If you are interested in helping people affected by the Hawaii wildfires, you can call 1-800-RED CROSS (800-733-2767), or text the word HAWAII to 90999 to make a $10 donation. For more information and resources on the Maui Wildfires: https://www.redcross.org/about-us/our-work/disaster-relief/wildfire-relief/hawaii-wildfires.html

About LaMO

Founded in 1995, LaMO is an authentic sheepskin footwear brand based in Southern California. Having recently expanded into active lifestyle footwear as well, LaMO styles are available across 4,000 retail locations globally. From classic sheepskin styles and moccasins to house shoes and casual footwear, LaMO promises that every step taken will be done in California Comfort.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003469547/en/

Master Plan Communications, Inc.

Ashton Maxfield

949.289.6493

[email protected]

Or

Anissa Arefeen

469.733.8675

[email protected]

Source: LaMO Sheepskin Inc.
Enable Me named U.S. distributor for VELA Mammography Chair;

Clinically designed chair benefits patients, clinicians, radiologists

TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Danish healthcare manufacturing company VELA Chairs has acquired longtime Tampa private company Enable Me LLC and named it the exclusive North American distributor for its VELA Mammography Chair, which provides safety, security, and wellbeing for mammography patients.

Seated mammography is growing in popularity for its many benefits to the patient, including reducing the stress of standing during the procedure and the incidence of unsteadiness and even falls, said Mike Laky, founder and CEO of Enable Me. The electric height-adjustable chair, with a push bar and lockable wheels, is also crafted to provide the most optimal working conditions for the mammographer while contributing to higher image quality.

ABOUT ENABLE ME

Enable Me, headquartered in Tampa for 25 years, provides high-quality assistive and rehabilitation devices across the United States to families and caregivers who understand the value of its stable, secure, user friendly mobile seating products that enhance the users quality of life and independence. Clients also include the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, rehabilitation centers, hospitals, university hospitals, Johns Hopkins, UCLA, Apple, and Harvard, among a host of other clients.

ABOUT VELA

VELA is a Danish family business established in 1935 by Vermund Larsen. For almost 90 years, VELA has been dedicated to creating comfortable, ergonomic chairs focused on design, function, and high quality and is committed to providing sustainable and exceptional products for each customer.

ABOUT VELA MEDICAL

VELA Medical specializes in developing chairs and stools tailored to the specific needs of healthcare departments, patients and medical personnel alike. All chairs comply with the strict requirements of the healthcare sector, and therefore VELA Medical products can be found in hospitals, specialist doctors, general practitioners, health clinics and laboratories.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003699183/en/

Media Contact:

Michelle Griffith, APR

813-597-8189

[email protected]

Source: Enable Me LLC
 Post-hoc analysis from Blue Earth Diagnostics Phase 3 SPOTLIGHT trial provides data about treatment planning, particularly when curative salvage therapy is considered 

For U.S audiences only

MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J. & OXFORD, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Blue Earth Diagnostics, a Bracco company and recognized leader in the development and commercialization of innovative positron emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceuticals, today announced results from a post-hoc analysis from the Phase 3 SPOTLIGHT trial (NCT04186845) that investigated the use of POSLUMA (flotufolastat F 18) PET in suspected biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer. The analysis examined the detection rate (% positive PET scans) in a subset of patients with low-very low Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) levels. POSLUMA (flotufolastat F 18) injection (formerly referred to as 18F-rhPSMA-7.3) is indicated for positron emission tomography (PET) of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positive lesions in men with prostate cancer with suspected metastasis who are candidates for initial definitive therapy or with suspected recurrence based on elevated serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level.

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POSLUMA (flotufolastat F 18) PET/CT image showing uptake in the prostate bed, consistent with recurrent prostate cancer Photo courtesy of Blue Earth Diagnostics

Results highlights:

Overall, 68% (128/188) of evaluable patients with a PSA level of

Extrapelvic lesions were observed in 21% (25/121) of patients with a PSA

Recurrent prostate cancer presents clinical challenges, and the ability to determine the extent and location of recurrent disease is necessary to inform physicians and their patients for appropriate clinical management, said Ashesh B. Jani, MD, MSEE, FASTRO, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Atlanta, Ga., on behalf of the SPOTLIGHT Study Group. The SPOTLIGHT study investigated the diagnostic performance of POSLUMA PET imaging as a potential decision-making aid in assessing suspected biochemical recurrence of the disease, and demonstrated precision diagnostic performance, with an overall 83% (322/389) detection rate. This post-hoc analysis further examined POSLUMA performance in 188 men with low-very low PSA levels. Results showed that more than two-thirds of these men were found to have positive POSLUMA scans, with a quarter of them having extrapelvic lesions. POSLUMA PET may be a useful tool for treatment planning, particularly in patients with suspected early recurrence of disease who may be candidates for curative salvage therapy.

We are pleased to present these results to the radiation oncology community at ASTRO, said David E. Gauden, D.Phil., Chief Executive Officer of Blue Earth Diagnostics. POSLUMA has recently been added to nationally recognized clinical oncology guidelines for prostate cancer, alongside and for all the same categories as the other currently FDA-approved PSMA PET radiopharmaceuticals. Our new product represents a new class of high-affinity PSMA-targeted radiopharmaceuticals based on novel radiohybrid technology and provides physicians with high-quality information based on these good detection rates at low PSA levels, high-affinity PSMA binding and low urinary bladder activity. The product is labeled with the radioisotope fluorine-18 (18F) to leverage high image quality and to enable broad, readily available geographic access for patients via the manufacturing and distribution network of our commercial U.S. manufacturer and distributor, PETNET Solutions Inc, A Siemens Healthineers Company.

The findings were discussed in an oral presentation at the 2023 ASTRO Annual Meeting on October 2, 2023, Detection Rate of 18F-rhPSMA-7.3 PET in Patients with Suspected Prostate Cancer Recurrence at PSA Levels , by Ashesh B. Jani, MD, MSEE, FASTRO, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Atlanta, Ga., on behalf of the SPOTLIGHT Study Group. Full session details and the abstract are available in the ASTRO online program here.

About the study

The post-hoc analysis of SPOTLIGHT data determined flotufolastat F 18 detection rates (DR) at low-very low PSA levels. Patients enrolled in SPOTLIGHT underwent PET with scans evaluated by majority read of 3 blinded central readers. For the present analysis, all patients with an evaluable flotufolastat F 18 PET and a baseline PSA

In total, 389 patients (median [range] PSA, 1.10 [0.03135] ng/mL, 84 with intact prostate) had an evaluable flotufolastat F 18 scan. The overall DR was 83% (322/389) by majority read. Of the 389 patients with an evaluable flotufolastat F 18 scan, 188 had a baseline PSA

No serious adverse reactions were attributed to flotufolastat F 18 in the SPOTLIGHT study. Overall, 16 (4.1%) patients had at least one treatment-emergent adverse event that was considered possibly related/related to flotufolastat F 18. The most frequently reported events were: hypertension: 1.8% (n=7); diarrhea: 1.0% (n=4); injection site reaction: 0.5% (n=2), and headache: 0.5% (n=2).

About Radiohybrid Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (rhPSMA)

Radiohybrid Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (rhPSMA) compounds consist of a radiohybrid (rh) Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen-targeted receptor ligand which attaches to and is internalized by prostate cancer cells, and they may be radiolabeled with imaging isotopes for PET imaging, or with therapeutic isotopes for therapeutic use  providing the potential for creating a true theranostic technology. Radiohybrid technology and rhPSMA originated from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Blue Earth Diagnostics acquired exclusive, worldwide rights to rhPSMA diagnostic imaging technology from Scintomics GmbH in 2018, and therapeutic rights in 2020, and sublicensed the therapeutic application to its sister company Blue Earth Therapeutics. Blue Earth Diagnostics received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its radiohybrid PET diagnostic imaging product for use in prostate cancer in 2023. rhPSMA compounds for potential therapeutic use are investigational and have not received regulatory approval.

Indication and Important Safety Information About POSLUMA

INDICATION

POSLUMA (flotufolastat F 18) injection is indicated for positron emission tomography (PET) of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positive lesions in men with prostate cancer

with suspected metastasis who are candidates for initial definitive therapy

with suspected recurrence based on elevated serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

Image interpretation errors can occur with POSLUMA PET. A negative image does not rule out the presence of prostate cancer and a positive image does not confirm the presence of prostate cancer. The performance of POSLUMA for imaging metastatic pelvic lymph nodes in patients prior to initial definitive therapy seems to be affected by serum PSA levels and risk grouping. The performance of POSLUMA for imaging patients with biochemical evidence of recurrence of prostate cancer seems to be affected by serum PSA levels. Flotufolastat F 18 uptake is not specific for prostate cancer and may occur in other types of cancer, in non-malignant processes, and in normal tissues. Clinical correlation, which may include histopathological evaluation, is recommended.

The performance of POSLUMA for imaging patients with biochemical evidence of recurrence of prostate cancer seems to be affected by serum PSA levels. Flotufolastat F 18 uptake is not specific for prostate cancer and may occur in other types of cancer, in non-malignant processes, and in normal tissues. Clinical correlation, which may include histopathological evaluation, is recommended. Risk of Image Misinterpretation in Patients with Suspected Prostate Cancer Recurrence: The interpretation of POSLUMA PET may differ depending on imaging readers, particularly in the prostate/prostate bed region. Because of the associated risk of false positive interpretation, consider multidisciplinary consultation and histopathological confirmation when clinical decision-making hinges on flotufolastat F 18 uptake only in the prostate/prostate bed region or only on uptake interpreted as borderline.

POSLUMA use contributes to a patients overall long-term cumulative radiation exposure. Long-term cumulative radiation exposure is associated with an increased risk for cancer. Advise patients to hydrate before and after administration and to void frequently after administration. Ensure safe handling to minimize radiation exposure to the patient and health care providers.

The adverse reactions reported in 0.4% of patients in clinical studies were diarrhea, blood pressure increase and injection site pain.

Drug Interactions: androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and other therapies targeting the androgen pathway, such as androgen receptor antagonists, may result in changes in uptake of flotufolastat F 18 in prostate cancer. The effect of these therapies on performance of POSLUMA PET has not been established.

To report suspected adverse reactions to POSLUMA, call 1-844-POSLUMA (1-844-767-5862) or contact FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch.

Full POSLUMA prescribing information is available at www.posluma.com/prescribing-information.pdf.

About Blue Earth Diagnostics

Blue Earth Diagnostics, an indirect subsidiary of Bracco Imaging S.p.A., is a growing international molecular imaging company focused on delivering innovative, well-differentiated diagnostic solutions that inform patient care. Formed in 2014, the Companys success is driven by its management expertise and supported by a demonstrated track record of rapid development and commercialization of positron emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceuticals. Blue Earth Diagnostics expanding oncology portfolio encompasses a variety of disease states, including prostate cancer and neuro-oncology. Blue Earth Diagnostics is committed to the timely development and commercialization of precision radiopharmaceuticals for potential use in imaging and therapy. For more information, please visit: www.blueearthdiagnostics.com.

About Bracco Imaging

Bracco Imaging S.p.A., part of the Bracco Group, is a world-leading diagnostic imaging provider. Headquartered in Milan, Italy, Bracco Imaging develops, manufactures and markets diagnostic imaging agents and solutions. It offers a product and solution portfolio for all key diagnostic imaging modalities: X-ray imaging (including Computed Tomography-CT, Interventional Radiology, and Cardiac Catheterization), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS), and Nuclear Medicine through radioactive tracers and novel PET imaging agents to inform clinical management and guide care for cancer patients in areas of unmet medical need. Our continually evolving portfolio is completed by a range of medical devices, advanced administration systems and dose-management software. In 2019 Bracco Imaging enriched its product portfolio by expanding the range of oncology nuclear imaging solutions in the urology segment and other specialties with the acquisition of Blue Earth Diagnostics. In 2021, Bracco Imaging established Blue Earth Therapeutics as a separate, cutting-edge biotechnology vehicle to develop radiopharmaceutical therapies. Visit: www.braccoimaging.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230929119301/en/

For Blue Earth Diagnostics (U.S.)

Priscilla Harlan

Vice President, Corporate Communications

(M) (781) 799-7917

[email protected]

For Blue Earth Diagnostics (UK)

Clare Gidley

Associate Director Marketing and Communications

Tel: +44 (0) 7917 536939

[email protected]

Media

Sam Brown Inc.

Mike Beyer

(M) (312) 961-2502

[email protected]

Source: Blue Earth Diagnostics
Acquisition Adds 3,800 New Wastewater Customers

CAMDEN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- New Jersey American Water today completed its acquisition of the wastewater collection system of the Borough of Somerville, N.J. for $7 million. This municipally owned system serves approximately 3,800 customers, most of whom already receive water service from New Jersey American Water. On September 27, 2023, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved the municipal consent allowing New Jersey American Water to provide sewer service to Somerville customers as of the closing of the transaction.

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New Jersey American Water President Mark McDonough (left) and Somerville Mayor Dennis Sullivan shake hands at financial closing of the companys acquisition of Somervilles wastewater system. (Photo: Business Wire)

As Somervilles longtime water company, we are happy and honored to now also be their sewer company. We are ready to start making the needed improvements to provide the community with sewer service that is as safe, reliable and affordable as the water service we provide, said Mark McDonough, president of New Jersey American Water.

The agreement to purchase the system was approved in a voter referendum in November 2022, which passed in a landslide fashion with 75 percent of the voters approving the sale of the system to New Jersey American Water. As part of the agreement, New Jersey American Water committed to invest a minimum of $9.5 million in sewer system improvements in the next ten years.

Selling the sewer system to New Jersey American Water was the right decision for our community. With private ownership of the system, the borough will eliminate the need for significant rate increases going forward and borrowing money for future improvements will end. Somerville will then be able to fund other needed projects, the sewer system will be maintained and improved on a consistent basis, and sewer rates will remain stable, said Somerville Mayor Dennis Sullivan.

Residents will receive additional information in the mail from New Jersey American Water within the next 3-7 days, and the information is also available now on a new, dedicated webpage, Somerville Sewer, on the companys website at www.newjerseyamwater.com, under Customer Service and Billing.

This is New Jersey American Waters fourth sewer system acquisition within the companys water footprint in the last five years, adding a total of more than 11,300 new wastewater customers. The company acquired the 2,800 customer Bound Brook sewer system in 2022; the 2,900 customer Long Hill Township sewer system in 2020, and the 1,800 customer Mount Ephraim sewer system in 2019. In June 2023, New Jersey American Water also completed its acquisition of Egg Harbor Citys water and sewer system via the states Water Infrastructure Protection Act, adding more than 1,500 water and sewer customers.

About American Water

American Water (NYSE: AWK) is the largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in the United States. With a history dating back to 1886, We Keep Life Flowing by providing safe, clean, reliable and affordable drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people with regulated operations in 14 states and on 18 military installations. American Waters 6,500 talented professionals leverage their significant expertise and the companys national size and scale to achieve excellent outcomes for the benefit of customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders. For more information, visit amwater.com and join American Water on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About New Jersey American Water

New Jersey American Water, a subsidiary of American Water, is the largest investor-owned water utility in the state, providing high-quality and reliable water and/or wastewater services to approximately 2.8 million people. For more information, visit www.newjerseyamwater.com and follow New Jersey American Water on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

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Media:

Denise Venuti Free

Senior Director of Communications and External Affairs

[email protected]

Source: New Jersey American Water
Renowned Fine Dining Steak House Debuts 16th Location in Florida

SARASOTA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Ruths Chris Steak House, famous for its unmatched dining experience and steaks served on 500-degree sizzling plates, today announced its newest location is open for business in Lakewood Ranch, a planned community of Sarasota County, FL.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003892090/en/

Ruths Chris Steak House announced its newest location in Lakewood Ranch, which is now open for business. It is located at 6490 University Parkway and brings an extraordinary dining experience to the area with its 7,016 square-foot location. (Photo: Business Wire)

The Lakewood Ranch Ruths Chris restaurant, located at 6490 University Parkway, brings an extraordinary dining experience to the Sarasota area with its 7,016 square-foot location that features one main dining room, one casual dining room, a luxurious bar and bar-lounge, a patio with ample seating, and two private dining rooms that can be reserved for any special occasion. The space is thoughtfully designed to provide a comfortably elegant, warm, and welcoming dining experience for every guest.

The Lakewood Ranch location is our 16th in the state of Florida, representing an exciting expansion in the region that further entrenches us in this areas fine dining scene, said Cheryl Henry, President of Ruths Chris Steak House. Were thrilled to continue to serve this community and look forward to more expansion opportunities in the future.

Ruths Chris is known for featuring the finest steaks, the best service, and an unmatched level of hospitality that has persevered since the first restaurant opened in 1965. The companys perfected broiling method and seasoning techniques ensure each cut of USDA Prime beef arrives cooked to perfection and sizzling on a 500-degree plate. Representing the highest-quality beef, these cuts are well marbled and hand-selected for thickness and tenderness.

Ruths Chris guests can also enjoy fresh seafood, scratch-made side dishes and desserts, craft cocktails and choice wines.

Ruths Chris Lakewood Ranch also offers a Happy Hour, which includes mouthwatering food and full-size appetizers, hand-crafted cocktails and wine starting at only $9 from 4:00p.m.  6:00p.m. every Sunday through Friday.

As part of the pre-opening celebration for its newest restaurant, Ruths Chris hosted a special VIP dinner with community leaders, business owners and Ruths Chris executives where 100% of the proceeds from the evening were donated to All Faiths Food Bank.

For more information and hours of operation, or to make a reservation, please visit https://ruthschris.com/lakewood-ranch/ or call (941) 315-6669.

About Ruths Chris Steak House

Ruth's Chris Steak House was founded by Ruth Fertel 58 years ago in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ruth had a recipe for everything  from how to prepare her signature sizzling steaks to how to treat her guests. This timeless formula is a testament to how one neighborhood eatery has become the largest collection of upscale steak houses in the world, with more than 150 restaurant locations around the globe. Ruth's Chris remains true to its heritage, helping guests make their best memories on 500-degree sizzling plates.

Ruth's Chris Steak House. This is how its done.

For more information, visit RuthsChris.com, or find us on Facebook and Instagram.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003892090/en/

Media Contact:

[email protected]

Source: Ruths Chris Steak House
Yost and Bond join the tech-forward firm to scale their respective practices, enhance the client experience, and optimize daily operations with ease

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Savvy Advisors Inc. (Savvy), a registered investment advisor (RIA) affiliated with Savvy Wealth Inc., today announced it has welcomed Erich Yost, CFA, and Ryan Bond CFP to the firm as principal wealth managers. Yost and Bond, both based in the Greater Philadelphia area, are the newest advisors to partner with Savvy and gain access to its proprietary technology platform. Savvys interface was designed to help advisors build personalized financial plans, improve client service and streamline marketing, and back-office operations.

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Erich Yost, Principal Wealth Manager at Savvy Advisors (Photo: Business Wire)

Yost comes to Savvy from Veritable, LP, where he was a portfolio manager and a member of a team that managed $2.5 billion in assets for ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families. With over 12 years of industry experience, Yost is well-positioned to provide guidance to clients on topics including strategic asset allocation, estate planning, and engaging the next generation. As an independent advisor at Savvy, Yost will leverage the firms growing tech stack to help his affluent clients effectively manage generational wealth and improve intra-family relationships.

As a financial advisor, I strive to make decisions that are not only in the best interest of each client, but also in the best interest of their families, said Yost. Leveraging the technological features of the Savvy Wealth platform introduces tangible benefits to the planning process for everyone involved. I have been able to automate processes and streamline workflows in my new role, allowing me to focus on the big picture and build deeper relationships with my clients. They deserve a partner who isn't stuck in the weeds and I'm excited to partner with Savvy to achieve this goal for my practice.

Similarly, Bond serves a client base made up of primarily high-net-worth investors and joins Savvy from Empower (formerly Personal Capital), where he worked as a senior financial advisor. In his prior role, Bond employed his holistic approach to financial planning while leading 300 client relationships with over $430 million in combined assets under management (AUM). Early in his career, Bond worked as an advisor at Vanguard and earned his Series 7, Series 66, and CFP certifications shortly after graduating with a triple major in financial planning, finance, and economics from the University of Delaware.

From the onset of my career, I have strived to take a modern approach to financial planning, aiming to maximize efficiency and satisfy my clients evolving needs, said Bond. Being a young advisor with a future-forward mindset, Savvy felt like the right home for me. It's all-in-one platform is poised to enhance my practice, offering proprietary solutions that allow me to unify every aspect of my clients financial lives and stay ahead of my their fast-evolving needs.

As Savvy advisors, both Yost and Bond have access to integrated technology across all facets of the planning process, made available via a newly launched advisor platform. Earlier this year, Savvy also rolled out a proprietary direct indexing solution that enables advisors like Yost and Bond to deliver tax-efficient, values-aligned portfolios that are customized to their high-net-worth clients ESG preferences.

Our intuitively designed software is only as good as the advisors we partner with to leverage the technology, added Ritik Malhotra, Co-Founder and CEO of Savvy. We seek out experienced advisors who have a track record of success with a niche they intimately understand. Erich and Ryan are both passionate, professional and motivated individuals who will play a key role in the next phase of innovation at Savvy.

Since its founding in 2021, Savvy has been actively recruiting advisors to its ranks and has scaled to several hundreds of millions of dollars in assets under management nationally. Advisors who are interested in joining Savvy can view the firms open roles.

About Savvy

Savvy is a digital-first platform for financial advisors centered around modernizing human financial advice. Financial advisors who partner with Savvy leverage Its intentionally built, integrated technology platform to help supercharge organic growth with enhanced software, and sales and marketing automation. Savvys proprietary technology empowers advisors to help scale revenue faster and spend more time focused on growth. Follow Savvy on LinkedIn to stay up to date on the latest company news and updates.

Neither Savvy Wealth, nor Savvy Advisors compensates, directly or indirectly for testimonials provided herein. Testimonials are not provided by clients however testimonials represent a conflict of interest as individuals may indirectly benefit from the endorsement they have provided.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003871862/en/

StreetCred PR

[email protected]

Will Ruben

847-208-8289

[email protected]

Meaghan McNichol

412-720-3777

[email protected]

Source: Savvy Wealth Inc.
The annual list honors companies and nonprofits that have built cultural relevance and impact through compelling branding and efforts that naturally extend their presence into communities

LOUISVILLE, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Sierra Space, a leading pureplay commercial space company building the first end-to-end business and technology platform in space, announced today that it has been recognized by Fast Company in the publications third annual Brands That Matter list, honoring brands that communicate and demonstrate brand purpose. These companies and nonprofits have built cultural relevance and impact through compelling branding and efforts that naturally extend their presence into the community.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003158322/en/

Sierra Space is proud to be named in Fast Company's third annual Brands That Matter list, honoring brands that communicate and demonstrate brand purpose. Fast Company editors judged each brand on relevancy, cultural impact, ingenuity, and business impact to compile the list, which includes General Motors, Girls Who Code, Intel, NFL, Logitech and more. (Photo: Business Wire)

The final list, which includes large multinational conglomerates, small-but-mighty companies, and nonprofits, recognizes 165 brands that give people compelling reasons to care about themand offer inspiration for others to buy in. All 165 have found an ability to forge an emotional connection with customers, whether leading on the environment or pop culture, engaging B2B customers, or responding meaningfully to current events.

All brands that applied were considered for overall recognition. Additionally, there are also honorees on category-specific lists based on region, size, and status.

Fast Company editors judged each brand on relevancy, cultural impact, ingenuity, and business impact to compile the list, which includes General Motors, Girls Who Code, Intel, NFL, Logitech and more.

Click here to see the complete list.

The Fall issue of Fast Company magazine is available online now and will be on newsstands beginning October 10, 2023.

About Sierra Space

Sierra Space is a leading, pureplay commercial space company at the forefront of innovation and the commercialization of space in the Orbital Age, building an end-to-end business and technology platform in space to benefit life on Earth. With more than 30 years and 500 missions of space flight heritage, the company is enabling the future of space transportation with Dream Chaser, the worlds only commercial spaceplane, and unlocking the potential for anyone to live and work in space with new commercial space stations. Sierra Space also builds and delivers a host of systems and subsystems across solar power, mechanics and motion control, environmental control, life support, propulsion and thermal control, offering myriad space-as-a-service solutions for the new space economy.

About Fast Company

Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies, and thinkers on the future of business. The editor-in-chief is Brendan Vaughan. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with our sister publication, Inc., and can be found online at fastcompany.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003158322/en/

Alex Walker, Sierra Space

(303) 803-2297 | [email protected]

Source: Sierra Space
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Spoon River College, a two-year, public community college in West Central Illinois, has selected YuJa Panorama Digital Accessibility Platform to help increase the accessibility of digital media and course content campuswide.

Spoon River College is part of the Illinois Community Colleges Online (ILCCO), a membership organization for the states community college districts that promotes quality online learning and additional online learning opportunities for students through course sharing. Institutional leaders at Spoon River College were introduced to YuJa through another ILCCO institution.

College officials were seeking a solution that checks content for accessibility and enables document remediation. YuJa Panorama automatically generates accessible versions of documents, auto-captions video content, and provides users with customized website accessibility options they can apply to any webpage. The Platform also provides an accessibility gauge, pinpoints accessibility issues, provides video guidance on how to correct inaccessible content, and offers robust reporting to help inform and guide instructors and administrators on their accessibility journey. YuJa Panorama integrates directly with the Canvas Learning Management System.

YuJa provides a comprehensive, all-in-one accessibility solution for institutions of all sizes to support the needs of their students, said Nathan Arora, Chief Business Officer at YuJa, Inc. Were pleased Spoon River College and a number of other institutions in the Illinois Community Colleges Online organization trust YuJa to provide ed-tech tools they need to serve students today.

ABOUT SPOON RIVER COLLEGE

Spoon River College is a two-year, public community college in West Central Illinois dedicated to providing students a quality education. Spoon River College serves 4,000 credit students per year in a 1,566 square miles area including portions of Fulton, McDonough, Mason, Schuyler and Knox counties.

ABOUT YUJA, INC.

YuJa is a leader in ed-tech solutions. Our platforms provide organizations of all sizes with the tools to educate, engage, inspire and collaborate. We serve learning enterprises within all sectors, including higher-ed, K-12, government, healthcare, non-profit and corporate. We have legal headquarters in Delaware with primary U.S. offices in Silicon Valley, California, and Canadian offices in Toronto.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003723190/en/

Hannah Johnson

1-888-257-2278

Source: YuJa, Inc.
Dr. Mario Capecchi, Nobel Laureate at University of Utah, to Deliver Keynote on Research to Understand Symptoms Prevalent in Individuals With Autism: Anxiety and OCD

PLEASANTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Autism is the fastest growing developmental disability, with 1 in 44 children diagnosed in the U.S. and the cost of care projected to be $461 billion by 2025. Yet, there are only two FDA-approved treatments, neither of which alleviate the core disabling symptoms of autism.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003882828/en/

Featured Synchrony 2023 speakers include Mario Capecchi, University of Utah; David Fajgenbaum, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Stuart Lipton, Scripps Research/Yale School of Medicine; Sarkis Mazmanian, Caltech; Alysson Muotri, University of California at San Diego; and Nicole Zurcher Wimmer, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. (Photo: Business Wire)

To address the challenges of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) head-on, The BRAIN Foundation is hosting Synchrony Symposium 2023, the first and only international symposium on translational research in autism. The conference brings together academia, biotech, pharmaceutical companies, and venture partners from around the world with the mission to improve the health and quality of life for people with autism.

Synchrony 2023 will run for three days, Oct. 20-22, at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California. To register, please visit https://synchronysymposium.com; the full agenda can be viewed at https://brainfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/Synchrony-2023-Agenda-12.pdf.

Participants will learn about the latest in basic and translational research and the opportunities being pursued by biotech and pharmaceutical companies for the development of FDA-approved therapeutics for autism. Highlights of the conference include:

Keynote Presentations

Dr. Mario Capecchi, Nobel laureate from the University of Utah, will deliver the keynote about his seminal work on transgenic and knock-out animal models and its potential to understand the role of microglial cells in anxiety and OCD, two symptoms prevalent in individuals with ASD.



Dr. Capecchi will also introduce BRAIN Researchers Mini-Course: From Bench to Biopharma, a new program that brings together the stalwarts in basic science and translational research to share research ideas and techniques with new and upcoming researchers in this field. The esteemed faculty includes eminent scholars from leading research institutions, and topics will cover animal models, organoid research, cutting-edge imaging techniques, microbiome and translational treatment studies, and more.

Dr. David Fajgenbaum, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and best-selling author, will deliver a keynote and chair a roundtable on the promise of using repurposed drugs to address the medical challenges in individuals with an ASD diagnosis.

Clinical Pearls From Specialists

Clinical pearls is a new session that will bring the clinical pearls benefiting the ASD population from experienced physicians to practitioners who attend the conference. Given the present knowledge of evidence-based medicine, this session will serve the purpose of improving care for this patient group. Specialists in neurology, psychiatry, rheumatology and allergy/immunology will come together to share their treatment tips and insights for attending physicians.

Multidisciplinary Roundtables

Multidisciplinary roundtables will be offered by a large group of distinguished university researchers, clinicians, industry executives, private practice physicians, and parents on topics important to individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as Neuropsych Exacerbations in Adolescents/Adults and Seizures in ASD; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Autism; Repurposed Drugs; Organoid Research for Autism; Emergency Department Procedures and Protocols; and Biomarkers for ASD.

New Research Presentations

Seven dedicated researchers have been selected by BRAIN Foundation (through a competitive review process) to present new findings and updates from the following institutions: Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Florida Atlantic University, University of Miami, University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of Texas, University of Toronto, and University of Utah.

Synchrony is sponsored by CharmHealth, Axial Therapeutics, Autism Research Coalition, Caltech, Edcite, Robert Half Inc., Florida Atlantic University Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute, Journal of Translational Genetics and Genomics, Lighthouse Complex Care, Niraxx, PaxMedica, Serenity Infotech, The OSullivan Foundation, Thinking Autism, UC Davis MIND Institute, and Vtiger CRM.

Co-occurring conditions  epilepsy, sleep disorders, anxiety, depression, apraxia, and sensory sensitivities  as well as communication and executive functioning-related disabilities deeply affect the ability of people with ASD to function independently on a daily basis, explained Pramila Srinivasan, Ph.D., president of The BRAIN Foundation. Only through multidisciplinary collaboration, public awareness, and funding will we be able to advance the development of FDA-approved treatments.

About Synchrony

Synchrony, created and hosted by The BRAIN Foundation, is the first and only international symposium on translational research in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The conference brings together academia, biotech, pharmaceutical companies, and venture partners from around the world with the mission to catalyze scientific research to improve the health and quality of life for people with autism and other neurological disorders through safe and evidence-based medicine. Now in its fifth year, Synchrony has hosted 4,500 attendees and hundreds of groundbreaking talks from the worlds top researchers, scientists, industry executives, and clinicians. For more information about Synchrony, please visit https://synchronysymposium.com.

About The BRAIN Foundation

The BRAIN Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to support translational research that will lead to the development of FDA-approved treatments and an improved standard of care for comorbidities in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The nonprofit provides 1) funding through research grants and equity investments, 2) space for symposia and working groups, and 3) clinical initiatives that translate research to evidence-based treatments. By accelerating funding, completion of research studies, and FDA approval, the vision of health, independence and well-being for every person on the planet with neurological conditions can become a reality. For more information about The BRAIN Foundation, please visit https://brainfoundation.org, and connect on Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

All brand and solution names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Tags: The BRAIN Foundation, Synchrony 2023, autism, autism spectrum disorder, ASD, neurodevelopmental disorders, neuroscience, neurodivergent, neurodiversity, FDA, medical research, medical technology, Mario Capecchi, David Fajgenbaum

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003882828/en/

Dottie ORourke, for The BRAIN Foundation

TECHMarket Communications

650-344-1260

[email protected]

Source: The BRAIN Foundation
MADRID, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Pedro Sanchez, leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), was nominated by King Felipe on Tuesday to try and form the country's new government.

Sanchez, who has been acting prime minister since the July 23 general election, will now conduct talks with political party leaders with the aim of establishing a viable coalition government.

His opportunity comes after the leader of the right-wing People's Party, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, last week lost two investiture votes in Congress.

"I have accepted the responsibility given to me by His Majesty the King to be a candidate to be invested as prime minister," Sanchez said, adding that he felt "honored and responsible to the whole of Spanish society."

Feijoo also met the king on Tuesday, after other party leaders (with the exception of those of the Catalan nationalist parties Junts per Catalunya and ERC) spoke with Felipe VI on Monday.

It will not be easy for Sanchez to gain the support needed to win an investiture vote, analysts said. The Socialists won 121 seats in July and that means he will need the votes of all the parties in Congress with the exception of the PP, the extreme right-wing Vox and the regional UPN and Coalicion Canaria to return as prime minister.

Sanchez has until Nov.27 to form a government, otherwise, Parliament will be dissolved and new elections called for January. 
Will Expand Teledyne LeCroys Protocol Test Portfolio to include Terabit Ethernet Traffic Generation and Network Emulation

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE: TDY) (Teledyne) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Xena Networks ApS (Xena Networks). Xena Networks, headquartered outside of Copenhagen, Denmark, is a leading provider of high-speed Terabit Ethernet validation, quality assurance, and production test solutions.

The Xena Networks acquisition will further establish our leadership in the protocol test market, extending our reach to Ethernet system validation engineers, quality assurance labs, and production lines for test, evaluation, and acceptance of Ethernet components and systems, said Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Teledyne. The acquisition of LeCroy in 2012 provided a healthy and growing portfolio of protocol test businesses focused on PCI Express, USB as well as storage and networking technologies. Since then, we expanded Teledyne LeCroys protocol test business with multiple acquisitions, including Quantum Data (for video), Frontline (for Bluetooth and WiFi) and OakGate (for storage devices test solutions). Xena Networks will be a powerful addition to this strong and growing protocol test portfolio.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning, high-performance computing and 5G all require ever higher speeds of data transmission and fuel the need for new solutions to test next generation Terabit Ethernet network components. The same network equipment manufacturers that today use Teledyne LeCroys network protocol analysis and error injection tools also require high-performance Ethernet traffic generation and network emulation test tools to validate product designs. Xena Networks test tools offer in-depth Ethernet link training and auto negotiation test capabilities, which next generation Terabit Ethernet products need to ensure that expected performance is achieved. Combining the traffic generation and network emulation capabilities of Xena Networks with the protocol analysis functionality of Teledyne LeCroy will deliver a unique value proposition in support of semiconductor and network equipment manufacturers, network service providers, and hyperscale and cloud computing providers, said Kevin Prusso, Vice President and General Manager of Teledyne LeCroy.

Jacob Vestergaard Nielsen, Xena Networks Chief Executive Officer, said, Were excited to join Teledyne LeCroy and leverage its wide coverage of protocols technologies. In particular, Teledynes network protocol analysis solutions complement well our traffic generation, physical layer, and network emulation products with support of up to 800Gbps Terabit Ethernet data rates, to the benefit of our customers.

About Teledyne LeCroy

Teledyne LeCroy is a leading manufacturer of advanced protocol analyzers, oscilloscopes, and other test instruments that verify performance, validate compliance, and debug complex electronic systems quickly and thoroughly. Since its founding in 1964, the Company has focused on incorporating powerful tools into innovative products that enhance Time-to-Insight. Faster time to insight enables users to rapidly find and fix defects in complex electronic systems, dramatically improving time-to-market for a wide variety of applications and end markets. Teledyne LeCroy is based in Chestnut Ridge, New York. For more information, visit Teledyne LeCroys website at teledynelecroy.com.

Forward-Looking Statements Cautionary Notice

This press release contains forward-looking statements, as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, relating to a pending acquisition of a company subject to customary closing conditions. Actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Many factors, as well as market and economic conditions beyond either companys control, could change anticipated results. There are additional risks associated with operating businesses internationally, including those arising from United States and foreign government policy and regulatory changes or actions and exchange rate fluctuations.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003551057/en/

Contact: Nick Kriczky  (512) 651-6454

Website: http://teledynelecroy.com/

Source: Teledyne Technologies Incorporated
MEDICINE HAT, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Animal Food Bank Foundation (AFB) is honoured to have the amazing Jann Arden create a design for a limited-edition merch line, with 100% of proceeds benefiting the Foundation. All proceeds from the sales of these hoodies and shirts will go towards feeding and providing supplies to pets in need. Without operational funding, AFB is reliant on volunteers and donations from the community to feed pets in need. Having supplied close to 2.5 million meals in the last three and a half years, AFB is committed to ensure happy, loved pets can stay with their humans.

Through operation of our own pet food banks we have completed over 11,000 deliveries of pet food and supplies. We have donated over 500,000 lbs of pet food to sister organisations including providing pet food and supplies to wildfire evacuees, the need for our services is great. Because of pet food bank services, 66% of our clients no longer have to choose between feeding themselves and their pets, and 56% have not had to surrender a pet to a shelter due to lack of resources to support the pet.

Ive been a huge fan of Janns for a long time. I respect her authenticity, humanness, talent, sense of humour and wit. Shes a real human and her love and advocacy for animals is real too. I am beyond honoured to be able to offer this campaign showcasing her design and talent, in support of pets in need, says Nicole Frey, Founder of the Animal Food Bank Foundation. We are hoping to make this our most successful fundraiser ever so that we can restock our cupboards after a year of high demand for not only our pet food bank services, but supporting pets of evacuees affected by wildfires.

Were thrilled to be able to work with Jann on this project and we hope youll be willing to help us spread the word about this amazing fundraising campaign. These shirts and hoodies, printed by one of our amazing supporters, Dads Printing, are only available for a limited time!

Please visit our website at animalfoodbank.org for more information.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003334053/en/

Animal Food Bank Foundation

Nicole Frey

[email protected]

250-864-1192

Source: Animal Food Bank Foundation
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- World Mobile (https://worldmobile.io/), the first global mobile network powered by blockchain technology and the sharing economy, announces a strategic partnership with Adaptive Broadband (https://www.adaptivebroadband.org/), Inc., a leading rural wireless ISP based in the U.S. state of Oregon, and subsidiary of Adaptive Ad Systems, Inc. (PINK:AATV). This partnership marks the commencement of World Mobiles U.S. commercial operations in the USA for World Mobile, and the integration of its decentralized AirNode infrastructure (https://worldmobile.io/blog/post/what-is-an-airnode) and sharing economy into Adaptive Broadbands existing wireless ISP network.

Adaptive Broadband brings more than 15 years of experience in delivering reliable internet services servicing rural communities in Oregon. By collaborating with World Mobile, Adaptive Broadband integrates its infrastructure into the sharing economy, converting more than 70 of its existing radios, towers, and hotspots into AirNodes. These AirNodes are then being validated and authenticated using the World Mobile blockchain, AYA.

The partnership converts Adaptive Broadbands rapidly growing subscriber base into World Mobile customers, enabling them to access cellular coverage and Over-The-Top (OTT) services in rural towns surrounding Salem, Oregon. This enhancement in connectivity options transforms the ISP from a one-play to a three-play provider, offering a comprehensive suite of services to its customer base. It also reinforces World Mobiles vision of building a more inclusive, connected world and generating revenue for its sharing economy.

Charles Barnett, Chief Business Officer of World Mobile, said: We are delighted to partner with Adaptive Broadband, a pioneer in rural wireless internet service provision. This partnership demonstrates the power and potential of our AirNode technology and sharing economy model, which can unlock new revenue streams for ISPs and new connectivity options for customers. We look forward to expanding our presence in the USA and other markets with similar opportunities.

J. Michael Heil, Adaptive Broadband CEO, said: We are excited to work with World Mobile, a global leader in blockchain-powered mobile network solutions. This partnership allows us to leverage their hybrid dynamic network technology and platform to enhance our service delivery and customer satisfaction. We are proud to be part of their mission to connect the unconnected and under-connected communities around the world.

About World Mobile

World Mobile is democratizing global connectivity through its blockchain-based network. Unlike traditional telecom providers, World Mobile operates on a sharing economy model, allowing individuals and businesses to run nodes, connect their communities, and generate revenue.

For more information, visit https://worldmobile.io/

About Adaptive Broadband

Adaptive Broadband, Inc. is a leading rural wireless ISP based in Oregon, USA, and a subsidiary of Adaptive Ad Systems, Inc. (PINK: AATV). Adaptive Broadband provides reliable residential and commercial internet services to rural communities in Oregon using its state-of-the-art wireless infrastructure. Adaptive Broadband is committed to collaborations that drive innovation and enhance service delivery in the telecommunications sector.

For more information, visit adaptivebroadband.org

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003971670/en/

Media

Ari Karp

ReBlonde for World Mobile Group

[email protected]

Source: World Mobile
Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE: WTRG) today announced a binding agreement to sell its three non-utility microgrid and district energy properties in Allegheny County to Cordia, a sustainability-driven energy solutions provider. The agreement is valued at $165 million.

The agreement covers innovative microgrids and district energy systems developed by Peoples, Essentials gas operations subsidiary based in Pittsburgh, where the assets are located.

The Pittsburgh International Airport microgrid is the first of its kind, allowing the airport to operate independent of the electric grid thanks to a 21.25 MW natural gas power plant supported by on-site gas production, making PIT one of the most resilient airports in the world .

microgrid is the first of its kind, allowing the airport to operate independent of the electric grid thanks to a 21.25 MW natural gas power plant supported by on-site gas production, making PIT one of the . The district energy system at Allegheny Health Network (AHN)  Wexford Hospital provides the 160-bed hospital with all heating, cooling and primary power needs via steam boilers, hot water boilers, chillers, and a 2.0 MW natural gas generator, along with emergency backup power.

provides the 160-bed hospital with all heating, cooling and primary power needs via steam boilers, hot water boilers, chillers, and a 2.0 MW natural gas generator, along with emergency backup power. The Allegheny County District Energy system provides efficient and resilient steam and hot water services to six government buildings including the Allegheny County Courthouse and City-County Building, using seven state-of-the-art steam boilers and one domestic water heater.

I thank our Peoples and Essential teams for their work in creating a clean, safe, reliable future through developing these innovative energy systems, said Essential Utilities CEO Chris Franklin. Selling these unregulated assets to a skilled and experienced operator in Cordia allows us to focus more fully on our core business as a regulated utility, while continuing to support projects that create a more resilient, sustainable energy grid.

Essential selected Cordia as the buyer for the three systems in part because of their expertise in microgrids and district energy systems, along with their established footprint in Pittsburgh. Cordia currently operates energy systems in Pittsburghs Uptown and North Shore neighborhoods, as well as the on-campus energy system for Duquesne University. The companys presence in the region dates back to the 1960s.

"We are honored to have the opportunity to acquire the cutting-edge microgrid and district energy systems from Essential Utilities, said Cordia CEO Earl Collins. Our decades of experience owning, managing, and operating energy systems will allow our new customers to focus on their core businesses. Cordias comprehensive expertise in district energy and microgrids aligns this acquisition with our commitment to safety, service, and innovation. We will ensure the seamless continuation of service while building on our strong ties with the Pittsburgh community and supporting our new customers.

The sale of these unregulated assets, along with the recently closed West Virginia traction, demonstrate Essentials efforts to strategically focus on its core businesses. The company will continue to prioritize investments in infrastructure to improve safety and reliability, and to reduce emissions.

Ensuring our customers remained in good hands has been a top priority throughout this process, said Peoples President Mike Huwar. We are confident Cordia will provide that for each of these crucial assets, and look forward to working together by providing clean, safe, reliable and affordable natural gas service to all three projects for years to come.

TD Securities (USA) LLC acted as financial advisor to Essential, while Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP acted as legal advisor.

Closing Timeline

The transaction is subject to various closing conditions and regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in late 2023 or early 2024.

Use of Proceeds

Essential will use the $165 million in transaction proceeds to finance its capital expenditures and water and wastewater acquisitions, in place of external funding from equity and debt issuances.
Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (the Company or MPT) (NYSE: MPW) today announced that the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board has approved HMC Capitals purchase of MPTs remaining four Australian facilities for approximately AUD$470 million. The transaction is expected to close in October. The 5.7% cash cap rate on the sale demonstrates continued significant third-party demand for essential hospital real estate at pricing that validates MPTs underwriting, notwithstanding broader macroeconomic market conditions.
Vancouver, BC, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Skyharbour Resources Ltd.s (TSX-V:SYH) (OTCQX:SYHBF) (Frankfurt:SC1P) (the Company) partner company Azincourt Energy (Azincourt) is pleased to announce that permits have been received for ongoing exploration activities at the East Preston uranium project in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, Canada. Azincourt has received work authorization and permits from the Government of Saskatchewan to allow diamond drilling and limited ground geophysics through to the summer of 2026. This effectively provides access to the ground for the next three winter field seasons.



Project Location  Western Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, Canada:

https://www.skyharbourltd.com/_resources/maps/Sky_EastPreston_20211209.jpg

Azincourt Energy recognizes that the granting of these permits does not negate the rights of the local communities for meaningful consultation as the project progresses. Azincourt continues to be engaged in regular meetings with the Clearwater River Dene Nation and other rights holders to ensure that the concerns of the local communities are addressed regarding the East Preston project. A more in-depth engagement process will also be commencing within the next month with the La Loche Metis Local #39. Azincourt endeavors to keep local stakeholders apprised of ongoing plans, results, and priorities for the property. The involvement of the local communities is essential for continued advancement of the East Preston Project.

Azincourt looks forward to a continued close working relationship with CRDN and other rights holders to ensure that any potential impacts and concerns are addressed and that the communities can benefit from activities in the area through support of local business, employment opportunities, and sponsorship of select community programs and initiatives. Local businesses are engaged to provide services and supplies and members of the Clearwater River Dene Nation and surrounding communities have been directly employed on site or to provide support and services to keep the camp and programs running.

We are very excited to continue working at the East Preston project, and the granting of work permits for three years clears a critical component from the ongoing planning process said Azincourts VP, Exploration, Trevor Perkins. This shows faith by the government and local communities for us to continue our work in the area in a safe and environmentally friendly manner, and to continue engaging with local communities. We want to ensure that any concerns raised are dealt with to the satisfaction of all parties and that relevant information is shared to minimize impact on members of the local communities who use this land, continued Mr. Perkins.

Winter 2024 Program:

Planning is underway for a winter 2024 drill program focusing on the alteration zone associated with the K- and H-Zones. The exact size, scope, and budget of this program is still to be determined and will be communicated as decisions are finalized and confirmed.

Road Access to the East Preston Project, Western Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan:

https://skyharbourltd.com/_resources/maps/Road-access-to-the-East-Preston-Uranium-Project-Western-Athabasca-Basin-Saskatchewan.png

East Preston Targets:

The primary target area on the East Preston Project is the conductive corridors from the A-Zone through to the G-Zone (A-G Trend) and the K-Zone through to the H and Q-Zones (K-H-Q Trend). The selection of these trends is based on a compilation of results from the 2018 through 2020 ground-based EM and gravity surveys, property wide VTEM and magnetic surveys, and the 2019 through 2022 drill programs, the 2020 HLEM survey indicates multiple prospective conductors and structural complexity along these corridors.

Drilling has confirmed that identified geophysical conductors comprise structurally disrupted zones that are host to accumulations of graphite, sulphides, and carbonates. Hydrothermal alteration, relevant clays, anomalous radioactivity, and elevated uranium have now been demonstrated to exist within these structurally disrupted conductor zones.

2023-24 Target Areas at the East Preston Uranium Project:

https://skyharbourltd.com/_resources/maps/2023-24-Target-areas-at-the-East-Preston-Uranium-Project.png

Illite and kaolinite are both indicators of hydrothermal alteration typically found within alteration halos of unconformity uranium deposits. Dravite is a boron-rich clay which is typically found within a larger clay package in close proximity to uranium mineralization in the system. Both illite and dravite have been identified as being significant vectors for the recent Patterson Lake North discovery by F3 Uranium approximately 60 km to the northwest of the East Preston project.

About East Preston:

Skyharbour and Dixie Gold entered into an Option Agreement (the Agreement) with Azincourt whereby Azincourt had an earn-in option to acquire a 70% working interest in a portion of the Preston Uranium Project known as the East Preston Property. Azincourt earned a majority interest in the project by completing CAD $2.5 million in staged exploration expenditures and making a total of CAD $1 million in cash payments as well as issuing shares of Azincourt divided evenly between Skyharbour and Dixie Gold. Azincourt now owns 85.8% of the Project with Skyharbour retaining a minority interest of 9.5% in the East Preston Project.

Three prospective conductive, low magnetic signature corridors have been discovered on the property. The three distinct corridors have a total strike length of over 25 km, each with multiple EM conductor trends identified. Ground prospecting and sampling work completed to date has identified outcrop, soil, biogeochemical and radon anomalies, which are key pathfinder elements for unconformity uranium deposit discovery.

The East Preston Project has multiple long linear conductors with flexural changes in orientation and offset breaks in the vicinity of interpreted fault lineaments  classic targets for basement-hosted unconformity uranium deposits. These are not just simple basement conductors; they are clearly upgraded/enhanced prospectivity targets because of the structural complexity. The targets are basement-hosted unconformity related uranium deposits similar to NexGens Arrow deposit and Camecos Eagle Point mine. East Preston is near the southern edge of the western Athabasca Basin, where targets are in a near surface environment without Athabasca sandstone cover; therefore, they are relatively shallow targets but can have great depth extent when discovered. The project ground is located along a parallel conductive trend between the PLS-Arrow trend and Camecos Centennial deposit (Virgin River-Dufferin Lake trend).

Qualified Person:

The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and reviewed by C. Trevor Perkins, P.Geo., Vice President, Exploration of Azincourt Energy, and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Skyharbour Resources Ltd.:

Skyharbour holds an extensive portfolio of uranium exploration projects in Canada's Athabasca Basin and is well positioned to benefit from improving uranium market fundamentals with twenty-four projects, ten of which are drill-ready, covering over 518,000 hectares (over 1.2 million acres) of land. Skyharbour has acquired from Denison Mines, a large strategic shareholder of the Company, a 100% interest in the Moore Uranium Project which is located 15 kilometres east of Denison's Wheeler River project and 39 kilometres south of Cameco's McArthur River uranium mine. Moore is an advanced-stage uranium exploration property with high-grade uranium mineralization at the Maverick Zone that returned drill results of up to 6.0% U 3 O 8 over 5.9 metres including 20.8% U 3 O 8 over 1.5 metres at a vertical depth of 265 metres. Adjacent to the Moore Uranium Project is Skyharbours recently optioned Russell Lake Uranium Project from Rio Tinto, which hosts historical high-grade uranium drill intercepts over a large property area with robust exploration upside potential. The Company is actively advancing these projects through exploration and drill programs.

Skyharbour has joint-ventures with industry-leader Orano Canada Inc. and Azincourt Energy at the Preston and East Preston Projects, respectively, whereby Orano and Azincourt earned majority interests in the projects through exploration expenditures, cash payments and share issuances. Skyharbour also has several active earn-in option partners including: ASX-listed Valor Resources at the Hook Lake Uranium Project; CSE-listed Basin Uranium Corp. at the Mann Lake Uranium Project; CSE-listed Medaro Mining Corp. at the Yurchison Project; Yellow Rocks Energy, a private Australian entity, at the Wallee and Usam Island projects; North Shore Energy Metals at the South Falcon Project; and TSX-V listed Tisdale Clean Energy at the South Falcon East Project which is host to the Fraser Lakes Zone B Uranium and Thorium Deposit.

Collectively, Skyharbour has now signed earn-in option agreements with partners that total to over $37 million in partner-funded exploration expenditures, over $28 million worth of shares being issued and over $19 million in cash payments coming into Skyharbour, assuming that these partner companies complete their entire earn-ins at the respective projects.

Skyharbour's goal is to maximize shareholder value through new mineral discoveries, committed long-term partnerships, and the advancement of exploration projects in geopolitically favourable jurisdictions.

Skyharbours Uranium Project Map in the Athabasca Basin:

https://skyharbourltd.com/_resources/maps/SKY_SaskProject_Locator_V2A_20230727.jpg

To find out more about Skyharbour Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: SYH) visit the Companys website at www.skyharbourltd.com.

SKYHARBOUR RESOURCES LTD.

Jordan Trimble



Jordan Trimble

President and CEO

For further information contact myself or:

Nicholas Coltura

Corporate Development and Communications

Skyharbour Resources Ltd.

Telephone: 604-558-5847

Toll Free: 800-567-8181

Facsimile: 604-687-3119

Email: [email protected]

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THE CONTENT OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.

The securities offered have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any U.S. state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, United States persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, nor in any other jurisdiction.

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that management of the Company expects, are forward-looking statements, including the Private Placement. Although management believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements, include market prices, exploration and development successes, regulatory approvals, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Please see the public filings of the Company at www.sedar.com for further information.
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via InvestorWire -- CryptoCurrencyWire (CCW), one of 60+ brands part of IBN (InvestorBrandNetwork), is excited to announce its collaboration with Blockchain Economy Summit as the official newswire for the 8th edition of the Blockchain Economy Dubai event. Additionally, IBN will serve as an official media partner for this event, which will take place at the iconic Le Meridien Dubai Hotel and Conference Center on October 4-5, 2023.

Christened as The World's Most Global Blockchain and Crypto Conference, the event will bring together key players from the crypto and AI sectors to shape the future of these groundbreaking technologies. Built on principles of transparency, originality, quality and real-world application, the event's packed agenda and numerous networking opportunities will allow attendees to engage with top crypto companies, interact with industry-leading voices, AI innovators and blockchain entrepreneurs, refine their vision, attract the right customers and expand their businesses.

The Dubai event provides a one-of-a-kind platform positioned in a vital global commercial center that enables profitable partnerships and access to a state-of-the-art exhibition, driving high-powered networking opportunities and enhancing brand visibility. This forum will address key areas like DeFi, the metaverse and the broader web3 space, setting the stage for lasting success.

The Dubai event is just the beginning of a series of summits that includes Istanbul and London, offering valuable opportunities for networking with attendees from over 120 countries.

Throughout both days, visitors will be treated to keynotes, lively panel discussions, interactive sessions with renowned speakers and enlightening fireside chats.

The event will host over 50 distinguished speakers, including:

Ramia Farrage, MC, Senior Producer, and Presenter at Forbes

Lennix Lai, Global Chief Commercial Officer at OKX

Dr. Ebrahim Al Alkeem, Digital Transformation, Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence Expert, Director at the Government of Abu Dhabi

Martin Hanzl, Head of New Technologies at EY Law

Matthew Sigel, Head of Digital Assets Research at VanEck

Michael van de Poppe, Crypto Trader and Market Analyst, CEO & Founder of MN Trading

As the event's official newswire, CCW will disseminate announcements, syndicate editorial content and provide comprehensive news coverage to generate widespread interest across target markets, including investors, consumers, industry professionals and journalists. CCW's unique communication capabilities is delivering unmatched visibility, broader recognition and brand awareness for its clients and event partners.

In its role as an official media sponsor, IBN will utilize its extensive corporate communications solutions to enhance the visibility of conference organizers, seasoned investors, blockchain experts and participating crypto companies through influential digital channels and full-scale media distribution. IBN's reach extends to 5,000+ syndication partners and 60+ brands such as Web3MediaWire and TechMediaWire, reaching an audience of more than 2 million online readers.

Jonathan Keim, Director of Communications for IBN, stated, The Blockchain Economy Summit is an important conference series for the crypto, AI and web3 sectors. We are very pleased to leverage our network of digital channels to drive broader recognition for the upcoming summit. With the Dubai edition of the event now in its eighth iteration, it has established an impressive track record of producing groundbreaking and sector-redefining experiences.

The Blockchain Economy Summit series is helping shape future developments across the AI, crypto and web3 ecosystem. The series empowers businesses and professionals to stay updated with the rapidly changing landscape, experience cutting-edge technology and engage directly with the next stage of the technological revolution. Curated events and dedicated networking opportunities will pave the way for deeper knowledge exchanges, exploration of potential avenues for lasting collaboration and networking with visionary leaders.

To find out more and register for the Dubai event, please visit the official website at https://beconomydubai.com/tickets

For additional information about the Blockchain Economy Summit, visit https://blockchaineconomy.global/

About IBN

IBN consists of financial brands introduced to the investment public over the course of 17+ years. With IBN, we have amassed a collective audience of millions of social media followers. These distinctive investor brands aim to fulfill the unique needs of a growing base of client-partners. IBN will continue to expand our branded network of highly influential properties, leveraging the knowledge and energy of specialized teams of experts to serve our increasingly diversified list of clients.

Through our Dynamic Brand Portfolio (DBP), IBN provides: (1) access to a network of wire solutions via InvestorWire to reach all target markets, industries and demographics in the most effective manner possible; (2) article and editorial syndication to 5,000+ news outlets; (3) Press Release Enhancement to ensure maximum impact; (4) full-scale distribution to a growing social media audience; (5) a full array of corporate communications solutions; and (6) total news coverage solutions.

For more information, please visit https://www.InvestorBrandNetwork.com

Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the InvestorBrandNetwork website applicable to all content provided by IBN, wherever published or re-published: http://IBN.fm/Disclaimer

Corporate Communications:

IBNLos Angeles, Californiawww.InvestorBrandNetwork.com310.299.1717 Office[email protected]

Source: InvestorBrandNetwork (IBN)
BROOKFIELD, NEWS, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brookfield Asset Management announced today the closing of its latest flagship global private equity program, Brookfield Capital Partners VI (BCP VI or the Fund). With $12 billion in total capital raised for the strategy, BCP VI is the largest private equity fund raised by Brookfield.



Partners in BCP VI are a diverse group of institutional investors, including public and private pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, endowments and foundations, and family offices. Brookfield has committed $3.5 billion to the Fund, underscoring the firms alignment of interests with other investors.

Cyrus Madon, CEO of Brookfields Private Equity Group, said, We are grateful for the confidence and support from our investors for BCP VI, Brookfields largest private equity fund raised to date. Reaching this milestone is a testament to our strong track record and longstanding strategy of investing in high-quality, cash-generative businesses that will benefit from Brookfields deep operating expertise.

Anuj Ranjan, President of Brookfields Private Equity Group, said, Our global deal pipeline remains robust during this current period of market dislocation, which is creating significant large-scale opportunities that suit our operationally intensive investment approach.

To date, the Fund has committed approximately $4 billion to acquire six market-leading businesses and continues to provide meaningful co-investment opportunities to its partners.

About Brookfield Asset Management

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. (NYSE: BAM, TSX: BAM) is a leading global alternative asset manager with US$850 billion of assets under management across renewable, infrastructure, real estate, private equity, credit and other. We invest client capital for the long-term with a focus on real assets and essential service businesses that form the backbone of the global economy. We offer a range of alternative investment products to investors around the world, which include public and private pension plans, endowments and foundations, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, insurance companies and private wealth investors. We draw on Brookfields heritage as an owner and operator to invest for value and generate strong returns for its clients, across economic cycles.

For more information, please visit our website at https://bam.brookfield.com or contact:

Media

Marie Fuller

Brookfield Asset Management

M: +44 207 407 8375

E: [email protected]

Notice to Readers

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. is not making any offer or invitation of any kind by communication of this news release and under no circumstance is it to be construed as a prospectus or an advertisement.

In addition to historical fact, this news release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable U.S. securities laws, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws (collectively, forward-looking statements). Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as expect, anticipate, believe, foresee, could, estimate, goal, intend, plan, seek, strive, will, may and should and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements reflect current estimates, beliefs and assumptions, which are based on Brookfields perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors management believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Brookfields estimates, beliefs and assumptions are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and other uncertainties and contingencies regarding future events and as such, are subject to change. Brookfield can give no assurance that such estimates, beliefs and assumptions will prove to be correct. In particular, statements about Brookfields business strategy are forward-looking statements.

Other factors, risks and uncertainties not presently known to Brookfield, or that Brookfield currently believes are not material, could also cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements that are included in this press release, which are made as of the date of this press release, and not to use such information for anything other than their intended purpose. Brookfield disclaims any obligation or intention to update or revise any forward- looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.
Executives from Mattel, Walmart, Accenture and more highlight the business benefits of centering equity in their workplace mental health commitments

Over 1,000 business leaders and mental health advocates expected to attend virtual summit on Thursday

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In anticipation of World Mental Health Day on October 10, the Health Action Alliance (HAA) is thrilled to announce its second annual Mental Health Equity at Work Summit. This virtual event will take place on Thursday, October 5, 2023, at 2 pm ET / 11am PT. Top executives from prominent brands such as Mattel, Walmart, and Accenture, in addition to renowned mental health and diversity experts, will converge to explore the pivotal theme, "Breaking Barriers: Empowering Business Excellence through Mental Health Equity."

At this summit, esteemed C-suite executives will join leading voices in workplace mental health to unveil effective strategies for fostering supportive environments that prioritize mental well-being for all employees. Attendees will learn why inclusive leadership and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) commitments are critical for well-being in the workplace, and how to better understand and support worker identities that often go under-represented in traditional DEIB initiatives.

People associate DEI with woke culture, Black Lives Matter and Pride. While these movements play a role, DEIB is about so much more, said best-selling author and workplace mental health leader Natasha Bowman, a featured speaker at the summit. Forward-thinking business leaders who address the mental health needs of a diverse workforce can elevate overall well-being for their entire team.

When you focus on improving mental health for those with the greatest need, everyone wins, said Mark SooHoo, Executive Director of Health Action Alliance. When employees experience a deep sense of belonging in a workplace culture that celebrates their authenticity, it's like rocket fuel for their happiness and, as a result, supercharges their productivity and creativity. Belonging benefits everyone.

Hosted by the Health Action Alliance and presented by the American Psychological Association, Headspace, and Twill in partnership with the Ad Council, the Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the National Safety Council, the second annual Mental Health Equity at Work Summit will feature a diverse lineup of business leaders and mental health experts including:

Mason Williams, Global Head of DEI, Mattel

Denise Malloy, Chief Belonging Officer, Walmart

Dr. Tamarah Duperval-Brownlee, Chief Health Officer, Accenture

Natasha Bowman, Leading Voice on LinkedIn, Author, Attorney and Mental Health Advocate

Mary Michael, Vice President of Patient Advocacy and Stakeholder Management at Otsuka

Ebony Travis Tichenor, Director of Global Wellbeing & HR Employee Policies, Boston Scientific

Elise James-DeCruise, Chief Equity Officer, Ad Council

Dr. Wizdom Powell, Chief Purpose Officer, Headspace

Dr. Dennis Stolle, Senior Director of Applied Psychology, American Psychological Association

Dr. William A. Smith, Chief Executive Administrator for Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (JEDI), Huntsman Mental Health Institute

This timely event promises interactive discussions and thought-provoking insights into how workplaces can evolve to better support the mental well-being of their employees. Event attendees will receive a suite of no-cost employer resources from the Health Action Alliance to help them center equity in their workplace mental health strategies.

Quotes from Industry Leaders:

To achieve a psychologically healthy population, we must have psychologically healthy workplaces. We must prioritize mental health for all workers and focus resources on those who need them the most. This is the path toward achieving globally competitive business organizations and a healthy, productive, and innovative population," said Dennis P. Stolle, JD, PhD, Senior Director, Office of Applied Psychology at the American Psychological Association.

There is an urgent need to improve upon and prioritize employee mental health and well-being, said Wizdom Powell, PhD, MPH, Chief Purpose Officer at Headspace. When employers can foster open discussion around prioritizing mental health in the workplace, they can effectively create a more inclusive work environment. In turn, this can reduce stigma, which continues to be a barrier to psychological health and safety in the workplace.

When addressing mental health, the gap between need and care has never been wider, said Patrick Burke, Senior Vice President, Client Experience at Twill. Business leaders have a unique opportunity to champion the well-being of their employees, closing gaps in equitable mental health access, and ultimately driving positive business outcomes within their organizations.

Mental health equity, especially considering racial battle fatigue, is crucial for a thriving workplace. Addressing the effects of microaggressions, discrimination, equity, and inclusion improves productivity and reduces turnover, said Dr. William A. Smith, Chief Executive Administrator for Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (JEDI) at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute. A supportive work environment enhances employee well-being and innovation, improves problem-solving, and increases overall business success.

This virtual event is open to the public. Free registration is available at healthaction.org.

About the Health Action Alliance

Health Action Alliance (HAA) is the country's largest private sector network operating at the intersection of business and public health  dedicated to supporting business leaders as they invest in healthier businesses and stronger communities. HAA offers free tools, training and events to more than 7,000 employers who collectively employ more than 32 million workers. We help employers navigate emerging health crises, improve health equity and make informed decisions to strengthen the health of their workforce and the communities where they operate. Created in 2021, HAA is a joint initiative of the Ad Council, the CDC Foundation and the de Beaumont Foundation  in partnership with Meteorite. To join the network and access our free resources and events, visit healthaction.org.

Media Contact:Mark SooHoo [email protected]

Source: Health Action Alliance
LONDON, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's announcement of a delay to the phasing out of petrol-driven vehicles has been criticized by a committee of lawmakers in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom (UK), who called the move "disappointing."

Philip Dunne, chair of the Parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee, fired a lengthy letter at Sunak on Monday.

"The transition to net zero is one of the greatest challenges facing the UK. The decision to delay some targets, such as the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars, is disappointing," Dunne said in the letter.

In a recent keynote speech, Sunak announced his plan to change the deadline for the phasing out of petrol and diesel-fueled vehicles from 2030 to 2035.

Dunne said the committee was concerned that the announcement was not accompanied by a clear plan setting out how the UK's decarbonization commitments will now be met. The committee has today called for a revised Carbon Budget Delivery Plan to be urgently produced, he added.

The lawmaker underlined that government ministers had previously supported the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars, citing an estimated boost to the economy of around 4.2 billion pounds (5.09 billion U.S. dollars), as well as the creation of up to 40,000 jobs. He called on Sunak to set out the government's latest projections for the impact on the economy and employment levels of postponing the ban to 2035. 
ROCKVILLE, Md., Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading healthcare organizations Inteleos and Dr. Smile Medical Group joined forces on Monday, September 25, 2023, to commemorate a significant milestone in their partnership for the advancement of vein healthcare innovations through the Global CHIVA Program. The event, held at Inteleos' Global HQs in Rockville, Maryland, witnessed the participation of distinguished guests, including Maryland Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, Dale Cyr, CEO of Inteleos, and Dr. Smile Chang, Founder and CEO of Dr. Smile Medical Group.

The meeting began with the distinguished presence of Maryland Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, who delivered the opening remarks. His presence highlighted the local government's strong support for healthcare innovation within Montgomery County, a region renowned for hosting esteemed healthcare institutions such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention, the National Institute of Health, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Inteleos. The strategic importance and robust ecosystem make Montgomery County a hotspot for life sciences, biotech, pharmaceuticals, medtech, and healthcare IT-related industries. His remarks underscored the county's commitment to fostering global collaborations that improve the well-being of the community.

Dale Cyr, CEO of Inteleos, expressed his enthusiasm for the collaboration, saying, "Inteleos is honored to collaborate with Dr. Smile Medical Group in our shared mission to advance global healthcare. Together, we have pushed boundaries, unlocked new possibilities, and, most importantly, will soon improve the lives of countless patients. We look forward to continuing this journey, striving for excellence in every facet of our work."

Dr. Smile Chang, Founder and CEO of Dr. Smile Medical Group, echoed these sentiments, stating, "Our partnership with Inteleos exemplifies our commitment to pushing the boundaries of healthcare excellence. The Global CHIVA Program has been a labor of love, driven by our shared vision of transforming vein healthcare. It is a privilege to stand here today, looking ahead to the many more milestones we will conquer together."

As the collaboration between Dr. Smile Medical Group and Inteleos enters its third year, the commitment to innovation, quality patient care, and the pursuit of excellence remains unwavering even through the global pandemic. The Global CHIVA Program serves as a beacon of hope for patients, healthcare professionals, and innovators worldwide, demonstrating that, through collaboration and dedication, the future of healthcare is brighter than ever.

About Maryland Montgomery County Executive, Marc Elrich:Marc Elrich was elected as Montgomery County Executive in Maryland on Nov. 6, 2018. Under his leadership, the Montgomery County Government is committed to providing exceptional service to our many diverse communities, residents and businesses.

About Inteleos:Inteleos is a global non-profit medical certification organization that manages the following Councils and Foundation: American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS), the Alliance for Physician Certification & Advancement (APCA), the Point-of-Care Ultrasound Certification Academy, and Inteleos Foundation. Over the past 40+ years, more than 158,000 sonographers, physicians and other medical imaging professionals from 70 countries have been certified by ARDMS, APCA and the POCUS Certification Academy.

About Dr. Smile Medical Group:Dr. Smile Medical Group is a pioneering healthcare organization specializing in advanced vein care and treatment. With a mission to enhance the quality of life for patients through innovative healthcare solutions, Dr. Smile Medical Group is at the forefront of clinics, research, education, and patient care in the field of vein healthcare.

Source: Inteleos, Inc.
TORONTO, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Copper Lake Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: CPL, Frankfurt: WOI, OTC: WTCZF) (Copper Lake or the Company) is pleased to announce the filing of the technical report (the Report) for the updated Mineral Resource Estimate (the MRE), prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101), on its Norton Lake Nickel-Copper-Cobalt-Palladium-Platinum Deposit (the Deposit), situated 50 km northeast of Fort Hope and approximately 413 km northeast of the port City of Thunder Bay, northwestern Ontario. The Report is titled, National Instrument 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate and Technical Report for the Norton Lake Ni-Cu-Co-Pd-Pt Property, with an effective date of August 12, 2023, and prepared for Copper Lake by Caracle Creek Chile SpA and Atticus Geoscience Consulting S.A.C. The Report is available under the Companys profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca or from the Companys website at www.copperlakeresources.com. This news release and Mineral Resource Estimate supersedes the news release dated September 7, 2023, which reported erroneously on an earlier version of the Norton Lake Deposit mineral resource estimate.

Highlights of the current Mineral Resource Estimate (Table 1) are as follows:

Open pit and underground Measured + Indicated Resources of 1,795,000 tonnes at an average grade of 0.72% NI, 0.69% Cu, 339 ppm Co, 0.52 g/t Pd, 0.17 g/t Pt and containing 28.3Mlbs of nickel and 27.3Mlbs of copper.

Open pit and underground Measured Resources of 861,000 tonnes at an average grade of 0.66% Ni, 0.62% Cu, 326 ppm Co, 0.46 g/t Pd, 0.17 g/t Pt and containing 12.5Mlbs of nickel and 11.8Mlbs of copper.

Open pit and underground Indicated Resources of 934,000 tonnes at an average grade of 0.77% Ni, 0.75% Cu, 351 ppm Co, 0.56 g/t Pd, 0.18 g/t Pt and containing 15.8Mlbs of nickel and 15.5Mlbs of copper.

Open pit and underground Inferred Resources of 562,000 tonnes at an average grade of 0.67% Ni, 0.63% Cu, 310 ppm Co, 0.50 g/t Pd, 0.14 g/t Pt and containing 8.2Mlbs of nickel and 7.8Mlbs of copper.

This updated Mineral Resource Estimate confirms that the Norton Lake Deposit has sufficient size, grade and expansion potential to be regarded as a significant exploration project in the North American EV metal space," stated Terry MacDonald, CEO of Copper Lake. Additionally, the style of magmatic nickel-bearing mineralization and the favourable geological setting, indicate significant expansion potential for the deposit itself and for finding additional similar deposits elsewhere on the Property.

The Norton Lake Deposit is hosted within the Norton Lake intrusion, a discrete sill-like mafic-ultramafic body of Archean age. Semi-massive to massive sulphide mineralization occurs in the mafic-ultramafic intrusion, at the contact between an underlying, sheared amphibolitic tuff and sedimentary rocks and an overlying sequence of mafic volcanic rocks. The Deposit is characterized by two, higher-grade semi-massive sulphide lenses within it and has been traced by diamond drilling over a strike length of close to 300 metres and to a maximum depth of 400 metres below surface. It currently remains open at depth for expansion.

Table 1. Mineral Resource Statement: Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resources as of August 12, 2023.

The independent Qualified Person for the MRE, as defined by NI 43-101, is Mr. Simon Mortimer, (FAIG #7795) of Atticus Geoscience Consulting S.A.C., working with Caracle Creek International Consulting Inc. The effective date of the MRE is August 12, 2023. These Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves as they do not have demonstrated economic viability. The quantity and grade of reported Inferred Resources in this MRE are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these Inferred Resources as Indicated. However, it is reasonably expected that the majority of Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. The MRE was prepared following CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves (2014) and CIM Best Practice Guidelines (2019). 3D geological modelling revealed that the mineralization exists as a single steeply dipping continuous unit that runs along the basal contact of an ultramafic-mafic intrusion which has been sheared and brecciated. The estimation domains were defined by combining the lithology and structural models then utilizing a nickel mineralization threshold of 1.08% Ni as a proxy to define the high-grade massive sulphide domain. Geological and block models for the MRE used core assays (970 samples), data and information from 60 surface diamond drill holes (4 from Copper Lake and 56 historical). The drill hole database was validated prior to resource estimation and QA/QC checks were made using industry-standard control charts for blanks, core duplicates and commercial certified reference material inserted into the core assay batches. Estimates have been rounded to three significant figures for Measured and Indicated categories, and two significant figures for the Inferred categorization. The MRE was constrained by a conceptual open pit using the following optimization parameters, as reviewed and agreed to by the QP. Metal prices in US$: $8.00/lb nickel, $3.25/lb copper, $13.00/lb cobalt, $900/oz for platinum and $1,200/oz for palladium. An overall pit slope of 45 degrees was used. Mining and processing costs (US$) were based on benchmarking from similar deposit types, utilizing a mining cost of $4.23/t, a processing cost of C$11.54/t, a G&A cost of C$2.31/t, and considering an exchange rate of 1.30C$/US$. All resources below the conceptual pit are considered extractable via underground mining scenarios. A cut-off grade of 0.30% Ni was applied to the resource block model for the reporting of the mineral resource statement. The block model was prepared using Micromine 2020. A 4 m x 4 m x 4 m block model was created, with sub-blocks to 1 m x 1 m x 1 m. Drill composites of 1 m intervals were generated within the estimation domains, and subsequent grade estimation was carried out for Ni, Cu, Co, Pt and Pd using an inverse distance weighting (IDW) interpolation method. Grade estimation was validated by a secondary estimation method (nearest neighbour) and through comparison of input and output statistics, swath plot analysis, and by visual inspection of the assay data, block model, and grade shells in cross-sections. Density estimation was carried out for the mineralized domains using the inverse distance weighting (IDW) interpolation method within the mineralised domains and through assigning a standard value to each rock type outside the mineralised area. A total of 121 specific gravity measurements were used, and as a reference, the average estimated density value within the mineralised domain is 3.35 g/cm3 (t/m3).

Qualified Persons

The Norton Lake Mineral Resource Estimate and Technical Report was prepared by Simon Mortimer, FAIG of Atticus Geoscience Consulting S.A.C., Scott Jobin-Bevans, P.Geo, PhD, PMP of Caracle Creek Chile SpA, and John Siriunas, P.Eng., M.A.Sc. of Caracle Creek International Consulting Inc. who are all independent Qualified Persons, for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Dr. Jobin-Bevans, Mr. Mortimer, and Mr. Siriunas have reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release.

Norton Lake Ni-Cu-Co-Pd-Pt Property - Exploration Upside

Geological and geophysical evidence suggests that there is more than 11 km of strike length on the Property prospective for the discovery of additional magmatic Ni-Cu-Co-PGE mineralization. Ultramafic rocks, similar to those that host the Norton Lake deposit have been mapped on the property; accordingly, these are prospective for the discovery of similar type deposits as Norton Lake. Geological evidence at the Deposit suggests a conduit-feeder dike style of mineralization  such deposits tend to occur in clusters, auguring well for exploration potential.

The Norton Lake deposit is associated with a series of airborne geophysical conductors situated on the south flank of a magnetic high. Numerous other conductors are present in the locale of the Norton Lake deposit and elsewhere on the property, which warrant follow-up.

Legacy borehole and large-loop electromagnetic (EM) data was recently recovered for surveys completed on the Norton Lake Deposit and surrounding area. As far as known, aside from logistical reports, there was no formal interpretation of this data completed at the time of the surveys. Such data will be interpreted and modelled and will be of great assistance in directing future drill programs testing for depth extensions to the Norton Lake deposit as well as for drill targeting, in and around the known deposit in the search for additional mineralization.

Historic drilling testing the Norton Lake deposit intersected a new zone of Ni-Cu-Co-PGE mineralization, known as the South zone. Drill holes U-4 and U-14 returned drill intercepts of 0.80% Ni, 1.07% Cu and 3.2 g/t Pt + Pd over 7.0 metres and 0.80% Ni, 0.30% Cu and 1.10 g/t Pt + Pd over 5.0 metres, respectively. The South zone appears to underlie the Norton Lake deposit and has only been tested by the 2 above drill holes, both at very shallow depth. Additional drilling is clearly warranted to expand this new zone of mineralization.

Next Steps for Norton Lake

A thorough compilation of all data available for the Norton Lake property and surrounding area will be completed to prioritize targets for upcoming exploration programs. This will include the integration of legacy airborne surveys, historic diamond drilling data as well as all ground surveys that have been completed to date.

Borehole and large-loop EM data generated from an earlier exploration program testing the Norton Lake deposit and immediate locale, have been retrieved by Copper Lake. Interpretation and modelling of such data will be completed to assist in directing future drilling programs, specifically to expand on the limits of the known Norton Lake deposit and to provide targets prospective for satellite or nearby magmatic Ni-Cu-Co-PGE deposits.

QUALIFIED PERSON

The scientific and technical information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Donald Hoy, M.Sc., P.Geo. and Copper Lakes Vice President of Exploration, the Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101.

ABOUT COPPER LAKE RESOURCES

Copper Lake Resources Ltd. is a publicly traded Canadian mineral exploration and development company with interests in two projects both located in Ontario. www.copperlakeresources.com

The Marshall Lake high-grade VMS copper, zinc, silver and gold project, comprises an area of approximately 220 square km located 120 km north of Geraldton, Ontario and is accessible by all-season road from the Trans-Canada Highway and just 22 km north of the main CNR rail line. Copper Lake has a 79.45% interest in the joint ventured property, which consists of 233 claims and 52 mining leases. The project also includes 148 claim cells staked in 2018 and 2020 that are 100% owned and not subject to any royalties, which add approximately 30 square km to the original property.

In addition to the original Marshall Lake property above, Marshall Lake also includes the Sollas Lake and Summit Lake properties, which are 100% owned by the Company and are not subject to any royalties. The Sollas Lake property consists of 20 claim cells comprising an area of 4 square km on the east side of the Marshall Lake property where historical EM airborne geophysical surveys have outlined strong conductors on the property hosted within the same favorable felsic volcanic units. The Summit Lake property currently consists of 100 claim cells comprising an area of 20.5 square km, is accessible year-round, and is located immediately west of the original Marshall Lake property. The Marshall Lake project is located in the traditional territories of the Aroland and Animbiigoo Zaagi igan Anishinaabek (AZA) First Nations.

Copper Lake has a 69.79% joint venture interest in the Norton Lake nickel, copper, cobalt, and palladium PGM property, located in the southern Ring of Fire area, is approximately 100 km north of the Marshall Lake Property. The Norton Lake property is located in the traditional territories of the Eabametoong (Fort Hope) and Neskantaga First Nations.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Copper Lake Resources Ltd.Terry MacDonald, CEO(416) 561-3626

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary and Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the Private Placement and proposed uses of the proceeds of the Private Placement, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "will", "may", "should", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. This forward-looking information reflects the Companys current beliefs and is based on information currently available to the Company and on assumptions the Company believes are reasonable. These assumptions include but are not limited to: TSX Venture Exchange acceptance of the Private Placement; Market acceptance and approvals; and the anticipated closing date for the Private Placement. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; general capital Market conditions and Market prices for securities; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; the actual results of future operations; competition; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting the Company; the timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. A description of additional assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of additional risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward- looking information can be found in the Companys disclosure documents on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) website at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of the Company as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. However, the Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities law.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/96ba069b-8bda-4008-82b9-e9c38a44813e

Mineral Resource Statement Table 1. Mineral Resource Statement: Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resources as of August 12, 2023.

Source: Copper Lake Resources Ltd.
BANGOR, MAINE, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Husson University has received a $500,000 grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation to support its School of Technology and Innovation (SoTI). Delivering a variety of technology-focused academic programs, SoTI will use the funds to support student scholarships, prepare students for professional careers in support of Maines workforce, hire additional faculty and bolster prospective student outreach efforts in Maine and across New England.

The grant is part of an ongoing partnership between Husson University and the Harold Alfond Foundation to support SoTIs technology programs, with an emphasis being placed on the schools extended reality (XR) program. An initial $2.2 million Alfond grant was awarded to Husson University in 2022 to support SoTIs unique academic programs in existing and emerging fields of technology.

We are extremely excited about the Alfond Foundations continued commitment to Husson University and specifically the School of Technology and Innovation, Michael Knupp, Ph.D(c), SoTI director and Husson assistant professor, said. The new grant plays an integral role in our continued advancement of technology offerings and capabilities within SoTI.

SoTI, housed in the Husson University College of Businesss new Harold Alfond Hall, currently hosts degree programs in computer information systems, extended reality (XR), software development and business analytics. Its also home to the iEX center, which gives students and faculty the opportunity to experiment with various augmented and virtual reality technologies and develop real-world applications for educational and business needs.

Through previous support we have been able to bring on new staff, acquire equipment, and strengthen our marketing and outreach, Knupp continued. "As such, over the last two years we have nearly doubled our student enrollment in STEM degrees while at the same time enriching the student experience. The new grant allows us to bring on essential staff within our extended reality program and the iEX Center. Husson remains committed to professional education and experiential learning, especially within the STEM disciplines. A key factor of our success model is having partners like the Alfond Foundation.

Husson is an agile institution that consistently examines how it can best meet ever-changing workplace demands, Greg Powell, Chairman of the Board for the Harold Alfond Foundation, said. They were early adopters of XR technologies, recognizing a growing workforce demand for XR skills. They are an excellent example of a Maine institution focused on growing STEM competency through experiential education.

In addition to the schools on-campus academic programs, SoTI is also partnering with external organizations to bring further training and learning opportunities to students. For example, SoTI recently announced a partnership with Pixotope, a leading software platform for end-to-end real-time virtual production solutions, via the Pixotope Education Program. Husson is the first educational institution in the United States to join this global program with the mission to increase student access to virtual production training, technology and industry professionals.

Founded in 1950, the Harold Alfond Foundation furthers the philanthropic legacy of Harold Alfond, the founder of Dexter Shoe Company and a longtime supporter of Maine communities in which he and his family worked and resided. He ensured that his philanthropy would live on by committing nearly all of his wealth to the Foundation, which continues to support charitable causes in the State of Maine. Consistent with Harold Alfonds own giving pattern and philanthropic principles, the Foundation favors education, healthcare, youth development, and other selected charitable causes. For more information, visit the Harold Alfond Foundation website.

For 125 years, Husson University has shown its adaptability and strength in delivering educational programs that prepare future leaders to handle the challenges of tomorrow through innovative undergraduate and graduate degrees. With a commitment to delivering affordable classroom, online and experiential learning opportunities, Husson University has come to represent a superior value in higher education. The hallmarks of a Husson education include advanced knowledge delivered through quality educational programs. According to an analysis of tuition and fees by U.S. News & World Report, Husson University is one of the most affordable private colleges in New England. For more information about educational opportunities that can lead to personal and professional success, visit Husson.edu.

Sarah Walker Caron Husson University 207.992.4925 [email protected]

Source: Husson University
FARMINGDALE, N.Y., Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DepYmed, Inc. (DepYmed or the Company) is a preclinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative treatments for rare diseases and oncology that target the protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) family of enzymes. Today the Company announces that management will be meeting with investors at the Life Sciences Summit in New York City October 11, 2023 at the Alexandria Center for Life Sciences at 430 East 29th Street.

Interested qualified investors can register free of charge for the conference here and arrange meetings either through the conference portal or directly with the Company via email at [email protected]. Investors are requested to preregister for the event.

About The Life Sciences SummitOrganized by the Center for Biotechnology at Stony Brook University, the annual Life Sciences Summit is an early-stage investor and business development conference for emerging companies and academic innovators. The objective of the meeting is to connect emerging companies with early-stage investors, business development professionals, and medical research foundations with the goal of advancing new innovations through clinical development.

The Summit provides emerging companies and academic innovators with exposure to potential investors and strategic partners through:

Emerging Company Showcase

Pitch Doctor Sessions

Innovation Pipeline

Industry Focused Plenary Sessions

One-on-One Partnering Meetings

Strategic Partner Presentations

For more information, please visit lifesciencessuummit.org.

About DepYmed, Inc.

DepYmed Inc., is a New York based rare disease and cancer therapeutic development company that was founded to capitalize on the scientific discoveries of the Tonks lab at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the physiological function of PTP1B and ways to modulate its role in various human diseases. DepYmed is currently developing a new class of potent, orally bioavailable small molecule inhibitors of the enzyme PTP1B as novel therapeutics for Rett Syndrome and different types of cancer. In addition, DepYmed has also discovered a novel class of small molecules with copper chelating properties that it is developing as potential therapeutic agents for such diseases as Wilson disease and various cancers. The company is actively developing a deep pipeline of novel compounds with broad therapeutic potential in these emerging drug classes in collaboration with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. For more information, please visit the Companys website at: www.depymed.com.

For Media Inquiries please contact:

Jules AbrahamJQA Partners, Inc.[email protected] 917-885-7378

DepYmed:[email protected]

Source: DepYmed, Inc.
Washington, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rachel Saltzman, an experienced environmental attorney who served as a top legal advisor for global automotive manufacturer Volkswagen Group of America (VWGoA) and as an enforcement attorney for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has joined Hunton Andrews Kurth LLPs nationally recognized environmental practice as a partner in Washington, D.C.

Rachel brings to the firm an extensive and impressive background advising on a range of complex matters, including development of environmental, social and governance (ESG) programs, environmental enforcement defense, site cleanup and waste management and product compliance issues, said Deidre Duncan, leader of Hunton Andrews Kurths environmental practice. We are thrilled to welcome her to the firm.

At VWGoA, Saltzman held the position of Senior Director of Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability. In that capacity, Saltzman led a cross-disciplinary team that was responsible for spearheading a new approach to sustainability management, while also overseeing the companys ongoing environmental and occupational safety compliance efforts.

Under her leadership, Saltzmans department launched a Sustainability Steering Committee composed of senior company leaders and led an intensive cross-functional effort to develop a comprehensive set of environmental, social and governance (ESG) key performance indicators (KPIs) and create a prioritization framework for future sustainability initiatives at VWGoA.

Saltzman collaborated with VWGoAs legal department to confront emerging regulatory requirements and litigation trends as part of sustainability materiality assessment and worked to ensure that data collection and reporting structures were designed to facilitate both regulatory reporting and claim substantiation.

Prior to her appointment as senior director, Saltzman served for three years as the departments Assistant General Counsel and was responsible for the full range of environmental, climate change, sustainability and related issues associated with VWGoAs manufacturing facilities, warehouses, ports and related infrastructure, products, the companys transition to electric vehicles, and the related global supply chain, among other issues.

Before joining VWGoA, Saltzman practiced at two AmLaw 100 firms and, from 2013 to 2016, served as Assistant Regional Counsel at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco. At the EPA, she negotiated several settlements involving the Clean Air Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act as well as advising on various cleanup cases.

Notably, Saltzman served as EPAs lead negotiator on a consent decree concerning cleanup of over one hundred abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation, leading to a settlement valued at over $600 million. She also supervised the U.S. Navys remediation of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and negotiated environmental protection measures related to the Navys transfer of property to the City of San Francisco.

Saltzman earned her undergraduate and law degrees from Yale University and is licensed to practice in California and the District of Columbia.

With her frontline experience in government enforcement, in private practice and serving as a trusted legal advisor to a Global 500 company, Rachel is a welcome addition to the firm. Her valuable insights, sophisticated approach and dedication to excellence are an ideal fit for the team, said Eric Murdock, head of Hunton Andrews Kurths administrative law group. We are excited to welcome Rachel to the firm and to our D.C. office.

Hunton Andrews Kurths global environmental practice of over 50 attorneys have assisted with development and financing of new energy sources and retirement of traditional energy sources, participated in the policy development process, helped clients navigate regulatory changes affecting the industry, and counseled clients on strategic opportunities to diversify their energy portfolios and achieve a greener economy. The practice and many of its lawyers are ranked Band 1 nationally by Chambers USA and Chambers Global, as well as by many other well-respected ranking publications.

With lawyers in the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP serves clients across a broad range of complex transactional, litigation and regulatory matters. For more information, please contact Jeremy Heallen at +1 713 220 3713.

Attachment

Jeremy Heallen Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP (713) 220-3713 [email protected]

Source: Hunton Andrews Kurth
NORTH BAY, Ontario, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EXP, a global engineering, architecture, design and consulting firm, has announced the establishment of a new Northern Ontario Engineering sector.



The new sector will be led by EXPs Vice President, Northern Ontario Kevin McKay. In his promoted role as sector leader, Kevin will be responsible for engineering services on critical infrastructure projects throughout Northern Ontario. Kevin will use EXPs global footprint to nurture client relationships, promote growth, recruit talent and foster EXPs inclusive culture.

Kevins promotion comes amid robust infrastructure projects in Northern Ontario. EXP is proud of its reputation for organic growth. As we continue to expand our presence across North America, we are committed to hiring and promoting team members who are client-focused, results-driven and embody EXPs core values. Kevins familiarity with Northern Ontario and his exceptional leadership skills will allow EXP to support clients and communities to reach their desired outcomes, said EXPs President and COO Mark Dvorak.

Kevin brings over 25 years of experience in strategy, planning and execution of engineering and construction projects. Throughout his career, he has been influential on transportation, building, building science, mining, water and energy projects, including the City of North Bays John Street Bridge Replacement, the Dufferin Aggregates Flamboro Quarry Expansion and the Municipality of Callanders Wharf Rehabilitation. He has a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Laurentian University and is a member of Professional Engineers Ontario.

EXPs growth has led to the creation of an international sector, mining sector and extension of its science and technology expertise throughout North America. To continue its rapid growth across Canada, EXP will also expand its transportation market with the upcoming promotion of Vice President, Transportation, Central Canada Magdy Saaman to Sector Leader in FY25.

Learn more about EXPs markets and services.

About EXP

With a mission to understand, innovate, partner and deliver, EXP provides engineering, architecture, design and consulting services to the worlds built and natural environments. Our heritage dates back to 1906, when the earliest of EXPs predecessor companies started its engineering infrastructure practice.

Today, thousands of EXP professionals across North America provide the passion and experience needed to deliver successful projects around the world. For more information, visit www.exp.com.

Media contact

Nadia Abou

EXP | Director of Communications

t: +1.312.616.7430 | e: [email protected]
TORONTO, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Firan Technology Group Corporation (TSX: FTG) will release the third quarter 2023 financial results after the market closes on Wednesday, October 11, 2023.

The Corporation will host a live conference call on Thursday, October 12, 2023, at 8:30am (Eastern) to discuss the third quarter 2023 financial results.

Anyone wishing to participate in the call should dial 416-764-8658 or 1-888-886-7786, Conference ID 14572945, and identify that you are calling to participate in the FTG conference call. The Chairperson is Mr. Brad Bourne. A replay of the call will be available until November 12, 2023, and will be available on the FTG website at www.ftgcorp.com. The number to call for a rebroadcast is 416-764-8692 or 1-877-674-7070, Playback Passcode 572945#.

ABOUT FIRAN TECHNOLOGY GROUP CORPORATION

FTG is an aerospace and defense electronics product and subsystem supplier to customers around the globe. FTG has two operating units:

FTG Circuits is a manufacturer of high technology, high reliability printed circuit boards. Our customers are leaders in the aviation, defense, and high technology industries. FTG Circuits has operations in Toronto, Ontario; Chatsworth, California; Fredericksburg, Virginia; Haverhill, Massachusetts; Minnetonka, Minnesota, and a joint venture in Tianjin, China.

FTG Aerospace manufactures and repairs illuminated cockpit panels, keyboards and sub-assemblies for original equipment manufacturers of aerospace and defense equipment. FTG Aerospace has operations in Toronto, Ontario; Chatsworth, California, and Tianjin, China.

The Corporation's shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol FTG.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are related to, but not limited to, FTGs operations, anticipated financial performance, business prospects and strategies. Forward-looking information typically contains words such as anticipate, believe, expect, plan or similar words suggesting future outcomes. Such statements are based on the current expectations of management of the Corporation and inherently involve numerous risks and uncertainties, known and unknown, including economic factors and the Corporations industry, generally. The preceding list is not exhaustive of all possible factors. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual events and results could differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements made by the Corporation. The reader is cautioned to consider these and other factors carefully when making decisions with respect to the Corporation and not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Other than as may be required by law, FTG disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information please contact:

Bradley C. Bourne, President and CEOTel: (416) 299-4000 x 314Firan Technology Group Corporation[email protected]

Jamie Crichton, Vice President and CFOTel: (416) 299-4000 x 264Firan Technology Group Corporation[email protected]

Additional information can be found at the Corporations website www.ftgcorp.com.

Source: Firan Technology Group Corporation
SINGAPORE, Oct. 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OKX Ventures, the investment arm of leading Web3 technology company OKX, has issued updates for the day of October 3, 2023.

OKX Ventures Publishes Report on 'Analyzing the Past, Present and Future of Account Abstraction'

OKX Ventures today released its latest research report entitled 'Analyzing the Past, Present and Future of Account Abstraction.'

The report offers an in-depth look into Ethereum's account abstraction (AA) technology, which simplifies crypto transactions by enabling the creation of Web3 wallet accounts that conceal the more technical details of on-chain interactions behind a more accessible and user-centric interface. It explores AA technology's key uses cases, provides examples of key projects in the market and proposes two main solutions for the future development of AA in a multi-chain environment.

Notable findings from the report include:

Out of the 520,000 AA accounts registered on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism and Polygon, 80% were created in the last two months. In particular, the Polygon and Optimism blockchains have experienced significant growth.

AA technology's main uses cases include its ability to simplify user operations and improve the usability of smart contract wallets. It also has the ability to improve the Web3 NFT experience, such as by enabling automated market monitoring and simplifying the trading process with AA. In addition, the social and gaming markets can benefit from AA by optimizing identity infrastructure and reducing the operational complexity of on-chain games.

The AA market comprises two main participants: smart contract wallets and third-party infrastructure providers. Smart contract wallets are rapidly integrating the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4337, enabling features such as social recovery and gas abstraction. Meanwhile, third-party providers, such as StackUp and Biconomy, offer Bundler and Paymaster solutions for optimal user experience. 'Bundlers' are a special node that monitors an alternative mempool of user operations, by bundling user operations from multiple senders into a single transaction so they can be executed on a blockchain. With AA, the responsibility for paying these fees is delegated to a separate component called the Paymaster. The 'Paymaster' ensures that necessary funds are available to cover the gas costs associated with executing 'user operations,' a pseudo-transaction object that enables AA to work without requiring consensus-layer changes to Ethereum and Layer-2 blockchains that support ERC-4337.

In the short term, the AA market's main focus will be on expanding and establishing partnerships with Layer-2 solutions. The medium-term goal is to implement modular Bundlers and Paymasters, deploy SDKs and improve the user experience. In the long term, the conversion of externally owned accounts (EOA) to smart contract wallets will be a key area of focus.

The AA market has significant growth potential, with the possibility of smart contract wallets reaching up to 310 times the current market size. However, further innovation, business development and monetization models are required to unlock this potential.

To read the full report, click here.

Note: The report's findings are based on an analysis of existing data from various sources, including Dune, Paradigm and 4337Mafia. For a full list of the report's sources, check out the reference list here.

For further information, please contact:[email protected]

About OKX Ventures

OKX Ventures is the investment arm of the second-largest crypto exchange by trading volume and Web3 technology company OKX, with an initial capital commitment of USD 100 million. It focuses on exploring the best blockchain projects on a global scale, supporting cutting-edge blockchain technology innovation, promoting the healthy development of the global blockchain industry, and investing in long-term structural value.

Through its commitment to supporting entrepreneurs who contribute to the development of the blockchain industry, OKX Ventures helps build innovative companies and brings global resources and historical experience to blockchain projects.

Find out more about OKX Ventures here.

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, OR HOLD 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. PLEASE CONSULT YOUR LEGAL/TAX/INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL FOR QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR SPECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCES.

Source: OKX
London, Dubai, and Calgary, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ZERO13, GMEX Groups digital climate fintech ecosystem is collaborating with Dubai-based HalaZone Technologies, the carbon credit project finance specialist, and Calgary-based CarbonCX, a digital platform for integration, calculation, aggregation,management and monetization of Carbon Reduction Credits. This partnership will enable clients with COe reduction projects to originate carbon credits and gain access to project financing or benefit from carbon offsets.

This climate fintech industry collaboration supports the expansion of carbon credit services to industrial companies around the globe with end-to-end digital provenance and integrity from project initiation, carbon credits issuance, and supply through to market side distribution.

Working with HalaZone and CarbonCX, GMEX Group will integrate HalaZones dMRV (digital Measurement, Recording, and Verification) capabilities within the ZERO13 aggregation platform and ecosystem and provide it by way of integration to the CarbonCX digital registry for enhanced carbon credit data integrity and trust. These latest alliances add to the expanding network of business and interconnection layers offered via the ZERO13 platform-as-a-service.

CarbonCX will provide automated collection, verification, aggregation and processing of accurate data related to voluntary carbon emission reductions. Once validated against several recognized and accepted methodologies and protocols, proprietary digital Carbon Reduction Credits will be generated automatically using secure blockchain technology.

Further integration of the respective CarbonCX and ZERO13 platforms will harness ZERO13s expertise to validate CarbonCXs initial (and ongoing) carbon credit validation processes and provide market access to link the supply of carbon credits to real-time demand. This will ensure optimised trading, clearing, and settlement. In particular, Carbon CX will leverage the ZERO13 multi-blockchain escrow and settlement platform (Pyctor) and ZERO13 Hub platform to ensure cross chain and cross API interoperability. This will maintain and optimize registry control of digitised carbon credits; connect multiple digital custodians, banks, and markets to global exchanges; manage credits available to trade, unsold credits, and the retirement process; and facilitate peer-to-peer trading between participants.

Hirander Misra, CEO of GMEX Group and ZERO13 added, Both carbon avoidance and carbon reduction strategies must go hand in hand to ensure effective energy transition. This will ensure energy security as institutions and corporates strive to achieve their Net Zero objectives. We are incredibly excited to extend the ZERO13 digital ecosystem by way of our collaboration with Halazone Technologies and CarbonCX to facilitate this with a complete digital solution. This not only addresses the needs for carbon reduction, but it also extends to other types of carbon credits.

Henk Schouten, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of HalaZone Technologies added, Applying technology to reduce or eliminate existing or expected carbon emissions is key to Net Zero, but it has a real and often significant cost. Unlocking financial resources to enable the acquisition and application of emissions reduction technologies is the real power of carbon credits and offsets. We are pleased to be teaming up with GMEX ZERO13 and CarbonCX, as it provides our clients with the industrys only fully digital, fully transparent, turnkey service and solution.

Dave Tims, Co-Founder and Head of Strategy of CarbonCX added, The integration of the CarbonCX process with GMEXs fintech ecosystem, ZERO13, and HalaZones unique dMRV capabilities provides companies with a complete solution to record, report and realize on their incremental carbon reduction efforts. Utilizing our digital capabilities, we look to streamline the carbon credit process, guarantee permanence and increase global participation in carbon reduction efforts. Collectively, our companies operate at the intersection of leading-edge technologies and a global carbon reduction imperative.

Carbon dioxide equivalent

** ENDS **

About GMEX Group Limited

GMEX Group (GMEX) offers sustainable digital solutions for the new age of global markets. The firm is a leading global provider of multi-asset exchange trading and post-trade software and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market infrastructure solutions and network of networks digital platform services. GMEX addresses end-to-end regulatory and contract environment needs for issuance, trading, clearing, and settlement across exchanges and across multiple asset classes including traditional, digital and hybrid assets, carbon credits and ESG real-world assets.

GMEX is the winner of:

Best Development in Fintech of the Year  2022

Best Global Hybrid Finance FinTech Company  2022

Best Solution for Trading Digital Assets  2023

Most Influential Financial Technology Firms of 2023  2023

For further information on GMEX, please visit https://www.gmex-group.com/.

About ZERO13

ZERO13, a GMEX initiative, is an automated AI and blockchain-driven international carbon exchange, registry, and aggregation hub ecosystem. Accessed as a Platform as a Service (PaaS), the ZERO13 Hub offers a distributed point of entry for digital issuance, trading, and settlement of carbon credits and real-world assets such as ESG securities.

ZERO13 Hub connects multiple international carbon exchanges, registries, custodians, and ESG project owners for supply verification, transparent pricing, and real-time settlement. Connections are via APIs and blockchain enabled by ZERO13 Chain (Pyctor).

For further information on ZERO13, please visit https://www.zero13.net/.

About HalaZone Technologies

HalaZone is a Dubai-based environmental intelligence services, technology, and finance company. It was founded and it is led by a team of experts in Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Project Finance. HalaZone advises companies and governments on qualifying and quantifying carbon emissions, developing emission reduction strategies, accessing financing to implement strategies, acquiring and deploying the best technologies to reduce or eliminate emissions, creating carbon credits, and monetizing or offsetting carbon credits.

For further information on HalaZone, please visit https://www.halazone.io/.

About CarbonCX

Working closely with companies deploying various technologies and activities to reduce baseline carbon emissions, CarbonCX captures, processes, aggregates and homogenizes voluntary carbon reduction efforts into standardized units recorded on the blockchain. CarbonCX technology automatically verifies, calculates and aggregates the associated carbon benefit, programmatically mints Carbon Reduction Credits in standardized allotments, and provides management tools for reporting, retiring, or listing on various emerging voluntary Carbon Credit exchanges or marketplaces.

For further information on CarbonCX, please visit https://carboncx.io/.
Court dismisses claims against IDT and finds that the Class suffered no damages

NEWARK, NJ, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT), a global provider of fintech, cloud communications, and traditional communications services, today commented on the decision by the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware in a class action on behalf of the former stockholders of the Companys former subsidiary, Straight Path Communications Inc. (Straight Path). Straight Path was spun off from IDT in 2013 and, in 2017, was sold to Verizon Communications for $3.1 billion. The Court dismissed the claims against IDT and found that, contrary to the plaintiffs allegations, the Class suffered no damages.

We are very pleased that the Court today dismissed all claims against IDT and found that Plaintiff and the Class suffered no damages, said Shmuel Jonas, IDTs CEO. We encourage our stakeholders to carefully review Vice Chancellor Glasscocks decision. The charges the plaintiffs advanced for years have now been resolved by the Court of Chancery.

The Court of the Chancerys decisions are available for review and download here: https://courts.delaware.gov/opinions/index.aspx?ag=court%20of%20chancery

The lawsuit, filed by the plaintiffs in 2017, alleged that the Company aided and abetted Straight Paths Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Davidi Jonas, and Howard S. Jonas in his capacity as controlling stockholder of Straight Path, in forcing an unfair settlement of claims between Straight Path and the Company at the time of the sale of Straight Path. The Court found that the settlement in fact exceeded the value of those claims, and that there was no harm to Straight Path stockholders as plaintiffs alleged.

The plaintiffs will have 30 days from entry of the final order to file an appeal to the Supreme Court of Delaware.

All statements above that are not purely about historical facts, including, but not limited to, those in which we use the words believe, anticipate, expect, plan, intend, estimate, target and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While these forward-looking statements represent our current judgment of what may happen in the future, actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by these statements due to numerous important factors. Our filings with the SEC provide detailed information on such statements and risks and should be consulted along with this release. To the extent permitted under applicable law, IDT assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

About IDT Corporation:

IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT) is a global provider of fintech, cloud communications, and traditional communications services. We make it easy for families to contact and support each other across international borders. We also enable businesses to transact and communicate with their customers with enhanced intelligence and insight.

Our BOSS Money international remittance, IDT Digital Payments and BOSS Revolution international calling services make sending money, paying for products and services, and speaking with friends and family around the world convenient and reliable. National Retail Solutions (NRS) point-of-sale retail network enables independent retailers to operate and process transactions more effectively while providing advertisers and consumer marketers with unprecedented reach into underserved consumer markets. net2phones communications-as-a-service solutions provide businesses with intelligently integrated cloud communications and collaboration tools across channels and devices. Our IDT Global and IDT Express wholesale offerings enable communications service enterprises to provision and manage international voice and SMS services.

Contact:Bill Ulrey IDT Investor RelationsPhone: (973) 438-3838E-mail: [email protected]

# # #

Source: IDT Corporation
BUDAPEST, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Citing increased spending, Hungary's Finance Ministry raised the country's 2023 budget deficit target from 3.9 percent to 5.2 percent of economic output on Tuesday.

In 2022, the government deficit was 6.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

"The current precarious global scenario places an extraordinary burden on Hungary's budget," the ministry said. Beyond the high costs associated with the country's energy subsidy measures, it also said that the government will increase its defense spending to 2 percent of GDP this year.

Moreover, Hungary seeks reimbursement from the European Commission for border defense expenses incurred in safeguarding the European Union (EU) borders totaling 650 billion Hungarian forints (1,746,000,000 U.S. dollars), the ministry said, adding that if the Commission honored Hungary's request, the deficit would be reduced by around 1 percent.

"Furthermore, disbursement of EU support rightfully due to Hungary by the European Commission would expand the maneuverability of the Hungarian budget," the ministry said.

It added that "Hungary's outlook is promising due to the stable underpinnings of the country's economy."

"The government will persist in improving balance indicators and sustaining a diminishing deficit and debt trajectory annually."

For 2024, the government expects the deficit to fall back to 2.9 percent of GDP, Finance Minister Mihaly Varga said at a conference in Budapest.

He said he expected the economy to bounce back from recession before the end of the current year. 
Washington, D.C., Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted Plaintiffs petition for a panel rehearing and added the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to its preliminary injunction in Missouri v. Biden, barring the White House, U.S. Surgeon Generals office, CDC, FBI and now CISA officials from pressuring social media platforms to censor constitutionally protected speech. NCLA is pleased all these officials will be enjoined from infringing on the First Amendment rights of our clients, Drs. Jayanta Bhattacharya, Martin Kulldorff and Aaron Kheriaty, and Ms. Jill Hinesand other brave Americans.

The Fifth Circuits new action expands upon its September 8 ruling that upheld the most important portions of U.S. District Judge Terry Doughtys July 4 preliminary injunction order, prohibiting those officials from pressuring social media companies to suppress First Amendment-protected speech. The injunction vindicates Drs. Bhattacharya, Kulldorff and Kheriaty, and Ms. Hines, who have all been blacklisted, shadow-banned, de-boosted, throttled, and censored on social media as part of the Biden Administrations years-long censorship campaign.

The Fifth Circuit recognized that the Plaintiffs did not challenge the social-media platforms content-moderation policies, instead challenging the governments unlawful efforts to influence enforcement of those policies. The government gravely harmed the ability of NCLAs clients to convey their views to the public, and it deprived Americans of their right to hear opinions that differ from the governments. Judge Doughty strikingly described the Administrations conduct as arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States history and akin to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth.

The Biden Administrations ongoing censorship campaign successfully suppressed perspectives contradicting government-approved views on hotly disputed topics such as whether natural immunity to Covid-19 exists and is as effective as that induced through vaccination, Covid-19 vaccine concerns, the viruss origins, and mask mandate efficacy. The vast, coordinated effort silenced public voices, including influential doctors and scientists.

CISAworking in close connection with the FBIheld regular industry meetings with the platforms concerning their moderation policies, pushing them to adopt CISAs proposed practices for addressing mis-, dis-, and mal-information, the Fifth Circuit wrote in its new order. CISA also engaged in switchboarding operations, meaning  CISA officials acted as an intermediary for third parties by forwarding flagged content[.]

The decision constituted a departure from the panels September ruling, which held that CISA had worked with the social media companies in a constitutionally permissible manner. Reassessing the facts, the Court this time concluded that CISAs role went beyond mere information sharing. Like the CDC for COVID-related claims, CISA told the platforms whether certain election-related claims were true or false. CISAs actions apparently led to moderation policies being altered and content being removed or demoted by the recipient platforms. The Fifth Circuit stayed the order for an additional 10 days, possibly to give the government time to petition for a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court.

NCLA released the following statement:

NCLA is pleased the Fifth Circuit has recognized that it erred in letting CISAone of the worst violators of Americans First Amendment rightsoff the hook, and were glad that CISA is now included in the injunction prohibiting censorship. We look forward to vindicating our clients rights in the Supreme Court, which we are confident will also recognize the egregious and intolerable nature of the governments conduct. Jenin Younes, Litigation Counsel, NCLA

For more information visit the case page here or watch the case video here.

ABOUT NCLA

NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLAs public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans fundamental rights.

###

Joe Martyak New Civil Liberties Alliance 703-403-1111 [email protected]

Source: New Civil Liberties Alliance
BOCA RATON, Fla., Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Q.E.P. CO., INC. (OTCQX: QEPC) (the Company or QEP) today announced that on September 29, 2023, it completed the sale of its manufacturing facility in Johnson City, Tennessee to Hatley Properties, LLC (Hatley Properties), in a transaction valued at $5.3 million.

The facility consists of approximately 295,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space on approximately 48 acres in Johnson City, Tennessee. Prior to this sale, on September 28, 2023, QEP also conducted an online auction to sell certain machinery and equipment that were excluded from this transaction.

As part of the terms of this transaction, Hatley Properties has agreed to allow QEP to remain at the facility through November 2023 in order for QEP to complete an orderly exit including the relocation of its grouting sponge production operations to its manufacturing facility in Dalton, Georgia.

Commenting on the transaction, Len Gould, President & CEO, The Americas, of QEP stated, This transaction completes QEPs exit from wood flooring manufacturing. The divestiture of these assets is another step in QEPs ongoing strategic plan to add scale to growing its core brands of flooring-related tools, adhesives, underlayment and accessory products. Additionally, it is important to recognize the incredible efforts of so many cross-functional employees during this transitional period. Our people are truly the strength of QEP.

In connection with this transaction, the Company has entered into Amendment No. 5 (the Amendment) to the Fifth Amended and Restated Loan and Security Agreement, Waiver, Consent and Release dated February 15, 2021 with its lending institution, Bank of America, N.A. The Amendment waives certain covenants and restrictions relating to this sale of assets, agrees to release all liens covering the purchased assets, and consents to this transaction.

The Company is in the process of making a good faith determination of cost estimates, or ranges of cost estimates, associated with its recent sale of its Harris Flooring Group assets including the transaction described herein.

About QEP

Founded in 1979, Q.E.P. Co., Inc. is a leading designer, manufacturer and distributor of a broad range of best-in-class installation solutions for commercial and home improvement projects worldwide. QEP offers a comprehensive line of specialty installation tools, adhesives, and underlayment. QEP sells its products throughout the world to home improvement retail centers, professional specialty distribution outlets, and flooring dealers under brand names including QEP, LASH, ROBERTS, Capitol, Premix-Marbletite (PMM), Vitrex, Brutus, Homelux, PRCI, Plasplugs, and Tomecanic.

QEP is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida with offices in Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Please visit our website at www.qepcorporate.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

All statements contained in this press release, other than statements of historical facts, may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements can be identified by words such as "expects," "plans," "projects," "will," "may," "anticipates," "believes," "should," "intends," "estimates," and other words of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Companys business following the sale and statements regarding the anticipated pre-tax charges and disposal costs. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on current expectations and beliefs, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those listed in the Companys annual report, as such risk factors may be amended, supplemented or superseded from time to time by other reports and disclosures made by the Company. Forward-looking statements may also be adversely affected by general market factors, competitive product development, product availability, federal and state regulations and legislation, manufacturing issues that may arise, patent positions and litigation, among other factors. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date the statements were made, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

CONTACT: Q.E.P. Co., Inc.Enos BrownExecutive Vice President andChief Financial Officer561-994-5550

Source: Q.E.P. Co., Inc.
Vancouver, BC , Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RevoluGROUP Canada Inc. (TSX-V: REVO), (Frankfurt: IJA2) (the Company) wishes to correct an error in our earlier press release dated September 28th, 2023, regarding the appointment of our new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Corporate Secretary. The name of the appointee was misspelled in the previous announcement.

We are pleased to clarify that Simon Tso, CFA, CPA, not Simon Tsu, has been appointed as our new Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary, effective October 1, 2023. We apologise for the confusion and any inconvenience caused.

We appreciate your understanding and thank you for your continued support. For more information about Simon's background and about RevoluGROUP Canada Inc., please visit www.RevoluGROUP.com.

About RevoluGROUP Canada Inc.:

RevoluGROUP Canada Inc. is a multi-asset, multidivisional publicly traded Canadian Company deploying advanced technologies in; Banking, Mobile Apps, Money Remittance, Mobile Phone Top-Ups, EGaming, Healthcare Payments, Esports, Invoice factoring, Online Travel, Vacation Resort, Blockchain Systems, and Fintech app sectors. Click here to read more.

For further information on RevoluGROUP Canada Inc. (TSX-V: REVO), visit the Company's website at www.RevoluGROUP.com.

RevoluGROUP Canada, Inc.

"Gavin McMillan" ______________________GAVIN MCMILLANInterim CEO

For further information, contact:RevoluGROUP Canada Inc.Telephone: (604) 332 5355Email: [email protected]

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that management of the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. Although management believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements, include market prices, exploration and development successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Please see the public filings of the Company at www.sedar.com for further information.

Source: RevoluGROUP Canada Inc.
Grants will accelerate the development of interventions that promote equitable, person-centered, and trustworthy care

NEW YORK, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation today announced 10 grants to support bold, early-stage interventions designed to improve the health and healthcare of marginalized populations.



A dramatic increase in the number of annual grants  the most ever awarded through the Hillman Emergent Innovation (HEI) program  was made possible thanks to the generosity of Leonard A. Lauder. The awards, totaling $500,000, will accelerate the development of new models that challenge conventional strategies for delivering effective, just, and equitable care.

Nursing has a long history of developing innovative solutions to some of healthcares most intractable problems, said Ahrin Mishan, Executive Director of The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation. The community-centered approaches we are funding this year are a testament to the vital role nurses play in improving the health of some of societys most overlooked and minoritized populations.

HEI Grantees Deliver Better, More Equitable Care

The 2023 HEI awards will launch a diverse set of programs across the United States that address significant health and healthcare problems in new ways. This years recipients are:

Improving Heart Health of Appalachian Caregivers Through Physical Activity

Caregivers in rural Appalachia are at heightened risk for cardiovascular disease. This project will pilot and test the real-world efficacy of a novel intervention to decrease cardiovascular disease risk among rural Appalachian caregivers.

Principal Investigators: Jennifer Smith, PhD, RN and Debra Moser, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN, University of Tennessee





Caregivers in rural Appalachia are at heightened risk for cardiovascular disease. This project will pilot and test the real-world efficacy of a novel intervention to decrease cardiovascular disease risk among rural Appalachian caregivers. Principal Investigators: Jennifer Smith, PhD, RN and Debra Moser, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN, University of Tennessee Optimizing Opioid Use Disorder Services Across the Jail-to-Community Continuum

Opioid-related overdose deaths are skyrocketing in Washington State and more than half of its people who regularly use opioids are incarcerated annually. Harnessing the expertise of frontline providers, this nurse-led, scalable intervention has the potential to radically improve the continuity and effectiveness of overdose prevention care for people transitioning from jail to community settings.

Principal Investigator: Sarah Gimbel, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, University of Washington





Opioid-related overdose deaths are skyrocketing in Washington State and more than half of its people who regularly use opioids are incarcerated annually. Harnessing the expertise of frontline providers, this nurse-led, scalable intervention has the potential to radically improve the continuity and effectiveness of overdose prevention care for people transitioning from jail to community settings. Principal Investigator: Sarah Gimbel, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, University of Washington Promoting Self-Care of Older Women Experiencing Homelessness

Middle-aged and older women experiencing homelessness face a constellation of traumatic life events and manage multiple physical and mental health conditions. This grant supports a feasibility study of an enhanced, trauma-informed, chronic disease self-care program designed to meet the complex needs of this population.

Principal Investigator: Benissa Salem, PhD, RN, MSN, PHN, CNL, University of California at Los Angeles





Middle-aged and older women experiencing homelessness face a constellation of traumatic life events and manage multiple physical and mental health conditions. This grant supports a feasibility study of an enhanced, trauma-informed, chronic disease self-care program designed to meet the complex needs of this population. Principal Investigator: Benissa Salem, PhD, RN, MSN, PHN, CNL, University of California at Los Angeles Increasing PrEP Utilization by Black Women Through AI

Black cisgender women are disproportionately underrepresented among patients using PrEP for HIV prevention. Combining the holistic approach of nurse practitioners with AI technology, this interdisciplinary initiative will deliver personalized, culturally-tailored healthcare communication to augment HIV prevention strategies.

Principal Investigators: Chen Zhang, MPH, PhD and Mitchell Wharton, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, CNS, ACRN, AAHIVE, University of Rochester





Black cisgender women are disproportionately underrepresented among patients using PrEP for HIV prevention. Combining the holistic approach of nurse practitioners with AI technology, this interdisciplinary initiative will deliver personalized, culturally-tailored healthcare communication to augment HIV prevention strategies. Principal Investigators: Chen Zhang, MPH, PhD and Mitchell Wharton, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, CNS, ACRN, AAHIVE, University of Rochester Enhancing Sexual Health Awareness Among Rural Youth

Many schools in rural communities lack sexual education resources to support the health and well-being of adolescents. This program will engage and center rural youth in the creation of a virtual adolescent sexual health training course for school staff while simultaneously empowering young people to act as advocates among their peers.

Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Dickson, PhD, RN, University of New Mexico

Promoting Positive Parenting Skills in Unhoused Women

Parenting is challenging for unhoused women, particularly those who also experience interpersonal violence. This nurse-designed intervention combines trauma-informed counseling with guidance in play and learning strategies to improve the parenting skills of mothers and the wellbeing of their children.

Principal Investigator: Doncy Eapen, PHD, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Centering Voices of Sexual Assault Survivors to Reduce Secondary Victimization

Survivors of sexual assault, particularly Indigenous and Black women, are often retraumatized when seeking healthcare. This study aims to better understand the experience of secondary victimization as a means of designing more effective care for Indigenous and Black women who have been sexually assaulted.

Principal Investigator: Ashley Ruiz, PhD, RN, Arizona State University





Survivors of sexual assault, particularly Indigenous and Black women, are often retraumatized when seeking healthcare. This study aims to better understand the experience of secondary victimization as a means of designing more effective care for Indigenous and Black women who have been sexually assaulted. Principal Investigator: Ashley Ruiz, PhD, RN, Arizona State University Deploying Peer Navigators for People with Developmental Disabilities

People with developmental disabilities have difficulty communicating their healthcare needs, while clinicians lack training for how to treat this population. This bold intervention, which trains peer patient navigators to assist other neurodiverse patients navigate the health system, holds promise to ensure that differently-abled groups receive the care and attention they deserve.

Principal Investigator: Daniel Wilkenfeld, PhD, University of Pittsburgh





People with developmental disabilities have difficulty communicating their healthcare needs, while clinicians lack training for how to treat this population. This bold intervention, which trains peer patient navigators to assist other neurodiverse patients navigate the health system, holds promise to ensure that differently-abled groups receive the care and attention they deserve. Principal Investigator: Daniel Wilkenfeld, PhD, University of Pittsburgh Using Telehealth to Improve Access to PrEP for Women Sex Workers

PrEP utilization is alarmingly low among women sex workers, who are at especially high risk for HIV infection. Designed by a multidisciplinary team, this intervention will use a community-based telehealth system to improve sex worker access to this highly effective daily medication that reduces HIV infection.

Principal Investigator: Jessica Zemlak, PhD, MSN, RN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, Marquette University





PrEP utilization is alarmingly low among women sex workers, who are at especially high risk for HIV infection. Designed by a multidisciplinary team, this intervention will use a community-based telehealth system to improve sex worker access to this highly effective daily medication that reduces HIV infection. Principal Investigator: Jessica Zemlak, PhD, MSN, RN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, Marquette University Delivering Peer-to-Peer Trauma Support for Black Women Experiencing Homelessness

Black women experiencing homelessness are disproportionately impacted by traumatic stress, yet few trauma-focused programs are tailored for this population. This intervention, which leverages a peer-led model that centers the shared lived experiences of unhoused Black women, provides trustworthy guidance towards improved mental health and housing outcomes.

Principal Investigator: Kirsten Dickins Aryee, PhD, AM, APRN, FNP-C, Rush University

About The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation

The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation advances bold, nursing-driven innovations that promote equitable, person-centered, and trustworthy care. It is committed to improving the health and healthcare of all people, especially populations who experience inequity, discrimination, oppression, and indifference. Its goal is to help ignite and develop game-changing interventions and to cultivate a vibrant ecosystem of nurse innovators, grantees, and partners dedicated to building a healthier, more equitable future for all. For more information, please visit www.rahf.org .
MEDELLIN, Colombia, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via IBN -- Santo Mining Corp., (OTC PINK:SANP) a vertically integrated 4th industrial revolution firm specializing in end-to-end "BaaS" (Blockchain-as-a-Service) solutions and other cutting-edge technologies such as IoT, AI, NFTs, and Data Analytics, is proud to announce it has successfully executed a Strategic Joint Venture Agreement with Planta Vida S.A.S. During the days and weeks to come we will be outlining the business operations of this Strategic Joint Venture Agreement.

Frank Yglesias, CEO of Santo stated: "This agreement gives us for the first time, a true sold partnership, with a group that is highly skilled and respected in the cannabis industry, this will allow us to focus on software development in this cannabis industry with the guidance and marketing expertise of the group." Additionally Mr. Marc Williams, President of Planta Vida stated: "We recognize the need for real blockchain solutions in our rapidly evolving industry, the move to the 4th industrial revolution has begun, we look forward to be pioneering these tools with the SANTO team."

ABOUT PLANTA VIDA: (https://plantavida.co/) With 116 hectares of land licensed directly to Planta Vida for psychoactive and non psychoactive cannabis cultivation in Yacopi, Cundinamarca, Colombia. The Planta Vida SAS project dedicated to implement strategic social business, bringing safe, natural and ecologically friendly wellness products to the emerging cannabis business with the goal of provide work and social benefits to the community, such as education, unemployment, health, housing and security.

ABOUT US (https://santoblockchain.com/) The Company is a vertically integrated 4th industrial revolution firm specializing in end-to-end "BaaS" (Blockchain-as-a-Service) solutions and other cutting-edge technologies such as IoT, AI, NFTs, and Data Analytics. Their focus is exclusively on serving the cannabis industry. Much like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), they manage, operate, and develop these advanced services, offering comprehensive support for cannabis businesses to thrive in the digital age.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company, beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, and a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. These factors include, but are not limited to, (i) growth of the crypto and or cannabis market, (ii) capital and credit market volatility, (iii) local and global economic conditions, (iv) our anticipated growth strategies, (v) crypto and cannabis authority and other governmental approvals and regulations, and (vi) our future business development, results of operations and financial condition. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "target," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "potential," "continue," "is/are likely to" or other similar expressions. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Company undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

Source: Santo Mining Corp. Frank Yglesias [email protected] 1-954-787-1770

Wire Service Contact:

IBN Los Angeles, California www.InvestorBrandNetwork.com 310.299.1717 Office [email protected]

Source: Santo Mining Corp.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. (West Red Lake Gold or WRLG or the Company) (TSXV:WRLG) is pleased to provide a project update and an outlook on project advancement in the near to medium term for the Madsen Mine and Rowan Mine projects located in the prolific Red Lake Gold District of Northwestern, Ontario, Canada.

PATH FORWARD

Additional 35,000 metre (m) drill program planned for Rowan Property to commence in early 2024, adding second drill and to include systematic in-fill drilling and expansion drilling of high-grade zones and begin testing high priority drill targets at Mt. Jamie, Red Summit and the NT Zone.

Complete initial Preliminary Economic Assessment (the PEA) on entire portfolio of Properties by Q2 2024 (based on drilling cutoff date of Oct 1, 2023)

Complete updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) at Rowan by Q4 2024 (to include all anticipated drilling up to Q3 2024)

Complete 3,000 m drill program at Wedge, aimed to expand deposit and complete MRE by Q4 2024

Complete 38,000 m underground drill program at Madsen Mine by Q4 2024

Complete 3,200 m of underground development by Q4 2024 for access and required infrastructure to support underground drilling.

Develop a connecting ramp between the East and West declines at Madsen to increase waste hauling capacity from the West ramp which previously crossed two public roads, further reducing operating costs.

Put the Madsen Mine back into production in 2025.

Shane Williams, President, and CEO commented: The team has done a fantastic job since the beginning of 2023, achieving many major milestones in the relatively short life of the re-vamped West Red Lake Gold Mines. In a difficult market we have managed to complete key acquisitions, raise a considerable amount of capital to fund our growing ambitions and assembled a team of noteworthy professionals with a track record of success at both the management and board levels. We have enjoyed a tremendous amount of exploration success via the drill-bit at our Rowan project which we hope to replicate at some very exciting targets in and around our newly acquired Madsen Mine. The coming year will be a very active time for the Company as we lay the groundwork to execute on our vision to put the Madsen Mine back into production and continue to unlock significant value for our shareholders.

ROWAN PROPERTY

The 2023 drilling program at Rowan has been incredibly successful thus far. As such, the originally planned 17,000 m of drilling at the Rowan Mine target was expanded to 25,000 m and the team is on track to complete all planned drilling at Rowan.

Our understanding of the mineralization at Rowan has been greatly enhanced and results continue to confirm internal models and our exploration strategy continues to be validated by the results achieved. The mineralized set of veins at Rowan continues to deliver high-grade gold assays over significant widths that are in-line with or exceed those modelled in the December 2022 resource estimate. A few notable highlights from 2023 drilling at Rowan include:

Hole RLG-23-163B Intersected 8.3 m @ 70.80 grams per tonne (g/t) gold (Au) from 387 m to 395.3 m. This interval also included 0.5 m @ 1,120.19 g/t Au and represents the highest-grade intercept ever drilled at the Rowan project.

Intersected 387 m to 395.3 m. This interval also included and represents the highest-grade intercept ever drilled at the Rowan project. Hole RLG-23-149B Intersected 4.0 m @ 50.52 g/t Au , from 299 m to 303 m.

Intersected , from 299 m to 303 m. Hole RLG-23-153 Intersected 2.0 m @ 66.66 g/t Au , from 235 m to 237 m

Intersected , from 235 m to 237 m Hole RLG-23-134 Intersected 8.0 m @ 10.34 g/t Au , from 71 m to 79 m

Intersected , from 71 m to 79 m Hole RLG-23-156B Intersected 3.11 m @ 21.84 g/t Au , from 275 m to 278.11 m

Intersected , from 275 m to 278.11 m Hole RLG-23-150 Intersected 4.2 m @ 15.40 g/t Au , from 384 m to 388.2 m

Intersected , from 384 m to 388.2 m Hole RLG-23-154 Intersected 10.1 m @ 6.27 g/t Au, from 214.9 m to 225 m

Our strategy at Rowan for the remainder of 2023 will be to continue increasing confidence in the 827,462 ounces (oz) Inferred resource through systematic in-fill drilling. We will also look to step out and expand the Rowan resource by targeting mineralization outside of the current model and testing the down-dip and down-plunge extensions of the high-grade zones.

We plan on staying aggressive with the exploration strategy at Rowan in 2024, which will include the addition of a second drill early in the year to continue advancing the Rowan Mine target, and to begin testing high priority drill targets at Mt. Jamie, Red Summit, and the NT Zone. An additional 35,000 m of exploration drilling is planned for the Rowan Property in 2024. An updated mineral resource estimate for Rowan is anticipated to be completed in Q4 2024 and will include all drilling through Q3 2024.

It is the Companys belief that potential synergies could exist between the high-grade Rowan deposit and our flagship Madsen Mine. Early indications suggest that the gold mineralization at Rowan could be amenable to gravity separation. As such, the Company has initiated a metallurgical study at Rowan to begin evaluating this opportunity, as well as a geotechnical study to better characterize the rock mass properties within the mineralized vein zones at Rowan.

Management maintains a high degree of confidence in the merits of the Rowan deposit and has initiated necessary baseline environmental and archaeological assessments to begin moving the Rowan project towards an Advanced Exploration Permit status  this permit will be required prior to collection of a bulk sample at Rowan.

MADSEN SATELLITE TARGETS AND REGIONAL EXPLORATION

After successfully completing the acquisition of the Madsen Mine the exploration team undertook a detailed review of the property. Several promising targets were identified and prioritized with the Wedge target emerging as our highest priority target.

Previous drilling highlights from the Wedge target include.

Hole PG17-486 Intersected 10.33 m @ 24.94 g/t Au , from 16.67 m to 27 m

Intersected , from 16.67 m to 27 m Hole PG17-467 Intersected 16.6 m @ 17.49 g/t Au , from 11.45 m to 28 m

Intersected , from 11.45 m to 28 m Hole PG17-482 Intersected 14.4 m @ 8.35 g/t Au , from 28 m to 42.4 m

Intersected , from 28 m to 42.4 m Hole PG19-643 Intersected 1 m @ 108.5 g/t Au, from 103 m to 104 m

Surface exploration and drilling began in early September and the initial 3,000 m program is almost complete. Drilling is primarily focused on extending the high-grade zones defined at the Wedge Target. This new drilling will be used to support an updated Mineral Resource Estimate at Wedge to be completed by Q4 2024. Wedge currently hosts an Indicated resource of 56,100 oz of gold grading 5.6 g/t Au and an Inferred resource of 78,700 oz of gold grading 5.7 g/t Au1. The target is 2 km southwest of the Madsen Mine and is adjacent to the past-producing Starratt-Olsen Mine which historically processed 823,554 tonnes grading 6.16 g/t Au for ~163 koz of gold2. Drilling conducted at the Wedge target and other satellite targets near mine will be incorporated into an updated mineral resource estimate. We anticipate the update to be completed by Q4 2024.

A detailed and systematic review of all available exploration and geologic data for the Madsen property has also been initiated. This information will be digitized and compiled into working GIS and 3D modeling project files to allow for target ranking and prioritization ahead of the 2024 season. Most of the ground at Madsen remains underexplored and our geology team is already seeing a lot of opportunity for new discoveries across the district.

MADSEN PROJECT

Underground diamond drilling at Madsen has recommenced. A 38,000 m program has been designed for the first 12 months and will be focused on infill and expansion of the high-grade portions of the Austin and South Austin zones. We anticipate this drilling to define an inventory of high-confidence ore-grade (6-7 g/t Au) resource to serve as a starting point for a future restart plan. Additionally, underground development work is taking place at Madsen which will provide our team with the necessary access and infrastructure required to support the underground drilling program.

Mine design and scheduling for the first 12 months have been completed with subsequent phases to be determined based on the findings of the initial underground drilling and exploration program. The first development cuts have been taken at Madsen to provide access to the areas where infill drilling has already been planned. Mine design and scheduling consider the requirements of the operations and geology teams to ensure a full collaborative approach to advancing the project in a safe, efficient, and timely manner. Over the next 12 months the Company will complete approximately 3,200 m of underground development to support engineering and geological programs. We do not intend to conduct any stoping or commercial extraction for the next 12-15 months until the re-start strategy is significantly de-risked both technically and financially.

The Company will also develop a connecting ramp between the East and West declines. The current waste hauling at Madsen from the West ramp crosses two public roads (into Madsen town). This haul route is only allowed to be used during daylight hours. A connecting ramp would increase the number of hours the team can haul waste as well as eliminate double handling, thus reducing operating costs. It will also provide for increased safety for the surrounding community due to reduced traffic.

Additional and ongoing activities at the Madsen Mine will include, but are not limited to, shaft dewatering, water treatment and environmental monitoring.

MINERAL RESOURCE UPDATE AND PEA

The West Red Lake team is committed to a timely and successful restart that will maximize value for all our stakeholders. As such the team has engaged SRK Consulting and put in place the necessary programs required to complete a Preliminary Economic Assessment. The PEA will look to unlock and deliver robust economics by incorporating the Companys entire portfolio of Red Lake assets which is made up of our Rowan Project and Madsen Mine with its accompanying satellite deposits.

Management firmly believes this approach is in-line with its vision for the Red Lake district and a potential Hub and Spoke model utilizing the Madsen processing facilities provides plenty of optionality and opportunity to greatly bolster the project economics.

West Red Lake intends to deliver this initial PEA by the end of Q2 2024. To achieve that milestone by the anticipated deadline the decision was made to establish an Oct 1, 2023, cut-off date for 2023 Rowan drilling data to be incorporated into this PEA. As such, the updated Rowan mineral resource estimate included in the upcoming PEA will be focused primarily on the high-grade East Zone, which has been the focus of drilling at Rowan so far in 2023 and is envisioned as the first area to be mined when production from Rowan commences. The PEA will then be followed up by a more comprehensive MRE update for Rowan by Q4 2024, which will include all drilling at Rowan through Q3 2024.

RECAP OF FIRST THREE QUARTERS OF 2023

Completed the successful acquisition of 100% of the Rowan Gold Project from Evolution Mining

Appointment of new CEO, Shane Williams, to lead the Company.

Strengthened Senior Management Team with addition of a new CFO and new VPs of Exploration, Technical Services, Corporate Development, and Community Relations.

Increased board strength with key appointees including Tony Makuch, Duncan Middlemiss, and Hugh Agro.

Successfully completed the acquisition of our flagship Madsen Mine asset while concurrently raising C$ 25M.

Completed Phase 1 Exploration Program at Rowan project and initiated expanded Phase 2 drilling campaign. Results from drilling in 2023 have exceeded expectations and as a result the program was expanded from the originally announced 17,000 meters to 25,000 meters. That expanded program is well underway.

Initiated surface drilling campaign at Wedge target  2km southwest of Madsen Mine. The program consists of 3,000 meters of drilling to upgrade and expand the existing resource at Wedge.

Successfully completed flow-through financing of C$7 million, to further strengthen treasury position.

Underground development activities and shaft dewatering are underway at Madsen Mine.

SRK was awarded the contract to conduct Preliminary Economic Assessment and work program has been initiated.

ABOUT WEST RED LAKE GOLD MINES

West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. is a mineral exploration company that is publicly traded and focused on advancing and developing its flagship Madsen Gold Mine and the associated 47 km2 highly prospective land package in the Red Lake district of Ontario. The highly productive Red Lake Gold District of Northwest Ontario, Canada has yielded over 30 million ounces of gold from high-grade zones and hosts some of the world's richest gold deposits. WRLG also holds the wholly owned Rowan Property in Red Lake, with an expansive property position covering 31 km2 including three past producing gold mines - Rowan, Mount Jamie, and Red Summit.

ON BEHALF OF WEST RED LAKE GOLD MINES LTD.

Shane Williams

Shane WilliamsPresident & Chief Executive Officer

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Amandip Singh, VP Corporate DevelopmentTel: 416-203-9181Email: [email protected] or visit the Companys website at https://www.westredlakegold.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements". When used in this document, the words "anticipated", "expect", "estimated", "forecast", "planned", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements or information. These statements are based on current expectations of management, however, they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this news release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements. West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. does not undertake any obligation to revise or update any forward- looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date hereof, except as required by securities laws.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Company, including expectations and assumptions concerning: receipt of the necessary approvals, permits and access to and sufficiency of capital. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions which have been used.

Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to constraint in the availability of services, commodity price and exchange rate fluctuations, changes in legislation impacting the mining industry, adverse weather conditions and uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans with respect to projects or capital expenditures. These and other risks are set out in more detail in the Company's Managements Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended May 31, 2023.

1 Mineral resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of 3.38 g/t Au and a gold price of US$1,800/oz. Please refer to the technical report entitled Independent NI 43-101 Technical Report and Updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the PureGold Mine, Canada, prepared by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. and dated June 16, 2023. A full copy of the SRK report is available on the Companys website and on SEDAR.

2 http://www.geologyontario.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/mdi/data/records/MDI52K13NW00011.html

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6df9da38-b1d2-451f-ac2e-a6c0f88459a8

Rowan and Madsen Projects Location Map Rowan and Madsen Projects Location Map

Source: West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd.
A recently appointed marijuana regulatory official in Minnesota has stepped down just a day after taking the post after an MPR-APM report revealed conflicts of interest and evidence of business impropriety. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz appointed Erin DuPree as the head of the new Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management on Sept. 21, 2023, and his office penned a press release praising her for leading research on cannabis and hemp-derived products while remaining compliant with state cannabis regulations and laws.

However, a background review by APM Reports and MPR News raised major questions about her background and the

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CNW420 spotlights the latest developments in the rapidly evolving cannabis industry through the release of two informative articles each business day. Our concise, informative content serves as a gateway for investors interested in the legalized cannabis sector and provides updates on how regulatory developments may impact financial markets. Articles are released each business day at 4:20 a.m. and 4:20 p.m. Eastern  our tribute to the time synonymous with cannabis culture. If marijuana and the burgeoning industry surrounding it are on your radar, CNW420 is for you! Check back daily to stay up-to-date on the latest milestones in the fast -changing world of cannabis.

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Cybin (NEO: CYBN) (NYSE American: CYBN), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to revolutionizing mental healthcare by developing new and innovative psychedelic-based treatment options, has completed dosing of the final cohort for its phase 2 CYB003 study. According to the announcement, the company anticipates reporting topline efficacy data later this year; Cybin is also looking forward to the potential for a phase 3 CYB003 study to begin early next year. The phase 2 study is designed to evaluate CYB003, a proprietary deuterated psilocybin analog program in development for the potential treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). The company noted that the phase 2 study is examining the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and psychedelic effect of ascending oral doses of CYB003.

The study comprises six cohorts, with the following doses being administered: 1mg, 3mg, 8mg, 10mg, 12mg and 16mg. Thus far CYB003 has been shown to be safe and tolerable at all six doses with no serious adverse events or discontinuations due to adverse events having been observed. We are extremely pleased with the rapid progression we have made from initiation to completion of dosing across all cohorts in our phase 2 CYB003 MDD study, said Cybin CEO Doug Drysdale in the press release. With topline efficacy data expected later this year, we are focusing on the upcoming data submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and readying ourselves to scale for a potential phase 3 pivotal study early in 2024. We believe this a value inflection point for Cybin, as we continue to pursue our goal of improving the treatment landscape across mental health disorders.

To view the full press release, visit https://ibn.fm/CSNxj

About Cybin Inc.

Cybin is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company on a mission to create safe and effective psychedelic-based therapeutics to address the large unmet need for new and innovative treatment options for people who suffer from mental-health conditions. Cybins goal of revolutionizing mental healthcare is supported by a network of world-class partners and internationally recognized scientists aimed at progressing proprietary drug-discovery platforms, innovative drug-delivery systems, and novel formulation approaches and treatment regimens. The company is currently developing CYB003, a proprietary deuterated psilocybin analog for the treatment of major depressive disorder, and CYB004, a proprietary deuterated DMT molecule for generalized anxiety disorder; the company also has a research pipeline of investigational psychedelic-based compounds. Headquartered in Canada and founded in 2019, Cybin is operational in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Ireland. For more information, visit the companys website at www.Cybin.com.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to CYBN are available in the companys newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CYBN

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Sekur Private Data (CSE: SKUR) (OTCQX: SWISF) (FSE: GDT0) is a leading Swiss hosted secure and private communications platform. The company today announced its plans to launch its Swiss hosted communications suite Sekur in German language and launch a digital marketing campaign in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) by the end of Q4 2023. We are excited to offer all our Sekur solutions in German language and launch in the DACH region soon, as we have received requests from our user base for more exposure in Germany in particular, said Alain Ghiai, CEO of Sekur Private Data. There is a real need in Germany for protecting small and larger businesses from the cyberattacks they are experiencing at a much higher rate this year. Offering the solutions in German language is opening a whole new market of over 100 million people to Sekur, previously out of our reach mostly due to the language barrier. Our relationship with America Movil and our global contract could also open the door for their wholly owned A1 Telecom Austria Group, once the initial launch proves successful. Our prime directive is to provide private and secure communications for everyone, and as we are not connected to any Big Tech platform, we offer a truly independent, private and secure means of communications, without any data mining, through our proprietary technology and our secure servers based in Switzerland. We look forward to continuing to offer true data privacy to all individuals and their businesses, and to protect their intellectual property and privacy from data miners and malicious hackers.

To view the full press release, visit https://ibn.fm/974Bk

About Sekur Private Data Ltd.

Sekur Private Data is a cybersecurity and internet privacy provider of Swiss hosted solutions for secure and private communications. The company distributes a suite of encrypted e-mails, secure messengers and secure communication tools. Sekur Private Data sells its products through its own website, www.Sekur.com, approved distributors and telecommunications companies worldwide. The company serves consumers, businesses and governments worldwide.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to SWISF are available in the companys newsroom at https://ibn.fm/SWISF

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Rare earth supply chain innovator Ucore Rare Metals Inc. is working to strategically develop a North American-based supply chain for rare earth elements (REEs) that are vital to technologies ranging from smartphone to F-16 fighter jet parts

China currently has a near-monopoly on REE refining and production, and international tech trade tensions in recent years have pushed Western nations to seek ways to revive their own REE industries

Ucore has developed a proprietary RapidSX(TM) REE separation technology platform for refining rare earths, beginning with a strategic facility in development in Louisiana

The company is celebrating announcement this month that it has completed the process for obtaining an 80 percent tax exemption for the next decade, pending the governors ratification of state and local authorities approvals

Ucore Rare Metals (TSX.V: UCU) (OTCQX: UURAF), a strategic metals supply chain-focused enterprise, is celebrating its advancing rare earth element (REE) project in Louisiana with the recent announcement that the company has received approvals from the Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP) that will result in significant cost savings to Ucore.

Ucore has entered a multi-decade lease agreement with the administrators of the England Airpark in Alexandria, La., that will allow Ucore to build and operate a Strategic Metals Complex (SMC) where

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MiningNewsWire (MNW) is a specialized communications platform with a focus on developments and opportunities in the Global Mining and Resources sectors. It is one of 60+ brands within the Dynamic Brand Portfolio @ IBN that delivers: (1) access to a vast network of wire solutions via InvestorWire to efficiently and effectively reach a myriad of target markets, demographics and diverse industries; (2) article and editorial syndication to 5,000+ outlets; (3) enhanced press release enhancement to ensure maximum impact; (4) social media distribution via IBN to millions of social media followers; and (5) a full array of tailored corporate communications solutions. With broad reach and a seasoned team of contributing journalists and writers, MNW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that want to reach a wide audience of investors, influencers, consumers, journalists and the general public. By cutting through the overload of information in todays market, MNW brings its clients unparalleled recognition and brand awareness.

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ANKARA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Turkish security forces detained Tuesday at least 67 suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in anti-terror operations across Turkiye, the interior minister said.

"Currently, 466 operations are being carried out in rural areas throughout Turkiye, including eight medium-scale and 458 small-scale operations within the scope of the fight against terrorism," Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on social media platform X.

The operations came after two attackers attempted a bomb attack in front of the Turkish Interior Ministry's building in the capital Ankara on Sunday, injuring two police officers. A suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the ministry, the other was shot dead by the police.

One of the attackers was identified as Hasan Oguz, a PKK member, and investigations are underway to identify the other attacker, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States, and the European Union, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for more than three decades. 
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - Advanced Gold Exploration Inc. (CSE: AUEX) is pleased to announce the acquisition of an option on the Landrum gold property in South Carolina from Carolina Gold Resources ("CCR"). The Landrum Property is in the Carolina Gold Belt the home of at least five past producing gold mines and one currently producing gold mine. OceanaGold's Gold Haile Mine in this belt has a Proven and Probable resources of 2.45 million ounces of gold and a Measured and Indicated Resource of 2.98 million ounces of gold[1]. The modern mine has been in production since 2017.

The Carolinas have been known to host gold deposits since the early 1800s and were the site of the first Gold Rush in America - before California.





Figure 1: Carolina Gold Belt

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8072/182776_34f963ab04d1ba66_001full.jpg

The Landrum Project covers two known gold occurrences - Landrum and Faulkner Mountain. Both have known high-grade gold occurrences and unexplored potential.

Figure 2: Details of Landrum/Faulkner in South Carolina with Gold Mineralization Highlighted

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8072/182776_34f963ab04d1ba66_002full.jpg

Landrum

The Landrum project is situated in Northern Edgefield County South Carolina

The mine was mined in the 1850s and shafting and drifting was carried out prior to the war in the late 1930s.

Resampled and explored by Newmont in the mid-1980s including underground sampling, soil sampling and mapping.

The Landrum system is comprised of two sub-parallel gold-bearing quartz veins consisting of silicified zones generally made up of 20-50% quartz with admixed sericitized argillite containing 2-10% pyrite with trace chalcopyrite.

The veins vary in thickness from less than a meter to 10 meters and occur within a broad sericite-quartz-calcite-pyrite altered shear zone in argillite which strikes roughly N45E and dip 60-70NW.

Historic Resource (non-43 101 compliant) of 424,000 tonnes at a grade of 4.82 g/t for approximately 67,400 ounces of gold.

The principal Main Vein ore shoot is open down dip and down plunge with an indicated ore occurrence of approximately 350 ounces of gold per meter of slope.

Resource grade mineralization in the Footwall Vein is generally lower, however, the higher-grade dual intercepts in DH 6 (20.09/2.1m and 6.19/1.9m) in the footwall zone are open up and down plunge. The vein is open along strike to the northeast.

The ore-hosting shear zone was traced at surface for 600-700 meters northeast and southwest of the mine area and remains effectively untested away from the Main veins.

Samples collected by the Company's staff on surface during a site visit returned assays between 5.9 g/t and 112.0 g/t gold in grab samples. The Company's qualified person has not completed sufficient work to confirm the historic resource but believes that the methodology and professionalism of the persons calculating the resource was sufficient.

Faulkner Mountain

The Faulkner Mountain property is located 5 km southwest of Landrum. A number of 1800's-era shallow prospects with gold mineralization were located by CCR which prior to 2017 were untested by modern exploration. Exploration work by an optionor in 2017, under the direction of CGR, identified a new high-grade zone of gold in veins similar in style to Landrum. A significant intercept of 26.8 g/t Au over 1.5 m (vertical depth of 70 meters) from one of the three drillholes completed. This new discovery has not been followed up and is open in all directions.

GRANT OF OPTION

Pursuant to an option agreement (the "Option Agreement") dated September 29, 2023 (the "Effective Date"), between the Company, CCR and Uwharrie Resources Inc. ("Uwharrie" and together with CCR, the "Optionors"), the Company was granted an option (the "Option") to acquire the undivided legal and beneficial interest in the Property free and clear of all charges, encumbrances.

Under the terms of the Option Agreement, the Company may exercise the Option to acquire a 100% interest in the Property upon the following option payments (the "Option Payments"):

(a) making cash payments in the aggregate of $260,000 to CCR in accordance with the following:

(i) $50,000 on the Effective Date;

(ii) $60,000 on or before the first anniversary of the Effective Date;

(iii) $70,000 on or before the second anniversary of the Effective Date; and

(iv) $80,000 on or before the third anniversary of the Effective Date;

(b) incurring an aggregate of $1,000,000 in Expenditures on the Property, as follows:

(i) $100,000 on or before the first anniversary of the Effective Date;

(ii) an additional $400,000 (for an aggregate of $500,000) on or before the second anniversary of the Effective Date; and

(iii) an additional $500,000 (for an aggregate of $1,000,000) on or before the third anniversary of the Effective Date;

(c) issuing CCR an aggregate of $500,000 worth of common shares in the capital of the Company (each, an "Option Share") as follows:

(i) such number of Option Shares having a value of $50,000 calculated two business days prior to the Effective Date using a 20-day volume weighted average sale price ("VWAP");

(ii) such number of Option Shares having a value of $100,000 calculated two business days prior to the first anniversary of the Effective Date using a 20-day VWAP;

(iii) such number of Option Shares having a value of $150,000 calculated two business days prior to the second anniversary of the Effective Date using a 20-day VWAP; and

(iv) such number of Option Shares having a value of $200,000 calculated two business days prior to the third anniversary of the Effective Date using a 20-day VWAP.

Under the terms of the Option Agreement, in the event that the Option is exercised, the Company will grant a 2% net smelter returns royalty ("NSR") in favour of the Optionors.

Mr. Jim Atkinson CEO comments: "We are pleased to add the Landrum/Faulkner Mountain Project to our portfolio. Thes projects lie in a very prospective belt of gold deposits. The Mineralization known at Landrum and the exciting high-grade drill intersection at Faulkner Mountain will be actively explored this winter and we expect to be able to relay exciting news from these activities. We believe this acquisition is an excellent opportunity to apply our ideas and expertise to neglected and abandoned projects with the goal of bringing them, through the application of modern techniques, to the stage where they are attractive for companies to develop."

Qualified Person

James Atkinson M.Sc., P. Geo., a Qualified Person ("QP") as such term is defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed and approved the geological information reported in this news release. The Qualified Person has not completed sufficient work to verify all historic information on the Property, particularly with regards to historical sampling, drill results, and technical work provided by Carolina Gold Resources and others. The Qualified Person assumes that sampling and analytical results were completed to industry standard practices. The information provides an indication of the exploration potential of the Property but may not be representative of expected results.

About Advanced Gold Exploration Inc.

Advanced Gold Exploration (Formerly Advance United Holdings Inc.) brings an entirely different approach to the mining industry. We don't mine. Rather, we've acquired a portfolio of undervalued gold properties and are increasing their value through the application of modern technology. We have a growing pipeline of similar properties that we are looking to acquire. We are involved exclusively in the acquisition and advancement of past projects - with no intent to bring them back into production or to mine them ourselves. Our expertise is in identifying and acquiring undervalued properties with significant historical work, which were uneconomic at the time, but we believe have economic value at today's prices. We fund the re-working historic data and applying modern technology to underwrite new qualified reports, document quantifiable resources and reserves to current standards, thereby recognizing the current value. Our purpose is to bring immediate and long-term value to our partners and shareholders while seeking to eliminate exploration risk, so that we can all advance in the shortest possible time frame. For additional information about us, our projects, or to find out how we can assist in the advancement of your project contact our CEO.

Contact Information

James Atkinson, M.Sc., P. Geo.,

CEO Advanced Gold Exploration Inc.

Email: [email protected]

Tel: (647) 278-7502

Forward-Looking Information and Cautionary Statements

This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "would", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the information is provided, and is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. For a description of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company and its business and affairs, readers should refer to the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change, unless required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

[1] Technical report commissioned by OceanaGold Corporation titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report, Feasibility Study, Haile Gold Mine, Lancaster County, South Carolina" (the "Technical Report"), with an effective date of January 1, 2017.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/182776
New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - The Kazakh National University of Arts (KazNUA) founder, Aiman Mussakhajayeva, will visit New York and Washington, D.C., as she continues the mission of building cultural and educational exchange programs like KazUNA.





Figure 1



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The PEACE through Music Diplomacy Act was recently signed into law by President Biden. The passage of this bill is a reminder of the power and the effect of music, as well as its ability to increase the understanding between cultures and people worldwide. The Act directs the Department of State to leverage partnerships with the private sector when designing and implementing the music-related exchange programs run by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It authorizes explicitly music-related exchange programs that advance peace abroad, and it encourages the DOS to integrate a focus on conflict resolution into all relevant exchange programs for young musicians.

Figure 2



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During the visit, Ms. Mussakhajayeva's itinerary for KazUNA includes:

On October 5th, 2023, The Mission of Kazakhstan to the UN will be hosting a reception for the members of the press, politicians, as well as the arts and academic community in celebration and acknowledgment of KAzUNA's ongoing mission.

Aiman will be screening a short documentary and a live panel as she shares insights and influential experiences about her ongoing advocacy and contributions to the Kazakh National University of Arts (KazNUA), founded by Aiman in 1998.

On October 9th, 2023, Aiman will be performing with the Kazakh State Symphony Orchestra at the world-renowned Carnegie Hall at 8:00 p.m., with a post-concert reception following from 9:45-10:30 p.m.

Click here to purchase tickets.

On October 10, 2023, Aiman will perform at the United Nations headquarters at 1:00 p.m.

During her visit, she will be holding meetings with Juilliard, NYU, Columbia, Princeton, Yale, Manhattan School of Music, New Haven High School Orchestra, International Committee of the Broadway League, New York Film Academy, and other prominent institutions, discussions future partnerships, collaborations, and academic exchange programs.

Aiman Mussakhajayeva is a violinist born in 1958. She is a part of the Republic of Kazakhstan, "Kazakhstan Yenbek Eri," the rector of the Kazakh National University of Arts, and a prominent public figure, as well as a member of the jury of many international competitions and festivals. She was also awarded the title of "Kazakhstan Yenbek Eri" for outstanding achievements in the social and human development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, an active social life, and a unique contribution to the development of culture.

Kazakh National University of Arts (KazNUA)

Founded in 1998 by Aiman, KazNUA is a leading academic institution. The University has different international exchange programs from Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Jazz, Art Technology, and more. The span of the university's international programs reaches over 20 different countries, and continues to expand its partnerships actively.





Figure 3



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PRESS CONTACT:

Mandie Erickson

[email protected]

646 479 0777

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/182693
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - Plurilock Security Inc. (TSXV: PLUR) (OTCQB: PLCKF) and related subsidiaries ("Plurilock" or the "Company"), an AI-driven cybersecurity solutions provider for workforces, is pleased to announce that the Company has received a US$4.2 million two-year sale order from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (the "Customer").

The sale represents the latest transaction in a series of orders between Plurilock and a U.S. government customer in recent months and the Company intends to secure more contracts with organizations within the North American public sector. According to the terms of the order, the Company will deliver data analytics software and professional services solutions to the Customer.

"We are pleased to announce a US$4.2 million sale order with a U.S. federal customer," said Ian L. Paterson, CEO of Plurilock. "Our focus is to continue growing our customer pipeline in North America and we intend to build stronger business relationships with organizations across key industry verticals as part of our sales strategy."

About Plurilock

Plurilock secures workforces in the age of AI through its Plurilock AI platform, delivering advanced identity, data safety, and guard rails to safely implement AI solutions to commercial and government customers worldwide. With patented artificial intelligence and patented real-time identity confirmation technology, Plurilock AI enables zero-trust architecture and identity threat detection and response capabilities for regulated organizations with remote workforces. Through its Solutions Division, Plurilock aggregates world-class IT services and brings a comprehensive line of products that enable teams across North America and the globe to compute safely in a remote work world.

For more information, visit https://www.plurilock.com or contact:

Ian L. Paterson

Chief Executive Officer

[email protected]

416.800.1566

Prit Singh

Investor Relations

[email protected]

905.510.7636

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") related to future events or Plurilock's future business, operations, and financial performance and condition. Forward-looking statements normally contain words like "will", "intend", "anticipate", "could", "should", "may", "might", "expect", "estimate", "forecast", "plan", "potential", "project", "assume", "contemplate", "believe", "shall", "scheduled", and similar terms. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, actions, or developments and are based on expectations, assumptions, and other factors that management currently believes are relevant, reasonable, and appropriate in the circumstances. Although management believes that the forward-looking statements herein are reasonable, actual results could be substantially different due to the risks and uncertainties associated with and inherent to Plurilock's business. Additional material risks and uncertainties applicable to the forward-looking statements herein include, without limitation, the impact of general economic conditions, the success of the Company in obtaining new or extended contracts or orders; the Company's ability to maintain existing customers or develop new customers; the Company's ability to successfully integrate acquisitions of other businesses and/or companies or to realize on the anticipated benefits thereof; and unforeseen events, developments, or factors causing any of the aforesaid expectations, assumptions, and other factors ultimately being inaccurate or irrelevant. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect the Company's forward-looking statements. Many of these factors are beyond the control of Plurilock. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as at the date hereof, and Plurilock undertakes no obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in its most recent Annual Information Form. They are otherwise disclosed in its filings with securities regulatory authorities available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/182711
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - Portland Investment Counsel Inc. (Portland) is pleased to announce that the following Portland funds, both managed by Chris Wain-Lowe, Portfolio Manager and Chief Investment Officer of Portland, have been recognized as Top Contenders for the 2023 Canadian Hedge Fund Awards:

Portland Private Income Fund - Private Debt category for best one, three and five-year returns;

Portland Global Sustainable Evergreen LP - Private Equity category for best one, three and five-year returns.

Portland is honoured to have its funds be recognized as a Top Contender in multiple categories for the Canadian Hedge Fund Awards, which is a high honour in Canada's hedge fund industry. The annual Canadian Hedge Fund Awards help investors identify well performing hedge funds by recognizing winners in 5 performance measures across 6 categories as well as the Overall Best 2023 Canadian Hedge Fund. The awards are based solely on quantitative performance data to June 30th, which is collected and tabulated by Fundata Canada to determine the winners. A total of 264 Canadian Hedge Funds were considered for a 2023 Canadian Hedge Fund Award.

To learn more about these Top Contenders, visit: Portland Private Income Fund and Portland Global Sustainable Evergreen LP.

About Portland Investment Counsel Inc.

Portland is an Investment Fund Manager, Portfolio Manager and Exempt Market Dealer. We have a reputation for being Owners and Operators thus we are insightful Investors. Portland provides portfolio management and exempt market dealer services as well as investment products. Our investor roots date back to 1987. www.portlandic.com

About Alternative IQ:

Alternative IQ is dedicated to celebrating, supporting and expanding Canada's Hedge Fund Industry. AIQ produces the annual Canadian Hedge Fund Awards program and its presentation event (performance as at June 30th), along with THE Annual Canadian Hedge Fund Conference. Alternative IQ also produces the annual CHFA Winners Showcase Investor Conferences, at which the Managers of award-winning hedge funds present to investors, and produces various other programs and publications serving the hedge fund industry in Canada. Alternative IQ is a division of Alliance Sales and Marketing, Inc.

About the Annual Canadian Hedge Fund Awards:

The Annual Canadian Hedge Fund Awards were first held in 2008 and have a two-fold objective: first, to recognize and celebrate the talent in Canada's hedge fund industry and, second, to raise awareness of that expertise throughout the wider investment community. The Canadian Hedge Fund Awards are based solely on quantitative performance data to June 30th, with Fundata Canada managing the collection and tabulation of the data to determine the winners.

Portland Investment Counsel Inc.

Diana N. Oddi, Director, Communications and Marketing

905.331.4250

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/182782
Scottsdale, Arizona--(Newsfile Corp. - October 3, 2023) - Sibannac, Inc. (OTC Pink: SNNC), a Nevada corporation (the "Company"), announced the following:

After a fast-paced summer season of acquisitions and product developments, the Company is providing the following update on the status of our business operations and plans moving into 2024.

Immersive Brands

The acquisition of Immersive Brands under the leadership of Karl Gottschalk will be a focal point of operations and revenues as we move into the new year. Based in Oklahoma City, we will be manufacturing THC and Kratom products for direct sales as well as for white label customers. Immersive has industry leading tech in the manufacturing of THC pre-rolls and Kratom tinctures under our Let's Go brand. We recently announced an initial order of 30,000 units of our Kratom shots to be distributed between Las Vegas and New York City.

Celebrity Influencers

The Company will be announcing new relationships with celebrity endorsers for its NOHO shot product. This will involve developing white label brands as well as licensing of our main product line. We also have presented the NOHO shot to major retailers in the convenience store segment and are currently working with distributors to carry the shot at retail.

Canadian Retail with Allstar Health Brands (OTC Pink: ALST) and TYME Cannabis Co.

As the Company moves forward in the diligence process, we have up to 75 cannabis licenses in Canada to open retail locations. Under the proposed terms, Sibannac would acquire the fully operational location, which is profitable, as well as the option to acquire two additional locations that are completed and ready to open. We intend to bring our Kratom products to Canada to sell through the same retail locations.

The Kavern

Sibannac is slated to open our first Kava/Kratom bar in our home base of Scottsdale, Arizona. The bar, named, The Kavern, is slated to open at the end of 2023 and is currently being renovated in Scottsdale's bustling Old Town district. In addition to Kratom beverages and tinctures, we will be offering THC gummies and beverages, the NOHO shot, as well as a line of supplements, all made in our Scottsdale-based lab, just minutes from our retail location.

About Sibannac

Sibannac, Inc. (OTC Pink: SNNC) is a Nevada corporation founded in 1999 and located in Scottsdale, Arizona. Sibannac currently specializes in creating and selling premium next generation wellness products in the consumer packaging goods space. In addition to mainstream supplements and its hangover shot, NOHO, the Company is producing Kratom and Hemp-derived Delta-8/9 products, and Amanita mushroom edibles for wholesale and retail sales and distribution. Sibannac provides contract manufacturing and white labeling services for independent firms and creates and manages its own brands from the concept phase through to distribution. Sibannac has opened its platform to outside clients to offer its marketing and brand-building assets, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, The Campus Co. and Immersive Brand Concepts.

More from Sibannac For additional information and product updates, please follow us at The Campus Co. and follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/sibannacinc.

Media Contact:[email protected]

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.

This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements appear in a number of places in this release and include all statements that are not statements of historical fact regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of Sibannac, Inc. (the "Company"), its directors or its officers with respect to, among other things: (i) financing plans; (ii) trends affecting its financial condition or results of operations; (iii) growth strategy and operating strategy. The words "may," "would," "will," "expect," "estimate," "can," "believe," "potential" and similar expressions and variations thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control, and actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company's expectations include, but are not limited to, those factors that are disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in documents filed by the company from time to time with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/182676
Paid press release content from The Financial Capital. The StreetInsider.com news staff was not involved in its creation.



Steelhead Technologies, a trailblazing leader in the manufacturing ERP industry, is thrilled to announce the official launch of The Steelhead Hatchery, a cutting-edge demonstration environment that showcases the remarkable capabilities of its job shop software.



A Steelhead Hatchery, in the context of Steelhead Technologies, is not an ordinary facility. It represents a paradigm shift in how the industry approaches manufacturing solutions. Similar to how a hatchery nurtures steelhead trout from eggs to smolts, the Steelhead Hatchery nurtures individuals and businesses from initial curiosity to complete mastery of the Steelhead platform.

We are excited to open the doors to our Steelhead Hatchery and invite the industry to explore the future of manufacturing with us," said Jeff Halonen, Chief Executive Officer at Steelhead Technologies. "Just as a hatchery fosters the growth of steelhead trout, our Hatchery nurtures the growth of knowledge and expertise within the Steelhead ecosystem. We believe this initiative will revolutionize how businesses perceive and leverage ERP solutions."

Unlike traditional ERP demos and sandbox environments that provide a mere glimpse into capabilities, the Steelhead Hatchery offers a full-scale playground where employees, prospects, and new customers can immerse themselves in the revolutionary manufacturing ERP platform. It simulates the real-life experience that job shops across the country will have with the job shop software, ensuring a deep understanding of its exponential power.

The Hatchery is comprised of nine stations that mimic the various steps of typical metal finishing plant processes. This gives the Operator an opportunity to receive a deep understanding of the physical application and software execution of each process. Steelhead has revolutionized the training experience by providing a realistic demonstration of the capabilities of each feature to support visual, physical, and social learning styles.

The first Hatchery training session took place in September with a group of seven guests. The hands-on environment was impactful and allowed for an accelerated and more complete understanding of the software features and capabilities. One of the guests remarked, My interpretation of the value of Steelhead has now tripled, now that I have experienced its power.

Steelhead Technologies continues to pour tremendous effort into increasing the value of the US surface finishing and heat treat industry. Steelheads vision includes providing job shop management with the tools they need to provide quality output, improved production speed, and profitability margins that provide direction to exponential growth. The Hatchery will assist in this aspiration by providing surface finishers with an immediate understanding of the exponential power that the Steelhead platform has to offer.

Steelhead is not a small change for the Job Shop manufacturing industry. It takes many hours to fully understand the true power of running your plant on a fully digital, automation-intensive platform, said Aaron Halonen, President of Steelhead Technologies. The Steelhead Hatchery provides a hands-on immersive experience to accelerate the paradigm shift of what next-generation systems can do to drive businesses to the next level.

By experiencing the entire manufacturing process within the Steelhead ecosystem, metal finishing experts can experience the benefit of modern software and how it will apply to their processes and raise their efficiency standards. This experience will allow Steelhead operators to deploy systems faster and stronger. Steelhead is committed to supporting strong partnerships as early as possible, which is why their focus is deployment quality and speed.

About Steelhead Technologies

Steelhead Technologies is a pioneering force in the manufacturing ERP industry, offering cutting-edge solutions that empower metal finishing and heat treat job shops to thrive in today's competitive landscape. With a commitment to innovation and excellence around data and automation, Steelhead Technologies is revolutionizing how manufacturers operate, streamline their processes, and achieve greater efficiency. For more information visit gosteelhead.com.



Contact Info:

Name: Kelsey Halonen

Email: Send Email

Organization: Steelhead Technologies

Website: https://gosteelhead.com



Release ID: 89108849

Should any errors, concerns, or inconsistencies arise from the content provided in this press release that require attention or if a press release needs to be taken down, we kindly request that you immediately contact us at [email protected]. Our efficient team will be at your disposal for timely assistance within 8 hours  taking necessary measures to rectify identified issues or providing guidance on the removal process. We prioritize delivering accurate and reliable information.
PHILADELPHIA , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Angeion Group, the leading innovator in the class action settlement industry, proudly announced the launch of its real-time fraud detection system, AngeionAffirm, to combat the rising tide of fraudulent claims in class action settlements. This landmark technological initiative will uphold and augment the integrity of the class action claims process, ensuring fair compensation for bona fide claimants, effectively eliminating most meaningful instances of fraud.

In recent times, cyber criminals and fraudulent actors have utilized a variety of increasingly sophisticated technologies and techniques in their attempt to perpetuate fraud in class action settlements. Many of these criminals may be state-sponsored or otherwise instigated by nefarious domestic or international cartels. With the advent of AngeionAffirm and its real-time fraud detection capabilities, Angeion maintains transparency and fairness, which is instrumental to the entire class action system.

AngeionAffirm is the first and only comprehensive solution to identify fraud in real time based on both state-of-the-art technology and analysis of over a decade of historical claims data. AngeionAffirm significantly transcends current industry practices, spotlighting Angeion's innovative approach to tackling fraud with a remarkable level of confidence.

In a recent settlement, Angeion's innovative fraud detection system displayed its superior efficacy in identifying greater than 99.1% false claims rate during a distinct period, displaying a degree of accuracy far beyond current industry norms.

Key Highlights of AngeionAffirm:

Machine Learning Based Fraud Prevention: The implementation of enhanced, machine learning based fraud prevention mechanisms on all Web Application Firewalls are focused on detecting and blocking fraudulent activities even before they infiltrate the system. AI-based Script Identification: Angeion employs advanced artificial intelligence to identify bot and scripted browser traffic. Behavioral Analysis: A blend of proprietary behavioral analysis techniques are employed to identify abnormal patterns that could indicate fraudulent submissions, to help ensure that claims are genuine and justifiable. Advanced Email Verification: Angeion Group analyzes a broad array of technical characteristics garnered from claimant email addresses and other digital fingerprints to determine a claim's propensity for fraud . Robust IP Monitoring: A dynamic IP monitoring system has been deployed to identify and flag suspicious activities across all case engagements. Historical Data Analysis: Angeion Group analyzed over one hundred million claims, which has proven instrumental in identifying characteristics, anomalies, and known bad actors, that may signify fraudulent intent, thus ensuring only bona fide claims are approved. Defense-in-Depth: Utilization of multiple security measures to address the increasing scale and sophistication of cyber criminals' adaptive behavior.

"Our innovative approach, driven by behavior-based detection and cutting-edge technology, ensures that our clients can navigate the digital claims landscape with confidence." Ryan Hallman , Angeion's Chief Technology Officer.

"At Angeion, we don't just adapt to change; we drive it, and our clients will reap the rewards of this dedication as will the class action system as a whole" Steven Weisbrot , CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and President of Angeion Group.

Looking forward, Angeion is applying a defense-in-depth mindset with the AngeionAffirm umbrella of products that will be released over the coming months. This means that each service offering will incorporate additional levels of protection at each stage of the Settlement Administration process, starting with the crafting of the settlement agreement to prevent fraudulent claim filing on settlement websites, and then multiple fraud detection steps and analysis prior to and at the point of distribution. AngeionAffirm will set a new standard for ensuring that settlements are fair, just, and equitable.

The profound importance of this technology and its potential to curb fraud cannot be understated. With that in mind and given the recent exponential growth of sophisticated fraud rings, Angeion Group will proudly make AngeionAffirm available to other claims administrators. According to Weisbrot, "our commitment to curb the troubling proliferation of fraud, which could otherwise derail the authenticity of the class action device, is paramount."

For more information about Angeion and its service offering, please visit https://bit.ly/46yWK4p.

About Angeion Group

Angeion Group stands at the forefront of settlement administration and legal noticing services. Leveraging advanced technology, proven best practices, and expert consulting, Angeion specializes in managing class actions, mass torts, and collective redress administration. Angeion's dedication to efficiency, accountability, and excellence instills confidence in counsel and the court alike.

Media Contact:

Angeion Group

Shiri Lasman

Marketing Manager

(215) 563-4116

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SOURCE Angeion Group
Matthew West Accepts ASCAP Golden Note Award

David Spencer and Essential Music Publishing Win Top Song Honor

Capitol CMG Publishing Earns Publisher of the Year for 21st Consecutive Year

NASHVILLE, Tenn. , Oct. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, the only US PRO that operates on a not-for-profit basis, tonight honored the songwriters and publishers of Christian music's 25 most-performed songs of the past year at an exclusive celebration for its ASCAP Christian Music Award winners in Nashville .

Top honors were awarded to the following:

Christian Music Songwriter of the Year : Brandon Lake

: ASCAP Golden Note Award : Matthew West

: Matthew West Christian Music Song of the Year : "In Jesus Name (God of Possible)," David Spencer , David Spencer Songs, Essential Music Publishing LLC

: "In (God of Possible)," , David Spencer Songs, Christian Music Publisher of the Year: Capitol CMG Publishing

This marks artist and songwriter Brandon Lake's first ASCAP Songwriter of the Year honor with five most-performed songs: "Ain't Nobody," "Gratitude," "Honey in the Rock," "Same God" and "This Is Our God." A Grammy Award-winning artist for his work with Maverick City Music, Lake leads the upcoming Dove Awards nominations with a total of 11 including Artist of the Year, three Song of the Year nominations for titles on which he was a co-writer, and four Worship Recorded Song of the Year nominations on which he also was a co-writer. Lake will release his Coat of Many Colors LP on October 20 . Gospel Music Association President and Executive Director Jackie Patillo congratulated Lake as part of a video tribute at the party..

After personal remarks from film star Dennis Quaid (who recently released Fallen: A Gospel Record for Sinners), ASCAP Chairman of the Board and President Paul Williams presented artist and songwriter Matthew West with the ASCAP Golden Note Award, a special honor for songwriters, composers and artists who have achieved extraordinary career milestones. A five-time Grammy nominee, West has had cuts by Rascal Flatts, Scotty McCreery , Casting Crowns (including back-to-back #1 singles), Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant , among others, and has notched 30 #1 songs as an artist and/or songwriter. Amy Grant , Anne Wilson , Michael W. Smith , Casting Crowns vocalist Mark Hall , A.J. Pruis and Tim Tebow offered recorded messages of congratulations to mark the occasion.

As a songwriter and producer, David Spencer  co-writer of Song of the Year "In Jesus Name (God of Possible)"  has amassed over a quarter billion streams and has occupied the top spots on the Billboard and iTunes charts across multiple genres. Recorded and released by Katy Nichole , "In Jesus Name (God of Possible)" was a #1 hit on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs and Christian Airplay charts. Spencer and Jamie Rodgers , Vice President of Essential Music Publishing, the song's publisher, accepted the award.

The ASCAP Christian Music Publisher of the Year Award was given to Capitol CMG Publishing for a remarkable 21st consecutive year with an impressive 10 award-winning titles, including: "Build a Boat" (performed by Colton Dixon ), "New Creation" ( Mac Powell ), "Same God" (Elevation Worship feat. Jonsal Barrientes), "See Me Through It" ( Brandon Heath ) and " Sunday Sermons " ( Anne Wilson ). Capitol CMG Executive Vice President Casey McGinty , VP Administration and Operations Kent Draughon and SVP A&R Karrie Dawley accepted the award for their team.

The party was hosted by Williams, Vice President of Nashville Membership Mike Sistad and Nashville Assistant Vice President, Strategic Services, Kele Currier before a crowd of distinguished songwriters, Christian music stars and music industry leaders. Notable songwriters and artists in attendance included Rachel Lampa , Colby Wedgeworth and Ben Glover .

For a complete list of ASCAP Christian Music Award winners: www.ascap.com/christianawards23 .

About ASCAP

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a membership association of more than 940,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, and represents some of the world's most talented music creators. Founded and governed by songwriters, composers and publishers, it is the only performing rights organization in the U.S. that operates on a not-for-profit basis. ASCAP licenses a repertory of over 18 million musical works to hundreds of thousands of businesses that use music, including streaming services, cable television, radio and satellite radio and brick and mortar businesses such as retail stores, hotels, clubs, restaurants and bars. ASCAP collects the licensing fees; identifies, matches and processes trillions of performances every year; and returns nearly 90 cents of every dollar back to its members as royalties. The ASCAP blanket license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. ASCAP puts music creators first, advocating for their rights and the value of music on Capitol Hill, driving innovation that moves the industry forward, building community and providing the resources and support that creators need to succeed in their careers. Learn more and stay in touch at www.ascap.com , on Twitter and Instagram @ASCAP and on Facebook .

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/brandon-lake-named-ascap-christian-music-songwriter-of-the-year-at-45th-ascap-christian-music-awards-celebration-301944947.html

SOURCE ASCAP
HOUSTON and TUPELO, Miss. , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --  Cadence Bank (NYSE: CADE) will release its third-quarter 2023 earnings on Monday, October 23, 2023 , after the close of the financial markets. It will also hold its earnings webcast on Tuesday, October 24, 2023 , at 10:00 a.m. CT .

CADE). (PRNewsfoto/Cadence Bank)" alt="The new logo for Cadence Bank (NYSE: CADE). (PRNewsfoto/Cadence Bank)" />

The webcast will be a live coverage of management's conference call with analysts and can be found by visiting: https://ir.cadencebank.com/events . This will be an interactive session between management and analysts; others may listen to the live broadcast as it happens. The conference call will also be available in archived format at the same web address.

About Cadence Bank

Cadence Bank (NYSE: CADE) is a leading regional banking franchise with approximately $50 billion in assets and over 350 branch locations across the South and Texas . Cadence provides consumers, businesses and corporations with a full range of innovative banking and financial solutions. Services and products include consumer banking, consumer loans, mortgages, home equity lines and loans, credit cards, commercial and business banking, treasury management, specialized lending, asset-based lending, commercial real estate, equipment financing, correspondent banking, SBA lending, foreign exchange, wealth management, investment and trust services, financial planning, retirement plan management, and personal and business insurance. Cadence is committed to a culture of respect, diversity, inclusion and belonging in both its workplace and communities. Cadence Bank, Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cadence-bank-announces-third-quarter-earnings-webcast-schedule-301945746.html

SOURCE Cadence Bank
Matt Joyner added as Chair of Endowment Committee and Trust Committee Member

PORTLAND, Ore. , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cascade Pacific Council of the Boy Scouts of America, in collaboration with Fortis Capital Advisors, has appointed Matt Joyner as Chair of the Endowment Committee and Member of the Trust Committee. With a notable finance background and commitment to the community, Joyner is primed to enhance the council's financial objectives and mission.

With a distinguished career in finance and a strong commitment to community service, Matt Joyner brings a wealth of experience to both roles. As Chair of the Endowment Committee, he will emphasize the growth of the Cascade Pacific Council's endowment and ensure prudent trust asset management, resonating with the Boy Scouts' core principles. Gary Carroll , CEO of the Cascade Pacific Council, remarked, "We enthusiastically welcome Joyner. His financial expertise and alignment with our mission makes him a perfect fit for these vital roles. His leadership and financial expertise will drive the council's mission and financial goals forward."

Fortis Capital Advisors is equally enthusiastic. " Matt Joyner's appointment reflects our commitment to supporting the communities we serve," stated Rob Hagg , CEO of Fortis Capital Advisors. "We believe his leadership will enhance the stewardship of the Cascade Pacific Council, ultimately benefiting individuals across the council."

Matt Joyner expressed his excitement for this new chapter: "It's an honor to be part of an organization like the Boy Scouts. As an Eagle Scout , I am eager to contribute to the organization's growth and help ensure its legacy for the next generation."

Fortis Capital Advisors and the Cascade Pacific Council of the Boy Scouts of America look forward to working closely with Matt Joyner to advance their shared mission of character development and community engagement.

About the Cascade Pacific Council, Boy Scouts of America

Cascade Pacific Council, BSA (CPC) serves around 8,000 youths across 19 counties in NW Oregon and SW Washington . We provide unique programs fostering leadership and citizenship, welcoming all backgrounds and perspectives. Join our inclusive, safe environment. Learn more at https://cpcbsa.org.

About Fortis Capital Advisors

Fortis Capital Advisors offers advanced tech, compliance, back-office support, and wealth management tools, enabling advisors to prioritize client acquisition and relations, visit fortiscapitaladvisors.com for more.

Investment Advice is offered through Fortis Capital Advisors, LLC, 500 Damonte Ranch Parkway , Building 700, Unit 700, Reno, NV 89521. (913) 222-8862.

Chris Bartell , Director of Marketing & Communications

[email protected]

Alyson Cohen , Associate Marketing Manager

[email protected]

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SOURCE Fortis Capital Advisors
THE HAGUE, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Demand for Chinese outbound cruise tours is strong and these services have tremendous potential, a senior executive of Viking Cruises, one of the world's leading cruise operators, told Xinhua.

Brendan Tansey, managing director of Viking Cruises China, said in a recent written interview that his company is optimistic about the Chinese market and plans to increase its investments there.

Early this year, Viking Cruises became the first cruise company to resume outbound European river cruise operations for Chinese tourists, he said.

The "Rhine Charm Journey" route set sail on June 1. Several of the company's cruises scheduled for this year are fully booked or close to fully booked, including those covering the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. Demand for Danube River cruises from Chinese tourists is also strong, he said.

"Next year, the company will invest in two new river cruisers, which means that four ships will serve the Chinese market," he said.

Tansey said Viking Cruises will launch European ocean cruise projects specifically for Chinese consumers, expanding its itinerary offerings to regions like the Mediterranean.

"The company has developed ambitious investment plans for the Chinese market, making continued development in China one of its most important future growth strategies," he said.

As the Chinese outbound travel market continues to grow, Chinese consumers are increasingly focused on quality, which presents an opportunity for the development of high-quality travel products for Chinese tourists, he said. 
Local family is set to introduce Central Bark's unique approach to whole dog care and enrichment in Rochester as the brand's first franchise owners in New York

ROCHESTER, N.Y. , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Central Bark, the premier whole dog care franchise and industry pioneer, is proud to announce the signing of its newest multi-unit franchise agreement in the state of New York . Totaling three locations, this deal marks the brand's first entry into the state beginning in and around Rochester .

Totaling three locations, this deal marks Central Bark's first entry into New York beginning in and around Rochester.

Leading Central Bark's growth in Rochester is Phillip Clark Jr . and his wife Lindsay Clark , who executed a multi-unit development agreement for three locations. Joining them in the endeavor is Phillip's father, Phillip Clark Sr . They believe so much in what Central Bark stands for and its commitment to whole dog care that they executed their first lease essentially in tandem with the signing of their franchise agreement. The 6,800 sq.ft. indoor and 2,000 sq.ft. outdoor space is in Henrietta, N.Y. , a southern suburb of Rochester . Phillip Jr . and his wife Lindsay will assume day-to-day operations once their Central Bark opens alongside Lucy, their poodle mix, and Brooklyn , their goldendoodle.

"After spending many years in corporate America, we knew it was the right time to invest and determine our own direction," said Phillip Clark Jr . "Dogs are what we are passionate about. And after meeting the team at Central Bark and realizing that the culture and mission aligned so directly with our values, the decision was easy. Whole dog care is the future of this space and Central Bark is leading the way. We're so happy to be a part of this incredible brand and can't wait to get started."

For nearly 20 years, Central Bark has drawn in dogs and their owners across the country to experience its Whole Dog Care, which combines Central Bark's industry-leading dog day care expertise with the latest in canine behavioral science. Enrichment Care provides a healthy and balanced blend of exercise, social group play, learning, rest, and "TLC" to help dogs be healthy, happy, calm, and well-rounded members of the family. Furthermore, Central Bark also offers dog boarding, baths, grooming, a retail market, training and more.

"We are so excited to welcome the Clarks to our Central Bark family, as we continue our expansion in the Northeast," said Tim Weiderhoft , Ed.D., CFE, vice president of franchise development for Central Bark. "These three new Central Bark facilities mark our first entry into the state of New York , and we could not be happier with these new owners who are leading the charge. Given their incredible professional backgrounds and proven abilities to lead and develop teams, along with their passion for customer service, we know the Clarks will find long term success."

Central Bark typically features approximately 6,000  7,000 square feet of indoor space plus more than 2,000 square-feet of outdoor play area. Activities include small flexible playgroups, group skills work, rest periods, and personalized one-on-one enrichment sessions. Enrichment add-ons give pups the extra attention they love and the freedom to use their senses, safely exploring with their instincts as they engage with interactive toys, puzzles, and games. For more information on Central Bark franchising opportunities, visit centralbarkusa.com/franchising.

About Central Bark:

The Central Bark franchise system was founded in 2003 and now operates under the name Barkley Ventures Franchising, LLC. For nearly 20 years, the brand has grown to nearly 40 locations across more than a dozen states. The company has hosted over two million dog visits. Central Bark participates in VetFran, the International Franchise Association's (IFA) veteran program, and offers a franchise fee discount to qualifying veterans. Central Bark is also an IFA MinorityFran participant. For more information about franchising with Central Bark, visit centralbarkusa.com/franchising or call 866-799-2275.

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SOURCE Central Bark
Combination Creates Preferred Provider of Smallwares and Supplies for Foodservice, Healthcare, Hygiene Industries

OKLAHOMA CITY , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- CFS Brands announced today that it has acquired The Foodware Group (TFG), creating a preferred provider of smallwares and supplies to the foodservice, healthcare, and hygiene markets, well positioned to capitalize on future growth opportunities. The transaction was completed October 2, 2023 . Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Foodware Group was formed through a strategic combination of G.E.T, which has a 40-year legacy of providing complete "front of house" solutions in dinnerware, drinkware, display, and buffetware; and Winco, a "one-source" supplier for tabletop, smallwares, janitorial, and countertop equipment. Through a commitment to customer-focused service, along with a unique strength in product development and sourcing, The Foodware Group has become an award-winning supplier partner for foodservice operators and distributors.

With the combination of CFS Brands and The Foodware Group, customers will have access to the broadest and deepest line-up of products and solutions to enhance their business, including Carlisle FoodService Products, San Jamar, Dinex, Winco, and G.E.T. brands, among others. Distributors and end users will be able to consolidate their purchases under a single supplier, reduce complexity in their operations, and lower their total costs.

"The acquisition of The Foodware Group is a transformational opportunity for CFS Brands," said CFS Brands CEO Trent Freiberg . "The Foodware Group joins a portfolio of businesses and brands that are leaders in their respective markets. CFS Brands and TFG are a great fit, and together we will build on our combined strengths and shared values to continue our track record of sustainable growth and exceptional results. We are excited to work with the leadership team at The Foodware Group, and we welcome all TFG employees to CFS Brands."

Jim White , CEO of The Foodware Group, said, "We have built a great company over the last few years that has driven strong growth and created many opportunities for our exceptional team. Our products and capabilities are a great complement to what CFS Brands offers, creating the opportunity to leverage the best of both. This is one of those rare situations where the complementary strengths of two companies create an opportunity to make one plus one equal three."

The Foodware Group Executive Vice President and President of Winco Elaine Shen added, "We see tremendous opportunities ahead of us to enhance our value and partnership to customers. While we will continue to deliver outstanding customer service, we will also develop greater depth in our product capabilities and strengthen our competitiveness to better serve foodservice, healthcare, hygiene, and international customers."

The integration process will be a gradual evolution that begins with taking needed time to develop a deep understanding of the businesses, brands, and teams, and the companies' respective strengths and opportunities. G.E.T. and Winco will each continue to operate as stand-alone entities within CFS Brands. Customers and suppliers will continue to interact with CFS Brands, G.E.T, and Winco as they have in the past.

Guggenheim Securities, LLC, is serving as financial advisor, and Winston & Strawn is serving as legal counsel to CFS Brands. Houlihan Lokey is serving as financial advisor, and Kirkland & Ellis is serving as legal counsel to The Foodware Group.

ABOUT CFS BRANDS

CFS Brands (www.CFSBrands.com) is a U.S. -based manufacturer of products for the foodservice, healthcare, and janitorial industries. CFS Brands operates Carlisle FoodService Products, Dinex, Sparta, El Castor , Jofel, Piper, San Jamar, Snap Drape, WipesPlus, Elite Global Solutions, and AyrKing brands globally. Based in Oklahoma City, OK , CFS Brands employs more than 1,600 people across its headquarters, six manufacturing locations, and seven distribution centers worldwide.

ABOUT THE FOODWARE GROUP

The Foodware Group (www.thefoodwaregroup.com) is a leading end-to-end provider of supplies to the foodservice industry, delivering the highest value solutions to all of its partners with uncompromised quality and exceptional service. The Foodware Group provides front-of-the-house and back-of-the-house supplies and smallwares for diverse foodservice applications. G.E.T. was founded in 1982 and Winco in 1992. The companies joined to form The Foodware Group in 2018. The company is headquartered in Lodi, N.J., and operates four warehouses throughout the U.S. ( Lodi, NJ ; Miami, FL ; Houston, TX ; and Las Vegas, NV ) with nearly 450 team members and more than 800,000 square feet of total warehouse space.

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SOURCE CFS Brands
Rock and roll photographer Janet Macoska and Fox8's Natalie Herbick return to annual celebration

FAIRLAWN, Ohio , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons will present Ohio's Pink Runway on Thursday, Oct. 19 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Our Lady of the Cedars Banquet Center, 507 S. Cleveland-Massillon Road in Fairlawn . Natalie Herbick , a Fox8 news anchor and host of New Day Cleveland , returns as master of ceremonies. Celebrated rock and roll photographer, Janet Macoska , whose work has graced album covers and is featured at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, will cover the event.

Pink Runway celebrates and empowers women facing breast cancer with the knowledge to make the best choice for their breast reconstruction surgery, with Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons providing information about options and innovative techniques in breast reconstruction. This special event features Crystal Clinic breast reconstruction patients walking the Pink Runway and sharing their breast cancer stories and journeys.

"Pink Runway is a unique opportunity to educate the community about breast reconstruction as we celebrate the strength and courage of our remarkable patients who are now thriving," said Derek Cody , M.D., a plastic and reconstructive surgeon with Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons. "We have an amazing team of plastic surgeons, nurses and staff who work all year long to make this special event a reality. It is truly an honor to share the inspiring stories of our breast reconstruction patients, as we provide those facing breast cancer with the knowledge to choose the breast reconstruction technique that is right for them."

Tickets are $10 with all proceeds benefitting the Breast Reconstruction Awareness USA Campaign. Guests will enjoy hors d'oeuvres and drinks, and receive a special gift. Tickets to this inspiring event are limited, so reserve your spot today at ccpspinkrunway2023.eventbrite.com.

About Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons

Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons is a division of the nationally renowned Crystal Clinic Orthopaedic Center, a physician-owned hospital system. Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons is one of the largest plastic and reconstructive surgery groups in Northeast Ohio with six board-certified surgeons on staff and clinics in Barberton , Canton , Fairlawn , Green , Hudson , Independence, Kent and Medina. The group specializes in a wide range of procedures, including comprehensive care for complex reconstructions and treatment of soft tissue defects related to orthopaedic injuries. They provide the entire spectrum of plastic surgery, including breast reconstruction, skin cancer surgery, facial cosmetic surgery, post-weight-loss body contouring, rhinoplasty, as well as non-surgical, facial rejuvenation options. For more information, visit CrystalPlasticSurgeons.com.

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SOURCE Crystal Clinic Plastic Surgeons
IRVING, Texas , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- FleetPride, Inc., the nation's largest distributor of aftermarket heavy duty parts and service, is thrilled to announce its recent acquisition of Raney's Truck Center, a highly regarded business based in Ocala, Florida . This acquisition marks a further expansion of FleetPride's footprint in Florida and underscores its commitment to providing parts and service to customers nationwide.

"We are delighted to welcome the Raney's Truck Center team to the FleetPride family."

The addition of Raney's Truck Center, renowned for its dedication to customer satisfaction and its comprehensive range of parts and service for truck and trailer, perfectly complements FleetPride's mission.

Mike Harris , FleetPride president of parts and service, expressed his enthusiasm for the acquisition, saying, "We are delighted to welcome the Raney's Truck Center team to the FleetPride family. This acquisition aligns seamlessly with our growth strategy, enabling us to better serve our valued customers in Florida and beyond. As we continue expanding our footprint to support customers where they need us, we remain committed to maintaining the exceptional service and support that FleetPride and Raney's Truck Center are known for."

Raney's Truck Center has been an integral part of the Ocala community for more than 66 years, providing top-tier truck and trailer parts and services to local businesses and nationwide customers. This acquisition by FleetPride will empower the Raney's team to further enhance their offerings and extend their reach while upholding Raney's core values and dedication to customer service.

Mark Raney , owner of Raney's Truck Center, shared his optimism about the acquisition, stating, "Joining forces with FleetPride opens up new horizons for growth and innovation. I am excited to witness the continued success of the Raney's team as a part of FleetPride, and I am confident that our customers will greatly benefit from the expanded resources and expertise that FleetPride brings to the table."

FleetPride remains steadfast in delivering outstanding customer service, an extensive product portfolio, and industry-leading solutions to meet the diverse needs of the trucking and transportation industry.

About FleetPride, Inc.

Headquartered in Irving, TX , FleetPride is the nation's largest distributor of aftermarket heavy duty parts and service. FleetPride's sophisticated network of 300+ locations, which includes 90+ service centers and 5 distribution centers means customers get the parts and services they need, when and where they need them. Customers can click, talk, chat or visit with FleetPride's team of 4,000 experts empowered and motivated to solve problems and create tailored solutions for each customer's unique needs.

To find your local FleetPride branch or service center, or to cross-reference, search, and shop for parts by VIN, visit the new www.fleetpride.com.

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SOURCE FleetPride, Inc.
GROTON, Conn. , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- General Dynamics Electric Boat, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), announced today it has been awarded a $967 million contract modification from the U.S. Navy for Lead Yard Support and Development and Design efforts for Virginia-class fast-attack submarines.

GD), announced today it has been awarded a $967 million contract modification from the U.S. Navy for Lead Yard Support and Development and Design efforts for Virginia-class fast-attack submarines." alt="General Dynamics Electric Boat, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), announced today it has been awarded a $967 million contract modification from the U.S. Navy for Lead Yard Support and Development and Design efforts for Virginia-class fast-attack submarines." />

The cost-plus-fixed fee modification to a previously awarded contract totals $967,185,528 . Work will be performed in Groton, Connecticut ; McLeansville, North Carolina ; Newport News, Virginia ; and Newport and Quonset Point , Rhode Island . Work is expected to be completed by October 2024 . This contract was awarded on September 29 . 2023.

"This contract award supports critical work to further advance the capability and superiority of the Virginia class submarine," said Kevin Graney , president of General Dynamics Electric Boat. "We are proud to continue our tradition of delivering this state-of the-art platform that ensures the safety of our sailors and their continued dominance in the undersea domain."

Virginia-class submarines are designed for the full range of 21st-century mission requirements, including anti-submarine and surface ship warfare and special operations support.

General Dynamics Electric Boat is the prime contractor and lead design yard for the Virginia class and constructs the ships in a teaming arrangement with HII's Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia .

General Dynamics Electric Boat designs, builds, repairs and modernizes nuclear submarines for the U.S. Navy. Headquartered in Groton, Connecticut , the company employs more than 21,000 people. More information about General Dynamics Electric Boat is available at www.gdeb.com .

General Dynamics is a global aerospace and defense company that offers a broad portfolio of products and services in business aviation; ship construction and repair; land combat vehicles, weapons systems and munitions; and technology products and services. General Dynamics employs more than 100,000 people worldwide and generated $39.4 billion in revenue in 2022. More information about General Dynamics is available at www.gd.com .

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SOURCE General Dynamics
VAUGHAN, ON , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - GFL Environmental Inc. (NYSE: GFL) (TSX: GFL) ("GFL" or the "Company") today announced that it will release its 2023 third quarter financial results after the market closes on Wednesday November 1, 2023 and will host an investor conference call related to this release on Thursday November 2, 2023 at 8:30 am Eastern Time .

A live audio webcast of the conference call can be accessed by logging onto the Company's Investors page at investors.gflenv.com or by clicking here or listeners may access the call toll-free by dialing 1-833-950-0062 in Canada or 1-833-470-1428 in the United States (access code: 591692) approximately 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time.

The Company encourages participants who will be dialing in to pre-register for the conference call using the following link: https://www.netroadshow.com/events/login?show=1e99cb82&confId=54948. Callers who pre-register will be given a conference access code and PIN to gain immediate access to the call and bypass the live operator on the day of the call.

About GFL

GFL, headquartered in Vaughan, Ontario , is the fourth largest diversified environmental services company in North America , providing a comprehensive line of solid waste management, liquid waste management and soil remediation services through its platform of facilities throughout Canada and in more than half of the U.S. states. Across its organization, GFL has a workforce of more than 20,000 employees.

For more information:

Patrick Dovigi

+1 905-326-0101

[email protected]

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SOURCE GFL Environmental Inc.
HOUSTON , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HHH) ("the Company" or "Howard Hughes") announced today that Elena Verbinskaya has been appointed Chief Accounting Officer and designated Principal Accounting Officer for the Company, responsible for overseeing accounting and financial reporting across the Company's national portfolio.

Verbinskaya joined Howard Hughes in 2023 as Executive Vice President of Accounting. Prior to joining Howard Hughes, she served as Vice President of Financial Reporting and Accounting Integration at IPSCO Tubulars Inc., a North American division of TMK Group. She also held the position of Chief Accounting Officer at TMK Group, one of the world's leading producers and suppliers of steel pipe for the oil and gas industry. Verbinskaya has over 20 years of accounting experience, and is a Certified Public Accountant in the U.S. and a Fellow Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in the U. K. She holds a Masters in Accounting, Analysis and Audit from Far Eastern State University.

"Since joining Howard Hughes, Elena has proven to be a tremendous asset to the Company and will help us continue to achieve our financial goals in her role as Chief Accounting Officer," said Carlos A. Olea , Chief Financial Officer for Howard Hughes. "With a strong competitive advantage and dominant market share, Howard Hughes is well positioned across our portfolio to deliver outsized risk-adjusted returns."

There are no arrangements or understandings between Verbinskaya and any other person pursuant to which she was selected as an officer, and there are no family relationships between Verbinskaya and any of the Company's directors or other executive officers. Verbinskaya has no direct or indirect material interest in any existing or currently proposed transaction that would require disclosure under Item 404(a) of Regulation S-K.

About Howard Hughes Holdings Inc.

Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. owns, manages, and develops commercial, residential, and mixed-use real estate throughout the U.S. Its award-winning assets include the country's preeminent portfolio of master planned communities, as well as operating properties and development opportunities including: the Seaport in New York City ; Downtown Columbia  in Maryland ; The Woodlands , Bridgeland and The Woodlands Hills  in the Greater Houston, Texas area; Summerlin in Las Vegas ; Ward Village  in Honolulu , Hawaii; and Teravalis in the Greater Phoenix, Arizona area. The Howard Hughes portfolio is strategically positioned to meet and accelerate development based on market demand, resulting in one of the strongest real estate platforms in the country. Dedicated to innovative placemaking, the company is recognized for its ongoing commitment to design excellence and to the cultural life of its communities. Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange as HHH. For additional information visit www.howardhughes.com.

Media Contact

Cristina Carlson , 646-822-6910

SVP, Head of Corporate Communications

[email protected]



Investor Relations Contact

Eric Holcomb , 281-475-2144

SVP, Investor Relations

[email protected]

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SOURCE Howard Hughes Holdings Inc.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- JELD-WEN Holding, Inc. (NYSE: JELD), a leading global manufacturer of building products, announced today that it will release third quarter 2023 results after the market close on Monday, November 6, 2023 . The company will hold a conference call to discuss the results at 8 a.m. ET on Tuesday, November 7, 2023 .

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 the conference ID 1285715.

For those unable to listen to the live event, a replay will be available on the company's website approximately two hours following completion of the call.

To learn more about JELD-WEN, please visit the company's website at https://www.jeld-wen.com.

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.

Media Contact:

Colleen Penhall

Vice President, Corporate Communications

980-322-2681

[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:

James Armstrong

Vice President, Investor Relations

704-378-5731

[email protected]

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SOURCE JELD-WEN Holding, Inc.
Biennial Event Recognizes Outstanding Works on Presidential Leadership to Encourage Civic Education and Involvement; Winner to be Announced October 14

BROOKVILLE, N.Y. , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Society of Presidential Descendants, housed at The Roosevelt School at Long Island University and dedicated to promoting civic education and involvement, today announced the three finalists for its Biennial Presidential Leadership Book Award.

Long Island University's Society of Presidential Descendants Announce Book Award Finalists

The prestigious award -- which will be presented at an October 14 ceremony in Washington, DC -- recognizes literary excellence and scholarship on the subject of presidential leadership, strategies and policies which have shaped United States history.

From more than 50 entries, the following three finalists have been selected by a panel of historians, judges and Society of Presidential Descendants members:

Douglas Brinkley , PhD, Silent Spring Revolution (Harper) tells about John F. Kennedy , Rachel Carson , Lyndon Johnson , Richard Nixon , and the Great Environmental Awakening. Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (1960-1973), telling the story of an indomitable generation that saved the natural world under the leadership of John F. Kennedy , Lyndon Johnson , and Richard Nixon .





, PhD, (Harper) tells about , , , , and the Great Environmental Awakening. Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (1960-1973), telling the story of an indomitable generation that saved the natural world under the leadership of , , and . Peter Shinkle , Uniting America ( St. Martin's Press ) articulates how FDR and Henry Stimson Brought Democrats and Republicans Together to Win World War II. Shinkle shares the untold story of the most crucial bipartisan alliance in United States history as President Franklin D. Roosevelt urged a divided America to mobilize to defend democracy and freedom in World War II.





, ( ) articulates how FDR and Henry Stimson Brought Democrats and Republicans Together to Win World War II. Shinkle shares the untold story of the most crucial bipartisan alliance in history as President urged a divided America to mobilize to defend democracy and freedom in World War II. William Inboden , PhD, The Peacemaker (Dutton) tells about Ronald Reagan , the Cold War, and the World on the Brink. Inboden provides an account of how Ronald Reagan and his national security team confronted the Soviets, reduced the nuclear threat, won the Cold War, and supported the spread of freedom around the world.

The Society will host its Biennial Presidential Leadership Book Award ceremony on Saturday, October 14 ( 6 p.m. ) at the University Club of Washington DC, with distinguished historian Michael Beschloss serving as Master of Ceremonies.

"Civic involvement is not just a right, it is a responsibility, and the Society of Presidential Descendants recognizes that understanding our nation's shared history is a way to encourage civic education and engagement on every level," noted Tweed Roosevelt , great-grandson of Theodore Roosevelt , founder and chairman at The Roosevelt School at Long Island University and President of the Society of Presidential Descendants.

"Every one of our nation's 46 Presidents have faced significant issues, challenges and crises, and were faced with making decisions which were sure to have a long and lasting impact on the American people and global history," stated Massee McKinley, Vice President of the Society, whose ancestry includes ties to Presidents William McKinley and Grover Cleveland . "The Biennial Presidential Leadership Book Award was established to recognize outstanding literature dedicated to understanding these critical moments which shaped our nation."

"The study of Presidential leadership is an important way to focus on what unites us as a nation and what has brought us together in the toughest times in our history," said Lynda Johnson Robb , daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson .

"As my grandfather said, 'Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better,'" stated Clifton Truman Daniel , oldest grandson of Harry S. Truman .

Dr. Kimberly R. Cline , President of Long Island University said, "Civics education is a path to ensuring that all Americans are informed and involved in the matters most affecting them. The Roosevelt School and the Society of Presidential Descendants are two important components of Long Island University's challenge to prepare the world leaders of tomorrow through education and engagement."

The Roosevelt School prepares students for careers in international relations, diplomacy, leadership, service, and policy making whether at multinational corporations, foundations, think tanks, non-profit organizations or governmental agencies, and includes:

The Global Service Institute , which inspires community service by connecting volunteers with non-profit organizations;

, which inspires community service by connecting volunteers with non-profit organizations; The Steven S. Hornstein Cener for Policy, Polling and Analysis;

for Policy, Polling and Analysis; The Center for the Study of the Presidency ;

; The Society of Presidential Descendants ; and

; and The "White House Experience," an interactive recreation of the Oval Office , Situation Room, Press Briefing Room and other White House features where local high school students take part in simulated real-time crises.

The Roosevelt School also partners with the Museum of Democracy to serve as its permanent home and features a display from the nation's largest private collection of Presidential campaign memorabilia.

The Society of Presidential Descendants are all direct descendants of United States presidents who united to offer a contemporary educational platform that highlights the present-day relevance of historic presidential leadership. Their mission is to enable the public to better understand the leaders who have shaped the nation and encourage all Americans to exercise their civic rights.

About Long Island University

Long Island University, founded in 1926, is a leading research and teaching university that continues to redefine higher education by providing high-quality academic instruction by world-class faculty, serving more than 15,000 students from its Long Island and Brooklyn campuses. Recognized by Forbes for its emphasis on experiential learning and by the Brookings Institution for its "value added" to student outcomes, the University is ranked in the top 7% of national research universities. LIU has a network of over 285,000 alumni, including industry leaders and entrepreneurs around the globe. Visit www.liu.edu for more information.

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SOURCE Long Island University
WASHINGTON , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The smash hit Italian series The Sea Beyond will finally arrive on U.S. shores this month as MHz Choice sets the U.S. premiere for Tuesday, October 17 . The series has become a phenomenon in its home country of Italy , where it is known as Mare Fuori , with record-breaking ratings and a fervent fan base. MHz Choice has acquired the first four seasons of the series from Beta Film for U.S. and Canadian audiences, and will premiere the first season with two episodes each week beginning October 17 .

The smash hit Italian series "The Sea Beyond" will finally arrive on U.S. and Canadian shores this month on MHz Choice.

The series was recently highlighted on CBS Sunday Morning, and The New York Times called The Sea Beyond "a steamy hit" with "often gritty but always soapy melodrama" and echoes of the Capulets and the Montagues.

The Sea Beyond follows a group of young men and women serving time in a juvenile detention center that overlooks the Gulf of Naples . Set against that scenic backdrop, the inmates wrestle with their identities, their families and each other. Resilience and loyalties are tested when new inmates Carmine ( Massimilano Caiazzo ) and Filippo ( Nicolas Maupas ) arrive and struggle against a system that could break them.

The series was created by Cristiana Farina , who co-wrote the script with Maurizio Careddu , and it was directed by Carmine Elia , Milena Cocozza and Ivan Silvestrini . In addition to Caiazzo and Maupas, the series also stars Carolina Crescentini (Boris), Valentina Romani (La Porta Rossa, SKAM Italia), Giacomo Giorgio (Sopravvissuti), Artem (Nostalgia), Luca Lombardi (Capri), Carmine Recano (Sopravvissuti) and more.

The Sea Beyond joins MHz Choice's existing top-tier catalog of Italian series including Detective Montalbano, Imma Tatarani, Don't Leave Me and La Piovra. Full October schedule available here: https://mhzchoice.com/premiere-schedule/

About MHz Choice

MHz Choice, the evolution of the original MHz Networks television service, offers viewers in the U.S. and Canada access to a library of the best television mysteries, dramas, comedies and documentaries subtitled in English through its subscription streaming service. Select MHz content is also available on DVD and on its free ad-supported service MHz Now, available on Samsung TV Plus and Plex. Newcomers to MHz Choice are offered a free 7-Day Trial. For more information, go to mhzchoice.com.

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SOURCE MHz Networks
KIEV, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Some foreign ministers of the EU members on Monday met in Kiev for their first meeting outside the bloc, said the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

"I am convinced that this meeting will speed up the European integration of Ukraine," said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, while opening the informal gathering.

Addressing the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that his country stands ready to implement seven recommendations of the European Commission to start negotiations on membership this year, thanking the EU for providing aid for Ukraine.

He voiced hope that the bloc will approve a new financial instrument with a total funding of 50 billion euros (about 52.37 billion U.S. dollars) for the 2024-2027 period, calling on the foreign ministers to continue diplomatic work on the implementation of Ukraine's Peace Formula.

High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said the total amount of EU's aid to Ukraine has reached 85 billion euros (around 89 billion U.S. dollars) and the EU will support the country for as long as necessary.

"I proposed a new bilateral multi-annual envelope under the European Peace Facility (EPF), of up to 5 billion euros (around 5.24 billion U.S. dollars) for the next year and more will come," Borrell told a joint press conference with Kuleba after the meeting.

In June 2022, EU leaders accepted Ukraine as a candidate for membership of the bloc. 
UPPSALA, Sweden, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Orexo AB (publ), Reg. No. 556500-0600, with its registered office in Uppsala, gives notice of the Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on 26 October 2023 at 15:00 CEST at Advokatfirman Vinge's premises at Smalandsgatan 20, SE-111 46 Stockholm, Sweden .

Right to participate in the Extraordinary General Meeting and notice of participation

A shareholder who wishes to participate in the General Meeting must (i) be recorded as a shareholder in the share register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB relating to the circumstances on 18 October 2023 , and (ii) no later than 20 October 2023 give notice by post to Box 303, 751 05 Uppsala, Sweden , via e-mail to [email protected], or by telephone +46 (0)018-780 88 00. When providing such notice, the shareholder shall state name, personal or corporate registration number, address, telephone number and the number of any accompanying assistant(s) (maximum two assistants), as well as information about any proxy.

If a shareholder is represented by proxy, a written, dated proxy for the representative must be issued. A proxy form is available on the company's website, www.orexo.se. If the proxy is issued by a legal entity, a certificate of registration or equivalent certificate of authority should be enclosed. To facilitate the registration at the General Meeting, the proxy and the certificate of registration or equivalent certificate of authority should be sent to the company as set out above so that it is received no later than 25 October 2023 .

Nominee-registered shares

To be entitled to participate in the General Meeting, a shareholder whose shares are held in the name of a nominee must, in addition to providing notification of participation, register its shares in its own name so that the shareholder is recorded in the share register relating to the circumstances on 18 October 2023 . Such registration may be temporary (so-called voting right registration) and is requested from the nominee in accordance with the nominee's procedures and in such time in advance as the nominee determines. Voting right registrations completed by the nominee not later than 20 October 2023 are taken into account when preparing the share register.

Proposed agenda

Opening of the General Meeting. Election of chairman of the General Meeting. Preparation and approval of the voting list. Approval of the agenda. Election of one or two persons who shall approve the minutes. Determination of whether the General Meeting has been duly convened. Determination of number of members of the board of directors. Determination of remuneration to the board of directors. Election of new member of the board of directors. Closing of the General Meeting.

Proposals regarding chairman of the meeting, the board of directors and auditors (items 2, 7, 8 and 9)

The nomination committee of Orexo, which consists of James Noble (chairman of the board), Christian Salling (Novo Holdings A/S and chairman of the nomination committee), Claus Berner Mller (Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension) and Patrik Walldov ( Anders Walldov , incl. indirect holding via Brohuvudet AB), proposes:

that Rikard Lindahl , member of the Swedish Bar Association , from Advokatfirman Vinge, is elected chairman of the meeting (item 2),

, member of the , from Advokatfirman Vinge, is elected chairman of the meeting (item 2), that the board of directors shall continue to consist of eight board members with no deputy members (item 7),

that the remuneration to the members of the board of directors and the committees resolved at Annual General Meeting on 18 April 2023 shall continue to apply and shall, if applicable, be distributed pro rata to the chairman and the ordinary members of the board of directors, respectively, elected by each general meeting. Robin Evers shall not receive the additional board fee for acquisition of shares in Orexo (item 8), and

shall continue to apply and shall, if applicable, be distributed pro rata to the chairman and the ordinary members of the board of directors, respectively, elected by each general meeting. shall not receive the additional board fee for acquisition of shares in (item 8), and that Robin Evers is elected as new member of the board of directors for the period until the end of next Annual General Meeting and will replace the board member Henrik Kjr Hansen , who has announced that he will resign from the board of directors in connection with the Extraordinary General Meeting (item 9).

The nomination committee has been informed that Orexo's largest shareholder, Novo Holdings A/S, intends to propose Henrik Kjr Hansen as their representative in the nomination committee, who will thus become the chairman of the nomination committee to be formed ahead of the Annual General Meeting 2024, replacing Christian Salling .

Information about the proposed new member of the board of directors follows below.

Robin Evers (born 1970) holds a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology from University of Portsmouth and has studied management at Reading University, Berkshire. Robin Evers has over 30 years' experience in Research and Development and is currently, among other things, Senior Vice President and a senior executive in the R&D leadership team of Novo Nordisk A/S (Head of Global Regulatory Affairs & Global Safety, Medical Writing and R&D Quality). Robin Evers has previously been a member of the EFPIA Scientific, Technical and Regulatory Policy Committee (STRPC), Chair of the Healthcare Council for EuropaBio, Board member of the EuropaBio biotechnology trade association and Director of Pfizer Development Services Ltd. Robin Evers holds no shares in Orexo. Robin Evers is independent in relation to major shareholders as well as the company and its management.

Shareholders' right to obtain information

Shareholders are reminded of their right to, at the General Meeting, obtain information from the board of directors and CEO in accordance with Chapter 7, Section 32 of the Swedish Companies Act. Shareholders who wish to submit questions in advance may do so by sending post to Box 303, 751 05 Uppsala, Sweden or via e-mail to [email protected].

Number of shares and votes

There are 34,710,639 shares outstanding in Orexo, corresponding to 34,710,639 votes. As of the date of this notice, the company holds 294,866 own shares.

Documentation

Supporting documents are available at the company's office at Rapsgatan 7E, 754 50 Uppsala, Sweden , and on the company's website www.orexo.se, no later than three weeks before the General Meeting. Copies of the documents will be sent to shareholders who so request and who inform the company of their postal address.

Processing of personal data

For information on how your personal data is processed, see the integrity policy that is available on Euroclear's website: www.euroclear.com/dam/ESw/Legal/Privacy-notice-bolagsstammor-engelska.pdf.

This notice is a translation of a Swedish notice and in case of any deviations between the language versions, the Swedish version shall prevail.

Uppsala, October 2 nd, 2023

Orexo AB (publ)

The board of directors

For further information, please contact:

Lena Wange , IR & Communications Director

Tel: +46 (0)18 780 88 00

E-mail: [email protected]

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Public/694/3846498/b0fc764c26ad6218.pdf Orexo PR Notice of Extraordinary General Meeting on Oct 26 Publ Oct 2 2023

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/notice-of-extraordinary-general-meeting-in-orexo-ab-publ-301945416.html

SOURCE Orexo
PROVO, Utah , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: NUS) today announced it will release third quarter 2023 results after the market closes on Wednesday, Nov. 1 . The Nu Skin management team will host a conference call with the investment community later that same day at 5 p.m. ET . During the call, management will discuss recent results and upcoming business initiatives.

The webcast of the conference call, including the financial information presented, will be available on the investor relations page of the company's website at ir.nuskin.com. A replay of the webcast will be available at the same location through Wednesday, Nov. 15 .

About Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc.

The Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: NUS) family of companies includes Nu Skin and Rhyz Inc. Nu Skin is an integrated beauty and wellness company, powered by a dynamic affiliate opportunity platform, which operates in nearly 50 markets worldwide. Backed by nearly 40 years of scientific research, the company's products help people look, feel and live their best with brands including Nu Skin personal care, Pharmanex nutrition and ageLOC anti-aging, which includes an award-winning line of beauty device systems. Rhyz is the strategic investment arm of Nu Skin Enterprises. Formed in 2018, Rhyz is a synergistic ecosystem of consumer, technology and manufacturing companies focused on innovation within the beauty, wellness and lifestyle categories.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nu-skin-enterprises-to-announce-third-quarter-2023-financial-results-301946357.html

SOURCE Nu Skin Enterprises
The firm welcomes wealth manager Joe Delaney to its San Francisco headquarters

SAN FRANCISCO , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Robertson Stephens Wealth Management, LLC ("Robertson Stephens") has further expanded its presence in the San Francisco Bay Area by welcoming Lifeguard Wealth, a California registered investment advisor managing over $100 million in advisory assets. Lifeguard's founder, Joe Delaney , joins Robertson Stephens as Managing Director and Principal as the firm further fortifies its presence in northern California .

With this addition, Robertson Stephens' assets are now approximately $4.6 billion. The firm now has 19 teams with 81 employees across 17 locations in San Francisco, Marin County, Menlo Park, Santa Rosa, Pasadena, San Ramon & Burlingame (CA), New York (NY), Sun Valley & Boise (ID), Holmdel & Madison (NJ), Austin & Houston (TX), Seattle (WA), Denver (CO), and Boston (MA).

For more information on Robertson Stephens, please visit www.rscapital.com

"We are excited to welcome Joe to Robertson Stephens. As a Registered Life Planner with a deep commitment to wealth planning and comprehensive client experience, Joe is an ideal fit for Robertson Stephens," said Raj Bhattacharyya , Chief Executive Officer, Robertson Stephens. "We are also delighted to further build our client presence in the San Francisco Bay area."

"The client-first, fiduciary culture of Robertson Stephens is extremely aligned with my own personal philosophy of guarding our clients' financial well-being," said Joe Delaney , Managing Director and Principal of Robertson Stephens. "I look forward to continuing to build the firm's deep presence in the Bay Area and working with my colleagues nationwide."

With a career spanning over 40 years in financial services, Joe has combined expertise as a wealth manager, corporate executive, business owner, real estate owner and broker, CPA, and community leader. As a former ocean lifeguard in his youth, Joe also integrates his first-responder, "lifeguard mentality" into ensuring he's always got his client's back, protecting their interests. Prior to founding Lifeguard Wealth in 2012, Joe held several senior positions with real estate institutional investment, real estate capital and wealth management firms. In 2001, he shifted his focus to providing personal wealth management care to individuals and families. Joe holds an MBA in finance from UCLA Anderson and a bachelor's degree in economics from Stanford University, where he was a member of the water polo team.

About Robertson Stephens

Robertson Stephens Wealth Management, LLC is an independent SEC-registered investment advisor. Its mission is to transform the wealth management experience by delivering institutional-quality investment solutions, comprehensive wealth planning, and intelligent digital solutions all within a fiduciary relationship where the client is our highest priority. Lifeguard Wealth Management AUM is as of August 2023. Robertson Stephens AUM is as of August 2023. For more information please visit: https://www.rscapital.com .

Contact:

Sarah Tremallo

stremallo@jconnelly.com

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SOURCE Robertson Stephens
36 MW immediately available for lease to hyperscale and enterprise customers

ATLANTA , Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- T5 Data Centers (T5) , the telecommunications industry's only full lifecycle data center partner, announces the acquisition of a third data center facility ( Chicago lll) in Northlake, IL. , a key submarket in Chicago . With 36 megawatts (MW) of IT capacity available, T5's facility will meet the surging demand for data center space driven by the hyperscale and enterprise customers.

T5's new Chicagoland facility will meet surging demand for data center space with 36 MW of capacity

"By strategically locating our new data center in an area facing power constraints, we're providing our clients with state-of-the-art data infrastructure while contributing to the region's sustainable growth," said David Horowitz , Executive Vice President, Leasing. "It's a testament to our commitment to overcoming challenges and transforming them into opportunities, demonstrating that even in the face of constraints, we can power progress and drive digital transformation with our ForeverOn solutions."

Due to limited acquisition opportunities, the facility, strategically located in the Chicago suburbs, will meet the growing demands of hyperscale companies and enterprises for secure, scalable and efficient data center capacity. T5's comprehensive data center lifecycle services platform and sustainable design are poised to offer several significant benefits to hyperscale and enterprise clients.

Scalable Solutions: With a massive 36 MW capacity, Hyperscale and Enterprise tenants can scale their operations rapidly without power limitations and benefit from flexible solutions tailored to their needs.

Energy Efficiency: The new facility reduces operational costs and environmental impact by employing the latest energy-efficient technologies that support a ForeverOn environment.

Redundancy and Reliability: The Chicago lll data center will be built with multiple layers of redundancy, ensuring continuous uptime and business continuity.

High-Speed Connectivity: The data center is strategically located to provide low-latency, high-speed connectivity to major metropolitan areas, facilitating seamless data transmission.

Data Security and Compliance: The facility adheres to stringent security protocols and compliance standards, ensuring that sensitive hyperscale and enterprise data is safeguarded and regulatory requirements are met.

Cost Optimization: Outsourcing data center services allows enterprises to save on capital expenses, maintenance costs, and staffing, ultimately reducing operational expenses.

Expert Support: Customers can leverage the expertise of T5's experienced team for on-site and remote support, ensuring smooth operations 24/7.

To secure a spot at T5's Chicago lll data center, contact David Horowitz at [email protected]. For more information about T5 Data Centers, visit www.t5datacenters.com .

About T5 Data Centers

T5 Data Centers (T5) is a leading data center owner and operator, committed to delivering scalable mission-critical facilities, facility management and construction services that provide a "Forever On" environment. T5 Data Centers provides life-cycle data center services and purpose-built data center facilities to organizations across North America and Europe featuring robust design, redundant and reliable power and telecommunications, and a 24-hour staff to support mission-critical computing applications. Visit t5datacenters.com or call (888) 239-7133 to learn more.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/t5-data-centers-acquires-third-location-in-tier-one-chicago-market-301945707.html

SOURCE T5 Data Centers
Drivers Unite to End Disrespect, Improve Jobs at Restaurant Technologies

DALLAS , Oct. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Drivers at Restaurant Technologies in Dallas have voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 745.

"These drivers are sick and tired of the inconsistent enforcement of work rules and consistent lack of respect shown to them by management at Restaurant Technologies," said Brent Taylor , Secretary-Treasurer of Local 745 and Teamsters International Vice President for the Southern Region . "We look forward to winning our new members a strong Teamster contract with enforceable standards so they can do their jobs with the dignity and respect they deserve."

Restaurant Technologies drivers overcame an aggressive anti-union campaign by the company to join the Teamsters. The drivers want to see an end to favoritism and management suspensions of workers over faulty equipment.

"No one should have to go to work afraid for their job or that they might get suspended, depending on how management feels that day," said Kevin Hill , a driver with four years of experience. "We are excited about becoming Teamsters and getting a contract that will ensure we will have a good work environment."

"The fortitude of these drivers to fight back against management perfectly embodies Teamster power, and this is only the beginning for these new members," said Juan Campos , Director of the Teamsters Tankhaul Division and Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 705 in Chicago . "They make a welcome addition to the Tankhaul Division and one we look forward to building on."

"There is momentum in this industry. The word is spreading that being a Teamster means better wages, benefits, and working conditions for tankhaul drivers," said Michael Perez , an Assistant Business Agent with Local 745. "We are looking forward to more workers joining the Teamsters in this industry in Texas and beyond."

Tankhauling involves the skilled transport of essential liquids and gases. Drivers with Restaurant Technologies deliver and pick up cooking oil for eateries like McDonald's, Whataburger, Texas Roadhouse, and Chipotle.

Teamsters Local 745 represents workers throughout Texas across different industries. Find out more at Teamsters745.org.

Contact:

Kara Deniz, (202) 497-6610

[email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/texas-tankhaul-drivers-join-teamsters-301945056.html

SOURCE Teamsters Local 745
FILE PHOTO: Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani addresses the 78th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, U.S., September 19, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

By Moaz Abd-Alaziz and Kanishka Singh

CAIRO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden called Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to thank him for Doha's mediation that resulted in the release of a number of Americans from Iran, the Amiri Diwan and the White House said on Tuesday.

THE TAKE

Last month, with Doha's mediation, Iran freed five Americans as part of a prisoner swap for five Iranians held in the United States and the transfer of $6 billion in Iranian funds, marking a rare deal between the long-time antagonists.

Qatar, a wealthy Gulf Arab state with diplomatic ambitions, has pressed both Washington and Tehran to engage in more talks and reach "understandings," sources told Reuters last month.

KEY QUOTES

"During the call, the strategic relations between the two countries and aspects of supporting and strengthening them in various fields were reviewed," the Amiri Diwan, or Emir's office, said in a statement.

The White House said the two leaders "discussed their commitment to deepen defense and security cooperation in the region."

CONTEXT

Last year, Biden designated Qatar as a major non-NATO ally of the United States, fulfilling an earlier promise that he had made to them.

The designation is granted by the United States to close, non-NATO allies that have strategic working relationships with the U.S. military.

Qatar has recently held separate bilateral meetings with the United States and Iran that touched on Iran's nuclear program and U.S. concerns about Iranian drone transfers to Russia, sources have told Reuters.

(Reporting By Moaz Abd-Alaziz in Cairo and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Gareth Jones and Stephen Coates)
By Tife Owolabi

RIVERS STATE, Nigeria (Reuters) - At least 37 people, including two pregnant women, were burned to death after a blast at an illegal oil refinery in southern Nigeria, a local security official and community leader said on Tuesday.

Illegal refining is common in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria as impoverished locals tap pipelines to make fuel to sell for a profit. The practice, which can be as basic as boiling crude oil in drums to extract fuel, is often deadly.

The latest incident happened in the early hours of Monday in the Ibaa community, in Rivers State, Rufus Welekem, the head of security in the community said.

A Reuters witness saw charred remains of 15 people at an open space surrounded by burnt palm trees and a motorbike.

"Thirty five people were caught in the fire. Two people who were lucky to escape also died this morning in hospital," said Welekem.

Relatives had identified some of the victims and taken them for burial, he said.

Nigeria has for years tried to clamp down on illegal crude refineries, with little success, in part because powerfully connected politicians and security officials are involved, local environmental groups say.

Crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism and legal battles over oil spills are pushing oil majors operating in Nigeria to sell their onshore and shallow water assets to concentrate on deep water operations.

(Reporting by Tife Owolabi, writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Editing by Louise Heavens)
MADRID (Reuters) - A wooden boat carrying 271 migrants arrived on Tuesday in El Hierro, the westernmost of the Spanish Canary Islands, after making a perilous journey from Africa in what rescuers said was the most crammed vessel they have seen.

In the last 24 hours, a total of 726 migrants, including women and children, arrived in the Canary Islands, off West Africa's coast in at least six different precarious boats, including three in El Hierro alone, authorities said.

The Red Cross group that attended the migrants in El Hierro said this was a record number of arrivals in a single boat at the archipelago. In 2008 they received 234 people in one boat.

Journalist and former migration adviser in the regional government, Txema Santana, posted on X that the boat arrived from Senegal. "I've never seen a boat with so many people on board," he wrote.

The seven islands of the archipelago have become the main destination for migrants trying to reach Spain, while others seek to cross the Mediterranean to the Spanish mainland.

This year Spain has seen an increase in the number of migrants attempting to cross from Senegal and other African countries to the Canaries.

In January-August, 21,780 migrants reached Spain, nearly 15% more than in the same period of 2022, according to official data. September is one of the busiest periods for all attempted crossings because waters are calmer.

(Reporting by Borja Suarez and Elena Rodriguez, writing by Corina Pons; editing by Grant McCool)
FILE PHOTO: El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele addresses the 78th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, U.S., September 19, 2023. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - El Salvador's political parties launched their campaigns for the upcoming presidential elections on Tuesday, amid vocal criticism from the opposition that President Nayib Bukele will seek re-election despite it being prohibited by the constitution.

More than 6 million Salvadorans are set to hit the polls on Feb. 4 to elect a president and vice president, who govern for five-year terms.

Bukele is heavily favored to win re-election in the Central American nation, whose constitution forbids consecutive terms. However, the Supreme Court, filled with Bukele-backed judges, ruled in 2021 a second term was nonetheless permissible.

A recent poll by Francisco Gavidia University's Citizen Studies Center found that Bukele and his running mate, Vice President Felix Ulloa, have 68.4% support from voters, with the next-closest competitors at just 4.3%.

Bukele, 42, enjoys unprecedented popularity off the back of his crackdown on crime, which has boosted safety in the country as rights organizations allege serious human rights violations against those arrested for alleged gang ties, which on Tuesday totaled more than 73,000.

The president has denied abuses and rejected reports that he had agreed to truces with gangs.

A September document obtained by Reuters showed Salvadoran police believed nearly 43,000 people tied to gangs still remained free. The country now has the highest incarceration rate in the world.

(Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Josie Kao)
By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU lawmakers on Tuesday voted for draft rules targeting Alphabet's Google, Meta Platforms and other large online platforms' content moderation restrictions after some media outlets complained about arbitrary decisions removing their content.

The draft rules require online platforms to carry news content for 24 hours before taking it down if this breaches their content moderation rules.

Known as Article 17 of the Media Freedom Act the European Commission proposed last year to ensure media plurality and safeguard editorial independence, the clause has raised alarm bells among online platforms.

Media should "be notified of the platform's intention to delete or restrict their content alongside a 24-hour window for the media to respond", lawmakers said in a statement. The platform can delete, restrict or refer the case to national regulators after the 24-hour period if it is still against platform terms and conditions.

Tech lobbying group CCIA Europe, whose members include Google, Meta and X, said Article 17 could be exploited by some to spread disinformation.

"The media exemption will empower rogue actors, creating new loopholes to spread fake news rather than fixing anything," CCIA Europe's senior policy manager Mathilde Adjutor said in a statement.

Lawmakers voted to ban using spyware against journalists unless it can be justified as a last resort measure and also require media to be transparent about their ownership.

The lawmakers will have to thrash out details of the proposed rules with EU countries in the coming months before these can be adopted.

Concerns about political interference in media outlets are mounting ahead of crucial elections in Poland this month and the European Parliament next year.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Josie Kao)
PRAGUE, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Republic is to introduce checks at its border with Slovakia from Wednesday onwards, due to an "increase in illegal migration," the country's Ministry of the Interior announced on Tuesday.

The ministry said that the random checks along the "entire land border" with Slovakia will last for 10 days.

"Random checks at Slovak borders will help us effectively fight against groups of smugglers. The measure is temporary and we approach it in close coordination with Poland, which is introducing similar controls," Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said.

Any extension of the inspections will depend on the current situation, the ministry has said.

"The numbers of illegal migrants to the EU (European Union) are starting to grow again," Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on social media platform X, adding that the government had therefore reacted quickly.

Last September, the Czech Republic introduced border controls along the frontier with Slovakia in a bid to crack down on illegal migration and organized smuggling groups. The measure remained in place till early February. 
FILE PHOTO: An aerial view of a Boeing 737 MAX 10 airplane parked at King County International Airport-Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, U.S, June 1, 2022. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo

By Valerie Insinna

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing plans to push production of its bestselling 737 narrowbody jet to a record of at least 57 per month by July 2025, reflecting rising orders and the company's recovery after the 737 MAX crisis, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

The goal would hit the planemaker's unmet target from several years ago, which was scuttled in 2019 when the MAX was grounded globally following two deadly plane crashes.

Both Boeing and its European rival Airbus have laid out ambitious ramp-up goals as air travel and aircraft sales rebound, with Airbus producing in-demand single aisle planes even faster than the U.S. planemaker.

Boeing laid out the plan in the latest version of its master schedule for suppliers, which was reaffirmed by the planemaker in mid-September, the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the document is not public.

Boeing declined to comment.

The schedule targets 737 production to reach 42 jets a month by December 2023, affirming statements made by Boeing Commercial Airplanes head Stan Deal to Bloomberg TV in June.

From there, monthly 737 production - which includes the 737 MAX as well as earlier models used for military planes - is set to grow to 47.2 jets in June 2024 and 52.5 jets in December 2024 before hitting a steady rate of 57.7 aircraft per month in July 2025.

An earlier version of the plan, which Reuters reported in April, had seen 52 jets per month production a month later, in January 2025.

Before the 2019 grounding of the 737 MAX, Boeing was producing 52 737s a month on its way to a target of 57.

Boeing's formal 737 production target is 50 per month for the 2025-2026 timeframe, unveiled by the company last November during an investor day.

But Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun telegraphed a rate increase to 60 jets a month could be on the table as the company racks up orders, such as a deal with Air India for almost 200 MAXs booked this year.

"I would love to get to 60 deliveries and the market is there for it. There's no doubt about it," Calhoun said in a July earnings call.

The Boeing CEO added the second half of 2024 would be a key moment for the company to prove it could keep its supply chain stable and maintain its ramp up plan.

"If we get through that well and we execute well, then we'll be talking to all of you about 60 deliveries," Calhoun said at the time. "But I don't want to get ahead of myself."

It is not uncommon for supplier schedules to change based on numerous factors, but it is an important signal to the supply chain that allows smaller companies to make necessary investments, the sources said.

Airbus in July reaffirmed a widely watched production goal for its best-selling A320neo family jets of 75 a month in 2026, with executives stating it was "progressing well."

(Reporting by Valerie Insinna; Editing by Peter Henderson and Jamie Freed)
3D printed clouds and figurines are seen in front of the Microsoft Azure cloud service logo in this illustration taken February 8, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

By Martin Coulter and Foo Yun Chee

LONDON (Reuters) - British media regulator Ofcom will this week push for an antitrust investigation into Amazon and Microsoft's dominance of the UK's cloud computing market, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Between them, Amazon and Microsoft enjoy a combined market share of 60-70% of Britain's cloud computing industry. Meanwhile, their closest competitor, Alphabet's Google, has closer to 10%.

Ofcom's push for an antitrust probe, first signalled in April, will remain in the body's final report on the matter, set to be published on Thursday, one of the sources said.

The watchdog previously said it had considered referring the market for investigation by the CMA, the British competition regulator.

Ofcom warned the current state of Britain's cloud computing market made it difficult for some existing customers to bargain for a good deal with their provider.

Technical restrictions and discounts encouraging customers to keep using a single provider for all their needs, even when better alternatives were available, could be considered anti-competitive, the body said in a report earlier this year.

"We are concerned that constraints on customers' ability to use more than one provider could make it harder for smaller cloud providers to win business and compete with the market leaders," it read.

Both Amazon and Microsoft previously said they would continue working with Ofcom ahead of the publication of its final report.

In response to Ofcom's earlier proposal, Microsoft submitted a 58-page response, stating an investigation could ultimately harm consumers.

It would be a particularly unfortunate outcome if UK businesses and public sector customers faced less vibrant and competitive cloud solutions on a global stage than those available to their rivals in the EU, the U.S. and China," it said.

Amazon and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for Ofcom said: "We will be announcing our decision whether or not to refer the market to the CMA by the statutory deadline, which is Thursday 5 October."

A spokesperson for the CMA declined to comment.

(Reporting by Martin Coulter and Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Matthew Scuffham and Susan Fenton)
FILE PHOTO: Former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces fraud charges over the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, leaves following a hearing at Manhattan federal court in New York City, U.S. January 3, 2023. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

By Hannah Lang

(Reuters) - Former FTX chief operating officer Constance Wang agreed to serve as a witness for U.S. prosecutors in their case against the crypto exchange's founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, according to Michael Lewis' new book on FTX's collapse.

"Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon" hit the shelves as Bankman-Fried's criminal trial began in Manhattan on Tuesday. FTX filed for bankruptcy in November after customers yanked billions of dollars from the exchange in just days.

Bankman-Fried is accused of embezzling money from FTX clients to prop up his hedge fund Alameda Research, buy luxury properties and make more than $100 million in political donations.

While the U.S. prosecutors have said they plan to call a handful of Bankman-Fried's former inner circle to testify, Wang has not been named among them. She was on a list of possible trial witnesses for both the defense and prosecution read out in court on Tuesday afternoon, although it is unclear if she will testify or for which side.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan declined to comment. Wang, who has not been accused of any crime, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wang joined FTX in 2019 from rival crypto exchange Huobi as its eighth employee, and often accompanied Bankman-Fried to meetings in which Mandarin was spoken, Lewis said.

Unlike most employees of FTX, which was based in the Bahamas, Wang remained in the Caribbean country after the exchange collapsed last November, in a bid to investigate what happened, according to Lewis. She was also present for Bankman-Fried's arrest by Bahamian authorities on Dec. 12, the book says.

The 31-year-old's trial is expected to last six weeks.

Prosecutors have said they plan to call former Alameda chief executive Caroline Ellison, former FTX technology chief Gary Wang, and former engineering chief Nishad Singh to testify. All three have pleaded guilty to fraud.

(Reporting by Hannah Lang in Washington; Aditional reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Michelle Price and Matthew Lewis)
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia will try to make rain by seeding clouds and prepare to shut schools as the quality of air in various places deteriorates, the Department of Environment said, raising fears of a new round of pollution from forest fires.

Almost every dry season, smoke from fires to clear land for palm oil and pulp and paper plantations in Indonesia clouds the skies over much of the region, bringing risks to public health and worrying tourist operators and airlines.

Malaysia's air quality was deteriorating, particularly in the western part of Peninsular Malaysia, with 11 areas recording unhealthy air pollution index (API) readings, the department's director general, Wan Abdul Latiff Wan Jaffar, said in a statement late on Monday.

Malaysia said last week fires in neighbouring Indonesia were causing the pollution although Indonesia has denied detecting any smoke drifting over its borders into Malaysia.

The Malaysian department said earlier on Monday a regional meteorological agency had detected nearly 250 "hotspots", indicating fires, on Indonesia's Sumatra island and in its part of Borneo island, with none in Malaysia.

Efforts to clear the air with rain by seeding clouds and other measures to cope with the pollution would come into effect when API readings reached 150 for more than 24 hours, Wan Abdul Latiff.

Schools and kindergartens must stop all outdoor activities when API readings reach 100, and close when they reach 200, he said.

The environmental group Greenpeace, meanwhile, called on countries in the region to introduce legislation to stop plantation companies causing air pollution.

"Enacting a domestic transboundary haze act is necessary to act as a deterrent, especially as there are bad apples in the industry," Heng Kiah Chun, regional campaign strategist for Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said in a statement.

Singapore, which prides itself on its clean air, passed a cross-border air pollution law in 2014 that makes those who cause haze both criminally and civilly liable.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; editing by Robert Birsel)
Seahorse, the new vessel of Sea Shepherd, which will be used for "Operation Miracle" to protect the vaquita porpoise's area, is pictured near San Felipe, in the Gulf of California, Baja California state, Mexico January 24, 2023. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha/File

By Carolina Pulice

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Mexican government announced a new agreement with conservation group Sea Shepherd on Tuesday aimed at boosting protection of the endangered vaquita porpoise, as the world's smallest cetacean nears extinction.

The agreement comes after years of collaboration between Sea Shepherd and the Mexican navy to protect the vaquita's reserve in the Sea of Cortes in northern Mexico. Just 1.5 meters in length, the vaquita is tiny compared with the blue whale, the largest cetacean, which extends more than 20 meters.

The critically endangered vaquita has been imperiled by illegal gill net fishing for the fish totoaba, itself an endangered species whose bladder is highly valued in Asia. Vaquitas often become entangled in the nets.

Now local authorities, along with the conservation group, will effective immediately broaden their efforts along the Mexican Pacific coast by extending their protection protocols to the totoaba as well.

They will also expand the protected zone by more than 60% within the so-called zero tolerance area, in which fishing is forbidden.

"More protection means a better chance for survival for the vaquita and the totoaba," Pritam Singh of Sea Shepherd said in a statement.

The expanded protection is good news, but the Mexican government should also enforce its ban on illegal fishing more aggressively, said Alejandro Olivera, senior scientist and Mexico representative at the Center for Biological Diversity.

The International Whaling Commission issued in August an extinction alert for the vaquita porpoise.

There was some hope however after Sea Shepherd's latest surveillance mission spotted around a dozen healthy-looking vaquitas, including calves, "roughly the same" estimate as the last survey in October 2021.

(Reporting by Carolina Pulice in Mexico City; Editing by Rod Nickel)
FILE PHOTO: The Moldovan flag files during a ceremony marking the State Flag Day in Chisinau, Moldova April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Vladislav Culiomza/File Photo

By Alexander Tanas

CHISINAU (Reuters) -Moldova's Constitutional Court cleared the way on Tuesday for members of a banned pro-Russian party to run in local elections as independent candidates or as members of other parties.

The court's ban on the opposition Shor party, imposed in June, still stands.

The court issued its latest decision after considering a complaint by members of the party, which is headed by exiled businessman Ilan Shor and accused by the West and the Moldovan government of trying to destabilise the country.

Announcing the ruling, a senior court member, Serghei Turcan, said an amendment banning Shor party members from participating in elections "had no objective criteria and was too general" and did not respect the right to be elected.

The local elections, including for city mayors, take place on Nov. 5. Shor's allies have registered a new party called "Chance", and a party that already existed, "Revival", is considered close to Shor.

Marina Tauber, a senior Shor party leader, hopes to run as an independent candidate for mayor in Balti, Moldova's second largest city.

Shor, who lives in Israel, was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in jail in April over a $1 billion bank scandal and money laundering, and has had sanctions imposed on him by the United States and European Union.

The Constitutional Court declared his party unconstitutional in June after months of protests led by the party, at which demonstrators demanded the resignation of President Maia Sandu and her pro-Western government over rising prices.

Sandu has accused Shor of attempting to destabilise Moldova and undermine the former Soviet republic's bid to join the EU. She has also accused Russia of plotting to overthrow her.

Shor has denied the protests were part of a Russian threat or of attempts to destabilise Moldova, which borders Ukraine and EU member Romania.

Russia, which has about 1,500 troops stationed in Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniestria, has denied plotting to overthrow Sandu.

(Reporting by Alezander Tanas, Writing by Yuliia Dysa, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
FILE PHOTO: A general view of the cannabis plants displayed at the annual Expo Cannabis in Montevideo, Uruguay, December 4, 2021. REUTERS/Mariana Greif/File Photo

(Reuters) - More than 60 Jamaican primary school kids were hospitalized after eating potent rainbow-colored cannabis candy, the Caribbean country's education minister said on social media platform X, causing them to vomit and hallucinate.

"I feel confident that together we will strengthen our safety and security regime to combat the unconscionable sale of marijuana infused products to children," Fayval Williams said on Tuesday, noting the "most unfortunate" circumstances under which she met parents and stakeholders of Ocho Rios Primary School.

Late on Monday, Williams had shared an image she said had been reported to her ministry showing a colorful packet of "full throttle rainbow sour belts," each containing 100 milligrams of THC - considered a strong dose for experienced adults.

"One little boy said he only had one sweetie," Williams said, adding several of the school children had been given intravenous drips to speed up recovery. "That's how potent this product is."

Jamaica decriminalized possession of up to 2 ounces (57 grams) of marijuana for religious, medicinal and scientific purposes in 2015, and set up a licensing agency for the country's legal medical cannabis industry.

Radio Jamaica reported that the Ganja Growers and Producers Association of Jamaica was suggesting a public education program for responsible consumption by adults and to prevent consumption by children, as well as pushing for more packaging regulations.

(Reporting by Sarah Morland; Editing by Josie Kao)
FILE PHOTO: Pope Francis looks on as he meets with French President Emmanuel Macron (not pictured) at the Palais du Pharo, on the occasion of the Mediterranean Meetings (MED 2023), in Marseille, France September 23, 2023. Andreas Solaro/Pool via REUTERS/

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Francis called on Catholic leaders on Wednesday to set aside politics and work to make the Church more welcoming for all, as he opened a global meeting that conservative critics say risks "poisoning" the faith.

Delivering a homily in St Peter's Square at the start of the first global gathering of Church leaders, or synod, for four years, the pope said bishops should avoid "human strategies, political calculations or ideological battles".

"We are not here to carry out a parliamentary meeting or a plan of reformation," he said in the homily of the Mass, which the Vatican said was attended by a crowd of 25,000.

The synod was not an attempt to "depart from the sacred patrimony of the truth received from the Fathers", he said. But the Church must avoid becoming either "a rigid Church, which arms itself against the world and looks backward" or "a lukewarm Church, which surrenders to the fashions of the world".

Church doors must be "open to all, all, all", he added.

Conservative critics of the pope have become increasingly outspoken in advance of the synod, which is due to discuss topics including the role of women, acceptance of LGBT Catholics, and the impact of climate change on the poor.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, a Rome-based American who is one of the pope's leading critics, has called for a defence against the "the poison of confusion, error and division" he feared the synod might introduce.

For the first time, women, including several nuns, will be allowed to vote, something that conservative women have contested, saying only bishops should have that right.

Two days before the synod started, five of the Church's 242 cardinals disclosed they had sent a letter to the pope demanding clarifications on blessing for same-sex couples, the role of women and other issues.

The pope was joined in celebrating Wednesday's Mass by most of the 21 new cardinals he promoted to the high rank on Saturday, a move that further cements his legacy. He has now appointed nearly three-quarters of the electors who will have the right to vote for his eventual successor.

DUTY TO RESIST

Church leaders have been preparing for the month-long synod for the past two years, asking Catholics around the world to share their vision for the future of the Church.

The pope has decided to include about 70 lay people, half of whom are women, alongside the cardinals and bishops among the 365 "members" with the right to vote at the synod.

Discussions will run through this month and resume in October 2024. A papal document will follow, most likely in 2025, meaning changes in Church teaching, if any, would be a long way off.

Conservatives have assailed the very concept of this synod, saying any discussions on doctrinal issues should come from the top and lay people who are not ordained should not have a say. Only men can be ordained in the Catholic Church.

On the eve of the synod, conservatives held a conference in a theatre a block from the Vatican.

"It is our duty ... to resist steadfastly any attempts to change the teaching of the Church that may emerge from this Synodal Assembly," said Father Gerald Murray, a commentator on U.S.-based conservative Catholic television network EWTN.

In impromptu remarks at the start of Wednesday's first working session, the pope asked participants to observe "a certain fast" from talking to journalists so that all members could express themselves freely.

Participants are bound by synod rules of confidentiality and discretion. The Vatican plans to hold occasional briefings.

Many of the discussions are taking place in small groups of about a dozen people each at round tables in the large hall where the pope holds general audiences.

(Additional reporting by Alvise ArmelliniEditing by Peter Graff and Gareth Jones)
By Lucy Craymer

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Race and relations with the indigenous Maori population have emerged as issues in New Zealand's election as right-wing parties likely to be pivotal in forming a government face accusations of stoking racial division.

When Jacinda Ardern led her Labour party to a landslide victory in 2020, New Zealand stood out with progressive policies at a time when many countries had elected right-wing governments.

Three years on, New Zealand is seeing a growing populist movement that could hold sway over a coalition government and push to remove programs that were designed to address inequality and boost the presence of Maori.

This election, the "racism is more overt," said Naida Glavish, a Maori community leader and president of Te Pati Maori. She was one of a group of high profile elders who wrote an open letter last week condemning what they called unacceptable levels of racism from political candidates running in the Oct. 14 election.

Both the right-wing ACT Party and populist New Zealand First are promoting policies that would rewind changes that occurred in New Zealand under the Labour government to better acknowledge Maori as the countrys first people.

ACT has railed against "co-governance" or the sharing of some management between the state and indigenous people, and has vowed to wind back the use of Maori language in everyday life and dismantle the Maori Health Authority, which was set up to counter systemic disadvantage.

Both ACT and New Zealand First say their policies are not racist but instead are promoting the equal rights of all New Zealanders, with the argument that non-Indigenous citizens are losing out because of policies designed for Maori.

"The public service is meant to serve all New Zealanders, but even administration and service delivery has become focussed on race. This isn't a true focus on equity, serving citizens based on their measured need rather than their ancestry is," ACT leader David Seymour said in a fund-raising message to voters.

Seymour has also said he would shut the ministry set up for the advancement of Pacific People.

"I think some of our politicians are certainly playing the race card in this election," Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said at a leaders debate in late September.

Polls indicate the centre-right National Party will win the most seats in the election but will have to co-align with one, if not two, minor parties. It has said its preferred partner is ACT but is prepared to discuss partnering with NZ First.

Neighbouring Australia is facing similar issues, with a referendum on Oct. 14 to recognise the country's first inhabitants and enshrine an Indigenous advisory body in the constitution looking unlikely to pass.

RUPTURED RACE RELATIONS

New Zealand has historically done better managing race relations than many other formerly colonised countries.

It has had separate Maori seats in parliament for more than 100 years, the language has been revitalised and is used widely, and the government has set about financially compensating tribes for land stolen or misappropriated during British colonisation.

However, Maori still have high levels of deprivation and incarceration and worse health outcomes than the broader population.

The National Party is not on board with many of the ACT and New Zealand First's policies but has not ruled out winding back some Indigenous resources such as the Maori Health Authority.

The rhetoric is engaging with at least some voters. Both the ACT and New Zealand First are up in the polls, and according to a 1News-Verian Poll on Sept. 27 the two parties hold 18% of the vote.

Ben Thomas, a political commentator and former National Party staff member, said race had grown as an issue partly because the government had failed to counter a conspiracy theory that co-governance stood for "a Maori takeover of New Zealand".

At the same time, the softer economy and a fall in real wages meant more people were starting to see things as a zero-sum game, believing if one part of society was getting something then maybe they were missing out.

"There is always a constituency for race baiting," he said.

(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Sonali Paul)
BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania, a former ally of Nazi Germany, on Tuesday marked its decision to make the Holocaust and Jewish history part of the school curriculum, with Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu saying facing up to a dark past was necessary for a strong democracy.

Romania was a German ally in World War Two until August 1944 and hundreds of thousands of Romanian and Ukrainian Jews and Roma were killed in areas it controlled.

The EU state admitted for the first time in 2003 that it took part in the killings.

"I am among those who do not hesitate to talk about patriotism," Ciolacu said at the ceremony to mark the new class in Jewish history and the Holocaust, which was approved in 2021.

"However, I believe that for a strong, democratic nation, patriotism also means not hiding the dark parts of history and those who created them."

Lawmaker Silviu Vexler, president of the federation of Jewish communities in Romania who initiated the curriculum change, said the class was "the first real move to fully take responsibility for what happened".

Far-right parties have gained ground across Europe. In Romania, which holds presidential, general, local and European elections in 2024, the ultra-nationalist opposition party AUR, which swept into parliament in the previous election, has been rising in opinion surveys.

Ciolacu's Social Democrats and the Liberal Party, parliament's two largest parties which form the coalition government, have said they are exploring the possibility of pooling their candidates in elections to counter AUR's rise.

Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Nick Macfie)
OTTAWA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Canada-India ties hit a new low as the two countries exchanged accusations and engaged in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions over the assassination of Canada's prominent Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil some four months ago.

Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Friday there was a "climate of violence" and an "atmosphere of intimidation" against Indian diplomats in Canada.

"Because there is freedom of speech, to make threats and intimidate diplomats, I don't think that's acceptable," Jaishankar said on Friday evening in Washington.

Earlier in September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an explosive statement in the House of Commons that his government was pursuing "credible allegations" from Canadian intelligence against New Delhi for playing a role in the assassination of Nijjar.

The Sikh Canadian leader had been a prominent advocate of the Khalistan movement, which seeks to establish a separate homeland for the Sikh community in India's northwestern Punjab region.

Shortly after Trudeau's remarks, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly announced the dismissal of Pavan Kumar Rai, a senior Indian diplomat in Canada, for his alleged involvement in the killing of the Sikh leader in the Canadian Province of British Columbia.

In response, India's External Affairs Ministry flatly rejected the Canadian claims, expelling Olivier Sylvestere, a senior Canadian diplomat based in New Delhi.

"We have seen and rejected the statement of the Canadian Prime Minister in their Parliament, and also the statement by their Foreign Minister. Allegations of Government of India's involvement in any act of violence in Canada are absurd and motivated," said the Indian ministry in its statement.

Canada is home to about 770,000 Sikhs, the highest population outside India's Punjab region, and the Indian government has for decades expressed its displeasure with some community members' outspoken support for Khalistan.

Amid claims and counter-claims from Canada and India, both countries have issued travel advisories urging their citizens to "exercise utmost caution" while traveling to some regions in the other country.

Furthermore, India's visa processing center in Canada suspended services and the Canadian Foreign Ministry said it would reduce diplomatic staff in India.

The growing animosity between Canada and India will have ramifications for the development of their bilateral ties, said observers in Canada and India.

India has been the major source of international students to Canada, with Indians making up about 40 percent of all overseas students, a major source of income for the educational sector.

"The way the last few days have played out will be remembered as possibly the lowest point in relations between Canada and India. The latest incident will have, obviously, wider ramifications in their overall bilateral relationship. For example, the proposed trade talks between Canada and India have become uncertain for now," Bhanu Bhakta Acharya, an adjunct professor of media studies at the University of Ottawa, told Xinhua in an interview.

"At a time when a major global geopolitical reordering is underway, Canada and India, which have no major clash of strategic interest, should be close partners. Indeed, their shared goals, including universal adherence to international law, make them natural allies," Brahma Chellaney, a professor of Strategic Studies at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, said in an opinion piece in Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. 
(Reuters) - The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday it had summoned the Moldovan ambassador.

The ministry said it had taken reciprocal measures after the expulsion of the head of Sputnik Moldova news agency from Moldova on Sept. 13.

The ministry said the Moldovan ambassador was informed that "a number of individuals directly involved in restricting freedom of speech and the rights of Russian journalists in Moldova, as well as inciting anti-Russian sentiments, were banned from entering Russia."

The Ministry did not name the people who were banned from entering Russia.

(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov; Editing by Chris Reese)
FILE PHOTO: An Apple logo hangs above the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City, July 21, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

(Reuters) - A Russian court rejected Apple's appeal against the alleged abuse of its dominant market position in terms of in-app payments, for which it was fined 1.2 billion roubles ($12.1 million) in January, the RIA news agency reported on Tuesday.

Apple did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Russia's federal anti-monopoly service (FAS) fined Apple in January over what it said was the U.S. company's abuse of its dominant market position.

In a statement, the regulator said it had previously found that Apple forced Russian developers to use Apple's payment services with the iOS App Store, in violation of Russia's competition rules.

The FAS's decision entered legal force in May after it was approved by a Moscow court, RIA reported. Apple was appealing both the decision and the fine.

The rouble has depreciated sharply since January. In dollar terms, the fine has decreased by more than $5 million since then.

($1 = 99.1990 roubles)

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A former Rwandan military official who is suspected of having played a key role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide was arrested in the Netherlands on Tuesday, Dutch prosecuters said.

Pierre-Claver Karangwa, 67, was detained in a Dutch investigation into his role in the genocide, which prosecutors started after the Dutch Supreme Court in June this year said he could not be extradited to Rwanda out of fear of an unfair trial.

Rwanda has accused Karangwa of playing a key role in the massacre of nearly 30,000 Tutsis in Mugina parish near the Rwandan capital Kigali in April 1994 and had asked for his extradition in 2012. In a court case over his possible extradition in December 2022, Karangwa said he was innocent of the crimes he was accused of.

Karangwa, who has lived in the Netherlands since 1998, had his Dutch nationality revoked over the genocide accusations, theoretically paving the way for his extradition.

But the Supreme Court denied this because of Karangwa's position as an opposition politician.

The Dutch prosecutors said they suspected Karangwa of being involved in burning down a house with dozens of women and children in it following the attack on Mugina parish.

An estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and Hutu moderates were killed during Rwanda's genocide, orchestrated by an extremist Hutu government and executed by local officials and ordinary citizens.

The Netherlands has tried and convicted other Rwandan genocide suspects before under universal jurisdiction, and has in the past also extradited genocide suspects to Rwanda.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
MADRID (Reuters) - A court in Spain's southeastern region of Murcia has opened a criminal investigation into suspected reckless manslaughter in the deaths of 13 people in the country's deadliest nightclub fire for decades.

The fire tore through three neighbouring nightclubs on the outskirts of the city of Murcia on Sunday, causing its worst damage in two of them, Teatre and La Fonda Milagros. Officials have said the cause of the blaze is still unknown.

Local authorities said on Monday that both nightclubs were operating in spite of having been ordered to shut down a year ago for operating without a valid permit.

The judge is awaiting the results of genetic samples submitted to identify the victims, once autopsies have been completed.

(Reporting by Emma Pinedo; Editing by Peter Graff)
Spain's King Felipe shakes hands with Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez before their meeting at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid, Spain, October 3, 2023. Juanjo Guillen/Pool via REUTERS

By David Latona and Belen Carreno

MADRID (Reuters) -Spain's acting Prime Minister predicted "complex talks" with other political parties to form a government on Tuesday, after he was nominated to seek their backing for a new mandate.

Pedro Sanchez said he would work on securing support not only to form a government, but also to pass legislation as a minority coalition for the rest of his second four-year term.

To win an investiture vote the Socialist leader needs support from potential coalition partners such as the hard-left Sumar, as well as several Catalan and Basque nationalist parties.

If no candidate secures a majority by Nov. 27, a repeat general election has to be called.

"I am willing to work to form as soon as possible a progressive coalition government with enough support to guarantee the stability that the country needs," Sanchez said.

In an inconclusive election on July 23, the Socialists won fewer seats than the conservatives of Alberto Nunez Feijoo.

Sanchez was invited by Spain's King Felipe VI to try to form a governing majority after Feijoo last week failed in his bid to become prime minister.

Sanchez believes he can muster enough backing for his candidacy, which would include Catalan separatist parties Junts and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), which are demanding an unpopular amnesty in exchange for their votes in parliament.

While avoiding explicitly mentioning an amnesty during a press conference in Madrid, Sanchez defended as a success his 2021 decision to pardon Catalan leaders jailed over a failed independence bid in 2017.

Sanchez said the crisis - which prompted the conservative government at the time to temporarily impose direct rule from Madrid - "brought nothing good".

"It was a crisis of which no one can feel proud - I wasn't leading the government then," he said. "Since then I have tried to overcome that situation."

He argued that political conflicts need to be resolved "in the political field and not elsewhere", and now was the time for "politics, generosity and leadership".

"If July 23 told us anything about Spaniards, it's that you cannot lead the government of this nation without understanding the plurality of parliament and the diversity of the country."

Junts and ERC last week approved a resolution saying they would not support an investiture vote unless the government committed to "creating the conditions" for a fresh referendum on Catalan independence.

Asked about a referendum, Sanchez said Catalans were looking to "turn the page" and to find a "reunion" with Spanish society.

"He has drawn a red line at the referendum on self-determination," said Pablo Simon, a professor in political science at the Carlos III university in Madrid.

Feijoo, who used his own investiture bid to criticise Sanchez for contemplating an amnesty, said on Tuesday that his opponent was doing the bidding of Junts leader Carles Puigdemont and predicted "dark negotiations" in the coming weeks.

"No matter what Mr Sanchez says, what is important is what Mr Puigdemont says," Feijoo said.

Sanchez said he would like to complete the talks and set a date for a vote "as soon as possible", adding that he would start talks with the main parties on Wednesday, beginning with his Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz, the head of Sumar.

"I am going to put my heart and soul into a negotiation that is not going to be an easy one," he said.

House Speaker Francina Armengol said earlier that Sanchez had yet to share his proposed schedule for the investiture vote.

(Reporting by David Latona, Belen Carreno Emma Pinedo and Inti Landauro; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing by Andrei Khalip, Nick Macfie and Alexander Smith)
FILE PHOTO: The Spotify logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

(Reuters) - Spotify said on Tuesday that users of its premium services in the UK and Australia would now have 15 hours of free access to audiobooks a month, with the feature expanding to the United States later this year.

The music streaming giant is looking to supplement its earnings with other revenue-generating formats such as podcasts and audiobooks. The launch of its audiobook service in the United States last year challenged Amazon's Audible.

Spotify last year laid out plans to get one billion users by 2030 and reach $100 billion in annual revenue. The company had also previously promised high-margin returns from its costly expansion into podcasts and audiobooks.

In July, Spotify raised prices for its premium plans across several countries including the United States and the UK.

The company said on Tuesday that subscribers will be able to choose from a catalog of over 150,000 audiobooks available as part of the existing Spotify Premium subscriptions, with the option to buy additional 10-hour allocations as top-ups.

Users must have a premium individual account or be the plan manager for their Family or Duo account in order to take advantage of this feature as of now, the company added.

(Reporting by Samrhitha Arunasalam in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
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(Reuters) -Four ex-leaders of Azerbaijan's formerly ethnic Armenian-controlled region of Nagorno-Karabakh have been detained by Azerbaijan's State Security Service and taken to the capital Baku, the state-run Azerbaijani Press Agency (APA) reported on Tuesday.

However, three other former leaders of Karabakh have arrived safely in Armenia, the Armenian state news agency Armenpress quoted one of the three as saying.

Azerbaijan took control of Nagorno-Karabakh after three decades in a lightning military operation on Sept. 20, and vowed to prosecute the "criminal" separatist leadership, who it said had poisoned the minds of the population.

Almost all the 120,000 or so inhabitants of Karabakh have since fled to Armenia, fearing for their safety. But Azerbaijan has arrested Ruben Vardanyan, a former head of Karabakh's government, and Levon Mnatsakanyan, former commander of Nagorno-Karabakh's separatist army, at border checkpoints.

On Tuesday, APA said three former self-styled presidents of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arkady Gukasyan, Bako Sahakyan and Araik Arutyunyan, as well as ex-parliamentary speaker David Ishkhanyan, had been arrested.

However, former state minister Artur Arutyunyan, ex-interior minister Karen Sarkisyan and the former head of Karabakh's security service, Ararat Melkunyan, all entered Armenia on Tuesday, Artur Arutyunyan said, according to Armenpress.

Karabakh is viewed internationally as part of Azerbaijan but had been run as a breakaway ethnic Armenian statelet since the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Kevin Liffey;Editing by Alison Williams and Gareth Jones)
(Reuters) -Australia's TPG Telecom said on Wednesday the exclusive due diligence period granted to Macquarie-backed rival Vocus Group for the A$6.3 billion ($3.97 billion) bid for its non-mobile fiber assets has expired.

Discussions between the parties for the commercial terms of the deal remain ongoing, with the consideration subject to change, TPG said in a statement.

"TPG securityholders should be aware that the nature of the transaction involves considerable complexity which needs time to work through and there remains no certainty an agreed transaction will eventuate," said TPG, whose shares were down 1.1% in early trade.

A Vocus spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

The bid, made in August, includes TPG's non-mobile fibre assets such as certain Enterprise, Government and Wholesale (EGW) assets and associated fixed infrastructure assets, including the wholesale broadband business, Vision Network.

The EGW segment contributed to about 20.6% to the company's entire revenue for the half year ended June 30, 2023.

A successful deal would create a combined entity with A$8 billion to A$9 billion enterprise valuation.

The offer from Vocus came amid a steady rise in dealmaking in Australia's telecom sector, with firms also reviewing options for their aging infrastructure and capitalise on growth in 5G.

Separately, TPG was in an asset swap deal with Telstra which faced strong regulatory opposition based on competition concerns.

The company had said in August it would not appeal the country's competition tribunal's decision to block the asset transfer deal between the two telecom giants.

($1 = 1.5868 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Nausheen Thusoo in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
ST JOHN'S, Antigua (Reuters) -Tropical Storm Philippe churned further northwest across the Caribbean on Tuesday, the U.S.-based National Hurricane Center said as it forecast strong winds and heavy rain over Anguilla and elsewhere in the Leeward Islands.

The storm was located about 70 miles (113 km) northwest of Anguilla, the NHC said, moving at some 10 mph (16 kph) and packing maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (72 kph).

Antigua lifted its storm warning on Tuesday, a day after Philippe made landfall, but maintained it for its sister island Barbuda and called on residents to continue to exercise caution.

Shelters remain open for people who had to evacuate overnight, Antigua's National Office of Disaster Services (NODS) said, after the storm flooded some homes and left people stranded in their vehicles.

NODS also reported that firefighters had mobilized to suppress a major fire exacerbated by strong gusts at the Yacht Club Marina, which houses the Alfa Nero superyacht, in English Harbour.

Heavy rains and flooding also lashed nearby Guadeloupe, where local authorities extended school closures and warned that factory shutdowns would cause interruptions to water supplies across the French territory.

Some 2,500 households remained without power by early Tuesday, authorities said, adding that no injuries had been reported overnight.

NHC tropical storm alerts were in effect for Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands, and the Miami-based forecaster advised residents of the northern Leeward Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico to monitor the storm's progress.

Philippe is forecast to produce up to 12 inches (30 cm) of rainfall from Anguilla southward to Montserrat, bringing scattered flash flooding.

(Reporting by Robertson Henry in St John's, Antigua; writing by Natalia Siniawski and Sarah Morland; editing by Marguerita Choy and Mark Heinrich)
NEW YORK, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Hunter Biden, the son of U.S. President Joe Biden, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in the state of Delaware to three felony gun charges, after a deal that included a diversion in connection with a firearms charge and a guilty plea to two misdemeanor tax charges collapsed in court over the summer.

Appearing in Wilmington, before a federal magistrate Christopher Burke, Biden, 53, entered not guilty pleas on the three charges brought against him last month by the Justice Department: falsifying a federal firearms application, lying to a federally licensed gun dealer and possessing an illegally obtained gun for 11 days from Oct. 12 to Oct. 23, 2018.

"The charges are related to his statement on a federal form he filled out to purchase a Glock pistol five years ago that he was not a drug user," reported The New York Times. "Biden has acknowledged long-running addictions to crack cocaine and alcohol."

"If convicted on all three charges, Hunter Biden faces a maximum of 25 years in prison and up to 750,000 U.S. dollars in fines," reported CBS News. "The next court date has not yet been assigned, but there is a pretrial motion deadline of Nov. 3."

In late July, Biden arrived at the same courthouse with high hopes of putting his legal problems behind him after reaching a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that would have ended a five-year investigation into both the weapons charges and separate allegations that he had failed to pay his income taxes on time.

Meanwhile, "President Joe Biden's public schedule was clear on Tuesday as his son Hunter Biden was in a Delaware courtroom pleading not guilty to federal gun charges," reported CNN. "Behind closed doors, the president was expected to place phone calls to foreign leaders, ... according to people familiar with the matter." 
By Tarek Amara

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian President Kais Saied on Monday rejected financial support announced by the European Union in September, saying the amount is small and goes against a deal signed three months ago.

Saied's move could undermine the "strategic partnership" from July that includes measures on combating human traffickers and tightening borders, and which came during a sharp increase in boats heading to Europe from the North African nation.

The European Commission last month said it would disburse 127 million euros ($133 million) in aid to Tunisia as part of the deal to fight illegal immigration from Africa to Europe.

Tunisia rejects what the EU announced, not because of the small amount ... but because the proposal conflicts with the memorandum of understanding signed in July," Saied said.

The July deal included a pledge of 1 billion euros in aid to Tunisia to help its battered economy, rescue state finances and deal with the migration crisis.

The smaller amount announced by Europe 10 days ago, however, has frustrated Tunisian authorities struggling to improve public finances and raised fears among credit rating agencies that the government could default on foreign debts in coming months.

The dispute between the two parties has coincided with the arrival of record numbers of migrants from Tunisia and North Africa to Italy's island of Lampedusa.

Tunisia last week postponed a visit by a delegation from the European Commission to discuss the details of the migration agreement.

Last month it also denied the entry of five members of the European Parliaments foreign affairs committee for meetings over the political situation in Tunisia, saying it would not allow interference in its affairs.

Some European countries, including Germany, oppose the immigration deal, saying it does not address human rights issues and the political situation after Saied seized power, shut down the Tunisian parliament and began ruling by decree in what the opposition says was a coup.

($1 = 0.9545 euros)

(Reporting by Tarek Amara)
San Francisco firefighters attend the scene where Cruise, General Motors' robotaxi unit, said one of their autonomous vehicles struck and injured a pedestrian who had first been struck by another human-driven vehicle which fled the scene, in San Francisco

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. and California officials said on Tuesday they are in discussions with General Motors' self-driving unit Cruise about an accident in San Francisco involving a pedestrian hit by a vehicle into the path of a robot taxi.

A pedestrian was struck late Monday by a hit-and-run driver and thrown into an adjacent lane and hit a second time by the Cruise robotaxi, which was not able to stop in time, the company said.

The self-driving vehicle came to a stop on top of the pedestrian, the San Francisco Fire Department said on social media, adding the victim was freed using rescue tools and transported to a nearby trauma center.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Tuesday it "is aware of the incident and is in contact with the operator and local authorities to gather additional information."

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said it met with Cruise Tuesday to get more information on the incident and "takes all collisions involving autonomous vehicles seriously."

San Francisco police said Cruise was cooperating in the investigation.

Cruise allowed Reuters and other media outlets to view video of the crash that was consistent with the company's statement.

The DMV in August said it was investigating "recent concerning incidents" involving Cruise vehicles in San Francisco and asked the company to take half its robotaxis off the roads, a request Cruise complied with.

The DMV noted Tuesday the Cruise investigation continues and it could "suspend or revoke testing and/or deployment permits if there is determined to be an unreasonable risk to public safety."The Teamsters union last week asked NHTSA to deny a petition from Cruise seeking permission to deploy up to 2,500 self-driving vehicles annually without human controls like steering wheels.

Cruise wants to deploy its Origin vehicle, which has subway-like doors and no steering wheels. Current robotaxis in use on public roads have human controls.

In December, NHTSA opened a formal safety probe into the autonomous driving system in vehicles produced by Cruise after reports of two injuries in rear-end crashes. NHTSA said Cruise vehicles "may engage in inappropriately hard braking or become immobilized."

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese)
A man living on the streets displays what he says is the synthetic drug fentanyl at the Tenderloin section of San Francisco, California, U.S., February 27, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

By Andrew Goudsward and Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Tuesday announced actions against Chinese companies and people as President Joe Biden's administration targets trafficking of the deadly drug fentanyl, unsealing indictments and imposing sanctions on dozens of targets.

"We are here today to deliver a message on behalf of the United States government. We know who is responsible for poisoning the American people with fentanyl," U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters.

"We know that this global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China."

The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it imposed sanctions on 28 people and entities involved with the international proliferation of illicit drugs, including a large China-based network.

The move marks the latest Chinese targets Washington has hit with sanctions related to fentanyl, as the administration seeks to stem imports of the drug.

The Justice Department also unsealed eight indictments charging eight China-based companies and 12 of their employees with crimes relating to fentanyl and methamphetamine production, distribution of synthetic opioids, and sales resulting from precursor chemicals.

None of the defendants has been arrested so far and the Chinese government did not work with U.S. authorities on the investigations, Garland said.

Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for China's embassy in Washington, said China strongly condemned Tuesday's move, adding that the Chinese government takes a firm stance on counter-narcotics.

"The U.S., however, in disregard of Chinas goodwill, has been scapegoating China through the tactics of sanctioning, smear and slander. This has seriously eroded the foundation of China-U.S. cooperation on counter-narcotics," Liu said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during his visit to China in June, said he made clear Washington needs much greater cooperation from China on stemming the flow of fentanyl and that the sides had agreed to explore setting up a working group on the matter.

Tuesday's announcement came the day before Garland was due to travel to Mexico with other senior U.S. officials. Fentanyl trafficking is expected to be a major subject of discussion.

U.S. prosecutors accused some of the chemical manufacturing companies of shipping chemicals used to make fentanyl to the U.S. using fake shipping labels and other mechanisms to avoid detection. Other shipments went to Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, prosecutors said.

The Treasury accused the China-based network of being responsible for the manufacturing and distribution of fentanyl, methamphetamine and MDMA precursors.

It said the network is capable of synthesizing multi-thousand-kilogram quantities of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and MDMA precursors and other illicit chemicals.

So-called fentanyl precursors are chemicals used to produce the powerful synthetic opioid that has fueled a rise in drug overdose deaths in the United States in recent years.

Also hit with sanctions were two entities and one person based in Canada.

Tuesday's sanctions action freezes any U.S. assets of those targeted and generally bars Americans from dealing with them.

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward and Daphne Psaledakis; Additional reporting by Michael Martina, Rami Ayyub and Costas Pitas; editing by Susan Heavey and David Gregorio)
By Simon Lewis and Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department on Tuesday said the United States respects the right to freedom of speech and assembly of individuals when asked about American factions of the movement for a Sikh separatist state that has long frustrated India.

The Indian government has complained about the presence of Sikh separatist groups outside India, especially in Canada. The groups have kept alive the movement for Khalistan, or the demand for an independent Sikh state to be carved out of India.

One such group called Sikhs for Justice is based in the United States and has been organizing an unofficial so-called "Khalistan Referendum".

"So we're not going to comment on the unofficial referendum," a U.S. State Department spokesperson said.

"What I will just say is that, broadly across the board, individuals have the right to freedoms of speech, rights to peacefully assemble in the United States, all of which are in line with our First Amendment protections, and adherence, of course, to any appropriate federal and local regulations."

The demand for an independent Sikh state surfaced most prominently in India during a violent insurgency in the 1980s and 1990s and paralyzed the state of Punjab. Tens of thousands died.

The movement is considered a security threat by India. Sikh militants were blamed for the 1985 bombing of an Air India Boeing 747 flying from Canada to India in which all 329 people on board were killed.

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 by two Sikh bodyguards after she allowed the storming of the holiest Sikh temple, aimed at flushing out separatists.

The cause hardly has any support in India presently and was crushed within the country by the government in the 1990s.

Canada last month alleged that India may have been involved in the killing of Canadian citizen and Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whom New Delhi labeled as a "terrorist". India denies any involvement in his killing.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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Table of Contents

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-Q/A

(Mark One)

 QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the quarterly period ended

or

 TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from ________ to _________

Commission File Number: 333-147187

ASIARIM CORP. AKA UN MONDE INTERNATIONAL LTD.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Nevada 83-0500896 (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) 5689 Condor Place Westagate Mall Mississauga ON Canada L5V 2J4 (Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

+ 1- 905 - 962-0823

(Registrants telephone number, including area code)

Not Applicable

(Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if changed since last report)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None.

Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered N/A N/A N/A

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes  No 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes  No 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of large accelerated filer, accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, and emerging growth company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer  Accelerated filer  Non-accelerated filer  Smaller reporting company  Emerging growth company 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes  No 

As of August 19, 2022, there were 6,493,346 shares outstanding of the registrants common stock.

EXPLANATORY PARAGRAPH

This Amendment No. 1 to the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q/A for quarter ended June 30, 2022, is being filed solely to correct the company name from Un Monde International Worldwide Ltd. to Un Monde International Ltd. No other changes have been made to the Form 10-Q/A, as originally filed on August 26, 2022.

ASIARIM CORP. AKA UN MONDE INTERNATIONAL LTD.

FORM 10-Q

June 30, 2022

INDEX

2

PART 1  FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1. Financial Statements.

Un Monde International Ltd

FORMERLY Asiarim Corp.

BALANCE SHEETS

Unaudited

June 30, December 31, 2022 2021 Assets Current Assets Cash $  $  Total Current Assets   Total Assets $  $  Liabilities Current Liabilities Accounts payable and accrued expenses $ 17,793 $ 3,764 Due to related party 63,008 62,308 Total Current Liabilities 80,801 66,072 Total Liabilities 80,801 66,072 Commitment & contingencies   Stockholders' Deficit Common Shares, $0.001 par value; 90,000,000 shares authorized, 6,493,346 and 6,493,346 shares issued and outstanding, respectively 6,493 6,493 Additional paid-in capital 2,317,217 2,317,217 Accumulated income (loss) ( 2,404,511 ) ( 2,389,782 ) Total Stockholders' Deficit ( 80,801 ) ( 66,072 ) Total Liabilities and Stockholders' Deficit $  $ 

* See accompanying notes to financial statements

3

Un Monde International Ltd

FORMERLY Asiarim Corp.

STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

Unaudited

Three Months Ended Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, June 30, June 30, 2022 2021 2022 2021 Revenues $  $  $  $  Operating expenses Professional fees 11,800 11,475 11,800 11,475 Other general & administrative expense 1,057 26,622 2,929 26,622 Total operating expenses 12,857 38,097 14,729 38,097 Loss from operations ( 12,857 ) ( 38,097 ) ( 14,729 ) ( 38,097 ) Other Income (Expenses) Interest income (expense)     Total Other Income (Expenses)     Net income (loss) before income taxes ( 12,857 ) ( 38,097 ) ( 14,729 ) ( 38,097 ) Income tax expense     Net income (loss) ( 12,857 ) ( 38,097 ) ( 14,729 ) ( 38,097 ) Net loss attributable to common stockholders $ ( 12,857 ) $ ( 38,097 ) $ ( 14,729 ) $ ( 38,097 ) Earnings (Loss) per Share - Basic $ ( 0.002 ) $ ( 0.005 ) $ ( 0.002 ) $ ( 0.005 ) Weighted Average Shares Outstanding - Basic 6,493,346 7,769,833 6,493,346 7,769,833 Earnings (Loss) per Share - Diluted $ ( 0.002 ) $ ( 0.005 ) $ ( 0.002 ) $ ( 0.005 ) Weighted Average Shares Outstanding - Diluted 6,493,346 7,769,833 6,493,346 7,769,833

* See accompanying notes to financial statements

4

Un Monde International Ltd

FORMERLY Asiarim Corp. *

STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS' DEFICIT

For the Six Months Ended June 30, 2022 and 2021

Unaudited

Total Common Shares Additional Accumulated Stockholders' Shares Par Value, $0.001 Paid-in Capital Income (loss) Deficit Balance, December 31, 2020 7,769,833 $ 7,769 $ 2,315,941 $ ( 2,331,376 ) $ ( 7,666 ) Net loss      Balance, March 31, 2021 7,769,833 7,769 2,315,941 ( 2,331,376 ) ( 7,666 ) Net loss    ( 38,097 ) ( 38,097 ) Balance, June 30, 2021 7,769,833 $ 7,769 $ 2,315,941 $ ( 2,369,473 ) $ ( 45,763 )

Balance, December 31, 2021 6,493,346 $ 6,493 $ 2,317,217 $ ( 2,389,782 ) $ ( 66,072 ) Net loss    ( 1,872 ) ( 1,872 ) Balance March 31, 2022 6,493,346 6,493 2,317,217 ( 2,391,654 ) ( 67,944 ) Net loss    ( 12,857 ) ( 12,857 ) Balance June 30, 2022 6,493,346 $ 6,493 $ 2,317,217 $ ( 2,404,511 ) $ ( 80,801 )

* See accompanying notes to financial statements

5

Un Monde International Ltd

FORMERLY Asiarim Corp.

STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

Unaudited

Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2022 2021 Cash Flows from Operating Activities Net loss $ ( 14,729 ) $ ( 38,097 ) Adjustment to reconcile Net loss from operations: Depreciation & Amortization expense   Changes in operating assets and liabilities Accounts payable and accrued expenses 14,029 9,211 Net Cash Used in Operating Activities ( 700 ) ( 28,886 ) Cash Flows from Investing Activities Net Cash Provided by Investing Activities   Cash Flows from Financing Activities Proceeds from (Repayment of) related party payables 700 28,886 Net Cash Provided by Financing Activities 700 28,886 Net Increase (Decrease) in Cash   Cash at Beginning of Period   Cash at End of Period $  $  Supplemental Cash Flow Information: Income Taxes Paid $  $  Interest Paid $  $ 

* See accompanying notes to financial statements

6

UN MONDE INTERNATIONAL LTD

Formerly Asiarim corporation

NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

As of and for the ix months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021

(Unaudited)

NOTE 1 - ORGANIZATION AND OPERATIONS Un Monde International Ltd formerly known as Asiarim Corporation (the Company) is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Nevada on June 15, 2007. The operations of Asiarim Corporation and its subsidiaries were abandoned by former management and a custodianship action was commenced in 2016. On May 5, 2016, the Eighth District Court of Clark County of Nevada granted the Application for Appointment of Custodian as a result of the absence of a functioning board of directors and the revocation of the Companys charter. The order appointed a custodian to take any Corporation actions on behalf of the Company that would further the interests of its shareholders. On March 29, 2019, a change of control occurred with respect to the Company to better reflect its new business direction. The Company intends to acquire private corporations that are involved in education and management services offering private, distinguished, specialized, and internationalized education to international students in schools.

NOTE 2 - SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES Basis of presentation The Companys financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (U.S. GAAP). The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Management further acknowledges that it is solely responsible for adopting sound accounting practices, establishing and maintaining a system of internal accounting control and preventing and detecting fraud. The Company's system of internal accounting control is designed to assure, among other items, that 1) recorded transactions are valid; 2) valid transactions are recorded; and 3) transactions are recorded in the proper period in a timely manner to produce financial statements which present fairly the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the Company for the respective periods being presented. Use of estimates The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reported period. 7 The Companys significant estimates include income taxes provision and valuation allowance of deferred tax assets; the fair value of financial instruments; the carrying value and recoverability of long-lived assets, including the values assigned to an estimated useful lives of computer equipment; and the assumption that the Company will continue as a going concern. Those significant accounting estimates or assumptions bear the risk of change due to the fact that there are uncertainties attached to those estimates or assumptions, and certain estimates or assumptions are difficult to measure or value. Management bases its estimates on historical experience and on various assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Management regularly reviews its estimates utilizing currently available information, changes in facts and circumstances, historical experience and reasonable assumptions. After such reviews, and if deemed appropriate, those estimates are adjusted accordingly. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Carrying value, recoverability and impairment of long-lived assets The Company has adopted paragraph 360-10-35-17 of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification for its long-lived assets. The Companys long-lived assets, which include computer equipment are reviewed for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset may not be recoverable. The Company assesses the recoverability of its long-lived assets by comparing the projected undiscounted net cash flows associated with the related long-lived asset or group of long-lived assets over their remaining estimated useful lives against their respective carrying amounts. Impairment, if any, is based on the excess of the carrying amount over the fair value of those assets. Fair value is generally determined using the assets expected future discounted cash flows or market value, if readily determinable. If long-lived assets are determined to be recoverable, but the newly determined remaining estimated useful lives are shorter than originally estimated, the net book values of the long-lived assets are depreciated over the newly determined remaining estimated useful lives. The Company considers the following to be some examples of important indicators that may trigger an impairment review: (i) significant under-performance or losses of assets relative to expected historical or projected future operating results; (ii) significant changes in the manner or use of assets or in the Companys overall strategy with respect to the manner or use of the acquired assets or changes in the Companys overall business strategy; (iii) significant negative industry or economic trends; (iv) increased competitive pressures; (v) a significant decline in the Companys stock price for a sustained period of time; and (vi) regulatory changes. The Company evaluates acquired assets for potential impairment indicators at least annually and more frequently upon the occurrence of such events. The impairment charges, if any, is included in operating expenses in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations. Cash and cash equivalents The Company considers all highly liquid investments with a maturity of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents. Related parties The Company follows subtopic 850-10 of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification for the identification of related parties and disclosure of related party transactions. Pursuant to Section 850-10-20 the Related parties include a) affiliates of the Company; b) Entities for which investments in their equity securities would be required, absent the election of the fair value option under the Fair Value Option Subsection of Section 8251015, to be accounted for by the equity method by the investing entity; c) trusts for the benefit of employees, such as pension and profit-sharing trusts that are managed by or under the trusteeship of management; d) principal owners of the Company; e) management of the Company; f) other parties with which the Company may deal if one party controls or can significantly influence the management or operating policies of the other to an extent that one of the transacting parties might be prevented from fully pursuing its own separate interests; and g) Other parties that can significantly influence the management or operating policies of the transacting parties or that have an ownership interest in one of the transacting parties and can significantly influence the other to an extent that one or more of the transacting parties might be prevented from fully pursuing its own separate interests. 8 Commitments and contingencies The Company follows subtopic 450-20 of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification to report accounting for contingencies. Certain conditions may exist as of the date the consolidated financial statements are issued, which may result in a loss to the Company but which will only be resolved when one or more future events occur or fail to occur. The Company assesses such contingent liabilities, and such assessment inherently involves an exercise of judgment. In assessing loss contingencies related to legal proceedings that are pending against the Company or unasserted claims that may result in such proceedings, the Company evaluates the perceived merits of any legal proceedings or unasserted claims as well as the perceived merits of the amount of relief sought or expected to be sought therein. If the assessment of a contingency indicates that it is probable that a material loss has been incurred and the amount of the liability can be estimated, then the estimated liability would be accrued in the Companys consolidated financial statements. If the assessment indicates that a potential material loss contingency is not probable but is reasonably possible, or is probable but cannot be estimated, then the nature of the contingent liability, and an estimate of the range of possible losses, if determinable and material, would be disclosed. Loss contingencies considered remote are generally not disclosed unless they involve guarantees, in which case the guarantees would be disclosed. Management does not believe, based upon information available at this time, that these matters will have a material adverse effect on the Companys consolidated financial position, results of operations or cash flows. However, there is no assurance that such matters will not materially and adversely affect the Companys business, financial position, and results of operations or cash flows. Revenue recognition The Company adopted ASU 2014-09, Topic 606 on January 1, 2018, using the modified retrospective method. ASC 606 requires the use of a new five-step model to recognize revenue from customer contracts. The five-step model requires that the Company (i) identify the contract with the customer, (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract, (iii) determine the transaction price, including variable consideration to the extent that it is probable that a significant future reversal will not occur, (iv) allocate the transaction price to the respective performance obligations in the contract, and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) the Company satisfies the performance obligation. The adoption of Topic 606 has no impact on revenue amounts recorded on the Companys financial statements as the Company has not generate any revenues. Income Tax Provisions The Company follows Section 740-10-30 of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification, which requires recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of events that have been included in the financial statements or tax returns. Under this method, deferred tax assets and liabilities are based on the differences between the financial statement and tax bases of assets and liabilities using enacted tax rates in effect for the fiscal year in which the differences are expected to reverse. Deferred tax assets are reduced by a valuation allowance to the extent management concludes it is more likely than not that the assets will not be realized. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using enacted tax rates expected to apply to taxable income in the fiscal years in which those temporary differences are expected to be recovered or settled. The effect on deferred tax assets and liabilities of a change in tax rates is recognized in the Statements of Income and Comprehensive Income in the period that includes the enactment date. 9 The Company adopted section 740-10-25 of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification (Section 740-10-25) with regards to uncertainty income taxes. Section 740-10-25 addresses the determination of whether tax benefits claimed or expected to be claimed on a tax return should be recorded in the financial statements. Under Section 740-10-25, the Company may recognize the tax benefit from an uncertain tax position only if it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the taxing authorities, based on the technical merits of the position. The tax benefits recognized in the financial statements from such a position should be measured based on the largest benefit that has a greater than fifty percent (50%) likelihood of being realized upon ultimate settlement. Section 740-10-25 also provides guidance on de-recognition, classification, interest and penalties on income taxes, accounting in interim periods and requires increased disclosures. Net income (loss) per common share Net income (loss) per common share is computed pursuant to section 260-10-45 of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification. Basic net income (loss) per common share is computed by dividing net income (loss) by the weighted average number of shares of common stock outstanding during the period. Diluted net income (loss) per common share is computed by dividing net income (loss) by the weighted average number of shares of common stock and potentially outstanding shares of common stock during the period. The weighted average number of common shares outstanding and potentially outstanding common shares assumes that the Company incorporated as of the beginning of the first period presented. Cash flows reporting The Company adopted paragraph 230-10-45-24 of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification for cash flows reporting, classifies cash receipts and payments according to whether they stem from operating, investing, or financing activities and provides definitions of each category, and uses the indirect or reconciliation method (Indirect method) as defined by paragraph 230-10-45-25 of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification to report net cash flow from operating activities by adjusting net income to reconcile it to net cash flow from operating activities by removing the effects of (a) all deferrals of past operating cash receipts and payments and all accruals of expected future operating cash receipts and payments and (b) all items that are included in net income that do not affect operating cash receipts and payments. The Company reports the reporting currency equivalent of foreign currency cash flows, using the current exchange rate at the time of the cash flows and the effect of exchange rate changes on cash held in foreign currencies is reported as a separate item in the reconciliation of beginning and ending balances of cash and cash equivalents and separately provides information about investing and financing activities not resulting in cash receipts or payments in the period pursuant to paragraph 830-230-45-1 of the FASB Accounting Standards Codification. Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements Management does not believe that any recently issued, but not yet effective accounting pronouncements, when adopted, will have a material effect on the accompanying financial statements.

NOTE 3  GOING CONCERN The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the Company will continue as a going concern, which contemplates continuity of operations, realization of assets, and liquidation of liabilities in the normal course of business. As reflected in the accompanying financial statements, the Company has net losses, accumulated deficit and a negative working capital without generating any revenues. These factors among others raise substantial doubt about the Companys ability to continue as a going concern. While the Company has not commenced operations and generate revenues, the Companys cash position may not be significant enough to support the Companys daily operations. Management intends to raise additional funds by way of a public or private offering. Management believes that the actions presently being taken to further implement its business plan and generate revenues provide the opportunity for the Company to continue as a going concern. While the Company believes in the viability of its strategy to generate revenues and in its ability to raise additional funds, there can be no assurances to that effect. The ability of the Company to continue as a going concern is dependent upon the Companys ability to further implement its business plan and generate revenues. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might be necessary if the Company is unable to continue as a going concern. 10

NOTE 4  STOCKHOLDERS DEFICIT Common Stock The Company is authorized to issue 90,000,000 shares of common stock. On September 9, 2021 the Company effected a one-for-ten reverse stock split of its common stock. All share and earnings per share information have been retroactively adjusted to reflect the reverse stock split was recorded with the offset to additional paid-in capital. On July 12, 2021, the Company completed the cancellation of 1,276,487 shares of common stock pursuant to an Assignment of Rights agreement dated October 3, 2016 where certain shareholders have entered into with the Company to return 1,276,487 shares of common stock to the Company as treasury stock. For the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company issued 89,334 shares at $3 per share for proceeds of $ 267,999 . The proceeds were provided to the sole directors and officers company as working capital and were recorded as a reduction to additional paid-in capital. As of June 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021, the Company has 6,493,346 and 6,493,346 shares issued and outstanding. Preferred Stock The Company is authorized to issue 10,000,000 shares of preferred stock. As of June 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021, the Company has 0 shares issued and outstanding.

NOTE 5  INCOME TAX On December 22, 2017, the President of the United States signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (Tax Reform Act). The legislation significantly changes U.S. tax law by, among other things, lowering corporate income tax rates, implementing a territorial tax system and imposing a transition tax on deemed repatriated earnings of foreign subsidiaries. The Tax Reform Act permanently reduces the U.S. corporate income tax rate from a maximum of 34% to a flat 21% rate, effective January 1, 2018. As a result of the reduction in the U.S. corporate income tax rate from 34% to 21% under the Tax Reform Act, the Company revalued its ending net deferred tax assets. The Company has accumulated approximately $ 2,404,511 of net operating losses (NOL) carried forward to offset future taxable income. In assessing the realization of deferred tax assets, management considers whether it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will be realized. The ultimate realization of deferred tax assets is dependent upon the generation of future taxable income during the periods in which those temporary differences become deductible. Management considers the scheduled reversal of deferred tax liabilities, projected future taxable income and tax planning strategies in making this assessment. Based on the assessment, management has established a full valuation allowance against all of the deferred tax asset relating to NOLs for every period because it is more likely than not that all of the deferred tax asset will not be realized.

NOTE 6  RELATED PARTY TRANSACTION Zhang Ci, majority shareholder, director and officer of the Company, have paid certain expenses on behalf of the Company. Such amounts are due on demand and non-interest bearing. The outstanding amount due to related parties was $ 63,008 and $ 62,308 as of June 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively. The proceeds from the share issuance were provided to the sole directors and officers company as working capital and were recorded as a reduction to additional paid-in capital (Refer to Note 4).

NOTE 7  SUBSEQUENT EVENTS The Company has evaluated subsequent events to the date the financial statements were issued and has determined that there are no items to disclose or require adjustments.

11

Item 2. Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following managements discussion and analysis (MD&A) should be read in conjunction with financial statements of Asiarim Corp. aka Un Monde International Ltd. for the three months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021, and the notes thereto.

Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included in this MD&A constitute forward-looking statements, including those identified by the expressions anticipate, believe, plan, estimate, expect, intend, and similar expressions to the extent they relate to Asiarim Corp. aka Un Monde International Ltd. or its management. These forward-looking statements are not facts, promises, or guarantees; rather, they reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, activities, performance, or events to differ materially from current expectations. These include risks related to revenue growth, operating results, industry, products, and litigation, as well as the matters discussed in Asiarim Corp. aka Un Monde International Ltd.s MD&A. Readers should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements. Asiarim Corp. aka Un Monde International Ltd. disclaims any obligation to publicly update or to revise any such statements to reflect any change in the Companys expectations or in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statements may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

Overview

Asiarim Corp. aka Un Monde International Ltd is a developmental stage company that focus on offering education and management services to private, distinguished, specialized, and internationalized education to international students in schools. We anticipate implementing our business within the next 12 months.

Results of Operations

The following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our financial statements and the related notes included in this report.

Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2022 and 2021

Revenue

For the three and six months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021, the Company had not generated any revenues.

Operating Expenses

Operating expenses for the three months ended June 30, 2022 were $12,857 compared to $38,097 for the three months ended June 30, 2021.

Operating expenses for the six months ended June 30, 2022 were $14,729 compared to $38,097 for the six months ended June 30, 2021.

The decrease of operating expenses is due to additional expenses incurred in 2021 as a result of the change of control of the Company in 2021.

Other Income and Expenses

12

For the three and six months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021, the Company did not have any other income or expenses.

Net Income (Loss)

For the three months ended June 30, 2022, the Company had a net loss of $12,857 compared to the three months ended June 30, 2021 of a net loss of $38,097.

For the six months ended June 30, 2022, the Company had a net loss of $14,729 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2021 of a net loss of $38,097.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

As of June 30, 2022, we had no cash and a working capital deficit of $80,801.

Operating Activities

Net cash used in operating activities were $700 for the six months ended June 30, 2022 and $28,886 for the same period ended 2021. The change resulted from net operating loss decrease of $23,368. Accounts payable and accrued expenses increased by $14,029 from $3,764 at December 31, 2021 to $17,793 at June 30, 2022. The increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses is related to other professional fee and administration expenses incurred and payable during the period.

Investing Activities

No investing activities occurred during the six months ended June 30, 2022 and 2020.

Financing Activities

Net cash provided by financing activities were $700 for the six months ended June 30, 2022 and $28,886 for the same period ended in 2021. The Company received advances of $700 and $28,886 from a related party for working capital purposes for the six months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

There are no off-balance sheet arrangements with any party.

Critical Accounting Policies

Our discussion and analysis of results of operations and financial condition are based upon our condensed consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. The preparation of these condensed consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. We evaluate our estimates on an ongoing basis, including those related to provisions for uncollectible accounts receivable, inventories, valuation of intangible assets and contingencies and litigation. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

13

The accounting policies that we follow are set forth in Note 2 to our financial statements as included in the SEC report filed. These accounting policies conform to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States and have been consistently applied in the preparation of the financial statements.

Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

As a smaller reporting company, as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act, we are not required to provide the information in this Item.

Item 4. Controls and Procedures

Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Pursuant to Rule 13a-15(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act), the Company carried out an evaluation, with the participation of the Companys management, including the Companys Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) (the Companys principal financial and accounting officer), of the effectiveness of the Companys disclosure controls and procedures (as defined under Rule 13a-15(e) under the Exchange Act) as of the end of the period covered by this report. The framework used by management in making that assessment was the criteria set forth in the document entitled Internal Control  Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework). Based upon that evaluation, the Companys CEO and CFO concluded that the Companys disclosure controls and procedures are effective to ensure that information required to be disclosed by the Company in the reports that the Company files or submits under the Exchange Act, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SECs rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to the Companys management, including the Companys CEO and CFO, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure for the reason described below.

Because of our limited operations, we have limited number of employees which prohibits a segregation of duties. In addition, we lack a formal audit committee with a financial expert. As we grow and expand our operations, we will engage additional employees and experts as needed. However, there can be no assurance that our operations will expand.

Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the period covered by this report that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

14

PART II OTHER INFORMATION

Item 1. Legal Proceedings

We are not a party to any material or legal proceeding, and, to our knowledge, none is contemplated or threatened.

Item 1A. Risk Factors

We are a smaller reporting company and, as a result, are not required to provide the information under this item. Please review the risk factors identified in Item 1.A of our December 31, 2021 Form 10-K.

Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

During the six months ended June 30, 2022, the Company did not sell any unregistered securities.

Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities

There have been no defaults upon senior securities.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

Item 5. Other Information

As a smaller reporting company, as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act, we are not required to provide the information in this Item.

Item 6. Exhibits

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SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

ASIARIM CORP. AKA UN MONDE INTERNATIONAL LTD. Date: October 3, 2023 By: /s/ Zhang Ci Name: Zhang Ci Title: President and Chief Executive Officer

Date: October 3, 2023 By: /s/ Zhang Ci Name: Zhang Ci Title: Chief Financial Officer

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ATTACHMENTS / EXHIBITS

CERTIFICATION

CERTIFICATION

CERTIFICATION

CERTIFICATION

XBRL SCHEMA FILE

XBRL CALCULATION FILE

XBRL DEFINITION FILE

XBRL LABEL FILE

XBRL PRESENTATION FILE

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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20549

FORM 6-K

REPORT OF FOREIGN ISSUER

PURSUANT TO RULE 13a-16 OR 15d-16 OF THE

SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For September, 2023 (Commission File No. 1-31317)

Companhia de Saneamento Basico do Estado de Sao Paulo - SABESP

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Basic Sanitation Company of the State of Sao Paulo - SABESP

(Translation of Registrant's name into English)

Rua Costa Carvalho, 300

Sao Paulo, S.P., 05429-900

Federative Republic of Brazil

(Address of Registrant's principal executive offices)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file

annual reports under cover Form 20-F or Form 40-F.



Form 20-F ___X___ Form 40-F ______

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K

in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1)__.

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K

in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7)__.

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the

information contained in this Form is also thereby furnishing the

information to the Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under

the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.



Yes ______ No ___X___

If "Yes" is marked, indicated below the file number assigned to the

registrant in connection with Rule 12g3-2(b):

MINUTES OF THE 35th MEETING OF THE ELIGIBILITY AND ADVISORY COMMITTEE OF

COMPANHIA DE SANEAMENTO BASICO DO ESTADO DE SAO PAULO  SABESP

The 35th meeting of the Eligibility and Advisory Committee of Companhia de Saneamento Basico do Estado de Sao Paulo  SABESP was held on July 31, 2023, at 11:00 a.m. Agenda: Analysis of the appointee for the Chief Customer Office of Companhia de Saneamento Basico do Estado de Sao Paulo.

The members of SABESPs Eligibility and Advisory Committee, in compliance with Official Letter CODEC 155/2023  SFP - 12091, of July 20, 2023 (pages 3124/3127 of the SIMA digital case 015656/2020-91), and considering the content of the email (Sabesp - [email protected]), dated 07-21-23  12:20 p.m. (page 3128 of the SIMA digital case 015656/2020-91) and based on the statements signed in the Registration Form, instituted by CODEC Resolution 03/2018, as well as on the documentation presented by the appointee for the position of Chief Customer Officer, Caio Marcelo de Medeiros Melo, confirm that the nomination process complies with Federal Law 13,303/2016, Federal Law 6,404/1976, State Decree 62,349/2016, the Companys Bylaws and Nomination Policy, and CODEC Resolution 02/2023. Said proofs of the appointee will be filed at the Companys headquarters. There being no other business to address, the meeting was adjourned for the drawing up of these minutes, which were read, found to be in compliance, and digitally signed by the members.

CARLA ALMEIDA

FABIO AURELIO AGUILERA MENDES

PAULA CRISTINA NASSSIF ELIAS DE LIMA

1

Appointee: CAIO MARCELO DE MEDEIROS MELO

Position: Chief Customer Officer

Evaluation Script Item Notes General Data Are all fields completed and compliant? ( X ) Yes ( ) No Requirements Has the appointee declared that he/she complies with all requirements? ( X ) Yes ( ) No Prohibitions Has the appointee declared that he/she does not fall into any impediment hypotheses? ( X ) Yes ( ) No Documents Has the appointed submitted: Registration Form initialed and signed? ( X ) Yes ( ) No CV initialed and signed? ( X ) Yes ( ) No Declaration signed as required by the CVM? ( X ) Yes ( ) No Higher education diploma or proof of membership in a trade association? ( X ) Yes ( ) No Diploma proving academic qualification compatible with the position? ( X ) Yes ( ) No Documentation certifying the minimum required professional experience as stated in item B of the Registration Form? ( X ) Yes ( ) No

After analyzing the Registration Form and the documents presented, this Committee confirms that the nomination of Mr. CAIO MARCELO DE MEDEIROS MELO complies with Federal Laws 13,303/2016 and 6,404/1976, and State Decree 62,349/2016.

2
(Tribune News Service)  A former University of Dayton administrator and two U.S. Air Force personnel were among men arrested last week in Montgomery County as part of a statewide human trafficking sting.

Law enforcement across Ohio teamed up in a concerted effort to stem the demand that fuels human trafficking, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Monday. The success of this operation is measured not only by the number of arrests but also by the resources offered to survivors of human trafficking and the intelligence gathered that will propel long-term investigations forward.

The Montgomery County Human Trafficking Task Force was one of nearly 100 law enforcement and service organizations to participate in the statewide crackdown that led to the arrests of 149 johns seeking to buy sex.

Seven people were arrested locally, including a 55-year-old UD administrator; a 44-year-old Indiana University professor from Richmond; and two airmen, one with an address in Dayton and another with an address in Washington, D.C., according to Yosts release.

In addition a 45-year-old Fairfield man was arrested, but it is not clear where.

Steve Irwin, spokesman for the Ohio Attorney Generals Office, said the men are facing charges of soliciting prostitution, a first-degree misdemeanor.

The Montgomery County Human Trafficking Task Force is comprised of the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office, Butler Twp. Police Department, Miami Twp. Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations.

(c)2023 Springfield News-Sun, Ohio

Visit www.springfieldnewssun.com

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A Light Medium Tactical Vehicle and a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle leave the Alaska National Guard Armory on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Jan. 5, 2022. (Victoria Granado/U.S. Army National Guard)

Two Army soldiers were killed and a dozen more were injured when the tactical vehicle that they were riding in overturned on a dirt road 30 miles south of Fairbanks, Alaska.

The Light Medium Tactical Vehicle was transporting 17 soldiers of the 11th Airborne Division from Fort Wainwright to the Yukon Training Area near Salcha when it skidded and flipped, according to John Pennell, a U.S. Army Alaska spokesman. No other vehicles were involved in the crash.

About 7,200 soldiers are based at Fort Wainwright, which is near Fairbanks and the northernmost active-duty military installation in the United States. It is often the site for cold weather training and weapons testing in harsh conditions. The base is home to the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 11th Airborne Division, nicknamed Arctic Angels. The base is also home to the Arctic Aviation Command.

The Yukon Training Center, part of the Fort Wainwright complex of military installations in the area, has nearly 270,000 acres for military maneuvers. It is bordered on the north by Eielson Air Force Base, home of the 354th Fighter Wing. The wing is part of the 11th Air Force, headquartered at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage.

Emergency fire and medical providers arrived at the scene and were able to give first aid to the injured soldiers, who were taken by vehicle or helicopter to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.

Two severely injured soldiers were flown by air ambulance to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.

Pennell said the identities of the soldiers killed in crash at about 11 a.m. Monday, local time, would not be released until 24 hours after relatives had been informed of their deaths. But he told The Associated Press that the Army was reaching out to personnel and families at Fort Wainwright affected by the incident.

Were a real tight-knit group in the military, so right now, the entire 11th Airborne Division is grieving and preparing to provide whatever support is necessary for the families of the deceased and to help support those who are still in the hospital and dealing with their injuries, he said.

Mondays crash is the second fatal accident involving Army troops in Alaska. Three soldiers were killed in April when two helicopters collided while flying to Fort Wainright.

The National Weather Service issued a special weather announcement on Sept. 29 calling for sometimes heavy snow and freezing conditions through Tuesday.

Heavy snow showers could reduce visibility at times, according to the weather service. Please plan ahead for slippery road conditions and use caution when travelling.

The Army will investigate the cause of the crash. Under Army protocol, a team also will be dispatched from the services accident investigations unit at the Army Combat Readiness Center in Fort Novosel, Ala., formerly Fort Rucker.

Fort Novosel is home to training for safety and its investigators are dispatched whenever a Class A accident involving the loss of life, permanent disability or property damage of more than $2 million takes place.
Marine Lance Corporals Samantha Berrios and James Patton were both killed on Nov. 5, 2022, when an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriffs deputy, who dozed off on his way home from work, plowed into a disabled vehicle stranded on an Orange County freeway. ()

(Tribune News Service)  Its been almost a year, and Michael Patton still wants justice. To him, that means seeing criminal charges filed against the driver who killed his son.

The person behind the wheel wasnt a drunk driver or a texting teen. Records show he was an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriffs deputy who dozed off on his way home from work, killing two U.S. Marines who were stranded on the freeway in Orange County in a disabled vehicle.

Investigators with the California Highway Patrol have asked that prosecutors consider criminal charges against the deputy, Michael Miscione. The Orange County district attorneys office confirmed last week that a homicide prosecutor is considering the matter.

The loss of any life is a tragedy not only for the victims family, but for the entire community that loved them, Kimberly Edds, spokeswoman for the district attorneys office, wrote in a statement to The Times on Thursday. One of our veteran homicide prosecutors is carefully reviewing the facts of the case to determine what criminal charges can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

To Michael Patton, that came as a welcome development.

We are hoping to see that the district attorney does prosecute and that he does end up doing some time, he told The Times. The police are not above the law.

In a statement Monday, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department said it was aware of the tragic accident involving an off-duty deputy.

We will continue to monitor the investigation, the department said.

Miscione could not be reached for comment.

First reported last week by the Orange County Register, the crash that killed James Patton and Samantha Berrios happened in the early hours of Nov. 5, 2022. It was Pattons birthday weekend  the lance corporal had just turned 20  so, according to his father, he decided to celebrate by going to a hip-hop show in Los Angeles with two friends. On the way back to Camp Pendleton, the driver hit a median wall on the southbound 5 Freeway, just south of Crown Valley Parkway in Mission Viejo.

According to a California Highway Patrol report, the Marines Honda was too damaged to drive, so Patton and his friends got out to call for a tow truck. The driver  Aden Baker  stayed outside the vehicle, but Patton and fellow Lance Cpl. Samantha Berrios got back in the car because they were cold.

Ten minutes later, the car was still sitting in the high-occupancy lane with the lights off at 3:48 a.m. when records say Miscione plowed into them with his Chevrolet truck.

The 26-year-old deputy had just gotten off work at 3 a.m. and, according to the report, was driving about 90 mph  more than 30 mph over the limit  in a construction zone.

When a Highway Patrol sergeant later asked him what happened, Miscione said: I fell asleep, I fell asleep. The last thing he remembered before nodding off, according to the report, was getting on the freeway from State Route 91.

The impact knocked off the bumper and cracked the windshield of Misciones truck, but records show it smashed the trunk, shattered the windows, flattened the rear tires and even crushed the hood of the Marines Honda.

Afterward, Miscione was taken to Providence Mission Hospital for arm and head pain.

Patton and Berrios both died at the scene.

The wreck came less than a week before they were scheduled to deploy to Japan, Nancy Berrios  Samanthas mother  told The Times.

On the phone from their home in Florida, Nancy and Miguel Berrios described their daughter as determined and highly motivated. She loved music and played lacrosse in school but didnt have any particular career path in mind. Then in her mid-teens, she decided that the military was exactly the kind of challenge she was looking for.

She always said she wanted to rise above and feel like she could make a difference, Nancy Berrios said. One day just out of the blue, she said: Im going to be a Marine.

At first, her parents were shocked.

But she kept going and did what she had to do, her mother said. She was a tough cookie.

Though she didnt come from a military family, Samantha Berrios joined the Marines in 2021 and hoped to one day become a recruiter. She was excited about the upcoming deployment to Japan and thought the trip to Los Angeles with her fellow Marines would be a happy celebration of her last days in California.

As a boy in Cary, N.C., Patton had always dreamed of joining the Marines, his father said. He came from a long line of Army and Navy veterans, and he took pride in knowing his grandfather had been part of the Normandy invasion during World War II.

After high school, he went to Parris Island, where  because he was an Eagle Scout  he started at the rank of private first class. He advanced to lance corporal and was well on his way to corporal before he died, his father said.

He was very gung-ho on the Marine Corps, and he loved every minute of it, Michael Patton told The Times.

To Patton, its frustrating that the California Highway Patrol did not tell reporters about the Marines deaths, and that it took nearly a year to complete the accident report and send it to local prosecutors.

Its almost like they were saying our son and the Berrioses daughter didnt matter, he said.

The local California Highway Patrol office in San Juan Capistrano did not return a call requesting comment. In an email, the district attorneys office in Orange County confirmed that prosecutors just recently received the case.

The Patton and Berrios families, meanwhile, have filed a lawsuit against the deputy, Los Angeles County and several others. The county deferred to the Sheriffs Department for comment , and its not clear whether any of the parties have formally replied in court yet.

I know that the deputy didnt leave his house thinking, I want to kill these Marines, Nancy Berrios said.

It was a mistake  and there are consequences for a mistake, she continued. In my heart, I know he didnt mean to. But these are our children.

2023 Los Angeles Times.

Visit latimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Marine Lance Cpl. Blake Allen Dequaine, 20, was in the custody of Kanagawa Prefectural Police on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)

Japanese police have arrested a Marine lance corporal on suspicion of throwing a man to the ground and injuring him in a city near Tokyo.

Blake Allen Dequaine, 20, was in the custody of Kanagawa Prefectural Police on Tuesday, a police spokesman told Stars and Stripes by phone that day.

Police allege Dequaine threw a passerby, a 43-year-old man, to the ground around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Nakahara ward of Kawasaki city, about 10  miles southeast of Tokyo.

Dequaine was arrested about 10 minutes later, according to the spokesman. He said the passerby was injured but declined to provide further information.

Some government officials in Japan speak with the media only on condition of anonymity.

Dequaine is a rifleman with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, according to 3rd Marine Division spokeswoman Capt. Annika Pearson. Hes deployed to the 4th Marines, based at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, as part of the Unit Deployment Program.

Dequaine was in Kawasaki on liberty, Pearson said.

The Marine Corps is aware of the incident and cooperating with local authorities, she told Stars and Stripes by email Tuesday. The alleged misconduct is not aligned with our core values, which the majority of Marines and Sailors uphold.
CHICAGO, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against the Big Three U.S. automakers has resulted in nearly 4 billion U.S. dollars of losses as it enters the 18th day Monday.

According to Michigan-based economic consulting firm Anderson Economic Group (AEG), the strike has resulted in 325 million-dollar losses in direct wages, 1.1 billion-dollar losses to Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. (GM), and Stellantis NV, nearly 1.3 billion-dollar losses to automotive suppliers and 1.2 billion-dollar losses to dealers and customers.

AEG expects the third week of the strike to be "significantly more costly for Ford."

Public support for the strike remains strong so far, a new poll conducted by Navigator Research on Monday shows.

Based on a nationwide survey of 1,000 registered voters conducted on Sept. 21-25, the poll indicates that 78 percent of Americans support the striking UAW autoworkers more than the automakers. The support is shared across partisan and demographic lines, with 69 percent of Republican and 87 percent of Democrat respondents indicating they support the UAW more than the automakers.

Over half of respondents view the UAW favorably, and majorities across political parties and demographic groups said they support workers' collective bargaining rights.

The UAW announced just before midnight Sunday that it has reached a tentative five-year contract agreement with Mack Trucks that covers about 4,000 workers in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Florida.

"The terms of this tentative agreement would deliver significantly increased wages and continue first-class benefits for Mack employees and their families," Mack President Stephen Roy said in a statement on Monday. "At the same time, it would allow the company to successfully compete in the market, and continue making the necessary investments in our people, plants and products."

The UAW said that more details would become available as members review the tentative deal with Mack.

Following a new Stand-Up strike approach, the UAW announced a strike at three select factories of Ford, GM, and Stellantis on Sept. 14, after its contract with the Big Three expired. It spread the strike to 38 GM and Stellantis parts distribution centers around the country on Sept. 22, following a lack of meaningful progress in new contract negotiations. It called on around 7,000 workers at two more GM and Ford SUV assembly plants to strike on Sept. 29.

In all, about 25,000 out of some 146,000 Big Three U.S. automaker workers represented by the UAW are now on strike across the country. 
Laura Busch, right, a natural resources program manager at U.S. Fleet Forces Command (USFF), discusses the Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing (AFTT) study area with a visitor at the U.S. Navys Stewards of the Sea: Defending Freedom, Protecting the Environment exhibit aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) during Fleet Week New York in May 2017. (Bobbie A. Camp/U.S. Navy)

(Tribune News Service)  The Navy is asking the National Marine Fisheries Service to modify its regulations to allow for more injuries to marine mammals during Pacific training.

The NMFS authorizes the Navy an incidental take  a calculation of the number of times the government believes Navy operations could result in marine life getting harassed, injured or killed in a certain area even if sailors are working to mitigate the impact.

The Navys current operating permit for its Hawaii-Southern California Training and Testing Study Area expires in 2025 and allows up to three large whales to be killed in ship strikes  fatal collisions at sea. As of 2023 the Navy has hit that limit through incidents off Southern California.

But in a public legal notice posted online to the Federal Register on Monday by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the agency said the Navy has asked the NMFS to retroactively amend the regulations to allow for two more fatal ship strikes to large whales before the permit expires.

The Navy also put forth new mitigation policies in its request that it says should prevent such ship strikes. However, the fact that the service asked for permission to change regulations to allow for more has drawn criticism from environmental watchdog groups.

The Navys main response to hitting and killing whales is to ask for permission to harm more whales. Its nonsensical and extremely disappointing, said Kristen Monsell, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversitys oceans program. A rubber stamp from the federal government to allow whale ship strikes wont help endangered whales recover. To truly protect whales and comply with the law, the Navy needs to implement speed limits requiring ships to slow down in important whale habitat.

The Navy and entire federal government need to start doing everything they can to reverse the catastrophic impacts the United States is having on our increasingly fragile environment, and on our planetary climate security, said Wayne Tanaka, director of the Sierra Club of Hawaii. Instead, after Navy vessels struck at least three whales in the last two years, they are now simply asking permission to run over even more whalesanimals that can actually play a key role in carbon sequestration and climate mitigation.

In 2021 the Navy announced it would review its policies after an Australian navy destroyer participating in a U.S.-led multinational exercise off California dragged two dead fin whales under its hull into San Diego, where the animals were dislodged from its hull. The Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue the Navy.

Navy officials had long contended that they would know if they had fatally struck a whale, but the 2021 incident indicated there could be more impacts than they had known. The Endangered Species Act requires the government to reevaluate its data if new information or factors it hadnt considered come to light.

A Pacific Fleet spokesman told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser the Navy had requested to amend the permit as a cautionary acknowledgement that some probability of ship strike, although low, could still occur over the remaining Hawaii-Southern California Training and Testing (HSTT ) Study Area authorization period through December 2025. ... This is predicated on a revised summary of the probability of future ship strikes in the approximately two years remaining in the HSTT authorizations following the Navy ship strikes in the California portion of HSTT during 2021 and 2023.

Under the existing permit, Navy personnel at sea must acknowledge mitigation zones for marine mammals and are instructed that if marine mammals are observed, Navy personnel must maneuver to maintain distance. Ships have a logbook aboard, and sailors are supposed to log any sighting of marine mammals spotted near their vessels.

The Navy takes its environmental stewardship responsibilities seriously and has protective measures in place to avoid ship strikes, said the Navy spokesman, who added that the Navy is working to better track whales and share reports of sightings with other ships and units operating in the Pacific.

Additional marine mammal refresher training for operational units has also been implemented since these strikes, said the Navy spokesman. These measures are in addition to the long-standing standard procedures already employed, including the posting of trained Navy lookouts at all times on the ship and using the Protective Measures Assessment Protocol to inform of mitigation required in specific activities.

But one of the main asks from environmentalistsrequiring ships to slow down in known habitatsis off the table.

The legal notice said that in the modified permit NMFS is emphasizing that Navy personnel should consider reducing speed (as mission or circumstances allow ) when maneuvering to avoid marine mammals, though this modified measure does not require reduction of vessel speed for reasons, adding that requirements to reduce vessel speeds would have significant direct negative effects on mission effectiveness.

Ship strikes are a top threat to whales and the Navy can help prevent these tragedies by slowing down their ships through important whale habitat, said Monsell. Without more meaningful mitigation, well only see more dead whales. That the Navy is asking for permission to kill more shows it has little faith in the efficacy of existing requirements.

The few new measures NMFS and the Navy are proposing are grossly inadequate, Monsell added. She noted that many of these measures come into effect only if the whales is observed by sailors on the ships.

The Navy considers the Pacific its top-priority area of operations amid increasing tension with China. The competition between China and the U.S. has had both geopolitical and ecological consequences across the region.

Much of the focus has been on the South China Sea, a critical waterway that more than a third of all international trade moves through. China claims nearly the entire sea as its exclusive territory, over the objections of neighboring countries, and has built bases on disputed reefs and islands to assert those claims. Satellite imagery suggests these construction projects are having a profound environmental impact, but independent scientists havent been able to conduct research up close.

In Hawaii the U.S. military is facing increasing scrutiny over its environmental impact in the islands. The Monday legal notice mentioned a March 25, 2022, incident in which a beaked whale stranded in Honaunau Bay and bystanders intervened to turn the animal off the rocks, allowing it to swim back out of the bay on its own.

Locals reported hearing a siren or alarm type of sound underwater on the same day, and a Navy vessel was observed from shore on the following day, the notice stated. The Navy confirmed it used continuous active sonar (CAS ) within 50 kilometers (27 nautical miles) and 48 hours of the time of stranding, though the stranding has not been definitively linked to the Navys CAS use.

The notice said the NMFS and Navy explored the idea of new mitigation areas to protect marine mammals, including consideration of new mitigation areas based on newly identified (biologically important areas ) in Hawaii, but that the Navy ultimately concluded establishing those areas would be impracticable given overlap with critical Navy training areas in the ( Hawaii Range Complex ).

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An unarmed Trident II D5 launches from the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine USS Louisiana from waters near San Diego, Sept. 27, 2023. (Kevin Tang/U.S. Navy)

The U.S. Navy test-fired a ballistic missile from a nuclear-powered submarine off the coast of California last week as the vessel prepares to return to service, according to the Department of Defense.

Photographs of an unarmed, extended life Trident II D5, launched Sept. 27 by the USS Louisiana and blasting out of the water near San Diego, were released by the DOD the next day.

The test was part of a Demonstration and Shakedown Operation, a final evaluation of the Louisianas crew and readiness following a 41-month engineered refueling overhaul at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Wash., which concluded in March.

The Louisiana is one of 14 Ohio-class submarines that make up the most survivable leg of Americas nuclear triad, which includes land and air-launched nuclear weapons, according to the DOD.

Their stealth design makes finding an SSBN (a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine) an almost impossible task, giving pause to potential adversaries, the DOD states on its website. The Columbia-class SSBN program will begin to replace the Ohio-class SSBNs starting in the early 2030s.

The Trident II D5 is the latest generation of the Navys submarine-launched ballistic missiles and was first deployed in 1990, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The service plans to keep the missiles in service under a life extension program into the 2080s, according to the center.

Under the New START agreement, each missile may carry up to eight nuclear warheads, either 100-kiloton W76 warheads or the 475-kiloton W88. Each of the 12 Ohio-class subs always in service carries 20 Trident II missiles, according to the center.

Some motors that supported last weeks unarmed flight test were the oldest Trident II D5 motors flown to date, demonstrating their reliability and proven performance, Northrop Grumman said in a news release Monday.

Northrop Grummans strategic motors have provided propulsion success for 191 successful test launches since their deployment to the fleet, Wendy Williams, company vice president for propulsion systems, said in the release.

The life-extended Trident II D5 is a three-stage missile also carried by British Vanguard-class submarines and will be carried aboard U.S. Columbia-class and British Dreadnought-class subs in the future, the company said.

Northrop Grumman, under a contract from U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin, manufactures solid-propulsion motor systems for all three stages of the missile, the company said.

The company has delivered over 2,000 Trident II D5 motors and made nearly 87 million pounds of propellant since production began in 1985, according to the release.
An estimated 50 to 75 people live in Barbar, a village in eastern Afghanistans Kunar province where U.S. and Afghan troops conducted a search mission in 2011. But when they arrived, the soldiers found only a handful of men and children in the village. (Martin Kuz/Stars and Stripes)

This article first appeared in the Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, Feb. 21, 2012. It is republished unedited in its original form.

BARBAR, Afghanistan  Its said that war is 99 percent boredom and 1 percent sheer terror, so it follows that war coverage tends to dwell on the 1 percent.

But unlike reporters and readers, soldiers cant ignore the 99 percent. They have to live the tedium.

Killing time

A U.S. platoon and two dozen Afghan soldiers gathered at 11 p.m. beside the stone-strewn landing zone at Combat Outpost Fortress. Their ride, a pair of Chinooks, would not arrive for more than three hours.

The temperature had dropped below freezing, and an occasional ripple of wind gave the winter chill a deeper bite. The American soldiers huddled beneath blankets, the shivering embodiment of the militarys unofficial motto: Hurry up and wait.

All you can do, said Sgt. Joshua Roque, 24, of Lawrenceville, Ga., is try to stay warm until the birds come.

The men with Company C of the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment were headed on a mission to search the village of Barbar, a suspected Taliban enclave in eastern Afghanistans Kunar province. By the time the operation ended the following night, the motto would need a familiar addendum: Hurry up and wait  then walk a long way for nothing.

Slow and steady

The rotor wash of the Chinooks provided welcome gusts of warm air as the U.S. and Afghan soldiers climbed aboard. Ten minutes later, they stepped onto a plateau a mile above sea level in the Hindu Kush mountains.

It was past 3 a.m. and a halfmoon cast the landscape in silvery shadows. The men started walking in a twisting line, taking small steps over loose rocks and around spiny brush.

Almost no one spoke. What little sound they made  the soft scrape of boots across dirt, the muted clatter of weapons and gear  was absorbed by the darkness.

The only noise to rise above the hush was a dull thud, punctuated by a grunted oath. Someone had fallen. He stood up, and the line regained its slow momentum.

The soldiers secured an overwatch point near Barbar as pink morning sunshine seeped over the mountain walls. The light revealed Roques improvised loincloth, a beige T-shirt that hung down from his belt to cover a rip in his pants.

Bushes got me, he said.

A pair of goats look on as U.S. and Afghan soldiers conducting a search mission move through the village of Barbar, a suspected Taliban enclave in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province. (Martin Kuz/Stars and Stripes)

Goats, not glory

The ridge-line perch offered the soldiers a view of the Dewagal Valley and the mud-brick homes of Barbar a half-mile below.

Intelligence reports suggested that a midlevel Taliban operative lived in the village and insurgents stashed weapons and ammunition there as they moved to and from Pakistan, some 20 miles to the east.

The Afghan soldiers loped down into the valley to search dwellings and question villagers. Half the U.S. platoon followed around 8 a.m., after the Afghans radioed that they had completed the clearing mission.

The Americans found the village deserted except for a half-dozen men, a handful of kids and many, many goats.

The 50 to 75 people who live in Barbar had chosen a good day for a group outing.

Capt. Brad Wilson, the platoon leader, talked to a man whose face was as lined as the dry, broken earth.

Are there Taliban here? asked Wilson, 26, of Grand Rapids, Mich. Do Taliban ever come through here?

No. No Taliban, the man said through an interpreter.

Yeah, no Taliban, Wilson said in the drained voice of the unconvinced.

No Taliban, and the village sweep had turned up only a rusty box of machine-gun rounds and two mortar shells.

The soldiers had hiked miles for a paltry haul. Now they had to hike some more.

Time to wait

The Afghan soldiers wore no body armor and carried only weapons and ammunition. On the steep climb back to the overwatch point, they surged ahead of the Americans, who each humped 50 to 100 pounds of armor, gear, water, a weapon and ammo.

I sort of hate to see them getting so far ahead of us, Wilson said, looking up the trail at the Afghans. He and his soldiers had sat down to catch their breath.

Someone mentioned the lighter load of the Afghans.

Yeah, I know, but still, Wilson said.

Another soldier rolled his eyes. Wilson didnt notice.

The Americans reached the top by early afternoon and rested under a golden sun. About two hours had passed when staccato gunfire broke the stillness.

The platoon quickly realized the shots were aimed at a small group of U.S. soldiers who had remained by the plateau where the helicopters would return that night. Wilsons men watched, listened, held their fire. Waiting.

Near dusk, with the horizon tinting purple, the U.S. and Afghan troops trudged to the landing zone. They stepped onto the plateau close to 5 p.m.

The Chinooks would not arrive for at least four hours.
(Martin Kuz/Stars and Stripes)

Barbar, Afghanistan, Dec. 31, 2011: Capt. Brad Wilson, a platoon leader with Company C of the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, talks with a resident of Barbar, a village in eastern Afghanistans Kunar province and a suspected Taliban enclave. The man told Wilson that no insurgents live there. Intelligence reports suggested that a midlevel Taliban operative lived in the village and insurgents stashed weapons and ammunition there as they moved to and from Pakistan, some 20 miles to the east.

Check out the article on Company Cs mission here.
Capt. Michael Fontaine speaks to Japanese reporters after taking command of Sasebo Naval Base, Japan, Sept. 28, 2023. (Quinton Lee/U.S. Navy)

A Navy captain with a background in nuclear reactors and antisubmarine warfare is now in charge of Sasebo Naval Base, Japan, homeport of an expeditionary strike group led by the USS America.

Capt. Michael Fontaine, a Michigan native, assumed command Friday at Sasebo from Capt. David Adams, who steered the base through two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I set out to build a high-performance organization, an organization that does whats right for the right reasons, an organization that responds to our nations needs, Adams said in a video of the change-of-command ceremony posted on the base Facebook page.

Adams took command Sept. 25, 2020, in the depths of the pandemic.

A year and five months later, U.S. Forces Japan in January 2022 ordered all Defense Department personnel, including civilian employees, to stay at home for 10 days to curb a wave of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. Sasebo Naval Base that month reported 553 new cases of COVID-19, surpassing by four times the number of cases the base reported the preceding two years.

The stay-at-home order came about after reports of Americans exempt from travel bans in Japan bringing the virus with them on their return from travel abroad.

A native of Beaumont, Texas, Adams said COVID-19s impact on military commands in Japan required a heavy cleanup and stringent effort to get clear of those restrictions that were affecting all of our lives.

Adams received the Legion of Merit at the ceremony from Rear Adm. Carl Lahti, commander U.S. Naval Forces Japan and Navy Region Japan, and the Sasebo Honorary Citizen for International Goodwill Award from Sasebo Mayor Daisuke Miyajima.

Nagasaki prefecture Gov. Kengo Oishii congratulated Adams and welcomed Fontaine to Japan.

To Captain Adams, on behalf of the people of Nagasaki prefecture, I wish you and your family good health, happiness and success at your new place, Oishii said, according to the release. I would like to extend a warm welcome to Captain Michael Fontaine. We are looking forward to seeking further friendship under your new leadership, he said.

Sasebo Mayor Daisuke Miyajima presents Capt. David Adams with an honorary citizen award during a change-of-command ceremony at Sasebo Naval Base, Japan, Sept. 28, 2023. Adams was relieved by Capt. Michael Fontaine. (Quinton Lee/U.S. Navy)

Sasebo Naval Base on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japans four main islands, is home to more than 7,400 sailors, civilian employees and family members. Its the homeport for the amphibious assault ship America, the lead ship of the America Amphibious Ready Group.

Fontaine comes to Sasebo from the Learning and Development Division at Naval Education and Training Command. He was also the director of current operations at the U.S. 2nd Fleet.

Fontaine enlisted in 1995 as a machinists mate, earned a bachelors in mechanical engineering at North Carolina State University and was commissioned through the Nuclear Enlisted Commissioning Program, according to his official biography. He holds a masters degree from Old Dominion University.

He has also served as an antisubmarine warfare and combat information center officer aboard the frigate USS Reuben James and reactor controls division officer on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, among other assignments, according to the Navy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting in Moscow, on Oct. 2, 2023. (Mikhail Metzel/AFP via Getty Images/TNS)

(Tribune News Service)  Armenia defied outrage from the Kremlin and voted to ratify membership of the International Criminal Court thats issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

Lawmakers voted 60-22 in Armenias parliament Tuesday to approve the Rome Statute recognizing the jurisdiction of the court. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyans government has argued that ICC membership will allow Armenia to bring war-crimes cases against Azerbaijan over the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and attacks on its own borders.

Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, last week warned that Russia regarded Armenias decision to seek ICC membership as extremely hostile. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow also accused Armenia last month of taking unfriendly steps including by moving to join The Hague-based court.

Armenias recognition of the ICC effectively bars Putin from visiting the country thats a member of the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization defense alliance. The court issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March over allegations related to the abduction of children from occupied areas of Ukraine.

That obliges member states to detain the Russian president if he enters their jurisdiction, an issue that forced Putin to skip the BRICS summit in South Africa in August.

Traditionally allies, tensions between Moscow and Yerevan have surged in recent weeks after Pashinyan accused Russia of failing to fulfill security obligations toward Armenia in its conflict with Azerbaijan. Armenia is host to Russias only foreign military base in the Caucasus region.

The exodus of 100,000 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh has also stoked anger in Armenia after Russian troops deployed as peacekeepers in the region failed to intervene to halt last months attack by Azerbaijan to take full control of the territory.

Russia denounced Armenias unacceptable attacks. The Foreign Ministry warned Pashinyans government was making a huge mistake by deliberately trying to demolish Armenias multifaceted and centuries-old ties with Russia in favor of closer links with the U.S. and the European Union.

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NEW YORK, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The trials of Donald Trump began on Monday in a New York courtroom, where the former president made an appearance to fight the first of several government actions against him - a civil case that "imperils his company and threatens his image as a master of the business world," The New York Times reported.

The case, brought by Letitia James, New York's attorney general, takes aim at Trump's boasts about his net worth, accusing him of crossing from hyperbole into fraud. In some years, the attorney general's office contends, Trump, his adult sons and their family business inflated his riches by more than 2 billion U.S. dollars so that they could secure favorable terms from banks.

Trump walked past reporters in the hallway but did not stop to speak this time, after making multiple statements, attacking the proceedings, Judge Arthur Engoron and Letitia James. Engoron ruled last week that Trump and his co-defendants were liable for fraud in the attorney general's civil case, one of the seven claims that are a part of the lawsuit.

Trump was not required to appear in court Monday for the trial against him, his eldest sons, their companies and Trump Organization executives. But he chose to attend and sit in the Manhattan courtroom - while giving multiple statements attacking the proceedings as he entered and exited.

"I've been going through a witch hunt for years, but this is really now getting dirty between (special counsel) Jack Smith, and between all of these DOJ people helping them along," Trump said. "This is a pure witch hunt for purposes of interfering with the elections of the United States of America. It's totally illegal."

The New York attorney general's office asked Donald Bender, Trump's former accountant at Mazars USA, about the price of a penthouse apartment for Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump. "If I saw something that didn't make sense to me, or bothered me, I would ask him (the client, Trump Organization) about it," Bender testified.

Trump's last appearance in a New York courthouse was in April for his arraignment on criminal charges related to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. He is scheduled to go to trial in that case next year and is also under criminal indictment in three other cases in Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C. 
Michael McCord, the Defense Department comptroller, provides testimony May 11, 2023, at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C., on the fiscal 2024 defense budget. (Chad J. McNeeley/Defense Department)

WASHINGTON  The Pentagon is running low on money to replace the weapons and equipment that have been shipped to Ukraine and defense officials are asking Congress to authorize more funds as soon as possible, the Defense Departments top budgetary official said.

Every time the United States sends emergency military aid to Ukraine, the equipment comes from Pentagon stocks and makes them unavailable for U.S. forces around the world. Of the roughly $26 billion that Congress previously authorized to replace weapons and equipment for the embattled country, only $1.6 billion remains, Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord wrote in a letter to House and Senate lawmakers.

McCord also expressed concern that the stopgap funding approved by Congress on Saturday to avert a government shutdown does not include new funding for Ukraine aid.

I write to express the Department of Defenses deep concern with the absence of [new] security assistance funding for Ukraine, McCord said in the letter, which was sent to Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate. [We are] anxious to avoid a lapse in appropriations, but it is important that a [continuing resolution] protect our security interests and uphold our commitments and our values.

New aid for Ukraine was removed from the continuing resolution to ensure enough House Republicans voted for the spending measure. The resolution will keep funding the government until mid-November, giving Congress more than a month to pass the appropriate bills to fund the government through September 2024 and appropriate more aid to help Ukraine fight invading Russian forces.

We have already been forced to slow down the replenishment of our own forces to hedge against an uncertain funding future, McCord wrote. Failure to replenish our military services on a timely basis could harm our militarys readiness.

The Pentagon reportedly has about $5.4 billion left in presidential drawdown authority, which allows the military to send weapons quickly from DOD shelves on an emergency basis. But McCord wrote the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative is already out of money. Because weapons sent through the assistance initiative dont come from Pentagon stocks, they dont need to be replaced.

Airman Faith Grayson, 436th Aerial Port Squadron ramp operation specialist, loads cargo Feb. 3, 2023, during a security assistance mission at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (Marco A. Gomez/U.S. Air Force)

Without additional funding now, we would have to delay or curtail assistance to meet Ukraines urgent requirements, including for air defense and ammunition that are critical and urgent now as Russia prepares to conduct a winter offensive and continues its bombardment of Ukrainian cities, he wrote. For example, a lack of USAI funding now will delay contracting actions that could negatively impact the departments ability to purchase essential additional 155 mm artillery and critical munitions essential to the success of Ukraines armed forces.

Though many congressional lawmakers agree with continuing aid to Ukraine, a growing number of Republicans, particularly those on the partys far right, are beginning to balk at approving more funds. Many who stress the importance of keeping up aid, including President Joe Biden, have said in recent days that the assistance cannot stop now.

We cannot under any circumstance allow Americas support for Ukraine to be interrupted, Biden said Sunday. The vast majority of both parties  support helping Ukraine in the brutal aggression that is being thrust upon them by Russia. Stop playing games. Get this done.

McCord wrote in his letter that cutting off aid to Ukraine would put the Eastern European country in a dire situation  and possibly encourage other nations, such as China, to carry out further acts of aggression. Beijing has repeatedly expressed a desire to unify with Taiwan  a move that could require military force.

Delays to additional funding would also be perceived by Ukraine as a sign of wavering U.S. support and likely as a betrayal of our previous commitments, McCord wrote. It is crucial that the U.S. continues to lead [the] global coalition, and we need the resources to underwrite our leadership role.
Frederick Douglass Moorefield Jr., 62, of Arnold, Md., was a deputy chief information officer for command, control and communications for the Secretary of Defenses Chief Information Officer, court records and Moorefields LinkedIn page show. He was arrested and charged with participating in a dog fighting ring in the Washington, D.C., area for more than 20 years, federal authorities disclosed. (Department of Defense)

A senior member of the Department of Defense communications staff has been arrested and charged with participating in a dog fighting ring in the Washington, D.C., area for more than 20 years, federal authorities disclosed Monday. The ring regularly trained dogs for fights, ran thousands of dollars in bets on the outcomes and executed dogs that didnt die during matches, court records state.

Frederick Douglass Moorefield Jr., 62, of Arnold, Md., was a deputy chief information officer for command, control and communications for the Secretary of Defenses Chief Information Officer, court records and Moorefields LinkedIn page show. He was arrested Thursday on a charge of promoting and furthering animal fighting venture, along with a longtime friend who allegedly admitted his participation in dog fighting, Mario D. Flythe, 49, of Glen Burnie, Md.

Investigators found battery jumper cables, which allegedly were used to execute dogs at Moorefields house, along with five pit bull-type dogs at his house and five pit bull-type dogs at Flythes house, court records show.

The FBI, the Department of Agriculture, and other local and federal agencies raided both houses on Sept. 6, according to a federal affidavit, finding weighted collars and heavy metal chains used to increase fighting dogs strength. Authorities said they also found an apparatus that is used for involuntarily inseminating female dogs and stains consistent with bloodstains from dogfights.

Both men were released after being arraigned.

Lt. Cmdr. Tim Gorman, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement on Monday that the Defense Department was aware of the criminal complaint filed against Moorefield in federal district court in Baltimore.

We can confirm that the individual is no longer in the workplace, but we cannot comment further on an individual personnel matter, Gorman said. He did not say if Moorefield had been suspended, terminated or allowed to retire.

An affidavit written by FBI Special Agent Ryan C. Daly indicated that authorities have been investigating the dogfighting ring, which called itself the DMV Board, for years. Nine fellow dog-fighters were indicted in Virginia last year, and eight have pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators. Members communicated on the Telegram messaging app about training fighting dogs, exchanging videos, arranging fights and wagers, and comparing methods of killing dogs who lost fights, the affidavit states.

Online records maintained by the dogs owners showed that Moorefield had been involved in dog fighting since at least 2002, Daly wrote, and evidence of Moorefields training for fights, or refereeing other owners dog fights, was found periodically over the years, including extensive messaging lining up fights and prize money. Evidence indicated some fights occurred earlier this year, despite the arrests of others in the ring, and that Moorefield and Flythe were experimenting with different types of performance enhancing drugs to improve [their] chances of winning dogfights.

Anne Arundel County authorities had received complaints about Moorefield and Flythe for years, and in November 2018 the county animal control was alerted to a report of two dead dogs in a plastic dog food bag in Annapolis, about six miles from Moorefields home, Daly wrote. In addition to the dogs in the bag, investigators found mail addressed to Moorefield, Dalys affidavit stated.

When Daly spoke to Moorefield on the day of the raid, he acknowledged that he operated under the name Geehad Kennels, and that local animal control and law enforcement had previously visited his property, the affidavit states. Flythe told another FBI agent that he used the name Razor Sharp Kennels and admitted to having engaged in dogfighting in the past.

No lawyers were listed in court records for the two men.

A phone number for Moorefield was unavailable, and Flythe did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Hunter Biden departs a court appearance in Delaware on July 26, 2023. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

ILMINGTON, Del.  Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to three charges in a federal courthouse Tuesday, the next step in a long-running investigation that could result in his criminal trial colliding with his fathers 2024 presidential election campaign.

Federal prosecutors accused the younger Biden in a four-page indictment last month of making two false statements in 2018 when he completed paperwork to purchase a gun. Biden asserted on the form that he was not addicted to or using illegal drugs, the indictment says, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious. He is also charged with unlawfully possessing the gun.

A plea agreement Biden had tentatively reached with prosecutors collapsed over the summer, offering new ammunition to Republicans who have accused the Justice Department of mishandling the case.

The deal would have had him plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax violations while admitting to illegal possession of a gun, but not actually pleading guilty to that felony offense.

After the deal fell apart, Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss  the prosecutor who has overseen the investigation since it started during the Trump administration  asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to make him a special counsel, a designation that would give him clearer authority to bring charges outside of Delaware.

Weiss is now weighing whether to file tax charges against Biden in California, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive case.

Republicans, including former president Donald Trump, have tried to link President Biden to his sons alleged wrongdoing, and have made the Hunter Biden investigation a focal point of the 2024 presidential race.

Federal law makes it illegal to possess a weapon while using illegal drugs. Hunter Biden has publicly acknowledged being addicted to drugs at the time of the 2018 gun purchase. He allegedly owned the Colt revolver for 11 days.

According to federal sentencing guidelines, Biden could face up to 10 years in prison, though in reality, since he does not have a criminal record and is not accused of a violent crime, he would probably face far less time.

Hunter Biden possessing an unloaded gun for 11 days was not a threat to public safety, but a prosecutor, with all the power imaginable, bending to political pressure, presents a grave threat to our system of justice, Hunter Bidens attorney, Abbe Lowell, said after prosecutors charged his client.

Hunter Biden has publicly acknowledged being addicted to drugs at the time of the gun purchase.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., speaks outside the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 3, 2023, calling for continued support for Ukraine. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass, left, and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., right, stand among veterans with the group VoteVets holding up signs in support of Ukraine. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)

WASHINGTON  Democrats in the Senate and House joined veterans and former military leaders Tuesday to urge Congress to approve immediate aid for Ukraine as funds available for the countrys defense against Russias invasion dwindle.

The calls for action followed a decision by Congress on Saturday to pass a stopgap funding bill that omitted Ukraine aid in order to win enough Republican support to avoid a government shutdown. Some Democrats said it is vital to correct that omission.

Ukraine is not just fighting for their territorial integrity. Its not just fighting for their democracy. Ukraine is fighting for our democracy as well, said Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., a Marine veteran. Theyre not asking for American troops to fight there. They are asking for Americans to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

The White House asked Congress in August to approve $24 billion in aid to Ukraine, including $13 billion in military assistance. The money was expected to be included in the short-term spending agreement to keep the government open but was stripped away as Republicans in the House rebelled against continued funds for the Eastern European country.

House Republicans took the unusual step last week of separating funding for a 9-year-old program that trains and equips Ukrainian forces from its customary place in an annual defense appropriations bill. A growing number of Republicans contend money earmarked for the war would be better spent strengthening the U.S. border with Mexico and countering China.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., dismissed that view, pointing out that aid to Ukraine makes up less than 5% of the defense budget.

All this talk about how, Oh we ought to be spending it on the border, we ought to be spending it on our needs  We can do both. Thats what a great country does. We keep our word, he said. We do whats necessary at home, and we stop appeasement, we do not appease.

Congress has approved $113 billion in military, economic and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine since Russias full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Ret. Army Brig. Gen. Steven Anderson speaks outside the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 3, 2023, calling for continued support for Ukraine. Behind Anderson holding up signs are veterans with the group VoteVets who support Ukraine. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)

The Defense Departments top budgetary official warned congressional leaders this weekend that the Pentagon only has about $1.6 billion left from a previous $26 billion assistance package to replace weapons and equipment shipped to Ukraine.

The Pentagon still has $5.4 billion available to pull weapons from its own stocks, but money for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a program that purchases weapons for Ukraine, has completely dried up, Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord said.

He said Ukraine urgently needs air-defense weapons and ammunition as Russia prepares a winter offensive.

We have enough funding authorities to meet Ukraines battlefield needs for just a little longer, Sabrina Singh, the Pentagons deputy press secretary, said Tuesday. But we need Congress to act to ensure there is no disruption in our support, especially as the department seeks to replenish our stocks.

Russia said Monday that the delay in funding is a harbinger of rising weariness among Western nations to continue supporting Ukraine.

Fatigue from this conflict, fatigue from the completely absurd sponsorship of the Kyiv regime, will grow in various countries, including the United States, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. This fatigue will lead to the fragmentation of the political establishment and the growth of contradictions.

The split in opinion over Ukraine was evident in the front of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday as veterans supporting additional war assistance clashed with protesters from Code Pink, a left-wing, anti-war organization. The protesters demanded peace negotiations and heckled some lawmakers as they spoke, shouting no more weapons, no more slaughter.

Auchincloss ignored the protesters as he touted the benefits of spending additional dollars on Ukraine. Steven Anderson, a retired brigadier general now working with the veterans group VoteVets, said the U.S. spent $300 million per day on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Ukraine was a far more important fight.

Every dollar we have sent to Ukraine has been a good dollar spent, Auchincloss said. We have cratered half of Russias conventional military capacity, doubled their border with NATO, induced our allies to spend more on their own defense and sent a stark message [to] the dictator both in the Kremlin and in Beijing that America is not going anywhere.

Efforts to pass additional aid could be complicated by the removal of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as House Speaker on Tuesday. The ouster leaves the House without a leader and could paralyze any action on the chamber floor.

Blumenthal said he was worried about the logistics of pushing through the Ukraine package at such an uncertain time in Congress but emphasized most members of the House supported the legislation.

We should not get bogged down on inside-the-beltway technicalities when our national security is so widely at stake, he said.
The New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Menlo Park in Edison. (Ed Murray, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com/TNS)

When COVID hit the Veterans Memorial Homes at Menlo Park and Paramus, workers began a mass exodus, according to a state report released Tuesday.

And as the crisis mounted, there was nobody to take their place.

In a critical new report issued Tuesday on the troubled state-run nursing facilities that care for veterans and their families, the State Commission on Investigation said administrators were unprepared for the massive absenteeism by frontline staff in the initial weeks of the pandemic. At the same time, the SCI said those in charge had mismanaged securing replacement staff, leaving existing employees overwhelmed.

The state called in the National Guard in April 2020 to help feed residents and transport residents and perform other non-medical tasks.

SCI Chair Tiffany Williams Brewer said their investigation revealed that the pandemic presented a perfect storm of circumstances that exposed systemic and, in some cases, enduring problems in the administration and supervision of the veterans homes.

Veterans and their relatives who live in these facilities, she said, deserve better.

The SCIs findings come just weeks after the U.S. Justice Department and its Division of Civil Rights found that New Jersey systematically violated the rights of residents at the two nursing homes.

In a scathing report, the U.S. Attorneys office said that as COVID-19 was spreading through many of the nations long-term care facilities, the state itself failed to implement adequate infection control protocols, provide adequate clinical care, or provide oversight of the facilities in a manner that keeps the residents of the veterans homes safe from harm.

Problems with management, accountability and staff skill levels persist to this day, the report added. It also found that the facilities inability to communicate and implement crucial clinical care policies  and the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs failure to ensure that this happens  harmed residents and places them at risk of harm.

Gov. Phil Murphy called the earlier federal report a deeply disturbing reminder that the treatment received by our heroic veterans is unacceptable and, quite frankly, appalling. He added that although his administration has instituted improvements, including recently securing private management and assistance for the two homes, It is clear that we have significantly more work to do and we are open to exploring all options to deliver for our veterans the high level of care they deserve.

Murphys spokeswoman Christ Peace credited the latest report with providing additional insights and will be taken into consideration as the Administration works diligently alongside our partners in the Legislature to improve the care we deliver to our heroes.

While progress has been made in recent years to improve operations and procedures within the veterans homes, we understand more work must be done to fully address those challenges on behalf of the residents and staff, Peace said. All options remain on the table to ensure New Jerseys veterans receive the exceptional services and support they deserve.

The SCI report also said problems persist. It found that the homes residents did not, and still do not, receive the level of care they are entitled to from the State of New Jersey.

The SCI began looking at the veterans homes three years ago, but said that inquiry was put on pause in the wake of separate state and federal investigations  some of which remain ongoing.

The two state homes reported some of the highest numbers of publicly reported resident COVID deaths of all long-term care facilities in New Jersey. Overall, COVID claimed the lives of more than 200 residents and staff in all Menlo Park, Paramus and a third facility in Vineland, according to state data. Federal officials said the actual number of COVID deaths was likely much higher.

The 16-page report it released Tuesday focused largely on the staffing issues.

In Menlo Park in Edison, there was a 480% increase in call-outs by workers in the weeks after COVID arrived at the home, the SCI found. At the same time, the commission said there had been no realistic strategy to get employees to report to work or to find replacement staff.

It noted that one administrator testified that when COVID hit in March 2020, 40 to 50 employees called out all at one time, which meant that all of a sudden they had their entire workforce walk out the door.

Staffing agencies, however, were unwilling to send nurses and other medical personnel to the veterans homes to replace absent staff because the daily rates paid by the state were fixed. As a result, nurses and other support staff could make far more at private health care facilities, noted the SCI.

Under the veterans homes infectious disease outbreak plan, the SCI said the first strategy used to address the staffing shortages was to offer overtime shifts to current staff.

However, the concept of overtime pay was not a sufficient incentive for employees who could stay home and receive their salaries without the need to use leave time, the report said.

The commission recommended that the state clarify the essential employee status of nurses and frontline staff at the veterans homes and uphold the requirement for those workers to report to duty in emergencies.

In addition, it said the contract rates paid for temporary health care workers to supplement staff should also be suspended or temporarily increased to allow the veterans homes to remain competitive with the private sector.

But lack of staff was only one of the problems the SCI cited.

The physical layout and outdated infrastructure of the Menlo Park and Paramus were not designed or equipped to handle isolation or quarantine situations. And according to the commission, the rapidly changing guidance on virus management from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was not well communicated by state health officials to the veterans homes managers or within the homes, creating confusion and upending planned strategies.

At the same time, it said no system existed to ensure family members of the residents received regular and reliable communication from the homes staff with information on their loved ones.

It called upon the Legislature and governor consider the creation of a new cabinet-level agency or commission with specific authority for the homes.

At a minimum, any government entity responsible for overseeing the veterans homes should be led and staffed by professionals with significant clinical experience, said the commission in its report.

Sen. Joe Cryan, D- Union, chairman of the Senate Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, said the latest report emphasized the need to create a new state agency that focuses on the needs of veterans, especially those living in the three state-run nursing homes.

He said the revelations about the chronic absenteeism stunned him.

I didnt know it was that bad, he said.

But he added that it was important to note the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs has been making some positive changes.

The report really brought into focus that there is still a significant amount of work that needs to be done on improving staffing levels. We have not solved it.

Attorneys representing workers, residents and their families, though, felt that the findings fell far short of providing a full accounting of what happened at the veterans homes during the pandemic.

Attorney Paul M. da Costa of Roseland, who has represented many families whose loved ones died at Paramus and Menlo Park, said report was further corroboration of what his clients have been claiming for the past three years. But he said it also unfairly, in part, sought to scapegoat employees.

It certainly is not the reason there was a massive wave of death at the facilities, he argued, noting that employees, as the report confirmed, had been threatened with discipline for wearing masks when the pandemic spread unchecked through nursing homes across the state.

What the report does not speak to, da Costa added, was why there was ever a mask insubordination policy initiated in the first place.

David Cohen of Cohen Kolodny Abuse Analytics of Red Bank, who also represents veterans and families, called it beyond shocking we needed a commission to recommend that a nursing home responsible for the safety and welfare of our heroes have their safety protected by people who are medical professionals and have clinical experience.

Cohen, who represented 15 families as part of the original settlement with the state.

One would have hoped and expected that what turned into 200 deaths, there would have been meaningful change to make these buildings safer for our heroes, he said.

Cohen recently filed additional lawsuits against the state on behalf of veterans families, some of whom suffered from poor care prior to the pandemic. He said the SCIs findings of systemic shortcomings confirm his clients concerns.

The problems were not limited to COVID. We had cases with pressure ulcers, cleanliness and nutrition, Cohen said. To have to tell the operators of these facilities they need to provide uninterrupted care is shocking. Continuity of care is one of the most important interventions you need to keep people safe.

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OTTAWA, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Canada's Liberal member of parliament Greg Fergus was elected the 38th speaker of the country's House of Commons on Tuesday.

Fergus, who represents the Quebec riding of Hull-Aylmer near Ottawa, is the first Black Canadian to become speaker of the House of Commons in Canada.

Elected by fellow members of parliament through a secret ballot, the speaker oversees the sittings and proceedings of the House, maintaining order and decorum in the chamber, providing impartial interpretation of its rules, and defending the rights and privileges of its members.

The speaker also oversees the House of Commons administration, serves as its spokesperson in its relations with the Senate, the Crown, and other bodies outside the parliament, and fulfills various ceremonial and diplomatic duties.

The new speaker's first task will be to help the parliament turn the page on the Nazi veteran affair, according to local media reports.

The former speaker, Anthony Rota, stepped down from the post last Tuesday amid controversies over his invitation to a veteran who fought for a Nazi military unit during the Second World War.

Fergus, born in May 1969, was first elected a member of parliament in 2015. 
A Veterans Affairs Police Department officer is accused in a federal indictment of striking an already restrained man with a baton dozens of times at a California VA hospital, causing lacerations and bleeding.

Juan Anthony Carrillo, 45, faces charges of deprivation of rights under color of law resulting in bodily injury and assault with a dangerous weapon with the intent to do bodily harm.

The charges stem from his use of force Jan. 16, 2022, at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. Carrillo was indicted Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

He will be arraigned in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Prosecutors say Carrillo hit a 34-year-old man, identified in the indictment as R.V., who had been detained by another VA police officer at the hospital.

Carrillo hit R.V. 45 times in 41 seconds, the Justice Department said in a statement Friday.

At the time, the other officer was on top of R.V., whom they both outweighed by more than 50 pounds, the Justice Department statement said.

R.V. was bleeding and had lacerations on both legs because of the beating, according to the statement.

Carrillo also tried to justify his use of force by writing in a report that the victim was violently kicking his legs and refusing to show his hands, prosecutors said, calling his claims false and misleading.

The Department of Veterans Affairs employs a force of about 5,000 police officers at its health care facilities, a 2020 Government Accountability Office report estimated.

VA police officers did not track or record use of force incidents properly, and its records were either incomplete or inaccurate, making oversight limited, the GAO said.
The president-elect of the Maldives Mohamed Muizzu said he will stick to his campaign promise to remove Indian military personnel stationed in the Muslim-majority archipelago state, promising he would initiate the process.

According to international media reports, Mohamed Muizzu told his supporters on Monday night at a celebration of his election victory that he wouldn't stand for a foreign military staying in the Maldives against the will of its citizens.

The people have told us that they don't want foreign military here, he said.

Outgoing President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who was elected president in 2018, was battling allegations by Muizzu that he had allowed India an unchecked presence in the country.

Muizzus party, the Peoples National Congress, is viewed as China-friendly.

Muizzu's main campaign theme was about an alleged threat to the Maldives' sovereignty by some Indian military personnel on an island, part of the party's yearslong India out strategy.

Solih insisted that the Indian militarys presence in the Maldives was only to build a dockyard under an agreement between the two governments and that his countrys sovereignty wont be violated.

Former President Abdulla Yameen, leader of the Peoples National Congress, made the Maldives a part of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative during his presidency from 2013 to 2018. The initiative is meant to build railroads, ports and highways to expand trade..

On Sunday, Yameen was transferred from prison to house arrest, already fulfilling one of Muizzu's campaign promises before he officially takes office on November 17.

The Maldives is made up of 1,200 coral islands in the Indian Ocean, located by the main shipping route between the East and the West.
Grainne Raymond (48) handed suspended sentence after guilty plea

A mother-of-two acted as a getaway driver in a street robbery as her accomplice reached out of the car and cut the strap of a passing womans handbag.

Grainne Raymond (48) was a pawn acting under the direction of the main culprit who snatched the bag, leaving the victim with a cut thumb and too afraid to walk alone afterwards.

Judge Michele Finan gave her a six-month suspended sentence when she pleaded guilty to her part in the theft.

Raymond, of Wainsfort Grove, Terenure, admitted robbing a woman of her handbag worth 200 at Fortfield Road, Terenure.

Dublin District Court heard on December 7, 2017, Raymond was driving a car when the passenger carried out the robbery.

The victim had her handbag over her shoulder when the accomplice cut the strap and took it.

The woman suffered a slight cut to her thumb from where she was holding the bag.

In a victim impact statement, the woman said she was now afraid walking alone at night. She had vivid memories of the incident and had developed a fear that she would be robbed again.

She had loved walking in the evening but that had been taken from her now as she was too nervous, especially if someone was too close to her or if a car pulled up beside her.

Gardai said it was a case of joint enterprise but defence barrister Luke OHiggins said the other person was more culpable.

The offence was out of character for Raymond, who had been using drugs at the time.
Around ten gardai were present in the vicinity of the High Court for the hearing

There were familiar scenes of disruption today as members of Enoch Burkes family were removed from a courtroom by gardai during a hearing reviewing his continued detention for contempt of court.

Around ten gardai were present in the vicinity of the High Court for the hearing, which ended in Mr Burke being returned to Mountjoy Prison after he refused to purge his contempt.

Mr Justice Mark Sanfey directed the sacked schoolteachers sister Ammi and parents Sean and Martina be removed after they repeatedly shouted up at him from the body of the court during the brief hearing.

The interruptions continued even after the judge rose for five minutes, warning that any further disruption would lead to those involved being ejected by gardai.

Ammi, Sean and Martina Burke all initially refused to leave when asked to do so by gardai.

They were each eventually escorted out one by one after being informed by a garda that the minimum force necessary would be used to remove them.

From the very outset of the hearing, Martina Burke began interrupting, repeatedly asking in a loud voice: Can he be suspended for his Christian beliefs.

The judge initially ignored her, seeking to press on with the hearing.

But the interruptions became so frequent and were soon joined by those of Ammi and Sean Burke that it was no longer possible to do so.

The review of Mr Burkes detention took place 25 days after he was committed to prison for a second time over his refusal to abide by court orders restraining him from the premises of Wilsons Hospital secondary school in Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath, where he formerly taught German and history.

Mr Burke, an evangelical Christian, was suspended in August last year after publicly clashing with school management over a request that teachers call a transgender student by a new name and use they/them pronouns when referring to them.

However, he continued to show up for work, even after the school got a temporary injunction restraining him from doing so.

Mr Burke was later jailed for contempt, spending 108 days in prison.

He was released shortly before Christmas despite refusing to purge his contempt and immediately resumed turning up at the school.

The imposition of 700-a-day fines by the High Court last January did not persuade him to give up his protest. Neither did the decision by the school to sack him, a determination he is seeking to appeal.

He again resumed his behaviour when the new school year began in August, this time in breach of a permanent injunction granted by Mr Justice Alexander Owens on July 17.

His behaviour prompted a second application from the schools board of management for his attachment and committal to prison, an order granted by Mr Justice Mark Heslin on September 8.

Today, Rosemary Mallon BL, for the board of management, said its position was that unless Mr Burke was willing to purge his contempt, it would reluctantly ask for the order of committal to continue.

During the hearing, Mr Justice Sanfey said he was not the Court of Appeal or an outlet for reviewing the decisions of other judges.

The only question I am here to deal with today is whether you are willing to purge your contempt, the judge said.

However, the judges comments did not dissuade Mr Burke from ventilating well-worn arguments he unsuccessfully made in several other hearings.

The right of free profession of religion is guaranteed under the constitution, said Mr Burke.

Transgenderism is not a Christian belief. That is a line I cannot cross. The Christian belief is male and female.

You are asking me to accept the order of the court for which no authority exists.

Mr Burke, who represented himself, went on to say: I should not be in prison. I have done nothing wrong. I have committed no crime.

I am being held in Mountjoy in a cell because I said I could not agree with, I could not endorse, transgenderism.

He claimed his case was about religious belief and that none of the various judges who have dealt with the dispute between him and the school had acknowledged this at any stage.

When the judge said he was there to uphold the law, Mr Burkes mother shouted loudly: Unjust laws.

Mr Burke claimed the judge was commanding him to abide by an unjust order.

I am not commanding you do anything. I am giving you an opportunity to purge your contempt, the judge responded.

The hearing grew increasingly fractious, with Mr Burke firing questions at the judge.

You dont get to ask me the questions around here, Mr Justice Sanfey responded.

Martina Burke then shouted: You are accountable. You gave an oath before almighty God.

The judge rose, warning that any further disruption would lead to those responsible being ejected.

As he left, Sean Burke said: We have had that before judge. Running away from the truth.

Mr Justice Sanfey attempted to resume the hearing a few minutes later, but the barracking continued and he instructed gardai to remove Ammi, Sean and Martina Burke.

When order was restored, the judge asked Mr Burke, by then only accompanied by his brother Isaac, if he was willing to purge his contempt. The question was met with silence.

Mr Justice Sanfey said Mr Burke had failed to purge his contempt and ordered he be returned to prison. A further review of his detention will take place on December 12.

The judge said it was open to Mr Burke to come back to the court at any time before then if he wished to purge his contempt.

The costs of the hearing were awarded to the board of management.
Trio of unopposed settlements are approved by judge

The Four Courts in Dublin. Photo: Getty Images

A former publican was one of three people who had significant debts written off during a single sitting of the High Court.

A total of 8.6m was written off under three unopposed debt settlement arrangements (DSAs) approved by Mr Justice Alexander Owens today.

All of the arrangements were presented to the court by barrister Keith Farry, representing various personal insolvency practitioners (PIPs).

The largest involved a sum of just over 5m owed by Brian Carrig (51), a self-employed accountant from Drogheda, Co Louth.

The court heard he previously had a pub called The Hub in the Liberties in Dublin which ran into trading difficulties.

Under an arrangement devised by PIP Eugene McDarby, his debts were written off in return for a contribution of 15,000 to creditors.

DSAs were one of three debt resolution mechanisms introduced following the last recession to assist debtors who had no prospect of returning to solvency. It allows for the agreed settlement of unsecured debts. These are debts not backed by an asset.

Mr Farry told the court none of Mr Carrigs creditors turned up to a creditors meeting to vote on the proposed DSA, an occurrence which is deemed an approval under the relevant legislation.

Mr Carrig's creditors included Everyday Finance, Cabot Finance and a trade creditor.

The second largest sum written off was just over 2.2m owed by Daniel Desmond (47), an IT director from Swords, Co Dublin.

Mr Farry, on behalf of PIP John McCormack, said the arrangement had 100pc support from creditors.

Under the DSA, creditors will receive 70,000 of what they are owed.

The court heard Mr Desmond had a business which failed in 2010, resulting in him being out of work for 12 months.

At the same time, Mr Desmonds loans came off the five-year interest only period to full interest and capital repayments. The knock-on effect was payments went from 5,000-a-month to 12,000 while he was not working.

Receivers were appointed and various assets were sold. However, he was still left with 2.2m in unsecured debt.

Mr Desmonds creditors included Pepper Finance and AIB.

The third DSA wrote off more than 1.3m owed by David Hoban (56), from Crumlin in Dublin, who previously worked as a building contractor.

Under the DSA devised by PIP Nicholas ODwyer, creditors will receive 20,000.

The court heard 80pc of his creditors had voted in favour of the deal.

Mr Hoban ran Hoban Construction from 2001 to 2021, until he was forced into liquidation as a result of Covid-19.

During the pandemic, his tenants stopped maintaining their rental payments across his property portfolio and he fell behind on mortgages.

Mr Hoban's creditors included Cabot Finance, Pepper Finance Corporation, Permanent TSB and Start Mortgages.

The court heard he was currently unemployed and had no source of income.
Jim Rock was floored by a judge when he took on former Justice Minister Alan Shatter

Legendary boxer Jim Rock was floored by a judge on Monday when he took on former Justice Minister Alan Shatter over what was described as trivial damages arising from an accident when their cars rubbed off each other.

Shatter won on a number of points after his solicitor Jerry OBrien told Judge John OConnor in the Civil Circuit Court there was more than money behind Rocks claim for trifling expenditure on the repair of his car.

Mr OBrien, of John C. Walsh Solicitors, said Rock had divulged in an e-mail to Mr Shatters insurers how he felt about Mr Shatter and what was the real reason they were in court.

Rock had told the former ministers insurance company: I know your client is a former Minister for Justice and probably knows every trick in the book to get away with things like this, but right now his luck has run out like when he had to resign as a Minister.

The ex-boxer, who was known as The Pink Panther, went on to state in his e-mail that Mr Shatter obviously thought he could get away with such little indiscretions.

Rock, when asked by Mr OBrien if his e-mail did not reveal the real reason they were in court, said he had been in contact day after day with Mr Shatters insurers and felt he was being fobbed off by them and had got annoyed.

Former professional boxer Jim Rock

The former boxer who was known in the ring as The Pink Panther because of the colour of his shorts, told Judge OConnor that when their cars had rubbed off each other and they had exchanged details following the late night incident he had found Mr Shatter unpleasant, not nice.

Rock had lost an 1,800 material damages claim against Shatter in the District Court and today appealed that decision to the Circuit Court which, having heard both sides, threw out Rocks claim and awarded legal costs against him. Mr Rock did not make any claim for personal injury damages.

Judge OConnor heard that the minor road traffic accident had occurred on a bend in Leeson Street as Mr Shatter made his way home in his Saab from a sitting of the Dail. Rock was also heading home in his Mercedes CLS and claimed that as the cars drove alongside each other Shatter had edged into his lane.

Alan Shatter

Mr Shatter said he had stopped rapidly following the bump and afterwards did not notice any particular damage to Mr Rocks car. Mr Rock, when he had got out of his car said: Oh! Its you and had become aggressive.

I didnt respond and the gardai were called and took statements, Mr Shatter said.

He told barrister Ailbhe Kelly, counsel for Rock, that he had been working from early morning but regularly did 12 to 16 hour shifts and was not feeling tired at the time.

Judge OConnor, dismissing Rocks appeal, said the case, involving a very minor accident , was one which should never have been taken to court. He said the court did not accept Mr Rocks evidence and awarded Mr Shatter his legal costs.
The four - Mykhailo Gavryk, Cumali Ozgen, Saeid Hassani and Vitaliy Vlasoi - appeared before Judge Colm Roberts at Mallow District Court.

Four men have been charged in connection with the seizure of 157m worth of cocaine on board a Panamanian-registered bulk carrier off the Cork coast.

The four - Mykhailo Gavryk, Cumali Ozgen, Saeid Hassani and Vitaliy Vlasoi - appeared before Judge Colm Roberts at Mallow District Court.

It brings to seven the number of people charged in connection with the dramatic drugs interdiction operation off the Irish coast last week by the Naval Service, Army Ranger Wing, Air Corps, gardai and Revenue Commissioners.

The 2.2 tonne seizure ranks as the largest drug interdiction in Irish history.

All four men appeared before Mallow District Court amid tight security.

The four are all charged with conspiracy to have in their possession, on September 24 in the State, a controlled drug, namely cocaine, for the purpose of supplying the drug and with the drug having a value in excess of 13,000 contrary to Section 5 and Section 15A of the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1977.

Four men charged over major drug haul off Cork coast

Two of the defendants, Gavryk and Vlasoi, are Ukrainian nationals.

One, Ozgen, is a Dutch national who was born in Turkey.

The fourth, Hassani, is an Iranian national.

All four have addresses outside Ireland.

Dutch, Ukrainian and Iranian-Farsi interpreters were required to assist several of the defendants.

Judge Colm Roberts heard evidence of arrest, caution and charge from Det Garda David Moran, Det Garda Mark Donovan, Det Garda Val Sullivan and Det Garda Lorraine Brennan.

All four appeared before Mallow District Court from Cobh, Fermoy and Cobh Garda Stations.

The court was told that Gavryk, Ozgen and Hassani made no reply when cautioned and charged.

Det Garda Val Sullivan said that when the charge was formally put to Vitaliy Vlasoi he replied: "I saw straight or direct evidence of the connection between the captain and another vessel or with somebody else who he contacted. It was shown as straight evidence. I did not see straight evidence against myself."

Judge Roberts appointed Ciara Hallinan of Michael Staines and Co, David O'Meara, Joe Cuddigan and Don Ryan as solicitors for the defendants.

The court was told by Sergeant Linda O'Leary that the State application was for a remand in custody.

Under the specific drug conspiracy charge involved, bail cannot be dealt with by the district court.

Judge Roberts remanded all four in custody to appear again by video link before Mallow District Court on October 10 next.

None of the four defendants spoke during the brief hearing beyond confirming their identities or the language they required an interpreter for.

Mr Cuddigan said that, given the details of the charge, he would require access to all data in respect of the vessel involved and may require access to the vessel itself.

The MV Matthew was intercepted by a Naval Service vessel as it attempted to leave Irish waters and was detained at gunpoint after members of the elite Army Ranger Wing fast-roped onto the 22-year old freighter from an Air Corps helicopter.

Escorted into Cork harbour, the bulk carrier is now berthed at Marino Point and is undergoing a detailed forensic and technical examination.

The 9.5m vessel will remain impounded while the Garda investigation is ongoing.

On Monday, the captain of the MV Matthew was charged before Wexford District Court.

Soheil Jelveh (50), a Dubai-based Iranian national with no fixed address, was charged with the attempted importation of cocaine to the value of 13,000 or more on September 24, contrary to Section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1977.

Jelveh was also charged with possession of cocaine and possession of cocaine for sale or supply.

He was remanded in custody.

Last Friday, two men were charged before Waterford District Court in connection with the same Garda investigation.

Both had to be winched to safety from a trawler which ran aground off the Wexford coast on Sunday evening.

Jamie Harbron (31) of 26 South Avenue, Stockton-on-Tees, UK and Vitaliy Lapa (60), who is from Ukraine but of no fixed address, appeared before Waterford District Court and were remanded in custody.

Both men are charged with conspiracy to import drugs contrary to Section 71 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2006.

The dramatic operation unfolded after a trawler ran aground off the Wexford coast on Sunday (September 24).

Gardai believe the trawler - which had been only purchased days before in west Cork - was due to rendezvous with the bulk carrier but ran aground on a sandbank off Blackwater, Co Wexford.

Jelveh, Lapa and Harbron are due to appear again before the district court by video link on October 9.
Eight years since the shooting, which Keane survived despite being hit by three bullets, Red Larry will face the non-jury Special Criminal Court where his trial is due to begin.

THE one-time leader of the infamous Dundon-McCarthy gang is facing trial tomorrow for his role in the 2015 shooting of rival crime boss Christy Keane.

Red Larry McCarthy (44) is charged with making a vehicle available to a criminal organisation in the attempted murder between 27-29 June, that year.

The trial had been due to begin on Monday but opposing counsel agreed to discuss ways to shorten the trial which had been listed to last for 10 weeks, with 101 witnesses due to be called to give evidence.

Seeking a short adjournment to facilitate some agreement over the long witness list which, it was added, could reduce the list significantly.

Eight years since the shooting, which Keane survived despite being hit by three bullets, Red Larry will face the non-jury Special Criminal Court where his trial is due to begin.

Limerick crime boss Christy Keane

Keane, who is on bail, turned up at Mondays hearing and briefly sat in the dock before the short adjournment was granted.

Two men have already been dealt with by the court on a similar charge after they pleaded guilty.

During the summer Noel Price got a six and half year sentence for driving a car from Dublin to Limerick that was later used by the gunmen.

At Julys sentencing hearing judge Alexander Owens said that the defendant had lent himself to a criminal enterprise by going to Dublin with a very senior member of the organised crime group and then driving back to Limerick in convoy.

"He could but not have known when he headed to Dublin and collected the car that it would be used in criminal activity.

He knew all about the gang and the feud with the Keane-Collopy gang. The getting of the car had to be important, something important had to go down.

In June, a third man John Costello, walked free from court having pleaded guilty to providing transport to Christy Keanes attackers.

Costello had eventually agreed to pick up members of the gang after the shooting had happened at the University of Limerick campus where Keane had gone to use the gym.

He had initially refused to go and pick up the two men from Ballynanty but relented when another person made a call to him.

In that case Judge Tony Hunt said there was a very real humanitarian situation to Costellos case and sentenced him to four-and-a-half years but suspended the time he had not already served.

The sensational attack in 2015 sparked fears at the time that one of the countrys most deadly and longest running gangland feuds could re-erupt.

The feud dated back to 1993 and over the years there had been 19 murders and 15 attempted murders.

Details of the assassination attempt emerged during the Noel Prices trial when the court heard how Christy Keane - who had previous attempts on his life - had just parked his Nissan jeep.

In the grounds of the University of Limerick at 6.30am Keane was on his way to an early-morning gym session when two gunmen got out of a red Ford Focus.

They fired 13 rounds into the jeep where Keane was sitting but he survived the attempt on his life despite being struck three times.

At least eight shots had been discharged from a Glock pistol and five shots from a Luger semi-automatic pistol.

Keane has almost made a full recovery but still feels the effects of the injuries, it was heard in court and had opted not to make a victim impact statement.
Derek Coady had been charged with murdering Alan Hall (44) but the State accepted a plea of guilty to the lesser charge of endangerment

A father of three who admitted assaulting a man by punching him in the stomach before the victim suffered serious head and strangulation injuries and subsequently died from smoke inhalation after someone attempted to set fire to his home has been jailed for four years.

Derek Coady had been charged with murdering Alan Hall (44) but the State accepted a plea of guilty to the lesser charge of endangerment earlier this year.

Roisin Lacey SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, told a previous hearing that Coady accepted that he assaulted Mr Hall causing him minor harm and exposing him to the risk of serious harm.

Coady did not cause Mr Hall serious harm and he also indicated that he took no part in setting fire to Mr Hall's home, said he was not aware of a fire being set and that he "may not have been present when the fire was set".

Ms Lacey told a sentencing hearing in July this year that Coady's co-accused Conor Curran, from the Bluebell area of Dublin, has since died.

Conor Curran

Coady pleaded guilty in March this year to intentionally or recklessly engaging in conduct which created a substantial risk of death or serious harm to Mr Hall on a date unknown between May 17th and May 18th 2020 at Bluebell Avenue, Dublin 12.

Sentencing Coady at the Central Criminal Court on Monday to four and a half years in prison with the final six months suspended, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said endangerment was a grave form of jeopardy. He said this was especially so in this case when it had eventuated in Mr Hall being exposed to a serious beating and arson, which all combined to cause his death.

The judge noted Coadys evasive answers to questioning by gardai and said a further aggravating factor was the fact that some of his previous convictions were also committed in private residences.

Mr Justice Hunt said the maximum sentence for endangerment was one of seven years in prison and set the headline sentence in this case at six years.

He said Coady, who is originally from Tallaght, has 46 previous convictions, including for assault causing harm and burglary. The judge said it appeared overindulgence in alcohol was a major factor in Coadys offending and said it was up to him to address this. He said the main mitigating factor in the case was the plea of guilty.

Mr Justice Hunt noted that this was accompanied by a written expression of remorse, but said he suspected this would come as cold comfort to Mr Halls family.

Imposing a sentence of four years and six months, the judge said he would with some reluctance suspend the final six months for a period of two years. He said his reluctance arose from the fact that Coady had already been the subject of a suspended sentence in the Circuit Criminal Court and had responded to it by committing this offence.

The court previously heard that Mr Hall grew up in Coolock and was a qualified butcher but due to alcohol addiction was unable to sustain a job.

Outlining the facts of the case, Detective Garda Darragh Kenny told Ms Lacey that on the night he died, Mr Hall went home at about 9.30pm and sometime later Coady and Mr Curran went into his house. At about 11pm Mr Hall's Samsung tablet was used to contact a "dial a drink" service run by a local taxi driver who delivered a one-litre bottle of Smirnoff and a bottle of lemon and lime mineral to Mr Hall's home about 15 minutes later. Coady and Curran were seen coming from Mr Hall's home on CCTV to take the alcohol from the taxi driver before returning to Mr Hall's home.

Coady was next seen at 3.07am leaving Mr Hall's home followed two minutes later by Mr Curran. They made their way to Coady's family home nearby. The alarm was raised later that morning by a neighbour who saw smoke in Mr Hall's home. Firefighters wearing oxygen masks found Mr Hall lying on the floor of his bathroom.

Gardai noted that the house had been ransacked with furniture upended and blood on the walls. Smoke damage was evident throughout.

A pathologist recorded lacerations to Mr Hall's face, bruising and "extensive blunt force trauma injuries" in a pattern that was "in keeping with assault and defence type injuries". There was evidence of brain haemorrhage caused by severe traumatic head injury sustained following blunt force trauma to the head. There was also bruising to the throat that the pathologist said was evidence of manual strangulation.

The cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning with traumatic head injury following blunt force trauma as a contributing factor.

Forensic scientists examined the scene and found that a fire in Mr Hall's bedroom was "the consequence of attempted arson of the property". The fire did not develop due to fire retardant bedding and the absence of a draft. However, the fire could have smouldered for several hours, they said. The scientists also noted a small metal can of lighter fluid that they said was the likely accelerant used to start the fire.

Coady was arrested and detained. He told gardai that CCTV footage of people entering and leaving Mr Hall's home did not show "as an objective" fact that he was present in the house. After being charged with murder, his defence counsel offered a plea to the lesser charge which was accepted by the State.
Despite being warned about her behaviour, the defendant ignored those warnings a continued to shout and swear

A Co Antrim woman was fined 200 today after she admitted screaming and swearing in a debate over her bag being too big.

Antrim Magistrates Court, siting in Ballymena, heard how police were called to Belfast International Airport on 14 August this year over reports of a disruptive passenger.

When police arrived, they found 40-year-old Christina Agnes Connor screaming and swearing about the weight of her luggage, a prosecutor told the court, adding that Connor was kicking her luggage along the corridor.

Despite being warned about her behaviour, the defendant ignored those warnings a continued to shout and swear so she was arrested for disorderly behaviour.

Connor, from Ballymacoss Hill in Lisburn, entered a guilty plea to that charge last month while a second charge of causing criminal damage, understood to relate to Connor allegedly urinating in a cell van belonging to Belfast International Airport Constabulary, was withdrawn by the PPS.

Why was she so annoyed, enquired District Judge Nigel Broderick and her defence counsel explained how there was a query over the weight of the bag in that it was deemed to be too big at the last check just before she boarded her flight.

DJ Broderick imposed a 200 fine and an offender levy, ordering them to be paid within 26 weeks.
Proceedings initially looked grim for the State coffers when auctioneer Richard Wilson failed to elicit any interest in the property when he opened bids at a price of 300,000.

Coffeys Anfield Manor went under the hammer this week and fetched more than its guide price

A frantic bidding war for a property seized by CAB from alleged tarmac gang member Patrick Coffey saw the luxury home sell this week for a price of 332,000.

Anfield Manor, in Co Kerry, went under the hammer with a reserve price of 200,000 at Wilsons auction house on the Naas Road on Wednesday afternoon.

Proceedings initially looked grim for the State coffers when auctioneer Richard Wilson failed to elicit any interest in the property when he opened bids at a price of 300,000.

He was forced to drop this figure in increments of 20,000 five times before eventually drawing in an online bid of 190,000  for a property that at one stage was advertised with a price tag of 425,000.

From there, a frenetic bidding war ensued, with bids rising in increments of 2,000 from vendors bidding online and over the phone.

The sale stalled at 290,000 but Mr Wilson declined to bring down the hammer  advising would-be buyers that Storm Agnes was likely leading to technical difficulties from a number of interested parties and holding up bids.

The delay saw bidding re-established within a short time and a price of 332,000 was ultimately realised before he pronounced the property sold.

Anfield Manor was first placed on the open market at a price of 425,000 in May 2021, two weeks after the High Court signed off on its transfer to the Bureau.

Seven months later it had failed to sell and CAB was forced to reduce the asking price by a whopping 100,000 in a bid to draw out potential buyers.

But, even priced at a knock-down 325,000, the 2,690 square foot property still wasnt being snapped up.

At the time, a local source told the Sunday World that the propertys recent history was a major factor in its failure to attract a buyer  in a year when property prices nationally had risen by 12.4pc.

A lot of people would be reluctant to become involved with a property in these circumstances, the source said. Of course, if the price drops enough, that can change.

In the normal run of events, in a town like Killarney, that house would have been snapped up as soon as it went on the market.

The palatial Co Kerry home was handed over to CAB on April 22, 2021, after the High Court heard Liverpool-fan Coffey (36) was a member of an organised crime gang.

Patrick Coffey

The Bureau claimed in the High Court that the gang targeted vulnerable people in Ireland, Britain and on the continent with work that was considered to be of a poor standard.

The propertys seizure marked the final stage of a five-year investigation into the activities of the gang.

Dubbed Operation Tarmac, it began after the lavish lifestyle, enjoyed by a small number of local people without any apparent legitimate basis, aroused suspicions.

Pictures of Coffey taken from social media showed him enjoying holidays with family and friends in Europe and America.

In November 2017, following extensive profiling and investigations, assets including luxury cars, the house, high-end watches and cash were seized by CAB and local gardai in one of the biggest such operations ever to take place in Kerry.

At the time, 130 gardai were involved in raids on several houses.

The inquiry focused on what local profilers and gardai suspected were bogus home improvement operations.

The bogus home repairs were conducted nationally but also in Europe, with the gang headquartered in Killarney.

Its understood CAB investigators believe the gang made more than 3.7 million from their operations.

Authorities in several European countries, including France and Italy, repeatedly warned people to be on the lookout for so-called tarmac scammers.

Other items confiscated by CAB arising from the long-running probe included nine high-end cars, including a Mercedes, 12 watches, including Cartier and Rolex, and the contents of four bank and credit union accounts totalling almost 178,000.

Cash totalling over 126,000 was also granted to CAB in the order under the Proceeds of Crime Act by the High Court.

The value of the haul was estimated to have been in the region of 1.2m.
I read a report that Ian Bailey had told gardai that cutting a Christmas tree was responsible, which was not what he told me

Ian Bailey has always denied any involvement in the death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Photo: Mark Condren

Roger Brooke said he was shocked to see that the back of Bailey's left hand was criss-crossed with deep and obviously recently-incurred cuts and scratches.

A drawing of a bloody hand has been submitted to gardai investigating the case of murdered Sophie Toscan du Plantier in a new development.

It comes as Ms du Plantiers only son, Pierre-Louis Vignaud Baudey, said he has met gardai recently in order to understand what is going on with the cold case investigation.

The sketch of the injured hand was submitted this year by a new witness named Roger Brooke, who lives in Italy.

I looked down and was shocked to see that the back of his left hand was criss-crossed with deep and obviously recently-incurred cuts and scratches

He has provided a statement to gardai, saying: On the evening of the 23 December 1996, I entered the Courtyard bar in Schull, West Cork.

Sophie Toscan du Plantiers uncle visits her home in west Cork

I spotted Ian Bailey at the other side of the room. I went over to wish him a Merry Christmas. I approached him from his left side, and after wishing him well, I looked down and was shocked to see that the back of his left hand was criss-crossed with deep and obviously recently-incurred cuts and scratches.

This of course prompted me to ask him what on earth he had done to his hand. His answer was, I was killing turkeys. I remember thinking that it was strange to be killing turkeys just before Christmas Day. That is usually done a week earlier.

He always struck me as a fairly strange individual who seemed to have a very high opinion of himself for no particularly good reason

Mr Bailey has long acknowledged scratches and said to gardai during interview on his first arrest that they came from cutting down Christmas trees. He later added that he had killedturkeys on the day prior to the discovery of Ms du Plantiers body on December 23, 1996 at Toormore, near Schull.

Ian Bailey has always denied any involvement in the death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Photo: Mark Condren

Mr Brooke told the Irish Independent: I had known Bailey to a small degree when I was living between Ballydehob and Schull. He always struck me as a fairly strange individual who seemed to have a very high opinion of himself for no particularly good reason.

I did not make a statement to gardai regarding the wounds to Baileys hand/s in 1996 or 1997 due to personal reasons.

The hands were never officially photographed

Mr Brooke eventually left West Cork for elsewhere in Ireland.

Consequently I lost touch with the investigation to some extent. But I already knew that the gardai were aware of (and had seen) the damage to Baileys hands.

The hands were never officially photographed.

It was really only after I left Ireland in December 2003 to live back in the UK that I began to realise that (a prosecution) was not forthcoming and wondered if I had anything to contribute.

Bailey had told gardai that cutting a Christmas tree was responsible (for his scratches), which was not what he told me

In 2014 Mr Brooke walked into a police station in Stroud, Gloucestershire, and made his first statement.

He also contacted gardai and left his details around 2015.

The reason was I read a report that Ian Bailey had told gardai that cutting a Christmas tree was responsible (for his scratches), which was not what he told me."

Roger Brooke said he was shocked to see that the back of Bailey's left hand was criss-crossed with deep and obviously recently-incurred cuts and scratches.

Mr Brooke made a statement to Bantry gardai in 2021 and says he was told this year that an artist was being employed by gardai to visit people who had seen the wounds to Mr Baileys hands. He then made and submitted his own sketch.

The name Roger Brooke sort of rings a bell

Mr Bailey has always vigorously denied any involvement in the death of the 39-year-old, although he was convicted of Ms du Plantiers murder in absentia by a three-judge French court and sentenced to 25 years in prison. His legal team branded those proceedings a farce.

The bloody hand drawn by Roger Brooke

When contacted for comment, Mr Bailey told the Irish Independent: The name Roger Brooke sort of rings a bell. But I am going to make life easy for you. Ive got no comment.

Meanwhile, Ms du Plantiers uncle, Jean Pierre Gazeau said an offer to pay Mr Baileys medical bills after recent hospitalisation with cardiac concerns was made on a rather sarcastic level, just to point out our great concern about the possibility of Mr Baileys passing away, he said.
This week, the PSNI warned of a worrying demand for drugs after almost 9,000 seizures in the last year

NARCOTICS: Some of the 136kg of cocaine found hidden in a lorry trailers doors last week

Drug gangs in Northern Ireland have been left counting the cost of multi-million pound cocaine seizures.

A near-7million haul intercepted in Liverpool last week and the capture of a 160million shipment off the coast of Cork has dented drug operations here.

On Friday, the National Crime Agency (NCA) revealed two men had been arrested in Portadown on suspicion of being involved in the supply of cocaine.

The men, aged 65 and 46, were arrested on Thursday morning.

NCA officers made the arrests following the discovery of 136kg of cocaine which was hidden in the doors of a lorry trailer.

The lorry, registered to a Northern Irish haulage company, had been stopped in Liverpool the previous week.

The driver, Edgaras Slusnys, a 37-year-old Lithuanian national with an address in Portadown, was charged with possession with intent to supply and will appear at Liverpool Crown Court on October 23.

Both men arrested on Thursday have since been bailed pending further inquiries.

NCA Belfast Branch Commander David Cunningham said: These arrests have been made as part of our ongoing investigation into how a significant amount of dangerous drugs came to be concealed within this lorry and transported into the UK.

The NCA is committed to tackling drug traffickers and our inquiries continue.

The vehicle was searched with assistance from Merseyside Police and Border Force.

The cocaine was hidden in the rear doors of the lorrys trailer. The seized drugs are estimated to have a street value of 6.8million when cut.

Slusnys was charged with possession with intent to supply class A drugs and appeared at Liverpool Magistrates Court on Monday.

Mr Cunningham described the Liverpool seizure as significant.

This seizure has dealt a significant blow to an organised crime gang and removed a substantial quantity of dangerous drugs from the streets. The investigation continues to identify and bring to justice all those involved.

It is thought the drugs were to be divided between a number of organised crime gangs in the North.

The Sunday World understands a mob known as The Firm and based in mid-Ulster were due a slice of the shipment, as was the East Belfast UVF and a number of other criminal outfits.

This week, the PSNI warned of a worrying demand for drugs after almost 9,000 seizures in the last year.

PSNI Detective Superintendent Emma Neill told the Irish News almost 12million worth of drugs have been taken off the streets in the last 12 months.

The statistics also reflect the worrying demand for the supply of drugs, with cannabis remaining the most commonly seized drug in Northern Ireland.

She cited the increased abuse of polydrug and prescription drugs as an alarming trend.

Organised crime groups prey upon and exploit the most vulnerable in our society and, while these criminals prosper, others lives and relationships are ruined, with families left to deal with the inevitable heartache.

In the Republic, the gardai said the huge consignment seized in a dramatic operation off the coast of Cork was destined to be divided between a number of gangs.

The shipment was dispatched by one of the largest drug cartels in South America and is thought to have involved the Kinahan Cartel.

The Kinahan Cartel has become the main supplier of cocaine to mobs such as East Belfast UVF.

A security source told the Sunday World that while recent seizures have been significant, they represent the tip of the iceberg.

We have to be realistic  while there has been significant success, more drugs are getting through than are being intercepted.

The fight has to go on and we will continue to target these shipments.
Tracey Hoque hovered around crisps and snacks aisles before shouting abuse at women.

A serial rapists mum has been convicted of harassing her sons female victims for giving evidence against her boy in the UK.

Tracey Hoque was found loitering in shopping centres where she would shout obscenities at the sexual assault victims of Darren Sysum (29).

The convicted rapist was found guilty of five rapes and other offences of sexual and physical assault on women as well as using controlling and coercive behaviour, which occurred in 2021.

Now his mum, Tracey Hoque (49) of Matson Avenue, Gloucester, has been sentenced to an 18-month community order with 150 hours of unpaid work for harassing and assaulting the innocent women her son attacked.

Sysum was also convicted of distributing indecent images and repeatedly breaching a restraining order.

When Sysum was sentenced last year to 20 years imprisonment, Judge Ian Lawrie KC said he represented a danger to women.

You targeted vulnerable women with the clear purpose to control and manipulate, the judge said.

You forced yourself sexually on these women, whether in direct acts of rape or violently pushing beyond, in some instances an initial consent to sex, to commit the rape.

Tracey Hoque's son Darren Sysum

You justify the use of violence during sex, stating that you are known for liking "rough sex" so your partners would have an expectation of this.

You physically intimidate your partners, persuading them to comply with your desires. You demonstrated a complete disregard for sexual consent often stating that partners had previously allowed and appeared to enjoy anal and violent sex with you.

Prosecutors told a UK court this week that Hoque had attended her sons trial and was present in the public gallery for the most part.

After one of the victims gave her evidence against the evil brute, she received social media messages about the sale of a household appliance on social media.

Hoque had contacted the woman to try and purchase a fridge she was selling within 8 minutes of the victim leaving court.

The witness was immediately very frightened. This was plainly no coincidence. She felt sure that the message was not about a fridge, it was because the defendant wanted her to know that she was around and present and that she was someone who was going to have some influence in her life, the prosecutor stated.

The next day in court, Hoque continued her campaign of intimidation against the victim.

At one stage the court rose for a short break and as the lady turned to leave the witness box she looked up and saw Hoque standing at the front of the public gallery leaning over the railings and staring aggressively at her.

She was terrified by this, the prosecutor added.

Hoque was arrested but this did not prevent her trying to contact another of her sons injured parties.

The second of Hoques victims was a woman who had also given evidence against Sysum for which he was convicted of offences against.

The lady was in a shop in Gloucester when she saw Hoque hovering around in the crisps and snacks aisle.

I will be seeing you, Hoque apparently said. This was followed by: Youre going to get yours, you f***ing c**t.

Prosecutors gave further details on the incident;

Hoque shouted at the woman, repeating the same threat, as the victim walked away.

When the victim got home she immediately phoned the police and then sat and cried, feeling embarrassed and vulnerable.

Both victims gave statements to the court and they were read by the judge but not revealed publicly.

Hoques lawyers tried to offer up a defence of stress from her family members trial.

There must have been some anxiety crossover and she was distressed about her sons trial and this was evident during the court proceedings.

Since her arrest she has been terrified of causing any further offences. She has been living a solitary lifestyle while this has been hanging over her head, the defendant said.

Hoque was slapped with a restraining order for half a decade on top of her 150 hours community service and court costs.
He accused one of the men of being a paedophile and punched him, prompting the man to pull out a knife

Robert Wayne Lee went by the online name Boopac Shakur as he exposed suspected paedophiles

A man who called himself Boopac Shakur as he exposed suspected online pedophiles was shot and killed after confronting two teenagers in Michigan, according to police.

Robert Wayne Lee (40) would pose as a 15-year-old girl online as he lured alleged child predators into a trap that he would then film and post online for his thousands of social media followers.

However, the Oakland County sheriffs office said in a news release that Lee died after a violent confrontation with two teenagers on Friday night in Pontiac.

Lee approached the two young men at a restaurant about 10.30pm, according to police.

He accused one of the men of being a paedophile and punched him, prompting the man to pull out a knife, officials said. The other man pulled out a pistol and shot Lee several times, officials said.

Police said the pair then ran off while Lee was taken to a hospital, where he died.

The teens, one aged 17 and the other 18, were arrested on Saturday but have not been publicly identified by police. The sheriffs office said investigators believe the 17-year-old was the shooter.

Although Lees one-man crusade has led to the arrest and criminal charges being filed against several men, police said in the release, he has also mistakenly identified someone as a sexual predator who was not.

While we certainly understand his desire to hold child predators accountable, many times well intentioned individuals who engaged in this dont know the standard of evidence required for convictions and often underestimate the potential for violence confronting a suspected predator, Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.

Lee who went by the name of Boopac Shakur online had previously published videos of his exploits to over 11,000 followers on Facebook and over 45,000 followers on Instagram which appear to show him engaging in violent confrontations with alleged predators.

In at least one case, Lees endeavours led to a former police officer facing charges, a police department spokesperson told CNN.

A verified GoFundMe describes Lee as a true hometown hero who is survived by a daughter. The money raised will go toward Lees funeral and his daughter, to provide her with the opportunities and education that Robert dreamt of for her, the fundraiser says.

The page claims he successfully exposed 132 predators.

Robert dedicated his life to protecting the innocence of our children from those with malicious intentions, the GoFundMe page says.

In the tight-knit community, we were fortunate to have a beacon of light named Robert Lee, a true hometown hero. Robert dedicated his life to protecting the innocence of our children from those with malicious intentions. Through his courageous efforts, he successfully exposed 132 predators who sought to harm our community's youth.

Tragically, on Friday, September 29, 2023, while carrying out his mission to protect our children, Robert was fatally shot. He leaves behind a legacy of bravery and service that has forever impacted our lives.
Description

WHO: Shelter Island Fall 5k Run/Walk

WHAT: 24th Annual Shelter Island Fall 5K Run/Walk

WHERE: Crescent Beach, 35 Shore Road, Shelter Island NY 11964

WHEN: Saturday, October 21, 2023

ENTRY FEE: $40 adults, $20 kids 12 and under

SIGN UP: https://events.elitefeats.com/23shelterfall

INFO: https://www.shelterislandfall5k.com/

The annual Shelter Island 5K Run/Walk in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month will take place Saturday, October 21st at 11 a.m. rain or shine at Crescent Beach. Registration will be $40 for both walkers and runners, kids 12 and under are $20. Participants will receive T-shirts, bibs, post-race refreshments, food, awards and a complimentary bbq (while supplies last). Runners may register online at: https://events.elitefeats.com/23shelterfall. All proceeds benefit women on the East End fighting breast and gynecological cancer through East End organizations The North Fork Breast Health Coalition, The Coalition for Womens Cancers at Southampton Hospital and Lucias Angels.

Tickets will also be available for a 50/50 Raffle and prizes to East End shops and restaurants with all monies raised benefiting the aforementioned organizations. Restaurants and shops including American Hotel, Gloria Jewel, Nikki Salon, Vine Street Cafe and more.

Sponsors include: The Chequit, South Ferry, The Eccentric Bagel, J.W. Piccozzi Inc., Merrill Lynch, Shelter Island IGA, North Fork Surgery Center, Shelter Island Graphics, New York Cancer & Blood Specialists, Shelter Island House, Rams Head Inn, Saunders, Ram Design, The Pridwin, WLNG 92.1FM, Leon 1909, Shelter Island Gazette, Shelter Island Florist, Shelter Island Reporter, WordHampton Public Relations, Marie Eiffel and The Dering Harbor Inn. To make a donation or become a sponsor contact julie@shelterislandrun.com.
The pints were thick and creamy and the Old Commando could barely take the glass away from his mouth. Costing 5 a pint, which is deemed very reasonable under the current FFG regime, the pint of Guinness is among the best weve drank this year.

THE Old Commando believes it may be 20 years since our last proper visit to Charlestown in Co Mayo.

We reminded him that we did drop into a pub here back in 2015 for a flying visit, but he dismissed that and insisted he was talking about a proper pub inspection; in other words, a big session!

He may well be right because most of our travelling party confirmed to us that theyd never actually been to Charlestown before, so this was new territory for them.

With a five hour round trip ahead of us, most of the Commandos caught some sleep as our designated driver took us along the N4 and N5 and into the west of Ireland.

As soon as we arrived in the town the first building we saw was Murrays pub and our designated driver pulled in right outside the front door.

Hows that for service? he joked as he switched off the windscreen wipers. Drink to your hearts content.

You dont have to tell me twice, the Old Commando replied as he strolled towards the front door of Murrays pub.

An experienced barman with grey hair was on duty when we arrived and he pulled our pints immediately as he engaged the Old Commando in conversation, as expected, about the weather.

The pints were thick and creamy and the Old Commando could barely take the glass away from his mouth. Costing 5 a pint, which is deemed very reasonable under the current FFG regime, the pint of Guinness is among the best weve drank this year.

I spotted the 5 on the price list at the front door but I presumed they forgot to update it. Imagine thats where we are now, thinking 5 is cheap for a pint, the Young Commando said.

We huddled around the warm open coal and log fire as we tried to keep the cold away. This is the first time weve seen a fire lit since spring and its truly a sign that winter is coming.

The wine coloured bench seating and barstools were generally in good condition but the orange coloured floor tiles are cracked in numerous places, which seem to be caused by the slope in the flooring.

Rockshore lager and cider, Heineken, Coors, Carlsberg, Smithwicks and Guinness are all available on draught but we didnt notice any Bulmers or Budweiser.

No harm in that, the Old Commando joked.

At the far end of the counter, and somewhat hidden away, there is a Guinness Zero tap and the Old Commando said its hidden for a reason and best to leave it hidden. He says its sacrilegious.

There is one TV behind the counter in the front bar and two more TVs in the adjoining area along with a jukebox, but they were all switched off during our stay.

While passing through the second section/lounge area of this pub on our way to the toilets, we noticed a dartboard and TV in this area but it was closed off and in darkness as all the clientele was seated in the front bar.

The barman knew everybody on a first name basis and there was a lively atmosphere among the locals especially those seated in Bulls**t Corner at the end of the counter beside the front door. This seems to be where most fictional yarns are told.

We had a nice time in Murrays pub where we received a good welcome, a warm open fire and lovely cold pints of Guinness.

We dont intend to leave it as long before our next visit and Murrays pub will be on our return list.

\Rating: Three pints out of Five

One for the road

Hudson  Charlestown

Pub Spy is 50 years patrolling the pubs, so its rare we get to visit somewhere new at this stage. However, for this particular group of Commandos this was a first time visit to Hudson Bar and Grill.

From the moment we arrived we were treated like royalty by the two barmaids on duty and we even had our drinks brought over to our table.

There was a mixed clientele of mostly middle aged to elderly people and we heard as many English and American twangs as we did local.

The timber flooring was very clean and the timber barstools were also in good condition.

The solid fuel stove was not lit but it wasnt cold in the pub and we really enjoyed the friendly atmosphere and the craic with the two barmaids.

The cubicle in the toilets was clean and there is a second section of the bar with a pool table and gaming machines but it was closed during our visit.

Rating: Three pints out of Five
El Chapo Guzmans sons apparently no longer in the apache game.

Signs have appeared in northern Mexico claiming that the notorious Sinaloa Cartel is no longer pushing the synthetic opioid drug fentanyl.

The drug, known as apache or china town , causes thousands of overdoses worldwide every year- and is one of the most profitable income streams for the infamous crew, so investigators have poured cold water over the claims.

Nonetheless, one of Mexicos top journalists, Michelle Rivera, wrote a translation on social media about what the banners revealed.

In Sinaloa the sale or trafficking of Fentanilo is prohibited, say the Chapitos. Placed in various points throughout the State, the broadcaster stated.

Alleged cartel banner

The sale, manufacture, transportation or any type of business that involves the substance known as fentanyl is strictly prohibited, including the sales for its production.

They also assure that they have never been related to the fentanyl business. Depend on the consequences, they warn.

The banners appeared in the northern state on Monday, known as "narcomantas", and were signed by Los Chapitos, the sons of El Chapo Guzman who took over their dads evil gang when the crime boss was extradited to the United States in 2017.

Prosecutors in Sinaloa confirmed that the banners appeared on overpasses and near motorways, but could not say whether they were genuine or who had placed them there.

Earlier this year, U.S. government named Los Chapitos, or "little Chapos", as the main importers of fentanyl into the United States.

In 2022, almost 110,000 people died from Fentanyl overdoses in America, according to latest stats.

In September, Ovidio Guzman, the youngest of the four Los Chapitos brothers, was caught and extradited as US authorities desperately try to stem the crisis.

Leo Silva, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent who worked in Mexico, said the banners were likely an attempt by Los Chapitos to take the heat off themselves.

"Coupled with extradition of one of the brothers, it's a ploy to take the heat off of them," Silva said. "I don't see them stopping production, Mr Silva said.

In July, Sinaloan investigative outlet Riodoce reported that Los Chapitos had told producers in Culiacan, the state capital, to stop manufacturing fentanyl.

Apparent 'Chapitos' banner

After this, dead bodies began to appear hanging from bridges and on the side of roads, appearing to have been tortured and with fentanyl pills stuffed in the pockets.

A large portion of the territory where the banners appeared is controlled by El Chapo's former buddy, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who runs another powerful offshoot of the Sinaloa cartel.

DEA agent Silva doubted Los Chapitos would cease production of the addictive pills.

"It's too much money to turn down or turn their back on," Silva stated.

Mexicos drug cartels have captured worldwide attention recently for committing mass murder.

In two of the most recent slaughters, separate groups of teenage boys were dispatched in a very gruesome manner, with videos of the lead up to the killings and the actual murders being recorded and sent to family members of the deceased.

It is thought that one group of boys had applied to work in a call centre which was secretly run by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

The youngsters were then killed reportedly for not wanting to take part in the gangs nefarious activities.
The Luttrellstown Castle Resort won the prestigious gong at the World Travel Awards this year

A Dublin hotel that hosted one of the most famous weddings in Ireland has been declared the best wedding venue in Europe.

The Luttrellstown Castle Resort where Victoria and David Beckham were married in July 1999 won the prestigious gong at the World Travel Awards this year.

Located close to the Kildare border, the resort was up against some of the most beautiful venues across the continent..

There were three competitors from Italy and two from Greece, but the Dublin venue went home with the title of Europe's Leading Luxury Wedding Resort for 2023.

Featuring a 15th Century Irish castle, the Luttrellstown Castle Resort, which is less than a half hour drive from Dublin city centre, offers weddings of all sizes in its beautiful surroundings.

Expressing their delight, the resort said in a post on Instagram: "We are absolutely overjoyed and honoured to have been announced as Europe's Leading Luxury Wedding Resort 2023 at the World Travel Awards.

"Celebrating travel excellence since 1993, the WTA Europe Gala Ceremony took place last night in Batumi, Georgia and were attended by our CEO, Ivan King along with a number of colleagues who helped fly the flag for the Luttrellstown Castle Resort team.

"The World Travel Awards serve to acknowledge and reward best in class across all sectors of the global travel and tourism industry.

"It's always a team effort so a big thank you to all our colleagues and thanks to everyone who voted for us."

Luttrellstown Castle Resort

Among the other contenders for Best Luxury Wedding Resort were Carpe Diem Santorini, Greece; Castel Monastero, Italy; and the Grand Resort Lagonissi, Greece.

Cork's Inchydoney Island Lodge & Spa, was also anther big Irish winner on the night as it was crowned Irelands leading Hotel in 2023,

As Luttrellstown Castle Resort celebrates its 25th year anniversary, owner Des O'Dowd said he was thrilled with the win.

Giving our guests the best experience we can is what drives our team and makes us want to continually improve and grow and it is really fantastic to see our efforts recognised, he said.
The volunteer is perhaps the most valuable asset of many non-profit organizations. And in the case of the Village Radio, it is these committed and passionate people that keep the magic of Village Radio classic music alive.

But they need more volunteers.

I listened to the station for quite a while but never saw myself volunteering, says Penny Vaughan. Then my daughters make me realize how much I love the station and here I am.

She is now a volunteer announcer, doing something she has discover to be really enjoyable and super satisfying.

I love it, it gives you a really good feeling to bring enjoyment to people at home.

Announcer Penny Vaughan before she starts her program. Photo: Juan Cortes.

Penny says she was, at first, super scared of making mistakes but thanks to the support of some lovely people around her, she feels really confident. And she is now into her second month behind the microphone.

She is also encouraging other people to volunteer at Village Radio at The Historic Village on 17th Avenue.

It is the passion of people like Penny Vaughan that has driven Village Radio since weekly broadcasts began in 2004. The announcers, technicians and support staff at the station are all volunteers from different backgrounds and from all around the world.

The thing that binds them is a love for tunes that no other radios stations play, music from last century, nostalgic music from the 1940s to the 1990s.

It is not easy to survive when you are a non-commercial radio station but our sponsors, the community and all our volunteers have done a great job all these years, says Village Radio station manager Tony Rhind.

And we are in constant need of volunteers, especially announcers who want to learn and bring these lovely melodies to our audience.

Village Radio station manager Tony Rhind during his Monday programme.Photo: Juan Cortes.

Tony also says that the station has made great changes to keep the magic on air, and now to an audience beyond New Zealand.

I am happy and proud to say that thanks to our sponsors and a group of volunteers who set everything up, we are now transmitting to the world.

The stations AM signal barely covers Tauranga, but with streaming, Village Radio has been receiving feedback messages from listeners in Australia, England and Canada.

That make us really happy.

The hall into the announcer area at Villlage Radio.Photo: Juan Cortes.

Apart from being an excellent school for those wanting to jump into radio broadcasting, Village Radio is also a radio museum. It boasts probably the only working 1937 Collings transmitter in the world, and a library of 18,000 records and 120,000 tracks by 10,000 different recording artists.

The Village Radio will be celebrating its 40th birthday on April 13, 2024.

If you want to become a volunteer at Village Radio, offer them your financial support, or just tune in, you can find them at www.villageradio.co.nz
With summer just around the corner, the Western Bay of Plenty is expecting an influx of holiday makers and tourists. With it comes more work opportunities for the local community.

Ministry of Social Development has joined forces with Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology and local employers to host the Tauranga Community Employment expo to connect employers with job seekers and those leaving education.

Employers in hospitality and retail will be looking for workers ahead of the tourism season. Other sectors will also be looking for workers in food production, health, horticulture, logistics and government.

With summer pruning coming up, kiwifruit businesses are also looking for people to fill orchard vacancies.

Job seekers who are keen to see whats on offer can head down to Queen Elizabeth Youth Centres Memorial Hall, Corner Devonport Road and Eleventh Avenue between 10am and 12.30pm on Wednesday October 11.

Virtual reality headsets will be available for people to simulate actual tasks and get a flavour of work in different industries.

Job seekers interested in upskilling can talk to training and education providers about their next move.

Work is key to people being able to move forwards. Our clients want to work, and were committed to doing everything we can to support them back into employment, says Bay of Plenty Regional Commissioner for Social Development Graham Allpress.

The expo is aimed at connecting work-ready people with employers who are recruiting. Its about bringing the two together and allowing the conversations to happen.

Business owners who might be looking at hiring are also welcome to stop by and have a chat about how we can support them with their recruitment needs.

Community support agency Good Neighbour will be manning a sausage sizzle.The expo is free so just pop down."
Tuesday was meant to be debate day for Chris Hipkins and Christopher Luxon, but Covid has intervened.

National says it cannot find another day for Luxon to face Hipkins in the only South Island-based debate, but Labour says he is chickening out.

In the meantime, Labour's Megan Woods, National's Simon Watts and the Greens' James Shaw went head-to-head in a debate on climate issues on RNZ's Morning Report. Woods challenged National's claims the country could reach new zero emissions targets by 2050, saying it was not credible.

National is promising longer after-birth hospital stays for mothers, free glucose monitors for children with type-1 diabetes and more psychiatrist and psychologist training places.

Meanwhile, Labour is pledging $5.4 million to help build runway and hangar facilities at Kaitorete on Banks Peninsula to support the aerospace industry.

Follow RNZ's liveblog for all the latest from the campaign on Tuesday:

- RNZ.
Ian, a Tauranga resident, has advanced prostate cancer that is no longer responding to his treatment on a funded prescription drug.

Its been one shock after another, says Ian.

My first shock came when I was told that I had cancer, and it was incurable. The second was how, even after a round of chemo, the cancer had returned. And one final surprise, when I realised that the medication my oncologist and I thought would be best wouldnt be funded by Pharmac.

Ian is now having to source Darolutamide at a cost of just under $8,500 per month. Darolutamide is one of a number of newer generation drugs available to men in Australia on a funded basis, but not to men in New Zealand, that have been proven to have a significant impact on both quality and length of life outcomes for those living with prostate cancer.

Prostate Cancer Foundation New Zealand says we're close to losing a generation of men.

A report commissioned by Medicines NZ has highlighted the dire reality for many men living with prostate cancer. Tthe lack of lifesaving medications places New Zealand last out of 20 comparable OECD countries in access to modern medical innovations.

Prostate Cancer Foundation New Zealand CEO Peter Dickens says the findings should act as a big wakeup call.

Despite being the most diagnosed cancer in Aotearoa and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in men, critical prostate cancer treatments continue to languish in the funding queue which has a brutal economic and health toll for New Zealand.

We're at risk of losing a generation of men to prostate cancer.

Peter says the report underscores what they've been saying for many years.

"Pharmacs lack of funding and protracted approval processes has created an environment where proven and recommended next generation prostate cancer medicines remain inaccessible to Kiwis.

"In New Zealand, those diagnosed with prostate cancer are forced to choose between finding money for treatment or facing unnecessary suffering and ultimately an early death.

The report reveals a staggering gap when compared with other OECD nations like Australia and Canada who regularly update their list of funded medications to include recent pharmaceutical breakthroughs.

Of the 441 available modern medicines launched in the OECD from 2011 to 2020, Pharmac has only funded 34.

According to Pharmac's website, there are 109 applications on its Options for Investment List as of April 2023. Even though these medications have been deemed cost-effective by Pharmac and have undergone clinical assessments, they remain unfunded.

Tauranga resident, Ian, has advanced prostate cancer that is no longer responding to his treatment on a funded prescription drug. New Zealand is ranked last out of 20 comparable OECD countries for access to medicine. Photo: Supplied.

Ian says if he was living in Australia, access to that same medicine would cost him $40 a month.

There is an inequity here and New Zealand men are at a huge disadvantage.

I just dont understand why Pharmac spends time evaluating these drugs, when Australia have already done their own tests and approved them.

There are other prostate cancer medications Pharmac has said should be funded because theyre effective and will make a considerable difference, but theyve been sitting on the Options for Investment list with no updates for years now.

These medicines could change everything for me. If they were funded, it wouldnt have to come at a huge financial burden for me to have more time with my family.

According to Peter there are two courses of action that will change these outcomes and mean the difference between life and death for New Zealand men with prostate cancer.

The first is better and more equitable access to testing and early detection of the disease. The second is faster funding approval and access to medicines proven to extend mens lives, prevent disease progression and provide better quality of life.

Funding medicines we know will improve quality of life and stop men dying prematurely is critical. It would mean thousands of our fathers, brothers and friends being able to live a full life and not die unnecessarily early.

Prostate Cancer Foundation New Zealand is the leading mens cancer charity which aims to significantly reduce and ultimately end suffering and death from prostate cancer, by providing support and education, funding research, and advocating to reduce the impacts of the disease.

Prostate cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in New Zealand and the second leading cause of cancer related death in men.

1 in 8 Kiwi men will develop prostate cancer at some stage in their lifetime.

4,000 Kiwi men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year.

There are currently 42,000 men living with this disease in New Zealand.

During Blue September sets out to raise more than $1 million of much needed funds, with proceeds going towards essential wrap-around support services the charity provides for men and their whanau living with prostate cancer.
SPONSORED CONTENT: New Zealand First Tauranga candidate, Erika Harvey, has her eyes sights set firmly on addressing some of Taurangas most critical issues.

Her primary driver is to see a stronger voice and better representation in Wellington, for Taurangas most pressing needs.

We have an aging population and our healthcare system, transport and roading is currently unable to cope, Says Erika. We are seeing increasing levels of crime and we have to start demanding more support and a stronger focus from Wellington.

I just dont believe we have had adequate representation from elected members. I believe I can be a more effective conduit between central and local government to deliver positive change for Tauranga in the areas our communities are concerned about.

From dealing with roading issues to bringing democracy back to the local council, Erika is well tasked for the role.

I am not running in this election because I want to be a politician. I am running because I am tired of seeing the same problems over and over again and people not being listened to, says Erika. I am tired of seeing the damage and division that happens when government doesnt listen to the voices of the people theyre supposed to represent.

I am passionate about helping others navigate the bureaucratic system designed to make people give up, and I want to get in to change the way we work with our community.

Erika Harvey says she has a good track record of delivering on promises and commitments. Photo: Supplied.

Erika believes in co-designing innovative solutions for better community engagement.

Our community needs to be a genuine part of the process. Most of the public dont have time to go to public meetings or hearings; theyre either busy at work or with family matters, says Erika. We should be looking for more innovative solutions to engagement. The world is changing, yet community engagement by government has remained the same.

I will work hard to establish better ways to meet people and represent them. True community representation requires listening to all points of view, not just the ones you agree with, and designing solutions.

Erika is well prepared for life in Parliament.

I can work with people across all levels of an organisation and I have the ability to bring people together to find solutions and see their differences as strengths rather than weaknesses.

As a parent of a child with special needs, advocating and navigating bureaucratic systems is part of the battle. The experience I have had, battling the health and education system, and the extensive advocacy work I have done locally for the business sector, puts me in good stead to take that experience to Wellington, to do a better job for Tauranga.

I have experience as a small business owner, in governance roles and in corporate roles. Im used to dealing with big egos and agendas. That will serve me well in Wellington!

I have a good track record on delivering on promises and commitments, says Erika. I will look for solutions and for ways to empower communities to solve problems.

Erika Harvey is the New Zealand First candidate for Tauranga. For more information go to: http://www.erikaharvey.co.nz/

Authorised by: H. Howard, 41 Jervois Road, Ponsonby

-- Sponsored Content
Davel5957 / iStock.com

Social Security may seem like a safety net waiting at the point of retirement, but truthfully, it was never designed to support retirees fully after they stopped working.

I Retired a Millionaire in My 30s: 10 Stupid Simple Money Tricks To Help You Get Rich

Find Out: The Simple, Effective Way To Fortify Your Retirement Mix

As of Sept 2023, the maximum Social Security benefit of $1,792.37 ($3,584.74 for a couple) is just enough to live on if two people are both receiving Social Security.

GOBankingRates analyzed all the cities in the US with a population of 250,000 and greater as sourced from the US Census American Consumer Survey. GOBankingRates used data from the Social Security Administration (SSA), Sperlings Best Places, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Zillow and the Federal Economic Research to determine where its still possible to get by on Social Security alone.

The ranking includes each citys average monthly expenditures, average monthly mortgage, and average home value.

If youre looking for an affordable but livable city to stretch those Social Security dollars, these 12 cities beckon anyone on a fixed income.

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images

Lubbock, Texas

Monthly expenditures : $1,809.13

Monthly mortgage : $1,280.67

August 2023 home value : $207,910.26

Population: 255,537

Retired but Want To Work? Try These 8 Jobs for Seniors That Require Little to No Experience

Related: 8 Best Places in California for a Couple To Live on Only a Social Security Check

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images/iStockphoto

El Paso, Texas

Monthly expenditures : $1,759.94

Monthly mortgage : $1,322.87

August 2023 home value : $214,760.03

Population: 676,395

Discover: Almost 1/3 of Retirees Are Spending More Than They Can Afford  5 Costs To Cut First

Christopher Boswell / Shutterstock.com

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Monthly expenditures : $1,703.35

Monthly mortgage : $1,353.45

August 2023 home value : $219,725.33

Population: 262,676

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Monthly expenditures : 410,652

Monthly mortgage : $1,815.39

August 2023 home value : $1,228.10

Population: 410,652

Shutterstock.com

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Monthly expenditures : $1,829.00

Monthly mortgage : $1,211.35

August 2023 home value : $196,655.26

Population: 578,198

Story continues

Next: Most Americans Plan To Spend Less Than $2,000 a Month in Retirement  Are They Being Realistic?

peeterv / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Baltimore, Maryland

Monthly expenditures : $1,899.15

Monthly mortgage : $1,096.67

August 2023 home value : $178,037.78

Population: 592,211

gnagel / Getty Images

Wichita, Kansas

Monthly expenditures : $1,816.05

Monthly mortgage : $1,166.80

August 2023 home value : $189,422.99

Population: 394,574

f11photo / Getty Images/iStockphoto

St. Louis, Missouri

Monthly expenditures : $1,785.21

Monthly mortgage : $1,033.37

August 2023 home value : $167,762.34

Population: 302,787

Read: I Lost $400K of My Retirement Savings in a Roth 401(k)  3 Things To Know Before Choosing an Investing Plan

Kruck20 / Getty Images

Memphis, Tennessee

Monthly expenditures : $1,789.13

Monthly mortgage : $916.88

August 2023 home value : $148,850.60

Population: 634,139

Toledo, Ohio

Monthly expenditures : $1,702.41

Monthly mortgage : $694.45

August 2023 home value : $112,739.51

Population: 271,454

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images

Detroit, Michigan

Monthly expenditures : $2,010.43

Monthly mortgage : $385.73

August 2023 home value : $62,620.73

Population: 645,658

Im a Retirement Planning Expert: Here Are 4 Reasons You Shouldnt Retire in Florida If You Have a Budget of Over $5K a Month

PapaBear / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Cleveland, Ohio

Monthly expenditures : $1,690.06

Monthly mortgage : $614.64

August 2023 home value : $99,783.76

Population: 374,861

Andrew Lisa contributed to the reporting for this article.

Methodology: To find big cities where a couple can live off just a Social Security Benefits check, GOBankingRates analyzed all the cities in the US with a population of 250,000 and greater as sourced from the US Census American Consumer Survey. For each city on the list the; [1] Grocery cost of living index, [2] Healthcare cost of living index, [3] Utilities cost of living index, [4] Transportation cost of living index, [5] Miscellaneous cost of living index were sourced from Sperlings BestPlaces and for each city the average expenditure costs were calculated using the national average cost for each expenditure category, sourced from the 2022 Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey (most recent release). The average monthly Social Security benefits check was sourced from the Social Security Administrations August Monthly snapshot. The average home value was sourced from Zillow Home Value Index and using the national average 30 year fixed rate mortgage sourced from the Federal Economic Research, the average monthly mortgage cost can be calculated. Combining the expenditures and mortgage will give a total monthly cost for living in each city. Comparing the Social Security benefits check to the total monthly expenditures cost gives 29 big cities where a couple can afford to live off just a Social Security check. All data was collected and is up-to-date as-of September 21st, 2023.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 12 Big Cities Where a Couple Can Live Off Just a Social Security Check
Jennie Rhodes Costa Tropical Compartir Copiar enlace

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An advertising campaign, Feel Tropical!, designed by Almunecar-La Herradura tourist board in Andalucia's Granada province has landed in Berlin, where it will remain for one month with the aim of attracting Berliners to the coastal resort in the south of Spain.

The town hall has said that it hopes the one-month campaign will seduce Germans with a combination of photographs and illustrations of the most attractive places in the towns together with illustrations of tropical fruits, combining tourism, food and agriculture.

Tourism councillor Daniel Barbero emphasised that "Germany is the second country in terms of both tourist arrivals and international flights to Malaga Airport." Taking this into account he said, "We want to encourage this market and attract it to our destination".

Barbero described the campaign as "historic" as it has been financed entirely by the Junta de Andalucia. That is to say at zero cost to Almunecar-La Herradura town hall.

The Feel Tropical campaign highlights mangoes, avocados and custard apples and in particular the zero-mileage as they are grown in the area. The campaign is being carried out at U-Bahn (underground) stations and on trains and trams, on advertising bicycles, information stands and promotion in supermarkets and merchandising is being given out.

The Feel Tropical campaign on tram in Berlin SUR

Mayor of Almunecar Juan Jose Ruiz Joya said, "We are going to show Europe the two great driving forces of our economy: tourism and the cultivation of subtropical fruit. We are the world's leading producer of custard apples.

Ruiz Joya added that there are plans to take the campaign to Scandinavian countries and pointed out that the Feel Tropical campaign is financed in its entirety by the Andalusian regional government's tourism, sport and culture department through European Regional Development (ERDF) funds.

All the information and images related to the campaign can be found on the Almunecar-La Herradura tourist boards website: www.turismoalmunecar.es.
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The so-called 'Veranillo de San Miguel', a brief rise in temperatures that usually happens at the beginning of autumn in Malaga, this year has turned into a proper summer, not only because of its intensity but also because of its duration, as the mercury will remain high at least until the middle of next week. Most days temperatures are hovering around 30C throughout the province, much higher than normal for this time of year, and the worst thing is that there is no rain forecast in the short term.

Jesus Riesco, director of the Aemet state weather agency in Malaga, explained the situation is caused by an anticyclonic weather system at all levels, with a very warm air mass over the mainland, "which will be present for quite a few days"; and to which must be added the fact that there are still long hours of sunshine. "For this time of year it is very unusual at a national level: although in Malaga it is almost anecdotal, in some parts of Spain there are more than 10 degrees difference with respect to the average".

In Malaga, the difference is more noticeable inland than on the coast, with significant anomalies in the former, but for the moment there are no record highs in the main weather stations, as in other parts of the interior of the Andalucia region and the north of the mainland. Therefore, in Malaga city and along the Costa del Sol, maximum temperatures are around 28-29C, when the average is usually 24C (ie. 4-5 degrees above normal). As for minimum temperatures, they would normally fall to 16, and now they are around 19-20C (plus 3 to 4 degrees). On the other hand, in Antequera the situation is much more accentuated, with 31 degrees during the day compared to the 23 expected at the beginning of October (plus 8 degrees); and the usual minimums are 12C and they now stand at 18C (+6C).

Until when?

At the moment, it will continue like this all week, and next week is also expected to continue to be warmer than normal, but not as much. But the worst thing is that this is traditionally one of the rainiest months and so far no precipitation is expected in the short term. However, in the middle of next week there is a possibility of an isolated cold low depression forming in the weather models, so in the second half of the week (around the 11th or 12th) there could be a change in the weather.

"There is a possibility but it is still a long way off and we have to wait," warned the meteorologist.

"This has gone from the summer of San Miguel to the summer of Miguelon", joked Jose Luis Escudero, an expert on the weather in Malaga and head of the SUR blog Tormentas y Rayos (Storms and Lightning). He pointed to the record temperatures that are occurring in several Spanish provinces and are even being exceeded from one day to the next, especially inland Andalucia, where it has reached 38C, and in the north of mainland Spain. Escudero added that in Malaga "we are really getting away with it, compared to what is happening in Seville and Cordoba, it is even hotter in the north than in the south of Spain".

"The worst thing is that this situation will continue, at least until the 12th of October or later, according to the weather models, and there is no sign of rain or cold". However, he said, the sea water temperature is around 21C at the moment and the sun is not as intense as in the middle of summer, so these are ideal days for going to the beach.
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The Hospital Regional de Malaga has stopped charging patients to watch television from their hospital beds

It is a measure that has always been heavily criticised, but patients at the healthcare centre in Malaga city will no longer need to dip into their pockets to watch their favourite TV programmes.

SUR can reveal the hospital scrapped the measure last Sunday 1 October across the entire complex of the Hospital Regional Universitario de Malaga including the Hospital General, the Hospital Materno Infantil and the el Hospital Civil.

Over the past few days, staff could be seen changing the equipment in the rooms, as the televisions have been replaced alongside the introduction of measure. In the coming weeks, the coin machines that were used to charge for the service will also be removed.

The move was part an electoral promise made by the head of the Andalusian regional government, Juanma Moreno, who announced it on the first day of the Junta's 2022 election campaign. Moreno also pledged to bring free wifi to all Andalusian public hospitals.

Moreno claimed at the time that there was a contract was in place with an outside company which obliged patients to pay for television in public hospitals. As soon as the contract expired, the Andalusian Health Service would take over the service, he added. But each individual hospital centre has its own expiration date, so it will take some time before the free television facility is available across the region.
File image of the first landing at Malaga Airport of this summer's direct flight from. New York.

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The Spanish government would like to see Malaga Airport's direct flight connection to New York in the USA maintained all-year-round.

The new comes shortly after the last United Airline plane of the summer season flew out of Malaga as planned on 28 September opening a period of uncertainty on the Costa del Sol until the company decides whether it will repeat the transatlantic route next summer.

The Junta de Andalucia's tourism minister Arturo Bernal told SUR that according to the data "Malaga is in a position to achieve extending the flight all year round and even increasing the frequency to more than three flights a week".

And Spain's acting tourism minister Hector Gomez said the national government also supported the route's extension, so that it "is not only seasonal, but can be more permanent". After pointing out the importance of the North American market and considering what a benchmark city Malaga has become in the travel sector, he said that "there is every willingness to collaborate so that this direct air connection is maintained".

"The feelings are good. We have had different meetings with the company (United Airlines) and that is the impression, but a final decision has not yet been taken," Bernal told SUR.

He revealed that the summer flights contributed to the large number of Americans staying in hotels in Andalucia, with an average stay of five days, totalling 450,000 in the first half of the year, compared to 371,000 last year.

During the first high season of operation United Airlines had offered 17,000 seats to connect Malaga Airport with Newark Airport in New York. The 52 return flights operated with a Boeing 757-200 aircraft with capacity for 169 passengers, 16 of them in its Polaris business class.
Anthony Piovesan Marbella Compartir Copiar enlace

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Cinema fanatics and personnel from 100 production companies across the world will descend on the Costa del Sol for the 18th Marbella International Film Festival.

The four-day event kicks off this Wednesday 4 October with an opening ceremony at the Red Dog Cinema in Puerto Banus and two red carpet screenings. The first is Women And Roads. The Way To Yourself. Mallorca, a Spanish documentary about three women who travel around the island with a camera in search of touching stories to capture. The second screening is Moroccan feature film Triple A, which tells the love stories of three people by their communities.

Festival director Mac Chakaveh told SUR in English the next four days will be an opportunity to celebrate cinema and promote Marbella to the rest of the world.

Not only is this a chance for filmmakers to promote their work but its also a golden chance to bring the film industry to the Marbella region and generate interest for cultural tourism, he said. An average film costs 20 million to make so just imagine if 20 were made here every year, thats a lot of money into the local economy.

Between 40 and 50 films will be screened during this years festival from Wednesday 4 until Sunday 8 October. Chakaveh said audiences could expect absolutely anything from the screen.

Whats so interesting about the Marbella International Film Festival is that it is open to all genres, he said. We have a fascinating combination this year which cover all sorts of stories and themes, and the documentaries are some of the most outstanding youll come across.

Documentaries about immigration in Europe and Spain, the Russian conflict in Ukraine, and Guantanamo Bay are some highlights, as well as two feature LGBT+ works, and a fun film about the Loch Ness monster. A premiere of a British action film Rise of the Foot Soldier: Vengeance promises to wow audiences after it sold out at a screening in London two weeks ago.

The festival has expanded significantly since its debut in 2006 and now collaborates with the Marbella council and tourist board, Marbella Film Office and the Andalucia Film Commission.

Each year, the festival is promoted at other major cinema festivals across the world such as the Cannes International Film Festival and the Los Angeles International Film Festival.

During the next four days there will be screenings and after show parties at venues in Marbella and Puerto Banus, as well as a gala awards ceremony on Sunday. The Red Dog Cinemas will be the official venue for the more than 30 screenings during this week. The full programme of screenings can be viewed online on the festivals website.
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The wild boar problem has become so serious in Mijas that the town hall has been forced to hire a company to capture and kill the animals.

"There have always been wild boar in this area, but they only used to be seen from time to time. But now you see them every night or hear them scavenging around in the bins," said Manolo Cabello, a Mijas resident. His concerns are echoed throughout various residential developments along the Mijas coast, such as Riviera del Sol and Torrenueva where herds of wild boar can be seen on a daily basis.

"We are talking about animals with fangs of at least 15 centimetres long, they are imposing," said Miguel Martinez, president of the Riviera del Sol residents' association. "The main road is right next to it, and if they cross it they will surely cause an accident, they are animals that weigh more than 100 kilos", pointed out Fernando Jaen, president of the Torrenueva residents' association.

Drought is causing the animals to venture down from the mountains into the towns, with the lack of rain meaning that they can't find their food in the countryside. They are also a very fertile species, which explains their large numbers. "In one year they can have two or three litters with 14 wild boar in each litter," added Jaen. Urban development in the mountains is also causing them to move closer towards the sea, into more densely populated areas.

Don't feed the wild boar sign. SUR

The Junta de Andalucia said it is the responsibility of respective councils to control the issue. Town halls are "recommended to use or authorise the use of capture sites and subsequent slaughter of the captured specimens, in accordance with the law for the protection of animal rights and welfare".

But Mijas town hall said they are "limited" in how they can solve the growing problem. "The tools provided by the Junta do not go far enough to stop a problem that already affects the whole region," it said.

Company contracted

The council is now acting with the authorisation of the Junta to try to find a solution and prevent the boar from reaching urban areas, municipal sources said. A private company has been contracted to install traps in the areas where there is most "conflict" and then, once the wild boar have been captured, kill them.

Lorenzo Perez is director of Mijas Golf. It is very common for wild boar to enter the company's grounds, as they are not stopped by the fences. He said: "They lift up the grass as if they were a plough, and wherever they pass, they ruin. They catch a lot of them, very regularly, although personally I don't know why it is necessary to kill them, other options could be considered," he added.
Members of the National Police and Murcia fire brigade have cordoned off the entire area around the three nightclubs destroyed by the blaze.

Juan Cano Murcia Compartir Copiar enlace

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While waiting for safety experts to allow them to inspect the two badly burnt nightclubs in Murcia, National Police officers in Spain are searching social media networks for any clues to help clarify the origin of the deadly fire in the Las Atalayas leisure area of the city.

The blaze that started in the early hours of Sunday morning has tragically claimed the lives of thirteen people who were in one of the three discotheques affected and which, despite the fact that more than two days have already passed, the cause still remains unknown.

Related news 112 incident Nightclub at centre of fire tragedy in Murcia, in which at least 13 people died, did not have licence to operate Juan Cano

In the last few hours, several videos have emerged showing several people on the dance floor of the Fonda Milagros, dancing with sparklers in their hands. Images have also been shared of the moments after the fire, when customers were forced to leave the discotheques.

The investigators know that they can obtain information from these images. However, they will need to get their hands on the original recordings to obtain the metadata if they want the video to have evidential value in the criminal proceedings that have already been opened by the courts in Murcia.

Waiting for the visual inspection

The police have also asked the victims' families to send them any image or sound files that have come into their possession and which could help to shed light on what happened. In addition, they have asked them to avoid looking at social media networks - mainly because of their own sensitivity after the tragedy - or to share this type of content themselves, given the uncertainty it may cause.

Meanwhile, two days after the fire, officers at the Murcia police headquarters are still waiting for the fire brigade to secure the structure so that they can enter the fire-damaged premises. Once inside, they will carry out the relevant inspection in as much detail as they can, which could shed light on how the blaze developed.
In this article, we will list poor countries with substantial debt, and discuss the role of foreign corporations in allievating poverty in these countries. If you want to skip the details, head straight to 10 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries.

Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) are trapped in a debilitating cycle of debt and poverty, worsened by weak governance, economic mismanagement, and external policies like limitations in debt allocation. Predominantly located in Africa, many of these countries remain impoverished despite being rich in natural resources; there's gold in Mali, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cote d'Ivoire, for example. The wealth generated from these resources is often drained away from these economically fragile states, leaving the majority impoverished in these Least Developed Countries in Africa.

Another significant source of adversity for these deeply indebted low-income countries is their reliance on low-productivity sectors, such as agriculture, with negligible diversification into manufacturing and services. Most of these nations' labor force is engaged in the informal economy, which, although provides livelihoods, offers low wages, scant job security, and negligible social protection. These challenges, compounded by climate issues, corruption, and political conflicts, plunge these economically distressed indebted countries further into poverty, necessitating substantial external debts.

Corporates Investing In Heavily Indebted Poor Countries

Mining is a crucial economic growth driver in many nations with excessive debt loads, with corporate investments playing a pivotal role in their future economic prospects. For example, Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) is a significant stakeholder in gold mining in Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) and some lower-middle-income countries like Pakistan. The company operates gold mining ventures in Tanzania, Mali, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The corporation's gold operations in HIPCs supply approximately 17.73 million ounces of gold to its reserves.

Story continues

In Pakistan's case, Barrick Gold Corporation owns 50% of Pakistan's Reko Diq gold-copper project and plans to extract the first gold concentrate by 2028. According to the company's Q2 2023 earnings call, it aims to initiate economic activity around Reko Diq and provide employment opportunities to help lift locals from poverty. The company has implemented the same around the Kibali gold mine in the Democratic Republic Of Congo by educating the future operators of the mine ahead of time and then employing them to increase its workforce reliability.

In preparation for gold mining commencement in Pakistan, Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) has already contracted some locals studying in universities, focusing on engineering and processing. These individuals will receive training at Barrick Gold Corporation's operations around the world with the intention that they will be the leaders of the operation when the company starts its gold mining operations in Pakistan in a few years time. The company plans to employ 7500 people for this project in Pakistan, 4000 of which will be long-term jobs.

Through strategic investments and planning, Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD) has already transformed Mali's Loulo-Gounkoto gold mine into one of the world's ten largest gold mining complexes. Consequently, Loulo-Gounkoto has become one of Mali's principal hub for economic activity, employing approximately 7000 individuals, 97% of whom are Malian.

In a different sector, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) has also launched initiatives in impoverished countries, with philanthropic efforts focused on expanding access to digital technology, education, and job skills in nations grappling with high poverty rates. With around 2.7 billion people globally lacking internet access (most residing in Africa), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT)s Airband Initiative aims to bridge this gap, planning to provide internet access to 250 million individuals (including 100 million Africans) by 2025. This access facilitated by Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) will empower residents by providing online education and economic opportunities, thereby contributing to the improved economic prospects of these countries with the highest rates of poverty.

Such empowerment, whether in terms of enhanced connectivity or regional infrastructure development, eventually results in these poor countries' better economic future.

On that note, let's now move to heavily indebted underdeveloped nations.

30 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries

30 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries

Our Methodology

We compiled a list of heavily indebted poor countries by considering each nation's external debt stocks, GNI per capita, and percentage of population living in extreme poverty. This data was sourced from the United Nations' World Economic Situation & Prospects 2023 update, The World Bank's International Debt Report 2022, and The World Bank's databases on GNI per capita and extreme poverty ratio. After quantifying these nations' external debt, GNI per capita, and extreme poverty levels, we averaged (with debt having the highest weight) their rankings to derive composite results. The countries were then listed in ascending order based on their economic burden.

Based on our findings, here are the top countries facing severe debt challenges:

30. Sierra Leone

External Debt Stocks: $2.453 billion

GNI Per Capita: $1900

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 26.1 %

Composite Ranking: 30

Sierra Leone's economy, fragile due to an overreliance on the mining sector, is vulnerable to global price fluctuations. Despite abundant resources, the nation faces high unemployment and pervasive poverty. This economic instability stems partly from rampant corruption, limited access to education, and insufficient foreign investment.

29. Haiti

External Debt Stocks: $2.694 billion

GNI Per Capita: $3310

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 29.2%

Composite Ranking: 29

Haiti possesses one of the Western Hemisphere's weakest economies, with a GDP per capita of $1748. The nation is heavily dependent on remittances, which constitute over a quarter of its GDP. The scarcity of access to education and skilled labor hinders economic diversification and development, trapping the country in a cycle of debt and poverty.

28. Malawi

External Debt Stocks: $3.185 billion

GNI Per Capita: $1700

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 50.7%

Composite Ranking: 28

Agriculture, employing around 80% of the population, is the linchpin of Malawi's economy. However, reliance on primary products like tobacco exposes the nation to international market price volatility. The agriculture sector is also highly susceptible to climate shocks. With a limited industrial base and persistent corruption stifling the private sector, the nation struggles to create sufficient jobs.

27. Togo

External Debt Stocks: $3.467 billion

GNI Per Capita: $2610

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 28.1%

Composite Ranking: 27

Togo's economy, primarily based on subsistence agriculture, is vulnerable to climatic variations and has limited diversification, leading to reliance on expensive commodity exports. With a per capita GDP of only $918 and 28.1% of the population living on less than $2.15 a day, the economy remains weak.

26. Afghanistan

External Debt Stocks: $3.531 billion

GNI Per Capita: $1690

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 49.4%

Composite Ranking: 26

Afghanistan's economy, scarred by decades of conflict and political instability, leans heavily on foreign aid, with a significant portion coming from the US (eventually topping Countries That Receive the Most Foreign Aid From the US). The nation's economic health is consequently subject to the policies of donor countries, as it lacks a strong manufacturing sector.

25. Chad

External Debt Stocks: $3.834 billion

GNI Per Capita: $1640

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 30.90%

Composite Ranking: 25

Landlocked Chad lacks direct access to maritime trade routes, escalating import and export costs. Consequently, it relies heavily on the political stability of neighboring countries for international trade  a support that isn't always dependable. This reliance, coupled with a per capita GDP of $716, places Chad among the heavily indebted economies.

24. Guinea

External Debt Stocks: $4.702 billion

GNI Per Capita: $2840

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 47%

Composite Ranking: 24

Despite being the third-largest bauxite producer globally, Guinea has a fragile economy due to its mining dependence and limited exports. The country's underdeveloped infrastructure and erratic energy supply impede industrialization.

23. Somalia

External Debt Stocks: $4.836 billion

GNI Per Capita: $1360

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 70%

Composite Ranking: 23

With a GDP of $8.733 billion and a population of 17 million, Somalia has a meager economy. Factors such as ongoing conflict, extended periods without a central government, and climate shocks affecting agriculture have all significantly impacted the nation's economic standing.

22. Mauritania

External Debt Stocks: $4.89 billion

GNI Per Capita: $6330

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 26%

Composite Ranking: 22

Although Mauritania has substantial natural resources, its economy, primarily based on mining and fishing, is impeded by insufficient infrastructure, energy shortages, and an unskilled labor force. The country's wealth is distributed unequally, leaving a significant segment impoverished, as evidenced by a 26% extreme poverty rate.

21. Niger

External Debt Stocks: $4.984 billion

GNI Per Capita: $1510

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 50.6%

Composite Ranking: 21

Niger grapples with high illiteracy rates, resulting in a limited skilled workforce. With over 80% of its territory covered by the Sahara, the country faces substantial agricultural challenges, leading approximately half of its population to live in extreme adversity.

20. Madagascar

External Debt Stocks: $5.347 billion

GNI Per Capita: $1720

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 70.7%

Composite Ranking: 20

Political instability and weak governance hamper Madagascar's economy, with over 70% of the population living in poverty. Although the nation boasts rich biodiversity, environmental degradation further restricts its economic prospects.

19. Mali

External Debt Stocks: $6.46 billion

GNI Per Capita: $2420

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 14.8%

Composite Ranking: 19

Mali's economy heavily depends on gold mining as it's among the top gold producing countries in the world. Also, agriculture is another key sector in the country, susceptible to climate change since erratic rainfall is a persistent concern in Mali. Despite its lower extreme poverty levels compared to other countries under massive debt, the general populace struggles with low income.

18. Benin

External Debt Stocks: $6.846 billion

GNI Per Capita: $4020

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 38.5%

Composite Ranking: 18

Benin's economy is grounded in transit trade and regional commerce, predominantly informal. This informality results in lower government tax revenues and unstable employment conditions for many. Challenges in providing essential services like education and healthcare hinder the development of human capital necessary for economic strengthening.

17. Republic Of Congo

External Debt Stocks: $6.966 billion

GNI Per Capita: $3520

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 35.4%

Composite Ranking: 17

With a considerable debt burden, the Republic of Congo struggles to invest in vital sectors like education and health, which are crucial for development. Pervasive corruption further diminishes public administration and service delivery effectiveness.

16. Rwanda

External Debt Stocks: $8.994 billion

GNI Per Capita: $2730

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 52%

Composite Ranking: 16

Rwanda, while making significant progress since the 1994 genocide, still faces economic challenges. Dependence on agricultural production and foreign aid, coupled with limited financing for SMEs and farmers, constrain economic activity. These enduring challenges and a tragic history have left over half of Rwanda's population in adversity.

15. Democratic Republic of the Congo

External Debt Stocks: $10.288 billion

GNI Per Capita: $1280

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 62%

Composite Ranking: 15

The informal economy prevails in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), generating limited tax revenue for public investment. With the economy heavily reliant on the extractive industry, a downturn in global demand for minerals can significantly impact the country's revenue. To alleviate poverty among 62% of its population, DR Congo needs to diversify its economic sectors.

14. Burkina Faso

External Debt Stocks: $10.297 billion

GNI Per Capita: $2400

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 30.5%

Composite Ranking: 14

Burkina Faso, a prominent name in the gold mining sector, attracts significant investments from countries like Australia, Canada, Russia, and Turkey. However, with limited natural resources and a small industrial base besides gold, the nation struggles to draw foreign investment.

13. Honduras

External Debt Stocks: $11.850 billion

GNI Per Capita: $6210

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 22.9%

Composite Ranking: 13

Honduras' economy substantially depends on remittances, primarily from the United States, which serve as a vital income source for many families and contribute significantly to the GDP. This dependency renders the economy sensitive to economic and immigration policy shifts in remittance-sending countries, impacting the 22.9% of the population living in crushing poverty.

12. Nicaragua

External Debt Stocks: $14.354 billion

GNI Per Capita: $6380

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 24.9%

Composite Ranking: 12

Persistent economic inequality and poverty are major concerns in Nicaragua. Despite progress in poverty reduction, a considerable number of residents, especially in rural areas, remain impoverished. Natural disasters like hurricanes, droughts, and earthquakes frequently jeopardize the agriculture sector, the primary livelihood source for many.

11. Bolivia

External Debt Stocks: $15.964 billion

GNI Per Capita: $9400

Below $2.15 Poverty Rate: 34.6%

Composite Ranking: 11

With external debt stocks amounting to $15.964 billion, Bolivia is among nations with excessive debt loads. It significantly depends on non-renewable resources, primarily fossil fuels, accounting for 93% of its electricity production, and mining, which although lucrative, raises sustainability concerns in the long term due to its non-renewable nature.

Click to continue reading 10 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries.

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Disclosure: None. 30 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries was originally published at Insider Monkey.
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Gansevoort, N.Y.  A 47-year-old man is in custody after Charlotte Sena  a 9-year-old girl who went missing at a state park in Saratoga County  was found hidden in a camper cabinet Monday evening.

Charlotte was taken to an area hospital, but she was safe and healthy, troopers said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul held a news conference Monday night to describe how the girl was found and the man taken into custody.

A ransom note left in the mailbox of Charlottes family home in the town of Greenfield is what led officers to her abductor, Hochul said. The man had pulled up to the mailbox in front of the Sena family home, leaving a note inside, she said.

The note had fingerprints on it, which assisted authorities in tracking down a suspect, Hochul said. The suspects fingerprints were in law enforcement database. Around 2:30 p.m., officers matched a fingerprint to that of a man arrested for a DWI in 1999 in Saratoga, she said.

From there, officers found a home where the man -- Craig Nelson Ross Jr. -- was living, Hochul said. The home was only two miles away from Charlottes home in Greenfield.

Around 6:32 p.m. Monday, officers found a double-wide home with a camper parked behind it where Ross lives, she said.

Troopers moved in and Ross resisted arrest, the governor said. Troopers said he sustained minor injuries during the scuffle.

Charlotte was found covered inside a cabinet inside the camper. Charlotte appeared to not physically be harmed, but was taken to a hospital, Hochul said.

Charges have not been filed against Ross, but theyre expected. Contrary to earlier reports, Ross is not a registered sex offender. They also said it is not known at this time whether Ross knew Charlotte or had her under surveillance for any length of time.

Its been a long two days but tonight our prayers have been answered, Hochul said.

Charlotte was reunited with her mother, father and two sisters -- 4 and 10 years old.

The governor thanked the State Police and others who worked so tirelessly to find Charlotte. It is because of their efforts that Charlotte will be able to return home safe to her family.

Often these stories dont end up like this -- every second is key, Hochul said. Theres a lot of pressure and split decisions are made. Its not just a life is hanging in the balance, its an innocent childs life is hanging the balance.

More than 400 police officers, firefighters and other certified search and rescue personnel looked for the fourth-grade girl who went missing Saturday night in Moreau Lake State Park in Gansevoort in Saratoga County.

Approximately 400 certified search and rescue personnel are actively searching for Charlotte E. Sena, 9. The searchers include law enforcement agencies, 34 volunteer fire departments, and private search and rescue groups. (Photo provided by state police)

The missing girl was headline news nationally. Hochul came to the park and also met with the girls parents.

On Saturday, Charlotte was riding her bicycle with her cousins around a loop at the park, and she decided to ride the loop an additional time by herself. She was last seen around 6:15 p.m. Saturday.

When about 10 minutes passed and Charlotte didnt return from her ride, her parents started looking for her.

Law enforcement search efforts began around 7 p.m. Saturday. State police issued an Amber Alert Sunday. The search continued Sunday and Monday.

Charlotte was with her family for a camping weekend at the park. They live in the nearby town of Greenfield in Saratoga County.

Charlotte was just elected as an officer for her schools student council at Corinth Central Elementary School. She and her family were having a typical day of camping, the governor said.

New York State Police and other responders search near Moreau Lake State Park for 9-year-old Charlotte Sena, missing since early Saturday night. Anyone with information should call the New York State Police at (518) 457-6811 or dial 911. (NY State Governor's office)

Staff writer Darian Stevenson covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at dstevenson@syracuse.com
Oswego, N.Y.  A 25-year-old Central New York woman was charged with attempted murder and arson after a house fire in the city of Oswego injured one firefighter, police said Tuesday.

Samantha ONeil, of Oswego, set the fire just before 2 p.m. on Sept. 24 knowing there were people inside the home at 165 E. 4th St., police said.
Gansevoort, N.Y.  Charlotte Sena  a 9-year-old girl who was missing for 48 hours  has been found safe and healthy Monday evening.

State Police identified a person who was in the area of Moreau Lake State Park around the time Sena went missing, according to a news release from state police. Multiple homes were searched in the area that the person reportedly lived in, they said.

Around 6:32 p.m. officers found Sena at one of the homes.

A suspect is in custody and the investigation is ongoing, State Police announced just before 7 p.m. Monday. Troopers said they will hold a news conference Tuesday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a statment Monday night.

We are overjoyed at the news that Charlotte Sena has been located safely this evening after an intense days-long search, the governor said. " Our hearts are with her family as they welcome her home.

The governor also thanked the State Police and others who worked so tirelessly to find Charlotte. It is because of their efforts that Charlotte will be able to return home safe to her family.

More than 400 police officers, firefighters and other certified search and rescue personnel looked for the fourth-grade girl who went missing Saturday night in Moreau Lake State Park in Gansevoort in Saratoga County.

The missing girl was headline news nationally. Hochul came to the park and also met with the girls parents.

The search, covering 46 linear miles, was a 24-hour operation, state police spokesperson Trooper Stephanie ONeil said Monday afternoon. It involved police officers, volunteer firefighters and search and rescue groups, she said.

Troopers used aircraft to help search the rural, heavily wooded area around the state park. The Federal Aviation Administration restricted other flights over the park.

Approximately 400 certified search and rescue personnel are actively searching for Charlotte E. Sena, 9. The searchers include law enforcement agencies, 34 volunteer fire departments, and private search and rescue groups. (Photo provided by state police)

On Saturday, Charlotte was riding her bicycle with her cousins around a loop at the park, and she decided to ride the loop an additional time by herself. She was last seen around 6:15 p.m. Saturday.

When about 10 minutes passed and Charlotte didnt return from her ride, her parents started looking for her, ONeil said.

Law enforcement search efforts began around 7 p.m. Saturday. State police issued an Amber Alert Sunday. The search continued Sunday and Monday.

Charlotte was with her family for a camping weekend at the park. They live in the nearby town of Greenfield in Saratoga County where Charlotte is a fourth-grader.

Charlotte was just elected as an officer for her schools student council at Corinth Central Elementary School. She and her family were having a typical day of camping, the governor said.

I just want my daughter back, Charlottes mother, Trisha Sena, said Sunday, according to the Albany Times-Union.

She described her daughter as a good kid who is trusting.

New York State Police and other responders search near Moreau Lake State Park for 9-year-old Charlotte Sena, missing since early Saturday night. Anyone with information should call the New York State Police at (518) 457-6811 or dial 911. (NY State Governor's office)

Staff writer Darian Stevenson covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at dstevenson@syracuse.com
To the Editor:

What the Constitution Means to Me has unfortunately finished its run at Syracuse Stage. The play is thought-provoking. Currently a movement calling for a constitutional convention is flying under the radar and, if just a few more states agree, we are in trouble.

The Constitution may need modifications to address current issues, but we have a mechanism called amendments. For example, the Electoral College system has recently allowed a minority of voters to choose the president. Through amendment we could reestablish majority rule by abolishing the Electoral College. What we dont need is to throw out our Constitution and start over.

Through the Constitutions system of checks and balances, Congress has the power of impeachment to hold Supreme Court justices accountable. Wealthy benefactors, we recently learned, may have unduly influenced some justices. Perhaps some decisions that undercut our constitutional voting rights, such as Citizens United and changes in the Voting Rights Act, were affected. The Supreme Court has also refused to end the gerrymandering whereby legislators are so sure of reelection that they fail to represent their constituency.

A current issue addressed in the play is our constitutional right to privacy. It rests on the Ninth Amendment that says basically that the powers not specifically enumerated or entrusted to the federal or state governments are retained by the people. The Constitution may not specifically say that we have the right to privacy, but it doesnt give the government the right to intrude on our private lives and choices. When the current Supreme Court said states have the power to decide whether abortion will be legal, it ignored the precedent of Roe v. Wade that was based on the Ninth Amendment and the right to privacy.

The so-called originalists would like us to think that the Constitution is a fixed document that must be interpreted historically. However, it has been amended many times to respond to needs not specifically enumerated in the original document. We dont need to throw it out.

With disinformation and noise in our media environment, it is increasingly difficult to educate ourselves on issues. This play helps in a lively and entertaining way to remind us the Constitution is alive, not mired in the 18th Century. Ultimately, however, the remedy to our problems must come from us, the voters.

J. Muir

Marcellus

Review: Constitution explores marvels and shortcomings of our founding document (review)
Syracuse, N.Y.  Al Stirpe, an eight-term Democratic member of the state Assembly, has decided to run for the 50th Senate District seat in Central New York that Democrat John Mannion will vacate after the 2024 election.

Stirpe, 70, of Cicero, said that state Senate Democratic leaders recruited him to run for what has been one of the most competitive Senate seats in the state.
(Bloomberg) -- They are relatively easy to fake. Frequently get lost. And can add huge amounts of time to any journey. Yet paper documents still rule in the $25 trillion global cargo trade with four billion of them in circulation at any one time.

Most Read from Bloomberg

It is a system that has barely changed since the nineteenth century. But that dependence on bits of paper being flown from one party to another has become a vulnerability for companies which move and finance the worlds resources around the globe.

In one high profile case, banks including ING Groep NV discovered in 2020 that they had been given falsified bills of lading  shipping documents that designate a cargos details and assign ownership  in return for issuing credit to Singapores Agritrade Resources. In another dispute, HSBC Holdings Plc and other banks have spent three years in legal wrangling to recover around $3.5 billion from collapsed fuel trader Hin Leong, which is accused by prosecutors of using forged or fabricated documentation, when applying for credit.

The International Chamber of Commerce estimates that at least 1% of transactions in the global trade financing market, or around $50 billion per year, are fraudulent. Banks, traders and other parties have lost at least $9 billion through falsified documents in the commodities industry alone over the past decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Its the easiest type of fraud to commit, said Neil Shonhard, chief executive officer of anti-fraud platform MonetaGo, either falsifying a document or sending duplicates to banks A B and C without them speaking to each other.

The ICC said in a 2022 report, co-authored by MonetaGo, that as much as $2.5 billion of those annual fraud costs ended up realized as losses for financiers  unearthed by commodity price shocks or other external events.

Story continues

Advocates say online platforms already exist that can secure, store and transfer documents, making it much less likely that banks would be presented with doctored bills of lading or other documents, such as invoices for cargoes which might not even exist or which are full of stones masquerading as valuable precious metal. Online hacking remains a risk, but one that is far more difficult to pull off than photocopying pieces of paper, they argue.

Digitization also offers a potential boost for business. A McKinsey study based on industry interviews and data from carriers estimated that adopting electronic bills of lading would enable as much as $40 billion in additional global trade volume through reduced trade friction, particularly for emerging markets. The theory is that banks could in future be more amenable to finance trade for smaller, potentially riskier, counterparts if they did things digitally. The main container shipping lines, McKinsey added, could save as much as $6.5 billion a year in direct costs if they moved to full adoption of digital bills of lading.

We believe that with just a couple of small efforts everybody across this ecosystem can go out there and reap these benefits, said David Dierker, McKinsey senior expert and co-author of the report. He argues that there is little or no downside beyond the initial investment to change processes: Freight forwarders and shippers will need to adapt, but everyone benefits at least as much as they would have to invest. And the carriers benefit much more.

Read more: Billionaire Reuben Brothers Sue Trafigura Over Nickel Fraud

Less than 2% of global trade is transacted via digital means, but that is set to change. Of the worlds top 10 container shipping lines, nine  which account for over 70% of global container freight  have committed to digitizing 50% of their bills of lading within five years, and 100% by 2030. Some of the world's biggest mining companies including BHP Group Ltd., Rio Tinto Group, Vale SA and Anglo American Plc have voiced their support for a similar campaign in the bulk shipping industry.

The greatest barrier to that expansion has been legal. Banks, traders, insurers and shipping companies have had the means to go digital, but up to now a paper bill of lading has been the only document recognized by English law that gives the holder title ownership to a cargo. A bank or insurer wont cover a deal that isnt legally secure, and without financing, deals are unlikely to happen.

To address that, the UK passed the Electronic Trade Documents Act in July which enshrines digital documents with the same legal powers as paper ones. English law on trade documents goes back centuries. It underpins around 90% of global commodities and other trade contracts. So the UK law change represents a big step. Singapore, another center for maritime law, created a similar legal framework in 2021 conducting its first electronic bill of lading transactions in 2022. Similar legislation is expected in France later this year.

The next challenge will be getting companies to change processes that have been in place for hundreds of years. For all its faults, paper is something that everyone understands and while businesses are happy to join a critical mass of digital trade, few are keen to be the first to take steps in that direction.

For this to work, it requires all of us to adopt the same data standards so that we can communicate more effectively to enable verification in a truly interoperable manner, said Lynn Ng, Global Lead for Sustainable Value Chains at ING, the biggest bank in commodity finance.

The UKs legal push is based on a model law put forward by the United Nations. Such transnational bodies have been important in putting together statutes that have to be acceptable and usable by the whole world. It has been broadly welcomed by the industry: We believe this is one of the solutions which would help in reducing documentary fraud, said the trading house Trafigura Group.

Its not a panacea for the electronic bill of lading and weve got a way to go, but Im massively energized by this change and I think it will make a significant difference to how the industry views these digital instruments, said Marina Comninos, co-head of the paperless trade management company, ICE Digital Trade. Were still at such a nascent point in international trade, with only a small fraction of global trade being digitized  we need oxygen and this is oxygen.

As a newly qualified lawyer working in the Singapore office of Holman Fenwick Willan in the late 2000s, Michael Buisset remembers flying 5,000 kilometers to Hong Kong and back in a day, briefcase in hand, to get a last-minute bill of lading signed off by a client.

My rate was much cheaper than it is now, but its just a testament to the waste of time and money that paper documents can create, Buisset, now head of the firms office in the commodities trading hub of Geneva, said. And of course there was the risk of it getting lost.

Such trips still happen, even though that transfer of documents could feasibly be executed in minutes via an online platform. The full documentation process on a 2022 deal to ship nickel in containers from miner BHP Group Ltd. in Australia to Chinese buyer Jinchuan, financed by banks from each country, took under 48 hours over the ICE Digital Trade platform, the company said.

For now, when a cargo of coffee is shipped from Brazil to a roaster like Illycaffe SpA in Europe it sets off a flurry of printing. Three identical bills of lading need to be produced and gradually make their way between sellers, banks and buyers, stopping off at law firms and consultants in order to guarantee the rights to the cargo across its 20 day journey. There are also paper invoices, certificates of analysis, and additional documents to measure weight, origin, packing, and moisture content if it is ores that are being shipped.

It is impossible to accurately calculate how many documents are printed for a given trade route but Brazil exports over 900,000 tons of coffee to the European Union every year. And that represents a lot of paper  McKinsey estimated that at least 28,000 trees a year could be saved by reduced friction in the container trade.

As well as providing details of the cargo, its destination and origin, the documents give the holder ownership rights over whatever is being shipped, crucial for holding transport companies accountable for any damages or loss that might occur, or indeed to give banks and insurers some security when providing hundreds of millions of dollars to finance a single shipment. The biggest vessels that transport oil, known as Very Large Crude Carriers, are moving cargoes valued at over $170 million at current prices.

Read More: Whats Behind a String of Scandals in Metals Trading?: QuickTake

The multi-step process begins when an agent prepares the bill of lading and receives sign-off that all the details are correct from the seller, ship owner, trader and end-buyer. The ship is then loaded and original bills of lading are issued by the vessels owner and signed by its captain. The three original bills of lading are then released to the seller  in the Brazilian example, the coffee producer  which passes them on to its financing bank along with additional documents to receive payment. The coffee companys bank will endorse the bill of lading by writing on the back of it.

In many cases a carrier will need to set sail before this process is complete, so the vessels captain will provide a shipping agent with a letter of authority to complete the documents on their behalf.

The next leg of the journey for the bill of lading is from the coffee companys bank to the trading groups equivalent via DHL Worldwide Express or FedEx Corp. The traders bank then makes the payment to the producers bank against the receipt of those documents. Assuming everything is okay at this stage the bank working for the trader endorses the bill of lading, signs, stamps, dates and delivers it to its counterpart representing the buyer of the cargo, which in turn pays the traders bank for the goods and hands the bill of lading to the master at the destination port to obtain the release of goods.

This pass-the-parcel style approach to the bureaucracy is happening in parallel with the physical goods being loaded, shipped around the world and delivered. Sometimes the documents may only need to move between a small cluster of offices in Geneva or Singapore  where companies across the supply and finance chain have set up offices to be close to one another. But often they are far more tortuous.

The news section of the website of the Grain and Feed Trade Association, GAFTA, is often dedicated to bills of lading feared lost or stolen, where companies publicly state their ownership of a cargo to dissuade other parties at the arrival port from stealing their wheat or soybeans potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Although rare, many cargo owners believe the risk to be sufficient to issue the public hands-off warnings.

Practically everybody I know who works in the industry has at some point encountered bills of lading getting lost, said Richard Watts, a Geneva-based specialist in maritime trade and a board adviser to electronic document platform Secro. It doesnt happen often but given the pure number of documents that were sending around the world at any one time  even if 0.001% of them get lost  thats still a very expensive and complex problem, often with a ship waiting to discharge.

Digital startups like Vakt and ICE Digital Trade offer the opportunity to transfer trade and other financial documents electronically. Bolero has been doing it since the 1990s. Oil majors, such as BP Plc and Shell Plc, traders like Gunvor Group and banks including Societe Generale SA have stakes in Vakt, while Intercontinental Exchange bought essDOCS last year for an undisclosed sum, betting that the move online will accelerate.

But the lack of public examples highlights the uphill battle to full adoption of electronic bills of lading. Trafigura used essDOCS for an Australian iron ore shipment back in 2014. Taiwanese shipping line Wan Hai used Boleros electronic bill of lading for a polyester filament trade to China in 2018.

This low take-up is largely due to the continued lack of legal recognition in many jurisdictions and banks  which finance the cargoes in transit  but will not accept a digital bill of lading as collateral in most cases. Advocates say the UK law reform should change that.

Were still living in the Dark Ages in terms of global trade, said Secros Watts, after this call Ive got to go down to pick up some bills of lading for a fertilizer shipment from a bank and send them via courier to Argentina, its all just a bit silly.

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Key Insights

Institutions' substantial holdings in Sandfire Resources implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price

A total of 9 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership

Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

A look at the shareholders of Sandfire Resources Limited (ASX:SFR) can tell us which group is most powerful. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 66% to be precise, is institutions. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

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. Hence, having a considerable amount of institutional money invested in a company is often regarded as a desirable trait.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Sandfire Resources.

See our latest analysis for Sandfire Resources

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Sandfire Resources?

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.

Sandfire Resources already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. 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. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Sandfire Resources' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Story continues

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Sandfire Resources. The company's largest shareholder is Australian Super Pty Ltd, with ownership of 15%. For context, the second largest shareholder holds about 5.4% of the shares outstanding, followed by an ownership of 5.1% by the third-largest shareholder.

We also observed that the top 9 shareholders account for more than half of the share register, with a few smaller shareholders to balance the interests of the larger ones to a certain extent.

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. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Insider Ownership Of Sandfire Resources

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.

We can see that insiders own shares in Sandfire Resources Limited. It is a pretty big company, so it is generally a positive to see some potentially meaningful alignment. In this case, they own around AU$34m worth of shares (at current prices). Most would say this shows alignment of interests between shareholders and the board. Still, it might be worth checking if those insiders have been selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 32% stake in Sandfire Resources. 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.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Be aware that Sandfire Resources is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

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.
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12-day Europe trip with Kesari Tours - A review



The first thing we wanted to decide was - whether to go on our own or through a tour operator. If we have to go on our own, we have to do a lot of planning - for places, tickets, commute, hotels, restaurants etc. Since we have never been to Europe, everything was new and to add to it - the languages are different. Considering these aspects, we decided to go with a tour operator.



The next decision was - which tour operator. We considered Kesari Tours, SOTC, and a few more. We went through a lot of reviews available on various sites. Of course there were both positive and negative reviews for each of these operators. Out of these, Kesari had more positive feedback. To add to it, my cousin and his wife had gone to Europe through Kesari. They provided detailed and valuable information about Kesari tours and their experience. These helped us in taking a decision to go with Kesari Tours.



Like any other operator, Kesari has a variety of tours - varies on places covered and duration. You need to pick the one suits best. Every tour is published on their website with a complete itinerary. I strongly suggest going through the itinerary to get the feeling of how tight/ free the tour will be. This is an important factor before you decide to choose a tour. Ill explain further below why this is important. We chose a 12-days package which is called P7 - Images of Europe economy. This package covers western parts of Europe.



Kesari takes care of everything. We only need to visit their office a few times and of course visit the visa office twice (one for UK visa and the second time for Schengen visa). Kesari takes care of flight booking, visa appointment, local transport in Europe, monuments tickets, local guide (wherever required), hotels booking, restaurant booking for lunch and dinner, sticking to the time (itinerary) and of course most importantly a tour manager who will be with us all the time.



What to expect



Itinerary - 12 days for Europe means it covers some major places across multiple countries (9-10 countries in our case). As I mentioned before, we went through the itinerary in detail. We also calculated driving distance between cities to understand the amount of road travel. This helped us a lot to get the expectation clear on travel. The tour manager sticks to the itinerary.



This group tour is not for you:

If you are looking for a relaxed tour

If you are looking for a flexible itinerary

If you cant do a lot of walking (on an average we did 11,500 steps daily with 18,500 steps the highest in Rome)

Timings - Kesari follows what they call the 6-7-8 pattern. Get up at 6 am, breakfast at 7 and then start your day at 8. Normally, well be back to Hotel by 7ish and then have dinner at 8 pm. We do get sufficient time for sleep and thats very important. We made sure that we get at least 7 hours of sleep, so that well be fresh for next day sight-seeing.



Places - All the places were covered as per itinerary. In a few places, we felt the time given was not sufficient. In other places such as the Leaning tower of Pisa, Colosseum etc we had enough time. Of course, this enough time is very subjective. What I consider as enough may not be enough for someone else. In a group tour, this factor needs to be considered. In fact, when we went for a tour in Sikkim, it was a customized tour package exclusively made for us. We had liberty to stay in a particular place for as much time as we wanted. We will not have this luxury in the group tour. Also, we went to Europe in September. It turns out, the crowd in Sep was less compared to months like April, May and June. This also matters. The more crowd, the longer the queue in places like Eiffel Tower etc.



Extra Places - The tour manager provided an option to visit additional places (which were not there in itinerary) with whatever actual cost. We chose the Seine river cruise in Paris, Paris by night and Vatican city.



Shopping - Time was given for shopping in specific places. For instance, we got time in a Cuckoo factory in Germany, Lucerne (Switzerland), Swarovski crystal world in Austria, Venice (Italy), and Rome (Italy). In other places like Pisa and Paris, we had very limited time. Our first preference was sight-seeing and then shopping. So we planned our time accordingly.



Food - We got Indian food for lunch and dinner, so there is no problem here (except that we got maida made roti which was not good to eat continuously for 12 days). However, we get enough to fill up our stomach. As for breakfast, we got English breakfast in London and Continental breakfast in other places which primarily includes bread, croissant, cereals, fruits and coffee. For non-vegetarians, there are a few more options. Only in Switzerland, we got South Indian breakfast because the hotel where we stayed had an Indian restaurant. We also carried MTR ready to eat dishes such as Upma, Avalakki uppittu, Shavige bath, Bisibele bath which were very handy for us when we got bored of eating continental breakfast.



Commute - A bus was arranged to travel in Europe. Only from London to Paris we traveled by Eurostar train and the rest was by bus. The bus driver is called Captain and he/she will help in loading/unloading the luggage from the bus. The roads are very good so you dont feel tired during road travel. The seats will be allotted on a first come first serve basis, so one needs to sit in the allotted seat only.



Hotels - The hotels booked were good. Every hotel had lifts so as long as you have wheeled luggages you can carry your luggage without much problem. There are no helpers in hotels, so we need to carry our luggages from the bus to the rooms and vice-versa.



Washrooms - The tour manager stopped the bus for loo breaks. He tried to stop wherever we could use toilets for free. In only a few places, we had to pay 1 Euro per head to use the toilet.



Drinking water - We can use hotel tap water for drinking. So we dont need to worry about drinking water. We just need to carry bottles and fill up wherever possible.



Group - Its a group tour. In our case, we had 18 families (approx 36 people). As the tour progressed, we got to know each other and we also had some fun activities in the bus.



Tour Manager - An important factor in the trip is the tour manager. Hell be our guide and caretaker for the entire tour. Luckily we got Mr. Raj Salvi as our tour manager. Hes one of the most experienced people in this field and he managed very well. He talked about the places we are visiting, its historical importance, dos and donts during the trip, extra caution to be taken care especially in France and Italy (to be careful from pickpockets), making sure that trip is happening on time, coordinating with hotels and restaurants to ensure food is ready by the time we reach the place, coordinating with bus driver for timely pickup and drop, and a lot more. This is the person who ensures that we have a smooth travel experience.



Complimentary Items - Kesari provides complimentary items for each traveler such as Universal Adaptor, Shoulder bag, passport pouch, cap, stroller, wet issue paper, electric kettle, poncho and snacks hamper. Only adapter and poncho are per family and the rest is for each person. The snacks hamper includes a variety of snacks (sweets, salty and spicy). These snacks come handy when we are traveling from one country to another, or whenever we feel hungry.



Overall we had a wonderful experience with Kesari tours and we thoroughly enjoyed this trip. We cherish this experience for a long time, for sure. We express our sincere thanks to the team Kesari (specifically Ms Steffi from Sales team, Mr Vinod from Visa team and Ms Divya from Airline booking team), and Mr. Raj for his excellent guidance and help during entire trip. Do we prefer Kesari for any future tour? Yes, if we have to go for a group tour!



I'll share the photos in the order of our visit. The Europe trip was always in our minds as a wishlist but it took more than 10 years to execute. When the right time arrived, my wife and I started planning for the same. There were many questions like should we go on our own or through a tour operator, should it be a customized trip or a group tour etc. We spent a lot of time researching for whatever information available so that we can make a decision. Finally we decided to go on a group tour with Kesari Tours. In this post, Ill share the information on what to expect in a group tour and how was our experience with Kesari and of course on the places we visited. As far as places are concerned, Ill try to share more pictures with less description. I hope this will provide enough information for anyone who is looking for a similar tour.The first thing we wanted to decide was - whether to go on our own or through a tour operator. If we have to go on our own, we have to do a lot of planning - for places, tickets, commute, hotels, restaurants etc. Since we have never been to Europe, everything was new and to add to it - the languages are different. Considering these aspects, we decided to go with a tour operator.The next decision was - which tour operator. We considered Kesari Tours, SOTC, and a few more. We went through a lot of reviews available on various sites. Of course there were both positive and negative reviews for each of these operators. Out of these, Kesari had more positive feedback. To add to it, my cousin and his wife had gone to Europe through Kesari. They provided detailed and valuable information about Kesari tours and their experience. These helped us in taking a decision to go with Kesari Tours.Like any other operator, Kesari has a variety of tours - varies on places covered and duration. You need to pick the one suits best. Every tour is published on their website with a complete itinerary. I strongly suggest going through the itinerary to get the feeling of how tight/ free the tour will be. This is an important factor before you decide to choose a tour. Ill explain further below why this is important. We chose a 12-days package which is called P7 - Images of Europe economy. This package covers western parts of Europe.Kesari takes care of everything. We only need to visit their office a few times and of course visit the visa office twice (one for UK visa and the second time for Schengen visa). Kesari takes care of flight booking, visa appointment, local transport in Europe, monuments tickets, local guide (wherever required), hotels booking, restaurant booking for lunch and dinner, sticking to the time (itinerary) and of course most importantly a tour manager who will be with us all the time.- 12 days for Europe means it covers some major places across multiple countries (9-10 countries in our case). As I mentioned before, we went through the itinerary in detail. We also calculated driving distance between cities to understand the amount of road travel. This helped us a lot to get the expectation clear on travel. The tour manager sticks to the itinerary.This group tour isfor you:- Kesari follows what they call the 6-7-8 pattern. Get up at 6 am, breakfast at 7 and then start your day at 8. Normally, well be back to Hotel by 7ish and then have dinner at 8 pm. We do get sufficient time for sleep and thats very important. We made sure that we get at least 7 hours of sleep, so that well be fresh for next day sight-seeing.- All the places were covered as per itinerary. In a few places, we felt the time given was not sufficient. In other places such as the Leaning tower of Pisa, Colosseum etc we had enough time. Of course, this enough time is very subjective. What I consider as enough may not be enough for someone else. In a group tour, this factor needs to be considered. In fact, when we went for a tour in Sikkim, it was a customized tour package exclusively made for us. We had liberty to stay in a particular place for as much time as we wanted. We will not have this luxury in the group tour. Also, we went to Europe in September. It turns out, the crowd in Sep was less compared to months like April, May and June. This also matters. The more crowd, the longer the queue in places like Eiffel Tower etc.- The tour manager provided an option to visit additional places (which were not there in itinerary) with whatever actual cost. We chose the Seine river cruise in Paris, Paris by night and Vatican city.- Time was given for shopping in specific places. For instance, we got time in a Cuckoo factory in Germany, Lucerne (Switzerland), Swarovski crystal world in Austria, Venice (Italy), and Rome (Italy). In other places like Pisa and Paris, we had very limited time. Our first preference was sight-seeing and then shopping. So we planned our time accordingly.- We got Indian food for lunch and dinner, so there is no problem here (except that we got maida made roti which was not good to eat continuously for 12 days). However, we get enough to fill up our stomach. As for breakfast, we got English breakfast in London and Continental breakfast in other places which primarily includes bread, croissant, cereals, fruits and coffee. For non-vegetarians, there are a few more options. Only in Switzerland, we got South Indian breakfast because the hotel where we stayed had an Indian restaurant. We also carried MTR ready to eat dishes such as Upma, Avalakki uppittu, Shavige bath, Bisibele bath which were very handy for us when we got bored of eating continental breakfast.- A bus was arranged to travel in Europe. Only from London to Paris we traveled by Eurostar train and the rest was by bus. The bus driver is called Captain and he/she will help in loading/unloading the luggage from the bus. The roads are very good so you dont feel tired during road travel. The seats will be allotted on a first come first serve basis, so one needs to sit in the allotted seat only.- The hotels booked were good. Every hotel had lifts so as long as you have wheeled luggages you can carry your luggage without much problem. There are no helpers in hotels, so we need to carry our luggages from the bus to the rooms and vice-versa.- The tour manager stopped the bus for loo breaks. He tried to stop wherever we could use toilets for free. In only a few places, we had to pay 1 Euro per head to use the toilet.- We can use hotel tap water for drinking. So we dont need to worry about drinking water. We just need to carry bottles and fill up wherever possible.- Its a group tour. In our case, we had 18 families (approx 36 people). As the tour progressed, we got to know each other and we also had some fun activities in the bus.- An important factor in the trip is the tour manager. Hell be our guide and caretaker for the entire tour. Luckily we got Mr. Raj Salvi as our tour manager. Hes one of the most experienced people in this field and he managed very well. He talked about the places we are visiting, its historical importance, dos and donts during the trip, extra caution to be taken care especially in France and Italy (to be careful from pickpockets), making sure that trip is happening on time, coordinating with hotels and restaurants to ensure food is ready by the time we reach the place, coordinating with bus driver for timely pickup and drop, and a lot more. This is the person who ensures that we have a smooth travel experience.- Kesari provides complimentary items for each traveler such as Universal Adaptor, Shoulder bag, passport pouch, cap, stroller, wet issue paper, electric kettle, poncho and snacks hamper. Only adapter and poncho are per family and the rest is for each person. The snacks hamper includes a variety of snacks (sweets, salty and spicy). These snacks come handy when we are traveling from one country to another, or whenever we feel hungry.Overall we had a wonderful experience with Kesari tours and we thoroughly enjoyed this trip. We cherish this experience for a long time, for sure. We express our sincere thanks to the team Kesari (specifically Ms Steffi from Sales team, Mr Vinod from Visa team and Ms Divya from Airline booking team), and Mr. Raj for his excellent guidance and help during entire trip. Do we prefer Kesari for any future tour? Yes, if we have to go for a group tour!I'll share the photos in the order of our visit.
Younger workers can pose a greater risk to an organizations cybersecurity than older workers, according to a study released Tuesday by IT security company Ivanti.

Based on a Q4-2022 survey of 6,500 executive leaders, infosec professionals, and office workers worldwide, the study concluded that millennials and Gen Z workers are more likely to have unsafe cybersecurity habits than their older peers. It found:

38% of office workers under 40 use the same passwords on multiple devices, compared to 28% of office workers older than 40.

34% of office workers under 40 shared work device(s) with family or friends, compared to 19% of office workers older than 40.

34% of office workers under 40 use a birthdate in their password, compared to 19% of office workers older than 40.

13% of office workers under 40 clicked on a phishing link when targeted, compared to 8% of office workers older than 40.

Many assume older employees are less tech-savvy  and therefore more likely to engage in risky behaviors, the report noted. In fact, the opposite is true.

Younger professionals (those under 40) are significantly more likely to disregard important security guidelines when compared to Gen X and older, it continued. This is true about performing password hygiene, clicking on phishing links, and sharing devices with family and friends.

Not only do younger workers pose a risk because of their indifference to cyber hygiene, the study added, but they are also less likely to report signs of potential security threats when encountering them.

It revealed that among workers 40 and under, 23% said they did not report the last phishing email or message they received, compared to 12% of those over 40 who also failed to report.

Healthy Skepticism

Older workers dont have the ingrained familiarity with online technology that younger workers do, so they might have a healthy skepticism and sense of caution when going about their business online, observed Mika Aalto, co-founder and CEO of Hoxhunt, a provider of enterprise security awareness solutions, in Helsinki.

When youre talking about Gen X and above, these generations recall the uncertainty around making an online payment in the early days of e-commerce or sending sensitive information over email as opposed to a fax. Sometimes, being overly confident can lead to a careless mistake, he told TechNewsWorld.

Younger workers can be overly self-assured when it comes to technology, agreed George Jones, chief information security officer with Critical Start, a national cybersecurity services company. Younger employees often have a lack of awareness and overconfidence in technology, favoring convenience over security, which results in riskier behaviors, he told TechNewsWorld.

The tech-savvy nature of the generation can lead to overconfidence in their ability to navigate the digital landscape without taking necessary precautions, such as not reusing passwords or sharing sensitive information online, he said.

Simulate Attacks To Counter Overconfidence

It is essential for security teams to keep in mind that familiarity can breed carelessness, especially when dealing with more confident users, added Erich Kron, a security awareness advocate at KnowBe4, a security awareness training provider in Clearwater, Fla.

Educating the more confident group on some of the more clever attacks that may take advantage of this confidence can help the younger groups understand just how easily some of the bad actors can ease their attacks into the normal daily work routine if the employees are not being careful, he explained.

Simulated attacks, such as simulated phishing campaigns, can really drive this home, especially when someone who is confident in their ability to avoid falling for a ruse finds themselves being tricked, he observed.

An Element of Ennui

Younger workers have also experienced technology differently than their older peers, maintained Tom Molden, CIO of Global Executive Engagement at Tanium, a provider of converged endpoint management in Kirkland, Wash.

Technology has advanced so rapidly in the past five to 10 years that we have a generation of younger people in the workforce that have never experienced the evolution of technology in the same way that many others have, he told TechNewsWorld.

With a constant wave of new innovations and an onslaught of new ways to leverage technology, its hard to imagine someone having the time to focus on fundamentals, he said.

Molden pointed out, for example, that someone writing code today is typically using building blocks created by someone else and assuming theyre secure. That contrasts with an older software writer who wrote their code from scratch and had to learn about how to think about securing their code.

There may also be a certain amount of ennui among younger workers about the realities of online life. Speaking for myself as an early-internet-adopting GenXer/Xillenial, I assume that my data has been compromised beyond the breaches for which Ive received notifications, confessed Karen Walsh, CEO of Allegro Solutions, a cybersecurity consulting company in West Hartford, Conn.

To many of us, compromised data is a fact of life more than a potential future risk that can be prevented, she told TechNewsWorld.

This fatalistic approach impacts our online activities, she continued. If we feel that nothing we do matters because attackers will steal our data or companies will become a point of failure, then taking extra security actions feels inefficient while remaining ineffective.

Gender and Seniority Impacts

The study also noted that gender and seniority can impact the collective strength of an organizations security as a whole. For example, the researchers found that men and leaders are more comfortable contacting a security employee with a question or concern  with leaders at an organization the most likely to reach out with a question at 72%.

By contrast, the study discovered women are less likely than men to do the same. Twenty-eight percent have contacted a cybersecurity employee with a question or concern, compared to 36% of men.

Its interesting to note that men and leaders are more comfortable approaching security personnel. This suggests that there may be an unintentional bias or a cultural barrier that makes others feel less welcome, observed Roger Neal, head of product at Apona Security, a software security tool maker in Sacramento, Calif.

To address this, he told TechNewsWorld, organizations could consider implementing a common, user-friendly portal for reporting cybersecurity incidents.

Such a portal would democratize the reporting process, making it accessible and less intimidating for everyone, regardless of their position or gender, he continued. This inclusivity can lead to a more comprehensive and effective cybersecurity strategy.

Adapting Cybersecurity Training for a Diverse Workforce

This survey appears to validate the hypothesis that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to cybersecurity training and culture, noted Debrup Ghosh, a senior product manager at the Synopsys Software Integrity Group in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Business leaders need to adapt their cybersecurity training based on the demographics of their employees and solicit feedback from them on how to make the training more effective instead of just ticking a box and moving on, he said.

Additionally, he said, cybersecurity training must account for diversity and inclusion practices as part of the delivery method to ensure that all employees regardless of age, gender, religion, or other preferences  feel included in the process of instilling sound cybersecurity practices throughout the organization.
A hot potato: Meta has announced that it used public posts from Facebook and Instagram to train parts of its new AI virtual assistant. The social media giant emphasized that it did not include users' private posts or messages shared with friends and family as part of its training data.

Speaking in an interview with Reuters at Meta's Connect conference last week, Nick Clegg, the company's president of global affairs, said "We've tried to exclude datasets that have a heavy preponderance of personal information." The former UK Deputy Prime Minister added that the "vast majority" of the data used by Meta for training was publicly available.

Meta announced last Wednesday that it was introducing a beta version of Meta AI, an advanced conversational assistant available on WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, and coming to Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and Quest 3. Available only in the US, the assistant offers real-time information and generates photorealistic images from text prompts.

Meta AI is powered by its LLaMA 2 language model released in July, along with the Emu text-to-image model, both of which have been trained on public Facebook and Instagram posts.

Clegg said LinkedIn was an example of a website whose content Meta purposely did not use for data training due to privacy concerns.

One of the many controversial elements of generative AI remains the copyright questions relating to content their LLMs are trained on. Artists have launched copyright lawsuits against Stable Diffusion and Midjourney this year, while authors including John Grisham and George R.R. Martin have sued OpenAI. Clegg said he expects a "fair amount of litigation" over the matter of "whether creative content is covered or not by existing fair use doctrine."

"We think it is, but I strongly suspect that's going to play out in litigation," Clegg said.

Meta isn't the only company using user content to train its AI. Elon Musk's xAI is doing the same thing with users' tweets, while Google's policy update in July confirmed that all posted user content will be used for AI training.

Last Wednesday also saw Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg announce a variety of AI-based chatbots featuring the likenesses of celebrities and influencers, including Tom Brady, Mr. Beast, Paris Hilton, Kendall Jenner, and Snoop Dogg. Meta said it will launch 28 of the bots, which are also powered by LLaMA 2. The event wasn't exactly a resounding success.
WTF?! Would you pay a monthly fee to use Facebook and Instagram without the ads? Some users may soon have the opportunity to do just that. Meta recently pitched a plan to European regulators that would allow Instagram users to pay around $14 per month for an ad-free IG experience on mobile, or about $17 per month to include Facebook in the bundle.

The initiative, dubbed subscription no ads, or SNA for short, could start rolling out in selection European nations within the coming months, sources familiar with the proposal told The Wall Street Journal.

The publication said the proposal is an answer by Meta to European Union rules that would limit the company's ability to show users targeted ads based on data collected without their consent. Ad revenue is Meta's bread and butter, so anything that challenges that will most certainly be addressed, one way or another.

Once implemented, the change would give users in select regions the option to continue using Facebook and Instagram for free with personalized ads, or pay to unlock a version without any ads (and presumably, limited personal data collection). Access to ad-free services would be more expensive for mobile users, sources said, because Meta would have to account for commissions charged by Apple and Google app stores for in-app payments.

It is worth reiterating that Meta's proposal is limited to the European Union to appease regulators. If you are in the US or elsewhere, don't expect to see Facebook or Instagram premium subscription offerings anytime soon.

There is also no guarantee at this stage that regulators will accept Meta's proposal as presented. They very well could insist the company reduce its proposed pricing or make them offer a free version with ads that aren't based on user activity.

The question stands: if given the opportunity, would you pay to ditch ads and limit data collection on Facebook and Instagram? What'd it be worth to you?

Image credit: Julio Lopez, Alexander Shatov
(Bloomberg) -- SAS AB chose Air France-KLM and private equity firm Castlelake LP to anchor a $1.18 billion investment in the bankrupt Scandinavian flag-carrier, ending a five-month chase for new capital.

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Air France-KLM will invest up to $144.5 million and receive as much as a 19.9% of SAS, with the option to take a controlling interest after two years under certain conditions, according to a statement Tuesday.

The deal promises to further the post-Covid consolidation of Europes aviation industry around Air France-KLM and two other major carrier groups, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and IAG SA. IAG is taking over Spains Air Europa, while Lufthansa has agreed to buy part of Italys state-owned ITA Airways, the successor to Alitalia.

An alliance with SAS will strengthen Air France-KLMs position in the Nordics, source of a reliable stream of active travelers, even as it targets Portugals flag carrier TAP to the south. As part of the deal, SAS will exit Lufthansas Star Alliance to eventually join the SkyTeam union co-founded by Air France.

This project confirms Air France-KLMs ambition to play an active role in the well-expected consolidation in Europe, the Franco-Dutch airline group said in response to a Bloomberg query. The plan to ally with SAS has no impact on the groups strong interest in TAP and its ability to participate in the privatization process.

The funding package includes equity, convertible debt and the refinancing of a bankruptcy loan by Castlelake. The government of Denmark and Denmarks Lind Invest ApS are also part of the new ownership group.

Shareholder Wipeout

The reorganization under US Chapter 11 bankruptcy rules will wipe out existing shareholders of SAS, including stakes held by the governments of Sweden and Denmark. But the 77-year-old airline gains financial resources and a strong partner as it rebuilds. SAS filed for bankruptcy in July 2022, after the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted travel, fuel prices rose and its pilots went on strike.

Story continues

The benefit of being in a larger home is something thats very attractive, allowing SAS to bring in added revenue over a shorter period of time, Chief Executive Officer Anko van der Werff said in an interview. Thats clearly very appealing to us.

New Plan

SAS has said it aims to emerge from the court process around year-end, after cleansing its books of some 20 billion Swedish kronor ($1.8 billion) in debt. The company extended the timeline for bids from potential investors twice, pushing the deadline back as recently as last month.

The airline was founded in 1946 through the merger of three carriers from Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and in the ensuing decades forged an unparalleled role connecting the region with the rest of the world.

Prior to the equity raise, the governments of Denmark and Sweden each owned 21.8% of SAS. Sweden had indicated it would accept a conversion of debt it was owed into equity, but wouldnt participate in a new capital raise. Norways government also said it wouldnt contribute any new equity after selling its last stake in the company in 2018.

(Updates with comment from Air France-KLM, added details on deal)

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The best laid plans... Last year, NASA announced it was accepting bids to build a new space station. The International Space Station (ISS) is now over 20 years old, which is ancient as high-tech installations go. It plans to get a new platform operational, then decommission the ISS and deorbit it into the ocean by 2030.

Four contractors put in bids to compete for NASA's $500 million in grants  Northrop Grumman, Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Axiom Space. According to Ars Technica sources, Northrop Grumman has withdrawn its bid, and Blue Origin's status is shaky. The leak came during this week's International Astronautical Congress.

Northrop Grumman planned to build a free-flying space station based on its Cygnus spacecraft design, which looks like a tin can sporting two solar umbrellas (below). Insiders say it has abandoned the idea in favor of joining a joint effort with Voyager Space and Airbus to build a commercial space station. Northrop would likely provide cargo transport with Cygnus.

Blue Origin's plans are less firm. It had intended to build a low-Earth-orbit station called "Orbital Reef." While it has not entirely withdrawn its plans, multiple sources say founder Jeff Bezos is more interested in developing a lunar lander and building infrastructure for a base on the Moon.

Furthermore, Blue Origin's partnership with Sierra Space to construct Orbital Reef is on shaky ground. Last week, CNBC noted that Blue Origin and Sierra were in talks to end their partnership. Nothing is inevitable, and the situation remains "ongoing and fluid." However, the insiders said both companies had reconsidered their priorities, with Bezo company wanting to focus on its Blue Moon lander and Sierra looking to build its Dream Chaser spaceplane.

Losing a couple of bids does not shoot down NASA's plans. Instead, the space agency is rolling with the punches; it still has two solid proposals that don't appear to be going anywhere. Developing and building a space station is integral to Axiom's and Nanorack's business plans, so they are likely in it for the long haul.

Other startups are also willing to fill Northrop's and Blue Origin's shoes. A company called Vast Space says it is already well-funded and can have an orbiting station with its first of several habitation modules completed by 2025. Additionally, SpaceX has expressed interest in using its Starship design as a space station capable of flying customizable missions.
The new foldable smartphone from OnePlus, the Open, is only word of mouth until now, as the company gave a first look at its new tech featuring its "gapless" hinge that revolutionizes the niche. It appeared in the recent review video from Unbox Therapy, also having CEO Pete Lau discuss its features and the background of the device via a video conference with translation.

In hindsight, this would be the first foldable coming from OnePlus but would be the flagship of the company that owns it, BBK Electronics, along with Oppo's Find N and Find N2.

OnePlus Open's 'Gapless' Hinge First Look

(Photo : Unbox Therapy via YouTube Screenshot)

Unbox Therapy has shared a new video that shows a first look at the upcoming OnePlus Open, the new foldable smartphone from the Chinese tech company. Among the most iconic developments in this device is the "gapless" hinge design that fully closes it when folded, meaning that there are no visible gaps unlike earlier designs and hinges present in other smartphones.

In the channel's test, they stuck a piece of paper in between the fold of the smartphone and showed how they can lift it by only holding the paper and the device does not fall off.

(Photo : Unbox Therapy via YouTube Screenshot)

The video shows the likeness of the device, but not all of the details as there were carefully placed coverings for its cameras and more, most likely requested by OnePlus to avoid spoiling its features and details.

Read Also: OnePlus Nord N30 Could Launch in the US: Spotted on Bluetooth SIG

OnePlus CEO Pete Lau Fills in Details

Alongside the different features of the OnePlus Open, its CEO Pete Lau also joins the video via a conference call, with his statements translated into English for the viewers to understand. Lau regarded that OnePlus has over 600 patents on the hinge's elements alone, and this is what challenged the company the most during its development.

(Photo : Unbox Therapy via YouTube Screenshot)

In this design, the inner screen bezels are raised higher compared to other foldables which helped achieve this feature, also having 31 fewer components compared to its co-subsidiary, the Oppo Find N2.

Foldable Smartphones' Tech

The world of the foldable smartphone world is dominated by Asian technology, with China and Korea leading the charge, centering on the top brands that deliver different kinds of experiences for all. One of the most notable now is the latest Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 and the Z Flip5, two devices that were recently unveiled last late July from its Unpacked event.

However, there are massive competitors in the foldable market from the renowned Chinese brands in the world, with Oppo among those leading the charge with its Find N3 which is allegedly coming in late 2023.

This new smartphone from OnePlus was confirmed for the second half of 2023, but no specific details were revealed by its COO and president, Kinder Liu back in February.

OnePlus remains a renowned brand in the consumer technology world and has given the public smartphones that can pack a punch against the likes of Apple, Samsung, Google, and more. With the new gapless hinge and overall iconic performance, the OnePlus Open is already one notable smartphone, but its performance is yet to be judged when it arrives.

Related Article: OnePlus Ace 2 Pro Features 'Rain Water Touch' That Works Reliably Despite Wet Hands or Screen

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A new report centers on the possibility of Northrop Grumman dropping out of the bid to create NASA's first commercially commissioned space station that is set to replace and succeed the International Space Station. In its early conception, NASA named four companies to join this project, with the likes of Axiom Space, Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Northrop Grumman as part of the run.

The International Space Station is at odds and ends, with it already extending beyond its expected life in the Earth's orbit to house the world's space personnel.

Northrop Grumman's Space Station No More?

(Photo : Northrop Grumman)

Ars Technica reported that several sources pointed out that Northrop Grumman is allegedly dropping out of their bid to create a space station for NASA to succeed the famed ISS. This new buzz was picked up in the International Astronautical Congress that is held in Azerbaijan this week, speculating against Northrop's work on the station.

Moreover, it was said that Northrop Grumman is not entirely backing out, rather, it would drop its self-made plans and join Voyager Space along with Airbus to develop the said commercial space station.

Blue Origin and Sierra Space were reported that their partnership was "on rocky footing," according to CNBC, and this adds another dropout from the list.

Read Also: NASA Partners With SpaceX, Blue Origin, and 5 Other US Companies to Advance Space Capabilities

Private Space Companies for Space Station

Private companies are being commissioned for the new space station, with Northrop Grumman's original plan centering on the designs of its Cygnus rocket, focusing on its commercial spacecraft experience.

In the run, there is still Axiom Space and Nanoracks, both American companies who are still mum on these latest developments for NASA's commercial space station.

International Space Station Successor

While the International Space Station is nearing its end of life, NASA and the world are already turning to private space companies to create the next orbiting neutral grounds to replace it. Earlier reports claimed that the ISS would crash into the Pacific Ocean as part of its decommissioning in 2031, and by this time, there would already be a replacement to continue more space studies in a better environment.

The ISS is already 25 years old, and its first module, the Zarya, was first launched in November 1998 aboard a Russian rocket to kickstart their plans.

Two years ago, NASA began naming successors and companies who have bids in creating the next space station for the world, with Blue Origin and Sierra Space co-developing the "Orbital Reef," and NASA pledges support to it.

SpaceX also leveraged its Starship as the next LEO space station but was not part of this program.

The latest reports are already going ahead of official announcements and speculating on Northrop Grumman dropping out of the bid, but still leaves three companies on the run for the future of space studies.

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.
The use of the "X" mark by X Corp. has created confusion, leading consumers to associate X Corp. with services offered by X Social Media. This is due to the similarity between the "X" mark and the social media platform it represents.

(Photo : JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

An aerial view shows a newly constructed X sign on the roof of the headquarters of the social media platform previously known as Twitter, in San Francisco, on July 29, 2023.

Facing Lawsuit

In an inevitable turn of events, a federal lawsuit has been initiated against Elon Musk's X Corp. regarding its recent renaming of Twitter. The lawsuit's plaintiff is X Social Media LLC, an advertising agency based in Florida, which asserts that X Corp. has violated Florida's common law on multiple fronts.

The Verge reported that this includes allegations of unfair competition, trademark and service mark infringement, along with violations of the state's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

It's worth noting that the X logo employed by X Social Media bears no resemblance to Musk's version of the X. In fact, XSM's X takes the form of a human-like figure with distinct arms and legs, cradling a set of scales. This symbol serves as the company's representation of its expertise in catering to clients within the legal sector.

Nonetheless, the legal complaint contends that Twitter's transition to the X brand encroaches upon X Social Media's established trademark. It asserts that Twitter's recent effort to register this mark across various domains such as social media, business data, promotion and advertising, business consulting, and market research services necessitates this legal action.

Creating Confusion

The rationale behind this move is the perceived significant and irreparable harm inflicted upon X Social Media. Furthermore, TechCrunch reported that the complaint raises an additional claim, asserting that the promotional campaigns and awareness surrounding Twitter's rebranding to X have led to consumer confusion.

This confusion stems from the possibility that individuals may mistakenly assume that X Social Media's advertising services are either endorsed by or affiliated with the entity represented by the "X" mark. X Social Media has noticed a decline in its search result ranking under its own brand name, with Google prominently featuring X Corp.'s Wikipedia page at the top of the results.

Also Read: Monetizing Tweets: X Pays Out Nearly $20 Million to Creators



The alleged overlap and unauthorized use of the. X mark have created a misconception that X Corp. serves as the origin for the services provided by X Social Media, as outlined in the company's claims. Given that X represents a social media platform, the lawsuit argues that consumers naturally blend the identities of the two entities.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, X Social Media consistently emphasizes the X component of its mark in various promotional materials, including advertisements, blogs, and newsletters with titles like "The X Blog" and "X Weekly."

The company states that it has made substantial investments in excess of $400 million in advertising efforts, with more than $2 million dedicated to cultivating brand recognition.

X Social Media conducts its advertising services under the federally registered trademark X SocialMedia," a mark it asserts exclusive usage rights for since at least 2016. This exclusive usage entitles the company to a legal presumption of incontestability.

Related Article: Apple Halts Providing Human Technical Assistant to X-Only Automated Replies on Apple Support Account



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In collaboration with the US Air Force, Lockheed Martin has successfully completed the inaugural flight for the U-2 Dragon Lady's Avionics Tech Refresh (ATR) program.

Critical Phase in the ATR Contract

This successful first flight marked a critical phase in the ATR contract, showcasing several advanced features integrated into the U-2. These enhancements encompass an updated avionics suite covering communication, navigation, and display systems, modernizing the U-2's onboard capabilities.

Furthermore, a new mission computer adhering to the US Air Force's open mission systems (OMS) standard has been introduced. This computer empowers the U-2 to seamlessly integrate with systems across diverse domains such as air, space, sea, land, and cyber, operating at varying security levels.

Complementing these upgrades are modernized cockpit displays designed to streamline pilot tasks and enhance the presentation of the data collected by the aircraft. This improvement aims to facilitate faster and more well-informed decision-making processes.

The aircraft underwent a low-altitude functional check flight to effectively integrate the newly introduced avionics, cabling, and software when the mission was conducted.

Sean Thatcher, the program manager for the U-2 Avionics Tech Refresh at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, emphasized the significance of this achievement. He stated, "The successful first flight of the U-2 Avionics Tech Refresh is a significant moment in our journey to rapidly and affordably field new capabilities."

Thatcher also highlighted the advantage of leveraging the platform's open architecture to expedite the deployment of capabilities crucial for future Joint All-Domain Operations.

The accomplished inaugural flight is proof of the U-2's modernization efforts, marking a substantial stride towards attaining a fleet fully compliant with Open Mission Systems (OMS).

Extensive testing and validation will be carried out to set a robust software foundation before implementing mission systems. In 2020, the US Air Force granted the U-2 Avionics Tech Refresh (ATR) contract, valuing it at $50 million.

Read Also: Lockheed Martin Invests to Terran Orbital for $100 Million, Aims to Use Funds for Additional Satellite, Increase Production

Lockheed Martin's Next-Gen Missile

In a related development, Lockheed Martin has achieved a noteworthy milestone with its next-generation missile. The Extended-Range GMLRS (ER GMLRS) demonstrated exceptional performance during a flight test at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

Fired from the US Army's HIMARS, the missile achieved a record distance of 150 kilometers (93 miles). Jay Price, the vice president of Precision Fires at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, emphasized that the ER GMLRS effectively doubled the range of its predecessor while maintaining its renowned precision.

"This test demonstrates nearly double the range, while maintaining the precision GMLRS is known for. Lockheed Martin is committed to advancing this critical capability on a rapid timeline for our Army customer, and this test moves ER GMLRS one step closer to fielding," Price said in a separate statement.

The ER GMLRS achieved all criteria in its inaugural 150-kilometer test, demonstrating its extended range and precision from deployment to impact. The rocket pod also underwent rigorous Target Sequence (STS) testing before launch, validating its durability and performance.

Related Article: US Air Force Receives First Electronic Warfare Aircraft 'EC-37B Compass Call' From BAE Systems and L3Harris Technologies

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The COVID-19 pandemic's impact on mental health has been profound, and a concerning trend has emerged: a significant increase in eating disorders, particularly among adolescents aged 10-17 years.

This surge has also affected young adults and older individuals, albeit to a lesser extent, according to a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The Rise of Eating Disorders During COVID-19

MedicalXpress reported that data analyzed from ICES paints a sobering picture. By comparing rates of emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations for eating disorders before (January 1, 2017, to February 29, 2020) and during the pandemic (March 1, 2020, to August 31, 2022), researchers uncovered a startling rise in cases across various age groups.

Among adolescents, the numbers were particularly alarming. The observed rate of ED visits for eating disorders skyrocketed to 7.38 per 100,000 over the 30 months following the onset of the pandemic. That represents a 121% increase over the anticipated rate, signaling a distressing impact on this vulnerable age group.

Young adults aged 18 to 26 experienced a 13% surge in ED visits, resulting in a rate of 2.79 per 100,000. In contrast, adults aged 27 to 40 saw their rates remain closely aligned with expectations, revealing a distinctive age-related pattern.

Adolescents bore the brunt of the surge when it came to hospital admissions. Hospitalizations witnessed a substantial 54% increase, culminating in a rate of 8.82 per 100,000. In stark contrast, rates for all adult age groups either met or fell below anticipated levels, underscoring the distinct age-related impact.

Overall, the observed rate of ED visits for females was reportedly 63% above the expected rate, while males were around "expected levels."

Read Also: Did YouTube Promote Anti-Vaccine Content During COVID-19 Pandemic? New Study Provides Answers

What Caused the Increase of Eating Disorders?

"A combination of risk factors-including isolation, increased time on social media, extended time spent with family, decreased access to care and fear of infection-may contribute to an increased risk of development or exacerbation of an eating disorder," wrote Dr. Alene Toulany, an adolescent medicine specialist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and adjunct scientist at ICES, Toronto, Ontario, with co-authors.

The authors further noted that the closure of gyms and limited opportunities for physical activity, coupled with elevated household stress, have fostered an environment conducive to developing or exacerbating eating disorders.

Hence, the study's authors emphasized the critical need for augmented investment in eating disorder programs targeting both adolescents and adults to effectively address this health problem.

Additionally, they call for sustained research efforts to discern the extent to which the surge in acute presentations can be attributed to new cases as opposed to the worsening of pre-existing conditions.

"Our findings reveal significant variations in the utilization of acute care services for eating disorders across different age groups. This highlights the need for a nuanced approach to allocating mental health resources and expanding system capacity and resources dedicated to both adolescent and adult eating disorder programs," Toulany said in a press statement.

The findings of the study were published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Related Article: Facebook is Thinking of Changing COVID-19 Misinformation Policy, to Label and Demote Posts Instead of Removing Them

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Monday testified as a witness for the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) antitrust case against Google for using its dominance to create a monopoly in the search industry.

The DoJ has accused Google of using anticompetitive practices to maintain its monopoly in the search and search advertising markets.

This involved the company illegally paying $10 billion per year to smartphone makers like Apple and wireless carriers such as AT&T to remain the default search engine on mobile devices and browsers around the world.

The government says Googles goal was to cut out competition and gain an unfair advantage over its competitors, including Microsofts Bing. However, the search giant has denied the allegations.

To help prove its case, the Justice Department called Nadella as a witness in the case to know the efforts made by Microsoft to expand the reach of Edge and Bing, its browser and search engine, respectively, as well as the obstacles faced by the Redmond giant due to Googles dominance in the browser and search engine fields.

When asked about Googles agreement with Apple, Nadella labeled it as a simple oligopolistic arrangement, which is affecting Bings ability to compete in many ways.

You get up in the morning, you brush your teeth and you search on Google, Nadella said while speaking about Googles dominance in the market. With that level of habit forming, the only way to change is by changing defaults.

He also told the lawyer representing Google that Microsoft was competing against someone who has a 97% share and that the company was, therefore, in a vicious cycle.

With Google incorporating its AI software, Bard, into its search engine since March, Nadella says it could strategically use the huge profits it makes from search ad revenues to secure exclusive rights to content that it can use to make its search AI better than rivals, thereby maintaining its monopoly.

The distribution advantage Google has today doesnt go away, in fact, if anything, I worry a lot that  even in spite of my enthusiasm that there is a new angle with AI  this vicious circle that Im trapped in could even become even more vicious because the defaults get reinforced.

Microsoft CEO also pointed out that the company has spent around $100 billion to develop its Bing search engine. He also highlighted that since search is the largest software category, the company will continue to invest in Bing despite its low market share, as it believes it can contribute to the internet search industry.

I see search or internet search as the largest software category out there. We are a very, very low share player. But we continue to persist in it because we think of it as a software category we can contribute to. Its a hard game to make any breakthroughs.

Nadella also spoke about Googles multibillion-dollar agreement with Apple to make Google the default search engine on iPhone and other devices. He testified that Apple was using its negotiations with Microsoft to bid up the price it received from the search giant.

Jonathan Tinter, Vice President of Business Development at Microsoft, who testified at the DoJs antitrust trial last week, told the court that the company had failed to secure a deal to put its Bing search app on Apples products, even though it was reportedly offering better terms than Google. Ultimately, Apple went on to sign a deal with Google.

Tinter also told the court that even Microsofts Surface Duo smartphone was obligated to use Google Search in order to license the Android mobile operating system and was restrained from using Bing on its own devices.
A deep dive into the dividend history, yield, and growth rates of Comcast Corp (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Comcast Corp (NASDAQ:CMCSA) recently announced a dividend of $0.29 per share, payable on 2023-10-25, with the ex-dividend date set for 2023-10-03. As investors look forward to this upcoming payment, the spotlight also shines on the company's dividend history, yield, and growth rates. Using the data from GuruFocus, let's deep dive into Comcast Corp's dividend performance and assess its sustainability.

Understanding Comcast Corp's Business Model

Comcast Corp is a conglomerate consisting of three primary segments. The core cable business provides television, internet access, and phone services to nearly half of the U.S. homes and businesses. Comcast also owns NBCUniversal, which includes several cable networks, the NBC broadcast network, the Peacock streaming platform, Universal Studios, and several theme parks. Additionally, Comcast acquired Sky in 2018, the dominant television provider in the U.K. and a significant pay-television provider in Italy, Germany, and Austria.

Analyzing Comcast Corp's Dividend Performance and Sustainability

Comcast Corp's Consistent Dividend History

Comcast Corp has maintained a consistent dividend payment record since 2008, distributed on a quarterly basis. The company has increased its dividend each year since 2008, earning it the status of a dividend achiever, a recognition given to companies that have increased their dividend each year for at least the past 15 years.

Analyzing Comcast Corp's Dividend Performance and Sustainability

Comcast Corp's Dividend Yield and Growth

As of today, Comcast Corp currently has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.54% and a 12-month forward dividend yield of 2.63%, suggesting an expectation of increased dividend payments over the next 12 months. Over the past three years, Comcast Corp's annual dividend growth rate was 8.70%, which increased to 10.90% per year over a five-year horizon. Over the past decade, Comcast Corp's annual dividends per share growth rate stands at an impressive 12.80%.

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Analyzing Comcast Corp's Dividend Performance and Sustainability

Assessing Dividend Sustainability: Payout Ratio and Profitability

Comcast Corp's dividend payout ratio as of 2023-06-30 is 0.70, suggesting that the company's dividend may not be sustainable. However, Comcast Corp's profitability rank of 8 out of 10 suggests good profitability prospects. The company has reported positive net income for each year over the past decade, further solidifying its high profitability.

Looking at Growth Metrics for Future Prospects

Comcast Corp's growth rank of 8 out of 10 suggests that the company's growth trajectory is good relative to its competitors. The company's revenue per share, combined with the 3-year revenue growth rate, indicates a strong revenue model. Comcast Corp's revenue has increased by approximately 5.10% per year on average, outperforming approximately 57.1% of global competitors. Furthermore, the company's 5-year EBITDA growth rate of -17.00% outperforms approximately 7.69% of global competitors.

Conclusion

With a consistent dividend history, impressive yield, and growth rates, Comcast Corp presents an intriguing prospect for dividend-focused investors. However, the sustainability of its dividends is contingent on its payout ratio and growth metrics. While the company's payout ratio suggests potential risks, its solid profitability and strong growth metrics offer reassurance. Investors should keep a close eye on these factors when considering Comcast Corp as a potential addition to their portfolios.

GuruFocus Premium users can screen for high-dividend yield stocks using the High Dividend Yield Screener.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Leading U.S. freight brokerage adds Toronto outpost to service growing Canadian customer base

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Arrive Logistics, a leading multimodal transportation and technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas, announces its expansion into Canada with an office in Toronto and sets sights on localized service to customers with operations in Canada, and scaled operations with prospective Canada-based shippers.

Arrive Logistics (PRNewsfoto/Arrive Logistics)

Increasing Arrive's presence in Canada is one key initiative in the company's growth trajectory, following the opening of five new office locations within the last eighteen months. Much like Arrive's recently opened office in Guadalajara, the move marks the company's commitment to scaling its success within the U.S. truckload market across North America, enhancing both its cross-border and intra-Canada freight services.

"We look forward to bringing Arrive's service-first mentality and market insights to our partners in Canada," said J-Ann Tio, Arrive Chief Strategy Officer. "Whether that be with our current customers or to engage and find solutions for prospective customers, we are committed to providing an experience that matches our award-winning service in the U.S.''

Arrive plans to lean heavily on its key differentiators to provide a full suite of services to its transportation partners in Canada. The service experience Arrive provides its shippers and carriers sets it apart from competitors. Arrive is the recipient of nine service awards from prominent, Fortune-listed enterprise customers in 2023, setting a benchmark of service in the highly competitive freight brokerage landscape.

The service provided by expert personnel is half of what Arrive refers to as its copilot strategy, the complement of award-winning service with its leading-edge technology offering. The company's proprietary technology platform, ARRIVEnow, drives Arrive's operations with a full suite of digital solutions and automation optionality to increase efficiency and productivity for shippers, carriers, and Arrive employees.

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The new office is located between the financial and fashion districts inside a Toronto cultural heritage building at 240 Richmond St. W. Arrive plans to hire additional business development team members throughout the year to take advantage of the rich talent market in Toronto and establish a strong foundation for the company's operations in Canada.

Those wishing to learn more about enlisting Arrive's services, please visit www.arrivelogistics.com, or contact Noah Sidenberg, Senior Director of Canada Sales & Operations, at nsidenberg@arrivelogistics.com.

To explore career opportunities with Arrive in Toronto or its seven additional office locations, visit www.arrivelogistics.com/careers.

About Arrive Logistics

Arrive Logistics is a leading multimodal transportation and technology company delivering unparalleled service and custom strategic solutions. With over 1,700 employees, 6,000 customers, and 70,000 carriers in its network, Arrive is one of the largest firms in the freight brokerage industry, with $2.35 billion in 2022 revenue. The company has been recognized as a top workplace by Fast Company, Fortune, Inc., Great Places to Work, The Austin American-Statesman and The Chicago Tribune. Learn more at www.arrivelogistics.com and explore career opportunities at www.arrivelogistics.com/careers. At Arrive, "We Deliver, So You Can."

Press Contact:

Nicole Paleologus

Next PR

arrive@nextpr.com

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/arrive-logistics-expands-north-american-presence-with-canada-office-301945521.html

SOURCE Arrive Logistics
Car journalist Alexander Bloch: What do I have to consider the next time I buy a car? (Podcast)

According to the study, sperm are proficient in different swimming styles

As a result of a violent collision, the Earth's mantle could still contain remnants of the primordial planet

YouTube is cracking down on ad blockers  and making its subscription more expensive

As a result of a violent collision, remnants of the primordial planet could still be found in the Earth's mantle

Here's exactly how many steps you should take each day to reduce your risk of an early death

Revision of medical fees for the next fiscal year: "Personnel costs need to be significantly raised"

Fukushima: the third phase of the water spill from the damaged nuclear power plant begins

Nicolas Cage on AI: "You can't be more inhuman than artificial intelligence"

"He Who Doesn't Risk His Life Won't Get It": "The Man From Nowhere" Was Released

Why are women getting closer and closer to men in chess?

From 15th to 3rd in the world, it took 10 months for the Chinese three-man men's basketball team

From the peak to the "three empty", where does the Chinese women's football team go in the future?

Shandong promotes the integrated development of "sports +" and the construction of a strong sports province runs out of "acceleration"

Shui Qingxia replied to the application that it was inconclusive whether to stay in the women's football team

Dynamo's lead, Lada's breakthrough, Goldobin's hat-trick and Artamonov's record: the main events of the week in the KHL

Automotive market: the improvement continued in October, but the drop in orders worries for the future

Liaoning Province Helping the Disabled: "Teaching People to Fish" Paves the Way for the Employment of the Disabled

The People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange: Expand mutual access between the financial markets of the mainland and Hong Kong

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China won four esports gold medals out of seven matches at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, providing a morale boost for the country's video gaming fans who yearn for recognition of their hobby amid Beijing's hostility towards the industry.

Tens of thousands of young Chinese, some joined by their parents, flocked to Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, to cheer teams competing in video games, which have been labelled "spiritual opium" by Chinese state media. Youth addiction to gaming is regarded as a "social problem" in China, leading to restrictions on players under the age of 18, who can only log into gaming accounts for a maximum of three hours per week.

But at the purpose-built Hangzhou Esports Centre over the weekend, the mood was different. "The matches are very exciting," said Jin Kaijie, who travelled from the city of Zhuji in Zhejiang to watch a League of Legends competition between China and Vietnam. The title, created by US-based studio Riot Games but operated locally by Chinese gaming giant Tencent Holdings, has a huge fan base in the country. The 24-year-old Jin said he has been a fan since Tencent launched a professional tournament for the game in China in 2013.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

China's national teams won gold medals for the Asian Games versions of Arena of Valor and Peacekeeper Elite, Dream Three Kingdoms 2 and Dota 2, as well as a bronze for League of Legends. Esports turned out to be one of the most popular Asian Games events - and the most widely discussed topic on Chinese social media over the past few weeks.

Esports was the only competition in Hangzhou to deploy a lottery system for tickets due to the huge demand, as Chinese fans rushed to sign up for seats to view the events. After China won the gold medal for Dota 2 - a four-hour battle with Mongolia on Monday night - it quickly overtook China's winning of the table tennis gold medal to become the top trending topic on social media platform Weibo.

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"I signed up for every single competition during the holiday, and was lucky enough to secure a place for the Peacekeeper Elite match," said Pu Guanlin, a 17-year-old student from the southwestern city of Kunming, who travelled to Hangzhou with his parents for the National Day holiday. It was also the first time that many Chinese people got to know esports, including the older generations.

Pu Guanlin, a 17-year-old student from Kunming, travelled to Hangzhou with his parents to watch the Asian Games. Photo: Ann Cao

On Saturday morning, Zhao Zhengjie, a Hangzhou native, took his 11-year-old son to watch the competition for Peacekeeper Elite, a localised version of PUBG Mobile, as the 40-year-old said it was "a very rare opportunity" for a Hangzhou native to support the debut of esports as an Asian Games medal event.

Despite official restrictions on the industry, Hangzhou is betting on video game competitions to generate excitement and boost its economy amid slower economic growth. Last November, the Hangzhou government pledged 100 million yuan (US$14 million) in annual funding for video gaming and esports. Since last year, the Hangzhou Esports Centre has hosted professional competitions sponsored by Tencent and rival games giant NetEase, a trend that looks set to continue even after the Asian Games has ended.

For the management of the purpose-built venue, the popularity of esports was beyond their expectation. Almost all the esports-related merchandise was sold out in the first few days, according to a staff member who worked in the venue's merchandise shop.

However, the nine days of competitions are not just for cheers and applause. Esports, just like any other traditional sport, have now become a point of national pride in China.

Zhao Zhengjie, a Hangzhou native, took his 11-year-old son to watch the Peace Elite competition on September 30. Photo: Ann Cao

When the Chinese League of Legends team, which was expected to take the gold medal again since winning a demonstration match at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta, failed to advance to the finals after losing 0-2 to South Korea, patriotic Chinese fans took to social media to vent their disappointment.

"It was such a pity that we didn't hear our national anthem, but that of South Korea, on the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival," said a user with the handle of "Douyou" on Chinese online forum Douban.

Sunyee Liu, a 22-year-old from the southern city of Shenzhen, said the loss would reduce her passion for professional video game competitions in the future.

For some young fans, China's restrictions on video games have become too harsh.

Spectators leave the Hangzhou Esports Centre after the end of a match on September 29. Photo: Ann Cao

Zhao said he allowed his son to play video games - especially Honour of Kings and Peacekeeper Elite - after school. "Times are changing and he is facing a more exciting world than when I was young," he said, adding that time spent video gaming by kids should not "exceed a certain extent".

However Pu, the high school student, said he hoped the rules could be relaxed in future.

"I will be studying every Friday night and get ready for school again on Sunday nights. That means I can only play for one hour each week [on Saturdays]. It would be better if they can relax the time frame so at least I can play for three hours a week," said Pu.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
(Bloomberg) -- The cost of Australian cattle has tumbled to the lowest level in about nine years and is likely to fall further as ranchers cull an expanded herd ahead of drier weather following the onset of El Nino.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The Eastern Young Cattle Indicator has slumped almost 60% this year and was near the lowest since December 2014 on Tuesday. The countrys herd has swelled to the largest in a decade after three years of plentiful rainfall revitalized pastures, according to Meat & Livestock Australia.

Australia just posted its driest September on record and El Nino is expected to persist until at least the end of February, bringing warmer conditions and lower rainfall. Farmers are poised to ramp up sales and shun buying of new livestock as hotter weather bakes pastures used for feed, weighing on cattle prices.

The influx of cheaper Australian beef will allow the nation to recapture some market share in key Asian consumers such as Japan and South Korea from the US, according to Matt Dalgleish, the founder and director of Episode 3. Our pricing is as competitive as its ever been now compared to the US, he said.

US ranchers have been forced to send livestock to slaughter over the past few years due to drought and higher feed costs. However, cattle prices recently climbed to a record, which is expected to encourage farmers to retain more cows. The nations herd is at the lowest seasonal level since 2014.

The US will be not producing as much for an extended period of time and that will give Australia an opportunity, said Stephen Bignell, manager of market information at Meat & Livestock Australia. US producers will hold on to their animals and try and build up their inventory and stock levels.

Story continues

At least one large processor is preparing for more cows. Meat giant JBS SA last month announced that it would add more than 500 jobs at its Dinmore plant in Ipswich, Queensland, and increase processing in the first half of 2024.

The move will support increased market demand for red meat as herd sizes and availability of livestock improves, JBS said in a statement. Dinmore is the largest beef processing plant in the southern hemisphere.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Tensas Parish is located in northeastern Louisiana with the eastern border the Mississippi River. The population of the parish 641 square miles with roughly 6500 residents, according to the U.S. census, photographed Thursday, April 2, 2020. (Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate) ORG XMIT: BAT2004041446231875
The period from 1978 to 1992 in Mauritania was characterized by the dominance of a military junta that wielded significant power in the nation's governance.

A military junta refers to a collective body of military leaders who assume control over a nation's governance by seizing power from the established government. This form of rule stands in contrast to a military dictatorship, where a single military officer holds undisputed authority. A notable instance of a military junta can be observed in Mauritania's history during the period spanning from July 1978 to April 1992.

During this time, a group of high-ranking military officials collectively governs the nation, shaping its political landscape and policies. Currently, there are at least six African countries under military leadership. These countries include The Republic of Chad, The Republic of Niger, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali.

Mauritania, situated in North West Africa is Africa's eleventh-largest country; it has a history that has been marred by recurring bouts of military junta's and political instability. This land, characterized by its vast desert landscapes and diverse ethnic communities, has often grappled with governance challenges and shifting political landscapes. Over the decades, the nation has experienced shifts in leadership, changes in government structures, and periods of social unrest.

These historical patterns of political instability have not only influenced the nation's domestic affairs but have also played a role in shaping its relations with the international community. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the country grappled with ethnic tensions and government repression.

Mauritania's Complex Dynamics of Political Military Junta

From July 1978 to April 1992, the West African nation of Mauritania found itself under the control of a military junta. During this period, the ruling group consisted primarily of military officers who held key government positions, including ministerial portfolios and roles within the defense establishment. This article delves into this significant phase of Mauritanian history, exploring the dynamics of military rule, constitutional changes, and the eventual return to civilian governance.

In July 1978, Mauritania witnessed a dramatic shift in its political landscape as a military junta took control of the country. This junta was composed of high-ranking military officers who held influential ministerial posts and occupied vital positions within the nation's defense establishment. At the helm of this committee was the chairman, who also served as the chief of state.

One of the notable developments during this era was the approval of a new constitution via a national referendum held in July 1991. This constitution marked an attempt to solidify the junta's rule and establish a framework for governance. However, as early as 1992, the government faced a series of critical challenges that would ultimately alter the course of Mauritanian politics.

Internal strife in the form of ethnic tensions posed a significant threat to the stability of the Mauritanian government. These tensions led to conflicts within the nation and threatened to undermine the junta's authority. A crucial turning point came in the form of international isolation, as Mauritania experienced a cutoff of military and development assistance from abroad.

Faced with these mounting challenges, the Mauritanian government made a pivotal decision in early 1992. In a bid to address internal crises and regain international support, the country abandoned military rule and disbanded the military committee that had been in power. Maaouya Ould SidAhmed Taya, a prominent figure within the junta, remained at the helm of the government but as a civilian leader.

The period from 1978 to 1992 in Mauritania was characterized by the dominance of a military junta that wielded significant power in the nation's governance. This era witnessed the approval of a new constitution and, ultimately, a shift back to civilian rule due to internal strife and international pressures. Understanding this phase of Mauritanian history provides valuable insights into the region's complex dynamics of political transitions.
Supporters of disgraced former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith have directed a number of death threats at investigative reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Nick McKenzie since May, when a judge ruled in favour of his reporting on alleged war crimes committed by Roberts-Smith.

In June, Justice Anthony Besanko ruled that on the balance of probabilities Roberts-Smith was guilty and complicit in the murder of four unarmed prisoners in Afghanistan.

Nick McKenzie speaks to the media after the verdict was handed down in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case. Credit: Janie Barrett

It was a decision several years in the making, following extensive reporting by McKenzie and Chris Masters, who were both subsequently sued for defamation by the former soldier and former Seven Network executive.

Good morning Nick. I hope you receive the same punishment that Ali Jan allegedly received... just sleep on it mate, McKenzie was told in a phone message in July, referencing one of the victims of Roberts-Smith.
The Lottery Corporation has called for an exemption from looming gambling reform which seeks to prevent punters from gambling with credit cards due to the low harm nature of lotteries.

The $10 billion lotteries giant urged the Senate in a submission lodged on Tuesday to uphold recommendations to exempt lotteries from the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill and allow customers to continue buying scratchies with credit cards.

The Lottery Corporations Sue van der Merwe. Credit: Arsineh Houspian

The Lottery Corporation is the only gambling group to lodge opposition to being included in the credit card ban, with former parent company Tabcorp, Sportsbet and gambling lobby group Responsible Wagering Australia all submitting support for the proposed amendment.

The federal government brought forward legislation to ban online betting companies from accepting credit cards following the recent parliamentary inquiry into online gambling harm which recommended a ban. Punters who visit casinos or use poker machines are already prevented from using a credit card to make a bet.
On the day of her wedding, Alissa McGovern woke up to thick smoke, unrelenting heat and a sun burning bright and red. I remember taking pictures [of the sun], because it was just such an unusual sight.

It was November 2019  the beginning of what would become known as Black Summer  and fires had been burning near their wedding venue in Paterson, in the lower Hunter Region of NSW. While McGovern and her husband Liam were able to proceed with the wedding, had they chosen to marry a week later, they wouldnt have been so lucky when fires burned through the town.

Alissa McGovern and her husband Liam on their wedding day. A thick haze of smoke from nearby bushfires can be seen in the background. Credit: Stories With Mel

The day was ridiculously hot, with McGovern sweltering in her layered gown and Liam in his suit. While they were shaded by a fig tree for their ceremony, a guest  who had been standing in the sun  fainted. Ultimately, shes glad the day went ahead the way it did.

This September, the Bureau of Meteorology declared El Nino, meaning those tying the knot this summer are likely in for a hot, dry wedding day like McGoverns. Experts are also anticipating longer, more intense bushfires.
How good is Melbourne, everybody? The unsung hero of the AFL finals series and the only town in this great nation  go on, prove us wrong  where you can get nearly 550,000 people lobbing up for six games of footy in overwhelmingly good spirits.

Bravo Melbourne! Take a bow.

Dermott Brereton took to the airwaves this week. Credit: Joe Armao

But you always get one, dont you, and CBD takes only a little pleasure in relaying the concerns Hawthorn legend Dermott Brereton says he had with the conduct of one supporter at Saturdays blockbuster grand final.

Brereton was moved to take to the airwaves on Monday, calling in to Andrew Maher and Andrew Gazes SEN drive slot to praise the conduct of supporters all weekend, but also to report one encounter, while signing autographs for fans on Saturday, that he reckons didnt go so well.
Autonomous Navigation System Market

Autonomous Navigation System Market

Pune, India, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global autonomous navigation system market size was valued at USD 2.88 billion in 2022 and is set to expand from USD 3.17 billion in 2023 to USD 7.24 billion by 2030, exhibiting a CAGR of 12.5% over the estimated period. The surge in the demand for these systems is due to the growing product usage in a range of applications such as robots, self-driving cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, and others.

This information is provided by Fortune Business Insights in its research report, titled Autonomous Vehicle Market, 2023-2030.

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https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/autonomous-navigation-market-101796

List of Key Players Mentioned in the Autonomous Vehicle Market Report are:

Safran (France)

ABB (Switzerland)

L3Harris Technologies Inc. (U.S.)

Moog Inc. (U.S.)

Northrop Grumman Corporation (U.S.)

Elbit Systems Ltd (Israel)

BAE systems Plc. (U.S.)

Lockheed Martin Corporation (U.S.)

General Dynamics Corporation (U.S.)

Raytheon Technologies Corporation (U.S.)

Report Scope & Segmentation:

Report Coverage Details Forecast Period 2023-2030 Forecast CAGR 12.5% 2030 Value Projection USD 7.24 Billion Market Size in 2023 USD 3.17 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

By System

By Application

By Platform Regions Covered North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East and Africa Autonomous Navigation System Market Growth Drivers Rising Investments by Governments in Autonomous Navigation Systems to Propel Market Growth Emergence of Improved Surveillance System Owing to Security Concerns to Catalyze the Global Market Growth

Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report with TOC:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/autonomous-navigation-market-101796

COVID-19 Impact:

Rise in Industry Share Driven by Reduced Human Contact and Improved Safety

The coronavirus pandemic positively affected the market. The period recorded an increase in the demand for robots in healthcare and other sectors. Furthermore, there was an upsurge in autonomous delivery systems considering the increase in the number of people staying at home.

Story continues

Segmentation:

Airborne Segment to Register Appreciable Growth Impelled by Rising Applications in UAVs

By platform, the market is fragmented into space, marine, land, airborne, and weapons. The airborne segment is anticipated to be the fastest growing part of the segment during the forecast period. The expansion is driven by the advantages of reduced fuel consumption and the optimization of flight paths.

Navigation Segment to Record Substantial Expansion Driven by Escalated Demand for Enhanced Accuracy

On the basis of system, the market for autonomous navigation systems is categorized into processing system, sensing system, software system, and navigation system. The navigation system segment is set to dominate the market over the estimated period. The rise can be credited to the growing demand for enhanced positioning and navigation used in autonomous robots and vehicles.

Military Segment to Gain Traction Considering the Escalated Need for Enhanced Intelligence

Based on application, the market is classified into government, commercial, and military. The military segment is slated to register remarkable expansion over the study period. The escalation is driven by the advantages of enhanced situational awareness.

By geography, the market for autonomous navigation systems has been analyzed across North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the rest of the world.

Report Coverage:

The report provides an analysis of the major trends propelling the global business scenario throughout the forecast period. It also presents an overview of the significant factors driving industry growth over the projected period. Some of the additional aspects comprise an increase in the adoption of merger agreements, partnerships, and the launch of new solutions by major industry participants.

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Detailed Table of Content:

Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities

Key Insights Key Industry Developments  Key Contracts & Agreements, Mergers, Acquisitions and Partnerships Latest technological Advancements Porters Five Forces Analysis Supply Chain Analysis Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Autonomous Navigation System Market

Global Autonomous Navigation System Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2019-2030 Key Findings / Segmental Definitions Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Platform Airborne Land Marine Space Weapons Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By System Sensing System Navigation System Processing System Software System Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Application Commercial Military Government Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Region North America Europe Asia Pacific Rest of the World

North America Autonomous Navigation System Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2019-2030 Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Platform Airborne Land Marine Space Weapons Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By System Sensing System Navigation System Processing System Software System Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Application Commercial Military Government Market Analysis  By Country U.S. Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Platform Airborne Land Marine Space Weapons Canada Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Platform Airborne Land Marine Space Weapons



TOC Continued...!

Drivers and Restraints:

Market Share to Surge Considering an Increase in Investments by Government Bodies

Autonomous navigation system market growth is being propelled by the escalating product usage across an array of industries. These include military, robotics, automobile, and others. In addition, the governments of numerous economies are promoting the testing and development of these systems.

However, the industry expansion could be affected by an increase in data privacy and cybersecurity issues across various regions.

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Regional Insights:

Europe To Emerge As Leading Region Owing To Increasing Automated Transport Demand

Europe is expected to dominate the market for autonomous navigation systems is anticipated to record appreciable expansion over the forecast period. The rise is due to the increasing automated transport demand and strong research and development capabilities.

North America is set to hold the second largest part in the autonomous navigation system market share is set to expand at a considerable pace throughout the study period. The surge is impelled by a range of factors such as favorable government policies, rising consumer preference, and an escalation in technological advancements.

Competitive Landscape:

Leading Industry Participants to Strike Partnership Deals to Strengthen Market Presence

Major industry players are centered on the adoption of various initiatives for strengthening the positions of their businesses. These include the formation of alliances, partnership deals, mergers, and the rollout of new solutions. Some of the additional steps comprise an escalation in research activities. In November 2021, Honeywell International introduced Honeywell Compact Inertial Navigation System and Honeywell Radar Velocity System, a set of robust navigation systems. The new set comes after Honeywell collaborated with Infini Dome's GPS dom to cater to the requirements of commercial and military end users. These systems are tailor-made to provide optimal performance and reliability.

Key Industry Development:



November 2021  Honeywell International rolled out the Honeywell Radar Velocity System and Honeywell Compact Inertial Navigation System. The systems are tailor made to offer reliability and optimal performance.

Speak to Our Expert:

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/autonomous-navigation-market-101796

Read Related Insights:

Avionics Market to Worth USD 75.81 Billion by 2027 | With 9.25% CAGR

Aircraft Actuator Market to Hit USD 32.16 Billion by 2030 | At a CAGR of 8.06%

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Families are more likely to delay their childs first year of primary school in NSW and Victoria than they are in Queensland.

But that says more about those states than anything else, an expert says.

Children in NSW and Victoria are more likely to be held back one year, with the trend for boys to be held back more strong in Queensland. Credit: Istock

In their first year of primary school in NSW and Victoria, called prep or kindergarten, about one in three children were aged six by July 1, 2022, analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals.

In Queensland, just one in 10 children were aged six in prep.
More than 500 university tutorials have been called off and thousands of students affected as union members step up industrial action at one of the countrys richest universities just weeks out from exams.

University of Melbourne staff cancelled week 10 classes across all faculties in what the union says is the longest strike action at the university since 1856.

Six of Victorias eight universities have been in enterprise bargaining negotiations for months. Credit: Penny Stephens

National Tertiary Education Union University of Melbourne branch acting president Chloe Mackenzie said staff were at breaking point.

The week-long strike, which started at midday on Monday, follows similar action in August by members of the Faculty of Arts, Melbourne Law School, the Victorian College of the Arts School of Art, student services, stagecraft and the library.
Chinese authorities have banned a Mongolian theatre production soon to show in Londons West End by shutting down power, blocking 130 production staff and putting the cast under constant surveillance.

The Mongol Khan, which is due to open at the London Coliseum next month, was approved by Chinese authorities to perform in the city of Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, Chinas northernmost province.

The Mongol Khan on stage. Credit: Sanghee Liu

But 30 minutes before the play was due to start on September 19, the performance at the Ulaan Theatre was shut down due to a power outage.

The multimillion-dollar production has spent the past two weeks at an alternative venue in the town of Ordos, where they were subject to constant surveillance, according to cast members.
The case has clearly been on Trumps mind, and his various speeches have taken on a dark cast. During a talk at a meeting of the California Republican Party in a suburb of Los Angeles, he paused at one point to mention Nancy Pelosi, the onetime democratic speaker of the House. He then said, feigning innocence, Hows her husband doing, anybody know? This was a reference to a brutal and almost fatal beating Pelosis husband, then 82, received a year ago from a deranged Trump fan wielding a hammer. His smirking words were treated as a punchline by the audience. It was a new low, even for him.

Donald Trump is making the biggest headlines, of course. He went on trial on Tuesday in a civil case, brought in New York, about what the state says are shady business practices by his various real estate companies. A judge last week ruled that the companies were guilty of a massive fraud  and took the organisations business licences away, a step so extreme that no one has as yet been able to fully grasp the implications of it. (If Trump owned a restaurant, it would be forced to close its doors; but it is not yet clear what happens when the business is owning and managing skyscraper office buildings.) The trial this week is to assess financial penalties.

Theres been a strange quality to the continuing tension in the air of American politics of late. On the surface, the usual things are happening  usual in this context means actions and statements by prominent politicians that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. But theres something else going on as well.

A new low, that is, until you consider his remarks about General Mark Milley, who he suggested was treasonous, noting that the death penalty might be in order. To be clear: Trump himself had named Milley as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. He thus joins the long list of Trumps own appointees he has disowned and tried to discredit.

But even in that context, the death penalty part stands out. Legal commentators have noticed that Milley may well be a witness in one of the several federal cases against Trump. Threatening witnesses when you are on trial is generally frowned upon in the US court system; accordingly, a new legal parlour game has emerged as experts debate whether or when a judge will take the steps that would ordinarily be taken about such activities, which might include a species of gag order or even the revocation of bail.

Such violent talk is catching. Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who is trying to out-Trump Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, went on a rant about illegal immigrants, who he said were carrying fentanyl into the US. Under his potential administration, DeSantis vowed that these people would be shot at the border. Of course you use deadly force, he said. ... Theyre going to end up stone-cold dead. Whether border agents would shoot first and then look for the fentanyl, or wait to find the fentanyl and then shoot, wasnt clear.

Meanwhile, one of Trumps most rabid Congressional supporters was getting into trouble. Lauren Boebert, a loose cannon from rural Colorado who spouts things about family values, was thrown out of a Denver theatre during a stage musical performance. The theatre said shed been disruptive and was even vaping. The representative denied it  until CCTV footage from inside showed her vaping and being disruptive. Then more footage came out, in which you could plainly see Boebert and her date engaging in some not-very-family-friendly activities. (In the parlance of American high schoolers, Boeberts date had rounded second and was heading fast toward third.)
Total cash consideration payable increased by 42%

Expected dividend to Pendragon shareholders of 24.5 pence , a 49% increase

Implied total initial value to Pendragon shareholders of 35.4 pence per Pendragon share

Preliminary commitments to Lithia from multiple major UK automotive retailers to adopt the Pinewood DMS

Significant further upside from the strategic partnership including North American JV

Strategic benefits for Lithia with delivery on longer-term growth objectives

Planned investment will be financed using existing on-balance sheet capacity

MEDFORD, Ore., Oct. 2, 2023 -- Lithia & Driveway announced today that it has signed a revised agreement on improved terms with the Board of Directors of Pendragon plc ("Pendragon") to enter into a strategic partnership with Pinewood Technologies ("Pinewood Tech") and to acquire Pendragon's UK motor division and vehicle management division.

Under the revised terms, Lithia has increased the total cash consideration versus its original offer announced on 18 September 2023 by 42%, to 397 million and has increased the overall certainty of the transaction by removing certain completion conditions. The combined value of the consideration to Pendragon existing shareholders is initially equivalent to approximately 35.4 pence per share with significant upside expected from the strategic partnership and North American joint venture opportunity.

The additional cash consideration is expected to increase the cash dividend payable to Pendragon's existing shareholders 49% to 24.5 pence per share. Existing Pendragon shareholders will continue to retain approximately 83.3% ownership in Pinewood Tech and a share in a valuable joint venture to expand Pinewood's software into the North American market.

Additionally, Lithia has obtained preliminary commitments from multiple major automotive retailers to contract and roll out the Pinewood dealer management systems ("DMS") to their locations, representing approximately 7,500 users, contingent on the successful completion of the Lithia transaction. These preliminary commitments would only occur with Pinewood Technologies transforming, into a London Stock Exchange listed, pure-play, independent software business. The potential addition of these UK users, with Lithia's already committed 2,500 users in the UK, represents over 30% growth from Pinewood's current user base of approximately 31,700 as of December 2022 and nearly half of Pinewood's FY27 target.

The improved terms and preliminary commitments from Lithia demonstrate support for the transformation of Pinewood Technologies into a standalone business and unlocking significant future potential.

Bryan DeBoer, Lithia & Driveway President & CEO, said:

"Our transaction provides considerable value and certainty for Pendragon shareholders while unlocking Pinewood's ability and massive potential as a standalone, pure-play SaaS business. We have a pathway to reach completion quickly, proven experience in successfully integrating businesses and great growth opportunities for the Pendragon employees. We are very excited about the strength of our strategic partnership and expanding the Pinewood business not just in the UK but around the world."

The acquisition is planned to be financed using Lithia's existing on-balance sheet capacity once approved by Pendragon shareholders. The revised terms of the transaction continue to represent an opportunity for Lithia to further expand and diversify its business and deliver a key strategic component to achieve its previously stated growth plans.

About Lithia & Driveway (LAD)

Lithia & Driveway is one of the largest global automotive retailers providing a wide array of products and services throughout the vehicle ownership lifecycle. Convenient and hassle-free experiences are offered through our comprehensive network of physical locations, ecommerce platforms, captive finance solutions and other synergistic adjacencies. We deliver consistent, low-risk, and profitable growth in a massive and unsolicited industry. Our highly diversified and competitively differentiated design provides us the flexibility and scale to pursue our vision to modernize personal transportation solutions wherever, whenever, and however consumers desire.

SOURCE Lithia Motors, Inc.
CONTEXT: In 2020, Hyundai Motor launched XCIENT Fuel Cell  the worlds first mass-produced hydrogen-electric heavy-duty truck  for the commercial shipping sector. XCIENT Fuel Cell is completely emission-free, offering a sustainable mobility solution to cut carbon emissions while still meeting global transportation needs. Equipped with a 180-kW hydrogen fuel cell system with two 90-kW fuel cell stacks, XCIENT Fuel Cells durability and fuel efficiency are tailored to the demands of commercial fleet customers. The maximum driving range is 400 km per charge while refueling takes eight to 20 minutes.

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Oct. 2, 2023  Hyundais XCIENT Heavy-Duty Fuel Cell Truck has won the GREEN AWARD in the Mobility category at GTF Connect Los Angeles, hosted in Hollywood, California. XCIENT Fuel Cells innovative technology positions it as an industry leader, providing zero-emission transport solutions. Its advanced fuel cell technology sets a benchmark for the future of sustainable, efficient transportation.

I am honored to accept the prestigious Mobility category award at the GTF Connect GREEN AWARDS on behalf of our entire XCIENT Fuel Cell truck team, said Jim Park, senior vice president commercial vehicle and hydrogen fuel cell business, Hyundai Motor North America. The recognition of our XCIENT Fuel Cell reinforces our unwavering commitment to sustainable transportation solutions for both consumer and commercial vehicles. This achievement further underscores Hyundais relentless pursuit of innovation and our steadfast dedication to forging a cleaner, more efficient future that benefits us all.

Hyundai launched the XCIENT Fuel Cell truck as a groundbreaking innovation focused on the commercial shipping sector. The XCIENT Fuel Cell boasts a remarkable emissions-free profile, presenting a sustainable mobility solution aimed at mitigating carbon emissions while effectively addressing global transportation needs. Importantly, the XCIENT Fuel Cells durability and fuel efficiency align with the demands of commercial fleet operators. First launched in 2020, XCIENT Fuel Cell has been deployed in five countries, including Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Korea, and New Zealand. It is the only heavy-duty fuel cell electric model with a proven record of real-world application and technological reliability. In May 2023, Hyundai launched the commercialization model of XCIENT Fuel Cell tractor in the States equipped with two 90-kW hydrogen fuel cell systems (total 180 kW power) and a 350-kW e-motor. The tractors gross combination weight is a maximum 82,000 lbs., pairing short refueling times with a driving range of over 450 miles per charge  even when fully loaded. XCIENT Fuel Cell implements the world-leading hydrogen fuel cell system offered by HTWO, Hyundai Motor Group's fuel cell system-based hydrogen business brand. HTWOs business includes application of Hyundais proprietary fuel cell systems for various forms of mobility, such as advanced air mobility, automobiles, vessels, and trains, as well as for stationary power generation.



The Hyundai XCIENT Fuel Cell truck is photographed on May 2, 2023.



About GTF Connect

The GreenTech Festival (GTF) is Europes largest sustainability festival. GTF Connect Series, an extension of the renowned flagship GTF in Berlin, began in 2021 and has since evolved into a pivotal platform for celebrating innovation, technology, and leadership within the global green business community.

About GREEN AWARDS Los Angeles

The GREEN AWARDS, an integral part of the festival, shines a spotlight on innovative projects, companies, and individuals across categories such as Mobility and Energy in Los Angeles. Winners are meticulously selected by a distinguished and diverse 55-member jury, with the entire process supported by GTFs Knowledge Partner Boston Consulting Group.

Hyundai Motor America

Hyundai Motor America focuses on Progress for Humanity and smart mobility solutions. Hyundai offers U.S. consumers a technology-rich lineup of cars, SUVs, and electrified vehicles. Our 830 dealers sold more than 724,000 vehicles in the U.S. in 2022, and nearly half were built at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama. For more information, visit www.HyundaiNews.com.
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Value-focused investors are always on the hunt for stocks that are priced below their intrinsic value. One such stock that merits attention is B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ:RILY). The stock, which is currently priced at 38.19, recorded a loss of 6.83% in a day and a 3-month decrease of 15.41%. The stock's fair valuation is $74.37, as indicated by its GF Value.

Understanding the GF Value

The GF Value represents the current intrinsic value of a stock derived from our exclusive method. The GF Value Line on our summary page gives an overview of the fair value that the stock should be traded at. It is calculated based on three factors: historical multiples (PE Ratio, PS Ratio, PB Ratio and Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow) that the stock has traded at, GuruFocus adjustment factor based on the company's past returns and growth, and future estimates of the business performance.

We believe the GF Value Line is the fair value that the stock should be traded at. The stock price will most likely fluctuate around the GF Value Line. If the stock price is significantly above the GF Value Line, it is overvalued and its future return is likely to be poor. On the other hand, if it is significantly below the GF Value Line, its future return will likely be higher.

Is B. Riley Financial (RILY) Too Good to Be True? A Comprehensive Analysis of a Potential Value Trap

The Complexity of Investment Decision-Making

However, investors need to consider a more in-depth analysis before making an investment decision. Despite its seemingly attractive valuation, certain risk factors associated with B. Riley Financial should not be ignored. These risks are primarily reflected through its low Altman Z-score of 0.65. These indicators suggest that B. Riley Financial, despite its apparent undervaluation, might be a potential value trap. This complexity underlines the importance of thorough due diligence in investment decision-making.

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Understanding the Altman Z-score

Before delving into the details, let's understand what the Altman Z-score entails. Invented by New York University Professor Edward I. Altman in 1968, the Z-Score is a financial model that predicts the probability of a company entering bankruptcy within a two-year time frame. The Altman Z-Score combines five different financial ratios, each weighted to create a final score. A score below 1.8 suggests a high likelihood of financial distress, while a score above 3 indicates a low risk.

Company Introduction

B. Riley Financial Inc is a diversified financial services company. The company through its subsidiaries offers investment banking and financial services to corporate, institutional and high net worth clients. It also provides internet access and subscription services. The reportable operating segments of the company include Capital Markets, Wealth Management, Financial Consulting, Auction and Liquidation, Communications, and Consumer segment.

Is B. Riley Financial (RILY) Too Good to Be True? A Comprehensive Analysis of a Potential Value Trap

Breaking Down B. Riley Financial's Low Altman Z-Score

A dissection of B. Riley Financial's Altman Z-score reveals B. Riley Financial's financial health may be weak, suggesting possible financial distress:

The Retained Earnings to Total Assets ratio provides insights into a company's capability to reinvest its profits or manage debt. Evaluating B. Riley Financial's historical data, 2021: 0.08; 2022: 0.01; 2023: -0.01, we observe a declining trend in this ratio. This downward movement indicates B. Riley Financial's diminishing ability to reinvest in its business or effectively manage its debt. Consequently, it exerts a negative impact on its Z-Score.

The EBIT to Total Assets ratio serves as a crucial barometer of a company's operational effectiveness, correlating earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) to total assets. An analysis of B. Riley Financial's EBIT to Total Assets ratio from historical data (2021: 0.20; 2022: 0.01; 2023: 0.04) indicates a descending trend. This reduction suggests that B. Riley Financial might not be utilizing its assets to their full potential to generate operational profits, which could be negatively affecting the company's overall Z-score.

When it comes to operational efficiency, a vital indicator for B. Riley Financial is its asset turnover. The data: 2021: 0.49; 2022: 0.19; 2023: 0.27 from the past three years suggests a decreasing trend in this ratio. The asset turnover ratio reflects how effectively a company is using its assets to generate sales. Therefore, a drop in this ratio can signify reduced operational efficiency, potentially due to underutilization of assets or decreased market demand for the company's products or services. This shift in B. Riley Financial's asset turnover underlines the need for the company to reassess its operational strategies to optimize asset usage and boost sales.

Conclusion

Despite its seemingly attractive valuation, the analysis of B. Riley Financial's Altman Z-score and other key financial indicators suggest that it might be a potential value trap. This underlines the importance of thorough due diligence in investment decision-making. GuruFocus Premium members can find stocks with high Altman Z-Score using the following Screener: Walter Schloss Screen .

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Novavax's (NVAX) Matrix-M, an adjuvant that helps provide broader protection in vaccines, is a key ingredient in the second-ever malaria vaccine recommended by the World Health Organization Monday.

The adjuvant, which is licensed to the Serum Institute of India (SII) for endemic countries, had been tested in a vaccine candidate from the University of Oxford before the pandemic  before Novavax produced its first commercial vaccine, the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Novavax ... is proud of the role ... our saponin-based Matrix-M adjuvant plays in the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine," said CEO John Jacobs in a statement.

The new vaccine will help alleviate demand in Africa in particular, with the India-based SII, the world's largest vaccine producer, supplying the new doses, according to SII CEO Adar Poonawalla.

"Sadly, the demand has been higher, a lot higher, than what was physically possible to be supplied by other manufacturers. So, the good news is that we have, now, another option for countries," Poonawalla told Yahoo Finance.

The relationship with the University of Oxford also predates the pandemic, Poonawalla said, noting that this was the original vaccine the duo were working on before they pivoted to the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine to address the pandemic.

SII said it has already begun to produce doses of the R21/Matrix-M vaccine, in anticipation of the rollout next year. It already has 20 million doses and is expecting to scale up to 200 million doses over the next two years.

A single dose will cost less than $5, Poonawalla said.

Portrait of a child in a clinic in Africa about to be vaccinated with the doctor beside him. (Getty Images)

Manufacturing in Africa

The Serum Institute was among limited providers of COVID-19 doses on the African continent before it had to restrict exports, per the Indian government's request, to utilize doses domestically. That damaged the relationship between the sub-Saharan countries and the world's largest vaccine maker. It also highlighted an even bigger problem  there were few manufacturing options on the continent to product doses at scale.

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That resulted in calls for equity in the Global South, from advocates and governments, which saw a number of commitments and plans from companies like Pfizer (PFE), Moderna (MRNA), and BioNTech (BNTX). Pfizer used an existing partner, the Biovac Institute, to produce doses in South Africa. Moderna committed to opening a facility in Kenya.

While none of those efforts were intended to address the immediate needs of the pandemic, they are contributing to a growing effort to get more doses produced on the continent. Some efforts have since waned.

BioNTech committed to a project in Rwanda, where it would ship smaller manufacturing containers, as well as discussed plans for a plant in South Africa. The latter idea has been scrapped, according to recent reports.

Meanwhile, the Mastercard Foundation has partnered with the Institut Pasteur de Dakar to invest in manufacturing in Senegal. This will help the African Union meet its goal of producing 60% of the continent's vaccine needs by 2040.

The Serum Institute, in the meantime, struck a partnership with Aspen Pharmacare  which had previously partnered with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) for its COVID vaccine  to produce multiple vaccines. The agreement does not include the malaria vaccine, which Serum is producing in India.

"Our partnership with Aspen is very keen to develop that and to assure the countries in Africa, 'Look, we're starting to do things here.' And it's not just the Serum Institute, it's be other companies ... manufacturing and making the continent in some way a little more self-reliant," Poonawalla said.

Follow Anjalee on Twitter @AnjKhem.

Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest health industry news and events impacting stock prices
zimmytws / iStock.com

President Joe Biden is determined to provide debt forgiveness to federal student loan borrowers, despite more than a year of having his plans challenged and shot down in the courts. The administrations most recent attempt, unveiled last week, involves using the 1965 Higher Education Act (HEA) to cancel debt for groups of borrowers who fall into five categories.

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In a Sept. 29 press release, the U.S. Department of Education cited a debt relief issue paper laying out an initial set of policy considerations to create a path to debt relief for student loan borrowers in need. The issue paper will be discussed at the first meeting of the Student Loan Relief Committee, scheduled for Oct. 10 and 11.

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The new strategy comes months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down an ambitious earlier White House plan that would have provided up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness per borrower. That plan, unveiled in August 2022, was killed this past June.

Since then, the Biden administration has worked on a series of alternative forgiveness plans to ease the debt burden of millions of students.

The Biden-Harris Administration has taken unprecedented action to fix the broken student loan system and deliver record amounts of student debt relief, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement. Now, we are diligently moving through the regulatory process to advance debt relief for even more borrowers.  Were committed to standing up for borrowers and making sure that student debt does not stop anyone from climbing the economic ladder and pursuing the American dream.

This latest loan forgiveness attempt, which focuses on negotiated rulemaking under the HEA, could potentially provide debt forgiveness to these five groups, according to U.S. News & World Report:

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Borrowers whose balances are greater than what they originally borrowed

Borrowers whose loans first entered repayment decades ago

Borrowers who attended education programs that didnt provide sufficient financial value

Borrowers who are eligible for relief under programs such as income-driven repayment but have not applied

Borrowers who have experienced financial hardship and need support but whom the current student loan system does not adequately address

The issue paper, published on the Education Department website, also addressed federal regulations that might allow an agency to compromise a debt if the government cant collect the full amount. Reasons include the following:

The debtor is unable to pay the full amount in a reasonable time, based on financial information

The government is unable to collect the debt in full within a reasonable time by enforced collection proceedings

The cost of collecting the debt doesnt justify the enforced collection of the full amount

There is significant doubt concerning the governments ability to prove its case in court

Borrowers hoping for quick debt relief from the latest Biden administration effort might be disappointed, however. As U.S. News reported, it will likely be a lengthy process that involves a panel of negotiators meeting over several months to try and reach a consensus.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Bidens New Student Loan Forgiveness Program Announced  Who Qualifies?
Cheyenne, WY (82001)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun with gusty winds. High 61F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds. Low 43F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
This college student says she lives free in her uncle's investment property but collects rent from her friends and pockets the cash  is she 'greedy' or resourceful?

Mixing business with friendship is almost always a tricky proposition. And a college student had to learn that the hard way when she tried her hand at being a landlord to her school friends.

Reddit user, EqualBudget_3179, recently posted a cautionary tale on the site after her uncle let her live rent-free in one of his investment properties and collect rent from three other tenants to help pay for her expenses.

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EqualBudget_3179 offered their friends these extra bedrooms for $700 per month each  a good $200 to $800 cheaper than other houses near her college. They all immediately said yes. But when one of them asked about the total cost of rent, the friends freaked out when they found out the arrangement with her uncle.

That blew up in my face because now every [sic] one of my friends [is] calling me greedy for charging them rent then pocketing the money, EqualBudget_3179 writes in her post. The Redditor goes on to write that she ultimately decided to ask them to move out.

My uncle gave me some advice  Never mix money with friends or I might lose both.

There are certainly challenges that come with being a landlord. Here are some pros and cons to help you decide if it's a life for you  along with some stress-free real estate investing alternatives if it's not worth the risk.

The pros

While being a landlord can be a lot of work, the time and money investment does have some serious appeal. Rental properties are assets that generate monthly income and allow you to benefit from any price appreciation in the long term.

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Rent prices went up an average of 5.45% over the last year  and over 30% in some New York and Florida towns, according to a SmartAsset study that looked at rent prices in over 1,800 U.S. cities. And with 93% of single family homes currently occupied, demand for rental units is high. This means you could be more likely to have your pick of prospective tenants and get your unit rented in a shorter amount of time.

If you decide to sell the property, then having the rental unit may add more appeal for prospective buyers.

Whether you sell the property or you have that extra monthly income coming in, the extra cash can be part of your retirement nest egg or provide you with the cash to invest to further build your portfolio or even buy your next home.

Read more: Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now use $100 to cash in on prime real estate  without the headache of being a landlord. Here's how

The cons

But its not all fun and games being a landlord, as the young Reddit poster discovered.

This is particularly true if you end up with tenants who fall behind on rent. Roughly 13.7% of American adults who are currently renting are in this position, according to a 2023 study from LendingTree.

If your rental income is helping to cover the mortgage on the property, make sure you have an emergency fund to tap to make the monthly payment if your tenants are late with rent.

Even experts like Dave Ramsey have warned that being a landlord can feel like youre on a crazy train. On a recent episode of the Ramsey Show, he advised one caller  a frustrated property manager  to take a break from crazy. Go get you a house.

If you have a renter who doesnt pay for months on end, youll have to evict them  and you wouldnt be alone. Over one million evictions have been filed by landlords in the U.S. over the past 12 months, according to data from The Eviction Lab.

Renter rights vary from state to state so youll need to do your research before embarking on this venture to know exactly what you might have to deal with in a worst-case scenario.

For example, California has an eviction process that takes a minimum of 30 days. One California couple made media waves after they reportedly lost $15,000 trying to get their problem tenant out. If the problem can't be resolved privately, you may need to take your tenant to court if they dont comply with your eviction notice, adding more time, money and stress to the process.

Investing alternatives

If you have come to the realization that the hassle that can come with tenants isnt worth the possible payoff, buying a home or rental property isnt the only way to invest in real estate.

A real estate investment trust (REIT) is a lower-cost and lower-risk way to benefit from the renting boom. REITs are publicly traded entities that own and operate residential and commercial properties that generate income. A percentage of the profits are then distributed to shareholders in the form of dividends.

If you're looking to dip your toe into real estate, there are also crowdfunding platforms that allow individual investors to buy fractional shares of bigger property deals. This option can offer very affordable minimum investments, similar to investing in mutual funds or REITs, as well as larger investment opportunities for accredited investors.

You can also consider exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which offer investors the opportunity to invest in a preselected basket of securities. There are many real-estate options to consider including giants like Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) and Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLRE).

While ETFs and REITs are relatively easy to buy and sell on major exchanges, its worth noting they come with a fee  referred to as the management expense ratio (MER)  which is charged by your chosen firm in exchange for managing the fund.

If you think taking on the mantle of landlord is too much, you have plenty of accessible options to build the real-estate portfolio of your dreams.

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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
(Bloomberg) -- Japans government approved as much as 192 billion ($1.3 billion) in subsidies for Micron Technology Inc.s Hiroshima factory, part of Tokyos efforts to bolster next-generation chip production at home.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The subsidies will help the Boise, Idaho-based company install Dutch firm ASML Holding NVs extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment to make advanced chips, Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said Tuesday. Such chips will be essential to power generative AI, data centers and self-driving technology, he said. The support covers almost 40% of Microns investment plans in Japan.

The market is rough now, but its essential that we invest in times like these, Nishimura said at a regular news conference, referring to an industry-wide slump thats weighed on the US companys earnings. This is to secure a supply of cutting-edge chips that Japan will need for its future economic security.

The approval marks a win for Micron as it grapples with uncertainty in China, one of its largest markets. A bipartisan group of US senators hopes to meet President Xi Jinping next week in the country, where the company faces an ongoing probe by regulators. Micron has said the investigation put half of its China sales at risk.

Tokyo has set aside a maximum 167 billion to help cover Microns production costs and as much as 25 billion for development costs, Nishimura said. Micron has said it plans to spend about 500 billion and produce what it calls one-gamma technology in Japan. The government was preparing subsidies of around 200 billion for Microns Hiroshima factory, Bloomberg previously reported.

Tokyos support comes as similar efforts by the US to bolster domestic chip production are getting stymied by labor issues and slow delivery of promised funding. The worlds biggest chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., said in July that it was delaying the start of production at its planned Arizona factory to 2025.

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Construction at a TSMC plant in southern Japan has been proceeding relatively smoothly through round-the-clock shifts and a government pledge to pay for almost half the cost.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishidas administration has earmarked billions of dollars in subsidies in a bid to triple domestic production of chips by 2030 and help an aging Japan regain some of its former leadership in tech. Its in talks about support for a second TSMC plant in Japan, and its funding homegrown Rapidus Corp. to make the countrys own cutting-edge chips.|

Micron, which bought former Japanese DRAM maker Elpida Memory Inc.s operations in 2013, said it employs more than 4,000 engineers and technicians in Japan.

If there are good jobs, young people will stay closer to home and create positive ripple effects for the regional economy, Nishimura said. We hope this will also help nurture chip-related talent.

--With assistance from Vlad Savov and Edwin Chan.

(Updates with details of Microns capex plans. A previous version corrected ASMLs name in the second paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
If youre a spoon and 2L tub kind of person who can shovel the ice cream back, you wont believe your eyes at the gigantic 10-scoop ice cream in Coro! The only negative about this would be trying to slurp it up before it melts.
While BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE:BWA) might not be the most widely known stock at the moment, it saw significant share price movement during recent months on the NYSE, rising to highs of US$49.92 and falling to the lows of US$39.43. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether BorgWarner's current trading price of US$39.86 reflective of the actual value of the mid-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Lets take a look at BorgWarners outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change.

See our latest analysis for BorgWarner

What Is BorgWarner Worth?

Good news, investors! BorgWarner is still a bargain right now. My valuation model shows that the intrinsic value for the stock is $55.20, but it is currently trading at US$39.86 on the share market, meaning that there is still an opportunity to buy now. Although, there may be another chance to buy again in the future. This is because BorgWarners beta (a measure of share price volatility) is high, meaning its price movements will be exaggerated relative to the rest of the market. If the market is bearish, the company's shares will likely fall by more than the rest of the market, providing a prime buying opportunity.

Can we expect growth from BorgWarner?

Future outlook is an important aspect when youre looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Although value investors would argue that its the intrinsic value relative to the price that matter the most, a more compelling investment thesis would be high growth potential at a cheap price. With profit expected to grow by a double-digit 19% over the next couple of years, the outlook is positive for BorgWarner. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation.

Story continues

What This Means For You

Are you a shareholder? Since BWA is currently undervalued, it may be a great time to accumulate more of your holdings in the stock. With an optimistic outlook on the horizon, it seems like this growth has not yet been fully factored into the share price. However, there are also other factors such as capital structure to consider, which could explain the current undervaluation.

Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping an eye on BWA for a while, now might be the time to enter the stock. Its prosperous future outlook isnt fully reflected in the current share price yet, which means its not too late to buy BWA. But before you make any investment decisions, consider other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to make a well-informed buy.

If you'd like to know more about BorgWarner as a business, it's important to be aware of any risks it's facing. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for BorgWarner you should know about.

If you are no longer interested in BorgWarner, you can use our free platform to see our list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Bihars caste survey reveals 63% OBCs, EBCs in State





Enumerator staff collects information from residents during the caste-based census of Bihar. (ANI/File photo)

PATNA :

The States total population stood at a little over 13.07 crore

The State has 81.99% Hindu population, 17.70% Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains and others make up for less than 1% of the total population

THE Nitish Kumar Government in Bihar on Monday released findings of its much-awaited caste survey which revealed that OBCs and EBCs constitute a whopping 63 per cent of the States total population. According to the data released here by Development Commissioner Vivek Singh, the States total population stood at a little over 13.07 crore, out of which the Extremely Backward Classes (36 per cent) were the largest social segment followed by the Other Backward Classes at 27.13 per cent. The survey also stated that Yadavs, the OBC group to which Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav belongs, were the largest in terms of the population, accounting for 14.27 per cent of the total. Dalits, also known as the Scheduled Castes, accounted for 19.65 per cent of the total population in the State, which is also home to nearly 22 lakh (1.68 per cent) people belonging to the Scheduled Tribes. Those belonging to the unreserved category, which denotes the proverbial upper castes who dominated politics till the Mandal wave of 1990s, comprise 15.52 per cent of the total population.

The survey also establishes that the States population is overwhelmingly Hindu, with the majority community comprising 81.99 per cent of the total population, followed by Muslims (17.70 per cent). Christians, Sikhs, Jains and those following other religions as also the non-believers have a miniscule presence, together making up for less than one per cent of the total population. Lauding the Government officials who undertook the gigantic exercise, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said, A meeting will soon be convened of all the nine political parties with an electoral presence in the State Legislature and the facts and figures will be shared with them. RJD president Lalu Prasad, who is Kumars ally as well as the father of his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, also issued a statement, declaring that the exercise will set the tone for a nation-wide caste census which will be undertaken when we form the next Government at the Centre. Both Prasad and Kumar have played an instrumental role in the formation of the INDIA coalition, which affirmed its commitment to holding a caste census at a meeting it held in Bengaluru recently. The Bihar caste survey is an epoch-making decision in independent India.

We consider it as a fitting tribute to Gandhi Ji and his ideals of addressing the needs of the poor and marginalised, said Water Resources and Information and Publicity Minister Sanjay Jha. The decision to hold the survey is another example of the foresight of the Chief Minister, he said. The Opposition BJP, however, voiced dissatisfaction with the caste survey, stressing that it did not give an idea of the changed social and economic realities over the years. State BJP president Samrat Choudhary said that his party had given its consent for the exercise and would make an assessment of the findings which have now been made public. Notably, the survey was ordered last year after the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre made it clear that it would not be able to undertake a headcount of castes other than SCs and STs as part of the census. The last time, a headcount of all castes was undertaken, was way back in 1931. Those calling for a fresh caste survey insist that a new estimate was required mainly for the weaker sections of the society which, with improved life expectancy in the post-Independence era, must have seen a rise in their proportion of the population. The State Cabinet gave its nod to hold a caste survey on June 2 last year when it also allocated an amount of Rs 500 crore for the mammoth exercise.

The survey briefly ran into rough weather when it was stayed by the Patna High Court which was hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the exercise. However, the deadline it then set, of February 2023, was overshot and the survey itself could take off no sooner than January 7 this year. Leaders of the ruling Mahagathbandhan in the State have been alleging that those filing petitions were BJP supporters, a charge denied by the BJP which underscores that it was in the Government when the cabinet nod was given for the survey.
Causes of urban floods entirely man-made or artificial





By Paramjit Singh Ahuja

THE flooding that need not have happened has shaken Nagpur to its very core. It will take a while for the affected to pick up the pieces of their lives. For many, life wont be the same again. The devastation that it left in its wake made national news. Localities close to the Ambazari lake were the most affected. Low-lying areas were flooded. And then there were the usual areas that have been bearing the brunt of rains ad nauseum since decades, such as Mor Bhavan, Jhansi Rani square, Lakadganj, Ganeshpeth and many more, that their flooding is now taken for granted. The avoidable loss of five precious lives and crores of rupees of personal and State assets in what can only be called a man-made tragedy of mammoth proportions has shaken the faith of citizens in the administration like never before. September 23, 2023 will be etched in the history of Nagpur for all the wrong reasons, forever. In the aftermath of the floods, State Relief and Rehabilitation Minister conducted the customary survey, directed panchnamas be conducted and announced a special package for permanent flood control. The Deputy Chief Minister instructed officials to take strong measures for ensuring that flooding does not occur even after the heaviest rains. One is thankful for that. This time around though, we must not let it go at that. Enough is enough. With confidence in the administration to deliver at its lowest as reflected by the Governments inability to come on top of the situation, this should be the last of the wake-up calls.

Therefore, it is the citizenry that will have to help itself by seizing the initiative and working with the public servants who after all, are answerable to we the people. The monsoon is on its retreat and public memory being what it is; this incident too is in danger of being lost in some remote crevice of our brains. Before that happens, there is a window of 8-9 months prior to the onset of the next South-West monsoon during which, if we resolve to make our voices matter, (just as the citizens of Surat and Indore did by converting adversity into advantage and thereby coming on top of the situation), we would have done ourselves one hell of a big favour. Urban floods can occur when a river passing through the city breaches its embankment as it did when protective walls of the Nag River emanating from the Ambazari Lake collapsed. It can also happen due to clogging of storm water drains; lack of proper drainage system; rainfall overwhelming the capacity of drainage system; haphazard and irregular planning compounded by the problem of illegal encroachments which eliminate natural water courses necessary to drain out excess water; urban heat island effect, resulting in an increase in rainfall over urban areas; changing weather patterns (climate change) lesser but more intense rainy days; improper disposal of solid waste (domestic, commercial and industrial) and dumping of construction debris into drains; sanctioning development on floodplains, ponds and wetlands which actually have the capacity to soak extra water; increase in urbanization (built-up and paved areas replacing natural land surfaces with impervious surfaces like roads, buildings and parking lots) as a result of which, the flow of water increases; combination of storm water and wastewater in the same sewer system which upon heavy rains can become overwhelmed leading to sewage backups and urban flooding that stinks and infects, and extraction of groundwater and other activities leading to land subsidence, causing areas to sink and become more prone to flooding.

There are other reasons as well that will be too voluminous to enumerate here. In other words, the causes of urban floods are entirely man-made or artificial. It is not as if successive city administrators were unaware of these reasons, most of which is a Google or ChatGPT-3.5 search away. And it is not as if the prevention and mitigation of urban floods is rocket science. On a lighter note, perhaps we would have sorted out the sorry state of our urban infrastructure had it been rocket science! The how to do it is set out in great detail in IS Code of Practice for Storm Water Drainage (IS : 1742  1983) and other Codes, in the National Building Code of India 2016 (Storm Water Drainage, Surface Water Run-off) and others. As a pre-requisite to design, data is the key. I can bet my last 500 rupees that the city hasnt mapped its drainage system, the contours, water channels, wetlands, ponds, low lying areas, chronic water logging spots, land subsistence, flood plains, encroachments on river, lake and pond catchment areas, high flood hazard zones and urban heat islands. I'd love to lose the bet, though. Designing without data is akin to swatting a fly in the dark. Designing for addressing urban flooding requires a combination of improved infrastructure, better land use planning, sustainable urban design, and climate resilience measures that can be facilitated by geo spatial analysis of the data obtained from the mapping exercise. A Mission Flood-free Nagpur should be launched on the lines of Mission Flood-free Guwahati. The city should embrace Sponge City Mission the goal of which is to enhance urban permeability, allowing cities to retain and utilise the rainfall they receive. This can be effectively achieved through an urban mission in the vein of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation of Urban Transformation (AMRUT), National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) and Smart City Mission.
Farmers may get crop insurance advance before Diwali: Munde





Staff Reporter

THE State Government is considering depositing 25% advance of the crop insurance amount in farmers accounts before Diwali, said Maharashtras Agriculture Minister Dhananjay Munde. The incessant rains which took place on September 23 in Nagpur devastated crops on a large scale. Munde was in city to review the damages as per the instructions from Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Two days ago, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Anil Patil, too, had visited Nagpur. Farmers in Nagpur district suffered huge losses due to pests on Soyabean crops. The damage to the crops was mainly de to heavy rains and use of bogus chemical fertilisers. Munde inspected the farms during his visit to Adyali, Umargaon, Pachgaon, and Virkhandi villages. Farmers met him and handed over the memorandum of various demands. The farmers informed the minister that Yellow Mosaic Virus was troubling them due to which they suffered losses. At many places, farmers showed how the rains had damaged their entire standing crop.

While interacting with farmers, Munde said, This year, a record Rs 1.70 crore crop insurance has been registered in Maharashtra. The Government had asked farmers just to pay Re one, and the rest of the premium was contributed by the Government, which is a first such insurance of its kind in the country. The farmers who suffered losses will get 25% amount of crop insurance compensation before Diwali. At some places, over 65 mm rain for more than 4 hours was witnessed. The farmers living at such places will get help as per the rules of State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) and National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF). We will raise this subject in the Cabinet meeting to be held on Tuesday, he said.

In Nagpur district, crops in 82 zones under revenue sections faced losses, of which 62 are the most affected. The Revenue and Agriculture Department has been asked to submit an updated proposal regarding this issue. Ramtek MP Krupal Tumane, ex-MLA and Bharatiya Janata Partys District President Sudhakar Kohale, MLA Tekchand Sawarkar, MLA Raju Parve, District Collector Dr Vipin Itankar, Chief Executive Officer of Zilla Parishad Saumya Sharma, Divisional Agriculture Superintendent Milind Shende, District Agriculture Officer Ravindra Manohare and others also were present.
By David Keyton

and Mike Corder

STOCKHOLM,

TWO scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 and that could be used to develop other shots in the future. Hungarian-born American Katalin Kariko and American Drew Weissman were cited for contributing to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times, according to the panel that awarded the prize in Stockholm. The panel said the pairs groundbreaking findings ... Fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system. Traditionally, making vaccines required growing viruses or pieces of viruses  often in giant vats of cells or, like most flu shots, in chicken eggs  and then purifying them before next steps in brewing shots. The messenger RNA approach is radically different. It starts with a snippet of genetic code that carries instructions for making proteins. Pick the right virus protein to target, and the body turns into a mini vaccine factory.

But simply injecting lab-grown mRNA into the body triggered an inflammatory reaction that usually destroyed it. Kariko, a professor at Szeged University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Weissman, of the University of Pennsylvania, figured out a tiny modification to the building blocks of RNA that made it stealthy enough to slip past those immune defences. Kariko, 68, is the 13th woman to win the Nobel Prize in medicine. She was a senior vice president at BioNTech, which partnered with Pfizer to make one of the COVID-19 vaccines. She and Weissman, 64, who is a professor and director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations, met by chance in the 1990s while photocopying research papers, according to Penn Today, the universitys news website. Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britains University of East Anglia, described the mRNA vaccines as a game changer in helping to shut down the coronavirus pandemic, crediting the shots with saving millions of lives. If it hadnt been for the mRNA technology, COVID would have been much worse, he said.

Vaccines generally were the turning point in slowing down COVID and the mRNA vaccines were just so much better than all the others, he said, noting that the main vaccine used in the UK, made by AstraZeneca, is barely in use anymore. We would likely only now be coming out of the depths of COVID without the mRNA vaccines, Hunter said. Dr. Bharat Pankhania, an infectious diseases expert at Exeter University, said that a major advantage of mRNA technology was that vaccines could be made in extremely large quantities since their main components are made in laboratories. Pankhania predicted that the technology used in the vaccines could be used to refine vaccines for other diseases like Ebola, malaria and dengue, and might also be used to create shots that immunise people against certain types of cancer or auto-immune diseases like lupus.
NVCC Administrator reports irregularities during Mehadias term





Business Reporter

After going through all the charges levelled against former President of Nag Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce (NVCC) Ashwin Mehadia by a group of past presidents, National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)-appointed Administrator U C Nahata recently found Mehadia guilty in all the cases. In a report submitted to the NCLT, the Administrator stated that the charges levelled against Mehadia were true. Nahata also found financial irregularities in the traders body during the tenure of Ashwin Mehadia as its President. Further, Nahata also recommended imposition of at least a ten year or lifetime ban on Mehadia from becoming director of any company and a three-year ban on other office-bearers. In addition to this, Nahata in the report asked NCLT to impose a penalty of Rs 5 crore on Mehadia for causing huge financial loss to the NVCC.

In his report, the administrator further recommended that all the decisions taken during his tenure be suspended and stated that he should continue to govern the body till its financial health is restored. There were 14 main allegations leveled by the group of past president of the body led by Dipen Agrawal. In 2021, they had accused Mehadia of occupying the seat of President despite his Director Identifi-cation Number (DIN) being deactivated by the Registrar of Companies. There were also allegations that Mehadia had violated Sections 152(4), 152, 154, 164 and 167 of the Companies Act. It is important to note that Mehadia had postponed the 77th annual general meeting of NVCC scheduled on October 27, 2021 with an alleged intention of retaining control over it. He had closed the membership drive early and conferred membership only on a selected members.

In a letter written to the traders body on November 23, the past presidents including - Govindlal Agrawal, Ramesh Mantri, Praful Doshi, Shrigopal Soni, Murlidhar Surjan, Radheshyam Sarda, Suresh Bhojwani, Hemant Khungar, Nilesh Suchak, Jagdish Bang and Dipen Agrawal had sought corrective steps in this regard. Earlier, the Registrar of Companies (ROC) had blocked the Director Identification Number of Ashwin Mehadia under Section 164 (2) of the Companies Act. 2013 for five years which made his appointment as President of NVCC invalid. In addition, the former heads of the body representing more than 13 lakh traders across the Vidarbha region, also alleged that Mehadia illegally presided over the executive body meeting wherein he was re-elected as the President while Argundas Ahuja, Farooque Akbani and Swpnil Ahirkar became the Vice Presidents. Ashwin Mehadia had also announced name of 40 members of executive body and 11 names of co-opt members.
PM Modi to visit Bastar today





Our Correspondent

BASTAR,

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on one day visit to Bastar district of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday. According to the information, at around 11 am, in Jagdalpur, Bastar, Prime Minister Modi will dedicate to nation and lay the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth more than Rs 26,000 crore in Chhattisgarh, including the NMDC Steel Limiteds Steel Plant at Nagarnar. At around 3 pm Prime Minister will reach Nizamabad, Telangana, where he will dedicate to the nation and lay the foundation stone of various development projects worth around Rs 8,000 crore, in important sectors like power, rail and Health. In a step that will provide a major impetus to the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat, Prime Minister will dedicate to the nation the NMDC Steel Limited, a Steel Plant at Nagarnar in Bastar district. Built at a cost of more than Rs 23,800 crore, the steel plant is a greenfield project that will produce high quality steel. NMDC Steel Limiteds Steel Plant at Nagarnar will provide employment opportunities to thousands of people, in the plant as well as in ancillary and downstream industries. It will put Bastar on the steel map of the world and provide a boost to socioeconomic development of the region.

In line with the Prime Ministers vision of improving rail infrastructure all across the country, laying of foundation stone and dedication to nation of multiple rail projects will be done during the programme. Prime Minister will dedicate to nation new rail line between Antagarh and Taroki and a rail line doubling project between Jagdalpur and Dantewara. He will lay the foundation stone of Boridand-Surajpur rail line doubling project and redevelopment of Jagdalpur Station under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. Prime Minister will also flag off the Taroki  Raipur DEMU Train Service. These rail projects will improve connectivity in the tribal regions of the state. The improved rail infrastructure and the new train service will benefit the local people and help in economic development of the region. Prime Minister will also dedicate to the nation a road upgradation project from Kunkuri to Chhattisgarh - Jharkhand Border section of National Highway-43. The new road will improve road connectivity, benefiting the people of the region. Later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reach Telangana on Tuesday. In line with the Prime Ministers vision of increasing power generation with improved energy efficiency in the country, the first 800 MW Unit of phase 1 of Telangana Super Thermal Power Project of NTPC will be dedicated to the nation. It will provide low cost power to Telangana and provide a boost to economic development of State. It will also be one of the most environmentally compliant power stations in the country. Telanganas rail infrastructure will get a boost as the Prime Minister will dedicate to nation rail projects including the new Railway Line connecting Manoharabad and Siddipet; and the electrification project between Dharmabad - Manoharabad and Mahabubnagar - Kurnool.

The 76 km long Manoharabad-Siddipet rail line will boost the socio-economic development of the region, especially in the districts of Medak and Siddipet. The electrification project between Dharmabad - Manoharabad and Mahabubnagar - Kurnool will help in improving average speed of trains and will lead to environment-friendly rail transport in the region. Prime Minister will also flag off Siddipet - Secunderabad -Siddipet train service, benefiting the local rail commuters in the region. In an effort which will augment health infrastructure in Telangana, the Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of 20 Critical Care Blocks (CCBs) across the state under Pradhan Mantri - Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission. These CCBs will be built in the districts Adilabad, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Jogulamba Gadwal, Hyderabad, Khammam, Kumuram Bheem Asifabad, Mancherial, Mahabubnagar (Badepally), Mulugu, Nagarkurnool, Nalgonda, Narayanpet, Nirmal, Rajanna Sircilla, RangaReddy (Maheshwaram), Suryapet, Peddapalli, Vikarabad and Warangal (Narsampet). These CCBs will augment district level critical care infrastructure across Telangana benefiting people of State.
Senior Congress leaders, workers pay tributes to Mahatma Gandhi, Shastri





Staff Reporter

Senior leaders and workers of Congress party paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri on their birth anniversary, on Monday. Congressmen gathered at Town Hall and garlanded the statue of Mahatma Gandhi and the portrait of Lal Bahadur Shastri. Speaking on the occasion, Congress leaders said, Gandhiji dedicated his entire life to the service of the nation with sole aim of achieving freedom and peace. They added Mahatma Gandhi introduced the world to the power of non-violence. Gandhis message of non-violence cannot be extinguished and continues to resonate deeply throughout the world.

Congress leaders further stated that Gandhi is an ideology that can never be eliminated and the strength of Gandhis non-violence has been profoundly understood and embraced worldwide. Congress leaders said Mahatma Gandhis entire life serves as a message. Whether it was struggling for justice, protecting ones rights, or resisting injustice, both domestically and internationally, Gandhis path of non-violence was embraced with humility and strength. His life exemplified living by moral values, which in itself conveys a powerful message.

They said the entire life of former Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri was marked by simplicity and the decisions he made in the interest of the nation are a testament to his remarkable personality. Those present on the occasion were Jagat Bahadur Singh, Kaushlya Gotia, Nanhelal Dhurve, Bhagat Ram Singh, Manoj Seth and others.
SWITCH IN MALE





THE victory of Mr. Mohamed Muizzu in the Maldives presidential runoff is a major change in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation. The election had turned into a virtual referendum on choice between -- India and China. With pro-China Mr. Muizzu at the helm, many are predicting changes in policy of Maldives towards India. Against this backdrop, it is necessary to discuss the import of the change of guard in Maldives. For some context, one must understand that this particular election in Maldives was a crucial fight between Mr. Mohamed Muizzu and the incumbent President Mr. Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. Mr. Solih is viewed as pro-India, and Mr. Muizzu as pro-China. The former Maldives President Mr. Abdulla Yameen, who is spending time in jail on charges of corruption, had mounted India Out campaign and also backed Mr. Muizzu. The India Out campaign was clearly aimed at putting strategic ties between India and Maldives under strain. Given that Mr. Yameen had worked for a free trade agreement with China and loans to fund infrastructure projects, the idea behind his campaign was very clear. Unfortunately, the Maldivian leaders favouring Communist China seem to be overlooking the impact of the infamous Chinese debt trap on smaller nations in Indias neighbourhood.

Sri Lankas has been the most talked about case. Securing debt from China for infrastructure projects led it into deep turmoil not long ago. In return, the Communist China secured opportunity to serve its own strategic interests. Pakistan, an all-weather friend of China, has become subservient to China to the extent that it had to deploy military to protect Chinese assets from Pakistani people. Nepal also compromised on its strategic sovereignty to an extent, while falling for Chinese propaganda of development. What is happening in Myanmar with tacit support of China, is visible to the world. So far, only Bangladesh has acted wisely by taking a firm stand against the Chinese debt trap. The strategy of Communist China has been to target smaller nations around India to pursue its hegemonic ambitions. But, it has forgotten that this is not the era when two superpowers engaging in Cold War had created a bipolar world. The Cold War era saw the superpowers orchestrating upheavals in nations, conflicts, warmongering, espionage, deceit, attempts to exert control and influence over powers etc. However, that era has passed by. The present-era is of co-operation, collective empowerment, and sharing of goodwill and not of exerting control with hegemonic machinations. That is why, the nations that have fallen prey to Communist Chinas selfish designs have suffered. Whereas, those relying on a strong bond of friendship with India have benefited.

The difference between co-operative Indian and hegemonic Chinese approaches needs to be understood well by the nations in the light of recent developments. Maldives needs to awaken to the reality. Instead of vying for the Chinese influence, it should give weightage to Indian goodwill. In the name of balancing the trade relations, Mr. Muizzu should not lean towards China irrespective of influence of Mr. Yameen. Getting cosy with China may seem to be serving a short-term goal, but it may prove to be detrimental to Maldivian peoples interest in the long run. As far as India is concerned, she supported Mr. Solih. Even now, with change of guard, Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has been among the first world leaders to congratulate Mr. Muizzu on getting elected as President of Maldives. This gesture is good enough an indication of continuity in Indian approach of goodwill towards Maldives. Now, it is turn of Maldives under Mr. Muizzu to extend reciprocal goodwill to India.




By Kartik Lokhande

As one enters the village Vairagad, also spelt as Wairagarh, one gets to see the concrete road snaking deep into the localities that have sprung up on the banks of the water channel. The concrete road misleads one to newer constructions. For, an old rugged pathway beyond the line of sight due to makeshift shops is what leads a curious visitor to what was once a seat of power -- Vairagad Fort. Sadly, today, barring the entrance, the ruins and overgrowth of vegetation tell the story of utter neglect. What was once known as a fort in Armori tehsil of Gadchiroli district, has been reduced to remains of the past. The cries of the collapsing monument can attract anyones attention only fortuitously. The vegetational overgrowth overshadows even the remains of the fort, except for the area near the entrance. A glance at the wall along the pathway leading to the main entrance of the fort reveals that some repairs had taken place, as one can find disproportionate stones placed in an asymmetric arrangement to lend strength to the wall and prevent its collapse. However, there is no one to tell anything about this fort, at the entrance of which is a board stating that it is a protected (!) monument.

The entrance is fairly in a good shape, weathering the historys enemy called time. But, a glance upwards reveals sorry state of affairs as one of the minarets is tilted. Entering through the grand gateway leads one into what could have been a massive ground once upon a time. At present, one can see only vegetation through which some remains scattered here and there peep out to offer a glimpse of history and heritage. One has to stretch ones eyes and look through vegetation to spot if fortification wall is intact. Two wells and a deep tank also are visible. One can see the images of Lord Ganesh and Lotus flower carved in stone. A millstone, statues carved in stone slabs, etc also are lying scattered in the fort amid vegetation. Sadly, not much is available on the fort, barring some old references in report of a tour in Central Provinces (1873-74) by J D Beglar, Assistant, Archaeological Survey, under the supervision of Major General A Cunningham, Director General, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI); Central Provinces District Gazetteers -- Chanda District (Volume-A, Descriptive, originally published in 1909); Chandrapur Gadchiroli Jilhyache Puratatva by Dr R R Borkar.





Noted historian Ashok Singh Thakur, who has to his credit several books, and who is Governing Council Member of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), offers some collective insight into the rich history of Vairagad Fort. The fort is on the confluence of Khobragadi and Vairochana rivers. It was once the capital of Gond king Virat. The fort is surrounded by moat. One finds mention of Vairagad in Hastigumfa stone inscriptions near Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) dating back to Second Century BC. This inscription mentions about Kaling Samrat Mahameghvahan Kharvel winning territory up to Krishna Venna, and marrying Princess Ghusita of Vairagad, Thakur told The Hitavada. In Ninth Century AD, Nagvanshi Mana kings ruled Vairagad. Kurumprahoda, the first of the line, is said to have constructed the Vairagad Fort. In 13th Century AD, Yadavas of Deogiri also had taken possession of the fort. Later, Gond kings ruled here. The forts construction reflects different styles because its possessors carried out repairs or fortification and made their own additions. Those who held the fort in different times included Nagvanshi kings, Gond kings, Bahamanis, Yadavas, Bhonsala, and the British, Thakur said. The Mana princes names recorded in history include Kurumprahoda, who ruled Vairagad, Surjat Badwaik who fortified Surjagarh, and Gahilu who built the fortress of Manikgarh. Vairagad was the biggest fort of Nagvanshi kings in Vidarbha region. This fort has moat, which is a unique feature. The Mana or Nagvanshi kings of Vairagad were superseded by the Gond dynasty. The British-era records cite Gond tradition and state that there arose among the Gonds a man named Kol Bhil, who gathered Gond people and took possession of the fort and started ruling.

Though the history of the Vairagad Fort is rich, Thakur lamented, it needs better care. Pitching for better care and repairs, Thakur said, If vegetation is not removed carefully, because it is deep-rooted now, the cracks in fort wall will widen, eventually causing greater damage to the structure. The minarets must be repaired, as they are tilted and can collapse anytime, damaging other remains of the fort. Unfortunately, when there is no one to clear the vegetation, less said the better about the forts upkeep. As one leaves the fort with a heavy heart, and reaches the junction of the old pathway and concrete road in village, one is greeted with local elders. You came all the way to visit the fort? What is there to see? It is all a dilapidated structure, waiting to die its own death.... says a dhoti-clad elder sporting white beard. Is Vairagad Fort dying its own death? Well, the question about the glorious pasts survival has to be answered by the forward-looking present...
Unpacking BDN's dividend history, yield, growth rates, and sustainability

Brandywine Realty Trust(NYSE:BDN) recently announced a dividend of $0.15 per share, payable on 2023-10-18, with the ex-dividend date set for 2023-10-03. As investors look forward to this upcoming payment, the spotlight also shines on the company's dividend history, yield, and growth rates. Using the data from GuruFocus, let's deep dive into Brandywine Realty Trust's dividend performance and assess its sustainability.

About Brandywine Realty Trust

Brandywine Realty Trust is engaged in the acquisition, development, redevelopment, ownership, management, and operation of a portfolio of office, life science/lab, residential, and mixed-use properties. The company owned and managed properties within five segments which include the Philadelphia CBD, Pennsylvania Suburbs, Austin, Texas, Metropolitan Washington, D.C., and Other segments.

Brandywine Realty Trust (BDN): A Deep Dive into its Dividend Performance

Brandywine Realty Trust's Dividend History

Brandywine Realty Trust has maintained a consistent dividend payment record since 1994. Dividends are currently distributed on a quarterly basis. The stock is listed as a dividend achiever, an honor given to companies that have increased their dividend each year for at least the past 14 years.

Brandywine Realty Trust (BDN): A Deep Dive into its Dividend Performance

Brandywine Realty Trust's Dividend Yield and Growth

As of today, Brandywine Realty Trust currently has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 17.32% and a 12-month forward dividend yield of 13.65%. This suggests an expectation of decreased dividend payments over the next 12 months. Over the past decade, Brandywine Realty Trust's annual dividends per share growth rate stands at 3.20%.

Brandywine Realty Trust (BDN): A Deep Dive into its Dividend Performance

Assessing Dividend Sustainability: Payout Ratio and Profitability

The dividend payout ratio of Brandywine Realty Trust is 5.43, suggesting that the company's dividend may not be sustainable. However, Brandywine Realty Trust's profitability rank of 7 out of 10 suggests good profitability prospects, with the company reporting net profit in 9 of the past 10 years.

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Brandywine Realty Trust's Growth Metrics

Brandywine Realty Trust's growth rank of 7 out of 10 suggests a good growth trajectory relative to its competitors. However, the company's revenue per share has increased by approximately -3.70% per year on average, underperforming approximately 71% of global competitors. Despite this, the company's 3-year EPS growth rate of 17.70% per year on average outperforms approximately 31.68% of global competitors.

Conclusion

While Brandywine Realty Trust has a commendable dividend history and yield, its sustainability is a concern given the low payout ratio and mixed growth metrics. Investors should monitor these factors closely while considering the stock for their portfolio. GuruFocus Premium users can screen for high-dividend yield stocks using the High Dividend Yield Screener.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Key Insights

Teo Guan Lee Corporation Berhad's estimated fair value is RM0.98 based on Dividend Discount Model

Current share price of RM1.15 suggests Teo Guan Lee Corporation Berhad is potentially trading close to its fair value

When compared to theindustry average discount of -1,939%, Teo Guan Lee Corporation Berhad's competitors seem to be trading at a greater premium to fair value

How far off is Teo Guan Lee Corporation Berhad (KLSE:TGL) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we'll take a look at whether the stock is fairly priced by taking the forecast future cash flows of the company and discounting them back to today's value. Our analysis will employ the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Models like these may appear beyond the comprehension of a lay person, but they're fairly easy to follow.

Companies can be valued in a lot of ways, so we would point out that a DCF is not perfect for every situation. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of the Simply Wall St analysis model.

View our latest analysis for Teo Guan Lee Corporation Berhad

The Method

We have to calculate the value of Teo Guan Lee Corporation Berhad slightly differently to other stocks because it is a specialty retail company. Instead of using free cash flows, which are hard to estimate and often not reported by analysts in this industry, dividends per share (DPS) payments are used. Unless a company pays out the majority of its FCF as a dividend, this method will typically underestimate the value of the stock. The 'Gordon Growth Model' is used, which simply assumes that dividend payments will continue to increase at a sustainable growth rate forever. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a company's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In this case we used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (3.6%). The expected dividend per share is then discounted to today's value at a cost of equity of 12%. Relative to the current share price of RM1.2, the company appears around fair value at the time of writing. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.

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Value Per Share = Expected Dividend Per Share / (Discount Rate - Perpetual Growth Rate)

= RM0.08 / (12%  3.6%)

= RM1.0

dcf

Important 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. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Teo Guan Lee Corporation Berhad as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 12%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.203. 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 Teo Guan Lee Corporation Berhad

Strength

Debt is well covered by earnings.

Dividend is in the top 25% of dividend payers in the market.

Weakness

Earnings declined over the past year.

Current share price is above our estimate of fair value.

Opportunity

TGL's financial characteristics indicate limited near-term opportunities for shareholders.

Lack of analyst coverage makes it difficult to determine TGL's earnings prospects.

Threat

Debt is not well covered by operating cash flow.

Paying a dividend but company has no free cash flows.

Moving On:

Although the valuation of a company is important, it is only one of many factors that you need to assess for a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" 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 Teo Guan Lee Corporation Berhad, we've compiled three important items you should consider:

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every Malaysian stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
That release could not be found.
The Nigeria Army has said that an internal investigation commend to authenticate the veracity behind a report of poor feeding of troops at the frontline in the North East Theatre of operations.

It was observed that report emerged on social media alleging poor feeding of troops.

Reacting, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, Director Army Public Relations, in a statement on Tuesday, said that the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja has directed immediate investigation into the complaints to ascertain its veracity and unravel the circumstances.

The NA wishes to assure the public and all NA personnel that a thorough investigation will be conducted to get to the bottom of these claims, he said.

According to the statement, the welfare of troops under the present leadership of the NA takes a premium place amongst other important schemes and considerations.

We however acknowledge that there may be isolated incidents where lapses occur, and we are determined to squarely address them. An internal investigation has already been initiated to ascertain the truth behind these allegations.

We will thoroughly examine the supply chain, the quality of food provided, and any other factors that may have contributed to this situation, he added.

He added that the Army was committed to transparency and accountability, and would not condone any form of negligence or misconduct, adding that if any culpability is detected, it would attract appropriate disciplinary action.

We also encourage NA personnel to report any grievances or concerns they may have regarding their feeding arrangements. We have established channels for feedback and will take prompt action to address any legitimate complaints.

The NA remains resolute in the fight against insurgency and other security challenges. Consequently, we will ensure that our gallant soldiers are provided with the necessary support and care they require to carry out their duties effectively.

We are committed to ensuring that our troops are well-fed, motivated, and equipped to defend our nation, the statement read.
Revealing the Beast Within: The Power of Uncompromised Psychological, Medical, Financial, and Ethical Testing in Identifying Animalistic Traits in Nigerian Police and State Security Service Officers

In the heart of Nigeria's legal battles, a stark reality emerges: the prevalence of animalistic traits among law enforcement officers within the police, State Security Service, and other agencies. It is essential to acknowledge from the onset that there are officers out there who are not driven by the personality traits of impulsiveness, uncontrollability, and inconsideration in their approach to their work. Many law enforcement officers practice level-headedness, maintain positivity, and display strong character in the course of their duties as sworn law enforcement officers and State Security Service agents.

The incidents involving lawyers Douglas Ogbankwa Esq., Aisha Bichi, and lawyer Jerry Obasi starkly illuminate the pressing need for reform within Nigeria's law enforcement agencies. These cases, tainted by aggression, impulsivity, and a stark absence of empathy, demand a thorough and holistic examination encompassing psychological profiling, personality assessments, analysis of logical and rational cognitive processes, evaluation of decision-making abilities, scrutiny of intelligence quotient, exploration of moral compass, understanding of personal dynamics, and consideration of institutional factors at play. A comprehensive investigation into these multifaceted dimensions is imperative to unravel the root causes of such behavior and institute meaningful reforms within law enforcement agencies.

The incidents involving lawyers Douglas Ogbankwa Esq., Aisha Bichi, and lawyer Jerry Obasi serve as alarming reminders of the urgent need for reform within Nigeria's law enforcement agencies. These cases, tainted by aggression, impulsivity, and a shocking lack of empathy, demand a profound and comprehensive examination of various facets. This scrutiny should delve into the intricate realms of psychological predispositions, individual personality traits, logical and rational cognitive processes, decision-making abilities, intelligence makeup, moral compass, personal dynamics, and the institutional factors that contribute to such behavior. Only through a meticulous analysis of these interconnected elements can we hope to instigate meaningful and effective reforms within the nation's law enforcement systems.

At the beginning of this year, the media reported an incident involving Aisha Bichi, the wife of Yusuf Bichi, the Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS) in Nigeria. Mrs. Bichi reportedly ordered the arrest of Abba Yusuf, the then New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) governorship candidate in Kanowho is now a former governor, after an altercation at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport. The dispute reportedly led to Mrs. Bichi's security guards beating up people and damaging vehicles, showcasing impulsive aggression.

The core of my focus lies in the harrowing experiences of two prominent lawyers, Douglas Ogbankwa Esq. and Jerry Obasi, emblematic of the unchecked aggression pervasive within law enforcement in Nigeria. Douglas Ogbankwa Esq. bravely cried out to the world revealing a horrifying tale of alleged assault, illegal detention, and life-threatening threats orchestrated by SSS operatives in Edo State. Ogbankwa's ordeal, marked by being slapped, detained, and threatened, serves as a chilling testament to the consequences of unbridled aggression within law enforcement, highlighting the urgent need for accountability and reform.

In another shocking incident in 2019, lawyer Jerry Obasi fell victim to brutal assault by police officers near his law firm in Onitsha, Anambra State. This distressing event, captured on video and widely shared on social media, lays bare the deep-rooted issues ingrained within Nigeria's law enforcement agencies. Obasi's case not only exemplifies the lack of professionalism but also showcases the excessive use of force that has become distressingly common. Such incidents underscore the imperative for comprehensive reforms, emphasizing transparency, training, and accountability within law enforcement to curb the alarming trend of unchecked aggression and uphold the principles of justice and human rights in Nigeria.

The term "animalistic traits" paints a chilling portrait of behaviors echoing the brutality and ferocity observed in the animal kingdom: a complete lack of empathy akin to the instinctual survival mode of a wild predator, a cold-blooded detachment from consequences similar to the cunning of a hunter stalking its prey, and a sadistic enjoyment in inflicting harm, mirroring the cruel dominance battles seen among dominant animals. These traits, when translated into human actions within law enforcement, manifest as a ruthless disregard for human dignity, a relentless pursuit of power and control, and an insatiable appetite for dominance over others.

Additionally, this metaphorical depiction includes an unrestrained impulsivity reminiscent of an aggressive animal launching an attack without warning, a menacing intimidation akin to a territorial animal marking its boundaries, and a predatory focus on exploiting vulnerabilities, paralleling the cunning of a skilled hunter. When these characteristics permeate law enforcement, they result in a horrifying blend of aggression, violence, and abuse of power, painting a dire picture of the challenges faced within the system.

Recognizing and understanding the depth of these savage traits is pivotal not only for acknowledging the gravity of the problem but also for inspiring urgent and comprehensive reforms. It underscores the imperative need for psychological evaluations, intensive training in empathy and de-escalation techniques, and a firm commitment to eradicating these predatory instincts within law enforcement, ensuring a safer, just, and humane society for all.

In the shadow of such malevolence, where the very essence of humanity is eclipsed by the savage inclinations of a few within law enforcement, particularly in the police force and the department of state security, African nations, Nigeria in particular, must rise as a united front, fortified by unwavering determination. Embracing an unyielding commitment to change, we must implement unrelenting evaluations and standards, unearthing and subduing the beast lurking within our law enforcement agencies.

The paramount importance of comprehensive evaluations cannot be overstated. Psychological, medical, financial, and ethical assessments, conducted by untainted psychologists and physicians unswayed by external or internal pressures, fear, bribery, or divisive influences, hold the key. Delving into the deepest recesses of an individual's psyche, rigorous psychological evaluations become a powerful tool, laying bare latent aggressive tendencies, impulsivity, and emotional volatility. Identifying these traits before the uniform is donnedbecomes not just essential but a moral imperative, a crucial step toward preventing the harrowing specter of future violence.

Simultaneously, medical assessments and rigorous physical screenings and well as detailed family background serve as the vanguard against potential eruptions of aggression. By probing for underlying conditions that might trigger violent behavior, these assessments become the proactive shield, intercepting potential acts of brutality before they manifest. Discovering and addressing these factors preemptively is not just a strategy; it is an ethical obligation, a commitment to safeguarding the very fabric of society against the horrors of unbridled violence.

In the face of such darkness, our response must be resolute and unyielding. Only by confronting the beast within, armed with unwavering determination and comprehensive evaluations, can we carve a path toward a future where the ideals of justice, empathy, and humanity prevail over the savagery that seeks to consume us.

In the relentless battle against the dark forces that pervade law enforcement, psychologists and physicians emerge as valiantchampions, steadfast advocates whose unwavering voices pierce through the ominous clouds. With profound understanding, they illuminate the treacherous pathways of the human mind, shedding light on the profound psychological and physical impact of abusive behavior. Their mission transcends mere advocacy; it is a sacred duty to awaken society to the stark realities of aggression's aftermath.

Let us remember that some of those serving come from a history of a dark referral system, where enlistment is sometimes based on 'who you know,' bribe payments, referrals from kings, queens, politicians, religious leaders, influential individuals in the community, and connections to retired public and corporate leaders who are relatives, family friends, fathers, mothers, or in-laws of the aspiring officer. These nepotistic and subjective practices enable individuals with possible inner elements of idiocy, psychopathy, monotony, and insaneness to infiltrate noble professions like law enforcement. It's crucial to emphasize that having a higher education or an appealing exterior does not necessarily guarantee psychological stability or suitability for the challenging role within law enforcement.

In the crucible of specialized training sessions, these warriors sculpt resilience from vulnerability. Stress management becomes a potent shield, forged through techniques that fortify the mind against the pressures that threaten to crush it. Anger management counseling becomes the crucible where fury is tempered into resolve, transforming potential eruptions into steely determination. Empathy, the beacon of humanity, is not just cultivated but nurtured into a force powerful enough to eclipse the darkest instincts.

Even in the realm of medication maintenance, a subtle yet formidable arsenal emerges. Psychotropic medications, administered with precision, become the ethereal keys that unlock the labyrinth of the mind, restoring balance where chaos once reigned. These medications are not mere prescriptions; they are the elixirs of stability, allowing officers to navigate the stormy seas of their own thoughts, ensuring that they emerge unscathed and uncorrupted.

Armed with these multifaceted tools, law enforcement officers stand tall on the precipice of high-pressure situations, unyielding against the temptation of aggression. They are not just officers; they are sentinels of peace, forged and refined by the expertise of psychologists and physicians. Through their guidance, a new breed of law enforcers emerges, warriors of the mind and soul, resolute in their commitment to protect and to serve with unwavering compassion.

In the unyielding pursuit of a just and compassionate society, there exists a grim acknowledgment: there are individuals whose darkness resists the illuminating touch of therapy and training. For these active, violent, and abusive officers, no amount of psychological or medical intervention can salvage their humanity from the abyss they willingly plunge into.

In the face of such irredeemable souls, there can be no compromise. Letting them go, severing the malignant thread they represent, becomes an imperative act of self-preservation for society. Their departure is not just a removal; it is an exorcism, a necessary purging of the poison that threatens to contaminate the very essence of law enforcement.

This decision, albeit severe, is not an act of abandonment; it is a statement of collective resolve. It signifies that society, in its quest for safety and justice, will not tolerate the presence of those who betray the sacred trust bestowed upon them. It is a testament to the uncompromising commitment to protect the vulnerable, even if it means casting out those who were once entrusted with this noble duty.

In their departure, there lies a glimmer of hope: the hope for renewal, for the birth of a law enforcement system where the beasts within are tamed, and where the guardians of peace truly embody the ideals of empathy, integrity, and unwavering commitment to the greater good.

In the shadows of our society, abusive officers often find shelter within the indifference of their own organizations. The very institutions designed to uphold justice might, at times, turn a blind eye, fostering an environment where brutality thrives unchecked. To curb these animalistic acts, to quell the brutality that stains our streets, a powerful step must be taken: their names must echo beyond borders, reaching the ears of international governments.

The harrowing incidents demand more than localized solutions; they beckon for a global response. It is incumbent upon nations to unite, to rise with unwavering resolve and assert their moral authority. By banning those tainted with human rights abuses, by imposing sanctions and international bans, the world can send a resounding message.

In marking these abusive officers on an international scale, we build a fortress of accountability. No longer can they hide behind the veil of organizational apathy. Their actions, their brutality, are laid bare for the world to see. This exposure becomes a shield for the vulnerable, a warning to those who might succumb to the darkness within.

The global unity against brutality isn't just symbolic; it reflects our shared humanity. It transcends borders, signifying a collective stand for empathy and justice. International governments, through this action, pave the way for a new era, banishing the beasts within law enforcement. This ensures a safer, more just world for all.

Furthermore, recognizing the gravity of these human rights abuses, nations must not allow these abusive officers solace under the guise of overseas training. To truly eradicate the roots of this brutality, other nations must not reward these human rights abuses. They must take a firm stand, refusing entry to those marred by violence, ensuring that such individuals find no sanctuary abroad. This global collaboration, this shared commitment, will act as a formidable barrier against the spread of animalistic traits in law enforcement, creating a world where justice and compassion prevail over brutality.

In the face of the menacing shadow cast by animalistic law enforcement officers, it is not enough to simply acknowledge the issue; we must confront it head-on with unwavering determination. The path to transformation requires a multifaceted approach, embracing both preventative measures and decisive actions to curb the rampant brutality and injustice.

Communities must stand as vigilant guardians, their collective voice a powerful tool against tyranny. Encourage grassroots movements to actively engage with law enforcement agencies, advocating for transparent evaluations, stringent standards, and humane practices. Petitions should circulate, gathering the strength of public outcry to demand justice for victims and accountability from abusive officers.

Abused individuals and communities should be empowered to seek justice through legal avenues. Human rights lawyers and legal advocates can champion their cause within the legal system, ensuring that the perpetrators face the consequences of their actions. Civil society organizations must support these legal battles, offering resources, expertise, and protection to the victims.

A potent message must echo across international borders. Advocate for targeted economic sanctions, freezing the assets of individuals responsible for human rights violations. Nations must leverage international human rights laws and conventions, utilizing them as potent instruments for legal action, even in the face of weak domestic legal systems. The names of these perpetrators should be known globally, preventing them from finding refuge overseas.

Education becomes a beacon of hope in the fight against oppression. Promote awareness within affected communities, educating them about their rights, avenues for seeking help, and the power of non-violent resistance. Knowledge empowers individuals, enabling them to stand resilient against the forces of injustice.

Collaborate with global legal experts and human rights advocates, drawing upon international expertise for insights and strategies to hold perpetrators accountable. International bodies must conduct thorough fact-finding missions, collecting irrefutable evidence of human rights abuses. This evidence becomes a formidable weapon, applying unrelenting pressure on the perpetrators.

Simultaneously, transformative measures must be embraced within law enforcement agencies. Transparent evaluations, compassionate training, community engagement, and policy reform are essential steps. Rigorous psychological evaluations, stringent medical assessments, and physical fitness screenings should be mandatory. Those displaying violent tendencies, despite therapy and training, must not remain within the force; they must be held accountable and removed to prevent further harm.

This moment is pivotal, urging every African citizen to unite, advocate, and resist. It marks the birth of a future where aggression is met with unwavering resistance, and justice and empathy triumph over brutality.

In the face of the menacing shadow cast by animalistic law enforcement officers, it is not enough to simply acknowledge the issue; we must confront it head-on with unwavering determination. The path to transformation requires a multifaceted approach, embracing both preventative measures and decisive actions to curb the rampant brutality and injustice.

Communities must stand as vigilant guardians, their collective voice a powerful tool against tyranny. Encourage grassroots movements to actively engage with law enforcement agencies, advocating for transparent evaluations, stringent standards, and humane practices. Petitions should circulate, gathering the strength of public outcry to demand justice for victims and accountability from abusive officers.

Empower abused individuals and communities to seek justice through legal avenues. Human rights lawyers and advocates champion their cause, ensuring perpetrators face consequences. Civil society organizations must support, offering resources and protection.

Advocate for economic sanctions, freezing assets of human rights violators. Use international laws for legal action, even in weak legal systems. Publicize perpetrators globally, preventing refuge abroad. Encourage ethical standards in businesses, rejecting involvement in abuses.

Education becomes a beacon of hope in the fight against oppression. Promote awareness within affected communities, educating them about their rights, avenues for seeking help, and the power of non-violent resistance. Knowledge empowers individuals, enabling them to stand resilient against the forces of injustice.

Collaborate with global legal experts and human rights advocates, drawing upon international expertise for insights and strategies to hold perpetrators accountable. International bodies must conduct thorough fact-finding missions, collecting irrefutable evidence of human rights abuses. This evidence becomes a formidable weapon, applying unrelenting pressure on the perpetrators.

Simultaneously, transformative measures must be embraced within law enforcement agencies. Transparent evaluations, compassionate training, community engagement, and policy reform are essential steps. Rigorous psychological, integrity and ethical evaluations, stringent medical assessments, and physical fitness screenings should be mandatory. Those displaying violent tendencies, despite therapy and training, must not remain within the force; they must be held accountable and removed to prevent further harm.

In the pursuit of justice and accountability, it is imperative to foster an environment where constructive criticism is not only welcomed but also acted upon by law enforcement, police, and security agencies. The prevailing habit of deploying compromised or paid reporters and public commentators to retaliate against those advocating for positive change only exacerbates the existing challenges. Instead, these agencies must encourage a culture of open dialogue, where well-intentioned critique is met with thoughtful reflection and proactive measures.

Responsible journalism illuminates critical issues, fostering informed discourse and driving essential reforms, particularly in Nigeria. It is imperative for law enforcement and state security service agencies in Nigeria to embrace constructive criticism, taking prompt corrective actions to ensure transparent and just operations. This openness not only rebuilds trust but also strengthens community bonds, paving the way for a safer and fairer society in Nigeria especially.

This pivotal moment signifies more than just a fleeting instance; it embodies a transformative movement where humanity in Nigeria unites against brutality. Every Nigerian citizen is called upon to unite, advocate, and resist. This movement heralds a future where unwavering resistance meets aggression, where justice and empathy prevail, shielding every Nigerian soul from the clutches of the beast within.

The integrity of judges in these proceedings is paramount. Judges who uphold the principles of fairness, impartiality, and justice contribute significantly to the restoration of faith in the legal system. Upholding the law without fear or favor, these judges ensure that the guilty are held accountable and the innocent are protected. Judicial accountability boards must rigorously assess the conduct of judges, ensuring that they remain steadfast in their commitment to justice.

Court decisions in cases involving animalistic law enforcement officers should establish crucial legal precedents. These precedents serve as a guide for future cases, shaping the expectations of both law enforcement personnel and the public. A consistent pattern of stringent legal consequences sends a powerful message: the law will not tolerate brutality, and perpetrators will be held accountable.

In cases where restitution is appropriate, offenders can be required to compensate victims for medical expenses, therapy, lost income, and other damages incurred due to their actions.

By empowering the judicial system, with dedicated judges ensuring rightful consequences for violent officers, society can pave a path to a future where justice prevails, humanity triumphs, and the ideals of peace and fairness brightly illuminate every corner of our beloved Africa, with a special focus on Nigeria.

Professor John Egbeazien Oshodi, who was born in Uromi, Edo State, Nigeria, to a father who served in the Nigeria police for 37 years, is an American-based police and prison scientist and forensic, clinical, and legal psychologist. A government consultant on matters of forensic-clinical psychological services in the USA; and a former interim associate dean and assistant professor at Broward College, Florida. The Founder of the Dr. John Egbeazien Oshodi Foundation, Center for Psychological Health and Behavioral Change in African Settings. In 2011, he introduced state-of-the-art forensic psychology into Nigeria through N.U.C. and Nasarawa State University, where he served in the Department of Psychology as an Associate Professor. He has taught at various universities and colleges including Florida memorial University, Florida International University, Broward college, Lynn University, and a contributing faculty member at the Weldios university in Benin Republic, Nexus International University, Uganda, Nova Southeastern University and Walden University in USA.
Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, has commended the Abdul Samad Rabiu Initiative, Africa Fund for Social Development and Renewal (ASR) for ongoing construction of 3000-seater amphitheatre at the University of Ilorin.

The governor who took to his official X handle, also announced that the foundation-laying ceremony of the N2.5bn oncology centre donated by ASR-Africa to the Kwara State Government would be done next week.

Governor Abdulrazaq described ASR- africa, BUA Group, and Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabius Corporate Social Responsibility as huge gestures to the state which clearly set him apart as a great supporter of human capital development in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

Earlier, the management of Unilorin, in a tweet on its official page, extended gratitude to the ASR, saying: Big shoutout to @AsRafrica for their incredible support in the ongoing construction of a state-of-the-art 3000-seater amphitheatre worth One Billion Naira for our university! Your commitment to education and community development is truly inspiring.

Quoting the tweet, the Kwara State Governor said; I join the @unilorinNGR to commend @AsRafrica for its huge support for the construction of the ongoing 3000-seater amphitheatre valued at N1bn at the university. This is typical of the @BUAGroup conglomerate founded and led by my brother, Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu.

I am excited to also announce that the foundation-laying ceremony of the N2.5bn oncology centre that @AsRafrica donated to

@followkwsg will be done next week.

We cannot thank @AsRafrica, @BUAGroup, and Alhaji Rabiu enough for these huge CSR gestures that clearly set it apart as a great supporter of human capital development in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. We are truly grateful.
Key Insights

Using the Dividend Discount Model, Mission Group fair value estimate is UK0.44

Current share price of UK0.37 suggests Mission Group is potentially trading close to its fair value

Industry average discount to fair value of 48% suggests Mission Group's peers are currently trading at a higher discount

Today we will run through one way of estimating the intrinsic value of The Mission Group plc (LON:TMG) by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. We will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model on this occasion. Models like these may appear beyond the comprehension of a lay person, but they're fairly easy to follow.

Remember though, that there are many ways to estimate a company's value, and a DCF is just one method. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in the Simply Wall St analysis model.

View our latest analysis for Mission Group

Crunching The Numbers

As Mission Group operates in the media sector, we need to calculate the intrinsic value slightly differently. In this approach dividends per share (DPS) are used, as free cash flow is difficult to estimate and often not reported by analysts. Unless a company pays out the majority of its FCF as a dividend, this method will typically underestimate the value of the stock. The 'Gordon Growth Model' is used, which simply assumes that dividend payments will continue to increase at a sustainable growth rate forever. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a company's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In this case we used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (1.4%). The expected dividend per share is then discounted to today's value at a cost of equity of 8.0%. Compared to the current share price of UK0.4, 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.

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Value Per Share = Expected Dividend Per Share / (Discount Rate - Perpetual Growth Rate)

= UK0.03 / (8.0%  1.4%)

= UK0.4

dcf

Important Assumptions

Now 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 Mission Group as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 8.0%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.128. 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 Mission Group

Strength

Debt is well covered by earnings.

Dividend is in the top 25% of dividend payers in the market.

Weakness

No major weaknesses identified for TMG.

Opportunity

Expected to breakeven next year.

Has sufficient cash runway for more than 3 years based on current free cash flows.

Good value based on P/S ratio and estimated fair value.

Threat

Debt is not well covered by operating cash flow.

Paying a dividend but company is unprofitable.

Moving On:

Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it shouldn't be the only metric you look at when researching 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. For instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. For Mission Group, we've compiled three fundamental items you should look at:

Risks: For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for Mission Group (1 is a bit unpleasant!) that you should be aware of before investing here. Future Earnings: How does TMG's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered!

PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every British stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Phuket overstay checks continue

PHUKET: Thirteen people were arrested and charged by immigration officers in Phuket in the past month, according to the Phuket Overstay Report released by Phuket Immigration yesterday (Oct 2)

immigrationtourism

By The Phuket News

Tuesday 3 October 2023 10:54 AM

Specifically, 13 people were arrested for offences under the Immigration Act.

Seven foreigners were arrested for overstay during the period Sept 1-30, said the report, one of four reports released by Phuket Immigration yesterday.

One person was charged for not complying with the 90-day reporting requirement under Section 37(5) of the Immigration Act, while two home owners or managers of residences were charged under Section 38 of the act for not reporting foreigners staying at their venues.

Two foreigners were arrested for robbery, and one foreigner was arrested on an outstanding warrant, the report said. No details of the three arrests were given.

Phuket Immigration had identified 228 targets: 77 in Chalong, 38 in Patong, 26 in Phuket Town, 25 in Wichit, 15 in Cherng Talay, 13 in Kathu, 12 in Kamala, 10 in Thalang, seven in Karon, four in Sakhu and one in Tha Chatchai.

Immigration checked 375 aliens during the period, with the top five countries of origin given as: Russia (128), China (28), United Kingdom (23), Myanmar (20) and Canada (18).

In total, nine Yellow Cards were issued during September. Seven of those were to foreigners: two Brits, two Myanmar nationals and one Russian. The remaining two Yellow Cards were not attributed to any particular nationality.

According to the Arrivals By Air report for September, 40,210 Russians arrived directly in Phuket during the month, followed by 37,343 Chinese nationals, 21,108 Australians, 18,990 Indian nationals and 13,086 Malaysians.

During the month, a total of 242,780 foreigners arrived in Phuket by air, with 288,528 foreigners having their place of stay recorded with Immigration.

In total, 22,349 foreigners arrived in Phuket by sea, as follows: Singapore nationals 7,838, Malaysia 5,035, Indonesia 2,081, India 1,279 and Philippines 1,267.

Five cruise liners visited Phuket during the past month, along with 30 private yachts and 15 cargo vessels, but zero fishing boats, said the reports.
Phuket welcomes Chinese for Golden Week

PHUKET: Phuket officials have started their campaign to welcome Chinese visitors for the Golden Week, with the hopes the Chinese national holidays will help bring a much-welcomed boost to the islands tourism industry.

tourismChineseeconomics

By The Phuket News

Tuesday 3 October 2023 06:06 PM

The events began with Phuket Vice Governor Amnuay Pinsuwan leading an event to mark Chinese National Day at the Royal Phuket City Hotel in Phuket Town on Sunday night (Oct 1), the first day of the Golden Week holidays.

The event celebrated the 74th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China and the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Phuket Thai-Chinese Association, chaired by former Phuket senator Tunyaratt Achariyachai.

Present for the occasion were representatives from the Consulate-General of the Peoples Republic of China in Songkhla.

As outgoing President of the Phuket Thai-Chinese Association, Ms Tunyaratt passed the presidency to newly elected President, Uaychai Ongwimonkarn.

We will cooperate with all friends. Promote the development of Lets work together with all sectors of Phuket to create a bright future for the two countries. Let China and Thailand be prosperous. There is a strong China-Thailand friendship that will last forever, Mr Uaychai said.

Phuket International airport General Manager Monchai Tanode was on hand in person yesterday (Oct 2) to welcome the first visitors to arrive from China for the Golden week holidays, with 109 Chinese passengers arriving on Air China flight CA717 direct flight from Hangzhou touching down at 2pm.

Thailand is poised for a tourism revival with the launch of a new visa exemption program targeting Chinese tourists, reports state news agency NNT.

The governments ambitious plan aims to attract 2.9 million Chinese arrivals and generate a staggering B140 billion in tourism revenue over five months. This move is seen as a critical step in shoring up the nations economic recovery, the agency noted.

The visa-free scheme, which came into effect on Sept 25 and also extended to Kazakhstan nationals, has already shown promising signs, with more than 22,000 Chinese travelers entering Thailand within the first two days of the visa waiver.

According to Phuket Immigration, 37,343 Chinese nationals arrived in Thailand through Phuket airport from Sept 1-30, second only to 40,210 Russians who arrived directly in Phuket during the month. A total of 242,780 foreigners arrived in Phuket by air last month, Phuket Immigration reported.

Chai Wacharonke, government spokesman, emphasised that the program is expected to contribute significantly to the countrys tourism revenue, projected at B140.3bn.

Thailands decision to waive visas for Chinese tourists is seen as a catalyst to rekindle the interest of Chinese travelers, who were the largest visitor group before the pandemic hit. The visa exemptions for Chinese and Kazakh tourists form part of the governments comprehensive strategy to expedite economic recovery, NNT reported.

Meanwhile, Thai Airways International has reported that flights from China have been moire than 90% full after the visa-free scheme came into effect, reports Bloomberg.

We have seen significant growth in terms of Chinese traffic into Thailand,the carriers Chief Commercial Officer Korakot Chatasingha told Bloomberg Television on Monday.

The government is banking on Chinese visitors to lead a spending recovery as policy tweaks and new airport infrastructure bolster the tourism-dependent nation. Bangkoks busiest airport just last week opened a new terminal, Bloomberg noted.

Thai Airways, which is going through a debt restructuring after Covid, said last month it plans to increase its flights to five Chinese cities to 56 a week, up from 49, starting Dec 1, Bloomberg also noted in its report.
Srettha urges arms deals delay

BANGKOK: Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has asked the armed forces to delay their arms procurement plans for the 2024 fiscal year so the government can spend its budget to help those who are most in need, sources said.

militaryeconomics

By Bangkok Post

Tuesday 3 October 2023 09:18 AM

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin presides over the opening of a seminar on planning the national annual expenditure budget attended by senior representatives of state agencies and enterprises at the Impact Muang Thong Thani yesterday (Oct 2). Photo: Pattarapong Chatpattarasill

The sources told the Bangkok Post yesterday (Oct 2) that Mr Srettha has instructed Defence Minister Sutin Klunsang and the PMs secretary-general, Prommin Lertsuridej, to hold talks with leaders of the armed forces to ask them to defer their arms procurements for the 2024 fiscal year for the time being.

The PM wants the budget to be spent on urgent efforts to help the people. Budgets that have already been approved will remain unchanged, the sources said.

The newly appointed Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) commander, ACM Phanphakdee Phatthanakul, confirmed that the government had asked the armed forces to prioritise efforts to deal with natural disasters such as flooding, forest fires and haze problems.

ACM Phanphakdee also rejected a report which said the RTAF was planning to buy three Gripen jet fighters from Sweden to add to its fleet in Wing 7 in Surat Thani, after the United States refused to sell its F-35A fighter jets.

The air force had bought a fleet of 12 Gripen fighters but lost one in a crash, a RTAF source said, adding that each Gripen fighter aircraft costs around B2 billion.

ACM Phanphakdee said that the RTAF will not seek to procure jet fighters in the 2024 fiscal year due to the countrys economic situation.

However, the RTAF will consider procuring new jet fighters in the 2025 fiscal year, he said, adding that a working panel will be set up to consider the matter.

Whether the jet fighters [which will be procured in the 2025 fiscal year] will be Gripen or F-16 is still not known, he said.

ACM Phanphakdee said that the RTAF needs to eventually buy new jet fighters to replace its ageing fleet of F-16 fighters, based at Wing 1 in Nakhon Ratchasima, which will be gradually decommissioned between 2028 and 2031.

The RTAF will present the procurement plan in the 2025 fiscal year and will ensure taxpayers money will be spent in the countrys best interests and for the sake of national defence, the RTAF commander said.

He went on to say that the RTAF is planning to retrofit its BT-67 utility aircraft with a water tank so it could be used to combat forest fires and drought during the dry season.

He added that he is ready to explain the RTAFs budget spending to the House committee that will scrutinise the 2024 budget bill.

ACM Phanphakdee said the prime minister has also emphasised that if the armed forces were to buy any military equipment from any country, they must convince those countries to buy Thai-made products as part of the deal.

Akkaradet Wongpitakrote, a United Thai Nation (UTN) Party MP for Ratchaburi who sat on a House committee vetting budget bills for the 2020-2023 fiscal years, on Monday praised ACM Phanphakdee for his willingness to comply with the governments policy.

The government wants to spend its budget to look after the people as the country is faced with multiple problems, chief of which are economic hardships involving bread-and-butter issues affecting peoples daily life, said Mr Akkaradet, who is also the spokesman for the UTN.

He noted that the budget for the 2024 fiscal year was prepared by the previous administration, so when the new government took office, it had to manage the 2024 fiscal budget in a way that suited its policies.

However, the new government can prepare the budget for the 2025 fiscal year as it sees fit, Mr Akkaradet said.

The RTAFs decision should serve as an example for the army and the navy, he said, adding it would be best if the army and the navy follow suit.

He added each year, the armed forces are given a significant budget by the government. The RTAFs decision to cut down on its spending or delay its procurement projects is commendable, he said.
Long-established in the Travel & Leisure industry, Carnival Corp (NYSE:CCL) has enjoyed a stellar reputation. However, it has recently witnessed a daily loss of 6.49%, juxtaposed with a three-month change of -32.54%. Fresh insights from the GF Score hint at potential headwinds. Notably, its diminished rankings in financial strength, growth, and valuation suggest that the company might not live up to its historical performance. Join us as we dive deep into these pivotal metrics to unravel the evolving narrative of Carnival Corp.

Is Carnival Corp (CCL) Set to Underperform? Analyzing the Factors Limiting Growth

Understanding the GF Score

The GF Score is a stock performance ranking system developed by GuruFocus using five aspects of valuation, which has been found to be closely correlated to the long-term performances of stocks by backtesting from 2006 to 2021. The stocks with a higher GF Score generally generate higher returns than those with a lower GF Score. Therefore, when picking stocks, investors should invest in companies with high GF Scores. The GF Score ranges from 0 to 100, with 100 as the highest rank.

Based on the above method, GuruFocus assigned Carnival Corp the GF Score of 64 out of 100, which signals poor future outperformance potential.

Understanding Carnival Corp's Business

Carnival Corp, with a market cap of $16.66 billion, is the largest global cruise company, boasting 90 ships in service at the end of fiscal 2022. Its portfolio of brands includes Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America, Princess Cruises, and Seabourn in North America; P&O Cruises and Cunard Line in the United Kingdom; Aida in Germany; Costa Cruises in Southern Europe; and P&O Cruises in Australia. Carnival also owns Holland America Princess Alaska Tours in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Prior to COVID-19, Carnival's brands attracted about 13 million guests in 2019, a level it should breach again in 2023.

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Is Carnival Corp (CCL) Set to Underperform? Analyzing the Factors Limiting Growth

Financial Strength Breakdown

Carnival Corp's financial strength indicators present some concerning insights about the company's balance sheet health. The company's interest coverage ratio of 0.21 positions it worse than 96.64% of 565 companies in the Travel & Leisure industry. This ratio highlights potential challenges the company might face when handling its interest expenses on outstanding debt. It's worth noting that the esteemed investor Benjamin Graham typically favored companies with an interest coverage ratio of at least five.

The company's Altman Z-Score is just 0.53, which is below the distress zone of 1.81. This suggests that the company may face financial distress over the next few years. Additionally, the company's low cash-to-debt ratio at 0.09 indicates a struggle in handling existing debt levels.

The company's debt-to-equity ratio is 4.69, which is worse than 92.76% of 663 companies in the Travel & Leisure industry. A high debt-to-equity ratio suggests over-reliance on borrowing and vulnerability to market fluctuations. Additionally, the company's debt-to-Ebitda ratio is 11.8, which is above Joel Tillinghast's warning level of 4 and is worse than 86.4% of 581 companies in the Travel & Leisure industry. Tillinghast said in his book Big Money Think's Small: Biases, Blind Spots, and Smarter Investing that a high debt-to-Ebitda ratio can be a red flag unless tangible assets cover the debt.

Growth Prospects

A lack of significant growth is another area where Carnival Corp seems to falter, as evidenced by the company's low Growth rank. The company's revenue has declined by -30 per year over the past three years, which underperforms worse than 88.9% of 757 companies in the Travel & Leisure industry. Stagnating revenues may pose concerns in a fast-evolving market. Lastly, Carnival Corp predictability rank is just one star out of five, adding to investor uncertainty regarding revenue and earnings consistency.

Is Carnival Corp (CCL) Set to Underperform? Analyzing the Factors Limiting Growth

Conclusion

Given the company's financial strength, profitability, and growth metrics, the GF Score highlights the firm's unparalleled position for potential underperformance. While Carnival Corp has a rich history and a diverse portfolio, its financial indicators suggest a challenging road ahead. Investors should consider these factors when making investment decisions.

GuruFocus Premium members can find more companies with strong GF Scores using the following screener link: GF Score Screen

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Its a trip. I came down here with him every once in a while, hung out at the house he grew up in. Hung out with his mom, hung out with his dad. Hung out with his brother and sister.
ICFAI student receives Presidential Award

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AGARTALA, Oct 3: Ali Debnath, 2nd year MBA student of the ICFAI University Tripura has received Presidential Award on September 29, 2023.

President of India Droupadi Murmu conferred the prestigious National Service Scheme (NSS) Awards for outstanding NSS Volunteers of the State of Tripura, said a statement by the varsity.

Ali Debnath of the ICFAI University Tripura and Subrata Saha of Ramthakur College are the two volunteers of the State of Tripura received this prestigious award for outstanding contribution and benedictory works from the honourable President of India on September 29 at Dar-bar Hall of the Rastrapati Bhavan, New Delhi in a glittering ceremony. It is worth noting that the prestigious National Award carries a cash prize of rupees One Lakh along with a Certificate, Memento and a huge luxurious arrangement to enjoy the blissful achievement.
Will the world leaders walk the talk to end TB at UN Level ?

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Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant

Leaders of all the UN member countries convened on 22nd September 2023 at the second United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB (the first one was held in September 2018). The theme of this year's UNHLM is: Advancing science, finance and innovation, and their benefits, to urgently end the global TB epidemic, in particular by ensuring equitable access to prevention, testing, treatment and care.

The theme of the upcoming UNHLM is on spot. But will it turbocharge the fight against TB? One wonders that so far, to what extent the governments have advanced science, finance, and innovation, and ensured equitable access to prevention, testing, treatment, and care?

TB is preventable. Yet it was not for over 10.6 million people who got infected with TB in 2021. TB is curable. But it was not for over 1.6 million people who died of TB in the same year.

Science has gifted us new tools to prevent TB, diagnose TB early and accurately, and treat TB. But are we using these new tools optimally, especially in high TB burden countries, so that we get to zero new TB cases; timely and accurately diagnose 100% of the people with TB; and successfully treat and cure them?

In 2021, only 61% of people with TB were diagnosed and put on treatment. The UN health agency, the World Health Organization (WHO), recommends using molecular tests for diagnosing drug senstivie TB and rifampicin-resistance upfront, but only 38% of people with TB were diagnosed using molecular testing between 2018 and 2021. A whopping 62% of people with TB were instead diagnosed using the 140 years-old sputum smear microscopy which underperforms in TB diagnosis. In India, which is home to the highest number of people with TB globally, only 23% of people got a molecular test in 2022. The most used molecular test in India is Truenat, which is the only point-of-care and decentralised molecular test recommended by the WHO and is made in India by Molbio Diagnostics.

Unless we completely and quickly replace the old diagnostic tools, like smear microscopy, with WHO recommended molecular tests, we will not be able to: 1) diagnose everyone with TB, 2) prevent avoidable human suffering and avert untimely deaths, and 2) break the chain of infection transmission.

The same goes for treatment regimens being used to prevent and treat TB. The one-month long treatment to prevent TB (TPT), the four-month regimen to treat drug-sensitive TB, and the six-month regimen to treat drug-resistant TB are yet to become a reality for a majority of the people with TB worldwide.

In addition, countries are also lagging way behind in addressing the top-5 TB risk factors: malnutrition, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, diabetes, and HIV; as well as in rolling out TB preventive therapy to those with latent TB and at higher risk of progressing to active disease.

High time we adjust the sails!

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails, had said William Arthur Ward. The optimism to end TB by 2030 alone is not enough unless it is matched with action.

Translate scientific achievements into public health impact

Sriram Natarajan, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Molbio Diagnostics (that makes Truenat molecular test) reminds us that while important TB-related commitments were made by the world leaders at the first-ever UNHLM on TB held in 2018, it did not end with a powerful-enough political declaration.

"TB can be eliminated because effective TB diagnostic tools, new treatment regimens, and evidence-based approaches that have shown to work, are already there. New tools to fight TB may come soon too. But unless we fully implement the tools with an action plan on the ground, it is not going to happen. And that needs money. World leaders need to follow upon their commitment to end TB with full financing, added Natarajan.

Eliminate the TB funding gap first

Every US$ 1 invested in TB yields benefits of US$ 46. Still financial crunch ails the fight against TB in many high TB burden nations.

In Ghanas national strategy plan, we have a gap of US$ 20 million every year. This is a huge gap. We need this money to do more molecular testing for TB, TB screening by using digital X-rays, and implement better technologies. If we get resources to fill the funding gap in Ghana, then 85% of them will be invested in diagnostics and 15% in programmatic interventions to strengthen the national TB response, said Dr Yaw Adusi-Poku, Programme Manager, National TB Control, Ghana Health Services.

TB responses should match the urgency and purpose which leaders had demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. I would like to see world leaders from high income countries to share resources needed to eliminate this curable and preventable disease. I want world leaders from high TB burden countries to optimise utilisation of their resources through equity development and convincing domestic co-financing that is sustainable, said Dr Nguyen Binh Hoa, Vice Manager of Vietnam National TB Programme and Vice Director of National Lung Hospital.

Agrees Dr Louine Morel, Medical Registrar, Communicable Disease unit, Ministry of Health of Seychelles - which has the lowest TB rates in Africa. She too calls for fully funding the TB response.

TB is a social disease, so it warrants a socially just response

(To be contd)


BYD is widely expected to surpass Tesla in battery-only car sales later this year - BYD

Elon Musks Tesla is on the verge of losing its crown as the worlds biggest electric carmaker after the Chinese giant BYD came within touching distance of its US rival.

BYD, whose founder Wang Chuanfu has pledged to demolish established Western carmakers, sold 431,603 vehicles in the third quarter of the year, just 3,456 fewer than Teslas 435,059.

The Chinese company has embarked on a global push outside of its home country, selling its first cars in the UK and growing sales in Europe.

Massive state support and Chinas dominance in battery production means the company has been able to undercut European and American companies that have been slow to move to electric cars.

BYDs sales rose 23pc from the second quarter, while Teslas fell by 7pc as the impact of price cuts and subsidies from the Biden administration wore off.

The companys total sales, which include plug-in hybrids, surpassed Tesla last year. It is widely expected to surpass Mr Musks company in battery-only cars later this year.

In a speech in August, Mr Wang urged fellow companies to demolish the old legends and achieve new world-class brands and declared that the time has come for Chinese brands.

BYD, which is backed by Warren Buffett and stands for build your dreams, has historically targeted more cost-conscious consumers in China but has expanded abroad amid a slowing domestic economy. It launched its first British car, the 36,490 Atto 3 SUV, in March.

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Last month, the European Union launched an investigation into Chinese state subsidies for electric vehicles, saying their prices are being kept artificially low. The inquiry could mean tariffs on imports being raised above their current 10pc in a bid to prevent dumping.

Teslas third-quarter delivery numbers, released on Monday, were well below analyst forecasts and were the first quarterly fall in more than a year.

The company blamed slower manufacturing at its factories as it overhauls its Model 3, but said it was not changing its target of making 1.8m cars this year. The company has repeatedly cut prices this year, particularly in China, in an attempt to maintain its lead over rivals.

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On Monday, Tesla introduced a cheaper version of its bestselling Model Y in the US, which costs $43,990 (36,403), a $3,750 discount on its previous cheapest model.

Chinese rival Nio also hit record sales in the third quarter, selling 55,432 vehicles.

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.
At least 22 wards in eight boroughs of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation are under additional monitoring by the civic body after an increased number of dengue cases were reported from them. As informed by the mayor of KMC, Firhad Hakim, last week, the city recorded around 4,779 reported cases of dengue until 29 September.

According to sources in the KMC, in the north zone including boroughs I-VII, more cases have been reported from three wards. Wards 4 and 6 in borough number I and Ward 14 in borough number III are under increased monitoring by the civic body.

On the contrary, like in previous years, the south zone of the municipal corporation has become a cause for concern for the civic body. Of the remaining 19 wards, all are in the south zone in boroughs VIII, IX, X, XII, XIII, and XIV. As informed by sources in the KMC, ward numbers 68, 85, and 90 in borough VIII, ward numbers 73 and 74 in borough IX, ward numbers 93, 94, 95, 96, and 97 in borough X, ward numbers 102, 107, and 108 in borough XII, ward numbers 116, 117, and 118 in borough XIII, and ward numbers 121, 129, and 131 in borough XIV of the KMC are being watched for their rising number of reported dengue cases.

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Of the eight boroughs, borough number X, with five wards having more reported dengue cases than others, is under the enhanced monitoring of the authorities of the civic body. Interestingly, boroughs XV and XVI are not part of the KMCs north or south zones. The reason, as pointed out by official sources in the KMC, is that they do not contribute more than one percent of the total reported cases of dengue in the city
The police in seven districts have been asked to make people who live in the low-lying areas aware of the possible heavy rain and evacuate them to safer places if required. The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by the state chief secretary, HK Dwivedi, at Nabanna this afternoon.

The principal secretary of the irrigation and waterways department, the principal secretary of the disaster management department, and ADG (law and order) were present in the meeting. The district magistrates of seven districts, along with the superintendents of police and commissioners of police, were present virtually. These districts are West Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum, East Burdwan, West Midnapore, Hooghly and Howrah.

There is a high possibility of flooding in these seven districts due to the continuing and predicted high rainfall in upper catchment areas in Jharkhand. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had been directed to hold the meeting today. Mr Dwivedi informed that the India Meteorological Department has predicted rainfall to continue until 5 October, with heavy rainfall predicted tomorrow. Rainfall in Jharkhand was measured at more than 50 mm in the upper catchment area today. Inflow into Maithon Dam is currently 60,000 cusecs, and at Panchet Dam, it is 73,000 cusecs.

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The release from the dams downstream was made at 1,00,000 cusecs from 9 a.m. onwards today. The state irrigation and waterways department will be in touch with the DVC and Jharkhand authorities and keep a close watch over the situation. The district administration of the districts likely to be affected has been instructed to keep a close tab on the situation, particularly the areas affected by water logging, and identify the flood-prone areas.

Adequate relief materials are to be reserved along with flood-fighting materials, including sand bags. Integrated command centres are to be kept operational in districts. A five-hourly report by the districts will be shared with Disaster Management 247, and control rooms will be informed on rainfall, river water levels, embankment breaches and evacuations, if any
The Delhi Police raided many places linked to NewsClick  a digital news outlet, on Tuesday, in connection with a UAPA case filed against it. Later in the evening, at around 8pm, the police said they have arrested journalists Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty in connection with a UAPA case filed with the special cell.

Earlier on Tuesday, journalists associated with the organization were taken to the Delhi Polices special cell station for questioning where their electronic gadgets, including laptops and mobile phones, were screened.

A total of 37 male suspects and nine female suspects have been questioned at their respective places of stay, while digital devices, documents have been seized for examination in this regard, the police said, adding that further probe was underway in the matter.

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Searches were held at around 37 places in the city in connection with the case, a source said.

According to sources, the raids are underway, and are related to the case registered on August 17 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the IPC.

Delhi Polices special cell also sealed NewsClicks Delhi office.

Many scribes were also seen exiting the police station post questioning in the evening.

The Union I&B minister, Anurag Thakur, while talking to reporters in Odisha, said, I dont have detailed information (about the searches conducted by the police). If the investigation agency has taken any action, basically it is being done based on evidence.

Meanwhile, leaders cutting across party lines as well as media bodies hit out at the ruling dispensation over the action against NewsClick.

A lawyer representing one of the journalists rued that he was not allowed to meet his client and alleged that no prior intimation was given regarding the police questioning.

Senior members from opposition parties took to X and criticized the government on the matter.

Congress MP Sashi Tharoor said: Shocked to learn of the raids on 30 journalists in Delhi and arrests of several of them. These are not the actions of a mother of democracy but of an insecure and autocratic state.

Echoing similar sentiments, senior Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh, while taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, posted: China occupied our land. Modi ji does not have the courage to say even a single word against China. They are pretending to fight China by arresting these journalists. If you have courage, stop all trade with China.
More robots are coming to Chipotle (CMG), and one could assemble your burrito bowl in the future.

On Tuesday, the burrito chain announced it is testing an automated digital assembly line in partnership with Hyphen, a food service platform, to fulfill digital orders.

On top of the line, an employee will continue to fulfill orders by assembling burritos, tacos, or quesadillas. But underneath, the line will create salads and burrito bowls by positioning bowls under each specified ingredient and portioning them out (with the right amount of salsa so as to not make it too saucy).

Chipotle is testing an automated makeline for burrito bowls and salads. (Chipotle)

Chipotle's chief customer and technology officer Curt Garner told Yahoo Finance that as digital sales growth picked up during the pandemic, the team realized it was time to figure out "how to set up the crew members on the digital line to be successful."

Now, bowls and salads account for 65% of all Chipotle digital orders. Last quarter, digital sales made up 38% of total food and beverage revenue, which came in at $2.5 billion.

The company began working with Hyphen in 2022, and the burrito bowl invention is part of a larger $50 million dollar venture fund, Cultivate Next, which was introduced in April 2022 to accelerate growth through innovation and technology investments.

Chipotle's new assembly joins the other robots that the restaurant chain is piloting: Autocado, an avocado processing robot, and Chippy, a robot programmed to make tortilla chips.

The team is having active discussions on "how many of these technologies are complementary to one another," Garner said, and whether they'll all be at one restaurant or separate. But at the end of the day, Garner emphasized that the crew is crucial to the operation.

"The best solutions for restaurants and guests are those that have a co-pilot or are co-biotic in nature," he said. "It's about capabilities that improve human experiences."

Chipotle Mexican Grill announced it is testing an automated digital makeline in collaboration with Hyphen. (Chipotle)

Still, Chipotle isn't quite ready to fully automate its restaurants. Garner said that the robotic assembly line is still "months away" from being tested in a restaurant.

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When fully rolled out, though, this sort of innovation at a large scale will likely come at a cost to the company.

"There's certainly a lot of potential for automation in the restaurant space, the issue that you run into is a lot of this equipment is really expensive," Morningstar analyst Sean Dunlop told Yahoo Finance over the phone.

Dunlop said that may be why we haven't seen Chippy get rolled out yet.

"For perspective, Chipotle has been working Chippy through its stage gate process for the better part of a couple of years," Dunlop said. "If the return on investment (ROI) were really there and meaningful, we would see this rolled out to corporate stores already like we have with Chipotlane."

In the background, its fast-casual peer, Sweetgreen (SG), is seeing early success with its first automated production line and restaurant design, dubbed Infinite Kitchen, which has brought in restaurant margins of 26%, significantly higher than any new restaurant opening in its first month at the company.

Sweetgreen plans to open a second Infinite Kitchen location in Huntington Beach, Calif., later this year.



Brooke DiPalma is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeDiPalma or email her at bdipalma@yahoofinance.com.

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A distressing situation has unfolded at the Nanded Civil Hospital in Maharashtra, where a total of 31 lives were lost over the weekend, with a staggering 12 of them being newborns. This tragic incident has raised serious concerns about the hospitals infrastructure and facilities.

In response to these heartbreaking fatalities, state authorities have launched an investigation into the matter. State Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif clarified that among the deceased children, six had been admitted to a local government hospital more than two days prior, while the remaining six were hospitalized within the last 24 hours.

Hospital superintendent Dr. SR Wakode revealed that some of the newborns had been referred to the hospital in critical condition from private healthcare facilities.

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The situation at the hospital remains dire, with 70 critical patients currently under its care. Shockingly, the hospital has been witnessing an average of 10-12 deaths daily, further emphasizing the urgency of addressing this crisis.

The Maharashtra government has taken swift action in response to this tragedy. A cabinet meeting has been scheduled to deliberate on the deaths of at least 31 patients, including 16 infants, at the government hospital located in Maharashtras Nanded district. Additionally, an inquiry committee has been formed to thoroughly investigate the incident.

The death toll at Dr. Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College Hospital has risen to 31 from the previous count of 24 reported on Monday. An official said that the Maharashtra cabinet plans to address the Nanded Hospital deaths during todays meeting, with the possibility of forming an inquiry committee being considered.

This distressing situation has not gone unnoticed by political leaders, as the opposition has been quick to express their concerns. Prominent figures such as Sharad Pawar, Rahul Gandhi, Supriya Sule, and Priyanka Chaturvedi have criticized the Eknath Shinde government and questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this matter.

In the face of such a tragic loss of life, the need for a thorough investigation and urgent improvements in healthcare facilities in the region has become a pressing concern.
Highlighting the pivotal role of agriculture in sustaining the livelihood of farmers and bolstering the nations economy, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday said that an agricultural university is going to be established in Kushinagar for the farmers of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Funds have been sanctioned for this, he added.

Inaugurating various projects at Mahayogi Krishi Vigyan Kendra, the Chief Minister said: Our government is committed to promoting agriculture as a good source of employment. Through this, we are reconnecting the migrating farmers with agriculture.

The CM noted that the objective of the double-engine government is to provide comprehensive agricultural information and resources to the states farmers in one accessible location. Agricultural Science Centers are playing a significant role in achieving this goal.

Furthermore, he pointed out that one of Prime Minister Narendra Modis earliest initiatives upon assuming office in 2014 was to prioritize the welfare of farmers by instituting a system for providing free soil health cards to farmers across the country.

CM Yogi Adityanath highlighted the significant strides made in agricultural welfare, underscoring the implementation of flagship schemes like the Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme and Prime Minister Agricultural Irrigation Scheme.

Besides, 2.62 crore farmers are receiving annual support of six thousand rupees each through the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana. Yogi Adityanath emphasized how these initiatives are not only transforming the lives of farmers, but also creating employment opportunities in the field of food processing.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asserted that Indian wisdom recognized the importance of good health as a pathway to prosperity. Accordingly, the government is actively promoting natural farming in the state, enabling farmers to break free from the use of chemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides.

During the program, the CM inaugurated the one-day Kisan Mela and agricultural exhibition and visited it. He also distributed certificates and kits to the beneficiaries of various government schemes. Apart from this, he released Mahayogi Gorakhnath Krishi Darpan, Millets, and Acharya Narendra Dev Krishi Patrika.

The program was attended by Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi, Gorakhpur MP Ravi Kishan Shukla, MLC Dharmendra Singh, MLA Fateh Bahadur Singh, MLA Vipin Singh, MLA Pradeep Shukla, District Panchayat President Sadhna Singh, and other esteemed dignitaries from the region.
Three soldiers of the special forces of Army were injured in an ongoing encounter with Pakistani terrorists that broke out last night in the forest area of Kalakote in the Rajouri district of Jammu.

A fierce exchange of gunfire was continuing since last night. The injured soldiers were evacuated to the military hospital for treatment.

According to reports, a group of about three heavily armed terrorists has been trapped in the area. Additional security forces were rushed to the area to following heavy exchange of fire.

Reports said that weaponised dronnes were being used to spot the terrorists in the thickly forested area from where they might be trying to flee towards the Reasi district.

The soldiers were reportedly injured during the initial gunbattle. The area is being searched by security forces.

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Troops of the Army, CRPF and Special Operations Group (SOG) of J&K Police were engaged in the operation against the terrorists.

Defence spokesman, Lt. Colonel Suneel Bartwal said; Post 13 September successfull operation in the same area, due to continuous intelligence flow, area domination and resultant pressure on the terrorists, a specific intelligence about move of some unidentified individuals was received on 1 October by J&K Police. Joint operations by the Indian Army and JKP were launched in the general area of Kalakote. Presently, intense operations are under progress, he added.

The twin districts of Rajouri and Poonch have for the past some time witnessed frequent encounters between security forces and Pakistani terrorists who were infiltrating through the Line of Control (LoC).

On 12 September, an Indian Army soldier and a Pakistani terrorist were killed during an encounter at Narla in the Rajouri district. Two Army jawans and one special police officer (SPO) were injured during the gunfight.

The martyred soldier was seriously injured and later succumbed. An Indian Army dog Kent was at the forefront of the Operation and was leading a column of soldiers on the trail of fleeing terrorists. It came down under heavy hostile fire. While shielding its handler, it laid down own life in the best traditions of the Indian Army. The 6 years old female Labrador was of the 21 Army Dog Unit.
A day after his government released the data of a caste-based census, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has called an all-party meeting Today to discuss the findings and decide the future course of action. With the caste census, the Opposition has tried to set the narrative for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections even as the BJP claims the survey findings will not impact its efforts to unite all the different castes under the one Hindu-vote bank.

After the survey findings were made public, CM Nitish Kumar said that further action on the upliftment of all the sections will taken after the all-party meeting. He said that the census not just revealed the castes but all provided crucial information about the economic condition of people of the state.

The proposal for caste based enumeration was passed unanimously in the Legislature. It was decided with the consent of all the 9 parties of Bihar Assembly that the state government will conduct caste based census from its own resources and its approval was given from the Council of Ministers on 02-06-2022.

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On this basis, the state government has conducted caste based census from its own resources. Caste based census not only revealed the castes but also gave information about the economic condition of everyone. On this basis, further action will be taken for the development and upliftment of all sections, Kumar said in a post on X.

Reacting to the development, RJD Supremo Lalu Yadav said that the Bihar caste-based survey will set the tone for a nationwide caste census which will be undertaken when we form the next government at the Centre.

The Opposition INDIA block has been pushing for the caste-based census on national level. The Congress has even announced to conduct a caste census in Madhya Pradesh if elected to power. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has also supported the demand to ensure social justice.

According to the date released by Bihar government, the state has a total population of 13.07 crore of which Extremely Backward Classes stood at 36 per cent followed by 27.13 per cent Backward Classes. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes constituted 19.65 per cent and 1.68 per cent of the states total population, respectively. The state has 15.5 per cent of the so called upper caste population also known as General.

The findings are crucial and come amid heightened demand of a greater OBC quota. However, the BJP has rejected the caste census demand. Addressing a rally in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed the Opposition for trying to divide the country in the name of caste. While Modi didnt refer the Bihar caste census findings, he called the attempts to divide the country on caste lines to a sin.
Dominican Republic, Vice President Raquel Pena Rodriguez arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday for a three-day visit to India.

Raquel Pena Rodriguez will meet President Droupadi Murmu and have a discussion with Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and other Indian dignitaries.

She will deliver a lecture on India-Dominican Republic relations at the Indian Council for World Affairs.

The Dominican Republic Vice President is set to visit India at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Jagdeep Dhankhar. This will be the first-ever visit of the Vice President of the Dominican Republic to India. She is on a visit to India from October 3-5.

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Furthering  ties! A warm welcome to VP @RaquelPenaVice of the Dominican Republic, as she arrives in New Delhi on her first-ever visit to India, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi posted on social media platform, X.

The visit is significant as it takes place at a time when India-Dominican Republic bilateral relationship is entering its 25th year. The two countries established diplomatic relations on 04 May 1999, the MEA said in an official release.

Diplomatic relations between India and the Dominican Republic were established in May 1999 as a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in May 2001 in Santo Domingo to hold regular Foreign Office consultations.

Dominican Republic is a significant ally of India in the Latin America and Caribbean region. The visit of the Vice President of the Dominican Republic comes closely on the heels of that of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to that country in April 2023, the MEA release added.

Indias exports to the Dominican Republic are small but growing.

Training and exchange of good practices have constituted the two main axes of cooperation between India and the Dominican Republic. Both nations have expressed their willingness to continue working together and to identify new initiatives.
Weeks after seeking parity in its diplomatic strengths, Indian government has reportedly asked Canada to withdraw 41 diplomats from its India mission, according to various media reports. The development comes in the backdrop of a massive diplomatic row erupted between India and Canada over the killing of a Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had earlier last month accused Indian government agents of a role in the June 18 killing of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen. He was killed by two masked gunmen in the parking lot of a Surrey Gurudwara in British Columbia.

India vehemently rejected Canadian allegations terming them absurd and politically driven. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had accused Canadian diplomats of interfering in Indias internal matters and asked Ottawa to have parity in its diplomatic strength.

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Their numbers here are very much higher than Indias diplomatic presence (in Canada).We have seen Canadian diplomatic interference in our internal affairs. This is being taken into account and parity is being sought in rank and diplomatic strength, Bagchi had said last month.

Canada has a total of 62 diplomats posted in its High Commission office in New Delhi. India has asked Ottawa to reduce that strength by 41. According to a report by The Financial Times, India has threatened to revoke diplomatic immunity of those diplomats told to leave stayed in the country after October 10.

The diplomatic row over Nijjar killing started with Ottawas decision to expel the Canada station chief of Indian intelligence agency RAW. In a tit-for-tat action, India also expelled a Canadian diplomat and asked him to leave the country in no more than five days.

The raw escalated further after Khalistani threats to Indian diplomats in Canada and India announced a ban on visa services for Canadian nationals.
K Anil Kumar, the head of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said on Tuesday that the party has persuaded Muslim females in Keralas Malappuram district to stop donning the hijab.

The comment, which was made during a seminar hosted by an atheist organization, outraged a number of religious organizations and academics.

Look at the education system in Malappuram. Was it created by some religious organisation? Malappuram district was formed by CPIM. As part of changes taking place in Malappuram, look at the new women of Malappuram. We believe that there are girls in Malappuram now who will say no to wearing thattam (hijab) on their heads as part of the communist party existing in Kerala and as part of the education system, the CPI(M) leader said.

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A group of Sunni intellectuals called Samastha accused the CPI(M) of using unfair criteria. Leaders of the IUML K M Shaji and KPA Majeed also criticized the CPI(M) over Kumars remarks.

They questioned the logic between associating free thought with the removal of the hijab and charged the CPI(M) with violating religious convictions.

In response to criticism, MV Govindan, the state secretary of the CPI(M), refuted Kumars assertions and made it clear that the statements were offensive and did not reflect the partys position.

He asserted that the freedom to dress was a democratic one, and that no one should infringe on it.

Similar to this, MLA KT Jaleel, who is supported by the CPI(M), stated that the opinion is solely personal and does not reflect the position of the party, and that attempting to present the individuals fault as the partys decision is ill-informed.

Anil Kumar stated in a Facebook post that he will defend the CPI(M)s position on the matter after the party disavowed his comments.
The Kerala High Court on Tuesday refused to suspend the conviction of PP Mohammed Faizal, Lok Sabha member from Lakshadweep in an attempt to murder case. The court, however, suspended the sentence of Faizal in the case.

A single bench of Justice N Nagaresh on Tuesday suspended the quantum of punishment awarded to Faizal and three others for a murder attempt on former Union Minister PM Sayyids son-in- law Mohammed Salih.

The court, however, refused to suspend the conviction of Faizal. The Court said that there is prima facie evidence against the MP.

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The Court said that the proliferation of crime in the election process could garner momentum if men with criminal backgrounds are allowed to continue to be part of the democratic system.

Criminalization of the election process is of grave concern in our democratic polity. The tentacles of political crimes and criminalization of the election process have started grappling with free and fair elections If persons with criminal antecedents are permitted to continue as Members of Parliament (MP)/Legislatures even after conviction by a competent court, that would only send wrong signals to the public at large, the Court said

The Kavaratti Sessions Court on 11 January sentenced Lakshadweep MP Mohammed Faizal and three others to 10-year rigorous imprisonment in a case related to the 2009 attempt to murder former Union Minister PM Sayyids son-in- law Mohammed Salih.

Faisal and others moved an appeal before the Kerala High Court on 12 January. They also filed applications to suspend their conviction and sentence. The High Court on 25 January suspended Faizals conviction and sentence. The Union Territory of Lakshadweep filed an appeal before the apex court against the High Court order.

The Supreme Court on 22 August set aside the High Court order and remanded the matter back to the High Court for reconsideration of the suspension of the sentence in the case.

We find that the High Court ought to have considered the application seeking the suspension of conviction in its proper perspective covering all aspects bearing in mind the relevant judgements rendered by this court and in accordance with law, the Supreme Court said.

Following this, a single bench of Justice Nagaresh heard the matter afresh on Tuesday and passed the order suspending the sentence awarded to four persons including Faizal, who were convicted by the trial court.

However, the plea by Faizal to suspend his conviction in the case was turned down by the Court. With this, Faizal may be disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha.
A Kerala CPM leaders remarks on hijab-wearing women has put the party in a difficult situation in the state.

CPM State Committee member K Anil Kumar during a programme conducted by Essence Global, an atheist outfit, stated that it was due to the influence of his party that the women of Muslim-dominated Malappuram district have abandoned the headscarf.

Anil Kumar also said that if Muslim women are not starving, they should thank the Communist Party.

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Anil Kumars statements have stirred a controversy within the party and several Muslim organisations have slammed the CPM leaders remarks.

Former Minister and CPM MLA KT Jaleel said that the Communist Party has not convinced any Muslim girl against wearing headscarves.

If a persons personal opinion is presented as that of that of the party, then it could lead to misunderstanding, he said

Samasta leader Abdu Samad Pookottoor also claimed that the CPMs double standard in favour of vote-bank politics had come to light.

The CPM, which sided with Muslim organisations while ignoring the opposition on the Waqf and gender equality issues, may suffer as a result of Anil Kumars remarks.

Muslim League leader and former MLA KM Shaji said that Anil Kumars claim cannot be taken as a stand-alone remark.

He alleged that the CPM has two politburos, one for informing the media and the public decisions of the party and another committee for secret agendas.

Now a mistake has happened that one of these plans which are being implemented in secret has been unknowingly revealed, Shaji said

Muslim League MLA KPA Majeed has said Anil Kumars remarks had exposed the real intentions of the CPM leadership.

The CPM, which celebrates Muslim girls without hijab as a feat, must be riddled with Islamophobia. Not just sanghis, even saffron Communists are allergic to hijab. CPM is RSSs A team in Kerala. BJP is just the B team, said Muslim Students Federation leader Fatima Tahlia.

The choice of attire is an individuals right and is a part of the democratic right as envisaged by the Constitution, CPM state secretary MV Govindan said.

Later, Anil Kumar himself clarified in a Facebook post that he would uphold his partys stand in the matter.

After the CPM distanced itself from Anil Kumars statement, BJP Kerala president K Surendran alleged that the Left party is not bothered about protocols and principles when it came to the matter of the vote bank.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to pass any interim relief on a plea filed by Telugu Desam Party supremo and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who is behind the bars in connection with the alleged Skill Development Corporation scam case.

A bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M .Trivedi adjourned the matter to October 9.

In the meantime, the bench asked the state government to place before it compilation of all documents filed before the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

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Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief, said that enquiry against Naidu could not have been conducted without getting sanction from the Governor of the state.

He contended that Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which disables police from conducting any enquiry or investigation against a public servant except with prior approval, was introduced to prevent abuse of the criminal procedure.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi added that every enquiry into allegation where the alleged offence is relatable to any recommendation made or decision taken by the public servant requires a prior sanction.

In the last hearing held on September 27, Justice S.V. Bhatti of the Supreme Court had recused himself from hearing the matter.

Later on the same day, a bench headed by the CJI D.Y. Chnadrachud did not pass any directions for urgent hearing on Naidus plea by a different bench or grant him any interim relief.

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra had pleaded that the former Andhra CM was being looped in FIRs after FIRs only because of the upcoming 2024 general polls.

Naidu has approached the Supreme Court by filing a Special Leave Petition after a single judge bench of Justice S. Reddy of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on September 22 dismissed his petition to quash the FIR registered against him and to set aside his judicial remand.
Marks World Food Day with Launch of "Let's Eat Week"

Announces New Partnerships to Fight Child Hunger in its Local Communities

NEW BERLIN, N.Y., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Chobani, a next generation food and beverage company known for its Greek Yogurt, continues its efforts to use food as a force for good, with an emphasis on combating child hunger and elevating the communities in which it operates. To mark World Food Day, the company has announced a week-long initiative, Let's Eat Week, where employees and influential community members across Chobani's hometowns will volunteer to assemble and distribute meals to feed more than 8,000 children and families in need.

The Good Food Fight

In addition, Chobani has committed to supporting nine organizations to strengthen and energize efforts to end child hunger at hyper-local levels. The partnerships will focus on school and child hunger-based programs, as well as those that address food insecurity more broadly within Chobani's backyards, including in New York City, Central New York, Twin Falls, Idaho, and regional sales offices. Partners include Apple Seeds, Brighter Bites, Childhood Food Solutions, City Harvest, Community Cupboard, Every Meal, Helping Hands, Minnie's Food Pantry, and Mustard Seed.

"Children are the most vulnerable people on the planet because they rely on others to provide for them, but they deserve to have access to good, nutritious food. We believe businesses have a critical role to play in creating a world where no child goes to bed hungry, and by focusing on this issue through vital partnerships and action we are continuing to fight child hunger one community at a time," said Nishant Roy, Chobani Chief Impact and Communications Officer.

Child hunger is a significant problem affecting millions of children around the world. According to Feeding America, in the United States alone nine million children are food insecure.1 Close to Chobani's home and heart, over 10% of the children in Twin Falls County2 and 12% of children in Chenango County3 experience food insecurity.

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Let's Eat Week and the local partnerships announced today build upon Chobani's continued efforts to help combat child hunger. To push for collective action and help move the needle to address the country's child hunger crisis, Chobani continuously advocates for free school luncheseven paying off student school lunch debt and launched its Food Access In Reach (FAIR) program to partner with schools in its communities to ensure the food and nutrition security of their students. The brand also hosted a virtual Child Hunger Summit, and launched Chobani Child Hunger Batch, a layered lemon Greek Yogurt with real raspberry on the bottom, which supports Edesia  a global nonprofit that produces specialized food designed to combat severe malnutrition. On a hyper-local level, Chobani has led several initiatives including partnering with local organizations to donate product and fund backpack programs that help feed students, donating refrigerators to school pantries, feeding children over spring break, funding school curriculum around nutrition and food education, and much more.

ABOUT CHOBANI

Chobani is a food maker with a mission of making high-quality and nutritious food accessible to more people, while elevating our communities and making the world a healthier place. In short: making good food for all. In support of this mission, Chobani is a purpose-driven, people-first, food-and-wellness-focused company, and has been since its founding in 2005 by Hamdi Ulukaya, an immigrant to the U.S. The company manufactures yogurt, oatmilk, and dairy- and plant-based creamers  Chobani yogurt is America's No.1 yogurt brand, made with natural ingredients without artificial preservatives.

Chobani uses food as a force for good in the world  putting humanity first in everything it does. The company's philanthropic efforts prioritize giving back to its communities and beyond: working to eradicate child hunger, supporting immigrants, refugees and underrepresented people, honoring veterans, and protecting the planet. Chobani products are manufactured in New York, Idaho, and Australia, and are available throughout North America and distributed in Australia and other select markets. For more information, please visit www.chobani.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

1 https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america

2 https://map.feedingamerica.org/county/2021/child/idaho/county/twin-falls

3 https://map.feedingamerica.org/county/2021/child/new-york/county/chenango

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chobani-expands-efforts-to-combat-child-hunger-301945034.html

SOURCE Chobani, LLC
Hours after Indian government asked 41 Canadian diplomats to leave the country, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Tuesday said that he is not looking to escalate the situation and want to be on the ground in India. Trudeau stated that Ottawa will continue to engage with new Delhi in a responsible and constructive manner.

Canada is not looking not looking to escalate situation with India we will continue to engage responsibly and constructively with New Delhi, Trudeau was quoted as sayin by news agency Reuters.

We want to be on the ground in India to help Canadian families there, he added.

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His remarks came hours after reports suggested that New Delhi has asked Ottawa to withdraw 41 of its diplomats and threatened to revoke their diplomatic immunity if they stayed after October 10.

The development comes in the backdrop of a massive diplomatic row erupted between India and Canada over the killing of a Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Trudeau had earlier last month accused Indian government agents of a role in the June 18 killing of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen. He was killed by two masked gunmen in the parking lot of a Surrey Gurudwara in British Columbia.

India vehemently rejected Canadian allegations terming them absurd and politically driven. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had accused Canadian diplomats of interfering in Indias internal matters and asked Ottawa to have parity in its diplomatic strength.

Canada has a total of 62 diplomats posted in its High Commission and consulate offices across India. The government has asked Ottawa to reduce that strength by 41.
After the Bihar census report, backward politics in Uttar Pradesh is also taking the centre stage, and back into focus is the data of the Hukum Singh committee that was set up by the state government in 2001.

According to the report, other backward classes (OBCs) in Uttar Pradesh are estimated to be over 50 per cent of the states total population.

Among the key OBC castes, Yadavs are the biggest with 19.40 per cent share and Kurmis and Patels in second place with 7.4 per cent, according to the same data.

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While Nishads, Mallahs and Kevats constitute 4.3 per cent , Bhars and Rajbhars are 2.4 per cent, Lodhs 4.8 per cent and Jats 3.6 per cent of the total OBC population.

Though no authentic data of a caste wise break of the OBC population was available after the 1931 Census, Uttar Pradeshs then minister for parliamentary affairs Hukum Singh-led committee in 2001 and had worked out 7.56 crore as the population of 79 OBCs in the state, based on family registers (maintained in rural areas).

If an average of 20.78 per cent of the population living in the urban areas is also considered, OBC population then may have been over 50 per cent of the states 2001 census population of 16.61 crore.

The Hukum Singh committee had brought into focus issues of reservation for most backward classes (MBCs) within the 27 per cent reservation given to the OBCs following implementation of Mandal Commission report.

Prashant Trivedi, associate professor at Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow, said, Based on the Mandal Commission and Hukum Singh committees reports, the possibility of more than 50 per cent share of the OBCs in states population cannot be denied.

The Mandal Commission indicated that the OBC population was 52.2 per cent in the country, he said.

As the politics over the MBCs gained momentum, the Yogi Adityanath government, in 2018, decided to set up another social justice committee headed by Justice Raghvendra Kumar in the backdrop of demand for quota for MBCs within the quota for the OBCs.

Justice Raghvendra Kumar committee submitted its nearly 400-page report in October 2018. The committee classified the OBCs into three categories of backward classes, more backward classes and most backward classes.

BJPs allies  Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) , Apna Dal and Nishad party  are now expected to seek a larger share for themselves in the upcoming general elections.

For its part, INDIA bloc, the alliance of opposition parties, has supported the demand for a caste census. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a post on X, said the BJP government should leave politics and conduct a nationwide caste census.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee organisation secretary Anil Yadav said the Bihar caste census report would expose the BJPs attempts to divert focus and dilute the demand for a caste census.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his jitni aabadi utna haq remarks and asked if the grand-old-party wants to decrease the rights of the minority communities. Reacting to the Bihar caste census data release, Rahul Gandhi had pitched for greater rights for OBCs and SCs/STs based on their population.

The caste census of Bihar has revealed that OBC + SC + ST are 84% there. Out of 90 secretaries of the Central Government, only 3 are OBC, who handle only 5% of Indias budget! Therefore, it is important to know the caste statistics of India. The greater the population, the greater the rights  this is our pledge, Rahul Gandhi had said.

Responding to the Congress leaders remarks, Prime Minister Modi said, Since yesterday, Congress leaders are saying jitni aabadi utna haq I was wondering what the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be thinking. He used to say that the minority has the first right to the countrys resources But now Congress is saying that the population of the community will decide who will have the first right to the countrys resources.

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So now do they (Congress) want to decrease the rights of the minority? Do they want to remove the minorities? So, should the Hindus, who have the largest population, come forward and take all their rights? I am repeating Congress party is no longer being run by Congress people. Senior leaders of Congress are sitting with their mouths shut, neither are they asked, nor do they dare to speak after seeing all this. Now Congress has been outsourced, the prime minister said while addressing a rally in poll-bound Chhattisgarhs Jagdalpur.

The remarks of the Rahul Gandhi are seen by experts as an effort to set the narrative of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Oppositions INDIA bloc parties, including the Congress, have been pushing for a nation-wide caste census. Gandhi has also announced to carry out a caste-based survey in Madhya Pradesh if Congress party is elected to power in the state.

Earlier on Monday, hours after Bihar government released its caste census data, Prime Minister Modi lashed out at the Opposition parties for trying to divide the country in the name of caste. Modi said that attempts of dividing the country on caste lines is a sin.
According to police sources, the raids were conducted over illegal Chinese funding received by NewsClick. A case was registered on August 17 in this regard under UAPA and other sections of IPC, which include UAPA, 153A of IPC (promoting enmity between two groups), and 120 B of IPC (criminal conspiracy).

The Opposition Congress termed the raids on NewsClick and its journalists a tactic of the Narendra Modi government to distract the country from the growing nation-wide caste census demand.

The early morning raids on contributing journalists at NewsClick comes as fresh distraction from the explosive findings of caste census in Bihar and the growing demand for caste census across the country. When he faces questions from out of syllabus, he resorts to the only counter he has in his predictable syllabus  DISTRACTION the Congress leader Pawan Khera posted on X.

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RJD leader and MP Manoj Jha lashed out at the government calling the NewsClick raids most unfortunate thing and warned the government that the action will cost them.

This is the most unfortunate thing Why are you calling them Delhi Police They are under Home Minister Amit Shah and nothing takes place without his consent Those who deny to join their (BJP) Bhajan Mandali, do like this against them What are they trying to show from all these This incident will be written in the history and this step of the government will cost them, Manoj Jha said.

However, Union Minister Anurag Thakur and his party BJP defended the raids, saying action will be taken if anyone does anything wrong.

I dont need to justify If anyone has committed anything wrong, search agencies are free to carry out investigations against them under set guidelines, Thakur told reporters.

Senior BJP leader RP Singh accused the online portal of using Chinese money to promote the Chinas agenda and defame India and stated that strict action will taken against those working against the interest of the country.

If an agency runs the agenda of China using their money, it should not be allowed. Investigations were already going on against them. They are using Chinas money to promote China and defame India. Strict actions will be taken against all of them who are taking money from foreign countries and working against India, Singh said.

Urmilesh, one of the writers detained by Delhi Police, has been a vocal critic of the Narendra Modi government and its policies. In one of his articles, Urmilesh has called the current situation of the country worse than it was during the emergency. He had accused the government of using state machinery to suppress dissent.
The videos show the Member of Parliament (MP) standing with a pipe in his hand while the Dean empties out the toilet and places a bucket, bottle, and toilet brush on the window. Then, Mr Patil sprays water on the toilet while Mr Wakode uses a wiper to direct streams of unclean water towards the toilet.

On Monday, there were 24 deaths reported in 24 hours, and on Tuesday, there were 31 deaths which took place in 48 hours. All the seventy-one patients are said to be in critical condition.

On Monday, Mr. Wakode denied allegations of medical malpractice and said there is no shortage of drugs or doctors. He said the patients received appropriate treatment but did not respond.

The opposition is gunning for Shiv Sena (Shinde group), the BJP, and the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which make up the Maharashtra cabinet, which is led by Eknath Shinde.

Rahul Gandhi of the Congress questioned on X, formerly Twitter, The BJP government spends thousands of crores on publicity, but there is no money to buy medicines for children.

The leader of the Congress requested a thorough inquiry and severe penalties for the offenders.

A committee has been set up to look into the deaths, according to Dr. Dilip Mhaisekar, director of medical education and research. Hasan Mushrif, the minister for Maharashtras medical education, will go to the hospital on Tuesday. Im headed to Nanded. It shouldnt have occurred like this. There were plenty of doctors and medications available. Every death would be looked into, and anyone found to have been careless will be punished, Mr. Mushrif said earlier in the day.
Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, along with MP Derek OBrien and other legislators, were detained by the Delhi Police on Tuesday night following their protest inside Krishi Bhawan.

Their protest came after their request for a meeting with Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti was denied. The detained TMC leaders have been transported to Utsav Sadan in Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi.

A video circulated by TMC MP Saket Gokhale on X depicted Delhi Police personnel forcefully escorting the TMC lawmakers out of the Krishi Bhawan premises.

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TMC MPs & Bengal Govt Ministers led by @abhishekaitc have just now been manhandled & mercilessly dragged from the Min of Rural Development by Delhi Police & DETAINED. This also includes 4 poor MNREGA workers from Bengal who had come to place their grievance before the Minister, Gokhale wrote on X along with the video.

After inviting us & keeping us waiting for 3 hours, MoS @SadhviNiranjan quietly slipped out of her office without a meeting. When we protested, Delhi Police, CISF, & RAF manhandled the entire delegation & everyone is now under detention, he added.

Breaking: TMC MPs & Bengal Govt Ministers led by @abhishekaitc have just now been manhandled & mercilessly dragged from the Min of Rural Development by Delhi Police & DETAINED. This also includes 4 poor MNREGA workers from Bengal who had come to place their grievance before pic.twitter.com/UolUZ3iNJr  Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) October 3, 2023

The police detention came as the war of words between the Centre and the West Bengal government over the release of funds to the state escalated with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) holding protests in the national capital for the second consecutive day.
Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Union Minister of State for Animal Husbandry Dr. Sanjeev Balyan raked up the contentious issue of a separate state of Western Uttar Pradesh.

The issue could put another controversial matter of Jat reservations on the back burner.

However, the minister made it clear that it was his personal opinion that Western Uttar Pradesh should be a separate state.

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The issue was raised at the International Jat Parliament recently with Dr. Sanjeev Baliyan raising the demand for carving West UP into a separate state with Meerut as its capital. Political observers believe that the statement of the minister was a way to counter the longstanding demand for reservations for the Jats.

They believe that Dr. Sanjeev Balyan faces a challenge to retain Jat support while RLD President Jayant Chaudhary is making a comeback by strengthening his legacy. All these points to efforts made to get the votes of Jats in their favour by both the Jat Leaders and Jayant Chaudhary camp fanning the issue of Jat reservations.

Dr. Sanjeev Balyan tried to skip the issue of reservations by raking up the issue of a separate state.

It is believed that the SP does not want a separate state. If the issue is being raised openly by Jayant in the present scenario, its sole purpose seems to make Akhilesh Yadav uncomfortable. The entire game is related to power politics.

Talking to the media, Dr. Sanjeev Balyan said a separate state was his personal opinion while the public has also been demanding this for many years. If the entire society comes forward with the demand, I am with them because we have neither AIIMS nor do we have IIT here. There is no high court bench either. For justice, education and medical care, a separate state is a necessity. It will lead to further development of the area, he added.

On the other hand, the All India Jat Mahasabha announced a big conference to be held in Aligarh, Agra and Bijnor to garner support for the Jat reservations.

State President of All India Jat Mahasabha Pratap Chaudhary said a conference would be held regarding the demand for Jat reservation in central services. It will be held in Bijnor on October 15, Aligarh on October 25 and Agra on October 27.

He said people from many states, including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Delhi, will participate in all three districts including Bijnor. After this, a national convention will be held on November 20 at Talkatora Stadium in Delhi.
Writing for The Economist on Indias diaspora in June this year, Avantika Chilkoti mentioned that the Indian diaspora is the largest in the world. She wrote, Indias claim to be a democracy steeped in liberal values helps its diaspora integrate more readily in the West.

The diaspora in turn binds India to the West. She also mentioned that the 2005 Indo-US nuclear deal was pushed through by lobbying and fund raising by IndianAmericans. The MEA believes that the diaspora exceeding 30 million spreads across 205 countries. They remit US$80 billion to the country annually, which is the highest globally from any diaspora. Whenever the PM travels abroad, one of his major events is an address to the diaspora.

The atmosphere during such events is so electrifying that the PM of Australia, Anthony Albanese, compared Mr. Modis popularity amongst the diaspora to rockstar Bruce Springsteen, while introducing him at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney in May this year.

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Other global addresses with a similar electrifying atmosphere include the one at Wembley stadium in London with over 60,000 attending, Shanghai and Singapore. Many more watch the events telecast live. The impact of the Indian diaspora and their feelings for the home country were prominent in the US when Donald Trump joined Mr. Modi on a common platform to address American-Indians. The Howdy Modi event in Houston in Sept 2019 drew over 50,000 attendees. Indians in the US have crossed the 4.5 million mark and play a major role in binding the two nations.

Globally, Indians have made a mark due to their hard work and sincerity. Most are performers and well educated. The Economist mentions that the median annual income of the Indian diaspora in the US is $150,000, which is double the national average. The Indian diaspora also has representatives in parliaments of UK, Australia, Canada, EU and the US, including few current and past heads of state. Currently Indians head 25 leading S and P 500 companies. They also hold important portfolios in local national politics. Neera Tandon, Director of US Domestic Policy Council stated, you cant throw a stone in the White House and not hit an Indian-American these days.

While the diaspora are no longer Indian citizens, many follow Indian customs and traditions. It is not uncommon to witness typical Indian weddings abroad. It is this diaspora which carries Indian soft power across the globe. As Joseph Nye states, if you have people in the diaspora who are successful and create a positive image of the country from which they came, that helps their native country. The government also works to remain connected and enhance rapport with its diaspora.

The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas which celebrates achievements of the Indian community abroad and connects with the diaspora is held on 9 January every year, coinciding with the return of Mahatma Gandhi to India in 1915. No matter where an Indian makes his home, his connections with his country of origin remain. This is in contrast to most other nations.

The diaspora has occasionally raised its voice for or against decisions of the Indian government, whether it be abrogation of article 370, the farmers bill or the Citizenship Amendment Act. Indian origin members of parliament have flagged issues concerning India in their political forums as these impact families of their constituents in India.

Thus, whatever happens in India has global ramifications due to the presence of the Indian diaspora. All major Indian political parties have their connectivity with the diaspora hoping for their support in domestic politics. Some political parties have received funding from the diaspora based on their agenda.

The Indian diaspora, apart from projecting Indias soft power, also influences Indian politics. A miniscule number of supporters of a utopian Khalistan, residents of different countries with religion as their sole link to India, remain a blot on the countrys largely peaceful diaspora. Their demands for splitting the country, joining hands with Pakistan to incite violence, targeting Indian origin Hindus and their places of worship in their countries of residence, solely as vengeance, while funding anti-India activities has gone against the ethos of an otherwise soft powerexpanding diaspora.

They gain confidence when their country of residence turns a blind eye. There have been occasions when activities of these elements have raised diplomatic tensions between India and their nation of residence, but nothing can match the current Indo-Canadian spat. India has, whenever their activities cross a threshold, protested to the concerned country requesting them to curb these illegal activities. While their protests as also failed referendums have had almost no impact on India, it is the violence they generate against other Indians or the nations diplomatic property which raises hackles in Delhi.

Since the movement for Khalistan poses no local threat, as compared to Islamic groups, the response of their home country is generally lukewarm. In response to Indian requests, countries enhance security for its diplomatic establishments, act against select perpetrators of violence but fail to curb ringleaders, nor are they willing to extradite them, despite India declaring them as terrorists and obtaining Interpols Red notice.

Intelligence provided by India is either ignored or rejected as being insufficient as evidence. In some cases, the movement is even exploited as a means to gain leverage over India. This was evident when the Indian NSA, Ajit Doval, mentioned to his US counterpart, Jake Sullivan, that India has not acted against Sikhs for Justice leader, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, because it is aware that he is a CIA agent. The Khalistan movement had been ongoing for some time with little to show, but gained global attention after Justin Trudeau accused India of having a hand in the killing of known terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Since then, diplomats have been expelled and accusations exchanged between the two nations. India has stopped issuance of visas as the relationship slips downhill. A small group, with no legal sanctity, funded by an inimical Pakistan, has managed to mar the positive image of the Indian diaspora.

This could not have happened in isolation. Nations where such elements reside must understand that the diaspora has a lot to offer and by acting against a few troublemakers, they have much to gain from a growing and powerful India.

(The writer is a retired Major-General of the Indian Army.)
The maintenance of the British empire was the objective of Sir Winston Churchill (1870-1965) while ending it was the mission of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948). Churchills belief in the desirability of the Empire crystallized in his association with the India office and trips to India and South Africa in different positions including active service in the army.

Churchill had an illustrious pedigree hailing from a powerful aristocratic family. He was born at the height of consensual politics in Britain following the passage of the 1867 Reform Act, acceptance of free trade as the foundation of the economy and an unmatched naval power to man the largest empire ever conceived. Mahatma Gandhi grew to political maturity in the West and South Africa.

His evolution was more extraordinary as he started off as a believer in the Empire but then emerged as its greatest and strongest opponent, a catalyst for ending colonialism with all its brutalities and inhumanness not only in the Indian subcontinent but also in Asia and Africa which Harold Macmillan referred, in his historic address in Pretoria in 1960, as the winds of change.

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Churchills views about India, the Jewel in the Crown were influenced by his father Lord Randolph (1845-95), the most important Conservative party spokesman on India and the Secretary of State for India from 1884. Randolph realized that India was the key to the glory of British nationhood. His endorsement of brutal imperialist control left an indelible imprint on his son Winston who imbibed virtually everything that his father believed in, like opposing any advancement towards Home Rule in India, a deep suspicion and hatred of Russia and the doctrine of free trade.

Winston believed sincerely, like his father, that the British rule of India was both essential and beneficial as it rescued India from ages of barbarism, tyranny and internecine war. He was convinced that India because of the prevailing superstitions and barbarism would never imbibe emancipatory ideas required for attaining dominion status. Ignoring the pernicious guild system of medieval Europe, he attacked the caste system and pointed out the degradation that justified permanent deprivation of justice to many Hindus.

He was equally critical of Islam but expunged those comments when he tilted towards Jinnah. Like his father, he too accepted in totality that Britain had a specific mission to use its knowledge, law, and higher civilization to elevate and unite 230 million Indians. He also remembered his fathers other important observation ~ that Indias importance to Britain was as much as Britains to India. He was aware that without India the empire would begin to collapse and Britain would suffer terrible loss.

He did everything and with all means in his capacity to retain the Empire, when he was a cabinet minister and when he became prime minister. His faith in the British sense of justice and fair play remained intact. However, he never could grasp the degrading approach and inhumanness of colonialism nor the brute force often used by the colonial administration in India to retain power. He was afraid of losing the Empire and the great power status of Britain, a small island nation. He stated categorically that loss of India would reduce Britain to the status of Portugal.

Churchill divided the empire into two, the white colonies like Canada and Australia that were part of an imperial federation with joint security and second, East of Suez where democratic reins were impossible. This framework remained with him throughout his life. He unhesitatingly proclaimed the superiority of Anglo-Saxons as compared to other Europeans. Except regarding India, he was remarkably flexible in his ideas. He was categorical that for coloured people there would be no self-government. He rejected the idea of a transfer of power to India even when he was personally involved in such acts in South Africa and Ireland.

Churchill preferred Muslims over Hindus, the two communities in India, because of their monotheism and martial qualities. He did not question the inherent partiality in recruiting more Muslims than Hindus in the armed forces. He was not bothered that a community which was just 27 per cent of the population had a strength of 65 per cent in the army but the primary focal point was to use the Hindu-Muslim division for perpetuating British rule in India.

He considered Muslim leaders as an effective barrier to the Congress demand of self-rule. He was friendly to several Muslims from Aga Khan to Jinnah. He was sanguine that Muslims would remain loyal to the Raj as they fought Turkey under the British flag during the First World War. Churchill regarded Gandhi and the Congress Party with contempt and fear, describing Gandhi as dangerous, a fanatic and an ascetic. He and Gandhi first met on 28 November 1906 when he was the Under Secretary of state for the colonies and Gandhi was the spokesman for the rights of Indians in South Africa.

Gandhi along with his Muslim companion made it clear that they were loyal subjects of the British government and felt they were entitled to all the basic rights as British subjects. As early as 1909, Churchill realised that a visionary like Gandhi had to be halted to save the British empire in India. His mission was to preserve the empire as a blueprint for a future universal community while Gandhi regarded the empire as the biggest obstacle to the creation of such a community. Gandhi could see that the reforms were about consolidating British power in India rather than work towards self-government.

The promulgation of the Rowlatt Act and the massacre at Amritsar convinced Gandhi even more about the British intentions. Indians were disappointed with both the Montague Chelmsford Reforms and the Rowlatt Act as many felt that their contribution during the War went unrewarded. This disappointment coincided with the rise of Gandhi with his novel and innovative method of satyagraha, which he used to mobilise people bringing him to the centre stage of Indian politics lasting till the end of the Raj.

Churchill called Lord Irwins declaration to grant India eventual dominion status a crime. His opinion of Indian leaders was extremely poor describing them as men of straw. He regarded the concessions made by a Labour government as a colossal mistake and premature. Irwin clarified Churchills misgivings about granting India dominion status by reminding him that he had followed the commitment that Montague had made. It was a desirable and practical proposal and if it hadnt been followed it would have led to violent repression.

Churchill was unconvinced and angry at Irwin for making such concessions. He contended that the civil disobedience movement happened because Britain was losing its will to govern India. Paradoxically he rejected the idea of transfer of power to India at a time when he personally supported such initiatives in South Africa and Ireland. On another occasion Churchill directly attacked Gandhi describing him as a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, posing as a fakir, of a type well-known in the East, striding half naked up the steps of the viceregal palace, while he is still organizing and conducting a campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor. Such a spectacle can only increase the unrest in India and the danger to which white people there are exposed.

Gandhi was amused when he came to know about Churchills venom against him. The invitation to Gandhi to attend the Second Round Table Conference led Churchill to mount another attack as he took exception to the fact that Gandhi had not called off the Civil disobedience movement but merely suspended it. He blamed Irwin again and described the Gandhi-Irwin pact as the victory of lawbreakers.

The writers are, respectively, a retired Professor of Political Science, University of Delhi and Professor of Political Science, Jesus and Mary College, New Delh
Highlighting the cordial and friendly relationship between India and Vietnam, Indias Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Madan Mohan Sethi, emphasised historical ties through civilization that spans over 2,000 years.

He mentioned that both countries have worked together in various areas, including trade, defence, and strategic cooperation.

He also noted the increasing number of Indian tourists visiting Vietnam, with over 400,000 Indian tourists estimated to have visited the country in recent times.

More than 400 Indian companies, small and big have invested in Vietnam for a cumulative value of more than USD 1 billion, he said.

As far as the relationship between India and Vietnam is concerned, both countries enjoy a very cordial and friendly relationship, Sethi told.

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He said the two countries have a historical connection through culture and civilizational roots going back to more than 2000 years. In recent times, we have cooperated with Vietnam in multiple areas including trade and commerce, defence and strategic areas.

He also mentioned a growing interest among Vietnamese travelers to explore India.

But from last year June onwards, with more connection between cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, with our cities of India like Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmadabad and very recently Kochi, what we are witnessing that hundreds of Indian tourists are visiting Vietnam, the Consul General said.

So by one estimate, I think more than 400,000 Indian tourists have already visited Vietnam and we are also seeing a surge in the number of Vietnamese travelling to India, he added.

As per Sethi, Vietnam has a relationship with India through yoga and Buddhism. Nowadays we are promoting the Vietnamese provinces to visit Indian states to develop partnership and cooperation in multiple areas including higher education, IT, healthcare and tourism.

He said: Indias image has changed a lot in recent times due to the steps by the government of India under PM Modi. And perhaps more engagements have been made with a large number of countries in the last nine years. But definitely there is more intense engagement with the countries, with our friendly countries and again countries of the south actually.

According to a press release by the Presidents Secretariat on Monday Recently, the Defence Minister of Vietnam, General Phan Van Giang called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan,.

Welcoming General Giang and his delegation to India, the President said that India and Vietnam share a rich history of civilizational and cultural linkages spanning over 2000 years.

She added that Vietnam is an important pillar of Indias Act East Policy and a key partner of our Indo-Pacific Vision.

President Murmu remarked that the India-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership has widened the range of bilateral collaboration including in defence and security cooperation, trade and investment relations, energy security, development cooperation, cultural and people-to-people relations.
AUSTIN, Texas, October 03, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Commercial building owners in Alberta and Saskatchewan will be able to upgrade their buildings with energy-efficient solutions and zero upfront costs. Efficiency Capital, Canada's first energy-as-a-service company, has partnered with CLEAResult, the nations leading energy efficiency solutions provider, to launch this innovative initiative.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003209692/en/

(Graphic: Business Wire)

Businesses in Alberta and Saskatchewan can complete energy efficiency upgrades without any upfront capital. The investment is paid back over time from the savings generated, resulting in increased building values and positive cash flows from day one. In addition to access to preferred project capital, businesses will also enjoy the support of an expert project team to help manage the projects implementation, leaving building owners to focus on what matters mosttheir business operations.

Qualifying projects will undergo a diverse range of energy retrofits, includingbut not limited tobuilding envelope improvements, on-site renewable energy generation and fuel switching for retail spaces, warehouses, accommodation and food service facilities.

"Energy efficiency and economic stimulus go hand in hand," says Chandra Ramadurai, CEO of Efficiency Capital. "Were thrilled to provide capital and turn-key execution for these cash flow-positive projects that Alberta and Saskatchewan building owners can use as an opportunity to lower energy costs in their facilities while creating jobs and environmental benefits that support the whole community."

Efficiency Capital, which has a significant track record of deploying capital for energy upgrade projects across the country, will bring in the required funding and project management capability, while CLEAResult will leverage its experience and reputation as a leading program execution partner to identify, plan, leverage funding programs and support the execution of these projects.

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"Our biggest challenge is that theres so much money available, and not enough businesses are taking advantage of it," Keri Macklin, CLEAResults Vice President of Decarbonization, explains. "Deploying this much capital for energy conservation as quickly as we plan to has never been done, and were excited to make it happen."

We are now accepting applications for our first cohort until 31 October 2023. To apply for funding and find more details on the program, visit clearesult.com/canada/programs/energy-efficiency-retrofit-program.

About CLEAResult

CLEAResult is the largest provider of energy efficiency, energy transition and decarbonization solutions in North America. Since 2003, our mission has been to change the way people use energy. Today, our experts lead the transition to a sustainable, equitable, and carbon-neutral future for our communities and our planet. Our hometown teams collaborate with a diverse network of local partners to deliver world-class technology and personalized services that make it easy for commercial and industrial businesses, governments, utilities and residential customers to reduce their energy use and carbon footprint. CLEAResult is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and has over 2,400 employees in more than 60 cities across the U.S. and Canada. CLEAResult is majority owned by TPG through its middle market and growth equity investment platform TPG Growth and its multi-sector global impact investing strategy The Rise Fund.

Explore all our energy solutions at clearesult.com.

Follow us on: Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

About Efficiency Capital

Efficiency Capital (EC) is Canada's first energy-as-a-service company that develops, funds and manages net-zero projects in the built environment. Incubated by The Atmospheric Fund (TAF)  a regional climate agency, EC seeks to increase the flow of third-party capital into such projects by leveraging strategic partnerships with various banks, impact investors, community foundations and other organizations to enable the transition to an energy efficient, low-carbon economy. EC has announced many new partnerships in Nova Scotia, Quebec and Alberta as it seeks to expand across the country and has access to significant low-cost project funding to deliver fully funded, turnkey and de-risked decarbonization solutions.

For more information, visit: www.efficiencycap.com.

Follow us on: LinkedIn | Twitter

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003209692/en/

Contacts

CLEAResult

Amber Tester

Director Corporate Communications

media@clearesult.com

Efficiency Capital

Manasvi Thakur

Account Manager

manasvi@bubblegumcanada.com

437-366-4207
The Statue of Equality, a towering 19-foot tribute to Dr. BR Ambedkar, is set to be unveiled on October 14 in Accokeek, Maryland. Renowned artist and sculptor Ram Sutar, a Padma Shri recipient known for crafting the statue of Sardar Patel in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, has brought this monumental statue to life.

This remarkable statue is part of the Ambedkar International Center (AIC), situated on 13 acres of land in Accokeek. The AIC is a US-based civil rights organization. It works to promote a more just and egalitarian society, following the ideals and philosophy of Dr. Ambedkar.

AIC declared, This constitutes the largest statue of Babasaheb outside India. And, we have installed it as part of the ongoing construction of the Ambedkar Memorial at this center.

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They anticipate a significant gathering of Ambedkarite advocates and followers from the US and various parts of the world.

The Ambedkar Memorial aims to disseminate Dr. Babasahebs teachings and messages while symbolizing equality and human rights.

More about the Statue of Equality:

Ram Sutar, the sculptor behind this masterpiece, boasts a prolific career spanning over six decades. With more than 90 monumental sculptures worldwide, including India, the US, France, Argentina, Italy, Russia, and Malaysia, Sutars artistry transcends borders.

The inauguration ceremony of the statue on October 14 is ready to attract representatives from numerous countries, underscoring its global significance.

India celebrated the unveiling of Dr. Ambedkars tallest statue earlier this year in Telangana. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao unveiled this monumental 125-foot tribute. Constructed using 360 tonnes of stainless steel and 114 tonnes of bronze, at a cost of Rs 146.50 crore, this towering statue stands proudly on the shores of Hyderabads renowned Hussain Sagar Lake, near the State Secretariat.

Ram Sutar, with his skilled hands, created these grand statues. They stand as enduring symbols of respect for Dr. BR Ambedkars profound contributions. They also represent his vision of a more equitable world.
Even as India seems to have cornered Canada on the issue of Hardeep Singh Nijjar murder case and asking questions as to what it thinks is the exact definition of terrorism and didnt Nijjar come across as one, US has stated that it is closely coordinating with Canada pertaining to the claims of Indian governments so-called complicity in the fatal shooting of Khalistan terrorist Nijjar.

In response to a query on Nijjars murder in Canada, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller stated, We remain in close coordination with our Canadian colleagues on this question.

Miller made his comments on Monday (local time in the US) during a daily press briefing.

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Recently, Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, claimed that Nijjars shooting death was orchestrated by the Indian government.

On June 18, Nijjar, a man with a terrorist designation in India, was shot and killed in front of a Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia.

During a discussion in the Canadian Parliament, Trudeau asserted that agents of the Indian government were likely responsible for the murder of the Canadian citizen who also served as the president of Surreys Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.

India, meanwhile, has categorically denied the allegations, labeling them as absurd and motivated.

Notably, Canada has not yet made any public proof of the alleged murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar available.

According to Miller, the US has repeatedly contacted the Indian government to urge them to assist the Canadian inquiry.

He claimed that during their meeting on Friday, US State Secretary Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar got a chance to talk about the matter.

According to Trudeau, Ottawa wants to work constructively with India in regards to the claims.

While addressing a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trudeau said, In regards to India, Canada has shared the credible allegations that I talked about on Monday. With India, we did that many weeks ago. We are there to work constructively with India and we hope that they engage with us so that we can get to the bottom of this very serious matter.

The persistent issue with Canada, according to EAM Jaishankar, has existed for a while because of the governments permissiveness toward terrorism, extremism, and violence there.

According to Mr. Jaishankar, the existing state of affairs cannot be described as a deadlock, and the Indian government is willing to consider any specific and pertinent information supplied by the Canadian side in relation to the matter.

Well, I dont know if I would use the term deadlock, Mr. Jaishankar remarked during a press conference on Friday in Washington, DC. Here is the problem: Some accusations have been made by the Canadians. They have been informed that this is not a policy of the Government of India, and we are open to reviewing it if they are willing to provide us with details and other pertinent information. In that regard, the situation is as it is.

But what we do not want to see is an incident treated in isolation because then that somewhere does not convey the right picture, he continued.
Maldives president-elect says he's committed to removing the Indian military from the archipelago

The president-elect of the Maldives says he's sticking to his campaign promise to remove Indian military personnel stationed in the archipelago state, promising he will initiate the process
Tokyo Electron has put its 107-acre U.S. headquarters campus in Southeast Austin up for sale. The company will move elsewhere in Austin and plans to continue growing here.

Tokyo Electron is looking to sell its U.S. headquarters campus, which spans 107 acres in Southeast Austin. The company said it will move to a new headquarters location in Austin and plans to continue growing its operations in the area.

Tokyo Electron Ltd. provides semiconductor manufacturing equipment and related services to many computer chip manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Samsung is building a $17 billion factory in Taylor, northeast of Austin.

Tokyo Electron employs 450 people in the Austin area.

Where is the campus?

Tokyo Electron's campus is at 2400 Grove Boulevard, just off of East Riverside Drive. The site is close to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and major highways including U.S. 183 and Texas 71, and is a short drive from downtown. CBRE Capital Markets is marketing the property.

Tokyo Electron's campus is at 2400 Grove Boulevard, just off of East Riverside Drive. It has a main office building with about 142,000 square feet of space, along with a research and development building with just over 47,800 square feet.

What does this mean for the company?

While reducing its real estate footprint, Tokyo Electron is not cutting back on its Austin operations, said Jason Jowers, the company's vice president of support services.

"Our current campus has housed our Austin-based US headquarters, R&D facility, and training facility for nearly thirty years," Jowers said in an email. "All of these will move to new locations in Austin as we increase our R&D and training capabilities and enhance our U.S. headquarters in support of our companys growth.

"We are in negotiations for our new headquarters, R&D, and training locations in Austin and cannot provide details until the negotiations are complete," he said. "We will also open a field office to support Samsungs new fab in Taylor."

What's on the campus?

With views of the Austin skyline, the company's campus sits on 46.8 acres and has a main office building with about 142,000 square feet of space, along with a research and development building with just over 47,800 square feet. The buildings are connected by an enclosed walkway.

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The property also has 60.3 acres of raw land.

The entire 107-acre site has highly flexible industrial mixed-use zoning that allows for high-density multifamily, office, general commercial and other complementary uses, CBRE brokers said.

The company is offering its Austin campus "on an individual basis, or as a package, each with the potential for attractive seller financing," CBRE's marketing materials state.

What are its selling points?

Tokyo Electron's campus is "one of the most compelling mixed-use redevelopment opportunities in Austin," according to the marketing materials. The offering brochure says the property is a "once in a lifetime to acquire a site of this scale in close proximity" to downtown Austin, the airport and major roads.

The brochure says that the campus "will be 100% leased to Tokyo Electron for 1 year." Once the lease ends, the site "will be ideally positioned for an owner user to occupy the full campus, or for a future investor to reposition or redevelop the campus, including the excess land. The Campus offering is being made unpriced and on an 'as-is, where-is' basis," the brochure states.

What interest is the property seeing?

Jowers said that "there has been significant interest in our current campus."

Early expressions of interest have been for both the entirety of the offering and for individual components, said Charles Cirar, a vice chairman with CBRE Capital Markets. Cirar is marketing the property with Russell Ingrum, also a CBRE vice chairman.

The one-year leaseback of the offices will help facilitate a sale, the CBRE brokers said. There also is the potential for short-term seller financing to help bridge the current turmoil in the capital markets, they said.

Along with the planned sale of the current campus, Tokyo Electron is working with its long-standing partner, Austin-based HPI Real Estate Services and Investments, to secure a new headquarters.

"While Tokyo Electron has not yet finalized their new location, they are committed to staying in Austin," Cirar said.

What are Tokyo Electron growth plans going forward?

"We are excited about our companys future and the role our new locations in Austin will play in our success and our ability to help our customers succeed," Jowers said.

The company's business is growing rapidly in the U.S. due to legislation Congress passed last year  the Chips and Science Act  to bolster semiconductor manufacturing in the nation, local commercial real estate brokers say.

Not far from Tokyo Electron's campus, another tech company plans to expand its existing headquarters campus in Austin.

Software firm Oracle Corp. is seeking a zoning change that, if approved by the City Council, would allow it to add more office space, a hotel, a conference center and other development to its waterfront campus overlooking Lady Bird Lake. Oracle's campus is off of South Lakeshore Boulevard and Pleasant Valley Road, and it has been a catalyst in the ongoing gentrification in the East Riverside Drive area.

Tokyo Electron's business is growing rapidly in the U.S. due to legislation Congress passed last year  the Chips and Science Act  to bolster semiconductor manufacturing in the nation, local commercial real estate brokers say.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Tokyo Electron selling its US headquarters in Southeast Austin
Actors Rana Daggubati and Fahadh Faasil have been roped in for Rajinikanth's next film, tentatively tiled Thalaivar 170. Lyca Productions took to social media to welcome the actors onboard the TJ Gnanavel-directorial.

Sharing a black and white photograph of Daggubati, the production house wrote: Welcoming the dapper & supercool talent Mr. Rana Daggubati on board for #Thalaivar170 #Thalaivar170Team has gotten even more charismatic with the addition of the dashing @RanaDaggubati.

Fans of actor Fahadh are also excited after Lyca announced his entry with a similar black and white photograph. Welcoming the incredibly versatile talent Mr. Fahadh Faasil on board for #Thalaivar170. #Thalaivar170Team gains a powerful new addition with the astonishing performer #FahadhFaasil joining them, the post read.

Thalaivar170, Rajinikanth's next after Jailer, will once again feature foot-tapping music by Anirudh Ravichander. Expectations are high about the film set to be helmed by Gnanavel, best known for his critically acclaimed Jai Bhim. According to reports, actresses Manju Warrier, Dushara Vijayan and Ritika Singh are also part of the cast.
A total of 31 deaths, including 12 infants, died between September 30 and October 1 in Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital at Nanded in Maharastra, confirmed sources. Though only 24 deaths were confirmed initially, the latest figures peg the deaths at 31.

Amid the furore over the death, the hospital dean has rejected all speculations that the deaths were caused by shortage of medicines and staff. Shyamrao Wakode told ANI that the deceased patients were suffering from different ailments such as diabetes, liver failure, and kidney failure.



"These children were suffering from different ailments. Among the adults, there were eight patients between 70 and 80 years of age. They had different problems, like diabetes, liver failure, and kidney failure. Patients usually come here in serious condition," said Wakode, adding, "There was no shortage of medicines or doctors. Proper care was provided to the patients, but their bodies did not respond to the treatment, which caused deaths," he said.



He added that 12 adults also died due to various ailments like snake bites, arsenic and phosphorus poisoning.



Meanwhile, the three-member expert committee set up to probe the deaths will submit its report on Tuesday afternoon. Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, director of Medical Education and Research, Maharashtra, said an expert panel was formed on Monday. "A three-member expert committee from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) district has been formed with a mandate to submit a report by 1 pm on Tuesday. I am personally visiting the hospital to review the situation," Mhaisekar informed.



Nanded government hospital will submit its report on Tuesday afternoon, said Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, director of Medical Education and Research, Maharashtra.



Meanwhile, the Opposition has mounted protest mounted an attack on the Eknath Shinde government over the deaths in a government hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar bemoaning the apathy of the state government.



Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that the BJP government spends crores of rupees on publicity but there is no money for children's medicines. In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi said the news of the death of 24 people, including 12 newborns, due to a shortage of medicines in a government hospital in Maharashtra is extremely saddening and expressed his deepest condolences to all the bereaved families. "The BJP government spends thousands of crores of rupees on its publicity, but there is no money for medicines for children? In the eyes of the BJP, the lives of the poor have no value," he alleged.



Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh asked Modi to break his "silence" on the incident.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge called for a detailed investigation into the case saying the incident was "extremely painful, serious and worrying". "Continuous such accidents have raised a question mark on the health system of the state government. We demand a detailed investigation so that the culprits of this negligence are given strict punishment from the judiciary," he added.


A week has passed since the AIADMK severed ties with the BJP and announced its exit from the NDA. The BJPs central leadership, which did not expect the AIADMK to break away, is yet to comment on the breakup.

However, the saffron party seems to be working on a new strategy to handle the AIADMK and its leaders in Tamil Nadu. The plan involves either getting the AIADMK back into the alliance or ensuring that the party loses its strength.

On Tuesday, four of the nine AIADMK MLAs from Coimbatore and Pollachi districts met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

MLAs T.K. Amulkandasami, Varadharaja, A.K. Selvaraj and Pollachi Jeyaraman called on Sitharaman. Sources in the AIADMK told The Week that the meeting was just a courtesy call and all four MLAs had already informed their leader Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) about the meeting.

They met her because of the Union governments proposal for the defence corridor. It was to request her for budget allocation for their constituencies, a senior AIADMK office bearer in Salem told The Week. However, after the meeting, MLA Jeyaraman said the conversation was regarding the welfare of coconut farmers in Coimbatore.

The BJP, which was not prepared for the AIADMKs exit, sources say, is working on several strategies for Tamil Nadu as the outcome in the southern states is crucial for the Lok Sabha polls. The central leadership of the BJP, which is believed to have taken a detailed report from Sitharaman, looks to either restore the alliance or break up the Dravidian party, like how it went about with Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.

The AIADMK is unlikely to agree to a patch-up. A volte-face would dent the image of the party, which wants to establish that it is not subservient to the national party, and its leadership.

BJP MLAs, particularly Nainar Nagendran and Vanathi Srinivasan, sources say, have been working on strategies for a patch-up with the AIADMK as it would help the saffron partys growth in the state. The meeting of the MLAs with Sitharaman, on Tuesday, was organised by Srinivasan, according to highly placed sources in the BJP. Srinivasan has always been cordial with former AIADMK minister S.P. Velumani, who is considered to be a party strongman in Coimbatore. AIADMK believes that it cannot reopen the negotiations with the BJP as long as Annamalai is the chief. Meanwhile, Annamalai is sticking to the threat that he will quit the party if the BJP decides to realign with the AIADMK.

Another option that the BJP is looking at is to ensure that the AIADMK loses its strength by way of many breakaway factions. As of now, the party is strong under Palaniswami, while a faction is with T.T.V. Dhinakaran.

Dhinakarans Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam was the spoiler for the AIADMK in the southern districts in both in 2019 general elections and 2021 assembly polls. In fact, Palaniswami has already conveyed to the BJP leadership that the party is strong under him.

On October 2, as Sitharaman landed in Tamil Nadu to take part in an event in Coimbatore, Palaniswami opened up for the first time about the decision to snap ties. Everyone says I havent spoken anything on the alliance break up. It is not my decision. It is the decision of the AIADMK cadres.

Meanwhile, the BJP state unit office bearers met informally on Tuesday, and Annamalai will chair yet another meeting on Thursday to discuss the next course of action. Annamalai is at present camping in Delhi after he was summoned by the party leadership. On Monday, he called on J.P. Nadda and Sitharaman, while his request to meet Home Minister Amit Shah was denied.
Co-ops spanning multiple states, passing nearly 900,000 rural homes and businesses, now leverage Conexon's scope of expert communications and marketing resources

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Rural fiber-optic network design and construction management leader, Conexon, is marking the third anniversary of its Marketing Services business line. Marketing Services now supports over 30 electric cooperative marketing clients and partners to reach a combined total of nearly 900,000 homes and businesses across 15 states with an array of communications, marketing, branding and creative services.

Conexon (PRNewsfoto/Conexon)

Launched in mid-2020 as a pilot project, Conexon's Marketing Services division rapidly scaled its reach and capabilities to answer the member and community communications needs of co-ops deploying fiber broadband  from early to established builds. In mid-2023, the division expanded to include communications and member engagement support for co-op electric services in addition to broadband operations.

Conexon offers co-ops a combination of electric co-op, broadband and overall marketing and communications knowledge and expertise. The team possesses decades of telecommunications marketing, strategic communications and FTTH deployment experience, delivering end-to-end consultative and operational solutions for electric cooperatives deploying fiber.

"We knew early on that experience and creative marketing support was going to make a big difference for us as we launched our fiber business," said long-time Conexon Marketing client Michael Kirkland, CEO of Petit Jean Electric and Petit Jean Fiber in Arkansas. "We have worked side by side with the Conexon team to achieve our desired customer take rate and communications goals. We give Conexon a lot of credit for our success to date."

Conexon's Marketing Services portfolio includes dedicated account management, co-op support communications, social media management, video services, branding, design and website development, and co-op-centric customizable assets from the Conexon Marketing Hub creative repository. The company's 2022 acquisition of zfactor Inc., rounds out the marketing solution set with award-winning brand development and creative services.

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In addition to the marketing and communications services, Conexon marketing clients also have access to a proprietary member lead generation tool that allows a co-op to efficiently gauge interest in FTTH services from members and engage with them about offerings.

"From the beginning, we quickly saw the value Conexon's marketing team provided, with a wealth of knowledge and resources to help us reach our customers and improve our take rates as we have grown our fiber broadband footprint," said Tommy Thurmond, VP of Habersham EMC and Trailwave Fiber Inc. in Georgia. "Conexon has been a great collaborator as we implement strategies to bring 100 percent fiber high-speed broadband service to all of our members and beyond."

"Our success over these past three years clearly speaks to the need co-ops continue to have for creative, affordable and impactful marketing solutions," said Abby Carere, Conexon Senior Vice President, Marketing, Sales and Account Management. "We take pride in our ever-evolving service lines that ensure we meet the needs of co-ops in all stages of their fiber builds. And with the addition of electric member engagement services, we can now offer co-ops a streamlined, one-stop solution for their marketing and communications needs."

About Conexon

Conexon works with electric cooperatives to bring fiber to the home in rural communities. The company is comprised of professionals who have worked in electric cooperatives and the telecommunications industry, and offer decades of individual experience in business planning, building networks, marketing and selling telecommunications. Conexon offers its electric cooperative clients end-to-end broadband deployment and operations support, from a project's conception all the way through to its long-term sustainability. It works with clients to analyze economic feasibility, secure financing, design the network, manage construction, provide operational support, optimize business performance, and determine optimal partnerships. To date, Conexon has assisted more than 275 electric cooperatives, 75 of which are deploying fiber networks, with more than 500,000 rural Americans connected to fiber to the home. The company has secured more than $2 billion in federal, state, and local grants and subsidies for its clients.

Cindy Parks

913-526-6912

cindy.parks@conexon.us

Cision

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SOURCE Conexon
Amid snowballing diplomatic tensions between India and Canada, the focus has shifted to the unequal diplomatic presence in both countries, which is in favour of Canada. While reports claim Canada has been asked to cut down its diplomatic presence in dozens, senior government officials said discussions were already underway on how to keep a proportionate count of diplomats on its soil, after it was noticed that there was a jarring dissimilarity with Indian diplomatic presence in Canada which is less than half.

Trudeau governments decision to send an Indian diplomat back has miffed New Delhi, but that is not the reason why the numbers become important for the South Block.

While New Delhi had sent 25-30 accredited diplomats, Ottawa has around 107 accredited diplomats in India, which is a large number in comparison, said government sources. But this is not all. Sources disclosed the total Embassy strength along with the Consulate staff of Canada across cities goes up to nearly 400 persons which includes all the diplomatic staff and the staff at consulates in New Delhi, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Mumbai.

The Canadian embassy includes the Ambassador, two deputy High Commissioners, three ministers, 18 counsellors, 36 First Secretaries and 13 Second Secretaries, government sources disclosed . In addition, there is staff at the Consulates in Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Mumbai which takes the total strength to hundreds.

There are unconfirmed reports that Canada will withdraw some diplomats as New Delhi is mulling revoking their diplomatic immunity. While there is no official word from the external affairs ministry on it yet , sources said even if the numbers get trimmed, they would remain in favour of Canada as compared to nearly half the size of Indian diplomatic presence on Canadian soil at the moment.

Government officials said the presence of accredited diplomats on Indian soil increased over the years as people to people contact grew. Many friendly countries like Canada sent more diplomats and the numbers grew in favour of Canada as compared to the Indian presence on Canadian soil.

The allegations levelled by the Trudeau government of Indian agents involvement in killing of a designated terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was followed by expelling of a senior Indian diplomat. Not only has New Delhi rubbished the allegation, it has raised concern over Canadian soil becoming a safe haven for terrorists and wanted criminals in India. The Indian diplomat sent back has an excellent record in serving at the Centre and states like Punjab and peers recall his commitment to serving in the interest of the country.

Achieving parity in diplomatic missions isnt the goal of any country when the focus is improving bilateral relations and cooperation, said a security official. But there has been instances in the recent past when diplomatic relations are on a downward spiral that prompts such a move. It was the United States and Russia which started counting the diplomatic and consular annexes some years ago, even as the former said such actions are unwarranted and detrimental to the overall relationship between the two countries.
The special cell of Delhi Police on Tuesday conducted raids at the places of journalists associated with NewsClick, months after a report alleged that the website was funded by a network tied to US millionaire Neville Roy Singham for pushing Chinese propaganda.

Following The New York Times investigation report, authorities registered a case under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in August. Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate had raided the firm's premises to probe its sources of funds. The Special Cell raid is based on the inputs provided by the central agency and covers over 20 locations.

As per reports, police recovered the dump data from laptops and mobile phones of some journalists of NewsClick. Though no arrests have been made so far, some journalists, including founder and editor-in-chief of NewsClick Prabir Purkayastha and writers Urmilesh and Gaurav Yadav, were taken to police stations for questioning.

Abhisar Sharma, a senior journalist, wrote on X, "Delhi police landed at my home. Taking away my laptop and phone." Another journalist, Bhasha Singh, wrote on X, "Finally last tweet from this phone. Delhi police seizure (sic) my phone."

Raids were also conducted on the residence of CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury. "Police came to my residence because one of my companions who lives with me there, his son works for NewsClick. Police came to question him. They took his laptop and phone. What are they investigating, nobody knows. If this is an attempt to try and muzzle the media, the country must know the reason behind this," Yechury told reporters.

The raids were condemned by the Press Club of India which said it was deeply concerned about the developments. "The Press Club of India is deeply concerned about the multiple raids conducted on the houses of journalists and writers associated with #Newsclick. We are monitoring the developments and will be releasing a detailed statement. "The PCI stands in solidarity with the journalists and demands the government to come out with details," it said.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur too recently claimed that the NewsClick's money trail revealed an "anti-India agenda." On Tuesday after the raids began, Thakur said the agencies were free to carry out an investigation. "I don't need to justify. If anyone has committed anything wrong, search agencies are free to carry out investigations against them under set guidelines," the Union Minister told reporters.

The Congress on Tuesday alleged that the raids on contributing journalists at Newsclick were a "fresh distraction" from the "explosive" findings of the caste survey in Bihar and the growing demand for a caste census across the country.

Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said the early morning raids on contributing journalists at Newsclick come as a "fresh distraction from the explosive findings of caste census in Bihar and the growing demand for caste census across the country". "When he faces questions from out of syllabus, he resorts to the only counter he has in his predictable syllabus - DISTRACTION," Khera said on X.
India has asked Canada to repatriate about 41 diplomats from the country by within a week, according to a report.

New Delhi has set an October 10 deadline, said a report by The Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter. The Indian government is yet to issue an official statement in this regard.

Diplomatic ties between both the countries have been strained after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of being involved in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down in Surrey in Canada's British Columbia, on June 18. New Delhi rejected the allegations, calling them "absurd" and "motivated".

New Delhi also expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in what is seen as a tit-for-tat move to expulsion of an Indian official over the case. A week before that, a senior official said in New Delhi that negotiations for a free trade agreement between the two nations will resume after resolving political issues.

Days before Trudeau's allegations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi snubbed his Canadian counterpart at the New Delhi G20 summit by allowing only a short meeting on the sidelines instead of a formal bilateral meeting.
A private school in Ahmedabad allegedly asked students from Hindu religion to offer namaz on its premises as part of an awareness programme, sparking off protests from right-wing groups. The state government has ordered a probe against Kalorex Future School located in Ghatlodia area over the incident which allegedly took place on September 29.

The school management has tendered an apology and clarified that the intention of the programme was only to make students aware of the practices of different religions. It said no student was forced to perform the Islamic prayer.

A video of the programme, which had been shared on the schools Facebook page and later removed, showed a few students of the primary section performing namaz, singing 'Lab pe aati hai dua', a prayer in the Islamic way.

School principal Nirali Dagli said it was the tradition of the school to make students aware of different religions and religious practices ahead of festivals.

"In view of Eid, we had organised this activity for the students of standard II to give them information about the festival. We carry out such activities ahead of festivals of all religions, including Samvatsari and Ganesh Chaturthi. No student was forced to perform namaz, she was quoted as saying by PTI.

As the right-wing groups, including Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and Bajrang Dal, staged a demonstration on the school premises, the government ordered a probe into the incident. Videos of the protest showed a teacher being beaten up.

"We will conduct an investigation to find out the mentality and intention behind organising such a program and then appropriate action will be taken. We will not spare those who have done anything wrong," said Minister of State for Primary, Secondary and Adult Education Praful Pansheriya.

He added that some people want to disturb the peaceful atmosphere of the state.
The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (Kargil) in the Union Territory of Ladakh is gearing up for elections on Wednesday.

The election marks a significant moment for the BJP, facing a united National Conference and Congress, following the separation of the region from Jammu and Kashmir and its designation as a UT.

Campaigning for all 26 constituencies of the LAHDC Kargil concluded at 4 pm on October 2, with the counting scheduled for October 8.

Ladakh encompasses the districts of Leh and Kargil, with Buddhists being the majority in Leh and Muslims in Kargil.

Initially, residents of Leh welcomed the UT status, but they later realised that the rights they enjoyed under Articles 370 and 35A, as part of Kashmir, were lost after becoming a UT.

This led to an agitation under the Leh Apex Body (LAB), advocating for the Sixth Schedule for Ladakh. They also collaborated with the Kargil Democratic Alliance, seeking statehood for Ladakh, to jointly press their demands with the Centre.

In response, the Ministry of Home Affairs engaged in discussions with leaders from Leh and Kargil after initial resistance. The Centre has indicated a willingness to consider Ladakh's demands positively, though it has not agreed to the Sixth Schedule or a similar status for the region.

Due to growing discontent over the Centre's refusal to meet the demands of Ladakh's people, the LAHDC Kargil election becomes a crucial test for the BJP.

The National Conference and the Congress have formed a pre-election alliance against the BJP, with the two parties fielding 17 and 22 candidates, respectively. This alliance focuses on areas where the contest against the BJP is expected to be competitive.

Before the end of the campaigning, a rally was addressed by leaders from the Congress, BJP, and NC in Kargil. Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader and Lok Sabha member, spoke at the rally during his visit to Ladakh. Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture Meenakshi Lekhi led the rally for the BJP, while NC Vice-President and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah campaigned for the party candidates.

This will be the fifth election for the LAHDC Kargil, featuring a triangular contest in most of the 26 seats. The Congress has the highest number of candidates at 22, followed by the NC and BJP with 17 each, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with four. Additionally, there are 25 independent contestants.

The new council will take office before October 11, replacing the existing Council led by NCs Feroz Ahmad Khan, which completed its five-year term on October 1. A total of 95,388 voters, including 46,762 women, are eligible to vote from 8 am to 4 pm on Wednesday, determining the electoral fate of 85 candidates vying for 26 seats of the 30-member Hill Council. Four Councillors with voting rights will be nominated by the administration after the elections.

The BJP, which won one seat in the last election and later increased its tally to three with the inclusion of two PDP councillors, has fielded 17 candidates. Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are being used for the first time in the Council elections. Additional Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) companies have been deployed to ensure peaceful polling.

An official order issued by Election Authority and Deputy Commissioner Shrikant Balasaheb Suse prohibits public meetings and processions during the 48 hours ending with the conclusion of the poll. Exit polls in the district are also banned until the conclusion of the poll, with warnings of legal action for any violations.

The LAHDC-Kargil elections were rescheduled from September 10 to October 4 following the Supreme Court's intervention, which noted the UT administration's denial of the "plough" symbol to NC candidates. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the NC, dismissing the Ladakh administration's plea on the issue and imposing a fine of Rs 1 lakh on it.

During his nine-day trip to Ladakh in August, Gandhi addressed a public meeting in Kargil, but the party's campaigning was primarily led by local leaders from Ladakh. Abdullah spent three days in Kargil, conducting rallies for the party candidates. Lekhi campaigned for the BJP candidates, emphasising the need for the all-round development of the district, and BJP Lok Sabha MP from Ladakh, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, actively canvassed for the party candidates, highlighting the region's development under the Central government's focus.
A three-member expert committee set up to probe the deaths in Nanded government hospital will submit its report on Tuesday afternoon, said Dr Dilip Mhaisekar, director of Medical Education and Research, Maharashtra.

Twenty-four deaths, including that of 12 infants, were reported between September 30 and October 1 in a government hospital in Nanded.



According to Dr S R Wakode, dean of Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital, the 12 infants comprise six males and six females, adding that most were in the 0-3 day age group and had very low weight. "There are 142 admissions in the paediatric department, of which 42 are still critical. Oxygen as well as ventilator facilities are there. The patients are from neighbouring districts, including Hingoli, Parbhani and Washim. Some are from villages in neighbouring Telangana," he said.



An official statement issued by the Nanded district collectorate said that of the 12 adults, five were male and seven female. "Four adults had heart-related ailments, one was suffering from an unknown poisoning, one had a liver issue, two were kidney patients, and one case was of complications during pregnancy. There were three accident cases," it said.



With the deaths coming to light, an expert panel was formed on Monday. "A three-member expert committee from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) district has been formed with a mandate to submit a report by 1 pm on Tuesday. I am personally visiting the hospital to review the situation," Mhaisekar informed.



Staff, medicine shortage?



The statement from the collectorate said the hospital had received Rs 12 crore funding in this year's District Planning Development Committee (DPDC). The state government has also sanctioned Rs 4 crore additional funds.



However, several posts continue to remain vacant after the transfer of some nurses. There is also a shortage of medical officers, according to Congress leader and former chief minister Ashok Chavan. "I have suggested to the state government that they can take the help of private doctors. It is up to the state government to implement it or not," he added.



However, Dr Wakode said the state government has already given Rs 25 lakh worth of medicines to the hospital.



Opposition hits out at Shinde



The Opposition parties have mounted an attack on the Eknath Shinde government over the deaths in a government hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar bemoaning the apathy of the state government.



NCP leader Sharad Pawar took to X to call out 'the failure of government systems.' "Just two months ago, there was an unfortunate incident where 18 people died in a single night in Kalwa Hospital of Thane Municipal Corporation," he said, adding that the government refused to take the incident seriously, causing it to repeat.



"This shows the failure of government systems. At least considering the seriousness of these unfortunate incidents, the state government needs to ensure that concrete steps are taken so that these incidents are not repeated and the lives of innocent patients are saved," Pawar, the prominent leader of Opposition MVA, added.



Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that the BJP government spends crores of rupees on publicity but there is no money for children's medicines. In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi said the news of the death of 24 people, including 12 newborns, due to a shortage of medicines in a government hospital in Maharashtra is extremely saddening and expressed his deepest condolences to all the bereaved families. "The BJP government spends thousands of crores of rupees on its publicity, but there is no money for medicines for children? In the eyes of the BJP, the lives of the poor have no value," he alleged.



Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh asked Modi to break his "silence" on the incident.



In a post in Hindi on X, Priyanka Gandhi said strict action should be taken against those responsible and compensation should be given to the affected families.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in Chhattisgarh, took a dig at the Congress governments in poll-bound Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, stating that it seemed like both states were competing over their crime rates.

The Prime Minister was speaking at Jagdalpur in Bastar district where he laid the foundation stone for the NMDC's steel plant. "My tribal brothers and sisters wanted, which is why Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government formed Chhattisgarh," he said. The Prime Minister, during his visit to Rajasthan on Monday, attacked the Ashok Gehlot government over the high crime rates in the state.



Lashing out at the Congress government in Chhattisgarh for degrading the condition of the state, Modi said people were fed up with the government. "Corruption and crime are at their peak in the state. Sometimes, it seems like Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh are competing with each other over the crime rates. Here, development is seen either on posters or in the lockers of the leaders of the Congress government. Chhattisgarh is demanding change," he added.



The Prime Minister said the steel plant developed here will provide jobs to more than 55,000 people here. "More steel industries are to be set up here, giving jobs to more than one lakh people. In the upcoming years, youths from across the nation will come to Bastar for employment, he said.



The Prime Minister said the owners of the steel plant would be the people of Bastar. "These Congressmen want to make the steel plant a medium to fill the coffers of their children and relatives. But, Modi will not allow this to happen because the owners of the steel plant are the people of Bastar. I will not allow any Congressman to become the owner of this plant," he added.



The Prime Minister added that the dream of a developed Bharat will be realised only when states, districts and villages develop. He said the Centre has made a 20-fold increase in the budgetary allocations for railway projects in Chhattisgarh in the last nine years as compared to what was given before 2014.



Modi also virtually flagged off Tadoki (Kanker district)-Raipur DEMU train service.


The death toll at Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded has gone up to 31 after the death of seven more patients since Monday, in a span of close to 30 hours. This includes the death of 16 infants, who according to doctors, died due to different reasonsranging from inadequate facilities and infrastructure to an acute shortage of staff and medicinesand within hours of each other.

In August, a similar tragedy occurred inside another government hospital in Thane district's Kalwa, in which 18 patients lost their lives. This was due to the overburdening of the hospital's infrastructure because of a sudden influx of patients from another hospital in the vicinity and an acute shortage of staff to cater to those patients.

The dean of Dr Shankarrao Chavan Hospital, Shyamrao Wakode, however, denied reports that the patients died due to the hospital's negligence or the shortage of essential supplies, including medicines. He reportedly said all the patients were given proper care but their bodies did not respond to treatment that was administered to them for conditions ranging from diabetes to liver failure to kidney failure.

Almost a decade earlier, in 2014, an associate professor Aswar Nandkeshav, medical officer Rewatkar Mangesh, and a postgraduate student Akanksha Jain, all from the department of preventive and social medicine at Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital, where the tragedy has now occurred, published a research paper in which they concluded that each patient at the hospital required 75.5 minutes waiting time to avail the OPD services. Their report said various factors contributing to the long waiting time at the hospital included the registration clerk not attending duty on time, taking more time to register the patient, difficulties in locating rooms, rush, doctors coming late for duty, doctors and pharmacists talking on mobiles, and VIP patients jumping the queue.

This teaching hospital in Marathwada region of Maharashtra serves as a reference centre, has a 500-bed capacity, and runs outpatient clinics in various medical specialties. Close to a thousand people avail the OPD services every day. According to standard operating procedures of OPD for district-level hospitals, waiting time for collection of OPD ticket is one minute, waiting time for dispensing medicines is two-three minutes and the time taken for lab investigation is 10 minutes. In comparison, the findings of this study showed that at Dr SC Government Medical College and Hospital the waiting times are way longer, and at times patients do not even get the opportunity to approach a doctor. And this is why, Dr Amol Annadate, a doctor and activist based in Aurangabad, says the recent deaths at the hospital in question are a result of administrative failure than a medical failure.

"This issue has been a long-standing one and there is no guarantee that this won't be repeated. This is not the fault of health workers working at the grassroots in the hospital, they are extremely overburdened. The starkness of the statistic is such that there are only five to six doctors for every hundred patients there, which is shocking, to say the least. Health is a state subject and is the joint responsibility of the medical education department and the health department, and unfortunately, both these departments are the most corrupt. They already have meager budget allocations and to top it, there is so much corruption. What we need is an audit of the number of deaths occurring daily at these hospitals, the magnitude of human errors and infrastructure shortage and more. There is a total absence of accountability and any system of timely audits at these hospitals. This despite the fact that Nanded has given the state two strong chief ministers, Shankkarrao Chavan and Ashok Chavan."

Following the tragedy, the state government has reportedly formed an inquiry committee to probe the incident. The deaths triggered a massive political mudslinging as the opposition slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the matter. Opposition leaders, including Sharad Pawar, Rahul Gandhi, Supriya Sule and Priyanka Chaturvedi, lashed out at the Eknath Shinde government. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge raised questions on the state government's health infrastructure and demanded a thorough investigation while Pawar said it was shocking to know how so many people could die in a span of 24 hours at a government hospital.

Former chief minister and local Congress MLA Ashok Chavan visited the Nanded government hospital to review the situation. He said, This is extremely unfortunate. Government medical colleges are in a serious crisis. Inadequate staff and shortage of medicines are responsible for the condition of this hospital." Chavan added that when he discussed these issues with the dean, he was told that besides the 24 deaths in the last 24 hours, around 70 patients were in a serious condition. Some of them have been referred to private hospitals, he said, indicating that the death toll could rise.
Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L'Huillier were honoured with the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for their groundbreaking work in generating attosecond pulses of light to study electron dynamics in matter, as announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. This prestigious award, now valued at 11 million Swedish crowns (approximately $1 million), recognises their exceptional contributions to the field of experimental physics.

This marks the second Nobel Prize awarded this year, following the recognition of Hungarian scientist Katalin Kariko and her U.S. colleague Drew Weissman for their pivotal discoveries in mRNA molecules that laid the foundation for COVID-19 vaccines in the field of medicine.

The Nobel Prizes, established through the will of the inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel, have been celebrated since 1901, with only occasional interruptions. They stand as the pinnacle of achievement in science, literature, and peace, garnering worldwide recognition.

Although the Peace Prize often captures significant attention, the Nobel Prize in Physics has frequently been the focal point, with luminaries like Albert Einstein and groundbreaking scientific achievements that have reshaped our understanding of the universe.

In the previous year, Alain Aspect, John Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger were honoured for their work on quantum entanglement, a phenomenon where particles remain interconnected regardless of the distance separating them. This concept, once famously dubbed "spooky action at a distance" by Einstein himself, continues to challenge our fundamental understanding of physics.

The announcement of Nobel Prizes occurs consecutively over the early days of October, with upcoming announcements for achievements in chemistry, literature, peace, and economics, the latter being a later addition to the original Nobel Prize categories.
Bangladesh is facing the worst dengue outbreak yet, and more than 1,000 people have been killed due to the disease this year, according to official data. Rising temperatures due to climate change are pushing the spread and more cases are being reported away from the densely populated urban areas for the first time.



Of the 1,017 people who have died of the disease since January, about 100 have been children. According to the Bangladesh Directorate General of Health Services, the cases of the mosquito-borne disease are rising over 208,000.

Symptoms of the disease, which is endemic in the country, are high fevers, headaches, nausea, vomiting and muscle pain. In the most serious cases, bleeding, that can lead to death. Diseases caused by other mosquito-borne viruses like yellow fever, Zika, chikungunya are spreading faster due to climate change, the World Health Organisation had warned.

The former director of Bangladesh Directorate General of Health Services Be-Nazir Ahmed told AFP that the number of deaths so far this year was higher than every previous year combined since 2000. "It's a massive health event, both in Bangladesh and in the world," he added.

Irregular rainfall and hotter temperatures during the monsoon season have created ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Most cases are recorded between July and September, peak monsoon season. Reportedly, hospitals in Bangladesh have been admitting patients suffering from the disease during winter months.
By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) -A New Jersey appeals court on Tuesday threw out a $223.8 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson that a jury had awarded to four plaintiffs who claimed they developed cancer from being exposed to asbestos in the company's talc powder products.

The Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division found that a lower court judge should not have allowed some of the scientific expert testimony the plaintiffs presented to jurors at trial.

J&J Worldwide Vice President of Litigation Erik Haas said in a statement that the decision "resoundingly rejects ... the 'junk science' advanced by purported 'experts' paid by the mass tort asbestos bar." The company again said that its talc products are safe and do not contain asbestos.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The jury in the case had ordered the company to pay $37.2 million in compensatory damages and $750 million in punitive damages, though that amount was automatically reduced to $186.5 million under state law.

In reversing the verdict and ordering a new trial, a three-judge panel of the appeals court found that the trial court failed to fulfill its "gatekeeping role" of assessing whether the plaintiffs' experts based their testimony on sound science.

In their opinion, the judges found that three experts had not explained the facts or methods they used to support their opinions that the plaintiffs got cancer from being exposed to asbestos in talc products.

J&J is separately suing one of those experts, Jacqueline Moline, over a study she co-authored in 2019. That study was not at issue in Tuesday's decision.

Moline, who has testified for plaintiffs in more than 200 talc cancer cases, has argued that the lawsuit is an effort to "intimidate" scientific experts and prevent them from testifying against the company.

J&J faces more than 38,000 lawsuits alleging that its talc products, including Johnson's baby powder, can contain asbestos, and caused cancers including ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, a type of cancer linked to asbestos exposure.

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The claims have a mixed record of success, with major plaintiff wins including a $2.1 billion judgment awarded to 22 women with ovarian cancer. That verdict was upheld by an appeals court, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review it.

J&J has recently won reversals of some cases that went against it, including of a $117 million verdict in the same New Jersey appeals court and a $120 million verdict in New York.

The company's latest win comes after it failed for a second time in July to move tens of thousands of claims over talc into bankruptcy court, where it hoped to resolve them through a proposed $8.9 billion settlement. It is appealing that ruling.

Trials had mostly been on hold while J&J petitioned the bankruptcy court, but will now be able to resume. One trial that was allowed while the bankruptcy petition was pending ended with an $18.8 million verdict for a terminally ill California man.

J&J has said the cost of its talc-related verdicts, settlements and legal fees have reached about $4.5 billion.

The company stopped selling talc-based baby powder in favor of cornstarch-based products, citing an increase in lawsuits and "misinformation" about the talc product's safety.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)
Amid the ongoing India-Canada tensions, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that his nation is not looking to escalate situation with India.

"Canada is not looking to escalate situation with India, will continue to engage responsibly and contructively with New Delhi," Trudeau was quoted by Reuters.

The diplomatic tensions began between the two nations after Canada accused India being involved in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar was killed on June 18 in Surrey in Canada's British Columbia.

"Obviously, we're going through an extremely challenging time with India right now," Trudeau was quoted as saying by the Canadian newspaper.

Recently, India had asked Canada to repatriate about 14 diplomats from the country by within a week. New Delhi has set an October 10 deadline, said a report by The Financial Times citing sources. While speaking to the reporters in Ottawa, Trudeau said that it is important for Canada to have diplomats on the ground in India. However he did not confirm the FT report.

After allegation was raised by Canada, Ottawa expelled an Indian diplomat and as a tit-for-tat move, India too had expelled a Canadian diplomat.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar while speaking to reporters in US said that Canadians have made some allegations and we have pointed out to them that this is not Indian government's policy.

Jaishankar also said that the governments of India and Canada will have to talk to each other and see how they resolve their differences over the issue.
Over 60 students between ages 7-12 in an elementary school in Jamaica were taken to the hospital after they ate sweets laced with cannabis. Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Williams told CNN none of the children appear to be in critical condition.



Over 60 primary school students had to be taken to hospital. Parents, please beware!! Williams wrote on X. Reportedly, the candies were so potent that one boy had to be taken to the hospital though he ate just one sweet.

"The children began vomiting and hallucinating after eating the candies," Williams wrote on X. Some kids had to be put on an intravenous drip. She also said doctors & nurses are doing all they can to ensure the students recover.

The police are now seeking the public's assistance to locate the vendor, who sold the sweets to students of Ocho Rios Primary School. The candy package had a warning that stated, keep out of reach of children and not intended for use by anyone under 21 years of age. It also stated that the sweets contained Delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as delta-8 THC, a psychoactive substance found in the Cannabis sativa plan, which has psychoactive and intoxicating effects, according to the US Food and Drug Administration.

The use of cannabis has been decriminalised in Jamaica for people over 18 in 2015. Possession of up to 56 grams of cannabis is considered a petty offence. The vendor packaged the sweets as Sour Belts.
In a radical move, Pope Francis has said that he was open to alternate blessings for same-sex couples. When other cardinals asked for clarity on the issue, he said, any request for a blessing should be treated with "pastoral charity". "We cannot be judges who only deny, reject, and exclude," he said, BBC reported.



He however said that the Catholic church would not recognise same-sex marriages and consider the union as a sin, but, a request for a blessing would be granted. A blessing in a Catholic church, a prayer or a plea delivered by a minister, requesting God to look favourably on the person or people being blessed.

Bishops in several countries, including Belgium and Germany, have begun to allow priests to bless same-sex couples, BBC reported.

The Pope was responding to questions presented to him by five conservative cardinals, ahead of a big meeting where LGBTQ+ Catholics are on the agenda. The Vatican views marriage to be an indissoluble union between a man and a woman.

The Pope, in the past, has advocated for civil and legal benefits to be extended to same-sex couples. Pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of benediction, requested by one or more persons, that do not transmit a mistaken conception of marriage, Pope Francis wrote in his new letter. Because when a benediction is requested, it is expressing a request for help from God, a plea to be able to live better, a trust in a father who can help us to live better, he added, the Guardian reported. He added that church leaders should not become judges who only deny, reject, exclude.
The punishment battalions deployed by Russia in its fight against Ukraine are termed as "meats" as only a few from the squad live to tell the tale of their fights. Since the second World War, Russias Ukraine invasion is the biggest attack on a European country and they are gathering all folks even including convicts and gangsters in its fight.

The battalions known as "Storm-Z" squads include drunk recruits, insubordinate soldiers, misfits and convicts.

One of the soldiers from army unit no. 40318 who was deployed in the city of Bakhmut told that he had given medical treatment to a group of six or seven wounded Storm-Z fighters on the battlefield, reported Reuters.

The soldier had said that the Storm-Z fighters are considered lesser than the Russian troops and in some cases are abandoned in the battlefield as well.

The Russian defence ministry recruiters will select the convicts from the prison to join the squad. Not just the convicts, those soldiers disobeying the orders, violating the protocols, and insulting superiors are made to join the squad.

Reportedly, even those caught with a little smell of alcohol are send to the Storm squads.

Storm-Z squads are said to be the part of intense battles. The units come under the direct command of the defence ministry.

Also those volunteering to fight for the nation is accommodated in the squad. According to Conflict Intelligence Team the Storm-Z squads are mainly deployed as expendable infantry. "The Storm fighters are just sent to the most dangerous parts of the front, in defence and in attack," the group told Reuters.

However, Russia has not yet acknowledged creating these 'suicide squads'. It was a US-based study in April that revealed that these squads exist. Therefore, it is unclear how many soldiers are there in the squad.

However, Storm-Z is an unofficial term used by Russian troops, combining a term for assault troops with the letter Z, that is adopted by the military as a symbol of their invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, there were also reports that the squad members were tired of the harsh treatment by their commander and were in protest that they no longer want to fight the battle. Campaigns were carried out by prisoner's right activist seeking justice for them.
Kolkata, Oct 3 (PTI) Engineering Exports Promotion Council (EEPC) said that overall exports of engineering goods from the country have been affected by the global slowdown.

Overall engineering exports during April to August in 2023 dropped 4.55 per cent to USD 44.62 billion as against USD 46.74 billion in the previous similar period of 2022.

According to an EEPC spokesman, engineering exports to Russia surged 178 per cent to USD 568.41 million during April to August of fiscal 2023-24, which was USD 204.17 million in the corresponding previous period.

The exporters' body said that some of the major trading partners like the US and European countries have been affected by the global slowdown.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has also been ongoing, while China is also experiencing a slowdown. All these factors have affected India's engineering export demand, EEPC said.

Engineering exports to the US fell 14 per cent year-on-year during April to August 2023.

EEPC is also of the view that India should sign free trade agreements (FTAs) with non-traditional markets like Latin America and Africa to boost engineering exports.

The FTAs with UAE and Australia have provided a fillip to engineering exports with shipments to both nations rising nine per cent during April to August of the current financial year.

Engineering exports to the UAE during April to August of the current fiscal touched USD 2.24 billion, while that for Australia touched USD 596.14 million.
MUMBAI, India, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Federal Bank has secured a prestigious spot in the India's Best Workplaces for Women 2023 (Large): Top 10 by Great Place to Work. What sets this achievement apart is that Federal Bank is the sole banking institution in India to secure a place in the top 10 list among other multi-national corporations (MNCs).



The recognition reaffirms Federal Bank's commitment to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace environment, where gender diversity thrives, and employee growth is paramount. Federal Bank's relentless dedication to employee satisfaction is reflected in its high employee retention rates. Employees at Federal Bank are not just part of a workforce; they are integral to the Bank's journey towards excellence. The Bank's supportive culture, encouraging leadership, and numerous employee engagement initiatives have contributed to the organization's impressive retention numbers.



Federal Bank stands out for its exceptional gender ratio of 41%, firmly believing in the strength of diversity. The Bank has consistently promoted gender equality by providing equal opportunities for both men and women across all levels. This commitment has resulted in a workforce that is diverse and representative, contributing to innovative thinking and holistic growth.



Shalini Warrier, Executive Director, Federal Bank expressed her delight, stating, "This recognition is a proud moment for Federal Bank. We have always believed in the power of diversity and the importance of providing a conducive environment for growth and development. Being featured among the top 10 Best Workplaces for Women reflects our commitment to our core value - CARES. We will continue to strive for excellence and set new benchmarks for workplace inclusivity."



Federal Bank has consistently invested in employee development initiatives, including training, mentorship, and leadership programs. These programs empower employees to excel in their roles, realize their full potential, and drive the Bank's success.



About Federal Bank:



Federal Bank (NSE: FEDERALBNK) is a leading Indian private sector bank with a network of around 1,372 banking outlets and 1,914 ATMs/Recyclers spread across the country. The Bank's total business mix (deposits + advances) stood at  3.87 Lakh Crore as on 31st March, 2023. Capital Adequacy Ratio (CRAR) of the Bank, computed as per Basel III guidelines, stood at 14.81% as on 31st March 2023. Federal Bank has Representative Offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi that serve as a nerve centre for Non-Resident Indian customers in the UAE. The Bank also has an IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City). Federal Bank is transforming itself, keeping its principles intact, into an organization that offers services beyond par. It has a well-defined vision for the future as a guidepost to its progress.



Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2237373/Top10BestWorkplacesfor_Women.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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MUMBAI, India, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Softcell Technologies Global Pvt. Ltd. (Softcell) has made a strategic investment in AutoFlow Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (AutoFlowTech), a new-age IT services and technology solutions company specialising in digital business acceleration through open, scalable and modular solutions. AutoFlowTech addresses its customer needs by leveraging analytics, automation, cloud and digital transformation.



Sunil Dalal, Managing Director of Softcell, stated, "This investment is a key milestone for Softcell as we move towards the goal of helping customers accelerate their adoption of digitisation and automation. We have been closely following AutoFlowTech for the last couple of years and have seen them grow from beta stage to now when some of the biggest names in the Insurance, Manufacturing, and Automobile industry are their customers. We are excited with this investment and look forward to supporting AutoFlowTech in their growth acceleration journey."



In a brief seven-year period, AutoFlowTech has successfully provided innovative technology solutions based on Enterprise Web, Mobility, Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing to over 100 industry leaders across Insurance, Finance, Manufacturing, Automotive, Agriculture, and Services. Gaurav Hargude, Founder & CEO of AutoFlowTech, expressed gratitude for the support, stating, "We are thrilled to welcome Softcell as a strategic partner. This investment not only validates the hard work of our dedicated team but also fuels our commitment to pushing the boundaries of innovation. We look forward to delivering exceptional value to our clients and stakeholders in the growth journey ahead."



AutoLync Governance Framework is AutoFlowTech's flagship offering, enabling organisations to manage Programs, Projects, Processes, Support Ticketing, Tasks, and Team collaborations in real-time. Other key offerings include - CXO Dashboards (for faster decision-making), Digitizer (a Rapid Application Development framework), and AutoLync MSME (a productivity and efficiency mobile application for small and medium-sized enterprises, available on Android, iOS, and web).



The collaboration with Softcell will facilitate the expansion of their research and development unit, enhancing cutting-edge technology capabilities specially in the incorporation of AI-ML models in their solutions, to exceed client expectations and set new benchmarks.



About Softcell Technologies Global (www.softcell.com)



Softcell is one of India's leading System Integrators with over 34 years of experience in this domain. Softcell has a 800+ strong team spread over 6 offices who serve 3000+ enterprise customers in the areas of IT Security, Mobility, Optimised IT Infrastructure, Cloud and Engineering Services. In addition to supplying software licenses and hardware, Softcell provides solution design, implementation, and post-sales support services - on call, on-site and from its NOC. Softcell also offers its in-house developed security solutions to enterprise customers such as Managed SOC, Firewall Analyser and Threat Intel. Softcell's revenue for the year ended March 2023 was Rs. 852 crore.



About Autoflow Technologies (www.autoflowtech.com)



AutoFlow Technologies is building next-generation secure and scalable IT products and solutions for enterprise customers that solves their real-world problems and needs. With a deep passion, expertise, and proven track record in Analytics, Digitization, RPA, Enterprise Web, and Mobility, Autoflow is well placed to be a good IT solutions and technology partner to mid and large corporates.



Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2237467/SoftcellTechnologiesGlobal_Logo.jpg



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New Delhi, Oct 3 (PTI) Apollo Micro Systems Ltd (AMSL) is planning to set up a defence equipment manufacturing facility in Telangana at an investment of Rs 150 crore.

The proposed facility will come up on an area of 3 lakh sq ft at its facility in Hyderabad, AMSL said in a statement on Monday.

"Apollo Micro Systems Ltd proposes to set up a state-of-the-art defence equipment manufacturing facility in Hardware Park, Hyderabad. The company has estimated total investment in the upcoming ventures to be around Rs 150 crore," it said.

The company said it is planning to complete the project in nine months.

The company recently incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary -- Apollo Defence Industries Private Ltd -- to take forward its plans of manufacturing defence equipment.

This subsidiary will focus on forming alliances and technological partnerships with international companies to provide cutting-edge defence solutions and serve the nation, the statement said.

Baddam Karunakar Reddy, Founder and Managing Director, Apollo Micro Systems Ltd, said the company has entered into significant agreements with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

"These agreements mark a significant milestone in our ongoing partnership with DRDO and signify our commitment to excellence in technology and innovation in defense-related projects," he said.

AMSL offers technology-based solutions in sectors like infrastructure, transportation, aerospace, among others.
Srinagar, Oct 3 (PTI) Bollywood Actor Rahul Bhat on Tuesday said he is scouting for locations in Kashmir for his next feature project, which will explore themes of love and peace.

The "Kennedy" actor said while most of the movies made on Kashmir revolve around terrorism and violence, his new movie would not touch upon these issues.

"We want to make a film, made in Kashmir, like Iranian films which are human stories. We want to make a Kashmiri film, in which there is a human story that talks about love and peace, the actor told PTI in Pahalgam in south Kashmirs Anantnag district.

"We are totally not touching terrorism. Every film on Kashmir is about terrorism, military, army and violence. We want to make a film about love which would be a story about a village here. This is a real story, the actor said.

Bhat, who hails from Kashmir, said most of the film's cast and crew comes from the union territory.

"If Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, and Telugu films can be made, why not a Kashmiri? So, we have tried to engage Kashmiri talent in it  most of the actors are Kashmiri  the director is a Kashmiri, the whole team is Kashmiri. The cinematographer and the technical team is from Mumbai, he said.

The actor also teased that the upcoming film will feature a "big star from Hollywood.

She loved the script. The announcement will be made soon, Bhat added.
Islamabad, Oct 3 (PTI) Pakistans caretaker government has set November 1 as the deadline for thousands of illegal immigrants to leave the country or face deportation as the government intensified its crackdown against those involved in militancy and smuggling, Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a press briefing after a high-level meeting of the Apex Committee chaired by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar and attended by Army Chief General Asim Munir among others, Bugti said that soon law enforcement agencies will get directions against the illegal immigrants.

He said that the meeting held at the PM House took the decision to remove illegal residents under the National Action Plan which was devised in 2015 to deal with the threat of militancy.

"The first decision taken is about our illegal immigrants who are living in Pakistan through illegal means. We have given them a deadline of November 1 to willingly return to their countries and if they dont, all law enforcement agencies (LEAs) of the state and provinces will deport them, Bugti said.

He said that the meeting decided that the welfare and security of a Pakistani was the most important for the government and all stakeholders were taken in the loop regarding the decision to expel those living illegally.

He said an operation would be launched after November 1 by a task force already created in the interior ministry against the illegal properties and businesses owned by illegal immigrants or that were being run in collaboration with Pakistanis.

The minister said that no one would be allowed to enter Pakistan without a passport or visa after November 1 and anyone entering with valid documents would be deported. He said those having illegal national identity cards would also be targeted.

He said DNA testing would also be used to identify those having Pakistans identity cardholders despite not being Pakistani citizens.

According to Bugti, currently, 1.73 million unregistered illegal Afghans are living in Pakistan.

Another around 1.3 million Afghans are registered refugees and another 880,000 have legal status to remain in Pakistan, according to the United Nations data.

The development followed after the government launched a crackdown against illegal Afghan refugees as part of efforts to curb smuggling from Pakistan to Afghanistan.

So far more than 700 Afghans have been arrested since early September in Karachi alone and hundreds more in other cities.

The action was also prompted by a spate of terrorist attacks in recent months involving Afghan nationals. Bugti in his remarks said that 14 out of 24 suicide attacks since January were carried out by Afghan nationals.
While the harvest season hasn't yet begun for most regional crops, early data indicates the production for many of them are experiencing a challenging beginning, although some still report improvements from this time last year.

Despite some recent rainfall in the Panhandle-South Plains region, the exceptionally dry start to the year has left much of the area significantly below the year-to-date average, as reported by the National Weather Service. This summer tied with 2011 for one of the hottest on record, reaching more than 40 days of triple-digit temperatures in Lubbock.

Late last month, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension released a report stating sporadic showers in mid-September could have benefited some crops on the High Plains, particularly corn, sorghum and forages which are under reproductive stages when moisture is critical.

Areas that didn't receive rainfall and rely heavily on irrigation are forecast to see lower yields this year due to lack of well capacity.

Generally, when we havent received normal precipitation, irrigation systems helped stabilize our crops, Jourdan Bell, AgriLife Extension agronomist in Amarillo, said in the release. But groundwater has met a point in the High Plains where wells cannot produce enough to help stabilize this production.

Cotton

The USDA's most recent Cotton and Wool Outlook indicates global production will decrease by about 5% from last year, the second-lowest crop since 2016.

Forecast at the smallest crop in eight years, the USDA projects total production of 13.1 million bales across the U.S, even last than last year's near-record-low of 14.5 million bales. Last month, the forecast for national production was nearly 7% higher at 14 million bales.

Plains Cotton Growers Kara Bishop shows cotton farms in Lynn County, Friday, July 7, 2023.

According to NASS, state cotton conditions reflect the following: 10% in "good" or "excellent" condition and the remaining 90% in fair or worse condition. Comparatively, this time last year, 15% of the crop was in "good" or better condition.

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Despite the generally poor conditions, Mike Lass, a cotton farmer in Lockney said he's still optimistic for harvest this year.

"This year, I started with 500 acres and will have 500 acres (for harvest) hopefully," Lass said, noting that last year, he began with 500 acres and only took 50 to harvest because his majority crop is dryland. "Any acre of dryland is going to be 100% better than last year, because there wasn't any dryland last year."

Though he does note that much of his crop is in fair to poor condition, he said he is hopeful this year's harvest will bring the same pounds per acre as his last crop

"But you won't really know until you get on top of it and start harvesting," he added.

Corn

Though corn conditions are down significantly from earlier, many area producers are still reporting improvements from this time last year, which historically brought some of worst harvests on record for most regional crops.

Currently, about 49% of the state's corn crop is in "good" or "excellent" condition, compared to 17% last year, while 51% is in fair, poor or very poor condition, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistic Services.

Sorghum

With one of the strongest outlooks for regional crops, approximately 45% of the state's sorghum crop is in "good" or better condition -- greatly improved from last year's crop, which only reported 16% of the same category this time last year.

Peanuts

About 36% of the state's peanut crop is in "good" condition, while the remaining is in "fair" or worse condition. This time last year, only 32% of the crop was in "good condition.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Some crops Texas High Plains forecast better yields, quality than last
Washington, Oct 3 (AP) Donald Trump's campaign is calling on the Republican National Committee to cancel all remaining presidential primary debates, saying the RNC must instead refocus its manpower on defeating Joe Biden next year.

In a statement late on Monday, top Trump advisers also repeated debunked falsehoods about election fraud, claiming without evidence that Democrats are working to steal the 2024 election.

Trump has maintained that the 2020 election was stolen, despite multiple legal cases, investigations and his own attorney general finding no fraud.

In their statement, senior campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita say the November debate in Miami and all future debates should be cancelled.

Anything less, along with other reasons not to cancel, are an admission to the grassroots that their concerns about voter integrity are not taken seriously and national Republicans are more concerned about helping Joe Biden than ensuring a safe and secure election, they said.

The former president and front-runner for the GOP nomination has skipped the first two debates  as several of his rivals attacked him for not attending  and said he wouldn't participate in the future.

He is in court this week in New York for a civil fraud trial accusing him of inflating the value of his businesses, a case that he has argued is politically motivated.

The RNC did not respond to requests for comment Monday or Tuesday.

A spokesman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rejected the Trump campaign statement about cancelling debates, saying the country needs a president who will fight for them anywhere, in any forum.

DeSantis in the second debate accused Trump of not wanting to defend his record on the national debt.

Donald Trump should defend his record to the American people and debate Ron DeSantis on their vision and specific plans to stop American decline and restore our country," said Bryan Griffin, the spokesman.

But Trump knows he can't defend his record, and he isn't the fighter he was in 2016.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel declined to answer a question last week about Trump's call to end the debates during a call with reporters on the launch of the committee's Bank Your Vote initiative in New York.

The program, which the GOP is implementing in states across the US, encourages Republicans to participate in early and mail-in voting  a practice that Democrats have embraced but some Republicans, including Trump, have criticised.

McDaniel also brushed off Trump's continued skepticism of early voting, even after he recorded a video to promote the Bank Your Vote initiative.

I think we have to take those fights on, but also understand that once it gets to game day, the rules that are on the field are what we need to play by and President Trump is all in on that, she said.(AP) RUP

RUP
London, Oct 3 (PTI) The Maharashtra government Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London for a 17th century 'Tiger Claws' weapon believed to have belonged to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj make a journey back to India for an exhibition.

Maharashtra Minister for Cultural Affairs Sudhir Munganitwar signed the pact with Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A, at a meeting at the museum.

Hunt hailed the "historic partnership between the V&A, the government of Maharashtra and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) museum in Mumbai, which will enable the unique object to form part of celebrations in India next year.

"Given their fascinating heritage, I hope that the displays across Maharashtra and the accompanying events will help support new research into the Tiger Claws history and provenance, said Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A.

"We look forward to working with colleagues to finalise plans in the months ahead, he said.

According to the V&A, the MoU sets out the details of a three-year loan agreement for the unique pair of Tiger Claws or wagh nakh in the V&A collection. They are described as an example of a weapon that was popular in the 17th century.

This particular set has long drawn interest from scholars due to the leather case which was made for them in the 19th century by their owner at the time, which claims that they are the same Tiger Claws used by Shivaji during the Maratha leaders historic battle and triumph over Azfal Khan in 1659, the V&A said.

The signing of the agreement on Tuesday is the first step in the process which, following a formal loan agreement being finalised later this year, will enable the Tiger Claws to travel to multiple destinations across India to feature in commemorative events planned next year to mark the 350th anniversary of Shivaji's coronation.

During a protracted military engagement in 1659, the legendary Maratha leader held metal claws, or wagh nakh, concealed in his hand and is said to have disembowelled his opponent Afzal Khan  the commander of the opposing Bijapur army. It is believed, though unverified, that the set of claws then came into the possession of James Grant Duff, an officer of the East India Company who was appointed Resident or political agent of the Satara state in 1818 and gifted to the V&A by a descendant.

"The story of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharajs triumph over Afzal Khan is legendary, so we are delighted that the Tiger Claws will return to India as part of the 350th anniversary events where they can be enjoyed as part of the celebrations. We hope that their display might also enable new research into their history and look forward to working in partnership with colleagues in the months ahead as we develop plans for their display, a V&A spokesperson said.

The MoU coincides with Maharashtras 350th anniversary celebrations of the coronation of Shivaji. It is then expected to be dispatched to India later this year for an agreed period.

According to historical accounts, Shivaji and Afzal Khan had arranged a truce after political upheavals in order to meet in a tented enclosure, virtually alone.

The V&A description of the history of the 'Tiger Claws' explains: Both came armed: Shivaji wore mail under his clothes and metal skull protection under his turban. He also held a metal Tiger Claws weapon concealed in his hand. The two men fought, and Shivaji disembowelled his opponent.

The last Peshwa (Prime Minister) of the Marathas, Baji Rao II, surrendered to the British in June 1818 after defeat in the Third Anglo-Maratha War and was banished to Bithoor near Kanpur. It is possible he also surrendered this weapon to Grant Duff.
Abuja, Oct 3 (AP) At least 29 Nigerien soldiers have been killed by jihadis near the country's border with Mali, Niger's junta said, as they struggle to end a spate of attacks.

More than 100 extremists used homemade explosives to target the West African nation's security forces who were deployed at the border area on a clearance operation, Niger Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Salifou Mody said in a statement late Monday. It's the second such attack against Nigerien soldiers in a week.

During the month after Niger's military seized power, violence primarily linked to extremists soared by more than 40 per cent, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

Jihadi attacks targeting civilians quadrupled in August compared with the month before, and attacks against security forces spiked in the Tillaberi region, killing at least 40 soldiers, the project reported.

This attack unfortunately caused the loss of several of our valiant soldiers, Mody said Monday.

The provisional assessment of this attack is as follows: on the friendly side, 29 soldiers fell.  On the enemy side, several dozen terrorists were neutralized, fifteen motorcycles destroyed, a large quantity of weapons and ammunition seized.

The junta, which took over power after a July coup against Niger's democratically elected government, declared a three-day national mourning period for the dead.

It repeated claims made in the past that destabilization operations were being carried out by certain foreign powers with the complicity of Nigerien traitors, without further details or proof.

Under growing pressure since the coup against Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, which the military said was carried out because of Niger's security challenges, the junta promised that all efforts will be made to guarantee the security of people and their property throughout the national territory.

Niger has battled a jihadi insurgency linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group for years. And the junta's capacity to improve Niger's security has increasingly been questioned recently as attacks have increased since mutinous soldiers toppled in July.

Niger was seen as one of the last democratic countries in Africa's Sahel region that Western nations could partner with to beat back the jihadi insurgency in the vast expanse below the Sahara Desert.

The United States, France and other European countries poured hundreds of millions of dollars into shoring up the Nigerien military.

Meanwhile, there were concerns about a possible crackdown on civil liberties after Samira Sabou, a popular journalist in Niger, was arrested for undisclosed reasons in the capital of Niamey, according to the Union of Journalists for African Free Press (UJPLA). The group said that the journalist was arrested on Saturday.

The Reporters Without Borders press freedom group also condemned Sabou's arrest and asked authorities to reveal where she was detained and allow her lawyer to see her. "She must be released without delay, the group said.(AP)



RUP

RUP
Nagpur, Oct 3 (PTI) Psephologist and activist Yogendra Yadav on Tuesday condemned the Delhi police's raids on properties related to news portal NewsClick and its journalists.

Delhi Police's special cell searched 30 locations connected with the portal in a case filed under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act following allegations that it received money for pro-China propaganda.

"It is a clear attack on journalism and freedom of speech in the country," Yadav told reporters here.

This was not the first time the BJP-led Union government was acting in this way and earlier the office of a reputed foreign media organisation was raided, he said.

"We all know what was done to fact-checker Mohammad Zubair and journalist (Siddique) Kappan," he added.

The journalists who have faced action are known to ask tough questions to the government, and the raids send out a clear political message, Yadav said.

"The message is very clear to all the journalists in the country, if you raise your voice, this will happen," he said.

Meanwhile, speaking about the Bihar caste survey report, he said such surveys are necessary and they bring out not just population figures but also real statistics about educational, economic and social status of every caste.

He also claimed that the BJP had supported the caste census in 2010, and in 2018, then home minister Rajnath Singh had promised an OBC census.
Patna, Oct 3 (PTI) Condemning the Delhi police action against news portal NewsClick which has been accused of receiving money for pro-China propaganda, leaders of the ruling Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) in Bihar on Tuesday claimed that the move exposed the BJPs nervousness to face the Lok Sabha polls next year.

Mahagathbandhan leaders also participated in a march taken out in protest against the Delhi police action and blamed the Union Home Ministry, which controls the Delhi police, for the searches on NewsClick premises and detention of its journalists "who have been known for objectivity and the courage to speak truth to power".

The march was taken out under the banner of All India People's Forum, a Left-leaning citizens' group. Those who took part included CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, RJD national vice president and former assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary and Neeraj Kumar, MLC and spokesperson of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U).

Veteran socialist leader Shivanand Tiwary, the national vice president of RJD which helms the ruling alliance, also expressed anguish over the development.

"The Narendra Modi government is trying to create an atmosphere of terror through the searches on the office of NewsClick and detention of journalists associated with it. I am sure none of them will be cowed down by such tactics. We deplore these incidents," said Tiwary.

He asserted that the commitment of all these journalists towards the nation and the society has been above reproach.

Among them, Urmilesh is well known in the journalistic circles of Patna where he had worked for a long time. It is inconceivable that any of these senior journalists can act in a manner that would be detrimental to national interests, the RJD leader said.

"The Modi government is betraying the nervousness it feels in facing the Lok Sabha polls next year. It maintains a vice-like grip on mainstream news channels. It has now turned its gaze towards those independently analyzing politics on YouTube," added the RJD leader.

Neeraj Kumar told reporters: "The incident would have an adverse impact on the global image of the country, especially with respect for press freedom. We demand an immediate stop to intimidation of journalists".

Bhattacharya alleged: The Modi government wants to make the journalists bow down before its might and also strike terror in the hearts of other journalists who wish to practice their profession with integrity."

The CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary also charged the ruling BJP at the Centre with patronising that section of the press which acts as cheerleaders.

Earlier, in a post on X, he asserted that these journalists and several other writers, artists and activists are being subjected to the Modi government's campaign of intimidation and persecution.

The CPI(ML)-L leader also shared a party poster with slogans like "hate mongers and fake news peddlers given a free hand, but journalists with a spine threatened and intimidated".

"Stop the vindictive raiding. Drop all false charges", said another slogan on the poster which also carried photographs of some of the journalists of NewsClick with the caption "cost of speaking the truth under Modi regime".

Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday morning conducted raids at 30 premises connected with NewsClick as well as its journalists' houses, triggering outrage among scribes.
Patna, Oct 3 (PTI) Opposition political parties in Bihar on Tuesday flagged concern over anomalies and missing details in the much talked about caste survey report at an all-party meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar here.

Constituents of the ruling Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) hailed Kumar on the completion of the mammoth exercise by his government, while the opposition BJP insisted that sections of the society which may have disagreements with the findings should be given an opportunity for a hearing.

The meeting was attended by representatives of nine political parties, which have members in the assembly.

The Bihar government on Monday released the data of the caste-based survey. As per the caste survey report, among the total population size of 13,07,25,310, Bihar has 63 per cent of people in the Other Backward Class (OBC) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) category.

The survey data has found that Scheduled Caste (SC) constitute over 19 per cent of the states population, while 1 per cent of people are falling under Scheduled Tribes (ST).

Leader of the Opposition in Bihar assembly, Vijay Kumar Sinha, said, It appears that the exercise was conducted in a hurry as the report is full of anomalies. Besides, there is no mention of the economic condition of castes.

The state government must explain whether the exercise was caste caste-based survey or a caste-based census, said the BJP leader who attended the meeting.

What will happen to those who were left behind by the enumerators? The government must invite opinions and suggestions from the public before final compilation of all data, Sinha said.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Akhtarul Iman of the AIMIM claimed that the report is incomplete and a lot needs to be done to make it error-free.

Muslim population in the Seemanchal region of the state has not been counted properly. Besides, we demand that the government formulate policies for the betterment of economically and socially weaker sections of the society and especially for the Muslim population, Iman said.

Finance Minister and senior JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Choudhary, however, described the meeting as successful.

Representatives of all parties appreciated the effort of the state government in bringing out the caste survey report. Officials concerned are now compiling other details of the report, especially the economic condition of all castes, which will be out soon, Choudhary told PTI.

Officials gave a presentation on the processes involved in the collection of data at the meeting. This was followed by a discussion on the aspects of the caste survey report, he said.

Representatives of the JD(U), RJD, BJP, Congress, CPI(ML) Liberation, CPI(M), CPI, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) attended the meeting.
Bhubaneswar, Oct 3 (PTI) The Odisha Assembly on Tuesday was adjourned till 4 pm in the wake of protests by the opposition BJP members who demanded the expunge of words like "anti-people" uttered by chief minister Naveen Patnaik in his statement made in the House.

As soon as the House assembled for the Question Hour, the BJP members were on their feet raising slogans and condemning the chief minister's remarks against opposition parties. They too demanded withdrawal of suspension on two MLAs.

Opposition BJP chief whip Mohan Majhi and MLA Mukesh Mahaling were suspended from the House till the end of the session on the charge of disrespecting Odisha's first woman Speaker Pramila Mallik by throwing 'daal' targeting the podium.

They immediately trooped into the Well of the House holding placards and raising slogans. They demanded that the "anti-people" word used by the chief minister in a statement in the House on September 25 be expunged before commencing any business in the House.

While defending the grievances conducted by officers across Odisha, Patnaik in a statement on September 25 had said: "Opposition members should be happy that so many grievances in their areas have also been solved. I do not understand how someone can oppose the solving of people's grievances. Such opposition is anti-people and the people will give them a befitting reply for such attitude".

As noisy scenes prevailed, Speaker Pramila Mallik adjourned the House till 4 pm.

BJP member Nauri Nayak accused the state government of stalling the House. He alleged that the treasury bench members are behaving like opposition members.

BJD member Snehangini Churia said that the House is stalled due to ruckus created by BJP members who are opposing developmental work in the state.

Congress Legislature Party leader Narasingha Mishra, however, blamed both the BJD and the BJP members for no transaction of business in the House. He said if the BJP members created noise, the Speaker could have adjourned the House till 11.30 PM and convened an all-party meeting to resolve the issue.

"The Speaker adjourned the House till 4 pm without trying to resolve the matter," Mishra said.
Chandigarh, Oct 3 (PTI) Haryana's Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Aggarwal on Tuesday announced a unique initiative to incentivise young men and women to enrol themselves as voters and participate in the electoral process.

Under this initiative, youths and young women who register as new voters between October 1 and December 9 will get a chance to win laptops, smartphones and pen drives in a digitally conducted draw from the voters' list published on January 5, 2024, Aggarwal said.

The total prizes include three laptops, two smartphones and 100 pen drives. Additionally, all young voters registering during this period will also receive T-shirts as a token of appreciation, he added.

The chief electoral officer urged all the eligible young men and women in the state to take advantage of this opportunity to get registered as voters.

The Election Commission will carry out special campaigns to encourage new voter registrations on November 4-5 and December 2-3 at polling stations, he said.

According to the census data, the percentage of those between 18-19 years of age is 4.29, but registered voters are only 1.72 per cent. This means young people are not coming forward to get enrolled as voters, Aggarwal said.

Overall 22 women per 1,000 registered voters have not enrolled themselves. This figure is 54, 47 and 23 in Nuh, Faridabad and Palwal districts, respectively, he told reporters.

The chief electoral officer said that individuals born between January 2, 2004, and January 1, 2006, who have not yet registered as voters can apply for voter cards by filling Form 6 on the voter helpline website.

Responding to a question about the Ambala Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant earlier this year due to the demise of sitting BJP MP Rattan Lal Kataria, the chief electoral officer said the election for the seat will be held with the Lok Sabha polls.
Lucknow, Oct 3 (PTI) Samajwadi party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday flayed the raids by the Delhi Police's Special Cell at the residences of NewsClick journalists, terming them as a sign of a "losing BJP".

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister claimed that the raids on honest journalists by BJP rulers was not a new thing.

"The raids are a sign of the losing BJP. This is not a new thing, BJP rulers have always raided honest journalists. But how many crores of rupees are being given to 'Mitra channels' every month in the name of government 'prachar-prasar' (advertisements), anyone should also 'chhape' (print it)," Yadav said in a post on 'X'.

Delhi Polices Special Cell on Tuesday searched 30 locations connected with online news portal NewsClick and its journalists in a case filed under the anti-terror law UAPA following allegations that it received money for pro-China propaganda.
New Delhi, Oct 3 (PTI) A Delhi court on Tuesday extended by eight days the NIA custody of a man arrested in connection with ethnic violence in Manipur.

Special NIA judge Sachin Gupta allowed the central anti-terror probe agency to quiz Seiminlun Gangte for eight more days, after he was produced before the court on expiry of his two-day custodial interrogation.

The NIA told the court that Gangte was arrested in a case of violence which was the result of a transnational conspiracy by terrorist outfits based in Myanmar and Bangladesh to wage a war against the Government of India by exploiting the current ethnic unrest in Manipur.

The court directed the agency to supply a copy of the FIR to the counsel for rhe accused.

Gangte, the NIA told the court, was arrested on Saturday from Manipur and brought to Delhi on transit remand.

The federal agency has registered a case against him under anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), and other penal laws.
Key Insights

The projected fair value for Vetropack Holding is CHF31.28 based on Dividend Discount Model

Vetropack Holding's CHF39.70 share price signals that it might be 27% overvalued

Our fair value estimate is 43% lower than Vetropack Holding's analyst price target of CHF54.75

How far off is Vetropack Holding AG (VTX:VETN) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we'll take a look at whether the stock is fairly priced by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to today's value. We will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model on this occasion. Believe it or not, it's not too difficult to follow, as you'll see from our example!

Remember though, that there are many ways to estimate a company's value, and a DCF is just one method. If you still have some burning questions about this type of valuation, take a look at the Simply Wall St analysis model.

See our latest analysis for Vetropack Holding

Crunching The Numbers

As Vetropack Holding operates in the packaging sector, we need to calculate the intrinsic value slightly differently. In this approach dividends per share (DPS) are used, as free cash flow is difficult to estimate and often not reported by analysts. Unless a company pays out the majority of its FCF as a dividend, this method will typically underestimate the value of the stock. We use the Gordon Growth Model, which assumes dividend will grow into perpetuity at a rate that can be sustained. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a company's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In this case we used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (0.01%). The expected dividend per share is then discounted to today's value at a cost of equity of 4.7%. Compared to the current share price of CHF39.7, the company appears slightly overvalued at the time of writing. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind.

Story continues

Value Per Share = Expected Dividend Per Share / (Discount Rate - Perpetual Growth Rate)

= CHF1.5 / (4.7%  0.01%)

= CHF31.3

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 Vetropack Holding 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 4.7%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.936. 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 Vetropack Holding

Strength

Earnings growth over the past year exceeded the industry.

Debt is not viewed as a risk.

Weakness

Dividend is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the Packaging market.

Opportunity

Annual revenue is forecast to grow faster than the Swiss market.

Good value based on P/E ratio compared to estimated Fair P/E ratio.

Threat

Paying a dividend but company has no free cash flows.

Annual earnings are forecast to decline for the next 3 years.

Next Steps:

Whilst important, the DCF calculation shouldn't be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Preferably you'd apply different cases and assumptions and see how they would impact the company's valuation. For example, changes in the company's cost of equity or the risk free rate can significantly impact the valuation. Why is the intrinsic value lower than the current share price? For Vetropack Holding, we've put together three further factors you should explore:

Risks: Be aware that Vetropack Holding is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 2 of those are a bit concerning... Future Earnings: How does VETN'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 SWX 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.
Thane, Oct 3 (PTI) Activists from the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) beat up a group of hawkers after one of them allegedly argued with a Marathi-speaking customer in Maharashtra's Thane district.

A video of the incident, which took place in Kalyan town on Sunday, has surfaced on social media.

Local MNS leaders who spoke to the media claimed that a man purchased an item from a hawker on a skywalk and later returned it citing that it was not proper.



The hawker allegedly argued and verbally abused the Marathi-speaking customer, who approached the local MNS office and complained, they said.

The video shows the MNS activists beating up the hawker and a few other vendors on the skywalk. They are then dragged away accompanied by policemen.

According to the local police, no one has approached them with a complaint so far.
Nagpur, Oct 3 (PTI) Police on Tuesday filed a cheating case against a Nagpur-based tailor for allegedly duping an ethnic wear dealer of Rs 12.75 lakh, an official said.

The accused was identified by the police as Abdul Basar alias Guddi Dil Mohammad Mansuri (37), a resident of the Wanjra area here.

The official said businessman Mohit Manoj Jain (26), who runs a garments firm dealing in ethnic wear, had given clothes, collars, buttons and other material collectively worth Rs 12.75 lakh to Basar for stitching between May 2022 and April 2023.

However, Basar did not deliver the stitched garments to Jain and instead allegedly sold the entire material to some other person, he said.

Based on a complaint by the businessman, the police filed a case under sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code against Basar.
AAA: Gas prices fall 5 cents over past week, but still higher than last year




A recent survey by the French Institute of Public Opinion showed that a shocking 90% of Jewish university students in France have experienced anti-Semitism during their studies.

Both Jewish and non-Jewish students responded to the survey about anti-Semitic incidents they personally encountered at French universities.

Although most anti-Semitic incidents were limited to verbal attacks such as disparaging comments about Jews, 20% of students reported that they have witnessed at least one physically violent anti-Semitic attack on campus.

The incidents were not limited to fellow students  12% of respondents said that they heard professors make anti-Semitic comments in the classroom.

Eighty percent of anti-Semitic jokes were about the Holocaust, with 69% encountering such statements several times. Forty-five percent of Jewish respondents were subject to personal insults from other students and 7% were physically attacked due to their Jewishness.

Another interesting statistic is that no less than 43% of the respondents testified that statements or insults against Jews were related in one way or another to statements about Israel.

Eighty-three percent of Jewish students reported that they were concerned about anti-Semitism arising from the left-left, versus only 63% who feared anti-semitism from the far-right.

Hostility towards Jews doesnt come from any one community or especially from Muslims. Far-left propaganda is a bigger issue, Philippe Schmidt, vice president of the International League Against Racism and Antisemitism, said in a statement to the media.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)




Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik has sought immunity before agreeing to testify in the upcoming trial against former President Donald Trump and 18 other defendants regarding alleged election fraud in Georgia.

Kerik, a well-known associate of Trump, had notably served under then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He has previously faced legal consequences for ethics violations and tax fraud and was subsequently pardoned by Trump. Recent reports suggest that Kerik might be prepared to provide testimony for the Fulton County prosecutors if immunity is granted.

According to CNN journalists Paula Reid and Zachary Cohen, Keriks attorney, Tim Parlatore, emphasized that the indictment identified his client as a co-conspirator. While Kerik wasnt explicitly named, CNN had earlier indicated that he is referred to as co-conspirator No. 5 within the documents.

The aim of the Fulton County DAs office in issuing this subpoena seems to be to obtain pivotal testimony that could illuminate the actions taken by Trump and his allies to challenge the 2020 election results in Georgia. The trial for two of the 19 defendants, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, both associated with Trump, is scheduled for October 23.

Recently, Scott Hall was the first among the 18 co-defendants to respond to the charges, entering a guilty plea last Friday.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)




Ukraine had little reason to celebrate when U.S. lawmakers approved a spending bill Saturday that averted a widely expected government shutdown. The measure didnt include the $6 billion in military assistance that Ukraine said it urgently needed.

Now the Pentagon, White House and European allies are urging Congress to quickly reconsider. They warn that if the U.S. stops sending ammunition, spare parts and air defenses Ukraine will be at risk of losing ground in its counteroffensive to push back Russian forces. They argue that if Russias invasion is not stopped in Ukraine, other nations  including NATO allies  could be endangered.

The gridlock comes as top Pentagon leaders prepare to meet next week with allies in Brussels where Ukraine is likely to be a hot topic.

A look at whats been provided to date and whats at stake.

AID TO DATE

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 the U.S. has provided $43.9 billion in weapons, including high-profile systems such as a Patriot air defense battery and Abrams tanks, almost 200 Howitzer 155mm firing systems and more than 2 million 155mm rounds, and approximately 300 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades.

But Ukraine needs more. The intensity of the ground conflict has meant that even with those eye-popping numbers, and additional support from European allies, Ukraine needs regular infusions of aid to sustain its forces as the war grinds on for months and possibly years.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the U.S. last month to lobby Congress for more assistance.

PUSHBACK

The lack of progress by Ukraine to push Russian forces back has created an opening for some members in Congress to question why the U.S. should keep sending money. A hard-right flank of Republicans, led by former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner in the 2024 race for the White House, is increasingly opposed to sending more money overseas. That faction was pivotal in getting Ukraine funding stripped from the last-minute 45-day funding bill that prevented a shutdown. Likewise, some European allies, including Poland, have begun to pull back on their support for the war, citing the need to prioritize their own defenses.

On Sunday after the temporary spending bill was passed, President Joe Biden warned that the cuts could hit Ukraine at a critical time. We cannot under any circumstances allow Americas support for Ukraine to be interrupted, Biden said, urging Congress to negotiate an aid package as soon as possible.

WHATS AT STAKE

The U.S. still has about $5.4 billion available that it can use to pull existing weapons from its stockpile to send to Ukraine, which should be enough in the short term based on the current usage rate, said John Hardie, deputy director of the Russia program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies,

However, if the aid doesnt keep flowing, Ukrainian resistance will begin to weaken soon, said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. If theres no new money, theyre going to start feeling it by Thanksgiving, Cancian said. The holiday falls on Nov. 23 this year.

The lack of funding now also affects next springs fighting, and could have a compounding effect, Hardie said. The planning for a spring counteroffensive should be starting now, and with each passing week that just gets worse, he said.

On Monday, the Pentagons top financial officer warned Congress that cutting Ukraine funding hurts the U.S. military, too  because the militarys funding to replenish the weapons systems it has sent forward is also running out.

If the pushback on U.S. funds for Ukraine is an indicator of things to come I would say Ukraine is in trouble and so is the United States, said John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and senior director at the Atlantic Council.

He said Russia has everything to gain if U.S. support wanes and it could cost the U.S. far more in the long run if Russia does take control of Ukraine, which would force the U.S. to further increase its military presence among NATO countries bordering Russia.

Herbst said he thinks this pushback on Ukraine funding may just be a one-off. Given the support for Ukraine among many Republican lawmakers, the holdout by that small faction of hard-right Republicans antagonized a lot of people, including many in their own party. So this may be a pyrrhic victory for them and a future bill would see the funds restored. Party leaders on both sides emphasized the need to continue supporting Ukraine in the hours after the bill passed.

INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT

One major question is if the U.S. slows or ends its support for Ukraine, will other allies follow its example?

The U.S. dwarfs all other individual donors, but other nations have also sent large chunks of money and weapons. The 27-country European Union is poised to send about $40.3 billion in aid, including more than $17 billion from Germany alone and $5.6 billion through EU institutions, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economys Ukraine Support Tracker.

Other top contributors include Denmark, $3.5 billion, Poland, $3 billion, and the Netherlands, $2.5 billion.

Some of the EUs biggest military powers are contributing only small portions: France  the blocs No. 2 economy and considered neck-and-neck with Britain as Western Europes biggest military power  has pledged $530 million and Italy some $660 million, the tracker says.

Even far-smaller Lithuania has ponied up more: $710 million.

Britain, which is no longer in the EU, has pledged nearly $6.6 billion worth of military support for Ukraine. Norway, which is also outside the EU, has committed nearly $3.7 billion.

The other nations have also been steps ahead of the U.S. on certain lethal military equipment. It was pressure from NATO allies Poland and Britain that got Germany and eventually the U.S. to provide higher-tech tanks, and Denmark and the Netherlands formed a training coalition to spur the movement of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

(AP)




Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York is facing severe criticism from his colleagues this week after pulling a fire alarm in a congressional office building. The situation was further complicated when a controversial internal memo from his office referred to his Republican peers as Nazis.

Surveillance footage shows Bowman activating a fire alarm on Saturday morning amidst the chaos as lawmakers strived to prevent a government shutdown. Bowman has since claimed that the act was unintentional, suggesting he confused the alarm for a door release as he hurried to cast a vote. Despite his assertions, some Republicans argue that the Congressman intentionally disrupted the proceedings.

I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door. I regret this and sincerely apologize for any confusion this caused, Bowman said.

However, further controversy erupted when an internal memo from Bowmans office to Democrat colleagues emerged, titled Messaging Guidance: Supporting Congressman Jamaal Bowman After Accidental Fire Alarm. Within the document, a pointed remark labeled certain GOP members as Nazi members.

After outrage began growing, Bowman attempted to distance himself from the reference, saying that he did not approve of the terms use and stating the importance of reserving the term Nazi exclusively for its original context.

I just became aware that in our messaging guidance, there was inappropriate use of the term Nazi without my consent, he wrote. I condemn the use of the term Nazi out of its precise definition. It is important to specify the term Nazi to refer to members of the Nazi party & neo-Nazis.

The incident has amplified calls from several Republicans for Bowmans expulsion from Congress. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis commented on the situation on Fox & Friends, likening Bowmans behavior to high school mischief and pointing out his previous role as a high school principal.

On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Bowman has garnered support, most notably from fellow Squad member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who described the alarm pulling as a panicked action rather than a deliberate disruption.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy expressed his disappointment over the situation, emphasizing the need for a thorough investigation and appropriate consequences.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)




The Supreme Court on Thursday held a second hearing on petitions against the Incapacitation Law, passed as an amendment to a Basic Law in March. Israels Basic Laws have never been struck down by the court and the majority of legal scholars believe the Supreme Court does not have the authority to do so.

The Supreme Court held a first hearing on the law in August and then issued a temporary injunction against the implementation of the law.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin on Thursday slammed the fact that such a hearing is even taking. The hearing that is taking place today in court is in actuality a hearing on the revocation of the election results. The meaning of delaying the implementation of the Incapacitation Law is that unelected officials can take authority for themselves which was never given to them and discuss the delusional possibility in itself of ordering a prime minister to incapacitate himself, in complete opposition to the election results.

The petitioners are actually seeking to impeach Prime Minister Netanyahu, in order to put an end to right-wing rule. They failed at the ballot box, and now they want to revoke the election results. The result of this is that Israel will no longer have democracy, but the rule of people who put themselves above the people, above the voters decision at the ballot box.

The chairman of the Knessets Constitution Committee Simcha Rothman said: The very existence of such a discussion in a democratic state is a very extreme act. Its like the government holding a discussion on revoking the elections.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
Partnership to enhance change management support and streamline student information system modernizations for colleges and universities

FETCHAM, England and RESTON, Va., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ellucian, the leading higher education technology solutions provider, today announced a strategic partnership with Portare Solutions, a leading change management consultancy in the United Kingdom with more than 32 years of experience, to accelerate, support and enhance the transition to Software as a Service (SaaS) student information systems for higher education institutions in the UK and Ireland.

Portare Solutions has extensive experience in leading change associated with student information system projects, and has designed a framework with Ellucian to focus on cultural change. It will play a pivotal role in transforming institutions' business processes to ensure they make the most out of new technology solutions, supporting staff in adapting the way they work and de-risking projects.

"We're thrilled to partner with Portare Solutions, a standout leader in change management support. Their expertise and unique approach will play a crucial role in managing the change associated with student information system SaaS projects," said Jeff Dinski, Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer, Ellucian. "This partnership underscores our commitment to providing the best possible service to our customers, helping them navigate transformation, support their staff, and get the most out of their technology investment."

"We are delighted to partner with Ellucian, a global leader in higher education SaaS solutions, to help institutions achieve their goals," said Krissi Sanft, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Portare Solutions. "This partnership is a natural fit, as we share a common vision for the future of higher education. We are confident that together, we can make a real difference in the lives of students and faculty."

Story continues

"Through the partnership, Ellucian and Portare Solutions will together provide institutions with the tools and resources they need to leverage the best from new technologies," added Tilden Lamb, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Portare Solutions.

For more information about Portare Solutions, visit: https://portaresolutions.com/. For more information on Ellucian solutions, visit: https://www.ellucian.com/ or contact matt.searles@ellucian.com

ABOUT PORTARE SOLUTIONS

Portare Solutions is a leader in change and transformation helping organisations to mature change capability and management processes to enable strategic evolution. We are committed to tangibly assisting our clients to achieve the best results and put strategic initiatives into action. Everything we do is centred around change and transformation and we have significant experience in the implementation of education technology in the higher education sector. As well as this, we support our clients across a number of connected business areas including business technology and data strategy, organisational design and operating model, portfolio and programme design and delivery, change as a service, assurance services and we can help to build flexible and permanent skill sets and teams. We work through partnership and we live by our values; trust, integrity and transparency.

ABOUT ELLUCIAN

Ellucian powers innovation for higher education, partnering with more than 2,900 customers across 50 countries, serving 22 million students. Fueled by decades of experience with a singular focus on the unique needs of learning institutions, the Ellucian platform features best-in-class SaaS capabilities and delivers insights needed now and into the future. These solutions and services span the entire student lifecycle, including data-rich tools for student recruitment, enrollment, and retention to workforce analytics, fundraising, and alumni engagement. Ellucian's innovative solutions, vast ecosystem of partners and user community of more than 45,000 provides best practices leading to greater institutional success and achieving better student outcomes.

Media Contact

Lindsay Stanley

Lindsay.Stanley@Ellucian.com

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View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ellucian-partners-with-portare-solutions-to-accelerate-saas-transformation-of-uk-and-ireland-higher-education-institutions-301944717.html

SOURCE Ellucian




Germany and Israel on Thursday signed an agreement for Berlin to buy the sophisticated Arrow 3 missile defense system, designed to intercept long-range ballistic missiles. The development is the latest step in Berlins bid to strengthen its air defenses following Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Germany aims to integrate the system into wider NATO air defense efforts. Last year, Berlin launched the European Sky Shield Initiative, which now includes 19 countries.

Israel secured U.S. approval in August for the $3.5 billion deal, which was needed because the system was jointly developed with the United States.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant signed a memorandum of understanding in Berlin on Thursday for the purchase of Arrow 3.

It is, without exaggerating, a historic day for both our countries, Pistorius told reporters, describing Arrow as one of the best systems, if not the best.

We see from the daily Russian attacks on Ukraine how important air defense is in general, he added. Air defense is essential, and particularly for us here in the center of Europe.

Germany plans to start using Arrow in late 2025, with the system then being built up step by step.

Gallant said that with two simple signatures today, we made history and that Israel is committed to a timely and effective delivery.

This is a moving event for every Jew, he added, pointing to Israels partnership with Germany decades after the Holocaust and to German contributions to Israels security.

Only 80 years since the end of the second world war, yet Israel and Germany join hands today in building a safer future for both nations, Gallant said.

(AP)




An Eritrean national was stabbed to death and at least eight others were injured in violent clashes in the city of Netanya on Motzei Shabbos.

The murder occurred only days after an Eritrean was murdered in Tel Aviv in a similar brawl and less than a month after 170 were injured in hours-long violent clashes among Eritreans in Tel Aviv after a protest spun out of control.

Following the incident, National Security Minister Ben-Gvir stated that suspects in murder cases will be subject to administrative arrest. As far as Im concerned, they need to be deported, but if the Supreme Court doesnt allow it, let the rioters sit in jail.

Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said: We wont leave a stone unturned and we wont close our eyes until we bring those responsible to justice. The entire police force bears the responsibility at this time for the national mission of stopping violence and crime and strengthening the publics feeling of security.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)




What, in fact, do the protest organizations want? Senior political commentator Amit Segal expounded on the topic in his weekly column in Yediot Achranot  and explained why it is doomed to failure.

According to Segal, eliminating the legal reform was an ambitious goal of the protest organizations. It was almost fully achieved. But behind it is the real, much more ambitious, unprecedented goal: that the next government, unlike all 37 of its predecessors, will not include any religious party.

Avigdor Lieberman, Segal wrote, was the first to mark the goal back in February.

Segal continued: The thwarting of the Yom Kippur tefillos already indicates the direction: the secular against the religious. Segal noted the messages of support from Yair Lapid and protest leader Shikma Bressler, messages that were replaced a day later with obstensible calls for reconciliation.

Its a pretty bad tactic, he explained. First, from a political point of view: even according to the blackest survey for the current coalition, the opposition parties have no possibility of forming a government without a religious party, since as can be remembered, Raam is a religious party  very. A protest whose trademark is Israeli flags will find it very difficult to form a coalition based on Abbas and Tibi.

But this is also fundamentally a mistake. The success of the protest was due to the fact that it avoided the traditional disputes, literally, in Israeli society, in which the right cannot lose. The majority of the people support the Likud way in the political debate, and therefore Achim Lneshek furiously tore up signs saying Enough of the Occupation at the Kaplan rallies.

In a Bibi-No Bibi debate, the result will almost always be a paralyzing draw. But in the debate between liberals and conservatives, there is a majority of liberal Jews, including a large part of the Religious Zionist sector. It was the only battle of the year and it was decided in every poll against the most conservative coalition in Israels history. Confrontation about the Kol Nidrei and Neilah tefillos frames the discussion as a debate between the Jews and the Israelis, in which the Jews have had a clear majority for years.

And who is the main political loser according to Segal? Benny Gantz, whose voters are on both sides of the fault line.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)




Famed Saudi blogger Mohammed Saud, an unapologetic supporter of Israel, has gone missing, YWN has exclusively confirmed.

Highly credible sources tell YWN that Saud went missing in Saudi Arabia at approximately 8:00 AM local time Tuesday morning, just minutes after concluding an interview with an Israeli television station.

Over the past several years, Saud has emerged as one of the most  if not the most  pro-Israel public figures in the Arab world. He has established himself as a prominent social media figure and has conducted numerous interviews advocating for peace between Israel and Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, and has even visited Israel and sent letters to the families of terror victims.

Saud, a resident of Riyadh, has publicly stated his support for the State of Israel, the Prime Minister of Israel and even Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak, whose show, Saud claims he watches consistently.

His disappearance comes amid the first-ever visit of an Israeli minister to Saudi Arabia. As YWN reported Tuesday morning, Communications Minister Shomo Karhi (Likud), landed in Saudi Arabia on Monday evening, Chol Hamoed Sukkos, to attend an international conference. Karhi, who is shomer Torah umitzvos, davened in a Minyan with Arba Minim and a Sefer Torah in Riyadh.

Sources tell YWN that employees of Israels Channel 14 attempted to make contact with Saud, but were unsuccessful.

Speculation is running wild among Sauds family, friends, and acquaintances as to what occurred, with rumors that he may have been arrested by Saudi security forces or abducted by anti-Israel actors in Saudi Arabia.

In 2019, Saud was invited to visit Israel by the Foreign Ministry. He received a most unwelcome greeting on Har Habayis, as he was verbally attacked and spat at by Palestinians, who made sure he understood he was not welcome at the holy site. Saud met with Netanyahu on that visit.

Here are his recent tweets from the past day:

Saud has released dozens of videos singing in Hebrew. Here are two:

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
BPS acting boss insisted that the oil giants green drive is on track following his disgraced predecessor Bernard Looneys exit.

Murray Auchincloss, who was the energy groups finance chief before stepping up to be interim chief executive, said one person leaving does not change the strategy.

Looney was seen as the driving force behind BPs energy transition plans, including a target to hit net zero by 2050 or earlier by slashing oil and gas production and investing in renewables.

But the Irish businessman was forced out last month after admitting that he did not disclose all previous romantic relationships with colleagues to the board during an earlier probe into his conduct.

Over the weekend, the 53-year-old was accused of promoting women who he had been in relationships with.

Eco targets: BPS acting boss Murray Auchincloss (right) insisted that the oil giants green drive is on track following the exit of his disgraced predecessor Bernard Looney (left)

His abrupt exit has raised questions over the future of BPs green agenda.

Speaking at the Abu Dhabi International Progressive Energy Congress (ADIPEC) in Abu Dhabi yesterday, Auchincloss insisted that the strategy is unchanged. He said: We laid out an update to the strategy in February, seven months ago.

Thats a strategy thats endorsed by the management team and endorsed by the board, one person leaving does not change the strategy.

He added that the industry needs to continue to invest in oil and gas, saying that the energy transition will take time.

Oil executives and policymakers are in Abu Dhabi this week for the energy conference ahead of the United Nations COP 28 climate talks in Dubai, which begin on November 30.

Shell chief executive Wael Sawan, who appeared on a panel with Auchincloss, said the oil firm has no plans to sway from its green strategy.

The company has faced criticism for slowing its renewable energy transition since Sawan took over in January, saying it will maintain oil production close to current levels and ramp up production of natural gas.

Ultimately the shareholder needs to make a judgment whether the low carbon energy options were putting in front of them are investable, and we need to be able to cover our cost of capital and make a return for our shareholders, he told the event.

Meanwhile, the chief executive of French energy group Total Energies warned that the energy transition will push up prices for customers, saying governments must find a way to make the increase gradual.

We strongly believe electricity prices will go up in the future, Patrick Pouyanne said.

Vicki Hollub, the chief executive of US-based Occidental Petroleum, said it is important for energy firms to be included in the climate debate as they have solutions to mitigate the impact.

The bosses of oil and gas firms and heavy industry chiefs met to discuss emissions ahead of COP 28.

The aim is to get major industry players to make decarbonisation commitments that would help limit global warming.

We are hoping to reach this agreement before COP28 and then to align on how best this will be positioned at the COP, said COP28 chief executive Adnan Amin.
Green shoots: Investment bank Peel Hunts revenues increased 3.2% year-on-year

Peel Hunt said it was seeing encouraging signs of recovery.

But although the investment banks revenues increased 3.2 per cent year-on-year to 42.4million for the six months to the end of September, boss Steven Fine said more needed to be done to shift the negative mindset about the City.

We need fundamental change to address the malaise in UK equity markets, Fine said.

He said this would partly come from reforming Individual Savings Accounts (ISA), encouraging more people to become retail investors in London-listed companies.

He said: We would support incentivising new ISAs to invest a proportion of assets into UK-listed companies, as well as the introduction of a dedicated ISA for investment in UK listed mid-cap and growth companies.
PSI Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Free Report) by 10.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,125 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after acquiring an additional 473 shares during the quarter. PSI Advisors LLCs holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $328,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 2.5% during the first quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC now owns 6,001 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $416,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Keystone Wealth Services LLC raised its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Keystone Wealth Services LLC now owns 7,468 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $518,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Dillon & Associates Inc. raised its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Dillon & Associates Inc. now owns 3,955 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $245,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Abbrea Capital LLC raised its position in Bristol-Myers Squibb by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Abbrea Capital LLC now owns 10,025 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $695,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westshore Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Westshore Wealth LLC now owns 3,658 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $254,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. 74.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock Performance

Bristol-Myers Squibb stock traded down $0.57 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $57.47. The stock had a trading volume of 2,942,705 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,983,468. The company has a 50-day moving average of $60.82 and a two-hundred day moving average of $64.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The company has a market cap of $120.06 billion, a PE ratio of 15.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.43. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a fifty-two week low of $57.44 and a fifty-two week high of $81.43.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

Bristol-Myers Squibb ( NYSE:BMY Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.99 by ($0.24). Bristol-Myers Squibb had a net margin of 17.62% and a return on equity of 50.51%. The company had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.81 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.93 earnings per share. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 5th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.97%. Bristol-Myers Squibbs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 60.64%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on BMY shares. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb from $80.00 to $66.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 15th. Daiwa Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Wednesday, June 28th. They set an outperform rating and a $70.00 price target on the stock. Atlantic Securities lowered their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 28th. HSBC started coverage on Bristol-Myers Squibb in a research note on Friday, July 14th. They set a reduce rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price target on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $69.64.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on Bristol-Myers Squibb

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bristol-Myers Squibb news, EVP Robert M. Plenge sold 732 shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.14, for a total transaction of $44,754.48. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,584 shares in the company, valued at $402,545.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Ann Powell sold 17,986 shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.25, for a total value of $1,101,642.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 27,868 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,706,915. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Robert M. Plenge sold 732 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.14, for a total value of $44,754.48. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $402,545.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.08% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Bristol-Myers Squibb

(Free Report)

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, and neuroscience diseases. The company's products include Eliquis, an oral inhibitor for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in NVAF, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for anti-cancer indications; Pomalyst/Imnovid indicated for patients with multiple myeloma; Orencia for adult patients with active RA and psoriatic arthritis; and Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia.

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First Command Bank lessened its holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO  Free Report) by 14.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 597 shares of the medical research companys stock after selling 102 shares during the quarter. First Command Banks holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $311,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. boosted its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 1.7% in the second quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 26,031 shares of the medical research companys stock valued at $13,582,000 after acquiring an additional 430 shares during the period. Northern Financial Advisors Inc lifted its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 59.4% during the second quarter. Northern Financial Advisors Inc now owns 1,747 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $911,000 after purchasing an additional 651 shares during the period. Alta Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 5.1% during the second quarter. Alta Capital Management LLC now owns 88,286 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $46,064,000 after purchasing an additional 4,307 shares during the period. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 2.4% during the second quarter. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC now owns 27,198 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $14,191,000 after purchasing an additional 643 shares during the period. Finally, Sendero Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the second quarter worth about $1,023,000. Institutional investors own 87.06% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Credit Suisse Group raised shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $620.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 13th. Raymond James boosted their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $595.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $664.00 to $625.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $505.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Thermo Fisher Scientific in a research note on Thursday. They set an outperform rating and a $603.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $627.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Thermo Fisher Scientific news, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.77, for a total transaction of $1,673,310.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 17,556 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,792,210.12. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CFO Stephen Williamson sold 14,100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $550.00, for a total value of $7,755,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,066,150. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $557.77, for a total value of $1,673,310.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 17,556 shares in the company, valued at $9,792,210.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 28,700 shares of company stock worth $15,799,270. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the companys stock.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Trading Down 2.8 %

NYSE:TMO traded down $14.05 on Monday, reaching $492.12. 809,724 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,486,198. The firm has a market capitalization of $189.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.79. The companys 50 day moving average is $535.13 and its 200-day moving average is $538.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 1-year low of $475.77 and a 1-year high of $609.85.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The medical research company reported $5.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $5.43 by ($0.28). The firm had revenue of $10.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.99 billion. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a net margin of 13.14% and a return on equity of 18.59%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.51 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 22.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th. Thermo Fisher Scientifics payout ratio is 9.57%.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Company Profile

(Free Report)

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc provides life sciences solutions, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, and laboratory products and biopharma services in the United States and internationally. The company's Life Sciences Solutions segment offers reagents, instruments, and consumables for biological and medical research, discovery, and production of drugs and vaccines, as well as diagnosis of infections and diseases; and solutions include biosciences, genetic sciences, clinical next-generation sequencing, bio production to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agricultural, clinical, healthcare, academic, and government markets.

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Mcdaniel Terry & Co. purchased a new position in shares of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY  Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 436 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in Eli Lilly and Company by 15.6% during the second quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 459 shares of the companys stock valued at $215,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Graypoint LLC raised its stake in Eli Lilly and Company by 16.9% during the 2nd quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 5,765 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,704,000 after purchasing an additional 834 shares during the last quarter. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. raised its stake in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 65.4% in the 2nd quarter. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. now owns 1,745 shares of the companys stock valued at $818,000 after buying an additional 690 shares in the last quarter. PSI Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. PSI Advisors LLC now owns 2,642 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,239,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kovack Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 19.6% in the 2nd quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 3,368 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,579,000 after buying an additional 553 shares in the last quarter. 81.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Insider Activity

In other Eli Lilly and Company news, major shareholder Lilly Endowment Inc sold 591 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.62, for a total value of $275,772.42. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 101,028,219 shares in the company, valued at $47,141,787,549.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, major shareholder Lilly Endowment Inc sold 591 shares of the firms stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $466.62, for a total transaction of $275,772.42. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 101,028,219 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $47,141,787,549.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Donald A. Zakrowski sold 600 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Monday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $546.51, for a total value of $327,906.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 5,378 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,939,130.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 693,246 shares of company stock valued at $20,948,820,977 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LLY has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $500.00 to $615.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 8th. Credit Suisse Group lifted their price target on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $490.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 9th. HSBC assumed coverage on shares of Eli Lilly and Company in a research note on Friday, July 14th. They set a buy rating and a $560.00 price objective on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $565.00 to $633.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 9th. Finally, 22nd Century Group reiterated a maintains rating on shares of Eli Lilly and Company in a report on Tuesday, June 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $532.78.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Eli Lilly and Company

Eli Lilly and Company Stock Down 1.6 %

Eli Lilly and Company stock traded down $8.72 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $528.41. The company had a trading volume of 1,043,773 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,993,831. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $533.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $455.91. Eli Lilly and Company has a 12 month low of $309.20 and a 12 month high of $601.84. The company has a market capitalization of $501.61 billion, a PE ratio of 74.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.33.

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 8th. The company reported $2.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.98 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $8.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.58 billion. Eli Lilly and Company had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 22.01%. The companys quarterly revenue was up 28.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.25 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Eli Lilly and Company will post 9.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Eli Lilly and Company

(Free Report)

Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, and markets human pharmaceuticals worldwide. It offers Basaglar, Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, insulin lispro protamine, insulin lispro mix 75/25, Humulin, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N, Humulin R, and Humulin U-500 for diabetes; and Jardiance, Trajenta, and Trulicity for type 2 diabetes.

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Elon Musk. Nathan Howard/Getty Images

Members of Ukraine's parliament have been hitting out at X owner Elon Musk in posts on the platform.

The posts appeared to be a response to a meme Musk posted mocking the Ukrainian president.

Musk's relationship with Ukraine has become increasingly tense.

Members of Ukraine's parliament are hitting out at Elon Musk after he mocked the country's war-time president.

The world's richest man posted a meme that took aim at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over his appeals for international aid. The Ukrainian leader has secured billions of dollars of military aid from allies since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The image, which cropped Zelenskyy's face onto a meme template, featured the text: "When it's been 5 minutes and you haven't asked for a billion dollars in aid."

Ruslan Stefanchuk, the chairperson of Ukraine's parliament, took a dig at Musk in response. In an apparent reference to SpaceX's failed launch, he said: "The case when a dude @elonmusk tried to conquer space, but something went wrong and in 5 minutes he was up to his eyeballs in shit."

In a post to its official X page, Ukraine's parliament posted the same meme with an image of Musk overlayed with the text: "When it's been 5 minutes and you haven't spread russian propaganda." The meme was reported and appeared in several outlets but appears to have been deleted.

Representatives for Elon Musk did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside regular working hours.

Musk's comments come amid a tense relationship with Ukraine.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a Zelenskyy advisor, previously slammed Musk over a report that said the SpaceX founder had denied Ukraine Starlink access in Crimea.

X has also been accused by the EU of being a weapon for Russian disinformation. The company has pushed back on the "overall framing" of the report.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Private Ocean LLC increased its stake in shares of iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:AGG  Free Report) by 6.1% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 33,050 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 1,901 shares during the quarter. Private Ocean LLCs holdings in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF were worth $3,237,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its holdings in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 145.5% in the 1st quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 6,590 shares of the companys stock valued at $705,000 after buying an additional 3,906 shares during the period. Laurel Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 36.2% in the 1st quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 52,003 shares of the companys stock valued at $5,570,000 after buying an additional 13,829 shares during the period. Worth Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF in the 1st quarter valued at $44,000. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF in the 1st quarter valued at $241,000. Finally, West Michigan Advisors LLC increased its holdings in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. West Michigan Advisors LLC now owns 14,640 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,568,000 after buying an additional 292 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.21% of the companys stock.

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iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF Trading Down 0.9 %

iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF stock traded down $0.80 on Monday, hitting $93.24. The companys stock had a trading volume of 4,912,011 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,340,662. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $95.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $97.73. iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF has a one year low of $93.10 and a one year high of $101.15.

iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF Company Profile

IShares are index funds that are bought and sold like common stocks on national securities exchanges as well as certain foreign exchanges. iShares are attractive because of their relatively low cost, tax efficiency and trading flexibility. Investors can purchase and sell shares through any brokerage firm, financial advisor, or online broker, and hold the funds in any type of brokerage account.

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First Command Bank reduced its position in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY  Free Report) by 2.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 18,003 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after selling 545 shares during the quarter. First Command Banks holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb were worth $1,151,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dakota Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in the first quarter valued at $332,000. Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 111.5% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,052 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $150,000 after purchasing an additional 1,082 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 53.2% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 165,336 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $12,075,000 after purchasing an additional 57,444 shares in the last quarter. Ergoteles LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in the first quarter valued at $1,997,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb by 25.1% in the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 338,563 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $24,725,000 after purchasing an additional 68,018 shares in the last quarter. 74.98% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BMY traded down $0.50 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $57.54. The companys stock had a trading volume of 4,430,941 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,990,859. The stock has a market capitalization of $120.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.39, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.43. The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $60.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $64.49. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a fifty-two week low of $57.15 and a fifty-two week high of $81.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.39.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Announces Dividend

Bristol-Myers Squibb ( NYSE:BMY Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.99 by ($0.24). The business had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.81 billion. Bristol-Myers Squibb had a net margin of 17.62% and a return on equity of 50.51%. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.93 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Bristol-Myers Squibb will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 6th will be given a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 5th. Bristol-Myers Squibbs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 60.64%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bristol-Myers Squibb news, EVP Ann Powell sold 17,986 shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.25, for a total transaction of $1,101,642.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 27,868 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,706,915. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Bristol-Myers Squibb news, EVP Robert M. Plenge sold 732 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.14, for a total transaction of $44,754.48. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 6,584 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $402,545.76. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Ann Powell sold 17,986 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.25, for a total value of $1,101,642.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 27,868 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,706,915. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.08% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BMY has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $78.00 to $65.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 28th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $80.00 to $66.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 15th. Bank of America cut their price objective on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 28th. Credit Suisse Group cut their price objective on Bristol-Myers Squibb from $72.00 to $66.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 12th. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a buy rating and set a $84.00 price objective on shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb in a report on Friday, September 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $69.64.

View Our Latest Research Report on BMY

Bristol-Myers Squibb Profile

(Free Report)

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, and neuroscience diseases. The company's products include Eliquis, an oral inhibitor for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in NVAF, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for anti-cancer indications; Pomalyst/Imnovid indicated for patients with multiple myeloma; Orencia for adult patients with active RA and psoriatic arthritis; and Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia.

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Atticus Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:VOO  Free Report) by 267.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,113 shares of the companys stock after buying an additional 810 shares during the quarter. Atticus Wealth Management LLCs holdings in Vanguard S&P 500 ETF were worth $453,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Reitz Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Vanguard S&P 500 ETF by 1.4% during the second quarter. Reitz Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,750 shares of the companys stock valued at $713,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. First Community Trust NA raised its stake in Vanguard S&P 500 ETF by 11.5% during the 2nd quarter. First Community Trust NA now owns 252 shares of the companys stock valued at $103,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Oxinas Partners Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Vanguard S&P 500 ETF by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Oxinas Partners Wealth Management LLC now owns 576 shares of the companys stock worth $235,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Vanguard S&P 500 ETF by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,437 shares of the companys stock worth $1,293,000 after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the last quarter. Finally, REDW Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Vanguard S&P 500 ETF by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. REDW Wealth LLC now owns 1,362 shares of the companys stock worth $512,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period.

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Vanguard S&P 500 ETF Stock Down 0.2 %

VOO traded down $0.64 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $392.06. 1,747,016 shares of the companys stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,812,104. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF has a 52-week low of $319.87 and a 52-week high of $422.15. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $408.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $394.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $313.66 billion, a PE ratio of 19.80 and a beta of 1.00.

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF Company Profile

Vanguard 500 Index Fund (the Fund) is an open-end investment company, or mutual fund. The Fund offers four classes of shares: Investor Shares, Admiral Shares, Signal Shares, and Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) Shares. The Fund seeks to track the investment performance of the Standard & Poors 500 Index, an unmanaged benchmark representing the United States large-capitalization stocks.

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First Command Bank boosted its position in The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO  Free Report) by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 15,560 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the period. First Command Banks holdings in Coca-Cola were worth $937,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of KO. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Coca-Cola during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,783,000. Nilsine Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Coca-Cola by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Nilsine Partners LLC now owns 40,484 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,438,000 after buying an additional 553 shares during the period. Graypoint LLC grew its stake in shares of Coca-Cola by 52.2% during the 2nd quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 23,683 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,426,000 after buying an additional 8,121 shares during the period. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Coca-Cola by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 63,673 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,834,000 after buying an additional 2,205 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Financial Advisors Inc grew its stake in shares of Coca-Cola by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Northern Financial Advisors Inc now owns 20,830 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,254,000 after buying an additional 1,348 shares during the period. 68.96% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Coca-Cola Stock Down 1.3 %

KO stock traded down $0.70 during trading on Monday, reaching $55.28. The stock had a trading volume of 6,403,863 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,127,822. The Coca-Cola Company has a 1-year low of $54.01 and a 1-year high of $64.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29. The company has a market capitalization of $239.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.07, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.56. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $59.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $61.06.

Coca-Cola Announces Dividend

Coca-Cola ( NYSE:KO Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 26th. The company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.06. Coca-Cola had a net margin of 23.81% and a return on equity of 43.06%. The firm had revenue of $12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.74 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.70 EPS. The firms revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that The Coca-Cola Company will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be given a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th. Coca-Colas payout ratio is currently 75.72%.

Insider Transactions at Coca-Cola

In other news, CEO James Quincey sold 92,029 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.09, for a total value of $5,345,964.61. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 442,546 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $25,707,497.14. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO James Quincey sold 92,029 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.09, for a total value of $5,345,964.61. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 442,546 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $25,707,497.14. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Monica Howard Douglas sold 21,074 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.90, for a total transaction of $1,283,406.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 18,360 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,118,124. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 319,393 shares of company stock valued at $19,467,980. Insiders own 1.00% of the companys stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on KO. HSBC lowered their price objective on shares of Coca-Cola from $77.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 7th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Coca-Cola from $69.00 to $70.00 in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Wedbush lifted their target price on shares of Coca-Cola from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, July 27th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Coca-Cola in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Coca-Cola from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, July 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Coca-Cola has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $68.33.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Coca-Cola

About Coca-Cola

(Free Report)

The Coca-Cola Company, a beverage company, manufactures, markets, and sells various nonalcoholic beverages worldwide. The company provides sparkling soft drinks, sparkling flavors; water, sports, coffee, and tea; juice, value-added dairy, and plant-based beverages; and other beverages. It also offers beverage concentrates and syrups, as well as fountain syrups to fountain retailers, such as restaurants and convenience stores.

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Chemung Canal Trust Co. lessened its holdings in iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (NYSEARCA:EFA  Free Report) by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,846 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after selling 296 shares during the quarter. Chemung Canal Trust Co.s holdings in iShares MSCI EAFE ETF were worth $1,294,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of EFA. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC raised its holdings in iShares MSCI EAFE ETF by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 27,656 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $2,005,000 after purchasing an additional 2,159 shares during the last quarter. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in iShares MSCI EAFE ETF by 29.4% during the 1st quarter. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC now owns 5,441 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $389,000 after acquiring an additional 1,236 shares during the last quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC acquired a new position in iShares MSCI EAFE ETF during the 1st quarter worth approximately $281,000. Prosperity Planning Inc. raised its stake in shares of iShares MSCI EAFE ETF by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Prosperity Planning Inc. now owns 207,627 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $15,053,000 after purchasing an additional 6,271 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Triasima Portfolio Management inc. raised its stake in shares of iShares MSCI EAFE ETF by 12.9% during the 1st quarter. Triasima Portfolio Management inc. now owns 23,870 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $1,707,000 after purchasing an additional 2,720 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.78% of the companys stock.

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iShares MSCI EAFE ETF Stock Down 1.5 %

EFA traded down $1.05 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $67.87. The companys stock had a trading volume of 13,247,597 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,779,283. iShares MSCI EAFE ETF has a 52 week low of $54.61 and a 52 week high of $74.74. The companys 50-day moving average is $71.30 and its 200-day moving average is $71.89.

iShares MSCI EAFE ETF Profile

iShares MSCI EAFE ETF, formerly iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund (the Fund), is an exchange-traded fund. The Funds investment objective is to seek investment results that correspond to the price and yield performance of its underlying index, MSCI EAFE Index (the Index). The Index has been developed by MSCI Inc as an equity benchmark for its international stock performance.

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CarMax (NYSE:KMX  Free Report) had its price target decreased by Truist Financial from $82.00 to $72.00 in a report issued on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Truist Financial currently has a hold rating on the stock.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on KMX. Northcoast Research lowered shares of CarMax from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report on Monday, June 12th. Stephens cut their target price on shares of CarMax from $78.00 to $70.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Friday. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of CarMax from $96.00 to $88.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Friday. Wedbush raised shares of CarMax from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and lifted their target price for the company from $85.00 to $90.00 in a report on Monday, September 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of CarMax from $85.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, July 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $76.80.

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CarMax Stock Performance

KMX opened at $69.72 on Friday. CarMax has a 12-month low of $52.10 and a 12-month high of $87.50. The company has a current ratio of 2.32, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.03 billion, a PE ratio of 24.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.45. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $81.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $76.03.

CarMax (NYSE:KMX  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 28th. The company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.75. The firm had revenue of $7.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.02 billion. CarMax had a net margin of 1.68% and a return on equity of 7.14%. The businesss quarterly revenue was down 13.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.79 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that CarMax will post 3.04 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other CarMax news, SVP Jon G. Daniels sold 15,730 shares of CarMax stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.59, for a total transaction of $1,330,600.70. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 1,525 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $128,999.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CMO James Lyski sold 67,345 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.27, for a total transaction of $5,675,163.15. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 21,786 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,835,906.22. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jon G. Daniels sold 15,730 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.59, for a total transaction of $1,330,600.70. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 1,525 shares in the company, valued at approximately $128,999.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 90,858 shares of company stock valued at $7,669,265 in the last 90 days. 1.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of KMX. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of CarMax during the 4th quarter valued at about $99,730,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in CarMax by 29.4% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,548,930 shares of the companys stock valued at $342,400,000 after buying an additional 805,438 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in CarMax by 562.7% in the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 887,400 shares of the companys stock valued at $54,034,000 after buying an additional 753,500 shares during the period. Avalon Investment & Advisory purchased a new stake in CarMax in the 1st quarter valued at about $47,033,000. Finally, Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. purchased a new stake in CarMax in the 1st quarter valued at about $46,667,000.

CarMax Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

CarMax, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a retailer of used vehicles in the United States. It operates in two segments, CarMax Sales Operations and CarMax Auto Finance. The company offers customers a range of makes and models of used vehicles, including domestic, imported, and luxury vehicles, as well as hybrid and electric vehicles; and extended protection plans to customers at the time of sale, as well as sells vehicles that are approximately 10 years old and has more than 100,000 miles through wholesale auctions.

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nVent Electric plc (NYSE:NVT  Get Free Report) has earned an average recommendation of Moderate Buy from the five brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $55.25.

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays raised their price target on shares of nVent Electric from $55.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on nVent Electric from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, July 31st. Seaport Res Ptn reiterated a neutral rating on shares of nVent Electric in a research report on Monday, August 7th. Finally, William Blair initiated coverage on nVent Electric in a research report on Thursday, July 27th. They set an outperform rating on the stock.

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Insider Transactions at nVent Electric

Institutional Trading of nVent Electric

In other nVent Electric news, insider Joseph A. Ruzynski sold 4,711 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.66, for a total transaction of $257,503.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 38,440 shares in the company, valued at $2,101,130.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink . In related news, CAO Randolph A. Wacker sold 1,519 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.21, for a total transaction of $83,863.99. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 20,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,124,406.86. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink . Also, insider Joseph A. Ruzynski sold 4,711 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.66, for a total value of $257,503.26. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 38,440 shares of the companys stock, valued at $2,101,130.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . 2.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Barclays PLC lifted its position in nVent Electric by 48.6% during the 2nd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 191,107 shares of the companys stock worth $9,876,000 after buying an additional 62,513 shares in the last quarter. Virginia Retirement Systems ET AL bought a new position in shares of nVent Electric in the second quarter worth about $3,767,000. Osaic Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of nVent Electric by 5.7% in the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 152,345 shares of the companys stock worth $7,873,000 after acquiring an additional 8,270 shares during the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its position in shares of nVent Electric by 10.5% during the second quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 28,883 shares of the companys stock worth $1,492,000 after purchasing an additional 2,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of nVent Electric in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors own 87.76% of the companys stock.

nVent Electric Price Performance

NYSE NVT opened at $52.00 on Tuesday. nVent Electric has a twelve month low of $30.61 and a twelve month high of $58.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a current ratio of 2.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.62 billion, a PE ratio of 19.12 and a beta of 1.32. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $54.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $48.62.

nVent Electric (NYSE:NVT  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 28th. The company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.09. nVent Electric had a return on equity of 16.85% and a net margin of 15.14%. The company had revenue of $803.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $809.05 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.57 EPS. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that nVent Electric will post 2.9 EPS for the current year.

nVent Electric Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 20th will be paid a $0.175 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 19th. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.35%. nVent Electrics dividend payout ratio is currently 25.74%.

nVent Electric Company Profile

(Get Free Report

nVent Electric plc designs, manufactures, markets, installs, and services electrical connection and protection products worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Enclosures, Electrical & Fastening Solutions, and Thermal Management. The Enclosures segment provides solutions to connect and protect critical electronics, communication, control, and power equipment; physical infrastructure solutions to host, connect, and protect server and network equipment; indoor and outdoor protection for test and measurement and aerospace and defense applications in industrial, infrastructure, commercial, and energy verticals; and metallic and non-metallic enclosures, cabinets, sub racks, and backplanes.

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Shares of EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE:EGP  Get Free Report) have been given a consensus recommendation of Moderate Buy by the nine research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $189.78.

Several research firms have recently commented on EGP. BTIG Research upped their target price on EastGroup Properties from $198.00 to $218.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on EastGroup Properties from $195.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. Citigroup boosted their price target on EastGroup Properties from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, July 14th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on EastGroup Properties from $174.00 to $188.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on EastGroup Properties in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a hold rating for the company.

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Insider Activity at EastGroup Properties

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

In related news, SVP Richard Reid Dunbar sold 1,600 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.25, for a total transaction of $290,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 17,288 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $3,133,450. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website . 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of EGP. American Century Companies Inc. bought a new position in EastGroup Properties during the 1st quarter worth $354,000. Group One Trading L.P. bought a new position in shares of EastGroup Properties in the 1st quarter worth about $41,000. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 10.3% in the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 1,212 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $246,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in shares of EastGroup Properties in the 1st quarter worth about $12,520,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of EastGroup Properties by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,172,033 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $1,254,651,000 after acquiring an additional 133,344 shares in the last quarter. 90.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

EastGroup Properties Price Performance

EastGroup Properties stock opened at $164.32 on Tuesday. EastGroup Properties has a 12 month low of $137.47 and a 12 month high of $188.85. The stocks 50 day moving average is $175.94 and its 200-day moving average is $171.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company has a market capitalization of $7.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.82, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.94.

EastGroup Properties Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 13th. Investors of record on Friday, September 29th will be issued a dividend of $1.27 per share. This is an increase from EastGroup Propertiess previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 28th. This represents a $5.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.09%. EastGroup Propertiess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 135.47%.

About EastGroup Properties

(Get Free Report

EastGroup Properties, Inc (NYSE: EGP), a member of the S&P Mid-Cap 400 and Russell 1000 Indexes, is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust focused on the development, acquisition and operation of industrial properties in major Sunbelt markets throughout the United States with an emphasis in the states of Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and North Carolina.

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Parker-Hannifin Co. (NYSE:PH  Get Free Report) has earned a consensus rating of Moderate Buy from the eleven research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $436.29.

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America lifted their price target on Parker-Hannifin from $395.00 to $435.00 in a report on Friday, July 14th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Parker-Hannifin from $450.00 to $460.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, August 4th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $470.00 price target on shares of Parker-Hannifin in a report on Thursday, September 14th. Argus boosted their price objective on Parker-Hannifin from $390.00 to $460.00 in a report on Friday, August 4th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on Parker-Hannifin from $335.00 to $415.00 in a report on Friday, July 7th.

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Insider Activity

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Parker-Hannifin

In other news, VP Berend Bracht sold 863 shares of the companys stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $419.47, for a total value of $362,002.61. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 2,700 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,132,569. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink . In related news, Director Joseph Scaminace sold 1,660 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.91, for a total value of $680,450.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,487 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,249,176.17. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website . Also, VP Berend Bracht sold 863 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $419.47, for a total value of $362,002.61. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 2,700 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,132,569. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Insiders sold a total of 12,918 shares of company stock valued at $5,385,885 in the last ninety days. 1.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new position in Parker-Hannifin during the 1st quarter worth approximately $202,000. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its position in Parker-Hannifin by 17.5% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 62,151 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $18,086,000 after acquiring an additional 9,271 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in Parker-Hannifin by 57.7% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 752 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $253,000 after acquiring an additional 275 shares during the last quarter. American Trust acquired a new position in Parker-Hannifin during the 1st quarter worth approximately $334,000. Finally, Empower Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Parker-Hannifin during the 1st quarter worth approximately $409,000. 82.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Parker-Hannifin Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:PH opened at $385.21 on Tuesday. Parker-Hannifin has a 52 week low of $244.28 and a 52 week high of $428.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.88. The companys fifty day moving average is $403.94 and its 200-day moving average is $366.80. The company has a market capitalization of $49.50 billion, a PE ratio of 24.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.52.

Parker-Hannifin (NYSE:PH  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The industrial products company reported $6.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $5.48 by $0.60. Parker-Hannifin had a return on equity of 29.26% and a net margin of 10.93%. The business had revenue of $5.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $5.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $5.16 earnings per share. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Parker-Hannifin will post 22.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Parker-Hannifin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 28th were paid a $1.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 25th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Parker-Hannifins dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.00%.

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 ensure purity and remove contaminants from fuel, air, oil, water, and other liquids and gases; connectors used in fluid and gas handling; and hydraulic, pneumatic, and electromechanical components and systems for builders and users of mobile and industrial machinery and equipment.

Further Reading

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Eni SpA E, Italy's energy giant, announced a significant gas discovery in the Kutei Basin, situated off the coast of East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The Geng North-1 exploration well, drilled in the North Ganal PSC, yielded preliminary estimates of a staggering 5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas in place, along with an expected 400 million barrels of condensate.

According to Eni, the Geng North-1 well, reaching a depth of 5,025 meters in 1,947 meters of water, encountered a gas column approximately 50 meters thick in a Miocene sandstone reservoir with exceptional petrophysical properties. Following an extensive data acquisition campaign, a successful well production test revealed a capacity of up to 80-100 million standard cubic feet per day of gas and 5-6 thousand barrels per day of condensate.

The gas-rich discovery aligns with Eni's strategic vision to transition toward a portfolio composition where gas and LNG play a dominant role, targeting 60% by 2030. The newfound gas deposit not only presents an opportunity to establish a new production hub in the Northern part of the Kutei Basin but also allows for integration with existing Bontang LNG facilities, optimizing capacity utilization.

Beyond the Geng North discovery, Eni believes that there is an additional 5 trillion cubic feet of gas in place within undeveloped discoveries in the same area of interest. Ongoing studies indicate a multi-Tcf exploration potential. This untapped potential signifies a wealth of opportunities for future exploration and production endeavors. The completion of Eni's acquisition of Neptune Energy represents a significant development in consolidating Eni's standing in the North Ganal area.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Eni currently carries a Zack Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked players in the energy sector are Matador Resources Company MTDR, currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and Range Resources Corporation RRC and Core Laboratories Inc CLB, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Story continues

Matador Resources is among the leading oil and gas explorers in the shale and unconventional resources in the United States. The companys prime intention is to create more value for shareholders and generate lucrative returns from the capital invested in unconventional plays. MTDR has witnessed an upward earnings estimate revision for 2024 over the past 30 days.

Range Resources is among the top 10 natural gas producers in the United States with a diversified asset portfolio spread between low-risk and long reserve-life Appalachian assets. The companys extensive inventory of Marcellus resources with low breakeven points is a significant asset. RRC has witnessed an upward earnings estimate revision for 2023 and 2024 in the past seven days.

Core Laboratories strong presence in the emerging shale plays and its global footprint will provide for steady growth rates going forward. CLBs technology-heavy portfolio of proprietary products and services gives it the opportunity to optimize production from new and existing fields. It has witnessed an upward earnings estimate revision for 2024 in the past 60 days.

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Core Laboratories Inc. (CLB) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Eni SpA (E) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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Matador Resources Company (MTDR) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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Zacks Investment Research
Shares of WEX Inc. (NYSE:WEX  Get Free Report) have earned a consensus recommendation of Moderate Buy from the eleven analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $215.15.

WEX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Credit Suisse Group increased their price objective on WEX from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Bank of America increased their price objective on WEX from $219.00 to $226.00 in a research report on Friday, July 14th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on WEX in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on WEX in a research report on Friday, July 7th. They issued a hold rating and a $190.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on WEX from $180.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 18th.

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Insider Activity at WEX

Institutional Trading of WEX

In related news, CEO Melissa D. Smith sold 41,107 shares of WEX stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.00, for a total transaction of $8,015,865.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 81,998 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $15,989,610. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website . In related news, CEO Melissa D. Smith sold 41,107 shares of WEX stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.00, for a total transaction of $8,015,865.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 81,998 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $15,989,610. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website . Also, COO Carlos Carriedo sold 756 shares of WEX stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.68, for a total value of $144,154.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 47,464 shares of company stock valued at $9,197,026. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in WEX by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,196,239 shares of the business services providers stock worth $748,819,000 after acquiring an additional 131,664 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in WEX by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,107,306 shares of the business services providers stock worth $732,950,000 after acquiring an additional 49,480 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in WEX by 4.2% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,101,566 shares of the business services providers stock worth $731,925,000 after acquiring an additional 164,902 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in WEX by 342.4% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,059,893 shares of the business services providers stock worth $337,102,000 after acquiring an additional 1,594,294 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in WEX by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,336,884 shares of the business services providers stock worth $245,840,000 after acquiring an additional 39,312 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.47% of the companys stock.

WEX Price Performance

WEX opened at $186.75 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $193.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $184.20. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41. The company has a market cap of $8.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.58. WEX has a 12-month low of $128.44 and a 12-month high of $204.05.

WEX (NYSE:WEX  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The business services provider reported $3.06 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.07 by ($0.01). WEX had a net margin of 8.42% and a return on equity of 31.60%. The company had revenue of $621.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $620.63 million. Research analysts predict that WEX will post 12.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About WEX

(Get Free Report

WEX Inc operates a commerce platform in the United States and internationally. The Fleet Solutions segment offers fleet vehicle payment solutions, transaction processing, and information management services. It also provides account and account retention services; authorization and billing inquiries, and account maintenance services; account management; credit and collections services; merchant services; analytics solutions; and ancillary services and tools to fleets to manage expenses and capital requirements.

Further Reading

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Sylvamo (NYSE:SLVM  Get Free Report) is one of 17 public companies in the Paper mills industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Sylvamo to similar companies based on the strength of its earnings, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.1% of Sylvamo shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.7% of shares of all Paper mills companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Sylvamo shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.5% of shares of all Paper mills companies are owned by insiders. 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 summary of current recommendations and price targets for Sylvamo and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Sylvamo 0 1 1 0 2.50 Sylvamo Competitors 112 714 472 48 2.34

Risk & Volatility

Sylvamo currently has a consensus target price of $52.50, suggesting a potential upside of 24.44%. As a group, Paper mills companies have a potential upside of 31.25%. Given Sylvamos competitors higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Sylvamo has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Sylvamo has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sylvamos competitors have a beta of 1.31, suggesting that their average stock price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Sylvamo and its competitors revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Gross Revenue Net Income Price/Earnings Ratio Sylvamo $3.63 billion $118.00 million 6.20 Sylvamo Competitors $5.57 billion $686.61 million 29.23

Sylvamos competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Sylvamo. Sylvamo is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Sylvamo and its competitors net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Sylvamo 7.87% 55.02% 12.80% Sylvamo Competitors 7.59% 18.89% 6.66%

Dividends

Sylvamo pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Sylvamo pays out 14.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, Paper mills companies pay a dividend yield of 3.7% and pay out 57.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Sylvamo competitors beat Sylvamo on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

Sylvamo Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Sylvamo Corporation produces and markets uncoated freesheet, cutsize, offset paper, and pulp in Latin America, Europe, and North America. The company operates through Europe, Latin America, and North America segments. The Europe segment offers copy, tinted, and colored laser printing paper under REY Adagio and Pro-Design brands; and high-speed inkjet printing papers under the brand Jetstar; as well as produces uncoated freesheet papers. This segment also operates paper and pulp mill. The Latin America segment focuses on uncoated freesheet paper under Chamex, Chamequinho and Chambril brands, as well as produces HP papers. This segment also operates integrated mills and nonintegrated mills. The North America segment offers imaging, commercial printing, and converting papers, as well as uncoated papers under Hammermill, Springhill, Williamsburg, Accent, DRM and Postmark brand names. It distributes its products through a variety of channels, including merchants, e-commerce, agents, resellers, and paper distributors. The company was founded in 1898 and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.

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Equities researchers at Wedbush began coverage on shares of AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB  Get Free Report) in a report issued on Tuesday, FlyOnTheWall reports. The firm set a neutral rating on the real estate investment trusts stock.

Several other research firms also recently commented on AVB. Barclays cut their target price on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $195.00 to $194.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $193.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of AvalonBay Communities from $190.00 to $211.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 14th. Colliers Securities raised shares of AvalonBay Communities from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $202.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on AvalonBay Communities from $201.00 to $192.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AvalonBay Communities currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $196.53.

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AvalonBay Communities Stock Down 2.1 %

NYSE:AVB opened at $168.09 on Tuesday. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $181.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $179.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 2.49 and a quick ratio of 2.49. AvalonBay Communities has a one year low of $153.07 and a one year high of $198.65. The company has a market cap of $23.87 billion, a PE ratio of 18.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.93.

AvalonBay Communities (NYSE:AVB  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The real estate investment trust reported $2.59 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.60 by ($0.01). AvalonBay Communities had a return on equity of 11.01% and a net margin of 46.32%. The business had revenue of $690.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $675.67 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.43 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that AvalonBay Communities will post 10.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at AvalonBay Communities

In other AvalonBay Communities news, EVP Joanne M. Lockridge sold 3,331 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Friday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $186.25, for a total transaction of $620,398.75. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 21,558 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,015,177.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.42% of the companys stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AvalonBay Communities

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its stake in shares of AvalonBay Communities by 290.0% during the 1st quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 156 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the period. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV raised its stake in AvalonBay Communities by 2,142.9% in the 1st quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 157 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. BOKF NA bought a new stake in AvalonBay Communities in the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. CVA Family Office LLC raised its stake in AvalonBay Communities by 106.7% in the 2nd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 155 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, Fiduciary Alliance LLC bought a new stake in AvalonBay Communities in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. 88.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About AvalonBay Communities

(Get Free Report)

As of June 30, 2023, the Company owned or held a direct or indirect ownership interest in 294 apartment communities containing 88,659 apartment homes in 12 states and the District of Columbia, of which 18 communities were under development and one community was under redevelopment. The Company is an equity REIT in the business of developing, redeveloping, acquiring and managing apartment communities in leading metropolitan areas in New England, the New York/New Jersey Metro area, the Mid-Atlantic, the Pacific Northwest, and Northern and Southern California, as well as in the Company's expansion regions of Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina, Southeast Florida, Dallas and Austin, Texas, and Denver, Colorado.

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ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP  Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,900,000 shares, an increase of 8.4% from the August 31st total of 11,900,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 4,610,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days. Currently, 1.1% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on COP shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of ConocoPhillips from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $120.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips from $124.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Monday. Raymond James cut their price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips from $142.00 to $138.00 and set a strong-buy rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $130.00 price objective on shares of ConocoPhillips in a research note on Monday, August 14th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of ConocoPhillips in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They set a hold rating on the stock. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, ConocoPhillips has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $135.53.

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ConocoPhillips Trading Down 2.2 %

NYSE:COP opened at $117.11 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 1.28. ConocoPhillips has a fifty-two week low of $91.53 and a fifty-two week high of $138.49. The stocks 50-day moving average is $118.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $108.56. The stock has a market cap of $140.24 billion, a PE ratio of 11.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.28.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The energy producer reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.94 by ($0.10). ConocoPhillips had a net margin of 18.66% and a return on equity of 27.27%. The business had revenue of $12.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $14.64 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.91 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that ConocoPhillips will post 8.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ConocoPhillips Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 16th were paid a $0.51 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 27th. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. ConocoPhillipss payout ratio is 19.65%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ConocoPhillips news, SVP Andrew D. Lundquist sold 30,800 shares of ConocoPhillips stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.83, for a total value of $3,813,964.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 5,937 shares of the companys stock, valued at $735,178.71. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other ConocoPhillips news, SVP Andrew D. Lundquist sold 30,800 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.83, for a total value of $3,813,964.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 5,937 shares in the company, valued at $735,178.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Sharmila Mulligan sold 1,849 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Friday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.19, for a total value of $231,476.31. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 602,049 shares of company stock valued at $73,591,956 over the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ConocoPhillips

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in ConocoPhillips by 398.1% in the 1st quarter. Jackson Grant Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 269 shares of the energy producers stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. West Tower Group LLC acquired a new stake in ConocoPhillips in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Northwest Bank & Trust Co acquired a new stake in ConocoPhillips in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Fairfield Bush & CO. acquired a new stake in ConocoPhillips in the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. lifted its holdings in ConocoPhillips by 383.3% in the 4th quarter. Financial Connections Group Inc. now owns 290 shares of the energy producers stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.36% of the companys stock.

ConocoPhillips Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

ConocoPhillips explores for, produces, transports, and markets crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and natural gas liquids in the United States and internationally. The company's portfolio includes unconventional plays in North America; conventional assets in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia; various LNG developments; oil sands assets in Canada; and an inventory of global exploration prospects.

Further Reading

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Gold Royalty (NYSEAMERICAN:GROY  Get Free Report) had its price target lowered by analysts at Scotiabank from $3.00 to $2.75 in a report released on Tuesday, FlyOnTheWall reports. Scotiabanks target price suggests a potential upside of 118.25% from the companys previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on GROY. Raymond James cut their price target on Gold Royalty from $4.00 to $3.50 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 14th. National Bankshares set a $2.85 price target on Gold Royalty and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, June 8th. HC Wainwright restated a buy rating and set a $8.75 price target on shares of Gold Royalty in a report on Monday, August 14th. Finally, National Bank Financial cut their price target on Gold Royalty from $2.85 to $2.60 in a report on Monday, September 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $4.09.

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Gold Royalty Price Performance

Shares of GROY stock opened at $1.26 on Tuesday. Gold Royalty has a 12 month low of $1.22 and a 12 month high of $3.00. The stock has a market cap of $181.92 million, a PE ratio of -14.00 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 2.12, a quick ratio of 2.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02.

Gold Royalty (NYSEAMERICAN:GROY  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 10th. The company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of ($0.01) by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $0.47 million during the quarter. Gold Royalty had a negative return on equity of 2.01% and a negative net margin of 464.40%. Analysts predict that Gold Royalty will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gold Royalty

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in Gold Royalty in the 2nd quarter valued at $58,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in Gold Royalty in the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in Gold Royalty in the 2nd quarter valued at $62,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in Gold Royalty by 244.3% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 766,200 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,356,000 after purchasing an additional 543,686 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Gold Royalty in the 2nd quarter valued at $37,000. 8.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Gold Royalty Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Gold Royalty Corp., a precious metals-focused royalty company, provides financing solutions to the metals and mining industry. It focuses on acquiring royalties, streams, and similar interests at varying stages of the mine life cycle to build a portfolio offering near, medium, and longer-term attractive returns for its investors.

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First Command Bank acquired a new position in shares of FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE:FCN  Free Report) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 450 shares of the business services providers stock, valued at approximately $86,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its holdings in shares of FTI Consulting by 270.4% in the first quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 13,865 shares of the business services providers stock worth $2,195,000 after acquiring an additional 10,122 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in FTI Consulting by 33.4% during the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 22,159 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $3,484,000 after acquiring an additional 5,542 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its position in shares of FTI Consulting by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 12,566 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $1,976,000 after purchasing an additional 1,198 shares during the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can increased its position in shares of FTI Consulting by 8.3% during the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 19,575 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $3,168,000 after purchasing an additional 1,505 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Yousif Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of FTI Consulting by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 19,080 shares of the business services providers stock valued at $3,000,000 after purchasing an additional 308 shares during the last quarter.

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FTI Consulting Stock Performance

Shares of FCN opened at $177.92 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $6.05 billion, a PE ratio of 27.08 and a beta of 0.22. The company has a current ratio of 2.30, a quick ratio of 2.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $183.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $188.32. FTI Consulting, Inc. has a 12-month low of $140.09 and a 12-month high of $205.63.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTI Consulting ( NYSE:FCN Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The business services provider reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.56 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $864.59 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $821.85 million. FTI Consulting had a return on equity of 14.12% and a net margin of 7.29%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that FTI Consulting, Inc. will post 6.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FCN has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on FTI Consulting in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a hold rating for the company. William Blair reissued an outperform rating on shares of FTI Consulting in a report on Wednesday, September 13th.

Read Our Latest Analysis on FCN

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Mark S. Bartlett sold 4,928 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.75, for a total value of $935,088.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 26,954 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,114,521.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other FTI Consulting news, Director Mark S. Bartlett sold 3,340 shares of FTI Consulting stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.97, for a total value of $631,159.80. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 31,882 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $6,024,741.54. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Mark S. Bartlett sold 4,928 shares of FTI Consulting stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.75, for a total value of $935,088.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,954 shares in the company, valued at $5,114,521.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 90,897 shares of company stock worth $16,658,744 in the last quarter. 3.34% of the stock is owned by insiders.

FTI Consulting Company Profile

(Free Report)

FTI Consulting, Inc provides business advisory services to manage change, mitigate risk, and resolve disputes worldwide. The company operates through five segments: Corporate Finance & Restructuring, Forensic and Litigation Consulting, Economic Consulting, Technology, and Strategic Communications.

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Big Technologies PLC (LON:BIG  Get Free Report) insider Daren John Morris purchased 44,419 shares of Big Technologies stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 2nd. The stock was bought at an average price of GBX 205 ($2.48) per share, with a total value of 91,058.95 ($110,067.63).

Daren John Morris also recently made the following trade(s):

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On Tuesday, September 26th, Daren John Morris purchased 400,000 shares of Big Technologies stock. The stock was bought at an average price of GBX 210 ($2.54) per share, with a total value of 840,000 ($1,015,351.14).

Big Technologies Stock Performance

Shares of BIG stock opened at GBX 201.94 ($2.44) on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of GBX 244.98 and a 200-day moving average price of GBX 259.07. Big Technologies PLC has a 52 week low of GBX 195.70 ($2.37) and a 52 week high of GBX 300 ($3.63). The firm has a market capitalization of 586.92 million, a PE ratio of 2,928.57 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a quick ratio of 7.23, a current ratio of 13.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

About Big Technologies

Big Technologies PLC, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development and delivery of remote monitoring technologies and services to the offender and remote personal monitoring industry under the Buddi brand name in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. The company's criminal justice solution includes proprietary cloud-based monitoring software platform with modular hardware that allow real time monitoring.

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Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO  Get Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by equities research analysts at Piper Sandler from $168.00 to $171.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday, FlyOnTheWall reports. Piper Sandlers price target would suggest a potential upside of 23.83% from the companys previous close.

VLO has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Tudor Pickering upgraded Valero Energy from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $145.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 31st. Barclays increased their price target on Valero Energy from $142.00 to $144.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley reissued an overweight rating and set a $160.00 price target on shares of Valero Energy in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Valero Energy from $113.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a sell rating in a research report on Friday, September 1st. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on Valero Energy from $152.00 to $161.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, September 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $156.07.

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Valero Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VLO opened at $138.09 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $48.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Valero Energy has a 1-year low of $104.18 and a 1-year high of $152.20. The businesss 50 day moving average is $135.46 and its 200-day moving average is $124.43.

Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The oil and gas company reported $5.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $5.08 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $34.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.37 billion. Valero Energy had a return on equity of 42.31% and a net margin of 6.96%. The firms quarterly revenue was down 33.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $11.36 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Valero Energy will post 26.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Joseph W. Gorder sold 75,580 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.99, for a total value of $10,278,124.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 621,872 shares in the company, valued at approximately $84,568,373.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Nelson Van Denburg & Campbell Wealth Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Valero Energy by 110.8% in the 2nd quarter. Nelson Van Denburg & Campbell Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 215 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Live Oak Investment Partners bought a new position in Valero Energy during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Stone House Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Valero Energy during the 1st quarter worth $27,000. Sageworth Trust Co raised its position in Valero Energy by 716.7% during the 1st quarter. Sageworth Trust Co now owns 196 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prostatis Group LLC bought a new position in Valero Energy during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. 77.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Valero Energy

(Get Free Report)

Valero Energy Corporation manufactures, markets, and sells transportation fuels and petrochemical products in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Refining, Renewable Diesel, and Ethanol. The company produces California Reformulated Gasoline Blendstock for Oxygenate Blending and Conventional Blendstock for Oxygenate Blending gasolines, CARB diesel, diesel, jet fuel, and asphalt; aromatics; and sulfur crude oils.

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QuantumScape (NYSE:QS  Get Free Report) had its price objective reduced by investment analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $6.00 to $5.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a sell rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Groups target price indicates a potential downside of 22.84% from the companys previous close.

QS has been the topic of several other research reports. TD Cowen lowered QuantumScape from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and cut their price target for the stock from $14.00 to $8.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on QuantumScape from $8.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Tuesday, July 25th. Evercore ISI began coverage on QuantumScape in a research note on Monday, September 18th. They set an outperform rating and a $10.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wolfe Research cut QuantumScape from a peer perform rating to an underperform rating and set a $2.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, June 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $6.57.

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QuantumScape Stock Performance

Shares of QS opened at $6.48 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $7.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 19.25 and a current ratio of 19.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.90 billion, a PE ratio of -6.35 and a beta of 5.18. QuantumScape has a 1 year low of $5.11 and a 1 year high of $13.86.

QuantumScape (NYSE:QS  Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by ($0.04). During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.22) earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that QuantumScape will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other QuantumScape news, insider Mohit Singh sold 76,700 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.59, for a total value of $658,853.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 700,386 shares of the companys stock, valued at $6,016,315.74. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Kevin Hettrich sold 34,607 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.50, for a total value of $294,159.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 703,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,980,668. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Mohit Singh sold 76,700 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.59, for a total value of $658,853.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 700,386 shares in the company, valued at $6,016,315.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 505,815 shares of company stock worth $4,179,294. 10.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On QuantumScape

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of QS. Clear Street Markets LLC acquired a new stake in QuantumScape during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of QuantumScape in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $39,000. SailingStone Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of QuantumScape in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of QuantumScape by 122.1% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,330 shares of the companys stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 2,930 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Money Concepts Capital Corp grew its position in shares of QuantumScape by 19,462.0% in the 4th quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp now owns 9,781 shares of the companys stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 9,731 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.22% of the companys stock.

QuantumScape Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

QuantumScape Corporation, a development stage company, focuses on the development and commercialization of solid-state lithium-metal batteries for electric vehicles and other applications. QuantumScape Corporation was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

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Austin Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF (NYSEARCA:SPEU  Free Report) by 7.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,357 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 1,223 shares during the period. Austin Private Wealth LLCs holdings in SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF were worth $668,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. bought a new position in shares of SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF during the first quarter valued at about $57,000. Bank of Montreal Can bought a new position in shares of SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF during the first quarter valued at about $755,000. Flow Traders U.S. LLC grew its stake in shares of SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF by 326.8% during the first quarter. Flow Traders U.S. LLC now owns 434,024 shares of the companys stock valued at $16,862,000 after buying an additional 332,320 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC grew its stake in shares of SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF by 33.5% during the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 432,091 shares of the companys stock valued at $16,787,000 after buying an additional 108,387 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF during the first quarter valued at about $206,000.

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SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSEARCA:SPEU opened at $35.50 on Tuesday. The stocks 50-day moving average price is $37.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.25. SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF has a 12-month low of $28.16 and a 12-month high of $39.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $418.90 million, a P/E ratio of 10.42 and a beta of 0.95.

SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF Company Profile

The SPDR Portfolio Europe ETF (SPEU) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the STOXX Europe TMI index, a market-cap-weighted index of Western European companies across the market-cap spectrum. SPEU was launched on Oct 15, 2002 and is managed by State Street.

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NEW YORK and CHICAGO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Eventus, a leading global provider of state-of-the-art, at-scale trade surveillance software across all lines of defense, and Phillip Capital Inc. (PhillipCapital), the Chicago-based futures commission merchant (FCM) and broker-dealer subsidiary of Singapore-based PhillipCapital Group, announced today the extension of their relationship and the brokerage and clearing firm's use of the Validus platform to meet all of its trade surveillance needs.

PhillipCapital CEO Filippo Lecchini said: "I am thrilled to announce the extension of our partnership with Eventus for the foreseeable future. Our journey with Eventus commenced in 2017 when Phillip Capital first discovered this innovative company. What immediately struck us was not only their cutting-edge technology but also their unwavering enthusiasm in every interaction. This initial encounter laid the foundation for a highly successful and productive partnership with Eventus. Fast forward a few years, and I am happy to say that Eventus has not only fulfilled all our surveillance needs with exceptional service but also played a pivotal role in supporting the expansion of our business into new markets and products. Notably, Eventus facilitated our ventures into equity options and, more recently, into Eurex. I look forward to extending this partnership with the belief that our companies will continue on a path of success together."

Eventus CEO Travis Schwab said: "We are so grateful that PhillipCapital is extending our long-standing relationship. We have been honored to be a trusted partner of the fast-growing firm for so many years and to continue to play a vital role in supporting its expansion into new markets and products. As an early adopter of our platform, PhillipCapital has seen first-hand how Validus can scale to meet any capacity requirements as clients grow, as well as our team's expertise in not only our customizable technology but the market and regulatory challenges facing the industry."

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PhillipCapital uses Validus for trade surveillance on all futures, equities and equity options transacted through the FCM and broker-dealer.

About Eventus

Eventus provides state-of-the-art, at-scale trade surveillance software across all lines of defense. Its powerful, award-winning Validus platform is easy to deploy, customize and operate across equities, options, futures, foreign exchange (FX), fixed income and digital asset markets. Validus is proven in the most complex, high-volume and real-time environments of Eventus' rapidly growing client base, including tier-1 banks, broker-dealers, futures commission merchants (FCMs), proprietary trading groups, market centers, buy-side institutions, energy and commodity trading firms, and regulators. Clients rely on the platform, coupled with the firm's responsive support and product development, to overcome their most pressing trade surveillance regulatory challenges. For more, visit www.eventus.com .

About Phillip Capital Inc.

Phillip Capital Inc. (PhillipCapital) is a Chicago-based FCM and broker-dealer that is part of the PhillipCapital Group, based in Singapore since 1975. Formed in 2010 as an FCM, PhillipCapital has exchange memberships on numerous exchanges, including those of CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), as well as the Dubai Mercantile Exchange and Eurex. In 2015, PhillipCapital became a registered broker-dealer, able to provide clearing, execution and custody services of U.S. securities. The firm also provides access to all the major Asian and global exchanges through the PhillipCapital network of companies. Serving over 1 million clients, PhillipCapital Group operates in the financial hubs of 15 countries on four continents, including offices in Australia, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong (SAR), India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, the UK, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the U.S. and Vietnam.

PhillipCapital

Cision

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Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC increased its holdings in Schwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETF (NYSEARCA:FNDA  Free Report) by 4.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 146,913 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after purchasing an additional 6,856 shares during the quarter. Schwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETF accounts for about 1.5% of Johnson Bixby & Associates LLCs holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC owned 0.11% of Schwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETF worth $7,412,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of FNDA. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Schwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETF by 20.4% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 14,737 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $788,000 after purchasing an additional 2,500 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Schwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETF by 42.1% during the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 6,748 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $361,000 after buying an additional 1,998 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC lifted its position in shares of Schwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETF by 38.9% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 5,946 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $318,000 after acquiring an additional 1,666 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Schwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETF by 67.6% during the first quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 14,113 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $754,000 after purchasing an additional 5,691 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Flow Traders U.S. LLC purchased a new position in Schwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETF in the 1st quarter valued at $2,364,000.

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Schwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETF Stock Down 1.2 %

Schwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETF stock opened at $47.90 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $50.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.99 and a beta of 1.19. Schwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETF has a 52-week low of $42.50 and a 52-week high of $53.85.

Schwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETF Profile

The Schwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETF (FNDA) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the Russell RAFI Small Company US index. The fund tracks a fundamentally selected and weighted Russell index of small firms based on adjusted sales, retained operation cash flow, and dividends plus buybacks.

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K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc increased its position in shares of Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ  Free Report) (TSE:CNQ) by 24.4% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 63,342 shares of the oil and gas producers stock after acquiring an additional 12,432 shares during the quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Incs holdings in Canadian Natural Resources were worth $3,550,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CNQ. Money Concepts Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of Canadian Natural Resources during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in Canadian Natural Resources by 57.6% in the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 594 shares of the oil and gas producers stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Fortis Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Canadian Natural Resources during the first quarter worth about $35,000. KB Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in Canadian Natural Resources during the first quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Natixis acquired a new stake in Canadian Natural Resources in the 4th quarter worth about $42,000. 73.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. CIBC increased their price objective on shares of Canadian Natural Resources from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an outperformer rating in a report on Tuesday, August 29th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Canadian Natural Resources in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a hold rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Canadian Natural Resources from $84.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research note on Monday, August 28th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Canadian Natural Resources from $82.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Monday, September 18th. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on Canadian Natural Resources in a report on Wednesday, July 12th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $89.56.

Canadian Natural Resources Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE CNQ opened at $62.84 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $62.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.63. The company has a market cap of $68.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.40, a P/E/G ratio of 11.54 and a beta of 1.55. Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a 12-month low of $48.81 and a 12-month high of $67.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ  Get Free Report) (TSE:CNQ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.88 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $5.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $5.44 billion. Canadian Natural Resources had a net margin of 18.14% and a return on equity of 22.86%. Research analysts anticipate that Canadian Natural Resources Limited will post 5.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Canadian Natural Resources Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be paid a $0.6744 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th. This is an increase from Canadian Natural Resourcess previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.29%. Canadian Natural Resourcess dividend payout ratio is 52.46%.

About Canadian Natural Resources

(Free Report)

Canadian Natural Resources Limited acquires, explores for, develops, produces, markets, and sells crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs). The company offers light and medium crude oil, primary heavy crude oil, Pelican Lake heavy crude oil, bitumen (thermal oil), and synthetic crude oil (SCO).

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K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc reduced its holdings in shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE:CM  Free Report) (TSE:CM) by 61.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 36,485 shares of the banks stock after selling 59,241 shares during the quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Incs holdings in Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce were worth $1,553,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Addenda Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce by 11.5% in the second quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 213,184 shares of the banks stock worth $12,241,000 after purchasing an additional 21,982 shares during the last quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc. boosted its position in Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce by 1.0% in the second quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc. now owns 1,496,574 shares of the banks stock worth $63,932,000 after purchasing an additional 15,303 shares during the last quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management now owns 13,936 shares of the banks stock valued at $595,000 after purchasing an additional 348 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its stake in shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce by 25.8% in the 2nd quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 51,148 shares of the banks stock worth $2,183,000 after purchasing an additional 10,475 shares during the period. Finally, First County Bank CT grew its position in Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce by 8.4% during the second quarter. First County Bank CT now owns 25,961 shares of the banks stock valued at $1,108,000 after buying an additional 2,006 shares during the period. 43.72% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Stock Performance

CM opened at $37.64 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $40.68 and a 200 day moving average of $41.75. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has a fifty-two week low of $37.55 and a fifty-two week high of $48.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.26, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Increases Dividend

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ( NYSE:CM Get Free Report ) (TSE:CM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 31st. The bank reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $1.25 by ($0.11). The firm had revenue of $4.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.29 billion. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce had a net margin of 9.26% and a return on equity of 13.29%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce will post 4.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.657 per share. This is an increase from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerces previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 27th. This represents a $2.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.98%. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerces dividend payout ratio is presently 70.30%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce from $72.00 to $67.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 1st. Barclays decreased their price objective on Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce from $58.00 to $57.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 1st. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Saturday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $63.00.

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Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Profile

(Free Report)

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a diversified financial institution, provides various financial products and services to personal, business, public sector, and institutional clients in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through Canadian Personal and Business Banking; Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; U.S.

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K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc decreased its holdings in shares of North American Construction Group Ltd. (NYSE:NOA  Free Report) (TSE:NOA) by 6.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 150,000 shares of the oil and gas companys stock after selling 10,000 shares during the period. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc owned about 0.57% of North American Construction Group worth $2,862,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Resources Investment Advisors LLC. purchased a new stake in North American Construction Group in the first quarter worth about $225,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in North American Construction Group by 10.6% in the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 44,501 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $743,000 after acquiring an additional 4,267 shares in the last quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. bought a new stake in North American Construction Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $80,000. State of Tennessee Treasury Department purchased a new position in North American Construction Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of North American Construction Group in the third quarter worth approximately $35,000. 61.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on NOA shares. TD Cowen reiterated a hold rating on shares of North American Construction Group in a research note on Thursday, September 28th. TD Securities cut North American Construction Group from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, September 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on North American Construction Group from $30.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on North American Construction Group in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a buy rating for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $30.33.

North American Construction Group Stock Down 1.0 %

NOA opened at $21.51 on Tuesday. North American Construction Group Ltd. has a 52 week low of $9.69 and a 52 week high of $26.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $23.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.32. The company has a market capitalization of $575.18 million, a PE ratio of 10.97 and a beta of 1.51.

North American Construction Group (NYSE:NOA  Get Free Report) (TSE:NOA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The oil and gas company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $144.12 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $134.34 million. North American Construction Group had a return on equity of 26.68% and a net margin of 9.34%. Analysts forecast that North American Construction Group Ltd. will post 1.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

North American Construction Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 31st will be given a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 30th. This is a boost from North American Construction Groups previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. North American Construction Groups payout ratio is currently 15.31%.

North American Construction Group Profile

(Free Report)

North American Construction Group Ltd. provides equipment maintenance, and mining and heavy construction services in Canada, the United States, and Australia. Its Heavy Construction & Mining division offers constructability reviews, budgetary cost estimates, design-build construction, project management, contract mining, pre-stripping/pit pioneering, overburden removal and stockpile, muskeg removal and stockpile, site preparation, air strip construction, site dewatering/perimeter ditching, tailings and process pipelines, haulage and access road construction, tailings dam construction and densification, mechanically stabilized earth walls, dyke construction, and reclamation services; and Equipment Maintenance services.

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E&G Advisors LP lessened its position in shares of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL  Free Report) by 8.6% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 19,028 shares of the transportation companys stock after selling 1,800 shares during the period. E&G Advisors LPs holdings in Delta Air Lines were worth $905,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Delta Air Lines by 1.2% during the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 19,304 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $918,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the period. Navalign LLC raised its stake in Delta Air Lines by 1.3% during the second quarter. Navalign LLC now owns 17,716 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $842,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the period. CVA Family Office LLC raised its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 3,973 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $131,000 after acquiring an additional 278 shares during the period. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC raised its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Main Street Financial Solutions LLC now owns 9,113 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $318,000 after acquiring an additional 291 shares during the period. Finally, Forum Financial Management LP raised its stake in shares of Delta Air Lines by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 8,675 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $343,000 after acquiring an additional 292 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.29% of the companys stock.

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Insider Activity at Delta Air Lines

In related news, Director Michael P. Huerta sold 3,350 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.43, for a total transaction of $162,240.50. Following the transaction, the director now owns 27,465 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,330,129.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, EVP Peter W. Carter sold 17,944 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total transaction of $807,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 166,192 shares of the companys stock, valued at $7,478,640. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Michael P. Huerta sold 3,350 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.43, for a total transaction of $162,240.50. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 27,465 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,330,129.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 40,479 shares of company stock valued at $1,839,353. Company insiders own 0.89% of the companys stock.

Delta Air Lines Stock Performance

NYSE:DAL traded down $0.38 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $36.07. 1,722,774 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,985,911. Delta Air Lines, Inc. has a 1-year low of $28.21 and a 1-year high of $49.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.86, a P/E/G ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.24. The company has a 50-day moving average of $41.91 and a 200 day moving average of $39.62.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 13th. The transportation company reported $2.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.40 by $0.28. The company had revenue of $15.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.44 billion. Delta Air Lines had a net margin of 5.36% and a return on equity of 59.56%. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.44 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Delta Air Lines, Inc. will post 6.29 EPS for the current year.

Delta Air Lines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, October 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 11th. Delta Air Liness payout ratio is 8.62%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on DAL shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Delta Air Lines from $47.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 28th. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a research note on Friday, July 14th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $60.00 to $50.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Delta Air Lines from $45.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 28th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Delta Air Lines from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 26th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $56.18.

Read Our Latest Analysis on Delta Air Lines

About Delta Air Lines

(Free Report)

Delta Air Lines, Inc provides scheduled air transportation for passengers and cargo in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Airline and Refinery. Its domestic network centered on core hubs in Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, and Salt Lake City, as well as coastal hub positions in Boston, Los Angeles, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, and Seattle; and international network centered on hubs and market presence in Amsterdam, Mexico City, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, and Seoul-Incheon.

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Byrne Asset Management LLC trimmed its stake in shares of BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund, Inc. (NYSE:FRA  Free Report) by 1.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 292,797 shares of the investment management companys stock after selling 4,210 shares during the quarter. BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund accounts for 2.3% of Byrne Asset Management LLCs portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Byrne Asset Management LLCs holdings in BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund were worth $3,575,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of FRA. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund by 59.5% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,738 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 1,021 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $71,000. IHT Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $123,000. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 11,280 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $127,000 after acquiring an additional 1,363 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $152,000.

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BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund Stock Down 0.6 %

NYSE:FRA traded down $0.07 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $12.42. 26,345 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 133,612. The companys 50 day moving average is $12.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.06. BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund, Inc. has a twelve month low of $10.92 and a twelve month high of $12.81.

BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund Increases Dividend

About BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund

The company also recently disclosed a monthly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 15th were issued a dividend of $0.117 per share. This is an increase from BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Funds previous monthly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 14th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 11.31%.

(Free Report)

BlackRock Floating Rate Income Strategies Fund, Inc is a close ended fixed income mutual fund launched by BlackRock, Inc The fund is managed by BlackRock Advisors, LLC. It invests in the fixed income markets of the United States. The fund invests in bonds of companies operating across diversified sectors.

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Byrne Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:JKS  Free Report) by 5,581.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 3,125 shares of the semiconductor companys stock after buying an additional 3,070 shares during the quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLCs holdings in JinkoSolar were worth $139,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in JKS. Vontobel Holding Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of JinkoSolar by 97.3% during the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 187,100 shares of the semiconductor companys stock valued at $9,546,000 after acquiring an additional 92,250 shares in the last quarter. Causeway Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of JinkoSolar during the 1st quarter valued at $11,403,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of JinkoSolar by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 18,208 shares of the semiconductor companys stock valued at $929,000 after acquiring an additional 1,093 shares in the last quarter. Prelude Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of JinkoSolar during the 1st quarter valued at $2,908,000. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. purchased a new position in shares of JinkoSolar during the 1st quarter valued at $241,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 35.82% of the companys stock.

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JinkoSolar Stock Performance

JinkoSolar stock traded up $0.09 on Tuesday, reaching $28.73. 127,151 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 823,259. The stock has a market cap of $1.50 billion, a PE ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. has a twelve month low of $25.87 and a twelve month high of $61.27. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $33.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.15.

JinkoSolar Announces Dividend

JinkoSolar ( NYSE:JKS Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 14th. The semiconductor company reported $3.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.08 by $1.28. JinkoSolar had a net margin of 3.21% and a return on equity of 11.84%. The company had revenue of $4.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.18 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. will post 10.27 EPS for the current year.

The business also recently disclosed a  dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 24th will be issued a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 22nd.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on JKS. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of JinkoSolar from $38.00 to $33.00 and set a sell rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 15th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of JinkoSolar in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a hold rating for the company.

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JinkoSolar Profile

(Free Report)

JinkoSolar Holding Co, Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, production, and marketing of photovoltaic products. The company offers solar modules, silicon wafers, solar cells, recovered silicon materials, and silicon ingots. It also provides solar system integration services; and develops commercial solar power projects.

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Byrne Asset Management LLC lessened its position in shares of Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT  Free Report) by 16.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 2,218 shares of the aerospace companys stock after selling 447 shares during the quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLCs holdings in Textron were worth $150,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Textron by 0.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,503,096 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $1,748,161,000 after buying an additional 177,502 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Textron by 2.9% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 18,231,026 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $1,287,657,000 after buying an additional 519,468 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Textron by 0.5% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,564,040 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $711,561,000 after buying an additional 47,344 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of Textron by 1.3% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 6,985,080 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $493,286,000 after buying an additional 89,674 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Textron by 27.7% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,596,887 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $324,678,000 after buying an additional 997,119 shares in the last quarter. 85.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director R Kerry Clark sold 5,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.33, for a total transaction of $376,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,870 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,044,827.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Susquehanna reissued a positive rating and issued a $89.00 price target on shares of Textron in a research note on Monday, September 25th. StockNews.com raised shares of Textron from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 13th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Textron from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Textron from $76.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 15th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $86.00.

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Textron Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of TXT stock traded down $0.51 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $76.78. The companys stock had a trading volume of 43,905 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,335,338. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.87 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The company has a market capitalization of $15.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.47. The stocks 50-day moving average price is $76.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $70.13. Textron Inc. has a 1-year low of $58.80 and a 1-year high of $80.60.

Textron (NYSE:TXT  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The aerospace company reported $1.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.21 by $0.25. Textron had a net margin of 6.88% and a return on equity of 13.83%. The company had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $3.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.00 EPS. The firms revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Textron Inc. will post 5.3 EPS for the current year.

Textron Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 15th were issued a dividend of $0.02 per share. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 14th. Textrons dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 1.84%.

Textron Profile

(Free Report)

Textron Inc operates in the aircraft, defense, industrial, and finance businesses worldwide. It operates through six segments: Textron Aviation, Bell, Textron Systems, Industrial, Textron eAviation, and Finance. The Textron Aviation segment manufactures, sells, and services business jets, turboprop and piston engine aircraft, and military trainer and defense aircraft; and offers maintenance, inspection, and repair services, as well as sells commercial parts.

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Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in Brookfield Renewable Co. (NYSE:BEPC  Free Report) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 22,270 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $702,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc purchased a new stake in Brookfield Renewable during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Federated Hermes Inc. purchased a new stake in Brookfield Renewable during the first quarter worth approximately $35,000. Hall Laurie J Trustee acquired a new position in Brookfield Renewable in the first quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Brookfield Renewable in the first quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Finally, 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in Brookfield Renewable by 20.6% during the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,390 shares of the companys stock worth $103,000 after purchasing an additional 409 shares in the last quarter. 66.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Brookfield Renewable Stock Performance

Shares of BEPC traded down $0.54 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $22.18. 270,000 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 626,142. The businesss 50-day moving average price is $28.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.39 and a quick ratio of 0.39. Brookfield Renewable Co. has a twelve month low of $22.07 and a twelve month high of $36.16. The company has a market capitalization of $3.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -37.37 and a beta of 1.08.

Brookfield Renewable Dividend Announcement

Brookfield Renewable ( NYSE:BEPC Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 4th. The company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of ($0.07) by ($0.03). Brookfield Renewable had a return on equity of 1.98% and a net margin of 6.43%. The firm had revenue of $719.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.39 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Brookfield Renewable Co. will post -0.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 31st were given a dividend of $0.338 per share. This represents a $1.35 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.10%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 30th. Brookfield Renewables dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -225.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Brookfield Renewable from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 22nd.

Read Our Latest Research Report on BEPC

Brookfield Renewable Profile

(Free Report)

Brookfield Renewable Corporation owns and operates a portfolio of renewable power and sustainable solution assets primarily in the United States, Europe, Colombia, and Brazil. It operates hydroelectric, wind, and solar power plants with an installed capacity of approximately 12,857 megawatts. The company was incorporated in 2019 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

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FILE - The McDonald's restaurant logo and golden arch is lit up, April 20, 2006, in Chicago. On Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, a federal judge in New York dismissed a lawsuit that accused McDonalds and Wendys of misleading consumers with ads that show bigger, juicier burgers than their restaurants actually serve. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

A federal judge in New York has dismissed a lawsuit that accused McDonalds and Wendys of misleading consumers with ads that show bigger, juicier burgers than their restaurants actually serve.

In an opinion released over the weekend, U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez said the images on the companies websites __ which the plaintiff was challenging __ note the weight of the meat and the calories each burger contains.

Gonzalez also said the plaintiff, Justin Chimienti, failed to prove that a reasonable customer would be misled by the ads. Gonzalez said the ads are considered puffery, akin to other companies' use of models to make their products more visually appealing.

Wendy's and McDonald's didn't immediately respond to messages left Tuesday seeking comment.

The suit was one of several false advertising lawsuits filed recently against fast food companies by New York attorney James Kelly. A message seeking comment from Kelly was left Tuesday by The Associated Press.

In August, a federal judge in Florida refused to dismiss a class action lawsuit Kelly filed against Burger King claiming that the company's ads overstate the amount of meat in its Whopper burger and other sandwiches. Kelly has also sued Taco Bell and Arby's.

Lawsuits accusing food and beverage companies of misleading customers __ for putting fewer chips than expected in a bag or advertising artificial flavors as real vanilla," for example __ have grown more common in recent years.

Perkins Coie, a law firm that tracks class action suits, said 214 were filed against food and beverage companies in 2022 and 101 were filed in the first six months of this year. Thats a big increase from 2010, when just 45 were filed.
Friedenthal Financial trimmed its position in shares of Tri Pointe Homes, Inc. (NYSE:TPH  Free Report) by 16.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,727 shares of the construction companys stock after selling 4,315 shares during the period. Friedenthal Financials holdings in Tri Pointe Homes were worth $714,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of TPH. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Tri Pointe Homes by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 8,103 shares of the construction companys stock worth $205,000 after buying an additional 402 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in shares of Tri Pointe Homes by 30.4% during the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,275 shares of the construction companys stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 531 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Tri Pointe Homes by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 53,539 shares of the construction companys stock worth $995,000 after buying an additional 559 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Tri Pointe Homes by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 29,240 shares of the construction companys stock worth $740,000 after buying an additional 561 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Tri Pointe Homes by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 28,674 shares of the construction companys stock worth $576,000 after buying an additional 698 shares in the last quarter. 97.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer raised Tri Pointe Homes from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $36.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, September 7th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Tri Pointe Homes in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Wedbush boosted their price target on Tri Pointe Homes from $30.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, August 1st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Tri Pointe Homes from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a report on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Tri Pointe Homes from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $38.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, August 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $33.50.

Tri Pointe Homes Trading Down 2.8 %

NYSE:TPH traded down $0.76 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $26.33. 39,957 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 994,692. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a current ratio of 2.18, a quick ratio of 2.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Tri Pointe Homes, Inc. has a one year low of $14.59 and a one year high of $34.04. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.56.

Tri Pointe Homes (NYSE:TPH  Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The construction company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $819.08 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $703.67 million. Tri Pointe Homes had a net margin of 11.71% and a return on equity of 17.37%. Sell-side analysts expect that Tri Pointe Homes, Inc. will post 3.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Tri Pointe Homes news, Director Lawrence B. Burrows sold 7,677 shares of Tri Pointe Homes stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.48, for a total value of $241,671.96. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 86,891 shares in the company, valued at $2,735,328.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Tri Pointe Homes Company Profile

(Free Report)

Tri Pointe Homes, Inc engages in the design, construction, and sale of single-family attached and detached homes in the United States. The company operates through a portfolio of six regional home building brands comprising Maracay in Arizona; Pardee Homes in California and Nevada; Quadrant Homes in Washington; Trendmaker Homes in Texas; TRI Pointe Homes in California, Colorado, and the Carolinas; and Winchester Homes in Maryland and Northern Virginia.

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Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY raised its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ  Free Report) (TSE:CNQ) by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 228,204 shares of the oil and gas producers stock after acquiring an additional 638 shares during the quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NYs holdings in Canadian Natural Resources were worth $12,839,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CNQ. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in Canadian Natural Resources during the 1st quarter worth approximately $960,796,000. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 36.6% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 17,233,139 shares of the oil and gas producers stock worth $953,143,000 after acquiring an additional 4,618,176 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 88.2% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,930,544 shares of the oil and gas producers stock worth $491,064,000 after purchasing an additional 3,716,523 shares in the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP acquired a new position in Canadian Natural Resources in the 1st quarter valued at $134,719,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Canadian Natural Resources by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,235,475 shares of the oil and gas producers stock valued at $2,493,796,000 after purchasing an additional 2,332,528 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.88% of the companys stock.

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Canadian Natural Resources Trading Down 1.3 %

CNQ traded down $0.80 on Tuesday, hitting $62.31. The company had a trading volume of 333,898 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,122,065. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm has a market cap of $67.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.40, a PEG ratio of 11.54 and a beta of 1.55. The companys fifty day moving average price is $62.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $58.63. Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a 1 year low of $48.81 and a 1 year high of $67.23.

Canadian Natural Resources Increases Dividend

Canadian Natural Resources ( NYSE:CNQ Get Free Report ) (TSE:CNQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.88 by ($0.03). Canadian Natural Resources had a return on equity of 22.86% and a net margin of 18.14%. The company had revenue of $5.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.44 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Canadian Natural Resources Limited will post 5.24 earnings per share for the current year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $0.6744 per share. This is a positive change from Canadian Natural Resourcess previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $2.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th. Canadian Natural Resourcess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.46%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. CIBC boosted their price target on shares of Canadian Natural Resources from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an outperformer rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 29th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Canadian Natural Resources in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a hold rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Canadian Natural Resources from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Friday, August 4th. UBS Group began coverage on Canadian Natural Resources in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. They issued a buy rating for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Canadian Natural Resources from $84.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Monday, August 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Canadian Natural Resources currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $89.56.

Read Our Latest Report on Canadian Natural Resources

Canadian Natural Resources Profile

(Free Report)

Canadian Natural Resources Limited acquires, explores for, develops, produces, markets, and sells crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs). The company offers light and medium crude oil, primary heavy crude oil, Pelican Lake heavy crude oil, bitumen (thermal oil), and synthetic crude oil (SCO).

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Shares of Interfor Co. (TSE:IFP  Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as C$19.38 and last traded at C$19.55, with a volume of 22533 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$19.85.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, CIBC decreased their price objective on shares of Interfor from C$33.00 to C$32.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 9th.

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Interfor Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average of C$21.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$22.41. The firm has a market cap of C$994.85 million, a P/E ratio of -11.03 and a beta of 2.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 2.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 49.13.

Interfor (TSE:IFP  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The company reported C($0.15) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of C($0.01) by C($0.14). The business had revenue of C$871.80 million during the quarter. Interfor had a negative net margin of 3.50% and a negative return on equity of 6.13%. Sell-side analysts expect that Interfor Co. will post 2.7955182 EPS for the current year.

Interfor Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

Interfor Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, produces and sells wood products in Canada, the United States, Japan, China, Taiwan, and internationally. It offers decking, fascia and board, framing, v-joint paneling, paneling, and siding products, as well as appearance, structural, studs, timbers, and machine stress related products.

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MAG Silver (TSE:MAG  Get Free Report) (NYSEAMERICAN:MAG) had its price target cut by equities research analysts at Raymond James from C$23.00 to C$22.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday, FlyOnTheWall reports. Raymond James target price suggests a potential upside of 60.23% from the companys current price.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on MAG. BMO Capital Markets set a C$23.50 price target on MAG Silver and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, September 14th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on MAG Silver from C$23.00 to C$22.50 in a research report on Thursday, August 10th. Finally, TD Securities lowered their target price on MAG Silver from C$25.00 to C$24.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of C$23.45.

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View Our Latest Stock Report on MAG

MAG Silver Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of TSE:MAG traded up C$0.12 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting C$13.73. The company had a trading volume of 57,024 shares, compared to its average volume of 279,907. MAG Silver has a 12 month low of C$13.39 and a 12 month high of C$22.96. The company has a current ratio of 12.90, a quick ratio of 25.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market cap of C$1.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.14, a PEG ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of C$14.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$15.87.

MAG Silver (TSE:MAG  Get Free Report) (NYSEAMERICAN:MAG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 7th. The company reported C$0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of C$0.20 by C$0.06. On average, analysts predict that MAG Silver will post 1.2660465 EPS for the current year.

MAG Silver Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

MAG Silver Corp. engages in the exploration and development of precious metal mining properties. The company explores for silver, gold, lead, copper, and zinc deposits. It primarily holds 44% interest in the Juanicipio project located in the Fresnillo District, Zacatecas State, Mexico. MAG Silver Corp.

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Columbus Macro LLC lessened its holdings in The Southern Company (NYSE:SO  Free Report) by 12.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,639 shares of the utilities providers stock after selling 2,087 shares during the period. Columbus Macro LLCs holdings in Southern were worth $1,025,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Southern by 48.7% in the 1st quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 3,196 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $222,000 after acquiring an additional 1,047 shares during the period. Drive Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Southern by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter. Drive Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,171 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $223,000 after acquiring an additional 286 shares during the period. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Southern by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Berkeley Capital Partners LLC now owns 14,463 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $1,006,000 after acquiring an additional 485 shares during the period. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern in the 1st quarter valued at $76,000. Finally, Nelson Van Denburg & Campbell Wealth Management Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Southern by 1,073.3% in the 1st quarter. Nelson Van Denburg & Campbell Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 880 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 805 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.85% of the companys stock.

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Insider Activity at Southern

In related news, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,490 shares of Southern stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.05, for a total value of $99,904.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 72,756 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,878,289.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Southern news, CEO Kimberly S. Greene sold 20,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.62, for a total transaction of $1,452,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 98,659 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,164,616.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Martin Bernard Davis sold 1,490 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.05, for a total transaction of $99,904.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 72,756 shares in the company, valued at $4,878,289.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,490 shares of company stock worth $2,934,355 in the last ninety days. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Southern from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, September 6th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Southern in a report on Saturday, August 19th. They set a sell rating for the company. Bank of America raised shares of Southern from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and raised their price target for the company from $67.00 to $68.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Southern from $75.00 to $74.00 in a report on Friday, August 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Southern from $73.00 to $69.00 in a report on Thursday, June 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Southern presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $73.27.

Get Our Latest Research Report on SO

Southern Trading Down 3.1 %

NYSE SO opened at $62.71 on Tuesday. The Southern Company has a one year low of $58.85 and a one year high of $75.80. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $68.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $70.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $68.39 billion, a PE ratio of 22.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 0.53.

Southern (NYSE:SO  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.05. Southern had a net margin of 11.17% and a return on equity of 9.86%. The business had revenue of $5.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.07 EPS. The companys quarterly revenue was down 20.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Southern Company will post 3.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 6th. Investors of record on Monday, August 21st were given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 18th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.46%. Southerns dividend payout ratio is presently 98.94%.

Southern Profile

(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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RBA Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS  Free Report) by 1.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,154 shares of the investment management companys stock after buying an additional 107 shares during the period. RBA Wealth Management LLCs holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $3,598,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 0.4% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,070,182 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $1,981,052,000 after acquiring an additional 22,635 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 40.0% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,936,351 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $2,038,425,000 after purchasing an additional 1,696,350 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 2.9% during the first quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,044,608 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $1,650,142,000 after buying an additional 144,177 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.1% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,764,509 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $1,396,236,000 after buying an additional 52,016 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 608.2% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,390,752 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $114,359,000 after acquiring an additional 2,053,162 shares during the last quarter. 69.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Atlantic Securities raised The Goldman Sachs Group from an underweight rating to a neutral rating and raised their target price for the stock from $330.00 to $351.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 1st. JMP Securities reaffirmed a market outperform rating and set a $450.00 price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research report on Tuesday, September 12th. Credit Suisse Group restated an outperform rating and set a $410.00 target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research note on Thursday, July 20th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an equal weight rating and issued a $347.00 target price (up previously from $337.00) on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Friday, July 21st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, The Goldman Sachs Group presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $394.32.

The Goldman Sachs Group Trading Down 1.6 %

GS stock opened at $318.50 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $105.00 billion, a PE ratio of 13.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.38. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $334.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $330.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.18, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $287.75 and a fifty-two week high of $389.58.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 19th. The investment management company reported $3.08 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $3.25 by ($0.17). The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 9.74% and a return on equity of 8.27%. The business had revenue of $10.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.61 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $7.73 EPS. The firms revenue was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 25.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 31st were given a $2.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 30th. This is an increase from The Goldman Sachs Groups previous quarterly dividend of $2.50. This represents a $11.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.45%. The Goldman Sachs Groups dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.93%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO David M. Solomon sold 4,200 shares of The Goldman Sachs Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $356.28, for a total transaction of $1,496,376.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,782 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $44,457,330.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO David M. Solomon sold 4,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $356.28, for a total value of $1,496,376.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 124,782 shares in the company, valued at $44,457,330.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO David M. Solomon sold 10,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.71, for a total value of $3,457,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 128,982 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,590,367.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About The Goldman Sachs Group

(Free Report)

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc, a financial institution, provides a range of financial services for corporations, financial institutions, governments, and individuals worldwide. It operates through Global Banking & Markets, Asset & Wealth Management, and Platform Solutions segments. The Global Banking & Markets segment provides financial advisory services, including strategic advisory assignments related to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate defense activities, restructurings, and spin-offs; and relationship lending, and acquisition financing, as well as secured lending, through structured credit and asset-backed lending and involved in resale agreements.

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Summit Financial Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF (NYSEARCA:IJK  Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 3,087 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $232,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF by 110,082.1% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 49,198,507 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,360,258,000 after purchasing an additional 49,153,855 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 6,785,436 shares of the companys stock valued at $463,445,000 after purchasing an additional 87,100 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,273,942 shares of the companys stock valued at $252,977,000 after buying an additional 132,701 shares in the last quarter. Main Management ETF Advisors LLC increased its position in iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF by 51.1% during the 1st quarter. Main Management ETF Advisors LLC now owns 2,289,000 shares of the companys stock valued at $163,686,000 after buying an additional 773,885 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG increased its position in iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,914,076 shares of the companys stock valued at $147,901,000 after buying an additional 21,044 shares in the last quarter.

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iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF Price Performance

IJK stock traded down $0.92 on Tuesday, reaching $70.45. 70,804 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 326,196. iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF has a one year low of $62.60 and a one year high of $78.28. The company has a market cap of $7.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.73 and a beta of 1.08. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $75.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.08.

About iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF

iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Growth ETF, formerly iShares S&P MidCap 400 Growth Index Fund (the Fund), is an exchange traded fund. The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the S&P MidCap 400 Growth Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of the mid-capitalization growth sector of the United States equity market and consists of those stocks in the S&P MidCap 400 Index exhibiting the strongest growth characteristics.

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Busey Wealth Management lessened its position in shares of General Electric (NYSE:GE  Free Report) by 2.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,196 shares of the conglomerates stock after selling 323 shares during the period. Busey Wealth Managements holdings in General Electric were worth $1,450,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GE. FMR LLC increased its position in General Electric by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,795,835 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $6,098,882,000 after purchasing an additional 3,463,502 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in General Electric by 17.3% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,490,012 shares of the conglomerates stock worth $4,639,533,000 after purchasing an additional 7,157,356 shares in the last quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. acquired a new position in General Electric in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,496,379,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in General Electric by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,272,027 shares of the conglomerates stock valued at $1,837,514,000 after acquiring an additional 319,196 shares during the period. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in General Electric by 122,242.2% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,438,063 shares of the conglomerates stock valued at $878,644,000 after acquiring an additional 13,427,079 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 74.83% of the companys stock.

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General Electric Stock Down 1.6 %

General Electric stock opened at $108.79 on Tuesday. General Electric has a twelve month low of $48.27 and a twelve month high of $117.96. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $113.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $105.88. The company has a market capitalization of $118.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

General Electric Announces Dividend

General Electric ( NYSE:GE Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 25th. The conglomerate reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $15.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $14.76 billion. General Electric had a net margin of 13.32% and a return on equity of 9.30%. General Electrics revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.78 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that General Electric will post 2.29 EPS for the current year.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 25th. General Electrics payout ratio is currently 3.80%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of General Electric from $108.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of General Electric from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of General Electric from $121.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of General Electric from $100.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Monday, July 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of General Electric from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, General Electric currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $122.71.

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Insider Activity at General Electric

In other General Electric news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 112,614 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.20, for a total value of $12,973,132.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 57,923 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,672,729.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.67% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About General Electric

(Free Report)

General Electric Company operates as a high-tech industrial company in Europe, China, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa. It offers gas and steam turbines, full balance of plant, upgrade, and service solutions, as well as data-leveraging software for power generation, industrial, government, and other customers.

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Stordahl Capital Management Inc. cut its position in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:AGG  Free Report) by 14.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,852 shares of the companys stock after selling 496 shares during the quarter. Stordahl Capital Management Inc.s holdings in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF were worth $279,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in AGG. Key Financial Inc raised its stake in shares of iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 1,370 shares of the companys stock valued at $137,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the period. Gries Financial LLC grew its position in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 1.0% during the first quarter. Gries Financial LLC now owns 10,703 shares of the companys stock worth $1,066,000 after buying an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Benin Management CORP grew its position in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 4.4% during the first quarter. Benin Management CORP now owns 2,611 shares of the companys stock worth $260,000 after buying an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. VAUGHAN & Co SECURITIES INC. grew its position in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 2.7% during the second quarter. VAUGHAN & Co SECURITIES INC. now owns 4,277 shares of the companys stock worth $419,000 after buying an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pathstone Family Office LLC grew its position in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 2.0% during the third quarter. Pathstone Family Office LLC now owns 6,033 shares of the companys stock worth $581,000 after buying an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. 83.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF Price Performance

iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF stock traded down $0.45 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $92.68. 4,063,906 shares of the companys stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,341,747. iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF has a 52-week low of $92.66 and a 52-week high of $101.15. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $95.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $97.69.

iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF Profile

IShares are index funds that are bought and sold like common stocks on national securities exchanges as well as certain foreign exchanges. iShares are attractive because of their relatively low cost, tax efficiency and trading flexibility. Investors can purchase and sell shares through any brokerage firm, financial advisor, or online broker, and hold the funds in any type of brokerage account.

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Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC decreased its position in Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (NYSEARCA:VYM  Free Report) by 5.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,253 shares of the companys stock after selling 430 shares during the quarter. Johnson Bixby & Associates LLCs holdings in Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF were worth $769,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fairfield Bush & CO. purchased a new stake in shares of Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF in the first quarter worth $84,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF by 5.9% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 221,009 shares of the companys stock worth $24,808,000 after acquiring an additional 12,223 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF by 56.8% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,145 shares of the companys stock worth $129,000 after acquiring an additional 415 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF in the first quarter worth $227,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in shares of Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF by 1.5% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 123,399 shares of the companys stock worth $13,847,000 after acquiring an additional 1,853 shares during the last quarter.

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Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSEARCA VYM opened at $101.58 on Tuesday. Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF has a 12 month low of $94.59 and a 12 month high of $113.78. The stock has a market cap of $46.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.80 and a beta of 0.84. The stocks fifty day moving average price is $107.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $105.81.

Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF Profile

The Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund (VYM) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the FTSE Custom High Dividend Yield index. The fund tracks the FTSE High Dividend Yield Index. The index selects high-dividend-paying US companies, excluding REITS, and weights them by market cap. VYM was launched on Nov 10, 2006 and is managed by Vanguard.

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Long-established in the Metals & Mining industry, First Majestic Silver Corp (NYSE:AG) has enjoyed a stellar reputation. It has recently witnessed a daily gain of 3.13%, juxtaposed with a three-month change of -12.9%. However, fresh insights from the GF Score hint at potential headwinds. Notably, its diminished rankings in financial strength, growth, and valuation suggest that the company might not live up to its historical performance. Join us as we dive deep into these pivotal metrics to unravel the evolving narrative of First Majestic Silver Corp.

First Majestic Silver Corp (AG): A Deep Dive into Its Performance Potential

Understanding the GF Score

The GF Score is a stock performance ranking system developed by GuruFocus using five aspects of valuation, which has been found to be closely correlated to the long-term performances of stocks by backtesting from 2006 to 2021. The stocks with a higher GF Score generally generate higher returns than those with a lower GF Score. Therefore, when picking stocks, investors should invest in companies with high GF Scores. The GF Score ranges from 0 to 100, with 100 as the highest rank.

Based on the above method, GuruFocus assigned First Majestic Silver Corp the GF Score of 68 out of 100, which signals poor future outperformance potential.

First Majestic Silver Corp: A Snapshot

First Majestic Silver Corp, with a market cap of $1.47 billion, is engaged in the production, development, exploration, and acquisition of mineral properties with a focus on silver and gold production in North America. It owns four producing mines, three mines in Mexico consisting of the San Dimas Silver/Gold Mine, the Santa Elena Silver/Gold Mine, the La Encantada Silver Mine and the Jerritt Canyon Gold Mine in Nevada. The company's sales stand at $614.18 million, but it has an operating margin of -14.28%, indicating potential profitability issues.

Story continues

First Majestic Silver Corp (AG): A Deep Dive into Its Performance Potential

Profitability Concerns

First Majestic Silver Corp's low Profitability rank can also raise warning signals. This rank, combined with the company's negative operating margin, suggests that First Majestic Silver Corp may struggle to generate profits in the future, which could impact its overall performance and growth.

Looking Ahead

Considering the company's financial strength, profitability, and growth metrics, the GF Score highlights the firm's unparalleled position for potential underperformance. While First Majestic Silver Corp has a strong presence in the Metals & Mining industry, its current financial and growth indicators suggest that it may face challenges in maintaining its historical performance. Therefore, investors should exercise caution and conduct thorough research before investing in this stock.

GuruFocus Premium members can find more companies with strong GF Scores using the following screener link: GF Score Screen

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Lockheed Martin Co. (NYSE:LMT  Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 560 shares of the aerospace companys stock, valued at approximately $258,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Mcdonald Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lockheed Martin by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Mcdonald Partners LLC now owns 1,865 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $882,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Lockheed Martin by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 815 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $385,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Alhambra Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in Lockheed Martin by 4.8% during the 1st quarter. Alhambra Investment Partners LLC now owns 476 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $225,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Lockheed Martin by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,262 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $1,502,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Connecticut Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Lockheed Martin by 4.8% during the 1st quarter. Connecticut Wealth Management LLC now owns 498 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $235,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.26% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on LMT shares. Morgan Stanley reiterated an equal weight rating and set a $532.00 target price on shares of Lockheed Martin in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. Susquehanna cut their target price on Lockheed Martin from $575.00 to $550.00 and set a positive rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Lockheed Martin from $500.00 to $475.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 19th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Lockheed Martin in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised Lockheed Martin from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and set a $440.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $495.13.

Lockheed Martin Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE:LMT opened at $407.82 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $102.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.67. Lockheed Martin Co. has a one year low of $388.10 and a one year high of $508.10. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $437.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $455.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.36.

Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 18th. The aerospace company reported $6.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $6.45 by $0.28. Lockheed Martin had a return on equity of 71.67% and a net margin of 10.48%. The company had revenue of $16.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $6.32 earnings per share. Lockheed Martins quarterly revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Lockheed Martin Co. will post 27.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lockheed Martin

In related news, Director John Donovan bought 548 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $457.07 per share, for a total transaction of $250,474.36. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 3,378 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,543,982.46. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Lockheed Martin

(Free Report)

Lockheed Martin Corporation, a security and aerospace company, engages in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of technology systems, products, and services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control, Rotary and Mission Systems, and Space.

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Summit Financial Strategies Inc. trimmed its position in Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT  Free Report) by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,557 shares of the healthcare product makers stock after selling 215 shares during the period. Summit Financial Strategies Inc.s holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $1,151,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ABT. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new stake in Abbott Laboratories in the first quarter worth $131,000. United Bank boosted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 7.2% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 27,280 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $3,229,000 after acquiring an additional 1,826 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 1.9% in the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 813,253 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $96,257,000 after acquiring an additional 15,521 shares in the last quarter. Kinneret Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 2.3% in the first quarter. Kinneret Advisory LLC now owns 19,467 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $2,304,000 after acquiring an additional 436 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lumature Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Abbott Laboratories by 636.2% in the first quarter. Lumature Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,216 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $262,000 after acquiring an additional 1,915 shares in the last quarter. 73.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Insider Activity

In other news, Director Daniel J. Starks sold 50,000 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.76, for a total value of $5,688,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,775,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $770,759,948.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Daniel J. Starks sold 50,000 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.76, for a total value of $5,688,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,775,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $770,759,948.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 10,400 shares of Abbott Laboratories stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.03, for a total value of $1,092,312.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 65,027 shares in the company, valued at $6,829,785.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.10% of the companys stock.

Abbott Laboratories Price Performance

NYSE ABT traded down $0.39 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $95.34. 1,131,042 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,867,051. Abbott Laboratories has a 12-month low of $93.25 and a 12-month high of $115.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a market capitalization of $165.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.69. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $103.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.11.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 20th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $9.98 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.71 billion. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.50% and a net margin of 12.83%. Abbott Laboratoriess quarterly revenue was down 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.43 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.4 EPS for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 13th will be issued a $0.51 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 12th. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.14%. Abbott Laboratoriess dividend payout ratio is presently 69.62%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ABT. StockNews.com began coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $112.00 in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an equal weight rating and set a $112.00 price target on shares of Abbott Laboratories in a report on Friday, July 21st. Citigroup lowered their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $122.00 in a report on Monday. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Abbott Laboratories from an underperform rating to a peer perform rating in a report on Friday, July 21st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $120.47.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Abbott Laboratories

About Abbott Laboratories

(Free Report)

Abbott Laboratories, together with its subsidiaries, discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells health care products worldwide. It operates in four segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Medical Devices. The Established Pharmaceutical Products segment provides generic pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, irritable bowel syndrome or biliary spasm, intrahepatic cholestasis or depressive symptoms, gynecological disorder, hormone replacement therapy, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hypothyroidism, Meniere's disease and vestibular vertigo, pain, fever, inflammation, and migraine, as well as provides anti-infective clarithromycin, influenza vaccine, and products to regulate physiological rhythm of the colon.

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Summit Financial Strategies Inc. cut its holdings in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:AGG  Free Report) by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,843 shares of the companys stock after selling 209 shares during the quarter. Summit Financial Strategies Inc.s holdings in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF were worth $768,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $359,000. Steph & Co. raised its stake in shares of iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 80.4% during the 2nd quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 359 shares of the companys stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF during the 1st quarter worth approximately $37,000. First Manhattan Co. raised its stake in shares of iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF by 697.9% during the 4th quarter. First Manhattan Co. now owns 375 shares of the companys stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 328 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Activest Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF during the 1st quarter worth approximately $37,000. 83.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF stock traded down $0.35 on Tuesday, reaching $92.78. 3,468,710 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,340,123. iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF has a one year low of $92.68 and a one year high of $101.15. The company has a 50-day moving average of $95.85 and a 200 day moving average of $97.69.

About iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF

IShares are index funds that are bought and sold like common stocks on national securities exchanges as well as certain foreign exchanges. iShares are attractive because of their relatively low cost, tax efficiency and trading flexibility. Investors can purchase and sell shares through any brokerage firm, financial advisor, or online broker, and hold the funds in any type of brokerage account.

Read More

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Value-focused investors are always on the hunt for stocks that are priced below their intrinsic value. One such stock that merits attention is Globalstar Inc (GSAT). The stock, which is currently priced at 1.22, recorded a loss of 6.87% in a day and a 3-month increase of 12.96%. The stock's fair valuation is $1.79, as indicated by its GF Value.

Understanding the GF Value

The GF Value represents the current intrinsic value of a stock derived from our exclusive method. The GF Value Line on our summary page gives an overview of the fair value that the stock should be traded at. It is calculated based on three factors:

1. Historical multiples (PE Ratio, PS Ratio, PB Ratio and Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow) that the stock has traded at.

2. GuruFocus adjustment factor based on the company's past returns and growth.

3. Future estimates of the business performance.

We believe the GF Value Line is the fair value that the stock should be traded at. The stock price will most likely fluctuate around the GF Value Line. If the stock price is significantly above the GF Value Line, it is overvalued and its future return is likely to be poor. On the other hand, if it is significantly below the GF Value Line, its future return will likely be higher.

Is Globalstar (GSAT) Too Good to Be True? A Comprehensive Analysis of a Potential Value Trap

Investment Risks: The Potential Value Trap

Investors need to consider a more in-depth analysis before making an investment decision. Despite its seemingly attractive valuation, certain risk factors associated with Globalstar should not be ignored. These risks are primarily reflected through its low Altman Z-score of -1.25, and the company's revenues and earnings have been on a downward trend over the past five years, which raises a crucial question: Is Globalstar a hidden gem or a value trap?

These indicators suggest that Globalstar, despite its apparent undervaluation, might be a potential value trap. This complexity underlines the importance of thorough due diligence in investment decision-making.

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Decoding the Altman Z-Score

Before delving into the details, let's understand what the Altman Z-score entails. Invented by New York University Professor Edward I. Altman in 1968, the Z-Score is a financial model that predicts the probability of a company entering bankruptcy within a two-year time frame. The Altman Z-Score combines five different financial ratios, each weighted to create a final score. A score below 1.8 suggests a high likelihood of financial distress, while a score above 3 indicates a low risk.

Globalstar's Business Overview

Globalstar Inc is a telecommunications company that derives revenue from the provision of mobile satellite services. Mobile satellite services are typically used by customers where existing terrestrial wireline and wireless communications networks are impaired or do not exist. The company provides communications services such as two-way voice and data transmission. In addition, one-way data transmission is also offered. Both services are offered using mobile or fixed devices. The company is an owner of satellite assets. The company generates the vast majority of its revenue within the United States.

Is Globalstar (GSAT) Too Good to Be True? A Comprehensive Analysis of a Potential Value Trap

Globalstar's Low Altman Z-Score: A Breakdown of Key Drivers

A dissection of Globalstar's Altman Z-score reveals Globalstar's financial health may be weak, suggesting possible financial distress:

The Bearish Signs: Declining Revenues and Earnings

One of the telltale indicators of a company's potential trouble is a sustained decline in revenues. In the case of Globalstar, both the revenue per share (evident from the last five years' TTM data: 2019: 0.08; 2020: 0.08; 2021: 0.07; 2022: 0.08; 2023: 0.11; ) and the 5-year revenue growth rate (-5.5%) have been on a consistent downward trajectory. This pattern may point to underlying challenges such as diminishing demand for Globalstar's products, or escalating competition in its market sector. Either scenario can pose serious risks to the company's future performance, warranting a thorough analysis by investors.

Is Globalstar (GSAT) Too Good to Be True? A Comprehensive Analysis of a Potential Value Trap

The Red Flag: Sluggish Earnings Growth

The company's earnings picture does not look much brighter. The 3-year EPS without NRI growth rate (-26%) is sluggish, and the future 3 to 5-year EPS growth estimate (0%) does not show a promising uptick. These indicators could suggest the company is struggling to translate sales into profits effectively, a critical element of a successful business model.

Despite its low price-to-fair-value ratio, Globalstar's falling revenues and earnings cast a long shadow over its investment attractiveness. A low price relative to intrinsic value can indeed suggest an investment opportunity, but only if the company's fundamentals are sound or improving. In Steelcase's case, the declining revenues, EBITDA, and earnings growth suggest that the company's issues may be more than just cyclical fluctuations.

Without a clear turnaround strategy, there's a risk that the company's performance could continue to deteriorate, leading to further price declines. In such a scenario, the low price-to-GF-Value ratio may be more indicative of a value trap than a value opportunity.

Conclusion

In conclusion, despite the seemingly attractive valuation of Globalstar (GSAT), the company presents several red flags that suggest it might be a value trap. The falling revenues and earnings, coupled with a low Altman Z-Score, indicate potential financial distress. Therefore, investors need to exercise caution and conduct thorough due diligence before considering an investment in Globalstar.

GuruFocus Premium members can find stocks with high Altman Z-Score using the following Screener: Walter Schloss Screen .Investors can find stocks with good revenue and earnings growth using GuruFocus' Peter Lynch Growth with Low Valuation Screener.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


FILE PHOTO: People walk in the Goldman Sachs global headquarters in Manhattan, New York

By Saeed Azhar

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chris Kojima, a Goldman Sachs executive in the asset and wealth management unit, will leave the investment bank at year-end after almost 28 years, an internal memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday showed.

Kojima co-heads Goldman's client solutions group, which handles sales and client service for pensions and institutions.

He will join private equity firm General Atlantic in early 2024, two sources familiar with the matter said. GA, which invests in high-growth businesses, manages $77 billion in assets, according to its website.

Kojima is among the latest high-profile executives to leave Goldman's asset and wealth management division, which manages $2.7 trillion in assets. Julian Salisbury, the former chief investment officer of asset and wealth management, left earlier this year to join investment firm Sixth Street.

Other prominent exits from the unit include Mike Koester, who retired after serving as co-president of alternative investments. Jo Natauri, the Wall Street bank's head of healthcare investing, also is leaving at the end of the year.

Matt Gibson, appointed to co-lead the client business with Kojima in 2023, will assume full responsibility for the unit. He reports to Marc Nachmann, head of the asset and wealth management unit.

"Chris founded and led businesses that are incredibly important to Goldman Sachs, and our business today is stronger because of his leadership," Nachmann said in a statement.

Kojima's also has served as global head of Goldman's alternative investments and manager selection group, now called the external investment group. He led that business from its inception in 2008 to 2019.

He first joined Goldman Sachs as an investment banking associate in 1995, and was named managing director in 2002 and a partner in 2008.

"I'm looking forward to a long relationship with Goldman Sachs as an alumnus, client, and advocate," Kojima said in an email to Reuters, signaling he may join a firm that works with the investment bank.

(This story has been corrected to change the date of Matt's role to 2023, not late 2022, in paragraph 6)

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Louise Heavens, Lananh Nguyen, Paul Simao and Richard Chang)
Local giants grab top spots in Kantar's ad equity measure

SINGAPORE, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kantar reveals Google has taken the title of consumers' most preferred ad platform in Asia Pacific, retaining its first position clinched last year. According to Kantar Media Reactions 2023, most consumers consider ads on Google to be relevant and useful, with few viewing them negatively. Google is the second favourite platform for marketers in APAC. Among marketers, YouTube leads the top of the charts, demonstrating that perhaps for now marketers prefer established media brands, even if they do not register in consumers' top preferences.

Kantar Media Reactions 2023 report uncovers the attitudes of consumers and marketers to ad platforms and channels. The annual study, now in its fourth year, is based on interviews with 16,000 consumers in 23 markets and 900 senior marketers globally.

Top-ranking global media brands in Asia Pacific

Consumers APAC Marketers APAC 1 Google (-) 1 YouTube (-) 2 Instagram (+1) 2 Google (-) 3 TikTok (+4) 3 Instagram (-2) 4 Amazon (+2) 4 TikTok (-) 5 Spotify (-3) 5 Amazon (+2)

Note: (-) refers to rank being unchanged versus 2022

Google remains the most popular ad environment among consumers second year in a row. Instagram rose to position 2 this year, boosted by Australia and Indonesia where it was the top media brand platform. TikTok, the most endorsed for Fun and Entertaining Ads has helped it to secure the third rank with a +4 higher ad equity score in 2023. E-commerce giant Amazon takes 4th spot in APAC, while it is the most preferred ad platform in the global ranking. Spotify, the top and perhaps only audio streaming brand also known for its High-Quality ads secured its spot in the top 5.

Taking local brands into consideration, most markets have local brands in the Top Spot

Interestingly, Google is the sole global brand which Kantar measured that claimed the top spot in a country, by being ranked at the top in India. In all other APAC markets, local brands took the top honours. An exception would be the super app Grab, a regional Southeast Asian giant that came up top in both Vietnam and Indonesia.

Story continues

Grab has been a relatively new player into the retail media network space, yet proving to have strong potential for advertisers to explore as its ad placements are seen to be less intrusive. Advertising today that consumers are more receptive to, seems to seamlessly integrates into consumers' lives; in their scrolling, viewing or simply while they go about their days.

Top-ranking media channels in Asia Pacific

Consumers APAC Marketers APAC 1 Sponsored events (-) 1 Online video (-) 2 Out of home (+2) 2 Digital out of home (+5) 3 Magazines (+3) 3 Video streaming (-) 4 Cinema / Digital out of home (-1) / (+1) 4 Sponsored events (+6) 5 Point of sale (-3) 5 Out of home (+6)

Note: (-) refers to rank being unchanged versus 2022

This year's analysis reveals that "in-person" touchpoints dominate consumers' preferred channels  with Sponsored Events taking the lead. The rest of the top five also comprises channels that are experienced in-person, including out-of-home, magazines, cinema ads, digital out-of-home and point of sale.

According to the research, new media channels are more appealing to marketers than to consumers, who favour less intrusive options. Podcasts are the most popular online media channel, and with Spotify taking a top spot in the global media brand consumer ranking, it is important for marketers to review its' potential to connect with consumers in a unique way.

On the other hand, TV, which used to be a staple of advertising campaigns, is missing from the top choices of marketers this year. Consumers have never rated TV highly, but marketers used to value it more. Only 7% of marketers plan to increase TV spending in 2024. Music streaming, online video and video streaming are the media channels that marketers expect to invest more in 2024.

Kartikeya Varma, Head of Media APAC, Kantar, said: "We know advertising campaigns are seven times as impactful among receptive audiences, so for marketers it is essential to know how different ad platforms perform and how receptive the audiences are, to allocate their budget wisely and create effective campaigns. Out-of-home advertising, such as sponsored events or cinema ads, is the preferred choice of consumers in Asia Pacific. And influencer content is queen in terms of capturing and delivering attention, amongst both consumers and marketers.

However, Asia Pacific is a diverse region with varying preferences and behaviours across markets and categories, so advertisers need to tailor their strategies accordingly to reach audiences with impact in a consistent manner. An over-whelming majority of marketers tell us they will increase their spending on video content in 2024. At the same time, we advise marketers not to overlook the potential of in-person media channels, which can offer high levels of consumer receptivity and attention. With the right content and customisation, these channels can enhance the brand impact of ad campaigns".

Download a copy of the Media Reactions 2023 study and register to watch the webinar "Kantar Media Reactions in APAC 2023".

About Kantar  Kantar is the world's leading marketing data and analytics business and an indispensable brand partner to the world's top companies. We combine the most meaningful attitudinal and behavioural data with deep expertise and advanced analytics to uncover how people think and act. We help clients understand what has happened and why and how to shape the marketing strategies that shape their future. For more information, please get in touch with ellen.cuijpers@kantar.com

About Media Reactions 2023  Kantar has been researching media experiences and perceptions for over 20 years. Media Reactions combines consumer and marketer studies for a complete view of the current media landscape and how to navigate it. The 2023 survey spoke to around 900 marketing professionals from advertiser, agency and media companies around the world. The consumer survey is based on around 16,000 interviews in 23 markets (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Colombia, Egypt, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Japan, KSA, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan, UAE, UK, USA, and Vietnam).

Cision

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SOURCE Kantar
October 03, 2023





In an era characterized by dynamic economic landscapes and fluctuating financial challenges, businesses are continually seeking innovative strategies to fortify their bottom lines. Whether you have a small startup or an established corporation, combining technology and business acumen is key to trimming expenditures and enhancing profitability.







For businesses facing the ever-present specter of debt, technology offers a potent remedy to navigate these turbulent waters. You may also consider options for debt relief in San Antonio since debt can impede business growth and sustainability. Below are effective ways to use technology to reduce business costs and chart a course toward sustainable financial success:

1.Automate Routine Tasks

Harnessing technology to handle repetitive and manual tasks can save time and money. Consider, for example, the automation of data entry and document processing. Instead of employees spending hours manually inputting data or processing paperwork, software solutions can perform these tasks with speed and accuracy. The outcome is reduced labor costs and risk of errors, often resulting in costly mistakes.

Implementing an inventory management system that uses RFID technology or barcoding can help you keep track of stock levels in real time, prevent overstocking or understocking, and reduce carrying costs. Besides inventory management, marketing automation tools can streamline your marketing efforts by automating email campaigns, lead nurturing, and customer segmentation. Sales automation software can also help your sales team manage leads, track customer interactions, and accurately forecast sales.

Automation also contributes to improved customer service. Chatbots and automated email responses can handle customer inquiries around the clock, providing instant support and enhancing customer satisfaction without the need for additional staffing. Automating routine tasks empowers businesses to do more with less, driving productivity and profitability.

2.Energy Efficiency Solutions

With energy being a major expense, leveraging technology can improve your company's energy efficiency, saving you money in the long run. Consider implementing smart building systems with sensors and automation to control lighting, heating, and cooling based on occupancy and environmental conditions. This leads to substantial energy savings by eliminating waste and optimizing usage.

Investing in energy management software is equally important since it provides real-time data on energy consumption across your facilities - helping identify inefficiencies and make data-driven decisions to lower your energy consumption.

Consider integrating renewable energy sources such as solar panels or wind turbines into your operations since it reduces your reliance on traditional energy sources while generating revenue by selling excess energy back to the grid. In addition to renewable energy, use remote monitoring and control systems to manage energy usage in real time, even when you're not on-site. This lets you promptly respond to anomalies or energy spikes, preventing costly overages.

3.Optimize Supply Chain Management

Ineffective supply chain management can lead to increased operation costs. Leveraging technology is crucial in optimizing your supply chain and reducing costs. Making data-driven decisions, minimizing inefficiencies, and reducing waste requires using advanced data analytics since they offer real-time insights into your supply chain. Predictive analytics can forecast demand accurately, allowing you to optimize inventory levels and reduce carrying costs.

Apart from data analytics, Internet of Things devices and sensors can provide real-time visibility into the movement of goods in your supply chain, improving inventory management and reducing losses. In addition to IoT devices, consider implementing blockchain technology in your supply chain since it can enhance transparency and traceability.

4.Remote Work and Telecommuting

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of remote work and telecommuting, and many businesses have discovered the cost-saving benefits of this approach. Working remotely eliminates expenses associated with office space, utilities, and on-site amenities. Here's how technology facilitates remote work:

Communication tools: Video conferencing, messaging apps, and project management software enable teams to collaborate effectively regardless of their physical locations. This reduces the need for in-person meetings and travel expenses.



Virtual private networks (VPNs): VPNs ensure secure access to company resources from remote locations, maintaining data security and confidentiality.



Cloud-based collaboration platforms: Consider using cloud-based platforms to enable employees to access documents and files from anywhere, promoting collaboration and productivity.

Apart from cloud-based platforms, consider using monitoring tools to track employee productivity and ensure accountability, assuaging concerns about remote work's impact on efficiency.

5.Outsourcing and Virtual Teams

Technology enables you to tap into a global talent pool, making outsourcing and virtual teams a cost-effective option. Instead of hiring full-time, in-house staff for every task, you can leverage external resources when needed.

Consider outsourcing tasks such as customer support, IT support, content creation, and data entry to specialized service providers or freelancers. This approach allows you to access expertise without the overhead of full-time employees, including office space and benefits.

In addition to outsourcing, create virtual teams composed of remote workers collaborating on projects from different locations. Tools like project management software, video conferencing, and cloud-based storage facilitate effective teamwork, eliminating the need for physical office space and associated costs.

Technology also enables you to find the right talent for your specific needs at more competitive rates than hiring locally. Online job platforms, freelance marketplaces, and specialized recruitment software can make identifying qualified candidates faster and seamless.

Building virtual teams across different time zones can ensure 24/7 coverage for your business operations. This enhances customer service and allows you to meet tight deadlines more effectively.

6.Embrace Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has changed the way businesses manage their IT infrastructure and resources. Migrating to the cloud can significantly reduce IT-related costs and allow you to scale your operations up or down as needed.

Cloud computing can reduce infrastructure costs since you no longer need to invest in expensive on-premises hardware and infrastructure. Instead, you can leverage the infrastructure provided by cloud service providers, paying only for the resources you use. This eliminates the need for costly upfront capital expenditures.

Since cloud service providers handle most of the maintenance and updates, it reduces the burden on your IT team and saves on labor costs. Cloud-based collaboration tools allow employees to work together seamlessly from different locations, reducing travel expenses and improving productivity by enabling remote work arrangements.

Apart from handling maintenance and updates, cloud providers typically offer robust disaster recovery and backup solutions, reducing the cost and complexity of maintaining your own disaster recovery infrastructure.

Endnote

Technology offers you many opportunities to trim business costs and boost profitability. Integrating technology into your business with the above strategies can lead to substantial savings in your operations.
[October 02, 2023] ORIGIN Innovation Awards Leads the Path to a Sustainable and Responsible Future on its 4th Year Tweet

SINGAPORE, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- TNGlobal (formerly TechNode Global) announces the fourth edition of its ORIGIN Innovation Awards with the theme "Leading the Path to a Sustainable and Responsible Future." This year's awards will have a continued focus on how innovations are making an impact on sustainable development goals, celebrating and showcasing the remarkable endeavors of tech-driven entrepreneurs, innovators, businesses, and stakeholders across Asia. The first two iterations of ORIGIN Innovation Awards held in 2020 and 2021 celebrated the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship across Asia, with voting from an expert advisory committee and the public to select the top innovators in the leading industry verticals. In 2022, the awards put the spotlight on innovators who make an impact on their respective industries and the community, inspired by the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Since its inception, ORIGIN Innovation Awards has received 1,000+ nominations and has had 160+ award winners. We have worked with at least 70 international partners in 20 Asia Pacific Countries, and ORIGIN has been covered across 300+ media organizations. This year, TNGlobal continues its dedication to cultivating a platform that amplifies voices and shapes a future characterized by enhanced sustainability, wellbeing, and economic growth. "As the global economy begins to recover from the pandemic, our vision revolves around eradicating poverty, fostering a more sustainable environment, and improving life expectancy and quality," says Dr. GANG Lu, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the TechNode Group. "Our objective is to shine a spotlight on the achievements of extraordinary companies and individuals across Asia who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to integrating sustainable and ethical practices into their operations, placing the well-being of humanity and the planet at the forefront, above financial gains," Dr. GANG Lu adds. Award categories For this year's ORIGIN Innovation Awards, we have nine (9) award titles in three (3) award categories: Startup of the Year The Leading Ladies

Sustainability Stars

Startup Trailblazers

AI Startup Leaders

Market Expansion Heroes Corporate Vanguard Award Corporate Innovation Champion Outstanding Ecosystem Champion



Most Active Community Builders

Outstanding Accelerators & Incubators

Venture Visionaries Following the nomination process, a subject matter expert advisory committee, made up of media, VCs, PEs, and corporate executives from the APAC region, will select the best nominations from each award title. They will join us to score and review each entry before determining the winners. Partners

TNGlobal is pleased to be working with the following advisors and partners for the fourth edition of ORIGIN Innovation Awardsmany of which also supported us in previous editions of the Awards. Advisors: Kairous Capital, Quest Ventures, Ondine Capital, AC Ventures, and Gobi Partners. Strategic Partners: Alibaba Cloud, BEYOND Expo, Tencent WeStart, WORQ, Aspire, and Iskandar Malaysia. Supporting Partners: Manila Angel Investors Network, National Innovation Agency, MedTech Innovator APAC, brinc, True Digital Park, ???, Techsauce, KUMPUL, Sunway iLabs, beSUCCESS, ANTLER, Startup Grind Shenzen, GUIDE, JUMPSTART, Intebridge, Plug and Play APAC, KEPPLE, XCEL, X-PITCH, Kr.Asia, KX Knowledge Xchange, The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE), and ?????(Arm Accelerator). How you can be involved We sincerely invite you to be a part of our journey to celebrate the spirit of innovation and impact in the APAC region. The ORIGIN Innovation Awards are open for both public nominations and self-nominations. We are looking for outstanding innovators in each category who meet the following criteria: General qualifying criteria for Startup of the Year category: The nominee must be based or operating in ASIA ;

; The nominee should have a commercialized product or have existing pilot projects with commercial partners. General qualifying criteria for Corporate Vanguard Award: The nominee should have a physical office presence in ASIA ;

; For this award, the nominee should showcase existing campaign and/or initiatives that are currently in place and is quantifiable with the relevant UN SDGs;

The project has to be a long-term commitment with participation from at least 1 department of the organization and has a two years implementation plan. General qualifying criteria for Outstanding Ecosystem Champions: The company should be based in ASIA ;

; The company has to showcase their engagement or active contribution to the ASIA ecosystem communities either through certain initiatives, campaigns, or investments into the ecosystem. ORIGIN Awards Timeline September 2023 - Preparation, Partner onboarding, Pre-launch;

- Preparation, Partner onboarding, Pre-launch; October 2023 - Call for Nominations;

- Call for Nominations; December 2023 - Nominations end;

- Nominations end; January 2024 - Evaluation of Nominees, and Awards Ceremony. If you share the same vision ... Support and work with us. Contribute in any way you can. Some of the areas we need help with: If you are an agency or organization that supports this cause for our future, lend us your voice and platform to help amplify these awards.

If you are a community builder, help share these awards with your network and community to be part of the movement.

If you have the financial capability, be our sponsor so we can reach more and do more.

If you receive this and think you can help in other ways, feel free to reach out to us with your idea. About TNGlobal TNGlobal (formerly TechNode Global) is a Pan-Asia tech platform offering premium tech news, industry insights, events, and tailor-made marketing solutions for startups, VCs, corporates, and other industry pioneers. With a vast network in global innovation and entrepreneurship, TNGlobal facilitates cross-border partnerships and businesses. TNGlobal is a spin-off of TechNode, China's leading innovation and entrepreneurship platform. Learn more about TNGlobal: https://technode.global

More info about ORIGIN Innovation Awards: https://technode.global/origin/innovation-awards/

Reach out to [email protected] for any queries Contact: Alex Chatpaitoon, Email: [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/origin-innovation-awards-leads-the-path-to-a-sustainable-and-responsible-future-on-its-4th-year-301945068.html SOURCE TechNode Global

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[October 02, 2023] Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Professor Ahmad Fauzi Ismail, receives the prestigious 2023 Mustafa (pbuh) Prize. Tweet

ISFAHAN, Iran, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Professor Ahmad Fauzi Ismail, Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), has been awarded the prestigious 2023 Mustafa (pbuh) Prize, a biennial accolade celebrating the remarkable achievements of Muslim scholars and scientists since 2015. The opening ceremony in Isfahan, Iran, featured Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi and 150 leading academicians and scientists from the Islamic world. While the award ceremony was attended by the Vice-President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy, Dr Rouhollah Dehghani Firouzabadi with 800 attendees. The Mustafa Prize acknowledges Muslim scientists in four categories: Information and communication science and technology, life and medical science and technology, nanoscience and nanotechnology, and all areas of science and technology. In this fifth edition, five Muslim scientists were recognized by the Mustafa Science and Technology Foundation. Professor Ahmad Fauzi joins esteemed laureates, including Professor Samia J. Khoury (Lebanon) and Professor Murat Uysal (Turkiye), in the category of laureates from Islamic countries. Professor Ahmad Fauzi's recognition stems from his outstanding contributions to membrane technology research and its diverse applications. This milestone achievement holds historical significance as Professor Ahmad Fauzi became the first Malaysian and the second Southeast Asian recipient of the Mustafa (pbuh) Prize.



In his acceptance speech, Professor Ahmad Fauzi expressed gratitude to his family, UTM, and various ministries in Malaysia that supported his work and research over the years. He stated, "My gratitude goes to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, my alma mater, in which I am now entrusted to lead as the Vice-Chancellor. My dedicated team at the Advanced Membrane Technology Research Center (AMTEC) and Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, UTM.

"I am also indebted to Malaysia's Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, and Ministry of Education for the opportunities and support throughout my academic and research journey," added Professor Ahmad Fauzi. The recognition of Professor Ahmad Fauzi highlights his groundbreaking work in membrane technology applications within Basic and Engineering Sciences. His impressive list of accolades includes The World Academy of Sciences Prize in 2020, the Merdeka Award for Outstanding Scholastic Achievement in 2014, the IChemE Malaysia Innovator of the Year Award in 2014, and Malaysia's Research Star Award by Clarivate Analytics, underscoring his prolific contributions to academia and industry. Reflecting on his research journey, Professor Ahmad Fauzi shared, "Research, for me, has always been more than just a career; it's a deep-seated passion. It's the thrill of discovery, the pursuit of knowledge, and the relentless curiosity that keeps me inspired." At the heart of Professor Ahmad Fauzi's research lies the development of innovative polymeric, inorganic, and mixed matrix membranes. These pioneering membranes have found critical applications in water desalination, wastewater treatment, gas separation processes, palm oil refining, as well as the creation of hemodialysis and polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cell applications. His impact extends globally through visiting appointments at prestigious institutions, including Imperial College London, Tokyo University, and Kyoto University. His pivotal role in establishing the Advanced Membrane Technology Research Center (AMTEC) at UTM has positioned him as a leading figure in membrane science and technology worldwide. Beyond research, Professor Ahmad Fauzi has demonstrated exceptional leadership and administrative prowess, catalyzing positive reforms and operational enhancements during his tenure as UTM's Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) from 2015 to 2020 and was appointed to lead various Research and Development taskforce and think-thank by the government. About Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM): Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) is a leading public research university in Malaysia, dedicated to advancing knowledge and nurturing future leaders. UTM is committed to excellence in education, research, and innovation, making a significant impact on society and industry. As a global institution, UTM is known for its cutting-edge research and its role in developing innovative solutions to global challenges. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/vice-chancellor-of-universiti-teknologi-malaysia-professor-ahmad-fauzi-ismail-receives-the-prestigious-2023-mustafa-pbuh-prize-301945120.html SOURCE Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)

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[October 02, 2023] DevDays Asia 2023: Microsoft Democratizes Taiwan's AI with Skilling Initiative Tweet

TAIPEI, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs (moda), in collaboration with the Administration for Digital Industries, moda (ADI), and Microsoft Taiwan, proudly sponsored the eighth edition of this year's DevDays Asia conference. The event in Taipei and Kaohsiung launched with a record number of participants. It is Microsoft's biggest developer conference in Asia and a central platform for tech enthusiasts and professionals to explore the latest digital trends. This year's theme is "Leading the Future: Empowering Agile and Innovative Transformation with AI," the agenda is closely aligned with cutting-edge technologies that have garnered developers' attention, including Generative AI, data science, and cybersecurity. Experts from Microsoft's corporate headquarters and their counterparts in Taiwan delivered a rich program that show-cased innovative applications of Azure OpenAI Service, cross-platform integration and interoperability, compliance and application development involving AI, Power Platform, and Teams, along with the concept of AI-driven industrial metaverse, GitHub Copilot applications, and AI cybersecurity. Vice Premier of Executive Yuan Wen-Tsan Cheng made a notable appearance, where he underlined the government's commitment to investing resources to enhance digital talents' competitiveness, further driving the widespread adoption of AI in Taiwan, and realizing the "Digital Nation, Smart Island" policy. As one of the critical government agencies driving dgital development in Taiwan, Huai-Jen Lee, Deputy Minister of Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs, underscored the importance of events like DevDays Asia in showcasing the boundless potential of AI to participants. As industries enthusiastically embrace emerging technologies such as Generative AI, Lee said moda is committed to accelerating the integration of digital technologies with the people of Taiwan, thereby realizing the vision of "AI in Industries, Industrialization of AI."



Empowering Taiwan's Smart Revolution in the Era of AI Democratization Microsoft Taiwan's General Manager, Sean Pien, indicated, "Over the past nine months, we have witnessed Azure OpenAI Service being implemented in various fields in Taiwan, including manufacturing, healthcare, government, education, retail, and more, showcasing Taiwan's eagerness to embrace Generative AI and its transformative innovation. Generative AI will accelerate industrial digital transformation, propelling Taiwan to become a global leader in digital innovation over the next decade. Microsoft will continue to infuse international resources while collaborating with government and customer partners on the foundation of trust and security."

Azure OpenAI Service has been adopted in 12 industries in Taiwan, driving the implementation of over 200 solutions. It is expected to generate NT$680 million in industry benefits in the coming year, contributing to the thriving ecosystem. Microsoft Nurturing Digital Expertise Microsoft Taiwan highlighted the success of its 2020 commitment to raising skills, with Sales Enablement & Operation Lead Flora Chen announcing that "Microsoft has achieved its goal of training and empowering over 200,000 tech talents three years ahead of schedule". This year's sessions were specifically focused on Generative AI technology, which captured industry attention. "Additionally, we emphasized the importance of security and trust. Through case studies and live demonstrations, we assisted developers in mastering advanced development frameworks, trends, and high-level cybersecurity AI technology, collectively building a secure and intelligent future." Showcasing Smarter Taiwan: Partnering with Industry Innovators to Unveil Emerging Applications Microsoft's commitment to fostering global business connections and international market access has been unwavering. It has facilitated invaluable business opportunities through a series of dynamic expos and events, such as DevDays Asia 2023 and the Microsoft Generative AI Practical Forum. These opportunities encompass engaging exhibitions, exclusive matchmaking sessions, and strategic introductions to potential sales partners. Over the past two years, Microsoft has enabled Taiwanese businesses to seamlessly engage with international customers, leading to an impressive achievement of over NT$1.5 billion in overseas business opportunities. Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs will continue working with Microsoft to bridge the gap in international resources, helping local companies and startups expand their horizons and effectively connect with the global market. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/devdays-asia-2023-microsoft-democratizes-taiwans-ai-with-skilling-initiative-301945144.html SOURCE Microsoft Taiwan

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[October 03, 2023] INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE PROMOTES ACTIVE COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION WITHIN ASEAN BENEFITING EDUCATION, WOMEN, AND BUSINESS SECTORS Tweet

BALI, Indonesia, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The international conference organised by LSPR Institute of Communication & Business (LSPR Institute) emphasised the need for enhanced and active communication to demonstrate the significant benefits of unity among ASEAN member countries, particularly in the areas of education, women's rights, and business. This initiative has become crucial amidst the complexities and uncertainties brought about by globalisation in various aspects of human life. The founder of LSPR Institute and initiator of the international communication conference, Prita Kemal Gani, highlighted this in the opening of the 5th LSPR International Conference on Communication and Business (ICCB) in Denpasar, Bali, on Friday, September 29th. "Strengthening a sense of belonging as a unified ASEAN community must provide tangible evidence of the true embodiment of ASEAN's identity. This is essential to provide a genuine sense of purpose and benefit for the future of ASEAN and its people," said Prita Kemal Gani. Addressing approximately 200 participants from both domestic and international origins, Prita Kemal Gani emphasised the importance of clear communication strategies outlined in the ASEAN Communication Master Plan 2018-2023. These strategies, when targeted towards specific audiences, can yield real, swift, and sustainable benefits. "The ASEAN communication roadmap identifies severl target audiences that require serious attention, including the education sector, women and children, businesses, disability groups, key influencers, and governments, as well as the media. The main message is the integration of society, peace, stability, and shared prosperity," stated Prita, a renowned national PR figure.



Prita stressed that effective communication can lead to success in both business and societal issues. Special needs communities need fairer opportunities and representation. The significant role of women in decision-making processes, the limited productivity among ASEAN businesses, and the need to encourage the media to provide positive benefits to the ASEAN and international communities were all discussed. The event was supported by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, and the Provincial Government of Bali.

During the conference, Mr. I Dewa Putu Sunartha, S.E, M.Si, the Assistant General Administration Secretary of the Bali Provincial Government, inaugurated the event, expressing his belief in the power of idea exchange during conferences to foster sustainable economic growth. He appreciated the conference being held in Bali and encouraged participants not only to exchange ideas but also to enjoy Bali's natural beauty and culture. The conference was also graced by Mr. Sandiaga Uno, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, who delivered his remarks. The academic panel sessions featured renowned scholars, including Prof. Anne Gregory, Professor Emeritus of Corporate Communication at the University of Huddersfield & Adjunct Professor at LSPR; Prof. Jesper Falkheimer, Editor in Chief of the Journal of Communication Management & Professor at Lunds Universitet; and Prof. Mike Hardy CMG, OBE, FRSA, Chairman of the International Leadership Association & Director of the Centre for Trust, Peace, and Social Relations at Coventry University, UK & Adjunct Professor at LSPR. Additionally, there were practical sessions involving ASEAN practitioners moderated by Mr. Jaffri Amin Osman, MIPR, FIPR, FAPR, MCIPR, Chairman of the Global Alliance of PR and Communication Management for Asia Pacific & President of the Institute of PR Malaysia. Speakers included Boy Kelana, Chairman of PERHUMAS, Indonesia; Harold Geronimo, President of the Public Relations Society of The Philippines (PRSP); My Nguyen, Chairman of the Vietnam Public Relations Network (VNPR); and Dr. Nutthaboon Pornrattanacharoen, Academic Committee for Innovation and Foreign Affairs, Thailand Public Relations Association (PR Thailand). Event Profile The 5th LSPR International Conference on Communication and Business (ICCB) with the theme "Strengthening ASEAN's Leadership in Sustainable Business and Advanced Communication" marked its fifth edition on September 28-29, 2023, in Bali. The event welcomed practitioners, researchers, and students, with Denpasar hosting the conference for the second time after its inaugural event in Bali in 2018. The purpose of ICCB was to motivate academics and practitioners, especially within ASEAN, to enhance global leadership. ASEAN, as a regional entity, needs loyalty and trust from its people for businesses to flourish, ensuring prosperity and security for all. This conference aimed to gather thoughts, facilitate discussions, and share information about practices and innovations among ASEAN nations, ultimately contributing to the UN-2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda. A total of 296 abstracts and research papers were submitted from 15 countries, including Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, The Republic of The Philippines, Vietnam, Netherlands, United States of America, Pakistan, Thailand, People's Republic of China, People's Republic of Bangladesh, Spain, Brazil, and Nigeria. Each paper underwent a rigorous selection process, and the accepted presentations will be published in esteemed journals indexed in SCOPUS and SINTA, such as NYIMAK, INTERAKSI, Jurnal Ilmu Komunikasi, Communicare, Jurnal Komunikasi Malaysia, Jurnal Komunikasi Ikatan Sarjana Ilmu Komunikasi, WACANA Jurnal Komunikasi, Commentate (Journal of Communication Management), Journal of Research Business Tourism, Journal of Communication & Public Relations, Journal Communication Management, and Jurnal Spektrum Komunikasi. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/international-conference-promotes-active-communication-and-collaboration-within-asean-benefiting-education-women-and-business-sectors-301945269.html SOURCE LSPR Institute of Communication & Business

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[October 03, 2023] Juniper Research: Future Digital Award Winners Announced for Fintech & Payments 2023 Tweet

It is with great pleasure that Juniper Research announces the 2023 winners of the Future Digital Awards for Fintech & Payments. These awards follow a record-breaking number of applications from leading fintechs and payments companies, which have been extensively analysed by our expert judging panel. This awards programme recognises the most impactful financial products and services operating across numerous areas, including Banking, Fraud & Security, and Retail & Payments. Juniper Research has identified the following organisations and platforms that are driving innovation and growth. The winners in each category are as follows: Judges' Choice Sustainability in Fintech Innovation of the Year Ripple's Palau Stablecoin

Fintech Mover & Shaker of the Year Simon Khalaf, CEO, Marqeta

Banking Innovation Banking-as-a-Service Innovation Monavate x Star - Platinum Award Winner Peach Finance - Gold Award Winner

Banking Innovation of the Year FICO Platform - Platinum Award Winner

Core Banking Platform Innovation Mambu - Platinum Award Winner Temenos - Gold Award Winner

Digital Identity Innovation Mastercard Identity - Platinum Award Winner Digital Gateways - Gold Award Winner

Open Banking Innovation Token - Platinum Award Winner Worldline Credit Insight - Gold Award Winner

Fintech Innovation Embedded Finance Innovation Marqeta - Platinum Award Winner Apiture - Gold Award Winner

Financing Platform Credit Sesame - Platinum Award Winner TurnKey Lender - Gold Award Winner

Regtech Platform Napier - Platinum Award Winner Tookitaki Anti-Money Laundering Suite - Gold Award Winner

Fraud & Security Innovation AI in Fraud Prevention Innovation IDVerse - Platinum Award Winner Experian Ascend Fraud Sandbox - Gold Award Winner

Fraud & Security Innovation of the Year LexisNexis BehavioSec - Platinum Award Winner

Fraud Detection and Prevention Platform Vesta Payment Guarantee - Platinum Award Winner Fraud.net - Gold Award Winner

Payment Tokenisation Solution Giesecke+Devrient eCom Tokenizer - Platinum Award Winner IDEMIA Token Platform - Gold Award Winner

Payment Innovation Best B2B Payment Platform Paystand - Platinum Award Winner Spendesk - Gold Award Winner

Best Cross-border Payments Platform TerraPay - Platinum Award Winner Nium - Gold Award Winner

Best Digital Wallet Platform Ericsson Wallet Platform - Platinum Award Winner mobiquity Pay - Gold Award Winner

Best Mobile Money Offering Telepin - Platinum Award Winner telebirr from Huawei & Ethio Telecom - Gold Award Winner

CBDC Innovation Ripple CBDC Platform - Platinum Award Winner Giesecke+Devrient Filia CBDC Solution - Gold Award Winner

Instant Payment Innovation ACI Instant Pay - Platinum Award Winner ConnexPay - Gold Award Winner

Modern Card Issuing Platform Paymentology - Platinum Award Winner Thales - Gold Award Winner

Omnichannel Payments Platform of the Year Lightspeed Payments - Platinum Award Winner

Payment Innovation of the Year ACI Payments Orchestration Platform - Platinum Award Winner

POS Innovation Zeal Plugin from Zeal - Platinum Award Winner Worldline Smart POS - Gold Award Winner

Recurring Payment Platform Innovation Recurly - Platinum Award Winner 2Checkout Monetization Platform by Verifone - Gold Award Winner

Sustainability in Payment Cards Thales - Platinum Award Winner Giesecke+Devrient Convego Beyond - Gold Award Winner





Mastercard Identity Wins Platinum in Digital Identity Innovation "A trusted identity is key to building a digital economy that works for everyone, everywhere," said Chris Reid, EVP, Identity Solutions, Mastercard. "From the initial creation of a relationship through account modifications and money movement, Mastercard Identity instils trust on both sides of the interaction. We are honoured to be recognised by Juniper Research for our identity insights and biometrics, which enable seamless experiences, expand financial inclusion, and fight fraud."

Learn more about Mastercard Identity Paymentology Triumphs with Platinum Award in Modern Card Issuing Platform Paymentology's Co-CEO, Abe Smith commented on the win: "We are thrilled to receive the Platinum Winner award in the Fintech - Modern Card Issuing Platform category at the Juniper Research Future Digital Awards. These awards celebrate organisations that have made strides in their industry and are poised to shape the future. At Paymentology, we are committed to fuelling innovation in payment methods, empowering banks, fintechs, and telcos to deliver enhanced services to both individuals and businesses through our next-generation payments platform." Learn more about Paymentology Huawei & Ethio Telecom Win Gold for telebirr Mobile Money Offering Jacky Zhou, President of Huawei Service & Software Marketing & Solution Department said: "We are proud to enable the launch of telebirr in a huge population market like Ethiopia. For telebirr, Huawei is not only a technology provider but also a business success partner. We provided our leading 3-in-1 unified platform (wallet, payment & microfinance) and co-operation services delivered by our global expertise and best practice. We believe telebirr will greatly enhance Ethiopia's move towards digital transformation." Learn more about Huawei's Mobile Money Solutions Thales D1 Platform Receives Gold for Modern Card Issuing Platform Bertrand Knopf, EVP Thales DIS Banking & Payment Solutions commented on the win: "Thales D1 is a modern card issuing platform that helps card issuers to quickly invent then roll-out innovative cards services. Banks' cardholders expect to be in control, via their bank mobile app, to order, setup then use their payment cards to shop at stores and online. They expect a 100% digital journey and real-time services to manage their physical, digital and virtual cards. This modern card experience increases customer engagement, customer acquisition and card transactions. This is a deep transformation of the payment card industry and we at Thales proudly lead the way." Learn more about Thales D1 Platform TerraPay Wins Platinum for Best Cross-border Payments Platform Ambar Sur, Founder & CEO, TerraPay, commented on the win: "This is a proud moment for all of us at TerraPay. Winning this award for our innovative cross-border payments infrastructure and solutions platform serves as an inspiration, fuelling our mission to simplify the way people move money, globally. Over the years, we have been working hard to strengthen our payments network, forging the right partnerships and building a more connected ecosystem for borderless money movement. This award is a testament to our unshakeable commitment." Learn more about TerraPay Worldline Wins Gold in POS Innovation for Smart POS Solution Ioannis Kitixis, Managing Director & Country Head, Worldline Merchant Services Greece, said: "It is a great honour for Worldline Greece to receive the Fintech POS Innovation award 2023 for the Smart POS app. Such a distinction highlights our mission to implement leading digital payment and transactional solutions that enable sustainable economic growth and make a difference to the Greek market." Learn more about Worldline Smart POS Recurly Triumphs with Platinum Award in Recurring Payment Platform Innovation "Recurly is honoured to be recognised by Juniper Research as a Platinum Winner in Recurring Payment Platform Innovation," said Theresa McEndree, CMO at Recurly, a leading subscription management and billing platform. "Recurly continuously innovates to deliver the highest payment and invoice success rates for subscriptions, ensuring the best subscriber experience and LTV for our customers. This award honours that commitment to deliver the flexibility and scale to support subscription brands globally." Learn more about Recurly ACI Worldwide Celebrates Two Platinum Award Wins for Instant Payment Innovation & Payment Innovation of the Year "ACI has been championing digital payments for almost half a century. To receive not just one, but two Platinum awards is testament to ACI's world-leading position at the forefront of omnichannel payments," says Bobby Koscheski, Head of Merchant Segment, ACI Worldwide. "We are honoured to receive these awards for our Payment Orchestration and Instant Pay solutions. They are a tribute not just to our tech-leadership, but also the passionate commitment of our team, who continue to optimise our customers' platforms, performance, and revenue by making payments faster, seamless and more secure for shoppers." Learn more about ACI's solution For further details on the Future Digital Awards please visit the Future Digital Awards website, follow us on Twitter @FutureDigiAward, or contact [email protected]. Juniper Research has, for two decades, provided market intelligence and advisory services to the global payments sectors, retained by many of the world's leading fintechs and payment providers. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231002666131/en/

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[October 03, 2023] Clarity AI Introduces its First SFDR-aligned Sustainable Investment Index Methodology Tweet

Clarity AI, the leading sustainability technology platform, has launched a groundbreaking Sustainable Investment index and ETF methodology, which aligns with the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). The methodology marks a significant step forward for index and ETF providers to build, define and/or market products that fall within the European Union's definition of Sustainable Investment, outlined in Article 2(17) of the SFDR. Clarity AI's methodology is being used in indices that target companies at the forefront of key innovative industries -- such as electric vehicles and sustainable infrastructure -- and ETFs based on those indices. It can also be applied to broader market indices and funds where investors want to integrate sustainable objectives. It provides a transparent, clear, comprehensive, and robust framework for classifying organizations, funds, and indices as sustainable investments, ensuring greater confidence for investors who seek to align their portfolios with sustainable principles. Importantly, as the regulation requires financial market participants to determine what is considered a sustainable investment, Clarity AI's methodology is customizable. Financial market participants can utilize this methodology to determine how companies pass the sustainable investment assessment, including setting thresholds on UN Sstainable Development Goals (SDGs) and EU Taxonomy contribution, and SFDR Principle Adverse Impact indicators (PAIs), among other criteria, all within the ranges of what is accepted by the regulation.



Ani Widham, Senior Product Manager at Clarity AI commented, "The successful implementation of Clarity AI's Sustainable Investment methodology into Indices and ETFs sets a precedent for sustainable investing that can shape the future of the financial markets. We know that investors seek clarity and transparency when evaluating their portfolios, so providing them with this efficient methodology, aligned with the SFDR regulation, will enable them to make better sustainable investment decisions to benefit their companies and the wider sustainable investment industry." About Clarity AI:

Clarity AI is a sustainability technology platform that uses machine learning and big data to deliver environmental and social insights to investors, organizations, consumers, and governments. Clarity AI's capabilities are an essential tool for end-to-end sustainability analysis related to investing, corporate research, benchmarking, consumer e-commerce, and regulatory reporting. As of September 2023, Clarity AI's platform analyzes 70,000 companies, 430,000 funds, 201 countries, and 199 local governments, which represents more breadth than any other player in the market. One way Clarity AI delivers on its mission to bring societal impact to markets is by ensuring its capabilities are delivered directly into clients' workflows through integrations with partners like BlackRock - Aladdin, Refinitiv an LSEG business, BNP Manaos, CACEIS, and SimCorp. Additionally, Clarity AI's sustainability insights reach more than 150 million consumers across more than 400,000 merchants on the Klarna platform. Clarity AI has offices in North America, Europe, and the Middle East, and its client network manages tens of trillions in assets and includes companies like Invesco, Nordea, BlackRock, Santander, Wellington, and BNP Paribas. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231002051707/en/

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[October 03, 2023] UST Honours Exceptional Innovators at D3CODE Hackathon 2023 as Countdown to the D3 Global Technology Conference in Thiruvananthapuram Begins Tweet

~ D3CODE hackathon 2023 winners receive cash prizes and conditional job offers at UST~ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- UST, a leading digital transformation solutions company, is pleased to announce the winners of the third edition of its 'D3CODE' (pronounced 'decode') hackathon for college and university students across India. The hackathon, which showcases ground-breaking solutions developed by participants, highlights creativity, innovation, and the future of technology. Besides lucrative prizes to winners, the hackathon provides a platform for students to put their creative thinking, problem-solving abilities, and programming skills to the test. This year, participants explored Generative AI and its potential to revolutionize creativity and innovation and how users will interact with the technology. The hackathon brought together the next generation of digital engineers at UST's beautiful Thiruvananthapuram campus to network and further develop their programming and engineering skills. D3CODE is one of the many exciting events held in the lead up to UST's invite-only annual D3 (Dream, Develop, and Disrupt) technology conference, which will take place at Hyatt Regency, Thiruvananthapuram on October 5th. The week-long conference, now in its sixth year, will feature various events, including a technology expo, a distinguished line of speakers, and a full-day conference to be held on October 5. D3 will bring together industry leaders, digital strategists, and experts to discuss the latest trends and advancements in Generative AI and their value in the business. Keynote addresses will be delivered by Krishna Sudheendra, Chief Executive Officer, UST and Manu Gopinath, Chief Operating Officer, UST, as well as eminent guest speakers, including Henry Ajder, a globally recognized advisor, speaker and broadcaster, Jaspreet Bindra, the founder of Tech whisperer Ltd, Dr. Zohar Bronfman, Chief Executive officer, Pecan. Dr. Rohini Srivathsa, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft India, and South Asia, Samit Gorai, Senior General Manager at Hero MotoCorp, Dr. Joseph Huang, Joint Executive Drector of Strategic Research Initiatives, Stanford AI Labs, Heather Dawe, UK Head of Data, and Dr. Adnan Masood, Chief AI Architect, UST, will participate in a panel that will discuss the potential, ethical considerations, and navigation of pitfalls of Generative AI. with Niranjan Ramsunder, Chief Technology Officer, UST, and Arnab Bose, Chief Scientific Officer, UST Abzooba will talk about the revolutionary impact of Generative AI on business at UST and its potential applications, including the development of new products and services, improving customer service, and elevating user experiences.



There was an unprecedented response to this year's D3CODE Hackathon, with close to 12,000 applications submitted from teams across India. The competition consisted of three rounds, and shortlisted candidates had the opportunity to meet UST's leading subject matter experts and innovators, gaining insight into the ideation and value creation process for customers and communities. This was then followed by a programming challenge round, and video interviews. The top five teams were invited to the UST Thiruvananthapuram campus for a 24-hour onsite hackathon from Sept 30th to Oct 1st, 2023. The following teams were declared winners of the D3CODE Hackathon 2023:

First Prize : Team Masala Papad ( Alan George , Mihir Shinde , Harsh Bhavesh Shah, Manan Sanjay Shah ) from Dwarakadas J Sanghvi College of Engineering, Mumbai .

: Team ( , , Harsh Bhavesh Shah, ) from Dwarakadas J Sanghvi College of Engineering, . Second Prize : Team J.A.R.V.I.S ( Prakash Devnani , Prakhar Saxena , Gyandeep Kalita, Eisha Halder ) from National Institute of Technology , Silchar.

: Team ( , , Gyandeep Kalita, ) from , Silchar. Third Prize : Team Genesis ( Sooraj Mathew , Rishin R, Siddarth Sajeev, Hari V) from College of Engineering, Trivandrum (CET).

: Team ( , Rishin R, Siddarth Sajeev, Hari V) from College of Engineering, Trivandrum (CET). Honorary Mentions: Team CODE RED ( Harshit Chaurasia , Prateek Pal , Himanshu Singh , Maida Iftikhar Chikan ) from Institute of Engineering & Technology  Lucknow and

Team Zero ( Pranav Satish , Sreehari S, Richard Joseph , Akhil Binoy Vettical ) from College of Engineering, Trivandrum (CET). "The recent D3CODE Hackathon 2023 provided a platform for the next generation of innovators to showcase their skills and highlight their ingenuity, creativity, and technical prowess. I want to congratulate the winners on their exceptional performance. All participants offered innovative solutions that raised the bar and inspired others to rethink assumptions and challenge conventions. At UST, we believe that Generative AI is the key to helping businesses strengthen operations at every level while preparing for future challenges," said Manu Gopinath, Chief Operating Officer, UST. The winning team of D3CODE received a cash prize of Seven Lakhs Indian Rupees (INR), with the runners-up receiving Five Lakhs INR, and the second runners-up receiving Three Lakhs INR. The two teams receiving honorary mentions were awarded Two Lakhs INR each. Additionally, each member of the top five teams received conditional job offers to join UST in recognition of their exceptional talent and potential. About UST For more than 24 years, UST has worked side by side with the world's best companies to make a real impact through transformation. Powered by technology, inspired by people, and led by our purpose, we partner with our clients from design to operation. Through our nimble approach, we identify their core challenges, and craft disruptive solutions that bring their vision to life. With deep domain expertise and a future-proof philosophy, we embed innovation and agility into our clients' organizationsdelivering measurable value and lasting change across industries, and around the world. Together, with over 30,000 employees in 30+ countries, we build for boundless impacttouching billions of lives in the process. Visit us at www.ust.com. Media Contacts, UST:

Tinu Cherian Abraham

+1 (949) 415-9857 (US)

+91-7899045194 (India)



Merrick Laravea

+1 (949) 416-6212



Neha Misri

+91-9284726602



Roshni Das K

+91 7736795557

[email protected]



Media Contacts, U.S.:

S&C PR

+1-646.941.9139

[email protected]



Makovsky

ust@makovsky.com



Media Contacts, U.K.:

FTI Consulting

[email protected] Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1422658/UST_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/ust-honours-exceptional-innovators-at-d3code-hackathon-2023-as-countdown-to-the-d3-global-technology-conference-in-thiruvananthapuram-begins-301945362.html

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[October 03, 2023] Tyroo and CJ Announce Partnership to Launch Performance Marketing Platform for APAC Region Tweet

Leading ad tech platforms join in partnership to offer international tech capabilities with localised solutions for advertisers and supply partners SINGAPORE, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Tyroo Technologies and CJ announced a multi-year global expansion partnership in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. This strategic alliance marks a significant leap for performance marketing in the region, offering CJ and Tyroo customers access to international tech capabilities with localised solutions. With the combined forces of Tyroo Technologies and CJ, clients gain access to inventory from outcome-centric publishers worldwide. First unveiled at CJ's annual CJU client event on 12th September 2023 in California (PT), Mayuresh Kshetramade, CEO of CJ, and Siddharth Puri, CEO of Tyroo Technologies, provided their shared vision for the partnership and the future of the Tyroo | CJ performance marketing platform. Siddharth Puri, CEO of Tyroo Technologies, expressed his enthusiasm, stating, "This partnership is driven by our organisational mission of empowering brands in APAC to scale. APAC is at the cusp of becoming the largest digital advertising market, and yet we find a lot of brands struggling to build outcome-based profitable growth channels due to the lack of unified tech and tools to leverage quality publishers. Globally, we found that in over 15% of brand media plans, tech has been deployed to solve for profitable growth via media partnerships. With this alliance, we will aid advertisers in building performance-centric programs with a tech-first approach by leveraging CJ's technology and methodology in concert with our legacy and deep knowledge of Asia." Mayur Kshetramade, CEO of CJ, shared, "Tyroo | CJ is a partnership of trusted market leaders united in a commitment to transform every aspect of performance and partnership marketing across Asia. This unprecedented strategic and commercial collaboration marks a turning point for advertisers, agencies, publishers, and the 4.7 billion consumers across the region. In so many Asian nations, incredible opportunities have emerged in affiliate, influencer marketing, lead generation, shopper marketing, conversion optimisation, and a host of next-gen channels. From this day forward, there's an integrated solution to unlock the full scope and scale of commerce across Asia."



With this partnership, advertisers and supply partners in APAC gain access to an enhanced advertising platform called 'Tyroo | CJ' with a monthly reach of over 1 billion shoppers and 14+ billion shopping interactions annually. Tyroo | CJ capabilities include universal shopper event tracking, integrations with top e-commerce platforms, end-to-end programme management and optimisation toolsets, and actionable insights and data analytics capabilities including incrementality measurement.

Embracing a 'next-gen' ethos, Tyroo | CJ will streamline local finance processes, offer localised optimisation solutions, and ensure a smooth and efficient experience for advertisers and publishers seeking to amplify their reach and impact on a global scale. The alliance will synergise the renowned and complementary strengths of CJ and Tyroo. The business will leverage CJ's industry-leading technology and partnership network, as well as its performance marketing experts, workflows, processes, and operations. Tyroo's market experience and depth of infrastructure and relationships will drive accelerated customer acquisition and growth across the region. The formation of Tyroo | CJ creates the most expansive partnerships-based performance marketing network in APAC, reshaping advertising in the region by offering advertisers, agencies, publishers, and marketers unparalleled reach and effectiveness.The business will be headquartered in Singapore and India and launched with expert teams in many locations across Asia. About Tyroo Tyroo Technologies, headquartered in Singapore, is a leading APAC-based ad tech platform driving brand growth across the Asia Pacific. They aid businesses in scaling through versatile advertising channels, formats, and audience targeting, utilising efficient no-code and low-code solutions. Tyroo's data-driven, partner-focused approach has successfully facilitated market entry and growth for brands and global media enterprises throughout APAC. With regional offices strategically placed across the region, Tyroo remains dedicated to propelling the ad tech industry and empowering brand expansion. About CJ Founded in Santa Barbara, California, in 1998, CJ (formerly Commission Junction) continues to lead the industry as the largest, most established name in global performance marketing specializing in partnership-based / affiliate marketing technology, platform, and services. They are the platform of choice for driving profitable growth for over 3,800 global brands across all verticals, including retail, travel, finance, and network and home servicesour technology powers a partnership ecosystem where over 167,000 publishers and brands engage billions of consumers worldwide. They leverage unparalleled data, technology, and strategic expertise to bring a truly customer-centric approach to performance marketing. In an industry with much uncharted territory, trust a steady hand. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/tyroo-and-cj-announce-partnership-to-launch-performance-marketing-platform-for-apac-region-301945384.html SOURCE Tyroo Technologies

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[October 03, 2023] WELL Health Completes Clinic Acquisition and Investment Transactions with HEALWELL AI Inc. (formerly MCI Onehealth), and Forms Strategic Alliance Focused on Developing AI Enabled Disease Detection and Preventative Care Tools for Care Providers Tweet

WELL Health completes the previously announced acquisition of HEALWELL's performing clinical assets in Ontario adding more than $21 million in yearly revenues to WELL's clinical business.

adding more than in yearly revenues to WELL's clinical business. WELL Health invests $4 million as the lead investor of HEALWELL's convertible debenture offering of $10M . WELL becomes the largest shareholder of HEALWELL on an as-converted basis.

as the lead investor of HEALWELL's convertible debenture offering of . WELL becomes the largest shareholder of HEALWELL on an as-converted basis. WELL Health and HEALWELL forge strategic alliance to position HEALWELL as a healthcare technology leader in the North American AI enabled data science and preventative care industry.

WELL Health acquires a call right to purchase a controlling interest of HEALWELL from its prior founders which is exercisable upon certain financing and performance metrics.

WELL appoints two representatives to HEALWELL's Board of Directors. VANCOUVER, BC and TORONTO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - WELL Health Technologies Corp. (TSX: WELL) (OTCQX: WHTCF) ("WELL"), a digital healthcare company focused on positively impacting health outcomes by leveraging technology to empower healthcare practitioners and their patients globally, is pleased to announce the completion of the strategic transaction (the "Transaction") with HEALWELL AI Inc. ("HEALWELL", formerly MCI Onehealth Technologies Inc. (TSX: AIDX)). The Transaction is comprised of WELL's purchase of HEALWELL's clinical assets in Ontario, WELL's investment of $4 million as the lead investor in HEALWELL's private placement offering of convertible debenture units for gross proceeds of $10 million, the formation of a strategic alliance between WELL and HEALWELL, and a conditional call option which would allow WELL to purchase a controlling interest of HEALWELL from the prior MCI founders' multi-voting shares. Hamed Shahbazi, Founder and CEO of WELL commented: "Investing in and developing AI enabled tools and technologies for care providers is of core interest to WELL. This is why we not only sought to invest in and support HEALWELL but also acquire the conditional option to purchase a controlling stake in the company." "With this transaction, WELL amplifies its commitment to revolutionizing and positively impacting Canadian healthcare with secure and responsibly configured AI technologies. Together, WELL and HEALWELL have the tools, the vision, and the drive to navigate challenges and harness the power of innovation. We're setting the stage for a brighter, more efficient healthcare future." Upon the successful completion of this Transaction, WELL fortifies its stature as a predominant entity in the Canadian healthcare landscape. This move amplifies WELL's dual strengthsits robust clinical prowess and its cutting-edge technological solutions. Not only does this transaction consolidate WELL's position as Canada's premier healthcare clinic owner-operator, but it also accentuates its dedication to empowering healthcare providers through innovative AI and data-driven technologies, particularly those targeting preventative care. The completion of this Transaction will also welcome the following two WELL representatives to HEALWELL's board: Hamed Shahbazi, Chairman and CEO and Erik Danudjaja Senior Associate, Corporate Development and Strategy. The inclusion of WELL's leadership on the HEALWELL board combines a wealth of knowledge and vision, aimed at addressing the highly fragmented and underdigitized Canadian healthcare market. Both companies see a significant opportunity to bridge existing gaps and elevate patient outcomes through technology and innovation. This alliance underscores a mutual dedication to advancing the Canadian healthcare landscape, paving the way for a more integrated, dynamic, and responsive system. For stakeholders and investors, this partnership is the beginning of a transformative shift in the way healthcare isdelivered, championing a future that is more technologically adept and economically sustainable.



Strategic Alliance Agreement WELL has entered into a Strategic Alliance Agreement (the "Agreement") with HEALWELL to accelerate the growth and development of HEALWELL's AI-enabled healthcare technologies. The Agreement establishes a powerful framework for the two companies to harness their collective resources and expertise: WELL gains access to HEALWELL's data analytics expertise and the opportunity to deploy and license HEALWELL's AI technologies, and HEALWELL gains access to WELL's extensive clinic and physician network to drive growth and enhance the experience of doctors and patients at WELL's clinics.

Transaction Details: Under an asset purchase agreement, WELL acquired HEALWELL's performing clinics in Ontario, which are expected to generate annual revenue of more than $21 million and contribute to positive EBITDA in fiscal year 2024. On the closing of the Transaction, WELL paid: (i) $1.5 million cash for HEALWELL's clinical assets; (ii) $3.5 million in WELL shares to the holders of The First Canadian Wellness Co. secured credit facilities; and (iii) $4.0 million in cash invested in HEALWELL as part of a convertible debenture financing with 5-year maturity, 10% coupon and convertible into Class A Subordinate Voting Shares at a conversion price of $0.20 per share and 5-to-1 warrant coverage. WELL becomes the largest shareholder of HEALWELL on an as-converted basis. As part of the Transaction, WELL received an option to acquire up to 30.8 million Class A shares and 30.8 million Class B shares in HEALWELL over time and upon the achievement of certain performance metrics. If WELL fully exercises this call option, WELL is expected to control over 70% of the vote of HEALWELL. The short-term, secured promissory note for $3.1 million that WELL provided HEALWELL, as previously announced on July 20, 2023, has been fully repaid. WELL HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES CORP. Per: "Hamed Shahbazi" Hamed Shahbazi Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Director About WELL Health Technologies Corp. WELL's mission is to tech-enable healthcare providers. We do this by developing the best technologies, services, and support available, which ensures healthcare providers are empowered to positively impact patient outcomes. WELL's comprehensive healthcare and digital platform includes extensive front and back-office management software applications that help physicians run and secure their practices. WELL's solutions enable more than 31,000 healthcare providers between the US and Canada and power the largest owned and operated healthcare ecosystem in Canada with more than 148 clinics supporting primary care, specialized care, and diagnostic services. In the United States WELL's solutions are focused on specialized markets such as the gastrointestinal market, women's health, primary care, and mental health. WELL is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "WELL" and on the OTC Exchange under the symbol "WHTCF". To learn more about WELL, please visit: www.well.company. About HEALWELL AI Inc. HEALWELL AI is a healthcare technology and data science company focused on preventative medicine by leveraging AI and big datasets to empower patients and doctors with increased access, reduced costs and improved patient outcomes. Our vision is to improve healthcare and save lives through early identification and detection of disease. As a physician led organization with a proven management team of experienced executives, HEALWELL AI is executing a strategy centered around acquiring technology and clinical sciences capabilities that complement the company's roadmap. HEALWELL is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "AIDX". For more information, visit www.healwell.ai. Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain "Forward-Looking Information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws, including, without limitation: information regarding WELL and HEALWELL's goals, strategies and growth plans, including plans to collaborate and deploy new AI technologies; future voting rights and control, and expectations regarding revenue and EBITDA for the new clinical assets. Forward-Looking Information are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties, and contingencies. Forward-Looking Information generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "may", "should", "will", "could", "intend", "estimate", "plan", "anticipate", "expect", "believe" or "continue", or the negative thereof or similar variations. Forward-Looking Information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from the estimated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward-Looking Information and the Forward-Looking Information are not guarantees of future performance. WELL's comments expressed or implied by such Forward-Looking Information are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and conditions, many of which are outside of WELL 's control, and undue reliance should not be placed on such information. Forward-Looking Information are qualified in their entirety by inherent risks and uncertainties, including: direct and indirect material adverse effects from the COVID-19 pandemic; adverse market conditions; risks inherent in the primary healthcare sector in general; regulatory and legislative changes; that future results may vary from historical results; inability to obtain any requisite future financing on suitable terms; any inability to realize the expected benefits and synergies of acquisitions; that market competition may affect the business, results and financial condition of WELL and other risk factors identified in documents filed by WELL under its profile at www.sedarplus.ca, including its most recent Annual Information Form. Except as required by securities law, WELL does not assume any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, events or otherwise. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/well-health-completes-clinic-acquisition-and-investment-transactions-with-healwell-ai-inc-formerly-mci-onehealth-and-forms-strategic-alliance-focused-on-developing-ai-enabled-disease-detection-and-preventative-care-tools-for-c-301945558.html SOURCE WELL Health Technologies Corp.

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[October 03, 2023] Rockwell Automation to Host Annual Investor Meeting Tweet

Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK) will host its annual investor meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 8, in conjunction with the company's Automation Fair being held at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts. The public webcast portion of the meeting will begin at approximately 10:10 a.m. ET with presentations by Blake Moret, Chairman and CEO, and other senior leadership. The presentation will outline Rockwell's long-term business strategy, including key areas of growth and longer-term financial targets. The webcast will be available on the Rockwell Automation Investor Relations website at www.rockwellautomation.com/en-us/investors.html.



About Rockwell Automation Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), is a global leader in industrial automation and digital transformation. We connect the imaginations of people with the potential of technology to expand what is humanly possible, making the world more productive and more sustainable. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Rockwell Automation employs approximately 28,000 problem solvers dedicated to our customers in more than 100 countries. To learn more about how we are bringing the Connected Enterprise to life across industrial enterprises, visit www.rockwellautomation.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003349073/en/

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[October 03, 2023] KYOCERA and Technology Developers Collaborate on School Safety Solution for Education and Public Facilities Tweet

KYOCERA, a global leader in rugged devices, has collaborated with three technology developers on an innovative solution to improve safety in schools, government buildings and other public spaces, the company announced today. The school safety solution combines ultra-rugged mobile technology (Android smartphones and tablets) from Kyocera; Omni-Response 360 sensory technology for optimal situational awareness with a comprehensive dashboard; ZeroEyesTM AI gun detection and intelligent situational awareness software; and Cradlepoint networks that connect sites, vehicles, IoT technology and safety personnel. This new combined solution was demonstrated earlier this month in Tomball, Texas by the Harris County Constable Precinct One Office for law enforcement agencies and school districts. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003713665/en/ Kyocera ultra-rugged smartphones worn by police officers show live-streaming of integrated emergency operations as captured by the Omni-Response Telemetry Platform. (Photo: Business Wire) The safety solution's mobile hardware includes Kyocera's ultra-rugged 5G smartphones and DuraSlate rugged Wi-Fi tablets. Smartphones are mounted with a custom adapter on MOLLE* vests worn by safety/police officers that show live emergency activities as captured by the Omni-Response Dashboard. During the demonstration, Kyocera DuraSlate rugged tablets were mounted throughout the campus to capture live video. The smartphones send an alert when other systems detect a threat on campus or within a building, saving critical time in emergencies. *MOLLE vest: a modular lightweight load-carrying equipment vest. Groundbreaking 360 technology from Omni-Response transforms high-risk event response by removing human limitations and enabling comprehensive real-time emergency preparedness. The Omni-Response integrated solution delivers unparalleled situational awareness and real-time response capabilities, leveraging Omni-Response's patented AI for instant gunshot detection, GPS-enabled mapping of shooter location, one-touch alerts to onsite staff and first responders, door lock/unlock capabilities, live video streams from cameras, personnel, drones and robotics. The Omni-Response "on-the-move" platform simplifies emergency protocols, accelerates critical threat interventions, and provides a fully integrated view reducing chaos and casualties. ZeroEyes, founded by military veterans, enhances the platform by integrating its AI-based weapons detection which identifies firearms and other threats within 3 seconds from security cameras and digital images. The intelligent detection feeds critical visual data into the Omni-Response platform for a complete view of any active threat scenario as it unfolds. AI gun-detection from ZeroEyes delivers a proactive, human-verified visual gun detection and situational awareness solution that integrates into existing digital security cameras to reduce the threat and impact of gun-related violence. If a gun is identified, images will instantly be shared with the ZeroEyes Operations Center (ZOC), staffed 24/7/365 by specially trained U.S. military and law enforcement veterans. If theseexperts detemine that the threat is valid, they will dispatch alerts and actionable intelligence, including visual description, gun type and last known location, to local staff and first responders in as fast as 3 to 5 seconds from detection. ZeroEyes' patented solution has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a promising anti-terrorism technology and is the first video analytics technology to receive SAFETY Act DT&E Designation.



Cradlepoint, the global leader in cloud-delivered LTE and 5G wireless network edge solutions, provides "cellular intelligence" for reliable, secure networks wherever needed, connecting fixed and temporary sites, vehicles, IoT devices and remote workers. This allows a reliable private network, enabled by Verizon, onsite for up-to-the-minute data so safety officers can make the most informed decisions. Kyocera's total solution: the right experts for the right use case

Kyocera's track record of working with first responders on tailored solutions underscores the importance of ultra-rugged devices. By bringing together expert developers, accessories, and vertical-specific services, Kyocera's total solution meets the challenges of each use case. Public safety is of utmost importance and Kyocera's rugged smartphones are already used by police departments as body-worn cameras. In addition to MIL-STD 810G/H and IP68 dust and waterproof protection, Kyocera's rugged smartphones withstand temperature extremes, drops, vibration and much more. "This best-in-class technology collaboration is a great example of what we're doing with our total-solution offering - bringing together the right application experts to support vital use cases," said Vipul Dalal, Divisional Vice President at Kyocera's Communications Equipment Group. "We are dedicated to finding additional ways mobile technology can enhance public safety in schools, government buildings and other public facilities to help protect us all." To learn more about Kyocera's safety preparedness solution, please contact a Kyocera Solutions Expert at [email protected]. ABOUT KYOCERA Kyocera International Inc.'s Communications Equipment Group (CEG) is the headquarters for Kyocera wireless devices in the Americas. With a history of quality and innovation delivering many "firsts" to the U.S. market, Kyocera is the leader in rugged mobile solutions. Launching more than 100 waterproof and rugged mobile devices globally over the last 10+ years, Kyocera strives to offer rugged, reliable technology as an integral part of a total mobile offering: combining MIL-STD 810G/H-compliant ruggedization and enterprise-grade security with a partner ecosystem, industry-specific applications and innovative accessories. Working with leading service providers, Kyocera has created a total-solution offering that helps deliver a significantly lower total cost of ownership to a wide range of industries such as public safety, transportation, and construction. White glove services including overnight advanced replacement, custom provisioning, repair and more, help improve productivity for business customers. When it comes to blending performance, durability and support, Kyocera's rugged mobile solutions are in a class of their own. For more information, visit kyoceramobile.com or follow the company at facebook.com/kyoceramobile, twitter.com/kyoceramobile, youtube.com/kyoceramobile, instagram.com/kyoceramobile and linkedin.com/company/kyoceramobile. Kyocera Corporation (TOKYO:6971, https://global.kyocera.com/), the parent and global headquarters of the Kyocera Group, was founded in 1959 as a producer of fine ceramics (also known as "advanced ceramics"). By combining these engineered materials with metals and integrating them with other technologies, Kyocera has become a leading supplier of industrial and automotive components, semiconductor packages, electronic devices, smart energy systems, printers, copiers, and mobile phones. During the year ended March 31, 2023, the company's consolidated sales revenue totaled 2 trillion yen (approx. US$15.1 billion). Kyocera is ranked #671 on Forbes magazine's 2023 "Global 2000" list of the world's largest publicly traded companies, and has been named among "The World's 100 Most Sustainably Managed Companies" by The Wall Street Journal. About Omni-Response Omni-Response drives a paradigm shift in emergency preparedness and response through innovative AI technology. Leveraging the company's 360 platform, organizations gain unparalleled real-time situational awareness, threat intelligence, and automated response capabilities, empowering decisive action during critical events. By eliminating reliance on human limitations, Omni-Response enables organizations to neutralize high-risk threats faster and more intelligently. For more information, please visit www.omni-response.com About ZeroEyes Founded by Navy SEALs, Special Operations military veterans, and technologists, ZeroEyes dispatches accurate and real-time actionable intelligence about the illegal brandishing of a gun near or in an occupied area or building, to local staff and law enforcement with an image of the shooter(s) and location of the threat, in as fast as 3 to 5 seconds from the moment the gun is detected. The ZeroEyes team also provides tech consulting, installation assistance and practice drills for active shooter events to enhance safety at schools, corporate and government facilities. Headquartered in the Greater Philadelphia area, the company's affordable and effective gun detection solution has been adopted by the US Department of Defense, leading public K-12 school districts, colleges / universities, healthcare facilities, commercial property groups, manufacturing plants, Fortune 500 corporate campuses, shopping malls, big-box retail stores and more. Learn more about ZeroEyes at ZeroEyes.com.  2023 KYOCERA International, Inc. (KII), San Diego, California, USA. All rights reserved. Android is a trademark of Google Inc.; use of this trademark is subject to Google Permissions. All other marks are held by their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003713665/en/

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[October 03, 2023] Conexon Marketing Services celebrates three years supporting electric cooperatives delivering high-speed fiber internet across rural communities Tweet

Co-ops spanning multiple states, passing nearly 900,000 rural homes and businesses, now leverage Conexon's scope of expert communications and marketing resources KANSAS CITY, Mo., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Rural fiber-optic network design and construction management leader, Conexon, is marking the third anniversary of its Marketing Services business line. Marketing Services now supports over 30 electric cooperative marketing clients and partners to reach a combined total of nearly 900,000 homes and businesses across 15 states with an array of communications, marketing, branding and creative services. Launched in mid-2020 as a pilot project, Conexon's Marketing Services division rapidly scaled its reach and capabilities to answer the member and community communications needs of co-ops deploying fiber broadband  from early to established builds. In mid-2023, the division expanded to include communications and member engagement support for co-op electric services in addition to broadband operations. Conexon offers co-ops a combination of electric co-op, broadband and overall marketing and communications knowledge and expertise. The team possesses decades of telecommunications marketing, strategic communications and FTTH deployment experience, delivering end-to-end consultative and operational solutions for electric cooperatives deploying fiber. "We knew early on that experience and creative marketing support was going to make a big difference for us as we launched our fiber business," said long-time Conexon Marketing client Michael Kirkland, CEO of Petit Jean Electric and Petit Jean Fiber in Arkansas. "We have worked side by side with te Conexon team to achieve our desired customer take rate and communications goals. We give Conexon a lot of credit for our success to date."



Conexon's Marketing Services portfolio includes dedicated account management, co-op support communications, social media management, video services, branding, design and website development, and co-op-centric customizable assets from the Conexon Marketing Hub creative repository. The company's 2022 acquisition of zfactor Inc., rounds out the marketing solution set with award-winning brand development and creative services. In addition to the marketing and communications services, Conexon marketing clients also have access to a proprietary member lead generation tool that allows a co-op to efficiently gauge interest in FTTH services from members and engage with them about offerings.

"From the beginning, we quickly saw the value Conexon's marketing team provided, with a wealth of knowledge and resources to help us reach our customers and improve our take rates as we have grown our fiber broadband footprint," said Tommy Thurmond, VP of Habersham EMC and Trailwave Fiber Inc. in Georgia. "Conexon has been a great collaborator as we implement strategies to bring 100 percent fiber high-speed broadband service to all of our members and beyond." "Our success over these past three years clearly speaks to the need co-ops continue to have for creative, affordable and impactful marketing solutions," said Abby Carere, Conexon Senior Vice President, Marketing, Sales and Account Management. "We take pride in our ever-evolving service lines that ensure we meet the needs of co-ops in all stages of their fiber builds. And with the addition of electric member engagement services, we can now offer co-ops a streamlined, one-stop solution for their marketing and communications needs." About Conexon

Conexon works with electric cooperatives to bring fiber to the home in rural communities. The company is comprised of professionals who have worked in electric cooperatives and the telecommunications industry, and offer decades of individual experience in business planning, building networks, marketing and selling telecommunications. Conexon offers its electric cooperative clients end-to-end broadband deployment and operations support, from a project's conception all the way through to its long-term sustainability. It works with clients to analyze economic feasibility, secure financing, design the network, manage construction, provide operational support, optimize business performance, and determine optimal partnerships. To date, Conexon has assisted more than 275 electric cooperatives, 75 of which are deploying fiber networks, with more than 500,000 rural Americans connected to fiber to the home. The company has secured more than $2 billion in federal, state, and local grants and subsidies for its clients. Cindy Parks

913-526-6912

[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/conexon-marketing-services-celebrates-three-years-supporting-electric-cooperatives-delivering-high-speed-fiber-internet-across-rural-communities-301945715.html SOURCE Conexon

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[October 03, 2023] ECAMSECURE, a GardaWorld Company, Places Order for Multiple AVA Access Control Devices from AITX's Subsidiary RAD to be Deployed as the Virtual Gate Guard Tweet

Detroit, Michigan, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions, Inc., (the Company) ( OTCPK:AITX ), a global leader in AI-driven security and productivity solutions along with its wholly owned subsidiary, Robotic Assistance Devices, Inc. (RAD), today announced that it has received an order for 2 AVA autonomous access control devices from ECAMSECURE, a GardaWorld company and leader in innovative, adaptable access and surveillance security solutions. ECAMSECURE became a RAD authorized dealer in late 2021.

ECAMSECURE private labels RADs AVA access control device as the ECAMSECURE Virtual Gate Guard. At the Global Security Exchange (GSX) in Dallas, Texas earlier this month ECAMSECURE showcased the Virtual Gate Guard as well as their private labeled version of RADDOG, marketed as the TechTerrier. RADs solutions have augmented our suite of security solutions," said Jordan Lippel, Vice President of Sales at ECAMSECURE. In addition to our proprietary technology, RADs leadership in AI-powered security devices enables us to provide robust options for access control and help reattribute human security to higher value security needs. An autonomous device like the Virtual Gate Guard at access gates offers distinct advantages over relying solely on human security guards. The Virtual Gate Guard provides a consistent and reliable 180 field of vision, and continuous monitoring, whereas human guards may become fatigued or distracted. The device operates around the clock without breaks, reducing the risk of human error or negligence. We are honored to be supplying ECAMSECURE with AVA and RADDOG under their own label, said Steve Reinharz, CEO of AITX and RAD. Our relationship is built on trust, but the deliverable is quality devices that perform, and save the end users money. Were thrilled to see ECAMSECURE sales of RAD solutions start to ramp up. AVA is a compact, stanchion mounted unit that provides an edge-to-edge 180 field of vision with advanced access control over gates and other controlled points of entry. AVA takes full advantage of the RAD Software Suite providing an ideal solution for logistics and distribution centers, storage yards, parking structures and lts, corporate campuses; anywhere that increased visibility is needed at a fraction of the cost. At ISC West 2022, AVA was named a winner of the SIA New Products and Solutions Awards in the category of Access Control Software, Hardware, Devices and Peripherals. In November of 2022, ECAMSECUREs Virtual Gate Guard obtained an AST ASTORS Award in the Best Access Control & Authentication System category.



AITX, through its subsidiary, Robotic Assistance Devices, Inc. (RAD), is redefining the $25 billion (US) security and guarding services industry through its broad lineup of innovative, AI-driven Solutions-as-a-Service business model. RAD solutions are specifically designed to provide cost savings to businesses of between 35%-80% when compared to the industrys existing and costly manned security guarding and monitoring model. RAD delivers this tremendous cost savings via a suite of stationary and mobile robotic solutions that complement, and at times, directly replace the need for human personnel in environments better suited for machines. All RAD technologies, AI-based analytics and software platforms are developed in-house. About ECAMSECURE

ECAMSECURE, a GardaWorld company, is the pioneer in outdoor video surveillance, providing portable surveillance systems that combine AI, technology and state-of-the-art mobile security equipment for over 15 years. ECAMSECURE is part of GardaWorld, a global champion in security services, integrated risk management and cash solutions. Our international reach makes us the partner of choice for private enterprise, governments, humanitarian organizations, as well as multinationals across the planet. For more information, visit www.ecamsecure.garda.com.

About Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions (AITX)

AITX is an innovator in the delivery of artificial intelligence-based solutions that empower organizations to gain new insight, solve complex challenges and fuel new business ideas. Through its next-generation robotic product offerings, AITXs RAD, RAD-M and RAD-G companies help organizations streamline operations, increase ROI, and strengthen business. AITX technology improves the simplicity and economics of patrolling and guard services and allows experienced personnel to focus on more strategic tasks. Customers augment the capabilities of existing staff and gain higher levels of situational awareness, all at drastically reduced cost. AITX solutions are well suited for use in multiple industries such as enterprises, government, transportation, critical infrastructure, education, and healthcare. To learn more, visit www.aitx.ai, www.radsecurity.com , www.stevereinharz.com, www.radgroup.ai, www.raddog.ai, and www.radlightmyway.com, or follow Steve Reinharz on Twitter @SteveReinharz . CAUTIONARY DISCLOSURE ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

The information contained in this publication does not constitute an offer to sell or solicit an offer to buy securities of Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions, Inc. (the "Company"). This publication contains forward-looking statements, which are not guarantees of future performance and may involve subjective judgment and analysis. The information provided herein is believed to be accurate and reliable, however the Company makes no representations or warranties, expressed or implied, as to its accuracy or completeness. The Company has no obligation to provide the recipient with additional updated information. No information in this publication should be interpreted as any indication whatsoever of the Company's future revenues, results of operations, or stock price. ### Steve Reinharz

949-636-7060

@SteveReinharz



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[October 03, 2023] AeroClave Launches New Partner Program Tweet

WINTER PARK, Fla., Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading decontamination technology company AeroClave today announces the launch of its Channel Partner Program, giving resellers and consultants access to sell or refer AeroClaves decontamination systems.

Post-pandemics, everyone is much more aware of the need to decontaminate offices, churches, buses, waiting rooms, and classrooms. AeroClave produces some of the nations top-selling decon equipment and is sitting on leads, said AeroClave CEO Ronald D. Brown, MD. Which is why we are launching the new partner program to help fill the demand. AeroClave does not require toxic chemicals and a bio-suit, so it is one of the safest options. It also takes less time since you dont have to hermetically seal and then clear the rooms. Plus, it uses a common fogging solution, which is less expensive than many proprietary options. It is one of the only systems that allows any employee to perform deconwhich broadens the market. The partner program is for referral partners, like consultants. Plus, it will appeal to VARs and MSPs, and even OEM Partners. AeroClave roducts are a good fit for anyone who sells into offices, schools, medical, or government accounts. The partner program includes all the must-have program elements like deal registration, competitive margins, free training, MDF and SPIFFs, a partner locator, and leads.



We encourage partners to apply. We start them at the Gold level and have a jump-start margin for the first 90 days. But mainly, we are sitting on leads. Someone has to close themit might as well be you, said AeroClave Senior VP of Sales, Mike Quinoy. Partners can find out more www.partners.aeroclave.com.

About AeroClave AeroClave, LLC. was founded in 2003 to develop, manufacture and sell a system capable of decontaminating commercial and military aircraft from pandemic-producing viruses and other disease-causing pathogens. AeroClave has become the number one best-selling system as it evolved into multiple decontamination products, both portable and fixed room units, that are easy to operate and will limit the spread of infectious diseases. To learn more about AeroClave and its use cases for first responders, hospitals, aircraft, facilities and more, head to www.aeroclave.com. Notable clients include the United States Marine Corps, United States Army, City of Orlando Fire Department, Dallas Fire Rescue, New Orleans EMS, FDNY, Chicago Fire Department, AdventHealth, and Orlando Health.



Media Contact Melanie du Mont Uproar PR for AeroClave [email protected] 321-236-0102

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[October 03, 2023] KnowBe4 Earns 2023 Great Place To Work Certification For All 11 Offices Tweet

KnowBe4 recognized for its workplace culture, wellness benefits and more in each of its offices around the world TAMPA BAY, Fla., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- KnowBe4, the provider of the world's largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, today announced that for the first time, each of its 11 offices is proud to be Certified by Great Place To Work. The prestigious award is based entirely on what current employees say about their experience working at KnowBe4. This year, 89% of employees said it is a great place to work  32% higher than the average U.S. company. Great Place To Work is the global authority on workplace culture, employee experience, and the leadership behaviors proven to deliver market-leading revenue, employee retention and increased innovation. "Great Place To Work Certification is a highly coveted achievement that requires consistent and intentional dedication to the overall employee experience," says Sarah Lewis-Kulin, the vice president of global recognition at Great Place To Work. She emphasizes that the certification is the sole official recognition earned by the real-time feedback of employees regarding their company culture. "By successfully earning this recognition, it is evident that KnowBe4 stands out as one of the top companies to work for, providing a great workplace environment for its employees." According to Great Place To Work research , job seekers are 4.5 times more likely to find a great boss at a certified great workplace. Additionally, employees at certified workplaces are 93% more likely to look forward to coming to work, and are twice as likely to be paid fairly, earn a fair share of the company's profits and have a fair chance at promotion. "It is an incredible honor to be recognized as a great place to work for each of our 11 offices around he world," said Ani Banerjee, chief human resources officer, KnowBe4. "At KnowBe4, we are dedicated to fostering a workplace culture that reflects our values and promotes a transparent, fun, and welcoming environment for all of our employees. We are proud to be recertified as a great place to work in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa and the United Kingdom, and to be certified for the first time in the United Arab Emirates. We celebrate and thank our outstanding employees for our continued success and for all they do to earn this recognition."



To learn more about KnowBe4 and view open positions, visit https://www.knowbe4.com/careers . About KnowBe4

KnowBe4, the provider of the world's largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, is used by more than 65,000 organizations around the globe. Founded by IT and data security specialist Stu Sjouwerman, KnowBe4 helps organizations address the human element of security by raising awareness about ransomware, CEO fraud and other social engineering tactics through a new-school approach to awareness training on security. Kevin Mitnick, who was an internationally recognized cybersecurity specialist and KnowBe4's Chief Hacking Officer, helped design the KnowBe4 training based on his well-documented social engineering tactics. Organizations rely on KnowBe4 to mobilize their end users as their last line of defense and trust the KnowBe4 platform to strengthen their security culture and reduce human risk. About Great Place to Work Certification Great Place To Work Certification is the most definitive "employer-of-choice" recognition that companies aspire to achieve. It is the only recognition based entirely on what employees report about their workplace experience  specifically, how consistently they experience a high-trust workplace. Great Place to Work Certification is recognized worldwide by employees and employers alike and is the global benchmark for identifying and recognizing outstanding employee experience. Every year, more than 10,000 companies across 60 countries apply to get Great Place To Work-Certified. About Great Place To Work As the global authority on workplace culture, Great Place To Work brings 30 years of groundbreaking research and data to help every place become a great place to work for all. Their proprietary platform and For All Model helps companies evaluate the experience of every employee, with exemplary workplaces becoming Great Place To Work Certified or receiving recognition on a coveted Best Workplaces List. Learn more at greatplacetowork.com and follow Great Place To Work on LinkedIn , Twitter , Facebook and Instagram . Media Contact

Amanda Tarantino

Public Relations Officer

KnowBe4

amandat@knowbe4.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/knowbe4-earns-2023-great-place-to-work-certification-for-all-11-offices-301945785.html SOURCE KnowBe4 Inc.

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[October 03, 2023] Cruz Lands Funding from Jony Ive to Fuel BlenderCap and New Product Development Tweet

Cruz, a consumer technology company that creates exceptional products that are built to last, announced today a significant investment round from former Apple executive Jony Ive. The investment will go toward building a deeper inventory of Cruz's debut product, BlenderCap, as well as bringing a series of new products to market that are slated to roll out in the coming year. BlenderCap is the only high-powered cordless blender that combines a vacuum-insulated bottle, providing a convenient new way for consumers to make shakes, smoothies, frozen drinks or blended coffee while maintaining its temperature all day. The product launched at CES 2023 and uses cutting-edge lithium-ion battery technology to blend a week's worth of beverages on a single charge. Cruz is designed to fit most wide-mouth bottles, including HydroFlask ad ThermoFlask, so that any favorite bottle can become a portable blender at a moment's notice.



"This pivotal investment will help move us forward in our battle against poor-quality, plastic products," said Matthew Moore, co-founder of Cruz. "We are committed to raising the bar on what consumers can expect, and proving that high-end craftsmanship and manufacturing is possible for the mass market." Additional industry trailblazers in this funding round include retired Apple Vice President Nick Forlenza and former eBay CEO Devin Wenig. Moore and his fellow co-founder, Dakota Adams, honed their design, manufacturing, and supply chain skills during their decade-long careers at Apple, where they were part of the team that built the original Apple Watch and various components of the iPhone.

BlenderCap is available to purchase for $129 at www.BlenderCap.com, and for a limited time shoppers can score a free 34 oz. clear bottle with purchase. About Cruz Cruz builds unapologetically premium products that enhance everyday life. On a mission to fight the proliferation of low-quality, plastic products, Cruz was founded by ex-Apple engineers Matthew Moore and Dakota Adams. Using thoughtful design, impeccable craftsmanship, and cutting-edge technology, Cruz creates exceptional user experiences in products - while controlling their entire supply chain end-to-end. Cruz's first production shipment was one million biodegradable plant-based red noses for the 2023 Comic Relief Red Nose Day campaign in the UK, and the company maintains a philanthropic arm dedicated to manufacturing products for charities. To learn more about its premiere product BlenderCap, visit www.BlenderCap.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003854615/en/

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A small group of far-right Republicans responded to last weekends shutdown deal by ousting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday, the first time a lawmaker revolt has successfully ousted a House speaker in American history.

"The office of speaker of the House ... is hereby declared vacant," announced Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.).

The effort was led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who voted yes on the resolution and was joined in the effort by seven additional Republicans and 210 House Democrats to cap a raucous day on Capitol Hill. The historic maneuver  formally known as vacating the chair  hadn't been tried in over 100 years.

As the debate dragged on Tuesday afternoon and the outcome became increasingly clear, lawmakers predicted an extended wave of government dysfunction in the days and weeks ahead.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) perhaps put it most succinctly when he predicted that "the House will be paralyzed, we can expect week after week of fruitless ballots while no other business can be conducted."

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy was surrounded as he walked to the House Chamber on Oct. 3. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Economic observers also pointed out that the likely gridlock to come could have economic consequences and is perhaps the last thing needed with a new government shutdown deadline looming in just weeks.

"Markets might react negatively to government dysfunction," noted Stifel chief Washington policy strategist Brian Gardner of the possible immediate market impact. Tuesday's vote finished up in the late afternoon after markets had closed for the day.

"Weve never seen anything like this," added Greg Valliere, chief US policy strategist of AGF Investments, in a note to clients Tuesday morning before the vote.

For now Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) is the House's speaker pro tempore and is temporarily in charge until lawmakers can pick a new speaker.

Increased chances of a government shutdown

The chaos also appears likely to increase the odds of a government shutdown next month.

Perhaps Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.) was the most blunt, reportedly saying behind closed doors in a meeting of Republicans before the vote that "if we vacate the chair, the government will shut down," according to a report in the New York Times.

Story continues

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith added in a statement that the chaos could weaken the GOP negotiating position in the fights to come, saying "todays actions actually empower those who want to increase spending and those who want to give a blank check to Ukraine."

Lawmakers have until Nov. 17 to search for another government spending compromise following last weekend's deal. That 71-page measure passed the House by an overwhelming 335-91 vote with 90 Republicans and 1 Democrat voting no. It extended the government shutdown deadline, provided $16 billion for disaster relief, and reauthorized the FAA through the end of the year.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) speaks to reporters as he leaves the US Capitol after Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his position. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

But for now, Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) notes that work in the House to head off a shutdown will likely be stopped. The wrangling to come, she said, "will put this House in a stalemate and paralyze our ability to fight for our constituents and instead create a fight amongst one another."

"We have 43 days to restore fiscal responsibility," she added in a reference to the new government shutdown deadline.

This post has been updated with additional developments.

Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

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[October 03, 2023] NCQA Rates Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Highest Medicaid Health Plan in Indiana Tweet

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Indiana's Medicaid health plan was rated 4 out of 5 in the National Committee for Quality Assurance's (NCQA) Medicaid Health Plan Ratings for 2023, the highest rating among all Medicaid health plans in Indiana. This rating recognizes Anthem as a leader in supporting its members with access to high-quality healthcare services. "Our work at Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield has centered on increasing access to high-quality, affordable healthcare and improving health outcomes for our members and communities across Indiana," said Dr. Kimberly Roop, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's Medicaid President in Indiana. "This rating reflects our work to personalize and simplify the healthcare experience for the people we serve. We are proud to be recognized as the highest quality Medicaid health plan in Indiana." The NCQA rated Anthem's Medicaid health plan 4.5 out of 5 stars for Women's Health with the health plan earning 5 stars for prenatal and postpartum care. Anthem's Medicaid health plan is the only Medicaid health plan in the state to have earned Health Equity Accreditation from NCQA, recognizing efforts to reduce health care disparities. NCQA, a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving healthcare quality, released its 2023 Health Plan Ratings in September. The report rates more than 1,000 commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid health insurance plans on a 5-point scale for patient experience, prevention, and treatment. The insights gained from the NCQA ratings are vital in enhancing interventions, delivering impactful programs, and shaping future strategies, as well as helping consumers, employers, and others make more informed healthcare choices. A rating of four or higher on the NCQA rankings indicates that a health plan is among the op one-third in the U.S.



NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of healthcare organizations and recognizes clinicians in key clinical areas. NCQA's HEDIS is the most widely used performance measurement tool in healthcare. NCQA's website contains information to help consumers, employers and others make informed healthcare choices. About Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's Medicaid Health Plan in Indiana

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield works with the state of Indiana to offer the Hoosier Healthwise (HHW), Hoosier Care Connect (HCC) and Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) health insurance programs for 750,000 Medicaid beneficiaries. HHW is a health care program for children up to age 19 and pregnant women that covers medical care like doctor visits, prescription medicine, mental health care, dental care, hospitalizations, and surgeries. HCC offers individuals who are aged 65 years and older, blind, or disabled and who are also not eligible for Medicare health plans that provide the most appropriate care based upon individualized needs. HIP covers residents age 19 through 64 including low-income families. Anthem has administered benefits and services for HHW since 2007, HCC since 2015 and HIP since 2008. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is the trade name of Anthem Health Plans, Inc. Independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Anthem is a registered trademark of Anthem Insurance Companies, Inc. Additional information about Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Indiana is available at www.anthem.com. Also, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/anthemBCBS and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AnthemBlueCrossBlueShield. About NCQA NCQA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA's Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. In recognition for its leadership in diversity, equity and inclusion, NCQA has won the Excellence in Diversity Award from the Chesapeake Human Resources Association. NCQA's website (ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make more-informed health care choices. NCQA can be found online at ncqa.org, on Twitter @ncqa, and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/ncqa. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003848711/en/

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[October 03, 2023] WARBURG PINCUS TO INVEST IN EVERISE AND PARTNER WITH BROOKFIELD FOR THE NEXT PHASE OF GROWTH Tweet

NEW YORK and SINGAPORE and MUMBAI, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Everise, a leading global healthcare services outsourcing company, announced today that Warburg Pincus, a leading global growth investor, has agreed to invest in the company. Warburg Pincus joins existing investor Brookfield and both investors are committed to accelerating the growth trajectory of the company through business expansion and M&A. Warburg Pincus' investment values the company at around $1 billion. Since its inception in 2016, Everise has evolved into an end-to-end customer experience solutions provider and one of the fastest-growing businesses in the healthcare services outsourcing space today. Headquartered in the US, with over 19,000 employees in eight markets, Everise provides customer service solutions to some of the world's leading healthcare companies. The company has attained numerous industry awards in recognition of its leadership, as well as its commitment to innovation and a people-centric culture. As part of the transaction, Everstone Group, the Singapore-headquartered private equity firm will exit its investment in Everise. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close by the end of 2023. Saurabh Agarwal, Managing Director of Warburg Pincus, said, "We are pleased to partner with Brookfield in our shared vision to elevate Everise into a next-generation global leader in the healthcare customer experience industry. Everise extends a vast array of top-tier services to its clients, including some of the world's largest healthcare organizations. We are excited about backing Everise's exceptionally experienced leadership team that has a proven track record of driving scale and profitability. With our deep network and resources across Asia and the US, we are well-positioned to help Everise gain further momentum as a leader in the industry." Warburg Pincus has invested in healthcare for over 50 years with investments in some of the most iconic and innovative healthcare companies such as Ensemble Health Partners, Quantum Health, Alignment Healthcare, Modernizing Medicine, Qualifacts, and ParetoHealth.



Viraj Sawhney , Managing Director of Warburg Pincus, added, "Warburg Pincus has been an active investor in the global outsourced technology-enabled services space, and Everise presents an attractive platform to offer such services to the global healthcare payer and provider ecosystem. We have continued to see strong underlying demand for quality customer experience, driven by an increasing outsourcing trend across the global healthcare industry. We are excited about the growth prospect of the company and look forward to leveraging our global presence and extensive experience in both healthcare and outsourced services to help the management team accelerate growth, innovate, and drive more value for its customers." Sudhir Agarwal, Founder and CEO of Everise, said, "I and the management team are confident that the partnership between Warburg Pincus and Brookfield will take Everise's growth to the next level. Warburg Pincus' deep domain expertise across diverse industries and next-generation technologies, coupled with the institutional knowledge of our trusted partner Brookfield, will contribute substantively to Everise's next phase of growth in offering strategic customer solutions. I would also like to thank Everstone Group for being a strong and supportive partner to Everise from its inception."

Aditya Joshi, Managing Partner at Brookfield, said: "Since our investment in Everise in 2020, the company has delivered strong organic growth following investments in technology and operations and has become a strategic partner for its customers around the world. We look forward to partnering with Warburg Pincus and the Company's management team for the next stage of the journey." About Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a leading global growth investor. Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 21 private equity and 2 real estate funds, which have invested more than $112 billion in over 1,000 companies in more than 40 countries. The firm has more than $83 billion in assets under management. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore. For more information, please visit www.warburgpincus.com. Follow us on LinkedIn. About Everise Founded in 2016, Everise is a global leader transforming customer service for healthcare, transport, logistics, insurance, financial services, and tech businesses. The Company solves problems for the millions of customers of some of the world's leading brands, by combining the best technology with compassionate service. With over 19,000 champion agents operating across eight strategic markets globally, Everise seeks to deliver happiness to customers of some of the world's best loved brands. Our customer service solutions are high-performing, secure, and agile, with fluent proficiency in 32 languages, enabling businesses to scale globally while achieving top customer satisfaction. Learn more at www.weareeverise.com. About Brookfield Business Partners Brookfield Business Partners is a global business services and industrials company focused on owning and operating high-quality businesses that provide essential products and services and benefit from a strong competitive position. Investors have flexibility to invest in our company either through Brookfield Business Corporation (NYSE, TSX: BBUC), a corporation, or Brookfield Business Partners L.P. (NYSE: BBU; TSX: BBU.UN), a limited partnership. For more information, please visit https://bbu.brookfield.com. Brookfield Business Partners is the flagship listed vehicle of Brookfield Asset Management's Private Equity Group. Brookfield Asset Management is a leading global alternative asset manager with approximately $850 billion of assets under management. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/warburg-pincus-to-invest-in-everise-and-partner-with-brookfield-for-the-next-phase-of-growth-301945812.html SOURCE Everise

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[October 03, 2023] Cloaked Launches All-in-One Privacy App and Web-Based Solution to Give People Control Over Their Data Tweet

Cloaked, a consumer-first privacy company, announced today that it has launched its privacy app and web-based platform that gives people control of their personal data by creating unlimited, secure identities, including working phone numbers, emails, usernames and passwords, in real time. As it exits beta, the Cloaked platform offers end-to-end encryption with zero-knowledge architecture and is the first to provide automatic credential updates, enabling consumers to cloak existing passwords instantly. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003956240/en/ The Cloaked all-in-one privacy app and web-based solution puts people in control of their personal information with ease by creating unlimited, secure identities, including phone numbers, emails, usernames and passwords, instantly. Visit https://cloaked.app to learn more. (Graphic: Business Wire) From online shopping and dating to interacting with financial services and healthcare providers, Cloaked helps consumers take control of what and how they share, while reshaping how industries access, use, and think about data. "At Cloaked, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right that everyone deserves to experience," said Arjun Bhatnagar, CEO of Cloaked. "This is why we've created a comprehensie, intuitive platform that puts individuals in control of how information is shared and used without changing how we interact with the world."



CLOAKED: UNPARALLELED USER CONTROL, PROTECTION, CONVENIENCE Cloaked's all-in-one solution combines identity masking via instant phone number and email creation, plus user credential and management tools, with organization resources in one place. Users can seamlessly personalize identities and eliminate privacy exposure, including spam calls or text messages, without being forced to choose between participating in day-to-day, online living and personal data protection.

AutoCloak - Cloaked's newest feature - enables individuals to automatically change credentials at once, regardless of where personal data may exist or what services or products someone has signed up for previously. It also systematically updates usernames and passwords if they become compromised through a merchant breach, easing the stress of identity theft and increasing security immediately. Additional Cloaked highlights include: Real-time, unlimited phone number and email creation with two-way routing so identities are never revealed.

Personalization features that allow individuals to turn identities on or off, elect to auto-forward communication to existing email or phone numbers and more.

A personal, encrypted database and end-to-end encryption across the platform, including zero-knowledge architecture, to ensure maximum security for Cloaked users.

A built-in password manager, making it seamless to save and access information across web and mobile devices. "Cloaked is fundamentally working to rethink individual data ownership and data security," said Abhijay Bhatnagar, President of Cloaked. "Architecturally, we've invested a great deal in separating user data and building an end-to-end encrypted infrastructure so customers can feel comfortable and in control when using our product anywhere." At launch, Cloaked is the first privacy platform to be both ISO27001 and ISO27701 certified for its overall management of information security and privacy practices. With a continued focus on security and extending privacy features, the company plans to unveil Cloaked Pay, which will allow privacy protection of card numbers and unlock user card controls to prevent privacy exposure, fraud, and data breach potential. Cloaked addresses are also set to launch in the coming year. Monthly and yearly subscriptions are available. To learn more and sign up for a free, 14-day trial, visit cloaked.app. About Cloaked Founded by brothers Arjun and Abhijay Bhatnagar, Cloaked is a consumer-first privacy company dedicated to enabling individuals to take control of their personal data in real time with unlimited, unique identities. Using Cloaked, individuals can choose when, where and with whom they share personal data from their browser extension or mobile device. To date, the company has raised $29 million in funding and is backed by Lux Capital, Human Capital, General Catalyst, Peter Thiel, Index Ventures, Jeff Weiner from Next Play Ventures, All Turtles, Khosla Ventures, Michael Ovitz, and the Chainsmokers' Mantis Fund. Cloaked is based in New York City. To learn more, visit cloaked.app. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003956240/en/

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[October 03, 2023] XT.com - AMF marks major milestone in offensive to enforce crypto trading platform compliance Tweet

MONTREAL, Oct. 3, 2023 /CNW/ - On September 20, 2023, further to an originating pleading filed by the Autorite des marches financiers (the "Authority" or the "AMF"), the Financial Markets Administrative Tribunal (the "Tribunal") issued an important decision sanctioning the operators of the crypto trading platform XT.com, known as XT.COM Exchange (also doing business as XT Exchange and XT.com), and BZ Limited for failing to comply with Quebec securities and derivatives legislation. The Tribunal imposed a monetary administrative penalty of $2 million on the platform operators and, in order to protect the public, issued a series of orders that have the effect of banning them from Quebec's financial markets. Specifically, theTribunal ordered XT.COM Exchange, BZ Limited and any other person operating the website XT.com to permanently block access to the website effective two months after the decision date.



The Tribunal also ordered XT.COM Exchange and BZ Limited to inform users of the XT.com website, no later than two days after receiving notification of the decision, that the website will cease to be accessible to them effective two months after the decision date and that they must therefore withdraw any assets they have on the website and close their accounts as soon as possible. XT.COM Exchange and BZ Limited acted as securities and derivatives dealers without holding any kind of registration with the AMF. They also distributed securities and created or marketed derivatives without preparing a prospectus subject to a receipt issued by the AMF, without benefitting from an exemption and without being qualified by the AMF.

In its decision, the Tribunal states that owners and operators of crypto asset trading platforms who act in contravention of securities legislation must be sent a clear message that this type of situation cannot be tolerated, as it exposes the public to significant risks. It adds that compliance with securities legislation is the only possible way forward. "The Tribunal's decision in XT.com is very important because it will become precedent for decisions in future cases involving the illegal trading of crypto assets through on-line trading platforms," said Eric Jacob, Interim AMF Executive Director, Enforcement. "It also underscores the fact that it doesn't matter where a platform is located, Quebec or abroad: Quebec securities and derivatives legislation applies to such platforms from the moment users are able to access them from Quebec." The AMF will continue its offensive against crypto trading platforms that operate illegally in Quebec and that have not entered into a pre-registration undertaking. This offensive is part of ongoing coordinated efforts by the Canadian Securities Administrators, which include the AMF, to enforce crypto trading platform compliance with Canadian securities and derivatives legislation. Crypto trading platforms authorized to do business with Quebeckers are listed on the AMF website. The Autorite des marches financiers is the regulatory and oversight body for Quebec's financial sector. Information : Media only:

Sylvain Theberge: 514-940-2176 Information Centre:

Quebec City: 418-525-0337

Montreal: 514-395-0337

Toll-free: 1-877-525-0337 Website: www.lautorite.qc.ca

X (Twitter): @lautorite

LinkedIn: Autorite des marches financiers (Quebec) SOURCE Autorite des marches financiers

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[October 03, 2023] Investing in a Digital Future: The Phoenix Theatre Company Partners with True Tickets Tweet

BOSTON, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- True Tickets, a leading provider of secure digital ticket delivery, is proud to announce a groundbreaking partnership with The Phoenix Theatre Company, the first and largest producing regional theatre and arts organization in Arizona. This exciting collaboration comes as The Phoenix Theatre Company embarks on a monumental $30 million renovation project, transforming its facility into a state-of-the-art theatre suitable for pre-Broadway productions.

The collaboration underscores True Tickets' commitment to not only revolutionizing the ticketing landscape but also aligning with The Phoenix Theatre Companys vision for growth and innovation. True Tickets' digital ticketing service seamlessly integrates into The Phoenix Theatre Company's existing ticketing system. The partnership will provide new levels of security, patron engagement, and the ability to minimize unauthorized resale. It will also allow ticket holders to easily and conveniently transfer digital tickets to friends and family. Matt Schaefer, Managing Director of The Phoenix Theatre Company, expressed his excitement, stating, "The partnership with True Tickets is not just about securing our ticketing operations; it's an investment in our digital future. Our renovation project is set to redefine theatre experiences in Arizona, and with True Tickets, we are ensuring that our patrons have access to secure and convenient ticketing solutions that match the excellence of our productions." Ken Lesnik, Head of Business Development at True Tickets, added, "We are thrilled to collaborate wih The Phoenix Theatre Company during this exciting chapter of their history. True Tickets is committed to enhancing the ticketing experience for both patrons and performing arts organizations, and we look forward to helping The Phoenix Theatre Company realize their digital potential."



Upcoming events at The Phoenix Theatre Company include Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, open now through November 26th, and the world premiere musical Tiananmen: A New Musical, running October 4th through the 29th. About True Tickets

True Tickets is a secure contactless digital ticketing service that puts venues and event organizers in control of their tickets and in communication with their true audience. True Tickets' business-to-business solution easily integrates with Tessitura, the unified enterprise system for arts and cultural institutions, empowering performing arts centers, theatres, ballets, orchestras, and more to leverage the power of digital-native tickets to ensure extraordinary live experiences for their guests. With True Tickets, these institutions can set rules and track ticket custody, limit the excesses of the secondary market, and restore direct relationships between their audiences and the live events they love. For additional information, please visit True-Tickets.com or follow True Tickets on Twitter or LinkedIn.

About The Phoenix Theatre Company

The Phoenix Theatre Company is not only the largest professional regional theatre company in the state, with nearly 500 performances each year on multiple stages, but its also the first arts organization in Arizona and a founding member of the Central Arts District. Committed to advancing the performing arts in the Valley, The Phoenix Theatre Company's mission is to create exceptional theatrical experiences that inspire hope and understanding. For more information about our upcoming shows, campus venue, located at 1825 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix, outreach programs, and more, visit www.phoenixtheatre.com.

Media Contacts: True Tickets Crystal Henderson [email protected] The Phoenix Theatre Company Jen Barraza [email protected]

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[October 03, 2023] Brickeye Named to The Globe and Mail's Fifth-Annual Ranking of Canada's Top Growing Companies Tweet

TORONTO, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brickeye , a leading construction IoT and data analytics technology company, announces it has been named to The Globe and Mail's 2023 Report on Business ranking of Canada's Top Growing Companies. Canadas Top Growing Companies ranks Canadian companies on revenue growth. Brickeye earned its spot with three-year growth of 159%, thanks to its innovative IoT technology. The company's technology enables general contractors and insurers to make data-driven decisions to reduce rework, mitigate costly risks, and optimize construction project schedules, allowing project stakeholders to build and manage their projects safer, smarter, and better. Were honored to be recognized as a Top Growing Canadian Company," said Tim Angus, President and CEO of Brickeye. This achievement is a reflection of our teams hard work and commitment to revolutionizing the construction industry with innovative, risk-mitigating technology. Canada's Top Growing Companies acknowledges the drive and ingenuity displayed by Canadian business," said Dawn Calleja, Editor of Report on Business magazine. This years ranking serves as an inspiration for future business owners. This years Report on Business magazines list of Top Growing Companies shows how innovative ideas always rise to the top, perhaps even more so in times of uncertainty, said Andrew Saunders, CEO of The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mai congratulates this years winners for meeting and surpassing those economic challenges.



Canadas Top Growing Companies is an editorial ranking that was launched in 2019. It aims to bring the accomplishments of innovative businesses in Canada to the forefront. To qualify for this voluntary program, companies had to complete an in-depth application process and fulfill requirements. The full list of 2023 winners, along with editorial coverage, is published in the October issue of Report on Business magazine. The list is available here .

This announcement comes following Brickeyes recognition as one of Site News Top 25 Innovators in Construction , which celebrates Canada's top companies for their groundbreaking contributions to the construction industry and technological innovations across the country. About Brickeye

Brickeye is a pioneering construction technology company dedicated to revolutionizing the AEC industry through IoT-enabled job site monitoring, smart automations, and data analytics solutions. Trusted by leading owner/developers, general contractors, and insurance providers, Brickeye helps mitigate risk, boost productivity, and protect margins on building and infrastructure construction projects. The companys end-to-end job site platform encompasses ruggedized IoT sensors, reliable job site connectivity, intelligent alerts, and advanced analytics. About The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is Canadas foremost news media company, leading the national discussion and causing policy change through brave and independent journalism since 1844. With our award-winning coverage of business, politics and national affairs, The Globe and Mail newspaper reaches 6.2 million readers every week in our print or digital formats, and Report on Business magazine reaches 2.7 million readers in print and digital every issue. Our investment in innovative data science means that as the world continues to change, so does The Globe. The Globe and Mail is owned by Woodbridge, the investment arm of the Thomson family. Media Contact:

Devin Sutton

Trevi Communications for Brickeye

[email protected]



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[October 03, 2023] MHz Choice Sets The Sea Beyond U.S. Premiere for October 17 Tweet

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The smash hit Italian series The Sea Beyond will finally arrive on U.S. shores this month as MHz Choice sets the U.S. premiere for Tuesday, October 17. The series has become a phenomenon in its home country of Italy, where it is known as Mare Fuori, with record-breaking ratings and a fervent fan base. MHz Choice has acquired the first four seasons of the series from Beta Film for U.S. and Canadian audiences, and will premiere the first season with two episodes each week beginning October 17. The smash hit Italian series "The Sea Beyond" will finally arrive on U.S. and Canadian shores this month on MHz Choice. The series was recently highlighted on CBS Sunday Morning, and The New York Times called The Sea Beyond "a steamy hit" with "often gritty but always soapy melodrama" and echoes of the Capulets and the Montagues.



The Sea Beyond follows a group of young men and women serving time in a juvenile detention center that overlooks the Gulf of Naples. Set against that scenic backdrop, the inmates wrestle with their identities, their families and each other. Resilience and loyalties are tested when new inmates Carmine (Massimilano Caiazzo) and Filippo (Nicolas Maupas) arrive and struggle against a system that could break them. The series was created by Cristiana Farina, who co-wrote the script with Maurizio Careddu, and it was directed by Carmine Elia, Milena Cocozza and Ivan Silvestrini. In addition to Caiazzo and Maupas, the series also stars Carolina Crescentini (Boris), Valentina Romani (La Porta Rossa, SKAM Italia), Giacomo Giorgio (Sopravvissuti), Artem (Nostalgia), Luca Lombardi (Capri), Carmine Recano (Sopravvissuti) and more.

The Sea Beyond joins MHz Choice's existing top-tier catalog of Italian series including Detective Montalbano, Imma Tatarani, Don't Leave Me and La Piovra. Full October schedule available here: https://mhzchoice.com/premiere-schedule/ About MHz Choice

MHz Choice, the evolution of the original MHz Networks television service, offers viewers in the U.S. and Canada access to a library of the best television mysteries, dramas, comedies and documentaries subtitled in English through its subscription streaming service. Select MHz content is also available on DVD and on its free ad-supported service MHz Now, available on Samsung TV Plus and Plex. Newcomers to MHz Choice are offered a free 7-Day Trial. For more information, go to mhzchoice.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mhz-choice-sets-the-sea-beyond-us-premiere-for-october-17-301945775.html SOURCE MHz Networks

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[October 03, 2023] Caught on Camera: When Millions Disappear in an Instant Tweet

David Jeremiah Launches New Teaching Series and Book SAN DIEGO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Thousands of people go missing every day, and an average of 150 species have disappeared forever. Occasionally, these disappearances make the news, and millions take notice, but most of these disappearances impact only a handful of people. However, there is a day that has been predicted for thousands of years when a disappearance will occur that is so great the whole world will take notice. "While we talk about the Rapture, we often don't know much about it. There is so much fascinating information." This fall, Dr. David Jeremiah, founder and host of Turning Point broadcast ministry, is launching a new teaching series and book, The Great Disappearance. This series looks at the Rapture of the Church but is not a series of doom and gloom, scare tactics, or sensationalism by setting dates. It is one of hope and joy. "While we talk about the Rapture, we often don't know much about it. There is so much fascinating information. It's the blessed hope, the great expectation, the promise of the Lord," said Dr. Jeremiah. As the campaign unfolds this October, Dr. Jeremiah's production company will launch PerhapsToday.org . The site will be anchored by a series of pre-enactment videos created and produced by the same team that brought Why the Nativity? to 27 million viewers last Christmas. This realistic "caught on camera" user-generated footage is aimed at grabbing the viewers' attention and curiosity through thought-provoking pre-enactment video clips depicting the moment of the Rapture. When the Rapture occurs, the world will capture the momentcellphones, security cameras, law enforcement body cams, dash cams, and doorbell cams will all bear witness to the great disappearance. Whether you believe the end of the world is an "if" scenario or a "when" scenario, it is a scenario that sparks conversation. It is a fascinating and often mysterious subject which compels many o ask: What will it be like? These questions are part of the reason Dr. Jeremiah embarked on this new series.



"I pray that anyone who engages with this new series finds inspiration and motivation to live with a greater purpose as we reach the world with this urgent message. We must teach these things to our children and grandchildren and share them with others," said Dr. Jeremiah. If the Perhaps Today campaign is the launching point for conversations, the book, the broadcast series, and the additional resources and content surrounding The Great Disappearance are the backbones of understanding a topic often shrouded in mystery and scare tactics. Presented in a way that offers fascinating glimpses of hope, powerful prophetic text, and promises from God, this new series and the campaign surrounding it help audiences view the world with hope as God's plan unfolds and the world awaits the next event on His prophetic calendar.

The Perhaps Today website is live now; viewers can watch over a dozen pre-enactment scenarios. The Great Disappearance will air on national television throughout October and November and on radio throughout October. The book and additional study resources are available via DavidJeremiah.org now. Dr. David Jeremiah is a renowned Bible teacher, New York Times bestselling author, and founder/host of Turning Point Broadcast Ministry. With more than 40 years of ministry and 'just getting started,' his teaching has led to the creation of the Prophecy Academy , OVERCOMER, Airship Genesis , PASSAGES, and Why the Nativity? , to name a few. About Turning Point

Turning Point Ministries was founded in 1982 as the broadcast ministry of Dr. David Jeremiah to deliver the unchanging Word of God to an ever-changing world. More than four decades later, with a multimedia network featuring radio, television, online programming, magazines, and books, Turning Point reaches people around the globe with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Turning Point is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization wholly supported by patrons and not underwritten by any church or organization. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/caught-on-camera-when-millions-disappear-in-an-instant-301945882.html SOURCE Turning Point Ministries

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[October 03, 2023]

TradePMR to Host Seventh Annual Oktoberfest on Thursday, October 12

Ken Block and Drew Copeland of Sister Hazel will perform at the fundraiser which benefits the band's non-profit pediatric cancer charity, Lyrics for Life.

GAINESVILLE, Fla., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- TradePMR, a technology and custodial services provider for Registered Investment Advisors, will host its seventh annual Oktoberfest fundraiser on Thursday, October 12, 2023, from 5:30  7:30 p.m. ET at TradePMR headquarters, 2511 NW 41st St in Gainesville, Fla. The event will feature craft beer selections from Gainesville's own Blackadder Brewing as well as wine from Dorn's Liquor and Wine Warehouse. Oktoberfest will also host Cilantro Tacos and B'z Gelati food trucks for dinner and dessert. Ken Block and Drew Copeland from Sister Hazel will perform. A l proceeds from Oktoberfest benefits the band's non-profit foundation, Lyrics for Life.

"Oktoberfest is a special event where our team can spend time with our families and community, all while supporting a worthy cause,' said Robb Baldwin, Founder and CEO of TradePMR. "We are proud to work with Lyrics for Life in their efforts to combat pediatric cancer. We hope the entire Gainesville community will join our team at the TradePMR office to help support their efforts."

Lyrics for Life is a non-profit organization founded by Sister Hazel in 2002 tohelp fight children's cancer. Donations to Lyrics for Life benefit research programs as well as an annual three-day event for children and families managing a cancer diagnosis hosted at Camp Crystal Lake in North Central Florida.







Oktoberfest has a $10 suggested donation at the door; however, donations of all sizes are welcome and will go directly to Lyrics for Life. This year's event will also feature a silent auction for items donated by local businesses. There is parking available within walking distance of Oktoberfest. Premium parking spots next to the event will be available on-site for a $50 donation. TradePMR will be matching donations dollar-for-dollar to benefit Lyrics for Life.

Special thank you to this year's sponsors:

Sister Hazel, Hawkstone Country Club, PRP Regeneration Specialist, UF Health Plastic Surgery, Blackadder Brewing, Dorn's Liquor and Wine Warehouse, House of Luxury @Haile, Prime and Pearl, Floating Lotus Spa, Pure Aesthetics, Haile Village Spa, Tyrone MD, PRP Wine International, Alumni Hall, and Ilene's Gator Store.

For more information on this year's event or to make a donation online, visit https://oktoberfest.tradepmr.com.

Ideas for charitable giving and community service as well as questions surrounding this year's Oktoberfest should be sent to [email protected]

About TradePMR

For more than two decades, TradePMR has worked with growth-minded independent registered investment advisers (RIAs), providing innovative technology tools and support designed to transform their businesses. The privately-held brokerage and custodian services provider (Member FINRA/SIPC), based in Gainesville, Fla., works to streamline fee-only investment advisors' operations through comprehensive custodial, operational, and trading support. For more information, visit www.TradePMR.com.

Follow TradePMR on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for the latest news, updates, and event information.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tradepmr-to-host-seventh-annual-oktoberfest-on-thursday-october-12-301945938.html

SOURCE TradePMR
[October 03, 2023] Lincoln Property Company Unveils New Global Headquarters in Dallas Tweet

Lincoln Property Company ("Lincoln"), a global, full-service real estate firm, today unveiled its new global headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Located at 8111 Douglas Avenue, the move is part of Lincoln's growth and succession plan under the leadership of Clay Duvall and David Binswanger, who were appointed as co-CEOs in February 2023 along with a strategic investment from Stone Point Capital. The new office tower is part of a mixed-use project developed by Lincoln that includes a luxury multifamily high-rise and amenities that include a penthouse meeting space with panoramic city views, an on-site gym and pickleball court. "Lincoln has deep roots in Dallas, with our origins beginning here nearly 60 years ago," said Mr. Duvall. "The city is quickly becoming the epicenter of the U.S. economy due to its strong business environment and cost of living, and we're proud to continue to build on Lincoln's deep legacy in Dallas for years to come." Completed in 2023, Lincoln led the deveopment of 8111 Douglas, a mixed-used project comprising two 13-story towers. The office building provides 225,000 square feet of Class A office and retail space, while the residential tower includes 128 luxury apartments averaging 1,400 square feet.



8111 Douglas offers a premier amenity package for office tenants and residents, including indoor and outdoor fitness space, a ground-floor park as well as an amenity deck that features pickleball and bocce ball courts, a putting green and other recreational offerings. "As a real estate services company dedicated to providing our clients with best-in-class spaces, we are thrilled to create a modern workplace experience for our own employees," added Mr. Binswanger. "Our new home in 8111 Douglas provides the dynamic workspace that is designed to enhance our collaborative and entrepreneurial culture and attract high-caliber talent that will be additive to Lincoln's vision and growth plan."

Including its Dallas headquarters, Lincoln operates 35 offices across the U.S. and Europe. About Lincoln Property Company Lincoln Property Company ("Lincoln") is one of the nation's largest diversified real estate services companies with thirty-five offices across the globe. Founded in 1965, Lincoln's combined management and leasing portfolio on behalf of institutional clients includes almost 500 million square feet of commercial space. Offering a comprehensive suite of real estate solutions, Lincoln manages, leases, develops, and provides advisory services to owners and occupiers of office, life science, retail, industrial, data center, production studio, and mixed-used residential properties throughout the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe. In addition to providing third party real estate services, Lincoln has principally acquired and developed more than $24 billion and 62 million square feet of commercial projects since 2018. For more information, visit: www.lpc.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003998626/en/

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(Bloomberg) -- An Abu Dhabi firm controlled by a key member of the emirates royal family increased its shareholding in Gautam Adanis flagship conglomerate to a little over 5%, days after selling stakes in two other companies owned by the Indian billionaire as part of a portfolio rejig.

Most Read from Bloomberg

International Holding Co., through its units, bought an additional 0.06% stake in Adani Enterprises Ltd. to take its total shareholding to 5.04%, according to an exchange filing. IHCs Green Vitality Rsc Ltd. and Green Enterprises Investment Holding Rsc Ltd. owned 4.55% of Adani Enterprises for the quarter ending June.

The firm had previously invested almost $2 billion in three Adani companies in 2022. Last week, IHC said it would sell its investment in Adani Green Energy Ltd. and Adani Transmission Ltd.  now renamed as Adani Energy Solutions Ltd.  but added that its partnership with Adani and dedication to the Indian market remain steadfast.

Read More: IHC Says Stake Sale in Adani Firms Was to Rebalance Portfolio

Its decision to now increase its stake in Adani Enterprises reflects a conviction in the ability of the firm to incubate new businesses successfully, IHC said in a statement on Tuesday.

The deal reflects Indias growth potential and is an endorsement of our robust capex plans, governance and transparency, a spokesperson for Adani Group said in a statement.

Adani Enterprises is the parent firm of the ports-to-power conglomerate and has spawned off many new businesses in recent years including airports, data centers and media.

The conglomerate has been trying to regain investor confidence after a scathing attack by a short seller in January by paring debt and luring billions of dollars from global investors such as Rajiv Jains GQG Partners and TotalEnergies SE.

Story continues

IHC is a $236 billion conglomerate chaired by United Arab Emirates National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Sheikh Tahnoon also oversees two of the emirates wealth funds  Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and ADQ.

Read More: Gulf Royals $1.5 Trillion Empire Draws Bankers and Billionaires

--With assistance from Ragini Saxena.

(Updates with comment from Adani Group spokesperson in the fifth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
[October 03, 2023] LTK, the Creator Commerce Platform, Deepens Creator Relationships with Shoppers: Introducing LTK Comments Tweet

LTK, the platform that powers Creator Commerce, is introducing LTK Comments, a new tool for creators to deepen relationships with their community directly on their LTK shop. For the first time, creators and shoppers will now be able to message directly, in an open community forum, on creators' LTK Shops. LTK is launching the new feature to enable shoppers to connect directly with the creators they love, and in turn, LTK Comments empowers creators to nurture their most valuable followers - their shoppers. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003229874/en/ For the first time, creators and shoppers will now be able to message directly, in an open community forum, on creators' LTK Shops. LTK is launching the new feature to enable shoppers to connect directly with the creators they love and, in turn, LTK Comments empowers creators to nurture their most valuable followers - their shoppers. (Graphic: Business Wire) The core f a creator's business is not just the approachable content they produce, but the relationships they foster with their community, creating deep-seated emotional connections with followers that differentiates creator-guided shopping from historical shopping experiences. Creators are a leading source of inspiration for shoppers today, with 75% of Gen Z and 67% of Millennials basing their online purchases on recommendations from the creators they follow.



"Creators have made emotional connections with their community, which serve as the heart of the creator-guided shopping experience. Empowering these audiences to connect provides a powerful engagement dynamic that furthers the trust and engagement shoppers have with the creators they have chosen to follow," said Amber Venz Box, President and Co-Founder of LTK, and a legacy creator herself. LTK's creator-first platform is built to empower creators to be as economically successful as possible by providing powerful e-commerce technology solutions to build sustainable businesses. LTK Comments advances the platform for creators' needs today by encouraging and fostering direct connection with their community in order to advance their business growth.

LTK Comments is available starting today in the U.S. For more information, please visit: https://company.shopltk.com. About LTK As the inventor of Creator Commerce, LTK is the trusted and effective platform for creators and their businesses by powering and monetizing the connection between content and commerce. Founded in 2011 by Amber and Baxter Box, the LTK mission is to empower creators to be as economically successful as possible. Premium lifestyle creators in 150+ countries drive more than $4 billion in annual retail sales through the LTK platform. Today, 30 million consumers turn to LTK Creators in the LTK shopping platform each month to find inspiration and instantly shop the styles recommended by their favorite creators. And, more than 7,000 brands partner with LTK to gain access to its global creator network for content that converts against performance-driven, cross-channel KPIs. LTK is headquartered in Dallas, TX and currently operates on five continents. To download the LTK shopping app, search for LTK in the App Store or Google Play. For the latest updates from LTK, follow Shop.LTK. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003229874/en/

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[October 03, 2023] COFOMO AND AGILIA SOLUTIONS JOIN FORCES Tweet

This agreement addresses the growing demand from organizations looking for a one-stop shop for world-class IT services MONTREAL, Oct. 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Cofomo, Canada's leading provider of business talent management, information technology (IT) and digital transformation consulting services, is pleased to announce the conclusion of an agreement for the acquisition of Agilia Solutions, a digital solutions development consulting firm based in Montreal. The company is specialized in strategic consulting, architecture, project management, agility and development operations, most notably in the finance, energy and transportation sectors. This agreement will allow us to consolidate our expertise and reinforce Cofomo's position as a partner of choice in response to the growing demand from organizations looking for a one-stop shop for world-class IT services. "We are delighted to welcome Agilia Solutions to our team. Our shared values and focs on customer experience, lasting relationships and innovation make this union a natural fit with our vision for transformation and growth. The Agilia Solutions team, recognized for its extensive expertise in project management, architecture and Agile development, strengthens our service offering in program management and large-scale digital projects," states the President of Cofomo, Regis Desjardins.



The leaders and Associates from Agilia Solutions and their teams are joining the Cofomo team to contribute to the organization's growth and offer even more value and innovation to their clients in the different business sectors. "At Agilia Solutions, we're proud of the work our teams have accomplished in recent years, exceeding our customers' expectations. Joining Cofomo gives us the means to achieve our ambitions. We're adding skills that will enable us to support our clients in greater depth with a complete, cross-functional and turnkey service," add Andre Ferland, Richard Guimond, Alain Dagenais and Patrick Dontigny, the founders and Associates of Agilia Solutions.

Agilia Solutions is a leader in digital transformation, project management and agility and has been providing management and IT consulting services since its creation in 2010. Agilia Solutions offers simple, effective solutions tailored to the needs and concerns of public and private organizations. Cofomo  Established in 1995, Cofomo is a leading Canadian provider of information technology (IT) and business consulting services, accelerating the digital transformation of its corporate clients. Its solutions cover all their needs, including strategy, innovation, agility, intelligence, security and cloud computing. Four-time winner of Deloitte's Canada's Best Managed Companies competition, in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, its unique expertise is implemented through flexible talent delivery models or on-demand projects. Its team of 3,000 professionals provides services to large private and public sector companies and organizations, located mostly in Eastern Canada... but soon, across Canada. In May 2021, Cofomo joined Novacap to accelerate its growth objective in the IT sector.

(www.cofomo.com / www.novacap.ca). SOURCE Cofomo Inc.

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[October 03, 2023] Healthcare Analytics Market to Garner a Valuation of USD 139.34 Billion by 2030, Exhibiting 23.31% CAGR, With North America Leading the Market Due to Advanced Healthcare Infrastructure, Projects Kings Research Tweet

DUBAI, UAE, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- As per the latest report published by Kings Research, the global Healthcare Analytics Market size was recorded at USD 24.45 billion in 2022 and is estimated to grow to USD 139.34 billion by 2030, exhibiting a CAGR of 23.31% over the forecast period of 2023- 2030. The healthcare industry has embraced analytics to address the challenges of inadequate patient care, rising treatment costs, and low levels of patient engagement and retention. By leveraging healthcare analytics, the industry aims to improve patient care and operational efficiency, which is fueling market expansion. Healthcare analytics leverages extensive data collection to provide organizations with practical insights, enabling them to make informed decisions in real-time. Through analytical methodologies, these insights facilitate improved planning, management, measurement, and learning. Furthermore, healthcare institutions around the globe are prioritizing cost reduction, enhancing care team coordination, and elevating patient care. Moreover, newer market entrants are introducing innovative healthcare delivery approaches, intensifying market competition. Consequently, healthcare analytics systems primarily concentrate on big data, offering potential benefits such as cost reduction, enhanced efficiency, and better patient treatment. Explore more about this report - Request for Sample and Scope of the Study @

https://www.kingsresearch.com/request-sample/healthcare-analytics-market-185 Competitive Landscape Key participants in the global healthcare analytics market are emphasizing acquisitions as a primary approach for expanding their businesses. For instance, in June 2022, Oracle Corporation took over Cerner Corporation intending to integrate Cerner's clinical abilities with its own expertise in enterprise platform analytics and automation. Leading companies in the global healthcare analytics market include: Optum, Inc.

Wipro Limited

Allscripts Healthcare, LLC

Cerner Corporation

Health Catalyst

Inovalon

McKesson Corporation

IBM

MEDEANALYTICS, INC.

GENERAL ELECTRIC Have an Inquiry? Get in Touch with us @ https://www.kingsresearch.com/enquiry/healthcare-analytics-market-185 Trending Now: Mayo Clinic and Google Cloud Collaborate on AI for Healthcare Data Google Cloud and Mayo Clinic have joined forces to implement generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of healthcare. This collaboration aims to empower clinicians and researchers to swiftly and naturally access information, as stated in a press release dated 7th June 2023. In the same release, Google Cloud announced that the tool to be utilized in this endeavor, the Enterprise Search in Generative AI App Builder, had become HIPAA compliant. Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, stated, "Generative AI has the potential to revolutionize healthcare by enhancing human interactions and streamlining operations like never before. Mayo Clinic is a global leader in harnessing AI for the greater good, and they are a crucial partner in responsibly introducing this transformative technology to healthcare." The press release also noted that Mayo Clinic has previously collaborated with Google Cloud to implement analytics, AI, and machine learning (ML) solutions in healthcare. Ask for Customization: https://www.kingsresearch.com/customization/healthcare-analytics-market-185 Growing Demand for Descriptive Analysis to Spur Market Development In terms of type, the healthcare analytics market is categorized into predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics, and descriptive analytics. The descriptive analysis segment is anticipated to dominate the market through the projected timeframe. This growth is primarily attributable to the surging demand for descriptive analysis, which relies on historicl patterns to obtain data-driven insights that can enhance the healthcare system's management, benefiting both organizations and patients.



On Premise Solutions Garner Attention for Their Superior Accessibility in Remote Zones On the basis of the delivery model, the global healthcare analytics industry is divided into on cloud and on premise.

The on premise segment is leading the market, propelled by its superior accessibility in remote areas. Furthermore, their lower maintenance and operation costs are driving the growth of the segment. Purchase this Premium Research Report: https://www.kingsresearch.com/buy-now/185 Rising EHR Adoption to Drive Healthcare Analytics Market Expansion The widespread use of electronic health records (EHR) has led to a substantial increase in the availability of data for analysis in the healthcare industry. As more healthcare professionals transition from traditional paper-based systems to EHR, a huge volume of data becomes accessible. This presents a unique opportunity to obtain valuable insights and enhance patient care. Consequently, the healthcare analytics market has experienced considerable growth in recent times. The implementation of EHR has brought about greater operational efficiency and cost savings in healthcare organizations. With the ability to access and analyze real-time data, healthcare providers can identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement in their workflows and procedures. This not only enhances their productivity but also helps them make informed decisions for better patient care. Moreover, integrating healthcare analytics into clinical decision support systems empowers practitioners to make evidence-based decisions, ultimately leading to enhanced patient outcomes. This widespread adoption of EHR and analytics has revolutionized the healthcare industry, ushering in a more data-driven and patient-centric approach to care. North America to Lead Market Due to Advanced Healthcare Infrastructure North America is poised to lead the global healthcare analytics market in the upcoming years due to its advanced healthcare infrastructure, robust technology, and data integration capabilities. This facilitates informed decision-making, enhances patient outcomes, and fosters healthcare innovation. Moreover, the region's emphasis on R&D activities attracts industry leaders, solidifying its market dominance. For more information on the report, visit: https://www.kingsresearch.com/healthcare-analytics-market-185 Key Points from TOC: Chapter 1 Introduction of the Global Healthcare Analytics Market 1.1 Market Definition 1.2 Market Segmentation 1.3 Research Timelines 1.4 Limitations 1.5 Assumptions Chapter 2 Executive Summary Chapter 3 Research Methodology 3.1 Data Collection 3.1.1 Secondary Sources 3.1.2 Primary Sources 3.1.3 Research Flow 3.2 Subject Matter Expert Advice 3.3 Quality Check 3.4 Final Review 3.5 Bottom-Up Approach 3.6 Top-down Approach Chapter 4 Global Healthcare Analytics Market Outlook 4.1 Market Evolution 4.2 Overview 4.3 Market Dynamics 4.3.1 Drivers 4.3.2 Restraints 4.3.3 Opportunities 4.3.4 Challenges 4.4 Pricing Analysis 4.5 Porter's Five Forces Analysis 4.6 Value Chain Analysis 4.7 Macroeconomic Analysis Chapter 5 Impact of Russia-Ukraine War Chapter 6 Global Healthcare Analytics Market, By Type Chapter 7 Global Healthcare Analytics Market, By Component Chapter 8 Global Healthcare Analytics Market, By Delivery Model Chapter 9 Global Healthcare Analytics Market, By Application Chapter 10 Global Healthcare Analytics Market, By End User Chapter 11 Global Healthcare Analytics Market, By Geography Chapter 12 North America Chapter 13 Europe Chapter 14 Asia Pacific Chapter 15 Middle East & Africa Chapter 16 Latin America Chapter 17 Global Healthcare Analytics Market Competitive Landscape 17.1 Overview 17.2 Key Developments 17.3 Key Strategic Developments 17.4 Company Market Ranking 17.5 Regional Footprint 17.6 Industry Footprint Chapter 18 Company Profiles 18.1 Optum, Inc. 18.1.1 Key Facts 18.1.2 Financial Overview 18.1.3 Product Benchmarking 18.1.4 Recent Developments 18.1.5 Winning Imperatives 18.1.6 Current Focus & Strategies 18.1.7 Threat from competition 18.1.8 SWOT Analysis 18.2 Wipro Limited 18.2.1 Key Facts 18.2.2 Financial Overview 18.2.3 Product Benchmarking 18.2.4 Recent Developments 18.2.5 Winning Imperatives 18.2.6 Current Focus & Strategies 18.2.7 Threat from competition 18.2.8 SWOT Analysis 18.3 Allscripts Healthcare, LLC 18.3.1 Key Facts 18.3.2 Financial Overview 18.3.3 Product Benchmarking 18.3.4 Recent Developments 18.3.5 Winning Imperatives 18.3.6 Current Focus & Strategies 18.3.7 Threat from competition 18.3.8 SWOT Analysis 18.4 Cerner Corporation 18.4.1 Key Facts 18.4.2 Financial Overview 18.4.3 Product Benchmarking 18.4.4 Recent Developments 18.4.5 Winning Imperatives 18.4.6 Current Focus & Strategies 18.4.7 Threat from competition 18.4.8 SWOT Analysis 18.5 Health Catalyst 18.5.1 Key Facts 18.5.2 Financial Overview 18.5.3 Product Benchmarking 18.5.4 Recent Developments 18.5.5 Winning Imperatives 18.5.6 Current Focus & Strategies 18.5.7 Threat from competition 18.5.8 SWOT Analysis Browse Complete TOC: https://www.kingsresearch.com/toc/healthcare-analytics-market-185 About Us: Kings Research stands as a renowned global market research firm. With a collaborative approach, we work closely with industry leaders, conducting thorough assessments of trends and developments. Our primary objective is to provide decision-makers with tailored research reports that align with their unique business objectives. Through our comprehensive research studies, we strive to empower leaders to make informed decisions. Our team comprises individuals with diverse backgrounds and a wealth of knowledge in various industries. At Kings Research, we offer a comprehensive range of services aimed at assisting you in formulating efficient strategies to achieve your desired outcomes. Our objective is to significantly enhance your long-term progress through these tailored solutions. Contact Us Kings Research

Phone: (+1) 888 328 2189

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: https://www.kingsresearch.com

Blog: https://www.kingsresearch.com/blog

Follow Us: LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/healthcare-analytics-market-to-garner-a-valuation-of-usd-139-34-billion-by-2030--exhibiting-23-31-cagr-with-north-america-leading-the-market-due-to-advanced-healthcare-infrastructure-projects-kings-research-301945976.html SOURCE Kings Research

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[October 03, 2023] VMware Named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN for the Sixth Year in a Row Tweet

VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) today announced that it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN-marking it the sixth consecutive year VMware has been named a Leader in the report. Cloud-native by design, VMware SD-WAN and VMware SASE enable enterprises to deliver more consistent, secure, and reliable connectivity for the branch and distributed workforce. Gartner recognized VMware SD-WAN for its virtual and physical Edge appliances, optional gateway points of presence (PoPs), software licenses and a cloud-based orchestrator. "It is an honor to be recognized as a Leader for SD-WAN by Gartner once again," said Abe Ankumah, vice president and general manager, SD-WAN and SASE, VMware. "We believe this is a result of our sustained focus on customer needs such as enhancing multi-cloud and SaaS connectivity, hybrid worker connectivity, integrated edge security, and edge-native application support. We continue to evolve VMware SD-WAN as organizations seek a complete solution to enable WAN transformation and the software-defined edge." From VMware SD-WAN to the Software-Defined Edge VMware SD-WAN provides connectivity as part of VMware's software-defined edge - a distributed digital infrastructure that runs workloads and edge-native applications across a number of locations, close to endpoints that are producing and consuming data. Recently, VMware introduced the VMware Edge Cloud Orchestrator (formerly VMware SASE Orchestrator) to provide unified management for VMware SASE and the VMware Edge Compute Stack - an industry-first offering to bridge the gap between edge networking and edge compute. Earlier in 2023, VMware delivered VMware SD-Access (formerly VMware SD-WAN Client) - providing enterprises more secure, network optimized connectivity for remote users. VMware SD-WAN provides the intelligent network overlay for VMware SASE. By delivering cloud networking and cloud security services with VMware SASE, customers can achieve: With a cloud-first approach , VMware SD-WAN delivers a more secure, reliable, and efficient on-ramping to SaaS and IaaS providers via a unique global network of cloud-hosted gateways, allowing customers to simplify their path to cloud transformation. Mware provides partners the ability to host gateways themselves extending the reach of VMware SD-WAN via federation - making it unique amongst other SD-WAN providers.

, VMware SD-WAN delivers a more secure, reliable, and efficient on-ramping to SaaS and IaaS providers via a unique global network of cloud-hosted gateways, allowing customers to simplify their path to cloud transformation. Mware provides partners the ability to host gateways themselves extending the reach of VMware SD-WAN via federation - making it unique amongst other SD-WAN providers. Network evolution to help organizations modernize their digital infrastructures and monetize their network overlays. VMware addresses all three layers of the software-defined edge - the top edge compute layer which hosts the applications and workloads; the intelligent overlay where SD-WAN and security services run; and the underlay network layer which runs the network connectivity across fixed and 5G networks providing orchestration and network programmability.

to help organizations modernize their digital infrastructures and monetize their network overlays. VMware addresses all three layers of the software-defined edge - the top edge compute layer which hosts the applications and workloads; the intelligent overlay where SD-WAN and security services run; and the underlay network layer which runs the network connectivity across fixed and 5G networks providing orchestration and network programmability. On-premises and cloud security including Security Service Edge (SSE) capabilities to help customers better secure access to all web and cloud services as well as locally hosted applications. Additionally, VMware capabilities include an ICSA-certified branch firewall, third-party security services, and configurable business policies that direct traffic to the cloud or data center for better protection against attacks at all levels.

including Security Service Edge (SSE) capabilities to help customers better secure access to all web and cloud services as well as locally hosted applications. Additionally, VMware capabilities include an ICSA-certified branch firewall, third-party security services, and configurable business policies that direct traffic to the cloud or data center for better protection against attacks at all levels. Enhanced application performance with user access and an improved experience for mission-critical and real-time apps, even during degraded network conditions.

with user access and an improved experience for mission-critical and real-time apps, even during degraded network conditions. Simplified operations via a centralized, cloud-hosted management solution that provides a single unified interface for configuration, network-level visibility and management, and application usage monitoring across multiple transports, service providers, and remote sites. VMware Edge Network Intelligence delivers AIOps capabilities from end-to-end visibility from device to app to AI-assisted remediation.



Additional Resources: Access a copy of the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN

Read about our latest software-defined Edge updates from VMware Explore 2023 Las Vegas

Learn more about VMware SD-WAN

Bookmark the VMware SASE and Edge Blog

Follow VMware SASE on X, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn Gartner Disclaimer

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN, Jonathan Forest, Naresh Singh, Andrew Lerner, Karen Brown, 27 September 2023. 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. This document was renamed from Magic Quadrant of WAN Edge Infrastructure to Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN in 2022. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. About VMware VMware is a leading provider of multi-cloud services for all apps, enabling digital innovation with enterprise control. As a trusted foundation to accelerate innovation, VMware software gives businesses the flexibility and choice they need to build the future. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is committed to building a better future through the company's 2030 Agenda. For more information, please visit www.vmware.com/company. VMware and Explore are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions. This article may contain hyperlinks to non-VMware websites that are created and maintained by third parties who are solely responsible for the content on such websites. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231002356958/en/

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[October 03, 2023] New GenAI Software Testing Capabilities Enhance Productivity to Ensure Testing Completeness Tweet

Parasoft's Latest Product Releases Enable Developers to Achieve Software Quality Excellence News Highlights Enterprises can elevate software quality and efficiency with the latest Parasoft releases.

The integration of Generative AI (GenAI), comprehensive microservices code coverage, web accessibility testing, and service virtualization equip enterprises with the tools they need to ensure the reliability of their software more effectively.

Parasoft will be showcasing the latest releases of its Continuous Quality Platform functional solutions at STARWEST on October 4-6, 2023 . MONROVIA, Calif., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Parasoft, a global leading provider of automated software testing solutions, announces new advancements in its Continuous Quality Platform for functional solutions, which include Parasoft Virtualize, SOAtest, CTP, and DTP. The latest releases introduce capabilities including: GenAI integration for API testing

Comprehensive microservices code coverage

Web accessibility testing

Powerful learning mode for creating and updating virtual assets These innovations are set to transform the landscape of software testing for enterprise application development and test teams. Learn more about Parasoft's latest releases at STARWEST. Visit Parasoft at booth #32 in person or virtually from October 4-5 .

. Join the power panel discussion, "Winning AI Software Testing Strategies From Industry Leaders," on Wednesday, October 4, 2023 , from 7:30 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. PDT .

, from . Attend Cox Automotive's session, "Drive Down Defects With Service Virtualization & Metrics That Matter," presented by Roya Montazeri , Senior Director for the Technical & QA teams, on Wednesday, October 4, 2023 , at 2:45 p.m. PDT .



GenAI integration for API testing with Parasoft SOAtest Automate advanced test case generation based on API definitions while ensuring relevance and accuracy. Seamlessly integrate GenAI using OpenAI or Azure OpenAI models for efficient test scenario generation.

Comprehensive code coverage and test impact analysis for microservices testing with Parasoft CTP and DTP Enhance visibility of application coverage across multiple distributed microservices addressing the challenge of end-to-end testing coverage. Use test impact analysis to identify which end-to-end tests should be executed to validate downstream microservice changes in your AUT.

Ability to reuse existing SOAtest web functional tests for web accessibility testing Quickly and simply satisfy web accessibility requirements by reusing existing SOAtest web UI tests. Accelerate compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and integrate accessibility testing into your automation pipeline.

Learning mode for service virtualization in Parasoft Virtualize Easily create always-up-to-date virtual assets for running regression tests and overcome challenges stemming from live endpoint unavailability or instability. Dynamically learn runtime traffic for realistic service simulationideal for introducing service virtualization to new teams.

"With the latest Parasoft Virtualize release, we're looking forward to using learning mode. This new feature will allow us to create service simulations faster, and they'll always be up to date," said a valued Parasoft customer of a leading global financial services company.

To learn more about the newest releases, register for an early access demo and read the Cox Automotive case study. About Parasoft Parasoft helps organizations continuously deliver quality software with its market-proven, integrated suite of automated software testing tools. Supporting the embedded, enterprise, and IoT markets, Parasoft's technologies reduce the time, effort, and cost of delivering secure, reliable, and compliant software by integrating everything from deep code analysis and unit testing to web UI and API testing, plus service virtualization and complete code coverage, into the delivery pipeline. Bringing all this together, Parasoft's award winning reporting and analytics dashboard delivers a centralized view of quality enabling organizations to deliver with confidence and succeed in today's most strategic ecosystems and development initiatives  security, safety-critical, Agile, DevOps, and continuous testing. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-genai-software-testing-capabilities-enhance-productivity-to-ensure-testing-completeness-301945939.html SOURCE Parasoft

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[October 03, 2023] Global Blood Pressure Monitors Market Research Report 2023: A $3.1 Billion Market by 2031 - North America Dominates but Asia-Pacific Shows Rapid Growth Tweet

DUBLIN, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Blood Pressure Monitors Market Report and Forecast 2023-2031" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global blood pressure monitors market size attained a value of USD 1.67 billion in 2022. The market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 7.1% during the forecast period of 2023-2031 to attain a value of USD 3.10 billion by 2031. The report gives an in-depth analysis of the key players involved in the blood pressure monitors market, sponsors manufacturing the drugs, and putting them through trials to get FDA approvals. Blood pressure monitors, also known as sphygmomanometers, play a crucial role in assessing cardiovascular health. These devices are designed to measure blood pressure and are equipped with an inflatable cuff to restrict blood flow and a manometer to record pressure levels. The uses of blood pressure monitors are multifaceted, including the management of hypertension (high blood pressure) in individuals, ensuring the effectiveness of treatment regimens. They also serve as preventive tools, allowing for the early detection of blood pressure changes that may signify developing health issues, even in those without known heart disease. Moreover, individuals with conditions like diabetes and kidney disease may require regular blood pressure monitoring as part of their care plan. The benefits of blood pressure monitors are significant. They facilitate the early detection of high blood pressure, a condition often asymptomatic until significant damage has occurred. For individuals undergoing hypertension treatment, these monitors enable the evaluation of treatment effectiveness, ensuring that medication or lifestyle changes are adequately lowering blood pressure. Additionally, home blood pressure monitors provide convenience, allowing for more frequent measurements in a comfortable environment. This is particularly beneficial for individuals with "white-coat hypertension," a phenomenon where blood pressure readings are elevated in clinical settings but normal at home. Furthermore, regular blood pressure monitoring aids in assessing an individual's overall cardiovascular risk, enabling healthcare providers to make informed decisions regarding treatment strategies. In summary, blood pressure monitors are essential tools in healthcare for measring blood pressure, managing hypertension, and assessing overall cardiovascular risk. They provide convenience, enable early detection, and allow for the evaluation of treatment effectiveness



Blood Pressure Monitors Market Scenario The global blood pressure monitors market is projected to experience substantial growth in the coming years. This growth is primarily driven by the increasing prevalence of hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases, coupled with the growing global geriatric population

The rising awareness about the dangers of uncontrolled hypertension, initiatives from governments and health organizations to promote regular blood pressure monitoring, and advancements in technology are also contributing to the expansion of the market. The advent of digital, wearable, and smartphone-connected blood pressure monitors has made the process more convenient and accurate, driving their adoption among consumers Home-based blood pressure monitoring is emerging as a significant trend, particularly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has highlighted the importance of remote and self-monitoring healthcare devices. These devices allow patients to regularly monitor their blood pressure from the comfort of their homes, which not only offers convenience but also helps to avoid "white-coat hypertension," where blood pressure readings are higher in a clinical setting due to anxiety Regionally, North America holds a significant share of the blood pressure monitors market, given its advanced healthcare infrastructure, high healthcare expenditure, and high awareness levels about preventive healthcare. However, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness the fastest growth rate due to factors such as a large patient pool, increasing healthcare awareness, and improving healthcare infrastructure Despite the growth drivers, the market faces challenges such as a lack of awareness and healthcare access in some regions, and the potential inaccuracy of some digital monitors. Addressing these issues will be crucial for the market to realize its full potential In conclusion, the global blood pressure monitors market is on a growth trajectory, driven by an increasing prevalence of hypertension, technological advancements, and a shift towards home-based monitoring. However, market players must address existing challenges to sustain and enhance this growth. Key Players Koninklijke Philips N.V

HILL-ROM HOLDINGS, INC

Omron Healthcare, Inc

Masimo

Nihon Kohden Corporation

GE Healthcare (General Electric Company)

Beurer GmbH

American Diagnostic Corporation

SunTech Medical, Inc Market Segmentations Blood Pressure Market Breakup by Product Sphygmomanometer

Mercury

Aneroid

Digital

Automated BP Monitors

Ambulatory BP Monitors Blood Pressure Monitors Market Breakup by End user Hospitals and Clinics

Home Healthcare

Others Blood Pressure Monitors Market Breakup by Region North America United States of America

Canada Europe United Kingdom

Germany

France

Italy

Others Asia Pacific China

Japan

India

ASEAN

Australia

Others Latin America Brazil

Argentina

Mexico

Others Middle East and Africa Saudi Arabia

United Arab Emirates

Nigeria

South Africa

Others For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/vfkn9q About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Media Contact:

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[October 03, 2023]

The largest side event at Messari's 2023 Mainnet hosted by Pionex

New York, NY, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pionex, a prominent provider of AI trading bots, hosted the largest networking event at Messari's 2023 Mainnet on September 22nd, with over 800+ attendees. This marked the culmination of an exciting three-day event attended by founders, investors, and venture capitalists. Notable attendees included Polygon, Horizon Labs, Magna, Pantera Capital, Outlier Ventures, and Deep Ventures.

Pionex, with over one million registered users worldwide, proudly stands as the world's leading AI trading bot platform. It offers users the industry's safest, most efficient, and innovative trading tools.

"Our objective for this event is to advance the frontier of Web3 by connecting founders, investors, and potential future partners, with the aim of collectively fostering growth in this industry. This event, along with our recently launched Brave Fund, aligns with our vision of promoting growth in Web3 and creating tools to empower our users," said Guojing Tang, CEO of Pionex.US.

Pionex has also recently introduced the $10 million Brave Fund, with a primary focus on guiding the general public to succeed in investing in Web3. The fund will concentrate on premium Web3 education, courses, and trading bots, all of which are complimentary and sponsored by the Pionex Brave Fund. Learn more at https://www.pionex.com/en/brave.









About Pionex:

Pionex.com is a leading global cryptocurrency exchange that offers the #1 no-fee AI trading bots for both individuals and institutions. Pionex holds a VASP license in Ireland and MSB licenses in 44 states across the United States. Additionally, Pionex provides institutional-level Structured Products and Wealth Management services to offer high-yield strategies and stable returns. Learn more at Pionex.com



























Contact: Jay Chen Email: Jay.Chen-at-Pionex.US
[October 03, 2023] Fraser Selects Netsmart to Optimize CCBHC Programs and Enhance Integrated Care in Minnesota Tweet

Netsmart announces a strategic collaboration with Fraser, a Minnesota non-profit organization dedicated to providing exceptional services to individuals and families living with autism, mental health and disabilities through specialty healthcare and inclusion programs. Through this collaboration, Netsmart equips Fraser with the technology and tools designed to deliver integrated, person-centered care as well as supports their transition to a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC). Fraser will leverage the Netsmart CareFabric platform, specifically designed for behavioral health that offers comprehensive clinical, financial and operational features for a range of settings. With Fraser continuing to grow their service lines and programs, the organization will benefit from a leading platform that streamlines workflows with a focus on enhanced user experience and high levels of clinician satisfaction. "We are thrilled to partner with Netsmart, as their innovative technology will empower us to effectively fulfill CCBHC requirements and seamlessly provide same-day access to care, modernizing our ability to serve our community," said Fraser President and CEO Diane S. Cross. "This collaboration marks a significant milestone in our commitment to delivering the highest quality behavioral health services with an advanced electronic health record platform and enhancing the wellbeing of those we serve." Through this relationship, Fraser will utilize technology that is aligned with all CCBHC quality measures and evidence-based practices that successfully support the requirements of the program at the federal and state levels. In 2022, SAMHSA awarded CCBHC grant funding to Fraser, and they have brought thought leadership and collaboration to the growing Netsmart CCBHC community that now includes over 178 organizations across more than 38 states. Fraser has also taken the integrated care approach even further and will leverage Netsmart technology to deliver mental health, primary care, education and community-based services across eight locations. Staff have also incorporated ways to identify physical health care needs in addition to mental health needs, and have an entire team dedicated to linking individuals with same-day treatment for their primary or physical health needs and assisting them with navigating the process. "As the heathcare landscape evolves, we strive to digitize our clients' entire enterprises, to provide their teams with next-generation technology that their facilities can use today, while continuously improving the future of care delivery," said Netsmart SVP & Managing Director of Human Services David Strocchia. "We are excited to work alongside Fraser on this journey, as they have proven their true dedication to the individuals they serve by adopting new innovative tools. These tools not only advance their whole-person care delivery but also support the expansion of their primary care service lines and new programs, facilitating organization growth."



About Fraser Fraser is a nationally recognized expert in treating early childhood autism and mental health, and in providing overall wellness programs for those who have intellectual or developmental disabilities with co-occurring autism or mental health issues. The nonprofit provides a lifetime of quality healthcare, housing, education, employment and support services. Learn more at fraser.org.

About Netsmart Netsmart, a leading provider of Software as a Service (SaaS) technology and services solutions, designs, builds and delivers electronic health record software (EHR), health information exchanges (HIEs), analytics and telehealth solutions and services that are powerful, intuitive and easy-to-use. Our platform provides accurate, up-to-date information that is easily accessible to care team members in the human services and post-acute care and payer markets. We make the complex simple and personalized so our clients can concentrate on what they do best: provide services and treatment that support whole-person care. By leveraging the powerful Netsmart network, care providers can seamlessly and securely integrate information across communities, collaborate on the most effective treatments and improve outcomes for those in their care. Our streamlined systems and personalized workflows put relevant information at the fingertips of users when and where they need it. For more than 50 years, Netsmart has been committed to providing a common platform to integrate care. SIMPLE. PERSONAL. POWERFUL. Our more than 2,500 associates work hand-in-hand with our 754,000+ users at our clients across the U.S. to develop and deploy technology that automates and coordinates everything from clinical to financial to administrative. Learn more about how Netsmart is changing the face of healthcare today. Visit www.ntst.com, call 1-800-472-5509, follow us on our CareThreads Blog, LinkedIn and Twitter, like us on Facebook or visit us on YouTube. Netsmart is pleased to support the EveryDayMatters Foundation, which was established for behavioral health, care at home, senior living and social services organizations to learn from each other and share their causes and stories. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003038997/en/

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[October 03, 2023] FreshBooks Launches New Collaborative Accounting Model, Revolutionizing the Way Accountants Work With Clients Tweet

Toronto, Canada, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FreshBooks, a leading cloud-based accounting solution built for small businesses and accountants, is thrilled to introduce its new game-changing Collaborative Accounting model, launching October 3, 2023. Designed with both accountants and small business owners in mind, this innovative approach allows accountants to focus more on providing strategic financial advice, while owners gain real-time insights into their finances and partner with their accountant to make smarter business decisions. All of this is made effortless through FreshBooks' easy to use platform, bringing accountants and clients together in a relationship thats purpose-built for long term success. Collaborative Accounting strengthens accountant-client relationships by integrating small business owners directly into the financial processes of their companies. This transformative model was developed to address a gap in traditional accounting methods, in which accountants have created workflows and engaged technology with the good intention of lessening the workload and stresses of financial management on business owners. This approach has unfortunately distanced clients from understanding the financial heartbeat of their businesses, often leading them to create their own disparate workflows to keep track of how their company is performing. Additionally, these accountant-designed workflows are often labor-intensive for accounting professionals, making it difficult to scale advisory services and grow their practices. By leveraging FreshBooks' intuitive platform, Collaborative Accounting allows business owners to manage the day-to-day financial responsibilities of running their business, such as invoicing and expense management while giving their accountants real-time access to data. This gives accountants the opportunity to focus on what they do best: interpreting complex financials, optimizing for taxes, and providing invaluable strategic advice. Collaborative Accounting is a seismic shift that breaks down the isolated silos that have long defined the relationship between accuntants and their clients, says Twyla Verhelst, CPA and Head of the Accountant Channel at FreshBooks. The end game is empowerment. Accountants can stop doing administratively heavy tasks and re-engage in meaningful advisory roles. It's not just a game-changer; it's a whole new playing field where skills and insights are directed where they're most impactfuldriving business growth."



A number of resources are available at FreshBooks to support its Accounting Partners and their clients in the transition to the new model, including the new Collaborative Accounting Certification. The comprehensive program teaches accounting professionals the methodology step by step, explaining the workflows, concepts and the process to turn them into action inside an accounting practice. This includes identifying advisory opportunities, and how to carry out highly valued conversations with clients. FreshBooks Accounting Partners also have access to dedicated support - a team of accounting and product experts who are eager to help accountants and their clients on-board and leverage the platform for their specific needs. As well, FreshBooks recently launched the Accountant Hub, which provides accountants with a tailored set of firm-specific features so they can hone in on their ideal workflows. FreshBooks is also dedicated to building a community of Collaborative Accountants in which partners can share best practices.

In launching Collaborative Accounting, we're doing more than adding a new feature; we're paving the way for a new era in accounting that aligns perfectly with our mission to help small business owners around the world to grow," says Mark Girvan, President of FreshBooks. By connecting accountants and owners in a collaborative system, were amplifying human expertise through technology and unlocking incredible business value for all of our customers. The Collaborative Accounting methodology was developed in close consultation with industry professionals, including FreshBooks' Partner Advisory Council, commonly referred to as the FreshPAC, a select group of CPAs and seasoned accounting experts. As lead of the Accountant Channel at FreshBooks, Twyla Verhelt shaped the model of Collaborative Accounting to address the needs and concerns of accounting professionals at a time when the industry is challenged by staff shortages and talent acquisition. FreshBooks is offering us a model thats invaluableboth for us and our clients, says Kristen Keats, CPA, Founder of Breakaway Bookkeeping & Advisor and member of the FreshPAC. It not only offers clients clear insights into the financial health of their business but also gives us a comprehensive view into our client's workflows and how theyre going to make money. This helps us advise them on how to get paid, and set up their business for sustainable growth. FreshBooks welcomes accounting professionals to unlock the future with Collaborative Accounting. Begin the journey by becoming a FreshBooks Accounting Partner at freshbooks.com/accountants



About FreshBooks

FreshBooks is on a mission to help small business owners grow and thrive. Our easy-to-use accounting platform, trusted by businesses in over 130 countries, simplifies invoicing, accounting, payments, expense management, and empowers owners to track and manage the day-to-day finances of their businesses. Elevating the customer experience, our game-changing Collaborative Accounting model allows small business owners to partner with their accountant on the FreshBooks platform, streamlining workflows and providing real-time financial insights that drive strategic decision-making and business success. With 11x Stevie award-winning customer support, FreshBooks serves a diverse range of customers, operating from offices in Canada, Croatia, Germany, the Netherlands, Mexico, the U.K., and the U.S. Consistently honored as a Top 10 employer by Great Places to Work for eight of the last nine years, FreshBooks is committed to delivering exceptional experiences to our customers.

Jackie Paduano FreshBooks [email protected]

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[October 03, 2023] DTech Apps Announces Latest Release of the Award Winning DocIntegrator Suite Providing Forms Automation for Federal Defense and Civilian Clients in the ServiceNow Store Tweet

DTech Apps, the leader in secure enterprise productivity apps for ServiceNow, announced the latest product updates to the award-winning DocIntegrator Suite of solutions. The DocIntegrator Suite Fall Update boasts a range of enhancements, primarily focusing on the improvement of DocGenerator, DTech Apps' forms automation product for ServiceNow, and DocIntegrator, their Microsoft SharePoint integration product for ServiceNow. Both of these exceptional products are exclusively available through the ServiceNow Store and are certified to be compatible with GCC Cloud (IL2, IL4), JWICS, FISMA, and FedRamp High environments. "We are excited to enhance our award-winning solutions for ServiceNow customers, especially our Federal customers in the Defense sector who manage a mountain of forms such as DD2875 with DocGenerator," said John Martin, Vice President of DTech Apps. "Through the DocIntegrator Suite organizations can automatically integrate forms in a variety of formats without coding through our quick start wizards empowering power users to automate thousands of forms and easily store the completed files securely in Microsoft SharePoint for digital signature and approval workflows in ServiceNow." Designed to empower all ServiceNow users, the DocIntegrator Suite integrates seamlessly within the ServiceNow environmen, offering a no-code approach to the installation and integration of DocIntegrator and DocGenerator. Users gain convenient access to, as well as the ability to edit and attach, files, forms, and templates within any ServiceNow application or workflow directly to SharePoint, ensuring that personally identifiable information (PII) remains safeguarded against unauthorized access.



Furthermore, the ongoing improvements to ServiceNow Global Search through DocIntegrator empower users to conduct swift and secure searches for files and content stored in Microsoft SharePoint (both online and on-premise), Microsoft Teams, email, and file folders. This search functionality is fortified with rigorous safeguards against content indexing or unauthorized access, thereby securing the protection of PII and maintaining the highest standards of confidentiality, all within the ServiceNow ecosystem. About DTech Apps

DTech Apps, the industry leader in secure enterprise productivity applications built on the ServiceNow platform, was launched in 2019 by Discover Technologies - a small business that facilitates digital transformation through product and software development and IT strategy consulting - after company leaders recognized the challenges organizations were experiencing in modernizing office operations to become more efficient and successful. DTech Apps by Discover Technologies is a partner of ServiceNow-the global leader in workflow management-that develops applications to improve organizational productivity through collaborative work management and content management. These products enable organizations to spend more time fulfilling their objectives while also achieving the fastest return on investment. DTech Apps is trusted and certified by the US federal government to provide solutions that require constant uptime and the highest level of security. To learn more, visit www.dtechapps.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003763546/en/

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(Bloomberg) -- GoTo Group raised $150 million through a convertible bond sale to investors led by the World Banks International Finance Corp., a bump to its cash reserves as the Indonesian ride-hailing and e-commerce company works toward reaching profitability.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The investment includes $125 million from IFC and $25 million from private investment firm Franke & Co., GoTo said in a statement on Tuesday. Through the pact, GoTo and the investors seek to tackle climate change and ensure more people will benefit from the digital economy.

The debt round, which features a conversion price of 135 rupiah (less than 1 US cent), signals a vote of confidence for Patrick Walujo, who took over as chief executive officer in June. The managing partner of major GoTo-shareholder Northstar Group is tasked with carrying out his predecessors campaign to shave losses by cutting jobs, curbing promotional spending and tightening expense controls.

Like rivals Grab Holdings Ltd. and Sea Ltd., GoTo is trying to convince investors it can generate cash after years of rapid growth, despite economic uncertainty and sluggish consumer spending across Southeast Asia. Shares of GoTo fell 1.2% to 84 rupiah in early Jakarta trading.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
[October 03, 2023] Michael Baker International Names Steven Yoshizumi Transportation Practice Executive for California Tweet

Firm strengthens regional presence with new role focused on continued growth and client engagement PITTSBURGH, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Michael Baker International, a global leader in engineering, planning and consulting services, announced today that Steven Yoshizumi has joined the firm as Transportation Practice Executive for California. In this newly created role, Mr. Yoshizumi will partner with Michael Baker's Western Region transportation professionals to develop and implement an innovative business strategy that focuses on regional transportation planning agencies in California. He will cross-market the firm's services and solutions for growth opportunities; develop and maintain client, stakeholder and teaming partner relationships; and collaborate with the firm's Western Region leaders on staff assignments, workshare, mentorship, business pursuits and quality of project deliverables. "We created the new role of Transportation Practice Executive for California to support our Western Region's continued growth and client engagement as we Reimagine Michael Baker a a full-service engineering and consulting firm," said Trudi Lim, P.E., LEED AP, Western Regional Director, at Michael Baker International. "Steven is an experienced leader with a focus on the intersection of transportation, engineering and land development, and I look forward to the knowledge and expertise he will bring to our transportation projects."



Mr. Yoshizumi brings nearly 35 years of project management and leadership experience to his role as Transportation Practice Executive for California, and his career includes leading design teams, project management and delivery of projects across the transportation infrastructure spectrum. Prior to joining Michael Baker, Mr. Yoshizumi served as WSP's Civil Team Leader/Local Business Lead for Orange County Operations. Earlier in his career, he also held positions with URS Corporation (now part of AECOM), Huitt-Zollars, Inc. and Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc. Mr. Yoshizumi earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.

About Michael Baker International

Michael Baker International is a leading provider of engineering and consulting services spanning five distinct Verticals: Infrastructure, Design-Build Services, Federal Programs and Services, Consulting and Technology Solutions (CTS) and Sustainable and Resilient Solutions (SRS). The firm's Practices encompass all facets of infrastructure, including design and civil engineering for diverse bridge, highway, water, rail and transit and aviation projects, as well as planning, architecture, environmental and construction and program management. For more than 80 years, the company has been a trusted partner to clients, providing comprehensive services and solutions, delivering expertise and quality, and embracing emerging technologies and the latest innovations  like intelligent transportation, engineered models and public safety software as a service (SaaS). The firm's 3,900 employees across more than 85 office locations are committed to Making a Difference for clients and communities through a culture of innovation, collaboration and technological advancement while Reimagining Michael Baker to become a full-service engineering and consulting firm over the next five years. To learn more, visit https://mbakerintl.com/. Contact: Julia Covelli

[email protected]

(866) 293-4609 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/michael-baker-international-names-steven-yoshizumi-transportation-practice-executive-for-california-301946111.html SOURCE Michael Baker International

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[October 03, 2023] Largest International Assembly on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) Raises Curtain on 20th Biennial Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts Tweet

-- On-site registration for the 20th International Workshop on CLL (XX iwCLL) begins October 6 -- BOSTON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On Friday, October 6, the International Workshop on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (iwCLL) will commence its 20th biennial meeting (XX iwCLL) at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1979, iwCLL is the world's leading member-driven organization dedicated to the field of CLL and related lymphoproliferative disorders, bringing together leaders from scientific research, clinical medicine, and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The International Workshop on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia hosts its 20th biennial meeting in Boston on Oct. 6-9, 2023 . "For more than 40 years, iwCLL has embraced the spirit of international discovery and partnership to help advance care for patients living with CLL, the most common form of leukemia in adults," said 2023 iwCLL chair Jennifer R. Brown, MD, PhD, from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. "Recent data from both the laboratory and clinic have reignited the CLL community's enthusiasm and dedication toward finding a cure. At our 20th biennial meeting, the 2023 assembly will present the most up-to-date research about the pathobiology and treatment of CLL, gather peer input, share ideas, and forge new cross-discipline collaborations aimed at lengthening and strengthening the lives of everyone affected by this disease."



Preclinical and translational research on the genomics, proteomics, and metabolism of CLL

Discussions on the role of the microenvironment in CLL pathogenesis

Roundtables on how to define success in the treatment of CLL, including perspectives from physicians, patients, epidemiologists, and others

Investigations into the mechanisms of resistance to therapy

Presentations on therapies in development and future therapies, including BTK degraders, cellular therapies, and bispecific antibodies

Global perspectives on CLL management, including the war in Ukraine's effect on patient care For more information on registration or to view the full list of abstract titles, visit www.iwCLL2023.org. Receive relevant social media updates on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or LinkedIn. About Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia, also called CLL, is a blood and bone marrow disease that usually progresses relatively slowly. CLL is the most common type of leukemia in adults. The average age at the time of diagnosis is approximately 70 years, and it is rarely seen in people under age 40. CLL accounts for approximately one-quarter of new cases of leukemia. The average person's lifetime risk of getting CLL is ~1 in 175. The risk is slightly higher in men than in women. About the International Workshop on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia The International Workshop on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, or iwCLL, is a biennial meeting focused solely on advancing the understanding and treatment of CLL and related lymphoproliferative disorders. Founded in 1979, iwCLL is now the largest international meeting dedicated to advancing state-of-the-art and emerging concepts  from laboratory-based research to the clinic  in the pathobiology and treatment of these blood cancers. The meeting is intended to provide a forum that promotes the exchange of information and encourages collaboration among international leaders and scientists interested in CLL and lymphoproliferative disorders. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/largest-international-assembly-on-chronic-lymphocytic-leukemia-cll-raises-curtain-on-20th-biennial-meeting-in-boston-massachusetts-301946120.html SOURCE International Workshop on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

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[October 03, 2023] SmartBot360, the #1 Rated HIPAA Compliance Chatbot Company, Joins Forces with KLaunch, a Subsidiary of Kerauno Tweet

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- SmartBot360, the premier HIPAA-compliant chatbot software provider, is excited to announce its merger with KLaunch LLC, a subsidiary of the renowned global communications company, Kerauno. This strategic partnership marks a significant milestone in SmartBot360's journey, demonstrating its commitment to expanding its offerings and raising service standards for clients worldwide. SmartBot360, HIPAA-compliant chatbot software, announces the merger with KLaunch LLC Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, KLaunch is a recognized leader in advancing human interaction, specializing in effective conversational AI software solutions for Government, Healthcare, and Non-profit sectors. KLaunch extends client legacy investments and consumer experiences through its proprietary conversational AI software and platform, KBot Lightning. This versatile platform empowers mobile messaging experiences, web chatbots, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and in-app conversations. KBot Lightning offers an open canvas, enabling partners and end customers to easily design, track, and report on engagement workflows. As a longstanding parter with SmartBot360, KLaunch has played an instrumental role in our path to success.



SmartBot360's differentiator lies in its deep AI healthcare expertise and its distinction as the top-rated HIPAA-compliant chatbot software provider nationally. This strategic merger positions SmartBot360 to strengthen its presence and enhance customer engagement with conversational AI through KLaunch. It also bolsters the KLaunch channel partner ecosystem with toolkits enriched in data security, regulatory adherence, and compliance standards. Vagelis Christidis, the founder of SmartBot360, expressed his enthusiasm, stating, "We are elated to join forces with KLaunch and Kerauno. Our collaboration with KLaunch has already yielded remarkable outcomes, and now, with access to their team of accomplished conversational AI designers, marketers, and customer experience experts, we are well-positioned to deliver unmatched solutions and support, particularly in the healthcare sector, where data security and compliance are paramount." SmartBot360 remains steadfast in its commitment to clients and anticipates continued growth and success through this transformative partnership.

About SmartBot360: SmartBot360 stands at the forefront of conversational AI innovation, dedicated to delivering cutting-edge solutions that revolutionize customer engagement and communication processes, with a particular focus on the healthcare sector. Recognized as the #1 rated HIPAA-compliant chatbot software provider, SmartBot360 consistently delivers exceptional results. About KLaunch: KLaunch (pronounced K-Launch), a subsidiary of the global communication software company, Kerauno, is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. KLaunch builds valuable relationships between brands and consumers through its proprietary conversational AI KBot Lightning and orchestrates operational communication flows that build communication efficiencies 1-to-1 at scale for B2B and B2C companies, healthcare, government agencies, and non-profits. For more information, visit www.klaunch.io or text "KLaunch" to 55433. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smartbot360-the-1-rated-hipaa-compliance-chatbot-company-joins-forces-with-klaunch-a-subsidiary-of-kerauno-301946123.html SOURCE KLaunch

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[October 03, 2023] Brightside Named to the 2023 CB Insights' Fintech 100 List Tweet

Brightside recognized for its efforts to improve the financial health of working families SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Brightside , the only Financial Care solution for employers, today announced that it has been named to CB Insights sixth-annual Fintech 100 ranking (previously the Fintech 250), showcasing the 100 most promising private fintech companies of 2023. Brightside created the employee benefits category of Financial Care to improve the financial health of working families and help income go further for the seven in 10 Americans living paycheck to paycheck. In supporting hundreds of thousands of families  with a focus on Fortune 500 employers and their frontline workers  Brightside meets employees where they are in the moments that matter most and helps them with all financial needs, including managing financial emergencies, reducing debt, and building savings. This, in turn, drives employer ROI by boosting retention, lowering healthcare costs, increasing productivity, and improving workforce diversity. Whether the challenge is struggling to pay bills or saving for the future, Brightside offers a unique combination of unbiased personal financial support and a platform of real solutions to help reduce financial stress which impacts overall employee wellbeing. "As the only comprehensive Financial Care solution, we're helping employees effectively navigate their unique financial situation in a way traditional financial wellness benefits can't," said Tom Spann, CEO and co-founder of Brightside. "Our approach is creating real value for employers and thir front-line employees, and this recognition is a testament to that. It's an honor to be named to this year's list and to be recognized amongst such an exclusive cohort of companies innovating in the fintech space."



Utilizing the CB Insights platform , the research team selected these 100 winners from a pool of over 19,000 private companies, including applicants and nominees. They were chosen based on factors including equity funding, investor profiles, business relationships, R&D activity, news sentiment analysis, competitive landscape, proprietary Mosaic scores , and Yardstiq transcripts - and criteria such as tech novelty and market potential. The research team also reviewed thousands of Analyst Briefings submitted by applicants. "Representing 24 different countries across the globe, this year's Fintech 100 is shaping the future of real-time payments, spend management automation, embedded finance, and more," said Chris Bendtsen, lead fintech analyst at CB Insights. "Together, they are not only increasing the pace of innovation, but launching new products and features to revolutionize the industry as a whole. I cannot wait to see what this cohort accomplishes next."

Quick facts on the 2023 Fintech 100: Equity funding and deals : The Fintech 100 includes a mix of companies at different stages of maturity, product development, and funding. The cohort has raised nearly $22B in equity funding across 381 deals since 2019.

: The Fintech 100 includes a mix of companies at different stages of maturity, product development, and funding. The cohort has raised nearly in equity funding across 381 deals since 2019. Unicorns : There are 31 companies with $1B+ valuations on the list.

: There are 31 companies with $1B+ valuations on the list. Global Reach: This year's winners represent 24 different countries across the globe. Forty-three percent of the selected companies are headquartered in the US. The UK comes in second with 12 winners, followed by Singapore with seven. Additionally, some emerging markets stand out with multiple winners this year. For example, India has three winners, while Indonesia and Egypt each have two. About Brightside

Brightside created Financial Care, a new category in employee benefits, to help reduce financial stress for the seven in 10 Americans who are not financially healthy. Since 2018, its Financial Assistants, proprietary rules engine, and innovative product platform have helped thousands of families save more than $1,200 annually (on average) while improving emergency savings and reducing debt, resulting in improved retention, productivity, and workforce diversity while lowering healthcare costs. Brightside is located in San Francisco, CA; Chandler, AZ; and Philadelphia, PA. For more information, please visit: https://www.gobrightside.com . About CB Insights

CB Insights builds software that enables the world's best companies to discover, understand, and make technology decisions with confidence. By marrying data, expert insights, and work management tools, clients manage their end-to-end technology decision-making process on CB Insights. To learn more, please visit www.cbinsights.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/brightside-named-to-the-2023-cb-insights-fintech-100-list-301946128.html SOURCE Brightside

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[October 03, 2023] Introducing Safereum: The Decentralized Meme Token Set to Revolutionize Crypto with Transparency and Longevity Tweet

SINGAPORE , Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Erupting as a sequel to a monumental tale that forever transformed the cryptosphere, Safereum echoes the spirit of an unspoken predecessor, while carving its own unique path.





Introducing Safereum

Safereum is a decentralized meme token launching on the Ethereum Blockchain. It doesnt have its own blockchain technology yet; its supply is managed by smart contracts on Ethereums internal blockchain. Safereum uses the ERC-20 token standard based on Ethereum (ETH). Safereum is launching on the Ethereum Blockchain in October 2023.

Why Safereum?

In a market saturated with centralized, fleeting, meme-based cryptocurrencies, transparency and longevity are slowly fading away. Its time for the crypto sphere to return to its roots with Safereum and make decentralized memecoins great again.

Safereum is reigniting cryptocurrencys original mission: pure decentralization. As contemporary endeavors overcomplicate and stifle blockchains potential, Safereum emerges, cutting through the noise, realigning with cryptos core, and steering the industry back to its intended course.

Guaranteed Security

Safereum sets an unmatched benchmark in modern DEFI cryptocurrency security, delivering unwavering protection for investors, be it during trading or holding. Trust in Safereum is beyond confidence -its a certainty.

Safereum has been audited by 5 different companies to provide a high degree of security. Cyberscope Audit

SourceHat Audit

InterFi Audit

BlockSAFU Audit

SecureWise Audit

Safereum has an official KYC certificate. Contract ownership has been renounced.

Liquidity pool has been locked for 1 year.

Buy, sell and transfer taxes are 0%.



Supply Breakdown

45% of the tokens are allocated for pre-sale, 29.61% was initially burned, and 15.39% was allocated to the V2 Uniswap LP. LP tokens are locked for 1 year and the lock will be extended in the future.

The remaining 10% of the supply is held in a multi-sig wallet, reserved for future centralized exchange listings, bridges, and to provide tokens for the V3 Uniswap LP. This wallet can be tracked using the ENS safereum.eth.

Tokenomics

Taxes are 0% buy, 0% sell and 0% transfer. Contract ownership has been formally renounced, ensuring that there is no longer any individual or entity with ownership privileges.

Furthermore, to enhance security and trust, the liquidity pool has been securely locked for a duration of one year.

Team Experience

At the helm stands a formidable team, unparalleled in their crypto mastery, encompassing every nuance of the space.

The Safereum team shaped one of 2021's most monumental crypto projects, drawing an impressive 300.000+ holders and amassing a market value above $250 million.

While the Safereum core team werent the projects creators, their roles??especially in marketing and advisory??were the driving forces behind its soaring success.

As the dawn of Safereum is upon us, revelations loom large, promising insights that many will find unmistakably familiar as events progress.

High-End Marketing

Inspired by the remarkable 2021 project, the Safereum founders are igniting an aggressive marketing campaign, passionately demonstrating their support for the cryptocurrency community.

Safereum is primed to make significant inroads with mass mainstream marketing, ensuring a dominant presence across all pivotal platforms.

The cryptocurrencys reach spans Twitter, Telegram, Top Tier Influencers, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, 4Chan, BTOK, WeChat, Weibo, published news articles, email marketing, and much more.

Safereum holders and traders can confidently expect accelerated growth and an expansive market presence.

Mainstream Accessibility

Originating from a genuine by the people, for the people ethos, Safereum stands out as a decentralized cryptocurrency tailored to resonate with the mainstream audience.

In alignment with this vision, and driven by extremely influential networks, Safereum is set on a determined course to secure its presence on all leading platforms and exchanges in the near horizon.

Overall Conclusion

In summary, the crypto sphere is in dire need of Safereum and its core principles of decentralization, as it represents a return to the roots of cryptocurrency.

In a landscape cluttered with overcomplicated utility experiments, Safereum stands as a beacon of simplicity and transparency, poised to revolutionize the industry.

Be Part of the Sequel

As we anticipate the imminent onset of a bull market, the Safereum pre-sale emerges as an unparalleled opportunity  one that could reshape your financial future.

With the potential for returns that could reach hundreds of times your initial investment, this is a chance to participate in a life-altering event.

Join the movement

Circle your calendars for October 3rd at 08:00 PM UTC, when the Safereum pre-sale commences. But remember, this opportunity will last for just 52 hours.

Embrace Safereum, embrace the essence of crypto, and together, lets propel the industry toward a future defined by accessibility, clarity, and groundbreaking potential.

The crypto world is calling, and the time to answer is now.

Click to join the Safereum Pre-sale!



Links

Website | Twitter | Telegram | Etherscan | Audit | Pinksale (Pre-sale)





Safereum

Rowan Kafley

[email protected]



https://safereum.io/



Disclaimer:

The information provided in this release is not investment advice, financial advice, or trading advice. It is recommended that you practice due diligence (including consultation with a professional financial advisor) before investing or trading securities and cryptocurrency.

Rowan Kafley Safereum info at safereum.io

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[October 03, 2023] Inszone Insurance Services Strengthens Its Portfolio with Merger of Willow Glen Insurance Agency Tweet

Inszone Insurance Services, a rapidly growing national provider of commercial, personal, and benefits insurance, announced today the acquisition of Willow Glen Insurance Agency in the Campbell area. Established in 1984 by Jerry Ross, Willow Glen Insurance Agency has been a cornerstone in the insurance sector for close to four decades. After honorably serving in the Navy, Jerry Ross transitioned into the finance industry. His unwavering dedication led him to found Willow Glen Insurance Agency. In 1993, he welcomed Ross Peterson as an agency principal, together fortifying the agency's reputation for attentive, personalized service. "Partnering with Willow Glen Insurance Agency is a significant milestone for Inszone," commented Chris Walters, CEO of Inszone Insurance Services. "The exemplary service legacy built by Jerry Ross, Ross Peterson, and their team perfectly complements our ethos. This merger is a strategic move to expand our footprint and continue delivering top-notch insurance solutions to the Willow Glen community." The decision to merge with Inszone Insurance Services was driven by a shared vision for growth and a commitment to elevating client experiences. Willow Glen Insurance Agency sought enhanced markets, back-office supprt, and expanded resources to better serve their clients' evolving needs. After thorough discussions with Inszone Insurance Services, Jerry Ross, Ross Peterson, and their team recognized the potential of this collaboration to further elevate their offerings.



"With Inszone, we've found a partner who shares our dedication to service," expressed Leyton Peterson, a Senior Commercial Insurance Specialist brought on through the merger with Willow Glen Insurance Agency. "This merger isn't just about a business deal; it's about ensuring that our clients continue to receive the care and attention they deserve. This merger not only ensures continuity for our valued clients but also empowers us with the backing of an esteemed and growing organization." In the wake of the merger, Willow Glen Insurance Agency will maintain operations at its current office location, retaining the sense of familiarity cherished by its clients. A substantial segment of the Willow Glen Insurance Agency team will transition to Inszone Insurance Services, promising clients a smooth shift complemented by a richer resource pool and an expanded network.

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Sacramento, California, Inszone is a full-service insurance brokerage firm that provides a broad array of property & casualty insurance, along with employee benefits solutions. With a strong, experienced management team, Inszone continues to grow organically, as well as through acquisitions. With 43 locations across California, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Utah, the company is looking to further expand throughout the United States. For more information about Inszone, please visit www.inszoneinsurance.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003240951/en/

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[October 03, 2023] Mitsubishi Power Selected to Supply Second Advanced Class Gas Turbine to Oklahoma's Grand River Energy Center Tweet

Mitsubishi Power and the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA), Oklahoma's largest public utility, have formally signed an agreement to provide a second advanced class gas turbine to the Grand River Energy Center in Chouteau, OK. It will be the first M501JAC gas turbine to operate in simple cycle in the U.S., providing operational flexibility and fast start-up times to meet the needs of GRDA's evolving electricity grid. Unit 4 replaces the last remaining coal-fired unit at the Grand River Energy Center. It represents a market shift towards using advanced-class gas turbines for peaking applications. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003307003/en/ Grand River Dam Authority, Mitsubishi Power, and Oklahoma Secretary of State Josh Cockroft at the signing ceremony held at the Grand River Energy Center in Chouteau, OK. Pictured from left to right: Robert Ladd, VP of Generation, GRDA; Erik Feighner, Chief Financial Officer, GRDA; Dwayne Elam, GRDA Board Member; Dan Sullivan, President and CEO GRDA; John Wiscaver, EVP Strategic Communications, GRDA; Josh Cockroft, Oklahoma Secretary of State; Bill Newsom, President and CEO Mitsubishi Power Americas; Mark Bissonnette, EVP and COO, Power Generation, Mitsubishi Power Americas; Prasanth Thupili, SVP, Power Generation Services, Mitsubishi Power Americas (Credit: Grand River Dam Authority) This is the second project the GDA has awarded to Mitsubishi Power for its Grand River Energy Center in the last 10 years and builds on the long-term relationship between the two companies. The first-ever J-series advanced gas turbine to operate in the U.S. is located at the Center's Unit 3 project, a 500-megawatt (MW) gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) power station that began operations in 2017, setting a new standard for efficiency and reliability.



The signing ceremony for Unit 4 was held October 2, 2023, at the Energy Center where it was also announced that construction on the project is slated to begin in January 2024, with the unit expected to be operational by April 2026. Both agreements also include the performance of long-term service and maintenance, replacement parts supply, and remote monitoring of the units. The M501JAC enhanced air-cooled gas turbine for Unit 4 will replace the Energy Center's Unit 2, a 492-megawatt coal-fired generator that came online in 1985. Retiring these aging and less efficient coal-fired plants and replacing them with cleaner natural gas-fired units will result in emissions reduction and help to meet efficiency goals, providing a long-term resource for affordable and reliable power. The Unit 4 gas turbine is also hydrogen-capable and can be adapted in the future to operate on a blend or 100% hydrogen.

Bill Newsom, President and CEO of Mitsubishi Power Americas, said, "By replacing its coal-fired units with our advanced J-Class gas turbines, including Unit 4's hydrogen-capable turbine, GRDA is demonstrating its continuing commitment to cleaner, more flexible and reliable energy production. Our long-term relationship with GRDA was born out of mutual trust and confidence cultivated over nearly a decade. We look forward to continuing our commitment to providing high-quality technology and services to the GRDA." "We are excited about this historic investment to enhance our generation portfolio at GRDA," said Dan Sullivan, CEO, GRDA. "Our long, proven history with Mitsubishi Power, and the strong partnership we have built over the past decade, allows us to invest in world-class power generation and help GRDA continue to meet the growing demands of providing affordable and reliable energy to our customers." About Mitsubishi Power Americas, Inc. Mitsubishi Power Americas, Inc. (Mitsubishi Power) headquartered in Lake Mary, Florida, employs more than 2,700 power generation, energy storage, and digital solutions experts and professionals. Our employees are focused on empowering customers to affordably and reliably combat climate change while also advancing human prosperity throughout North, Central, and South America. Mitsubishi Power's power generation solutions include gas, steam, and aero-derivative turbines; power trains and power islands; geothermal systems; PV solar project development; environmental controls; and services. Energy storage solutions include green hydrogen, battery energy storage systems, and services. Mitsubishi Power also offers intelligent solutions that use artificial intelligence to enable autonomous operation of power plants. Mitsubishi Power is a power solutions brand of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI). Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, MHI is one of the world's leading heavy machinery manufacturers with engineering and manufacturing businesses spanning energy, infrastructure, transport, aerospace, and defense. For more information, visit the Mitsubishi Power Americas website and follow us on LinkedIn. About Grand River Dam Authority GRDA is Oklahoma's largest public power electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Each day, GRDA strives to be an "Oklahoma agency of excellence" by focusing on the 5 E's: electricity, economic development, environmental stewardship, employees, and efficiency. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003307003/en/

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[October 03, 2023] The Animal Food Bank Announces Merchandise Fundraiser with Artwork Created by Canadian Icon Jann Arden Tweet

The Animal Food Bank Foundation (AFB) is honoured to have the amazing Jann Arden create a design for a limited-edition merch line, with 100% of proceeds benefiting the Foundation. All proceeds from the sales of these hoodies and shirts will go towards feeding and providing supplies to pets in need. Without operational funding, AFB is reliant on volunteers and donations from the community to feed pets in need. Having supplied close to 2.5 million meals in the last three and a half years, AFB is committed to ensure happy, loved pets can stay with their humans. Through operation of our own pet food banks we have completed over 11,000 deliveries of pet food and supplies. We have donated over 500,000 lbs of pet food to sister organisations including providing pet food and supplies to wildfire evacuees, the need for our services is great. Because of pet food bank services, 66% of our clients no longer have to choose betwen feeding themselves and their pets, and 56% have not had to surrender a pet to a shelter due to lack of resources to support the pet.



"I've been a huge fan of Jann's for a long time. I respect her authenticity, humanness, talent, sense of humour and wit. She's a real human and her love and advocacy for animals is real too. I am beyond honoured to be able to offer this campaign showcasing her design and talent, in support of pets in need," says Nicole Frey, Founder of the Animal Food Bank Foundation. "We are hoping to make this our most successful fundraiser ever so that we can restock our cupboards after a year of high demand for not only our pet food bank services, but supporting pets of evacuees affected by wildfires." We're thrilled to be able to work with Jann on this project and we hope you'll be willing to help us spread the word about this amazing fundraising campaign. These shirts and hoodies, printed by one of our amazing supporters, Dad's Printing, are only available for a limited time!

Please visit our website at animalfoodbank.org for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003334053/en/

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[October 03, 2023] Tivoli Lighting Introduces Quick Ship Program Tweet

With more than 50 years of innovation and linear lighting leadership, Tivoli Lighting announces its Tivoli Quick Ship Program that guarantees its lighting products will be received within seven (7) days in North America. The Quick Ship Program was developed for fast-moving construction projects to ensure that schedules are met for a wide range of architectural lighting products without sacrificing quality and performance. The program includes a wide range of products includes: ADAPT Commercial 120V String Light which comes in standard 48', 120V strand and an E26 medium base socket. The LED filament light engine is encapsulated by 11 unique ADAPT glassware globes with G125 or ST19 profiles and is available in black or white with 24? OC socket spacing. ADAPT Pendant that is designed for use in interior spaces to connect with exterior elements. It comes in multiple styles, shapes, materials and colors with matching cords and drop anchors. LINElight, a quick-connect system that creates a seamless visual between fixtures resulting in an uninterrupted line of light. It is available in multiple color temperatures, sizes, and patterns for interior aesthetic architectural lighting. Magic Linear Bar, which offers amazing resolution at 3 pixels per foot and perfect light synchronization with ARTNET system and ESD protection. Designed for architectural facade, bridge, and media display applications, it provides dynamic resolution control ranging from the entire fixture length down to 4". TivoLite Vintage Bulbs with vintage LED filament series produces high luminous efficacy, while saving up to 90% energy compared to standard incandescent bulbs. Durable and flexible TivoTape HO full roll with a 3 oz. copper trace that provides excellent heat dissipation and consistent color throughout recommended maximum run lengths. TivoTape SB full roll, a durable and flexible lighting solution with a 3oz. copper trace for excellent heat dissipation and consistent color throughout a recommended maximum run length. VAST Cove Palette, which is a DMX with RDM (remote device management) protocol and a self-ballasted 120V-277V AC feature. It is available in multiple RGB+W CCTs and flexible connectors to accommodate curved applications. VAST Cove Static, an industry-first, patent-pending dual dimming system with built-in ELV and 0-10V protocol and a self-ballasted 120V-277V AC feature. It is also available in multiple CCTs and flexible connectors to accommodate curved applications.



For more information about the Tivoli Quick Ship Program, contact Tivoli at 714-957-6101 or visit https://tivolilighting.com/tivoli-quick-ship-program.

About Tivoli With more than 50 years of innovation and experience, Tivoli continues to lead the linear lighting industry with its award-winning architectural and theater LED-based products that offer improved appearance, quality, performance and energy saving advantages. Tivoli's team continues to strive to incorporate innovation, color quality, and longevity of life into every product it manufactures and engineers for high quality performance and extended service life. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003413825/en/

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[October 03, 2023] Deleno IFC: Providing $5 Million Relief Fund to Help Rebuild Homes for Hawaii's Maui Island Fire Victims Tweet

COLORADO CITY, COLORADO, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Maui Island fire that erupted on August 8, 2023, is the most devastating fire in the United States in over a century. As of now, this fire has resulted in over 1,200 people missing, thousands displaced, and 111 fatalities.

Large parts of Lahaina, a historic tourist town and the former capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii, have been consumed by the flames. According to the final damage assessment released by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency on August 30, a total of 1,724 buildings in Lahaina have been destroyed. Almost all visible structures in the area have been incinerated or damaged, leaving behind a landscape of ruins, erasing the once vibrant community.

Deleno IFC, as a U.S.-based international exchange, has consistently strived to create a reliable, secure, and innovative trading platform to meet the diverse needs of its clients. Simultaneously, its strong sense of social responsibility, service orientation, and high standards of business ethics have also contributed significantly to the field of social assistance and charity.

In recent years, the company has provided substantial humanitarian aid to people in disaster-stricken countries and regions worldwide, demonstrating its corporate responsibility and business ethics, and garnering high praise from society, institutions, governments, and industry peers:

(1) In 2019, during the unprecedented rain and flood disaster in Pakistan, which occurred once in 50 years, resulting in at least 49 fatalities and 176 injuries, the company promptly provided $1 million worth of emergency relief spplies to the local government.





(2) In 2020, when the most severe flu outbreak in 40 years hit the United States, infecting 22 million people, Deleno IFC headquarters allocated $2 million for medical relief funds to U.S. healthcare institutions.



(3) In March 2022, during the Eastern Australia floods, the company donated emergency relief equipment and supplies worth $1 million AUD to the local government in Australia.





(4) In February 2023, when Turkey experienced a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, the company provided over $3 million worth of life-saving relief supplies through the International Red Cross.

In the case of the Maui Island fire, which is not only a national disaster but also a time for all American businesses to fulfill their social responsibility, the company will not stand idly by.

Helping the disaster-affected population rebuild their homes becomes the top priority in post-disaster life. Therefore, the company's board of directors has decided to provide a $5 million relief fund to assist everyone in rebuilding their homes, with a focus on Lahaina, which has suffered the most severe damage, helping the people restore normalcy to their lives.

Simultaneously, we will closely monitor the fund allocation process, establish strict rescue details, and collaborate with the post-disaster relief and reconstruction team of the Hawaii government. According to reports from the Associated Press, the Lahaina town disaster area will be divided into 17 districts and several sub-districts, with residents gradually being allowed to return home under supervision. The first batch of residents or property owners allowed to return to their homes will be in the 1C district in northern Lahaina. They will be permitted to return home on September 25th and 26th, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., under supervision, with eligible individuals able to obtain passes in advance.

Many people fled their homes nearly seven weeks ago to escape the fire, and this will be their first time returning home. Going forward, the company will increase the relief fund amount based on the progress of Lahaina town's post-disaster reconstruction and the company's actual financial capacity.

At the same time, we will actively cooperate with relevant government departments. We believe that the resilient American people will not easily yield in the face of disasters, and Lahaina will once again flourish, full of vitality and life!

Website: https://delenofincorp.com/



John Hansen Deleno IFC Advisory at delenofincorp.com

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The United States of America seems to be at a consistent inflection point. From media-heavy events to moments of social unrest, there appears to be a pervasive tone that seeks to divide humanity rather than unite.

While some would look the other way, hoping society will self-correct itself, other organizations and companies proactively work to create environments and cultures that champion justice through diversity, equity, and inclusion. UnitedHealth Group is a part of that work, intentionally implementing programs and initiatives that support and uplift their employees regardless of some societal status quo.

UnitedHealth Group (UHG) created a strategic framework for advancing diversity rooted in recruitment tools, building cultural competencies, and continued education for equity and inclusion tools.

For UHG, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is a business priority. This working prodigy includes vast representation across demographics, including Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino and Asian employees are key areas of focus. An additional component of UHGs approach is gender equity. To that end, 40% of the companys top leadership positions are held by women.

Although recruiting and retaining diverse employees is paramount to UHGs imperatives, creating an inclusive culture of understanding is just as important. In 2022, the healthcare company held its inaugural DEI Innovation Lab. It relaunched its Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) as a vital point to offer safe spaces for team members and provide critical insight into the cultural nuances of diverse communities.

According to a report from the Society of Human Resource Management, ERGs were intially formed in the 1960s by a group of Black employees at Xerox to discuss racial tensions in the workplace. Since then, the groups have gained popularity, noting many benefits, including a greater sense of belonging and employee engagement.

UHG believes in the importance and existence of ERGs as they support its DEI imperatives.

Story continues

ERGs are an important resource for our company as a whole, and we are better for their existence, said Chief Medical Officer, Clinician, and Provider Experience for UnitedHealth Group Dr. Kenneth Poole.

In addition to impacting their internal culture, UHG is making waves in the world of health care. Based on data from its 2022 Sustainability Report, UHG is investing $100 million in philanthropic dollars to uplift partnerships that will advance a more diverse workforce in the healthcare industry by 2033.

This healthcare equity work focuses on six primary areas: care experience and workforce, behavioral and mental health, socioeconomic challenges, chronic condition management, care access and affordability, and mortality and life expectancy.

With its expansive initiative, it is clear that UHG is more than committed to creating a more just and equitable society for all.

Click here to learn more about UnitedHealth Group and its commitment to DEI.
[October 03, 2023] Konstruct Ranks on The Globe and Mail's Top Growing Companies in Canada List Tweet

CALGARY, AB, Oct. 3, 2023 /CNW/ - Konstruct, a performance marketing agency on a mission to help B2B businesses throughout North America grow, is proud to announce its inclusion in The Globe & Mail Report on Business magazine's esteemed list of Top Growing Companies in Canada. The Globe & Mail's Top Growing Companies list is a definitive benchmark of Canada's most ambitious, innovative, and vibrant businesses. Companies are evaluated based on their three-year revenue growth, and Konstruct earned its spot with a growth of 190%. "For too long, B2B businesses with longer sales cycles and complex product offerings lacked a digital marketing partner that truly understood what it took to execute impactful digital marketing," said Matt Cox, Managing Partner at Konstruct. "We first recognized this 11 years ago when we were digital marketers working in the B2B space and founded Konstruct to be the agency we wish we could have hired. Our continued growth is a testament to our expertise in driving growth for our clients. Simply put, we're successful because we ensure our clients are successful." Canada's Top Growing Companies is an editorial ranking that was launched in 2019. It aims to bring the accomplishments of innovative businesses in Canada to the forefront. In order to qualify for this voluntary program; companies had to complete an i-depth application process and fulfill requirements. In total, 425 companies earned a spot on this year's ranking.



The full list of 2023 winners along with editorial coverage is published in the October issue of Report on Business magazine. The list is out now and online here . "Canada's Top Growing Companies acknowledges the drive and ingenuity displayed by Canadian business," says Dawn Calleja, Editor of Report on Business magazine. "This year's ranking serves as an inspiration for future business owners."

"This year's Report on Business magazine's list of Top Growing Companies shows how innovative ideas always rise to the top, perhaps even more so in times of uncertainty," says Andrew Saunders, CEO of The Globe and Mail. "The Globe and Mail congratulates this year's winners for meeting and surpassing those economic challenges." About The Globe and Mail The Globe and Mail is Canada's foremost news media company, leading the national discussion and causing policy change through brave and independent journalism since 1844. With our award-winning coverage of business, politics, and national affairs, The Globe and Mail newspaper reaches 6.2 million readers every week in our print or digital formats, and Report on Business magazine reaches 2.7 million readers in print and digital every issue. Our investment in innovative data science means that as the world continues to change, so does The Globe. The Globe and Mail is owned by Woodbridge, the investment arm of the Thomson family. About Konstruct Digital Konstruct Digital is the go-to digital marketing growth agency for ambitious B2B businesses in North America. With a dedicated team of B2B marketing experts in the fields of SEO, paid ads, and content marketing, Konstruct employs proprietary tactics tailored to the nuances of B2B businesses across diverse industries like manufacturing and SaaS. Focusing on delivering demonstrable ROI and cutting out the "marketing fat," Konstruct Digital is reshaping the landscape of B2B digital marketing. SOURCE Konstruct Digital

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[October 03, 2023] University of Phoenix and City of North Las Vegas Hold Event Announcing Jacob Kirkegard as Recipient of Scholarship Named for Late Assemblyman Tyrone Thompson Tweet

University of Phoenix is pleased to announce Jacob Kirkegard as the recipient of the 2022 Tyrone Thompson Scholarship, a full-tuition scholarship for prospective student applicants from the state of Nevada pursuing an undergraduate degree, at an October 2 event in collaboration with the City of North Las Vegas, Nevada. "This scholarship has been an enormous blessing to me and my family," stated Kirkegard. "Continuing my education has always been a goal throughout my life, and I will use this incredibly momentous gift from Assemblyman Thompson's family to better not only myself but also those around me. I will use my continuing education and degree as an inspiration, professionally and personally. Being a well-rounded mentor and role model is my ultimate goal, and this scholarship provides me with the resources to make that dream a reality." Kirkegard was formally announced as the scholarship recipient at an event on October 2, at City Hall of the City of North Las Vegas, which was attended by Mayor Pamela Goynes Brown, City Manager Will Harty, City of Las Vegas Deputy Chief Kyle Ward, and members of Thompson's family in attendance. Lauri Perdue, National Workforce Director, University of Phoenix, attended the event proceedings. "It was a privilege to join the North Las Vegas community to celebrate Jacob Kirkegard as the 4th Annual Assemblyman Tyrone Thompson Scholarship recipient," shared Perdue. "Awarding this scholarship is an example of how University of Phoenix continues our commitment to invest in the community and provide access to higher education. Kirkegard's dedication to his academic goals is inspiring, and it is an honor to celebrate his accomplishments and support him in his endeavors." Kirkegard has lived in Las Vegas for 35 years and graduated from Centennial High School in 2004. Following high school, he worked as a professional musician and toured the world. Kirkeard has worked for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for the last 14 years, serving his community, and is currently assigned as a Task Force Officer with the Federal Bureau of Investigations. He is also a crisis negotiator and Vice President of the Nevada Narcotics Officers Association. Kirkegard has been married for 12 years and has a 9-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter. His parents are both retired from careers in law enforcement, and his sister is a homicide detective with LVMPD. He aspires to promote positive changes in the Las Vegas community through leadership.



Nevada Assemblyman Tyrone Thompson, also known as "T-Squared," was chair of the North Las Vegas Assembly Education Committee when he suddenly passed away in May 2019, at the age of 51. His untimely passing inspired the creation of the Tyrone Thompson Scholarship as a way for the University to honor Thompson for years to come. Thompson, an alum of University of Phoenix, was known as a champion in the areas of education, homelessness initiatives, public health issues and employment discrimination. Thompson delivered the commencement for the University in June 2017. Thompson was appointed to the 17th District Assembly seat in 2013 and was serving his third elected term during the time of his passing. He represented a section of Northwest Las Vegas in Clark County, Nevada. Before his time in the legislature, he served at the Clark County Organizational Development Center, the City of Las Vegas, and the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition. In addition to his work within the public sector, Thompson spent nearly 20 years volunteering as a court appointed advocate for children in the foster care system who had been abused or neglected.

About City of North Las Vegas North Las Vegas stretches across the northern rim of the Las Vegas Valley and is home to more than 275,000 residents. As a premier place to live, work and play, North Las Vegas leads the valley in new home development while maintaining a longstanding tradition of successful economic development in a business-friendly environment. The City of North Las Vegas' fast and faster approach has made the city a top destination in the country for development opportunities. North Las Vegas is a hub for new job creation and economic diversification that attracts global brands, innovative industries, manufacturing, e-commerce, and logistics centers. About University of Phoenix University of Phoenix innovates to help working adults enhance their careers and develop skills in a rapidly changing world. Flexible schedules, relevant courses, interactive learning, skills-mapped curriculum for our bachelor's and master's degree programs and a Career Services for Life commitment help students more effectively pursue career and personal aspirations while balancing their busy lives. For more information, visit phoenix.edu. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003653948/en/

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[October 03, 2023] Jesuit School of Theology Dean A.E. Orobator, S.J., Attending Synod on Synodality in Rome Oct. 4-29 Tweet

Agbonkhianmeghe E. ("Bator") Orobator, S.J., the new dean of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (JST-SCU), will be among the 364 voting members at the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops meeting this month in Rome. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003589463/en/ The dean of Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, A.E. Orobator, S.J., giving a homily at Santa Clara University's Mission Church. Photo by Jim Gensheimer. (Photo: Business Wire) The gathering-known as the Synod on Synodality-brings together bishops, archbishops, cardinals, priests, religious, and over 100 lay women, men, and young people invited by Pope Francis, to consider in dialogue and shared discernment how the Holy Spirit is leading the Church to meet contemporary challenges and needs. The members will meet this month and in October 2024, after which they will provide suggestions to Pope Francis for a possible papal publication on synod findings. "From the outset, Pope Francis has expressed his wish for the synod to be an experience of hospitality, one that wouldallow people who feel alienated from the church or banished to the peripheries of the church's pastoral care to rediscover a place where they can call home and feel they truly belong," said Orobator. The Synod "is a common space of listening, dialogue, and discernment. The most important protagonist in this space is the Holy Spirit, just as the most important disposition is a prayerful and respectful attentiveness to what the Spirit is saying to the church as a community of discernment."



About Dean Orobator Fr. Orobator became dean of JST-SCU in August, after having served as president of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar. As JCAM President, he was an active participant in the African continental phase of the synodal process, and leads the African Synodality Initiative. He is known internationally for his scholarship and talks on ecclesiology-the study of the Church-as well as theological ethics, human rights, and human dignity, especially the fuller participation of women in the life of the Church.

Media wishing to interview Fr. Orobator or other experts from Santa Clara and JST should contact Deborah Lohse ([email protected] (408-768-6898/cell) of Santa Clara University or Preston Carmack ([email protected] or 541-908-1696/cell) of the Jesuit School of Theology. About the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University The Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, located in Berkeley, California, is a preeminent international center for the culturally contextualized study of theology. Its mission is to inspire and prepare men and women to become leaders in the Church, academy, and society, serving others through a faith that does justice. Rooted in the Catholic and Ignatian tradition, JST-SCU educates and trains Jesuits, religious, ordained, and lay students from across the United States and from 40 other countries for lives dedicated to ministry and scholarship. About Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit, Catholic University in the epicenter of Silicon Valley, infusing ethics and social consciousness into a rigorous cross-disciplinary education for its nearly 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003589463/en/

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Right now we look at rising crime, court cases, more community outreach and some deets shared regarding police action.

Check TKC news gathering . . .

Police respond to two stand-offs early Tuesday morning Police in Overland Park and Kansas City are responding to stand-offs Tuesday morning.

Over 20 sue St. Thomas Aquinas, ex-teacher convicted of child sex crimes A group of over 20 students and parents have now filed a sixth lawsuit against St. Thomas Aquinas High School and former teacher Joseph Heidesch.

Bond reduction denied for man accused of shooting and killing 18-year-old stepson in the Northland The former Smithville teacher will remain in custody after a judge refused to reduce his bond.

Man accused of killing Staley High School student resigns from Smithville School District The man accused of shooting and killing his stepson resigned from his role as an elementary teacher in the Smithville School District, according to court documents.

Kansas City man pleads guilty in connection to 2022 deadly shooting Isaiah Thomas pleaded guilty Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court to voluntary manslaughter in connection to the 2022 homicide

Man stuck in Clay County jail with schizophrenia transferred to hospital after Star report Derrick Williams, who was stuck in the Clay County Detention Center waiting to be placed in a hospital, was transferred to Fulton State Hospital just days after The Star highlighted his story.

KCK child has wheelchair taken from outside home before boarding school bus Family of a little boy in Kansas City, Kansas are hoping whomever took his wheelchair will return it.

Blue Springs man charged with assault after allegedly stabbing man Friday in Independence A Blue Springs man faces an assault charge after allegedly stabbing a man Friday in Independence.

Suspect in custody following police pursuit of stolen vehicle in Independence Independence police say the pursuit involved a stolen vehicle.

Missouri Highway Patrol honors fallen trooper Corporal Michael Webster with blood drive It's been 30 years since the tragic death of Corporal Michael Webster, a Missouri Highway Patrol who was hit and killed by a drunk driver in 1993.

Wife of man shot, killed in Independence crime spree speaks out Tragedy struck Friday night in Independence, Missouri, after father of three Juavvion Bagsby was shot and killed protecting his wife and children.

Former Marine, Refugee On A Mission To Give Back Hernandez has long been resourceful. At 11, Hernandez relocated to Kansas City as a political refugee. He came with his mother, sister, and stepfather, who served six years in a Cuban prison for fighting communism.

Developing . . .
Close news readers have already seen this headline but it's important to post inasmuch as this question is still lingering local . . .

Kansas City Police critics continue to press questions about local connections and the former Marion top cop's KCMO file that MIGHT impact small towns across the region and the nation. So far KCPD has been mostly silent on this topic and declined to answer any personnel questions.



Here's a summary passage and more info hitting mainstream news . . .



"Marion Police Department Chief Gideon Cody resigned on Monday, Mayor David Mayfield told CNN, but declined to comment further, calling it a personal matter.



"The chiefs departure comes after he was suspended last week as an investigation into the raid continues.



"In August, officers searched the office of the Marion County Record, as well as the home of the papers publisher and a county councilwoman, seizing reporters cell phones and computers, among other items. The move drew widespread criticism from news organizations and press freedom advocates."



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Marion police chief resigns after the widely-condemned raid of the Marion County Record newspaper in Kansas | CNN The Marion, Kansas, police chief who ordered a widely-condemned law enforcement raid on a local newspaper and its publisher this summer has resigned, the city's mayor said.

Kansas police chief who approved raid on journalists resigns The police chief of a small Kansas town who directed searches of a publisher and his newsroom over its retrieval of public information has resigned, a city official told The Associated Press.

Kansas Police Chief Who Ordered Raid on Marion County Newspaper Resigns A police chief in Kansas announced his resignation nearly two months after his officers conducted a controversial raid on a local newspaper.

Developing . . .
Fragogiannis will be discussing the preparation of an upcoming visit in the next few months by a business delegation headed by the Greek premier

Greek Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister for Economic Diplomacy and Extroversion Kostas Fragogiannis was expected to leave Greece on Monday night for a working visit in Seoul until October 6, ANA reports.

The visit was agreed by the Greek and South Korean leaders following a meeting in New York and confirms the strong interest of both sides to strengthen and expand bilateral economic and trade relations.

The deputy foreign minister will meet with his counterpart and other ministers, as well as with Korean business owners from shipping, high technology, car manufacturing, and energy. As noted, there is a strong interest in both Korean investments in Greece and Greek-Korean synergies for projects in third countries, especially in electromobility and energy storage.

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: Wikimedia Commons License: CC-BY-SA Copyright: Aquintero82
Police are seeking the publics help in identifying a man wanted in connection with a sexual assault investigation in midtown Toronto.

Police were called to the Lawrence subway station at about 10 p.m. Sept. 2 for a sexual assault investigation.

Toronto police said the complainant and a man were on the northbound subway platform. When the complainant walked past the man to get on the subway train, the complainant was allegedly sexually assaulted, police said in a Tuesday morning news release in which images were released.

The man is described as being about 30 years old with a thin build and a short, black, faded haircut, police said, adding he was wearing a purple striped button-up shirt, black pants and black running shoes with white laces and white soles.

Anyone with information is asked to call 32 Division at 416-808-3200 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).
On September 29, 2023, David Mutryn, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Maximus Inc (NYSE:MMS), sold 3,886 shares of the company. This move is part of a series of insider transactions that have taken place over the past year.



David Mutryn is a seasoned financial executive with a wealth of experience in the industry. As the CFO of Maximus Inc, he is responsible for the company's financial strategy and operations, including budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting. His role is crucial in ensuring the financial health and growth of the company.



Maximus Inc is a leading provider of government services worldwide. The company partners with governments to deliver critical health and human services programs to a diverse array of communities. Maximus leverages its extensive experience and expertise to provide innovative solutions that contribute to the success of these programs.



Over the past year, David Mutryn has sold a total of 3,886 shares and purchased 0 shares. This trend is mirrored in the overall insider transaction history for Maximus Inc, which shows 2 insider buys and 9 insider sells over the past year.



Insider Sell: CFO David Mutryn Sells 3,886 Shares of Maximus Inc

The relationship between insider transactions and stock price is often closely watched by investors. In general, insider selling can be seen as a bearish signal, suggesting that insiders may believe the stock is overvalued or that the company's future prospects are not as strong as the current price suggests. However, it's important to note that insiders may sell shares for a variety of reasons, not necessarily related to their outlook on the company's performance.



On the day of the insider's recent sell, shares of Maximus Inc were trading for $74.68 apiece, giving the stock a market cap of $4.514 billion. The price-earnings ratio is 26.53, which is higher than the industry median of 16.81 and higher than the companys historical median price-earnings ratio.



Story continues

Despite this, Maximus Inc appears to be modestly undervalued based on its GF Value. With a price of $74.68 and a GuruFocus Value of $84.81, the stock has a price-to-GF-Value ratio of 0.88.



Insider Sell: CFO David Mutryn Sells 3,886 Shares of Maximus Inc

The GF Value is an intrinsic value estimate developed by GuruFocus. It is calculated based on historical multiples that the stock has traded at, a GuruFocus adjustment factor based on the companys past returns and growth, and future estimates of business performance from Morningstar analysts.



In conclusion, while the insider's recent sell may raise some eyebrows, the overall valuation of Maximus Inc suggests that the stock may still offer value to investors. As always, it's important for investors to do their own research and consider a variety of factors before making investment decisions.



This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


NASA announces open availability of Radarsat-1 data at Alaska Satellite Facility

Ohio State University/Canadian Space Agency photo.

This map, the first complete, cloud-free image of Antarctica, came from the Radarsat-1 Antarctic Mapping Project.

NASA has announced that all Radarsat-1 data archived at the Alaska Satellite Facility Distributed Active Archive Center are now open data and can be freely downloaded.

Anyone who has registered with the NASA Earthdata login system and agreed to the ASF end user license agreement can now download Radarsat-1 data from the ASF DAAC.



The Alaska Satellite Facility is a part of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. ASF operates six satellite dish antennas, four of them for NASA, that downlink Earth-observing remote sensing data from polar-orbiting government and commercial satellites. Among those antennas is the iconic blue dish atop the UAF Elvey Building, home of the Geophysical Institute.

The Canadian Space Agency Radarsat-1 satellite was launched in 1995 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Ground support for the mission was provided by NASA through its ASF and McMurdo, Antarctica, tracking facilities. Through an agreement between CSA and the U.S. government, synthetic aperture radar data acquired by Radarsat-1 and downlinked at the NASA ground stations were processed and archived at ASF. The satellite mission ended in 2013.

Canadian Space Agency photo.

A Radarsat-1 image shows sea ice covering the Chukchi and Bering seas during the winter of 2007-08.

Protecting the environment and monitoring global change is a priority of the Canadian space program, and Radarsat-1 was the flagship of this effort.

Because of its wide range of observation modes and frequency of repeat-pass observations, Radarsat-1 proved invaluable for monitoring sea ice and terrestrial ice sheets for climate research and for

identifying and mapping land features and assessing changes over time.

Data from the satellite were used to compile the first complete, high-resolution map of Antarctica. Mosaics from this dataset are available to download from the ASF DAAC.

CSA and NASA have cooperated since the beginning of the satellite mission to distribute processed synthetic aperture radar data through ASF, primarily to U.S. Earth science researchers. The recent agreement between CSA and NASA now makes these data freely available to the global research community.

ADDITIONAL CONTACT: ASF User Support Office, uso@asf.alaska.edu

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(Reuters) -Insulet Corp said on Tuesday Wayde McMillan would step down as the medical device maker's chief financial officer, effective Oct. 20, to join 3M's healthcare business.

McMillan will join 3M as the financial chief of its unit, which the U.S. industrial conglomerate plans to spin off into a listed company.

3M expects to complete the planned spinoff, which it disclosed last year, by the end of 2023.

The unit focuses on wound care, oral care and healthcare technology.

Insulet on Tuesday also reaffirmed its annual forecast for sales of its insulin pumps and total revenue. The company in August had raised its revenue growth forecast to 22% to 25%, and outlook for total sales growth of its insulin delivery devices, Omnipod, to 25% to 28%.

Insulet's accounting chief, Lauren Budden, will assume the additional responsibilities of interim CFO until a permanent successor is appointed, the medical device maker said.

Shares of Insulet were up 1.4% in extended trading.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Maju Samuel)
The government of Finland is preparing another military aid package for Ukraine.

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen announced this on the social network X (formerly known as Twitter).

Our next defence materiel package is under preparation, the Minister for Foreign Affairs wrote.

Elina Valtonen named Ukraine our largest development partner.

Finland and the EU will support Ukraine for as long as needed, she wrote.

According to her, Finland has already contributed almost 2 billion euros to Ukraine.

As Ukrinform reported, last week Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen said that it is unlikely that Russia will transform into a peaceful democracy following the change of its leader, and the West should "prepare for the worst."
The German government has sent a new security assistance package to Ukraine.

The updated list of the provided equipment was published on the website of the German government.

In addition to the previously announced aid, Ukraine received:

14 tracked all-terrain vehicles Bandvagn 206 (BV206)

bridge-laying tank BEAVER

mine clearing tanks WISENT 1

21 border protection vehicles

239 Crypto Phones

11 truck tractor trains HX81

20,000 safety glasses

1 spare part package for VECTOR drones

1,202 Infusion kits

ammunition for LEOPARD 1

99 SatCom terminals

Nearly 33,000 rounds ammunition 40mm

The government notes that funding for the security capacity building initiative amounts to EUR 5.4 billion for 2023 (after EUR 2 billion for 2022) and additional authorisations to enter commitments in the following years amounting to EUR 10.5 billion.

These funds are to be used primarily for military assistance to Ukraine. At the same time, they will be used for re-filling Federal Armed Forces stocks for items delivered to Ukraine as well as for Germanys contributions to the European Peace Facility (EPF), from which costs incurred from providing military assistance to Ukraine can be re-imbursed to EU member states, reads the statement.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky had a phone conversation with Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez.

According to the presidents press service, Zelensky thanked the Spanish people and government for their principled political and military support for Ukraine.

The parties discussed further defense cooperation between the two countries.

Zelensky has said he expects that Spain's Presidency of the Council of the European Union will be fruitful in terms of opening Ukraines EU accession talks.

In addition, the parties discussed key upcoming international events and security topics on the shared European agenda.

As reported, in 2022, Spain provided Ukraine with military aid worth more than EUR 300 million.

Photo: Presidents Office
The United States and Denmark have announced their partnership to reduce cybersecurity vulnerabilities and build cyber resilience in Ukraine's critical infrastructure through the USAID Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure in Ukraine activity.

According to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, Denmark is investing $2.8 million (DKK 20 million) in the activity, Ukrinform reports.

"Strengthening Ukraine's cyber capabilities is critical to protecting the country's institutions and infrastructure against the increased cyber attacks resulting from Russia's war. I welcome Denmark's $2.8m investment in the USAID Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure in Ukraine activity and look forward to working together to enable Ukraine to withstand Russia's cyber aggression," said United States Ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink.

The embassy said that the United States, with this new support from Denmark, will continue its work to strengthen Ukraine's cybersecurity enabling environment, including its laws, regulations, and institutional frameworks; develop Ukraine's cybersecurity workforce, including building the capacity of existing experts and by developing a dedicated cybersecurity workforce pipeline; and by building trust and collaboration between the public and sectors to form a more resilient Ukrainian cybersecurity industry.

The United States, through USAID's Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure in Ukraine activity, has been essential for providing state institutions and key infrastructure with the tools and cyber expertise they need to keep running and to meet the needs of the Ukrainian people during the war. The activity has also supported Ukraine's efforts to form partnerships with international cybersecurity actors, including Ukraine's State Service for Special Communication and Information Protection launching cooperation with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Earlier in 2023, New Zealand made its contribution to the cyber security programs of the USAID project, investing $0.49 million.
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Published October 3, 2023

MONROE, LA Jennifer Dumas, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Science, has been named a member of the 2023-2024 cohort of the Charles E. Scheidt Faculty Fellows in Atrocity Prevention Program, sponsored by Binghamton University's Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP).

The Faculty Fellows program, which includes 46 scholars from over 30 colleges and universities around the country, is dedicated to bringing together faculty members to review scholarship on mass atrocities, identity-based violence, and human rights, and discuss ways to incorporate this research on mass atrocity and genocide prevention efforts through innovative pedagogical efforts in their classrooms.

Faculty Fellows will hear directly from experts in the field, including I-GMAP's sister organization, the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities (AIPG), a non-governmental organization operating worldwide to facilitate atrocity prevention.

The Faculty Fellows program is a multidisciplinary approach with faculty coming from a variety of programs, including Political Science, Theater, Business, Nursing and Computer Science, among others.

Fellows attend trainings, briefings and lectures on mass atrocities as well as prepare course syllabi that demonstrate integration of insights on violence prevention in the classroom. They receive a $2,500 reward and travel expenses to attend the 2024 Frontiers of Prevention international forum at Binghamton University in the spring upon completion of the program.

Im thankful for the opportunities provided by the Israel Institute and I-GMAP to expand course offerings for the Political Science program at ULM and enhance pedagogical approaches to my courses based on training in atrocity prevention, Dr. Dumas said.

Dr. Dumas will utilize the Faculty Fellows program's resources in upcoming Political Science courses, including an African Politics course in the fall and a Senior Seminar course in the spring, focusing on religion and politics in modern Israel.

The latter course is supplemented by a $10,000 course development grant from the Israel Institute, awarded to U.S. and Canadian university faculty members who wish to develop undergraduate courses on Israel. The course will examine the unique role that Israel plays as the only Jewish state in the world and will look at the evolution of secular and religious Judaism in Israeli politics and governance, including the legislature, legal system and military, over the past 80 years, with special emphasis on changing relations among secular and non-secular Jewish Israelis, Ultra-Orthodox communities and Arab Israelis.

Students will receive a comprehensive introduction to the role of Zionism in the founding of the State of Israel, explanations regarding the role of religion in government turnover and conflict with the Palestinian territories and neighboring states, and finally, an assessment of the impact of changing religious demographics within Israel on domestic political coalitions, foreign policy shifts in the region and diaspora relations.

Dr. Dumas will undergo language training and visit relevant institutions and sites in Jerusalem to enhance her teaching of the course, including Givat Ram, to tour the Knesset and Supreme Court, as well as Yad Vashem (The World Holocaust Remembrance Center), the Western Wall and the al-Aqsa Mosque. The award money will further help fund a trip to New Orleans in the spring for students enrolled in the course, where they will visit the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience and the World War II Museum.

At the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, students will learn of the timeline and motivations behind waves of Jewish immigration to the U.S. South as well as get a first-hand view of religious and cultural artifacts related to Judaism.

On their visit to the National World War II Museum, students will connect knowledge gleaned from the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience's exhibits on U.S. Jews in the South during the Holocaust to the role of anti-Semitism in both World War II and the Holocaust as well as initial U.S. hesitancy to engage in the war before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

This will provide context to the course's focus in the latter half of the semester on new developments in Israeli foreign policy, specifically on the evolution of the U.S.-Israel bilateral relationship in the context of shared and disparate religious discourse as opposed to regional geopolitical strategy.

It is crucial that ULM students have the ability to learn about the history of mass atrocities around the world and consider ways they can practice violence prevention and protect human rights in their homes, communities and careers, Dr. Dumas said. I look forward to the ability to offer my students a hands-on learning experience through their museum visits in the spring.
Insurance companies are predicting higher insurance premiums across the state if the Legislature approves proposed changes to Michigan's auto no-fault insurance law that would loosen price controls on medical services.

The recently introduced legislation calls for raising reimbursement levels in no-fault insurance for medical providers, including hospitals, clinics and in-home care agencies, that treat patients with acute as well as long-term injuries from car crashes.

But some auto insurers say the legislation goes far beyond its professed aim of helping a small set of individuals who suffered catastrophic injuries in accidents that occurred after the June 2019 cutoff date for full medical service reimbursement rates as established by a recent Michigan Supreme Court ruling.

Instead, they contend, much of the legislation is an attempt at large-scale medical profiteering  particularly by hospitals and clinics.

The legislation is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday before the state Senate's Finance, Insurance and Consumer Protection committee.

Auto accident victims Shawn Weiland, center right, of Grand Rapids and Sam Howell, center left, of Grand Rapids hold candles up in memory of others who have passed during a rally of accident victim patients/survivors who support newly proposed legislation to loosen price controls in the state's no-fault auto insurance law at the State Capitol Building in Lansing on Tuesday, October 3, 2023.

The insurers' claim stems from how the legislation would boost no-fault's payment rates to hospitals and clinics to 250% of what Medicare pays for the same services and procedures, up from a current general rate of 190%.

That proposed rate is above what research by the government-funded Rand Corp. found was the average commercial health insurance reimbursement to Michigan hospitals in 2020: 203% of Medicare rates.

One outspoken critic of the legislation is the chief executive of CURE Auto insurance, which started doing business in Michigan after the 2019 no-fault overhaul law that introduced price controls. CURE also is one of the few auto insurers in the state  possibly the only one  to not use a credit score-like metric known as an "insurance score" when pricing customer rates.

More: Hospitals, caregivers would see pay raise under proposed no-fault reimbursement reform

Story continues

More: Michigan no-fault auto insurance: How to pick the cheapest options

In an interview this week, CURE CEO Eric Poe said that if the legislation passes as written, the medical benefits portion of his customers' bills, known as "personal injury protection" or PIP, would likely need to rise 35% to 40%, or at least $225 per customer per year.

"People are going to be devastated by this if (the cost control) gets rolled back," Poe said.

CURE's CEO Eric Poe was an advisor to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan back in 2015, when the mayor was researching ways to reduce Detroit's highest-in-the-nation auto insurance rates. Some suggestions, such as cost controls for medical services, made it into the statewide 2019 no-fault overhaul law. Poe attends the ribbon-cutting for new offices in Detroit on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023.

And he noted how Medicaid beneficiaries, who by definition are of lower income, are unable to opt out of buying medical benefits with no-fault insurance, as those with Medicare or comprehensive commercial health insurance can. So those individuals would be hit hard if the legislation passes.

When these people who want to pass laws and line the pockets of hospitals and lawyers think about raising rates 35%-40% on the no-fault side, are they thinking about the people who are on Medicaid?" Poe asked.

Auto insurers also say that medical services subject to the legislation's payment boost to 250% of Medicare are far more common than services subject to a different price control that was also introduced with the 2019 no-fault overhaul.

That cost control, which impacts the long-term care of catastrophically injured car crash survivors, was a 45% across-the-board reimbursement cut. It is specifically for medical services lacking an applicable Medicare bill code, such as extended in-home attendant care or stays in specialized rehab facilities.

People listen to a speaker during a rally of accident victim patients/survivors who support newly proposed legislation to loosen price controls in the state's no-fault auto insurance law at the State Capitol Building in Lansing on Tuesday, October 3, 2023.

That 45% cut resulted in some medical providers shutting down, dropping patients or threatening to drop patients.

In July, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that cost controls in the 2019 no-fault overhaul do not apply retroactively to those whose accidents occurred prior to law's passage.

The ruling was welcome news for the 14,872 catastrophic accident survivors whose accidents happened before June 2019, according to figures from Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association. But it didn't apply to the catastrophic survivors of more recent crashes, who numbered 1,811 as of September 2022.

Lansing rally

Several hundred people, including catastrophic crash survivors in wheelchairs, attended a rally Tuesday outside the Capitol building in Lansing to urge lawmakers to pass the newly proposed legislation.

The legislation would discontinue the 45% cuts for non-coded medical services, and in their place, establish set payments for caregivers and other no-fault medical providers that would adjust each year with the Consumer Price Index.

Former Detroit Red Wings player Vladimir Konstantinov sits on stage during a rally of accident victim patients/survivors who support newly proposed legislation to loosen price controls in the state's no-fault auto insurance law at the State Capitol Building in Lansing on Tuesday, October 3, 2023.

Those in attendance included former Red Wings defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov, who suffered catastrophic brain injuries in a 1997 limousine crash, and whose caregivers' pay rates were restored by this summer's Supreme Court ruling.

The crowd also included more recent accident victims who aren't covered by the ruling, such as 5-year-old Annabelle Marsh, of Midland, who suffered a spinal cord injury in a February 2021 and requires a respirator to breathe. She lives at home with her mother, Brandi Marsh, and receives 24/7 nursing care through an agency.

Brandi Marsh said Annabelle's care is provided by AdvisaCare Home Health & Hospice, which has kept her as a client  even with the no-fault law's 45% reimbursement cuts. But she worries about the future of Annabelle's care if the current cost controls remain in place.

"We all matter," Brandi Marsh told the rally crowd. "It doesnt matter what year you got in your accident."

Brandi Marsh, left, of Milford, kisses her daughter, Annabelle Marsh, 5, who suffered a severe spinal cord injury from an auto accident while speaking during a rally of accident victim patients/survivors who support newly proposed legislation to loosen price controls in the state's no-fault auto insurance law at the State Capitol Building in Lansing on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023.

Several speakers at the rally called the legislation "a narrow fix" to the 45% cuts situation.

But the insurance industry strongly disputes that characterization, and contends the actual legislation doesn't just address a "loophole" in the 2019 no-fault affecting catastrophic patients, but would deliver big profits to much of the health care provider business.

"Controlling out-of-control medical costs was a key piece of reform that helped to bring costs down," Erin McDonough, executive director at the Insurance Alliance of Michigan, a lobbying group, said Tuesday. The proposed legislation, she said, "takes us backwards to the days of massive overcharging by hospitals and medical providers."

Where 250% came from

According to the Michigan Health & Hospital Association, the proposed no-fault payment increases for coded medical services  rising from 190% of Medicare payment rates to 250%  reflects the complex nature of auto accident injury care as well as higher labor and other costs hospitals have faced since the COVID-19 pandemic. The price controls in the 2019 no-fault overhaul law predated the pandemic.

Specifically, the 250% rate corresponds to what past Rand Corp. studies have found was the nationwide average payment rate by commercial health insurance, said Laura Appel, an executive vice president with the association.

Auto accident victim Sam Howell, left, of Grand Rapids, does a call and response with his mother, Maureen Howell, and father, Jim Howell, during a rally of accident victim patients/survivors who support newly proposed legislation to loosen price controls in the state's no-fault auto insurance law at the State Capitol Building in Lansing on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023.

She said the nationwide average is more appropriate for no-fault payments than Rand's Michigan figure  203% of Medicare  because the strong negotiating leverage of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan results in below-average payment rates to hospitals.

"I think that the Michigan average reflects a single dominant payer thats able to command a very positive payment structure in our state and negotiate that," she said. "As part of those negotiations, they can also deliver something like 80% of the commercial (health insurance) market. Auto no-fault commands a much smaller percentage of the marketplace."

Information on whether or not hospitals are losing money with the existing no-fault payment rates  generally 190% of Medicare  was not immediately available Tuesday.

Auto accident survivor Amber Marcy, of Saugatuck, is hugged while in her wheelchair after speaking during a rally of accident victim patients/survivors who support newly proposed legislation to loosen price controls in the state's no-fault auto insurance law at the State Capitol Building in Lansing on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023.

However, Appel noted how the existing law does give higher payment rates to a handful of hospitals with Level 1 or Level 2 trauma centers or large number of indigent patients.

The proposed legislation would provide "parity" for all hospitals treating auto accident victims by establishing a single payment rate of 250% of Medicare, she said.

We dont think that were asking for anything excessive," she said. "We think were asking for something thats reasonable. We need clear and consistent reimbursement.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jcreindl.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Insurers warn of higher auto premiums under proposed no-fault rules
New Clinic and Lab Bring Greater Patient Access to World-Class Family-Building Care to the Greater Milwaukee Region

NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kindbody , the leading fertility clinic network and global family-building benefits provider for employers, today announced the opening of a new state-of-the-art fertility clinic and in vitro fertilization (IVF) lab in Milwaukee, WI. The new clinic and lab are open at 787 N. Broadway in the heart of downtown. Kindbody Milwaukee is led by Dr. Ellen Hayes , a fertility specialist who is board-certified in both reproductive endocrinology and obstetrics and gynecology. Dr. Hayes is currently accepting patients. The opening of the centrally located Kindbody clinic and lab follows five years of serving patients throughout the state of Wisconsin with high-quality fertility and family-building care.

Kindbody is a leading fertility clinic network and global family-building benefits provider for employers. (PRNewsfoto/Kindbody)

"There is growing demand for accessible, high-quality fertility care in Milwaukee from local employers and the entire community," said Annbeth Eschbach, Chief Executive Officer of Kindbody. "With the opening of our new state-of-the-art clinic location and with the addition of our lab, our patients can receive the full spectrum of care closer to home. Our team of experienced fertility specialists and skilled embryologists will work tirelessly to make the dream of parenthood a reality for our existing and new patients in the Milwaukee community."

Dr. Ellen Hayes is a renowned expert in IVF who has assisted patients facing fertility challenges and has helped individuals and couples in Wisconsin build their families for more than 15 years. Dr. Hayes graduated from Loyola University Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine with honors. She completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, where she was recognized by her department for her outstanding surgical skills. She then completed fellowship training at Emory University, where her thesis project received the prestigious John D. Thompson Prize. A member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and a fellow of the The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) she has authored numerous articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has participated in research studies in her field which have been presented nationally.

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"It has always been my passion to help people realize their dream of becoming parents," said Dr. Hayes. "I'm honored to continue to serve the Milwaukee community with world-class fertility care and deliver an outstanding experience to our patients to help more people understand their fertility and grow their families."

Kindbody's clinically-managed program covers the full-spectrum of reproductive health, including both female and male fertility, which encompasses fertility assessments and education, fertility preservation, genetic testing, in vitro fertilization (IVF), donor and surrogacy services, and adoption, as well as a full continuum of reproductive care including physical, mental, and emotional support.

Kindbody owns and operates 32 signature clinics throughout the U.S. in Arkansas, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. To schedule an appointment, visit kindbody.com/book. Employers who wish to learn more about how Kindbody delivers the best patient experience and outcomes while reducing healthcare costs can contact solutions@kindbody.com.

About Kindbody

Kindbody is the leading fertility clinic network and global family-building benefits provider for employers offering the full-spectrum of reproductive care from preconception to postpartum through menopause. Kindbody is the trusted fertility benefits provider for 127 leading employers, covering almost 2.7 million lives. Many thousands more receive their fertility care directly from Kindbody throughout the country at signature clinics, mobile clinics, and partner clinics. As the fertility benefits provider, technology platform, and direct provider of care, Kindbody delivers a seamless, integrated experience with superior health outcomes at lower cost, making fertility care more affordable and accessible for all. Kindbody has raised $315 million in debt and equity funding from leading investors including Perceptive Advisors, JP Morgan Chase's Morgan Health, GV (formerly Google Ventures), RRE Ventures, Claritas Health Ventures, Rock Springs Capital, Distributed Ventures, Whatif Ventures and TQ Ventures. Visit www.kindbody.com . and follow us on Instagram , Twitter , and Linkedin .

Contact: Margaret Ryan

Kindbody

press@kindbody.com

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kindbody-opens-state-of-the-art-clinic-and-ivf-lab-in-downtown-milwaukee-to-meet-growing-demand-for-fertility-care-301943417.html

SOURCE Kindbody
A court in Cambodia on Monday barred three environmental activists who are serving suspended prison sentences for their advocacy work from traveling to Sweden next month to receive the prestigious Right Livelihood Award.

A copy of a letter from the Phnom Penh Municipal Courts chief prosecutor, Chreung Khmao, said the trip by the members of the group Mother Nature Cambodia was not necessary. The letter, seen by The Associated Press, came in response to a travel request from the activists.

Thon Ratha, 31, Phuong Keo Reaksmey, 22, and Long Khunthea, 25, asked for permission to make a Nov. 24- Dec, 1 trip to receive the award, which is sometimes characterized as the Alternative Nobel.

Mother Nature Cambodia was co-winner of the award this year along with Phyllis Omido, a Kenyan community activist, and SOS Mediterranee, a humanitarian group that rescues migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Stockholm-based Right Livelihood Foundation said the winners stand up to save lives, preserve nature and safeguard the dignity and livelihoods of communities around the world," and fight for peoples right to health, safety, a clean environment and democracy.

It cited Mother Nature Cambodia for its fearless and engaging activism to preserve Cambodias natural environment in the context of a highly restricted democratic space. Cambodias government under long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen, who stepped down this year, showed little tolerance for challenges to the status quo.

In June 2021, the three Cambodian activists were convicted of incitement to commit a felony for their activities in 2017-2020 to protect the countrys natural resources. They lost an appeal in December. Their 14-month prison sentences were suspended but they were barred from traveling outside Cambodia for three years without permission from the court.

Am Sam Ath, a senior member of the Cambodian human rights organization Licadho, expressed regret that the court refused to let the activists make the journey.

They should have received encouragement to go by the court and Cambodian authorities because of their work for the sake of the country and because they have set a good example for the younger Cambodian generation, Am Sam Ath said.

Created in 1980, the annual Right Livelihood Award honors efforts that the prize founder, Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, felt were being ignored by the Nobel Prizes. To date, 190 laureates from 74 countries have received the award.

The foundation behind the prize has said this year's winners will be recognized at a Nov. 29 award presentation ceremony in Stockholm.
One of Cambodias last independent media outlets, which was shuttered earlier this year, is set to reopen in Tacoma, Washington, in the Pacific United States.

Cambodian authorities revoked the license for Voice of Democracy in February in a move that shocked press freedom advocates and the media outlets journalists.

But a statement on the news outlets Facebook page this month said it will relaunch with half-hour broadcasts aired on Facebook, YouTube and TikTok beginning October 2.

Voice of Democracy will operate under Pa Nguon Teang, founder and former executive director of the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, which managed the outlet before it was closed. He left Cambodia more than five years ago and resigned from the center in August.

He told VOA Khmer he decided to resume Voice of Democracy because he saw a need for Cambodians to access accurate information and independent journalism.

The relaunch will also help promote press freedom and free expression, he said.

The approach of the media outlet will be the same, but Pa Nguon Teang said the journalists reporting for him will not be in Cambodia.

Nop Vy, executive director of the Cambodian Journalists Alliance, or CamboJA, said that broadcasting from overseas presents challenges.

Although we now have advances in technology, social media, online communication, we cannot guarantee that local people can communicate or use all of them, he said.

Still, Nop Vy said, the relaunch of Voice of Democracy has been applauded by many and is seen as an opportunity for audiences to access information.

Founded in 2003, the organization had been a trusted source of information until the Ministry of Information revoked its license on the orders of then-Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The order was in response to the media outlet reporting on Cambodia agreeing to send $100,000 in humanitarian aid to Turkey after last weeks devastating earthquake.

Voice of Democracy reported that Hun Sens son, Hun Manet, had signed an aid order on behalf of his father.

Hun Manet, who in August was endorsed as Cambodias new leader, denied that was the case and demanded an apology.

Voice of Democracy sent two letters to Hun Sen expressing regret and requesting forgiveness [for] any unintentional wrongdoing.

The media outlet later ran a follow-up story to say that Hun Manet had denied signing the order.

But the move to revoke the license remained.

Ministry of Information spokesperson Tep Asnarith declined to comment on the news that Voice of Democracy will relaunch.

Please be informed that the Ministry of Information has not commented on this beside the previous decision [to revoke the license], he said via Telegram.

When Voice of Democracy had its license revoked, the Cambodian Center for Independent Media created a website called Kamnotra, where it republished the media outlets old articles and to navigate the data information from the Cambodia government.

The center has said that while it used to oversee the media outlet, it will not be involved in the relaunch.

Chhan Sokunthea, executive director of the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, said that Voice of Democracy played an important role in providing accurate and independent information.

She added that freedom of the press and freedom of expression are severely restricted, especially for journalists who report on issues seen as sensitive.

We see that the freedom of the press in Cambodia, especially the journalists who dare to report the truth to the public, are always threatened or harassed, she said.

Cambodia has a poor press freedom record, ranking 147 out of 180 on the world press freedom index, where 1 shows the best media environment.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, which compiles the index, says the countrys independent media have long faced pressure.
Meta's decision to not suspend the Facebook account of a former Cambodian prime minister who had used the platform to physically threaten political opponents is drawing criticism from the tech giant's Oversight Board, human rights groups and digital security experts.

Meta's Oversight Board, a group of prominent global experts that makes mostly nonbinding recommendations on some of the company's thorniest policy questions, had recommended suspending Hun Sen's account over a January 9 post of a speech delivered the day before.

In the speech, Hun Sen threatened to "beat up" opponents and "send gangsters" to their homes. "There are only two options. One is to use legal means and the other is to use a bat," said Hun Sen, who served as Cambodia's prime minister for 38 years.

He added, "If you say that's freedom of expression, I will also express my freedom by sending people to your place and home."

The video was viewed at least 600,000 times, according to the board. Meta, after initially declining to take down the video, heeded the board's recommendation to remove it.

The question of suspending Hun Sen's account has spurred debate and illuminated the tension surrounding newsworthiness, free speech and collective safety in one-party political environments.

"It is hard to imagine a clearer case of a political leader using social media to amplify threats and intimidation," Oversight Board co-chair Michael McConnell said in a statement emailed to VOA Khmer on September 12.

McConnell, a Stanford Law School professor, said the video was part of a "concerning pattern of behavior from the Cambodian government" using social media as a tool of political suppression, in what Freedom House described as "digital authoritarianism."

"Our decision sets out clear guidance to Meta to deter public figures who would exploit its platforms to incite violence. Meta's inaction is a failure to ensure its platforms do not contribute to these harms," McConnell added.

Meta did not respond to VOA Khmer's request for comment on the criticism for this story.

Banning the board

On June 29, Meta's Oversight Board released a report recommending the suspension of Hun Sen's Facebook account and a series of additional policy changes.

Hun Sen's government responded by banning Oversight Board members from Cambodia, a prohibition that remains in force. Hun Sen, a prolific user with 14 million followers, closed his account and suggested he might block the platform in Cambodia.

Hun Sen's self-enforced exile from Facebook lasted until July 20, days before an uncontested election that resulted in his son becoming prime minister on August 22.

In explaining its decision not to deactivate Hun Sen's account, Meta said on August 28 that the case did not meet its criteria for a "crisis designation," since the level of political violence and suppression at the time did not significantly exceed Cambodia's "baseline" condition.

Meta also rejected the board's recommendation to clarify its public framework for restricting accounts of public figures, to account for societies in which political violence was ongoing.

"Applying the protocol in those circumstances could lead to an indefinite suspension of a public figure's account, which [apart from fairness issues] could be detrimental to people's ability to access information from and about their leaders and to express themselves using Meta's platforms," Meta said.

VOA Khmer contacted board members for comment on Meta's decision. Those who responded referred questions to the board's public relations office, which provided the statement from McConnell.

The platform's role

Legal experts and human rights campaigners have criticized Meta's decisions and explanations, arguing the company has failed to confront the role of its platforms in political violence and is seemingly prioritizing its business interests over values like democracy, public safety and nonviolent public dialogue.

Golda Benjamin, Asia-Pacific campaigner for the digital rights group Access Now, told VOA Khmer that Meta "understands perfectly" the impact that its platforms have in countries such as Cambodia, but regularly resists efforts to make it more accountable for its contribution to political violence or other human rights abuses in those societies.

Cambodia's government has repeatedly prosecuted and jailed many of its critics who post on Facebook. Authorities often use "incitement" laws that longtime observers of Cambodia's government say are abused to suppress unwanted citizen speech and critical press.

The International Commission of Jurists has long criticized the Cambodian government's legal and extrajudicial harassment of its opponents, as well as broader human rights violations. Daron Tan, a legal adviser to the group in Southeast Asia, said Meta's decision on Hun Sen's account was "perplexing."

Not only did Meta not suspend Hun Sen's account, but Tan also said it had apparently done nothing to penalize the longtime Cambodian leader, apart from removing the offending video.

"I think that sends a really dangerous message that Hun Sen can basically do whatever he wants, right? He can say whatever he wants, can do whatever he wants, without consequences. And I think that for us is the most troubling bit about Meta's decision," said Tan.

Tan said he sensed an ulterior motive to Meta's explanation that it was prioritizing "voice" and freedom of information over concerns of political violence.

Hun Sen remains a powerful force over Cambodia's government, and Meta was well aware of the potential consequences if it suspended his account, Tan said.

Elina Noor, an Asia security expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Meta may have reached a "sound policy conclusion" given Cambodia's recent leadership transition but added, "The fact that it was against the recommendation of its own Oversight Board undermines the credence of that decision."

McConnell said the repercussions of Meta's decision reached well beyond those directly affected by Hun Sen's threats.

"This is not just about the situation in Cambodia. Meta has not gone far enough to discourage others who may seek to abuse its platforms in a similar way," he said.

"As our decision noted, failure to limit clearly violating speech in political climates where civic space is already reduced and under threat does not always protect voice," McConnell said. "It can have the converse effect, leading to more intimidation and the silencing of a broader range of views."
The United States reversal on $18 million in foreign aid withheld from Cambodia in protest of its widely criticized election is raising doubts about the Biden administrations democratic principles in its relationship with Phnom Penh, advocates say.

The U.S. was the only Western country to publicly state that Julys national election was neither free nor fair, releasing a statement describing a pattern of threats and harassment against opposition politicians, journalists and civil society ahead of the vote.

These actions denied the Cambodian people a voice and a choice in determining the future of their country, the State Department said in a statement at the time. In response, the United States has taken steps to impose visa restrictions on individuals who undermined democracy and implemented a pause of certain foreign assistance programs.

Two months later, the Biden administration changed its mind. Prime Minister Hun Manet and Victoria Nuland, the acting U.S. deputy secretary of State, met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 22. Shortly after the meeting, the Cambodian side announced in a statement that Washington would resume paused assistance programs worth $18 million.

USAID, which oversees the funding in question, confirmed the resumption, but did not respond to questions about what had prompted the reversal, or whether Cambodia had made any commitments on democracy and freedom of expression during meetings with U.S. officials.

Its unclear whether any new visa restrictions were levied over the election, or whether they remain in place  as the State Department does not typically reveal such decisions.

The programs we are resuming provide direct benefit to the Cambodian people by combatting the climate crisis and improving health outcomes, a USAID spokesperson said in an emailed statement on Sept. 27.

In our engagements with the Government of Cambodia and Cambodian partners, we have underscored that this decision is part of our commitment to helping advance a brighter and healthier future for the people of Cambodia in a more prosperous, democratic, and independent country where all voices are heard, the USAID statement said.

The decision drew swift backlash from across Cambodias democracy and human rights advocates, as well as Hun Manets political opponents and critics on Capitol Hill.

The U.S. rightly imposed visa bans and withheld some assistance after Cambodias sham July election, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a leading voice in Washingtons push for a more democratic Cambodia, said in an email to VOA Khmer.

Any resumption of non-humanitarian U.S. assistance should be tied to an end of political repression and the release of political prisoners such as Cambodian American human rights activist Theary Seng, Durbin said.

Theary Seng, a Cambodian-American human rights lawyer, has been imprisoned for more than a year on a conviction related to her public support for exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy. The U.S. has thus far refused to designate her as wrongfully detained, despite the United Nations making a similar determination. Cambodian officials this week announced her move from a remote detention facility to a prison closer to the capital.

Durbin is among a bipartisan group of lawmakers who earlier this year introduced the Cambodian Democracy Act, which would sanction Cambodian leaders involved in the deterioration of democracy and human rights abuses. It would also increase US monitoring of Cambodias relationship with China.

Kem Monovithya, a senior public affairs official for the Cambodian National Rescue Party, which has been outlawed in Cambodia, said the decision to unfreeze the development aid highlighted President Bidens misguided strategy in Cambodia.

The US just gave an opportunity for the undemocratic Cambodian government to do a PR spin off this very small aid amount that we all know is more symbolic and is about legitimacy lending than about concrete project impacts because its such a small amount, she said in an email to VOA Khmer.

In that sense, this is again another policy mistake from US on Cambodia, the chasing dictator policy without strength for the last two years has not worked for Cambodias democracy or US interests. This administration needs to reevaluate its Cambodia policy.

While the U.S. spoke out following Julys election, Cambodia has been part of Bidens broader charm offensive toward Southeast Asia to counter Chinas influence in the region. Then-Prime Minster Hun Sen, who handed power to his son in August, made his first official visit to Washington in May 2022 to take part along with other SE Asian national leaders in the first US-ASEAN Summit to be held at the White House. Biden held a bilateral meeting with Hun Sen a few months later while attending regional summits in Phnom Penh.

During that meeting, Biden urged Hun Sen to reopen civic and political space ahead of the 2023 elections and release political detainees, including Theary Seng, according to a White House readout at the time.

None of those things happened. Weeks before the election, the main opposition Candlelight Party was barred from competing due to an administrative technicality, while many of its leaders were subject to threats, pressure and dubious legal cases. Its supporters were warned that protests would be met with force. Voice of Democracy, one of the last remaining independent news outlets with reporters in Cambodia, was shut down in February over a report that angered Hun Sen.

The ruling Cambodian Peoples Party, which won 120 of 125 seats in parliament, approved a generational change in power in August. Hun Manet became prime minister with a slate of new ministers under him  with many being the progeny or relatives of the partys old guard.

Yet the new government has given rise to some hope of a reset in US-Cambodia relations, which have soured as Phnom Penh has become increasingly cozy with China over the past 10 and 15 years.

Em Sovannara, a political science professor in Phnom Penh, said the step of resuming aid is a positive sign for US-Cambodia relations, adding in order to improve relations between the two countries, it is necessary to provide warmth and understanding from each other.

We hope that the Cambodian government will respond to the USs concerns, Em Sovannara told VOA Khmer.

Hun Manet met with U.S. Ambassador W. Patrick Murphy on Sept. 27. Murphy noted the productive engagements with U.S. officials during the prime ministers trip to New York, and emphasized the importance of human rights and the protection of fundamental freedoms, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy.

Rim Sokvy, a research fellow at Cambodia Institute for Cooperation and Peace in Phnom Penh, said Hun Manet, who studied at the U.S. military academy in West Point, was better positioned than his father to facilitate improved relations with the Western superpower.

In a press conference last week following Hun Manet's trip to the US, Tain Jean-Francois, a minister attached to the prime minister, offered a positive assessment of bilateral ties with Washington.

I think we should be optimistic about Cambodia-US relations, he said.

Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, the New York-based international human rights group, slammed the U.S. for giving Hun Manet such an easy diplomatic win, leaving USAID to issue pathetic, after the fact explanations that no one really believes.

In what has to be one of the most hamfisted moves in recent diplomatic history in Cambodia, the US government first took the aid away and then suddenly handed it back after a high level meeting in NY, giving a clear propaganda win to Hun Manet which he will be crowing about for some time to come, Robertson said in an email to VOA Khmer.

If the Biden Administration expects anyone in the region to take them seriously, they need to articulate their principles and stick with them.
Armenia has voted to ratify the founding statute of the International Criminal Court, or ICC  a decision that could obligate the nation to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin if he were to set foot in Armenia.

Armenia earlier assured Russia that, despite the country's ratification of the Rome Statute, Putin would not be arrested if he were to visit Armenia, but Russia had warned against Armenia's decision. Moscow said Armenia and Russia have been longtime allies, but that Moscow would call into question Armenia's current leadership if the ratification took place.

The Armenian president, Vahagn Khachaturyan, now has 60 days to sign the measure. Sixty legislators voted in favor of ratification; 22 voted against it.

"Armenia is our ally, a friendly country, our partner. ... But at the same time, we will have additional questions for the current leadership of Armenia. ... We still believe this is an incorrect decision," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday.

The Kremlin had warned Armenia back in March of "serious consequences" if it ratified the ICC statute.

In March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's presidential commissioner for children's rights, regarding what the ICC said was the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. The Kremlin dismisses the claim as baseless.

Ties between Russia and Armenia had already been strained by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Russia's limited action in response to Azerbaijan seizing the formerly ethnic Armenian-controlled region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The region, which is in Azerbaijan, had been a source of tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan. With Azerbaijan recapturing the territory, more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians who lived there have fled to Armenia.

Moscow has voiced frustration with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has said his country's policy of solely relying on Russia to guarantee Armenia's security was a "strategic mistake."

Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, an alliance among six former Soviet nations. Armenia also has a bilateral security treaty with Russia, which ensures Moscow will provide protection for Armenia. Based on that agreement, Russia has a military base in Armenia.

Some information in this report was provided by Reuters and the Associated Press. VOA's Armenian service also contributed to this report.
Last week's meeting between senior US and Chinese diplomats overseeing Asian affairs was likely part of ongoing discussions to prepare for a leaders' summit, observers say.

China's foreign vice-minister for Asia Sun Weidong met the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, Daniel Kritenbrink, in Washington on Thursday, with the US calling the talks "candid, in-depth and constructive".

According to the US Department of State, the two diplomats exchanged views on regional matters including the Taiwan Strait and emphasised the importance of keeping communication channels open.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Daniel Kritenbrink, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, meets Sun Weidong, China's foreign vice-minister for Asia, in Washington on Thursday. Photo: X @USAsiaPacific alt=Daniel Kritenbrink, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, meets Sun Weidong, China's foreign vice-minister for Asia, in Washington on Thursday. Photo: X @USAsiaPacific>

The Chinese foreign ministry said Sun stated Beijing's position on issues including Washington's Indo-Pacific strategy and the South China Sea. "Positive interaction between China and the United States in the Asia-Pacific is in line with the common interests of the two sides and is also the common aspiration of regional countries," it said.

Dylan Loh, an assistant professor of foreign policy at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said the meeting suggested previous talks between US and Chinese officials had "more or less achieved" what they set out to achieve - to pave the way for more dialogue.

The latest meeting followed a series of high-profile talks between the rival powers. Last month, China's top diplomat Wang Yi held long discussions with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Malta, while Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng held a separate meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in New York.

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Top White House officials have also visited China in recent months, including Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and climate envoy John Kerry.

"Meetings between the US and China at any level are important and valuable," said Loh, adding that recent talks were aiming towards a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Joe Biden later this year.

That meeting could take place at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November, but Beijing has so far been noncommittal on whether Xi will attend.

Foreign Minister Wang said last week that Beijing was "communicating with all parties" on Xi's attendance and that a decision would be announced "in due course".

Wang Yi, China's top diplomat, held long discussions with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Malta last month. Photo: Xinhua via AP alt=Wang Yi, China's top diplomat, held long discussions with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Malta last month. Photo: Xinhua via AP>

But last week's talks between Sun and Kritenbrink have raised expectations of a Xi-Biden summit.

Alfred Wu, associate professor at the National University of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said previous ministerial-level talks suggested that the leaders would meet.

He said the talks on Thursday were likely to have been a "progression" from those meetings to firm up details for when the Chinese leader visited the US.

Wu said Beijing typically expected a detailed plan when its top leaders travelled.

"The Chinese side doesn't want to see any loopholes [if Xi visits the US]," he said. "They want to make sure that things will go according to China's plans and requests."

Wu expected more such meetings to be held "very soon" for officials to lay the groundwork and iron out other elements for the much anticipated summit.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing and Washington were making preparations for Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng to visit the US.

Beijing also has a pending invitation for its foreign minister to visit Washington, which was made public by Blinken when he was in Beijing in June.

Loh from NTU also said there would be more talks coming up if a Xi-Biden meeting was on the cards so that both sides could identify areas they can work on together.

"It is clear that the region is closely watching if a meeting between Biden and Xi will materialise because that would suggest that there is some sort of understanding against competition running amok or taking the relationship to the point that it breaks down irretrievably," he said.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Russia said Wednesday its air defenses destroyed 31 Ukrainian drones that were part of attempted attacks on Russian territory overnight.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram that it downed the drones over the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions. All three regions are located along the Russia-Ukraine border.

Alexander Bogomaz, the regional governor of Bryansk, said Ukrainian forces fired cluster munitions at several villages, damaging several homes. Bogomaz said there were no casualties reported.

Russias military said it also stopped a group of Ukrainian troops that were using a high-speed boat and jet skis to try to penetrate the territory of Crimea.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military command said that it has sent about 1.1 million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine that American naval forces seized from Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps last year as Tehran tried to transfer the ammunition to Houthi fighters in Yemen in violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

On the diplomatic front, U.S. President Joe Biden called key Western allies on Tuesday to reassure them of continued American military support for Ukraines fight against Russia after hardline right-wing congressional Republicans over the weekend forced the exclusion of immediate new funding for Kyiv.

The White House said Biden spoke with the leaders of Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Romania, Britain, and of the European Union and NATO, along with the foreign minister of France.

President Biden convened a call this morning with allies and partners to coordinate our ongoing support for Ukraine," the White House said in a statement.

Later, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Biden reaffirmed the strong commitment of the United States to supporting Ukraine as it defends itself for as long as it takes, as did every other leader on the call.

Kirby said the leaders discussed efforts to continue providing Ukraine with the ammunition and the weapons systems that it needs to defend itself and to continue strengthening Ukrainian air defenses as they prepare for more attacks on critical infrastructure. Now, certainly, but also certainly in the winter months ahead, Kirby said.

Some right-wing Republicans have balked at new funding for Kyiv, contending that Ukraines fight against Russia is not a strategic U.S. national security interest, although the large majority of U.S. lawmakers still appear to support more aid.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
Defense ministers and security experts from Cameroon and Chad are meeting in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, to map out ways of jointly combating growing security threats along their border.

Officials say a day hardly goes by without cases of either Boko Haram terrorist attacks or cross-border crimes, including armed gangs attacking civilians and wildlife, reported on both sides of the border between Cameroon and Chad.

The two central African states say they share a more than 1,100-kilometer porous land border that facilitates the escape of armed gangs and Boko Haram terrorists to either Cameroon or Chad when chased by government troops.

Joseph Beti Assomo, Cameroons defense minister, said Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno and his Cameroonian counterpart, Paul Biya, have ordered militaries of the two states to jointly monitor and protect their borders from violence perpetrated by the Islamist radicals and armed gangs.

Assomo said keeping Cameroon and Chad safe from rebels, terrorists and armed gangs is synonymous with contributing to stability in sub-Saharan Africa in particular and Africa in general.

Assomo also said tens of thousands of Cameroonian citizens who fled bloody battles between fishers and herders in northern Cameroon last year are still in Chad.

Chad's government says the displaced persons are refusing to return to their communities in Cameroon because of frequent conflicts between herders and fishers.

Defense ministers from the two countries say the slaughter of elephants in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic by criminal groups such as the Lords Resistance Army, the Sudanese Janjaweed militia, and Cameroonian and Chadian poaching gangs has been reduced.

But the proliferation of weapons left behind by rebels continues to be a threat to wildlife and civilians in the two countries, the ministers say.

The ministers say elephants are slaughtered for their ivory, which is in high demand on Asian black markets.

Daoud Yaya Brahim, Chad's defense minister, said Chad and Cameroon have to immediately stop high waves of kidnappings for ransom along their border, end cattle theft and the slaughter of elephants.

What also must stop, Brahim said, is cross-border criminality that continues to be a threat to peace and makes living conditions difficult for civilians who are living on less than a dollar a day. He said socioeconomic development along the Cameroon-Chad border has been highly compromised by rampant insecurity.

Chad and Cameroon say civilians are currently held hostage by armed gangs but did not say how many.

Joseph Vincent Ntuda Ebode is a lecturer in international security and defense at the University of Yaounde-Soa. He also serves as director of the Yaounde-headquartered Center for Research in Political and Strategic Studies.

Ntuda said he doesn't understand why it has taken up to 10 years for Cameroon and Chad to organize such a high-profile security meeting when Chad needs Cameroon to secure a multibillion-dollar, 1,000-kilometer pipeline that transports oil from the Doba Oil Field in southern Chad to the deep seaport in Kribi, Cameroon, for export.

Ntuda said the Cameroonian government also needs Chad to stop armed gangs, Boko Haram terrorists, militias and rogue units of national armies from Chad, Sudan and the Central African Republic from entering Cameroon.

The defense ministers said they will enact presidential plans to counter these various regional threats.They did not say when they will begin military operations.
Shares in Chinese property giant Evergrande soared as trading resumed on Tuesday, following a suspension last week when the heavily indebted company announced its boss was under criminal investigation.

In early trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, prices jumped more than 60% before dropping to 10% and then rising again.

The resumption follows an application notice filed late Monday, though there was no such request for the firm's electric vehicle unit.

A separate statement said trading for Evergrande Property Services would also re-start at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Evergrande has become a symbol of China's ballooning property-sector crisis, which has seen several high-profile firms engulfed in a sea of debt, fueling fears about the country's wider economy and a possible global spillover.

Media reported last Wednesday that Evergrande boss Xu Jiayin was being held by police, in the latest twist for the property behemoth.

The firm then confirmed Thursday that Xu was suspected of "illegal crimes" following the suspension of its shares from trading.

No specific reason was given for the decision to suspend trading, which also affected the company's property services and electric vehicle units.

Evergrande estimated it had debts of $328 billion at the end of June.

The company said last month it was unable to issue new debt because its subsidiary, Hengda Real Estate Group, was being investigated and key meetings planned for debt restructuring were shelved.

The firm said it was "necessary to reassess the terms" of the plan in order to suit the "objective situation and the demand of the creditors."

Its property arm missed a key bond payment last week, and Chinese financial website Caixin reported that former executives had been detained.

The crisis has deepened a broader slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.

China's property sector has long been a pillar of growth -- along with construction it accounts for about a quarter of GDP -- and it experienced a dazzling boom in recent decades.

However, the massive debt accrued by its biggest players has been seen by Beijing as an unacceptable risk for China's financial system and overall economic health.

Policymakers have come under intense pressure in recent months to unveil measures to support the economy, particularly the property sector.

But they are not keen on the type of bonanza unveiled in 2008 during the financial crisis, meaning the government could struggle to hit its growth target of around five percent for this year. That would represent one of its worst performances in decades, excluding during the pandemic.
Recent Russian disinformation trends on X, formerly Twitter, include a fake recruitment campaign attributed to the United States and Ukraine governments. They use a picture of an alleged recruitment leaflet that urges students in the U.S. to go fight in Ukraine.

The leaflet, bearing the emblem of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a U.S. phone number, shows a young person sitting on the floor, back to a wall, with his arms crossed and head down.

It is captioned:

How to Pay off Your Student Loans? Join the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine. (Note the creators use of the British English spelling of "defen[c]e" vs the U.S. spelling of "defen[s]e".)

The alleged advertisement promises international volunteer status, medical insurance and monthly payments.

Some verified X accounts reposted the image repeating the Russian disinformation line that poverty or financial strain is enticing American citizens to go fight and die in Ukraine.

For example, verified X user Russian Monitor, self-identified as a Media and News Company, (not to be confused with the Warsaw Institute propaganda research initiative Russia Monitor in Poland ) shared the image and wrote:

As the meat grinding continues in Ukraine with an attendant massive losses for the Ukrainian military and its NATO mercenaries, The US [h]as launched an Indirect recruitment campaign amongst student, urging them to pay their student loan by joining the Ukrainian army as an Alternative.

Recruiting or hiring someone to serve in a foreign military on U.S. soil may constitute a federal crime.

By the time of this writing, X suspended Russian Monitors account.

S.L. Kanthan, a verified X user with 105.4k followers who regularly spreads pro-Russia disinformation, likewise tweeted the image and commented:

Late-stage capitalism in the USA: Cant pay off your $100,000 student debt for which you got a s****y job at Starbucks? Go to Ukraine, fight and die. Debt trap and game of thrones, American style.

DaiWW, a verified X user with 13.3k followers who tweets about geopolitics and marked Beijing as their location, tweeted the image with this commentary:

if you can't afford the student loans, you can join the mercenary for Ukraine. This sounds exactly like a debt trap.

These claims are false.

Research demonstrates that the flyer is fake. There is no evidence the U.S. or Ukrainian governments have ever attempted to recruit U.S.-based students to serve in or alongside Ukrainian military forces.

The image of the fake leaflet originated from the Telegram account of Evgeniy Poddubny, a sanctioned Russian war propagandist who did not provide a source or location for the picture.

Halyna Yusypiuk, a spokesperson for Ukraines Embassy in Washington, told Polygraph.info in an email that Ukraine did not create the flyer.

The posters you are asking about are not real. Neither Ukrainian MOD (Ministry of Defense), nor the Embassy ever produced any materials marketing the recruitment of the US citizens to the Legion, Yusypiuk said.

Legion refers to the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, which is a foreign military unit of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine.

Yusypiuk said Ukraine has dealt with similar fake posters in the past. In April, social media users spread images of a poster purportedly placed in the New York City Subway system, calling on individuals tired of living on welfare to join Ukraines International Legion.

The picture of the student recruitment leaflet circulating on X shows the flyer attached to a billboard. Another flyer in the top right-hand corner of the billboard shows an ad for Spirit Wednesday, a fellowship opportunity for students, staff and faculty, at the University of the District of Columbias Dennard Plaza. UDC is a historically Black public university in Washington, D.C. It is unclear if anyone ever physically posted the flyer at UDC or elsewhere, or if the entire image was created using a computer.

A spokesperson for UDC could not comment on whether that particular flyer had been put up.

The creator or creators of both images used stock photos. The student loan flyer used a stock photo captioned depressed male student with head on knees sitting by wall in college and was taken by Wavebreakmedia.

Both images include the phone number (00 1) 202 349 29 44, which Yusypiuk confirmed is a real number of the Ukrainian Embassy in the USA.

However, the dialing prefix 00 is not used in the U.S. but is rather used when calling the United States from other countries, including some from the former Soviet Union.

The country code in the United States is 1 or +1 and is not needed when making local calls.

Telephone number listings on the website of Ukraines U.S. embassy use the +1 format. That suggests the person or people who created the posters were overseas and/or looked the number up on a non-U.S.-based website.

So, I presume its a part of this disinformation campaign to say half-truth to present the posters like a real ones, Yusypiuk said.

The image was originally posted to Telegram by Evgeniy Poddubny, a war correspondent for Russias state-run Rossiya 1 channel, on August 1. Poddubny did not say where the alleged photo was taken, who took it or how he acquired it. The U.S. has sanctioned Poddubny for spreading Kremlin propaganda against Ukraine.

In his Telegram post, Poddubny claimed that Ukraine is recruiting mercenaries among American students who have student debts, adding that such recruitment is illegal and punishable by law.

Yusypiuk disputes Ukraine has attempted to hire mercenaries.

Thousands of Americans have sought more information from the Embassy on how to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine. When joining, they signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine," he said.

"Now, those brave people are part of our fight for freedom. They are not mercenaries who are coming to earn money. They are people who signed an official contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Russian propagandists have long claimed that U.S. support to help Ukraine defend itself against the invading Russian force is coming at the expense of U.S. aid programs at home. Pro-Kremlin accounts on X have amplified other narratives opposed to aid for Ukraine.

As Polygraph.info previously reported, a trend has emerged of newly verified X pushing the narrative that the U.S. government is robbing American taxpayers of billions of dollars needed to heal a struggling U.S. economy to support the fake war in Ukraine.
Despite cracks in Congress, the White House is determined to continue supporting Ukraine. The Pentagon warns The Pentagon is warning Congress that it is running low on money to replace weapons the U.S. has sent to Ukraine. How Russia is recruiting Cubans to fight its war in Ukraine.
Aisha Lakhani, a graduate student at Anna Maria College, talks about the path that led her from Pakistan to the school in Paxton, Massachusetts.

She's studying counseling psychology and working with students as a residential specialist, a role in which she creates events and supports students. She talks about her experiences here. (September 2023)
India has ordered Canada to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country, a Canadian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Tuesday.

Tuesday's action by India, first reported by the Financial Times, follows both countries' ousting each other's senior diplomats.

The expulsion follows what Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called "credible allegations" of Indian involvement in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an Indian expatriate living near the Canadian city of Vancouver. India denies any wrongdoing.

Top officials in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government have said that Nijjar's role in a Sikh separatist movement that shook the nation in the 1980s made him a terrorist. The movement sought to establish an independent nation called Khalistan. New Delhi has long accused Ottawa of harboring pro-Khalistani extremists.

A spokesperson for India's Ministry of External Affairs had previously called for limiting the number of Canadian diplomats in India, claiming that India had fewer diplomats in Canada.

Trudeau recently told reporters that Canada is "not looking to provoke or escalate."

Trudeau and Modi had frosty run-ins during last month's G20 conference in New Delhi  days before Canada canceled trade talks with India scheduled for this fall.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with India's foreign minister last week and said Canada-India relations were brought up at the meeting.

"Reality is we need to find pathways of de-escalation, and perhaps Canada's allies can be helpful here," said Bruce Heyman, a U.S. ambassador to Canada under President Barack Obama.

Some information was provided by the Associated Press.
Indian police raided the homes of at least eight journalists and activists on Tuesday, local media reported, deepening concerns over a crackdown in a country where media freedom has nosedived.

Those raided are reported to be connected to the English-language news website NewsClick, with Indian authorities filing a case in 2021 alleging the organization was receiving foreign funding.

The New York Times in August reported that NewsClick was financed by U.S. millionaire Neville Roy Singham, who it said "sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points"  claims Singham rejected.

NewsClick journalist Aritry Das said police "barged into my home" at dawn, questioned her about her reporting and seized her laptop, phone and computer hard disks, she wrote on social media.

The Mumbai Press Club expressed its "deep concern" at the raids in a statement, reporting that "multiple journalists affiliated with NewsClick have been subjected to raids."

It demanded the police stop "from what is perceived as a targeted harassment campaign against these journalists."

Also raided in connection to NewsClick was historian and activist Sohail Hashmi.

"From the warrant that they reluctantly showed me, the raid at my residence was related to an investigation into NewsClick," Hashmi told AFP.

Hashmi had to hand over his laptop, phone and hard disks containing more than a decade of his writing, calling the raid a "combination of intimidation and a crackdown on freedom of press and speech."

There was no immediate response from the police, with raids carried out in both the capital New Delhi and in Mumbai.

Press freedom in India has plummeted since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, rights activists and opposition lawmakers say.

Reporters Without Borders warns "press freedom is in crisis" in India. Since 2014, India dropped from 140 to 161 on its rankings of media freedom, including 11 places since last year.

Journalists critical of the government complain of increased harassment, both on social media  where Modi's ruling party has a powerful presence  and in the real world.

Critics say Modi's government has sought to pressure rights groups by heavily scrutinizing their finances and clamping down on foreign funding.

The Network of Women in Media in India said Tuesday's "shocking" raids had targeted "prominent voices of dissent."

Those raided include founding editor Prabir Purkayastha, journalists Aunindyo Chakravarty, Bhasha Singh and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, as well as satirist Sanjay Rajoura and activist Teesta Setalvad, Indian media reported.
Jury selection is currently underway in Sam Bankman-Frieds trail on fraud and conspiracy charges, nearly one year after his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, collapsed.

According to prosecutors, Bankman-Fried, who has been detained since August, is responsible for embezzling money from FTX for the benefit of his hedge fund, Alameda Research, as well as to purchase luxury properties and donate over $100 million to U.S. political candidates.

The former billionaire is alleged to have committed this embezzlement from FTXs founding in 2019 until its bankruptcy in 2022.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers confirmed that there was never any discussion of a plea deal. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy.

The trial could last up to six weeks. The prosecution is intending to bring three people who were part of Bankman-Frieds inner circle to testify against him. They are cooperating with Manhattans U.S. Attorneys Office and have already pleaded guilty to fraud charges themselves.

The defense intends to challenge these witnesses by denouncing their credibility and claiming that they are only cooperating to secure lesser sentences.

The defense's arguments will primarily revolve around their idea that FTX was not able to meet customers withdrawal requests because of a series of poor business decisions rather than deliberate fraud.

Bankman-Fried, 31, was indicted last December. His trial is the highest-profile case that U.S. prosecutors have brought against a former cryptocurrency manager.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
Kenyan President William Ruto has welcomed a new resolution approved Monday by the U.N. Security Council authorizing a foreign security mission to intervene in Haiti. Ruto said he hopes the so-called Multinational Security Support Mission his country is leading will provide a different footprint in the history of international interventions in Haiti.

In a taped speech shared with the media Tuesday, Ruto said he hopes the mission will make a difference in the lives of Haitians.

I welcome the resolution as an overdue and critical instrument to define the multinational mission, he said. The mission is a fundamental intervention to provide the necessary conditions for Haiti to consolidate its development and governance.

Ruto said it is essential that resources, as well as the operational scope available to the U.N. team, be appropriately reinforced.

This comes after the U.N. Security Council voted late Monday to authorize a foreign security mission to intervene in Haiti, a year after the Caribbean nation requested help to quell violent gangs.

Kenya offered to lead the operation in Haiti two months ago, saying it is willing to deploy one thousand of its police forces. On a recent visit to Kenya, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin lauded the plan.

We intend to work with the United States Congress to provide up to 100 million dollars in support and we urge others in the international community to follow Kenyas great example," he said

Austin was in Nairobi with his Kenyan counterpart Aden Duale.

Kenya has a very long history of global peace keeping, Duale said We were in Kosovo, we were in Namibia, we were everywhere and now we are in Somalia, we are in DRC, we have our officers in the Tigray monitoring and evaluation mechanism.

But others, like Eugene Wamalwa, a former Kenyan defense secretary and the leader of the Democratic Action Party of Kenya, told VOA he had some concerns.

We would expect the process to be transparent, he said. First of all, starting with our national assembly, our parliament should approve this. We expected also that this matter would be addressed at the AU [African Union] before being elevated to the UN. We first heard of it during UNGA in New York and we had the Americans praising us for offering our troops, we are not even aware we are sending our police officers in harms way. We have not discussed it. We have not agreed as a country.

U.N. peacekeepers were deployed to Haiti in 2004 after a rebellion led to the ouster and exile of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Peacekeeping troops left in 2017 and were replaced by U.N. police, who left in 2019.

Amnesty International Kenya on Tuesday urged U.N. member states, human rights organizations and citizens to thoroughly examine the missions human rights and humanitarian implications before the deployment.

Meanwhile, Kenyans who spoke to VOA are divided on their police force possibly going to Haiti.

We have a lot of problems, not only in our country but also in Africa, said Victor Odhiambo. We have problems in Sudan, in Somalia, we have security problems in several parts of Africa. If we wanted to solve any security problems, we couldve started at home or at least regionally.

Stanley Omuhinda, a pastor, struck a more positive note.

Itll help to cause them to have peace in that country, he said. Number 2, [itll] show that this country is a peaceful country, we can exercise peace in other countries, that is a very powerful thing this country has done. I support it with 100%.

The mission has been initially approved for one year, with a review after nine months. It was not immediately clear when Kenya would deploy its police contingent to Haiti, but senior government officials have suggested it could come as soon as early next year.
Oil drilling Getty Images

OPEC Secretary-General Haitham Al-Ghais warned that energy prices could spike due to underinvestment.

At least $12 trillion needs to be invested in the industry through 2045, he told CNN.

"By underinvesting, we are actually endangering energy security."

If the global economy wants to avoid spiking energy prices, oil industry investments need to substantially pick up, OPEC Secretary-General Haitham Al-Ghais told CNN.

Through 2045, the industry will require at least $12 trillion in investments to avoid potentially costlier crude, he said.

"By underinvesting, we are actually endangering energy security," he said on Monday, speaking on the sidelines of the ADIPEC energy conference. "I think there are serious possibilities that prices, the volatility, will be increasing as demand grows."

Oil prices have gained rapidly in recent months, as OPEC's production cuts have impacted supply while demand has been strong amid a resilient US economy.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, peaked at about $96 a barrel last week from the resulting supply shortage. On Monday, it traded at around a $92.

When asked whether oil prices will hit $100 a barrel, Al-Ghais replied, "the factors that may lead to this number  have been there for some time and continue to be there  most notably, the under investments that we've seen in oil."

His warning comes about a week after the International Energy Agency announced that global oil, gas, and coal demand will likely peak this decade.

"Based only on today's policy settings by governments worldwide  even without any new climate policies  demand for each of the three fossil fuels is set to hit a peak in the coming years," IEA Chief Fatih Birol wrote. "This is the first time that a peak in demand is visible for each fuel this decade  earlier than many people anticipated."

But the OPEC head underlined that fossil fuels will remain an essential component of the world's energy environment, especially given the pace of population and economic growth. Renewables or hydrogen alone won't be enough to satisfy future energy demand, he told CNN.

Story continues

It's also in the interest of key OPEC members, such as Saudi Arabia, to keep the price of oil in check. While a $100 a barrel level may help the kingdom fund economic diversification, analysts have warned that further price hikes could crash global demand.

Saudi Arabia and Russia both boosted their crude exports last month, collectively increasing them by 1 million barrels, Bloomberg reported.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Meta is proposing to offer European users subscription-based versions of Instagram and Facebook if they would rather not be tracked for ads, a source said on Tuesday.

The idea, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes as the social media giant seeks to comply with a growing list of EU regulations designed to curb the power of U.S. big tech.

The company founded by Mark Zuckerberg makes its billions of dollars in profit by offering advertisers highly individualized data on users, but new European regulations and EU court decisions have made that practice harder to do.

The proposal has been put to EU regulators and is another example of big tech companies having to adapt long-held practices to meet oncoming EU rules.

The source close to the matter said subscribers in Europe could pay $10.50 a month for a desktop version of Instagram or Facebook, or $13.50 a month for Instagram on their phones.

Social media platforms have increasingly floated the idea of charging users for access to their sites, whether to comply with data privacy regulations or better guarantee the identity of users.

But the practice would be a major shift for the social media industry that grew exponentially over the past decade on an advertising model that made the site free for users in return for being tracked and seeing highly personalized ads.

The proposal could help meet several regulations, including the Digital Markets Act, which imposes a list of do's and don'ts on big tech companies in Europe, including a ban on tracking users when they surf other sites if their consent hasn't been clearly granted.

It also follows the recommendation of the EU's highest court, which in a July decision said that Meta platform users who declined to be tracked should be offered an ad-free alternative "for an appropriate fee."

That ruling echoed many previous rulings against Meta and other big tech firms in which the court ruled that the U.S. company must ask for permission to collect large amounts of personal data, striking down various workarounds that Meta had offered.

Meta declined to comment directly on the Wall Street Journal report but said in a statement that it still "believes in the value of free services which are supported by personalized ads.

"However, we continue to explore options to ensure we comply with evolving regulatory requirements."

Meta reported second-quarter revenues of $32 billion, of which $31.5 billion came from advertising. Some $7.2 billion of that came from Europe.
The office of Montanas Republican attorney general is appealing a landmark climate change ruling that said state agencies aren't doing enough to protect 16 young plaintiffs from harm caused by global warming.

The state filed notice Friday that it is going to appeal the August ruling by District Court Judge Kathy Seeley, who found the Montana Environmental Policy Act violates the plaintiffs' state constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment. The 1971 law requires state agencies to consider the potential environmental impacts of proposed projects and take public input before issuing permits.

Under a change to that law passed by the 2023 Legislature, the state Department of Environmental Quality does not have to consider the effect of greenhouses gases when issuing permits for fossil fuel projects unless the federal government declares carbon dioxide a regulated pollutant.

The plaintiffs argued they were already feeling the consequences of climate change, with smoke from worsening wildfires choking the air they breathe and droughts drying rivers that sustain agriculture, fish, wildlife and recreation. The state argued that the volume of greenhouse gases released from Montana fossil fuel projects was insignificant compared to the world's emissions.

Seeley's ruling, which followed a first-of-its-kind trial in the U.S. in June, added to a small number of legal decisions around the world that have established a government duty to protect citizens from climate change.

Last week in France, the European Court of Human Rights heard arguments from six young Portuguese people and their lawyers who said 32 European governments were violating their human rights by failing to address climate change.

It will likely be several months before the state of Montana files its brief laying out its appeal of Seeley's ruling, Bowen Greenwood, clerk of the Montana Supreme Court, said Monday.

In the meantime, the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is asking Montana residents to weigh in on potential updates to the Montana Environmental Policy Act, or MEPA. The administrative rules to implement the law were passed in the 1980s.

These regulations are showing their age and it's time to hear from Montanans about what MEPA should look like today and into the future, Chris Dorrington, director of the DEQ, said in a statement.

Montanans are being asked what changes, if any, are needed to modernize the regulations and how greenhouse gas emissions and climate change should be analyzed. At least three public hearings are scheduled this month, including one Monday night in Billings. The DEQ is also taking public comment online through the end of the year.

The issue is being considered now, Dorrington said, in part because of the successful legal challenge by Montana youth.

We want to start a thoughtful dialogue about greenhouse gas emissions and other topics, and we are seeking input that is balanced and driven by sound science, he said.
Russian prosecutors are seeking a 9-year sentence for a fugitive former state TV journalist who famously stormed a live news broadcast in protest a few weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Marina Ovsyannikova, who formerly worked as an editor at state-controlled Channel One in Russia, now lives in exile in France after escaping house arrest and fleeing Russia with her daughter last year.

Now, prosecutors are demanding the nearly decadelong sentence at Ovsyannikova's trial in absentia for distributing "fake news."

This news comes a few days after American journalist Evan Gershkovich marked six months in a Russian jail over espionage charges that he and the U.S. government vehemently deny.

Ovsyannikova's first protest took place less than three weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. She stormed a studio of Channel One during a live broadcast holding a placard that read, "Stop the war" and "They're lying to you."

The "fake news" charge relates to a protest in July 2022 when she stood on a river embankment across from the Kremlin with a poster calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a murderer.

Since the war in Ukraine began, Moscow has targeted several Russian dissident journalists through trials in absentia over their criticism related to the war in Ukraine. Such criticism is effectively illegal in Russia.

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately reply to VOA's email requesting comment.
A new malaria vaccine approved Monday for use by the World Health Organization could be rolled out in African countries in the next few months, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of childrens lives in the coming years.

The new vaccine, known as R21, was developed by Britains Oxford University along with the Serum Institute of India. It is already in use in Ghana and Burkina Faso.

This new approval for R21 has the potential now that vaccination can occur across sub-Saharan Africa and protect many more children at risk, said Professor Azra Ghani, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Imperial College London.

We estimate that if this is rolled out across the continent at the sort of coverage levels that we've seen in the implementation study so far, this could avert up to a third of malaria deaths in children under five, she said.

Dr. Hanna Nohynek, chair of WHOs Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization, said the R21 vaccine is expected to close the gap between supply and demand, enabling broader and possibly unconstrained access. Malaria vaccines introduced widely have the potential of saving tens of thousands of young lives each year, she told reporters Monday in Geneva.

African trials

The vaccine has been undergoing clinical trials in several African countries. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the approval at a press conference Monday in Geneva.

In areas with seasonal transmission, its reduced symptomatic cases of malaria by 75% in the 12 months following a three-dose series of the vaccine. A fourth dose given a year after the third was shown to maintain protection, he said.

In 2021, WHO approved the first malaria vaccine, RTS,S, made by the British pharmaceutical firm GSK.

As a malaria researcher, I used to dream of the day when we would have a safe and effective vaccine against malaria. Now we have two, Tedros told reporters.

WHO officials said there is little difference in the effectiveness of the two vaccines. However, the new R21 vaccine is cheaper to make, at around $2 to $4 a dose, with each patient needing four doses. That adds up to about half the cost of the RTS,S vaccine.

The new vaccine can also be made in much greater volumes. The Serum Institute of India is already in line to make 100 million doses a year, with plans to double that output.

Mosquito nets

Experts warn the new vaccine wont beat malaria on its own, and other preventative measures are needed, including the use of mosquito nets.

The children in both the vaccine arms and also the control arms [of the trials] were given nets. So, this additional efficacy of the vaccine is in the presence of this really important intervention. The second is something known as chemoprevention, thats providing drugs to children in high-risk areas where malaria is particularly seasonal. And this is mostly in the Sahel region in west Africa, Ghani told VOA.

Malaria burden

The World Health Organization estimates there were 247 million cases of malaria in 2021, a small increase on the previous year, and around 619,000 deaths. Ninety-five percent of cases and deaths are in Africa, and most deaths are in children under 5.

We do hope that by introducing this new vaccine, we can really make a dent in this and get us back on track to the goals which were set by the WHO to reduce malaria by 90% by 2030, Ghani added.

Dengue fever

WHO also approved a new vaccine Monday against dengue fever, another mosquito-borne disease common in tropical Latin American and Asian countries.

The drug, made by the Japanese multinational firm Takeda, was about 84% effective in clinical trials in preventing people from being hospitalized.
The unprecedented influx of more than 100,000 refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenia in less than a week has triggered a humanitarian and health crisis that will require a large-scale, long-time international effort and support to resolve, aid officials warned Tuesday.

The new arrivals need urgent emergency assistance, said Marthe Everard, special representative of the World Health Organization regional director to Armenia.

The Armenian government is doing everything it canproviding free transport to refugees to anywhere in the country and booking rooms in hotels and guest houses, said the WHO official. But the scale of the crisis is too large, she said.

Based on an assessment mission over the weekend to Goris, a key point of entry for arriving refugees, Everard said, It is clear that there are both short- and long-term health needs that demand our attention.

Speaking in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, Everard said urgent treatment in the short term was needed for vulnerable people suffering from chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

She also noted that infectious diseases including respiratory infections like COVID-19 and flu need to be monitored and treated. Last but not least, mental health and psychosocial support is critical in these circumstances, she added.

Everard said the WHO has increased its emergency aid to Armenia, deploying medical and trauma supplies and surge teams to support the Ministry of Health in helping people, including victims of a September 25 fuel depot explosion inside the enclave, located in Azerbaijan.

Last week, the WHO dispatched burns kits to support the advanced care needed for hundreds of burns patients, some of whom we met at the National Burns Unit in Yerevan over the weekend, she said. It was heartbreaking to see human suffering of this scale.

At least 170 people were killed in the explosion.

While the WHO and other U.N. and international aid agencies are providing relief to the many refugees who have arrived in Armenia, the International Committee of the Red Cross has been on the ground in Nagorno-Karabakh helping those who stayed behind.

Marco Succi, ICRC leader of the rapid deployment team, said that very few people are still in the enclaves main city after the massive exodus, so our teams have used megaphones to alert the remaining residents that we are there to help them.

He said, A couple of days ago, on the fourth floor of an apartment building, we found Susanna, an elderly cancer patient who was alone and unable to get out of her bed.

She had finished all her medication and could not take care of herself.

After ensuring that she was stable, Succi said she was brought down a narrow staircase and evacuated by ambulance.

On a personal note, I must say it is quite difficult to find the most vulnerable in need in circumstances like this and finding Susanna all on her own was an emotional moment, he said, adding that moments such as this reveal the trials and tribulations of people left behind in the rush.

'Surreal' scene

Speaking in Stepanakert-Khankendi, he said the city was completely deserted. He also said the hospitals are not functioning and that medical and administrative personnel and other officials have left.

The scene is quite surreal, he said. What was once a bustling city is now completely deserted, though essential water and electricity are still there. We see a few police on the streets to ensure security.

He said it was not clear if looting is taking place. Our teams have seen that some shops left their doors open and that residents who were not able to leave immediately entered and took some essential goods. We can presume the people who took these items were running low on food.

Succi said the ICRC had as many as 25 people working in the city. Since the exodus took place, he said the ICRC has been able to help evacuate more than 200 wounded and sick patients, including people injured in the fuel depot explosion.

He said the ICRC team also has been able to transport the remains of 229 people who died during the conflict and the depot explosion. The dignified treatment of the dead remains a key priority as is helping families find and identify their loved ones.

He said the priority now was to find those in extreme need of medical treatment, the elderly and the mentally disabled people, adding, Bringing essential food and supplies to the area also was of paramount importance.
Pakistan has decided that all citizens of neighboring Afghanistan will be required to enter the country with a valid passport and visa starting next month, similar to travelers from other countries, VOA learned Monday.

The landmark "one document regime" policy will replace the decades-old practice of granting special travel permits to individuals with divided tribes straddling the nearly 2,600-kilometer border between the two countries.

The "passport as the only traveling document is going to be implemented from November 1, 2023," according to an official federal directive sent to immigration authorities at all Afghan border crossings and seen by VOA.

"No other document shall be accepted to travel from Afghanistan to Pakistan," the document said. It instructed relevant authorities to make necessary arrangements and advertise the decision in "visible places" at all crossing points along the border.

The government has yet to make a formal announcement about the new policy. Pakistani Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti said Monday that he would discuss in detail Afghan-related policy matters at a news conference on Tuesday.

A senior Pakistani official confirmed the new travel rules for Afghans to VOA, saying Islamabad hopes Afghanistan's Taliban authorities will cooperate in implementing the decision. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The official said Islamabad was hopeful Afghanistan's Taliban authorities would cooperate in implementing the "one document regime" decision to help deter illegal crossers, including militants and smugglers.

"Since the Taliban have brought normalcy and good governance in the country, they will comply with the international norms governing the conduct of bilateral relations, including the visa regime," the Pakistani official said.

The Taliban did not immediately comment on the new travel requirements.

Passengers and trade convoys travel through the northwestern Torkham and southwestern Chaman border crossings between Pakistan and landlocked Afghanistan. Several other crossing points are used only for bilateral and transit trade activities.

The passport and visa requirement will primarily hit divided tribes in the Pashtun-dominated southern Afghan province of Kandahar and surrounding border areas.

Thousands of tribespeople travel through the Chaman border crossing daily to meet family members on the Pakistani side or in search of work and return home before sunset. They use a slip of paper, locally called tazkira, granted to them under the so-called easement rights that guarantee free travel.

The new policy comes amid a nationwide crackdown on Afghans living illegally in Pakistan or not renewing their visas.

Last Thursday, Pakistani caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani announced that his government would deport illegal Afghan and other foreign immigrants.

The move will likely hit about 1 million Afghans, including those who took refuge in the country after the hardline Taliban swept back to power in Kabul two years ago.

Pakistanis must possess a passport and valid visa to visit Afghanistan.

Jilani said that officially registered Afghan refugees and those with legal documents would not be asked to leave Pakistan. "But those who have come here illegally, whether Afghans or nationals of any country, will have to go back to their respective countries. We will strictly implement the policy."

Amnesty International renewed Monday a call for Pakistani authorities to stop harassing and arbitrarily arresting Afghans seeking refuge.

Many Afghans living in fear of persecution by the Taliban had fled to Pakistan, where they have been subjected to waves of arbitrary detentions, arrests, and the threat of deportation," Amnesty said on X, formerly Twitter.

"It is deeply concerning that the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan is not receiving due international attention," the rights watchdog wrote.

Pakistani police have, in recent days, arrested hundreds of Afghans in raids in and around the capital, Islamabad, saying they did not possess valid visas and would be deported back to their country.
Pakistan has ordered all undocumented immigrants, including 1.7 million Afghans, to leave the country by November 1, vowing mass deportations for those who stay.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar approved the plan Tuesday at a high-level meeting of his top civilian and military officials in Islamabad.

"All illegal immigrants residing in Pakistan have until November 1 to return to their countries voluntarily," Interior Minister Sarfaraz Bugti told a post-meeting news conference. "And if they fail to leave by the deadline, all our state law enforcement agencies will unleash an operation with full-throttle to deport them.

Bugti did not share any numbers for undocumented immigrants in Pakistan, but he estimated that more than 1.7 million Afghans are among them.

He said the officials have also decided that Afghans may enter Pakistan only with a valid passport and visa starting November 1.

The "one document regime" policy will replace the decades-old practice of granting special travel permits to individuals with divided tribes straddling the nearly 2,600-kilometer (1,600-mile) border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The crackdown on undocumented Afghan immigrants stems from a dramatic surge in terrorist attacks in Pakistan in recent months. Officials say the deadly violence is being directed from militant sanctuaries in Afghanistan.

"We have come under 24 suicide bomb attacks since January, and 14 of them were carried out by Afghan nationals," Bugti said. He added that eight of the 11 militants who recently raided two Pakistani military installations in southwestern Baluchistan province were Afghans.

"We have evidence that Afghans were involved in these attacks and are taking up the issue through our foreign ministry with Taliban authorities in Afghanistan," he said.

The minister said the involvement of Afghans in violence against Pakistan showed that "they are not honoring the edict" of Hibatullah Akhunddza, the supreme leader of the Taliban, that forbids cross-border attacks.

"We hope and respect him greatly and expect his edict to be enforced in letter and spirit," Bugti said.

Islamabad maintains that leaders and militants of the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, have moved to Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power there two years ago and have stepped up cross-border attacks.

De facto Afghan authorities in Kabul deny allowing the TTP or any other group to threaten other countries, particularly Pakistan, in line with their counterterrorism commitments.

Minister Bugti said that more than 1.4 million Afghans residing in Pakistan as officially designated refugees and 850,000 Afghan citizen card holders are not the target of the deportation campaign.

Pakistan would issue only as many visas as it can manage if would-be Afghan deportees would like to come back to the country, Bugti said.

"We have the capacity, but it is our prerogative to decide how many of them we want to host and how many visas we need to issue," the minister said while responding to a VOA question.

TTP-led insurgent attacks in Pakistan have killed more than 750 civilians and security forces in the first nine months of 2023, showing more than a 19% increase compared with the previous year, according to Pakistani officials and independent assessments.

Critics said the issue of undocumented immigrants needs to be addressed but raised questions about whether this will help Pakistan tackle the growing terrorism problem facing it.

Unfortunately, it is a frustrated response of an angry regime which in the face of rising militant threat is taking it out on the hapless Afghan refugees, said Abdul Basit, associate research fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore.

It will further increase an already hostile Afghan public opinion against the Pakistani state," Basit said.

The United Nations and global human rights groups have expressed concerns over Pakistani plans to evict Afghans who illegally immigrated. They say hundreds of thousands who fled Afghanistan after the hardline Taliban seized power in August 2021 are among those facing deportation.

Many Afghans living in fear of persecution by the Taliban had fled to Pakistan, where they have been subjected to waves of arbitrary detentions, arrests and the threat of deportation," Amnesty International said Monday on X, formerly Twitter. "It is deeply concerning that the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan is not receiving due international attention."
A charity group in Zimbabwe is raising funds for a basic product that can be critical for people living with albinism  sunscreen. The group, called The Noble Hands of Zimbabwe, released a report in September saying 1 in 3 people with albinism in Zimbabwe die of skin cancer before the age of 40, including children as young as 8. Columbus Mavhunga has more from Harare, Zimbabwe. VOA footage by Blessing Chigwenhembe.
A court in Spains southeastern city of Murcia opened an investigation into a fire that tore through two adjoining discos, killing 13 people. It is the countrys deadliest nightclub fire in more than 30 years.

The discos, Teatre and Fondo Milagros, were popular dance spots, located on the outskirts of town. In January 2022, city officials ordered the venues closed after Teatres owner divided the building it was in to establish Fondo Milagros.

The order was disregarded.

The fire erupted just before sunrise Sunday. Authorities said the inferno probably spread quickly through air vents.

A firefighter said that six of the bodies were found clustered in restrooms, perhaps because people were hiding from the smoke, while the other seven bodies were scattered across a mezzanine above the entrance. In the restroom, a wall gave way and covered two of the dead in rubble.

The goal of the probe is to determine whether the fire broke out because of negligence, the citys top prosecutor Jose Luis Diaz Manzanera said in an interview with La Opinion de Murcia, the local newspaper.

If the tragedy arose from recklessness, he said, those responsible for the deaths could face a maximum of nine years in prison. Diaz Manzanera promised an exhaustive search to uncover the truth of what happened.

We must go centimeter by centimeter, checking everything, he said. Lets see how it ends up. There may have been a short circuit that was not caused by negligence.

Law enforcement and a team of forensic investigators scoured the site on Monday to gather evidence.

By Monday night, police said that they had identified six victims using fingerprints but that naming the remaining seven would prove very difficult.

The victims family members have turned in toothbrushes, combs and other toiletries to law enforcement hoping DNA samples can aid in the identification process.

No father or mother can, or should, have to go through a tragedy like this, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday. He called the eyewitness testimony heartbreaking.
U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar has returned to work after a Monday night carjacking in which three masked men held him at gunpoint in Washington, D.C.

Speaking to the press on Tuesday, the Texas Democrat said that he was unscathed and made light of the situation. [The police] recovered the car. They recovered everything. But what really got me upset is [the suspects] took my sushi.

Cueller said that although the men wore masks and knit caps, he could tell that they were young. An eyewitness who alerted a nearby U.S. Capitol Police agent described the suspects as probably around the age of 16. [They] swarmed [Cuellars] vehicle, pointed firearms in his face and demanded the keys to the car.

I looked at one with a gun, another with a gun, and I felt one behind me, Cuellar said. They said they wanted my car, and I said, Sure. You got to keep calm under those situations, and they took off.

Cuellar handed his keys to the men, who were dressed in black. No one was injured.

United States Capitol Police officers canvassed the area and recovered the congressmans stolen phone. The Metropolitan Police Department later found Cuellars Toyota Crossover at another location.

Cuellars chief of staff, Jacob Hochberg, said in a statement on Monday evening that Cuellar is working with local law enforcement.

On Tuesday, Cuellar praised the police response and said that his message is very simple: Youve got to support law enforcement.

In a Tuesday meeting with fellow House Democrats, Representative Brad Schneider of Illinois said colleagues told Cuellar they are glad he is safe.

It could have been so much worse, Schneider said. We just pray for him.

Mondays carjacking was the second violent crime against a congressperson in Washington this year. In February, Representative Angie Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, was attacked in her apartment complex. She escaped with only bruises.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press.
GALWAY, Ireland, October 03, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Loci Orthopaedics announced today that it has successfully completed enrolment of a 15-patient clinical feasibility study for its patented InDx Implant System. The Thumb Hemi-Arthroplasty with Natural Kinematics (THANKS) study is looking at the surgical implantation of the device as well as improvements in pain, grip, and quality of life for those affected by thumb base joint arthritis.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003168396/en/

Loci Orthopaedics InDx device. (Photo: Business Wire)

Dr. Brendan Boland, Executive Chairperson of Loci Orthopaedics, said, "Thumb base joint arthritis is a very prevalent and disabling condition that needs a better surgical solution. It is a significant milestone for the company to achieve completed enrolment of this clinical study. The company is very grateful to the study participants who are supporting the development of a much-needed new treatment option. We look forward to completing follow-up and reporting on the results next year."

The company announced completion of the clinical trial enrolment just prior to the start of the annual meeting of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH) in Toronto.

Primary Clinical Trial Investigator Prof. Filip Stockmans, Specialist Orthopaedic Hand Surgeon, KU Leuven, Belgium, commented, "There is a cohort of younger active patients that currently are not optimally served by the treatment options available to them, particularly in the US. The InDx Implant System may provide an additional treatment alternative for a large cohort, with the potential to treat these patients in a less invasive fashion than what is currently available. The InDx Implant System is the first implant to mimic the complex biomechanics of the thumb base joint, with the goal of restoring native biomechanics."

Barry Russell, Chief Executive Officer of Loci Orthopaedics, added, "There is a significant unmet clinical need to provide an evidence-based surgical solution for this condition. This study will help demonstrate the feasibility of this implant use as well as the positive clinical outcomes that an evidence-based solution can bring. The novelty of this solution is reflected in its De Novo status with the US FDA as it is not like any prior implant developed to date. We look forward to continuing our work with the FDA to gain market approval for this important advancement in CMC surgery."

Story continues

About Thumb Base Joint Arthritis

Most activities that involve grasping or pinching are possible because of the thumbs remarkable range of motion. But dexterity comes at a price  an increased risk of osteoarthritis (OA) in the first carpometacarpal (CMC) joint, where the thumb meets the trapezium bone in the wrist. Thumb arthritis is common with aging and occurs when cartilage wears away from the ends of the bones that form the joint at the base of the thumb.

Thumb arthritis can cause severe pain, swelling, and decreased strength and range of motion, making it difficult to do simple tasks, such as turning doorknobs and opening jars. Treatment generally involves a combination of medication and splints. Severe thumb arthritis might require surgery. It is estimated that 5% of the population have symptomatic thumb base joint arthritis which causes significant hand pain and has a major negative impact on quality of life.

About Loci Orthopaedics

Loci Orthopaedics Ltd., based in Galway, Ireland, is a research and clinical-stage medical technology company headquartered in Galway, Ireland. It was founded in 2017 and focuses on the development of novel, evidence-based technologies to meet large unmet clinical needs in the orthopaedics extremities area. For more information about Loci Orthopaedics, visit: http://www.lociorthopaedics.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003168396/en/

Contacts

info@lociorthopaedics.com
As the U.S. government seemed headed for a possible shutdown last week, cybersecurity firms began picking up on an alarming trend: a spike in cyberattacks targeting government agencies and the U.S. defense industry.

It has some analysts concerned that U.S. adversaries and criminal hackers might have been preparing to take advantage of weaker-than-usual cybersecurity if lawmakers had not been able to reach a deal to keep U.S. agencies open past September 30.

Check Point Software last week said it had detected an 18% increase in cyberattacks against U.S. agencies and U.S. defense companies during the previous 30 days, compared with weekly averages for the first half of the year.

The attacks, according to Check Point, focused on using malware programs designed to steal information and credentials, as well as a focus on exploiting known vulnerabilities.

A second cybersecurity company, Trellix, told VOA that it too saw "a significant spike" in ransomware attacks on U.S. government agencies over the past 30 days.

Trellix attributed 45% of the malicious cyber activity to Royal ransomware, which previously had been used to target a variety of U.S. manufacturing, health care and education sectors.

Agencies would be affected

A surge in the use of Royal ransomware earlier this year prompted the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to issue an advisory this past March. And some cybersecurity analysts have linked Royal ransomware to Russian cybercriminals.

As for the recent spike in attacks, using Royal and other malware, analysts are concerned.

"I can't state this is related to the impending shutdown," Patrick Flynn, head of the Advanced Programs Group at Trellix, told VOA via email. "But one could speculate it probably has something to do with it."

Concerns

While refusing to comment directly on the pace of cyberattacks as it related to the potential shutdown, U.S. government agencies did express concern.

"[The] Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's (CISA) capacity to provide timely and actionable guidance to help partners defend their networks would be degraded," the Department of Homeland Security said in a fact sheet before the shutdown was averted.

"CISA would also be forced to suspend both physical and cybersecurity assessments for government and industry partners, including election officials as well as target rich, cyber poor sectors like water, K-12, and health care, which are prime targets for ransomware," it added.

DHS did say that had there been a shutdown, some of its employees who specialize in cybersecurity would have been required to work without pay.

While not commenting directly on the question of cybersecurity, the FBI told VOA in a statement that some of its personnel would also have been required to work in the case of a shutdown to support bureau activities that "involve protecting life and property."

For now, some of those fears have been put aside after lawmakers agreed on a bill that will fund the U.S. government until November 17.

But if ongoing talks on legislation to fully fund the government for the coming year stall, it could again put U.S. government networks in the crosshairs.

Attacks seem part of trend

Not all cybersecurity analysts are convinced a government shutdown would make the U.S. more vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Trellix told VOA that while malicious cyber activity spiked in the month leading up to passage of the temporary funding bill, the attacks seemed to be part of a larger, months-long trend that has seen cyber actors increasingly target governments across the globe.

Other cybersecurity firms caution that other recent U.S. government shutdowns, including those in 2013 and in late 2018 to early 2019, have not led to a jump in attacks.

"Mandiant hasn't historically seen any upward trends of cyberattacks tied to government shutdown," said Ben Read, the head of cyber espionage analysis at Mandiant-Google Cloud.
Turkey said Tuesday it detained at least 67 people suspected of having links to a Kurdish militant group.

Interior Minister Yerlikaya said authorities carried out raids in 16 provinces.

The sweeps targeting alleged members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, came days after the group claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Ankara that injured two police officers.

Turkey launched airstrikes hours later against PKK sites in northern Iraq, where the group is based.

The PKK, which is designated as a terror organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
Ukraines air force said Tuesday it destroyed 29 drones and a cruise missile that Russia used to attack Ukrainian regions overnight.

The Ukrainian military said most of the drones targeted the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine and the Dnipropetrovsk region in the central part of the country.

Serhiy Lysak, the regional governor of Dnipropetrovsk, said falling debris from the intercepts damaged an industrial site in the city of Pavlohrad and caused a fire at a private firm in Dnipro.

The attacks followed renewed pledges of support from the European Union, as EU foreign ministers met Monday in Kyiv.

Western aid for Ukraine has come under political pressure after a pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia, an EU and NATO member, and the U.S. Congress omitted funding for Ukraine from its temporary spending bill. The Ukrainian military counter-offensive has been slower than Western leaders had hoped before autumn mud clogs the treads of their donated tanks.

Our victory explicitly depends on our cooperation  the more powerful and principled steps we take together, the sooner this war will end, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the EU foreign ministers during the meeting.

Zelenskyy noted that Ukraine continues to protect its people and its economy from continuous Russian attacks, that its counteroffensive aimed at liberating its occupied territories is progressing steadily and reminded the EU leadership that Ukraine needs more money, more weapons and more military training to achieve its goals. He also asked them to intensify sanctions against Russia.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for efforts to prepare Ukraine for the coming winter, including through air defense and guaranteed energy supplies, after Russia bombed Ukraines energy infrastructure last year.

"Last winter, we saw the brutal way in which the Russian president is waging this war," said Baerbock. "We must prevent this together with everything we have, as far as possible.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said holding the meeting in Ukraines capital was a show of resolute and lasting support for Ukraine.

It is also a message to Russia that it should not count on our weariness. We will be there for a long time to come, Colonna told reporters.

Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot said Russia must be held accountable for its aggression in Ukraine and that it is important to pressure Russia with sanctions.

We have to do whatever it takes, as long as it takes, for the freedom of the people of Ukraine, she said.

Russia Shelling

At least two people were killed and 10 injured, including children, by Russian shelling of Ukraines southern region of Kherson. Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces pounded residential areas, shops, medical facilities and other infrastructure overnight.

In the eastern city of Kharkiv, which is located near the Russian border, officials announced plans to build a school entirely underground in response to frequent Russian bomb and missile attacks.

Students have used online courses and met in Kharkivs metro stations to avoid the dangers.

Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram that the new underground school will enable thousands of Kharkiv children to continue their safe face-to-face education even during missile threats.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
The United Nations' top official in divided Libya on Monday called for a unified mechanism to lead the reconstruction of a coastal city that was wrecked by devastating floods last month.

U.N. special envoy for Libya Abdoulaye Bathily said in a statement that such a mechanism is required amid "unilateral and competing initiatives" by Libyan actors and institutions on the reconstruction of the Mediterranean city of Derna and other flood-impacted areas.

Devastating rainfall and floods, triggered by Mediterranean Storm Daniel, hit parts of eastern Libya last month. The floods overwhelmed two depleted dams outside Derna on September 11, causing massive waters that washed away residential buildings to the sea and left as much as one-third of Derna's housing and infrastructure damaged, according to the U.N.'s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Government officials and aid agencies have given estimated death tolls ranging from more than 4,000 to over 11,000. The bodies of many of the people killed still are under rubble or in the Mediterranean, according to search teams.

As Libya remains divided, with two rival administrations claiming legitimacy and each wanting to oversee the reconstruction of Derna, Bathily called for "a unified national mechanism ... required to effectively and efficiently take forward the reconstruction efforts in the flood-affected areas."

He urged Libyan rival authorities and their international partners to facilitate the establishment of the unified mechanism to ensure "transparency and accountability."

Following the disaster, many in and outside Libya called for an international investigation, reflecting the deep public mistrust in state institutions. The two dams had not been maintained for decades despite repeated warnings that they were depleted.

Bathily's call for a unified mechanism quickly gained support from the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany and Italy.

The five governments said in a joint statement that they "strongly support" a proposal to "deliver transparent and accountable relief and response to the reconstruction needs in the wake of the flood disaster."

The oil-rich North African nation has been in chaos since 2011, when an Arab Spring uprising, backed by NATO, ousted longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. For most of the past decade, rival administrations have claimed authority to lead Libya.

The country's east and south have been under the control of General Khalifa Hifter and his self-styled Libyan National Army, which is allied with a parliament-confirmed government. A rival administration is based in the capital, Tripoli, and enjoys the support of most of the international community.
The U.N. Security Council voted Monday to authorize an international force to support Haitis police amid a gang-driven security crisis.

The vote on this text represents significant progress towards resolving the multidimensional crisis that Haiti is going through, Haitian Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus told the council. It is a glimmer of hope for the people that have for too long been suffering the consequences of a difficult political, socioeconomic, security and humanitarian situation."

Thirteen of the 15 council members voted for the mission. China and Russia abstained.

The resolution, drafted by the United States and Ecuador, authorizes the mission for an initial period of one year. Diplomats did not say how fast the force would be on the ground in Haiti or how big it would be, but it will likely take several months before it can deploy.

Speaking to reporters after the vote, Geneus said he hoped the mission could deploy quickly.

We hope as soon as possible, because the people are suffering, he said. The gangs are really raising hell in Haiti, so they have to be stopped as soon as possible, with all means necessary.

Kenya has volunteered to lead the Multinational Security Support Mission and has pledged about a thousand police officers.

We are steadfast in the belief that your adoption of this resolution will be a seminal contribution to the renaissance of Haitis security, Kenyan Ambassador Martin Kimani told the council.

Kenyas legislature still must approve its offer to lead the multinational force.

The Bahamas, Jamaica, and Antigua and Barbuda have also said they will contribute personnel. A senior U.S. administration official told reporters Monday that several countries have expressed interest in contributing to the mission and were waiting for a strong mandate from the council before stepping forward.

The United States has committed about $200 million in support, including logistics and equipment for the mission, but is not sending any personnel.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, While this action represents important progress, the United States renews its urgent call to political actors, including Prime Minister [Ariel] Henry and members of the opposition, to broaden consensus and restore democratic order in Haiti.

The Haitian government and civil society, the U.N., and other international partners have long called for this mission, which will provide critical international assistance for the Haitian National Police to address gang violence and pave the way toward long-term stability in Haiti, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement.

Nearly a year ago, the government of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry asked the Security Council to urgently send help.

Henry repeated that appeal during his address to the U.N. General Assembly last month. He said a force combining police and military personnel would be an initial step in creating an environment for the government to function again.

Violent armed gangs control much of the capital and have spread to other parts of the country. They have carried out massacres and kidnappings, human trafficking and sexual violence. The deteriorating security situation has also created a humanitarian crisis, with almost half the population, around 5 million people, experiencing acute hunger.

The U.N. representative in Haiti, Maria Isabel Salvador, welcomed the authorization of the mission as a positive and decisive step to bring peace and stability to the country.

It is important to emphasize that, unlike recent international missions deployed in Haiti, the MSS mission is not a U.N. mission, she noted.

Haiti has had difficulties in the past with U.N. peacekeepers deployed to help stabilize the country. After the 2010 earthquake, a cholera epidemic ravaged the country infecting more than 800,000 people and killing an estimated 10,000. The outbreak was traced to sewage from a U.N. peacekeeping camp that contaminated a main water supply. There have also been scores of paternity suits against U.N. peacekeepers.

In the new multinational missions mandate, both issues are addressed. There are provisions for countries sending personnel to adopt appropriate wastewater management and requests for oversight mechanisms to prevent human rights violations or abuses in particular sexual exploitation and abuse.

Personnel deployed to Haiti must also be vetted, and any who are credibly accused of misconduct while deployed will be sent home.

Chris Hannas contributed to this report.
The U.S. Justice Department announced a sweeping crackdown on the global fentanyl network, charging eight Chinese chemical companies and 12 of their employees in connection with the deadly opioid crisis ravaging the United States.

In eight separate indictments unsealed in Florida, federal prosecutors accused the companies and their employees of producing fentanyl and methamphetamine, distributing synthetic opioids, and supplying precursor chemicals for the illicit drug.

"We know that the global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China," Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference in Washington.

"The United States government is focused on breaking apart every link in that chain, getting fentanyl out of our communities, and bringing those who put it there to justice," he said.

The Treasury Department on Tuesday announced sanctions against 28 people and entities in China and Canada, including the China-based network accused of manufacturing and distributing illicit drugs in the United States.

This is the second time the U.S. Justice Department has charged Chinese companies and their employees for trafficking fentanyl precursor chemicals into the United States.

In June, four Chinese chemical manufacturing companies and eight executives and employees were indicted for illegally trafficking chemicals used to make fentanyl. Two of the defendants were arrested.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment on the latest charges.

In June, the Chinese Foreign Ministry blasted the first round of U.S. indictments as "bullyism that tramples on international law."

Deadly drug threat

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that can kill with a dose as tiny as a few grains of salt, is wreaking havoc on the nation.

More than 105,000 Americans died of drug overdoses from February 2022 to January 2023, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Most of these deaths involved fentanyl or its analogues, which are chemically similar but often more lethal.

Today, fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49, making it the deadliest drug threat the U.S. has ever faced, according to law enforcement officials.

Attack on supply chain

The fentanyl crisis is fueled by a global supply chain that extends from China, where the chemicals are produced, to Mexico, where cartels mix the drug and smuggle it across the border into the United States.

The DEA says it is attacking every aspect of this global supply chain, targeting the producers, traffickers and distributors of fentanyl.

"These eight cases are the result of DEA's efforts to attack the fentanyl supply chain where it starts  in China," Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram said at the news conference.

In addition to fentanyl precursors and analogues, Chinese firms are exporting dangerous additives  xylazine and nitazenes  into the U.S. and Mexico, she said.

"DEA will not stop until we defeat this threat," Milgram said.

The cases announced on Tuesday span two Florida districts, where the defendants allegedly shipped the drug and its precursors.

In the Middle District of Florida, five Chinese companies and eight nationals face charges of illegally importing fentanyl and fentanyl-related chemicals into the United States.

Prosecutors say the defendants openly advertised their ability to evade U.S. customs and deliver fentanyl to Florida and elsewhere in the United States.

In the Southern District of Florida, three Chinese companies and four officers and employees face charges of trafficking fentanyl and synthetic opioids, importing precursor chemicals, defrauding the U.S. postal service, and making and using counterfeit postage.
A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators visiting China next week hope to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator Mike Crapo are among those set to make the trip.

Schumers office said last month the trip would also include stops in Japan and South Korea.

The tour comes at a time when U.S. officials have boosted engagement with Chinese officials, including visits to China by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

In addition to expressing the need to have open lines of communication, U.S. officials have also highlighted a need to address issues such as trade, and challenges that U.S. businesses face operating in China.

Some information for this report came from Reuters
The annual Nobel Prize announcements continue Tuesday in the Swedish capital Stockholm when the winner  or winners  of the physics prize will be revealed.

The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics was shared by Alain Aspect of France, John Clauser of the United States and Anton Zeilinger of Austria.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize, cited the three scientists for pioneering quantum information science.

The committee said each man carried out groundbreaking experiments using entangled quantum states, where two particles behave like a single unit even when they are separated.

The Nobel announcements began Monday with the prize in Medicine going to Hungarys Kataline Kariko and Drew Weissman of the United States for their joint research that led to the rapid development of the mRNA COVID vaccines.

The Nobel laureates for chemistry, literature and peace will be announced Wednesday through Friday, while economics will be announced Monday.

All the categories except economics were established in the will of 19th century Swedish businessman Alfred Nobel, who made a fortune with his invention of dynamite. The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901, five years after his death.

The economics prize was established in 1968 by Swedens central bank Sveriges Riksbank in Nobels memory, with the first laureates, Norways Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen of the Netherlands, announced the next year.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday said the bloc remains steadfast in its support for Ukraine, announcing a proposed spending package of up to $5.25 billion for Kyiv in 2024.

Borrell made the comments during a press briefing alongside Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv where EU foreign ministers convened their first ever off-site meeting in a display of support for Ukraine.

Though Monday's meeting in Kyiv was touted by Borrell as a historic first, it comes at an awkward time for the pro-Ukraine Western alliance. A pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia, an EU and NATO member, and the U.S. Congress omitted funding for Ukraine from its temporary spending bill. The Ukrainian military counter-offensive has been slower than Western leaders had hoped before autumn mud clogs the treads of their donated tanks.

Our victory explicitly depends on our cooperation  the more powerful and principled steps we take together, the sooner this war will end, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the EU Foreign ministers during the meeting.

Zelenskyy noted that Ukraine continues to protect its people and its economy from continuous Russian attacks, that its counteroffensive aimed at liberating its occupied territories is progressing steadily and reminded the EU leadership that Ukraine needs more money, more weapons and more military training to achieve its goals. He also asked them to intensify sanctions against Russia.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for efforts to prepare Ukraine for the coming winter, including through air defense and guaranteed energy supplies, after Russia bombed Ukraines energy infrastructure last year.

"Last winter, we saw the brutal way in which the Russian president is waging this war," said Baerbock. "We must prevent this together with everything we have, as far as possible.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said holding the meeting in Ukraines capital was a show of resolute and lasting support for Ukraine.

It is also a message to Russia that it should not count on our weariness. We will be there for a long time to come, Colonna told reporters.

Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot said Russia must be held accountable for its aggression in Ukraine and that it is important to pressure Russia with sanctions.

We have to do whatever it takes, as long as it takes, for the freedom of the people of Ukraine, she said.

Russian shelling

Meanwhile, at least two people were killed and 10 were injured, including children, by Russian shelling of Ukraines southern region of Kherson. Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces pounded residential areas, shops, medical facilities and other infrastructure overnight.

In September alone, 22 people were killed from Russias shelling of the city and its settlements said Roman Mrochko, head of Kherson city's military administration.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Russian position on Western support

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that Russia believes fatigue with the war in Ukraine will grow in Western countries, but that it expects the United States to continue its involvement.

The White House has been in contact with allies and partners about continued funding for Ukraine and those conversations will continue, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said during a Monday press briefing.

Congress passed a stopgap bill on Saturday that extended government funding till November 17, avoiding a government shutdown but dropping additional aid to Ukraine, a White House priority opposed by a growing number of Republican lawmakers.

In a speech Sunday, Zelenskyy said nothing would weaken his country's fight against Russia.

U.S. President Joe Biden pressed Sunday for congressional Republicans to back a bill to provide more aid to Ukraine, saying he was "sick and tired" of the political brinkmanship that nearly led to a government shutdown.

Many lawmakers, however, acknowledge that winning approval for Ukraine assistance in Congress is growing more difficult as the war between Russia and Ukraine grinds on.

Voting in the House this past week pointed to potential trouble ahead. Nearly half of House Republicans voted to strip $300 million from a defense spending bill to train Ukrainian soldiers and purchase weapons. The money later was approved separately, but opponents of support for Ukraine celebrated their growing numbers.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
One on One with Joe Korkowski, is heard Saturdays on KXRA-1490AM / 100.3fm/105.7fm (@7:40am) and KXRA-92.3FM (@7:00am), as well as each Sunday morning on KXRZ Z99.3fm (@10:15am).

The interview is also re-broadcast on Monday mornings on KX92 at 10:00am and on Z99 at 9:10am.
(Bloomberg) -- Canadas Lundin Mining Corp. said Chief Executive Officer Peter Rockandel has resigned and will be replaced by president and former director Jack Lundin.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The announcement marks the latest in a wave of leadership departures since the mining company moved its headquarters from Toronto to Vancouver in September, prompting several executives and managers to step down.

Shares of Lundin Mining fell as much as 6.1% to C$9.13 Tuesday in Toronto, its biggest intraday drop since May.

Rockandel will leave his post at the end of the year and Lundin will assume the role on Jan. 1, the company said in a Monday statement. Rockandel will then continue to act as an advisor, according to the statement.

Rockandel moved to Vancouver as part of the headquarter shift in September, but said in a Monday interview he plans to return to Toronto, where his family resides.

We wanted to ensure we got continuity over the next five years to carry out the next phase with the company, he said. I was willing to commit to two or three years, but to commit to five would be a bit of a stretch. Familys important to me.

Rockandel joined Lundin Mining in 2018 and served as senior vice president of corporate development and investor relations before being appointed CEO in 2021. During his tenure, the company acquired a majority interest in the Caserones copper mine in Chile and advanced several projects across South America.

Lundin Mining produces copper and gold from mines in South America, including Chile, Brazil and Argentina, and gets about 65% of annual revenue from copper. The Lundin family trust owns about 15.4% of the company.

Story continues

(Adds shares in third graph.)

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Poland is governed by the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS). This political grouping is deeply opposed to the European Union, not only as a supranational project, but also as the unity of the continent. Indeed, throughout its history, Poland has completely disappeared four times. Its powerful Russian and German neighbors have often shared its territory. So the Poles dont want a continental unity that has already enslaved them several times. On the contrary, they remember with nostalgia the period when they asserted themselves in alliance with Lithuania. They therefore promote a third way, between Moscow and Berlin: "Prometheism". Its about freeing oneself from both Russian and German influences, and developing with ones Central European neighbors. This is the project of the "Intermarium", known since 2016 as the "Three Seas Initiative": to confederate all the states from the Baltic to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Knowing that, for Warsaw, the Three Seas Initiative will eventually replace the European Union, Poland cant count on Brussels. It has found a new ally in the United States, a great power far away and therefore, a priori, not dangerous.

This alliance was illustrated during the war against Iraq. Poland gave its all, out of loyalty to its new ally. It used the funds made available by the European Union to upgrade its economy, to buy... US fighter jets.

Polish distrust of the Russians should not mask their distrust of the Germans. Last week, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, tried to interfere in the Polish election campaign by insisting that the visa scandal was continuing. Piotr Wawryk, Deputy Foreign Minister, has already resigned after it was revealed that his administration was selling Polish visas for 5,000 euros. This new accusation has no basis in fact, but it was supposed to cast doubt on the PiS administration. Zbigniew Rau, Polands Minister of Foreign Affairs, took it very badly. He bluntly reminded Germany to respect its sovereignty.

While the majority of Poles support the nationalism of the PiS, the opposition is organized around the Civic Platform of former European Council President (2014-19) Donald Tusk. As a child, Tusk played with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The two families knew each other and had the privilege of traveling within the Eastern bloc. Donald Tusk hoped to win this time against the PiS. He took on board Brussels accusations against Mateusz Morawieckis government and the PiSs conception of freedom. He relied on the fact that Brussels has still not paid out the subsidies allocated under the Recovery and Resilience Fund (FRR). However, current events are not in his or the EUs favor.

At the start of Russias special military operation in Ukraine, Warsaw declared its solidarity with Kiev because Washington was calling for mobilization against Moscow. It seemed normal to give asylum to 1.5 million Ukrainians and to integrate this former Soviet country into the "Three Seas Initiative". However, the Poles knew no more than anyone else about what was really happening in Ukraine. Historically, they remembered that Ukrainian "integral nationalists" had supported the Nazis and massacred 120,000 Poles under their orders. However, since the break-up of the Soviet Union, they had accepted many Ukrainians as immigrant workers. They therefore took it upon themselves to charitably receive the wives and children of their poor neighbors.

The PiS government then banned any criticism of Volodymyr Zelenskys Ukraine, interpreting it as "Russian propaganda". Right from the start of the war, the Polish Defense Council forbade Internet operators from relaying the Voltairenet.org website and Voltaire Network articles in the country. This military censorship prevented the Polish ruling class from understanding what the Zelensky government was really about. Poland has become Ukraines main military ally, after the United States.

On September 22, 2023, the Canadian House of Commons welcomed President Volodymyr Zelensky for a solemn speech. After his speech, the presiding officer, Anthony Rota, introduced a member of the audience as "a Ukrainian-Canadian veteran of the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians" and as both "a Ukrainian hero and a Canadian hero", a member of the "1st Ukrainian Division". Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, parliamentarians and the public applauded wildly. Immediately, however, outraged Jewish associations protested: the "1st Ukrainian Division" is the SS Galicia! After three days of controversy, Anthony Rota apologized to the Jews and eventually resigned. But the Polish ambassador, Witold Dzielski, would have none of it. He demanded an apology for the insult to the 120,000 Poles massacred by Ukrainian mainstream nationalists. Przemyslaw Czarnek, Polands Minister of Education, began extradition proceedings against the former SS officer.

In an instant, the Ukrainian bluff was cleared in the eyes of the Poles. As Beata Szydo, former PiS Prime Minister and now Member of the European Parliament, has pointed out, the problem is not Anthony Rotas ignorance, but the attitude of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland (co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine). None of these personalities can claim to be unaware of what the "1st Ukrainian Division" of sinister memory was. Yet none of them showed the slightest embarrassment and warned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of what was happening. On the contrary, they applauded with pride.

Incidentally, the Ukrainian hero was not a member of the SS combat troops. He belonged to a reprisal unit, tasked with murdering people who resisted the Third Reich.

So how can we fail to remember that the two most important battles of the Ukrainian war were fought in Marioupol and Bakhmut? Both were fought under the command of the military leader of the Integral Nationalists, Andriy Biletsky, alias the "White Fuhrer", with whom President Zelensky was filmed a month ago.

Suddenly, the Poles realize that they acted hastily in granting Ukraine observer status in the "Three Seas Initiative". It is obvious that, although Jewish, Volodymyr Zelensky is leaning on the "mass murderers of Jews", as Israeli general Benny Gantz put it.

The Canadian incident comes at a time when Polish farmers are up in arms against unfair competition from the US-Ukrainian food industry. Three US agribusiness multinationals, Cargill, Dupont and Monsanto, have bought up a quarter of Ukraines territory. They import their cereals and chickens into the European Union at unbeatable prices. They dont pay for their GMO seeds donated by the US State Department. The European Commission had initially banned their imports, knowing that these products did not meet EU standards, but bowed to US pressure. Three states, including Poland, passed laws banning them. However, President Zelensky has announced that, as these states are members of the EU, he is taking them to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Agriculture is Polands main source of income. In the midst of a legislative election campaign, the question of Ukrainian imports is at the center of debate. The right-wing Confederation party came out on top. The PiS would then be forced to form an alliance with it to stay in power. The Minister of Agriculture addressed the Ukrainian people. He told them that taking Poland to the WTO would seriously damage relations between the two countries. But nothing happened.

At the same time, the Polish population as a whole is becoming exasperated with the steady stream of Ukrainian refugees. The Polish president, Andrzej Duda, has spoken of a possible halt to aid to Ukrainian refugees, given the opposition they are now encountering in public opinion. He compared Ukraine to a drowning country that poses a danger to its rescuer: sometimes a drowning person struggles helter-skelter and drags his rescuer with him.

Finally, the only state for which Poland has any reverence is the Holy See. Yet Ukraine has just curtly voiced its opposition to the Holy Father, whom it accuses of not hating Russian culture. In so doing, it has released Poland from its commitments to him.

The PiS government then decided to revive the Przewodow affair. On November 15, 2022, missiles fell on this Polish village, not far from the Ukrainian border, killing two people and destroying agricultural facilities. Initially, they were attributed to Russia, but fearing that Poland might provoke a world war, the United States revealed that they were Ukrainian. The case was hushed up. The Ukrainian judiciary has just revealed its investigation report. It confirms what Washington was saying. Poland should therefore demand reparations from Ukraine.

The Canadian incident is not over. For the moment, neither the Slovaks nor the Slovenes, who were victims of the SS Galicia, have received an apology. Moreover, the Polish-Ukrainian quarrel will not be without consequences. Firstly, because today Polish territory is the main transit base for Western aid to the Ukraine. Secondly, it will have repercussions on the Baltic States, particularly Lithuania.
Photo: Amy Sussman/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images

Grimes has sued her on-and-off partner, Elon Musk to establish parental rights over their three children. Multiple outlets reported that Grimes, born Claire Boucher, filed a petition to establish parental relationship on September 29 in San Francisco. The filing is sealed, but Vulture has reached out to Grimess lawyer and representatives for both parties. Its a common legal practice for unmarried parents, but notably, Grimes has not requested custody rights or child support. The petition comes just weeks after Grimes tweeted (oops, posted to X) at Musks biographer, Walter Isaacson, asking him to tell Elon to let me see my son or plz respond to my lawyer. (She later deleted the post.) Shes actually referring to their third child, Techno Mechanicus. They also share a daughter, Exa Dark Siderl, born in 2022, and a son, X  A-12, born in 2020. After accidentally revealing their new kid, Grimes later wrote, I wish I could show u how cute little Techno is  but my priority rn is keeping my babies out of the public eye.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture. Photos: Getty Images

Duane Davis wasnt arrested for the murder of Tupac Shakur until September 29, but his alleged involvement in the shooting was hardly news. Davis, a South Side Crips member known as Keefe D, was known to police as a suspect shortly after the killing, even if hed never been charged. Since then, hes publicly admitted to being in the car that shot Tupac not just in multiple interviews but also in his own memoir.

Following the 2018 series Death Row Chronicles on BET, which featured some of Keefe Ds first public comments on the shooting, Las Vegas police reviewed the case and confirmed it remained open. Police later said, upon Keefe Ds arrest, that this and following interviews led to him being charged. It wasnt until 2018 that this case was reinvigorated, as additional information came to light related to this homicide, specifically Duane Daviss own admissions to his involvement in this homicide investigation that he provided to numerous different media outlets, Lieutenant Jason Johansson said at a press conference on September 29. When police searched Keefe Ds house in July 2023, they took a copy of his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, co-written with Yusuf Jah, in which he further detailed the shooting.

Keefe D never claimed to have pulled the trigger  thats said to be his nephew, Orlando Baby Lane Anderson. Anderson was allegedly in the back of a Cadillac with Keefe D and two other South Side Crips on September 7, 1996; they pulled up next to Death Row Records head Suge Knight and Tupac in a BMW when shots were fired. (Baby Lane died in an unrelated gang shooting in 1998, but previously denied involvement.) Police now say Keefe D was the shot caller of the crew and orchestrated the plan that was carried out. Keefe D has not commented on his arrest and has yet to submit a plea. Below, everything hes previously said about Tupacs killing.

Police confession

Keefe D first spoke about his involvement in the shooting with Los Angeles police in 2008 for immunity in a PCP ring case. His confession was later reported in a 2011 book, Murder Rap, by Greg Kading, a former detective on the case. L.A. Weekly further reported his comments in a cover story. (The confession was also the basis for the 2018 Netflix series Unsolved, in which Lahmard Tate played Keefe D.) Keefe D told investigators that his nephew, Orlando Baby Lane Anderson, shot Tupac from the car they were in. If they would have drove on my side, I would have popped them, Keefe D added. The gun was a Glock .40, he said, from a secret compartment in the armrest. And I aint never told nobody that story, man, he said.

Keefe D claimed that Sean Diddy Combs ordered the hit, allegedly telling him, Man, I want to get rid of them dudes, referring to Tupac and Suge Knight. (Combs told L.A. Weekly that Keefe Ds account was pure fiction and completely ridiculous.) Keefe D claimed Diddys issue with Knight stemmed from Knights infamous diss to the Bad Boy executive at the 1995 Source Awards. First, Diddy only wanted Knight, Keefe D would say, but he later targeted Tupac as well after Hit Em Up, a diss on the Notorious B.I.G. and Bad Boy. That pissed [Combs] off, Keefe D claimed. They allegedly settled the terms of the hit at Greenblatts Deli, where Keefe D asked for $1 million to kill both Tupac and Knight. Keefe D alleged he told Diddy, Well wipe their ass out quick, man. Its nothing. After Tupacs killing, Keefe D said the South Side Crips never got the alleged $500,000 payment from Diddy.

Unrelated to the shooting, Keefe D also told police that Diddy used his brown 1964 Chevy in Ushers Can U Get Wit It music video. He claimed the car got fucked up from the shoot and that Combs paid him $2,500 to get it repainted. Vulture reached out to Diddy for comment on Keefe Ds claims but did not hear back.

Death Row Chronicles on BET

Im the only one alive who can really tell you the story about the Tupac killing, Keefe D said in this 2018 series, explaining that he was finally opening up about what allegedly happened because he had cancer. I have nothing else to lose, he added. All I care about is the truth. In the series, Keefe D admitted publicly to being in the Cadillac that gunned down Tupac for the first time. He sat in the passenger seat he claimed, with Terrence Bubble Up Brown driving and Orlando Baby Lane Anderson and DeAndre Freaky Smith in the back. Keefe D said that they went to Club 662, which was owned by Suge Knight, to wait for Tupac to perform, but left before he showed up. Then, while driving away, they saw Tupac stick his head out of a car after some girls yelled his name. If he wouldnt even have been out the window, we would have never seen him, Keefe D said.

Keefe Ds car then made a U-turn, he said, and they got to a stoplight next to Tupacs car. When we pulled up, I was in the front seat, he said. Happened to see my friend Suge. Keefe D then said someone from the back shot Tupac, but did not say whom. Gonna keep it for the code of the streets, he said. It just came from the backseat, bro.

Compton Street Legend

In his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, Keefe D provided more details to claims he had previously told police. He wrote of an alleged meeting with Diddy at Greenblatts where he requested the hit on Tupac and Suge Knight. Like a lion on the Serengeti, Im able to smell and see fear, he wrote. Puffy was full of fear. Keefe D wrote that he apparently told Diddy, Thats not a problem. He also claimed Hit Em Up angered the South Side Crips too, because Tupac allegedly said, If you want to be down with Bad Boy, then fuck you too!

The South Side Crips had a regular tradition of going to Las Vegas to watch Mike Tyson fight. Little did I know, this trip to Vegas, unlike the ones before, would change my life, Keefe D wrote. After the fight, he and the Crips planned to meet in the cafe at the MGM Grand, but Baby Lane, his nephew, didnt show up. Then, some 118 East Coast Crips came and told us that they saw some Death Row niggas jump on my nephew down by the casino, he said. Just days earlier, one of the South Side Crips had stolen a Death Row chain from a Death Row associate at the Lakewood Mall in California; he had allegedly been part of the group that attacked Baby Lane. Keefe D claimed this made the hit on Tupac more urgent. When conversations would come up about a million dollar bounty on the heads of Suge Knight and Tupac Shakur, that was business, he wrote. But after Tupac, Suge, and them Death Row niggas jumped on my nephew Baby Lane, the shit became ominously personal.

Keefe D goes on to describe getting a .40 Glock from a man named Zip, who was hanging out with the rapper Foxy Brown. He turned to me and said, Its time to get the money, Keefe D described. They planned to go to Club 662 for a Death Row afterparty where Tupac was supposed to perform. He wrote that he first planned to confront Knight, whom he had long known. But after Tupac and Knight didnt show up for an hour and a half, Keefe D called his crew off. Lucky for them they never showed up because it would have been like Al Capones Valentines Day Massacre if they had, he wrote.

When the group stopped to buy champagne, Keefe D moved to the Cadillac with Bubble Up, Freaky, and Baby Lane, and put the Glock in the back. He then described seeing Tupac stick his head out of a BMW, Bubble Up turning their car around, and pulling up next to Tupac and Knight at a stoplight. He wrote that Knight looked terrified, and Tupac reached for a gun. Thats when the fireworks started, he wrote. One of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started bustin back. They then drove off and even saw the two ambulances carrying Tupac and Knight. The group ditched their Cadillac and then popped our bottles and partied like it was any other night.

Keefe D showed little remorse writing about the alleged killing. The moral of the story, real Gangsters, are nothing to fuck with! he wrote. He went on to call the shooting another day at the office and wrote that Tupacs death was collateral damage. He continued:

At this point in my life, I can say that I have a deep sense of remorse for what happened to Tupac. He was a talented artist with tons of potential to impact the world. I hate that Tupacs family, friends, and fans, especially his mother, Afeni Shakur, had to go through the pain of losing her son. Its terrible losing people like that; I know that pain too well.

However, I stand firm on the point that Tupac, Suge Knight, and the rest of those niggas didnt have any business putting their hands on my beloved nephew Baby Lane. Period. Them jumping on my nephew gave us the ultimate green light to do something to their ass.

Tupac chose the wrong game to play and the wrong niggas to play with. Suge and them should have done a better job of protecting that dude because they knew who the fuck we were and the kind of shit we were capable of. Tupac may not have known, but Suge and his peeps definitely knew. Tupac was a guppy that got swallowed up by some ferocious sharks. He shouldnt have ever got involved in that bullshit of trying to be a thug.

VladTV

Shortly after publishing Compton Street Legend, Keefe D spoke about his life and the Tupac shooting with DJ Vlad. He didnt expand on many of the books details, often responding with some version of, Let them read about it. When asked about who in the car shot Tupac, he replied, Im not gonna go into details on that one. Keep the streets, homie. When Vlad read a passage about the moment the shooting began, Keefe D said, Basically, yeah.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture. Photos: Getty Images

In our current sonic battle of the shapes, we have a winner: Sphere is the hottest venue right now. The interior of the Las Vegas spectacle looks like a different universe, thanks to the 580,000 square feet of 16K LED screens, and the creative potential for artists willing to put in the work is endless. U2 has a residency set up until the years end, but heres who we think should perform there next.

Dead and Co.

I was lucky enough to see two Dead and Co. shows during their final tour this past summer and reveled in every minute of it. They eventually played their final show on July 16, 2023, in San Francisco, wrapping up a tour that grossed $115 million  their most successful ever. Bob Weir, John Mayer, and the gang insisted it would be their last one ever, but guess what? I dont mind if they lied! I know they would 1,000 percent reunite to play Sphere because what is the point of having 360-degree trippy visuals without having 20,000 people singing Franklins Tower at it?! Dead fans deserve to sphere next. Morgan Baila

Hans Zimmer

Let my man Hans Zimmer cook. BWWOOOOOOMMMM.Nick Quah

Talking Heads

A few years ago, I interviewed Jerry Harrison and the subject of a Talking Heads reunion  an idea that David Byrne has consistently dismissed  was broached. His response intrigued me: Stadiums. We would try to do our interpretation, he explained, of what a show at that scale could be. Ive been thinking of this ever since. Granted, Sphere is not a stadium. It seats about 20,000 people. But Harrison specifically said he wanted the challenge of translating Talking Heads visual ideas on a grandiose scale, and theres nothing quite as grandiose as whatever the hell this unnatural wonder is. With the band enjoying a soft reconciliation due to the rerelease of Stop Making Sense, why not ride that wave a little longer to these enormous screens with limitless potential? Theyre all in good health. They know fans are begging for it. Makes sense to me. Devon Ivie

Beyonce

Beyonce performs Renaissance but when she says, Look around, everybody on mute, she means everyone around the globe. Zoe Haylock

LCD Soundsystem

James Murphy is secretly one of the most dramatic people on Earth (complimentary). Look no further than the LCD Soundsystem farewell tour (and The Long Goodbye live album and Shut Up and Play the Hits documentary) as proof. His maniacal dedication to precise acoustics and performance mixed with his flair for the dramatic makes LCD the perfect band for venue. Imagine grooving to North American Scum, cry-jumping to All My Friends, and feeling old during Losing My Edge, but in a sphere. Throw in a couple hundred disco balls and Noah Baumbachproduced visuals of New York City haunts, suburban hellscapes, and debaucherous nightlife and we have ourselves the perfectly weird dance party. Nic Juarez

The Muppets

Its been almost 40 years since the Muppets took their act on tour. And while it may take them a while to get back into performing shape (theyre not as young as they once were, and nobody wants to see Gonzo hurt his back during his flying cannonball act), their plushness would bring an inventive texture to the domes visuals that human acts just cant match. Plus, imagine Kermit singing Rainbow Connection against an endless 360-degree skyscape. Im tearing up already. Curtis Yee

Lady Gaga

Access to performing in Sphere should only be reserved for the highest caliber of performers; those able to command a stage and screen, as well as invoke a level of showmanship that Las Vegas needs and deserves. Of course, Lady Gaga is always in that damn city, and if her penchant for Vegas-style residencies means anything, a performance at Sphere would fit into both her and the stadiums oeuvre perfectly. Just imagine 2011 Lady Gaga Born This Way Ballera visuals, or even Chromatica Balls Museum of Brutality projected across the big ass dome: When done right, Im sure Sphere would be able to serve a diva quite well. Reanna Cruz

Tame Impala

Tame Impala in their peak toured stadiums and festivals alike. Their psych-trippy sound and their penchant for a good melting visual would absolutely blow the minds of their drug-fueled fans. Best of luck to those actively tripping and trying to leave the 20K-person venue at the end of the show! Gaby Grossman

Astronomers

Sphere should do a planetarium-style educational presentation about the stars, culminating in a laser light show grand finale set to the country hits of the 90s. Billy Ray Cyrus should perform Achy Breaky Heart live for this. Anne Victoria Clark

P!nk

P!nk is in a continual cycle of upping the ante. For her new album Trustfall, she learned to roller skate and took her acrobatic live show outdoors for the first time. After youve already done most stunts imaginable  and some out of imagination  in arenas around the world, what could be next? Flying around a giant sphere. I dont know the safety precautions of rigging the place for P!nks acrobatics, but I do know seeing her fly around, with projections everywhere, would be absolutely stunning. (She could really give the 300-level crowd a show.) Justin Curto

Kanye West

For obvious reasons, the answer is not Ye now. I do not want to see this artist I once admired use Sphere perform a blown-up version of the strange net and Yoohoo (Netanyahu) puppet show he did when he was interviewed by Alex Jones in 2022 and somehow managed to win a game of abhorrent belief chicken with him of all people. But Kanye West at pretty much any point in his career before he took a turn towards the irredeemably problematic shortly after the release of The Life of Pablo in 2016? Hell yes. Sphere is a grandiose venue, and it requires someone unafraid to meet its maximalism inch for inch, not unlike Kanye on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. But its scale also threatens to overwhelm, and it requires an artist who understands the value of austerity, not unlike Kanye on Yeezus. It is a blank canvas waiting to be executive produced, and for all his faults, Kanye remains the most ambitious executive producer of his generation. Hershal Pandya

Tribute acts

Tribute acts playing nothing but sphere-themed songs. Wrecking Ball. Great Balls of Fire. I Get Around. Lucky Ball and Chain. You Spin Me Round (Like a Record). Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Just keep doing it, 24 hours a day, in an endless  circle. Christopher Bonanos
It looks like Dr. Bruce Banner has business in WWII-era Europe. Not to meet up with BFF Captain America, who was busy being a lab rat for the U.S. government, but to care for his blind daughter and protect a national treasure. In the new trailer for Netflixs All the Light We Cannot See, we see the daughter in question  a teenage girl named Marie-Laure (Aria Mia Loberti) who hosts a dissident radio broadcast in France during the Nazi invasion. She unknowingly connects with Werner Pfennig (Louis Hofmann), a member of Hitler Youth and the young solider tasked with eliminating her. In this time of darkness, of invading cities, Im trying to remember light lasts forever, Marie-Laure ends her broadcast. Unbeknownst to her, Werner sits in his home in Germany reciting the end of her sign-off. Darkness lasts not even for one second when you turn on the light. Shawn Levy directs the four-part limited series based on Anthony Doerrs Pulitzer Prizewinning novel of the same name. Houses Hugh Laurie and Babylon Berlins Lars Eidinger round out the cast. All the Light We Cannot See hits Netflix on November 2. If the streamer cared about numbers, Captain America would make a cameo.

This post has been updated.
Photo: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for ReedPop

Its almost Hallo-dean, and we are finally getting some updates on the Community movie, even if they are a little frightening. Creator Dan Harmon spoke with The Hollywood Reporter on the fate of the film postwriters strike and as the SAG-AFTRA strike continues. The production was set for earlier this year in Atlanta but as the delay goes on, Harmon is worried about the eventual return with the casts busy schedule. He wonders, By the time we can recoordinate, what are the odds that everyones schedule is going to once again align? Stars Donald Glover, Alison Brie, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Joel McHale, and Gillian Jacobs made up the core study group that would be returning for the film. Coincidentally, all graduated Greendale Community College with honors as they have busy careers earning Grammys, Emmys, and Oscars with the occasional viral roast. Hopefully, theres an opportuni-dean to get them back together for one more round of paintball.
Sometimes when you binge enough teen shows in a short enough span of time, the storytelling rhythms all begin to feel the same. When I watched Gossip Girl in its entirety earlier in the pandemic, for example, every episode seemed to introduce several interpersonal conflicts (between friends, family, or romantic partners) only to resolve them with exchanged apologies following a climactic blowup. (The apology exchanges often felt even more stilted in the 2021 reboot.) Sometimes grudges last longer, but they inevitably end the same way, and its the writers responsibility to keep the formula entertaining.

I suppose thats a framework that exists in plenty of genres  your traditional sitcom episode might begin with a miscommunication and end with a moment of shared understanding  but it feels especially common in a genre where young people regularly fuck up and then have to figure out how to hold themselves accountable. So when my roommate remarked, They say sorry a lot in this show, during this episode of Gen V, it made me reflect. Going back, I counted at least 12 uses of the word sorry in #ThinkBrink  some in the context of an empathetic gesture (Im sorry for your loss) and some as genuine apologies (Im sorry I hurt you).

All of this is to say that the actual character stuff in Gen V can be a little predictable so far, but it also feels appropriate for a show like this. This wasnt the first episode of the show that vaguely reminded me of Gossip Girl, and thats not a bad thing. Take the classic Josh Schwartz plotting staple of bringing the whole cast together for an event (usually an expensive party) toward the end of every episode. Here, that means everyone converging at the memorial tribute gala (and silent auction) for the late Professor Brinkerhoff.

That event means something different for everybody. For Dean Shetty, its an opportunity to squeeze big donations out of wealthy donors after theyve stalled. Despite her maternal shtick with Marie, its clear from the beginning of the episode that inviting her bright new student to the gala is self-serving. At first, Marie is all too willing to party with alumni, especially considering the possibility of being the first freshman ranked No. 1 in history. But she realizes before long that Shetty was using her to save her own ass.

As much as Marie insists she wants to stay out of the spotlight, a big aspect of her character is the desire to be widely perceived as a hero. Her goal, deep down, isnt just to reunite with her sister but to prove herself to someone who thinks of her as a monster. Recently, Marie made the selfish choice of taking full credit for fighting Golden Boy, but it doesnt truly gnaw at her until she experiences the scorn of her friends  and until she sees how much the dean used her. So when Jordan and Cate call her out at the gala, she blurts out the truth about her parents, finally giving them the full context of her story.

Its a nice example of the scene I described earlier, especially because it allows Cate to share the truth of her own traumatic origin story: She discovered her mind-control powers when she was 9 years old and accidentally commanded her little brother to go away and never come back. Even more disturbingly, her parents never touched her again after that point, viewing her as a monster just like Maries sister sees her. Not everyone at Godolkin has a story quite this awful, but theyve all seen the dark side of discovering superpowers.

One such person is Jordan, whose parents show up to honor Brink at the gala. Their father, Paul, quickly reveals that while he may not think of himself as intolerant, hes still not accepting of their gender fluidity. At the gala, Jordan gets sick of staying in boy mode to appease their parents and switches to girl mode, reminding their dad that theyre only a boy half the time, if that. He argues that Jordans case is different from most queer kids; they dont have a choice, but Jordan does.

The episode frames this as an ignorant comment, and Jordan gets a chance to remind their dad that theyve always been the same person; theyve always just been Jordan, no matter how they outwardly present. But its hard to know exactly how to write about Jordans gender at this point given the unprecedented nature of their situation: Is the implication that getting injected with Compound V as a child actually changed Jordans gender in addition to their physical manifestation, or were they always destined to have this dual identity?

The latter would make sense  Jordans new abilities were probably a helpful way of exploring and expressing two identities they already experienced  but the show is a little unclear about it. Regardless, I dont have much of an issue with this yet. Ill just be interested to hear more from Jordan about their experience as the show goes on. This story is an obvious metaphor for real-life genderqueer teens struggling to make their parents understand their identity, but its not quite a one-to-one comparison.

The real center of this episode, though, is Emma, who spends a lot of time denying to Marie and her mom that she needs help. The show is also playing a little bit coy about how seriously we should take both Maries cutting and Emmas purging, but its clear that, much like Cate, Emma is overdoing it a little (if its healthy for her to do at all). But where theres mess and trauma, Courtenay Fortney sees star potential. She and Emmas momager have been discussing giving Emma her own reality show about battling her eating disorder. But when she makes just one suggestion  that the show be inspirational, not a cautionary tale  she gets immediate pushback.

After all the fakery and manipulation, its very satisfying to see Andre and Emma meet for the first time and share a joint. For one, Chance Perdomo and Lizze Broadway share a nice early platonic chemistry; we dont spend too much time with them shooting the shit, but it feels like theyd get along naturally, and thats always a relief amid all the violence and cynicism. But when Andre fills her in on the Woods, and Emma accepts the task of shrinking down to break Sam Riordan out of captivity, its a big moment. After being told constantly that Emma has to work with what she has, shes crossing from the performing arts half of the show into the crime-fighting half.

We see the seeds of another interesting romantic pairing during the mission when Sam traps a shrunk-down Emma, thinking shes a hallucination until her lack of knowledge about him assures him she isnt a vision. Their flirting is a little cheesy, but theres a lot of story potential to that unfortunate lie she tells in order to persuade him to escape. I dont think hell be happy when he finds out that the brother who supposedly sent Emma to break him out is actually dead.

The episode ends with a cliffhanger as armed men flood into Sams cell, possibly catching Emma right after one of the gnarliest kills Ive seen in this universe in a while: Emma crawling through one ear of a guard and out the other, leaving a trail of popped blood vessels in her wake. Welcome to the murder club, Emma! Come in, the waters warm.

Extra Credit

 The opening flashback gives us the memorable image of Sam putting his fist through a mans chest and out his mouth. Lovely.

 Im not really cheering for Andre and Cate hooking up yet, and it mightve been nice to let their sexual tension build up a little more first. I found Andre and Emmas first meeting much more exciting in this episode.

 A solid one-liner that basically encapsulates Justine: I want everyone to know how sorry I am.

 You look an inch or two shorter than usual, so you might need to add 50 calories.

 Very icky (in a good way) moment when the dean receives this admiring comment about Marie: Shes even more perfectly imperfect in person. We never see any adult actually caring about her; shes just their perfect protagonist, a tool to make them more money.

 Did I miss something, or how could Sam tell that Emma was pretty? That girl was half an inch tall! But I guess he probably has super-sight or something.

 Perhaps the best single moment in these first three episodes is the extreme close-up on Polaritys face as he switches eerily from panicked (Youre gonna get yourself killed. Drop it.) to genial (Hey, Kevin!). What Sean Patrick Thomas does with his eyebrows in that moment is amazing, and kudos to director Phil Sgriccia for capturing it.
The former Rainforest Cafe in Chicago once featured a costumed frog named Cha Cha selling beef lava nachos. Plans now call for a new business on the site to instead have budtenders serving marijuana with names such as Bionic Cheetah and Hood Candyz.

But for the second time, the transition of the abandoned restaurant at 605 N. Clark St. into a cannabis store has run into problems  despite an about-face from state regulators who once rejected the proposal.

The holdup comes from one resident fighting against what he characterizes as an improper partnership in which social equity cannabis license holder Bio-Pharm LLC, is acting as a front for an established multistate company, Progressive Treatment Solutions, or PTS. In the meantime, no work has been done on the site, and the original plans to open this year have gone by the wayside.

The delay reflects uncertainty over the deal caused by Robert Brown, who lives in the River North neighborhood that he says has become the citys unofficial weed district, with four pot shops already operating within a few blocks of each other.

While Brown has argued that the partnership is invalid, his legal argument rests on a narrow procedural problem that he says is representative of the broader issue. Brown filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court, claiming that the city Zoning Board of Appeals approval of a special-use permit last year for the shop was illegal, because a key Bio-Pharm executive on the application failed to attend the hearing.

A judge recently threw out the suit on technical grounds, but gave Brown another chance to file suit if he can show he will be adversely affected by the shop. Brown believes the store will drive up crime and lower property values. But he is fighting a lonely fight.

The local alderman, Brendan Reilly, had introduced legislation to allow pot sales downtown, where they had been banned under Mayor Lori Lightfoot. River North Residents Association Director Emeritus Brian Israel said residents previously opposed the pot shops, fearing crime and loitering pot smokers  but since other stores have opened in the area, those concerns havent borne out.

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Progressive Treatment Solutions Corp. ran into problems once before trying to open at the site. State regulators rejected their request, because only designated social equity businesses are allowed to operate with 1,500 feet of other shops.

So PTS formed a partnership with Bio-Pharm, LLC a startup that won a conditional social equity license, through a management agreement under new state rules. But economic disclosures showed that PTS was paying all the consultants bills prior to the zoning hearing, including $25,000 for an architect, and $5,000 per month each for attorney Mara Georges and Resolute PA public affairs.

PTS, located in Palatine, is a multistate cannabis company with ownership led by David Flood, a member of the family that runs Flood Brothers waste management, and whose marketing director is listed online as Patrick Flood. Its CEO is former CTA board Chairman Terry Peterson. It operates a cannabis growing facility in East St. Louis, and five Consume dispensaries in Illinois.

Bio-Pharm officials said they qualify as a social equity licensee because its majority owner and manager, Michael Munroe Jr., had a marijuana arrest in 1972. His father started the Pickens-Kane Moving & Storage Co. in Chicago. His son Kevin Munroe is chief operating officer of Bio-Pharm. But Michael Munroe Jr. never showed up for questioning at the community hearing or the zoning board meeting on the proposed weed shop, as required by the boards own rules.

Initially, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation denied the request for the joint operation, according to emails Brown acquired under the Freedom of Information Act. The state agency disclosed the information only after the Illinois attorney generals office ruled that the agency had improperly denied Browns request by trying to claim that emails from the agency relating to a license application were exempt from disclosure.

This  application for adult use licensure cannot be approved as submitted, Vaughn Bentley, state deputy director of cannabis control, wrote in January of this year. He noted that an operating license may only be issued to the entity that won the original conditional social equity license, in this case Bio-Pharm alone, he underlined, not PTS.

In response to questions from the Tribune about the matter, the department also noted that a court ruling has held that conditional licenses may not be sold or transferred and does not allow management agreements that have the effect of changing ownership.

But by March, after further communications, Bentley had changed his mind. At this time I feel comfortable approving the application with full licensure to follow an inspection, he wrote, without explanation.

State regulators refused to elaborate, again citing state law that prohibits the release of information about state cannabis applications and supporting documents. They referred the Tribune to an overview of the licensing process and updated guidance for management service agreements.

In addition, Bio-Pharm was issued its conditional license in July 2022, and had 180 days to open under state law. It was granted an additional 180 days extension, and would have had to show a hardship as to why it couldnt secure a location in that time, which Brown argues should also disqualify them.

At a community hearing on the proposal in 2022, all the area residents who spoke opposed the idea. At the zoning board hearing in November of last year, Jay Ceithaml, a River North resident, predicted it would be a traffic nightmare.

But medical marijuana patient and nearby resident Matt Matamuro testified that the empty storefront, across from the Rock n Roll McDonalds, attracts people loitering at all hours, while the weed shop would have security guards around the clock.

We have 200 bars  but adding another dispensary is suddenly something we have to come and talk for? he said.

Bio-Pharm and PTS officials did not return repeated requests for comment, and Brown did not want to be quoted for the story.

Their zoning attorney, Georges, told the Tribune only, Bio-Pharm/PTS anticipate beginning soon on development of the site, but could not say when that may happen.

When state lawmakers expanded the number of recreational marijuana licenses, they gave preference for licenses to social equity applicants, generally defined as those with low-level marijuana arrests or those from areas of high poverty and crime. The law was meant to add diversity to the cannabis industry in Illinois, which is almost exclusively owned by wealthy white males, though minorities were disproportionately imprisoned for cannabis offenses.

The state has awarded nearly 200 social equity licenses, but few have opened, mainly because owners have extreme difficulties getting financing for a business that remains illegal under federal law. Congress is considering a bill known as SAFER that would allow federally licensed banks to work with cannabis businesses.

rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com
Leader in Math Learning Centers Renews Franchise Agreement with Existing Franchisee Committed to Opening 25 Additional Locations

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Mathnasium Learning Centers, an internationally known franchise with over 1,100 math-tutoring centers worldwide, announces they have renewed the master franchise agreement in Vietnam with Mr. Phan Tan Nghia for an additional ten years. The renewed agreement confirms a commitment to open an additional 25 centers, solidifying Vietnam as the brand's largest international market.

Mathnasium Logo (PRNewsfoto/Mathnasium)

Mr. Nghia originally joined Mathnasium in 2013, and has since grown his portfolio to 28 locations across Vietnam. As a large, multi-brand developer in the country, and with impressive business acumen, revenue and enrollment numbers are at an all-time high. He's grown his Mathnasium Center's student-base per center to the highest level in the Mathnasium system.

"I am thrilled to announce the renewal of our franchise agreement with Mathnasium Learning Centers in Vietnam for another ten years," said Mr. Pham Tan Nghia. "Our continued relationship exemplifies our unwavering commitment to providing exceptional math education to students across the country. It has been an incredible journey and I am grateful for the opportunity to grow our portfolio even further."

Mathnasium has experienced impressive international growth in 2023, adding two additional countries and growing its global footprint with 11 new international centers opening in the first half of the year, and many more slated to open by the end of the year. With the news of this Vietnam franchise agreement renewal, company leadership projects international development to grow by more than 30% in 2023, compared to the previous year. There continues to be vast growth potential across India, Pakistan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Spain, and several South American countries, among others.

"Our goal is to reach the milestone of opening our 100th overseas location by 2024, and this renewed agreement in Vietnam brings us closer to realizing that vision," said Bob Kaufman, SVP Franchise Operations at Mathnasium. "We are incredibly proud of Mathnasium Vietnam's achievements and look forward to a continued future helping kids in Vietnam. This relationship is a testament to the strength of this brand, and to our shared commitment in providing exceptional math education to students across the country."

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Mathnasium Learning Centers specialize in math-only tutoring and are committed to providing the world's best instruction. The goal: meet students where they are and teach children math in a way that makes sense to them. For decades the Mathnasium Method has transformed the way kids learn math  building students' understanding of math concepts through personalized instruction and an individualized learning plan  all while producing tremendous results, and helping students achieve their full potential in math and in life.

Mathnasium has experienced a record increase in student enrollments as the spike in supplemental education continues to climb. This paired with its proven 20-year-plus business model has contributed to the brand's long-standing industry success as it continues to expand its global footprint.

The brand's impressive performance has earned multiple awards and recognition, most notably ranking No. 80 in Entrepreneur's highly competitive 2023 Franchise 500 ranking, and No. 1 within the math-tutoring category.

With prime territories available, Mathnasium provides franchisees with comprehensive training and support, including an initial training program, ongoing training, a balanced approach between corporate and locally driven marketing to capture the addressable market, and access to proprietary software tools and resources.

For information about Mathnasium's franchise opportunities, visit  https://mathnasiumfranchise.com/.

About Mathnasium

Mathnasium Learning Centers is North America's leading math-only supplemental education franchise. Since 2002, the Mathnasium Method  the result of decades of hands-on instruction and development  has been transforming the lives of children in grades K-12 by offering comprehensive assessments, fully individualized learning plans, and teaching true math comprehension. With more than 1,100 learning centers worldwide in 10 countries, Mathnasium has been ranked on Entrepreneur Magazine's list of top 500 franchises 16 times since 2004. For more information about Mathnasium franchise opportunities, visit https://mathnasiumfranchise.com/.

Media Contact: Kelly Hammond, Fishman Public Relations, KHammond@fishmanpr.com

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SOURCE Mathnasium
Florence mayor says ban on new short-term rentals in city centre is response to "cry for help" from local residents.

Florence has banned new Airbnbs from opening in the UNESCO area of its historic centre as the Italian city cracks down on a surge of short-term rentals for tourists.

The ban, approved by the council on Monday night, is not retroactive and will not affect current Airbnb rental owners who will be offered three years of tax breaks if they switch to long-term residential rentals.

In a post on social media, Florence mayor Dario Nardella said the short-term tourist rental market has grown "out of proportion" over the years and has "put the city to the test".

Nardella said the consequences are "visible to all: loss of identity of the historic centre, housing insecurity, increase in the cost of living and a drastic reduction in the availability of housing."

La grande maggioranza dei fiorentini appoggia la nostra iniziativa per limitare gli affitti turistici brevi che oggi porteremo in Consiglio Comunale. Vogliamo sostenere la residenza, tutelare il centro storico, calmierare i prezzi degli affitti per lavoratori, famiglie e studenti pic.twitter.com/9f5Nog27b8  Dario Nardella (@DarioNardella) October 2, 2023

In a speech published on the city website, Nardella said the new measure was in response "to the legitimate cry for help coming from our students, young couples, families in need.

The centre-left mayor cited a study published a few days ago by Corriere della Sera which revealed that 29 per cent of available housing in the historic centre of Florence is rented on the Airbnb platform.

He said that in 2016 the city had fewer than 6,000 rentals listed on Airbnb, compared to more than 14,000 today, noting that during that space of time the average cost of monthly rents for ordinary residential rentals has increased by 42 per cent.

Nardella made reference to the 40,000 Florentines residing in the city centre who have "suddenly found themselves living in 'apartment-hotels'" with increased expenses and "doorbells ringing at the most unlikely hours by tourists asking for assistance from residents as if they were hotel staff."

Nardella also complained that plans by Italy's right-wing government to regulate the short-term rental sector do not go far enough, describing the move by Florence as "a concrete step" but "not a panacea" to tackling the problem.
Christopher A. Wray, who has been increasingly under attack from congressional Republicans, said the people accusing the law enforcement agency of bias are themselves trying to gain a political advantage at the FBIs expense.
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John Odom, a Donald Trump supporter and big Republican donor, has taken the extraordinary step of requesting that a GOP candidate return his $100,000 donation. The reason for Odoms demand is even more unusual: Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, who is running for governor, hired former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as a political adviser. Odom believes that hiring Lewandowski is a moral outrage, so he wants his money back.

Lewandowski isnt the former Trump campaign chairman, a convicted felon who shared confidential 2016 polling data with his business partner, a Russian intelligence officer. Thats Paul Manafort, another member of the MAGA elite, who was pardoned by Trump in his final, lawless days as president. Lewandowski, you may recall, is the guy who grabbed a young female reporter for the right-wing propaganda website Breitbart, lied about it, and then was exposed by video evidence. He was subsequently accused by another Trump supporter of spanking her at a party at the Washington hotel where Trump processed what look very much like bribes.

However, what upset Odom, chief executive of an Idaho construction company, wasnt the full-scale assault on law and decency by Trumpism writ large. It was something very personal. At a 2021 fundraising event in Las Vegas, a visibly intoxicated Lewandowski stalked and sexually harassed Odoms then-wife, Trashelle Odom. Heres how she described it.

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On the evening of September 26 in Las Vegas, Nevada, I attended a dinner to support a charity and spend time with wonderful friends, Odom said in a statement to Politico. He repeatedly touched me inappropriately, said vile and disgusting things to me, stalked me, and made me feel violated and fearful, she said, referring to Lewandowski.

According to a statement provided by an Odom family attorney, Lewandowski allegedly remarked on the size of his genitalia, described his sexual performance and showed Odom his hotel room key. After the incident, Odom told people that Lewandowski repeatedly spoke about sex while using expletives, Politico reported.

In effect, Odom describes Lewandowski moving on her like a b---h, which happens to be how Trump described pursuing another married woman who rejected his own advances.

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The famous transcript of Trumps Access Hollywood remarks doesnt end with Trump bragging of sexual assault. He proceeds to leer at the young woman assigned to greet him outside his bus, and comment on her body before commencing the kind of repartee familiar to every waitress who has ever fended off a geriatric creep after his third Manhattan.

Why would Lewandowski think there is anything wrong with such behavior, which was emphatically endorsed by the entire MAGA movement? Why should Odom think Lewandowski out of line for emulating the MAGA king? Stalking women, and humiliating them, is MAGA certified.

Trump was recently confirmed as a rapist by a New York judge and jury. Two female witnesses in that trial gave sworn, credible, testimony that Trump had attacked them, as well. Trumps first wife, Ivana, stated in a deposition that Trump had raped her in a bout of rage over his hair. (She later withdrew the claim.) Trump, of course, bragged of barging in on naked teen beauty pageant contestants and agreed with a radio personality who said his daughter, Ivanka, was a piece of ass. Former Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said Trumps conduct toward one female White House aide was so predatory that she worked to make sure the president wasnt alone with the young woman.

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Political degeneracy breeds sexual violence. Authoritarian thuggery and sexual thuggery are nearly always partners. Silvio Berlusconi, the dissolute former Italian prime minister known for Putinism, corruption and parties with underage girls, a hardy Trumpist trifecta, said in 2009, that Italy wouldnt be able to effectively police rape because there were too many beautiful girls.

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In Strongmen, her 2020 book on Trump and other authoritarian thugs, Ruth Ben-Ghiat includes a chapter titled Virility  right between chapters on Propaganda and Corruption. Misogyny and sexual domination were key to Trumps political and personal brand from the start. In the White House, Trump presented frequent photographic tableaux of White men gathered in the Oval Office, dominating the space, dominating the nation, asserting, and exercising, racial and sexual privilege.

Like a man who thinks climate change is someone elses problem until his home floods, John Odom appears to have assumed that the moral and political degeneracy of Trumpism would not reach his doorstep. Rich, White and male, he likely assumed he was insulated from its harms. Meanwhile, Odoms ex-wife, who Lewandowski groped and stalked, is showing true MAGA fortitude. She said she doesnt mind Landry hiring her stalker and says half of the $100,000 Odom donation is rightly hers.

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As Ben-Ghiat writes, Many men who support these leaders agendas of female subordination realize, too late, that the ultimate aim is to humiliate them as well.

Elsewhere in Bloomberg Opinion:

 Shutdown Averted. Now What?: Jonathan Bernstein

 New York Says Trump Committed Fraud. Now Comes the Price Tag.: Timothy OBrien

 The US Deserves a Better Vaccine Rollout Than This: Lisa Jarvis

For more Bloomberg Opinion, subscribe to our newsletter .

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 US politics and policy. Previously, he was an editor for the Week and a writer for Rolling Stone.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
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To some lawmakers in Britains ruling Conservative party, the European Court of Human Rights represents the kind of meddling, supranational institution they thought theyd seen the back of when the UK left the European Union in 2020. At the partys annual conference in October, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was under pressure to announce a break with the court to give his government a freer hand to deal with unwanted migrants.

1. What is the ECHR?

The convention was established shortly after the end of the World War II to promote human rights, individual freedom, democracy, free elections, respect for property rights and access to education. One of its driving forces was Winston Churchill, the wartime statesman revered today by Brexit supporters as a symbol of British independence and self-reliance. The UK was the first nation to ratify the convention drafted in 1950 and enacted in 1953. It forms part of a broader set of commitments agreed by signatories to the 46-member Council of Europe, of which the UK remains a member despite its departure from the EU. In its seven-decade history, only two nations have abandoned the ECHR: Greece during a period of military rule, and Vladimir Putins Russia.

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2. What is the purpose of the ECHR?

As signatory governments have to enshrine its principles in law, the convention guarantees a range of rights including free speech, privacy and the right to a fair trial. Its also designed to protect against discrimination, torture and slavery. Aspects of it were woven into the UKs 1998 Human Rights Act and the 1998 peace deal for Northern Ireland known as the Good Friday Agreement.

3. Why do some British lawmakers oppose the ECHR?

Politicians who campaigned for Brexit say taking back control from the EU meant having complete judicial sovereignty  giving UK courts the last word on matters of national law. The focus of their irritation is the conventions rules on migrants, which make it illegal to turn away an individual if it puts them at risk of torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In 2016, then Home Secretary Theresa May said the UK should quit the ECHR as it binds Parliament and makes the country less secure by preventing the deportation of dangerous foreign nationals.

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4. How has the UK clashed with the ECHR?

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In April 2022, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduced a policy to relocate asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing, asylum and resettlement. In June that year, the ECHR issued an injunction preventing the UK from following through with the plan as there was concern that the asylum seekers would not be able to access fair and efficient procedures for assessing their claims to refugee status. A year later, the UK government introduced an Illegal Migration Bill that would ban anyone arriving illegally from another country from claiming asylum or citizenship, and seek to return them to their home country or a safe third country such as Rwanda. The bill again put Britain at odds with the ECHR, which states that everyone has the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence and those rights cant be restricted unless they breach national laws protecting safety and security. Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she couldnt say with confidence that the provisions of the Illegal Migration Bill are compatible with the convention rights. The bill still became law in July.

5. Why doesnt Britain just quit the ECHR?

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Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks reluctance so far to abandon the convention shows hes cautious not to set back relations with Britains closest neighbors just when they appear to be turning the corner following years of acrimony over Brexit. The only reasons for countries to quit the treaty in the past have been coups and war. Greece pulled out when a military junta came to power in 1969, before rejoining five years later once democracy was restored. On March 15, 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced his country was leaving the ECHR. The same day, the Council of Europes Parliamentary Assembly issued a unanimous opinion to expel Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The Councils Committee of Ministers decided to do so the next day with immediate effect.

6. Whats at risk if the UK leaves the ECHR?

Aside from undermining relations with Europe, quitting the convention could jeopardize the UKs post-Brexit trade deal with the EU. Legal experts say the 2020 Trade and Cooperation Agreement has an explicit clause requiring that, when policing the agreement, both sides ensure respect for fundamental rights including those highlighted in the convention. Security Minister Tom Tugendhat said calls by his right-wing colleagues to leave the ECHR could also undermine the Northern Ireland peace process. Judgments by the European court are binding and are referred to the Council of Europe for enforcement and implementation. Serious and repeated non-compliance could potentially result in expulsion from the council, though how and when that might happen is uncharted territory.

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Large numbers of people are once again fleeing violence for Europe and the US, and failure to stem the tide is driving up support for the populist right wing on both sides of the Atlantic. Germany last week put checks on its some of its borders, Italy called for a naval blockade of the Mediterranean and a UK cabinet minister said the international treaty that assures refugees protection was no longer fit for purpose. Illegal immigration, said UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman, has become an existential challenge for the political and cultural institutions of the west.Bravermans speech at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington was unserious, based on fake facts and dog whistling, which is a shame because she was right that irregular migration is reaching a crisis point. Yet the first step in dealing with it is to acknowledge whats actually happening.The big fact ignored on the liberal side of this debate is the scale of the economic and political challenge that large, sudden influxes of refugees present, even for rich countries. This is an identity issue, stirring fears in many Americans and Europeans that they are under threat, and no amount of moral finger wagging is going to make that angst go away. The current failure to deal with it honestly is politically dangerous.Both the victory of Robert Fico  a pro-Russia, anti-immigration, EU-skeptic former prime minster  in Slovakias elections at the weekend, and the decision by House Republicans in the US to condition further security aid for Ukraine on a border control bill show the potency of the issue. Elon Musk weighed in too, with a false comparison of US and Ukrainian border issues, in a post to his 158 million followers on X.On the other side lies denial that Europe in particular needs migrants to supplement a declining workforce and that refugees have to go somewhere, and wealthy nations arent exempt. Amid all the noise last week, Greece, which has been in the eye of the Mediterranean refugee storm, said it will consider normalizing the status of 300,000 irregular migrants so they can work legally, because it couldnt otherwise fill jobs in construction, farming and tourism. Ever since Syrias Arab Spring revolt quickly turned into a civil war in 2011, the number of people displaced by violence and persecution around the globe has been booming. By now its more than doubled to 108.4 million, according to the UN agency that registers them, the UNHCR. Most  62.5 million  remain in their countries of origin, often relying on international aid to survive. Another 35.3 million are refugees who fled, and of those 70% stayed in the first country they came to after crossing the border.

And thats just forced displacement. Worldwide, there are 184 million migrants, most of whom left their homes by choice, according to the World Banks 2023 development report. Given the current geopolitical and climate trends, that growth is set to continue.These are big numbers but not big enough for Braverman. She warned there are 780 million potential refugees to worry about, a nonsense figure that exaggerates by a factor of about 70 the scale of the threat to the UK and Europe. She did so to create the level of fear needed to support her proposal to put revision of the 1951 Refugee Convention on the table, in full knowledge that short of recreating the circumstances that followed World War II, nothing meaningful that guarantees rights for refugees could be agreed on today.What made Bravermans intervention more ugly was that she has failed to do whats in her power. The government itself describes the UKs asylum system as broken. It takes an average of 21 months to process a claim in the UK, compared with about six months in France or Germany, at a cost of 3 billion ($3.7 billion) a year. Rather than fix the process, the UK is doubling down on a policy of legislative deterrence hasnt worked and is likely to fail again. A new Illegal Immigration Act would mandate the automatic deportation of people who enter the country without permission  except theres nowhere to deport them, so they would have to be detained and supported, without the right to work.

As of Sept. 26, 24,208 migrants landed on UK soil in small boats this year, according to the government. The UK has detention capacity for 2,000, most of which is occupied, says Peter Walsh, senior researcher at Oxford Universitys Migration Observatory. A deal to send some people to Rwanda is stuck in the courts. So the refugees would have to be supported in hotels on the states dime. Meanwhile, staff shortages last year at the nations care homes reached 165,000, which could be relieved. These dead-end policies are what Barack Obama used to call stupid stuff. At the same time, the UK government has cut international aid, some of which enables displaced people stay where they are. The UK is by no means alone in this. According to calculations by the Danish Refugee Council report, in the 26 countries it studies (because these produce 92% of all refugees), the amount of global overseas aid per refugee decreased by two-thirds between 2012 and 2021. Within that, funding for peace-building projects fell in 16 of the 26 countries. And yes, the report sees a correlation between lack of aid and the creation of new refugees.So you can build a real or legal wall or establish a naval blockade. All will come at significant human and financial cost and will, if successful, drive migrants to your neighbors or back to countries that are less able to afford it and already carrying far higher refugee burdens. That will add further strain to the regions producing refugees in the first place.There is no silver bullet here, but a good place to start would be to manage the process more efficiently so refugees are quickly assimilated to the work force, generating the taxes needed to build the schools and health care needed to accommodate them. Failed applicants can be sent home more quickly, reducing costs and numbers. Denmark does this pretty well. The UK doesnt.Second is to reduce arrival numbers by focusing money and diplomacy on enabling refugees to stay close to their homes, or even better, return. That means stepping up with targeted aid, including for climate change mitigation. More than a decade after the war in Syria began there are still 6.5 million Syrian refugees living abroad, and they remain among the top groups looking for asylum in Europe. The UN rapporteur, the European Parliament and China have all called for lifting international sanctions to enable reconstruction. That decision is morally fraught, given the nature of Syrias government, but the goal of sending refugees home isnt.There are similar numbers of Ukrainian refugees, this time mostly in Europe. They have a special temporary status and many already returned home, as the risk to life away from the front lines has receded, though not disappeared. Ukraines economy needs these people back. They shouldnt be forced, but it may be time to talk to Kyiv about how to encourage refugees home in a managed process that makes them both safe and productive.As the World Bank says in its report, migration is necessary, both on the supply and the demand side. It cant be stopped, only diverted or managed to the benefit of both host countries and the migrants themselves. Good management can go a long way to assuaging the fears of host populations, and the World Bank has a long list of recommendations, most as obvious as they are politically difficult.Braverman should apply her reformist zeal when heads of state and nonprofits gather for the UNHCR Global Refugee Forum in December. How to ease pressures will be at the top of the agenda. Because yes, this is existential, if not the way Britains home secretary meant it. So do the hard stuff.More From Bloomberg Opinion:
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Studies of wastewater have turned up one of the weirdest observations yet about Covid. Most of the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 is happening within a small fraction of infected people who, for some reason, dont clear the virus for months on end. These persistent infections could be a clue to the way new variants emerge, what causes long Covid and even how the virus got into humans in the first place.

The story of these persistent infections is written in sewage  decipherable from genetic sequences of viral particles, which some people continue to shed long after their initial infection. Scientists can read those sequences with such precision that they can tie different genetic signatures to individual cases.

In one study, virologist Marc Johnson of the University of Missouri Medical School was able to see that for a full year, copious quantities of virus were excreted by a single person who worked at a small company in Wisconsin. I had never seen viral levels that high, he says. It was insane.

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Such cases are the most likely source of new variants  delta, omicron and most recently a variant called BA.2.86. Some scientists have suggested that a persistent infection was a key part of the process by which the virus jumped into humans in the first place.

People whose bodies dont clear the virus for months are probably immune-compromised in some way, but scientists arent sure exactly how. After all, Johnson notes, the Wisconsinite with the year-long infection was healthy enough to go to work every day. Whether this person was capable of transmitting the virus to others for that entire time isnt clear, but if the consensus is correct that persistent infections gave rise to new variants, then the people with those persistent infections must have transmitted the new variants to others at some point.

Johnson says they were able to trace the source of the virus to wastewater coming from a particular building  a small business of about 30 people. He contacted them and asked all the employees to be tested. Only two thirds of them complied, he recalls, and they were all negative. The persistent virus might have come from one of the people who opted out, or it could have been hiding in places in the body a nasal swab couldnt find  like the GI tract.

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Most people do clear the virus, according to current consensus, and not all new variants change the course of the pandemic. Johnson has now found 49 new variants, which he calls cryptic lineages because they show up in wastewater but not in human samples. Most such variants wont spread widely. But a few will.

Flu and cold viruses, too, stay in circulation by mutating out of reach of immunity built up in previous seasons, and whether more mutations accumulate in persistent infections remains unknown. Flu can also make radical shifts by exchanging whole viral segments and creating novel combinations, mixing parts of bird, pig and human viruses.

Omicron took scientists by surprise because it had made a bigger leap from previous variants than they thought likely. The most widely accepted explanation is that it evolved within an immune-compromised person, says Johnson. What made omicron special was the fact that it got out, not the fact that it existed.

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Johnsons team found another strange case in Ohio, which came out of wastewater data collected by the Massachusetts-based company Biobot. The virus was showing up in Columbus and in a town of 15,000 people about 40 miles away, suggesting the infected person was travelling back and forth.

Johnson says he tried to use social media to identify the person  but nobody came forward.

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Genetic analysis showed that the person probably got infected in late 2020 or early 2021, and was still infected and shedding virus in July 2022.

The signal was persistent for months, says Johnson, then the viral load skyrocketed. For days, that Ohio town showed the highest wastewater levels of the virus during the entire pandemic. The genetic sequences showed the town wasnt having an outbreak  the virus was coming entirely from this one person. Then one day the signal disappeared. Johnson wonders if the person died.

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Understanding the nature of such persistent infections might provide clues to the ongoing mystery of Covids origin. In a new paper in Nature Microbiology, University of North Carolina virologist Ralph Baric and colleagues suggest that an immune-compromised person might have picked up the virus from a pangolin  an animal thats sold in Chinas illegal wildlife trade. Viruses that infect other animals are usually not well adapted to invade human cells, but such a virus might have acquired the mutations it needed while it was growing in a single individual, given enough time.

Figuring out who is persistently infected would also shed more light on long Covid. Theres got to be some degree of overlap between persistent infection and long Covid, Johnson says. A recent study published in Nature and covered by my colleague Lisa Jarvis suggests that biomarkers of some patients suffering from long Covid show T-cell exhaustion, a sign of persistent infection.

Long Covid afflicted about 6% of US adults last summer. Some people are still debilitated by infections they caught in 2020, suffering problems very similar to chronic fatigue syndrome, which is also badly understood. Some may have undetected persistent infections.

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For them, answers  even answers found in the sewer  cant come fast enough.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Not All Covid Misinformation Is Real  Or Even Misinformation: F.D. Flam

 Long Covid Is Real. Now the Evidence Is Piling Up: Lisa Jarvis

 Beloved Sycamore Gap Trees Butchering Offers Broader Lessons: Lara Williams

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

F.D. Flam is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering science. She is host of the Follow the Science podcast.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

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It doesnt get more David versus Goliath than the latest case to be heard before the Grand Chamber at the European Court of Human Rights. Six youngsters from Portugal, represented by a small crowdfunded legal team, charged 32 countries and their 86-strong team of lawyers with climate crimes last week. Its part of a wave of judicial mobilization seeking to ensure climate agreements arent just words on paper.

The claimants, aged between 11 and 24, accuse the nations  including all 27 European Union member states, along with the UK, Norway, Turkey, Switzerland and Russia  of failing to do enough to combat the climate crisis, and thus threatening their right to live a safe, happy and healthy life. Specifically, they argue that extreme heat and wildfire risks force them to stay inside, make sleep and exercise difficult and trigger mental distress.

A ruling from the courts is expected in the first half of 2024. And the decision isnt just symbolic: The judges may resolve on a legally binding order for the accused countries to act faster on climate change.

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Indeed, the Portuguese youth case is just one of three climate-related lawsuits that the ECHR has heard this year amid a rise in such litigation around the world. Its a trend Im cheering on in the hope that a few key cases could help advance action and accountability on slashing carbon emissions.

Sovereign nations are typically in the firing line: Outside of the US, 70% of climate-related cases are against governments. But strategic cases  those filed with the aim of influencing the broader debate  are increasingly being brought against the private sector, too. Even as we wait for definitive verdicts, the attention theyre attracting and the precedents they could set have the potential to influence corporate behavior and governance in a big way.

One of the most famous ongoing trials is one brought by Saul Luciano Lliuya, a Peruvian farmer whos suing German energy company RWE AG for the costs of preventing a lake from flooding his hometown. The size of the lake has quadrupled since 2003 as glaciers in the region melt. These cases are the most difficult to bring to trial, as its hard to prove the culpability of the accused for the damages in question. But advancing scientific knowledge is changing things. According to the Carbon Majors Database, RWE is responsible for 0.47% of global carbon emissions, so Lliuya is suing for that proportion of the cost of flood-prevention measures. Thats not much money  the proportional cost of the damages would be less than $20,000  but it would set a monumental precedent and lay the groundwork for future cases against polluters.

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Other strategies involve challenging corporate climate plans, attempts to stop the financing of high-emitting activities or tackling greenwashing concerns. Environmental lawyers are also getting creative: ClientEarth, an NGO specializing in climate litigation, bought shares in Polish energy company Enea SA and then sued it successfully for failing to manage material climate financial risk and act in the best interests of its shareholders.

The demand is there, and the money is available: Pogust Goodhead, a class-action law firm, and Gramercy, an investment manager, recently announced one of the largest ever litigation-financing deals. The 450 million ($550 million) funding will help victim groups hold corporations to account. The law firm is currently representing more than 700,000 victims of the Mariana dam collapse in Brazil against BHP Group Ltd. and Vale SA. as well as taking on 14 car manufacturers over the Dieselgate scandal.

This use of strategic litigation is not unique to the climate crisis, Joana Setzer, assistant professorial research fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences Grantham Research Institute told me. On social issues including racial discrimination and womens rights, legal challenges have been an important way to raise awareness and change the status quo. Even if court rulings arent favorable to the litigants, theres a win from raising awareness and laying the groundwork for future campaigns.

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So is it having an impact? Cases against government are setting important precedents: Urgenda Foundation v. Netherlands, for example, found that the Dutch government has obligations to urgently and significantly reduce emissions in line with human rights obligations. The December 2019 decision from the Netherlands Supreme Court led to a flurry of similar actions around the world. The recent case of Held v. Montana in the US may only be a fairly narrow decision, based on a line in the constitution that is only found in a handful of states, but it offers some lessons and standing for future American cases that may also seek to enlist the constitution as an ally.

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On the corporate front, were still awaiting the outcomes of key lawsuits that could totally change the status quo. However, these cases may already be influencing corporate behavior. Getting sued is a huge financial and reputational risk for companies after all. With climate litigation a firm reality, they are having to take sustainability concerns more seriously.

Thanks to some litigious climate activists, more businesses may realize that the best thing for them and for the planet is to cut emissions deeply and swiftly. Co-opting judges in the battle to curb carbon emissions is a smart strategy.

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More From Bloomberg Opinion:

 Its Too Easy to Bring New York City to Its Knees: Mark Gongloff

 With Fossil Fuels, Peak Demand Is Disputable: Javier Blas

 Retire Acts of God. Disasters Are Human-Made: Lara Williams

(Corrects description of Gramercy in eighth paragraph.)

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Lara Williams is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering climate change.

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American Express is revamping its Business Gold Card, raising the annual fee and adding more perks geared toward newer companies to tap into the boom in small-business creation. Rewards will now include purchases of electronics, wireless services and transportation, adding new ways to earn points in addition to more traditional categories such as advertising, fuel and restaurants, according to Anna Marrs, group president of global commercial services and credit and fraud risk.

It all plays back into the fact that this is the age of new small businesses in the US, Marrs said in an interview.

In the post-pandemic era of remote work and employee demands for more freedom, business formation has exploded. New business applications surged 42% in 2022 from pre-pandemic levels, topping 5 million, census data show.

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Read More: AmEx Hooked Big Spenders, Regained Throne With Pricier Platinum

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The annual fee will increase to $375 from $295 starting Feb. 1, but the card will also include possible credits that outweigh the fee, including an annual $240 credit that small businesses can put toward a statement after using the card at FedEx Corp., Grubhub Holdings Inc., and office-supply stores.

AmEx  known for unique card designs typically aimed at consumers rather than companies  will now let small-business owners get their hands on a Rose Gold card.

It just provides that little bit of extra sparkle to a small-business owner as their business grows, Marrs said.

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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 2, 2023 / Metalite Resources Inc. (CSE:METL)(OTC Pink:JNCCF)(Frankfurt:5VHA) ("Metalite" or the "Company") announces today it will be seeking the Canadian Securities Exchange's (the "CSE") approval to consolidate all of its issued and outstanding common shares (the "Common Shares") on the basis of 10:1, with each ten (10) pre-consolidated Common Shares being consolidated into one (1) post-consolidated Common Share (the "Share Consolidation"). In accordance with the Company's articles, shareholder approval will not be required for the proposed Share Consolidation. The proposed Share Consolidation has been approved by the Company's board of directors.

The proposed Share Consolidation would result in the number of issued and outstanding Common Shares being reduced from the current outstanding 145,219,150 Common Shares to approximately 14,521,915 Common Shares. The Company also has outstanding warrants to purchase 51,023,910 Common Shares reserved for issuance, equal to 5,102,391 Common Shares on a post consolidation basis and also has outstanding stock options to purchase 6,825,000 Common Shares reserved for issuance, equal to 682,500 Common Shares on a post consolidation basis.

No fractional shares will be issued as a result of the Share Consolidation. Any fractional shares resulting from the Share Consolidation will be rounded down to the next whole Common Share, and no cash consideration will be paid in respect of fractional shares.

The Company's board of directors believes that the Share Consolidation will provide the Company with greater flexibility for the continued development of its business and the growth of the Company, including financing arrangements. There is no change of business associated or being effected with respect of the Share Consolidation. In addition, the Company will not be changing its name in connection with the proposed Share Consolidation.

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The Company will be obtaining a new CUIP and ISIN number for common shares in connection with proposed the Share Consolidation. The record date and effective date of the Share Consolidation and the new CUSIP and ISIN numbers will be disclosed in a subsequent news release. Generally, with respect to a consolidation, the shares would commence quotation on the CSE on a consolidated basis on the first trading day prior to the record date, being the effective date and the CSE would issue a bulletin to dealers advising of the share consolidation and effective date of trading on the consolidated basis. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Share Consolidation is subject to regulatory approval, and the board of directors may, at its discretion, determine to amend the terms or to not to move forward with the Share Consolidation.

Furthermore, David Kol, principal of Next Generation Resources Inc. ("Next Gen"), acquired by the Company earlier this year, has agreed to tender for cancellation 12,400,000 common shares of the Company in connection with the execution of a mutual release with the Company. The total number of pre and post-Consolidation number of common shares referenced above do not reflect this cancellation.

The Company wishes to further advise that, in accordance with its press release dated July 27, 2023, it is commencing efforts to wind up Next Gen and it has abandoned all operations in Liberia. To this end, the Company has terminated the employment of its VP Exploration, Efdal Olcer.

About Metalite Resources Inc.

Metalite Resources Inc. is a Canadian junior mineral exploration issuer with a precious metals-focused project in NSW, Australia. along with various indicator minerals that occur along with these precious metals.

For further information please contact:

info@metaliteresources.com

To learn more, please visit https://www.metaliteresources.com/ .

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements." All statements, other than statements of historic fact, that address activities, events or developments that Metalite believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "estimate, "expect," and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may," "will," "can," "should," "could," or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations or beliefs of Metalite based on information currently available to Metalite. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of Metalite to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on Metalite. Forward looking statements in this press release include statements regarding the proposed Share Consolidation and the timing thereof. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, failure to obtain all necessary approvals for the completion of the proposed Share Consolidation. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Metalite disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although Metalite believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release

SOURCE: Metalite Resources Inc.





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/789324/metalite-resources-announces-proposed-10-for-1-share-consolidation




Australias wine industry is calling for the federal government to provide more help in finding new export markets and for a fairer playing field for grape growers as the sector waits for Canberra to strike a deal with Beijing that would remove harsh tariffs of over 200 per cent.

Lee McLean, chief executive of national industry association Australian Grape & Wine, said he would keep speaking with the government about ways to support the struggling industry, which is grappling with a two-year red-wine oversupply.

We really do need some co-investment with government around trying to build new markets around the world, McLean said. That really does need to keep going over the foreseeable future because I think all agriculture would benefit from that approach, and certainly we would.

Rotting chardonnay grapes in 2005: Australia is once again grappling with a wine glut. Credit: Mark Dadswell/Getty Images

Recent announcements that China had removed tariffs on barley and hay have sparked optimism that the same will happen for wine. The heavy import duties came into effect in March 2021 and cut access to an export market worth $1.3 billion virtually overnight, crippling many wine producers and grape growers, particularly those from the warmer inland areas of the Riverina, Riverland and Murray Darling, which produce bulk red wine. Many have left the industry altogether.
Pauline Hansons Chairman Mao-inspired portrait. Credit: Merry Sparks via Instagram

Last month, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson declared a new gift  a portrait painted by Queensland artist Merry Sparks.

When CBD tracked down the portrait in question, we were surprised to see that Pauline had been painted in the style of Chinese dictator Mao Zedong, framed in striking, Communist Party red. In fact, look closely and you can see the Chairmans sinister silhouette lurking in the paintings background.

Its an odd choice for a woman who launched her career saying awful things about Asian people, and has warned of a Chinese invasion.

But the portrait clearly came from a place of love. Hanson frequently goes on telly wearing Sparks creations on T-shirts, even rocking one at an anti-vaccine mandate rally back when that was a thing. She also posed with Sparks, who even trimmed the One Nation leaders hair for the painting because she couldnt get to a hairdresser during a lockdown. The painting was entered, unsuccessfully, into last years Archibald Prize.
Alice Fraser, a comedian who works across Australia and the UK, says that what helps her feel safest in her work is when somebodys turned their mind to what it might be like to be me. She offers a specific example: comedy venues and bookers suggesting a way to get home and even walking her to public transport.

The conversation about how to help women feel safe in Australian comedy has come to the fore following allegations of sexual assault against British comedian Russell Brand, allegations which he denies. Last week, a number of Australian women comedians spoke to this masthead about the local industrys pervasive culture of harassment, abuse and sexual violence.

Comedian Alice Fraser always appreciates when bookers think about her needs before a show.

Its a culture that is inflamed by unconventional, precarious working conditions, with comics working effectively as freelancers and performing mostly after dark in venues where alcohol and drugs may be present.

The economics of this industry are built around 26-year-old boys who are happy to sleep on each others couches, explains Fraser. And if youre not one of them, its not just that you dont feel welcome, its that it is practically harder for you to do the job.
They described an apricot-coloured sky, a ferocious wind and plumes of smoke that blocked the horizon as they fled.

For Bega Valleys fire-scarred residents, the Coolagolite blaze that destroyed at least three houses and burnt through more than 5000 hectares on Tuesday night was a terrible reminder of what they have faced before, and what lies ahead.

Steve Mazabow prepares to leave his property, Murrah Dream Retreat. Credit: Vanessa Forbes

The bushfire began on land that also burnt during Black Summer four years ago, igniting only about 10 kilometres from Cobargo, the village in which the main street was decimated and three lives were lost on the last day of 2019.

Rural Fire Service Commissioner Rob Rogers said the latest blaze to threaten the region was terrifyingly deadly, and had travelled 15 kilometres in just a few hours on Tuesday night.
Collaboration Enables Select Health to Drive Health Plan Innovation for Small Businesses in Utah and Nevada by Combining Organizational and Employee Health

PORTLAND, Ore., October 03, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mineral, the HR and compliance leader for more than 1 million small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), today announced a relationship with Select Health, a non-profit health plan serving over 1 million members throughout the Mountain West. The relationship enables Select Health to incorporate Minerals HR and compliance services into their fully insured health plans for all their small business groups in Utah and Nevada.

Effective January 1, 2024, Select Health will be offering additional services to its small employer clients with 2 to 50 employees. These services include access to Minerals suite of HR and compliance tools, as well as access to Mineral Experts. These tools can assist employers in managing various aspects of HR and ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and laws. This collaboration enhances Select Health plans by offering a new set of services aimed to help small businesses in Utah and Nevada meet HR and compliance challenges more effectively.

Minerals 2023 State of HR Report found only 6% of SMBs feel "very prepared" to achieve success in critical HR and compliance initiatives. Further, only 32% use HR and compliance software, which makes their path to HR and compliance success much more time-consuming and challenging. To meet those challenges and offer solutions, Select Healths small employer groups in Utah and Nevada will have access to the Mineral Elite package, which includes the Mineral Platform and Mineral Experts, alongside a host of other HR and compliance resources.

The Mineral Platform includes tools and resources to help businesses manage their HR and compliance issues. The platform features a comprehensive HR compliance library, a benefits document creator and proactive alerts on changing HR and compliance laws and regulations. It also includes Smart Employee Handbook Plus, which helps SMBs tackle their number-one compliance-related challenge according to the 2023 State of HR Report  keeping their employee handbooks up-to-date. Additionally, employer clients will gain access to Mineral Experts  certified HR experts with an average of 18 years of experience. Mineral Experts provide personalized advice and have helped answer more than 1.3 million HR and compliance questions to date. Finally, they will receive access to Learn, Minerals Learning Management System (LMS), including hundreds of courses from DEI to mandated anti-harassment courses. As a result of Minerals recent partnership with OpenSesame, Select Healths employer clients will be able to choose from a larger selection of course catalogs to upskill and reskill their employees.

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"HR and compliance is critical to the health of an organization, but businesses struggle with persistent and complex laws and regulations that contribute to large gaps in compliance," said Vince Murdica, Chief Revenue Officer at Mineral. "Through this collaboration, were making it easy for small businesses to elevate their organizational health and better succeed at competing with larger enterprises by taking worry and time-consuming tasks of managing compliance out of their business. This allows those resource-strapped SMBs to spend more time growing their business and doing what they love. We are excited to establish this relationship with Select Health to solve these issues for SMBs, and add services that differentiate Select Health plans from its competitors."

As this relationship takes effect, Mineral will help Select Healths employer clients understand the full capabilities of Mineral's tools and resources. Employer clients will have the ability to schedule a one-on-one demo with Minerals Engagement Specialist team to explore Select Health powered by Mineral.

"Its our goal to provide health plans, tools and resources that simplify the experience for small employers," said Heidi Castaneda, AVP of Small Employer and Individual Products for Select Health. "Bringing industry leading HR and compliance resources into our plan helps our employers succeed in driving employee health, and tackle some of their greatest business challenges. We are thrilled to partner with Mineral to create more value for our clients' businesses and their employees."

Todays announcement follows months of momentum for Mineral, as the companys HR and compliance products are now embedded in health plans in 26 states. As health insurers continue to see the value in this innovative offering for employers, Mineral is tracking to be in all 50 states by the end of 2024.

About Mineral

Trusted by more than 1 million companies, Mineral is the HR and compliance leader for growing businesses. Mineral's flagship solutions, including the Mineral Platform, Mineral Intelligence and Mineral Experts, combine data, technology, and human expertise to take the guesswork out of HR and compliance, and give clients peace of mind. Partnering with more than 2,500 industry-leading insurance brokers, health insurance companies, PEOs and HCMs, Mineral has built the largest HR community in the U.S. Mineral was formerly known as the combined entity of ThinkHR and Mammoth. For more information, visit trustmineral.com.

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Heather Willett

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Bureau of Meteorology figures released at 5pm on Wednesday said Mt Hotham has received 248 millimetres of rain since the weather event began. Of that total, the weather bureau said 198.8 millimetres had fallen in the 24 hours to 9am on Wednesday  making it the highest daily rainfall record in station history. Symes told reporters 650 firefighters remained in East Gippsland working to contain multiple severe blazes. Out-of-control fires spread across Australia on Wednesday as homes were destroyed in blazes on the NSW South Coast. Ray Shingles, a farmer from Seacombe, fought the Loch Sport fire in the Gippsland Lakes region. Weve gone from leather boots to gumboots today, said Ray Shingles, a farmer from Seacombe who fought the Loch Sport fire in the Gippsland Lakes region early Tuesday morning and called into 3AW on Wednesday. Theres water everywhere. Just a day earlier, Shingles had described the fire that threatened his property as armageddon and told the Melbourne radio station he feared for his life.

I never want to go through that ever again, he said. The ferocity of it was just terrible. Victoria Police said they were called to Alexandra, in the states north-east, on Tuesday night after a man on a tractor believed to be trying to rescue cattle at about 8.30pm got into difficulty and was surrounded by water. The 43-year-old was rescued and taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Victorian State Emergency Service commander Mark Cattell said flooding could disrupt major roads in the states east on Wednesday, cutting off some communities, while some homes in the Latrobe Valley were under threat as waterways swelled amid heavy rainfall.

Cattell told 3AW on Wednesday morning authorities were expecting more than 100 millimetres of rain across three days after bushfires hit earlier this week. The ground is now bare, Cattell said. So all of that ash and everything gets washed into the tributaries and that can cause some blockage and slowing down, and all sorts of things. Rain records smashed  totals in 24 hours to 9am Wednesday Across Victoria Mount Hotham: 198.8mm of rainfall (annual highest daily rainfall record for the station)

Falls Creek: 149mm of rainfall (annual highest daily rainfall record for the station)

Howitt Plains, High Ridge: 145.4mm of rainfall (annual highest daily rainfall record for the station)

Lake Eildon: 108mm of rainfall (this is the highest daily rainfall record for October at this station) Metro Melbourne Ferny Creek: 72.8mm of rainfall (highest daily rainfall record for October at this station)

Monbulk, Spring Road: 60.8mm of rainfall highest daily rainfall record for October at this station) SES chief operations officer Tim Wiebusch warned on Tuesday that landslides were a risk as bushfires destabilised trees. Transport Victoria said it would close the Bogong High Plains Road to Falls Creek on Tuesday night. It was previously shut for months after heavy rain caused a landslip last year. Alongside two emergency warnings, eight watch-and-act alerts for flooding were active across Victorias east on Wednesday afternoon.

They included a major flood warning for the Macalister River upstream of Lake Glenmaggie, which is between Mount Buller and Heyfield in eastern Gippsland. Major flooding was occurring at the tiny town of Licola  officially home to 29 people. The Yarra Valley was covered in a watch-and-act telling residents to move to higher ground as Melbournes main waterway is expected to peak above the moderate flood level at Coldstream tonight. Flooding in the Yarra/Watts River catchment was expected to cause substantial inundation in the rural and/or urban areas, and disruption to traffic. The Coldstream to Warrandyte alert said the Melba Highway at Yarra Glen could be affected. Advice messages extend all the way to Kew in Melbournes inner east, while the Millgrove to Coldstream watch-and-act area for the Yarra River encompasses part of the Dandenong Ranges.

Warragul, Morwell, Moe were among the major Latrobe Valley towns home to thousands that fell under a watch-and-act message for the Latrobe catchment just after 3pm Wednesday. The message warns moderate flooding was likely along the Latrobe River overnight into Thursday. Another warning for Seven Creeks said moderate flooding was likely at Euroa  home to more than 3000 people near the Hume Freeway. Minor flooding is possible at Kialla West, near Shepparton, on Thursday morning. Another moderate flood warning was issued for the Buffalo River downstream from Lake Buffalo  just west of Bright. A warning is also active for the Acheron River, enveloping the town of Marysville and warning that Taggerty could suffer moderate flooding. The Goulburn River upstream of Lake Eildon is also under a watch-and-act message  an area mostly covered by dense forest. But, an updated alert issued at 1.37pm said minor flooding could hit Seymour in central Victoria overnight on Wednesday.

The King River at the Docker Road Bridge was under a watch-and-act from midday as floodwaters move downstream from alpine areas via the King Valley towards Wangaratta. Cattell said Friday would be the earliest that conditions would improve, but the fire threat had subsided. An emergency warning was issued at 4am on Tuesday after high winds caused a fire near Briagolong to triple in size to 17,500 hectares. Those in the area about 20 kilometres north of Maffra were told their lives were in danger, and it was too late to safely evacuate. By Wednesday morning, the fire was downgraded to a low-grade advice message but continued to burn out of control despite the rain.

Fire investigators are now examining whether it was started by an out-of-control private burn. The Loch Sport fire also prompted an emergency too late to leave warning for the idyllic seaside town of 1000 wedged between Ninety Mile Beach and Lake Victoria that only has one road exit. On Wednesday afternoon, the Loch Sport fire was not yet under control, but had been downgraded to a community information notice  the lowest alert level possible. The Longford-Loch Sport Road has been reopened to local traffic. Up to 60 millimetres of rain is forecast to fall on fires burning at Briagolong and Loch Sport on Wednesday.

The SES warned some small communities could be cut off for 12 to 24 hours due to floodwater and urged anyone in the states east to stay on top of warnings. Melbourne could receive between 30 and 60 millimetres of rain mid-week, as temperatures drop to a maximum of 14 degrees on Wednesday and 16 degrees on Thursday. Country Fire Authority chief officer Jason Heffernan said on Tuesday the rain was a welcome reprieve for firefighters, but declared the bushfire danger period will start this week in East Gippsland and Wellington shires six weeks earlier than usual. With AAP and Rachel Eddie
Hey Broady, you numpty, Gogo is alive and well and still cooking those famous lamb chops in South Perth, was the drift of their commentary. To say Adshead and I were excited was an understatement. We immediately booked a table for lunch this week. By the way, Gogos lamb cutlets have an international reputation. The glorious Indian batsman, Sachin Master Blaster Tendulkar, famously flew 300 of Gogos chops to Mumbai for a party with his mates. Pinky fingers out: WAs best afternoon tea just got better The poshest (most posh?) afternoon tea in Perth has changed its theme with a new menu released this week.

The afternoon tea  its not a high tea! they tell us  at the Cape Arid Rooms at the Como The Treasury Hotel has more back story than an Avengers movie. The latest iteration of their spectacular and soigne tea service is built around the theme of a a return to Hill Springs. Heres an excerpt from their PR material. Afternoon tea  not high tea!  at Cape Arid Rooms. Once more around the sun and we return to Hill Springs. No two days look the same though you may feel that time stands still within this vastly splendid isolation. The towering face of Mt Arid bears down, viewing the mischievous Southern Ocean with a stealthy, solid glare  nature may be harsh but her beauty prevails and there is always a view, too beautiful to behold. Wow! All that for a cuppa and a slice of Battenberg.

They take their art and their cookery seriously at the Cape Arid rooms. The culinary journey takes guests to Cape Arid National Park through the lens of renowned Western Australian artists, Philippa and Alex Nikulinsky, whose works adorn the walls. Andre Bishop is bringing his sake expertise to Old Bridge Cellars. They are stunning and very restive. Weve been a few times over the years and, yes, it is a serene journey through tea, art, high culture and awesome finger food. The scones are next-level good. Sake v Wine, The Event Booze hounds, this might be one for you. Old Bridge Cellars in North Fremantle is putting on a Sake Samurai Vs The Sommelier dinner at its events space adjacent to the liquor store on Saturday October 21.

Its an unusual battle pitting sake and fine wine against each other, backed up with fine dining from catering duo Rossen and Cook. Its a six-course knees-up with canapes and grazing plates on offer. The Sake Samurai  real name Andre Bishop  and LS Merchants winemaker Dylan Arvidson will be presenting on the evening. Bishop, who was appointed a Sake Samurai in 2013 (yes it is an actual title for people outside Japan that are devoted to and protectors of sake). Bishop also holds SEC Advanced Sake Professional 2008, is part of the Sake Sommelier Association and is a Dassai Brand Ambassador as well as a Sake Consultant. The menu is a work in progress but Bishop and Arvidson have been asked to team wines and sake with the food. The Old Bridge Cellars bosses have a reputation for presenting great events, so this should be a corker. Tickets are $130. Even more wine fun: Swings & Roundabouts expands In Margaret River, the popular winery and visitor centre Swings & Roundabouts has launched a flash new cellar door. Its a fabulous looking facility with moody, modern rustic decor.

Swings goes off like a frog in a sock most weekends. Families love it because of its expansive lawns and play equipment for kids. The food is simple and enjoyable. Swings owner Andy Hopkins says the new Cellar Door build is part of a larger refurbishment plan to continue improving the Yallingup venue. Swings & Roundabouts in Yallingup. The facility will give serious wine aficionados and new, inquisitive wine adventurers an excellent area to taste our latest and greatest in this new exclusive cellar door area, Hopkins told Broadbrush. Swings and Roundabouts puts on some of the most creative and innovative experiences for visitors.
Students living at Western Australias biggest university will be hit with a steep hike in accommodation fees next year, with costs set to rise by more than 40 per cent on average.

Five different student accommodation facilities at Curtin University, provided by UniLodge, will increase costs by an average of 41 per cent in 2024, or $80 per week.

Accommodation at Curtin University, which mostly houses international students, will increase their costs by an average of 41 per cent in 2024.

Those living in eight-bedroom apartments at Vickery House will face a hike of more than 166 per cent  from $88.50 to $236 per week.

Guild president Dylan Botica said while all the increases were concerning, the Vickery House price rise would hit students particularly hard as it was the cheapest option available.
Australia is in a global arms race to attract the best international students to study and then stay permanently. But the post-study work rights we offer are too generous, offering false hope to many international graduates and adding to population pressures at a time when housing is in short supply.

Getting the best international students to stay permanently offers us big benefits. International graduates account for one-third of our permanent skilled migrant intake. Those students who are granted permanent skilled visas each year offer a $12 billion fiscal dividend over their lifetimes in Australia, more than double the profits universities reap each year from teaching international students.

Getting the best international students to stay permanently offers us big benefits. Credit: Louie Douvis

But many international students who graduate and stay here on temporary graduate visas struggle to pursue their chosen careers. Only half secure full-time employment, most work in low-skilled jobs, and half earn less than $53,300 a year.

Rising international student numbers and the limited permanent skilled visas on offer (137,100 in 2023-24) mean that a growing number of international graduates are stuck in visa limbo. Less than one-third of temporary graduate visa-holders now transition to permanent residency when their visa expires, down from two-thirds in 2014. One in three instead return to further study, mostly in cheaper vocational courses, to prolong their stay in Australia.
Who knows what those words mean though, or for how long. And thats maybe the issue. Loading The practice of political leaders tapping out midterm is almost as old as our political institutions themselves, University of Queensland political historian Chris Salisbury told me last week. But does it risk further undermining the already shaky trust we have in politicians? I certainly dont think its as damaging as the tearing down of leaders, Salisbury said, referring to the revolving door of prime ministers, both Labor and Coalition, since 2010.

Most people arent going to begrudge Andrews stepping out after nine years ... [but] in that circumstance when you do so vocally commit yourself to the cause, and then opt out, that can also have some blowback. Loading A longstanding leader who remained popular with the electorate could, perhaps, weather that. Its not like they were teetering and hes jumping off a sinking ship or anything, Salisbury said. For any who do decide to go, leaving a successor enough time ahead of an election is also viewed kindly. Such was the situation the last time Queensland Labors leadership changed outside an election aftermath. Who gets to decide the leader (the partys MPs in parliament) is another issue entirely.

While there have been past suggestions nationally to tackle membership decline by embracing broader party leadership votes, including those seen in US-style primaries, that candidate-centred politics isnt exactly exemplary. In Australia, such power has only been given to party members. But even they dont always get a say. Under Queensland rules introduced in 2013, any internal contest unable to hashed out among MPs would be decided by a drawn-out three-way vote among MPs, unions and grassroot members. However, the state party hasnt had a contested leadership fight  like the ones seen among their federal colleagues  since 1982. Such a message of unity has become almost a badge of honour.

But not for everyone. John Mickel, a former Labor minister under premier Anna Bligh, has been a critic of the state party changes since they occurred. He believes Labor MPs have a better understanding of their colleagues and should, alone, choose their leader in parliament. He describes the move to a more democratic system as instead resulting in an authoritarian one so we can avoid a ballot at all costs. If you have the parliamentarians sort it out amongst themselves, they might be able to have a contest, Mickel said. Reporting from Victoria last week suggested that, behind closed doors, the transition of power there wasnt quite as smooth as the ultimately uncontested ascension of former deputy premier Jacinta Allan appeared to show.

But with a state election now almost only a year away in Queensland, and a successor not so clearly defined by Palaszczuk, the situation is a little different. Loading Mickel said it meant the three-time election winner could rightly argue transition arrangements were not settled in the Sunshine State, and only she had the profile to win another. But things can turn quickly, he said. Be it an accumulation of media attacks or a comment from a loved one. You cant be too indifferent to the constant belt you get.

Some critical media commentary last week suggested it was time for Andrews to go  or he had even outstayed his welcome  despite his leadership being the choice of the states voters less than a year ago and no poll-shaped sign of a change of mind. Even still, nobody would be wishing for return to the days of leadership by opinion poll. The research shows voters didnt approve, and it ultimately failed to even benefit those who took the job or their parties. Loading Outside tragedy or scandal or maybe the lingering effects of a once-in-a-century pandemic, surely the right time for a leader to go is with notice at the end of their term, or when voters formally call time. Beyond that, all we really have is their will and their word  and a guess at which will win out if the pair ever face off.
Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Shelley Moore Capito wrote a letter to STB Chairman Marty Oberman in support of the reciprocal switching rulemaking. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., want the Surface Transportation Board to press on with a rulemaking they say could enable shippers to receive better rail service and make the U.S. rail network more resilient.

The two senators sent a letter to STB Chairman Marty Oberman dated Monday asking him to move swiftly on regulation for reciprocal switching.

Reciprocal switching is a process that would grant a shipper with access to the network of another Class I railroad at an interchange, with the idea that the shipment would continue on the network of the competing Class I railroad because of lackluster service on the originating Class I railroad.

STBs proposed rulemaking, released early last month, would establish standards that would reflect a minimal level of rail service below which a shipper could seek relief.

This rulemaking is long overdue. We have been concerned about the prolonged service challenges facing many rail shippers in recent years and have appreciated the efforts taken by the Board to date to require service improvement plans and increased data reporting. However, ensuring that the freight rail system works for all stakeholders will require more than just additional reporting, the senators said in their letter to Oberman. They also noted that freight rail moves roughly a third of U.S. exports by volume 28% of freight movement by ton-miles.

This proposed rulemaking is an appropriate next step that will improve rail service, and we encourage you to move ahead with the final rule. We also believe more may be needed and ask that you continue engaging with shippers as stakeholder comments are reviewed and the Board considers next actions, they continued.

STB will be taking comments on the proposed rulemaking through Nov. 7, with reply comments due by Dec. 6 to better define what should constitute reasonable rail service. The dates are actually a 15-day extension from STBs original submission dates, per a request by the Association of American Railroads to extend the commenting period.

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The proposed rule for reciprocal switching compels the Class I railroads to submit first-mile and last-mile data that would help shippers and the broader public understand whether the railroads are meeting certain rail service levels. If a railroad doesnt meet those levels, it could prompt a shipper to move forward with a request for reciprocal switching.

Yet the senators also say the rulemaking should be just the first step in advancing rail competition. Capito and Baldwin  Baldwin had co-introduced the Reliable Rail Service Act this past summer  also want STB to guarantee that the railroads can consistently meet certain service thresholds.

Shippers said in Mondays announcement about the senators letter that Congress still needs to clarify what constitutes as sufficient service under the common carrier obligation, which, per federal code, binds railroads to transport any freight that has been properly tendered on reasonable terms and conditions. Shippers are also seeking Congress to allow for reverse demurrage, where railroads could be penalized for holding shippers private rail cars, and enable all commodities access to regulatory relief.

While we are supportive of the Boards efforts with this rule, we believe more needs to be done to promote freight rail competition. For example, the Board should move forward with its consideration of a phased-in approach of raising the success rate to levels that ensure shippers and their customers are given the certainty they need to conduct their operations. Further, ensuring that the data provisions in the rule are implemented appropriately will be critical for shippers to be given the intended levels of transparency for their rail service, the senators said.

Persistent, inadequate rail service not only harms the rail shipper, it also impacts the entire countrys economy. With billions of dollars of commerce relying on rail service every year, the competitiveness of the U.S. economy depends on having an effective and reliable rail network, the senators said.

Subscribe to FreightWaves e-newsletters and get the latest insights on freight right in your inbox.

Click here for more FreightWaves articles by Joanna Marsh.

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The post More needs to be done to promote freight rail competition appeared first on FreightWaves.
Detroit: The Michigan Supreme Court turned down an appeal on Tuesday that cleared the way for the parents of a teenager who fatally shot four students at Oxford High School to face trial on involuntary manslaughter charges.

James and Jennifer Crumbley are accused of making a gun accessible to Ethan Crumbley and ignoring his mental health needs. The state appeals court said in March that the couple could face trial, and the Supreme Court let that decision stand in a one-sentence order.

Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of Ethan Crumbley, have been in custody since soon after the shooting in November 2021. Credit:

The case appears to be the first time that parents of a teenage school shooter have been charged for involvement in their childs alleged crimes, and is seen by some as a litmus test on whether parents can be held accountable in school shootings.

The Crumbleys attorneys, Shannon Smith and Mariell Lehman, were not immediately available for comment, according to Reuters.
Value-focused investors are always on the hunt for stocks that are priced below their intrinsic value. One such stock that merits attention is Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE:NCLH). The stock, which is currently priced at 15.86, recorded a loss of 3.56% in a day and a 3-month decrease of 26.97%. The stock's fair valuation is $61.24, as indicated by its GF Value.

Understanding the GF Value

The GF Value represents the current intrinsic value of a stock derived from our exclusive method. The GF Value Line on our summary page gives an overview of the fair value that the stock should be traded at. It is calculated based on three factors:

1. Historical multiples (PE Ratio, PS Ratio, PB Ratio and Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow) that the stock has traded at.

2. GuruFocus adjustment factor based on the company's past returns and growth.

3. Future estimates of the business performance.

We believe the GF Value Line is the fair value that the stock should be traded at. The stock price will most likely fluctuate around the GF Value Line. If the stock price is significantly above the GF Value Line, it is overvalued and its future return is likely to be poor. On the other hand, if it is significantly below the GF Value Line, its future return will likely be higher.

Is Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) Too Good to Be True? A Comprehensive Analysis of a Potential Value Trap

Unveiling the Potential Risks

However, investors need to consider a more in-depth analysis before making an investment decision. Despite its seemingly attractive valuation, certain risk factors associated with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings should not be ignored. These risks are primarily reflected through its low Altman Z-score of -0.22, and the company's revenues and earnings have been on a downward trend over the past five years, which raises a crucial question: Is Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings a hidden gem or a value trap? These indicators suggest that Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, despite its apparent undervaluation, might be a potential value trap. This complexity underlines the importance of thorough due diligence in investment decision-making.

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Decoding the Altman Z-Score

Before delving into the details, let's understand what the Altman Z-score entails. Invented by New York University Professor Edward I. Altman in 1968, the Z-Score is a financial model that predicts the probability of a company entering bankruptcy within a two-year time frame. The Altman Z-Score combines five different financial ratios, each weighted to create a final score. A score below 1.8 suggests a high likelihood of financial distress, while a score above 3 indicates a low risk.

Company Snapshot

Norwegian Cruise Line is the world's third-largest cruise company by berths (at more than 60,000), operating 30 ships across three brands (Norwegian, Oceania, and Regent Seven Seas), offering both freestyle and luxury cruising. The company had redeployed its entire fleet as of May 2022. With seven passenger vessels on order among its brands through 2028 (representing 19,000 incremental berths), Norwegian is increasing capacity faster than its peers, expanding its brand globally. Norwegian sails to around 700 global destinations.

Is Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) Too Good to Be True? A Comprehensive Analysis of a Potential Value Trap

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings's Low Altman Z-Score: A Breakdown of Key Drivers

A dissection of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings's Altman Z-score reveals Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings's financial health may be weak, suggesting possible financial distress:

The Retained Earnings to Total Assets ratio provides insights into a company's capability to reinvest its profits or manage debt. Evaluating Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings's historical data, 2021: -0.13; 2022: -0.33; 2023: -0.38, we observe a declining trend in this ratio. This downward movement indicates Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings's diminishing ability to reinvest in its business or effectively manage its debt. Consequently, it exerts a negative impact on its Z-Score.

The Bearish Signs: Declining Revenues and Earnings

One of the telltale indicators of a company's potential trouble is a sustained decline in revenues. In the case of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, both the revenue per share (evident from the last five years' TTM data: 2019: 28.67; 2020: 21.68; 2021: 0.08; 2022: 5.74; 2023: 16.54; ) and the 5-year revenue growth rate (-32%) have been on a consistent downward trajectory. This pattern may point to underlying challenges such as diminishing demand for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings's products, or escalating competition in its market sector. Either scenario can pose serious risks to the company's future performance, warranting a thorough analysis by investors.

Is Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) Too Good to Be True? A Comprehensive Analysis of a Potential Value Trap

The Red Flag: Sluggish Earnings Growth

Despite its low price-to-fair-value ratio, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings's falling revenues and earnings cast a long shadow over its investment attractiveness. A low price relative to intrinsic value can indeed suggest an investment opportunity, but only if the company's fundamentals are sound or improving. In Steelcase's case, the declining revenues, EBITDA, and earnings growth suggest that the company's issues may be more than just cyclical fluctuations.

Without a clear turnaround strategy, there's a risk that the company's performance could continue to deteriorate, leading to further price declines. In such a scenario, the low price-to-GF-Value ratio may be more indicative of a value trap than a value opportunity.

Conclusion

Given the company's consistent decline in revenues and earnings, coupled with its low Altman Z-score, it seems that Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings may indeed be a value trap. While the stock's low price-to-GF-Value ratio may initially appear attractive, a deep dive into the company's financial health paints a different picture. This underlines the importance of thorough due diligence before making any investment decisions.

GuruFocus Premium members can find stocks with high Altman Z-Score using the following Screener: Walter Schloss Screen .Investors can find stocks with good revenue and earnings growth using GuruFocus' Peter Lynch Growth with Low Valuation Screener.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Key Insights

Philip Morris International's estimated fair value is US$164 based on 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity

Current share price of US$91.41 suggests Philip Morris International is potentially 44% undervalued

Our fair value estimate is 45% higher than Philip Morris International's analyst price target of US$113

In this article we are going to estimate the intrinsic value of Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) by projecting its future cash flows and then discounting them to today's value. One way to achieve this is by employing the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Believe it or not, it's not too difficult to follow, as you'll see from our example!

Companies can be valued in a lot of ways, so we would point out that a DCF is not perfect for every situation. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in the Simply Wall St analysis model.

View our latest analysis for Philip Morris International

The Method

We use what is known as a 2-stage model, which simply means we have two different periods of growth rates for the company's cash flows. Generally the first stage is higher growth, and the second stage is a lower growth phase. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years.

Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, and so the sum of these future cash flows is then discounted to today's value:

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10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast

2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 2031 2032 2033 Levered FCF ($, Millions) US$10.6b US$11.2b US$11.5b US$11.9b US$12.2b US$12.5b US$12.8b US$13.1b US$13.4b US$13.7b Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x6 Analyst x5 Analyst x1 Analyst x1 Est @ 2.76% Est @ 2.58% Est @ 2.45% Est @ 2.36% Est @ 2.30% Est @ 2.25% Present Value ($, Millions) Discounted @ 6.6% US$9.9k US$9.9k US$9.5k US$9.2k US$8.9k US$8.5k US$8.2k US$7.9k US$7.6k US$7.3k

("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)

Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = US$87b

The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 5-year average of the 10-year government bond yield (2.2%) 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 6.6%.

Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2033  (1 + g)  (r  g) = US$14b (1 + 2.2%)  (6.6% 2.2%) = US$317b

Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= US$317b ( 1 + 6.6%)10= US$168b

The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is US$255b. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of US$91.4, the company appears quite undervalued at a 44% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out.

dcf

Important 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 Philip Morris International as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 6.6%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.884. 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 Philip Morris International

Strength

Debt is well covered by earnings.

Dividend is in the top 25% of dividend payers in the market.

Weakness

Earnings declined over the past year.

Opportunity

Annual earnings are forecast to grow for the next 3 years.

Good value based on P/E ratio and estimated fair value.

Threat

Debt is not well covered by operating cash flow.

Total liabilities exceed total assets, which raises the risk of financial distress.

Dividends are not covered by earnings and cashflows.

Annual earnings are forecast to grow slower than the American market.

Looking Ahead:

Whilst important, the DCF calculation shouldn't be the only metric you look at when researching a company. It's not possible to obtain a foolproof valuation with a DCF model. Preferably you'd apply different cases and assumptions and see how they would impact the company's valuation. For instance, if the terminal value growth rate is adjusted slightly, it can dramatically alter the overall result. Can we work out why the company is trading at a discount to intrinsic value? For Philip Morris International, we've put together three essential items you should further research:

Risks: We feel that you should assess the 2 warning signs for Philip Morris International we've flagged before making an investment in the company. Future Earnings: How does PM's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with our free analyst growth expectation chart. Other High Quality Alternatives: Do you like a good all-rounder? Explore our interactive list of high quality stocks to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the NYSE every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks just search here.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



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(Bloomberg) -- Palantir Technologies Inc., the data analysis firm co-founded by tech billionaire Peter Thiel and contracted by government intelligence agencies and military forces around the world, has emerged as the top pick for a contract to overhaul the UKs National Health Service.

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The five-year contract, which may be extended by as long as two years and is worth much as 480 million ($579 million), is designed to help the agency analyze medical data, detect patterns and ultimately overhaul its entire system. The deal is subject to final approvals and legal arrangements, but the government was on track to announce Palantir as the winning bidder as soon as this month, people familiar with the discussions said, asking not to be identified because the information isnt public.

Palantir shares rose about 1.4% in premarket trading on Wednesday following the news.

Read More: Palantir Had Plan to Crack UK Health System: Buying Our Way In

The arrangement is both somewhat predictable and extremely controversial. Palantir has been working with the UK government since the Covid-19 pandemic, helping manage the countrys vaccine rollout for a 1 fee that positioned it well for more lucrative deals. Its relationship with the NHS has drawn fire from civil rights and patient advocacy groups that are concerned about the privacy of patient data.

Palantir and the National Health Service didnt respond to requests for comment. In an Aug. 25 blog post, NHSs chief data officer said a software vendor would never hold or have access to NHS data for any purpose other than as directed by the agency and indicated that patients would have a say in how their information is used.

Named after the all-seeing stones in J.R.R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings, Palantir got its start working for the US Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon, helping analysts interpret intelligence from the battlefield in Afghanistan and Iraq for signs of suspicious behavior or impending terrorist attacks. The FBI and police have used the software in criminal probes and its been deployed by banks, helping managers watch for suspicious behavior from employees.

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Controversies around Palantirs work with the NHS have mainly concerned transparency about what data the NHS is handing over, how its being used and whether patients can opt out.

In 2020, a leaked copy of a contract showed that the Denver-based tech company had been allowed access to sensitive data about patients, employees and members of the public in an attempt to help the health service cope with the coronavirus outbreak. Those details included political and religious affiliation and past criminal offenses, according to a copy of the documents published by politics website OpenDemocracy and the group Foxglove at the time.

Read More: Palantir Given Access to UK Health Data on NHS Patients

Two years later, the Doctors Association UK, National Pensioners Convention and Just Treatment sent a letter to NHS England demanding information about a pilot project that would use Palantirs Foundry software platform and how client data would be safeguarded.

Thiel, who is still Palantirs chairman, has described the UKs affection for the NHS as Stockholm syndrome, and recommended that the country could rip the whole thing from the ground and start over, in a speech at the Oxford Union in January. Palantir said at the time that Thiel was speaking in a private capacity and that his views didnt reflect the views of the company.

The NHS is the UKs national health service, the publicly funded operation providing medical care thats free at the point of access for the 67 million people living in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Still, its been beset by staff shortages and backlogs after the pandemic delayed less-urgent procedures.

The impact on Englands public healthcare system may be larger than the impact on Palantirs bottom line. The firm generated more than $1.07 billion in government revenue in 2022 and is on track for $1.26 billion this year. The UK contract, while lucrative, is spread over the course of several years. So while it may not have a major effect on Palantirs immediate results, it could serve as beachhead for future sales.

--With assistance from Lizette Chapman.

(Updates with premarket shares in the third paragraph.)

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2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Weather Alert

Bulletin: ...FREEZE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM EDT THIS MORNING... * WHAT...Sub-freezing temperatures between 25 and 30 degrees expected. * WHERE...Portions of central, northern and southern Delaware, northeast Maryland, central, northern, northwest and southern New Jersey and east central and southeast Pennsylvania. * WHEN...Until 10 AM EDT this morning. * IMPACTS...Frost and freeze conditions will kill crops and other sensitive vegetation. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Take steps now to protect tender plants from the cold. &&

Info:

Type: Freeze Warning

start_time_local: 2023-11-02T03:09:00-04:00

end_time_local: 2023-11-02T10:00:00-04:00

county_name:

state: NJ

headline: Freeze Warning until THU 10:00 AM EDT

county_fips:

category: Met

url:

urgency: Expected

severity: Moderate

certainty: Likely

geographicname: Warren County

state_name: New Jersey
MOREAU, N.Y. (AP)  A 9-year-old girl who vanished during a family camping trip in upstate New York was safe and in good health Monday after a massive two-day search ended with her rescue and the arrest of a person suspected in her abduction, police said.

Charlotte Sena disappeared while riding her bike early Saturday evening at Moreau Lake State Park, a heavily wooded area some 35 miles (60 kilometers) north of Albany.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday night during a news conference that investigators were able to identify a fingerprint from a ransom note allegedly left by the suspect she identified as Craig Nelson Ross Jr., 47.

What happened was extraordinary, she said.

She said while the rest of Charlotte's family remained at the campground where she had gone missing, police watching their home saw someone drop a note in their mailbox at 4:20 a.m. Monday. State police pulled fingerprints off the note and the second one matched Ross, who was in a database from a 1999 DWI case, Hochul said.

Law enforcement agents linked Ross to a property owned by his mother, made entry and found him in a camper at about 6:30 p.m., she said.

After some resistance, the suspect was taken into custody and immediately the little girl was found in a cabinet, Hochul said. She knew she was being rescued. She knew that she was in safe hands.

Charlotte was taken to a local hospital, as is customary, Hochul said, adding that she appeared physically unharmed and that she and her family have been reunited.

No charges have been brought against Ross, but they are expected, Hochul said. Ross was still being questioned on Monday night, Hochul said.

The governor named Ross as the suspect late Monday night and it wasn't immediately known if he had a lawyer to comment on his behalf.

Authorities said it was still an active investigation.

The rescue marked the end of an intense search. About 400 people took part in the hunt for the girl Monday, including forest rangers, police officers and firefighters. The search had expanded over 46 linear miles (74 linear kilometers).

Charlotte, a fourth grader from nearby Greenfield, had been riding her bike around a campsite loop in the park with other children when she decided to ride around one more time by herself. Her parents became alarmed when she failed to return after 15 minutes, Hochul said at a briefing Sunday.

The girls mother called 911 after her bicycle was found at around 6:45 p.m. Saturday.

Officials issued an Amber Alert on Sunday morning after an exhaustive search because it was quite possible that an abduction had taken place, state police Lt. Colonel Richard Mazzone said. The alert described her as a white girl with blonde hair and green eyes who is about 4 feet 6 inches tall (1.37 meters).

The girls family pleaded with the public for help in finding Charlotte, including providing any tips to the state police.

We just want her returned safely like any parent would, the family said in a statement earlier Monday. No tip is too small, please call if you know anything at all.

Troopers had set up several checkpoints on the winding, rural roads around the park. They stopped drivers and asked if they knew the family, had seen the girls photo or had any other information that could help the search. They also had some drivers open their trunks.

The park remained closed because of the search, and officials asked members of the public who showed up hoping to help to stay away and leave the search to professionals. Federal authorities also issued a temporary flight restriction over the park for the safety of law enforcement air operations.

The Corinth Central School District said it had extra counselors at Charlottes elementary school for any students or staff who need support.

Our hearts go out to the Sena family, the district said in a statement.

AP writer Lisa Baumann contributed from Bellingham, Washington.
STOCKHOLM (AP)  The Nobel Prize in physics was awarded Tuesday to three scientists who look at electrons in atoms during the tiniest of split seconds.

Pierre Agostini of The Ohio State University in the U.S.; Ferenc Krausz of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany; and Anne LHuillier of Lund University in Sweden won the award.

Their experiments have given humanity new tools for exploring the world of electrons inside atoms and molecules, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which announced the prize in Stockholm. They have demonstrated a way to create extremely short pulses of light that can be used to measure the rapid processes in which electrons move or change energy.

At the moment, this science is about understanding our universe rather than practical applications, but the hope is that it will eventually lead to better electronics and disease diagnosis.

Attosecond science allows us to address fundamental questions such as the time scale of the photoelectric effect for which Einstein, Albert Einstein, received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921, according to Eva Olsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

The Nobel Prizes carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million). The money comes from a bequest left by the prizes creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896.

Last year, three scientists jointly won the physics prize for proving that tiny particles could retain a connection with each other even when separated. The phenomenon was once doubted but is now being explored for potential real-world applications such as encrypting information.

The physics prize comes a day after Hungarian-American Katalin Kariko and American Drew Weissman won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

Nobel announcements will continue with the chemistry prize on Wednesday and the literature prize on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economics award on Oct. 9.

The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobels death. The prestigious peace prize is handed out in Oslo, according to his wishes, while the other award ceremony is held in Stockholm.

Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands.

Follow all AP stories about the Nobel Prizes at https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes
AMITY TWP., Pa.  As the Philadelphia Phillies face the Miami Marlins in the National League Wild Card series, fans are expressing their excitement for for another playoff run, and so are bars and restaurants in Berks County.

"Our people always seem to bring it. They support the local teams," said Billy Vanneman, general manager of Island Pizza on Route 422 in Amity Township.

Island Pizza's bar and kitchen are set. Vanneman said he is anticipating an electric atmosphere this postseason.

"If someone hits a homerun tonight, if someone scores, that bell is going to be ringing, people are going to be jumping off their bar stools," he said. "It's going to be a good time."

Vanneman said this first game comes on burger night, and Wednesday is wing night. He said the business is looking to take what it learned last postseason into this one.

"We've been doing this for a long time," he said. "We got a great staff. We got a great group of customers. They come in all the time. They know what the deal is."

At Craft 2700 on Kutztown Road in Muhlenberg Township, it will be a ballpark-style menu with some specials.

"We only opened in April, so this is our first Phillies postseason," said Desiree Gehr, the restaurant's general manager. "People have really been telling us they want beer specials, they want drink specials, they want food specials, so we just kind of listened to what everyone is looking for and went from there."

Gehr said the National League Wild Card game will be on every one of Craft 2700's TVs, and customers will have the chance to walk away with more than a meal.

"Phillies fans can expect really awesome giveaways," said Gehr.
Staff from A. Maceo Walker Middle School smile prior to the 2023 St. Jude Walk/Run Memphis.

MEMPHIS, Tenn., October 03, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--More than 3,500 participants gathered at Tom Lee Park last weekend for the 9th annual St. Jude Walk/Run Memphis, held on the final day of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. The runners and walkers represented local and global communities coming together to support research and treatment by St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital to improve survival rates for childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases around the world.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003922202/en/

Staff from A. Maceo Walker Middle School smile prior to the 2023 St. Jude Walk/Run Memphis. (Photo: Business Wire)

Among those communities were 10 teams of students, staff and school leaders from across the Memphis-Shelby County Schools District, the largest public school district in Tennessee. This year marked a reinvigorated collaboration between schools and this event which included a pep rally held the week prior at A. Maceo Walker Middle School, where several students shared their personal experiences with St. Jude to their peers.

"As an educator, I know I feel a close connection to the work St. Jude does: we both serve student families and the community, and care about making a larger impact on kids everywhere," said Leslie Banks, principal of A. Maceo Walker Middle School. "We hope to inspire more students and staff to be a part of this wonderful event in years to come as a way to uplift others and change lives for the better."

Lining the street on Saturday, Power Center Academy High School cheerleaders danced and waved pom-poms to encourage the crowd, some of them members of the Crosstown High School cross country team, to put one foot in front of the other. Also amongst participants were leaders of 13 St. Jude Global partner foundations from five continents who joined Memphians and participated on a Walk/Run team. The partners received fitness event training to help improve community engagement and revenue raised in their own countries, all for childhood cancer.

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"The global movement to cure childhood cancer was beautifully reflected today at the St. Jude Walk/Run with thousands gathered from Memphis to Mongolia and 12 other countries, united together in saving children worldwide," said Emily Callahan, Chief Marketing Officer for ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital. "It was an honor to be in the incredible new Tom Lee Park and see the soul of Memphis on full display, helping to give kids with cancer everywhere a chance to live their best life and celebrate every moment."

St. Jude Walk/Run fundraising continues until Dec. 31. Donate to help raise funds that ensure families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food so they can focus on helping their child live.

St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital

St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Its purpose is clear: Finding cures. Saving children. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. When St. Jude opened in 1962, childhood cancer was largely considered incurable. Since then, St. Jude has helped push the overall survival rate from 20% to more than 80%, and it won't stop until no child dies from cancer. St. Jude shares the breakthroughs it makes to help doctors and researchers at local hospitals and cancer centers around the world improve the quality of treatment and care for even more children. Because of generous donors, families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food, so they can focus on helping their child live. Visit St. Jude Inspire to discover powerful St. Jude stories of hope, strength, love and kindness. Support the St. Jude mission by donating at stjude.org, liking St. Jude on Facebook, following St. Jude on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok, and subscribing to its YouTube channel.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003922202/en/

Contacts

Caroline Gonzalez

caroline.gonzalez@alsac.stjude.org
READING, Pa.  First-year students at Alvernia University talked about the effects of climate change on communities around the globe.

Philadelphia Inquirer editor Devi Lockwood spoke with hundreds of students at the PLEX Monday. She talked about her book: "1,001 Voices on Climate Change."

Lockwood says the book chronicles her five-year journey around the world, documenting the stories of people affected by the changing climate. She says she wants to make climate change more personal.

"I think the language that we use to discuss climate change is often really abstract and inaccessible," Lockwood said. "And by interviewing people in different countries around the world, I found a way of hopefully starting to humanize this crisis."

Lockwood says lots of people are living with the affects of climate change right now. She adds it can be challenging to discuss the subject.

"I think, candidly, we just need a lot more listening," she said. "Any type of crisis requires creative solutions, and I think the best solutions, the most localized ones come when we are able to make space and time to hear the people around us and the people who are most impacted."

Lockwood says she hopes that students she spoke to will think about what they can add to the conversation.
EXETER TWP., Pa.  A Reading man is behind bars after trying to outrun police officers in the city's eastern suburbs in a stolen vehicle that reached triple-digit speeds, according to court documents.

The series of events began to unfold shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday, when an Exeter Township police officer on patrol in the 4800 block of Perkiomen Avenue (Route 422) was alerted to a stolen vehicle traveling east along the highway.

The officer spotted the vehicle, a white Buick Encore, and attempted to stop it as it turned right onto Lorane Road, but the SUV drove through the Wawa parking lot and back onto eastbound Perkiomen Avenue, where it traveled at speeds between 90 and 102 miles per hour, according to the affidavit of probable cause.

An officer ahead of the chase deployed spike strips at Route 422 East and Route 345. The vehicle then crashed into the woods about a mile-and-a-half down the highway, as it attempted to turn onto Monocacy Creek Road in Amity Township, the police said.

The driver and his three passengers got out of the SUV and ran off, but officers said they managed to catch three of them after a brief foot pursuit.

The driver of the vehicle, Victor Emmanuel Colon Nazario, 20, was charged with receiving stolen property, fleeing/eluding police, and various traffic violations. He was committed to the Berks County Jail on $75,000 bail.

Police did not say if the other occupants of the stolen vehicle were charged.
ALLENTOWN, Pa.  The Allentown Historical Architectural Review Board tabled a preliminary plan to turn a former church into affordable housing Monday night.

The proposal, offered by Ripple Community Inc., calls for 12 units at 1539-1551 W. Chew St., the home of the former Emmanuel United Church of Christ. The 12 units would provide housing for 22 to 30 residents.

The stone church building, which was a fixture in the west Allentown community, was built in 1920 in the Gothic Revival style. The building is characterized by tall arched windows and openings, steeply peaked gables over three arched double-door openings, and asymmetrical towers on either side of the central nave.

The conversion requires the removal of several stained-glass windows, which would be replaced with aluminum windows. Other work involves roof and gutter repairs, masonry repointing, door replacements and relocation of HVAC units, along with the addition of exterior lighting, new signage and removal of non-historic fencing.

Much of the church's exterior would stay intact, and the adjacent parking lot would remain also.

Some of the board members did not like removing the stained-glass windows and hoped they could be preserved after removed, but they recognized why it was being requested and that overall the building's reuse was worthy.

The board is expected to reconsider the proposal at its November meeting.

Emmanuel U.C.C. held its final liturgy on Nov. 27, 2022.
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - An early-morning yellow bus stop is not for kids heading to school, but pooches bound for doggy day care.

"Come on Belle, good morning, good morning," could be heard coming from inside the bus as a 20-pound terrier trotted on board.

"Do you feel like a proud parent?"

"Oh of course. I'm putting my kid on a school bus for the first time, that's unique," said Dog Mom Debera Langer.

Starting as early as 5 a.m., Bethlehem-based Mighty Paws owners Rob Rozak and Jay Martinez begin rounding up the hounds set for their Stefko Boulevard facility.

"It's a great start to the day, it's a great way to end your day," Rozak stated.

"Good morning, buddy, good morning cookie." "Hey Kimbo, come on buddy." "Good morning." All greetings to dogs coming on board.

"It's a pretty large route but it's all designed for customers' timing, so it works out very well," Rozak said while driving.

The $15 round trip covers most of the Lehigh Valley and Phillipsburg, New Jersey. Martinez meets dogs at the door. Or at the bus. 15 dogs have been inside at a time.

"Do they ever leave you an unpleasant present? "

"No not yet. I'm waiting for it," Martinez chuckled.

Martinez, a dog trainer, says all dogs are evaluated before boarding the bus.

We didn't hear a bark on board.

The service stemmed from helping an older client and has grown into conveniencing professionals like Laura Mims, whose dog Kimbo is riding for the first time.

"This is perfect. I'm more excited than he is," she said.

From man's best friend to canine chauffer.
EASTON, Pa.  Northampton County Executive Lamont G. McClure has proposed a $582.5 million budget for 2024 that does not raise property taxes.

McClure said Tuesday that his 195-page budget keeps costs down and provides $3 million to preserve land as part of his battle against "warehouse proliferation."

The spending plan for operating costs and capital projects is 3% below 2023's $601.9 million budget, according to Stephen J. Barron Jr., director of fiscal affairs. The spending decline is largely due to the end of federal Covid-19 relief aid.

McClure presented his sixth budget on Tuesday. Five of them have kept taxes level, and in 2022, there was a property tax cut. The tax is set at 10.8 mills. Each mill is $1 of tax per $1,000 of assessed value, so the bill on a property assessed at $50,000 is $540.

On the revenue side, the budget projects $303.2 million of support from the State of Pennsylvania and the federal government. Tax dollars account for $101 million of revenue, about a sixth of the total. The rest comes from fees and charges, along with investment income on the county's reserves. The county's $130.3 million fund balances accounts for the rest.

The biggest expenditure is for the Human Services Department at $349.8 million. Most of that money is a "pass through" of state and federal dollars. The court and corrections system accounts for $93.6 million of projected spending, and "general government" costs total $105.7 million, and public works totals $27.5 million.

County employees will be paying more next year for healthcare. Not directly, but through higher deductibles on bills.

"There will be significant increases in deductibles," McClure said, without giving a specific number. He blamed that on County Council, which voted against a health clinic for employees and dependents.

McClure's administration said having a clinic to provide free primary care would have saved millions of dollars over visits to doctors, hospitals and emergency rooms.

County Council was not convinced. Opponents of the plan said the county should not go into the health business, and they questioned the projections of savings.

Two Council members who attended McClure's budget presentation at the government center in Easton voted on different sides of the issue.

"Whether or not it would save money, I think, is a question mark," said John Cusick, who voted for the health center. "I think it would have been a convenience for our employees."

Cusick is the Republican nominee for County Controller in the fall race. His opponent is Democrat Tara Zrinski, also a council member. The controller is the independent fiscal watchdog who oversees audits and reviews spending.

Lori Vargo Heffner, who voted against the clinic, said the idea that Council is responsible for higher healthcare costs for employees is "ludicrous."

She said creating the health center would have been the start of "a slippery slope to getting rid of (the employees') insurance."

Vargo Heffner also warned against the county going into the healthcare business.

Cusick said higher healthcare costs are a national problem, not something unique to Northampton County. The county is self-insured now, meaning its insurer handles paperwork and negotiates costs, but the county pays the bills. He suggested the county seek bids on joining a large insurance plan to see if there would be savings.

County Council has to approve the budget. McClure's spending plan will be discussed by council in a series of budget hearings.

Barron, the fiscal director, said the McClure administration has three guiding financial principles: do not raise property taxes, protect open space and keep the Gracedale nursing home under county ownership and operation.

The administration has stuck with all three, he said, and Barron noted again the commitment to open space.

"We are on pace to have invested $25 million (in land preservation) by the end of the executive's second term," Barron said.

McClure has already said he plans to run for a third term in 2025.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. - A beloved retired arson dog is on the minds of many Allentown residents after some sad news posted to social media on Monday. Judge the dog appeared many times here on 69 News segments. Now he's dealing with some health challenges.

"Thank you," Gail Hoover, who runs a foundation benefitting animals, said. "Thank you so much. Just for being Judge."

Many in the community, like Hoover, know and love Judge, for his eight years as an arson dog with the Allentown Fire Department.

Judge's Facebook page recently shared some difficult news with the K-9's more than 2,000 fans.

"The outpouring of support for him," Lee Laubach, Judge's human dad, said. "If you just look at his Facebook page, I couldn't read it because I would start crying a lot. But I thank everybody for the support."

X-rays from a recent vet visit, Laubach says, show fluid in the 14-and-a-half-year old's abdomen.

"[The vet] said, you know, this is the point where I usually tell the people, you've got to take them home and get ready to say goodbye," Laubach said.

As former Allentown Fire Chief, Laubach worked with the golden lab for more than eight years.

"We did over 600 fires in our career," he said. "And we did over 1000 demonstrations."

In 2016, Judge even won Arson Dog of the Year for the American Humane Hero Dog Awards.

"Oh my God, when he won the award, the entire city, you know, celebrated. Everybody was watching it," Hoover said.

Even after retiring in 2018, Judge continued to make his rounds for two more years, doing demonstrations: everything from nursing homes to elementary schools.

"Judge could be the mayor," Hoover said. "For our canine officers, he's the best face and his personality really just shines through with all of it, whether it's adults, kids, whatever."

Hoover made Judge the spokes-pup for her efforts in getting oxygen masks donated to pets all over the Lehigh Valley.

It's even landed Judge on our shows here at 69 News more than once.

Judge has also served as Grand Marshal at Pocono Raceway and participated in the puck drop at the PPL Center.

"He was with me on the ice while I did the puck drop," Laubach said. "He did not like the taste of the puck and refused to carry it."

Now, Judge's loved ones are taking it one day at a time.

"When that time comes, we're not going to make them suffer," Laubach said.

They're focusing on all Judge has done for them and the community.
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Downtown Bethlehem is all decked out for the Fall harvest season.

The Scarecrow Showdown is back for another year as creative scarecrows line Main Street.

Organizers say they usually get between 12 to 20 scarecrows and the amount grows each year, even extending onto Broad Street.

Officials say this year, the scarecrows are some of the best they've ever seen.

"The creativity is off the charts. As you can see behind me, this one is just incredible," said Ty Versocki, assistant manager with the Downtown Bethlehem Association.

To vote for which scarecrow you like the best, scan its tag with your phone.

That will lead you to a website to cast your vote.

First prize winner gets a $100 dollar gift card to Downtown Bethlehem.

Second prize is a $50 dollar gift card.

Each winner also receives a gift basket.
BETHLEHEM TWP., Pa.  At its bimonthly meeting Monday night, the Bethlehem Township Board of Commissioners approved the construction of a third wing and temporary helipad relocation at St. Luke's Anderson Campus.

Known as "Campus Wing 3," the new five-story, 307,979-square-foot building will add 146 beds to St. Luke's Anderson. The hospital is located near the intersection of Route 33 and Freemansburg Avenue.

The approval came after months of consideration by Bethlehem Township officials.

In July, project engineer Scott Pasterski and St. Luke's director of planning and construction Zak Appleby said the hospital eventually plans to construct the helipad atop the new building for emergency use by medevac helicopters.

St. Luke's had proposed a temporary helipad near the property's northeast corner during the construction of Campus Wing 3. The township approved this plan on Sept. 18, ultimately concluding that the final helipad location would not affect the character of the surrounding neighborhood.

Township audit

Also on Monday, the commissioners heard a presentation from auditor Paul Mack of Campbell, Rappold & Yurasits LLP. Mack's firm conducted an extensive audit of Bethlehem Township's assets, liabilities and other financial information.

According to Mack, the township had $61.3 million in total assets and $17.8 million in total liabilities as of December 2022  meaning it owned $47.6 million in net assets. The township also had a net income increase of $4.5 million in 2022, Mack said.

Mack also said that, due to poor stock market performance in 2022, the township faced a pension liability of "just under $6 million." However, he noted this liability was not unusual compared to the liabilities faced by other similar municipalities.

"There's always risks trying to fund a pension... 2022 was a down year," Mack said.

Bethlehem Landfill

In other news, the commissioners unanimously passed a motion to support joining the effort to oppose the expansion of Bethlehem Landfill in neighboring Lower Saucon Township.

Despite widespread public disapproval, the Lower Saucon Township Council rezoned 275 acres of land near the landfill on Aug. 30. John Gallagher, vice president of the Bethlehem Township Board of Commissioners, was present at that meeting but not permitted to speak.

Some Lower Saucon Township residents have sued their municipality over the rezoning, arguing it violates the conservation easements established nearly 30 years ago.

The Bethlehem Township Board of Commissioners will meet again on Monday, Oct. 16.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Multiple people were taken into custody early Sunday morning after a police pursuit in Allentown, according to a news release from Pennsylvania State Police.

Troopers were in the area of North Dauphin Street in Allentown shortly before 12:30 a.m. with multiple Allentown Police units for a large gathering of cars, motorcycles, and pedestrians blocking the roadway and racing one another, state police said.

Officers began to disperse the crowd, which resulted in multiple vehicles and pedestrians fleeing the scene, according to the news release.

State police say troopers tried to conduct a traffic stop on one of the involved vehicles, but the vehicle did not yield to lights and sirens.

A short pursuit was started and ended when troopers conducted a PIT maneuver on the vehicle, according to state police. The people in the vehicle were taken into custody without any incident or injury, and charges were appropriately filed, state police said.

State police say the incident remains under investigation.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. - A Lehigh County fire company celebrates a big moment in expanding their service to the community.

The Western Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new Swain Station Monday evening.

The fire company says this moment was 10 years in the making.

Construction is expected to be completed next spring or summer.
Floridas home insurance crisis continues to weigh on homeowners as reports indicate that Progressive plans to send out non-renewal notices to roughly half of its home insurance policies in December.

The Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) confirmed to several media outlets that Progressive would be dropping an estimated 100,000 home insurance policies to rebalance its exposure in the state.

Jeff Sibel, a Progressive spokesman confirmed to WFLA that the company doesnt have any plans to leave Florida, but the company announced to its agents on Friday that it would no longer provide dwelling/fire, also known as DP3, coverage in Florida.

Triple-I confirmed that Progressive is planning to non-renew 47,000 DP3 policies and 53,000 high-risk property policies.

Citizens historic rate hike: Citizens Insurance gets OK for historic 12.3% rate hike for personal lines

Progressive Home is one of the largest homeowner insurers in the state by direct premiums written, making up 3.9% of the market share, according to Triple-I.

Progressives announcement comes after AAA sent out a similar batch of non-renewal notices for some of its homeowner policies and Farmers Insurance announced it was leaving Florida entirely.

Policyholders affected by the move will be notified in late December and will have until May 2024 to find replacement coverage.

Heres what to know.

Is Progressive pulling out of Florida?

Progressive said it has no plans of leaving Florida. A spokesperson told WFLA that this rebalancing would help the company continue writing business in Florida in a meaningful way.

Progressive didnt renew 56,000 policies last year, according to Triple-I.

Why am I receiving a non-renewal notice and what is it?

Insurance companies send non-renewal notices to policyholders when the company has decided not to continue providing insurance coverage on the home after the current policy expires.

Companies will send customers non-renewal notices for multiple reasons including:

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Your home fails to pass an inspection

Your insurance provider is reducing its number of policies in your area or pulling out all together

Your insurance provider found evidence of fraud or false information on your application

What should I do if I receive a non-renewal notice?

No one wants to deal with the hassle of receiving a non-renewal notice. Fortunately, policyholders have plenty of options.

Identify why your home insurance wasn't renewed. The first thing homeowners need to do when they receive a non-renewal notice is figure out why it was sent. If a homeowner needs to make repairs on their home following a failed home inspection, they will need to get those done before seeking new coverage.

Shop around . Like it or not, you will need to shop around to find new coverage. The silver lining is that if you haven't shopped around recently, you may be able to find a cheaper rate with another company than a renewal would have been.

Check with Citizens Insurance. Florida's state-backed Citizens Insurance was created in 2002 to provide homeowners with a last-resort option if they aren't able to find insurance in the private market.

Self-insuring in Florida? Florida homeowners insurance prices are skyrocketing. Is self-insuring the answer?

How is a home insurance non-renewal notice different from a cancellation?

Non-renewal notices and cancellations are different when it comes to home insurance. In most places, an insurance carrier isn't allowed to flat-out cancel a policy once it has been in effect for longer than 60 days.

Whereas a cancellation is effective on a date indicated in the cancellation notice sent out to a customer, a non-renewal notice is typically sent out to customers between 60 and 30 days before when their policy would have been renewed.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Progressive Home to non-renew Florida policies. Here's what to know
HILLTOWN TWP., Pa.  Following an "extensive investigation," police have arrested the man accused of stealing a semi-trailer containing nearly $75,000 worth of merchandise from a Bucks County Walmart last year.

Police said they arrested Timothy Morvin, now 38, for the Jan. 16, 2022, theft from Walmart Supercenter in Hilltown Township. Morvin was arrested on Monday, Sept. 25, police said.

According to police, the total value of merchandise stolen was $74,705.56.

Morvin is charged with theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property, police said.
Convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante was on the run in Chester County for two weeks, with hundreds of police officers looking for him.

The search put homes and businesses on lockdown. But it all started with a security flaw in the Chester County Prison, allowing Cavalcante to crab walk up the wall, onto the roof, and out of the facility to freedom.

We spoke with County Commissioner Josh Maxwell at a community meeting last month.

It's something he believes should never have happened.

"One of the most violent criminals we've had for decades managed to get out of this prison and evade some of the best law enforcement people from across the country for almost two weeks. We need to make sure that this municipal prison can contain somebody who has this amount of capability," Maxwell said.

So, Maxwell and his colleagues are moving forward with a plan to make the Chester County Prison more secure.

Acting Warden Howard Holland said that includes a new roof over the exercise area.

"Currently all the yards have an open-air top, so you have pretty much a wall or a fence that come up, and what we're looking to do is actually cover all those to thwart anybody trying to physically crawl out of those locations onto the roof," Holland said.

But now that proposal is receiving pushback from the non-profit Pennsylvania Prison Society.

In a statement on its website, the group argues "eliminating outdoor access in a jail would exacerbate mental health problems that have reached epidemic proportions in jails."

The group argues increasing staffing should be the focus instead.

A survey the group published showed more than 25 percent of the positions at the Chester County Prison are not filled.

The group says it is in contact with the county and intends to meet with leaders to discuss their plans moving forward.
TORONTO (AP)  India has told Canada to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country, an official familiar with the matter said Tuesday, ramping up a confrontation between the two countries over Canadian accusations that India may have been involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in suburban Vancouver.

The official, who confirmed an earlier report from the Financial Times, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Indias Ministry of External Affairs declined to comment, but ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had previously called for a reduction in Canadian diplomats in India, saying they outnumbered Indias staffing in Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last month that there were credible allegations of Indian involvement in the slaying of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Sikh leader who was killed by masked gunmen in June in Surrey, outside Vancouver. For years, India has said Nijjar, a Canadian citizen born in India, has links to terrorism, an allegation Nijjar denied.

Arranging the killing of a Canadian citizen in Canada, home to nearly 2 million people of Indian descent, would be unprecedented.

On Tuesday, Trudeau didnt confirm the number of diplomats that have been told to leave but suggested Canada would not retaliate.

Obviously, we are going through an extremely challenging time with India right now, but thats why it is so important for us to have diplomats on the ground working with the Indian government and there to support Canadians and Canadian families, Trudeau said. Were taking this extremely seriously, but were going to continue to engage responsibly and constructively with the Indian government.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said she's in contact with the Indian government.

We will continue to engage privately because we think that diplomatic conversations are best when they remain private," Joly said.

India has accused Canada for years of giving free rein to Sikh separatists, including Nijjar.

India has also canceled visas for Canadians. Canada has not retaliated for that. India previously expelled a senior Canadian diplomat after Canada expelled a senior Indian diplomat.

Trudeau has also previously appeared to try to calm the diplomatic clash, telling reporters that Canada is not looking to provoke or escalate.

The allegation of Indias involvement in the killing is based in part on the surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada, including intelligence provided by a major ally, a separate Canadian official previously told The Associated Press.

The official said that the communications involved Indian officials and diplomats in Canada and that some of the intelligence was provided by a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, which includes the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, in addition to Canada. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The latest expulsions by India have escalated tensions between the countries. Trudeau had frosty encounters with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during last months Group of 20 meeting in New Delhi, and a few days later, Canada canceled a trade mission to India planned for the fall.

"This is a clear show of force on the part of the Modi government, whos not afraid to escalate this diplomatic crisis," said Daniel Beland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal. Its a dramatic move that seriously weakens the capacity of Canadas diplomatic services in India.

Beland said it will hurt many Indian citizens, including foreign students and temporary workers in need of a Canadian visa.

The U.S. needs to do more to solve this diplomatic crisis, he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met last week with Indias foreign minister amid the simmering row between New Delhi and Ottawa. A U.S. official said the topic was raised.

U.S. officials have acknowledged that the fallout from the allegations could have a profound impact on relations with India, but have been careful not to cast blame in the killing of Nijjar.

We are and continue to be deeply concerned by the allegations," U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said to reporters when asked about the case and India expelling 41 Canadian diplomats.

It is critical that Canadas investigation proceed and that the perpetrators be brought to justice. We have publicly and privately urged India to cooperate. We take these allegations very seriously."

Maitreyi Bhatt, a 27-year-old Indian citizen in Toronto whose partner is Canadian and needs a visa, canceled her wedding scheduled to take place in India in late October, when he was to meet her family for the first time. The lost deposits and nonrefundable flights have been a blow, Bhatt said, but are "nothing compared to the mental and emotional turmoil."

The way the situation is accelerating, I dont see them coming to a solution to this anytime soon, she said. It just feels super weird. I never thought I would be a part of this, but sadly I am.

Nijjar, a plumber, was also a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan. A bloody decadelong Sikh insurgency shook north India in the 1970s and 1980s, until it was crushed in a government crackdown in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.

The Khalistan movement has lost much of its political power but still has supporters in the Indian state of Punjab, as well as in the sizable overseas Sikh diaspora. While the active insurgency ended years ago, the Indian government has warned repeatedly that Sikh separatists were trying to make a comeback.

Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said India's actions are consistent with international reports of declining press freedoms in the country.

Like the Chinese government, the Modi government thinks it is in a stronger position than in the past to flex its muscles on the international stage, Wiseman said.

Wiseman also said that if the number of Indian students declines dramatically, Canadian colleges could feel the loss of those high tuitions.
DETROIT (AP)  The parents of a teenager who killed four students at Michigan's Oxford High School lost an appeal Tuesday and will face trial on involuntary manslaughter charges, a rare case of prosecutors attempting to pin some responsibility for a school shooting on the perpetrator's family.

James and Jennifer Crumbley are accused of making a gun accessible to Ethan Crumbley and ignoring his mental health needs. The state appeals court said in March that the couple could face trial, and the Michigan Supreme Court let that decision stand in a one-sentence order.

Prosecutors in suburban Detroit had to show only that there was probable cause to put the parents on trial, a low threshold at this stage. The appeals court noted that an Oakland County jury will hear a more expansive case from all sides.

The shooter killed Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana and Justin Shilling at Oxford High, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) north of Detroit, in November 2021. Six students and a teacher were also wounded.

Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty to terrorism and murder. A judge last week said he is eligible for life in prison without parole.

Attorneys for the parents insist the school shooting was not foreseeable. They acknowledge that bad decisions were made but not ones that should rise to involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.

The teen and his parents met with school staff the day of the shooting after a teacher noticed violent drawings, but no one checked his backpack for a gun. He was allowed to stay.

The 17-year-old, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, will be sentenced Dec. 8. The judge will have the option of giving him a prison term that would make him eligible for parole in the decades ahead.

The Crumbley parents have been in custody since shortly after the shooting, unable to afford a $500,000 bond. Their son is in the same jail, though they have no contact with him.

Defense lawyers declined to comment on the Supreme Court's order, citing a gag order.

In Newport News, Virginia, the mother of a 6-year-old boy who wounded a teacher recently pleaded guilty to child neglect. The boy had used her gun.

In the Michigan case, Colin King, a psychologist who has met with the teen, described him as a feral child who was neglected by his parents. Judge Kwame Rowe said his home life was "not ideal, with his parents often drinking alcohol and arguing, but not terrible.

The teen appeared to have a loving and supportive family, Rowe said Friday. He went on family vacations, owned several pets and had visits from family. ... In defendant's own words, his childhood was good.

Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez
WASHINGTON (AP)  Speaker Kevin McCarthy is facing an extraordinary referendum on his leadership of the House after a conservative member of his own Republican majority, a longtime critic, moved to launch a vote to oust him from the helm.

Late Monday, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., rose in the chamber as the House was almost done for the day to file the motion  a resolution that would set a snap vote in coming days that even Gaetz acknowledged may not have enough support to remove the speaker from the job.

I have enough Republicans where at this point next week, one of two things will happen: Kevin McCarthy wont be the speaker of the House or hell be the speaker of the House working at the pleasure of the Democrats," Gaetz told reporters afterward outside the Capitol.

McCarthy responded minutes later on social media, Bring it on.

Gaetz soon retorted in a post, Just did.

Its a historic moment: the first time in more than 100 years that a lawmaker may actually force a vote using the legislative tool that has been threatened against other House speakers, including in 2015, but never fully employed to try to remove them.

The bold strike to confront McCarthy carries potentially dire ramifications if enough lawmakers decide to remove his hold on the gavel, but also for Gaetz if it fizzles out. It also puts on stark display the warring factions that have roiled the Republican majority this year in the House and beyond.

So far, despite the deep divides over McCarthy's leadership, only a handful of hard-right Republicans have signaled they are willing to vote to remove him. Others who have aligned with Gaetz on spending cuts or other priorities are parting ways with him on this one.

Its a really bad idea, said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., one of the more conservative lawmakers in the House.

Gaetz has for months threatened to use the procedural tool  called a motion to vacate  to try to strip McCarthy of his office. Those threats escalated over the weekend after McCarthy relied on Democrats to provide the necessary votes to fund the government.

That decision has set McCarthy up for what will likely be the ultimate test of his leadership and may force him to again look across the aisle to Democrats for support. But how the vote will ultimately unfold remains unclear as Democrats weigh whether to help McCarthy, join the effort to oust him, or simply withhold their votes or rely on parliamentary maneuvering that could sway the outcome.

Do we side with a sociopath or an incompetent? said Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., a progressive leader. I dont know?

And allies of McCarthy have said for weeks they were ready for a motion to come.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said he has spoken privately to some Democrats who have told him they would vote to help McCarthy remain in office. Im sure Mr. Gaetz will have some allies who will go with him. But I dont see enough.

The vote ahead could result in humiliation  the first speaker ever ousted from the job through such a motion  or newfound strength as he overcomes yet another obstacle while trying to lead a narrow, unwieldy majority.

Conservative critics have been hounding McCarthy from the start, denying him votes and thwarting his plans. But McCarthy has leaned into the fight and suggested its an opportunity to set aside his critics once and for all.

Gaetz acknowledged the effort is likely to fail. He responded to questions about what he hoped to accomplish by saying Americans need to know who's in charge.

In a speech on the House floor earlier in the day, Gaetz accused McCarthy of making a deal with the White House during funding negotiations to bring forward legislation to help fund Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Brushing off the threat, McCarthy told reporters earlier at the Capitol, Im focused on doing the work that has to be done. He added that there was no side deal on Ukraine, noting he has not spoken to Biden.

A motion to vacate is a rare and strong procedural tool that has only been used twice in the past century against Republican speakers. But in recent years, conservatives have wielded the motion as a weapon against their leaders.

In January, McCarthy, hoping to appease some on the hard right like Gaetz as he fought to gain their vote for speaker, agreed to give as few as five Republican members the ability to initiate a vote to remove him. But when that wasnt good enough for his critics, he agreed to reduce that threshold to one  the system that historically has been the norm.

The motion Gaetz introduced is a privileged resolution, a designation that gives it priority over other measures. The next step is for House leaders to schedule a vote on the resolution within two legislative days.

It would take a simple majority of the House  218 votes, when no seats are vacant  to remove McCarthy from his post.

However, there are several procedural motions that members of either party could introduce to slow down or stop the process altogether.

But among McCarthy's detractors, passions run deep.

Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., who has long wanted McCarthy gone, said the speakers weekend deal with Democrats to keep the government running without any of the conservative priorities is just another reason he will be voting for the ouster.

We got nothing, he said Monday.

Still, other far-right members and allies of Gaetz as they fought the spending deal and other issues were less sure. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., said his position on the motion was to be determined.

Showing the tough road ahead to win over conservative support for ousting the speaker, Massie said the real history-making moment has been the House working through its regular job of trying to pass spending bills, and he worries this effort will quash all that.

If youre asking how I feel, I am sad that this might be the end of that experiment, he said.

Democrats were largely treating the moment as another episode in a Republican-led House that has been full of chaotic twists since the start of the year, and declining to say whether they would work to help McCarthy keep his job or vote to oust him.

Another day at the show, said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.

AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro and writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.
Donald Trump has spent a day in court for the sometimes testy start of a trial in a fraud lawsuit that could cost him control of Trump Tower and other prized properties. Outside court Monday, he called it a disgraceful trial. Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James lawsuit accuses the Republican ex-president and his company of deceiving banks, insurers and others by habitually lying about his wealth in financial statements. The judge already has ruled Trump committed fraud in his business dealings. If the ruling is upheld on appeal, it could force Trump to give up several New York properties. Trump left for the day sounding buoyed, after the judge suggested testimony about Trumps 2011 financial statement was beyond the legal time limit.
Radiant converts a logistics operator serving the cruise lines to a company-owned station. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Radiant Logistics announced it has acquired strategic operating partner Daleray Corp.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Daleray is a domestic and international freight forwarder, primarily focused on serving cruise lines. It has been operating under Radiants Distribution By Air banner since 2014.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but Radiant (NYSE: RLGT) said part of the purchase price will be based on Dalerays future performance.

Daleray founder Dale Kloss will remain with the operation as director of cruise logistics. Co-founder Ray Fulford will retire.

We launched Radiant in 2006 with the goal of partnering with logistics entrepreneurs who would benefit from our unique value proposition and the built-in exit strategy, said Bohn Crain, Radiants founder and CEO. It is satisfying to be able to support Ray in his well-deserved retirement while at the same time continuing forward to an exciting next chapter with Dale and the team in Florida as we continue to develop and deliver advanced supply chain solutions for their cruise line and other customers.

The Renton, Washington-based 3PL generated $98 million in cash flow from operations for the fiscal year ended June 30. On a call with analysts and investors last month, Crain said Radiant would look to leverage its clean balance sheet to convert agent stations like Daleray into company-owned operations as well as to pursue tuck-in acquisitions.

A year ago, it executed a similar transaction, acquiring logistics partner Cascade Enterprises of Minnesota.

Through years of dedicated services, our entire team here in Florida has developed some very strong relationships with our customers, vendors and associates around the globe, Kloss said. Back in 2014 Ray and I were looking to align ourselves with a partner who shared our passion for the business. We found that and so much more with Radiant.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden

The post Radiant Logistics acquires Florida operating partner Daleray appeared first on FreightWaves.
The Mission-Driven Lash & Brow Leader Continues Its Year-Round Breast Cancer Awareness Efforts

VENTURA, Calif., Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- RevitaLash Cosmetics is proud to announce the company's annual Pink mission to make an impact in the fight against breast cancer. This initiative aims to provide both global and local support to organizations dedicated to breast cancer treatment, research, and education.

RevitaLash Cosmetics Logo

RevitaLash Cosmetics, renowned for its innovative lash, brow, and hair beautification products, has a heartfelt origin. It began with a gift from a husband, Dr. Michael Brinkenhoff, to his beloved wife during her battle with breast cancer. Today, the company remains committed to honoring the legacy of Dr. Brinkenhoff's late wife and RevitaLash Cosmetics Co-Founder, Gayle Brinkenhoff.

In 2022, the brand donated $50,000 to giving partner City of Hope to fund breast cancer treatment, research, and nursing education in the underserved region of sub-Saharan Africa. This program has made a tangible difference in patient outcomes and was honored by the White House during an official event recognizing private sector businesses whose philanthropic endeavors are advancing cancer research in Africa. RevitaLash Cosmetics is proud to continue its support this year for City of Hope's Ethiopia Breast Cancer Initiative with a donation of $40,000.

In addition to their global impact goals, RevitaLash Cosmetics is doubling down on their commitment to the local communities where their partners operate. This year, the company will match contributions made by their international distribution partners to the local breast cancer charity of their choice. This program provides partners an opportunity to make a significant impact on breast cancer initiatives in their respective regions, and further RevitaLash Cosmetics' global support.

"Through our Pink mission, we invite our global partners to create a lasting impact in the fight against breast cancer," said Dariel Sidney, Vice President of Philanthropy and Gayle Brinkenhoff's eldest daughter. "We are proud to support City of Hope's Ethiopia Breast Cancer Initiative and to empower our distributors to make a difference in their local communities as well, driving positive change and improving lives of those affected by breast cancer worldwide."

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This year from September 1st through October 31st, 2023, the brand's award-winning products will be housed in celebratory pink sleeves to honor the cause. For every special-edition RevitaLash Advanced (3.5mL/2.0mL), RevitaLash Advanced Sensitive (2.0mL), and RevitaBrow Advanced (3.0 mL) sold, the company will donate $2 to breast cancer charities around the globe, up to a maximum donation of $170,000.

The limited-edition offerings are available in select spas, salons, and specialty retailers and online at revitalash.com, beginning September 1st.

About RevitaLash Cosmetics

RevitaLash Cosmetics is a worldwide leader in developing advanced lash, brow, and hair beautification products. Established in 2006, the collection includes award-winning RevitaLash Advanced Eyelash Conditioner and RevitaBrow Advanced Eyebrow Conditioner, and is available in physician's offices, spas, salons, and specialty retailers across 70 countries. A supporter of non-profit breast cancer initiatives, RevitaLash Cosmetics donates a portion of proceeds to research and education initiatives, giving back to the breast cancer community year-round, not just in October. For information visit www.revitalash.com.

About City of Hope

City of Hope is dedicated to making a difference in the lives of people with cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening illnesses. With locations in California, Arizona, Illinois, and Georgia, their team of more than 11,000 includes researchers, associates, scientists, doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, graduate students, fundraising specialists, marketing professionals, volunteers and support staff. All are united by their desire to find cures and save lives.

SOURCE RevitaLash Cosmetics
1900 Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA  Free Report) by 11.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 687 shares of the credit services providers stock after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the period. 1900 Wealth Management LLCs holdings in Mastercard were worth $270,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MA. Bornite Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Mastercard in the first quarter valued at about $21,442,000. United Bank lifted its position in Mastercard by 34.5% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 6,007 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $2,147,000 after purchasing an additional 1,541 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 30.1% in the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 272,358 shares of the credit services providers stock valued at $97,335,000 after purchasing an additional 63,040 shares in the last quarter. First Western Trust Bank acquired a new position in Mastercard during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,168,000. Finally, Bridgewater Associates LP acquired a new stake in shares of Mastercard in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $12,926,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.94% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on MA shares. Mizuho reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $435.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a report on Tuesday, August 29th. 888 reiterated a reiterates rating on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Friday, June 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $440.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $440.00 to $443.00 in a research report on Friday, July 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Mastercard from $425.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Friday, July 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Mastercard presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $443.88.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mastercard

In other news, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 125,816 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $391.39, for a total transaction of $49,243,124.24. Following the sale, the insider now owns 99,430,749 shares in the company, valued at $38,916,200,851.11. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO J. Mehra Sachin sold 10,838 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.38, for a total value of $4,274,290.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,707 shares in the company, valued at $8,166,426.66. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 125,816 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $391.39, for a total value of $49,243,124.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 99,430,749 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $38,916,200,851.11. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 417,360 shares of company stock valued at $165,661,878 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Mastercard Price Performance

NYSE:MA opened at $395.70 on Tuesday. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12-month low of $276.87 and a 12-month high of $418.60. The companys 50-day moving average is $402.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $385.72. The firm has a market cap of $372.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.57.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA  Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The credit services provider reported $2.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.84 by $0.05. Mastercard had a return on equity of 178.10% and a net margin of 43.37%. The company had revenue of $6.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $6.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.56 EPS. The firms revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 12.13 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 9th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 9th will be given a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 5th. Mastercards payout ratio is currently 21.37%.

About Mastercard

(Free Report)

Mastercard Incorporated, a technology company, provides transaction processing and other payment-related products and services in the United States and internationally. It facilitates the processing of payment transactions, including authorization, clearing, and settlement, as well as delivers other payment-related products and services.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MA? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA  Free Report).

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Hills Bank & Trust Co grew its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT  Free Report) by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 43,666 shares of the healthcare product makers stock after purchasing an additional 370 shares during the period. Hills Bank & Trust Cos holdings in Abbott Laboratories were worth $4,760,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its position in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 97,996.2% during the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 2,101,555,797 shares of the healthcare product makers stock valued at $229,111,613,000 after purchasing an additional 2,099,413,455 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 38,966,499 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $4,278,132,000 after acquiring an additional 4,886,954 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,196,788 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $3,151,497,000 after acquiring an additional 598,164 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 104,649.4% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 30,247,436 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $3,320,866,000 after acquiring an additional 30,218,560 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Abbott Laboratories by 40.5% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,820,152 shares of the healthcare product makers stock worth $2,108,249,000 after acquiring an additional 6,003,997 shares during the last quarter. 73.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Abbott Laboratories in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a buy rating on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded Abbott Laboratories from an underperform rating to a peer perform rating in a report on Friday, July 21st. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $120.00 to $112.00 in a report on Monday. Barclays lifted their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Monday, July 24th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on Abbott Laboratories from $130.00 to $122.00 in a report on Monday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Abbott Laboratories currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $120.47.

Abbott Laboratories Stock Down 1.0 %

ABT traded down $0.98 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $94.75. 814,265 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,864,411. The stock has a market cap of $164.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 0.69. Abbott Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $93.25 and a fifty-two week high of $115.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.64 and a quick ratio of 1.16. The stocks 50-day simple moving average is $103.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $105.11.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 20th. The healthcare product maker reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.05 by $0.03. Abbott Laboratories had a return on equity of 20.50% and a net margin of 12.83%. The company had revenue of $9.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $9.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.43 earnings per share. The businesss quarterly revenue was down 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Abbott Laboratories will post 4.4 EPS for the current year.

Abbott Laboratories Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, October 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.51 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 12th. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.15%. Abbott Laboratoriess dividend payout ratio is 69.62%.

Insider Activity at Abbott Laboratories

In related news, Director Daniel J. Starks sold 50,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.76, for a total transaction of $5,688,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,775,316 shares in the company, valued at $770,759,948.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Daniel J. Starks sold 50,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.76, for a total value of $5,688,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,775,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $770,759,948.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Andrea F. Wainer sold 10,400 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.03, for a total value of $1,092,312.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 65,027 shares in the company, valued at $6,829,785.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the companys stock.

Abbott Laboratories Profile

(Free Report)

Abbott Laboratories, together with its subsidiaries, discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells health care products worldwide. It operates in four segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Medical Devices. The Established Pharmaceutical Products segment provides generic pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, irritable bowel syndrome or biliary spasm, intrahepatic cholestasis or depressive symptoms, gynecological disorder, hormone replacement therapy, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hypothyroidism, Meniere's disease and vestibular vertigo, pain, fever, inflammation, and migraine, as well as provides anti-infective clarithromycin, influenza vaccine, and products to regulate physiological rhythm of the colon.

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Alamos Gold Inc. (NYSE:AGI  Get Free Report) (TSE:AGI) has earned a consensus rating of Hold from the six brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $14.70.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. CSFB decreased their target price on shares of Alamos Gold from $13.00 to $12.50 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a sector perform rating and issued a $10.00 target price on shares of Alamos Gold in a report on Tuesday, August 8th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Alamos Gold in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a buy rating for the company. Finally, TD Securities raised shares of Alamos Gold from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Friday, July 28th.

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Alamos Gold Trading Down 3.2 %

NYSE AGI opened at $10.93 on Tuesday. Alamos Gold has a 12 month low of $7.08 and a 12 month high of $14.12. The stock has a market cap of $4.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.66, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.09. The companys 50 day moving average is $11.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.31.

Alamos Gold (NYSE:AGI  Get Free Report) (TSE:AGI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The basic materials company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.03. Alamos Gold had a net margin of 16.98% and a return on equity of 6.00%. The company had revenue of $261.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $251.17 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.07 EPS. The firms revenue was up 36.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Alamos Gold will post 0.43 EPS for the current year.

Alamos Gold Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 14th were paid a dividend of $0.025 per share. This represents a $0.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.91%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 13th. Alamos Golds payout ratio is 24.39%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AGI. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its stake in shares of Alamos Gold by 230.1% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 3,948 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 2,752 shares during the period. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC bought a new position in Alamos Gold in the first quarter worth about $49,000. Antonetti Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Alamos Gold in the first quarter worth about $57,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Alamos Gold in the first quarter worth about $71,000. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc bought a new position in Alamos Gold in the second quarter worth about $39,000. 54.99% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alamos Gold Company Profile

(Get Free Report

Alamos Gold Inc engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and extraction of precious metals in Canada and Mexico. The company primarily explores for gold and silver deposits. It holds 100% interest in the Young-Davidson mine and Island Gold mine located in the Ontario, Canada; Mulatos mine located in the Sonora, Mexico; and Lynn Lake project situated in the Manitoba, Canada.

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Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM  Get Free Report) has been given an average rating of Moderate Buy by the eight research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given 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 $97.50.

ADM has been the topic of several recent research reports. Argus upped their target price on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $91.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 1st. StockNews.com began coverage on Archer-Daniels-Midland in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a buy rating for the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, July 31st. Finally, Roth Mkm assumed coverage on Archer-Daniels-Midland in a research note on Thursday, June 22nd. They issued a buy rating and a $92.00 price objective for the company.

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Insider Transactions at Archer-Daniels-Midland

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

In other news, insider Fruit Molly L. Strader sold 1,455 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.80, for a total transaction of $126,294.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 10,809 shares in the company, valued at approximately $938,221.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website . Insiders own 1.20% of the companys stock.

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 4.7% during the first quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 43,470 shares of the companys stock worth $3,463,000 after buying an additional 1,940 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 0.4% in the first quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 276,660 shares of the companys stock valued at $22,027,000 after buying an additional 1,138 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Archer-Daniels-Midland during the first quarter valued at approximately $574,000. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Archer-Daniels-Midland during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $691,000. Finally, Transform Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 21.3% in the 1st quarter. Transform Wealth LLC now owns 204,456 shares of the companys stock valued at $16,287,000 after acquiring an additional 35,944 shares during the last quarter. 77.73% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ADM opened at $74.20 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $39.78 billion, a PE ratio of 9.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.63. The companys fifty day moving average price is $81.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $78.22. Archer-Daniels-Midland has a 1 year low of $69.92 and a 1 year high of $98.28.

Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 25th. The company reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.59 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $25.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.82 billion. Archer-Daniels-Midland had a return on equity of 17.52% and a net margin of 4.14%. The firms revenue was down 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.15 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Archer-Daniels-Midland will post 7.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 16th were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 15th. Archer-Daniels-Midlands dividend payout ratio is currently 24.03%.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Company Profile

(Get Free Report

Archer-Daniels-Midland Company procures, transports, stores, processes, and merchandises agricultural commodities, products, and ingredients in the United States, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Ag Services and Oilseeds, Carbohydrate Solutions, and Nutrition.

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Commerzbank (OTCMKTS:CRZBY  Get Free Report) and Atlantia (OTCMKTS:ATASY  Get Free Report) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Commerzbank and Atlantias revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

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Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Commerzbank $12.92 billion N/A $1.51 billion $1.36 8.06 Atlantia $8.42 billion 2.34 $740.62 million N/A N/A

Commerzbank has higher revenue and earnings than Atlantia.

Analyst Ratings

Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Commerzbank 1 3 0 0 1.75 Atlantia 0 0 0 0 N/A

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Commerzbank and Atlantia, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

Commerzbank presently has a consensus price target of $1.20, suggesting a potential downside of 89.05%. Given Commerzbanks higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Commerzbank is more favorable than Atlantia.

Dividends

Commerzbank pays an annual dividend of $0.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Atlantia pays an annual dividend of $0.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Commerzbank pays out 10.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Commerzbank and Atlantias net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Commerzbank 10.11% 5.15% 0.32% Atlantia N/A N/A N/A

Risk & Volatility

Commerzbank has a beta of 1.2, suggesting that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Atlantia has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Commerzbank beats Atlantia on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Commerzbank

(Get Free Report)

Commerzbank AG provides banking and capital market products and services to private and small business customers, corporate groups, financial service providers, and institutional clients in Germany and internationally. It operates through two segments, Private and Small-Business Customers, and Corporate Clients. The company offers cash services, including accounts, commercial payments, payment enabling, clearing and custody, and other services; trade services comprising documentary collection, letters of credit, guarantees, trade facilitation, supply chain financing, buyer's credit, and forfaiting services; and banking products comprising bilateral loans, club deals, Schuldschein instruments, syndicated loans, bonds, private placements and other debt instruments, and Islamic financing services. It also provides money market, and commodities risk management and precious metals services; interest, currency, and liquidity management services, as well as wealth management services. Commerzbank AG was founded in 1870 and is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

About Atlantia

(Get Free Report)

Atlantia SpA, through its subsidiaries, engages in the construction and operation of motorways, airports and transport infrastructure, parking areas, and intermodal systems worldwide. It operates and manages approximately 13,000 kilometers of toll motorways. The company manages, maintains, constructs, and widens related motorways operated under concession; and provides support for the Italian motorway operators. It also operates and expands Rome's Fiumicino and Ciampino airports; and operates the airports of Nice, Cannes-Mandelieu, and Saint-Tropez. In addition, the company engages in the design, project management, controlling, and maintenance of road and airport infrastructures; and operation of toll payment systems, as well as provides assistance and toll management services. Further, it operates free-flow tolling systems, traffic and transport management systems, and electronic payment systems. Additionally, the company offers insurance brokerage, as well as engineering services. Atlantia SpA was incorporated in 1950 and is headquartered in Rome, Italy.

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FMC Co. (NYSE:FMC  Get Free Report) has received a consensus recommendation of Moderate Buy from the fourteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $115.13.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of FMC from $139.00 to $122.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on FMC from $110.00 to $100.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 11th. Credit Suisse Group raised FMC from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $101.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 4th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on FMC from $145.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 11th. Finally, TheStreet downgraded shares of FMC from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a report on Wednesday, July 26th.

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Check Out Our Latest Research Report on FMC

FMC Stock Down 2.5 %

FMC stock opened at $65.28 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.44. FMC has a fifty-two week low of $64.80 and a fifty-two week high of $134.38. The stocks 50 day simple moving average is $82.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $100.86. The company has a market cap of $8.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 0.88.

FMC (NYSE:FMC  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.59 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. FMC had a return on equity of 21.97% and a net margin of 11.60%. FMCs revenue for the quarter was down 30.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.93 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that FMC will post 5.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FMC Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 29th will be given a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 28th. FMCs dividend payout ratio is 47.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at FMC

In related news, insider Nicholas Pfeiffer purchased 992 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 13th. The shares were bought at an average price of $75.62 per share, with a total value of $75,015.04. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 13,056 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $987,294.72. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Ronaldo Pereira purchased 2,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $75.59 per share, for a total transaction of $151,180.00. Following the purchase, the executive vice president now owns 21,478 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,623,522.02. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Pfeiffer acquired 992 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $75.62 per share, for a total transaction of $75,015.04. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 13,056 shares in the company, valued at approximately $987,294.72. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.85% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FMC

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich boosted its holdings in shares of FMC by 93,630.5% in the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 56,855,020 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $5,932,253,000 after acquiring an additional 56,794,362 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of FMC by 1.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,067,888 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $1,850,913,000 after purchasing an additional 258,552 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in FMC by 2.0% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 11,637,405 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $1,421,276,000 after purchasing an additional 228,436 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in FMC by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,753,525 shares of the basic materials companys stock worth $603,597,000 after buying an additional 70,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners raised its position in shares of FMC by 12.6% during the 2nd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,958,032 shares of the basic materials companys stock valued at $308,535,000 after buying an additional 330,228 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.91% of the companys stock.

About FMC

(Get Free Report

FMC Corporation, an agricultural sciences company, provides crop protection, plant health, and professional pest and turf management products. It develops, markets, and sells crop protection chemicals that include insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides; and biologicals, crop nutrition, and seed treatment products, which are used in agriculture to enhance crop yield and quality by controlling a range of insects, weeds, and diseases, as well as in non-agricultural markets for pest control.

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CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Lockheed Martin Co. (NYSE:LMT  Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 560 shares of the aerospace companys stock, valued at approximately $258,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lee Financial Co lifted its stake in shares of Lockheed Martin by 367.6% during the 1st quarter. Lee Financial Co now owns 477 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $210,000 after buying an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Lockheed Martin by 240.0% during the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 4,124 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $1,821,000 after buying an additional 2,911 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in shares of Lockheed Martin by 56.8% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 23,153 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $9,995,000 after buying an additional 8,389 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lockheed Martin by 18.4% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 28,807 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $12,716,000 after buying an additional 4,472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Lockheed Martin by 20.4% during the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 107,366 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $47,391,000 after buying an additional 18,201 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.26% of the companys stock.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lockheed Martin news, Director John Donovan bought 548 shares of Lockheed Martin stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $457.07 per share, with a total value of $250,474.36. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 3,378 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $1,543,982.46. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.17% of the companys stock.

Lockheed Martin Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Lockheed Martin stock opened at $407.82 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $102.70 billion, a PE ratio of 14.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The firms 50 day moving average is $437.90 and its 200 day moving average is $455.19. Lockheed Martin Co. has a 1 year low of $388.10 and a 1 year high of $508.10.

Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 18th. The aerospace company reported $6.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.45 by $0.28. Lockheed Martin had a net margin of 10.48% and a return on equity of 71.67%. The company had revenue of $16.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $6.32 EPS. The firms revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Lockheed Martin Co. will post 27.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on LMT shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Lockheed Martin in a research note on Wednesday, September 27th. They set a hold rating and a $435.00 target price for the company. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Lockheed Martin from $579.00 to $555.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Lockheed Martin from $575.00 to $550.00 and set a positive rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an equal weight rating and issued a $532.00 price objective on shares of Lockheed Martin in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Lockheed Martin in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a buy rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lockheed Martin has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $495.13.

View Our Latest Research Report on LMT

About Lockheed Martin

(Free Report)

Lockheed Martin Corporation, a security and aerospace company, engages in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of technology systems, products, and services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control, Rotary and Mission Systems, and Space.

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CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Lockheed Martin Co. (NYSE:LMT  Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 560 shares of the aerospace companys stock, valued at approximately $258,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lee Financial Co lifted its stake in shares of Lockheed Martin by 367.6% during the 1st quarter. Lee Financial Co now owns 477 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $210,000 after buying an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Lockheed Martin by 240.0% during the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 4,124 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $1,821,000 after buying an additional 2,911 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in shares of Lockheed Martin by 56.8% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 23,153 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $9,995,000 after buying an additional 8,389 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lockheed Martin by 18.4% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 28,807 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $12,716,000 after buying an additional 4,472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Lockheed Martin by 20.4% during the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 107,366 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $47,391,000 after buying an additional 18,201 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.26% of the companys stock.

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Lockheed Martin Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Lockheed Martin stock opened at $407.82 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $102.70 billion, a PE ratio of 14.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.87. The firms 50 day moving average is $437.90 and its 200 day moving average is $455.19. Lockheed Martin Co. has a 1 year low of $388.10 and a 1 year high of $508.10.

Insider Activity

Lockheed Martin ( NYSE:LMT Get Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 18th. The aerospace company reported $6.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $6.45 by $0.28. Lockheed Martin had a net margin of 10.48% and a return on equity of 71.67%. The firm had revenue of $16.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $6.32 EPS. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Lockheed Martin Co. will post 27.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In other Lockheed Martin news, Director John Donovan acquired 548 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 19th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $457.07 per share, with a total value of $250,474.36. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,378 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,543,982.46. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.17% of the companys stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on LMT shares. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Lockheed Martin from $500.00 to $475.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Lockheed Martin from $579.00 to $555.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Lockheed Martin in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a buy rating for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Lockheed Martin in a research note on Wednesday, September 27th. They issued a hold rating and a $435.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an equal weight rating and issued a $532.00 price objective on shares of Lockheed Martin in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lockheed Martin has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $495.13.

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Lockheed Martin Profile

(Free Report)

Lockheed Martin Corporation, a security and aerospace company, engages in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of technology systems, products, and services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Aeronautics, Missiles and Fire Control, Rotary and Mission Systems, and Space.

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Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET  Free Report) by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 26,599 shares of the pipeline companys stock after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the quarter. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLCs holdings in Energy Transfer were worth $338,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Good Life Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 21.8% during the 1st quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC now owns 15,306 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $191,000 after acquiring an additional 2,744 shares during the period. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Recurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,081,560 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $38,427,000 after acquiring an additional 126,853 shares during the period. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 4.8% during the 1st quarter. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC now owns 29,645 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $370,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361 shares during the period. Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 11.8% during the 2nd quarter. Capital Advisory Group Advisory Services LLC now owns 25,465 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $323,000 after acquiring an additional 2,695 shares during the period. Finally, Keybank National Association OH lifted its position in shares of Energy Transfer by 5.3% during the 1st quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 136,954 shares of the pipeline companys stock valued at $1,708,000 after acquiring an additional 6,915 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 33.79% of the companys stock.

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Insider Transactions at Energy Transfer

In related news, EVP Bradford D. Whitehurst bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $13.00 per share, with a total value of $130,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,313,055 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $17,069,715. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, EVP Bradford D. Whitehurst bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $13.00 per share, with a total value of $130,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the executive vice president now directly owns 1,313,055 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $17,069,715. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Marshall S. Mccrea III bought 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 1st. The stock was bought at an average cost of $13.64 per share, for a total transaction of $682,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6,719,267 shares of the companys stock, valued at $91,650,801.88. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have bought 2,010,000 shares of company stock valued at $26,149,000. 3.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Energy Transfer Stock Performance

Shares of ET stock opened at $13.78 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.31 billion, a PE ratio of 11.48 and a beta of 1.65. Energy Transfer LP has a 12 month low of $11.08 and a 12 month high of $14.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $13.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.90.

Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The pipeline company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.30 by ($0.05). Energy Transfer had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 5.05%. The firm had revenue of $18.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $20.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.39 earnings per share. The companys quarterly revenue was down 29.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Energy Transfer LP will post 1.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Energy Transfer Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 14th were issued a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 11th. Energy Transfers payout ratio is 103.33%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ET has been the topic of a number of research reports. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Energy Transfer from $17.00 to $18.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 18th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an overweight rating and set a $17.00 target price on shares of Energy Transfer in a research report on Thursday, July 20th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $16.67.

Read Our Latest Research Report on Energy Transfer

Energy Transfer Company Profile

(Free Report)

Energy Transfer LP provides energy-related services. The company owns and operates approximately 11,600 miles of natural gas transportation pipeline, and three natural gas storage facilities in Texas and two natural gas storage facilities located in the state of Texas and Oklahoma; and 19,945 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline.

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Crumly & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE:ARE  Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,137 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock, valued at approximately $242,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Spire Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of Alexandria Real Estate Equities by 115.8% in the 1st quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 246 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 132 shares in the last quarter. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Alexandria Real Estate Equities during the 4th quarter worth $38,000. Clear Street Markets LLC lifted its holdings in Alexandria Real Estate Equities by 104.6% during the 1st quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 309 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alexandria Real Estate Equities by 453.0% during the 1st quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 365 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 299 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HM Payson & Co. lifted its holdings in Alexandria Real Estate Equities by 100.0% during the 1st quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 400 shares of the real estate investment trusts stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. 86.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Alexandria Real Estate Equities Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of ARE traded down $0.32 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $97.86. The stock had a trading volume of 122,930 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,020,190. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. has a 52 week low of $96.85 and a 52 week high of $172.65. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $115.11 and a 200 day moving average of $117.69. The company has a market cap of $16.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.97.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities Dividend Announcement

Alexandria Real Estate Equities ( NYSE:ARE Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $2.20 by ($1.69). Alexandria Real Estate Equities had a net margin of 20.65% and a return on equity of 2.54%. The firm had revenue of $713.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $700.22 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.10 EPS. Alexandria Real Estate Equitiess quarterly revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. will post 8.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 13th. Investors of record on Friday, September 29th will be given a $1.24 dividend. This represents a $4.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.07%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 28th. Alexandria Real Estate Equitiess dividend payout ratio is currently 147.18%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on ARE. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Alexandria Real Estate Equities in a report on Thursday, July 20th. They set a buy rating and a $142.00 price objective on the stock. JMP Securities reduced their price objective on Alexandria Real Estate Equities from $180.00 to $160.00 and set a market outperform rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. StockNews.com began coverage on Alexandria Real Estate Equities in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a sell rating on the stock. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Alexandria Real Estate Equities from $137.00 to $135.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 16th. Finally, Wedbush initiated coverage on shares of Alexandria Real Estate Equities in a research report on Tuesday. They set an outperform rating and a $120.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alexandria Real Estate Equities currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $156.11.

Read Our Latest Analysis on ARE

Alexandria Real Estate Equities Profile

(Free Report)

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc (NYSE: ARE), an S&P 500 company, is a best-in-class, mission-driven life science REIT making a positive and lasting impact on the world. As the pioneer of the life science real estate niche since its founding in 1994, Alexandria is the preeminent and longest-tenured owner, operator, and developer of collaborative life science, agtech, and advanced technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, including Greater Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, San Diego, Seattle, Maryland, and Research Triangle.

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Busey Wealth Management lessened its holdings in Edwards Lifesciences Co. (NYSE:EW  Free Report) by 15.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,732 shares of the medical research companys stock after selling 1,541 shares during the period. Busey Wealth Managements holdings in Edwards Lifesciences were worth $824,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Castleview Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Edwards Lifesciences in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Core Alternative Capital lifted its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 96.1% during the 1st quarter. Core Alternative Capital now owns 353 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp acquired a new position in Edwards Lifesciences during the 1st quarter worth about $33,000. MCF Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Edwards Lifesciences by 179.6% during the 1st quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 411 shares of the medical research companys stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Compass Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Edwards Lifesciences during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.25% of the companys stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on EW. Citigroup decreased their target price on Edwards Lifesciences from $110.00 to $94.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Robert W. Baird initiated coverage on Edwards Lifesciences in a research report on Tuesday, July 18th. They issued an outperform rating and a $107.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating and issued a $96.00 price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an overweight rating and issued a $102.00 price target on shares of Edwards Lifesciences in a research report on Friday, July 14th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on Edwards Lifesciences from $95.00 to $102.00 in a research report on Monday, July 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Edwards Lifesciences has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $91.50.

Edwards Lifesciences Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE:EW opened at $69.18 on Tuesday. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $76.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $83.36. The company has a market capitalization of $42.06 billion, a PE ratio of 30.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 2.30, a current ratio of 3.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Edwards Lifesciences Co. has a 52-week low of $67.13 and a 52-week high of $94.87.

Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The medical research company reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. Edwards Lifesciences had a return on equity of 25.43% and a net margin of 24.56%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.63 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Edwards Lifesciences Co. will post 2.55 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Edwards Lifesciences news, Director Michael A. Mussallem sold 29,350 shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.84, for a total value of $2,020,454.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $308,816.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Scott B. Ullem sold 7,255 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.54, for a total value of $504,512.70. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 19,248 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,338,505.92. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Michael A. Mussallem sold 29,350 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.84, for a total value of $2,020,454.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,486 shares in the company, valued at approximately $308,816.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 203,709 shares of company stock worth $16,149,815 in the last quarter. 1.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Edwards Lifesciences Company Profile

(Free Report)

Edwards Lifesciences Corporation provides products and technologies for structural heart disease, and critical care and surgical monitoring in the United States, Europe, Japan, and internationally. It offers transcatheter heart valve replacement products for the minimally invasive replacement of heart valves; and transcatheter heart valve repair and replacement products to treat mitral and tricuspid valve diseases.

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First Command Bank reduced its position in shares of International Business Machines Co. (NYSE:IBM  Free Report) by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,467 shares of the technology companys stock after selling 98 shares during the quarter. First Command Banks holdings in International Business Machines were worth $464,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Summit Financial Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of International Business Machines by 39.5% in the second quarter. Summit Financial Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,367 shares of the technology companys stock worth $2,458,000 after acquiring an additional 5,205 shares during the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. increased its stake in shares of International Business Machines by 33.8% in the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 5,888 shares of the technology companys stock worth $772,000 after acquiring an additional 1,488 shares during the last quarter. Skba Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of International Business Machines by 4.5% in the first quarter. Skba Capital Management LLC now owns 123,800 shares of the technology companys stock worth $16,229,000 after acquiring an additional 5,320 shares during the last quarter. American National Bank increased its stake in shares of International Business Machines by 4.8% in the first quarter. American National Bank now owns 3,054 shares of the technology companys stock worth $400,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TIAA FSB increased its stake in shares of International Business Machines by 72.2% in the first quarter. TIAA FSB now owns 169,994 shares of the technology companys stock worth $22,285,000 after acquiring an additional 71,263 shares during the last quarter. 56.16% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on IBM. Royal Bank of Canada assumed coverage on shares of International Business Machines in a research note on Wednesday, September 20th. They issued an outperform rating and a $188.00 price target on the stock. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of International Business Machines from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of International Business Machines from $140.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, July 20th. StockNews.com raised shares of International Business Machines from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of International Business Machines in a research report on Friday, July 7th. They set a neutral rating and a $145.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $146.67.

International Business Machines Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE IBM traded up $0.67 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $140.97. The company had a trading volume of 1,460,474 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,545,693. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.28, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $144.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $134.98. International Business Machines Co. has a 12 month low of $115.54 and a 12 month high of $153.21. The firm has a market cap of $128.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.95, a PEG ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 0.85.

International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM  Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 19th. The technology company reported $2.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.00 by $0.18. International Business Machines had a net margin of 3.35% and a return on equity of 38.10%. The business had revenue of $15.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $15.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.31 earnings per share. The firms revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that International Business Machines Co. will post 9.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

International Business Machines Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, September 9th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 10th were paid a dividend of $1.66 per share. This represents a $6.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.71%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 9th. International Business Machiness dividend payout ratio is 307.41%.

About International Business Machines

(Free Report)

International Business Machines Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated solutions and services worldwide. The company operates through four business segments: Software, Consulting, Infrastructure, and Financing. The Software segment offers hybrid cloud platform and software solutions; software for business automation, AIOps and management, integration, and application servers; data and artificial intelligence solutions; and security software and services for threat, data, and identity.

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Friedenthal Financial trimmed its stake in shares of Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF (NYSEARCA:PCY  Free Report) by 13.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,198 shares of the companys stock after selling 2,023 shares during the quarter. Friedenthal Financials holdings in Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF were worth $257,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of PCY. Fairfield Bush & CO. acquired a new position in shares of Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF during the first quarter worth about $29,000. AdvisorNet Financial Inc purchased a new stake in Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF by 863.2% during the 1st quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,310 shares of the companys stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 1,174 shares during the period. CWM LLC increased its position in Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF by 273.1% during the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,985 shares of the companys stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 1,453 shares during the period. Finally, Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF during the 1st quarter worth approximately $69,000.

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Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF stock traded down $0.20 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $17.84. The companys stock had a trading volume of 74,571 shares, compared to its average volume of 881,647. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $19.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $19.11. Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF has a 12-month low of $16.20 and a 12-month high of $20.31.

About Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF

The Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF (PCY) is an exchange-traded fund that mostly invests in broad credit fixed income. The fund tracks a tier-weighted index of US-dollar-denominated sovereign debt in emerging markets with at least 3 years to maturity. PCY was launched on Oct 11, 2007 and is managed by Invesco.

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Columbus Macro LLC lowered its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF (BATS:QUAL  Free Report) by 32.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,733 shares of the companys stock after selling 6,641 shares during the period. Columbus Macro LLCs holdings in iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF were worth $1,870,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stifel Financial Corp raised its position in iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF by 29.0% during the first quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 1,267,240 shares of the companys stock worth $157,219,000 after acquiring an additional 284,548 shares during the last quarter. Magnus Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF by 9.5% in the second quarter. Magnus Financial Group LLC now owns 15,189 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,049,000 after buying an additional 1,314 shares during the last quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC raised its position in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF by 55.0% in the second quarter. Cypress Wealth Services LLC now owns 108,849 shares of the companys stock valued at $15,023,000 after buying an additional 38,635 shares during the last quarter. Herold Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF in the first quarter valued at approximately $306,000. Finally, Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC raised its position in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF by 22.4% in the second quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 20,717 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,794,000 after buying an additional 3,797 shares during the last quarter.

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iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF Price Performance

BATS:QUAL opened at $132.15 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $136.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $131.04. The firm has a market cap of $29.89 billion, a PE ratio of 16.30 and a beta of 1.03. iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF has a 1-year low of $71.96 and a 1-year high of $88.63.

iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF Company Profile

The iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF (QUAL) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI USA Sector Neutral Quality index. The fund tracks an index of US large- and mid-cap stocks, selected and weighted by high ROE, stable earnings growth and low debt\u002Fequity, relative to peers in each sector.

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Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL  Free Report) had its price target decreased by Jefferies Financial Group from $60.00 to $50.00 in a research report released on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the transportation companys stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. Citigroup cut their target price on Delta Air Lines from $67.00 to $64.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their target price on Delta Air Lines from $62.00 to $61.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Delta Air Lines from $51.00 to $50.00 in a report on Thursday, September 14th. Bank of America raised their price target on Delta Air Lines from $50.00 to $53.00 in a report on Monday, July 17th. Finally, Raymond James raised their price target on Delta Air Lines from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a strong-buy rating in a report on Friday, July 14th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $56.94.

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View Our Latest Research Report on DAL

Delta Air Lines Price Performance

Shares of DAL stock opened at $36.45 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $41.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.24. Delta Air Lines has a 12 month low of $27.20 and a 12 month high of $49.81. The company has a market capitalization of $23.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.86, a P/E/G ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 1.32.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL  Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 13th. The transportation company reported $2.68 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $2.40 by $0.28. Delta Air Lines had a return on equity of 59.56% and a net margin of 5.36%. The company had revenue of $15.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. The companys quarterly revenue was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Delta Air Lines will post 6.29 EPS for the current year.

Delta Air Lines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, October 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 11th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.10%. Delta Air Liness dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Michael P. Huerta sold 3,350 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.43, for a total transaction of $162,240.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 27,465 shares of the companys stock, valued at $1,330,129.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Delta Air Lines news, EVP Steven M. Sear sold 12,129 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.52, for a total transaction of $552,112.08. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 85,708 shares in the company, valued at $3,901,428.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Michael P. Huerta sold 3,350 shares of Delta Air Lines stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.43, for a total value of $162,240.50. Following the transaction, the director now owns 27,465 shares in the company, valued at $1,330,129.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 40,479 shares of company stock valued at $1,839,353 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.89% of the companys stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Delta Air Lines by 1.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,234,306 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $2,700,032,000 after acquiring an additional 1,267,578 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 3.9% in the second quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 26,563,427 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $1,262,825,000 after purchasing an additional 995,107 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 2.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 22,150,815 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $1,053,050,000 after purchasing an additional 498,172 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 399.7% in the second quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 19,665,620 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $934,904,000 after purchasing an additional 15,729,876 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Delta Air Lines by 30.4% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,779,351 shares of the transportation companys stock valued at $516,095,000 after purchasing an additional 3,445,953 shares in the last quarter. 71.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Delta Air Lines

(Get Free Report)

Delta Air Lines, Inc provides scheduled air transportation for passengers and cargo in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Airline and Refinery. Its domestic network centered on core hubs in Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, and Salt Lake City, as well as coastal hub positions in Boston, Los Angeles, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, and Seattle; and international network centered on hubs and market presence in Amsterdam, Mexico City, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, and Seoul-Incheon.

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K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc trimmed its holdings in shares of North American Construction Group Ltd. (NYSE:NOA  Free Report) (TSE:NOA) by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 150,000 shares of the oil and gas companys stock after selling 10,000 shares during the quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Incs holdings in North American Construction Group were worth $2,862,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NOA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of North American Construction Group by 114.5% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,831 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 1,511 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in North American Construction Group by 528.1% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 36,298 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $520,000 after purchasing an additional 30,519 shares during the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp purchased a new stake in North American Construction Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,003,000. Cibc World Market Inc. increased its stake in North American Construction Group by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 343,195 shares of the oil and gas companys stock valued at $4,956,000 after purchasing an additional 10,905 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of North American Construction Group by 6.5% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 122,940 shares of the oil and gas companys stock worth $1,775,000 after buying an additional 7,455 shares during the last quarter. 61.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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North American Construction Group Stock Down 1.0 %

NOA opened at $21.51 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $23.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $20.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $575.18 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.97 and a beta of 1.51. North American Construction Group Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $9.69 and a fifty-two week high of $26.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.20.

North American Construction Group Increases Dividend

North American Construction Group ( NYSE:NOA Get Free Report ) (TSE:NOA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The oil and gas company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.05. North American Construction Group had a return on equity of 26.68% and a net margin of 9.34%. The company had revenue of $144.12 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $134.34 million. On average, research analysts expect that North American Construction Group Ltd. will post 1.81 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 31st will be given a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 30th. This is a boost from North American Construction Groups previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.39%. North American Construction Groups dividend payout ratio is currently 15.31%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. TD Securities lowered shares of North American Construction Group from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, September 28th. TD Cowen reiterated a hold rating on shares of North American Construction Group in a research note on Thursday, September 28th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on North American Construction Group in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on North American Construction Group from $30.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $30.33.

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North American Construction Group Profile

(Free Report)

North American Construction Group Ltd. provides equipment maintenance, and mining and heavy construction services in Canada, the United States, and Australia. Its Heavy Construction & Mining division offers constructability reviews, budgetary cost estimates, design-build construction, project management, contract mining, pre-stripping/pit pioneering, overburden removal and stockpile, muskeg removal and stockpile, site preparation, air strip construction, site dewatering/perimeter ditching, tailings and process pipelines, haulage and access road construction, tailings dam construction and densification, mechanically stabilized earth walls, dyke construction, and reclamation services; and Equipment Maintenance services.

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K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc lessened its stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU  Free Report) (TSE:T) by 2.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 217,460 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock after selling 4,800 shares during the quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Incs holdings in TELUS were worth $4,219,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in TELUS by 0.8% during the first quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 82,722 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock worth $1,643,000 after acquiring an additional 624 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 6.8% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 10,837 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock worth $215,000 after purchasing an additional 692 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in TELUS by 18.1% during the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 4,669 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock valued at $104,000 after purchasing an additional 717 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in TELUS by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 22,341 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock worth $444,000 after buying an additional 861 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its position in TELUS by 1.9% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 51,957 shares of the Wireless communications providers stock worth $1,032,000 after buying an additional 991 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.48% of the companys stock.

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TELUS Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TU opened at $15.64 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. TELUS Co. has a 1 year low of $15.47 and a 1 year high of $22.08. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.94. The firm has a market cap of $22.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.74.

TELUS Increases Dividend

TELUS ( NYSE:TU Get Free Report ) (TSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 4th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $3.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.72 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 6.04% and a return on equity of 8.19%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, September 8th were paid a $0.274 dividend. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 7th. This is a positive change from TELUSs previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. TELUSs payout ratio is presently 174.19%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on TU shares. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of TELUS in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a sell rating for the company. Desjardins decreased their target price on shares of TELUS from C$29.00 to C$27.50 in a research report on Friday, July 14th. Scotiabank cut their price target on TELUS from C$29.50 to C$28.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on TELUS from C$33.00 to C$31.00 in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on TELUS from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 7th.

Read Our Latest Research Report on TU

TELUS Company Profile

(Free Report)

TELUS Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of telecommunications and information technology products and services in Canada. It operates through Technology Solutions and Digitally-Led Customer Experiences segments. The Technology Solutions segment offers a range of telecommunications products and services; network services; mobile technologies equipment; data services, such as internet protocol; television; hosting, managed information technology, and cloud-based services; software, data management, and data analytics-driven smart food-chain and consumer goods technologies; home and business security; healthcare software and technology solutions; and voice and other telecommunications services.

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K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc decreased its holdings in Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM  Free Report) (TSE:AEM) by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 41,985 shares of the mining companys stock after selling 2,462 shares during the quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Incs holdings in Agnico Eagle Mines were worth $2,090,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AEM. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Agnico Eagle Mines by 86.4% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 540,450 shares of the mining companys stock worth $33,097,000 after buying an additional 250,445 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its position in Agnico Eagle Mines by 108.6% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 4,420 shares of the mining companys stock worth $270,000 after acquiring an additional 2,301 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its position in Agnico Eagle Mines by 37.6% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,795 shares of the mining companys stock worth $171,000 after acquiring an additional 764 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Agnico Eagle Mines in the first quarter valued at about $678,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. grew its position in shares of Agnico Eagle Mines by 44.0% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 364,215 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $22,304,000 after purchasing an additional 111,208 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.37% of the companys stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Agnico Eagle Mines in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a hold rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Agnico Eagle Mines from $64.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. CSFB increased their price target on Agnico Eagle Mines from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Agnico Eagle Mines from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $67.83.

Agnico Eagle Mines Stock Down 0.3 %

AEM opened at $43.66 on Tuesday. Agnico Eagle Mines Limited has a 1 year low of $39.24 and a 1 year high of $61.15. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $48.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $51.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 2.10. The company has a market cap of $21.63 billion, a PE ratio of 8.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 20.37 and a beta of 0.85.

Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM  Get Free Report) (TSE:AEM) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The mining company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.10. Agnico Eagle Mines had a net margin of 40.06% and a return on equity of 5.63%. The business had revenue of $1.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.75 EPS. The businesss quarterly revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Agnico Eagle Mines Limited will post 2.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Agnico Eagle Mines Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, September 1st were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 31st. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.66%. Agnico Eagle Miness payout ratio is currently 31.32%.

About Agnico Eagle Mines

(Free Report)

Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, a gold mining company, exploration, development, and production of precious metals. The company's mines are located in Canada, Australia, Finland and Mexico, with exploration and development activities in Canada, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States.

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K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc cut its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (NYSE:BIP  Free Report) (TSE:BIP.UN) by 1.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 86,471 shares of the utilities providers stock after selling 1,600 shares during the quarter. K.J. Harrison & Partners Incs holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners were worth $3,151,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Alterity Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 3.6% in the first quarter. Alterity Financial Group LLC now owns 8,601 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $290,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its position in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 15.2% during the 2nd quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 2,270 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Lido Advisors LLC raised its stake in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 8.9% in the first quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 3,925 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $259,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Tranquility Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 2.8% in the first quarter. Tranquility Partners LLC now owns 14,604 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $493,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Toroso Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners by 2.7% during the first quarter. Toroso Investments LLC now owns 15,264 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $1,011,000 after acquiring an additional 405 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 55.52% of the companys stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BIP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Raymond James raised shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from an outperform rating to a strong-buy rating and set a $45.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, September 25th. Credit Suisse Group reissued an outperform rating and set a $44.00 price objective on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a report on Wednesday, August 30th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $37.00 to $35.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and set a $45.00 price target on shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in a research note on Friday, September 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Brookfield Infrastructure Partners from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $42.86.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Trading Down 7.5 %

BIP stock opened at $27.19 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. has a 52-week low of $27.17 and a 52-week high of $38.20. The companys 50-day simple moving average is $32.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.19. The firm has a market cap of $12.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 82.39 and a beta of 0.90.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP  Get Free Report) (TSE:BIP.UN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.66 by ($0.28). Brookfield Infrastructure Partners had a return on equity of 1.42% and a net margin of 2.34%. The company had revenue of $4.26 billion during the quarter. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 31st were paid a dividend of $0.382 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 30th. This represents a $1.53 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.62%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partnerss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 463.64%.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Profile

(Free Report)

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. owns and operates utilities, transport, midstream, and data businesses in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company's Utilities segment operates approximately 60,000 kilometers (km) of operational electricity transmission and distribution lines; 2,900 km of electricity transmission lines; 4,200 km of natural gas pipelines; 7.8 million electricity and natural gas connections; and 540,000 long-term contracted sub-metering services.

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K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc increased its position in shares of Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM  Free Report) by 33.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 60,008 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 15,000 shares during the period. Philip Morris International makes up about 1.1% of K.J. Harrison & Partners Incs holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest position. K.J. Harrison & Partners Incs holdings in Philip Morris International were worth $5,837,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PM. Herold Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Philip Morris International by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Herold Advisors Inc. now owns 5,050 shares of the companys stock valued at $491,000 after buying an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Philip Morris International by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Pin Oak Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 1,675 shares of the companys stock valued at $170,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the period. LCM Capital Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Philip Morris International by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. LCM Capital Management Inc now owns 2,428 shares of the companys stock valued at $236,000 after buying an additional 105 shares during the period. Studio Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Philip Morris International by 33.8% during the 4th quarter. Studio Investment Management LLC now owns 428 shares of the companys stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 108 shares during the period. Finally, Horan Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in Philip Morris International by 12.8% in the first quarter. Horan Securities Inc. now owns 960 shares of the companys stock valued at $93,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. 79.70% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Philip Morris International Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE PM opened at $91.28 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $141.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.71. Philip Morris International Inc. has a twelve month low of $84.00 and a twelve month high of $105.62. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $95.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $95.73.

Philip Morris International Increases Dividend

Philip Morris International ( NYSE:PM Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 20th. The company reported $1.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.10. Philip Morris International had a net margin of 11.63% and a negative return on equity of 127.84%. The firm had revenue of $8.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.76 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.48 EPS. Philip Morris Internationals revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Philip Morris International Inc. will post 6.12 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 27th will be given a $1.30 dividend. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 26th. This is a boost from Philip Morris Internationals previous quarterly dividend of $1.27. Philip Morris Internationals payout ratio is 100.58%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Philip Morris International from $113.00 to $111.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 22nd. 22nd Century Group restated a reiterates rating on shares of Philip Morris International in a research note on Tuesday, June 27th. Citigroup raised Philip Morris International from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $109.00 to $117.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 20th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Philip Morris International from $118.00 to $111.00 in a research report on Friday. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Philip Morris International from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $110.25.

View Our Latest Report on Philip Morris International

Philip Morris International Company Profile

(Free Report)

Philip Morris International Inc operates as a tobacco company working to delivers a smoke-free future and evolving portfolio for the long-term to include products outside of the tobacco and nicotine sector. The company's product portfolio primarily consists of cigarettes and smoke-free products, including heat-not-burn, vapor, and oral nicotine products primarily under the IQOS and ZYN brands; and consumer accessories, such as lighters and matches.

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K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc lessened its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC  Free Report) by 20.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 90,039 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 23,201 shares during the period. K.J. Harrison & Partners Incs holdings in Bank of America were worth $2,574,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FNY Investment Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 75.9% in the second quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 920 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 397 shares during the last quarter. Castleview Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Bank of America in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Ahrens Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Grey Fox Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. 68.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other Bank of America news, insider James P. Demare sold 75,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.53, for a total value of $2,364,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 185,108 shares in the company, valued at $5,836,455.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Dean C. Athanasia sold 77,806 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.48, for a total value of $2,449,332.88. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 353,971 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,143,007.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider James P. Demare sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.53, for a total value of $2,364,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 185,108 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,836,455.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.27% of the companys stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating and issued a $35.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a report on Tuesday, September 12th. StockNews.com started coverage on Bank of America in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a hold rating for the company. HSBC initiated coverage on Bank of America in a report on Thursday, September 7th. They issued a buy rating and a $35.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Bank of America from $32.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Friday, July 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Bank of America from $28.00 to $27.50 and set an underweight rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $35.92.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on BAC

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of Bank of America stock opened at $26.54 on Tuesday. The businesss fifty day simple moving average is $29.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market cap of $210.90 billion, a PE ratio of 7.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.36. Bank of America Co. has a 52 week low of $26.32 and a 52 week high of $38.60.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $25.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $24.98 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 19.97% and a return on equity of 12.01%. The businesss revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.73 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 1st were paid a $0.24 dividend. This is a positive change from Bank of Americas previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 31st. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.62%. Bank of Americas dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.59%.

About Bank of America

(Free Report)

Bank of America Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides banking and financial products and services for individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses, institutional investors, large corporations, and governments worldwide. Its Consumer Banking segment offers traditional and money market savings accounts, certificates of deposit and IRAs, noninterest-and interest-bearing checking accounts, and investment accounts and products; and credit and debit cards, residential mortgages, and home equity loans, as well as direct and indirect loans, such as automotive, recreational vehicle, and consumer personal loans.

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McCormick & Company, Incorporated (NYSE:MKC  Get Free Report) issued an update on its FY23 earnings guidance on Tuesday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $2.62-2.67 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $2.65. The company issued revenue guidance of +5-7% yr/yr to ~$6.67-6.80 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $6.76 billion. McCormick & Company, Incorporated also updated its FY 2023 guidance to $2.62-$2.67 EPS.

McCormick & Company, Incorporated Stock Performance

McCormick & Company, Incorporated stock opened at $74.72 on Tuesday. The firms fifty day moving average price is $82.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $85.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a current ratio of 0.85. The stock has a market cap of $20.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.61. McCormick & Company, Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $70.60 and a fifty-two week high of $94.39.

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McCormick & Company, Incorporated (NYSE:MKC  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 3rd. The company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts consensus estimates of $0.65. The company had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $1.70 billion. McCormick & Company, Incorporated had a net margin of 10.74% and a return on equity of 14.76%. The firms revenue was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.69 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that McCormick & Company, Incorporated will post 2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

McCormick & Company, Incorporated Announces Dividend

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 24th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 10th will be given a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 6th. McCormick & Company, Incorporateds payout ratio is 60.23%.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of McCormick & Company, Incorporated from $66.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 6th. TheStreet raised shares of McCormick & Company, Incorporated from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research note on Friday, June 23rd. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of McCormick & Company, Incorporated from $77.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Sunday, July 2nd. HSBC started coverage on shares of McCormick & Company, Incorporated in a research note on Friday, September 22nd. They set a hold rating and a $86.00 target price on the stock. Finally, TD Cowen started coverage on shares of McCormick & Company, Incorporated in a research note on Wednesday, September 13th. They set a market perform rating and a $87.00 target price on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $83.92.

Get Our Latest Research Report on MKC

Insider Transactions at McCormick & Company, Incorporated

In other news, Director Michael D. Mangan sold 5,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.63, for a total value of $418,150.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 39,181 shares in the company, valued at $3,276,707.03. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, VP Jeffery D. Schwartz sold 2,600 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.02, for a total transaction of $234,052.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 60,774 shares of the companys stock, valued at $5,470,875.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Michael D. Mangan sold 5,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.63, for a total transaction of $418,150.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 39,181 shares of the companys stock, valued at $3,276,707.03. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 16,200 shares of company stock worth $1,416,530. Corporate insiders own 19.00% of the companys stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MKC. SVB Wealth LLC increased its holdings in McCormick & Company, Incorporated by 3.0% during the first quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 3,937 shares of the companys stock valued at $393,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in McCormick & Company, Incorporated by 0.3% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 53,866 shares of the companys stock valued at $4,482,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. Kinneret Advisory LLC increased its holdings in McCormick & Company, Incorporated by 2.3% during the first quarter. Kinneret Advisory LLC now owns 6,880 shares of the companys stock valued at $687,000 after buying an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC increased its holdings in McCormick & Company, Incorporated by 29.8% during the first quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 811 shares of the companys stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in McCormick & Company, Incorporated by 4.9% during the first quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,012 shares of the companys stock valued at $400,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. 78.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

McCormick & Company, Incorporated Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

McCormick & Company, Incorporated manufactures, markets, and distributes spices, seasoning mixes, condiments, and other flavorful products to the food industry. It operates in two segments, Consumer and Flavor Solutions. The Consumer segment offers spices, herbs, and seasonings, as well as condiments and sauces, and desserts.

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Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY lifted its position in Canadian Natural Resources Limited (NYSE:CNQ  Free Report) (TSE:CNQ) by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 228,204 shares of the oil and gas producers stock after buying an additional 638 shares during the period. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NYs holdings in Canadian Natural Resources were worth $12,839,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in Canadian Natural Resources during the 1st quarter valued at $960,796,000. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 36.6% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 17,233,139 shares of the oil and gas producers stock worth $953,143,000 after buying an additional 4,618,176 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in Canadian Natural Resources by 88.2% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,930,544 shares of the oil and gas producers stock worth $491,064,000 after buying an additional 3,716,523 shares during the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP bought a new position in Canadian Natural Resources during the 1st quarter valued at about $134,719,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Canadian Natural Resources by 6.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,235,475 shares of the oil and gas producers stock worth $2,493,796,000 after acquiring an additional 2,332,528 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.88% of the companys stock.

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Canadian Natural Resources Price Performance

Shares of CNQ stock traded down $0.80 on Tuesday, hitting $62.31. 333,898 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,122,065. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.47. Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a 52 week low of $48.81 and a 52 week high of $67.23. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.63. The firm has a market cap of $67.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.40, a PEG ratio of 11.54 and a beta of 1.55.

Canadian Natural Resources Increases Dividend

Canadian Natural Resources ( NYSE:CNQ Get Free Report ) (TSE:CNQ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.88 by ($0.03). Canadian Natural Resources had a return on equity of 22.86% and a net margin of 18.14%. The business had revenue of $5.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.44 billion. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Canadian Natural Resources Limited will post 5.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.6744 per share. This is a positive change from Canadian Natural Resourcess previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $2.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.33%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 14th. Canadian Natural Resourcess dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.46%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNQ has been the topic of several research reports. CIBC raised their target price on shares of Canadian Natural Resources from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an outperformer rating in a report on Tuesday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Canadian Natural Resources from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Friday, August 4th. StockNews.com started coverage on Canadian Natural Resources in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. UBS Group initiated coverage on Canadian Natural Resources in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. They set a buy rating for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Canadian Natural Resources from $84.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Monday, August 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $89.56.

Read Our Latest Report on CNQ

About Canadian Natural Resources

(Free Report)

Canadian Natural Resources Limited acquires, explores for, develops, produces, markets, and sells crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs). The company offers light and medium crude oil, primary heavy crude oil, Pelican Lake heavy crude oil, bitumen (thermal oil), and synthetic crude oil (SCO).

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FILE PHOTO: Passengers alight from a Ryanair aircraft at Ferenc Liszt International Airport in Budapest

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ryanair flew 9% more passengers in September than in the same month last year, Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers said on Tuesday.

The Irish airline said it flew 17.4 million passengers last month, up from 15.9 million a year earlier and 14.1 million in September 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Flights were on average 94% full in September, unchanged on a year earlier.

Ryanair expects traffic in its fiscal year to March 2024 to grow by 9% to a record 183.5 million passengers.

It set a string of all-time monthly traffic records over the busy summer months and Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said last week that current booking levels were around 4%-5% higher than last year.

However, it lowered that forecast in July from 185 million due to delays in Boeing plane deliveries and air traffic control strikes.

The low-cost carrier also warned last week that it may have to cut the forecast again if it faces any more delivery delays.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR  Free Report) had its price objective decreased by Mizuho from $44.00 to $42.00 in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. Mizuho currently has a neutral rating on the utilities providers stock.

Several other research firms have also commented on POR. StockNews.com raised shares of Portland General Electric from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Saturday, September 23rd. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Portland General Electric in a report on Tuesday, August 22nd. They issued a neutral rating and a $46.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Portland General Electric from $56.00 to $52.00 in a report on Thursday, June 22nd. TheStreet lowered shares of Portland General Electric from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a report on Wednesday, September 13th. Finally, 58.com reaffirmed a downgrade rating on shares of Portland General Electric in a report on Tuesday, June 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Portland General Electric currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $48.88.

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View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Portland General Electric

Portland General Electric Price Performance

NYSE:POR opened at $38.89 on Friday. Portland General Electric has a 52 week low of $38.72 and a 52 week high of $51.58. The firm has a market cap of $3.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.57. The firms 50-day simple moving average is $44.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.89.

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $0.49 by ($0.05). Portland General Electric had a return on equity of 8.03% and a net margin of 7.82%. The business had revenue of $648.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $571.82 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.72 earnings per share. Portland General Electrics revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Portland General Electric will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Portland General Electric Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 25th will be given a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 22nd. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.89%. Portland General Electrics dividend payout ratio is presently 79.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Anne Frances Mersereau sold 10,891 shares of Portland General Electric stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.16, for a total transaction of $480,946.56. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 7,071 shares in the company, valued at approximately $312,255.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.51% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Portland General Electric by 355.2% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 932,178 shares of the utilities providers stock worth $45,574,000 after purchasing an additional 727,396 shares during the period. Jacobi Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Portland General Electric by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 5,165 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $253,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares during the period. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Portland General Electric during the 4th quarter valued at $661,000. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. lifted its position in shares of Portland General Electric by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 12,873 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $629,000 after acquiring an additional 625 shares during the period. Finally, Pictet Asset Management SA lifted its position in shares of Portland General Electric by 8.0% during the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management SA now owns 14,121 shares of the utilities providers stock valued at $690,000 after acquiring an additional 1,042 shares during the period.

About Portland General Electric

(Get Free Report)

Portland General Electric Company, an integrated electric utility company, engages in the generation, wholesale purchase, transmission, distribution, and retail sale of electricity in the state of Oregon. It operates six thermal plants, three wind farms, and seven hydroelectric facilities. As of December 31, 2022, the company owned an electric transmission system consisting of 1,255 circuit miles, including 269 circuit miles of 500 kilovolt line, 413 circuit miles of 230 kilovolt line, and 573 miles of 115 kilovolt line; and served 926 thousand retail customers in 51 cities.

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The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS  Get Free Report) had its price objective decreased by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $347.00 to $329.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an equal weight rating on the investment management companys stock. Morgan Stanleys price target would suggest a potential upside of 6.25% from the companys current price.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on GS. Credit Suisse Group reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $410.00 price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Atlantic Securities upgraded The Goldman Sachs Group from an underweight rating to a neutral rating and upped their target price for the company from $330.00 to $351.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 1st. JMP Securities reissued a market outperform rating and issued a $450.00 price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research note on Tuesday, September 12th. HSBC started coverage on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research note on Thursday, September 7th. They set a buy rating and a $403.00 price objective for the company. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $393.32.

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Read Our Latest Analysis on The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group Price Performance

Shares of GS traded down $8.85 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $309.65. 861,129 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,398,347. The stock has a market capitalization of $102.08 billion, a PE ratio of 13.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.38. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $334.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $330.11. The Goldman Sachs Group has a fifty-two week low of $287.75 and a fifty-two week high of $389.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.18.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS  Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 19th. The investment management company reported $3.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.25 by ($0.17). The firm had revenue of $10.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.61 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a return on equity of 8.27% and a net margin of 9.74%. The Goldman Sachs Groups revenue for the quarter was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $7.73 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that The Goldman Sachs Group will post 25.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at The Goldman Sachs Group

In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, CEO David M. Solomon sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.71, for a total value of $3,457,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 128,982 shares of the companys stock, valued at $44,590,367.22. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other The Goldman Sachs Group news, CEO David M. Solomon sold 10,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.71, for a total value of $3,457,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 128,982 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,590,367.22. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO David M. Solomon sold 4,200 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $356.28, for a total value of $1,496,376.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 124,782 shares of the companys stock, valued at $44,457,330.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.54% of the companys stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On The Goldman Sachs Group

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Pictet Asset Management SA increased its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.1% in the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management SA now owns 141,163 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $46,176,000 after buying an additional 1,491 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC increased its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 17.8% in the 4th quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 37,848 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $12,996,000 after purchasing an additional 5,725 shares during the last quarter. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 45.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,456 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $845,000 after purchasing an additional 771 shares in the last quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 0.5% during the first quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 12,957 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $4,238,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital grew its stake in The Goldman Sachs Group by 4.3% in the second quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 3,461 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $1,129,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. 69.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About The Goldman Sachs Group

(Get Free Report)

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc, a financial institution, provides a range of financial services for corporations, financial institutions, governments, and individuals worldwide. It operates through Global Banking & Markets, Asset & Wealth Management, and Platform Solutions segments. The Global Banking & Markets segment provides financial advisory services, including strategic advisory assignments related to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate defense activities, restructurings, and spin-offs; and relationship lending, and acquisition financing, as well as secured lending, through structured credit and asset-backed lending and involved in resale agreements.

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RBA Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS  Free Report) by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,154 shares of the investment management companys stock after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the period. RBA Wealth Management LLCs holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $3,598,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of GS. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in The Goldman Sachs Group in the 4th quarter worth about $759,531,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 608.2% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,390,752 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $114,359,000 after buying an additional 2,053,162 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 40.0% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,936,351 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $2,038,425,000 after buying an additional 1,696,350 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich raised its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 57,030.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 1,291,148 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $416,447,000 after buying an additional 1,288,888 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group by 168,772.3% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,244,589 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $427,367,000 after buying an additional 1,243,852 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.06% of the companys stock.

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Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David M. Solomon sold 10,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.71, for a total transaction of $3,457,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 128,982 shares in the company, valued at $44,590,367.22. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO David M. Solomon sold 4,200 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $356.28, for a total transaction of $1,496,376.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 124,782 shares in the company, valued at $44,457,330.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO David M. Solomon sold 10,000 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.71, for a total value of $3,457,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 128,982 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $44,590,367.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.54% of the companys stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $385.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a hold rating on the stock. JMP Securities reaffirmed a market outperform rating and set a $450.00 price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a report on Tuesday, September 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $415.00 to $398.00 in a report on Friday, July 7th. Finally, Odeon Capital Group raised shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $355.75 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $394.32.

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The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE GS opened at $318.50 on Tuesday. The companys fifty day simple moving average is $334.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $330.11. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $287.75 and a 12-month high of $389.58. The firm has a market cap of $105.00 billion, a PE ratio of 13.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.18.

The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS  Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 19th. The investment management company reported $3.08 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.25 by ($0.17). The firm had revenue of $10.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.61 billion. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 9.74% and a return on equity of 8.27%. The businesss quarterly revenue was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $7.73 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 25.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Goldman Sachs Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 31st were issued a dividend of $2.75 per share. This is an increase from The Goldman Sachs Groups previous quarterly dividend of $2.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 30th. This represents a $11.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.45%. The Goldman Sachs Groups payout ratio is currently 46.93%.

The Goldman Sachs Group Company Profile

(Free Report)

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc, a financial institution, provides a range of financial services for corporations, financial institutions, governments, and individuals worldwide. It operates through Global Banking & Markets, Asset & Wealth Management, and Platform Solutions segments. The Global Banking & Markets segment provides financial advisory services, including strategic advisory assignments related to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate defense activities, restructurings, and spin-offs; and relationship lending, and acquisition financing, as well as secured lending, through structured credit and asset-backed lending and involved in resale agreements.

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RHS Financial LLC lifted its position in iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF (BATS:USMV  Free Report) by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 62,909 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 2,467 shares during the quarter. iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF accounts for approximately 3.4% of RHS Financial LLCs holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. RHS Financial LLCs holdings in iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF were worth $4,676,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of Montreal Can grew its holdings in iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 8,253 shares of the companys stock worth $646,000 after acquiring an additional 594 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL grew its holdings in iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 95,612 shares of the companys stock worth $7,417,000 after acquiring an additional 1,612 shares during the last quarter. AJ Wealth Strategies LLC grew its holdings in iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. AJ Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 1,348,690 shares of the companys stock worth $104,618,000 after acquiring an additional 57,434 shares during the last quarter. Founders Financial Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. Founders Financial Securities LLC now owns 88,779 shares of the companys stock valued at $6,887,000 after purchasing an additional 18,853 shares during the last quarter. Finally, West Michigan Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. West Michigan Advisors LLC now owns 12,575 shares of the companys stock valued at $975,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the last quarter.

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iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of BATS USMV opened at $71.89 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.58 billion, a PE ratio of 20.17 and a beta of 0.75. iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF has a 1 year low of $47.44 and a 1 year high of $55.45. The firms 50-day moving average is $74.54 and its 200-day moving average is $73.58.

iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF Profile

The iShares MSCI USA Min Vol Factor ETF (USMV) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI USA Minimum Volatility (USD) index. The fund tracks an index of US-listed firms selected and weighted to create a low-volatility portfolio subject to various constraints. USMV was launched on Oct 18, 2011 and is managed by BlackRock.

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Terra Nova Asset Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of iShares Gold Trust (NYSEARCA:IAU  Free Report) by 4.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 21,766 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after selling 928 shares during the period. Terra Nova Asset Management LLCs holdings in iShares Gold Trust were worth $792,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Natixis Advisors L.P. lifted its position in iShares Gold Trust by 2.7% during the first quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 18,628 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $686,000 after purchasing an additional 486 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of iShares Gold Trust by 17.0% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,061,470 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $112,754,000 after acquiring an additional 445,160 shares during the period. Cibc World Market Inc. boosted its position in shares of iShares Gold Trust by 43.2% during the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 93,543 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $3,445,000 after acquiring an additional 28,233 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH acquired a new position in iShares Gold Trust during the first quarter valued at approximately $3,469,000. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its stake in iShares Gold Trust by 10.0% during the first quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 15,156 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $558,000 after purchasing an additional 1,380 shares during the last quarter. 58.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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iShares Gold Trust Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of IAU stock opened at $34.56 on Tuesday. iShares Gold Trust has a fifty-two week low of $30.69 and a fifty-two week high of $39.04. The stocks fifty day moving average price is $36.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.00.

About iShares Gold Trust

iShares Gold Trust (the Trust) is to own gold transferred to the Trust in exchange for shares issued by the Trust (Shares). Each Share represents a fractional undivided beneficial interest in the net assets of the Trust. The assets of the Trust consist of gold held by the Trusts custodian on behalf of the Trust.

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Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB  Free Report) by 0.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 85,853 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 329 shares during the quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLCs holdings in U.S. Bancorp were worth $2,837,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. TAP Consulting LLC acquired a new position in U.S. Bancorp during the first quarter valued at approximately $259,000. MCF Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 80.8% during the 1st quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 4,711 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $172,000 after buying an additional 2,105 shares in the last quarter. Venture Visionary Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Venture Visionary Partners LLC now owns 9,419 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $340,000 after buying an additional 800 shares during the last quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board boosted its stake in U.S. Bancorp by 8.2% in the second quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 67,661 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $2,236,000 after buying an additional 5,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ascent Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in U.S. Bancorp by 50.3% in the first quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 28,603 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $995,000 after acquiring an additional 9,572 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.40% of the companys stock.

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Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Terrance R. Dolan sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.75, for a total value of $1,033,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 166,992 shares of the companys stock, valued at $6,637,932. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, insider Timothy A. Welsh sold 13,816 shares of U.S. Bancorp stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.79, for a total transaction of $549,738.64. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 119,058 shares in the company, valued at $4,737,317.82. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Terrance R. Dolan sold 26,000 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.75, for a total value of $1,033,500.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 166,992 shares of the companys stock, valued at $6,637,932. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the companys stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on USB shares. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of U.S. Bancorp from $41.00 to $40.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 15th. HSBC began coverage on shares of U.S. Bancorp in a research note on Thursday, September 7th. They set a hold rating and a $30.00 target price on the stock. DA Davidson increased their price target on U.S. Bancorp from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on U.S. Bancorp from $41.00 to $35.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, Stephens reiterated an overweight rating and issued a $47.00 target price on shares of U.S. Bancorp in a research report on Monday, July 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, U.S. Bancorp currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $46.48.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on USB

U.S. Bancorp Stock Performance

USB stock opened at $31.77 on Tuesday. U.S. Bancorp has a 1-year low of $27.27 and a 1-year high of $49.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $36.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $34.43. The firm has a market cap of $48.70 billion, a PE ratio of 8.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.99.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB  Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 19th. The financial services provider reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.13 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $7.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.17 billion. U.S. Bancorp had a net margin of 16.59% and a return on equity of 16.53%. U.S. Bancorps quarterly revenue was up 19.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that U.S. Bancorp will post 4.43 earnings per share for the current year.

U.S. Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 16th. Investors of record on Friday, September 29th will be given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 28th. U.S. Bancorps payout ratio is currently 53.19%.

U.S. Bancorp Company Profile

(Free Report)

U.S. Bancorp, a financial services holding company, provides various financial services to individuals, businesses, institutional organizations, governmental entities and other financial institutions in the United States. It operates in Corporate and Commercial Banking, Consumer and Business Banking, Wealth Management and Investment Services, Payment Services, and Treasury and Corporate Support segments.

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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried goes on trial this week after the crypto exchange's collapse and alleged theft of billions.

Key witnesses include former colleagues and friends, notably Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, who had deep ties to FTX and Alameda Research. Ellison, once romantically involved with Bankman-Fried, has insights into FTX's internal workings and admitted to misleading actions.

Other witnesses like Nishad Singh and Wang held significant roles at FTX and Alameda, and have pleaded guilty to related charges.

Its been almost a year since the global crypto exchange FTX shattered and its founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried lost all credibility. This week, he will try to convince a jury of his peers that he deserves to be a free man again  but first, were going to hear from some of his closest friends.

The six-week trial will see prosecutors pore through testimonies, internal documents, emails and mountains of evidence certain to shed new light on the crypto exchanges alleged theft of billions of dollars in customer funds. The most striking evidence could come from the prosecutors witnesses  those who Bankman-Fried once counted as his friends and allies.

Read More: The Latest News on the Sam Bankman-Fried Trial

Several of Bankman-Frieds former colleagues and friends will testify against the one-time crypto mogul following plea deals they struck with the U.S. Department of Justice, including his former romantic partner Caroline Ellison and childhood friend Gary Wang, who were both deeply involved in the daily workings of both FTX and its quant-driven trading shop, Alameda Research. Another two individuals, who prosecutors have yet to publicly name, may testify if granted immunity, suggesting they may also be tied to the exchange. The DOJ also announced over the weekend that prosecutors intend to call former FTX customers from around the world and investors as witnesses during the trial.

Caroline Ellison

Caroline Ellison is among the most highly-anticipated witnesses expected to take the stand against Bankman-Fried. As the one-time head of Alameda Research  the crypto hedge fund tied to FTX  she can speak to the companies relationship and the amount of FTT it held, court documents indicate. Perhaps somewhat more salaciously, she also had a personal relationship with the FTX founder. She is said to be one of the few insiders who actually knew what was going on inside FTX.

Story continues

Ellison, the child of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) economists, first met Bankman-Fried at their previous employer, the Wall Street-focused trading firm Jane Street. They reunited in October 2021 after Bankman-Fried convinced her to join his crypto company over a Bay Area coffee.

In a plea hearing shortly in December 2022, shortly after the collapse of FTX, Ellison admitted to knowingly misleading lenders and receiving an unlimited line of credit without being required to post collateral from FTX for her then-hedge fund Alameda Research, even though the company didnt need the money.

Ellison pleaded guilty to fraud charges and signed a plea deal, sans criminal tax violations. Her insight into FTX and Alamedas alleged comingling of customer funds could prove pivotal from the stand.

She is also thought to be the person that knows Bankman-Fried best on a personal level, given the nature of her romantic relationship with the former crypto mogul, which slowly fizzled out in February 2022, according her diary, which Bankman-Fried leaked to the New York Times in August.

In her diary, she wrote mostly about her feelings for Bankman-Fried and how going through multiple breakups with him was affecting her work at Alameda Research, which she wrote felt too associated with [him] in a way that was painful.

Though she didnt mention anything about her living situation in her diary, it is known that Ellison, among other FTX employees, lived together with Bankman-Fried in a $40 million penthouse in Albany in the Bahamas.

This makes Ellison one of the few insiders who seemed to have been around Bankman-Fried 24/7, both professionally and romantically, which gives her a unique perspective to speak about the former FTX founders ethic as a businessman as well as his character on a personal level.

Nishad Singh

Nishad Singh was another early hire at Alameda Research, when the trading firm was still based in a Berkely, California apartment with only four other employees. Singh, who in his high school days was close with Bankman-Frieds brother, served as director of engineering at Alameda and like Ellison, lived with Bankman-Fried in his 10-person luxury penthouse in the Bahamas. After a year and a half at Alameda, he began a new role as the head of engineering at the then-newly launched FTX derivatives exchange, where he had minimal supervision.

Read More: Who's Who in the FTX Inner Circle

Singh was reportedly one of three people who controlled the keys to FTXs matching engine, the system that facilitated the exchanges processing of buy and sell orders and allowed those with a key to move around funds in any way they wanted. He also had knowledge of the exchange lending customer funds to Alameda. Like Ellison, he pleaded guilty in February this year to six criminal charges, including fraud and conspiracy.

Gary Wang

Gary Wang is the co-founder of Alameda Research and FTX  and was Sam Bankman-Frieds right hand. Wang served as chief technology officer for both firms and has been described as a critical player in the FTX saga.

Wang also knew Bankman-Fried on a personal level, from being his buddy at a math camp in high school to later sharing a dorm in college at MIT. He was also one of the 10 roommates at the Nassau penthouse Bankman-Fried resided in. The Commodities and Trading Commission (CFTC) alleged that Wang allowed Alameda to maintain an essentially unlimited line of credit on FTX.

In December 2022, together with Ellison, Wang pleaded guilty to charges related to FTXs collapse.

Andria van der Merwe

Andria van der Merwe is an economist specializing in complex regulatory investigations of financial markets, according to her biography on consulting firm Compass Lexecon's website. As an expert in financial regulation and market risks, she may provide insight into how Bankman-Fried and his inner circle allegedly conspired to violate federal securities and commodities law. She may also attest to the impact of FTX's collapse on the broader financial markets.

Peter Easton

University of Notre Dame Professor Peter Easton will provide an overview of Alameda Research and FTXs financials, including the Alameda balance sheet that set into motion the collapse of Bankman-Fried's multi-billion-dollar crypto empire, prosecutors said. His testimony will discuss how customer funds were held and whether balances in actual bank accounts matched balances in FTXs internal ledgers.

Defense witnesses

Thomas Bishop

Tom Bishop, a corporate consultant, specializes in forensic investigations and accounting issues. His court disclosure does not reveal much about his planned testimony, except that he may offer insight into calculations of financial figures and metrics" for FTX and Alameda based on publicly available documents and recordsincluding, but not limited to, balance sheets for Alameda," according to court filings. Defense attorneys said they intended to call Bishop to rebut possible DOJ testimony if needed.

Brian Kim

Brian Kim, a data analytics and forensics expert, may speak to internal messaging between Bankman-Fried and his employees at FTX and its sister companies. If he is called to the stand, he may testify on the content, metadata, and file paths associated with Slack data and Google documents, that allegedly prove Bankman-Fried instructed his employees to destroy evidence of his companies' alleged fraud. That data would include the fields [of documents and messages] listing the author, custodian(s), and viewer(s), as well as the content created, modified, viewed, saved, and/or deleted dates," court filings show. Like Bishop, if he is called to testify, his focus would be on rebutting DOJ testimony.

Joseph Pimbley

Joseph Pimbley, a financial consultant, is an expert in financial risk management. In his testimony, he may tell the jury that FTXs software infrastructure  had insufficiently

robust reporting and insufficient testing and quality assurance of data integrity and code, that external users, like Bankman-Fried, could not have seen or easily uncovered, a court filing said. Defense attorneys said they intend to call him to counter testimony from Wang and Singh.

Andrew Di Wu

Andrew Di Wu, a professor of finance and technology at the University of Michigan, may provide the jury with an overview of how cryptocurrency exchanges, and the blockchain technologies that undergird them, operate. As part of his testimony, he may also explain to the court "the unique complexities in operating centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, particularly those with cross-border operationsand the challenges in processing transactions in multiple fiat and cryptocurrencies," a court filing said.. The defense said Wus testimony could come in response to an FBI agent testifying for the prosecution.

Who arent we hearing from

As of Sept. 29, some key executives and other individuals closely tied to Bankman-Fried were not publicly named as possible witnesses, including a few key figures at FTX.

Sam Trabucco

Before Caroline Ellison took over as the sole CEO of Alameda Research, she shared the position with Sam Trabucco  who stepped down as co-CEO in August of 2022 after only a year in the position. He oversaw Alamedas expansion beyond its initial business as a market maker for lower-volume crypto assets into riskier trades and led the firm to huge profits, he claimed in a post on X in 2021. Trabucco was not named as one of the executives aware that FTX sent customer funds to Alameda in a Wall Street Journal article last year.

Dan Friedberg

Daniel Friedberg was FTXs chief compliance officer from March 2020 to November 2022. Hes previously been tied to an online poker website that was caught up in scandal in which an estimated $20 million of funds were misappropriated and where he reportedly told an ally to put the blame on an unnamed consultant to the company. He joined FTX after being a partner at Fenwick & West LLP, where he led the firms cryptocurrency division.

Last November, he reportedly provided details about FTX to federal prosecutors. Reuters reported that he expect[ed] to be called as a government witness in Bankman-Frieds trial, though his name has not yet been confirmed. His attorney did not pick up when called for comment.

Ryan Salame

Ryan Salame, a co-CEO of FTXs Bahamian subsidiary, FTX Digital Markets, became the fourth highest-ranking official within Bankman-Fried's inner circle to plead guilty to federal charges after accepting a plea deal this fall.

Under Bankman-Fried's direction, Salame made millions of dollars worth of illegal campaign donations to dozens of U.S. congress people, campaign finance records show. However, despite helping his former boss gain influence on Capitol Hill, Salame alleges he had no knowledge of the depths of FTX's financial troubles or its executives' alleged crimes.

Salame has reportedly handed over some documents relating to FTX's collapse to federal prosecutors, but according to the New York Times, he will not testify in court. A previous court filing said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if called to the stand.
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Conservative Home Secretary Suella Braverman stepped up the UK governments war against refugees and asylum seekers in a fascistic speech at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington (AEI) last week.

Braverman hailed the AEI as an organisation that has contributed so much to the intellectual foundations of the conservative movement in the US and the UK

Britain's Home Secretary Suella Braverman speaks on immigration at the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday, September 26, 2023, in Washington. [AP Photo/Kevin Wolf]

Some of those affiliated with AEI have had a significant impact on my own thinking, she added, naming another devoted Thatcherite, Sir Roger Scruton, who was a visiting scholar here for several years and Antonin Scalia, the arch-reactionary former US Supreme Court justice, who ruled in allowing the stolen election of 2000 that there is no universal right of suffrage.

Braverman declared that uncontrolled and illegal migration was an existential challenge for the political and cultural institutions of the West. Framing migration by refugees as essentially a criminal enterprise, the word illegal was mentioned over 40 times on the speech and illegal migration over 20 times.

She cited the island of Lampedusa as a means of solidarising herself with the anti-migrant campaign of Georgia Melonis far-right Italian government, declaring that on 12th September, over 120 hundred boats, carrying more than 5,000 illegal migrants, made the hundred-mile crossing from Tunisia, in Africa, to Italy.

Within 48 hours illegal arrivals outnumbered the local population and a state of emergency had been declared. By 20th September, at least 11,000 had landed, with migrants sleeping in the street, stealing food, and clashing with police.

The US faces similar challenges as Thousands of people illegally cross the border on a daily basis.

Europe is at a critical juncture, she added. The [European Union] must find a way to meet the challenge of illegal migration. She praised EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyens recent visit to Lampedusa for demonstrating the Commissions recognition of the severity of the situation.

The WSWS noted of the trip, Ursula von der Leyen expressed solidarity with the fascist Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The measures planned [by the European Union] are reminiscent of the darkest times in European history. They involve the complete closure of Fortress Europe, mass deportations to war torn countries and disaster zones in North Africa and the establishment of concentration and deportation camps by the military.

Braverman took aim at the United Nation Refugee Convention, signed in 1951 in the aftermath of the horrors of Second World Warabove all the Nazi persecution of the Jews and the Holocaust as not fit for our modern age. It conferred protection on some two million people in Europe, she said, whereas it now confers the notional right to move to another country upon at least 780 million people.

A misguided dogma of multiculturalism had failed by making no demands of the incomer to integrate, allowing people to come to our society and live parallel lives in it And, in extreme cases pursue lives aimed at undermining the stability and threatening the security of society, Braverman declared.

The entire global asylum framework had to be torn down is it was a promissory note that the West cannot fulfil. Those who arrived illegally or passed through multiple safe countries along the way should cease to be treated as refugees, she insisted. As well as the Refugee Convention, In Europe weve added through the European Convention on Human Rights additional human rights laws, she complained.

Western countries, she said, will not be able to sustain an asylum system if in effect, simply being gay, or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin, is sufficient to qualify for protection. All the worlds problems could be resolved, said the home secretary, if only illegal immigrants stopped devouring the resources of society.

Like far-right figures around the world, Bravermans broad political aim is to whip up a frenzied anti-immigration atmosphere to mobilise politically backward sections of the population as a battering ram against a growing movement of the working class. Her speech followed her comments solidarising with Metropolitan Police armed officers protesting charges brought against the officer responsible for the murder of Chris Kaba in 2022 and promising measures to prevent such prosecutions in future. Both interventions were made on the eve of this weeks Tory Party conference to cement a future leadership challenge, in anticipation of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak losing an expected general election next year to Labour.

They had the desired effect, with the Daily Express crowing that with the speech, Suella Braverman went from [Tory party] leadership hopeful to international superstar in just 24 hours.

Outright fascists backed the speech, with Mark Collett of the Patriotic Alternative group declaring, What I do know, is that what she said is a good thing for nationalism we should capitalise on this and do our best to take control of this situation and steer the national conversation in the correct direction.

No opposition to steering the national conversation to witch-hunt and scapegoat migrants was forthcoming from the liberal media, outside of a few pro-forma complaints over her attack on multiculturalism and her homophobia.

The Guardians main political concerns were two-fold.

It tried to portray Labour as some sort of progressive opposition to the government but was reduced to focusing on a single tweet by Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper complaining of Deeply divisive, damaging political game playingunworthy of her office. The Guardian continues to fulsomely back Labours plan to curb immigration through a restored partnership with the EU. Coopers central message was that Braverman had lost grip of Tory asylum chaos and should sort chaos at home.

The Guardian also tried to boost supposedly dissenting voices within the Tory Party, again to conceal and apologise for the full reactionary direction of both the government and Labour itself. Its endeavours and those of other newspapers centred mostly on a dozen gay Tory MPs who complained to the chief whip and, after days of silence, Jeremy Hunt, a leadership rival, who politely declared that he wouldnt use her words while stressing that Braverman was absolutely right to demand measures against criminal gangs smuggling thousands of people over the Channel.

This was the pattern throughout government, with one of what the Times described as a pink wall Tory MP complaining, Her comments lessen the argument for reform because now the focus is on whether we are bigoted to argue for change rather than the need to reform a broken asylum system across the world, and Sunak refusing to explicitly contradict someone clearly mounting a challenge to his leadership for fear of solidifying internal opposition behind her. Like Hunt, he praised Bravermans Illegal Migration Act denying refugees the right to stay in Britain if they arrived illegally on a small boat via the English Channel and enables them to deported to a safe third country--with the government seeking to send them thousands of miles away to Rwanda.

The Spectator, the house organ of the Tories, laid out the underlying political logic behind Bravermans elevation as Sunaks likely successor, with columnist Patrick OFlynn writing, Here is the thing: Suella Braverman is right. The system really is unsustainable. Either it must be reformed radically by conventional politicians or it will end up being dumped in chaotic and dangerous fashion by a new wave of demagogues that electors have had to turn to in desperation.

He concluded, The time is coming soon when the Conservative party and its leader will have to decide whether they are for real when it comes to tackling the wholesale abuse of the asylum system by would-be economic migrants or prefer instead to hand the task on to wilder forces.
On Sunday the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in Australia held a successful public meeting as part of its campaign to educate and mobilise workers and youth on a socialist perspective in opposition to both the Yes and No camps in the October 14 referendum.

Titled For an active boycott of Australian Labors Voice referendum, the event was held in the western Sydney suburb of Bankstown and livestreamed. More than 80 participants logged in from across Australia as well as New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the US.

The Albanese Labor government is urging electors to vote Yes for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Voice to parliament, claiming that this unelected body will overcome the poverty and social oppression confronting the majority of Aboriginal people.

The Yes and the No camps represent two different sections of Australias ruling class. Both are fully committed to the profit system, imperialist war and social austerity. Irrespective of the votes outcome, Aboriginal workers and their families will confront the worsening social crisis that is gripping the working class as a whole.

Public meeting: For an active boycott of Labor's Voice referendum!

Sundays meeting was chaired by SEP Assistant National Secretary Max Boddy with reports by World Social Web Site journalist Oscar Grenfell, Tom Peters, a leading member of the Socialist Equality Group in New Zealand, and SEP National Secretary Cheryl Crisp.

These extensive and compelling reports, which included photographs, graphics and video footage, were followed by a question-and-answer session in which attendees sought further clarification on a range of issues.

Grenfell told the event that the SEPs response to the referendum was based on the independent interests of the working class. Our active boycott provides the only genuine political alternative to the Yes and No camps and goes beyond the issue of voting, he said. It charts a path for the development of a movement of the working class against the entire political establishment and the profit system itself.

He outlined the reactionary political calculations underpinning the Voice proposal. These included diverting attention from Labors escalating involvement in US-led plans for war against China and the imposition of major social attacks, expansion of the state apparatus and a further bolstering of a wealthy pro-big business Aboriginal elite.

Grenfell reviewed the origins and economic driving forces behind the colonisation of Australia and its consequences for Aboriginal people. He also detailed the horrendous contemporary social conditions facing indigenous working-class communities, and refuted government lies that it needed a special advisory bodythe Voiceto find out how to overcome these conditions.



The speaker drew attention to the pernicious role played by an economically privileged group of self-proclaimed Aboriginal leaders, such as businessman Noel Pearson and academic Marcia Langton, championing the Voice. This milieu and the Voice are being actively promoted by pseudo-left groups, Grenfell explained.

Speaking online from New Zealand, Peters pointed to the close parallels between the Voice campaign and the Treaty of Waitangi. He provided a concise overview of the historic origins of the 1840 treaty and its purpose.

Like similar agreements with indigenous tribes in Canada and the United States, the treaty, Peters explained, was used by the British to deceive the Maori tribes and prepare to take the land by force, while buying off a layer of leaders and drawing them into bourgeois politics. Close relations between Maori leaders and New Zealand governments were also used for military recruitment drives in the first and second world wars.

The political role of the treaty was further developed during the 1970s and 1980s to divert growing working-class militancy. New Zealanders were told to rally around the Treaty of Waitangi, as a symbol of unity, trust, understanding and good will during those years. Governments allocated significant resources to elevate an upper-middle class of Maori while implementing major attacks on the working class.

Peters pointed to the rising poverty and worsening social conditions of working-class Maori, who constitute about 15 percent of New Zealands population. The current wealth gap between rich and poor Maori is twice as wide as the general population, he said.

Peters reminded attendees that a New Zealand election was being held on the same day as the Voice referendum. Here, as in Australia, the entire political establishment is campaigning on the basis of racial politicswith each side accusing the other of being racistto distract from the fact that whoever gets in is going to carry out sweeping cuts to public services and other attacks on the working class, he said.

Both governments, Peters said, were fully aligned with the military drive by the US and other imperialist powers to redivide the world and plunder the resources of Russia and China.

Crisp began her contribution by referring the standing ovations given to Nazi war criminal Yaroslav Hunka, a former member of SS Waffen Galacia Unit in Ukraine, on September 22 in the Canadian parliament.

That this occurred in the seat of rule of one of the most preeminent democracies in world cannot be explained as an error, Crisp said. She reviewed the dangerously escalating US-led NATO war against Russia in Ukraine and the preparations for war against China.

The Ukraine war is not a regional conflict and cannot even be correctly termed a proxy war by NATO against Russia. It is for its subjugation, its dismemberment, and to deny China its only ally when imperialism launches war against that country, a task which would inevitably engulf large portions of the world and threaten the use of nuclear weapons, she said.

The Voice was being pursued to advance these geo-strategic aims. It could only be assessed within this contextsomething that was never discussed in the 2022 election campaign.

Crisp reviewed the Albanese governments immediate, and ever-expanding, involvement in the US-led provocations against China and the war against Russia in Ukraine. War abroad requires an equally vicious war against the working class at home, she said.

Crisp explained that the referendum was also an attempt to cover up the bloody history of Australian capitalism and promote bogus claims of national unity and Australia as the land of the fair go, and rights for all.

This was a mirage, Crisp said. There is no national unity. There is not one country, there are twothe working class and the capitalist classand their interests are irreconcilably opposed.

The appeal to colour and race is a reactionary perspective designed to divide the working class the unleashing of far-right-wing racism against indigenous and immigrant workers is the outcome of the very nature of the referendum itself.

The SEPs call for an active boycott is to provide an independent perspective for young people and workers. But casting an informal ballot is not enough. We call for an active boycott because it must be ongoing, not a one-off protest.

The broad historical and political questions raised here must be addressed, Crisp concluded. Our intervention in this campaign is to explain these issues and develop a politically conscious movement of workers and youth against war and austerity.

Before opening the question-and-answer session, Boddy screened video interviews with Northern Territory residents by a World Socialist Web Site reporting team on the social and political impact of the 2007 Northern Territory Emergency Response.

WSWS reporters interview Northern Territory residents in 2008

Launched by the Liberal-National Coalition government of John Howard, with bipartisan support from Labor, the intervention was necessary, the government claimed, to protect Aboriginal children from alleged sexual abuse and other criminal behaviour in Aboriginal communities.

The unprecedented territory-wide operation instituted a raft of anti-democratic measures and mobilised hundreds of military personnel, federal police and government bureaucrats into Aboriginal communities.

The intervention had nothing do with overcoming endemic poverty and social horrors. Its purpose was to slash welfare and shut down uneconomic remote communities.

The WSWS reportage in 2008 provided the only independent platform for Aboriginal people to speak about the social conditions and the decades of government lies and false promises.

The meeting provoked a range of questions from attendees asking for further clarification on SEPs attitude to referendum and how to answer illusions that the Voice was a first step to improving the plight of indigenous communities and allegations that those not supporting the Yes camp were racist.

Other questions related to how the working class should deal with the police and the military, the US foreign debt and imperialist war, the wealth of the Aboriginal elites, the history of the Aboriginal working class and other issues. These questions were answered during the discussion, which is included in the linked video above.

We urge readers to watch the meeting video, widely share it on social media, and contact to the SEP to participate in its active boycott campaign.

Note: Under conditions of compulsory voting, which makes it a crime to urge a boycott of the vote itself, the SEP calls on workers and youth to register their opposition by casting informal ballots and join our active boycott campaign in the lead-up to October 14, that goes well beyond the individual act of voting.

Authorised by Cheryl Crisp for the Socialist Equality Party, Suite 906, 185 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000
The foreign ministers of the European Unions (EU) member countries met yesterday in Kiev for a summit to pledge continuing support to NATOs war with Russia in Ukraine.

Though the summit came after the bloody failure of Ukraines counteroffensive and amid mounting divisions in ruling circles over how to finance the war, leading EU governments signaled their intention to escalate war with Russia.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, right, and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell attend their press conference during the informal EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, October 2, 2023. [AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky]

I am convening today the EU Foreign Ministers in Kyiv, for the first-ever meeting of all 27 Member States outside the EU, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on X/Twitter. Borrell added, Ukraines future lies within the EU. Borrell announced that the summit had agreed to spend a further 5 billion on the war.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba echoed Borrells remarks, tweeting, Glad to welcome EU foreign ministers at the historic meeting in Ukraine For the first time in history, outside current EU borders. But also within its future borders.

With Ukraines army shattered, an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers dead and many more maimed, such statements amount to a reckless, open-ended pledge to escalate war with Russia, a nuclear-armed power. Before the EU summit, UK officials indicated that British troops could deploy directly to Ukraine, ostensibly to advise Ukrainian soldiers. Plans to anounce EU military deployments to Ukraine are no doubt also at an advanced stage.

The EU has emerged as the top financier of the war, having given Kiev 84.8 billion, including 5.6 billion in arms, by the end of July 2023, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. This is on top of spending by individual European states, led by Germany (20.87 billion), Britain (13.77 billion), Norway (7.45 billion), Poland (4.27 billion), and the Netherlands (4.08 billion). These figures include 17 billion in weaponry from Germany, 6.6 billion from Britain, 3.7 billion from Norway, 3 billion from Poland and 2.5 billion from the Netherlands.

In Kiev, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called to further arm Ukraine. She said, We must now further intensify all our efforts to prepare Ukraine for this winter. When I was here in September, I already made it clear that Ukraine needs a protective shield for winter that consists of air defense but also generators and strengthening energy supply.

The summit came amid signs of mounting divisions in European ruling circles over the financing and planning of the war. The foreign ministers of Hungary and Poland did not attend the Kiev summit, after Warsaw announced last week that it would send no new arms shipments to Ukraine.

At the Kiev summit, the leading EU imperialist powers were intent on signaling that they will allow no climbdown in participation in the war. They replied in particular to Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, who said that fatigue from this conflict, fatigue from the completely absurd sponsorship of the Kyiv regime, will grow in various countries, including the United States.

At a press conference in Kiev, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna pledged French support for war on Russia. Colonna called the Kiev summit a demonstration of our resolute and lasting support for Ukraine, until it can win. It is also a message to Russia that it should not count on our weariness. We will be there for a long time to come.

Borrell added, The EU remains united in its support to Ukraine I dont see any member state folding on their engagement.

EU officials stressed their close collaboration with Washington on the war. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lkke Rasmussen said the EU must arm Ukraine to support Ukraine, but also to send a strong trans-Atlantic signal that whats going on on our own soil is something we have to take on a great responsibility for.

The EU was founded in 1992, the year after the Stalinist bureaucracy dissolved the Soviet Union, as a free-market, pro-austerity economic bloc. NATOs war with Russia is accelerating its emergence as a military alliance asserting European imperialist interests on the world stage. This has gone hand-in-hand with the rehabilitation of neo-fascist parties and the emergence of police-state regimes in Europe that violently repress strikes and protests against the austerity measures and wage freezes that serve to finance war spending.

The political and class character of this war was exposed last week, when the Canadian parliament unanimously applauded Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old Ukrainian ex-member of the Nazi Waffen-SS, as a Ukrainian patriot for fighting against the Soviet Union in World War II. The Waffen SS played a central role in the Holocaust of European Jewry, Hitlers war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, and the repression of resistance to Nazi occupation in Europe.

This exposed the close ties between NATO and far-right Ukrainian forces, like the Right Sector militia that led the 2014 NATO-backed coup in Kiev that brought NATOs current Ukrainian puppet regime to power. With other far-right militias, like the Azov Battalion, it now plays a central role inside the Kiev regime. Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Ukrainian collaboration with Nazism, is regularly hailed by top Ukrainian officials.

The Canadian parliaments politically-criminal applause for a Waffen-SS fighter also speaks to the character and political implications of the EUs redefinition as a militarist bloc dedicated to war with Russia until total victory.

The EU has changed. There is no turning back. We have turned out the lights behind us and there is basically only one way, Danish EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager declared at a May 2023 EU summit in Brussels. Waging the Ukraine war, she continued, is absolutely Europes top priority, and we will stay supportive of Ukraine until the war is won and Ukraine has been rebuilt, and become a member of the European Union.

Commenting on Vestagers remarks, the Guardian cited top advisors of Borrell who asserted that the Russian war overcame the conflicts between the European powers in the 20th century. The European project was first and foremost intended to prevent a new conflict between France and Germany. It aimed to pacify intra-European relations through exchange and economic cooperation, wrote Zaki Laidi, a professor at Sciences-Politiques university in Paris.

Now, however, argued Nicole Gnesotto of the Jacques Delors Institute, war with Russia is overcoming conflicts inside Europe. In one night, Russia killed all EU philosophy since 1956, she said.

Claims that the EU will overcome historically-rooted contradictions of European capitalism via war with Russia testify to the reckless, fascistic moods seizing the ruling class. In reality, divisions are mounting in ruling circles across the continent, as was seen with the absence of Hungarian and Polish officials in Kiev. Moroever, it is notable that France, Italy and Spain, historically more oriented to imperialist conquest in Africa than in Eastern Europe, have spent less on Ukraine than their northern European allies (1.69 billion, 1.29 billion and 900 million, respectively).

The working class must intervene independently to stop the war. Workers cannot rely on conflicts inside the bourgeoisie to avert the catastrophe that the EU has set into motion. They must base its policy on the fact that the European bourgeoisie is staking everything on a NATO war with Russia that threatens Europe and the world with escalation all the way to nuclear war. In the ruling class, there is broad awareness that this entails legitimizing far-right politics and forms of rule.

This spring saw a powerful movement of strikes erupt across Europe against the wage austerity and social cuts used to finance war with Russia. During mass protests in France against pension cuts, a large majority of workers declared their support for mass strikes to block the economy and bring down President Emmanuel Macron. This explosive opposition must be developed consciously as an international movement of the working class in opposition to imperialist war and the capitalist system that gives rise to it.
On Sunday, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) held a public meeting advancing its fight for an active boycott of the October 14 referendum on enshrining an indigenous Voice to parliament in the Australian Constitution.

SEP National Secretary Cheryl Crisp addressing public meeting in Bankstown, Australia on October 1, 2023.

Leading members of the SEP and of the Socialist Equality Group (SEG) in New Zealand exposed the reactionary politics of the official Yes and No camps. They explained that both were promoting racialism and nationalism to divide the working class and to further the preparations for Australian participation in a US-led war against China.

The speakers explained that the active boycott was a means of advancing an independent perspective for the working class, directed towards the development of a socialist movement against war and austerity.

Alexis, an IT worker in his late 30s originally from central Russia, attended the meeting online.

He said: The Yes campaign say that by voting yes you are making a statement supporting equality and agreement with Aboriginal people and if you vote no, youre a racist and stupid. But voting either way wont change anything for the working class or Aboriginal people.

In my experience any such campaigns by governments mean some way of extracting more from the working class to fund the needs of the government that will not in any way benefit the Aboriginal people.

Alexis expressed appreciation for the remarks of SEP National Secretary Cheryl Crisp. She had placed the referendum in the context of a broader promotion of nationalism, linked to the US-led proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and the preparations for a war against China. Crisp had drawn particular attention to the significance of the Canadian parliament recently giving a standing ovation to a Ukrainian Nazi, as part of its promotion of the current war effort.

Alexis said: I liked Cheryls remarks that explained the US policy of war against Russia and how the Canadian parliament applauded the Ukrainian fascist. I wish more people had attended the meeting but I understand that the SEP does not have anything like the resources of the Yes and No campaigns.



Daniel, a student at the University of Melbourne, logged into the meeting via the livestream. He said there was an interesting collision of perspectives between the campaign for the Voice to parliament and the experiences in New Zealand with the Treaty of Waitangi. Leading SEG member Tom Peters had explained that the Treaty of Waitangi had done nothing to improve the social position of working-class Maori, instead helping to cultivate a privileged indigenous elite.

Daniel

Daniel said that he learned a lot in the course of the discussion about the whole progression and timeline around the Treaty.

It showed to him the possibilities, setup, and intention around Voice. Daniel added: The elite levels of the indigenous people in terms of the organisation around what the Voice isthe narrative of creating equality is muddied in that structure.

The student also recalled the discussion in the meeting about Australian multi-millionaire Tim Gurner. The property developer had called for a 4050 percent increase to unemployment, as part of an offensive against workers wages, in comments that led to an explosion of anger internationally on social media.

I remember hearing about that, and just being like, wow, he just says it all in 30 seconds. Daniel noted that the SEP was drawing a link between the ruling elites contempt for the working class encapsulated in Gurners comments and the essentially anti-working-class Voice. The SEPs linking that to the conversation around the Voice as wellI see that connection with further discussion.

Daniel also appreciated the connection drawn by speakers in the meeting with Australias role in the US-led preparations for war against China.

He commented: My understanding of the Voice and the bigger picture of the movement toward war is that its a kind of political distraction similar to the apology [speech delivered by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2008]. It distracts from other things as far as Australias military alignment.

As soon as [Labor Prime Minister] Albanese came into government, he had all his overseas trips around the Pacific region. It was just so fast and deliberate. It was painted as fixing our image, but it was actually about building military alliances.

Daniel expressed his agreement with the SEPs call for an active boycott of the October 14 referendum. He was aware of the campaign of independent Senator Lidia Thorpe, who is calling for a supposed progressive No vote. Thorpe accepts the racialist premise of the referendum. Her objection is that the Voice will not funnel sufficient privileges and resources to the indigenous elite.

Daniel said: I was kind of in this space where I wasnt sure how to vote. The progressive No is about identity politics, blak nationalism. I now understand its not the working class theyre really aligned with. So, what do you do? I guess the boycott fills that space. I feel like there is agreement in me with the campaign for a boycott but it has to be a collective choice. It has to feel like theres a campaign for not just doing it because youre not sure.

Donna from Melbourne watched the livestream. She said: Im a supporter of the Active Boycott. I think it is a very good position because I do not see eye to eye with either side of the official Voice campaign. I can see the people from both the Yes case and the No case are coming from their positions of self-interest. They are not supportive of the working class and they are very racialist, and that includes the progressive No as well as the mainstream Liberal party No argument. It is unfortunate that the SEP position of the Boycott to lodge an informal vote isnt as well-known as it ought to be. People are quite uncomfortable voting on a racialist platform.

Both sides are for their own investments and their own interests, where they are getting their funds and their lifestyle from. I feel like their positions either side are to the detriment of others sometimes.

When you look at it from a class basis, people ultimately need access to the same resources and they yearn for the same sort of human dignity across racial or religious or whatever kinds of lines, but what deprives them of those sort of human rights is the class divide, not the colour of their skin. I think that workers need to universally join forces, not do it country by country.

Donna drew a connection with growing Australian militarism, including the AUKUS pact with the US and Britain. She said: I think in regard to these types of wars Australia is involved in it is very obvious what is happening. It is clear to me that war is what they are gearing up for. That goes back to AUKUS, because they had the arrangement with France for submarines. France was dropped like a hot potato a couple of years back to get on board with the US and the UK in a very sly manner.

Donna noted that some yes-aligned publications were promoting the record of Aboriginal servicemen who were deployed to past Australian wars. She countered: Aborigines who were in the military came back and they were treated like rubbish. They put their bodies, their minds, their whole soul on the line. They didnt respect them in the first place, and they didnt respect them when they came home and now theyre trying to make people have patriotic pride about it.

Cheryl said that there are two Australias, not one, and that it is divided by class. I know when I was younger I believed, and you were told, Australia has no class. And if you worked hard youd be right, it was like the Australian dream, the American dream, whatever.

But were all wage slaves, we have very high levels of personal debt to buy a house or buy a car, which you need to get to work to pay your mortgage, thats another loan often for some people. We could really grind, my husband and I, and probably still be paying it off till Im 70.

An international student from Nepal, who watched the meeting online in Sydney, said:



I came to the meeting because international politicians [from the SEP] spoke, and they talked about socialism. Im interested in socialism, so thats why I attended. Because Im from Nepal, everyone was kind of an international politician to me. Its a new perspective for me.

Mostly the meeting discussed the referendum on October 14. The referendum, I think, covers over the issue of war. The US strategy has turned to the Pacific Ocean. Its kind of manipulation. The government is trying to make out as if theyre doing good, but on a different level, theyre supporting war. If there is a war, hundreds of thousands, even millions of people will be killed. The economy will be affected. The lives of common people will be affected.

International students bring lots of dollars to Australia. We are bringing dollars, and those dollars are being used to support war. And international students in Australia have a very hard life.

I think socialism is one of the ideologies that should be spread around the world. There is a lot of division in the world right now. There shouldnt be any division.

Note: Under conditions of compulsory voting, which makes it a crime to urge a boycott of the vote itself, the SEP calls on workers and youth to register their opposition by casting informal ballots and join our active boycott campaign in the lead-up to October 14, that goes well beyond the individual act of voting.

Authorised by Cheryl Crisp for the Socialist Equality Party, Suite 906, 185 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000
Vice President Kamala Harris (left) and newly appointed California Senator Laphonza Butler, June 2023. [Photo: Laphonza Butler]

On Sunday, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he would be appointing Laphonza Butler, 44, to the Senate seat held by the late Dianne Feinstein. Butler, a long-time Democratic Party operative, union bureaucrat, and lobbyist for Uber and Airbnb, is representative of the social type, and interests, that constitute the modern Democratic Party.



While Newsom claimed he would not pick a replacement for Feinstein who would seek election to the open Senate seat next year, saying it would be unfair to the three Democrats already campaigning for the party nomination, Butler has not confirmed if she will run in 2024. As of this writing, three House members from CaliforniaAdam Schiff, Katie Porter and Barbara Leeare all running.



The deadline to declare candidacy is December 8, 2023. Butler currently lives in Maryland with her wife, Neneki Lee, who is the current National Division Director for Public Services at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Following her appointment, Newsoms office confirmed that Butler also owns a home in California and will be re-registering to vote in the state.



Prior to being chosen by Newsom, Butler was the president of EMILYs (Early Money Is Like Yeast) List since 2021. The highly influential political organization spent $4.4 million in the 2022 midterm election cycle and is dedicated to electing pro-choice female politicians, nearly all Democrats. It was founded in 1985 by Ellen Malcolm, an heir to the IBM fortune. The multimillionaire Malcolm served as the co-chair of Hillary Clintons presidential campaign in 2008 and was president of EMILYs List from 1985 to 2010.



On October 2, Butler released a statement through EMILYs List announcing that she was stepping down and that Sen. Dianne Feinsteins leadership and legacy are immeasurable. I will do my best to honor her by devoting my time and energy to serving the people of California and the people of this great nation.



In a video released by the Newsom administration following the announcement, Butler is presented as someone who will continue the work of her predecessor ... breaking barriers and glass ceilings and ensuring Californians have a fighter in Washington D.C.



As the WSWS reviewed last week, Feinsteins legacy is that of an imperialist warmonger and defender of Wall Street. By breaking barriers Newsom, the Democrats, and their supporters in the press are referring to the fact that Butler is not only an African-American woman, but also a lesbian. These qualificationsin reality, ticking boxes of race, gender and sexual orientation to satisfy the obsession with identity politicsare being trumpeted by the Democrats and the media to provide a progressive gloss to Butler in order to obfuscate her right-wing and anti-working class record.



Butlers appointment is a window into the cynical and reactionary upper-middle-class politics of the Democratic Party. After appointing Alejandro Alex Padilla in 2021 to the Senate seat vacated by Vice President Kamala Harris, Newsom came under fire from Democratic Party racialists for not appointing a black woman to replace Harris. At the time, Newsom pledged that should Feinstein leave her seat before the 2024 election, he would appoint a black woman.



In addition to having the appropriate gender and skin color, Butler was chosen by Newsom because she is a trusted agent of the financial oligarchy and the Democratic Party. Her nearly two decades at the highest levels of the union bureaucracy, Democratic Party, and key institutions of the capitalist state, prove that she is a vetted and capable agent of the bourgeoisie.



Butler was born in Magnolia, Mississippi. Her mother was a certified nursing assistant while her father was a small business owner who died when she was 16. After graduating from Jackson State University in 2001, a historically black college, Butler, in an interview with Elle, said her first salary job was an organizer-in-training for which she was paid $24,000 in 2001, roughly equivalent to $42,000 today.



Within five years of graduating from Jackson State University with a bachelors degree in political science and government, Butler was named the national division director and campaign director for the SEIU in Washington D.C., a position she held from 2006 to 2009.



Despite never working as a nurse or as an in-home care provider, in 2010 Butler became the president of the SEIU United Long Term Care Workers in California. As president until 2015, Butler claimed to represent some 180,000 nursing home workers throughout California, making the unit the second largest SEIU local in the nation.



In 2015, Butler became president of SEIU Local 2015, which was created in 2015 to bring together some 325,000 nursing home and healthcare workers under a new local. SEIU Local 2015 is the largest union in California. While Barack Obama was still president, Butler was named a Champion for Change.



Beginning in May 2016, Butler became a senior adviser on the Hillary for America campaign. In 2018, then-Governor Jerry Brown appointed Butler to the University of California Board of Regents. At the time, the WSWS wrote that Butlers greatest asset for the ruling establishment is her perceived ability to corral the poorest paid workers within the ranks of the union and behind the Democratic Party. As a black woman, Butler rides the coattails of identity politics, raking in a yearly salary of over $230,000 while posing as a champion of the poor by advocating a $15 an hour statewide minimum wage, a paltry $31,200 a year full time.



We added, Before entering the leadership of the SEIU, Butler was the Director for the Board of Governors of the Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve System. The inclusion of Butler, a union bureaucrat, on the Board of Regents further confirms the right-wing and anti-working class character of the SEIU and other organizations like it.



Butler served on the UC board until 2021. However, while on the board Butler was named a partner in SCRB Strategies, which has since been renamed Bearstar Strategies. Previous clients of Bearstar include both Hillary and Bill Clinton, Jerry Brown, Newsom, Harris and even former Los Angeles mayoral candidate and billionaire Rick Caruso.



While working at SCRB, Butler lobbied on behalf of Uber to prevent drivers from being classified as employees as opposed to contractors, in order to protect Uber from having to provide certain benefits and protections.



While fighting for the rights of tech companies to exploit so-called gig workers, Butler, together with political consultants Ace Smith, Sean Clegg and Juan Rodriguez, the rest of the names that comprise the acronym SCRB, helped manage Kamala Harriss 2020 presidential campaign, with Butler being the senior adviser.



Following the campaign, Butler left SCRB, and in September 2020, was named a director of Airbnb. Butler told Politico at the time that she was excited to begin working on economic empowerment, presumably for herself.



After a year at Airbnb, Butler became president of EMILYs list. During the 2022 midterms, according to OpenSecret.org, Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto received the most from the organization, $537,000, while Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire got $470,000.
In the midst of the Australian federal Labor governments campaign for a yes vote in its Voice referendum, claiming it will improve the lives of indigenous people, data has emerged showing that the Labor administration in the Northern Territory is grossly underfunding schools in Aboriginal communities.

Falling school attendances in Australia's Northern Territory (NT), particularly in remote areas. [Photo: Facebook/NT Department of Education]

The territory Labor government is continuing to impose a punitive schools funding model based on attendance, not enrolment. This regime was initially implemented by a Country Liberal government in 2015, but Labor has maintained it since taking office in 2016.

This has exasperated the vast social inequality involved, creating a cycle of worsening literacy rates. Indigenous people make up nearly 30 percent of the Northern Territorys population of about a quarter of a million, and almost 8 percent of Australias indigenous population. About 45 percent of the territorys young people are indigenous.

Many schools are not receiving adequate support, with attendance rates as low as 20 percent in some cases. This has resulted in 58 percent of all students and 85 percent of indigenous students in the Northern Territory falling below minimum literacy and numeracy standards.

Remote Aboriginal homeland communities have been hit hardest. Many students are learning in buildings without power or water, and 78 of these communities have no access to local secondary education, resulting in high dropout rates and crime.

This is a breach of the basic social right that every child has access to free, high-quality education. In some instances, students are receiving only a part-time education, with a registered teacher providing classes just once or twice a week. Many local assistant teachers are forced to run classrooms for months.

The Australian reported that a remote school at Gamardi, in central Arnhem Land, had its first registered teacher appear on May 18, over three months after the start of the school year.

One in five Northern Territory students have no money spent on their education and over half the student cohort lack funding at some schools. In 2022, it was reported that a school in Gunbalanya had not received any funding for 121 of its 229 students and a school in Yuendumu had 89 unfunded students out of 165.

In 2021, 34 of 151 government schools received less than 50 percent of the allocated income in their school budgets. Every school but three of these had an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island student population of more than 95 percent.

Students and teachers from Yuendumu School, Yuendumu, Northern Territory, Australia. [Photo: Yuendumu School Facebook]

The Australian claims that the budget shortfall is due to a bloated education department bureaucracy and proposes reducing employment in the territorys public service by 10,000, as suggested by former senior economist Rolf Gerritsen.

In reality, the deprivation of students flows directly from a funding model that blames schools, communities and students for low attendance rates, which are bound up with poor facilities and deep social problems. This model only multiplies the problems by punishing children.

A 2022 Deloitte report revealed that in 2020, students in the Northern Territory received only 78 percent of their estimated $29,831 per student required to provide minimum standards of education. That standard, set by the federal governments Gonski model, is itself inadequate.

Deloitte is an active participant in the corporate world. It provides audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax and legal services to the ruling elites. Its purpose is not to ameliorate social conditions, but to recommend options that streamline and improve efficiency.

Delloittes 2022 report was commissioned by the Northern Territory Department of Education in partnership with Charles Darwin Universitys Northern Territory Institute to review the use of Effective Enrolment in the School Resourcing Model.

Nowhere does the report mention the squalid conditions suffered as a result of this attendance-based funding model. Deloittes only brief was to assist the Northern Territory government in appropriately allocating funds as aligned to the [Education] Departments strategic goals.

Neither the federal nor the Northern Territory (NT) Labor governments have made any detailed outline as to how these issues will be addressed. NT Education Minister Eva Lawler essentially defended Labors record. She said intensive work is currently under way to build stronger foundations for long-term improvement for Aboriginal students in the NT.

Earlier this year, Lawler announced that a shift back to enrolment-based funding would be made within five years. The government is in no rush to replace the current system, nor is the Albanese federal Labor government.

In July, Lawler said the territory government would use the attendance formula, which she referred to as effective enrolment, to distribute $40 million of funding that was announced earlier this year by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare last week admitted that Northern Territory schools receive approximately 80 percent of their full and fair funding level and on average, public schools in the NT are the most underfunded schools in the country.

Clare refused to criticise the proposed five-year delay in scrapping the attendance-based system. Instead, he said his office was working with Lawler's office to ensure funding would be distributed based on the Gonski model.

Other statistics from the Northern Territory point to the fraud of the claims made by both the Yes and No campaigns in the Voice referendum that billions of dollars are being spent on indigenous programs, insinuating that funds are being wasted.

As 95 percent of the Northern Territorys prison population was Aboriginal in 2019, 95 percent of the territory Labor governments prisons budget was counted as indigenous expenditure. Former senior public servant Bob Beadman told the Australian that this was why the government reported generous indigenous expenditure.

Despite decades of promises to improve the lives of indigenous people, including via the Voice referendum, conditions have only deteriorated for most of them, and for the working class as a whole. That is why the Socialist Equality Party is calling for an active boycott of the referendum and advancing a socialist perspective to unite the working class against the capitalist profit system that is responsible for the social crisis.

Note: Under conditions of compulsory voting, which makes it a crime to urge a boycott of the vote itself, the SEP calls on workers and youth to register their opposition by casting informal ballots and join our active boycott campaign in the lead-up to October 14, that goes well beyond the individual act of voting.

Authorised by Cheryl Crisp for the Socialist Equality Party, Suite 906, 185 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000
The following statement was released by Will Lehman, a Mack Trucks worker and rank-and-file candidate for UAW president last year, on the eve of the October 1 contract expiration between the UAW and Mack Trucks.

Join the next online meeting of the Autoworkers Rank-and-File Committee Network to discuss uniting workers in the US and Canada for an all-out strike across the auto industry. Register here to attend.

Brothers and sisters,

Late Sunday night, only minutes before our contract was set to expire, the United Auto Workers suddenly announced that an agreement had been reached with Mack. The UAW released no details about this supposed agreement, only telling us that more details are to come. A potential strike was called off, and we were sent to work.

We must demand that the UAW release the full details of the tentative agreement, which covers 4,000 workers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Florida. If they have a contract, as they claim, there can be no reason to not send it to us immediately.

If the UAW does not release the agreement today, that can only mean that they called off a strike before they even had a contract, for the sole purpose of preventing us from joining our brothers and sisters at the Big Three on the picket lines.

Some workers have been told that we will only receive contract highlights before a vote this weekend. We must make it clear beforehand that rank-and-file workers consider any vote held on this basis to be illegitimate and invalid. We will not have a contract rammed down our throats before we have even had a chance to read it!

Whatever has been agreed by the UAW apparatus and management, we can be sure that it does not meet our demands. Only days ago, the UAW said management had too many concessions on the table to list here and that they were attacking our job security language, rejected 401k increases, putting everyone into the pension plan, COLA, and all other demands that are important to our membership.

Are we to believe that Mack caved without us even lifting a finger?

Weve seen this bait-and-switch operation far too many times. The UAW apparatus blocks us from striking, tells us that it has a historic agreement that for some reason we are not allowed to see, and tries to push through a vote before we have a chance to think about it, let alone talk among ourselves.

But now this is playing out against the backdrop of the phony stand-up strikes organized by Fain at the Big Three. With each passing week, the ineffective character of this strike is more and more apparent. Nearly three weeks in, 83 percent of Big Three workers remain on the job, while the plants that have been called out have had only a negligible impact on the companies profits.

Everything is done by the union apparatus to isolate us, to separate one section of workers from another, and to keep us in the dark.

In 2019, the UAW under President Gary Joneswho later pleaded guilty and was sent to prison for embezzling duescalled a strike at Mack. The UAW kept Volvo workers at New River Valley on the job, and then shut down our strike after just 12 days, before we even had a chance to see or vote on the contract. The deal maintained the tier system and had total wage increases of just 6 percent, meaning we have taken a massive real wage cut since the last contract.

In 2021, the UAW under Presidents Rory Gamble and Ray Curry called a strike at Volvo Trucks, but kept Mack workers on the job, ordering us to handle scab-made cabs. After Volvo workers voted down three UAW-endorsed contracts, Curry and Local 2069 organized a re-vote on the third sellout contract workers had rejected, which they then claimed passed by a razor-thin margin of just 17 ballots.

This time, Fain and the UAW are trying to convince us that they have won an agreement that meets our needs without a fight and without a strike. No one should believe this.

Nothing has been changed in the UAW by the replacement of Curry by Fain. The same pro-corporate bureaucracy holds sway, dividing workers, working out deals with management behind our backs, and blocking us from carrying out a real fight.

But rank-and-file workers are becoming aware of this reality and rebelling against the bureaucracy. From Volvo to John Deere, to Clarios battery workers and Lear auto parts workers this year, workers again and again have voted down UAW-endorsed sellout contracts, often by 90 percent margins.

The decisive role in organizing opposition and resistance in each of these struggles has been played by militant-minded workers who have formed rank-and-file committees, structures under the control of workers on the shop floor. These committees have allowed workers to communicate with each other both within plants and across different factories, sharing information and combating the lies of both management and the union bureaucracy.

Thats why Im appealing to my brothers and sisters at Mack to join and expand the Mack Workers Rank-and-File Committee, and take up the following demands, based on what workers actually need to have a decent standard of living:

50 percent wage increases

Abolition of tiers

Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLA)

Fully funded pensions for all

No layoffs

Democratic worker control of line speeds, health and safety, and hiring and firing

If theres going to be a fight, its up to the rank and file to organize it. To discuss joining the rank-and-file committee, fill out the form below, or call/text me at 267-225-6633.
jetcityimage / iStock.com

This month, Costco members may wonder whether they should add gold to their shopping lists.

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Gold bars specifically, that is. Two types of gold bars are currently for sale at Costco. These include the 1-ounce gold PAMP Suisse Lady Fortuna Veriscan bar and a 1-ounce bar from Rand Refinery. With a limit of two bars per member, both bars are selling fast and are often sold out within hours.

Should you hop on the gold bar bandwagon or focus on making a more strategic purchase in another Costco department? Lets look closely at the single best thing to buy at Costco this October.

Skip It for Now: Gold Bars

Despite the hype surrounding the gold bars for sale at Costco, gold didnt take home the win in our ranking of the best thing to buy at Costco this October.

Collin Plume, founder and CEO of Noble Gold Investments, told GOBankingRates its not really a good idea to buy gold from a retail store. Plume cited the buyback as one of the problems with buying gold at a retailer like Costco.

They will only buy it back at the price they sold it to you, Plume said. Gold goes up in value. If you keep it for two, five or 10 years, that will be worth more. If you bought it from Costco, even if they are willing to buy it back, they will buy it back at the price they sold it to you.

See: 8 Companies That Produce Costcos Kirkland Brand Products

Runner-up: Chocolates

Instead of hunting down gold bars, Plume recommends opting to purchase items that make for good holiday gifts. One such gift? Chocolates  some of which even come dressed up in gold foil.

Through Oct. 22, Costco is running two sales on chocolate for its members. The 48-count Ferrero Rocher milk chocolate hazelnut candy is on sale for $14.19, offering $3.80 in manufacturers savings.

Another sale item is the four-pack assortment of Godiva Masterpieces of legendary milk chocolate. According to Costco.com, members receive $14 in manufacturers savings on this purchase. Originally priced at $64.99, Costco members pay $50.99 through Oct. 22.

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Runner-up: Berkshire Collection Faux Fur Throw

Blankets are another recommendation Plume suggests Costco members purchase in October. Between the chocolates and the blankets, Costco makes it easier than ever for members to wrap up their holiday shopping early this year.

The Berkshire Collection faux fur throw is on sale at Costco.com for $17.99 now through Oct. 22. Members receive $4 off the original price with manufacturers savings.

Winner: Vicks Severe DayQuil and NyQuil Cough, Cold & Flu Relief Medicine

Choosing the No. 1 item to buy this month was a bit tricky. The changing seasons would have put an allergy medication at the top of this list, but the Costco website didnt yield much by way of sales on allergy medications.

What we did find was an excellent deal on a three-pack of Vicks severe DayQuil and NyQuil cough, cold and flu relief medicine.

Now through Oct. 22, Costco members can receive $5 manufacturers savings off their purchases. Originally priced at $25.99, members pay $20.99  which comes out to just under $7 per bottle. Households preparing for cold and flu season are well advised to stock up on this affordable trio while theyre available. (Note: There is a purchase limit of five per member.)

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: The Single Best Thing To Buy at Costco This October
The benchmark used for most fuel surcharges rose by a small amount. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Diesel prices as measured by the weekly Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration average retail diesel price might suggest there isnt much going on in the market.

The price released Monday moved up by 0.7 cents a gallon, to $4.593 a gallon. In the past 13 weeks, there have been 11 increases, one unchanged price and last weeks decrease of 4.7 cents.

But developments in Mondays market, beyond the DOE/EIA price change that is the basis for most fuel surcharges, reflect a market in which prices shifted rapidly in just the past few days. However, they have moved in ways that may be difficult to understand for those who are not in the oil market but are deeply affected by its movements  like trucking companies.

The futures price of diesel on the CME commodity exchange fell sharply Monday. But how much of that will make it to pump prices is not clear.

On Friday, the front-month price of ultra low sulfur diesel on the CME was for barrels delivered in New York Harbor in October. Friday was the last day for the October contract, and it settled at $3.3622 a gallon, an increase of 4.42 cents for the day.

The November contract settled Friday at $3.3006 a gallon, for a 6.16-cents-a-gallon gap between October and November. With the October contract expiring Friday, the November contract became the front month on Monday. That means that the front month in the ULSD contract is suddenly about 6 cents per gallon less than where the front month was on Friday, just because of the roll from October to November.

On top of that, the November contract fell Monday by 7.81 cents from where it had settled Friday. Combine that with that 6.16-cent October-to-November gap, and it looks on the surface like ULSD on CME has gone down more than 13 cents a gallon in just one day.

But the wholesale prices that serve as the basis for what retailers pay to secure their fuel supplies are tied to spot market levels for barge or pipeline barrels traded in key market centers such as New York Harbor, Chicago or the Gulf Coast.

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Those prices trade as differentials to the CME price. In a more normal time, when there isnt a 6-cent gap between front-month and second-month ULSD on CME, the physical market differentials might not change much as the market goes from, for example, October ULSD being the front month to having November as the front month. The relatively small gap during more normal times means they dont need to make that adjustment.

But on Monday, with the big move from October to November, adjustments needed to be made. And physical markets made them.

According to data from DTN, spot market differentials strengthened in almost every key region. That move to the upside could be interpreted as reacting to strength in the physical market. But the move in the futures market from October to November as the front month, and the sort of automatic 6-plus-cents move that went along with that, was likely more of a reason.

For example, spot market ULSD on the Buckeye Pipeline system that runs through Ohio and Pennsylvania was assessed by DTN Monday at 14 cents a gallon less than the CME price. Two trading days ago  Thursday  it was 20 cents when it was trading against the higher October number.

In the Chicago market, the spread went to negative 20 from negative 29 cents on Thursday. And in New York Harbor, according to DTN, the spread moved up to plus 6.5 cents per gallon Friday before retreating Monday to plus 5.75 cents. But on Thursday, it was negative 0.25 cents.

The end result is that wholesale prices being set Tuesday on the basis of Mondays market will not be basing themselves off the futures market front-month decline of more than 13 cents a gallon. The companies that set those wholesale numbers will be looking at a spot physical market where the prices they key off of fell by a far smaller amount because the increase in physical differentials offset some of the decline in the futures market.

Crude markets Monday dropped significantly. West Texas Intermediate, which did not roll the spot month on CME, fell $1.97 a barrel to $88.82, its lowest settlement since Sept. 13.

Markets may have been impacted by a highly bearish forecast by Citis commodity research team led by icon Ed Morse. Citi has been the most prominent bearish voice for several weeks.

The report sounded themes Citi has offered in recent weeks, with the most central data point its belief that global oil production from several countries is on the rise. And Citi believes those increases will offset the cuts primarily from Russia and Saudi Arabia that it believes are driving prices higher.

The nations it sees as increasing output are the U.S., Canada and Guyana  of countries that are not part of the OPEC+ group  and Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria and Venezuela of those that are.

But even in the products market, where diesel spreads relative to crude have been strong, Citi sees an easing. New refining capacity around the world has been slow to come online, Citi notes.

However, that new capacity is still coming in 2024, Citi said in its report. That growth in refining capacity eventually should drive lower cracks in 2024, Morses team wrote.

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The post Small move in diesel benchmark masks more volatile underlying market appeared first on FreightWaves.
'Fox & Friends Weekend' celebrates Halloween with snacks and treats

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Lifestyle expert Carey Reilly shows off Halloween themed snacks and cocktails, and tips for Halloween parties on 'Fox & Friends.

Candy may be an essential part of part of Halloween, but it doesn't appear that it's always been that way.

In fact, when American children first started trick-or-treating in the 1930s and 1940s kids received "everything from homemade cookies and pieces of cake to fruit, nuts, coins and toys," according to History.com.

People starting adding candy to their trick-or-treat traditions in the 1950s as candy companies marketed products for Halloween and by the 1970s, candy became the "only acceptable thing to hand out," because parents were worried about homemade treats, according to the website.

HALLOWEEN BY THE NUMBERS: FUN FACTS ABOUT THE SPOOKY DAY

In honor of Halloween 2022 and trick-or-treating, check out which candy was released the decade you were born.

Candy became an essential part of trick-or-treating in the 1970s. (iStock)

1940s

Mars released M&M's in 1941, according to History.com and Bazooka bubble gum was introduced in 1947, according to Bazooka Candy Brands.

Hershey reports it created Almond Joy in 1948 and the company that made Smarties first opened in 1949, according to smarties.com.

M&M's were first released in 1941 by candy company, Mars. (iStock)

1950s

Hot Tamales, the popular cinnamon-flavored candies, were introduced in 1950, according to Just Born Quality Confections, the Pennsylvania-based company which created Hot Tamales.

Pixy Stix, the powdered candy packaged in a straw, were also sold in the 50s, according to NPR.

NATIONAL JUNK FOOD DAY 2022: SEE WHICH SNACK CAME OUT THE DECADE YOU WERE BORN

1960s

Starburst, which was originally called Opal Fruits, was released in the U.K. in 1960 and came to the U.S. in 1967, according to Delish.

Haribo Goldbears gummy bears were also released in 1960, according to Haribo. In 1962, Lemonheads were released, according toFerrara Candy Company.

1970s

Skittles were first produced in the U.K. in 1974, according to a Penn State blog on the history of candy.

Pop Rocks werent invented and released as they are today the 70s, Though a similar form of Carbonated Candy was invented in 1956, according to the Pop Rocks' website.

Pop Rocks, a candy that pops on top of your tongue, were released in the 70s. (iStock)

Reeses Pieces were also invented and released in the same decade, according to hersheyarchives.org.

HALLOWEEN QUIZ! HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW THESE SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT THE SPOOKY HOLIDAY?

1980s

Nerds were invented in 1983, according to Eater.

Sour Patch Kids were introduced in 1985, according to Mondelez International, Inc.  the brand which owns the candy.

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1990s

In the 1990s, Hersheys Cookies N Creme bars first hit store shelves in 1994, according to hersheyland.com.

2000s

Candy company Goelitz  which became Jelly Belly Candy Company in 2001  released Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans in 2000, inspired by the "Harry Potter" franchise, according to jellybelly.com.

Ann W. Schmidt is an Associate on Fox Business' Strategic Initiatives team.
Ridofranz / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Retirement is supposed to be something you look forward to, a chance to experience new things without career pressures always lurking in the back of your mind. In reality, many Americans view retirement with fear and uncertainty  something that financial experts like Suze Orman are well aware of.

See: Heres the Average Retirement Age in 2023 for Men vs. Women

Learn: The Simple, Effective Way To Fortify Your Retirement Mix

Much of the fear has to do with finances. A study from Allianz Life released earlier this year found that most Americans are more afraid of running out of money in retirement than dying.

Discover: 8 Things Boomers Should Never Buy in Retirement

Another fear has to do with the future of Social Security, which will lose a major funding source in about a decade when the Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund runs out of money. Once the fund runs dry, Social Security will have to rely solely on payroll taxes  and those cover only about 77% of current retirement benefits.

Orman addressed the Social Security fears in an waiting as long as possible to file for Social Security  ideally, until age 70  will ensure the biggest monthly payment.

What seems to be gnawing most at near-retirees is a fear that the Social Security program is going to run out of money and stop making payments, Orman wrote.

She addressed that and other fears in her Monday Morning with Suze post. Here are five facts she shared to take the fear out of retirement.

1. No, Social Security Will Not Run Out of Money

Even when the OASI fund is depleted, payments would not stop completely, Orman wrote. The worst-case scenario is that earned benefits would need to be cut by about 25%.

Now I am not suggesting a payout of just 75% is acceptable, but 75% is a lot more than zero, Orman wrote. So lets keep that in mind.

2. A Higher Retirement Age Is Not as Scary as it Sounds

There has been a lot of talk about raising the full retirement age to address Social Securitys funding problems. The current age is 66 or 67, depending on your birth year. Among those who support raising the retirement age are 2024 Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley, Chris Christie and Ron DeSantis  but only for younger Americans and not near-retirees.

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Orman noted that the same thing was done 40 years ago, when the full retirement age was raised to 67 from 65.

But that change was only made for people who were younger than 43 at the time, she wrote. The new rule didnt apply to people in their late 40s, 50s or 60s. There is no reason to expect that the needed changes this go-around would hit near-retirees.

3. You Can Boost Your Check by Waiting

If youre in good physical health and expect to live a long time in retirement, theres no better financial move to consider than waiting as long as possible to claim your Social Security benefit, Orman wrote. A Social Security payout that will be 76% higher if you wait until age 70 to start can be awfully helpful if you indeed have a longer life.

4. But You Dont Have To Wait Until 70

As Orman pointed out, deciding when to claim Social Security is not a strict age 62 or age 70 decision. Although 62 is the earliest you can claim and 70 is the age you can get the highest payment, you can always settle for something in between if you think you need the benefit sooner rather than later.

The key takeaway I want you to understand is that every month you wait will pay off, Orman wrote. If waiting until 70 seems too daunting, why not reframe this as an annual choice? At 62 choose to wait. Then ask yourself at 63 if you want to wait until 64. Keep doing this, and you may find it much easier to see how you can afford to wait another year and another year.

5. Married Couples Can Strategize To Maximize Benefits

One thing Orman strongly recommends is that a couples highest earner delay filing for Social Security as long as possible.

For married couples, its so important to realize that when one spouse dies, the surviving spouse is only entitled to one benefit: her own, or the benefit of the deceased spouse, Orman wrote. At a minimum, I would strongly encourage married couples to consider a strategy that allows the highest earner to wait to start Social Security until age 70. That ensures that the surviving spouse will have the largest possible benefit. Its less important when the other spouse chooses to start payment.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Social Security: Suze Orman Shares 5 Facts To Take the Fear Out of Retirement
Arizona, known for its mesmerizing landscapes and sun-kissed deserts, is also home to some of the most luxurious and rejuvenating spas. For moms looking for a break from their hectic schedules, Arizona offers a plethora of spa options that promise relaxation, rejuvenation, and a touch of adventure. Lets explore some of the top spas in Arizona tailored especially for moms.

1. LApothecary Spa at LAuberge de Sedona:

Nestled in the heart of Sedonas Red Rock territory, the LApothecary Spa is a haven for those seeking traditional treatments with a twist. While they offer the usual facials, body treatments, and massages, the adventurous can indulge in their signature Forest Bathing experience. Imagine immersing yourself in the therapeutic wonders of the forest, surrounded by the majestic Red Rocks. Its an experience that promises to heal the body, mind, and soul.

2. CIVANA Wellness Resort and Spa  Carefree:

Situated near Scottsdale in the tranquil Sonoran Desert, CIVANA is one of the top spas in Arizona, blending traditional spa therapies with holistic wellness. Boasting over 22 treatment rooms, moms can enjoy diverse therapeutic sessions, from revitalizing facials to calming massages. Dont miss the Aqua Vitality circuit and Watsu therapy pool for an enhanced spa journey.

3. Miraval Arizona Resort & Spa  Tucson:

Image via Official Website

Among the premier spas in Arizona, Miraval shines as a holistic sanctuary for well-being. Its comprehensive packages invite moms into a journey of serenity and self-awareness. Central to this is the Life in Balance Spa, which boasts a spectrum of treatments, from traditional ayurvedic to contemporary skin and salon services. The tranquil Arizona desert setting further elevates the experience.

4. Mii amo  Sedona:

Situated in the heart of Boynton Canyons energy vortexes, Mii amo is one of the premier spas in Arizona. It offers a unique spiritual journey. Their curated journeys feature a variety of treatments, classes, and special sessions, including sound and light therapy. Moms seeking a deeper connection with themselves will find the CBD-enhanced treatments particularly beneficial. This spa truly captures the essence of Arizonas healing ambiance.

5. Sedonas New Day Spa:

Sedonas New Day Spa is a haven of relaxation set against the picturesque backdrop of Sedonas red rocks. This spa in Arizona is not only renowned for its tranquil outdoor relaxation area, but also equipped with a soothing hot tub, comfortable lounges, and warming outdoor heaters. As you step inside, youre greeted with an ambiance that promises rejuvenation. From their luxurious robes to their diverse range of treatments, every detail is curated to provide guests with a holistic spa experience. Furthermore, for those seeking a serene escape amidst natures beauty, Sedonas New Day Spa is the perfect retreat.

Many spas in Arizona incorporate local elements into their treatments. From the healing properties of Sedona clay to the rejuvenating effects of desert botanicals, these treatments offer a unique Arizona touch. So, while youre at any spa, ask for treatments that utilize these local wonders.

For moms who love a touch of adventure, many Arizona spas offer activities that blend relaxation with exhilaration. From guided desert hikes to horseback riding amidst the cacti, theres something for every adventurous spirit. After a day of exploration, what better way to unwind than with a deep tissue massage or a desert-inspired facial?

Arizona, with its unique blend of natural beauty and spiritual energy, is the perfect destination for moms seeking a spa getaway. Whether youre looking for traditional treatments, holistic wellness experiences, or a touch of desert adventure, Arizonas spas promise a rejuvenating experience. It will leave you refreshed, revitalized, and ready to take on the world. So, pack your bags, leave your worries behind, and head to one of these amazing spas in Arizona for a well-deserved break!

The post 5 Best Spas in Arizona: Relaxing Retreats for Moms appeared first on Momtastic.
90 Day Fiances Brandan De Nuccio proposed to girlfriend Mary Demasu-ay in the latest episode of The Other Way season 5, but Mary wasnt sure of her decision to accept.

During the Monday, October 2 episode, Brandan, 23, popped the question to Mary, 23, amid the couples financial troubles as their newly opened shop struggled to make a profit. The TLC star admitted that it probably wasnt the best of times to ask Mary to marry him and that he didnt put a lot of thought into it, but he went ahead with the proposal anyway.

Marys yes didnt come easily, as she agreed the time wasnt right and felt they werent mature enough to take their relationship to the next level. However, she agreed to marry Brandan when they were ready.

"I know that we're not ready yet because we're still struggling and I'm still really stressing so bad," Mary said in her confessional. "So I'm just saying yes because I need to and I don't want him to be hurt or anything, so I just say yes."

Brandans proposal came two weeks after Mary told him she was pregnant. As seen on the September 18 episode of The Other Way, Mary took a pregnancy test and gave Brandan the news when it came out positive. Brandan was shocked by the news, telling Mary, I dont know how Im feeling, I just cant believe youre pregnant. I am happy. This is  let me process it.

90 Day Fiance' Star Brandans Mom Angela Predicts She Wont Have a Good Relationship With Mary

During the October 2 episode, Brandan admitted that he felt anxious about becoming a father and worried about what kind of dad he would become.

Brandan and Mary dated virtually for more than two years, spending almost every hour of every day together on video calls. However, they both had trust issues after they were both cheated on in previous relationships, which led to frequent jealousy whenever Brandan or Mary spent time around other people of the opposite sex. When Brandan finally visited Mary in the Philippines for the first time, Mary wasnt sure if she was ready to be intimate with him. However, she changed her mind because she felt comfortable around Brandan and loved him.

Despite their issues and the uncertainty surrounding their engagement, Brandan and Mary moved forward with their wedding. In Touch exclusively confirmed on July 13 that the two had gotten married in the Philippines after Brandans mom, Angela Stiggins, shared photos from their nuptials on social media. It was mentioned in the comments that TLC cameras were present at the event, so fans might get to see the wedding unfold on 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way season 5.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Malcolm McRae have allegedly tied the knot.

According to the Daily Mail, the 27-year-old television star and the 29-year-old musician exchanged vows in Venice, Italy, this past weekend. Pictures obtained by the outlet featured Taylor-Joy looking out from a balcony in a dusted beige gown with floral adornments and stitched birds on the bodice.

The Queens Gambit star allegedly said I do to McRae inside the famed Palazzo Pisani Moretta with an intimate group of friends and family. Taylor-Joy and her now-husband continued the celebration with a star-studded reception that is said to have included Miles Teller, Cara Delevingne, Evan Ross, and Julia Garner in attendance.

Speaking to People, a source said that the happy couple hosted a brunch at the St Regis Hotel on Sunday to cap the weekend of love. The source noted how breathtaking Taylor-Joy looked in her custom Dior wedding dress. She was a vision, they remarked.

Last year, Taylor-Joy was spotted with a ring on her finger while out with McRae in Sydney. At the time, the Hollywood regular was supposedly filming Furiosa, the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel. The pair never officially announced their engagement, but a wedding seemed to be in the works when the DailyMail caught them touring venues in Italy earlier this year.

The More band member and The Menu star were first acquainted at the premiere party for Queens Gambit in March of 2021. And it apparently had been love at first sight for McRae as he wrote and published an original song for Taylor-Joy just two days after they met.

The musical romantic took to his Instagram to share the ballad. I wrote this song for Anya two days after meeting her, his caption read. Its called Really Want to See You Again.

His lyrics were a poetic plea to get Taylor-Joy to meet with him again.

If ever we were in the same place, he sang. I think were alike in ways that I cant quite explain right, but I might, could with some time. If ever we were in the same place. I want whats right, but I want without warning now, and I think were wanting something the same.

A month later, Taylor-Joy confirmed she had a partner in her life now during a conversation with Elle. She mentioned how her partner had returned from work and was moving around all his equipment.

For the most part, the Last Night in Soho star prefers to keep her private relationship off-screen  which is why its no surprise the details of her engagement and wedding werent shared. However, in April of 2022, she opened up about her feelings for McRae.

Ive finally found someone who will happily sit in silence with me reading, she mentioned to British Vogue. I said to my partner the other day that he was my hobby. I see reading as something that I have to do. He loved it because hes the same.

Taylor-Joy hasnt had any issues debuting photos with McRae either, especially when its purpose is to encourage fans to buy tickets to his show.

On 11 May, just one month before a diamond ring was spotted on her finger in Sydney, Taylor-Joy posted a close-up selfie of her and McRae.

ALSO, if youre looking for a good time in the coming weeks, my heart(s) @moretheband are opening for the coolest sisters @haimtheband on their North American tour from May 22nd - June 14th, she wrote alongside the photo.

The Independent has reached out to representatives for both Taylor-Joy and McRae for comment.
The Humane Society reunited thousands of families and their adopted pups at Bark Social, a beer garden and social club for pet parents and their pups

Meredith Lee/The HSUS

4,000 beagles were rescued from a Virginia breeding facility in 2022

The facility, owned and operated by Envigo RMS, was accused of animal welfare violations

The Humane Society hosted a Beagleversary Bash celebration Friday to reunite the rescued pups

In summer 2022, 4,000 beagles were rescued from a controversial breeding facility in Virginia. Shortly after they were rescued, the beagles were adopted out to thousands of lucky families across the U.S.  which means those families are celebrating their one-year adopt-a-versaries with their pups.

To observe this major milestone, and to reunite the rescued dogs and their families, the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) hosted a historic event called Beagleversary Bash on Friday. According to a press release sent to PEOPLE, the event took place at Bark Social, which allowed the rescued dogs to play, and the humans to interact.

Meredith Lee/The HSUS

Meredith Lee/The HSUS

Though the party was obviously fun for the dogs and their families, it was particularly momentous for HSUS staff members. Many were closely involved with saving the dogs and caring for them during rescue operations at the Cumberland, Virginia, facility, owned and operated by Envigo RMS.

The federal government filed a civil enforcement case in May 2022 against Envigo RMS, which was accused of animal welfare violations. After the case was filed, U.S. District Court Judge Norman Moon issued a restraining order imposing restrictions on the facility, according to USA Today.

The New York Times reported last year that investigations had found underfed, ill, and injured dogs at the facility, and dogs that were euthanized rather than given medical care.

After the beagles removal, they were taken in by shelters across the nation, to treat and rehome the dogs. That made the reunion filled with even more emotion and joy for those heavily involved during the rescue process.

Meredith Lee/The HSUS

Related: Rescue Throws Big Goodbye Party for Newly Adopted Dog Who Spent Over 1,000 Days at Shelter

Last time we saw these dogs, all they knew was life in a mass-breeding facility. They had never been in a home. They had never sat on a couch or gone on a walk around the neighborhood, Jessica Johnson, senior director of the Humane Society of the United States animal rescue team, stated in the press release. Seeing them here with their adopted families a year later is amazing  I hope that this is all they remember.

Today, we celebrate the remarkable journey of these beagles, who have gone from life in a mass breeding facility to that of cherished family members, Kitty Block, president and CEO of the HSUS, also stated. These beagles represent the loving homes every dog deserves, as well as the tens of thousands of dogs currently held in laboratory breeding facilities and used in painful experiments. We all have a role to play in putting a stop to the suffering of animals just like the #4000beagles.

Meredith Lee/The HSUS

A year after the rescue in July 2023, four of the rescued beagles reunited for a birthday celebration. Homeward Trails Animal Rescue, who had adopted out the four beagles, posted a video to Facebook showing the pups' reunion party, which marked their first birthdays in freedom.

Along with dog-sized birthday crowns, the pups, named Mia, Rose, Chewy, and Khali, were donning personalized bandanas. And, of course, they were able to enjoy a pet-friendly birthday cake.

Related: Stray Dog Found with Tumor Larger than His Head Gets Mass Removed and Finds a Home

"Oh what fun it is to be a Beagle allowed to have a life outside of confinement and torture," the Virginia rescue wrote in the post.



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The couple was walking with their dog on national forestland near the U.S.-Canada border when the bear came out of thick brush and attacked

Peter Zenkl/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Authorities are not sure if the woman was attacked by a black bear (seen here) or a grizzly bear.

A 73-year-old woman was injured in a bear encounter near the Montana-Canada border, authorities said.

The victim was on national forestland with her husband and their dog when the bear emerged from thick brush and attacked her on Sunday afternoon, according to a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks news release.

After the man deployed bear spray, the animal retreated from their location along the banks of Trail Creek and a few miles west of the North Fork Road, and the couple returned to their car where they were able to call emergency services, Montana FWP said.

The woman was transported by A.L.E.R.T. air ambulance to Logan Health Medical Center in Kalispell, Montana.

Related: Couple and Their Dog Killed in Grizzly Bear Attack at Canadian National Park: 'Tragic Incident'

Montana FWP has closed the site where the encounter occurred as they investigate the attack. The agency said it has not confirmed the type of bear involved..

Sundays incident comes on the heels of a deadly grizzly bear attack in Canadas Banff National Park.

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A couple and their dog were killed in Red Deer River Valley last week, shortly before the bear was euthanized for displaying "aggressive behavior."

"This is a tragic incident, and Parks Canada wishes to express its sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims," Banff National Park said in a statement.

Kim Titchener, a friend of the family and the founder of Bear Safety and More, told Reuters that bear encounters are increasing as more people go outside, but that fatal attacks are rare.

"It's really just the reason why we're seeing more attacks, which is more people heading outdoors and unfortunately not being educated on this," she said.

Related: How to Prevent Bear Attacks and What to Do If a Bear Approaches You, According to Experts

In August, a Montana man shot and killed a bear after the animal broke into his home early in the morning at the base of the Beartooth Mountains.

Thomas Bolkcom and his fiancee, Seeley Oblander, were sleeping when one of their dogs began barking at about 3 a.m. at their residence in the small town of Luther.

Neither the couple nor their dogs were injured in the incident.



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Dear everyone, you don't need to be on a road trip to justify eating at QuickChek.

Just because it's a convenience store doesn't mean you need social permission to down a Turkey Blitz or Spicy Italian. Same goes for 7-Eleven and Wawa.

I am a legitimate food reporter who is telling you that eating at gas stations is okay. And, if your fear of ostracism is keeping you from doing so? Blame it on me. You can tell your friends  as you house a California Tuna Sub  that the food writer told you to do it.

Wawa exterior.

Last week, I told a woman in the airport how much I love flying out of Dallas-Fort Worth. In Texas, the 7-Elevens fill entire storefronts (like H&Ms in the mall), and I always look forward to grabbing a plastic-wrapped Southwest Turkey on sliced wheat. When those little sandwiches sit for a night, the chipotle mayo soaks into the bread just enough to make it moist. And the turkey? It's always ice cold.

She told me that was gross, and that we "shouldn't be eating those things."

So, in retaliation, I'm proclaiming to the public that we absolutely should be eating those things, as well as anything we damn well please.

And, if you'd like to join me in solidarity against the food shamers who have made it bizarre to consume the things we enjoy (perhaps in defense of your young children who have yet to be told in the lunchroom that their Wawa hoagie "smells funny"), I've compiled this guide to help you do so in the most fun way possible.

Here's a map to every QuickChek, 7-Eleven or Wawa near you, and the 10 most delicious items to order when you get there.

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The Gobbler, Wawa

The Gobbler sandwich at Wawa.

Wawa is known for its hoagies, of which this seasonal special reigns supreme. Inspired by those morning-after sandwiches we make with our Thanksgiving leftovers, the sub features hot turkey, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce on a white roll. Loaded with nostalgic flavor, the hefty handheld will transport you from the gum-stained curb to your family's holiday dinner table.

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese, QuickChek

Don't let the condensation in the lid deter you; the Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese at QuickChek is worth the water drops. From the creamy cheese to the generous drizzle of hot sauce, each bowl is salty, savory and sloppy. To further refine the dish, I suggest a deluge of ranch.

Quesadillas, Wawa

Every quesadilla variety at Wawa.

Back in high school, my friends and I used to house these in multiples of five.

Flavor didn't matter.

Chocolate Cookies and Cream Frozen Cappucino, Wawa

Chocolate Cookies and Cream Frozen Cappucino from Wawa.

Is it a cappuccino? Is it a milkshake?

I don't know. But it's 600 to 1,200 calories of delicious.

Wild Blueberry Muffin, 7-Eleven

Wild Blueberry Muffin at 7-Eleven.

For the most part, the pastries in the to-go case at convenience stores are pretty solid. Take this Wild Blueberry Muffin, for example. Moist, buttery and packed with sugar, it melts in your mouth like a homemade crumb cake.

Salted Caramel Apple Jumbo Cookie, QuickChek

Salted Caramel Apple Jumbo Cookie at QuickChek.

This QuickChek dessert is so elusive, I had to take a picture to prove it exists. Not on the menu, not on the website and not even on Google, Reddit or myfitnesspal, the Salted Caramel Apple Cookie is pretty much a phantom.

If you find one, though  which would likely be in the fall  you absolutely need to buy it. Soft, gooey and cinnamon-y, the treats are pretty much the apple cider donuts of cookies.

(AKA; limited-edition and better than every other cookie on the planet.)

Chicken Bacon Ranch Roller, 7-Eleven

Chicken, Bacon and Ranch flavored Roller at 7-Eleven.

Tell me what it looks like, I dare you.

'Red, White and Boost' Frozen Energy Drink, QuickChek

Red, White and Boost Drink at QuickChek.

Loaded with (at least?) 200mg of caffeine, I'm not sure if this thing actually tastes good, or if I just like the way it feels like Mario mushrooms are exploding in my soul when I drink it.

Turkey Club, Wawa

Turkey Club Sandwich at Wawa.

So, as I was saying  I'm a sucker for those little convenience store lunch sandwiches. The bread is always softer, the meat is always juicier and I love how distinctly cold they are. Such is the case with Wawa's Turkey Club.

The Blue Slurpee, 7-Eleven

The blue Slurpee at 7-Eleven is the best.

You know the one.

Kara VanDooijeweert is a food writer for NorthJersey.com and The Record. If you can't find her in Jersey's best restaurants, she's probably off running a race course in the mountains. Catch her on Instagram: @karanicolev & @northjerseyeats, join our NorthJerseyEats Facebook group, and sign up for her North Jersey Eats newsletter

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Best things to eat at Wawa, QuickChek and 7-Eleven
Wolf River Greenway expansion connects nearly 12 miles of trail space, with around 3 miles currently underconstruction among 853 acres with new additions to the path seen here on Thursday, June 17, 2021.

The wait is over for those who have been anticipating the end of the suffocating Memphis summer heat. Leaves around the city are starting to fall, the humidity is starting to leave the air and temperatures are falling.

For those who opted to hunker down in cooler environments, fall can be a time to get out of the house and hit the trails. For those who braved the heat, the cooler temperatures are a brisk reward.

Though Memphis might not have much elevation on its hiking trails, parks around the city offer plenty of variability. If you're looking for a paved trail or looking for a more natural route, here are some of the best areas to visit whether you are after a hike, bike ride, run or a place to take your dog.

Shelby Farms and Wolf River Trails

Easily the largest green space in the city, Shelby Farms Park and the nearby Wolf River Greenway trail offer some of the best and most accessible trails in Memphis.

A 270 foot long steel suspension bridge over the Wolf River is one of the largest undertakings in the Greenway expansion project, seen here nearly completed on Thursday, June 17, 2021.

Sporting miles of paved paths, some with smaller rolling hills, Shelby Farms and the Wolf River Greenway are great places for a fall hike. A number of lakefronts, wooded areas and the Wolf River make these trails a fantastic area for a family outing and offer tranquility for those looking to escape some of the city's hustle and bustle.

For anyone looking for a softer surface, gravel and dirt trails weave throughout the Shelby Farms Park's acres of grass-topped hills. The Outback area of the park, which is far less traversed than the paved trails, is home to plenty of hidden gems that add a sense of adventure and exploration when hikers discover them.

Hike along the Mississippi River and Big River Crossing

With the opening of the renovated Tom Lee Park, hikers now have a string of trails that stretch the entirety of the Downtown Memphis riverfront.

Walking through the park, and then hitting a steep incline towards Martyrs Park, hikers can take the Big River Crossing bridge into Arkansas, where they will be met with a spectacular view of the Memphis skyline and miles of trails along the Mississippi River.

Paved trails weave alongside the Mississippi and under the Interstate 40 M Bridge. But an even more extensive network of gravel and dirt trails stretch further into Arkansas, taking explorers under train bridges. That trail, the Big River Trail, spans miles along the Mississippi River's levee system.

Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park highlights rolling hills

Though much of Memphis is flat, Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park features rolling hills as parkgoers take on paved bike routes, dirt and gravel trails, or traverse alongside streams and small lakes and ponds.

The majority of the park is shaded by trees towering over visitors and is a key park for anyone wanting to see wildlife on their hike.

Located on the northwestern edge of Shelby County, the park features miles of trails throughout its 11,000 acres and is among the most preserved parks nearby. Camping options are also available for those looking to fully dive into nature, but cabins are also options if tents and a sleeping bag are not your style.

Chickasaw National Wildlife Refuge

If you think you've explored all that Memphis has to offer when it comes to a hike, a short drive can add plenty of new trails to the list.

About an hour and a half from Memphis, the Chickasaw National Wildlife Refuge, just a few minutes north of Ripley, features miles of trails. Though hunters tend to use the trails often, the dirt and gravel paths are open to anyone wishing to walk among wildlife.

The park serves as a home for birds during migration season and is home to a number of birds of prey. Coyotes also call the park home.

Fort Pillow State Historic Park

An hour-and-a-half drive is all that stands between Memphis-based hikers and Fort Pillow State Historic Park.

Combining nature and history, the park features steep bluffs that look over the Mississippi River, a reconstructed version of a Civil War-era fort and a museum.

More important to this list, however, are the over 17 miles of trails and scenic overlooks that weave throughout the park and around a lake in the center. The park is also a wildlife refuge and is popular among bird watchers.

Mountainous hikes can be found further east

Though West Tennessee tends to feature flat trails, a trip to East Tennessee could be in the cards should you want to experience mountainous trails this fall.

Dec 2, 2016; Gatlinburg, TN, USA; The wildfire-scarred Chimney Tops is pictured in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Officials say the fire that has killed 13 people and destroyed more than 700 structures started here on Nov 23. The fire is human caused and under investigation. Mandatory Credit: Paul Efird/Knoxville News Sentinel via USA TODAY NETWORK

The Chimney Tops Trail: This trail, located in Gatlinburg, is just over four miles long but features almost 1,500 feet of elevation gain as hikers tackle a steep climb toward the top of one of Tennessee's most popular mountain trails. Though the peak has been off-limits due to safety concerns, hikers still flock for the views and the challenge the mountain presents.

Be sure to check the National Parks website for any alerts and trail closures.

The Alum Cave Bluff Trail: Also found in Gatlinburg, this is among the longer trails on this list at just under 11 miles long. It features nearly 4,000 feet of elevation gain as hikers follow a creek and maneuver through forested areas and cliffsides as they make their way to the peak of the third-highest mountain in the Smoky Mountains.

Virgin Falls State National Area: Featuring multiple waterfalls, including one inside a cave, there are miles upon miles of trails to hike in this park. Though featuring less elevation gain on the trails, this park in Sparta is popular with hikers of all skill sets.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Best places to hike near Memphis, and beyond, as fall weather arrives
Its no exaggeration to say that Koreas Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has been through a fair amount of drama this year.

The turmoil started in May when BIFF chairman Lee Yong-kwan appointed a close associate, Cho Jongkook, as managing director alongside artistic director Huh Moonyung, a decision that proved highly unpopular with some sectors of the local Korean film industry.

More from Deadline

Huh resigned, and in an apparently unrelated development, was accused of sexual harassment by a festival employee around the same time. Lee also resigned, Cho was dismissed by the BIFF board, and Oh Seok-geun, director of Busans Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM), who had supported Lees decision to hire Cho, also stepped down. By early July, four of the festivals top management were out of the door.

Fortunately, the festival has a strong layer of middle management with many years experience. When the top brass departed, the BIFF board appointed program director Nam Dong-chul and deputy director Kang Seung-ah as acting festival director and managing director, respectively, to get this years festival over the line.

And yet despite the drama, the festival has managed to pull together an impressive edition, both in terms of the programming and the guest attendance, which includes stars such as Chow Yun-fat, who has been named Asian Filmmaker of the Year, Chinese actress Fan Bingbing and Korean actor Song Kang Ho. Also gracing the red carpet will be a long list of top directors including Luc Besson, Ning Hao, Bertrand Bonello , Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Lee Isaac Chung , Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Hirokazu Kore-eda.

I never imagined such a huge task would come to me, but I was relieved after the press conference where we announced our line-up, because the reaction from both the media and audience was great, says Nam.

He adds, however, that the management turmoil spooked some of the festivals sponsors, meaning it faces a shortfall of around $820,000 (KRW1.1BN) from an initial budget of $9M (KRW12BN). To mitigate this, the festival cut down its program from last years 243 films to 209 this year, and dropped its annual film conference, although more industry-leaning seminars will take place during ACFM.

The Beast

BIFF kicks off on Wednesday (October 4) with the world premiere of Because I Hate Korea, from local filmmaker Jang Kun-jae, and closes on October 13 with Chinese filmmaker Ning Haos The Movie Emperor, starring Andy Lau. Gala screenings include Kore-edas Monster, Han Shuais Green Night, starring Fan, and Bonellos The Beast.

In addition to the New Currents competition and Jiseok competition (named after the festivals late deputy director Kim Jiseok), the line-up includes the core A Window on Asian Cinema section; Icons, screening 30 titles from the recent festival circuit, including Cannes Palme dOr winner Anatomy Of A Fall and Hamaguchis Evil Does Not Exist; Korean Cinema Today, World Cinema, Midnight Passion and Open Cinema, featuring six outdoor screenings including Bessons Dogman and Karan Johars recent Bollywood hit Rocky And Ranis Love Story.

Meanwhile, BIFFs special programmes demonstrate that the festival continues to spot interesting cinematic trends  dedicating two sections to cinema from Indonesia, a current hotspot in Southeast Asia, and Korean Diasporic Cinema, celebrating the work of filmmakers of Korean origin based in North America.

Renaissance of Indonesian Cinema will screen six features, including the world premieres of Yosep Anggi Noens 24 Hours With Gaspar and Ismail Basbeths Sara; five shorts and the first two episodes of Kamila Andinis Netflix series Cigarette Girl. Andini, who is also on the New Currents jury, will be attending with the series stars, as will other leading Indonesian filmmakers such as Mouly Surya, Joko Anwar and Edwin.

Cigarette Girl

Indonesia has a huge audience and recently the market share for local cinema has been growing, comments Nam. They have very interesting filmmakers in both commercial, genre cinema and the arthouse space  festivals are all waiting for their new works  so it seemed like the perfect time to have special programme.

Korean Diasporic Cinema is screening six films, including Celine Songs Past Lives, Lee Isaac Chungs Minari and Justin Chons Jamojaya, and will also host public talk sessions with talent including Youn Yuh-jung (Minari), Teo Yoo (Past Lives), John Cho (Star Trek) and Steven Yeun (Burning, Beef).

However, as with all other festivals, BIFF has to contend with the fallout from the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. As a festival that celebrates Asian and world cinema, BIFF doesnt focus on Hollywood talent, but many Asian stars, and of course many Korean American actors, have SAG membership or affiliations.

The festival warned in advance that actors such as Cho and Yeun are not allowed to respond to nor comment on any questions related to American films and TV series they starred in during all festival events, including press conferences. However, theyre allowed to talk about films such as Lee Chang-dongs Burning, as its a Korean production, and Songs Past Lives, which received a SAG waiver.

Nam points out that Songs father, Song Neung-han, was a filmmaker in Korea before emigrating to Canada, making Korean films such as No. 3, which helped kickstart the career of Parasite star Song Kang-ho. Ever since Parasite, the U.S. audience has shown so much interest in Korean films and talent, and yet there is so much talent also working in North America waiting to be discovered, Nam says.

Minari

Ironically, Korean cinema back in its home territory is still going through a post-pandemic slump  local audiences are not returning to cinemas in big numbers for Korean movies and only The Roundup: No Way Out has scored impressive numbers since the start of the year. Various theories have been touted for this, including the fact that many films were kept in storage for too long during the pandemic and now feel old; the high proportion of leading filmmakers who are now busy working for the streamers, and the way in which cinemas almost doubled ticket prices when they reopened.

But Nam says there is still some vibrancy in Korean indie cinema: Our best hope right now is independent cinema as were still seeing a decent number of quality films that you can find in Busan or another festival. He also points to Japanese cinema as a highlight in the BIFF line-up, with films from Kore-eda and Hamaguchi, as well as Ishii Yuyas The Moon and Toda Akihiros Ichiko playing in the Jiseok section. Japans film industry seems to be in a much better situation than Korean cinema, he says.

As usual, BIFF is also screening a broad array of European and other world cinema through sections including the Galas, Icons, World Cinema, Open Cinema and the Flash Forward competition. And despite its recent issues, the festival also continues to train the Asian filmmakers of the future through the BIFF Asian Film Academy, which this year has Japanese director Suwa Nobuhiro as dean.

BIFF has weathered storms before. In 2014, the festival refused a government request to withdraw the screening of documentary The Truth Shall Not Sink With Sewol, which was critical of then-president Park Geun-hyes handling of the Sewol ferry disaster, a move that resulted in political blacklistings and another management crisis. Around the same time, former deputy director Kim Jiseok died of a heart attack in Cannes.

But the festival has strong institutions and a highly engaged local film industry behind it. BIFFs future management structure and strategic direction is currently being debated by an Innovation Committee, comprising members from the local industry, Busan city council and BIFF organization, with decisions tentatively expected before the end of the year. BIFF is also working with an external investigation team to look into the allegations of sexual harassment.

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Stellantis reported a sales dip in the third quarter of 2023, but the Chrysler Pacifica offered a bright spot for the automaker.

Stellantis reported a slight decline in U.S. vehicle sales on Tuesday, down 1% in the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago.

The company, which owns the Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat and Alfa Romeo brands, reported U.S. sales of 380,563 vehicles for the quarter, most of which preceded the ongoing UAW strike against Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis so any sales impact connected to inventory is not likely evident yet in the numbers.

Jeff Kommor, the company's head of U.S. sales, touted more recent momentum to close out the quarter.

"Weve gained traction over the summer and were starting to see some momentum at the end of this third quarter, Kommor said in a news release. Our Jeep 4xe and Pacifica Plug-in Hybrid models continue to perform extremely well, taking the 1-2-3 sales spots among plug-in electric vehicles in the U.S. market, and our progress toward our Dare Forward 2030 plan also remains on track with the introduction of many all-new, all battery-electric vehicles next year, including the all-new Fiat 500e, Dodge Charger, Wagoneer S, Ram 1500 REV and Jeep Recon.

Of the company's brands, only Chrysler saw an increase over the third quarter of 2022, up 96%. Those numbers were boosted significantly by the Chrysler Pacifica. The minivan's plug-in variant managed a 329% bump over the year-ago period, the company said.

Jeep and Ram sales were both down 4%, Dodge fell 23%, Alfa Romeo dropped 16% and Fiat sold only 145 vehicles in the quarter, a drop of 30%. The company did not report numbers for Maserati.

Numbers were helped a bit for Dodge and Alfa Romeo by the arrival of the 2024 Dodge Hornet, which sold 1,753 vehicles, and the 2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale, which sold 746 vehicles. The company also touted its Jeep Wrangler 4xe and Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe as the best-selling plug-in hybrids in the U.S. market.

The overall decline is a shift from the second quarter, when the company reported a 6% increase from the same period in 2022.

Story continues

Stellantis released its sales on the same day as GM, which reported results up 21.4% for the quarter to almost 2 million vehicles. Ford is expected to release its results on Wednesday.

Free Press staff writer Jamie L. LaReau contributed to this report.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Stellantis says US sales dip in 3rd quarter, touts 'momentum'
On Sunday night, Beyonce wrapped her historic Renaissance World Tour in Kansas City, Mo., and Cardi B was there to bear witness to the end of the record-breaking trek. In a series of Instagram Story posts, the Bongos rapper chronicled her experience during the show.

Cardi began her Instagram Story barrage with a quick video surveying her private jet. And we out, read the caption. With travel to Missouri secured, the Grammy winner then uploaded a clip of her in a car on the way to Arrowhead Stadium. In the video, shes singing along to the BEAM-featuring Renaissance track Energy in anticipation of the viral mute challenge. (The challenge is a friendly competition to see which stadium can actually remain completely quiet when Beyonce sings the songs Look around/ Everybody on mute lyric.) In a clip taken during the concert, Cardi excitedly participates in the challenge, throwing some lethal side-eyes to a couple of attendees who couldnt help but scream during the elongated pause.

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In addition to Energy, Cardi also posted clips of Beyonce performing Dangeously in Love, the shows opening song and the title track from her debut solo studio album, which celebrates its 20-year anniversary this year. Yaaass, bi! Cardi screams throughout the recording. The WAP rapper also posted videos vibing and singing along to America Has a Problem, which shot back to its No. 38 peak on the Billboard Hot 100 following the release of a remix with Kendrick Lamar earlier this year. Lamar made a surprise appearance at Beyones birthday show in Los Angeles on Sept. 4.

Over a clip showing Beyonce singing Summer Renaissance and flying above the crowd on a life-size version of the disco horse on the albums cover  lovingly nicknamed Reneigh by fans  Cardi wrote, Its not a concert its [an] experience, an apt descriptor for the finale of a tour that has moved millions of people around the world.

The Renaissance World Tour was in support of Beyonces Billboard 200-topping seventh solo studio album. The record  a love letter to Black queer folk and their contributions to the foundation of dance music  won four Grammys and spawned a pair of Hot 100 top 10 hits: Break My Soul (No. 1) and Cuff It (No. 6). Last week, Billboard reported that the tours global haul will blow past the $500 million mark, likely closer to $560 million  with 10 shows left to be reported. With those numbers, the tour will become one of the 10 highest-grossing tours in Boxscore history, making Beyonce the only woman, only Black artist and only American solo act on the all-time leaderboard.

Although she documented a healthy chunk of her Renaissance experience, Cardis stories did not include a very special announcement Beyonce made at the very end of the show. The music icon will bring a documentary concert film titled Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce to theaters on Dec. 1, and pre-sale tickets are currently available.

Click here to see Cardi Bs Renaissance Tour extravaganza before her Stories expire.

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The former chief of staff confirmed comments made about the former president in a 2020 interview

James Devaney/GC; Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Donald Trump (L); John Kelly (R)

Former Donald Trump chief of staff John Kelly appeared to confirm reports of comments the former president made about those who served in the military in a new statement to CNN.

In the statement, the retired U.S. Marine Corps general, 73, described Trump, 77, as "a person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all suckers because there is nothing in it for them.'"

Related: The Cases Against Trump: What to Know About the Various Investigations Surrounding the 45th U.S. President

Speaking further into the former commander-in-chief's view towards service members, he shared that Trump "is a person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because it doesnt look good for me."

His comments confirmed portions of a 2020 article by The Atlantic that reported that Trump told Kelly while visiting the Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day 2017: "I dont get it. What was in it for them?"

Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Robert Kelly, Donald Trump, and Mike Pence at Arlington National Cemetery on May 29, 2017 in Arlington, Virginia

Kelly's son Robert, was killed at the age of 29 while serving in Afghanistan in 2010. According to the outlet, Kelly and Trump were standing by Robert's grave when the former president made his comments.

While the publication reported that Kelly declined to comment at the time, an unidentified friend of Kelly told the outlet that Trump "cant fathom the idea of doing something for someone other than himself."

Trump cant imagine anyone elses pain," Kelly's friend said, per The Atlantic. "Thats why he would say this to the father of a fallen marine on Memorial Day in the cemetery where hes buried.

Related: Judge Rules That Donald Trump Committed Fraud While Building Real Estate Empire

Kelly's statement to CNN referenced other comments Trump made about military service, describing him as: "A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family  for all Gold Star families  on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in Americas defense are losers and wouldnt visit their graves in France."

Kelly also told CNN that Trump is a "person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about."

"A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason  in expectation that someone will take action," Kelly continued to CNN. "A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law."

CNN reports that they did reach out to the Trump campaign to tell them a member of his administration confirmed parts of the Atlantic story. They reportedly responded with a statement about retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley.

"John Kelly has totally clowned himself with these debunked stories he's made up because he didn't serve his President well while working as Chief of Staff," a Trump campaign spokesperson later told Axios and The Washington Post in response to Kelly's statement.

The statement was published amid mounting legal troubles for Trump. Although he announced that he is officially running for president again, he has been indicted in four criminal investigations and is facing a total of 91 felony counts.

Sean Rayford/Getty Former President Donald Trump

Most recently, a New York judge declared that Trump lied on financial statements about the value of the properties in his real estate portfolio as part of an ongoing fraud case brought on by New York State Attorney General Letitia James.

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories

Today, a judge ruled in our favor and found that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization engaged in years of financial fraud, James said in a Sept. 26 statement. We look forward to presenting the rest of our case at trial.



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Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer are determined to conceal their love across decades in the political circles of Washington, D.C.

Showtime limited series Fellow Travelers, created by Oscar-nominated director Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia, Homeland), centers on a 40-year romance between men played Bailey and Bomer, starting in 1952 on the night Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected President, ushering in the era of Joseph McCarthys homophobic reign.

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Charismatic Hawkins Fuller (Bomer) maintains a financially rewarding, behind-the-scenes career in politics. Hawkins avoids emotional entanglements  until he meets Tim Laughlin (Bailey), a young man whos brimming with idealism and religious faith. They begin a romance just as Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn declare war on subversives and sexual deviants, initiating one of the darkest periods in 20th-century American history.

Over the course of four decades, the series follows five main characters  Hawk, Tim, Marcus (Jelani Alladin), Lucy (Allison Williams) and Frankie (Noah J. Ricketts)  as they cross paths through the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, the drug-fueled disco hedonism of the 1970s, and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s while facing obstacles in the world and within themselves.

The eight-episode political thriller-romance is based on the novel by Thomas Mallon. Series creator Nyswaner executive produces with lead star Bomer, as well as My Policeman producer Robbie Rogers and Dee Johnson.

Fellow Travelers is executive produced by Daniel Minahan (Halston, American Crime Story: Versace), who also directs the first two episodes. The series is a co-production between Showtime and Freemantle.

Actor Bailey told Vanity Fair that he had been waiting for a role like Fellow Travelers that centers on the complicated, volatile power balance in queer relationships.

My answer was always, Well, Id love to do a sweeping gay love story, but my experience actually was that Id never really seen them, the Bridgerton alum said. Or if I had, I hadnt seen actors like me and Matt play those roles. [] To me, being queer also is about, as two men, how you negotiate your giving of your body to the other person. That is something that Ive always yearned to see properly done because I know how extraordinary it is to experience it.

An advance screening of the series will debut on October 21 during NewFest.

Fellow Travelers premieres October 27 on Paramount+ with Showtime before premiering October 29 on Showtime linear. Check out the trailer below.

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Pennsylvania police have put out an alert for Pat Pespas, one of the stars of the hit HBO documentary Telemarketers, who has been missing since Friday.

Pat is missing, and Sue, his family and friends are very worried about him, Adam Bala Lough, one of the creators of the three-part series, tweeted on X.

This is Pats white ford mustang - he left in this car. He is most likely somewhere in New Jersey. Please look out for this car. pic.twitter.com/ulPaDaCdvu  Bhala (@AdamBhalaLough) October 1, 2023

Pespas, 54, is a recovering drug addict who spent two decades working as a telemarketer, which is how he met Sam Lipman-Stern, the series co-creator.

Together, and with the help of Lough, they began investigating the New Jersey telemarketing firm where they worked soliciting donations for cancer charities and police organizations.

The series, produced by the Safdie brothers, got a 96 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Pespas has been celebrated as a kind of folk hero.

The Daily Beasts Nick Schager gave the show a positive review, writing, In Pat, Telemarketers celebrates a charismatic crusader who reinvented himself through civic duty. He may not be the hero that America expected, but as evidenced by his committed attempts to bring the telemarketing juggernaut to its knees, hes just the type we need.

Pat is still missing. He is most likely wearing this hat and NOT the cowboy hat. Please DM me if you see him. pic.twitter.com/QYfsQL1p05  Bhala (@AdamBhalaLough) October 2, 2023

Both Lough and Lipman-Stern have been providing updates on Pespas possible whereabouts on social media.

On Sept. 30, they said he was last seen in Easton, Pennsylvania. Then on Sunday, Lough tweeted about a potential lead.

Someone claims to have spotted Pat in a bar in Pittsburgh last night called Knuckleheads near Ross Township. If anyone can confirm that please let me know, he wrote, later saying the sighting was confirmed.

Police said Pespas may be driving a white 2002 Ford Mustang with New Jersey plates N74KUB. Police are concerned for his well-being, they wrote.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Fox News

Despite Donald Trumps courthouse complaint Monday that his bank fraud trial in New York is being decided by a judge rather than a jury, it was the former presidents own lawyers who agreed to such an arrangement, Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov pointed out on The Five.

Trump, who voluntarily attended Mondays proceedings, griped to the press afterwards that it is very unfair that I dont have a jury. Judge Arthur Engoron ruled last week that Trump, his top executives, and his heirs were liable for persistent and repeated fraud, and he will now decide on the financial penalties.

Of the bench trial, Tarlov said, it also seems that [Trump] doesntand this has happened to him beforehave a top-notch legal team with him.

He has the one lawyer who he had to pay in advance because he stiffs everybody, she said, apparently referencing Trumps payment last September to Chris Kise, who was initially expected to defend Trump in his Mar-a-Lago documents case.

A Pissed Off Trump Shows Up for His Bank Fraud Trial

Then he has Alina Habba, who gives a great cable news hit, Tarlov continued, referring to Habbas frequentif not at times confusingtelevision interviews.

But it seemed that she forgotor just, I dont know what happenedto check the box saying that they wanted a jury trial, Tarlov added, and then Donald Trump is complaining to the cameras and on Truth Social that it is un-American to have a trial without a jury when his own crackpot team asks for that.

Judge Engoron himself also noted Monday that Trumps lawyers never asked for a jury trialsomething that drew a matter-of-fact response from some legal experts.

Former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman, for instance, commented that doing so is incredibly easy because you just check a box on a form.

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The Head, The Mediapro Studios biggest hit, is advancing towards a third season, Ran Tellem, TMS head of international content development, confirmed Tuesday at Iberseries & Industria Platino.

The Head started out something like four years ago as a limited series only for six episodes and now its going into third season, so you might say we never lived up to our promises, Tellem joked on stage at an early Iberseries panel, entitled Creative Content Strategies, where he shared the stage with former Netflix international head Erik Barmack, now at L.A.-based Wild Sheep Content.

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Season 3 has yet to receive a production greenlight. The Mediapro Studio aims to produce The Head, Season 3 out of Spain. Beyond that, Tellem gave few details. Currently in development, the series is being written by writers from four countries in three different continents.

What we do each season in order to keep the show advancing and evolving is to change the team of writers, Tellem commented. Otherwise ever one working on the series is Spanish, he added.

The other stellar exception to that is the cast. Tellem screened a short sequence from The Head, Season 2 which featured actors from Germany, France, Sweden, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and China, all reacting to the discovery of a dead body, speaking English with accents.

We had actors from more than 10 countries in Season 2, and were going the same direction in Season 3. Some years ago people used to refer to this as Europudding and we would like to look at it as Europe, haute cuisine. Were doing exactly the opposite. You have the ability to pick the best actor from each country and its much easier in the world today.

The Head has nearly sold out worldwide, licensed to over 100 countries, Tellem said.

The Head is a very rare example in the world of content creation of high-quality English-speaking drama that is not produced in the U.S. or U.K., said Tellem.

Our role is to create high quality productions in English to be produced in Europe. So what were trying to do is create shows that go up on Canal+ in France or Hulu in Japan whose viewers have no idea that the shows actually Spanish produced.

We can produce shows here differently to Americans and Brits. First of all, they cost much less, but regarding quality, theres something about European writing and European creation which is different. We are telling stories in different ways, he concluded.

Tellem also sneak peeked a teaser trailer for The Young Poe. Which sees The Mediapro Studio team with Spanish director Jorge Dorado and author Cuca Canals on a detective thriller in a bid to build a second English-language international franchise.

Enrolling one of the biggest IPs in literary history, Edgar Allen Poe, the series adapts the hit novel saga of Spains Cuca Canals.

Canals novels imagine Poe as a precocious, irrepressible, neurotic and highly Gothic 11 or 12 year-old in 1820 Boston, grounding in true events of Poes childhood the extraordinarily analytical and morbid mind which Edgar Allen Poe brings to his fiction  such as 1841s The Murders in the Rue Morgue, commonly regarded as the first modern detective story.

Nobody is from 1820 Boston. People come from Spain, Germany, Japan, Korea, all over the world. Its a global city where life is invented and detective and police work is invented, Tellem said in Madrid, adding the series is about family, truth and life.

The Head Season 2

Launched in 2020, after Barmack ankled as Netflix vice-president of international original in 2019, over the last three years Wild Sheep Content has gotten 16 projects greenlit in 11 different markets, working in France, Sweden, Scotland, Ireland, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Japan, India and the U.S.

Some of these shows are now coming to fruition, such as Harlan Cobens Shelter, released on Prime Video in August, and J.M. Craviotos Spanish-language A Deadly Invitation, with Mexicos Regina Blandon, Spains Maribel Verdu, Colombias Manolo Cardona, and Perus Stephanie Cayo, which Netflix makes available this Friday.

Both shows are based on IPs, A Deadly Invitation adapts a novel by Spains Carmen Posadas, but was made in Mexico.

When you have a poppy genre like a murder mystery and the story is well crafted, which you have in a book, then you can really attract amazing talent, Barmack said.

We like murder. We like detective stories. Were a very commercial company and in certain markets, its hard to find murder mysteries. Theres not like a super big tradition of that in Mexico. Part of it is from my Netflix days and part of it is intuition, that an audience loves Agatha Christie type stories.

Barmack said that 80%-85% of his projects are based on books or video games. That suggested a larger business opportunity, Barmack argued.

Ive been reviewing projects for MIA Market in Rome and other events and been looking at a couple hundred projects over the last two months, and of them three were based on books.

If you look at the history of Hollywood, 50%, 60%, maybe 70% of the stories are based on books or IP or games, he added.

Theres a big gap between how Europe thinks about developing television and and the Hollywood system. Theres just tremendous opportunities now as the markets tightening to find source IP where, you know, theres an installed audience. which is why were working on things like Sega video game or Camilla Lackbergs works here or Harlan Coben. I think theres really big opportunities for adaptation now.

What territories are emerging for Barmack ?

Were doing a show in Japan thats an action adventure show based on a big video game. And it was one of the pleasures of my life. I think theres so much opportunity in Asia to do more. The same with India. We did a show with Amazon thats its about a big hip hop artist there,

Im super, super motivated to do more work in Asia and in the Middle East as well. Basically opportunities where the cultures are different enough to create like massive impact. If youre doing something kind of brash.

TMS has invited in Wild Sheep Content.

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X.com/@JoshKrugerPHL

Update, 10/6/23, 3:45 p.m.: Philadelphia police have named Robert Edmond Davis, 19, as a suspect in Kruger's murder. According to 6abc, Davis is wanted for murder and related offenses. Kruger and Davis were acquaintances and Davis was trying to help Kruger get through life, according to Lt. Hamilton Marshmond of the Philadelphia Police Department. 6abc reported that Davis may have experienced homelessness  an issue Kruger had personal experience with and was passionate about  at one time. Police are still investigating possible motives.

Original Story: Josh Kruger, a gay Philadelphia-based journalist and advocate, was shot and killed at his home Monday morning. According to the Associated Press, Kruger was shot seven times at around 1:30 a.m. and was pronounced dead shortly after at a nearby hospital. He was 39 years old.

Local detectives found no sign of forced entry, suggesting that either the door was open or the offender knew how to get inside, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. According to the Inquirer, Kruger had posted on social media about an alarming series of incidents at his home over the past few months. In April, he wrote that an ex-partner broke into his home. In August, someone threw a rock through his window. Around two weeks ago, Kruger posted on Facebook about a person he had never met coming to his house searching for their boyfriend and threatening Kruger in the process.

Kruger was known for his work as a journalist covering LGBTQ+ issues, homelessness, and HIV/AIDS in publications like The Advocate and Plus, as well as local outlets like The Inquirer, Philadelphia Weekly, Philadelphia City Paper, and Philadelphia Citizen. In 2014 and 2015, he won the Society of Professional Journalists award for newspaper commentary in Pennsylvania.

In addition to his work in journalism, Kruger had also worked for the City of Philadelphia in the Department of Public Health, the Office of Homeless Services, and the Office of the Mayor, according to his website. An HIV-positive man who was open about his past experiences with homelessness and addiction, Kruger often used his platform to advocate on behalf of others impacted by these issues. Kruger wrote on his website that he was a proponent of the singular they, the Oxford comma, and pre-Elon Twitter, and was an avowed cat person living with his best friend, his senior cat with one tooth named Mason.

On Monday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Philadelphia police to investigate whether there was any connection between Krugers work and his death.

We are deeply disturbed by the killing of freelance journalist Josh Kruger and extend our condolences to his colleagues and loved ones, Katherine Jacobsen, CPJs U.S. and Canada program coordinator, said in a statement. We call on investigators to thoroughly investigate his killing to determine whether the attack was related to his work.

In a statement shared to X (formerly known as Twitter) on Monday, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner praised Kruger for his advocacy efforts.

Josh Kruger lifted up the most vulnerable and stigmatized people in our communities - particularly unhoused people living with addiction, Krasner said. As an openly queer writer who wrote about his own journey surviving substance abuse disorder and homelessness Josh deserved to write the ending of his personal story.

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Meta may charge Instagram users in Europe a $14 per month subscription fee unless they opt in to targeted ads, according to The Wall Street Journal. In addition, it may impose a combined monthly fee of $17 for ad-free access to Facebook and Instagram on desktop.

Last month, rumors surfaced that Meta would start forcing subscriptions on users who opted out of targeted ads, but the potential fees were unknown. Users willing to pay would see no advertising on Facebook and Instagram, while those who want to stick to the free version would have to consent to be targeted by ads based on their personal data. The company has reportedly discussed the plans with regulators in Brussels and Ireland.

The move comes in response to a court ruling in July finding that Facebook must gain the consent of users to access their personal data. That court said that site operators have to prove that users willingly gave permission, possibly by allowing them to reject ad tracking. That's exactly what Apple did with iOS 14, and with very few users opting in, Meta predicted a significant hit to its revenue. In its ruling, the EU court also said companies should explore subscription models for users.

If accurate, the numbers revealed by the WSJ are just a bit less than Netflix charges in the EU for it's regular monthly plan. With only power social media users or companies likely willing to pay that, Meta could effectively force regular users to accept targeted ads or stop using its social media sites altogether.

Earlier this year, the EU hit Facebook with a record 1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) fine for transferring EU user data to the US, in violation of the bloc's key digital privacy rules. And the rules are about to tighten more, as Europe's Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations come into force starting in March 2024.

At the same time, Meta makes nearly a quarter of its revenue in Europe, with the bloc accounting for $7.2 billion of its $32 billion total in the second quarter this year. And the company has yet to launch its Twitter rival, Threads, in Europe due to uncertainty over the DMA and whether it can connect the app to Instagram as it does elsewhere. With all that, Meta's plans for all its apps in the EU should become more concrete over the coming months before the new rules arrive in force.
The celebrations that took place in Venice over the weekend included a glamorous masquerade ball

Keleigh Teller/Instagram Keleigh Sperry with husband Miles Teller and friend Julia Garner

Miles Teller's wife, Keleigh Sperry, has shared a glimpse into Anya Taylor-Joy and Malcolm McRaes wedding celebrations.

The newlyweds, who met in 2021, tied the knot over the weekend in Venice, Italy, according to the Daily Mail, which obtained photos of the nuptials. The Queen's Gambit actress, 27, and her musician husband, 29, reportedly wed at the historic Palazzo Pisani Moretta, before celebrating with their nearest and dearest at their reception.

In photos from the celebrations, Taylor-Joy was spotted posing on a balcony in a long white veil and a custom Dior gown featuring floral embellishments and a bird.

And on Monday, Sperry, 30, shared two separate Instagram posts of the festivities, including a series of snapshots from a glamorous masquerade ball.

In one post, the actress and her actor husband, 36, could be seen sitting on a boat as they made their way to the ball. While Sperry sported a gold mask and black lace Rasario dress, Teller opted for a Phantom of the Opera-inspired look and paired his mask with a black cape over his suit and white shirt.

Keleigh Teller/Instagram Miles Teller

Related: Miles Teller and Keleigh Sperry's Relationship Timeline

Masquerade ball   , Sperry captioned the carousel, which also featured photos of Inventing Anna star Julia Garner.

Garner, 29, paired her intricate black mask with a pearl necklace and a fur stole over her shoulders. Beneath the stole, she wore a long gown featuring a black bodice and metallic gold skirt.

Sperrys second post from the celebrations saw her posing by the water with Garner, who wore a plunging black V-neck gown featuring metallic gold tassels. Another photo featured her and Teller in front of the beautiful waterway in the Italian city.

Keleigh Teller/Instagram Julia Garner and Keleigh Sperry

Related: Miles and Keleigh Teller Celebrate 4th Wedding Anniversary: 'Growing Old and Staying Young Forever'

The couple dressed up to the nines for the festivities, with Sperry donning a dramatic mint green feather gown by Monique Lhuillier. She accessorized the dress with a pair of Stuart Weitzman heels and wore her hair in loose curls. Meanwhile, her husband looked smart in a black tuxedo, white shirt and sunglasses.

Wedding festivities part 1, Sperry wrote alongside the snapshots.

Taylor-Joy and Teller are set to share the screen in the upcoming Apple TV+ movie, The Gorge, which also stars Sigourney Weaver.

Keleigh Teller/Instagram Julia Garner and Keleigh Sperry

Along with Teller, Sperry and Garner, other famous faces at the wedding ceremony included Cara Delevingne, Nicolas Hoult and Evan Ross.

Following their nuptials, a source told PEOPLE that Taylor-Joy and McRae had a terrace brunch on Sunday at the St. Regis, which overlooks the Grand Canal.

"She was a vision," the source added of Taylor-Joy.

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Taylor-Joy and McRae first met at the Queen's Gambit premiere in March 2021. A year later, McRae revealed that he had written a song for the star just days after their first encounter.

I wrote this song for Anya two days after meeting her," he wrote on Instagram alongside a clip of the music video for the track, which is called Really Want to See You Again.



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Read the original article on People.
The post Mrs. Elvis Presley Is Living a Dream-Turned-Nightmare in Priscilla Trailer: Watch appeared first on Consequence.

Sure, its not easy being a king, but have you tried being married to one? After teasing it earlier this year, A24 has shared the first full-length trailer for Priscilla, Sofia Coppolas upcoming biopic based on Mrs. Presleys 1985 memoir Elvis and Me.

American high schooler Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) is still adjusting to her familys relocation to Germany when  in a moment almost too good to be true  she meets one Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi) at a party. It doesnt take much for the worlds hottest star to become smitten, much to the (understandable!) chagrin of Priscillas parents: Just what is the intent here, Mr. Presley? her father asks. Why my daughter?

Elvis justifies pursuing a girl ten years his junior because shes much more mature than her age, a remark that usually doesnt come from the most well-meaning men. But how could a working-class teenager like her turn down the Elvis Presley, especially when hes giving her fancy new clothes? As their relationship continues, we begin to see evidence of Elvis controlling hand, starting with her new jet black hair and vampy eye makeup at his request. I dont know if I like it, she says after the initial makeover. Her voice is soft, but her reluctance speaks volumes.

Elvis and Priscillas relationship only gets rockier the more time they spend in the spotlight, and not even a picturesque wedding or parenthood can repair the damage. Of course, the whole thing comes packaged in Coppolas signature hauntingly sublime style  its especially reminiscent of Marie Antoinette in its feminine haze and deliberately era-inappropriate music. See the full Priscilla trailer below ahead of its theatrical premiere November 3rd.

Priscilla also stars Dagmara Dominczyk, Raine Monroe Boland, Emily Mitchell, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll, Jorja Cadence, and Luke Humphrey. Its the second Presley-related biopic to come out in the past couple of years, following Baz Luhrmanns Elvis.

Mrs. Elvis Presley Is Living a Dream-Turned-Nightmare in Priscilla Trailer: Watch

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be featured on US Postal Service "Forever" stamps in 2023

The United States Postal Service on Monday released a new Forever Stamp honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The stamp shows Ginsburg, who died on Sept. 18, 2020, in her black judicial robe and a white-lace collar. It was designed by Ethel Kessler, an art director for USPS, with a Michael J. Deas oil painting based on a photograph by Philip Bermingham.

As the nations 107th U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Ginsburg served on the high court from Aug. 10, 1993, until her death at age 87 of complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. She was succeeded by Amy Comey Barrett.

Justice Ginsburg was an iconic figure who dedicated her life to public service and the pursuit of justice, said USPS Board of Governors Chairman Roman Martinez IV. She was a true pioneer, and it is our honor to celebrate her incredible legacy in this way. This stamp serves not just as a tribute but as an inspiration for future generations to uphold the values she fought for.

The stamp is available in panes of 20 at select post offices nationwide and online at usps.com/shopstamps, the USPS said in a news release.

The price of Forever stamps increased to 66 cents in July, the second increase this year.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: New U.S. Postal Service Forever stamp honors Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by the same name, All the Light We Cannot See will release on Netflix Thursday.

The limited series tells the story of Marie-Laure Leblanc (Aria Mia Loberti), who is a blind French girl during World War II. After Germany invades France, she and her father, Daniel (Mark Ruffalo), go to live with her uncle, Etienne (Hugh Laurie), bringing along an expensive diamond to prevent the Nazis from getting it.

When the two arrive to St. Malo, Leblanc joins her uncle in participating in the French Resistance to Nazi occupation by sending messages using radio broadcasting. And a teenager named Werner (Louis Hofmann) is enlisted by the Nazis to find her and kill her.

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Ladies and gentleman, before I begin my broadcast today, I have to something to say, Marie-Laure said at the onset of the trailer. In this time of darkness, of fading cities, Im trying to remember: Light lasts forever; darkness lasts not even for one second when you turn on the light.

I know that broadcasting can get me executed, but I will not be silenced, Leblanc says.

The limited series is directed by Shawn Levy, who directed Night at the Museum, The Pink Panther, The Internship, Date Night and other films, in addition to eight episodes of Stranger Things. He also has some acting credits to his name, including in Cheaper by the Dozen and Taylor Swifts All Too Well: The Short Film.

So many period pieces are magnificently crafted, but they feel somewhat austere or emotionally remote, Levy said in a press release, per Variety. He wanted to make a beautiful-looking period drama and allow audiences to engage with these characters and their humanity.

The limited series shares the same name of the novel by Anthony Doerr, which won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction as well as the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

Many qualified producers and writers before me had tried to turn this book into a movie, but it didnt work out because there was too much story. Theres such a rich tapestry of characters and events in the book, and telling that story in two hours was all but impossible, Levy said to Netflix, per Indie Wire. By the time we got the rights, limited series had evolved to become a pedigreed cinematic form that allowed for longer-form storytelling on television.

Ruffalo, who plays Daniel Leblanc, said that he was reticent about returning to Europe to shoot the series, but Levy convinced him to go. He moved heaven and earth to get me there and really believed in me for the part, Ruffalo said, per Indie Wire. What was wonderful was just seeing him fly in that genre, which is something hed never done before. He knew exactly what he was doing, though.

All the Light We Cannot See reviews

Some reviews from All the Light We Cannot have been published. Here are key quotes from three reviews.

The Hollywood Reporter : All the Light We Cannot See has good things going for it, including a radiant lead performance from newcomer Aria Mia Loberti. Its very nicely shot and James Newton Howards swelling score offers no doubt on when youre supposed to feel things. But its similarity to the book dwindles with almost every passing moment to the point that, by the aforementioned third episode, almost nothing that happens on the screen has any connection to what was on the page.

Paste Magazine: Loberti, a blind Fulbright scholar who had never done any acting before auditioning for the series, is a revelation  an incredible screen presence who also helped guarantee the authenticity of the series. And beyond the performances, all the sound and visual crafts are strong enough that watching the premiere in a movie theater felt downright cinematic.

Mashable: The four-part limited series is unable to replicate Doerrs lyrical prose, resulting instead in some fairly heavy-handed dialogue. However, it more than makes up for that shortcoming with its genuine earnestness and high-quality production, which results in an adaptation that is cinematic and sweet in equal measure.

All the Light We Cannot See release date

All the Light We Cannot See will be released on Netflix on Nov. 2.

All the Light We Cannot See trailer
Zions Bank President CEO Scott Anderson shows signatures of Brigham Young and other leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a bank ledger that is at the corporate offices in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Following the end of the Civil War, the U.S. banking system was growing by leaps and bounds fueled by industrialists who saw opportunity in the westward expansion and emerging transcontinental railroad systems that would connect new territories with the established businesses, and population, east of the Mississippi.

But then, as now, financial speculation in new technologies was rife with risk and not immune from financial turmoil outside the borders of the still expanding Union.

Ahead of the financial panic of 1873, a European stock market crash led to a mass capital exodus led by overseas investors who sank money into U.S. railroad bonds, once highly profitable investment vehicles, that were beginning to ebb in value as newly built railroad infrastructure outpaced demand.

In the summer of 1873, months ahead of an event that would mark the start of a full-blown U.S. financial crisis, President Brigham Young of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called a meeting of local leaders to discuss organizing a new savings bank, a local institution that would create a financial safe haven for residents, many of whom had trekked into the Utah Territory during the previous 26 years.

Just over a month after that first meeting, on Aug. 6, 1873, Articles of Association were filed to create Zions Savings Bank and Trust Company and a few weeks later the Deseret News reported on President Youngs optimistic outlook for the new endeavor.

It will be found of considerable advantage to those who wish to save money for the emigration of their friends, as the interest is large and sums as low as $1.00 will be received, which, if continually added to, will soon reach a considerable amount, and the depositors will hardly miss the money, President Young said, according to a Deseret News story published on Aug. 22, 1873.

Signatures of Brigham Young and other leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a bank ledger at the Zions Bank corporate offices in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

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That early confidence would turn out to be well-founded as Zions Bank and Trust, which officially opened for business on Oct. 1, 1873, would outlast most of its competitors of the era and this year will celebrate its 150th anniversary.

The beginning

Just a couple of weeks before the new bank opened its doors, in a turn of events that had a lot in common with the recent failures of U.S. banks over-leveraged in tech investments, the Philadelphia-based bank Jay Cooke & Co. was caught by a depositor run and overextension in railroad bonds that would lead to its failure. Subsequently, hundreds of businesses and banks would shutter their operations, tens of thousands lost their jobs and a period of national financial distress, now referred to as the Long Depression, would last until 1877.

But Zions Bank and Trust would weather that storm, and many others, on its way to growing into regional banking powerhouse Zions Bancorporation, a multibrand financial institution that now boasts more than 400 branches across 11 Western states. Zions Bank is a division of Zions Bancorporation.

The secret to its longevity and success? Bank leaders say its all about staying true to the companys humble roots even as it has become one of the leading financial institutions in the country.

I think it goes back to the concept that we have always believed banking is a local business, said Zions Bank President/CEO Scott Anderson in a Deseret News interview. As weve grown its been community-by-community and weve prioritized ties to those communities and personal relationships with every customer.

Anderson said Zions has expanded its depth and breadth as a company in lockstep with the growth of Utah and the West and its history can be viewed in two distinctive periods.

Zions Savings Bank and Trust, pictured in this interior photo of Zions Savings Bank and Trust Company, now Zions Bank, in the late 1800s. In the right foreground is Bernhard Schettler, who was appointed assistant cashier by Brigham Young in 1873. | Zions Bank

Then Zions Bank President Roy Simmons, left, with Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President David O. McKay and his wife, Sister Emma Ray McKay, at the opening of the Kennecott Building (now the Zions Bank Building) in 1965. | Zions Bank

Bank employees and customers celebrate the opening of the Zions branch at 400 South and 700 East in Salt Lake City in 1964. | Zions Bank

The Kennecott Building vault, pictured in the1960s. The circular teller counter in the Kennecott Building was an innovative feature, with a round stainless steel vault in the center of the banking floor. The building was Utahs most modern and technologically advanced office building when it opened. | Zions Bank

For its first 87 years, the bank was owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in those decades the banks story closely paralleled the growth of the church, Anderson said. Up until 1957, the bank had a succession of nontraditional bank presidents  all of them leaders of the church. The appointment as bank president was generally a lifetime position for them, corresponding with their tenure as church president.

Second act

In 1960, a group of investors led by Roy W. Simmons bought out the churchs majority ownership of the bank. This, Anderson said, began the banks modern era and marked the beginning of a period of rapid expansion.

Simmons took on the role of chief executive in 1964 and two years later the company went public in a stock offering that helped raise capital to fuel growth and created a new parent entity that would become Zions Bancorporation. At the time Simmons acquired the bank, it was comprised of four branches and offices in Salt Lake City with total assets of around $120 million. By 1970, it had grown to 25 branches throughout the state and boasted assets of $300 million.

That was also the year Roy Simmons son, Harris, started his first job at the bank, working part time filing canceled checks. Harris Simmons would continue putting in his time at the family business, working when time allowed during his undergraduate years at the University of Utah.

Harris Simmons would pursue postgraduate work outside of the state, earning an MBA from Harvard Business School. In 1981, he was back, taking on the role of chief financial officer for Zions Bancorporation. And, nine years later, he took over the CEO helm from his father.

In his leadership role, Harris Simmons continued the expansion arc begun by his father. He noted changes in federal banking regulations in the 1980s that helped open new opportunities to expand across Western states. Right now, Zions Bancorporation manages some $90 billion in assets.

In a Deseret News interview, Harris Simmons said that early on in the banks history, President Young predicted that Zions Bank and Trust would eventually expand throughout the Utah territory, an area whose borders encompassed most of Utah, Nevada and parts of California, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado and California. As it turns out, thats exactly what would come to pass, and then some.

Zions Bancorperation Chairman and CEO Harris Simmons poses for photos in his office in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

As the bank has expanded its scope, Harris Simmons noted the world of modern banking has also become a business driven by technology, and Zions Bancorporation has invested heavily, devoting some $400 million per year to its technology infrastructure and staffing.

So much of the transactional part of the business is taking place via phones, devices and the internet, Harris Simmons said. Were intent on, and committed to, doing that well.

While the speed and ease of electronic transacting continues to reshape the banking world, Harris Simmons said the business remains a people-centric effort and underscored that each branch, and the people who work there, build connections that go beyond banking and financial services.

We are the steward of many billions of dollars of savings that belong to many, many individuals and businesses in the markets we serve, Harris Simmons said. Were employing those savings in investments in those communities, investments that make them better places to live. And, our people are highly engaged in terms of being involved in the communities where they live and work.

The most appealing part of the banking business to me is were in a position to use a balance sheet as well as our people to solve problems. And we hope weve been a real contributor over the years and will be for many years to come.

Zions Bank President and CEO Scott Anderson shows a gift that he received from members of the Navajo Nation that he has on display in his office in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Small banks on display in the office of Zions Bank President and CEO Scott Anderson in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Zions Bank President and CEO Scott Anderson points out different small banks he has on display in his office in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Small banks on display in the office of Zions Bank President and CEO Scott Anderson in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

A quote from bank founder Brigham Young is displayed on a wall at the Zions Bank location in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Zions Bank in downtown Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Ohio Woman Who Brutally Beat and Stabbed Own Mother to Death After Getting Kicked Out of College Gets Life in Prison

An Ohio woman who repeatedly beat and stabbed her mother to death after the latter found out she'd been kicked out of college has been sentenced to life in prison.

Sydney Powell, 23, was found guilty of murdering her mother Debra Powell, in addition to assault and evidence tampering, and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. She will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years in prison, Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge Kelly McLaughlin ruled Thursday, according to NBC News.

The Akron woman was arrested in March 2020 after she hit her mother with a cast-iron skillet and then stabbed her nearly 30 times. School officials from University of Mount Union were on the phone with Debra Powell at the time of the attack and heard her screams, at which point they contacted police. Brenda, a 50-year-old child life specialist at Akron Childrens Hospital, was found with critical injuries and was declared dead at a local hospital, per WKYC.

RELATED: Slain Woman Wrote Name of Estranged Husband in Blood on Her Leg, Police Say. He's Been Arrested in Her Death

Prosecutors later argued that Sydney killed her mother because she was afraid that Debra would find out she had been suspended from University of Mount Union. The then-19-year-old had poor grades, but kept them a secret from her family.

"The phone cut off at some point after, I would say, somewhere in the neighborhood of six or seven of those thudding, those sort of thud sounds, and the screaming had continued," Associate Dean of Students Michelle Gaffney testified this month, according to NBC News.

A police handout of Sydney Powell

Sydney Powell. Photo: Summit County Jail

University officials repeatedly called the Powell home and received no answer, until someone claiming to be Debra answered.

"It was not Brenda. I was sure it was Sydney. Both Dean [of Students John] Frazier and I looked at each other and sort of shook our heads at each other and said that's not Brenda. He then said, 'Sydney, I think this is you, this is not Brenda.' The phone went dead," Gaffney testified.

When police arrived on the scene, it appeared that Sydney had attempted to make it look like a break-in gone wrong. She allegedly broke a window and told police that an intruder committed the attack, Fox News reported.

Experts for the defense argued that Sydney was suffering from schizophrenia and didn't know the difference between right and wrong, per the Akron Beacon Journal.

The Powell family asked for a lenient sentence in light of Sydney's mental health, with her attorney, Donald Malarcik, asking the judge to consider the letters her family members wrote when deciding on her sentence.

"The tone and tenor of those letters, I think, is consistent with what the court saw throughout the trial and what the court continues to see here today  that they love and support Sydney no matter what," the attorney said, WKYC reported. "They will continue to love and support her, and theyve been a consistent and constant presence in her life and in the courtroom. That will continue as we move forward. They love and support her and theyre going to take care of whatever she may need."
A24 has released the official trailer for its upcoming Sofia Coppola feature Priscilla.

The film is based on Priscilla Presley s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, which details personal accounts of her relationship with Elvis Presley . Flashes of their first meeting in Bad Nauheim, Germany, in 1959 to their 1967 Las Vegas wedding and birth of their daughter, Lisa Marie, are teased throughout the new footage. The trailer spotlights some of the couples most iconic moments together, as well as their eventual divorce.

More from Variety

Priscilla stars Cailee Spaeny in the titular role and Jacob Elordi as the King of Rock n Roll. The films centering of Priscillas perspective serves as a sharp counter to Baz Luhrmanns 2022 biographical music drama Elvis, which starred Austin Butler and Olivia DeJonge as the Presleys and went on to receive several Oscar nominations.

Priscilla received a seven-minute standing ovation at this years Venice Film Festival. Coppola and Priscilla attended the premiere alongside Spaeny and Elordi, as the actors were granted a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement to promote the film amid the strike. Spaeny won the best actress prize.

Priscilla is directed and written by Coppola, marking her first feature since 2020s On the Rocks. She also produces alongside Youree Henry and Lorenzo Mieli. The film comes from Fremantle Company and American Zoetrope. A24 will release Priscilla in North America, with Vision Distribution in Italy, where it will become a Sky exclusive. Stage 6 Films/Sony Pictures International Releasing will distribute in the rest of the world.

Priscilla is set to open in theaters Nov. 3. Watch the official trailer below.

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Suge Knight refuses to testify against Duane Keefe D Davis. TMZ reports that the former Death Row CEO was surprised an arrest was made concerning 2Pacs murder. However, the businessman, ne Marion Hugh Knight, is opting to not partake in the case, alleging that the cops arrested the wrong guy.

Additionally, Knight expresses that Davis assertion that his nephew, Orlando Anderson, was the shooter is untrue. The West Coast mogul insisted that he wouldnt ever reveal who shot Pac. But he will say he knows Keefe D wasnt the correct man to arrest.

On Friday (Sept. 29), Las Vegas law enforcement arrested Duane, according to the Associated Press. The outlet reported that a Nevada grand jury indicted the man on one count of murder with a deadly weapon. Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo alleged Keefe was the on-ground, on-site commander who ordered the death of Tupac Shakur.

On Aug. 18, 2023, The Sun reported that Keefe was facing imminent charges concerning 2Pacs murder. Keefe confessed to assisting in shooting the West Coast icon during an interview with VLAD TV. Law enforcement collected evidence and built a case ready to present to a Las Vegas grand jury. Authorities previously stated theyre looking at first-degree murder potentially for Keefe D.

The homicide team did not enter into this investigation lightly They knew that the world would be watching if they took any action against Keefe. They do not want to make any missteps, the outlet reports. One key aspect was building a strong case and file of evidence detailing how Keefe was one of the four suspects in the car, was pivotal in the actual murder, then the destruction of critical evidence.

The revelation arrives two months after Las Vegas police raided a home belonging to Paula Clemons, Davis wife. NBC News reported that Clark County Judge Jacqueline M. Bluth authorized a warrant to Las Vegas Det. Clifford Mogg to retrieve anything that could tie Davis to the Southside Crips  a Compton street gang.

During the legal search, authorities seized .40-caliber cartridges, computers, photographs from the 1990s, and an issue of VIBE magazine featuring the late rap star. Additional items taken from the property were miscellaneous thumb drives, external hard drives, audio recordings featuring Davis and other unnamed figures, and a copy of Davis book, Compton Street Legend.

More from VIBE.com

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A former star from Netflixs Tiger King has been banned from owning, trading, or donating exotic animals in Virginia for five years. The Virginia Attorney Generals Office told ABC 33/40 that Bhagavan Doc Antle had been handed a two-year suspended prison sentence, five years of probation, and a $10,000 fine after being convicted of four felony counts related to wildlife trafficking. He was blamed for illegally buying endangered lion cubs in Frederick County, Virginia, and transporting them to his zoo in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals made a statement after the sentencing, saying, Antle escaped a prison sentence this time, but hes still facing multiple federal charges for alleged money laundering and alleged wildlife trafficking of animals, including endangered cheetahs and a chimpanzee PETA is calling on federal authorities to terminate the licenses that keep his sleazy roadside zoo operating.

Read it at ABC 33/40

Read more at The Daily Beast.
Arizona, with its vast deserts, towering canyons, and vibrant cities, is the perfect starting point for an epic road trip. Whether youre a nature enthusiast, a history buff, or someone looking for a bit of both, a road trip from Arizona promises a journey filled with awe-inspiring sights and memorable experiences. So, pack your bags, fuel up, and lets hit the road!

1. The Classic Route 66 Adventure:

Old motel sign along historic route 66 via Getty Images

Kick off your road trip from Arizona in Flagstaff and journey down the legendary Route 66. Dubbed the Main Street of America, this iconic route guides you through unique towns such as Winslow, where the famous Eagles song lyric stand on the corner comes to life. Along the way, make a pit stop at the Petrified Forest National Park to admire the age-old, fossilized trees.

2. The Grand Canyon to Zion National Park:

Image via Getty Images

No road trip from Arizona would be complete without visiting the Grand Canyon. After soaking in the majestic views, head north towards Utahs Zion National Park. The contrast between the Grand Canyons depths and Zions towering cliffs is a testament to the Southwests diverse landscapes.

3. Sedonas Red Rocks to the White Sands of New Mexico:

Begin your journey in the spiritual town of Sedona, known for its mesmerizing red rock formations and energy vortexes. After exploring its trails, head east towards New Mexico. Your destination? The ethereal White Sands National Park, where glistening white dunes stretch as far as the eye can see.

4. Phoenix to the Beaches of San Diego:

If youre yearning for a blend of city vibes and coastal calm, this road trip from Arizona is perfect. Begin in Phoenix, Arizonas lively capital, delving into its rich arts culture and gastronomic wonders. Continue to San Diego, California, where the Pacifics golden shores and renowned pier beckon.

5. Tucsons Desert Beauty to Colorados Rocky Mountains:

Image via Getty Images

Kick off your trip in Tucson, where the Sonoran Deserts beauty is on full display. Visit the Saguaro National Park and marvel at the giant cacti. Then, drive north towards Colorado. The Rocky Mountains snow-capped peaks are a stark contrast to Arizonas desert landscapes, offering breathtaking views and hiking opportunities.

6. Arizonas Wine Country to Nevadas Glitz and Glamour:

Embarking on a road trip from Arizona, did you discover its hidden wine country? Begin your journey in Verde Valley, savoring wines from its renowned vineyards. After indulging, set your sights on the dazzling allure of Las Vegas, Nevada. Test your fortune at its casinos, witness a captivating show, and immerse in the citys vibrant pulse.

Tips for Your Road Trip from Arizona:

Stay Hydrated: The Southwest can be hot and dry. Always carry water with you, especially when hiking or exploring outdoor attractions.

Respect Nature: Whether youre in a national park or a local attraction, always follow guidelines to protect the environment.

Plan Ahead: Some destinations, especially popular ones like the Grand Canyon, can get crowded. Book accommodations in advance and check for any travel advisories.

Capture Memories: Dont forget your camera! The Southwest offers some of the most photogenic landscapes in the U.S.

A road trip from Arizona is more than just a journey; its an exploration of diverse landscapes, cultures, and histories. From the depths of the Grand Canyon to the heights of the Rocky Mountains, from the tranquility of Sedonas red rocks to the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas, the Southwest offers experiences that will stay with you long after your trip ends. So, buckle up and get ready for an adventure that promises to be both thrilling and enlightening!

You can also read 10 Useful Travel Accessories for Your Next Family Road Trip.

The post Unforgettable Road Trip from Arizona: Southwest Wonders appeared first on Momtastic.
Burkina Faso's junta says it thwarted military coup attempt

Burkina Faso's military government announced Wednesday that Burkinabe intelligence and security services foiled a coup attempt.

Burkina Faso's transitional government announced in a statement, read out on state television late Wednesday by junta spokesman Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, that a "proven coup attempt" was foiled on Tuesday.

"The transitional government informs public opinion that a proven coup attempt was foiled on September 26, 2023 by the Burkinabe intelligence and security services," Ouedraogo said. "At present, officers and other alleged actors involved in this attempt at destabilization have been arrested and others actively sought."

The announcement comes just a year shy of the West African nation's transitional president, Captain Ibrahim Traore  the world's youngest serving president - seizing power last September in a military coup himself.

PHOTO: Burkina Faso's new military leader Ibrahim Traore, front, is escorted by soldiers, Oct. 2, 2022, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. (Vincent Bado/Reuters)

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Ouedraogo announced that the alleged perpetrators "harboured the dark intention of attacking the institutions of the Republic and precipitating our country in chaos."

Four plotters have been detained for questioning following the failed coup plot, and others are being "actively sought."

Burkina Faso's transitional government did not elaborate on any further details and said they are awaiting to receive "more details" on the plot from the military prosecutor.

The announcement comes following rumors of an impending mutiny over brewing discontentment within the military. On Tuesday, the rumors coup d'etat led to hundreds taking to the streets of Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, in a show of support for Traore's government.

On Monday, French-language news publication Jeune Afrique was suspended by Burkina Faso's junta following the publication of an article titled 'Tensions persist in Burkina Faso army' detailing alleged discontent brewing in Burkina Faso's barracks.

The junta accused the publication of attempts to "spread chaos" by disseminating "untruthful" information.

PHOTO: Burkina Faso coup leader Capt. Ibrahim Traore participates in a ceremony in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on Oct. 15, 2022. (Kilaye Bationo/AP)

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In a statement, Jeune Afrique said the suspension was a "new attack on press freedom", that deprives Burkinabe readers of their right to "pluralistic, verified and balanced information."

Traore thanked the Burkinabe people in a Facebook post, saying he is committed to the 'liberation' of the West African nation: "I am reassured of my determination to lead the Transition successfully despite adversity and the various manoeuvres to stop our inexorable march towards assumed sovereignty."

In February, Burkina Faso cut military ties with France following a one-month deadline for France to withdraw its troops.

Burkina Faso has suffered a series of military coups as the West African nation battles political instability throughout its history, a worsening humanitarian crisis and the growing threat posed by militant Islamist groups in West Africa's Sahel region.

Since 2020, there have been six coup d'etat's in West Africa.

Humanitarian sources reported that nearly one-quarter of the country's population needed humanitarian aid, of which 1.7 million persons were IDP's with many of those in isolated or difficult-to-reach locations, given continued insecurity," said the State Department.

"The state of emergency, which stems from 2018, remained in effect in 14 provinces within seven of the country's 13 administrative regions in response to growing insecurity from extremist attacks."

Earlier this month, the military leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger signed a mutual defense pact  The Alliance of Sahel States  in a bid to assist each other, including militarily, in the event of external aggression or armed rebellion.

Following the announcement, the situation remains calm in Ouagadougou.

Burkina Faso's junta says it thwarted military coup attempt originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
A showdown on Tuesday with a breakaway faction of his own party led by Rep. Matt Gaetz saw House Speaker Kevin McCarthy removed as leader of the chamber -- a historic development that signals chaos to come on Capitol Hill.

Now, the race is on to succeed him.

Two members of the House have officially thrown their hats in the ring. Republicans are said to be eyeing a speaker election next week.





Latest Developments





Oct 4, 5:09 PM

Jeffries wishes McCarthy well after ouster

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries released a statement Wednesday wishing McCarthy well after he voted to remove him from speakership, and encouraged Democrats to do the same.



"Since January, Kevin and I have had a respectful, communicative and forward-looking relationship," Jeffries said. "On many occasions, we strongly disagreed with each other. However, we agreed to disagree without being personally disagreeable in order to find common ground whenever possible."



Jeffries commended McCarthy's initiatives on economic competition with China and artificial intelligence, stating that work should continue.



"I wish Speaker McCarthy, his family and dedicated staff Godspeed as he begins the next chapter in his public service and professional journey," Jeffries said.



-ABC's Lauren Peller





Oct 4, 4:11 PM

Many House Republicans want to do away with motion to vacate

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged House Republicans to do away with the motion to vacate, contending it "makes the Speakers' job impossible."



Many Republicans ABC News talked to on the House side agree with him. For some, it's a major factor in who they will support for speaker.



Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio, said he'll back "the first one who starts talking about the fact we're not going to have a stupid rule anymore that allows one person to take a speaker out. That's ridiculous."



"It absolutely has to change," he added, noting if it doesn't, the GOP could find itself right back in this same position.



Even Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy, says he's OK with changing the rule from a one-vote threshold back to a five-vote threshold to vacate.



"I'm fine with a five vote. If you can't get five Republicans to say the speaker should be vacated, then live with it. But I don't think the rules are the problem. I think the credibility of the former speaker was the real problem," he said.



-ABC's Mary Bruce





Oct 4, 3:20 PM

Biden expresses concern over Ukraine aid

In remarks about the speakership showdown, Biden said there is a "lot of work" to get done as Congress faces a Nov. 17 deadline to come to a funding deal or once again risk a shutdown.



"We cannot and should not again be faced with an 11th-hour decision, brinksmanship that threatens to shut down the government," Biden said.



He also expressed concern on the current state of future aid for Ukraine, admitting he's worried it may not happen.



"It does worry me," he said. "But I know there are a majority of members of the House and Senate in both parties who have said that they support funding Ukraine."

PHOTO: President Joe Biden delivers remarks on new Administration efforts to cancel student debt and support borrowers at the White House on Oct. 4, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

At least one lawmaker vying for speaker has long been opposed to additional Ukraine aid.



"I'm against that," Rep. Jim Jordan told reporters on Wednesday. "What I understand is at some point we're going to have to deal with this appropriation process in the right way and we're going to try to do that in the next -- what are we down to? Forty-one days. The most pressing issue on the mind of Americans is not Ukraine, it is the border situation."



-ABC's Molly Nagle, Justin Gomez and Mary Bruce





Oct 4, 3:16 PM

Read Scalise's letter on running for speaker

Scalise made his case for why he should be the next House speaker in a letter to colleagues on Wednesday.

In it, he called the Republican conference a "family" as he recounted the support he received when he was shot during congressional baseball practice in 2017 and suffered life-threatening injuries.

"God already gave me another chance at life," he wrote. "I believe we were all put here for a purpose. This next chapter won't be easy, but I know what it takes to fight and I am prepared for the battles that lie ahead."

Steve Scalise - Dear Colleague - October 4 2023 by ABC News Politics on Scribd

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Oct 4, 2:00 PM

Biden: 'We need to change the poisonous atmosphere in Washington'

President Joe Biden weighed in for the first time on the ouster of McCarthy, calling on Congress to change the "poisonous atmosphere in Washington" and come together.



"More than anything we need to change the poisonous atmosphere in Washington. You know, we have strong disagreements, but we need to stop seeing each other as enemies. We need to talk to one another, listen to one another, work with one another. And we can do that," Biden urged while delivering remarks on student loans at the White House.



Biden said the GOP will need to "reorganize" and that it might "take some time" to select a new leader.



-ABC's Justin Gomez and Molly Nagle





Oct 4, 1:49 PM

Scalise enters speaker's race

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has officially entered the race to replace McCarthy.

The Louisiana Republican, in a lengthy letter to his colleagues on Wednesday, made a pitch for unity as he touted his work as the No. 2 House Republican.

"You know my leadership style I've displayed as your Majority Leader and Whip," he wrote. "I have a proven track record of bringing together the diverse array of viewpoints within our Conference to build consensus where others thought it impossible."

PHOTO:House Majority Leader Steve Scalise arrives for a House Republican party conference after Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the position of Speaker by a House vote of 216-210, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Oct. 3, 2023. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

"Our strength as a Conference comes from our unity, and we have seen when we unite as a Conference, we can deliver wins for the American people," he wrote. "Now we need to take those unified positions and work to extract conservative wins from the Democrat Senate and White House by leveraging upcoming deadlines. While we need to be realistic about what can be achieved, if we stay united, we can preserve leverage for the House to secure tangible wins in our impending policy fights."





Oct 4, 11:48 AM

Read Jordan's letter announcing bid: Time for GOP to 'come together'

Rep. Jim Jordan has sent a letter to colleagues announcing his speakership bid.

"We are at a critical crossroad in our nation's history," he wrote. "Now is the time for our Republican conference to come together to keep our promises to Americans."

Jim Jordan Letter Speaker by ABC News Politics on Scribd

This embedded content is not available in your region.





Oct 4, 11:34 AM

McConnell pays tribute to McCarthy

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he is keenly aware of the thankless work it takes to be a Congressional leader as he praised McCarthy in a floor speech.



Ive said before, in reference to my own position, that being the leader of your party in the Senate is much like being the groundskeeper at a cemetery. Everybodys under you, but no ones listening," McConnell said, adding: Of course, I doubt that Kevin McCarthy has ever seen himself as above anyone else."



McConnell praised McCarthy's willingness to dive "head first" into worthwhile fights, calling him a trusted and honest partner in leading the GOP caucus.



He didnt hesitate to get his hands dirty. When circumstances were tough, he drew on his faith, his family and his belief in American exceptionalism," McConnell said.



And Im not sure anyone could have predicted just how much these qualities would come in handy over the past nine months," he said.



-ABC's Mariam Khan





Oct 4, 11:09 AM

Jim Jordan says he's running for speaker

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told reporters Wednesday morning that he is running for speaker of the House -- the first member to publicly throw their hat in the ring.



Jordan, a top Trump ally and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has ruled out running for speaker in the past.



Jordan said Wednesday morning that the messages and phone calls of support he has received so far "seems strong."



PHOTO: Representative Jim Jordan speaks as he attends a House Oversight and Accountability Committee impeachment inquiry hearing into U.S. President Joe Biden, focused on his son Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings, in Washington, Sept. 28, 2023. (Jim Bourg/Reuters)



"I think the key is to unite the conference," Jordan said. "I think I can."



In addition to Jordan, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has begun making calls to gauge support as has Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern.



-ABC News' Katherine Faulders and Arthur Jones





Oct 4, 10:55 AM

Trump for speaker?

Former President Donald Trump, arriving to court for the third day of his civil fraud trial, commented on the speaker's race -- specifically, the calls from some hard-line conservatives such as Marjorie Taylor Greene for him to serve in the role.



"I'll do whatever it is to help. But my focus, my total focus is being president," he told reporters.

PHOTO: Former President Donald Trump speaks to the media before entering the courtroom at New York Supreme Court, Oct. 4, 2023, in New York. (Mary Altaffer/AP)

It's not the first time we've heard Trump's name floated for the position. Back in January, amid McCarthy's fraught battle for the gavel, Gaetz actually cast a ballot for Trump during one of the 15 rounds of voting.



It would technically be possible because the Constitution doesn't specify that the person be a current member or member-elect, but it's not likely.



Trump didn't say who he would like to see succeed McCarthy but said, "We have some great people in the Republican Party that could do a great job as speaker."



-ABC's Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kendall Ross

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The quickest way to spot a tourist or transplant to Texas? In the capital city of Austin at least, you can find one hobbling down South Congress Avenue (or cooling their heels if theyve had enough pain) in a brand new pair of cowboy boots. And who can blame them?

More from Robb Report



The allure of the Wild West is enduring, something that continues to influence everything from literature to fashion. What began as a utilitarian necessity for anyone getting around by horse, the earliest cowboy boots took inspiration from the footwear worn by Spanish vaqueros in the 17th century. The boots tall shaft protected the calf, while its angled heels prevented slippage in the stirrups. Later evolutions include the roper style, which features a shorter, flat heel for quick dismounts and was spurred by the popular rodeo event. Decorative stitching was primarily functional in order to hold the boots shape, though these days its more of an opportunity for designers to add a creative flourish.



Regrettably, many of the best known brands have suffered a reduction in quality as production has been outsourced. Still, there are a handful of highly skilled custom bootmakers such as Lisa Sorrell in Guthrie, Oklahoma, who can make your cowboy dreams come true while commanding as much as $10,000 (thats the starting price). But if youre looking to buy something now, these are the best cowboy boots around.



The recipe for the best cowboy boots? A blend of form, function, and adherence to traditionbut with some room for artistic license. Some of the names may surprise you, but these picks demonstrate that there are truly all kinds of styles. Whether youre a city slicker looking to channel J.R. Ewing or are fresh off a Yellowstone binge and wanting to summon your inner John Dutton, theres a roper, dress boot, or even a western-influenced Chelsea boot to suit your taste.



Just dont forget rule numero uno: Break them in before you head out two-steppingyour feet will thank you in the morning. Happy trails.



The name that needs little introduction, the El Pasobased bootmaker founded by Italian immigrant Salvatore Sam Lucchese has been outfitting legends from John Wayne to LBJ since 1883. While the company does offer custom options, the off-the-shelf styles are among the finest youll find on the market. Case in point: This sleek black dress boot featuring crocodile overlays and inlays. This is the one youll reach for when you snag that invite to the Cattle Barons Ball (and don a Texas Tuxedo).

Price: $1,995

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Price: $895

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Lets face it, few celebrate western fashions quite as stylishly as New York-born cowboy at heart Ralph Lauren. The designers RRL line (also the name of his Colorado ranch) is rooted in frontier nostalgia. But even Lauren leaves the bootmaking to experts, relying on a 160-year-old Texas workshop to craft these rugged ropers with an added rubber outsole for comfort and grip in and out of the saddle.

Price: $990

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Founded in Austin in 2015, its no surprise that Tecovas emerged right around the time Silicon Valley workers began immigrating seemingly en masse to Texas. Its founder, a former management consultant, eliminated retail markups and chose to focus on classic designs (see the bestselling Cartwright) and manufacturing in Leon, Mexico. Now with over $200 million in annual sales, Tecovass investors include Warby Parker cofounder Andy Hunt.

Price: $275

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Imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, at least as far as these boots are concerned. Saint Laurent has been toying with the cowboy aesthetic for a bit, more frequently with a Cuban heeled cowboy-Chelsea hybrid (think Lenny Kravitz). The Wyatt (find me a better cowboy name) marries a western crown with a moto-inspired harness for an unexpected twist.

Price: $1,390

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Think cowboy culture is limited to the American West? Think again. Since 1932, the Adelaide-based bootmaker has been outfitting Outback cowboys, cattle ranchers, and countless celebrities. A perfect blend between a dress boot and riding boot, this yearling leather number is one of the brands original styles (theyre best known for Chelsea boots) and is still manufactured in South Australia.

Price: $789

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Oui, you heard right. The Los Angeles (by way of Paris) brand founded by Henri Alexander Levy is known for its celebrity fan base and artist collaborations. But even the provocative purveyor of $800 T-shirts isnt immune to the cowboy myth. Levys version is another Chelsea-cowboy mash-up and features a sharp snipped toe and contrasting suede panels.

Price: $1,580

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Price: $1,600

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Damn Comfortable Cowboy Boots is the slogan for Chisos Boot Company, named after the mountain range near Big Bend National Park. When founder and native Texan Will Roman set out to build a better cowboy boot with a focus on comfort (styles run the gamut from ropers to exotic dress boots), he headed to Mexico to learn the craft and still works exclusively with the same Guanajuato-based family factory. The self-funded company, founded in 2019, also prioritizes sustainable practices and donates a portion of sales to conservation organizations such as the Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation.

Price: $1,200

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Atlanta-based Mashburn honed his skills as a senior design director at Polo Ralph Lauren (the RRL line was launched during his tenure) before starting his own burgeoning clothing empire. Having long been celebrated as a style oracle in the menswear space, Mashburn places a premium on sourcing the best materials and manufacturers for his namesake line. That said, it should come as no surprise that these easy-to-wear (and weather-friendly) boots, which land about halfway between a classic cowboy and a chelsea boot, are pretty darn perfect.

Price: $550

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Handmade in Houston, Republic was founded in 2011 by entrepreneur Chris Conrad who was called to save what he viewed as a dying art. The company offers custom options (starting at $1,800) as well as the 1836 Collection of stock boots. By cutting out middle-men, Republic clocks in at about half the price of many of its competitors and the Milam style (inspired by Texas revolutionary Ben Milam) is about as classic as it gets with just a touch of flair courtesy of a dragon-corded upper.

Price: $395

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Dont be fooled by the brands more adventurous styles, founders and sisters Lizzie Means Duplantis and Sarah Means were practically born in boots, having grown up outside Marfa on one of the Lone Star States most storied ranches. After stints in New York City, the women identified a hole in the market for authentic cowboy boots made for a more contemporary fashion customer. Fortunately, their uncle just happened to own Rios of Mercedes, which was founded in Leon, Mexico in 1853 and originally specialized in making cavalry boots.

Price: $1,395

Buy Now

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(Bloomberg) -- US Supreme Court justices suggested they arent likely to declare the Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus funding system unconstitutional, hearing arguments in a case that had threatened to upend years of agency work.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Even some of the courts conservative justices indicated Tuesday they are inclined to back the agency, set up after the 2008 financial crisis to regulate mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and other consumer-finance products. Congress let the bureau draw as much money as it needs  up to a cap it has never hit  from the Federal Reserve.

I get your point that this is different, that its unique, that its odd, that theyve never gone this far, Justice Clarence Thomas told a lawyer challenging the system on behalf of a payday-lending trade group. But not having gone this far is not a constitutional problem.

Supreme Court Weighs Fate of Agency That Vexes Banks, Riles GOP

Although the high court case centers on a never-enforced payday-lending rule, the impact is potentially far broader. The Biden administration says the ruling from the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals cast a legal cloud over every action the agency has taken since its creation, providing an argument for re-opening even long-finalized rules and enforcement cases.

The 5th Circuit said the bureau was set up in violation of the constitutional provision that requires a congressional appropriation for government spending.

The clash will shape the future of an agency that critics see as the ultimate symbol of an unaccountable and overreaching federal bureaucracy  but that backers say has provided crucial safeguards and an independent check against corporate power.

Story continues

Skeptical Justices

Noel Francisco, the lawyer fighting the agency on behalf of the Community Financial Services Association of America, said Congress unconstitutionally gave away its appropriations power in setting up the bureau.

Congress has not determined the amount that this agency should be spending, said Francisco, who served as solicitor general under former President Donald Trump. Instead it has delegated to the director the authority to pick his own appropriation subject only to an upper limit thats so high, its rarely meaningful.

In fiscal 2022, the agency received $641.5 million in funding, short of its $734 million cap.

The current solicitor general, Elizabeth Prelogar, told the justices that the CFPB was indistinguishable from many other federal agencies, including ones that date back to the countrys founding. She said that Congress set up the Customs Service in 1789 to have a standing, uncapped source of funding from revenues the agency collected.

Justices from across the ideological spectrum suggested they agreed with those arguments. Youre just flying in the face of 250 years of history, Justice Elena Kagan said to Francisco.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett told him, I think were all struggling to figure out then whats the standard that you would use. She later questioned whether Franciscos arguments had a textual hook in the Constitution.

Problem Fixed

Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected Franciscos suggestion that the CFPB was enjoying a perpetual funding stream. Congress could change it tomorrow, and theres nothing perpetual or permanent about this, Kavanaugh said.

The Supreme Court in 2020 gave the president broad power to fire the CFPBs director, striking down job protections Congress had enacted, though stopping short of abolishing the agency altogether.

Kavanaugh suggested that ruling, Seila Law v. CFPB, had resolved the most glaring constitutional problem with the bureau.

I certainly agree that as originally constructed the CFPB had, in my view, a massive constitutional flaw in the single director who was protected by for-clause removal, but that of course was fixed and addressed in Seila Law, and now its not independent at all, Kavanaugh said. Its under the direct supervision and control of the president.

The case is Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association, 22-448.

(Update with comments from lawyers, justices starting in fifth paragraph.)

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While everyone is fussing over the turkey, stuffing, cranberry cocktails, and their outfits, we'll be here, helping you dream up a Thanksgiving tablescape worthy of Instagram, because no holiday meal is complete without a fitting backdrop for the occasion. The best Thanksgiving tablecloths will inspire a stylish, warm, and inviting mealtime experience. Whether they're harvest-themed or a little more subtle, take it from us: picking beautiful, autumn-inspired linens is a worthy cause. Just imagine your feast spread over it, tapered candles flickering, your best cloth napkins laid out just so, and everyone's crystal glasses glimmering.

With that image in your mind, keep reading to find your new favorite thanksgiving tablecloth, from our go-to retailers like Williams Sonoma, Anthropologie, West Elm, Sur La Table, and more. Featuring classic patterns like gingham and tartan, embroidered linens, and more eclectic, floral options, each of these will provide the ideal backdrop for your table of plenty. You'll find affordable options if you're just looking for something seasonal, and of course we found a handful of luxury picks that will adorn the table for years to come.

Embroidered Tablecloth

This transparent tablecloth looks more expensive than it is, thanks to embroidery and tasteful tassles. It has a moisture-repellant coating, so if Jan spills her wine (again), it'll be easier to clean up. It comes in a handful of dimensions to fit your dining room table.

Fabric: Cotton, polyester

Sizes: Square, rectangle

Shop Now Embroidered Tablecloth amazon.com $22.88 Amazon

Blackthorn Tablecloth

Screw the turkey, this floral tablecloth is your centerpiece. Designed by British luxury interior brand House of Hackney, the jewel-toned, statement linen is practically begging for a dinner party.

Fabric: Cotton twill

Sizes: One size

Shop Now Blackthorn Tablecloth anthropologie.com $118.00 Anthropologie

Harvest Bloom Tablecloth

Printed with realistic, colorful fall blooms, Williams Sonoma's tablecloth is a timeless option for those with a subtly rustic sense of style. The corners are mitered to reduce bulk and create a beautiful draped look.

Fabric: Cotton

Sizes: 70" x 90, 70" x 108", 70" x 126"

Shop Now Harvest Bloom Tablecloth williams-sonoma.com $119.95 Williams Sonoma

Turmeric 100% French Flax Linen Tablecloth

Bed Threads is known for its perpetually viral, lived-in bedding, but don't look past its table linens. This solid tablecloth not only allows your Thanksgiving dishes get their moment in the spotlight, but it's versatile and ensures that you can have fun with stylish napkins, candles, and glassware without overdoing it.

Fabric: Linen

Sizes: Small, medium, large

Shop Now Turmeric 100% French Flax Linen Tablecloth bedthreads.com $100.00 Bed Threads

Gingham Tablecloth

Gingham doesn't always have to be an ode to summer. In this case, the ochre gives an autumnal nod (but not so much so that you can't bring it out for other seasons). It's ideal for a more casual, laid-back feast.

Fabric: Cotton

Sizes: 66" square, 60" x 108, 60 x 120"

Shop Now Gingham Tablecloth Serena & Lily $118.00 Serena & Lily

Tablecloth

Australian homeware and textile brand Mosey Me's mod, 60s-style tablecloth is bubbly and fun. It compliments vibrant dinnerware for Thanksgiving and beyond.

Fabric: Linen

Sizes: One size

Shop Now Tablecloth westelm.com $169.00 West Elm

Fall Botanical Tablecloth

If you anticipate a few messes happening throughout the course of your meal, a cotton tablecloth is going to be the most absorbent and easy to clean option (just toss it in the washing machine and you're good to go). This one from Sur La Table is festive and fun, but still has plenty of white space so as not to detract from your other decor.

Fabric: Cotton

Sizes: One size

Shop Now Fall Botanical Tablecloth surlatable.com $134.95 Sur La Table

Forest Harvest Tablecloth

Couleur Nature's gauzy cotton table linen is inspired by the flora that grows in the forests of Provence. Each piece is hand-printed by artisans in Jaipur, and while the mustard hue feels autumnal, you could keep it on display long after November.

Fabric: Cotton

Sizes: Square, round, rectangle

Shop Now Forest Harvest Tablecloth food52.com $239.00 Food52

Autumn Jacquard Printed Fabric Tablecloth

If you're on the hunt for an explicitly autumnal tablecloth, this one fits the bill (without looking tacky). Dotted with falling leaves and greenery, the thick jacquard covering will get everyone in the Thanksgiving spirit.

Fabric: Cotton

Sizes: Round, rectangle

Shop Now Autumn Jacquard Printed Fabric Tablecloth amazon.com $23.37 Amazon

Flora Cotton Tablecloth

Terrain's folk art-inspired botanical tablecloth is versatile for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and all the dinner parties that happen in between. It's block printed by hand with an intricate border.

Fabric: Cotton

Sizes: One size

Shop Now Flora Cotton Tablecloth anthropologie.com $238.00 Anthropologie

Tocarro Plaid Cotton Tablecloth

You can't go wrong with this classic tartan table covering. Like a scarf for the table, it's the perfect final touch to any fall meal. Pair it with ochre napkins and candlesticks to fit the theme, or maybe go with a vibrant blue for contrast.

Fabric: Cotton

Sizes: 84" x 60", 70" x 52", 102" x 60", 120" x 60"

Shop Now Tocarro Plaid Cotton Tablecloth wayfair.com $27.99 Wayfair

Yadira Tablecloth

For anyone with a more maximalist, eclectic taste, might we point you Furbish? This beautiful, fun table covering makes a bold statement. The striped border adds a little whimsy, and who couldn't use a little bit more of that?

Fabric: Cotton

Size: One size

Shop Now Yadira Tablecloth furbishstudio.com $69.00 Furbish

100% Cotton Kashmir Paisley Tablecloth

Bring a sophisticated, European ambience to your dining room with this pretty paisley option you can find on Amazon. It's easy to care for and it looks far more expensive than it is (but nobody else needs to know that).

Fabric: Cotton

Size: Round, rectangle

Shop Now 100% Cotton Kashmir Paisley Tablecloth amazon.com $79.99 Amazon

Parita Block-Printed Tablecloth

Crafted by Soil to Studio, a Brooklyn, NY-based textile design studio, this vibrant block-printed piece can be springy or autumnal depending on how you style it. It's inspired by Udaipur, India and the vibrant colors and traditions of the city.

Fabric: Cotton

Sizes: One size

Shop Now Parita Block-Printed Tablecloth westelm.com $140.00 West Elm

Harvest Embroidery Tablecloth

Embroidered with vine-ripened produce (hi, pumpkins and squash), this luxe tablecloth leans on negative space without making it feel sparse.

Fabric: Cotton

Sizes: One size

Shop Now Harvest Embroidery Tablecloth williams-sonoma.com $59.99 Williams Sonoma

Textured Fabric Tablecloth

Adding texture to a solid color makes it a little more visually interesting. This rust option is not only affordable, but with more than 5,000 glowing reviews, it's practically guaranteed to be a hit.

Fabric: Cotton, polyester

Sizes: Rectangle, round

Shop Now Textured Fabric Tablecloth amazon.com $21.98 Amazon

Mae Tablecloth

This heirloom tablecloth is handwoven in Ethiopia with small-batch dyes. It has a loose, airy weave with sunshine-colored stripes down the center. The simple pattern makes it easy to use all year roundyes, even for autumn and winter holidays.

Fabric: Cotton

Size: One size

Shop Now Mae Tablecloth Anthropologie $119.00 Anthropologie

Henney Round Tablecloth

Go ahead, take the nontraditional route for your Thanksgiving table settings. This option is practically sunshine in tablecloth form, and your guests will agree. Since it's such a statement piece, that means you can spend less time agonizing over intricate dinnerware and cutlery.

Fabric: Cotton

Sizes: One size

Shop Now Henney Round Tablecloth Furbish $78.00 Furbish

Tablecloth

Fashion designer Ulla Johnson's foray into home decor combines her airy, bohemian taste with Cabana's emphasis on summer and folksy florals. The lived-in linen will feel upscale, but not uptight.

Fabric: Linen

Sizes: Rectangle, square

Shop Now Tablecloth cabanamagazine.com $450.00 Cabana Magazine

Neila Suzani Embroidered Table Throw

Reminiscent of Persian suzani embroidery, this table throw isn't as full-coverage as the other options on this list, so your guests will be able to get a peek of your beautiful table.

Fabric: Cotton

Sizes: One size

Shop Now Neila Suzani Embroidered Table Throw Pottery Barn $129.00 Pottery Barn

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I recently found myself lost in a rabbit hole of crime one day on the internet, and happened upon the FBI's website. What I found there was a trove of the FBI's (somewhat) detailed accounts of hundreds of their cases. Specifically, they have a section titled "Famous Cases & Criminals," that was eye-opening to say the least.

So I'm about to give you a rundown (based on the information given on their website) of the 6 (ish) times where they caught the criminal, and the 6 where they...did their best:

Content warning: Some of these cases contain disturbing descriptions of violent crimes.

1. The Kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. : At 19 years old, Frank Sinatra Jr. was a new musician on the scene, traveling from city to city to perform. Unbeknownst to Frank Sinatra Jr., he was being trailed by two 23-year-old men, Barry Keenan and Joe Amsler, who were old high school buddies. They decided to team up and kidnap the son of one of the most famous musicians on the planet in order to "hopefully" collect a large ransom from his father for his return.

On December 8th, 1963 (just 16 days after the assassination of US President and Frank Sr.s close friend, John F. Kennedy), Frank Sinatra Jr. was performing at Harrahs Club Lodge in Lake Tahoe, and around 9 p.m., while hanging out in his dressing room with a friend, FSJ was interrupted by a knock on his door from someone claiming to be delivering a package. When Sinatra answered, Amsler and Keenan broke into the room, tied up Sinatra's friend, blindfolded Sinatra, and carried him out of the door to an awaiting vehicle. New York Daily News Archive / NY Daily News via Getty Images

Once the friend quickly freed himself, he immediately contacted the authorities, and roadblocks were set up to catch the kidnappers. Wildly enough, Amsler and Keenan were stopped by police but "bluffed their way through" the stop. They made their way to their suburban Los Angeles hideout with Sinatra Jr., and by 9:40 p.m. (yes, just 40 minutes later), the FBI in Reno had hopped on the case.

They met with the senior Sinatra in Reno and recommended he wait for a ransom demand, comply, and the FBI would track the money and the kidnappers. After the kidnappers enlisted John Irwin to handle the ransom demands, on December 10, 1963, he contacted Frank Sinatra Sr. to demand $240,000 for the return of his son. Frank was keen on the plan, collected the money, took it to the FBI for documentation, and dropped the ransom money off per their request between two school buses in Sepulveda, California, in the early morning hours of December 11th. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

After becoming increasingly nervous, the third conspirator, John Irwin, ended up freeing Sinatra Jr., while the two kidnappers went to go pick up the ransom money. Frank Sinatra Jr. walked a few miles before hitting Bel Air and alerting a security guard to who he was and what had happened.

To avoid alerting the press, he was put in the trunk of the security guard's car and taken to his mother's home in Bel Air. He described the little of what he saw of the kidnappers to the FBI, and they were able to track those clues back to where he was being held. As more news of the kidnappings hit the press, the conspirators were really starting to feel the pressure. The final addition, John Irwin, who sneakily let Sinatra Jr. go, ended up telling his brother about what he had done, and his brother promptly called the San Diego FBI. All three men were convicted, and nearly all of the ransom money was recovered (even against the defense's best efforts to make the case that Sinatra Jr. had planned this all as a publicity stunt). Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

2. The Alcatraz Escape : The former maximum security prison, Alcatraz, was known to be the home of criminals like Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, and plenty of attempted escapees. It was refortified into the world's most secure prison in 1934 due to the war on crime, and escape "seemed nearly impossible."

However, from 1934 until the prison was shut down in 1963, 14 different escape attempts happened by 36 men, and nearly all were known to be caught or didn't survive, except for three. Clarence Anglin, John William Anglin, and Frank Morris were old acquaintances from multiple prison stints they had done together. Morris was sent to Alcatraz in January of 1960 after being convicted of bank robbery, burglary, and attempted prison escapes. Frank Morris was followed by John Anglin, who was brought in later that year, and John was followed by his brother Clarence in early 1961. Now assigned to adjoining cells, the three attempted to hatch an escape plan with the aid of another inmate, Allen West. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

On June 12th, 1962, during the early morning bed checks, Clarence, John, and Frank were nowhere to be found. Instead, in their beds were three cleverly made dummies that were created with plaster, flesh-tone paint, and real human hair to fool the night guards. Of course, the whole place went into lockdown, and a massive search ensued.

The FBI in San Francisco was immediately on the case and sent out a nationwide message to other offices across the country to begin gathering information on the three escapees and their previous prison escape attempts. The FBI also contacted the prisoners' families, collected any identifying records on them, and asked boat operators in the Bay to keep a lookout. A few days later, a packet of letters related to the men was recovered, and later, paddle-like pieces of wood, bits of rubber, and even a homemade life-vest. But after an extensive search, no more evidence was collected. As time went by, and with assistance from the Coast Guard, the Bureau of Prison Authorities, and Allen West (who helped create the plan and was supposed to escape with the three but didn't make it out of his cell in time), they were finally able to possibly piece together what happened. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

The FBI claims the preparation plan was as follows: The group had been planning this since December. Using tools like a homemade drill with a motor made out of a broken vacuum cleaner, the three loosened the air vents in the back of their cells by drilling small holes into the wall to effectively remove them. Behind the wall was an unguarded utility corridor. They went down the corridor and made their way to the roof, where they had a secret workshop.

There, they had stolen and donated materials to craft what they needed to escape. They did things like using more than 50 stolen raincoats to create a raft and makeshift life preservers. They even converted musical instruments into a way to inflate the raft. When evening fell on June 11th, that was the three men's moment. They left their cells, grabbed their gear, got onto the prison roof, climbed down the bakery smoke stack, went over the fence surrounding the prison, headed to the northeast side of the island, and launched their raft. What happened to them after that is a total mystery, but according to the FBI, "they didn't survive." But the FBI closed the case in December 1979, and they turned it over to the US Marshals, who still "continue to investigate in the unlikely event the trio is still alive." Jon Brenneis / Getty Images

3. The Murders in the Osage Hills : In May of 1921, a badly decomposed body was found in a ravine in northern Oklahoma. The body belonged to Anna Brown, an Osage Native American woman. After a further look at her remains, the undertaker found a bullet hole in the back of her head, but "since Anna had no known enemies," the case went unsolved, like most cases involving Native American people disproportionately and horrifically do.

Sadly, just two months later, Anna's mother, Lizzie Q, "suspiciously died," and two years later, her cousin Henry Roan was shot to death. To make it all even wilder, in March 1923, Anna's sister and brother-in-law, Rita and Bill Smith, were also killed when their home was bombed. Anna's last sibling, Mollie Burkhart, was devastated and suspiciously came down with an ongoing illness. At least two dozen Osage Native Americans, a prominent oilman, and others had turned up dead. The FBI claims that many private detectives and other investigators turned up nothing, so the Osage tribe turned to the federal government, and Bureau agents were briefed on the case. Oklahoma Historical Society / Getty Images

The early suspect was William Hale, nicknamed "King of the Osage Hills," a local cattleman who had lied and stolen his way to wealth and power had something to do with it. It's claimed he grew greedier in the late 1800s when oil was discovered on the Osage Reservation. The Osage became incredibly wealthy overnight and even earned federal royalties from oil sales.

Plot twist: Hale's connection to Anna's family was that his nephew Ernest Burkhart was married to Anna's last living sister, Mollie. If Hale managed to kill all of the family members leading up to his nephew, he would be able to take control of the head rights and rake in half a million dollars a year or more. Again, when it came to solving the crime, the FBI found themselves blocked by the lack of people willing to talk about the incident. They believe Hale threatened or paid many of them off to keep their mouths shut. Hale was also coming up with false leads to fool the FBI and keep them off his trail. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

In the end, four of the FBI agents ended up going undercover as a cattle buyer, an insurance salesman, an oil prospector, and a herbal doctor to find some sort of substantial evidence. They ended up "gaining the trust" of the Osage overtime and building a case. Eventually, the nephew talked, and the others confessed right behind him.

The agents were able to prove that Hale had ordered the murder of Anna and the rest of her family to inherit their oil rights. It's alleged Hale attempted to kill Mollie by poisoning her, but they failed in that attempt. In January 1929, he was convicted and sent to prison. He was promptly followed by his hired killer and lawyer. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

4. The Murder of Elizabeth Short : On the morning of January 15th, 1947, a woman on a walk with her child in Los Angeles happened upon a naked body that was just a few feet away from the sidewalk and posed in such a way that the woman reported to police that she believed it was a mannequin at first. Despite the precise and disturbing cuts and mutilations done to the body (including her being cut in half and cuts made to her mouth that are only comparable to The Joker), there wasn't a drop of blood at the scene.

The investigation was led by the Los Angeles Police Department, and the FBI was asked to assist. Within 56 minutes of receiving the lifted prints from the victim's body, the FBI had identified 22-year-old Hollywood hopeful Elizabeth Short as the victim, whose prints were in the system due to a previous arrest for underage drinking and a previous job application. The press later named her "The Black Dahlia" because of her alleged love for sheer black clothes, and of course, publications made sure to imply that such a heinous act of violence toward a woman was in some way due to her being a "sex fiend" or "sexually promiscuous." Archive Photos / Getty Images

The FBI ran records checks and conducted interviews nationwide to potentially find her killer. They even questioned a batch of students at the University of Southern California Medical School due to the terrifyingly skillful dissection that was done to Elizabeth's body. The FBI was sent an anonymous letter "from the killer" that they tried to take prints from that came up with no match in the database.

Elizabeth's murderer has never been found, and the sad thing is, the FBI goes as far as to say, "And given how much time has passed, probably never will be. The legend grows." Unfortunately, it wasn't some legend or scary folktale for Elizabeth. She was completely mutilated and violated, and she never received any type of justice. Her murderer could legitimately be someone's grandparent who's reading this right now, and the world may never know. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

5. The Judge Vance Murder : On December 16th, 1989, Federal Appeals Judge Robert Vance found a small brown package sitting in the kitchen of his family home. When Vance opened it, it exploded, killing him instantly and injuring his wife. Two days later, Atlanta attorney Robert Robinson also received a package that, upon opening, exploded, killing him instantly.

Two more bombs appeared; the third was sent to the federal courthouse in Atlanta and intercepted, and the fourth was recovered after an attempt to be sent to the Jacksonville office of the NAACP. Both bombs were successfully defused. The FBI aimed to discover any motive behind these mail bombs. They started with the obvious: Both men were known for their work in civil rights, but it ended up not leading to anything. Meanwhile, between the FBI and the US Postal Inspectors, they attempted to collect as much evidence from the bombs as possible to analyze, learn their route, and find some suspects. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

Their break came when an ATF member was contacted by a colleague who had assisted in defusing one of the second-round bombs. He claimed that he believed it resembled one he'd seen 17 years prior, which was built by a man named Walter Leroy Moody. Of course, the FBI put everything into this lead, tracing phone calls, purchases, etc. They finally ended up linking all of the bombs to each other and back to Moody. The courts authorized surveillance of his home, and with Moody's knack for talking to himself, it provided additional evidence.

His experimentation with bombs dates back to the early 1970s, when he was convicted of possessing a bomb that harmed his wife when it exploded. He basically held huge resentment toward the court system for years due to his conviction and failed appeals after the case with his wife. He also had a connection with Judge Vance from a later case in the 1980s. The FBI suspects the final two bombs were racially motivated. By the spring of '91, they had developed a case against Moody and took him to trial. Moody, of course, attempted to "conceal" his involvement, but on June 28th, 1991, with assistance from the FBI, ATF, IRS, US Marshals, Georgia State Police, and more, the jury found Moody guilty on 70+ charges and sentenced him to life in prison. He was executed in 2018. The FBI names this "one of the largest cases in FBI history." Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

6. The Wall Street Bombing of 1920: On September 16th, 1920, during the middle of the work day on a very busy Wall Street in New York City, a nondescript man driving a cart pulled by a horse stopped in front of the US Assay Office across from the J.P. Morgan building (today known as JPMorgan Chase).

The man proceeded to step out of the cart and disappear into the crowd. Moments later, the cart exploded into tons of metal fragments, killing 30 people and injuring more than 300. The carnage was described as "horrific," and the death toll continued to rise throughout the day as more and more people succumbed to their injuries. New York Daily News / NY Daily News via Getty Images

At the beginning, it wasn't completely obvious that this had been a terrorist attack. Cleaning crews for the city cleaned up the explosion overnight, eliminating any evidence from the scene. Literally, by the next day, everyone went back to work on Wall Street, bruised and broken, with tarp covering their exploded windows.

The New York Police and Fire Departments, the Bureau of Investigation (what the FBI was called before it became the Federal Bureau of Investigation), and the US Secret Service teamed together to locate the bomber. Although the FBI interviewed hundreds of people who were at the attack before, after, and during...there was no lead. They claimed the few recollections of the driver and wagon were useless, but the NYPD was somehow able to recreate the bomb and its fuse mechanism...there was some skepticism about that one. New York Daily News / NY Daily News via Getty Images

When it comes to leads, prior to the explosion, a letter carrier mentioned finding printed flyers from a group called the "American Anarchist Fighters," who demanded the release of political prisoners. The letters that weren't discovered until "later" were claimed to have been similar to ones found at two other bombings that were instigated by Italian anarchists.

The FBI says they worked diligently investigating up and down the East Coast to trace the origin of the flyers. However, they came up short. They initially suspected the followers of an Italian anarchist, Luigi Galleani, were responsible, but nothing could be proved, and the anarchist fled the country. They continued to investigate over the next three years, but nothing ever came out of it. They claim their best evidence and analysis of the situation was simply that the "Italian anarchist" did it. New York Daily News / NY Daily News via Getty Images

7. The Mississippi Burning : Back in June 1964, it was the start of "Freedom Summer," a huge three-month initiative to register southern Black people to vote (something the KKK often tried to ensure didn't happen). The KKK in Mississippi was planning to go after 24-year-old New Yorker Michael Schwerner. He often organized local boycotts of racist businesses and helped with voter registration. On June 16th, a mob of KKK members attacked a local church meeting looking for him; he wasn't there, so they torched the place and beat the churchgoers.

On June 20th, Michael and two other volunteers, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, headed south to investigate what happened at the church. They interviewed witnesses and met with fellow activists. Around 5 p.m. on June 21st, the three were headed into Philadelphia, Mississippi, before being arrested for "speeding" by a deputy sheriff named Cecil Price. At 10:30 that same night, the klan members were released from prison after attacking the church. They gathered some more members and headed out in a blue station wagon with a crew of klan members following behind. Mpi / Getty Images

The three civil rights activists were never heard from again after this. In the early morning of June 22nd, the Department of Justice notified the FBI, requesting their involvement in the case, and they boasted that a few hours later, the Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, asked them to lead it. Agents quickly began interviews around the area, and it eventually led them to locate the activists' burned station wagon on June 23rd, but no bodies were found.

The FBI led a massive search from June 24th to August 3rd; they searched through back roads, swamps, and hollows. They said that they were increasingly putting pressure on the klan and developing informants. Lyndon B. Johnson also requested that they open an office in Jacksonville, Mississippi, and that helped them develop a "comprehensive analysis" of the local KKK. On August 4th, acting on an informant tip, they found all three bodies of the activists 14 feet below a dam on a local farm. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

More than a dozen suspects were indicted and arrested, including Deputy Price and his boss, Sheriff Rainey. Naturally, it took until October of 1967 for any sight of the end. Only 7 of the 18 defendants were found guilty, which fortunately included Deputy Price; however, no one was charged with murder.

One of the men went free after a singular juror couldn't bring herself to convict a Baptist preacher, Edgar Ray Killen, even though he had heinously assisted in murdering three people. The FBI claims that in the end, "the Klan's homicidal ways backfired," and "the murders galvanized the nation and provided impetus for the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964." I'll just end it by saying this: That Baptist preacher I told you about wasn't even convicted of manslaughter until June 2005, on the 41st anniversary of the murders. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

8. The Horrifying Anthrax Attacks : Back in 2001, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, letters laced with anthrax began popping up in the US mail system. This attack killed five people and exposed many others to the harmful and potentially deadly substance.

The FBI names it as one of its "largest and most complex investigations in the history of law enforcement." The interesting thing is that for something so "large and complex," they're extremely vague about it on their website, even in comparison to cases they never even solved. Jennifer S. Altman / WireImage

It wasn't until August 2008 when the DoJ and FBI had a "breakthrough" in the case. They randomly released a bunch of documents and information detailing that charges were to be brought against Dr. Bruce Ivins (a senior biodefense researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases) for the attacks, but he took his own life before they could file the charges.

On February 19, 2010, the FBI, the US Postal Inspection Service, and the other involved law enforcement agencies formally closed the case. Of course, there was tons of doubt, even back in 2008, regarding the possibility of it even being Ivins: from inconclusive evidence to handwriting that doesnt match up, to questions of how someone couldve done something on such a large scale by themselves and have so much access to something like that in the first place. The FBI prided itself on this case by saying their efforts consisted of more than 10,000 witness interviews on six different continents, 80 searches, and the recovery of more than 6,000 pieces of "potential" evidence. NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images

9. The Jonestown Murder/Suicides: Jonestown was a makeshift settlement in Guyana that was led by cult leader Jim Jones and inhabited by him and his followers, known as "the Peoples Temple." The allegations against Jim and what was going on in Jonestown were very disturbing...beatings, forced labor, imprisonments, the use of drugs to control behavior, and many suspicious deaths.

On November 14th, 1978, California Congressman Leo Ryan continued to grow concerned about what was going on in Jonestown. So, he took it upon himself, his congressional delegation, a group of reporters, and government officials to fly out to Guyana and see exactly what was going on out there with more than 900 Jonestown members, many of whom were said to be his constituents from San Francisco who had followed Jim to South America. Janet Fries / Getty Images

Once there, Congressman Ryan met with Jim and interviewed many of the members. Thankfully, some families and several people asked to leave with the Congressman, while others left on foot on their own. Of course, Jones was livid. Leo Ryan wanted the entire group to fly out together, fearing that anyone left behind would be met with a bad fate. Of course, they needed another plane to safely transport everyone, which resulted in a departure delay.

The group of people ready to get the hell away from Jim found themselves at an airstrip on the afternoon of November 18th, and as Congressman Leo Ryan's plane prepared to leave, a dump truck with several armed loyalists began firing at one plane, while one of the "escaping" cultists, Larry Layton, pulled out a gun and began firing shots in the other. Somewhere in all of this chaos, Leo Ryan and several others were killed, and many others were wounded. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

If you didn't think it was already unbelievable, it gets worse. Back at the compound while all of this was happening at the airstrip, Jim Jones was calling all of his followers together and telling them the attack on the planes would bring harm to the people of Jonestown. He told them to ingest a fruit-flavored drink that was laced with cyanide, and the great majority of them did.

In the end, more than 900 people (including 200 children) had drank the cyanide and lay lifeless on the ground of Jonestown. Somewhere in all of this horrible tragedy, Jim Jones was shot in the head. Now, with the majority of the people, including the leader, dead, the FBI launched an extensive investigation into the tragedy in collaboration with other agencies and the authorities in Guyana. They interviewed survivors of the mass murder/suicide, members of the US section of the Peoples Temple, and experts from the FBI disaster squad who identified all of the victims. In the end, they only had Larry Layton to make a case against. He was the only member of the Peoples Temple tried in the US for their criminal acts in Jonestown. He was eventually sentenced to life in prison. David Hume Kennerly / Getty Images

10. The Mysterious Case of D.B. Cooper : On November 24th, 1979, a man claiming to be Dan Cooper used cash to buy a one-way ticket from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington on Northwest Orient Airlines (Flight #305). Cooper is described as a quiet man, mid-40s, and wearing a business suit. They even detail that he ordered a bourbon and soda while the flight was waiting to take off.

Shortly after 3 p.m., Cooper handed the flight attendant a note that detailed how he had a bomb in his briefcase and wanted her to sit beside him. Obviously, she did as she was told, and Cooper proceeded to give her a peek inside of his briefcase, which was described as a "mass of wires and red-colored sticks." He told the flight attendant to write down what he told her, and next thing she knew, she was walking the note to the captain. Cooper was demanding four parachutes and $200,000 in $20 bills. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

When the plane arrived in Seattle, Cooper traded the 36 passengers on the plane for money and parachutes. He kept several crew members with him, ordering the plane to take him to Mexico City. A little after 8 p.m. somewhere between Seattle and Reno, D.B. Cooper opened the back of the plane and jumped out into the night with the ransom money, a parachute, and a dream. The flight and remaining crew members continued on and safely landed.

The FBI was let on to the crime in-flight (they don't detail which flight, and for that reason, I'm going to go ahead and guess it was the later one) and opened an investigation named NORJAK (Northwest Hijacking). They, of course, searched the aircraft for any evidence and tracked leads across the nation, and by the fifth anniversary, they had interviewed 800 suspects and eliminated all but 24 from being tied to the crime. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

They say a "favorite suspect" amongst people is Richard Floyd McCoy, who had performed a similar stunt just months after Cooper but was later ruled out as he didn't match the nearly identical descriptions given to them by two flight attendants and "for other reasons."

Of course, their first theory is that he's just dead. However, in 1980, a young boy did find a rotting package of $5,800 (yes, in $20 bills) that matched the serial numbers of the ransom money. For that, it suggests to the FBI not that he could've possibly dropped one of the packages full of money and went on with the rest of the $200,000, but that it was an added boost to the claim he didn't survive the jump. They end it by letting us know, "The daring hijack and disappearance remain an intriguing mystery  for law enforcement and amateur sleuths alike." Umm. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

11. The Strange Case of Patty Hearst : On February 4th, 1974, a woman and her fiance received a knock on their apartment door in Berkeley, California. As they opened the door, in came a group of armed men and women. They grabbed 19-year-old college student Patty Hearst, beat up her fiance, and threw her in the trunk of a car.

It would soon come to light that Patty was kidnapped by a group of armed radicals from various walks of life named the Symbionese Liberation Army, or "SLA". They were led by a man named Donald DeFreeze, and it's stated that their aim was to "incite a guerrilla war against the American government and destroy what they called the 'capitalist state.'" They snatched Hearst in particular to get the country's attention, as she was a part of a very wealthy and powerful family and the granddaughter of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Of course, their plan worked, and Patty's disappearance was all over the news and front pages. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

Soon after Patty's disappearance, the SLA began releasing audiotapes demanding food donations that would cost millions, for which they would exchange her. All the while, they had begun abusing and brainwashing her, hoping to eventually turn this high-profile society member into the poster child of their revolution.

Well, it seemed to have worked because on April 3rd, the SLA released an audiotape of Patty telling them she'd join their fight and free the oppressed; she even took on the alias Tania. Twelve days later, Patty was spotted on a bank surveillance camera with an assault weapon "barking" orders at bystanders and providing cover to her fellow SLA members during an SLA bank robbery. Afp / AFP via Getty Images

In the meantime, the FBI launched what they call "one of the most massive, agent-intensive searches in its history" to find Patty and the SLA. They worked with many partners, running down thousands of leads. It seemed that the SLA had scared any potential witnesses or informants into silence. They were also using an organized network of safe houses and great operational security. On May 16th, the FBI finally had movement.

Two SLA members had attempted to steal an ammunition belt from a local store and were nearly caught. Authorities located the getaway van, and it led them right to the SLA safe house. The following day, the house was surrounded by Los Angeles police, and a massive shootout broke out. The safe house went up in flames, and six members of the SLA died, including their leader. Patty was still nowhere to be found, as she and several other members were traveling around the country to avoid capture. They finally caught up with her on September 18th, 1975 in San Francisco, and she was charged with bank robbery and "other crimes." Despite the kidnapping and brainwashing, she was still found guilty by a jury and told to serve seven years in prison. She served two years before President Carter commuted her sentence, and she was later pardoned. Donaldson Collection / Getty Images

And finally, here's one that, while the case is closed and most of the people were tried for their crimes, I hesitate to ever refer to it as a "win":

12. The Baptist Street Church Bombing : One of the many cases involving disgustingly racist acts, the Baptist Street Church Bombing happened in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963. A dynamite bomb exploded in the back stairwell, killing four young Black girls (the FBI never names them in their accounts, but I will: Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14), and Cynthia Wesley (14)) and injuring more than 20 people inside the church. A very clear act of racial hatred.

The FBI's Birmingham office launched an immediate investigation and let the FBI director know of the crime. FBI bomb experts were sent to the scene via military jets, and a dozen additional personnel were sent to assist the Birmingham office. That night, the Assistant Director of the FBI assured the Assistant Attorney General they "considered this a most heinous offense and entered the investigation with no holds barred." They continue on to say they "backed that promise up." Bettmann / Bettmann Archive

Dozens of agents worked on the case from September into the new year, "as many as 36 at that point." Even with all of those agents on the case, they still didn't have any serious suspects until 1965, and naturally, they were all KKK members. Robert E. Chambliss, Bobby Frank Cherry, Herman Frank Cash, and Thomas E. Blanton, Jr. were the suspects in the crime, and "due to witnesses reluctance to talk and lack of physical evidence," there were no federal charges ever filed against them in the 1960s.

The FBI then goes on to talk about the claim that Director Hoover held back evidence from prosecutors or even tried to block prosecution in the '60s, saying that it's "simply not true." They then go on to overcompensate Hoover's innocence for an entire paragraph and claim he "simply didn't think the evidence was there to convict." In the end, it's hard for me to ever claim that justice was served. In 1977  yes, you read right  Chambliss received life in prison. They reopened the case (why they would close it, you tell me) in the mid-'90s. Blanton and Cherry were indicted in May 2000, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. If this wasn't bad enough, the last vile man who killed those poor little girls, Herman Frank Cash, had already died in 1994. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive
While installing new gas lines just beneath the busy streets of Lima, Peru, utility workers unearthed an unexpected archaeological bounty: eight pre-Inca mummies and a wealth of artifacts.

The mummies , which were buried in a seated position, were wrapped in funeral bales made of cotton cloth and tied with ropes braided from liana, a woody vine that grows in rainforests. Archaeologists think the mummies were part of a pre-Inca culture known as the Ichma (also spelled Ychma) that incorporated into the Inca Empire in the 15th century, according to the Associated Press .

"We are recovering those [remains] of the lost history of Lima hidden under the tracks and streets," Jesus Bahamonde, an archaeologist at Calidda, a local natural gas company that was leading the utility project, told the Associated Press.

Related: 3,000-year-old tomb of shaman who may have mediated 'between spiritual and earthly worlds' found in Peru

In addition to the funeral bales, which archaeologists think contain two adults and six children, workers discovered more recent artifacts, such as opium pipes, hand-rolled cigarettes, shoes, Chinese playing cards, a Peruvian silver coin minted in 1898 and a contract written in Spanish in 1875.

"When the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century, they found an entire population living in the three valleys that today occupy Lima," Bahamonde told the Associated Press. "What we have is a kind of historical continuation."

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This isn't the first time that a construction project has revealed parts of Lima's past. In his time at Calidda, Bahamonde said, more than 1,900 archaeological finds have been unearthed in the urban region, including mummies, pottery and textiles.

Lima is known for its abundance of archaeological sites, including 400 "huacas," or burial mounds, scattered throughout the city, according to The Washington Post .
A white substitute teacher is expected to catch the fullness of Phirst Phamily fury after putting on a duly initiated member of Alpha Kappa Alphas jacket in class.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. is the first Black womens sorority founded in 1908 on Howard Universitys campus. The organizations colors are salmon pink and apple green.

A photo of a substitute teacher wearing another teachers jacket in class. (@ursk1nnysavior/X)

The students in her class tried to warn her not to put their teachers jacket on, but the defiant older woman did not care and rocked the pink and green Greek letters like she was marching on Howard Universitys campus in 1908.

Trending Today:

One student, whose X profile name is @ursk1nnysavior, posted two pictures of the teacher with the forbidden paraphernalia on her social media. In one picture, the young Black girl, fully aware of the devastating misdeed the woman perpetrated, appears shocked.

The teen also knows the backlash the elderly white woman is about to get.

Yall why Im in class and we got a sub and she gon grab our teachers AKA jacket and put it on and then we tryna explain to her and tell her to take it off and SHE WONT DO IT LMFAOOO, she tweeted.

The post went viral on X, garnering 17 million views by Tuesday, Oct. 3.

Some asked why the substitute teacher thought she could wear the jacket.

One person wrote, The AKAs are about to be outside her house like  posting a clip of rapper Beanie Sigel getting raided by the SWAT team.

The AKAs are about to be outside her house like pic.twitter.com/aUvjj91orE  General Booty (@big_hero_chris) September 28, 2023

Another joked, Her line name is AKAren.

I was just hella shocked





like aint no way she just did that, the student followed up in the replies.

Multiple people noted how disrespectful it is to wear anyones jacket without permission, regardless of their Divine 9 affiliation. More said they are waiting for a response from the teacher when she returns to class on Monday, Oct. 2. However, as of Tuesday, the student has not posted any updates. Atlanta Black Star also contacted the student for comment.

Membership into Alpha Kappa Alpha is done by a selective membership intake process that has over the last 115 years included women such as Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Mae Jemison, Cathy Hughes, sisters Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad, Jada Pinkett Smith, Brandy Norwood and Vice President Kamala Harris.

These women and only women within the organization understand that membership has its privileges  like wearing the letters. People who are not inducted into any of the organizations included in the National Pan-Hellenic Council (also known as the Divine 9 or D9), are not allowed to wear them.

In some cases, people who do wear paraphernalia or letters (often called perps) face serious and often violent consequences.

One example of a perp getting caught went viral earlier this summer. The young lady did not just wear the AKA clothing but attempted to stroll with some sorors at a Black Greek Week event in Washington. She was pulled from the line.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.

AKA Perp Alert is one social media page dedicated to putting on blast people who unjustifiably wear AKA paraphernalia and act like they are members when they are not. The substitute teacher most likely didnt know any of these cultural rules, nor was she trying to act as she pledged. She simply acted out of her privilege, which told her she could do what she wanted.
Photography by Isa Zapata.

My family is from Medellin, a sprawling city nestled in the Andes Mountains. Its nicknamed the City of Eternal Spring because of its position on the equator, making for 12 months of T-shirt-friendly days, along with a reliable five-minute daily downpour.

Medellin is a small slice of the greater mountain region, a Colombian department called Antioquia, where small towns dot the lush, wild landscape. The only way to move between these towns is to drive on la carretera, the winding, one-way, absolutely stunning network of mountain roads. If you live in Medellin, your weekend activities usually involve going to visit one of these towns for a cooler mountain breeze, quality time with family, and your favorite once-a-week treats, like the golden velvety stew that is sancocho, the lifeblood of my childhood.

Most of the food up here is going to be cooked en lena, or over firewood, which lends itself to fried food, plenty of starches, and lots of meat. I live in New York, but I go back to Colombia twice every year if Im lucky and always find time to take a few winding road trips. The food throughout this sprawling region is a unique experience you wont find anywhere else.

Here is a basic breakdown of the most delicious roadside foods you will find on a day trip from Medellin.

Empanadas and pastelitos de pollo

Caldas is a province in the southwest of the Paisa region in Colombia. What Caldas lacks in square mileage, it makes up for in history, architecture, and lush mountain landscapes. Its historically known for its gold mining, coffee production, anddrumrollstarch-and-meat-heavy cuisine. What more could you ask for? Surrounded by colonial architecture in cliffside towns, youll find the bulk of my favorite savory dishes in this itinerary.

A beloved chain restaurant in Colombia, Cocorollo boasts some of the most famous empanadas and pasteles de pollosun-shaped shredded chicken pastriesthat you can find. This specific Cocorollo in Caldas sits right on the shoulder of a highway south of Medellin. Walking in, youre met with the smells of the juicy, tender bits of meat and garlic hitting the grill. The entire restaurant is decorated in varnished wood, a classic design in Colombian chain restaurants. On Sundays you will see a line of people out the door, restlessly awaiting their jumbo-sized empanadas and pasteles de pollo. The dough on these is slightly sweeter and softer than youll usually find, and crunchy enough that you want to keep biting in. You can order either vegetarian potato filling or shredded beef and potato in your empanadas. Whichever you choose, do not forget to top them with the aji, a beloved, mildly spicy condiment.

Obleas

Caldas is known for its obleas with arequipe (caramel). No Colombian road trip is complete without these thin, crispy, caramel-smothered wafers, usually sold right on the side of the road. Theyre an ideal snack to tide you over on the way to your next stop. Theyre often also sold in town squares, where food vendors congregate. You will find them with additional toppings like jam or grated cheese, but in my opinion plain is the way to go.

Trucha con patacones

Trucha is a pink trout, usually served with potatoes or flattened, fried plantains called patacones. Despite being far from the coast, you can find this rose-colored, salty fish at most restaurants in the mountains. If youre making a trip through Caldas, I recommend a stop at Kachotis, a restaurant and farm sandwiched between the highway and a cliffside overlooking dense jungle. While you wait for your trucha, you can wander the premises and meet all the horses and roosters in the back. Trucha is a great alternative to the mostly pork and beef-centric dishes in this region. You can order it breaded or in ajillosauteed in garlic. The meat should be bright pink, soft, crisp on the outside, and decadently moist within. There will be some bones you need to eat around, so dont dive in too fast. Use the plantains as a palate reprieve or stack the fish on top (dont forget the aji). For all my garlic girls out there, this one's for you.

Bandeja paisa

The town of Amaga is a go-to for nature lovers. There is ample opportunity for hiking and bird-watching here if you need to warm up for the feasting ahead. Probably the most famous meal youll find here is the bandeja paisa. Paisa is a Colombian term used to describe the identity and culture of the people who live in the Northwest region of Colombia and the Andes Mountains. The bandeja paisa is not a meal for the faint of heart. It consists of chorizo, steamed rice, blood sausage, ground beef, fried pork rind (chicharron), sweet plantains, an arepa, avocado, and an egg cooked to your liking. It was originally considered peasant food, keeping people who worked in the fields energized and full. You can find this meal pretty much anywhere, and each restaurant will have its own variation. This one, a personal favorite, is from El Rancherito, a chain spread across the outskirts of Medellin that serves traditional Paisa food. This chain of restaurants is all open-air, featuring large wooden picnic tables for families, and encircled with hanging flower baskets.

Sancocho

Probably my all-time favorite Colombian meal, sancocho is a traditional put-it-on-the-fire-for-a-whole-day meat and starch stew. My uncle, a chef, often refers to the broth as liquid gold. Every time I go back to Colombia to see my family, we make this meal in my abuelos backyard, simmering the giant pot over a fire for a good seven hours of music, beer, and dancing. You can find this dish at any traditional Colombian restaurant chain, but my favoriteoutside of my familys home, at leastis also served at El Rancherito. Sancocho is prepared differently depending on where you are in Colombia, but my ideal version has potato, corn, yuca, plantain, beef, and chicken. You can add rice, sliced banana for a little sweetness, avocado, and aji if you want an extra kick.

Arepas

If youre looking for a short and easy day trip from the city, the arepas youll find in El Retiro are worth the excursion. El Retiro is a small town southeast of Medellin, brimming with flowers growing on colorful balconies that overlook cobblestone streets. Theres a waterfall here that nature lovers trek to, and the town square is packed with coffee shops and restaurants.

Classic arepas in Colombia are made with masarepa, a special precooked corn flour. These arepas arent hard to come by, and they go with pretty much everything. Although arepas are prepared differently all over Latin America, in Colombia you usually eat the arepa as a base, slathering your toppings over them. However, at Estadero Ricas Arepas, they specialize in a stuffed arepa de chocolo, the thicker, fluffier cousin to the traditional arepa. Chocolo or choclo is the Quechua word for tender corn, which gets mixed in with the classic masarepa for a larger, lighter, and sweeter arepa. The bits of corn kernels make for a filling and delightfully textural breakfast snack. Estadero Ricas Arepas is extremely well known, and rightly so. Make sure to get there early if you go on a Saturday. Their arepas de choclo are made in gorgeous specialty wood-fired ovens. Once the arepas come out, they are doused in butter and stuffed to the brim with layers and layers of quesito (a salty, semi-soft white cheese). Dont forget to get a side of fried pork belly, or chicharron, and a big ol mug of hot chocolate for a complete experience. The best part is that you can (and definitely should) buy a pack of six or 12 arepas to bring back down to the city.

Originally Appeared on Bon Appetit
Central in Lima was recently crowned the World's Best Restaurant, which means that its owner and head chef, Virgilio Martinez, is the best chef in the world. A chef who travels all over Peru, Martinez loves finding new and interesting ingredients to add to his seasonal menus. The dishes he creates from these explorations are why most believe he received the top honors in Spain last summer. But Martinez doesn't just limit his travels up and down the borders of Peru; he also takes time out of his busy schedule to visit other cities and countries all over the world.

He recently came to Los Angeles for the annual LA Food Bowl to sign his newest cookbook and show Angelenos how he turns new and unusual ingredients into unique versions of ceviche and potatoes. After sampling the dishes, it's safe to say that Martinez knows a thing or two about unusual ingredients and how to turn them into a delicious dish. Unfortunately, Martinez can't make these recipes every day for every meal. So, what does he eat while he's in town? We asked him, and he was nice enough to share his favorite Los Angeles restaurants. While you may not be able to visit all the restaurants on 50's Best or even the top restaurant, Central, you could definitely visit the three Martinez hits whenever he's in town.

Read more: 19 Popular Pizza Chains, Ranked From Worst To Best

Meteora

Halibut from Yukutat Bay - Instagram

Before COVID-19 forced restaurants all over Los Angeles to close their doors, Martinez visited Vespertine, one of the casualties, often because he and the head chef, Jordan Kahn, are "very good friends." Unfortunately, the lockdown and several allegations of misconduct from former employees kept the restaurant from reopening. But that didn't stop Kahn from setting his sights on a new venture: Meteora, a restaurant Martinez also makes a point of visiting when he's in town.

Opening on Melrose in July of 2022, Meteora is another fine-dining restaurant similar to Vespertine. But where Vespertine focused on just a tasting menu of several courses, Meteora gives the diners a few different options. They can either enjoy a different tasting menu where they choose their favorite protein or put Kahn in the driver's seat with his "omakase" and experience a meal that will excite every one of their senses. Unlike other Los Angeles prix fixe experiences, this particular fine dining experience isn't just about taste and flavor; the diners' senses of smell and sight will be entranced as well.

If you're not interested in a full dinner, Meteora recently added a bar and lounge that allows diners to experience Meteora in a more relaxed atmosphere. Not only is there a plethora of interesting cocktails, but several small dishes will give you a taste of Kahn's expertise without all the pomp and circumstance.

Kato Restaurant

General Tso's freshwater eel - Instagram

Kato has been around since 2016. But what started as a tiny, little Michelin-starred must-visit restaurant in a strip mall in West Los Angeles has turned into a must-visit fine-dining restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. Although dining at Kato means enjoying a high-priced prix fixe menu, its new, larger location means diners can add wine or cocktails to their experience as well, thanks to the liquor license chef Jon Yao acquired when he opened the restaurant in its new Arts District location.

Garnering raves from several different publications, including the New York and Los Angeles Times, as well as a constant stream of reservations and three James Beard Awards from 2018-2020, confirms what Martinez told us: That this restaurant is "good. Really good."

Reviews like these aren't a surprise as Yao did what most did during the pandemic: He experimented. Testing different breads and sampling a variety of fish led to Kato's current menu, which includes interesting dishes like Japanese tilefish in a clam sauce and Dungeness crab. Adding Austin Hennelly as the bar director to create cocktails that pair with these interesting menu options means Kato is definitely one Los Angeles restaurant worth a visit.

Mario's Peruvian & Seafood

Bowl of Siete Mares - Facebook

At the other end of the spectrum from a fine dining prix fixe experience is Mario's. A little hole in the wall that allows Angelenos to experience classic Peruvian food at its best. Located on Melrose in Hollywood, this restaurant serves standard Peruvian dishes and always has a line, especially at peak lunch and dinner hours. According to patrons, this is the place to go in Los Angeles when you want classic Peruvian food, especially ceviche, which is why Martinez makes it a must-visit when he's in Southern California. "I'm just very curious to see what the Peruvians are doing here," he explains as he signs his newest cookbook: "The Latin American Cookbook."

Even though the menu focuses on a wide range of ceviches and seafood dishes, people also make the trek to East Hollywood for the lomo saltado and aji verde, a green chili sauce that adds the perfect amount of spice to an already flavorful dish. But whichever dish you order, expect to have enough leftover for another meal or two, as several items include a side of boiled potatoes, steamed corn, and pickled onions.

Read the original article on Tasting Table.
Lexicographers must be exhausted right now. Thanks to the internet, and the explosion of chatty social media platforms in particular, our language has shifted, expanded, and evolved at such breakneck speed that I cant imagine trying to catalog it all before it experiences 100% turnover. All due credit, then, to Merriam-Webster, publisher of Americas Most Trusted Dictionary, which has added 690 new words to the dictionary in 2023many of which relate to food, cooking, and how we eat.

The words and phrases included in the dictionary tend to reflect the era in which theyre added. In 2018, for example, the edible additions spoke to our impatient use of abbreviations for just about everything, including avo (avocado), guac (guacamole), and marg (margarita). Beyond the convenience of fewer syllables, these terms no doubt project a confident familiarity with the food in question, whereas using its fuller, more formal name might indicate that were new to a particular cuisine.

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stage noun 1 : a usually unpaid internship in a professional kitchen that is part of a chefs training 2 : a person who holds such an internship : stagiaire emping noun : a slightly bitter cracker or chip popular in Indonesia that is made from the dried flattened seed of a melinjo tree (Gnetum gnemon) jollof rice noun : a West African dish of rice cooked in a sauce of tomatoes and onions seasoned usually with garlic, thyme, hot pepper, and other spices and often accompanied by meat, fish, or vegetables smashburger noun 1 : a hamburger patty that is pressed thin onto a heated pan or griddle at the start of cooking; also : a patty (as of beans or ground turkey) prepared similarly 2 : a sandwich featuring one or more such patties

Im surprised to see smashburger added to the dictionary, though not because its some as yet obscure food term; the burger style has gained immense popularity over the past decade, dethroning the thick pub burgers that came before them. Rather, Im pleasantly surprisedand youll have to forgive me for my copyediting shoptalk herethat Merriam-Webster chose to make it one word instead of keeping it an open compound. Making it one word instead of two is the true sign of its undeniable presence in culture.

A stage, meanwhile, is what you saw in the most recent season of The Bear, when (spoiler alert) Richie spends a week at the upscale (and real!) Chicago restaurant Ever, learning all he can from the chefs about how to clean forks, expedite dinner service, and generally curate a special dining experience. A stage might not always result in the character-arc-shifting change of heart we see within Richie, though; there has been backlash to the notion that this unpaid labor is a prerequisite to getting hired within the industry.

Jollof rice and emping are additions to the dictionary that feel overdue, particularly since jollof rice is the subject of persistent debate among nations that each claim to have the best version. There might not be any definitive reason that 2023 was the year for these additions; it could be that these terms simply reached some sort of critical mass in English usage that made their omission progressively more glaring. (Thats really the only reason I can think of that Merriam-Webster would have chosen to add fluffernutter to the dictionary as late as 2021.)

Sometimes even more significant than the food words added to the dictionary are the ones flagged for revision. In 2020, amidst growing anti-Asian sentiment stoked by COVID fears, there was a petition to redefine the offensive term Chinese restaurant syndrome, used to describe feelings of drowsiness and nausea experienced by some consumers of American Chinese food. The aim was to clarify that there is no proven causal relationship between Chinese cuisine and these symptoms, and to add the context that the term persists largely due to xenophobia, not scientific evidence. Merriam-Websters definition for the term has been revised, as has the definition of its counterpart, MSG symptom complex.

Its dizzying to think about what words might join Merriam-Websters ranks in 2024. We could make the case for butter board, Mexican Pizza, and ubewhich terms seem most pressing to you?

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On the day that public records revealed that Elon Musk had become Twitters biggest shareholder, an unknown sender texted the billionaire and recommended an article imploring him to acquire the social network outright.

Musks purchase of Twitter, the 3,000-word anonymous article said, would amount to a declaration of war against the Globalist American Empire. The sender of the texts was offering Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, a playbook for the takeover and transformation of Twitter. As the anniversary of Musk's purchase approaches, the identity of the sender remains unknown.

The three texts were sent on April 4, 2022. In the nearly 18 months since then, many of the decisions Musk made after he bought Twitter appear to have closely followed that road map, up to and including his ongoing attacks against the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization founded by Jewish Americans to counter discrimination.

The text messages described a series of actions Musk should take after he gained full control of the social media platform: Step 1: Blame the platform for its users; Step 2: Coordinated pressure campaign; Step 3: Exodus of the Bluechecks; Step 4: Deplatforming.

The messages from the unknown sender were revealed in a court filing last year as evidence in a lawsuit Twitter brought against Musk after he tried to back out of buying it. The redacted documents were unearthed by The Chancery Daily, an independent legal publication covering proceedings before the Delaware Court of Chancery.

The wording of the texts matches the subtitles of the article, The Battle of the Century: Heres What Happens if Elon Musk Buys Twitter, which had been published three days earlier on the right-wing website revolver.news.

The article was published with no byline, a common practice on the site, where writers also appear to use pseudonyms, such as Moxie Russo.

The site is run by the far-right blogger Darren Beattie, a former Trump White House speechwriter who was fired in 2018 for having spoken on a panel alongside white nationalists. After the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Beattie promoted the baseless claim that the FBI had planted agents in the crowd who incited it to storm the building.

When the text messages to Musk were revealed in the court filing last spring, observers suggested on Twitter that Beattie himself may have sent them. Asked by NBC News whether he knew who sent the texts and who wrote the article, Beattie declined to comment and instead suggested that the ADL should be investigated, without giving specifics.

I think Im familiar with it, but Im not in a position to comment on that, Beattie said of the text messages. I wish I could give you something else, but you should look into the ADL.

Musk did not respond to repeated requests for comment by email and on Twitter. Twitters CEO, Linda Yaccarino, a former executive for NBC News parent company NBC Universal, also did not respond to requests for comment. Alex Spiro, Musks lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment about whether Musk still plans to sue the ADL.

Following the article's publication on April 1, 2022, Beattie spent weeks urging Musk to buy Twitter outright and pushing his transformation plan on right-wing podcasts and television shows, including Steve Bannons Bannons War Room and Tucker Carlsons since-canceled Fox News show.

I really hope that Elon will go ahead with it, that hes not just another rich guy, that hes someone who wants to be a great man, Beattie said April 12, 2022, on Carlsons show. There are a variety of mechanisms, but it all cashes out to this: a declaration of war on the regime.

Roughly four weeks after the article from Beatties site appeared online and two weeks after Beattys interview on Carlsons show, Musk bought Twitter outright for $44 billion on April 25, 2022, and took the company private, per the articles suggestion. He has since renamed the company to X but refers to it as X/Twitter in posts on the network. Several of the steps he has taken resemble those described in the revolver.news article.

A road map

The article on Beatties site begins with a baseless claim that censorship on Twitter cost President Donald Trump the 2020 election. Free speech online is what enabled the Trump revolution in 2016, the anonymous author wrote. If the Internet had been as free in 2020 as it was four years before, Trump would have cruised to reelection.

The author said that Step 1 after a Musk takeover would be: Blame the platform for its users. He or she predicted that Twitter would be blamed for every so-called act of racism sexism and transphobia occurring on its platform.

After Musks purchase of Twitter was finalized in October 2022, he allowed previously suspended accounts to return. Among them, he restored the account of Trump, whom Twitter had banned after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, as well as the personal accounts of far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and the founder of a neo-Nazi website, Andrew Anglin.

The article predicted that Step 2 would involve a Coordinated pressure campaign by the ADL and other nonprofit groups to get Musk to reinstate the banned accounts. A vast constellation of activists and non-profits will lurch into action to put more and more pressure on the company to change its ways, the article reads.

The next step, the revolver.news article predicted, would be the Exodus of the bluechecks. The term bluechecks refers to a former identity verification system on Twitter that confirmed the authenticity of the accounts of celebrities, public figures and journalists.

Musk experimented with and ultimately eliminated Twitters verification system of bluechecks. As the article predicted, the removal resulted in a public backlash and an exponential drop in advertisers and revenue. Other developments, including Musks drastically reducing the number of staffers who monitor tweets and a rise in hate speech, also contributed to the dynamic.

The article predicted that a final step, Step 4, would be the deplatforming of Twitter itself. He said a Musk-owned Twitter would face the same fate as Parler, a platform that presented itself as a free speech home for the right. After numerous calls for violence on Jan. 6 were posted on Parler, Google and Apple removed it from their app stores on the grounds that it had allowed too many posts that promoted violence, crime and misinformation.

The anonymous story published by Beattie, who describes himself as a Proud Jew in his X handle, also repeatedly attacks the Anti-Defamation League.

It called the ADL a danger to Musks ownership and said it was one of several powerful left-wing activist groups that had besieged Twitter before Musk bought it. It claimed that the ADLs CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, brought Twitter to heel by telling the platform, Play ball, or be ready to be put in league with Nazis.

The article then expressed sympathy for the Russian-government-controlled news outlets Russia Today and Sputnik, saying they had been unfairly canceled after Russia invaded Ukraine. Musk ended the use of state-sponsored media labels on Twitter this year, dropping it from the accounts of Russia Today, Sputnik and many other state-owned organizations. The change reportedly prompted RT editor Margarita Simonyan to send Musk a note of appreciation.

Beatties presentation of ideas that appeared to be adopted by Musk continued after his website published the anonymous April 2022 article. The day after Musks official October 2022 takeover, Beattie appeared on the podcast of Bannon, the Trump White House chief strategist, and called for Musk to make internal emails from Twitter management public.

One month later, Musk released the Twitter Files  a partial release of internal emails by Twitter employees curated by Musk-friendly writers.

Targeting the ADL

Beatties political career appeared to be over when he was fired from his White House role as speechwriter for Trump in 2018. His removal came after CNN revealed that he had spoken on a panel alongside Peter Brimelow, the founder of the white nationalist website VDare.

Beattie worked for White House head of speechwriting, Vince Haley, and Trump adviser Stephen Miller. In 2019, he was hired as a speechwriter by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. And the Trump administration rehired him shortly after Trump lost the 2020 election, appointing him to a commission that preserved Holocaust memorials abroad.

The hiring drew the ire of the ADL and Greenblatt, who urged the administration to rescind it. The Biden administration forced Beattie to resign from the commission in January 2022. He tweeted that the firing was better than a Pulitzer.

Beattie has continued to run revolver.news, and he has appeared on right-wing programs accusing the FBI of inciting the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. Musk, meanwhile, has continued to blame the ADL for Xs declining revenue.

On Sept. 4, Musk threatened to sue the ADL, claiming, without providing evidence, that U.S. ad revenues are down 60%, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL. The same week, the hashtag #BanTheADL, pushed in part by white nationalists, trended on Twitter, and Musk tweeted that the ADL has tried very hard to strangle X/Twitter.

On the same day, Musk blamed the ADL for causing antisemitism. The ADL, because they are so aggressive in their demands to ban social media accounts for even minor infractions, are ironically the biggest generators of anti-Semitism on this platform!

Four days later, Musk posted a meme with the caption Drop the Anti. Just Defamation League. Its cleaner.

The April 2022 text to Musk that included Beatties article concludes with some final suggestions: Let the boss himself, presumably a reference to Trump, back on Twitter. (Musk eventually allowed Trump back, but he has rarely tweeted since his reinstatement.) Then, the text reads, hire a savvy/cultural executive to work on enforcement.

It will be a delicate game of letting right wingers back on Twitter and how to navigate that, the author wrote, adding that Musk should hire someone who has a savvy cultural/political view to be the VP of actual enforcement. A Blake Masters type."

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Fact checked by Nick Blackmer





The FDA recently added a new potential adverse reaction to the label of type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic.

Taking the medication could be linked to ileus, a condition where the intestines temporarily stop functioning.

People should be aware of all potential side effects before taking Ozempic, though the medication will still be beneficial for most people, an expert said.







NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty Images

Ozempic, the popular type 2 diabetes semaglutide medication, has a new potential side effect, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced.

In a September 22 update to the drugs labeling, the FDA added a gastrointestinal disorder known as ileus as a reported adverse effect of the medication. Ileus occurs when the intestines temporarily lose the ability to contract, inhibiting the movement of food and waste out of the body.

Though its still too early to say that Ozempic is definitively causing ileus, reports of this side effect join the more than 14,000 other cases of Ozempic side effects reported since 2018nearly 9,000 of which have been linked to various gastrointestinal issues, like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, upper abdominal pain, and abdominal dissension.

The change in label also comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed in August by a Louisiana woman who claimed that taking Mounjaro, another type 2 diabetes drug, and Ozempic caused severe vomiting, stomach pain, and trips to the emergency room.

This label update is an important warning that people should consider before starting the medication, said Betul Hatipoglu, MD, professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University and director of the universitys Center for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. However, she added, it doesnt mean the medication should be completely written off.

[It] doesnt mean the drug shouldnt be used. It has many benefits, Hatipoglu told Health. Being fearful [of] using the drug because of this rare side effect is not fair for patients who will benefit from it.

Related: Psyllium Husk Is Being Called the 'Poor Man's Ozempic'Can It Really Help You Lose Weight?

What Is Ileus?

Ileusor when the bowel stops functioning temporarilyisnt necessarily a common ailment, Hatipoglu said. With medical supervision, it can usually be resolved.

Its most commonly seen after abdominal surgeries, she added, when the manipulation of the bowel causes it to, in the moment, stop working.

The other typical driver of ileus is some sort of mass or other blockage, she said. This mass could be from something like a tumor, or from scars from previous surgeries. In that case, Hatipoglu said, the scar tissue acts almost like a hair tie or a rubber band, strangling the intestine in some way and making it impossible for someone to have a bowel movement.

Again, without more concrete information regarding the specific ileus cases the FDA is referencing, its challenging to say if or how Ozempic in particular is leading to these kinds of bowel obstructions.

However, Hatipoglu said, the way that the medication works could leave vulnerable people to these kinds of blockages.

In order to make people feel fuller for longer, Ozempic works by causing a delay in gastric emptyingin other words, the medication makes food stay in the stomach for longer and slows down digestion.

The bowels slow down, and individuals that might have another underlying vulnerability of their bowels, they might [see] this ileus, said Hatipoglu.

Related: What to Know About Small Bowel Obstruction, a Rare Complication of Bariatric Surgery

Patients and Providers Should Keep Ozempic Side Effects in Mind

Many of the most common side effects of Ozempic are related to the way that it works, Hatipoglu explained. The very mechanism that allows the drug to help lower blood sugar and weightthis delayed digestioncan also bring about a number of side effects.

The most important side effects that we warn our patients at the beginning is this nausea, vomiting, constipation, or rarely, diarrhea, she said. Theyre all linked to the same concept[Ozempic] affects the movement of the bowels and the stomach. The benefits come somehow from the same pathway.

Beyond gastrointestinal symptoms, the medication can also cause rash, gallbladder issues, abdominal pain, and jaundice in rarer cases. But these other side effects are extremely rare, Hatipoglu said.

These types of adverse reactions are not restricted to just Ozempic. Mounjaro, another type 2 diabetes medication, currently lists ileus as a possible adverse reaction on its label. And Wegovy, another semaglutide medication for weight loss, also has a number of warnings related to gastrointestinal adverse reactions.

For now, Hatipoglu said, there isnt much people can do to prevent these potential side effects if they are taking Ozempic or a similar medication.

But knowing that ileus is a possible adverse reaction of the drug is a great place to start, at least until theres more clarity about whether Ozempic is causing the issue, or which specific groups may be more at risk.

Both people taking Ozempic and the healthcare providers prescribing it shouldnt ignore any gastrointestinal issues, Hatipoglu said, and should instead be on the lookout for any signs of ileus.

Its important to know, she said. If someone starts having a lot of nausea, vomiting, if they start having a lot of belly pain, thats a sign that maybe something else is going on.

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Read the original article on Health.com.
On Thursday, September 28, the National Park Service (NPS) and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) took the next step in a planning process that could eventually put grizzly bears back into the North Cascade Mountain range of northern Washington State. Now the feds are soliciting comments from the public about the proposed plan, which aims to establish a stable population of 200 individual bears in the Evergreen State within 60 to 100 years.

The "North Cascades Ecosystem Grizzly Bear Restoration Plan" includes three different alternatives. There is a "no-action alternative," which would maintain the status quo without releasing any bears into the North Cascades; then there are two "action alternatives" that the federal agencies called alternatives B and C in a recent statement announcing the plan. "Under both action alternatives, it is anticipated that 3 to 7 grizzly bears would be released into the NCE (North Cascades Ecosystem) over roughly 5 to 10 years with a goal of establishing an initial population of 25 grizzly bears before switching to adaptive management," the plan states.

The Plan Could Allow for Lethal Management of Problem Bears

Under both of these alternatives, Washington's newly-released grizzly bears would be protected by the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). Alternative C, howeverwhich the feds called "the preferred alternative"grants federal, state, and tribal wildlife agencies greater "management flexibility" when conflicts between humans and grizzlies arise. That means a transplanted grizzly bear caught killing livestock, injuring or killing people, or exhibiting other types of nuisance behaviors could be euthanizeddespite overarching safeguards otherwise provided by the ESA.

In order to provide an exemption that allows for potentially lethal management means, the feds would have to designate Washington's transplanted grizzlies and their offspring as a "nonessential experimental population." And planners would use the so-called 10(j) rule of the ESA to make that designation. Though shrouded in bureaucratic legalese, it's a process that should be familiar to anyone who's kept up with the ongoing saga of wolf reintroduction that is currently underway in Colorado .

"This would give authorities, ranchers, and landowners more options for managing bears to reduce or avoid conflicts while focusing on recovery," said acting regional director for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Hugh Morrison, in a prepared statement posted to the NPS website. "The 10(j) experimental population designation would benefit the people and property in local communities, as well as the grizzly bears."

Grizzly Bear Recovery in the Lower 48

In its September 28 press release, NPS said that the last confirmed sighting of a grizzly bear in the U.S. portion of the North Cascades Ecosystem was in 1996. Though the charismatic apex predators are notably scarce if not absent from the rugged North Cascade Mountains, they're not unheard of in Washington State. Just last week, a young grizzly was captured near the town of Colville in Stevens County , about 70 miles north of Spokane. In a recent Facebook post, the Stevens County Sheriff's Office said the bear was turned over to USFWS agents who "collared and relocated [it] to a wilderness area where grizzly bears are already located."

According to NPS, there are six "grizzly bear recovery zones" in the Lower 48 dispersed throughout portions of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington: the Bitterroot Ecosystem of Idaho and Montana; the Cabinet-Yak Ecosystem of northwest Montana and the northern Idaho panhandle; the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming; the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem of northwest Montana; the Selkirk Ecosystem of northeastern Washington and northern Idaho; and the North Cascade Ecosystem of northwest and north central Washington.

In its draft environmental impact statement, NPS said grizzly bear release sites in the North Cascades would be selected based on the quality and availability of food sources in a given area and that released bears would be subadults that haven't reproduced and have no history of human conflict. The agency would likely bring bears in from existing populations in Wyoming, Montana, and British Columbia, Canada.

Opposition Arises

Hunting rights and conservation advocacy groups like HOWL.org, The American Bear Foundation, and Sportsman's Alliance have all voiced opposition to the federal government's plan to release grizzlies into the North Cascades. In a position statement on its website , which funnels users directly to NPS's public comment portal, HOWL says that Washington Statewith its recent history of anti-hunting sentiment within its Fish and Game Commissionis a particularly bad place to reintroduce large carnivores like grizzlies.

Read Next: Hunter Shoots and Kills Charging Grizzly Bear in Yet Another Self Defense Encounter in Idaho

I have no problem with grizzly bears being where they should be, HOWL Founder and President Charles Whitwam tells Field & Stream. What I do have a problem with is bringing them into a state with a proven inability to manage bears alongside other big game speciesand Washington is certainly one of those states. It looks like theyre going to try to reduce cougar seasons. Theyve already eliminated Spring bear season and theres been talk of reducing all black bear hunting. Bringing in additional grizzly bears, more than are already living inside established populations in Washington, just doesnt seem like a good call.

Joe Kondelis of the American Bear Foundation echoed and added to Whitwams sentiments in a recent call with F&S. My biggest concern with this whole thing is that the Washington Fish & Game Commission is a dumpster fire right now, Kondellis says. I dont have any faith in that commission to do anything thats beneficial to sportsmen. If those commission members get a feeling that there are a bunch of grizzly bears moving into the North Cascadeswhat kind of restrictions could they impose? Does that end black bear hunting altogether in that area just because they have that power?

The NPS comment period for the proposed grizzly bear reintroduction plan began on September 28, and it will close on November 13, 2023. If you'd like to weigh in, you can so do here.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) helped create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (Sarah Rice / For the Washington Post)

The Supreme Court gave a skeptical hearing Tuesday to payday lenders who are challenging the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Most of the justices  conservatives as well as liberals  suggested they were not ready to strike down the bureau, created during the Obama administration, simply because it is funded with fees from the Federal Reserve rather than an annual appropriation.

U.S. Solicitor Gen. Elizabeth Prelogar in effect used an originalist argument based on the history and text of the Constitution.

From the nations founding, she said, Congress created agencies such as the Customs Service, the National Mint, the Post Office and the Patent Office that were funded by fees  not an annual appropriation.

In 2010, when Congress created the consumer agency to protect borrowers from deceptive loans, it decided to fund the agency through fees collected by the Federal Reserve.

The CFPBs appropriation fits squarely within this unbroken line of historical practice, she told the court.

Earlier this year, however, the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the agency was unconstitutional because Congress had failed to set an appropriation.

But Prelogar argued this has never been a constitutional rule, and most of the justices agreed.

Justice Elena Kagan said the 5th Circuits argument has been decisively rejected by history. ... You are flying in the face of 250 years of history, she told Washington attorney Noel Francisco who represented the payday lenders.

The justices also rejected Franciscos claim that the bureaus funding is perpetual and unchecked by Congress.

Congress could change this tomorrow. Theres nothing perpetual or permanent about this, said Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.

During the two hours of argument, only Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch sounded as though they may vote to strike down the agency.

In recent weeks, progressives and liberals had sounded an alarm and voiced concern that the conservative Supreme Court was poised to abolish an agency that protected ordinary Americans and their finances. But that threat quickly faded.

Story continues

Today was a bad day for predatory payday lenders and the Wall Street lobby groups that lent their names to some very ridiculous claims, said Elyse Hicks, consumer policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform. None of their legal arguments passed the red-face test, and even the questions from the conservative justices reflected that reality.

The case heard Tuesday involves both a high-level dispute over the Constitutions separation of powers and a practical and political divide over the agency.

The brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) when she was a law professor, the bureau was the centerpiece of the 2010 Dodd-Frank overhaul of financial regulations and the first new federal agency since the early 1970s that was focused specifically on American consumers.

Its mission was to protect borrowers and consumers from deceptive and unfair practices by banks and mortgage lenders. It has returned more than $17.5 billion to wronged customers.

But it has been steadily opposed by much of the lending industry and by many Republicans who say the agency has too much unchecked power.

While Democrats tried to shield the agency from the politics of Washington, that shield caused problems in the courts.

Under the 2010 legislation, the bureaus director could not be removed by the president for political reasons, and the bureaus budget was off-limits to Congress annual process of appropriations. Instead, its funding comes from the Federal Reserve, which earns fees from lending. The bureau used $641 million of that money last year.

The Supreme Courts conservatives had cast a skeptical eye on the bureau. Three years ago, the justices in a 5-4 decision rejected the independent status of the director and ruled that that person could be removed by the president for any reason, including political differences .

The current dispute began as a challenge to a proposed regulation of payday lenders.

In ruling for the lenders, the three judges of the 5th Circuit, all appointees of President Trump, said it violated the Constitution to shield the bureau from an annual fight over its appropriation.

Judge Cory Wilson said the bureaus perpetual insulation from Congress appropriations power, including the express exemption from congressional review of its funding, renders it ... no longer accountable to Congress and, ultimately, to the people.

The 5th Circuit ruling, however, did not immediately affect the bureaus funding or operations as the parties continue their legal fight.

Get the best of the Los Angeles Times politics coverage with the Essential Politics newsletter.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Iceland earned the title for the 15th consecutive time.

Susmita Baral/Travel + Leisure

The Global Peace Index (GPI) revealed its annual ranking of the safest countries on Earth. And the United States doesn't even crack the top 100. But one tiny, isolated nation has pulled in the No. 1 most peaceful nation position for more than a decade running.

The honor of the most peaceful country once again went to Iceland, a position the index explained, "it has held since 2008."

The rankings are produced every year via a collaboration with the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) and the GPI. It takes into account 23 "qualitative and quantitative indicators," including measurements on "the level of Societal Safety and Security, the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict, and the degree of Militarisation," the report explained.

Beyond the updated ranking, the report noted that while 126 countries had improved their peacefulness between 2009 and 2020, the 2023 index showed "the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated for the ninth consecutive year, with 84 countries recording an improvement and 79 a deterioration." The latter, the report said, is largely due to post-COVID rises of civil unrest and political instability.

However, again, there are still plenty of peaceful places for us all to enjoy. Joining Iceland in the top 10 most peaceful nations is Denmark in second place, followed by Ireland, New Zealand, Austria, Singapore, Portugal, Slovenia, Japan, and Switzerland.

The five countries ranked at the bottom are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, followed by South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan, with all of these nations experiencing varied levels of unrest.

As for the United States, it came in at the 131st spot, rankly extremely low due to the high prison population rate, weapons exports, and militarization.

Of course, this ranking doesn't define where you should and should not travel, as that is a highly personal decision. To make that choice, travelers can always check the U.S. Department of State's travel advisories and understand the difference between a travel alert and a travel advisory.

See the complete GPI rankings at visionofhumanity.org.



Related: This Is the Safest Country for Solo Travelers in 2023, According to a Study

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Read the original article on Travel & Leisure.
Googles annual Made by Google event is a showcase of hardware and software coming from the Search giants over the next 12 months  and its set to kick off later this week.

In true Google fashion, a mix of official and unofficial reveals over the last short while have clued us in to almost everything there is to expect from the upcoming event  though we can never be too certain that theres nothing tucked away for a surprise showing.

What we know for certain is that Google will be looking to expand their hardware catalog with the new Pixel 8 Series smartphones and a new Pixel Watch 2. Beyond that is anyones guess! Though, well no doubt get a detailed look of the upcoming Android 14 OS update as its expected to release on the same day as the event.

Made by Google 2023: date, time, and how to watch the event

The upcoming Made by Google event will take place on Oct. 4, 2023 at 10 a.m. ET, 7 a.m. PT, and 3 p.m. BST. While the event will take place live in front of an audience in New York, youll be able to follow along online via Googles Made by Google event site or on YouTube.

If you live outside of the U.S. or U.K. heres a more extensive list of dates and times to pinpoint when Googles event kicks off in your local timezone:

United States and Canada: 7 a.m. PDT, 9 a.m. CDT, 10 a.m. EDT

Brazil: 11 a.m. BRT

United Kingdom: 3 p.m. BST

Europe: 4 p.m. CEST,

Russia: 5 p.m. MSK

India: 7:30 p.m. IST

China: 10 p.m. CST

Australia: 10 p.m. AWST, Thursday, Oct. 5, 1 a.m. AEST

Japan: 11 p.m. JST

New Zealand: Thursday, Oct. 5, 3 a.m. NZST

Made by Google 2023: What to expect

Google Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro

Google Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel 8

Short of a miracle in that The Googleplex has for once managed to keep something secret, its a dead cert that Googles flagship smartphones will take center stage at this week's event.

Both phones will feature Googles latest Tensor G3 and improved Titan security chips with Wi-Fi 7 support, IP68 dust and water resistance, and each set to make full use of Android 14 on launch.

Its that software bump that will see new and improved features making their way to the Pixel platform including Super Res Zoom, Photo Unblur, Magic Eraser, Magic Editor, and Macro Focus for incredible close-up clarity.

Theres also the new Best Take feature available for both phones that allows handset owners to take multiple pictures in a row and use AI to blend the results and stitch together the best picture possible. However, similarities aside, theres still plenty of room to differentiate between the two.

Google Pixel 8 render

The standard Pixel 8 smartphone is reportedly smaller than previous models with a curvier frame and a brighter (1400 nits) 6.17-inch, 1080p, LTPO (low-temperature polycrystalline oxide) OLED display capable of a rapid 120Hz refresh rate.

Pumping up performance alongside the devices Tensor G3 chip is 8GB of RAM and options for 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. Topping things off are the Pixel 8s 10.5MP front (selfie), 12MP rear ultrawide, and 50MP rear wide lens cameras.

The Pixel 8 Pro features the same rounded-edges as the standard Pixel 8s design, shaving just a fraction of an inch off of the displays overall size. The 6.7-inch, 1440p, LTPO OLED panel is super-bright at 1600 nits and features the same ultra-smooth 120Hz refresh rate of the base model. The Pro variant further distinguishes itself when it comes to memory and storage, offering 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of UFS 3.1 storage to boot.

Google Pixel 8 Pro renders on teal gradient background

Smartphone snappers will be delighted with the Pixel 8 Pros reported camera array which includes 10.5MP front (selfie), 48MP rear ultrawide, and 50MP rear wide lens cameras, topped off by a 48MP, 5x optical zoom, telephoto lens  all of which making use of the Pixel 8 Pros exclusive Pro Controls.

Finally, theres the elephant in the room that is the Pixel 8 Pros new temperature sensor. We know its there, we just arent entirely certain of what its there for. Hopefully Google can fill us in on its plans during the flagship phones big (re)reveal.

If you want to know more about whats on offer from the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro check out our rumor hub for the Google Pixel 8: Everything we know so far .

Google Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro specifications (rumored)

More on the Google Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro

Google Pixel Watch 2

Google Pixel Watch 2

Subject to many leaks of its own, Googles Pixel Watch 2 is expected to be another heavy hitter at this weeks event with the smartwatch reportedly showcasing impressive new health and fitness tracking capabilities, faster performance, a longer battery life, and an all-new Material You UI redesign.

The Pixel Watch 2 is likely to feature an improved Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 processor that is both more powerful and efficient than its predecessors Samsung's Exynos 9110. The new processor could see the Pixel Watch 2 granted a 24 hour battery life, with fast charging capabilities allowing up to 50% charge in just 30 minutes.

The Pixel Watch 2s improved processor is paired with improved sensors that measure skin temperature, heart rate, electrodermal activity (EDA), stress levels, and can also automatically detect your current workout activity and track it accordingly.

Design-wise, the Pixel Watch 2s overall shape is similar to the original. However, Googles new smartwatch will feature an improved crown and an IP68 rating. There will also be some new watch band designs to choose from including a blue Active band and a slim metal band at least.

Google PIxel Watch 2 specifications (rumored)

More on the Google PIxel Watch 2
A mythical beast? Wisconsin's quirkiest high school mascot? A completely real creature that was blown up with dynamite in the Northwoods 130 years ago?

The hodag is all of the above, depending on who you ask. It's also one of Wisconsin's most famous cryptids.

But what's the real story behind the hodag? That's what one reader asked What the Wisconsin?  our series where reporters take on questions about our state, our communities and the people in them.

What is a hodag?

Northwoods timberman Eugene Simeon Shepard began telling stories about the hodag in logging camps in the late 1800s. He described the creature as "a terrible brute" with a dragon's body and fanged, snarling grin that smelled of "buzzard meat and skunk perfume."

Wider Wisconsin learned of the hodag in October 1893 when Shepard wrote of it in a column in Rhinelander's Near North newspaper.

Rhinelander residents re-enactment the first hodag hunt in this 1952 Press Photo. The re-enactment was complete with an injured" person and a posse.

Shepard wrote that he and his friends came across the hodag with their hunting dogs. The creature had the "strength of an ox," "the ferocity of a bear" and the "cunning of a fox." It tore apart the dogs and remained undefeated, even after the men shot it with "heavy rifles and large-bore squirt guns loaded with poisonous water." The men struggled for hours before killing the hodag with dynamite.

Is the hodag real? Some believed it was.

Three years after claiming to have blown up the hodag, Shepard wrote that he'd apprehended one again, this time, alive.

He wrote that he and his friends had captured the creature by blocking its den with rocks and then knocking it out with a chloroform sponge. A few days later, Shepard put this "hodag" on display in a tent at the first-ever Oneida County fair.

In reality, Shepard and a friend had sculpted the creature with wood and smelly hides from a tannery. Shepard's sons made the ruse believable, growling, hissing and moving the faux hodag like a puppet. Shepard's hodag was 7 feet long, 30 inches high, black and hairy. It had 12 horns rising along its spine and short legs ending with long claws, according to a Wisconsin Historical Society essay cited by the Wausau Daily Herald.

Shepard quickly hustled people in and out of the hodag tent, telling them it was for their own safety. The tent was dimly lit, and the creature was "held" behind curtains a good distance away from the crowd.

Some fairgoers certainly believed it was real, and after that, the legend of the hodag took off.

News of the creature spread across the country, and newspapers like the Philadelphia Enquirer reported on it as if it were real. It wasn't long before the whole thing was reported to have been a hoax, but by then, the story was out.

Lenwood Sharpe, an amateur folklorist and editor of the website lumberwoods.com, doesn't blame those who fell for Shepard's trick.

During the 19th century, "unknown animals were still being discovered," he said. "For someone living, say in Philadelphia, it was not outside the realm of possibility that an animal like the hodag could be found in the wilderness of northern Wisconsin."

What's the history behind the hodag?

The same time Shepard introduced the hodag to the Oneida County Fair, Wisconsin's timber industry was on the decline. The number of valuable white pines were dwindling. In 1890, 23,000 men in more than 450 logging camps were employed cutting them down.

This is the hodag as Eugene Shepherd imagined it. He created the hodag for the first Oneida County Fair, and using lighting, puppetry techniques, odors and sound, convinced at least some people that the animal was real.

A major purpose of the fair was to attract people to Rhinelander's other industries, like farming and business, wrote Kurt Kortenhof, a historian and author of "Long Live the Hodag: The Life and Legacy of Eugene Simeon Shepard." Fair organizers turned to Shepard, a known trickster, for help attracting visitors.

Shepard's hodag certainly accomplished that purpose. It went on to shape Rhinelander's reputation as a tourist destination, and it continues to draw attention, people and money to the city today.

"Thousands of people came to view the Hodag," Shepard wrote, according to the Daily Herald. "And not one of them went away without having learned a little more about north Wisconsin. ... (A)nd many who came out of curiosity only have come to make their home with us, either permanent or for a few weeks or months out of the year."

What is the hodag the mascot of?

The hodag is the mascot of Rhinelander High School and has been since the 1930s, but it's also the mascot of the whole city.

The Rhinelander Hodag faces off against the Antigo Red Robin in Antigo.

The city of Rhinelander has a giant green hodag sculpture outside of its visitors center, hodag art throughout its streets and even holds the Hodag Country Music Festival, which has attracted thousands since 1978 and has hosted big-time performers like Thomas Rhett, Eric Church and Blake Shelton.

As the Rhinelander Area Chamber of Commerce puts it, the hodag "has become a local legend. ... Parks, plaques, schools and businesses bear the hodag name and image. And rumors of hodag pranks, sightings and other close encounters circulate to this day. When something out of the ordinary occurs in Hodag Country, youll hear people say, 'I think it was a hodag.'"

How has the hodag changed over time?

In recent years, the hodag has made its way out of Wisconsin, into the greater culture consciousness and pages of cryptid lore. The creature has appeared in various video games and in a 2012 "Scooby-Doo!" episode titled "The Hodag of Horror."

The 2015 version of the popular cryptid book "Fearsome Creatures" featured a horror-inspired retelling of the hodag, where the creature was described as a "3,000-pound carnivorous bull-horned rhinoceros with a spiny back" and "the master of the Michigan lumberwoods." The book assigned the hodag a "fearsomeness level" of 12, the highest level on its scale.

According to the Rhinelander Chamber of Commerce, nowadays, "some say the hodag is the fiercest, strangest, most terrifying monster ever to set razor-sharp claws on this earth. Others describe the hodag as a reclusive woodland creature, misunderstood by many and only wanting to be left alone in the woodland paradise that is the Rhinelander Area. No one really knows for certain."

Keith Uhlig of the Wausau Daily Herald contributed to this report.

What's 'What the Wisconsin'?

Is there something about Milwaukee or Wisconsin that's been puzzling you? We've got experts who know how to find answers to even the smallest (and sometimes the most interesting) questions. When we can, we'll answer with stories.

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Submit your question at bit.ly/whatthewisconsin.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What is a hodag? Here's the famous cryptid's Wisconsin origin story.
What is a galley kitchen? Plus, expert ideas for decoration and organization.

At home, space is a commodity; we often wish we had more. The kitchen is one room where Southerners would always welcome some extra square footage. Bigger isnt always best though, and galley kitchens are the proof in the pudding. Small but mighty, these slim kitchens pack a whole lot of potential into a limited amount of space. In fact, when designed and organized efficiently, a galley kitchen can be one of the most functional layouts available. Heres what to know about this oft underestimated kitchen layout.







Meet The Experts

Laura Lubin is the founder and principal designer of Ellerslie Interiors in Nashville, Tennessee.

Sandra Drews Lucas is an interior designer and a founding partner of Lucas/Eilers Design Associates in Houston, Texas.







What Is A Galley Kitchen?

A galley kitchen is a type of kitchen layout that is anchored by two parallel countertops of cabinet walls facing each other with limited space in between, explains interior designer Laura Lubin. This design is often found in smaller homes, but is rapidly on the rise for kitchen design.

Narrow but full of potential, galley kitchens are similar to an aisle with countertops on both sides. That aisle can either become a dead-end on one side, or act as a hallway to a dining area.

Hector Manuel Sanchez

Galley Kitchen Ideas

Remember Scale

Of course, the most important thing to remember with a galley kitchen is scale, says Lubin. You can minimize counter overhangs, thickness of material, and appliance layout to make it far more functional.

Maximize Vertical Storage

When space is limited, you have to make the most of what youve got. Lubin recommends taking advantage of just about every inch from floor to ceiling to accommodate tight borders. Cabinetry both below and above the countertop will help, as will prioritizing long but narrow appliances. To max out sky-high storage potential, interior designer Sandra Drews Lucas recommends choosing tall cabinets or pantries with double swinging shelf units.

Keep Appliances Small

A slim fridge and counter-top appliances that can be tucked away, like a blender and toaster, can seriously save space. Microwave drawers can also work wonders in sparing valuable counter space.

Organize Efficiently

By organizing efficiently you are maximizing your linear space usage, says Lubin. Overall, galley kitchens require thoughtful organization and design to make the most of the available space at hand.

Every inch counts, so theres no room for wasteful or counterintuitive organization. Store items where youll use them and by size, says Lubin. Lucas also recommends incorporating cabinet inserts to maximize storage potential. Organization also matters outside the cabinets. For example, be sure to save counter space for cooking preparations.

I would keep mostif not allappliances on one wall and a large amount of storage and workable space on the other, suggests Lubin.

Open Shelving

Lucas reveals that open shelves can open up a space much more than upper cabinets can. However, open shelving storage needs to be kept very tidy, otherwise it risks appearing unkempt.

JULIA LYNN; STYLING: DAKOTA WILLIMON

Stay Out Of Sight

While open floor plan configurations keep the kitchen in the spotlight, a tucked-away galley can effectively hide kitchen mess. This can be an ideal setup for bustling hosts who need their kitchen to be in full working orderwith all the chaos that goes with itand still want to maintain a put-together appearance in the dining and living rooms. This concept of keeping the kitchen private is often called a back kitchen.

We are currently designing back kitchens in a galley kitchen configuration in many new homes to keep the cooking mess out of sight, so embrace that advantage, says Lucas, who recommends keeping service-oriented features out of the kitchen. Add a dry bar with an under-counter refrigerator or a serving island, if space allows in an adjacent living space.

Creative Cabinetry

We often use antique mirror cabinet fronts and lighter cabinetry color to make the space feel larger, reveals Lubin. Lewis adds that painting the cabinets and walls the same color can have a widening illusion, too.

Decorate The Ceiling

Wallpapering the ceiling can draw your eye away from the narrowness of the galley, says Lucas. Plus, the ceiling is a stellar space to add interesting visual design with big impact in a tight space. There wont be much room for accessorizing in galley kitchens, so designers suggest building in style anywhere you can.

Related: A Dark And Dated Kitchen Gets A Bright, Budget-Friendly Transformation

Embrace Minimalism

Clutter is an enemy to a tidy and effective galley kitchen. Too much stuff can overwhelm prized counter and cabinet space, so keep out any unnecessary additions. Purely decorative accessories will find a better home in other rooms, and be mindful not to include anything too bulky to disproportionately decorate the space.



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Read the original article on Southern Living.
The buyer-supplier partnership is a bit like a marriage, Alexander Kohnstamm, executive director at the Fair Wear Foundation told the audience at the Sustainable Apparel Coalitions (SAC) annual meeting in Boston last week. If youre not in regular communication, small misunderstandings can quickly blow out of proportion, creating larger issues that risk capsizing the entire relationship.

Maybe do some couples counseling, he said to chuckles from Liberty Hall at the Revere Hotel Boston Common, steps away from where an infamous confrontation between soldiers and civilians precipitated what would become the mother of divorces: the American Revolution.

More from Sourcing Journal

But the power imbalance that leaves suppliers in the global South vulnerable to exploitation from companies in the global North is no laughing matter.

The thing most of you dont realize is that brands have a lot more power than manufacturers because money talks, Kohnstamm said. This imbalance in power exacerbates the way you behave as a buyer, even when you dont know it. And it even goes to the level of government. There are governments, important governments, that dont care to raise minimum wages because theyre afraid that we, as an industry, will move somewhere else.

It isnt just brands that frequently tout their collaborative relationships with their suppliers. The associations to which they belong also say they want to seat more manufacturers at the table. But when a reporter asked Mostafiz Uddin, managing director of Denim Expert in Bangladesh, if dialogue between stakeholders was improving, he shook his head.

No change, no change, no change, no change, he said before a panel on purchasing practices, a subject that he has been shouting from the rafters since 2017.

When Covid-19 caused panicked brands to rescind their orders en masse, pushing factory owners to the edge of economic insolvency, Uddin spent month after month offering his input to influential groups such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development about improving commercial conditions so this wouldnt happen again. But when the crisis moved on, so did discussions about payment terms, unilateral discounts and order cancelations, he said.

Uddin said that suppliers are essential to the conversation, whether it has to do with improving workplace safety or achieving climate goals. Yet, more often than not, theyre being told what to do rather than co-owning the responsibility.

If my buyer asks me to go to the moon, I have to go to the moon, he said of his company, which is an SAC member. We quite often talk about collective bargaining between workers and the factory owner, right? We talk about any problem that needs to be discussed and solved. Does the buyer do the same thing? I dont see that.

The SAC says it wants to promote the adoption of more responsible purchasing practices as part of its commitment to decent work, one of three pillars in its evolved strategic plan that is pivoting toward stoking impact, not just generating measurements.

Matthijs Crietee, secretary general at the International Apparel Federation, speaking at the Sustainable Apparel Coalitions annual meeting in Boston on Sept. 25, 2023.

On the day of the conference, the multistakeholder group, whose roster includes more than 270 members across the industry, including brands, manufacturers, think tanks and NGOs, inked a Memorandum of Understanding outlining a strategic collaboration with the International Apparel Federation (IAF), a consortium of national clothing associations and the suppliers they represent.

The idea, Andrew Martin, executive vice president at the SAC, said over lunch, is to amplify not only manufacturer representation but also their influence, which is more important than simply including their voice. With the IAF comprising associations from 40 countries, tapping into that cohesive position made sense, particularly since it makes messaging to policymakers that much stronger.

The SAC and the IAF, as one of the conveners of the Sustainable Terms of Trade Initiative, have worked together before, most notably on the latters Higg Brand and Retailer Module (BRM), which earlier in the year revised its purchasing practices section to create greater alignment with the joint reference point known as the Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing Practices.

Commercial terms are just a piece of what the partnership, which is still in its earliest stages, will entail. Tackling audit fatigue will be another banner issue, as will decarbonization. All of this ties into the SACs larger approach, Martin said.

Its [about] trying to help the industry have shared foundational expectations and performance requirements on social and labor and environmental [topics], he said. Because sometimes you can have this same approach and have different expectations as to whats acceptable. And so you have different priorities across the brands and retailers.

And the only way to align everything in a practical way, Martin said, is to actively include manufacturers.

If its clear what is being asked of a manufacturer, then theres a much better chance that this manufacturer will actually invest in itprovided the ability is there, said Matthijs Crietee, secretary general at the IAF, which on Monday signed a framework agreement with Zara owner Inditex in support of more sustainable practices and technologies.

But if youre always wondering if your new client is going to ask something totally different, and then another client comes on and says Ahh, I cant use that system or, Actually I dont need that data, I need [another type of] data, that unclear situation really blocks progress, he said.

Ultimately, the issue isnt about what questions are or arent in the Higg BRM, which is simply an assessment tool, but what actions will create meaningful improvements to responsible purchasing practices, Martin said. Its equally important, he noted, not to view purchasing practices within a silo, but rather as part of a holistic approach that feeds into other topics the industry cares about, such as circular design and compliance.

Theres going to be a lot of reliance from brands on actually how the manufacturers design and develop or deliver product, he said. And so that relationship is going to be even more important both from delivering circularity as a means of reducing impacts, but also as a means of meeting regulations.

Crietee quoted a saying from Dutch farmers: We cant act green if were in the red. In other words, if purchasing practices arent enabling positive supply chain outcomes, then theyre preventing them from happening.

Abhishek Bansal, head of sustainability at Arvind Limited, one of Indias largest textile manufacturers and an SAC member, said that the industry, for all its talk, could do a better job at including suppliers. He praised the trade groups collaborative atmosphere, especially when it comes to rolling out new tools. With matters such as European Union legislation, which is poised to reverberate throughout the supply chain, however, manufacturers are still being shut out.

I think some of [that] legislation should actually take inputs from the ground realities, he said. Otherwise, even if you legislate, well have a gap between what is needed and what is the reality of it.

If fashion appears to be scrambling to reach its 2030 targets, its because its not bringing the solutions collaboratively, Bansal said. If it is top-down, then implementation is slow.

Click here to read the full article.
The rugged and craggy southern coast of Iceland, a few hours' drive east from the capital of Reykjavik, boasts some of the most spectacular waterfalls in Europe. They draw a surprising number of plastic-ponchoed tourists intent on getting doused in spray or bowled over by sub-arctic winds. But they aren't the only attraction. This is also the spot where the Vantajokull glacier calves, in monumental chunks of blue and white ice, into the Jokulsarlon, a lagoon hemmed in on the ocean side by a vast bank of terminal moraine that once marked the glacier's furthest reach.

The lagoon is a place of constant change. The glacier retreats and the icebergs slowly melt and shift shape, often entirely capsizing spectacularly and without warning to reveal dark blue and green ice formed under intense pressure over thousands of years. Eventually, some sizable chunks of these calves wash out to sea only to be washed back up on the nearby Fellsfjara beach. The washed-up bits of ice (some the size of small cars) are scattered along the black volcanic sand and backlit by the sun, giving the place the outlandish vibe of an outdoor art installation. It's certainly an unlikely destination for a Swiss watch brand like Vacheron Constantin. But for the brand's newest ambassador, artist Zaria Forman, it's an absolute mecca.

Vacheron Constantin

Forman, who lives in upstate New York, specializes in giant canvases of iceglacial ice in particular. The fragile majesty of glaciers got Forman hooked more than fifteen years ago and, since then, she has traveled from Antarctica and Alaska to the arctic island of Svalbardas well as Icelandto study and photograph vast panoramas of ice before heading back to her New York studio to capture them in smudgy pastels. From a distance, Formans giant works looks almost photographic; up close, the effect is remarkably impressionistic.

Vacheron Constantin

Vacheron Constantin commissioned a similarly mesmerizing piececalled "Fellsfjara, Iceland No. 3"from Forman after her field trip to Jokulsarlon. Forman and Vacheron Constantin then returned there together in the spring to photograph her at work for its latest One of Not Many ad campaigns. It showcases Forman wearing a new addition to the maison's Overseas collection in pink gold, encrusted, fittingly, with 90 individually-set diamonds.

Shop Now Overseas Self-Winding vacheron-constantin.com $58500.00 Vacheron Constantin

At 35mm in diameter, the new watch is at the smallest end of the Overseas range. And while diamondsand 35mm watcheshave traditionally put such watches firmly in the niche section for watch wearers, both the diminutive size and the diamond decoration is a knowing nod to the ongoing trend towards smaller and more luxurious watches conceived as much for men as for women. While 39mm was once the new sweet spot for men's watches, certain brands have not stopped there and several hits have popped up in the 35-36mm range of late.

Vacheron Constantin

A solid pink gold bracelet on Vacheron Constantins new Overseas definitely beefs things up a bit in both looks and weight. The watch also comes with white rubber and white calfskin straps as standard, all three fitted with VCs proprietary quick-release system so you can switch them out in a second or two. For those less into the diamond settings, the Overseas range also features a diamond free 34.5mm steel version with a blue dial and another pink gold version also in 34.5mm with a blue dial. All of which gives the Overseas range (which now runs from 34.5mm all the way up to 42.5mm in the Overseas Chronograph) a remarkably broad scope of sizes for avid collectors of the veteran brand.



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You can't always take an advertisement at face value -- particularly with fast food. Quite frankly, no business sector can hold a candle to the quick-service industry, at least when it comes to the tendency to mislead customers through arguably dishonest (if technically legal) marketing. In fact, while fast food chains may say that a seafood-based menu item is made with 100% real fish, savvy shoppers know there's more than just aquatic protein in their meal.

To be clear, that's not necessarily a bad thing. No one expects their Filet-O-Fish to be served sans additional ingredients, after all. Neither does it imply that fast food fish items are completely devoid of fish (there are some lines even big chains won't cross). But simply stating that a place uses seafood in its products leaves much to the imagination and rarely covers the overall composition of a fish sandwich.

Given the bounty of edible fish species that could be utilized by fast food chains, as well as the number of non-seafood ingredients commonly found in fast food fish items, many consumers may be unaware of what's actually in their order. If you're curious, we've got you covered (like we always do!). Without further ado, here are the answers to that eternal question: what's really swimming in fast food fish?

Read more: 12 Little-Known Facts About Salt

Alaska Pollock

Trio of Alaska pollock filets on plate - anmbph/Shutterstock

Ask consumers to name the first fast food fish item that pops into their head, and we'd bet most would say a fried fish sandwich. Now, battered and deep-fried fish sandwiches aren't the only seafood items on the menu, but fish sandwiches are the clear king of the sea when it comes to fast food. In that sense, just as fish sandwiches appear more prominently than other seafood products, Alaska pollock seems to be the preferred choice for many of those sandwiches served up by fast food restaurants.

Alaska pollock is known for its unintrusive, relatively mild flavor. In other words, this white fish is a near-perfect choice for fast food sandwiches. Additionally, since Alaska pollock is quite amenable to the infusion of external flavors, it allows other ingredients to shine.

From McDonald's enormously popular Filet-O-Fish, to a well-known Long John Silver's menu item, Alaska pollock is widely used in the fast food industry. So if you're ever unsure about what's swimming in fast food fish (you know, fish-wise), don't be surprised if Alaska pollock is the animal du jour.

Shrimp

Pile of frozen cooked shrimp - Taras Shparhala/Shutterstock

By and large, fast food fish sandwiches tend to include a white fish species like Alaska pollock as the main ingredient. But just as fried fish sandwiches aren't the only type of fast food seafood available, not all fast food fish menus use a run-of-the-mill, white-fleshed protein. As evidenced by Popeyes and its occasionally-available Shrimp Roll (or its now-discontinued Shrimp Po'boy), you might have shellfish swimming in your order, as well.

Of course, as fans of Popeyes' fried shrimp are aware, the chain's deep-fried popcorn shrimp isn't relegated to the occasional sandwich. Just like the bevy of shrimp-centric meal options offered by Long John Silver's, Popeyes' popcorn shrimp currently appears to be a year-round, full-time menu item.

Seeing how shrimp is almost always found in fast food fish items that promote shellfish as an ingredient, it's a fitting entry for this list. If a menu item in question is shrimp-focused, you can be confident in guessing it does, in fact, have shrimp.

Cod

Raw cod filets on black board - Mironov Vladimir/Shutterstock

Every New Englander worth their salt knows the ocean waters around Cape Cod are overflowing with cod ... or, at least, they used to be. Thanks primarily to overfishing, cod has been found less and less often in the southern Massachusetts region and beyond in recent decades. Of course, just because the white-fleshed fish may be increasingly scarce in Cape Cod doesn't mean it's entirely extinct -- a fact demonstrated by the fish's sporadic appearance on fast food menus around the U.S.

Like Alaska pollock, cod's mild flavor makes it perfectly suited for fast food fish sandwiches. Actually, its versatility makes cod a good choice when crafting any fish sandwich -- be it from a fast food chain like Culver's or one whipped up in a seaside shack in Provincetown.

Even if it's not used quite as often as Alaska pollock in the fast food world, there are still plenty of examples of cod in fast food fish products. Since its not-very-fishy taste makes it one of the better seafood options for people who don't like fish, cod is unlikely to disappear from fast food menus anytime soon (unlike the shores of Cape Cod).

Salmon

Raw salmon filets on ice - Taras Shparhala/Shutterstock

To be perfectly honest, some readers may take issue with our decision to feature salmon among the various other ingredients found in fast food fish. By all accounts, it appears that the only fast food chain that offers salmon consistently (or at all, for that matter) is, as of this writing, Long John Silver's. But we're nothing if not thorough here at Mashed, and since Long John Silver's is arguably the quintessential American fast food seafood chain, we think it's fair game to highlight its salmon-based menu items when discussing fast food fish.

If nothing else, the rationale behind salmon's rare usage at fast food chains seems rather apparent. It's not what most folks would consider a cheap or cost-effective fish. While it's immensely unlikely any fast food company would use the exorbitantly-priced king salmon in a menu, it's also easy to imagine that a budget-minded customer would instinctively pass over anything salmon-based.

Since Long John Silver's uses keta salmon (otherwise known as chum salmon) in its grilled salmon meals, it's not nearly as pricey both for the restaurant and the consumer. Perhaps, salmon could still be destined to overtake the fast food fish market some day  but we won't hold our breath underwater while we're waiting.

Flounder

Whole founder on brown butcher paper - alanadesign/Shutterstock

To readers who found themselves immediately repulsed at the idea of devouring Ariel's best pal from "The Little Mermaid," we've got some good news for you. First off, the animated flounder (cleverly named Flounder) wasn't an actual flounder fish. Secondly, well ... he was a cartoon, for goodness' sake. In other words, you don't need to worry about eating Flounder when you order flounder from a fast food restaurant.

Interestingly enough, it currently seems that the only widely available example of this mild-tasting white fish (notice a pattern?) is the limited-time Popeyes Flounder sandwich. Though the sandwich is unavailable as of September 2023, it appears to be offered seasonally by the popular chain. Moreover, this menu item fits the topicality of this article to a T.

Perhaps flounder won't be swimming in your fast food fish order very often. But since it does indeed make the rare appearance on fast food menus, it's worth mentioning (although many migth argue that's never worth looking at a live flounder).

Water

Water drop splashing - Martin Barraud/Getty Images

Fish live in the water. Even a toddler who's yet to learn how to form full sentences knows that simple fact. Of course, while fish and water go together like birds and the sky, that doesn't mean you'd necessarily expect the basic liquid component to be found in a cooked seafood dish. But expectations don't always match reality and, thanks to the need to ensure an order retains moisture throughout the cooking process, there's a decent chance your fast food fish didn't simply come from water -- it contains water, too.

There's no shortage of fast food fish items currently on the market that list water front and center (or, at least, right after the seafood itself) among the ingredients. Perhaps including this indescribably versatile building block of life in a crispy fish product might seem counterproductive from afar. After all, no one wants to eat a soggy, sloppy piece of fish.

But like so many other food recipes in the world, the addition of water doesn't remotely ruin the final product. After all, if you weren't aware of its usage, would you have ever guessed it was included in your fast food fish in the first place?

Vegetable Oil

Hand pouring vegetable oil - New Africa/Shutterstock

With the fairly notable exception of Long John Silver's line of grilled salmon menu options, the fast food fish game belongs to the deep-fried arena. In fact, we're willing to predict that the vast majority of fast food customers expect their seafood order from Burger King or Wendy's to star a piece of battered fish -- specifically, one that's been cooked in a vat of bubbling oil. Unsurprisingly, then, there's a better-than-average chance that your fast food fish took a swim in vegetable oil on its way to you. That ingredient may even be included inside the item, as well.

Just like any corn dog worth its salt (an ingredient we'll address momentarily) is prepared by being immersed in an oil-filled deep fryer -- thus absorbing the oil in the process -- many popular fast food fish products are cooked in vegetable oil of some sort. More than that, certain fast food fish items also list vegetable oil as an ingredient used in the preparation process (it's the third-most prominent ingredient in McDonald's Filet-O-Fish, after all).

Whether vegetable oil is contained within a piece of fast food fish itself or simply prepared to order in a boiling hot container of the stuff, you shouldn't be surprised to find the pantry staple in your order of fast food fish.

Wheat Flour

Wheat flour in bowl with grains - Tanya Sid/Shutterstock

Just as many fast food chicken nuggets aren't made from 100% pure poultry, it stands to reason that no fast food fish item's ingredient list starts and ends with seafood. That's not a problem, of course, since there are very few single fast food item anywhere that are made out of just one ingredient with absolutely no additives. Consider how deep-fried fast food fish items don't come straight from the ocean caked in a rich, tasty batter. With that in mind, it's no surprise you're likely to find wheat flour included in your fast food fish.

Of all the commonly used fast food fish ingredients we uncovered during our research, none may have been more expected than wheat flour. Flour is essential to creating a crispy outer coating for any battered and fried food, after all. That holds true whether it's chicken, Twinkies, or fast food fish.

We don't think it's unreasonable to assume that nearly every fried fast food fish item on the market contains wheat flour in some capacity (outside of a gluten-free alternative, of course). So the next time you're wondering how the crunchy exterior of your fast food fish was formed, remember the power of flour.

Modified Food Starch

Bowl of modified food starch with corn - NIKCOA/Shutterstock

Would anyone ever consider categorizing, well, anything related to fast food menus under a minimally processed banner? We doubt it. Maybe some would be tempted to tip their cap to the handful of fast food burger purveyors that offer fresh, never-frozen beef -- but we wouldn't often be among that group. With no real debate over whether or not fast food fish is remotely akin to ocean-to-table seafood, it's no mystery to learn that modified food starch (or modified corn starch) is so frequently used in many fast food fish recipes.

Often deployed in the mass production of food items as a thickening agent, it's quite clear why modified food starch is so common in fast food fish. If a customer orders fried fish off the menu at their local fast food spot, they expect the outer layer of that patty or filet to be delightfully crisp and evenly-distributed (not to mention remaining attached to the inner protein while they're eating it). Food starch is key to fulfilling those wants.

Additionally, modified food starch may help retain the overall quality of fast food fish when frozen, as it can reduce the risk of the outer batter layer from breaking down or separating during the freezing process. It's easy to see why this food additive is so prevalent in many mass-produced fast food fish products.

Panko Breadcrumbs

Panko breadcrumbs in wooden bowl - Bhofack2/Getty Images

We're not entirely sure how panko breadcrumbs became synonymous with fancy pants-style breaded and fried foods. But there's a reason yacht club staff members ask "how pank'd?" whenever members order panko-breaded delicacies (or so we hear). Regardless of the specifics, there's no denying many restaurants (particularly those within the fast food industry) attempt to project an upscale image when it comes to their fish-centric menu by utilizing panko breadcrumbs. However, words can be tricky, and the precise phrasing in certain instances makes it unclear how authentic some item's panko credentials truly are.

Take, for instance, both Burger King's Big Fish sandwich and Wendy's limited-time Crispy Panko Fish Sandwich. Now, we're not prone to calling any business or person a liar without solid proof to back our claim ... and we're certainly not doing that here. But we can't help but find something untoward when we see that both fast food companies describe their products as using panko breading instead of fresh and properly crispy panko breadcrumbs.

Are we being unnecessarily nitpicky regarding semantics? Most certainly. It's highly unlikely a fast food chain would risk its reputation by brazenly lying about using panko breadcrumbs for its fish. It's all but certain the Japanese-invented product will indeed be found in those fast food items, but we'll leave it up to you to decide if it's been used well.

Salt

salt shaker and salt pile on black background - Kittiphan Dusdeeworaruk/Shutterstock

It's tough to top the importance of salt when it comes to concocting a delectable dish. Fast food fish items are no exception to this rule. When you consider the generally absurd amount of sodium that can be found in many fast food products, why anyone would be shocked to discover salt is inside their fast food fish order is beyond us.

We're not saying that your quarter-pound order of popcorn shrimp from Popeyes is as heavily salted as a piece of cod that's being prepared for months-long preservation. But there's simply no way around the fact that any fast food fish item will have some level of sodium chloride included in the mix  and maybe more than you should have on a regular basis.

If you're concerned about the amount of salt that's swimming around inside your fast food fish, perhaps you should consider doing some swimming yourself (or any exercise, really). After all, one of the best ways to overcome high sodium intake is through physical activity, which may even bolster your blood pressure against excessive salt intake, as per the American Journal of Epidemiology. And if you're consuming fast food on the regular, developing a good aerobic routine is very definitely a smart move.

Sugar

Sugar and cubes scattered on pink surface - PV productions/Shutterstock

Despite widespread misconceptions, not every processed food item in the 21st century contains added sugar. Still, we were sort of surprised to discover that many fast food fish products don't mention sugar among their ingredients (or in the corresponding nutritional facts). But that doesn't mean there's no sugar to be found in any fast food fish item -- just ask the Filet-O-Fish.

To be fair, the Filet-O-Fish isn't the only fast food fish item on the market that lists sugar as an ingredient. But seeing how the international fast food giant mostly seems to offer products that are overloaded with fat, salt, and sugar -- in hopes of hitting the brain's reward center after food hits a customer's palate -- we can't say we expected anything less from Mickey D's seafood department. Sugar makes a person more apt to crave sugary products in the future, after all, and where else would the restaurant want those Filet-O-Fish fans to head when a craving strikes?

Of course, considering the way that sugar enhances the taste of many foods, no one can really blame those fast food restaurants that choose to add a spoonful of sugar to help the fish order go down.

Read the original article on Mashed.
Lichen designer Christine Espinal filled her first trip with visits to dimly lit vinyl bars and a mall known for its wealth of anime and manga-related collectors items.

Welcome to Design Detours, a series where creative people whose tastes we trust share their well-curated, design-minded travel itineraries.



It was a work commitment that drew Christine Espinal to Japan for the first time, earlier this year. The Brooklyn spatial designer traveled with her colleagues from New York City design shop and incubator Lichen for a studio pop-up at Hako Gallery in Chiba, a city just east of Tokyo. "We brought some of our designs out there and made a beautiful display," says Espinal.

While the pop-up was the main reason for the Lichen teams Japan visit, they snuck in some extra time to soak up inspiration in Tokyo. "We also went for research and design purposes," says Espinal. In fact, the minute she found out she was going on the trip, she scheduled an ikebana (Japanese art of flower arranging) class at the Sogetsu Foundationsomething shes long wanted to do. "Ive been studying ikebana through books in the States," says Espinal. "It was by far the highlight of my trip." Here, Espinal shares some of her favorite spots from her additional few days exploring Tokyo, including an old-school vinyl bar, a shopping complex famous for its anime and manga products, and some very well-designed bookstores.

Day one: Pop into immaculately designed book and clothing shops and sip on Martinis at a speakeasy

Cow Books offers vintage and secondhand books and periodicals, as well as original merchandise, in a cozy shop in Tokyos Nakameguro district.

I started with a meal at Breakfast Club, an American-style diner in the Meguro district, around 20 minutes by train from our Airbnb in Shinjuku City. The interior is homey with an American-Japanese flair. They have counter-style seating with pendant lights above the bar and a few brown booths, which are small and intimate. They serve pancakes and huevos rancheros. After breakfast, we walked to Cow Books, a little bookshop that specializes in vintage and secondhand books and magazines and carries its own clothing line and merchandise. It has this beautiful silver interior with an LED screen that wraps around the entire space above the bookshelves. I found some great vintage Popeye magazines.

We then walked over to Tsutaya Books in Daikanyama, which is such a cute neighborhood to stroll around and check out shops. The store is huge and made up of two big buildings with a white lattice facade. Inside, it has this beautiful reading space and a huge selection of design books, which is where I lived for a couple of hours. I bought Charlotte Perriand et le Japon, which can be hard to find elsewhere. I had to pick it up because I am such a huge fan of hers and I really identify with her as a designer. We spent some time in the area looking at shops like Nanamica, a clothing store with simple items like neutral T-shirts and trench coats. I didnt buy anything but went to admire the stores design, with light wooden beams built into the walls to display the clothing selection.

INC Cocktails is a dimly lit vinyl bar in a basement space just a short walk from Shibuya Station.

Later, we went to INC Cocktails, a speakeasy-style Shibuya bar that I found on TikTok. Its really hard to get a table but luckily I was able to snag a reservation. In the corner by the bar, theres a huge vinyl wall and a DJ playing live records. We sat in this little booth where the waiters brought us warm towels and I ordered an espresso Martini.

Day two: Head to a Tadao Andodesigned museum and study the Japanese art of flower arranging

The Sogetsu Foundation offers ikebana classes for all levels of learners at its locations in Tokyo and Kyoto. At the Tokyo headquarters, visitors enter the building to an indoor stone garden designed by Isamu Noguchi, pictured above.

See the full story on Dwell.com: Where to Find Tokyos Creative Corners, According to a Spatial Designer

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One of the most important elements of Japanese cuisine is tare. Tare is a broad term used to reference a number of sauces and glazes that are generally based around four ingredients: sake, mirin, sugar, and shoyu (Japanese-style soy sauce). The most internationally famous type of tare is teriyaki sauce, but the popular chicken and beef teriyaki dishes found in the United States are really American inventions. Japanese cooks traditionally use teriyaki when grilling fish; for meats like beef and chicken, they use an entirely different type of tare called yakiniku sauce.

Yakiniku sauce is made from the fundamental tare ingredients of shoyu, mirin, sake, and usually sugar, although some recipes omit the latter. It also includes garlic, sesame seeds, and often sesame oil. Yakiniku sauce is very versatile, and different cooks have different takes on it. Some versions include ginger, miso, chili powder, and even fruits such as apple, which can further enhance the sauce's sweetness.

Yakiniku translates to English as "grilled meat" and it actually refers to a type of cooking style from which the sauce takes its name. Yakiniku is meat cooked over high heat on a tabletop grill and it's a popular category of Japanese street food. The most iconic yakiniku dish is thinly sliced steak, but practically any cut of beef can be used, as can pork and chicken. The sauce is most commonly used for dipping freshly grilled pieces of meat into but it can also serve as a marinade or glaze.

Read more: The 13 Best Steaks For Grilling

Yakiniku Is The Japanese Food You've Been Sleeping On

tabletop yakiniku grill - Pattarisara Suvichanarakul/Getty Images

The term "yakiniku" was popularized by Japanese writer Kanagaki Robun in his 1872 book "Seiyo Ryori-tsu" (, or "Connoisseur of Western-Style Cooking"). It was originally used in reference to Western barbecue food, like that of the United States. However, not many Japanese people were actually eating meat at that time; 1872 had just marked the end of a 1,200-year ban on meat eating in Japan that was originally adopted as a Buddhist practice. Regular consumption of meat wouldn't catch on at large in Japan for a few more decades, but it eventually did with the help of immigrants.

Modern yakiniku is heavily inspired by Korean barbecue. In the 1930s, Korean immigrants in Osaka introduced Japanese diners to classic grilled meat dishes like galbi and bulgogi. Yakiniku really took off in the years following WWII when Japan experienced severe food shortages. Japanese chefs habitually discarded less desirable cuts of beef and pork, such as offal. Koreans residing in Japan could obtain these discarded cuts cheaply, and use the grilling practices of their homeland to transform them into great meals.

Korean barbecue restaurants began popping up throughout Japan, but then the Korean War began. North and South Korea were divided, and so were the Korean restaurants in Japan. If Japanese people were unsure whether a certain Korean restaurant was affiliated with the North or South, they'd use "yakiniku" as a politically correct umbrella term. Eventually, Japanese chefs adopted the cuisine themselves.

How To Use Yakiniku Sauce

yakiniku sauce with red chili - thaweerat/Shutterstock

Even in its most basic form, yakiniku sauce is an incredibly versatile and impactful addition to your culinary arsenal. You can buy it pre-bottled, but it is quite easy to make at home, where you can customize it to your liking. Yakiniku sauce is not constrained to a singular formula, and you can experiment with further ingredients to tweak its flavor profile. You can enhance the sauce's sweetness with blended or grated fruits such as apples or peaches, add an acidic tang with rice wine vinegar, deepen the umami with miso paste, or add a spicy kick with togarashi chili flakes.

You can approximate the yakiniku experience at home by thinly slicing a high-quality piece of steak and grilling it over the highest heat you can manage. You can use the sauce in three different ways: marinating the meat overnight in it, brushing it onto the meat while it cooks, or dipping pieces of grilled meat into it.

In Japan, the most acclaimed yakiniku chefs use the technique on wagyu beef. The Japanese cattle breed is revered for its tender, flavorful meat and it is perfectly suited for yakiniku when thinly sliced. It should be cooked quickly, and over high heat for the best results, and because wagyu beef is so flavorful on its own, it doesn't really need a marinade or glaze. The sauce is best used for dipping.

Read the original article on Daily Meal.
Surfers sure know how to find the silver lining in storm clouds.

While non-surfers normally cringe at a bad weather report, surfers get excited for storm surf.

Last weekend, New York City and Long Island got slammed with around nine inches of rain that caused airport and subway floods, school closures, and an escaped sea lion at the Central Park Zoo.

While New York City struggled, others took longboards into the street.

The East Coast Chapter of the Black Surfing Association, known on Instagram as Black_Surfing_Rockaway, captioned the clip above:

"The best Surf break on Long Island! I see you my brother! @your_local_shwamma_head_@longislandwiseguy"

The clip shows a regular footer on a yellow longboard surfing down a flooded street while it's pouring rain.

At one point, he crouches down and throws a double shaka at the camera.

Storms have brough some epic waves and inspired surfers to get creative in the last couple of months.

In August, surfers were treated to rare pumping surf in Alabama thanks to Hurricane Idalia. Over in New Jersey, Ben Gravy scored barrel after barrel thanks to the same storm.

Californians went tow-surfing behind cars through flooded neighborhood streets after Hurricane Hillary, and a Florida woman went stand-up paddling through flooded streets with her dog.

Viewers had fun commenting on this one:

"Talk about making lemonade"

"Lol Amazon not playing, they gonna get your package to ya lol"

"That's one way to deal with it"

"That is fabulous"

"I hope he got his tetanus shots"

"BREAKING LEFT IN THE BURBS!!!"

***

Don't miss another headline from SURFER! Subscribe to our newsletter, follow us on Instagram, and stay connected with the latest happenings in the world of surfing. We're always on the lookout for amusing, interesting and engaging surf-related videos to feature on our channels.

Whether you're a professional surfer or just an amateur, we want to see your best footage and help you share it with the world. Submit your video for a chance to be featured on SURFER and our social channels. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch high-quality surf videos.
What if I told you that theres a red-hot ETF out there that has returned 24% on an annualized basis over the past three years  and its not a tech fund? In fact, its a fund focused on simple, old-fashioned concepts like shareholder yield. Its the Cambria Shareholder Yield ETF (BATS:SYLD).

The funds recent success shows that focusing on these fundamentals still has value in todays market. Therefore, lets take a closer look at SYLD and see if its worth investor consideration.

What is the SYLD ETFs Strategy?

According to SYLDs sponsor, Cambria, the fund focuses on U.S. companies that are returning cash to shareholders through three attributes  dividends, buybacks, and net debt reduction.

The fund prioritizes shareholder yield  how much money a company returns to shareholders in the form of dividends, share buybacks, and debt paydown. Shareholder yield is calculated by adding up cash dividends, net share repurchases, and net debt reduction and then dividing this total by a companys market cap. In theory, high shareholder yield is a sign that a company is operating efficiently, putting it in a position to generate these returns to shareholders.

Please note that the fund is actively managed and switched over to active management three years ago.

SYLDs Holdings

To construct its portfolio, SYLD starts with a universe of 3,000 stocks with market caps of over $200 million that meet certain liquidity and price requirements.

Cambria then selects the top 20% of these stocks based on their shareholder yields and valuations. Cambrias portfolio management team then evaluates these stocks to find equities that it feels are trading below their intrinsic value based on metrics like the price-to-earnings ratio and the price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. Next, the team selects what they feel are the top 100 of these stocks based on shareholder yield and valuation. The fund rebalances quarterly and seeks to equally weight the 100 stocks it invests in.

Story continues

What does this process look like in practice? SYLDs strategy results in a portfolio of 100 stocks. The fund is very diversified in that its top 10 holdings account for just 17.4% of assets.

Below, youll find an overview of SYLDs top 10 holdings using TipRanks holdings tool.

SYLDs top holdings consist of companies that are returning plenty of capital to shareholders. The funds top holding, Chevron, is emblematic of the types of stocks that SYLD targets. Chevron features a 3.5% dividend yield and returns a lot of capital to shareholders via share buybacks.

Beyond Chevron, the energy sector is featured prominently through other energy supermajors like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, coal stocks like Alpha Metallurgical Resources and Consol Energy, and petroleum refiner and nitrogen fertilizer manufacturer CVR Energy.

In recent years, many energy companies have become increasingly diligent about rewarding their shareholders with shareholder returns, as the market isnt necessarily looking for them to ramp up production for the sake of growth.

Interestingly, auto and truck dealerships are well-represented in the ETFs top holdings by Penske Automotive and AutoNation. Beyond these names, SYLD owns all types of businesses that generate high shareholder yields, ranging from homebuilders like Toll Brothers and Pultegroup to retailers like Dillards.

Monster Performance

While this may not sound like the most exciting group of holdings, this portfolio has propelled SYLD to phenomenal returns over time, and theres nothing boring about that.

Over the past three years (as of August 31, 2023), the fund has put up a red-hot annualized return of 24%, far surpassing the returns of the broader market. For comparison, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust returned 10.4% over the same time frame.

Over the past five years, SYLDs annualized return stands at 12.1%, beating SPYs return of 11%. Over a 10-year time frame, SYLDs annualized return comes in at 12.5%, slightly trailing SPYs 12.7% return, although, in reality, this is a great 10-year annualized return.

Expense Ratio

The only negative aspect of SYLD is its relatively high expense ratio of 0.59%. This means that an investor allocating $10,000 to SYLD will pay $59 in fees during the first year of investing. These fees compound over time. Assuming the expense ratio remains constant and the fund returns 5% a year going forward, this same investor would pay $189 in fees over three years, $329 over five years, and $737 over the course of 10 years.

In fairness to SYLD, its an actively-managed fund, so its naturally going to be more expensive than the typical index fund. Plus, its returns over the last few years seem to justify its high fee. If SYLD keeps posting dynamite annualized returns, the higher expense ratio isnt going to be a big concern, but if the funds returns decelerate, this expense ratio will be a tougher pill to swallow.

Dividend Yield

SYLD focuses on stocks that return capital to shareholders, and the fund itself is a dividend payer that currently yields 2.5%. While this yield not be enough to get the hearts of income investors racing, its a nice bonus for investors and helps boost total returns over time.

Is SYLD Stock a Buy, According to Analysts?

Turning to Wall Street, SYLD earns a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 65 Buys, 29 Holds, and seven Sell ratings assigned in the past three months. The average SYLD stock price target of $70.75 implies 17.45% upside potential.

Investor Takeaway

SYLD is an attractive ETF with a unique focus on shareholder yield. This ETF has crushed the market over the past three years and put up impressive returns over the past five and 10 years as well. While past performance is no guarantee of future results, SYLDs strategy seems sound and sustainable. Returning 24% per year for a prolonged timeframe probably isnt sustainable, but the fund should continue to do well over time.

Investors have to decide if the funds relatively high expense ratio, due to its smaller size (with $835 million in assets under management) and active management style, is right for them. But overall, SYLD looks like an attractive investment for investors to add to their portfolios.

Disclosure: At the time of publication the writer had a position in the securities mentioned in this article.
Police in Thailand arrested a 14-year-old boy after a shooting at a luxury shopping mall in the capital Bangkok on Tuesday left at least two people dead and five others injured, causing terrified shoppers to flee the scene.

Video shows crowds of people running out of the busy Siam Paragon mall in central Bangkok where the fatal shooting took place.

The shooting took place around 4:20 p.m. local time (5:20 a.m. ET), Police Lt. General Samran Nualma, assistant commissioner-general of the Royal Thai Police, said at a press conference Wednesday.

The suspect, who is reported to have mental health issues, was apprehended just under an hour after the shooting started and taken to a nearby hospital after being interrogated by police, Thai Police General Torsak Sukvimol told reporters.

One of the deceased victims is a Chinese citizen and the other a Myanmar national, Sukvimol said.

Three Thai citizens, one Chinese national and one Laos national were injured in the shooting with varying degrees of severity, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Kanchana Patarachoke said Wednesday.

While the case is still under investigation and some details cannot be shared, please rest assured that the appropriate measures are being taken. The governments priority is to ensure the safety of Thais and foreigners alike and that such tragedies are prevented in the future, Kanchana said.

Bangkok Emergency Center revised an earlier death toll, which stated that three people were killed in the shooting. The director of the center Dr. Yutthana Setthanan told reporters he was initially told the death toll was three but later clarified that only one person was killed. The death toll later rose to two, according to Sukvimol.

Siam Paragon shopping mall is seen empty, after people were evacuated from the scene of the shooting. - Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty Images

People gather outside the mall in the Thai capital. - Jack Taylor/AFP/Getty Images

Several people described chaotic scenes of employees and shoppers trying to escape the mall as the attack took place, according to Reuters.

Shir Yahav, 26, said the shooting happened in just a few minutes, the agency reported.

We saw all the people run, run, run, we didnt understand what was happening, Yahav said. We went with them and then we heard several shots, like six or seven shots. We blocked the door of the store.

Susinee, 35, said she and about half a dozen other workers just ran out of a Japanese ramen restaurant, Reuters reported.

Personal issues

The suspect surrendered himself after the shooting and still had ammunition when he was apprehended, according to Sukvimol.

Any of his personal issues, we cant talk about that much since hes still a youth, the police chief said of the suspect, adding that officers have spoken to his parents.

He has mental issues, and he is receiving treatment at Rajvithee Hospital, he added.

The police general did not specify where the juvenile obtained the weapon.

During a joint press conference Wednesday, police said the suspect had modified a blank gun to fire live rounds.

Sukvimol commended mall security for effectively dealing with an active shooter. When the shooting happened, there were a lot of people at the mall, it was rush hour and raining outside.

An officer inspects a gun. A police general said the suspected shooter still had ammunition when he was arrested. - Thai Rescue Workers Association/Reuters

Gun ownership in the Southeast Asian country is high compared with other countries in the region.

According to 2017 data from the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey (SAS), more than 10.3 million civilians hold firearms in Thailand, or around 15 guns for every 100 people. About 6.2 million of those guns are legally registered, according to SAS.

Thailand tallies the second-highest gun homicides after the Philippines in Southeast Asia, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washingtons 2019 Global Burden of Disease database.

But mass shootings in the country are rare. In October 2022, at least 36 people were killed in a gun and knife attack at a child care center in northeastern Thailand.

The massacre in Nong Bua Lamphu province was believed to be the countrys deadliest incident of its kind.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin expressed his deepest condolences to the relatives of those died in the shooting.

I would like to offer my support to the families of the deceased and all those who were injured as well, the prime minister wrote on X, previously known as Twitter.

CNNs Kara Fox and Heather Chen contributed reporting.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
A 16-year-old honor student died and two others were injured when the car they were in crashed into a tree, South Carolina cops told news outlets.

Taylor Madison Britt died in the crash Sept. 30, WPDE reported. The Darlington County coroner pronounced her dead on the scene, and two passengers in her car were taken to a hospital, officials told the station.

South Carolina Highway Patrol is investigating the crash, which occurred near Darlington, WMBF reported.

Taylor had a sweet, free spirit, her family wrote in her obituary. She was outgoing, smart, talented, and forever more beautiful.

Britt was a student at Darlington High School.

It is with tremendous sadness that we share the passing of a Darlington High School student, Taylor Britt, over the weekend, a spokesperson for the Darlington County School District said in a statement shared with McClatchy News. We offer our sincerest condolences and prayers to Taylors family and friends.

School is not in session for fall break, but counselors will be available for students when classes resume, the spokesperson said.

McClatchy News could not immediately reach the Darlington County Coroners Office or the South Carolina Highway Patrol.

Britts family described her as an honor student in the early college program who loved to sing and eat macaroni and cheese.

A simple paragraph cannot sum of the life of this wonderful child, her obituary says. Simply put, she was a great person in every way, shape, and form.

A former teacher mourned her loss on social media.

She was definitely someone you would want to be around, she brightened up everyones day, the teacher wrote. Had such a bright future. Praying for the family, friends, and all her classmates and students at DHigh. This isnt fair.

Another teacher asked the community for support, saying our hearts are breaking.

Darlington is about 80 miles northeast of Columbia.

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A 26-year-old man was running from an armed attacker when he was struck by a vehicle and died in Arizona, police said.

Martin Anaya was stabbed on a city bus by a 28-year-old man at about 7:35 p.m. Oct. 1, the Phoenix Police Department said in a news release.

Anaya fled from the bus and was chased by the man, police said. As he was running away, he was struck by a vehicle, according to the release.

He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.

The 46-year-old driver fled and was later arrested on a charge of leaving the scene of a fatal collision, police said.

Police said the man accused of chasing Anaya was also shot. He was taken to a hospital, treated and released. He was arrested on multiple charges including armed robbery and murder, according to police.

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An attempted robbery of an armored vehicle outside the Country Club Hills Walmart Monday turned into a shoot out, police officials said.

At 10:24 a.m., Country Club Hills police say they responded to a call of an active shooter at Walmart, 4005 W. 168th Place. The preliminary investigation found the shots were fired during an attempted armed robbery of an armored vehicle, according to a police news release.

A FBI spokeswoman said the suspected offenders quickly drove a Sudan vehicle up to the armored vehicle and began shooting. The armored vehicle workers and Walmart security returned fire, she said.

The offenders then jumped out of their car and stole the vehicle of an elderly person nearby and drove off, the spokeswoman said.

There were no reported injuries.

Walmart spokesman Joe Pennington said no store associates were injured and directed questions about the attempted robbery to police and the FBI. Pennington said Monday night the store was still closed as law enforcement conducted its investigation.

Were waiting for law enforcement to conclude its investigation to determine when its safe to reopen, he said.

The FBI also responded to a bank robbery at U.S. Bank, 4350 Lincoln Highway, in Matteson earlier in the day, according to the spokeswoman. Shots were fired in that robbery, but no one was injured, she said.

The FBI spokeswoman said its unclear if the robberies are related.

The FBI is offering a $20,000 reward to anyone with information that leads to an arrest in this or other armored vehicle robberies and attempts, the spokeswoman said.

Country Club police ask anyone with information regarding this attempted robbery to call 708-798-3191 or the Chicago FBI office at 312-421-6700.
RICHMOND, Mo.  The Missouri State Auditors Office found nearly $3,000 in missing money and over $5,000 in questionable purchases at the Ray County Sheriffs Office in a new audit.

State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick released the audit Monday, giving the local sheriffs office a poor rating.

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The regularly scheduled audit examined spending from 2018 to 2020 when Garry Bush was sheriff. Scott Childers has since taken over after winning the 2020 election.

The states audit found sheriffs office personnel didnt transmit over $2,500 in conceal carry weapon permit fees and over $400 in sex offender registry fees to the county treasurer.

This missing money happened under Bushs administration, according to the audit. Fitzpatricks office has recommended Childers work with the county commission and other law enforcement to investigate and seek restitution.

Questionable purchases

Additionally, the audit found the sheriffs office spent at least $5,543 on unsupported and/or questionable purchases under Bushs leadership.

According to the audit, the sheriffs office purchased 15 TVs on a Walmart credit card for over $1,700, as well as $850 on items like cigarettes, beer, barbecue seasonings, and beauty items.

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The report also found the sheriffs office purchased 76 hams for over $1,700.

Fitzpatricks office has recommended the Ray County Sheriffs Office require adequate documentation for all payments and ensure they are all necessary uses of public money.

Accounting problems

The audit also found the sheriffs office needs to improve its controls and procedures, including accounting duties and better procedures receipting, recording, depositing, and transmitting money.

The state also discovered the Ray County Sheriffs Office did not retain many financial records, failed to pay bills in a timely manner and didnt monitor bank balances.

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That led to over $400 in late fees and finance charges in 2020 due to late credit card payments and $140 in overdraft fees in 2021.

Other county offices

But the problems arent just in the sheriffs office, according to the audit. The state has recommended improving procedures at the Ray County Prosecutors Office.

The audit found the prosecutors office doesnt have adequately segregated accounting duties or documented supervisory reviews and needs to improve accounting procedures.

Download the FOX4 News app on iPhone and Android

Fitzpatricks office also found the Ray County Commission does not adequately comply with Missouris Sunshine Law on open records requests and failed to consistently follow personnel policies.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
Credit - Polly Klass

On October 1, 1993, a 12-year-old girl was kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom in Petaluma, California, during a sleepover with two friends, while her mother slept soundly in the room next door. This rarest of all kidnappingsa stranger abduction from the hometriggered one of the largest manhunts in FBI history.

Her namePolly Klaasevokes the 1990s, a decade when Americas Most Wanted engaged the public to catch criminals and Soul Asylums Runaway Train video on MTV helped bring home missing kids. Americans of a certain age will remember Polly's dimpled face, which appeared on national news every night, on the cover of People magazine, and on more than 8 million flyers distributed as far as China.

The two-month manhunt unfolded at the dawn of the internet age, the first time a Missing Person flyer was posted online, not just stapled to telephone poles and Scotch-taped to storefront windows. This crime shocked the conscience of the nation and violated the sanctity of home, hastening the end of free-range childhood and the escalation of stranger danger culture.

After responding to 60,000 tips and investigating 12,000 leads, Petaluma Police and the FBI were still searching for a prime suspect. Then on November 27, 1993, Sonoma chef Dana Jaffe found suspicious items during a hike on her remote, wooded property off Pythian Road in Sonoma, California. Having watched the daily news coverage of the search for Polly Klaas, Jaffe instinctively saw a possible connection to Polly.

The crime scene

On November 28, 1993, flashbulbs popped and whined in the darkening woods off. Pythian Road, illuminating the falling rain. Forensic technicians Tony Maxwell and Frank Doyle, two members of the FBIs first Evidence Response Team (ERT), were searching for trace evidence and photographing the soggy crime scene.

The black sweatshirt, red tights, and white ligatures that Jaffe had found while walking in the woods near her home had been gathered by Sonoma County Deputy Mike McManus that morning. To mark the spot where the evidence lay hed left behind a condom and its wrapper, also found at the scene.

After photographing the dripping trees and the fallen leaves disturbed on the ground where the evidence had been lying, agents Maxwell and Doyle bagged and tagged the evidence for an overnight trip to the FBI lab in Washington, D.C.

FBI forensic technician Tony Maxwell, a member of the FBI's first Evidence Response Team (ERT) in the nation, lifted the latent print from Polly's bed frame and later processed evidence at the Pythian Road crime scene. Tony Maxwell

At the FBI office in Santa Rosa, ERT member David Alford was packing for a redeye flight to handdeliver another batch of evidencerelated to another suspectto Chris Allen in the FBI lab. On his drive from Santa Rosa to the San Francisco airport, Alford swung by Pythian Road. Case agent Eddie Freyer and Sergeant Mike Meese gave him the latest evidence, still damp from the morning rain. It was placed in new luggage, secured with locks. Tony Maxwell packed up his camera gear, grabbed an overnight bag, and joined Alford.

At the airport, they realized their luggage would exceed the carryon limit. They identified themselves as FBI and requested permission to place the bags of evidence in the seat between them to maintain chain of custody. But the flight was full, so that wasnt possible. The airline crew allowed Alford to walk on the tarmac and personally load the evidence in the cargo hold of the planelast bags in. He sealed the cargo door with crime scene tape. On the other end, he would unpeel the tape and carefully unload the bags of evidence.

The palm print

Courtesy Tony Maxwell and Greg Jacobs

As the evidence began its 3,000-mile journey to Washington, D.C., Petaluma detective Andy Mazzanti drove to the Petaluma police station to begin a full workup on Richard Allen Davis, a parolee with an outstanding warrant for a recent DUI and a failure to check in with his parole officer. The FBI had officially named him a subject in the kidnapping of Polly Klaas.

Mazzanti worked the phones late into the night, calling every law enforcement agency listed on Richard Allen Daviss rap sheet. He wanted everything in the filesbooking sheets, mug shots, police reports, records of any and all contact.

There was one particular item he needed more than anything: a palm print. The fingerprints found in Pollys room after her disappearance were all accounted for. They had been matched with elimination prints taken from Pollys family and friends, and therefore ruled out as related to the kidnapping.

All but one.

It was the palm print found on the upper rail of Pollys wooden bunk bedone of the fortyeight latent prints that Tony Maxwell lifted in the dark with Redwop powder and the alternate light source (ALS)technology so new at the time that the FBI didnt even own it. He had borrowed a unit, tested it in his living room, and was using it for the first time in a major investigation.

Something about it had made Maxwell gasp and scribble the word Bingo next to entry A6 in the fingerprint log. David Alford had handdelivered it to the FBI lab on October 5. There it sat for two months, of little use without a suspect.

Now that they had a suspect, investigators needed his palm print. They already had a set of inked prints from Davis, but it didnt include his palm. Authorities usually rolled only the fingers. Palm prints were less common, typically reserved for more serious feloniesbank robberies, kidnappings, violent crimesat the discretion of investigators.

Mazzanti called the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Napa State Hospital, the California Highway Patrol, and a number of police departments that had booked Davis at some point. None of them had what he needed.

Around midnight, Mazzanti called the Stanislaus County Sheriffs Office in Modesto, California, where Daviss rap sheet noted he had been charged with robbery. That was back in the spring of 1985, when Davis and his twentyfouryearold girlfriend, Susan Edwards, had teamed up on a series of robberies.

As Mazzanti made those latenight calls, he saw the opportunity to retrieve a palm print rapidly shrinking. He was working his way down the list of kidnappings, robberies, and assaults, yet not one of those case files contained what the FBI refers to as major case printsa set with the palms, full fingers, and sides of each palm.

The offense that would ultimately yield the palm print was a broken taillight.

The crime spree

The 1985 Modesto robberies were the grand finale of a crime spree that consummated the threeyear romance of Davis and Edwards.

They had gotten together not long after Davis got out of prison in 1982 for kidnapping a woman named Frances Mays. Sue Edwards was 21 the mother of two young boys, and a wife in an unstable marriage.

One of their first joint ventures would eventually send him to jail: the kidnapping of Selina Varich, an acquaintance and the exgirlfriend of Edwardss sister.

On the morning of November 30, 1984, Davis and Edwards forced their way into Varichs Redwood City, California, apartment and threatened to kill her, along with her father and daughter, if she didnt give them $6,000. When the terrified Varich tried to run away, Davis pulled her back inside and pistolwhipped her in the head several times, gashing her scalp and splattering blood. They made her shower to wash the blood out of her hair, then drove her to the bank and forced her to withdraw the money. Varich, who needed five sutures to close her head wound, later described Davis as evil, with scary eyes and gloating expressions.

After escaping with the money, Davis and Edwards decided they had better get out of San Mateo, where Varich could identify them. Between December 1984 and 1985, they drifted from town to town in California, Oregon, and Washington, supporting themselves by selling drugs and stealing.

They might never have been caught had they not returned to Modesto. A week or two after their Modesto robberies in the first weeks of March 1985, it appeared they had gotten away with it all. Then on March 21, 1985, a cop noticed a defective taillight on their pickup truck and pulled them over.

The records check flagged outstanding warrants for their brutal attack on Selina Varich. Davis was arrested and booked in Stanislaus County, where deputies rolled inked fingerprintsincluding both of his palms.

Detective Andy Mazzanti didnt know any of this as he searched for a palm print years later. He didnt know hed hit the jackpot when he called the Stanislaus County Sheriffs Office to ask for records. It was late, and most folks had gone home for the night, so he left a message requesting files.

Mazzanti left the police department several hours after midnight and went home with a heavy heart. He had just learned that Poppy, his eighty nineyearold grandfather, had died of cancer.

Hours later, on the morning of Monday, November 29, 1993, 43 pages of records from Stanislaus County scrolled out of the fax machine in the Petaluma command center. They included a set of major case printsten fingers, both palms, and the blade of each hand. The prints were dated March 22, 1985when Davis was stopped for his broken taillight. Detective Andy Mazzanti wasnt there to grab the fax. He was out for two days on bereavement leave to attend Poppys funeral. He would not knowfor twentynine yearsthat he was the one who found the inked palm print.

A break in the case

The inked print was sent to the FBI Lab in Washington, D.C., where a fingerprint specialist confirmed it was identical to the latent print lifted from Pollys bed frame. The development made national news.

The news caught the attention of a Bay Area resident named Marvin White, who hired exconvicts to help them transition from prison back into society. White saw Daviss mug shot on TV and the wheels of his mind started turning. Could he help bring Polly home? He decided to pay Davis a visit.

On the morning of Saturday, December 1, White drove to Mendocino County Jail, where Davis was being held in isolation. In the visiting room, they spoke facetoface for about half an hour. At some point, White leaned close, pointed an index finger at his open hand, and mouthed the words: They found a palm print.

Davis shrugged and nodded in acknowledgment but said nothing.

Later that day, Davis requested to speak with investigators. In a videotaped interview, Petaluma Detective Mike Meese offered him coffee and his favorite brand of cigarettes (Camels) then leaned in and asked the question that America was desperate to know.

Is she alive?

Cigarette poised, eyes glued to the table, Davis slowly shook his head. Shes not alive.

Sixtyfive days into the search, five minutes and fortyfour seconds into the interview, they finally had the answer. The answer nobody wanted. Do you know where she is now?

Yeah.

Can you tell me?

Ill show you, Davis said.

This is an adapted excerpt from the book "In Light of All Darkness: Inside the Polly Klaas Kidnapping and the Search for America's Child."

Contact us at letters@time.com.
A judge on Monday scheduled a trial for May 6 in the indictment of Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey for an alleged bribery scheme.

The trial is scheduled for just weeks before he will compete in what will likely be a contentious Democratic primary to defend his U.S. Senate seat.

Menendez faces corruption charges, brought by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, for allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from three businessmen in exchange for helping them enrich themselves and trying to get them out of trouble, according to an indictment unsealed on Sept. 22 New York.

The May 6 day was set for Menendez, who is the senior senator from New Jersey, and the other four defendants in the indictment  his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, and businessmen Wael Hana, Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe.

The government is required to turn over what they refer to as voluminous evidence by a discovery deadline set for Dec. 4.

That includes classified documents though and will have to be reviewed. Relevant attorneys will be given a security checks before it is shared. The prosecution also noted that they are continuing the investigation and more indictments could follow.

What does the indictment say?

The indictment alleges that between 2018 and 2022, Menendez, who until Friday served as the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his wife engaged in a corrupt relationship with Hana, Uribe and Daibes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for Menendez using his power and influence to protect, to enrich those businessmen and to benefit the government of Egypt.

Bribes allegedly included cash, gold bars, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low- or no-show job and a Mercedes-Benz  much of which is detailed in photographs in the 39-page indictment.

Calls for resignation continue to mount

The chorus calling for Menendez's resignation continues to grow. Last week, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker said that since Menendez denies the allegations, it is understandable that he believes stepping down is patently unfair" but that he sees that as a mistake and believes stepping down is best for those Senator Menendez has spent his life serving.

Booker stood by Menendez when he was indicted in 2015. Menendez denies the current allegations, saying Monday that the "allegations leveled against me are just that," saying this "will be the biggest fight yet" but that he firmly believes that when all the facts are presented he will be exonerated.

Gov. Phil Murphy and other New Jersey Democrats have called on Menendez to step down  in stark contrast to the support Menendez received from most Democrats during his earlier corruption case..

Other Democratic senators calling on Menendez to resign include John Fetterman and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Peter Welch of Vermont, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Jon Tester of Montana and Jacky Rosen of Nevada.

The Senate seat

Menendezs seat is up for re-election next fall and to secure his spot on the ballot, he will need to win the primary on June 4, likely around the time of closing arguments in the case.

Rep. Andy Kim has already announced that he intends to run in that race. He said in a statement that this is "not something I expected to do, but I believe New Jersey deserves better."

"We cannot jeopardize the Senate or compromise our countrys integrity," Kim said. "I believe its time we restore faith in our democracy, and thats why I am stepping up and running for Senate.

Reports have surfaced in recent weeks that New Jerseys First Lady Tammy Murphy is considering a run for the seat as well.

Candidates have until March to officially file for a spot on the ballot.

Mike Kelly contributed reporting.

Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bob Menendez trial on bribery, corruption allegations scheduled
Boise mayoral candidate Mike Masterson spoke out against political advertisements supporting him that he called an attack on our LGBTQ community.

The Building Industry Group Treasure Valleys Building Industry Group PAC paid for advertisements on social media supporting Masterson. A portion of two Facebook ads showed a photo of Mayor Lauren McLean participating in a Boise Pride parade. One said Masterson would stop McLeans radical far left agenda and the other her extremist social agenda.

The most recent ad, published Friday, has been marked as inactive on Facebook.

Masterson, a former Boise police chief who is running agains McLean in the November election, said he disavowed the ads.

I became aware of these ads today, and I want to make it clear to every Boisean that I had nothing to do with their creation and that I do not condone them, Masterson said Saturday in an emailed statement.

Masterson said the ads dont reflect my values and I strongly disavow them.

My candidacy is about restoring independent, transparent, and collaborative leadership to City Hall and bringing people together not condemning our LGBTQ community, he said. Im proud of decades of working alongside LGBTQ police officers and with LGBTQ individuals and groups.

Its the second time Masterson has spoken out against supporters who express anti-LGBT sentiments. He returned a $100 donation on Sept. 10 to to a former local college-trustee candidate Ryan Spoon, who made an anti-gay post online, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.

Spoon posted a photo of a message he said had flown over the Boise Pride Festival, which read: Rainbow is Gods (sic) not yours.

Flying over the Filth Fest (aka, Pride Fest), Spoon captioned his post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

I can tolerate differences of opinion, but cant accept support that violates my personal values, Masterson said in an emailed statement to the Statesman after he returned Spoons donation. I have spoken out against discrimination throughout my career wherever, and whenever, I have found it.

A screenshot of the Building Industry Group Treasure Valley ad shows Boise Mayor Lauren McLean at a local Pride parade. YouTube

Group has funded conservative ads in past

The Building Industry Group Treasure Valley is a nonprofit whose stated intention is to inform people about the home-building industry, find housing solutions and publicly advocate for initiatives and candidates that support free-market principles embedded into a commitment for responsible growth.

It is run by Tradewinds General Contracting owner Steve Martinez and Avimor General Manager Dan Richter.

Martinez told the Statesman that he believed there was some confusion about the ads message. He said the ad was intended to show why the group believes McLean has failed the city when it comes to housing and the city budget.

The fact is, McLean has failed to address affordable housing and homelessness that continues to plague the city and get even worse under her administration, Martinez said by email.

Martinez did not respond to the Statesmans follow-up questions about the groups stance on LBGT issues.

Over the summer, the group settled with the Idaho Secretary of States Office for not disclosing all campaign fund spending. The group had to pay the state $2,500 and backdate its political contributions for the duration of 2021, totaling nearly $60,000, BoiseDev reported.

The group has launched a number of political ads since 2020 that touched on conservative talking points. A November ad about Rep. Steve Berch, D-Boise, called him a woke progressive who backs high-density overdevelopment and state-funded critical race theory, mask and vaccine mandates and even sex-change operations on minors. In another, Ada County Highway District Commissioner Miranda Gold was said to have a radical far left agenda. Eagle mayoral candidate Stan Ridgeway was called a woke liberal who wants to spend all your money in the caption of a third.

The groups Building Industry Group PAC has received $209,600 since October 2021.

James Auld, a former Idaho legislator and Auld Investment Properties owner, donated $50,000 to the PAC. Billionaire Harry Bettis, founder of Clearwater Analytics, has donated $60,000 to it.
It may not fall on Tuesday this year, but get ready for all the chicken, carnitas. and chorizo your taste buds can tolerate, taco-lovers: National Taco Day returns on Wednesday.

From Taco Bell and California Tortilla to Moes Southwest Grill and El Torito, chains across the U.S. are offering a plethora of tasty deals ranging from free tacos to discounted margaritas to wash them down.

Here's where to get free food and deals on National Taco Day, observed on Oct. 4.

California Tortilla

Tacos at California Tortilla.

California Tortilla is celebrating National Taco Day by giving away a free taco coupon with any in-store purchase. The free taco offer is good in-store only while supplies last, the restaurant said. The coupon is valid Oct. 5th-11th.

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El Torito

El Torito is offering its free Street Taco Trio plate with a purchase of another entree of equal or greater value, the restaurant said.

Drink specials including $6 signature margaritas, $4 draft beer and house wines will be available from 3 to 7 p.m.

Jack in the Box

Jack in the Box is celebrating by offering a two for one deal on their Monster Tacos as well as the chain's new, "extra spooky" Angry Monster Taco.

Get two for the price of one for 99 cents on the Jack App.

Taco Bell

In honor of National Taco Day, Taco Bell is celebrating for two days and bringing back it's Taco Lovers Pass. The pass will be available through the Taco Bell app for purchase on Oct. 3 and Oct. 4. With it, rewards members pay $10 and can redeem one choice of eight tacos a day for 30 consecutive days.

In addition, on Oct. 3, the fast food restaurant said it is offering an exclusive promotion for 100 free Taco Lovers Passes on the Tuesday Drops page in-app.

Taco Lover's Pass: 30 back to back days of free tacos for just $10 at Taco Bell

Chevys Fresh Mex

Chevys Tacos Plate

Chevys Fresh Mex guests will receive a free Chevys Tacos Plate with a purchase of one entree of equal or greater value, the restaurant said. Drinks including $6 Chevys House Margaritas and $4 draft beer and house wine will also be available from 3 to 7 p.m.

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Long John Silver's

Long John Silvers is also giving customers "something to taco bout " on National Taco Day.

Guest can receive a free taco with the purchase of any combo, meal, or platter in-store, the chain said.

Taco John's

Taco John's rewards members can receive a free Taco Bravo with any purchase on Wednesday, according to the restaurant. An added bonus: The chain's famous Taco Tuesday deal is also available in-app through the end of October.

Taco John's rewards members receive a free Taco Bravo with any purchase on Wednesday, October 4, 2023. An added bonus: The chain's famous Taco Tuesday deal is also available in-app through the end of October.

The Greene Turtle

Taco-bout a deal: the Greene Turtle is celebrating the day with half-off all tacos.

The offer, the chain said, is valid at participating locations.

When does daylight saving time end 2023? Here's when to set your clocks back an hour

Moes Southwest Grill

In a twist this year, Moe's and Eggo are teaming up to unveil a limited-time Eggo Taco, free with any purchase.

The deal is only available on Wednesday starting 10:30 a.m. ET at participating locations in Atlanta, North Jersey, Long Island and South Florida, the restaurant said.

Rubio's Coastal Grill

Rubio's taco

Rubio's Coastal Grill is celebrating National Taco Day with on free la carte taco with any purchase. Customers can choose from any taco, the restaurant said.

To get a free taco, use the code TACO when you order on the app or online, or scan the coupon (rubios.com/coupons/taco-day) at the register.

WaBa Grill

Waba Grill Boom Boom Tacos

WaBa Grill is offering loyalty guest a free Boom Boom Taco with the purchase of an entree for National Taco Day. To redeem the offer, the restaurant said, you must be a WaBa Loyalty Member.

WaBa Grill has locations in California and Arizona.

Veggie Grill

Baha Fish Tacos

With locations in California, Oregon, Washington and Massachusetts, the restaurant announced Veggie Grill guests can buy one, get one free Baja Fish Taco.

Redeem the offer in-store, or online and through the restaurant's app using the code TACODAY.

Fuzzy's Taco Shop

Fuzzy's Taco Shop is celebrating National Taco Day by giving away two free tacos to Fuzzys Taco Shop Rewards members on Wednesday. In addition, the restaurant said, guests can enjoy $1.50 tacos the entire day.

Fuzzy's Taco Shop Season Ground Beef Taco

Bubbakoo's Burritos

For National Taco Day, Mexican-fusion restaurant Bubbakoos Burritos is giving away free taco trio entrees for a year to 15 winners. Enter by liking, commenting and sharing the brand's posts on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and X, the social media network formerly called Twitter through Sunday, Oct. 8. The 15 winners will be announced via the brands social media on October 11.

For National Taco Day, Mexican-fusion restaurant Bubbakoos Burritos is giving away free taco trio entrees for a year to 15 winners.

Taco Bueno

Taco Bueno on Wednesday has an unlimited buy-one, get-one-free deal on its Party Tacos. You must show the offer to get the deal; use code 205 (while supplies last). You can also find it on Facebook and on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Is your business offering deals for National Taco Day? Email me below:

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: National Taco Day 2023: Deals at Taco Bell, Moe's, California Tortilla
The sister of the 13-year-old girl who was kidnapped and sexually assaulted in 2016 testified Monday that she was troubled that her fathers new girlfriend didnt seem too concerned the day the teenager went missing.

The former girlfriend Sandra Garcia and her son Mark Anthony Roque are charged with several serious felonies that could land them in prison for the rest of their lives.

Prosecutor Adam Christopherson alleges Garcia wanted her new boyfriend, the Swedish-born executive Johan Gidstedt, all to her self. Her plan was to scare Gildstedts two young daughters, 10 and 13, so severely that they would want to live permanently with their mother in Sweden, the prosecutor said.

Gildstedt, who is divorced, met Garcia on Match.com. After several months of dating, Garcia moved in to his 4,400-square-foot, five-bedroom home northeast of Clovis, along with her two sons.

On Feb. 16, 2016, the 13-year-old was taken from her home by four men. She was driven to the foothills and tied to a tree where she was brutally sexually assaulted. Garcia planned for no one to be at the home that day, including herself.

But the younger sister, who is now 19, testified that she woke up that day not feeling well and decided to stay home from school, after speaking to her father who was on a business trip in Oregon. The prosecutor alleges that Garcia at that point had to improvise and demanded that the younger sister come with her to her doctors appointment.

After they returned home around 4 p.m., the sister realized that her older sister was still not home and she began to worry. Her sister was normally home by that time and didnt tell anyone she might be late.

The younger sister called several of her older sisters friends, but they didnt know where she was. She talked with Garcia who told her she would be home soon.

She was really calm and it made me sick to my stomach, she said.

Christopherson asked if Garcia was doing anything to try and find her sister.

No, she replied. She was just sitting on the couch on her phone.

The kidnapped sister was found later that day and taken to the hospital for treatment. Along with being sexually assaulted, she also was struck in the face several times.

Although the two sisters are very close, the kidnapped sister did not share the details about the sexual assault until a year later.

Defense attorneys Yan Shrayberman and Woodrow Nichols have made an issue of why the sister didnt immediately reveal the details of the sexual assault to her family and law enforcement. She testified nearly two weeks ago that she was severely traumatized and couldnt talk about what happened to her until later.

The trial is expected to continue this week and next in Dept. 74, the courtroom of Judge Alvin Harrell III.

Still to testify is Miguel Carriedo, who was one of Garcias co-defendants until he agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors. Carriedo recorded his conversations with Garcia, his cousin, as they discussed her ideas for how to force the children back to Sweden.

Carriedo pleaded guilty to conspire to commit a crime and torture. Garcias other son, Brandon Roque, pleaded no contest to conspire to commit a crime.
English actor and comedian Russell Brand faces allegations of rape, sexual assault and abusive behavior in the wake of a joint investigation by multiple United Kingdom-based news outlets.

Russell Brand in March 2013.

Russell Brand in March 2013.

Four women say that Brand assaulted them, according to an investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches. The piece, published on Saturday in The Times, can be read in full here. Channel 4 also released a trailer for its upcoming special on the investigation, slated to air Saturday night.

EXCLUSIVE: Russell Brand denies accusations of rape, sexual assault and controlling and emotionally abusive behaviour.



Five women share their stories with @C4Dispatches in a joint investigation with @thetimes.



Watch Russell Brand: In Plain Sight tonight at 9pm on @Channel4pic.twitter.com/gmVMCAsh2B  Channel 4 Dispatches (@C4Dispatches) September 16, 2023

The alleged assaults all took place between 2006 and 2013 when Brands acting career was at its peak. He starred in hit comedies Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him To The Greek in 2008 and 2010, respectively. He was also a presenter for BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4 during this period of time.

Brand, 48, has emphatically denied any criminal conduct. In a video he posted on social media the day before the investigation was published, Brand said he had received notice of some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute.

He added that he was simply very, very promiscuous at a certain point in his life.

Now during that time of promiscuity, there relationships I had were absolutely always consensual, he said. I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent, and Im being transparent about it now as well.

This is happening pic.twitter.com/N8zIKLbJN2  Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) September 15, 2023

One woman interviewed in the investigation claimed Brand raped her against a wall at his home in Los Angeles. Medical records show that she received treatment at a rape crisis center the same day she said the attack happened, according to the Telegraph.

Another woman said Brand forced his penis down her throat when he was 31 and she was 16. At the time, she said she was involved in a three-month relationship with the actor she characterized as abusive and controlling.

Brand rose to mainstream fame in the early 2000s as a raunchy comedian who discussed his sex life in lewd detail. He later became known for his work as a left-wing activist and wellness influencer. Since 2020, he has come under fire for promoting conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19 and other topics on his YouTube channel, which boasts more than 6 million subscribers. He has also become increasingly associated with right-wing figures and hosted ex-Fox News personality Tucker Carlson on his channel in July.

In his video addressing the sexual assault allegations, Brand suggested that he was the victim of a coordinated attack by the media.

Related...
STEVENS POINT  A former Plover youth minister was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for sexual assaulting a boy he was supposed to be helping.

Jordan R. Huffman, 52, whose current address is listed as Antigo, previously pleaded guilty to two felony counts of repeated sexual assault of the same child. Charges of first-degree sexual assault of a child, three counts of child enticement, one count of causing a child to view sexual activity and a misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a child were dismissed as part of a plea agreement. All but the first-degree sexual assault of a child charge were considered during sentencing.

The victim spoke in court Tuesday afternoon about how Huffman's actions have had long-term impacts.

"I still have vivid nightmares about the indescribable things you have done to me," the victim said.

The victim said he is sure there are other victims out there and he hopes that they will be able to sleep better at night knowing Huffman is in prison.

"I'm glad God gave me the strength to put you away for good," the victim said.

The victim's father said Huffman is a "predator" and nothing Huffman can do will ever change that.

The victim and his parents got up and left the courtroom when it was Huffman's turn to speak.

"I take full and complete responsibility for my actions," Huffman said.

Huffman apologized to his family, the victim's parents, the victim, church members and the community. He said he hopes that he can earn redemption in the eyes of society.

Portage County Circuit Judge Michael Zell gave Huffman credit for 163 days already served and ordered him to spend 20 years on extended supervision following his prison sentence.

Portage County Assistant District Attorney Kelly Cassidy said Huffman told the person who wrote a presentence investigation that he wondered what could have been if he had waited 10 years to have a relationship with the victim. When asked if he could change anything, Huffman told the investigator he wouldn't be gay.

Huffman's attorney, Andrea Winder, said Huffman was seeking treatment, but the therapist couldn't allow him to talk about the circumstances in the Portage County court case because she was in a position that required her to report any crimes that were told to her.

Winder said that although minors cannot legally consent to sexual acts, Huffman didn't force the victim. She said he didn't give the victim alcohol and drugs to lower his resistance, Winder said the victim asked for them.

Zell said it was an insult to the homosexual community for Huffman to blame his actions on being gay. He said Huffman likes teenage boys, and society cannot condone that type of behavior.

According to the criminal complaint, in 2017 a couple approached Huffman, who at the time was a pastor at Woodlands Church in Plover and asked him to mentor their 12-year-old son. The boy had started drinking and getting into trouble.

The boy told police instead of helping him, Huffman did the opposite. Huffman gave the boy alcohol, marijuana and prescription pills, according to the complaint. The child said Huffman would drive him to a remote location at the end of a dirt road after the boy was drunk or under the influence of marijuana and inappropriately touched him with his mouth or hands.

The boy said the encounters happened multiple times but no incident happened at Woodlands Church, other than Huffman telling the child he had alcohol, marijuana or nicotine cartridges for him, according to the complaint. He said Huffman had sexual intercourse with him one time at Huffman's home while his wife and children were gone.

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When Huffman left Woodlands Church and took a job with Forest Lakes District Evangelical Free Church of America in Stevens Point, several encounters occurred in Huffman's office there, according to the complaint. The assaults lasted about five years.

Zell said Tuesday that Woodlands Church did its own investigation into Huffman's behavior while at the church. Huffman had the church members convinced he was a good guy who could help children. He used information parents gave him, like a child drinking alcohol or being hooked on drugs, to help gain the child's trust, Zell said. The church believes there were more victims than the one who came forward.

The boy told police he let Huffman do these things because the pastor was his mentor and because he was drunk or high. When the boy was 17, he told Huffman he didn't want to have sexual contact with him anymore, and Huffman respected the request, according to the complaint. About six months later, Huffman told the boy he no longer wanted to hang out with him.

Huffman faces unrelated charges of first-degree sexual assault, child enticement and three counts of felony bail jumping in Winnebago County Circuit Court. He's scheduled for a plea hearing and sentencing Oct. 31 in the Winnebago County case.

Cassidy said Huffman convinced a friend to post a $100,000 cash bond in the Portage County case so he could get out of jail. Several people vouched for Huffman and said he would be supervised and not able to be with minors on his own.

Huffman violated the trust, Cassidy said. Although he went into counseling, it didn't stop him from what happened in Winnebago County, she said.

Contact Karen Madden at 715-345-2245 or kmadden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KMadden715, Instagram @kmadden715 or Facebook at www.facebook.com/karen.madden.33.

This article originally appeared on Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: Former Plover youth minister gets 20 years for sexual assault of child
For Golda writer Nicholas Martin, his film  about Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir  could serve as an educational tool for the members of the public who, he feels, don't necessarily understand the complexities of the country's history when launching criticism at it.

The biopic, directed by Israeli filmmaker Guy Nattiv, stars Helen Mirren as Meir and explores the political figure's time in office during the Yom Kippur war between Israel and Egypt in October 1973.

While it may be focused on only the one period, Martin tells Yahoo UK the film can "help people understand" the region's history better, particularly in the wake of a recent rise in antisemitism as a result of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and an increase in antisemitic sentiment online.

"There is antisemitism and there is anti-Israeli feeling, and the two crossover," Martin says when reflecting on the importance of telling a story like Meir's now.

"If the truth is told, I think that a lot of anti-Israeli feeling is antisemitism in disguise."

Golda Meir pictured in Jerusalem in 1976 (Getty Images)

"Having been with the story for six or seven years, I'm knowledgeable about the '70s, the rest of the time frame not so much, but I know enough to know that when people are talking about Israel they usually don't know what they're talking about, and they have no sense of the complexity and the nuances of Israel's history."

"If we are ever going to diffuse this tremendous problem, this tremendous hatred felt between these two communities, the only way it will be done will be through learning and education," he adds.

2021 was described as the "worst year on record" for antisemitic attacks by the The Community Security Trust, a charity which monitors anti-Jewish incidents within the UK, and a report on the first half of 2023 showed that there had been 803 incidents reported of hate crimes against Jewish people.

Helen Mirren portrays Golda Meir during the Yom Kippur war (Bleecker Street Media)

For Martin it is key to tackle hatred with knowledge, as he adds: "It's really important to me. And what I've been trying to do, when I talk about the film, is to put this period in context and try and help people understand how complex the situation is.

There's really no 'good people' and 'bad people' in this story. There's just tragedy.Nicholas Martin

"The Middle East is a tragic place and Israel is a nation of refugees. Most of the Jews are refugees there and the Palestinians have ended up as refugees, and there's no point in taking sides, really.

"The only thing we can do is to understand and see where all of this has come from and that is the only way that we're going to find reconciliation, I think."

Golda, Martin adds, is the first film about Israel in English that is "accurate" even if it is not necessarily a positive portrayal of the country, so the writer hopes that it will be "useful" for those who watch it.

Changing the view on Golda Meir

Golda Meir pictured looking at a statue of Anne Frank in Amsterdam in 1964 (Getty Images)

The Yom Kippur war took place over two weeks and five days, leading to thousands of casualties on both the Israeli and Egyptian side of the war.

Meir, who was in office from 1969 to 1974, made decisions both before and during the conflict that have led to much criticism being aimed at her, and even in Israel she is not a well-loved figure.

Golda's name was pretty much dirt, believe it or not, despite being the first female Prime Minister.Nicholas Martin

"Despite being a very successful politician doing lots of amazing things; building houses; she created the Social Security system, all sorts of things.

"But because of the Yom Kippur War she was blamed for the trauma of [it], and so most Israelis considered her to have been a failure as a Prime Minister, and a woman that had caused all of this trouble for them when in fact it's really not that simple at all."

For the writer, the story of her actions during the conflict made for an interesting narrative, particularly following up his biopic Florence Foster Jenkins  though he feels both movies are about "determined" elderly women.

"It just struck me as I did more and more research, the idea of this elderly woman leading a country at war, I don't think I'd ever seen that before and it felt very fresh," Martin reflects.

Helen Mirren portraying Golda Meir in a tribunal hearing about the Yom Kippur war (Bleecker Street Media)

Meir died in December 1978 at the age of 80 from lymphoma, and her legacy was tainted by the events of the Yom Kippur war.

But Golda has helped to change opinion of Meir in Israel, Martin says: "I've had very, very positive feedback from Israeli historians who have been saying that they felt that the movie was very accurate.

"So I think we have changed the narrative, or certainly moved the narrative on with regards to Golda and that's been very gratifying, and it's been very gratifying for her family who have always felt that.

"Her grandsons have always felt that their grandmother's reputation needed rescuing, and I think we're on the way to doing that."

The debate around casting Jewish actors in Jewish roles

But while there has been a positive response to the film it has also sparked a debate around whether Jewish actors should be the only ones to portray Jewish characters, a question that has also been raised recently regarding Bradley Cooper's new film Maestro in which he plays Leonard Bernstein.

Martin has a "really simple" response to the anyone questioning Mirren's authenticity in the role of Meir, as he says: "I just think if someone has done a really, really good job, that's all that matters. I'm only really interested in talent, I'm not interested in people's identity.

Helen Mirren, Ed Stoppard, and Lior Ashkenazi in a war room during the Yom Kippur war in Golda (Bleecker Street Media)

"I think that the envelope of possibility for artists, whether they're actors or writers, is shrinking the whole time, filmmakers should be fighting to be entirely free in the decisions that they make.

If Helen hadn't done a good job, then it would have been a different matter, but she has. So who would have done a better job? I can't think of anyone. She inhabited Golda.Nicholas Martin

"The fact she's not Jewish, did that stop her from inhabiting this character? I don't think so, her family don't think so, and the audience don't think so."

He goes on: "I don't think that argument that only Jewish people should play Jews holds water. Should I not have written the script? I'm not Jewish... would the world be a better place if I'd not written it?

"Should Denzel Washington not have played Macbeth? I mean that would be a terrible thing to say. I can't imagine circumstances in which I would say to another writer, [or] an actor, 'I don't think you should do that'.

"I think we get on and do it, if it's good, it's good and if it's not I'll tell you."

Golda premieres in UK cinemas on Friday, 6 October.

Read more: Golda

Watch the trailer for Golda:
Hunter Biden appeared in front of a federal judge in Wilmington on Tuesday, his second criminal court hearing this year as prosecutors pursue firearms and potential tax charges against President Joe Biden 's son.

Through his attorney, Hunter Biden, 53, pleaded not guilty to three federal firearms felonies in front of Magistrate Judge Christopher J. Burke inside Wilmington's federal courthouse on King Street downtown.

The not-guilty plea put the case on course for a potential criminal trial as his father runs for a second term as president and federal prosecutors also pursue criminal charges against the frontrunner Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump. It also comes as congressional Republicans seek to tie Hunter Biden's finances and legal troubles to his father.

Hunter Biden entered the courtroom just a few minutes before 10 a.m. with Secret Service agents. He was flanked at the defendants' table by Abbe Lowell, a nationally prominent white-collar defense attorney, as well as Wilmington attorney Richard I. G. Jones. Local attorney Bart Dalton was also a part of the defense team that shook hands with prosecutors.

Delaware's U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss, who has supervised the contentious investigation into Hunter, was not present in the courtroom.

Hunter Biden leaves Delaware District Court where he faced felony gun charges in Wilmington, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Biden entered a plea of not guilty.

During the appearance  a routine hearing that kicks off federal criminal cases  Burke read in detail the criminal charges, listed off the potential penalties and reminded Hunter Biden of his rights to fight the charges. At each turn, Burke asked the defendant whether he understood and Hunter Biden responded, "Yes, your honor."

Why was Hunter Biden charged?

The charges stem from Hunter Biden's purchase of a .38-caliber revolver at a local gun shop in 2018.

As part of that purchase, he indicated on a federal form that he was not a drug user. Prosecutors contend that during that time, he purchased and used crack cocaine regularly, and Hunter Biden himself has written about his struggles with addiction and stints in rehab around that time.

FROM DOWNTOWN WILMINGTON: Hunter Biden is back in Delaware court today. Live updates and what you need to know

In court filings, prosecutors said he possessed the gun for 11 days before it was discarded in a trash can outside a Greenville grocery store near the president's New Castle County residence. At the time, President Biden was no longer vice president and had not yet announced his 2020 campaign.

In all, prosecutors charged Hunter Biden with three felonies for lying to the gun dealer, lying on the federal application to purchase the weapon and possessing the illegally purchased firearm. The charges carry up to 25 years in prison, though it is rare for first-time offenders like Hunter Biden to receive a maximum sentence if convicted.

Motions to dismiss case forthcoming

After Hunter Biden's not-guilty plea, Lowell, his attorney, indicated he intends to file multiple motions to dismiss the case and call for an evidentiary hearing tied to that effort.

One of those motions will focus on an agreement prosecutors previously struck with Hunter Biden that would have seen the government not prosecute the gun charges in exchange for the president's son agreeing to abstain from drug use for two years and never again owning a firearm.

That deal was the subject of a contentious July hearing in federal court when the parties came before a judge to ratify the agreement, which also included Hunter Biden pleading guilty to misdemeanor tax charges.

However, the deal collapsed after questioning from presiding Judge Maryellen Noreika exposed disagreements between the parties about the scope of immunity provided from future prosecutions against Hunter Biden.

Noreika also questioned the attorneys on her role in enforcing the agreement, said she felt the parties were seeking a "rubber stamp" and asked them to file further briefs justifying the legitimacy of the agreement.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: How Hunter Biden's previous plea agreement fell apart in federal court

But after that July hearing, the division among the parties grew.

Downtown Wilmington was hit with a visit from Hunter Biden on the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 3, when Biden returned to the city for an appearance in federal court.

Since then, federal prosecutors filed paperwork dismissing the tax charges and indicating they will pursue similar charges in either California or Washington D.C. where Hunter Biden was residing at the time prosecutors have said he willfully failed to pay his taxes.

Prosecutors also told the court they regard the gun diversion agreement as dead and charged him with the crimes that were the subject of Tuesday's not-guilty plea. Hunter Bidens attorneys have told the court the diversion agreement is still in place, which will be the basis of one of Hunter Biden's motions to toss the case, Lowell said.

Questions over constitutionality

He added that another basis will center on the constitutionality of the gun charges. The specific law that Hunter Biden is charged with violating is primarily used to prevent felons from possessing a firearm but also contains provisions prohibiting gun possession for other reasons.

The law is being challenged by multiple lawsuits following the 2022 Supreme Court decision called New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which overturned a New York law that had required people to have a "proper cause" to have a firearm. The ruling set a new standard for lower courts to use when reviewing gun laws.

Since then, federal district courts and appeals courts have issued rulings limiting the government's ability to restrict gun ownership for people who use drugs in multiple cases, according to reporting by USA Today.

In a statement issued after the hearing, Lowell said the "charges are a result of political pressure from President Trump" and his supporters to "force the Justice Department to ignore the law." He added that since prosecutors offered the plea deal and diversion agreement, there have only been court rulings "undermining the constitutionality of the law at issue here" in addition to "partisan attacks" by Republicans.

The judge set a 30-day deadline for pretrial motions. No trial date was set. Hunter Biden was released on conditions that he not use drugs or alcohol or possess a weapon and submit to screenings.

The hearing concluded in 30 minutes.

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

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to federal gun charges in Wilmington
I got zero sleep on a European overnight train ride in a shared cabin last October.

I was so exhausted when I arrived that I frantically searched for a hotel room at 7 a.m.

Next time I'm on a sleeper train, I'll have an alternative day plan in case I can't fall asleep.

I've only had one sleepless night on a train, but it sucked so much that it changed the way I'll travel on overnight trains forever.

To date, I've spent 80 hours on overnight trains in the US and Europe. On some of these rides, I've booked private cabins where I had an enclosed room to myself. For others, I booked shared sleeper cabins.

In October 2022, during a two-week trip through four European countries by rail, I booked a $40 overnight ride from Berlin, Germany, to Vienna, Austria  the cheapest accommodation on the sleeper train operated by Austrian Federal Railway's OBB Nightjet train.

The author exits a Nightjet train in October 2022. Joey Hadden/Insider

Nightjet trains have sleeper cars with bunks of three, four, or six, as well as seating carriages. The latter is what I booked; they're cabins of six regular assigned seats that deeply recline. Some routes have private cabins, but mine didn't.

A representative for OBB Nightjet told Insider that the seating carriage is not recommended for long-haul trips. And once I boarded, it was easy to see why.

I got zero sleep in a shared cabin on an overnight train

On the train, there were small enclosed cabins with two sets of three seats facing each other inside. Right away, I thought the room was cramped and lacked enough legroom for each traveler.

My seat had two cushions that could recline, but not far enough to be totally flat. When reclining it all the way, I found that the gap between the seat back and the bottom of the seat made it tough to get comfortable. There were no sheets or pillows provided for guests in the seating carriage either.

A seating carriage onboard a Nightjet train traveling from Berlin to Vienna in October 2022. Joey Hadden/Insider

I spent the entire 12-hour ride trying to fall asleep, and I failed.

I searched for hotels near the station when I arrived

My train arrived in Vienna at 7 a.m., and I was exhausted after my unintentional all-nighter. But I knew I couldn't check into my Airbnb until 3 p.m., so once I left the station, I started going into random hotels to book a room. By the third hotel, I got one. I had to pay for the whole night even though I was only taking a nap, but I thought it was worth the price for a safe, comfortable place to doze.

In Vienna, that last-minute hotel booking changed everything. When I first got to the city, I didn't even pay attention to how it looked or felt, because I was too tired and just wanted to go home. If I hadn't found a hotel, I imagine I would have spent the day trudging through the streets without being present enough to enjoy exploring them.

But after some much-needed rest, I was able to appreciate where I was and take in the unique architecture surrounding me. Walking to my Airbnb after my nap, I remembered why I was there and felt a new wave of excitement about my travels.

Next time, I'll scope the hotel scene before I board a sleeper train

After that experience, I'll never take an overnight train again without an alternative plan for the next day. I'll search for hotels near my arrival station so that if I don't sleep, I will have an idea of my options. That way, I won't find myself frantically searching Google Maps with an exhausted brain at 7 a.m.

Read the original article on Insider
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach floated a proposal this week calling on the Kansas Legislature to ban foreign individual and corporate purchases of parcels of land bigger than 10 acres and to limit leases of land by foreign entities to two years in a bid to constrain the influence of adversarial countries such as China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.

Kobach, who testified before a joint House and Senate committee dedicated to foreign investments and land purchases, said the solution to bigger and bigger slices of Kansas 52 million acres being gobbled up by companies, people or governments outside the United States was obvious.

U.S. citizens and companies must control our own land, Kobach said. Its a hedge against the threat China and other foreign bad actors pose to our supply chain and our food security.

He said Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri were among 24 states with barriers to nonresidents, foreign businesses and national governments owning interests in agricultural land. He said action in Kansas would be a proper response to countries intent on engaging in spying, economic disruption and criminal activity.

The 2023 Kansas Legislature mulled four bills  three in the Senate, one in the House  containing boundaries on foreign control of Kansas land. None gained significant traction. A collection of Kansas special interests, including the Kansas Livestock Association, questioned whether state lawmakers were serious about meddling in the free market and whether they were content embracing a statute of uncertain constitutionality.

Kobach said the Legislature should adopt a law given the states interest in food security, protecting sensitive infrastructure and opposition to criminal enterprises. He said a new generation of farmers were struggling to compete for land given market distortions created by international buyers.

Limiting Kansas restrictions to a handful of countries viewed by the federal government as foreign adversaries would make enforcement of state law almost impossible, he said.

We are the only state in Americas breadbasket where there are no restrictions, the attorney general said. The only law that can stop Chinese interests from controlling Kansas land is one that stops all foreign nationals and corporations from acquiring Kansas land.

AGs investigatory power

Under Kobachs draft bill, no person subject to jurisdiction or direction of a foreign government would be allowed to buy Kansas parcels of 10 acres or more after July 1, 2024. A parallel provision would cap at two years the leasing by foreign companies or individuals of Kansas parcels bigger than 10 acres. The bill would specifically declare the law wouldnt be retroactive to land deals made before that date.

His bill would enable the State Finance Council, comprised of the governor and a bipartisan nexus of Senate and House leaders, would be authorized to grant exemptions to the law.

Under the bill, any person or entity associated with a foreign government that inherited land after enactment of the legislation would be give 12 months to divest of the property. Property transactions in violation of the Kansas law would be subject to forfeiture. The attorney generals office would have jurisdiction to investigate land sales, transfers or conveyances.

Sen. Kellie Warren, a Leawood Republican, an attorney and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Kobachs proposal to give himself unilateral investigatory power over land transactions in Kansas appeared unreasonably broad. In 2022, Kelly lost the Republican primary for attorney general to Kobach.

That seems to me to be a  almost invasive look at private transactions between, it would seem, any kind of sale of property whether the size is 10 acres or more, Warren said. It just seems to me to be awfully broad to be investigating essentially any and every sale of property in Kansas.

Democratic Sen. Ethan Corson, who also serves on the interim committee, said he was struck by Kobachs enthusiasm for inserting state government directly into the free market in terms of Kansas land deals between willing sellers and buyers. He said that form of government intrusion was a fundamental challenge to bills setting new standards on sale of real property.

For so many farmers, Corson said, that is essentially their retirement plan. They want to farm until they get to retirement age and then they want to sell that land and they want to maximize the value of that land in the open market.

Not about politics?

Under current state law, corporations based outside Kansas must file a report with the Kansas secretary of state listing any acreage owned in Kansas. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has collected information on U.S. agriculture holdings by foreign individuals and businesses since the 1970s.

The bill outlined by Kobach wouldnt apply to owners of the some of the most influential agricultural companies in the United States. In 2013, for example, a Chinese corporation purchased Smithfield Foods, which is the largest pork producer in the United States and accounts for about one of every five hogs slaughtered in the U.S. each year. The nearly $5 billion Smithfield deal included acquisition of 176,000 acres of U.S. land, but the business wouldnt be altered by Kobachs bill.

Roger McEowen, professor of agricultural law and taxation at Washburn University in Topeka, said the issue of ownership in U.S. agriculture shouldnt be viewed in political terms.

Whichever approach the Legislature takes on this issue, what should remain front and center is that that whole matter involves national security and control of the food supply. Neither of those are political issues, he said.

The committee meeting on land ownership included a presentation by Bob Fu, president of the China Aid Association. The organization, also known as ChinaAid, is a Christian nonprofit focused on raising awareness about human rights and religious freedom in China.

Fu, who was a student leader of Tiananmen Square protests more than 30 years ago, urged Kansas legislators to follow the two dozen states that created laws useful in undermining Chinas ability to make ideological, political and economic inroads in the United States.

Its time to pass the proposed legislation for the sake of our future as a free state and nation, he said. This piece of legislation has nothing to do with race, ethnicity or even nationality. Its about the core of our national security as a freedom-loving nation. Its about the threat to our state and country by rogue regimes such as the Chinese Communist Party.

This story was produced by the Kansas Reflector , a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization covering state government, politics and policy.






LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  Las Vegas Metro police arrested Duane Keffe D Davis early Friday morning as he walked down the street near his house, according to an arrest report the 8 News Now Investigators obtained.

Last week, a Clark County grand jury indicted the 60-year-old in Tupac Shakur s murder. The panel voted around 9 a.m. on Thursday to return an indictment on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon with a gang enhancement.

Metros Criminal Apprehension Team was then notified about the warrant, documents said.

Booking photo of Keffe D Davis provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department

The team took Davis into custody around 7 a.m. near the end of his street in Henderson, records said. Officers then brought Davis to Metro Headquarters for an interview. It was unclear Monday if Davis told investigators anything. He declined the 8 News Now Investigators interview request.

In court documents, witnesses said Davis, a longtime gang member, was a known drug trafficker. Witnesses said Shakur himself was not in a gang, but affiliated himself with members of the Mob Piru, which itself aligns with the Bloods.

The shooting on Sept. 7, 1996, at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, a block off the Las Vegas Strip, followed a fight earlier in the night. In the hours before the murder, Shakurs group reportedly attacked Orlando Anderson, a member of a rival gang and Davis nephew.

Davis was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, which pulled up side-by-side to Tupacs before the shooting at the intersection, police and prosecutors said. Marion Suge Knight, the then-head of Death Row Records, was driving a BMW sedan with Shakur in the passenger seat.

On Friday, Metro police showed a diagram of the car Davis was in, showing Anderson and a third man, Deandre Smith, sitting in the backseat. A South Side Crips gang affiliate testified it was Smith, not Anderson, who killed Shakur, the 8 News Now Investigators first reported. Both Anderson and Smith are deceased.

Davis was expected to appear in court for his first appearance Wednesday.

There is no statute of limitations for when prosecutors can file murder charges in Nevada. The charge can apply to those who aid or abet in a murder, not just the person accused of pulling the trigger, prosecutors said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
Tesla (TSLA) introduced a cheaper new version of its popular Model Y SUV just in time to address what some are calling a slowing in EV sales around the globe.

Tesla now lists on its US website the Model Y RWD (rear-wheel drive) model, which is a version of the Model Y with a single motor powering its rear axle. Tesla estimates the Model Y RWD will have 260 miles of range and cost $43,990. Prior to the RWD version, Tesla had a base Model Y AWD (all-wheel drive) that cost $47,490, or $3,500 more than this new RWD version.

The new variant will likely be powered by cheaper LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries, which have shorter range but longer battery life compared to NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) batteries. Tesla says the new RWD also qualifies for the full $7,500 federal EV tax credit, meaning this version could be had for as little as $36,490 if the buyers meet income requirements. Buyers' AGI (adjusted gross income) shouldn't exceed $150,000 for a single person or $300,000 for joint filers/married people.

The Tesla Model Y RWD order page Oct. 3, 2023. (Tesla)

Tesla didn't indicate where the Model Y RWD is assembled, though it is possible it will be made in Giga Austin, which currently only builds the Model Y and potentially the Cybertruck when production commences. Tesla does however make a Model Y RWD that is assembled in China, as well as at Teslas newer Berlin gigafactory.

The introduction of a new Model Y comes as Teslas global sales missed analyst expectations for the third quarter. Tesla said it delivered 435,059 vehicles globally, of which approximately 419,000 were Model Y and Model 3 vehicles and around 16,000 were higher-priced Model X and Model S cars. Wall Street consensus estimates had deliveries pegged at 456,722.

"A sequential decline in volumes was caused by planned downtimes for factory upgrades, as discussed on the most recent earnings call. Our 2023 volume target of around 1.8 million vehicles remains unchanged," Tesla said in a statement.

Story continues

Looking ahead it seems Q4 will be a big one for Tesla, with the addition of the cheaper Model Y in the US, a recently refreshed Model 3 sedan in some markets, and Cybertruck deliveries expected by the end of the year. CEO Elon Musk had said a Cybertruck delivery event was coming in Q3, but that has not turned out to be the case.

Read more: Are electric cars more expensive to insure?

Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.

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Greene County's jail is set to become one of five in the state to offer mental health treatment to inmates who need to be restored to competency before standing trial, part of an attempt by the state to address the need for services quickly and efficiently.

When suspects arrive at jail and await trial, they may be ordered by the court to be evaluated for mental health competency. Those deemed to be incompetent to stand trial often are ordered to receive competency restoration treatment. Previously, the only option for this treatment was to go to a state hospital to receive inpatient mental health treatment. With a recent surge in people who were determined to need the services in order to proceed with their criminal cases, the limited number of available beds left many waiting in jail for months.

As of Sept. 28, there were 35 inmates at the Greene County Jail awaiting an inpatient bed to receive competency restoration services. Statewide, there were 253 individuals awaiting admission into state hospitals and 57 waiting to be added to that list as of Sept. 14. At the same time, there were 267 evaluations requested, with about 50% estimated to be found incompetent, according to a presentation to the state's Mental Health Commission.

The exterior of the new Greene County Sheriff's Office and Jail, located at 1199 N. Haseltine Road. The facility is expected to host over 1,200 inmates. A cornerstone dedication ceremony for the new facility was held Friday, May 13. Tours were open to the public from 10 a.m. to noon.

This summer, the Missouri legislature amended statute to allow mental health restoration services to be provided within county jails and out in the community. With the new law, the state allocated $2.5 million to establish jail-based restoration programs across five counties, including Greene.

Jeanette Simmons is the deputy director for the Missouri Division of Behavioral Health. She said the program was based on similar programs in other states that have faced the same problem.

"We have more individuals needing competency restoration services than we have inpatient hospital beds," Simmons said. "This is not just a Missouri issue; this is a nationwide phenomenon."

The program aims to solve this by easing the demand for inpatient beds while cutting down wait times for people to get treatment.

Sheriff's office questions use of resources but state says moving ahead

Although state authorities said work to implement the program in Greene County is moving ahead, the sheriff's office expressed doubts.

Deputy Paige Rippee, public information officer for the Greene County Sheriff's Office and the jail, said that while many inmates have been waiting for treatment for several months, the program would not be the most efficient use of the jail's resources.

Rippee said in order to create space for treatment, the jail would have to shut down one to two units. The inmates who would be housed there for treatment would not fill the units to full capacity, she said, which would mean the space is not used in the most cost-effective or efficient way.

"It is something we have looked into, but it's just not in the cards for us," she said of the jail-based model.

Debra Walker, spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Mental Health, reiterated however that the state is still moving forward with implementing the program in Greene County and currently working out the details of the contract.

Ironing out the details

The program will operate using the state's Forensic Mobile Teams, which include nurses, nurse practitioners and social workers. Two staff members from a local community mental health center also will be hired to work at the jail.

The two existing Forensic Mobile Teams were expanded with state funding in the most recent budget. One of these teams was established a couple of years ago. Currently, the teams are serving those needing restoration services in jails across the state regardless of county while they await inpatient treatment.

The jail-based program will also be implemented in Clay County, the City of St. Louis, St. Louis County and Jackson County. Simmons said other counties have already requested to be included if the program expands, though currently the services are limited. She said the counties were selected based on the volume of referrals that come from each jail  no surprise considering that these are the most populated areas of the state.

While an option, the jail-based model will not become the default.

"We don't anticipate that it will be the answer for every client, but I think individually we can look at it and make those types of assessments and ensure that people are receiving those treatment services while they're there," Simmons said. "That's the intent they would receive the same types of treatment services they would receive in an inpatient setting."

Stephanie Appleby, the executive director of NAMI Southwest Missouri, said she is grateful the department is putting time, energy and effort into providing more resources, which previously have been very limited.

"I think it's fabulous and long overdue," she said of the program. "I hope it works."

Appleby said she hopes this program and any future efforts can establish a more continuous network of care providers. Creating a playbook on an individual's care that both law enforcement agencies and mental health professionals can reference to determine best ways to support those needing care is a way to ensure a more sustainable approach to address mental health in the community, she said.

Other treatment options

Outpatient treatment will also be an option for some in need of competency restoration treatment. Simmons said this program would allow people to receive the needed services at their local community mental health centers. Providing this as an option would be a court decision for those demonstrating that they would be successful while free on bond, she said. Individuals held on dangerous felony charges are not eligible.

Rippee, with the sheriff's office, said there are concerns about this model of service as well. In order for those out on bond to get to these services, they might have to rely on someone else for transportation, along with other potential obstacles.

"Homelessness often goes hand in hand with mental health issues," she said.

Those who do not have the resources to actually get to their outpatient competency restoration treatment provider or keep on top of their medication may not fully benefit from the program, she said.

More: In the year since 988 went live, here's what a Springfield mental health provider has seen

Appleby also has concerns about the outpatient portion of the effort. She said inpatient care is generally always a better option, since in order for patients to be successful in outpatient, they "have to really want to live a self-directed life." Many who find themselves within the criminal justice system are not at that point in their recovery, she said.

But Simmons said the department hopes to work on more ways to connect individuals with treatment before they are within the criminal justice system. Increasing awareness and education of current resources like the 988 suicide and crisis hotline and local behavioral health programs is a large part of this.

"We've got to look at getting more upstream to try and help individuals engage in treatment services," she said.

Marta Mieze covers local government at the News-Leader. Contact her with tips and story ideas at mmieze@news-leader.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri plans new mental health restoration program at county jails
Climate disaster is the real cost

I am writing to express my dismay at the editorial written by the Heritage Foundation, and published by this newspaper, that launches a partisan attack on the Biden administrations energy policies. While right-wing think tanks might exist in a world where climate change does not exist, the rest of us arent so fortunate.

This summer, Spokane experienced the worst natural disaster in its history, as the Gray and Oregon Road fires turned 21,000 acres of land to ash and razed at least 366 homes. This example could easily be multiplied, as the entire planet has experienced the hottest summer on record and the onslaught of environmental devastation that has come with it.

But a passing acknowledgment of the public health disaster that climate change is causing isnt worth a mention in the Heritage Foundations campaign on behalf of oil companies. Instead, the editorials proposal is more carbon pollution, not less, and extracting oil from one of our planets most environmentally and culturally significant areas, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

If Mr. Antoni thinks paying for gas is expensive, he might consider the cost to our Spokane neighbors of having their lives quite literally burned to the ground.

Climate disaster is a policy choice, and it isnt cheap. No honest discussion of oil prices can ignore this cost  which Washingtonians are paying right here, right now  nor the enormous debt imposed on future generations through unchecked carbon pollution. Our communities, our children, deserve better than facile solutions that ignore reality.

Michael Bradley, Olympia, Vice President, Thurston Climate Action Team

Gundersen is the ideal choice Port commissioner

As the Port of Olympia Commission election approaches, its crucial to recognize Rose Chiu Gundersen as the ideal candidate due to her outstanding credentials and unwavering dedication. Roses remarkable work in combating human trafficking sets her apart. Over 14 years, she has immersed herself in policy research and co-founded Washington Trafficking Prevention, demonstrating a deep understanding of the issue.

Roses commitment to preventing human trafficking is evident through her support for youth, offering training to professionals and educating youth about healthy relationships. Her collaboration with other jurisdictions highlights her understanding that this issue transcends boundaries, affecting every community, including Thurston County.

In these times of pressing social issues, having a candidate like Rose, with both knowledge and dedication to addressing human trafficking, is essential. Her leadership on the Port of Olympia Commission will undoubtedly prove invaluable. As a concerned community member and retired police officer, I urge fellow citizens to support Roses candidacy. Together, we can create a safer and more vigilant Port.

Steve Barclift, Olympia

Clouse is best choice for County Commissioner

If you havent met Emily Clouse yet, youre in for a treat. The Democratic candidate for the new District 5 County Commission seat will disarm you with her intellect, authenticity, and commitment to public service.

The former military analyst founded and serves as executive director for CARE, a social services agency that helps previously incarcerated youths re-enter the community. All this at age 28!

Since I met Emily last April, I have watched her grow as a candidate with remarkable speed. She is thoughtful, caring, and engaged on the issues that matter most: affordable housing and homelessness, public safety, and the environment.

She has done a tremendous amount of research into county issues and campaigned tirelessly. That hard work paid off with a first-place showing in the Aug. 1 primary.

During a recent regrettable incident in which two elected officials were caught removing her campaign sign while installing their own, she conducted herself with dignity and professionalism. Contrast that with her opponents loud and repeated nonsensical demands that the Lacey City Council protect his campaign signs from vandalism and theft.

Emily shows professionalism, thoughtfulness and poise when talking about issues such as access to health care and responsible land use.

Her opponent, a constant and vocal critic of Thurston County Commissioners, irresponsibly calls for the county to defund Planned Parenthood and to abandon federally mandated impact studies for proposed development projects.

The choice for District 5 County Commissioner couldnt be clearer. Please join me in voting for Emily Clouse.

Carolyn Cox, Lacey

McGregor has best experience for Port

Bill McGregor, a candidate for the Port of Olympia Commission, stands out as the ideal choice for the role, especially during this crucial period of change within the Port. With extensive hands-on experience in port operations spanning decades, Bills qualifications are unmatched. His concrete track record demonstrates his significant contributions to Thurston Countys Port.

Bill has actively worked to create family wage jobs, pioneered environmental initiatives, and successfully led county outreach efforts. Its essential to recognize that the Ports impact extends beyond Thurston County, affecting neighboring regions like Mason, Lewis, and more. Bills collaborative approach has forged connections with various municipalities, including Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater, Bucoda, Tenino, Rainier, and Rochester, underscoring his dedication to actionable outreach.

Moreover, Bill possesses an in-depth understanding of the Marine Terminal and its cargo capabilities, setting him apart in this election. Experience is the pivotal factor here. Voters should choose the leadership of someone with both business acumen and a genuine community focus. Vote for Bill McGregor for Port of Olympia District #1 Commissioner.

Jim Amador, Shelton
A wild jaguar was photographed by trail cameras in Arizona on two occasions this spring, the first documented sighting in the United States of the once-native species since 2016. The images were captured in March and May by cameras run by Customs and Border Protection and reported on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) online Jaguar Observations Database .

Jaguars are the third-largest cats in the world, trailing only tigers and lions. They can weigh 100 to 250 pounds and stretch 5 to 6 feet from nose to the base of the tail. Their native range once stretched from Argentina to the southwestern United States, but today they are mainly found in the Amazon Basin of South America and in small pockets of Central America and Mexico. The latest sightings were recorded after a shipping container barrier erected by the state of Arizona on the U.S.-Mexico border was removed, unblocking a critical jaguar migration route through the Huachuca Mountains.

A Bureau of Land Management photo showing a jaguar spotted on U.S. soil in 2016.

The images, which have not been released to the public, mark only the seventh jaguar sighting on U.S. soil since 1996. All seven have involved males. The last know female jaguar in Arizona was killed in 1949. Researchers know there is a breeding population of jaguars 100 miles south of the border in Sonora, Mexico, where conservation efforts have helped expand the population to around 4,800and that group is the likely source of the most recent sighting.

"Males are the ones that expand and disperse, Ganesh Marin, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona who monitors 97 cameras as part of a jaguar research study told the Arizona Republic . There are more records of jaguars in the United States and in the border with Mexico because they are exploring for new territories," Marin said.

Read Next: Wildlife Biologists Capture Rare Photos of a Mountain Lion Preying on an Elk in Missouri

According to USFWS, the recent photos are too blurry for spot analysis, a technique that allows researchers to identify individual jaguars by their unique spot patterns, so its unclear if the latest sighting is a new arrival or a previously photographed cat. Its not uncommon for the elusive animals to escape detection for many years. A big jaguar known as El Jefe (The Chief) that was videotaped in Arizonas Santa Rita mountains in 2016 disappeared until August 2022, when it was spotted again 120 miles south in Mexico.
Kate Middleton set to miss out on overseas trip. Seen here she joins a Portage Session for her 'Shaping Us' campaign.

Kate is reportedly set to miss out on a major royal appearance for the first time as shes said to have prioritised an important family duty.

The Princess of Wales is said to be remaining in the UK in November rather than going to Singapore for the Earthshot Prize Awards.

This will be the first time shes missed the awards but its supposedly for a super thoughtful reason that concerns Prince George .

This royal news comes as it was revealed Kate was reportedly in tears when Prince William cancelled big plans last minute after having second thoughts.

As the future King and Queen Consort its no surprise that Prince William and the Princess of Wales schedules are generally pretty packed. However, when it comes to overseas engagements the couple havent been taking to the skies as much as they have done in the past. Instead, Prince William has been making several solo appearances, including his recent trip to New York where he hinted at a dreamy destination for a future family holiday. Because of this many fans might well have been looking forward even more to seeing Prince William and Kate step out together for an annual royal appearance later this year.

However, sadly, it seems that once again the Prince of Wales will be carrying out an exciting trip solo. According to The Telegraph, a Kensington Palace source has supposedly claimed that Kate is set to miss out on going to Singapore in November for the Earthshot Prize Awards 2023.

Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales attend the Earthshot Prize 2021

Earthshot: How to Save Our Planet by HRH Prince William, Colin Butfield and Jonnie Hughes: 6.47 | Amazon

With an introduction from the Prince of Wales himself, this book delves into each of the significant Earthshot goals, ranging from protecting and restoring nature to helping to build a waste-free world. It explored how these can help to tackle the environmental crisis.View Deal

The Princess of Wales has attended both the previous Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony and fashion lovers in particular will no doubt remember her appearances for her green carpet-worthy outfits. Kate wowed in a re-worn lilac Alexander McQueen dress in 2021 and in a neon green off-shoulder Sabina dress by Solace London, sold on Net-A-Porter and rented from Hurr.

Whilst it seems Prince William will be going to Singapore without her and we wont see another show-stopping eco-friendly look from her, its apparently for the sweetest reason. Its reported that the Princess of Wales made the decision as she wanted to be there for Prince George.

Catherine, Princess of Wales attends The Earthshot Prize 2022

The 10-year-old, who is second in the royal line of succession, will apparently be taking exams. Hes currently studying at Lambrook School but was supposedly seen looking around Eton earlier this year. Its been suggested that if he were looking to go to Eton from the age of 13 Prince George would need to sit an online pre-test in the autumn term of year six.

Its incredibly heart-warming that the Princess of Wales has reportedly chosen to stay in the UK to support her eldest son at this challenging time with his exams. With Prince William still set to go to Singapore it also ensures that both their family and public duties are being carried out by one half of the popular couple. Prince George will also likely appreciate having his devoted mother there during exam time.

The Princess of Wales and Prince George attend Wimbledon

Kate also made a selfless sacrifice for Prince George and Princess Charlotte in 2016 when she missed appearing at the St Patricks Day parade at Mons Barracks. Instead a palace statement apparently confirmed that she wouldnt be there that particular year as she wanted to spend time with her children before undertaking a long tour.

While the Duchess [Princess of Wales] has accompanied the Duke [Prince William] every year since his appointment in 2012, and will do so again in future, this year she sadly could not make it because she is prioritising time with her children before next months tour of India and Bhutan, it apparently claimed.
Tin Pei Ling , 39 (centre), has been appointed the managing director at fintech firm DCS Card Centre, formerly known as Diners Club Singapore (PHOTO: MOHD FYROL/AFP via Getty Images)

SINGAPORE  MacPherson Member of Parliament (MP) Tin Pei Ling, 39, has been appointed the managing director of fintech firm DCS Card Centre, formerly known as Diners Club Singapore.

Tin joined the company last month after resigning from Grab. She had confirmed her resignation around a month ago, and revealed she was joining another firm but did not reveal the name of the company at the time.

In another statement on her LinkedIn page on Monday (2 October), Tin announced that she has joined DCS, formerly known as Diners Club SG, to lead its strategic partnerships and business development division.

"Today is my first day at work and it's been great! In this role, I will focus on establishing strategic partnerships to reinforce our position as a leading and innovative player in the payment landscape and driving future market expansion," she said.

"This is exciting as I can now play a more active role in the commercial and strategic side of business and in an industry sector that I have been watching with interest."

DCS Card Centre is a financial institution licensed to carry on the business of issuing credit cards or charge cards in Singapore, governed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) under the Banking Act.

The company was founded in Singapore in 1973 as an exclusive franchisee of Diners Club International and have since been operating under the company name of "Diners Club Singapore", a pioneer of cashless payments with the first credit and charge cards issued in Singapore.

In October 2022, the financial institution was officially renamed to DCS Card Centre in line with its business transformation.

Where did Tin Pei Ling work before?

Prior to this, Tin spent four-and-a-half years as the chief executive officer of Business China, a non-profit organisation seeking to cultivate Singapore-China relationships. According to her LinkedIn profile, Tin remains a board member there.

She has also worked at Jing King Tech Holdings, now known as Adera Global, and Ernst and Young.

Tin was elected to Parliament as part of the five-member People's Action Party team contesting in Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency (GRC). She then became the MP taking care of the MacPherson ward within the GRC.

She was elected MP for MacPherson Single Member Constituency in 2015, a seat she successfully defended in the 2020 general election.

Tin is married and has two children.

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Navy veteran Justin's third and final dose of psilocybin, the psychedelic drug found in "magic' mushrooms, at a retreat center in Jamaica took him back to his time in Iraq. Although his body was physically sitting in a group therapy circle, in his mind he was standing between the enemy and his crew of 460 sailors. It was his duty to protect them, and he felt his body begin to physically absorb the sailors' fear. It was heavy, all of that fear, so much so that at one point he said he nearly started hyperventilating.

But then, after decades of holding onto this baggage from the war that was causing his body to be in a constant state of fight or flight  he released it.

"What that made me realize was that I never put that pack down, and once I came to terms with the fact that they're safe, and I don't have to protect them anymore, I literally felt like there was a pack that came off my shoulders," Justin told Salon in a phone interview. (Justin asked to be identified only by his first name.)

"There was a therapist there that had her hand on my shoulder, and she said, 'I felt like something was coming off your shoulder,'" he said.

During and after 20 years in the Navy and a ground tour in Iraq, Justin started getting set off by triggering things that would cause him to get rapidly anxious and upset. He has been dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms for more than a decade and started taking antidepressants in 2018. After he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2021, he went through a "merry-go-round" of antidepressants to find one that was compatible with his new cancer therapies, but he still felt like all of these different medications weren't doing enough to address the underlying reasons he was feeling this way, he said.

"I wanted to get off the medication," he said. "I wanted to really heal and not just cover up the symptoms."

In his search for alternative treatments, Justin came across MycoMeditations, a retreat center in Jamaica that, according to its website, offers "psilocybin-assisted retreats for people who have tried it all and are ready to heal." It's one of hundreds of psychedelic retreat centers that have popped up around the world in what, along with a new wave of research testing how these substances can be used to treat mental health conditions, some are calling the "psychedelic renaissance."

Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter Lab Notes.

"We are anticipating quite a revolutionary change in how mental health is treated," said MycoMeditations CEO Justin Townsend. "Psychedelics for mental health are going to make a substantial change over the next few years."

About 8% of the U.S. population has depression and 30% has anxiety, and those numbers are on the rise. Yet mental health treatments have notoriously lagged behind need, with few new options in the pipeline since selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) were introduced in the '80s. In 2019, the Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research Unit was created to conduct pivotal research testing in the field, revitalizing a body of research stretching back to the 1950s showing psychedelics can improve depression, PTSD and heavy drinking. Earlier this month, the largest study on naturalistic psilocybin use to date showed participants had significantly improved anxiety, depression and spiritual well-being.

MycoMeditations

Psilocybin changes the pathways that regions of the brain use to communicate, and it can cause mystical experiences that are deeply moving. In one 2008 study of people who had never tried psilocybin before, more than half of the participants said a single dose was in the top five most personally and spiritually meaningful experiences of their lives.

Although the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) could approve psilocybin and other psychedelics in the near future, it is still a controlled substance in most U.S. states. Oregon, for example, began rolling out psilocybin therapy services this year, though some have criticized these clinics for being extremely expensive, with some sessions costing as much as $2,800. Because of this, many are traveling to psychedelic retreat centers in countries like Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica where psilocybin, but also substances like LSD, MDMA, ibogaine and ayahuasca are allowed.

Using psilocybin isn't without risks. Psychedelics are not recommended for people with certain cardiac or psychiatric conditions, and they can trigger psychosis in people who have predispositions for mental illness. The American Psychiatric Association doesn't recommend them outside of investigational studies. Anecdotally, there have been reports of violence and sexual assault during or following psychedelic retreats, where participants are often in vulnerable states when under the influence of psychedelics. The original founder of MycoMeditations stepped down due to allegations of insufficient safety protocols, and Townsend stepped up as CEO in 2019.

Since then, they have changed their model to more of a Western approach drawing from John Hopkins' protocol, he said. Guests must pass a screening before being accepted and the center is staffed with therapists and various doses throughout the week are broken up with integration days, during which the prior trips can be processed. There are one-on-one and group therapy sessions, and retreats last a week.

MycoMeditations

"What we have today is a very different model," he said. "Back then there weren't therapists. There weren't really protocols. In the early days of the retreat business, it really was more like the wild, wild west."

While many retreat centers base their protocols on what's done at Johns Hopkins or the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), they vary highly in their approaches. Some may be founded on shamanic practices or wellness ideals rather than Westernized medicine. It's basically up to consumers to research these places and ensure they're getting something legit and that suits their personal preference, said Matthew Johnson, Ph.D., a Johns Hopkins Medicine psychiatry professor studying psychedelics.

"It wouldn't surprise me that there are retreat centers that are doing things very much like the research that I and others have conducted in the field where there are appropriate safety checks, screening, monitoring and keeping that strong rapport with good professional boundaries," Johnson told Salon in a phone call. "But because it is in this world where there's minimal or no regulations, people are sort of on their own to figure that out."

Some raise additional concerns that profits made in this industry are exploiting Indigenous cultures, who have been using these substances for medicinal purposes and cultural celebrations for 3,000 years. The Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board's evidence review, for example, acknowledged that it excluded the "meaningful experiences, knowledge, and wisdom from Indigenous peoples."

In San Jose del Pacifico in Oaxaca, Mexico, some locals say they now struggle to find specific mushroom species because there has been such a spike in psychedelic tourism, said Osiris Sinuhe Gonzalez Romero, Ph.D., an archaeologist who studies psychedelics, the history of medicine and Indigenous knowledge at the University of Saskatchewan. Some centers, including MycoMeditations, grow their own supply.

"The ethics are very important and sometimes overlooked in the psychedelic renaissance," Romero told Salon in a phone interview. "It's necessary to be very careful, and hopefully, in the future, people interested in developing these retreat centers take into account Indigenous knowledge and the different cultural uses to achieve better quality services."

Nevertheless, it seems like there is a growing demand for people who want to try psychedelics even if they have not been officially FDA-approved. One report projected the psychedelic therapeutic industry to be worth $8.3 billion by 2028. And, as one study in a harm reduction journal put it: "Therapists therefore have an ethical duty to meet this need by providing support for clients using psychedelics."

Gwen Ingram-Jones, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist based in Seattle, said she's worked with 270 people at MycoMeditations over the past few years. Although the degree of transformation varies from person to person, transformative experiences occur more often than not, Ingram-Jones said. For example, one guest who had lost a child experienced the sensation of walking through Hell after taking psilocybin. Ultimately, he got the chance to meet the daughter he had lost and take her home. Then, he felt her make a home within him, bouncing around all of the different corners of his body to turn on the lights.

"I would say that is not an out-of-the-ordinary experience," Ingram-Jones said. "His personal story is unique to him, but people find transformation like that on a really regular basis."

In an in-house survey MycoMeditations conducted that was not published in a scientific journal, some guests reported improved symptoms with PTSD. On their website, they also report improvements in depression, a sense of connectedness and well-being among guests after attending the retreat.

For Justin, the veteran, each dose of psilocybin at the retreat helped him peel away a layer that was standing in the way of healing. The first dose helped him process childhood experiences that prevented him from being conscious of and processing his emotions. The next one helped him understand that his anxiety was stemming from PTSD and be more mindful when those feelings came up, he said.

"Sometimes, I catch myself tensing up," Justin said. "I never noticed that before, but now I notice that and I tell myself to relax."

"I'm safe," he said. "I can relax."

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported Townsend was hired at MycoMeditations in 2019 after the founder stepped down due to misconduct allegations. The story has been updated to clarify the nature of the allegations and reflect that Townsend was already employed at MycoMeditations before the founder left in 2020.
A man was arrested in Peru after U.S. officials say he sent 150 bomb threats to U.S. school districts, synagogues, airports, hospitals and to a mall last month, according to Department of Justice officials.

Investigators said Eddie Manuel Nunez Santos of Lima, Peru, approached young girls on an unnamed gaming platform posing as a teenage boy named Lucas and requested they send him sexually explicit photographs of themselves. Court documents allege when the girls refused, he threatened to kill them, blow up their schools and made other threats in an attempt to extort the child sexual abuse material from them.

He then emailed or filled out online forms to send hoax bomb threats to those places and others, investigators said.

The threats were placed between September 15 and September 21 in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Arizona and Alaska, according to court documents. At least four girls as young as 13 years old were targeted through the online gaming platform, investigators said.

Investigators filed an arrest warrant for Nunez, 33, in the U.S. Southern District of New York on charges of threatening interstate communications, making false information and hoaxes, attempted sexual exploitation of a child, attempted coercion of a child and attempted receipt of child sexual abuse materials.

He was arrested on Sept. 26 by Peruvian police, the Department of Justice said. It was unclear whether he had been extradited to the United States as of Monday, and court records did not show a first appearance or arraignment had occurred.

No attorney information was listed in the federal court docket, which was unsealed late last week. A message left with the federal public defender's office of New York was not immediately returned.

In Pennsylvania, 24 school districts received the fake bomb threats. Several school districts evacuated students or cancelled school in response, according to the charging documents.

The defendants relentless campaign of false bomb threats caused an immediate mobilization by federal and state authorities, diverting critical law enforcement and public safety resources, and caused fear in hundreds of communities across this country, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in an emailed statement.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Man to face charges over hoax bomb threats to Arizona, other US locations
A disturbing recurrence in 2023: Individuals hiding behind anonymous usernames (especially on 4chan) making online threats to kill Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood .

The latest incident, a Pennsylvania man arrested for threatening Volusia Sheriffs deputy Royce James, is the first not directly addressed to the sheriff; however, it adds to the several directed at the official this year.

The situation began in February, after Chitwood and other county leaders called out a group known as the Goyim Defense League for a variety of antisemitic activities reported in Volusia County, including displaying antisemitic signs on a pedestrian overpass leading to the Daytona International Speedway the weekend of the Daytona 500.

Leaders speak out: Sheriff calls out 'punk thugs' who spread antisemitic propaganda in Volusia County

In addition to the most recent threat, six others have been made against Chitwood this year, mostly from individuals outside of Florida.

Some of those extradited even received a not-so-friendly greeting from the sheriff himself as they arrived in Volusia County.

Here is a look at each case:

1. New Jersey man accused of threatening to murder Chitwood

The first threat came in the beginning of March, when Richard Golden, 38, of Monmouth Junction, New Jersey, was charged with second-degree felony written threats to kill or injure.

According to the sheriffs office, Golden used the 4chan chatroom to write: Just shoot Chitwood in the head and he stops being a problem. They have to find a new guy to be the problem. But shooting Chitwood in the head solves an immediate problem permanently. Just shoot Chitwood in the head and murder him.

In this March 2023 file photo, Richard Golden, the New Jersey man who told white supremacists in a hate chat group to murder Sheriff Mike Chitwood, meets the sheriff when he arrived in Florida. Golden was extradited to Volusia County and taken to jail.

What is 4chan: The online platform some have used to allegedly threaten Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood

During a press conference announcing the arrest, Chitwood said Golden was an unemployed, anti-law enforcement person who was living in a back bedroom at his mother's house.

"Once he is extradited, he will be housed at the happiest place on earth, the Volusia County Branch Jail, Chitwood said.

Last week, a judge denied a request by Goldens defense to dismiss the charge against him, arguing that his comments were not a true threat.

2. California man accused of threatening to kill Chitwood

At the end of March, San Diego police arrested Tyler Meyer, 30, at a home where he lived with his mother.

Meyer was the second individual charged with threatening the Volusia sheriff in 2023.

In the April 2023 file photo, Tyler Meyer arrives in Daytona Beach after threatening to kill Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood.

Meyer was charged with making a written threat to kill or injure, a second-degree felony.

He is also accused of posting his threat on 4chan: Its too bad Mike Chitwood isnt safe now that Im planning to kill him. Im going to shoot Mike Chitwood. Im going to kill him by shooting him to death.

Meyer was extradited to Volusia County in April.

"Tyler, I'm Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood," the sheriff said as Tyler Meyer descended an airport escalator with two law enforcement escorts by his side. "Welcome to Volusia County, Florida. Enjoy your stay."

"Thank you," Meyer replied.

Chitwood at rally: Nazis a no-show for rally against Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood. But he showed up.

Meyer posted a $100,000 bond on May 19 and was released from the Volusia County Branch Jail, according to court records.

3. Connecticut man third 4chan user accused of threatening Chitwood

Cristhian Zapata, of Ansonia, Connecticut, was arrested by the Shelton Police Department on a felony warrant for making a written threat to kill Chitwood.

According to police, Zapata, 23, wrote on 4chan: I WILL KILL CHITWOOD, MARK MY WORDS.

Cristhian Zapata

Authorities traced Zapatas message to his Connecticut home, where he lived with his sister, her fiance and her child.

According to the sheriffs office, Zapatas sister told authorities that her brother was fascinated with Adolf Hitler and was always on his computer, often participating in extremist chat rooms and talking to unknown people about conspiracy theories and white supremacist ideology.

Zapata was extradited in May, and although Chitwood was not present at his arrival, he tweeted: "Sorry I wasnt able to join the welcoming committee this time. Enjoy your stay.

Zapata pleaded no contest Sept. 27 to written threats to kill or do bodily injury. He faces up to 15 years in prison.

4. Canadian man accused of threatening Chitwood

Calgary, Alberta, police arrested Tony Stromberg, of Calgary, in June after authorities said he made repeated threats over Twitter, via email, and in phone calls to sheriffs office employees.

He is also accused of sending emails threatening to murder the sheriff and his family members, according to the sheriffs office.

More threats: Police respond to threat made against Islamic Center of Daytona Beach Friday afternoon

"In a follow-up email in March, Stromberg wrote that he had made an 'obviously much more credible threat' but was disappointed that 'not one police car let alone FBI car has pulled up to my house,' said sheriff's office spokesman Andrew Gant.

Stromberg will not be extradited to Volusia County; he was charged with uttering threats to cause death and is expected to be tried in Canada.

5. Deltona man accused of threatening to kill Chitwood

Ethan Russell, 22, of Deltona was already in jail when in July he was charged with threatening to kill Chitwood.

Russell had been in jail since May for trespassing at a construction site where he attempted suicide, according to the arrest report.

He had also been put on probation three years ago for threatening to conduct a mass shooting, and threatening to bomb and burn down federal buildings and high schools.

Sheriff responds: Antisemitic group demands $100,000 in gold from Volusia sheriff. He's sending pacifiers

Russell wrote in a letter that he would run Chitwood over with a car, and if that didn't kill him, he said he would beat him to death and burn his body with napalm, according to the arrest report.

6. Alaska man already indicted on murder charges accused of threatening to blind and kill Chitwood

Joshua Wahl, 31, of Dillingham, Alaska, who had already been indicted for two counts of murder in his home state, was again indicted this week for threatening the Volusia sheriff.

He was indicted on one count of cyberstalking and four counts of transmitting threats in interstate commerce.

Wahl is accused of making the threats both via email and through 4chan between March and April, which included to blind and kill, according to the sheriffs office.

Not every loser threatening violence on the internet gets caught, but Im glad one more is getting a dose of reality, Chitwood said in response to the indictment.

It is unclear when Wahl will be extradited to Volsuia County.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Man who threatened sheriff pleads no contest. What about the other 5?
A Las Cruces Police Department officer was charged with voluntary manslaughter (a third degree felony) for the Aug. 2, 2022 shooting death of 36-year-old Presley C. Eze Jr., at a Las Cruces gas station.

Brad Lunsford, the Las Cruces Police Department officer accused of the crime, was taken into custody on Tuesday, said Attorney General Raul Torrez in an Oct. 3 press conference in Las Cruces.

Lunsford was one of two officers interacting with Eze the day of his death, Torrez said. According to an affidavit for arrest warrant, a second officer, Keegan Arbogast, was also on the scene and present during the shooting. Torrez said Arbogast has not been charged with a crime.

Torrez said Lunsford created an unnecessary escalation of force.

"We at the Attorney General's Office communicated with the District Attorney here several months ago and indicated our willingness to undertake the investigation and potential prosecution of this matter," said Torrez, who was flanked by members of Eze's family who made the trip from Connecticut, family attorneys and Bobbie Green, Director of the Dona Ana County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Tuesday at the Las Cruces Convention Center.

"Unfortunately we were not provided with a complete investigative file containing all of the videos and images that would be necessary to evaluate this case. But after receiving those videos and conducting an independent analysis, which includes consulting with national experts on the use of force, we determined that criminal charges were justified."

According to Luis Robles, an Albuquerque based attorney representing the City in this case, both officers were initially placed on paid administrative leave, but returned to duty after their statements were given to New Mexico State Police, who led the Dona Ana County Officer Involved Task Force that investigated the shooting. The Task Force is made up of multiple police agencies in the county.

Robles said Lunsford turned himself in on Tuesday, was processed and released. He will be placed back on paid administrative leave following the charges announced on Tuesday.

"For a first degree murder, you have to be able to prove a very high burden of premeditation and at this point, we don't have any evidence of that," Torrez said. "We don't have any evidence of, frankly, malice or racial animas. If that changes, we have the opportunity to amend the charging document to reflect that."

Torrez said information on the shooting was received by his office on Sept. 20 that included cell phone video from an eyewitness along with lapel video from both officers.

"We need to start having a broader, more complicated conversation on why this keeps happening in this country," Torrez said. "Regardless of the outcome of this prosecution, we have a much broader task in front of us in this community and all across the country.

"This was a tragedy that should never have happened. I want everyone to understand that when (Eze) lost his life on the pavement outside that gas station, the original call that came in was for petty theft."

Attorney General Raul Torrez holds a news conference to announce charges against LCPD officer, Brad Lunsford, for the death of Presley Eze on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, at the Las Cruces Convention Center.

What happened the day Presley C. Eze Jr. was killed?

Eze, a 36-year-old Black man born in Connecticut and living in southern New Mexico, stopped at the Chevron gas station on the 2600 block of South Valley Drive. He wanted a pack of cigarettes.

The clerk asked Eze for an ID. Eze allegedly said he did not have it on him, according to police reports, so the clerk refused to sell him the cigarettes. Then, one of Eze's two acquaintances tried to buy the cigarettes, ostensibly on Eze's behalf. Again, the clerk refused.

Another clerk told police that Eze returned to the store a few minutes later. The second clerk watched as Eze walked over to the beer section, grabbed a tall can of Budweiser, and walked out of the gas station. The first clerk, who also noticed Eze, followed him out.

Eze was making his way back to a late-2000s green Pontiac Torrent (a midsized sport-utility vehicle) that he arrived in, the clerks told police. The clerk asked Eze from several feet back if he'd paid for the beer, valued at under $5.

The clerk told police that Eze responded by saying, "suck it and pay for it." At that point, the clerks said that the gas station's manager told the clerks to call police.

Attorney General Raul Torrez holds a news conference to announce charges against LCPD officer, Brad Lunsford, for the death of Presley Eze on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, at the Las Cruces Convention Center.

Lunsford and Arbogast attempted to subdue Eze

According to an affidavit provided by the AG's office on Tuesday, at approximately 4:32 p.m., Lunsford arrived at the scene in his marked police car. A minute later Lunsford made initial contact with the driver of a green/turquoise Pontiac SUV where, according to the affidavit, Eze, who was shirtless, was in the passenger seat.

Eze allegedly told the officer he walked into the store with a beer in his hand and when he walked out store employees started harassing him. Eze told Lunsford that he could check the cameras to confirm it and Lunsford asked for his identification, according to the affidavit. Eze then told the officer he did not have identification but provided a false name, Pete Ezer, when asked by the officer for his name and date of birth, according to the affidavit.

At approximately 4:36 p.m., Lunsford spoke with a gas station employee, who claimed Eze did not have a beer when he walked in. Lunsford did not seek to view surveillance footage and called for an additional unit. Lunsford returned to his police unit and ran the information Eze provided through the National Crime Information Center but was unable to confirm an identity based on the name Eze provided.

At approximately 4:43 p.m., Lunsford returned to the Pontiac to confirm the name and date of birth, at which time Eze said his name was "Eser." Lunsford returned to his unit and ran the name Pete Eser, which also was not on file.

At approximately 4:36 p.m., Arbogast arrived on scene.

At around 4:47 p.m., Lunsford and Arbogast approached the Pontiac on the passenger side and asked Eze to step out of the car, according to the affidavit. When Eze responded that he didn't want to get out of the car, Lunsford allegedly said he was not asking. When Eze asked why he needed to get out of the car, Lunsford allegedly grabbed Eze's right wrist with his right hand and said they could not confirm the identity provided.

Loved ones of Presley Eze hold one another during a news conference on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, at the Las Cruces Convention Center. Attorney General Raul Torrez announced charges against LCPD officer, Brad Lunsford, for the death of Presley Eze.

When asked by Arbogast to cooperate, Eze replied, "Yes," according to the affidavit.

Arbogast then removed a closed pocketknife from Eze's lap as Eze was standing up. Eze said he was not reaching for anything and both hands were visible from the view of Lunsford's body camera.

According to the affidavit, it was then that both men, Arbogast who was behind Eze with his arms around his abdomen, fall backwards to the ground.

Lunsford was attempting to hold Eze's arms and was positioned behind Eze. At some point during the struggle, Arbogast's non-lethal weapon fell from its holster and was on the ground between Arbogast and Eze's right hand.

According to the affidavit, Eze had the non-lethal weapon first in his left hand and then in his right hand when Lunsford struck him in the face with an open hand strike with his left hand, knocking Eze off balance.

At that moment Eze was on the ground with the CEW, which had not been discharged, in his right hand pointed away from the officers when Lunsford drew his duty weapon and fired a single shot to the left side of Eze's head, killing him.

In an August 2022 press conference following the shooting, former Police Chief Miguel Dominguez said officers had been overpowered by Eze before one of the officers shot him in the back of the head.

Eze's family has since filed a lawsuit against the city. That lawsuit is pending resolution.

LCPD placed the two officers, whose names were not released to the media at the time of the shooting, on paid leave as part of the investigation.

City's attorney responds

Torrez said the next step with the criminal case will be a probable cause determination through either a preliminary hearing or grand jury.

Robles said the arresting documents presented by the AG on Tuesday did not include all of the facts.

"The AGs task is not to obtain convictions, but to achieve justice. They are missing exculpatory evidence and that is a concern to me as a lawyer that all of the facts are not presented. The alternative methods of force that could have been used were not going to stop Eze from doing what Officer Lunsford believed him to be doing," Robles said.

Robles said the arresting documents were missing information from initial police reports and officer interviews. Robles said that Eze tried to unholster Arbogast's duty weapon, but did unholster the officer's non-lethal weapon and had his finger on the trigger and was in the process of turning around during the struggle to face Arbogast when Lunsford fired his weapon.

"They said the tazer was in his hand," Robles said. "His finger was in the trigger. It's a dual use weapon that can be used twice in succession. The officer was faced with someone who could incapacitate him. Deadly force was used because that was the reasonable choice Lunsford had."

When asked if Lunsford had been accused of using excessive force in the past, family attorney Shannon Kennedy said he had, but due to a confidentiality order involving a civil lawsuit against the City filed in May, Lunsford's disciplinary file could not be discussed.

"That is part of the problem with the City of Las Cruces," said Joe Kennedy, also acting as an Eze family attorney. "In order to get a personnel file and the disciplinary history, we had to agree to a confidentiality order so we can't right now talk about that disciplinary history."

Kennedy said they are in the early stages of the discovery phase of the lawsuit.

"The Kennedys filed an IPRA (Inspection of Public Records Act) lawsuit and people often dispute what is IPRA'd and what is not," Robles said. "That's not to say they don't have a valid IPRA claim, but to turn it into a cover up is a big stretch."

Jason Groves can be reached at 575-541-5459 or jgroves@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @jpgroves.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: New Mexico AG announces charges against Las Cruces Police officer
The disappearance of the five - pictured on this makeshift altar - has shaken Lagos de Moreno

Prosecutors in Mexico say they have arrested a suspect in the disappearance of five young men from the city of Lagos de Moreno in August.

The five childhood friends vanished from a local lookout on 11 August.

Images emerged later which showed them kneeling, bound and gagged, at an abandoned building nearby.

There has been no trace of them since but security analysts fear they may have fallen victim to a powerful crime gang active in Jalisco state.

Mexico's National Search Commission says more than 110,000 people have been reported missing since 1962.

The five ranged in age between 19 and 22 and had known each other since they were little. On 11 August they visited a local fair before going to a local lookout near their home town of Lagos de Moreno, in Jalisco state.

One of them sent a message to his family at 22:55 local time telling them that they were heading home. When they did not get back, their families raised the alarm.

Days after their disappearance, a photo of five young men, bloodied and terrified, was uploaded onto social media. The parents of the missing confirmed that those in the photo were their sons.

Police located the abandoned building where the photo was taken and found blood

A video also emerged apparently showing one of the five brutally beating one of his friends. Local media reported that it was not unusual for Mexico's ruthless gangs to force their captives to turn onto each other.

David Saucedo Torres, an expert on organised crime consulted by BBC Mundo, said that the five may have been the victims of an attempt of forced recruitment by the powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG).

According to Mr Saucedo, forced recruits are often ordered at gunpoint to carry out gruesome acts of violence, including murders, as part of their training.

The security expert says that the war between rival cartels in the state of Jalisco is so lethal that criminal gangs have had to resort to kidnapping young men to replace those killed.

Prosecutors hope the arrest of a suspect on Monday will shed light on the case and reveal what happened to the five.

The burned-out shells of the two cars the friends had been travelling in have been located, but human remains found inside turned out not to match those of the five. It is not yet known whom the remains may have belonged to.

It is not the first time a group of young people has fallen victim to cartel violence in the state of Jalisco.

In June, eight employees disappeared from a call centre which was run by the Cartel Jalisco New Generation cartel. Their remains were later found in a ravine.
More than six years after a triple homicide, an Oklahoma County district court jury has found a man known as Psycho guilty of murder.

The jury returned a verdict of first-degree murder last week in the trial of Ramon Pugh, 49, in the 2017 shooting deaths of Derell Barksdale, 39; Donielle Gregory, 39; and Terrance Jackson, 51. All three victims were from Oklahoma City.

Pugh also was found guilty of a fourth charge of possessing a firearm after former conviction of a felony.

The jury recommended a sentence of life in prison for each of the murder counts and 20 years in prison on the count of firearms possession.

Formal sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 16.

Ramon Pugh initially faced death penalty for 2017 slayings

Prosecutors said Pugh and the three men had been talking, drinking vodka and smoking marijuana at Pughs residence on East Babb Drive in Midwest City in the hours leading up to the shooting.

Pugh's girlfriend told police she and her 10-year-old daughter also were at the house on the night of the shooting. The girlfriend said she heard several gunshots coming from the living room about 8:45 p.m.

Prosecutors said Barksdale and Gregory were shot multiple times and that Jackson died of a single gunshot wound.

Pughs girlfriend told authorities she grabbed her daughter and they went out a bedroom window.

Pugh, whom prosecutors said is known as Psycho, Sico and Romon turned himself in about a week later.

Pugh initially faced the death penalty.

Previously: Prosecutors will seek death for man charged in Midwest City triple homicide

In court documents, prosecutors wrote that Pugh "should be punished by death." They also claimed there was a probability that Pugh would be "a continuing threat to society."

The Oklahoma County district attorneys office made a motion to dismiss the death penalty on Aug. 30.

Pugh had been acquitted of a first-degree murder charge in 1999 in connection with the shooting death of a man outside a club in Spencer in 1997. Records show he has served time in prison for shooting with intent to kill, firearm possession and drug offenses.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma man guilty of killing three in OKC in 2017
Missouri state Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick on Monday released a scathing audit of Ray County, located east of the Kansas City area, finding that the sheriffs office lost nearly $3,000 of fees paid to the county and spent more than $5,500 of county money on unapproved purchases including beer, cigarettes, 15 TVs and 76 hams.

The regularly scheduled audit from Fitzpatrick, a Republican, gave Ray County a poor rating  the lowest possible rating from his office. It called for financial control and procedure improvements in both the Ray County Sheriffs Office and the Ray County Prosecuting Attorneys Office.

The missing money and several questionable purchases made by the previous administration in the Ray County Sheriffs Office make it clear that office needed significant improvements to its accounting procedures to ensure taxpayer dollars arent mismanaged or stolen, Fitzpatrick said in a statement.

The issues the audit revealed in Ray County emphasize problems uncovered in a recent investigation by The Star that showed how small towns and local governments often lack the safeguards needed to protect against fraud and the mismanagement of taxpayer money.

Ray County, which includes cities such as Camden and Crystal Lakes, has an estimated population of 23,107 people, according to the most recent census data.

Ray County Sheriff Scott Childers, who became sheriff in 2021, pointed out that the audit dealt with problems in the administration under former Sheriff Garry Bush. He said it proved what he campaigned on  that the county isnt operated very well.

This proves what I said is the truth. Theres money thats unaccounted for. Theres a lot of problems that it shows  its just poor management. And thats what I kept saying, it wasnt a good accountability system, he said. There was a lot of nepotism in this county, which always breeds for issues.

Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick speaks during an interview at the Missouri State Capitol on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023, in Jefferson City, Mo.

Missing money and reckless purchases

The state audit found that from 2018 to 2020, personnel with the Ray County Sheriffs Office did not transmit $2,549 in concealed carry weapon permit fees and $443 in sex offender registry fees to the county treasurer. Its unclear where that money went.

Fitzpatrick called on Childers to work with the countys commission and other law enforcement to investigate the money that the office lost during the previous sheriffs tenure.

The audit also found that the previous sheriffs administration spent at least $5,543 on questionable purchases including 15 televisions on a Walmart credit card and $850 on items such as cigarettes, beer, a toy, personal grooming tools, barbeque seasoning rubs and lotion.

The agency, according to the audit, also purchased 76 hams for $1,736.

It bought these items with money from the countys commissary account, which is used to operate a jail fund where inmates can deposit money to purchase things like phone call time, hygiene items and snacks. The auditors office confirmed that the unapproved purchases did not appear to be for inmates.

The audit showed the sheriffs office also did not track how much money it needed to refund inmates from the commissary when they were released from jail.

The Ray County Sheriffs Office, the audit said, needs to make significant improvements to its financial controls and procedures including separating who is responsible for various accounting duties and keeping better track of receipts. Small local governments, The Star previously found, routinely fail to separate these kinds of duties to ensure that no single person handles all aspects of a financial transaction.

The sheriffs office did not keep many financial records in general and failed to pay bills on time, incurring fees and charges totaling $409 in 2020 from late credit card payments, the audit found.

On top of the findings within the sheriffs office, the audit also called for improved controls in the Ray County Prosecuting Attorneys Office because it found the office was not adequately separating accounting duties, keeping financial records or paying crime victims retribution in a timely fashion.

Fitzpatricks audit also highlighted broader issues within the county government, pointing out that the County Commission did not comply with state open records laws and that county officials failed to follow personnel policies.

The state last audited Ray County in 2015 under then-Auditor Nicole Galloway, a Democrat. That audit gave the county a rating of fair.
ST. CLAIR, Mo. (NewsNation/KTVI)  Officials at a Missouri high school placed one of its teachers on leave last Wednesday after discovering she was performing pornographic content on the site OnlyFans, according to multiple reports.

Brianna Coppage, a 28-year-old English teacher, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that her teaching days at St. Clair High School were likely over and that shed probably never teach again.

She said she knew the risks of joining the website, but did it to supplement her salary, which was only around $42,000 last year, according to CBS News.

To Coppage, the risks were worth it as she made an additional $8,000 to $10,000 a month performing on the website, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Girl, 9, may have been abducted at New York state park: authorities

I do not regret joining OnlyFans. I know it can be taboo, or some people may believe that it is shameful, but I dont think sex work has to be shameful, Coppage told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I do just wish things just happened in a different way.

Coppage also said its shameful how underpaid teachers are everywhere, adding that it wasnt a question that she has to supplement her income.

The teacher said she chose the site because the content was only available to paying subscribers and hoped it would help shield her identity, the report said. However, someone ended up notifying the school of her account, which led to Coppage being sat down by two administrators before being put on leave.

Cat reunited with owner after viral search following Lyft trip

Coppage believes the school was notified after she and her husband appeared in a video alongside another OnlyFans couple in St. Louis, the report said. However, it is unclear if this is the case.

The high school superintendent, Kyle Kruse, said in a statement that the school was aware Coppage may have posted inappropriate content on the website, according to The Missourian.

The District has engaged legal counsel to conduct a comprehensive investigation of this matter. Actions taken as a result of the investigation will be in accordance with Board policy and with guidance from legal counsel, Kruse said in the statement.

But Coppage has received a surprising amount of support from the St. Clair community, including from parents, according to The Missourian.

Surprisingly, a lot of parents were supporting me. A lot of community members were saying, Leave her alone, this is her private business. It has nothing to do with her in the classroom,' she told The Missourian.

Florida investigators solve womans murder nearly 30 years later

Some supporters have even signed a petition saying she should be able to continue her career as a teacher. As of Monday afternoon, the online petition had about 350 signatures.

One woman who signed the petition wrote, This is in the privacy of her own personal time. She is one of the only teachers who has actually done their job and helped my daughter when she needed it. Most teachers dont even try and help.

Another supporter wrote that they loved having Coppage as a teacher and that she should be able to do whatever she wants in life.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
ARTS

Auditions for Spartanburg Youth Theatres performance of Disneys The Lion King Jr. are 5:30  7:30 p.m. Oct 23 and 25 at Chapman Cultural Center. Auditionees should only audition one of the two nights and may arrive at any time during the 2-hour block. SYT welcomes youth in grade 3  12 to audition. Audition requirements and details are at spartanburgyouththeatre.com/auditions.

OctoberArt Classes are offered at the Spartanburg Art Museum. Classes include Design and Build for ages 10  14, Awesome Animals for ages 6  9, Cubism for Kids for ages 6  10, and Spooky Crafts for ages 6  9. For details and registration, visit spartanburgartmuseum.org.

Display Your Art  The Back Door Art Gallery in Fountain Inn has a kids art wall. Children ages 12 and younger can hang one piece of their art for free for one month. For specifications and contact information, visit backdoorartgallery.com.

Art Classes for ages 6 and older are offered at A Cut Above Maker Space in Spartanburg. For cost, registration and details, visit acutabovemakerspace.com.

Art classes are offered at GCCA  Greenville Center for Creative Arts. For details, visit artcentergreenville.org.

Voice, piano, and acting private lessons are offered from Kimilee Bryant Studio. For details, email kimileebryantstudio@gmail.com or call 864-280-9150.

South Carolina Childrens Theatre offers classes for grades pre-K  12. For details visit, scchildrenstheatre.org.

Spartanburg Youth Theatre offers classes for grades K4  12. For full class listings and to enroll, visit spartanburgyouththeatre.com or call 864-585-8278.

Engage in music at the Lawson Academy of the Arts  Private lessons and group classes are offered for musicians of all ages and levels with instruction from Converse University professors and student-teachers. Learn to play piano or enroll in an ensemble. For details, call 864-596-9022.

Arts programs are at TR Makers. Programs include homeschool classes, Afterschool Makers Elementary (grades K5  5), Afterschool Art School (grades 2  6), and more. For cost and registration, visit trmakersco.org.

Music Adventure Classes are at 10 a.m. Mondays at Swamp Rabbit Cafe. Classes are geared for pre-K  K but all ages are welcome. The cost is $15 per class ($5 for each additional sibling) and includes a coffee and pastry. For details and registration, visit @musicadventure on Instagram or email musicadventureforkids@gmail.com.

FAMILY FUN, LEARNING, AND MORE

Disciples Pumpkin Patch is 9 a.m.  7 p.m. Mondays  Saturdays and noon  7 p.m. Sundays, Oct. 1  31 at Disciples United Methodist Church in Greenville. Find pumpkins and gourds of all shapes and sizes. Sales benefit United Methodist Missions and the Navajo of New Mexico where the pumpkins are grown. For details, visit mydisciplesumc.org or call 864-297-0382.

Denver Downs Fall Festival is Thursdays  Sundays through Nov. 12 at Denver Downs Farm. For details, visit www.denverdownsfarm.com.

Denver Downs

Well Walkers is offered Tuesdays and Thursdays in October, except Oct. 12, at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena. During the Oct. 31 event, the community is also invited to Walk with a Doc. From 9  11 a.m., Dr. Andrea Smith of Bon Secours St. Francis Primary Care Downtown will be on site to offer education about nutrition, preventative health, and chronic disease management. She will be available to walk a lap with anyone wanting to discuss the topic or ask any related questions. The arena concourse will be open from 9 a.m.  1 p.m. for anyone who wants to have a temperature-controlled space to exercise. Each loop around the concourse is a quarter mile. Well Walkers is a free event with no registration or prior notice required. Free parking for participants is provided in the VIP lot at the arena, located off Church Street. For details, visit bonsecoursarena.com.

The Fall Upstate Native Plant Sale is Oct. 10  13, with early access for South Carolina Native Plant Society members and volunteers on Oct. 9. The event is online only. For details, visit scnps.org/2023-fall-upstate-native-plant-sale.

The TreesUpstate Turkey Day Run is Nov. 23 in Greenville. For details and registration, visit runsignup.com/Race/SC/Greenville/TreesGreenvilleTurkeyDay8k.

Italian Renaissance Alive is open at Biltmore Estate. The multi-sensory experience immerses guests in the beauty and brilliance of the greatest artistic period in history as it comes to life all around you. Large-scale projections with 360-degree views set to a powerful operatic score tell the story of artists and the time periods within which they lived. Italian Renaissance Alive features Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael, Botticelli, Caravaggio and more. It continues through Jan. 7, 2024. For details and ticket information, visit biltmore.com/things-to-do/events/italian-renaissance-alive.

Little Learners Club, available from the Greenville County Library System, is designed especially for children under age 5 to encourage the development of kindergarten readiness skills using the Palmetto Basics. Details are at greenvillelibrary.org/kids/little-learners-club.

Free Books  Greenville First Steps has launched a pilot of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in Greenville County. Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is an early literacy program that mails free age-appropriate books each month to registered children from birth to age 5. Currently in Greenville County, children in 29690, 29611, and 29669can sign up for Imagination Library. Registration is available at ImaginationLibrary.com.

Story Time is at 10 a.m. Thursdays at Barnes and Noble at Greenridge. For details, visit stores.barnesandnoble.com/store/2221.

Family Story Time for ages birth  5 is Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. at the Pendleton and Lander Memorial Libraries, Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. at the Powdersville Library, and Thursdays and Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. at the Anderson Main Library. Visit andersonlibrary.org.

Preschool and Toddler Story Times are offered at Spartanburg Library locations. For details, visit spartanburglibraries.org.

Preschool Story Time for ages 3  5 is at 9:15 and 10:30 a.m. Tuesdays at the Anderson Main Library. Visit andersonlibrary.org.

Toddler Storytime for ages 18  36 months is at 9:15 and 10:30 a.m. Wednesdays at the Anderson Main Library. Visit andersonlibrary.org.

Preschool Storytimes for ages 2  5 are offered at the Pickens County Library. Call 864-850-7077 or visit pickenscountylibrarysystem.com.

STRIDES Systematic Tutoring, a nonprofit program, offers individualized tutoring for ages 6  20. instruction is available. In-person tutoring is available at seven locations across the Upstate or virtually with a smart phone, tablet or desk top computer. Scholarships are available. For details, call 864-246-9898 or stridestutor.org.

PARENTS

MOMS Club of Spartanburg and MOMS Club of Spartanburg-North offer support for all moms in the area. The groups have regular park plays, library visits, potlucks, mom crafts, kid crafts, book club, Moms Night Out, community service projects, seasonal activities and more. For more information email, momsclubofspartanburg@gmail.com or northspartanburgmoms@gmail.com

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: More for October  Arts, family fun, learning and more
Lockdowns, a word most often associated with prisons, has become commonplace on college campuses.

The horror struck UNC yet again on Sept. 13 when law enforcement reported concerns that an armed person may have carried a gun in the Student Union. State troopers with long-nosed rifles patrolled the campus, a startling sight. This has become a defining trauma of Generation Zs coming of age.

More: NC played historic role in securing young Americans' voting rights; legacy must continue

In response to young peoples pleas to end the carnage, Republicans have become utterly intransigent. The party is more adamantly pro-gun than ever.

Alexander H. Jones

Every time a shooting scars a campus, the unified response from virtually every Republican officeholder is to scapegoat mentally ill people, perhaps mixing in a preposterous jab at woke society (as did at least one Republican state representative). They are not only refusing, absolutely and without exception, to even acknowledge a central concern of young people in this country. They are aligning themselves more fervently than ever with a belligerent white-male tribe that demands an absolute right to the ownership of a gun.

White, southern backlash against new voters is not new

This may seem puzzling, that a political party should utterly snub a new generation of voters. But there is precedent behind this seeming madness.

More: North Carolina 8th grader offers Gen Z perspective on filibuster

In our history, politicians have reacted to the rise of new voters in one of two ways. They have either adjusted to the presence of enfranchised citizens, or they have, in effect, counterattacked. Conservatives are choosing the belligerent road.

The South is often the purest encapsulation of American hope and pathology. In the area of new voters, it has had the most dramatic history.

Interestingly, arch-racist North Carolina Sen. Furnifold Simmons attempted to win over women voters in his 1930 campaign for Senate; knowing that he had campaigned against woman suffrage for decades, they were unamused.

Fayetteville State University students pose in front of the Black Voters Matter bus during the HBCU Voters Day on Friday, Oct. 2, at Fayetteville State University. HBCU Voters Day is organized by the Common Cause NC, HBCU Student Action Alliance and Black Voters Matter. HBCU Voters Day is part of our nonpartisan effort to help the 40,000 students at North CarolinaOs historically Black colleges and universities to fully participate in this yearOs election.

But Simmonss opportunistic inclusion strategy has been the exception in Southern politics. More often, Southern conservatives have sought to silence the voices of recently enfranchised voters whod spent generations on the margins.

Back up to Reconstruction. A wave of new voters  Black men  had entered the Southern electorate in the wake of emancipation and the 15th Amendment. These men immediately transformed Southern life, opening schools, liberalizing elections, entering the workforce and uniting families.

Theoretically, the white Southern elite could have accepted this transformation as the verdict of history and made efforts to win Black, male votes. Instead, in a terroristic campaign employing fraud and violence, they forced Black men back onto the margins and solidified a system of legal apartheid that would keep the South in the dark world of oppression for 100 years.

GOP gives up on appealing to Gen Z; instead targets them

A less sanguinary, but equally malevolent, campaign of backlash is occurring in the Republican Party right now. The rise of Millennials and Gen Z has represented the greatest racial transformation of the countrys electorate since Reconstruction. These generations are far more diverse than any previous cohort of Americans, and with their entry into the electorate has come a broad diversification of the American voter pool.

Republicans, since 1964 the party of the white South, have more or less given up on appealing to them. Instead, they have targeted Black, brown and young voters with the precision of a laser beam. They attempt to force the genie back into the bottle so old-school white Anglos can rule undisturbed.

A young voter.

In North Carolina, Republicans have shuttered voting sights on college campuses, attempted to ban college IDs from counting toward discriminatory voter ID rules, introduced a bill that would ban college students parents from claiming them for tax purposes unless the student voted at their college address, and generally attempted to exclude young people from political life in every way they could.

At the same time theyre taking positions on the pivotal issues of Gen-Z life  gun violence, climate, the dignity of the individual  that could not be more repugnant to most Zoomers and their relative elders in the Millennial generation.

The message they are sending is perfectly unambiguous: The Republican tribe will rule.

Alexander H. Jones is a Policy Analyst with Carolina Forward. He lives in Carrboro. Have feedback? Reach him at alex@carolinaforward.org.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: UNC shootings cause Gen-Z outcry, GOP belligerence. Why the disconnect?
DUDLEY  Glenn Sulmasy, the Nichols College president who has been the subject of sexual misconduct allegations while working at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, has resigned from his post, the school announced Tuesday afternoon.

The college said the board accepted his resignation, which follows CNN reports about the allegations, as well as information learned by the school during its internal investigation into Sulmasys time at the service academy.

In light of these reports and facts uncovered to date during the colleges ongoing investigation, and their impact on President Sulmasys ability to lead Nichols College, the board strongly believes the institutions best interest is to pursue new leadership, the schools announcement said.

Sulmasy had previously been accused of mishandling a case of sexual assault while working as an academic attorney at the service academy in New London, Connecticut. He was also accused of sexting with a former student and verbally harassing another.

Jeffrey S. Robbins, Sulmasys attorney, was not immediately available to comment on the resignation but had previously disputed the allegations.

The school previously confirmed Sulmasys leave and the internal investigation in September.

In its announcement, the school said it hired Clifford & Kenny as the colleges third-party investigator. The law office out of Pembroke would soon issue a formal report of its confidential and independent review, the school said, but it does not intend to share this report publicly.

More: Nichols College president on leave amid investigation into past handling of abuse reports

Sulmasy had previously been barred from having contact with Nichols faculty, students or staff, and was also banned from entering the grounds of the Coast Guard Academy.

He previously worked as a provost of Bryant University before becoming president at Nichols in 2021.

While working at Bryant in 2016, Coast Guard officials contacted the school to revoke their previous recommendations of Sulmasy for the job following the results of an internal investigation, CNN reported previously.

He was then put on probation, but it is not clear if Bryant made Nichols aware of the concerns raised by the Coast Guard officials, the CNN report also said.

It was also previously reported that Coast Guard attorneys found strong evidence against Sulmasy that warranted prosecuting him in a military court-martial for conduct unbecoming an officer and willful dereliction of duty about eight months after he retired from the academy to take an administrator role at Bryant University in Rhode Island.

But Coast Guard leaders overruled the prosecutors, choosing not to press charges about Sulmasy and keeping the findings of the investigation from being made public.

Nichols said Vice President for Advancement Bill Pieczynski will continue acting as president. The college is expected to launch a national search for Sulmasys successor soon.

Return to telegram.com for updates to this story.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Glenn Sulmasy, Nichols College president, resigns amid investigation
STOCKHOLM (AP)  Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries that enabled the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

The award was given to Katalin Kariko, a professor at Sagans University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Drew Weissman , who performed his prizewinning research together with Kariko at the University of Pennsylvania.

Through their groundbreaking findings, which have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system, the laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times, the panel that awarded the prize said.

FILE  Katalin Kariko, speaks after receiving, together with six other scientists, the Princess of Asturias Award for Technical & Scientific Research 2021 from Spains Princess of Asturias Leonor, at a ceremony in Oviedo, northern Spain, Friday Oct. 22, 2021. THe Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman for enabling development of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines , it was announced on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)

Thomas Perlmann, secretary of the Nobel Assembly, announced the prize and said both scientists were overwhelmed by news of the prize when he contacted them shortly before the announcement.

Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam, part of the panel that chose the winners, said of their work that in terms of saving lives, especially in the early phase of the pandemic, it was very important.

What you should know as fall vaccinations against COVID, flu and RSV get underway

The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was won last year by Swedish scientist Svante Paabo for discoveries in human evolution that unlocked secrets of Neanderthal DNA which provided key insights into our immune system, including our vulnerability to severe COVID-19.

The award was the second in the family. Paabos father, Sune Bergstrom, won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1982.

Nobel announcements continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics award on Oct. 9.

Free at-home COVID tests are back: Heres how to get yours

The prizes carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million). The money comes from a bequest left by the prizes creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896.

The prize money was raised by 1 million kronor this year because of the plunging value of the Swedish currency.

The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobels death. The prestigious peace prize is handed out in Oslo, according to his wishes, while the other award ceremony is held in Stockholm.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
(NewsNation)  Sunspot observations, a key predictor of the northern lights, have dramatically increased since 2022. Scientists say that if the trend continues, the next 18 months will bring the strongest northern lights in decades.

The northern lights will be more viewable, and more often, from more places on Earth in the next 18 months than they have been in the past 20 years and are expected to be in the next decade, scientists told NBC News.

The Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel, an international scientific group sponsored by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, forecasted below-average sunspot activity for the coming year, with 110 to 115 sunspots at its peak.

However, updated models from multiple scientists show sunspots peaking as high as 235.

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Solar activity is expected to steadily increase until fall 2024, when the likelihood of viewing the northern lights is highest, according to Mark Miesch, a research scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder and NOAA.

Its largely thanks to the aforementioned Solar Cycle 25. Our sun goes through an 11-year period, known as a solar cycle, in which it flips its magnetic poles. This activity fuels the space weather needed to spark the aurora borealis on Earth.

The aurora borealis, more commonly known as the northern lights, are a natural light display that occur in the Earths high latitude areas close to the North and South poles. When certain space weather reaches our magnetic fields, it sends particles rushing to the poles, NOAA explains. When those particles interact with oxygen and nitrogen, they can create auroras.

Its essentially the sun shooting a magnet out into space, Bill Murtagh, program coordinator for NOAAs Space Weather Prediction Center and seasoned space weather forecaster, tells Nexstar.

When theres a big disturbance in the magnetic field, then youre more likely to see aurora at lower latitudes, Miesch said. Such a disturbance will almost double the likelihood of northern lights in the coming days, he added.

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While the northern lights were relatively active earlier this year  even sending them as far south as Alabama  theyve seemed to dim as of late.

Its a little bit of a crapshoot, Murtagh says. Weve had just as many eruptions occur since [spring], but we just havent been lucky  or unlucky, whichever way you look at it.

The majority of recent eruptions on the sun have shot out into other parts of space rather than in our direction.

But, the sun continues with these bigger eruptions that are just not hitting us, and that could change next week, he says. Next week, we could get back-to-back eruptions in the next several weeks, the next couple of months.

Dont lose hope just yet, though. The sun is approaching the maximum phase of Solar Cycle 25, Murtagh says. The cycle has also been rising faster and appears bigger than originally predicted.

The [solar] cycle is rising faster and when it rises faster, its typically bigger, Murtagh previously told Nexstar. The bigger the cycle, the more eruptions [on the sun], the more likely we see the aurora, bottom line.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
Sorry, not sorry appeared to be the overarching message from the worlds most powerful oil and gas companies at an annual industry summit in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

The largest players in the fossil fuel industry gathered at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, just along the coast from where the Cop28 climate summit is being hosted by the UAE in a matter of months.

The oil and gas executives were buoyant, even defiant, about the industry which earned a record $4 trillion last year while countries face worsening climate disasters.

Weve got to step up and prepare for the decarbonised systems of the future, Tengku Muhammad Taufik, president and group CEO of Malaysias state energy firm, Petronas, said at a panel hosted by CNBC.

So, the debate has always been posed here, Im reminded of an old saying: If you want to keep everyone happy, sell ice cream. We are not in the business of ice cream  and Im reminded, there are people who are lactose intolerant. The indication here is we have to make some tough decisions and we have to be bounded by facts, rationality, practical steps but we will get there.

Emissions from burning fossil fuels are the primary driver of the climate crisis and countless scientific groups and non-governmental bodies, including the influential International Energy Agency, have called for a rapid transition to clean energy and no new oil and gas projects, to remain at the 1.5 degrees Celsius target of the Paris Agreement. Scientists say global emissions must be cut by nearly half in the next seven years to hold to 1.5C.

At the current 1.2C of global warming, countries are experiencing worsening storms, flooding, heatwaves, fires and drought.

But while clean energy investments are expected to hit $1.7 trillion in 2023, around $1 trillion is still being invested in coal, oil and gas putting the planet far off-course in its net zero goals. The oil and gas industrys spending on operations to redue emissions was less than 5 per cent of its upstream spending in 2022, according to the IEAs latest World Energy Investment report.

A view shows the destruction, in the aftermath of the floods in Derna, Libya on September 30, 2023, which killed more than 11,000 people (REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori)

Regardless, there was a sense of optimism from the stage. Vicki Hollub, CEO of Texas-based multinational Occidental Petroleum, described really exciting times for the oil and gas industry but conceded that they must regain societys trust.

I dont see where we are today as something that is going to end our industry although there are some out there that want it to go away. As we have done in the past, we will find ways to innovate out of this situation that were in, she said.

Patrick Pouyanne, head of French oil company TotalEnergies, said that he had been naive and admitted, we will not please the activists.

We will never make enough to please the ones which are against oil and gas, but my mission is not to please them, he added. Our mission is to deliver to the society the energy we need today and tomorrow and for that I feel comfortable.

Wael Sawan, chief executive of UK oil giant Shell, described his time at the top as a roller coaster.

Its the worst of times and its the best of times, he continued.

Demonstrators during a national protest for climate justice in Bern, Switzerland, on September 30, 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

The worst of times I think with the recognition it seems to be a time where we continue to polarise the debate more and more rather than actually converge given that we are trying to solve arguably the worlds biggest problem right now.

Sultan al-Jaber also spoke at Mondays event in the UAE capital. Mr Al-Jaber, head of the state-run Abu Dhabi Oil Company, is president of the upcoming Cop28 climate conference, a decision that has sparked anger and suspicion among activists and prominent figures including former US vice president Al Gore.

He called on oil and gas companies to be central to the solution to fighting the climate crisis, at the event.

That is our North Star. It is in fact our only destination. It is simply acknowledging and respecting the science. We must do this while also ensuring human prosperity by meeting the energy needs of the planets growing population, Mr al-Jaber said.

Abu Dhabi Oil Co. is planning to grow its operation to pump five million barrels a day.
(Bloomberg) -- TikTok will suspend its online-retail operation in Indonesia from Wednesday to comply with curbs on social commerce, a big setback for the Chinese-owned startup in one of its fastest-growing markets.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The company will stop facilitating e-commerce transactions on TikTok Shop Indonesia from 5 p.m. Jakarta time on Oct. 4, it said in a statement Tuesday. The company said that its priority is to remain compliant with laws and regulations and that it will coordinate with the Indonesian government for its next steps.

Indonesia last week announced sweeping regulations that will force ByteDance Ltd.s TikTok to split its shopping feature from the popular video-scrolling service in the country, an unprecedented separation that could stall TikToks e-commerce thrust just as it was gaining traction against Sea Ltd. and GoTo Group.

The rule  which bars social commerce companies from handling direct payments for online purchases  is part of newly tightened trade regulations aimed at ensuring local e-commerce services, such as GoTos Tokopedia, wont be squeezed out. Indonesia also seeks to keep its 64.2 million micro, small and medium enterprises that contribute 61% of its gross domestic product from getting hurt by social commerce companies.

We need to be careful with e-commerce, President Joko Widodo said at a government event on Tuesday. It can be very good if there are regulations but can turn bad if there arent any regulations.

Indonesia is the first and largest market for TikTok Shop, and online shopping has become the social media apps fastest-growing feature with a burgeoning fan base in the country. TikTok started the shopping feature in Indonesia in 2021 and its instant success has encouraged it to expand into online retailing in other markets, including the US.

Story continues

With the new rule, Indonesia is the first among countries in Southeast Asia to push back against TikTok. Navigating this conflict with Indonesia will be pivotal for the company as governments across the world assess how Southeast Asias largest nation moves to curb the social media giants burgeoning e-commerce presence, just months after the firm said it will invest billions of dollars into the region. TikTok is already facing possible bans and scrutiny in the likes of the US, Europe and India on national security concerns.

--With assistance from Zheping Huang.

(Updates with details on new ruling starting in fourth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
SARATOGA COUNTY, N.Y. -- The 9-year-old girl who disappeared in Moreau Lake State Park over the weekend, has been found safe and a suspect is in custody, New York State Police said Monday evening.

Fingerprints on a ransom note left at the girl's home led police to the suspect, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

"Literally drove up to the family's mailbox, assuming they were not home, 4:20 in the morning, opens the mailbox and inserts the ransom note," Hochul said at a late-night press conference. "The hit came at 2:30 in the afternoon. There had been a DWI in 1999 in the city of Saratoga. A fingerprint was found that matched what was found on the ransom note."

State police said they identified the suspect, 47-year-old Craig Nelson Ross Jr., as being in the area of the park around the time the girl went missing Saturday.

The girl was found "in good health" just after 6:30 p.m. Monday as police searched multiple residences where Ross Jr. was known to live.

After a 48-hour-long search, Charlotte Sena has been found. Extremely grateful to @nyspolice, @NYStateParks police, and all of our partners who worked tirelessly to locate Charlotte and ensure she could return home safely to her family.  Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) October 2, 2023

Neighbors in the area expressed great relief.

"Child abductions by strangers, if that is the case here, are normally not kidnap for ransom cases. That would be unusual," said John Miller, a law enforcement analyst.

"The fact that this little girl is with her family, their family is whole again tonight. Long road to recovery. The trauma that she experienced I'm sure is immense," said Callahan Walsh, from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Watch Gov. Hochul, state police give update on search

The girl and her family were camping in the park, located about 45 miles north of Albany, when she went for a bike ride with friends Saturday and vanished. She went for one more ride on her own and didn't return.

Her family began looking for her and found her abandoned bike. Her mother called police to report her missing and authorities began searching around the clock.

An Amber alert was issued Sunday morning as investigators believed there was a strong chance she was abducted.

Monday, the FBI joined the search. Crews used drones and bloodhounds to scour the 6,000-acre park.

Ross Jr. was still being questioned and charges were expected, Hochul said. The case "is still an active investigation," police said.

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Phoenix intends to appeal an order in a public nuisance lawsuit that requires the city to clear its largest homeless encampment of people by early November, according to court records.

The city, in a filing to the Maricopa County Superior Court judge overseeing the case, called "the removal of all tents and temporary shelter from the downtown area by November 4 ... a Herculean, and possibly unattainable task under any circumstances," but one that is "doubly untenable" because of a court order in a different legal proceeding that requires officials to take certain steps before disrupting homeless camps.

In a lawsuit filed last year, Brown v. City of Phoenix, neighboring businesses and residents claimed the camp has subjected them to violence and caused damage to their property. Because of the lawsuit, Phoenix has been clearing people block by block out of The Zone, as the camp is called. The clearing process began in May.

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A trial was held for the case in July, and on Sept. 20, Judge Scott Blaney ordered Phoenix to permanently clear the area in just over six weeks.

In a Sept. 26 filing to Blaney, Phoenix called his ruling "the legal equivalent of being caught between a rock and a hard place."

The city must also follow orders from an ongoing federal lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona on behalf of people who said they lost personal belongings in Phoenix's homeless camp cleanups.

One of the requirements of the federal case is that Phoenix cannot enforce camping and sleeping bans "against individuals who practically cannot obtain shelter as long as there are more unsheltered individuals in Pheonix than there are shelter beds available," according to the filing.

"Based on current housing options for the homeless," the city told Blaney, "it is simply not possible" to clear areas of The Zone and offer the people living there housing options if clearing operations occur more often than once every three weeks. Clearing more frequently would potentially overwhelm existing shelters and run afoul of the federal court orders, the city said.

Phoenix asked Blaney to put his Sept. 20 ruling on hold. The "area should be clear a mere few months" after Blaney's Nov. 4 deadline under Phoenix's current plan for clearing The Zone, the filing said.

Whether Blaney puts his order on hold pending Phoenix's appeal, Phoenix's lawyers said, the city "will continue its cleanup efforts as expeditiously as practicable given the strictures" of the federal court's orders.

Phoenix has cleared about nine blocks of The Zone so far. A 10th cleanup is scheduled for later this month.

The Human Services Campus, a collection of nonprofits that serve people experiencing homelessness, estimated in late September that roughly 500 people were still living in blocks near South 12th Avenue and West Madison Street, the epicenter of The Zone.

Phoenix officials declined to comment on the appeal. An attorney representing the people who brought the nuisance suit was not immediately available.

Helen Rummel covers housing insecurity and homelessness for The Arizona Republic. Reach her at hrummel@gannett.com.

Coverage of housing insecurity on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix to appeal judge order for 'The Zone' to be cleared by Nov. 4
A six-week long operation in the Des Moines metro and surrounding area led to more than 80 fugitives being arrested.

The U.S. Marshals of Southern Iowa Fugitive Task Force worked with law enforcement in "Operation Never Forget" to find people with outstanding local, state, and federal arrest warrants, according to a release.

Every person found had pending charges involving guns, drugs, assaults, sex offenses or other violent crimes. Four firearms were confiscated.

United States Marshal Ted Kamatchus said in a release that all those involved remain committed to protecting the community and working to prohibit violent crime, The success of Operation Never Forget is a testament to this combined commitment and to the spirit of cooperation amongst all law enforcement professionals in the Southern District of Iowa.

How did 'Operation Never Forget' work?

The six-week-long operation was divided into three phases: Investigation, enforcement and follow-up.

From Aug. 14 to Sept. 8, agencies picked out the arrest warrants they wanted to work on, learned the whereabouts of several fugitives and arrested about 40 people, according to the release.

From Sept. 11 to Sept. 15, the operation was in the enforcement stage. Three teams of law enforcement representing nine agencies worked out of the Polk County Sheriff's Office Headquarters to arrest 40 more people. Most were in the Des Moines area, the release said, but some were found farther away like Waterloo and Olathe, Kansas.

Investigators followed up on additional information from Sept. 18 to Sept. 22 and arrested two more people, according to the release

Polk County Sheriff Kevin Schneider said in a release that the operation was an example of the law enforcement capabilities in central Iowa, The Polk County Sheriffs Office understands the importance of teamwork and what law enforcement can accomplish when local, state, and federal agencies work together."

What agencies were involved?

There were nine local, state and federal agencies involved in the investigation including:

U.S. Marshals Service

Polk County Sheriff's Office

Iowa Department of Corrections Fugitive Team

Ames Police Department

Homeland Security

Des Moines Police Department

Ankeny Police Department

Drug Enforcement Administration

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Noelle Alviz-Gransee is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. Follow her on Twitter @NoelleHannika or email her at NAlvizGransee@registermedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: US Marshals, police arrest more than 80 Iowa fugitives during operation
Kosovo, the partially recognized Balkan country, that declared independence from Serbia in 2008, has warned that the presence of Serbian forces along their shared border may indicate that its neighbor is poised to launch an invasion , with a landgrab much like that visited upon Ukraine by Russia. The prospect of a new war breaking out in Europe may have diminished somewhat, however, after Serbia claimed to have responded to U.S. pressure over the weekend by withdrawing at least some of the troops that had been massing on the frontier.

September 30, 2023: Kosovo police officers and members of the NATO Peacekeeping Force in Kosovo (KFOR) conduct search, patrol, and control activities in the region after the violence in Banjska in the north of the country on September 24. Photo by Erkin Keci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The current tensions are the latest episode in Kosovos troubled recent history. When Yugoslavia disintegrated in the 1990s, the province of Kosovo sought independence but was met with a brutal crackdown by Serbia, targeting the ethnic Albanians that make up the vast majority of Kosovos population. This prompted NATO intervention, with 1999s Operation Allied Force , primarily an air campaign that forced Serbian troops out of the province. NATO peacekeepers remain in Kosovo, but animosity has remained between it and Serbia, which refuses to recognize its independence, as well as between Kosovos Serbian minority population and its Albanian-dominated government.

https://www.twitter.com/ItsTheEnforcer/status/1708251219360117042?s=20 https://www.twitter.com/pmillerinfo/status/1708086899712106999?s=20 https://www.twitter.com/dardanian01/status/1706826210649755662?s=20

The latest flashpoint came a week ago, when ethnic Serb gunmen equipped with armored vehicles stormed the village of Banjska in a Serb-majority region in Kosovo, barricading themselves in a Serbian Orthodox monastery. In response, Kosovan police sealed off an area around the monastery, leading to a siege and a gun battle that left one policeman and three gunmen dead.

Heavy weapons, vehicles, and ammunition are displayed, after they were seized following the day-long clashes with an armed Serb group in Banjska, Kosovo, on September 25, 2023. Photo by Erkin Keci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9inmZinBSg https://www.twitter.com/albinkurti/status/1705915322413256750?s=20 https://www.twitter.com/vulldotnet/status/1707028283257180521?s=20

That bloody incident reflects ongoing demands for autonomy from Kosovos Serbian minority, against the Kosovo governments policy to assert authority across all of the country. In April, for example, Kosovo Serbs in the north of the country boycotted local elections . Instead, ethnic Albanian mayors were elected, leading to violent clashes between armed Kosovo police and local Serbs. The following month, 30 NATO peacekeepers were left injured after unrest that pitted troops from the alliance and local police against Serbian protesters.

https://www.twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/1663726992318148609?s=20

Against this backdrop, the prospect of renewed fighting between Kosovo and Serbia has steadily escalated. The Kosovan government has blamed Serbia for fanning the flames of tensions in the country, including supporting the gunmen involved in the monastery standoff. Exactly how Serbia was involved in that incident remains murky, with official denials from Belgrade. Meanwhile, Milan Radoicic, a senior figure in Serb List, a Kosovo-Serb political party, has admitted that he was involved in organizing the armed group.

https://www.twitter.com/UnaHajdari/status/1706624778725892385?s=20 https://www.twitter.com/albinkurti/status/1708530372005273787?s=20

Serbia has said that the responsibility for the overall situation lies with Kosovan officials. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has also suggested that Kosovos unwillingness to give Serbs more autonomy in the north of the country has served to worsen the situation. A greater degree of autonomy is something that Kosovo is supposed to provide to the Serbian minority, according to an EU-brokered deal. At the same time, a recent round of EU-mediated talks between the two sides has broken down.

Clearly, however, Serbias recent military measures have raised alarm not only in Kosovo but among the international community, including the U.S. government, which recognizes Kosovo as an independent country  one of 99 out of 193 United Nations countries to do so .

A member of a Kosovo police special unit stands guard in an area around the Banjska Monastery in Banjska, north Kosovo, on September 27, 2023. Photo by STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images

The exact status of the deployment of Serbian forces on and around the border with Kosovo has been poorly documented so far, although Kosovan officials describe it as being the largest of its kind in years.

There has never been this kind of concentration of troops in recent years, Kosovar Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla-Schwarz told German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk today. The weaponry they have there, the tanks  it gives us a bad feeling because we dont know how the international community will respond.

Gervalla-Schwarz added that the deployment of Serbian troops is reminiscent of the build-up of Russian forces around Ukraines borders before the launch of the full-scale invasion of that country in February 2022. She also drew parallels between the rhetoric used by Serbian officials and by those in Russia, while saying that Serbias methods resembled Russian behavior toward Ukraine.

Thats why it is all the more important to take the necessary steps, she added.

https://www.twitter.com/gervallaschwarz/status/1708567772865630659?s=20

The Kosovar foreign minister called upon the European Union to take action against Belgrade such as freezing its candidacy status. Both Serbia and Kosovo have applied to join the European Union, but there is currently no timeline set for them to become members. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic argued last week that his forces would not cross the border into Kosovo because to do so would risk the chance of Serbia joining the EU.

Last Friday, there was another warning to Serbia from the U.S. government, stating that the Serbian military build-up along the Kosovo border was destabilizing the area. NATO also said it would authorize additional peacekeeping forces for Kosovo.

Turkish Army soldiers take security measures around Zubin Potok district in Northern Kosovo upon the request of NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR) on June 15, 2023. Photo by Erkin Keci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

In response to that message from the U.S. government, Serbias President Vucic pulled back at least some of his troops and armor over the weekend . At the same time, he claimed his forces on the Kosovo border have not been put on high alert, saying : We dont even have half the troops we had two or three months ago. The United States is yet to determine whether or not the Serbian military presence really has been reduced.

https://www.twitter.com/amanpour/status/1708901836734730568?s=20 https://www.twitter.com/admirim/status/1708923482589786398?s=20

With so much attention on Ukraine and many Western resources plowed into that conflict, its clear that another war in Europe would be even more problematic as a result. For Russia, traditionally a close ally of Serbia, such a distraction could also be welcome.

Within Europe, the Balkan region has long had an unhappy reputation as being a potential tinderbox, with major conflicts here as recently as two decades ago. In that context, its not surprising that the current situation, with Serbian forces apparently still massed along the border with Kosovo, suggests another round of violence could be about to happen.

Contact the author: thomas@thedrive.com
Three Springfield school board members voted against revising a policy Tuesday to include "gender identity and sexual orientation" to the list of reasons the district cannot discriminate against students when it comes to providing school meals.

The change was required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for districts that participate in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program.

Currently, 54% of students live at or near the poverty line and are eligible to receive milk and school meals for little or no money under that program.

The 3-3 vote means policy AC  which prohibits illegal discrimination, harassment and retaliation  will remain the way it has been since its last revision in August 2021.

It was not immediately clear if rejecting the required changes means the district is out of compliance with the USDA and at risk of losing the more than $7 million in Title I funds it receives annually, an amount generated based on its free and reduced-price meal rate.

Kelly Byrne, Steve Makoski and Maryam Mohammadkhani voted against the update. Judy Brunner, Scott Crise and Shurita Thomas-Tate voted for the update. Board president Danielle Kincaid was in Nepal.

The USDA is the first governmental agency to require that the "gender identity and sexual orientation" language be added to non-discrimination polices. Several board members said it is unlikely to be the last.

A year ago, Republican attorney generals from more than 20 states  including Missouri  filed a lawsuit to try and block the USDA and administration of President Joe Biden from requiring that language.

"Once we start down this path, what is going to be next in spelling this out in other laws that we may be faced with and other policies," Makoski said.

Three months ago, Thomas-Tate called for the board to issue a statement of support for LGBTQ students and staff  a largely symbolic gesture that advocates had requested in meetings for nearly a year  but the motion failed to get a second.

Judy Brunner

Brunner acknowledged Tuesday that adding five words required by the USDA to the anti-discrimination policy was an "emotionally charged topic."

"The guidelines have been given to us, as I understand it, and we're not Congress here," Brunner said. "We don't put these regulations in but we've been given a directive and a recommendation of what our policy needs to say. I don't know how we fight that. We are a local school board, we follow the guidelines we've been given."

She said patrons on both sides have reached out but no one has been in favor of compromising the millions of dollars in federal funds for the district based on its free and reduced-price lunch rate.

"I haven't talked to anybody  nor do I believe  that it would be appropriate to put any of our Title I funding whether it's for milk or food or positions at risk over this," she said. "It is not worth it to me."

Board vice president Crise, who ran the meeting in Kincaid's absence, said he was not in favor of risking the loss or spending taxpayer money to go through a compliance audit by the USDA.

Byrne, Makoski and Mohammadkhani said they do not believe any Title I funds are actually in danger. Byrne noted the board can quickly update the policy in the future "if they call us on it."

"I don't think ... that the federal government is going to cut our money off for free and reduced lunches because I feel that that is a coercion, it is a way to manipulate us," Mohammadkhani said.

She suggested adding "we're going to follow the law" to the policy in question and others so the board will not be required to update them periodically to reflect changes to corresponding laws.

"I don't know of any school district ever to have monies not be given to them because they weren't in compliance with their federal policies so that never happens. Can you imagine the federal government saying we're not going to let you have money for free and reduced lunch students because you didn't put these words in and you chose to say 'we're going to follow the law,'" she said.

At Mohammadkhani's request, she and Crise spoke with an attorney from the Missouri School Boards' Association, which tracks changes in state and federal laws and helps districts craft policies to stay in compliance.

"We're not going to withhold lunches from anybody, we all know that. My concern and why I asked for this is what's coming next  how far is this going to go?" she said.

The policy prohibited discrimination on the "basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity in any program or activity conducted or funded by the USDA."

Mohammadkhani said the district could argue it is in compliance with the USDA because the word "sex" is in the policy. "We all know that 'sex' includes gender identity and sexual orientation as defined currently."

More: Thomas-Tate asks Springfield school board to issue statement of support for trans students

Byrne said the list is far from thorough. "I personally don't see why we need to just add this one more thing when we're not being exhaustive anyways."

Despite opposing the policy change, he said: "Under no circumstances would I be OK with us discriminating against anybody."

Shurita Thomas-Tate

Thomas-Tate said it is the responsibility of the board to review and update policy. She said the policies outline how the district is complying with state and federal laws.

She said the laws can be "dense" and policies make the expectations clear and add accountability and transparency for the public.

"Policies aren't just for the board," she said. "The policies are also for our constituents. It provides an easy access way for them to understand what the legal ramifications are in our policies."

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: SPS board refuses to add required SOGI language to school lunch policy
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Attorney Generals Office held its annual Domestic Violence Awareness Month news conference and awards ceremony.

We must continue to bring attention to the epidemic of domestic violence, said Susan Laib, the director of the Victim Advocacy and Services Unit.

LOCAL NEWS: Oklahomans can now access help via sign language on 988 lifeline

Domestic violence is sadly a problem that plagues the state of Oklahoma. A study by World Population Review found, for 2023, 49.1 percent of Oklahoma women and 40.7 percent of Oklahoma men either have or are currently experiencing domestic abuse, which is higher than any other state.

The study also noted that Oklahoma ranks third in the U.S. for the number of women killed by men in single-victim, single-offender homicides.

That is too much. October is our call to action, said Attorney General Gentner Drummond. We must hold the abuser accountable, and we must empower and protect the victim.

LOCAL NEWS: Suspect finally identified in decades old rape case

Multiple heroes who go above and beyond to help victims of domestic violence were awarded at the ceremony. The honors included the Prosecutor Award, the Law Enforcement Award, the Victim Service Advocate Award and Victim Service Volunteer Award.

It takes many hands and many voices. Many in this room today. Im grateful for all of you to stand alongside us today, said Laib. Together, we can make a difference.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, call the Oklahoma Safeline at 1-800-522-HELP (7233).

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
LAFAYETTE, Ind.  The concerns over Indianas Economic Development Corp.s Lebanon LEAP project drew out hundreds of residents who filled up the hall of Church Alive to voice their concerns on Thursday night.

The church had invited John Cochran, a representative from IEDC, and Jack Wittman, vice president of eastern water for INTERA  the company that recently conducted the field testing on the aquifer in Lafayette  to discuss INTERAs findings and answer questions from locals.

Cochran addressed IEDCs reasoning for examining the aquifer near the Granville Bridge in Lafayette and expressed the importance of this project for the State of Indiana.

In prior discussions about the LEAP district, the IEDC explained that the state had purchased land near the Wabash River aquifer with the hopes of extracting water and piping it to Lebanon to help support the development of an economic district in Boone County.

According to earlier reports, the project was expected to pipe millions of gallons of water a day to Lebanon, between 10 million and 100 million gallons.

John Cochran, a representative from Indianas Economic Development Corp., and Jack Wittman, vice president of eastern water for INTERA Inc., listen to residents explain their concerns about the company's initial testing of the aquifer in Lafayette, on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, at Church Alive, in Lafayette.

But apparently, according to Cochran, that appears to be the states short-term plan regarding the aquifer. The long-term plan seems to be a project to supply central Indiana with water in the future.

In 2019, a study from the Indiana Finance Authority [sic] that all project a future water shortage in the central Indiana region, that is not sustainable for economic growth beyond the next 50 years or so, Cochran said.

Thats sort of the long-term situation of water in central Indiana. In the long term, the states going to look for ways to bring water into central Indiana from somewhere.

The state has gotten a lot of interest from companies, large companies who are looking to make large investments in the area, in the LEAP district. Right now, the IEDC is doing its due diligence in the area were looking for potential water sources, sustainable water sources for the region and locally and examine what could be available for economic development.

How much water could be pumped from the aquifer?

The primary reason why the IEDC began evaluating the water-tapping potential of the region was due to the countys proximity to the Teays Bedrock Valley aquifer system.

The state wanted to evaluate how much water it could sustainably withdraw from the aquifer that is located below Tippecanoe County, as well as determine at what rate it could pump water from the aquifer while maintaining reasonable water table levels.

Scientists also wanted to determine the location that would be the most efficient area to pump, how much water could be pumped from the aquifer and from the river, and what the immediate effects of pumping would do to the Wabash River.

John Cochran, a representative from Indianas Economic Development Corp., and Jack Wittman, vice president of eastern water for INTERA Inc., listen to residents explain their concerns about the company's initial testing of the aquifer in Lafayette, on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, at Church Alive, in Lafayette.

The focus I see up in Tippecanoe County at this point with the water is really two-fold," Cochran said. "A. To determine how much water the aquifer can sustainably yield; and two, do a preliminary work to determine how to move the water to maximize its beneficial use for the region."

So if we have a huge end user that decides to come into LEAP, we want to look at what it would look like to move water potentially from the aquifer here to that district.

Before handing the mic to Wittman, Cochran noted that the states goal is not to benefit one area at the expense of the other. Thats not what we do.

This statement was answered with laughter from the residents in the audience at Thursdays meeting.

INTERA's findings

Wittman, the vice president of eastern water for INTERA, spoke to the audience about the companys findings from their testing of the Lafayette aquifer.

Central Indiana is not facing a shortage. Its facing kind of a limit in the ways it they can get water, because the rivers in that part of the state are smaller than they are in other parts of the state. And theyre using really creative methods in central Indiana to maintain the supply of water, Wittman said.

Jack Wittman, vice president of eastern water for INTERA Inc., explains some of the findings from the company's initial testing of the aquifer in Lafayette, on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, at Church Alive, in Lafayette.

Theyre using storage, which is historically been what Central Indiana has done. They have reservoirs that they built as time goes on, and that has been effective for that part of the state. And they are attempting to do that too with these deep mines sort of quarry and converting those into reservoirs.

INTERA conducted three days of testing at the site near the Granville Bridge in hopes of gaining a deeper understanding of the properties of the aquifer.

Scientists set up two testing wells and 17 monitoring wells across a 50-acre parcel of land to observe the immediate effect the extraction of the water would have on the surface area surrounding the aquifer or the river levels.

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Over the course of three days, scientists pumped water out of the aquifer at a rate of 1,420 gallons per minute from two testing wells to obtain a variety of data. The water used for testing was pumped into the river.

Scientists found that just for one well, the lowest amount of water that they were able to extract was more than 15 million gallons of water a day.

However, they did determine that the maximum yield scientists could withdraw from both wells was around 45 million gallons of water a day.

This embedded content is not available in your region.

Although scientists determined the maximum yield of water that could be withdrawn from the area, they ultimately dont believe water from this aquifer could sustainably be extracted at that rate.

We arent thinking that this is a place that you can pump two million gallons, we might want to put multiple wells along the river or evaluate how many wells, John said it earlier, how much cant you pump from this piece of land, Wittman said.

When evaluating the geological data that they extracted from these tests, INTERA was able to determine that the aquifer materials were uninterrupted and were not segmented into an upper or lower aquifer by clay.

The scientists discovered that the aquifer was primarily made of sand and gravel and that the Wabash Alluvial Aquifer sits on top of the Teays Bedrock Valley Aquifer.

The purpose of testing was to determine how easily water from the aquifer could travel through the sand and gravel and how it could affect the observed water level changes.

The data that INTERA gathered from their field testing allowed them to create a model to showcase and determine how pumping would alter the water level changes in the area.

After everything was said and done, one aspect of the aquifer that was not discussed was the rate in which it takes for the aquifer to recharge.

Aquifer recharge or aquifer storage and recovery is this idea of the processes it takes for an aquifer to be replenished from other sources of surrounding groundwater.

Affects of the testing on the water

This lack of information was something highlighted in the questions asked by residents who lined up after Wittmans presentation.

Beyond the notion of questions regarding IEDCs intention with the countys resources and aspects of Wittmans presentation, several residents spoke up on how the testing of the wells affected their water supply.

One individual noted that when IEDC was conducting their tests, his water developed a sulfur-like smell, while another individuals neighbor had their water filter fill up with sand and gravel due to the testing.

Jack Wittman, vice president of eastern water for INTERA Inc., explains some of the findings from the company's initial testing of the aquifer in Lafayette, on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, at Church Alive, in Lafayette.

Much of this information Cochran and Wittman didnt know had occurred.

One point that was brought up during the Q&A portion of the event that stumped both Cochran and Wittman was this concern of setting a precedent of tapping for water in aquifers that are adjacent to rivers.

The resident noted that although extracting water from the aquifer in Lafayette could potentially be sustainable if future industries discover that this method of extracting water could be a cost-effective method to obtain water, what regulations or laws does Indiana have put in place to stop industries from building along the Wabash River to extract water.

At some point, if 100 million gallons of water are being extracted from a multitude of sources along the river, it will eventually begin to negatively affect the river, the resident told Cochran and Wittman.

When asked how they would stop this from happening or what would happen if this situation occurred, they said more testing was needed.

Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: IEDC shares with locals its reasoning for testing Lafayette's aquifer
A deal to sell AppHarvests Somerset greenhouse to a Netherlands-based indoor produce grower is back on track, attorneys said in a bankruptcy hearing Monday.

According to a memo filed in Texas federal bankruptcy court, Bosch Growers, a family owned Dutch company, will acquire the 30-acre berry and cucumber-growing greenhouse for $44 million, reaffirming a previous deal that was already approved by Judge David R. Jones, of the federal bankruptcy court for the Southern District of Texas.

The deal was modified to offer Bosch more protection and offer more chances for the recovery of funds for AppHarvests estate, said Anthony Grossi, an attorney representing AppHarvest.

The revised agreement is better for (Bosch), Grossi said. It provides greater certainty to close, improves economics, including a breakup fee and puts Bosch in greater operational control during the interim period.

Mondays hearing came days after attorneys told Jones that a new deal  to sell the greenhouse to Greater Nevada Credit Union, a Nevada-based bank  was in the works. Jones had already approved the sale of the greenhouse to Bosch and news of a new deal drew the judges ire at a separate hearing last Thursday.

Last week we had a mess, Jones told the court. Today, we have a process forward.

The remaining funds AppHarvest had to keep the Somerset facility running expired at the end of September. According to the memo filed in court Sunday night, GNCU, the Nevada bank, will pay to keep the farm running until the sale closes. During that time, the involved parties will seek USDA approval of Boschs takeover of the facility and then the company will eventually take over operations.

The question of USDA approval  a requirement of the sale process  was a sticking point raised when the deal selling the greenhouse to GNCU was considered. Now GNCU is helping to push through USDA approval, said Frances Smith, an attorney representing GNCU.

Receiving USDA approval is a significant undertaking, Smith said. Should Bosch be denied by the USDA, then the Nevada bank will pay Bosch a $2.5 million break up fee.

At the beginning of the hearing, Grossi said GNCU had previously delayed getting USDA approval of the sale and Josh Wolfshohl, an attorney representing Bosch, said the well was poisoned on the USDA approval.

Smith denied that GNCU had delayed getting the approval and denied poisoning the well. The bank was prepared to assist moving forward and what happened previously was water under the bridge.

GNCU helped finance the building of the greenhouse and under the new deal the bank will be Boschs lender. Smith said they were working to repair the relationship.

Bosch was not aware of the possible deal to sell the greenhouse to GNCU until the hearing Thursday, said Wolfshohl, who was hired by Bosch shortly after that hearing. The company did not feel the process was fair until Jones got involved, Wolfshohl said.

Were thankful that you raised the issues you did, Wolfshohl told Jones. Its concerning to me that they potentially wouldnt have been raised if your honor hadnt raised them.

Jones offered an apology to Bosch on behalf of everyone.

This is not the way the process should work, Jones said. Certainly not a process that Im charged with overseeing.

Tijmen van den Bosch, the companys president, told the Herald-Leader in an email theyre ultimately happy with the outcome.

As I said, the most important part is securing ongoing operations, jobs and berries, van den Bosch said. With this deal, we can operate in the coming days as usual and have plenty of time to secure a good transition. An outcome we are happy with.

An update on the sale process will occur at a December 7 status conference, court records show.
The US Air Force is buying a new missile as it makes plans to blast through enemy air defenses

A US F-16 armed with AGM-88s, third from left and third from right, on a mission near Iraq in March 2003. US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Cherie A. Thurlby

Russia and Ukraine are using their air defenses to deny each other control of the air.

As a result, their ground forces are fighting without the benefit of air superiority.

The US wants to avoid that, and it's working on a new missile to take down enemy air defenses.

The Russian and Ukrainian air forces have played a relatively minor role in the war in Ukraine. Both sides have tended to keep their aircraft over friendly territory rather than risk tangling with sophisticated enemy air defenses, such as Ukraine's US-made Patriot and Russia's S-400.

That's an ominous sign for the US military, which has relied on the flexibility and lethality of its airpower since World War II. If aircraft can't weaken the enemy, then ground troops have to do all the work, and that means more casualties.

"I think most folks thought that this war would be over in two weeks, maybe a month, and here we are 18 months later, and it's still going on," Gen. James Hecker, the commander of US Air Forces in Europe, said at the Air and Space Forces Association conference in September.

The reason for that duration was that "neither side has been able to gain air superiority," Hecker added. "This is a fight that we don't want to fight."

A Russian Su-35 downed by Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv region in April 2022. Press service of the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff/Handout via REUTERS

One way to avoid a Ukraine-like aerial stalemate is to smash the enemy's air defenses, especially their radars. That's why the US Air Force is developing a stand-off antiradar missile. It just awarded a $705 million contract to Northrop Grumman for the Stand-in Attack Weapon, or SiAW. The missile is scheduled to be deployed around 2026.

Essentially, the SiAW seems to be the latest iteration of antiradar missiles that have been around since the 1960s and that work by homing in on beams from radar transmitters.

Early models, such as the US's AGM-45 Shrike, were only moderately effective in the Vietnam and Arab-Israeli wars, where the missile could lose lock-on if the radar was turned off. But the later AGM-88 High-Speed Anti-Radiation supersonic missile, known as HARM, was devastating in Wild Weasel missions against Iraqi air defenses during Operation Desert Storm.

The US has given HARMs to Ukraine and helped the Ukrainians modify their Russian-designed MiG-29 fighters to work with the US-made missile.

A Ukrainian MiG-29 with an AGM-88 in a video published in August 2022. Ukrainian air force

The US military uses the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile, or AARGM, which is an upgraded HARM. An extended-range AARGM-ER is in development.

One key question will be SiAW's range. When aircraft stalk antiaircraft weapons, prudence dictates they stay as far away as possible. While the HARM has a range of about 30 miles, depending on launch altitude, the AARGM reportedly has a range of 60 miles to 80 miles, and the AARGM-ER of more than 100 miles. An S-400 antiaircraft missile has a range of up to roughly 250 miles.

Details on SiAW are sparse, though Northrop Grumman describes it as a "tail controlled missile for increased maneuverability and survivability." But the new missile is likely to have a longer range and higher speed than the various HARM models, which have a speed of about Mach 2.

"The SiAW will have multiple seeker sensors and use GPS in addition to other navigational systems," Air and Space Forces Magazine reported.

The magazine also noted that "despite the weapon's longer range, the term 'stand-in' indicates that it operates within an enemy's defended airspace," which suggests a shorter range than stand-off missiles such as the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range cruise missile, with a reach of about 600 miles.

An illustration of Northrop Grumman's Stand-in Attack Weapon. Northrop Grumman

What's also notable is SiAW is meant to be more than an air-defense killer. The Air Force wants a munition that can destroy enemy missile launchers  including those of antiaircraft, cruise, and antiship missiles  as well as GPS jamming stations and antisatellite installations. This suggests SiAW will have a sophisticated guidance system that is either on-board or data-linked to other sensors, or both.

Also significant is that SiAW is expressly designed to fit inside the F-35's internal bomb bay rather than mounted externally. This will limit the size of the missile.

The ultimate prize here is countering anti-access/aerial-denial, or A2/AD, networks. If Russian and Chinese air defenses  or perhaps those of Iran and North Korea  can use long-range air-defense radars and missiles effectively, then US aircraft will face a choice between staying out of range  and thus not performing their missions  and going in at the risk of prohibitive losses.

If successful, SiAW may spare American commanders that hard choice.

"I think a lot of the other services assume that they're going to have air superiority like they've had for the last 30 years," Hecker said at the conference. "Well, that was an uncontested environment, and this is not an uncontested environment. So we're going to make sure we're ready for that fight and that we can gain air superiority through counter-A2/AD."

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
Lord Leigh has suggested that properties in the top council tax band should be revalued - Justin Tallis/Eyevine

A Conservative peer and party treasurer has suggested the Government should raise taxes on the 200,000 most expensive homes in England.

Lord Leigh, a senior party treasurer, said mansions, penthouses and other luxury properties should be subject to higher council taxes.

Speaking at a meeting on tax at the Conservative Partys annual conference in Manchester, Lord Leigh said the Government should introduce new council tax bands and charge them higher rates.

The peer, who is a chartered accountant and co-founded Cavendish Corporate Finance, said the Government should revalue properties in Band H, of which there are 200,000 in England and about 5,600 in Wales.

We should revalue those and add new higher bands so we have H, I, J, K. And then all sorts of revenue would come in from those properties.

There are currently eight council tax bands, A-H, with those in Band H paying the highest rates. The amounts paid depend on the local authority in which a property is sited.

Britains most expensive council tax is 4,843 a year for Band H properties in Rutland, followed by Nottingham (4,823), Lewes in East Sussex (4,776) and Dorset (4,776).

Lord Leighs suggestion that properties in the top band should be revalued stems from the fact that council tax bandings are still based on the value of properties in 1991.

As a result, levies do not always reflect the way houses in some areas and some types of property have surged in value since then, especially in the south-east.

A property must have been worth 320,001 or more in 1991 to qualify for Band H tax. Example rates provided by Lambeth Council show a house in the borough would have to be worth 3.5m to qualify for the highest rate of council tax.

However, disparities across the country mean that Band H can now contain homes worth up to the 250m sought for The Holme, in Regents Park, which is thought to be the UKs most expensive home.

Considered to be the UKs most expensive home, The Holme, in Regents Park, faces a council tax levy of only 3,849 - VV Shots/iStock Editorial

Since the Holme is in Westminster, which has one of the UKs lowest council tax rates, its owners will only have to pay 3,849  far less than a Band H home in Rutland.

Story continues

The Institute of Fiscal Studies has previously said the council tax system is out of date and arbitrary, and highly regressive.

Lord Leigh, a chartered accountant and member of the Lords finance bill sub-committee, has previously called for changes in council tax banding in speeches in parliament.

His suggestion has echoes of the mansion tax proposed by former Labour leader Ed Miliband in 2014.

Then, Mr Miliband proposed a supertax on homes valued at more than 3m. The idea sparked a backlash, including from prominent Labour backbenchers, and was dropped after the party lost the 2015 election.

Lord Leighs suggestions are likely to prove controversial within his own party. Rishi Sunak has been under intense pressure to cut taxes before the next election and has said he has a long term ambition to lower the burden on families.

The Conservative Party said in its 2019 manifesto it was proud that Conservative councils have led the way in helping keep council taxes low. The Conservative Party was approached for comment.

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Abortion rights activist Amy Nachtrab, of Delaware, Ohio, protests in support of abortion rights near the Ohio Supreme Court shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

While Ohio's ban on most abortions was in effect last year, fewer than 2,000 abortions were performed in the state and only 20 occurred because the patient obtained an exception for medical emergencies, a new Ohio Department of Health report shows.

The statistic offers a glimpse into the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and an Ohio law banning most abortions for several months. But the Ohio Department of Health data come more than a year after both events happened.

In 2022, 18,488 abortions occurred in Ohio, a 15.2% drop from 2021, according to Ohio Department of Health data released Friday. Ohio performed 844 fewer abortions after the first trimester in 2022 than it did the previous year, a decrease of 41.7%.

Ohio's abortion rate in 2022  7.8 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 years old  was the lowest it has been since at least 1995, according to state health department data.

The impact of Ohio's abortion ban

Abortion is currently legal in Ohio through 21 weeks and six days gestation. But for 82 days in 2022, Ohio law banned doctors from performing abortions after embryonic cardiac activity was detected.

Last year, Ohioans saw the devastating consequences of one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country that has no exceptions for rape or incest, said Dr. Marcela Azevedo, spokesperson for Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights

That law dramatically reduced the number of abortions performed in the state, requiring those who still wanted the procedure to travel elsewhere  if they had the means to do so.

Ohio Right to Life Executive Director Peter Range said in a statement that the decrease in abortions is directly tied to the implementation of "Ohios heartbeat law." "It is clear pro-life laws do in fact, save lives," Range said.

Ohio doctors performed 1,967 abortions between June 24, 2022, the day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Ohio's ban on most abortions took effect, and Sept. 14, 2022, the day a Hamilton County judge temporarily blocked the law, according to the state health department's report. During that time, 20 patients obtained abortions after cardiac activity was detected under an exception for medical emergencies.

Those patients' conditions included premature rupture of the amniotic membrane around the fetus, cardiac disease, infection and inevitable abortion, a category of miscarriage.

Meanwhile, there was a 17% increase in the number of out-of-state patients who obtained abortions in Ohio in 2022, likely a result of several neighboring states banning the procedure entirely.

Who obtained abortions in Ohio in 2022?

Who obtained abortions in Ohio remained largely unchanged from previous years. When they obtained them was the biggest difference as the state's abortion ban limited access to abortions earlier and earlier.

Black women accounted for 48.4% of abortions in 2022 compared to 43.1% performed on white patients.

Patients in their 20s had 58.1% of abortions in 2022 and those in their 30s accounted for 30.7% of abortions. About 77.6% of patients had never been married, 9.5% were married and 5.7% were either separated or divorced.

Nearly 63% of those who had an abortion in Ohio had at least one child already, according to state health department data.

What is the state of abortion access in Ohio?

Abortion is currently legal in Ohio to a point, but only because of the court order putting Ohio's ban on most abortions on hold, for now.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to reinstate Ohio's abortion restrictions, called "the heartbeat bill" by supporters. The court heard arguments from each side last week and could make a decision as soon as later this year.

Ohioans will vote on Nov. 7 on a proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

Proponents say November's Issue 1 is needed to protect access to the procedure.

If Issue 1 fails, anti-abortion politicians will have the power to impose this dangerous abortion ban again that puts womens lives at risk," Azevedo said. "Decisions around pregnancy, including abortion, birth control and miscarriage care, are personal and private and should be left up to women and their families."

Opponents say the measure is too broad and far-reaching. Range said Issue 1 would "skyrocket the number of abortions of Ohio."

"We urge all people of good will to vote no on Issue 1 this November to protect children from abortion and ensure parents still have rights when it comes to the lives of their children," he said.

Read the full report here.

Ohio abortion report 2022 by Jessie Balmert on Scribd

This embedded content is not available in your region.

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

Get more political analysis by listening to the Ohio Politics Explained podcast

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: New data show impact of Ohio's ban on most abortions last year
The Biden administration sent a letter to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last month saying Arkansas had underfunded the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff by more than $330 million over the last 30 years.

The Education Department looked at how much Arkansas had spent per student at both the flagship University of Arkansas and the historically Black University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff from 1987 to 2020.

The University of Arkansas was funded by the 1862 Morrill Act, which gave land to states they could sell to establish colleges that taught agriculture and the mechanical arts. These schools are called land-grant universities.

In 1890, a second Morrill Act gave states a choice: either allow Black students to attend their land-grant schools or accept federal money to start a separate Black land-grant school. Southern states chose to create separate schools. University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff was the result of the 1890 law.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks while delivering the Republican response to President Biden's State of the Union address in February

More: What do states owe land-grant universities?

States that created separate schools for Black students were required to provide them with the same level of funding as the white schools. Almost no states met this requirement.

Land-grant universities also receive grants from the Agriculture Department for research and extension services. States are supposed to match those federal grants one-to-one. States regularly fail to provide Black land-grant schools with those matching funds.

The Education Department calculated the difference in fudning using data the schools themselves submitted to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Here is a table of how much money Arkansas provided to University Arkansas in Fayetteville and University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff annually between 1987 and 2020. (If the table does not load automatically below, it can be found at this link.)

Todd A. Price is a regional reporter for the USA Today Network. He can be reached at taprice@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why Biden says University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff shortchanged
Jasper Kenzo Sundeen's reporting for the Yakima Herald-Republic is possible with support from Report for America and community members through the Yakima Valley Community Fund. For information on republishing, email news@yakimaherald.com.
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Letters reflect the opinion of the writer. The Yakima Herald-Republic cannot verify the accuracy of all statements made in letters.

Writers are limited to one published letter per calendar month.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday the United States has become overly dependent on China for critical supply chains, particularly in clean energy products and needs to broaden out sources of supply.

Yellen, speaking at a Fortune CEO event in Washington, repeated her longstanding view that the United States does not want to decouple economically from China.

She said that she has not been "a strong believer" in industrial policy, but that the United States had stood by for too long while other countries built up semiconductor industries with massive subsidies.

The U.S. would face national security concerns without a robust semiconductor sector of its own, she said, adding that last year's Chips and Science Act will help reverse that trend.

"We're fooling ourselves if we think that abandoning, for all practical purposes, semiconductor manufacturing, is a smart strategy for the United States," Yellen said.

(Reporting by David Lawder and Kanishka Singh in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Deepa Babington)
NEW YORK  The presiding judge at Donald Trumps Manhattan fraud trial on Tuesday imposed a limited gag order on the former president after learning hed targeted his clerk online.

In the post presumably published from the courthouse after proceedings in state Attorney General Tish James case against Trump were underway, Trump shared a photo of Judge Arthur Engorons clerk, Allison Greenfield, with New York Sen. Chuck Schumer. The caption referred to her as Schumers girlfriend and said she was running the case against me. The post also included a link to Greenfields Instagram account.

After proceedings broke for lunch at 1 p.m., Judge Engoron unexpectedly summoned Trump and his lawyers back into the courtroom, but the media was not permitted re-entry. Soon after, the post had been deleted.

Engoron did not address Trump directly, but his comments came after Trumps campaign team circulated an email ripping the judge as a far-left Democrat.

When Engoron got back on the bench at 3 p.m., almost an hour late, the judge  himself a regular target of Trumps diatribes  said he had gone too far this time.

This morning, one of the defendants posted to a social media account a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff, Engoron said.

Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable and inappropriate, and I will not tolerate them, the judge said, as Trump sat a few feet away from him, glowering at the defense table.

Failure to abide by this order will result in very serious sanctions, Engoron warned.

Engoron revealed the post came after he had asked defense lawyers off the record on Monday to tone down the online rhetoric targeting people involved in the case.

Trumps attacks on the various officials involved in his cases have had real-world consequences. Following his April indictment in the hush money case, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Justice Juan Merchan were inundated with death threats and racist missives after Trump targeted them and their relatives on his social media site and in public remarks.

Story continues

Court officials also dealt with white powder scares and bogus bomb threats after Trump called on his followers to protest his arrest.

Trumps attack against Greenfield wasnt his first of the day targeting the officials. At around 8 a.m., he fired off a lengthy diatribe lambasting AG James, whom he refers to by a nickname widely considered racist and regularly accuses of being racist. James is Black.

Earlier Tuesday, Trumps campaign team circulated an email ripping the judge as a far-left Democrat.

The former president, fresh on the heels of being found liable for fraud by Engoron and ordered stripped of his business certificates, still stands to lose $250 million in the AGs case now on trial. James office also seeks to permanently bar him from heading a New York business again.

_______

(New York Daily News reporters Joe Wilkinson and Harry Parker contributed.)

_____
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Atentie la hotii de bijuterii

Miercuri, 1 noiembrie, politistii din Garbou au identificat si cercetat o femeie de 35 de ani, din Popteleac, si doi tineri, de 18 si 21 de ani, ambii din localitatea salajeana Popteleac, toti fiind banuiti de comiterea infractiunii de furt. Politistii o banuiesc pe femeia de 35 de ani ca, in cursul lunii februarie a acestuia, ar fi patruns [citeste mai departe]
Value-focused investors are always on the hunt for stocks that are priced below their intrinsic value. One such stock that merits attention is Trupanion Inc (NASDAQ:TRUP). The stock, which is currently priced at 26.11, recorded a loss of 6.25% in a day and a 3-month increase of 25.37%. The stock's fair valuation is $130.86, as indicated by its GF Value.

Understanding the GF Value

The GF Value represents the current intrinsic value of a stock derived from our exclusive method. The GF Value Line on our summary page gives an overview of the fair value that the stock should be traded at. It is calculated based on three factors: historical multiples (PE Ratio, PS Ratio, PB Ratio and Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow) that the stock has traded at, GuruFocus adjustment factor based on the company's past returns and growth, and future estimates of the business performance.

We believe the GF Value Line is the fair value that the stock should be traded at. The stock price will most likely fluctuate around the GF Value Line. If the stock price is significantly above the GF Value Line, it is overvalued and its future return is likely to be poor. On the other hand, if it is significantly below the GF Value Line, its future return will likely be higher.

Trupanion (TRUP): A Smart Investment or a Value Trap? An In-Depth Exploration

Digging Deeper: Trupanion's Financial Health

However, investors need to consider a more in-depth analysis before making an investment decision. Despite its seemingly attractive valuation, certain risk factors associated with Trupanion should not be ignored. These risks are primarily reflected through its low Piotroski F-score of 2. These indicators suggest that Trupanion, despite its apparent undervaluation, might be a potential value trap. This complexity underlines the importance of thorough due diligence in investment decision-making.

Decoding the Piotroski F-Score

The Piotroski F-score, created by accounting professor Joseph Piotroski, is a tool used to assess the strength of a company's financial health. The score is based on nine criteria that fall into three categories: profitability, leverage/liquidity/ source of funds, and operating efficiency. The overall score ranges from 0 to 9, with higher scores indicating healthier financials. Trupanion's current Piotroski F-Score, however, falls in the lower end of this spectrum, indicating potential red flags for investors.

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Trupanion: A Closer Look

Trupanion Inc is a specialty insurance products provider in the United States. Its core business is the sale of insurance products tailor-made for pets, especially cats and dogs. It operates in two business segments: The subscription business segment generates revenue primarily from subscription fees related to the Company's direct-to-consumer products and Other business segment is comprised of revenue from other product offerings that generally have a business-to-business relationship and a different margin profile than our subscription business segment, including revenue from writing policies on behalf of third parties and revenue from other products and software solutions.

Trupanion (TRUP): A Smart Investment or a Value Trap? An In-Depth Exploration

Analysis of Trupanion's Profitability

Firstly, let's address profitability. One significant component of the F-Score is a positive return on assets (ROA). A closer look at Trupanion's ROA reveals a worrying trend of negative returns. This indicates the company's inability to generate profit from its assets - a fundamental concern for any investor.

Let's delve deeper into Trupanion's financial health by examining the decline in its return on assets (ROA) over the past three years. The data indicates 2021: -6.44; 2022: -6.23; 2023: -8.92, when expressed in percentages. Such a decrease is concerning, as the Piotroski F-Score penalizes companies with lower current ROA compared to the previous period. This ongoing decline highlights another potential risk associated with investing in Trupanion.

Leverage, Liquidity and Source of Funds: A Worrying Trend

Assessing the aspect of leverage, liquidity, and sources of funds, Trupanion demonstrates an alarming rise in its debt-to-total assets ratio over the past three years. The provided data shows 2021: 0; 2022: 0.09; 2023: 0.14, expressed as percentages. A higher debt ratio suggests that Trupanion is increasingly financing its assets through debt, thereby escalating its financial risk. The Piotroski F-Score views this as a negative indicator, further cautioning investors about Trupanion.

Trupanion (TRUP): A Smart Investment or a Value Trap? An In-Depth Exploration

Operating Efficiency: A Darker Picture

Examining the data provided: 2021: 40.14; 2022: 40.74; 2023: 41.38, it becomes evident that Trupanion has seen an increase in its Diluted Average Shares Outstanding over the past three years. This trend signals that the company has issued more shares. While issuing additional shares can provide immediate capital for the business, it can also lead to the dilution of existing shares' value. This dilution occurs because the earnings of the company now have to be divided among a larger pool of shares, which could decrease Earnings Per Share (EPS). Consequently, if the company's earnings don't grow at a pace that matches or exceeds this share increase, it could lead to a reduction in the value perceived by existing shareholders, potentially impacting their investment returns. Hence, while additional share issuance may provide necessary capital, it is important to monitor its impact on shareholder value carefully.

In terms of operational efficiency, another key indicator, Trupanion has unfortunately reported a declining trend in asset turnover over the past three years, as evidenced by the data: 2021: 1.38; 2022: 1.37; 2023: 1.48 (expressed in percentages). Asset turnover measures how effectively a company uses its assets to generate sales, and a decrease in this ratio can indicate a drop in efficiency. This could be due to various factors, such as underutilization of assets or a decline in the market demand for the company's products or services. Consequently, this downward trend in asset turnover implies that Trupanion may need to revisit its operational strategies to improve the utilization of its assets and boost its sales volume.

Conclusion: Trupanion as a Potential Value Trap

While the Piotroski F-score is not the only lens through which to view a potential investment, it is a robust and comprehensive tool for evaluating a company's financial health. Unfortunately for Trupanion, its current score suggests potential troubles. With a declining ROA, an increasing debt ratio, and a decrease in operational efficiency, Trupanion presents several concerning signals for potential investors. Despite its seemingly attractive valuation, these indicators suggest that Trupanion might be a potential value trap, underlining the importance of thorough due diligence in investment decision-making.

GuruFocus Premium members can find stocks with high Piotroski F-score using the following Screener: Piotroski F-score screener .

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Hungarian-born biochemist Katalin Kariko and American physician-scientist Drew Weissman have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the secretary of the Nobel Assembly announced in Stockholm.

The two scientists have been awarded for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against Covid-19.



Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam, a member of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, said Kariko and Weissmans work had been crucial in saving lives in the early stages of the pandemic.



The impressive flexibility and speed with which mRNA vaccines can be developed pave the way for using the new platform also for vaccines against other infectious diseases, the Nobel Assembly said.



In the future, the technology may also be used to deliver therapeutic proteins and treat some cancer types.



The Nobel Prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish krona (EUR 952,000).



The award ceremony is traditionally held on Dec. 10, the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel.



President Katalin Novak congratulated Kariko in a post on Facebook, noting that Kariko is the first Hungarian woman to receive the prize. Our nation is enriched by and proud of a Nobel Prize winner whose research may have saved millions of lives.



First reactions - Telephone interview with Katalin Kariko, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023





Innovation Minister, MTA Pay Tribute to Kariko



Janos Csak, the culture and innovation minister, paid tribute to Katalin Karikos perseverance, determination, tirelessness and professionalism.



He told MTI in Tokyo that the soon-to-be Nobel laureate had always a defined goal, which she stuck to and pursued with conviction, even when difficulties arose and she found herself without funding.



He said that even today, some countries hived off basic research from applied research, adding that the development of mRNA-based vaccines started as basic research but swiftly turned into applied research owing to the coronavirus epidemic. When doing basic research, Csak said, it was necessary to think ahead to real human needs.



The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) said in a statement that Karikos pioneering work opened a new era in the treatment and prevention of many diseases.



While carrying out research at the Biological Research Centre in Szeged in the 1980s, she soon became committed to studying messenger mRNA, which helps cells to make proteins from the information stored in DNA, the statement said. From the vast blueprint of our cells, its as if a page is copied and sent to the factory, the ribosome, to make what the blueprint describes, it added.



She soon had a hunch this mechanism could be exploited to give instructions to each cell to make various useful molecules, using our own body as a pharmaceutical factory, the MTA said.



Speaking to journalists in Szeged, where she earned her doctorate in 1983, Kariko said what mattered most was to find joy in work. Kariko said her message to young students was that it was important for them to maintain their physical and mental health and to handle stress.



Kariko, a research professor at Szeged University (SZTE), said her advice to young people was to become better and better in their field through enjoyment in their work.



She cited Hungarian-born scientist Hans Selye, one of the worlds most influential stress researchers, as saying that focus should be put on what can be changed.



Answering a question, Kariko recalled that her mother had listened to the Nobel Prize announcements each year, hoping that her daughters name would be read out, even though there were times when she was just busy in the lab without a job or a research group.



Kariko was born in Szolnok, in eastern Hungary, and graduated from the University of Szeged with a degree in biology. She obtained a PhD at the Szeged Biological Research Centre in 1983 before continuing her career as a biochemist in the United States.



She began working with Drew Weissman in 1998, and the two filed their patent for the use of nucleoside-modified mRNA in 2005.



From 2006 to 2013, Kariko was CEO of RNARx, a company she co-founded with Weissman. In 2013, she went to work for BioNTech with her Japanese research partner Hiromi Muramatsu.



She soon became the companys vice president, going on to oversee the development of BioNTech and Pfizers mRNA-based coronavirus vaccine in 2020.



Kariko has received several Hungarian and international awards, including the Szechenyi Prize, the Ignaz Semmelweis Prize, the Reichstein Medal and the Grande Medaille of the French Academy of Sciences.



This year, she and Weissman were awarded the 2022 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.



MTI Photo: Zoltan Balogh
1. Whats been happening at work and at home since your first Xpat Interview?

Click here to read his first interview



Its been an action packed three years, dealing with Brexit, the pandemic and now the fallout of war in Europe. This has been combined with getting to know this wonderful country. Ive hardly had a chance to catch breath but its been a great experience.



2. Whats the best party youve been to while in Hungary, and why?

Its a close call between celebrating Her late Majestys Platinum jubilee last year and His Majestys coronation this year. Both were great, once in a lifetime experiences and I was so privileged to be able to share them with my Hungarian friends.



3. What was the most interesting travel trip you have ever taken?

In my career Ive been fortunate enough to travel to so many places and explore so many countries. Two experiences stand out. The first my trip to Iraq in 2005, when as Head of the Iraq Policy Unit I undertook a fact-finding mission. The second was to Afghanistan in 2011 when I was in charge of this area in the Foreign Office. Both were extraordinary experiences at challenging times for both countries.



4. If you were given a wish that could come true, what would you ask for?

To do it all over again.



5. Whats the last book you read, and movie you watched?

I have just finished a book by Martin Rady The Middle Kingdoms, a history of this fascinating part of the world. The last film I watched was The Third Man, a classic Ive seen many times but never ceases to fascinate me with its depiction of post-war Vienna.



6. If you could trade places with any other person for a week, real or fictional, with whom would it be?

Winston Churchill. An exceptional man who led an exceptional life.



7. Who do you admire the most, and why?

From history the usual figures crop up: Churchill, Abraham Lincoln. From more modern times I would choose Vlodymyr Zelenskyy, who offers a profile in courage and leadership.



8. What do you like best and least about living in Hungary?

The variety of the cultural offer, the wine and the people. I really cant think of any real downsides of being here.



9. What has made the biggest impact on your life so far, and why?

My wife Vicki.



10. If your life had a theme song, what would it be?

I should be so lucky by Kylie Minogue!
The access to affordable housing is a big issue in District 24, in Nebraska and throughout the United States. This issue, along with access to childcare, is among the list of those impacting our workforce. The rural workforce housing program has been very helpful in our communities in District 24, providing more options for affordable housing that workers and their families can purchase or rent. However, the rural workforce housing program is the only affordable housing program available in many counties in Nebraska and, as a result, there are a lot of competing applications for this programs limited funds.

Similarly, there are U.S. Housing and Urban Development vouchers available for very low income families to rent or purchase housing. These are also limited. For many working Nebraska families who rent and are struggling to pay their bills there have been few options available for assistance until recently. In July, Governor Pillen announced that he would accept the remaining funds available to Nebraska for emergency rental and utility assistance. These funds were approved by Congress as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which passed in 2021 intended to assist with the economic fallout from the COVID pandemic.

The Nebraska Investment Finance Authority (NIFA), who will distribute the funds to tenants and/or their landlords, announced this past week specific information on how families who are struggling to pay their bills can apply for rental or utility payment assistance. The specifics about this program can be found on NIFAs website at: https://www.nebraskarenthelp.org/

To qualify, families must be legal residents of the United States, live in a county other than Lancaster or Douglas counties, and have specific income requirements. Payments are paid directly to the applicant and do not need to be paid back. Landlords with tenants who are behind on rent or utility payments can also begin the application process in order to help out their tenants. However, their tenants will also need to complete an application. In landlord initiated applications, the funds are distributed directly to the landlord.

Beside rental and utility bill payment assistance, this program can also be used to help pay for internet expenses, capped at $100 per month.

I am thankful that Governor Pillen has opted Nebraska into this federal program. It will provide housing stability to many struggling families who are trying to pay their bills and remain in the workforce, supporting the companies they work for and our states economy.

If I can be of assistance to you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact my office. My staff members  Matt and Katie  are available to assist you with your needs and they pass along messages, so if youd like a call back, please let them know! Email: jhughes@leg.ne.gov; Phone: 402-471-2756; Facebook: Senator Jana Hughes
New Delhi: The government has asked Canada to repatriate its 40 officials stationed in the country amid the rift between the two countries over New Delhi's alleged role in the killing of Pro-Khalistan terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada's British Columbia.India has made it clear that it is open to examining any information that Canada might share regarding its accusations of India's role in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that India does not close its doors to any inquiry, but it needs some evidence to start one.

This statement came after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed last week that India was behind the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a charge that India has strongly denied as 'absurd' and 'motivated'. Jaishankar, who met with US Secretary of State Anonty Blinken and NSA Jake Sullivan in Washington DC on Friday, said that the Canadian allegations were not raised during the meeting.

He said, "My understanding is that the word used by the Canadians is allegation...I have already answered it...We've always said that look if there is information let us know. I want to make one thing very clear. It's not that our doors are shut to looking at something". He added, "If there is a requirement for us to look at something, we are open to looking at it. But, I then expect somewhere, some pointer, something for me to look at it."

Canada has not provided any public proof to back up its claim about the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. In response to Trudeau's allegations, India has suspended its visa services in Canada and issued an advisory for its citizens and travellers to Canada to be careful of the increasing anti-India activities and hate crimes in the country. Jaishankar explained that the suspension of visa services was due to the continuous violence and threats against the Indian diplomats and missions in Canada.
India has experienced remarkable economic and digital growth over the past decade, with significant developments in both sectors. According to Macrotrends, the country's GDP has surged from $1.82 billion in 2012 to a substantial $3.3 billion in 2022, nearly doubling in value. This economic expansion has occurred in tandem with the rapid proliferation of digital technologies.

In the realm of digital adoption, India has seen remarkable progress as well. As of 2023, the nation boasts a substantial online presence, with 692 million internet users and 467 million active social media users, according to DataReportal. This parallel growth of the economy and digital penetration has established digital networking as the standard practice in India.

Digital business cards have emerged as powerful tools for networking in both digital and in-person contexts. They enable individuals to share their contact information seamlessly, facilitating the creation of lasting connections and business relationships.

For those seeking the best digital business card solutions in India, here is a compilation of the top five platforms tailored to Indian networking needs. These solutions have been selected to assist Indian professionals and businesses in effectively managing their networking efforts in the digital age.

What to look for in a digital business card platform?

Before delving into the list of recommended digital business card solutions for Indians, it's essential to understand the key factors to consider when seeking the right platform. Here are the crucial elements to keep in mind.

Ease of use: Look for a platform that enables you to effortlessly create digital business cards without requiring extensive technical knowledge. The process should be intuitive, quick, and free from steep learning curves.

Look for a platform that enables you to effortlessly create digital business cards without requiring extensive technical knowledge. The process should be intuitive, quick, and free from steep learning curves. Cost: Choose a digital business card solution that demands minimal initial investment. A cost-effective solution allows you to achieve a high return on investment while effectively managing your networking needs.

Choose a digital business card solution that demands minimal initial investment. A cost-effective solution allows you to achieve a high return on investment while effectively managing your networking needs. Features: Ensure that the chosen digital business card platform offers a comprehensive set of features to create and manage digital business cards. This should include customization options, sharing capabilities, and efficient card management tools.

Ensure that the chosen digital business card platform offers a comprehensive set of features to create and manage digital business cards. This should include customization options, sharing capabilities, and efficient card management tools. Customer support: Opt for a platform that provides top-notch customer support. Access to responsive customer assistance ensures prompt resolution of any issues or questions related to digital business cards

Opt for a platform that provides top-notch customer support. Access to responsive customer assistance ensures prompt resolution of any issues or questions related to digital business cards Security: Prioritise security by selecting a digital business card provider that implements robust measures to safeguard your data. This is crucial to protect your personal and professional information.

With these essential considerations in mind, let's proceed to explore the top five digital business card solutions tailored for Indian users, taking into account these factors.

Top 5 digital business cards in India

Indeed, numerous digital business card solutions are available, each with its unique advantages and drawbacks. However, the following five providers offer comprehensive digital business card packages designed to enhance your networking endeavours:

1. QRCodeChimp Digital Business Card

Since we're talking about networking in India, there's no better way to share your contact details than the QRCodeChimp, a digital business card platform rated 4.9/5 on G2, it is the most cost effective and a leading professional virtual card provider for startups, SMEs, and enterprises in India.

The platform supports all the essential information fields, including contact details, social media links, web URLs, photos, videos, and documents. You can also add CTA buttons to increase actionability and engagement.

You can white-label your digital business cards, generate them in bulk, organise them in folders, and manage them with access control features. The platform also provides comprehensive tracking and analytics features to help you measure your networking efforts.

You can share QRCodeChimp digital business cards through QR codes and NFC. Additionally, you can save them to your Apple Wallet and share them on the go.

All of this is topped up by ease of use and top-notch security.

Overall, you get the complete package of ease of use, affordability, features, customization, and security.

Key features:

Easiest to create and use with 10 free cards for life

20+ templates with unparalleled customization

Logo, white-labelling, and other branding features

Bulk creation, editing, and management

Folder organisation and access control management

Enterprise-grade security

Advanced Analytics

Pricing: 10 free cards for life, for more $6.99 per month for up to 50 digital business cards.

2. HiHello

HiHello is a digital business card platform best suited for small teams. It allows you to create and manage your digital business cards from a mobile app available for both iOS and Android.

With HiHello, you can create custom digital business cards. Just choose a template, add the information, save your card, and start sharing it. You get all the important features like white-labeling, folder management, and access controls.

However, the customization features are limited, and the UI seems outdated.

Key features:

Easy to create and use

Bulk create digital business cards

White label your digital business cards

Organise digital business cards in folders

Pricing: Starting at $6 per month; free plan available

3. Popl

Popl is a contact management tool to create digital business cards and manage your connections. You can create a sleek and simple digital business card to share your contact details.

Popl's key benefit is its support for various social media platforms. If you want to share a lot of social media profiles on your digital business card, Popl can be a good pick. Apart from that, Popl offers all the basic features needed in a digital business card platform.

On the downside, Popl has limited customization options, and the digital business cards may look primitive and outdated.

Key features:

Create and manage digital business cards

Buy NFC cards and other accessories

Contact management features

Support for various social media platforms

Pricing: Starting at $6.49 per month for 3 digital business cards; free plan available

4. Beaconstac Digital Business Card

Beaconstac's digital business card solution helps you create and manage digital business cards. It allows you to easily create and manage digital business cards from an intuitive dashboard.

Beaconstac provides three digital business card templates, significantly lower than QRCodeChimp's 20+. However, it gets the job done if customization isn't your priority.

With Beaconstac, you get all the essential digital business card features. You can share your important information, including social media and web links.

Additionally, you can white-label your digital business cards. On the downside, Beaconstac isn't the most secure platform out there. However, it does the job for individuals and small teams.

Beaconstac is also slightly more expensive than other platforms, which is a huge drawback.

Key features:

Easy to use and customise

Create digital business cards in bulk

Folders and sub accounts for management

White labelling and branding

Pricing: Starting at $6 per card per month

5. Blinq

Finally, we have Blinq, a digital contact-sharing platform that allows you to create digital business cards.

Blinq allows you to add all the essential information to your digital business cards. You also get basic customization options, like selecting the colour palette and adding your brand's logo.

Blinq also sells NFC business cards and other accessories to share your digital business cards.

Key features:

Pricing: Starting at $2.99 per month for 5 cards

Final thoughts

Digital business cards are indeed experiencing increased popularity in India, driven by the growth of digital and in-person networking opportunities. Given the multitude of digital business card providers available, selecting the most suitable one can be a daunting task.

The choice of the best digital business card platform ultimately depends on your individual networking needs and preferences.

While QRCodeChimp is the top choice for many users, it's important to note that other providers like HiHello, Popl, Beaconstac, and Blinq can also be excellent options, especially if you have specific networking requirements or preferences. These platforms may offer unique features or customization options that align with your individual needs.

To make an informed decision, consider your networking goals, budget, and any specific features or functionalities that are particularly important to you. By evaluating these factors, you can select the digital business card provider that best suits your unique networking needs in the evolving landscape of digital and in-person networking in India.

(This article is part of IndiaDotCom Pvt Ltds Consumer Connect Initiative, a paid publication programme. IDPL claims no editorial involvement and assumes no responsibility, liability or claims for any errors or omissions in the content of the article.)
(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.s stock has lost more value than any other in Asia since mid-June as investors brace for prolonged weakness in the chip sector. The rout may not be over.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Since its June high, Taiwan-based TSMC shares have fallen 11%, erasing $77 billion from its market cap due to worries about the macro environment and soft global consumer electronics demand. A continued rise in the volatility skew in recent months as traders bid up bearish contracts is indicating a further drop in TSMCs stock.

Shares of the worlds largest contract chipmaker jumped 60% between October last year and June thanks to the global frenzy over everything related to artificial intelligence. But traders have turned more wary about just how much that will contribute to the bottom line, especially without a pickup in the smartphone and personal-computer business. Even high-end AI chip orders have slowed at a faster pace than expected.

For JPMorgan Chase & Co., all this means a slower recovery for TSMC going into 2024, given the softness in most end markets like PCs, smartphone and non-AI services, analysts including Gokul Hariharan wrote in a recent note. With a murky macro outlook, we expect 1H 24 orders to remain sluggish.

Meanwhile, analysts are also turning wary about capital spending, given that TSMC in June warned levels may fall to the bottom end of its $32 to $36 billion guidance for the year. Bloomberg-compiled estimates average closer to $30 billion. While capex cuts are commonly seen as a positive and prudent cost management tool, analysts say the recent reductions signal longer-term bearishness about chip demand and concerns about a protracted recovery.

Story continues

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recently slashed its estimate for TSMCs capital spending for next year by more than 20% to $25 billion over concerns the chipmaker may delay its planned overseas capacity expansion. That would be its smallest amount of spending since the beginning of the pandemic.

The 12-month earnings estimate for TSMC has also been revised down by about 8% from a high in October last year, according to Bloomberg data, compared to little change in a broader gauge of Asia Pacific stocks.

Part of the issue at hand is the earlier pent-up optimism over TSMCs cutting-edge 3-nanometer chip. The product, which was put into mass production in December, was seen as a technology breakthrough that would revolutionize everything from Apple Inc.s iPhones to Nvidia Corp.s AI generators.

But that promise has encountered some setbacks due to weak consumer demand. Earlier this month, TSMC reportedly told major suppliers it had to delay deliveries. Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and Qualcomm Inc. may even delay their orders for the chips into 2025, according to JPMorgan.

Given the lack of demand recovering back to pre-Covid levels amid macro weakness, we do expect the recovery may take longer, Citigroup Inc. analysts including Laura Chen wrote in a recent note.

There are still a number of positives for TSMC, however. Its leadership position in the foundry  or chip manufacturing  market, with a stable share of 59% in the second quarter, continues to make the company attractive. Thats compared with an 11% share for its biggest rival Samsung Electronics Co., according to Counterpoint Technology Market Research.

TSMC is also highly rated by analysts, with Bloomberg data showing no sell ratings and a 12-month average price target thats 24% above its last close. As a key foundry for the likes of Nvidia and AMD, any upside surprise in its AI-related business in third-quarter earnings next month may also spur renewed buying.

Still, until theres a broader economic recovery, traders may largely stay on the sidelines. Investors may become more cautious on longer-than-expected inventory adjustments at TSMCs customers, according to Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd. analyst Kevin Wang. We now expect such adjustment to extend into the first quarter next year, or even the second quarter due to soft end-demand, he added.

Tech Chart of the Day

The Nasdaq 100 Index is up 36% this year through Mondays close, compared with a fall of 0.3% for the Russell 2000 Index in the same period. This outperformance results in a ratio of 8.4, topping the level hit in the dot-com era  indicating that tech stocks are still favored despite high interest rates. Meanwhile, the Russell 2000 Index fell for a third consecutive session on Tuesday touching a four-month low.

Top Tech Stories

Microsoft Corp. was willing to hide its search engines Bing brand on Apple Inc. devices in order to secure an agreement with the iPhone maker and unseat Google, Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella testified Monday.

Social media platform X is partnering with Paris Hilton and her digital ad agency 11:11 Media as it seeks new revenue and to redefine the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Tuesdays plunge in Boohoo Group Plc shares is a vivid demonstration of how European online retail stocks are struggling just as a recovery in their brick-and-mortar rivals goes from strength to strength.

Ever since his arrest, Sam Bankman-Fried has bucked advice from lawyers to keep quiet. But through press interviews, blog posts, leaks and social media, he has challenged the allegation that he is solely responsible for the worlds biggest crypto meltdown.

Several Taiwanese technology companies are helping Huawei Technologies Co. build infrastructure for an under-the-radar network of chip plants across southern China, an unusual collaboration that risks inflaming sentiment on a democratic island grappling with Beijings growing belligerence.

BYD Co. came within a whisker of toppling Tesla Inc. as the worlds biggest seller of electric vehicles last quarter, as the Chinese automaker pushed into new markets and factory downtime led to Teslas first quarterly delivery decline in more than a year.

Earnings Due Tuesday

No major earnings expected

--With assistance from Subrat Patnaik, Michael Msika, David Watkins and Kurt Schussler.

(Updates to add move in the Tech Chart of the Day section.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Khalistani supporters around the world have been dismayed by India's strict action against Khalistani terrorists and supporters. In the case of the murder of Khalistani terrorist Nijjar, India has taught a good lesson to Canada. That is why people with Khalistani ideology from across the world are now venting their anger on the Indian High Commissioners and Consulate Offices. In today's DNA, Sourabh Raaj Jain analysed India's strong action against Canada.

India is in no mood to spare anyone over the Khalistan row. The Indian government gave many shocks not only to the Khalistani supporters but also to the Canadian government in this matter. Canada, which boasted of being a powerful country, realized the power of India for the first time. India first sent back Canada's senior ambassador, then stopped giving Indian visas to Canadian citizens, and then issued an advisory to its citizens to be cautious in view of the Khalistani threat.

Now, India has asked Canada to recall its 41 ambassadors. It is believed that after the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, this is another strong action by India. India has given 10 October i.e. 1 week time to the 41 ambassadors of Canada to leave the country. Not only this, if these diplomats don't leave India by the deadline, the diplomatic immunity given to them will be stopped. Sixty-two Canadian ambassadors work in India at present. After October 10, only 21 Canadian ambassadors will remain in India.

India has, so far, had the upper hand in diplomacy with Canada on sending back ambassadors. In the case of the murder of Khalistani terrorist Nijjar, Canada was the first to accuse the Indian Ambassador and send him to India. In response, India also sent back the Canadian ambassador. Now, India took two steps forward and gave a big blow to Canada. The Indian Foreign Ministry had asked to equalize the number of ambassadors of both countries. Under the rules of the Vienna Convention, the number of ambassadors in both countries should be equal.
MUMBAI: With 41 deaths, in barely two days, reported from two government hospitals in Maharashtra's Nanded and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar districts, a furious opposition on Tuesday termed it "murders" and demanded criminal action against those responsible. Facing the opposition outcry, the Eknath Shinde government sent ministers Girish Mahajan and Hasan Mushrif to Nanded to assess the situation and a panel has been set up to probe the 31 deaths recorded in barely 36 hours at the Dr. Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College & Hospital there.

Another embarrassment cropped up for the ruling alliance on Tuesday with reports of at least 10 more deaths including two infants from the Government Hospital in Ghati, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (ex-Aurangabad), triggering a fresh Opposition onslaught. Chief Minister Shinde, Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, and Health Minister Tanaji Sawant came under severe fire from the Congress Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar, state chief Nana Patole, Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, Working President Supriya Sule, state chief Jayant Patil, Shiv Sena-UBT's Aditya Thackeray, Sanjay Raut, Sushma Andhare, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray and spokesperson Sandeep Deshpande, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi President Prakash Ambedkar and other parties/leaders.

Top Congress leaders from the centre including party President Mallikarjun Kharge, MP Rahul Gandhi, and General Secretary Priyanka Vadra also reacted strongly to the incidents in Maharashtra. Patole said that "the government has not learnt lessons from the 18 deaths in a single night at the state-run Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Thane in mid-August".

"Theres an outrage among the people it's evident that the Shinde-Fadnavis-Ajit Pawar government is totally indifferent and thick-skinned and all the more troubling that these deaths occurred due to lack of medicines and other essentials," he said. Instead of spending on these much-needed medicines and requirements, "the government has money for self-glorifying events, advertisements and buying political leaders", and the police should register "murder cases" against all those responsible, he demanded.

Sule also labelled the deaths of so many patients as "state murders" and demanded that Health Minister Tanaji Sawant must be made to resign, and compensation for the kin of the victims. Taking serious cognisance, Shinde assured that "stringent action will be taken against all those guilty after the probe" into the Nanded hospital deaths.

"On preliminary enquiry, it is found that there was no shortage of medicines, doctors or other staff, yet such a tragedy occurred. We shall investigate the matter thoroughly and take further action," a grim Shinde told media persons. As Ministers Mushrif and Mahajan visited the Nanded hospital this evening, a large number of NCP-SP demonstrated outside the venue and demanded the sacking/resignation of the Health Minister.

Other leaders spoke on how the public health system is riddled with corruption, idling or non-functional equipment, erratic supply of medicines, inadequate medical and para-medical staff, and other problems, making them "death traps". "Some officials demanded 40 percent commissions on deals, the government failed to procure medicines on time and funds of Rs 600 crore for 2022 lapsed. In the CMs home town (Thane) though so many deaths took place (August), there is no progress on the probe panel set up till now" said Patole.
New Delhi: Popular television actor and former Bigg Boss personality Jay Bhanushali recently took to Instagram and dropped a video from Rakhi Sawant's press conference, that gained popularity among the viewers. This video featured Jay Bhanushali offering his reactions to a press conference that was attended by Rakhi Sawant and Faizan Ansari. The 'Kayamath' actor dropped a humorous caption with the video that added to its intrigue.

Faizan Ansari Reacts To Jay Bhanushali's Rift

However, Faizan Ansari, one of the central figures in the video, responded to Jay Bhanushali's actions with a message of caution. During a media interaction, Faizan expressed his dissatisfaction with Jay's handling of the clip. He elaborated on the context of the video, which featured himself and Rakhi Sawant from a press conference.

In the video, Faizan Ansari is seen asking viewers to not lend their support to Adil Khan Durrani, Rakhi Sawant's former spouse. Nevertheless, the situation took an unexpected comedic turn as Faizan broke into laughter and playfully simulated the act of shedding tears.

Jay Bhanushali shared the clip from Rakhi Sawant's press conference on his Instagram account and captioned it, "Bhai mein toh haar Gaya loved Rakhis reaction even she was shocked."

Faizan Ansari addressed the issue further by commenting on Jay Bhanushali's stature within the industry. Pinkvilla quoted Faizan as saying, "See, Jay Bhanushali is not that big of a name. He does anchoring, but even in anchoring, he couldn't reach the level of Maniesh Paul. So, Maniesh Paul is a well-known name in the anchoring field, he hasn't even reached that point, and he doesn't have any recognition in Bollywood."
New Delhi: Over 30.75 lakh audit reports, including about 29.5 lakh Tax Audit Reports have been filed for AY 2023-24 on the e-filing portal till the end of the due date on 30th September 2023 with respect to filing of Tax Audit Reports (TARs) and other audit reports in Form No. 29B, 29C, 10CCB, etc, ensuring compliances in time, the Ministry of Finance has said.

"To facilitate the taxpayers, extensive outreach programmes were carried out. Around 55.4 lakh outreaches were done through e-mails, SMSs, social media, along with information messages on Income Tax portal to create awareness among the taxpayers to file the Tax Audit Reports and other audit forms within the due date. Various user awareness videos were uploaded on the Income Tax portal to provide guidance. Such concerted efforts have been helpful to the taxpayers and tax professionals in filing the audit reports within the due date," said an official release by Ministry of Finance.

The e-filing portal successfully handled the traffic, providing a seamless experience to the taxpayers and tax professionals for filing the audit reports. This smooth filing experience has been appreciated by professionals on various platforms including social media, it added.

"The e-filing Helpdesk team has handled approximately 2.36 lakh queries from the taxpayers in the month of September, 2023 supporting the taxpayers and tax professionals proactively during the filing period, helping them resolve any complexity involved. The support from the helpdesk was provided through inbound calls, outbound calls, live chats, Webex and co-browsing sessions. The Helpdesk team also supported resolution of queries received on the Twitter handle of the Department through Online Response Management (ORM), by proactively reaching out to the taxpayers/ stakeholders, providing assistance to them on different issues on a near real-time basis. Various webinars related to filing of Audit forms were conducted to guide the Tax professionals," the release said.
OTTAWA: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said that his country was not "looking to escalate the situation with India," adding that Ottawa wants to remain on the ground in New Delhi to help Canadians, Reuters reported. "Canada is not looking to escalate the situation with India, will continue to engage responsibly and constructively with New Delhi. We want to be on the ground in India to help the Canadian families there," Reuters quoted Trudeau as saying.

Trudeau had said last week that Canada is still committed to building closer ties with India, despite credible allegations of the Indian governments involvement" in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Canada-based National Post reported. India has rejected the claims as "absurd" and "motivated".

Pointing to the increasing influence of India worldwide, Trudeau said that it is "extremely important" that Canada and its allies continue to engage with India. India is a growing economic power and important geopolitical player. And as we presented with our Indo-Pacific strategy, just last year, were very serious about building closer ties with India, he had told reporters.

At the same time, obviously, as a rule of law country, we need to emphasize that India needs to work with Canada to ensure that we get the full facts of this matter, National Post quoted Trudeau as saying. Trudeau's remarks have come amid a diplomatic row between India and Canada which started after the Canadian PM levelled allegations.

Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India, was killed outside a gurdwara in Canada's Surrey on June 18. India has also expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a reciprocal move to Canada expelling a senior Indian diplomat. During a debate in the Canadian Parliament, Trudeau claimed Canada's national security officials had reasons to believe that "agents of the Indian government" carried out the killing of Nijjar. India outrightly rejected the claims.

Last week, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the Canadian attitude towards terrorists, extremist people who openly advocate violence is very permissive. "This has been an issue of great friction for many years with Canada. But in the last few years, it has come back very much into play because of what we consider to be a very permissive Canadian attitude towards terrorists, extremist people who openly advocate violence. And they have been given operating space in Canada because of the compulsions of Canadian politics."

Speaking on the India-Canada row in Washington, Jaishankar stated that the Indian diplomats are unsafe going to the embassy in the country because of the situation there. "...For us, it has certainly been a country where, organized crime from India, mixed with trafficking in people, mixed with secessionism, violence, terrorism-- it's a very toxic combination of issues and people, who have found operating space there."

"Today, I'm actually in a situation where my diplomats are unsafe going to the embassy, or to the consulate in Canada. They are publicly intimidated. And that has actually compelled me to temporarily suspend even visa operations in Canada," he added. Jaishankar said that he also spoke with the US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and US State Secretary Antony Blinken about Canada.

"The Canadian PM made some allegations initially privately, and then publicly. And our response to him, both in private and public-- what he was alleging was not consistent with our policy. And that if he had, if his government had anything relevant and specific they would like us to look into, we were open to looking at it. Now, that's where that conversation is at this point of time," Jaishankar said.

Amid strained ties with Canada, India also issued an advisory for its citizens and those who are travelling to Canada to exercise utmost caution in view of growing anti-India activities and politically-condoned hate crimes and criminal violence" in the country.
A newly-proposed regulation in India could take action against pilots who use perfume, a media report said. The office of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which oversees the countrys aviation industry, recently proposed an update to its bylaws regarding alcohol consumption, CNN reported.

There is already reference to things other than alcoholic drinks that could cause a positive breath test, namely mouthwash, in the guidelines. However, a new section specifically mentions perfume, the report said.

Also read: IndiGo Passenger Tries To Open Emergency Exit Door On Bengaluru-Bound Flight, Arrested

It reads: No crew member shall consume any drug/formulation or use any substance such as mouthwash/tooth gel/perfume or any such product which has alcoholic content. This may result into positive breath analyser test.

The text continues: Any crew member who is undergoing such medication shall consult the company doctor before undertaking flying assignment. While perfumes can contain trace amounts of alcohol, its unclear if wearing perfume on ones body can trigger a false positive breath test, CNN reported.

The official air safety requirements for the DGCA were ratified in August 2015. The proposed addition is up for public comment through October 5. Pilot drunkenness has occasionally been an issue in the aviation industry.

In 2018, Katsutoshi Jitsukawa, a pilot for Japan Airlines, was sentenced to 10 months in prison after a breath test taken shortly after takeoff showed that his blood alcohol level was nine times the legal limit.

And in the US, a Delta pilot named Gabriel Lyle Schroeder was escorted off a fully-boarded plane pre-takeoff when he was suspected of being under the influence of alcohol, CNN reported.
New Delhi: RSVP is all set to host a grand trailer launch event for the highly anticipated movie 'Tejas', starring Bollywood Superstar Kangana Ranaut. The event is scheduled to take place on the auspicious occasion of Air Force Day, October 8th, 2023, adding an extra layer of significance to the film's theme and narrative. After treating audiences with a supersonic teaser, the makers of Tejas is looking forward for a grand trailer launch. Recently a source close to the production house gave an insight on trailer release day and the location for the same.

Talking about the same, the source reveals "We've been in extensive discussions regarding the grand trailer launch scheduled for Air Force Day. Securing the required permissions has been a priority and a lot of discusion are happening around the same, especially because the makers are keen on unveiling the trailer at the iconic India Gate," shared an insider close to the production".

Watch the teaser here:

The anticipation for 'Tejas' is high since the recent release of its teaser, which sent waves of excitement and patriotism rippling through the audience. The teaser offers a tantalizing glimpse into the film's gripping storyline and showcases Kangana Ranaut in a brand-new avatar, leaving fans eagerly awaiting more.

The choice of Air Force Day for the trailer launch is a poignant one, as it aligns perfectly with the film's theme of valor, patriotism, and the indomitable spirit of our armed forces. The event is expected to be a tribute to the real-life heroes of the Indian Air Force, capturing the essence of the film and its dedication to honoring their sacrifices.

Produced by RSVP, Tejas stars Kangana Ranaut in the titular Role.

Written and Directed By Sarvesh Mewara and Produced By Ronnie Screwvala, the film is scheduled to release in Theatres on October 27th , 2023.
New Delhi: Akshay Kumar, who will be seen portraying the role of unsung hero Jaswant Gill in the highly anticipated film 'Mission Raniganj: The Great Bharat Rescue,' recently addressed the students of IIT Dhanbad in a virtual interaction. The actor shared his experiences and insights on bringing the legendary real-life hero to the silver screen.

Akshay's message to the youth comes ahead of the release of 'Mission Raniganj,' which promises to narrate the heroic tale of the coal mine accident that shook the nation in November 1989 and the relentless efforts of the rescue team led by Jaswant Singh Gill.

The virtual conference took place at the esteemed Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, where Jaswant Singh Gill graduated. During the interaction, Akshay engaged with the students and discussed the life and contributions of the late Jaswant Singh Gill, emphasizing the importance of sharing inspirational stories.

Speaking to the students, Akshay Kumar remarked, "A few years ago, I had the opportunity to speak to Jaswantji on call when he was alive. He was so humble, simple, and down to earth that it was genuinely an honor talking to him. There's so much truth and sacrifice in the inspiring stories of such unsung heroes that I would like to keep making films like that and tell today's youth about such great visionaries."

The actor fondly recalled a personal encounter with Jaswant Gill, saying, "A few years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Jaswantji on call. He was so humble, simple, and down to earth that it was genuinely an honor talking to him. There's so much truth and sacrifice in the inspiring stories of such unsung heroes that I would like to keep making films like that and tell today's youth about such great visionaries."

Produced by Vashu Bhagnani, Jackky Bhagnani, Deepshikha Deshmukh, and Ajay Kapoor, 'Mission Raniganj: The Great Bharat Rescue' is directed by Tinu Suresh Desai and features music by Jjust Music. The film is poised to hit theaters on October 6, 2023, offering audiences an inspiring and memorable cinematic experience that pays homage to the unsung heroes of India's past.
New Delhi: As 'Talvaar' marks its 8th anniversary today, we can't help but recall on the exceptional performance of Sohum Shah, who portrayed the role of an investigative officer in this gripping crime drama. Despite his limited screen time, Shah managed to leave an indelible mark on the audience and industry alike, establishing himself as a true bonafide performer.

Sohum Shah has always been an actor who seamlessly embodies his director's vision of the character on screen. With Meghna Gulzar's direction in 'Talvaar', he had the opportunity to delve deep into the psyche of his character. In doing so, he not only met but exceeded all expectations, delivering a performance that was widely praised by critics and audiences alike.

One of the key aspects of Shah's portrayal in 'Talvaar' was his ability to bring authenticity and depth to his character. As an investigative officer tasked with unraveling a complex murder case, he displayed a remarkable range of emotions and nuances, making the character feel real and relatable. His dedication to his craft was evident in every scene, from his meticulous attention to detail to his flawless execution of even the most challenging sequences, he didnt just play the character but became the character.

The collaboration between Sohum Shah and Meghna Gulzar in 'Talvaar' also serves as a prime example of the powerful synergy that can be achieved when a talented actor joins forces with a visionary director. The film's success can be attributed, in large part, to Shah's outstanding performance, which breathed life into the character and added depth to the narrative. It's a testament to his dedication to his craft and his ability to elevate any project he's a part of.

Up next for Sohum Shah is his production venture 'CrazXy' and as he continues to take on new challenges and work with acclaimed directors, audiences can look forward to witnessing more exceptional performances from this talented artist.
New Delhi: The Congress on Monday hit out at the BJP over 24 deaths in as many hours in a government hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded with former party chief Rahul Gandhi alleging that the BJP government spends crores of rupees on publicity but there is no money for childrens' medicines. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra demanded strict action against those responsible and compensation for the affected families.

Twenty-four deaths, including that of 12 infants, have been reported in the last 24 hours in a government hospital in Nanded, a top Maharashtra health official said on earlier in the day. A three-member expert committee has been set up to probe the incident, the official said.

In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi said the news of the death of 24 people, including 12 newborns, due to shortage of medicines in a government hospital in Maharashtra is extremely saddening and expressed his deepest condolences to all the bereaved families.

"The BJP government spends thousands of crores of rupees on its publicity, but there is no money for medicines for children? In the eyes of the BJP, the lives of the poor have no value," he alleged. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh asked Modi to break his "silence" on the incident.

In a post in Hindi on X, Priyanka Gandhi said she received the "sad news" of the death of 24 patients, including 12 infants, due to shortage of medicines from Maharashtra. "May God grant peace to the departed souls. My deepest condolences to the bereaved families," she said.

"Strict action should be taken against those responsible and compensation should be given to the affected families," she added. In a post on X, the Congress said this is a very serious issue. "Our condolences to the families of the deceased. May God give them the strength to bear this sorrow," it said.

According to reports, one of the reasons behind the death of patients is shortage of essential medicines, the party said. "This is a very serious issue. Strict action should be taken against those who were negligent in this matter," it said. The government needs to work on the ground rather than focusing on publicity, the Congress said.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Qatar America Institute for Culture (QAIC) is thrilled to announce the 2023 IMPART Summit and Design Festival, an eagerly anticipated annual "Congress for Creatives" set to take place from October 16th  22nd in Washington, D.C. Now in its third year, this landmark event will bring together an international community of dignitaries, artists, disruptors, and innovators to explore the dynamic intersection of art, technology, and creativity.

The 2023 IMPART Summit and Design Festival, in conjunction with QatarCreates, taking place between National and DC Design Weeks, promises a comprehensive program designed to stimulate the imagination, spark conversations, and inspire collaboration. At the very heart of the 2023 IMPART Summit lies the celebration of the dynamic exchange between Qatari, Arab, and American artists and storytellers. This intersection of society and technology exemplifies the summit's commitment to convene artists and celebrate cultures. Distinguished guests and speakers such as H.H. Intisar Al Sabah, renowned designer Naeem Khan, and many others are among the confirmed attendees for the opening night: IMPART Auction and Benefit Party on October 20th. From jewelry to Arab hip hop by Nas Jota, the weekend-long summit will kick off with glamor and ingenuity to support QAIC's mission. The Fragrance Symposium, a collaboration with the Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO), will take place on October 21st and 22nd, building upon the research and connections forged during the 2023 Olfactory Delegation to Doha. Through a series of talks and workshops, fragrance artists will share reflections on the cultural importance of fragrance and perfumery.

The Summit boasts a robust schedule, filled with events that are meaningful and entertaining:

Public Artist Talks: Hear from the 2023 IMPART Artist Grant winners, along with Al-Hosh Gallery artists on how they are shaping the future of art and innovation from Qatar and the United States.

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By-invitation Discussion: Mohammad Al Matwi of the Perfume Factory and Mohammed Barakat of US-Qatar Business Council will bring a business lens to the summit in a special conversation about entrepreneurship and the creative industries.

Workshop: In collaboration with We Are Museums, participants may attend an innovative workshop to explore different approaches to harnessing technology for transformation and social equity within the arts.

Art Portal: QAIC is partnering with Shared Studios and Doha Debates to further the discussion on 'technology & the arts' with special attention given to the rise of AI and what that means for artists and their work as we look to the future. Special guests and experts will convene in both Washington, D.C. and Doha, Qatar.

Coffee Tasting: Coffee enthusiasts are invited to an unforgettable tasting experience at the end of our IMPART Summit, with samples from the finest coffee partners for a remarkable journey of coffee from the Middle East.

QAIC Shop: The summit will host an elaborate pop-up shop, providing visitors the chance to acquire unique creations from our community near and far, including books for sale at our "Qatari Book Fair."

Fatima Al-Dosari, Executive Director of QAIC, expressed her enthusiasm for this year's summit, saying, "Every year, the IMPART Summit presents an opportunity to reunite and celebrate our community of creatives from both Qatar and the United States. I'm especially proud that we will be joined this year by a delegation from Qatar with more than 15 talented Qatari artists participating at the summit. We are grateful to all our sponsors and partners who believe in QAIC's goal to make the 2023 IMPART Summit an inclusive and diverse platform for cultural exchange, providing space for art, technology, and design to intersect, shape new connections, and inspire creative futures."

IMPART Summit and Design Festival and the Summit's Fragrance Symposium are made possible thanks to the generous support of our partners: ExxonMobil, Embassy of the State of Qatar, ConocoPhillips, Intisar Foundation, Versus Equity, AlHosh Gallery, 1951 Coffee Company, Shotted, Qamaria, and Turkish Coffee Lady.

For detailed information about the 2023 IMPART Summit, including registration details, speaker profiles, and the full event schedule, please visit the official summit website: https://qataramerica.org/impart-summit-2023/

About QAIC

Qatar America Institute for Culture (QAIC) is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that creates, curates, and executes programs and research that amplify the prominence of all forms of art and culture in society, cultivating artistic expression and cultural dialogue from the United States, Qatar, and the larger Arab and Islamic worlds. QAIC provides interactive experiences in an inclusive environment to celebrate and appreciate art and culture. Learn more at www.qataramerica.org.

Join the conversation @qataramerica on all our socials, using the hashtags #QatarAmerica #QAIC #IMPARTsummit #TechnologyAndTheArts

The Qatar America Institute for Culture (QAIC) is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that creates, curates, and executes programs and research that amplify the prominence of all forms of art and culture from the United States, Qatar, and the larger Arab and Islamic worlds. (PRNewsfoto/Qatar America Institute for Culture (QAIC))

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SOURCE Qatar America Institute for Culture
New Delhi: PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched and laid the foundation stone for development projects worth over Rs 26,000 crore in Chhattisgarh, which is heading for elections soon. PM also inaugurated the steel plant of NMDC Steel Ltd at Nagarnar in Bastar district. He visited the Danteshwari Temple in Bastar, Jagdalpur after reaching the state that is going to polls. The temple is dedicated to Goddess Danteshwari and is one of the 52 Shakti Peethas, sacred places of Shakti, the divine feminine, across India. The Prime Minister will also go to the tribal heartland to inaugurate the integrated steel plant of National Mineral Development Corporation (NDMC) in Nagarnar.

The steel plant of NMDC Steel Ltd at Nagarnar will create employment opportunities for thousands of people, both in the plant and in related and downstream industries. It will make Bastar a part of the global steel map and enhance the socioeconomic development of the area.

Additionally, the PM also inaugurated a new railway line between Antagarh and Taroki and a railway line doubling project between Jagdalpur and Dantewara. He will also lay the foundation stone for the Boridand -Surajpur railway line doubling project and the redevelopment of Jagdalpur Station under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.

Prime Minister also flagged off the Taroki  Raipur DEMU Train Service. These railway projects will improve connectivity in the tribal regions of the state. The improved railway infrastructure and the new train service will help the local people and contribute to the economic development of the area.

Prime Minister also inaugurated a road upgradation project from 'Kunkuri to Chhattisgarh - Jharkhand Border section' of National Highway-43. The new road will improve road connectivity, benefiting the people of the area. PM's visit to Chattisgarh comes ahead of the state assembly elections that are expected to take place later this year and all political parties are putting their best efforts to attract voters.

The Congress had a sweeping victory in the 2018 assembly elections, winning 68 seats out of 90 against the then ruling-BJP, which got 15 seats.
New Delhi: Two army personnel were injured in a gunfight with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmirs Rajouri district, officials said on Tuesday. The encounter broke out between security forces and terrorists on Monday evening following a cordon and search operation in a forest area of the district, they said. A joint team of the army and Jammu and Kashmir Police had cordoned off the Broh and Soom forest belts in the Kalakote area on Monday following information about suspicious movement, they said.

The terrorists fired at the troops in an attempt to break the cordon resulting in retaliatory fire, officials said. In the gun battle, two army personnel were injured, a senior police officer told PTI. He said that they have been hospitalised and their condition is stable.

Two terrorists are believed to be inside the cordoned area, they said, adding reinforcements have been rushed to plug all possible escape routes, they said. A defence spokesperson said the joint operation was launched in the general area in Kalakote and technology is being used to monitor the terrorists. Presently, an intense operation is underway, he added.
New Delhi: Nithya Menen, who was previously seen playing crackling roles in shows like Modern Love Hyderabad and Breathe: Into the Shadows, is all set to return to Prime Video in the upcoming Telugu original comedy series Kumari Srimathi. Stars from the industry have showered their love and support as well, from actress Keerthy Suresh who launched the teaser on her social media, to audiences favorite Natural Star Nani unveiling the trailer, and more from filmmakers, Nandini Reddy and Hanu Raghavapudi, who at the special screening peppered praises for the comedy drama.

Promising an endearing tale set in a small town, the series has been receiving rave reviews. With an exciting cast, a highly engaging and unique storyline, here are five reasons why the comedy drama needs to be on your watchlist!

Nithya Menen as the fiery Srimathi

Having acted in over 50 films and web series across languages, Nithya Menen is a name known for her brilliant acting chops. In Kumari Srimathi, Menen portrays Srimathi, a young woman who will do anything to save her ancestral home, which also means breaking traditions. She decides to open a restaurant and bar in the village, much to everyones - family and the community - surprise. Nithya brings that authenticity and likability to the role of a determined, strong-willed woman , giving her heart, mind, and soul to the character.

An eclectic ensemble cast

The series boasts a talented bunch of cast, which includes veteran actors like Gauthami, Talluri Rameswari, Naresh, Murali Mohan to young talent like Thiruveer and Nirupam. Gauthami plays the role of Srimathis mother, Talluri Rameswari as her grandmother, Nirupam and Thiruveer as her friends, Naresh plays the role of her father, and Murali Mohan as her grandfather. Each actor earnestly brings out the relatability and varied emotions of their respective characters, making this an well-balanced watch.

A tale rooted in reality

Unlike most modern day tales, this shows protagonist has no fancy aspirations - she just wants to save her ancestral home. And the only way for her is opening a bar and restaurant in her village. The series is based in an atypical rural town in south India. The setting not only lends towards the authenticity in the portrayal of cultural nuances and societal barriers, but also adds freshness to the story. The quaint houses, the simple lives, close communal and social ties, when combined with the earnest performances and varied emotions adds depth and realism to the narrative.



Breaking barriers, one whiskey glass at a time!

The series explores the battle between tradition and modernity as Srimathi attempts to open a bar and restaurant in the village. Exploring the societal and moral obstacles she faces due to a regressive society adds depth to the storyline. Audiences will be drawn to witness how Srimathi navigates these challenges, all the while laughing their hearts out.

Comedy in kinship chaos

The dysfunctional family dynamics from Gauthami, Talluri Rameshwari to Nithya Menen and her uncle played by (Prem Sagar), in the series bring laughter to audiences across age groups, making it a relatable family drama, with something for everyone across age-groups to enjoy and relate with. The audience will be invested in the fun-filled emotional evolution of these relationships eager to know where their arcs land them in every episode!

Produced by Early Monsoon Tales, a web division of Vyjanyanthi Entertainments with a legacy of 50 years, and directed by Gomtesh Upadhye, Kumari Srimathi features Nithya Menen as the eponymous lead, and also features Nirupam, Gautami, Thiruveer, Talluri Rameshwari, Naresh, Prem Sagar and Murali Mohan in pivotal roles. The seven-episode series is now streaming on Prime Video in India and across 240 countries and territories worldwide in Telugu, with dubs in Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam.
Brown-Forman Corp (NYSE:BF.B) experienced a daily gain of 1.5%, despite a 3-month loss of -14.63%. With an Earnings Per Share (EPS) of 1.59, the question arises: Is Brown-Forman (NYSE:BF.B) modestly undervalued? This comprehensive analysis aims to answer that question by examining the company's financial health, profitability, and growth. Read on to discover if Brown-Forman's stock is a worthy investment.

A Snapshot of Brown-Forman

Brown-Forman Corp (NYSE:BF.B) is a renowned U.S.-based manufacturer of premium distilled spirits. The company garners approximately 70% of its revenues from the whiskey category, with popular brands like Jack Daniel's, Woodford Reserve, and Old Forester. It also offers tequila, vodka, rum, gin, and premium wines. With 47% of sales generated domestically, the rest of its revenues come from Europe, Australia, and Latin America. The Brown family controls over 50% of the economic interests and voting power of the company.

At present, Brown-Forman's stock is priced at $57.68, which is significantly lower than its GF Value of $79.91. This discrepancy suggests that the stock might be undervalued, which we will explore further in the analysis below.

Unveiling Brown-Forman (BF.B)'s Value: Is It Really Priced Right? A Comprehensive Guide

Understanding the GF Value

The GF Value is a unique measure of a stock's intrinsic value, calculated based on historical trading multiples, a GuruFocus adjustment factor based on past performance and growth, and future business performance estimates. The GF Value Line represents the fair trading value of the stock. If the stock price significantly deviates from the GF Value Line, it could suggest that the stock is overvalued or undervalued.

According to the GF Value, Brown-Forman (NYSE:BF.B) appears to be modestly undervalued. This conclusion is drawn from the current stock price of $57.68, which is lower than the GF Value of $79.91. This implies that the long-term return of Brown-Forman's stock is likely to be higher than its business growth.

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Unveiling Brown-Forman (BF.B)'s Value: Is It Really Priced Right? A Comprehensive Guide

Link: These companies may deliver higher future returns at reduced risk.

Financial Strength of Brown-Forman

Examining the financial strength of a company is crucial before investing in its stock. Brown-Forman has a cash-to-debt ratio of 0.14, which is lower than 72% of 200 companies in the Beverages - Alcoholic industry. This gives Brown-Forman a financial strength score of 6 out of 10, indicating fair financial health.

Unveiling Brown-Forman (BF.B)'s Value: Is It Really Priced Right? A Comprehensive Guide

Profitability and Growth

Investing in profitable companies carries less risk. Brown-Forman has been profitable for 10 years over the past decade. In the past 12 months, the company generated revenues of $4.30 billion and Earnings Per Share (EPS) of $1.59. Its operating margin of 26.09% is better than 86.6% of companies in the Beverages - Alcoholic industry, indicating strong profitability .

Growth is a significant factor in a company's valuation. Brown-Forman's 3-year average revenue growth rate is better than 58.46% of companies in the Beverages - Alcoholic industry. However, its 3-year average EBITDA growth rate is 0.6%, ranking lower than 65.73% of companies in the industry, indicating a need for improvement in growth .

ROIC vs WACC

Comparing a company's return on invested capital (ROIC) to its weighted average cost of capital (WACC) can also evaluate its profitability. ROIC measures how well a company generates cash flow relative to the capital it has invested in its business. WACC is the rate that a company is expected to pay on average to all its security holders to finance its assets. If the ROIC exceeds the WACC, the company is likely creating value for its shareholders. In the past 12 months, Brown-Forman's ROIC was 14.54, while its WACC was 8.06.

Unveiling Brown-Forman (BF.B)'s Value: Is It Really Priced Right? A Comprehensive Guide

Conclusion

In conclusion, Brown-Forman (NYSE:BF.B) appears to be modestly undervalued. The company exhibits fair financial strength and strong profitability, despite its growth ranking lower than 65.73% of companies in the Beverages - Alcoholic industry. For a more detailed analysis of Brown-Forman's financials, you can check out its 30-Year Financials here.

To discover high-quality companies that may deliver above-average returns, please check out the GuruFocus High Quality Low Capex Screener.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Despite a daily loss of 7.42% and a 3-month loss of 29.51%, Hecla Mining Co (NYSE:HL) presents a compelling case for value investors. The company's Loss Per Share stands at 0.08, suggesting a challenging financial period. However, is the stock modestly undervalued as our analysis suggests? This comprehensive analysis aims to answer this question and provide insights into the company's valuation.

Introduction to Hecla Mining Co

Hecla Mining Co is a leading producer and explorer of silver, gold, lead, and zinc. The company operates through several business segments, including Greens Creek, Lucky Friday, Keno Hill, Casa Berardi, and Nevada Operations. A majority of its revenue is derived from Canada. With a current stock price of $3.62, the company's market cap stands at $2.20 billion, presenting an interesting comparison with its GF Value of $4.94.

Unveiling Hecla Mining Co (HL)'s Value: Is It Really Priced Right? A Comprehensive Guide

Understanding the GF Value

The GF Value is a unique measure of a stock's intrinsic value, calculated based on historical multiples, a GuruFocus adjustment factor, and future business performance estimates. The GF Value Line provides an overview of the stock's fair trading value. If the stock price is significantly above the GF Value Line, it is overvalued, and its future return is likely to be poor. Conversely, if it is significantly below the GF Value Line, its future return will likely be higher.

Hecla Mining Co's stock appears to be modestly undervalued based on the GF Value calculation. Given this undervaluation, the long-term return of its stock is likely to exceed its business growth.

Unveiling Hecla Mining Co (HL)'s Value: Is It Really Priced Right? A Comprehensive Guide

Assessing Hecla Mining Co's Financial Strength

Investing in companies with low financial strength could result in permanent capital loss. Therefore, it's crucial to review a company's financial strength before buying shares. Hecla Mining Co has a cash-to-debt ratio of 0.19, which ranks worse than 87.4% of 2628 companies in the Metals & Mining industry. Based on this, GuruFocus ranks Hecla Mining Co's financial strength as 5 out of 10, suggesting a fair balance sheet.

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Unveiling Hecla Mining Co (HL)'s Value: Is It Really Priced Right? A Comprehensive Guide

Profitability and Growth of Hecla Mining Co

Investing in profitable companies carries less risk, especially those with consistent profitability over the long term. Hecla Mining Co has been profitable 3 years over the past 10 years. During the past 12 months, the company had revenues of $718.30 million and a Loss Per Share of $0.08. Its operating margin of 5.26% is better than 60.82% of 855 companies in the Metals & Mining industry. However, GuruFocus ranks Hecla Mining Co's profitability as poor.

Growth is a crucial factor in a company's valuation. The faster a company is growing, the more likely it is to be creating value for shareholders, especially if the growth is profitable. Hecla Mining Co's 3-year average annual revenue growth rate is -2.1%, which ranks worse than 77.3% of 599 companies in the Metals & Mining industry. The 3-year average EBITDA growth rate is -1.4%, ranking worse than 62.84% of 1846 companies in the Metals & Mining industry.

ROIC vs WACC

Comparing a company's return on invested capital (ROIC) and the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) provides another perspective on profitability. ROIC measures how well a company generates cash flow relative to the capital it has invested in its business. WACC is the rate that a company is expected to pay on average to all its security holders to finance its assets. Ideally, the ROIC should be higher than the WACC. For the past 12 months, Hecla Mining Co's ROIC is 1.29, and its WACC is 12.12.

Unveiling Hecla Mining Co (HL)'s Value: Is It Really Priced Right? A Comprehensive Guide

Conclusion

In conclusion, Hecla Mining Co (NYSE:HL) appears to be modestly undervalued. While the company's financial condition is fair, its profitability is poor, and its growth ranks worse than 62.84% of 1846 companies in the Metals & Mining industry. For more information about Hecla Mining Co, you can check out its 30-Year Financials here.

To discover high-quality companies that may deliver above-average returns, check out the GuruFocus High Quality Low Capex Screener.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) saw a daily gain of 2.32%, but a 3-month loss of -6.51%. With an Earnings Per Share (EPS) of 3.76, the question arises: Is this stock significantly undervalued? This article aims to provide an in-depth valuation analysis of Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), encouraging readers to delve deeper into the company's financial health and prospects.

Company Introduction

Pfizer is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical firms, with annual sales close to $50 billion, excluding COVID-19 product sales. Historically, Pfizer sold many types of healthcare products and chemicals. However, prescription drugs and vaccines now account for the majority of sales. Top sellers include pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar 13, cancer drug Ibrance, and cardiovascular treatment Eliquis. Pfizer operates globally, with international sales representing close to 50% of its total sales. Within international sales, emerging markets are a major contributor.

Unveiling Pfizer (PFE)'s Value: Is It Really Priced Right? A Comprehensive Guide

Summarizing GF Value

The GF Value represents the current intrinsic value of a stock derived from our exclusive method. The GF Value Line on our summary page gives an overview of the fair value that the stock should be traded at. It is calculated based on three factors:

Historical multiples (PE Ratio, PS Ratio, PB Ratio and Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow) that the stock has traded at. GuruFocus adjustment factor based on the company's past returns and growth. Future estimates of the business performance.

We believe the GF Value Line is the fair value that the stock should be traded at. The stock price will most likely fluctuate around the GF Value Line. If the stock price is significantly above the GF Value Line, it is overvalued and its future return is likely to be poor. On the other hand, if it is significantly below the GF Value Line, its future return will likely be higher.

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The stock of Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) is believed to be significantly undervalued based on GuruFocus' valuation method. GF Value estimates the stock's fair value based on three key factors: historical multiples, an internal adjustment based on the company's past business growth, and analyst estimates of future business performance. If the share price is significantly above the GF Value Line, the stock may be overvalued and have poor future returns. On the other hand, if the share price is significantly below the GF Value calculation, the stock may be undervalued and have higher future returns. At its current price of $ 33.94 per share, Pfizer stock is believed to be significantly undervalued.

Because Pfizer is significantly undervalued, the long-term return of its stock is likely to be much higher than its business growth.

Unveiling Pfizer (PFE)'s Value: Is It Really Priced Right? A Comprehensive Guide

Link: These companies may deliver higher future returns at reduced risk.

Financial Strength

Companies with poor financial strength offer investors a high risk of permanent capital loss. To avoid permanent capital loss, an investor must do their research and review a company's financial strength before deciding to purchase shares. Both the cash-to-debt ratio and interest coverage of a company are a great way to understand its financial strength. Pfizer has a cash-to-debt ratio of 0.69, which ranks worse than 55.05% of 1039 companies in the Drug Manufacturers industry. The overall financial strength of Pfizer is 6 out of 10, which indicates that the financial strength of Pfizer is fair.

This is the debt and cash of Pfizer over the past years:

Unveiling Pfizer (PFE)'s Value: Is It Really Priced Right? A Comprehensive Guide

Profitability and Growth

It poses less risk to invest in profitable companies, especially those that have demonstrated consistent profitability over the long term. A company with high profit margins is also typically a safer investment than one with low profit margins. Pfizer has been profitable 10 over the past 10 years. Over the past twelve months, the company had a revenue of $77.90 billion and Earnings Per Share (EPS) of $3.76. Its operating margin is 30.09%, which ranks better than 94.86% of 1031 companies in the Drug Manufacturers industry. Overall, GuruFocus ranks the profitability of Pfizer at 9 out of 10, which indicates strong profitability.

Growth is probably the most important factor in the valuation of a company. GuruFocus research has found that growth is closely correlated with the long term stock performance of a company. A faster growing company creates more value for shareholders, especially if the growth is profitable. The 3-year average annual revenue growth of Pfizer is 34.4%, which ranks better than 90.61% of 916 companies in the Drug Manufacturers industry. The 3-year average EBITDA growth rate is 29.6%, which ranks better than 76.65% of 878 companies in the Drug Manufacturers industry.

ROIC vs WACC

Another method of determining the profitability of a company is to compare its return on invested capital to the weighted average cost of capital. Return on invested capital (ROIC) measures how well a company generates cash flow relative to the capital it has invested in its business. The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is the rate that a company is expected to pay on average to all its security holders to finance its assets. When the ROIC is higher than the WACC, it implies the company is creating value for shareholders. For the past 12 months, Pfizer's return on invested capital is 13.17, and its cost of capital is 7.22.

The historical ROIC vs WACC comparison of Pfizer is shown below:

Unveiling Pfizer (PFE)'s Value: Is It Really Priced Right? A Comprehensive Guide

Conclusion

In conclusion, the stock of Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) is believed to be significantly undervalued. The company's financial condition is fair and its profitability is strong. Its growth ranks better than 76.65% of 878 companies in the Drug Manufacturers industry. To learn more about Pfizer stock, you can check out its 30-Year Financials here.

To find out the high quality companies that may deliver above average returns, please check out GuruFocus High Quality Low Capex Screener.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


FILE PHOTO: Flags with the Novo Nordisk logo flutter outside their Danish company's offices in Copenhagen

By Blake Brittain

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Patent Office tribunal on Monday rejected challenges to two key patents owned by Novo Nordisk covering the active ingredient in its weight-loss and diabetes drugs Wegovy and Ozempic brought by a generic drugmaker that is hoping to sell generic versions of the blockbuster medications.

The office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board denied the requests by Mylan Pharmaceuticals, which is owned by Viatris, to review the validity of the Wegovy and Ozempic patents. Mylan had argued that the patents were obvious based on the anti-diabetes medication liraglutide and thus should be invalidated.

Mylan has also challenged a third patent related to a method of treatment using the drugs. The board's decision on whether to review that patent is due by Friday.

A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk said the company will "vigorously defend" its intellectual property. Representatives for Viatris did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Novo's Wegovy is the first to market in a new class of highly effective weight-loss drugs. Its booming sales have led some analysts to predict the obesity market could be worth more than $100 billion by the end of this decade.

Record profits from Wegovy and type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic - which contains the same active ingredient, semaglutide - helped Denmark-based Novo become Europe's most valuable company in September.

Novo has filed several U.S. patent lawsuits against companies including Pennsylvania-based Viatris that are seeking to market generic versions of the drugs. Viatris has separately asked a West Virginia federal court to invalidate the patents as part of the litigation.

(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; additional reporting by Patrick Wingrove in New York; editing by Will Dunham and David Bario)
By Hannah Lang and Chris Prentice

(Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday asked a federal judge to deny a motion from Coinbase Global to dismiss the regulator's lawsuit against the cryptocurrency exchange.

The agency said Coinbase was wrong to rely on a recent court ruling that found cryptocurrency developer Ripple Labs Inc did not violate federal securities law by selling its XRP token on public exchanges, citing a subsequent ruling in the case of Terraform Labs that rejected the court's reasoning.

THE TAKE

Tuesday's filing showed that the SEC is seizing on the Terraform Labs ruling to raise questions about the ruling in the Ripple case, which the crypto industry had hailed as a victory.

THE CONTEXT

The SEC sued Coinbase in June, accusing it of operating illegally as a national securities exchange, broker and clearing agency without registering with the regulator.

Coinbase in August asked a federal court in Manhattan to dismiss the case, arguing that the SEC had no authority to pursue its lawsuit because the digital assets and services at issue did not qualify as securities.

KEY QUOTE

"With the exception of the Wallet application, Coinbase does not here dispute it carried out the functions of exchange, broker, and clearing agency. Thus, the Motion hinges on whether Coinbase intermediated transactions involving investment contracts, and thus securities. It did," the SEC said in the filing.

In a tweet, Paul Grewal, Coinbase's chief legal officer, called the SEC's filing "more of the same old same old."

"The assets we list on our platform are not securities and are not within the SECs jurisdiction," he said.

(Reporting by Hannah Lang in Washington and Chris Prentice in New York; Additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Stephen Coates)
(Bloomberg) -- A bipartisan group of US senators hopes to meet President Xi Jinping in China next week, as a flurry of diplomacy bolsters expectations of a leaders meeting between the two superpowers.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his Republican colleague Senator Mike Crapo, who are leading the delegation, will raise the issue of Micron Technology Inc.s ability to do business in the country during their trip, according to people familiar with the preparations who asked not to be identified discussing private planning. The company faces an ongoing probe by the Chinese governments cybersecurity administration.

The purpose is for us to engage with them, just like youve seen some of the senior administration officials, on the broad array of issues that we have, Crapo said in an interview, declining to comment on specific matters the senators will discuss. We really believe that the more engagement we have, the more opportunity and potential there is to resolve conflict.

Crapo added that the group is seeking a meeting with Xi, but noted such an engagement hasnt been confirmed. While Xi did meet with congress leaders in 2015 during a state visit to the US, typically senior American officials sit down with Chinese ministers on trips to Beijing rather than the president.

Schumers office said Tuesday the group will also raise concerns about human rights in China and fentanyl, as well as areas for possible cooperation. The senators will meet with the US business community in Shanghai and discuss concerns about the investment climate for US companies.

The senators trip follows several China visits by high-level officials in President Joe Bidens administration seeking to smooth ties after months of escalating tensions. The US is hoping to open the door to a potential November meeting between Biden and Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco. Beijing hasnt confirmed whether the Chinese leader will attend.

Story continues

Read more: Micron Says Half of Sales Tied to China-HQ Clients at Risk

Schumers office said that in addition to Crapo, he will be joined by Louisiana Republicans Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy as well as Democrats Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Georgias Jon Ossoff.

The White House is aware of the senators trip plans and encouraged them to go, people familiar with the matter said. A spokeswoman for the National Security Council didnt respond to a request for comment.

Micron, headquartered in Boise, Idaho, is currently building a major chip-fabrication plant in upstate New York, making its business issues home-state concerns for both Crapo and Schumer, who represent those states. Micron has said the cyber probe has put half of its China sales at risk.

A Micron spokesperson declined to comment on the trip.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo raised issues on behalf of Micron and other American firms when she visited China in August.

--With assistance from Steven T. Dennis and Alan Wong.

(Updates with details from fifth paragraph)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2023 Bloomberg L.P.
The United States is holding back assistance that might aid the government of Gabon following last months coup, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement released by the US State Department on Tuesday.

The US will however continue operational activities in the country, including diplomatic and consular operations supporting US citizens.

The US government is pausing certain foreign assistance programs benefiting the government of Gabon while we evaluate the unconstitutional intervention by members of the countrys military, Blinken said.

The move is in line with steps taken by Economic Community of Central African States, the African Union, and other international partners.

Army officers in Gabon seized power on Aug. 30, annulling an election minutes after an announcement that President Ali Bongo had won, which they said was not credible. Bongo had been in power since 2009.

The junta has promised to oversee free and fair elections but has not given a precise timetable for organizing them.

A 24-month transition to elections in Gabon would be reasonable after last months coup, junta-appointed Prime Minister Raymond Ndong Sima was quoted as saying by French news agency AFP earlier this month.

The Bongo familys dynastic rule in the Central African oil producer had created widespread discontent, with critics saying the Bongos did little to share Gabons wealth with its 2.3 million people.

The African Union suspended Gabons membership following the coup.

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Perhaps one of the brand names most associated with its home state of Pennsylvania, Utz potato chips are legendary, therefore the latest company news might make locals feel a little salty  Utz says it plans to close its oldest plant, the Carlisle Street factory in Hanover, PA.

In a bid to support volume growth and reduce costs, Utz has announced its lowest volume plant, which currently produces kettle chips for the companys Utz, Grandma Utz, and Zapps brands will close in early 2024 after nearly 75 years.

Utz has been active in the years leading up to this. Since 2020, the company has nabbed Vitners and On the Border, as well as the latters largest tortilla chip manufacturer, Festida Foods. Since then, the company added RW Garcia, Clem Snacks and J&D Snacks.

Cumulatively, the acquisition activity supports the companys line that this closure is more about dedicated streamlining than actually scaling back. Utz says no job losses will come of the plant shutdown and that the kettle chip production will be moved to other facilities, including one in Kings Mountain, NC that Utz purchased last year.

But Utz isnt even done. The food company says it has also sold a plant in Bluffton, Indiana and has listed for sale two others  one in Louisiana that was damaged by Hurricane Ida and never reopened, as well as its plant in Birmingham, Alabama, which has been idle since June.

In all, the efforts will leave the company with 13 active plants and, hopefully, higher profit margins.

And the company will bring some good news to Hanover in all of this, after all  part of its latest efforts also includes building a brand new, 650,000 square foot distribution center that will be located in the companys hometown.




SAN FRANCISCO, October 03, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Veryon, a leading provider of information services and software solutions for the aviation industry, recently announced its acquisition of Rusada, a prominent player in the aviation maintenance management software industry since 1987. This strategic move solidifies Veryon's commitment to innovation while strengthening its position as a trusted aviation management software market leader.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003575421/en/

Norman Happ, chief executive officer for Veryon (Photo: Business Wire)

"We are thrilled to welcome Rusada to the Veryon family," said Norman Happ, chief executive officer for Veryon. "Rusada's track record of innovation and service in aviation maintenance management software is an ideal complement to our existing portfolio of industry-leading solutions. The combined power of our teams, the expanded range of products and our robust customer base will enable Veryon to serve aviation operators of all sizes around the world."

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Rusada has a presence across the globe with employees in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, India, Singapore and Australia. Rusadas software is used by nearly 100 customers that operate over 2,000 aircraft collectively.

"This acquisition allows us to become part of the leading aviation platform and diversify and expand our market presence across the industry," said Julian Stourton, chief executive officer for Rusada. "In aligning ourselves strategically with the resources, technology and superior customer experience that Veryon offers, we are confident that together is a way for our team to continue to be a part of serving as a leading-edge provider of aviation software."

With the completion of this acquisition, Veryon gains access to Rusada's extensive expertise, advanced technology and global customer base from every corner of the industry, including commercial, charter, business, military and government operations. Envision, the companys key solution, is a single hub for managing airworthiness, maintenance, and flight operations. The products wide range of functionality paired with user-friendly interfaces provides users with accurate and insightful data.

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These combined companies will provide aircraft operators with unparalleled features, including asset management, maintenance planning, supply chain optimization, compliance monitoring and data analytics.

Veryon and Rusada customers can continue to expect uninterrupted 24/7/365 support and ongoing product enhancements. The acquisition will allow both companies the ability to offer a wider selection of solutions while maintaining the trusted reputation and brand attributes of both providers.

Since 1973, Veryon has expanded by adding new partners, content and technology through the acquisition of CaseBank and Flightdocs, and today offers aviation operators technology to better access publications, fix maintenance issues faster and operate more efficiently without compromising compliance. The Veryon brand is trusted by over 7,500 customers across 165 countries, serving over 70,000 users and over 25 percent of the worlds largest airlines.

For more information about Veryon and Rusada, visit their respective websites at veryon.com and rusada.com.

About Veryon

Veryon is the leading provider of aviation software and information services, supporting more than 75,000 aircraft maintenance professionals and 7,500 customers worldwide. We help everyone from business aviation teams and MROs to airlines and OEMs get their aircraft more uptime. Challenges like unscheduled repairs, part availability, and excessive paperwork lead to too many aircraft spending too much time on the ground. And that leads to needless delays, endless back and forth, and lots of wasted dollars. The key to more uptime is having a better technology platform to manage everything from maintenance and operations to manuals and diagnostics.

Thats why thousands of aircraft operators, 25% of the worldwide commercial fleet, and over 100 OEMs all rely on Veryon. And its why customers have been able to achieve an average 23% reduction in downtime cost. Veryon. Lets get you more uptime. Learn more at veryon.com.

About Rusada

Rusada is a leading provider of aviation software with over 35 years of experience in the industry. Its ENVISION solution manages over 2,000 fixed and rotary wing aircraft for 150 operators, maintainers, and manufacturers in 50+ countries. With its headquarters in Switzerland and offices in the USA, Canada, UK, UAE, India, Singapore, and Australia, Rusada provides global support for a global industry. Specializing in the management of airworthiness, maintenance, and flight operations, ENVISION is developed solely for aviation. Its modern, web-based platform features a suite of integrated modules, enhanced by a series of native mobile apps. ENVISIONs easy-to-use interface provides users with clear, actionable information, enabling processes to be carried out quickly and efficiently, all without the need for paper or spreadsheets.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231003575421/en/

Contacts

Kim Welch

Senior Manager, Corporate Marketing

Veryon

kwelch@veryon.com
ISFAHAN, Iran, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Professor Ahmad Fauzi Ismail, Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), has been awarded the prestigious 2023 Mustafa (pbuh) Prize, a biennial accolade celebrating the remarkable achievements of Muslim scholars and scientists since 2015.

Professor Ahmad Fauzi accepting the Mustafa (pbuh) Prize during the award ceremony

The opening ceremony in Isfahan, Iran, featured Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi and 150 leading academicians and scientists from the Islamic world. While the award ceremony was attended by the Vice-President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy, Dr Rouhollah Dehghani Firouzabadi with 800 attendees.

The Mustafa Prize acknowledges Muslim scientists in four categories: Information and communication science and technology, life and medical science and technology, nanoscience and nanotechnology, and all areas of science and technology. In this fifth edition, five Muslim scientists were recognized by the Mustafa Science and Technology Foundation.

Professor Ahmad Fauzi joins esteemed laureates, including Professor Samia J. Khoury (Lebanon) and Professor Murat Uysal (Turkiye), in the category of laureates from Islamic countries.

Professor Ahmad Fauzi's recognition stems from his outstanding contributions to membrane technology research and its diverse applications.

This milestone achievement holds historical significance as Professor Ahmad Fauzi became the first Malaysian and the second Southeast Asian recipient of the Mustafa (pbuh) Prize.

In his acceptance speech, Professor Ahmad Fauzi expressed gratitude to his family, UTM, and various ministries in Malaysia that supported his work and research over the years.

He stated, "My gratitude goes to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, my alma mater, in which I am now entrusted to lead as the Vice-Chancellor. My dedicated team at the Advanced Membrane Technology Research Center (AMTEC) and Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, UTM.

"I am also indebted to Malaysia's Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, and Ministry of Education for the opportunities and support throughout my academic and research journey," added Professor Ahmad Fauzi.

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The recognition of Professor Ahmad Fauzi highlights his groundbreaking work in membrane technology applications within Basic and Engineering Sciences. His impressive list of accolades includes The World Academy of Sciences Prize in 2020, the Merdeka Award for Outstanding Scholastic Achievement in 2014, the IChemE Malaysia Innovator of the Year Award in 2014, and Malaysia's Research Star Award by Clarivate Analytics, underscoring his prolific contributions to academia and industry.

Reflecting on his research journey, Professor Ahmad Fauzi shared, "Research, for me, has always been more than just a career; it's a deep-seated passion. It's the thrill of discovery, the pursuit of knowledge, and the relentless curiosity that keeps me inspired."

At the heart of Professor Ahmad Fauzi's research lies the development of innovative polymeric, inorganic, and mixed matrix membranes. These pioneering membranes have found critical applications in water desalination, wastewater treatment, gas separation processes, palm oil refining, as well as the creation of hemodialysis and polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cell applications.

His impact extends globally through visiting appointments at prestigious institutions, including Imperial College London, Tokyo University, and Kyoto University. His pivotal role in establishing the Advanced Membrane Technology Research Center (AMTEC) at UTM has positioned him as a leading figure in membrane science and technology worldwide.

Beyond research, Professor Ahmad Fauzi has demonstrated exceptional leadership and administrative prowess, catalyzing positive reforms and operational enhancements during his tenure as UTM's Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) from 2015 to 2020 and was appointed to lead various Research and Development taskforce and think-thank by the government.

About Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM):

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) is a leading public research university in Malaysia, dedicated to advancing knowledge and nurturing future leaders. UTM is committed to excellence in education, research, and innovation, making a significant impact on society and industry. As a global institution, UTM is known for its cutting-edge research and its role in developing innovative solutions to global challenges.

Cision

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SOURCE Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)
* Unbeatable fares from just 80SGD until October 10

SINGAPORE, Oct. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Vietjet, Vietnam's largest private airline, has just announced the launch of five new international services from Vietnam to Australia, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, further expanding its global network. This comes as exciting news for travellers throughout the Asia Pacific region, including Singapore, as they are set to fly at more affordable fares.

Vietjet Air Aircraft

Vietjet continues to fortify its Vietnam  Australia flight network by adding two new services from Ho Chi Minh City to Perth and Adelaide with five weekly flights, starting 21 November 2023. The new routes make Vietjet the first airline from Vietnam connecting to Australia's five largest cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

The Hanoi  Hong Kong route will commence on 22 December 2023, with a daily frequency, departing from Hanoi at 08:55 and arriving in Hong Kong at 11:50. The return flight from Hong Kong to Hanoi will take off at 12:50 and land at 13:50 (local times). Travellers from Hong Kong can easily fly directly to all gateways of Vietnam's North  Central and South, to Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, and Phu Quoc.

Phu Quoc, the emerging star of Vietnamese tourism will also welcome two new Vietjet's services to Korea and Taiwan. Accordingly, Vietjet will operate the daily Phu Quoc  Busan route, starting from 10 December 2023. The flights depart from Phu Quoc at 01:15 and land in Busan at 08:05. The return flight will depart Busan at 08:55 and land in Phu Quoc at 12:40 (local times).

The Phu Quoc  Taipei direct service will operate from 17 January 2024, with a frequency of four flights per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. The departure from Phu Quoc will be at 08:25 and the arrival in Taipei will be at 13:00. The return flights take off from Taipei at 14:00 and touch down in Phu Quoc at 16:50 (local times).

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Super Ticket Promotion to Celebrate New Services

To mark the intensive new route introduction, Vietjet is offering an extraordinary promotion with ticket fares from just SGD8 0 /one-way (inclusive of tax and fees) for all international services, including three routes between Singapore  Hanoi/Da Nang/ Ho Chi Minh City and other routes connecting via Vietnam. Booking for promotional tickets is available from now to 10 October 2023 , with travel time up to one year until 31 October 2024 (Exclusive of public holidays, peak seasons).

Discover the exciting new routes on Vietjet's new and eco-friendly aircraft, served by dedicated and professional cabin crew. Indulge in delectable diversity of hot and fresh meals, prepared for your satisfaction. Vietjet also goes the extra mile with the complimentary Sky Care insurance, ensuring your worry-free journey, and the exclusive Sky Joy loyalty program. Let's enjoy flying with Vietjet!

###

About Vietjet

The new-age carrier Vietjet has not only revolutionized the aviation industry in Vietnam but also been a pioneering airline across the region and around the world. With a focus on cost management ability, effective operations, and performance, applying the latest technology to all activities and leading the trend, Vietjet offers flying opportunities with cost-saving and flexible fares as well as diversified services to meet customers' demands.

Vietjet is a fully-fledged member of International Air Transport Association (IATA) with the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) certificate. As Vietnam's largest private carrier, the airline has been awarded the highest ranking for safety with 7 stars by the world's only safety and product rating website airlineratings.com and listed as one of the world's 50 best airlines for healthy financing and operations by Airfinance Journal in many consecutive years. The airline has also been named as Best Low-Cost Carrier by renowned organizations such as Skytrax, CAPA, Airline Ratings, and many others.

Further information at www.vietjetair.com

Media contact:

Rothman & Roman

Tashan Kassey | tashan.kassey@rothmanasia.com | +65 8282 8746

Ng Chip Keng | chip@rothmanasia.com | +65 9623 2166

Vietjet

Kieu Duong (Amy) | kieuduong@vietjetair.com | +84 932 775 066

Vietjet Air

Cision

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SOURCE Vietjet Air
Teslas disappointing third-quarter deliveries are giving its closest rivalBYD, the Chinese EV giant backed by Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathawayan opportunity to swipe top place in the electric car rankings.

Tesla sold 435,000 electric cars last quarter, while BYD sold 431,000 battery-powered electric cars over the same period, leaving a gap of just over 3,000 between the two firms, according to calculations from Bloomberg.

That small difference means that BYD could be close to overtaking its U.S.-based rival when it comes to sales of battery electric cars (BEVs), a huge jump for a company that Tesla CEO Elon Musk once derided as a joke over a decade ago.

BYD is already far ahead when it coms to total sales. Including hybrids, BYD sold over 800,000 cars last quarter, almost twice as much as Tesla, according to Bloomberg.

The Chinese company sold 1.8 million cars last year, over 911,000 of which were BEVs. Tesla, which only sells BEVs, sold 1.3 million cars.

Tesla disappoints

Teslas third-quarter sales came in far below analyst expectations. Sales declined by 6.7% from the previous quarter, the first quarterly drop since early 2020.

Musk had previously warned that planned upgrades to manufacturing plants around the world may lead to lower deliveries for the rest of the year.

Yet the company is also facing sluggish demand, pushing it to launch aggressive price wars in both China and the U.S. On Sunday, Tesla announced a new version of its Model Y car for the Chinese market, offering slightly faster acceleration and new ambient lighting at no additional cost from the base model.

The company still hopes to produce 1.8 million vehicles this year, meaning it would need to sell an additional 450,000 cars in the final quarter to meet that goal.

BYD surges

BYD has surged ahead of its competitors in China by selling more affordable electric vehicles, unlike the premium models sold by Tesla and other EV companies like Nio and XPeng. BYD recently unseated Volkswagen as Chinas top-selling car brand.

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The company is now expanding outside of China, and is now the top-selling EV brand in markets like Thailand, Israel and Singapore. Its even expanding into more developed markets like Japan and Europe.

Chinese EVs are already transforming the country's auto industry. China overtook Japan as the world's largest auto exporter earlier this year, according to official Chinese data. And domestic brands are poised to outsell foreign brands in the Chinese market for the first time this year.

Other car company executives are starting to worry about a possible flood of cheap Chinese EVs. In May, Ford CEO Jim Farley said he saw the Chinese as the main competitor when it came to EVs, and called BYD a very, very impressive company.

BYD's backers, like Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, are happy with the company's booming success. "I have never helped do anything at Berkshire that was as good as BYD," Charlie Munger, Buffett's longtime business partner, said in February.

"BYD is so much ahead of Tesla in China," he added.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Long-established in the Retail - Cyclical industry, Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W) has enjoyed a stellar reputation. However, it has recently witnessed a daily loss of 7.86%, juxtaposed with a three-month change of -15.58%. Fresh insights from the GF Score hint at potential headwinds. Notably, its diminished rankings in financial strength, growth, and valuation suggest that the company might not live up to its historical performance. Join us as we dive deep into these pivotal metrics to unravel the evolving narrative of Wayfair Inc.

Wayfair Inc (W): A Deep Dive into Its Performance Potential

Understanding the GF Score

The GF Score is a stock performance ranking system developed by GuruFocus using five aspects of valuation, which has been found to be closely correlated to the long-term performances of stocks by backtesting from 2006 to 2021. The stocks with a higher GF Score generally generate higher returns than those with a lower GF Score. Therefore, when picking stocks, investors should invest in companies with high GF Scores. The GF Score ranges from 0 to 100, with 100 as the highest rank.

Based on the above method, GuruFocus assigned Wayfair Inc the GF Score of 69 out of 100, which signals poor future outperformance potential.

Wayfair Inc: A Snapshot

Wayfair Inc, with a market cap of $6.68 billion, engages in e-commerce in the United States (86% of 2022 sales), Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Ireland. At the end of 2022, the firm offered more than 40 million products from more than 20,000 suppliers under the brands Wayfair, Joss & Main, AllModern, Birch Lane, and Perigold. Its offerings include furniture, everyday and seasonal decor, decorative accents, housewares, and other home goods. Wayfair was founded in 2002 and began trading publicly in 2014.

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Wayfair Inc (W): A Deep Dive into Its Performance Potential

Financial Strength Analysis

Wayfair Inc's financial strength indicators present some concerning insights about the company's balance sheet health. Wayfair Inc has an interest coverage ratio of 0, which positions it worse than 0% of 772 companies in the Retail - Cyclical industry. This ratio highlights potential challenges the company might face when handling its interest expenses on outstanding debt. It's worth noting that the esteemed investor Benjamin Graham typically favored companies with an interest coverage ratio of at least five.

The company's Altman Z-Scoreis just 1.64, which is below the distress zone of 1.81. This suggests that the company may face financial distress over the next few years. Additionally, the company's low cash-to-debt ratio at 0.31 indicates a struggle in handling existing debt levels.

Profitability Analysis

Wayfair Inc's low Profitability rank can also raise warning signals. Wayfair Inc's Operating Margin has declined over the past five years ((-37,732.00%)), as shown by the following data: 2018: -6.98; 2019: -10.19; 2020: 2.55; 2021: -0.60; 2022: -10.76; .

Conclusion

Given the company's financial strength, profitability, and growth metrics, the GF Score highlights the firm's unparalleled position for potential underperformance. While Wayfair Inc has a commendable history in the Retail - Cyclical industry, its current financial indicators suggest that it may struggle to maintain its performance in the future. Investors should consider these factors when making investment decisions.

GuruFocus Premium members can find more companies with strong GF Scores using the following screener link: GF Score Screen

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Value-focused investors are always on the hunt for stocks that are priced below their intrinsic value. One such stock that merits attention is Wayfair Inc (NYSE:W). The stock, which is currently priced at 62.5, recorded a gain of 3.19% in a day and a 3-month decrease of 3.89%. The stock's fair valuation is $115.55, as indicated by its GF Value.

Understanding GF Value

The GF Value represents the current intrinsic value of a stock derived from our exclusive method. The GF Value Line on our summary page gives an overview of the fair value that the stock should be traded at. It is calculated based on historical multiples (PE Ratio, PS Ratio, PB Ratio and Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow) that the stock has traded at, GuruFocus adjustment factor based on the company's past returns and growth, and future estimates of the business performance.

Wayfair (W) Stock: A Hidden Value Trap? Unpacking the Risks and Rewards

Wayfair's Apparent Undervaluation and Potential Risks

However, investors need to consider a more in-depth analysis before making an investment decision. Despite its seemingly attractive valuation, certain risk factors associated with Wayfair should not be ignored. These risks are primarily reflected through its low Altman Z-score of 1.64. These indicators suggest that Wayfair, despite its apparent undervaluation, might be a potential value trap. This complexity underlines the importance of thorough due diligence in investment decision-making.

Understanding the Altman Z-score

Before delving into the details, let's understand what the Altman Z-score entails. Invented by New York University Professor Edward I. Altman in 1968, the Z-Score is a financial model that predicts the probability of a company entering bankruptcy within a two-year time frame. The Altman Z-Score combines five different financial ratios, each weighted to create a final score. A score below 1.8 suggests a high likelihood of financial distress, while a score above 3 indicates a low risk.

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Company Snapshot: Wayfair Inc

Wayfair engages in e-commerce in the United States (86% of 2022 sales), Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Ireland. At the end of 2022, the firm offered more than 40 million products from more than 20,000 suppliers under the brands Wayfair, Joss & Main, AllModern, Birch Lane, and Perigold. Its offerings include furniture, everyday and seasonal decor, decorative accents, housewares, and other home goods. Wayfair was founded in 2002 and began trading publicly in 2014.

Wayfair (W) Stock: A Hidden Value Trap? Unpacking the Risks and Rewards

Wayfair's Low Altman Z-Score: A Breakdown of Key Drivers

A dissection of Wayfair's Altman Z-score reveals Wayfair's financial health may be weak, suggesting possible financial distress:

The Retained Earnings to Total Assets ratio provides insights into a company's capability to reinvest its profits or manage debt. Evaluating Wayfair's historical data, 2021: -0.36; 2022: -0.65; 2023: -1.09, we observe a declining trend in this ratio. This downward movement indicates Wayfair's diminishing ability to reinvest in its business or effectively manage its debt. Consequently, it exerts a negative impact on its Z-Score.

The EBIT to Total Assets ratio serves as a crucial barometer of a company's operational effectiveness, correlating earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) to total assets. An analysis of Wayfair's EBIT to Total Assets ratio from historical data (2021: 0.10; 2022: -0.23; 2023: -0.30) indicates a descending trend. This reduction suggests that Wayfair might not be utilizing its assets to their full potential to generate operational profits, which could be negatively affecting the company's overall Z-score.

When it comes to operational efficiency, a vital indicator for Wayfair is its asset turnover. The data: 2021: 3.23; 2022: 2.87; 2023: 3.32 from the past three years suggests a decreasing trend in this ratio. The asset turnover ratio reflects how effectively a company is using its assets to generate sales. Therefore, a drop in this ratio can signify reduced operational efficiency, potentially due to underutilization of assets or decreased market demand for the company's products or services. This shift in Wayfair's asset turnover underlines the need for the company to reassess its operational strategies to optimize asset usage and boost sales.

Conclusion

Considering the aforementioned factors, it is evident that despite its seemingly attractive valuation, Wayfair bears significant risks. The declining trend in key financial ratios and the low Altman Z-score indicate potential financial distress, making Wayfair a possible value trap. Therefore, investors should proceed with caution and conduct thorough due diligence before making investment decisions.

GuruFocus Premium members can find stocks with high Altman Z-Score using the following Screener: Walter Schloss Screen .

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Even when a business is losing money, it's possible for shareholders to make money if they buy a good business at the right price. For example, Encounter Resources (ASX:ENR) shareholders have done very well over the last year, with the share price soaring by 165%. But while history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?

In light of its strong share price run, we think now is a good time to investigate how risky Encounter Resources' cash burn is. For the purposes of this article, cash burn is the annual rate at which an unprofitable company spends cash to fund its growth; its negative free cash flow. The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'.

Check out our latest analysis for Encounter Resources

When Might Encounter Resources Run Out Of Money?

A cash runway is defined as the length of time it would take a company to run out of money if it kept spending at its current rate of cash burn. When Encounter Resources last reported its balance sheet in June 2023, it had zero debt and cash worth AU$12m. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through AU$4.3m. That means it had a cash runway of about 2.8 years as of June 2023. That's decent, giving the company a couple years to develop its business. Importantly, if we extrapolate recent cash burn trends, the cash runway would be a lot longer. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.

How Is Encounter Resources' Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Although Encounter Resources reported revenue of AU$135 last year, it didn't actually have any revenue from operations. That means we consider it a pre-revenue business, and we will focus our growth analysis on cash burn, for now. Over the last year its cash burn actually increased by 13%, which suggests that management are increasing investment in future growth, but not too quickly. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but investors should be mindful of the fact that will shorten the cash runway. Admittedly, we're a bit cautious of Encounter Resources due to its lack of significant operating revenues. So we'd generally prefer stocks from this list of stocks that have analysts forecasting growth.

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Can Encounter Resources Raise More Cash Easily?

While Encounter Resources does have a solid cash runway, its cash burn trajectory may have some shareholders thinking ahead to when the company may need to raise more cash. Issuing new shares, or taking on debt, are the most common ways for a listed company to raise more money for its business. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash and drive 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$121m, Encounter Resources' AU$4.3m in cash burn equates to about 3.5% of its market value. That's a low proportion, so we figure the company would be able to raise more cash to fund growth, with a little dilution, or even to simply borrow some money.

How Risky Is Encounter Resources' Cash Burn Situation?

As you can probably tell by now, we're not too worried about Encounter Resources' cash burn. For example, we think its cash runway suggests that the company is on a good path. Although its increasing cash burn does give us reason for pause, the other metrics we discussed in this article form a positive picture overall. Looking at all the measures in this article, together, we're not worried about its rate of cash burn; the company seems well on top of its medium-term spending needs. Separately, we looked at different risks affecting the company and spotted 3 warning signs for Encounter Resources (of which 1 can't be ignored!) you should know about.

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.
Andy Street is understood to have urged the Prime Minister to strip HS2 Ltd of control over the scheme - OLI SCARFF/AFP

The Conservative Mayor of the West Midlands has launched a last-ditch effort to save HS2s northern leg by securing private funding to finish the troubled project.

Andy Street, the former John Lewis boss, is understood to have urged Rishi Sunak to strip the government-owned organisation HS2 Ltd of control over the multibillion-pound scheme and instead put a development corporation in charge.

Sources pointed to the original Channel Tunnel project as an example, which was built by a consortium of private firms, as well as Londons Elizabeth Line, which received cash contributions from some major businesses in the capital and was part-funded by extra business rates.

In meetings on Tuesday Mr Street was racing to build support for his proposal among businesses attending the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

Cement giant Cemex, industrial giant Siemens, accounting firm EY and engineering consultancy Arup are understood to be involved.

Other businesses reportedly include engineering firms Arcadis and Mace, plus Manchester-based property company Bruntwood.

It came just hours before Mr Sunak was scheduled to give his closing conference speech on Wednesday morning, with the Prime Minister reportedly set to announce he is axing the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2.

He is said to have become alarmed by the troubled projects escalating costs, up from an original mooted budget of 30bn to potentially more than 100bn, but is facing opposition from senior Conservative figures including three former prime ministers.

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Mr Street has warned that the northern leg of the line is essential to unlocking the full economic benefits of HS2 in the regions and that scrapping it would deal a grave blow to investor confidence in the UK.

He even raised the prospect that he could resign over the issue  having refused to rule out that possibility during a press conference.

Issuing a final public plea to Mr Sunak on Tuesday, he said: I think they [the Government] are about to make an incredible political gaffe.

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Every Labour MP in the North is lining up tomorrow to say ... the Tories have come to Manchester to shaft the North.

Is that really what we want to offer to our opponents, or is there not a better answer?

Mr Street told a conference fringe event that solutions he and businesses were looking at included bringing in private finance to finish the route and in some cases even build stations.

Lord ONeill, the former Tory Treasury minister, also warned that scrapping HS2 would damage Britains reputation on the global stage for investment.

He said: The economics of HS2 were never greatI was not convinced about it when [the budget] was 35bn.

At the same time, to cancel it willy-nilly without any real transparency  why would any investor or any construction support services company ever take any investment project seriously again?

Only building the rail line from Euston to Birmingham would destroy any rationale of having HS2 in the first place, he added.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has led backbenchers in welcoming the decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2 - Carl Court/Getty Images Europe

Meanwhile, Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, suggested that billions of HS2 cash will be much better spent elsewhere and hinted Mr Sunak will unveil a swathe of new transport projects that will deliver dramatically faster improvements to peoples lives.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former business secretary, also led backbenchers in welcoming the decision to scrap the northern leg of HS2, saying in a Sky News interview it would be sensible for the project to be scaled back.

So far the Government has only formally committed funding to the first phase of HS2, running from London Euston to Birmingham and onwards to Crewe.

But it has made no such commitment to the leg going onwards to Manchester, with Mr Sunak now thought to favour an alternative package of transport improvements to increase east-west connectivity in the North.

However, Mr Street has argued that the northern leg of HS2 is essential to unlocking the full economic benefits of the scheme, because it will allow much easier commuting between the Midlands and northern cities  rather than to and from London.

For example, train times between Birmingham and Manchester would fall from one hour and 26 minutes to just 41 minutes, while those between Birmingham and Leeds would fall from one hour and 52 minutes to 49 minutes.

Despite this, the potential economic benefits of HS2 remain highly disputed, with one official estimate predicting the project would only return 1.10 to the economy for every 1 spent.

On Tuesday night, a government spokesman said: The HS2 project is already well underway with spades in the ground, and our focus remains on delivering it.

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Donald Trump's legal woes aren't limited to four high-profile criminal prosecutions. The former president also faces a civil lawsuit filed last year by New York Attorney General Letitia James, which went to trial on Oct. 2. The judge in the case has already found Trump, his two adult sons, and his company, The Trump Organization, liable for fraud and ordered the cancellation of licenses that allow Trump to do business in the state.

The trial, which could last until December, will establish how much Trump owes in damages.

Trump says he's innocent, of course, and he's sure to appeal the judge's ruling. At a minimum, however, the trial will expose business practices Trump would prefer to keep private. The suit could also be costly: James wants Trump to disgorge $250 million, the amount she says he gained by duping banks and insurers. And if Trump loses his New York business licenses, it could threaten the viability of the real estate company his father Fred started decades ago.

The suit is basically a follow-up to a 2018 New York Times expose claiming that Trump participated in a variety of dubious tax schemes  including instances of outright fraud. Trumps former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has likewise accused Trump of criminal activity, including some crimes Cohen participated in and went to prison for.

In the suit, James asserts that Trump and his real estate company engaged in numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation for at least a decade. It details how Trump knowingly and consistently overstated the value of at least 23 commercial properties, for the purpose of getting lower interest rates and cheaper insurance. Trump provided much lower valuations for some of the same properties when filing tax documents, essentially ratcheting valuations up or down based on circumstances and financial implications.

The variations are not trivial. In one example cited by the judge in the case, Arthur Engoron, appraisers valued Trump's Seven Springs estate in New York at around $30 million. Yet in state financial filings, Trump reported the value to be $261 million. In another, Trump claimed his 11,000-square-foot Trump Tower residence was actually 33,000 square feet, resulting in an overvaluation of somewhere between $114 million and $207 million.

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"A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real-estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud," Engoron wrote in September in his finding of liability.

One oddity of this suit is that prosecutors are not claiming anybody lost money or even suffered harm because of Trump's overvaluations. The presumed victims arent customers Trump defrauded, contractors he stiffed, or shareholders he lied to. The victims are banks and insurance companies that supposedly undercharged Trump for loans and insurance policies, because Trump told them his properties were more expansive and valuable than they actually were.

Damages ahead? Former President Donald Trump and his legal team at a Manhattan courthouse, in New York on Oct. 3. (Dave Sanders/Pool Photo via AP)

The government doesnt usually sue on behalf of big businesses that have their own well-staffed legal departments to protect them. James seems to be taking this approach because New York law empowers the attorney general to seek damages caused by fraudulent business behavior as a form of consumer protection. The law doesnt require the prosecutors to identify a victim or even demonstrate anybody suffered harm.

What makes this statute particularly powerful is that there doesnt have to be a loss, Will Thomas, a law professor at the University of Michigans Ross School of Business, told Yahoo Finance. This statute has been used to disgorge profits illegally gained. The government can be allowed to claw back all of those profits. Provable nature is lower, and you dont have to prove intent or willfulness.

Trump has embraced his various legal challenges and characterized them as politically motivated persecution. He points out that James is an elected Democrat in one of the most anti-Trump blue states. And his approval rating among Republicans has ticked up, not down, as civil and criminal cases have besieged him. So the New York case may have little or no effect on Trump's status as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

There are wild cards, though. Trump has said he plans to testify in the case, which is likely to provide a stark contrast with the blustery and often dishonest rants Trump regularly delivers when he's campaigning. Trump has testified under oath many times in lawsuits and other legal proceedings, and he tends to be understated and relatively humble when there are legal penalties for lying. He could very well contradict his own public statements about his net worth or his business success  or even worse, look weak  if necessary to avoid a perjury charge.

One factor in Trump's favor: While some parts of the New York trial will be televised, witness testimony will not be. So if Trump says something embarrassing, voters might hear about it but they won't see it with their own eyes. In today's political environment, many voters won't believe something happened if there's no video.

The biggest risk to Trump may be the loss of his New York businesses. If Judge Engoron's order revoking Trump's business licenses survives appeal, then a court-appointed receiver will take possession of those businesses and sell them to the highest bidder. Trump would get the proceeds, and he'd still manage a variety of Trump properties outside of New York state.

But he'd be exiled from the state where his family's company took root, and the reputational harm could affect his ability to get financing and do business elsewhere. The ultimate victim of Trump's exaggerations might be Trump himself.

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Warren Buffett, chair of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the most famous investors, has made his estate plan known for a while. In 2006, he made a commitment to gradually give all of his Berkshire Hathaway stock to philanthropic foundations.

Get Rich Slow: Dave Ramsey Offers the Key to Lasting Wealth

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I couldnt be happier with that decision, the Oracle of Omaha wrote.

Jaspreet Singh on the 75/15/10 Rule: This Is How the 1% Manage Their Wealth

Most notably, he, along with Bill Gates and Melissa French Gates, cofounded the Giving Pledge to set a new standard of generosity among the ultra-wealthy and ask Americas wealthiest to commit to give most of their wealth to address some of societys most pressing problems.

Were we to use more than 1% of my claim checks (Berkshire Hathaway stock certificates) on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99% can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others, Buffett wrote in his pledge letter.

Buffett, who is the seventh richest man on the planet, with a net worth of $116 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, explained in his letter that 99% of his wealth will go to philanthropy during his lifetime or at death.

He asked other rich parents in America to follow his lead and pledge at least 50% of their wealth to charity.

Buffett added that this pledge will leave his lifestyle untouched and that of his children as well, as they have already received significant sums for their personal use and will receive more in the future.

The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends, he added.

Most of Buffetts fortune stems from his interest in Berkshire Hathaway, which has returned a compounded annual gain in per share market value of 19.8% since 1965, according to its 2023 letter to shareholders.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Why Warren Buffett Isnt Leaving His Money to His Kids  And Why You Dont Have To Either
Value-focused investors are always on the hunt for stocks that are priced below their intrinsic value. One such stock that merits attention is Wolfspeed Inc (NYSE:WOLF). The stock, which is currently priced at 35.78, recorded a loss of 5.8% in a day and a 3-month decrease of 35.76%. The stock's fair valuation is $132.86, as indicated by its GF Value.

Understanding GF Value

The GF Value represents the current intrinsic value of a stock derived from our exclusive method. The GF Value Line on our summary page gives an overview of the fair value that the stock should be traded at. It is calculated based on three factors: historical multiples (PE Ratio, PS Ratio, PB Ratio and Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow) that the stock has traded at, GuruFocus adjustment factor based on the company's past returns and growth, and future estimates of the business performance.

Is Wolfspeed (WOLF) Too Good to Be True? A Comprehensive Analysis of a Potential Value Trap

Uncovering the Risks: Is Wolfspeed a Value Trap?

However, investors need to consider a more in-depth analysis before making an investment decision. Despite its seemingly attractive valuation, certain risk factors associated with Wolfspeed should not be ignored. These risks are primarily reflected through its low Altman Z-score of 0.68, and the company's revenues and earnings have been on a downward trend over the past five years. These indicators suggest that Wolfspeed, despite its apparent undervaluation, might be a potential value trap. This complexity underlines the importance of thorough due diligence in investment decision-making.

Decoding the Altman Z-Score

Before delving into the details, let's understand what the Altman Z-score entails. Invented by New York University Professor Edward I. Altman in 1968, the Z-Score is a financial model that predicts the probability of a company entering bankruptcy within a two-year time frame. The Altman Z-Score combines five different financial ratios, each weighted to create a final score. A score below 1.8 suggests a high likelihood of financial distress, while a score above 3 indicates a low risk.

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Wolfspeed: A Snapshot

Wolfspeed Inc is involved in the manufacturing of wide bandgap semiconductors. It is focused on silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials and devices for power and radio-frequency (RF) applications. The company serves applications such as transportation, power supplies, inverters, and wireless systems. Geographically, it derives a majority of revenue from Europe and also has a presence in the United States; China; Japan; South Korea, and other countries.

Is Wolfspeed (WOLF) Too Good to Be True? A Comprehensive Analysis of a Potential Value Trap

Wolfspeed's Low Altman Z-Score: A Breakdown of Key Drivers

A dissection of Wolfspeed's Altman Z-score reveals Wolfspeed's financial health may be weak, suggesting possible financial distress.

Operational Efficiency: The Asset Turnover Ratio

When it comes to operational efficiency, a vital indicator for Wolfspeed is its asset turnover. The data: 2021: 0.16; 2022: 0.21; 2023: 0.18 from the past three years suggests a decreasing trend in this ratio. The asset turnover ratio reflects how effectively a company is using its assets to generate sales. Therefore, a drop in this ratio can signify reduced operational efficiency, potentially due to underutilization of assets or decreased market demand for the company's products or services. This shift in Wolfspeed's asset turnover underlines the need for the company to reassess its operational strategies to optimize asset usage and boost sales.

The Bearish Signs: Declining Revenues and Earnings

One of the telltale indicators of a company's potential trouble is a sustained decline in revenues. In the case of Wolfspeed, both the revenue per share (evident from the last five years' TTM data: 2019: 5.32; 2020: 5.44; 2021: 4.71; 2022: 6.20; 2023: 7.41; ) and the 5-year revenue growth rate (-1.5%) have been on a consistent downward trajectory. This pattern may point to underlying challenges such as diminishing demand for Wolfspeed's products, or escalating competition in its market sector. Either scenario can pose serious risks to the company's future performance, warranting a thorough analysis by investors.

Is Wolfspeed (WOLF) Too Good to Be True? A Comprehensive Analysis of a Potential Value Trap

The Red Flag: Sluggish Earnings Growth

The company's earnings picture does not look much brighter. The 3-year EPS without NRI growth rate (-13.1%) is sluggish, and the future 3 to 5-year EPS growth estimate (0%) does not show a promising uptick. These indicators could suggest the company is struggling to translate sales into profits effectively, a critical element of a successful business model.

Conclusion: Wolfspeed, A Potential Value Trap?

Despite its low price-to-fair-value ratio, Wolfspeed's falling revenues and earnings cast a long shadow over its investment attractiveness. A low price relative to intrinsic value can indeed suggest an investment opportunity, but only if the company's fundamentals are sound or improving. In Wolfspeed's case, the declining revenues, EBITDA, and earnings growth suggest that the company's issues may be more than just cyclical fluctuations. Without a clear turnaround strategy, there's a risk that the company's performance could continue to deteriorate, leading to further price declines. In such a scenario, the low price-to-GF-Value ratio may be more indicative of a value trap than a value opportunity.

GuruFocus Premium members can find stocks with high Altman Z-Score using the following Screener: Walter Schloss Screen . Investors can find stocks with good revenue and earnings growth using GuruFocus' Peter Lynch Growth with Low Valuation Screener.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Streaming prices have ballooned across the board, with Netflix (NFLX) becoming the latest platform that will reportedly hike the amount it charges for one of its plans as profitability becomes top of mind for media companies.

On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported Netflix plans to raise the price of its ad-free streaming tier following the conclusion of the ongoing actors strike. The company declined to comment on the report when asked by Yahoo Finance.

SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, recording artists, and other media professionals around the world, is currently engaged in contract negotiations with studios, and a deal could be imminent.

Although the Journal said the exact timeline for a potential Netflix price hike and the amount by which its monthly $15.49 plan would go up is still unknown, the rumored increase echoes recent moves by competitors.

Streaming prices rival cable bundle

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which raised the price of its ad-free Max offering earlier this year by $1 to $15.99, announced that it would raise the price of its ad-free Discovery+ streaming platform by $2 to $8.99, effective Tuesday.

The ad-free versions of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ will rise by more than 20% effective Oct. 12 as Disney (DIS) works to narrow its direct-to-consumer losses and reach streaming profitability by the end of its fiscal 2024. It's the second time this year that Disney has raised the prices of its plans.

Meanwhile Comcast's Peacock (CMCSA) upped the cost of its ad-supported plan by $1 to $5.99 and its ad-free plan by $2 to $11.99 in August. It was the first time Peacock had raised its streaming prices.

In June, Paramount (PARA) launched its Paramount+ with Showtime streaming offering for $11.99 a month  $2 more than the previous price for a Paramount+ subscription. It also raised the prices of its ad-supported tier by $1 to $5.99.

Even cable replacement services like Alphabet's YouTube TV (GOOGL) and Disney's Hulu + Live TV have seen prices leap from prior levels.

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YouTube TV jumped to $72.99 from $64.99 in March while Hulu + Live TV with ads will see prices increase from $69.99 to $76.99 next week. The ad-free version will cost $89.99, up from the prior $82.99.

Netflix, the only profitable streaming service on the market, remains the sole platform that hasn't raised prices this year, choosing to focus on revenue initiatives like the crackdown on password sharing and its recently launched ad-supported tier instead.

On Tuesday, the company announced an executive shakeup within its advertising unit with Jeremi Gorman, who helped build the ad business from scratch, exiting the company after just over a year in the job. Amy Reinhard, who previously served as VP of studio operations, will succeed Gorman as the new president of advertising.

Netflix also announced Eunice Kim will be promoted to chief product officer while Elizabeth Stone will serve as chief technology officer.

The leadership changes come as Netflix revamps the company for its next stage of growth with pricing top of mind amid the competitive landscape.

The company last hiked prices in early 2022, bumping its Standard plan to $15.49 from $13.99 and increasing the cost of its Premium plan to $19.99 from $17.99. However, Netflix did quietly remove its "Basic" $9.99 plan in July  a bid to lure more users to its cheaper, $6.99 ad-based offering.

Streaming prices have ballooned across the board with Netflix the latest platform that will reportedly raise prices as profitability and engagement become top of mind for media companies. (Getty Images)

Added up, the cost of these services now rival the dreaded cable TV bundle of years past  the very thing that streaming set out to undo.

Consumers are taking notice with subscribers canceling more of their plans to combat rising costs.

Subscriber numbers at major direct-to-consumer services (DTC) including Peacock, Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, Paramount+, Max, and Discovery+ were down by about 500,000 combined following this latest earnings season.

Despite the overall slowdown, growth was aided by Netflix's password sharing crackdown, which helped the streamer add 5.9 million subscribers in the second quarter with more users signing up for their own plans. Wider crackdowns on password sharing will likely become the norm as media giants prioritize profitability over subscriber count.

Disney said it would be implementing its own crackdown at some point in 2024.

Alexandra Canal is a Senior Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @allie_canal, LinkedIn, and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com.

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Two King George siblings were convicted of charges Monday stemming from their roles in a 2022 brawl outside a Spotsylvania County bar during which a man was shot, but neither will have to serve any additional jail time.

Adriana Giselle Hernandez, 23, pleaded guilty to felony reckless handling of a firearm and assault and battery. She was sentenced to a total of six years, but all of it was suspended except for the 17 days she has already served.

Her brother, 30-year-old Armando Gomez, was convicted of two misdemeanors and got no active jail time. Defense attorneys Jonathan David and Andy Cornick worked out deals in which several charges were either dropped or reduced.

Their arrests stem from a March 5, 2022, incident at Cancun Bar and Grill in Spotsylvania Towne Center. Gomez and the shooting victim, Daniel Garcia, got into a dispute that Garcia claims started when Gomez intentionally bumped him as Garcia walked by near closing time.

Garcia testified at a previous hearing that hed seen Gomez before but never had any problems with him. But he admitted having prior disagreements with people who Gomez hung out with.

Garcia said he challenged Gomez to go outside and settle it after the two men exchanged words. Garcia said they were outside only a few moments when he was shot in the hip.

Yulian Hernandez Garcia, the shooting victims brother-in-law, was jumped and beaten by several people when he came to Garcias aid. Hernandez Garcia suffered a concussion and other head injuries that required treatment at Mary Washington Hospital.

Witnesses at the scene gave conflicting statements regarding who started the altercation. A bartender testified that Garcia was the aggressor.

But after viewing camera footage, police decided to charge the siblings, who were ordered to pay restitution to the victims in an amount that will be determined at a hearing next month.
The Library of Virginias new mobile programming van, which debuted in the spring as part of its 200th anniversary celebrations, will visit the Fredericksburg branch of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library on Saturday.

The custom-built mobile programming van, LVA on the Go, is in the middle of a statewide tour designed to enhance awareness of the Librarys collections, which contain more than 130 million items that document and illustrate the lives of both famous Virginians and ordinary citizens.

The tour also aims to strengthen ties between the Library and local organizations and to capture stories and histories from community members.

At the downtown library event Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., visitors can explore research resources, register for a Library card, discuss regional and family history and discover educational materials.

Library of Virginia staff will also offer the following presentations:

10:30 a.m.  Storytime

11 a.m.  LVA Genealogy 101

11:30 a.m.  Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative

12:30 p.m.  LVA Newspaper Research

1 p.m.  Local Records: Lost and Found

For more information, visit lva.virginia.gov/200.
WILMINGTON, Del.  Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to three federal firearms charges that emerged after his earlier deal imploded, setting the case on a track toward a possible trial in 2024 while his father is campaigning for reelection.

President Joe Biden's son has been charged with lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days. He could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

When asked by Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke if he understood the charges against him, Biden said, "Yes, Your Honor."

His lawyer Abbe Lowell said in court he plans to file a motion to dismiss the charges, challenging their constitutionality.

"Mr. Biden pleads not guilty to the three counts that have been brought against him," Lowell said to the judge.

Hunter Biden has acknowledged struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine during that period in 2018, but his lawyers have said he didn't break the law. Gun charges like these are rare, and an appeals court has found the ban on drug users having guns violates the Second Amendment under new Supreme Court standards.

On Tuesday, the judge noted Hunter Biden had been repeatedly tested for drugs and is negative.

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Hunter Biden's attorneys are suggesting that prosecutors bowed to pressure by Republicans, who have insisted the Democratic president's son got a sweetheart deal, and that the charges were the result of political pressure.

Earlier this summer, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax charges and would have also avoided prosecution on the gun charges had he stayed out of trouble for two years. It was the culmination of a yearslong investigation by federal prosecutors into the business dealings of the president's son, and the agreement would have dispensed with criminal proceedings and spared the Bidens weeks of headlines as the election loomed.

The deal broke down after the judge who was supposed to sign off on the agreement instead raised a series of questions about the deal.

Now, a special counsel has been appointed to handle the case, and there appears no easy end in sight. Hunter Biden was indicted on the three gun charges, and no new tax charges have yet been filed  but the special counsel has indicated those charges could come in Washington or in California, where Hunter Biden lives.

Defense attorneys have argued that he remains protected by an immunity provision that was part of the scuttled plea agreement, but prosecutors overseen by special counsel David Weiss disagree. Weiss also serves as U.S. attorney for Delaware and was originally appointed by Trump.

Lowell on Tuesday said he planned to file "a number of motions," including a push to dismiss the case based on an immunity agreement in the now-scuttled plea deal and the constitutionality of the law against drug users having guns.

Lowell also said the defense plans to ask for an evidentiary hearing.

In Congress, House Republicans are seeking to link Hunter Biden's dealings to his father's through an impeachment inquiry. Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden for years, since his father was Barack Obama's vice president. While questions have arisen about the ethics surrounding the Biden family's international business, no evidence has emerged so far to prove that Joe Biden, in his current or previous office, abused his role or accepted bribes.

The legal wrangling is likely to spill into 2024, with Republicans eager to divert attention from the multiple criminal indictments faced by GOP primary front-runner Donald Trump, whose trials could be unfolding at the same time.

After remaining silent for years, Hunter Biden has taken a more aggressive legal stance in recent weeks, filing a series of lawsuits over the dissemination of personal information purportedly from his laptop and his tax data by whistleblower IRS agents who testified before Congress as part of the GOP probe.

Hunter Biden had asked for Tuesday's hearing to be conducted remotely over video feed, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke sided with prosecutors, saying there would be no "special treatment."

Photos: Hunter Biden through the years
Local seed company Nebraska Irrigated Seeds has been purchased by a global agriculture firm called Agrality, company officials announced in September.

According to a press release, Agrality specializes in seed industry solutions, and has locations in the United States, Brazil and Argentina. Company officials stated in the press release that the acquisition of NIS, extends (the companys) reach into the coveted Midwest corn belt and surrounding regions.

NIS President Adam Monke said the acquisition will add growth opportunities for his family-owned business and its employees. Nebraska Irrigated Seeds will retain its name, but will add By Agrality to the end of the companys moniker, he noted.

Monke said being purchased by Agrality will give his employees  many of whom are multi-generational workers whose parents and other relatives worked at NIS  more chances and opportunities to soar higher in their careers and also in potential earnings.

(Were) a family-owned business with a lot of lineage that goes way back many years, second and third generation employees that now will have the aperture opened for them to grow and open them up to new positions to have opportunities to grow into a role that otherwise, I could not provide for them being a family-owned business, Monke said. Those are the kinds of things that make me so proud and that aligned us so well with a bigger company like Agrality. The other beautiful portion of it is, (Agrality) has zero desire to be disruptive in what we do. They bought the faces, the places and the people and we will remain and the name will remain just with their support.

The entire process of the merger took about 15 months, and Monke said he was not able to disclose specific financial aspects of the deal. He said he was grateful for the smooth work on the acquisition that he had with officials from Agrality.

Monke stated in a press release that the company  founded in 1935  said the purchase of the firm by Agrality give the company the, opportunity to expand our services within the United States domestic market and beyond.

Since 1935, we have embraced an immense amount of pride in producing high quality seeds and dependable services for the seed industry in the production sector, Monke stated in the release. We have taken a big step forward to be the strategic partner that alights with our clients expectations.

Juan Cruz Lizarralde, the CEO of Agrality, stated in the press release that the acquisition of NIS adds to the companys United States portfolio, which already includes a seed processing plant in Michigan as well as two experimental seed stations in North Dakota and Indiana.

We are committed to becoming a regional seed business supplied for the United States domestic market while delivering tailor-made solutions worldwide to meet the specific needs of each customer, Cruz Lizarralde stated in the release. This partnership will solidify our presence and growth in the domestic United States market, enhancing our existing capabilities.

As part of the acquisition, Agrality will now have access and use of Nebraska Irrigated Seeds 6,000 acres of seed corn and 16,000 acres of soybeans; as well as field machinery and operational capacity. Four sites are also included in the deal, a multi-crop processing and conditioning site; drying and shelling facilities; and warehouse capacity totaling 400,000 square feet of space that can store an equivalent of 2 million bags of corn seed.
The following incidents were responded to by the Fremont Police Department (FPD). All information is received directly from FPD Capt. Kurt Bottorff. All suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

 On Friday, Sept. 29, at about 4:50 p.m., officers were dispatched to a business in the 3000 block of East 23rd Street for a shoplifting complaint. An investigation determined that Evgenii Kirllov, 29, of Chicago exited the store without paying for items. Kirllov was arrested and charged with theft by shoplifting.

 On Saturday, Sept. 30, at about 7:11 p.m., officers responded to the 1400 block of West Military Avenue for a physical disturbance. An investigation was conducted resulting in the arrest of Selena B. Arias Herrera, 28, of Fremont for third-degree domestic assault.
Kenny Krause had fought more than his share of brush fires in his years as fire chief in the Southeast Nebraska town of Fairbury.

His departments volunteers could typically leave their jobs, douse the flames and return to the station in a couple of hours.

Then on April 11, Krause and his firefighters confronted the monster Rock Creek Fire. Fueled by wind and drought, a small controlled burn exploded into a 2,800-acre conflagration that took dozens of volunteers from Fairbury and nearby towns five days to put out.

I looked in my rearview mirror, I could see it, 20 miles away, Krause said Friday, at a hearing of the Nebraska Legislatures Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee in Lincoln. I never thought I would see a wildfire like this.

The committee is considering Legislative Resolution 156, a proposed study of the impact and increased frequency and intensity of wildfires in Nebraska, and the sufficiency of the firefighting response in the state.

The resolution, proposed by Sen. Mike McDonnell of Omaha, would examine whether more money is needed from the state to support the unpaid volunteers who bear most of the burden of battling wildfires. It would examine policies and procedures, including the possible creation of an intrastate mutual-aid effort.

This has truly become a statewide issue, McDonnell said. A statewide response is needed.

John Erixson, director of the Nebraska Forest Service, told the committee that in the first 30 years after the state began tracking wildfires in 1964, only twice did fire consume more than 100,000 acres.

In the 30 years since, it has happened seven times  topped by the nightmare year of 2012, when nearly 500,000 acres burned in north and northwest Nebraska.

The second-worst year was 2022, with 279,099 acres scorched during another hot, dry year. Three volunteers died in the firefighting effort.

This year has provided little relief. More than 179,000 acres have burned, mostly in April. And the year is not over.

Its obviously getting worse, said Scott Cordes, the Nebraska state fire marshal. People who have historically not seen these things are seeing them burn hotter and move faster.

The increase in fires coincides with a decrease in the pool of volunteers as the rural population shrinks.

The decline in volunteerism has affected us in Nebraska, said Nathan Flowers, chief of the Gering Fire Department. As hard as it is now to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters, its going to be much harder in five years.

Wesley Hock is the fire chief in Holbrook, a village of 200 people 35 miles east of McCook. His small department fought three major wildfires last year  including the Mile Marker 26 fire, which burned 100 square miles.

I had crews that were on the fires for three weeks. They were tired, Hock told the committee. We just didnt have enough personnel. We had so many fires burning across the state, we were just spread too thin.

Following the 2012 wildfires, the Legislature passed the Wildfire Control Act. The law funded the thinning of dense fuel in 9,000 acres of forest, additional training for firefighters, and the establishment of air-tanker bases at five airfields in western Nebraska.

Still, at Fridays hearing the fire chiefs identified several unmet needs:

* More and better radios operating on a dedicated frequency, to ease communications among departments and with aerial units.

* State reimbursement for firefighting equipment and gear.

* The creation of an intrastate fire compact to make it easier for departments in one part of the state to help those in another.

Sen. Tom Brewer, who chaired the hearing, said he hopes the Legislature will act next year to speed aid to strapped rural fire departments.

This next session is when we need to push things through and get an answer on this, he said.
After two recent meetings with Boulder law enforcement, JonBenet Ramseys family believes the relationship which has often been at a standoff between the two sides may have turned a corner.

JonBenets father and oldest brother hope that Boulder's promise to take a new look at evidence will solve the nearly 27-year-old case before it turns 30.

John Ramsey, along with his oldest son John Andrew, met with Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold and Deputy Chief Stephen Redfearn on Jan. 20, 2023 and that group with the addition of Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty met again this past June 1.

John Ramsey has maintained that he and his wife, Patsy are innocent in JonBenets death, but for years the couple were considered "under the umbrella of suspicion" for the crime.

When asked if John and Patsy Ramsey are still considered suspects or persons of interest in the case, a Boulder police spokesperson said that because "this is an open and ongoing investigation, were unable to give any interviews or comment on specific aspects of this crime."

Mrs. Ramsey died in 2006 of ovarian cancer at the age of 49. John Ramsey remarried and has continued to pressure the Boulder police to look at alternative suspects.

Its not new for his oldest son, John Andrew, 47, to discuss the case face-to-face with Boulder police, but he said that in meetings before, he never felt that the investigative team was aggressively pursuing anyone else besides his father and stepmother.

The meetings this year felt different.

We have trust that they are doing the right thing, said John Andrew. I told them that I am not interested in litigating the past.

JonBenet Ramsey was first reported missing from her home in Boulder on the morning of December 26, 1996. Patsy Ramsey said she found a three-page ransom note, demanding $118,000 for the child's safe return, on the bottom steps of a spiral staircase on the ground floor of the family's upscale Boulder home near Chatauqua Park. Later that day, the child's body was found in the basement by her father.

Since then, the Boulder Police Department has investigated thousands of leads including more than 21,000 tips, letters, and emails, according to officials.

Dougherty told The Denver Gazette that they are taking inventory of all of the physical evidence verifying that it has been tested using the latest technology and advanced methods.

In a key statement, Dougherty said, "Whether it is DNA or other evidence, more is needed if this tragic murder is ever to be solved."

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The sensitivity of DNA testing has vastly improved in the last six years with the introduction of Investigative Genetic Genealogy, which applies advanced sequencing technologies to forensic DNA evidence samples. It then uses genetic genealogy methods and genealogical research, to come up with possible identities of people who have committed violent crimes. It's also used to identify human remains.

John Andrew noted that items that had been previously tested should be evaluated for new testing."

The Ramseys believe that DNA is a critical piece of the puzzle in a case which has confounded investigators for decades, but not everyone agrees with them.

Former Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett has said in previous interviews with The Denver Gazette that the JonBenet Ramsey murder is not a DNA case. He has always maintained that her death will not be solved by identifying who the DNA belongs to, saying the case will be solved using the totality of the evidence. He is now in private practice with Garnett, Powell, Maximon and Barlow in Boulder.

As DA, Garnett sent several items of evidence from the unsolved case to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for DNA testing in 1996. The tests also tapped into an FBI database that includes genetic profiles from more than 15.1 million known offenders and arrestees, but did not match anyone.

This time around, a Boulder investigative team is in the process of digitizing boxes of case files in preparation for an upcoming Cold Case review team meeting, according to Dougherty. He said that a date hadn't been set for that meeting.

Why havent those files been digitized before? Boulder Police spokesperson Dionne Waugh texted that new leadership and new eyes are bringing different perspectives to this investigation.

Dougherty said that the FBI, the Colorado Department of Public Safety and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation will also be part of the renewed effort.

Herold began her tenure as Boulder chief in April 2020 and was the first lead ever brought in from outside of the department since JonBenet Ramseys Dec. 1996 murder. Deputy Chief Redfearn joined the Boulder force in 2021, after more than two decades of experience

Notably, one of the lead investigators who was on the Ramsey case from the beginning was removed from the investigation Nov. 1 last year when he was disciplined along with four other officers. Commander Thomas Trujillo received an involuntary transfer to patrol division, a three-day suspension and placed on a performance improvement plan after an internal audit that uncovered misconduct.

John Andrew said that hes now going to give the Boulder police space to get the work done. This is what weve been asking for 26 years, he said.

JonBenet Ramsey would have been 33 years old had she lived.
The United States Postal Inspection Service is offering potentially thousands of dollars in reward money to tackle a case of mail theft in Colorado Springs, according to Gazette news partner KKTV.

The service announced a reward of up to $20,000 for anyone who can help identify two suspects accused of stealing mail from at the Quail Run Apartments, located near the intersection of Dublin and North Academy boulevards.

The thefts reportedly occurred between Sept. 7 and Sept. 25, KKTV said.

Those with information about the incident are asked to call 1-877-876-2455, and say Law Enforcement when prompted. The caller should then reference case number 4006297-MT.
Colorado Springs police arrested a man early Tuesday morning accused of stealing a driver's vehicle at gunpoint and crashing it.

Officers arrested Eric Jones, 32, after police spotted the stolen vehicle in the 200 block of S. Academy Blvd. around 1:20 a.m., several hours after the carjacking was reported in 400 block of N. Murray Blvd.

Police accused Jones of evading officers' attempt to stop the vehicle and escape before losing control and crashing the vehicle on North Academy Boulevard south of Constitution Avenue.

Jones, who officers said was uninjured in the crash, is accused of aggravated robbery among other crimes. Officers said Jones had two other felony warrants out for his arrest from prior incidents including another accusation of aggravated robbery.
Colorado Springs police confirmed that former School District 49 board member Ivy Liu was arrested Saturday and faces possible charges of felony menacing with a weapon, second-degree criminal tampering and false imprisonment.

Her first appearance hearing in district court is scheduled for Oct. 12.

Liu, who vacated her seat on the board before the end of her term in November, was embroiled in conflict on the board leading up to her departure that ended with her being disqualified for reelection.

The series of events that led to Liu's departure from the board began in February when the board voted 3-2, with member Jamilynn D'Avola siding with Liu against redistricting, to redraw the boundaries for its five director districts, a statutory obligation to ensure each director district has similar size population. That resulted in Liu's residence no longer falling within the district she represented and thus made her ineligible to run for reelection.

If Liu moved into another director district before November, she would lose out on the final months of her term but be eligible for election to a new one. She chose to vacate her seat and run for election.

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Liu launched a campaign for a new director district, using a new address. The district questioned the legitimacy of the move and said she was disqualified for not receiving enough supporting signatures on her candidate petition.

Liu then filed a petition in 4th Judicial District Court to halt the ballot certification process and deem her eligible for election after election official Lanette DePaul did not certify her candidacy because she lacked the minimum required number of supporting signatures. Lius residency status also was a point of contention, with district officials suggesting she did not live in the area that she sought to serve.

The court ruled for the districts designated election official who disqualified Liu.

Before the reelection matter, some called for Liu's resignation after she quoted Adolf Hitler in a social media post, which she said was an effort to urge people not to let history repeat itself.
The Colorado Springs Police Department and Colorado State Patrol will escort a fallen parole officer to Pueblo on Tuesday afternoon.

The procession will escort Officer Christine Guerin Sandoval from the El Paso County Coroner's Office to Pueblo, where she resided, at 3:15 p.m., according to a social media post from CSPD.

Guerin Sandoval died at UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central after sustaining injuries from a hit-and-run crash near downtown Colorado Springs last Thursday.

Officials said members of the community and other law enforcement agencies are welcome to line a portion of the route to pay their respects to Officer Guerin Sandoval along U.S. 85/87 from Las Vegas Street to the South Academy exit ramp onto Interstate 25.

The procession will affect traffic on I-25 from South Academy to the 6th St. exit in Pueblo for an extended period of time, according to officials.
Photo: VPD

Banners appeared Monday in northern Mexico purportedly signed by a faction of Mexicos Sinaloa cartel claiming that the gang has sworn off the sale and production of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

But experts quickly cast doubt on the veracity of the claim, saying that fentanyl  which has caused tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States  remains one of the cartels biggest money makers.

Prosecutors in Sinaloa confirmed that the banners appeared on overpasses and near roadways, but could not say whether they were authentic or who had hung them up.

The machine-printed banners purportedly signed by the sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman claim they have prohibited the sale or production of fentanyl in the northern state of Sinaloa. The sons are known as the Chapitos after their famous father.

In Sinaloa, the sale, manufacture, transport or any other business dealing with fentanyl, is strictly prohibited, including the sale of chemicals used to produce it, the banners read. You have been warned. Respectfully, Chapitos.

Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said there is concrete evidence that Sinaloa is the biggest producer of fentanyl in Mexico and that there has been no sign the cartel is moving away from it.

I think the Chapitos started feeling the pressure when they increased the reward for their capture. I think they are trying to create a massive illusion to take the pressure off," he said. Its almost like a big campaign to convince the U.S. theyre not involved. Its nothing more than pure propaganda, Vigil said.

In September, Mexico extradited Ovidio Guzman Lopez, one of the Chapitos, to the United States to face drug trafficking, money laundering and other charges. Mexican security forces captured Guzman Lopez, alias the Mouse, in January in Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa state, the cartels namesake.

In May, the Chapitos claimed in a letter that they were not involved in the fentanyl trade. The sons of Guzman wrote at the time that we have never produced, manufactured or commercialized fentanyl nor any of its derivatives, the letter said. We are victims of persecution and have been made into scapegoats."

Vigil maintained it was untrue that the cartel would stop producing fentanyl because, that is their big money maker. He also said that the rest of the Sinaloa Cartel would never go along with any move to stop the lucrative production.

"The Sinaloa Cartel strategy is to move away from plant-based drugs" like cocaine, marijuana and heroin, Vigil said. Giving up fentanyl  which could strengthen the rival Jalisco gang  is going to give Jalisco the keys to basically overshadow them in terms of money.

In April, U.S. prosecutors unsealed sprawling indictments against Ovidio Guzman and his brothers. They laid out in detail how following their fathers extradition and eventual life sentence in the U.S., the brothers steered the cartel increasingly into synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.

The indictment unsealed in Manhattan said their goal was to produce huge quantities of fentanyl and sell it at the lowest price. Fentanyl is so cheap to make that the cartel reaps immense profits even wholesaling the drug at 50 cents per pill, prosecutors said.

The Chapitos became known for grotesque violence that appeared to surpass any notions of restraint shown by earlier generations of cartel leaders.

Fentanyl has become a top priority in the bilateral security relationship. But Lopez Obrador has described his country as a transit point for precursors coming from China and bound for the U.S., despite assertions by the U.S. government and his own military about vast fentanyl production in Mexico.

An estimated 109,680 overdose deaths occurred last year in the United States, according to numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 75,000 of those were linked to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.

U.S. prosecutors allege much of the production occurs in and around the state capital, Culiacan, where the Sinaloa cartel exerts near complete control.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers on Saturday arrested a Fremont County man on suspicion of illegally shooting to death three bears, two of which were cubs, the agency said in a Monday news release.

Paul Stromberg, 52, could face a felony charge of illegal destruction of wildlife as well as several misdemeanor charges including killing wildlife without a license and waste of game meat, Parks and Wildlife officials said.

Acting on a series of social media reports and anonymous tips about an alleged poaching incident, officers on Saturday found a bear sow and two cubs that had been killed and dumped on state trust land southeast of Salida. After an investigation, wildlife officers obtained and executed a search warrant at a home near Howard, where they found evidence that the bears had been shot on Sept. 25.

The officers found sufficient evidence to arrest Stromberg and book him into the Fremont County jail, officials said. He was released on $10,000 bond.

Illegally injuring or killing wildlife can result in a variety of misdemeanor charges including harassment of wildlife, reckless endangerment and hunting big game without a license, the release stated. If convicted, offenders could face up to $13,000 in fines and/or six months in jail, depending on the charges.

Anyone with information on this investigation is asked to contact CPWs Salida office at (719) 530-5520. To anonymously report a wildlife violation, contact Operation Game Thief at (877) 265-6648, by dialing #OGT from a Verizon cell phone, or by email at game.thief@state.co.us.
Creak. Creak. Creak.

Filled with history and spooky sounds, abandoned towns tug at our desire for intrigue.

Former mining camps, mysterious narratives of failure and the touch of what was still on the doorknob.

The structures still standing, empty, for only those daring to visit them.

Before You Go

- Always check weather conditions as many of these towns are located in remote areas of rough terrain.

- Remember that all structures and buildings are aged and could be damaged easily, so be gentle and leave no trace.

- Some towns may not be accessible by 2-wheel drive vehicles, especially when not in the summer season.

With that said, check out these ghost towns around the state this spooky season:

Animas Forks

Animas Forks Established in 1873, Animas Forks is beautiful and eerie at the same time as one of the state's most-intact ghost towns.

Location: 12 miles northeast of Silverton, southwest Colorado

Animas Forks was founded in the late 1870s and had over 400 residents at its peak, according to 303 Magazine. The town was abandoned when several mines around the town began to decline. The best way to explore this town in the San Juan Mountains is by Jeep or other high clearance 4x4 vehicle, according to Hashtag Colorado Life.

Carson

Carson ghost town 3. Carson Near Lake City Silver outpaced gold 100 to 1 when this abandoned mining town was in its heyday, supporting 150 separate claims until

Location: south of Lake City, southwest Colorado

Mining also brought hundreds of people to Carson, which was established in the late 1880s. According to Hashtag Colorado Life, Carson is one of the best-preserved ghost towns in Colorado due to the difficulty to access it. You will most likely need a 4x4 vehicle to visit this location.

Independence

independence.jpg (copy) A cow grazes next to a double outhouse in the small town of Independence at the top of the hill along the Vindicator Valley Trail. The Vindica

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Location: 16 miles east of Aspen, western Colorado

Independence was once home to many miners and around 40 businesses, according to 303 Magazine. There was a catastrophic blizzard in 1899 which drove most residents out of the area. To this day, this area gets feet of snow from around October to May, so plan accordingly.

Vicksburg

092821-news-aspens 17.JPG Vicksburg is a well preserved ghost town tucked away in Clear Creek Canyon. The canyon lies between Leadville and Buena Vista on Highway 24. V

Location: 10 miles west of Granite, western Colorado

Vicksburg is named after Vick Keller, who owned the general store in the late 1800s. At its peak, the town had a schoolhouse, two hotels and two saloons, according to Hashtag Colorado Life. Check out the small museum in town as well as the cabin buildings.

Caribou City

Location: 5 miles north of Nederland, northwest Colorado

In the 1870s, Caribou City was at the forefront of the silver rush in Colorado, being able to produce about $8 million, according to 303 Magazine. Its decline occurred in the 1920s and a few structures remain including beautiful stone buildings.

St. Elmo

092722-Fall Colors 17.JPG Fall colors pop behind the old buildings of the ghost town of St. Elmo on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. (The Gazette, Parker Seibold)

Location: 20 miles southwest of Buena Vista, western Colorado

Even though St. Elmo is still considered a ghost town, there are still a few residents living at the site and the general store is usually open during the summer. There is also a former town hall and jail that contains a lot of historical information about St. Elmo.

Crystal

Crystal Colorado Crystal Ghost Town (cont.) To get there: Crystal is 5.9 miles east of Marble on Forest Road 314. A four-wheel drive vehicle and considerable e

Location: 6 miles east of Marble, western Colorado

Named after the Crystal River that runs through the town, Crystal was established for mining camps in the 1880s. Even though visitors can no longer access the photogenic Crystal Mill, you can still explore the site with its abandoned buildings and view other features that make this ghost town one of Colorado's most memorable.
Photo: The Canadian Press A Toronto Police Service logo patch is shown in Toronto, on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

Toronto police say one of their officers has been arrested and charged with assault.

Police say the officer was charged after a dispute between a man and a woman.

They allege the woman was assaulted during the dispute.

The police officer charged in the case is a constable with 15 years of service.

Police say he has been suspended with pay.

The officer is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 24.
The following award winners were announced at the opening reception of Iowa Crafts: 46 at the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum on Saturday, Sept. 30, at 2:30 p.m., according to a press release.

This statewide competition was open to all artists above high school age residing in the state of Iowa. Thirty artworks by 23 artists were selected for the final show. Iowa Crafts: 46 can be viewed in the museums Kinney-Lindstrom Gallery through Jan. 3, 2024. The juror for this competition was Stacy Peterson, Curatorial Director at the Dubuque Museum of Art in Dubuque, IA.

Amythest Warrington, of Waterloo, was given the Best in Show award for the earthenware piece, "Preserving a Memory." This award grants Warrington a solo exhibition in 2024 in the Museums Center Space Gallery.

The Best in Clay award of $150 was given to Amythest Warrington, of Waterloo, for "Vase with Orchids and Roses." The Jurors Special Mention in Clay of $50 was awarded to Glenda Klimesh-Ross, of Osage, for the stoneware piece, "Soul Series II: River Road."

The Best in Fiber award of $150 was given to Jan Friedman, of Iowa City, for the tapestry, "The Earth Has a Lot to Offer." The Jurors Special Mention in Fiber of $50 was awarded to Rowen Schussheim-Anderson, of Davenport, for "Hues from the Edge."

The Best in Glass award of $150 was given to Chris White, of Clear Lake, for the fused glass piece, "Alchemy II."

The Best in Metal/Wood award of $150 was given to Rob Wallace, of Ames, for the wooden vessel, "Eye of the Tiger." The Jurors Special Mention in Metal/Wood of $50 was given to Julienne Friday, of Forest City, for the wooden piece, Untitled.

The Best in Other Craft Media award of $150 was given to Tiberiu Chelcea, of Ames, for "Randomly Accessed Memory #24." The Jurors Special Mention in Other Craft Media of $50 was given to Paula Altmaier, of Riverside, for the mixed media artwork, "Childhood Memories."
Since opening her bagel shop earlier this month, business at Towanna Rogerss establishment has at least doubled.

Rogers opened I Bagel Your Pardon at 211 Nor-Dan Drive on Sept. 5.

The small, charming eatery is tucked away behind Workout Anytime and Walmart Neighborhood Market, accessible via an alley between the gym and the grocery store in Nor-Dan Shopping Center.

The New Jersey native, who has lived in Danville for five years, decided to start her business because she felt there was a need for delicious, authentic New York bagels in the city.

I noticed there was nothing in town as far as a real bagel here, Rogers said during interview at her business Thursday afternoon. Coming from up north, were used to having those huge, juicy bagels, so I missed that.

She wont reveal the vendor she buys her bagels from, but said they come from New York City and are hand-rolled, not machine-made.

Rogers, who spent 20 years working in human-resources management for corporations including Merck, Johnson & Johnson and NRG, said she wanted to test her tiny location to see how much the community wanted her type of bagels.

She plans on expanding to other locations in Danville as well as Martinsville, Lynchburg, Roanoke and beyond, eventually opening sites up north.

If the last couple of weeks are any indication, she may be on her way. Her first week of operation was slow, but as word of her venture spread on social media, customer volume exploded.

I had to close some days early because the bagels sold out, Rogers said.

She had closed her business early when the Danville Register & Bee arrived at the bagel shop at just before 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Her hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

I Bagel Your Pardon offers a variety of bagel flavors, including onion, everything, poppy seed, cinnamon raisin, sesame seed, pumpernickel, rainbow and plain.

There are also lunch- and breakfast-bagel sandwiches, with the most popular morning-meal items including bacon, egg and cheese, and pork roll, egg and cheese.

Lunch highlights include pastrami, roast beef, turkey and cheese, ham and cheese, tuna salad and chicken salad.

But bagels arent the only items found on the menu. There are also waffles, muffins, cinnamon buns, soft pretzels, smoothies, sodas, juices, sweet tea, soup, salads and coffee.

Prices range from $3.25 for a bagel to $11.99 for a lunch bagel sandwich.

Its a bargain, Rogers said of the price for a bagel.

A similar-sized bagel would cost twice that much in New York, she said.

The name of her business is, of course, a play on the phrase I beg your pardon.

Like, Excuse me, its more than just bagels, she said.

She also hopes to eventually expand her shops offerings to include a wine bar at night.

Rogers, whose father was a Vietnam War veteran, offers a 10% discount for veterans, first responders, teachers and nurses.

I want to keep them in mind because they are our heroes, she said.
Last school year, 1-in-4 Danville students were considered chronically absent, meaning they missed more than 18 days.

Thats nearly a full month of school.

The impacts are evident.

When drilling deep in the numbers, 81% of chronically absent students failed the math Standards of Learning test and 71% failed the reading SOLs.

Even with gains throughout the district, Danville Public Schools is still well below average when it comes to pass rates for the statewide standardized testing. By contrast, schools in Pittsylvania County are above Virginia averages for the same tests.

Absenteeism also factored into Gretna Middle School losing accreditation this year, the only facility in Pittsylvania County to drop the coveted rating.

Weve developed a culture in our community of missing school, Danville Public Schools Superintendent Angela Hairston told the Register & Bee in a recent interview at the school administration office.

For Danville, the issue started well before COVID-19s overnight evolution in learning, where some students became more comfortable staying home instead of reporting to the classroom.

The so-called mommy notes and excuses from doctors are not going to replace the instruction they miss, Hairston explained.

And it goes well beyond just the school system.

This culture of absenteeism will eventually bleed into the workplace, she said. When a student misses nearly a month of school, they will become an employee who thinks its OK to just not show up.

So far this year, things arent as bad, Hairston reported at Saturdays retreat for the Danville School Board.

Were seeing a shift in the attitudes of parents in trying to get students to be successful, she said. Attendance has improved tremendously already.

Every Monday, Hairston meets with a task force that examines students who are missing multiple days from school. The group includes representatives from the Virginia Department of Health and the Regional Engagement to Advance Community Health, otherwise known as REACH.

They also have someone from HAVEN of the Dan River Region, a nonprofit providing help in domestic violence and sexual assault situations.

Meetings are a way to pinpoint why students arent showing up for class.

Hairston said theyve done things like send nurses to homes and hired mentors to knock on the doors when students are missing a lot of school.

Theyve even bought alarm clocks for students in addition to offering whats called a second-chance shuffle if a child misses the bus.

We have to have the support of the parents to get our children to school every single day, Hairston said. That is an area that we have to focus on as a community.

The issue isnt isolated to this part of Virginia. Absenteeism is sending ripples across all areas of education in the United States.

Adrienne Brune, an associate professor and chair of sociology and criminal justice at Averett University, spent some time looking at the absenteeism rates.

Its a problem everywhere for everyone for sure, she told the Register & Bee recently. Oftentimes its connected to looking at child poverty rates.

According to Feeding America, a charity on a mission to end hunger, 13.7% of Danvilles overall population is food insecure.

Looking at those consequences, Brune said that hunger can lead to the inability to concentrate and add more stress to everyday life.

However, all Danville schools offer free breakfast and lunch to students.

She also pointed to the era of COVID-19 when students had different experiences learning online. Its possible that impacted their motivation to get up and go to school.

I think that would be something to investigate, Brune said, explaining that the data is still out to provide a concrete conclusion.

When I was growing up, you just went to school, there was no question, Nancy Riddell, the chair of the education department and director of teacher education at Averett University, said.

When discussing the issue of absenteeism, she first gave kudos to Virginia for being among number of states to recognize absenteeism was critical.

Thats why its tied to accreditation: it brings attention to the fact that students need to be in school.

There are a number of schools that are doing a great job, she said. The bottom line is the kids need to want to be there.

That means they need to feel like they are wanted in a family environment.

They need to be engaged with what they are doing, she said.

Role of parents

Experts and school leaders openly acknowledge that parents play the key part to make sure students show up to school.

At some point we must demand that our parents get our children to school, Hairston said. There has to be an expectation from the home.

Wayne Lyle, chief operations officer at Danville Public Schools, said at Saturdays retreat that parents are the first teacher for the children.

The school system just wants to continue to build on the partnership so students have better attendance and grades.

Parenting engagement is not always defined by you showing up at school, Hairston noted.

She has a simple ask: Make sure a child completes homework and reads 15 minutes each evening.

If you can do those two things, then you have helped us a lot, she explained.

The district is developing a family engagement vision guided by Karen Mapp, a Harvard professor.

Mapp created this program to offer a tool for educators and policy makers to develop framework for growth and improvement.

Five specialists devoted to this initiative  Amber Smith, Brianna Kyles, Maxine Petty, Vivica Eldridge and Mahogony King  shared a presentation at Saturdays retreat.

This team is a little different, Hairson said. Basically, they are charged with debunking the myth that parents dont care.

We have to change the way we engage parents at the school district and the school system, the superintendent said.

Lee Vogler, a Danville City Council member with two children in the system, said hes at one of the schools each day.

I attend the extracurricular nights they have for parents and students, he said in a message to the Register & Bee. Ive also always made it a point to visit every school in DPS at least once during the school year and have done so every year Ive been in office.

By doing this, he can talk with teachers directly about their experiences.

Ive also read to many of the classes, and spoken to government classes for the older grades, he said.

Hairston also realizes parents are under a lot of stress as it is. They work long hours  multiple jobs  in a variety of shifts.

Sometimes the school doesnt realize a parent is working third-shift and may not be aware a child missed the bus.

We also must lift our parents up, she said, in shifting the mindset within the school system.

Projects for parents

Over at Activ8 STEM Academy, the newest school in Danville, they bring parents in each month as learning partners.

For one session, students were working on a salt map  essentially placing self-hardening dough on a substrate  of the five regions of Virginia.

The parents got to get their hands dirty with the kids, Tara Medlin, a fourth grade teacher at Activ8, said recently.

Chuck Simmons, the instructional supervisor at Activ8, said that no matter what they are doing, the focus is science integration when the parents come in.

We just really want parents to be part of the community, he said on a recent tour of the school dedicated to science, technology, engineering and math. Parent and school relationships, thats the key.
Guilford County Commissioner James Upchurch, a Republican representing the countys District 6, announced his resignation on Monday.

Upchurch said he has accepted an opportunity in another state and will not be able to complete his term, which expires in 2024. His resignation as a commissioner took effect immediately.

It has been an honor to represent my hometown as their County Commissioner and be a part of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, Upchurch wrote in a news release. When I ran for office, I made a commitment to make our county more transparent, support our schools, establish a livable wage for our county employees and create an environment that supported High Point.

In his release, Upchurch also expressed satisfaction with his efforts to create the Guilford County communications department, put the countys $1.7 billion school bond on the ballot, implement a pay plan for employees, and render financial support to High Point.

Upchurch won election in 2020 as a Democrat, beating Republican Jim Davis. Nearly a year later, he announced that he was switching from Democrat to Republican because his values had changed and no longer matched those of the Democratic Party.

North Carolina General Statute 153A-27.1 outlines the process that the county should take when vacancies occur on the board: The executive committee of the political party that nominated the elected official  in this case, the Democrats  has 30 days to make a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners.

The executive committee of the Guilford County Democratic Party has scheduled a closed meeting on Zoom at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 16. According to Kathy Kirkpatrick, the party chair for Guilford County, committee members will vote on which candidate to recommend to the Board of Commissioners, who will then decide to appoint the nominee. The commissioners next meeting after that will be Oct. 19.

Brandon Gray, a Guilford County native, small business owner and member of the North Carolina Democratic Party Executive Committee, formally announced his campaign for District 6 in March. He already has the support of Melvin Skip Alston, the Democratic chairman of the board of commissioners.

Gray told the News & Record Monday that he wants to focus on houselessness in the next year if hes chosen as Upchurchs replacement.

I think the board has done a great job with the things that they are addressing. Im passionate about healthcare and the wages of our county employees, Gray said.

Upchurch told the News & Record that he wont endorse any candidate, but he expressed confidence in Gray if the latter proves to be the commissioners choice.

I know Brandon, Upchurch said. I think if he gets elected, hell do a great job. Hell do the right thing for the district.

There are currently seven Democrats and two Republicans on the board of commissioners.

Alston said the board wishes Upchurch the best in his new role.

Upchurch declined to reveal details about his new opportunity. In the past, he worked in banking and as a public school teacher before opening a consulting business. He earned an undergraduate degree from East Carolina and a masters degree from UNC-Pembroke.

Guilford County is my home, Upchurch said. Ill be back regularly and look forward to seeing all the great things that are yet to come.
Sen. Phil Bergers titanic stature in the tiny world of North Carolina politics has clearly gone to his head.

A whale shark in a backyard pool, he wields his clout with no compunction toward the abuses that have long infuriated critics. Berger sees his rule as eternal, his authority as invincible. But his aggressive deployment of what can only be called arrogance has driven his hegemony into a more precarious place than we have seen in the last 12 years.

The main reason for his vulnerability is the recent fracas over casinos in rural North Carolina. Berger was adamant in his determination to ram these unpopular blights through the legislature, with the ultimate goal being to enrich local developers and harvest yet more campaign contributions for the Republican purse. With a unanimity seldom seen in this polarized state, North Carolina revolted in disgust. But Berger, heedless of public opinion, maneuvered with a wily relentlessness to get this corrupt gambit through an unwilling General Assembly. By the time his machinations had come to an end, the state was thoroughly appalled.

The old bull has earned himself opprobrium. Where many observers had built their model of state politics upon an assumption of Bergers dominance, the calls for repudiation have begun to mount. Some of this may reflect a simmering resentment of his long-term control. But I think, instead, that the sheer gall of Bergers casino crusade awakened many people to the full extent of his hubris. He had carefully tended to an image as the statesman in the Tim Moore-Berger relationship, but this norm-breaking has shattered that reputation. Among many people in North Carolina, he is now seen as the consummate bully.

This disillusionment has spread even into his district. Berger has enjoyed an iron grip on Rockingham County for decades, no matter how awfully the struggling mill towns in the district felt the shock of industrial decline. But the giant has lost his luster. Public Policy Polling released a poll last week showing that Berger has done serious damage to his relationship with the people he has long represented. Voters in this rural Triad community disagree with Bergers casino obsession 28%-60%, and by a margin of 41%-25% would prefer to vote for someone else in the next election. For the most powerful man in the state to be reviled by his own constituents is remarkable.

Thus, the calls for a primary challenge. Brant Clifton, a witty and well-connected voice for the states right wing, has enthused over the prospect of putting up a Republican against Berger. At least in theory, a market exists for this kind of candidate.

Berger would no doubt be the heavy favorite in a primary battle, given his power and immense war chest. But even the most formidable politicians can be subject to an upset. Remember, Joe Crowley was set to be speaker of the U.S. House until Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stunned America by beating him.

In a populist climate, a right-winger just crazy enough to challenge Berger might run a campaign just crazy enough to win.
Super storms last 2 days: Lightning, thunder torrential rains.

The camps flooded. The people miserable. Tents flooded. Water everywhere.

And last night the power went out and one of the Turkish translators came running into base with a flashlight warning us all if the earth starts to shake run, run, run.

Editor's note This is the seventh email the Independent Record has received from Hands On Global Executive Director Valerie Hellermann of Helena, who is delivering medical aid and offering comfort to people in Ukraine and Syrian refugees living in Hatay, Turkey (Turkiye), on the Syrian/Turkey border. She is making her fourth trip overseas to areas in need since Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. She left Helena on Sept. 4 and plans to spend five weeks overseas. She started this trip in Ukraine, but was rerouted to Turkey to set up a mobile clinic. This email from Hellermann arrived 10:05 p.m. Monday.

He said that before the earthquake there was a powerful storm like this: A traumatized person.

We have been busy. Did a clinic in a village not far from the base and we saw over 80 patients.

Again many skin issues, some really infected and so painful to even look at . A woman with Pemphigus bolus in such discomfort and pain and the rash was all over her body . I had never seen this but one of our team members saw it when she worked in Africa. We were able to contact our team, 2 (doctors) and they were able to get the treatment just before their flight to Istanbul.

We still think most of the skin issues are from toxic dust and unhygienic living conditions.

We went in a different direction thru the city and were again stunned at the massiveness of this disaster in all directions. We passed the burial grounds for the unidentified 1,000s of graves.

Needing some down time we went to the Mediterranean for 2 days, again passing destruction 80 kilometers to the sea.

From there we went to an old town Rehanli, 6 kilometers from the Syrian border. Here there are many camps and a settlement of Syrian refugees. We went to a Syrian center where there are hundreds handicapped from brutal Syrian war injuries.

One of our translators, Amir, is a young Syrian refugee and he was so helpful. There are classes there in IT, painting, literacy, sewing , beauty school and they do much womens empowerment.

They gather food and clothing for the people in the camps. We are scheduled to do a clinic at one of the camps on Tuesday.

The town itself is pretty dismal.

Today we are waiting for the water to clear up so we can do a clinic back in Antakya.

It is the final week here for me. Team 2 arrives (Wednesday), transition day on Thursday and then I go to Istanbul and start the journey home.

This has been a difficult service trip on every level.

The sheer massiveness of this disaster seen in every direction, the mountains of rubble, the smell of death in places, the toxic environment, the people we meet and their heartbreaking losses, their PTSD and the government that is so discriminatory.

I am numb with trying to stay present, stay focused and to stay on task. But I have breakthrough emotional tearful moments.

The Turkish and Syrian people I have met struggling to keep their life together and the reality setting in that solutions are so far in the future with little or no support is overwhelming.

For more on Hands On Global, go to https://www.facebook.com/handsonglobal/ or https://handsonglobal.org/.
A Helena woman accused of lying about her income and employment to illegally receive government benefits was convicted by a federal jury Friday.

After a four-day trial that began on Sept. 26, the jury found Nena Helene Siemens, aka Nena Suzanne Kruger, 59, guilty of two counts of false statement or representation made to a department or agency of the United States and one count of theft of government money, according to the news release announcing the conviction sent out by U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich's office.

Siemens faces a maximum of 10 years of imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris set sentencing for March 6 and continued Siemens release pending further proceedings.

Despite receiving significant income and running her own business, Siemens lied on numerous applications so she could receive federal assistance benefits for which she was not eligible," Laslovich said in a news release. "Siemens brazen and prolonged conduct took taxpayer-funded aid from families that truly need help. The jury held her accountable."

In December 2018, Siemens applied for program assistance benefits through the state of Montana, reporting that she had $1,500 in her bank accounts, no employment and no income. Based on the information, Siemens was approved to receive benefits through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which is a program that provides cash assistance for families to meet basic needs, authorities said.

The government alleged the information Siemens provided for benefits was false.

From March 2014 through August 2017, the state claims she lived with Dale Kruger, and they shared multiple bank accounts that had significant deposits of money. Siemens spent an average of roughly $20,000 per month income, according to court documents.

Siemens also owned and operated a business called Evergreen Dive Service in Washington. In addition, Siemens collected $750 in monthly rent from a couple living on property she owned with Kruger, authorities said. Siemens never disclosed her living arrangements, accounts or income sources to the state, despite recurring notices from the state regarding reporting requirements for changes in income and other circumstances.

The government further alleged that starting in August 2017, Siemens began transferring and depositing large amounts of money into her personal accounts.

"Between January 2018 and February 2020, Siemens routinely had income of more than $10,000 per month, which includes bank account transfers, miscellaneous deposits and personal expenses charged to her dive service business accounts. These income sources were never disclosed to the state," the news release states.

Laslovich said that "during a 2019 interview with an investigator, Siemens reiterated multiple times that she was not employed, had no income and no assets to liquidate. Contrary to these assertions, Siemens had substantial income in 2019. She purchased a Kubota tractor for $70,000 in June 2018 and a Desert Fox travel trailer for $31,000 in March 2019."

In agreements to purchase these items, Siemens typically stated she was employed as the managing member of her business and that her income was between $6,000 and $10,000 per month.

The state of Montana ultimately suspended Siemens benefits in early 2020.

"By then, Siemens had received $2,552 in TANF benefits for which she and her family were not legally eligible," the news release states. "After the state of Montana suspended her benefits, Siemens continued her fraudulent conduct by filing a claim two months later for unemployment with the state of Washington, claiming she was 'laid off' by her 'employer,' the Evergreen Diver Service," the news release states.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael A. Kakuk and Jeffrey K. Starnes are prosecuting the case. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services conducted the investigation.
DECATUR  They wont talk to you, but they are still very welcoming.

The Childrens Museum of Illinois, 55 S. Country Club Road, Decatur, has greeters in the parking lot spotting visitors as they travel around the campus.

Shrubbies, with their homemade eyes and other facial features, live among the other lemon thread cypress plants, who have yet to come to life.

Four-year-old Kearion Smith was ready to name the green-eyed creature closest to the parking lot entrance.

Spiderman, he said without hesitation.

Giving the googly-eyed plants names was part of the fun for Mavis King, 2, along with her dad, James King, and her grandma, Susan King. The family visited the museum recently when they found a Shrubby near the back of the parking lot. Although the toddler was somewhat frightened, the family came up with plenty of monikers for the animated vegetation. He looks like a Muppet, James King said. Maybe Muppety Shrubby.

Or Bluey, Susan King said, because of its blue eyes. Or Scrubby the Shrubby.

The staff are having fun with the bushes planted throughout the museums campus. They have added facial features, such as eyes and teeth, as well as hair bows.

Jayson Albright, the museums director of creative and cheer, helps bring the characters to life.

We can bring so much character to them, he said. We keep quietly introducing them, hoping people discover them.

#TogetherDecatur Do you know a person or of a story that exemplifies the best of Decatur? Contact Donnette Beckett at (217) 421-6983 or dbeckett@herald-review.com.

When she arrived at the museum a year ago, Director Rikki Parker wasnt fond of the unruly bushes.

Weve worked on everything else, but it didnt quite fit, Albright said, agreeing with Parker. There is so much character to these things, once you start imagining them with eyeballs.

Sometimes Mother Nature battles the Shrubbies.

We had made eyelashes and the weather just blew them all over the place, Albright said about one of the Shrubbies who has already met her demise. So we had to take her down.

According to horticulturist Rich Starshak, the bushes are ideal for the childrens museum and their locations in the parking lot. And because of the yellow, its got this golden color, he said. Its low maintenance, you dont have to trim them.

And we dont want to, Albright added. That adds all the character.

The Children's Museum continues to add and expand with the construction of new exhibits planned during the next several months.

The museum staff use easily accessible materials, such as Styrofoam and duct tape, to create the facial features. The goal is to design characters that are approachable, Albright said. We don't want them to seem threatening, he said. But we keep expanding on them.

Shrubbies extra features add to the childrens imagination, according to the creators.

I dont know what they are, but they can figure it out, Starshak said. To me, its just a lemon thread cypress.

Close Mt. Zion third graders line up for a fire hose demonstration during a field trip to the Hieronymus Mueller Museum in Decatur. Two Mt. Zion students race each other following a demonstration at the Hieronymus Mueller Museum in Decatur. A group of Mt. Zion students raced to see who could carry a fire hose the farthest as part of a water parts demonstration at the Hieronymus Mueller Museum in Decatur. Mt. Zion students raced to see who could carry a fire hose the farthest as part of a water parts demonstration at the Hieronymus Mueller Museum in Decatur. Some Mt. Zion third graders got the chance to learn about water pressure during a field trip to the water parts manufacturer. Mt. Zion students listen to Mueller Engineering Supervisor Andrew Jordan explain how fire hydrants work during a field trip on Friday. Students got the chance to both learn about and play in water during demonstrations at Mueller Co. in Decatur. Some third graders got the chance to jump and play in the water during a field trip to the Hieronymus Mueller Museum in Decatur on Friday. Students get history lesson, water games at Mueller museum Third grade students from Mt. Zion got the chance to learn about Decatur history  and play in the water  during a trip to the Hieronymus Mueller Museum. Mt. Zion third graders line up for a fire hose demonstration during a field trip to the Hieronymus Mueller Museum in Decatur. Two Mt. Zion students race each other following a demonstration at the Hieronymus Mueller Museum in Decatur. A group of Mt. Zion students raced to see who could carry a fire hose the farthest as part of a water parts demonstration at the Hieronymus Mueller Museum in Decatur. Mt. Zion students raced to see who could carry a fire hose the farthest as part of a water parts demonstration at the Hieronymus Mueller Museum in Decatur. Some Mt. Zion third graders got the chance to learn about water pressure during a field trip to the water parts manufacturer. Mt. Zion students listen to Mueller Engineering Supervisor Andrew Jordan explain how fire hydrants work during a field trip on Friday. Students got the chance to both learn about and play in water during demonstrations at Mueller Co. in Decatur. Some third graders got the chance to jump and play in the water during a field trip to the Hieronymus Mueller Museum in Decatur on Friday.
Photo: The Canadian Press Kanesatake elders with the Mohawk Mothers group arrive at Superior Court Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

MONTREAL  After losing their bid to halt construction at the site of a former Montreal hospital, a group of Indigenous women who believe there may be unmarked graves at that location say theyre worried evidence could be jeopardized if work continues.

Workers want to move piles of material  without sifting through them  that were excavated from an area where sniffer dogs have indicated remains could be located, a spokeswoman for the group known as the Mohawk Mothers told reporters Monday.

Moving that material without analyzing it first risks making the search for potential bodies more difficult at the site, where McGill University is expanding its downtown campus, said Kwetiio, who uses one name.

"You want to take remains that need to be sifted, need to be investigated and you just want to pick them up and throw them in a truck and move them somewhere else," she said. "Well, what happens when you find something in that pile somewhere else? You will have already started your construction down here, jeopardizing the evidence that lays there."

Last month, the Mothers failed in their attempt to obtain an emergency court order to stop excavation on part of the site of the former Royal Victoria hospital, where a psychiatric institute used to operate. The government of Canada is named in a 2019 class-action lawsuit application that alleges the state funded abusive psychological experiments  part of the infamous MK-ULTRA program  on vulnerable patients at the institute in the 1950s and 1960s.

Kwetiio said people who were at the psychiatric hospital saw children strapped to beds and chairs and that the remains of those children may have been buried on the site.

Quebec's infrastructure agency, the Societe quebecoise des infrastructures, which is overseeing the campus expansion project, said the piles are being moved at the request of archeologists, who want to sift through the material at a safer, quieter location away from the ongoing work.

"The soil is moved one pile at a time, to avoid mixing. One archeologist supervises the loading of the truck, while another supervises the unloading. Each pile is clearly identified and a sifting priority procedure is developed," spokeswoman Anne-Marie Gagnon wrote in an email Monday, adding that the piles are covered with weatherproof material to protect them from the elements.

Both the SQI and McGill University say they're honouring an agreement they entered into with the Mothers.

"Cultural monitors appointed by the Mohawk Mothers have been given access to the site for all phases of work," McGill spokesman Michel Proulx wrote in an email Monday. "To date, no evidence has been found to substantiate the presence of unmarked graves."

Kwetiio says McGill and Quebec's infrastructure agency are not acting in good faith. She says McGill and the province committed to thoroughly searching, within a 10-metre radius, areas where sniffer dogs signalled that human remains might be found  but that isn't happening.

"We're being stopped from doing a proper investigation," she said.

Kwetiio said her group also wants to search a building that is located within the 10-metre radius, because of the possibility that remains will be found in the basement.

An observer affiliated with the Mothers recently found what appears to be the leather sole of a childs shoe, Kwetiio said. When the shoe was handed over, the Mothers were told  to their surprise  that bones had also been discovered, she said.

"We're not being told when things are found," she said, adding that she has received no details about where the bones were located or whether they are human or animal.

McGill says that according to a bio-archeologist who has searched the site, the remains found were animal bones.

"The archeological firm also confirms it does not consider that any of the articles uncovered during the excavation constitute significant discoveries, or that they constitute evidence of human remains or graves," Proulx said.

Proulx said archeological excavations have been conducted in the area where dogs identified the potential for human remains, as well as in nine other areas where ground-penetrating radar suggested the possible presence of unmarked graves. No further evidence of remains or graves were found, he said.

The Mothers' legal proceedings against McGill and the province began in March 2022, when they filed a civil suit to stop construction. Last October they obtained an injunction ordering a pause on excavation work, with a judge ruling the renovations would cause irreparable harm. After several mediation sessions, the Mothers and McGill reached a deal on April 6. Cultural monitors are also permitted on site to observe.

The agreement stipulates that if no graves are immediately found then excavation work can begin on a rolling basis and in a sensitive manner in case there is an unexpected discovery.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2023.
The Mississippi River was formed a few years back as rainwater across the middle of the continent needed a place to go.

It began like any puddle does when water seeks a lower level. And the mouth of the Mississippi is lower than northern Minnesota. A lake, which would later be part of Itasca State Park, began draining southward.

At that point the water was 1,475 feet above sea level. And the water, a few million years ago found sea level at what would be known as the Gulf of Mexico.

Typically, that trickle out of Lake Itasca is joined by more trickles on its way south. Typically.

But with chaos around the world, in Eastern Europe, on Capitol Hill, and in many families, 2023 is not a typical year. And those trickles along the way dried up.

The Red River is one of those, as is the North Platte River, both joining the Lake Itasca waters just a bit further south. Varying degrees of drought this year resulted in reduced flows.

Then the Missouri River joins the party, but it forgot to bring the beverages. Then the Illinois River, which is trying to drain what water it can out of a drought-stricken state.

Finally, the Mississippi is joined by the Ohio, which has only contained an average amount of water this year.

The net result is not the Mighty Mississippi, but the muddy Mississippi, which has barely enough water to flow a childs homemade sailboat. Not to mention a barge with 50,000 bushels of corn.

Barges, which are the prime mode of grain transportation to get Corn Belt grain to the global export market, had a rough ride over shoals, sand bars, and mud flats in the Mississippi in the fall of 2022. And water levels now are at the same level as they were at the end of last fall when barge operations diminished.

Barges typically are 12 feet into the water with a full load. Currently, barges are restricted to only 9 feet depths, and even then, they will get hung up at numerous points along the river.

Subsequently, tow boats are being restricted to push fewer barges southbound to grain export terminals in Louisiana, and that means costs are higher for less efficiency with fewer barges per trip south.

Those grain export terminals supply ocean freighters with grain for global delivery, which must be competitively priced with grain from Brazil and Argentina. But for the value of the grain at the Gulf terminals to be competitively priced the transportation cost is about $4 per ton or 10 cents per bushel. With the restrictions placed on the barge tows, it has been running at $52 per ton or $1.32 per bushel to get from St. Louis to the Gulf.

The global grain buyers dont want to pay that added cost, because low water on the Mississippi is not their problem. So, grain exporters will shave the transportation cost off what they are paying the folks selling the grain to be loaded on the barges.

Now, who would that be?

Photos: People flock to Tower Rock, low water on Mississippi River exposes land bridge
TEUTOPOLIS  The Illinois State Police Division of Criminal Investigation unit is seeking the public's help to identify a vehicle potentially involved in the Sept. 29 crash outside of Teutopolis that resulted in five fatalities and multiple injuries.

First responders were called to the crash involving a semitruck tanker carrying anhydrous ammonia that was punctured and leaked. The incident occurred at 8:42 p.m. Friday, Sept. 29, at 19740 East U.S. Highway 40.

The initial investigation shows at approximately 8:35 p.m., a dark colored vehicle  unknown make or model  was traveling westbound through the intersection of U.S. 40 and Spring Creek Road in Montrose.

"The investigation determined the vehicle continued traveling westbound through Teutopolis on U.S. Highway 40 and would have passed the semitruck tanker," the State Police stated in a press release.

A National Transportation Safety Board official said Sunday that the tanker truck owned by Prairieland Transport Ltd. from Brownstown was westbound on U.S. 40 Friday night when another vehicle tried to pass.

The truck driver reacted by pulling to the right, causing the truck to leave the road and roll over. The tank carrying the ammonia collided with a utility trailer parked off the road, and the tank was punctured by the trailers tow hitch, creating a 6-inch gash in the metal that allowed half of the tanks ammonia to gush out.

Agents have remained in Casey, Montrose, and Teutopolis retrieving surveillance video that could provide more information into this incident.

Police are asking neighbors and businesses for doorbell or security camera footage that may have captured video of the suspect's vehicle before or after the incident.

Those with any information on the crash should contact Illinois State Police Division of Criminal Investigation Zone 8 Investigations at 217-342-7881.
DECATUR  The Decatur Public Schools board has a decision to make at its regular meeting next week.

To move forward with Superintendent Rochelle Clark's proposal to have structural engineering surveys done on all district buildings this year, the board has to choose between two firms that gave presentations at a special board meeting on Monday  Klingner & Associates, with offices in Quincy, Galesburg and Carbondale, Iowa and Missouri; or Bacon/Farmer/Workman Engineering and Testing, with offices in Champaign, Belleville, Marion, Springfield, Indiana and Kentucky.

No cost for these services was discussed during the meeting.

The board did not make a decision at the special meeting, but board President Bill Clevenger said he hoped the board would consider, in the future, allowing the experts on staff to meet with such firms rather than have presentations to the board.

This is the only governmental unit that does it this way, Clevenger said. The rest, recommendations come from the staff in the field. I think we need to rely on that knowledge. I don't think any of us has PE (professional engineer) behind our names.

Building and Grounds Director Kent Metzger, Clevenger said, is a professional engineer and will know more about choosing a firm for the task than board members do. He hopes to have further discussion on the topic during the public portion of the school board meeting on Oct. 10, when the board will likely vote on which firm to employ.

Board member Kevin Collins-Brown said that in this case, especially in light of the structural issues at the two Dennis Lab School buildings, it was more important to have the presentations at a public board meeting.

It shows that we're taking it seriously, he said.

Both firms said they would work with the board to create an agreement that would suit the district regarding when they would do their inspections so not to interrupt classes at schools and would create individual reports for each of the 24 district buildings. Both also said they would be able to start the process quickly and complete the inspections and reports on a timeline to suit the district. If any serious problems are found, both also said, they would not wait for the report to be completed but inform the district immediately.

Klingner & Associates has already created a map of district buildings and a plan for inspecting them with the buildings grouped by age, with the oldest buildings at the top of the list, and is the firm that did the second-opinion inspection of the Dennis Kaleidoscope and Mosaic campuses in early summer when the issues with those buildings were first discovered. Bacon/Farmer/Workman emphasized their use of technology such as drones and 3D imaging when inspecting buildings. BFW has worked locally with the Argenta-Oreana School District when problems with their gymnasium were discovered and used that technology to help the board make the decision to demolish the gym and build a new one.

The Oct. 10 board meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the board room at the Keil Administration Building, 101 W. Cerro Gordo St.

 Class is in: These former Decatur school buildings are still in use Brush College School Durfee School Jones School Lakeview High School Roosevelt Jr. High Salem School Spencer School St. James School
N.A.R.V.R.E. unit 77

The National Association of Retired and Veteran Railway Employees will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4, at Bistro 537 at the Richland Community College, Decatur.

For those wishing to stay for lunch should contact Pam Hahn by Monday, Oct. 2, for menu choices and cost at 217-454-2950.

Books Between Bites

Books Between Bites meets at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4, in the Decatur Public Librarys Madden Auditorium.

Nancy Peterson will review two books involving October fires: "Chicago's Great Fire: the Destruction of an Iconic American City" by Carl Smith and "Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, It's People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History" by Denise Gess and William Lutz.

Decatur Area Church Women United

Decatur Area Church Women United will hold its representatives meeting and Bible study at 1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6, at the the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 3465 N. MacArthur Road, Decatur.

For further information contact Darla Weltmer at 217-877-7008.

GFWC Decatur Woman's Club

GFWC Decatur Woman's Club will meet Thursday, Oct. 12, at 11 a.m. at Coz's Pizza Restaurant, Mount Zion.

Tracy Whitten will give a presentation followed by lunch. Cost is $15 per person. Deadline for Reservation is Saturday, Oct. 7.

For further information contact Darla Weltmer, 217-877-7008.
In a presidential contest cycle, Senate races dont get the same kind of attention when theres still a year to go until Election Day. But the start of the second fundraising quarter earlier this month brought a host of new candidate names  some declared and some still biding their time  that will help shape the race for control of the chamber in 2024 and the ultimate power dynamics for whoever is president in 2025.

With more candidates launching their campaigns this month, the prospect of competitive primaries has become more real  especially on the Republican side. Thats especially true in the top three seats most likely to flip, which represent the GOPs best chances to pick up the one or two seats theyd need to control the chamber, depending on who wins the presidency. (Rankings are based on CNNs reporting, fundraising figures and historical data about how states and candidates have performed.)

West Virginias GOP primary  mainly between the governor and a congressman  was already brewing, but its looking even more contentious with outside groups like the Club for Growths political arm touting the millions theyre planning to spend. This race will be a marquee battle between the national GOPs more establishment forces and the conservative outside group. And, as in other races like Montana and Nevada, this one will test the National Republican Senatorial Committees new strategy of picking sides in primaries.

Its impossible to talk about Republican primaries without discussing former President Donald Trump. Ever since 2016, loyalty to him has been a key litmus test for the GOP  often much more than actual conservatism. But adherence to his election conspiracy theories has sometimes hurt Republicans in general elections, with the 2022 midterms being a prime example.

The chairman of the NRSC, Montana Sen. Steve Daines, has endorsed Trump. And for now, at least, the former president appears to be playing along. CNN reported that hes informed two House Freedom Caucus members whom hes previously backed  in West Virginia and Montana  that they wont have his support for the Senate. (In Montana, Rep. Matt Rosendale hasnt yet announced his campaign but is expected to challenge the NRSCs preferred candidate.)

This months ranking isnt all about primary drama, however. In Pennsylvania, Republicans breathed a major sigh of relief in May when election denier Doug Mastriano, fresh off his 15-point gubernatorial loss, decided not to run. The expectation that Dave McCormick will get into the race with a clearer lane  and the GOPs lack of candidates right now in other states  bumps the Keystone State up one spot on this list as slightly more likely to flip.

Overall, the Senate map remains an offensive opportunity for Republicans. Democrats hold seven of the 10 seats most likely to flip next year, an independent holds one and Republicans hold two  a breakdown thats unlikely to change much, although the order of the ranking will likely evolve in the months to come.
Many Americans drowning in debt did not get there by spending irresponsibly on televisions, cars or pricey goodies. Medical bills have become the largest source of debt in collections  more than credit cards, utilities and auto loans combined  which is why the Biden administrations plan to keep unpaid medical bills from affecting a persons credit score would be a life-altering change for millions.

The administration announced a major initiative in September to craft federal rules barring unpaid medical bills from affecting patients credit scores. If enacted, the changes would potentially help tens of millions of people by removing information on credit reports that can make it harder for Americans to get a job, rent an apartment or secure a loan.

One in 3 U.S. adults has medical debt, which between 2009 and 2020 became the largest source of debt Americans owed collections agencies, totaling at least $140 billion, according to research published in 2021 by the Journal of the American Medical Association. That $140 billion doesnt include all medical bills owed to health care providers, only the outstanding debt held by collection agencies. Some 11 million Americans have medical debt above $2,000, according to a survey by health policy research group KFF of all outstanding medical debt, including medical bills put on credit cards. Three million people have debts above $10,000.

For many, its a financial hole that only sinks further as they confront more complex medical problems.

Medical debt is unlike any other consumer spending. Unlike buying products from retailers, health care providers usually provide little if any upfront detail of what a procedure will cost. Patients seeking treatment are often bounced between physicians, specialists, clinics and labs, without any clear menu of prices along the way. And Americans seeking emergency treatment are hardly in a position to comparison shop.

In other words, this type of debt doesnt necessarily reflect reckless spending, but the opaqueness of Americas health care system, where prices are shaped through Byzantine formulas involving insurers, their networks, discounts, copays and deductibles.

Debt included on a credit score is meant to signal a persons monetary fitness  and, by extension, their financial trustworthiness. Low scores can limit a persons job and housing prospects, and medical debt in particular can discourage some from seeking further health care. ...

Yet research shows that owing medical debt is not a reliable predictor of a persons overall financial steadiness. Indeed, many with medical debt are merely struggling to manage their health concerns within a system that makes price-shopping virtually impossible. Not surprisingly, women shoulder a disproportionate burden of medical debt  likely related to childbirth expenses  as do Black Americans, who report carrying nearly twice the debt of white or Hispanic adults. Americans are also more likely to have significant medical debt if they live in rural areas or in one of the 10 states (including Florida) that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Removing these bills from credit reports wont erase the debt. Rather, it keeps collectors from weaponizing the information to further harm consumers who typically never sought to incur this expense in the first place. Of course, the details matter, and well reserve judgment as the administration develops the rules over the coming year. But this measure is a well-intentioned response to a crisis facing millions and a welcome signal to the health care industry to make medical costs more transparent.
Litigation over the collapse of the Hickory arches is coming to a close as the city of Hickory finalizes a settlement with four companies and one engineer.

The parties came to terms during mediation in August, according to court documents. The mediation grew out of Hickorys lawsuit against four companies which the city said were responsible for the failure of the arches: Neill Grading & Construction Co., Dane Construction, Western Wood Structures and WSP USA Environment & Infrastructure.

Paul Gilham, the chief engineer at Western Wood, was also sued individually. After Hickory filed the lawsuits, the various companies and Gilham also brought claims against one another.

Attorney Lucie Peoples, who represents Neill Grading, confirmed the pending resolution of the lawsuit. Neill Grading participated in a mediation and the parties were able to reach a settlement. We are still in the process of finalizing the written agreement, Peoples said.

Brett Becker, the attorney representing WSP in the lawsuit, said, I think its been reported to the court that theres a resolution coming.

Dane Construction attorney Ryan Beaver said the company is pleased the matter is resolved, but otherwise has no comment regarding the litigation or the settlement. Ben Buskirk, attorney for Western Wood Structures and Paul Gilham, also confirmed a settlement is being finalized.

The attorneys did not provide details on the terms of the settlement. The attorney for Hickory had not responded to requests for comment as of Wednesday morning.

The $750,000, 40-ton wooden arches fell on Feb. 18, 2022, two months after city leaders held a ceremony to formally unveil the arches and dedicate the City Walk.

Installed above the City Walk pedestrian bridge over N.C. Highway 127, the decorative arches were touted as symbolic of the citys revitalization.

Before the arches were even installed, the city referred to them as the iconic arches in press releases. When the first arch went up in March 2021, Frank Young, a leader in the Bond Implementation Commission, said he thought the arches would become Hickorys iconic image.

The process hit a snag in April 2022 when workers had to halt installation of the second arch after hearing an unusual noise. Documents obtained through a public records request revealed part of the arch had splintered.

Western Wood Chief Engineer Paul Gilham came up with a fix that included Gorilla Glue. Hickory Public Works Director Steve Miller told investigators that the section of the arch with the crack appeared to be undamaged when the arches collapsed.

In the months after the arches collapsed, an expert hired by Neill Grading released a report placing the blame for the collapse on Gilhams inadequate structural design of the arches. The report led to an investigation by the states engineering licensing board which resulted in Gilham being reprimanded and fined $5,000.

At least some of the wood from the arches has been salvaged. Two men bought part of one of the fallen beams and used it to make three guitars.

Note: This story was updated at 8:43 a.m. Wednesday to add statements from other attorneys.
More than a year and a half after he first became a "Jeopardy!" champion, Lawrence "Skip" Long is back.

On Tuesday evening's episode of "Jeopardy!," the East Bend native joins in the quarterfinals of the Jeopardy Champions Wildcard round.

Long gained a loyal following back in February 2022, when he won nearly $75,000 during a three-day winning streak on the show.

In addition to his extensive knowledge of trivia and quick reflexes on the buzzer, Long had a sharp sense of humor, dapper mustache and keen fashion sense, and a background that helped endear him to audiences  he described himself as a nursing student and "stay at home uncle" taking care of his preteen niece, which charmed viewers and earned him a lot of attention. His quick wit as a member of the Winston-Salem-based Bunker Dogs improvisational comedy troupe also helped.

When the producers of "Jeopardy!" invited him to come back, he was getting ready for a major new change in his life, preparing to move to Seattle to study at the University of Washington, where he was entering the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program near the time they wanted him on the show.

"This all happened very quickly," he said by phone from Seattle last weekend. "I think August 4th or 5th is the day that I got my initial availability call... They asked if I can fly out to L.A. on the 29th for a tournament. This is what's being called a 'champion wildcard tournament,' which is prior champions who did not meet the qualifications for the Tournament of Champions."

This time around there was the added complication of the WGA (Writers Guild of America) writer's strike, which was still going on at the time, and meant the production team behind the show wasn't able to write new clues. Their workaround, he said, was "a mixture of clues that had been written but not recorded, and classic clues."

Long also had a narrow window of opportunity, since his classes in Seattle were starting in late September and he told producers he could not miss classes. After discussing the options with family, and wondering whether he should participate while the writers were still on strike, he decided to go back on the show. Recent home expenses and the fact that he had college costs coming up ultimately led him to agree.

"I was not in a financial situation to be able to say no to them," he said matter-of-factly. But ultimately, he decided, "I'm at peace with it.

"I struggled more on the end of getting to the point where I was saying yes to it than the actual preparation, because once you decide to do it, then you're committed.

"Playing Jeopardy is fun," he said. "I think the circumstances surrounding the production of it were less fun, but the act of eating is fun."

He started college the second week of September and is now deep into a heavy course load with about 22 credit hours this quarter, which involves clinical rotation.

He can't reveal how he did on Tuesday's show or whether he made it through to the semifinals, which will start airing on October 13.
Chris Rey first learned about Barber-Scotia College in the 1990s, when he was an undergraduate student at East Carolina University. He traveled to the college a few times to hang out with several of his fraternity brothers.

More than 30 years later, as international president of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc, one of the nations oldest historically Black fraternities, founded in 1914, Rey read a news article earlier this year about the historically Black college and the many challenges it was facing.

The 156-year-old college, which lost its accreditation in 2004, has many buildings in disrepair and owes about $500,000 in debt. A task force created several years ago to help the college was disbanded by the Concord City Council in the spring.

I was just like wow, Rey told the Independent Tribune in a recent interview. Im the international president of one of the historically Black fraternities, one of the largest in the world, surely there is something that we can do to support Barber-Scotia.

With his role as leader of the fraternity, Rey, a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Army National Guard, has met numerous high-profile leaders, including President Joe Biden and U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, according to photos on his Facebook page.

Rey contacted the Barber-Scotias Board of Trustees chair, Roberta Huger Pinckney, to see how he and the fraternity could help. It was only later that Rey learned the college was searching for its next president. Several alumni reached out to him, to see if he would consider applying for the position.

A very spiritual person, Rey prayed for discernment about whether he was the right person to lead the college going forward.

Its one thing to help on the outside, but its an absolutely different thing to help on the inside, he said.

Rey, who has served in numerous leadership roles throughout his career, including as mayor of the N.C. town of Spring Lake, decided he was ready for the challenge of revitalizing the college.

I realized its going to be tough but He (God) is going to provide the resources that I need in order for me to be able to prepare this college for its next chapter, he said.

The colleges Board of Trustees appointed Rey, 46, to the position on July 6. He officially began his tenure as the colleges president on July 17.

Working to restore the college

One of Reys key priorities is raising enough money for Barber-Scotia to pay off its debts and have enough working capital to ensure the colleges day-to-day operations.

He recently launched the Barber-Scotia RISING (RebuildingInstructionStrategyInfrastructureNetworkGovernance) campaign, with the intent on raising $1 million by the end of his first year next summer. Barber-Scotia is encouraging alumni, friends of the college and anyone within the community to donate at least $156 in support of the school, in celebration of its years as an institution of higher learning.

As the new President of the College, Im a firm believer our generation cant afford to have another HBCU (historically Black college or university) close on our watch, Rey wrote on his Facebook page earlier this month, highlighting the campaign. This is our moment to show what coming together looks like.

So far, Rey told the paper, the college has raised a little more than $50,000.

The college has a slate of events scheduled for its Homecoming weekend on Oct. 5-8, which should drum up even more support for the campaign. Im confident well have a good response from our alumni, he said.

Rey has also been busy working to enact the colleges 2022-2027 strategic plan, which outlines Barber-Scotias pursuit for accreditation along with other key academic and financial goals.

Goals from the plan include improving and evaluating current programs through internal academic reviews, increasing enrollment to roughly 20 students per academic program and recruiting best in class faculty.

Rey suspended student enrollment this fall in order to focus on the RISING campaign and improving the campus. Classes will resume in January, with at least 20 students, Rey said.

The college will soon be increasing its academic programs and expanding beyond the three majors (religious studies, business with an emphasis on entrepreneurship, and renewable energy) it had been offering, Rey said.

Looking to establish a working relationship with the city, Rey has already met with Concord Mayor Bill Dusch and Mayor Pro Tem J.C. McKenzie. They were able to share with me the citys engagement with Barber-Scotia over the years and I thought that information was very helpful for me.

He also plans to meet with Cabarrus County leaders and other key figures, including Cabarrus County Schools Superintendent Dr. John Kopicki.

Importance of HBCUs

While all kinds of students have attended Barber-Scotia over the years, it has been a critical lifeline for Black and other minority individuals. It was founded by the Presbyterian Church in January 1867, with the original purpose of preparing newly emancipated African American women to go into the fields of education and social work.

HCBUs, many of which were founded after the Civil War, were a beacon to Black students, as the majority of American institutions of higher education served predominantly white students. They have also served as a valuable pipeline for Black leaders.

Many political leaders have attended HBCUs including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, civil rights leaders Medgar Evers and Ralph Abernathy and Vice President Kamala Harris. Notable civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune was a student at Barber-Scotia, though at the time it was Scotia Seminary.

There are currently more than 100 HBCUs in the country, including a dozen in North Carolina. The total impact of HBCU spending in the United States is $14.8 billion each year, according to information from the United Negro College Fund.

Even though HBCUs are open to all people, I think what HBCUs provide is a space for individuals that come from marginalized communities, he said. Compared with many other institutions of higher learning, HBCUs are a little bit more personal and a little bit more engaging because we are more understanding about the environment that a lot of individuals are coming from.

The loss of a historically Black college like Barber-Scotia, he said, would inevitably put even more of a burden on the other HBCUs in the state.

Influence of John Lewis

At the Phi Beta Sigma national convention in 2003, Rey met the late John Lewis, a civil rights activist and former U.S. representative from Georgia, who was a close friend and mentor to him throughout much of his life.

One of the lessons he learned from Lewis was that everyone matters and has worth and dignity.

He was truly a real humanitarian, Rey said. That man loved the human race. He just wanted opportunities to be available for all people.

As someone who as active in the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, participating in the Nashville sit-ins, the Freedom Rides and leading one of the Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Lewis fought to create space for all people to walk in, Rey said.

During the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, when Lewis, along with several others including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to a crowd of more than 250,000 people, thousands of people converged on the nations capital in late August to continue fighting to make Kings dream of equality a reality for all people. Like his mentor in 1963, Rey was one of the speakers at the anniversary event.

And until this nation fully recognizes the contributions of this beautiful melting pot called humanity, Rey said in his short speech, we will march and we will protest because this is not the struggle of a day, this is not the struggle of a month, this is a struggle of a lifetime and the men of Phi Beta Sigma will march on.

In an interview with the paper, Rey said he felt like his speech was my opportunity to make sure my generation knows that there are voices that are still pushing for them.

As Rey took over as president of Barber-Scotia, he thought of Lewis and all the things he had learned from him.

John was a huge proponent of historically Black colleges and universities because he understood that they mattered and understood that we cant afford to have another HBCU close, Rey said.

Shortly before his death in 2020, Rey recalled Lewis telling him how confident he was in him going forward to make a difference in the world.

The baton is now yours, Rey said Lewis told him. This is your time now.

A look to the future

Rey is confident that, though it will take time, Barber-Scotia will improve its finances and have its accreditation fully restored. Forging relationships with key community stakeholders and receiving support from alumni will only help the college going forward.

When asked where he sees the college in five years, Rey was confident in his answer.

In five years, Barber-Scotia will be an accredited institution that will have over 5,000 students enrolled between online, commuters and in-person.
CONCORD  The N.C. Department of Transportation closed Old Charlotte Road to address safety concerns with the Stonewall Jackson School pedestrian bridge that spans over the road. The bridge is not an NCDOT asset, but with safety being first priority, the department is taking action.

Officials learned earlier this month of debris falling from the bridge to the road below, prompting NCDOT staff to perform a thorough inspection of the structure and signage that spans the bridge. To keep the bridge open, officials concluded the sign structure should be taken down and wire meshing should be installed under the bridge to prevent additional material from falling to the road.

Our primary concern is safety for all drivers traveling under this bridge, said Division 10 Engineer Brett Canipe. Our staff is working with local and state partners to make sure that happens while an action plan for the bridges future is determined.

Crews closed Old Charlotte Road on Monday morning and it is expected to be closed through Friday afternoon. Drivers are being detoured around the area along Old Charlotte, Roberta and Stough roads and N.C. 49.

WBTV News has video on the closing on its website:
Photo: The Canadian Press FILE - Twitter, now X. Corp., and Tesla CEO Elon Musk poses before his talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, May 15, 2023, at the Elysee Palace in Paris. A California man who says he was harassed after Musk amplified posts on his platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that falsely placed the man at a confrontation involving far-right protesters sued the billionaire for defamation in a lawsuit filed Monday, Oct. 2. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool, File)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP)  A California man who says he was harassed after Elon Musk amplified posts on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that falsely placed the man at a confrontation involving far-right protesters sued the billionaire for defamation in a lawsuit filed Monday.

Benjamin Brody, 22, is represented by Mark Bankston, a Texas attorney who won a defamation case last year against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in a lawsuit brought by families of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. Brody is seeking a jury trial in Austin, Texas, and unspecified damages of at least $1 million.

Attorneys for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment left through a spokesperson.

In June, video posted to X showed a confrontation involving protesters near a Pride festival in Oregon. Some of those involved wore the same colors of the Proud Boys extremist group, according to The Oregonian. On X, some users falsely identified one of the participants as Brody, highlighting his post-college plans to work for the government to spread baseless assertions that federal agents were involved.

The lawsuit includes screenshots of Musk engaging with users spreading the posts involving Brody, including one in which Musk described it as a probable false flag situation. Brody, a recent college graduate who said he was in California when the event happened, came under harassment because of Musk's reach, according to the lawsuit.

The posts by Musk were still on X as of Monday.

It is not the first time Musk has been sued for defamation. He defeated a lawsuit in 2019 from a British cave explorer who claimed he was branded a pedophile when the Tesla CEO called him pedo guy on what was then called Twitter.

Musk's tech company has also taken others to court over what is posted on the site. In August, X sued a group of researchers over accusations that their work highlighting an increase in hate speech on the platform cost the company millions of dollars of advertising revenue.
Robert Tucker will be remembered as an innovation businessman, but may have made his greatest impact with how he used his wealth to better his community.

Footwearnews.com (FN) described Tucker as the visionary founder of Shoe Show who quietly grew the North Carolina-based family retailer into a national powerhouse with more than 1,000 stores across 47 states  He was 86.

In 1960, Tucker opened the first Shoe Show location with his wife, Carolyn Tucker, in downtown Kannapolis  and the family-owned business has thrived for 63 years despite huge change across the retail landscape. Lisa Tucker, the couples daughter, is now at the helm as president and CEO.

Robert Tucker, who was born in 1937 as Robert Bright Deese, changed his last name after his mother remarried. From a young age, he had a tireless work ethic  toiling as a cook and curb boy at Tuck Tavern, his stepfathers restaurant in Concord, according to the FN story (it can be found online https://bit.ly/3EYGcqT)

While still in high school, Tucker scored a job at Baucoms Shoe Store in Downtown Concord during his senior year, an experience that set the stage for his own retail venture. When Bob and Carolyn opened their first location on Main Street in Kannapolis, they decided to call it Shoe Show. From there, they never looked back.

A Mom and Pop philosophy

As they dramatically grew the business through the decades, the Tuckers preferred to keep a low profile and forged strong industry relationships behind the scenes. But in 2020, when the chain turned 60, Lisa Tucker decided to mark the milestone in a big way to salute her parents. After 60 years, I want to honor them for what theyve accomplished. Its absolutely amazing, she told FN at the time.

We really operate each one as a mom-and-pop [format], Lisa Tucker told FN in 2020. We want to give that special touch to whatever is important in that area. Its a lot of work, but its some of the secret sauce that makes us special. In a lot of towns, were it. Were the department store, the Foot Locker. Were everything for that area, so we need to cater to whatever the needs are.

Robert Tucker took the same low key approach to community, contributing money and resources to the Salvation Army, educational organizations and others who wanted to make a better community for all.

Gardner-Webb President Dr. William M. Downs commented on Roberts life of faith and service: It is with sadness that the Gardner-Webb community mourns Mr. Tuckers passing, yet rising above that emotion is our celebration of a life so admirably lived. In Robert Tucker we see a man who made an indelible and positive impact in his chosen field of business, in his family, and in his community.

Downs continued, His vision and generosity helped build the student center on our campus that today bears his familys name. His commitment to enhancing opportunities for young people with good character and a love for the Lord established GWUs most prestigious scholarship for incoming undergraduates. Mr. Tuckers legacy will live on through each person privileged to have met him, through each student awarded the Tucker Scholarship, and through each visitor greeted by the Tuckers portrait as they enter our thriving student center. What a profoundly amazing legacy that is and shall forever be.

Robert and his cherished wife and soulmate of 66 years, Carolyn, had longtime support of Gardner-Webb that began after daughter Lisa graduated in 1989. Lisa, a volleyball player, has remained committed to the university for more than three decades and currently serves as treasurer for the Board of Trustees.

In 2010, the Tuckers announced the largest donation in school history: A $5 million gift to begin construction of the Tucker Student Center, a 110,000 square-foot building that has become the heart of campus life. However, Robert was not finished. Two years later at the dedication ceremony, he surprised everyone by announcing an additional gift in the amount of $500,000.

On that day, he noted, I remember once being in New York, and I crossed the street and saw a homeless man. I gave him $5 or $10. Ill never forget his face, and I always wondered if I gave enough. So, Im going to give another half-million dollars in honor of Dr. Dee Hunt (former vice president of Student Development). The crowd broke into applause and Hunts face crumpled with emotion. Through Lisa, Hunt and the Tuckers maintained a strong bond until Hunt passed away in 2021.

After the opening, Hunt described how the Tucker Student Center transformed the campus by locating Counseling, Student Success, Student Engagement, and Christian Life and Service in one building. That center has made an unimaginable difference for the student body, she observed. The availability of the building and all the things we can do with it is amazing.

The Tuckers honored

In 2013 at the August commencement, Robert and Carolyn received the universitys highest recognition of merit, Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degrees. During the ceremony, then President Dr. Frank Bonner noted the Tuckers continuous desire to quietly support various philanthropic endeavors. Throughout their lives, Robert and Carolyn Tucker have gone to great lengths to fly under the radar, he said at the presentation. Their conviction is nowhere more apparent than in their extensive philanthropy, for which they have always sought to avoid public acclaim. They have given generously to churches and ministries.

Robert and Carolyn gave another historic gift in 2019 with the announcement of a $4 million endowment to establish the Tucker Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength Scholarship. The full-tuition, room and board scholarship is based on the Tuckers life verse, Mark 12:29-31. In the scripture, Jesus gives the two most important commandments. The first one is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is to Love your neighbor as yourself.

Shoe Shows involvement continues

The company is active in a number of charitable causes including Cooperative Christian Ministries, Bible Teaching Associations, Salvation Army, Hospice and Palliative Care of Cabarrus County, Crisis Pregnancy Center, Cabarrus Victims Assistance Network, and The ARC.

Arrangements

In lieu of flowers, the Tucker family kindly requests that memorials be directed to the Tucker Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength Foundation, P.O. Box 648, Concord, NC 28026. The family also asks, In honoring Robert Tuckers memory, may we all strive to continue the legacy of faith, fortitude, and generosity that defined his remarkable life.

The funeral will be held at North Kannapolis Baptist Church, 312 Locust Street, Kannapolis, N.C., at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.
The nation's commercial capital has an increasing need for electricity, thushas put Mumbai's first 400-KV grid line into service. The additional 1000MW of power that may be brought into the city will be made possible by the new line of, which will increase the current transmission and distribution capacity. The city had recently seen two significant grid failures, on October 12, 2020, and February 27, 2022, which resulted in a power outage and a political uproar, respectively, and effectively paralysed it for many hours.The Kharghar-Vikhroli line will bring an additional 1,000 MW of reliable power to Mumbai city as a solution to mitigate any such incidents in the future. With this projects commissioning, Mumbai gets a 400 KV grid within its municipal limits, bringing enhanced import capability within its electricity grid and improving reliability and stability", said an official. The project had been under planning for over a decade and delayed owing to various reasons, including alleged rivalries among the power suppliers to the city.The project is critical for Mumbai as the existing capacity of the transmission corridor is not sufficient to carry further power into the city. It will provide much more sustainability to commuting through bullet train, Metro Rail and Mumbai suburban railways, as also for commercial and residential establishments, said the official. The KVTL comprises approximately 74 circuit km of 400 kV and 220 kV transmission lines, along with a 1,500 MVA 400kV Gas Insulated Substation (GIS) at Vikhroli, the first 400KV substation of its kind in Mumbai.Occupying approximately 9,500 sq m area, it has the most compact design when it comes to 400 KV substations, with a unique design that vertically stacks 400kV and 220kV GIS, thus minimizing space requirements. The AESL surmounted several challenges while laying the line, mainly over difficult terrain, but these were overcome with the use of technology and innovation. Among these are six towers constructed in Thane Creek using heavy rigs on floating barges and in the urban areas, height restrictions in some locations were overcome by adopting special horizontal configuration towers.The KVTL project starts in the Kharghar area of Navi Mumbai, traverses through its urban locations and terminates at Vikhroli in Mumbai city. Next on the list is another major power line the upcoming Kudu-Aarey line, which would help bring another 1000MW power to the city. Presently Mumbais increasing power requirements are met by AESL around 31.50 lakh consumers, Tata Powers around 7 Lakh users and BEST with 10.50 lakh customers, besides a small portion of the population served by the MSEB.
The African Regional Organization of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa: www.ituc-africa.org) is deeply concerned about the current attempts in Nigeriato undermine and encroach upon the democratic and civic rights of Nigerian workers. We have received reliable information from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) that the federal government is planning to exert control over trade union organisations and their leadership through various means, including the potential use of coercive and deadly force by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

Article 40 of the Nigerian Constitution (1999) explicitly guarantees the right of citizens to peaceful assembly and association. However, regrettably, we have observed these rights being violated. For instance, there are documented instances where the NPF forcibly prevented members and leaders of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) from conducting their legitimate activities. The Nigeria Police Forces unwarranted interference and disruption of the NURTWs operations, as well as its attacks on legitimate leadership, constitute an alarming abuse of power in favour of vested interests. We strongly condemn these actions against unarmed and vulnerable workers.

Tragically, the federal governments deployment of a publicly funded institution against Nigerian workers resulted in the violent death of one worker, who was fatally shot by the police. We demand a thorough investigation, prosecution, and appropriate sanctions for the police personnel involved in this heinous crime to help combat impunity effectively.

It is also disheartening to witness the governments disinformation regarding trade unions in Nigeria, branding them as "enemies of the state" with the aim of tarnishing their reputation. This unwholsesome tactic is exacerbated by the governments misguided perception of trade unions as a political opposition entity due to the significant support garnered by the Labour Party in recent elections.

ITUC-Africa asserts that attempts to weaken trade unions and diminish their influence are counter productive and directly contravene internationally recognized labor rights and principles. Therefore, we call upon the Nigerian government to immediately cease these attacks and engage in constructive dialogue with the labor movement for the betterment of Nigerian workers rights and interests and those of the nation as a whole.

We remind the Nigerian government, especially in its capacity as the current Chair of the ILO Governing Body, of its obligation to uphold and respect its ratified ILO Conventions. The persistent disregard for these conventions is not only regrettable but also tarnishes Nigerias international reputation as a champion of labor rights.

Additionally, we wish to underscore that this antagonistic approach towards trade unions undermines their essential role in advancing industrial harmony and productivity. It also contradicts the principles of democratic governance and social dialogue.

Since the advent of democracy in 1999, Nigeria has made significant strides on the path of liberal democracy. This progress owes much to the tireless efforts and sacrifices made by workers, organized labour, and the Nigerian populace as a whole. It has long been the peoples conviction that their rights would be preserved, their well-being genuinely considered, and their welfare substantially improved under a thriving democracy. Nigerian workers, in unity, have fervently believed that an independent and democratic state would better secure their rights, both in the workplace and the community, contributing to the nations overall progress. This conviction has driven them to stand resolutely against colonialism, and military rule, much like their counterparts in other parts of Africa.

The Nigerian constitution firmly upholds the right of all Nigerians, including workers, to political participation. Therefore, the involvement of Nigerian workers and trade unions in politics, democratic processes, and their affiliation with the Nigerian Labour Party are not unusual or objectionable. It is worth noting that similar relationships exist in other democracies. For instance, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is in alliance with the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the British Labour Party enjoys the support of British workers and the Trade Union Congress of the United Kingdom (TUC-UK),the Democratic Party in the United States of America is supported by organized labor through the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and the ruling Workers Party of Brazil also enjoys the full and open support of the Central Union of Workers in Brazil (CUT). These affiliations and relationships do not attract the same unwarranted attacks we are witnessing in Nigeria. This approach is not conducive to a thriving democracy.

ITUC-Africa calls upon Nigerian workers and their trade union organizations and the people to remain steadfast in their commitment to democracy. We urge them to continue to engage in the quest for a democracy that genuinely serves their interests and aspirations.

Finally, we call upon President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the current Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to champion the cause of human and workers rights in Nigeria, setting an example of a democracy that upholds these rights and making it an inspiration for other governments in the sub-region.

Issued in Lome, Togo on the 28th of September 2023.

Kwasi Adu-Amankwah

General Secretary
While BRYK Consulting will work with joint WalkMe customers to further their digital transformation programs, the company will also incorporate the application of WalkMe solutions into some of its own business solutions as an independent software vendor in its own right.

BRYK Consulting works across all stages of business transformation from developing strategies, to designing, delivering and maintaining bespoke IT solutions. The companys consulting division specialises in change management, cybersecurity, design thinking, agile project management, data analytics, digital strategy and application architecture.

As part of the certification process, the BRYK Consulting team completed a solution engineering and project enablement program of excellence that included exam-based course work and live on-project evaluation conducted by WalkMe. This experience will now enable the organisation to lead clients through building and managing digital adoption solutions that achieve specific business goals.

In recent years, many organisations have been asking for business analysis skillsets and process mapping to support their digital projects, said BRYK Group CEO David Brykman.

At the same time, companies are looking to invest in new technologies to solve everyday business problems. However, our experience shows that internal teams are often unsure of how to implement new solutions with the functionality they require, while at the same time having processes in place to retire legacy systems. The WalkMe digital adoption platform is an opportunity to fill this gap in their capabilities, reduce risk and provide for smooth transformation of processes and technologies.

As a WalkMe certified delivery organisation, partners can increase the value of WalkMe solutions by leveraging their domain expertise and delivering solutions and services that meet the global, regional, and local requirements of joint customers.



WalkMe vice president of alliance and channel APJ Antony Collins said, BRYK Consulting is an ideal WalkMe Certified Partner. They have exemplary credentials in both the public and private sector and their skills and resources are second to none. We look forward to building a mutually successful business together in the years ahead and supporting Australian businesses with long term success in delivering upon their goals for digital adoption.

WalkMe was founded in 2011 to simplify the way people interact with technology. WalkMes Digital Adoption Platform runs across all underlying applications-- for both employees and customers alike. Over the last decade, WalkMe has continued to deliver digital solutions at scale to help organisations worldwide achieve their digital transformation goals by creating frictionless digital experiences that reduce complexity in the enterprise technology stack.

About WalkMe

WalkMe's cloud-based Digital Adoption Platform enables organisations to measure, drive and act to ultimately accelerate their digital transformations and better realise the value of their software investments. Our platform leverages proprietary technology to provide visibility to an organisation's Chief Information Officer and business leaders, while improving user experience, productivity and efficiency for employees and customers. Alongside walkthroughs and third-party integration capabilities, our platform can be further customised to fit an organisation's needs.

About BRYK Consulting

BRYK Consulting is an Australian based technology services company that is part of the broader BRYK Group of companies. They provide a range of IT services and solutions that help their clients deliver business outcomes. BRYK Consulting does this through expert resources, augmented teams and outsourced delivery models.

While their client base is diverse, their greatest experience has been through working with FinTech and financial services, automotive and government clients.
LogRhythm, is he company helping security teams stop breaches by turning disconnected data and signals into trustworthy insights, today announced its sixth consecutive quarterly release and the one-year anniversary of its groundbreaking cloud-native SaaS SIEM platform, LogRhythm Axon. This quarterly release introduces significant enhancements and expansion to Axon and the full suite of LogRhythm solutions, underscoring the company's commitment to continuous innovation in the global cybersecurity landscape.

"In a dynamic and ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, LogRhythm is obsessed with delivering value our customers care about, said Chris OMalley, CEO of LogRhythm. As we celebrate the one-year anniversary of Axon's launch, customer satisfaction is our first priority, guiding every decision we make. We believe that by driving continuous improvements in innovation delivery rooted in well understood customer needs, we can empower our product users to navigate the complex world of cybersecurity with confidence and efficiency."

SOC Efficiency and Streamlined Analyst Workflows

LogRhythms latest Axon release rounds out the ability to seamlessly detect, investigate, and respond to potential threats within a security operations centre. With the foundation of incident response, security teams can now leverage Axon to automate team workflows through case management. Case management enables analysts to automatically create cases that enable investigative workflows to track responses to threats, thus mitigating duplication of efforts and optimising threat mitigation strategies. In addition, Axons new Signal Replay feature enables SOC teams to test analytics rules to ensure detections are optimised for their environment.

Continuing the effort to advance SOC efficiency, LogRhythm SIEM now provides seamless integration of log source onboarding through centralised management. This enhanced SIEM capability eliminates the need for administrators to navigate several servers and UIs to complete onboarding, thereby streamlining workflows through a single interface, increasing productivity, and reducing the administrative process in half.

Bridging the Skills Gap

LogRhythm continues to address the industry-wide skills gap by providing features that enhance the productivity and onboarding processes for security analysts. The new in-product resource centres for both LogRhythm SIEM and LogRhythm Axon equip security teams with tools they need to quickly understand how to best utilise the platforms and realize a faster time to value. This comprehensive resource hub provides quick access to tutorials, documentation, release information, and the LogRhythm Community for support from the security community.

LogRhythm Expands Cloud-native SIEM Platform to APAC

LogRhythm is also pleased to announce the successful expansion of their LogRhythm Axon SIEM platform to the APAC region. With a new instance in Australia, LogRhythm Axons cloud-native SIEM will be available to provide customers with a flexible solution to strengthen security operations and ensure comprehensive protection.

In partnership with Seamless Intelligence, LogRhythms partner of the year in Australia, a managed services layer will also be available for LogRhythm Axon customers. LogRhythm Axon significantly advances what customers can and should expect from a cloud-native SaaS SIEM platform. Weve been impressed with its platform design and architecture, as well as the continuous pace of innovation, said Chris Bolan, Managing Director of Seamless Intelligence. Our Axon managed services are being developed to take advantage of the platforms capabilities and to provide our clients with the world-class cybersecurity solution and services needed to keep their organisations safe.

Additional enhancements with LogRhythm SIEM, LogRhythm NDR and LogRhythm Axon solutions released in this quarterly rollout include:

LogRhythm Axon:

User anomaly detection for improbable travel allows protection against abnormal access attempts into an organisation's environment

New case management feature automates incident response and investigative workflows, helping SOC teams delegate resources, prioritise their work and improve efficiency. Cases and email notifications can be automatically created or sent when an analytic rule is triggered, indicating an event requires immediate attention

Ability to search common events allows analysts to find relevant security events across different vendors log sources without having prior knowledge of the underlying log structure

New signal replay enhances threat detection development process by allowing testing for analytics rules to ensure they are fine-tuned and optimized for their environment

LogRhythm SIEM:

Streamlined onboarding of Beats and Open Collectors, a collection of LogRhythm services that gather and normalise data from various cloud providers, in a single location to cut the workflow in half

Enhanced API log source onboarding for easier management of Open Collectors and Beats

Expanded library of supported log sources and parsing for improved correlation and analysis

In-product Resource Center for access to tutorials, announcements, docs, and support

LogRhythm NDR:

IP Behind Load Balancer Tracking for faster triage capabilities when responding to incidents

Enhanced model output contextualization to empower quicker action to threats as relevant information is readily available

In addition to LogRhythm's commitment to innovation and seamless cybersecurity solutions, Novacoast has also emerged as the first Axon services provider for LogRhythm's customer base. Novacoast's expertise in delivering innovative cybersecurity services adds a new layer of value to the already impressive suite of LogRhythm Axon capabilities.

This strategic partnership reflects the platform's efficacy and flexibility in enhancing security programs across diverse environments, said Jonathan Poon, CISO at Novacoast. As LogRhythm continues to adapt its Axon offerings to address customer requirements, we are proud to be part of this evolution, propelling the cybersecurity landscape forward. Together, we are addressing industry needs and setting the standard for security services.

To learn more about LogRhythm's offerings, please visit: https://logrhythm.com/.
COMPANY NEWS: ManageEngine, the enterprise IT management division of Zoho, today announced the launch of Identity360, its cloud-native identity management platform that addresses identity and access management (IAM) complexities arising within enterprise workforces. The new platform will be showcased at ManageEngine's User Conference, scheduled on 3 October and 4, 2023, in Dallas, Texas.

ManageEngine also announced the addition of access certification and identity risk assessment functions to ADManager Plus, its on-premises identity governance and administration (IGA) solution. These two functions enhance the compliance posture of enterprises and help them mitigate security risks.

The workforce, which constitutes an integral part of an enterprise, is continuing to evolve digitally, adopting different technologies to make jobs easier and faster. As a result, there has never been a greater spotlight on identities than there is today. With enterprises eager to enable the mobility of the workforce without compromising on security, it is now crucial to handle identity complexity effectively and ensure regulatory compliance, all while prioritising a seamless user experience.

ManageEngine aims to cater to those workforce demands with the launch of Identity360. A centralised platform that integrates directories and applications to streamline user identity management, Identity360 can enforce access controls across these integrated entities. It also offers end-to-end identity life cycle management with workflow orchestration and empowers organisations to optimise their business processes.

Organisations, regardless of their infrastructure and size, commonly encounter identity security and management challenges. Identity360 can help them securely transition to the cloud and effectively manage identities and their access to applications, all while enforcing strong security controls, said ManageEngine vice president Manikandan Thangaraj.

Adhere to compliance requirements and fortify security

With the security landscape perennially changing and organisations required to exhibit their compliance with major IT mandates, ManageEngine has integrated access certification and identity risk assessment capabilities in ADManager Plus. These features empower organisations to align their security and business needs.

ADManager Plus identity risk assessment feature enhances cybersecurity readiness by foreseeing risks and providing on-the-fly mitigation measures to address them. Access certification campaigns ensure users have only the rights they need to perform their job, help organisations implement segregation of duties and the principle of least privilege and demonstrate compliance with IT mandates.

When it comes to Active Directory, cyberattacks are primarily caused by issues related to security misconfigurations and privilege abuse. Implementing strong measures such as risk assessments and access certification campaigns can enhance the security of Active Directory, streamline audit processes and ensure compliance, Thangaraj said.

Highlights of ManageEngine's IAM solutions

- Centralised Universal Directory that offers directory services and comprehensive reports on identities

- Consolidated management of user identities across integrated systems with advanced capabilities like orchestration, smart templates and SCIM-based provisioning

- Reduced password fatigue and risk of unauthorised access with MFA-secured SSO

- Visibility into the security gaps in Active Directory environments along with remediation measures to mitigate them proactively

- Enhanced security by limiting access to network resources through periodic review and validation of access permissions

The two-day User Conference in Dallas will be ManageEngine's second such event in the United States this year, following the one held in Chicago this May. The User Conferences are ManageEngine's largest annual events, bringing together regional customers, partners and senior company executives for IT leadership sessions, technical workshops and networking.

Try the cloud-native IAM platform for free here.

About ManageEngine Identity360

Identity360 is an identity management platform that helps enterprises address workforce IAM challenges. Its powerful capabilities include built-in Universal Directory, identity orchestration, SSO, MFA, role-based access management, access insights, and more. It empowers admins to manage identities across directories and their access to enterprise applications from a secure, centralised console. With Identity360, enterprises can not only scale their businesses effortlessly but also ensure compliance and identity-first security.

About ManageEngine ADManager Plus

ADManager Plus is an identity governance and administration (IGA) solution that simplifies identity management, ensures security, and improves compliance. With ADManager Plus, manage the user life cycle from provisioning to deprovisioning, run access certification campaigns, orchestrate identity management across enterprise applications, and protect data on your enterprise platforms with regular backups. Use over 200 reports to gain valuable insights into identities and their access rights. Improve the efficiency of your IGA operations with workflows, automations, and role-based access control policies.

About ManageEngine

ManageEngine is the enterprise IT management division of Zoho Corporation. Established and emerging enterprises-including 9 of every 10 Fortune 100 organisations-rely on ManageEngine's real-time IT management tools to ensure optimal performance of their IT infrastructure, including networks, servers, applications, endpoints and more. ManageEngine has offices worldwide, including the United States, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, India, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Singapore, Japan, China and Australia, as well as 200+ global partners to help organisations tightly align their business and IT. For more information, please visit manageengine.com, follow the company blog and on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Re: iTWire - GitLab brings culture change to Lendleases software development teams great news. All the best for LendLease

Re: iTWire - Foxtel announces Hubbl to overcome subscription fatigue with one device to rule them all Sounds good but insufficient detail to decide if it is useful or economic and I really don't trust Foxtel to[]

Re: iTWire - ACCC backs govt plan to develop emergency mobile roaming Is this the same ACCC that stopped network sharing for Telstra and Vodafone (listed Australian Companies) because Singtel (Singapore Government)[]
Global sales of electric vehicles grew by 49% year-on-year in the first six months of 2023, the technology analyst firm Canalys says, adding that 6.2 million units were sold in this period.

This includes both battery electric vehicles and petrol hybrid vehicles, with mainland China leading the way with 55% of the total sales for the period or 3.4 million units. But the rate of growth fell sharply year-on-year.

Chinas growth rate in the first half of 2023 stood at 43%, a notable decrease from the extraordinary 118% seen in the first six months of 2022," said Canalys principal analyst Jason Low.

"The end of mainland Chinas EV support scheme caused disruption, uncertainty, and a price war. While a huge choice of EVs is available in China, no single model has more than 10% market share. BYD is the leading EV brand in China, but the Tesla-led price war has been challenging for smaller brands."

Canalys said China had a crowded and competitive market compared to the rest of the world. Price wars have caused more automakers to focus on cost reduction, but excessive emphasis on cost reduction can lead to decreased investment in new technology," said Low.

"With electrification and smart technologies, automobiles have transitioned from mature industrial products to continuously iterative technological products. As a result, automakers must rapidly improve their software and hardware capabilities, establish intelligent ecosystems related to automobiles, and cultivate new brand cultures and automotive concepts.

The second biggest EV market was Europe which accounted for 24% of the global market, 1.5 million unit sales and 34% growth year-on-year.

There is good demand for EVs in Europe," noted analyst Ashwin Amberkar. "Easing supply-chain problems and higher shipments have boosted growth. EVs now account for more than 19% of all vehicles sold in the region.

While Tesla convincingly leads the European market, several Chinese brands have ventured into Europe, yielding mixed outcomes. It is worth noting that EV adoption still faces challenges in major European markets, including Italy and Spain.

The US market accountied for 13% of global sales and showed positive growth with 815,000 units sold. "This surge has catapulted the US to become one of the fastest-growing EV markets worldwide, with EVs contributing 97% year-on-year growth, up from 62% in the first half of 2022," said Amberkar.

"The implementation of new EV subsidies in the US has had varying impacts on different OEMs in the market. While Tesla remains a dominant force in the US EV market for 2023, there is an increasing demand for a wider range of EV options to satisfy the growing consumer interest in electric vehicles.

In terms of brands, Tesla recorded 65% growth year-on-year or sales of 935,000 units. Chinese manufacturer BYD was ahead, with 1.3 million units sold.

Some regional players, like India's Tata Motors, with sales of about 30,000 units, also recorded good sales.
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The most interesting part of the Hollywood writers' new contract is the AI clause. According to news reports, it explicitly allows the studios to "train" large language models on scripts written by members of the Writers Guild. The agreement implies that permission to train an LLM on a writer's works has value. It follows that the right must be purchased from the writer  not simply taken.

Which brings us to the copyright infringement lawsuit filed recently by leading members of the Authors Guild against OpenAI, the company behind GPT-3.4 and GPT4 (with more on the way). Although the complaint lists several violations, the major ones come down to two: First, that OpenAI has violated authors' copyrights by training its programs on scanned copies of published works; and, second, that by enabling users to create what amounts to fan fiction on steroids, OpenAI has contributed to violations by others.

As a writer myself, and an acquaintance of some of the plaintiffs, I sympathize. But as a longtime intellectual property teacher, the claim related to training likely has only a slim chance of succeeding.

The position of the Author's Guild is that the materials on which an AI is trained have value. I agree; so, apparently, does Hollywood. An AI can't generate domestic thrillers if it's never read any domestic thrillers.

The courts, however, will likely hold that the outcome is controlled by the 2015 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, holding that Google was protected by the "fair use" doctrine when it scanned copyrighted works into its database, in large part because only snippets would be generated to users who tried to search the texts. I'm not sure the court was right, but it'll be a tough precedent to get around.

Which brings us to the plaintiff's second claim.

Here I think the plaintiffs have a case. When ChatGPT can produce a detailed outline for a "Game of Thrones" prequel with the attractive title "Dawn of the Direwolves," using George R.R. Martin's characters and settings  well, if that's not an infringing work, nothing is.

The developers will argue that they've only created a tool, that they're not responsible if fans misuse it. And there of course lies the difficulty for authors. Nobody wants to sue the readers. Most popular novelists tolerate fan fiction because it keeps the target audience excited and expectant as the writer struggles to produce the next book. Fan fiction is not, for the most part, competition; its existence proves the popularity of the author.

All of this assumes, however, that the fan fiction is produced by fans  human beings who are not simply excited and energetic but are also working at what we might call a human pace. For evidence that we're exiting that world, look no further than Amazon's recent announcement that "authors" of self-published books will be limited to posting no more than three per day in the Kindle store. Why? Because of "an influx of suspected AI-generated material"  that is, because the books are being written at a nonhuman pace.

The risk, then, is the creation of a constant stream of derivative works. It's one thing for an author to know that excited human beings will now and then create new stories for their characters. It's something else to know that such stories emerge on demand without practical limit. That's a genuine danger to the incentive to become an author  the precise incentive copyright law exists to protect.

This past August, a federal court sustained the position of the Copyright Office that works created entirely by generative AI are not entitled to copyright protection. "Human authorship is a bedrock requirement of copyright," wrote Judge Beryl Howell, a rule derived from "centuries of settled understanding." And there's a practical reason too: "Non-human actors need no incentivization with the promise of exclusive rights under United States law, and copyright was therefore not designed to reach them."

The non-human actor, then, isn't an author, and doesn't act from incentive, still less from excitement about the underlying work; whatever the virtues of a generative AI, it can hardly be described as a fan. And it wouldn't require a huge tweak for the algorithms to respond to certain queries with, "I'm sorry, but I'm not permitted to create fictional works that are derivative of copyrighted works."

In a 2019 filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, OpenAI argued that training LLMs on copyrighted works was fair use, in particular because any other rule would set back research into artificial intelligence. The principal justification is clear in the conclusion: "We hope that U.S. policymakers will continue to allow this area of dramatic recent innovation to proceed without undue burdens from the copyright system."

What the Authors Guild is trying to do is turn this around a little, to remind developers and users alike that we'd also be wise to allow good old-fashioned human authorship to proceed without undue burdens from AI.
The Insomnia Cookies subsidiary of Krispy Kreme is up for sale.

The surprising news comes just more than four years after the doughnut icons private-equity parent organization acquired a majority stake in the cookie company.

Krispy Kreme said Tuesday it is exploring strategic alternatives for its Insomnia stake even as it projects $230 million in revenue for fiscal 2023  about 14% of its overall revenue guidance for a range of $1.65 billion to $1.68 billion.

JAB Holdings purchased the majority stake in Philadelphias Insomnia Cookies with neither the transaction price nor the ownership stake disclosed by the companies.

Insomnia, known for its late-night cookie delivery services, has 250 stores nationwide, typically near college campuses. It has expanded its menu to include brownies, cookie cakes and ice cream.

Among its 10 stores in North Carolina are locations in Boone and Greensboro. The company announced plans in August to open a store at 706 N. Trade St. in downtown Winston-Salem.

As has been the recent case with several corporations, Krispy Kreme said the motivation for selling Insomnia is divesting itself of a non-core product offering.

Todays decision enables Krispy Kreme to unlock shareholder value and focus on its core strategy of producing, selling and distributing fresh doughnuts daily, the company said in a statement.

However, the announcement was unexpected, given that Krispy Kreme chief executive Mike Tattersfield said in May that the company planned to grow from 231 Insomnia Cookies shops by nearly 100 a year until it exceeds 4,000 global locations.

On Tuesday, however, Tattersfield said we acquired a majority stake in Insomnia Cookies to build our e-commerce and digital capability as well as assist Insomnias U.S. and international expansion. Both efforts have been successful, and its time for the next strategic step for both companies.

The access to home-delivery expertise may prove to be more pivotal to Krispy Kreme than the Insomnia revenue source, said Roger Beahm, a marketing professor at Wake Forest University School of Business.

Learning from and leveraging this key reason-for-being in Insomnia Cookies success makes a lot of sense given where the retail food industry is headed today, Beahm said.

The potential sale of Insomnia is just the latest significant operational and management change by Krispy Kreme. Krispy Kreme returned  barely  to profitability in the second quarter with $84,000 in net income as a sales increase offset expenses associated with exiting its Branded Sweet Treats product line.

The company took a $4.4 million charge related to the exit that it confirmed on March 15. That was after taking a $13.4 million charge in the first quarter.

The exit decision ended Krispy Kremes plans for a $5.8 million expansion of its Winston-Salem operations, which would have added up to 180 jobs.

Branded Sweet Treats consisted of pre-packaged doughnut products available in a small number of grocery stores, the company said. The product line debuted in 2020.

In that same second-quarter report, Krispy Kreme said that profitability at Insomnia Cookies was pressured because of the impact of higher product and distribution costs, partially offset by pricing as well as timing of investments to support strategic growth initiatives.

On Sept. 25, Krispy Kreme announced Tattersfields plans to step down Dec. 31 after seven years as president and chief executive on Jan. 1.

Tattersfield will be replaced by Josh Charlesworth in both roles, who is being promoted from global company president while remaining as chief operating officer.

The company said the transition was part of its executive management succession plan in which Tattersfield will remain on the board, serve as an adviser to Charlesworth and be a company ambassador.
Stories of patriotism, devotion shared by Xi

Xinhua) 14:55, October 01, 2023

BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Sunday marks the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Addressing a grand reception in Beijing celebrating the occasion earlier this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping called on the nation to firm up confidence and strive in unity to continue to surmount difficulties and march toward the goal of building a strong China and realizing national rejuvenation.

According to Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, patriotism has always been a source of spiritual strength that firmly unites the Chinese nation. He has encouraged the 1.4 billion Chinese people to weave their ideals into the future of the nation.

On multiple occasions, Xi recounted stories of iconic patriots from China's rich history, both ancient and contemporary. Among them, Yue Fei, a military commander during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), stands out vividly.

Yue is a paragon of loyalty in Chinese culture, known for his heroic battles against the invading Jin military from the north. Legend has it that Yue's mother tattooed four Chinese characters onto his back: "Jing Zhong Bao Guo," or "serve the country with unreserved loyalty."

Xi first encountered this legendary general in the pages of a childhood book.

When visiting a Beijing primary school in 2014, Xi encountered a group of students writing the characters "Jing Zhong Bao Guo" in calligraphy and was reminded of his childhood hero.

"My mother read me his story from picture books. 'Wouldn't it hurt to have his back tattooed?' I asked my mother," Xi recalled. "She said, 'Of course, it hurt. But in this way, it was also engraved on Yue's mind.'"

"Jing Zhong Bao Guo -- I have long remembered these four characters. They are the pursuit of my entire life," Xi told the students.

Xi has demonstrated this pursuit through actions, and, after assuming the Party's top post in 2012, he also asked Party members and cadres to learn from Yue's spirit of total devotion to the country and the people.

Another figure Xi has consistently held in high regard is Jiao Yulu, who was Party chief of Lankao County in central China's Henan Province in the early 1960s. Jiao's story has been recounted by Xi on multiple occasions as an example of selfless service to the people.

When Jiao was the Party chief, Lankao was plagued by sandstorms and had to battle against saline-alkali land and flooding, and its residents struggled to put food on the table.

Jiao worked tirelessly to tackle these problems, disregarding his own interests to improve the lot of the people. He often stayed in simple mud huts where poor farmers lived, eating and working with them.

Inspired by Jiao's example, the county's cadres worked together and eventually led Lankao to a stage where it was able to bid farewell to its chronic food shortages and sandstorms.

But Jiao did not live to see that day. He succumbed to liver cancer in 1964.

"I was deeply touched when I learned that Jiao kept on working, even in the late stages of his liver cancer, when he was suffering from great pain," Xi recalled.

During an inspection tour of Lankao in 2014, Xi urged Party members and cadres to use Jiao's spirit as a mirror to examine their problems and shortcomings. He called on them to emulate Jiao's unwavering dedication, and said that Jiao exemplified the essence of a devoted and industrious Party member and cadre.

Xi also gave high praise to contemporary individuals who devoted themselves to the cause of the nation.

In 2017, Xi urged society to learn from geophysicist Huang Danian for his patriotic devotion.

Huang, known for his expertise in deep-Earth exploration technology, studied and worked in Britain for 18 years before leaving his position there and returning to China in 2009. In the years that followed, he helped China soar in a number of technical fields, transforming the nation into one of the world's leaders in deep-Earth exploration.

Huang devoted his entire life to the prosperity of the country, the rejuvenation of the nation and the happiness of the people, Xi said, calling on the public to follow his example and learn from his patriotism, his professional dedication and his noble spirit in being indifferent to fame and wealth.

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Wu Chaolan)
Photo: The Canadian Press Newly elected Speaker of the House of Commons Greg Fergus is escorted into the House of Commons by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, left, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Liberal member of Parliament Fergus has been elected the House of Commons Speaker in a historic mid-session vote. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

UPDATE 12:30 p.m.

Greg Fergus first came to the House of Commons as a parliamentary page, sitting at the foot of the Speaker's chair and serving water to MPs  only one of whom is still a sitting member of Parliament.

On Tuesday, he sat in that chair himself, now tasked with restoring confidence in the chamber in a role that Fergus described as a continuation of his "lifelong love" of Parliament.

Fergus said he subscribed to Hansard  the daily transcripts of debate in the House of Commons  at 14 years old.

Now, 40 years later, the 54-year-old Quebec Liberal MP has become the first Black Canadian to serve as Speaker.

After MPs elected him to the role by secret ballot, he promised them that he would lead with respect, and encourage them to respect each other, too.

Canadians are watching, he noted.

"The Speaker, to use the old hockey analogy, is nothing more than a referee," Fergus said in his first speech from the chair.

"And if there's one thing I know, it's that nobody pays good money to go see the referee. They go to see the stars: you."

The rare election mid-session election was held to replace Anthony Rota, who caused an international uproar over his actions during a recent visit by Ukraine's president.

The former Speaker invited a veteran who served in a Nazi unit in the Second World War to the House of Commons chamber, and asked parliamentarians and dignitaries to applaud the man as a hero. He has since apologized.

Fergus was first elected to represent the Quebec riding of Hull-Aylmer in 2015, and has served as parliamentary secretary to the prime minister and treasury board.

All MPs gave Fergus a standing ovation as he was announced the winner of the vote, and members of the Liberal, NDP and Bloc Quebecois caucuses shook his hand and hugged him, as did a small number of Conservative MPs.

In the days leading up to the election, some Tories had drummed up attacks against Fergus.

A top adviser to Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre, Jenni Byrne, noted that Fergus had vocally defended Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during "elbow-gate"  when Trudeau inadvertently elbowed an NDP MP during an uproar in the House in 2016.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner also pointed out on social media that Fergus had been found earlier this year to have breached the Conflict of Interest Act while serving as a parliamentary secretary to Trudeau. He wrote a letter in support of a TV channel's application to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for mandatory carriage  something those in such positions are not allowed to do.

Fergus said he aims to enforce decorum throughout the passionate, hard debates that are necessary in Parliament.

"I'm going to be working hard at this, and I need all of your help to make this happen," he said, adding that he will be meeting with deputy Speakers Tuesday to discuss how to improve decorum.

As is tradition, the new Speaker was "dragged" to the chair in the House of Commons by the prime minister and Opposition leader after votes were counted Tuesday afternoon.

Trudeau and Poilievre gave speeches congratulating Fergus and thanking him for stepping up.

Seven people had put their names forward to take his place.

Liberal MPs gathered early in the morning for a caucus meeting with Trudeau to discuss the vote.

When the caucus meeting concluded, Trudeau and Fergus remained two of the few left in the room.

As he emerged from their meeting, Fergus had said he was nervous about the day, but optimistic.

ORIGINAL 9:15 a.m.

Seven candidates vying to be the next House of Commons Speaker made their pitch to MPs on Tuesday ahead of a historic vote, with all saying they want to restore confidence in Parliament.

Former Speaker Anthony Rota, who resigned after he asked MPs to honour a man who fought for the Nazis, was not in his seat during the election, with a seat-filler in his place instead.

Liberal MP Sean Casey kicked off the speeches saying there needs to be a reset in the House when it comes to decorum, while Liberal MP Alexandra Mendes said more than anything, civility is needed.

Nova Scotia Conservative MP Chris d'Entremont, who was most recently a deputy Speaker, said it's important for him to protect the right of MPs to speak in the House, and that his calm French-Canadian demeanour is right for the job.

Liberal MP Greg Fergus, whom the Tories perceive as the prime minister's choice, said every MP in the chamber has more in common than they care to admit and that he would lead firmly, thoughtfully and collaboratively.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, who delivered her speech virtually due to health issues, said she is running so that she can make her concerns known: that the next Speaker must follow the rules.

Liberal MP Peter Schiefke promised that if he's elected, he would create a policy around due diligence for guests of the Speaker in the House of Commons. He also said he would apologize to his counterpart in Ukraine for the issue that led to his predecessor's resignation.

Two assistant deputy Speakers  the NDP's Carol Hughes, from Ontario, and Liberal Alexandra Mendes from Quebec  are also running.

Liberal MP Stephane Lauzon withdrew from the election just before speeches got underway.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh were in attendance during the speeches, but Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was absent, as was Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet.

Following speeches, candidates mingled with other MPs from all sides, appearing to vie for their support as an anonymous ranked ballot voting process got underway.

MPs rank their candidate in order of their preference, but it's not necessary to rank all seven candidates. There would only be a second vote in order to break a tie.

Rota had stepped down from the role a week ago amid international controversy over his actions during a recent visit by Ukraine's president.

Rota invited a veteran who served in a Nazi unit in the Second World War to the House of Commons chamber, and asked parliamentarians and dignitaries to applaud the man as a hero.

Tuesday's election is considered rare because it's happening mid-sitting rather than right after an election.

Liberal MPs gathered early in the morning for a caucus meeting with Trudeau to discuss the vote.

Following the meeting, Fergus said: "I'm feeling nervous but I'm feeling optimistic."

Other MPs were mum on who they'd vote for, while Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez said he'll be voting for the "best candidate."

Asked how the Liberal caucus was doing mid-way through their meeting to discuss their strategy, Immigration Minister Marc Miller quipped: "We're doing math. Its complicated. Where have you been the last eight years?"
Truist Financial Corp. announced another changing of the guard Monday, this time with retired chairman and chief executive Kelly King among eight of its 21 board of directors departing at the end of the year.

The four board members reaching the current mandatory retirement age of 75 by Dec. 31 also includes High Point University President Nido Qubein, who has been a board member of legacy BB&T Corp. and Truist since 1990.

As a result, Truists board will shrink to 13 members, of which chairman and chief executive Bill Rogers will be the only non-independent director.

When Truist debuted in December 2019 as the result of BB&Ts $33.4 billion purchase of SunTrust Banks Inc., each legacy bank had 11 board representatives.

The planned board retirement of King will end his 40-year era on either the executive management team or board.

King retired as Truist chairman in September 2021 and as chairman in March 2022. When King joined the Truist board in 2008, the mandatory board member retirement age was 70. After King became chairman in 2010, the mandatory retirement age for chief executive of 65 was eliminated in December 2012.

Meanwhile, the mandatory retirement age for a board member was raised to 72 in August 2013, and then to 75 in January 2019.

In all those instances, the board increased the retirement age in large part to accommodate King.

Qubein said in a statement that Truist is a strong institution whose board, due to the merger, became a bit big.

Ive been privileged to serve on the board with such experienced and talented leaders, Qubein said. Ill miss my service at Truist, having served on four different boards that merged over the last 35 years  American Bank, Southern National, BB&T and Truist.

Board members David Ratcliffe (legacy SunTrust) and Tommy Thompson (legacy BB&T) also will reach the mandatory retirement age of 75 by the end of the year.

The other four members stepping down on Dec. 31 are: Anna Cablik (legacy BB&T, age 70 as of March proxy filing); Paul Donahue (legacy SunTrust, age 66); Easter Maynard (legacy BB&T, age 52); and Frank Scruggs Jr., (legacy SunTrust, age 71).

Truist said in a regulatory filing that the decisions of those four members to step down are to address other professional and personal commitments and are not due to any disagreement with Truist on any matter relating to Truists operations, policies or practices.

Legacy SunTrust will have seven of the 13 board members as of Jan. 1.

We are deeply grateful for the unwavering commitment of each board member completing service, Thomas Skains, Truists lead independent director, said in the news release.

They have all made meaningful contributions to Truist, and we respect the decisions that several have made to conclude their service early.

Skains said Truists remaining board members offer a diverse set of skills and experiences and are well positioned to continue setting Truists strategic priorities and provide oversight to drive shareholder value.

Christopher Marinac, senior analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott, said that having nearly 40% of a corporate board of directors leave at one time is a larger-than-normal change, the board was unusually large because of the megadeal.

Most bank boards range from 10 to 14 in member size, often near the lower end, Marinac said.

Rogers said the combined board worked effectively together to oversee Truists successful formation and integration in a historic operating environment.

With that integration complete, and several strategic initiatives under way that will guide our path forward, the board remains well positioned to shape, oversee and advance the strategic imperatives of Truist in this period of rapid industry transformation.

On Sept. 11, Truist said it is undergoing a sizable reductions in force over the next 12 to 18 months that will represent at least $300 million in annual workforce cost-cut savings.

Truist has declined to comment on specific job-cut projections, and when and where they would take place.

A sizable reduction in force could be between 1,500 and 2,000 employees, projected Tony Plath, a retired finance professor at UNC Charlotte.

The bank disclosed plans for an overall $750 million annual cost reduction before a presentation at a Barclays Global Financial Services Conference by Rogers and chief financial officer Mike Maguire.

Rogers told analysts and investors that Truist is aggressively cutting costs ... many achieved through near-term personnel-related reductions over the next three quarters.

Banking analysts, investors and Truist employees have been bracing for the cost-reduction announcement since Rogers warned on July 21 that another round of cost cutting would likely involve jobs and facility operations, and come over the next 12 to 18 months.

Since December 2019, Truists full-time-equivalent workforce had been reduced by 11.3%, or by at least 6,736 positions to 52,564 as of June 30.

Cantey Alexander, Truists regional president for the Triad who retired on Saturday, said in December 2019 the bank had about 3,800 employees in the region, including operations in Forsyth County and the Triad Corporate Center complex in Greensboro near Piedmont Triad International Airport.

The bank has not provided a Triad workforce update since.

Besides the $300 million in workforce reduction expenses, Truist listed $250 million in what it called organizational alignment and simplification and $200 million in technology expense reduction.
School districts in Yadkin and Wilkes counties dismissed students early on Monday after its schools were threatened.

Yadkin County Schools said in a Facebook post that a bomb threat had been made toward its schools.

Elementary schools and high school car riders were dismissed at 11:30 a.m., and other middle and high school students waited outside for their buses to come, according to the post.

While we do not believe the threat is credible, we need to operate to ensure the safety of our students, the message from Superintendent Todd Martin read.

Wilkes County Schools said in a message on its website that it had received a threat that was directed toward multiple schools. Its elementary students were sent home at 11 a.m., and middle and high school students dismissed at 11:30 a.m.
Thomasville police have taken out a warrant for the arrest of a man they say tried to sexually assault a 15-year-old boy in the bathroom of a convenience store and gas station near the intersection of N.C. 109 and Interstate 85.

James Claiborne Hicks Jr., who is 65, is wanted on a charge of attempted indecent liberties with a child.

Thomasville police said they were told about the incident shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday. Police responded to the Exxon gas station and convenience store at 1115 Randolph Street, just south of I-85.

The victim, a 15-year-old teenage boy, told police that a man followed him into the restroom and tried to assault him. The boy was unharmed.

Police identified Hicks from video surveillance footage taken at the store.

Hicks was last observed leaving the scene in a red Nissan Versa bearing North Carolina license tag plate number RHE-1060.

Anyone with information regarding Hicks whereabouts is asked to contact the Thomasville Police Department at 336-475-4260 or Crime Stoppers at 336-476-8477.
Since January, new technology aimed at detecting weapons being brought into the Bryan West Campus emergency room  accidentally or otherwise  has screened more than 100,000 people.

About 32% of those screenings  or more than 32,000 individuals  sent up warning flags.

And even though the vast majority of the alerts were false readings  umbrellas were a constant culprit  more than 1,000 weapons, from guns to knives to pepper spray, were detected, said Jeff Bliemeister, Bryan Medical Center's safety and security director.

"We're trying to find that balance where we can provide a healing environment with those who are present to support (the patients), but yet in a safe and secure manner," said Bliemeister, who rolled out a series of safety measures Monday throughout the Bryan Health System.

Included in the protocol adjustments are changes to the visiting hours at all Bryan facilities. Visitors will be allowed from 5 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on the weekends.

There will be some exceptions, said Lisa Vail, Bryan's vice president of patient care services. In addition, current Bryan Family Birthplace, mental health and emergency hours will not change.

"The safety of our patients and staff is at the forefront of everything we do," Bliemeister said. "Implementing these policies will allow us to even better provide a safe hospital environment where patients can heal and families can visit."

Bliemeister said he was alarmed to discover that U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics show that health care workers are five times more likely to be injured in the workplace than in any other job.

Reported incidents of workplace violence at Bryan Medical Center increased sevenfold between 2020 and 2022.

Bryan polled its employees in the spring and asked for ways to improve on workplace safety and security issues, Bliemeister said.

"There were thousands of responses that we received and a couple of those responses are (now) being implemented," he said.

Evolv, the new technology, is a safety screening device that is used in stadiums, arenas, schools and hospitals across the country. Statistics show that it is effective in detecting weapons, while minimizing disruption because it allows individuals to pass through without removing clothing items.

The Evolv technology was partially funded through two $150,000 grants that enabled Bryan to put the screening devices at the entrance to the emergency rooms at both the East and West campuses.

Upon entering the emergency room, signage warns individuals that weapons are prohibited on hospital grounds.

If someone sets off an alert, they are warned again that possessing them is against hospital policy and they are asked to take the weapon to their vehicles. If the person in question is the patient, their medical needs come first, Bliemeister said.

"If you're in emergency medical need, then we have a locker system here where we lock these items up and then they're returned upon being discharged," he said.

The new visiting hours, which took effect Monday at all Bryan facilities, will have a positive impact on patient care, Vail said.

"Science will tell you rest is one of the most important restorative healing parts of recovering from a surgery or an illness," Vail said. "So we want to try to provide uninterrupted rest as much as possible for our patients."

As mentioned, there are exceptions, Vail said. Someone who relies on a service animal might have someone after hours to tend to the animal. The same might be true for someone with a language or communication barrier.

"Sometimes, they need a special person to interpret or manage and coordinate that care to reduce the patient's anxiety so that they can rest," Vail said.

Top Journal Star photos for September 2023
A Lincoln man faces a felony weapons charge in connection to an assault at a bank last week.

Derreck Jones, 40, is being held in jail on a $250,000 percentage bond on a charge of possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person.

The Lancaster County Attorney's Office filed a habitual criminal enhancement against Jones, who has served time for an attempted murder and an attempted sexual assault of a child, both out of Douglas County.

The new weapon charge followed an incident overnight Sept. 19 when a bank branch manager found a knife and drops of blood on the walls and floor of the bank the next morning.

In court records, Lincoln police said video footage showed a cleaning woman being struck several times and threatened with a knife by a man later identified through book-in photos and tattoos as Jones.

Police arrested him early Sept. 23.

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All it took was one dentist appointment to completely change Lanny Boswells life.

He had been experiencing intense pain from a cut in his mouth that didn't seem to heal this summer. It became difficult to sleep, eat or speak, so he went in for a checkup  probably nothing, he thought.

Everything quickly changed.

Probably cancer, he was told, a tumor on his tongue.

Shock. Worry. Fear.

A diagnosis  squamous cell carcinoma in situ of tongue and oral cavity  meant hed lose his ability to speak. Surgery removed his tongue and voice box.

But, he wouldnt be voiceless.

The Lincoln Board of Education president now communicates with a text-to-speech application on his cellphone  even while running biweekly board meetings. His voice may sound different, but its still his.

My goal is to learn new ways to do the things I used to do before the diagnosis. For example, I no longer have natural speech, but I have an artificial voice, Boswell said in an email.

It is way too soon to give up on any part of my life until I've tried new ways to do the old things.

So far, the transition to using the technology has been smooth.

Boswell, 53, is able to type out what hed like to say on his phone, and then play it aloud through a small speaker clipped to his shirt.

To speed up the process, he has some common phrases or sayings pre-programmed in the app. With the voice technology, much of the predictable dialogue he uses as president is already typed out ahead of the meeting and ready to use.

Boswell previously worked as a software engineer and received a degree from the California Institute of Technology in electrical engineering. Having a background in technology has certainly made the transition easier, he said.

His longtime board colleague and friend, Don Mayhew, said its clear how much work Boswell has put into perfecting his new voice app.

I can just see the analysis, the work that's gone in, to pre-program it for all the things that could possibly come up in a school board meeting in a way that makes it all easily accessible to him during the meeting, Mayhew said. The fact that he's just so intelligent really comes through in a situation like this.

Before his diagnosis in mid-August, Boswell missed two board meetings this summer and a small handful of committee meetings because of medical appointments. In his 10 years on the board, Boswell had only been absent from three meetings prior to his diagnosis.

It was difficult to step away, even briefly, he said. So, he worked to be back with the gavel in hand as quickly as possible.

With help from the Lincoln Public Schools communications team, a ride from his mother and patience from his board colleagues as he navigated his new voice technology, Boswell was able to preside over the Sept. 12 meeting, just a week after he had surgery to remove the tumor, his tongue and voice box.

My conclusion was that if I could go to the meeting, then I should go to the meeting, Boswell said. I hope the Lincoln community knows that despite the challenges, I will continue to serve to the best of my ability.

For Superintendent Paul Gausman, it was hard to find the words to express his feelings of appreciation and respect for Boswell, describing his continued dedication to the board as heroic and impressive.

He has really modeled for the community the entire motto of the school district  and the service to children, regardless of the challenges in the children's lives  in the community, in a way that none of us would have seen coming, Gausman said.

Gausman noted that at no point did he ever sense Boswell would back away from the responsibilities of serving on the board.

Serving on the board means a lot to Boswell for many reasons, but especially because it has been an opportunity to give back to a community that gave so much to his own children, he said.

Boswell has five adult children who all graduated from LPS and an infant grandson. His parents still live in Allen in northeast Nebraska, where he grew up.

Three of his children have graduated high school since the start of his board service, allowing Boswell to be the one to hand them their diplomas  something his father did for him, too.

My children are the most important thing in my life, Boswell said. Defeating cancer means I get to spend many more years with them.

Boswell, whose current term ends in May 2025, plans to continue serving on the school board as long as he can, despite ongoing treatment and any other obstacles that may come his way.

There is still a long road ahead, with radiation treatments and adjusting my life to my new circumstances, Boswell said. I want to travel that road with hope for the best possible outcomes, gratitude for the support that surrounds me and determination to continue to serve and improve.

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 divided Lincoln City Council on Monday voted to approve a labor contract for nearly 500 street, maintenance, technical and clerical employees despite union objections.

The city and the Public Association of Government Employees had reached an impasse in August when the city issued its last best offer indicating there was no room for additional negotiation.

The city  including the mayor  wanted the council to approve its last offer, a one-year contract that gave the employees a 3% raise, including back pay to the end of the current contract and an increase in the shift differential for employees working non-typical hours.

Approving the contract also means those employees will now get a new parental leave benefit  something some unions contended the city was using as a bargaining chip, though it was given earlier to all non-union employees.

The union urged the council to vote against the contract and send the two sides back to the negotiating table, saying they thought with more time they could reach consensus.

The situation is unusual in city union negotiations: PAGE hasnt been at an impasse in a decade; the firefighters union, which also is at an impasse, hasnt been there since the 1990s.

Several of the council members said the decision was a difficult one for them.

I struggle with this quite a bit, said Councilman Bennie Shobe. As someone who has to worry about the fiduciary responsibility of the city, I have one hat I have to put on. As someone who cares about people I have another hat I have to put on. As someone who listens to residents of our community that tell us we are taxing them at a rate they cant afford, which is our only revenue stream to pay additional wages, I have not slept several nights this week.

In the end, Shobe, Tom Beckius, Sandra Washington and Justin Carlson voted to approve the one-year contract. James Michael Bowers, Brody Weber and Tom Duden voted no.

Bowers said all a no vote does is send the two sides back to the negotiating table. PAGE represents jobs that are difficult and underappreciated, he said, and the council should agree to take care of those who have taken care of the city.

Thats why this rare event of not coming to consensus should not be minimized, he said. This is not just about them getting more money to buy another hot tub. Its about crafting a fair agreement.

During a public hearing last week, both the city and labor leaders said negotiations started late, which complicated negotiations.

City officials said if the council approves the one-year contract it will give them time to review nearly 80 different jobs to see whether their pay has fallen behind the market. Thats a process the city has gone through with other jobs, raising pay so they are more competitive.

The union wanted the city to review 29 of those jobs as part of the negotiations.

Pay was the biggest sticking point, though there were other issues.

The average pay increase based on the citys array of comparable cities was 2.65%. The unions comparable cities saw a bigger discrepancy and union leaders sought a 5% increase with larger increases for jobs more than 5% behind in their array.

Weber said he would need to see more compensation data  including how far behind the market some of the jobs are  before he could approve the agreement.

Human Resources Director Barb McIntyre said the department would complete the reviews on all 80 positions before negotiations began on a new contract in February.

Beckius said sending the two sides back to the bargaining table doesnt guarantee theyll reach a consensus, and having more information on compensation in February will be helpful.

Zach Chapo, the union president, said he appreciated that the council struggled with the decision, and understands they have to weigh budget concerns as well.

Now that the one-year contract has been approved, the union will have to decide whether to take the question to the Commission of Industrial Relations, or accept the one-year contract.

Top Journal Star photos for September 2023
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  The Emirati president-designate for the upcoming United Nations COP28 climate conference offered a full-throated defense of his nation hosting the talks, dismissing those who just go on the attack without knowing anything, without knowing who we are.

Climate activists roundly criticized Sultan al-Jaber's appointment as the president-designate of the talks because he serves as CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., which is seeking to boost its production of carbon-emitting crude oil and natural gas.

Back before a quiet, hometown crowd and an amenable moderator after attending the U.N. General Assembly, al-Jaber pointed to his 20 years of work on renewable energy as a sign that he and the Emirates represent the best chance to reach a consensus to address climate change worldwide.

The world only, for whatever reason, views us as an oil-and-gas nation, he said. We have moved beyond oil and gas 20 years ago. We embraced the energy transition 20 years ago.

He added: We dont become passionate or ideological or so emotional. Were business-oriented. Were results-driven.

Al-Jaber, a 50-year-old longtime climate envoy, is a trusted confidant of UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Hes been behind tens of billions of dollars spent or pledged toward renewable energy in the federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula  but also leads an oil company that pumps some 4 million barrels of crude a day and hopes to expand to 5 million daily.

Addressing the world's reliance on crude oil, al-Jaber issued a challenge to the audience listening to him at Dubai's visually striking Museum of the Future: Tell him how to immediately stop the use of all fossil fuels.

Some are promoting the fact that we can just unplug the world from the current energy system and with a flick of a switch, we can just initiate a new energy system, he said. That doesn't work. It won't work.  So we need to sober up and be more realistic and more practical.

But the fact that al-Jaber repeatedly defended himself and the country from activists' criticism is incredibly telling in the Emirates, an autocratic nation that while a key U.S. business and military ally still tightly controls speech, bans political parties and criminalizes labor strikes.

As the profile of the UAE and Dubai in particular has grown in recent decades, so too have its ambitions abroad, drawing increasing scrutiny of its involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen and actions backing fellow autocrats in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring.

Al-Jaber described his nation as having the political will under its leadership to push forward.

His colleague on stage, the UAE's U.N. Climate Change High-Level Champion Razan al-Mubarak, also sought to call climate change denial dead. But a recent Republican presidential debate in the U.S. saw candidates roundly rejecting the notion that humans are causing climate change, with other right-wing politicians worldwide similarly dismissive.

One important target of the COP will be making sure that a global pledge to try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times becomes a reality, al-Jaber said. Scientists say that in order to achieve that goal, emissions need to be halved by 2030 and reach net zero by mid-century, meaning all emissions are either slashed or canceled out somehow  setting an incredible challenge ahead of the talks for the UAE officials like al-Jaber shepherding the negotiations.

Time has come for us to take on this responsibility, but we do need the world to understand," he said. We want all of those likeminded partners to step up, to up their game, to engage, to be more forthcoming, more forward leaning, rather than just sitting back, pointing fingers and shooting.

Each year, the country hosting the U.N. negotiations known as the Conference of the Parties  where COP gets its name  nominates a person to chair the talks. Hosts typically pick a veteran diplomat as the talks can be difficult to steer between competing nations and their interests.

The nominees position as COP president is confirmed by delegates at the start of the talks, usually without objections. However, activists ire over al-Jabers selection could see a turbulent start to the negotiations.

Al-Jaber described the efforts at reaching out to nations, activists and industry ahead of COP28 as unprecedented. However, his remarks underscored what is likely a growing irritation of the criticism.

We simply engaged, listened and we did not leave any stone unturned, he said, before adding that some "chose very early on to just go on the attack without knowing anything, without knowing who we are, without knowing who am I, without knowing what we bring to the table.

COP28 will be held at Dubais Expo City from Nov. 30 through Dec. 12.
The 16-year-old boy shot and killed over the weekend was a junior at Omaha Burke High School, according to a statement from the school.

LaMarintae Swift was one of six people shot during a birthday party near 24th and Decatur Streets in the early hours of Sunday morning. The five other people injured, all adults, are expected to survive. An initial report from police had a different spelling of Swifts first name.

In a letter sent to Burke High families, administrators extended heartfelt sympathy to Swifts family and encouraged parents to talk with their students about the grieving process. Counselors were available for students throughout the school day Monday, according to the letter.

According to Omaha Police Department Chief Deputy Tom Schaffer, police were called to a shooting at a large after hours gathering around 2:30 a.m. at a building near 24th and Decatur Streets. Schaffer said about 100 people had gathered for a 30th birthday party inside and outside the building, which was often rented out for parties and other events.

Police believe Swift was shot outside and then walked inside, where he was found by paramedics. The five other victims were located both inside and outside, with some people sustaining injuries after bullets penetrated the walls.

Swift was transported to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Schaffer declined to comment on the specific injuries he sustained.

The five other people shot and injured  John Boston, 32, Dionta Walker, 34, Ladayshianae Jones, 25, Miriah Watson, 31, and Andrea Smith, 33  are expected to survive.

No arrests had been made as of Monday afternoon.

Schaffer said police want to speak with anyone who was at the party that night, even if they dont think they have any notable information. He also discouraged people from taking matters into their own hands as police work to identify suspects.

What we are trying to prevent in this particular case is any senseless retaliation, Schaffer said. That doesnt get us anywhere. It just leads to more trauma in the community.

Swifts killing marks Omahas 18th homicide of the year, and the years first youth victim of gun violence. In 2022, five youths age 13 to 18 were shot and killed in Omaha.
Photo: The Canadian Press Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to reporters as he arrives for a cabinet meeting in Ottawa, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Canada needs diplomats in India to help navigate the "extremely challenging" tensions between the two countries, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday in response to demands that Ottawa repatriate dozens of its envoys.

India reportedly wants 41 of 62 Canadian diplomats out of the country by early next week  a striking, if largely anticipated, deepening of the rift that erupted last month following Trudeau's explosive allegations in the House of Commons.

The prime minister bluntly spoke of "credible" intelligence linking the Indian government to the shooting death in June of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Sikh leader India has long assailed as a terrorist.

The demand, first reported by the Financial Times, comes less than two weeks after the Indian government first called on Canada to establish "parity in strength and rank equivalence in our diplomatic presence."

Canada has a much larger diplomatic corps in India, owing in part to the fact it's a country of 1.4 billion people, compared to 40 million in Canada  about 1.3 million of whom are of Indian origin.

Trudeau would not confirm the reports Tuesday, nor did he sound inclined to acquiesce to India's request.

"Obviously, we're going through an extremely challenging time with India right now," Trudeau said on his way to a caucus meeting on Parliament Hill.

"That's why it's so important for us to have diplomats on the ground, working with the Indian government, there to support Canadians and Canadian families."

Canada, he continued, is "taking this extremely seriously, but we're going to continue to engage responsibly and constructively with the government of India."

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said largely the same thing.

"In moments of tension, because indeed there are tensions between both our governments, more than ever it's important that diplomats be on the ground," Joly said.

"That's why we believe in the importance of having a strong diplomatic footprint in India. That being said, we are in ongoing conversations with the Indian government."

During Tuesday's daily briefing at the State Department, deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel was at pains to avoid exacerbating tensions any further.

"We are  and continue to be  deeply concerned about the allegations referenced by Prime Minister Trudeau and we remain in regular contact with our Canadian partners," Patel said, a message the U.S. has had on repeat for weeks.

"It's critical that Canada's investigation proceed and the perpetrators be brought to justice. We also have ... publicly and privately urged the Indian government to co-operate in the Canadian investigation and co-operate in those efforts."

Patel also demurred on the potential impact of an escalating tit-for-tat exchange of diplomatic staff on the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy, a key element of U.S. efforts to mitigate China's growing geopolitical influence.

"I certainly don't want to get into hypotheticals," he said. "As it relates to our Indo-Pacific strategy and the focus that we continue to place on the region, that effort and that line of work is going to continue."

David Cohen, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, has already confirmed that the allegations were buttressed in part on intelligence gathered by a key ally from the Five Eyes security alliance, which includes the U.S., the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, along with Canada.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's external affairs minister, confirmed last week that the subject came up in his meetings in Washington, D.C., with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser.

Trudeau's allegation "was not consistent with our policy," Jaishankar told a panel discussion Friday hosted by the Hudson Institute.

"If his government had anything relevant and specific they would like us to look into, we were open to looking at it. That's where that conversation is at this point of time."

Jaishankar went on to note that the issue of Sikh separatists living in Canada had long been "an issue of great friction," notably after the 1985 bombing of Air India flight 182, the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history.

"In the last few years, it has come back very much into play, because of what we consider to be a very permissive Canadian attitude towards terrorists, extremists, people who openly advocate violence," Jaishankar said.

"They have been given operating space in Canada because of the compulsions of Canadian politics."
As of Dec. 30, the Hall County Department of Corrections will no longer house detainees from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Hall County Commission voted unanimously to terminate the county's contract with ICE in response to the federal governments requirements for the handling of ICE detainees.

Hall County has housed ICE detainees since before the current Hall County Jail opened in 2008.

On Sept. 26 and 27, the jail contained 17 ICE detainees.

The county receives $75 a day for each ICE detainee housed.

The chairman of the Hall County board said the county will incur no financial cost in cutting ties with ICE. The U.S. Marshals Service will use the beds vacated by the ICE detainees, Ron Peterson said.

The Marshals Service is reportedly happy to fill any available beds: Theyve told us that a number of times, Todd Bahensky, director of Hall County Department of Corrections, said last week.

The procedure required by ICE has become burdensome enough that its just come to the point where its really difficult for us to keep up with it, Bahensky said.

ICE has audited the jail about three times in the past year. The audits have been for different reasons and Im not saying theyre going after us, or anything like that, Bahensky said. Theyre just taking a different approach to these audits.

ICE is tightening up and changing its standards and then adding requirements on to it, Bahensky said.

Hall County has been trying to negotiate an increase in the rate paid by ICE, because the U.S. Marshals Service pays $105 a day for each of its inmates housed in the jail.

But ICE wants the Hall County Jail to put some other things in place before raising its daily rate.

Theyre asking for us to put a lot of time and effort and money into it to be able to meet these requirements, and its just not worth it for us, especially considering that the total of ICE detainees is not that large, Bahensky said.

An ICE audit is not financial in nature. They just come in and they look at our standard operating procedures, look at the way we handle our paperwork and all that kind of stuff and make sure we meet their guidelines  their standards, Bahensky said.

Hall County Department of Corrections is required to comply with Nebraska jail standards. The jail meets all state requirements when it comes to safety and security. So Bahensky is confident the jail is doing things the right way.

ICE is basically taking things to the next level, he said.

ICE does not regard its detainees as criminals, Bahensky said. So the federal agency asks Hall County to treat them differently than people who have been charged or found guilty of a crime.

ICE expects the jail to do things that are kind of above and beyond what a county facility typically does, Bahensky said. For instance, ICE asks that the detainees have additional access to phones. Measures like that make it difficult for the jail to comply, Bahensky said.

Many of the ICE detainees are in the process of being returned to their native countries. Some of them are challenging deportment. Its not unusual for detainees to spend 30 days or more at the jail, Bahensky said.

Top Journal Star photos for September 2023
In the three months that petitioners have circulated across Nebraska looking for support for an effort to repeal a new tax credit law, campaigns both for and against the initiative have raised more than $3 million between them.

Support Our Schools Nebraska, the group issuing the petition, outraised its opponent by bringing in more than $1.7 million in that period, according to its latest financial statements. The opposing group, Keep Kids First, brought in more than $1.4 million  roughly doubling its contributions in the last month before the petition's deadline.

Support Our Schools launched its campaign in early June intending to put the repeal of LB753 on the 2024 ballot. On the petition's deadline Aug. 30, the group submitted more than 117,000 signatures to the Nebraska Secretary of State's Office, giving it a good chance of meeting the requirement to get the question on the ballot.

LB753 will provide dollar-for-dollar tax credits for individuals and entities making donations to scholarship funds intended to help students attend private and parochial schools. Under the bill, $25 million will be available for credits in 2024, with the same amount available for the next two years. After that, the limit for credits will grow to a maximum of $100 million per year.

The largest contribution to Support Our Schools came from the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the U.S., representing public school employees. The NEA made an $800,000 donation early on and has contributed $862,000 overall so far.

Support Our Schools also has brought in large sums from local groups backing the campaign, including over $470,000 from the Nebraska State Education Association and roughly $131,000 from the OpenSky Policy Institute.

Between late July and the end of September, the campaign also collected a sizeable amount of donations from individuals. That included a $20,000 contribution from University of Nebraska-Lincoln Professor John Woollam and $2,500 from state Sen. Jane Raybould of Lincoln.

Keep Kids First also garnered an array of individual contributions from notable Nebraskans, including $100,000 from Gov. Jim Pillen, $25,000 from former governor and current U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, and $150,000 from major GOP donors Thomas and Shawn Peed.

It also has benefited from donations from national groups, including roughly $660,000 from the American Federation for Children, which promotes school choice through a variety of state funding programs.

In the final month before the petition's deadline, Keep Kids First brought in about $700,000 of its total contributions, making up just under half of the $1.4 million it has collected so far. Support Our Schools, by comparison, brought in about $420,000 of its $1.7 million, according to the latest filings covering late July through the end of September.

Both groups have spent the majority of the funding they've raised so far. Support Our Schools ended the latest period with just under $60,000 at hand, while Keep Kids First had about $63,000.

LB753 supporters commonly argue that the bill is necessary to allow families  particularly those of lower income  to have a range of educational opportunities to best suit their childrens needs.

The bill's introducer, Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of the Omaha area, tried to pass similar measures in the Legislature for the past five years to no avail. Public school teachers have opposed such proposals, arguing that they deplete funding for public education and will primarily benefit Nebraskas wealthiest residents.

Linehan has strongly pushed back against these comments, noting that lawmakers also approved increases to state funding for public schools in the same session that passed LB753.

Top Journal Star photos for September 2023
The Nebraska Public Service Commission voted on Tuesday to censure two of its members following an independent investigation into allegations of misconduct.

Commissioners voted 3-2 to censure Christian Mirch, who represents eastern Douglas County and the Omaha metro area on the commission, and Kevin Stocker, who represents 51 counties in western Nebraska and the Panhandle.

A press release from the commission announcing the move did not provide any details about what led to the censure vote, but the two commissioners who were the subjects of the investigation and vote called it a politically motivated attack by Chairman Dan Watermeier and others on the board based on policy differences.

All five of the commission's members are Republicans.

Mirch and Stocker, in their own press release, said the action taken against them was to distract the media and the public from the commissions repeated failures and dereliction of duty related to the recent 911 outages and other issues they have raised since coming into office.

Since being here, I have been a voice for improving the processes at the Public Service Commission, and I have met significant resistance in trying to improve those processes, Mirch said in a phone interview.

Stocker, a Republican businessman from rural Scottsbluff who was elected last year after defeating incumbent Mary Ridder, said he is concerned the commission has lacked a rail inspector for a dozen years, contrary to its statutory obligations.

He said the commission also has not requested funds from state lawmakers to ensure that position is filled: We have lost sight of our duties to ensure safety, Stocker said.

Both commissioners said they have pushed the body to release funds appropriated by the Legislature for broadband internet buildout and precision agriculture in a more expedited way  an effort they say has been stymied by a majority of the board.

And they each said they have raised questions about the roles of staff members working for the commission, which oversees telecommunications, railways, grain dealers and pipeline siting in Nebraska, which Stocker said led to uncomfortable conversations about some employees job performance.

That led to grievances being filed by two staff members alleging the commissioners had created a hostile workplace, they said. One of those staff members later left the Public Service Commission.

Approximately three months ago, after the grievance process conducted by the commissions human resources department ended, the commission voted to hire an outside attorney to further investigate the complaints.

Neither Mirch nor Stocker were interviewed during the investigation, they said in separate interviews.

The results of the independent investigation were the subject of a closed session of the board on Tuesday.

An item on the commissions agenda said the body would review and discuss with legal counsel a confidential investigation conducted by an independent attorney on behalf of the commission pertaining to a personnel matter, but did not include further detail.

Nor did the press release from the commission announcing the censures that was sent out after the meeting concluded.

Watermeier, who has represented District 1 in Southeast Nebraska on the commission since 2019, issued a statement in the commissions news release, but did not return a phone call from the Journal Star on Tuesday seeking comment.

We shouldnt need a code of conduct to tell us that as elected officials we are accountable for our actions, Watermeier said in the release. It is my expectation that by voting to censure, we are sending the message that as commissioners we hold ourselves to the highest of standards and will not tolerate this kind of behavior.

Commissioner Eric Kamler, the former mayor of Geneva who was elected in November to represent District 4, did not return a phone call. Nor did Deb Collins, the commissions communications manager.

Reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, Commissioner Tim Schram of Gretna said he voted with the majority to censure Mirch and Stocker at Tuesdays meeting but he largely declined to detail what led up to the censure, pointing to the news release.

Schram, a Republican who has been on the commission since 2006, said the board followed protocols in censuring Mirch and Stocker.

Ive been elected for a long time and always  my main goal is to protect the public interest, Schram said. And I think that what I did (today) demonstrates that. And so Ill just leave it at that.

But Mirch, an attorney appointed to the commission by Gov. Jim Pillen in January, disagreed, saying he believes the commission went beyond its statutory authority in voting to censure both he and Stocker without just cause on Tuesday.

Mirch said he requested an opinion from Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers on Tuesday afternoon to determine whether the action was permitted by law.

Todays actions, however, are not the first time that the Public Service Commission has sought to operate without regard to proper procedures, statutory authority, or state rules and regulations, he said.

Stocker, who said a wave of new members to the board were elected to enact a positive change, was more blunt in his assessment of Tuesdays proceedings.

It was a kangaroo court, in my opinion, he said.
A 21-year-old Racine man is facing numerous criminal charges, including first-degree homicide, for his alleged role in a deadly Kenosha mass shooting in July 2022.

Jerome M. Johnson is charged in Kenosha County Circuit Court with more than a dozen felonies including first-degree intentional homicide, possession of a firearm by a felon, two counts of recklessly endangering safety and nine counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree intentional homicide.

Johnson, who could face life in prison, is held in the Kenosha County Jail on a $1.5 million cash bond. As a condition of his bond he is to have no contact with victims. A preliminary hearing is set for Oct. 11.

Others are still expected to be charged in the case. Johnson, along with others, allegedly travelled to Kenosha from Racine to commit their crimes.

Johnson is accused of firing shots at rival gang members the night of July 4, 2022 in the 6300 block of 25th Avenue. A man was killed and four others were seriously injured when they were shot outside a neighborhood residence.

Johnson was arrested after a warrant was issued for his arrest in September. Investigators linked him to the shooting through his social media history, surveillance video, cellphone data, witness interviews and evidence collected at the scene, according to the criminal complaint.

Dozens of bullets were allegedly fired that night, with some bullets striking a nearby house and vehicles. The incident caused many area residents to fear for their safety. Some initially thought the gunshots were fireworks.

After the shooting Johnson allegedly fled with others to a hotel in Illinois.

Johnson was a convicted felon a the time of the shooting, having been convicted in August 2020 with illegal possession of a firearm, according to court documents.
RACINE  The Racine Unified School District Board officially has two new members.

April Harris and Nikki Fisher took their oaths of office Monday before the boards work session meeting.

Harris and Fisher were appointed Sept. 25 to the school board.

After Fisher and Harris took their oaths, about 35 people in attendance applauded.

Kristin Cafferty, Racine County Circuit Court Judge, swore them in.

Cafferty expressed gratitude for being part of the ceremony and said giving oaths is one of the most exciting things that I get to do.

Harris, an art studio owner, will represent District 6, which covers Downtown Racine and the surrounding area.

Fisher, a business consulting firm owner, will represent District 8, which covers North Bay, Wind Point and parts of Caledonia.

The new members will hold their positions for just under seven months.

Harris will complete a three-year term that ends April 21, 2024. An election for District 6 will be held in April, with the winner earning a three-year term.

Fisher will serve until April 21, 2024, when a special election for District 8 will be held. The special election winner will have a one-year term ending in April 2025.

Both positions pay $3,600 per year.

Close Second grader Nakarii Williams smiles with the school mascot Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Kim Krause, physical education teacher, hugs two students Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Breonna Paton, from left, second grader Delantiy Campbell and Emily Etchison get ready Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Kim Krause, physical education teacher, welcomes a student Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Aleisha Baugh takes a photo of kindergartener Kelex Jackson on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. A student high-fives the school bear Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Kindergartener Ky-ree Jones gets ready to walk into school Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Students line up Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Eight photos of Racine Unified's first day of school at Wadewitz Elementary Tuesday was the first day of the Racine Unified 2023-24 school year. Second grader Nakarii Williams smiles with the school mascot Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Kim Krause, physical education teacher, hugs two students Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Breonna Paton, from left, second grader Delantiy Campbell and Emily Etchison get ready Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Kim Krause, physical education teacher, welcomes a student Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Aleisha Baugh takes a photo of kindergartener Kelex Jackson on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. A student high-fives the school bear Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Kindergartener Ky-ree Jones gets ready to walk into school Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Students line up Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St.
MOUNT PLEASANT  Three Case High School students were taken into custody Monday, according to Mount Pleasant Police.

According to a release from the Mount Pleasant Police Department, law enforcement and school security responded to an altercation on the second floor of Case, 7345 Washington Ave., at 8:43 a.m.

Police said one of the students allegedly involved left the school and obtained a weapon.

The student returned to the campus and was immediately apprehended by police, who were outside of the school, according to MPPD. The weapon was never inside of the school.

The two other students allegedly involved in the altercation were also taken into custody.

According to a Racine Unified School District statement, the student with the weapon made comments that prompted the school to go into lockdown.

Law enforcement officials investigated, and the students statements were found not to be true and nothing was found in the building, according to the RUSD statement.

While we recognize that these precautionary measures were scary, we appreciate how seriously everyone took the situation to ensure our students and staff were safe, the RUSD statement reads.

No one was injured.

By late Monday morning, regular school activities appeared to have resumed. Around 11:30 a.m., students were seen leaving the building during a lunch period.

Several other law enforcement agencies responded in addition to MPPD, including the Racine County Sheriffs Office, Caledonia Police Department, Sturtevant Police Department, Racine Police Department and Wisconsin State Patrol.

The MPPD plans to continue investigating the incident.

Because of the students ages, no additional information will be released, according to MPPD.

Close Second grader Nakarii Williams smiles with the school mascot Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Kim Krause, physical education teacher, hugs two students Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Breonna Paton, from left, second grader Delantiy Campbell and Emily Etchison get ready Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Kim Krause, physical education teacher, welcomes a student Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Aleisha Baugh takes a photo of kindergartener Kelex Jackson on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. A student high-fives the school bear Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Kindergartener Ky-ree Jones gets ready to walk into school Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Students line up Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Eight photos of Racine Unified's first day of school at Wadewitz Elementary Tuesday was the first day of the Racine Unified 2023-24 school year. Second grader Nakarii Williams smiles with the school mascot Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Kim Krause, physical education teacher, hugs two students Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Breonna Paton, from left, second grader Delantiy Campbell and Emily Etchison get ready Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Kim Krause, physical education teacher, welcomes a student Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Aleisha Baugh takes a photo of kindergartener Kelex Jackson on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. A student high-fives the school bear Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Kindergartener Ky-ree Jones gets ready to walk into school Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St. Students line up Tuesday on the first day of class at Wadewitz Elementary School, 2700 Yout St.
The Kenosha City Council overwhelmingly approved a more than $22 million contract to a Racine-based company for the first stage of infrastructure work on the site of the future Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood.

Alderpersons voted 15-1 Monday night for the $22,250,000 contract with A.W. Oakes & Son Inc. for infrastructure improvements for Phase 1 of the project.

This portion of the project includes concrete paving, storm water improvements, site restoration, tree planting, painting and detention pond grading.

Work is expected to begin later this month and last well over a year.

The Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood is planned as a regional destination hub to revitalize and transform 107 inner-city acres into a collaborative, mixed-use development on the property east of 30th Avenue between 52nd and 60th streets. The property was once the site of Kenoshas Chrysler Engine Plant.

The full $1 billion project includes a $19.5 million innovation center. As planned, it is to include sustainable, innovation-focused offices; medical, educational, commercial, residential and business incubation; and recreational space for its residents, the broader Kenosha community and visitors, according to city officials. Lakeview Technology Academy is also set to relocate there.

City Administrator John Morrissey said Mondays contract is the first major infrastructure contract awarded for this project.

The contract approved last night will install the major infrastructure, such as roads, stormwater, water and sewer and other infrastructure needed for the current development of Lakeview Tech Academy and the Kenosha Innovation Center, but it also will allow for other developments on the site, Morrisey said in a statement.

Morrissey called it a major step forward.

I believe that once the roads and other infrastructure is in place, the KIN Board will be able to market the rest of the site for development as it shows the developers that there is a serious effort to redevelop the property. The completion of this phase is significant, but over the next several years, I think this redevelopment will be an investment into the future of Kenosha, Morrissey said.

Ald. David Mau, who frequently dissents from his colleagues, provided the only vote against the contract.

I speak for many people on both side of political aisles, Mau said. On the right side of the aisle, I speak for people who do not want central planning, do not want collectivism. Its also the same for libertarians in the middle of the aisle. Also, fiscal conservatives do not want us to be spending all this money. And then on the left side of the aisle, I speak for people who do not want gentrification. I also speak for people who do not want crony capitalism. Thats exactly what this is. Were funneling millions of dollars to select businesses.

Mau said its really, really easy to just rubberstamp everything and its really easy to just pat each others back constantly, Mau said. As Ive said before, Im on the citizens side here. Citizens do not like the government. You have to remember that.

Ald. Anthony Kennedy spoke in favor of the contract and the overall effort.

We just voted for an initial construction project on the KIN, and I want us to look back to some of the rotting, decaying places throughout Michigan that used to be part of the automobile manufacturing industry. Theyre sitting in some of these town as a scar on the landscape. And what are we doing here in Kenosha? In Kenosha were having a development thats going to happen east of Green Bay Road, Kennedy said. The amount of work that it took to clean that site, to get money to clean that site, really is a study in the cooperation of government entities.

Kennedy said it took cooperation over many years between the city, county, state and federal governments to get the polluted Chrysler site cleaned to a commercial level.

To call it cronyism capitalism, and please forgive me if I dont have the exact phrase that was used. Its easy to sit back and throw darts, Kennedy said. What I see when I look at that piece of property is the vision that we have not given up. That this city, even though the heart of what this city was, was taken away from us, we still made investments. We still decided that this is important.

Ald. Rocco LaMacchia was absent from the meeting.

The project is partially funded through the U.S. Department of Commerces Economic Development Administration, federal and state grants and local funds.

30-plus photos from Kenosha's Chrysler days Chrysler last car Aerial Chrysler site chrysler CHRYSLER SPECIAL CHRYSLER SPECIAL CHRYSLER SPECIAL CHRYSLER SPECIAL CHRYSLER SPECIAL CHRYSLER SPECIAL CHRYSLER SPECIAL CHRYSLER - ARCHIVE CHRYSLER - ARCHIVE chrysler radio show.jpg demolition of plant.jpg CHRYSLER - ARCHIVE lakefront plant aerial.jpg Lakefrtont plant from harbor.jpg Last Alliance.jpg Last M body.jpg Marlin at plant.jpg plant demolition1.jpg Ron Howard 3.jpg Prisk 1.jpg Prisk 2.jpg Prisk 5.jpg Wojciechowicz brothers Kreuser with last car last day on the line barb funk with last fifth avenue.jpg before affter.jpg before after 52nd St bridge.jpg WATCH NOW: Mayor John Antaramian discusses Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood planned for former Chrysler site
A Pleasant Prairie man known to frequent Richland County is missing according to the Richland County Sheriffs Office.

According to an office social media post, John Anderson, 52, was last known to be driving a blue 2007 Dodge 3500 with a steel flatbed, Wisconsin plate EC60805. According to Pleasant Prairie police, the man lives in Pleasant Prairie but has property in Richland County, which is about 66 miles north and west of Madison.

Anderson is a hunter and fisherman known to travel to Department of National Resources land in Richland County. His cell phone last had activity in Richland County on Saturday.

Sgt. Zach Dutter of the Pleasant Prairie Police Department said late Monday that detectives were able to obtain an "emergency subpoena" because of the "exigent circumstances" that have led authorities to believe Anderson may potentially be in danger. The subpoena was sent to Google and if an individual has an Android phone in service, which Anderson is believe to have, it enables the company to track the phone, according to Dutter.

The information indicated the man's phone was in an area adjacent to his property in Richland County, but had not moved in a couple days, he said.

"We're sending Richland County back all that information and we hope to find him tonight," he said."We certainly hope for a positive outcome."

The Richland County Sheriffs Office is asking anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact them at 608-647-2106. If the vehicle is located, people are asked not to approach it and to contact the office.

The post said there is no concern for public safety.
1. Yes. If KHA cant continue to run it, the city should step in. Its a necessary asset to the area.

2. Yes. The city already uses it as a warming and cooling center. It would be a smart move.

3. No. It may be in the citys interest to help subsidize insurance for the center, but nothing more.

4. No. The city doesnt need the added burden of staffing and insuring the center. Its a bad idea.

5. Unsure. It may be seem like a good idea, but other options should be explored as well.

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Photo: The Canadian Press Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., talks to reporters.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the job Tuesday in an extraordinary showdown  a first in U.S. history, forced by a contingent of hard-right conservatives and throwing the House and its Republican leadership into chaos.

Its nearing the end of the political line for McCarthy, who has said repeatedly that he never gives up, but now has almost no options remaining. Neither the right-flank Republicans who engineered his ouster nor the Democrats who piled on seem open to negotiating.

McCarthy told lawmakers Tuesday evening he would not run again for speaker, putting the gavel up for grabs. Next steps are highly uncertain as there is no obvious successor to lead the House Republican majority.

McCarthys chief rival, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, orchestrated the rare vote on the obscure motion to vacate, and pushed ahead swiftly into a dramatic afternoon roll call.

While McCarthy enjoyed support from most Republicans in his slim majority, eight Republican detractors  many of the same hard-right holdouts who tried to stop him from becoming speaker in January  essentially forced him out.

Stillness fell as the presiding officer gaveled the vote closed, 216-210, saying the office of the speaker is hereby declared vacant.

Moments later, a top McCarthy ally, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., took the gavel and, according to House rules, was named speaker pro tempore, to serve in the office until a new speaker is chosen.

The House then briskly recessed as lawmakers prepared to meet privately and discuss the path forward.

It was a stunning moment for McCarthy, a punishment fueled by growing grievances but sparked by his weekend decision to work with Democrats to keep the federal government open rather than risk a shutdown.

But in many ways, McCarthy's ouster was set in motion when, in deal-making with hard-right holdouts at the start of the year, he agreed to a series of demands  including a rules change that allowed any single lawmaker to file the motion to vacate.

As the House fell silent, Gaetz, a top ally of Donald Trump, rose to offer his motion.

Leaders tried to turn it back, but the vote was 218-208, with 11 Republicans against tabling the motion, a sign of trouble to come.

The House then opened a floor debate, unseen in modern times, and Republicans argued publicly among themselves for more than an hour.

It's a sad day, Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said as debate got underway, urging his colleagues not to plunge the House Republican majority "into chaos."

But Gaetz shot back during the debate, "Chaos is Speaker McCarthy."

As the fiery debate dragged on, many of the complaints against the speaker revolved around his truthfulness and his ability to keep the promises he has made.

Almost alone, Gaetz led his side of the floor debate, criticizing the debt deal McCarthy made with President Joe Biden and the vote to prevent a government shutdown, which conservatives opposed as they demanded steeper spending cuts.

But a long line of McCarthy supporters stood up for him, including Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus, who said, I think he has kept his word. Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., waved his cellphone, saying it was disgusting that hard-right colleagues were fundraising off the move in text messages seeking donations.

McCarthy, of California, insisted he would not cut a deal with Democrats to remain in power  not that he could have relied on their help even if he had asked.

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a letter to colleagues that he wants to work with Republicans, but he was unwilling to provide the votes needed to save McCarthy.

It is now the responsibility of the GOP members to end the House Republican Civil War, Jeffries said, announcing the Democratic leadership would vote for the motion to oust the speaker.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden hopes the House will quickly elect a Speaker. Once that happens, she said, "he looks forward to working together with them."

At the Capitol, both Republicans and Democrats met privately ahead of the historic afternoon vote.

Behind closed doors, McCarthy told fellow Republicans: Lets get on with it.

McCarthy invoked Republican Speaker Joseph Cannon, who more than 100 years ago confronted his critics head-on by calling their bluff and setting the vote himself on his ouster. Cannon survived that takedown attempt, which was the first time the House had actually voted to consider removing its speaker. A more recent threat, in 2015, didn't make it to a vote.

Gaetz was in attendance, but he did not address the room.

Across the way in the Capitol, Democrats lined up for a long discussion and unified around one common point: McCarthy cannot be trusted, several lawmakers in the room said.

I think its safe to say theres not a lot of good will in that room for Kevin McCarthy, said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.

At the end of the day, the country needs a speaker that can be relied upon, said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. "We dont trust him. Their members dont trust him. And you need a certain degree of trust to be the speaker.

Removing the speaker launches the House Republicans into chaos. Typically, top leaders would be next in line for the job, but Majority Leader Steve Scalise is battling cancer and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, like any potential candidate, may have trouble securing the vote.

It took McCarthy himself 15 rounds in January over multiple days of voting before he secured the support from his colleagues to gain the gavel, and it's uncertain now if he will try again  or call it quits.

Trump, the former president who is the Republican front-runner in the 2024 race to challenge Biden, complained about the chaos. Why is it that Republicans are always fighting among themselves," he asked on social media.

Asked about McCarthy's ouster as he exited court in New York, where he is on trial for business fraud, Trump did not respond.

One key McCarthy ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who is also close with Trump, took to social media urging support for our speaker.

Republicans left the chamber in a daze, totally uncertain about next steps. I honestly dont know, said Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz. This is a total disaster.

Many had lined up to hug McCarthy, some to shake his hand.

Democrats, who have bristled at McCarthy's leadership  cajoling them one minute, walking away from deals the next  said they were just holding back, waiting for Republicans to figure out how to run the House.

Rep, Don Bacon, R-Neb., the leader of a centrist group, said the only option was to leave the eight hardliners behind and try to work across the aisle. Were going to stay with Kevin, he said. He told us earlier hell never quit.

But as House Republicans prepared for another private meeting late at the Capitol, it was not at all clear if McCarthy would be the one able or willing to try to lead them next.
"As his sister, this makes me warm. It makes me feel good to see all of them," Akilah Muhs said about all the friends at her brother's funeral.
A California man allegedly defrauded dozens of investors in a multi-million dollar real estate Ponzi scheme based in Nebraska, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit.

Jon Patrick Kubler, 51, of Redondo Beach, California, and five Nebraska-based companies that he owns and controls are named in a 42-page civil lawsuit filed in federal court earlier this month and unsealed on Monday. Between 2019 and 2021, Kubler is accused of raising $5.6 million from at least 56 investors for purported commercial real estate investments whilst investing less than 4% of the money he received.

"In classic Ponzi scheme fashion, (Kubler) used approximately $3.7 million of new investments to pay principal or profits owed to old investors," the lawsuit reads. "During the Ponzi scheme, the Kubler Companies' bank account balances were often very low. When new investments came in, Kubler would typically deposit the new investor money into these bank accounts, and then ... use the new investor funds to make Ponzi payments to old investors."

According to the lawsuit:

Kubler began raising money for legitimate investments before the scheme turned fraudulent. He founded a company called Aksarben Evolution in 2009 with the intent of raising money to invest in companies that develop and operate commercial real estate in Aksarben Village.

The endeavor was a success: By 2012, Kubler had raised approximately $7 million from 130 investors. These investors were told that their funds would be used to invest in three other companies that would develop, own, lease and operate commercial businesses in Aksarben Village.

These funds were invested, according to the lawsuit, but failed to generate sufficient returns. By the end of 2013, Aksarben Evolution had just one remaining investment of 50% equity in an unnamed real estate company. Aksarben Evolution began selling that equity interest in 2016 and, by 2018, no longer had any interest in the company.

"By no later than 2019, (Aksarben Evolutions) no longer owned any investment or business assets, and produced no income," the lawsuit reads. "(Aksarben Evolutions) still had approximately 120 investors from the initial 2009 to 2012 offering and owed these investors millions of dollars."

Despite having no assets, Kubler allegedly continued to raise more than $2 million from investors through Aksarben Evolution between 2019 and 2021. None of this money was actually invested, according to the lawsuit. Instead, it was used to make Ponzi payments to earlier investors to make it appear as if they were receiving returns on their investments.

In total, according to the lawsuit, Kubler and his associated companies owe more than $4.7 million to about 90 investors who invested money in Aksarben Evolution. He allegedly owes additional millions to people who invested in his other companies.

Kubler is additionally accused of misappropriating at least $1 million of investor funds for his own benefit by transferring the funds to his other companies to make Ponzi payments and using them to pay for his personal expenses.

A preliminary injunction barring Kubler from selling securities and freezing his assets, including 31 bank accounts, was granted by Nebraska U.S. District Court Chief Judge Robert Rossiter on Thursday. He was also ordered to disclose detailed information about investors and investments made since 2016.

The defendants disagree with the SECs characterization of these transactions and are prepared to defend against these claims, Kublers attorney Kristopher Covi said.

Kubler will submit an answer to the accusations in mid-October.

Top Journal Star photos for September 2023
Big Slough boat landing, located on Hwy. 82 near the Black Hawk bridge and managed by the McGregor District of the Upper Mississippi River National and Fish Refuge, will remain open during the construction of the Black Hawk Bridge.

Construction activities are expected to start around Oct. 9 and will include use of the adjacent beneficial use site. Overflow parking for boaters will not be available in the beneficial use site or up on the highway shoulder. Boaters are encouraged to use nearby landings including Winneshiek Boat Landing (Hwy. 82 and Hwy. 35) or Village Creek Landing (Lansing, Iowa).
The Purdue Varsity Glee Club from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, will visit and perform in the La Crosse area during its fall concert tour.

The ensemble is led by William Griffel, a native of the Onalaska/La Crosse area who graduated from Viterbo in 1991 with a bachelors degree in music education and vocal performance, according to the press release.

I began my musical journey as a member of the La Crosse Boy Choir and continued singing throughout my college years at Viterbo and beyond, Griffel said. I owe everything to those directors and teachers who helped me find my passion for singing and guide me to a rewarding career in music.

Concert-goers have two opportunities to catch the ensemble:

7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, Maria Angelorum Chapel at St. Rose Convent, 901 Franciscan Way, La Crosse. The Glee Club will present a 60-minute concert of sacred music. This concert is free.

2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8, Marie W. Heider Center for the Arts, 405 E. Hamlin St. West Salem. The Glee Club will perform a 90-minute concert filled with gospel, vocal jazz, swing, contemporary hits, barbershop, and classical choral selections. Tickets can be purchased at www.heidercenter.org/events.

For more information about the glee club, visit www.purdue.edu/pmo.
Republicans who control the Wisconsin Senate's elections committee are retaliating against one of the three Democratic elections commissioners who tried to block them from voting to fire the states nonpartisan top elections official earlier this year. The committee voted along party lines on Tuesday to recommend that the full Senate reject confirmation for Joseph Czarnezki. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers appointed Czarnezki to the Wisconsin Elections Commission in May. Czarnezki joined other Democrats in their efforts to keep nonpartisan Administrator Meagan Wolfe in office. Republican lawmakers have vowed to oust Wolfe. Elections commissioners have been targeted by those who falsely claim they were part of a plot to tip the 2020 presidential election in favor of President Joe Biden.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Republicans who control the Wisconsin Senate's elections committee retaliated Tuesday against one of the three Democratic elections commissioners who tried to block them from voting to fire the state's nonpartisan top elections official earlier this year.

The committee voted along party lines against confirming Democratic Commissioner Joseph Czarnezki, who was appointed to the Wisconsin Elections Commission in May by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. His nomination heads next to a vote by the full GOP-controlled Senate.

The ongoing controversy over the elections commission stems from persistent lies about the 2020 election and creates instability ahead of the 2024 presidential race for the states more than 1,800 local clerks who actually run elections.

The bipartisan elections commission, which consists of three Democrats and three Republicans, deadlocked in June on a vote to reappoint nonpartisan Administrator Meagan Wolfe. Czarnezki and the two other Democrats abstained from voting in the hopes of blocking the nomination from proceeding to the Republican-controlled state Senate, where GOP leaders had promised to oust Wolfe. Nominations from the commission require a four-vote majority.

Democrats argued a recent Supreme Court decision used by Republicans to maintain control of key policy boards allowed Wolfe to stay in office indefinitely as a holdover. Senate Republicans proceeded anyways, voting last month to fire her. Democratic Attorney Josh Kaul challenged their actions in a lawsuit that accused the Senate of acting outside its legal authority, and Wolfe has remained head of the elections agency while the legal battle plays out.

In a public hearing before their vote on Tuesday, Republicans grilled Czarnezki about his decision to abstain from the commission's vote in June. The committee's chair, Republican Sen. Dan Knodl, accused Czarnezki of a failure to act and a dereliction of duty.

Obviously, that's the only thing they were concerned with, Czarnezki said after the hearing. I'm not sure what comes next. We'll see what happens. The vote is what the vote is, and we'll take it from here.

Czarnezki has a long history in state and local government, including two years as a state representative and 10 years as a state senator in the 1980s and 90s. He has also served as Milwaukee County Clerk and held numerous positions in Milwaukee city government.

Wolfe and elections commissioners have been targeted by conspiracy theorists who falsely claim they were part of a plot to tip the 2020 presidential election in favor of President Joe Biden. Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020 by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin, an outcome that has withstood two partial recounts, a nonpartisan audit, a conservative law firms review, and multiple state and federal lawsuits.

Democratic Sen. Mark Spreitzer, a member of the elections committee, accused Republicans of bowing to pressure from elections skeptics on Tuesday.

They made their choice," he said. They sided with conspiracy theorists.

During Evers' first term as governor, Senate Republicans did not act on many of his appointments to state boards, and appointees from former Republican Gov. Scott Walker refused to step down when their terms expired. Since Evers' reelection last year, GOP lawmakers have continued to stymie the confirmation process and signaled their intent to reject some of his picks.

These people are volunteering the time and effort to do good things for the state of Wisconsin. And it's really kind of stupid politics, Evers said in a statement posted Tuesday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. ... None of those peoplenone of those peoplecould be considered radical, crazy people. In fact, if they keep throwing people off, I think Ill start bringing crazy, radical people there. Let them try.

Harm Venhuizen 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.
Republicans who control the state Senates elections committee voted Tuesday against confirming Democratic Gov. Tony Evers appointment of Joseph Czarnezki to the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission  sending the matter to the GOP-controlled Senate, where Republicans could vote to fire him.

If Republicans vote to fire Czarnezki, it would  at least temporarily  create a 3-2 Republican majority on the commission, though Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who appointed Czarnezki earlier this year, has pledged to work quickly to name a new Democratic member to the agency to bring it back to its standard 3-3 partisan split.

The Senate committee on shared revenue, elections and consumer protection voted 3-2, along party lines, against Czarnezkis appointment, with Republicans on the committee taking aim at Czarnezki for being one of three Democratic members of the agency who abstained from voting on the reappointment of the commissions nonpartisan administrator Meagan Wolfe earlier this year in an effort to prevent the Senate from firing her.

I cannot support that person when there is such clear dereliction of duty already done, committee chair Sen. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, said before Tuesdays vote.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission in June split on a vote to reappoint Wolfe in a bid by Democratic commissioners to block her nomination from reaching the Senate. The three Republican members of the bipartisan commission voted to nominate her, and the three Democratic members, including Czarnezki, abstained. Czarnezkis appointment is the only one currently before the committee.

Senate Republicans have argued that the deadlocked vote actually constituted a majority since the three commissioners who cast votes voted in favor of appointing her. Others, including Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, have said an appointment can only be sent to the Senate by a vote from at least four members of the commission.

The Senate last month voted 22-11, along party lines, last month to reject what Republicans contend was the nomination of Wolfe in an effort to remove her from the position she has held since 2018. Kaul immediately filed a lawsuit, arguing there had been no nomination and the move by Senate Republicans blatantly ignored Wisconsin law. Wolfe has pledged to continue in her role pending a court decision on the matter.

Speaking with reporters after Tuesdays vote, Czarnezki said its his understanding that the commission will vote again on Wolfes appointment.

I think the commission will eventually take a vote on the administrator, but again thats just my opinion, Czarnezki said. I havent discussed it with any other commissioners, but thats just how I feel about it.

The six-member commission consists of three Democratic and three Republican appointees and is tasked with providing the states more than 1,800 local clerks with guidance and resources for administering elections. Four commissioners  two Republicans and two Democrats  are selected by their respective legislative leaders. Czarnezkis seat is one of two that must be filled by a former municipal or county clerk. The former clerk seats are appointed by the governor from a list provided by the states political parties and confirmed by the Senate.

Next steps

Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, said hes not worried that a vote by the Senate to fire Czarnezki would result in a temporary 3-2 Republican majority on the commission.

The governor can appoint faster than the Senate can fire, and there is going to be a Democratic former clerk in this position that the governor appoints off of a list provided by the Democratic Party, Spreitzer said.

I certainly hope the full Senate will confirm (Czarnezki). I think he makes a great commissioner. But if they choose not to confirm him, there will be another Democratic former clerk in this position.

Evers described efforts by legislative Republicans to reject his appointees as really kind of stupid politics in a post on social media Tuesday.

Lets be very clear: there will be no daylight between a floor vote by Senate Republicans to reject the governors appointments and naming appointments to replace them, Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback added in a subsequent social media post.

Wolfe has been the subject of scrutiny from legislative Republicans since the commission made changes to certain procedures in the 2020 general election in response to the COVID-19 pandemic  changes that have spurred some conservatives to falsely accuse her of malfeasance.

Much of the GOPs criticism over the states 2020 election has been fueled by former President Donald Trump, who continues to make baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 vote. A recount, court decisions and multiple reviews have affirmed that President Joe Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin by almost 21,000 votes.

Czarnezkis resume

Czarnezki, a former Milwaukee County Clerk, was appointed to the commission earlier this year by Gov. Tony Evers to fill the agencys Democratic seat formerly held by Julie Glancey. The term is set to expire in 2026.

Czarnezki earned a bachelors degree in economics and political science, as well as a masters in political science with an emphasis in public administration, from UW-Milwaukee, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He was elected to the state Assembly in 1980 and reelected in 1982. He was later elected to the state Senate in 1983 and reelected twice in 1984 and 1988. Czarnezki was elected Milwaukee County clerk in 2008 and 2012 and served on the Milwaukee County Board from 2020 to 2022.

Last month, Republicans on the Senates sporting heritage committee voted against confirming four of Evers appointees  Sharon Adams, Dylan Jennings, Sandra Dee Naas and Jim VandenBrook  to the Department of Natural Resources policy board. The committee voted unanimously to recommend confirming Evers appointee Paul Buhr.

The committees votes come as the board prepares to implement a new wolf management plan in Wisconsin, which does not include a hard population cap, despite demands from hunters and farmers for a specific numerical limit.

Gubernatorial appointees can serve in their respective roles without a formal confirmation from the state Senate. However, a vote by the chamber to reject confirmation amounts to firing that nominee.

What drives voters? The years with the biggest spikes in voter registration What drives voters? The years with the biggest spikes in voter registration Voter registration over the years Voter registration varies by state Why people vote
A United Auto Workers member raises his fist while picketing across from the Ford Chicago Assembly Plant in South Deering on Sept. 29, 2023. (Trent Sprague/Chicago Tribune)

Ford has laid off 243 workers at its stamping facility in Chicago Heights in the wake of the strike at the nearby Chicago Assembly Plant.

A total of about 330 layoffs were announced Monday between the Chicago Stamping Plant and the Lima Engine Plant in Ohio. Both facilities supply parts to Fords idled assembly plant on the citys Southeast Side, where thousands of employees walked off the job Friday in the United Auto Workers expanding strike against the Big Three automakers.

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These layoffs are a consequence of the strike at Chicago Assembly Plant, because these two facilities must reduce production of parts that would normally be shipped to Chicago Assembly Plant, Ford spokesperson Ian Thibodeau said Monday.

The layoffs for the 243 workers at the Chicago Stamping Plant took effect Saturday, while 90 workers at the Ohio facility were laid off Monday, Thibodeau said.

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Ford employs about 1,000 hourly workers at the Chicago Stamping Plant. The workers, who are members of UAW Local 588, were not called to strike by the union.

A UAW spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment Monday.

The strike hit home in a big way Friday when about 4,600 members of UAW Local 551 put down their tools and walked off the job at the Chicago Assembly Plant, which makes the Ford Explorer, Lincoln Aviator and Police Interceptor SUVs. The Explorer, which is built exclusively in Chicago, is among Fords best-selling vehicles.

Workers walk out of Fords Chicago Assembly Plant on Sept. 29, 2023, as the United Auto Workers union expanded its strike. (Trent Sprague/Chicago Tribune)

In 2019, Ford spent $1 billion to transform the nearly century-old Torrence Avenue facility, which phased out production of the Taurus sedan to focus on building SUVs. It spent about $200 million upgrading the south suburban stamping plant to supply parts for the new models at Chicago Assembly Plant.

The UAW represents 146,000 members across the U.S. On Sept. 15, the UAW directed about 13,000 workers to walk off the job and onto the picket line at a GM plant in Missouri, a Stellantis plant in Ohio and a Ford factory in Michigan, calling for a strike against all three manufacturers for the first time in the Detroit-based unions 88-year history.

In response, Ford laid off 600 non-striking workers at its Michigan Assembly Plant beginning Sept. 15. With Mondays announcement, the automaker has now laid off 930 employees because of the knock-on effects for facilities that are not directly targeted for a work stoppage, Ford said Monday.

The UAW has expanded the strike twice since it began. On Sept. 22, the union gave marching orders to 5,600 parts and distribution workers at 38 locations across 20 states to walk off the job, including 92 workers at a GM parts distribution center in Bolingbrook and a Stellantis facility with 95 employees in Naperville.

With the addition of nearly 7,000 workers Friday, the strike against the Big Three automakers includes more than 25,000 UAW members at 43 facilities in 21 states.

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The union is seeking pay increases, shorter workweeks and improvements to retiree pensions and health care plans amid record profits for the Big Three automakers, among other demands.

rchannick@chicagotribune.com
UW-Madison has surpassed an enrollment of 50,000 students for the first time, growing 1.6% over last year despite efforts to right-size the incoming freshman class by admitting thousands fewer students.

The official count, based on enrollment on the 10th day of classes, puts UW-Madison at 50,662, a few hundred more than the University of Wisconsin System projected a few weeks ago. Of those, nearly 9,100 are new to campus as freshman or transfer students and just under half are Wisconsin residents.

Applications to UW-Madison grew by 11.4% over last year, closing in on 68,000, an increase similar to the year before. The university admitted 2,000 fewer students, reducing the freshman class by 7.7% from last years unexpected record-high class size.

The percentage of students of color overall in the freshman class dipped slightly, from 31.2% last year to 30.5% this year. The percentage of students who are underrepresented students of color, which includes students who are Black, Native American and Hispanic, is at its highest ever, comprising 17.8% of the class.

It continues to demonstrate at the undergraduate, graduate (and) professional level that we continue to be a destination  that not only do we have 50,000, but those 50,000 people are doing very well on the whole, said Derek Kindle, vice provost for enrollment management.

The students themselves are students who have lots of options and theyre choosing to study here. And so, were really grateful that these brilliant and talented students have chosen UW-Madison.

UW-Madisons enrollment has been rapidly increasing for the past six years. Since 2016, the student population has grown by nearly 7,700, more than twice what it grew in the 20 years prior.

The growth was slower this year, though, as enrollment increased by 1,075 students. In the two previous years, UW-Madison added about 2,000 new students each fall.

UW-Madison is one of five System schools in which enrollment increased this year. UW-Platteville, UW-Whitewater and UW-Stevens Point all expected to see gains of about 3.4%  a few hundred more students on their campuses this fall; both UW-Madison and UW-Green Bay were expected to see about 1.2% growth.

The System projected earlier this month its enrollment would stay relatively flat, with a 0.3% increase in enrollment overall and a 0.1% decrease when UW-Madisons growth was taken out of the equation. Much of the Systems enrollment stability can be attributed to a 3% increase in freshman enrollment across universities, excluding UW-Madison.

The number of in-state students in the freshman class also increased over last year by 30 students to 3,813. Its about 48% of the overall freshman class and is the second-highest number of in-state freshman students in history.

These are exceptional students who have chosen to continue their educations in their home state, increasing the likelihood they will stay here and contribute their skills and leadership to our workforce and our communities, Provost Charles Isbell said in a statement.

We are committed to providing a world-class educational experience for all our students so that they are prepared to be tomorrows entrepreneurs, leaders, and trailblazers.

UW-Madisons rate of out-of-state students has significantly increased since 2015, when the UW Board of Regents lifted the percentage cap on the number of nonresidents the university could admit. Two years ago, out-of-state students made up more than 50% of the freshman class for the first time.

Prior to 2015, only 27.5% of students admitted to UW-Madison could be nonresidents.

Now, UW-Madison must enroll at least 3,600 in-state students and 5,200 students who are either in-state, transfers or from Minnesota, where students receive reduced tuition under a reciprocity agreement.

From the record number of applicants to our national rankings, UWMadison continues to be highly respected and much in demand, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said in a statement. I am also pleased that our incoming class of new freshmen and transfer students expands on UWMadisons strong commitment to Wisconsin families and to the state.
A bicyclist rides past an empty warehouse at 2241 S. Halsted St. in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago on Oct. 2, 2023. The building is the possible future site of a migrant shelter and the topic of a community meeting at Benito Juarez Community Academy auditorium Monday night. (Vincent D. Johnson/for the Chicago Tribune)

A new shelter opened in Pilsen Tuesday amid growing backlash from some in the Latino community who feel that immigration reform and the neighborhoods recent property tax hike has taken a back seat to the migrant crisis.

Just weeks after a volunteer-run shelter in Pilsen was forced to close because of a lack of funding and volunteer support, the new migrant shelter, now operated by the city, quietly opened in an empty warehouse near Cermak Road and Halsted Street. Around 4 p.m., traffic stopped on Halsted as a yellow school bus filled with migrants pulled into the parking lot behind the warehouse-turned shelter.

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[ Frustration about park space for migrants boils over in 29th Ward: I have compassion but I can only go so far ]

News of the shelter was met with mixed reaction from about 150 residents Monday night at a meeting at Benito Juarez Community Academy, where city officials advocated for the shelter as they scramble to house a surging number of migrants arriving from the southern border.

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez speaks at the beginning of a community meeting about a proposal to use an empty warehouse at 2241 S. Halsted St. as a migrant shelter on Oct. 2, 2023. (Vincent D. Johnson/for the Chicago Tribune)

What is the alternative, be a not-welcoming city? Thats wrong, said the Rev. Emma Lozano, of Lincoln United Methodist Church. But the longtime Pilsen resident also acknowledged that millions of people have lived in the United States for years without the work permits sought by new arrivals and called on authorities to assist them, too.

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Eleven million have been living here for decades without work permits, she said. Were your neighbors, weve been here forever and we dont have those workers permits.

The meeting was just the latest sign of tensions boiling over across the city as officials predict that Chicago may soon see as many as 20 to 25 buses of migrants arrive a day. More than 15,000 migrants have arrived in the city since August 2022 and that number is expected to double in the next several weeks, according to officials.

[ Gov. J.B. Pritzker calls for united front in migrant response after criticizing Biden administration effort ]

At a heated meeting on the citys West Side, about 300 people packed a gym at Galewoods Amundsen Park on Tuesday evening to hear about the citys pitch to turn the park into a migrant shelter.

Michael Woods, 63, said he came concerned about whether arriving migrants would displace current residents of the area.

I want everybody to be helped, but theres got to be a better way of doing it, Woods said.

Prior to the meeting, Ald. Chris Taliaferro, 29th, had expressed discontent as the city plans to open the shelter.

It takes away valuable neighborhood resources from a community that, in part, has been disinvested in for decades, he said in a letter to the community.

This week, Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, also wrote a letter to constituents calling for the closure of the largest migrant shelter in the city, the Inn of Chicago that is blocks from the Magnificent Mile. Though the shelter at 162 E. Ohio St. is in the neighboring 42nd Ward, Hopkins, the mayors hand-picked public safety committee chair, said he was nonetheless speaking up because the situation has not improved since he raised concerns surrounding narcotics sales, public intoxication and blocked pedestrian passageways in July.

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In a statement to the Tribune, Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, said he agreed with his colleague.

The experiment of housing 1,500 migrants at the Inn of Chicago has been an abject failure. The conditions there are deplorable and the property is not safe for the migrant families living there who are co-mingled with hundreds of single, young adult males, he said in an email to the Tribune. Not only do I worry for the health and welfare of these young migrant families  I also worry for the safety of my constituents and thousands of tourists and visitors who come to the area every day.

While some speakers preached unity and empathy for the new arrivals Monday in Pilsen, others urged city officials to advocate for the millions of other immigrants in the country without legal permission that have been waiting for an immigration reform for decades. Many residents said they felt they were being shortchanged as they face soaring property taxes, leading to more displacement in the gentrifying area and getting no assistance or answers from the city.

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, said that the conversation and work about the hike on property taxes is ongoing.

Reconozco que hay un problema de impuestos, Sigcho-Lopez responded to the crowd that interrupted his introduction to the meeting, which was held in Spanish and English. I acknowledge that there is an issues with property taxes.

But that issue, Sigcho-Lopez said, shouldnt stop the Pilsen community from helping the asylum-seekers currently forced to sleep in police stations or on the streets. Almost 3,000 migrants are sleeping on the floors of the citys police stations and airports, Deputy Immigration Mayor Beatriz Ponce de Leon said. The new shelter is expected to house 400 migrants with families.

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We cant have children living in police stations and dying in front of us, said Sigcho-Lopez in Spanish.

But the frustration from some in the crowd was louder.

Thats enough, we know about everything that theyre getting, yelled Esmerelda Cargoca in Spanish.

Cargoca questioned the amount of financial support that the migrants are receiving, saying that when she and her family arrived in the United States, they had to make the transition on their own.

But she also took the microphone to say that even after she requested support from the city during the pandemic, she did not get it.

I lost my store during the pandemic and even after I asked for help I couldnt get it, so I ask: Where is that help for people like myself? she asked followed by applause from the auditorium.

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Esmerelda Cargoca speaks during a community meeting about help for migrants, at the Benito Juarez Community Academy auditorium on Oct. 2, 2023. (Vincent D. Johnson / for the Chicago Tribune)

Like Cargoca, 48, a number of attendees complained about the system the city has created to provide not only shelter, but also food and health care for the new arrivals, alleging that it discourages them from finding jobs or from leaving the shelter.

People are afraid to say what they really feel, said Romulo Peralta, who drove from Jefferson Park to the meeting. He speaks only Spanish, so he wanted to attend the meeting where he would be heard, he said. Peralta said he is an economist from Peru and the math is not making sense because we are paying for all of this and many refuse to go out and just find a job.

Last month, President Joe Biden announced that he was granting temporary legal status and work permits to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants who have crossed into the U.S., but advocates cautioned the process would take months to trickle down to the migrants it will benefit.

Amid the discord, Argenis Davila, 45, stood out as he grabbed the microphone. He was one of the migrants that has arrived in the city in the last year and is now a resident of the Pilsen area.

Thanks to the volunteers help, I was able to get on my two feet, find a job, an apartment and now my children go to these schools, he said in Spanish.

Davila said he arrived in Chicago from Venezuela five months ago and lived at the volunteer-run shelter Todos Para Todos in Pilsen until he was able to find an apartment.

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His two younger sons now attend Benito Juarez high school and Solorio Academy High School while he works at a mushroom factory. Davila said he attended the meeting after he was invited by some of the volunteers to show the residents that it is possible (to be independent).

Migrants arrive at a new shelter near the intersection of South Halsted Street and West Cermak Road on Oct. 3, 2023, in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

He said the new shelter will hopefully give other Venezuelans the opportunity to start anew.

But were paying for it, Rosa Bellido responded while most of the crowd clapped for Davila.

Davila thanked the crowd and left before the meeting ended.

Others at the meeting also spoke out in support of the new shelter.

Jose Alcala, of the Labor Council of Latin American Advancement, said he wanted to see community institutions such as churches open their doors to migrants and particularly children, whom he fears will suffer in the bitter Chicago winter.

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We need to get them in before the cold gets here, he said.

Outside the auditorium, Elvira Arellano, an activist and advocate for the immigrant community passed out flyers announcing a march on Oct. 12, in which the community will gather to push city and state officials to pressure the federal government for an immigration reform that would benefit those newcomers, but also the more 11 million immigrants in the country without legal permission.

Chicago Tribunes Nell Salzman and Alice Yin contributed.

larodriguez@chicagotribune.com

ckubzansky@chicagotribune.com
UN Security Council Votes To Deploy Multinational Mission to Haiti, as Russia and China Abstain

Oct. 2, 2023, (EIRNS)The United National Security Council (UNSC) voted today to approve the U.S.-Ecuadorian resolution mandating the deployment, for one year, of a Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to Haiti, by a vote of 13 with 2 abstentionsChina and Russia. The mission, whose purpose is described as assisting and training the Haitian National Police to combat violent gangs, will be led by Kenya, but it is a U.S. project, for which Secretary of State Tony Blinken has lobbied for months. Because it is not technically a UN mission (only UN mandated), it will rely on contributions from other countries to cover its costs. The Biden administration has pledged $200 million, half of which will come from the Defense Department.

Aside from Kenya, three Caribbean countriesJamaica, the Bahamas, and Antigua and Barbudahave offered to send police or military, and another eight (Italy, Spain, Mongolia, Senegal, Belize, Suriname, Guatemala and Peru) have volunteered to join the mission. The missions rules of engagement are not specified, and according to the Miami Herald, the UNSC will be informed about the rules of engagement, mission goals, and an end date before the missions full deployment. The resolution authorizes the MSS to adopt urgent temporary measures on an exceptional basis to prevent loss of life, and help the Haitian police maintain basic law and order and public safety. Kenyan Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua has proclaimed that the MSS will be an intervention force, that will disarm thugs and the gangs ... free kidnapped people and free the women being raped.

Although the resolution garnered 13 votes, it was clear from the discussion at todays session that there are still many questions and concerns as to the nature of the deployment, and what it can realistically achieve. The situation on the ground is horrific, and the suffering of the population almost indescribable2,500 people killed this year by gang violence alone. With the memory of the disastrous 2004-2017 UN peacekeeping mission to Haiti in mind, virtually every speaker emphasized the need for a comprehensive and holistic approach to the Haitian crisis, including respect for international law and Haitian sovereignty, addressing the underlying causes of the crisis and providing the necessary security to establish a broad political consensus among Haitians to ensure free and fair elections. Haitians must forge their own path, Brazils representative said today, warning that the MSS will fail unless it ensures implementation of specific measures related to an arms embargo, political consensus, free and fair elections. and humanitarian aid, but above all, lasting economic development.

In explaining their abstention votes, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia and Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun both said they didnt object in principle to the resolution, understanding the dire security situation Haiti faces and the urgent need for humanitarian assistance. But as Ambassador Nebenzia pointed out, deploying a countrys armed forces to another countrys territory, even if upon request, is an extreme measure that requires thorough elaboration. He reported that, when he requested information on the details of the operation, on the use of force, and contingent withdrawal strategies, his questions went unanswered. The authorization of a force operation under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which authorizes the UNSC to act against threats to peace and acts of aggression, is a serious step that requires full knowledge of related responsibility and possible consequences.... For us to authorize another use of force in Haiti without being fully cognizant of the parameters of the mission is an improvident thing to do.

Ambassador Zhang Jun also said that China has always taken a cautious and responsible approach on the Security Councils invocation of Chapter VII authorization of the use of force, particularly since it has been abused in the past. Implementation of this resolution, he said, must comply with international law and the basic norms governing international relations and avoid infringing on the sovereignty of other countries or interfering in their internal affairs. The security crisis in Haiti is only one dimension of the problem, he said. A holistic approach is required to find a comprehensive solution.
Important foods like grains and cooking oil again are growing more costly in many places around the world.

Observers say that is because countries have put export restrictions in place to protect food supplies at home. They also blame the price rise on weather conditions and the Ukraine war.

Caroline Kyalo is a 28-year-old who works at a hair salon in Kenyas capital Nairobi. She experienced the rising cost of food while planning meals for her two children. The price of onions has risen by 200 percent since neighboring Tanzania restricted agricultural exports. Kyalo tried a different kind of onion but those became too costly as well. Cooking oil and corn flour prices are increasing also.

So, she said, I just decided to be cooking once a day.

East Africa has fertile land and a large workforce. But the high cost of growing and transporting crops and a lack of rain have resulted in decreased local production. In the case of onions, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization found that, in 2014, Kenya was getting half of its onions from Tanzania. Some traders have tried to get supplies from Ethiopia. Others have stopped selling onions altogether.

But Timothy Kinyua, who says prices have reached their highest level in seven years, promised he would sell the crop.

Its something we cant cook without, he said.

Spreading food restrictions

Joseph Glauber is with the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington. He said Tanzanias onion limits this year are one example of the spread of food restrictions. He called it a contagion, or something that spreads like an infectious disease. His organization says that 19 countries have put 41 food export restrictions in place. The restrictions include bans or taxes.

India banned the export of some rice earlier this year cutting one fifth of the worlds export market. Myanmar answered with its own export bans. India has also restricted onion exports. The action sent prices climbing in Bangladesh.

Dry weather in Spain has hurt its olive crop causing European buyers to look to Turkey. But rising prices there led to export limits.

Morocco, which suffered a deadly earthquake recently, has also stopped exports of crops including onions, potatoes and tomatoes.

The new normal

Over a period of years, food prices change sharply. In 2007 and 2008, rice and wheat prices doubled. Glauber, who also is a former economist from the Department of Agriculture, said changes are likely to continue.

I think increased volatility is certainly the new normal, he said.

For example, both Russia and Ukraine are major suppliers of wheat, barely, sunflower oil and several other foods important to developing nations. The conflict between them interferes with production by both.

Changes in weather are also affecting agriculture, observers say. El Nino is a periodic warm current in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is linked to changes in weather in several places around the world. Some scientists say climate change could make the El Nino current more severe affecting weather everywhere.

For example, a lack of rain in India means export restrictions there might not end with the new rice harvest in October.

Importers face added risk

Most at risk from weather changes are nations that depend heavily on imported food. The World Banks, for example, notes that the Philippines imports 14 percent of its food. However, recent storms could mean further crop deficits. Rice prices there increased 8.7 percent in August. That is double the increase from the month before.

Since prices increased, Philippine food store owners say they are losing money. Thirty-two-year-old Charina Em owns a store in the Trabajo market in Manila.

We cannot save money anymore. It is like we just work so that we can have food daily, she said.

Cynthia Esguerra is 66 years old and has several diseases. She said she has had to choose between medicines and food.

I just dont worry about my sickness. I leave it up to God. I dont buy medicines anymore, I just put it there to buy food, or loans, she said.

Im Mario Ritter, Jr.

Aniruddha Ghosal, Evelyne Musambi and Jeoal Calupitan reported this story for the Associated Press. Mario Ritter, Jr. adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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Words in This Story

salon n. a business that cuts hair and offers beauty treatments

volatility n. the condition of changing sharply or unpredictably
United States health advisers voted against an experimental treatment for ALS disease last week. The vote came after years of efforts by ALS patients and their families in support of the unproven medical treatment.

ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is also known as Lou Gehrigs disease. Patients with ALS slowly lose the ability to control muscle movements, the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe. The U.S. National Institutes of Health says people can get the disease at any age. It most commonly develops between the ages of 55 and 75.

Last Wednesday, a group of health advisors for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted 17 to one against the treatment from BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics. The Israel-based companys treatment, NurOwn, uses stem cells. These are cells that can develop into many kinds of body cells. The group found the treatment was not effective for patients with ALS. A member of the group representing ALS patients was the only vote in favor. One expert did not register a vote.

Lisa Lee, a health expert from Virginia Tech University voted against the treatment. She said, Creating false hope can be considered a moral injury and the use of statistical magic or manipulation to provide false hope is problematic.

The FDA is not required to accept the groups vote. However, the agencys own scientists said earlier in the week that BrainStorms treatment was scientifically incomplete.

Brainstorm and the ALS community wanted to use the meeting to change the FDAs thinking about the NurOwn treatment.

Brainstorms 200-patient study failed to show that NurOwn extended life, slowed the disease, or improved patients ability to move. But the FDA agreed to bring outside advisers together after ALS patients and supporters submitted 30,000 signatures seeking a public meeting.

In the last year, the FDA has approved two new experimental drugs for ALS, Relyvrio and Qalsody. The approvals followed intense campaigns from the ALS community although there have been a limited number of scientific studies of the treatments.

The FDA has used the term regulatory flexibility when considering experimental treatments for some conditions, including ALS and Alzheimers. But the agency appears unwilling to overlook the results of BrainStorms approval effort. Important information about manufacturing and quality control was missing.

Dr. Kenneth Fischbeck of the National Institutes of Health said, It really is a disease that needs a safe and effective treatment and there are a lot of other prospects out there that we need to encourage. Approving one like this would get in the way of that.

At last weeks meeting, ALS patients, their family members and doctors spoke in support of BrainStorms treatment. Several presented before-and-after videos that showed patients who had taken part in BrainStorms study. The videos showed the patients walking, climbing stairs and doing other activities.

Mitze Klingenberg spoke for her son Matt Klingenberg who doctors found to have ALS in 2018. She said, When Matt is on NurOwn it helps him, when hes off of it he gets worse.

The FDA is expected to issue its decision on the treatment by December 8.

Im Gena Bennett.

Hai Do adapted this report for VOA Learning English from the Associated Press and other sources.

Quiz - FDA Health Advisors Vote Against ALS Treatment Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

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Words in This Story

statistical adj. related to numbers used to provide information about people or things

manipulation n. the process of using or changing information in a way to gets a desired result

prospect n. something or someone who is a candidate for a use or a position

encourage v. to make something more likely to happen
Mamadou Safaiou Barry lives in the West African nation of Guinea. He wanted to study Islamic theology at a top school in Cairo, Egypt.

Without money to pay for transport, Barry drew a map of Africa and headed out on a used bicycle for the trip across the continent.

Carrying only a change of clothes, a flashlight, and a small tool, the 25-year-old rode through jungles, deserts, and conflict areas in the hope of getting accepted to the school and finding a way to pay for it.

Four months and seven countries later, he is in Cairo with a full scholarship to Al-Azhar University. That is one of the world's oldest and most respected Sunni Muslim learning centers.

"If you have a dream, stay with it and be strong," Barry said. "God will help you."

Thousands of West Africans like Barry take risky journeys across the Sahara desert each year, searching for a better life. But many never make it. Nearly 500 people died or disappeared on West African migration routes last year, data from the International Organization for Migration shows.

Barry decided the risk was worth the reward.

"I had to fight," Barry said last August in Chad.

Barry rode about 100 kilometers each day. He rode through Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, and Niger. He had to stop in N'Djamena, the Chadian capital because of the ongoing conflict in Sudan.

He said he had already been detained three times - twice in Burkina Faso and once in Togo. There, security forces held him for nine days without charge before releasing him for $56.

That was all of his money for the rest of the trip, he said.

"I often slept in the bush because I was afraid of people in the cities," Barry said. "I thought they would take my bike and hurt me."

Barry's luck changed again in Chad. There, a local philanthropist, who had read about his trip online, offered to fly him directly to Egypt and avoid the fighting in Sudan.

Barry arrived in Cairo on September 5 and days later received a full scholarship to Al-Azhar.

He intends to return to Guinea when his studies are complete, to spread the faith that has taken him so far.

"When I return to my country, I would like to be someone who teaches Islam and tells people how to do good things," he said.

Im Dan Novak.

Dan Novak adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting from Reuters.

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Words in This Story

theology  n. the study of religious faith, practice, and experience

bicycle n. a 2-wheeled vehicle that a person rides by pushing on foot pedals

scholarship  n. an amount of money that is given by a school, an organization, etc., to a student to help pay for the student's education

reward  n. to give money or another kind of payment to for something good that has been done

bush  n. a large area that has not been cleared and that is not used for farming

philanthropist  n.

a wealthy person who gives money and time to help make life better for other people

faith  n. strong belief or trust in someone or something
Many students across the United States fell behind in math during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many educators are seeking ways to bring students back up to usual math levels.

Such efforts paid off for a rural school system in the southern state of Alabama. It has shown major improvement.

A study called the Nations Report Card shows that Alabama students led the nation in maintaining math learning during the pandemic. And the states Piedmont City school system landed at the top in a comparison of scores from before and during the pandemic. Nationwide, students on average fell half a year behind in math, researchers say.

The Piedmont school system has about 1,100 students. Seven out of 10 children receive reduced-cost or free meals in the schools.

The school system has stuck with a policy it established before the pandemic: Teachers use test scores to learn where students are struggling and then target teaching to each child.

We made a total transformation about five years ago, said Mike Hayes, the school systems chief. We decided that we were going to let data make every decision.

Targeted instruction for small groups of students has years of research and evidence to back it up, said Rebecca Dreyfus of the educational nonprofit TNTP.

The short answer is that using data effectively and efficiently to plan and monitor instruction is always going to make instruction better for kids, Dreyfus said.

Piedmont students were 35th in math skills for the state in 2017, when Hayes became the school systems leader. By spring 2022, Piedmonts students had moved to the 12th position.

Once we made that decision and stuck to it and made changes and allowed our teachers time to look at the data and dive into the data, it paid off, Hayes said.

Teachers go deep into data

As part of the effort, the Piedmont school system made the school day longer. This permitted time every four weeks for data days, when educators get together to study the numbers.

Cassie Holbrooks teaches fourth-grade math. She said the data days help teachers see where the weaknesses are and target instruction.

Sixth-grade teacher Lisa Hayes joined the school system five years ago. She said she was surprised to see how hard teachers worked during the data days.

When I came here and we had a workday, she said, you dont sit in your room. Youre in here (the media center) most of the day, digging through test scores.

Teachers then use the information to decide how to divide the students into small groups for targeted instruction.

Grouping two to six students together to work on a specific skill has long been used for reading instruction and in younger grades. There is less research on the use of targeted small group instruction in math. But researchers like Dreyfus say it involves the same idea of identifying students who need extra help, rather than simply pulling out children who are behind.

Small groups and independent work

While math teachers in Piedmont schools work with small groups, other students write in their math books, play learning games, or work on individual learning plans.

At first, when Piedmont expanded small group instruction in math, teachers said they did not have enough time to do the work well, Hayes said. So the schools expanded math and English language study time to between 80 and 120 minutes each day.

The longer math classes made a big difference, teacher Landon Pruitt said. In a 52- or 53-minute class, he said, theres no way you can consistently do (small groups) and work on getting through the standards that you have to cover.

The schools also had to help teachers adjust classroom management techniques as small groups and independent work would be done at the same time. Hayes said one solution was to give teachers a program to monitor each students screen. The district wants to make sure teachers have the support and resources to do the job well, he added.

Im not sure we have a secret sauce or anything Hayes said. But, he noted that the teachers believe in learning data, and letting that data direct instruction.

I'm Caty Weaver.

Trisha Powell Crain reported this story for AL.COM and The Associated Press. Hai Do adapted the story for VOA Learning English.

Quiz - How A Rural US School System Makes Gains in Math Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

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Words in This Story

maintain - v. to continue doing something

transformation - n. a complete or major change

instruction - n. action or process of teaching

monitor - v. to watch, observe, listen, or check something for a period of time

allow - v. to permit

consistently - adv. doing something with the same quality

standard - n. a level of quality

adjust - v. to change in order to do better
Two scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for making molecule discoveries that helped create COVID-19 vaccines.

The Nobel Assembly at Swedens Karolinska Institute announced the winners Monday. They are Hungarian-American Katalin Kariko and American Drew Weissman.

Members of the assembly praised the two scientists for assisting in the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times."

Kariko and Weissman have long cooperated on research while working as professors at the University of Pennsylvania. The two centered on a technology called messenger RNA, or mRNA.

Technology companies such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna used mRNA to create their COVID-19 vaccines. The vaccines were deployed around the world to fight the disease.

The Nobel organization said the two scientists had changed "our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system.

Vaccine makers usually add elements of an inactive or weakened virus to the shot mixture. But with mRNA vaccines, scientists instead create a genetic material to direct the human body to produce antibodies and recognize and destroy the virus.

Research on mRNA has gone on for about 30 years. But no mRNA vaccine was developed and approved for use on people until the COVID-19 pandemic. In early experiments, researchers discovered that injecting laboratory-grown mRNA into animals usually led to a body reaction that destroyed it.

But Kariko and Weissman found a way to make a small change, or modification, to the building blocks of RNA that permitted it to survive immune defenses in the body. Their discovery was seen as breaking a major barrier because it showed that mRNA technology could be used as a treatment in humans.

The 68-year-old Kariko is the 13th woman to win the Nobel Prize in medicine. She was a vice president at BioNTech, which partnered with Pfizer to make one of the COVID-19 vaccines. She and the 64-year-old Weissman met by chance in the 1990s at the University of Pennsylvania.

Kariko noted that her husband was first to pick up the early morning call about the news. She said she then watched the announcement to make sure it was true. "I was very much surprised. But I am very happy.

In reaction to his prize, Weissman said, The future is just so incredible. Weve been thinking for years about everything that we could do with RNA, and now its here.

The two researchers have cooperated for many years, with Kariko centering on RNA and Weissman studying related immunology. We educated each other, Kariko said.

The prize comes with an award of $1 million. An award ceremony for all the Nobel awards, except the Peace Prize, is set for December 10 in Stockholm. The Peace Prize ceremony will take place in Norways capital, Oslo.

Other Nobel announcements will be made this week. The prize in physics will be announced Tuesday. Chemistry will be announced Wednesday, while literature will be awarded on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize is set to be announced Friday.

Im Bryan Lynn.

The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the reports for VOA Learning English.

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Words in This Story

unprecedented  adj. never having happened before

antibody  n. a substance produced in the body to fight disease

immune system  n. the cells and tissues in the body that fight against infection
Malaysia and Indonesia signed a deal in Bali, Indonesia in August to study 18 possible areas where cross-border power lines can be set up.

Those links could eventually create power equal to what 33 nuclear power plants would produce in a year. The links are economically and technically possible, and now are supported by regional governments, said Beni Suryadi a power expert at the ASEAN Center for Energy in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN is a political and economic group of 10 countries across a large area. The group includes small countries such as Brunei and Singapore as well as larger ones such as Indonesia and Vietnam.

Cross-border power purchases accounted for just 2.7 percent of the regions capacity in 2017, says the Global Interconnection Journal. But those were between two countries, such as Thailand and Laos.

Now, more countries are looking at power sharing as a way to move their economies away from coal and other fossil fuels. Vietnam would like a regional grid so it could sell clean energy from offshore wind to its neighbors. And the Malaysian area of Sarawak is looking to sell its hydropower to neighboring Indonesia.

The plan for a regional grid between the 10 ASEAN members was developed twenty years ago, but progress has been slowed by problems including technical barriers and political mistrust.

The region now recognizes it must move faster. Climate change could reduce the regions economic growth by more than a third by the middle of the century, a report presented at the 2021 U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland says.

Demand for electricity is rising, and governments have realized the move away from fossil fuels requires an interconnected grid, Suryadi observed. It has become a crucial need for every country, he said.

In the past, countries in the region paid more attention to energy security. They used fossil fuels and often built more capacity than they needed.

But renewable energy costs are falling, making hydroelectric, solar and wind power more affordable. All ASEAN countries apart from the Philippines have promised to stop adding carbon to the atmosphere by 2050.

So, arguments in favor of an interconnected grid appear to be winning.

But issues remain.

One of ASEANs central policies is non-interference, which means members are less likely to do joint projects. Energy needs within a country sometimes conflict with the interests of an interconnected grid.

Nadhilah Shani, another expert at the ASEAN Center for Energy, said that this creates a difficult position for some countries. The countries could sell clean energy to neighbors for the region to move away from fossil fuels, or they could use those resources to meet their own climate targets.

The regions lack of a legal agreement for such things as setting submarine power cables is another difficult issue.

Not all the technical problems have been solved. Voltages used by each country can differ, as do the capacities of their grids. Even countries whose grids cross borders, like Thailand, need to upgrade them, said Harald Link, president of Thailands Association of Private Power Producers.

You need a huge amount of electricity and they want it green. And where do you get it from? For some countries, it is more difficult to make it green, Link said.

Im John Russell.

Aniruddha Ghosal and Victoria Milko reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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Words in This Story

region  n. a part of the world that is different or separate from other parts in some way

capacity  n. the amount of something that can be produced or managed

fossil fuel -- n. a fuel such as coal, oil, or natural gas

grid  n. a network of electrical wires and equipment that supplies electricity to a large area

hydropower  n. electricity produced from machines that are run by moving water

crucial  adj. extremely important

interference  n. involvement in the activities and concerns of other people
Three European physics professors won the Nobel Prize on Tuesday for their work on a system that permits scientists to study electrons.

Electrons are one of the three particles that make up atoms.

They are so small, however, and move so fast, that scientists had never been able to observe them.

However, the work of French-Swedish physicist Anne LHuillier, French physicist Pierre Agostini and Hungarian-born physicist Ferenc Krausz solved that problem.

The professors carried out research that showed how ultra-fast light could permit scientists to see an electron for the first time.

You can see whether its on one side of a molecule or on the other, LHuillier, 65, said. Its still very blurry.

The system that came from their work creates light that shows the fast-moving electron in its orbit around the nucleus.

Krauszs team first created the short light pulses in the early 2000s. He said the system is similar to a camera with a fast shutter speed that permits a photographer to capture a Formula One race car as it crosses the finish line.

Using a special camera with light to see a clear image of a hummingbirds fast wing movements is another example.

But the speed of an electron is so fast that it could not be captured before the scientists produced experiments that showed it was possible to create a flash of light in one quintillionth of a second.

Mats Larsson of the Nobel Committee said the electrons are the workforce of the atom. Once you can control and understand electrons, you have taken a very big step forward.

The method to study electrons should help scientists develop better electronic devices or study molecules for medical purposes.

LHuillier is the fifth woman to receive the physics Nobel. She said her work is important because electrons are how the atoms bind together, and where the chemical reactions happen.

She said she spent 30 years working on the project, and she wants other scientists to keep working on fundamental science no matter how it might be used in the future. It did not become clear how her work would be used in the real world until many years passed.

LHuillier was in the middle of teaching a class at Lund University in Sweden when she got the news. Its incredible, she said. She went back to teaching the class after being told of the prize.

Agostini is a retired professor at The Ohio State University. Krausz is a professor at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

I did not expect it, Krausz said. I am overwhelmed, he added, asking if he was in reality or its just a long dream.

Agostini was in Paris when the news was announced but did not get a call from the Nobel Committee. He suggested the Nobel group was looking for him Columbus, Ohio, where Ohio State is located.

The 82-year-old said the prize was good, but a bit late for me.

LHuillier experimented with how a laser affects atoms in a gas causing electrons to produce light. Krausz worked on creating a system that could detect a single, very fast light pulse. Agostini was able to investigate a series of very fast pulses.

All the experiments showed that it would be possible one day to observe an image captured in an extremely small fraction of a second, known as an attosecond.

Physics is the second Nobel Prize of the week. Two scientists earned the medicine prize on Monday for their work on mRNA that led to COVID-19 vaccines.

Chemistry, literature, peace and economics come next.

Im Dan Friedell.

Dan Friedell adapted this story for Learning English based on reports by the Associated Press and Reuters.

__________________________________________________

Words in This Story

ultra prefix; beyond the limit

blurry adj. unclear, not clearly seen

shutter n. a device in a camera that admits light for a set period of time to capture an image

flash n. a sudden burst of light

bind v. to combine

fundamental adj. something that serves as the support or basis of other things

overwhelmed adj. to be strongly affected by something

pulse n. a brief increase in electricity or light

fraction n. a part of a larger amount such as one half or one fourth

We want to hear from you. What lesson do you take from the professors who studied their topic for so long before winning the prize?
COZAD  In a delightful fusion of craft and coffee, Presence Candle is venturing into the world of coffee shops with its new venture, Brewd Awakening.

Located at 100 S. Meridian Ave., this family-owned candle store is set to add a coffee shop.

Wendy Collins, a Cozad resident and the proprietor of Presence Candle for four years, shared her journey and inspiration behind the expansion.

I love the scent and fragrances  all about it. Making candles for me is a lot of fun, Collins exclaims with enthusiasm. I would do this in my kitchen at home. Over time, I had too many supplies in my house, and this building came up. We started this candle store with my husband.

As the years went by, Presence Candle evolved into a Made in Nebraska store, collaborating with 20 local makers who contributed their materials and products to the shop, she said.

The idea of a coffee shop within a candle store developed six months ago when Collins realized the demand for caffeine among her loyal customers.

I really love coffee, and many of my customers would constantly ask me if I would ever sell coffee, she saod. Over time, I decided to go through with the idea, use the skills I obtained in coffee school, and add a drive-thru feature for this coffee shop idea.

While Dawson and Gosper counties boast several coffee shops, Collins believes Brewd Awakening will stand out.

Theres not a lot of coffee drive-thru options in Cozad, she said. The store has lots of tables, USB charging centers and Wi-Fi for customers to use during store hours.

However, before this vision could become a reality, Collins and her husband faced numerous challenges.

My husband and I had to move stuff around the candle store to make way for the coffee shop, she said. He also had to construct a drive-thru window from scratch. We also had to create space for new counters, chairs and tables to accommodate.

The creative process extended to finding the perfect name for their coffee shop. After brainstorming more than 40 options with her friends, Collins narrowed it down to five choices. Ultimately, the catchy Brewd Awakening emerged as the top pick moving forward.

In the short term, Brewd Awakening aims to offer excellent customer service. Alongside a selection of coffee, the shop plans to sell pastries and possibly breakfast burritos, aligning with the Made in Nebraska theme through a collaboration with Pam Reicks of Bizzy Bee Homemade Freezer Meals which is also located in Cozad.

Looking ahead, long-term goals for Brewd Awakening include crafting specialty drinks and creating unique offerings that will resonate with the local community.

As excitement brews in Cozad for the grand opening, Wendy Collins anticipates a launch within two or three weeks. However, the shop is eagerly awaiting the arrival of Italian coffee machines, currently going through customs, to complete their setup.

Cozad residents can soon look forward to the harmonious blend of fragrant candles and aromatic coffee at Brewd Awakening, where craft meets caffeine in the heart of Nebraska.

For future updates of Brewd Awakening or to learn more about Collins candle business, follow Presence Candle on facebook.com/PresenceCandles. In addition, call 308-529-1721 during their business hours: Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The 16-year-old boy shot and killed over the weekend was a junior at Omaha Burke High School, according to a statement from the school.

LaMarintae Swift was one of six people shot during a birthday party near 24th and Decatur Streets in the early hours of Sunday morning. The five other people injured, all adults, are expected to survive. An initial report from police had a different spelling of Swifts first name.

In a letter sent to Burke High families, administrators extended heartfelt sympathy to Swifts family and encouraged parents to talk with their students about the grieving process. Counselors were available for students throughout the school day Monday, according to the letter.

According to Omaha Police Department Chief Deputy Tom Schaffer, police were called to a shooting at a large after hours gathering around 2:30 a.m. at a building near 24th and Decatur Streets. Schaffer said about 100 people had gathered for a 30th birthday party inside and outside the building, which was often rented out for parties and other events.

Police believe Swift was shot outside and then walked inside, where he was found by paramedics. The five other victims were located both inside and outside, with some people sustaining injuries after bullets penetrated the walls.

Swift was transported to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Schaffer declined to comment on the specific injuries he sustained.

The five other people shot and injured  John Boston, 32, Dionta Walker, 34, Ladayshianae Jones, 25, Miriah Watson, 31, and Andrea Smith, 33  are expected to survive.

No arrests had been made as of Monday afternoon.

Schaffer said police want to speak with anyone who was at the party that night, even if they dont think they have any notable information. He also discouraged people from taking matters into their own hands as police work to identify suspects.

What we are trying to prevent in this particular case is any senseless retaliation, Schaffer said. That doesnt get us anywhere. It just leads to more trauma in the community.
The former Rainforest Cafe in Chicago once featured a costumed frog named Cha Cha selling beef lava nachos. Plans now call for a new business on the site to instead have budtenders serving marijuana with names such as Bionic Cheetah and Hood Candyz.

But for the second time, the transition of the abandoned restaurant at 605 N. Clark St. into a cannabis store has run into problems  despite an about-face from state regulators who once rejected the proposal.

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The holdup comes from one resident fighting against what he characterizes as an improper partnership in which social equity cannabis license holder Bio-Pharm LLC, is acting as a front for an established multistate company, Progressive Treatment Solutions, or PTS. In the meantime, no work has been done on the site, and the original plans to open this year have gone by the wayside.

The delay reflects uncertainty over the deal caused by Robert Brown, who lives in the River North neighborhood that he says has become the citys unofficial weed district, with four pot shops already operating within a few blocks of each other.

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While Brown has argued that the partnership is invalid, his legal argument rests on a narrow procedural problem that he says is representative of the broader issue. Brown filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court, claiming that the city Zoning Board of Appeals approval of a special-use permit last year for the shop was illegal, because a key Bio-Pharm executive on the application failed to attend the hearing.

A judge recently threw out the suit on technical grounds, but gave Brown another chance to file suit if he can show he will be adversely affected by the shop. Brown believes the store will drive up crime and lower property values. But he is fighting a lonely fight.

[ Visiting the last Rainforest Cafe in Illinois offers an expedition in nostalgia ]

The local alderman, Brendan Reilly, had introduced legislation to allow pot sales downtown, where they had been banned under Mayor Lori Lightfoot. River North Residents Association Director Emeritus Brian Israel said residents previously opposed the pot shops, fearing crime and loitering pot smokers  but since other stores have opened in the area, those concerns havent borne out.

Progressive Treatment Solutions Corp. ran into problems once before trying to open at the site. State regulators rejected their request, because only designated social equity businesses are allowed to operate with 1,500 feet of other shops.

The former Rainforest Cafe in River North on Oct. 1, 2023. (Trent Sprague/Chicago Tribune)

So PTS formed a partnership with Bio-Pharm, LLC a startup that won a conditional social equity license, through a management agreement under new state rules. But economic disclosures showed that PTS was paying all the consultants bills prior to the zoning hearing, including $25,000 for an architect, and $5,000 per month each for attorney Mara Georges and Resolute PA public affairs.

PTS, located in Palatine, is a multistate cannabis company with ownership led by David Flood, a member of the family that runs Flood Brothers waste management, and whose marketing director is listed online as Patrick Flood. Its CEO is former CTA board Chairman Terry Peterson. It operates a cannabis growing facility in East St. Louis, and five Consume dispensaries in Illinois.

Bio-Pharm officials said they qualify as a social equity licensee because its majority owner and manager, Michael Munroe Jr., had a marijuana arrest in 1972. His father started the Pickens-Kane Moving & Storage Co. in Chicago. His son Kevin Munroe is chief operating officer of Bio-Pharm. But Michael Munroe Jr. never showed up for questioning at the community hearing or the zoning board meeting on the proposed weed shop, as required by the boards own rules.

Initially, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation denied the request for the joint operation, according to emails Brown acquired under the Freedom of Information Act. The state agency disclosed the information only after the Illinois attorney generals office ruled that the agency had improperly denied Browns request by trying to claim that emails from the agency relating to a license application were exempt from disclosure.

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This  application for adult use licensure cannot be approved as submitted, Vaughn Bentley, state deputy director of cannabis control, wrote in January of this year. He noted that an operating license may only be issued to the entity that won the original conditional social equity license, in this case Bio-Pharm alone, he underlined, not PTS.

In response to questions from the Tribune about the matter, the department also noted that a court ruling has held that conditional licenses may not be sold or transferred and does not allow management agreements that have the effect of changing ownership.

But by March, after further communications, Bentley had changed his mind. At this time I feel comfortable approving the application with full licensure to follow an inspection, he wrote, without explanation.

State regulators refused to elaborate, again citing state law that prohibits the release of information about state cannabis applications and supporting documents. They referred the Tribune to an overview of the licensing process and updated guidance for management service agreements.

In addition, Bio-Pharm was issued its conditional license in July 2022, and had 180 days to open under state law. It was granted an additional 180 days extension, and would have had to show a hardship as to why it couldnt secure a location in that time, which Brown argues should also disqualify them.

At a community hearing on the proposal in 2022, all the area residents who spoke opposed the idea. At the zoning board hearing in November of last year, Jay Ceithaml, a River North resident, predicted it would be a traffic nightmare.

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But medical marijuana patient and nearby resident Matt Matamuro testified that the empty storefront, across from the Rock n Roll McDonalds, attracts people loitering at all hours, while the weed shop would have security guards around the clock.

We have 200 bars  but adding another dispensary is suddenly something we have to come and talk for? he said.

Bio-Pharm and PTS officials did not return repeated requests for comment, and Brown did not want to be quoted for the story.

Their zoning attorney, Georges, told the Tribune only, Bio-Pharm/PTS anticipate beginning soon on development of the site, but could not say when that may happen.

When state lawmakers expanded the number of recreational marijuana licenses, they gave preference for licenses to social equity applicants, generally defined as those with low-level marijuana arrests or those from areas of high poverty and crime. The law was meant to add diversity to the cannabis industry in Illinois, which is almost exclusively owned by wealthy white males, though minorities were disproportionately imprisoned for cannabis offenses.

The state has awarded nearly 200 social equity licenses, but few have opened, mainly because owners have extreme difficulties getting financing for a business that remains illegal under federal law. Congress is considering a bill known as SAFER that would allow federally licensed banks to work with cannabis businesses.

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rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com
WAR IN UKRAINE

KYIV, Ukraine  The European Union's foreign policy chief led a delegation of top diplomats Monday on an unannounced visit to Kyiv and dismissed concerns about political tension in the bloc over its long-term support for Ukraine's fight against Russia.

Though largely symbolic, the informal meeting between EU and Ukrainian diplomats demonstrated the EU's "clear commitment" to Ukraine in its 19-monthlong war, Josep Borrell said.

"The EU remains united in its support to Ukraine  I don't see any member state folding on their engagement," Borrell told a news conference in the Ukrainian capital.

The gathering was the first time EU foreign ministers have met outside the bloc  and in a war zone, according to Borrell.

The talks took place after the weekend election victory in EU member Slovakia of former Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose pro-Russian agenda has increased the question marks about the EU's continued support for Kyiv.

The small eastern European country could bring more tension to the EU's discussions on Ukraine, as has happened with Hungary's sometimes-cool attitude toward Kyiv. Budapest maintains close relations with Moscow and argued against supplying arms to Ukraine or providing it with economic assistance. Slovakia operates a key rail line used to transport western military hardware to Ukraine.

The EU, the United States and the United Kingdom have provided massive military and financial support to Ukraine, enabling it to stand up to the Kremlin's attack. The assistance is crucial for Ukraine's weakened economy and has so far been open-ended.

But uncertainty has set in over how long Kyiv's allies will keep sending aid worth billions of dollars.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday reassured allies of continued U.S. financial support for the war effort after Congress averted a government shutdown by adopting a short-term funding package that dropped assistance for Ukraine.

The Pentagon warned Congress that it is running low on money to replace weapons the U.S. sent to Ukraine and already slowed down resupplying some troops, according to a letter sent to congressional leaders and obtained by The Associated Press.
A Pennsylvania man's guilty plea and prison sentence for attacking police during the U.S. Capitol riot remained under seal for months, but a court filing Monday revealed a reason for the unusual secrecy: He cooperated with federal authorities after the Jan, 2021, siege.

Prosecutors want to keep certain details of Samuel Lazar's cooperation under wraps, but they acknowledged for the first time that he supplied the government with information as part of a plea deal.

Publicly releasing information that Lazar provided could interfere with ongoing investigations, according to a joint court filing by prosecutors and Lazar's attorney. The filing, which became public Monday, also says Lazar "named individuals responsible for criminal conduct who may not have been charged."

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Jan. 6-related crimes, and hundreds of them pleaded guilty. It is rare for records of a guilty plea and sentence to be sealed, even in cases involving a defendant's cooperation.

Lazar, 37, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, was released from federal custody on Sept. 13 after serving a 30-month prison sentence.
BADGER HONOR FLIGHT | 50TH TRIP

Every dollar helps. A softball tournament in Sauk Prairie may help send a Korean War veteran to Washington, D.C., to see the memorials. A pizza feed in Beaver Dam may help a Vietnam War veteran go to the nation's capital to share an experience with others who served. A brat fest in Belleville may give an Iraq War veteran with a terminal illness a chance to visit Arlington National Cemetery.

Every dollar has helped get about 4,500 veterans from the region to Washington, D.C., free of charge, to visit Arlington National Cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial, the monuments for Iwo Jima, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Air Force and more.

The organization that has made it happen is Badger Honor Flight, one of six Wisconsin affiliates of the national Honor Flight Network. The Honor Flight Network ensures that WWII, Korean War and Vietnam War veterans, and terminally ill veterans of any war, have the opportunity to see the memorials erected in their honor in Washington.

On Saturday, Badger Honor Flight will mark its 50th flight. It's being designated the "Heroes for Honor Flight," so named for Sauk Prairie's local Heroes for Honor group that developed a capital campaign for a Sauk Prairie Veterans Flight. Its goal was to raise $100,000. Since 2015, it has raised about $500,000 to send veterans, accompanied by volunteer guardians who pay their own way, to the nation's capital.

"It's amazing. It's inspiring," said Bob Kelter, who worked at a VA hospital in Madison for years and has been part of the Badger Honor Flight organization since its inception in 2009.

"I've flown 27 flights so far. There is real magic being a part of this."

Kelter was at the World War II Memorial in Washington on his own in 2006, when he saw quite a few veterans there with matching T-shirts. They were all veterans from Michigan taking part in a flight put on by the Honor Flight Network.

"It inspired me," said Kelter, who has volunteered locally with EMS and firefighters. "I had to get something like that together here."

Badger Honor Flight provides all amenities to the veterans, including transportation, shirts, jackets, hats and meals.

The national Honor Flight Network organization, based in Virginia, has honored almost 275,000 veterans nationally. There are 124 active affiliates, or hubs, across the country, six of which are in Wisconsin. Badger Honor Flight, volunteer staffed, serves 11 counties in southern Wisconsin, including Dane, Sauk, Columbia and Dodge.

"As a former guardian for my father and my uncle, I saw firsthand what it meant to my family to see the memorials built in their honor," said Jackie Woodruff, Badger Honor Flight's board secretary.

"That, and the handshakes and thank yous for their service. The greetings they get from total strangers," she said. "It's all about the veterans. It's extremely rewarding."

A full day

On Saturday, there will be a sendoff ceremony at Dane County Regional Airport at 5:30 a.m. Veterans will fly to Washington for a daylong tour. Badger Honor Flight will follow the trip throughout the day on its Facebook page and will livestream the veterans' arrival in Washington, and their arrival back in Madison.

The homecoming back in Madison will be full of patriotic fervor, with big band music, patriotic tunes, an honor guard, Uncle Sam, friends and family of the veterans, and community members.

The public is invited to both the sendoff and the welcome home celebrations. The flight is scheduled to land back in Madison at 9:15 p.m.

"To see the faces when they receive their welcome home," Woodruff said. "It's something that they did not get upon returning from serving their country. It is about recalling memories, making new ones, and healing."

Behind the scenes

It takes a lot to get the veterans to the nation's capital and back.

Each flight costs approximately $100,000. Veterans apply to get on a flight, and there is a waiting list.

Sauk Prairie's Heroes for Honor group has been a major fundraising contributor in giving veterans the opportunity. The group's area consists of Sauk City, Prairie du Sac, Baraboo, Plain, Lodi, North Freedom and Black Earth.

Businesses and organizations, including Wollersheim Winery and Distillery, Milwaukee Valve and Kraemer Brothers, have contributed to the cause generously. So have softball tournament players and brat grillers, pizza sellers and citizens eager to honor those who have served.

"We recognize what this community has done for the veterans," Kelter said. "They deserve all our respect."

To learn more about Badger Honor Flight, to donate, or volunteer, visit badgerhonorflight.org.
A man with a long criminal history was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday for a reckless driving crash that caused the death of a 65-year-old woman in 2022.

Marcus N. Longino, 29, pleaded no contest in June to hit and run causing death in the Jan. 29 crash that led to the death two days later of Barbara Olson.

According to a police investigation, Longino had been speeding at up to 60 mph on Milwaukee Street when he blew through a red light at Stoughton Road and slammed into Olsons Pontiac Vibe.

Olsons daughter, Taryn Olson, said during Longinos sentencing hearing that her mother was a hard-working and selfless member of this community who had grown up as one of seven children in a small house on Madisons East Side.

The last year and eight months have been long and traumatic for my family and myself, she said. Dane County was partially responsible for her mothers death, she said, because despite Longinos long criminal history before he killed her mother, officials here had failed to keep him locked up.

Deputy District Attorney William Brown said that while the criminal justice system cant predict the future, I cant fault her (Taryn) for making the assertion. He summarized for Circuit Judge Julie Genovese Longinos criminal history which started when he was a juvenile in 2008 and included arrests for battery, armed robbery, fraud, criminal damage to property and other crimes.

Hes been provided every type of supervision one can get, he said, but it hasnt changed Longinos behavior, and he is someone who does not care about other people.

Longinos sister, Melanie Longino, though, said her brother is not a bad person but has long struggled to overcome the very tough childhood both of them had.

Longino himself apologized to Olsons family and said he took responsibility for the womans death.

Not a day goes by that I dont think about Barbara, he said. I know I have problems and Im working on bettering myself.

Genovese noted Longinos difficult upbringing but also his criminal history in sentencing him to 10 years in prison and five years of supervision once released  more than the four to five years in prison recommended by a presentence investigation in the case but less than the 13 to 15 years Brown thought appropriate. By statute, the maximum penalty for the charge is 25 years of combined prison and supervision.

Longino also was sentenced to a year in prison  to run concurrently with the 10-year sentence  after pleading no contest to criminal damage to property for trashing the inside a relatives house that he fled to shortly after the crash.

Police have said he initially refused to come out of the house and at one point threatened to blow it up.

Longino is still facing charges in three other felony cases and one misdemeanor case, according to online court records, all in Dane County.

Who are they? WI children reported missing as of September 23 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).
A Waukesha County judge ruled Tuesday that a Kettle Moraine School District policy allowing students to change their gender pronouns and name without parental consent violates the rights of parents.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Maxwell said the districts policy violates the right of parents to make medical decisions for their children. The district is now prohibited from requiring staff to refer to students using a name or pronouns at odds with the students biological sex, without parental consent, according to court documents. The decision stems from a lawsuit parents filed in 2021 alleging that district officials used a male name and pronouns to address their 12-year-old without the parents consent.

The child had asked to use male pronouns for a period of time. The student is no longer enrolled in Kettle Moraine School District, according to court documents.

Two conservative activist law firms, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty and the Alliance Defending Freedom, filed the lawsuit on the parents behalf.

A similar lawsuit brought against Madison School District for its gender policy concluded June 30, after a parent appealed a Dane County judges decision to dismiss the case but then dropped the case after deciding to not enroll her child in the district for the coming school year.
Dane County Executive Joe Parisi touted his record-breaking $937 million county budget on Monday as a spending package that preserves a post-pandemic social safety net and invests in big-ticket infrastructure projects for public safety and trails.

Ive worked to build a spending plan that is a reflection of all we are capable of doing when we come together for the good of our community, Parisi said.

The bulk of the budget, nearly $787 million, will fund county operations, while another $150 million will go toward capital and infrastructure projects.

The County Board will take up the budget in the coming weeks and has the opportunity to offer amendments.

Here are five big takeaways from the budget:

Social services

About a third of the countys proposed operating budget, $242 million, will fund an expanding network of county social service programs and nonprofit partners.

For the unveiling of the budget, Parisi traveled Monday to the Badger Prairie Needs Network, a volunteer food pantry in Verona. The nonprofit will get $500,000 from the county to expand its food storage warehouse and another $200,000 to install solar panels at the facility.

We stand in what has quickly grown into what is an indispensable resource for so many, a material manifestation of the goodwill so prevalent in our community, Parisi said.

Other social service spending touted by Parisi includes $6 million for a county food bank program; $2.5 million for nonprofit worker recruitment and retention; and $1.3 million in opioid settlement dollars for buying Narcan and assistance for addiction recovery services.

Body cameras

Complementing a long-debated effort in Madison, the Sheriffs Office will receive $320,000 for a body camera pilot program, according to Parisis budget.

The pilot would deploy 32 body-worn cameras. The cameras cost $10,000 each, including associated equipment, according to the budget.

The pilot would last a year and likely be run out of the Sheriffs Offices West Precinct in Verona, spokesperson Elise Schaffer said.

Madison and Dane County have long been outliers in the use of body cameras even as the technology has become widely adopted by law enforcement agencies throughout the country.

In August, the Madison City Council finalized policies for a 90-day body camera pilot program for the citys police department, which formally allowed the program to begin and put an end to a decade of analysis and debate over the use of the cameras.

Vilas Zoo

Parisis budget continues a trend of boosting infrastructure upgrades at the Vilas Zoo, this year calling for a $21.5 million investment for a new giraffe barn.

The project will replace a dated rhino barn with indoor and outdoor areas for the zoos giraffes. Funding new digs for the giraffes calls for the county to borrow about $9.3 million. The remaining $12.2 million required for the project will come from private fundraising and other donations, according to budget documents.

Spending on the Heart of the Zoo project has continued to increase in recent years. The zoo spent about $256,000 on the project in 2022 and is expected to spend about $1.7 million this year.

Ongoing upgrades at the zoo come as the facility is up next year to renew its accreditation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Tax rate up

The proposed budget reverses a five-year trend of falling county property tax rates, raising the net rate to $2.72 for every $1,000 of property value. Last year, the net rate had been lowered to about $2.65 for every $1,000 of property value. But ongoing spikes in home values in the county actually make the tax burden on the average home lower than last year.

At an average value of about $424,000, taxes for a typical Madison home would go up by $12 compared to last years increase of $30. Parisi attributed the net rate increase to one-time hikes in the countys capital spending. That includes a 4.3% increase in county debt payments because of the consolidated jail project. Borrowing approved for the project hit $179 million in April.

Another big-ticket capital project in Parisis budget is $36.4 million for a new 911 dispatch center slated for the countys growing campus off Highway AB. Other capital projects borrowing include $5 million for affordable housing development, $1.7 million for new vehicles and equipment for the Sheriffs Office, $15.3 million for highway and bridge improvements, and $3 million for a planned relocation of the countys election operations.

Trail upgrades

Another $17 million of the budget would go toward improvements to county trails. In northwestern Dane County, $11 million will be used to build a bridge over the Wisconsin River, providing a connection between Sauk City and Dane County. Beyond that, two miles of boardwalk and trail will snake toward Mazomanie from the bridge.

In eastern Dane County, $6 million will be paired with funds from Madison to build onto the Glacial Drumlin State Trail, a 52-mile stretch of trail connecting Cottage Grove to Waukesha.

This community loves its trails and deeply values the ability to get outside and within minutes be away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, Parisi said.

Today in history: Oct. 2 1869: Mohandas K. Gandhi 1890: Groucho Marx 1941: World War II 1944: Warsaw Uprising 1967: Thurgood Marshall 1986: Ronald Reagan 2005: Lake George 2006: Nickel Mines, PA 2013: Michael Jackson AEG Suit 2016: Vin Scully 2019: Impeachment 2020: Donald Trump
People exposed themselves and shouted profanities over a livestream of a UW-Madison conference Saturday on "Black Conservatism: The Past, Present and Future."

Put on by the university's Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy, the conference broadcast from the Fluno Center featured a panel of Black intellectuals and activists including Bob Woodson, founder and president of the Woodson Center and Voices of Black Mothers United, and Wilfred Reilly, assistant professor of political science at Kentucky State University.

Organizer and UW-Madison political science professor Ryan Owens said 40 to 50 people attended the event in person, but people could also watch the conference and ask questions via livestream.

Video of the conference posted online features someone yelling profanities and the reactions of some of the panelists, including shock and laughter, as other people exposed themselves. Madison television station WKOW reported on the incident Monday.

Owens said two or three people shouted insults and profanities and two or three exposed their genitals or masturbated in front of their cameras.

"This is just repugnant behavior and it shouldn't exist," Owens said. "Whatever these people's motives are we can't have a culture that tolerates this kind of stuff."

UW-Madison spokesman John Lucas said the university "condemns any disruption of a speaker or a campus event, whether it occurs in person or electronically" and said "the ability to exchange, consider and respectfully challenge ideas is a vital part of the educational process at UW-Madison."

Disrupting or protesting right-leaning speakers has been a longtime tradition at the overwhelmingly liberal UW-Madison, including in October 2022, when vandals damaged Memorial Union and Alumni Park to protest conservative provocateur Matt Walsh's planned visit to campus.

A survey of University of Wisconsin System students last fall found that more than half of them believe campuses should disinvite speakers who are thought to be offensive.

Owens, however, didn't want to speculate on what might have been motivating the people who disrupted the conference.

The UW Police Department is investigating Saturday's disruption.

"Detectives are coordinating with the UW-Madison Division of Information Technology," Lt. Ryan Jesberger said, "as well as other campus partners, and any possible charges would be determined once the investigation is complete."

Photos: UW-Madison's 170th commencement
Wisconsin is getting $58 million in federal funding to open or expand as many as 40 new charter schools around the state.

Announced Monday by the state Department of Public Instruction, the five-year grant also will fund ongoing projects at established charter schools. Nearly 50,000 students were enrolled in 239 Wisconsin charter schools last school year, according to a statement from DPI.

Charter schools are public schools that are granted freedom from most state regulations, allowing them to use different curriculum, schedules and ways of learning. The Wisconsin charter school law gives charter schools freedom from most state rules and regulations in exchange for greater accountability for results.

The funding from the U.S. Department of Education is Wisconsins seventh federal grant aimed at supporting public charter school development, according to the release.
Chicago police issued a community alert Tuesday warning residents in the Austin and Grand Central police districts of carjacked vehicles being used in armed robberies.

In the first carjacking, robbers approached the victim at gunpoint and robbed him of his BMW X2 and belongings, authorities said. In two incidents following the carjacking, the robbers got out of the carjacked white BMW and approached pedestrians and robbed them of their belongings, police said.

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Later the armed robbers carjacked a second victim, taking a black Subaru Outback at gunpoint, police said.

At least four armed robberies occurred between 4:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Sept. 24. The robbery locations:

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4300 block of West Shakespeare Avenue

4700 block of West North Avenue

5500 block of West Hadden Avenue

800 block of North Parkside Avenue

The two to three armed robbers were described by police as between 16 to 30 years of age. They were wearing all black with ski masks and brandished rifles and handguns, authorities said. Anyone with information should contact detectives at (312) 746-8253 or (312) 746-7394.
NORTH KOREA | Q&A

An American soldier who sprinted into North Korea and was held there for two months before being returned to the U.S. is set to undergo medical testing and extensive questioning about his time in the isolated country before potentially facing charges under the military justice system.

Pvt. Travis King ran across the heavily fortified border from South Korea in July and became the first American detained in North Korea in nearly five years.

Pyongyang abruptly announced Sept. 27 that it would expel King, and he was flown to an Air Force base in Texas the following day.

Here's what we know about King, his mysterious entry into North Korea and what's happened in similar cases.

Who is he, and what happened?

King, 23, joined the Army in January 2021 and was in South Korea as a cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division, according to military officials.

On July 10 he was released from a South Korean prison after serving nearly two months on assault charges. He was set to be sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he could have faced potential additional disciplinary actions and discharge.

Officials said King was taken to the airport and escorted as far as customs. But instead of getting on the plane, he left and later joined a civilian tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom. He bolted across the border, which is lined with guards and often crowded with tourists, in the afternoon.

North Korea's state news agency said King, who is Black, had said he entered the country because he "harbored ill feelings against inhuman mistreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army."

U.S. officials have cast doubt on the authenticity of those statements, and King's mother, Claudine Gates of Racine, Wisconsin, told The Associated Press she never heard him express such views.

It remains unclear why King crossed the border and why Pyongyang  which has tense relations with Washington over its nuclear program, its support for Russia's war in Ukraine and other issues  agreed to release him.

What happens next?

The coming weeks are likely to hold a battery of medical and psychological examinations as well as intelligence debriefings about his time in North Korea, a country few Americans enter.

King arrived at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and was taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, according to the Pentagon. Along with the testing and questioning, he will also get a chance to see family.

King's movements will likely be controlled while commanders learn what they can from him and decide what to do next, said Rachel VanLandingham, a national security law expert and professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. She said the probable next steps are formal charges under the military justice system, but they could take months.

"Based on their track record, I think they're going to court-martial him," said VanLandingham, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, adding that the evidence against King appears "overwhelming" but he could also be discharged without charges.

King was declared AWOL but not considered a deserter. Punishment for going AWOL or desertion varies based on factors that are complicated by King's two-month absence and ultimate handover by North Korea.

The fact that he spent weeks in the secretive country would be unlikely to give him leverage with the U.S. military over his punishment, said Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps. prosecutor and military judge.

"I don't think that he would have been allowed to have seen anything of strategic or even tactical value that he might use as a bargaining chip," Solis said. "I think he's out of luck."

What has happened before in similar cases?

The last active-duty soldier returned to the U.S. by an adversary was Bowe Bergdahl, VanLandingham said.

Bergdahl was 23 when he left his Army post in Afghanistan in 2009, was abducted by the Taliban and was held captive and tortured for nearly five years. He later said he left to report what he saw as poor leadership within his unit.

Several U.S. servicemembers were wounded while searching for Bergdahl. After his return in a prisoner swap, he was charged in military court with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. Bergdahl pleaded guilty to both charges in 2017, but a judge vacated his conviction this year.

VanLandingham said that while the two cases are not identical, the fact that the Army pursued a court-martial against Bergdahl suggests it will against King as well.

Officials said King was released in good health, unlike Otto Warmbier, another American recently held in North Korea.

Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, was seized by North Korean authorities from a tour group in January 2016, convicted of trying to steal a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

He spent 17 months in captivity before he was released and flown home in a coma, dying shortly afterward in June 2017.

While not providing a clear reason for Warmbier's brain damage, North Korea denied accusations by Warmbier's family that he was tortured.
Kasey Teske, the Principal of the Year for Idaho in 2017, is out of a job at Canyon Ridge High School.

The Twin Falls School District announced a change in CRHS administrative leadership in a Monday afternoon email to families, writing that Teske will no longer be working at the school, where he had been top administrator since 2013. Vice Principal Scott Thompson will serve as acting principal, according to the district.

Because this is a personnel matter, there is limited information we can provide regarding the reason behind this change, the district wrote in its message to families. We do not anticipate that the change will affect the day-to-day operations at CRHS. While an abrupt change may raise concern, we assure you that all CRHS staff members are committed to maintaining a professional learning environment and will continue to put our students academic success at the forefront of everything we do. 

Teske remains employed by the district in an administrative capacity, the district told the Times-News in response to a series of questions via email.

Teskes departure from Canyon Ridge comes less than two weeks after multiple players left the Riverhawks varsity volleyball team. Asked if there was any connection between the administrative change and the volleyball situation, the district declined to answer, citing state law.

Any information related to reasons behind changes in personnel assignments is protected under the Idaho Public Records Act as part of the personnel file, the district said.

A 1990 graduate of Twin Falls High School, Teske began his career in education as a teacher at his alma mater in 1997. He later taught at Robert Stuart Junior High School (2000-04) before going to Oregon Trail Elementary School, where he became principal in 2006 after two years as vice principal.

In 2010, Teske returned to Robert Stuart as principal before going to Canyon Ridge three years later. He was named Principal of the Year in 2017 by the Idaho Association of Secondary School Principals, the highest statewide honor for a middle or high school principal in the state.
KIMBERLY  The sweet, strong smell of coffee greets you when you walk in the door, but its the friendly atmosphere that makes you want to keep going.

Welcome to Destino Coffee Co. in Kimberly.

A Hispanic and family-owned business, Destino is the newest addition to town, where you can get your quick coffee fix in the mornings or simply sit and sip on a Shoshone Falls Jitter Juice  aka a Red Bull with flavors of almond, orange and blue raspberry.

Siblings Adam, Andre and Jada Torrero serve as the face of Destino Coffee Company, while their father Adam Torrero runs the business behind the scenes.

Their dream is this coffee company and my dream is to invest in my kids, Adam, the father, told the Times-News.

He added, The goal is to build up a brand, but we dont want to take away from what makes our small business special. We just want to set some goals to see what doors open up for us down the road.

Want to go? WHAT: Destino Coffee Co. WHERE: 201 Chestnut St. N., Kimberly HOURS: Destino is open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Closed Sundays and Mondays. PHONE: 208-837-1461

The concept of opening up their own coffee shop started when brothers Andre and Adam started working at Dutch Bros Coffee about six years ago.

But everything started to fall into place a year ago when the family saw a building for sale near a church they had attended  believing God had helped them find their way.

We had gone to Kimberly Christian Church when we saw this building was for sale, said Adam, the eldest son. If thats not a sign, then I dont know what is.

Destino Coffee Company, located on 201 Chestnut St. N. in Kimberly, is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Although coffee is their main treat, they have other alternatives, such as Red Bull-infused drinks, Italian sodas and smoothies.

They also serve breakfast sandwiches, homemade pastries and pastries from Jim Bobs Bakery.
Idaho LAUNCH is ready for takeoff.

To mark the opening of grant applications on Tuesday, Gov. Brad Little will sign a celebratory proclamation for Idaho LAUNCH Week before embarking on a statewide series of events to tout the program hes hailed as a game-changer for education in the Gem State.

Littles tour includes a Wednesday stop at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls for a 2:15 p.m. event at the Health Sciences and Human Services Building. The governor will talk with local students about the program and take questions from media.

During an April visit to CSI, less than a month after the Idaho Senate passed the bill on a 20-15 vote, capping a sometimes contentious debate, Little told faculty, staff and students that the program was going to be transformative and allow more Idaho graduates to enjoy a fruitful rewarding career where they can raise their families here in Idaho, and plan comfortably for retirement.

It really turns what weve done for education upside-down, Little said at the time. This opens up a whole new career pathway for kids who dont want to go on to a traditional bachelors degree.

The program will begin for the class of 2024, providing students seeking in-demand careers with grants of up to $8,000, or 80% of tuition or fees. It is part of Littles Idaho First plan as proposed during his 2023 State of the State address in January.

The programs funding was secured during the 2022 Extraordinary Session

For more information on Idaho LAUNCH, go online to https://nextsteps.idaho.gov/launch.
A family member called rescuers after getting a message from a satellite communicator about their loved one who was injured in the Idaho wilderness, deputies said.

The woman had fallen and broken her leg while bowhunting Sept. 30 in the Glade Creek area, the Idaho County Sheriffs Office said in a Facebook post.

Her brother-in-law got a message through an inReach device saying she had been injured and needed help, deputies said. Then he called authorities requesting help.

The inReach device uses a satellite network to communicate with others when there isnt a cell service.

An SOS message can also be activated on the device.

Rescuers found the injured woman about 200 yards off-trail in the wilderness and about 2.5 miles from the highway during a heavy rainstorm, deputies said.

Other hunters helped authorities carry the woman to the trail, where she was then wheeled to an ambulance, deputies said.

Idaho County Sheriff Doug Ulmer wishes to thank everyone for their swift and excellent response to helping a citizen in need. We wish her a speedy recovery! the sheriffs department said in the post.

The Glade Creek area is about 270 miles north of Boise.
As you stroll down Main Street in Twin Falls, you might be amazed at the growth and prosperity the area has experienced in the last decade.

Through the hard work of many visionary individuals, local small businesses fill the storefronts, attracting visitors to the many retail shops and restaurants. That growth and prosperity does not happen in a silo. It takes a variety of resources, both financial and intellectual, as well as a little bit of luck.

Twin Falls is just one example of the many southern Idaho communities that have successfully leveraged resources to grow regional wealth and opportunity. Region IV Development Association, Inc., is proud to have had the opportunity to assist with many of these successes throughout the Magic Valley.

From a city water project in Oakley to broadband expansion at the Lincoln County Youth Center, RIVDA has been assisting small businesses and communities in south-central Idaho for 48 years.

RIVDA is a private, not-for-profit corporation that was established in 1975 to encourage development and diversification of the economy throughout the region. RIVDA is recognized by the U.S. Department of Commerces Economic Development Administration as the regional Economic Development District serving the eight counties of south-central Idaho.

Through its designation as a Certified Development Company by the Small Business Administration, RIVDA is able to operate the SBA 504 Loan Program and several other Revolving Loan Fund programs that provide Idaho small businesses access to capital. RIVDA also provides expertise and assistance to communities seeking to attract, retain, and grow businesses through infrastructure development.

What makes RIVDA part of the Southern Idahos secret sauce for success is our dedication to our communities and the diversity of our programs. We have a long history of collaborating with the Idaho Small Business Development Center at the College of Southern Idaho to assist businesses in securing capital. Our relationship with the U.S. Economic Development Administration and the Idaho Department of Commerce allows communities to access planning expertise and funding for quality of life projects such as infrastructure improvements to parks, community centers, and water/wastewater systems just to name a few examples.

As the region continues to grow, the need to expand and improve our regional infrastructure systems will become even more important. RIVDA is here to help and provide leadership in order to preserve the magic of southern Idaho.

Next week: Business Plus
TWIN FALLS  Starting last week, the Idaho State Department of Agriculture undertook what its director says is likely the most aggressive approach ever in the fight against quagga mussels in the United States.

It is part of Idahos rapid response plan, said Chanel Tewalt, and includes using a copper-based treatment in an effort to eradicate the invasive pests, which could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars if they establish themselves in Idahos waterways.

Mussel larvae were found several weeks ago at Centennial Waterfront Park and, later, a diver discovered an adult quagga mussel near Shoshone Falls. Water sampling has revealed a plume of larvae there.

Early last week, supplies were being readied to start the treatment, including the airlifting of two boats via helicopter to the base of the Shoshone Falls power plant.

ISDA officials announced the plan Sunday at a briefing at Twin Falls City Hall.

Initial treatment will consist of two phases over 10 days using the copper-based molluscicide Natrix in the stretch of river from Twin Falls Dam to Centennial Park at a rate of 1 part per million. After 96 hours, the treatment will stop but restart a short time later.

Once we start, there is no stopping, said Jeremey Varley of the Department of Agriculture, who plans to camp in a tent by the river while he monitors the treatment. He said it will be vital to continue it at the proper dosage for the correct periods, including in the pools in the river that can be as deep as 90 feet.

Additional follow-up treatments using other methods, including biocontrol, might be necessary.

On Sept. 28, a diver from the agriculture department found an adult mussel on a rock in 16 feet of water near Shoshone Falls.

Discovery of that mussel was a fortunate find, Varley said, equating it to finding a needle in a two-mile-tall haystack. The mussel is still in the river being monitored, and if it dies during the treatment, it will help give officials an indication of its success.

The rate at which the molluscicide will be used is enough to kill the mussels, but is below the drinking water standard for humans, according to ISDA. The product is expected to dissipate by 70% within a 16-mile stretch downriver of Centennial Park, as springs flowing into the river will aid in the dilution process.

The three areas that will be treated are Shoshone Falls to Pillar Falls, Pillar Falls to Centennial Waterfront Park and Twin Falls Deep Pool above Shoshone Falls.

While the successful elimination of the quagga mussels would be a huge relief to Idaho officials and industries whose infrastructure could be fouled by the rapid growth of the mussels, it will come at a price, including significant fish kill.

We want people to know there will be a downside, said Chanel Tewalt, director of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture.

Sturgeon are among the species that could die as a result in the six-mile stretch of river. At the same time, fish mortality is expected to decline rapidly as the treatment is diluted downstream, according to the ISDA.

Idaho Fish & Game has established a benchmark on current fish populations that will help guide future fish restoration efforts and options to rebuild the fishery after the treatment.

Without treatments, the fish population, along with other wildlife, would suffer if the mussels gained a foothold, ISDA said.

We think it is the only choice, said Jim Fredericks, director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

The treatment doesnt settle in the flesh of fish, Tewalt said.

Livestock wouldnt be harmed during the treatment, and fish hatcheries will be protected from the copper material from getting into their hatcheries through a waterfall feature that is a staple of hatchery design, Varley said.

Tewalt said the ISDA is forced to take quick measures to eradicate the pest. Under other situations, the department would normally allow for public comment.

We have a narrow window, Tewalt said.

Quagga mussels are highly competitive and persistent, and can create monocultures that will eliminate Idahos diverse biological landscape, the ISDA said, threatening the entire Columbia Basin.

To minimize any exposure to the treatment and to prevent the movement of mussel larvae, access to the river from Twin Falls Dam to Niagara Springs is still closed to the public.

Heavy sampling has taken place in the Snake River since the initial discovery of larvae, including Wilson Lake, Lake Walcott, Murtaugh Lake and areas near Bliss and Hagerman, and those samples have come back clean, said Lloyd Knight, ISDA deputy director.
PMFTC Inc., the local affiliate of Philip Morris International (PMI), announced Tuesday the launch of the next-level tobacco innovation IQOS ILUMA, which it described as the most advanced heated tobacco technology for adult smokers, who would otherwise continue to smoke, to switch away from cigarettes.

PMFTC said IQOS ILUMA uses the new Smartcore Induction System to heat tobacco from within the TEREA Smartcore sticks. IQOS ILUMA unlocks the taste of real tobacco without any smoke, ash and with less smell than cigarettes.

The bladeless system does not require cleaning after use, which creates a more effortless experience compared to previous IQOS devices. IQOS ILUMA also features an auto-start function that detects when the TEREA stick is inserted and automatically turns on the device.

The new IQOS ILUMA is the latest generation of IQOS devices and a new addition to our smoke-free products portfolio. It exemplifies PMIs commitment to scientific research and development to continuously progress and find better alternatives for adults who would otherwise continue to smoke or use other nicotine-containing products, said PMFTC president Denis Gorkun.

IQOS ILUMA, our most innovative device yet, gives adult smokers a better choice and represents an important leap forward in our efforts to accelerate the end of smoking, Gorkun said.

PMFTCs smoke-free products head Zulal Roessli said, PMIs market research indicates that IQOS ILUMA provides a more pleasurable experience compared to previous IQOS generations. The study was conducted in Italy and Japan with a total of 714 IQOS users from November 2020 to March 2021.

Through continuous innovation, we want to ensure that a growing number of smokers switch and abandon cigarettes; and that those who have switched do not revert to cigarettes, said Roessli.

IQOS ILUMA is available for purchase at the IQOS Store Bonifacio High Street in BGC, Taguig City starting Oct. 3, 2023. It will be available in other IQOS stores nationwide as well as at www.IQOS.com on Oct. 11, 2023.

PMFTC is the business combination between PMI and the Lucio Tan Group. The company launched IQOS in the Philippines in June 2020 and has so far switched 75,000 Filipino smokers away from cigarettes in its vision to deliver a smoke-free Philippines.

PMFTC introduced its more affordable device called BONDS by IQOS on November 2022.

IQOS and BONDS by IQOS devices are specifically used with specially designed tobacco sticks called HEETS and BLENDS, respectively. Both products do not burn tobacco. They generate smoke-free aerosol instead of smoke.

These devices heat tobacco just enough to release a nicotine-containing aerosol without burning the tobacco. Because tobacco is heated and not burned, there is no smoke, and the levels of harmful and potentially harmful chemicals in the generated aerosols are significantly reduced compared to cigarette smoke.

An independent study found that heated tobacco has accelerated the decline in cigarette sales in Japan. Data show that after the introduction of heated tobacco in Japan in late 2014, combustible tobacco sales registered 9.5 percent in average annual decline from 2015 to 2018.

This provides countries such as the Philippines an opportunity to help millions of smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke if not given an effective alternative.

PMFTC said it would also soon launch ZYNan oral nicotine delivery product that is completely smoke-free. ZYN is the best-selling nicotine pouch in the United States and is manufactured by recent-PMI acquisition Swedish Match.

Gorkun said PMI is working to deliver a smoke free future with the goal of completely eliminating cigarette consumption.
Heart Evangelista lands on the cover of Harpers Bazaar in Indonesia

Fashion icon Heart Evangelista-Escudero graces the October cover of Indonesias renowned international fashion magazine, Harpers Bazaar, marking her expanding influence across Southeast Asia and the global fashion scene.

Hearts presence at prestigious international fashion events like the Milan Fashion Show, New York Fashion Show, and the ongoing Paris Fashion Show in France has bolstered her growing global fashion following.

Bazaar proudly introduced her as the October 2023 digital cover star on its Instagram account, showcasing her in various fashion poses adorned with Tiffany & Co. jewelry. She represented the brand as one of its prominent global brand ambassadors.

During her maiden visit to Jakarta in August, Heart found time for a photo shoot with Bazaar, where she candidly shared her life experiences and passion for fashion.

The article, written in Bahasa Indonesia for the online magazine, carries the headline The Heart of the Matter.

In Singapore, Heart graced the cover of ICON magazines August issue, earning the title of Fashion Queen. The magazine described her as a fearless fashion maven who conquers new challenges with the simplicity of kindness and authenticity.

In a recent Instagram post, Heart mentioned that the Paris Fashion Show would soon conclude, sharing glimpses of her attendance at various fashion shows and collaborations with iconic designers such as Dior, YSL, Roberto Cavalli, Fausto Puglisi, Tods, Balmain, Bally, Versace, and more.

Hearts appearances at the Paris Fashion Week have graced the pages of Vogue, Glamour Magazine UK and Mexico, Daily Mail UK, Purepeople France, Marie Claire France, Le Figaro France, Harpers Bazaar in Greece, US, and Vietnam, Elle in Spain, Japan, and Vietnam, Parati Spain, Grazia Magazine Italy, Vanity Fair Italy, Berliner Zeitung Germany, Hola Mexico, Mag Lebanon, Tatler Asia, LOfficiel Thailand, and many others.

Hearts Instagram posts on the Paris Fashion Week account feature her in photos captured by the renowned fashion videographer Samet Gorgoz in Street style looks Womenswear Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2024.

Hearts journey is a testament to her trailblazing spirit in the fashion world. She has proven that one can achieve success without necessarily being a professional fashion model strutting down the catwalks. Her accomplishments have inspired others to follow in her footsteps.

Notably, Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach and Anne Curtis have begun to venture into the world of fashion, following Hearts lead. Both made their debut appearances at the Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks.
After weeks of finger-pointing, rhetorical gamesmanship and intra-GOP high jinks, Congress managed to avoid a federal government shutdown over the weekend by passing a 45-day stopgap funding package. President Joe Biden wasted no time signing it into law.

For supporters of additional military aid to Ukraine, the continuing resolution was a bitter pill to swallow. Despite last-minute lobbying from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the law doesnt include more aid for Kyivs war effort against Russia. With limited time available, Congress was forced to choose between keeping the government operating and haggling over more money for Ukraine. The fact that lawmakers opted for the former was seen by some in the commentariat as a betrayal of Ukraine. Biden, who requested $24 billion in supplemental appropriations for Ukraine, immediately took to the podium to press for another tranche of aid: We cannot under any circumstance allow Americas support for Ukraine to be interrupted.

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There is a tendency for us humans to extrapolate from a single event. Just because Washington punted Ukraine aid for another day doesnt mean Congress wont debate the matter again before the year is out. It wouldnt be surprising if staffers in the inner confines of Capitol Hill already have draft language worked up.

Even so, its indisputable that war fatigue is setting in. If Ukraines ongoing counteroffensive was making noticeable advances, then perhaps this fatigue wouldnt be as big of a problem as it is today. But the reality is that Russias defensive lines, consisting of minefields that are as much as 10 miles deep in some places along the front, have done an effective enough job holding off the Ukrainian assault. According to The New York Times, Russia has actually gained more territory this year  188 square miles, an area roughly 80% the size of Chicago  than Ukraine has. While its impossible to pinpoint Ukrainian casualties with a high degree of accuracy, the latest U.S. assessment is that about 70,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed since the war began (the Russians have lost even more men). Those numbers have obviously gone up, perhaps considerably, in the previous two months.

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[ Matt Dimmick: Ukraines counteroffensive is working. With continued support, its forces will defeat Russia. ]

Many want to wish the war fatigue away or pretend it doesnt exist. But its there, whether they like it or not. Public opinion surveys help tell the story. A poll that CNN published in August found that 55% of Americans said Congress shouldnt authorize additional funding to support Ukraine. A CBS News poll last month paints a more optimistic picture for proponents of additional U.S. aid, yet the trend lines arent exactly encouraging. Republican support for U.S. weapons shipments to Ukraine declined by 10 percentage points over the last six months. More than half of the House Republican conference voted against resourcing the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a program tasked with building out the capabilities of the Ukrainian army over the long term.

All of this sounds pretty dismal for the White House and for Biden personally, who has repeated ad nauseam over the last year that the U.S. will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. Yet the president is finding that its far easier to recite one-liners than it is to sustain predictable funding levels for the Ukrainians, who are highly dependent on Western military support to keep their current positions and will need Washington firmly in its corner if it has any chance (however remote) to achieve its military objectives. Even then, winning the war militarily may prove to be a stretch.

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Europe will therefore be even more crucial in the months to come.

The war in Ukraine was a culture shock for European leaders, many of whom couldnt possibly fathom that war on European soil was still a possibility. The European Union, a gargantuan institution with an oftentimes unwieldy, slow bureaucracy, has had to adapt to its newfound circumstances on the fly. In some respects, the EU has passed the challenge with flying colors. There was a time not so long ago when EU countries such as Germany were at the mercy of Russian natural gas, and powers outside the bloc, such as the United Kingdom, were perfectly content with allowing Russian oligarchs to park millions of dollars in their banks. Not anymore: EU imports of Russian gas have declined from 40% to slightly under 9%. A huge chunk of Russias foreign reserves  $300 billion  remains locked in Western accounts, and some European leaders want to use the money to assist Ukraines postwar reconstruction. On energy and economics, the EU has acted with remarkable speed.

But one cant say the same on the military front. Compared with the U.S., Europes military contributions to Ukraine have lagged. U.S. military aid to Ukraine thus far has reached $44 billion, more than the European Union, Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway and Poland combined. European officials recognize the disparity and are trying to beef up their own military industrial complex to keep up with Ukraines needs on the battlefield. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell proposed a $21 billion fund over the next four years that would reimburse individual EU nations that donate military hardware to the Ukrainians. And a $2.1 billion fund designed to cajole member states to deliver much-needed ammunition to the Ukrainian army is already in effect.

All of these programs, however, will need to be accelerated in scale and scope if the Europeans truly believe Ukraines success is as vital to the Continents security as they say it is.

U.S. officials often talk about burden-shifting, the notion that Europe needs to take primary ownership of its own security neighborhood. This will be an interesting test to see if the Continent is up to the task.

Daniel DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a foreign affairs columnist for the Chicago Tribune.

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Kyiv  Ukraine said Tuesday it had downed over two dozen Iranian-made attack drones and a cruise missile launched by Russian forces from the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Kyiv has warned that Moscow is restarting a campaign of aerial attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure that last year left millions without heating and water for long periods.

On the night of October 3, 2023, Russian occupiers attacked (Ukraine) with 31 Shaheds (unmanned aerial vehicles) and an Iskander-K cruise missile, the air force said, specifying it had downed the missile and 29 of the drones.

President Volodymyr Zelensky this week urged the European Union to widen sanctions on Russia and also Iran for its supply of attack drones for Moscows forces.

Meanwhile, experts in Washington DC said Ukraines troops would soon run short of essential ammunition and equipment if Republican hardliners succeed in stopping US military aid, undermining operations on the ground and reducing their ability to defend against Russian strikes, experts say.

Top American officials have repeatedly insisted the United States would back Kyiv for as long as it takes, and Washington has committed more than $43 billion in security aid since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 over half the total from all Western donors.

But Republican opposition led Congress to remove new funding for Ukraine from a recent compromise bill to avoid a US government shutdown, highlighting that continued American support is not guaranteed.

It would be devastating for the Ukrainians if US aid is halted, said Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The Ukrainian military would weaken and then ultimately perhaps collapse, though it might be able to just hold on on the defensive, he said.

The United States has supplied a vast arsenal to help Kyiv fight to regain territory seized by Russia, ranging from small arms ammunition and artillery rounds to vehicles, sophisticated rocket launchers, tanks and mine-clearing equipment.

Militaries in conflict need a continuous flow of weapons and supplies and munitions to replace whats destroyed and gets used up, Cancian said.

If US aid were completely cut offsomething the White House insists will not happenthe impact would not be immediate, given that previously authorized assistance is still in the pipeline. AFP

It would take probably a couple of weeks before we see effects on the battlefield, he said, and Moscow might not be able to capitalize even then as the Russians are pretty exhausted at this point.

Away from the front lines, an end to US aid would leave gaps in Ukraines air defenses, which are made up of systems from multiple countries that cover different altitudes and must be continually resupplied with munitions.

These defenses play a key role in protecting Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure from frequent drone and missile attacks by Russia.

You cant really just replace one system with another system if they operate in slightly different ways and deal with different threats, said James Black, assistant director of the defense and security research group at RAND Europe.

If you took out the kind of US component of that, then you necessarily degrade the effectiveness of the entire integrated system, he said.

Dozens of countries  especially in Europe  have provided military aid to Ukraine, and while they could increase support, picking up all the slack left by Washington would be a major long-term challenge.

It would require a years and decades-long effort to get Europe to a place where (it) could fully replace the US as a kind of military power, or a defense industrial power, Black said.

That isnt a comfortable timeline if youre Ukraine, where youd need support in weeks and months.

What the Republicans controlling the House of Representatives will do next is unclear.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy  members of whose Republican party were behind the removal of assistance for Kyiv from the bill to avert the shutdown  said Sunday he would make sure that the weapons are provided for Ukraine.

But the Republican leader indicated the political maneuvers to come when he said that Ukraine will only get help if there is more done for security against illegal immigration on the US-Mexican border.

Theyre not going to get some big package if the border is not secure, he told CBS.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin  who played a key role in forging an international coalition to back Ukraine, and then in coordinating assistance  called over the weekend for Congress to take action.

Lawmakers should make good on Americas commitment to provide urgently needed assistance to the people of Ukraine as they fight to defend their own country against the forces of tyranny, he said in a statement.

America must live up to its word and continue to lead. AFP
Yerevan, ArmeniaMoscow said Russian and Azerbaijani forces on Monday came under sniper fire in Nagorno-Karabakh, days after Baku secured the surrender of Armenian separatists in an offensive to regain control of the mountainous territory.

The report came as Armenia said one serviceman was killed along its shared border with Azerbaijan, underscoring the volatility of the region even after Karabakhs capitulation last week.

In the city of Stepanakert (Khankendi) a joint Russian-Azerbaijani patrol was shot at by an unknown person using a sniper weapon. There were no casualties, the Russian defence ministry said.

Russia deployed its peacekeepers to the mountainous region in 2020 as part of a ceasefire deal it had brokered between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

But mired in its war in Ukraine, Moscow refused to intervene when Azerbaijan launched a lightning offensive at the end of September.

Separatists capitulated and said 220 were killed in the fighting, while Azerbaijan reported 199 dead.

Another Armenian serviceman was killed when Azerbaijani forces opened fire near the eastern village of Kut on Monday, Armenias defence ministry said.

It also announced two were wounded. Azerbaijan had rejected the claim.

Days after the lightning offensive, fighting has nevertheless subsided. AFP

Almost all ethnic Armenians  over 100,000 people  have fled the breakaway territory over fears of ethnic cleansing.

After nine days of fear and panic, the exodus of Armenians is over with the Lachin corridor that links Karabakh to Armenia mostly deserted.

AFP journalists on a tour organised by Azerbaijani forces in the rebel stronghold of Stepanakert saw an eerily empty city.

Buildings, restaurants, hotels and supermarkets laid deserted in a city that once had 55,000 inhabitants.

Many were smashed up with empty shelves  signs of looting or hasty departures.

After three decades of Armenian control, the separatist authorities have agreed to disarm, dissolve their government and reintegrate with Azerbaijan.

The separatist government however said some officials would stay to oversee rescue operations.

President Samvel Shahramanyan will stay in (Karabakhs main city of) Stepanakert with a group of officials until the search and rescue operations for the remainder of those killed and those missing are completed, the separatist government said.

In addition to the toll from the fighting itself, another 170 people died when a fuel depot exploded during the massive exodus.

Separatist official Artak Beglaryan said a few hundred Armenian representatives remained in Karabakh.

He said they included officials, emergency service, volunteers, some persons with special needs.

Yerevan has accused Azerbaijan of conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing to clear Karabakh of its Armenian population.

Baku has denied the claim and called on Armenian residents of the territory to stay and re-integrate into Azerbaijan, saying their rights would be guaranteed.

AFP journalists on Monday saw a convoy carrying water and communications workers that was allowed to enter Stepanakert.

The convoy was escorted by the Azerbaijani army.

They also saw a bus carrying officials who planned to open a re-integration office in the city for any ethnic Armenians wishing to register with Azerbaijani authorities.

Azerbaijan is holding re-integration talks with separatist leaders.

Several senior representatives of its former government and military command have been detained, including Ruben Vardanyan  a reported billionaire who headed the Nagorno-Karabakh government between November 2022 and February.

His four children released a statement on social media demanding his release from the illegal imprisonment on the territory of Azerbaijan, saying they feared for his life and health.

Azerbaijans Prosecutor General Kamran Aliyev said criminal investigations had been initiated into war crimes committed by 300 separatist officials.

I urge those persons to surrender voluntarily, he told journalists on Sunday. AFP
Community members celebrated memories and honored loved ones by floating lotus flowers at Riverview Park on Thursday evening.

The idea for the event began in 2018 with Dan River Basin Association Executive Director Tiffany Haworth. The first year the event was held on the Smith River and the next year it was held at Hamlet Vineyards.

It was calmer, more serene ... that was the whole idea, DRBA Virginia Program Manager Brian Williams said. And we could do it in the evening when we could all sit out there and watch the flowers and the sun go down.

I mean look how beautiful it is now, he added. This years event was the first time it has been held since the pandemic prevented social interaction and was held at Riverview Park in Axton.

Weve had more people in the past, but its the perfect night, Williams said. If the event is held again next year, it will be held in September again.

The lotus flowers, made of recycled plastic bottles, were available for purchase in memory or celebration of a loved one or something thats happened, DRBA Program Coordinator Anna Wheeler said.

A lot of people memorialize their loved ones that may have passed, but you can also do things like celebrate big events in peoples lives like somebody graduating, someones birthday, a successful job or really anything, she added.

Anyone floating lotus flowers had the opportunity to write what they were celebrating or commemorating on biodegradable slips of paper so they could be sent out with lotus flowers without adding any pollution to the environment.

Williams put the first lotus flower on the lake, making a ring of lotus flowers around the lake with battery powered lights on them.

Though he didnt write a note for his flowers, he said, he floated them in commemoration of his father.

We fished, thats what we did growing up ... always around water, Williams said.

Wheeler wrote notes for her lotus flowers about her childhood pets including her dogs Wolfgang, Penny and Tiny and all the other fur babies they had like chickens.

Ellen Jessee wrote the names of her close friends who have passed away, her mother and father, names of people who have dementia in her life and the names of people in her dementia support group with spouses who have dementia.

I think its very peaceful, Jessee added. I love it.

Also at the event was the Boardwalk Baker, a cheesecake food truck based out of Rockingham County.

The Boardwalk Baker was so good  I got two pieces, Williams said.

All proceeds from the Floating Lotus event are going toward helping fund DRBAs efforts to protect local rivers and provide environmental education to area children.

Youre supporting additional river accesses, education programs for adults and students and the stewardship of our natural resources, Wheeler said. If you werent here, you missed out on a tranquil experience reflecting on a celebration and memory of loved ones.
KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health has instituted an urgent investigation after a 13-year-old boy was filmed while being assaulted by two security guards at Ladysmith Hospital.

According to the department, the incident took place last week Thursday, and the matter was brought to the attention of hospital management on Friday September 29.

Department spokesperson, Ntokozo Maphisa, said the security company implicated in the matter was immediately informed about the incident, and immediately took action against the employees.

The department can, in the meantime, confirm that the two security guards have been immediately dismissed by their employer, who is contracted to provide security services at the hospital. The department has also instituted an internal disciplinary process against the nursing staff implicated in the matter, Maphisa said.

Maphisa said the patient, who suffers from a disability and was a resident of a place of shelter before his admission to Ladysmith Hospital, has since been moved to another healthcare facility in Durban.

As a department, we are shocked and appalled by this incident. Our Health MEC, Nomagugu Simelane has made it clear that the safety and well-being of our patients is our priority, and that their abuse under any circumstances, and in any way, shape or form, will not be accepted.

We can confirm that the matter has been reported to the police, and to the Department of Social Development. We can also confirm that a disciplinary process is underway into this matter, Maphisa said. He said the disciplinary process will look into, among others, where the nurses were when the incident took place, who called the security guards and why the patient was assaulted.
The government of the tiny kingdom of Eswatini, Africas last absolute monarchy, on Monday October 2 welcomed the free and fair election of 51 male and eight female MPs, in a ballot tightly controlled by the regime.

The government is very pleased with the great success of the elections, which were held in a free and fair manner, said government spokesman Alpheous Nxumalo.

Fifty-nine Members of Parliament (MPs) were elected on Friday September 29 in the iron-fisted southern African kingdom of King Mswati III. Candidates for the elections ran officially without party labels and had been selected in constituencies by traditional chiefs, who usually look after the monarchs interests.

Political parties have been banned in the kingdom for 50 years, and most of the groups opposed to the regime, targeted by the repression, are registered as associations or NGOs. The Constitution only guarantees, in theory, freedom of expression and opinion, as well as the right of assembly and association.

More than half a million voters were called to the polls for this election with limited stakes, as Parliament only has a consultative role. The King approves all legislation and has the right of veto. Mswati III, 55, also appoints the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and judges. He also commands the police and army. A large part of the opposition had called for a boycott of the vote, believing the results to be a foregone conclusion. One opposition-affiliated MP, elected in 2018, has been forced into exile. Two others are in prison.
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According to a recent study by the American Cancer Society, cancer is a leading cause of death among those of Hispanic heritage living in the U.S. Hispanic and Latino people are less likely to be diagnosed with lung, colon, breast and prostate cancers than non-Hispanic white men and women.

Dr. Jesse Bracamonte, a Mayo Clinic family medicine physician, says preventive screenings for cancer and other diseases are effective ways to help reduce these burdens. Credit: Mayo Clinic News Network

"Colorectal cancers and breast cancers are on the rise in the Hispanic community. And one of those reasons may be from lack of preventive screening," says Dr. Bracamonte.

He says culture, access to care and past experiences contribute. But early screening can prevent future serious health issues.

"Screening tests for diabetes (such as checking a simple blood sugar), for cardiovascular disease to prevent strokes (such as checking on cholesterol and blood pressure), colon cancer screening, breast cancer screening for females, are all available tools," he says.

Talk with your doctor to determine the right preventive screenings and when to begin. For instance:

"Colon cancer screening for both men and women, usually at age 45, is an option, breast cancer screening for women in their 40s such as with mammogram," he says.

Dr. Bracamonte recommends having a list of questions for your doctor about what you can do to stay healthy.

"Have that list prepared about what I should get done to keep me healthy in the long term. What behaviors can I do in the long term to stay healthy? Because I think prevention is a key," says Dr. Bracamonte.
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Emily Gebel was trying to figure out why she was having trouble breastfeeding. That's when she felt a lump.

Gebel, a mother of two, went to her primary care doctor in Juneau, Alaska, who referred her for testing, she said.

Her nine-month-old was asleep in her arms when she got the results.

"I got the call from my primary care nurse telling me it was cancer. And I remember I just sat there for probably at least another half an hour or so and cried," Gebel said.

Juneau, the state capital, has about 31,700 residents, who are served by the city-owned Bartlett Regional Hospital. But Gebel said she has several friends who have also had cancer, all of whom recommended she seek treatment out of town because they felt bigger cities would have better care.

She opted for treatment in Seattle, the closest major American city to Alaska. She underwent surgery at Virginia Mason Medical Center in September 2022. In January, she began chemotherapy at Lifespring Cancer Treatment Center, a stand-alone clinic that she said she selected because it offers a lower-dose chemotherapy.

During chemo, she learned she had stage 4 breast cancer, she said.

Commuting to Seattle for chemo every weeknonstop flights that lasted as long as two hours and 45 minutesbecame tiring. So Gebel began treatment at Bartlett Regional Hospital after her Seattle doctor taught hospital staffers there how to administer her chemo regimen.

Then the bill came.

The Patient: Emily Gebel, 37, insured through her husband's employer by Premera Blue Cross. She was previously covered by Moda Health.

Medical Service: One round of metronomic chemotherapy, which involves regular infusions at lower but more frequent doses and over a longer period than traditional chemotherapy.

Service Provider: Bartlett Regional Hospital and Lifespring Cancer Treatment Center. The hospital is a tax-exempt facility owned by the city and borough of Juneau, though most of its revenue comes from the services it provides, according to hospital officials. Lifespring is a stand-alone, doctor-owned cancer clinic in Seattle.

Total Bill: The prices for Gebel's chemo infusions at Bartlett Regional Hospital varied week to week. A hospital bill showed one infusion in July was listed at $5,077.28more than three times the price for a similar mix of drugs at the Seattle clinic, $1,611.24.

What Gives: In the United States, the price for the same medical service can vary based on where it is received. And for those living in remote areas like Alaska, the price difference can put care further out of reach.

Gebel's firsthand experience with this disparity began after her husband, Jered, requested a cost estimate from Bartlett Regional Hospital. It said Gebel's chemo would cost around $7,500 per weekly infusion, more than 4 times what she had been charged in Seattle.

"The email came through with the bill estimate, and it's like, "Oh my goodness, this has to be wrong," Jered said.

Jered said Emily had met her annual out-of-pocket maximum, meaning her insurance would cover the costs of her treatment, but from the start, the disparity just bothered him.

When Emily received a bill for a few rounds of her weekly chemo treatments, it showed the hospital charged more than triple what the Seattle clinic did for a round of chemo, asking higher prices for every related service and medication she received that week.

The hospital charged about $1,000 for the first hour of chemo infusion, which is more than twice the rate at the Seattle clinic. One of the drugs cost $714, more than three times the price at the clinic.

It was even the tiniest things: The hospital charged $19.15 for Benadryl, about 22 times the clinic's price of 87 cents.

Staff at Lifespring Cancer Treatment Center, the Seattle clinic, did not reply to requests for comment.

Sam Muse, the hospital's former chief financial officer, who no longer works there, said Bartlett Regional Hospital officials determined prices by looking at average wholesale prices and what other facilities in the region charge. Muse said the hospital had to account for high operating costs.

"Anything that we charge certainly has to take into consideration  the cost of just supplying health care in a rural setting like Juneau," Muse said. "We're not accessible by road at all, only ferry or plane."

Juneau's isolated geography makes reaching many resources a challenge. The city is part of the Alaska Panhandle, a narrow, island-speckled sliver of the state wedged between Canada, the Pacific Ocean, and Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve. Neither Anchorage nor Vancouver, its nearest major cities, is close by.

The hospitalthe only one in the city and largest in the panhandletreats a small number of cancer patients, at least a few hundred last year, Muse said. Its two oncologists live outside the city and fly into Juneau six times a month, said Erin Hardin, a hospital spokesperson.

Bartlett spent nearly $11 million last year to pay and fly in nurses, doctors, and other staffers who live outside the city, Muse said.

We're "trying to find that happy medium between keeping care here and keeping costs down and how do we do that in a sustainable way for the long term," Muse said.

Even though research shows Alaskans seek emergency care and are admitted to the hospital less often than many Americans, they had the third-highest health care expenditures per capita in 2020.

"Alaska is special in that it's small, it's remote, therefore it's more expensive," said Mouhcine Guettabi, an associate professor of economics at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington who studied health care costs in Alaska when he taught there.

Guettabi said hospitals often need to offer higher wages to recruit doctors and nurses willing to live in Alaska, which has a higher cost of living than that of most states.

Towns or entire regions may have few specialists and only one hospital, creating a dearth of competition that may drive up costs, Guettabi said. It's also more expensive to ship items there, including medical supplies.

But Alaska's costs are higher even when taking all those factors into account, Guettabi said. In Anchorage, for instance, prices for medical items increased nearly three times as fast from 1991 through 2017 than prices overall.

Alaska also has a unique policy that may be increasing prices. Its "80th percentile rule" was enacted in 2004 to limit the amount of money patients pay when treated by providers outside their health insurers' network. But like many experiments meant to rein in costs, the rule has instead been increasing health care spending, according to a study by Guettabi.

"Critics think the rule may be adding to that soaring spending, partly because over time providers could increase their chargesand insurance payments would have to keep pace," the study noted.

The Resolution: Emily received a bill from the hospital in September, more than five months after beginning treatment there.

It said Emily owed about $3,100 even though a previous explanation of benefits said she'd met her out-of-pocket limit.

Jered said he contacted hospital billing officials, who discovered that a medicine had been incorrectly coded and told Jered that Emily's charge was zero.

"We know how hard it is to pay these ridiculous medical bills," Jered said. "If I'm able to push back a little bit against this massive system, well, hey, maybe other people can, too. And who knows, maybe eventually health care prices can come down."

Emily said she's glad Jered knows how to handle the financial aspects of her care. Like many Americans, she could have just paid or ignored the incorrect bills, risking being sent to collections.

"I can't imagine the amount of time I would have to spend on it while juggling parenting and also dealing with completing treatment, going through the sickness that goes along with that, and just generally feeling very run down," she said.

The Takeaway: Alaska government officials, nonprofits, and experts have suggested methods to lower the cost of health care. The state is considering repealing the 80th percentile rule and implementing value-based care, which emphasizes paying providers based on health outcomes.

But what should Alaskans and other patients do in the meantime? If you live in a high-cost state, you might check out prices at a health care system in a state next door.

In any case, get ready to advocate for yourself.

Jered learned about medical billing by following the Bill of the Month series and reading "Never Pay the First Bill," a book by Marshall Allen, a former ProPublica reporter.

Request itemized bills and make sure the codes match the services you received, Jered said. Note any prices that seem outrageous. If you have concerns, arrange an in-person meeting with an official in the provider's finance department. If that's not possible, a phone call is better than email. Make sure to document all conversations, so you have a record.

Come prepared with your documents and evidence, including the rate paid by Medicare, the federal insurance system for those 65 and older. Ask the official to explain the reasons for the codes and pricing before contesting anything. You can sometimes negotiate high-priced services down. And remember that the person you're speaking with isn't to blame for your health care costs.

"Don't come at them angry, don't come at them as viewing them as the enemybecause they're not," Jered said. "They are working within the same broken system."

2023 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

States are seeing an alarming surge in cases of congenital syphilis, a preventable infection that can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, newborn deathor lifelong complications such as blindness or deafness.

Congenital syphilis, which occurs when a pregnant mother infected with the sexually transmitted infection syphilis passes it on to her fetus, disproportionately affects Black and Indigenous babies. It has seen a steady rise over the past decade, and during the pandemic between 2020 and 2021, cases rose 32%, from 2,157 to 2,855, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That's about eight times the 358 babies born with the infection in 2011.

Across the nation, the congenital syphilis rate was highest in states in the South and Southwest. In 2021, Arizona had the highest rate, at about 232 cases per 100,000 births, followed by New Mexico (205), Louisiana (191), Mississippi (182) and Texas (182).

Nationwide in 2021, 102 babies born to American Indian and Alaska Native mothers had congenital syphilisgiving that group the highest rate, at about 385 per 100,000 births, followed by 29 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander babies, at a rate of 192 per 100,000.

Babies born to Black mothers had the highest number of overall cases, 885, or nearly 170 per 100,000 births, and those born to Hispanic or Latino mothers saw a rate of 96 per 100,000 births. There were 782 cases of babies with congenital syphilis born to white mothers, about 41 per 100,000 births.

While the CDC hasn't yet released official figures for last year's cases, a study on Mississippi released in the agency's journal Emerging Infectious Diseases found a 1,000% surge in the statefrom 10 cases in 2016 to 110 last year.

Experts say a confluence of factors are at play in the rise and the disparities, including poverty, stigma, a lack of access to prenatal care, drug use, a need for more medical education and screenings, and a lack of funding for public health efforts.

Irreversible complications

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection that, if left untreated, can cause serious health problems, including brain and nerve issues as well as blindness.

An infected pregnant mother can pass syphilis on to her fetus. Babies born with congenital syphilis who aren't treated within the first three months of life are more likely to suffer irreversible complications such as deafness or blindness, according to the CDC. Nearly 40% can be stillborn or die as a newborn.

Parents might not know they have syphilis, as it can occur with mild or no symptoms. Babies can also be born without symptoms or develop skin rashes, jaundice, bone damage, anemia, enlarged organs or meningitis. Syphilis is treatable with antibiotics such as penicillin, though drugmaker Pfizer recently warned of a looming shortage of its medication for the disease into next year.

The steady reemergence of the treatable disease mainly points to failures in public health systems, said Dr. Daniel Edney, state health officer of the Mississippi State Department of Health and an internal medicine physician.

"Syphilis has not thrown us a curveball. Syphilis is doing what syphilis has done for thousands of years, and the treatment has not changed," he said. "This is absolutely preventable. What we need are the resources."

Missed screenings of asymptomatic babies can inhibit intervention and can cause permanent disabilities. Blindness and deafness can take a couple of months to a couple of years to manifest, said Dr. Charlotte Hobbs, a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

"We've had cases of babies who have fallen through the cracks, and by the time we see them, even in a couple of months of age, they are neurologically devastated," Hobbs said.

It wasn't until March that the Mississippi State Department of Health began mandating screenings during the first and third trimesters of pregnancy, and during labor if the patient has no previous documentation of syphilis testing.

Seven other states, according to a 2021 CDC analysis, don't mandate testing at any point during pregnancy. Just 18 states plus Washington, D.C., require third trimester screening, with five of those requiring it only if there's high risk. Only a dozen states require screening during delivery, with seven of them requiring it only if there is increased risk.

But to stem the soaring rates, experts such as Houston-based obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Irene Stafford say clinicians need to move past relying on these mandates: Health professionals should screen everyone wherever they show up for care, whether they seem at risk or not, if they have the possibility of becoming pregnant or getting someone pregnant, she said.

"It's screening at any opportunity, instead of siphoning it into just a prenatal visit," said Stafford, an associate professor at UTHealth Houston McGovern Medical School. Texas had 680 cases in 2021.

"Not everybody has prenatal care," she said. "Not everybody gets access to prenatal care quicklyespecially the underserved minority population."

A lack of access

Rural communities in the South and Western states have large populations of Black, Hispanic and Indigenous people whose maternal health care has vanished as rural hospitals and clinics shutter. It's well documented that people lacking a medical doctor or transportation may instead visit emergency rooms for care, so clinicians should increase testing there, Stafford said.

The pandemic disrupted testing and well-woman visits, but the nation hit a 20-year high in congenital syphilis cases in 2018, before the pandemic.

In Mississippi, the increase was likely not exacerbated much by the pandemic, said Dr. Thomas Dobbs, an expert on sexually transmitted infections and dean of the School of Population Health at the University of Mississippi.

"Services have been moving out of health departments for many years, with cutbacks in our public health infrastructure," said Dobbs, a former Mississippi state health officer and co-author of last week's study.

The University of Mississippi Medical Center has asked Congress for $1 million to fund a maternal and congenital syphilis pilot program. Dobbs said the aim would be comprehensive case management for mothers and babies.

"There are no directed funding streams to support that work. We are early in the appropriations process, but if funded, this could be a model project for controlling and eliminating congenital syphilis," he said.

Edney, of the Mississippi State Department of Health, noted that the state last year rejected a request from his department to hire 100 public health nurses to help rebuild a slashed workforce.

Edney said his agency has experienced "a drastic reduction in funding," including a significant cut to a workforce tasked with fighting syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections. These are field epidemiologists that the National Coalition of STD Directors calls the "heart and soul" of prevention.

"I'm just having to cannibalize funds everywhere I can to invest into this space so we can get our arms around the whole syphilis problem, which spills over into pregnancy that generates the congenital syphilis cases," Edney said.

In Mississippi, half of counties are so-called maternity care deserts, or counties without any obstetric centers or maternal health care clinicians. Mississippi also ranks in the bottom 10 states in per capita state public health funding at $16 per resident, according to the University of Minnesota State Health Access Data Assistance Center.

Getty Israel, founder of the nonprofit women's health clinic Sisters in Birth in Jackson, Mississippi, said a long-standing barrier for her community-level work is lack of funding and willingness from Mississippi agencies to partner with her on-the-ground team.

"We do the best we can with our community health workforce. We don't have the funding that hospitals have," she said.

Stigma, social factors

Stigma, shame, fear of racism and judgment can hinder patients' open communication with clinicians, says family nurse practitioner Natassia Williamson in Glendale, Arizona. The state saw the highest congenital syphilis rate in the nation in 2021, as well as a 449% syphilis increase among women since 2015, according to the state.

"I've had patients who, when they come to see me  [say], 'I don't want to see that provider because I think that they're just mean,' or they think they might be racist," said Williamson, who has worked in tribal clinics.

Underscoring racial disparities in cases, syphilis is also a highly stigmatized disease with roots in medical violations toward Black peoplenotably, the federal Tuskegee syphilis study that withheld treatment from Black men for more than 40 years.

Williamson said providers need to be deliberate about cultivating trust. Research has also shown a higher risk of intimate partner violence at play.

"One of the main barriers is the trust in the system," she said. "If they confide in you that they have a background where they're at risk, be compassionate, and just treat them how you would want someone to treat you if you were in that situation."

Community health workers are also key to fighting the spread, Israel said. That includes disease intervention specialists who are trained to provide non-judgmental sexual health education.

Infections are disproportionately high in men who have sex with men, whoalong with men who have sex with men and womenmade up more than a third of the 53,000 cases of primary- and secondary-stage syphilis in 2021.

"We're not tracking partners like we used to. There's not that infrastructure," said Dobbs, who added that STI testing is increasingly moving from public health clinics to private health clinics, limiting testing access for disadvantaged patients. Arizona spends less per capita on public health$15than any other state.

Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell, an OB-GYN and medical director at New Orleans-based Ochsner Health and the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative, said men lack regular checkups for STDs.

Unlike well-woman appointments, "Guys don't have anything like that. They don't have a 'well-man' exam that STD testing would be part of," she said. "There isn't a routine screening for men."

More information: Staneva M, Hobbs CV, Dobbs T. Spike in Congenital Syphilis, Mississippi, USA, 20162022. Emerging Infectious Diseases. (2023) DOI: 10.3201/eid2910.230421. Journal information: Emerging Infectious Diseases

2023 States Newsroom. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Physician-assisted suicide, as it's formally known, has been legal in the U.S. state of Oregon since 1997 under the Death with Dignity Act.

The legislation allows terminally ill residents over the age of 18 to hasten their death by taking lethal drugs prescribed by a doctor, providing they are capable of making and communicating health care decisions, and are likely to die within the next six months.

Since 1998, Oregon Health Authority has published an annual report detailing the demographics of those accessing an assisted death, their diagnoses, health funding status, lethal drugs used, patient concerns, the care provided, clinical complications, and the timings of an assisted death.

Oregon is often cited as a stable example of assisted dying legislation, so the researchers wanted to see if there had been any changes over the 25 years of reporting.

They analyzed the data in every annual report from 1998 to 2022, specifically looking at the numbers of patients prescribed lethal drugs under the legislation, their insurance status, reasons for wanting an assisted death, and the qualifying illness.

Information on clinical complications was often missing, while key information on the factors behind medical decision-making, the effectiveness of the lethal drugs used, and the extent of palliative care support wasn't even collected, reveals their review, published in BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care.

Some 2,454 people died an assisted death during this period. Their average age was 72. In 1998, 24 prescriptions were written for lethal drugs and 16 patients died as a result. On average, the number of lethal drugs prescribed under the legislation increased by 13% each year, with the annual number of assisted deaths rising by 16%. In 2022, 431 prescriptions were written, and 278 patients died as a result.

The proportion of those with private health insurance fell from 65% to 20% over the 25 years; most (80%) had government (Medicare or Medicaid) health insurance in 2022.

In the first 5 years of the legislation, nearly a third (30%) of participants were concerned about being a burden. Since 2017, this has been cited by around half of those opting for an assisted death: 46% in 2022.

Cancer has remained the main qualifying diagnosis, although this fell from an average of 80% in the first 5 years of the legislation to 64% by 2022. But since 2010, various other diagnoses have qualified, including non-terminal illness, such as arthritis, complications from a fall, hernia, and anorexia nervosa.

The length of the doctor-patient relationship reduced over time, the review shows, falling from 18 weeks, on average, in 2010, to 5 weeks in 2022.

And referrals for psychiatric evaluation also steadily declined. In the first 3 years of the legislation doctors requested psychiatric assessment in an average of 28% of cases. By 2003 this had dropped to 5%, and in 2022, just 1% of participants underwent psychiatric evaluation.

The reduction in doctor-patient time "may have made it more difficult to identify treatable factors influencing the wish to die," suggest the researchers, noting a lack of recent data on how many participants had treatable depressiona factor known to influence a person's wish to die.

There was also a worrying lack of data on those who didn't take the lethal drugs they were prescribed, and how they were advised and counseled in the first place, note the researchers.

Information on complications, including those whose death was prolonged or who regained consciousness, was often missing. These data were absent for 206 out of the 278 (74%) assisted deaths in 2022.

In 2022, most (92%) people requesting assisted death were enrolled in hospice care and the average for 19982020 was 91%. But there was no information on what services were provided, or by whom, making it difficult to evaluate whether adequate palliative care was received before assisted death, say the researchers.

This is an observational study, and the researchers acknowledge various limitations to their findings, including that data verification wasn't possible, because Oregon destroys all source records a year after each annual report.

Nor are data collected on how or why assisted dying decisions are made, pre-evaluation or post mortem review of cases, or the details of rejected requests. As physicians aren't required to be present when lethal drugs are taken, the reports depend on information provided by whomever was present at the time.

"Despite Oregon producing detailed and regular post-death reports of value, there are considerable gaps in the data across US states. Most importantly, there is no monitoring in any form of the quality of the consultation in which the decision was made to prescribe lethal drugs," conclude the researchers.

"Detailed, prospective studies that include socioeconomic and clinical information are essential to understand fully the changes seen in Oregon [physician assisted suicide] data," they add.
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Federal regulators are cautioning doctors not to give probiotics to preterm infants.

An infant given probiotics at an undisclosed hospital has died, U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said in a recent warning letter.

Preterm infants given probiotics are at risk of potentially fatal infection because of the bacteria and fungi that may be contained in those supplements, according to the FDA.

The infant who died weighed less than 2.2 pounds and was given the probiotic Evivo with MCT Oil as part of in-hospital care. The baby developed sepsis caused by a type of bacteria that turned out to be a genetic match to the bacteria contained in the probiotic, the FDA said.

Microorganisms found in probiotics have previously been reported to cause illness in very preterm or very low birthweight babies.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has also issued guidelines on the issue, saying that, "given the lack of FDA-regulated pharmaceutical grade products in the United States, conflicting data on safety and efficacy, and potential for harm in a highly vulnerable population, current evidence does not support the routine, universal administration of probiotics to preterm infants, particularly those with a birth weight of less than 1,000 grams [2.2 pounds]."

The FDA noted that it hasn't approved any probiotic product for use in infants.

However, some products are marketed, without approval, as being good for preventing the risk of a condition called necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants.

The National Institutes of Health describes this condition as an inflammation of the intestine leading to bacterial invasion that causes cell death in the colon and intestine.

The probiotic involved in the investigation was made by California-based Infinant Health. The company said in a statement that it is "cooperating with FDA's ongoing investigation" and has agreed to stop shipping its Evivo with MCT Oil product, CBS News reported.

Health care providers and consumers should report adverse events involving probiotics both to the manufacturer using contact information on the product label and to the FDA at 1- 800-FDA-1088 or online.

More information: The National Institutes of Health has more on necrotizing enterocolitis.

Copyright  2023 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Chicago Police Department veteran Larry Snelling answers questions from the City Councils Committee on Police and Fire on Sept. 22, 2023. Snelling was confirmed as the new police superintendent. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

The recent confirmation hearings for Chicagos new police superintendent, Larry Snelling, left some of us questioning whether the City Council truly grasps the gravity of the crisis of violent crime that we face. While Mayor Brandon Johnson deserves credit for selecting a well-prepared and respected candidate, the hearings failed to address the pressing issues plaguing the Chicago Police Department and our city.

Snellings extensive career in CPD, including front-line and leadership roles, as well as his experience as an instructor at the police academy, make him exceptionally qualified for the role. His expertise will be crucial in implementing the federal consent decree, particularly in ensuring effective police training.

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However, the hearings missed a critical opportunity to generate a substantive discussion about the public safety epidemic gripping our city. While homicides and shootings have seen a slight decrease, this is not a reflection of Chicagos efforts but rather a national trend. More alarmingly, overall crime has surged by 29% this year compared with the same period last year, according to CPD data, and more than 60% since 2020. Chicago continues to lead the nation in total number of homicides, second only to Philadelphia.

Johnsons response to this crisis seems inadequate, as he often deflects by discussing historical injustices and generational disinvestment. While addressing root causes is crucial, we cannot ignore the immediate and escalating violence that disproportionately affects Black lives.

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[ Editorial: Job one for Larry Snelling? Tackle CPDs trust deficit across the South and West sides. ]

The confirmation hearings should have been an opportunity for the City Council to ask Snelling for his strategy to tackle crime and his assessment of the resources CPD would need to ensure effective law enforcement.

The mayors supporters advocate for diverting money from the Police Department budget to other resources, but its essential to clarify that CPD funding represents roughly about 12% of the citys total budget. Rebuilding police strength, however, is not about increased funding but rather filling vacancies and deploying officers efficiently. The citys historical failure to fill these vacancies has led to excessive overtime costs, negating any budgetary savings.

While the mayors Treatment Not Trauma program is intended to provide social service alternatives to policing, the fact remains that, to date, his signature initiative consists of a proposed ordinance to create a working group to study the feasibility of reopening six community mental health centers closed by Rahm Emanuel when he was mayor.

[ Arturo Carrillo and Eric Reinhart: Heres why Chicago needs a fully funded public mental health system ]

Treatment Not Trauma is supposed to be about providing alternatives to police responding to 911 calls. Yet, the underresourced police already are not responding to half of high-priority 911 calls they receive. According to Wirepoints, a conservative advocacy group, 52% of 225,000 urgent calls this year came in with no officer available, up from 19% in 2019.

In the meantime, the City Council needs clear answers on other issues that affect the police having sufficient resources and support to contain and reverse Chicagos crime epidemic. This includes the following:

 Return to the community policing strategy recommended by Charlie Beck when he was interim police superintendent, in which police deployment prioritizes local police beat integrity. This is to address the fact that there arent police available for a large number of high-priority 911 calls.

 Restore police officers to a normal predictable working schedule. This is a major factor in the historic exodus of police officers through retirement or transfers to other police departments.

[ We have to be partners in this: Larry Snelling, selected to lead CPD, takes public questions for first time ]

 Freeze merit promotions and end the friends and family promotions system that undermines the quality of CPD leadership and demoralizes the rank and file. Promotions into the exempt ranks should be based on time in grade, training and performance.

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 Build up the departments investigatory resources by not only increasing the number of detectives but also by inviting retired police officers with investigatory experience to return as analysts. Provide them with other supportive services.

 Expand the pool of officer candidates by recruiting military veterans and officers from other police departments and by inviting officers to return with no loss of seniority. Invite retirees to return in a full- or part-time capacity.

 Create a real witness and victims protection program funded by fees, fines and property confiscations.

 Cancel the CTAs private security contracts and use the funds to build a credible, well-resourced Chicago Transit Unit, which would be staffed by 300 additional dedicated police officers to cover CTA stations, walk platforms and ride trains.

[ Paul Vallas: To achieve reform at CPD, take politics out of promotions ]

The City Council can provide the nonmonetary support the Police Department needs to be responsive and proactive by passing Ald. Anthony Napolitanos proposed nuisance ordinance and the city enacting its own public safety measure.

The public nuisance ordinance would empower police to make arrests, impound vehicles, confiscate personal property and impose heavy fines on individuals found guilty of violating the public way, damaging property, and harassing and threatening city residents.

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Chicago Tribune Opinion Weekdays Read the latest editorials and commentary curated by the Tribune Opinion team. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy >

The city, using its home rule powers, could follow Washington, D.C.s lead and enact its own public safety ordinance.

Such a city ordinance could provide jail time or deny pretrial release. It could include fines and terms of probation for individuals who threaten police, intimidate witnesses or victims, engage in hate crimes, commit weapons violations or engage in domestic violence. Violations could be prosecuted by the city Law Department.

While addressing root causes is crucial for sustained long-term crime reduction, we must also acknowledge the urgent need for a containment strategy to combat todays violence. Lives are being lost, mostly Black lives.

Snelling has the experience and qualifications to lead CPD, but its up to the City Council to ensure he has the resources and support the department needs to make our city safer now.

The confirmation hearings may have missed this opportunity, but we cannot afford to miss the chance to act decisively in the face of a public safety crisis.

Paul Vallas is an adviser for the Illinois Policy Institute. He ran for Chicago mayor this year and in 2019 and was previously budget director for the city and CEO of Chicago Public Schools.

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Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
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A session at this year's Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes will explore the latest data on the concept of metabolically healthy obesity (MHO)more commonly known by the public as "fat but fit." Professor Matthias Bluher, University of Leipzig, Leipzig and Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany will explain how we define MHO and ask if it can really be described as healthy.

"Some 1520% of people living with obesity have none of the metabolic complications we associate with the condition, namely abnormal blood sugar control and blood fats, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and other signs of cardiovascular disease," explains Prof. Bluher.

Estimates suggest a different prevalence of MHO in men and women, with women living with obesity more likely to have MHO (7-28%) than men (2-19%). At the other end of the spectrum, around half of people living with obesity have at least two complications. For a given total body fat mass, people with MHO have lower liver fat mass (thann expected for the BMI and total fat mass).

Prof. Bluher will discuss that is how the adipose tissue behaves in people with obesity, rather than their body-mass index, that will determine whether or not their obesity is MHO. In people with adipocytes (fat-storing cells) that are of a normal size, those people are less likely to display the complications of obesitywhereas in people with enlarged adipocytes and inflamed adipose tissue, these cells are more likely to exhibit traits such as insulin resistance that lead to metabolic complications.

The way that we store fat is likely key in whether or not obesity can be described as MHO. "When people with obesity have fat stored viscerally, or internally around their organs (such as in the liver), the data show that these people are much more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who store fat more evenly around their body," says Prof. Bluher.

He goes on to explain that in people with adipose tissue dysfunction, this can lead to damaged tissue, fibrosis, secretion of proinflammatory and adipogenic molecules that subsequently contribute to end-organ damage. As an example, adipokines (fat released hormones) may act directly on cells of the vascular system and lead to atherosclerosis. In addition, metabolites such as fatty acids may impair the function of liver or insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

Finally, on the key question of whether or not MHO can genuinely be described as healthy, Prof. Bluher will explain that several studies show that compared with people of normal weight with no metabolic comorbidities, people living with obesity with no metabolic comorbidities have a 50% increased risk of coronary heart disease. "So there is still a residual increased risk for those people living with obesity, even with what we would call metabolically healthy obesity," he says.

In conclusion, there are people with obesity that do not exhibit cardio-metabolic complications at a certain point in time. In the past, the diagnosis of MHO frequently led to a low priority for obesity treatment. This concept has been challenged, because recent data suggest that the term metabolically healthy obesity is misleading.

Prof. Bluher concludes, "Even in the absence of other cardiometabolic risk factors, increased fat mass and adipose tissue dysfunction contribute to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, weight management and recommendations for weight loss are still important for people living with metabolically healthy obesity."
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Credit: Geralt/Pixabay

During National Bullying Prevention Month, it must be acknowledged that the impact of bullying extends well beyond childhood. Adults who were bullied as children may be at greater risk for depressive outcomes.

But what are the mechanisms that help carry this risk forward? Two assistant professors from the William & Mary psychological sciences department, Madelyn Labella and Adrian Bravo, investigated common responses to stress as potential links in the chain. Their cross-cultural study, co-authored with international researchers and former W&M students, has been published in the journal Aggressive Behavior.

Labella and Bravo discuss how their findings could influence future interventions and address a common coping strategy called ruminationthat is, repetitive thinking about negative feelings and their causes or consequences. While they say that stomping out bullying should be a primary target, adequate resilience-promoting strategies can help alleviate mental health outcomes for people who keep experiencing bullying victimization to this day.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Many definitions of bullying exist. Which is one you agree on and have used in your research?

Labella: Bullying is a chronic pattern of aggression not necessarily physical, but also verbal and psychological. It is often characterized by a power imbalance, where the person who is bullying has more social power than the person who is being victimized.

Bravo: We also assessed childhood bullying experiences using a measure developed by the World Health Organization. According to the WHO, bullying occurs when a young person or group of young people say or do bad and unpleasant things to another person, when a young person is teased a lot in an unpleasant way or is left out of things.

Q: How can your findings influence interventions?

Labella: If we were to confirm our findings using longitudinal studies, then strategies like cognitive behavioral therapy might be useful to help people who experience bullying desist from rumination. CBT includes behavioral activation strategies having people doing things they enjoy so that they can take their mind off difficult experiences.

I also think that mindfulness-based interventions have a lot of promise. People who are able to mindfully accept their thoughts and feelingswithout holding on to them, without judging them, and let them gomight be able to choose to live in ways that fit their own values and goals even in the midst of stressors like bullying.

Q: Are there any popular coping strategies that may be counterproductive?

Labella: Seeking social support is a really common coping strategy that can be incredibly effective and helpful. However, it can sometimes shade into co-rumination, which is when friends are reflecting each other's negative moods and thoughts back, and they're all getting stuck in a spiral instead of being able to talk through a stressor and move on. There's evidence that this pattern tends to happen more often in friendship between girls, and this might be part of the reason for gender differences in depression risk starting in adolescence.

Bravo: Ruminating is a maladaptive strategy, as demonstrated by Susan Nolen-Hoeksema's Response Styles Theory, which we recently addressed in my Research Personality class. One of the points is that it impairs problem solving.

To deal with ruminative thinking and stop feeling bad about being bullied, a lot of adolescents may turn to substance use. The problem is that it doesn't actually solve the problem, and you have now a second problem.

The question is, how can we intervene? Ideally, we would stop bullying, that should be the number one goal. But unfortunately, these are real things that happen to individuals. And we need to provide strategies to help them deal with processing, which I think is where rumination comes in, but then comes the coping part, dealing with stress and improving distress tolerance.

Q: Bullying is often portrayed as an unavoidable part of growing up. Are there any other common myths about bullying?

Labella: There definitely is an impression that bullying is part of a common developmental phase, but even the results of this study show that it's not inevitable. Half of our sample didn't report experiences of bullying at all during their childhood years. Moving toward increasing that number is a valuable goal, as experiencing bullying can in many cases shape social and emotional development across the lifespan.

Bravo: Especially older generations have a misperception that cyberbullying can be stopped just by turning off the internet, but the truth is that bullying can now happen anytime, not just during school hours. It is not time-sensitive anymore, and it can be really pervasive.

Q: Rates of physical bullying were consistently low in every country that you examined, while appearance-based bullying was consistently high. Can you elaborate on this?

Labella: There is greater awareness that physical bullying is not the only kind, that you can have these emotionally and psychologically taxing experiences, like being excluded, being mocked for how you look or for your racial and ethnic background. At the same time, I think these experiences are still viewed as somewhat more socially acceptable than physical aggression, so they are more likely to happen to people.

Bravo: Physical bullying implies that you have the strength to be physical, but other forms imply that anyone can be a bully or a victim.

Due to social media and more access to information, now more than ever children are internalizing standards that may be more out of reach than in the past. We really need bullying prevention initiatives and campaigns to be multifaceted and focus on schools as well as media, especially online media.

Also, social media content that puts other people down is popular, receives exposure, and this could play a role not only in how bullying is being processed but also in what is seen as acceptable.

Q: Can you expand on the cross-cultural aspect of your research?

Bravo: We have found the four facets of rumination to be consistent across countries, so it seems to be more of a universal phenomenon. To what extent bullying actually leads to distressful events may differ based on the social norms dictated by the culture you live in.

Diving into more unique environmental/social norms within each of these cultures will play a big role. In our data set, for example, Spain reported the lowest rates of bullying victimization: We are trying to identify reasons, and it may relate to how people depend on each other in collectivistic cultures, with bullying being seen as something very against the norms that reflects poorly on everyone else.

Emotion regulation and how you deal with emotions is definitely not universal and varies across cultures. Even though we didn't see it as a mediator in our study, it could be a moderator. Further, social support is really protective, and it may look different in individualistic versus collectivistic cultures. There has been a lot of research into how both kinds of cultures receive and express social support: This may be helpful when dealing with young individuals experiencing chronic victimization.

Labella: The fact that bullying had similar associations with depression across cultures is important: It suggests that it is still associated with risky outcomes in young adulthood even where it is culturally more common. Being common doesn't make it OK.

More information: Madelyn H. Labella et al, Childhood bullying victimization, emotion regulation, rumination, distress tolerance, and depressive symptoms: A cross-national examination among young adults in seven countries, Aggressive Behavior (2023). DOI: 10.1002/ab.22111
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:

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Surgical scorecards, a tool that gives direct feedback to surgeons about their procedure costs in the operating room, may significantly reduce costs without impacting clinical outcomes, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS).

The surgical scorecard is a novel approach to addressing operating room costs. It is commonly delivered to the surgeon in the form of an email receipt, report card, or informational session summarizing the cost of their own surgical items, staffing, and the time used for any procedure in the operating room, as well as how those costs compare to colleagues' costs and similar operations performed.

"The reality is that health care in the United States is exorbitantly expensive, and despite this increased spending, Americans don't have better health outcomes than our high income country neighbors," said lead study author Wesley Dixon, MD, an internal medicine resident physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

"Our results show that scorecard implementation is one of many different methods that can be used to lower health-care costs, particularly operating room costs, which comprise a significant proportion of health-care spending. Using different cost saving interventions together can reduce overall U.S. health care spending without compromising patient care."

The researchers carried out a scoping review, which synthesizes all available study results based on keyword searches, by scanning research databases such as PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science to gather more information about surgical scorecards and their impact on cost reduction.

Twenty-one studies published between 2011 and 2022 were included, spanning eight subspecialties and 30 procedures. Through a literature search, key elements of cost such as "surgical supplies," "implants," "wasted supplies," and "operative time" were identified.

The data was then analyzed according to the impact of scorecards on the percentage change in cost per operationfrom before the intervention to after the intervention, and the impact on patient outcomes, which included operative time, postoperative length of stay, complication rates, readmission rates, and mortality.

Key findings

Of 30 total scorecard interventions measured across 21 studies, 16 out of 30 (53%) interventions showed surgical procedure cost reductions between 5% and 20%.

For 11 studies, cost reduction was attributed to reduced use of specific high cost items. Cost savings can come from using less expensive alternatives or wasting fewer supplies (opened but unused during the operation).

The most common surgical subspecialties included in the review were orthopedic and general surgery. A wide variety of procedures were included, but the most common were adult and pediatric laparoscopic appendectomy.

Making hospitals more energy efficient

"The biggest knowledge gap we identified in this study is that there is essentially no research connecting surgical scorecards to surgeons with environmental or emissions data related to the operating room," Dr. Dixon said.

"Operating rooms contribute around 50% of hospital waste and are much more energy-intensive than the rest of the hospital, adding to the overall carbon footprint. Therefore, some of these data-driven feedback mechanisms that include carbon-related data would be a major step towards making the hospital a more energy-efficient place."

A limitation of the study is that a large part of scorecard use nationwide is implemented as part of quality improvement initiatives and those results are not always published. Therefore, the results of this scoping review might under-represent the true impact of surgical scorecards.

Study co-authors are Allan Ndovu; Millis Faust, MD; Tejas Sathe, MD; Christy Boscardin, Ph.D.; Garrett R. Roll, MD, FACS; Kaiyi Wang, MS; and Seema Gandhi, MD.

More information: Wesley Dixon et al, Cost-Saving in the Operating Room: A Scoping Review of Surgical Scorecards., Journal of the American College of Surgeons (2023). DOI: 10.1097/XCS.0000000000000846 Journal information: Journal of the American College of Surgeons
When Julia Orlando of Bergen County, New Jersey, walked into her first public meeting on homelessness, the social services provider needed a police escort to protect her from irate community members.

Eleven years later, when Bergen County reached "functional zero" chronic homelessness  a federally recognized benchmark for measurably solving homelessness in a community  Orlando was honored as the communitys Distinguished Citizen of the Year. The award celebrated her role in helping house Bergen Countys most vulnerable.

People were very angry at first, she recalled. Communities need to feel youre providing a service. We all have a role to play in ending homelessness.

The award, and the functional zero label, came in 2017. Bergen County has endeavored, successfully, to keep its functional zero status in the ensuing six years. Two other communities in the U.S.  Rockford, Illinois, and Southwest Minnesota  have maintained functional zero levels of chronic homelessness as well. In these communities, fewer than three people or .1% of the total unhoused population are reported as chronically homeless at any given time, measured by monthly person-by-person data.

These approaches demonstrate avenues Missoula could take as the city and its citizens wrestle with a growing unhoused population. In May 2022, Missoula joined the Built for Zero campaign designed to reach functional zero, with a specific focus on veteran homelessness.

'Field of Dreams' in Bergen County

Bergen County on the outskirts of New York City is a far cry from Missoula. The area contains 70 towns and just under one million people, equivalent almost to the entire population of Montana.

Were large, Orlando acknowledged. Were a large community.

But despite the differences, Orlando believes her countys strategy for addressing homelessness holds lessons that could be repeated in Missoula and beyond. In fact, she works as a consultant all across the country to improve outcomes for homeless people.

I think our model, she said, is completely replicable.

Understanding Bergen Countys work around homelessness requires a look back to 2006.

We had a rising chronic homeless population, said Orlando. That of course was a concern.

Bergen Countys efforts started with community engagement. A consultant held meetings with 200 community members from various backgrounds to understand their concerns, questions and goals. What emerged was a desire for integration across Bergens 70 towns.

It took three years and $11.5 million in bond funding, but Bergen County opened its Field of Dreams homeless shelter in the county seat with a bevy of resources for people experiencing homelessness. The Housing, Health and Human Services Center  known as the Triple H  opened its 27,000 square feet to guests in 2009.

The Triple H is a low-barrier shelter with space for providers to meet clients on-site with the aim of serving as a one-stop assistance shop. The Bergen County Housing Authority took the helm of the Triple H and then shut down the shelters operating elsewhere throughout the county.

That move has its critics: Community members in the county seat complained the county was funneling all of its homeless individuals into their neighborhoods, and clients who ran afoul of the Triple H administration felt they had nowhere else to turn.

But Orlando believes the shelters focus on a Housing First model has been integral to its ability to place more than 2,000 people into permanent housing. The Housing First paradigm is a widespread philosophy around ending homelessness, which holds that providing stable housing to homeless people guarantees their success more than any other initial intervention, such as mental health care or addiction recovery. Housing First recommends finding housing, then addressing co-occurring issues like mental health, addiction, medical concerns and employment.

Youre putting housing at the forefront of the problem, explained Orlando. Because homelessness is a housing problem. People like to say its an addiction problem. Its a housing problem.

Housing above all else

Recent research from the Pew Charitable Trusts backs up Orlandos assessment. In an analysis released in August, Pew researchers found housing costs in an area were the strongest predictor of homelessness prevalence, above all other factors.

Housing costs are the driver, said Alex Horowitz with Pew. When rents go up, so does homelessness. When rents drop, homelessness drops.

Horowitz used the data to debunk theories around other causes of homelessness, such as laziness, drug abuse and mental health conditions.

There are people who have vulnerabilities in Mississippi. There are people who have vulnerabilities in Houston, said Horowitz. But those places have very low rates of homelessnessbecause housing costs are low.

He pointed to the example of West Virginia, where opioid abuse runs rampant. Yet homelessness occurs minimally there, since housing costs remain very affordable.

In Montana, he added, the rising costs of housing over the past five years have illustrated this correlation. Montana has 14.4 people homeless per every 10,000, just below the national average of 17 homeless per 10,000. But in the last five years, Horowitz said, Montana median house prices rose 8.5% compared to just 3.9% in the U.S. overall.

I think the research points clearly to more housing as crucial to solving homelessness, said Horowitz. Not just income-restricted housing. The more housing that is in a market, the less homelessness there is.

'Housing First,' not 'Housing Only'

Sheltering residents, however, is not the same thing as getting them into stable housing. And while Bergen Countys Triple H facility helps locals avoid sleeping on the street, Orlando stressed the shelter is just a step in the process to getting housed securely.

Housing First, said Orlando, is not the only thing in our arsenal. Its not 'Housing Only.'

A unique facet of the Triple H are its drop-in services, which occur two times a day, every day. Instead of booting guests during the daytime, the drop-in hours in Bergen's shelter provide opportunities for guests to work on various facets of their transition into housing, from rental applications to meetings with law enforcement. In Missoula, meanwhile, guests have access to the Poverello Center for needs like showers and meals during the day; the Johnson Street facility is open 23 hours a day, seven days a week.

Thats a really important part of this, said Orlando. You dont just want to address the problem. You want to prevent the problem.

The 77-bed facility effectively operates with its front doors and back doors always open, said Orlando. The idea is to funnel people through the shelter and into permanent housing as quickly and effectively as possible.

And every night, a different community group serves food to the Triple H guests. Its a demonstration of public buy-in that was a long time coming for Orlando and her partners.

Thats really the key of our success, she said, is the collaboration.

It's a model that's working in Missoula to some degree, too. Zach Mauldin and Emily Skilton organize volunteers at The Poverello Center, an effort the pair said creates benefits far beyond the building on West Broadway.

"It allows the people who volunteer," said Skilton, "to get to know people in the community they wouldn't otherwise interact with."

"They're getting to know our guests, day in and day out," said Mauldin. "It's invaluable."

The volunteers largely share that sentiment.

Sister Berrett, a missionary with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, greets each guest she serves lunch to by asking their name.

"It's helping people feel loved, seen, heard," explained the church member from Salt Lake City. "Sister Hurt (her fellow missionary) and I valued that, seeing them as people."

In Bergen County, the consultants upfront outreach to stakeholders, followed by regular gatherings every three months, gradually helped Orlando pitch the massive shelter to housed community members living and working nearby. She said over time she helped people like business owners see their shared goals. Businesses didnt want people sleeping in their entryways, for example, so Orlando tried to convince them of the effect the Triple H would have on the business districts revitalization.

But the inflection point in public support, she said, was a fire that displaced 12 Bergen County families in April 2015. Orlando and her team provided ample support to the people impacted by the disaster, demonstrating their efficacy and, at the same time, highlighting the reality that anyone can fall into homelessness.

We assisted with the crisis, she remembered. And people started to see providers differently.

But getting the political will around addressing homelessness, Orlando said, proved the hardest part of Bergen Countys fight to reach functional zero. She said hesitation and reluctance to try new ideas present some of the toughest challenges to addressing the entrenched issue.

You cant lead with fear, she said, pointing out people living and dying on the street is already a worst-case scenario. Whats the worst thing that happens?

But she also added functional zero is harder to sustain than to achieve.

Dysfunctional zero

Paul Nickels independently performs homeless outreach in Bergen County, where he used to live unsheltered. He sees successes in the systems strategies, but he also finds fault with the countys efforts and the functional zero milestone in general.

They do do some good work, said Nickels. They have housed some of the hardest, toughest cases.

But Nickels, who was once banned from the Triple H when he said he was prescribed the wrong medication and acted out, believed the functional zero achievement obscures a darker reality in Bergen County.

It looks good on paper, he said. But it doesnt work.

Nickels takes issue with a number of policies Bergen County employs, like Point-in-Time survey data that municipalities across the country  including Missoula  use to estimate the number of people living unsheltered in their communities.

Nickels said the nature of PIT counts underestimates how many people are actually homeless, since counts are conducted on a single day and only provide a snapshot of the actual community. Unfortunately, to Nickels, the data derived from those potentially faulty counts is used to create much of the communitys responsive programming.

He said he has a list of 300 people currently living unhoused in Bergen County.

Nickels wants better accountability, checks and balances, and community input into homelessness services in the area. Sometimes people get taken off the countys by-name list because efforts to contact them have failed; other times, he said, they are taken off for leaving the county, even as they remain homeless elsewhere.

They have housed a lot of people, he said, but its a system set up for failure.

He said the functional zero goal is itself a recipe for failure, too. Simply shuttling people into housing without supportive services or case management doesnt guarantee their long-term success, he pointed out. In his experience, navigating the numerous hurdles around getting stability  like securing documentation and paying rent  is a winding, nearly impassable path.

And instead of looking to support people as they embark on that journey, Nickels said the effort toward reaching functional zero simply provides a numeric measure of success that isnt experienced by the people its designed to help.

The only way to correct it is to acknowledge the problems, he said. But his overall assessment was grim. Of course we know, youre never going to end homelessness.
Joseph Jefferson-Dust arrived in Missoula on Monday evening after a six-hour motorcycle trip from Billings.

Im trying to regain my confidence, my dignity, he said, still shivering from the ride. "I had a lot of those things and they were all taken away, like I was dehumanized. But now, Ive been working on getting those things back.

Jefferson-Dust is one of 10 clients the Montana Innocence Project has worked with since its inception in 2008. Monday marked the 10th annual Wrongful Conviction Day. Innocence Project leaders hosted a series of events in Missoula to commemorate the anniversary, including a panel with three Montanans with active wrongful conviction cases.

Jefferson-Dust was released from the Yellowstone County jail last fall. In 2015, a young girl falsely accused him of inappropriately touching her. He pleaded no contest to a criminal endangerment charge and was given a 10-year suspended sentence. His sentence was revoked on a technical probation violation.

Missed time with family and loss of cultural experiences were two things he struggled with from his incarceration. Jefferson-Dust, who is a member of the Crow Tribe, recently attended the Crow Fair for the first time in seven years.

A little bit has changed since then  a lot of stuff is really familiar, he said. It feels really comforting and soothing to hear the sounds and smell the smells and eat the food.

Katie Garding was wrongfully convicted of vehicular homicide following a 2008 crash in East Missoula. Her conviction was overturned this past March by a Missoula judge.

Garding recalled thinking it was impossible a jury would convict her without proof, but she was found guilty and was incarcerated at the Montana Womens Prison for about 10 years.

I had complete faith in the justice system starting out, she said.

Garding described the lengthy appeal process she worked on with the Montana Innocence Project.

Theres many, many things that we had filed for numerous different times and every time had been shot down, she said. Emotional stress from wrongful incarceration and hope that comes and goes was wearing on Garding.

Its just really hard to go through, she said.

Bernard Pease Jr. was convicted in 1983 in a Billings murder case. He was granted parole in the fall of 2022 after serving nearly four decades for a crime he didnt commit. Hes slowly getting settled back into his community and is adjusting to things like cost-of-living increases and how the world around him has changed since before his imprisonment.

Jefferson-Dust, Garding and Pease are three of thousands of people in the U.S. who have been found innocent of crimes they were convicted of. According to data provided by the National Registry of Exonerations, 3,385 innocent people have been exonerated since 1989.

Earlier on Monday, the Montana Innocence Project hosted a discussion with attorneys about the root causes of innocent people going to jail. False confessions, false allegations, official misconduct and discrimination are contributing factors to wrongful convictions.

Andrew Huff, senior policy and legal advisor at the Center for Indian Country Development, spoke about how in Montana, Native Americans are disproportionately incarcerated and arrested. Huff has represented Native American clients in criminal proceedings.

Race has a huge impact on wrongful convictions  its clear in the stats nationwide, he said. Two-thirds of all Innocent Project clients are Black and Indigenous people of color.

Statewide, Native Americans comprise about 7% of Montanas population, but 19% of arrests, Huff said. Native Americans make up about 18% of the prison population in Montana.

Theres some major disparities here with respect to the criminal justice system in Montana and with respect to Native Americans specifically, Huff said.

Huff said in the years hes practiced law in Montana, hes seen considerable bias in criminal justice personnel who think reservations are lawless places.

People with this bias dont have the full story, Huff said. They don't have the backstory. They don't understand the history that may have led to some of these crime rates in Indian Country. And of course that leads to a lack of empathy."

Because major crimes committed by Native people on tribal land are prosecuted federally, the corresponding sentences are often longer than they would be for the same crime prosecuted at the state level.

A 2008 report on sentencing disparities, for example, stated that in South Dakota, a person convicted of sexual assault in state court receives an average sentence of 29 months, whereas a Native American who committed the same crime on tribal land, would be prosecuted in federal court and receive an average sentence of 47 months.

Wrongful conviction cases take time. As Garding, Pease and Jefferson-Dust readjust to life post-incarceration after years behind bars, the three are waiting for full exonerations and to have their cases completely cleared.

Theres always going to be a better outcome on the other side, Garding said. You just have to wait for it.
A group of Montana lawmakers met with ambulance service providers last week to see if there's a way to fix what many say is a financial crisis hitting the emergency services industry in the state.

Sen. Shane Morigeau, a Democrat from Missoula, is a member of the 2023-2024 Economic Affairs Interim Committee at the Montana Legislature. The committee held a hearing to discuss the failure of a bill in the last session, HB 828, that would have established an ambulance provider assessment fee in order to leverage federal dollars.

Morigeau told his fellow committee members that a constituent once complained to him that two girls, who were in critical condition following a highway car crash, had to wait over an hour for an ambulance.

"And that was because we have an ambulance desert problem," Morigeau said. "It's a problem that needs to be fixed."

By "ambulance desert," Morigeau was referring to places in rural Montana that are far away from the nearest ambulance provider.

Many ambulance providers around the state say that the reimbursement rates from Medicare and Medicaid, along with trouble recruiting and retaining paramedics, is hurting their financial stability.

Earlier this year, Granite County lost its only ambulance provider, prompting the local sheriff to say he was concerned that people suffering medical emergencies might have to find their own ride to a hospital.

Erin Sullivan, a legislative research analyst with the state, told the committee that a recent national study found that Montana has fewer than three ambulances covering every 1,000 square miles of land.

"According to the Montana Ambulance Association, the industry is experiencing funding gaps and workforce shortages, leading to ambulance service closures across the state," she told the committee.

According to Sullivan, during the House Human Services hearing on HB 828, Justin Grohs with Great Falls Emergency Services stated that Medicaid reimbursement rates are about 40% below cost.

At the same hearing, Ryan Pitts with Logan Health EMS (in Kalispell) explained that the reimbursement model is call-based, and "with the vast geography in Montana and lower call volume, it is difficult to sustain services with low reimbursement rates," according to Sullivan.

Sullivan told the committee that HB 828 would have levied an assessment on ambulance providers in the state, and those funds would be used to leverage federal funds that would then be re-distributed to providers to enhance ambulance provider rates and improve the quality of services.

Sullivan told the committee that HB 828 passed the House and Senate in the last session but was sent back by Gov. Greg Gianforte with some minor amendments he wanted, one of which was to strike the implementation date from the language of the bill to give state agencies more time to work out the details. The House passed the changes, but the Legislature adjourned for the session before the Senate could vote on the changes. Therefore, the original bill was vetoed by the governor.

Don Whalen, the manager of Missoula Emergency Services Inc., is also the president of the Montana Ambulance Association. He said the association didn't have a problem with Gianforte's amendments.

Justin Grohs, with Great Falls Emergency Services, said the bill would not have put any additional burden on Montana taxpayers. He said the bill would help service providers increase wages and therefore recruit and retain paramedics.

Sen. Mark Noland, a Republican from Bigfork, said he's generally in support of the bill. He noted that if Montana leverages federal dollars, that increases the federal budget deficit.

"When we ask the feds for money and take the money, we're adding to the problem," Noland said. "Debt is a big problem. The feds are so out of control, we're bustin' at the seams."

Noland noted that the state of Montana doesn't have a budget deficit problem right now.

The committee took no action on the bill, but they all agreed that the issue is worth a closer look during the 2025 session of the Montana Legislature.
Montanas biggest labor union and a left-leaning student organization are challenging a new law prohibiting double-voting in Montana, arguing that it threatens draconian criminal penalties for committing honest mistakes.

The complaint was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Helena by the Montana Federation of Public Employees and the Montana Interest Research Group. Judge Donald Molloy has been assigned to the case, as one of the three federal district judges in Montana who handles voting rights complaints.

The Legislature passed House Bill 892 last session, with bipartisan support in the House after it got a party-line vote in the Senate. It was sponsored by Missoula Republican Rep. Lyn Hellegaard, and picked up unanimous support from Republican lawmakers.

The new law makes it illegal for anyone to vote in Montana in the same election that they cast a ballot in another state, with an exception for special district elections. It also states that a voter may not purposely remain registered to vote in more than one place in this state or another state at any time.

Violating the new double-voting law could result in fines up to $5,000 or up to 18 months in prison, making the new crime a felony. The groups say this is a violation of the right to vote, because it will have the effect of deterring potential Montana voters from registering in the first place.

They argue that students in particular could inadvertently run afoul of the new laws. The complaint quotes a Seventh Circuit of Appeals decision to note that every year millions of Americans go off to college in August.  They will vote in only one place, even if they have open registrations in two.

The complaint alleges that the law is unconstitutionally vague, violating voters due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiffs also allege that it will have a chilling effect on voter registration, creating a violation of voters First Amendment rights to free speech.

HB 892s reach far exceeds its stated (and legitimate) purpose of prohibiting double voting, the lawsuit argues. It criminalizes both the act of maintaining multiple voter registrations and the failure to include prior-registration information on applications, even if voters and registrants have no intention of actually voting in more than one place.

Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen, Attorney General Austin Knudsen and Commissioner of Political Practices Chris Gallus are all named as defendants in the complaint.

Gallus, and a spokesperson for Jacobsen's office, both declined to comment, saying they had not been served with the complaint. Knudsen's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The complaint asks for the court to declare the law unconstitutional and to issue an injunction barring the state from enforcing it. The law took effect when Gov. Greg Gianforte signed it in May.

While the 2023 session was relatively quiet in terms of new election laws pursued by the GOP-dominated Legislature, some major voting laws passed in 2021 have not fared well. Several 2021 laws supported by Republican Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen and GOP lawmakers were struck down in state district court earlier this year, although those decisions have since been appealed to the Montana Supreme Court.
Nearly 200 people added their voice to the growing clamor over the perceived inaction by the Republican-controlled Legislature on steep property tax hikes at a rally Monday afternoon in the Capitol Rotunda.

Organized by Big Sky 55+, a special interest group advocating for Montana seniors, the rally hosted speakers Brian Schweitzer, the former Democratic governor, and Jane Weber, a former Cascade County commissioner who is running as a Democrat for a legislative seat.

"What we've got going on right now is the largest budget surplus in state history, cutting taxes for the businesses and raise taxes for the homeowners. How's that make sense?" Schweitzer asked the crowd rhetorically. "Here's what you need to do today. You need to call friends and family, and you need to get them to agree to write letters to your legislator. You need them to write letters to the governor and say 'bring this legislator back in town and do the right thing. We're not asking for a tax break, we're just asking to keep our taxes the same.'"

Both Schweitzer and Weber called for a special legislative session to address the property tax increases, driven by a statewide median increase of 45% in residential property values following the latest state Department of Revenue reappraisal.

Democrats in the Capitol continue to point the finger at the Republicans who dominate state government and argue they brought bills that would have used some of the state's $2.5 billion surplus for property tax relief, but the GOP did not support their policies.

Republicans voted down several bills from Democrats, such as House Bill 280, a so-called circuit breaker bill that would have created an income tax credit based on the amount of property taxes paid or rent equivalent. The program would have cost $82 million a year and about 87,000 households would have qualified, according to legislative records.

Republicans have said Democrats want to push the tax burden onto other property owners, everything from mom and pop businesses to the states largest corporations. They also note that the value increase homeowners saw this summer doesnt necessarily mean a corresponding jump in taxes.

Big Sky 55+ Executive Director Tully Olson said in an interview after the rally that "the Legislature had opportunities to address this, but instead, other things were done, and folks will be feeling that pain for years to come," Olson said. "I really hope the next Legislature can look to find a long-term fix like a circuit breaker, but it's going to have to be a pretty big circuit breaker."

The state did afford some the opportunity to apply for a property tax rebate of $675, though it requires the applicant to do the leg work, obtaining tax information and applying for a paper check not expected to be sent out until later in the year.

"It's really hard to access that website," Olson said.

He said his grandmother does not have access to the internet, and were it not for her younger family members, she would not have been able to apply for the rebate.

"That's not fair," Olson said.

The income tax rebates sent to Montanans earlier in the year and drawn from the state's $2.5 billion budget surplus were delivered automatically to residents. GOP officials said Monday the Department of Revenue also has paper forms for people to use should they not have Internet.

Kaitlin Price, press secretary for Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte, accused Schweitzer of telling "tall tales."

"In fact, Gov. Gianforte and legislators didnt raise property taxes, but instead, they provided hardworking Montanans with the largest income and property tax rebates in state history, up to $3,850," she said in an email.

She said Gianforte and GOP lawmakers provided property tax relief almost double homeowners estimated property tax increases in 2023 and 2024.

"Gov. Gianfortes and Republican legislators property tax relief measures ($383 million), from residential property tax rebates to long-term reforms, nearly double the expected property tax increase homeowners will see over the next two years ($196.9 million), according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Division," she said in the email.

Republicans passed over $500 million in property tax relief over the next five years, including nearly $400 million in property tax rebates and tens of millions in permanent, ongoing property tax cuts, said Kyle Schmauch, communications and policy manager for Senate Republicans. Democrats were nearly unanimous in opposing these Republican tax cuts as they attempted to spend the budget surplus on new government programs, he said.

Senate Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, said in a news release Monday that he has filed a public records request with the Montana Department of Revenue seeking information about legislative Democrats tax rebates.

"Democrats were nearly unanimous in their opposition to giving Montanans property tax relief, Fitzpatrick said. Now that the window for claiming the first round of rebates has closed, Id like to know which Democrats were happy to take a tax cut for themselves while they voted against tax relief for Montanans. Im sure their constituents would like to know that information as well.

This story has been updated with comments from the governor and Senate Republicans.
In Rockford, Illinois, city staff led by Homeless Program Coordinator Angie Walker reached functional zero chronic and veteran homelessness in just two years.

Walker, a good friend of housing advocate Julia Orlando in far away Bergen County, New Jersey, implemented some strategies that had also gained traction in Bergen County. But Walker paired the Housing First model  which prioritizes finding housing before other interventions into homeless people's lives  along with a service provision-based approach.

The Illinois city counts about half a million people. Before it joined the Built for Zero nationwide campaign toward reaching functional zero, there were around 700 people living homeless in Rockford.

First, Walker and her partners created a name-by-name list of as many homeless individuals as they could, as required by the Built for Zero program. Then they set up case conferencing for a range of homeless populations, including veterans, the chronically homeless, youth and families.

We bring all the partners to the table, said Walker, who explained Rockfords new take on street outreach helped forge the necessary connections to provide aid. That helped extensively because we really got to know people.

Instituting rigorous oversight of the programming also helped, said Walker. Rockfords then-mayor required Walkers team to report homelessness data every month, while other departments only reported their results quarterly.

Having that public accountability, she said, really kept us moving forward.

Public buy-in had other benefits, too. Rockford started with housing homeless veterans, and Walkers crew did so by liaising with local landlords. The overwhelming success of reaching functional zero for homeless veterans created momentum for Walker and her collaborators to continue using relationships with landlords to then house chronically homeless residents.

She said one of the keys to getting landlords on board was asking them what their needs were if they were to provide housing to formerly homeless tenants. Meeting them where they are benefitted everyone in the equation, according to Walker.

And the funding for much of Rockfords programming comes from grants, federal and state. Illinois has a Strategic Plan to End Homelessness which provides financial support to communities like Rockford, and Walkers department at the city is fully grant-funded.

But like Nickels in New Jersey, Walker sees shortcomings even in Rockfords successes. She pointed out some people they try to serve cant or wont engage with service providers; one individual in Rockford has been homeless for approximately 2,000 days because he doesnt fit the Housing and Urban Development definition of chronic homelessness.

Still, shes enthusiastic about Rockfords ability to reach functional zero and hopeful to maintain that status. For other communities looking to attain that achievement, Walker advised collaboration, consistent leadership and flexibility.

Like Orlando in Bergen County, Walker has been involved in Rockfords civic life since before the Built for Zero initiative kicked off there. That enduring presence is important to keeping the efforts alive, she said. Rockford has also been effective at working together across city departments and with nonprofit leaders. In some other municipalities, she said she has seen different groups fighting over territory.

We dont really do that, said Walker. You really have to come together and put everything on the table.

Communities also have to be willing to adapt, she said. Rockfords team has been nimble in implementing pilot programs, evaluating the benefits and adjusting as it goes.

If we see something not working well, we try something else, she said. I really think thats important. I see a lot of communities that get stuck in their ways.

And while reaching and maintaining functional zero chronic homelessness was a welcome accomplishment in Rockford, Walker said she wont settle for that alone.

My goal, she said, is to work myself out of a job.
If you are a regular visitor to the Bison Range, you might have noticed that sightings of bighorn sheep have become rare. There was a dramatic die-off of bighorn sheep at the Bison Range a few years ago because of a bacterial pneumonia epizootic disease. The number of adult sheep declined from 155 in July 2016 to 33 in October 2017. The management of the Bison Range was transferred from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in 2021. This summer there was a total of 19 adult sheep at the CSKT Bison Range.

The bacterium Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is the respiratory pathogen responsible for dramatic die-offs of bighorn sheep at the Bison Range and throughout the western United States. This pathogen is transmitted to bighorn sheep by contact with domestic sheep. Genetic screening of bighorn sheep indicated that the source of the bacterium causing the epizootic infection was a private flock of domestic sheep near the Bison Range.

Transmission of harmful diseases from domestic to wild animals is not limited to bighorn sheep. Seabirds throughout the world suffered unprecedented high mortality when highly pathogenic avian influenza swept through their colonies in 2022. The highly pathogenic viruses originated in domestic poultry, and they were transmitted to wild populations with devastating effects.

Here in Montana, we are aware of the harmful effects of whirling disease on wild populations of trout. Whirling disease was introduced into North America by the stocking of hatchery fish originating in Europe. In addition, brucellosis caused by Brucella abortus, is a disease of cattle that has spilled over into bison, elk, and other wildlife species. Brucellosis was once present throughout the US, but it has nearly been eliminated by vaccination of domestic animals and pasteurization of milk. The only known remaining location of brucellosis in the US is the Greater Yellowstone Area.

The increasing worldwide production of farmed animals poses a serious threat of infectious diseases to wildlife. The global populations of poultry has grown from 6 billion to 35 billion birds over the last 50 years. The global populations of pigs and cattle has nearly doubled over this same time. The high density of animals in domestic rearing facilities makes them much more prone to disease outbreaks than in the wild.

Recent estimates have revealed that wild mammals represent a tiny proportion of the total weight (biomass) of mammals on the Earth. Wild land mammals have an estimated total biomass of 22 million tons. Not surprisingly to those of us in Missoula, white-tailed deer are at the very top of the list in the world. In striking contrast, the total biomass of domestic mammals is 240 million tons, over 10 times the biomass of wild land mammals.

E.O. Wilson, the father of biodiversity, proposed in 2016 that half of the Earths land surface should be designated as human-free natural reserves in order to preserve the biodiversity required for the future survival of humans. Such reserves function to provide clean water, generate oxygen, and reduce the effects of ongoing climate change.

Here in the western United States, much of the land inhabited by wild animals is managed by the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management. Unfortunately, about 85% of public lands in the western United States is grazed by domestic livestock. The presence of domestic sheep on public lands is an ongoing source of transmission of bacterial pneumonia to populations of bighorn sheep.

There are many other harmful effects of grazing domestic animals on public land, such as accelerated climate change, increased erosion, and more. The regulation of domestic animals on public lands is a highly controversial issue which is way too complicated to be considered in this article.

Wilson realized that his Half-Earth proposal was not likely to be achieved anytime soon. Rather, he presented it as a useful goal that we should work toward. My own view is that a major reduction in the grazing of domestic animals on public lands would be an important step toward preserving the biodiversity required for our future survival.
Lee Zoldan remembers the 2017 attack on her downtown synagogue every time she walks in the building.

Those windows were broken. Nazi stickers were placed on those doors, the Chicago Loop Synagogue president recalled Tuesday. The windows were replaced. The stickers were removed. But the invisible scars remain.

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Years later, the same hate and extremism that shook Zoldans congregation has only grown in Illinois, a new report by the Anti-Defamation League shows.

Antisemitic incidents and white supremacist propaganda doubled in Illinois last year, the watchdog groups Hate in the Prairie State report shows. Statewide hate crimes have risen 80% since 2020, it continued.

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Hateful messages spreading via social media and divisive political rhetoric have helped prompt the rise, city and state officials and nonprofit leaders said during a news conference detailing the report at the downtown synagogue.

Hate has been mainstreamed, said ADL Midwest Director David Goldenberg. It requires a whole-of-society approach.

The recent rise might be in part fueled by higher rates of reporting, Goldenberg said.

I also think just more incidents are happening, he added.

A loss of civil discourse and an emerging emphasis on brash, bombastic political rhetoric have also contributed to the rise, he said.

The report detailed dozens of incidents targeting an array of minority groups and institutions across Illinois.

In July last year, a man shattered windows and wrote slurs at the UpRising Bakery in Lake in the Hills before an all-ages drag show, the report said. The attack ultimately led months later to the bakerys closing.

[ Alsip man pleads guilty to hate crime for pre-drag show vandalism at Lake in the Hills bakery ]

In November, swastikas were spray painted on 16 headstones at a historic Jewish cemetery in Waukegan. Two months later, a man threw a Molotov cocktail at a Peoria Planned Parenthood health center, causing an estimated $1 million in damage and forcing the center to close for months, the report continued.

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Several grave markers spray painted with red swastikas or graffiti were damaged at Congregation Am Echod Jewish Cemetery on Nov. 15, 2022, in Waukegan. The Anti-Defamation League says antisemitic incidents and white supremacist propaganda doubled in Illinois last year. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

Schools have faced bomb threats for sexual education classes, hospitals have been harassed for treating COVID-19 patients and elected officials have received phony writs of execution from suburbanites inspired by conspiracy theories, it said. The report also flagged exposed ties between some law enforcement and extremist groups, an increase in white supremacist propaganda distribution, reported antisemitism from the Chicago-based Nation of Islam and growing anti-government extremism.

[ City aldermen frustrated, confused after police hearing on hate group links ]

The report offers a different view of the heartland state that prides itself on welcoming others, Chicago Urban League President Karen Freeman-Wilson said.

It is a story that is borne (out) by statistics and data, that we are not as open as welcoming, as willing to embrace people from different ethnicities, races, religions, faiths and sexual orientations as we purport to be, Freeman-Wilson said.

The news of heightened hate and extremism is sobering, said Paul Luu, CEO of the Chinese American Service League. The group supports victims after hate incidents and provides training to young people and workers, he said.

He praised the passage of a law signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in August that makes anyone in Illinois who shares personal identifiable information about another person to harm them civilly liable in court.

We cannot end hate by ignoring it, Luu said.

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Social media plays a key role in enabling hate and extremism to widely and quickly spread, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said. Someone might be able to reach 20 people passing out hateful propaganda on a Chicago street corner, Raoul said.

But I post something online, theres already an algorithm out there to feed it to people who have already read hate speech, and itll reach thousands of people, he continued.

Raoul highlighted efforts to investigate social medias potential harm alongside other state attorneys general. His office secured a grant to train law enforcement to better report hate incidents and is working with federal authorities to investigate reported hate and extremism, he said.

It has also prosecuted several recent high-profile hate crimes, including threats made against former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx, he added.

[ Man charged with hate crimes for allegedly threatening Kim Foxx and Lori Lightfoot ]

When asked if incidents of hate and extremism have continued to rise this year, Goldenberg said the ADLs 2023 data has not yet been analyzed. However, the total number of incidents across the Midwest is on track to hit a new high mark, he added.

I can tell you also that we have seen increases in the number of hate crimes here in the city of Chicago. And I also think, to be critical, I dont think we put enough resources, Goldenberg said. CPD doesnt currently have the necessary resources to respond to these incidents and continue to track and monitor them.

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Hate crimes doubled in Chicago in 2022, according to CPD data. The same police data set shows hate crimes have so far decreased since this year March.

[ Chicago hate crimes doubled in 2022. Authorities warn of neo-Nazi Day of Hate. ]

CPD and the Chicago Commission on Human Relations plan to soon launch a pilot program that will create more opportunities to report hate crimes, commission chair Nancy Andrade said. The program will use trusted community groups to make it easier for people who may distrust authorities or need cultural and linguistic support to report incidents, Andrade said.

An ordinance proposed in the City Council by Ald. Debra Silverstein, 50th, in September seeks to overhaul Chicagos hate crime legal code. The legislation, now co-sponsored by all 50 aldermen, would add a wider definition for noncriminal hate incidents and facilitate more police reporting and training.

To further fight rising hate and extremism, the state should mandate hate crime reporting and training for law enforcement agencies, Goldenberg said. Social media platforms need to be held accountable, he added.

However, the trends leading to the increases have long been in motion and are leading to more extremism and hate across the country, he said.

There is no single solution to put this nasty genie back in the bottle Goldenberg said.

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He urged people who experience hate incidents to report them at the groups website, ADL.org.
We have just completed our Montana Energy tour, traveling over 2,000 miles and holding nine events in seven days. The tour highlighted the impact of Bidens war on energy and the policies we need to unleash Americas vast energy resources.

From sweet crude oil and clean coal to renewable hydroelectric power, we visited the sites where this power is, and should continue to be generated.

But there is strong opposition to energizing Montana and America and we hope to reverse it.

I emigrated to Montana in 1991 because I loved the mountains, the rivers, the family-friendly security of the West and its reputation for rugged individualism. I have never regretted it.

My parents are Holocaust survivors  sole survivors of their respective families. My Dad fought in the war, my mom survived eight labor camps. They came to America for the promise of freedom and opportunity.

It grieves me to write about the top-down policies of this administration and some elected officials that threaten our freedom and prosperity.

These bad policies include: Bidens cancelation of the XL Pipeline and the lost jobs, revenue and private infrastructure funding; the EPAs Mercury Air Toxin rule thatll likely shutter two more coal power plants in Colstrip and its impact on energy supply; the administrations desire to breach four dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers; and a state trial judges indefensible ruling in Held v. Montana threatening the oil, gas, coal industry or anything that produces greenhouse gases.

The Keystone pipelines cancelation alone cost Montana 2,000 construction jobs, a loss of $949M in economic activity and a loss of $60M in annual property taxes.

Unfortunately for Montana, Sen. Jon Tester voted against the XL Pipeline just hours after he voted for it, casting the deciding vote in the Senate.

In the Held v. Montana case that ruled that energy sources producing greenhouse gases are a violation of Montanas Constitution guaranteeing a clean and healthy environment, proponents used a 2-year-old kid as a plaintiff. Since when does a toddler understand the complexities of public policy? Left unchallenged, this ruling poses a threat to the use of the most affordable energy sources without meaningfully addressing any environmental issue.

We learned how EPA regulations, including the Mercury Air Toxins rule (MATs), threaten the shuttering of two more Colstrip power plants even though existing control technology already captures 99.6% of all filterable particulate matter. These closures make us more dependent on unaffordable energy imports. Thats in stark contrast to just four years ago, when Montana exported 50% of its energy. On a cloudy day, our clean coal can provide up to 42% of all energy in Montana.

Lastly, Bidens stated goal to breach four dams in the Columbia and Snake Rivers threatens hydroelectric power to our region and would harm agriculture, irrigation and transportation. Overall, hydro provides a whopping 38% of Montanas energy resources.

These are serious threats to our way of life and to human flourishing. Just think, last winter we were within hours of implementing rolling blackouts when temperatures plummeted to 40o. While we champion innovation in all energy production, renewables like wind and solar alone cannot fulfill market demands and human needs.

While the war on energy is a challenging mental concept, visiting these sites including abandoned man camps in Miles City and the Colstrip power plants and seeing them made a far greater impression than mere words.

Despite challenges facing Montana energy, we still believe that prosperity is possible with good polices driven locally,

by those closest to the problem. Government mandates and cronyism that benefit a few provide a disincentive to energy innovation are not the answer.

An all-of-the above approach to unleashing energy abundance should be based on safety, efficiency and affordability. As individuals we can unite to accomplish extraordinary feats. That is what we must do to ensure that present and future generations enjoy freedom, opportunity and abundant clean energy.
WASHINGTON  Latice Fisher of Mississippi experienced a stillbirth and was charged with second-degree murder when investigators unearthed online searches on how to buy misoprostol, an abortion drug.

Celeste Burgess, a Nebraska teen, now has a felony charge on her record for disposal of a fetus after an abortion. Facebook messages between Burgess and her mother served as a linchpin in the case.

Both cases occurred before the Supreme Courts 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Now, with states individually implementing a patchwork of laws restricting or permitting abortion, advocates such as Corynne McSherry, the legal director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for data privacy, worry that personal data will become yet another front in the post-Dobbs war, with those cases providing a kind of template for whats to come.

With nearly a quarter of states banning or restricting abortion, McSherry said there are limited guardrails protecting data from law enforcement during an abortion investigation. Our privacy laws, especially at the federal level, are just pathetically out of date, McSherry said.

Even before the Supreme Courts June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision, abortion prosecution was not a new phenomenon: According to Pregnancy Justice, there were 1,396 criminal arrests for pregnancy-related cases between Jan. 1, 2006, and June 23, 2022.

In the wake of Dobbs, said Andrew Crawford, senior counsel on privacy and data for the Center for Democracy and Technology, I definitely think theres potential for it to increase a lot.

Congressional efforts

Hawaii Sen. Mazie K. Hirono and California Rep. Sara Jacobs are part of a coalition of Democrats hoping to overhaul current privacy laws to give consumers more agency over their personal data, including the right to delete their information. Together they introduced companion bills in the House and Senate that would limit the retention, collection and disclosure of personal reproductive and sexual health data by entities that are not covered by HIPAA  a privacy law that applies only to health care providers, health plans and health care clearinghouses.

People should not have to worry about being surveilled or prosecuted simply for providing or seeking reproductive health care, Hirono said in a statement to CQ Roll Call.

The measure would allow individuals to bring civil action against regulated entities for privacy violations.

Like millions of young people, I use a period tracking app  and the information in these apps along with fertility tracking apps, search history, location data, and so much more can be collected, shared, and sold without our consent, and even used to investigate and prosecute legal cases, Jacobs said in a news release.

The bill has gained support from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology and other reproductive rights organizations, but no action has been taken on the bill in the Senate.

And its unlikely that the measure will be taken up in the Republican-held House, meaning for now, consumers will have to rely on existing protections.

Currently, though, there are few protections to prevent individuals reproductive health data from being weaponized against them or being disclosed to third parties  exposing patients and providers to potential surveillance and possible prosecution, Hirono said in the statement.

HHS weighs in

In April, the Department of Health and Human Services and Office for Civil Rights issued a notice of proposed rule-making to make changes to HIPAA that would prevent protected information from being disclosed to prosecute or sue an individual, doctor or other involved party regarding reproductive health care services, including abortion.

While the proposed changes to HIPAA would protect personal health information, it would apply only to entities that are required to comply with HIPAA, such as doctors and insurers. And there are certain circumstances in which health data would not be protected, such as if the patient opts to move their health information onto a third-party platform like a smartphone app.

HIPAA is very unique in that the privacy protections dont attach to the data itself, but they kick in based on what type of entity holds the data, Crawford said. The burden falls entirely on the consumer.

This means that people seeking abortion services need to be more careful about their data, advocates say. Social media and text messages are not a safe channel to discuss sensitive information.

There are several types of data that are vulnerable during an abortion investigation. Law enforcement has an arsenal of tools that they can use to obtain personal data, like geofence warrants that can be used to require companies like Google or Apple to identify every device from an area near an abortion clinic during a specified time. Keyword warrants work similarly  police can compel tech companies to provide the identities of people who searched certain phrases like abortion or mifepristone.

Neither type of warrant requires the police to have a suspect, and the warrants can be used to reverse-engineer an abortion investigation.

Theres a few things people can do to better protect themselves and their data, Crawford said. Sometimes its as simple as not bringing your smartphone with you if youre potentially going to a sensitive location, like a reproductive health clinic.

Abortion in America: How access and attitudes have changed through the centuries 1970s: Roe v. Wade protects women's right to abortion; politics shift
Bianca Chan was in eighth grade when her curiosity about Alzheimers disease first was piqued.

She said she was in PE class and her teacher was going over the different regions of the brain and their functions.

When he got to the hippocampus, he briefly mentioned Alzheimers disease, Chan said. He didnt mention it very in-depth, but he mentioned how memory loss progresses with Alzheimers disease and that basically takes place in the hippocampus. So I wanted to explore more into that because I really wanted to know what that means how exactly that relates and correlates with one another.

The summer after her freshman year of high school, the Cary native participated in a research program with a neuroscientist at a university.

From that research, I did brain scans on patients and studied how their brain changes throughout the disease progression, Chan said. Through that, I was able to talk with a lot of individual families who have been impacted by the disease. Whether thats caregivers, family members or the patient themselves, I found myself talking to them a lot.

She noticed during those conversations disparities in Alzheimers care.

Theres financial barriers and theres also geographical locations that have prevented these families from accessing certain resources, Chan said. This has been a common theme that Ive found throughout my conversations with all of these families, so thats why I started my nonprofit.

She started the NeuroLOGIC Foundation in her sophomore year of high school and has kept it going strong, even with a move halfway across the state to finish off her high school career at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Morganton.

One of the ways the nonprofit supports Alzheimers patients is through the distribution of NeuroBoxes, Chan said.

We design boxes with different items in them, Chan said. So these are intellectual stimulation items, so that includes puzzles, coloring books, fidget toys.

Those kinds of things help with the cognitive and behavioral symptoms of Alzheimers disease, Chan said.

These boxes and these items are intended for intergenerational use so not only is it useful for patients, but its also very useful for caregivers themselves because it allows them to bond with the patient and kind of alleviate the stress that goes along with being a caregiver, Chan said.

She said the boxes could even be used by a caregiver and a grandchild.

This allows them to really calm their minds and to exercise their brains a little bit in a way thats fun and relaxing, Chan said.

Beyond that, they offer NeuroMelodies, a music therapy program where high school musicians volunteer to perform at memory care facilities and other facilities where care is provided to older adults.

We have music videos with audio tones of specific frequencies, Chan said. Thats intended to specifically target those proteins in your brain. That has scientific basis in past university research where they found that there are certain audio frequencies that effectively relieve the symptoms of Alzheimers disease, so we have incorporated that into our program.

And thats something that has not been done in national resource chapters or other places before, so thats something kind of unique about the NeuroLOGIC Foundation and what we hope to achieve.

The organization also helps at caregiver resource fairs.

Thats hosted by the Alzheimers Association and the North Carolina chapter (of the association), Chan said. We work with them a lot to directly reach these families.

Chan, a senior at NCSSM-Morganton, said being at the school has helped connect her with more ways to learn more about Alzheimers disease and the impacts it has on families.

Shes been able to work at UNC Health Blue Ridge through the schools mentorship program and, as part of that program, spends a few days each week at Grace Ridge Retirement Community.

I can interact with elderly residents and study their brain so I can get more depth into their neurodegenerative pieces and their brain changes throughout the disease, Chan said.

Interaction with patients and their families is what really fuels Chan and her nonprofit.

Interacting with people and really getting to know their experience and perspectives  really drove me to start this nonprofit and to really go out in the community, not just sit behind a desk and research, but also really, physically, go out in the community and get involved that way, Chan said.

Chan will graduate this spring, and plans to attend a university in North Carolina as a pre-medicine major with a minor in Latin. She said while the humanities and science arent always connected, the combination of the two has greatly helped her with the NeuroLOGIC Foundation.

It has really helped me be more emphathetic toward individuals at large and also the different perspectives that I encounter every day throughout my nonprofit, at school or when Im just helping out at the retirement community, Chan said.

She said the group is always looking for more volunteers. Anyone interested can visit https://bit.ly/3PzB2Gp to learn more about the organization and fill out a form that will help Chan find volunteer opportunities that best match their interests.
Local residents filled the historic courthouse square on Sunday for the annual Give Cheese A Chance fundraiser for The Meeting Place Mission. The event invites people to compete in a grilled cheese competition with all funds going to help the homeless population in the area.
Ted and Vivian Carothers recently arrived home from their Rotary International Kenyan Safari educated and inspired to make a difference. Through their connections in the worldwide club, the Carothers saw Kenya through the eyes of locals. They were able to be part of a reforestation project, see a flamingo migration, attend a water project dedication, donate school and hygiene supplies, tour a school, and experience some of Africas traditional dancing. Of course, they also went on safari.

Ted and Vivian didnt just relax and enjoy the scenery. They saw firsthand the devastation caused to communities by the lack of clean water.

Women walk 4-5 kilometers round-trip to get muddy polluted water to use in their homes, Ted said. Children are sick and dying from water-borne illness and disease.

The Carothers used this trip as an opportunity to do the groundwork necessary to put a huge water project in motion. The Rotary Club of Valdese has voted to support this project, joining Rotary Clubs in California and Kenya. Through these partnerships and matching grants, we can turn $8,000 into $65,000 which will fund a sustainable solar-powered well providing clean drinking water and improving the health and well-being of children and families in that region.

Anyone who would like to become a shareholder in this project can contact Ted Carothers for more information at 828-423-7511 or rpcarothers1@gmail.com.
Founder Kumaraswamy Dixitar makes an offering inside the Sri Raja Ganapathi Temple Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023 in Swedesboro, NJ. (Joe Lamberti | For NJ Advance Media/Joe Lamberti | For NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

The Sri Rajaganapathi Temple, a Hindu temple in Swedesboro, is not the largest or most ornate as far as Hindu temples go. Until recently, it didnt even have its own gopuram  the monumental, detailed and costly tower that adorns nearly all temple entrances in India. And yet, hundreds of devotees from as far away as Virginia and upstate New York drive several hours  oftentimes past other temples  to attend services there. But why?

To find out, I decided to do the same: For nearly two hours, I drove south, away from the hustle and bustle of Jersey City, and toward much greener and calmer pastures. When I arrived, after missing it twice  the temples tucked behind a row of homes on Paulsboro-Swedesboro Road  I was greeted by founder, Guru Kumaraswamy Dixitar, and his wife, Rajewari Dixitar, affectionately known by all only as Raji Mami.

The two are native Tamil speakers and were joined by an interpreter, longtime temple member Hari Gopal. Still, their bright smiles and natural warmth require no translation. So, why build a temple here?, I ask. And why do you think people travel such far distances to come here?

Well, he says. Because its a place of peace, of shanti peace. Shanti, a term in ancient Indian language Sanskrit, means peace and in Hinduism is often used to refer specifically to inner peace.

He says back in 2005 he searched high and low for the perfect place for his temple. But when I came here ...this kind of energy, I almost couldnt handle it, he says. It was so serene, surrounded by so much nature and so many good symbols.

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He recalls the first time he visited the property and recounts all the positive omens he encountered that day: flowing water from a nearby stream, three eagles flying overhead and a large turtle  one of the 10 avatars of Hindu god Vishnu. With all those signs, its almost like the place chose him, more than him choosing it, Hari, whos also a close family friend, says.

I wonder about the areas Hindu population and ask whether the guru had factored that into his decision to build what he calls his ashram, his sanctuary, in Logan Township. Not at all, Hari says. Whats interesting is that we actually dont have a strong, captive population of Hindus who live nearby.

Most of its 250 members, he says, travel to the temple from Central Jersey or from other states. Theyre coming here from Cherry Hill, Princeton, Edison, from upstate New York, as far as Rochester, Binghamton, he says. We have a lot of members in the Philadelphia area, too, and in King of Prussia, in Delaware, in Virginia. Most of the people in our congregation are traveling 45 minutes to an hour to attend services here, if not more.

Founder Kumaraswamy Dixitar, left, and Rajeswari Dixitar at the main entrance of the Sri Raja Ganapathi Temple on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023 in Swedesboro, NJ. (Joe Lamberti | For NJ Advance Media/Joe Lamberti | For NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

As someone who can walk to church on Sunday, I cant imagine having to travel such a long way to listen to Mass or whats more, wanting to. I walk through the temple grounds with all their lush greenery and open space and breathe in the fresh country air. The peaceful, calm quality of the area is undeniable and inviting.

But I know there has to be more. And soon, I hit on it: The truth is people come all this way for him  for Guru Dixitar, or just Guruji as so many in the congregation lovingly call him. And I get it. I mean, you could say hes been preparing to be in this precise place, following his spiritual calling, his whole life.

His father and grandfather before him were Hindu leaders, back in India, in Bangalore, and both had their own temples, too. He was ordained at a young age, when he was in his early teens, and went on to run temples in India, Hawaii and San Francisco. He also spent many years leading a temple in Albany.

Hari and Sita Vulimiri, another longtime temple member and friend, both say the gurus way of leading is unique. Im told Guruji puts the devotee at the center of it all. And that he reaches out to temple members regularly, to make sure hes providing them with counsel in their times of greatest difficulty and need.

You dont find that at most temples, Hari says. But Guruji knows people come here with problems and challenges and does all he can to help them attain peace of mind. He often chats with them one-on-one and asks what brings you in? ...people really take to him and seek his guidance.

In June, hundreds gathered at Sri Rajaganapathi with friends and family for the long-awaited inauguration of the temples 33-foot-high entrance tower. To celebrate its installation, temple members came from far and wide to attend a two-and-a-half-day celebration, known as Kumbhabhishekam.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 16 The Sri Raja Ganapathi Temple draws visitors from many states Founder Kumaraswamy Dixitar heads outside the Sri Raja Ganapathi Temple Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023 in Swedesboro, NJ. (Joe Lamberti | For NJ Advance Media/Joe Lamberti | For NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Getting the structure, designed, built, shipped from India where it was sculpted, and installed, the Guru says in Tamil, was a lengthy and costly process that took nearly 11 years and a half a million dollars.

The towers design was mainly conceived by him but he says others at the temple also offered their input and artistic skills to help bring it to life. One notable helper was Sudhaka Vulimiri, Sitas husband, who passed away in December 2021.

Sitas eyes water as she remembers how close her husband and Guruji were, how devoted he was to the temple and how much he looked forward to the gopurams completion.

Even when he was in the hospital, he talked about it, he was reviewing drawings and trying to make sure everything was going well, she says with a heavy sigh. I assure her hed be so proud to see it now and she quickly leans in for an embrace.

Minutes after, her Guruji takes her aside. And together, in front of a gazebo housing a large statue of Supreme Hindu god, Shiva  that Sitas husband helped erect  the two first look toward the gopuram, then toward the sky and bring their hands up in prayer.

I stood quietly just a few feet away from them and in that moment understood fully why people travel such far distances to come here. I tried but couldnt think of a single reason why they wouldnt.

I know thered be no distance far enough to keep me away from a place that feels like home or from people, who above all else, treat you like family. As I turned to say my goodbyes, Raji Mami takes ahold of my hand and gently kisses it the way my own abuelita, whos now in heaven, did so many times.

The gesture left me nearly speechless. But seconds later when she asks if Ill visit the temple again, I simply grab her hand in both of mine and nod.

Sri Kumaraswamy Dixitar, founder of Sri Rajaganapathi Temple in Swedesboro, and his wife, Rajeswari Dixitar, stand outside the temple on Tuesday, August 1, 2023. (Daysi Calavia-Robertson/For NJ Advance Media)

Daysi Calavia-Robertson may be reached at dcalavia-robertson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Instagram at @presspassdaysi or Twitter @presspassdaysi.

Welcome to Mosaic. Contact us at mosaic@nj.com. Follow us on Instagram at @MosaicNJcom and on Facebook at MosaicNJcom.
In addition, the foundation will match new donations up to $7,500. These funds will be used to support staffing and operating expenses. Fundraising for the matching grant begins now and will end in December.

The generosity of the Gianforte Family Foundation has allowed us to grow," Butte Literacy Program Coordinator Tenney Hammond said in the release. "Over the last five years, we have enrolled 227 students, 40 of whom have graduated. Our students have taken a total of 284 HiSET exams with a success rate of 96.8%. Nineteen of our graduates (46%) have been accepted into post-high school programs ranging from the military, to Highlands College, to Montana Tech and MSU. Other graduates have gone on to cosmetology schools, peer counseling training, or better employment. The Gianforte Family Foundation has provided five years of financial support that has helped us make all this happen.
Again during Mondays Muscatine County Board of Supervisors regular meeting, a member of the community attended to speak against a law enforcement training facility near Moscow that the supervisors approved over a month ago.

Christine Schroeder, a neighbor of the lot where the proposed facility, which includes a shooting range, will be built, asked several questions. She commented she lives behind the Isaak Walton League range and that there is shooting going on outside of posted hours. She said last Saturday the shooting began at 8:30 a.m. and hadnt ended by the time she left at 12:30 p.m.

She asked the law enforcement facility's hours of shooting would be, if it is built. She also asked about the lighting for the facility and if it would shine through the tree line. She said the League has lights that shine through the tree line.

I see those lights at night when my trees have lost their leaves in the early spring when they start shooting, she said. It is kind of a nuisance.

Supervisor Scott Sauer commented the League had a meet at the range Saturday. Supervisor Danny Chick said that there is no ordinance about what times the League can shoot.

Muscatine County and City of Muscatine have teamed up to construct a law enforcement training facility outside of town. On Sept. 1, after discussion of a piece of property in the county, the supervisors approved its half of funding for the facility. On Sept. 16, the Muscatine City Council approved its half.

The Muscatine County Zoning Commission still has to rule on whether the land can be used as a shooting range. The commission will meet at 10 a.m. Friday in the Environmental Education Center at Discovery Park.

If approved, the facility will use about 20 acres of land. A 60-foot by 60-foot building will be constructed to be used for law enforcement training. During discussion at the Muscatine City Council meeting, Police Chief Tony Kies said that shooting will only make up a small portion of the training. He also said law enforcement would work hard to be good neighbors and schedule shooting times with the neighbors in mind.

Law enforcement studied land in the area for about two years before identifying that piece of land for the facility. Previously, a local citizen had allowed law enforcement to use his land to train on. He has since passed away.

After the location was presented, neighbors have raised objections to the facility, citing noise pollution and safety. Many members of the group have stressed they want law enforcement to have a facility, but object to this location. About 27 residents live within a mile of the proposed facility.

Schroeder asked who residents in the area would be able to call if there was a problem. The supervisors dont answer questions during the public comment section.

I live in the country and want to enjoy my peace and quiet, she said.

A glimpse at the 2023 Quad Cities Law Enforcement Memorial Service
Fresh details have emerged about the 13 federal executions that were carried out in the final six months of Donald Trump's presidency. The fuller picture reveals that officials cut corners and relied on a pliant Supreme Court to get all of the executions done before Trump left office. In a recent interview, celebrity attorney Alan Dershowitz told The Associated Press about a December 2020 phone call he made to Trump the day before the execution of inmate Brandon Bernard. Dershowitz says he implored Trump to to call off the execution, and that although Trump sounded sympathetic, he said there was nothing he could do because he'd already promised relatives of the victims that would not stop the execution.
Animal-welfare advocates are calling for a criminal investigation of the Boone County breeder who surrendered 93 dogs last week.

The animals, which had been housed at Paris Puppies Paradise in Ogden, were turned over to the Animal Rescue League and Boone Area Humane Society. The state-licensed dog breeding operation is owned by 57-year-old Joel Paris.

According to the Boone County Sheriffs Office, a deputy went to Paris residence on Sept. 22 to conduct a welfare check on a female who was reported to be missing. The deputy noticed many dogs that appeared to be neglected, the sheriffs office said in a subsequent news release. Representatives of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship were summoned to assess the animals and conditions inside the facility.

Paris then agreed to surrender 93 of the 119 dogs in his possession.

The report of IDALS Sept. 22 inspection indicates state officials observed a build-up of feces, hair and grime in both kennel buildings at Paris Puppies Paradise, including the floors, the walls of the kennel buildings and along the edges of buildings in the outdoor runs.

Some of the organic debris appeared to have fungus or mold growing on it, the inspectors observed, and in some areas, the outdoor concrete appeared stained with urine and feces.

One poodle-mix puppy had an untreated injury that consisted of a fresh wound with hair loss on one hip. Paris reported the puppy had been left overnight in one of the kennel buildings and was found tangled in some hanging blankets the next day, inspectors reported.

An adult golden retriever was observed to be very thin, with a veterinarian scoring its body condition as a 2 on a scale of 1 to 9. The inspector informed Paris that he need to provide the dog with immediate, same-day veterinary care. Several dogs were in need of grooming due to matted hair.

Prior to the county deputys visit, IDALS last inspected the site in April. At that time, there was the same build-up of grime noted in previous inspections and during the subsequent September visit.

A damaged drain cover in one outdoor runs had allowed water, feces and organic material to collect. At the time, Paris allegedly told officials he had called a veterinarian about two dogs that were previously noted by inspectors to be suffering from hair loss but added that he had not taken the dogs in for treatment.

One of those two dogs was no longer present, inspectors reported, while the other still displayed a significant amount of hair loss all along its back, exposing scaly, pink skin.

In January 2023, an IDALS inspector made note of the odor of ammonia in all of the buildings at the business as Paris was in the process of cleaning the facility when the inspector arrived. Appears to be several days worth of feces in outdoor runs, the inspector noted.

On four prior occasions  in August, October, November and December 2022  IDALS reported that it had attempted to inspect Paris Puppies Paradise but failed. Typically, that indicates an inspector arrived on scene but couldnt gain entry to the business.

Last year, police were summoned to the Squeaky Clean Laundromat in the city of Boone, where the owner reported someone had entered their establishment, washed blankets filled with animal waste, and then left a mess in the business. This had happened more than once, the owner complained.

I arrived to find what appeared to be dog waste all over the floors and in the machines, an officer reported, adding there was a strong odor of a dog kennel inside the laundromat. I also found contaminated water spilled over on several machines and the floor. There were pieces of torn blankets spread throughout the store as well.

Security-camera footage suggested the suspects were Sara Stanfield  the missing woman who was the subject of the welfare check last week  and Paris, police reported. Court records indicate the two were charged with, and convicted of, trespassing. They were each fined $260.

This week, Mindi Callison, founder and executive director of the animal-welfare organization Bailing Out Benji, asked Boone County Sheriff Andy Godzicki and County Attorney Matthew Speers to investigate Paris Puppies Paradise for violations of Iowas animal-cruelty laws.

We are also requesting that the remaining animals on the property be immediately seized and handed over to a legitimate 501(c)3 animal shelter in the state of Iowa in order to be thoroughly vetted and checked over for additional signs of cruelty and neglect while the investigation is ongoing, Callison wrote in a letter to the sheriff and prosecutor. We have strong laws on the books, we just need more sheriffs like those in Wayne and Appanoose counties  Sheriff (Keith) Davis and Sheriff (Gary) Anderson  to apply them to bad actors, which sets a strong precedent moving forward.

Iowa Capital Dispatch was unable to reach Paris for comment.

The sheriffs office has said no determination has been made regarding any potential criminal charges.

More than 300 Samoyeds were seized from an Iowa puppy mill in 2018. Where are they now? niko samoyed tesla niko and tesla 2 .jpg lua shelby skyy stella samoyed samoyed cartier kevin thor Valkyrie Mishka samoyed lucy samoyed Ollie samoyed hudson boo everest meka henry samoyed kody kota apollo samoyed samoyed gus Olive juneau bodhi and phoebe fenix samoyed gus (williams) samoyeds juno and masey roo harper winston umka inara gracie samoyed Toshi samoyed juno diamond samoyed Ronan samoyed arya (hazel) Finley houston luka tina Lucy max and polar buddy izzy with water bowl.jpg Iowa Samoyed rescue Niko Iowa Samoyed Niko chasing a ball Iowa Samoyed rescue Lua Iowa Samoyed rescues Stella and Skyy Iowa Samoyed rescue Finley Iowa Samoyed rescue Thor Iowa Samoyed rescues Valkyrie and Mishka Iowa Samoyed rescue Lucy (now in Texas) Iowa Samoyed rescue Hudson Iowa Samoyed rescue Everest Iowa Samoyed rescue Kody sings Iowa Samoyed rescue Apollo Iowa Samoyed rescue Gus (Huling) Iowa Samoyed rescue Olive Iowa Samoyed rescue Juneau Iowa Samoyed rescue Juno Iowa Samoyed Rescue Masey Iowa Samoyed rescue Gus (Williams) gets the Zoomies Iowa Samoyed rescue Harper Iowa Samoyed rescue Winston Iowa Samoyed rescue Gracie Iowa Samoyed rescue Juno and pal Hana Iowa Samoyed Rescue Ronan Iowa Samoyed rescue Houston Iowa Samoyed rescue Izzy Iowa Samoyed rescue Kody
Centuries-old tea road regains glory as Belt and Road cooperation deepens

Xinhua) 09:38, October 03, 2023

* A lengthy tea road linking the tea-growing region of the Wuyi Mountains to the Russian port city of St. Petersburg thus came into being with the help of these merchant guilds, who brought the aroma of the time-honored tea culture overseas and bore witness to an enduring bond between people along the route.

* Several centuries ago, tea was introduced to Russia and gained traction. Russians loved tea so much that they developed their own unique tea drinking culture.

FUZHOU/ST. PETERSBURG, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Nestled in the picturesque Wuyi Mountains in southeast China's Fujian Province is a tranquil village named Xiamei, one with a rich past and profound culture.

The millennia-old village was once a bustling logistics hub and the starting point of an ancient tea road stretching about 13,000 km all the way to St. Petersburg, Russia, during the Qing Dynasty.

Today, after more than a century of dereliction, the tea road starting from here is regaining its former importance as China, Russia and Mongolia join forces for closer cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and as people rediscover the historical and cultural significance of this trade artery.

A Xinhua correspondent of Russian nationality visits a sculpture located at the starting point of an ancient tea road in Xiamei Village, Wuyishan City, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 5, 2023. (Xinhua/Jiang Kehong)

A CLOSER BOND

Xiamei thrived from the end of the 17th century due to a growing demand in the Russian market for Chinese tea and the booming China-Russia tea trade made possible through Jin (short for Shanxi Province) merchants, who rose to prominence during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

A lengthy tea road linking the tea-growing region of the Wuyi Mountains to the Russian port city of St. Petersburg thus came into being with the help of these merchant guilds, who brought the aroma of the time-honored tea culture overseas and bore witness to an enduring bond between people along the route.

For starters, this was a tea road connecting not only China and Russia, but the north and south of China, with varying natural endowments and comparative strengths.

As a major tea-growing base and the earliest tea exporter along the road, the Wuyi Mountains boasts a suitable climate for tea growing, rich tea resources as well as fine tea traditions and techniques. Tea leaves harvested from here could be well-preserved under the drier climate in the north, as they were shipped north for sale in Russia and other European countries, a process which overall took about a year. The taste and quality of tea transported overland via the tea road was more favored than tea imported by sea.

Zou Yingwen, an inheritor of Wuyi Mountains tea-making techniques, makes tea in Xiamei Village, Wuyishan City, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 5, 2023. (Xinhua/Jiang Kehong)

Zou Yingwen, who is carrying on Wuyi Mountains tea-making techniques, told Xinhua that for more than a century, Jin merchants have partnered with Xiamei businessmen in tea selection, processing and transportation, managing a profitable tea business. The brick tea and black tea were shipped north to Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province and then carried by camel caravans to Kyakhta, a border town in Russia designated for tea trade, before they hit the markets in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and elsewhere in Europe.

During Emperor Xianfeng's reign (from 1850-1861) in the Qing Dynasty, the southern tea road was blocked, so Jin merchants shifted their focus to central China's Anhua, Hunan Province and Yangloudong, Hubei Province, where tea was processed into brick tea before being shipped to Hankou by water and transferred north overland. Today, in the ancient streets in Yangloudong, the ruts of wheelbarrows that once transported tea are still clearly visible.

Tourists visit an ancient street in Yangloudong of Chibi City, central China's Hubei Province, Sept. 9, 2023. (Photo by Du Zixuan/Xinhua)

The special processing technique of making brick tea allows tea to be preserved over a long period of time, and the taste of aged brick tea gets more intense and pure with the passage of time, said Quan Wei, who specializes in dark tea-making techniques.

In the mid-19th century, Russian traders flocked to central China's commercial port of Hankou to engage in tea business. They initially set up tea mills in Yangloudong to process brick tea locally before they moved to Hankou, where they made brick tea with steam engines and hydraulic presses for the Russian market.

After that, Hankou tea exports boomed, accounting for more than 60 percent of China's total tea export by the end of the 19th century. With its key role in the tea trade, Hankou became a veritable "Oriental Tea Port."

Today in Hankou District, Wuhan City, sculptures and Russian-style architecture built by former tea traders bear witness to the flourishing China-Russia tea trade.

With the extension of the tea road for camel caravans, towns and cities sprung up in the wilderness. This trade road extended beyond tea and other goods, but also enabled people from different civilizations to meet.

A TIME-HONORED CUSTOM

Several centuries ago, tea was introduced to Russia and gained traction. Russians loved tea so much that they developed their own unique tea drinking culture. In the 18th century, Russians invented the samovar, which was used for brewing tea. Today, drinking tea with snacks and desserts is still a favored way for Russians to socialize.

Renowned Russian poet Alexander Pushkin wrote in his epic Eugene Onegin, "Day faded; on the table, glowing, the samovar of evening boiled, and warmed the Chinese teapot; flowing beneath it, vapour wreathed and coiled." Throughout his life, Pushkin made frequent references to the immutable importance of tea in Russian culture.

To meet Russians' demand for tea, places such as Moscow and St. Petersburg once opened numerous tea houses. The Russian government even granted tax incentives to tea houses countrywide to encourage tea drinking as an alternative to alcohol.

Two Russian ladies enjoy tea at home in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sept. 25, 2023. (Photo by Irina Motina/Xinhua)

Sergey Kalashnikov, chairman of the Russian Association for International Cooperation, said Chinese tea has had a huge impact on the life and culture of Russians, partly replacing kvass, beer and home-brewed alcohol, and the custom of tea drinking is deeply rooted in Russian culture. "Tea has actually become a national drink in Russia," Kalashnikov said.

In Siberia and the Mongolian plateau, tea refreshes herdsmen and helps with digestion, and is hence an indispensable drink. Drinking salty milk tea made from brick tea has long been a custom of Mongolians.

These traditions wouldn't have emerged without China's Jin merchants. Though Shanxi Province is not the hometown of tea, it is the hometown of a group of prominent merchants who have promoted tea drinking and dominated the tea road for more than 200 years. Many of their businesses or tea houses even had branches in Moscow and other Russian cities. Their history of tea-making and selling is also well documented.

This photo taken on Aug. 30, 2023 shows a view of the Qu family compound, the historical residence of one of China's most prominent Jin merchant families during the Ming and Qing dynasties, in Qixian County, north China's Shanxi Province. (Xinhua/Zhan Yan)

Tian Jian, director of the Jin Merchants Research Institute in Qi County, Shanxi Province, described the Jin merchants as a group of "honest, trusty, pioneering, pragmatic, cooperative and benevolent merchants" who blazed the trail of the tea road and promoted trade based on the principles of "connectivity, harmony and win-win."

A REVITALIZED ROAD

Over the past 250 years, merchants along the route have continuously traded furs and tea, paving an important trade road for a flourishing Eurasia. China-Russia trade centered around tea has boosted tea planting and logistics, and spurred socio-economic growth in China's northern steppe and Russia's Siberia region.

However, by the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the tea road lost its former glory and was gradually forgotten due to war, the rise of railway and sea transportation, and the shrinking demand for Chinese tea.

Today, deeper cooperation via the BRI is revitalizing this old trade road, as China, Russia and Mongolia further tap into the potential of their economic and cultural links through this existing channel.

Visitors taste tea at a tea industry expo held in Moscow, Russia, July 14, 2023. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr/Xinhua)

Over the past decade, China, Russia and Mongolia have worked together to restore global recognition of the significant tea road as a cultural heritage. In March 2019, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage included the Tea Road in the Preparatory List of China's World Cultural Heritage, officially elevating its application to the national level.

Huang Baiquan, dean of the School of History and Culture of Hubei University, believed that the three countries' joint application of the tea road in the world heritage list is "of great significance for enhancing their traditional friendship and political mutual trust and promoting the construction of the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor."

As an important component of the China-proposed BRI, the trilateral economic corridor has been regarded by many as "a modern version" of the ancient tea road, promising innumerable economic opportunities for landlocked regions like Mongolia.

The ancient tea road now boasts developed air, road and railway transportation networks, serving once again as a road to common prosperity, as it witnesses ever closer economic and trade cooperation as well as personnel exchanges.

As a big tea consumer, Russia's import for Chinese tea is growing, largely facilitated with the China-Europe freight trains. In August 2022, Hubei Province's first tea export train carrying about 1,000 tons of black tea left Wuhan and arrived in Moscow in just 20 days.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mongolia donated 30,000 sheep to China to support its fight against the coronavirus and China's Hubei Province returned the goodwill with the Mongolian people's much-loved brick tea. Tea brought back their shared cultural memories from centuries ago.

Kalashnikov compared the tea road to the cultural veins of the Belt and Road. "For centuries, the tea road has been an economic and cultural bridge connecting China, Russia and Europe, and it still plays a special role in people-to-people friendship," he said.

(Web editor: Cai Hairuo, Sheng Chuyi)
Migrants live in tents along the Dan Ryan Expressway near 5100 S. Wentworth Avenue and outside a Chicago police station on Oct. 17, 2023. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

With the number of migrant-filled buses arriving in Chicago set to hit unprecedented levels this week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson have ramped up pressure on President Joe Biden to do more to help local officials cope with the burgeoning humanitarian crisis.

During a call Sunday with Bidens chief of staff, Jeff Zients, senior adviser Tom Perez and Department of Homeland Security officials, the mayor and governor underscored how the accelerating rate of asylum-seekers will spell a new era for Chicagos migrant situation, according to sources briefed on the conversation. The total number of arrivals since the first bus from Texas arrived in August 2022 is expected to jump from 15,000 as of last week to 20,000 this week, the sources said.

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That total could double within three weeks. The projection is based on information from people along the southern border that indicates 20 to 25 additional buses a day will be arriving in Chicago, at least five days a week, each with about 50 migrants aboard. That means about 1,000 to 1,250 new arrivals daily.

[ Update: Gov. J.B. Pritzker calls for united front in migrant response after criticizing Biden administration effort ]

Following up on the weekend call, Pritzker on Monday sent a letter to Biden knocking the federal response to the crisis and pleading for more support. The criticism of the White House came after the governor himself faced heat from some progressive Chicago aldermen over the level of state assistance in caring for the asylum-seekers, who mostly hail from Venezuela and other Latin American countries.

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Today, Illinois stands mostly unsupported against this enormous strain on our state resources, Pritzker wrote to Biden.

It was the latest sign of increased tension among Democrats at all levels of government as Chicago prepares to host the partys national convention in August, when Biden is expected to accept his partys nomination to a second term.

As the numbers being transported to Chicago are accelerating, the humanitarian crisis is overwhelming our ability to provide aid to the refugee population, Pritzker wrote. Unfortunately, the welcome and aid Illinois has been providing to these asylum-seekers has not been matched with support by the federal government. Most critically, the federal governments lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois.

A group of migrants and members of the public wait in line outside an Illinois Department of Human Services office on Sept. 25, 2023, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

The three-page letter calls for the White House to appoint a single person to lead the migrant relief effort on the federal level.

Right now, we have too many different federal department contacts  who are uncoordinated with one another  that handle various programs related to this humanitarian crisis, Pritzker wrote.

The governor, who is serving as an adviser to the Bidens reelection campaign, also asked that the federal government take a more active role in coordinating the transportation of asylum-seekers from Texas to other parts of the country, accusing the administration of abdicating responsibility once (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) releases migrants into the interior of the country.

Pritzker also requested additional financial support beyond the modest funding the state and the city of Chicago have received thus far from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which totals a little more than $34 million.

On Friday, the state announced it would send the city another $30.3 million dedicated to the effort.

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Pritzkers criticisms in some ways mirror the blowback he received last week from some of Mayor Brandon Johnsons City Council allies after the governor voiced concerns about Johnsons plan to house migrants in tent encampments spread throughout the city.

Johnsons floor leader, Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, shot back at the governor by asking why the state hasnt opened its own shelters to alleviate the citys burden. Pritzkers press aides noted the states spending on migrant relief to date.

The state has spent about $330 million on the new arrivals, according to Pritzkers letter to Biden, but not all of that money has gone to Chicago, where most of the migrants are staying.

Chicago has allocated $144 million toward the migrant mission and expects costs for the entire response effort since 2022 to grow to as much as $363 million by the end of this year.

Johnsons base camp strategy consists of erecting a collection of tent encampments around the city as a landing zone for new arrivals instead of housing them at police stations, where more than 1,800 migrants are waiting, often in squalid conditions, for placement at a brick-and-mortar shelter. Another 450 migrants are staying inside the citys airports.

The mayors administration has said the plan is needed to move asylum-seekers from settings that are often unhygienic and inhumane, even as a new city contract with GardaWorld, a private defense company tasked with setting up the camps, has ignited controversy.

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On Friday, the state announced it would send the city another $30.3 million dedicated to the migrant effort, but questions remain over how the city can plug a $538 million budget shortfall stemming from the migrant crisis and other fiscal issues as the number of new arrivals does not appear to be abating anytime soon.

dpetrella@chicagotribune.com

ayin@chicagotribune.com
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua claimed that coffee industry cartels attempted to bribe both him and Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi to go easy on the ongoing reforms in the sector.

Without substantiating the claim, Gachagua alleged that he was offered two shillings for every kilogram of coffee sold in the country.

Speaking in Meru on Sunday, Gachagua said he and CS Linturi rebuffed the bribery attempts, affirming, the job is challenging, but we will succeed.

I want to ask farmers to be patient, we are almost there, he said.

Wamekuja kwa huyu Linturi akawaambia watembee. Huyu CS hawezi uza wakulima wa Kenya. Wamekuja kwangu kujaribu kunihonga ati nikubali mabadiliko isimamishwe katika kilo wanipatie shilingi mbili nikawaambia watembee. Sasa wamefika mwisho, Gachagua said.

Loosely translated: (They came to Linturi, and he told them to leave. This CS cannot sell out Kenyan farmers. They came to me to try and bribe me, asking me to halt the reforms and offering me two shillings per kilo. I told them to leave. Now, they have reached the end).

Gachagua mentioned that the cartels have been resisting reforms, but the progress achieved in the coffee sector shows promise.

We have not given up as reported by some media. These fellows are difficult, but I want to assure farmers that we will not relent and we are asking them to be a little patient, he said.

The Deputy President also alleged that certain government officials were hindering his efforts to dismantle cartels within the coffee sector.

The cartels have compromised some officers in government but they will not succeed because President William Ruto and I will not be intimidated. We will deal with them, Gachagua said.
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has lost his position at the Council of Governors(CoG) in elections conducted on Monday.

Sakaja, the former chairperson of Human Resources, Labour, and Social Welfare, was defeated by his UDA counterpart from Nyeri, Mutahi Kahiga.

The Nairobi county boss was among a trio of governors who failed to retain their seats. The others are Machakos Governor Wavinya Ndeti and her Tana River counterpart, Godhana Dhadho.

Wavinya of the Wiper Party, who served as the chairperson for Industry, Manufacturing, and Enterprise Development, was defeated by UDAs Nakuru Governor Susan Kihika.

Godhana Dhadho on the other hand has been succeeded by Baringo colleague Benjamin Cheboi as the chairperson for Security and Foreign Affairs.

Meanwhile, Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru secured a second term as the Chairperson of the Council of Governors.

Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi was re-elected as the Vice-Chairperson of COG, and Stephen Sang of Nandi assumed the Whip position.

After securing her re-election, Waiguru expressed her commitment to ensuring the complete transfer of devolved functions and accompanying resources to county governments.

She pledged to concentrate on augmenting revenue allocation to counties, assisting them in enhancing their own source revenue, and overseeing the successful implementation of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Additionally, her focus will be on the development of agricultural value chains, fostering value addition, and promoting trade.

Here is a list of the newly elected committee chairpersons:
The foreign travel delegation for President William Ruto and other top government officials has been reduced by half.

Head of Public Service Felix Koskei issued the directive saying it extends to delegations accompanying the First Lady, the Deputy President, and the Prime Cabinet Secretary.

Koskei said approval for travel will be granted only to those who have a direct role in the scheduled activities or programs of the principals.

In this regard, the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs is directed to rationalise the number of personnel accompanying each of the principals, and reduce the same by fifty per cent, said the Chief of Staff.

Koskei noted that the ministry is under instructions to restrict the issuance of invitations to government entities and ensure the participation of focal point institutions only when deemed essential.

He added that travel visas and other courtesies will be granted solely for travel linked to state-party engagements in which the government is participating to fulfill state obligations and as part of conducting critical state-party engagements.

Koskei added that visas and other courtesies will also be issued exclusively for the purpose of fulfilling a statutory leadership or membership role in which critical decisions affecting the countrys position are under consideration.

To ease the implementation of the directive, Koskei said that the circulars issued on January 26, 2015, and June 29, 2023, have been revised. The overall result of this revision, he explained, is that the cumulative duration members of delegations are permitted to be away is seven days, inclusive of travel dates.

In the circular issued in June 2023, Koskei specified that the total days a Cabinet Secretary (CS), Permanent Secretary (PS), or Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a state corporation should be away from the country should not surpass seven days per travel, 15 days per quarter (three months), and 45 days per year.

All other directives relating to travel days per quarter, and annually remain the same, he said.

Koskei has also instructed the National Treasury to reduce by half both foreign and local travel budgets for Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, chairpersons, and CEOs of State Corporations, as well as chairpersons and CEOs of Commissions and Independent Offices, Governors, and County Executive Committee members.

Koskei stated, The government will continue to further review and provide additional guidelines for its foreign diplomacy in alignment with this objective.
Former TV anchor, Kimani Mbugua, is determined to get back on his feet after well-wishers heard his plea for help and raised more than half a million Kenyan shillings.

Prior to the fundraiser, Kimani Mbugua, who had been in and out of hospital for bipolar and substance abuse, had shared a video recounting his recent hospital discharge after a week-long stay, only to find himself without a place to stay.

Equipped with a business plan and a proposal, he reached out to potential business partners, seeking assistance in bringing his idea to fruition. Additionally, he shared that he had maintained sobriety for two months and was undergoing a healing process, albeit burdened with debt.

Kimani has expressed appreciation for Mathari Hospital, considering it a pivotal part of his recovery journey.

We are so spoiled at Mathari. The food was abundant, the nurses were always there for you, and even the tiniest symptoms were addressed promptly. It was top-notch healthcare at Mathari, and it was surprisingly affordable, he told Standard Digital.

All you needed was your NHIF to be admitted, and once youre in, your clinic visits become free if youve been admitted before. Theres even a maximum-security ward for mentally ill patients whove committed crimes. However, some families just leave their loved ones at the facility and wont come to pick them up, even when theyre doing better. Its important to bring them home when theyre getting better because if you dont, they might relapse.

Motivated by his love for his parents, Kimani decided to embark on a journey towards improvement. Having experienced a series of hospital visits, he felt a sense of disappointment towards his friends and family. Driven by a strong determination to turn over a new leaf, he was committed to starting afresh.

My friends and family were utterly baffled by my situation, and they were close to giving up on me. My family shelled out more than 3 million for my treatment, my dad even had to sell my car to settle the hospital bill, and we nearly sold our land. I did this (recovering) for my parents, to show them that Ive made a comeback, and they are happy for me.

Kimani also spoke about his Bipolar diagnosis and how Cannabis use triggered his manic episodes.

Bipolar is genetic, and theres not much you can do about it. Mine started showing its colours three years ago, and it wreaked havoc on my work and personal life. I was just 24 at the time. Surprisingly, my trigger to bipolar was weed(cannabis) I wasnt a drug addict, but I was a dedicated smoker. Sometimes, when substances are your triggers, your body just asks for a pinch of weed to propel you into mania. I knew what I was up against, and thats why Im on the path to recovery.

The former journalist disclosed his plans for the funds raised by well-wishers.

Im in the process of settling down, and my sisters and I will be moving in together. Im also working on launching my company, a creative agency. Were still shaping the company with interested business partners, figuring out how they envision it.
The inaugural Health Village, spearheaded by Pastor Dorcas Rigathi, the spouse of the Deputy President, is taking shape in Ngorano, Nyeri County.

The Health Village will encompass a rehabilitation center, a healthcare facility, a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) center, and agribusiness prospects tailored for the youth.

The first group of individuals undergoing rehabilitation as part of her Boy-child program has already moved to the facility following the completion of a three-month rehabilitation program in Timau, Meru County.

We are in the early stages of establishing a rehabilitation health village, drawing from the best practices worldwide; an initiative that will encompass sporting facilities, farming projects, a digital hub, health services, boarding facilities, vocational training, offering a holistic approach to rehabilitation, she said.

During her visit to the facility, Pastor Dorcas expressed that the Village project would play a pivotal role in reshaping the lives of young men who had been entangled in drug and substance abuse.

When you leave here what I want to see are stable families. I want to see you prosper and have a better living and economically empowered, she told the young men.

In July of this year, Pastor Dorcas embarked on a tour to Israel to gain insights into best practices related to the health village concept. Throughout the tour, she visited five health villages in Israel that have been successful in rehabilitating the youth.

As part of a similar initiative in Kenya, Pastor Dorcas is actively involved in securing employment opportunities for the young men, both domestically and internationally. She urged the youth to undergo a mindset transformation during the rehabilitation process, aiming to rehabilitate 12,000 youth across the country this year.

You are the ambassadors of my work, and I want you to change your mindset, those seeking job placements are working towards that, those who want to go back to school will also work on that, she said.

Within the Health Village, the youth are actively involved in construction activities and are undergoing skill development through vocational training.

Pastor Dorcas has undertaken visits to numerous abandoned vocational training facilities to evaluate their status, with a plan to revitalize many of them for the benefit of the youth.

She has been a leading advocate, encouraging the youth to embrace technical and vocational training, emphasizing that it will empower them for self-employment and facilitate job creation.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. wants to put up a 60-foot-tall monopole at its planned Napa Regional Center in American Canyon, but must make sure the pole wont conflict with nearby Napa County Airport.

The Napa County Airport Land Use Commission is to take up the matter at 9 a.m. Wednesday. County staff recommends that the commission find no conflict between the proposed pole and airplane flights.

Airplanes in this area are typically 300 to 1,000 feet above the ground. The proposed monopole antenna shouldnt interfere with airport communications, a county report said.

The monopole at 500 Boone Drive would serve a private PG&E network. The utility is building the regional center there as home base for local maintenance, installation and emergency response operations.

During times of emergency like earthquakes in California, public networks are either constrained by capacity or completely shut down, said a PG&E memo submitted to the commission. It becomes especially important to maintain electric and gas services during those times.

PG&E said it has approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for a 70-foot-tall monopole. It prefers 70 feet, but has reduced the height to 60 feet.

The commission will make an airport consistency finding, but the American Canyon Planning Commission will ultimately rule on the PG&E request. The commission meets at 9 a.m. in the county administration building, 1195 Third St. in Napa.

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Book banning attempts picked up speed across the U.S. over the past few years, with at least 3,362 books being removed from school and classroom libraries during the 2022-23 academic year, according to a New York Times investigation.

But in Napa, First 5 Napa County and the Napa Valley Unified School District are making oft-banned subject matter, including books exploring racial issues and gender identity, more accessible in classrooms. The joint effort is distributing Rainbow Kits for classrooms from transitional kindergarten through fifth grade across the school district for teachers wishing to use them.

What are Rainbow Kits?

In 2019, First 5 Napa County, a nonprofit focused on developmental and educational support for children younger than 5, piloted the Rainbow Kit program. According to First 5 Executive Director Lilea Duran, the program was inspired by conversations First 5 members had with preschool parents.

A recurring comment in talks with LGBTQ families in particular was a wish for their family units to feel visible in their children's classrooms, and to feel confident that their childrens educators were equipped to support diverse families.

When children are entering preschools, that is often like the first time that that child is in care outside of their home, being exposed to families beyond their own little family unit, Duran said. It's that community connection point that families are integrating with other families, often for the first time.

For a child going to school for the first time, whether they are coming from an LGBTQ-identifying, mixed-race or single-parent family  or any one that isnt one mom, one dad, 2.5 kids and a dog, Duran said  historically, this child has often quickly gotten the message: Your family is different.

Rainbow Kits aim to equip educators to teach their students about the full range of family and individual makeups, all of which are different and normal, according to First 5 directors.

The kits contain books, lesson plans, manipulatives like dolls, and provider education information. All of the materials support four pillars of anti-bias education: identity, diversity, justice and activism.

The books and dolls can be integrated into independent play areas of the classroom, such as a dramatic play area or on a bookshelf, but they can also be used during lessons like a read-aloud circle. Rainbow Kit books include inserted notes for educators that have age-appropriate discussion questions for the class, as well as appropriate definitions for some of the terms in the books that students might not understand, like unity or inclusivity.

Each kit also includes educator information, like a worksheet explaining how a teacher can make their introductory forms more welcoming to more families. For example, suggesting a switch from Moms name and Dads name on a back-to-school night registration sheet to Parent or Caretaker 1 and 2 can make more families feel welcome off the bat, Duran explained.

In addition to the tangible materials included in the kits, First 5s program also includes training for any educator wanting to use their materials. Duran said that proper training on how to integrate inclusion education is imperative to its success.

In this type of work if you aren't feeling empowered, and confident in your abilities, the reality is that you could do more harm than good, Duran said. We really want educators to feel confident in their abilities. We know they care. We know they want the best for the children that they're serving, and we want to help them along that way. So before anyone can gain access to a Rainbow Kit, they do need to go through that training during which we talk about anti-bias education.

Reaching a larger audience

In the years since they were introduced, Rainbow Kits have become a more robust resource in and of themselves, according to Duran. Their reach has also grown exponentially from the four pilot classrooms they were used in 2019.

First 5 has trained over 450 staff members of local early education providers, including all of the Napa County Office of Education's California State Preschool Programs and Napa and Solano County Child Start staffs, as well as many local educators in smaller agencies. The nonprofit has distributed over 570 kits.

Some of the kits have even gone to Napa Valley College. Rainbow Kit training is integrated into NVC's Child and Family Studies practicum course, and beginning next spring, kits will become mandatory course material that NVC students can use in their student-teaching classrooms.

This year, First 5 has taken on an even bigger local task: helping the Napa public school system develop Rainbow Kits that are appropriate for students up to fifth grade.

Local public schools integrate rainbow curriculum

While Duran explained that First 5 itself is limited to developing projects supporting children 5 and younger, it has advised the school district in the process of creating Rainbow Kits that are more relevant to older elementary school students.

According to NVUSD spokesperson Julie Bordes, the district first began to work with First 5 to make Rainbow Kits available in TK and kindergarten classrooms, but upon learning more about the program, the district saw an opportunity to bring similar materials to a larger group of students.

Through our research and planning for a potential TK and K expansion, we realized that these resources could also be helpful for first- to fifth-grade teachers, Bordes said. We worked together with a consultant to select age-appropriate literature and lessons for the first-second and third-fifth grade age spans.

Now, teachers in the Napa district have the option to integrate an age-appropriate Rainbow Kit into their classrooms  equipped with district-approved books that are annotated with relevant definitions and discussion questions, as well as lesson plans, tangible materials and more.

One NVUSD teacher who is using the kit for grades 3-5 is David Allred, a fifth-grade teacher at Napa Valley Language Academy. He said that having a means to talk about identity and gender in his classroom has been extremely positive for his students.

The bandwidth really opens up in fifth grade, and they are really paying attention," Allred said. "It becomes relevant to what they are going through  but nobody is talking about it. Often, the only information they get is (from) TikTok, which cannot be accurate and can send them down a rabbit hole the wrong way. It's nice to have the materials to be able to guide them towards a healthy view of these topics.

Allred said that the way he uses the materials is mostly to create a healthy classroom culture. He explained that throughout his teaching career, he has found that no matter how well he can explain long division or how smart his students are, when a student is experiencing a distraction or stressor  what he calls an affective filter  it prevents students from learning.

If a kid is worried about being teased for dressing differently  then hes not listening in my math class, he's worrying about getting teased during the next recess, Allred said. From a pragmatic standpoint, I have to worry about being the most effective teacher I can be. And that can only happen when kids are happy and feel good about themselves.

Last week, Allreds class did a read-aloud of They, She, He, Me: Free to Be! The book includes pages of people who all use the same pronouns, some of whom challenge stereotypes and none of whom look exactly alike. While it only took about 10 minutes out of the school day, Allred said integrating such activities helps reduce those affective filters that would otherwise pop up during following classes throughout the year.

Pushback against identity education

While Allred said he hasnt gotten any pushback from parents on Rainbow Kit material, he said having access to information that has already been approved by the district has been helpful, since he knows he has the support of the schools when discussing the contents of the kits.

He also said that he believes the lack of complaints has to do with the careful way he approaches discussions with his class and developing a trust with parents and families.

I have heard people say, I dont like people telling my kids who he or she needs to be, Allred said. I am very careful to say really clearly, 'I am not suggesting that you need to change your pronouns, for example.  Im just saying its an option for you.'

In book-banning and censorship cases related to books discussing LGBTQ matters specifically, some parents across California and Napa County have expressed concerns that they dont want their students learning about sex or sexuality. But Allred said this isnt what Rainbow Kits are teaching students.

It's entirely about diversity and acceptance and kindness at the fifth-grade level, Allred said. Its not about sexuality or sex at all.

Duran, of First 5 Napa, also clarified that the materials regarding gender arent focused on gender in relation to sexuality or romance.

Sometimes, when were talking about gender, folks relate that to sexuality and romantic relationships, Duran said. As part of the Rainbow Kit training, we really try to separate those right there.  We really focus on what we're talking about when we talk about gender. We're talking about how people show up, how people know themselves to be, how they wear their hair, how they select clothing for themselves that makes them feel comfortable and confident and happy. That's the identity piece that we're talking about. We're not talking about sexual orientation or romantic relationships.

While not every NVUSD classroom integrates these kits at this time, any parent or community member who has concerns about their contents can view the different kits at their education center. Bordes, the district spokesperson, said that "the materials and lessons in the kits fit within our elementary schools social-emotional learning curriculum. ... These themes are central to our efforts to create safe and welcoming school environments for all."

According to Duran, from the time students enter the classroom environment to when they leave it after high school, showing that inclusion and diversity are welcome and celebrated in schools is imperative to student success.

School is such a wonderful place where, yes, children are learning foundational skills ... but they're also learning all those social-emotional skills and who they are in our greater community, Duran said. So it's great when we can create a space where everyone's story is valued, where we understand that school is a place where diverse people can come together to learn.

Same fears, new tactics: How efforts to ban 'bad books' reached a record high in 2022 Same fears, new tactics: How efforts to ban 'bad books' reached a record high in 2022 Burned or banned: Outlawed books reflect fears and politics of the time 2022 set a record for book challenges, almost doubling from 2021 Most of the top challenged 2022 books cited LGBTQ+ and sexual content School libraries are being targeted more frequently Organized efforts are accelerating
Laphonza Butler  Gov. Gavin Newsoms pick to succeed the late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein  was sworn in Tuesday afternoon, making history as the first openly LGBTQ person and the second Black woman to represent California in the Senate.

But how long does she want to keep the job?

She isnt saying, yet.

This week Laphonza is focused on respecting and honoring Sen. Feinsteins legacy and getting ready to serve the people of California in the Senate, Butler spokesperson Matt Wing told CalMatters Monday. Politics can wait.

Her decision whether to run for the seat, however, will be central to California politics heading into 2024. She would join a crowded field of Democratic candidates already vying for a full six-year term in the Senate  U.S. Reps. Adam Schiff, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.

Now, the Secretary of States office confirmed Monday, there will be two sets of elections in both the March 5 primary and Nov. 5 general election  a special election to determine who serves the final two months of Feinsteins term and the regular election to decide who gets the full six-year term after that. Voters faced a similar double election last year for the states other Senate seat, held by Alex Padilla, also appointed by Newsom.

A poll released Monday, but conducted Sunday before Butlers appointment was announced, suggests that California voters generally favor appointing a Black woman to Feinsteins seat, said Christian Grose, professor of political science and public policy at the University of Southern California. Butler ranked third among nine potential appointees in the survey, and drew more support when respondents were told more about her.

Napa Valley leaders remember Sen. Dianne Feinsteins imprint on county The death of Dianne Feinstein has given rise to numerous memories and tributes to Californias longest-serving U.S. senator  including expressions of gratitude from state and local leaders in the Napa Valley.

And the large share of undecided voters  roughly a third, according to his poll  could be a way in for Butler, but she must expand her name recognition among voters if she decides to run in 2024, he said.

For Lee, Porter and Schiff, it could be an advantage to also run in the special election. If they win, they get seated sooner and accrue seniority, which would give them an edge over other senators newly elected in 2024, Grose said.

Plus, running in both elections would allow them to double their campaign contribution limits. Adam Schiff has raised a lot of money. He can now go back to all the same donors he maxed out and raise more money, Grose said. Schiffs campaign reported Monday he brought in another $6 million in the third quarter and had $32 million in cash on hand.

Lee spokesperson David Graham-Caso confirmed Monday she intends to run in the special election, and Butlers appointment changed nothing for the campaign. In a statement, Lee said she is looking forward to working with Butler and wishes her well.

I am singularly focused on winning my campaign for Senate, Lee said in the statement.

Porters campaign spokesperson Lindsay Reilly on Monday did not say whether Porter will run in the special election, but praised Butler for standing up for women and working families during her career.

Schiffs spokesperson did not return a CalMatters inquiry for comment Monday.

A fourth Democrat in the race could divide the partys vote further and allow a Republican to sneak into the top two. In a Public Policy Institute of California poll released last week, Schiff at 20% and Porter at 15% were well ahead. Lee was at 8% among likely voters and Republicans James Bradley and Eric Early were at 5% each. In the survey, 47% named other candidates or didnt know.

But Grose said that without a prominent Republican candidate in the race so far, polling suggests it is most likely that two Democrats will advance to the general election. That, he said, is healthy for the state, because a competitive race between Democrats will allow independents and Republican voters to have more of a voice.

The state is so lopsidedly Democratic that it just doesnt matter if a Republican advances to the general election, he said.

Butler could wait as late as Dec. 8 to decide, but is certain to face pressure to announce her plans well before then.

For now, she has the enthusiastic support of the governor, who has not endorsed any of the other Democrats running and who did not make it a precondition of the appointment for her not to run.

We didnt have that conversation. I said, This is up to you. That was the end of that conversation, Newsom said during a Monday news conference.

The governor, who picked Butler over the weekend, said while multiple people expressed interest in the appointment, Butler was the only choice. He deemed her next-level qualified.

Butler, who is both Black and lesbian, is uniquely positioned to take on the cultural purge by Republicans in America, Newsom said, arguing that the GOP is launching an assault on the LGBTQ and Black communities.

I just think that Laphonza Butler is  simply the best person that I could find for this moment in this job.

On the Senate floor Tuesday, Butler was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris, who served as the second Black female senator until she resigned in 2021 to join President Biden in the White House. The first was Democratic Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, who served one term in the 1990s.

Butler, 44, president of pro-abortion rights organization EMILYs List and a longtime labor advocate and Democratic strategist, has the support of most unions, including the Service Employees International Union Local 2015 that she led.

The 310,000-member California Teachers Association also celebrated her appointment Monday. Shes a true change-maker and a strong champion of labor unions and public schools, David B. Goldberg, president of the union, said in a statement.

The governors office compiled a long list of praise by leaders of various Black, LGBTQ and other groups. And Newsom dismissed criticism from Republicans that she doesnt live in California at the moment, noting she re-registered to vote in California.

She literally took that job at EMILYs List, still has a house out here and re-registered. And we were transparent about that, the governor told reporters.

With reports from CalMatters Capitol reporter Alexei Koseff and The Associated Press.

Photos: Sen. Dianne Feinstein through the years
Past daily of Armenia writes: Yesterday, when Azerbaijani sources spread information that the UN mission had arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)], it was difficult to quickly orientate or define what it is. Sarcasm or something more serious? It is reported that on the morning of October 1, the members of the UN mission left for Askeran-Stepanakert through Aghdam.

The continuation is more mocking: "The goal of the UN mission is to learn about the situation on the ground and determine the humanitarian needs of the population." The question arises: which or what population is it about? What humanitarian needs to determine, when as a result of the inaction and passiveness of many people, including the same UN, now there is no longer a population in Artsakh. Generally none.

Will the members of the UN mission talk to Russian peacekeepers or Azerbaijani terrorists, cannibals and criminals? During the last few months, there were 2 urgent sessions of the UN Security Council on the issue of Artsakh. And what? The sessions were urgent, but getting to the place of the UN mission, which had not yet made a decision or adopted a statement, was in no hurry! Where were the UN, the European Union, the "civilized world" for about 9 months, when the authorities of Azerbaijan had imposed a total blockade on Artsakh, creating a difficult humanitarian situation there? Or is it a permanent feature of "humanism:" to let their oil supplier massacre, deport, and ethnically cleanse the civilian population, and only then come post-facto, pretending to be humanitarian, humanist, and human rights activist?

Another message didn't get as much attention, but sounded no less cynical. It is talking about the information that when there were barely a few hundred [Armenian] people left in Artsakh, information was spread that 15 tons of flour were transported to Artsakh through the Russian peacekeeping forces. For whom? For the de-Armenianized and abandoned cities? Breathless buildings? Or is it for the internal needs of peacekeepers? And where were they, again, for 9 months straight?

() "21st century, not like before, human rights, international community," and he who relies on other such nonsense remains without a soil and without support.
India has asked Canada to recall over 40 of its diplomats from India, according to a report from the Financial Times.

New Delhi has set a deadline of October 10 for the repatriation, as informed by sources familiar with the matter.

According to them, New Delhi has threatened to remove Canadian representatives who will remain in India after that date from its list of diplomatic immunity.

Canada's foreign affairs ministry and the Indian government have declined to comment to the Financial Times.

Relations between Canada and India have been strained since Ottawa decided on September 18 to expel a senior Indian diplomat over allegations that the country's intelligence services were involved in the killing of Canadian Sikh community leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said that this diplomat is a representative of Indian intelligence, and warned that Canada will not tolerate any interference in its affairs.

After that, the Ministry of External Affairs of India summoned Canadian Ambassador Cameron MacKay and informed him about a similar retaliatory decision from New Delhi. The Ministry of External Affairs of India believes that Canadian politicians openly sympathize with terrorists and extremists in Khalistan, which causes deep concern. The embassy of India in Ottawa has suspended the issuance of visas. Also, Indian citizens have been advised to avoid traveling to Canada.
The US Department of State does not call the mass departure of Armenians from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) ethnic cleansing until there is "evidence."

Spokesperson Matthew Miller noted during Mondays Department press briefing that the United States take allegations of ethnic cleansing, genocide, or other atrocities seriously.

"We are in touch with contacts on the ground about the situation. We wont shy from taking appropriate actions to respond to allegations of atrocities and promote accountability for those responsible for atrocities when we see evidence that theyve taken place. But as always, a determination regarding genocide or ethnic cleansing is based on a deliberate, evidence-based process. Its not something I can speak to with any degree of finality from this podium," Miller added.

At the same time, he noted that "a hundred thousand, or I should say around a hundred thousand, ethnic Armenians have departed Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia."

"Now, we dont knowI dont think any of us can say whetherwhat percentage of those plan to remain in Armenia permanently, what percentage of them may want to come back, if the conditions allowed, if they felt sufficient assurances about their treatment if they would return, which is why we are reiterating our call for an independent international monitoring mission that would provide transparency and reassurance to the population of Nagorno-Karabakh that the rights and securities of ethnic Armenians would be protected, particularly for any of those that wish to return. Azerbaijan has made those assurances. We think there ought to be an international monitoring mission there to observe and guarantee them," Miller added.

Also, he welcomed the UN mission in Karabakh.

"We continue to work with our allies and partners about what a more long-term mission ought to look like," Miller added.

And speaking about the prospects of a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the spokesperson of the US State Department noted that "There are other issues beyond the status of Nagorno-Karabakh that are at dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and we would encourage them to return to peace talks to discuss and ultimately come to resolution on those issues."
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Armenia urged the European Union to sanction Azerbaijan for its military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh and warned that Baku could soon attack Armenia itself unless the West takes firm action.

Tigran Balayan, Armenia's envoy to the EU, listed possible measures such as a price cap on Azerbaijani oil and gas and the suspension of EU talks on closer relations with Baku. He also urged the West to deliver "bold" security assistance to Armenia.

"It's not only the opinion of the Armenian government, but also of many experts  also some of the EU member states  that an attack on Armenia proper is imminent," Balayan told Reuters in an interview in Brussels.

However, Balayan said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's assurances could not be trusted, noting European officials have declared he broke promises not to attack Nagorno-Karabakh.

He reminded that senior EU officials, and leaders of many of the bloc's member countries, have condemned Azerbaijan's actions. But the EU has so far taken little in the way of concrete measures in response to the crisis, beyond allocating humanitarian aid.

He said the EU had many tools to pressure Aliyev - and Nagorno-Karabakh had paid a heavy price because it had not used any of them so far.

"The failure of ... employing this toolbox resulted in the ethnic cleansing of 100,000 to 120,000 of the indigenous Armenian population, including my own family, from their ancestral lands," said Balayan, Armenia's ambassador-designate to the EU.

Senior EU officials, and leaders of many of the bloc's member countries, have condemned Azerbaijan's actions. But the EU has so far taken little in the way of concrete measures in response to the crisis, beyond allocating humanitarian aid.

Diplomats say EU members are struggling to find a consensus. Some, such as France and the Netherlands, want to at least consider tough measures, while others such as Hungary and Romania are reluctant, they say.

The EU's search for a response is complicated by its moves to rely more on Azerbaijani oil and gas as it has pivoted away from Russian energy due to Moscow's war in Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Aliyev in Baku last year to sign a memorandum of understanding on energy, and declared Azerbaijan to be a "crucial partner".

However, Balayan insisted the EU had real advantage on energy, as Baku relies heavily on European countries as customers.

He said a meeting expected this week at a summit in Granada, Spain, between Armenian Prime Minister Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Aliyev, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Council President Charles Michel would only yield results if the EU was tough with Aliyev.

"Unless there are certain red lines put in front of Aliyev personally for not keeping his word ... it will be in vain again," he said.

Balayan voiced fears that Azerbaijan would use force to establish a land corridor through Armenian territory to the exclave of Nakhchivan, which would also provide a link to Turkey, Baku's ally.

But Balayan said Azerbaijan's military goals could extend even beyond Nakhchivan, noting Aliyev had made comments that asserted Armenian territory was formerly part of Azerbaijan.

He said Armenia had been left exposed in security terms as its traditional ally Russia had not delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons orders.

"We are in a very vulnerable position," he said.

Balayan declined to specify what kind of security assistance Armenia wanted, saying that was a matter of technical experts.
The draft of the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) was signed back on July 17, 1998. Yeghishe Kirakosyan, Armenia's representative on international legal affairs, stated this during the debates on the respective matter at Tuesdays session of the National Assembly of Armenia.

According to him, the Armenian government's approval of this draft was due to Azerbaijan's large-scale military aggression against Armenia in September 2022, as well as a number of gross military crimes committed in Armenian territory.

For this reason, the process of Rome Statute ratification, which was stopped in 2004, was resumed. In particular, the jurisdiction of the ICC is assumed to be recognized starting from May 21, 2021.

"Armenia started the process of joining the International Criminal Court about 20 years ago. However, in August 2004, the Constitutional Court [of Armenia] considered the Rome Statute to be contradictory to the Constitution in force [in the country] at that time. The basic law was ratified in December 2005 and 2015. They returned to the process again after the 2020 war," Kirakosyan said.

The lawyer added that the Constitutional Court of Armenia has already considered the Rome Statute as conforming to the country's Constitution.

To note, the parliamentary debates on the aforesaid draft are being held without attendance by MPs from the opposition factions. Artsvik Minasyan, the secretary of the opposition Armenia Faction, stated today that the Rome Statute ratification process is unconstitutional.
Sergey Lebedev, Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), has made it clear that he is expecting the participation of the leaders of the CIS member countriesexcept Ukraine and Moldovaat the Bishkek meeting of the Council of the Heads of the CIS States, RIA Novosti reported.

The aforesaid meeting in the capital of Kyrgyzstan is scheduled for October 13.

The meeting of the Council of the CIS Ministers of Foreign Affairs will take place the day before.

"Most of the countries have confirmed their participation. As for the attendance of Ukraine and Moldova, they will not be represented at the meeting of the Council of Heads of State, at the meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs. They refrain from participation, although de jure they remain CIS members," Lebedev told reporters in Belarusian capital Minsk.

And when asked about the plans for the attendance of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the Bishkek summit, in connection with the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, Lebedev noted that the CIS Executive Committee had no information about other countries, apart from Ukraine and Moldova, not wishing to attend the summit.

"In any case, the information we have now proves that, and we hope for it, that most of the [CIS member] countries, except Ukraine and Moldova, will be represented in those forums," added the CIS Secretary General.
There is a great responsibility on the side of Azerbaijan, which launched this military operation against Nagorno-Karabakh, Charles Michel, president of the European Council, has said

"Its now up to Azerbaijan to show goodwill by engaging while respecting international law to protect the rights and security of the entire population that lives in Azerbaijan, including the Armenian population," said Michel, referring to the comment that Brussels' relationship with Baku remains difficult but promising.

He also said that Baku remains an EU partner despite its brazen attack.

"Azerbaijan is a partner today, yes, its a partner. That doesnt mean the relationship is simple. No, its not simple. Are there difficulties? Yes, and these difficulties are real and should be understood," he explained.

When asked if the EU should reconsider its gas deal with Baku, Michel said: "Of course. What we now need to look at is how to normalise the relationship between Armenia and Azerbaijan so that we can firmly and incontestably ensure the mutual recognition of the territorial integrity of both countries."
Armenia, like any country that has ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, is losing legal sovereignty, this is humiliating, said Vice-Speaker of the Russian Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev wrote in his Telegram channel.

Ratification of the Rome Statute of the ICC for any state means nothing more than the loss of legal sovereignty, which is humiliating in itself. It is for this reason that truly sovereign states, including Russia, the USA, India, China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran and others, do not join the ICC, Kosachev wrote.

He noted that this ratification is a clearly unfriendly step towards Russia. There were no forces in the Armenian parliament that would be able to stop the ongoing process of legal enslavement of this country by the Hague Themis, Kosachev emphasized.

The ICC has the right to exercise its jurisdiction on the territory of acceding states not only on the basis of referrals of situations by the UN Security Council or at the request of the participating states themselves (Articles 13-14 of the Statute). According to Article 15 of the Rome Statute, the prosecutor can initiate an investigation proprio motu (Latin for on its own motion) based on information about crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court, the senator explained.

It is naive to believe that in this way Armenia will be able to resolve issues with the investigation of alleged war crimes in the conflict zone with Azerbaijan. ICC case law has repeatedly demonstrated the opposite, namely interference in the internal affairs of state parties. Ultimately, in the future, todays decision on ratification may turn against the Armenian authorities themselves, the parliamentarian continued.

He also added that the text of the Rome Statute contains provisions to limit the criminal jurisdiction of state parties, despite the indication that the ICC supplements national criminal justice authorities. In each specific case, the judges in The Hague will determine whether a particular situation is the result of the unwillingness or inability of Armenia to initiate criminal proceedings properly, and on the basis of this, at their discretion, exercise jurisdiction (Article 17 of the Statute), concluded Vice-speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament.

The Armenian Parliament ratified on Tuesday the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The Armenian side, led by Yeghishe Kirakosyan, Armenia's representative on international legal affairs, had invited Russia to sign an agreement that would rule out any speculation. Vladimir Vardanyan, chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs and member of the ruling Civil Contract Party, told reporters at the NA about this on Tuesdayand with respect to the NA approving the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Also, Vardanyan expressed confidence that Armenias ratification of the Rome Statute cannot spoil Armenian-Russian relations, and if the relevant agreement is signed, it will benefit the development of these relations.

"As for the Russian presidents visit [to Armenia after the aforesaid ratification], it has never happened in international practice that a sitting president of any country has been handed over to the International Criminal Court," Vardanyan said, adding that every sovereign state has the right to independently decide which international documents to join.

He assured that there are no disagreements in the ruling party of Armenia regarding voting, and suggested looking for them among their opposition colleagues.

As reported earlier, the National Assembly of Armenia today approved the ratification of the Rome Statute. The parliamentary opposition, however, boycotted the respective debates, arguing that the Rome Statute does not serve Armenia's foreign policy interests. And Artsvik Minasyan, secretary of the opposition Armenia Faction, added that its ratification runs counter to the constitution of Armenia.

The Constitutional Court of Armenia had ruled that the obligations stipulated in the Rome Statute were in accordance with the Constitution of Armenia.

In 2022, the Armenian government had petitioned to the Constitutional Court on this matter. The government had returned to the matter of ratifying the Rome Statute because, according to the rationale of its draft, they see an opportunity to call Azerbaijan to account.

The International Criminal Court has issued an international arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, which implies that the countries that have ratified the Rome Statute must arrest Putin if he visits those countries. The Russian foreign ministry had sent a note of protest regarding the Armenian government sending the Rome Statute to the National Assembly for ratification.
Russia's consistent efforts to provide humanitarian aid to the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh continue. The help reaches those who voluntarily left the region, as well as those residents who decided to stay. This is noted in a statement by the Russian Federation Ministry of Foreign Affairs (RF MFA).

"After the cessation of military operations in Karabakh on September 20, which was achieved through the mediation of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, our peacekeepers delivered about 200 tons of humanitarian aid and fuel and lubricants to the people of Karabakh. After the fuel [depot] explosion on September 25, they organized the medical evacuation of hundreds of victims and accompanied the [vehicle] convoys of Karabakh people who had decided to leave for Armenia. Russian military doctors continue to work in the region.

"The aid to the Armenians of Karabakh is provided in various ways and in the territory of Armenia, including by Russian companies, public activists, and compatriots.

"Taking into account the humanitarian needs expressed in the briefing held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia on October 2, we decide the amount and scope of humanitarian aid. Such work is mainly aimed at meeting priority needs. The representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo [(Russian Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation)] in Yerevan created a special headquarters to coordinate the efforts. In the last few days alone, its employees have delivered more than 3 tons of humanitarian aid to Goris, and 1.5 tons to Kapan [cities of Armenia]. For the opening of the [Russian] consulate general in Syunik [Province of Armenia], the Russian diplomats of the advanced group of the RF MFA are working in the border zone, establishing contact with the local administration.

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"Work to provide humanitarian aid to the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh will continue," the Russian MFA statement added, in particular.
RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs of the French Republic Catherine Colonna. RA Prime Minister's Office reports.

Welcoming the visit of the delegation headed by the Minister to Armenia, the Prime Minister noted.

"First of all, I want to thank you personally, France and President Macron, for clearly supporting Armenia in these difficult times, as well as for expressing a clear position on ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. Basically, Nagorno-Karabakh has become a victim of ethnic cleansing, and unfortunately, international mechanisms have failed to step up.

Basically, we are dealing with the implementation of pre-announced ethnic cleansing. In this sense, of course, the humanitarian crisis that we had in Nagorno-Karabakh has been transferred to the Republic of Armenia.

On the other hand, I must emphasize that the authorities of Azerbaijan are carrying out illegal arrests in Nagorno-Karabakh, which I also think should be in the center of international attention."

Nikol Pashinyan added that at the moment the RA government is able to keep the flow of our compatriots forcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh under certain control, the most vital needs of the people are met with the support of the state and also a number of international partners.

"But, of course, the Armenian government needs direct financial support from international partners so that we can also address medium- and long-term humanitarian issues. In this environment of ours, I think it is very important to address the issues of the bilateral agenda between our countries. Of course, these are issues of political dialog, issues of cooperation in international platforms, issues of economic cooperation," the Prime Minister said.

French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna thanked for the warm welcome and conveyed the greetings of President Emmanuel Macron to the Prime Minister.

"I am glad to be back in Yerevan again a few months after my previous visit, although I would have wished very much that my visit had taken place under less tragic circumstances, tragic both for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and for Armenia. And both in April and now I see familiar and friendly faces around the table, and this is of course very pleasant in the complicated world in which we now live.

My visit is another manifestation of France's friendship with Armenia, and beyond friendship, it is also a manifestation of solidarity. Our solidarity has been evident throughout the year. Together with the deterioration of the humanitarian crisis and the humanitarian situation in general, the volumes of assistance have increased, and I can proudly say that France is always where it should be," emphasized Catherine Colonna.

The French Foreign Minister also added that France has planned 12.5 million euros in humanitarian aid to Armenia. Catherine Colonna assured that this assistance will be continued if necessary.

During the meeting the interlocutors touched upon the issues related to the Armenian-French cooperation, processes taking place in the region, as well as exchanged ideas on other topics of mutual interest.
SRV Media New Delhi [India], October 3: In a world where environmental consciousness and creativity are common, the recent initiative led by Anil Batham, Assistant Professor at Raja Mansingh College, Gwalior, M.P., and students of the Department of Interior and Fashion Design at ITM University Gwalior shines as a beacon of hope. This transformative eco-frindly Gansha workshop at ITM University Gwalior brought together a diverse group of students and faculty members, all united by a shared vision of promoting sustainable practices. Crafting Eco-Friendly Ganesh Idols The heart of this inspiring event was the art of crafting eco-friendly Ganesha idols, with a strong emphasis on the use of clay as the primary material. The 2830 enthusiastic students from the Department of Interior and Fashion Design, ITM University Gwalior, and Batham's guidance demonstrated their clay-handling skills and learned professional molding techniques. Beyond the technical skills acquired, the workshop ignited a passion for environmental consciousness among the participants. Sustainability and creativity Hand in Hand The message from the eco-friendly Ganesha workshop at ITM University Gwalior is a reminder that sustainability and creativity can co-exist harmoniously. It demonstrates that innovative approaches can preserve our rich traditions while safeguarding the planet for future generations. The workshop emphasized that being environmentally conscious does not stifle creativity; rather, it can foster it. As we look ahead to the future, the significance of this event resonates deeply. It underscores the importance of embracing eco-friendly practices and reimagining traditional art forms. The workshop reveals how small, individual changes in our creative processes can lead to more sustainable outcomes. If you are passionate about securing a career in interior and fashion design and wish to make a difference in the world while pursuing your creative aspirations, ITM University Gwalior offers various courses, including B.Des (Interior/Fashion Design), B.Sc. (Interior/Fashion Design), M.Des (Interior/Fashion Design), and Interior/Fashion Diploma Courses. The path to a sustainable and creative future begins here. Apply now and be a part of the inspiring journey towards a better, greener world. Together, we can shape a brighter, more sustainable future, one creative masterpiece at a time. For more details, please visit: www.itmuniversity.ac.in (ADVERTORIAL 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)
BusinessWire India Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], October 3: Monitorz.in, a leading blog in the world of computer monitors, is excited to announce the launch of our comprehensive blog dedicated to all things monitor-related. With an unwavering commitment to providing valuable insights, expert reviews, and the latest trends, we aim to become the go-to resource for monitor enthusiasts and tech-savvy readers.Monitorz.in is not just another blog; it's a hub where passionate individuals, gamers, professionals, and tech aficionados can come together to explore the fascinating word of computer monitors. Our blog covers a wide range of topics, including:In Depth Reviews:Get in-depth, unbiased reviews of the latest monitor models, helping you make informed purchase decisions.'How-To' Guides:Learn essential tips and tricks for calibrating, optimizing, and maintaining your monitor for the best performance.Industry News: Stay updated with the latest industry news, product releases, and technological advancements in monitor technology.Comparative Analysis:Find side-by-sidecomparisons of popular monitorbrands and models to find the perfect fit for your needs.Expert Insights:Gain valuable insights from our team of experts, who have a deep understanding of monitor technology and trends.Monitorz.in is committed to delivering high-quality, informative content that empowers readers to make the most out of their monitor investments. Whether you're a hardcore gamer, a creative professional, or simply someone looking for a reliable monitor for everyday use, our blog has something for everyone.To explore the world of computer monitors like never before, visithttps://monitorz.in/today. Join our community of monitor enthusiasts and be part of the conversation on the future of visual technology.For media inquiries, interviews, or partnership opportunities, please contact Sumi Azher atinfo@monitorz.in (ADVERTORIAL 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)
India PR Distribution New Delhi [India], October 3: Latvindiaannounced its first large-scale nonprofit initiativeLOIP Latvindia Open Innovation Platform. LOIP has the ambition to become the leading online platform for global talents and innovators who want to access the networks of like-minded individuals, potential partners, investors, and mentors in Latvia and Europe. This initiative is part of Latvindia's commitment to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in several regions. Roberts Stafeckis, one of the founders of Latvindia, says Latvia is not only the very heart of the Baltic States but also a point where West meets East. "We connect East and West with our new open innovation platform. Everyone is an innovator because the innovative ability is inherently present in all of us. Since birth, we have innovated by learning by doing", says Roberts. With more than 600 solid startups in Latvia and growing financing chances, the market is far from saturation and responsive to good ideas. Latvia is also a fully integrated member of all major economic and political structures including the European Union and OECD advancing trade, peace and freedom in Europe and the world. Its position in the global market offers investors both opportunity and stability. Latvia is ranked #2 out of 38 in the OECD's International Tax Competitiveness Ranking and #19 in the general Ease of Doing Business survey. The prime minister of Latvia, Krisjanis Karins said, "Latvia is an excellent place to develop new technologies it offers great people, motivation to innovate and also government support for science and innovation". Latvian government is focused on creating a friendly business environment as well as providing support to new start-ups. "To succeed in Silicon Valley, you have to be a genius. In Latvia at the moment you just need to be very, very good", adds Laszlo Gaal, the co-founder and head ofRCP Residency and Citizenship Program. "We have extensive experience working together with foreign, especially Indian investors", Laszlo continued. LOIP works closely with its local and European partners to select the most promising innovators from around the globe. LOIP is neither a financing institution nor a business accelerator; however, it has social and business contacts to find the most appropriate partners to implement an innovative idea. Besides supporting and generating networking and collaborations, LOIP makes innovations visible to Latvian investors and business companies. After agreeing with innovators, LOIP will introduce the innovators' ideas to its partners and contacts to get them professionally evaluated and eventually financed. After carefully evaluating the ideas and business proposals, LOIP will invite several innovators with the best ideas to its annual event in Riga, Latvia, where they will have an opportunity to meet experts and business professionals and present their ideas. This event gives the innovators a chance to get feedback on their ideas and possibly even find funding for their projects. The platform is open to all individuals or startups with innovative ideas. This provides innovators an opportunity to showcase their ideas to potential investors and receive constructive feedback on how they can improve their projects. Latvindia is a collection of several projects linked by a common goal: Connect to Latvia, connect to Europe. The idea for Latvindia was conceived in India in 2018. The first Latvindia project was born in a few months, and a few years later, Latvindia received its present form. Initially, it focused only on India, but recently Latvindia has opened up to other countries. By establishing Latvindia Foundation, Latvindia has two priorities to help young talents with innovative ideas and facilitate international exchange of students. Website:https://www.latvindia.pro Website:https://www.latvindia.com (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by India PR Distribution. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
NewsVoir New Delhi [India], October 3: The second edition of e4m Party Spokespersons 50, which ranks the top political party spokepersons in the country, was held at a glittering ceremony in New Delhi on Sunday 1st Oct 2023. In a vibrant democracy like India, political spokespersons play a pivotal role in shaping public perception, influencing policy debates, and driving the narrative for their respective parties. In the second edition of this prestigious list five spokespersons of the Bharatiya Janata Party, three from the Congress and two from AAP featured among the top ten. e4m Party Spokespersons 50 initiative aims to recognize and honor the individuals who stand at the forefront of political communication, evaluate their effectiveness, and acknowledge their impact on the national discourse. By systematically assessing their articulation skills, credibility, and ability to engage with diverse audiences, we aim to shed light on the leaders who master the art of political representation. The ranking process employs a comprehensive and unbiased approach. It considers various parameters such as communication style, media presence, knowledge of issues, and public influence. The assessment involves a thorough evaluation of their public statements, media interactions, and overall impact on shaping political narratives. Today we celebrate the power of eloquence and the art of political representation. These spokespersons are not just voices; they are architects of national narratives, shaping our understanding of democracy. Their words echo in the corridors of power, influencing policies and public opinions. The e4m Party Spokespersons 50 is not just a list; its a tribute to those who wield words with impact, and tonight, we honor their exceptional contribution to our vibrant democracy," Dr Annurag Batra, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, BW Businessworld and Founder, exchange4media Group. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
PRNewswire Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], October 3: BNY Mellon, a global financial institution, today announced the appointment of Pawan Panjwani as Head of BNY Mellon Engineering, India. Pawan Panjwani is a progressive technology transformation engineer close to three decades of experience with top-tier global banking and financial institutions. Based out of Chennai, Pawan will report to Bridget Engle, Chief Information Officer, and Global Head of Engineering. He will lead the India Engineering team across Chennai and Pune. With this strategic addition to our leadership team, BNY Mellon is well-positioned to continue its commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions and enhanced client value. "We are pleased to welcome Pawan to BNY Mellon," said Engle. "His global industry experience and track record for advancing technology platforms will help our firm leverage the full potential of our Chennai and Pune locations." Prior to this, Panjwani was Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Wells Fargo. He was responsible for technology solutions and support for their businesses outside of the US across Canada, Europe, and Asia. He has also held several senior technology roles and has a track record of building and leading high-performance global teams at companies such as JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Accenture, and Infosys. About BNY Mellon Established in 1784, BNY Mellon is America's oldest bank and the first company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BK). Today, BNY Mellon powers capital markets around the world through comprehensive solutions that help clients manage and service their financial assets throughout the investment life cycle. BNY Mellon had USD 46.9 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration and USD 1.9 trillion in assets under management as of June 30, 2023. BNY Mellon BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. Additional information is available on www.bnymellon.com. India Media Contact:Rekha MenonRekha.menon@bnymellon.com (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
NewsVoir Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 3: The Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IFCCI) announces the election of Jean Touboul, CEO of Pernod Ricard India, as its President during the 46th Annual General Meeting held in Mumbai. The event was graced by the distinguished presence of Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and Thierry Mathou, Ambassador-Designate of France to India, along with over 300+ influential C-level business leaders from the Indo-French business community. Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis was felicitated in the presence of Thierry Mathou, Ambassador-Designate of France to India at its 46th AGM and the 25th anniversary of the Indo-French Strategic Partnership. IFCCI stands as India's most dynamic bilateral chamber, dedicated to fostering mutually beneficial trade relations between India and France. At this occasion, IFCCI felicitated Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra for his tremendous support and contribution for creating an investment friendly ecosystem in Maharashtra thus making it a favorable destination for FDI in the country. Specifically, his role in strengthening French investments and in fostering ease of doing business for French companies in the State of Maharashtra, resulting in a boost of bilateral trade and numerous job opportunities in the State. Addressing the august gathering, Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, remarked, Delighted to have been felicitated with this important honour. Thank you IFCCI for recognising our contribution and encouraging us. Dedicate this award to all my industrial workers, it is due to their effort and that of the owners who run these units, Maharashtra today is the most industrialised state in the country. Driven by huge local demand, best infrastructure in the country, most competitive and reliable incentives, Policy and political stability and the most skilled human resource, Maharashtra has the highest probability of your business to be successful. Assure all investors that Ease of doing Business is Topmost priority of this Government. French companies have made substantial investments in India, concurrently generating sustainable and significant employment opportunities in the country. The 25-year-old strategic partnership between India and France, rooted in mutual trust and comprehensive cooperation, has witnessed remarkable growth in the political, cultural, and economic spheres. Notably, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, attended Bastille Day celebration in Paris as the Guest of Honor on July 14th, marking a historic occasion where an Indian military contingent proudly participated alongside French troops in the military parade on Champs Elysees. This was followed by the second official visit to India of the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, during the G20 Summit last month. Thierry Mathou, Ambassador-Designate of France to India, added, My warmest congratulations to Jean Touboul on his election as President of IFCCI, and my heartfelt thanks to Sumeet Anand for steering IFCCI so ably these past years, and growing it into one of Frances most active bilateral chambers of commerce in the world. I am impressed by the dynamism of the Indo-French business community. These business ties contribute directly to the France-India strategic partnership, through our commitment to investing together in the sectors of the future, fostering innovation, and developing sustainable solutions. Jean Touboul, CEO, Pernod Ricard India takes over the IFCCI presidency from Sumeet Anand, Founder & CEO of IndSight Growth Partners, who was bestowed the prestigious Legion of Honour, France's highest civilian distinction, in recognition of his exceptional contributions to strengthening the India-France business corridor. Upon his appointment as the President of IFCCI, Jean Touboul, CEO, Pernod Ricard India shared his vision, stating, "This honor comes with a profound commitment - to continue collaborating to support businesses and cultivating opportunities for growth. We wholeheartedly embrace the Government's vision of a self-reliant India, and it compels us to make substantial investments in the country, catalyzing economic prosperity and nurturing an innovation hub accessible to all. Our ultimate objective is to empower our fellow Indian citizens through employment generation. Additionally, a paramount priority is the advocacy of ethical and sustainable business practices that revolutionize our strategic approaches. Leveraging the rich entrepreneurial legacies of both India and France, we aspire to forge a thriving ecosystem, ensuring a resilient future for businesses across diverse sectors." As Pernod Ricard itself completes 30 years of its strong foothold in India, the election of Touboul serves as a testament to the ever-evolving landscape of commerce, profound innovation, and the deepening bond between these two nations. French companies are unwavering in their commitment to investing in the State of Maharashtra. In April 2023, 19 French companies pledged substantial investments, amounting to 5000 crores of rupees, in the presence of Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra at the Invest. This momentous Investment Conclave was organized by the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IFCCI) in collaboration with MIDC and the Government of Maharashtra, underlining the collective dedication to fostering economic growth in the country and its regions. The Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IFCCI) stands as one of the most vibrant chambers in the global network of French Chambers, known as CCI France International, encompassing 120 chambers spanning across 94 countries. In recognition of its innovative endeavours, Earlier this year in May, IFCCI was honored as the "Most Innovative Chamber" for the fourth consecutive year, with the award presented to Payal S. Kanwar, Director General, IFCCI, in Paris. The Annual General Meeting featured two insightful panel discussions centered on the theme "India's Journey: Global Manufacturing, Supply Chains, and ESG Practices." These sessions, led by CEOs from top French and Indian corporations, highlighted their visions for sustainable business growth, responsible manufacturing and supply chain management, and adherence to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) guidelines for successful operations in India. Established in 1977, the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IFCCI) belongs to a worldwide network of 120 French Chambers (CCIFI) in 94 countries with over 37,000 member companies. One of the most active bilateral chambers in India, the Indo-French Chamber is a private association that promotes mutually beneficial trade relations between India & France. IFCCI represents a dynamic business platform of over 650 company members and a total network of more than 6,500 individual members. IFCCI has six offices in Mumbai (HQ), New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
BusinessWire India Pune (Maharashtra) [India], October 3: Racold, one of Indias leading home appliance brands, redefines the water heating landscape with the introduction of a premium range of water heaters. Brand has unveiled the highly anticipated 2023 editions of the new Omnis and Altro ranges of water heaters. A new range of water heaters is designed in Italy by renowned Italian designer Umberto Palermo. These stunning designs elevate and complement the interiors ofthe urban bath spaces. Cutting-edge offerings exemplify Racold's unwavering dedication to delivering innovative, modern, and energy-efficient water heating solutions. The newly unveiled water heaters aim to cater to the diverse requirements and evolving preferences of customers through innovative features and solutions. Designed with utmost care, they have been meticulously built to ensure convenience, safety, efficiency, and the sheer joy of bathing. Sharing his views on the new launch, Mohit Narula, Managing Director and Country Manager (India), Ariston Group India Pvt. Ltd., said, Racold has been known for quality and innovation for over 60 years. We continuously invest in understanding consumer needs and their evolving buying and usage behaviors. Such studies have helped us develop the right product. The new range of water heaters has been developed to address the key pain points of new-age consumers. Our water heaters offer excellent energy efficiency and improved convenience, apart from giving better control. The avant-garde features include voice control, IoT-enabled smart app-based control, digital display, and advanced microprocessor-based features like auto diagnosis and many more. The new Omnis range, along with its existing portfolio, delivers a 5-star BEE rating, which will save energy for its users and underlines our commitment to manufacture the most energy-efficient products for sustainable and inclusive growth." Sharing his thoughts on achieving this milestone, Emanuele Stano, Vice President, Asia, said, India is a focus market and a growth accelerator for Ariston Group. A young andgrowing population, coupled with economic development and infrastructure, are the pillars for solid and reliable expansion in a business category. Ariston Group is a global leader in thermal comfort and energy efficiency, and our purpose is to provide Indian consumers with high-quality hot water solutions while protecting the environment. The combination of Racolds heritage, synonymous with thermal comfort in India, and the Italian tradition of the Ariston Group is a winning combination created and developed to best meet Indian consumers' demand and taste." Omnis 2023: The premium range of storage geysers with unmatched innovation, connectivity, and convenience Omnis DG Wi-Fi:A true master-piece that offers unprecedented control over the hot showers and will make anyone re-think the level of convenience this water heater can offer to its users. Available in an elegant black color, it comes in two capacity options: 15 and 25 liters. Omnis DG WiFi comes with the Voice Control feature, which allows users to interact with and control water heaters using Alexa or Google Assistant with the help of simple voice commands. Now simply say, Alexa, turn on the water heater". The other notable feature of Omnis DG WiFi is its artificial intelligence-based ECO functionality, which offers reduced energy consumption without compromising on comfort. Furthermore, users can access real-time notifications and monitor energy consumption through the built-in Wi-Fi control feature, accessible via the Racold Net app. Omnis DG:Omnis DG is a technologically advanced water heater designed to deliver superior performance, utmost safety, and user convenience.Available in two-color options, namely Sandstorm Gold and Black, this model comes in different capacities of 10, 15, and 25 liters. The standout features of this water heater include a digital display with touch control and advanced microprocessor-based auto-power-off and auto-diagnosis functionalities. Its industry-first silverion technology effectively prevents the growth of bacteria, providing safe and healthy hot water every time. The microprocessor in Omnis DG supports two of the most powerful features, namely auto-power-off and auto-diagnosis. The auto-off functionality allows users to pre-set a timer to switch off the water heater automatically, whereas the auto-diagnosis functionality offers the utmost safety to its users by continuously monitoring the product's performance and ensuring that it operates within safe parameters. Omnis R:This water heater is available in attractive Charming Grey and Premium White colors and is available in three capacity options: 10, 15, and 25 liters. Designed to prioritize safety and give unmatched performance. Omnis R comes with a Children Care Mode, which ensures the safety of children at home against accidental exposure to extreme hot water in the shower. The new Omnis R also features Titanium Plus Technology, giving it unmatched durability and tank protection from corrosion in hard water conditions. It is further enhanced by the Safety+ feature, which provides three layers of protection. Additionally, the inclusion of Flexomix enables a consistent supply of hot water for longer showers. Altro 2023: The new age of stylish instant geysers for faster water heating Altro i+:This premium instant geyser is availablein elegant grayside rings, offering two capacities to choose from, i.e., 3 and 6 liters. It offers an array of innovative features, such as an intuitive smart LED ring to let usersknow when the hot water is ready and a customized application with kitchen and bath modes for added convenience. The 6-liter variant stands out with its Duronox technology, which provides protection against hard water and extends the product's life. On the other hand, the 3-liter model excels at faster heating with two heating power options of 3 kW and 4.5 kW. Altro i:The Altro i instant water heater offers two different capacities: 1 and 3 liters, and two-color options, Grey and Blue (exclusive to the 3-liter variant). This recent release is an Italian master piece design that flaunts swirl wave design with dual LED indicators to enhance the aesthetics ofuser'sspace. It is specifically designed with high pressure resistance, making it suitable for installation in high-rise buildings. Additionally, it offers faster heating capabilities (3 Kw and 4.5 Kw) and incorporates an anti-siphon system for added safety and prevention of backflow. Altro i DN:Racold has introduced the latest model in a grey color ring option, featuring a capacity of 3 liters. This advanced water heater is specially made to operate in hard water conditions with cutting-edge Duronox technology combined with SS#316L for superior performance and durability. Equipped with key features like Safety Plus for 3 layers of safety, faster heating, anode for a longer life of the water heater, high pressure resistance for high-rise buildings, and dual LED indicators for enhanced visibility. So, get ready to embrace the future of water heating with Racold and experience a whole new level of comfort and satisfaction. (ADVERTORIAL 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)
PNN Surat (Gujarat) [India], October 3: The global hospitality industry is expected to see revenues grow by more than 5 per cent by 2027 while facing significant staffing shortages. To help address this problem, Kennesaw State University in Atlanta, Georgia, and Indias AURO University are joining forces to prepare students to meet the industrys global talent needs. Kennesaw State and AURO University recently signed an agreement that will see hospitality management programs at both institutions host faculty and student exchanges throughout the year. These exchanges will provide students in India and the U.S. with valuable international perspectives on the hospitality industry and enhance overall cultural awareness. The hospitality industry is global by its very nature, said Robin Cheramie, dean of the Michael J. Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State. Almost any organization our students work for will have international guests and clients or will operate in multiple countries. Partnering with AURO means our students will be better able to compete in the global marketplace. Leaders from both Universities met on the Kennesaw State campus to sign the memorandum of understanding formalizing their partnership. Dean Cheramie was joined by AURO Universitys founder and president H.P. Rama, AUROs Chief Operating Officer Suresh Mathur, and the director of Kennesaw States Hospitality Management program, Leonard Jackson. AURO University was established in 2011 by Rama, who is also the founding chairman of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association and current chairman of Auro Hotels, which develops a portfolio of more than 37 Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott locations worldwide. While AURO University offers a full range of degree options, the institution has developed a worldwide reputation for producing quality hospitality industry professionals. Students in AUROs hospitality program currently complete a one-year internship in the U.S. as a required part of their studies. The Kennesaw State partnership will see these students spend part of their time in the U.S. at the Kennesaw campus meeting students, working with faculty in the Coles College, and learning about the Metro Atlanta hospitality industry. During the meeting, H.P Rama extended his congratulations to the teams from both universities. He emphasized the significance of the day, as AURO University and KSU joined forces with a shared goal: the cultivation of a global talent pool in the hospitality industry. He highlighted that students and faculty members from both institutions would gain not just academic knowledge, but also a deep understanding of cross-cultural values and diverse experiences. He went on to express that this partnership's scope extended beyond AURO University, to include Auro Hotels located in the United States and India. The official start of this collaboration will be marked by Leonard's visit to the AU campus in December 2023. The partnership will also allow Kennesaw State students to visit India. Hospitality management faculty plan to establish a new education abroad experience to India for Spring 2024, where students will visit AUROs campus in Gujarat, Surat and tour the surrounding area. I want this experience to be as much about increasing cultural understanding for our hospitality students and for those at AURO University as it is about becoming better global businesspeople, said Jackson. Many hospitality professionals live and work outside their home country. This experience will open students up to opportunities they may not have considered before. In addition to student experiences, the agreement includes faculty exchanges. Both institutions are developing virtual and in-person exchanges where faculty will share ideas on how to incorporate global perspectives into their teaching. Also, while the partnership was started to enhance hospitality management education opportunities, AURO and Kennesaw State are interested in expanding the exchanges to include students and faculty in other disciplines as well. With the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India estimating a skilled worker shortage of 150,000 in the luxury hotel market alone by 2029, and the American Hotel & Lodging Association reporting that 81 percent of hotel owners are unable to fill open positions, the future is bright for enthusiastic, well-trained, and globally focused hospitality professionals. The new partnership between Kennesaw State University and AURO University will position students at both institutions to succeed as leaders in this growing industry. AURO University, Surat, is one of the fastest growing Universities in Gujarat, AURO University is inspired by the vision and teachings of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh and The Divine Mother. It is a progressive center for integral learning and leadership, where the mind, body and spirit are aligned and prepared to embark on a journey of lifelong enrichment for both the individual and the community. AURO University offers programs in Business, Hospitality Management, Law, Information Technology, Design, Journalism & Mass Communication, Liberal Arts and Human Sciences and Sri Aurobindo Integral Life Centre (SAILC). For more information, please visit www.aurouniversity.edu.in (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
PRNewswire Chandigarh [India], October 3: Faith leaders of different religions participated in the mega cleanliness drive of Chandigarh Welfare Trust (CWT) held in Chandigarh in a symbolic show of unity among all communities towards building a sustainable and clean India.The mega cleanliness drive was flagged-off by Chancellor of Chandigarh University & CWT founder Satnam Singh Sandhu, and Chandigarh MC Commissioner Anindita Mitra. The religious leaders of different faiths Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and Sikhism came together at the park to promote cleanliness and hygienic lifestyle. Besides 2000 volunteers, residents and Safayi Karamcharis took part in large numbers in the mega cleanliness drive giving the message of unity for Swachhata. On the occasion,a Tricolor map of India was made using flowers to show unity in diversity for the vision of cleaner India. The drive which was organised by CWT in collaboration with Chandigarh Municipal Corporation,on the call given byPrime Minister Narendra Modi for one hour of 'Shramdaan for Swachhata' as 'Swachhanjali' to Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) under theme'Ek Tareekh Ek Ghanta Ek Saath'. The day-long mega cleanliness drive was also a part of CWT's 'Sewa Pakhwada' which began on the 73rdbirthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi onSeptember 17. Besides cleaning the park, the faith leaders also planted saplings in the park. On the occasion, the Shivalik Parkwhich witnessed the historic multi-faith gathering was renamed as 'Akhand Bharat Park' as it became this symbol of unity between all communities. The drive received a huge response and participants also took a pledge making commitment towards cleanliness and devote time for it. A plantation drive was also held at theShivalik Park, in which saplings were planted. Satnam Singh Sandhu, ChancellorofChandigarh University & FounderofChandigarh Welfare Trust along with Anwar Ahmed, General Secretary of Minority Morcha; Kaka Khan, Vice President Jama Masjid Sector 45 - Chandigarh; Khursheed Ali, Muslim leader from Uttar Pradesh; Anil Masih, President CNI Church Chandigarh; Colonel Gursewak Singh,president of Resident Welfare Association (RWA), Sector 13 (Manimajra); S.S Randhawa Chairman Senior Citizens; Daler Singh, President Waheguru Seva Society; And Rajesh Chahal, President Shri Sankmochan Hanuman Temple among others were present on the occasion. The gathering of religious leaders at one place showed that achieving cleanliness and sanitation is a shared responsibility. In the day-long cleanliness drive, which was aimed toraise awareness about the benefits of Swachhata and hygienic surroundings and emphasised on contributing towards the vision of PM Modi to achieve clean and hygienic India, as many as 2000 volunteers, 250 Safai Karamcharis, and scores of residents of Manimajra participated in the cleanliness drive. ChancellorofChandigarh University & CWT founder, Satnam Singh Sandhu said that it was overwhelming to see people from all religious communities coming together for achieving cleanliness. "Every community showed enthusiasm towardsacommon goal of clean and hygienic India. This park became a symbol of unity and harmony among all communities. Achieving clean India is a shared responsibility and everyoneis contributing to this cause under the visionary leadership of PM Modi who made Swachh Bharat Abhiyan a 'Jan Andolan'," said Satnam Singh Sandhu." "All the citizens of India endorsed the vision of PM Modi and joined hands in this movement to make India a clean and hygienic nation which is pivotal for the development of the country during 'Amrit Kaal'. Initiatives like Jal Jeevan Abhiyan and Swachh Bharat Mission have accelerated India's growth," he said. Mukesh Didi, Brahm Kumari, said that this is truly symbolic to have people of all faiths coming togetherto show solidarity for achieving clean and hygienic India. "This park will be a symbol of unity among people of all religions to work for PM Modi's vision of clean India. It was his Swachh Bharat Abhiyan that inspired the citizens towards cleanliness and hygiene and made it as a vital part of their lifestyle," she said. Anil Masih,president ofAllChurchesCouncil for Punjab and Chandigarh, who is also a nominated councillor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, said that by gathering for a common cause of achieving cleaner India, the members of different faiths have shown a symbolic unity whichisthe only way to achieve this dream. "Under PM Modi, 'Clean India' has become the dream of common man and everyone is enthusiastic to contribute towards making Indiaacleaner and hygienic country.Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, has been a historic initiative taken by PM Modi and the transformation it has brought, in terms of sanitation in rural and urban areas, is remarkable," he said. Kaka Khan, Vice-President of Jama Masjid, Sector 45, said that everyone here isthereto celebrate the nine years ofSwachh Bharat Abhiyan which was launched in 2014 by PM Modi. "It has become a people's movement and everyone is contributing towards this mission. It is important that every community should join hands towards the common goal and this is what this mega cleanliness drive has contributed towards bringing everyone for a common cause," he said, adding that,"PM Modi's immense contribution in terms sanitation is historic and no other Indian PM before him has made such contributions for making India a clean and hygienic country." Col. Gursewak Singh, the president of Resident Welfare Association (RWA), said that renaming this park as 'Akhand Bharat Park, is a historic movement and it instilled the people of this area with a message of cleanliness and hygiene. "PM Modi turned Swachhata Abhiyan as a Jan Andolan and this movement was able to achieve significant milestones in the last nine years. Eradication of open defecation and access of tap water in households throughout the villages of the country have transformed the lives of millions of Indians who were facing these issues for decades," he said. Presidentof theChandigarh Senior Citizen Association(CSCA), S.S Randhawa said that the cleanliness campaign is an important step towards creating a clean and hygienic environment."India should become a clean country and pass this legacy on to the next generation. The vision of our country's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is laying the foundation of a clean India which will be a gift for the coming generations," he said. On the occasion, CWT also honoured 18 sanitation workers of MC Chandigarh for their tirelesscontribution towards making Chandigarh a clean and hygienic city and help the city to perform well in 'Swachh Survekshan'. CWT honoured them and celebrated their hard workbyrecognising their contributions. About Chandigarh University Chandigarh University is a NAAC A+ Grade University and QS World Ranked University. This autonomous educational institution is approved by UGC and is located near Chandigarh in the state of Punjab. It is the youngest university inIndiaand the only private university in Punjab to be honoured with A+ Grade by NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council). CU offers more than 109 UG and PG programs in the field of engineering, management, pharmacy, law, architecture, journalism, animation, hotel management, commerce, and others. It has been awarded as The University with Best Placements by WCRC. Website address:https://www.cuchd.in/ About Chandigarh Welfare Trust ChandigarhWelfareTrustis a not-for-profit organization founded by Satnam Singh Sandhu committed to the city and citizens' welfare of Chandigarh. The organization aims to improve the citizens' living experience inChandigarh and revive the city's historically endorsed model status to again serve as a benchmark for other cities in India, and those around the world. The organization aims to work together with key city stakeholders and develop pragmatic and sustainable solutions to critical challenges faced by the communities of Chandigarh. Website address:http://www.chandigarhwelfaretrust.com/ Photo:https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2237385/Chandigarh_University.jpg (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
British actor Jodie Turner-Smith has filed for divorce to end her marriage to Canadian actor Joshua Jackson in Los Angeles Superior Court, People reported. Jackson and Turner-Smith married in late 2019, and their first child, a daughter, was born in April 2020. This was the first marriage for both actors. A source confirmed to People that Turner-Smith has requested 50/50 split custody in her filing. The couple celebrated her 37th birthday in New York City on September 9, and were also recently photographed at New York Fashion Week. However, Turner-Smith attended last week's Albie Awards alone, hosted by George Clooney. Turner-Smith previously said that she had been a fan of Jackson's since his days on Dawson's Creek and that they first met at Usher's 40th birthday party in 2018. "When I first met my husband, we had a one-night stand," the actressrevealed onLate Night with Seth Meyersin 2021. "We're in a two, three-year one-night stand now." Jackson and Turner-Smith fuelled rumours of an impending wedding in August 2019 after they appeared to pick up a marriage licence in Beverly Hills, California. PEOPLE later reported that the couple married in December 2019. In April 2021, the Murder Mystery 2 actress told PEOPLE how lucky she and Jackson were to have met. "I think it's really beautiful to be with someone who is so supportive and so loving," she shared, adding, "We're so similar in so many ways. We're like mirrors for each other. And I just really love that human being." Jackson told Andy Cohen of Watch What Happens Live in May that he knew Turner-Smith was "the one" when she "walked into the room looking like that." Turner-Smith told Forbes in 2022 that she wanted to marry her husband because of "how loved and supported I felt by him" back then. "I had never been with anyone who I thought was wanting to lift me up the way that I felt that he was lifting me up," she revealed at the time. "That is one of my favorite things about him." (ANI)
The stunt-based reality show 'Khatron Ke Khiladi 13' is about to come to an end. The host of the highly anticipated show and filmmaker Rohit Shetty shared a gratitude note as he began shooting for the final episode. Taking to Instagram, Rohit on Monday, As I shoot the final episode of Khatron ke Khiladi season 13, I would like to thank YOU, My amazing audience, for showing your incredible support and making this season of Khatron Ke Khiladi, the no.1 show EVERY WEEK! I am truly grateful beyond words for all your love! Bas hamesha aise hi pyaar dete rehna! The show hosted byRohit Shettyis based on the format of the American show 'Fear Factor'. Aishwarya Sharma, Anjali Anand, Anjum Fakih,Archana Gautam, Arjit Taneja, Daisy Shah, Dino James, Nyra Banerjee, Rashmeet Kaur, Rohit Roy, Ruhi Chaturvedi, Sheezan Khan,Shiv Thakareand Soundous Moufaki are part of the show. Earlier, speaking to ANI, Rohit shared how he never imagined hosting such a show, and details about Khatron Ke Khiladis 13th instalment that will be hosted in Cape Town, South Africa. He said, This is our family business. My dad was an action and stunt director, so seeing him I followed his footsteps. Never thought that such a show like would ever be made. And I would be offered to me and then I will host it, not for one or two seasons but 8 seasons. I am thankful to the audience and God that it becomes so popular and grateful for the viewers love that they are showing towards the show to date. Apart from KKK 13, Rohit will be soon making his OTT directorial debut with the upcoming series 'Indian Police Force' which stars Sidharth Malhotra, Shilpa Shetty and Vivek Oberoi in the lead roles. The series will stream exclusively on the OTT platform Amazon Prime Video. However, the official release date is still awaited. Not only that, he is gearing up for his next action film 'Singham Again starring actor Ajay Devgn in the lead role. The film is all set to hit the theatres on Independence Day 2024 and will face a big clash with Allu Arjuns Pushpa 2. (ANI)
Taking to Instagram, production house Maddock Films shared a poster of the film and wrote, Mark your calendars - Valentine Week! Jio Studios and Dinesh Vijan present an untitled film starring Shahid Kapoor and Kriti Sanon, set to release on February 9, 2024.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cx7MvKMoN_h/

Apart from Shahid and Kriti, the film also stars the legendary actor Dharmendra.

Earlier the film was slated to hit the theatres in October 2023, then it was shifted to December 7.

Now its set to release in Valentine's Week, February 9, 2024.

Previously, the makers unveiled the first look of the actors, and undoubtedly Kriti and Shahid looked super hot together. In the image, Shahid and Kriti can be seen sitting on a bike and facing each other. Amidst a sunset backdrop, the actors can be seen in an intimate pose, garnering fans' attention.Dinesh Vijan, Jyoti Deshpande and Laxman Utekar have produced it. The film marks Shahid and Kriti's first on-screen collaboration.

Meanwhile, Shahid was recently seen in the action thriller film 'Bloody Daddy'. Helmed by Ali Abbas Zafar, the film streamed on the OTT platform JioCinema.

Kriti, on the other hand, will be next seen in the action thriller film Ganapath - A Hero Is Born.

Apart from Kriti, the film also stars Tiger Shroff and Amitabh Bachchan in the lead roles.

Kriti will also be seen in The Crew alongside Kareena Kapoor Khan, Tabu and Diljit Dosanjh.

'The Crew' is all set to hit the theatres on March 22, 2024. (ANI)
Pakistani actor Mahira Khan recently tied the knot with her long-time beau Salim Karim. On Tuesday, the actor shared the first picture from her dreamy wedding with her husband in which they look like a regal couple. Taking to Instagram, Mahira shared the picture and wrote, Bismillah. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cx8DRlgshHQ/ In the romantic picture, the couple could be seen hugging each other under the veil. Thewedding reportedly took place in Pakistans Bhurban in the presence of family members and close friends. Soon after she dropped the first wedding picture, her friends and fans swamped down the comment section and dropped red hearts and fire emoticons. Actor Sonam Kapoor wished her saying, Congratulations beautiful girl. God bless you both. Actor Mouni Roy commented, Heartiest congratulations to both of you. Wish you the happiest most meaningful journey ahead. The Raees actor also shared a video from her marriage ceremony on her Instagram and captioned it, My Shehzada, Salim. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cx8EFxYsvkv/ In the video, Salim donned a black sherwani and blue turban, while the star looked gorgeous in her pastel lehenga and translucent veil. She was accompanied by her son Azlaan. Salim became emotional and was spotted crying tears of delight as bride Mahira walked down the aisle. He hugged her once as he removed her veil, and their love and strong chemistry drew everyone's attention. Reportedly, this is Mahira's second marriage since 2007. She was earlier married to Ali Askari and had a son by him in 2009. However, they separated in 2015. For quite some time, rumours about her relationship with Salim Karim had been doing the rounds. And, the actor has now confirmed what was in the realm of speculation by tyingthe knot with the love of her life. In one of her posts on Instagram, she wrote about her bonding with her son and also about her past relationship. Sharing the picture with her baby boy, she wrote in the caption, Exactly 10 years ago my life changed. I was a 24 year old girl with a baby in my arms celebrating my 25th birthday. These ten years feel like a thousand... with experiences worth a lifetime. I became a mother, I became an actor.. there was loss and separation, I witnessed success and fame. I fell in love. I lost hope at times and mustered up courage most of the time. I realised some of my dreams.. And had to let some go. And on this journey, I had all of you with me. Every step of the way. I wish I could write it all.. maybe one day I will. I am so grateful for everything - all of it. We are nothing without the people who have stood by us - you all are the wind beneath my wings. I thank you with all my heart and soul. I promise you all that I will pay it forward in every way I possibly can. InshAllah, she added. As I write this, here I am a 35 year old woman with a 10 year old not so baby boy, still wrapped in my arms. Thank you for the birthday wishes.. overwhelmed and overjoyed. Grateful. So grateful. Alhumdullilah, the actor added in her post. On the work front, she was seen in a number of Pakistani movies and shows, including Bol, Bin Roye, Manto, among others. She starred opposite Shah Rukh Khan in Raees in 2017. Among her most successful television shows was Humsafar, also featuring Pakistan's heartthrob Fawad Khan. (ANI)
Actor Nupur Sanon is currently gearing up for the release of her debut film Tiger Nageswara Rao, in which she will be seen opposite south superstar Ravi Teja. On Tuesday, the makers unveiled the films official trailer which received a massive response from fans. Tiger Nageswara Rao marks the acting debut of Nupur Sanon. Sharing his experience of working with Ravi Teja in the film, Nupur told ANI, I consider myself lucky. I feel that as an actor he is phenomenal, but Im very blessed to have known him as a human because he is very humble. His energy is so infectious that you always have to be on your toes to perform in front of him. Nupur also revealed actor Akshay Kumars reaction when she first told him about doing a film with Ravi Teja. Nupur said, During the promotions of Filhaal 2, Akshay sir asked me what are you doing next? So I told him that I was doing a film. To which he questioned whos there with you in the film? And I just said Ravi, and I didn't even take his full name and he said aankh band karke karle, you dont know how lucky youre. Talking about working in Bollywood films, Ravi Teja told ANI, "I can't say much, let's see what happens after this. If you all like this film then call me." He also revealed that he loved veteran filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee's cult classic comedy films like 'Golmaal' and 'Chupke Chupke'. Ravi Teja said, "I loved old comedy films of Hrishi Daa and Basu Chatterjee. All their films like Golmaal and Chupke Chupke i love them." The trailer portrays the era of one of the most wanted thieves in Stuartpuram, brought to life by the profoundly talented actor Ravi Teja. During the event, the makers surprised the audience by announcing the film's release in sign language for the deaf community. A separate trailer was also created and showcased to the audience in the presence of the members of the deaf community. Teja was also seen interacting with the deaf community people at the trailer launch. The Pan-India film is all set to hit the theatres on October 20.(ANI)
A new study from the University of Southern Denmark suggests that psilocybin, the main ingredient in mushrooms with psychedelic characteristics, could be used as a therapeutic aid through microdosing. Psilocybin has long been recognized as a classic psychedelic substance and has recently been investigated for its potential to assist in the treatment of various psychiatric disorders, primarily depression and addiction, through therapy supplemented with a high dose of psilocybin. In such therapeutic treatment, the patient takes psilocybin after thorough therapeutic preparation and undergoes a psychedelic experience in a supportive environment with a trained therapist. Subsequently, the experience is integrated over several therapy sessions. Experiments are being conducted with patients at hospitals, including Bispebjerg Hospital and Rigshospitalet. Microdosing in Rats In the recent study published inNature- Molecular Psychiatry, Associate Professor Mikael Palner and PhD student Kat Kiilerich from the Research Unit for Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine at the University of Southern Denmark examined the effects of small doses of psilocybin on rats. Their focus was on repeated low doses of psilocybin, which are significantly lower than the doses typically used in therapeutic settings and are commonly referred to as 'microdosing.' - Microdosing is a phenomenon popularized within performance culture, notably in areas like Silicon Valley, California, and has subsequently spread through stories and anecdotes on the internet as a form of self-medication for various challenges, explains Mikael Palner, the last author of the study. Effective for Stress and Compulsive Behaviors The study conducted on rats showed that animals tolerated the repeated low doses of psilocybin well and did not exhibit signs of reduced pleasure (anhedonia), anxiety, or altered locomotor activity. Most notably, repeated low doses of psilocybin increased the rats' resilience to stress, and they displayed fewer compulsive behaviors. Additionally, an increase in the number of connections to the thalamus region of the brain, which serves as a kind of filter for our decisions and concerns, was observed. - The change in connectivity to the thalamus may contribute to our enhanced resilience to stress factors and could explain why so many people report positive effects on their well-being from small doses of psychedelic mushrooms. A Promising New Approach Through the new study, the researchers have established a valid method that can be utilized for further research into the effects of repeated low doses of psilocybin. The study also lends support to the numerous anecdotal reports of the benefits of microdosing as a therapeutic intervention. This paves the way for additional research and potentially entirely new approaches to treating various mental disorders. - The increased anxiety and stress in society currently have placed a strong focus on microdosing, leading to a surge in the trade of mushrooms. Countries such as the Netherlands, Australia, the USA, and Canada have either legalized or are in the process of legalizing psilocybin for therapeutic treatment, says Mikael Palner. - It is, therefore, crucial that we understand the effects and side effects of these substances, which are already widely used by people around the world. Enhanced Understanding with Potential Mikael Palner developed an interest in researching psychedelic substances and psilocybin when he lived in Silicon Valley, California, eleven years ago and witnessed the surge of self-improvement practices that garnered significant media attention and prompted more people to experiment with microdosing. - Some books were published that popularized the concept of using small doses of psychedelics to address both mental issues and enhance performance. This motivated me to launch the project I've been devoted to for the past six years, says Mikael Palner. - Now, we can determine the appropriate dosage in rats, enabling us to investigate the effects of microdosing, which could significantly advance our understanding of the brain and mental challenges. This benefits both the field of science and society at large. (ANI)
Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu along with Union Minister Kiren Rijiju and Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda on Monday marked Gandhi Jayanti by joining soldiers from the Indian Army and ITBP in Mago Chuna village, the last village of the Indo-China border. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju also pays tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. In the extreme high-altitude region of Mago Chuna, the soldiers celebrated Gandhi Jayanti with great enthusiasm, accompanied by Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda. Chief Minister Pema Khandu, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, and senior army officials were seen singing various Bollywood classics and dancing alongside the soldiers. The event commenced with a floral tribute to Mahatma Gandhi by Chief Minister Khandu and all the dignitaries present. Addressing the gathering, CM Khandu highlighted the historic nature of the gathering, as it brought together both army personnel and civilians near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on such a large scale for the first time. A cultural show was organized during the event, and Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda also joined the celebration. During his address, CM Khandu also emphasized the improved road connectivity in the forward areas, noting that the completion of the 18km Mago - Thingbu hydel road has significantly eased travel for locals and defense personnel. Earlier, it took almost two days to reach Mago from Tawang. But now with road completion, it takes less than an hour on the wheel. The CM thanked the central government for the PMGSY project and the Ministry of Home Affairs for enabling road connectivity to Mago village. He further said that the entire stretch of road will be blacktopped by the end of the year. Speaking on the harmonious relationship between the civilian population and the military, CM Khandu praised Tawang for setting an exemplary standard in the country. He hoped that such ties would contribute to realizing the vision of the Vibrant Village Programme. CM Khandu stressed the importance of providing basic facilities like light, road, and water connectivity to villages for the success of the VVP. He also advocated for income-generating activities such as tourism for economic sustainability. With the completion of the road, the CM hoped that Mago would soon see the flow of tourists as the place is popular for its hot springs and scenic beauty. Also on his tour of forward areas in Mago, which falls under his constituency, the CM had a meeting separately with the villagers of Mago. In the meeting development issues were discussed. While on the way back to Tawang, he stopped by several villages and held meetings on development issues. Lt. General Manish Erry, GOC of Gajraj Corps, senior officials of the Indian army, ITBP, and local villagers were also present at the event. (ANI)
The R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India has been recommended for use by the World Health Organisation (WHO) after meeting required safety, quality and effectiveness standards. Following a rigorous, detailed scientific review by the WHOs independent advisory body, the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) and the Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG), the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine has been recommended for use. The recommendation was based on pre-clinical and clinical trial data which showed good safety and high efficacy in four countries, at sites with both seasonal and perennial malaria transmission, making it the worlds second-ever WHO recommended vaccine for preventing malaria in children, Serum Institute of India said in a statement. The vaccine was developed by the Jenner Institute at Oxford University and Serum Institute of India with support from the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), the Wellcome Trust, and the European Investment Bank (EIB). To date, the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine has been licensed for use in Ghana, Nigeria and Burkina Faso. In combination with public health measures such as the use of insecticide-treated bed nets, this vaccine can help save and improve the lives of millions of children and their families, SII added. The vaccine has recently reached the primary one-year endpoint in a pivotal large-scale Phase III clinical trial funded mainly by the Serum Institute of India, with Oxford University as the regulatory sponsor including 4,800 children across Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali and Tanzania. The Phase III trial results are under peer review before publication. Dr Lisa Stockdale, Senior Immunologist, The Jenner Institute, University of Oxford said Todays news is a testament to the work of our small but dedicated team and means we have another tool with which to fight this disease that kills over half a million people every year. However, further work is critical to establish not just that the vaccine works, but to understand more about how it works, and apply that knowledge to future vaccines. Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India, saidFor far too long, malaria has threatened the lives of billions of people across the globe, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable amongst us. This is why the WHO recommendation and approval of the R21/Matrix-M vaccine marks a huge milestone on our journey to combat this life-threatening disease, showing what exactly can be achieved when the public and private sector, scientists and researchers, all work together towards a shared goal. As we continue to work together to create a healthier, more equitable world for everyone, I am incredibly proud of the part that the Serum Institute of India has played in developing the R21 malaria vaccine. We look forward to scaling up the vaccine production to ensure that it is accessible to those who need it the most, Adar Poonawalla added. Serum Institute of India further said that with the approval and recommendations by the WHO, additional regulatory approvals are expected to follow shortly and R21/Matrix-M vaccine doses could be ready to begin wider roll-out as early as next year. (ANI)
After Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee alleged that the police manhandled women protesters at Raj Ghat, Delhi Police has said that TMC leaders were requested to vacate the Samadhi Sthal peacefully. "On this very important day of the birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, thousands of people were visiting Rajghat - the Samadhi Sthal - to pay homage. TMC leaders were requested not to sit at Samadhi Sthal. Despite repeated requests, they were not listening. Due to that public entry was affected and that resulted in a gathering of people around Samadhi Sthal. Therefore, to avoid public inconvenience as well as in the interest of their own safety, TMC leaders were requested to vacate the samadhi Sthal peacefully, Delhi police said. The TMC is holding a mega protest in the national capital against the central government for stopping the disbursement of MGNREGA funds to the state government. Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Monday hit back at Union Minister Anurag Thakur, saying, "How much money has the central government collected from West Bengal?" "Anurag Thakur says that they gave Rs 2 lakh crore. But the question is, how much amount have they taken from West Bengal? They have been in power for nine years, and they have taken at least Rs 5-7 lakh crore from West Bengal. You have taken money from the state and are keeping it deprived of rights," Banerjee said. Speaking about the protest at Raj Ghat, the TMC leader said, "The way they misbehaved and manhandled it clearly shows that BJP is scared...If the people feel that those who we elected to power have stopped the funds and there is a need to change the government, no one can stop that from happening..." "The police lathi-charged women protesters. They tried to turn the protest violent. They were continuously asking us to get up when we were sitting there peacefully. They were treating us as a commodity. We did not engage in any political sloganeering, nor did we speak. Only MPs and MLAs were present there. At first, some of our supporters reached the place, but then on requesting they went away," Banerjee added. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit poll-bound states of Chhattisgarh and Telangana on Monday and will lay the foundation stone of multiple development projects in both states. PM Modi will dedicate multiple development projects worth more than Rs 26,000 crore in Chhattisgarh, including the NMDC Steel Ltds Steel Plant at Nagarnar in Bastar district. According to Prime Minister's Office, it is built at a cost of more than Rs 23,800 crore, the steel plant is a greenfield project that will produce high-quality steel. NMDC Steel Ltds Steel Plant at Nagarnar will provide employment opportunities to thousands of people, in the plant as well as in ancillary and downstream industries. It will put Bastar on the steel map of the world and provide a boost to the socioeconomic development of the region. Moreover, the PM will also dedicate a new rail line between Antagarh and Taroki and a rail line doubling project between Jagdalpur and Dantewara. He will lay the foundation stone of the Boridand -Surajpur rail line doubling project and redevelopment of Jagdalpur Station under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. Prime Minister will also flag off the Taroki Raipur DEMU Train Service. These rail projects will improve connectivity in the tribal regions of the state. The improved rail infrastructure and the new train service will benefit the local people and help in the economic development of the region. Prime Minister will also dedicate a road upgradation project from Kunkuri to Chhattisgarh - Jharkhand Border section of National Highway-43. The new road will improve road connectivity, benefiting the people of the region After Chhattisgarh, PM Modi will reach Nizamabad, Telangana, where he will lay the foundation stone of various development projects worth around Rs 8000 crore, in important sectors like power, rail and Health. With the vision of increasing power generation with improved energy efficiency in the country, the first 800 MW Unit of phase 1 of the Telangana Super Thermal Power Project of NTPC will be dedicated to the nation. It will provide low-cost power to Telangana and provide a boost to the economic development of the state. It will also be one of the most environmentally compliant power stations in the country. Telanganas rail infrastructure will get a boost as the Prime Minister will dedicate rail projects including the new Railway Line connecting Manoharabad and Siddipet; and the electrification project between Dharmabad - Manoharabad and Mahabubnagar - Kurnool. The 76 km long Manoharabad-Siddipet rail line will boost the socio-economic development of the region, especially in the districts of Medak and Siddipet. The electrification project between Dharmabad - Manoharabad and Mahabubnagar - Kurnool will help in improving the average speed of trains and will lead to environment-friendly rail transport in the region. Prime Minister will also flag off the Siddipet - Secunderabad - Siddipet train service, benefiting the local rail commuters in the region. Furthermore, in an effort will augment health infrastructure in Telangana, the Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of 20 Critical Care Blocks (CCBs) across the state under Pradhan Mantri - Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission. These CCBs will be built in the districts Adilabad, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Jogulamba Gadwal, Hyderabad, Khammam, Kumuram Bheem Asifabad, Mancherial, Mahabubnagar (Badepally), Mulugu, Nagarkurnool, Nalgonda, Narayanpet, Nirmal, Rajanna Sircilla, RangaReddy (Maheshwaram), Suryapet, Peddapalli, Vikarabad and Warangal (Narsampet). These CCBs will augment district-level critical care infrastructure across Telangana benefiting the people of the state. Assembly elections are scheduled to be held later this year in five states, including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh. (ANI)
Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday said he will meet MoS Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti to raise the issue of "fake job card holders" in West Bengal. The BJP leader asserted that strict action will be taken against those who have looted people's money. "Tomorrow evening at 6 pm, I'll meet MoS Sadvi Niranjan Jyoti in New Delhi to discuss the issue of fake job card holders. BJP has no issue with genuine job card holders the problem is with those 1.32 lakh fake job card holders in the state," he said, adding, "I will go to Delhi and ensure that those who are withdrawing money on fake job cards are brought under the law. Legal action should also be taken against the Panchayat Pradhans who issued fake job cards from 2018 to 2023. The people who have lotted nation's money, state money, taxes and GST I'll ensure that strict action be taken against them," he said in an address to the media. Suvendu Adhikari also alleged the ruling Trinamool Congress party's involvement in issuing fake job cards and called it the biggest scam after independence. "1.30 lakh fake job cards have already been found by the concerned authority due to the link between Aadhaar and Job Cards. It was a big scam after independence. More than 5000-8000 crore rupees siphoned by the fake job card holders through the help of the TMC", he said in a statement. Earlier, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said that TMC is protesting in Delhi just to cover up their scams which is why it has sent its 'corrupt' MPs to Delhi. The Union Minister said, "Their (TMC) corrupt government duped the poor of their money under MGNREGA and allotted houses in the name of those who already had houses." He also alleged non-allocation of funds for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and other schemes by the Centre for the West Bengal sparked sharp exchanges between the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders. The Trinamool Congress leaders are protesting at Rajghat in the national capital with placards reading Release Bengal Funds Now, Bengal deprived 1 lakh 15 thousand crore families, Rs 15,000 crore owed. TMC MPs have alleged denial of MGNREGA and other housing scheme funds by the central government to the state. (ANI)
Delhi Police is conducting raids at different premises linked to NewsClick under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other sections, sources said. Meanwhile,Delhi Police Special Cell Assistant Commissioner of Police Lalit Mohan Negi reached the NewsClick office in the national capital. On Tuesday morning the Delhi Police sent their Special Cell teams to different premises at 30 locations linked to the organisation. Meanwhile, Congress leader Gurdeep Singh Sappal reacted to the raids and said that the crackdown on media and journalists is not just a matter of instant causation but it is an expression of the political philosophy of BJP/RSS. "Crackdown on Journalists by Delhi Police: Yesterday was Gandhi Jayanti. In 1931, Mahatma Gandhi guided Jawaharlal Nehru in drafting the Karachi Resolution on Fundamental Rights in independent India," Sappal posted on X (Formerly Twitter). Recalling the first Fundamental Right promised to the citizens of India, he said, Every citizen of India has the right of free expression of opinion, the rights of free association and combination, and the right to assemble peacefully and without arms, for purposes not opposed to law or morality. "This resolution was placed just six days after the execution of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru. Executed for what? Because they wanted their voice to be heard, and their opinion to be expressed. But their voices fell on deaf imperial government. So they threw a bomb in the Assembly, surrendered, didnt contest their punishment and used the trial to send their message to the People of India," he posted. He further added that "Karachi resolutions first Fundamental Right promised to the people of India that their Supreme Sacrifice would not go to waste. Independent India will have freedom of expression." "RSS was also formed by then. But never during the independence struggle did they promise Freedom of Expression and Association. There is not a single statement by their leaders, not a single resolution, not a single write-up in support of freedom of expression. RSS never stood for freedom of expression. Naturally, BJP never really believed in freedom of speech. It only paid a lip-service to it, though it enjoyed the freedom to serve its own political goals," he added. Congress leader further said, "So the crackdown on media and journalists is not just a matter of instant causation. It is an expression of the political philosophy of BJP/RSS, it represents the India they want to create surreptitiously." He further said that mere condemnation of the crackdown on journalists is not enough. "Stand up to save India which was promised by the Independence Movement, crafted by the Constitution of India by voting BJP out," he added. Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti further alleged that during the raids telephone devices were forcibly snatched only for a fishing expedition. "GOI claims India is the mother of democracy and about press freedom abroad yet in the same breath uses state agencies to crackdown on the remaining handful of independent media outlets. Even telephone devices have been forcibly snatched only for a fishing expedition. The repeated illegal pattern of arrest first & creating fake charges later is extremely perturbing," Mufti posted on X. The agency, in February 2021, raided the premises of NewsClick and the residences of its editors in connection with a case of alleged money laundering and conducted search and seizure operations. Its case related to alleged foreign funding is based on an FIR registered by Delhi Polices Economic Offences Wing. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers at the Danteshwari Temple in Bastar, Jagdalpur after arriving in poll-bound Chhattisgarh on Tuesday. Dedicated to Goddess Danteshwari, the temple is one of the 52 Shakti Peethas, shrines of Shakti, the divine feminine, spread across India. During his visit to Bastar, the Prime Minister will visit the tribal heartland to inaugurate the National Mineral Development Corporation's (NDMC) integrated steel plant in Nagarnar, an official statement said. In addition, the PM will lay the foundation stone of several developmental projects in the state worth over Rs 26,000 crore, as per the official statement. NMDC Steel Ltds Steel Plant at Nagarnar will provide employment opportunities to thousands of people, in the plant as well as in ancillary and downstream industries. It will put Bastar on the steel map of the world and provide a boost to the socioeconomic development of the region. Moreover, the PM will also dedicate a new rail line between Antagarh and Taroki and a rail line doubling project between Jagdalpur and Dantewara. He will lay the foundation stone of the Boridand -Surajpur rail line doubling project and redevelopment of Jagdalpur Station under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. Prime Minister will also flag off the Taroki Raipur DEMU Train Service. These rail projects will improve connectivity in the tribal regions of the state. The improved rail infrastructure and the new train service will benefit the local people and help in the economic development of the region. Prime Minister will also dedicate a road upgradation project from Kunkuri to Chhattisgarh - Jharkhand Border section of National Highway-43. The new road will improve road connectivity, benefiting the people of the region. PM's visit to Chattisgarh comes as state assembly polls are scheduled to be held later this year and all political parties are throwing their maximum efforts to woo voters. Earlier after the 2018 assembly polls, the Congress witnessed a landslide victory winning 68 seats out of 90 of those against the then ruling-BJP, which acquired 15 seats. (ANI)
Delhi Police on Tuesday brought NewsClick writers Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Urmilesh to the special cell offices in the national capital. Two senior police officials also are at the special cell premises. This comes as Delhi police's raids are underway at different premises linked to NewsClick under UAPA and other sections. Sources informed that laptops, mobiles, diaries, and other seized articles were also brought by police to a special cell at the Lodhi Road office. The raids are being conducted on a case registered on August 17th under UAPA and other sections of IPC, which include UAPA, 153A of IPC (promoting enmity between two groups), and 120 B of IPC (criminal conspiracy). Counself for Urmilesh, Gaurav Yadav who also reached Delhi Police Special Cell office said he had no information on why the writer had been taken to the special cell office. "Urmilesh's wife informed me that he has been arrested by Delhi Police. I have no other details as of now" the counsel told ANI. Speaking to ANI on the matter, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said that if anyone has done something, investigation agencies are free to carry out investigations. "I don't need to justify... If anyone has committed anything wrong, search agencies are free to carry out investigations against them under set guidelines," Thakur told ANI. BJP leader Dushyant Kumar Gautam said strict actions will be taken on NewsClick or any other agency that will work on the funds from foreign countries. "Strict action will be taken on NewsClick or any other agency that will work on the funds from foreign countries to break the country. China does not want to see our country grow and it is trying to use anti-national agencies against the country". Congress spokesperson and permanent invitee to the CWC Gurdeep Sappal criticised the government for this action "So the crackdown media and journalists is not just a matter of a instant causation. It is expression of the political philosophy of BJP/RSS, it represents the India they want to create surreptitiously" Sappal said in a post on X. Earlier on August 10 a report in the New York Times had alleged that NewsClick, was part of a global network that receives funding from American billionaire Neville Roy Singham. Singham is known as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes, is at the centre of a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda.Neville Roy Singham is said to have close ties to the Chinese government media machine. (ANI)
Senior Congress leader Hariprasad BK has commended the Bihar Government for releasing its caste census report and urged Karnataka to follow suit and make public the report of the caste census the state had conducted in 2017. Taking to X, Hariprasad, a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council said: Bihar which is governed by the INDIA alliance has released its caste census. Rahul Gandhi Ji has spoken passionately about ensuring justice for the backward classes. It is now imperative for Karnataka to forthwith release the caste census conducted in 2017. Hariprasad, a former Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Council belongs to the Ediga community and has been vocal about the issue of giving backward classes their due. The Congress leader said that that according to the ideology of his party the caste census report helps in the upliftment and development of all classes, including the backward and exploited. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the significance of having access to caste statistics for the entire nation. He reiterated his long-standing demand for allocating rights and resources based on population figures. The Bihar government on Monday released caste survey data, with the figures that have ramifications for the Lok Sabha polls next year, showing that Other Backward Caste (OBC) and Extremely Backward Class (EBC) together account for 63 per cent of the states population. (ANI)
Maharashtra Congress Spokesperson Atul Londhe Patil on Tuesday criticized the State Government for the deaths of patients at a government hospital in Nanded district. He called out the negligence of the management and governance in the state in connection with deaths at the Dr Shankarrao Chavan Medical College and Hospital in Nanded where the death toll went up to 31 this morning. Reportedly the deaths took place due to an alleged scarcity of medicines. "12 more newborn babies have died in Nanded hospital as per today's information. Now, the total number of deaths is 24. This is only because of, the lack of management and governance on the part of the present Government in the state, Patil said in a statement.. This government is mostly involved in creating events and managing headlines. Recently, they have started a new hospital to which half of the staff from Nanded has been transferred. There is no annual maintenance contract for MRI machines. There is a lack of medical equipment in the hospital, a lack of medicines, and doctors. So, the present government in the state is solely responsible for this incident," Patil said. Meanwhile, Dean of the college and hospital in Nanded, rejected allegations of negligence against the hospital, claiming that deceased patients were suffering from different ailments such as diabetes, liver failure, and kidney failure. "There was no shortage of medicines or doctors. Proper care was provided to the patients, but their bodies did not respond to the treatment, which caused deaths," he said. Maharashtra Minister of Medical Education of Maharashtra, Hasan Mushrif also refuted the allegations. "There was no shortage of medicine in the hospital I have been informed by the dean so, we have formed a committee to look into the incident I will also be visiting Nanded," Mushrif said. Chief Shinde Government faced backlash from opposition parties in Maharashtra due to the recent Nanded tragedy. (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down three petitions moved by ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in connection with a drug seizure case and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh for each petition. A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Rajesh Bindal observed that the petitioner is repeatedly approaching the courts. The court directed the petitioner to deposit the fine amount of Rs 3 lakh total with the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association. One of the petitions by Bhatt has sought to transfer the trial of the matter to another court alleging the concerned trial court judge was dealing with the matter unfairly. On earlier occasions too, the Supreme Court rejected the plea filed by former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt challenging a Gujarat High Court direction setting a timeline for a drug seizure case and slapped him with a fine of Rs 10,000. Then Bhatt challenged the Gujarat High Court order which issued a direction of completion of trial in a drug case against him within the stipulated time. A Gujarat court in June 2019 sentenced former Sanjiv Bhatt to life imprisonment in anothercustodial death casedating back to 1990. Earlier, The Supreme Court on May 10 declined the plea filed by ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt seeking to adduce additional evidence in the appeal he filed in the Gujarat High Court challenging his conviction in a custodial death case. A bench of justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar dismissed the plea filed by Sanjiv Bhatt. Bhatt's lawyer has taken the top court through the deposition of three witnesses who were doctors. The court observed that it is required to be noted that, as such, the deposition of the said witnesses was as such considered by the trial court after all those three witnesses were thoroughly cross-examined. Now the deposition of the 3 witnesses is to be considered and re-appreciated by the High Court at the time of deciding the Appeal, it said. "Having gone through the impugned order passed by the High Court, we see no reason to interfere with the same in the exercise of powers under Article 136 of the Constitution of India," the top court said. "Any observations by this Court on the deposition of the aforesaid 3 witnesses may ultimately affect the case of either party in the Appeal, which is yet to be considered by the High Court. Therefore, the Special Leave Petition stands dismissed", the order stated.(ANI)
India's wanted gangster Sukhdool Singh, who was fatally shot last month in northwest Winnipeg city in Canada, was associated with terrorist entities like designated Khalistani terrorist Arsh Dala for acquiring sophisticated weapons to run his syndicate. India's federal probe agency National National Investigation Agency (NIA) had mentioned the fact in one of its charge sheets filed in a special court in Delhi in March this year naming Sukhdool and 21 others. As per the charge sheet, Sukhdool, who also went by the alias Sukh Duneke and was known as a notorious criminal in India for allegedly organizing hits on rival gang members there, and a few gang members such as Gaurav Patyal fled India and ran their syndicate from abroad. "To run their gangster syndicate they needed sophisticated weapons. Hence they got associated with terrorist entities like Arsh Dala who is a designated individual terrorist and works closely with Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF). Arsh Dalla and KTF work against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India," reads the charge sheet. A resident of Duneka village in Punjab's Moga district, Sukhdool, 40, was shot dead in the Canadian city of Winnipeg by unidentified people, with officials terming it a result of inter-gang rivalry.Sukhdool's killing came amidst diplomatic tensions between India and Canad over the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar by unidentified assailants in British Columbia's Surrey in June 2023. In the charge sheet, the NIA has stated that the criminal syndicates in the quest for sophisticated weapons, started using the money generated through their existing extortion rackets to fund the procurement of sophisticated weapons not only from within the country but also from across the border with the help of Khalistani associates. "In return, these criminal syndicates started carrying out targeted killings and extortions for the Khalistani associates. This created a symbiotic terrorist-gangster network between gangster and Khalistani elements. With most of the associates of the Khalistani network either being based abroad or lodged inside jails, their requirement of the shooters to carry out targeted killings is being met by the cadres of this syndicate who in turn gets sophisticated weapons from across the border with help of Khalistan associates" the charge sheet read. Arshdeep Singh Gill alias Arsh Dalla, named as the number one accused in the chargesheet, Gaurav Patyal, Sukhdool Singh and other key members of the terrorist syndicate have their networks in Canada, USA, Europe, the Middle East, Thailand, Dubai and the Philippines, the charge-sheet mentioned. It has also been revealed during the NIA investigation that their jail-based associates like Bhupi Rana, Sukhpreet Singh, Kaushal Choudhary, and Amit Dagar-- all named in the charge sheet, have established their own control rooms abroad to increase their area of influence. Amit Dagar and Kaushal Choudhary have their associates like Dinesh Gandhi, Daler Quote and Neeraj Pandit-- other accused named in the charge sheet-- in different countries to run the syndicate smoothly. "The accused persons based abroad are operating the syndicates by using virtual mobile numbers to evade Law Enforcement Agencies whereas accused persons lodged in Indian jails are running syndicate operations through mobile phones," states the charge sheet. The charge sheet filed in the NIA case (RC-38/2022/NIA/DLI) pertains to a criminal conspiracy, hatched by the members of the criminal syndicate Gaurav Patyal, Sourav Thakur Sukhdool Singh, Gurpinder Singh, Kaushal, Neeraj Sehrawat alias Neeraj Bawana, Sunil Balyan alias Tillu Tajpuria, Amit Dagar, Bhupinder Singh and their associates, based in India and abroad to carry out terrorist acts in Delhi and other parts of the country. These accused had conspired to recruit youths to commit terrorist acts in India with an intention to strike terror in the minds of people, pointed out the charge sheet, adding "These gang members along with their other associates were planning to carry out terror activities in Delhi and different parts of the country by executing targeted killings, using lethal Firearms and explosives." "The terrorist gang members were using cyberspace and social media to publicize these crimes to create widespread terror amongst the public at large. Some of the gang leaders members are operating from jail and others are absconding and operating from different parts of India and foreign countries" read the chargesheet. The case was originally registered by the Special Cell of Delhi Police on August 7 last year. Appreciating the gravity of the offence and its international ramifications in the instant crime, the Central government directed the National Investigation Agency to take over the investigation on August 26 last year. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday remarked that the dream of a Viksit Bharat (developed country) will come to fruition only when every state, every district and every village of the country becomes developed. PM Modi was speaking at a function organised to lay the foundation stone of multiple development projects. The Prime Minister said that the projects of today worth about 27,000 crores have been initiated to accomplish these resolutions and congratulated the people of Chhattisgarh for the development projects. He further said that physical, digital and social infrastructure should be in accordance with the future needs to ensure a developed India. "This is the reason why our government has, in the last nine years, increased the expenditure on infrastructure to Rs 10 lakh crore," PM Modi. Highlighting the importance of steel in the projects of rail, road, airport, power projects, transportation, homes for the poor, and educational and healthcare institutions, the Prime Minister said that the government has taken numerous steps to make the nation self-reliant on steel production in the last 9 years. "Chhattisgarh is reaping the benefits of being a large steel-producing state", PM Modi emphasized as he underlined the inauguration of one of the most modern steel plants in Nagarnar. "The steel produced in Bastar will strengthen the armed forces along with boosting defence exports," PM Modi said. He underlined that the steel plant will provide employment opportunities to approximately 50,000 youth from Bastar and nearby regions. "The new steel plant will give new momentum to the prioritization of development of aspirational districts like Bastar by the Central Government", he added. PM Modi dedicated to the nation and laid the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth about Rs 27,000 crore in Chhattisgarh, including the NMDC Steel Ltds steel plant at Nagarnar. Chhattisgarh is among five states that will go to the polls by the end of the year. BJP is seeking to oust the Congress government in the state which came to power in 2018. (ANI)
The Diocese of Idukki suspended a priest after he joined the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in Idukki. Fr. Kuriakose Mattam, Parish priest of Mankuva St.Thomas church took the primary membership of BJP in Idukki. After he took the BJP party membership, he was allegedly removed from the post of Parish priest. A circular issued by the Diocese of Idukki, Syro Malabar Catholic Church informed that Fr. Kuriakose Mattam has been temporarily removed from the charges of Parish priest. "Even though I am an old man, updated in day today affairs. I don't think BJP is a party in which Christians can not join . I don't have membership in any political party. I had understand about the working of BJP in Kerala. I don't feel that BJP is a party which Christians can not join. BJP should be seen as a political party, I don't think it as a party which Christians can not join", Former priest Father Kuriakose told reporters. "About 40-45 years back , a delegation of the Marxist party from Thiruvananthapuram was passing through here and I had attended and presided over their meeting. I consider it like that . In the new period I don't consider BJP as a party which catholic people can not join" he reiterated. The Idukki district unit of the BJP has welcomed the priest into the party. "BJP very happily welcomes the entry of a priest into the party. This is the first time that a priest joins BJP .In the present situation when BJP is trying to hold the minority communities many political parties and leaders are propagates lie against it." Aji KS BJP Idukki district president told ANI.. Parish priest of Mankuva St. Thomas Church took the primary membership of BJP in the Idukki district. Earlier, in a separate incident an Anglican priest in Thiruvananthapuram, KG Manoj,who undertook a pilgrimage to Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala, returned his church license to the Anglican Church of India following a disciplinary action against him.(ANI)
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is all set to convene a crucial 'Anti-Terror Conference 2023' on October 5 to discuss various issues to deal with the menace and prepare a road map in the fight against it in close coordination with other agencies and state forces concerned. The anti-terror agency has invited Union Home Minister Amit Shah to attend the event as a Chief Guest, and the Minister is learnt to have given his consent for his presence in the inaugural session of the conference. The inaugural session of the conference will be held at Sushma Swaraj Bhawan in Delhi's Chanakyapuri around 11 am on October 5. Besides the NIA officials, the conference is learnt to be attended by the Anti-Terrorist Squad of state police forces across the country and other concerned officers from different forces as well as other departments under the Ministry of Home Affairs engaged in anti-terror projects. Counter-terrorism issues from financing to inter-state as well as foreign links of gangsters with banned terror outfits like Khalistani entities are among the issues to be discussed in the conference which would be attended by different ranks of officers from Superintendent of Police to Director General. The use of official and unofficial channels in financing terrorism as well as the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorism financing would also be among the subjects of discussion. The establishment of mechanisms to share information and best practices between states is also among other issues. In November, the NIA had also organised a two-day 'No Money For Terror (NMFT) Ministerial Conference with a commitment of 93 participating countries and multilateral organisations for strengthening international cooperation to address challenges in combating terrorism financing. In the conference, the chair had affirmed that terrorism and its financing, in all forms and manifestations, continues to constitute one of the most serious threats to international peace and security and that any acts of terrorism and its financing are criminal and unjustifiable regardless of their motivations, whenever and by whomsoever committed, and called for listings and de-listings under these sanction regimes to be done in an objective manner, based on evidence and free from political considerations and duality of standards. It was reaffirmed that the actions to counter terrorism and its financing should be collective and unified, without exceptions on any ground and recommitted to a zero-tolerance approach to terrorism. It was also emphasized that the threat of terrorism and its financing is continuing, affecting a greater number of states across most regions, which contributes to undermining affected states, specifically their security, stability, governance, and social and economic development. It is desirable that states enhance their efforts to proactively counter these threats, even before they emerge. (ANI)
Voicing concern over the raids by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on the residences of journalists linked with the online portal NewsClick, the Editors Guild of India on Tuesday said the crackdown is "yet another attempt to muzzle the media." Earlier, on Tuesday, Delhi Police's Special Cell carried out raids at more than 30 locations linked with the online news portal NewsClick and its journalists. The raids came in connection with a case registered on August 17 under UAPA and other sections of IPC, including 153A (promoting enmity between two groups), and 120 B (criminal conspiracy). Responding to the incident, the Guild, in a statement, said it was "deeply concerned" about the raids at the residences of senior journalists early this morning. "Their laptops, mobile phones and other devices have been seized. Senior journalists have been taken into custody by the Delhi Police, allegedly for 'questioning.' Media reports suggest that the raids have been widespread. The raids are reportedly being conducted in connection with an FIR filed under the draconian UAPA and laws relating to criminal conspiracy and disruption of communal harmony against journalists, including those associated with the website Newsclick.in," the Guild said in a statement. "EGI is concerned that these raids are yet another attempt to muzzle the media. While we recognise that the law must take its course if actual offences are involved, due process has to be followed. The investigation of specific offences must not create a general atmosphere of intimidation under the shadow of draconian laws, or impinge on the freedom of expression and the raising of dissenting and critical voices," it added. "We remind the government of the importance of an independent media in a functioning democracy and urge it to ensure that the fourth pillar is respected, nurtured and protected," it added. Meanwhile, according to sources, the Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick, Prabir Purkayastha and writers Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Urmilesh were brought to the special cell offices in the national capital on Tuesday as part of the investigation. Earlier, on August 10, a report in the New York Times had alleged that NewsClick was part of a global network that receives funding from American billionaire Neville Roy Singham. Singham is known as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes, is at the centre of a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda. Singham is also said to have close ties with the Chinese government's media machine. (ANI)
In a scathing attack on the BRS in Telangana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that state Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) wanted to join NDA to seek BJPs support after Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections but he refused the offer due to deeds of the ruling dispensation. Addressing a rally here, PM Modi told the gathering that he is going to tell a secret he has not spoken so far. When BJP won 48 seats in the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election, KCR needed support. Before this election, he used to welcome me at the airport, but later suddenly he stopped doing so, the Prime Minister said. KCR came to meet me in Delhihe started telling me that the country is progressing under your leadership, and said that he wanted to join NDA. He also asked me to extend support to him. I told him (KCR) that due to his deeds Modi cannot associate with him, he added. The Prime Minister said the BJP cannot deceive the people of Telangana. NDA is led by the BJP. I refused (him) entry to NDA, PM Modi said. He said that the 48 seats won by the BJP in the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections in December 2020 are start of the process to change the fate of Telangana. The Prime Minister said that K Chandrashekar Rao again approached him and told him that he is going to hand over all karobar to his son KT Rama Rao (KTR) and "sought my blessings". The Prime Minister said he told KCR that it is a democracy and his successor will be decided by the people of Telangana. Are you a king who will decide? the Prime Minister asked. Referring to KCR not coming to his functions, PM Modi said that the corrupt cannot sit in his company and are running (away). PM Modi said if BJP comes to power, it will expose corruption of the BRS government. (ANI)
After carrying out several raids at premises linked with NewsClick, the Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday afternoon sealed the office of the online news portal in the national capital. The Special Cell of Delhi Police launched a crackdown against NewsClick and its journalists earlier this morning in connection with an FIR, registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The raids were carried out at more than 30 locationsin connection with a case registered on August 17 under UAPA and other sections of IPC, including 153A (promoting enmity between two groups), and 120 B (criminal conspiracy). Meanwhile, Union Minister Anurag Thakur, while speaking to reporters in Bhubaneswar said that if action has been taken, then there must have been evidence or complaint. Flagging concerns over the incident, the Editors Guild of India, in a statement, said it was "deeply concerned" about the raids at the residences of senior journalists early this morning. "Their laptops, mobile phones and other devices have been seized. Senior journalists have been taken into custody by the Delhi Police, allegedly for 'questioning.' Media reports suggest that the raids have been widespread. The raids are reportedly being conducted in connection with an FIR filed under the draconian UAPA and laws relating to criminal conspiracy and disruption of communal harmony against journalists, including those associated with the website Newsclick.in," the Guild said in a statement. "EGI is concerned that these raids are yet another attempt to muzzle the media. While we recognise that the law must take its course if actual offences are involved, due process has to be followed. The investigation of specific offences must not create a general atmosphere of intimidation under the shadow of draconian laws, or impinge on the freedom of expression and the raising of dissenting and critical voices," it added. "We remind the government of the importance of an independent media in a functioning democracy and urge it to ensure that the fourth pillar is respected, nurtured and protected," it added. Meanwhile, according to sources, the Editor-in-Chief of NewsClick, Prabir Purkayastha and writers Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Urmilesh were brought to the special cell offices in the national capital on Tuesday as part of the investigation. Earlier, on August 10, a report in the New York Times had alleged that NewsClick was part of a global network that receives funding from American billionaire Neville Roy Singham. Singham is known as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes, and is at the centre of a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda. Singham is also said to have close ties with the Chinese government's media machine. (ANI)
The Delhi Rouse Avenue Court on Tuesday allowed two accused, Raghav Magunta Reddy and Dinesh Arora, to become approver in the Delhi excise policy money laundering case. The Court also pardoned them in the case while allowing their plea to become approver. Earlier, the court had allowed businessman Sarath P Reddy to turn approver in the case. A total of three accused have been turned approver in ED's case. Arora has been declared an approver in the same case being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Earlier,Arora's lawyer stated that his statements are being relied upon by the ED in various prosecution complaints. This court, while rejecting bail, has "relied on his statement", submitted Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa. According to ED, considered close to jailed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia, Arora is the 13th person arrested in the case by the Enforcement Directorate. Magunta Raghava Reddy, the son of Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party's (YSRCP) MP from Ongole Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on February 10 in connection with the Delhi excise policy scam case. Earlier, Raghav Magunta's regular bail plea was also dismissed by the trial court in April, where the judge said "The court is prima facie of the view that there is a genuine case made out by the investing agency showing active involvement of the applicant in the commission of the alleged offence of money laundering, and this court is not able to arrive at any finding contrary to the said view". ED earlier told the Court that Raghav, through his proxy person Prem Rahul Manduri, also held 32.5 pc stakes in M/s Indo Spirits, which held the L1 wholesale licence. Raghav, being part of the South Group, was part of and beneficiary of the conspiracy in which the South Group paid Rs. 100 crore, approx., to the AAP party. ED earlier stated that Raghav Magunta is one of the key people in the conspiracy of cartelization and kickbacks hatched along with various persons in the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 scam. Raghav Magunta is the owner of liquor manufacturing units in the name of M/s Enrica Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., located in Chennai. He further controlled 2 retail zones in the name of M/s Magunta Agro Farms Pvt Ltd directly in contravention of the Excise Policy 2021-22 where a manufacturer was not permitted to hold either retail or wholesale operations. Raghav, being part of the South Group, was part of and beneficiary of the conspiracy in which the South Group paid Rs. 100 crore, approx., to the AAP, said ED. Last year, the ED and the CBI registered cases alleging that irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced, and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority's approval. The beneficiaries diverted "illegal" gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection. (ANI)